“Democrats have been reluctant to support anti-BDS legislation due to First Amendment concerns”

JNS
US House Democrats block anti-BDS bill
March 5, 2020

Democrats blocked a bill on Wednesday in the U.S. House of Representatives that would have prohibited U.S. support for the anti-Israel BDS movement. The Israel Anti-Boycott Act, introduced by Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), would have expanded the Export Control Reform Act of 2018 to include prohibiting U.S. support for foreign boycotts of Israel from groups including the European Union and the U.N. Human Rights Council. Lawmakers defeated consideration of the bill by a tally of 219-194. READ MORE

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“Tens of thousands of these migrants were given free bus rides from Istanbul to Turkey’s land borders with Bulgaria and Greece”

GATESTONE
Europe Must Not Fall Victim to Erdoğan’s Blackmail
by Burak Bekdil
March 6, 2020

Turkey’s Islamist strongman, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, has threatened Europe several times with “sending millions of refugees your way.” Turkey would apparently like to see more progress in the talks to grant it admission as a full member of the European Union. At the moment, these membership negotiations have stalled. He may also wish for Western support — from the EU, the United States and all of NATO — for his ideal architecture to install Turkey in northwest Syria. READ MORE

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“The US president is fumbling in the face of a health crisis of unknown proportions”

ASIA TIMES
Fumbling in the face of coronavirus could lose Trump the election
by David P. Goldman
March 5, 2020

Panic returned to the US stock market on Thursday as the federal government fumbled in the face of a health crisis of unknown proportions, and President Donald Trump appeared to downplay the scale of the problem in a Fox News interview. Someone should tell the president that reality shows don’t go as scripted when the studio is on fire. Meanwhile, no one in the United States knows how fast Covid-19 has spread, where it is spread, or how it is spreading…The buck stops at the president’s desk, in Harry Truman’s celebrated saying – but never more so than during a public health crisis.READ MORE

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“The U.S. State Department has approved an Israeli request to buy eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers”

NATIONAL INTEREST
Trump Just Gave Israel the Ability to Attack Iran’s Nuclear Sites with F-35s
by Michael Peck
March 4, 2020

If Israel does decide to bomb Iran, the U.S. government has made it a little easier. The U.S. State Department has approved an Israeli request to buy eight KC-46A Pegasus aerial tankers. Including support equipment, spare parts and training, the deal is valued at $2.4 billion, with the first aircraft arriving in 2023. The sale “supports the foreign policy and national security of the United States by allowing Israel to provide a redundant capability to U.S. assets within the region, potentially freeing U.S. assets for use elsewhere during times of war,” said the State Department’s Defense Security Cooperation Agency. READ MORE

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“The parliamentarians who refuse to join the right-wing bloc are united by a singular goal: to dethrone Netanyahu”

JNS
The undemocratic alliance bent on toppling Netanyahu
by Alex Traiman
March 4, 2020

In Israel’s third election in less than one year, embattled Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu defeated his closest challenger by three Knesset seats (36-33), and his bloc of right-wing allies defeated the opposing left-wing bloc supporting challenger Benny Gantz by a stunning 18 seats (58-40). Yet, similar to the first two election contests, Netanyahu still remains precariously shy of a parliamentary majority. Coalition negotiations have yet to officially begin, and just three of the remaining 62 Knesset members from outside of Netanyahu’s bloc could push Israel’s tenured premier over the 61-seat majority threshold. By doing so, they would bring much-needed stability to a convoluted parliamentary political system whose efficacy is now being rightfully questioned. READ MORE

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Danny Danon: “We don’t want Sanders at AIPAC. We don’t want him in Israel”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Israel’s UN ambassador tells AIPAC Bernie Sanders is an ‘ignorant fool’
by TOI staff
March 1, 2020

Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations on Sunday assailed US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders as an “ignorant fool,” two days before a key test for the Jewish frontrunner when primaries will be held in 14 states in Super Tuesday. At a conference hosted by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), Danny Danon made the daring remark — which could be construed as Israeli interference in the election process in the United States — in reaction to Sanders recently calling Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “reactionary racist.” “Whoever calls the prime minister of Israel a ‘racist’ is either a liar, an ignorant fool, or both,” Danon said. READ MORE

THE HILL AIPAC says group of attendees at conference may have had past exposure to coronavirus Attendees of the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference may have come into contact with the coronavirus, organizers said Wednesday. Some policy conference attendees from New York were potentially in contact prior to the conference with an individual who contracted the coronavirus, AIPAC President Betsy Berns Korn and AIPAC Chairman Dr. Mort Fridman said in a note to attendees.

THE INTERCEPT In wake of AIPAC, Israeli Health Ministry orders self-quarantine of residents returning from conferences abroad

JERUSALEM POST First Shi’ite country: Azerbaijan’s historic speech at AIPAC conference The country of Azerbaijan carved out a historic role for itself by being the first majority Shi’ite country to have a cabinet level minister on Sunday deliver a speech at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee’s annual policy conference to advance the troika of relations among the Caucasus nation, Israel and the US.

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“The real cause of the descent into anti-Zionism and hatred of Jews is secular liberalism, and the cultural fissure that has opened up along fault lines going back to the 18th-century Enlightenment”

JNS
From Aalst to America: The post-modern, anti-Jewish reconfiguration of the West
by Melanie Phillips
February 27, 2020

While anti-Jewish attacks are coming from the far-right, the left and the Muslim community, the greatest threat comes from the progressive side of politics. This is because its worldview overwhelmingly dominates Western cultural and political institutions; it harbors profound anti-Jewish views within its own ranks; and its cultural reach means that its own anti-Jewish incitement legitimizes and encourages far-right anti-Semitic attitudes that were once treated as beyond the pale. And this is all inextricably tied up with hatred of Israel, and the entirely false but widespread belief that the Jews have displaced the indigenous people of the land and behave illegally and with wanton cruelty towards the Palestinian remnant. READ MORE

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“Anti-Semites are thrilled to call Sanders an ally, and he is equally excited to call anti-Semites friends”

AMERICAN GREATNESS
Democratic Majority for Israel Waves the White Flag in Presidential Contest
by Joshua Sharf
February 28th, 2020

Word is that the Democratic Majority for Israel (DMFI) is waving the white flag in the presidential race, will spend no more money on it, and will not endorse a candidate. DMFI had been running ads against Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) “Democratic Majority for Israel does not intend to run any more televised ads against Sen. Bernie Sanders…Instead, the group will focus on down-ticket races, supporting pro-Israel Democrats in the primaries and general election.  READ MORE

WALL STREET JOURNAL Editorial Board: Bernie’s Foreign Sympathies He assails Americans who support Israel and calls Benjamin Netanyahu a ‘racist.’

WASHINGTON EXAMINER Bernie Sanders and the anti-Semites make strange bedfellows Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders has drawn support from a large variety of Americans. Unfortunately, that includes some of the vilest anti-Semites the far-left has to offer. It invites the question of why people who have a hatred of Jews can’t get enough of a Jewish candidate. Sanders has been endorsed by Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar, who was voted on by thousands of Americans as the “anti-Semite of the year.”

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“It’s a catastrophe,” an El Al official told Kan News, “The airlines here will collapse within weeks”

YESHIVA WORLD
El Al Warns It Will Imminently Collapse; Plans To Fire 1,000 People Due To Coronavirus Losses
February 27, 2020

Israel became the first country on Wednesday to advise its citizens to halt all unnecessary travel abroad in light of the recent alarming spread of the coronavirus in countries outside China, including South Korea, Italy, Germany and other European countries and the first case diagnosed in Latin America in Brazil. Following the Health Ministry’s announcement, El Al airline stated that Israel’s unprecedented warnings and restrictions against travel due to the coronavirus – stricter than any other country – will bring it and other Israeli airlines to financial collapseEl Al sustained damage of $50 million (NIS 200 million) from the coronavirus even before the Health Ministry announcement. READ MORE

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“Chief rabbi urges keeping lips off hands touching mezuzahs; European rabbinical group bans those feeling unwell from synagogue, even to recite the Kaddish prayer for the dead”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Coronavirus takes toll on religious life as rabbis advise against ritual kissing
by Stuart Winer
March 4, 2020

Ashkenazi Chief Rabbi of Israel David Lau on Wednesday said Israelis should avoid touching and kissing mezuzahs affixed to doorframes, as religious figures took steps to avoid the spread of the novel coronavirus via Jewish rites. At a time when “we are witnesses to the spread of a serious disease, there is no doubt that one should not kiss or touch the mezuzah at all,” Lau wrote in a statement. “It is enough for a person to think about it during his entering and exiting.”…There is a Jewish custom to touch the mezuzah when entering or leaving a room, and many also then kiss their fingers afterward. READ MORE

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