WEEKLY QUOTES
“Do not make a mistake. We do not want a war. But we are prepared to protect our civilians, our soldiers and our sovereignty.” — Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant said in a video statement to The Times of Israel site. Addressing Hezbollah’s Secretary-General Hassan Nasrallah, Gallant said: “You have made mistakes in the past, you have paid very heavy prices. If … an escalation or conflict develops here, we will return Lebanon to the Stone Age.” (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
“Biden’s foreign-policy team spent two-and-a-half years pursuing the Iranians in order to get them to agree to a new and even weaker nuclear agreement than the one that Obama considered his signature international achievement. Now they appear content to achieve some sort of private understanding with them that will, as The New York Times explained, allow the White House to avoid having to defend its policies to Congress or the American people prior to the 2024 presidential election. This will be represented, as it was in the Times, as a way to “contain” Iran’s nuclear program. But what it really will do is continue Obama’s policy that failed to prevent Tehran from obtaining a weapon of mass destruction, and instead, actually guaranteed that it would get one.” – Jonathan S. Tobin. (JNS, Aug. 14, 2023)
“President Biden’s continued insults to Prime Minister Netanyahu further underscores the bankruptcy of the administration’s policy toward Israel. We can differ on policies without demeaning important allies. You don’t treat your friends like that. If you have a disagreement, you talk. The United States must engage Israel for the security of the entire region. We cannot and must not ignore Israel’s prime minister.” — Democratic candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. (JNS, Aug. 14, 2023)
“It was shocking to see that this book includes explicit insinuations that Israel uses a deliberate strategy of maiming Palestinians. This delusional and false accusation is nothing but a modern-day antisemitic blood libel.” — Israel’s Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli in a letter to Princeton University, calling on it to remove from the curriculum of a course beginning this fall a book by Prof. Jasbir Puar accusing Israel of deliberately maiming Palestinians. Chikli asserted that the inclusion of such “antisemitic propaganda” in a formal course at Princeton does not promote “open academic debate” or “freedom of speech” on campus, “nor does it contain any educational merit. Rather it contributes to a hostile and divisive atmosphere against Jews and Israelis who study at your university, as well as against the Jewish community.” It also “raises questions regarding the academic professional integrity of Princeton as a prestigious institution.” (United With Israel, Aug. 14, 2023)
“Well, today’s being August 14, 2023, I thought I might remind you that the statute of limitations for most federal crimes is five years, and for tax felonies relevant to the Biden probe it is six years. Despite the evidence accumulated over the last five years, David Weiss never filed an indictment. That means the statute of limitations clock has continued to tick . . . tick . . . tick. As a result, all potential tax crimes committed before August 14, 2017, are time-barred as of today; so are all other potential felonies committed before August 14, 2018, (e.g., extortion, bribery, money-laundering, failure to register as a foreign agent, and so on). So I thought I’d mention that Hunter’s WhatsApp message happened on July 30, 2017. The $100,000 payment that soon rolled in was on August 4, 2017. The $5 million that followed landed on August 8, 2017. All a little more than six years ago. Happy anniversary! Weiss has known about this evidence for years, but he never filed charges because charges would have stopped the clock and preserved the case.” – Andrew C. McCarthy on Attorney General Merrick Garland’s appointment of David Weiss as “special counsel” overseeing the Hunter Biden affair. (National Review, Aug. 14, 2023)
“Is Mr. Weiss now going to pursue the Hunter money trail wherever it leads, including perhaps to other members of the Biden family? Keep in mind he isn’t “independent” in any legal sense and still must report to, and have his prosecutions approved by, Mr. Garland. As a career prosecutor, Mr. Weiss has to know that pursuing the Biden money trail with any vigor would make him a political target of the Democratic-media machine.” – WSJ Editorial board. (WSJ, Aug. 11, 2023)
“I don’t know that you will find contempt of public in the statute books. If not I offer up the phrase free and for nothing to the bureaucrats who look after such things. … By making a travesty of the rules and institutions that undergird our social life, contempt of public threatens to undermine that essential if often hard-to-define societal lubricant: trust. … On Friday … Merrick Garland, announced that he was appointing U.S. Attorney David Weiss as special counsel to investigate the slew of allegations of bribery accumulating like barnacles on the lumbering vessel that is the Biden family. … Weiss’s appointment as special counsel was a multifaceted act of contempt of public. In the first place … appointing Weiss was improper because special counsels are supposed to come from outside the government. Weiss, a sitting U.S. Attorney, is very much inside the government. … Garland’s contempt of public goes far beyond the technical matter of appointing someone who is ineligible for the job. His scorn for the public he is supposed to be serving is on more flagrant view when we consider David Weiss’s history with Hunter Biden. … He was supposed to be prosecuting the case. In fact, it would be closer to the truth to say he was burying it. By keeping David Weiss on the case of Hunter, and by elevating him to the status of special counsel, Merrick Garland has once again spit in the face of the public.” – Roger Kimball. (American Greatness, Aug. 13, 2023)
“White House spokesman John Kirby told CBS News that Iran will only be able to use the $6 billion for “humanitarian purposes,” such as food and medicine. The Administration also says there will be no sanctions relief in this hostage deal. But that’s a semantic distinction without much of a difference. Why were the funds frozen if not as a sanction against Tehran? That’s certainly how Iran sees it. “The decision on how to utilize these unfrozen resources and financial assets lies with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” said the foreign ministry in Tehran. Money is fungible, as the White House knows, and its “humanitarian purposes” line is best understood as political cover to justify the money-for-hostages deal. In a competition for the funds between the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and the public health of the Iranian people, who do you think wins?” – WSJ editorial board. (WSJ, Aug. 13, 2023)
“We challenged the election, and we did much of the things that are being done today and people praised us. I wrote a bestselling book called ‘Supreme Injustice. Now they’re making it a crime.” – constitutional lawyer Alan Dershowitz. He criticized the pending Georgia indictment, calling Trump’s actions “very similar” to that of Al Gore’s legal strategy in the Bush v. Gore case that decided the 2000 presidential election. (Fox News, Aug. 15, 2023)
HAREDIM TO NETANYAHU: HALT JUDICIAL REFORM UNTIL IDF DRAFT BILL PASSES – REPORT (Jerusalem) — The heads of the United Torah Judaism (UTJ) Party demanded Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu immediately halt all judicial reform legislation until the IDF haredi conscription law is passed. According to N12 News, the leaders of the haredi parties agreed that, not only does the judicial reform legislation not serve the interests of their constituents, but it has actually led to a growing struggle against the haredi public, specifically around IDF conscription. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 15, 2023)
YESH ATID MK DEFIES LAPID, CALLS FOR UNITY GOVERNMENT WITH NETANYAHU (Jerusalem) — Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern “would be delighted” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to form a unity government with the opposition faction, he told Army Radio in a Monday morning interview. Stern’s comments come a few weeks after there was much speculation if Netanyahu would drop Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party to take on Yesh Atid and National Unity, headed by Benny Gantz. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 2023)
ISRAEL EVACUATES MORE THAN 200 ETHIOPIANS FROM CONFLICT REGION(Jerusalem) — Israel said it has evacuated more than 200 people from a northern province of Ethiopia where a militia is fighting government forces. The evacuees include 174 people from the city of Gondar in the Amhara province, which has historically been a gathering spot for people waiting for authorization to move to Israel. That group included both Israeli citizens and those eligible to immigrate to the country. Another 30 Israelis were evacuated from Bahir Dar, Amhara’s capital. The evacuees were all flown to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and some continued on to Israel. (JTA, Aug. 10, 2023)
ORTHODOX JEW, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY, TAPPED AS NEXT US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL (Washington) — The leading candidate for the next US ambassador to Israel is Jack Lew, an orthodox Jew and former US treasury secretary under Barack Obama. “The process is ongoing, but [Lew] is being vetted,” said a source close to the administration, confirming reporting in the Axios news site. That would ostensibly put Lew in an advanced stage of the process, ahead of some of the other names that have been floated, such as former congressmen Robert Wexler and Steve Israel. Lew would then succeed Tom Nides, who stepped down last month after 20 months as ambassador to spend more time with his family. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
‘GROWING PARTNERSHIP’: PHILIPPINES BOOSTS AGRICULTURAL TIES WITH ISRAEL (Manilla) — The Philippine government is expanding its partnership with Israel to strengthen the archipelagic country’s agricultural sector. The move follows a recent meeting between Philippine Senior Undersecretary for Agriculture Domingo Panganiban and Israeli Ambassador to Manila Ilan Fluss, during which they discussed collaborative projects to enhance bilateral training, internships and other professional exchanges. The meeting also focused on enhancing market access of Philippine fresh pineapples and mangoes, the import of Hass avocado planting materials, technical cooperation in local laboratories and the development of a large-scale dairy farm using Israeli technology. (United With Israel, Aug. 14, 2023)
CHECK POINT BUYS ISRAELI CYBERSECURITY STARTUP PERIMETER 81 FOR $490M (Tel Aviv) — Check Point Software Technologies is purchasing Tel Aviv cybersecurity startup Perimeter 81 for $490 million, Check Point announced. Launched in 2018, Perimeter 81 serves 3,000 customers worldwide. Check Point, which is also based in Tel Aviv, said it intends to leverage Perimeter 81’s threat prevention capabilities—particularly its “Zero Trust Access” system—and integrate them into Check Point Infinity’s architecture to deliver unified security solutions for users working on networks, the cloud, or remotely. Zero Trust Access is a framework for cybersecurity that requires users to be authorized and authenticated on a continual basis. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
SAUDI ARABIA APPOINTS FIRST PALESTINIAN ENVOY AS SAUDI-ISRAEL NORMALIZATION TALKS CONTINUE (Riyadh) — Saudi Arabia appointed its first-ever envoy to the Palestinian Authority on Saturday, in the midst of ongoing negotiations with Israel and the United States about what would be a historic Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalization agreement. Nayef Al-Sudairi, the Saudi envoy to Jordan, will now also serve as a “nonresident ambassador to the State of Palestine,” the Saudi foreign ministry announced. (JTA, Aug. 15, 2023)
2 SYNAGOGUES EVACUATED DURING LIVESTREAMED SHABBAT SERVICES AS WAVE OF BOMB THREATS ENTERS 4TH WEEK (California) — At least two synagogues in California evacuated during Shabbat services over the weekend as online trolls targeted Jewish congregations for the fourth straight week with fake bomb and other security threats. At least 26 congregations in 12 states have received the threats, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The organization believes the instigators are selecting their targets based on the availability of livestreamed services and other events, motivated by their desire to watch the congregations react to the threats in real time. (JTA, Aug. 14, 2023)
IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD, COMING SOON TO A UNIVERSITY NEAR YOU? (Tehran) — A recent expośe revealed that eight Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders spoke at multiple U.K. campuses since 2020 in talks arranged by an Islamic student association. According to the Jewish Chronicle, IRGC leaders spread antisemitic propaganda, which we have come to expect from the Iranian government. They said that the Holocaust was fake, that Jews “created homosexuality,” and that the “era of the Jews” would soon end. Speakers also urged audiences “to join ‘the beautiful list of soldiers’ who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war.” (National Review, Aug. 14, 2023)
ROW IN FRANCE AS LEADING NEWS OUTLET ATTEMPTS REHABILITATION OF NOTORIOUS ANTISEMITE (Paris) — An article praising one of the most notorious antisemites in French history has resulted in a storm of condemnation of its author, a parliamentarian from the conservative Les Républicains (LR) Party. The article — titled “Maurice Barrès, the herald of the sacred union” — was published on Saturday in the weekend magazine of the prominent media outlet Le Figaro and extensively discussed in its weekly podcast. The article’s author, Jean-Louis Thiériot, argued that Barrès, a writer and politician who stoked violence against Jews during the show trial of the French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus during the 1890s, deserved a more generous interpretation of his legacy despite his well-known antisemitic views. (Algemeiner, Aug. 14, 2023)
TURKISH NEWSCASTER DEFENDS AIRING JEWISH BLOOD LIBEL (Ankara) — In an interview on his YouTube channel on Saturday, Fatih Altaylı, a TV presenter and print journalist formerly with the Habertürk newspaper, spoke with lawyer Rezan Epözdemir about the decade-old murder of Münevver Karabulut, a 17-year-old girl whose body was mutilated in a case that continues to garner widespread attention in Turkey. Epözdemir represents the Karabulut family. Discussing potential motives for the 2009 murder, Epözdemir said that because the man convicted of Karabulut’s killing was of partial Algerian-Jewish descent, the court had considered the possibility that Karabulut had been killed in a supposed coming-of-age ritual called the “Rite of the Unleavened” that requires Jewish men to kill non-Jewish virgins. (Algemeiner, Aug. 14, 2023)
SHIPPERS WARNED TO STAY AWAY FROM IRANIAN WATERS OVER SEIZURE THREAT AS US-IRAN TENSIONS HIGH (Tehran) — Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
RUSSIA’S CURRENCY HITS THE LOWEST LEVEL SINCE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE (Moscow) — The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Western sanctions weigh on energy exports and weaken demand for the national currency. On Monday, the Russian currency passed 101 rubles to the dollar, continuing a more than 25% decline in its value since the beginning of the year and hitting the lowest level in almost 17 months. (VIN News, Aug. 14, 2023)
BANKMAN-FRIED USED STOLEN MONEY TO SUPPORT DEMS, REPUBLICANS – US (Washington) — Sam Bankman-Fried used money he stole from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to make more than $100 million in political campaign contributions before the 2022 US midterm elections, federal prosecutors said. An amended indictment accused the 31-year-old former billionaire of directing two FTX executives to evade contribution limits by donating to Democrats and Republicans, and to conceal where the money came from. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 15, 2023)
YESH ATID MK DEFIES LAPID, CALLS FOR UNITY GOVERNMENT WITH NETANYAHU (Jerusalem) — Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern “would be delighted” if Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu offered to form a unity government with the opposition faction, he told Army Radio in a Monday morning interview. Stern’s comments come a few weeks after there was much speculation if Netanyahu would drop Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich’s Religious Zionism Party and National Security Minister Itamar Ben-Gvir’s Otzma Yehudit Party to take on Yesh Atid and National Unity, headed by Benny Gantz. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 14, 2023)
ISRAEL EVACUATES MORE THAN 200 ETHIOPIANS FROM CONFLICT REGION(Jerusalem) — Israel said it has evacuated more than 200 people from a northern province of Ethiopia where a militia is fighting government forces. The evacuees include 174 people from the city of Gondar in the Amhara province, which has historically been a gathering spot for people waiting for authorization to move to Israel. That group included both Israeli citizens and those eligible to immigrate to the country. Another 30 Israelis were evacuated from Bahir Dar, Amhara’s capital. The evacuees were all flown to the Ethiopian capital of Addis Ababa, and some continued on to Israel. (JTA, Aug. 10, 2023)
ORTHODOX JEW, FORMER TREASURY SECRETARY, TAPPED AS NEXT US AMBASSADOR TO ISRAEL (Washington) — The leading candidate for the next US ambassador to Israel is Jack Lew, an orthodox Jew and former US treasury secretary under Barack Obama. “The process is ongoing, but [Lew] is being vetted,” said a source close to the administration, confirming reporting in the Axios news site. That would ostensibly put Lew in an advanced stage of the process, ahead of some of the other names that have been floated, such as former congressmen Robert Wexler and Steve Israel. Lew would then succeed Tom Nides, who stepped down last month after 20 months as ambassador to spend more time with his family. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
‘GROWING PARTNERSHIP’: PHILIPPINES BOOSTS AGRICULTURAL TIES WITH ISRAEL (Manilla) — The Philippine government is expanding its partnership with Israel to strengthen the archipelagic country’s agricultural sector. The move follows a recent meeting between Philippine Senior Undersecretary for Agriculture Domingo Panganiban and Israeli Ambassador to Manila Ilan Fluss, during which they discussed collaborative projects to enhance bilateral training, internships and other professional exchanges. The meeting also focused on enhancing market access of Philippine fresh pineapples and mangoes, the import of Hass avocado planting materials, technical cooperation in local laboratories and the development of a large-scale dairy farm using Israeli technology. (United With Israel, Aug. 14, 2023)
CHECK POINT BUYS ISRAELI CYBERSECURITY STARTUP PERIMETER 81 FOR $490M (Tel Aviv) — Check Point Software Technologies is purchasing Tel Aviv cybersecurity startup Perimeter 81 for $490 million, Check Point announced. Launched in 2018, Perimeter 81 serves 3,000 customers worldwide. Check Point, which is also based in Tel Aviv, said it intends to leverage Perimeter 81’s threat prevention capabilities—particularly its “Zero Trust Access” system—and integrate them into Check Point Infinity’s architecture to deliver unified security solutions for users working on networks, the cloud, or remotely. Zero Trust Access is a framework for cybersecurity that requires users to be authorized and authenticated on a continual basis. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
SAUDI ARABIA APPOINTS FIRST PALESTINIAN ENVOY AS SAUDI-ISRAEL NORMALIZATION TALKS CONTINUE (Riyadh) — Saudi Arabia appointed its first-ever envoy to the Palestinian Authority on Saturday, in the midst of ongoing negotiations with Israel and the United States about what would be a historic Saudi-Israeli diplomatic normalization agreement. Nayef Al-Sudairi, the Saudi envoy to Jordan, will now also serve as a “nonresident ambassador to the State of Palestine,” the Saudi foreign ministry announced. (JTA, Aug. 15, 2023)
2 SYNAGOGUES EVACUATED DURING LIVESTREAMED SHABBAT SERVICES AS WAVE OF BOMB THREATS ENTERS 4TH WEEK (California) — At least two synagogues in California evacuated during Shabbat services over the weekend as online trolls targeted Jewish congregations for the fourth straight week with fake bomb and other security threats. At least 26 congregations in 12 states have received the threats, according to the Anti-Defamation League. The organization believes the instigators are selecting their targets based on the availability of livestreamed services and other events, motivated by their desire to watch the congregations react to the threats in real time. (JTA, Aug. 14, 2023)
IRAN’S REVOLUTIONARY GUARD, COMING SOON TO A UNIVERSITY NEAR YOU? (Tehran) — A recent expośe revealed that eight Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) leaders spoke at multiple U.K. campuses since 2020 in talks arranged by an Islamic student association. According to the Jewish Chronicle, IRGC leaders spread antisemitic propaganda, which we have come to expect from the Iranian government. They said that the Holocaust was fake, that Jews “created homosexuality,” and that the “era of the Jews” would soon end. Speakers also urged audiences “to join ‘the beautiful list of soldiers’ who would fight and kill Jews in a coming apocalyptic war.” (National Review, Aug. 14, 2023)
ROW IN FRANCE AS LEADING NEWS OUTLET ATTEMPTS REHABILITATION OF NOTORIOUS ANTISEMITE (Paris) — An article praising one of the most notorious antisemites in French history has resulted in a storm of condemnation of its author, a parliamentarian from the conservative Les Républicains (LR) Party. The article — titled “Maurice Barrès, the herald of the sacred union” — was published on Saturday in the weekend magazine of the prominent media outlet Le Figaro and extensively discussed in its weekly podcast. The article’s author, Jean-Louis Thiériot, argued that Barrès, a writer and politician who stoked violence against Jews during the show trial of the French Army Captain Alfred Dreyfus during the 1890s, deserved a more generous interpretation of his legacy despite his well-known antisemitic views. (Algemeiner, Aug. 14, 2023)
TURKISH NEWSCASTER DEFENDS AIRING JEWISH BLOOD LIBEL (Ankara) — In an interview on his YouTube channel on Saturday, Fatih Altaylı, a TV presenter and print journalist formerly with the Habertürk newspaper, spoke with lawyer Rezan Epözdemir about the decade-old murder of Münevver Karabulut, a 17-year-old girl whose body was mutilated in a case that continues to garner widespread attention in Turkey. Epözdemir represents the Karabulut family. Discussing potential motives for the 2009 murder, Epözdemir said that because the man convicted of Karabulut’s killing was of partial Algerian-Jewish descent, the court had considered the possibility that Karabulut had been killed in a supposed coming-of-age ritual called the “Rite of the Unleavened” that requires Jewish men to kill non-Jewish virgins. (Algemeiner, Aug. 14, 2023)
SHIPPERS WARNED TO STAY AWAY FROM IRANIAN WATERS OVER SEIZURE THREAT AS US-IRAN TENSIONS HIGH (Tehran) — Western-backed maritime forces in the Middle East on Saturday warned shippers traveling through the strategic Strait of Hormuz to stay as far away from Iranian territorial waters as possible to avoid being seized, a stark advisory amid heightened tensions between Iran and the U.S. A similar warning went out to shippers earlier this year ahead of Iran seizing two tankers traveling near the strait, the narrow mouth of the Persian Gulf through which 20% of the world’s oil passes. (VIN News, Aug. 13, 2023)
RUSSIA’S CURRENCY HITS THE LOWEST LEVEL SINCE BEGINNING OF THE WAR IN UKRAINE (Moscow) — The Russian ruble has reached its lowest value since the early weeks of the war in Ukraine as Western sanctions weigh on energy exports and weaken demand for the national currency. On Monday, the Russian currency passed 101 rubles to the dollar, continuing a more than 25% decline in its value since the beginning of the year and hitting the lowest level in almost 17 months. (VIN News, Aug. 14, 2023)
BANKMAN-FRIED USED STOLEN MONEY TO SUPPORT DEMS, REPUBLICANS – US (Washington) — Sam Bankman-Fried used money he stole from customers of his FTX cryptocurrency exchange to make more than $100 million in political campaign contributions before the 2022 US midterm elections, federal prosecutors said. An amended indictment accused the 31-year-old former billionaire of directing two FTX executives to evade contribution limits by donating to Democrats and Republicans, and to conceal where the money came from. (Jerusalem Post, Aug. 15, 2023)
CANADIAN RESEARCH REVEALS MAJOR SECURITY LOOPHOLE IN WIDELY USED CHINESE TYPING APP (Toronto) — A recent report from Toronto academic research group The Citizen Lab has revealed serious security flaws in a Chinese keyboard app. The findings show that users’ keystroke records are susceptible to decryption by online eavesdroppers, while input typed by users is being transmitted to servers located in mainland China. (Epoch Times, Aug. 14, 2023)
Journey of Faith: Meet Saudi Arabia’s First Rabbi!: United With Israel, Aug. 15, 2023 — If you want to see how things are changing in the Middle East, just look at the first Rabbi of the Jewish community in Saudi Arabia.
