Remembering Moshko, builder of Israel – opinion:  David M. Weinberg, Jerusalem Post, Feb. 18, 2021

Hollywood scriptwriters, or the most creative Zionist storytellers, could not have written a more satisfying life-story script than the actual life and times of Moshe “Moshko” Moskowitz.

                             WEEKLY QUOTES

“On the eve of Purim, I say to those who seek of our souls, Iran and its proxies in the Middle East: 2,500 years ago another Persian tyrant tried to destroy the Jewish people and just as he failed then – you will fail today.” – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the state memorial ceremony for Yosef Trumpeldor and his comrades who fell in defense of Tel Hai in the north. He continued.  “We will not allow your extremist and aggressive regime to acquire nuclear weapons. We did not make the journey of generations through thousands of years back to the Land of Israel, to allow the hallucinatory regime of the ayatollahs to end the story of the resurrection of the Jewish people.”  (Jewish Press, Feb. 23, 2021)

“Zero surprise. He said he was going to do it. We are not opposed to U.S. leadership at the United Nations. UN Watch recognizes that these bodies are not going away. … We support principled leadership. We look forward to working with the U.S. delegation; we’ve always had a special relationship with them. The question is what their instructions will be. If they go and praise the council’s record and look the other way on bad actions, that will be unhelpful. But if they will fight to hold abusers to account, if they call out anti-Israel biases, that will be different.” – UNWatch Executive Director Hillel Neuer in prelude to an Honest Reporting webinar.  He was asked if he was surprised at President Joe Biden’s decision to rejoin the U.N. Human Rights Council.  (JNS, Feb. 23, 2021)

“Just over four weeks ago, America had no real plan to vaccinate most of the country. My predecessor, as my mother would say, ‘failed to order enough vaccines,’ failed to mobilize the effort to administer the shots… That changed the moment we took office.” – President Joe Biden (Twitter, Feb. 19, 2021)

“I come from a family where my grandparents fled anti-Semitism and persecution. The country took us in and protected us, and I feel an obligation to the country to pay back — this is the highest, best use of my own set of skills to pay back.” – Judge Merrick Garland during his Senate confirmation hearing for Attorney General. Garland would be the fifth Jewish official in President Joe Biden’s Cabinet. When Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, pressed him on whether he would work with anti-Semites, alluding to conservative media attacks on Kristen Clarke, whom Biden has nominated to head the Justice Department’s civil rights division, Garland defended Clarke and said in a rare show of annoyance: “Senator, I’m a pretty good judge of what an anti-Semite is.” (JTA, Feb. 22, 2021)

“Maybe [Netanyahu’s] view is, ‘Jews have been screwed throughout history by a corrupt, cruel world. And so you know what, we just have to be corrupt and cruel ourselves. That’s the only way to survive in this world,’ — former deputy national security adviser and Holocaust Memorial Museum board member Ben Rhodes in a recent interview on the “Occupied Thoughts” podcast.  Rhodes also accused Netanyahu of manipulating “right-wing, pro-Likud media in the United States” to “needle Obama” and “create a weeklong political story.” (The Federalist, Feb. 18, 2021)

“If the Biden administration wants to reduce the number of resolutions on Israel at the UN Human Rights Council, it should end the US practice of vetoing resolutions on Israel at the UN Security Council, which is why governments turn to the rights council,” — Kenneth Roth, executive director of the NGO Human Rights Watch on Twitter. Hillel Neuer, executive director of the watchdog UN Watch, countered that the body’s focus on Israel was a symptom of bias — not past US policy. (Algemeiner, Feb. 19, 2021)

“I think the American people — forget about the elites — I think the American people and the Israeli people have such a connection, and such a love for each other.  We get in this country from our media … that Israel is an apartheid society; it’s a racist society. It’s the same things they say about our country, they say about Israel. So it’s kind of hard to write a book — what I called Unfreedom of the Press — and ignore what’s going on in Israel. It’s also hard to ignore it as a Jew. I see the overlays. I see the animus towards Israel, the animus towards the United States.” — Mark Levin, the popular conservative Jewish American radio broadcaster told Israel Hayom ahead of the launch of the Hebrew-language edition of his bestselling book.  Levin warns Israelis that the Biden administration is deeply hostile to Israel. Biden’s foreign-policy team is comprised of the most hostile officials from the Obama administration “and then some.” Israel, he says, must be prepared for the storm in relations that is blowing its way from Washington. (WIN, Feb. 22, 2021)

  SHORT TAKES

BIDEN SPEAKS WITH NETANYAHU NEARLY A MONTH INTO PRESIDENCY (Jerusalem)

President Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu — nearly one month after he took office. Biden told reporters in the Oval Office that it was a “good conversation,” but he did not elaborate. A White House readout says Biden “affirmed his personal history of steadfast commitment to Israel’s security and conveyed his intent to strengthen all aspects of the U.S.-Israel partnership, including our strong defense cooperation.” (NY Post, Feb. 17, 2021)

BIDEN SNUBS BIBI, RESCINDS IRAN SANCTIONS, READY TO REOPEN NUCLEAR TALKS (Washington)

Acting US Ambassador Richard Mills on Thursday informed the UN Security Council that the US “hereby withdraws” the three letters sent by the Trump administration—the most recent one on September 19—which reimposed UN sanctions against Iran. According to Reuters, although President Joe Biden in his phone conversation with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Wednesday mentioned Iran, he said nothing to the Israeli leader about his plan to bring back the nuclear deal as is. (Jewish Press, Feb. 19, 2021)

SUPREME LEADER WARNS IRAN MAY ENRICH URANIUM TO 60%, SAYS ‘INTL ZIONIST CLOWN CAN’T STOP US’ (Tehran)

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei threatened to order his nuclear scientists to enrich the country’s uranium to 60 percent, “in accordance with the country’s needs,” as he put it. The threat came in tandem with the country’s official ban on inspections from the United Nations International Atomic Energy Agency, which began Tuesday. Khamenei made the statement during remarks at the end of the eighth session of the fifth term of the Assembly of Experts for the Leadership.  (Jewish Press, Feb. 23, 2021)

EQUATORIAL GUINEA MOVING EMBASSY TO JERUSALEM (Conakry)

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke by telephone with Equatorial Guinea President Teodoro Mbasogo on Friday. Mbasogo who informed Netanyahu that he would be transferring Equatorial Guinea’s embassy to Jerusalem. Prime Minister Netanyahu has welcomed the trend in which countries are transferring their embassies to Jerusalem. (Jewish Press, Feb. 19, 2021)

WORK ON KEY SAMARIA BYPASS ROAD BEGINS (Judea and Samaria)

Three years after the hunger strike and the bypass road agreement in Judea and Samaria which was led by Samaria Regional Council Chief Yossi Dagan, along with then-heads Avi Naim and Malachi Levinger and several bereaved families, work was begun today (Sunday) on a road to bypass the town of Hawara. This is one of the most expensive and strategic projects in Judea and Samaria and its cost is estimated at ILS 260 million. The road is intended to connect the center of the country to the localities of Gav HaHar, Yitzhar, Itamar, Elon Moreh and Har Bracha, and will provide a safe trip for residents and passengers to these areas. (Arutz Sheva, Feb. 21, 2021)

NGO MONITOR: EU FUNDING CAMPAIGN IN ATTEMPT TO TRIGGER UN SANCTIONS AGAINST ISRAEL (Ramallah) —

Palestinian Authority and international NGOs, funded by European governments and working in tandem with the United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund (UNICEF), have launched a campaign seeking to trigger U.N. sanctions against the Jewish state, according to a report published by NGO Monitor. UNICEF’s Gaza and West Bank branch has “built an extensive campaign, using false charges of abuse of Palestinian children in the effort to trigger sanctions against Israel,” according to the report. (Jewish Press, Feb. 18, 2021)

PFIZER CEO RECOUNTS FAMILY’S MIRACULOUS STORY OF SURVIVAL IN WARTIME GREECE (New York)

Dr. Albert Bourla, who as Pfizer CEO helped deliver the first COVID-19 vaccine approved in the United States, gave an emotional account of how his parents narrowly survived the horrors of the Holocaust in their native Greece. Speaking to longtime science reporter Robert Krulwich, Bourla described a series of seemingly miraculous events that saw his parents Mois and Sara live through World War II and raise the future pharmaceutical executive in the Greek city of Thessaloniki, during a Zoom interview held by the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York. (Algemeiner, Feb. 19, 2021)

‘SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE’ TRIES TO PASS OFF ANTI-ISRAEL HATE AS HUMOR (NYC)

Michael Che took Israel’s universally admired success in and flipped it into a slur of racism, or maybe imperialism: “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,” he noted on the Weekend Update segment, and, “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.” For starters, Israel is a lot more than half Jewish. In fact, some 43 percent of Israeli Arabs had gotten jabbed when Che spoke. That lags the Jewish rate, but for a host of reasons — including Palestinian Authority propaganda that claims Jerusalem is experimenting on Arabs under the guise of immunization. Che’s “joke” also captures the gist of the global left’s line, which calls Israel criminal for jabbing its own citizens but not those of the PA. (NY Post, Feb. 23, 2021)

IN A FIRST, CANADA CHARGES A POLITICAL PARTY’S LEADER WITH PROMOTING ANTI-SEMITISM (Carlyle)

Travis Patron, 29, the founder, and head of the Canadian Nationalist Party, or CNP, was taken into custody in the Saskatchewan town of Carlyle for willfully promoting hatred against Jews – reportedly a first for a Canadian political party. Patron’s arrest stemmed from a 2019 social network video called “Beware the Parasitic Tribe” that news reports said cast Jews as “swindlers” and “snakes.” Patron also has a social media history of denying the Holocaust. In his video, Patron claimed that Jewish people “infiltrate the media, they hijack the central bank, and they infect the body politic like a parasite,” and “what we need to do … is remove these people, once-and-for-all, from our country.” (JTA, Feb. 22, 2021)

CPAC CANCELS SPEAKER WHO SAID JUDAISM IS A ‘COMPLETE LIE’ (Washington)

CPAC, the conservative political conference, has canceled the appearance of a speaker who has made several derogatory comments about Jews on social media. Young Pharaoh, an online commentator and promoter of conspiracy theories, was set to speak on a panel at CPAC, which is being held in Florida at the end of the month. But Young Pharaoh has been removed from the program following a report by Media Matters, a liberal media watchdog, calling attention to Young Pharaoh’s anti-Semitic tweets. He has called Judaism a “complete lie,” referred to “thieving Jews” and said Israeli Jews commit pedophilia online. (JTA, Feb. 22, 2021)

CAPITOL POLICE OFFICER BRIAN SICKNICK’S MOTHER: ‘HE WASN’T HIT ON THE HEAD’ ON JAN. 6 (Washington)

Gladys Sicknick, the mother of Capitol Police officer Brian Sicknick told the Daily Mail that her son was not beaten with a fire extinguisher by a mob on Jan. 6, saying he likely suffered a stroke instead—refuting reports from the New York Times and other outlets claiming otherwise. The NY Times, CNN, and NBC updated their reports weeks after the Jan. 6 breach to assert that Sicknick was not killed by a fire extinguisher. Originally, the NY Times reported, based on anonymous sources, that Sicknick was beaten to death. (Epoch Times, Feb. 23, 2021)

54% OF VOTERS SAY BIDEN IS A ‘PUPPET’ OF THE LEFT (Washington)

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 54% of Likely U.S. Voters say they agree with this statement: “Joe Biden’s not the moderate nice guy that they made him out to be. He’s a puppet of the radical left.” Forty percent (40%) of voters disagree. (To see survey question wording, click here.) (Rasmussen Reports, Feb. 19, 2021)

NYC TEACHER ALLEGEDLY FIRED TO FULFILL ‘EQUITY’ AGENDA AFTER SHARING HOLOCAUST STORY, REFUSING TO PERFORM ‘WAKANDA’ SALUTE (NYC)

Karen Ames, a former school superintendent from the Bronx is suing the New York City Department of Education after she was allegedly fired for refusing to conform with the department’s equity agenda.  Ames, who was with the Department of Education for 30 years, says she was targeted by Chancellor Richard Carranza’s “Disrupt and Dismantle” campaign, terms used to describe the meaning of equity by Washington state’s Equity Task Force. Ames described an implicit bias training in 2019 where employees were asked to share their personal stories.  When Ames discussed the story of her grandparents, who are both Holocaust survivors, Ames alleges that her colleague Rasheda Amon told her to “check yourself” and that the training session “is not about being Jewish! It’s about black and brown boys of color only.” (Post Millennial, Feb. 23, 2021)

GATES FOUNDATION DONATES ONE MILLION TOWARDS ENSURING MATH ISN’T RACIST (California)

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating a million dollars toward a group that is attempting to “dismantle white supremacy” in grade school math. The creators behind this effort are a cavalcade of west coast academics from places such as Loyola Marymount University and University of California, among others. A Pathway to Equitable Math Instruction is a five-stage lesson plan that prioritizes Black, Latino, and Multilingual middle school students and the barriers in education they might face. By that the group defines it as being “white supremacy culture.” (Post Millennial, Feb. 23, 2021)

BREAKING: CHINA INSTRUCTS CANADA TO STOP PARTICIPATING IN ‘ANTI-CHINA FARCE’ BY ACKNOWLEDGING GENOCIDE AGAINST UYGHURS (Ottawa)

A statement from China’s embassy in Canada has condemned the House of Common’s decision to declare China’s actions against the Uyghurs a genocide, as voted on by 266 Canadian MPs. The statement from the Chinese embassy condemns the decision, as well as any pressure being put on the International Olympic Committee over relocating the 2022 Beijing Olympic Games. Canada’s Foreign Affairs minister abstained. The PM and the rest of cabinet didn’t show up to vote. (Post Millennial, Feb. 23, 2021)

  FOR FURTHER REFERENCE

WATCH: Tucker Carlson slams Canada’s draconian lockdowns and Trudeau’s illiberal authoritarian government, Fox News, Feb. 23, 2021

Watch:  U.S. and Israel Develop Arrow-4:  AIPAC, Facebook, Feb. 18, 2021

As Iran and its terror proxies expand their missile arsenals, America and Israel continue to work together toward greater security and stability.

WATCH: Brave Kuwaiti Singer, Inspired by Israeli Music, Converts to Judaism and Gets Death Threats:  United With Israel, Feb. 18, 2021

Kuwaiti singer and actress Ibtisam Hamid, better known as Basma al-Kuwaiti, caused an uproar in the Arab world after she posted a video on her social networks announcing that she converted to Judaism.