Supermarket and telecoms magnate Rami Levy sues United Nations Human Rights Council over claims his company “violates international law” by operating in Judea and Samaria.

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
Israeli retailer sues UNHRC for defamation over ‘disputed territories blacklist’
by Hili Yacobi-Handelsman
August 18, 2020

Supermarket and telecoms magnate Rami Levy on Monday filed a defamation lawsuit against the United Nations Human Rights Council over claims his company “violates international law” by operating in Judea and Samaria. The claim, to the tune of 280,000 shekels ($82,000), was filed with the help of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, after Levy’s supermarket chain, which has several locations in Judea and Samaria, was included in a list of businesses the UNHRC determined were operating illegally. The UN agency’s blacklist comprises 112 business entities, 94 in Israel…READ MORE

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Yishai Fleisher, Mordechai Kedar and Benjamin Anthony on the UAE-Israel Deal

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

MIRYAM INSTITUTE
Ten takeaways from the UAE-Israel Announcement
by Benjamin Anthony
August 17, 2020

…In no particular order, here are ten take away points to keep in mind: 1) By taking the issue of sovereignty off the table, the Israeli right has been spared from entering into the Trump peace plan as a basis for negotiations. That plan endorsed Israeli sovereignty over the Jordan valley, but it also supported the establishment of a Palestinian state in Judea & Samaria, it’s capital in east Jerusalem and the ceding of more Israeli land, this time adjacent to the Gaza strip…6) Normalization turns the tables on the Iranians. For years, Iran has tormented Israel by stationing Hezbollah in southern Lebanon, hard along Israel’s border. Now Iran must contend with the open fact that Israeli capabilities and know-how will be established in the UAE…READ MORE

Yishael Fleisher: My interview with Dr. Mordechai Kedar about Abraham Accords, who Mohammed bin Zayid is, and how the #UAE sees Israel

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“When I see the flag of my country being burned by some Palestinians because of the peace treaty with Israel – I apologize to every Israeli man if I offended him in the past”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
Arabs Are Fed Up With the ‘Ungrateful’ Palestinians
by Khaled Abu Toameh
August 19, 2020

Scenes of Palestinians burning and trampling flags of the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and pictures of its de facto ruler, Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed, have sparked a wave of protests in a number of Arab countries. Their citizens are accusing the Palestinians of ingratitude, treason and hypocrisy. The powerful reactions of many Arabs to the Palestinian campaign of incitement against the UAE — after its agreement establish relations with Israel — are yet another sign of the increased disillusionment in the Arab world with the Palestinians. READ MORE

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Antisemite Linda Sarsour addresses Dem convention but “she has no role in the Biden campaign whatsoever”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK POST
Biden campaign denies Linda Sarsour ties after DNC appearance
by Emily Jacobs
August 19, 2020

The Biden campaign is distancing itself from controversial former Women’s March leader Linda Sarsour after the Democratic National Committee featured her in a council meeting at the convention this week. Sarsour, a prominent left-wing Muslim advocate who has faced accusations of anti-Semitism, appeared at a virtual meeting of the Democratic National Convention’s “Muslim Delegates and Allies Assembly” on Tuesday. Speaking during the appearance, Sarsour argued, “The Democratic Party is not perfect, but it is absolutely our party in this moment.” READ MORE

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#UCBerkeley Center for Middle Eastern Studies hosted dozens of Israel-related events in 2019, but each one “maliciously attempted to portray the democracy of Israel in a negative light”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JWEEKLY.COM
Congressman takes up students’ claims of anti-Israel bias at UC Berkeley
by Gabe Stutman
August 18, 2020

Pro-Israel students at UC Berkeley have a powerful new ally in the form of a Colorado member of Congress strongly supportive of the Jewish state. Doug Lamborn of Colorado Springs, co-chair of the House Republican Israel Caucus, earlier this summer sent a letter pressing the U.S. Department of Education to investigate whether federal funds earmarked for international and foreign language study are being misused in the service of overly ideological, biased instruction on the Middle East and Israel. READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG 3 Jewish Students Forced Out of USC Student Government for Pro-Israel Views Students for Justice in Palestine purges Jews from USC student government. Truman Fritz and Rose Ritch won the most votes in the race for president and vice president of the USC Undergraduate Student Government. Isabel Washington scored the most votes in the Senate race. Six months later, all three USC students were harassed into resigning.

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“Harold Grinspoon struggled with reading as a child. Today he’s the man behind the world’s largest Jewish book program, PJ Library”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Most Important Jewish Philanthropist You’ve Never Heard Of
by Emily Benedek
August 19, 2020

“Jews have made amazing contributions to this world. But we have a 50% intermarriage rate in America. And only about one-third of the intermarried families’ children turn out to be Jews. So that, demographically, is a huge crisis. Being the crisis that it is, I thought I would devote my energy and my wealth to helping the Jewish people out.” So said Harold Grinspoon, 91, in his homespun language, in a private video made in 2014, intended for future trustees of his eponymous foundation. READ MORE

Sign up for free books from PJ Library Every month, PJ Library sends more than 650,000 free Jewish books to families around the world with children 6 months through 8 years old. PJ Library shares stories that celebrate Jewish values, culture, and tradition, all at no cost to families. Free Jewish middle-grade books for 9-12-year-olds are available at PJ Our Way.

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“Criticizing a person for actions that have nothing to do with being Jewish – without attacking the person for being Jewish or connected to Jews, and without attacking Jews as a group – is not anti-Semitism”

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

REAL CLEAR POLITICS
This Jew Stands With John Kass Against Anti-Semitic Hit
by David M. Simon
August 16, 2020

The Anti-Defamation League, Chicago 47th Ward Alderman Matt Martin, and the Chicago Tribune Guild Executive Board recently attacked Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass for supposed anti-Semitism. The charges against Kass are wrong. And as a Jew, I find the charges particularly offensive because they abuse the meaning of anti-Semitism. In his July 22 column, Kass pointed the finger of responsibility for the spike in murders in Chicago and other cities at progressive prosecutors who, like Cook County State’s Attorney Kim Foxx, were elected with the help of millions from billionaire George Soros. READ MORE

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Chicago’s leaders have surrendered to vandals

Posted on August 16, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

CITY JOURNAL
When Authority Vanishes
by John O. McGinnis
August 14, 2020

Riding in trucks and U-Hauls, vandals came to downtown Chicago on Sunday. They jammed streets around the Magnificent Mile, home of the city’s most important shopping district. They came prepared with tools like crowbars to pry open gates and take all the merchandise that they could pack. It was a strike directed at the heart of the city. While the vandals were organized, the police were not. Earlier in the day, a policeman had returned fire and wounded a suspect. False rumors spread that the suspect was an unarmed juvenile. Crowds gathered; social media lit up with menace. But the police did not deploy in force until looters flooded into places with the most valuable goods. READ MORE

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“Third-ever peace treaty between Israel and an Arab state includes embassies, direct flights; agreement “suspends” annexation, but Netanyahu says: “I will never give up on our right to our land”

Posted on August 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Israel, UAE reach historic peace deal: ‘We can make a wonderful future’
by Lahav Harkov, Omri Nahmias
August 13, 2020

Israel and the UAE agreed to full normalization of relations in a phone call with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, marking the first peace treaty between Israel and an Arab country in 25 years. Israel agreed to suspend its planned extension of sovereignty over parts of Judea and Samaria to facilitate relations with the UAE and potentially other Arab and Muslim countries. The agreement will include establishing embassies and exchanging ambassadors, investments into the Israeli economy, trade, direct flights between Tel Aviv and Abu Dhabi, an investment in Israeli efforts to develop a coronavirus vaccine…and cooperation in matters of energy and water. READ MORE

THE HILL Richard Grenell: Israel-UAE breakthrough proves Trump’s critics wrong — again For nearly four years, Washington foreign policy experts and Obama administration alumni warned that the Trump administration was jeopardizing any prospects for Middle East peace…With such a grim record of prediction, Thursday’s historic announcement that the U.S. brokered a normalization agreement between Israel and the United Arab Emirates – the first Gulf Arab state to announce formal relations with the Jewish State – has the D.C. establishment with its tail between its legs once again.

WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial Board: Trump’s Mideast Breakthrough The Israel-UAE accord discredits Obama’s regional vision…Re­call that man­darins of Obama for­eign pol­icy said mov­ing the U.S. Em­bassy to Jerusalem would cause an Arab back­lash. In fact, it is be­ing fol­lowed by some of the clos­est Arab-U.S.-Is­raeli co­op­er­a­tion on record. Larger strate­gic re­al­i­ties in the Mid­dle East are more im­por­tant and are dri­ving this change.

COMMENTARY Noah Rothman: There Is No Going Back In a momentous announcement on Thursday, President Donald Trump revealed that Israel and the United Arab Emirates had agreed to the reestablishment of diplomatic relations. This is not merely a dramatic victory for the region’s peace-loving peoples but a political coup for the Trump administration, though they must share this success with their predecessors in the Obama White House. If the 44th President’s efforts to isolate Israel and reconfigure geopolitics in the Middle East hadn’t backfired so spectacularly, none of this would be happening.

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“Lebanon has no independent “national institutions” that can serve as counterweights against Iran’s Hezbollah, the most powerful terrorist organization in the world”

Posted on August 13, 2020 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
Lebanon: Hezbollah’s Potemkin Village
by Caroline Glick
August 12, 2020

…Aside from the despair, there is nothing new about the protests or the calls for Hezbollah and Iran to be chased from Lebanon. For nearly a year before the outbreak of COVID-19, millions of Lebanese protested throughout the country with the same demands. The U.S., and the world governments now lining up to fund Lebanon’s reconstruction and relief, should listen to the cries of the Lebanese people. The LAF is not the solution to Lebanon’s problems. As a front company for Lebanon, like the port, it is a façade for Hezbollah’s power. It is hard to see a happy end to Lebanon’s problems. But the first step towards rationally coping with them is for the U.S. and its allies to recognize the truth revealed last Tuesday. READ MORE

REUTERS Seismic data suggests string of blasts preceded Beirut explosion: Israeli analyst Seismological data suggests that six blasts preceded the Beirut port explosion, the last of them a combustion of fireworks that apparently set off a warehouse full of ammonium nitrate, an Israeli analyst said on Thursday. The six blasts were at 11-second intervals during the Aug. 4 incident, with the main explosion following the last by around 43 seconds, Boaz Hayoun of Israel’s Tamar Group told Reuters.

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