“One of the things I think is fundamentally important is that the social-media platforms adopt the IHRA definition of anti-Semitism. … We will continue to push them to do that publicly or privately because I think it’s incredibly important. … It’s one of my greatest privileges in this job to be able to work with leaders around the world who are so committed to fighting for the Jewish people because it’s the right thing to do,” –– U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr said in an interview. (JNS, Oct. 19, 2020)
“After the UAE’s and Bahrain’s peace [agreement] with Israel, it seems that, from the perspective of interests, Lebanon should most logically be [the next] country to advance towards a peace agreement [with Israel]. The only thing that prevents this is the takeover of Lebanon’s sovereign decision-making by an ideological group [i.e., Hizbullah] that cannot exist unless the hostility between the two countries continues, and which, without any justification, has undertaken the task of liberating Jerusalem and ending Israel’s [existence]! What is the problem between Lebanon and Israel? No Lebanese politician can provide a clear and practical answer to this [question], except by sowing fear about the naturalization [of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon,” – writes Lebanese Journalist Nadim Koteich on the English-language website of the Saudi Al-Arabiya network. (MEMRI, Oct. 12, 2020)
“The very fact that negotiations are being held between Israel and Lebanon has positive implications that go beyond the need to resolve the conflict. Firstly, for the first time since the 90s, direct negotiations are getting underway between the two warring nations. Secondly, resolving this dispute will allow the two countries to search for additional pockets of gas in the area. Thirdly, the negotiations are a clear loss for the Lebanon-based Hezbollah terror group, which has so far prevented negotiations. Not only because it opposes any direct dialogue with Israel, but also because its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, long ago realized that if he wanted to launch a military campaign against Israel, he would have to argue that it was in defense of Lebanese national interests.” – writes political analyst Giora Eiland. (YNet, Oct. 10, 2020)
“If I can help bring a UAE company to invest in helping us build a Silicon Valley to [Arab] East Jerusalem, that’s a tangible benefit [to the Palestinians] of the UAE-Israel peace deal. … We also have 70 languages in Jerusalem, we have immigrants from 80 countries. We are not dissimilar from Dubai, very multi-cultural, very diverse.”” — Fleur Hassan-Nahoum Deputy Mayor, Foreign Relations, Jerusalem Municipality and co-founder of the UAE Israel Business Council told Gulf Newsin Dubai. (Gulf News, Oct. 11, 2020)
“Today the New York Times ran an oped about the Million Man March and Louis Farrakhan. If you read the oped and knew nothing about Farrakhan, you would think he was a gentleman. When The Times ran the infamous anti-Semitic cartoon, the issue was not that editors were hardened anti-Semites. It’s that they didn’t even *notice* it. This shouldn’t surprise. It’s part of a worldview in which Jew hate does not count,” – tweeted former NYTimes columnist and editor Bari Weiss. (United With Israel, Oct. 19, 2020)
“It’s funny that some of the people who complain the most about intelligence being politicized are the ones politicizing the intelligence. Unfortunately, it is [Rep.] Adam Schiff who said the intelligence community believes the Hunter Biden laptop and emails on it are part of a Russian disinformation campaign. Let me be clear: the intelligence community doesn’t believe that because there is no intelligence that supports that. And we have shared no intelligence with Adam Schiff, or any member of Congress,” – Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe told Fox News, speaking in reference to the discovery of a laptop purported to belong to Joe Biden’s son Hunter. (Newsmax, Oct. 20, 2020)
GANTZ: ISRAELI COVID-19 VACCINE TO BEGIN HUMAN TRIALS BY MONTH’S END (Jerusalem) –Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced that Israel’s Institute for Biological Research would begin testing a coronavirus vaccine on humans at the end of the month. Following a visit to the secretive national laboratory and a meeting with its head, Shmuel Shapira, Gantz revealed the name of the vaccine: Brilife, a portmanteau of the Hebrew word for health — bri’ut — and life. (Times of Israel, Oct. 20, 2020)
SENIOR PLO OFFICIAL EREKAT TAKEN TO ISRAELI HOSPITAL AFTER COVID-19 CONDITION WORSENS (Jerusalem) — Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat was taken to a hospital in Israel on Sunday for treatment of a worsening case of COVID-19. Witnesses said Erekat, 65, was on a stretcher when he was placed inside an Israeli ambulance outside his home in Jericho in the West Bank. Erekat, who is also secretary-general of the PLO, disclosed on Oct. 8 that he had contracted coronavirus. There is heightened concern over Erekat’s vulnerability to the illness because he underwent a lung transplant in the United States in 2017. (Algemeiner, Oct. 18, 2020)
POLL FINDS GROWING SUPPORT FOR TIES WITH ISRAEL IN SOME ARAB COUNTRIES (UAE) — The poll, conducted by US-based Zogby Analytics, has found that in four out of five Arab states and entities there is majority support for normalization with Israel and that the driving force behind this shift is a desire to stabilize the political and military situation in the Middle East. The poll included 3,600 Arab respondents living in Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Jordan, Egypt, and the Palestinian Authority. Sky News Arabia was the only media outlet reporting on the results of the survey. (Israel Hayom, Oct. 12, 2020)
ISRAEL, UAE AND AMERICA ANNOUNCE $3 BILLION REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT FUND (Jerusalem) — A senior delegation of United Arab Emirate officials visited Israel and signed various agreements that included the establishment of the Abraham Fund, which seeks to raise $3 billion in private investments for regional development. (JNS, Oct. 20, 2020)
FROM FRIDAY: IRAQ AND SAUDI-BOUND PLANES IN ISRAELI AIRSPACE (Jerusalem) — Israeli airspace will now be used by multitude of Arab countries, including Iraq, Qatar and Saudi Arabia, as part of a new aviation agreement between Israel and Jordan. Jerusalem and Amman signed a deal to open more flight paths over both countries and shorten flight times between Gulf states, the Far East and Asia and Europe and North America. (Ynet, Oct. 8, 2020)
SUDAN TO NORMALIZE TIES WITH ISRAEL AFTER US ULTIMATUM – REPORT (Khartoum) — Sudan has reportedly decided to move forward with normalizing ties with Israel, after the US reportedly issued a 24-hour ultimatum to the country demanding that it recognize Israel in order to be removed from a US blacklist. (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 15, 2020)
IDF SPECIAL FORCES CARRY OUT COVERT OPERATION, DESTROY TWO SYRIAN OUTPOSTS (Damascus) — Israeli special forces entered the demilitarized zone on the Syrian border last week and destroyed two enemy outposts. The covert operation was carried out following repeated Syrian violations of the disengagement agreement. The 1974 agreement between Israel and Syria stipulates that the border buffer zone be occupied only by the United Nations Disengagement Observer Force (UNDOF). (Jerusalem Post, Oct. 15, 2020)
IDF SAYS IT UNCOVERED NEW TERROR TUNNEL FROM GAZA STRIP INTO SOUTHERN ISRAEL (Jerusalem) — The Israel Defense Forces announced that it has uncovered a terror tunnel from the Gaza Strip that ran dozens of meters into southern Israel. The IDF, which said it would destroy the tunnel, did not indicate the terror group involved. Nevertheless, Jerusalem holds Hamas, the de facto ruler in Gaza, responsible for terrorism from the coastal enclave. (JNS, Oct. 21, 2020)
IRANIAN EXILES EXPOSE TOP-SECRET NUCLEAR SITE NEAR TEHRAN (Tehran) — An exiled Iranian resistance group revealed details of a previously unknown Iranian nuclear development site near Tehran. Researchers for the group have been tracking Iran’s illegal nuclear program for years, and they located the new top-secret site located in an area called Sorkheh-Hessar. The region is operated by Iran’s Organization of Defensive Innovation and Research (SPND). The National Council of Resistance of Iran says the new site provides more proof that the Islamic Republic is failing to abide by the 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action – the international deal spearheaded by the Obama administration that was supposed to stop Iran’s quest for nuclear weapons. (United With Israel, Oct. 18, 2020)
DOJ TO ANNOUNCE HISTORIC ANTITRUST SUIT AGAINST GOOGLE (Washington) — The lawsuit will allege that Google uses a web of business agreements that maintain the search engine’s prominence to the detriment of competitors. Additionally, Google uses funds gleaned from advertisements to pay other carriers and cell phone makers to maintain Google as their default browser, cementing its position as the destination for 80 percent of all internet search queries in the U.S. (National Review, Oct. 20, 2020)
TRUMP CAMPAIGN CALLS ON DEBATE COMMISSION TO INCLUDE FOREIGN POLICY AS TOPIC (Washington) — President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign called on the Commission on Presidential Debates to include foreign policy as one of the six topics that will be included on Thursday’s debate with Democratic nominee Joe Biden. The commission said that the topics of the debate include the CCP virus pandemic, race, national security, climate change, American families, and leadership. (Epoch Times, Oct. 19, 2020)
TRUMP URGES AG BARR TO ‘ACT FAST’ TO PROBE HUNTER BIDEN BUSINESS DEALINGS (Washington) — President Donald Trump pressured Attorney General William Barr to investigate the son of Democratic nominee Joe Biden, saying the information should be released before Nov. 3. Emails that allegedly belonged to Hunter Biden, sourced from a laptop that was purportedly left at a repair shop in Delaware, revealed that he may have arranged a meeting between his father, who was the vice-president at the time, and a Ukrainian gas executive. Hunter Biden was sitting on the board of the same energy firm, Burisma Holdings. The Biden campaign and Hunter Biden’s lawyer have both denied the claims that the elder Biden met with the executive. (Epoch Times, Oct. 20, 2020)
SOCIAL MEDIA CENSORED TRUMP 65 TIMES, BIDEN TWEETS FREELY, STUDY SAYS (California) — Twitter and Facebook have censored the accounts of President Donald Trump and his campaign 65 times, while censoring Democratic candidate Joe Biden and his campaign zero times, according to a new study by the Media Research Center (MRC). MRC’s Techwatch department analyzed social media posts from Trump, Biden, and their campaigns from between May 2018 to October 16, 2020. According to the study, Twitter has been “far and away the biggest offender,” with 98 percent of all the instances of censorship. (WIN, Oct. 20, 2020)
TWITTER REMOVES POST BY WHITE HOUSE COVID ADVISER REGARDING MASKS (LA) –A Twitter spokesperson for the company confirmed that the post was removed. According to the spokesperson, the Twitter policy that Atlas allegedly violated prohibits sharing false or misleading content related to the pandemic. “Masks work? NO: LA, Miami, Hawaii, Alabama, France, Phlippnes, UK, Spain, Israel. WHO:’widesprd use not supported’ + many harms; Heneghan/Oxf CEBM:’despite decades, considerble uncertainty re value’; CDC rvw May:’no sig red’n in inflnz transm’n’; learn why,” Atlas wrote in the now-deleted post on Oct. 17. It had information about the effectiveness of masks amid the CCP (Chinese Communist Party) virus pandemic. (Epoch Times, Oct. 18, 2020)
POLL FINDS AMERICAN JEWS SET TO VOTE OVERWHELMINGLY FOR JOE BIDEN (Washington) — Jewish voters are set to vote 75 per cent to 22 per cent for Joe Biden, according to a poll by the American Jewish Committee (AJC). The poll released Monday shows the Democratic U.S. presidential nominee expanding his support among Jewish voters from a 67-30 split in a poll last month and it includes other signs that U.S. President Donald Trump is faring poorly among Jewish voters. Trump’s perceived record on bigotry may be the animating factor in his poor performance: Asked which candidate in the Nov. 3 presidential election would better handle antisemitism, respondents produced identical results, with Biden scoring 75 per cent and Trump 22 per cent. (Ottawa Jewish Bulletin, Oct. 19, 2020)
DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE SUES YALE FOR RACIAL DISCRIMINATION IN ADMISSIONS (Washington) — The Department of Justice (DOJ) has officially sued Yale University, claiming that the school violates Title VI of the Civil Rights Act by discriminating against white and Asian applicants in its undergraduate admissions, according to a DOJ press release. This lawsuit follows an August 13 letter sent from Eric S. Dreiband, Assistant Attorney General of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, to an attorney representing Yale, in which he outlines the findings of the Department’s investigation into Yale College’s current and past admissions policies. (National Association of Scholars, Oct. 9, 2020)
FRANCE TO EXPEL 231 SUSPECTED EXTREMISTS AFTER ATTACK ON TEACHER – SOURCE (Paris) — France is preparing to expel 231 foreigners on a government watch list for suspected extremist religious beliefs, a police union source said two days after a Russian-born Islamist beheaded a teacher for speaking about Muhammed. France defines extremists as “people who, engaged in a process of radicalisation, are likely to want to go abroad to join terrorist groups or take part in terrorist activities”. (Reuters, Oct. 18, 2020)
WATCH: Peace Agreement ‘Slap in the Face’ to Iran, Says Leading Bahraini Journalist: United With Israel, Oct. 19, 2020 — Ahdeya Al Sayed, head of the Bahrain Journalists Association, is very optimistic about the new Bahrain-Israel agreement, calling it “a dream come true” in an interview with i24 News.
Is Trump a Better Choice for Jewish Voters than Biden?: Andrew Stein, The Hill, Oct. 13, 2020 — The Democratic Party is no longer a home for those concerned about anti-Semitism, Israel and many other issues important to America’s Jews — yet, most Jewish voters continue to pull the Democratic lever in elections.
Biden Represents the Broad Interests of American Jews | Opinion: Alan L. Cohen, Sun Sentinel, June 16, 2020 — Jeremiah, at the time of the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem by the Babylonians, declared to those exiles in Babylonia: “seek the welfare of the city to which I have exiled you and pray to Adonai on its behalf, for in its prosperity you shall prosper” (Jeremiah 29:7) These words have guided the American Jewish community and are the basis for writing prayers for country or monarch.
The Unapologetic Bias of the American Left: Victor Davis Hanson, American Greatness, Oct. 15, 2020 — Some yearn for the ancient monopolistic days of network news, the adolescent years of public radio and TV, and the still reputable New York Times—when once upon a time the Left at least tried to mask their progressivism in sober and judicious liberal façades.
