Presbyterian Church document smears Israel, comparing their policies in the West Bank to the apartheid in South Africa

Posted on July 1, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

CHRISTIAN POST
PCUSA committee passes resolution declaring Israel’s treatment of Palestinians ‘apartheid’
Ian M. Giatti
June 29, 2022

A Presbyterian Church (USA) committee has passed a resolution declaring Israel an apartheid state at its General Assembly Tuesday. The motion was one of several related to the Middle East policy taken up by the assembly’s International Engagement Committee during the mainline Protestant denomination’s annual gathering in Louisville, Kentucky. Amendment INT-02, titled “On Recognition That Israel’s Laws, Policies, and Practices Constitute Apartheid Against the Palestinian People,” passed on a 28-3 committee vote Tuesday afternoon. READ MORE

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“Hezbollah’s provocation on Saturday can be viewed as a warning to Israel and energy companies that it has the capability of disrupting gas and oil extractions in the disputed area by military means”

Posted on July 1, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

FDD’S LONG WAR JOURNAL
Hezbollah Drones Shot Down by IDF Near Disputed Gas Field
Joe Truzman
July 3, 2022

On Saturday afternoon three Hezbollah drones were shot down by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) after they approached Israel’s economic waters. In a statement published on Twitter, the IDF said a fighter jet and an Israeli Navy missile ship intercepted the drones over the Mediterranean Sea. “An IAF fighter jet and an Israeli Navy missile ship intercepted 3 hostile UAVs from Lebanon which approached the airspace over Israel’s economic waters today,” the tweet said. Hezbollah later published a statement claiming credit for launching the drones and said they were on a reconnaissance mission to the disputed Karish gas field…As previously noted by the Jerusalem Post’s Lahav Harkov, Israel is in negotiations with the European Union on exporting gas to Europe.  READ MORE

I24NEWS Lebanese officials chide ‘risky, unacceptable’ Hezbollah drone launch Hezbollah launched the drone operation on Saturday – following so far fruitless US-mediated efforts to agree on a maritime border – toward the Karish gas rig, which Lebanon claims is in disputed waters but that Israel says is in its exclusive zone.

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#wokeism “Much like today’s new censors who claim to “fight hate” because “that’s not who we are,” the arsonists of the past saw themselves as moral paragons, too”

Posted on July 1, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
The Woke Inquisitors Have Come for the Freethinking Heretics
J.B. Shurk
July 3, 2022

Attacks on free speech are on the rise. A British college recently expelled a student for expressing support for the government’s official policy of deporting illegal immigrants. A Wisconsin school district charged three middle-schoolers with sexual harassment last month for refusing to use the plural pronoun “they” when referring to a single classmate. US President Joe Biden’s National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy recently encouraged social media companies to censor from their online platforms any opinions that contradict Biden’s climate change narrative. In its continued commitment to preserve the government’s monopoly over COVID-19 information, Twitter actually suspended a medical doctor for merely sharing a scientific study that suggests the Pfizer vaccine affects male fertility. READ MORE

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“Fall elections will be Israel’s fifth in three years. Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid will assume office as prime minister at midnight, Bennett to serve as PM-designate and acting religious affairs minister”

Posted on June 30, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Knesset dissolves, elections slated for Nov. 1
Amir Ettinger and Yehuda Shlezinger
June 30, 2022

The Knesset on Thursday voted on its dissolution triggering what will be Israel’s fifth elections in three years. The vote, carried with no objections, officially ended parliament’s 24’s session, setting Israel’s next general elections for Nov. 1, 2022. Last week saw outgoing Prime Minister Naftali Bennett call for early elections, saying that the efforts to stabilize the increasingly erratic coalition – in power for only a year – have exhausted themselves. With the bill to disband the Knesset now officially on the books, Prime Minister-designate Yair Lapid is slated to head the caretaker government that will see Israel through the elections.  READ MORE

THE NEW YORK SUN A True Son of Tel Aviv Takes the Reins at Jerusalem Tel Avivians are hoping Yair Lapid will follow in the footsteps of other former entertainers who have shown a special knack for political communication and leadership, such as Ronald Reagan and Volodymir Zelensky…A former reporter for the Israeli version of Stars and Stripes, Bamahane, Mr. Lapid will become the first prime minister since the late Shimon Peres who had not served in an elite combat unit. After the army, he became a newspaper columnist with a centrist bent. He was also a film and television actor, a novelist, a comedian, and a boxer.

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#BDSFail “Jews and Arabs throughout Israel and the disputed territories will continue to enjoy Chunky Monkey, Cherry Garcia and the rest of the uniquely named varieties”

Posted on June 30, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Ben & Jerry’s cancels plan to stop sales in West Bank
Lahav Harkov
June 29, 2022

Ben & Jerry’s will continue to sell ice cream throughout Israel and the West Bank, after announcing last year that it would stop sales in east Jerusalem and the West Bank, Unilever, the ice cream company’s parent company, announced on Wednesday. As part of the agreement between Unilever and Ben & Jerry’s Israel branch, the former has sold business interests in Israel to Avi Zinger, CEO of Ben & Jerry’s Israel. The deal will allow Zinger to continue selling the ice cream under the Ben & Jerry’s brand throughout Israel, including the West Bank. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER Selling Ben and Jerry’s Ice Cream in West Bank ‘Inconsistent With Our Values,’ Says Ice Cream Maker A tweet on Thursday from the official Ben and Jerry’s account confirmed that the company was aware of Unilever’s decision…“While our parent company has taken this decision, we do not agree with it,” the Ben and Jerry’s tweet declared.

JNS Melanie Phillips: Licking Ben & Jerry’s A great victory has been declared over BDS, the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement whose aim is the destruction of Israel. It shows what can be achieved when there’s a backlash against anti-Israel bigotry.

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“Haredi youth disrupted prayer at the Western Wall’s egalitarian prayer section and tore siddurim published by the Conservative Movement”

Posted on June 30, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Violence breaks out at Western Wall after boy blows nose on Siddur page
Zvika Klein
June 30, 2022

Rosh Hodesh prayer services on Thursday again turned violent at the Kotel. In honor of the month of Tamuz, Rosh Hodesh prayers took place at Ezrat Israel, the egalitarian prayer section at the Kotel. A large group of haredi youth arrived there with whistles and used them to disturb the prayer service at the plaza. A few of the demonstrators tore the siddurim published by the Conservative movement, and one teen was photographed blowing his nose on a torn page of a siddur…Rabbi Arie Hasit, a Conservative rabbi who was leading a Bar Mitzvah service for an American boy at the plaza, wrote on Facebook: “It is difficult for me to find the words to describe my experience this morning at Ezrat Israel.” READ MORE

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Senator Ben Cardin (D-MD): “The language you used in regard to the Jewish community, Israel’s influence on our election, and Jewish money have me concerned”

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

FREE BEACON
‘The Jewish Factor, It’s Money’: Biden Ambassador Pick Under Fire for Anti-Semitic Tirade
Adam Kredo
June 22, 2022

The Biden administration’s nominee to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Brazil spoke at length about the influence of Jewish money in politics, claiming the “Jewish lobby” exerts undue influence over the Democratic Party with its “major money.” Elizabeth Frawley Bagley, a longtime diplomat and Democratic Party insider, is scheduled on Thursday to have her nomination advanced to the full Senate by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. But Bagley’s comments about Jewish money in politics—tropes long considered anti-Semitic in nature—are raising red flags among Democratic and Republican members of the committee…READ MORE

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Pipe will connect Sea of Galilee to infrastructure that in turn links into five desalination plants on the Mediterranean coast

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel to be 1st in world to pipe desalinated water into a natural lake, the Galilee
Sue Surkes
Jun 28, 2022

Early next year, Israel is set to become the first country in the world to channel desalinated water into a natural lake — the Sea of Galilee. One of the lowest-lying bodies of water on Earth, the Sea of Galilee is Israel’s largest freshwater lake and its emergency water store. The national water company, Mekorot, plans to complete construction of a 13-kilometer (8-mile) underground pipe by the end of this year, to be followed by weeks of tests before it goes into operation around the end of the first quarter of 2023. READ MORE

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“Republican lawmakers and former Trump administration officials called the move a de-facto effort to divide Jerusalem”

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Republicans slam Biden administration for upgrading Palestinian Affairs Unit
Marc Rod
June 23, 2022

Republican lawmakers and former Trump administration officials are criticizing the Biden administration’s plan to upgrade the Palestinian Affairs Unit in the U.S. Embassy in Israel to a separate office reporting directly to the State Department, calling the move a de-facto effort to divide Jerusalem. In a statement set to be released on Thursday, organized by Sen. Bill Hagerty (R-TN) and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-NY), 35 senators and 56 House members will argue that the administration’s move “undermines our nation’s recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and signals support for dividing Jerusalem.”…The congressional statement, obtained by Jewish Insider, called the move “alarming” and described the mission as “what amounts to be a separate U.S. diplomatic office to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital.” READ MORE

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US coordinated meeting in Sharm El Sheikh included military officials from Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Jordan, Egypt, the U.A.E. and Bahrain

Posted on June 24, 2022 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
U.S. Held Secret Meeting With Israeli, Arab Military Chiefs to Counter Iran Air Threat
Michael R. Gordon and David S. Cloud
June 26, 2022

The U.S. con­vened a se­cret meet­ing of top mil­i­tary of­fi­cials from Is­rael and Arab coun­tries in March to ex­plore how they could co­or­di­nate against Iran’s grow­ing mis­sile and drone ca­pa­bil­i­ties, ac­cord­ing to of­fi­cials from the U.S. and the re­gion. The pre­vi­ously undis­closed talks, which were held at Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, marked the first time that such a range of rank­ing Is­raeli and Arab of­fi­cers have met un­der U.S. mil­i­tary aus­pices to dis­cuss how to de­fend against a com­mon threat…The talks were en­abled by sev­eral changes, in­clud­ing com­mon fears of Iran, im­proved po­lit­i­cal ties sig­naled by the Abra­ham Ac­cords and the Trump ad­min­is­tra­tion’s de­ci­sion in Jan­uary 2021 to ex­pand Cen­tral Com­mand’s area of cov­er­age to in­clude Is­rael. READ MORE

ELDER OF ZIYON Iran calls Israeli involvement in US Centcom a “threat” As we’ve been reporting, the Trump decision weeks before his term ended to include Israel in Centcom has been paying dividends, as military cooperation between Israel and Arab states that it is not officially at peace with has been increasing dramatically. Israeli military leaders secretly met with their counterparts from Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Egypt and Jordan in March under the aegis of Cencom.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Negev Summit partners to meet in Bahrain on keeping cooperation going Senior diplomats from Israel, Bahrain, the UAE, Egypt, Morocco, and the US will convene in Manama on Monday to formalize commitments made at a March summit aimed at remaking the Middle East’s geo-political fault lines, the Foreign Ministry announced Sunday. The meeting in the Bahraini capital, the first since the so-called Negev Summit Steering Committee is slated to formalize commitments to turn a summit of regional leaders in Israel months ago into an ongoing forum

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