Daily Briefing: WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS OF THE WEEK IN REVIEW” (June 30th, 2021)

An Open Letter To Canada’s Premiers – Stop Funding Antisemitic Extremism:  Brian Henry, The J.CA, June 24, 2021

The horrific murder of four people in London, Ontario, for no reason other than their religion shows it’s urgent that we find ways of dialling back extremism in our country. The federal government says it plans to fight online hate groups. Fine, but what good is that if at the same time our universities are teaching extremism to our young people?
 
Such is the case with 22 gender and women’s studies departments at numerous universities in Canada. In response to Hamas’s recent war against Israel, these gender studies departments – not individual professors – but the departments themselves, have declared their solidarity with the Palestinian “resistance” to Israel’s “settler colonialism” and “apartheid” (Here).

Milley Defends U.S. Military Teaching Of Critical Race Theory:  Dylan Stableford, Yahoo News, June 23, 2021Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, responded to criticism from Republican lawmakers Wednesday that members of the military are taught critical race theory, the academic concept that racism is a systemic, social construct.

“”I do think it’s important, actually, for those of us in uniform to be open-minded and be widely read,” Milley said. “And it is important that we train and we understand. I want to understand white rage, and I’m white,” he continued in reference to the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol by supporters of then-President Donald Trump. “And I want to understand it. I’ve read Karl Marx. I’ve read Lenin. That doesn’t make me a communist,” he added. “What is wrong with understanding, having some situational understanding about the country for which we are here to defend? And I personally find it offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our commissioned, our noncommissioned officers, of being ‘woke.'”
 
WH Defends Gwen Berry US Flag Protest at Olympic Trials:  Fran Breyer, Newsmax, June 28, 2021

White House press secretary Jen Psaki defended Olympian Gwen Berry after the hammer-thrower turned her back on the flag following her performance at the Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon,

“I haven’t spoken to the President specifically about this but I know he’s incredibly proud to be an American and has great respect for the anthem and all it represents, especially for our men and women serving in uniform all around the world.  He would also say of course that part of that pride in our country means recognizing there are moments where we as a country haven’t lived up to our highest ideals and it means respecting the right of people, granted to them in the constitutional, to peaceably protest.” 

ISRAEL REIMPOSES INDOOR MASK REQUIREMENT AS DAILY CASES TOP 200 (Jerusalem) — Israel reimposed an indoor mask requirement as over 200 new COVID-19 cases were recorded, the highest daily caseload in two and a half months, with a top health official warning the spread of the coronavirus was accelerating. (Times of Israel, June 29, 2021)

CONTROVERSIAL LAW ON PALESTINIAN FAMILY REUNIFICATION TO GO UP FOR VOTE NEXT MONDAY (Jerusalem) — Interior Minister Ayelet Shaked says the extension of a contentious measure barring Palestinians with Israeli spouses from acquiring Israeli residency will go up for a vote in the Knesset on Monday of next week. The vote had been planned for tomorrow, but the government is scrambling to find a way to pass the measure, with left-wing coalition parties opposing it outright and right-wing opposition factions pledging to reject it in order to challenge the coalition. (Times of Israel, June 29, 2021)

HONDURAN PRESIDENT DEDICATES EMBASSY IN JERUSALEM WITH BENNETT (Jerusalem) — Honduran President Juan Orlando Hernandez and Prime Minister Naftali Bennett dedicated the new Embassy of Honduras in Jerusalem on Thursday. Bennett welcomed Hernandez to “our eternal capital, Jerusalem” and called him a true friend of Israel. (Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2021)

US SAYS NOT CHANGING RECOGNITION OF ISRAELI SOVEREIGNTY OVER GOLAN HEIGHTS (Washington) — The US State Department denied that the Biden administration is planning to annul its recognition of Israeli sovereignty over the Golan Heights. The tweet denying this allegation was in response to a report that said Washington was shifting its policy, sparking uproar in Israel. (Asharq Al-Awsat, June 26, 2021)

BONES OF UNKNOWN EARLY HUMAN FOUND IN DRAMATIC DISCOVERY IN ISRAEL (Nesher Ramla) – An archeological dig in central Israel unearthed evidence that a group of previously unknown hominids likely lived alongside Homo sapiens—the type of humans that inhabit the earth today—toward the end of the Middle Pleistocene era that spanned roughly 474,000 to 130,000 years ago. This discovery came about when a team of archeologists, led by Yossi Zaidner from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, found human fossils and stone tools at the Nesher Ramla site in central Israel. (JNS, June 27, 2021)

ISRAEL SENDS IDF RESCUE TEAM TO FLORIDA DISASTER SITE (Miami) —  Israel has sent an elite IDF engineering team to Florida to help in recovery efforts following the collapse of a 12-story condo in Surfside, Florida. The delegation will assist in rescue efforts by mapping out the disaster site, identifying victims and survivors and supporting local rescue forces, the military said in a statement. (JNS, June 27, 2021)

12TH VICTIM PULLED FROM MIAMI TOWER RUBBLE AS SEARCH CONTINUES (Miami) — Another body was recovered on Tuesday from the ruins of a Florida condominium tower, the mayor said, raising the death toll in the collapse to at least 12 with 149 people still listed as missing.  (Jerusalem Post, June 30, 2021)

YALE JEWISH GROUPS DENOUNCE ‘BETRAYAL’ OF UNDERGRAD COUNCIL RESOLUTION CONDEMNING ISRAEL (Conn) — Jewish groups at Yale rejected a resolution narrowly adopted by the university’s undergrad student government that condemned the “injustice, genocide, and ethnic cleansing occurring in Palestine.” The statement, presented by the group Yalies 4 Palestine and adopted by the Yale College Council, argued that Israeli policies toward the Palestinians was “not a political issue,” charging Israel with apartheid and linking its policies to police reform in the United States. (Algemeiner, June 28, 2021)

WORLD’S LEADING CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHORS GROUP APOLOGIZES OVER CONDEMNATION OF ANTISEMITISM (Washington) — The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators (SCBWI), the only worldwide professional organization for children’s book authors and illustrators issued a fervent apology to Muslim and Palestinian members over a recent condemnation of antisemitism that did not discuss Islamophobia, and announced the resignation of the diversity officer who had posted the messaged. (Algemeiner, June 28, 2021)

GERMANY PASSES LAW TO GIVE DESCENDANTS OF NAZI-ERA REFUGEES CITIZENSHIP (Berlin) — Germany’s parliament approved changes that will make it easier for descendants of people who fled Nazi persecution to obtain citizenship, a move Jewish groups described as an important signal in the country responsible for the Holocaust. The amendments approved by the Bundestag lower house of parliament ensrhine in law decrees from 2019 already in force, which followed a campaign by relatives of Nazi-era refugees. (US News, June 25, 2021)

US HITS MILITIAS (Syria, Iraq) — The United States launched airstrikes against Iran-backed militants in Syria and Iraq in response to drone attacks targeting American troops and facilities in Iraq. (NY Post, June 28, 2021)

REPORT: BIDEN ADMINISTRATION MAY LIFT SANCTIONS AGAINST IRAN’S AYATOLLAH ALI KHAMENEI (Washington) — Sources told NBC News that Biden administration negotiators are in “indirect” talks in Vienna, Austria, with Iranian negotiators to lift the 2019 “broad sanctions” against Ayatollah Ali Khamenei as part of a compromise to re-enter the Obama era deal. Known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the deal, implemented in October 2015, was supposed to prevent Iran from using nuclear material for weapons. (Newsmax, June 26, 2021)

IRAN REFUSES TO GIVE NUCLEAR SITE IMAGES TO IAEA (Tehran) — The speaker of Iran’s parliament said Tehran will never hand over images from inside of some Iranian nuclear sites to the U.N. nuclear watchdog as a monitoring agreement with the agency had expired. This decision could complicate Biden Admin. efforts to re-negotiate the JCPOA. (Reuters, June 27, 2021)

RIOTS IN LEBANON OVER ECONOMY INJURE 10 SOLDIERS, PROTESTERS (Damascus) — Lebanese troops deployed in the northern city of Tripoli taking positions around major state institutions after a night of protests and riots against worsening living conditions left several protesters and 10 soldiers injured. Lebanon has been suffering severe shortages of vital products including fuel, medicine and medical products, angering the public. Lebanon’s currency hit a record low Saturday, reaching 18,000 pounds to the U.S. dollar. The pound has lost more than 90% of its value since the crisis began. (The Sacramento Bee, June 28, 2021)

DENMARK EXPANDING ‘GHETTO’ HOUSING POLICY THAT DREW ACCUSATIONS OF RACISM (Copenhagen) — The Danish government wants to evict Muslim immigrants from their apartments under a controversial policy that seeks to reduce the concentration of what it labels “non-Western” residents in some disadvantaged neighborhoods, largely by selling or converting public housing. The government says it wants to force integration and fight inequality by combating what it has described as “parallel societies.” The government is now seeking to toughen the existing law and limit the percentage of what it deems “non-Western” residents in any one neighborhood to no more than 30%.  (WSJ, June 26, 2021)

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