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WEDNESDAY’S “NEWS IN REVIEW” ROUND-UP

Contents: | Weekly QuotesShort Takes   |  On Topic Links

 

On Topic Links

 

WEEKLY QUOTES

 

MEDIA-OCRITY OF THE WEEK:

 

“Omar Mateen shattered the tenuous, hard-fought sense of personal safety that many gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Americans have begun to feel as the movement for equality has made significant gains in recent years. His bullets and the blood he left behind that early morning were a reminder that in many corners of the country, gay and transgender people are still regarded as sinners and second-class citizens who should be scorned. While the precise motivation for the rampage remains unclear …(The New York Times Editorial Board, June 15, Emphasis Added).

 

“The shooting in Orlando was an act of Islamic extremist terrorism. In this particular case it was focused on a gay club. The tape that we have now heard makes his motive clear. His motive was to act on behalf of the Islamic State,” former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani said. “So you add this to what is now a growing list of attacks in less than a year — San Bernardino was in December, and then we had Brussels and then Paris and now Orlando. We are getting more terrorist attacks than we’ve ever had before, and I attribute that to something that I predicted: I said that the more America withdraws, the more weakness America shows, the more they will attack,” he warned. The “weakness” shown by the administration, said the former New York Mayor, is illustrated by the “withdrawal from Iraq, the withdrawal from Afghanistan, the withdrawal of police officers from mosques, the failure of the president to use the term ‘Islamic extremist terrorism,’ these are all very bad signals to give to terrorists. The more they see weakness, the more they attack.” (ISRAPUNDIT, June 26, 2016)

 

“Only a week ago, a number of rabbis in Israel announced, and made a clear announcement, demanding that their government poison the water to kill the Palestinians,” Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas claimed from the EU Parliament podium. “Isn’t that clear incitement to commit mass killings against the Palestinian people?” He gave no source for the claim. Yet Haaretz reports that Abbas received a standing ovation from the EU lawmakers after his speech. Quotes from an alleged “Rabbi Mlmad” on the website of the Palestinian Authority foreign ministry supposedly calling for Jews to poison wells, and citing a ‘Council of Rabbis in the West Bank’ were similarly found by international news outlets such as Reuters and others to be impossible to trace. Abbas retracted the lie he told to the EU on Thursday. (The Jewish Press, June 25, 2016)

 

“I’ve seen the comments. I can’t confirm the veracity of that” said State Department Spokesperson John Kirby when asked to comment on PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ accusation that Israeli rabbis were demanding that their government poison Palestinian water supplies in order to commit genocide against the Palestinians. “I – again, I’ve seen nothing to indicate the truth of that. But we have long said what we want is for both sides to ratchet down not just the violence but the rhetoric, which can inflame some of the violence. And we just don’t find that sort of rhetoric helpful.” (The Jewish Press, June 24, 2016)

 

“We began with President Abbas’ morning-after-Brexit blood libel speech before a perfidious European Parliament. His libel and the applause it received still reverberate despite Abbas’ subsequent retraction. For this episode highlights the lack of moral accountability infecting EU elites ensconced in the ivory towers of Brussels’ bureaucratic headquarters. We can only hope and pray that European captains of industry, politicians, media and NGOs take the UK vote as a wake-up call for them all. For if they fail to actually address the economic and social crises with real solutions, it won’t only be the Jews of Europe who will be searching for the nearest exit.” — Rabbi Abraham Cooper and Harold Brackman on PA President Mahmoud Abbas’ latest accusation that Israel was committing genocide against the Palestinians and that Israeli rabbis were poisoning Palestinian water supplies. Harkening back to a medieval anti-Semitic libel, where Jews were held responsible for the “Black Plague” that ravaged Europe, Abbas’ speech to the European Parliament last week received a standing ovation. (The Jerusalem Post, June 27, 2016)

 

“An anti-establishment wind is blowing through the creaky house of global government. The peoples of the free world have seen how the choking mass of multilateral institutions failed them economically and politically. Global government is an expensive and totalitarian proposition that silences free speech and funnels rapists from Syria, Sudan and Afghanistan to the streets of European cities and American towns. It’s a boon for professional consultants, certain financial insiders and politicians who can hop around unelected offices and retire with vast unearned pensions while their constituents are told to work another decade. But global government is misery and malaise for everyone else. The campaign to stay in the EU relied on fear and alarmism, on claims of bigotry and disdain for the working class voters who fought and won the right to decide their own destiny. But the campaign for independence asked Britons to believe in their own potential when unchained from the Eurocratic bureaucracy. And now Brexit will become a model for liberation campaigns across Europe. And it will not end there.” — Daniel Greenfield, a Shillman Journalism Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center, comments on the recent referendum in the United Kingdom, which resulted in the majority of UK voters supporting a withdrawal from the EU.  (ISRAPUNDIT, June 26, 2016)

 

“A great earthquake has shaken Europe and the UK has quit the European Union,” wrote Political Deputy of Iran’s Presidential Office Hamid Abutalebi. “The stars of Europe’s union are falling down. Economic changes in south European countries, terrorism and the refugee crisis is showed that the union is about to fall. But the domino was ticked off with Brexit.” On Twitter, Abutalebi said the UK’s decision will trigger a domino effect leading to the EU’s downfall and the Iranian government must be ready to capitalize on it. (Algemeiner, June 24, 2016)

 

“As long as Iran has money, we have money… Just as we receive the rockets that we use to threaten Israel, we are receiving our money. No law will prevent us from receiving it…” In a Friday speech marking 40 days after the death of senior Hezbollah commander Mustafah Bedreddine in Damascus, the leader of Hezbollah Hassan Nasrallah announced that his group is “open about the fact that Hezbollah’s budget, its income, its expenses, everything it eats and drinks, its weapons and rockets, come from the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Nasrallah’s speech now indicates that US money transferred to Iran’s banks and the sanctions relief have empowered both the Iranian government and Hezbollah, this after a few years in which the Lebanese terror organizations suffered the worst string of casualties in its proxy war in Syria alongside the IRGC. (The Jewish Press, June 26, 2016)

 

“Citizens around the world listening to today’s debate have reason to be confused. For never before in the history of the United Nations have the pronouncements made here been more disconnected to reality. In here, we have been told by various Middle Eastern nations that Israel is the greatest violator of the rights of health, women, equality and the environment,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch. “In reality, Israel, with all its flaws, is the only country in the Middle East whose hospitals treat Palestinians and Israelis; Jews, Muslims and Christians; the only country in the Middle East that respects women’s rights; the only country in the Middle East that respects the rights of minorities; and the only country in the Middle East that is a world leader in developing vital technologies such as desalination, water treatment, and drip irrigation. In here, Syria, Libya, Yemen are some of the countries that lecture on human rights. In reality, many of these are not even countries any more. Mr. President, Let us be clear. Israel should be subject to criticism like any other country. But Israel is not treated like other countries. No other country has an entire agenda item devoted to it—not even Syria, not even North Korea.” — Hillel Neuer spoke in front of the Human Right’s Council on its 10th anniversary, noting how the free world has protested the vilification of Israel and how not a single Western democracy showed up to the debate. (UN Watch, June 27, 2016)

 

Contents

 

SHORT TAKES

 

TURKISH PM: ISLAMIC STATE BEHIND ISTANBUL AIRPORT ATTACK THAT KILLED 41 (Istanbul) — Turkish investigators pored over video footage and witness statements on Wednesday after three suspected Islamic State suicide bombers opened fire and blew themselves up in Istanbul's main airport, killing 41 people and wounding 239. The attack on Europe's third-busiest airport was the deadliest in a series of suicide bombings this year in Turkey, part of the US-led coalition against Islamic State and struggling to contain spillover from neighboring Syria's war. President Tayyip Erdogan said the attack should serve as a turning point in the global fight against terrorism, which he said had "no regard for faith or values". Five Saudis and two Iraqis were among the dead, a Turkish official said. Citizens from China, Jordan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, Iran and Ukraine were also among the 13 foreigners killed. One attacker opened fire in the departures hall with an automatic rifle, sending passengers diving for cover and trying to flee, before all three blew themselves up in or around the arrivals hall a floor below, witnesses and officials said. Video footage showed one of the attackers inside the terminal building being shot, apparently by a police officer, before falling to the ground as people scattered. The attacker then blew himself up around 20 seconds later. (The Jerusalem Post, June 29, 2016)

 

WHY IS THE GREEN PARTY TARGETING ISRAEL? (Ottawa) — Of 13 resolutions to be debated at the Green Party of Canada's convention in August, only two deal with foreign policy – and both target Israel. The first would make it Green Party policy to blacklist the Jewish National Fund – one of the world's most successful environmental charities – by revoking their charitable status. The second would endorse the discriminatory, fringe Boycott, Divestments, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. JNF recommends sending an email to Elizabeth May and the Green Party to ask them to reject these anti-Israel policies here.  (CIJA, June, 2016)

 

HAMAS LEADERSHIP PANICKED OVER DEFECTIONS TO ISRAEL (Gaza) — A number of recent defections has Hamas in a panic. Because there is no apparent link among the defectors – all of whom have absconded from Gaza to Israel and are sharing key information with Israeli security forces – it is proving difficult for the terrorist organization’s leadership to decipher a pattern and put a stop to the phenomenon. As was reported last week, a senior member of Hamas – Bassam Mahmoud Baraka – told his family he was going on an errand, and then turned up at the Gaza-Israel border, with his laptop in tow, and surrendered himself to the IDF. Baraka, it was reported, is privy to significant details about how Hamas builds its terror tunnels. (Algemeiner, June 22, 2016)

 

HAMAS MURDER SQUAD WHICH KILLED PARENTS IN FRONT OF KIDS SENTENCED (Samaria) — An IDF military tribunal in Samaria sentenced to life in prison on Wednesday four Palestinian members of the Hamas terrorist organization who murdered an Israeli rabbi and his wife in October 2015. A fifth member was found guilty but has not yet been sentenced, and two others await trial. Yahia Abdullah Hajj-hamad, Samir Qusah, Karem Razik, and Amjad Aliwi, are four of the five terrorists responsible for the ambush and murder of a husband and wife, Rabbi Eitam and Naama Henkin, who were shot while driving their car near the Itamar community in Samaria as their four kids sat in the back seat. Eitam, son of the prominent American-born educators Rabbi Yehuda and Chana Henkin, was a US citizen. (Breaking Israel News, June 23, 2016)

 

JEWISH PAC TO PRESS REPUBLICANS TO CALL WEST BANK ‘JEWISH HOMELAND’ (Washington) — A Jewish Political Action Committee is seeking to get the Republican Party platform to recognize the West Bank as an “indigenous” part of the Jewish homeland. “The Land of Israel is the indigenous homeland of the Jewish people by right and by law and we oppose any measures to force, coerce or otherwise impose a security ‘solution’ or artificial borders on the Jewish state,” says the language proposed by Iron Dome Alliance. “We recognize an undivided Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and Judea and Samaria as integral parts of the indigenous Jewish homeland.” (ISRAPUNDIT, June 23, 2016)

 

THE F-35 WILL CREATE REAL DETERRENCE, DEFENSE MINISTER SAYS (Fort Worth, Texas) — At rollout ceremony for Israel's first cutting edge F-35 stealth fighter, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman says these jets will “safeguard Israel's aerial superiority" IAF chief of staff says the F-35 flight simulator was like "holding the future in my hands.” “The State of Israel is proud to be the first in our region to receive and operate the plane,” Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman remarked as Israel's first F-35 fighter jets were unveiled at a festive rollout ceremony at the Lockheed Martin plant in Fort Worth, Texas on Wednesday. Lieberman described the jet as “the most advanced in the world, and is the choice of all our military leadership at its highest level, adding that “it is clear and obvious to us and to the entire region that the new F-35, the Adir, will create real deterrence and enhance our capabilities for a long time.” (Israel Hayom, June 23, 2016)

 

SENATOR QUESTIONS PALESTINIAN AID DIRECTED TO STIPENDS FOR CONVICTED MURDERERS (Washington) — US Sen. Dan Coats (R-Indiana) called for ending US aid to the Palestinian Authority this week until the entity ceases its program of providing stipends to convicted murderers. Delivering remarks from the Senate floor, the senator said he is increasingly concerned that US taxpayer dollars go to funding programs that incite Palestinian violence against Israeli civilians. For decades, the PA has maintained a program that provides regular monthly stipends to men and women convicted by Israel of murder or terrorism. Members of Congress have long repudiated the program, but it has never been enough for the legislature to suspend its annual aid – the PA’s lifeblood. The funding program was moved in 2014 from PA to Palestine Liberation Organization control, ostensibly to avoid controversy over Congress’s direct funding of the PA. “This system of payments has been formalized and expanded by President [Mahmoud] Abbas in presidential directives,” Coats said. “Palestinian terrorist prisoners are regarded by the PA as patriotic ‘fighters’ and as employees of the government of the Palestinian Authority. (The Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2016)

 

WORK TO BEGIN ON $120M. LEVIATHAN GAS ENGINEERING PLAN (Jerusalem) — Delek Drilling and Avner Oil and Gas Exploration announced Wednesday that the consortium developing the Leviathan off-shore natural gas reservoir had approved the agreement for an eventual detailed engineering plan. Lauded as a “significant milestone,” the $120 million plan will lay out the detailed structural design for the production platform as well as its operation. The platform, which will include a 90-meter-deep underwater support platform, will treat and deliver natural gas from the offshore reservoir. From the platform, its two pipelines will connect to on-land sites for domestic natural gas use, one near Emek Hefer and the other near Yokneam. (The Jerusalem Post, June 22, 2016)

 

SOUTH AFRICA ORGANIZATION PULLS OUT OF HEBREW U CONFERENCE FOLLOWING BDS PRESSURE (Jerusalem) — Following pressure from the BDS movement The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR) in South Africa withdrew its participation from a conference at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. The center was scheduled to participate in the Fifth Global Conference of the International Network of Genocide Scholars (INoGS), taking place this year in Jerusalem. According to BDS South Africa, it reached out the CSVR urging them to reconsider their participation in the conference. (The Jerusalem Post, June 26, 2016)

 

US MUSLIM ADVOCACY NON-PROFIT (CAIR) TO STAND TRIAL FOR MASSIVE FRAUD (Washington) — The Council on American Islamic Relations, a US-based organization with a history of ties to radical Islamic extremism, is now charged with fraud and cover up perpetrated against hundreds of victims. CAIR will stand trial on charges of fraud and cover up for alleged crimes perpetrated against hundreds of victims, according to a new ruling by the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia. The case against CAIR National was originally dismissed by a federal judge but unanimously overturned by the appellate court. (United With Israel, June 23, 2016)

 

ISRAELI SPOKESMAN IN NEW DELHI: INDIAN WATER MINISTER’S UPCOMING TRIP TO JERUSALEM SIGNIFIES ADDITIONAL BOOST TO BILATERAL AGRICULTURAL TIES (INTERVIEW) (New Delhi) — The upcoming visit of India’s water minister to Israel is a “very important step forward” in furthering bilateral ties, a spokesman from the Israeli Embassy in New Delhi told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. Ohad Horsandi said that one of the main purposes of Water Resources Minister Uma Bharti’s trip to Israel is “to gain first-hand knowledge of Israeli technologies and expertise in the water sector — including desalination and urban water systems — and how these techniques can be implemented back in India.” According to Horsandi, one of the most significant aspects of the relationship between the two countries is the optimization of Israeli agricultural expertise and technology — and water conservation. As India grapples with the latter, he said, “This year, water has been at the center of our attention.” And Israel, he said, is a world leader in making agriculture flourish in an arid environment with limited water. (Algemeiner, June 22, 2016)

 

WHY DOES THE ADL CONTINUE TO HINDER ANTI-BDS EFFORTS? (New York) — The anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions (“BDS”) campaign is hateful, antisemitic economic activity that is designed to delegitimize, economically destroy and culturally and academically isolate the Jewish state. Pro-Israel groups need to work together to combat the BDS onslaught, using every tool at our disposal — including legal action and anti-BDS laws — to curtail discriminatory BDS economic activity. Our organization, the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), frequently collaborates with other pro-Israel organizations. It thus deeply saddens us that a major organization, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — with a $58 million annual budget — whose mission includes combating antisemitism, has repeatedly harmed anti-BDS efforts by publicly opposing and lobbying against needed federal and state anti-BDS laws. (Algemeiner, June 28, 2016)

 

SHURAT HADIN TO PM: HAVE TURKEY EXPEL HAMAS COMPLETELY (Jerusalem) — If the government does not get Hamas expelled from Turkey as part of the impending deal, Shurat Hadin will try to block it by going to the High Court of Justice, it threatened on Monday. The NGO sent a threatening letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the cabinet as part of a last-ditch effort to have the expulsion of Hamas included in the deal. From Monday’s news conferences and the information provided to the public, Turkey agreed that Hamas would not be allowed to plan terrorist operations from its territory, but did not agree to expel its political wing. (ISRAPUNDIT, June 28, 2016)

 

GOP BENGHAZI REPORT INCLUDES 15 QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED BY PRESIDENT OBAMA (Washington) — When did President Obama first hear about the attack on the U.S. mission in Benghazi, and when did he learn it was a terrorist attack? Did he issue any orders to his Defense Secretary? Did he know what military assets were available to respond to the attack and was he aware of State Department concerns that a U.S. military rescue might look like an invasion to the Libyans? Appendix C of the Republicans' Benghazi report includes 15 questions for President Obama, which the White House has declined to answer. According to Rep. Trey Gowdy (R-S.C.), the chairman of the House Select Committee on Benghazi, "the President is uniquely situated to answer these questions. In fact, he is the only person who can answer some of these questions." (CNSNews.com, June 28, 2016)

 

ANALYSIS: FOR DETERRENCE AND THE SECOND NUCLEAR STRIKE (Jerusalem) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, obsessed with his Holocaust fears and motivated by his political agenda, could not resist Tuesday hinting what has been so clear to the rest of the world for two decades – the fact that the Israeli submarine fleet was mainly established for the purpose of deterrence and, according to foreign reports, to grant Israel the capability of a second nuclear strike. On Tuesday, the Israel Navy’s fifth submarine anchored at Haifa Port after a 3,000 kilometer voyage from the German shipyards in Kiel where it was built. “Above all, our submarines serve to deter enemies that aspire to destroy us,” Netanyahu stated at the ceremony. (The Jerusalem Post, Jan. 13, 2016)

 

 

 

Contents

On Topic Links

 

More than 22 million click on Netanyahu social media response to Orlando massacre: Herb Keinin: Jerusalem Post, June 24, 2016—A “masterclass in responding to tragedy” is how the Financial Times characterized Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's video statement on the Orland tragedy that went viral and was viewed by more than 22 million people.

Israel Memorializes 10 Years Since 2006 Lebanon War: Breaking Israel News, June 27, 2016— Academics and students studying at Israel’s Bar-Ilan University commemorated the tenth anniversary since the Second Lebanon War, also known as the Israel-Hezbollah War. It was during this war that IDF soldier Gilad Shalit was taken captive, and held by Hamas in Gaza until his release in 2011.

Southern Baptist Convention Passes Resolution in Support of Israel: Breaking Israel News, June 21, 2016—The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) adopted a resolution reaffirming the church’s support and prayers for Israel as well as condemning the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.

Bill Gates Jumps into the Start-Up Nation, Makes First Ever Israeli Investment: Breaking Israel News— Microsoft Founder Bill Gates has made his first ever investment in the start-up nation. Gates has invested an undisclosed amount through the Intellectual Ventures company in the MEDX XELERATOR incubator, a medical device developer.

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