On Tuesday, December 11th, PLO Executive Committee
member, Hanan Ashwari called on those foreign ministers gathered on Monday
December 10 at the European Union summit in Brussels to "reconsider"
it's political and trade relations with Israel over what it called
"provocations."
The EU's meeting in Brussels was convened to debate
Israel’s approval last week of the thousands of housing units to be built in
East Jerusalem and the West Bank. As had been predicted, the meeting resulted
in a severe condemnation of Israel’s decisions. Following discussions on the
matter, the EU issued a statement saying that it was, "deeply dismayed by
and strongly opposes Israeli plans to expand settlements in the West Bank, including in east Jerusalem, and in particular plans to develop
the E1 area,” and said all of its agreements with Israel only applied to the
pre-1967 lines. Diplomatic sources have indicated that they fear that the
language in the council statement as it pertained to recognition of Israel only
within the context of the 1967 borders, was placed there to lay the groundwork
for labeling and possibly banning settlement products in the future.
A former Nazi concentration camp guard who has lived for the last 50 years in western Pennsylvania, is now engaged in legal wrangling against deportation proceedings initiated by the government. According to published reports, on Thursday, December 6th, 88-year old Anton Geiser, took his fight against deportation to the nation’s highest immigration court, proffering the argument that he shouldn’t be punished because he served in Hitler’s army against his will. Geiser, of Sharon, Pennsylvania, who has acknowledged his service in the Nazi SS as a guard in the Sachsenhausen and Buchenwald concentration camps, had his appeal in the case heard by the Board of Immigration Appeals in Falls Church, Virginia.
Back in 2010, a federal judge ordered him deported on grounds of engaging in crimes against humanity. Geiser's attorney, Adrian Roe, has argued that the court should have considered that Geiser was forced to join the SS against his will as a 17-year-old. Lawyers representing the government have argued to uphold the deportation decision, saying that federal law places former Nazis in a harsher immigration category, and no exceptions should be made because of compulsory service. Mr. Roe has acknowledged that Congress did indeed place Nazis in a separate, harsher category when it comes to determining their rights to immigrate to and live in the United States but he said that not everyone conscripted into the Hitler war machine is truly a Nazi. “The label Nazi itself sort of goes to belief,” Roe said. “If they were a true believer, we don’t want them here. If they were a forced participant, are they really a Nazi?”
In
an apparent attempt to revivify medieval anti-Semitic blood libels. the Swedish
culture and news magazine, “Filter”
ran a 17-page article in its most recent issue, in which it vindicated the
author of a 2009 polemical piece that charged Israel with “stealing human
organs” from young Palestinian men, and then killing them.
Originally appearing in another Swedish magazine called “Aftonbladet” , author Donald Boström leveled accusations at the Israel Defense Forces for purportedly
absconding with human organs belonging to
69 Palestinian men in the early 1990s. Asserting that the IDF conducted “macabre
operations” in the West Bank, Boström told his readers that these unnamed
Palestinian men in the “occupied territories” were “being captured and tortured, subjected to involuntary autopsies, and
then robbed of their organs before being
killed.”
Roundly
categorized as “yellow journalism” by reputable media outlets for its
unsubstantiated claims and for promulgating mendacious conspiracy theories, the
article also sparked a diplomatic crisis.
When it first appeared in 2009, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu
demanded that the Swedish government take the newspaper to task for its
propaganda appeal and Israel’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Yigal Palmor called
it “a mark of disgrace” for the Swedish
press.
The thrust
of Boström's indictment against Israel as an international “human organ peddler” is predicated on an
amorphous connection with events that took place years apart. He points to the 2009 organ trafficking ring in
New Jersey that was masterminded by a Brooklyn rabbi named Levy Izchak
Rosenbaum. According to authorities, the
operation brokered the sale of black-market kidneys (buying them from Israel and
selling them to U.S. patients). Bostrom
then links this “supply and demand” theory to Israel’s low organ donations rates in
the early 1990s. Moreover, speaking of interviews he conducted with Palestinian
families and UN employees while in Israel in the 1990s, Boström suggests that
the International Court of Justice launch an investigation into the Israeli army
for the “theft of human organs and murder” based on the claims of such that
these people allegedly made to him.
Thousands gather for 30th annual Yeshiva Bet El dinner
BY: FERN SIDMAN
A palpable electricity filled the air on Sunday evening, December 2nd, as
over 2000 people gathered for the annual gala dinner supporting the town of Bet
El, a vibrant and growing Jewish community nestled in the hills of the Shromron
in Israel. Held at the illustrious Marriott Marquis Hotel in Times Square and
sponsored by the American Friends of Bet El Yeshiva Center, this year's event
marked their 30th soiree and featured a veritable panoply of distinguished
personalities in the Jewish and pro-Israel communities.
Highlighting the evening's proceedings was guest speaker, Rep. Michele
Bachmann (R) of Minnesota, a former GOP candidate for president in the recent
2012 elections. As a boldly outspoken supporter of Israel and the expansion of
the Jewish settlement movement in Judea and Samaria. Ms. Bachmann told her
audience to thunderous applause, "Israel is G-d's idea. All we're doing is
following Him." Calling the modern state of Israel a "miracle" and the
fulfillment of the prophecies spoken of in the book of Ezekiel in the Bible, Ms. Bachmann heaped copious praise on the Jewish nation saying, "the Jewish
people inspired the world with Jewish faith, Jewish values and Jewish tenacity,
and it is the Jewish people who were privileged to be the keepers of the light
of the Torah."
On
Monday, November 26, far-right member of Hungary's parliament, Marton Gyongyosi,
sent shock waves around the world, when he told the country's legislative body
that a “list of Jews” who he believes pose a “national security risk” should be
compiled.
Gyongyosi,
35, the leader of the Jobbik party, which is the third-largest opposition party
in the Hungarian parliament voiced these sentiments during a parliamentary
debate following a discussion of the recent fighting in Gaza, when the Hamas
terrorist organization launched a week-long war against Israel. According to
published reports, Foreign Ministry State Secretary Zsolt Nemeth said Budapest
favored a peaceful resolution of the Middle East conflict as it would benefit
Jews and Palestinians in Hungary and Israelis of Hungarian
descent.
Harshly
criticizing the foreign ministry for what he perceived to be their support for
Israel and their failure to step up in defense of the aspirations of
Palestinians in Gaza, Gyongyosi proclaimed, "I think such a conflict makes it
timely to tally up people of Jewish ancestry who live here, especially in the
Hungarian parliament and the Hungarian
government,
who, indeed, pose a national security risk to Hungary." He added, "I know how
many people with Hungarian ancestry live in Israel, and how many Israeli Jews
live in Hungary."
The Iranian city of Isfahan was the scene of a gruesome murder on Monday,
November 26th, when a 57-year old Jewish woman identified as Tuba N, was
brutally stabbed to death and her body mutilated by Muslim assailants. The
alleged motivation for the murder stemmed from a protracted property dispute,
according to the family of the murdered woman, who did not release her last
name. Relatives say that Tuba had been consistently harassed for years by her
Muslim neighbors in an attempt to drive the family from their home and
expropriate the property for an adjoining mosque.
According to Menashe Amir, an expert on Iranian Jewry who spoke with the
victim’s family, "The religious radicals even expropriated part of the house and
attached it to the mosque’s courtyard.. The Jewish family appealed to the courts
with the help of a local attorney to seek redress for the conflict, despite the
threats to their lives.”
Following the recent war between Israel and Hamas terrorists in Gaza,
Italian soccer fans unfurled a banner reading "Free Palestine" at a match last
Thursday in Rome when the Italian team "Lazio" played their British rivals
the Tottenham Hotspur. Local media initially blamed Thursday's attack on
hard-core fans or 'ultras' supporting Lazio, who Tottenham had traveled to the
capital to play in the Europa League.
The Tottenham club has a large contingent of Jewish fans and in addition to
taunting the British fans with the provocative banner, witnesses told Italian
media that masked men armed with knives and baseball bats shouted "Jews, Jews"
as they laid siege to a pub where the Tottenham supporters were drinking in a
district popular with tourists in an old quarter of Rome.
Ten people were injured in the attack, which left Ashley Mills, a
25-year-old English fan in serious condition. According to the Rome
hospital where he is being treated, Mills underwent surgery for a severed
artery in his leg on Friday and was being monitored by doctors.
A REVIEW OF "FROM SYRIA TO PALESTINE: MY FIGHT FOR A JEWISH STATE"
BY: JOSEPH ABOUDI
REVIEWED BY: FERN SIDMAN
Any voracious reader can attest to the fact that the literary world is
brimming with riveting memoirs; some poignant; some tragic; some humorous, some
inspirational and some intellectually stimulating. Little did I know when I
began reading Joseph Aboudi's, "From Syria to Palestine: My Fight For A Jewish
State" that this compelling narrative would be a palpable combination of all of
the above.
For those not in the know, Mr. Aboudi is a doyen of Brooklyn's Syrian
Jewish community; a distinguished gentleman who is renowned for his business
acumen; his dedication to abundant charitable pursuits and his love of family,
friends and above all his Syrian heritage. In this stellar effort to put pen to
paper in order to convey his most fascinating and trenchant ride through life,
Mr. Aboudi manages to assume the role of veteran raconteur, as he leaves
his readers thirsting for more in this veritable page turner.
Cogently written in laconic verses, Mr. Aboudi begins his stroll down
memory lane by creating a vibrant scenario of Jewish life in his birthplace of
Aleppo, Syria. Born there in 1928, the author proffers nuanced examples of the
unique culture, cuisine, religious devotion and family life that defined Jewish
life in Syria, the reader is at once transported back in time, as we imbibe the
aromatic flavors and the aesthetic feel of this heralded city that possessed
deep historical and religious roots.
On Thursday evening, November 15th, a audience of several hundred people
sat in rapt attention at Temple Israel on New York City's upper east side, as
they heard the compelling narrative of a most unusual man. Kasim Hafeez, 28, is
a British born Muslim of Pakistani descent who was raised in an environment
where he was taught that "Jews control the world, and Israel is at fault for
just about everything". As many other young Muslims in the United Kingdom, he
embraced the teachings of radical Islam and internalized the visceral hatred for
Israel that is endemic to this philosophy.
Growing up in a home where his father praised Adolf Hitler as a "brilliant
man" whose only shortcoming was that he "didn't kill enough Jews", Mr. Hafeez
was being groomed to be yet another virulent Israel basher, but this life
trajectory was abruptly derailed when he decided to undertake some serious
research on the political history of Israel. Today, the Nottingham-based
university administrator addresses audiences around the globe about the epiphany
of truth that changed his life and is being sponsored by the premier North
American pro-Israel student advocacy organization, StandWithUs.
Prior to the transformative process that made him in to a "proud Zionist",
Mr. Hafeez observes that before the 1988 publication of Salman Rushdie's book
entitled, "Satanic Verses", most mosques in the UK had not as yet undergone the
radicalization process but that changed quite rapidly. "I recall that as a young
book, we didn't want that book on the shelves. We bought copies of it and burned
them," says Mr. Hafeez.
As the war between Hamas terrorist forces in Gaza and the sovereign state
of Israel escalated last week, the tensions of the Middle East conflict exploded
in streets New York City on Thursday evening, November 15th as demonstrators
assembled to express their antipathy towards the Jewish state and to support
Israel's right to self defense.
Chanting, "Netanyahu you will learn, refugees will return" and "Not another
nickel, not another dime, no more money for Israel's crimes", about 600 people
representing a panoply of pro-Hamas organizations including Adalah-NY, Al-Awda
NY, American Muslims for Palestine, and Students for Justice in Palestine
gathered outside the Israeli Consulate on New York's east side in a rancorous
demonstration directed at Israel.
"The criminal and racist Zionist regime must stop their airstrikes on
innocent Palestinian civilians" said Hussein Yacub, a junior at Columbia
University and a member of Students for Justice in Palestine. "I am here today,
just like these hundreds of supporters of Palestine, to tell the world that the
illegitimate Zionist occupying force is to blame for these hostilities. If the
Zionist aggressors would lift the blockade from Gaza and allow basic essentials
to be brought to the Palestinian residents of Gaza, we all wouldn't be here
today.
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