“Bipartisan group of lawmakers say campaign of delegitimization against Israel may have crossed the line into outright antisemitism, ahead of presidential election in which a communist of Palestinian descent is a front-runner”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

HAARETZ
Members of Congress Warn Blinken of Threats Facing Jewish Community in Chile
by Judy Maltz
July 14, 2021

A bipartisan group of U.S. members of Congress has this week issued a warning about the “dangerous climate” facing Jews in Chile.
In a letter sent to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, three U.S. representatives charged that a “systematic campaign of delegitimization against Israel” in the South American country may have “crossed the line” into outright antisemitism. The letter, obtained by Haaretz, comes amid growing concerns within the local Jewish community that Daniel Jadue, a communist candidate of Palestinian origin, who is known for his fierce opposition to Israel and has been accused by the Jewish community of antisemitism, could win Chile’s upcoming presidential election. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , | Leave a comment

IDF debuted “drone swarms to seek and attack hidden targets” in the May war in Gaza, “the first AI war from Israel’s perspective”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Drone swarms are coming to the Middle East and Israel is leading the way
by Seth J. Frantzman
July 12, 2021

Israel used drone swarm technology in the recent Gaza war. Much of that technology and how it was used has not been revealed, but what is important is the wider context. Drone swarms are a new concept and are linked to the development of artificial intelligence and networked military units, a futuristic battlefield application that uses the latest advances in technology. The use of this kind of technology in conflict has raised concerns for years as human rights groups decried the advent of “killer robots.” Evidence shows that what is actually happening is not the creation of “killer robots,” but rather the use of technology to enable drones and other autonomous or unmanned systems to work together. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Islamists have launched their first digital currency, which will make their funding even more difficult to trace”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

AMERICAN SPECTATOR
The Rise of the Crypto-Islamist
by Sam Westrop
July 9, 2021

When startup initiative Super Mission launched its own cryptocurrency token earlier this year, it promised to divert enormous sums — drawn from 10 percent fees on all transactions — to nominated charities chosen each week by the “community.” The two developers behind Super Mission initially appeared to follow through. In early June, American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) reportedly received over $100,000 of donations from this new cryptocurrency initiative — a fact they were quick to trumpet…Analysts at the leading think tank the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, in testimony before Congress, have noted the “significant overlap between employees from this Hamas-supporting organization and the American Muslims for Palestine network.” READ MORE

JNS Israel seizes cryptocurrency wallets used by Hamas The terrorist organization that rules the Gaza Strip is said to be trying to rebuild its military arm, while bypassing the conventional banking system.

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

Until now, no practicing Orthodox Jewish player has made it to the big leagues.

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ESPN
Jacob Steinmetz selected by Arizona Diamondbacks, becomes 1st known drafted practicing Orthodox Jew
July 12, 2021

Jacob Steinmetz’s blazing fastball helped make him a baseball draft trailblazer. The New York native is believed to be the first known practicing Orthodox Jewish player to be selected by a major league team, going in the third round — 77th overall — to the Arizona Diamondbacks on Monday. The 6-foot-5, 220-pound Steinmetz, from the hamlet of Woodmere in Long Island, New York, is a 17-year-old right-hander whose repertoire features a fastball that sits in the mid-to-upper 90s and a knee-buckling curveball… Steinmetz recently told the New York Post he keeps the Sabbath and eats only kosher food, but plays during the Sabbath and on Jewish holidays…READ MORE

JTA Elie Kligman becomes second Orthodox baseball player drafted into the MLB in 2 days It has now become a doubly historic Major League Baseball draft. The Washington Nationals selected Elie Kligman with their final and 20th round pick on Tuesday, making him the second observant Orthodox Jewish player ever drafted into the league — and the second in two days.

Posted in Jewish | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

“Recent flareups of violence in the Middle East are the outcome of a major policy shift by an administration that prefers to avert its eyes from the truth”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

MOSAIC MAG
Violence in Yemen, Gaza, and Iraq isn’t coincidental, even though the White House wishes it was
by Richard Goldberg
July 6, 2021

“As Arab world rallies around Palestinians and bloodshed mounts, Trump-era peace deals fade from view,” blared a Washington Post headline on May 14, the fourth day of the most recent round of fighting between Israel and Hamas. The headline encapsulated the conventional wisdom of many journalists as well as of the Washington “peace processors,” those in the Biden administration included. To them, last month’s coordinated terror assault on Israel by Hamas and Islamic Jihad was the inevitable byproduct of the previous administration having ignored the Palestinian cause, defunded Palestinian institutions that support terror, and attempted to broker Arab-Israeli peace in the absence of a Palestinian state. READ MORE

DAILY CALLER Ilan Berman: If The Afghan Government Falls To The Taliban, The Country Could Once Again Become A Haven For Terrorists History, they say, doesn’t really repeat itself, but it does sometimes rhyme. That’s an apt description for the Biden administration’s policy toward Afghanistan, which risks recreating the very conditions that made possible the September 11 attacks against America two decades ago.

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“Today, it’s not white supremacists who pose a threat to Jews in particular and society as a whole, but rather movements like Black Lives Matter and Students for Justice in Palestine”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
The ADL chief’s disingenuous epiphany about left-wing anti-Semitism
by Ruthie Blum
July 13, 2021

It’s a sad day when the head of the Anti-Defamation League receives accolades for acknowledging that anti-Semitism “also” hails from the left. If the person in question had been living in a cave until last week—when he published an op-ed in Newsweek called “It’s Time to Admit It: The Left Has an Anti-Semitism Problem”—he might be excused for having an epiphany about a phenomenon that has been obvious for decades. But Jonathan Greenblatt hasn’t been in isolation for the past six years, when he replaced Abraham Foxman as CEO of the Jewish organization, established in 1913 by B’nai B’rith. On the contrary, he’s been as active a participant in American political culture throughout his current tenure as he was during his term in the White House as special assistant to former President Barack Obama. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Jewish, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Claims of “systemic police racism” are not only incorrect, “but will harm Jewish and Black Americans in the long run”

Posted on July 9, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
Jews Should Not Echo the Claim of ‘Systemic Police Racism
by Hannah Elka Meyers
July 5, 2021

There is a popular narrative that “systemic” racism lies behind every police interaction with Black civilians in America. It’s wrong, and its impact is not only bad for Black communities—it is also very bad for American Jews. Unfortunately, it is a message that Jews nationwide are rallying behind, and has negatively affected how people think about race in academia, business, international relations, and beyond—making it more acceptable to discriminate against and assault Jews, who may eventually find fewer police officers around to protect them. READ MORE

Posted in Politics | Leave a comment

Sec’y of State Blinken “personally raised concern with Israel before Thursday’s destruction of family home of Palestinian-American man alleged to have killed Israeli teen in May”

Posted on July 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
US now to ‘prioritize’ pushing Israel to stop demolishing terrorists’ homes
by Jacob Magid
July 9, 2021

The State Department will prioritize pushing Israel to end its controversial policy of demolishing the homes of terrorists, a spokesperson said Thursday, with the US’s top diplomat already bringing the issue up with senior officials in Israel. The comments from State Department spokesman Ned Price came hours after the administration of US President Joe Biden leveled rare criticism at Israel for razing of the home of a Palestinian-American suspected in a deadly West Bank shooting attack, marking a likely point of friction amid efforts between Washington and Jerusalem to rehabilitate ties. READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged | Leave a comment

“I invite Representatives Ilhan Omar, Rashida Tlaib, and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez to meet with me, a Palestinian living in the West Bank, to discuss the problems of the Palestinians and the best solutions to address them”

Posted on July 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Palestinian Activist: It’s Time Ilhan Omar and ‘The Squad’ Learned the Truth About Israel and Hamas
by Bassem Eid
July 1, 2021

…I’m a Palestinian who grew up in a UNWRA refugee camp outside of Jerusalem, and have been a human rights activist all my life. Let me say this as directly as I can: Rep. Omar does not know what she is talking about. Worse, for years, Rep. Omar has been engaged in not arguing any facts, but simply throwing out dirty antisemitic epithets, a mirror image of the antisemitism by “white supremacists” she claims to decry…But if they truly care about the well-being of Palestinians, they ought to focus their attention elsewhere. These days, the vast majority of suffering Palestinians experience is the direct result of the corruption of the Palestinian Authority and the influence of the terrorist group Hamas. READ MORE

JNS Andrew Lappin: Ilhan Omar’s CRT hypocrisy must be discredited, not embraced The Democratic Party’s unwillingness to challenge the Minnesota congresswoman speaks to the growing narrative that would replace the virtues of freedom celebrated this Fourth of July.

NEWSWEEK David Harris: Ilhan Omar Has a Problem With Jews  That, in turn, triggered a response from Omar’s spokesman, Jeremy Slevin: “As usual, the far right is ginning up hate against Rep. Omar,” he tweeted. The “far right” in this case were Representatives Jake Auchincloss, Ted Deutch, Lois Frankel, Josh Gottheimer, Elaine Luria, Kathy Manning, Jerry Nadler, Dean Phillips, Brad Schneider, Kim Schrier, Brad Sherman, and Debbie Wasserman Schultz. All are liberal Democrats who have made the pursuit of justice central to their political biographies

Posted in Islam, Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

“By supporting the plight of the Palestinians, China is cynically stoking the most emotional issue in Middle Eastern politics in order to distract Muslim nations from its own campaign against Uyghurs”

Posted on July 4, 2021 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Why has China turned on Israel?
by Ilan Berman and Joshua Eisenman
July 5, 2021

Amid the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas, a surprising voice led the charge against the Jewish state. While Israel’s defensive military response to thousands of rockets launched from the Gaza Strip generated a predictable outcry from Europe and some on the American Left, it was China that emerged as one of the country’s most strident critics. Beijing did not hesitate to point the finger at Jerusalem, going so far as to cosponsor the UN Human Rights Council decision to establish a commission to investigate Israeli “violations in the occupied Palestinian territory.” READ MORE

Posted in Israel & Middle East, Politics | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment