Netanyahu, Gantz Deadlocked after Repeat Election:
David Rosenberg, Arutz Sheva, Sept. 18, 2019 — With more than 90 percent of the vote counted, Blue and White holds a narrow lead over the Likud, with 25.66% of the vote to 25.03% for the Likud. Preliminary results now show Blue and White with 32 seats to 31 for the Likud.
MEDIA-OCRITY OF THE WEEK
Daniel Chaitin, Washington Examiner, Sept. 16, 2019
More than a day after publishing a bombshell exposé detailing a new sexual misconduct allegation against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, the New York Times added a significant passage, along with an editor’s note, that undercuts the claim. In the updated version of the article, the following passage was added: “The female student declined to be interviewed and friends say she does not recall the episode.”
New York Times Deletes Tweet Saying ‘airplanes took aim’ at Towers on 9/11: Keith J. Kelly, NY Post, Sept. 11, 2019
“18 years have passed since airplanes took aim and brought down the World Trade Center. Today families will once again gather and grieve at the site where more than 2000 people died.” – New York Times tweeted commemorating 9/11. But that tweet was quickly scrubbed following a fury on Twitter that continued even after the offending tweet was removed.
“The airplanes didn’t take aim, the Islamic radical hijackers did,” tweeted @jennyjupite.
“How is it that airplanes have not been confiscated already by the government as deadly killers?” @infooverload wondered.
@MattAHay joked: “Wait, so it wasn’t the airplanes who took aim at the buildings? Who was it exactly and why?”
Unfortunately, it looks like maybe we did not have a very clear decision by the Israeli people. Therefore, what we will need to do is to unite the right of center bloc, which includes the Likud as the leader, Yamina and the haredi parties, and then seek additional partnerships. … [Blue and White] has no chance of leading a government. Therefore, hopefully they will come to the table and become more reasonable. Not only them. There are other opportunities with Liberman and Labor and hopefully we’ll expand our circles with one of the three. Hopefully, for the best of Israel, that’ll happen soon.” — MK Nir Barkat (Likud) said, with exit polls predicting a stalemate. (Arutz Sheva, Sept. 18, 2019)
“I intend to extend sovereignty on all the settlements and the [settlement] blocs,” including “sites that have security importance or are important to Israel’s heritage.” – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said in an interview with Israeli Army Radio, as part of an eleventh-hour media blitz. (Globe and Mail, Sept. 16, 2019)
“One time they propose negotiations without preconditions, and one time they say negotiations should come with 12 conditions. Such remarks either result from their disorganized policy, or work as a trick for confusing the other side. … The US administration’s policy is maximum pressure on Iran in the form of various sanctions, threats and a load of nonsense because the current US administration believes that it cannot bring the Islamic Republic to its knees or force it to show humility and acceptance with formality and compliment.” — Iranian Supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei said, adding that Iran will not negotiate with the US. (JOL, Sept. 17, 2019)
“All Jews of Sambia were murdered by Nazis and their collaborators from OUN and UPA.” – Eduard Dolinsky, director-general of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee based in Kiev said. He responded to the unveiling of a monument in Sambir to honour members of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalist (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA), two groups linked to the killing of tens of thousands of Jews and Poles. The Canadian Forces and Global Affairs Canada are facing criticism after Canada’s Ambassador to Ukraine Roman Waschuk spoke at the Aug. 21st unveiling ceremony. (National Post, Sept. 17, 2019)
“The firepower the enemy will encounter in the next war will be unprecedented.” — IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi said. He spoke in Zichron Yaakov near Haifa at a memorial ceremony honoring fallen IDF soldiers. “The enemy is organized in brigades and platoons armed with missiles, rockets and advanced weaponry, and are operating from inside densely populated urban areas, with a civilian population that it sees as living flak jackets.” (United With Israel, Sept. 16, 2019)
“I’m often amazed about the things supposedly decent people are prepared to say about other people — people they’ve never met — on Twitter. I think you’ve set a new standard. I would welcome the opportunity for you to come to my home, meet my wife and kids, talk to us for a few minutes, and then call me a ‘bedbug’ to my face. That would take some genuine courage and intellectual integrity on your part.” – Conservative New York Times columnist Bret Stephens wrote via email to David Karpf. The associate professor of media and public affairs at George Washington University took a story that bedbugs had infested the New York Times newsroom as an occasion to dig at his least favourite Times writer, Bret Stephens. “The bedbugs are a metaphor,” Karpf wrote. “The bedbugs are Bret Stephens.” Stephens called the Karpf’s bedbugs’ tweet “dehumanizing and totally unacceptable.” The exchange between the two went viral. (Daily Beast, Aug. 27, 2019)
SHORT TAKES
IT’S ON: 29 SLATES, 6,394,000 ELIGIBLE VOTERS, HISTORIC OUTCOME DUE (POSSIBLY) (Jerusalem) — Polling stations in cities across Israel opened at 7 AM Tuesday and will close at 10 PM. 29 lists are competing for the votes of approximately 6,394,000 Israelis. Some 3,000 inspectors from the Central Election Commission will tour the country’s 11,000 polling stations throughout the day, and about 19,000 police officers will secure the same polls. The IDF imposed a general curfew in Judea and Samaria and closed the crossings to the Gaza Strip. (Jewish Press, Sept. 17, 2019)
PRESIDENT PLEDGES TO DO UTMOST TO PREVENT ELECTIONS IN CASE OF STALEMATE (Jerusalem) — President Reuven Rivlin tapped into Israelis’ sense of political exhaustion Monday evening when he went online to pledge to do all he could in order to avoid the necessity of going to a third round of elections in case Tuesday’s vote ended in a stalemate. (WIN, Sept. 17, 2019)
NETANYAHU VOWS TO OFFICIALLY ANNEX HEBRON (Jerusalem) — In an interview on Army Radio’s Good Morning Israel program, Netanyahu announced his intention to re-assert Israeli sovereignty over the city that Abraham originally purchased from Ephron the Hittite. (Breaking Israel News, Sept. 16, 2019)
IRAN: ATTACK ON SAUDI OIL FACILITIES WAS ‘A WARNING’ (Tehran) — A recent attack by Iranian-backed forces in Yemen on a Saudi oil facility should be viewed as a “warning” to Saudi Arabia to halt its campaign against pro-Tehran Houthi rebels in Yemen, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said. President Rouhani denied that Iran was behind the attack, adding that Iran was not interested in a regional conflict. Despite Rouhani’s denial, the Saudi ambassador to the UK said Wednesday that Iran was ‘almost certainly’ behind the weekend attacks on Aramco oil facilities in Saudi Arabia. (Arutz Sheva, Sept. 18, 2019)
HAMAS HAILS DECISION OF EU COURT TO REMOVE IT FROM WORLD BLACKLIST (Gaza Strip) — The Islamic Palestinian movement, Hamas, hailed a European court decision to remove it from the world’s terrorist list. Hamas spokesman, Hazim Qassim, declared in the statement that the decision “is positive and a right step in the right direction.” (MEMO, Sept. 7, 2019)
WOMEN’S MARCH CUTS TIES WITH LINDA SARSOUR, TAMIKA MALLORY AND BOB BLAND (Washington) – Bob Bland, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, the three biggest names in the Women’s March movement have been kicked out of the organization following months of accusations of anti-Semitism, infighting and financial misconduct. They reportedly left the organization on July 15th, but the Women’s March website didn’t confirm this announcement until this week. (i24, Sept. 16, 2019)
WOMEN’S MARCH TAPS TROUBLING FIGURE IN WAKE OF ANTISEMITISM ISSUES (Washington) – Even with the ousting of Sarsour, Mallory and Bland from the Women’s March, new concerns are raised that the march is not a welcoming place for women who support Israel. For example, Zahra Billoo is one of the new March leaders. A member of CAIR, she admits to having problems with Israel’s existence, and has repeatedly compared Israeli soldiers to ISIS terrorists. Being pro-Israel, she has written, is tantamount to being “pro-terror, pro-violence, pro-land theft, and pro-apartheid.” She also touted Farrakhan who compared Jews to termites. (Algemeiner, Sept. 17, 2019)
YEMEN’S ATTACK ON SAUDI ARABIA FULFILLS ISAIAH’S GOG AND MAGOG PROPHECY (Jerusalem) –On Sept. 14th, Yemenite Houthi rebels attacked Saudi Arabia’s oil reserves that produce five percent of the entire world’s oil. If the U.S. picks up the gauntlet thrown at their feet by the Iranians, the confrontation in Yemen predicted by Isaiah as preceding the pre-Messiah War of Gog and Magog may suddenly appear, as one rabbi said, “much sooner than anyone thinks.” Rabbi Yekutiel Fish, an expert in Jewish mysticism who blogs in Hebrew under the title ‘Sod Chashmal,’ noted that events were unfolding precisely according to the verse in Isaiah (43:6) concerning the War of Gog and Magog. “The war between Iran and America, which is the sons and daughters from far away, will begin in Yemen,” Rabbi Fish said. “This will be the first stage in the multi-national War of Gog and Magog.” (Breaking Israel News, Sept. 16, 2019)
OFFICER WHO LOST AN EYE IN STORIED 2006 WAR BATTLE TO LEAD GOLANI BRIGADE (Jerusalem) — Col. Barak Hiram, who currently commands the Israel Defense Forces’ Tzeelim training base, will take command of the Golani Brigade in the coming months. During the 2006 Second Lebanon War, Hiram served as a platoon commander in the elite Egoz unit. During a battle in the southern Lebanese town of Haddatha, Hiram sustained a head wound, which he bandaged himself. He continued fighting, refusing to be taken away, until the end of the battle when another officer was able to take his place. He ultimately lost his eye from the injury. (Times of Israel, Sept. 17, 2019)
JORDAN’S SUPREME COURT APPROVES ISRAEL GAS DEAL, BYPASS OF PARLIAMENT (Jordan) — The Supreme Court of Jordan approved the country’s gas deal with the State of Israel, and ruled that additional approval would not be needed from the nation’s parliament, which has strongly objected to the agreement. The $10 billion gas deal to import Israeli natural gas from Israel’s Leviathan offshore gas field was seen by the Jordanian parliament as a threat to the country’s energy security. (Jewish Press, Sept. 16, 2019)
BDS CAMPAIGN TARGETING TORONTO BUSINESSES BACKFIRES (Toronto) — About a week after Firas al-Najim posted videos on his Facebook page calling for a boycott of Toronto businesses that support Israel, the owner of one of the targets of his campaign, the Taste of Israel grocery store, said sales had more than doubled. Many of the commenters commended al-Najim for telling them about businesses they can patronize. Others took aim at BDS, calling it anti-Semitic and propagandistic. One person came up with the catchy phrase, “they do the labelling, we do the buying.” (CJN, Sept. 6, 2019)
ISRAEL ELECTRIC COMPANY TO BEGIN CUTTING POWER TO PA DUE TO DEBTS (Jerusalem) – The Israel Electric Corporation (IEC) will cut off the electricity supply to Palestinian villages in the West Bank to put pressure on the PA to pay its NIS 1.7 billion electric bill. (Jerusalem Post, Sept. 8, 2019)
DUTCH COURT TO HEAR CASE AGAINST ISRAEL’S GANTZ OVER GAZA DEATHS IN 2014 (Netherlands) — A Dutch court will consider on Tuesday a request to hear a civil suit seeking damages from former Israeli armed forces chief Benny Gantz, head of the Blue and White Party. Ismail Ziada, a Dutch national of Palestinian descent, is seeking compensation of 600,000 euros (659,900 dollars) for the death of six family members — his mother, three brothers, sister-in-law and 12-year-old nephew — when the family’s home in the al-Bureij refugee camp in Gaza was bombed in 2014. Lawyers on behalf of Gantz and his co-defendant, former Israeli air force Chief Amir Eshel, filed a motion to have the case dismissed, arguing that the Dutch courts do not have jurisdiction. (Algemeiner, Sept. 16, 2019)
NAZI COMEDY WINS PEOPLE’S CHOICE AWARD AT TORONTO FILM FESTIVAL (Toronto) — Jojo Rabbit” is an “anti-hate” satire directed by Taika Waititi, won the People’s Choice award at the Toronto International Film Festival. The movie is based on the book “Caging Skies” by Christine Leunens, which is about a 10-year-old German boy who is a member of the Nazi Youth organization during World War II. The boy has an imaginary friend named Adolf Hitler, who is played by Waititi himself in the film. The boy’s enthusiasm for Nazi ideology is dampened when he discovers that his mother, played by Johansson, is hiding a Jewish girl in their house. (WIN, Sept. 16, 2019)
ISRAEL AT THE FOREFRONT OF PRODUCING 3D BODY PARTS (Jerusalem) — While the 3D printers have been in use for some 30 years, it is only in the last few that they have become cheaper and accessible. The principle is the same for all printing. First you make a model on the computer. Then you add the appropriate material to the printer and then print away. The materials can include plastic, metal or rubber. In the medical realm, this is a true revolution. Colin was born without fingers on his right hand. Printing a prosthetic hand on the 3D printer greatly decreased the cost and simplified the process. Other successful uses of 3D printing in the medical world include jaw implants, thigh implants like the one this woman uses to walk again, and even spinal vertebrae. This printed ear can even hear. Scientists are now working on printing heart muscles using live tissue. (Jerusalemonline, Sept. 17 2019)
WATCH: Sen. Grassley: Who Will Watch The Watchmen On New Kavanaugh Allegations?: Realclearpolitics, Sept. 16, 2019 — Chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Charles Grassley (R-Iowa) took to the Senate floor Monday to respond to a ‘New York Times’ article that accuses Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh of engaging in sexual assault.