“Jewish allegiance to Germany in the early days of the Third Reich is one of the great unrequited love stories of history”

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

TABLET MAG
The Jews Who Fought for Nazi Germany
by Ellen Feldman
August 4, 2020

What was the safest place for a Jew in Hitler’s Germany? A cellar or an attic? A forest? At home with a well-connected Aryan spouse? The answer was in Hitler’s military—in the Wehrmacht, the Kriegsmarine, or the Luftwaffe—at least until the tide of war turned and all three began to suffer staggering losses. Some said the Luftwaffe was the best bet because Goering protected his own. Whichever branch, wearing a uniform was like slipping into a coat of armor, or invisibility…According to Hitler’s Jewish Soldiers by Bryan Mark Rigg, thousands of full Jews and more than a hundred-thousand part-Jews joined the military of the Third Reich. The stories of these men and of the psychological as well as the physical hazards they endured altered the book I had originally set out to write. READ MORE

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Netanyahu’s comments on annexation delays “come as speculation is high that the country could be heading to a fourth round of elections”

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

JERUSALEM POST
Netanyahu: US has kept me from annexing West Bank settlements
by Tovah Lazaroff
August 11, 2020

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has blamed the US for his failure to annex West Bank settlements. “It was clear from the start that the application of sovereignty would be done only with agreement from the United States. Otherwise, I would have already done it a while ago,” Netanyahu said during an interview Monday with Channel 20. Similarly, “other prime ministers would also have done it,” he added. US President Donald “Trump is now busy with other things, and this [sovereignty] is not on the top of his mind,” Netanyahu said. “I hope that in the near future we will be able to advance recognition of the application of sovereignty as well as other diplomatic issues of importance to Israel.” READ MORE

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“She masterminded the 2001 murder of my daughter and 14 others in the Sbarro pizzeria bombing. Not only is she still free, she’s a celebrity”

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

TIMES OF ISRAEL
I wish others knew what I know about Malki’s killer
by Arnold Roth
August 9, 2020

This coming Sunday August 9, 2020, marks the completion of nineteen years since the stunningly heartless attack by a thuggery of Hamas terrorists on a pizzeria in the center of Jerusalem; a massacre directed explicitly at the many youngsters predictably found inside it, happily busy with getting lunch and with having fun on a school vacation afternoon. This was a midday attack at Jerusalem’s busiest intersection, the heart of Israel’s capital city. There’s no room to doubt that the strategic goal explicitly involved dead Jewish children – as many as could be murdered. The bomber herself said so and for the record. READ MORE

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The stockpile of weapons-grade ammonium nitrate and the collateral damage it caused to the Beirut port may well have been earmarked for Israel

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

JNS
Israel’s August 4 miracle
by Alex Traiman
August 9, 2020

Many of Israel’s modern military accomplishments have defied all odds and logic. Surprise victories in Israel’s War of Independence in 1948, Six-Day War in 1967 and Yom Kippur War in 1973 will forever stand among Israel’s most miraculous and unlikely historical achievements. This past week, Israel may have recorded another security miracle, but one unlikely to be entered into Israeli history books. The reason? It did not take place on Israeli soil, or at the hands of the Israeli military...While Israel and the rest of the international community have been offering humanitarian aid to Lebanon in the wake of one of the largest explosions since the Chernobyl nuclear reactor blew in 1986, the greatest aid to the people of Lebanon would be the complete disarmament and expulsion of Hezbollah. READ MORE

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“The Democrats’ 2020 platform is a return to the Obama policy of appeasement to Iran’s nuclear ambitions and to Iran’s plans for regional hegemony”

Posted on August 9, 2020 by

AMERICAN THINKER
The Democrats’ 2020 platform resurrects Obama’s hostility to Israel and appeasement of Iran
by Carol S. Greenwald
August 2, 2020

Democrats’ crowing that their 2020 platform on Israel is a victory for the moderates is disingenuous. The Democrat party’s 2020 platform is not pro-Israel. It is pro-Iran. The Democrat party’s platform promises to return to the Iran nuclear deal and rejects regime change “as the goal of U.S. policy toward Iran.” The opening statement of the platform stresses: “Democrats will call off the Trump Administration’s race to war with Iran and prioritize nuclear diplomacy, de-escalation and regional dialogue. Democrats believe the United States should not impose regime change on other countries and reject that as the goal of U.S policy towards Iran.” Translation: Obama’s appeasement of Iran’s nuclear and regional ambitions is back. READ MORE

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Beirut protesters reportedly hanged Hezbollah leader Nasrallah and President of Lebanon Aoun in effigy

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

JERUSALEM POST
Lebanon protesters storm ministry buildings over Beirut blast
by Reuters
August 8, 2020

Lebanese protesters stormed government ministries in Beirut and trashed the offices of the Association of Lebanese Banks on Saturday as shots rang out in increasingly angry demonstrations over this week’s devastating explosion. The protesters said their politicians should resign and be punished for negligence they say led to Tuesday’s blast, the biggest ever to hit Beirut, that killed 158 people and injured more than 6,000, compounding months of political and economic meltdown. A policeman was killed during the clashes, a spokesman said. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Israel TV: Hezbollah apparently wanted Beirut’s ammonium nitrate for Israel war Hezbollah apparently planned to use the ammonium nitrate stockpile that caused a massive bast at Beirut’s port this week against Israel in a “Third Lebanon War,” according to an unsourced assessment publicized on Israel’s Channel 13 Friday night. The report was broadcast hours after Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, gave a speech “categorically” denying that his group had stored any weapons or explosives at Beirut’s port, following the massive explosion there Tuesday that has claimed over 157 lives and wounded thousands. 

FREE BEACON Democrats Gutted Anti-Hezbollah Legislation Days Before Attack on Israel Just days before the Iranian-funded terror group Hezbollah waged a terrorist attack on Israel’s northern border, congressional Democrats gutted legislation that would have halted U.S. funding to the Lebanese military, which is almost entirely controlled by the terror group. Congress has been working on legislation that would slash millions in American taxpayer funding to the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF), which has long been under Hezbollah’s thumb. Republican lawmakers in both the House and Senate have been pushing to cut this funding for some time.

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DNC “platform on Israel and Palestine is a clear victory for those supporting return to mainstream Democratic policies of the past, a loss for progressives seeking more conditional support for Israel”

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

FOREIGN POLICY
Biden Bucks Progressives, Won’t Denounce Israeli Occupation
by Colum Lynch
August 6, 2020

In early July, Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders and other influential progressives were convinced that they had secured a critical concession from Joe Biden’s campaign: For the first time, the Democratic Party platform would assert that Palestinians had a right to live free of foreign “occupation,” a scarcely veiled reference to Israel. But days before a draft platform was released on July 15, the presumptive Democratic nominee personally weighed in, according to three sources familiar with the discussion, ordering his advisors not to include any reference to Israeli “occupation.” The decision, according to these sources, followed heavy last-minute lobbying by pro-Israel advocacy groups. READ MORE

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“Despite coronavirus, we must take advantage of this US initiative to accept a plan that enables us to incorporate into Israeli boundaries the large settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley”

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Don’t Forego an Historic Opportunity
by Isi Leibler
August 7, 2020

…Despite the coronavirus, should Netanyahu proceed now with the Trump plan, the parameters of the national unity government would ensure his success. Even more importantly, subject to minor concessions, he would be able to obtain consensus with Blue and White, setting a long-term precedent of applying Israeli sovereignty to Judea and Samaria with international recognition led by the US. The US administration has indicated that it will provide full support to annexation of major settlement blocs and the Jordan Valley if supported by the Israeli consensus and within the framework of the Trump plan. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Eric Mandel:What does pro-Israel mean in the age of Trump?
What should define pro-Israel in 2020 across the political spectrum? Here are a few suggestions.

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“An engaging spy series just bought by Apple TV does more than caricature Iran and the Mossad”

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

TABLET MAG
What’s So Great About the New Israeli Thriller ‘Tehran’?
by Raz Greenberg
August 6, 2020

The opening scenes of Tehran, the new thriller from the Israeli public broadcast corporation Kan 11, tell the story of two Israeli backpackers who decide to take a cheap flight from Jordan on their way to India, and find themselves in trouble when their plane must make an emergency stop in Iran. It is a tight and tense opening, yet it also carries a somewhat unintentional hilarious subtext…Even before its broadcast, the show made headlines when it was purchased in a multimillion-dollar deal for international broadcast by the Apple TV streaming service. Iranian media added to the hype, publishing angry responses to the show’s production—again, long before it even debuted. READ MORE

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The late Rabbi Steinsaltz, Israel Prize laureate and scholar “was credited with revolutionary translation and commentary of seminal Jewish texts”

Posted on August 6, 2020 by

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz, who made the Talmud accessible, dies at 83
by Marissa Newman
August 7, 2020

Rabbi Adin Even Yisrael Steinsaltz, whose translation and groundbreaking commentary of the entire Babylonian Talmud and Bible has been lauded for making the ancient Jewish texts approachable, died Friday at the age of 83. A longtime educator, prolific author of over 60 books and Israel Prize laureate, Steinsaltz (who years ago switched to a Hebraicized version of his surname, Even-Israel, but never shook off the original) was also a physicist and chemist, a biting social critic and a beloved public figure in Israel — revered for his encyclopedic mind, and admired for his down-to-earth and kindly bearing. His first name means “gentle” in Hebrew, and by all accounts, he was. READ MORE

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