The Trump administration’s Middle East policies have been roundly attacked by the U.S. foreign policy establishment. There are various lines of criticism, including ones concerning its approaches to Egypt, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Syria, but the administration’s gravest sin is generally held to be its support for Israel. By moving the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem, blessing Israel’s annexation of the Golan Heights, and other gestures, the Trump team is said to have overturned half a century of settled U.S. policy, abandoned the Palestinians, and killed the two-state solution.

These are serious charges. But on close inspection, they turn out to say more about the hysteria of the prosecutors than the guilt of the defendant. Some of President Donald Trump’s policies are new, some are not, and it is too early to see much impact. So why all the hue and cry? Because the administration openly insists on playing power politics rather than trying to move the world beyond them. Trump’s real crime is challenging people’s illusions—and that is an unforgivable offense.

THE ROAD TO 242
Israel’s conflict with the Arabs has long functioned as a screen onto which outsiders project their own psychodramas. Actual Middle East politics, meanwhile, churns on relentlessly, following the same laws of political physics as politics everywhere else: the strong do what they can, and the weak suffer what they must.

The United States entered the regional geopolitical game in earnest during World War II, drawn in by the strategic importance of the oil recently discovered under the Arabian Desert and elsewhere. With postwar power came regional responsibility, however, and Washington eventually had to decide how to deal with the messy residue of the British mandate for Palestine.

America's withdrawal from the Middle East validates the long-standing Israeli view that it must not rely on external guarantees, but rather do what's necessary to defend itself, by itself. This applies especially to the discussion over Israel's retention of the Jordan Valley.

Israel captured the valley and the rest of the West Bank from Jordan in the 1967 Six-Day War. UN Security Council Resolution 242 did not insist upon a full Israeli withdrawal to the old armistice lines. Britain's Ambassador to the UN at the time, Lord Caradon, who helped draft 242, commented on PBS: "We all knew - the boundaries of '67 were not drawn as permanent frontiers."

Immediately after the Six-Day War, Israeli Deputy Prime Minister Yigal Allon, who in 1948 had served as the commander of the pre-state Palmach strike force, became the architect of a string of mostly agricultural settlements in the Jordan Valley and along the hills that dominate it. Today, nearly 30 Israeli communities are situated in this area. Allon's map became known as the Allon Plan.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) are structured around mostly reserve units. To match the quantitative superiority of its neighbors, Israel has to mobilize its reserve forces, which requires up to 48 hours. The terrain Israel captured in the West Bank, particularly in the Jordan Valley, provided Israel with a formidable barrier for the first time that would allow the IDF to buy the precious time it needed to complete its reserve call-up. The lowest parts of the Jordan Valley and its mountain ridge form a virtual strategic wall 4,500 feet high.

Even after the Oslo Agreements were signed in 1993, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin reiterated a vision for a final peace settlement that kept the Jordan Valley under Israel: "The security border of the State of Israel will be located in the Jordan Valley, in the widest meaning of that term." What he had in mind was Israel continuing to control the high ground along the eastern slopes of the mountain ridge that descended down to the Jordan River.

The Jordan Valley is to the West Bank what the Philadelphi Route was to Gaza. This refers to the border zone between Gaza and Egyptian Sinai. After Israel's Gaza Disengagement in 2005, Palestinian rocket attacks on Israel shot up as Palestinian terror organizations smuggled enormous quantities of rockets through tunnels under the border into Gaza. Three wars resulted from this escalation in Palestinian rocket fire.

Israeli public opinion has clearly internalized the importance of the Jordan Valley for Israeli security. In the last decade, as many as 81% of Israeli voters agreed that in any peace arrangement Israel must preserve its sovereignty over the Jordan Valley.

The Geneva-based Euro-Mediterranean Human Rights Monitor (Euro-Med), a youth-led independent organization that advocates for human rights across Europe and the Middle East, said it has collected names of about 60 Palestinians detained by the Saudi authorities in recent months

Euro-Med said it considers the "practices of the Saudi authorities a flagrant violation of the requirements of justice, which guarantees everyone the right to a fair trial, including knowing charges against and the right to defense and access to a lawyer... [and] affirms that the relevant authorities do not comply with the international legal rules that guarantee the simplest rights of litigation for any individual..."

The Saudi authorities have offered no explanation for the widespread campaign targeting Palestinians in the kingdom. It appears that PA President Mahmoud Abbas and his officials in Ramallah fear that any criticism of this behavior would jeopardize the financial handouts and political support they receive from Saudi Arabia.... For Palestinian leaders, Saudi money and political backing far outweigh the fate of a few dozen Palestinians held without trial in an Arab country.

It is only Palestinians who are held by Israel for terrorist-related crimes who Abbas and his friends remember to mention in their endless litanies of complaints.

Moreover, though it has been decades since Israel last faced an enemy as formidable as Iran, the fact that the countries share no land border deprives Iran of its greatest advantage: its vastly bigger population, which enables it to field many more troops than Israel can. If Iran could send tanks across Israel’s border, it might be able to overwhelm Israel by sheer numbers. But it can’t because it would have to cross all of Iraq and Jordan to do so. Thus any fighting between Israel and Iran itself (as opposed to Iran’s many proxies) would be limited to air and missile battles, in which the superior equipment and skills of Israel’s air force provide a counterweight to Iran’s advantage in missiles.

Nor is there reason to fear, as one prominent Israeli pundit implied, that Trump’s reluctance to deploy American troops in the Middle East means that he would also refuse to replenish critical military materiel should Israel run short during a war. Putting soldiers in harm’s way is very different from providing an ally with the arms it needs to do its own fighting. Moreover, Israel still enjoys considerable support in Congress, which has proven critical to getting Israel needed arms in the past.

Nevertheless, since an Israel-Iran war could wreak devastation on both countries, it’s much better to prevent it from occurring. And that’s where all those Israeli airstrikes come in.

Despite Iran’s willingness to engage in military provocations, it has shown no desire to risk serious military consequences on Iranian soil. Indeed, it has escalated very carefully, moving up to each new level only after concluding – based on the non-response to previous attacks – that it could do so safely. And so far, it’s been right: Even the attack on the Saudi refineries, its worst to date, drew no military response from Riyadh or Washington.

But years of Israeli airstrikes against Iranian and Iranian-affiliated targets have proven that the Jewish state won’t let Iranian aggression go unanswered, and any Iranian escalation will be met commensurately. For instance, after Iran expanded the battlefield from Syria to Iraq, Israel apparently began striking Iranian targets in Iraq as well. All this sends Tehran the clear message that any major attack on Israel itself would likely result in direct Israeli retaliation against Iran.

That knowledge may well deter Iran from launching such an attack. And that is doubly important now that Trump has taken America out of the Middle East picture.

US President Donald Trump’s decision to abandon his country’s Kurdish partners in Syria should come as no surprise. He has been loudly, explicitly declaring his intention to do so for over a year and a half.

Some may have been startled by the seemingly uncoordinated and sudden way in which Trump gave Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdoğan a de facto green light to launch an offensive against the predominantly Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) in northwest Syria — a campaign that in a just over a week has already killed dozens of people, mostly on the Kurdish side, and displaced over 150,000.

But the move itself, capricious and disorganized as it was, can still be seen as part of a White House foreign policy that has sought to disengage from the Middle East, including the Kurdish allies who have fought alongside US troops against the Islamic State terror group for years.

Trump’s latest move was a significant milestone in an ongoing pivot away from the region, a shift that began before the current administration and whose effects will be felt well into the next one, regardless of who occupies the Oval Office.

For Jerusalem, this may mean the loss of a key ally in the region and in the fight against Iran and its proxies. Filling the vacuum left by America is Russia, which is far less sympathetic to Israel, putting Israel on far poorer strategic footing.

US Vice President Mike Pence arrived in Turkey on Thursday on a mission to persuade Ankara to halt its offensive against Kurdish fighters in northeast Syria, but Turkish officials said the action would continue regardless.

The week-long assault has created a new humanitarian crisis in Syria with 160,000 civilians taking flight, a security alert over thousands of Islamic State fighters abandoned in Kurdish jails, and a political maelstrom at home for Trump.

Trump has been accused of abandoning the Kurdish fighters, who were Washington’s main partners in the battle to dismantle Islamic State’s self-declared caliphate in Syria, by withdrawing US troops from the border as Turkey launched its offensive on Oct. 9.

Trump defended his move on Wednesday as “strategically brilliant.” He said he thought Pence and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan would have a successful meeting, but warned of sanctions and tariffs that “will be devastating to Turkey‘s economy” otherwise.

The White House released a letter from Trump to Erdogan from Oct. 9 that said: “Don’t be a tough guy” and “Don’t be a fool!” Turkish broadcaster CNN Turk said Turkey had rejected Trump’s appeal to reach a deal to avoid conflict and the letter was “thrown in the trash.”

A Turkish official told Reuters: “The letter Trump sent did not have the impact he expected in Turkey because it had nothing to take seriously.”

“What is clear is that Turkey does not want a terrorist organization on its border and the operation will not stop because of the reaction that has been coming.”

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told Fox Business Network on Wednesday that the U.S. mission was "to do counterterrorism all around the world in an effective way to protect the American people. Our efforts in Syria, our efforts in West Africa, our efforts in the Philippines, all across the world, have been aimed at that singular objective."

"Syria is a small part of this. It's a small part of our Middle East strategy more broadly....I have spoken a number of times about the world's largest state sponsor of terror, the Islamic Republic of Iran. To focus singularly on what's taking place in a part of Syria neglects the true risk to the American people."

"The Islamic Republic of Iran is feeling the full might, the full pressure, of the United States of America....We are still fully committed to that, and I am confident that ultimately we will prevail."

Q: "Is it your belief that Israel today is less safe as a result of this [U.S.] move?"
Pompeo: "No."

The US pullout of its troops from northeast Syria has not endangered Israel, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said two days before his scheduled meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday.

The two men are expected to “discuss developments in Syria and the continued need to counter the Iranian regime’s destabilizing behavior in the region,” the State Department said on Wednesday.

News of the meeting came amid international furor regarding the US decision to remove its troops from northeastern Syria.

Prior to Netanyahu meeting, Pompeo will visit Turkey. He and Vice President Mike Pence will meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and ask him to halt his attack on the Kurds.

Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, who is a strong supporter of Israel, tweeted that he worried that as a result of the pullout of US troops – a move seen as an abandonment of America’s alley the Kurds – “we will not have allies in the future against radical Islam, ISIS will reemerge, & Iran’s rise in Syria will become a nightmare for Israel. I fear this is a complete and utter national security disaster in the making and I hope President Trump will adjust his thinking.”

He warned it could prove to be a worse disaster than when former US President Barack Obama left Iraq.

A Kurdish politician in a northern Syrian city has spoken to an Israeli radio station, asking the Jewish state to help his people and saying the whole region would suffer if the Turkish operation in the Kurdish area isn’t stopped.

“We hope Israel will take action in the diplomatic arena to save the Kurdish people,” the politician from the city of Qamishli, who was only named by the first Hebrew letter of his first name — Alef — told Army Radio on Thursday. “If the problems aren’t solved, the entire Middle East will be adversely affected.”

“As a result of the Turkish offensive, [Islamic State] terrorists have escaped prisons,” he added. “If they reach countries in the region they will be ticking time bombs.”

Kurdish authorities on Thursday also called in a statement for a humanitarian corridor to evacuate civilians from a flashpoint border town encircled by Ankara’s forces, as Turkey’s offensive entered its ninth day.

Despite claims describing the U.S. decision to relocate U.S. special forces from areas under Kurdish control in northeast Syria as a "victory" for Moscow, Tehran, and Damascus, the reality is a bit more complex. Iran, Russia, and Syria are all urging restraint, if not outright condemning Turkey's actions. While the evacuation of U.S. troops actually represented more continuity than change in U.S. regional strategy, it elicited a large outcry in the West where public sentiment is more favorable to the Kurds.

Turkey is now headed into a campaign on foreign soil against a well-trained adversary in which its strategic goals and exit strategy remain unclear. Turkey's military incursion and refugee resettlement program could cost it tens of billions of dollars at a time when the country's economy is contracting.

Moscow may be enjoying its role of quite literally replacing U.S. forces in Syria, but it is also worried that this new element in the Syrian conflict might breathe new life into a war that had appeared to be drawing to a close, frustrating Russian efforts to convert its successful military campaign in Syria into a political victory.

In 1915, this guy would have said he received information that terrorist organizations will perpetrate an Armenian Genocide against 1,500,000 people and try to blame the Turkish Armed Forces. https://t.co/2BImUZyEQP

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019

The US administration’s much-anticipated peace plan will not call for the uprooting of even a single settler, US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman said Wednesday, drawing sharp criticism from Ramallah.

“Having seen the experience of the evacuation of Gaza [in the summer of 2005], I don’t believe that there is a realistic plan that can be implemented that would require anyone — Jew or Arab — to be forced to leave their home,” Friedman told the pro-settler Israel National News website.

“We think that’s just a recipe for disaster. It almost caused a civil war on much less aggressive circumstances in Gaza, compared to Judea and Samaria,” he said, referring to Israel’s 2005 disengagement from Gaza, in which some 8,000 settlers were moved in a several-day operation. “And so we are not of the view that any forced evacuations are achievable,” he said.

There are an estimated 350,000 Israelis living in West Bank settlements, plus hundreds of thousands more in East Jerusalem neighborhoods that Palestinians claim for their future state.

Friedman called uprooting settlers was “an inhumane process,” confirming that the peace plan would not include it.

He cited the “extraordinary adverse reaction” the Gaza disengagement triggered among many Israelis, “many of whom probably hadn’t been to Gaza but they felt viscerally uncomfortable with the idea of uprooting anyone from their home. And I think it’s failed policy and it’s not something we would advance,” Friedman said.

There are other issues that are also contributing to the tension between the countries. The large Palestinian population in Jordan, the presence of a powerful Muslim Brotherhood, and the government’s refusal to fight against the anti-normalization campaign all contribute to a cold peace.

There is also the issue of the Jordan Gateway Bridge, inaugurated in February by Regional Cooperation Minister Tzachi Hanegbi and slated to serve a long-promised, joint Israeli-Jordanian industrial zone. But the whole project has been frozen, partially because Israel has not approved funding for an access road to get there.

The Jordanian frustration reached a peak last year when King Abdullah informed Israel that he would not renew two annexes of the 1994 treaty concerning agricultural land leased to Israel at Tzofar, north of Eilat, and Naharayim, near the Kinneret.

Israel has been engaged in ongoing talks with Jordan to persuade the king to change his mind, and on Wednesday it seemed that a new deal may have been reached. Either way, though, the uncertainty surrounding Naharayim is just another manifestation of the unhealthy relationship today between Israel and Jordan.

To enhance Israeli-Jordanian peace it is important that both Jerusalem and Amman work to forge better ties between the peoples and not just the nations’ security organizations. Abdullah should do more to stop the anti-normalization campaign in Jordan that pressures businesses to stay away from doing trade with Israel. Both countries need to abide by previous agreements and work together to ensure their continued success.

As tensions rise in the Middle East over Iran’s nuclear program and Turkey’s invasion of Syria and its military action against the Kurds, Israel needs to shore up its peace pacts with its two key allies in the region: Egypt and Jordan. It is in the interest of all three countries to work closer together to show the world, and especially this region, what peace can look like and how it can effect positive change for all people.

Moroccan anti-normalisation activists have expressed their anger as a former Israeli interior minister attended an international symposium in Marrakech and gave a presentation, a move the activists described as a “crime of penetration”.

Former Knesset member Meir Sheetrit attended the World Policy Conference, which was held last weekend in Marrakech. The event was attended by ministers and officials from Moroccan and all over the world, according to Al-Quds Al-Arabi.

The Morocco Observatory Against Normalisation with Israel said the presence of Sheetrit is a “new Zionist crime of penetration”, denouncing conferences in Morocco that allow current and former Israeli officials to attend.

No Arab country has established formal political, economic, or cultural relations with the occupying state, except for Jordan and Egypt, which have signed peace agreements with Israel.

Despite the current impasse in the Israeli coalition talks, signs emerged on Wednesday that a path to a unity government might be opening, with Blue and White leader Benny Gantz reportedly expressing a positive attitude toward such an arrangement.

The Sept. 17 Knesset elections ended in a stalemate, with neither Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s right-wing Likud party nor Gantz’s centrist Blue and White able to form a majority coalition. Despite pressure to form a unity government, negotiations have thus far failed.

The Israeli news Mako reported on Wednesday, however, that sources close to Gantz were saying the former IDF chief of staff was leaning toward a unity government along lines recommended by President Reuven Rivlin.

“We will hold our noses,” Gantz was quoted as saying, “but Netanyahu will have an expiration date.”

Under Rivlin’s plan, Gantz and Netanyahu would both be designated prime ministers in a rotation government. However, Netanyahu would be allowed to go on “recess” to deal with his legal issues stemming from corruption charges.

A driver from East Jerusalem attempted to carry out a car-ramming attack against Israeli troops operating near Ramallah in the early hours of Thursday morning before he was shot and seriously injured, Border Police said in a statement.

There were no Israeli injuries reported.

In a statement, Border Police said the force had during the night raided the al-Am’ari refugee camp near Ramallah and arrested two wanted terror suspects.

As the troops were leaving the area, a car sped up to the officers’ armored vehicle and collided with it “with the intention of running over the combat fighters,” the statement said.

The troops then “identified the terrorist making a suspicious movement and holding a suspicious object in his hand that turned out to be a knife.” They subsequently shot and subdued him.

The statement identified the alleged assailant as a 20-year-old resident of East Jerusalem. It quoted medical officials as saying he had been seriously injured and taken to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in Jerusalem.

Hundreds of Israelis entered the Temple Mount complex on Thursday, according to the Director of Al-Aqsa Mosque Omar Kiswani, reported the Palestinian WAFA news agency.

WAFA’s English-language website claimed that about 432 Israelis entered the complex, however the news agency’s Arabic-language website put the number at 814 Israelis. WAFA claimed that the Israelis performed "Talmudic rituals and prayers" on the Temple Mount.

Jews are prohibited from praying or bringing religious items onto the mount – and are removed and sometimes detained if caught doing so.

According to the movement, over 650 Jews also entered the Temple Mount complex on Wednesday. A video posted by the "Students for the Temple Mount" movement on Twitter showed attorney Aviad Visoli praying there near the western side of the complex, with Israeli police demanding that he leave.

Another video, tweeted by the "Return to the Mount" movement, showed a Jewish Israeli prostrating within the Temple Mount complex before quickly being taken away by Israeli police on Wednesday.

The Waqf, an arm of the Jordanian Ministry of Sacred Properties, administers the Temple Mount site. Visits by religious Jews to the are monitored by Waqf guards and Israeli police – and all Jewish prayer, including silent prayer, is forbidden, according to the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs. No sacred Jewish objects, such as prayer books or prayer shawls, may be brought onto the mount, according to the tourism website Tourist Israel.

September marked the five year anniversary of the captivity of Avera Mengistu, who is being held hostage by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Avera's tragic story has been treated with silence from the international press. We will not let his story go untold. pic.twitter.com/Hguenh2373

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 17, 2019

Israeli forces brought down a drone on Thursday as it was flying in the area of the border fence along the Gaza Strip, the Israel Defense Forces said.

The drone was detected in the area of the southern Gaza Strip and “was brought down by IDF troops,” the army said in a statement.

The army did not give details on the size or design of the drone, or how it was stopped.

There were no injuries in the incident. It was not clear from the IDF statement if the drone came down in Israeli territory or not.

Security forces were investigating if the drone was carrying explosives.

On Sunday Israeli troops in the Golan Heights opened fire on what they thought was a drone infiltrating Israeli airspace. The Israel Defense Forces determined after the incident that no aircraft had crossed the border.

Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammad Shtayyeh has proposed that Israeli medical doctors work in Palestinian hospitals in the West Bank as a way to save on the cost of sending patients for treatment in Israel.

Shtayyeh made the suggestion during a meeting with a delegation from Physicians for Human Rights-Israel held in the West Bank city of Ramallah.

The prime minister said that such a move would mean that “instead of Muhammad coming to the mountain, the mountain will come to Muhammad,” the Kan public broadcaster reported.

The PA has long paid for most medical bills of Palestinians from the West Bank and the Gaza Strip who are referred to Israeli hospitals for treatment that is not available in Palestinian hospitals.But it stopped paying for the treatments in March amid a financial crisis caused by a dispute with Israel over the transfer of tax revenues to the PA.

A PA Health Ministry spokesman at the time said the decision to stop the medical care payments came because Israel was overcharging for the treatments.

At his recent UN General Assembly speech, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas threatened to cancel all diplomatic agreements with Israel if the next Israeli government carries out Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s campaign promise to apply Israeli sovereignty over parts of the 'West Bank'. In his address to the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York, Abbas slammed Netanyahu for “arrogantly” promising the annexation of the Jordan Valley and Israel’s “colonial settlements,” and warned a religious war could break out over Israel’s policies in Jerusalem.

The problem for Abbas’ threat, however, is that for Abbas’ threat of rescinding the PA-Israel Peace Agreements to mean anything, the PA would have had to have first complied with the Peace agreements to begin with. Abbas’ threat to rescind “agreements” that the PA never abided by to begin with is fake threat. Fake PA compliance to begin with equals a fake PA threat of rescinding compliance to end with.

And one of the PA’s most important obligations that the PA has faked compliance with is its obligation to have removed the ugly and virulently anti-Israel clauses of the PLO Charter that was last amended in 1968. And to add to the fake mix, leave it to the New York Times to write fake stories claiming the PLO changed its ugly Israel-hating charter.

In sum, a fake PLO Charter change wrapped in several fake NYT articles equals a fake Palestinian threat to rescind its Oslo agreements.
Firstly, the PLO Charter was never changed because Clause 33 of the PLO Charter as amended in 1968 specifically states that there can be no change to the Charter unless 2/3s of the full membership of the Palestinian National Council and such a vote can only be made in a meeting specially noticed for an amendment change. This did not occur.

The speech delivered by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at the United Nations General Assembly last month included, as usual, degradation of Israel. Less customarily, it also contained harsh criticism of the US over its unreserved support for Israel and its recognition of Jerusalem as its capital. Abbas also warned that if Israel acted on its intention to annex the Jordan Valley he would withdraw the PA from its agreements with Israel. He then said he would continue paying monthly salaries to the families of killed terrorists or those imprisoned in Israel.

Abbas, however, also offered a surprise twist by declaring his intention to call for presidential and parliamentary elections. As a reminder, the previous election, which brought him to power, took place in January 2005, almost 15 years ago. The election for the PA parliament, meanwhile, which he has since dispersed, was held in January 2006.

This isn't the first time Abbas has promised elections, although in recent years he has swapped the "threat of elections" with the threat of "returning the keys"– or in other words dismantling the PA in its entirety – if Israel failed to meet his demands.

It goes without saying that these threats and promises are baseless. After all, it's not for nothing that Abbas has avoided elections for the past 15 years. He knows with virtual certainty, as testified by public opinion polls in Judea and Samaria and Gaza, that support for him and the PA are at all-time lows and that he could lose the elections to Hamas.

And yet, he continues with his threats. His threats to resign from office and dismantle the PA, but also his promise to hold elections, which under the current circumstances will almost assuredly lead to his downfall, are essentially two sides of the same coin. They are expressions both of distress and a lack of direction, and their purpose is to extricate himself personally, the Palestine Liberation Organization which he heads and, seemingly, the Palestinian national movement in general, from the dead end in which it is mired.

Iraq’s bid for re-election to a seat on the UN’s top human rights body should be rejected, as it fails to meet the basic membership criteria. The election of 14 new countries to the Human Rights Council will be held at the UN in New York on Thursday, October 17, 2019. See our full report on all candidates, and press release.

In a previous election to the UNHRC, Iraq won no less than 173 of 193 votes, and is expected to win today as well.

“Electing a government that uses Iranian-backed snipers to kill its own people as a UN judge on human rights would be like making a pyromaniac into the town fire chief,” said UN Watch executive director Hillel Neuer.

In its bid for a renewed UN Human Rights Council term, from 2020 to 2022, the Iraqi government submitted a list of voluntary pledges. Following are five of Iraq’s most absurd claims, contrasted with the reality.

Iraq’s UN Pledge #1: “Iraq strives to ensure harmony among cultures, religions and civilizations through respect, tolerance and solidarity to eliminate hate speech and disrespect to any kind of cultural differences.”

Reality: When Miss Iraq Sarah Idan took the floor at the UN Human Rights Council to support peace with Israel, the Iraqi Parliament’s Security and Defense Committee reportedly called for her Iraqi citizenship to be revoked, labeling her advocacy a “crime.”

Iraq’s UN Pledge #2: “Iraq emphasizes the role of Civil Society Organizations and other stakeholders as main partners towards developing the work of the Human Rights Council and permit those partners to address the Council on human rights issues.”

Reality: According to a December 2018 report by Minority Rights Group International and the Ceasefire Centre for Civilian Rights, “the outbreak of large-scale popular protests in Basra and other Iraqi cities has led to a wave of violent repression of civilian activists.”

Iran-backed militias deployed snipers on Baghdad rooftops during Iraq’s deadliest anti-government protests in years, two Iraqi security officials told Reuters.

The deployment of militia fighters, which has not been previously reported, underscores the chaotic nature of Iraqi politics amid mass protests that led to more than 100 deaths and 6,000 injuries during the week starting Oct. 1. Such militias have become a fixture here with Iran’s rising influence. They sometimes operate in conjunction with Iraqi security forces but they retain their own command structures.

The Iraqi security sources told Reuters that the leaders of Iran-aligned militias decided on their own to help put down the mass protests against the government of Iraqi Prime Minister Adel Abdul Mahdi, whose one-year-old administration is backed by powerful Iran-backed armed groups and political factions.

“We have confirmed evidence that the snipers were elements of militias reporting directly to their commander instead of the chief commander of the armed forces,” said one of the Iraqi security sources. “They belong to a group that is very close to the Iranians.”

A second Iraqi security source, who attended daily government security briefings, said militia men clad in black shot protesters on the third day of unrest, when the death toll soared to more than 50 from about half a dozen. The fighters were directed by Abu Zainab al-Lami, head of security for the Hashid, a grouping of mostly Shi’ite Muslim paramilitaries backed by Iran, the second source said. The Hashid leader was tasked with quashing the protests by a group of other senior militia commanders, the source said. The sources did not say how many snipers were deployed by militia groups.

Iran on Wednesday warned that it would start limiting international inspectors’ access to its nuclear sites as it continues to move away from its commitments under the nuclear deal.

Hossein Naghavi-Hosseini, the spokesman for the Iranian parliament’s national security committee, said that Iran was taking the step because “when the other party doesn’t fulfill its commitments, there is no necessity for us to meet our part of commitments.”

“In the fourth step of reducing JCPOA (Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) commitments, we will probably impose limits on inspections, which means the International Atomic Energy Agency’s surveillance on Iran’s nuclear activities will be reduced,” the Guardian newspaper quoted him as saying.

“Europeans have not honored their part of the commitments and we have not seen any practical step taken by the other side,” he said.

Iran has steadily increased its breaches of the nuclear accord as it pushes its European partners to find a way around US sanctions that have kept it from selling oil abroad and crippled the Iranian economy.

Material in a batch of German intelligence documents on Tehran’s illegal nuclear conduct in the federal republic as late as 2018 necessitate “confronting Iran with the intelligence and asking hard questions,” according to one of the leading international authorities on arms control.

Emily B. Landau, director of the Arms Control and Regional Security Project at the Institute for National Security Studies in Tel Aviv, told The Jerusalem Post that the documents prove that Iran has not kept to its commitment outlined in the 2015 nuclear deal.

“First, it is important that this intel be widely published and that it become part of the public debate over Iran, as it indicates that Iran has not complied with its commitment not to work on military nuclear capability,” she said.

“From my perspective, [the] most important thing at this point is to have it widely known that Iran did not stop everything in 2015 [when the nuclear deal was reached], because the debate in Europe ignores this,” she said, adding, “The point is that it [Iran] has continued these efforts well after the JCPOA [(Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action) was reached].”

Landau is the author of Arms Control in the Middle East: Cooperative Security Dialogue and Regional Constraints. She noted that the Iran deal “set up a special channel regarding procurement for checking issues of this sort,” which is of the sort detailed in the German intelligence documents. “The problem is that the deliberations there get close to zero attention.”

The International Atomic Energy Agency, tasked with ensuring Iran’s regime is in compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, declined to comment on the documents.

When asked whether the IAEA had reviewed the German intelligence documents, Fredrik Dahl, an IAEA spokesman, told the Post: “We have no comment.” Dahl also declined to answer follow-up questions about whether the IAEA will review the reports.

France demanded on Wednesday that Iran refrain from entering a new phase of “especially worrying” reductions to Iran‘s obligations to a 2015 nuclear deal with world powers.

“Iran must abstain from crossing an especially worrying new phase of new measures that could contribute to an escalation in tensions,” French foreign ministry spokeswoman Agnès von der Muhll told reporters in a daily briefing.

She was responding after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said on Monday that Tehran was working on advanced IR-9 centrifuges for uranium enrichment. Those centrifuges do not appear in the 2015 accord.

Iranian activist Rouhollah Zam, who has been captured by Iran, had refugee status in France, the French Foreign Ministry said on Wednesday, condemning his arrest.

The ministry also said it had no details of the circumstances surrounding Zam’s arrest.

#WalkingUnveiled in public is banned by Islamic Republic but public execution such as hanging is acceptable. Filming or taking photo of this simple act of protest & sending it to #WhiteWednesdays will be result up to 10 years prison but we won’t give up our civil disobedience. pic.twitter.com/80VaT7VluR

— Masih Alinejad ??? (@AlinejadMasih) October 16, 2019

Passing on religious rituals was something I remember looking forward to before I became a mother. Little did I know that the Jewish High Holidays in 2019 would hardly resemble the holidays of my childhood.

Growing up in the 1980s and ‘90s, anyone could walk into my suburban New York synagogue for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur. Sure, adults were supposed to have tickets, but there was no bouncer by the door. We had two local police officers who stood out on the street directing traffic for those two holidays, but that was explained by my synagogue’s location atop a hill; drivers climbing that hill couldn’t see the larger-than-usual stream of pedestrians from afar.

After 9/11, the synagogue I attended in D.C. added year-round security. Whenever I arrived from work for Friday evening services, I faced a security guard and a bag check.

The level of security at synagogues, Jewish schools, and Jewish community centers has only increased since then. Some of these buildings have video camera buzzer systems, security guards, or police officers. This is all to protect American Jews while we pray, socialize, and educate our children. In the wake of attacks in Pittsburgh and Poway, California, that trend is unlikely to reverse itself.

Since well before the Halle attack, the resounding call of Jewish leaders has been that the time for words against anti-Semitism has passed and that what is needed now in Germany is action.

The Halle synagogue used to have a visible police presence. But a year ago, rather than heed the warnings of Jewish community leaders who were witnessing the resurgence of German anti-Semitism, the authorities in Halle discontinued police protection. Max Privorozki, the head of the Jewish community in Halle, said he had asked in vain for police protection for Jewish holidays and complained about the complete lack of police patrols. Holger Stahlknecht, the state interior minister of Saxony-Anhalt, all but called him a liar and, despite what seemed like obvious failures, defended his police forces.

The German government provided no police protection, funding for security guards, or other means of physical defense for the Halle synagogue. According to the police chronology, the first police officers arrived eight minutes after they received the emergency call, which was four minutes after the terrorist had already left the synagogue.

In Halle the Jews were left to save themselves.

For this they relied on the synagogue’s security system, donated by the Jewish Agency for Israel, with funding from the Helmsley Charitable Trust. Those security cameras made it possible for the Jews inside to make quick informed decisions to shelter in place and barricade the doors. The frustrated terrorist, unable to open the door, wondered aloud, “maybe they will come outside.” Thanks to the security system, there was no chance of that. Jewish Agency Chairman Isaac Herzog was not exaggerating when he said, “That donation saved lives.”

A report on the Halle synagogue attack on the BBC Arabic website fails to mention antisemitism or Jews, stating simply that “some German news outlets say it happened near a synagogue but this cannot be confirmed.”

This was despite the fact that the motivations of the attacker and the target — a synagogue on Yom Kippur, the holiest day of the Jewish calendar — were entirely clear and indeed could in fact easily be confirmed from the livestream video that the attacker himself posted online.

The article reports that two people were killed in a gunfire incident and that the assailant fired in the direction of a kebab shop, noting that he “also threw a bomb on a cemetery”, rather than explaining that the cemetery was in the synagogue compound, which was the gunman’s primary target.

The perpetrator has since confirmed that he was motivated by antisemitism and indeed had published an antisemitic manifesto prior to the attack. The incident comes at a time of growing antisemitism in Germany.

Campaign Against Antisemitism is disgusted that the BBC could run such a misleading story on a sensitive topic, but this is also not wholly surprising in view of the history of strained relations between the Corporation and the Jewish community.

Ungar-Sargon had hoped to be able to discuss the way extremists target Jews without bringing Israel into the discussion. But that is impossible because anti-Zionism is indistinguishable from anti-Semitism. Those who want to attack Israel aren’t willing to exempt other Jews – even those who are critics of the Jewish state, like Ungar-Sargon – from the same efforts to strip them of their humanity and dignity.

The dismay at the events that took place at Bard should not be confused with seeking to suppress criticism of Israel. In fact, the efforts to silence a discussion of anti-Semitism made it plain that hatred of Israel can’t be separated from the anti-Semitism and racism, which are integral to the anti-Zionist movement. Its premise is the attempt to deny to Jews that which no one seeks to deny to other people and, as such, is an expression of prejudice.

Anti-Zionists like Reps. Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) and Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) often pose as victims of right-wing hate or Islamophobia but their use of anti-Semitic rhetoric gives the lie to this masquerade. The same is true of those scholars at Bard who pretend to be advocates of free speech and free inquiry, except when it is a matter of Jews speaking about hatred of their fellow Jews.

This ought to be a wake-up call for those who still think that the war on Israel is about borders or settlements, and not anti-Semitism. As a recent study conducted by the Amcha initiative showed, anti-Semitic harassment of Jewish students on American college campuses jumped by 70% in the last year. Those who persist in believing that this alarming trend can be dealt with without confronting the essentially anti-Semitic nature of the BDS movement or by efforts to conciliate or legitimize these anti-Zionists are simply out of touch with reality.

Predictably, @KenRoth , the human rights dude, excuses below Kais Saied's homophobia and his anti-woman view as just "troubling." Ken also ignores Saied's hatred of the Jewish state. cc: @Volker_Beck@HillelNeuerhttps://t.co/YEG3BE517ahttps://t.co/jiDGPFdyhI

— Benjamin Weinthal (@BenWeinthal) October 17, 2019

J Street has announced that Democratic presidential candidates Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), former US Housing and Urban Development Secretary Julian Castro, Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.) and Mayor of South Bend, Ind. Pete Buttigieg are scheduled to attend its annual conference in Washington, DC, later this month.

The 2020 candidates will sit with the hosts of the weekly podcast “Pod Save the World,” former White House National Security Council spokesperson Tommy Vietor and former US Deputy National Security Advisor for Strategic Communications Ben Rhodes to “discuss the future of the US-Israel relationship, their visions for resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, their plans to combat the growing threat of white supremacy and more,” according to an email from J Street ahead of the conference, which will take place from Oct. 26-29.

JNS has reached out to the candidates for comment about their participation in the conference.

Aside from Bennet, the aforementioned candidates have said, if elected, that they would re-enter the United States in the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, which J Street supports and that US President Donald Trump withdrew from in May 2018, reimposing sanctions lifted under it along with enacting new financial penalties against the regime.

Of the group, Buttigieg and Klobuchar have said they would keep the US embassy in Jerusalem, despite objecting to its relocation from Tel Aviv in May 2018.

Additionally, Buttigieg has spoken out against Trump recognizing earlier this year Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, telling JNS in August it was “an intervention in Israeli domestic politics.”

Today, Democratic Majority for Israel President and CEO Mark Mellman issued the following statement:

“It’s deeply disturbing to find a candidate who claims to be ‘100% pro-Israel,’ opposed to BDS and a fighter against antisemitism surrounding himself with a number of surrogates and endorsers who hate Israel, support BDS and have repeatedly made antisemitic statements. We privately communicated our concern about some of his choices directly to Senator Sanders, beginning with his naming of noted antisemite Linda Sarsour as an official surrogate. Unfortunately, the only responses we have received from the Senator are more hostile choices on his part.”

Yep. Even @ZahraBilloo, who is so much of an anti-Semite that the Women's March fired her, supports Bernie. Amy Klobuchar, to my knowledge, is the only Dem candidate who has heaped praise on Israel. pic.twitter.com/uJy062QdEJ

— (((Screenstarr))) (@screenstarr) October 17, 2019

A veteran UK Labour Party Jewish lawmaker quit the party Wednesday, saying unacceptable anti-Semitism had been allowed to flourish under leader Jeremy Corbyn, who she denounced as being unfit to become prime minister.

Liverpool Riverside MP Louise Ellman announced in a letter her resignation from the party she had been a member of for 55 years.

Ellman, 73, has been a prominent critic of the party’s handling of anti-Semitism allegations and of Corbyn.

“I believe that Jeremy Corbyn would be a danger to the country, a danger to the Jewish community as well, but a danger to the country too,” she told the Times newspaper.

In the resignation letter, Ellman wrote she is “deeply troubled” by the increase in anti-Semitism and that she could no longer support voting Labour when it risks Corbyn being becoming prime minister.

“I believe that Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to serve as our prime minister,” wrote Ellman who has been member of parliament for the party since 1997.

Lara McNeill, a member of Labour’s powerful National Executive Committee (NEC), has criticised Dame Louise Ellman MP for quitting the Labour Party over antisemitism after 55 years of membership.

Ms McNeill criticised Dame Louise for “choos[ing] to sit on the fence” and claimed that it was “demonstratively false” that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn had not “spent decades…confronting antisemitism and Holocaust deniers”.

She went on to suggest that concerns over the implications of a Corbyn government for Britain’s Jews “simply whip[s] up panic amongst many”. While conceding that one should not “ignore antisemitism”, Ms. McNeill insisted that one should also not “ignore this Conservative government actively inciting racism and don’t ignore Labour’s – and Corbyn’s – record showing what a Labour government would actually mean for equality and anti-discrimination.”

A Momentum activist, Ms McNeill represents Young Labour on the NEC, and her original candidacy was backed by Momentum, several unions and Labour frontbencher Angela Rayner, the Shadow Secretary of State for Education. Other factions, including the Jewish Labour Movement, Labour Students and LGBT Labour reportedly supported her opponent.

A member of the Scottish Parliament has related how quickly conversation with his ward mates in hospital turned to the Holocaust – and Holocaust denial.

Alex Cole-Hamilton, the MSP for Edinburgh Western, has written about his stay in a hospital in West Lothian for hand surgery over the summer, recounting that the man next to him in the ward “muttered something about Germany and gas chambers”.

Mr Cole-Hamilton said that he did not hear the man properly and was about to take issue with the comment when the patient in the bed opposite chimed in: “No mate, there never were any gas ovens, it was all a hoax, I can give you a link to a YouTube video which explains it all.”

“Despite being pretty high on painkillers,” Mr Cole-Hamilton writes, “I challenged him, explaining his statement wasn’t just wrong but it was offensive. He responded by saying that he was as much entitled to his opinion as I was, to which I replied that my ‘opinion’ was empirically verifiable as historical fact.

“The whole exchange left me pretty shaken and the atmosphere on the ward was strained for the duration of my stay.”

Some of the world's most prolific graffiti artists will land in Israel for Sukkot for the "Patron of the Arts: International Street Art Week," which begins on Thursday.

The three-day event runs from October 17 to 20 and will be held in the Jaffa harbor. It will include live wall drawing, with the expectation that the graffiti will remain on the walls for the next several years.

The project was initiated by Paris-based Olivia Fatal together with local Rachel Mailer. They said they have seen the influence of BDS on the art industry, including several artists who are hesitant to work with or even discuss Israel. The show is meant to demonstrate that politics has no place in the art industry, according to the event release.

The art should be unique. Among the artists is the duo "PichiAvo" from Spain, who usually make graffiti revolving around Greek mythology. "Insane51," who specializes in 3D art, will also be present.

Each of the creators has a large social media presence, so the planners are hoping the event will go viral. The pieces will be displayed on social media by the artists and also by the event.

The chancellor of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign came under fire this week for saying that a presentation to residence-hall advisers on the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians was anti-Semitic.

The presentation, called “Palestine & Great Return March: Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror,” prepared by a Palestinian-American student involved in the Students for Justice in Palestine organization, was critical of Israel but not anti-Semitic, supporters responded, according to local newspaper the News-Gazette. They urged the university to formulate a definition of anti-Semitism.

Chancellor Robert Jones had made the assertion in a campus-wide email last week, which also referenced the recent discovery of a swastika in the Foreign Languages Building. The presentation to about a dozen resident advisers and multicultural advocates was made late last month. Complaints were filed about both the presentation and the swastika, the Daily Illini student newspaper reported Monday.

“This exercise was part of a university program created to help students learn to share diverse ideas and perspectives that lead to new understanding. Instead of fostering dialogue, it incited division, distrust and anger,” Jones wrote. “The program allowed our students to enter an extremely challenging and potentially volatile situation without the preparation, training, education and professional oversight they needed to succeed. This is inexcusable and unacceptable. This is a failure to our students, and that is my responsibility.”

All housing staff and resident advisers will be required to undergo anti-Semitism training, Jones said.

A recent presentation during a mandatory meeting for the residential living team at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign that was replete with antisemitic references has come under fire from the pro-Israel community, with the school’s chancellor denouncing the incident.

Titled “Palestine & Great Return March: Palestinian Resistance to 70 Years of Israeli Terror,” the slideshow presentation included libelous statements with one of the slides headlined “Brief History of the Palestine-Israel ‘Conflict’ ” that stated that in 1917 the “British signed away Palestine to Zionist entity,” when the Balfour Declaration that year declared that the right of the Jews to have a state in their homeland from which they were exiled thousands of years earlier. It also labeled Israel’s independence in 1948 the nakba (a “catastrophe”), despite the 1947 partition plan that the Jews accepted and the Arabs rejected, and presented 2014 as an Israeli “assault on Gaza,” despite the fact that Hamas, which controls Gaza, started the violence by launching rockets from civilian centers into Israel.

In a campus email, Chancellor Robert Jones wrote: “This exercise was part of a university program created to help students learn to share diverse ideas and perspectives that lead to new understanding. Instead of fostering dialogue, it incited division, distrust and anger.”

“The program allowed our students to enter an extremely challenging and potentially volatile situation without the preparation, training, education and professional oversight they needed to succeed,” he continued. “This is inexcusable and unacceptable. This is a failure to our students, and that is my responsibility.”

'Students for Justice in Palestine' is organizing an anti-Israel conference at the University of Minnesota. It's time to take action. Join the campaign to fight SJP hate on campus! Join thousands of people who have already written their letters. #NoHateOnCampus

As we see the BBC not only cites the notoriously biased UN Human Rights Council and its highly controversial ‘special rapporteur’ but also the partisan political NGO ‘Peace Now’.

We also see that the BBC cites third party reports of on-paper-only building permits as ‘proof’ of an increase in building, rather than actual construction completes. As we have noted here in the past, that long existent practice denies audiences of accurate information essential for proper understanding of the topic.

Data published by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics last month concerning construction in Area C of Judea & Samaria clarifies that the BBC’s claim of “a recent increase in settlement building in…the West Bank” – even if one takes that to mean construction in existing communities – is questionable.

Notably the second response received from BBC Complaints did not address the issue of audiences being misled by Webb’s claim of “a recent increase in settlement building in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank”. One would of course expect the BBC (of all media outlets) to have sufficient command of the English language to prevent confusion between three different topics: the size of the ‘settler’ population, the rate of housing construction in existing communities and the number of new ‘settlements’ established.

What is needed are bold creative ways to set a new path that will change attitudes.

Some initiatives that could be considered that reflect Germany’s unique position in Jewish history:
1-German schools must introduce compulsory introductory courses explaining Jewish history and culture with special reference of contributions to Germany.
2-Hebrew, a classical language, should join the two other classical languages, Latin and Greek offered at universities.
3-The basics of Jewish festivals should be explained. Some, like Tu Bishvat ( New Year of the Trees,) resonate strongly with the current concern for saving the environment.
4-Churches need to teach children and adults, that replacement theology in any form is not the Christian dogma of the present time. Churches must clarify without ambiguity that such theology has been the basis of pogroms, expulsions, conspiracy theories and discrimination and has no place in today’s Germany.
5-School children need to learn that Jesus was a practising Jew and the popular curse word “Jew” actually profanes Jesus, which is unchristian.
6-The history and development of Israel need to be taught with special reference to its legal, historical and moral foundations.
7-Community involvement including public participation at festivals such as Sukkot and Hannukah should be encouraged. Just days ago in Melbourne, I saw a police station with a big sign on the pavement: “L’Shanah Tova 5780 and well over the fast.” Walking past two policewomen, they smiled and wished me a Happy New Year. Why not in Germany?

A former SS guard, 93, said he was sorry for his actions as he went on trial in Germany on Thursday for complicity in the murder of more than 5,000 people at a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.

In what could be one of the last such cases of surviving Nazi guards, Bruno Dey stands accused of abetting the murder of 5,230 people when he worked at the Stutthof camp near what was then Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland.

While he insisted that he did not join the deadly operation voluntarily, he voiced regret for his actions.

“That’s what he said in his interrogation: He felt sorry for what he did,” said his lawyer Stefan Waterkamp.

“It was also clear to him that (the inmates) were not in there because they were criminals, but for anti-Semitic, racist and other reasons. He had compassion for them. But he did not see himself in a position to free them.”

Seated in a wheelchair, Dey wore a hat and sunglasses and hid his face behind a red folder as he entered the courtroom.

In a letter sent to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Monday, 39 members of Congress — led by Democrat Max Rose of New York — asked why white supremacist extremist groups are not included on the State Department’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs).

The letter came a week after a neo-Nazi gunman killed two people outside a German synagogue.

“Today, if an American citizen swears allegiance to the Islamic State (or another Foreign Terrorist Organization on the list) and spreads their message of terror, there are several resources available to the Federal government to counter the threat,” the letter said. “However, if that same American citizen swears allegiance to a violent white supremacist extremist group based overseas and spreads their message of terror, the Federal government does not have access to the same tools.”

“As you know,” the letter continued, “the State Department’s criteria for inclusion on the FTO list are simple: be a foreign organization, engage in or retain the capability and intent to engage in terrorism, and threaten the security of US nationals or the national defense, foreign relations, or the economic interests of the United States. There are numerous examples of foreign white nationalist groups that fit these conditions. The American people deserve an explanation as to why these groups are not included on the FTO list.”

Belgian police arrested a Muslim man who asked passersby on a Brussels street if they were Jewish while holding a knife and shouting about Allah.

No one was hurt in the incident last week in Koekelberg, a northwestern neighborhood of the Belgian capital.

Police subdued the man in the neighboring district of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek following an hourlong search, the news site HLN reported Friday. His name was not disclosed.

The suspect is not considered a terrorist, a spokesman for the Brussels Prosecutor’s Office told HLN, though he is believed to have committed attempted murder “with connection to his religious or philosophical convictions.”

A Jewish man in Paris who wore a hat to conceal his kippah was assaulted on the street by five Arab men who recognized that he was Jewish anyway, he told police and a watchdog group on antisemitism.

The assault occurred on Oct. 10 at around midnight near City Hall, the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Antisemitism, or BNVCA, wrote in a statement Sunday.

The accuser told police and BNVCA that five men approached him demanding that he give them money. During the exchange the assailants ascertained that he was Jewish, tore his shirt, and beat him on his face, chest and legs. They then allegedly made the Jewish man lie on the ground and threatened to stab him with a large knife one of the perpetrators produced from his coat.

The victim was able to escape as passers-by began to near. He suffered contusions to the face and body but no serious injuries.

The Jewish organization United With Israel is inviting people to sponsor the planting of more than 20 different fruit trees in Israel in memory of the 12 victims of the synagogue shootings in Pittsburgh and Poway, California.

“Join us in planting 12,000 trees of life! Make the land even more beautiful in their memory,” it said on the project’s event page.

“[This is] a great opportunity to help Israeli farmers while paying tribute to the 12 holy victims of synagogue shootings, may their memories be for a blessing,” continued the plea. “Show your love for Israel by joining in this wonderful mitzvah!”

A total of 11 Jewish worshippers were murdered on Oct. 27, 2018, when a lone gunman entered the Tree of Life*Or L’Simcha Synagogue in the Squirrel Hill neighborhood of Pittsburgh during Shabbat-morning services.

Exactly six months later, on April 27, 2019, a similar shooting took place at Chabad of Poway in Southern California, where a 60-year-old Jewish woman was killed in the synagogue lobby and three others injured in the attack, also on Shabbat morning during services.

In late September, Sheikh Mehmet Adil al-Haqqani, leader of the Naqshbandi Haqqani Sufi Order, paid a first, historic, visit to Israel and the Palestinian Authority. The visit was intended to bolster ties with followers of the order and spiritual and religious ties between Islamic holy sites and Sufi Islam. In effect, the Higher Islamic Sufi Council in Jerusalem and the Palestinian Lands took advantage of the visit to challenge Israeli sovereignty in Jerusalem and shore of the PA's political and religious legitimacy in light of its struggle against Hamas.

Al-Haqqani, who was born in Damascus and currently lives in Istanbul, is considered one of the leading figures in Sufi Islam, the main school of Islamic mysticism. Since 2014, he has served as head of the Naqshbandi Haqqani order, a branch that his father established in Cyprus in the second half of the 20th century. The order can trace its roots back to the 14th century in the central Asian city of Bukhara. The order itself is a worldwide presence, stretching from India in the east to the US in the west, and even to Israel. It comprises a social network that crosses continents and includes some 60 million Sufi followers.

Al-Haqqani and over 100 of his followers came to Israel and visited some major religious sites, including the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron; the Great Mosque of Nablus; the grave of Rabaa Al-Adawiya, a well-known female Sufi leader from the eighth century; Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem; and other sites in Ramallah and Jericho. He was in Israel as part of a tour that started at the beginning of the year and included Britain and South Africa. In November, he is scheduled to visit Iran.

Although his visit to Israel was not outwardly political, the Higher Islamic Sufi Council wanted to infuse it with political significance. Saad Sharaf, a senior council member, emphasized that Al-Haqqani played an important role in promoting the Palestinian cause: "Every Sufi who enters Palestine [becomes] an ambassador for our problem the moment he returns to his native country to tell of the suffering of our people."

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu phoned Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed to congratulate him on winning the Nobel Peace Prize.

According to a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office, Netanyahu told the Ethiopian leader that “he was impressed by his visit to Israel [last month], and that he admires the developments that have taken place in Israel in recent years.”

Additionally, Ahmed invited Netanyahu to make an official visit to the country.

Prime Minister Ahmed, 43, was awarded the prize for his efforts to “achieve peace and international cooperation” after a peace deal with Eritrea ended a 20-year military stalemate following their 1998-2000 border war.

“The prize is also meant to recognize all the stakeholders working for peace and reconciliation in Ethiopia, and in the East and Northeast African regions,” the Norwegian Nobel Committee said in a statement.

“I always keep my promises,” said Marthe Cohn, the 99-year-old nurse and author who spied for the French against the Nazis during World War II, and who is the subject of the documentary, Chichinette - How I Accidentally Became a Spy, which was screened at the Haifa International Film Festival.

Cohn, who now lives in Los Angeles, was referring to an injury she suffered recently – “I fell at home and fractured my elbow in two places” – which did not stop her from keeping promises she made to give speeches around the world.

She could just as easily have been speaking about the commitment she made to a French army officer in the last year of World War II. Cohn promised that she, a young Jewish nurse who had managed to keep herself and most of her family safe throughout the Nazi occupation, would cross into Germany (via Switzerland) to obtain key intelligence information.

“I tried 13 times to cross over. For various reasons, I had to turn back every time. But this officer said I had done it purposefully, that I had cold feet,” said Cohn, who is so tiny she makes Dr. Ruth look like a linebacker, and is full of energy and unfailingly polite.

So on her last try, she managed to cross the border and complete the mission that would end up guaranteeing her a place in French military history.

United States Rep. Elijah E. Cummings of Maryland died early Thursday at Johns Hopkins Hospital due to complications from longstanding health challenges, his congressional office said. He was 68.

A sharecropper’s son, Cummings became the powerful chairman of a US House committee that investigated President Donald Trump, and was a formidable orator who passionately advocated for the poor in his black-majority district, which encompasses a large portion of Baltimore as well as more well-to-do suburbs.

One program he founded in Baltimore is the Elijah Cummings Youth Leadership Program in Israel, which aims to bridge gaps between the Jewish and black communities in the district, and celebrates its 20th anniversary this year. Every year about a dozen teens participate in the program, which includes a trip to Israel.

If your kids are of a certain age, they’ve probably read “Wonder,” the best-selling book about Auggie Pullman, a boy born with facial differences who, after being homeschooled his whole life, begins attending a school in fifth grade. It’s on our must-read list of books for kids and adults navigating disabilities and special needs — and it was made into a film in November 2017 starring Julia Roberts and Jacob Tremblay.

Since “Wonder” was published in 2012, the author, R. J. Palacio, has written a series of novels within the same universe, including “Auggie & Me,” a collection of three related stories. One of those stories centers on Julian, the school bully who is the antagonist in “Wonder.” In “Auggie & Me,” we learn about Grandmère, Julian’s grandmother, who was a Holocaust survivor. But we don’t get her full story — until now.

“White Bird,” a graphic novel by Palacio, is a deep dive into what happened to Grandmère — Sara — during World War II, and how she survived as a young Jewish girl in France.

In an interview with Kveller, Palacio explained why she decided to publish this particular story in 2019.

“It’s really important for kids to have the historical context with which to [understand] what’s happening now, so that they can make the direct correlations,” she said.

We’re in a tunnel five meters (16 feet) under modern Jerusalem, facing a solid wall of earth and standing on paving stones that Jewish pilgrims used 2,000 years ago when ascending Judaism’s holiest site, the Temple Mount.

High up on the earthen wall is a continuous strip of white, which marks where people lived during the late Roman era, according to Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologist Ari Levy, our guide for the morning. Near the floor are some toppled building blocks, which stem from the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans in 70 CE.

To me, the earth wall is an unfathomable mystery, but to excavation director Levy, it’s a roadmap.

We’re walking a newly excavated two-millennia-old road that was once used by tens of thousands of Jews during the three annual pilgrimage festivals — Passover, Shavuot, and Sukkot, the last of which is celebrated this week.

Today, an Arab neighborhood of 20,000 souls thrives five meters above these ancient paving stones. That’s one reason the excavations have drawn criticism from international governments and media, which condemn the City of David National Park, and its funder, the private right-wing Elad organization, for digging in an Arab neighborhood that only became part of modern Israeli Jerusalem after the 1967 Six Day War.

The City of David Park is a wildly popular tourist site, but also a hot spot where ancient and modern politics meet. Alongside its controversial location, however, it is the excavation’s science — its horizontal excavation methodology — that has some archaeologists up in arms.

To better understand the archaeological controversy, we toured the path and discussed its excavation with dig director Levy and several other unassociated archaeologists.

Adel Atieh, the deputy head of the Palestinian mission to the European Union, points out that eleven years ago, there were only 3,000 Palestinians in Belgium. Today, however, Atieh estimates that that there are around 10,000 Palestinian asylum seekers living there, with as many as 98 percent of them hailing from the Strip.

“Based on the argument that there are human rights violations under Hamas and that their security is under threat by the Hamas militia, Palestinians from the Strip traditionally had much higher chances to get asylum in Belgium than Palestinians from the West Bank,” says Atieh. “A lot of them came after the 2008-2009 and the 2014 wars,” he adds. 

President Donald Trump’s son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner will visit Israel at the end of the month in preparation for unveiling the administration’s “deal of the century” plan for Israeli-Palestinian peace.

The Israeli news site Walla reported that Kushner will likely meet with both Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his top rival, Blue and White party leader Benny Gantz, to assess the political situation in Israel, which is currently in flux as neither Netanyahu nor Gantz appears currently able to form a government following September’s Knesset elections.

If it takes place, this would be Kushner’s first meeting with Gantz. The Trump administration, which is widely perceived as staunchly pro-Netanyahu, avoided meeting Gantz until just after the September vote, when US Middle East envoy Jason Greenblatt and US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman did so for the first time.

Trump had planned to reveal his peace plan in January, but held off due to pending Israeli elections in April, which proved inconclusive, prompting another delay until a second round of elections. These also resulted in no clear winner, forcing the administration to postpone the release of the plan again until a governing coalition could be formed, a possibility that looks remote at the moment.

Despite the withdrawal of US troops from Syria, Israel retains operational freedom to defend itself and America remains committed to closely watching the Iraqi-Syrian border to help prevent the transfer of Iranian arms into the country, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo told The Jerusalem Post on Friday in an exclusive interview.

“Our administration’s been very clear,” he said. “Israel has the fundamental right to engage in activity that ensures the security of its people. It’s at the very core of what nation states not only have the right to do but an obligation to do.”

Regarding the Iraqi-Syrian border, which Israeli intelligence believes is used by Iran to smuggle weapons into Syria and Hezbollah, Pompeo said that American forces would continue to watch the area closely.

“The president has committed to continuing that activity that the US has been engaged in now for a couple of years and is aimed at countering ISIS and providing us situational awareness in the region,” he said. “We know this is a corner where Iran has attempted to move weapon systems across into Syria, into Lebanon, that threatens Israel and we are going to do everything we can to make sure we have the capacity to identify those so that we can collectively respond appropriately.”

Pompeo spoke to the Post in Jerusalem shortly after completing a two-hour meeting Friday morning with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Mossad chief Yossi Cohen. He was accompanied to the meeting by US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and James Jeffrey, the US special envoy on Syria. Pompeo arrived in Israel a day after meeting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who agreed to a five-day ceasefire to allow Kurdish forces to evacuate the border region.

Israeli politicians and defense officials have raised concerns that the US pullout from Syria will strengthen Iran. Pompeo dismissed that possibility and said that the administration remained committed – like it has been – to stopping Iran and preventing it from obtaining nuclear weapons. He said that all options were on the table in the event that Iran broke out toward a bomb.

If Benjamin Netanyahu fails to form a governing coalition by October 24, President Reuven Rivlin will have to choose between granting him a two-week extension or, more likely, giving Benny Gantz of the centrist Blue and White party a chance to form a coalition. As of last week, coalition negotiations had stalled, but in the past few days several parties began making conciliatory gestures. Vivian Bercovici explains why:

[T]he deliverance from the present national stasis may have come in the form of White House chaos. Donald Trump’s recent decision to withdraw American troops from northern Syria has plunged the region into a new round of volatility and chaos. . . . Trump’s erratic conduct seems to have jolted Israeli leadership into a more wakeful state of mind, and catalyzed discussions around the possibility of a unity coalition being formed imminently.

The jarringly abrupt withdrawal of U.S. troops from northern Syria and the ensuing mayhem present a critical security challenge to Israel. Suddenly, . . . we heard grudging rumblings: that Blue and White will sit with Likud under Netanyahu’s leadership and “hold its nose”; that the ultra-Orthodox parties are even grumbling along the same lines and may sit with Blue and White and Avigdor Liberman’s [right wing, but staunchly secularist] Yisrael Beytenu.

There are now reports of further discussion to cobble together a quick governing coalition in order that the country may function, primarily because of the increasingly volatile and deteriorating regional security situation. The “compromise” being discussed is that there will be no legislation considered on matters of religion and state, in effect putting on ice, for the meantime, the root of the ongoing political impasse. However, . . . Benny Gantz dismissed the buzz as meaningless chatter.

Events in Syria and the region nonetheless may [still] stave off the surreal possibility of a third election in one year. The state needs a functioning government, and that imperative is more fundamental and important than any leader or party.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday charged that Blue and White leader Benny Gantz intends to form a minority government with outside support from the mostly Arab Joint List alliance, warning such a move would endanger Israel’s security.

Netanyahu, who is nearing the end of a period given to him to try, so far unsuccessfully, and form a government, appears to be returning to his election campaign stance of appearing to demonize the Arab parties and tar Gantz as a leftist.

In a post on his Facebook page, Netanyahu said that Gantz had rejected his offers for a unity government and charged that he, together with Blue and White number two Yair Lapid and Yisrael Beytenu’s Avigdor Liberman, had refused to rule out the minority government option.

“Establishing a minority government that relies on the Joint List is an anti-Zionist act that endangers our security,” Netanyahu wrote, accusing Joint List leaders Ayman Odeh and Ahmad Tibi of supporting Palestinian terror and Hezbollah.
Members of the Joint List Ayman Odeh, left, and Ahmad Tibi consult with President Reuven Rivlin on who should form the the next government, at the President’s Residence in Jerusalem, on September 22, 2019. (Menahem Kahana/Pool via AP)

Netanyahu also accused Lapid and Liberman of “holding Gantz hostage” to their personal ambitions.

Liberman reacted to the post, saying it was a sign of Netanyahu’s “desperation,” and accused the prime minister of hypocrisy, saying he had a long history of cooperating with Arab parties.

What does Russia’s takeover really mean for Israel? Some analysts are deeply concerned, fretting about the possibility that Moscow could use surface-to-air missiles against Israeli jets attacking Iranian targets in Syria, which would effectively end Jerusalem’s campaign against Tehran’s establishment of a military foothold near Israel’s border.

Others see in Russia’s new leadership role an opportunity, as it may make room for an Iranian-Israel modus vivendi that would prevent the shadow war between the two countries from escalating.

To analyze the implications of the new status quo for Israel, it is helpful to understand why Moscow is engaged in the Middle East in the first place, but even on this question experts differ.

Amos Yadlin, the head of Tel Aviv University’s Institute for National Security Studies, told The Times of Israel he counts eight main reasons that “motivated Russian President Vladimir Putin to get involved in the Middle East:
1. To Make Russia Great Again;
2. To again become an influential power, after the US kept it out of Egypt (1973), Iraq (2003), Libya (2011) and the Israeli-Palestinian peace process;
3. To reduce the influence of the United States;
4. To play Middle Eastern cards in Russia’s conflict with Ukraine;
5. To control ports and air bases, something the tsar dreamed of;
6. To try out weapons developed by Russia in the past decade;
7. To save Syria’s Bashar Assad — and show the world that Russians don’t throw their allies under the bus.
8. To fight jihadists — in Syria and not in the Caucasus.

While Russia does not necessarily want to act as an “honest broker” between warring parties in the Middle East, it does seek to have good relations with everyone, Yadlin told The Times of Israel.

“All pairs of enemies in the Middle East enjoy reasonably good ties with Russia: Saudi Arabia and Iran, Israel and the Palestinians, the Kurds and the Turks, Israel and Iran, Egypt and Turkey, and so on.”

Russia should not be seen as a regional hegemon, Yadlin stressed. Rather, that title should be shared by Turkey, Israel, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. And even the Americans still have more forces in the Middle East than the Russians, said Yadlin, a former head of Israel’s military intelligence.

Turkey agreed on Thursday to pause its offensive in Syria for five days to let Kurdish forces withdraw from a "safe zone" Ankara had sought to capture, in a deal hailed by Washington but which Turkish leaders cast as a complete victory.

The truce was announced by US Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkey's President Tayyip Erdoğan, and was swiftly hailed by President Donald Trump, who said it would save "millions of lives".

But if implemented it would achieve all the main objectives Turkey announced when it launched the assault eight days ago: control of a strip of Syria more than 30 km (20 miles) deep, with the Kurdish YPG militia, formerly close US allies, obliged to pull out.

"The safe zone will be primarily enforced by the Turkish Armed Forces," a joint US-Turkish statement released after the talks said.

A Turkish official told Reuters Ankara got "exactly what we wanted" from the talks with the United States. Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu described it as a pause, solely to allow the Kurdish fighters to withdraw.

Shelling could be heard at the Syrian-Turkish border on Friday morning despite a five-day ceasefire agreed between Turkey and the United States, and Washington said the deal covered only a small part of the territory Ankara aims to seize.

Reuters journalists at the border heard machine-gun fire and shelling and saw smoke rising from the Syrian border battlefield city of Ras al-Ain early on Friday, although the sounds of fighting later subsided by mid-morning.

The truce, announced on Thursday by US Vice President Mike Pence after talks in Ankara with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, sets out a five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led SDF militia withdraw from an area controlled by Turkish forces.

The SDF said air and artillery attacks continued to target its positions as well as civilian targets in Ral al-Ain: “Turkey is violating the ceasefire agreement by continuing to attack the town since last night,” SDF spokesman Mustafa Bali tweeted.

The deal was aimed at easing a crisis that saw President Donald Trump order a hasty and unexpected US retreat, which his critics say amounted to abandoning loyal Kurdish allies that fought for years alongside US troops against Islamic State.

Trump praised the deal, saying it would save “millions of lives.”

Turkey cast it as a complete victory in its campaign to control a strip of border territory hundreds of miles long and 20 miles (more than 30 kilometers) deep, including major Kurdish-held towns and cities.

But the US special envoy for Syria, James Jeffrey, said the agreement fell short of that aim, covering only an area where Turkish forces were already operating.

The slaughter going on in Syria is not a consequence of American presence. It's a consequence of a withdrawal and a betrayal by this president of American allies and American values. —Pete Buttigieg, October 15

Mr. Mayor has a point. For 75 years, from Fulda Gap to the 38th Parallel, the American soldier has been the last line of defense against violence, chaos, and oppression. From Kosovo to Anbar, he has kept a lid on cauldrons of bloodlust. Remove him, and the poison boils over.

That is what happened when Congress reduced aid to South Vietnam in 1975. It is what followed U.S. withdrawal from Iraq in 2011. It is happening now in northeast Syria, and it will happen again when Americans leave Afghanistan. Our forces depart; our allies collapse; our adversaries take command.

The pattern was established well before Donald Trump took office. It will persist after he departs. There is nothing so consistent as American ambivalence toward our superpower status. Most great powers covet hegemony. We hate it. The costs are too high, the demands too stressful.

"For every exercise of the great power's prerogative, there has been an equally strong recoiling from the use of power," wrote Robert Kagan in A Twilight Struggle (1996). "While the United States cannot escape behaving as the hegemonic great power, it is also a great power with a democratic conscience, a strong anti-imperialist streak, and an unwillingness to adopt the role of policeman anywhere for more than a brief time."

Kagan was describing U.S. policy toward Nicaragua. He might as well have been talking about the Middle East.

Trump is getting America out of a country we were never really in. Our presence in Syria was not enough to deter Turkey. One thousand troops do not constitute a tripwire. They are chips in a high-stakes game. Erdogan called the bluff.

The Trump administration has held numerous meetings with Taliban officials in an attempt to reach a compromise solution that would allow the United States to wind down its 18 years of military action in Afghanistan, while ensuring the country does not become a safe haven for Al-Qaeda and now the Islamic State, to plot new attacks on the US and our allies or interests.

Donald Trump then announced that he had broken off these talks in the wake of a Taliban terrorist attack that killed a US soldier. The Taliban, however, is stalling for time, in the hope that Trump withdraws all US troops from Afghanistan unilaterally.

So how do we create a reasonable deal?

The sad reality is that there is that there is no chance of a compromise with Islamist terror organizations such as the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, and ISIS — or the Muslim Brotherhood, from which they sprang. Either we decide to win, or we decide to lose.

Losing is easy: We simply withdraw our troops and let the Taliban take over most or all of Afghanistan, after which they will then return the population to the 7th century. There would be no political price to pay in the United States, where Middle East wars are not politically popular.

Winning, in contrast, is quite challenging. The Taliban has been funded and armed by Pakistan, Iran, Qatar, and other Gulf States, but we never forced those countries to stop this flow of funds, arms, and war materiel. Had the Bush and Obama administrations taken these measures, and committed the resources necessary to win the war in Afghanistan, the United States would likely have saved hundreds of billions of dollars, if not a trillion dollars, which could have been used on urgent domestic priorities, such as rebuilding America’s decaying infrastructure.

Media commentators are in a spin over recent developments along the Turkish-Syrian border. For example, several are scratching their heads over the game plan that Russia’s President Putin has in mind.

On the one hand Syrian president Bashar Assad could most certainly not be sending troops to support the Kurds without the clear agreement of Russia. In fact, some commentators describe the arrangement as a “Russian-brokered deal.” So Russia’s President Vladimir Putin must be looking with equanimity at the prospect of Syrian government forces coming into direct conflict with Turkish ground troops.

On the other hand on October 10 Russia joined the US in blocking a UN Security Council resolution calling on Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to cease military action and withdraw from Syrian territory – and Putin has indicated that he will exercise his veto on any future anti-Turkish motions as well. So Putin is apparently both against Turkey’s incursion into Syrian territory and against stopping it.

Media commentators are equally at sea over the Kurdish-Syrian arrangement. Several see the deal as a move forced by events on a reluctant Kurdish administration and believe, with the Daily Telegraph’s Raf Sanchez, that “the deal appeared to strike a death knell for Kurdish hopes of maintaining autonomy from Damascus in their own semistate in northeast Syria.”

But Assad’s Syrian administration is not at permanent loggerheads with the Syrian Democratic Council (SDC), the political wing of the Kurdish Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF). On July 27, 2018, in response to an invitation from the Syrian government, a delegation of the SDC arrived in Damascus to hold direct talks, while the day before it traveled to the Syrian capital, it announced that Kurdish forces were ready to join any military operation by government forces in the northern governorate of Idlib aimed at retaking the Kurdish area of Afrin (Afrin was captured by Turkish-backed troops in March 2018, as part of a drive by Erdogan to prevent the Kurds from dominating Turkey’s southern land border).

In the early years of the revolt against his regime, Assad was desperately short of loyal manpower and unilaterally withdrew his forces from Syria's northeast in June-July 2012. The Kurds had to fight for their lives from the beginning as the jihadists of Jabhat al-Nusra attempted to wipe them out.

Islamic State then sought to destroy the Kurdish enclave of Rojava in mid-2014. The jihadi forces swallowed up village after village as they headed toward the town of Kobani. Just a few hundred YPG fighters remained in the town, prepared to fight the jihadists to the death. But ISIS never took Kobani. A new partnership with U.S. air power, the artillery of Masoud Barzani's Peshmerga from Kurdistan in Iraq, and the grit, courage and self-sacrifice of the YPG stopped them. It took another four years of fighting and 11,000 dead from the ranks of the YPG and its allies (now the SDF) to destroy the ISIS caliphate.

I worked a lot in the SDF areas during this campaign and remember the faces and the names of many friends and acquaintances killed in those years. The Kurdish fighters maintained an odd sort of fatalism. If you were there, it was reasoned, you were ready to die and willing for it.

After the caliphate was destroyed, the most common predictions were that the Americans would leave at some point, given the limited nature of their commitment. If that happened, there would be a need for a rapid deal with the Syrian regime to prevent a Turkish/Sunni Islamist rampage.

The United States has indicted a Turkish bank for allegedly evading US sanctions on Iran after reportedly failing to reach a deal with the Trump administration to avoid charges.

“Halkbank, a Turkish state-owned bank, allegedly conspired to undermine the United States Iran sanctions regime by illegally giving Iran access to billions of dollars’ worth of funds, all while deceiving US regulators about the scheme,” said John Demers, assistant attorney general for national security. “This is one of the most serious Iran sanctions violations we have seen, and no business should profit from evading our laws or risking our national security.”

The US attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, said “the bank’s audacious conduct was supported and protected by high-ranking Turkish government officials, some of whom received millions of dollars in bribes to promote and protect the scheme.”

The illicit funds came from sales from Iran’s national oil company in which the bank administered transactions designed to appear to be purchases of medicine and food by Iranian customers, in accordance with the so-called “humanitarian exception” that’s related to the sanctions.

Turkey has denied the charges, which, along with evading sanctions, include fraud and money-laundering.

Three Islamic State operatives from Gaza who used to fight under the group's banner in Iran and Syria have escaped from a Kurdish detention facility in northeast Syria amid an ongoing Turkish offensive, i24NEWS revealed on Thursday.

The three jihadists were held in a Kurdish prison in the town of Tel Abyad, a major target for the Turkish armed forces, a senior source in the Gaza Strip told i24NEWS.

On Wednesday, the three spoke to their families by telephone, the source said.

One of the escaped jihadists is identified by the initials AG and is said to be a senior operative within the group's security establishment who was arrested in September 2018.

A resident of Rafah, he was at one time part of the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, the military wing of Hamas.

Another terrorist is identified as HN, also a Rafah resident and an ISIS fighter arrested in early 2018. He is believed to have left the Gaza Strip in 2016, traveled to Turkey, and joined ISIS in Syria from there.

MS, the third escaped jihadist, is a resident of Khan Younis and a former member of the Hamas military wing. He joined the terrorist group in Sinai, where its affiliate was fighting the Egyptian forces, and then moved to Libya.

Last month, Dr. Ahmed Shaheed, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Religion or Belief, released the first UN human rights report wholly dedicated to anti-Semitism. In his report, Shaheed found that anti-Semitic incidents have created a “climate of fear” among Jews and refers to anti-Semitism as a threat that is “toxic to democracy.”

In a New York conversation with People of the Pod co-host Seffi Kogen, Shaheed said that prior to writing the report he had observed how disengaged the UN was on the subject of anti-Semitism and, at the same time, how violent the increasing anti-Semitic attacks were. His report, he said, is “long overdue” and a good starting point for the UN to use its global reach to address the issue.

Weekly podcast People of the Pod is produced in partnership between the American Jewish Committee and The Times of Israel. We take you beyond the headlines and analyze global affairs through a Jewish lens.

According to Felice Gaer, director of the AJC’s Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights, the UN Special Rapporteur is an independent human rights expert appointed by the UN Human Rights Council. Shaheed, a former foreign minister of the Maldives, is now Deputy Director of the Human Rights Centre at the UK’s University of Essex.

Venezuela won a contested election for a seat on the UN Human Rights Council on Thursday despite a campaign by over 50 organizations and many countries opposed to Nicolas Maduro’s government and its rights record.

There was scattered applause in the General Assembly chamber when its president announced the results of the voting for two Latin American seats. Brazil topped the ballot with 153 votes followed by Venezuela with 105 votes and late entry Costa Rica with 96 votes.

Venezuela’s Foreign Minister Jorge Arreaza called the vote “a victory” that followed “a fierce and brutal campaign by the United States … and its subordinate nations.”

The Trump administration has recognized opposition leader Juan Guaidó as Venezuela’s interim president and US Ambassador Kelly Craft called the placing of President Nicolás Maduro’s government on the council “an embarrassment to the United Nations and a tragedy for the people of Venezuela.

“That one of the world’s worst human-rights abusers would be granted a seat on a body that is supposed to defend human rights is utterly appalling,” Craft said in a statement after the vote.

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations responded furiously on Thursday to the news that Venezuela and Libya had been elected to serve on the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC), despite the long records of systemic human rights abuse in both countries.

“The Human Rights Council continues to abandon human rights and is now in the business of protecting dictators and war crimes,” Danny Danon — Israel’s UN envoy in New York — declared in a statement. “In Venezuela, a dictator starves his people, and in Libya there are camps that torture African migrants.”

Danon observed that “these countries are added to the Council’s ‘moral leadership,’ as the body no longer hides its obsessive hostility to Israel, and legitimizes those who blatantly violate and act against its original mandate.”

Venezuela and Libya were elected to two of the 14 available seats on the UNHRC during a vote on Thursday in Geneva, where the council holds its sessions. According to UN Watch, a Geneva-based human rights NGO, Venezuela received the support of 54 percent of the council, beating Costa Rica’s bid to gain a seat by nine votes. Libya received the support of 87 percent of the council, while Mauritania — where chattel slavery remains entrenched — received 81 percent, and Sudan — frequently the location of genocide and ethnic cleansing — received 91 percent approval.

US Ambassador to the UN Kelly Craft said, “Today’s election of the former Maduro regime in Venezuela to the UN Human Rights Council is an embarrassment to the United Nations and a tragedy for the people of Venezuela. I am personally aggrieved that 105 countries voted in favor of this affront to human life and dignity. It provides ironclad proof that the Human Rights Council is broken and reinforces why the United States withdrew.”

Recalling General Assembly Resolution 60/251 of 15 March 2006, particularly Art. 8, which provides that the General Assembly may suspend the rights of membership in the United Nations Human Rights Council of a member that commits gross and systematic violations of human rights;

Determining that Venezuela’s Maduro regime has committed extrajudicial killings, torture, the jailing of political prisoners, acts to restrict freedom of expression and freedom of the press and political participation, violent suppression of peaceful demonstrations, and that it grants impunity for human rights abuses by state agents;

Recalling the precedent of the suspension of Libya from the Council in 2011;

We hereby call on the General Assembly suspend the rights of membership of Venezuela’s Maduro regime in the Council.

I am pleased to announce the launch of the Global Campaign to Expel Maduro from the UNHRC.

We did the same after Qaddafi won a seat in 2010 by a large majority. People laughed at us. Then the madman went to war with EU states who suddenly embraced our campaign & expelled him. https://t.co/Me088Npck3

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 17, 2019

Does it matter that the U.N. just elected slave-holding Mauritania, Libya, Sudan & other regimes to its highest human rights body?

Yes: "Dictators use membership on the UNHRC to shield their abuses and as a false badge of legitimacy."
— Hillel Neuer, Parliament of Canada, 2017 pic.twitter.com/zpDcm5mOnT

— UN Watch (@UNWatch) October 18, 2019

The UN Human Rights Council is a total sham. The vote today proved that again today. Venezuela, Mauritania, Libya, and Sudan win elections. #Pathetichttps://t.co/XjGbskhgDb

— Nikki Haley (@NikkiHaley) October 17, 2019

Naama Issachar has been in a Russian prison for six months for what should be a minor offense. The 26-year-old dual citizen of the US and Israel was found to have 9.5 grams of marijuana in her luggage in a Moscow airport, en route from India to Israel.

That is an illegal action – but the punishment does not fit the crime.

Issachar had only a small amount of the drug, clearly meant for personal use and not for dealing – in Israel, personal use can be claimed for possession of up to 15 grams. And the fact that she could not have accessed it while on the stopover meant nothing.

Issachar was sentenced to 7.5 years in prison on charges of smuggling. Issachar’s Russian lawyer said the amount she had in her luggage would normally be punished with a month’s detention and a fine.

Last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu requested that Issachar’s sentence be commuted and the terms of her current detention be eased.

President Reuven Rivlin also wrote a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“The punishment being demanded by the Russian prosecutor is disproportionate and does not fit the nature of the offense being attributed to Issachar,” said a statement from the Prime Minister’s Office.

But that’s because, in Putin’s Russia, the courts are not looking to do justice: They’re looking to settle scores.

Russia will continue to use Israeli citizens as bargaining chips to advance their own political and diplomatic objectives, says former Israeli Ambassador Zvi Magen.

Naama Issachar, who was arrested in Russia during a layover, after 9.5 grams (0.3 oz) of cannabis were found in her luggage is facing 7.5 years in prison. Israel is trying to negotiate her release. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Reuven Rivlin asked President Vladimir Putin to commute her sentence.

"The Russians tried, and are constantly trying, to arrest Israeli citizens," Magen told Israel Hayom in an interview this week.

Magen, who served both as the Israeli envoy to Russia and Ukraine, said that there was nothing Israel could do but wait. "Everything that can be done to free Issachar, Israel has already done," he added.

"Now, the question is, What does Russia want? Whoever started this offensive maneuver is of course Russia. The relationship is experiencing some tension, there are other occurrences of Russia using insults against Israel."

On all fronts, Israel has shown determination, stubbornness and sometimes brinkmanship, sending clear messages that it does not intend to give up what it perceives as its vital security interests. But as Israel and the Jewish world enter the new Jewish year 5780, it is also evident that all the problems and challenges that Israel faced last year have remained.

On all five fronts and on each front itself, Israel has shown that it has no clear vision and no comprehensive strategy. Its approach and policies solely rely on exerting military force with no parallel or complementary diplomatic moves.

In recent years, certainly since Donald Trump entered the White House, Israel has sanctioned the status quo. At the same time, it is absolutely clear that Netanyahu has miscalculated by fully siding with Trump and the Republican Party, and abandoning Israel’s traditional bipartisan approach.

Trump can’t be trusted as an iron-clad pillar of support for the Jewish state. He is capricious and unstable. His foreign policy is full of zigzags in all international arenas, including the Middle East. Trump’s effort to reconcile with Iran is a slap in Netanyahu’s face, and a blatant example that when it comes to his personal or America’s national interests, Trump can easily throw Israel under the bus.
Israel’s rivals on all fronts – Iran in Syria, Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas and Islamic Jihad in Gaza, and the PA in the West Bank – have also signaled that despite their losses and inferiority, they are not going to cave in to the mighty Israeli military machine. They match Israeli determination with their own, and continue to pursue and consolidate their own interests. Iran continues to build bases in Syria, including near the Israel border on the Golan Heights. Hezbollah is amassing huge arsenal of rockets and missiles. And the rulers of Gaza have not been deterred.

Israel needs to change its state of mind. It has to realize that in dealing with its enemies and rivals, it can’t rely only on the sword. Nothing lasts forever. It needs to launch diplomatic initiatives in order to seek long-term solutions to its regional problems.

One can only wish that in the coming year, the next government – led by someone other than Netanyahu – will change the course of Israeli politics, as well as its foreign and security policies.

A family of 10 from Even Yehuda who traveled to Jordan this week said they were kicked out of a local restaurant only because they are Israelis, according to a Mako report on Thursday.

"The Jordanians are very nice people, warm - and they love to help. We enjoyed the trip and the views and the fact that we paid a third of what we would have paid in Eilat," Tal Meshulam, one of the family members, told Mako. "Everything was perfect until we arrived at the Rakwet Kanan restaurant for lunch."

Meshulam said that they sat down in the restaurant and the restaurant owner came over to them and asked them where they were from. When they responded that they're from Israel, he immediately kicked them out. "He simply kicked us out because we're Israelis. He told us: 'You can go to Eilat, you won't be served here.' We were in complete shock. Every place we traveled in Jordan, people told us that we're their neighbors and the atmosphere was very friendly until we got to this restaurant. It was humiliating. The waiter said he was sorry but the policy of the restaurant was not to serve Israelis."

Later that day, Meshulam told the owner of the hotel they were staying at about the incident and he offered to submit a complaint to the police against the restaurant owner since what he did was illegal. "I understood from others who heard about the incident that the owner of the restaurant is Palestinian and he's not willing to host Israelis," Meshulam said. "There's quite a lot of Israelis who are calling to ban the place. Someone needs to put a stop to this. We intend to submit a lawsuit against the restaurant owner."

The @UN Special Coordinator for Lebanon thinks it’s his job to help the terror group Hezbollah pass the annual budget, despite the fact that it's used to violate @UN resolution 1701.

RT if you don’t know whether to laugh or cry. https://t.co/wLdUBYfCKx

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 17, 2019

Palestinians say they have become accustomed to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s “zigzagging” policies on several issues, particularly toward Israel.

The Palestinian public, however, does not seem to be seriously bothered by its leader’s shifting policies – as long as the PA continues to pay salaries to its public servants and ensure economic and security stability in the West Bank.

That’s precisely why Abbas’s decision earlier this month to accept reduced Palestinian tax revenues from Israel did not surprise many Palestinians. Since February, the PA had refused to receive the revenues, to protest Israel’s decision to withhold more than $12 million a month – the sum the PA pays to terrorists and families of Palestinians killed while carrying out attacks against the Jewish state.

For several months, Abbas appeared adamant in his refusal to accept the tax revenues from Israel if they are not paid in full. He and senior Palestinian officials in Ramallah accused Israel of carrying out an “act of piracy” by deducting the sum paid by the PA to the prisoners and families of “martyrs.”

The PA leadership is now trying to depict the sudden change in its position regarding the reduced tax revenues as a “major achievement” for the Palestinians.

According to PA officials, a deal reached between Hussein al-Sheikh, head of the Palestinian General Authority of Civil Affairs, and Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon paves the way for introducing changes to the 1994 Protocol on Economic Relations, also called the Paris Protocol.

The PA has long been calling for changing the Paris Protocol, which regulates the relationship and interaction between the Palestinians and Israel in six major areas: customs, taxes, labor, agriculture, industry and tourism. The protocol also gives Israel sole control over the external borders, and collection of import taxes and VAT.

Do they even listen to themselves? https://t.co/4wME2lMA66

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 18, 2019

Lebanese security forces fired tear gas to disperse hundreds of protesters in Beirut early Friday after they tried to push through security barriers around the government headquarters amid some of the largest demonstrations the country has seen in years.

The riots left two people dead and dozens wounded.

The protests erupted over the government’s plan to impose new taxes during a severe economic crisis, with people taking their anger out on politicians they accuse of corruption and decades of mismanagement.

The protests started with a few dozen people gathering in central Beirut over the imposition of a 20-cent daily fee on messaging applications, including WhatsApp, an idea that a minister said was later dropped. They quickly escalated into some of the biggest demonstrations since an uprising over a garbage crisis in 2015, with thousands of people taking part.

People gathered near the government headquarters and parliament building where riot police were deployed, chanting: “Revolution!” and “Thieves!” — the latter a reference to widespread corruption in a country that has one of the highest debt loads in the world.

Some protesters threw stones, shoes and water bottles at security forces and scuffled with police. Security forces said at least 60 of its members were injured in the clashes. Protesters were also injured.

The United Nations Security Council must renew its arms embargo against Iran when it expires next year, US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said while in Israel, as he warned of a new Middle East arms race.

“Because of the flawed Iran deal, the UN arms embargo on Iran will expire in one year. Countries like Russia and China will be able to sell Iran sophisticated weapons,” Pompeo tweeted prior to meeting with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem on Friday. “The Iranian regime will be free to sell weapons to anyone. This will trigger a new arms race in the Middle East,” he continued.

“If you’re worried about Iran’s behavior now, imagine what Iran will do with advanced missiles, drones, tanks, and jets. The Security Council must renew the arms embargo,” he added.

The Pompeo Netanyahu meeting lasted for two hours, after which the two men issued a few statements to the press. “It is always a joy to be with you Mr. Prime Minister. It is great to be back here in Israel. The remarkable close relationship between our two countries is as strong as it has ever been. President Trump of course said to send his regard to your as well,” Pompeo said.

“We had a chance to talk this morning about all the challenges that the world faces and that Israel and the US face head on together as an important beacon of hope and democracy here in the Middle East,” he said.

“The American people value this relationship. We talked about all the efforts we have made to push back against the threat not only to Israel but to the region and the world from the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Pompeo said.

Fifteen months after the United States withdrew from the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA) and began reimposing sanctions on Iran, 59 percent of Iranians think their country should also withdraw. Three in four (74%) support the government's new policy of gradually exceeding some JCPOA limits and threatening withdrawal unless other signatories do more to allow Iran to benefit from the deal. Just as many (75%) say that Iran should not end nuclear enrichment, even if the United States promises sanctions relief, according to a new survey by the University of Maryland.

Iran's current policy is much more popular than its previous stance of complying fully with the deal while waiting to see if the EU countries, Russia, and China would normalize trade and economic relations with Iran as stipulated in the JCPOA, despite the heightened threat of secondary US sanctions. Fifty-three percent supported the previous policy in May, 21 points below current support for the new policy.

For the first time, fewer than half approve of the JCPOA (42%), while 52 percent disapprove. Also for the first time, a strong majority (69%) lacks confidence that the remaining parties will uphold their obligations, up 33 points since January 2018. Only a quarter (24%) look positively on European efforts to create channels for trade with Iran. Almost half (46%) do not think such efforts are really taking place; another 25 percent say they are "too little, too late."

A global dirty money watchdog said on Friday it had given Iran a final deadline of February 2020 to comply with international norms after which it would urge all its members to apply counter-measures.

The Paris-based FATF said in the meantime that it was asking members to demand scrutiny of transactions with Iran and tougher external auditing of financing firms operating in the country.

“If before February 2020, Iran does not enact the Palermo and Terrorist Financing Conventions in line with the FATF Standards, then the FATF will fully lift the suspension of counter-measures and call on its members and urge all jurisdictions to apply effective counter-measures, in line with recommendation 19,” it said in a statement.

Foreign businesses say Iran’s compliance with Financial Action Task Force (FATF) rules is key if Tehran wants to attract investors, especially after the United States re-imposed sanctions on Iran last year.

France, Britain and Germany have tied Iran’s compliance and removal from the FATF blacklist to a new channel for non-dollar trade with Iran designed to avert US sanctions.

Iran’s leaders are however divided over complying with the FATF. Supporters say it could ease foreign trade with Europe and Asia when the country’s economy is targeted by US penalties aimed at its isolation.

Hardline opponents argue that passing legislation toward joining the FATF, could hamper Iran’s support for its allies, including Lebanon’s Hezbollah.

pic.twitter.com/LA0dsnsdYa

— TURKI ALALSHIKH (@Turki_alalshikh) October 11, 2019

Those who consider themselves to be centrists because they back a “two-state solution” may not grasp the full extent of the big lie about Israel because they themselves have swallowed it, at least in part.

For fundamental to this benign-sounding rubric is a lethal misreading of the problem to which it is the purported solution. It assumes that this is a conflict over the parceling out of land between two sides with a legitimate claim to that land.

Not so. This is an Arab war of extermination against the State of Israel. The only proper response to such a war is to defeat it. A state of Palestine that was instead created for those still bent on Israel’s destruction would merely hand them the means to achieve their unconscionable aim.

Reconceptualizing this existential war as a conflict over territory creates a false moral equivalence between the actual Arab aggressors and their actual Israeli victims. As a consequence, Israel’s refusal to accept what would be terms of surrender to those still aiming to destroy it has been transformed into a stance of unforgivable belligerency.

This, in turn, has facilitated the whole narrative of colonialist dispossession, illegality, occupation, aggression, abuses of human rights and all the rest of the crimes so falsely laid at Israel’s door, in addition to the anti-Jewish venom that inevitably bubbles up to the surface in that particular sewer.

If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, the path to the resurgence of anti-Semitism in the West – now so brazenly paraded by the hard-left – has been laid by the so-called centrist advocates of the “two-state solution.”

That’s why this resurgence would not be stopped by the disappearance from the political scene of either Jeremy Corbyn or “the Squad” of U.S. congresswomen. It will not be stopped by better pro-Israel advocacy on campus. It will not even be stopped by removing certain education materials from British or American schools, desirable or necessary as all such developments are in themselves.

This poisonous tide will only begin to be turned if those who think themselves to be custodians of the center-ground realize the extent to which they too have drunk the Middle Eastern Kool-Aid.

It’s not clear whether the Squad, let alone Sarsour and Amer, can help Sanders keep up with Warren, who seems to have eclipsed the fading Joe Biden as the Democratic frontrunner. But she may not be radical or anti-Israel enough for AOC and her friends, as well as the likes of Sarsour.

But more important than the fate of his candidacy is the way that these anti-Semitic Israel-haters are using Sanders to legitimize their positions and further advance their efforts to ensure that support for BDS is a mainstream, rather than a marginal, force within the Democratic Party. Indeed, we should expect that Omar and Sarsour will trot out their endorsements of Sanders in the future as fake proof that they are not anti-Semites, despite an abundance of evidence to the contrary.

Right now, most Democrats are transfixed by the competition among their presidential candidates and their debates over how big they want government to be, as well as how much they will allow radical identity politics to dominate public discourse. Yet the steady advances made by peddlers of intersectional myths that demonize Israel, such as Tlaib, in mainstreaming their noxious ideology is a story that’s not getting enough attention.

The failure of the other Democratic candidates to call Sanders to account for his embrace of anti-Semites is discouraging. But in a party where Omar and Tlaib are treated as heroines and victims of right-wing smears rather than purveyors of hate, that isn’t realistic. Indeed, Warren’s efforts to snatch Tlaib’s endorsement away from Sanders indicates that despite the support of most of their congressional caucus and a plurality of their voters for Israel, the future of radical anti-Semites in the Democratic is all too bright.

Starting in 1881, some 2.5 million desperate, destitute eastern European Jews washed up on American shores to connect an ancient text to a young nation’s sense of its own special destiny. For the implacably confident citizens of the surging United States, these exotic newcomers provided new perspective on three mystical Genesis verses that had resonated with their forebears since the earliest days of British settlement.

“Go for yourself from your land, from your relatives, and from your father’s house to the land that I will show you,” God commands Abraham (still called Abram at that point in the text). The Almighty reassures the puzzled patriarch by pledging a world- changing outcome to this directed journey into the unknown: “And I will make of you a great nation; I will bless you, and make your name great, and you shall be a blessing.”

The Pilgrims and Puritans prayed for similar benedictions and connected their own “errand into the wilderness” with Abraham’s fateful mission to build a new, godly life in a promised land he hadn’t even seen. Proudly identifying themselves as “New Testament Hebrews,” they also cherished the biblical idea that the other tribes of earth would one day earn reward or punishment based on their treatment of the new nation God had decreed into existence. “I will bless those who bless you, and him who curses you I will curse,” the Lord assures Abraham and, by implication, his descendants, far into the future. “And all the families of the earth shall bless themselves by you” (Genesis 12:1–3).

With this formulation in mind, many of the radical Protestant doers and dreamers who ultimately planted a new civilization in North America embraced the notion that their cosmic purpose involved the protection of the children of Abraham—an idea they expressed in sermons and scholarly treatises long before any actual Jews turned up in their struggling New World outposts.

In 1648, for instance, a member of Parliament named Sir Edward Nicholas wrote an influential pamphlet that blamed England’s present problems on “the strict and cruel laws now in force against the most honorable nation of the world, the nation of the Jews, a people chosen by God.” This startling new attitude and Sir Edward’s bold description of the Jews as “our brethren” represented a striking departure from the well-established medieval view that they constituted “the spawn of Satan” and were worthy of torture, genocide, and expulsion.

It’s the world’s oldest bigotry and it’s on the rise again. Antisemitism is associated with the darkest chapters of human history when humanity abandons civilised moral codes. Societies and ideologies which embrace it typically suffer a major decline if not complete destruction. Examples span the latter years of the Roman Empire, the Spanish Inquisition, the suppression and pogroms of the old USSR, to the Nazi implemented Holocaust of the second world war.

Reports from the United Kingdom, numerous European countries, United States, Canada, South America and Australia point to a dangerous resurgence of antisemitism. Recent cases of Jewish boys attending Melbourne state schools, particularly the image of a 12-year old Jewish boy forced under threat of a bashing to kiss the feet of a Muslim student, have shone an international spotlight on antisemitism in Australia. Another older Muslim student sent vile threats to the boy which included the words ‘I’ll slaughter you’, a matter now in the hands of the police. What’s going on? That this is happening within living memory of the Holocaust should shock all people of goodwill.

Antisemitism is recorded from biblical times. In the Exodus from slavery in Egypt Jewish people were attacked for no apparent reason by the nation of Amalek. Our sages teach that Amalek represent the irrational spiritual hatred of Jews.

Antisemitism in some ways has the characteristics of a virus which morphs. During the Inquisition it was hatred of the Jewish religion with forced conversions by torture. Under the USSR it was Jewish culture such as circumcision or teaching Torah which was banned. The Nazis took a racial approach with the objective to eliminate the Jewish race. In more recent years, it is hatred of the world’s only Jewish state, Israel, which has become the principal focus for antisemites. Yes, anti-Zionism is antisemitism.

When the 11 Nazis unfolded their banner that screamed, “Holocaust—Six Million Lies,” they were hit with eggs and rocks by the 2,500 counterdemonstrators who came to protest. A police helicopter hummed and lingered over the crowd. After seven minutes, the Nazis retreated, hiding under their swastika-painted shields. It was Sunday, Oct. 19, 1980, and the Nazis had obtained a permit to march—exercising their right to free speech—at Lovelace Park in Evanston, Illinois, the suburb just north of Chicago and home to Northwestern University. The counterdemonstration was sponsored by the B’nai B’rith Hillel Foundation of Northwestern and other Jewish and local interfaith groups in Evanston. The Nazis had originally applied for the permit to hold their rally a month earlier on Yom Kippur, which fell on Saturday, Sept. 20, that year. The mayor at the time, James Lytle, turned them down for that particular day, but granted them the permit for 39 years ago this weekend.

I was 10 years old in 1980, and I remember the day of the march. It was four miles from my home. I had just returned from Sunday school at our synagogue in Skokie, the suburb just west of Evanston. Oddly, no one mentioned the march, or perhaps, I just don’t remember anyone talking about it. That day, my Sunday school teacher, an old Israeli woman with long droopy eyelids smothered with thick bright green eye shadow, had us paint the State of Israel with our fingers on heavy construction paper. After sketching the outline of the tiny country, we dipped our fingers into plastic bowls of green, yellow, blue, and red paint and made a mess on our paper as we tried, and failed, to color within the lines of the country’s borders.

With our moist, dirty fingers, we created grass and mountains and water and flowers in an abstract place that felt far away from us. When we finished, we lined up the papers by the window sill and compared. A cold official map of Israel 20 times larger than our individual letter-size sheets loomed over us from across the room. Pitted against the authentic state, every student’s Israel looked misshapen, distorted, colored out of the lines, dripping like it was melting.

The upcoming 50th anniversary of the death of Dwight D. Eisenhower has occasioned a number of laudatory essays about the former president and commander of the Allied forces in Europe in World War Two. One author, in a prominent Jewish publication, went so far as to declare Eisenhower to be a “Holocaust rescuer” because he oversaw postwar aid to survivors living in displaced persons camps.

Any survey of Eisenhower’s Holocaust record, however, needs to also consider his troubling decision, in 1944, to delete references to Jews from an Allied warning about Nazi war crimes.

The events leading to this episode began in the autumn of 1943, when American, British and Soviet leaders, meeting in Moscow, issued a statement threatening postwar punishment for Nazi war crimes against “French, Dutch, Belgian or Norwegian hostages... Cretan peasants... [and] the people of Poland.” There was no mention of the Jews.

Several months later, strong pressure from Congress, Jewish activists and the Treasury Department compelled President Franklin D. Roosevelt to establish the War Refugee Board. Although given only token funding by the White House, the board did its best to promote rescue of European Jews during the final 15 months of the war.

High on the board’s initial agenda was the need for a presidential message to the people of Axis-occupied countries, warning them not to collaborate in atrocities against the Jews. John Pehle, the board’s executive director, had been deeply disappointed that the Moscow statement omitted the Jews. In his view, the failure to identify the Nazis’ primary victims undermined efforts to help rescue them.

In February 1944, Pehle gave the White House a draft of a strong statement which noted that the Nazis were trying “to exterminate all the Jews within their grasp” and “More than two million men, women and children already have been put to death solely because they were Jews.” After two weeks of stalling, White House aides informed Pehle that Roosevelt “wanted the statement rewritten so as to be aimed less directly at the atrocities against the Jews.”

In his recent biography of David Ben-Gurion—who was born 133 years ago yesterday—the journalist and historian Tom Segev blames Israel’s founding prime minister for his country’s supposed “original sin” of driving Palestinian Arabs from their homes. Efraim Karsh, in his review, shows how Segev ignores and distorts evidence:

Ben-Gurion himself argued as early as 1918 that “had Zionism desired to evict the inhabitants of Palestine, it would have been a dangerous utopia and a harmful, reactionary mirage.” And as late as December 1947, shortly after Palestinian Arabs had unleashed wholesale violence to subvert the newly passed United Nations partition resolution, he told his Labor party that “in our state there will be non-Jews as well—and all of them will be equal citizens; equal in everything without any exception; that is: the state will be their state as well.” In line with this conception, committees laying the groundwork for the nascent Jewish state discussed the establishment of an Arabic-language press, the incorporation of Arab officials in the administration, and Arab-Jewish cultural interaction.

Ignoring these facts altogether, Segev accuses Ben-Gurion of using the partition resolution as a springboard for implementing the age-old “Zionist dream” of “maximum territory, minimum Arabs,” though he brings no evidence for this supposed behavior beyond a small number of statements that are either taken out of context or simply distorted or misrepresented. To take one representative example: “Ben-Gurion jotted down [in his diary] a long list of questions that awaited his decision, among which was ‘Should the Arabs be expelled?’” Segev writes.

Dated May 8, 1948, just under a week before Ben-Gurion proclaimed the state of Israel, this diary entry . . . doesn’t read “Should the Arabs be expelled?” but rather “Should Arabs be expelled?” And this question was posed in relation not to the Palestinian Arab community as a whole but to the small number of Arabs caught in the fighting. . . . [T]his was an exclusively tactical measure dictated by ad-hoc military considerations, notably the need to deny strategic sites to the enemy if there were no available Jewish forces to hold them.

This past July, something unusual happened in Alaska. The Israeli military launched its most technologically sophisticated defensive missiles through the atmosphere, into space. The July testing of the Arrow 3 represents the consummation of decades of military and scientific partnership between Israel and the United States.

The Arrow 3 conveys a kill vehicle that constantly adjusts in order to intercept an incoming missile itself—what is called in missile defense, a “metal to metal” intercept. If you want to understand what a monumental technological achievement this is, remember that intercontinental ballistic missiles can travel three or four miles per second—from Moscow to New York in 20 minutes. Israeli missile engineers have figured out a way to detect an incoming projectile moving that fast, deploy an intercept, and observe metal to metal contact in outer space. This unbelievable marvel of technology is the subject of this podcast.

Our guest is Dr. Thomas Karako, Senior Fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies and the director of their Missile Defense Project. Dr. Karako discusses the nature of U.S.-Israel cooperation on missile defense, what makes the Arrow 3 system special, and why this incredible technology is so promising for America, Israel, and the world.

Let’s not kid ourselves, the only “policy” that’s kept Netanyahu in office all these years is his commitment to stand tall for Israel and his refusal to bend.to the whims of the antisemitic world. Yes, antisemitic. There is no other word. Nothing more precise has come along since that man Wilhem Marr.

Netanyahu’s big flaw, to their eyes?

He has refused to relinquish Jewish territory, despite those eight years of an unfriendly Obama, and despite a perpetually hostile UN -- and that is what rankles them out there who want Israel diminished and ripe for the taking. More to their liking were some previous prime ministers who were ready to make concessions that would cut Israel to pieces.

These were prime ministers who offered away practically all of Judea and Samaria, plus Jerusalem, and one who actually gave away Gaza, to Israel’s everlasting pain.

Those they term as good policies. The more harmful to Israel, so much the better. They would not put it that way, of course.

They would say that for the sake of “peace,” Israel must agree to deals that give the best of the land to the Palestinian Arabs – so why is Netanyahu being so “intransigent?”

Doesn’t he want peace?

Yes, but first and foremost he wants Israel.

Senior Labour figures have reportedly expressed concern that an adverse finding by the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) in its investigation into antisemitism in Labour could result in the bankruptcy of the Party.

On 28th May, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched a full statutory investigation following a formal referral and detailed legal representations from Campaign Against Antisemitism, which is the complainant.

There is talk in Labour that an unfavourable conclusion by the EHRC could lead to litigation and payouts to victims, which could cripple the Party’s already struggling finances.

Members of the Labour Party’s ruling body, the powerful National Executive Committee (NEC), have even made inquiries as to whether they might become financially liable if the Party’s finances went into the red. Party chiefs reportedly refused to provide sufficient clarity to allay the concerns.

In recent months, thirteen MPs and three peers have resigned from the Labour Party over antisemitism, along with a large number of MEPs, councillors and members.

Downham Market Methodist Church cancelled an event reportedly set to feature disgraced MP Chris Williamson discussing “the challenges facing Labour”.

The event at the Norfolk church, which was an external booking, had caused upset in the local Jewish community and was cancelled amid concerns it “could be detrimental” to the church and community.

Mr Williamson was suspended from the Labour Party after claiming that Labour has been “too apologetic” over antisemitism and is currently on his third suspension (the second suspension was overturned by the High Court).

The challenges facing Labour include, above all, its institutional antisemitism, which its personnel and disciplinary procedures are unwilling and unable to rectify.

Alan Mason, the Redditch Constituency Labour Party Secretary, resigned on 14th October after revelations that he had posted antisemitic material online.

Mr Mason had shared comments on Facebook suggesting that Jewish Labour MP Ruth Smeeth was funded by an “Israel lobby”; the Rothschilds funded the Nazis; Hillary Clinton’s “Zio Mafia strillionaire [sic] friends in London and Tel Aviv are sucking America and 99% of Americans dry”; and Jewish real estate developer Larry Silverstein profited from 9/11.

Another post he shared referenced the “Nazification of Israel”. The International Definition of Antisemitism states that “drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis” is antisemitic.

The disgraced co-founder of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the actor John Goodman, and the former ABC newscaster Sam Donaldson have joined a high-profile Holocaust denier to help boost Valerie Plame's congressional campaign.

Plame, who is running to represent New Mexico's Third Congressional District, raked in $450,000 in the third quarter, FEC reports show.

Morris Dees, who was pushed out of the SPLC earlier this year, donated $400 to Plame’s campaign, filings show. While the SPLC is known for identifying and denouncing hate groups, Dees is supporting a political candidate who has come under fire for anti-Semitic statements. He was pushed out of the SPLC in March after years of complaints from coworkers alleging that he regularly made inappropriate sexual and racial remarks.

The Plame campaign did not respond to a request for comment.
...
The former congressman and prominent Holocaust denier Pete McCloskey is also continuing to lavish funds on the campaign, adding $200 to three initial donations last quarter. McCloskey's wife, Helen, also contributed $500 to the Plame campaign. During a May 28, 2000, speech to the Institute for Historical Review, an organization known for promoting Holocaust denial theories, McCloskey made reference to the "so-called Holocaust" and praised the group for its effort to combat conventional wisdom on the genocide.

"Earlier here today I listened to speeches about the courage of men in France, Britain, Germany, and New Zealand who have spoken out against the commonly accepted concept of what occurred during the Second World War in the so-called Holocaust," McCloskey said, adding later that the "right to say what you believe and to research things that are alleged as true, and to try to disprove them, is perhaps the most important part of our democracy."

Next month Moment magazine will hold its "DC Gala & Awards Dinner” honoring four distinguished journalists. The presenters will be four prominent individuals. One of the presenters they have chosen has publicly accused Jews of controlling the White House and paying off members of Congress. Moment magazine is a Jewish publication originally co-founded by Elie Wiesel.

I’m referring to Thomas Friedman of The New York Times.

Friedman’s troubling record on Israel began during his years as a student at Brandeis University. In 1974, Yasser Arafat, gun holster on his hip, made his infamous first appearance at the United Nations. Jews in New York City organized a huge rally against him. Friedman and a handful of fellow-students signed an open letter denouncing the anti-Arafat rally.

That happened just a few months after Arafat’s terrorists massacred 18 Jews—including eight children—in Kiryat Shemona, and then 27 more Jews—including 21 children—in Ma’alot. Friedman were demanding that Israel negotiate with the chief terrorist responsible for those murders.

Friedman told the campus newspaper, The Brandeis Justice, that his career goal was to work at “the Middle East desk of the State Department.” That would have given him opportunities to impose his views on Israel.

That didn’t work out. But Friedman did later become a personal friend and tennis partner of Secretary of State James Baker, the most anti-Israel secretary of state in American history. According to Baker’s autobiography, Friedman gave him advice on how to more effectively pressure Israel.

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's (D., N.Y.) campaign committee dished out more than $200,000 during the third quarter to Middle Seat Consulting, a firm established by a cofounder of Justice Democrats, the far-left group that propelled the freshman Democrat into office.

Ocasio-Cortez's campaign hauled in $1.4 million in contributions and reported $924,349.64 in operating expenditures between July 1 and Sept. 30, its filings show. Middle Seat Consulting, a firm that "supports campaigns, organizations, and causes fighting for racial justice, climate action, immigrant rights, intersectional feminism, economic justice, and more," was paid $210,364.37 by the freshman representative's committee during this time for email fundraising, digital ad commission, list rentals, and strategy. The disbursements are a major increase from the combined $89,000 it gave to Middle Seat during the first and second quarters. Ocasio-Cortez's committee has now cut the group checks totaling $300,000 this year. Middle Seat is the campaign's highest paid vendor.

Middle Seat's leadership includes the same cast of characters as several other Ocasio-Cortez-linked PACs and groups, including those that have come under scrutiny by watchdogs.

Israel’s Ministry of Strategic Affairs recently released a lengthy report titled Behind the Mask, documenting the varieties of naked anti-Semitic rhetoric and imagery employed by the movement to boycott, divest from, and sanction the Jewish state (BDS). Drawn largely but not exclusively from Internet sources, its examples range from a tweet by a member of Students for Justice in Palestine (the “world would be soooo much better without jews man”), to an enormous inflated pig bearing a star of David and floating behind the stage as the rock musician Roger Waters performs, to accusations by an influential anti-Israel blogger that Israel is poisoning Palestinian wells. Cary Nelson sums up the report’s conclusions and their implications, all of which give the lie to the disingenuous claim that critics of BDS are trying to brand “legitimate criticism of Israel” as anti-Semitic.

Rather than documenting the many hundreds of anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic books, essays, and op-eds by BDS-supporting [university] faculty and public leaders, the report concentrates instead on the mass dissemination of tweets and cartoons and posters that are circulated and recirculated to reach much larger audiences.

As someone who has studied anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic tweets and cartoons for some years, I would add that it is clear they are becoming more virulent, . . . intrusive, and aggressive. And they seem very personal when they arrive in your email or your Facebook account. . . . [T]housands of impressionable people are sending and receiving these messages. We know that mass murderers in Pittsburgh and Poway trafficked in such hate. That is the dark underbelly of the BDS movement disturbingly documented in Behind the Mask.

Behind the Mask is a wake-up call and a warning. It indulges in no government propaganda. It simply gathers its open-source evidence . . . in one place. . . . The report does not aim to defend Israel’s policies. It doesn’t need to. The tweets and cartoons it reproduces are not policy critiques; they are hate mail. They project the portrait of an evil Jewish state and urge its elimination.

“If you want to identify people who are okay with suicide bombing, I can give you a list,” including Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Michigan State University Professor Mohammad Hassan Khalil told me at a September Georgetown University lecture. Khalil theorized before an audience of some thirty people at the Saudi-founded Prince Alwaleed bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding (ACMCU) that Islam’s atheistic critics exaggerate the religion’s role in inciting violence.

While ACMCU Professor Jonathan Brown moderated, Khalil’s responses ironically reinforced the critique of Islam he sought to refute. For the record, Qaradawi’s primetime show on Qatar’s Al Jazeera network drew an estimated 60 million viewers. Even had he been the lone cleric promoting suicide bombing — which he was not — the size of his viewership reveals the scope of the problem.

At the Georgetown event, Khalil presented his previously recorded discussion of his new book, “Jihad, Radicalism, and the New Atheism,” in which he disputes claims of many “New Atheists,” particularly Sam Harris, “that Muslim terrorism can be best explained by Islamic scriptures.” Harris further labels benign interpretations of Islam as “interpretive acrobatics.”

Khalil explained his focus on the so-called New Atheists, in which “[m]any of [his] own colleagues and students have been and continue to be more profoundly impacted by the writings of New Atheists than, say, polemical works by far-right religiously-affiliated critics of Islam.” Correspondingly, he cited Harris’s statement to fellow atheist Bill Maher that “we have to be able to criticize bad ideas, and Islam is the motherlode of bad ideas.”

So there is an article in the Guardian by Ed Pilkington @edpilkington.
First of all, look at this lovely picture that they have chosen for the article. So who exactly is banning criticism of Israel? In their opinion: Ku Klux Klan. 1/ https://t.co/xTDy2a623Fpic.twitter.com/LuhoXiV67y

— Michael Elgort ✡️ (@just_whatever) October 18, 2019

In his September 24, 2019 column in the Jordanian daily Al-Dustour, 'Abd Al-Hamid Al-Hamshari wrote that the 9/11 attacks were planned by the U.S. National Security Council with the aim of destabilizing the Middle East and preventing the rise of an Arab power that would compete with the U.S. for hegemony in that region.

Al-Hamshari, who is a member of Jordanian human rights organizations,[1] adds that since 9/11, the U.S. has continued to sow chaos in the region by means of terror organizations like Al-Qaeda and ISIS, which it established, in order to redraw its borders along sectarian and ethnic lines and serve the interests of its ally, Israel.

It should be mentioned that, several days before the anniversary of 9/11, Al-Dustour posted another conspiratorial article on this topic, which claimed that the Muslims were the true victims of the attacks.[2]

The following are excerpts from Al-Hamshari's article. [3]
"The 18th anniversary of the 9/11events passed quietly, despite the contribution of these events to the chaos in the Middle East and despite the upheaval they caused in America's Middle East strategy, [an upheaval] that harmed all the Arab countries, without exception, and in particular the Palestinian cause. [After 9/11, the U.S.] began taking steps aimed at fracturing the Arab unity and turning [public opinion] against countries that opposed its hegemony in the Middle East, first of all Iraq and Libya. Next came a blow against the security and stability of influential countries in the region, such as Syria, Egypt and the Arabian Peninsula. [At the same time, the U.S.] cultivated the Zionist entity state [i.e., Israel] – with measures it took after the destruction of the World Trade Center in New York, which were [later] reinforced by steps taken by Trump – and gave [Israel] an opportunity to enhance the imbalance in the occupied Palestinian territories in its favor and to build up the Jewish home at the expense of the Palestinian home, which no longer has any place in [Trump's] foolish lexicon.

Holocaust denier, David Irving, reacted furiously to the op ed article on his blog. Irving himself wrote a book praising Rommel's brilliant military prowess called The Trail of the Fox, the Search for the True Field Marshal Rommel and he placed a photo of his book's cover to the left of his attack on Kellner.

"He needs an English lesson " wrote the Jew hater on his website and linking to Professor Kellner's:article We put a “Nazi” general on a pedestal and wonder why we have “neo-Nazis” – Israel National News, adding the insult: "a Jew teaching English in USA wipes his filthy hands on the Rommel legend."

Responding to the Holocaust Denier's tirade, Dr. Kellner told Arutz Sheva:
"I actually am glad that this chief of the anti-Semites, who perverts the truth about the Holocaust, is one of my readers. It's a pleasure for me to see how my grandfather Friedrich Kellner's descriptions of real Nazis can get neo-Nazis whining in indignation. That's one of the main reasons Friedrich Kellner risked his life for six years (while under Gestapo surveillance) to write his diary.

"In an early entry, when Adolf Hitler already ruled all of Europe, my grandfather predicted their defeat, but he knew Nazi-types would always be with us, and he wrote, 'These jackals must never be allowed to rise again. I want to be in that fight.'

"Well, he is in that fight, thanks to Cambridge University's edition of his diary, and we must continue to shower these neo-Nazis with his scorn. If we cannot cleanse their minds of bigotry, we can at least keep them whining.

Germany’s interior minister announced a new six-point plan to combat antisemitism on Thursday, as the country continued to reel from last week’s attempted massacre by a far-right terrorist of worshipers at a synagogue in Halle during Yom Kippur services.

Speaking to the federal parliament, the Bundestag, Interior Minister Horst Seehoffer acknowledged that “antisemitism is anchored in parts of our society.” His plan includes an obligation to report hate speech on the internet, bans on extremist political groups, a stricter weapons law and more prevention work by the authorities.

In his remarks, Seehofer spoke of “individual perpetrators” who “build up their frustration outside the public sphere without initially recognizable connections to anyone.” This was a new challenge for the authorities because it was no longer enough to observe an extremist party, he said.

Stephan Balliet — the 27-year-old who murdered two people in Halle after being unable to enter the synagogue — is being investigated as a lone-wolf terrorist, despite his support for neo-Nazi ideology.

Seehoffer’s proposals come on top of last week’s move by the justice minister to toughen German laws against hate speech on the internet.

Everyday antisemitism.

For the past 8 weeks, repulsive antisemitic flyers have been appearing throughout the California town of Modesto. The flyers church have appeared at local synagogue, at the Central Valley Pride Center, at a local church and at a political town hall.

Christian, Muslim and Jewish leaders are meeting to formulate a response.

From Fox40
Local Rep. Josh Harder and his Republican challenger, Ted Howze, also condemned the flyers.

“This was a disgusting and cowardly act,” Harder said. “The people who are sneaking this hateful garbage into public places and houses of worship will not divide us. The Central Valley is the proud home to people of all ethnicities and faith traditions and we will stand together against discrimination in whatever form it takes.”

"America soundly defeated similar hate during World War 2, and we must always stand tall against this type of bigotry," Howze said.

Five more Bulgarian soccer fans were detained Friday following the racist abuse directed at England players during a European Championship qualifying match.

The interior ministry said police have so far identified 16 people believed to have taken part in the racist abuse, which included Nazi salutes and monkey noises.

“Five more men implicated in the abusive actions were detained this morning,” the ministry said. “Police continues work to track down five more to detain them.”

England won Monday’s match 6-0. It was twice halted in an effort to stop the racist abuse.

On Wednesday, six others were arrested. One of the six, who is 18 years old, has been indicted for “grave hooliganism” and could face up to five years in prison if found guilty. The five others were handed fines and banned from soccer matches.

The Israeli ambassador to Ukraine asked police on Thursday to find and punish people who left a red paint-spattered effigy of tycoon Ihor Kolomoisky, who holds a Ukrainian Jewish community leadership post, on the steps of the main synagogue in Kiev.

Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s richest men, is in the public eye over his business ties to President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, who came to fame as the star of TV show on a channel Kolomoisky owns. The tycoon has been in a protracted legal battle with the authorities over control of Ukraine’s biggest bank.

Kolomoisky is president of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine, one of several Jewish community bodies in the country.

“Another disturbing act of antisemitism … I hope that the law enforcement agencies will promptly arrest the perpetrators,” Joel Lion said in a statement on the embassy’s Twitter feed where a picture of the effigy was also published. The life-size effigy was dressed in dark trousers and a green sweater, covered by large red spots of paint.

“Ukraine has to do more to fight antisemitism, if not, violence will spread from effigies to human beings,” said the ambassador.

Kiev police told Reuters they had launched a criminal investigation over hooliganism but had not identified the people involved yet. They did not give additional details.

Communities across the country are being told to “keep doors closed and locked” over Shabbat in wake of recent security threats against places of worship.

The Community Security Trust made the recommendation on Friday in a statement backed by six synagogue movements and the Office of the Chief Rabbi.

This comes after a gunman attempted to enter a shul in the east German town of Halle on Yom Kippur, but was unable to breach through the locked door.

The perpetrator killed a woman nearby after she confronted him, before driving to a kebab shop, taking another victim.

The CST statement tells shuls to “keep doors closed and locked unless you are letting known people in or out” and to “only open doors to people you are happy to invite people inside.”

It says that “terrorist attacks against places of worship are a sad reality of modern life” and that “one of the most effective ways of preventing a terrorist attack inside your synagogue is for the doors to be locked and closed.”

“It can be done by anyone and it will help save lives: exactly as happened at the synagogue in Halle, Germany on Yom Kippur, when a closed, locked door, saved dozens of lives.”

A Jewish man was harassed, threatened and mocked on the street in a suburb of London until another local who is not Jewish chased off the offenders.

The incident happened last week on Canvey Island near London as the victim, who was not named, was paying his cleaner outside her home, the Halstead Gazette reported Monday. Four young men began harassing the man, who is an Orthodox Jew.

The cleaner’s husband, 46-year-old Kevin Crabb, confronted the assailants, who then left the Jewish man alone.

“They were getting up in his face, shouting at him, but it’s not in his nature to fight back,” Crabb said.

Orthodox families moved only recently to Canvey Island, which used to be detached from the mainland but has since been reconnected with land reclaimed from the Thames estuary.

Over 50 cutting-edge Israeli tech companies are featured in the first season of a new series released on Amazon Prime Video on October 18 called “TechTalk.” Season two features startups in New York, and season three hits Los Angeles.

The show’s creator is co-founder of Tech Talk Media, Jonny Caplan. He’s a British-born entrepreneur who moved from England to Israel in 2013 to explore the Startup Nation’s “multipotential” tech scene.

Caplan believes that multipotentiality — a concept first coined by Emilie Wapnick, TED speaker and author of “How to Be Everything” — is the driving force behind the burgeoning success of the startup industry. According to Wapnick, “Instead of picking one thing and denying all of our other interests, we can find ways to integrate our many passions into our lives.”

Caplan explains that by “defying the norm, multipotentialities have no single definitive skill, yet we have a multitude of talents and creativity which we can pursue simultaneously.”

The philosophy inspired him to pursue his flagship documentary series “TechTalk,” the first in a range of titles on emerging global startups and innovators.

What Caplan discovered in Israel — and in particular in his new hometown of Tel Aviv, which has the highest concentration of startups per capita in the world — led him to set up his US-based media and entertainment company with his partner, Ronald R. Hans.

Mentioned frequently in the Bible, the ibex—a type of wild goat—was once widespread in the Land of Israel, especially in the Negev desert. But by the time of Israel’s founding it had disappeared almost completely, having succumbed to the proliferation of firearms among Bedouin. Thanks to more recent conservation efforts, however, there has been a resurgence in the population. Alon Tal writes:

The psalmist singled out two habitat-specific species of the Negev: “The high mountains are for the wild goats; the cliffs are a refuge for the rabbits (hyrax)” (Psalm 104:18). The book of Samuel describes a hysterical King Saul pursuing David in front of the Rocks of the Wild Goats.

Ibex . . . need to live near drinking water. These water sources were well known by the locals, and the goats became easy prey. The conventional wisdom I heard among the older generation of Israel’s nature lovers was that during the British Mandate, ibex provided the stock for a popular Bedouin soup. It didn’t take long until there were simply none left to shoot. Against all odds, however, a few ibexes apparently were sufficiently crafty (or remote) to hold on.

Once the new state of Israel was established, Heinrich Mendelsohn—the father of Israeli ecology—and his colleagues convinced the government to enact stringent regulations that enabled nature to rebound. Hunting was outlawed. . . . The few surviving ibex enjoyed some respite. Slowly but surely, their numbers grew.

Although wildlife censuses are notoriously imprecise, official government sources estimate that [as] many as a thousand ibex at times roam the southlands and the Golan Heights.

Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds, along with Shuki Weiss productions, announced on Friday that they will be performing in Tel Aviv on July 17th, 2020, as part of a world tour promoting their newest album.

The show will take place in the rebuilt Bloomfield soccer stadium, home of top clubs Maccabi, Hapoel, and Bney Yehuda Tel Aviv.

The Australian band's last visit to Israel came in 2017, when the group played two concerts in Menorah Hall, enthralling the over 17 thousand fans that came to the shows.

Prior to the band's 2017 visit, frontman Nick Cave voiced his reasoning for wanting to play in Israel, and his reasoning for opposing the BDS in a response to a fan question on his website, TheRedHandFiles.com.

“I do not support the current government in Israel, yet do not accept that my decision to play in the country is any kind of tacit support for that government’s policies,” Cave wrote. “Nor do I condone the atrocities that you have described; nor am I ignorant of them. I am aware of the injustices suffered by the Palestinian population, and wish, with all people of good conscience, that their suffering is ended via a comprehensive and just solution, one that involves enormous political will on both sides of the equation.”

.@nickcave is a smart (and good) dude https://t.co/IkFhAp2Rel

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 18, 2019

Over 4,000 runners took part in the fifth edition of the Bible Marathon on Friday. The marathon covered a route from the Rosh Hayin area to Shiloh, inspired by the ancient Book of Judges.

The winner, Adisu Osano from Rishon Etzion, crossed the finish line in 3:02:42, breaking a new record for the event, which is considered especially challenging considering the inclines and the terrane.

As in previous editions, athletes could choose between a 5K option, a 10K one, the half marathon or the full marathon. An 800-meter-long route for special needs children was also offered.

Among the women, runner Zohar Hal-Perry came first and finished in 4:09:35.

Around 100 participants arrived from 22 different countries, including the US, Brazil, Russia, Sweden, Spain, and Uganda.

The authorities of Rosh HaAyin, Ariel, Samaria and Benjamin organized the event together with the Israel Marathon.

“I’m proud of the international status of the Bible Marathon and excited by the blessed partnership with runners from abroad, who through the land connected to the roots of the Bible and wandered among the vineyards of Shilo just like the ancient Benjamin man,” said the President of the Benjamin Council Israel Gantz.

This year, more than 5,000 Christians from all parts of the world gathered on Thursday for the city’s annual Sukkot (Feast of Tabernacles) festive march around Israel’s capital, which saw 10,000 participants in total.

The Jerusalem municipality organized and funded the march and entertainment events, with participants coming to Israel from 100 nations. The arrival of the Christian pilgrims, who come annually to Israel for Sukkot, was facilitated in part by ICEJ (International Christian Embassy Jerusalem), which connects Christians around the world to Israel based on the biblical significance of Jerusalem and in support of its connection to the Jewish people.

“The whole world is learning that the gentiles can come celebrate the Feast of Tabernacles with the people of Israel,” David Parsons, media spokesperson of ICEJ, told JNS.

“It’s an ancient tradition that we’ve revived over the past 40 years, and [it shows that] we live in and need prophetic times,” he continued, adding that the visitors represent “a lot of admiration for Israel, and all it has been able to accomplish over the last hundred years of the ingathering of the Jewish people and the restoration of the nation.”

“They want to come see the modern miracle of Israel which the Bible talked about,” he said.

This year, ICEJ brought its first delegation of evangelical Christians from Egypt, inspired by a biblical passage (Zechariah 14:18) that states that if the community of Egypt does not make the Sukkot pilgrimage to Jerusalem, it will suffer drought.

Former Supreme Court president Meir Shamgar, one of the giants of the Israeli judiciary, died Friday. He was 94.

Shamgar joined Israel’s top court in 1975 and eight years later took over as chief justice, a position he held for 12 years until 1995.

Prior to his appointment to the Supreme Court, Shamgar served as attorney general from 1968 to 1975 and before that was Military Advocate General, the top legal official in the Israel Defense Forces.

Shamgar was born in 1925 in Danzig, now Gdansk in Poland, and moved to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1939.

He served in the pre-state Palmach and then the Irgun paramilitaries — and was arrested for anti-British activity and sent to a detention center in Eritrea — and then in the Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 War of Independence.

He was granted the Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society in 1996.

“I espouse that it is not only the right of the court to intervene, but is rather its duty to be the center of gravity for the creation of norms for the public,” he once said of the Supreme Court’s role.

Justice Shamgar passed away today at the age of 94.

Seen below in 1992, second from left, with Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin and President Chaim Herzog, at the inauguration of the Supreme Court Building in Jerusalem. pic.twitter.com/T5Q0xhS6Xu

— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) October 18, 2019

In 1946, in the aftermath of the horrors of World War II, Eleanor Roosevelt founded the UN Commission on Human Rights, to reaffirm the principles of human dignity. That her dream has turned into a recurring nightmare was confirmed on Thursday when some of the world’s worst regimes were once again elected to the 47-nation UN body, renamed in 2006 under a failed bid at reform, as the Human Rights Council.

Who are the UN’s new world judges on human rights?

Absurdly, Venezuela’s Nicolás Maduro is one.

Though the council’s rules stipulate that members must “uphold the highest standards” of human rights, the UN General Assembly chose the narco-criminal regime from Caracas.

Despite promises of a socialist paradise, President Maduro has devastated his country, starved his own people and crushed pro-democracy dissidents.

The government’s repression includes targeting opposition leaders like Leopoldo López, who was thrown into prison for three years and is still under house arrest. According to the NGO Foro Penal, as of April 2019 there were more than 900 political prisoners across Venezuela.

Maduro’s failed policies have produced political instability, hunger, poverty and soaring crime rates. Millions are ill and dying for lack of food, medicine and basic necessities. Four million have fled. Electing Maduro to the council was obscene.

Second, the world body elected Libya, another failed state, where armed groups execute and torture civilians with almost complete impunity. Captured African migrants are bought and sold on open slave markets.

Third, although anti-racism is supposedly the defining credo of the UN, the General Assembly elected the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, where an estimated 500,000 people live in slavery.

German Interior Ministry statistics claim that 90% of the anti-Semitic hate crimes reported in Germany in 2018 were committed by "far right" persons. The EU's Fundamental Rights Agency (FRA), however, found that only 13% of the attacks were attributed to those with a "right-wing political view."

Germany provides millions of euros annually to organizations that promote anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) and "lawfare" campaigns, anti-Zionism, antisemitism, and violence, according to NGO Monitor.

"Why is Merkel being awarded the Theodor Herzl Award? Because her representative at the United Nations abstains in anti-Israel resolutions — and thereby de facto supports them? The same official who equates Hamas rocket attacks on Israeli civilians with Israel's demolition of the homes of Palestinian terrorists? For not relocating the German embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, as the United States did, and also warning other countries against taking such a step? For all this, she gets the Theodor Herzl Award?"— Henryk Broder, German Political Commentator, Die Achse des Guten.

"And that is just the beginning. There is a great possibility that thanks to today's politics Germany will become Judenrein [free of Jews]. Wir schaffen das (We can do it)."— Dr. Rafael Korenzecher, Publisher, Jüdische Rundschau.

Special Representative Hook: While the United States was still in the JCPOA, Iran expanded its ballistic missile activities to partners across the region, including Hizballah, helping them produce a greater number of rockets & missiles. This arsenal is then used to target Israel. pic.twitter.com/96JkpEH8Gf

— Department of State (@StateDept) October 18, 2019

Martin Weiss has served as Austria's ambassador to Israel for exactly four years. His name might sound Jewish and his lively, relaxed nature is a good fit for the Israeli pace of life, but in two weeks, Weiss will depart the Austrian Embassy in Tel Aviv for the Austrian Embassy in Washington, DC. That demonstrates his status, but also the importance of Israel in Austrian diplomacy.

Indeed, in Weiss' time as ambassador – and with his help – Israel and Austria have enjoyed their closest ties in history. Given the loaded history between the Jewish and Austrian peoples, ("Let's admit it, there were mostly 'downs,'" he says with characteristic frankness) – the increasing closeness of the last few years is not something to be taken for granted.

Austria is not only the birthplace of Adolf Hitler but also elected a Jewish chancellor who hated Israel, Bruno Kreisky; knowingly elected as president former Wehrmacht officer Kurt Waldheim; saw huge support for long-time Freedom Party of Austria Chairman Jörg Haider, widely considered to have been a Nazi sympathizer; and was one of the last countries to acknowledge the part it played in the mass murder of its Jewish citizens during the Holocaust.

Only in the past few years have we seen signs that the Austrian leadership is truly able to address the country's past honestly and seriously. In a speech two years ago at a conference of the American Jewish Committee in Jerusalem, former Chancellor Sebastian Kurz said things that had never been uttered by his predecessors: "Many Austrians supported the system which killed over 6 million Jews from all over Europe and beyond. Among them, 60,000 fellow Austrian Jewish citizens in Austria alone. It took Austria a long time to be honest about its past. I have to admit that there were many people in Austria who did nothing to fight the Nazi regime. Far too many actively supported these horrors and even were perpetrators."

Kurz strengthened Austria's ties with Israel in general and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in particular. This was due in part to Weiss, who is a close associate. Now that Weiss' time as ambassador to Israel is up, he sat down with Israel Hayom for a special interview.

A fragile ceasefire was holding along Turkey's border with Syria on Saturday, two days after President Tayyip Erdogan agreed the truce to allow Kurdish forces time to pull back from Ankara's cross-border assault.

Erdogan agreed the truce during talks in Ankara on Thursday with U.S. Vice-President Mike Pence on stemming a humanitarian crisis, which has put 200,000 civilians to flight in northeast Syria, and easing a security scare over thousands of Islamic State captives guarded by the Kurdish YPG militia targeted in Turkey's assault.

Turkey's defense ministry said on Saturday there had been 14 "provocative attacks" from Syria in the past 36 hours but said it was continuing to coordinate closely with the United States to allow the agreement to be implemented.

Reuters journalists at the border said bombardment heard near the Syrian border town of Ras al Ain on Friday morning had subsided. They saw just a few Turkish military vehicles crossing the frontier on Saturday morning.

The truce sets out a five-day pause to let the Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF) militia pull out of a "safe zone" Turkey has vowed to create in territory extending more than 30 km (about 20 miles) deep into Syria.

Ankara regards the YPG, the SDF's main Kurdish component, a terrorist group because of its links to Kurdish insurgents operating in southeast Turkey.

Turkey's defense ministry said Defence Minister Hulusi Akar had urged his U.S. counterpart Mark Esper in a telephone call late on Friday to ensure that YPG forces withdrew from the zone within the 120-hour period agreed under the truce.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Saturday warned that Turkey would “crush the heads” of Kurdish forces if they did not withdraw from a proposed safe zone along the border under a US-brokered deal.

If the pullout does not happen by Tuesday evening, “we will start where we left off and continue to crush the terrorists’ heads,” Erdogan said in a televised speech in central Anatolian city of Kayseri.

Turkey has agreed to suspend its Syria offensive for five days and to end the assault if Kurdish-led forces withdraw from the proposed safe zone away from the border, after talks with US Vice President Mike Pence in Ankara.

Erdogan also provided some details from his talks with the Americans, adding that Ankara agreed to the 120 hour time deadline after its initial demand of “one night” for the withdrawal.

Syrian Kurdish-led forces and Turkey exchanged blame on Saturday for fighting that has rattled a US-brokered cease-fire in northeastern Syria, as the Kurds appealed to Vice President Mike Pence to enforce the deal.

The Syrian Democratic Forces said in a statement that Turkey has failed to abide by the deal, refusing to lift the siege of Ras al-Ayn, a key border town. It said 30 hours after the five-day pause went into effect on Thursday, there were still reported clashes inside the town and medical personnel could not enter to help wounded.

Turkish-backed Syrian fighters encircled Ras al-Ayn just before the cease-fire came into place, trying to crush Kurdish resistance inside. Throughout much of the day Friday, fighting was reported there and in neighboring villages that came under attack by the Turkish-backed forces.

The Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said Saturday that Turkey-backed Syrian fighters have prevented a medical convoy from reaching Ras al-Ayn since Friday. It said a medical convoy arrived outside the town but Turkey-backed factions closed the road ahead and behind, leaving it stuck outside Ras al-Ayn.

Turkey’s Defense Ministry said Saturday it was “completely abiding” by the accord. It accused Kurdish-led fighters carried out 14 “attacks and harassment” the past 36 hours, most in Ras al-Ayn. It said the Syrian Kurdish fighters used mortars, rockets, anti-aircraft and anti-tank heavy machine guns.

The ministry also said it was in “instant coordination” with the United States to ensure the continuity of calm, excluding instances of “self-defense.”

yrian Kurd Mohamed Zidik, 76, still buys his bread and baclavas from his Turkish neighbors in Berlin, but he knows better than to expound on his views about Ankara’s offensive in his hometown.

Since Turkish forces launched their assault on Kurds in northeastern Syria, tensions have risen in Germany where millions of Turks and Kurds live side by side.

Shops have been trashed, knife attacks reported and insults traded, prompting Germany’s integration commissioner Annette Widmann-Mauz to call for restraint.

“We have a responsibility to prevent the conflict in the region from becoming a conflict in our society,” she said in an interview with the Funke newspaper group.

Of the roughly three million people with Turkish nationality or roots living in Germany, around one million are Kurds.

A record-breaking group of some 150 Israelis on Saturday visited a parcel of border land that has been worked by Israeli farmers for decades but that is likely to be reclaimed by Jordan next week.

“There is a sense that many Israelis want to take a last chance to visit,” site manager Shai Hadar told Channel 13 news.

Naharayim, known in Arabic as Baqoura, in the Jordan Valley, is controlled by Jordan but has been leased by Israel for 25 years in an agreement that is set to expire.

A special clause in the 1994 peace treaty between the Israel and Jordan allowed Israel to retain use of the land, along with the Tzofar enclave in the southern Arava desert, for 25 years, with the understanding that the lease would be renewed as a matter of routine. The two areas together span 1,000 dunams (247 acres).

However, in October 2018, amid domestic unrest in Jordan, King Abdullah II announced plans to terminate the lease. Despite ongoing efforts by the Israeli government, negotiations to guarantee continued access to the areas have so far been unsuccessful. Jordan on Wednesday denied Israeli officials’ claim that it was willing to extend Israel’s access to Tzofar for another season.

Naharayim is also known as the Isle of Peace, following a deadly March 1997 attack in which a group of schoolgirls from Beit Shemesh were fired upon during an outing to the area. The girls and their unarmed teachers were standing on a hill above an abandoned lake in the enclave when a Jordanian soldier opened fire on them and killed seven of the schoolchildren.

Israeli security guards shot and killed a knife-wielding Palestinian man who ran toward them at a checkpoint near the West Bank city of Tulkarem on Friday, the Defense Ministry said.

The ministry said, after an initial investigation, that guards at the Te’enim checkpoint called on the man, who was holding a knife, to stop, and shot and “neutralized him” when he did not respond.

The ministry later confirmed that the man was killed.

No Israelis were hurt.

Hamas supports holding new Palestinian general elections on the condition that an election is held concurrently for the Palestinian Authority presidency and the Palestinian Legislative Council (PLC), the Palestinian parliament, Hamas officials told Russia on Saturday.

The message was relayed to Russia during a meeting in Doha, Qatar, between senior Hamas officials and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister and Special Presidential Envoy for the Middle East Mikhail Bogdanov. The Hamas delegation was headed by Musa Abu Marzouk, deputy chairman of the movement’s Political Bureau. The meeting was also attended by Russian Ambassador to Qatar Nurmakhamad Kholov.

Hamas’s message came in response to PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s initiative to hold long overdue elections.

Abbas made his announcement during a speech before the United Nations General Assembly on September 26. However, he did not say whether the elections would be held for the presidency or the parliament.
The last presidential election was held in 2005, when Abbas was elected to a four-year-term. A year later, the Palestinians held elections for the PLC, which resulted in a Hamas victory.

Hamas and other Palestinian factions have welcomed Abbas’s initiative of holding new elections. However, they insist that the vote for the PA presidency and the PLC should take place simultaneously.

Israeli forces fired toward a small group of Palestinians approaching the Gaza border fence overnight, reportedly injuring one.

The Hamas-run health ministry in the Gaza Strip on Saturday said the Palestinian was shot in the coastal enclave’s north, near Jabaliya.

The Israel Defense Forces was quoted saying by Hebrew media that soldiers fired their weapons to distance the Palestinians from the border and that it was not aware of any injuries.

Also Saturday, Channel 12 reported that Israeli fighter jets were sent toward Gaza after a suspicious object was spotted entering into Israel from the Palestinian territory. They then returned to their base.

The report did not say what the suspicious object was.

The incidents came after over 4,000 Palestinian demonstrators took part in weekly protests Friday along the border Gaza and Israel, with several hundred rioting and clashing with Israeli troops.

Tens of thousands of angry Lebanese took to the streets on Friday, blocking roads and burning tires in a second day of nationwide protest to demand the removal of a political elite they accuse of looting the economy to the point of collapse.

Addressing protesters, Prime Minister Saad al-Hariri blamed his rivals in government for obstructing reforms that could have resolved the economic crisis and gave them a 72-hour deadline to stop blocking him, otherwise hinting he may resign.

He said Lebanon was going through an “unprecedented, difficult time.”

Lebanon‘s biggest protests in a decade recall the 2011 Arab revolts that toppled four presidents. Lebanese from all sects and walks of life have come out on to the streets, waving banners and chanting slogans urging Hariri’s government to go.

“There are those who placed obstacles in front of me since the government was formed, and in the face of all the efforts that I have proposed for reform,” Hariri said, without naming names.

“Whatever the solution, we no longer have time and I am personally giving myself only a little time. Either our partners in government and in the nation give a frank response to the solution, or I will have another say.

“The deadline left is very short, it’s 72 hours,” he said.

Protesters poured through the villages and towns across Lebanon as well as the capital Beirut. No political leader, Muslim or Christian, was spared their wrath.

Awkward. https://t.co/ApggXzAdlY

— Omri Ceren (@omriceren) October 18, 2019

The influential leader of Lebanon’s Hezbollah terror group said he doesn’t support the government’s resignation amid nationwide protests calling for politicians to step down over a deepening economic crisis.

Hassan Nasrallah said Saturday that calls for the current national unity government to resign are “a waste of time” since the same political groups will haggle over forming a new one.

“We don’t want the resignation of the government if the resignation means there is no government,” he said, calling for Lebanese to work together.

Largescale protests that have targeted the country’s entire political class have brought Lebanon to a standstill since Thursday.

Nasrallah warned the protesters against being pulled into political rivalries, saying that would derail their message. He said politicians who shirk responsibility, by quitting the Cabinet while the economy crumbles, should be brought to trial.

Millions of pilgrims made their way on foot to the Iraqi city of Karbala on Saturday for the Shiite pilgrimage of Arbaeen, regarded as the largest annual public gathering in the world.

The commemoration marks the 40th day following the death of a Shiite saint in the 7th century and included more than 2 million Iranians and other Shiites from abroad. Militias patrolled roads leading into the city and escorted Iranian pilgrims from the border, hiking up security for processions that have previously been targeted by Sunni militant groups with bloody bombings.

This year’s Arbaeen ceremonies take place amid widespread anger in Iraq’s Shiite south over the government’s heavy crackdown on protests that erupted earlier this month against unemployment, corruption and government mismanagement. The demonstrations raged across Iraq for seven days and most prominent among the protesters were young Shiites, unleashing their frustration with the Shiite-led government in Baghdad.

The security crackdown, which killed more than 100 and wounded thousands, put down the protests last week, but a new round of demonstrations has been called for October 25.

The political turmoil surfaced in the Arbaeen ceremonies. Followers of populist cleric Muqtada al-Sadr marched toward Karbala chanting, “No to America, no to Israel, no to corruption,” and “Baghdad is free, corruption must go!”

In a statement, the UMinn president justified allowing an upcoming KKK conference on campus: “The First Amendment protects even the most heinous speech and while I find the KKK’s views reprehensible I cannot prevent them from holding a meeting here. A university must be a place where people have the freedom to exchange ideas no matter how repugnant.”

When asked specifically about some of the Klan’s specious claims, such as the idea that Jews control the banks and media, the president, said, “The Klan may take their views to the extreme, but it is true that there are Jews who run banks and media companies so their criticism is legitimate.” In response to a question about the Klan’s view of minorities as inferior, he admitted some academic studies indicate there are genetic reasons why blacks have lower IQs than whites.

The paragraphs above are fiction. No one believes that Minnesota or any other university would host a Klan meeting, because the students and trustees would never allow it. Students would take over administration buildings, boycott classes, and stage protests across campus. The university would hemorrhage donors, be pilloried in the press, and become disreputably known as the university that welcomed the Klan.

Now comes the reality.

The University of Minnesota is hosting the annual hate fest of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) on November 1-3. The justification is familiar. “As a public institution, the University of Minnesota is bound by the First Amendment and cannot discriminate on the basis of viewpoint when making resources available to students, faculty or the general public,” Adam Steinbaugh, the director of the Individual Rights Defense Program at the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education, told JNS.

“In short, the University of Minnesota cannot cancel the SJP conference on the basis that others find the views that might be offered there offensive.”

Can you imagine Steinbaugh saying the same thing about a KKK conference?

Is Facebook a haven for free expression? Or is it like a restaurant serving neo-Nazis?

Depends who you ask.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg gave an impassioned defense Thursday of his company’s policy of allowing a wide spectrum of speech on the platform. Speaking at Georgetown University in Washington, DC, Zuckerberg invoked the First Amendment and the civil rights movement to defend his refusal to limit inflammatory discourse on his social media giant.

“Some people argue internet platforms should allow all expression protected by the First Amendment, even though the First Amendment explicitly doesn’t apply to companies,” Zuckerberg said. “I’m proud that our values at Facebook are inspired by the American tradition, which is more supportive of free expression than anywhere else.”

But Sacha Baron Cohen, who knows something about irreverent speech himself (see: “Borat,” “Ali G,” “The Dictator” and nearly every other film role he has ever played), says that Zuckerberg should take his role more seriously as the CEO of a private company.

In a tweet thread, Cohen wrote that Zuckerberg allowing offensive speech on Facebook is like a restaurant welcoming anti-Semites who shout anti-Semitic insults.

“If he owned a fancy restaurant and 4 neo-Nazis came goose-stepping into the dining room and were talking loudly about wanting to kill ‘Jewish scum’, would he serve them an elegant eight course meal? Or would tell them to get the f**k out of his restaurant?” Cohen wrote. “He has every legal right, indeed a moral duty, to tell them to get the f**k out of his restaurant.”

In response to several unfair and inaccurate reports about Israel that CBC TV’s The National and CBC Radio’s World Report recently broadcast, HonestReporting Canada has filed a formal complaint with senior executives at our public broadcaster calling for immediate corrective action to remedy the CBC’s biased reporting about Israel. As of this writing, we await a reply from the CBC.

Our Concerns:
On the October 11 broadcast of CBC The National, former Middle East Bureau Chief Margaret Evans (now stationed in London) produced a feature-length, almost 10 minute report entitled: “Young Palestinians see no end to the Israeli Occupation”.

Firstly, we took issue with this report’s headline which was appropriated by CBC editors. Ms. Evans’ report did not solely focus on Palestinian views about Israel’s so-called “occupation”. Instead, the report talked about the progress of building courthouses in the west bank (a joint Canadian-Palestinian project sponsored by CIDA), along with a discussion about how Palestinian politics are”frayed” and rife with “nepotism” and “corruption”. Yes, there was a discussion about the two state solution, Israeli settlements, and the presence of Israeli checkpoints, but this wasn’t its exclusive focus. Why then, did CBC editors want to focus reader’s attention to this issue to the exclusion of others? Alternative headlines that could have been published include: “Young Palestinians see their leaders as corrupt” or “Young Palestinians think the two state solution is elusive“. Furthermore, this observation about the views of young Palestinians is derived through anecdotal evidence that Ms. Evans procured by her asking a classroom of Palestinian students about their views of the peace process. That doesn’t mean that these student’s views were representative of most, if not all, young Palestinians. If we are to go by recent polls, 43% of Israelis and Palestinians back the two state solution.

In sharp contrast, see how CBC The National described this report on Twitter:

Canada is spending $32 million on a new courthouse in Hebron in the West Bank, a gesture of support for a two-state solution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict — but is a two-state solution still viable? @mevansCBC takes us to the region to find out: https://t.co/YpzaEEGQiM
— CBC News: The National (@CBCTheNational) October 13, 2019

Accordingly, we told the CBC that this headline deserves to be amended.

Photo used by The Guardian for their Twitter link.

VS.

Photo the @guardian actually used in the article. pic.twitter.com/IScmAqU3vZ

— Alex VanNess (@thealexvanness) October 18, 2019

The University of Leicester Students’ Union is investigating a white t-shirt party in which students wrote pro-Nazi and antisemitic messages on their t-shirts, including “Hitler wanted my kind alive”. At another recent social, a student wore a high visibility vest with the phrase “I’m a Nazi” printed on it.

A white t-shirt party involves students donning plain shirts and emblazoning messages on them, and students too commonly take the opportunity to write offensive or racist comments. This latest incident follows prior incidents at Lancaster, Plymouth, Newcastle and Coventry.

Responding to the incident, an officer at the University’s Jewish Society has written: “The University has allowed a hostile environment for Jewish students to flourish, and so long as things like this continue to fly under the radar of the majority of students, nothing will improve.”

The Students’ Union, which claims that the social event was “unauthorised”, has apologised for the incident and has promised to “ensure we tackle any antisemitism and make it wholly clear that white t-shirt socials are not allowable by the Union.”

It is understood that the students involved have now identified themselves to University authorities and that the Students’ Union and the University will be undertaking investigations and disciplinary action. The University society that hosted the social has reportedly also pledged to run inclusivity training.

The number of hate crimes targeting Jews in England and Wales more than doubled in a year, according to new data published by the UK Home Office this week.

A total of 1,326 such offenses were recorded in 2018/19, up from 672.

Jews were the targets of 18 percent of all hate crimes. Muslims were the most-targeted group, at 47 percent (3,530 offenses).

The Jewish Chronicle quoted a spokesperson for the Community Security Trust (CST) as saying, “The doubling in antisemitic hate crime over the past year is further shocking evidence that antisemitism is an urgent problem in this country that needs to be tackled.”

“It is vital that these hate crime reports lead to prosecutions and CST will continue working with Police and the CPS (Crown Prosecution Service) to try to ensure this is the case,” the spokesperson added.

Bulgaria’s soccer coach quit Friday over the 6-0 loss to England in a Euro 2020 qualifier which was overshadowed by racist abuse that sparked a storm of protest.

Monkey chants and apparent Nazi salutes during Monday’s match in Sofia caused indignation in the soccer world and led to the resignation of Bulgaria’s soccer federation chief.

Bulgaria coach Krasimir Balakov, who took over the team in May, said he handed in his resignation during a meeting of the Bulgarian Football Union (BFU) executive committee.

“I said that if I am the problem of Bulgarian football, I am handing in my resignation. There is no way back,” the former midfielder told reporters after the meeting. “I will keep my fingers crossed for the next manager as the situation is not rosy at all… The racist incidents during the game with England were the final straw.”

Bulgaria is winless in seven Euro 2020 qualifiers — losing four and drawing three — and occupy last place in their group.

Owners of a Judaica shop (a store that sells things pertaining to Jewish life and customs) were awoken on Friday by pictures of antisemitic graffiti sprayed on their store while in Israel on vacation.

Their neighbors sent them photos of the storefront.

The owners are now considering returning to France early and filing a police complaint.

In response to the event, Vice Chairman of the World of the Zionist Organization Yaakov Hagoel, said that "the plague of antisemitism in Europe intensifies like a terminal illness. I will turn to the EU supervisor for the fight against antisemitism and call for an urgent meeting of EU representatives, to form a plan of action."

He added: "What hasn't come yet from direct national governments will come sponsored by a European body."

This is the second antisemitic event to happen in the past week, after a graffiti image of Adolf Hitler was found spray painted near the grave of the Rabbi Nachman in the Ukranian city of Uman.

With Oct. 27 marking the one-year anniversary of the shooting tragedy at Tree of Life – Or L’Simcha Congregation in Pittsburgh in which 11 people died and six others were injured, synagogues throughout South Florida will remember the victims during upcoming solidarity Shabbat services.

A week following the tragedy last year, millions of people of all faiths rallied around the American Jewish Committee’s #ShowUpForShabbat initiative as they packed synagogues in an expression of solidarity. More than 250 million people engaged with the hashtag on Facebook and Twitter, and millions of people attended services at synagogues in the U.S. and around the world from Nov. 2-3, 2018.

AJC is once again calling on all people of good conscience to show up for Shabbat services on the Tree of Life's shooting anniversary weekend as local synagogues are participating in this initiative this year from Oct. 25-26.

Brian Siegal, director for AJC’s Miami and Broward regional office, said, “The main goal is to help people understand that there’s a wake-up call and that we have to stand up to antisemitism.”

“Antisemitism is a virus and it does not go away on its own. We need people of good will to stand in solidarity with the Jewish people. One way they can do that is by showing support for the #ShowUpForShabbat initiative either by attending synagogue and expressing that solidarity, or by using the hashtag #ShowUpForShabbat on social media and expressing their solidarity that way,” Siegal added.

Hospitality company Selina Ltd. is set to open a location of its brand name deluxe hostels near the Sea of Galilee in northern Israel, Selina announced Wednesday in a Facebook post. The new location will open in the first quarter of 2020, a Selina company spokesperson said in a phone call to Calcalist Thursday. The new location will include a recording studio, a co-working space, and “wellness gatherings,” according to the company’s statement.

Founded in 2014 in Panama by Israel-born Rafael Museri and Daniel Rudasevski, Selina currently operates 52 locations globally, according to company statements. Selina’s hostels offer co-working spaces, curated tours, wellness and fitness classes, homegrown produce-based meals, and volunteer activities.

In June, the company announced it would be opening its first Israel location in Tel Aviv, set to open in December of this year, according to the company’s website. Selina plans to open around 15 locations throughout Israel over the next five years, which will amount to approximately 15,000 beds.

The shuk –– an open-air market where stalls are filled with sumptuous and vibrant seasonal Israeli produce, spices, fresh fish, dry foodstuffs, housewares, and even trendy eateries — is the lifeline of every Israeli.

Cookbooks are inspired by it, as is the healthy Israeli lifestyle. Fresh fruits and vegetables make up the base of a colorful diet, and lugging home kilos of said vegetables provides daily exercise.

The traditional produce stands have been joined by restaurants, cafes and bars, so the shuk has also become a meeting ground for friends and a center of culinary evolution from which Israeli cuisine continues to expand.
Olives on sale at Machane Yehuda market in Jerusalem. Photo by Shutterstock

Farm-to-table enterprises, homegrown breweries, coffeeshops, and craft cocktail bars are the new shuk norm in Israel’s major cities. In the same way, Israeli art and flea markets have followed suit, transforming into must-visit stops for genuine souvenirs handcrafted in Israel.

These are 10 of Israel’s top markets, and the some of the best treasures we found in them.

Nahariya holds a special place in my heart – it was there in 1986 that my then-girlfriend and I made several pivotal choices about our budding relationship.

So, when it came time to celebrate our 31st wedding anniversary (the choices we made back then, it seems, were the right ones), we thought: Why not return to the scene of the crime? It had been much too long since we’d last visited the Western Galilee.

We stayed in the Shtarkman Erna boutique hotel in walking distance of the center of town and the main beaches.
Inside the Shtarkman Erna boutique hotel in Nahariya. Photo by Brian Blum

When we first got there, I’ll admit I was disappointed in the appearance of the unremarkable building from the outside. But step past the heavy wooden front doors and you’re in another world: a combination of Old World style (Nahariya was established by German Jewish immigrants in 1935) and modern touches (every room has been lovingly refurbished). While no holiday accommodations in Israel are inexpensive, this is Nahariya, not Tel Aviv, so it won’t set you back a month’s salary.

We didn’t have a lot of time and we didn’t want to drive too far from our Nahariya base. Still, we packed in a lot.

Here are the six places we visited in the Western Galilee in just six hours

When we talk about the control of the United States and the world, there is no difference between the Khazarian Mafia, Jews and Israel. In this regard, many intellectuals like Don Allen and others reveal, “The Council on Foreign Relations (CFR)…was part of a conspiracy to gain control of both US political parties to use them as instruments…seventy-three percent of the members of the Council on Foreign Relations are Jews. There are a number of organizations that comprise the Invisible Government that runs America and the world…from behind the scenes. A Jewish group which is in control of national governments and multinational corporations promotes world government through control of the military, media, foundation grants and education including NGOs…and controls and guides the issues of the day, and thus they control most options available. They will manage the money, the land, the food, and the guns of everyone in the world.”

In the words of Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, “It is long been clear that the pro-Israel, ultra-Zionist network have absolute control over the United States. The idea that our leaders are pursuing America’s vital national interests abroad…is a myth.”

Nevertheless, it is most surprising to note that especially since the orchestrated drama of the 9/11 attacks on the one side, Khazarian Jewish Mafia has been acting upon its evil designs by targeting the non-Zionist Americans and entire international community, while, on the other, it is, rapidly, jeopardizing its financial interests by destabilizing the global economy, which shows cognitive dissonance of the Mafia.

As the fifth round of World Youth Chess Championships in India continued in India, the young Iranian female chess player Mobina Alinasab defeated a player from the host country to reach the top of the table of the competitions with 4.5 points.

Another Iranian chess player Mohammad Amin Tabatabei drew against an Indian opponent to rank 25th on the list of the best chess players with 3 points.

Arian Gholami was the third Iranian representative who avoided competing against a player from the Zionist regime of Israel and did not continue the championships.

The League of Nations 1923 “Any attempt to negate the Jewish People’s right to Palestine, Eretz-Israel, and to deny them access and control in the area designated for the Jewish People by the League of Nations is a serious infringement of international law. The Origin and Nature of the “Mandate for Palestine”

The entire point of this written exercise is to arm the Jewish People of Eretz Israel with Biblical, Historic and Legal facts, in order to combat the lies of their enemies. An enemy who have illegally migrated, and invaded into the Jewish State of Eretz Israel.

By constantly attacking and criticizing Israel, the West has emboldened Islamitic terrorists to attack even the Western nations within their own boarders. Since the Western World is in need of leaders, these nations take the cowardly way out, they try to appease their violent Islamitic enemy, by blaming Israel for their unwillingness to make peace. When at every step Israel is trying to move forward, they are met with murder, terrorism, lies and deceit, and a very frightened and useless Western World.

IT IS ALL ONE BIG LIE

Vladimir Lenin – “ A lie told often enough becomes the truth.”

Joseph Goebbels – “ If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually believe it.”

Hitler – “ If you tell a big enough lie and tell it frequently enough, it will be believed.”

Isa Blagden writer, – “If a lie is only printed often enough it becomes a quasi-truth and if such a truth is repeated often enough, it becomes an article, of belief, a dogma and men will die for it.(The Crown of Life,1869 )

Lying is a weapon of choice, used Against the Jewish people of Eretz Israel

The same lying sinister forces were at work against the Jewish people in the past. They were actively at work in the time of Ezra and Nehemiah 2,500 years ago when the Jewish remnants returned from the Persian Empire, to rebuild and resettle Jerusalem and the Jewish territories.

These ungodly lying forces are alive and well today working through Arab leaders both inside and outside of Israel. Deceit and Lying are a major strategy used by the Islamic Jihadists who wish to destroy the Israel of today. They are aided by the “politically correctness” of the Left Wing Western World, which is another way of saying, they are Anti-G-d, Anti-Semitic, and Anti- Judaeo Christian Ethics

As Obama discovered after his withdrawal from Iraq and humiliating "red line" fiasco in Syria, the price of dishonor can be quite high.

Having washed his hands of those countries and punted their fate to Iran and Russia, it wasn't long before a new threat arose. The establishment of IS and its so-called caliphate in large portions of Syria and Iraq was the logical consequence of Obama's policies. As that terror group expanded the territory under its control, and videos of the hideous atrocities it committed went viral, Obama had little choice but to reverse course and commit to fighting IS.

Trump made an issue of the failure of Obama's half-hearted campaign against the Islamic State and vowed to defeat the group. And that's exactly what he did after winning the 2016 election. But with IS largely, but not completely defeated, he has now reverted to his instinctual isolationism, vowing to avoid any more involvement in Syria and leaving the Kurds to their own devices after years of promises from Washington that they would not be abandoned.

Some Americans outside the Beltway, including some supporters of Israel, have no problem with what he's done in Syria because they are blind supporters of the president. Others share his ignorance of a complex conflict and see no reason why Americans should be part of it.

As Obama found out after the atrocities perpetrated by the Islamic State aroused the anger of the public, Trump or his successor will have to respond to Turkish atrocities or those of the next Islamist terror group that will fill the vacuum he is creating by withdrawing US forces.

Islamist terror is an international problem, and not just something the Israelis and the Arabs have to worry about. Israel can defend itself, but actions that make its neighborhood even more dangerous undermine its security. Beyond that, allowing Turkey and Iran to do as they like in the region ultimately harms everyone, including Americans who have yet to absorb the fact that their safety is no longer ensured by the oceans that separate them from other continents. Unfortunately, Republicans and Democrats who still imagine Americans can simply go home and avoid further involvement in the Middle East's wars are engaging in magical thinking rather than supporting a coherent strategy.

A senior official is confirmed to attend a security conference in Bahrain on Monday, a source in the Gulf country told The Times of Israel, in the latest significant sign of warming ties between parts of the Arab world and Israel.

A senior Foreign Ministry official working on regional security and counter-terrorism, whose name was withheld by Israel’s military censor for security reasons, will represent Israel at the Working Group on Maritime and Aviation Security.

Starting Monday, the two-day event is expected to deal mainly with efforts to thwart the Islamic Republic’s growing regional aggression. Delegates are set to discuss the protection of vessels in the Persian Gulf from Iranian attacks, as well as the prevention of the smuggling of weapons and weapons of mass destruction and the protection of civil aviation.

The meeting, co-hosted by Bahrain, the US and Poland, is part of the so-called Warsaw Process, which started with the Ministerial to Promote a Future of Peace and Security in the Middle East that took place in the Polish capital earlier this year. That conference, co-sponsored by Poland and the US, was originally billed as part of global efforts to counter Iran, but was later toned-down and instead focused on the vaguer goal of seeking stability in the Middle East.

The Foreign Ministry did not deny that it was sending a representative to Manama for the conference on maritime and aviation security. In a terse statement sent to The Times of Israel, the ministry said: “Israel participates in the post-Warsaw process.”

The ongoing criminal probes against Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are reaching their climax. After conducting a marathon four-day pre-indictment hearing for Netanyahu earlier this month, Israel’s Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit reportedly intends to complete his review of the state prosecution’s cases and decide whether to indict Israel’s longest-serving prime minister by the end of next month. The main charges against Netanyahu relate to his associations with media owners.

For three years, illegal leaks from the investigations have dominated the news. The key question – indeed, just about the only question – that has been endlessly discussed is whether or not Mendelblit will end Netanyahu’s political career by indicting him on corruption charges.

The importance of this question is self-evident. On the one hand, we have a democratically elected leader. On the other hand, we have unelected state prosecutors who wish to oust him from power by indicting him.

For nearly a year, Israeli politics have been in a state of chaos because of the criminal probes. The probes played a central role in the April Knesset elections and arguably were the primary reason that Netanyahu failed to form a coalition despite his electoral victory. Today the probes and Mendelblit’s deliberations are the primary reason that no one can form a government in the wake of last month’s repeat elections. If Israel holds a third election in the coming months, the probes will again be the central issue determining both the result and the ability of whoever wins to form a government. The center-left Blue and White party is using the probes as an excuse to refuse to join a coalition government with Netanyahu.

While the probes’ impact on Netanyahu’s political future is a key question, and on the composition of the next government is certainly a big deal, neither of these issues is the central matter than hangs in the balance as Mendelblit holds his deliberations.

If Israel’s attorney general relies on these probes as a means to end Netanyahu’s career, he will do far more than overthrow a political leader. He will embrace a legal doctrine that rejects the very essence of democracy.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has until Thursday before the mandate he was given last month to form a coalition needs to be returned to President Reuven Rivlin. With the few days left – including tomorrow, which is Simhat Torah – Netanyahu needs to do everything possible to succeed and that includes, first and foremost, ridding himself of his right-wing bloc.

After the election on September 17, Netanyahu recognized that with Likud one seat shy of Blue and White there was a greater chance that Benny Gantz would be tasked with forming the next coalition. In addition, in the event that the only option would be a unity government, Gantz, with that extra seat, would be able to lay claim to serving as prime minister first, something Netanyahu could not allow.

The order of who serves first in the event of a rotation is not set in law and is based on the outcome of the negotiations between the different sides. Nevertheless, it does have a precedent. In 1984, after national elections, there was political deadlock. Labor won 44 seats and Likud won 41. Left with no choice but a unity government, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Shamir agreed to split the premiership. Peres, who had more seats, went first. Shamir, who had three fewer, went second.

Based on that precedent, Gantz has a legitimate argument to make that the largest party is the victor and therefore its leader should serve – in a unity government – as the first prime minister. To prevent that from happening, immediately after the election Netanyahu aligned himself with Yamina and the haredi Shas and UTJ parties, asking their leaders to sign letters of allegiance to him that they would stick by Likud no matter what.

Bennett added that "Netanyahu may not be perfect, but he has been a very good prime minister for Israel and its security and has been persecuted and demonized from day one by the leftists in the media and academia."

According to Bennett, "because Netanyahu is now at his most difficult moment, I have decided to help as much as I can."

The Sept. 17 election ended with a hung parliament, with neither Likud or Blue and White getting enough seats to form a government with its ideological allies.

The only realistic option is to form a unity government under some kind of power-sharing arrangement, but so far negotiations have stalled because Blue and White has been unwilling to have Netanyahu serve as prime minister for the next two years, citing his potential indictment in the three corruption cases.

Netanyahu was tapped by President Reuven Rivlin to form a government and he has until Wednesday to do so. But Netanyahu is unlikely to be able to swear in a government and win a confidence vote on time, meaning that Rivlin will likely tap Blue and White Chairman Benny Gantz to do so.

If Gantz fails, and no MK garners the signatures of 61 lawmakers within 21 days, Israel would have to hold another election.

President Trump – like bemused Israeli voters – is frustrated by an electoral system that has failed to produce a new Government following elections in April and September.

After April’s fiasco – Trump opined:
“Well, it’s too bad what happened in Israel. It looked like a total win for Netanyahu, who’s a great guy, he’s a great guy,” said the president. “And now they’re back… in the election stage. That is too bad. Because they don’t need this. I mean they’ve got enough turmoil over there, it’s a tough place.”

That turmoil continued in September and could be repeated following any third election.

Trump’s deal of the century – years in the making and designed to end the 100 years Jewish-Arab conflict – will not be released until a new Israeli Government has been formed.

Liberman’s failure to sign up his 8 seats with the 55 seats aligned with Netanyahu continues to confound the democratic electoral process – when a party not securing a majority of seats in its own right can usually form a Government with a small party’s support – in return for granting that small party some of its political demands.

A full recount of the votes cast in the September 17 elections – if still legally available – could be just the miracle Israel needs to get out of its current predicament.

Clutching at straws maybe – but certainly well worth pursuing.

To speak about Kurds has suddenly become a cry in favor of human rights and self-determination by the Western press, and rightly so: The assault they are suffering is lethal and may become genocidal. More frightening is that it is being perpetrated by the Turks, who are already stained by the Armenian genocide and led by a leader who considers himself an almighty sultan. And it’s really odd that Europe is only now discovering who he really is.

How can this be? Didn’t Europe know that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan during these last 16 years in power has been possessed by a vicious fundamentalist Islamic and imperialist dream, repeatedly displayed unprecedented arrogance (he has closed newspapers and thrown more than 150,000 dissidents in prison), and expressed extreme ideas that have systematically dismantled the precious Kemalist heritage that once made Turkey the hope of a bridge between the Islamic world and the West? Didn’t Europe see that he inundated the world with slogans and antisemitic standpoints corroborated by his friendship with Hamas? That he supported former Egypt President Mohammad Morsi as leader of the Muslim Brotherhood — a man he praised being himself the greatest Muslim Brotherhood politician in office? Is it coincidence that Erdoğan allowed the passage from his country of thousands of Islamic fundamentalists in possession of whatever passport to boost ISIS, which many claim he supported through trade and furnished with weapons?

His hatred of the Kurds, identifying them all with the Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK), is one of the signs of the dangerous character of the man who hasn’t hesitated — and won’t hesitate again now — to threaten Europe with opening Turkey’s borders and flooding Europe with millions of refugees.

The Kurds are a divided population, disillusioned and sometimes even struggling with each other, often split by multiple geographical and political divisions (Abdullah Ocalan was certainly a leader, but also a Communist and a terrorist). Still, they are also a persecuted, courageous, and special population with respect to their yearning to aim for equality between the sexes and to practice it as much as they can. Moreover, the Kurds are in favor of democracy and a positive relationship with the West and also Israel, whose citizens in these days — in opposition with US President Donald Trump’s decision to pull out of Syria and abandon its Kurdish allies — are demonstrating in their favor on the streets. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has also lent words of support to the Kurds.

Once again, the Kurds preferred to remain "the other", rejecting pan-Turanism as an excuse for ethnic Apartheid at their expense. That made them targets for attacks by pan-Turkist and pan-Turanist thinkers who designated the Kurds as enemies. Pan-Turanists had replaced the word Ummah (Islamic community) with Khalq (People) to designate the nation. The Basmachi terrorist movement led by Enver Pasha, a hero of pan-Turkism and possibly an agent of British Intelligence, even denied the existence of a Kurdish people, inventing the term "Mountain Turks" instead.

Suspicion and hatred of Kurds led to more and more repression, to the point that by the mid-1960s even the use of the word "Kurd" in publications and/or public discourse had become an offense punishable by law. In the 1960s, a new movement, known as "Grey Wolves" (Bozkurtlar in Turkish), later led by Alparsalan Turkesh, was even advocating ethnic cleansing armed at moving large chunks of the Kurdish community out of their ancestral lands in eastern Anatolia to other parts of Asia Minor. One scheme discussed was to replace the expelled Kurds with "Turkic" Muslims, notably ethnic Albanians, from Yugoslavia where the Communist regime was also interested in ethnic cleansing against Muslims in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Macedonia. The scheme died after it was met with strong opposition from a chunk of Turkish political elite in Ankara and Iran under the Shah.

In its current avatar as Islamic Republic, Iran has adopted a sympathetic posture vis-à-vis Erdogan's anti-Kurdish war. An editorial published by Fars News, an organ of the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) last week, urges sympathy for Erdogan because of his "anti-Zionist speech at the UN General Assembly and defense of the suffering Palestinian nation". It praises Erdogan's "humanitarian efforts to break the siege of Gaza". More importantly, the IRGC editorial says Erdogan ignored Turkey's secular system by providing free land and a check of $1 million for the construction of "the huge Zayn al-Abedin Shiite mosque" in Istanbul.

Erdogan's efforts to ethnically cleanse the Syrian Kurds may not be justifiable, but one must appreciate the Turkish leader's "personal presence in the 500,000-person assembly of mourners for Imam Hussein in Istanbul."

In other words, one can commit genocide as long as one makes a speech in favor of Palestine and attends a Shi'ite chest-beating ceremony.

This is how some in our region see the world in this bizarre world of the 21st century.

The national media blasted President Trump’s withdrawal of 50 US military advisors from the Syrian border with Turkey as a “sellout,” a “betrayal” and a “huge strategic blunder.”

Let’s be clear: None of them truly care about the Kurds. Otherwise, they would have been sending correspondents and camera crews to Rojava, as the Kurds call northern Syria, on a regular basis.

Let’s also be clear about the goals of Turkish president Tayyip Recep Erdogan. While he attempted to stylize his military invasion of Rojava as a counterterrorism operation, few international observers bought into it. Why? Because there have been no terror attacks against Turkey from Syrian territory since the Syrian Kurds established their self-governing entity in 2012. None.

Erdogan is not even remotely interested in fighting ISIS, or in taking responsibility for the estimated 12,000 ISIS fighters currently in Kurdish custody at the al-Hol refugee camp. What actually happens to those ISIS prisoners, and the fate of Christian and Yazidi minorities, will be key measures of the agreement hammered out by Vice President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo with Erdogan on Thursday.

The humanitarian disaster that unfolded this past week helped to paint Erdogan as notorious a mass murderer as Saddam Hussein. And it was to Erdogan’s legacy that the president appealed in his private, and now public, letter to the Turkish president as the crisis unfolded.

Erdogan’s real goal with this invasion was to smash Kurdish self-government, and those 50 US advisors were the last thing in his way.

But let’s be clear about US goals, too. Our advisors were not in northern Syria to defend a Kurdish government but to fight ISIS. The fight to smash the ISIS caliphate is over, and we won.

Indeed, the piercing criticism from Capitol Hill, and in particular from the president's fellow Republicans in both the Senate and the House of Representatives, of his decision to abandon America's Kurdish partners in the struggle against the Islamic State both surprised and frustrated the American hegemon, exposing weaknesses in the decision-making process at the highest level of the US government. And so despite the fact that Trump quickly came to his senses, imposing economic sanctions on and issuing blatant threats against Ankara, it was Trump's decision to relay the message to Erdogan in a highly undiplomatic manner that made the tone and not the content of the message the focus of internal and international debate. This despite the fact that the sanctions did, in fact, serve their purpose, paving the way for the formulation of a ceasefire agreement that has thus far helped prevent the realization of the nightmare scenario of ethnic cleansing in the Kurdish stronghold critics of the withdrawal hoped to avoid.

Moreover, the fact that the withdrawal was met with widespread public and congressional protest raised questions regarding the 45th president's ability to lead a united Republican camp ahead of a presidential election in the face of challenges at home, in the form, for example of the ongoing efforts to impeach Trump. Yet on this particular front, it appears the threat posed to Trump's status as the undisputed leader of the Republicans is negligible at best.

As the electorate's decision will be based primarily on the assessment of the executive branch's function and achievements both domestically and abroad, the current Democratic frontrunners set to challenge Trump – Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), former Vice President Joe Biden and Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) – don't appear to pose much of a threat. Warren appears to be particularly vulnerable to attack given her support for policies that would befit a Scandinavian welfare state and are light-years away from the firmly established American ethos of individualism and free enterprise.

The question then is whether the Oval Office will take advantage of the window of opportunity afforded to it by its weak Democratic opponent, and whether America's disengagement from the Syrian battlefield will create a chain reaction that will force not just its rival but its partners and allies to draw the necessary conclusions and reorganize in light of the administration's determination to withdraw further and further into the American continent.

The ceasefire that the US claimed it had helped bring in on Thursday did not seem to hold the next day. Turkey viewed it as a “pause” in military operations and Turkish-backed groups on the ground didn’t seem to have to adhere to it. This leaves Syrian civilians, including many Kurds, in the crossfire in towns such as Sere Kaniye.

The unraveling of US policy on Syria is continuing almost two weeks after US President Donald Trump decided to withdraw US troops from the border with Turkey and enable a Turkish invasion that targeted US partners on the ground. These partners were part of the Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), a group the US helped create in 2015 and which the US trained around 100,000 members of. However the US decided that its Turkish ally could then bomb and bombard the same group it was training. Now Washington, caught in this unclear policy, is struggling to put the toothpaste back in the tube. It has not succeeded, despite sending Vice-President Mike Pence and Secretary of State Mike going to Turkey.

By Saturday evidence was mounting that civilians had suffered “chemical burns” during the Turkish offensive into eastern Syria. The town of Sere Kaniye has been under siege for days and Turkey is asserting that it will “crush the heads” of anyone who resists its continued operations. The United States, which had been working with the SDF before opening the airspace to have them bombed and their families forced from their homes, was able to condemn an attack on a mosque in Afghanistan but could not bring itself to condemn that widespread attacks on civilian areas in northern Syria.

Among the mounting evidence of war crimes is the autopsy report for Hevrin Khalaf, a female politician. She was murdered by Turkish-backed groups operating in Syria, dragged by her hair until parts of her scalp were ripped out. Meanwhile US troops are still withdrawing from eastern Syria, an area they had been operating in against ISIS and had helped secure over the last five years. Civilians looking to the American flag for protection have seen it quietly vanish from outposts and vehicles that used to be a normal sight.

US forces withdrew from their largest base in northern Syria on Sunday, a monitor said, as Turkey accused Kurdish forces of killing one of its soldiers in fighting that tested a fragile truce.

Ankara launched a cross-border attack against Syria’s Kurds on October 9 after the United States announced a military pullout from the north of the war-torn country.

A US-brokered ceasefire was announced late Thursday, giving Kurdish forces until Tuesday evening to withdraw from a “safe zone” Ankara wants to create along its southern frontier.

The Kurds have been a key ally to Washington in the US-backed fight against Islamic State group jihadists in Syria, but Turkey views them as “terrorists” linked to Kurdish militants on its own soil.

On Sunday, an AFP correspondent saw more than 70 US armored vehicles escorted by helicopters drive past the northern Syrian town of Tal Tamr carrying military equipment.

One Turkish soldier was killed and another was wounded on Sunday after an attack by the Syrian Kurdish YPG militia in northeast Syria's Tel Abyad, the defense ministry said, despite a deal to pause military operations as militants withdraw from the area.

President Tayyip Erdogan agreed on Thursday in talks with U.S. Vice President Mike Pence a five-day pause in the offensive to allow time for the Kurdish fighters to withdraw from a "safe zone" Turkey aims to form in northeast Syria near its border.

On Saturday, the truce was holding along the border, with just a few Turkish military vehicles crossing, a Reuters reporter at the scene said. But Sunday's attack has underlined how fragile the agreement is.

With years of relative calm on Israel's northern border, now the IDF is closely monitoring the return of the Assad forces in the Golan Heights.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and other senior Congressional Democrats – Foreign Affairs committee chairman Eliot Engel, Homeland Security Committee chairman Bennie Thompson, Intelligence committee chairman Adam Schiff and Representative Mac Thornberry – as well as Mac Thornberry, the ranking Republican on the Armed Services Committee, on Saturday met with His Majesty King Abdullah, who was accompanied by His Royal Highness Crown Prince Al Hussein bin Abdullah II, in a polite clash of political interests: namely the king’s guests were adamant against President Donald trump’s pullout of US troops from Turkey’s border with Syria, and His Majesty refused to add his voice to their criticism.

For Instance, Pelosi issued a statement saying that the visit was at “a critical time for the security and stability of the region,” explaining that “with the deepening crisis in Syria after Turkey’s incursion, our delegation has engaged in vital discussions about the impact to regional stability, increased flow of refugees, and the dangerous opening that has been provided to ISIS, Iran and Russia.”

On Thursday, Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer called the Trump-Erdogan deal a “sham,” and argued it “seriously undermines the credibility of America’s foreign policy and sends a dangerous message to our allies and adversaries alike that our word cannot be trusted.”

But all the king’s Saturday press release said was that the American delegation “expressed keenness to hear the King’s perspective on regional and global developments, adding that they are pleased to be present in Jordan as the Kingdom marks 20 years since His Majesty assumed his constitutional powers.”

This latest visit comes on the heels of another Congressional delegation visit just eleven days ago ["08-Oct-19: Again: Jordan's inscrutable US relationship"] In addition, Ms Pelosi has had several other meetings with the Jordanian king this year including in March [here] and in April [here]. Plenty of opportunity for a senior US political figure to express concern about justice thwarted, no?

We're going to make efforts to see what Ms Pelosi said to Jordan's absolute ruler today about why he demeans the extradition treaty his father King Hussein signed with the Clinton administration in 1995. We realize our track record in getting members of Congress to respond to questions like this is not very good. But we're certainly not giving up.

Meanwhile we're wondering:
- Do Congressional delegations to Jordan get briefed by the State Department before they take off?
- Do the State Department or the Justice Department inform Amman-bound Cogressional visitors about the years-long pursuit of Tamimi, a jihadist in the service of Hamas who is astoundingly a free-as-a-bird celebrity living openly, not in hiding, in Jordan's capital, and the presenter for five years (starting February 2012) of a pro-terrorism TV show broadcast from Amman throughout the world?
- Does Ms Pelosi know who Malki Roth was, and what was done to her by the Jordanian terrorist when she was 15 years old?
- Does she know who Ahlam Tamimi is, what she stands for and where she lives?
- Does she, and do the other members of her delegation, know why the FBI has her on its Most Wanted Terrorists list?
- Assuming the answer is no, will Attorney-General Barr and Ambassador Nathan Sales (the State Department's Counterterrorism Coordinator) please brief them now? And ensure future Congressional visitors to Jordan get the same briefing before they leave Washington?

And this. Why are you learning about the Congressional visit from the blog of a pair of bereaved parents seeking justice for the on-the-run killer of their child, and not from the mainstream news?

The Israel Defense Forces will cooperate with the Shin Bet security service and Israel Police to track down the young Israeli men involved in Saturday night’s attack on IDF soldiers outside the Yitzhar settlement in the northern West Bank, the army said Sunday.

Also Sunday, a Border Police battalion was ordered to take up position near the Yitzhar settlement as a deterrent against further violent activities by residents of the outposts in the area, Israel’s Kan broadcaster reported. This could not be immediately confirmed by police.

The border guards made a similar deployment in April 2014, after a string of attacks and acts of vandalism from the Yitzhar settlement and surrounding outposts, including one case in which residents attacked an IDF encampment.

On Sunday morning, IDF Chief of Staff Aviv Kohavi released a statement denouncing the previous night’s attack on IDF troops outside Yitzhar, saying it was “unconscionable” for Israeli settlers to attack the soldiers who are charged with defending them.

“Kohavi rejects and condemns the attack against IDF soldiers and views the criminal behavior that was seen in the past week in the Samaria region with the utmost severity. The chief of staff has ordered that all those involved be located and brought to justice. The chief of staff determines that it is unconscionable that IDF soldiers, who work day and night to protect settlers, should be attacked by those whom they defend,” the army said in a statement.

Masked Israeli settlers were filmed hurling stones at Palestinian farmers and stealing their olives on Saturday in footage provided by the Yesh Din rights group.

The Palestinian Red Crescent said three farmers from the northern West Bank town of Burin were hospitalized after they were beaten with clubs by Israeli youth. They were released later Saturday afternoon.

After chasing the farmers from their plot, the over two dozen Israeli youth who reached Burin from the neighboring Givat Ronen outpost stole a sheet used for collecting olives, a large bag of olives, and personal belongings, a Yesh Din field worker reported.

After a group of Palestinian youth returned to the scene, clashes broke out between them and the settlers, with both sides hurling stones at one another.

Tens of thousands of Lebanese protesters of all ages gathered Sunday in major cities and towns nationwide, with each hour bringing hundreds more people to the streets for the largest anti-government protests yet in four days of demonstrations.

Protesters danced and sang in the streets, some waving Lebanese flags and chanting “the people want to bring down the regime.” In the morning, young men and women carried blue bags and cleaned the streets of the capital, Beirut, picking up trash left behind by the previous night’s protests.

The spontaneous mass demonstrations are Lebanon’s largest in five years, spreading beyond Beirut. They are building on long-simmering anger at a ruling class that has divvied up power among themselves and amassed wealth for decades but has done little to fix a crumbling economy and dilapidated infrastructure.

The unrest erupted after the government proposed new taxes, part of stringent austerity measures amid a growing economic crisis. The protests have brought people from across the sectarian and religious lines that define the country.

The recent Labour Party conference has done nothing to allay the fears of the Jewish community at the prospect of a Corbyn-led government. In fact, everyone with an interest in Britain’s future should be seriously concerned.

When Jeremy Corbyn was a backbench member of Parliament, he lobbied the British government and the European Union to “end the trade with Israel.” He repeatedly called on the world to “isolate Israel” and to impose “sanctions against Israel.” As a lifelong anti-Israel activist, Corbyn has led some of the largest anti-Israel organizations and demonstrations in the world, not to mention his referring to certain terrorist groups who seek Israel’s destruction as his “friends.”

Corbyn’s hostility toward Israel in the past shows that if he was to become prime minister in the future, there is a real threat to the United Kingdom’s relationship with the Jewish state.

The United Kingdom currently benefits from a close partnership with Israel. Any damage to this relationship deployed by a future Corbyn government would have devastating consequences.

The two countries have one of the closest intelligence-sharing operations in the world. The intelligence given to the United Kingdom by Israel has helped prevent numerous terror attacks in Britain and Europe, including the discovery of a Hezbollah explosives stockpile in London in 2015 that was discovered thanks to Israeli intelligence.

High-level security experts, such as retired British army officer Col. Richard Kemp, have warned that crucial intelligence-sharing and military cooperation will cease under a Corbyn-led Labour government.

Dame @LouiseEllman says @JeremyCorbyn is a danger to Jews. This is because he will set off an approach to us that is racist and install it in positions of power - as already in @UKLabour.

He won’t murder us like Hitler, just make Jewish life impossible.pic.twitter.com/Ajop3LW4Mg

— Rabbi Zvi Solomons 🕎 (@RabbiZvi) October 20, 2019

.@ArielElyseGold continues to show us all why she should delete her account https://t.co/2GXdl1HTzR

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 20, 2019

In at least two recent cases, articles in The New York Times by Israeli authors were greeted by responses from Times readers who insisted that a Jewish state should not exist.

The Times published a page of letters to the editor in response to my former Forward colleague Hillel Halkin’s review of Bari Weiss’s book about antisemitism. One of the letters comes from Wayne Price of the Bronx, who insists, “There should be no Jewish state, no Christian state, no Muslim state, no Hindu state, and not even an officially atheist state. If such a view leads to a rejection of Zionism, then so be it. Democratic anti-Zionism is not antisemitic.”

Why the Times considers this view worthy of print publication is a mystery to me, particularly because while no one is working to wipe Vatican City or Saudi Arabia off the map, the Jews of Israel are regularly the target of eliminationist rhetoric from a nation with a nuclear weapons program. Because Jews are not only members of a religion but also of a people, the letter-writer’s sentence is like saying there should be no French state, no Greek state, no Italian state. Mr. Price doesn’t explain how he’d assure the physical safety of Jews in the absence of a Jewish state. The historical record on that front isn’t exactly encouraging.

Israeli soldiers didn't simply "shoot dead" a Palestinian. @Reuters, your own story makes it clear he ran towards them armed with a knife in an attempted attack. So why the #HeadlineFail? https://t.co/4Djp2VjFuzpic.twitter.com/NqFAkSWUdI

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 20, 2019

No @Telegraph@NickSquires1, Israel's relations with other states are directed from Jerusalem, its capital city, not Tel Aviv. Please correct the error. https://t.co/JPfZKTgskkpic.twitter.com/bQyMgT6yKi

— HonestReporting (@HonestReporting) October 20, 2019

When the Nazis closed down the Bauhaus school they could not have foreseen it would have a huge impact on the first Hebrew city, Tel Aviv, so why did the curators of a new exhibition about Bauhaus claim ‘Zionists’ worked with Nazis?

Buhaus was a modernist approach to modern design and living that sought to place the everyday man and his needs at the center, preferring a clean and simple style. The meaning of the name is ‘Builders Hut’ and it was in sharp contrast with both previous German architecture that favored elaborate details and the Nazi view of massive architecture that, as Albert Speer said, was designed with the image of how it would look after a thousand years in mind.

Due to the involvement of Jewish-German people in the school’s work, some of the people behind it fled to pre-state Israel from the Nazis. Many of the early houses in Tel Aviv, known today as ‘The White City,’ were designed by them or their students.

Celebrating 100 years to the foundation of the Bauhaus movement, the city of Dessau opened the Bauhaus Museum in 2019 with an exhibition titled ‘The Transfer Agreement.”

Curated by Hila Cohen-Schneiderman and created in cooperation with the White City Center, the exhibition deals with the Haavara Agreement that enabled 50,000 German Jews to reach pre-state Israel in exchange of 150 mil Reichsmarks.

Writing about the exhibition, Yisrael Hayom claims artist Jonathan Touitou used notes from the 2007 book 'Overcoming Zionism' by the late US scholar Joel Kovel. In the exhibition, Touitou suggests ‘Right leaning Zionists’ are responsible to the 1929 Arab riots, that Jewish labor to develop agriculture allegedly poisoned the ground because of chemical fertilizers, and that the Kibbutz movement did not accept Arab members.

Antisemitic graffiti was discovered in Vilnius, Lithuania, last week on a project depicting Jewish life before World War II.

The project Walls That Remember is a series of murals on the walls of Vilnius’ former Jewish quarter that is based on photographs of ordinary people that lived in the Jewish community prior to World War II.

The project last Saturday posted on its Facebook page a photo of the graffiti, which was a Jewish Star of David crossed out, along with the message, “The people who did this must be found and held accountable for this hate crime. We believe Lithuania is a country that does not tolerate hatred. We will seek this case to be investigated by the Lithuanian police.”

The Lithuanian Jewish Community said on its website that the graffiti “is the latest in a series of acts of antisemitic vandalism of Jewish sites and statues in Vilnius and Lithuania.”

A former student of a San Francisco-area high school was arrested in connection with the painting of graffiti including swastikas on the walls of the school building.

Logan Stone, 20, who attended Burlingame High School, was taken into police custody on Thursday afternoon after police received a warrant to search his home, according to the Burlingame Police Department, J. The Jewish Journal of Northern California reported.

He will be charged with felony vandalism and hate crimes, according to the report.

The graffiti, painted in 10 different places on the building in early September hours before the school’s back-to-school night, was described by the school principal as “anti-Semitic, homophobic and racist.”

In recent days, Israeli defense corporation Rafael made a dramatic announcement, stating that it delivered on time the first batch of Trophy Active Protection System to the US Army.

Trophy, a system that was first deployed by the Israel Defense Forces in 2011 and which has intercepted many threats fired at Israeli armored vehicles, will be eventually be installed on-board four American M1 main battle tank brigades, for both the US Army and Marine Corps.

The fact that the world’s most powerful military chose an Israeli active protection system to protect the lives of its tank crews is historic.

In Israel, Trophy is installed onboard Mk3 and Mk4 Merkava tanks, and onboard the advanced Namer armored personnel vehicle. It has made many successful combat interceptions of anti-armor missiles and rockets, particularly those fired by Gazan terror factions, with no injuries to Israeli personnel or damage to platforms.

Trophy’s radar is made by Israel Aerospace Industries subsidiary, Elta.

Netta Barzilai, the 2018 Eurovision winner from Israel, was welcomed with open arms in China, where she performed her hit, “Nana Banana” before an audience of 500 million on Chinese television.

She performed on the show with Naomi Wang, the singer who has been dubbed “China’s Beyoncé.” Wang flaunts her tanned, freckled skin, which challenges the Chinese stereotype of the porcelain-skinned demure pop princess, just as Netta’s fuller figure is at odds with the image of the skinny singers who usually top the charts.

Netta, who triumphed at Eurovision in 2018 with, “Toy,” a defiant anthem of female empowerment, also performed at the 2019 contest and has had a successful career in Israel and abroad since her win. Her video for “Toy” received more than 20 million views even before she performed it on Eurovision.

The China performance is just the latest example of how her fame has spread all over the world, far beyond Europe and the Middle East. Recently, the postal service of Chad issued stamps that pay tribute to Eurovision featuring two images of Netta. Chad recently renewed diplomatic relations with Israel.

It has also been reported that Netta will have a role in a new Netflix movie about Eurovision starring Will Ferrell and Rachel McAdams.

Israel is set to send to the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo its largest delegation of athletes ever.

An estimated 85 athletes will be competing in 18 sports on behalf of the Jewish state. Vered Buskila, vice president of the Olympic Committee of Israel, told the news site NoCamels, “This is a crazy number by Israeli standards. That’s something that we never thought could happen in the near future.”

Buskila explained that more athletes have yet to qualify including those in sports like track & field and swimming.

This year Israel’s baseball team made it to the Olympics for the first time in its history after beating South Africa 11-1 in a qualifying tournament, which added another 24 athletes to the Israeli delegation.

“This is the ultimate dream come true,” said Peter Kurz, Israel Association of Baseball president and general manager of Team Israel, in a statement on the IAB website. “It was almost too impossible to imagine but with the astounding performances of a dedicated team that always believed in itself.”

“Life’s most persistent and urgent question is, what are you doing for others?”
~ MLK Jr.

In the largest military volunteering effort in Israeli history, these IDF cadets spent the day volunteering in Soroka hospital. pic.twitter.com/4gyMoVkZNc

— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) October 20, 2019

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned the mandate to form a government to President Reuven Rivlin minutes after the end of the Simhat Torah holiday on Monday night, and two nights before the deadline for him to build a coalition.

Rivlin, who has received the message from Netanyahu, will hold consultations with faction representatives who request to meet with him.

By law, the president has three days to give the mandate to Blue and White leader Benny Gantz.

Sources close to Gantz said they do not expect the mandate to be given before Wednesday.

Netanyahu released a video complaining that Gantz refused to negotiate with him. In the video, Netanyahu revealed that in addition to what is known to the public, he had initiated secret steps to build a unity government with Gantz.

The prime minister warned in the video that Gantz could form a minority government backed by the Joint List in a parliamentary safety net.

Netanyahu said that if Gantz built such a coalition, he would serve as head of the opposition.

“A minority government will be formed with the support of Joint List MKs who encourage terror and oppose Israel’s existence,” Netanyahu warned.

“How can a minority government led by Gantz and supported by these MKs fight terror?”

On Monday night, Israel's incumbent Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu returned the mandate given to him by President Reuven Rivlin to form a governing coalition, conceding his failure to do so as he celebrated his 70th birthday.

For the first time in 11 years, the lawmaker tasked with forming Israel’s next governing coalition is not Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Likud leader marked his 70th birthday Monday evening by informing Reuven Rivlin that, after 26 frustrating days, he was returning the mandate to build the next government that the president had given him after September’s elections.

Blue and White chairman Benny Gantz, about to be given the same improbable mission, is now in the driver’s seat.

This is the exact scenario that Gantz, the IDF chief turned politician, has been awaiting since the results of September 17’s inconclusive election started to sink in.

After Rivlin’s late September consultations with the various parties where he heard their choices for prime minister, the Joint List alliance of majority-Arab parties claimed that Blue and White had asked its hardline Balad sub-faction to hold off on suggesting to Rivlin that Gantz be tasked with forming the government.

Gantz thus ended up with 54 recommendations: 33 from his own Blue and White party, 10 from the rest of the Joint List, six from Labor and five from the Democratic Camp. That was one crucial supporter fewer than the 55 endorsements Netanyahu received, with 32 from Likud, nine from Shas, seven from Yamina, and seven from United Torah Judaism.

Six months ago, when Israel went to the polls for the first time, Gaza was front and center. It’s not much different this time, except that the threats posed by Iran and Hezbollah cannot be ignored – especially following the American withdrawal from Syria, which opens up a significant amount of territory to Israel’s enemies.

In April, tanks and thousands of soldiers were deployed along the border with the Hamas-run Gaza Strip after long-range rocket fire towards the center of the country. In May, the focus was on the northern border after, according to foreign reports, Israel expanded air strikes to both Lebanon and Iraq against Hezbollah and Iranian targets.

But will his dovish political leanings make him any less powerful as a prime minister – when facing enemies who have vowed the destruction of his country?

Unlikely.

Netanyahu has kept the status quo in Israel’s South, which has been pounded by thousands of rockets in the past year alone, responding with targeted air strikes against Hamas targets and militants. While he’s been able to prevent another war with terror groups in Gaza, residents in Israel’s South have been contending with daily violence along the border fence.

Gantz, who was chief of staff during Operation Protective Edge in 2014, has ripped into Netanyahu’s handling of the Strip, saying that “other than advancing the building of the barrier along the Gaza border, nothing has been done.”

In the North, Gantz has called Hezbollah “the most dangerous terrorist organization in the world” and has stated that he stands “shoulder-to-shoulder” with Netanyahu against Iran, about which, as “IDF former Chief of Staff, I saw first-hand, precise information regarding what is really happening in Iran.”

During a rare flareup of violence along the Lebanese border two weeks before the second general election, Gantz suspended his campaign, writing on Twitter that “There is no opposition and no coalition in an operation against anyone who tries to harm the citizens of Israel or its sovereignty.”

So, while Israel’s newest Benjamin is a breath of fresh air for a country that has been ruled by the current Benjamin for so long, he will likely take a harsh stance against Israel’s enemies – and Israel’s security will not be eroded.

The International Judo Federation (IJF) said Tuesday it had banned Iran from competition indefinitely over the country’s refusal to face Israeli competitors.

The federation issued a provisional ban last month while investigating a report that Iran had ordered a judoka to lose deliberately at the world championships to avoid facing Israeli competitor Sagi Muki in the subsequent round.

“Following the events, which occurred during the last World Judo Championships Tokyo 2019, the final suspension of the Iran Judo Federation from all competitions… has been pronounced,” the IJF said in a statement.

The IJF said the suspension will remain in place until the Iran Judo Federation “gives strong guarantees and proves that they will respect the IJF Statutes and accept that their athletes fight against Israeli athletes.”

Iranian fighter Saeid Mollaei, defending his title at the Tokyo World Championships in August, had said he was ordered to throw his semifinal rather than risk facing an Israeli in the final of the under 81kg class.

The Iranian, 27, lost the semifinal and then went on to lose his third-place fight.

Mollaei said he had been instructed to withdraw from the competition by the presidents of the Iran Judo Federation and the Iran Olympic committee.

Senator Elizabeth Warren (D., Mass.) took a hard line on Israel Saturday saying "everything is on the table" in imposing a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict.

"It is the official policy of the United States of America to support a two-state solution, and if Israel is moving in the opposite direction, then everything is on the table," Warren said during a press availability with reporters Saturday.

In a formulation more commonly deployed by previous presidents in threatening the use of force against America’s enemies, Warren repeated the phrase but did not clarify precisely what pressure—military or otherwise—might be brought to bear.

"Right now, [Israeli prime minister Benjamin] Netanyahu says he is going to take Israel in a direction of increasing settlements, [but] that does not move us in the direction of a two-state solution," Warren was quoted as saying.

Warren's remarks come as the left wing of the Democratic Party has increasingly embraced boycotts of the Jewish state.

Her remarks are likely to raise eyebrows in the Jewish and pro-Israel communities, which, while largely Democratic, continue to favor the U.S. alliance with the region's only democracy.

Democratic presidential hopeful Pete Buttigieg said over the weekend that he would consider using American military aid to “leverage” Israel to change its policies toward the Palestinians.

Speaking at the University of Chicago on Friday, the South Bend mayor indicated that, as president, he would not allow the US to grant the same amount of aid to Israel were it to annex West Bank settlements, as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to do.

During a question-and-answer session at the South Side campus, a freshman and activist with the Jewish anti-occupation group IfNotNow asked if the candidate would make aid to Israel contingent upon ending the occupation.

“I think that the aid is leverage to guide Israel in the right direction,” Buttigieg said. “If, for example, there is follow-through on these threats of annexation, I’m committed to ensuring that the US is not footing the bill for that.”

He suggested that pressuring Israel to preserve the possibility of a two-state solution was in its long-term interest of remaining a Jewish democracy.

The former Texas congressman responded by accusing Trump of being inspired by Joseph Goebbels, one of Hitler's most loyal associates, and the propaganda of the Third Reich, saying Trump seems to "employ this tactic that the bigger the lie the more obscene the injustice, the more dizzying the pace of this bizarre behavior, the less likely we are to do something about it."

Sharpton followed up to ask O'Rourke whether he heard him correctly that he compared Trump to the Third Reich.

O'Rourke then listed off Trump administration policies similar to the Third Reich, including family separation and Trump's comments after the Charlottesville protests.

"Alright, you clearly said it's the Third Reich," Sharpton said before switching to another topic.

This isn't the first time O'Rourke has compared the Trump administration to the Third Reich. Earlier in the week, O'Rourke spoke at an event where he repeated the same talking points.

"It is hard outside of the Third Reich to find another example in modern human history of a leader, of a modern democracy saying that one people of one religion are inherently dangerous or disqualified or defective and yet that's what our president did," O'Rourke said.

As Democrat Amy McGrath was laying the groundwork for her Senate bid, she attended a dinner hosted by the Kentucky chapter of a radical anti-Israel organization that has been tied to funding of global terror networks.

The Kentucky chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, known best as CAIR, posted multiple pictures of McGrath in attendance at its annual dinner on May 11, 2019. She is currently featured in the main photo of the group's Facebook page.

McGrath launched her long-shot bid to unseat Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell in early July. Her first filing shows, however, that the campaign was already in swing at the time of the May dinner, with staff on payroll and large contributions already filling its coffer.

The McGrath campaign defended the CAIR dinner as an "interfaith event."

"Amy attended an interfaith event joined by a rabbi and a Baptist preacher and sponsored by the University of Kentucky," McGrath’s campaign manager Mark Nickolas said.

The Muslim advocacy group has well-documented ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood. CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator by the U.S. Department of Justice after an investigation into how American charity networks were used to provide material support to Hamas. In 2014, the United Arab Emirates officially designated CAIR a terrorist organization.

Nothing to see here, just Erdogan’s TRT state television doing nothing other than promoting US Rep Ilhan Qatar (@IlhanMN) and asking everyone to donate to her campaign. Next is the promotion of @lsarsour Read my article on the Qatar-Ilhan Media romance: https://t.co/r0ZZmzztwYpic.twitter.com/ZeR3XhD1Jo

— Imam of Peace (@Imamofpeace) October 20, 2019

If, according to Hamas, Turkey has the right to protect its border, why does Israel not have the same right?

Hamas's support for Erdogan's war on the Kurds seems to be in the context of its attempt to persuade the Turkish authorities to allow its members to continue using Turkey as a base for masterminding terrorist attacks against Israel.

As Hamas said in its statement, it is opposed to the "US and Israeli presence in the region." Hamas seems to be happy that the US abandoned the Kurds and left northern Syria. Hamas does not want the US to play any political or military role in the region....

It now remains to be seen how Erdogan will reward Hamas for supporting his war on the Kurds. Hamas, meanwhile, is holding its breath, hoping that Turkey will embrace the group and facilitate its fight against Israel.

"In the outskirts of Aleppo, the FSA [Free Syrian Army] has implemented a Sharia law enforcement police force that is a replica of the Wahhabi police in Saudi Arabia — forcing ordinary citizens to abide by the Sharia code..."— HuffPost, December 31, 2012.

Trained and funded by Turkey since 2016 and with a reputation for violence and looting, the fighters of the Syrian National Army (SNA, formerly the Free Syrian Army) resemble very much the Ottoman bashibazouks.

"Elizabeth Tsurkov, a fellow at the U.S.-based Foreign Policy Research Institute who has interviewed dozens of the fighters and said they appear to be driven by a desire for power and money rather than by any specific ideology... 'Hatred of Kurds, a sense of Arab chauvinism, complete intolerance for any dissent, and just a desire to make a profit is what's driving most of the abuses.'"— Associated Press, October 15, 2019.

During Turkey's most recent, ongoing, military incursion into Syria, launched on October 9, SNA militias captured a major highway that runs across northern Syria. According to Associated Press, "The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a Britain-based war monitor, said the Turkey-backed fighters shot and killed six civilians along the road, including Hevreen Khalaf, a woman who led a Kurdish political party."

In an October 19, 2019 article titled "Turkey Stood Tall And The Crusaders Fell To Their Knees!"[1]in Turkey's Yeni Akit daily, Turkish journalist Harun Sekmen said of Turkey's recent invasion of northeast Syria that "Turkey, under the leadership of commander-in-chief [Turkish President Recep Tayyip] Erdoğan, delivered an Ottoman slap to the insolent U.S.... and to the Crusader world... With this success, our country announced to the whole cosmos that it is both a regional and a global power." Sekmen quoted Turkish professor Dr. Gökmen Kantar as saying: "Our country's decisive manner pressed the U.S. into a corner and gave us everything we wanted." Regarding the 120-hour ceasefire in the invasion to which the Turkish and U.S. governments agreed on October 17,[2] Sekmen quoted journalist Murat Akan as saying: "'Turkey did not take a step back. On the contrary, a time limit has been given to the United States. Turkey has become a country that makes its voice heard. Turkey's hand has become stronger in every way. After this, the Syria issue cannot be solved without Turkey."

Following is a translation of the text of Sekmen's article:
"Turkey, Under The Leadership Of Commander-In-Chief Erdoğan, Delivered An Ottoman Slap To The Insolent U.S.... And To The Crusader World"

"Turkey, under the leadership of commander-in-chief Erdoğan, delivered an Ottoman slap to the insolent U.S., which thinks itself to be the world police, and to the Crusader world, which came out against Operation Peace Fountain. While those who have gone mad with rage as the situation turns in our favor are panicking, experts say that we have won a historic victory. The U.S., which was panicking in the wake of Operation Peace Fountain, was forced to accept whatever Turkey said. Turkey, which reflected at the [negotiating] table its power in the field, achieved a diplomatic victory not only against the U.S. but against the whole world. With this success, our country announced to the whole cosmos that it is both a regional and a global power.

"While the American opposition and press were badmouthing the Trump administration, they commented that Erdoğan had gotten everything that he wanted. Turkey, which is doing merciless battle against the FETÖ, ISIS, PKK, PYD/YPG terror organizations, showed to friend and foe that it would display the same decisive manner, no matter the cost. Political scientists and strategists evaluated for Akit the consensus that is being reached."

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban on Wednesday said his country would “use force” to protect its borders if Turkey followed through on its threat to “open the gates” of Europe to refugees.

Orban, a staunch opponent of mass migration, made the comments during an appearance on Hungary’s HirTV.

“The next weeks will decide what Turkey does with these people,” Orban said, referencing the 3.6 million Syrian refugees Turkey is currently hosting.

At the peak of the migration crisis in 2015, hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees entered Europe by way of the Balkan route. Hungary, which was on the frontlines of that wave, implemented strict border controls and a fence across its border.

Turkey agreed to take in many of those refugees and ease the burden on Europe when it signed a deal with the EU in 2016 to seal off the Aegean route. But Turkey has received international condemnation for its invasion of northeast Syria following President Trump’s decision to withdraw U.S. forces there.

Last week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatened to unleash refugees into Europe if the EU called Turkey’s invasion of Syria an “occupation.”

“We will open the gates and send 3.6 million refugees your way,” Erdogan reportedly said while speaking with officials from his ruling AK Party, according to Reuters.

A passerby was seriously injured overnight Monday-Tuesday after his car caught fire when it was hit by a Molotov cocktail thrown at police in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Issawiya, the Israel Police said in a statement Tuesday.

Officers pulled the man from the burning vehicle and took him to the hospital in a patrol car.

A policeman was also lightly injured as he helped drag the man out of the car, and was treated at the scene.

The incident happened as security forces clashed with rioters in Issawiya.

Police entered the neighborhood in force after receiving reports of Molotov cocktails thrown at vehicles traveling on the Jerusalem-Ma’ale Adumim highway, which runs adjacent to the neighborhood.

Rioters had also attacked officers already stationed in Issawiya, the statement said.

Today @benshapiro visited the #TempleMount, but was forced off after Islamists, whose goal is to erase the undeniable Jewish connection to the Mount, started yelling "Allahu Akbar" at his group.

Evidently Islamists don't know that facts don't care about their feelings. pic.twitter.com/U5jwl6SzJE

— Im Tirtzu (@IMTIzionism) October 20, 2019

The Jordanian authorities have foiled a plot by ISIS to carry out terrorist attacks in the kingdom, the Jordanian newspaper Al-Ra’i reported on Monday.

Five members of the terrorist cell were arrested last July, according to a charge sheet presented to the State Security Court in Amman, the newspaper said.

According to the report, the suspects were planning to attack the guards stationed outside the home of a former Jordanian prime minister and seize their weapons.

At the beginning of their trial on Sunday, the suspects pleaded not guilty, the newspaper said.

The suspects are accused of conspiring to carry out terrorist attacks, including shooting at security patrols and kidnapping a Jordanian intelligence officer.

One of the suspects, according to the charge sheet, is a Syrian national living in Jordan known as an ISIS supporter.
At the beginning of this year, three of the other suspects, also known as ISIS supporters, attempted to infiltrate the border from Jordan into Syria to fight alongside the terrorist group. The attempt, however, failed due to the large presence of the Jordanian army along the border, the charge sheet said, according to the newspaper.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas arrived in Tokyo on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s enthronement of Japanese Emperor Naruhito, and met several high-ranking Japanese officials, the official PA news site Wafa reported.

Abbas and his entourage met Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi and Defense Minister Taro Kono.

“His excellency discussed the latest developments pertaining to the Palestinian cause and the region with the Japanese prime minister and bilateral relations between their countries,” Wafa reported, adding that Abbas thanked Abe for Japan’s “positions and efforts to support the Palestinian people.”

Tokyo has stated that it supports a two-state solution and has called on Israel and the Palestinians to participate in direct negotiations to achieve that end.
PA President Mahmoud Abbas and Japanese Defense Minister Taro Kono meeting on October 21, 2019 in Tokyo. (Credit: Wafa)

Since 1993, Japan has provided the Palestinians with aid valued at nearly two billion dollars, according to the Japanese Foreign Ministry.

A Palestinian Authority court in Ramallah has issued an order to block 59 websites deemed critical of the PA and its leaders.

The court order, which was issued on October 17 by the Ramallah Magistrates Court at the request of the PA Attorney General, claims that the websites have violated the PA’s controversial Cyber Crime Law, introduced by PA President Mahmoud Abbas on June 24, 2017.

The court said it found that the websites have published articles and photos that “threaten national security and civic peace.”

The court accepted the PA Attorney General’s argument that the websites have attacked and offended “symbols of the Palestinian Authority.”

Most of the websites targeted by the PA are affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah official and archival of Abbas. Some of the websites are known for their criticism of financial and administrative corruption of the PA and its senior officials.

The PA’s Cyber Crime Law states that “any person who has intentionally and unlawfully accessed any electronic system or network, has abused any information technology, or has exceeded the authorized entry shall be liable to either imprisonment or a fine. If the act is committed against any official statement by the [PA] government, the culprit shall be punished by imprisonment for a period of at least six months.”

So the #BDS pages are showing “Visit Palestine” Video . Isn’t that supppsed to be an open air prison according to the @PSCupdates propagandist mantra ?@Campaign4T#wheresPalestinepic.twitter.com/e0OcTQZrOW

— Eye On Antisemitism (@AntisemitismEye) October 21, 2019

This past July... President Macri published Argentina's first public registry (RePET) of those tied to terrorism. He made a clear commitment to the fight against international terrorism. The public registry is a historical landmark containing over 1,000 entries of individuals and entities tied to terrorism in Argentina, including Hezbollah.

The registry will function under the Ministry of Justice, but the Ministry of Security and our Financial Intelligence Unit or UIF-AR will have the power to designate terror groups by requesting to freeze the assets of known terrorist actors. This whole-of-government approach ensures that the country can use a variety of tools when targeting terrorists.

Previously, the only people in Argentina labeled as terrorists were those considered terrorists by the U.N. Security Council. This [new] registry works to target all terrorist organizations in the international arena, as well as persons or entities under investigation in Argentina.

The widespread protests in Beirut, which started on October 17, 2019, due to the deteriorating economic situation threatens the internal stability of the Lebanese regime. Hizbullah leader Hassan Nasrallah publicly sided with the Lebanese Prime Minister Saad Hariri and urged him not to resign, which would cause the dissolution of the government of which Hizbullah is a senior member.

Nasrallah, well aware of the reasons for the growing protests, will try hard to contain the damage and prevent a crisis that would jeopardize the current government’s stability, which is one of Hizbullah and Iran’s greatest achievements. Indeed, the government of Prime Minister Al-Hariri, with the active support of President Michel Aoun, grants Hizbullah the legitimacy for continuing the Iranian takeover of the Lebanese state.

Nasrallah declared on October 20, 2019: “Hizbullah doesn’t support the resignation of the current government. There is a very deep crisis of trust between the people and the state. When the government takes measures that restore people’s trust, the Lebanese people will accept it.”1

The Hizbullah Secretary-General warned, “If the government resigns, this means that Lebanon will have no government and the formation of it may take two years. We in Hizbullah will not abandon our country and people. We will not allow the country to be dumped or destroyed,” he added.

Under the guise of the current government, Hizbullah operates as a state within the state of Lebanon. Hizbullah operates governmental, economic, social, educational, and cultural institutions, which work alongside the government and its institutions, with its own private budget that works outside the state budget. This is in addition to Hizbullah’s military arm, which currently maintains the missile power of a European state, which again, operates outside of the Lebanese state budget.

The times they are a-changin’.. https://t.co/98kq8ZQMRi

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 21, 2019

"[T]here is a considerable emphasis placed on understanding the positive aspects of Islam, while there is an absolute absence of any similar focus on the positive aspects of Christianity, Judaism, or any other religion or belief system in the Middle East."— US Department of Education, Notice of a Letter Regarding the Duke-UNC Consortium for Middle East Studies, September 17, 2019.

Virtually all Middle East Studies departments on campuses everywhere can, to varying degrees, be accused of focusing on irrelevant and superficial topics, sidelining language skills, whitewashing Islam — in short, indoctrinating students in highly distorted views.

The letter also raises questions concerning... foreign funding. A 2018 report , for instance, found that "elite U.S. universities took more than half a billion dollars" from Saudi Arabia in gifts and donations "between 2011 and 2017." Why would a nation that treats women like chattel, teaches Muslims to hate all non-Muslims... that has elite units dedicated to apprehending witches and warlocks — become a leading financial supporter of America's liberal arts? The answer is regularly on display: so that recipients can show their gratitude by indoctrinating students in a fictitious Middle East and Islam—both of which are supposed victims of America.

The reason U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East has tended towards disaster is arguably because policymakers depend on advisors and analysts who are products of such Middle East studies departments — as are the many scholars and "experts" who insist that Islam is a "religion of peace." Until such time as Middle East Studies teach their topics with objectivity, balance, and above all, honesty, failure is likely to continue dominating America's response.

Filmmaker Steven Spielberg was the target of antisemitic bullying in school as a youngster, the Hollywood heavyweight revealed in a recent interview.

The result, he admitted, was that he was left feeling ashamed of his Jewish identity.

“I encountered antisemitism as an elementary school student in my school, and not throughout the entire school but small parts of popular kids they would pick on less popular kids, in my case zero popularity, growing up,” Spielberg said. “I didn’t think of it as hate but thought of it as a shame. I was ashamed of a lot of things and they actually managed with enough chiding and bullying to make me actually feel ashamed of being Jewish.”

He added, “I felt pretty much like an outcast and when I got older, I realized bullying is a very pervasive tool to make other people feel like they are empowered. So, I was on the other receiving end of people’s power trips and that was my main experience with being hated, something that I had no control over and something that inside me, I have always been very proud of to be a Jewish.”

Spielberg is the co-executive producer of a new six-part series called “Why We Hate,” which premiered Sunday on the Discovery Channel. The series examines hatred and how we can fight it and shares personal stories of those who hate and are targeted by hate. The series argues that hate is part of human nature and is in our DNA.

Switzerland’s oldest university, the University of Basel, pulled the plug on an event next month with David Sheen, a violent pro-BDS activist who has been accused of antisemitism.

The Swiss paper Basler Zeitung first reported the cancellation on Friday, writing the Canadian-Israel is “known for his antisemitic and Holocaust-relativizing statements.”

The university is still examining a second planned anti-Israel lecture slated for a week later, noted the Swiss daily.

The Swiss-Palestinian Society invited Sheen to several university events, at which he is expected to address the question: “Why did [Prime Minister Benjamin] Netanyahu's Likud party establish the most reactionary rabbinical immigrants from America and its local supporters as the spearhead of a Jewish-Israeli expulsion movement?”

Basler Zeitung’s Sebastian Briellmann reported that the university said it canceled Sheen's appearance because the planned event has a primarily political concern.

Sheen is also slated to speak at universities in Bern and Zürich, which have not been canceled.

Brown University's Center for Middle East Studies recently underwent a renaming and restructuring, which included bringing in new hire Paul Kohlbry, whom the Brown Daily Herald describes as "a postdoctoral fellow in Palestinian Studies." Moreover, Kohlbry announced excitedly, "We have the first chair ever in the country—if not the world—in Palestinian studies."

If previous examples, such as Columbia University's Center for Palestine Studies, are any indication, Kohlbry---who, tellingly, specializes in "settler colonial studies"---is more likely to provide anti-Israel politicking than useful scholarship on the Palestinians. Clearly, the anti-Israel proclivities of the center's former and founding director, Beshara Doumani, have made their mark.

Two weeks ago I reported on Harry Markham's experiences with Bristol University Jewish Society - their policy of disassociating themselves with Israel and their leader pushing a narrative of "pervasive racism in Israel" and "Jewish settlers carrying out terrorist attacks".

Now Harry has alerted me to what is going on at Exeter University. Like Bristol, the Jewish Society and Israel Society there have rejected his offer to present Israel's case, but are perfectly happy to team up with those who seek Israel's destruction. In an act of supreme virtue-signalling (which would be comical if it wasn't true) they have decided, for "Charity Week", to join the Islamic Society in raising money for the 'charity' Islamic Relief.

If Jewish students really are determined to virtue-signal in this way, there are surely suitable Muslim charities they could have teamed up with (although why they would take precedence over, say Hindu or Sikh charities I have no idea). Unfortunately, Islamic Relief is not one of them. Those unaware of the dubious history of this 'charity' should look at this detailed report from the Middle East Forum that is summarised in this article. I have previously covered Islamic Relief on this blog when Norwood made a similarly incomprehensible decision to team up with them. Islamic Relief has long been accused of involvement in terrorism as reported here. In 2006 the Israeli Government outlawed Islamic Relief Worldwide (IRW) from its work in Judea and Samaria, declaring that it was "designed to further Hamas's ideology among the Palestinian population" and in 2014 claimed that the 'charity' was involved in sending cash to Hamas. In 2014 HSBC cut its ties with IRW due to concerns over its terrorist links. Even the United Arab Emirates banned IRW because of its terrorist links.

So Britain's Jewish student leadership regard dynamic, young unapologetic Zionists like Harry Markham as extremists to be censored, while cosying-up to (and now funding) terror-supporting Islamists.

There are plenty of indications @Richards1052 is an antisemite and this is just one of them. More posts to follow! https://t.co/BOnqJ7DW1v

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 22, 2019

Facebook announced Monday that they removed dozens of Iran-originated accounts for engaging in “coordinated inauthentic behavior,” many of which seemed to be characterized by an anti-Israel agenda.

The social media giant describes such behavior as groups of pages or people misleading users about who they are and what they are doing, for example, presenting themselves as operating from a different country than the one they are actually originated from.

“Today, we removed 93 Facebook accounts, 17 Pages and four Instagram accounts for violating our policy against coordinated inauthentic behavior,” the company said in a statement. “This activity originated in Iran and focused primarily on the US, and some on French-speaking audiences in North Africa.”

Facebook added that they shared the information gathered with law enforcement, policymakers and industry partners.

The pages and accounts removed frequently posted about topics such as “politics in the US and Israel” and “support of Palestine.”

One of the screenshots shared by Facebook depicted a page called “Israel deceits and lies” and a post stating that “what Israel does to Palestinians is the textbook definition of terrorism,” while sharing a tweet reading “the IDF openly admits it is now targeting populated civilian areas in Gaza.”

Dozens of other Iran-originated pages and accounts which were uncovered and removed targeted Latin American countries, including Brazil, Argentina and Mexico.

"Veteran anti-Israel editors are adept at gaming the system by using these special rules to limit the influence and efficacy of pro-Israel editors, if not to get them outright banned from editing in the topic area or from all of Wikipedia."https://t.co/yk4oTRQG10

— (((David Lange))) (@Israellycool) October 21, 2019

I'll never forget Naomi Wolf saying that the ISIS beheading videos were staged, and the families of the victims were actors. I knew one of the dead, and called her out. She replied that I was part of a psy-op. Her supporters got my FB account shut down.https://t.co/RrIP4Il8Rw

— Ben Taub (@bentaub91) October 22, 2019

The film is written and directed by Taika Waititi, a Maori Jew most recognized for writing and directing the recent “Thor: Ragnarok” movie — he also stars as Hitler. His version of the Fuehrer is the imaginary projection of a boy named Jojo (Roman Griffin Davis) who is set on joining the Hitler Youth.

Jojo discovers early on that his mom (Scarlett Johansson) is hiding a Jewish girl in their attic. The two kids develop an unlikely friendship, and their relationship is at the heart of the film.

Though the movie is set during the twilight of Hitler’s reign in Germany, Jojo is still trained to hate, and the impact of the Nazi ideology on the young boy is clear. He believes ardently in the anti-Semitic conspiracy theories about Jews, and that only begins to change when he befriends Elsa (Thomasin McKenzie), the Jewish girl in the attic.

But Jojo is vulnerable at his core and just wants to be one of the cool kids. In World War II Germany, they happened to be the Nazis.

At one point, Elsa tells him, “You’re not a Nazi.” He responds, “I’m massively into swastikas.”

The premise of the film — a boy who believes in Nazi ideology begins to learn that Jews are human — and the fact that the viewer feels for this shamelessly Nazi boy feels absurd. Yet it’s absolutely necessary viewing. Not because we need to learn Jews are human, but because we must be reminded of how easy it is for children to be indoctrinated into hate.

Waititi, 44, calls the film an “anti-hate satire.”

“I experienced a certain level of prejudice growing up as a Maori Jew,” he writes in the film’s production notes. Making the film in 2019 “has been a reminder, especially now, that we need to educate our kids about tolerance and continue to remind ourselves that there’s no place in this world for hate. Children are not born with hate, they are trained to hate.”

Roland Berger, the founder of a major consulting company that carries his own name, covered up his father’s support for the Nazi regime, the leading German daily Handelsblatt reported on Friday.

For years, Berger depicted his father, George Berger, as an opponent and a victim of the regime.

In 2012, he wrote that “to this day, my father is a moral role model for me,” as quoted by the weekly Der Spiegel.

Last year, the 81-year-old businessman explained in an interview that his father joined the Nazi party in 1933 but left it in 1938 in protest over Kristallnacht, a major Nazi pogrom against German Jews and their property. After this move, he claimed that the Berger house was visited by the Gestapo every six to eight weeks.

However, Handelsblatt uncovered a very different reality.

After months of research and investigation into historical documents and records, the report indicated that not only was George Berger a staunch supporter of the Nazi rule, but he also received numerous advantages from it.

A German man of Palestinian heritage accused of attacking a Jewish professor from the US in Bonn has been sentenced to four and a half years in prison for both the attack and a separate conviction for robbery among other charges, DW reported.

According to DW, Susanne Grunert, the presiding judge in the Bonn court, charged the 21-year-old attacker with bodily harm and incitement of hatred with an anti-Semitic motive for striking the yarmulke off the head of Yitzhak Melamed in 2018. According to Grunert, by doing so the assailant had endangered public order.

According to Melamed himself, he was hurt more by a "gang of four Bonn police officers" who mistook him for the attacker, who said he was more "ashamed of [the police]" than by the assault itself.

The interior minister of North Rhine Westphalia apologized for the actions of the officers involved, who were not prosecuted as no basis for legal action against them was found following an investigation by the public prosecutor, DW reported.

The Jewish community has seen a 10-percent rise in antisemitic crime in the federation between 2017 and 2018, with a gunman trying – and failing – to storm a synagogue in Halle last Wednesday, killing two and injuring two in a local kebab shop.

The Yokne’am-based cannabis tech start-up Seedo has officially sealed the deal with a new brand representative – American rapper and marijuana advocate, Calvin Cordozar Broadus Jr., known professionally as Snoop Dogg.

The company said in a statement on Tuesday that Snoop Dogg will be working with the start-up on a variety of platforms to “achieve optimal consumer awareness of this innovative technology.”

Seedo, founded in 2013, sells fully-automated indoor cannabis growing devices. The machine looks like a mini-fridge and allows the user to grow marijuana in a pesticide-free environment.

“Promoting a healthier lifestyle by providing my friends and communities with products that allow for growth in unused urban spaces is something I’m all the way down with,” Snoop Dogg said in the statement.

Snoop Dogg’s marijuana usage has been a large part of his music career and public image for years. One of his biggest hits includes “Smoke Weed Everyday.” He frequently uses his social media accounts to share marijuana memes and references with his 36 million followers.

Zohar Levy, Seedo CEO, said that the company is “honored to partner with an industry icon like Snoop Dogg.”

In the annals of business, successful companies that originated in the garages of their founders have assumed an almost mythic significance. Corporate giants such as Apple, Google and Hewlett-Packard all began in small workshops adjacent to their creators’ homes. Now, another small, garage-based family business run by three Israelis near Miami, Florida, that says that they have succeeded in reinventing the internal combustion engine is aiming to join the elite group of legendary garage-based startups.

The company is called MayMaan Research, LLC, and it has developed a system to operate a traditional piston engine with a combination of 70% water and 30% ethanol (or any other alcohol) – no gasoline or diesel required. This revolutionary system can be applied, say its founders, with simple yet sophisticated modifications of existing engine designs, and saves 50% on fuel costs, produces far fewer emissions than gasoline or diesel, and is up to 60% more efficient than gasoline. MayMaan has built four operating prototypes to date, including a car, a generator and various engines. While the company has outgrown its garage-based origins, and has grown into a research laboratory facility, it remains imbued with a start-up spirit.

MayMaan is the brainchild of Yehuda Shmueli, 81, a talented inventor, engineer and master mechanic. Assisted by sons Eitan and Doron, and backed by an impressive executive management team, including Joe Nakash, founder and chairman of Jordache Enterprises; Yedidya Ya’ari, company chairman and former president and CEO of Israel’s Rafael Armament Development Authority; Malcolm Hoenlein, CEO and executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents; and other distinguished individuals, MayMaan’s disruptive technology plans to revolutionize the world of transportation, from passenger cars, to trucks, locomotives and even ships.

Thousands of Israelis and supporters of the Jewish state from all over the world marched in Jerusalem Thursday to mark the Sukkot holiday.

Numerous streets in the center of the city were closed off for the Jerusalem March, now in its 64th year.

Visitors from dozens of countries marched through the city streets waving their national flags, among them Ghana, Brazil, China, Bulgaria and the Philippines.

Many of the foreign marchers belong to pro-Israel Christian evangelical groups.

Happy Birthday PM @netanyahu! The #Israeli Prime Minister turns 70 years young today! 🎂 🎊 🇮🇱 pic.twitter.com/aPwl38KRGO

— Arsen Ostrovsky (@Ostrov_A) October 21, 2019

A court in Ramallah earlier this week ordered the blocking of 59 Palestinian websites, blogs and Facebook pages that oppose the Palestinian Authority and PA President Mahmoud Abbas.

The decision was made at the request of the Palestinian prosecution, but it is widely assumed that senior PA officials were behind the move. The prosecution, in its petition to the court, argued that the sites disseminate harmful content about the PA and its officials and are likely to be used to incite lawlessness.

Some of the blocked websites are very popular among Palestinians and in the rest of the Arab world. Some report critically on developments in the West Bank and Gaza, while others are identified with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and the camp of Mohammed Dahlan, one of Abbas’ leading opponents. The list includes the Arab48 website, which is based in Haifa and is identified with the Balad party.

The court said it found that the websites have published articles and photos that “threaten national security and civic peace.”

The court accepted the PA Attorney General’s argument that the websites have attacked and offended “symbols of the Palestinian Authority.”

Most of the websites targeted by the PA are affiliated with Hamas, Islamic Jihad and Mohammed Dahlan, a senior Fatah official and archival of Abbas. Some of the websites are known for their criticism of financial and administrative corruption of the PA and its senior officials.

The controversial "P is for Palestine" book reading went on as planned Sunday at the Highland Park Public Library, after being rescheduled from May.

About four adults and three children attended the event. Those inside, which included borough resident Lisa Ben-Haim, were members of the local Jewish community, Ben-Haim said.

“It started at 2 and she rambled until almost 3 o'clock, and then she started reading from the book,” Ben-Haim said. “All of us had planned to walk out in protest when she got to 'I is for Intifada,' but it was so painful sitting there listening to her, we walked out at E."

Protesters of the reading appeared outside the venue. With about 125 of all ages, the group was on hand to "let their voices be heard," Ben-Haim said. She added that the protesters had posters and were present to mark that they felt the event was "inappropriate."

There were a handful of supporters on the opposite side of the street, said borough resident Josh Pruzansky. The road was closed, and 10 police officers ensured the safety and security of both groups.

This is a peaceful protest, Pruzansky said, but the author, Golbarg Bashi, "supports the BDS movement." 

"We don't want her speaking to our children in a community library," he said. "She is a person who sponsors hate, sponsors violence. BDS was called antisemitism by the United Nations, by the U.S. Congress, by the Parliament of Germany. It was called antisemitism by the state of New Jersey. Why are we bringing an anti-Semite to our library to speak to our children on a Jewish holiday?"