Kontorovich: “What is clear is that in the late 1960s, the moment that mattered, nothing in international law demonstrated that Israel must engage in the unprecedented action not allowing its Jewish population to live in the areas from which they were expelled”

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Israeli Settlements Are Not Illegal
Eugene Kontorivich
August 9, 2023

…Moreover one cannot occupy one’s own territory: If Ukraine retakes Crimea from Russia, it will not be an occupation just because it had long been administered by Moscow. As professor Avi Bell and I have demonstrated at great length, under general rules of international law applicable around the world, Israel would have a sovereign claim to the West Bank from 1948 (not so for the Golan Heights). That is because newly created states inherit the borders of the prior administrative units in the territory, in this case, Mandatory Palestine. Berman mocks reliance on mandatory borders, but the very existence of Jordan, as well as most of the borders of the Middle East, are based fully on mandatory borders. There is nothing lawlike about a unique rule of borders just for the Jewish state. READ MORE

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The resurrection of professor Jasbir Puar’s modern blood libel as part of an Ivy League humanities course has the Jewish community up in arms

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Duke University Press enables blood libel at Princeton
Amy Rosenthal
August 11, 2023

Do Jews maim innocents to control them and reap economic rewards? Do they target the vital organs of their victims? Do they starve children? This is what Jasbir Puar’s 2017 book, Right to Maim, published by Duke University Press (DUP), claims. These hateful lies about Jews constitute a modern blood libel, a term that has its origins in the Medieval Christendom myth that Jews murder Christian children to use their blood in Jewish rituals. The lie sparked pogroms—i.e., attacks and murder of Jews. The resurrection of professor Puar’s modern blood libel in a 2023 Ivy League humanities course at Princeton University has the Jewish community up in arms. It is the culmination of efforts by Duke University Press to disseminate anti-Israel propaganda…READ MORE

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Iran’s fast-moving development of weapons-grade uranium is bringing the possibility of an Iranian first nuclear test closer

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Iran close to testing nuclear weapons for first time
Benjamin Weinthal
August 12, 2023

The Islamic Republic of Iran is close to possibly testing a nuclear weapons device and has sought to obtain illicit technology for its active atomic weapons program, according to a series of shocking European intelligence reports released in 2023. The Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) first published translations of the intelligence documents on its website. The Jerusalem Post is the first Israeli newspaper to report on the intelligence findings from the Netherlands, Sweden and Germany. The most unsettling revelation from the batch of intelligence data comes from the Netherlands General and Intelligence Security Service. READ MORE

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“But in a free country, people may choose to make Shabbat special in their own way. Some may light candles, eat a family dinner, and walk to synagogue. Others may drive a car or take public transit to do those things, and many may choose not to do them at all”

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Israel must find a Shabbat compromise on public transport
Editorial Board
August 13, 2023

…Last week, the Transportation Ministry made yet another decision that has a clear political logic but makes little sense for Israelis’ transportation needs. The Tel Aviv light rail will not operate on Shabbat and holidays, Regev’s ministry announced. Current coalition partners United Torah Judaism and Shas have made their strong opposition to public transportation on Shabbat clear over decades. When serving as transportation minister, Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich canceled bus lines that ran on Shabbat. The light rail’s Red Line runs through Bnei Brak, the densely-populated haredi city, which has been cited as a primary reason the line will be shut down on Shabbat. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Public transportation on Shabbat? Likud MK has a condition Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai announced that he would boycott the inauguration ceremony of the Tel Aviv Light Rail as an act of protest against its non-operation on Shabbat.

JNS Tel Aviv Light Rail to open to the public Friday The Red Line’s 34 stations run from Bat Yam through Jaffa, Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak, Ramat Gan and Petach Tikva

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Israelis can now enter the Southeast Asian country with electronic visas

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Israel, Vietnam agree to direct flights in follow-up to free trade deal
Pesach Benson
August 16, 2023

Israel and Vietnam signed an agreement in Hanoi on Wednesday to launch the first direct flights between their countries. According to the agreement signed by Israeli Minister of Economy of Industry Nir Barkat and Vietnamese Minister of Industry and Trade Nguyễn Hồng Diên, flights between Hanoi and Tel Aviv will begin in October. The accord also allows Israelis to enter the Southeast Asian country with electronic visas. Barkat said this takes effect immediately and eliminates the need for visitors to first go to the Vietnamese embassy in Tel Aviv to obtain visas. READ MORE

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El Al Flight 402 disaster: 70 years later the mystery lives on. Why has this traumatic national event been forgotten?

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
The El Al plane crash you never heard of
Lili Eylon
August 4, 2023

It was El Al’s regular semi-weekly flight from London via Paris and Vienna to Tel Aviv, carrying 51 passengers and seven crew members. Travelers included 12 Americans, 15 Israelis, four Britons, three with German passports, four Canadians, five Frenchmen, one Pole, one Swede, and seven hopeful immigrants from the Soviet Union. Suddenly, over the Bulgarian town of Petritch, bordering Greece and former Yugoslavia, two Yak 23 fighter planes of the Bulgarian Air Force opened fire at the Israeli aircraft. Within minutes, according to eyewitness Nir Baruch, Israel’s representative in Sofia, the pastoral landscape was strewn with human remains and the wreckage of the American-made Lockheed Constellation. READ MORE

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San Francisco: Whole Foods, Anthropologie, Old Navy, AmazonGo, Saks Off Fifth, and Office Depot have already fled the troubled neighborhood

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

DAILY MAIL
Gump’s San Francisco could close after 166 years due to dwindling foot traffic and homeless people harassing shoppers
Alex Hammer
August 16, 2023

The owner of one of San Francisco’s most storied department stores has warned this year could be its last due to spiraling crime and homelessness and has blamed the mayor and governor for failing to act. John Chachas, the owner of longtime luxury furnisher Gump’s, paid for a full-page ad in Sunday’s San Francisco Chronicle – the city’s most-read newspaper – to air a scathing open letter to Governor Gavin Newsom and Mayor London Breed. In it, he accuses the politicians, as well as the city’s board of supervisors, of dereliction of duty, citing the rampant homelessness and thievery seen on the city’s streets. Chachas, 59, also said incidents of harassment and bumbling leadership that’s persisted since the pandemic could result in the 166-year-old store’s doors closing forever. READ MORE

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EVENT: BJBE Combating Antisemitism Task Force Presents Brooke Goldstein on 8/22

Posted on August 11, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

THE BJBE COMBATING ANTISEMITISM TASK FORCE PRESENTS BROOKE GOLDSTEIN
Tuesday, August 22nd | 7:00pm
1201 Lake Cook Rd, Deerfield, IL 60015

The BJBE Combating Antisemitism task force has invited Brooke Goldstein to speak at its inaugural event Tuesday, August 22nd at 7:00pm. Brooke is an award-winning filmmaker, author, and media personality who founded and runs The Lawfare Project, a nonprofit that provides pro bono legal services to protect the civil and human rights of the Jewish people worldwide. She is also the founder of #EndJewHatred, a grassroots Jewish civil rights movement.

For more information and to register, click here

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Biden plan involves Iran releasing five Americans in exchange for the U.S. freeing a handful of imprisoned Iranians

Posted on August 10, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Iran transfers 5 Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest in step toward deal for full release
Jon Gambrell and Matt Lee
August 10, 2023

Iran has moved five Iranian-Americans from prison to house arrest in exchange for billions of dollars frozen in South Korea, U.S. and Iranian officials said Thursday, as part of a tentative deal that follows months of heightened tensions between the two countries. Iranian officials at the United Nations told The Associated Press that the prisoner transfer marked “a significant initial step” in the implementation of the agreement, which is still being negotiated and could eventually lead to the full release of the Americans. Iran acknowledged that the deal involves $6 billion to $7 billion that were frozen as a result of sanctions. READ MORE

POLITICO Republicans slam Biden’s deal to free Americans in Iran as ‘appeasement’ Other Republicans voiced concerns over what Iran could do with the funds. In a statement, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, called the deal a “ransom” and a “craven act of appeasement,” warning that Iran would “use these ill-gotten gains to attack our troops, fund terrorism, and arm Russia.”

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Glick: “Apparently, all a judge needs to rule the way he or she wants is to place themselves above the Knesset, the laws it passes and the government charged with executing them”

Posted on August 4, 2023 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Esther Hayut sets Israel on fire
Caroline Glick
August 4, 2023

Outgoing Supreme Court president Esther Hayut is playing the short game. She wants to clear her desk, finish the work she set out to achieve when she took over as Supreme Court head in late 2017 and let the chips fall where they may. Shortly before Hayut assumed office, she set out her judicial vision in an address before the Bar Association. The central challenge facing the court, she declared, was surmounting the rule of law. Comparing herself and her colleagues to God, she bloviated: “There’s a disadvantage that we flesh and blood judges have in comparison to the Creator of the Universe. Even in the situations where we understand fairly quickly the dilemma that brought the petitioners before us, it often happens that the solution we view as just and proper isn’t possible under the practice and requirements of law. READ MORE

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