Fallen Soldiers and Israelis Stand in Silence to Remember Victims of Terrorism: Algemeiner Staff, May 7, 2019 — Israelis stood in silence on Tuesday night as a one-minute siren sounded nationwide to mark the start of the annual Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism.
Letting the Tears Flow – Yom Hazikaron – Israel Memorial Day 2019 – March of the Living: Ari Abramowitz, Remembering Michael Levine, 22 years old. YouTube.
Our Alex’s IDF Service Was His Salvation, Not His Downfall: Steve Sasaki, Times of Israel, May 7, 2019 – My son Alex Sasaki, who left college in the US to enlist in the Israel Defense Forces as a lone soldier, died a tragic death in March under circumstances that are still under investigation.
In First, Hundreds Gather In Jerusalem To Honor Ultra-Orthodox Fallen Soldiers: Michael Bachner, Times of Israel, May 8, 2019 — Among countless Memorial Day events taking place around the country on Tuesday evening was a first-of-its-kind ceremony in Jerusalem dedicated to commemorating ultra-Orthodox Israel Defense Forces soldiers who died in battle and Haredi terror victims.
On Topic Links
Children In Philadelphia Muslim Society: We Will Sacrifice Ourselves For Al-Aqsa, Will Chop Off Their Heads, Subject Them To Eternal Torture: MEMRI, May 3, 2019 — On April 22, 2019, the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in Philadelphia (MAS Philly) uploaded a video of an “Ummah Day” celebration to its Facebook page in which young children wearing Palestinian scarves sang: “Glorious steeds call us and lead us [to] the Al-Aqsa Mosque.
A Holocaust Story for the Social Media Generation: Isabel Kershner, New York Times, Apr. 30, 2019 — The teenager’s Instagram posts start out breezily enough. Eva Heyman, who just got her first pair of heels for her 13th birthday, films herself eating ice cream in the park. There’s also a teenage crush.
PA Holocaust Abuse: PA Misrepresents Photos of Holocaust Victims As Arabs Killed By Jews – Again!: Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, Palestinian Media Watch, May 2, 2019 — Official PA TV last month deceitfully broadcast pictures of bodies of Holocaust victims in a Nazi concentration camp presenting them as pictures of Arab victims killed by Jews in the village of Deir Yassin in 1948.
Israel’s Image Needs to Be Reviewed: Mohamad Tawhidi, Jerusalem Post, May 2, 2019 — The communities and societies in which I was raised, in both the Middle East and the West, maintained a very negative stance against Jews.
WEEKLY QUOTES
“Often, I am told by the relatives of the fallen: “After having received the bitter news, we had to learn how to breathe again.” The lump in our throats is there all the time, day and night. There is no clear explanation of how to cope with the loss. On the one hand, we go about our daily lives, and on the other hand, not a day passes without being reminded of the faces of our loved ones, their smiles, the words they said and the things they did – as if they were here with us. But they are not here. And each time we are overcome by memories of them, we once again feel the void and the aching pain.” – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Speech at the Opening Ceremony of the Memorial Day for Israel’s Fallen Soldiers Yad Labanim (PMO, May 7, 2019)
“We will not allow Iran to acquire nuclear weapons, and we will deepen our roots even further in our homeland, as our forefathers did… The events of the past few days have shown what our destiny is about. To uproot us from our land – our enemies have tried to do this time after time in the past hundred years, but they have failed.” – Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaking at the Mt. Herzl Commemoration ceremony for Israel’s fallen soldiers. “Our fallen loved ones were diamonds, human diamonds,” and, pointing to a recent clandestine security operation, said, “There are also invisible diamonds like Lieutenant Colonel M., whose life was cut short in the dark of night in the operation in Gaza.” The Lieutenant Colonel was killed last November in an IDF clash with Hamas, deep inside the Gaza Strip. According to data published by the Defense Ministry, 56 Israelis were added since last Memorial Day to the list of the fallen, including 40 IDF veterans who died as a result of their past war injuries. (Jewish Press, May 8, 2019)
“Dr. McHugh argues that the treatment of returning soldiers for the liberally applied PTSD diagnosis is another example of iatrogenesis. Such diagnoses are far rarer among Israel Defense Forces veterans, who experience plenty of trauma. Israelis “know that you can get a terrible psychological reaction out of a traumatic battle. And they do take the soldiers out, and they tell them the following: ‘This is perfectly normal; you need to be out of battle for a while. Don’t think that this is a disease that’s going to hurt you, this is like grief. You’re going to get over it, it’s normal. And within a few weeks, after a little rest, we’re going to put you back with your comrades and you’re going to go back to work.’ And they all do.” – Psychiatrist Paul McHugh, a professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine, speaking up against the excesses in his profession. (WSJ, May 3, 2019)
“A few weeks ago, Students Supporting Israel (SSI) Columbia reached out to SJP (Students for Justice in Palestine) and JVP (Jewish Voice for Peace) with great hope and expectations of finally doing something productive about the long-debated issue of holding civil and constructive discussion on campus regarding the Israeli- Palestinian conflict. We asked nothing more than a phlegmatic setting to discuss different views and narratives, hopefully, provided by newly elected CCSC. Today, in a public statement, SJP has not only rejected our open offer but also virulently used made up claims and half-truths to justify their insistence on marginalizing and boycotting pro-Israel voices on this campus.” – A statement issued by SSI Columbia sent an invitation to SJP in response to their claim that they wanted to promote dialogue on the issue of Israel and Palestine. After the invitation was rejected, SJP admitted that it never intended on dialoging with SSI. (Algemeiner, May 1, 2019)
“My wife was a person who did so much good in her life. … And whatever I did that might not have been good, she repaired. She had a soul that was greater than any of us ever could believe.” – Dr. Howard Kaye said at the funeral of his wife Lori Gilbert Kaye. Lori, who was killed in an antisemitic attack on the Chabad of Poway synagogue on Saturday, was laid to rest on Monday in an emotional ceremony attended by hundreds of mourners. (Algemeiner, Apr. 29, 2019)
“The same New York Times that a century ago mostly hid from their readers the Holocaust of the Jewish people has today made its pages a safe-space for those who hate the Jewish state. Through biased coverage, slanderous columns and antisemitic cartoons, its editors shamefully choose week after week to cast the Jewish state as a force for evil.” — Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer posted on his official Facebook page, which was prepared for delivery at a Holocaust memorial event in Washington, DC. He also called the newspaper “a cesspool of hostility towards Israel,” in that its treatment of Israel “goes well beyond any legitimate criticism of a fellow, imperfect democracy.” (Algemeiner, Apr. 29, 2019)
“We will have more sanctions. You will see over the next weeks additional steps we are taking. There is a long list and we are basically going down the list.” – The US Special Representative for Venezuela Elliot Abrams told the Free Beacon during an interview in his office at the State Department. He stated that the Trump administration is readying a new salvo of sanctions on Cuba and Russia for their destabilizing activities in Venezuela that have helped prop up Nicolás Maduro, and that America is still considering military options to deal with a worsening humanitarian crisis in the country as Maduro refuses to relinquish power. (Washington Free Beacon, May 6, 2019)
“One hates to restate the obvious, but some matters require to be repeated until their dire significance really sinks in. Intellectual freedom and diversity are in danger of being expunged. Formerly respectable universities have become the province of a mentally barren professoriate indoctrinating new generations of virtuecrats, who have no room in their minds for any thoughts that might defy the latest orthodoxy. The outlook is grim, rich possibilities are being foreclosed, and the past masters who formed our civilization have become objects of loathing, not to be spoken of without scorn.” – Algis Valiunas writes in a review of the book ‘Diderot and the Enlightenment Cult of Reason’ by Andrew S. Curran. (National Review, Apr. 4, 2019)
SHORT TAKES
HEBREW UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS CREATE EMBRYO STEM CELLS FROM SKIN CELLS (Jerusalem) – Researchers say they have found a way to transform skin cells into the three major stem cell types that comprise early-stage embryos. The discovery could pave the way to creating entire human embryos out of human skin cells, without the need for sperm or eggs. And it could also have “vast implications” for modeling embryonic defects and shedding light on placental dysfunctions, as well as solving certain infertility problems by creating human embryos in a petri dish, a Hebrew University statement said. (Times of Israel, May 2, 2019)
SCHEER SAYS HE WILL MOVE CANADIAN EMBASSY IN ISRAEL TO JERUSALEM FROM TEL AVIV (Ottawa) — A Conservative government would move Canada’s embassy in Israel to Jerusalem from Tel Aviv, party leader Andrew Scheer said in a sometimes fiery foreign-policy speech that took personal aim at Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. The promise to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital reaffirmed a pledge Scheer first made more than a year ago — but he didn’t include a promise to move the embassy then. (National Post, May 7, 2019)
PROMINENT AFGHANS URGE CEASE-FIRE AS WAR GRINDS ON (Kabul) — A special national assembly — Loya Jirga — convened by Afghanistan’s President Ashraf Ghani to advise him on future peace talks with the Taliban called for both sides to enter a permanent cease-fire in the nearly 18-year war, beginning with the start next week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. (WSJ, May 3, 2019)
YOUNG SOUTH AFRICANS CHAFE UNDER THE PARTY MANDELA BUILT (Alexandra, South Africa) — Heading into national elections, support for the ANC and its president, Cyril Ramaphosa, is lowest among the so-called born-free generation, born since Mr. Mandela became president in 1994. High youth unemployment, an ailing education system and near-daily revelations of government corruption have made many born frees, as they are known, question what the ANC has to show for its 25-year dominance of South African politics. (WSJ, May 3, 2019)
FIRST NATION SUES FOR TITLE TO MASSIVE, SCENIC SWATH OF ONTARIO AND $90B AS LANDMARK TRIAL STARTS (Toronto) – The Saugeen Ojibway Nation is pressing a claim to ownership of government land across the entire Bruce Peninsula and a legally unique claim for Aboriginal title over the “water territory” around it – stretching from the international boundary with the U.S. in Lake Huron across to Georgian Bay – along with compensation that could amount, by their accounting, to $90 billion. (National Post, Apr. 26, 2019)
MEETING WITH NORTH KOREAN LEADER GIVES PUTIN MORE LEVERAGE (Moscow) — For Russian President Vladimir Putin, a meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un offers a chance to raise Moscow’s clout in the region and gain more leverage with Washington. While Russia’s ability to influence Kim’s position is limited compared to that of China, a dialogue with Kim could allow Putin to emerge as an essential player in the North Korean nuclear standoff. (National Post, Apr. 23, 2019)
UNRECOGNIZED ‘IRANIAN SCHINDLER’ SAID TO HAVE SAVED COUNTLESS PARIS JEWS IN WWII (Paris) –Abdol Hossein Sardari, a non-Jewish Iranian consul representing the shah’s government, is estimated to have saved hundreds, perhaps thousands of Jews from Hitler. He did so by issuing Iranian passports with a false claim that nevertheless appealed to the Nazis’ sense of racial superiority: The bearer was not Jewish but “Djougouten,” an Iranian minority that was ethnically Aryan. This relatively unknown act of heroism is the subject of a new documentary, “Sardari’s Enigma,” produced and directed by Iranian filmmaker Mahdieh zare Zardiny. The film — Zardiny’s first full-length feature — made its US debut at a screening at Georgetown University on April 26. (Times of Israel, May 1, 2019)
NO. 4 STREET OF OUR LADY THE AMAZING POLISH WOMAN WHO HID AND SAVED 16 JEWS – AND ONE GERMAN – IN HER HOUSE (Galicia) — In 1939, roughly 6,000 Jews lived in Sokal, a small shtetl in Eastern Galicia. Only about 30 of them survived. For close to two years, Franciszka Halamajowa, a Polish Catholic woman, and her daughter hid their Jewish neighbors in their tiny home and cooked and cared for them, right under the noses of German troops camped on her property and of hostile neighbors. Two families were hidden in the hayloft of her pigsty, and one family in a hole dug under her kitchen floor. Franciszka’s son provided her with the means to provide them with food and other necessities. A documentary of her heroic actions was made. (Haaretz, May 2, 2019)
JEWISH, ZIONIST STUDENTS AT UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS STEP UP AMID ISRAEL DELEGTIMIZATION CAMPAIGN (Illinois) – During this year’s Israel Apartheid Week (IAW), Illlini Students Supporting Israel together with Illini Hillel and Illlini Chabad, set up a table in a different part of the Main Quad, far from the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) anti-Israel displays, and offered people a chance to dialogue about Israel. They prepared “myth and fact” sheets and offered free “coffee and conversation.” After 20 hours of tabling, they had over 300 conversations and about 40 people were interested in learning more. (Algemeiner, May 1, 2019)
WORLD JEWISH CONGRESS CALLS FOR BAN OF NEO-NAZIS WHO MARCHED IN TWO SWEDISH TOWNS (Kungaly and Ludvika) — The rallies, organized by the Nordic Resistance Movement (NMR), took place in the towns of Kungälv and Ludvika on the eve of Yom HaShoah, Israel’s Holocaust Remembrance Day. The group’s stated political views including stopping “mass immigration” of non-northern Europeans, establishing “a National Socialist society,” and regaining “power from the global Zionist elite who have economically and militarily occupied the greater part of our world.” (Algemeiner, May 1, 2019)
NUCLEAR DEAL CRUMBLING: FRANCE THREATENS SANCTIONS AS IRAN SAYS IT WILL ENRICH URANIUM (Paris) – Iran’s president said that it will begin keeping its excess uranium and heavy water from its nuclear program, setting a 60-day deadline for new terms to its nuclear deal with world powers before it will resume higher uranium enrichment. This despite France’s warning that even a partial pullout could lead to the reimposing of international sanctions. (WIN, May 8, 2019)
SPANISH COURT ADMITS CRIMINAL COMPLAINT AGAINST BDS LEADER OMAR BARGHOUTI (Madrid) — Madrid-based ACOM, which counters anti-Zionist and antisemitic discrimination, filed the suit after the City Council of Cadiz, a port town in southwestern Spain, unexpectedly canceled the Israeli Film Cycle in 2017, which was organized in collaboration with the Israeli Embassy in Madrid and set to take place in a municipal building. According to an email authored by the city’s councillor for culture, Eva Tubio Martinez, the cancellation was linked to the city’s “Space Free of Israeli Apartheid” pledge — a BDS measure adopted by the council’s Local Government Board in 2016. (Algemeiner, May 1, 2019)
PROMINENT SAUDI INTELLECTUALS AND JOURNALISTS SUPPORT ISRAEL, SLAM HAMAS, BLAME IRAN FOR LATEST GAZA VIOLENCE (Riyadh) –According to the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), prominent Saudi intellectual Dr. Turki Al-Hamad blamed the violence on Iran and Turkey, both regional rivals of Saudi Arabia. Another Saudi, Mut’ab Al-Jabrin, responded to Al-Hamad with an attack on Hamas, saying, “Since the Hamas coup and its takeover of Gaza, the [Gaza] Strip has been suffering mismanagement which has caused [its residents] to lose even the most basic services, [namely] power and water.” Saudi journalist Muhammad Aal Al-Sheikh, of the Al-Jazirah newspaper (not the Qatari news network), explicitly blamed Iran for the violence, writing, “The Persian ayatollahs have instructed their servants, Hamas, to escalate [the conflict] with Israel, and they obeyed. The result is seven Palestinians dead, versus one Israeli wounded.” (Algemeiner, May 7, 2019)
FOUR DECADES LATER, ISRAEL-EGYPT PEACE TREATY CELEBRATED AS ‘COURAGEOUS DIPLOMATIC ACHIEVEMENT’ (Washington) — A ceremony was held at the US State Department headquarters to mark the recent 40th anniversary of the historic signing of the Israel-Egypt peace treaty. The event — hosted by Secretary of State Mike Pompeo — was attended by the ambassadors of Israel and Egypt to the US, Ron Dermer and Yasser Reda. Pompeo, a State Department statement said, praised Israel and Egypt for the “courageous diplomatic achievement, which took will and sacrifice,” and acknowledged the two countries’ “strong commitment to an enduring peace.” (Algemeiner, May 1, 2019)
SOON: BAR-ILAN APP COMMEMORATING GREEK JEWISH COMMUNITIES DESTROYED IN THE HOLOCAUST (Tel Aviv) — A new app currently under development, will provide rich historical information about the Jewish communities of Salonika, Athens, Corfu and others lost during the Holocaust (at this point only in Hebrew). The app will enable users to hear the testimonies of 62 survivors whose stories were long ago published in a book about the Jews of Greece during the Holocaust. (Jewish Press, May 1, 2019)
CORBYN CAN’T SHED THE ANTISEMITIC THING AS HIS ENDORSEMENT OF ‘JEWS CONTROL WORLD’ BOOK REVEALED (London) — Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn wrote the foreword to a 2011 new edition of John Atkinson Hobson’s 1902 book “Imperialism: A Study.” Hobson was one of the most influential English antisemites of his day, according to a number of academic studies. In the 1890s, he blamed Russian Jewish immigrants for endangering the livelihood of native English workers and advocated limits on immigration. He tied the Boer War in South Africa to “Jew Power” and dubbed Johannesburg “New Jerusalem.” He claimed that “Jewish financiers,” “parasites,” as he referred to them, manipulated the British government to dance to their “diabolical tune.” (Jewish Press, May 1, 2019)
THE PLOT AGAINST THE KING OF JORDAN (Amman) — The Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Qabas revealed on April 18, 2019, the conspiracy to destabilize Jordan in the run-up to the publication of President Trump’s “deal of the century.” Less than two weeks later, King Abdullah started to take action to flush the conspirators out of the royal palace and the Jordanian Mukhabarat (secret service). On May 1, 2019, the Jordanian news agency Petra reported that King Abdullah ordered the retirement of General Adnan al-Jundi, director of the Jordanian security Center for Public Affairs service. The king appointed General Ahmad Husni Hassan in his place. (Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, May 7, 2019)
ARAB MKS WALK OUT ON ANTHEM DURING KNESSET SWEARING-IN CEREMONY (Jerusalem) — All MKs from the Arab Hadash-Ta’al and Ra’am-Balad parties exited the hall during the national anthem, “Hatikva” (The Hope), at the end of the swearing-in ceremony for the 21st Knesset. Separately, three of the 120 people elected to serve in the Knesset — Labor’s Shelly Yachimovich and Hadash-Ta’al’s Aida Touma-Sliman and Yousef Jabareen — were absent from the ceremony. They will still need to take their oaths of office before officially being considered MKs. (Times of Israel, Apr. 30, 2019)
