From Ian:
A hero acts, and Hebron gets a lesson in humanity
For an unarmed man to save five intended victims from a frenzied mob takes remarkable courage under any circumstances. When the rescuer is a Palestinian Muslim in an all-Arab neighborhood and those he saves are strangers in conspicuously Jewish garb, the moral valor he displays is extraordinary — and a heart-lifting reminder of the goodness that people are capable of, however poisonous the atmosphere that surrounds them.
Jewish tradition famously teaches: “Whoever destroys a soul, it is considered as if he destroyed an entire world. And whoever saves a life, it is considered as if he saved an entire world.” That teaching is so famous, in fact, that it is quoted in the Koran.
No society in history — not even the most decent — has ever wholly uprooted the lust to kill and terrorize. Israel comes closer than most; Muslim tourists who inadvertently take a wrong turn into a Jewish neighborhood will not find themselves under attack by a mob bent on slaughter. But the Jewish state has its savages as well, such as the arsonists who torched the home of the Dewabsha family in the village of Duma on July 31. An 18-month-old toddler, Ali, burned to death in the inferno; his father, Sa’ad, died a week later. On Monday, after weeks in a coma, Ali’s mother, Reham, died of her injuries too.
Israelis across the political spectrum expressed shame and anguish in response to the arson attack. Many are sickened by the realization that such evil could come from within — and outraged that the murderers are still at large. The Palestinian man who saved five Jewish lives, meanwhile, finds himself reviled as a collaborator. Other Palestinians have reportedly threatened to “burn his house down, or cut off his head.”
Heroism comes in different forms, but the greatest is the courage to act in defense of the despised outsider — especially when it would be more prudent to look the other way. Today we use the term “good Samaritan” to mean any charitable person. But 2,000 years ago, when Jesus related his parable about the Israelite who had been beaten and left for dead on the Jericho road, Samaritans and Jews hated each other. Bitterness between the two communities ran deep. Yet it was precisely the Samaritan who saved the wounded Jew, choosing to ignore the stranger’s detested tribal identity, and to see instead a fellow human being.
That Samaritan, like Faiz Abu Hamadiah, would no doubt have denied being a hero. The only difference between them is that the Good Samaritan was a parable. Hamadiah is blessedly, beautifully real.
Brendan O'Neill: Why does the left care more about Islamophobia than anti-Semitism?
The extent to which chattering-class concern for Muslims trumps concern for Jews reached its nadir when four Jews were murdered in a Parisian deli shortly after the massacre at Charlie Hebdo. Pretty much every liberal newspaper in Europe continued thundering on about the potential for an ‘Islamophobic backlash’ following the Charlie killings, even as Jews were being killed. On the morning the four dead Jews were being put on a flight for burial in Israel, George Clooney was telling fawning hacks how worried he was about ‘anti-Muslim fervour’ in Europe. It’s surreal. Some people seem more worried about possible attacks on Muslims than by actual attacks on Jews.
And now, a hike in anti-Muslim crimes in London is given greater media prominence than a larger hike in anti-Jewish attacks. This implicit demotion of Jewish problems, this judgement that crimes against Jews aren’t all that serious, needs some explanation. I think there are two reasons for it.
The first is that flagging up attacks on Muslims allows the left to indulge some prejudices of their own, especially about the dumb, tabloid-reading hordes, whom they view as being one iffy Richard Littlejohn column away from organising a demented anti-Muslim pogrom. The liberal elite’s myopic focus on Islamophobia is really an expression of distrust for the insufficiently multicultural, apparently Western-centric masses.
The second reason is that many on the left seem to think anti-Semitism is politically justified. From Karen Armstrong’s insistence that the deli attack in Paris ‘had nothing to do with anti-Semitism’ and rather was ‘about Palestine’ to various commentators’ claims that anti-Semitism in Europe is the inevitable byproduct of Israel’s antics in the Middle East, many very respectable people now view assaults on Jews almost as a form of protest, as political rather than hateful.
That’s the terrifying message of the media and leftists’ implicit downgrading of the seriousness of anti-Semitism. Whether they’re excusing these crimes or simply acquiescing to them, they’re giving a green light to anti-Semitism.
Golda Meir Was No J-Streeter
A deep and permanent rift between Democrats and Israel is inevitable because the Israeli government “has more in common with Dick Cheney than Golda Meir”—or so say s J Street leader Jeremy Ben-Ami, in a front-page story in The New York Times of Aug. 29. J Street’s characterization both misrepresents current Israeli leaders and does a grave disservice to the memory of Israel’s first female prime minister.
Some on the American left harbor a kind of visceral hatred towards former vice president Cheney, and they seem to presume that everyone else does, too. Hence Ben-Ami’s seemingly odd reference to someone who has been out of office in America for more than seven years. He would like to suggest that Democrats (and especially Jewish Democrats) must choose between the hated Cheney and the beloved Golda.
Golda is indeed a revered figure in Jewish history. But she was no J Street-style dove.
Addressing Labor Zionist delegates to a Jewish Agency assembly in June 1971, Golda denounced the slogan “peace for territories” as “superficial and simplistic.” The slogan — and concept — of “peace for territories” has, of course, been the heart and soul of the Israeli and American-Jewish Left since the 1967 war. It is their slogan, their mantra, their very raison d’être. And Golda rejected it.
The Sickening Deification of Rasmea Odeh
Anti-Israel activists creating a Palestinian Mumia Abu-Jamal
In early September 1972, Palestinian “Black September” terrorists seized the Israeli Olympic team at the Olympic Village in Munich, West Germany. By the time it was over, 11 Israeli athletes and one German policeman would be dead.
Before the deadly conclusion, Black September demanded the release of the notorious German “Red Army Faction” terrorists Andreas Baader and Ulrike Meinhoff as well as 234 prisoners held in Israeli prisons.
Included on that list was a name that probably meant little to people outside Israel – Rasmieh Odeh.
The name Rasmieh (Rasmea) Odeh meant a lot to Israelis because Rasmea and her co-conspirators were convicted in 1970 of the 1969 bombing of the SuperSol Supermarket in Jerusalem, which killed university students Edward Joffe and Leon Kanner.
A second bomb placed in the SuperSol supermarket timed to go off when first responders arrived, was disarmed moments before it was to explode.
As I reported when I met the families of Edward and Leon in Israel, the SuperSol bombing was scorched into the memories of Israelis because it was the first major post-1967 attack on Israeli civilians, and the funeral was a national event.
Rasmea also was convicted of the attempted bombing of the British Consulate.
Trampling Israeli flag, Palestinian supporters protest PM’s UK visit
Pro-Palestinian and pro-Israeli demonstrators clashed outside British Prime Minister David Cameron’s London residence on Wednesday ahead of a visit by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Police officers separated the two groups and took away at least two protesters following minor scuffles and chanting by both sides, according to an AFP photographer.
Around 400 pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside Downing Street to protest the visit of Netanyahu, who arrives on Wednesday, but will not meet officially with Cameron until Thursday. Israel’s Channel 2 television showed activists wrenching an Israeli flag out of the hands of a pro-Israel demonstrator and trampling on it.
“Arrest Netanyahu” and “war criminal,” they chanted, some holding up posters calling for an end to the blockade on Gaza as well as images of the Israeli leader plastered with the words “child killer.”
Others waved flags, including at least two from Lebanon’s powerful Shiite Hezbollah movement.
Facing them were around 100 pro-Israeli demonstrators, many waving the Israeli flag.
Police would not confirm how many protesters had been arrested.
‘You only understand money,’ Palestinian supporter tells pro-Israel rally
Anti-Semitic sentiments were in evidence Wednesday as hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists gathered outside Downing Street in London to protest the arrival of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
One protester brandished a coin at a pro-Israel demonstrator at a rival rally, shouting at him repeatedly: “You only understand money.”
The keffiyeh-wearing Irishman was later seen being handcuffed and escorted away by police.
Expert Warns of Link Between 'Human Rights Orgs' and Terror
At the International Institute for Counter-Terrorism’s (ICT) 15th International Conference on terrorism, Arutz Sheva spoke with Professor Gerald Steinberg, President of the NGO Monitor organization.
NGO Monitor was founded following the 2001 UN World Conference Against Racism in Durban South Africa, where powerful NGOs, claiming to promote human rights, hijacked the principles of morality and international law. NGO Monitor provides information and analysis, promotes accountability, and supports discussion on the reports and activities of NGOs claiming to advance human rights and humanitarian agendas.
Professor Steinberg spoke about a disturbing direct link between so-called “human rights organizations” and terrorist organizations.
“For instance, Amnesty International: [NGO Monitor has found] a second case where one of the heads of their major divisions is connected directly to groups like the Muslim Brotherhood and Hamas, and her husband is even more active in these kinds of frameworks,” he said.
“This is not an isolated case,” warned Prof. Steinberg. “We see other cases like that within Amnesty and also groups like Al-Haq, headed by someone’s who connected with the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, that everybody accepts as a major terrorist organization.”
Israel slams German bank for hosting talk on destroying Jewish state
Israel’s embassy in Berlin sharply criticized on Tuesday Germany’s Sparkasse savings bank network – and various NGOs – for allowing an opponent of the existence of Israel, who has likened the Jewish state to the Third Reich, to deliver a talk in its office space titled “Jew against Zionism.”
“We regret that certain organizations provide a platform for hatred. It is important and would have been beneficial if institutions would have double-checked before allowing their resources to be used as platforms to spread hatred. Actions are being taken,” the embassy told The Jerusalem Post.
Lilian Rosengarten, an activist from New York, spoke on Sunday in a Sparkasse office of the town of Düren, near Aachen. She is a member of the International Anti-Zionist network and accused Israel on the Düren municipal museum’s website of “ethnic cleansing,” “racism” and “apartheid.”
“Zionism has been successful in activating a growth in anti-Semitism,” she said.
The Darmstädter Echo, a regional paper in the city of Darmstadt, reported that a Protestant community pulled the plug on a talk by Rosengarten scheduled for September 2 because in the past she likened Israel to the Hitler movement.
EXPOSÉ: Italian Municipalities Host Film Titled “Israel – The Cancer”
On 17 August, on her Facebook page, Italian filmmaker and activist Samantha Comizzoli wrote: “Israelis should be shot just like that”. In April, she had previously posted: “Have you ever thought of pulling [the fuse on] a bomb? To react in some way to the monster?”.
The mayor of the city of Recanati, Francesco Fiordomo, the city of famed poet Giacomo Leopardi, should have had a look at what Comizzoli says and writes before granting sponsorship to her documentary “Israel - The Cancer”.
The film is clearly explained by the authors: “Israel’s Nazi occupation of Palestine is revealed at its worst: the occupation of the mind. Like a cancer, it is slowly eating the brains of people. This film attempts to explain the suffering of these lives under torture, dividing the film into the stages of cancer: carcinogenesis - spread of cancer - palliative care - metastasis - euthanasia – end”.
What she meant by "end" was explained by Comizzoli herself: “I hope that Israel sinks into the Earth and then the hell goes back from where it came from, hell”.
What has prompted this Italian municipality to offer a room in Villa Coloredo Mels (the city's civic museum) for the screening of this film?
Anachronistic Sublimination
I found this:
...Jesus walked about the Roman occupied territory of Palestine and said, “Lepers’ lives matter. Blind peoples’ lives matter. The lives of the hungry, the thirsty, the naked, the sick, and the imprisoned matter.” The Roman occupiers and their collaborators said, “All lives matter. Enjoy your crucifixion.”
Roman occupied territory of Palestine?!!
That was written by Dr. Peter Gathje, a professor of Ethics at Memphis Theological Seminary, where one of his courses is Christian Political Thought, and Founder of Manna House; a place of hospitality for homeless and poor persons in the city of Memphis. His teaching and research interests include "Christian discipleship in relation to poverty, racism, and homelessness, nonviolent social change, and state violence, particularly the death penalty and war."
What he has done above is knowingly or otherwise, who engaged in anachronistic sublimination.
"Palestine" did not exist during the Roman times.
He could have know that by reading the ...
... New Testament.
New tests discredit notion that Argentina’s Nisman committed suicide
Experts confirmed Monday that three laboratory analyses performed on the gun believed to have killed the special prosecutor for a 1994 bombing of a Buenos Aires Jewish community center tested positive for traces of gunpowder residue.
The .22 caliber Bersa that killed Alberto Nisman tested positive for the first time, in the three electronic scans performed at the Scientific Laboratory of Tax Investigation, in the northern province of Salta. The tests detected antimony, barium and lead.
This new information dovetails with a test performed in February, which also detected no gunpowder on Nisman’s hands.
The result seems to negate the possibility that Nisman committed suicide, and support the theory that someone else shot him, or that someone cleaned the prosecutor’s hand. Some experts also said Monday that if the environmental conditions of the tests had slight changes the results could be different.
In July forensic pathologist Cyril Wech analyzed the case and said he believes that Nisman likely was murdered.
Prosecutor Viviana Fein has not yet released a final ruling. “I cannot determine for the moment whether it was a suicide or a homicide,” she said on March 6, when she convened the authors of the independent forensic report to examine their evidence. Her final ruling likely will be released after the October presidential elections.
Jeremy Corbyn defending violent thugs
Many readers will recall the vicious hatred of Israel displayed in London during the Gaza war of 2008-2009.
It didn’t put Jeremy Corbyn off, that’s for sure. He was a frequent speaker at the violent demonstrations, alongside odious figures such as George Galloway and Yvonne Ridley.
Taking part in the demonstrations was not enough for Corbyn. In the aftermath, when the police rightly cracked down on the thugs who had been attacking them and destroying property, he stepped in to help.
Watch him here complaining bitterly about the arrest and prosecution of young men who were simply “angry”, demanding an enquiry into the whole judicial process, and making the inflammatory and baseless claim that the aim of the arrests was to “deter anyone from going on demonstrations”.
Corbyn also held a meeting in Parliament for the thugs, stirring up hatred with more blatant lies.
Is there a place for Jews in a Corbyn-led Labour Party?
He is the Rosh Hashanah present unwanted by the majority of British Jews. But, barring accidents, on Saturday night, September 12, Jeremy Corbyn, the hard-Left backbench MP drafted onto the ballot paper at the last moment, will become the new leader of the Labour Party.
A strong reflection of British Jewry’s behind-the-scenes unhappiness is the reluctance of many in the organized Jewish community to speak to The Times of Israel about the impact of a Corbyn-led Labour Party.
One Jewish MP “could not accommodate your inquiry at this time.” Others did not return calls or hid behind public press releases. Some who are familiar with the Labour Party’s inner workings would only speak anonymously.
The lobby group, Labour Friends of Israel (LFI) refused to comment until the result of the race for leader was announced when asked if LFI would invite Corbyn, as is traditional for the leader of the party, to its fringe events at the party’s annual conference in Brighton at the end of September. That is to say, would it welcome the man who has pronounced Hamas and Hezbollah to be his “friends” and who, in turn, has been endorsed by them?
Truth Not a Requirement at Methodist Church’s Upcoming Anti-Israel Conference
During the weekend between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, a Methodist church in Lexington, Mass., will host a gathering of well-known anti-Israel commentators, including Ilan Pappé, Noam Chomsky and Stephen Walt. The event is organized by an Arlington, Mass.-based group called the Society for Biblical Studies. The organization was founded in the late 1990s and has been bringing activists to Israel and the disputed territories under the leadership of Rev. Dr. Peter Miano for nearly two decades.
The theme of the conference, which will be held at the Lexington United Methodist Church on Sept. 17-19, is “Christians and the Holy Land: What Does the Lord Require?”
The Society for Biblical Studies cynically declares that it has invited speakers “representing a range of perspectives” to present at its conference. In fact, the invited speakers all have a history of promoting a hostile interpretation of the Arab-Israeli conflict that portrays Israel in a singularly harsh light. For example, Mark Braverman is a Jew who specializes in speaking to Christian audiences about the evils of the Jewish state. “Israel is in the grip of a rogue criminal government,” he said at a Christian festival in England in 2014. Another speaker, Sara Roy from Harvard University, has drawn parallels between Israeli soldiers and Nazis who murdered Jews during Germany’s Third Reich. There’s also a representative from “Breaking the Silence,” a group of former IDF soldiers who level unsubstantiated allegations at their erstwhile comrades.
Survey Finds 85% of European Jews Fear Bringing Children to Rosh Hashanah Services
According to details published by Israel’s Channel 2 on Tuesday, 85% said they will not bring their children to synagogue on Rosh Hashanah this week out of concern for their safety.
The survey, which revealed a widespread decreasing sense of personal security among Jews, was conducted by the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE) in 179 Jewish communities across the continent. The questionnaire found that Jewish fears have been stoked as a result of the recent large influx of immigrants and refugees from the Middle East into Europe.
European Jewish organizations are concerned over these statistics, according to the report, because they further demonstrate the negative effects of the rise in antisemitism and nationalistic fervor across Europe, as well as the increasing level of Islamic immigration to the continent, on Europe’s Jewish communities and the participation of their members in communal activities.
“Rabbis and many community leaders from across Europe are, unfortunately, reporting an increase in Jews who are refraining from all public identification with their Judaism,” Rabbi Menachem Margolin, the head of the European Jewish Association, told Channel 2.
Watch: South African Chief Rabbi Slams Law Targeting Jews
South Africa's Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein has issued a stinging response to the "deeply insulting and hurtful" decision to review the country's dual citizenship laws to prevent South African Jews from serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
Rabbi Goldstein described his "very deep sense of outrage and in fact insult" upon hearing of the plans, and called out the ruling ANC party on its hypocritical and "obsessive" stance vis-a-vis the State of Israel.
Israel is an integral part of Jewish identity, he emphasized, and said that such a move was therefore an attack on the core values of the Jewish community itself.
"The ANC, which claims to be a national party which represents all South Africans, has now taken a stand that is deeply insulting to a very important community of people in South Africa, the Jewish community."
South African Jews "love South Africa, but we also love Israel," Rabbi Goldstein continued. "Israel is part of Jewish identity.
PreOccupied Territory: Arab Gulf States To Accept Refugees From US Academia (satire)
“Here those beleaguered academic refugees will finally be able to let go of the constant worry that someone will challenge their post-colonialist positions,” continued Ajerq. “Here they can live free lives, and no one will threaten to expose them to non-Edward-Saidian thought.”
Already, the diplomatic offices of Qatar and Bahrain in the US have been deluged with inquiries from post-secondary teachers and students seeking asylum from articles, books, news reports, and other media that see Israel as legitimate and the US as playing a constructive role in world affairs. Oman’s embassy e-mail server crashed, highlighting what observers see as the first in many anticipated obstacles in bringing such an ambitious rescue plan to fruition.
“There are bound to be planning failures and logistical challenges,” noted analyst Stephen Salaita. “But the spirit of this operation is encouraging. The Gulf states are finally picking up the ball after having all but ignored the plight of this oppressed population, and they should be praised for upholding the rights of that group. While we will certainly see these refugees encounter significant difficulty on their way to safety, overall I believe we can expect them to resettle comfortably in their new homes.” Salaita explained that the difficulties to be expected along the refugees’ journey include lapses in Wi-Fi access, exposure to news sources not biased against the West and Israel, and motion sickness.
Academic refugee leaders called the program a lifeline, but said it is still too early to judge its merits. “We still have to see whether all the little Eichmanns in Washington and New York will let it proceed,” said Professor Ward Churchill.
The Guardian praises UNRWA as “best of the UN”!
In what arguably represents one of the defining examples of their alternate reality when analyzing the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, the Guardian has been running a series of posts highlighting the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, including the following report by their Jerusalem correspondent on the ‘best bits’ of the UN.
Yes, that’s right. UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency) represents, to Beaumont, the ‘best’ of the UN!
As we’ve demonstrated in multiple posts, the opposite closer to the truth. In perpetuating the “refugee” problem for decades, no one single international agency has done greater harm to the search for peace in the Middle East.
Beaumont’s deception begins in the first few passages:
Unique among the main UN organisations, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency was set up to deal with what was then regarded as a temporary refugee problem, and an individual one at that: the plight of Palestinian refugees.
Established in 1949 the body was mandated to carry out relief and works programmes supporting about 750,000 Palestinians who had fled their homes in the conflict, which was triggered by the establishment of the state of Israel.
Of course, what “triggered” the refugee problem was not Israel’s creation in 1948, but the Arab war against the nascent Jewish state. If the Arabs had agreed to compromise and accepted Israel into the region, rather than launching a war of annihilation, there wouldn’t have been even one Palestinian refugee.
The Guardian’s Chris McGreal gets it wrong on Israel…again!
His latest false claim appears in an article published in the Guardian about the history of the United Nations (70 years and half a trillion dollars later: what has the UN achieved?, Sept. 7th). McGreal, who used to be the paper’s Jerusalem correspondent, manages to get his dig in on the relationship between the US and the Jewish state – a relationship he once described as “slavish” before the term was removed by the Guardian’s readers’ editor after complaints of antisemitism – in the following passage:
The five permanent members, the victors over Germany and Japan, hold the whip hand through vetoes. For all the noise from the US, Britain and France in particular about modernising the UN, they show no willingness to give up the power they wield sometimes in ways governed entirely by political interest. The US has exercised its security council veto to protect Israel from criticism more times than the total number of vetoes cast by the other permanent members combined. More recently, Russia and China have used their vetoes to block UN intervention in Syria.
McGreal is wrong. As a review of a UN page listing all Security Council vetoes clearly demonstrates, the US has exercised its veto on Israel related resolutions 42 times, while the total number of vetoes by other permanent members is 157.
We’ve contacted Guardian editors to facilitate a correction to McGreal’s inaccurate claim.
UK Media Watch prompts update to Guardian report on Israel public broadcasting law
The Guardian headline alludes to a provision in the bill which bans the expression of personal opinions on public broadcast news programs. The provision stated that public broadcasts should “avoid one-sidedness, prejudice, expressing personal opinions, giving grades and affixing labels, ignoring facts or selectively emphasizing them not according to their newsworthiness.”
Despite the fact that public service broadcasters in the US and the UK (PBS and the BBC) similarly have explicit prohibitions against bias and political propaganda, and the fact that the Israeli law indeed only applied to publicly funded news programs, Greenslade’s story focused on complaints that the provision was designed to “stifle dissent” in the country.
Nonetheless, a few hours after the Guardian story ran, reports were published in the Israeli media that Benjamin Netanyahu (who also serves as Communications Minister in his government) opposed the provision, and that it would likely be rescinded.
We then tweeted the Guardian journalist to update him on the latest developments.
Greenslade responded positively to our tweet, and published a new report with the updated information on the likely removal of the controversial clause.
PreOccupied Territory: NY Times Mideast Coverage Wins Pulitzer For Fiction (satire)
All of the New York Times’s many other Pulitzer awards came for journalistic excellence, but this year the Pulitzer committee saw fit to laud Jerusalem bureau chief Jodi Rudoren and her staff for their contribution to the literary genre of fiction, as contained in the corpus of articles the team published in the twelve-month period of July 2014-June 2015, often more than one per day. In the aggregate, said the committee, the writing contains fiction that illuminates the human condition as seen from inside the minds of characters unable to see outside a certain myopic framing of the region’s troubles.
“Ms. Rudoren and her colleagues give us an all-too-realistic first-person portrayal of what happens in the minds of people so committed to a specific and simplistic understanding of a multifaceted, complex situation that they blind themselves to blatant facts,” noted the committee. “Collectively, the writers of these articles have made an invaluable contribution to our understanding and experience of human nature, bias, and the primal need to give an emotionally satisfying explanation for sometimes-incomprehensible events.”
Specifically, the committee cited reporting last year during Operation Protective Edge, when the publications’ articles on the IDF-Hamas conflict repeatedly neglected to mention Hamas locating its rocket launchers amid civilians and journalists, a phenomenon attested to by myriad reputable journalistic sources, as well as completely omitting discussion of press intimidation by Hamas. “In fact Ms. Rudoren’s writing – in tweets as well as articles – gave us a rich performance of someone determined not to see things before their eyes so that the identity- and mission-defining narrative of Israeli brutality and Palestinian victimhood could be preserved,” wrote the committee. They also noted the attention to detail in this aspect of the fiction, pointing out the characters’ unquestioning reliance on the Hamas-run Ministry of Health in Gaza for civilian casualty figures, and a near-total dismissal of the Palestinian leadership’s corruption and intransigence as significant factors in the story.
Czech far-rightist calls to put refugees in former concentration camp
Police in the Czech Republic are investigating comments made on Facebook by an extremist politician calling for refugees to be placed in Terezin, the former Nazi concentration camp.
Adam Bartos, the leader of the fringe yet vocal far-right nationalist National Democracy Party, published the comments about the site, located in the central European country, on Monday.
Reacting to the establishment of a refugee camp near the country’s border with Slovakia, Bartos wrote, “Why build tent camps for the aliens? We have the beautiful fortress town of Terezin where the aliens could concentrate before they are taken home by trains.”
A police spokeswoman told the Czech News Agency on Monday that the police will probe whether or not the comments constitute a criminal act. According to Czech law, hate speech and comments inciting national, racial or religious hatred can carry penalties of up to three years in prison.
Czech Jewish leaders have refused to comment on the incident.
Ukrainian nationalists destroy Hasidic tent city at rabbi’s grave in Uman
Ukrainian nationalists destroyed a tent city erected by Hasidic Jews in Uman ahead of the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage, a Uman Jewish leader said.
“On Shabbat, when they knew we wouldn’t be able to respond or activate the communication device, they simply knocked down the fence, pushed the light poles and security cameras, and caused damage estimated at half a million dollars,” Eliezer Kirshboim, chairman and director of the Jewish association in Uman, told the Israeli daily Yediot Acharonot. “We are approaching the High Holidays, and this disrupts all our work arrangements.”
Police officers did not intervene to stop the attacks, the newspaper reported, citing witnesses.
Since the fall of communism, Uman has seen the arrival of thousands of pilgrims on the Jewish New Year who come to visit the gravesite of the Breslover movement’s founder, Rabbi Nachman.
The pilgrimage often has created friction between the predominantly Israeli new arrivals and locals, many of whom resent the cordoning off by police of neighborhoods for the pilgrims.
Remains of Nazi Professor's Jewish Victims Buried in France
The remains of Jewish victims who were killed for the skeleton collection of Nazi anatomy professor August Hirt were buried in northeastern France on Sunday.
Discovered at a forensic medical institute in eastern France in July, the remains were interred during a ceremony at a cemetery in Strasbourg, attended by prominent local leaders as well as members of the Jewish community and the city's chief rabbi, AFP reports.
In 1943, 86 Jews were sent to the gas chambers and their bodies brought to Strasbourg, which was then under Nazi occupation, where Hirt was assembling a macabre collection of corpses.
The bodies, some intact, others dismembered or burned, were found in November 1944 after the liberation of Strasbourg, in bins filled with distilled alcohol. Following an autopsy, they were buried in a common grave in 1946.
But two months ago, historian Raphael Toledano found other undiscovered remains at a forensic medicine institute in the city.
France Trying to Woo Its Jews Back Home From Israel Amid Fears of Future Economic Lag
The French government is trying to attract talented French Jews in Israel back to France amid fears that the European country is being striped of future business leaders and investors, The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
Israel’s Ministry of Immigrant Absorption revealed that 6,961 French Jews moved to Israel in 2014, which is more than double the number from the previous year. More than 36% of those emigrants hold college degrees and 17% are in engineering.
The number of Jews leaving France is depriving that country of young talent, as it continues to struggle with poor growth in its economy and unemployment rates in the double digits, according to The Wall Street Journal.
French Economy and Industry Minister Emmanuel Macron attended the DLD tech conference in Tel Aviv on Tuesday, and a large part of his visit to Israel is focused on encouraging Jewish investors and innovators to return to France. He met with parents of high school students and tried courting Israeli investors by boasting about government measures his ministry is in the process of implementing, such as tax incentives and streamlined labor tribunals.
Microsoft buys Israeli cloud computing security startup
Microsoft said Tuesday it bought an Israel-based cyber-security startup specializing in defending programs and content in the cloud, as it expands offerings for the enterprise.
Microsoft did not disclose how much it paid for Adallom, but the website TechCrunch put the purchase price at $250 million.
The acquisition comes as Microsoft responds to the trend toward cloud-based computing, in which data or software is accessed remotely over the Internet.
Microsoft built its revenue selling packaged programs such as its widely used Office software for business or home computers, but the tech giant is shifting to offering that software through cloud-based subscriptions.
The Bedouin Tracker Who Saved Naftali Bennett's Life
An IDF Bedouin tracker made a memorable visit to the home in which Education Minister Naftali Bennett (Jewish Home) is sitting shiva for his father Jim, who passed away last week.
The two former comrades reminisced about their shared experiences in the military, including a 1993 incident in which the tracker saved Bennett's life in Lebanon.
Bennett explained that they were on a footpatrol in Lebanon when "suddenly Fawas he yelled at me to stop! I immediately stood still. He said not to move and began cleaning the stones. He pulled out an anti-personnel mine."
Many people have visited the Haifa home in which the Bennett family is staying, including national-religious rabbis, youth movement delegations, ambassadors, politicians, diplomats, and fellow citizens who knew Jim Bennett.
Remarkable: Wounded 'Cast Lead' Hero Is Back in Uniform
Lt. (res.) Aharon Karov was considered to be the most badly wounded casualty of Operation Cast Lead, waged against Hamas in 2008-9. He suffered severe facial injuries and brain damage.
During the counter-terror operation in Gaza, Karov – now 28 – was a Hesder Yeshiva student and a young officer in the Paratroopers. In the course of the operation, he married – and returned to his soldiers on the morning after the wedding. Two weeks later, the force under his command entered a boobytrapped house on the outskirts of Gaza.
An explosive device went off, Karov was badly injured, and his chances of recovering were deemed to be very slim.
Karov received initial care on the ground and was flown to Beilinson Hospital, then transferred to the Head Injury Ward at Tel Hashomer Hospital. A large shell fragment had entered his brain from one side of the head and was lodged inside it. The fragment struck numerous regions of the brain, including those affecting speech. His face was crushed, from the upper skull to the eye cavities, through the sinuses, to the mouth and teeth. He could not speak or move a limb.
Matisyahu due back in Israel to raise giant middle finger at BDS movement
Jewish reggae rapper Matisyahu knows where he's welcome.
Following last month's headline-making boycott effort of the American singer at Spain's Rototom Sunplash Festival, the subsequent backtrack and his eventual performance in front of a sea of Palestinian flags, Matisyahu high-tailed it for Israel where he made an impromptu appearance at the closing of Jerusalem's Season of Culture's Sacred Music Festival at the Tower of David Museum.
Now, he's returning over Succot with his full band to raise a giant middle finger at the BDS movement with a show at the capital's Sultan's Pool on October 10. Tickets start at NIS 175 and are available via Bimot or *6622.