Lara Alqasem: An American in Israel: Vivian Bercovici, Commentary, Oct. 12, 2018
Hamas Probes Israel’s Defenses, Ups Ante With Crossbows: Yoni Ben Menachem, JNS, Oct. 16, 2018
Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Proliferate in UK’s Labour Party: Manfred Gerstenfeld and Irene Kuruc, Algemeiner, Oct. 17, 2018
Ivory Tower Bigots: David Mikics, Tablet, Oct. 16, 2018
WEEKLY QUOTES
“It is important for the world to understand the scope of the regime’s recklessness and malfeasance…We will engage with any nation prepared to take a stand with us against the chaos and brutality that Iran imposes on its citizens and spreads in spades around the world…We know many countries share our concerns and our yearnings for a more secure and stable Middle East, as well as a freer Iran. We encourage nations and businesses across the world to examine the record enclosed here, and answer the call to address the challenge of Iran head-on.” — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo. The U.S. State Department recently published an unprecedented report detailing the financial resources Iran invests in destabilizing the Middle East. The report estimated that over the past six years, the Islamic republic has spent some $16 billion to prop up Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and fund Iranian-backed militias across the Arab world. Assad has so far received about $4.6 billion from Tehran, which also gives its largest regional proxy, Lebanon-based Hezbollah, more than $700 million a year, in addition to supporting other militias in Iraq and the Houthi rebels in Yemen. According to the 48-page report, the Gaza Strip-based Hamas and Islamic Jihad terrorist groups have received upwards of $100 million from Iran in recent years. (Breaking Israel News, Oct. 11, 2018)
“Looking to the West and Europe has no benefit other than having to stand idle, begging favors and undergoing humiliation.” — Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei of Iran. Calling western nations “the enemy,” he elaborated that these countries have painted a false image of Iran. He emphasized that the actual state of the country is the opposite of what “domineering foreigners” have depicted through “the hegemonic system.” “Portraying a false, negative and disappointing image of the situation in Iran is the most important agenda of the enemy today,” Khamenei said. In May, Trump ripped up the Iran nuclear deal, announcing a severe new attitude towards the Middle Eastern nation. The US has been encouraging other countries to freeze economic activity with Iran and its economy has been decimated by sanctions. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 17, 2018)
“Israel is the one country that protects the human rights of all. We protect the religious rights of all. We don’t just protect Christian religious sites – we protect Christian people. Christians should enjoy all the freedom to worship as they please in the Middle East and anywhere else and the only place in the Middle East where they can do so is Israel. — Prime Minister Netanyahu. Netanyahu hailed Israel as the only real protector of Christians in the Middle East at a Christian Media Summit in Jerusalem, while accusing the PA of persecuting the minority. “We have no better friends in the world than our Christian friends and I take this opportunity to thank you for your steadfast support. You are standing up for Israel and you are standing up for the truth and we stand up for you,” he added. Netanyahu also lashed out at the PA’s handling of Christian sites, such as Bethlehem. “You know the town of Bethlehem? Yes. You have a connection to it. We all do. And among other things, we have a connection to King David, the history of Ruth as you know, but also the story of Jesus. Now, Bethlehem had when we handed it over to the Palestinian Authority a Christian population of roughly 80%. Now it’s about 20%. And that change happened because in the Palestinian Authority areas, as well as throughout the Middle East, Christians are being constricted, they’re being pressured, also they’re being persecuted,” Netanyahu said. (The Hill, Oct. 9, 2018)
“By turning a blind eye as human rights violators easily join and subvert the council, leading democracies will be complicit in the world body’s moral decline…We need to hear the EU’s [foreign policy chief] Federica Mogherini and EU member states lead the call to oppose the worst abusers. So far, they have been silent.” — Hillel Neuer, the executive director of UN Watch in Geneva. The ruling regime in Eritrea is generally held to be one of the worst human rights abusers in the world. But on Friday Eritrea was elected a member of the UN’s top human rights body, the human rights council, by a vote in the UN general assembly. The voting will also confer council membership on five other countries – Bahrain, Bangladesh, Cameroon, the Philippines and Somalia – that independent advocacy groups also judge to be “unqualified” by reason of their chronic human rights abuses and negative voting record on rights issues. Neuer said the creation of the council in 2006 by the late Kofi Annan, then UN secretary general, was intended to weed out the worst abusers, whose presence had discredited the council’s predecessor, the now-defunct UN human rights commission. “Sadly, this was never respected … This year, there is not even the illusion of competition,” Neuer said. (Guardian, Oct. 11, 2018)
“Regrettably, when the UN itself ends up electing human rights violators to the human rights council, it indulges the very culture of impunity it is supposed to combat. The world’s democracies must join in the preservation and protection of the council’s mandate and not end up accomplices to its breach.” — Irwin Cotler, the head of the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights and a former Canadian minister of justice. The Trump administration withdrew from the human rights council in June, saying its decision was prompted by the presence of serial human rights abusers and a lack of competitive elections. Nikki Haley, the outgoing US ambassador to the UN, called it “a cesspool of political bias”. The US’s decision was also prompted by the HRC’s hostility towards Israel. (Guardian, Oct. 11, 2018)
“I’m not afraid of the one who denies the existence of God, but I’m really afraid of the one who kills and chops off heads to prove the existence of God.” — Iraqi beauty queen and social media star Tara Fares. Fares was shot dead in Baghdad, Iraq on September 27. In the weeks before that, Suad al-Ali, a women’s rights activist in the southern city of Basra, was also gunned down. It is not clear whether the deaths are connected, however they have followed a pattern of targeting women promoting female empowerment and tend to fall on a Thursday. Fares, with an Iraqi father and a Lebanese mother, first became famous in 2015 when she won an unofficial Baghdad beauty pageant organized by a social club. She has become a social media darling, with bold posts and photos of herself posing in elaborate makeup, tight jeans and blouses that showed off her tattoos. “I’m not doing anything in the dark like many others; everything I do is in the broad daylight,” she wrote. (National Post, Oct. 9, 2018)
“Imagine a neo-Nazi concert in Auschwitz. Imagine a communist concert in Katyn, where Stalin’s troops shot thousands of Polish officers in the head…The Americans refused to build a mosque, which Muslims demanded, at Ground Zero, where the Twin Towers were destroyed by Islamist assassins…This [is] an incredible violence against France, and it’s no coincidence, because for the Islamists, in Europe, our country is the number one target. So anything that can weaken our defenses is a good thing — like the Medine concert.” — Pierre Cassen. In the three years since a series of Islamist terrorist attacks shook the city of Paris, the Bataclan, now owned by a Qatari group, has staged provocative performances that some argue are pro-Islamist. In April, when the venue announced a concert featuring controversial rapper Medine, who has been criticized for attacks on French secularism, many determined that enough was enough. A group calling itself “100 patriots” called for a “patriotic protest” against the planned October 19 event. The movement proved effective: just barely a month before the scheduled event, the Bataclan and Medine announced that in a “conciliatory spirit” and out of “respect” for the victims’ families, the concert would not take place. (Algemeiner, Oct. 14, 2018)
“There is no other people that has experienced so many tragedies and remains so optimistic…We are a people that has survived the most tragedies and is the most optimistic in the world. This is because we turn every tragedy into something that strengthens and connects us. I meet often with the three families, we are all members of the Committee for the Prize for National Unity, and I see power and nobility. You can see how a tragedy is turned into victory.” — Former head of the Jewish Agency and former minister Natan Sharansky. A library comprising of books on Zionism and the founders of Zionism was dedicated at the Oz veGaon nature preserve in Gush Etzion, in the presence of Sharansky and his wife and fellow refusnik Avital Sharansky. The unique library includes books and writings dealing with Zionism spanning more than a hundred years. (Jewish Press, Oct. 10, 2018)
SHORT TAKES
GAZA ROCKET HITS HOME IN ISRAEL, MILITARY STRIKES BACK (Jerusalem) — A rocket fired from Gaza struck a residential home in southern Israel. A woman and her three children, whose home in Beersheba was struck, were being treated for shock. The military said another rocket from Gaza landed in the sea. Israeli military jets pounded Hamas targets across the Gaza Strip in response. The rocket attack on Beersheba was the first in months and the first that hit an Israeli home there since the 2014 summer war between Israel and Hamas. Beersheba is some 30 miles from Gaza. (Fox News, Oct. 17, 2018)
IDF KILLS GAZA TERRORISTS WHO INFILTRATED ISRAEL (Jerusalem) — Terrorists on Friday detonated a bomb on the Israel-Gaza border fence and attacked an IDF position inside Israel. All of the terrorists were killed by IDF troops. Meanwhile on Friday, the weekly Hamas-sponsored “March of the Return” riots along the Gaza-Israel border continued, as approximately 14,000 rioters and demonstrators gathered along the border. Hamas claimed that six Palestinians were killed. The “March of the Return” border riots have been ongoing every Friday since March 30. (Arutz Sheva, Oct. 12, 2018)
IDF DESTROYS GAZA HAMAS TERROR TUNNEL ENTERING ISRAEL (Jerusalem) — Amid growing tension in the South, the IDF destroyed an advanced Hamas terror tunnel that had crossed from the Gaza Strip some 200 meters into Israel. The tunnel was located through advanced technologies able to pinpoint its exact location – the 15th to be detected and destroyed by the military since October 2017. The tunnel, which was connected to a network of other Hamas tunnels inside the coastal enclave, incorporated various new methods of construction the military said it believes Hamas used to get around the IDF’s tunnel detection system. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 11, 2018)
TERROR BALLOON DISCOVERED ON JERUSALEM’S EMEK REFAIM STREET (Jerusalem) — The Israel police and its sappers were called to a construction site on Emek Refaim Street of Jerusalem following reports of an incendiary balloon found in the area. Sappers neutralized the balloon and collected evidence from the site. Since March this year, thousands of acres of land across southern Israel have been destroyed by incendiary balloons and devices sent from Gaza, which has caused millions of shekels in damage. (Jewish Press, Oct. 10, 2018)
U.S. PASTOR ANDREW BRUNSON LEAVES TURKEY AFTER BEING DETAINED FOR 2 YEARS (Washington) — American pastor Andrew Brunson flew out of Turkey after a Turkish court convicted him of aiding terrorism but sentenced him only to time served. The case of the evangelical Christian preacher caught up in Turkey’s post-coup-attempt security sweep had garnered attention at the highest levels of the U.S. government and become a sore point in the two countries’ relationship. Brunson, 50, had been detained for two years on espionage and terrorism-related charges that the pastor and U.S. officials said were false. (Washington Post, Oct. 12, 2018)
US SANCTIONS BANKS, BUSINESSES BACKING IRAN’S USE OF CHILD SOLDIERS (Washington) — The Treasury Department targeted a network of banks and businesses that provides financial support to a paramilitary force in Iran, which allegedly trains and deploys child soldiers to fight with Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. The sanctions are part of the US campaign to pressure Iran to radically alter its policies, including developing ballistic missiles, supporting regional militant groups, and violating human rights. The sanctions prohibit Americans from doing business with the network or its affiliates and freeze assets they have under US jurisdiction. (Times of Israel, Oct. 16, 2018)
AUSTRALIA MULLING RECOGNITION OF JERUSALEM AS ISRAEL’S CAPITAL (Sydney) — Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison said that he was considering transferring his country’s embassy to Jerusalem and recognizing the holy city as Israel’s capital. “We’re committed to a two-state solution, but frankly it hasn’t been going that well, not a lot of progress has been made, and you don’t keep doing the same thing and expect different results,” Morrison said. The Palestinian Authority (PA) delegation to Australia called the potential move “deeply disturbing”, warning that it should “exercise caution” and “seriously consider the consequences of any such move.” (I24, Oct. 15, 2018)
U.N. UPS PALESTINIANS’ STATUS, MAKES IT HEAD OF GROUP OF 77 (Geneva) — The UN General Assembly voted 146-3 to place the “state of Palestine” at the head of a group of 134 member nations, known as the Group of 77 and China. There were 15 abstentions. The UNGA placement of Palestine at the head of the largest intergovernmental organization of developing countries, enhances the Palestinian stature at the UN, even though it does not imply any change in status. Israel, the United States and Australia opposed the move. Among those 15 nations who abstained were: Andorra, Austria, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Canada, The Czech Republic, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Honduras, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Monaco, Poland, Slovakia and Tuvalu. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 17, 2018)
SUPREME COURT JUDGE AMBUSHED (Jerusalem) — A Supreme Court judge reported that he escaped a violent assault attempted by three Palestinian men armed with hammers as he was traveling along a West Bank motorway. Luckily, the Jewish driver was able to maneuver his vehicle and escape the ambush. In recent months there have been a number of attempts to violently assault cars in Samaria. Last July, a 60-year-old man from the Ofra settlement was beaten by assailants on route 465. A month earlier, a Palestinian stole an Israeli vehicle near the Modiín Illit settlement. (Jerusalem Online, Oct. 15, 2018)
JEWISH JOURNALISTS, ANTI-RACISM ACTIVISTS BARRED FROM LABOUR EVENT (London) — Jewish journalists and activists were banned from attending an event organized by members of Britain’s Labour Party. The event in London featured a speech by John McDonnell, a shadow chancellor of Labour and confidant of Jeremy Corbyn. Dozens of Jewish people who had tickets to the event, but who had previously spoken out about the antisemitism row that engulfed Labour over the summer were told at the last minute that their tickets had been cancelled. No reason was given to them. Organizers later accused the people banned, including reporters for The Jewish Chronicle and Jewish News, of having “previously misrepresented events,” The Independent reported. (Times of Israel, Oct. 12, 2018)
COURT REJECTS APPEAL OF US STUDENT DETAINED IN ISRAEL (Tel Aviv) — The court rejected the appeal of Lara Alqasem, a US student who has been barred from entering the country because of alleged involvement in BDS. Alqasem had until Sunday to decide whether to appeal her case to the Israeli Supreme Court or to leave the country. Alqasem, 22, arrived in Israel on Oct. 2 with a valid student visa to pursue her graduate studies at Israel’s Hebrew University. She has been held in detention at the airport since, though Israel says she is free to return to the US at any time. The graduate student has argued that she is no longer involved in the movement. (Ynet, Oct. 12, 2018)
ORTHODOX MAN ATTACKED IN BROOKLYN, IN 2ND SUSPECTED HATE CRIME IN 2 DAYS (New York) — An identifiably Orthodox Jewish man was assaulted in Brooklyn for the second day in a row. A black teenager carrying a stick began chasing an older Jewish man who attempted to run away. The teen, who had been released by police about a half hour earlier after he was caught shoplifting, was charged with felony assault, menacing, harassment, and criminal possession of a weapon, as well as a hate crime. On Sunday, an identifiably Orthodox Jewish man was beaten in Brooklyn in an assault that was investigated as a possible hate crime. The assailant has been identified as 37-year-old cab driver Farrukh Afzal. He reportedly attacked the victim, Rabbi Lipa Schwartz, 62, because he thought he was an Orthodox man who had stepped in front of his car earlier in the day. (Times of Israel, Oct. 16, 2018)
NYU STUDENTS TO BRING FORWARD BDS RESOLUTION (New York) — Students at New York University (NYU) plan to promote a resolution supportive of the BDS campaign in November, drawing opposition from Zionist campus leaders. The resolution will be brought forward on Nov. 1 by three student senators including Rose Asaf, a co-founder of Jewish Voice for Peace at NYU. It will be voted on through a secret ballot on Dec. 6, after speakers from each opposing side of the debate will be given two minutes to speak, and only NYU students will be allowed to attend. (Algemeiner, Oct. 16, 2018)
U.S. MILITARY AIRSTRIKE KILLS 60 SHABAB FIGHTERS IN SOMALIA (Mogadishu) —The Pentagon said it had carried out the deadliest attack against the Islamist extremist group Shabab in nearly a year, killing about 60 fighters in central Somalia. The strike took place Friday in the vicinity of Harardhere, about 300 miles northeast of Mogadishu, Somalia’s capital, the military said in a statement. The strike came after a recent spate of attacks that the Shabab have conducted against Somali security forces and their American advisers across the country. On Sept. 21, Shabab fighters attacked American and Somali troops 30 miles northwest of Kismayo. Ten days earlier, militants struck Somali and American forces in Mubarak, in central Somalia, killing one Somali soldier. (New York Times, Oct. 16, 2018)
I.S.-LINKED EXTREMISTS IN NIGERIA KILL 2ND OF 3 ABDUCTED HEALTH WORKERS (Lagos) — Islamic State-linked extremists in Nigeria have killed the second of three abducted health workers. The government identified her as Hauwa Mohammed Liman, who had been working in a hospital supported by the International Committee of the Red Cross. All three workers were seized in Rann, where thousands have sought shelter from the Nigeria-based Boko Haram insurgency. The killing in September of Saifura Hussaini Ahmed Khorsa led to outrage. She was abducted along with Liman and Alice Loksha, a nurse who worked at a center supported by the U.N. children’s agency. (Fox News, Oct. 16, 2018)
UN: DETERIORATION IN MALI AS CDN MISSION STARTS (Bamako) — The head of the UN says the security situation in Mali has sharply deteriorated over the past three months even as demand for more food aid and other humanitarian assistance has skyrocketed. The assessment by UN Secretary General Guterres coincides with the presence of Canadian peacekeepers in Mali, and suggests the country is in many ways worse off now than when they first arrived in June. Guterres painted a picture of a country at war with itself as various ethnic and extremist groups targeted each other as well as the Malian military, international forces and even civilians. The result was the largest number of civilians killed — 287 — in one three-month period since UN peacekeepers first arrived in 2013. (National Post, Oct. 10, 2018)
ISRAEL APPROVES FIRST NEW JEWISH NEIGHBORHOOD IN HEBRON IN OVER A DECADE (Jerusalem) — Israel approved the establishment of a new Jewish neighborhood in the West Bank city of Hebron, the first such construction in 16 years. The project includes a 31-unit apartment building and two kindergartens. Hebron’s Jewish community was destroyed in the 1929 Arab massacre, in which 67 Jews were killed. It was not rebuilt again until 1979. The city of more than 220,000 Palestinians was divided in 1997, with the transference of 80% to the territory to the auspices of the Palestinian Authority. The remaining 20%, where some 1,000 Jews live in a handful of apartment complexes, is under Israeli military control. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 14, 2018)
FRANCE BESTOWS ITS HIGHEST AWARD TO NAZI-HUNTERS (Paris) — Famed French Nazi-hunters Serge Klarsfeld and wife Beate, received the highest honors in a ceremony led by French President Macron. The Grand Cross of the Legion of Honor was presented to 83-year old Serge, while 79 year-old Beate, who already received the Legion of Honor in 2014, was bestowed the National Order of Merit. Serge, whose father was killed in Auschwitz, fled to France with his family from Romania. He met Beate Kuenzel, the daughter of a German soldier, in 1960. Three years later, they married and decided to dedicate their lives to hunting fugitive Nazis. Among their successes was the capture of the “Butcher of Lyon,” Gestapo officer Klaus Barbie, who had escaped to South America. (Breaking Israel News, Oct. 14, 2018)
Lara Alqasem: An American in Israel: Vivian Bercovici, Commentary, Oct. 12, 2018—As official Israel nears the weekly pause marking the Jewish Sabbath, it seems likely that Lara Alqasem, a 22-year old American woman, will spend her 11th night in detention at Ben Gurion International Airport.
Hamas Probes Israel’s Defenses, Ups Ante With Crossbows: Yoni Ben Menachem, JNS, Oct. 16, 2018—Friday was particularly violent on Israel’s border with the Gaza Strip.
Antisemitic Conspiracy Theories Proliferate in UK’s Labour Party: Manfred Gerstenfeld and Irene Kuruc, Algemeiner, Oct. 17, 2018 —Conspiracy theories can usually be found in environments where antisemitism is substantially present.
Ivory Tower Bigots: David Mikics, Tablet, Oct. 16, 2018—Anti-Zionism is a form of racism like any other: The erasing of a nation’s experience, the denial of their right to speak.
