“When President Bush came on the line, however, he not only refused to destroy al-Kibar but said that he also expected Israel to behave with restraint”

JEWISH REVIEW OF BOOKS
Red Light, Green Light, a review of Yaakov Katz’s Shadow Strike: Inside Israel’s Secret Mission to Eliminate Syrian Nuclear Power
by Michael Doran
Summer 2019

In early July 2007, President George W. Bush called Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert to deliver a significant message. Some three months earlier, Olmert had dispatched Meir Dagan, the head of the Mossad, to Washington to inform Bush of a startling discovery by Israeli intelligence. Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad, with the help of the North Koreans, was building a nuclear reactor….Olmert expected that the president would agree that the reactor had to be destroyed. He preferred for the American military to do the job, but if that was not possible, he hoped Bush would give his approval for an Israeli strike… READ MORE

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“Among young respondents ages 16-34, 45 per cent said they choose not to wear, carry or display distinguishable Jewish items in public because there are concerned about their safety”

CANADIAN JEWISH NEWS
41 per cent of young European Jews have considered emigrating due to anti-Semitism
by JTA
July 4, 2019

Forty-one per cent of some 2,700 young Jews in Europe said in a poll that they have considered emigrating because they do not feel safe in their countries as Jews. The data comes from an analysis published Thursday of a 2018 survey of over 16,000 Jews conducted by the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights…The young Jews surveyed come from Austria, Belgium, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, Sweden and the United Kingdom. READ MORE

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#FreeSpeech What geniuses in government will be tasked with deciding what we can and cannot say?

THE HILL
France has turned into one of the worldwide threats to free speech
by Jonathan Turley
July 6, 2019

While our politicians in the United States may applaud Macron like village idiots, most Americans are hardcore believers in free speech. It runs in our blood. Undeterred, however, Macron and others in Europe are moving to unilaterally impose speech controls on the internet with new legislation in France and Germany. If you believe this is a European issue, think again. Macron and his government are attempting to unilaterally scrub out the internet of hateful thoughts. READ MORE

GATESTONE Judith Bergman:UN Launches All-out War on Free Speech In other words, forget everything about the free exchange of ideas: the UN feels that its ‘values’ are being threatened and those who criticize those values must therefore be shut down.

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Tunisia PM Chahed cites security reasons for the niqab ban following a double suicide bombing in Tunis last month.

ALJAZEERA
Tunisia bans face veils in public institutions after bombing
July 5, 2019

Tunisian Prime Minister Youssef Chahed has banned the wearing of the niqab – a full-face veil – in public institutions with immediate effect, citing security reasons. ” Chahed signed a government decree that bars any person with an undisclosed face from access to public headquarters, administrations, institutions for security reasons,” an official source told Reuters News Agency on Friday. The decision, which was reported on state media, comes at a time of heightened security in the country following a double suicide bombing in the capital, Tunis, on June 27 that left two people dead and seven wounded. READ MORE

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“EU’s Mogherini successor Josep Borrell last year denounced Netanyahu’s ‘warlike arrogance’ and advocated for unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Tough on Israel, fond of Iran: Jerusalem wary of incoming EU foreign policy czar
by Raphael Ahren
July 3, 2019

Israeli officials are warily following the changing of the guard at the European Union, where someone who has recently floated the idea of unilateral recognition of Palestinian statehood and has expressed strong support for Iran was tapped to be its next foreign policy chief. On Tuesday, the European Council nominated Spanish Foreign Minister Josep Borrell Fontelles, a member of the country’s ruling Socialist Workers’ Party, as the EU’s top diplomat…“More difficult times [are] ahead between the EU and Israel I fear,” tweeted Bas Belder, a Dutch member of the European Parliament and veteran pro-Israel advocate. READ MORE

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“Was the principal of one of Palm Beach County’s largest public schools suggesting that the Holocaust was a belief rather than an actual event?”

PALM BEACH POST
Spanish River High’s principal refused to call the Holocaust a fact
by Andrew Marra
July 5, 2019

She sent off the email with few expectations — a routine question seeking a routine answer. How, the mother wondered, was the Holocaust being taught at Spanish River High School? She wanted to make sure, she wrote to the principal, that her child’s school was making Holocaust education “a priority”…. In an email reply, Principal William Latson assured her that the school had “a variety of activities” for Holocaust education. But he explained that the lessons are “not forced upon individuals as we all have the same rights but not all the same beliefs.” READ MORE

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Suheib Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and younger brother of Green Prince Mosab Yousef, flees organization and gives revealing interview to Israel TV

JNS
Another son of Hamas founder flees, blasts terror organization’s corruption
July 4, 2019

Suheib Yousef, son of Hamas co-founder Sheikh Hassan Yousef and younger brother of “Green Prince” Mosab Yousef, deserted his post in Turkey, flew to an undisclosed Asian country and then gave an interview to an Israeli journalist in which he excoriated the terrorist organization’s corruption…“The point of the attacks in the West Bank is to kill civilians, not for the aim of resistance, or Jerusalem, not for liberating Palestinian land, and not even because they hate Jews,” said Yousef. READ MORE

I24NEWS Shin Bet captures Hamas operative entering Israel under guise of medical treatment The Israeli security agency Shin Bet announced on Wednesday the arrest of Hamas operative Fadi Abu Al Sabakh, 35, who entered Israel with a false humanitarian pretense, pretending to require medical treatment. According to local reports, the suspect had undergone a full year’s training by the military wing of Hamas before entering Israel.

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Famed “bad guy” Philistines like Delilah and Goliath, came from Europe, DNA shows

REUTERS
Biblical bad guys the ancient Philistines came from Europe, DNA shows
by Rinat Harash and Ari Rabinovitch
July 3, 2019

The ancient Philistines, the Biblical villains whose origins have puzzled scholars for decades, came to the Middle East from southern Europe more than 3,000 years ago, new DNA testing has shown. The genetic findings came from skeletons unearthed by archaeologists in Israel in 2016, including the bones of infants buried beneath Philistine houses, archaeologists said in a paper published on Wednesday. The much-maligned group is regularly depicted as the enemy of the Israelites in Biblical texts. READ MORE

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Yishai Fleisher asks “Who’s hurting the Palestinian people?”

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“A parade of diverse people—poets and politicians, generals and physicians, God-fearing and disbelievers—turned to the Lubavitcher Rebbe for guidance. Why?”

TABLET MAG
Me Among the Believers
by Liel Leibovitz
July 2, 2019

…Those of us who spend too much time on social media, who shout at the TV news, who are quick to ascribe disagreements to malice and end friendships at the first sign of discord, those of us prone to infighting and name-calling and purity tests, those content to cast out others until the tent is nearly empty: We need to follow in the footsteps of our elders—whether you consider your direct elder to be Avraham Shlonsky or Yitzhak Rabin or Arthur Miller—and listen to the Rebbe. The lesson he bequeaths us isn’t an easy one to learn, but it’s one we can’t afford to ignore…READ MORE

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