Motion to define the anti-Israel slogan ‘From the river to the sea’ as antisemitic passes in vote of 377 to 44, with 34 Democrats and 1 Republican voting against

Posted on April 18, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
US House resolution condemns chant ‘From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free’
April 17, 2024

The United States House of Representatives passed a resolution on Tuesday condemning the popular pro-Palestinian chant “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free” as antisemitic. The motion passed by a vote of 377 to 44, and was the result of a bipartisan effort led by Democratic Reps. Josh Gottheimer of New Jersey and Jared Moskowitz of Florida, along with Republican Rep. Anthony D’Esposito from New York. The motion was opposed by 34 Democrats and one Republican. The resolution posits that the pro-Palestinian chant often heard at protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war against the Hamas terror group is an “antisemitic call to arms with the goal of the eradication of the State of Israel, which is located between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea.” READ MORE

JPOST US stops UN from recognizing a Palestinian state through membership The United States on Thursday effectively stopped the United Nations from recognizing a Palestinian state by casting a veto in the Security Council to deny the Palestinian Authority full membership of the world body. The United States says an independent Palestinian state should be established through direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority and not through UN action. It vetoed a draft resolution that recommended to the 193-member UN General Assembly that “the State of Palestine be admitted to membership of the United Nations.” Britain and Switzerland abstained, while the remaining 12 council members voted yes. READ MORE

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Glazer’s speech was stunning and brave because it demonstrated, like few addresses before it, and in front of 19.5 million viewers, the complete, total, and utter moral, spiritual, and intellectual bankruptcy of vast swaths of mainstream liberal Judaism

Posted on April 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

COMMENTARY
Jonathan Glazer, Liberal Jewish Prophet: He speaks the truth, and they will follow
Liel Leibovitz
May 2024

Oscar acceptance speeches are to culture what tax audits are to a small business: nasty, brutish, and somehow never short enough. And yet, when Jonathan Glazer took the stage at the 96th Academy Awards earlier this year to accept the statuette for Best International Film, he delivered the rare oration that was greater even than the movie he’d written and directed. In a few short and glorious sentences that have since launched a thousand think pieces, Jonathan Glazer told the truth. Let us—because it’s been a moment since this lion of cinema rose up and roared at Hollywood—recall Glazer’s fiery words. READ MORE

JNS Columbia University leaders grilled in House antisemitism hearing Columbia University’s president, its two board co-chairs and a co-chair of its antisemitism taskforce testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on Wednesday about Jew-hatred on campus since Hamas’s Oct. 7 attack. Student groups and professors celebrated Hamas’s attack and have since held antisemitic and anti-Israel demonstrations at Columbia, which the U.S. Department of Education is investigating for potential civil-rights violations and which is the subject of a lawsuit alleging “virulently hostile” Jew-hatred. READ MORE

POLITICO ‘The Antisemitism Is Absolutely Disproportionate’ The fractious, sometimes violent debate over the Israel-Hamas war on college campuses has not cooled, even as the conflict enters its sixth month. College administrators have struggled to figure out the right balance between some students’ rights to free speech and others’ rights to be protected from discrimination and harassment. That debate erupted at UC Berkeley this week when a dinner for graduating students held at the home of law school dean Erwin Chemerinsky devolved into a heated confrontation when a Muslim student disrupted the event to make a pro-Palestinian speech and was physically confronted by Chemerinsky’s wife, Catherine Fisk. A fierce fight about freedom of speech — and accusations of anti-Muslim and anti-Jewish bias — quickly followed. READ MORE

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Nova Music Festival Massacre: “There are many survivors who had to be forcibly hospitalized due to their psychological state. My friends are not getting out of bed, neither am I”

Posted on April 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

I24NEWS
Nova survivor tells Knesset: About 50 survivors later committed suicide
April 16, 2024

Following the Hamas-led massacre at the Nova Music Festival on October 7, about fifty survivors have committed suicide, revealed Guy Ben Shimon. Ben Shimon, a survivor of the massacre, spoke on Tuesday at a Parliamentary hearing for a State Audit Commission on the treatment of the survivors of October 7. “Few people know, but there have been almost 50 suicides among the Nova survivors. This number, which was true two months ago, may have increased since,” Ben Shimon said, emphasizing that many of his friends who escaped the massacre could not recover from what they had experienced. READ MORE

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Saudi Arabia’s royal family posted on its website about the country’s role in defending Israel against the Iranian barrage

Posted on April 15, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Saudi Arabia says it helped defend Israel against Iran
Tovah Kazaroff
April 15, 2024

Saudi Arabia acknowledged that it had helped the newly forged regional military coalition — Israel, the United States, Jordan, the United Kingdom, and France — repel an Iranian attack against the Jewish state early Sunday morning, according to a story on KAN News. The story spoke of the Saudi involvement in the military defensive operation in which 99% of the Iranian drones and missiles were destroyed before hitting their targets. Many of the drones and missiles had to travel over Jordanian and Saudi airspace to reach Israel…That source also charged that Iran had instigated the Gaza war, through its proxy group Hamas, to thwart US efforts for a Saudi normalization deal. READ MORE

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“So because Israel fended off that attack it must now do nothing against Tehran and wait for Iran to attack it again?”

Posted on April 15, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

PHILLIPS SUBSTACK
Strangling Israel Slowly
Melanie Phillips
April 15, 2024

What country other than Israel would be told by the so-called civilised world that it must not respond to an onslaught of more than 300 cruise and ballistic missiles and armed drones fired at the entire country? If a minute fraction of such an attack were to be mounted against America  or Britain, they would declare themselves at war and destroy the enemy before it could attack them again. It’s only Israel that is not to be allowed to defend itself in the same way. After Sunday night’s attack, in which Iran stopped hiding behind its proxies and revealed itself openly for the first time as the actual enemy of Israel and the free world, Israel reportedly intended to attack Iran but was stopped by US President Joe Biden in a phone call with Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu. READ MORE

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For months, U.S. media have taken for granted that the ministry’s top-line figure for casualties was reliable enough to include in daily updates on the war

Posted on April 13, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FDD
Hamas-run Gaza Health Ministry admits to flaws in casualty data
April 9, 2024

The Hamas-run Gaza Ministry of Health said on April 6 that it had “incomplete data” for 11,371 of the 33,091 Palestinian fatalities it claims to have documented. In a statistical report, the ministry notes that it considers an individual record to be incomplete if it is missing any of the following key data points: identity number, full name, date of birth, or date of death. The health ministry also released a report on April 3 that acknowledged the presence of incomplete data but did not define what it meant by “incomplete.” In that earlier report, the ministry acknowledged the incompleteness of 12,263 records…“The sudden shifts in the ministry’s reporting methods suggest it is scrambling to prevent exposure of its shoddy work. READ MORE

CAMERA BLOG CNN article errs and misleads on Gaza humanitarian aid A CNN graphic, and the preceding text, suggests that the daily average number of trucks bringing food into Gaza now is less than half of what it was before October 7. In fact, the truth is precisely the opposite. Substantially more trucks are bringing food into Gaza today than were a year ago.

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Zeraati and his colleagues have faced escalating threats, particularly after critiquing anti-Israel marches in Britain

Posted on April 13, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Iranian TV dissident survives stabbing by fake ‘Jerusalem Post’ reporter
Zivka Klein
April 11, 2024

Pouria Zeraati, a prominent dissident Iranian TV presenter who recently survived a stabbing attack outside his home, revealed a deceitful attempt to compromise his security through a bogus interview request – according to a report by The Jewish Chronicle (JC). The attacker, posing as a journalist from The Jerusalem Post, aimed to lure Zeraati into a trap, highlighting the lengths to which adversaries will go to target vocal critics of the Iranian regime. A key figure on the anti-regime channel Iran International, Zeraati recounted his harrowing experience and the subsequent psychological battle he faced in the aftermath of the assault. READ MORE

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Highland Park residents tell Mayor Rotering to change archaic law that limits voter rights and participation in elected government

Posted on April 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

WBBM 780
Highland Park residents push for amending ordinance that bars city council members from having liquor licenses
April 11, 2024

Highland Park residents Wednesday night urged the City Council to reconsider a decision not to amend a prohibition-era ordinance that prohibits council members from having liquor licenses, which impacts a newly-elected member. Supporters of Jeff Hoobler, council member and co-owner of Ravinia Brewing Company, said its not about him, it’s about the ordinance. Resident Linda Feinstein said it tells some members of the community they can’t participate in elected government and citizens can’t vote for them. “This ordinance takes that decision out of my hands and it’s fundamentally undemocratic and for that reason I think this ordinance is terrible public policy.” Another resident said the law is “ridiculous.”READ MORE

CHICAGO HOODLINE Highland Park battle over liquor license law pits business against City Council regulations  Councilmember Lidawer is determined to keep the momentum going until a change is made. “In addition to hurting our community on a daily basis, our business-friendly image to the outside world, we are also hurting the councilmember who is not sitting next to me today,” she expressed fervently at the meeting.

MOVING HIGHLAND PARK FORWARD
Join us at the next Highland Park City Council meeting
When: April 24th at 7:30 pm
Where: City Hall, 1707 St Johns Ave, Highland Park
This is the last regular meeting before elected Council member Jeff Hoobler is effectively pushed out of office, after pledging to bring an independent and fresh perspective to the Council and garnering more votes than any other candidate in the last election. Mr. Hoobler’s resignation will go into effect on April 30th UNLESS the Mayor and Council vote to change a newly-discovered Prohibition-era law that prohibits Council members from having a liquor license. This is our last chance to convince Mayor Nancy Rotering, Councilmember Kim Stone, and Councilmember Tony Blumberg to do the right thing – listen to the voters – and change the current law. The fix is easy and these members of the council have the power to make the change at this meeting. LEARN MORE: www.HPForward.org

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NPR veteran says network lost its way when it started telling listeners how to think

Posted on April 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
I’ve Been at NPR for 25 Years. Here’s How We Lost America’s Trust.
Uri Berliner
April 9, 2024

.. More recently, we have approached the Israel-Hamas war and its spillover onto streets and campuses through the “intersectional” lens that has jumped from the faculty lounge to newsrooms. Oppressor versus oppressed. That’s meant highlighting the suffering of Palestinians at almost every turn while downplaying the atrocities of October 7, overlooking how Hamas intentionally puts Palestinian civilians in peril, and giving little weight to the explosion of antisemitic hate around the world. READ MORE

JPOST Jewish NPR editor resigns after criticizing network for bias on Israel coverage A Jewish NPR editor resigned on Wednesday after the network suspended him for criticizing NPR for becoming narrow-minded and suppressing other viewpoints, including in its coverage of the Israel-Hamas war. Uri Berliner, a veteran editor at NPR, published a critique of the network in the Free Press last week, writing that while when he started at NPR there was an “open-minded, curious culture,” that changed in recent years. READ MORE

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“Iran is vowing to retaliate against Israel after a strike last week on a building adjacent to the Iranian Embassy in Damascus killed 12 people, including two top commanders”

Posted on April 11, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

THE HILL
Top US military officer visits Israel amid fears of Iranian attack
Ellen Mitchell
April 11, 2024

U.S. Central Command head Gen. Erik Kurilla is in Israel to speak with officials as fear grows about a possible attack on Israel by Iran and the militant groups it backs, the Pentagon confirmed Thursday.  “Gen. Kurilla is in Israel. He’s, as I understand it, traveling throughout the region,” press secretary Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder told reporters. READ MORE

AXIOS Scoop: Senior U.S. general to visit Israel to coordinate on Iran attack threat Israeli officials say they are preparing for a possible unprecedented direct attack from Iranian soil using ballistic missiles, drones and cruise missiles against Israeli targets. In such a scenario, Israel will retaliate with a direct attack against Iran, the officials said…Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei said on Wednesday that Israel made a mistake by attacking the Iranian Consulate in Damascus and killing the general. “Israel must be punished, and they will pay for their mistakes,” he said. READ MORE

I24NEWS Blinken urges diplomatic intervention to prevent Iran-Israel escalation Blinken engaged in telephone conversations with counterparts from China, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and European nations to emphasize the importance of de-escalation in the region

JNS Netanyahu: ‘Whoever harms us, we will harm them’ “We are prepared to meet all of the security needs of the State of Israel, both defensively and offensively,” said the Israeli premier.

JPOST US predicts an Iranian attack, orders employees in Israel stay in cities The United States expects an attack by Iran against Israel but one that would not be big enough to draw Washington into war, a US official said late on Thursday.The White House said it warned Iran to not use that attack as a pretext to escalate further in the region.

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