“With the potential paradigm shift taking place in the Middle East, it is imperative for our children to be able to communicate and engage with Arabs in Israel and neighbors in the region”

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Cotler-Wunsh submits bill to promote Arabic language in Israeli schools
by Eliana Rudee
December 14, 2020

Knesset member Michal Cotler-Wunsh of the Blue and White Party submitted a bill in Israel’s Knesset to require Arabic-language studies. Proposed as an amendment to the law on public education, the bill would make it mandatory for Jewish schools in Israel to teach all students Arabic starting in elementary school and through the end of their studies. According to Cotler-Wunsh, the Arabic taught to Israeli students would include an emphasis on both the spoken and the written language, allowing them to understand and be able to communicate with their Arab neighbors in Israel and the region, and helping to bridge the cultural and language gaps that currently exist. READ MORE

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Amnesty International “shocked and horrified” that #Iran has hanged French journalist #RuhollahZam

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

REUTERS
Iran executes French-based dissident journalist captured last year
by Staff
December 12, 2020

Iranian dissident journalist Ruhollah Zam, who was convicted of fomenting violence during anti-government protests in 2017, was executed on Saturday, Iran’s state television reported. France reacted with anger to the hanging of the Paris-based journalist, which it called “barbaric and unacceptable” and said ran counter to Iran’s international obligations. Iran said on Tuesday its Supreme Court had upheld the death sentence against Zam, who was captured in 2019 after years of living in exile in France. His Amadnews feed had more than 1 million followers. READ MORE

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“Hannukkah is not about “Tikkun Olam” – repairing the world, The miracle that we celebrate with Hanukkah was a military victory of the Hashmoneans (Maccabis) over the Greeks and Jewish Hellinizers, who wanted to end the Jewish religion”

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

LEGAL INSURRECTION
Kamala Harris And Her Husband Wrongly Portray Hanukkah As A Social Justice Holiday
by David Gerstman
December 15, 2020

Last week, Sen. Kamala Harris and her husband, Douglas Emhoff, who is Jewish, released a saccharine video explaining why Hanukkah is one of the couple’s “favorite holidays.” I’m not sure what the point of the video was. Harris tells the camera that the meaning of Hanukkah “is really about the light, and bringing light where there has been darkness. And there is so much work to be done. And it is a celebration of, always, Tikkun Olam, which is about fighting for justice, and fighting for the dignity of all people. ”I am reasonably familiar with the liturgy of Hanukkah – now in its fifth day – and the words “Tikkun Olam” do not appear anywhere. Tikkun Olam, which means repairing the world, is a Jewish concept, but it has been appropriated by Left in America as a synonym for social justice. READ MORE

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“King Mohammed VI’s declaration that he will normalize ties with Israel has had “the impact of a tsunami,” says head of the Council of Jewish Communities of Morocco”

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Morocco to become first Arab nation to teach Jewish history, culture in schools
by Dan Lavie and ILH Staff
December 13, 2020

Trailblazing change, Morocco on Sunday announced that its schools will soon begin teaching Jewish history and culture as part of the official curriculum – a first in the region and in the North African country, where Islam is the state religion. The decision follows King Mohammed VI of Morocco’s decision to normalize relations with the Jewish state in yet another historic peace deal brokered by US President Donald Trump’s administration and announced last week…The decision on the curriculum was reportedly made discretely even before Rabat and Jerusalem formerly normalized relations. According to AFP, the decision was made as part of an ongoing revamp of the educational curriculum in Morocco, which began in 2014. READ MORE

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Sirkis also points out that normalization with Morocco will also shorten the flight path for the six-hour flights it operates between Tel Aviv and Tenerife in southern Spain

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

GLOBES
El Al, Israir, Arkia plan daily Morocco flights
by Michal Raz-Chaimovitz
December 11, 2020

El Al Israel Airlines is planning at least one daily flight between Israel and Morocco using Dreamliners for the five hour journey, sources inform “Globes.” Last year, long before yesterday’s normalization agreement was announced, El Al attempted to launch daily Tel Aviv – Casablanca flights as relations between the two countries began to warm…Israir Airlines and Tourism Ltd. CEO Uri Sirkis is also readying for his airline to start operating on the route. Sirkis believes that in 2021 there will be potential for 150,000 Israeli tourists visiting Morocco during the year…Sirkis says that Israir is planning at least five weekly flights and he expects the flights to begin before Passover in March. READ MORE

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“The real problem here is not with Jill Biden’s title or the back-and-forth over Epstein’s essay. The real problem here is that Northwestern University decided to issue an official condemnation”

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
Dr. No: Northwestern’s Unwise Rebuke of Epstein’s Op-Ed
by Professor Charles Lipson
December 15, 2020

Joseph Epstein wrote a controversial column last week saying Jill Biden should stop using the courtesy title “Dr.,” despite her doctorate in education. Leave that title for physicians, Epstein said on the Wall Street Journal’s opinion page. The column set off fireworks among academics and intellectuals. The epicenter was Northwestern University, where Epstein, a prolific and erudite essayist, has long been listed as a “lecturer” in the English Department. No more. His name disappeared immediately from the department website. Ditching him quietly wasn’t enough for university administrators, who issued a blistering official condemnation of Epstein’s views. They added that he hadn’t really been a lecturer since 2003, without mentioning his many years of teaching there. READ MORE

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“What in the world convinced committed revolutionaries to cease their long march to revolutionary justice?”

Posted on December 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NATIONAL REVIEW
Our Brave New Biden World
by Victor Davis Hanson
December 8, 2020

America traditionally has not reinvented reality after an election, although prior presidential winners have often tried, as in the fashion of our politics. But the new powers of social media, Silicon Valley, and a woke media have made reality-changing now a reality. Suddenly Antifa and BLM have all but disappeared from their heroic barricades. Where and why did they go? Did they ever really exist? Mysteriously, a week or two before the election, the flood of violence in our major cities began downsizing to a tiny trickle. How strange that former angry throngs are now in nearly suspended animation. Are all those black kneepads, helmets, and umbrellas now in closets? READ MORE

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The White House said Trump and Morocco’s King Mohammed VI had agreed that Morocco would “resume diplomatic relations between Morocco and Israel and expand economic and cultural cooperation to advance regional stability”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ASSOCIATED PRESS
Trump announces Israel-Morocco to normalize relations
by Matthew Lee
December 10, 2020

Israel and Morocco have agreed to normalize relations, President Donald Trump said Thursday, marking the fourth Arab-Israeli agreement in four months. As part of the deal announced near the end of Trump’s term, the United States will recognize Morocco’s claim over the disputed Western Sahara region. Trump said Israel and Morocco would restore diplomatic and other relations, including the immediate reopening of liaison offices in Tel Aviv and Rabat and the eventual opening of embassies. U.S. officials said there would be joint overflight rights for airlines.  READ MORE

ISRAEL HAYOM Moroccan Jews laud normalization as ‘Hanukkah miracle’ The announcement of the establishment of full diplomatic ties between Morocco and Israel evokes a wave of joyous celebrations among Jews living in the north-African country.

JERUSALEM POST Israel normalizes ties with Bhutan Israel established full diplomatic relations with Bhutan for the first time on Saturday night. Israeli Ambassador to India Ron Malka and his Bhutanese counterpart Vetsop Namgyel signed the final agreement normalizing ties on Saturday night. The countries’ foreign ministries held secret talks over the past year towards the goal of forging official ties, which included delegations from Jerusalem to Thimphu, Bhutan’s capital, and Thimphu to Jerusalem.

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“When Orthodox Jews were targeted for violence, the non-Orthodox belatedly responded with talk of solidarity. The pandemic and politics have put the lie to their pledges”

Posted on December 10, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
One year after Jersey City attack, Jewish unity is on the rocks
by Jonathan Tobin
December 10, 2020

After a year of a pandemic and a hyper-partisan presidential election campaign, it seems like a lot longer than 12 months ago. However, the Dec. 10, 2019 attack on a kosher supermarket in Jersey City, N.J., briefly focused the American Jewish community on a problem that most of its members neither knew of nor cared much about up until then: African-American violence against Orthodox Jews. But as 2020 comes to a close, the non-Orthodox moved on from a momentary desire to pay lip service to the cause of unity with their more observant brethren. The focus on the impact of the novel coronavirus and differences about whether religious freedom should still be prioritized and protected during the crisis has left us further apart than ever. READ MORE

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Jews observed the holiday of Hanukkah in public for the first time in Dubai UAE on Thursday; Chabad reports an “exploding” number of Israelis in Dubai

Posted on December 10, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

BREITBART NEWS
Hanukkah Celebrated in Public in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, for the First Time, After Trump Peace Deal
by Joel Pollak
December 11, 2020

A lavish Hanukkah party was thrown at the foot of the Burj Khalifa, the world’s tallest building, on Thursday evening…Hanukkah is the only Jewish holiday that is meant to be observed as publicly as possible. Families are encouraged to light their menorahs near their doorways or windows, for example. But that was not possible in Dubai until very recently. Since then, Jews have been traveling to Dubai — to the extent possible under coronavirus restrictions — to enjoy the famed city’s attractions, and to host a variety of communal gatherings, including several boisterous Jewish weddings. The menorah at the Burj Khalifa was erected by the local Chabad rabbi, part of a campaign of public Chanukah celebrations launched by the late Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson. READ MORE

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