From Ian:
Keith Ellison Headlined Fundraiser For Muslim Activist Who Called For Palestinians To Embrace ‘The Jihad Way’
Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison, the favorite to take over as chairman of the Democratic National Committee, campaigned in 2009 for a Libya-born activist who once called on Palestinians to embrace “the jihad way” in order to get free of Israeli control.
The activist, Esam Omeish, a former candidate for Virginia state delegate, has also praised one of the founders of Hamas and commended the work of Palestinian suicide bombers.
Omeish’s positions had been publicized when Ellison, the first Muslim ever elected to Congress, headlined the July 2009 fundraiser for Omeish, who served as president from 2004 to 2008 of the Muslim American Society, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked group.
“The very fact that you have ran a honorable campaign in this heated primary shows victory. Don’t stop working, lay it all on the line,” Ellison said at the event, according to Omeish’s campaign website.
The American Left’s Hypocrisy on Anti-Semitism
Ellison, according to The Wall Street Journal, “has won the backing of the self-described progressive wing of the party, including Mr. Sanders. The fact that Mr. Ellison is a Muslim African-American adds to his appeal to Democrats who want to showcase their party’s embrace of diversity.”
Unfortunately, Ellison hasn’t always embraced diversity. He has admitted that he worked with the anti-Semitic Nation of Islam cult for 18 months and he even defended leader Louis Farrakhan from accusations of anti-Semitism in the University of Minnesota’s student newspaper while he was a law student there.
After receiving criticism for his stance during a 2006 campaign, Ellison finally repudiated Farrakhan and other NOI leaders: “They were and are anti-Semitic, and I should have come to that conclusion earlier than I did.”
Case closed? Not exactly. To this day Ellison continues to propagate the anti-Semitic trope that Israel is an apartheid state. He has also publicly compared the Bush administration’s actions following 9/11 to Adolph Hitler’s actions to consolidate power after the notorious Reichstag fire, in what seemed like an attempt to absolve the radical jihadists who killed thousands of Americans from blame.
Over at Commentary Magazine, Noah Rothman has a good run-down of Ellison’s noxious views on Israel:
He has accused Israel of being an apartheid state and advocated that Israel provide security concessions to Hamas, the terrorist organization that uses the Gaza Strip and its people as leverage in a perpetual war against Israel. Ellison has also voted against funding Israel’s Iron Dome, which has saved countless lives from the perpetual threat of rocket assault from Gaza. He contended that Israel’s ability to shield its civilians from Hamas terror prevents dialogue and, in the case of the Gaza War of 2014, a swift ceasefire.
Are these the accepted views of the progressive left?
Andrew Bolt: The Jews' wall is, of course, always worse
Israel builds a wall to protect civilians from Palestinian extremists. The mainstream media and the UN go nuts. Now Lebanon builds a wall to protect civilians from Palestinian extremists. The mainstream media and the UN just shrug. Why the difference?
Israel's wall was damned:
At a special meeting to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Court of Justice (ICJ) advisory ruling declaring illegal Israel’s construction of a separation wall in the West Bank, Secretary General Ban Ki-moon today called for a halt to the current violence between Israelis and Palestinians, while also the need all Member States to comply with international law...
On 09 July 2004, the Advisory Opinion called on Israel to cease the construction of the Wall, bring down the parts that had already been built, and halt the severe restrictions on the freedom of movement of Palestinians living in the West Bank.
But Lebanon's wall?
The Lebanese military has started building a tall cement wall and watchtowers around parts of the Ain al-Hilweh refugee camp, near the southern city of Sidon, inspiring popular protest on social media...
The wall and watchtowers come as a part of an agreement between the military and the Palestinian factions in the camp and will take 15 months to complete..
Munir al-Maqdah, the head of the Joint Palestinian Security Forces, told Sky News Arabia that ... “the wall and [watchtowers] are being built for security concerns, which we accepted.”
Liberal/Left Leaning Jews Need to Hear This
I really need a drum roll here....... The Message: The same group of mostly middle class, primarily Christian Americans (e.g. plumbers, mechanics, farmers, construction workers, factory workers, blue-collar service workers and salespeople), who voted for Trump are the same people who liberated our Jewish parents and grandparents from the Holocaust! This same group of whites and blacks and a smattering of others are the ones who risked and often lost their lives in order for us to survive. They liberated thousands of Jews who looked more like skeletons than humans in Auschwitz and other camps. These are the same brave men and woman who we ridicule for having the audacity for voting for the misogynist, racist, nut job, hater named Donald Trump. I think we owe them! We owe them a chance to enjoy the results from a legitimate democratic election. Why not stop attacking Trump every second of every day and give him a chance to succeed? If he succeeds we all win. The vicious lies have saturated the planet. From the lame jokes (lies) on the infamous SNL TV show to small unknown haredi newspapers who sometimes vacillate on him or his supporters. Poor Steve Bannon will be known as an antisemite in 20 years from now. This case resembles the ‘Jenin massacre'. Israel will forever be identified as the brutal murderers responsible for levelling an entire Arab city thanks to the constant repetition of this lie.
In addition to this cohort, there is a brave group of Righteous Gentiles who defend Jews and support Israel today. Some are Evangelical Christians, or just plain well informed Christians, some are Hindus, some are atheists and some are even Muslims. Some are white, some are black, some are Asian, some are gay, some are straight. We can learn a lot from them. I’m sad to report that in my own experience, many of these people are better engaged in supporting important Jewish & Israeli causes than many of these same democratic or liberal Jews who prefer to live with their heads in the sand. In Canada, we have “Israel Truth Week” which is often led by a Righteous Gentile named Mark Vandermaas who preaches that Jews must know that Israel holds the legal title to Judea and Samaria (aka The West Bank) thanks to the Balfour Declaration and the Mandate for Palestine. If we want to give it away for any reason, that’s up to us––but lets start with the truth. And there are many others across the world who warn us about the dangers from radical Islam. Have you heard from Dr. Tawfik Hamid, Geert Wilders, Brigitte Gabriel, Pat Condell, Douglas Murray and many others who have come to our rescue? (h/t Elder of Lobby)
The Atrocious Scandal of the UNESCO Vote on Jerusalem
It was over the ruins of these sacred Jewish sites, left behind by the Romans, that Arab conquerors of Jerusalem in the seventh century built two mosques, the Dome of the Rock and Al-Aqsa, to lay claim on the City of David for Islam.
There can be no dispute about Jewish links with Jerusalem, and Jewish rights to their sacred sites that long pre-date the arrival of Arabs bearing Islam to the City of David. This latest effort by the UNESCO, however to deny the Jewish nature of Jerusalem is much more than a scandal; it is a Stalinist measure to airbrush history by an organization which, according to its own charter, is supposed to be devoted without prejudice to the preservation of historical records.
There is precedent for such a resolution to nullify the recent UNESCO resolution on Jerusalem. In December 1991, the UN General Assembly voted to repeal the UN resolution passed in 1975 that declared, "Zionism is a form of racism."
Muslim denial of the Jewish links to the City of David and their ancestral rights over Judea and Samaria, or Palestine, is ironically contrary to the Word of God in their own sacred scripture.
Their claim on Jerusalem, or the holy land, on the basis of Islam is simply not found in the Quran. On the contrary, the Quran is explicit in addressing Jews as "children of Israel" and speaking of them, as in "Remember those blessings of Mine with which I graced you, and how I favoured you above all other people." (2:47)
‘Post-truth’: Why Jew-haters will adore 2016's Word of the Year
The year’s apogee of Palestinian ‘post-truth’ must surely be UNESCO bigots enshrining Jerusalem’s holiest of holies as exclusively Muslim, summarily dismissing Judaism’s rights to a city Jews built eons before Muhammad and Christianity’s founding tenet that Christ lived and died there centuries prior to Islam’s prophet hearing the word of Allah.
So, viewed through this ‘post-truth’ lens, it must surely be the case Palestinians really are the ‘true’ descendants of Canaanites, a people conquered and consumed by the ancient Israelites, but whose celebrity survives, much like Santa and the Tooth Fairy.
That adds credence to the PLO’s assertion that, as the only indigenous people, they are merely trying to wrest back land criminally allotted to ‘white, European, colonial-settler’ Jews by the perfidious British in their outrageous Balfour Declaration of 1917.
Therefore pay no heed to the 1920 San Remo Agreement (a shameful carve-up of the Levant that incorporated Balfour), keep shtum about any offers of nationhood the Arabs spurned and, crucially, dismiss the then-honorable UN’s 1947 restoration of a Jewish state in its biblical homeland (post-WW2 guilt).
I could bang on deconstructing Palestinians’ mythology, which is watertight as a sieve by any established historical reckoning, but ‘post-truth’ renders that irrelevant.
As Rod Liddle noted in the Sunday Times, “Truth is only beauty if it’s your truth. When it’s somebody else’s truth it can be very ugly indeed, often best not mentioned.” (h/t Elder of Lobby)
PRESS RELEASE FactsOnIsrael.com, Inc.
The homeland right of no people on earth is more misunderstood than that of the Jewish people to their homeland of Israel. This is partly because the mainstream media has adopted the Jewish homeland-delegitimizing language of Israel’s foes, but also in part because well-meaning supporters of Israel ourselves unthinkingly use these terms. Both of these practices contribute greatly to the widespread bias against Israel.
FactsOnIsrael.com, Inc., was incorporated in 2016 as a Pennsylvania non-profit entity, with a website, www.factsonisrael.com, Facebook page, mobile app, and other activities to make clear to Jewish homeland supporters the connotations and nuances of words used in Israel-related discussion, and to encourage Israel supporters’ own use of historically-grounded terms, which reflect the Jewish people’s three-millennia connection to the land of Israel, and not Jewish-homeland delegitimizing pejoratives.
For example, “West Bank” is not a synonym for Judea-Samaria, but an antonym. The biblical names Judea and Samaria remained in use all through the 1800 years of continuous foreign rule between Romans’ destruction of the Jewish kingdom Judaea in CE 135 and the State of Israel’s attainment of independence in 1948 as the land of Israel’s next native state. The United Nations referred to “the hill country of Samaria and Judea,” not to “the West Bank,” in its partition resolution of 1947. “West Bank” was coined in 1950 by the invader Jordan, for the same reason the Romans renamed Judaea as “Palestine” in 135 – to disassociate the Jewish homeland from Jews. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Australia and Israel: Good Guys Should Stick Together
Unfortunately, there is a tendency in Australia (and elsewhere) to see Israel purely through the lens of the Palestinian issue and the peace process. This is not the right prism. It is unlikely that an enhanced relationship with Israel would damage Australia's standing in the Arab or Muslim worlds. Israel has peace treaties with Egypt, the most important Arab state, and with Jordan. Other Arab countries are quietly getting closer to Israel because of the rise of Iran in the region and the shared fear of radical Islam.
Jerusalem has very good relations with the Muslim states in Central Asia and the Caucasus. There is no evidence that Australia's relationship with Israel has in any way hindered its own defense relations with Arab countries, its defense engagement in Southeast Asia or the Pacific, its international efforts to counter terrorism and proliferation, or the ability of the Australian Defense Force to operate in Afghanistan and Iraq.
Our recently issued report could serve the two countries well right now. Israel's prime minister has announced plans to visit Australia in February 2017, at which time he will seek greater cooperation. The respect ASPI and the BESA Center command in their respective countries ensures that the highest government echelons will be aware of the report.
There is really no country in the Middle East whose interests are more closely aligned with Australia's than Israel. Neither state has sufficiently recognized the extent to which they contribute to one another's national interests. Australia and Israel can cooperate in strategic affairs to the benefit of both countries. The bilateral relationship could be significantly expanded. Good guys should stick together.
Erdan at JPost Conference: Terror and BDS share the same ideological roots
At the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference on Wednesday, Public Security Minister Gilad Erdan asserted that BDS - a movement that calls to boycott, divest from and sanction Israel - is another form of terrorism directed at Israel.
“Just as the goal of terrorism is to spread fear and instability, BDS aims to delegitimize and isolate Israel and in the end to destroy it,” Erdan said later adding, “The ideological roots of both Palestinian terror and the BDS campaign are exactly the same. BDS is not about human rights, both are about the rejection of Israel's right to exist as the nation state of the Jewish people.”
Erdan petitioned the international community to “reject BDS in all forms,” and pressure Palestinian leadership to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. “I believe that if each of your countries make this a core demand from the Palestinians [recognizing Israel as a Jewish state] and repeat it over and over, and don’t put the pressure only on the wrong side, we may see the day when we have true partner for peace,” Erdan said.
“I believe that if each of your countries make this a core demand from the Palestinians [recognizing Israel as a Jewish state] and repeat it over and over, and don’t put the pressure only on the wrong side, we may see the day when we have true partner for peace,” Erdan said.
Congressman Behind New Anti-BDS Bill: We Want to Do Everything We Can to Protect Israel
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement is an “insidious” phenomenon that must be tackled head-on, an Illinois congressman who co-authored a new anti-BDS bill told The Algemeiner on Monday.
“It’s unfair and it’s gratuitous,” Republican Peter Roskam said of the BDS movement. “And I think that there is recognition in Congress that a strong Israel is good for the United States, and we want a strong and stable partner in the Middle East. So we want to do everything we can to protect Israel.”
Earlier this month, Roskam and Democrat Juan Vargas of California introduced the “Protecting Israel Against Economic Discrimination Act” — the purpose of which, according to its text, is to “amend the Export Administration Act of 1979 to include in the prohibitions on boycotts against allies of the United States boycotts fostered by international governmental organizations against Israel and to direct the Export-Import Bank of the United States to oppose boycotts against Israel.” This is a companion bill to legislation introduced in the Senate in September by Republican Rob Portman of Ohio and Democrat Ben Cardin of Maryland.
The legislative push, Roskam told The Algemeiner, was prompted by the UN Human Rights Council’s decision in March to set up a database of Israeli companies operating in the West Bank.
Daphne Anson: NUTS & a Nice Pair
Outrageously, since the education of children is in their members' care, Britain's left-dominated National Union of Teachers has been on the anti-Israel trail for some time (as I showed here), and, here's one of the latest NUT members who's keen to pass the anti-Israel message on:
'A teacher is organising a special awareness and fundraising evening after returning from a harrowing trip to Palestine. Julia Simpkins, secretary of the Bolton-branch of National Union of Teachers (NUT), travelled with a 12-strong delegation to the country to find out about the conditions the Palestinians are forced to endure. She said: "The NUT takes a delegation twice a year to Palestine so we can see what is happening and raise awareness of the issues back home and get support for the people." .... Bolton Socialist Club is organising a Palestinian weekend at Bolton Socialist Club this week, starting Friday, with activities speakers and entertainment. Money raised will go towards helping Palestinian women go to university. On Sunday people will be embarking on a sponsored walk from Turton Tower at 10am. Ms Simpkins said: ".... Israel does not want the Palestinian people there...."
The people who swallow Palestinian propaganda wholesale, and are probably likely to fall for this example in Bolton "'cos a teacher told me so" might have benefited from a pair of simple videos such as these, from the Jerusalem Institute of Justice, had not Pallywood and its fans infected them first.
5 Reasons Israel isn't Apartheid
IsraellyCool: MissMuslim And Its Followers Make Mockery Of Antisemitism
A few days ago, Canary Mission tweeted a link to my post on MissMuslim’s Nihal Al Qawasmi – who has become a darling of the young, hip crowd and the face of a younger generation of Muslims – which showed in no uncertain terms her antisemitism.
MissMuslim seemed to take seriously this disturbing news about their co-founder.
A backlash against MissMuslim ensued, with attacks against Canary Mission and cries of “Islamaphobia” – but not one condemning Nihal Al Qawasmi’s overt antisemitism.
Whether or not MissMuslim was being sarcastic all along or caved in to the pressure is irrelevant. By even suggesting they were being sarcastic and not acting against Al Qawasmi, at best they show they could not care less about antisemitism and, at worst, endorse it.
Spread the word, especially to Allure and Cosmo who have promoted the site.
Jerusalem court rules to protect archeologists from BDS attack
A Jerusalem district court on Monday rejected a Freedom of Information petition from two left-wing organizations demanding that the state reveal the names of archaeologists who are working on excavations in Judea and Samaria.
Judge Yigal Marzel accepted the State’s argument that disclosing these names would expose the archaeologists to academic boycott by BDS-influenced institutions which could damage their careers. A few of the archaeologists did voluntarily consent to having their names revealed regardless.
The court also rejected the request to reveal the storage location of the artifacts that have been found for fear of theft or damage to peace talks with the Palestinian Authority. In addition, the court rejected the request for a list of where artifacts are on loan in other countries for fear of hurting relations with those nations.
However, the court ruled in favor of the petitioners’ demand to receive a list of the excavations that have already been completed.
The two organizations who petitioned the court were Yesh Din and Emek Shaveh, both funded by various European governments and the EU.
Italian gay advocacy group denounces BDS movement
The Italian lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender- intersex (LGBTI) advocacy organization Associazione Radicale Certi Diritti approved a resolution condemning the “pinkwashing” theory as a political movement that promotes the delegitimization of Israel and the BDS movement by exploiting the LGBTI cause.
The organization became the first European LGBTI group to denounce the practice during its national congress held in Turin November 18-20.
“The alarming rise of political calls by LGBTI groups to boycott Israel distracts from the real battle for human rights of Palestinian LGBTI, and advances the boycott of Israeli, Jewish and Zionist associations as well as any group that has ties with Israel,” the resolution said.
The resolution praised Israeli LGBTI activism for its “advancement of human rights” while condemning the pinkwashing movement for “silencing voices” who attempt to reveal the Arab world using a “social and political dialogue on LGBTI issues to pursue a hostile agenda to the Jewish state.”
The very curious antisemitic attack on an Oberlin College professor
The manner in which this hate crime was carried out is very unusual.
First, the perpetrator must have known the Kupermans or at least known about them, in some general way if not personally. How or why else to target them specifically? This was not directed at a public space, such as a Synagogue or cemetery, where the text would be seen by many people.
Second, this was not a spontaneous drive-by attack. Someone had to prepare the note carefully, cutting out letters to paste. Had there been something spray-painted or written in marker, it would be more usual.
Third, who uses a torn piece of paper for such a note? That in itself is odd.
Fourth, if the note were so small that it could tuck behind a mezuzah, the perp might have known of the existence of the mezuzah beforehand. How else to be sure there would be a place to put the note (many are flush with the doorway on which mounted, leaving no space)? It’s possible a larger piece of paper was torn on the spot because there was no place to put a larger paper, but why then put the lettering beforehand on just one part of the paper?
So all of this points, in the absence of other evidence, to a premeditated and planned attack by someone familiar specifically with the Kupermans, and their front porch.
The immediate finger pointing has gone in two directions. I’ve seen many Facebook postings suggesting this is part of an (alleged) wave of hate crimes caused by Trump’s election. That is a convenient, but dubious, political narrative unless there is some connected explanation as to why the Kupermans would be targeted as opposed to some more public space or more high profile political person on campus.
British Media ‘Fake News’ Alert – on “Israeli Apartheid” in Hebron
An article published at nbcnews.com on Nov. 22nd provides tips on how to spot ‘fake news’, characterized as a phenomenon in which a “growing number of websites are espousing misinformation or flat-out lies” which raises “concerns that falsehoods are going viral over social media without any mechanism to separate fact from fiction”.
Though most of the attention paid to the “Fake News” row has centered around the US presidential election, those of you who follow CAMERA, UK Media Watch and BBC Watch would of course understand that such disinformation on one international issue predates Facebook and the internet.
Indeed, CAMERA was founded in response to misreporting during the First Lebanon War, and one particular incident involving a widely circulated UPI photo falsely blaming Israel for an attack which left an infant burned and severely crippled.
More recent examples of “fake news” include an article at The Independent erroneously claiming that Israel was torturing Palestinian children in cages, a Daily Mail report claiming that Israel flooded Gaza by opening a non-existent dam, and a Guardian report in which 100 phantom wealthy Jews were erroneously accused of funding an anti-Muslim film which allegedly incited violence in Benghazi.
Our latest example involves a Nov. 22 report in The Independent uncritically quoting Tory MP Desmond Swayne claiming that Israel practices “apartheid” in the West Bank city of Hebron.
Infamous Nazi author convicted of Holocaust denial for 3rd time
A well-known German Nazi author has been convicted of Holocaust denial for the third time Monday, and sentenced to 2½ years in prison.
Ursula Haverbeck, 88, was convicted of Holocaust denial, a crime in Germany, over several articles she penned for Voice of the Reich magazine, claiming the mass extermination of Jews was nothing more than a fable.
Speaking before the Verden District Court Monday, Haverbeck lectured Judge Christoph Neelsen about the "Auschwitz lie," saying the infamous death camp was actually a labor camp where nobody was killed.
Neelsen said in his ruling that Haverbeck had explicitly denied the Holocaust, German news Deutsche Presse-Agentur reported.
The unapologetic Haverbeck remains free as she appeals both this and two previous convictions for similar offenses.
In France, a fundraiser for pets ended up unleashing rabid anti-Semitism
hen he locked himself up for three days inside a cage at an animal shelter in France, standup comedian and video artist Rémi Gaillard sought to raise awareness and money for abandoned pets.
But Gaillard’s fundraiser last week took a nasty turn, unleashing a vulgar shaming campaign with anti-Semitic dog whistles against Elie Semoun — one of the country’s best-known comedians, whose only sin was declining to help Gaillard’s cause.
The affair, which perhaps illustrates how Jew-hatred never lies too far beneath the surface of French society today, turned sour last Monday. That was shortly after Gaillard completed his televised stunt on behalf of the needy animals. At some point, Gaillard learned or suspected that his fellow comedian hadn’t supported his charitable turn, leading Gaillard to post on Twitter an obscene caricature of his better-known colleague Semoun, who is Jewish, performing oral sex on a cartoon television set.
The tweet referred to Semoun as a “television whore” who refused to support Gaillard because “he has an image.” Gaillard noted his 72-hour stay in the cage led to donations of more than $200,000 despite Semoun’s alleged refusal to help. It was retweeted almost 6,000 times and received 5,300 “likes.”
DC eatery sorry for inadvertently hosting alt-right party, to donate money to ADL
A restaurant in Washington has issued an apology after it unintentionally hosted members and supporters of the alt-right movement, out celebrating the presidential victory of Donald Trump, some of whom performed the Nazi salute while there.
Maggiano’s Little Italy posted a Facebook status Monday detailing the Friday event, including the Nazi salutes, and explaining that the restaurant did not realize who the diners were.
“We want to sincerely apologize to the community of Friendship Heights for inadvertently hosting this meeting, which resulted in hateful sentiment,” the restaurant wrote.
Proceeds from the evening, Maggiano’s said, would be donated to the Anti-Defamation League.
“We are donating the profits from our restaurant sales on Friday, $10,000, to the DC office of the Anti-Defamation League, which for decades has been working to bring people together in peace and understanding,” it added.
N. African Holocaust features on BBC radio
Jews from North Africa are fighting for space in Holocaust memory. For some years now, a high-profile ceremony in France has been taking place to remember the 9 December 'rafle de Tunis' : the Nazis, who had occupied Tunisia in November 1942, rounded up over 5,000 Jews, damaged the great synagogue in Tunis, and looted Jewish property.
Daniel Lee, of the University of Sheffield, described this and other wartime episodes in the history of the Jews of North Africa in the New Generation Thinkers series on Radio Three on 20 November 2016. The segment begins at 21: 18 and lasts about 20 minutes. (It will be available on the BBC website for the next month or so.)
The French protectorates of Morocco and Tunisia, and Algeria, part of France proper, came under the pro-Nazi Vichy government from 1940. Libya was a colony of Fascist Italy.Vichy racial laws were introduced expelling Jews from schools, universities and jobs in the public sector and the professions. There were 30 labour camps on Moroccan soil for ex-servicemen of the defeated French army.
Among those interviewed is Casablanca-born Sydney Assor, whose British father was arrested as an 'enemy alien'. Assor himself was abruptly removed from his state school and transferred to the Alliance Israelite. This was run by Turkish Jews. " If you had any orifice, they would put knowledge through it," he says.
Rare Anne Frank poem fetches €140,000 at Dutch auction
A very rare handwritten poem by Jewish diarist Anne Frank was sold for €140,000 (NIS 575,000; $150,000) to an unnamed online bidder Wednesday, fetching more than four times its reserve price.
Auctioneers closed the sale after just two minutes of tense bidding at the Bubb Kuyper auction house in the western Dutch city of Haarlem.
Around 20 collectors took their seats in a sales room decorated with antique books, maps and illustrations while others bid by telephone and online.
The reserve price was set at €30,000 (NIS 123,000; $32,000).
“These things are so rare that I’ve never seen anything like it,” Bubb Kuyper co-director Thys Blankevoort said. “Over the last 40 years, only four or five documents signed by the teenager have gone under the hammer.”
“Any document that’s written by Anne Frank is rare,” he told AFP Monday, “there are some chance finds, some books from the libraries. But these are not manuscripts, they are owner entries,” he added, referring to books which have been found with Frank’s name written inside.
Israeli supermarket chain Osher Ad opens New York store
Israeli supermarket chain Osher Ad opened its first branch in New York, last week. The Brooklyn store, named Bingo, represents a $9 million investment by the company and a U.S.-based partner.
Founded in 2009 by Aryeh Baum, Avrum Moshe Margalit and Yehuda Laniado, Osher Ad is Israel's fourth-largest supermarket chain, numbering 15 stores.
According to a Walla news report, the near 7,000-square-foot store was set up in Brooklyn because of its large Jewish population and high demand for kosher foods. With 45,000 households to potentially cater to, the store could generate annual revenue of some $100 million.
Should the store prove successful, Baum, Margalit and Laniado plan to open additional stores in cities with large Jewish communities, the report said.
Israel Aerospace unveils military anti-collision jet system
Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI), the nation’s largest aerospace and defense company, said it has developed a new Collision Warning System to increase military flight safety by warning pilots of potential crashes with commercial and civilian aircraft.
Increasing congestion in the air poses a growing challenge to flight safety, especially for military operations that occur near, or within, civilian airspace. Extending IAI’s existing air combat maneuvering instruments, the CWS system can monitor nonmilitary platforms and warn of the proximity and risk of collision with commercial aircraft.
The CWS creates an aerial picture and plots existing and projected flight paths of all aircraft flying in the area. This enables the system to identify potential collisions and to warn the pilot in advance of such events. Flight data like the characteristics of the fighter jet and its maneuverability are taken into account and warnings are generated only when a clear and imminent danger exists, IAI said.
Danger is signaled to the combat pilot in three ways — via a voice warning, a graphical indication on a tablet panel and symbols on the existing cockpit displays.
Once a victim of Muslim attacks in France, now an IDF soldier
Israel Hayom this morning reported on the story of Reuven Abu, who came to Israel following an anti-Semitic attack he experienced in his hometown of Lyon, France, three years ago.
According to the story, he had just left the synagogue in the city of Lyon and was on his way home with his sister, Leah, who is two years younger, when they were attacked by three Muslim youths shouting curses. Reuven tried to protect his sister, and the three attacked and beat him, cutting his face with a glass bottle.
“It was an awful moment,” said Reuven. “They cursed us using very crude anti-Semitic language. They attacked us only because we were Jews.”
The attackers fled and left him bleeding on the sidewalk, while his sister was shaking with fear. “The attack left me with a seven centimeter scar that I’ll have for the rest of my life.” It was at this moment that Reuven decided that France was not his place.
He finished high school and within a year made aliyah to Israel, one month after his brother. The rest of his family is on the way. “I’ve tried to convince others to make aliyah to Israel, and it appears that I’ve been successful. I’m happy with my army service and call on all the young Jews in France to come to Israel.”
Clay figurine is Bronze Age ancestor of Rodin’s ‘Thinker’
He sits pensively, his hand on his chin, like a Middle Bronze Age predecessor to Rodin’s famous sculpture “The Thinker.” His eyes stare blankly as he sits atop a pot that was shattered sometime after it was buried some 3,800 years ago.
The unique clay statuette, mounted atop a ceramic vessel, was found in the central Israel town of Yehud by a team of Israel Antiquities Authority archaeologists, who paired up with high school students in October.
News of the discovery was reported by the IAA on Wednesday.
Gilad Itach, the archaeologist heading the dig, said that on the last day of excavations, just before construction of a building commenced on site, they found the 18-centimeter (seven-inch) tall figurine, along with an assortment of other items.
Live music plays at Yad Vashem for first time, in tribute to Terezin musicians
For the first time in Yad Vashem’s 63-year history, live music echoed through the halls of Israel’s national Holocaust memorial in a somber tribute to the works of musicians who created a vibrant cultural life in the Terezin concentration camp before they were sent to their deaths.
Standing upon replicas of train tracks and against a backdrop of Nazi flags and images of emaciated prisoners, a trio of musicians performed Monday evening along the snaking corridors of the famed Jerusalem museum to mark 75 years since Terezin’s founding.
The concert, showcasing pieces composed by camp prisoners during their time in Terezin, struck a different tone than typical Holocaust commemorations, reflecting the camp’s unusual artistic legacy.
“To talk just about murder does not convey even a smidgen of what was lost. What was lost was the life and creation of these people, and I think they themselves would like to be remembered for how they lived rather than how they were murdered,” said Avia Doron, a senior Yad Vashem guide.
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