From Ian:
French Philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy Says ‘New Wording’ is Making Antisemitism ‘Acceptable’ Again
French philosopher and public intellectual Bernard-Henri Lévy told a New York audience on Sunday that an emerging new language for antisemitism is once again making the world’s “oldest hatred” acceptable.
“Antisemitism in Europe is taking on a new form, is adopting a new wording which makes it again acceptable … by a growing number of French and European people,” he told an audience at the Consulate General of France in Manhattan’s Upper East Side.
He said the new antisemitism rested on the three pillars of anti-Zionism, Holocaust denial and using the Holocaust to “shut up” other human catastrophes.
Explaining his thesis, Lévy said that “one of the questions … of antisemitism … is to inhabit the wording which makes the hatred possible and legitimizes the hatred. It gives the feeling to the one who hates that he hates for good reasons.”
Throughout history, as the justification for antisemitism, Jews have at times been despised for “killing Christ” and at other times resented for “inventing Christ,” Lévy said. During other periods Jews were considered to be a corrupting race. These historic forms of antisemitism are now in the “process of disappearing” he said.
According to Lévy, today’s emerging anti-Jewish bigotry rests on three arguments.
The first of them is anti-Zionism. That “Jews deserve to be hated because they are faithful…to an illegitimate state.” The second is Holocaust denial. “Jews deserve our distrust…our hate…because they traffic what should be the most sacred part of themselves.” And the third justification antisemites are using, Lévy argued, is that Jews use the Holocaust to “shut up” the suffering of others and other genocides, “particularly the Palestinians.”
A defining moment for Europe
Europe’s leaders and media have long ignored, downplayed or outright denied that anti-Semitism has increased on the continent over the past 15 years. When in 2006 a gang of self-described “barbarians” of African and North African background tortured llan Halimi, a young Parisian Jew, for 24 days, finally dousing his naked body with acid and leaving him to die beside a highway, the police refused to acknowledge the obvious hate element of this horrific crime.
The anti-Semitic nature of more recent attacks on Jews could no longer be so easily denied. But even so, the murders in 2012 of three Jewish children and a rabbi in Toulouse, and of four people in the Brussels Jewish museum last May failed to evoke any largescale demonstrations, let alone serious political action.
One therefore does not have to be a cynic to wonder whether the January attack on the Paris kosher supermarket and the murder the following month of a synagogue guard in Copenhagen would have passed just as quickly from public consciousness had these crimes not been flanked by assaults on journalists and free speech. The Charlie Hebdo attack galvanized public outrage in a way the Toulouse and Brussels murders clearly had not.
However belatedly, governments, particularly the French, speak now more openly about the anti-Semitic threat from Islamic extremists. We would be fooling ourselves, however, if we reduced the problem “just” to Europe’s thousands of home-grown jihadis.
German police remove Israeli flag from soccer game 'for fear of Palestinian violence'
An Israeli soccer player in the second-highest level of professional German soccer tweeted on Sunday that security forces on duty at a match between FC Ingolstadt and Union Berlin forcibly removed an Israeli flag that was brandished by a fan in the stands.
Almog Cohen, the Israeli national team player who is also a member of 2. Bundesliga side Ingolstadt, tweeted: “Today, an Israeli flag was removed during an away match against Union Berlin. This was a flag brought by German fans which was removed by local security guards. ‘No Jewish flags,’ they said. This is the only pitch in which this has happened.”
According to the German daily Bild, the decision to remove the “Jewish banner” was made due to “fear of Palestinian violence.”
"I saw how our fans were taking down the Israeli flag,” Cohen told Bild. “They told me that they have done so at the direction of the police.”
When Cohen was told that the police didn’t want political symbols waved at the match, he then asked if other flags were also banned.
"No, only the Jewish flag,”. Cohen was told.
Report: Israelis Banned from Buying French Soccer Tickets
Israelis appear to have been banned from buying tickets to see the Paris St. Germain soccer team in action, NRG reported Sunday night.
The discovery was made by an Israeli couple planning a trip to Paris who wanted to attend a game – and could not find a listing for Israeli orders on the group's ticket ordering web site.
Guy Schleider of Ramat Gan perused the team's web site and went to the ticket buying area, where a drop-down list allowed residents of countries around the world to choose their home countries where tickets would be sent to.
Included on that list are the “occupied Palestinian territories,” as the site describes Palestinian Authority-controlled areas of Judea and Samaria – but not Israel, which was nowhere to be found on the list.
Schleider told the site that he later discovered why: the owner of Paris St. Germain is Sheikh Nasser al-Khalifi of Qatar, who is chairman of the company that owns the French team, as well as Barcelona's soccer club.
Top US official intimates UN veto policy could change
With Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu working to establish a new coalition, a top US State Department official warned that the composition of his government, and its approach to the two-state solution, could have serious implications for Washington’s support for Israel, particularly in the United Nations.
“We will be watching very closely to see what happens after a new government is formed on this issue of working toward two states living side by side in peace and security,” Undersecretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy Sherman [of N.Korea and Iran nuke deals fame] told a gathering of Reform Jewish leaders near Washington, DC.
“If the new Israeli government is seen as stepping back from its commitment to a two-state solution — something that all of you, and a vast majority of American Jews, support — that makes our jobs in the international arena a lot tougher because our ability to push back on efforts to internationalize… Israeli-Palestinian issues has depended on our insistence that the best course in achieving a two-state solution is through direct negotiations between the parties,” she said.
Sherman’s comments were the latest in a series of veiled warnings issued repeatedly by Washington following the mid-March Israeli election. Administration officials from both the White House and the State Department have cautioned that any perceived backtracking from Israel’s commitment to the two-state solution could mean that the US will not veto attempts to unilaterally push for Palestinian statehood through the United Nations.
PA Chief Negotiator Skeptical About Peace
The Palestinian Authority’s (PA) chief negotiator, Saeb Erekat, on Sunday expressed skepticism about peace prospects with the next Israeli government following comments made by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu against the establishment of a Palestinian state.
Speaking to a gathering of international reporters and quoted by The Associated Press (AP), Erekat said that Netanyahu's comments were irresponsible and would cause despair among Palestinians.
"Desperation will lead to desperate acts," Erekat warned, adding that Netanyahu's opposition to Palestinian statehood raised serious questions about reviving negotiations.
"What do I talk to him about?" he said, according to AP.
Erekat was referring to comments made by Netanyahu in interviews during the election campaign, when he vowed that he would never allow the establishment of a Palestinian state under his watch.
Ben-Dror Yemini: The Jihad to come in Europe
Some of the refugees who fled to Europe have become far more radical after finding sanctuary there, and the new Jihad recruits will come from among them; meanwhile, a political genocide of Israel is underway in educated circles.
A ship carrying 104 refugees on their way from Libya to the shores of Italy was in distress and appeared to be sinking. One of the passengers began praying for his life. Some of the Muslims demanded that he pray to Allah – and Allah alone. But he was a Christian.
The Muslims flew into a rage; and with cries of "Allahu Akbar," they threw 12 Christians overboard. Cold-blooded murder. The remaining Christians formed a human chain and managed to put an end to the madness. An Italian rescue vessel arrived in time to prevent the refugee ship from sinking.
Fifteen of the passengers were arrested and will be charged with murder. Apparently, one doesn't have to be a member of Islamic State to be just like Islamic State. And the current wave of refugees is carrying such Muslim extremists into Europe too.
Geo-strategist Professor Arnon Soffer has claimed from time to time in recent years that the big tsunami is only a matter of time. Millions from Asia and Africa will try to make their way to the wealthy countries. The big flood has yet to begin, but something is afoot.
The Moderate Muslim Stands Alone
On March 6, the Association of Chief Police Officers, a body funded by the Home Office, launched a national campaign named, "We Stand Together," which called upon British police forces and constabularies across the United Kingdom to bring together local communities to "stand against hate crime and intolerance."
The campaign was apparently a public relations campaign launched in the wake of "recent terrorist attacks in Paris and Denmark, which increased tension in some communities in the UK."
As part of the campaign, local police forces across the country organized events and arranged photo opportunities with Muslim community groups and spokespersons.
Unsurprisingly, some of these Muslim partners were part of extremist networks and hard-line religious sects. Time and time again, in the name of "diversity," officials and the authorities partner with extremists.
In Bedfordshire, for example, a county north of London, the local police force published a photo of one of its officers "standing together" with Qadeer Baksh, the chairman of Luton Islamic Centre. Baksh has declared that in an "ideal" Islamic state, homosexuality would be punished with death.
Baksh also manages the Luton Islamic Centre, which offers platforms to extremist preachers such as Abu Usamah at-Thahibi, who has praised Osama Bin Laden and calls for killing homosexuals.
Archival - Hizb Al-Tahrir in Chicago Founder Calls for Caliphate: Islam Won't Coexist with Democracy
This Pro-Israel Student Leader Lets Alan Dershowitz ‘Sleep at Night’
Jewish organizations and leaders have been racking their brains trying to address the issue of skyrocketing antisemitism on college campuses. But at least one prominent pro-Israel activist is reassured by the presence of a student more than five decades his junior.
“Justin Hayet lets me sleep at night,” says Alan Dershowitz, the 76-year-old former Harvard Law School professor.
The laundry list of recent antisemitic incidents on college campuses isn’t pretty. Swastikas were painted on the building of a Jewish fraternity house at University of California, Davis. Jewish candidates for student government at University of California, Los Angeles and Stanford University have been grilled about their religion. A Jewish professor at Connecticut College has been persecuted over false accusations that he called for the annihilation of the Palestinians.
“Right now is a time of fear,” says Gilad Skolnick, director of campus programming for the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA). “We continue to see an uptick in antisemitism on campus and it scares students from doing what they are supposed to do at university—engage in educational and open discourse.”
Enter Justin Hayet, a 21-year-old student at Binghamton University – State University of New York, who says that while many of his peers “run away and try to ignore” anti-Semitism, he is “running toward it.”
“I want to fix it,” Hayet tells JNS.org.
Harvard conference on Middle East economic collaboration: A critical win against BDS
Today, Harvard Business School will host the Economic Prosperity for Peace conference, which brings together students from Arab nations, Israel, and the United States to discuss how economic prosperity, education, and entrepreneurship can lay the groundwork for peace in the Middle East. The organizing committee includes 18 Arab, Israeli, and American students from Harvard and MIT Sloan School of Management, each deeply committed to seeing prosperity and peace in the Middle East.
Sara Greenberg, co-chair of the conference, says that the conference has been in the making for two years as various students have discussed and collectively concluded that the critical factor that is needed in order to bring peace is economic development and cooperation.
This conference represents a huge win against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against the state of Israel. The internal logic behind BDS assumes that stunting Israel’s economy will put pressure on the state to offer concessions to the Palestinians. While this method may have worked for other countries, this internal logic is quite flawed when it comes to Israel.
If you take a look at history, you will see that Israel makes the decisions considered most collaborative when the international community supports the security and well being of the state.
As for the Palestinian people—when they lack resources, they put themselves in ill-fated situations. Take, for example, the 2006 Palestinian elections that positioned Hamas as the governing leadership in the Gaza strip. Hamas was chosen not because of its (incredibly anti-Semitic) ideology, but because it promised the Palestinian people schools, hospitals, and services, while the alternative, the Palestinian Authority, was largely considered corrupt. So the Palestinian people chose Hamas, the organization that would provide them with more economic resources, so they thought. Unfortunately for them and the rest of the world, this organization is a terrorist organization dedicated to the destruction of the Jewish people that would even stoop so low as to use its own citizens as human shields during wartime.
Thus, the BDS campaign is doomed to achieve end results that are antithetical to its goals. Unsurprisingly, the Harvard and MIT students involved in the upcoming conference understand this.
Aussie Prof. Cleared after Waving Money in a Jew's Face
An Australian professor at the University of Sydney was cleared of anti-Semitic acts by the university, after waving money in the face of a Jewish person in a move bringing to mind classic anti-Semitic tropes during a tense on-campus event.
The Sydney Morning Herald reports that associate professor Jake Lynch, a supporter of the BDS movement seeking to harm Israel economically, was in the audience of a talk at the university's Camperdown campus by retired British Colonel Richard Kemp, a staunch defender of the IDF's conduct.
Lynch claimed that in the audience Diane Barkas, a Jewish English lecturer and comedian, kicked him in the groin, a claim she resolutely denies.
At that point, he proceeded to wave a $5 bill in her face, saying "this is going to cost you a lot of money."
The university this month told Lynch that it was not convinced that his conduct "constituted anti-Semitic behaviour or unlawful harassment on the grounds of an individual's religious belief (or perceived religious belief)."
However, the university still warned him that he may be dismissed or face other disciplinary action for breaches of the university's code of conduct given his disrespectful behavior.
Swastikas Painted on Stanford University Fraternity House
Swastikas were spray-painted on the Sigma Alpha Epsilon (SAE) fraternity house at Stanford University Saturday night.The incident comes after months of controversy on campus over anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity.
There is currently minimal information on the incident, but the police and Stanford administration are reportedly aware of the situation. The swastikas spray-painted on a fraternity house call to mind similar incidents that have occurred at numerous universities across the country over the past two months, such as at George Washington University, Northeastern University, the University of Missouri, Northwestern University, and the University of California, Berkeley. Recently, swastikas were painted on the house of the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi at the University of California, Davis, just a few days after the Davis student senate called on the “University of California Board of Regents to divest from ‘corporations that aid in the Israeli occupation of Palestine and illegal settlements in Palestinian territories.’” Fraternity leaders there believe the anti-Semitic action was a direct result of the fraternity’s support for Israel.
Is Hamas gaining traction in Europe?
The 13th Palestinians in Europe Conference on Saturday once again catapulted Hamas’s activities into the spotlight.
The organizers of the event – the London-based Palestinian Return Center and the Palestinian Community in Germany –have ties to Hamas, according to Berlin’s domestic intelligence agency. An estimated 3,000 people pre-registered for the event. Some 200 protesters from the “Berlin against Hamas” campaign demonstrated against the conference, Radio Berlin-Brandenburg reported on Saturday.
Dilek Kolat, a Berlin state senator from the Social Democrats who holds the Integration portfolio, attacked the conference for not distancing itself from the goal of eliminating Israel. “That is intolerable and unacceptable here in Berlin,” she said.
The conference logo shows a map of the Middle East without Israel, and the organizers call for the “right of return” of all Palestinians to Israel.
Ahead of the conference, Rabbi Abraham Cooper, the associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, told The Jerusalem Post, “We raised this matter with the German ambassador to the US. This is no mere academic exercise. It is about legitimizing those committed in word and deed to the destruction of world’s largest Jewish community, the over 6 million Jewish citizens of the State of Israel. Allowing this conference to go forward in Berlin at this time will further embolden anti-Israel extremists in Germany and further legitimize the demonization of Jews and all other supporters of Israel.”
Palestinian conference in Berlin draws anti-Hamas protest
Hundreds of pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted and marched towards the Treptow Arena, where the conference was being held. One participant said Europe needed to do more to highlight the plight of the Palestinian people.
Meanwhile, police said some 50 anti-Hamas protesters staged a peaceful counter-rally, organized by a coalition of Jewish and pro-Israel groups going under the name Berlin Against Hamas.
They came with banners reading "Make Peace Not War" and "Free Gaza from Hamas" and held a picket line as conference attendees and demonstrators walked by.
"We have organized this event to oppose pro-Hamas organizations which are against Israel," said Volker Beck, a lawmaker and chair of the German-Israeli parliamentary group in the Bundestag. "Palestinians and Israelis can only live together in security and freedom when they recognize each others' rights."
PreOccupied Territory: Israel Copyrights Mention Of Islamophobia, Putting Haters In Bind (satire)
A government-owned Israeli corporation secured rights to use of the term “Islamophobia” this week, putting it in position to profit from the profligately used word, a company spokesman said today. Additionally, said the spokesman, foes of Israel who attempt to stifle discussion of violence perpetrated in the name Islam will now face the unpleasant choice between benefiting Israel financially and curtailing their own efforts to repress speech with which they disagree.
Israel Military Industries received approval of the international copyright registration yesterday (Sunday), but the copyright is effective retroactive to August 2001, shortly before the term began to enjoy widespread currency. Under the terms of the copyright, unauthorized usage of the word “Islamophobia” will incur a fine of five US dollars, with each mention of the term counting as a separate violation, even if multiple usages occur within the same statement or on the same occasion.
Islamophobia technically refers to unjustified hatred of Islam and its adherents; the word initially gained popularity in the aftermath of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as Americans’ suspicion of Muslims came to a head, and were seen to overreact to the coreligionists of those who perpetrated the deadly attacks. Over time, however, its use shifted, from exclusively warning against tarring all Muslims with the same terrorist brush to serving as a straw man with which to silence legitimate criticism.
Economist erreoneously blames Israel for the slow pace of Gaza reconstruction
First, The Economist is right to observe that only a fraction of the promised cash from donors (Qatar, Saudi Arabia, EU, US, etc.) for reconstruction has arrived. They are also correct to note that “the UN is supervising the flow of material”.
However, The Economist fails to note another important factor, intra-Palestinian violence and intimidation, a factor in the slow pace of reconstruction which even the UN and the Arab League have acknowledged. Secretary general of the Arab League, Nabil Elaraby, told the London-based Al-Hayat newspaper that “the internal differences and the absence of cooperation between the PA and Hamas are behind the delay in reconstructing the Gaza Strip.”
Finally, in addition to their error of omission regarding the role played by Palestinian infighting, their claim that Israel is “the main reason” for the slow pace of rebuilding – due to restrictions on the import of cement – is not accurate.
Indeed, as the article at least hinted at in the third paragraph, per the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, the UN is the organization in charge of estimating the damages and determining the quantities of building materials (such as cement) required for each home owner in Gaza whose house was damaged. This data is fed into a system designed by the UN. Homeowners update the Palestinian Authority (PA) about the needed construction materials. The PA (in cooperation with the UN) is in charge of ensuring that those materials reach their destination and are not used for terrorist purposes. (So far, according to the UN, nearly 100,000 Palestinian beneficiaries have participated in the Gaza Reconstruction Mechanism, and over 81,000 tons of cement has been purchased for civilian building projects.)
AP, Haaretz Run Temple Mount Correction. Ynet, Israel Hayom Don't
Last week we noted that, in response to communication from CAMERA, the Associated Press commendably updated an article which had erroneously identified the Western Wall as "believed to be the last remnant of the Temple complex." In fact, there are many extant remains from the Temple complex including the southern, eastern and northern retaining walls are also still extant.
In addition, the article about "the most contested piece of real estate in Jerusalem," or the Temple Mount, initially failed to note that the site is the most sacred in Judaism and the third most holy in Islam. Per CAMERA's urging, the AP commendably added this critical information in the updated version of the article which appeared on the news wire on the same news cycle as the original story.
Nevertheless, three English-language Israeli media outlets, which in the first place should have been better equipped to deal with misinformation about the Temple Mount, ran the erroneous, older article hours after the corrected, updated version was released. Of the three -- Haaretz, Ynet and Israel Hayom -- only Haaretz has responded to CAMERA's calls for correction.
Jewish man attacked in Paris suburb outside synagogue
A French Jewish man from suburban Paris area told police he was assaulted by younger Arabs outside his synagogue.
The complainant, identified as Salomon Z., 53, in a report about the incident by the National Bureau for Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, said he was assaulted on Saturday after attending Sabbath morning services at the synagogue in the Saint-Ouen municipality, the bureau reported.
A man with an Arab appearance, whom the victim estimated was 25 years old, followed him into an alley, yelled “dirty Jew” and hit him in the face, according to the BNVCA report. Two other men, whom the victim also described as Arabs, joined the alleged aggressor and also hit the Jewish man.
Salomon Z. said the attackers wrestled him to the ground and produced a knife, telling him they were going to stab him, but fled as onlookers began to approach.
French leader visits gas chamber to honor Nazi victims
French President Francois Hollande urged vigilance against resurgent anti-Semitism and racism, as he visited a former gas chamber Sunday to honor Jews, Roma and French resistance fighters who died in the only Nazi concentration camp on French soil.
“The worst can still happen. Anti-Semitism and racism are still here,” Hollande said at the Natzweiler-Struthof camp in Alsace, at a ceremony marking 70 years since the last Nazi camps were liberated by Allied troops in World War II.
Hollande, whose country is still tense after terrorist attacks on a kosher supermarket and newspaper in January, decried the “atrocities” at the camp.
“We must not forget anything,” he said.
70 years after liberation, hell on Earth of Bergen-Belsen remembered
Germany’s president paid tribute to Britain for liberating the Nazi concentration camp Bergen-Belsen 70 years ago and restoring “humanity” to the country, at a ceremony Sunday attended by approximately 2,000 people, including about 70 survivors, under gray, overcast skies and pouring rain.
More than 50,000 Jewish deportees from across Europe lost their lives at the camp in western Germany between 1941 and 1945, including the young Jewish diarist Anne Frank, in addition to 20,000 prisoners of war.
President Joachim Gauck said British forces who freed the starving camp prisoners led by example during the subsequent Allied occupation.
He quoted Major Ben Barnett, one of the first British officers to reach the camp that spring, remarking on the unspeakable sights he encountered.
“The things I saw completely defy description. There are no words in the English language which can give a true impression of the ghastly horrors of this camp,” Barnett said.
At Bergen-Belsen, where tens of thousands perished… and others began their lives
While the other areas of the DP camp (which has been the Hohne NATO base since 1950) are accessible to visitors, the Glyn Hughes Hospital, which is located in a restricted training area, is generally not. Our group, however, received special permission to at least drive up to its gate and get out and take photos.
Certain members of our group eagerly posed together for a picture there. It is the place — not the memorial site with its berm-covered mass graves — where their personal Bergen-Belsen stories start. Born at the hospital, these men and women in their late 60s still refer to themselves as the “Bergen-Belsen babies.”
They are second-generation Holocaust survivors, but their situation is unique. Unlike the first generation, they did not personally experience the horrors of the camps, and unlike most members of the second, they were not born after their parents began new lives in Israel, Canada, the US or other countries.
The 2,000 babies born at the Bergen-Belsen DP camp represent an astoundingly high birthrate, a resurgence of the life force that the Nazis had sought to extinguish.
As I watched these “babies” squeeze together and smile into the camera lens, I thought about Bergen-Belsen’s uniqueness in taking the Holocaust story further than 1945, beyond death into new life.
It’s a perfectly appropriate place for a Holocaust selfie.
Israel and Anti-Semitism Become Factors in UK Election
Miliband has been heavily criticized by his own religious community due to Labour’s stances on Israel, including introducing a non-binding legislation last year calling on the U.K. to recognize Palestinian statehood. The British parliament then voted symbolically, 274-12, in favor of requesting that the U.K. recognize a unilaterally established Palestinian state. More recently, Miliband said he would support the recognition of a Palestinian state if that move would help bring about an Israeli-Palestinian peace deal.
“The British Labour Party historically had strong links with Israel and was a loyal supporter,” said Jonathan Walker, president of the U.K.-based Anglo-Jewish Association. But nowadays, he told JNS.org, “the political left has sided with the Palestinian cause and taken an aggressive anti-Zionist/anti-Israel position.”
Walker noted the “We Are All Hamas” slogan during British rallies against Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza last summer, compared with a “conspicuous silence on other international matters—no rallies, campaigns, etc.”
Given this climate, Walker said, “Ed Miliband is not generally felt to be a reliable supporter of Israel by Jewish British voters we (the Anglo-Jewish Association) have spoken to. In contrast, the Conservatives have been solid supporters of Israel, though not blindly—where they see place for criticism, they are vocal.” For instance, the Conservatives did criticize Israeli airstrikes that hit United Nations facilities during Operation Protective Edge.
Fiona Sharpe, an activist with Sussex Friends of Israel—a grassroots advocacy group with members across the political spectrum working to support Israel and combat anti-Semitism—told JNS.org that Jewish voters in the U.K. are concerned about Miliband’s views on Palestinian statehood. While supporting a two-state solution is an “admirable position,” Sharpe said, “the notion that he would force a political solution on Israel is a little unfortunate.”
UK Candidate Suspended for Calling Ed Miliband 'The Jew'
A Conservative Party local election candidate has been suspended for an anti-Semitic Facebook post in which she said she would never support "the Jew", referring to Labor leader Ed Miliband.
Gulzabeen Afsar made the comments in an exchange on her social media page, which ended with her stating: "never ever will I drop that low and support the Al Yahud [Arabic for "Jew" - ed.]! Lol"
A spokesman for the Jewish Leadership Council was quick to condemn the comments.
"This is clearly unacceptable and the relevant authorities should investigate this matter swiftly," Jay Stoll told the Jewish News.
Responding to the anti-Semitic slur, a Conservative Party spokesman had acknowledged that "Her comment was offensive and wrong. She has removed it and apologised."
That response was criticized as unsatisfactory, but now the party has suspended Afsar indefinitely - though it has yet to expel her altogether.
Israeli-American Company Developing Diabetes Treatments From Cannabis Extract
While medical cannabis is often used to ease pain or nausea, an Israeli-American biopharmaceutical company is developing medicines containing cannabinoids — chemical compounds from cannabis plants — to treat conditions including diabetes, inflammatory diseases (like arthritis, atherosclerosis and ulcerative colitis) and cardiovascular disorders.
ISA Scientific recently signed an exclusive worldwide licensing and collaboration agreement to establish therapies containing a specific cannabinoid called cannabidiol (CBD), with Yissum, the technology-transfer company of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, Hadasit, the technology-transfer company of the Hadassah Medical Organization in Jerusalem, and the Kennedy Trust for Rheumatology Research (KIR) in the United Kingdom.
This licensed intellectual property is the result of many years of research and collaboration between renowned cannabinoid scientists Raphael Mechoulam and Ruth Gallily from the Hebrew University; immunologist and KIR director Sir Marc Feldman; and Hadassah physicians and researchers Chaim Lotan, Ronen Durst and Lola Weiss.
“Raphael Mechoulam deserves all the credit for this,” says Lotan, a cardiologist who directs the heart center at Hadassah University Medical Center.
Israeli firm drives toward 3D printed automobile
The Israeli office of Autodesk Inc. has been collaborating with Massivit, an Israeli startup company, to 3D print elements of a car, the Strati. They have been working on a 3D model of the “Strati” – a car created and developed by Local Motors.
The collaboration will be displayed Monday during the main event of EcoMotion, a gathering of Smart Transportation innovators that will take place at the Peres Center for Peace in Tel Aviv. Parts of the printed car will be introduced for the first time in Israel.
Autodesk developed “Spark,” a complete, open and free platform for 3D printing that will connect digital information to 3D printers in a new way. It provided Massivit with support on the software aspect in order to print the 3D model of the Strati.
Autodesk believes the 3D Printing revolution will transform industries, drastically reducing waste and the cost of assembly.
Israel dominates Red Herring Top 100
Following a record showing of 10 Israeli high-tech firms named to last year’s Red Herring Top 100 list for Europe, Israel won more spots (19) than any other country on the 2015 list released on April 19.
Every year since 1996, the innovation magazine and news service Red Herring chooses the 100 most promising tech companies, with separate contests for the United States, Europe and Asia. More than 200 Red Herring winners from around the world have achieved exits over the past five years, including the Israeli navigation app Waze, which made the Red Herring 100 in 2010.
Even though it is one of the youngest and smallest countries in the running, Israel accounted for 50 of the 2015 European finalists, topped only by the UK’s 56 finalists.
However, most countries had far fewer finalists; Spain had 27, France 26, Germany 23, Sweden 16, Switzerland 14 and Russia just four. Belgium, with a population of 11.2 million compared with Israel’s 8.3 million, had only two finalists.
Meet the New MK: Likud’s Naguise wants to set an example for youth from Ethiopia
Name: Avraham Naguise
Party: Likud
Age: 57
Hometown: Pisgat Ze’ev, Jerusalem
Year of Aliya: 1985 from Ethiopia
Family status: Married with 2 children
Profession before becoming an MK: Has a PhD in education and degrees in social work and law. Founder and director-general of South Wing to Zion, an advocacy organization for Ethiopian aliya and absorption. In that capacity, led the struggle to bring the rest of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel.
Why did you decide to enter politics?
I entered politics because I believed that to promote our community’s integration in Israeli society, we must be integrated in politics. The minute we become part of the political system, we have an influence in promoting our issues and in serving all the people of Israel. I also want to be a role model for our youth, so they’ll be motivated to join local and national politics. If we sit on the side and watch while others try to help us, we won’t get anywhere. If we do things on our own, we can help ourselves.
Why is there no Ma' abarot Day?
Why is there no Ma'abarot Day to recall the first home - a tent camp - that 80 percent of Israel's oriental immigrants experienced when they first arrived? Article in Haaretz:
An odd question is posed by the protagonist of the television series “Zagouri Empire,” in the first episode of the new season. Why, he asks, does the Israeli calendar have no “Ma’abarot Day” – a reference to the 1950s’ transit camps that mainly housed Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa.
You won’t find an entry for ma’abarot in the Encyclopedia Hebraica. The 1978 edition contains a terse discussion of the subject (27 lines), but not as a separate entry, rather in the general volume devoted to the Land of Israel.
Nor do we have a “Museum of Ma’abarot.” We have an Israel Air Force museum and a Yitzhak Rabin museum and a Palmach museum and a Ya’ir Stern museum (commemorating the founder of the pre-state underground organization Lehi). But to learn about transit camps, you’ll have to poke around in archives or listen to old wives’ tales.
'Israelis are Satisfied and Proud of their Country'
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is happy that Israelis are happy, as reported over the weekend in the annual World Happiness Report.
“The happiness level is due to a long list of actions that we have undertaken, including reducing unemployment, raising the minimum wage, and ensuring high growth for the Israeli economy," he said.
Netanyahu's comment refers to the positive results for Israel in a report that purports to show how happy people are. Out of about 150 countries surveyed, residents of Israel came out to be the eleventh happiest people on earth in the report, issued by the UN committee dealing with happiness and well-being.
Israel thus outranks the US, UK, and numerous European countries.
“I am happy that our efforts are making a difference in the personal lives of Israelis,” Netanyahu said. “They are satisfied and proud of their country. As I have promised, we will continue to lower the cost of living and solve the housing crisis.”