As Notre Dame burns….”church doors across Europe smeared with Islamic expressions like ‘Allahu Akbar'”

Posted on April 16, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
European Churches: Vandalized, Defecated On, and Torched “Every Day”
by Raymond Ibrahim
April 14, 2019

Countless churches throughout Western Europe are being vandalized, defecated on, and torched. In France, two churches are desecrated every day on average. According to PI-News, a German news site, 1,063 attacks on Christian churches or symbols (crucifixes, icons, statues) were registered in France in 2018. This represents a 17% increase compared to the previous year (2017), when 878 attacks were registered— meaning that such attacks are only going from bad to worse. Among some of the recent desecrations in France, the following took place in just February and March…READ MORE

FORWARD What Jews Might Have Lost In the Fire at Notre-Dame de Paris Cathedral As flames devastated Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral on April 15, more than just a worldwide center of Catholic worship and an architectural masterpiece was threatened. Jewish history is also reflected in the cathedral, for better and for worse.

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Malkah and #YishaiFleisher thoughtfully unpack last weeks Israel elections. And how to talk to #JStreet

Posted on April 16, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

The Yishai Fleisher Show: Israeli Elections and J Street

First, Yishai and Malkah talk about the winners and the losers – and the blessings – of the Israeli 2019 general elections. Then, Yishai addresses a JStreet student audience about a real liberal vision for the future of the State of Israel.

MOSAIC The Common Sense of Israel’s Voting Public Israelis are neither blind to Netanyahu’s flaws nor fooled by his diversions. They chose him because he best reflects their political values and best secures their interests.

THE SUN Winner in Israel Turns Out To Be New Voting Law Who was the real winner in the recent Israeli elections? The answer: the 2014 electoral law. It requires a list to garner at least 3.25 % of the vote to get seats at the Knesset.

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“The Year Passover Saved A Family From Going On The Titanic”

Posted on April 16, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

THE NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK
Three Passover Vignettes To Tell At Your Seder Table
by Steve Lipman
April 16, 2019

…Last week’s 107th anniversary of the maiden voyage and subsequent sinking of the Titanic was a reminder of the time that keeping Passover saved my great-grandfather’s life. Heschel Treiman had booked passage on Titanic to bring his wife and children to the United States. But being a pious Jew, he would not travel during Pesach; he traded in his tickets; the Treimans sailed in May. And they arrived safely in the United States. I heard this family story in 1974, when I was four. READ MORE

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Trump’s Deal of the Century: Ambassador Dermer quipped, “They say that the key to peace is low expectations. So I think you are well underway.” The comment drew laughter from the crowd”

Posted on April 15, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JEWISH INSIDER
Dermer: Trump peace plan will take Israel’s ‘vital interests’ into account
April 16, 2019

Israeli Ambassador Ron Dermer addressed the much-anticipated Trump Mideast peace plan in remarks at the White House pre-Passover reception on Tuesday.  “I know a lot of people are concerned that the peace plan is going to be coming out soon. But I have to say, as Israel’s ambassador, I am confident that this administration — given its support for Israel — will take Israel’s vital concerns into account in any plan they will put forward,” Dermer said in remarks obtained by Jewish Insider.  READ MORE

ALGEMEINER
Shmuley Boteach: Why is Alan Dershowitz Pressuring Israel for a Palestinian State?
“Mazal tov to IsraeliPM Netanyahu, who I’ve known since he was a student at MIT,” Dershowitz tweeted, before adding that he was “waiting for the new peace plan to be implemented.” He then specified exactly how it had to be done: “[It’s] time for a fair two-state solution that assures Israel’s security.” Firstly, someone ought to notify Dershowitz that Netanyahu is no longer a student at MIT. 

WASHINGTON TIMES Daniel Pipes; Anticipating Trump’s ‘deal of the century‘…The purported deal contains many elements favorable to the Palestinians: Palestine consists of Areas A and B on the West Bank in their entirety and parts of Area C; in all, it will constitute 90 percent of the West Bank; The capital is within or near Jerusalem’s expansive municipal boundaries, perhaps in an area stretching from Shuafat to Isawiya, Abu Dis and Jabal Mukabar…Jewish residents in smaller West Bank towns are relocated; A land passage connects the West Bank and Gaza…

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Congresswoman #Tlaib speaking to American Muslims for Palestine: “She feels “more #Palestinian” in Congress than she does anywhere else in the world”

Posted on April 15, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

INVESTIGATIVE PROJECT ON TERRORISM
AOC, Tlaib Met with AMP Members During Palestine Advocacy Day
by John Rossomando
April 12, 2019

Members of the rabidly anti-Israel group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) met this week with U.S. Reps. Rashida Tlaib, D-Mich., and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., during the group’s annual Palestine Advocacy Day. Ocasio-Cortez posed for a photo with AMP supporters outside her office on Capitol Hill, an AMP newsletter posted online shows…AMP is the successor and alter ego of a defunct Hamas front that formerly operated as the Islamic Association for Palestine (IAP)/American Muslim Society (AMS), a lawsuit filed in Illinois federal court claims. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER Jewish Democrats Slam Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Over Comment That Cutting US Aid to Israel Should Be ‘On the Table’ She also criticized Netanyahu as a “Trump-like figure.”..The Jewish Democratic Council of America (JDCA) on Monday strongly criticized Ocasio-Cortez for her comments.

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“United States has never joined the ICC and does not recognize its authority over American citizens, saying it poses a threat to national sovereignty”

Posted on April 14, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

MILITARY.COM
ICC Judges Turn Down Request for Afghanistan War Crimes Probe
by AFP
April 13, 2019

Judges at the International Criminal Court Friday turned down a request to open a war crimes probe in Afghanistan, a week after Washington revoked the court’s chief prosecutor’s visa over the case. “The judges decided that an investigation into the situation in Afghanistan at this stage would not serve the interests of justice,” the Hague-based court said in a statement. Fatou Bensouda’s U.S. visa was revoked over a possible probe involving American soldiers’ actions since 2003 in the bloody Afghan conflict. READ MORE

JNS In show of solidarity, Trump defends and protects Israel from International Criminal Court The United States has made it clear that no international court, especially those led by human-rights violators, would threaten it or its military personnel. It has also made clear that Israel sits safely under American protection...Professor Eugene Kontorovich, director of International Law at the Jerusalem-based Kohelet Policy Forum: “President Trump has taken an extraordinary step in defense of Israel, promising to impose sanctions such as travel bans on ICC officials if they pursue their biased investigation of Israel.”

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Khashoggi tweets “still online as of April 14, 2019 show a pattern of anti-Jewish views that even hinted at references to the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion”

Posted on April 14, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
The antisemitic tweets of murdered Saudi writer Jamal Khashoggi
by Seth J. Frantzman
April 14, 2019

The late Saudi Arabian journalist, editor and kingdom-insider Jamal Khashoggi, writing on Twitter from 2011 until 2018, said Jews had no roots in historic Palestine, that one must be know how to speak to Jews when meeting them, and that Jews were conspiring to divide al-Aqsa Mosque. The tweets, still online as of April 14, 2019, show a pattern of anti-Jewish views that even hinted at references to the antisemitic Protocols of the Elders of Zion, and complained that the West had laws preventing Holocaust denial. READ MORE

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EVENT Chicago FIDF Annual Dinner

Posted on April 14, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

FIDF Illinois Chapter
presents their Annual Dinner
A NIGHT OF HEROES
Wednesday May 8, 2019
Hyatt Regency Chicago
151 East Wacker Drive, Chicago, IL

5:30pm Strolling Dinner
6:45pm Dessert & Program
Business Attire, Dietary Laws Observed
Click here to register or for more information, email Sarah.Perl@fidf.org

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Beresheet 2.0 is coming

Posted on April 13, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

SPACE.COM
Israel Will Build Another Moon Lander
by Mike Wall
April 13, 2019

Israel will keep shooting for the moon. The team behind the nation’s Beresheet probe, which crashed during its historic lunar-landing attempt Thursday (April 11), will take another crack at Earth’s nearest neighbor. “We’re going to actually build a new halalit — a new spacecraft,” billionaire businessman and philanthropist Morris Kahn said in a video statement posted on Twitter by the nonprofit group SpaceIL. “We’re going to put it on the moon, and we’re going to complete the mission.” The work on Beresheet 2.0 will begin immediately, he added: the team is meeting this weekend to start planning the new project. READ MORE

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“Israel’s confusing plethora of small parties actually keeps Ḥaredim and Israeli Arabs, in particular, from becoming too alienated”

Posted on April 13, 2019 by ArchitectGuy

MOSAIC
How Israel’s Electoral System Brings the Country’s Fringes Into Its Center
by Evelyn Gordon
April 9, 2019

Like Haviv Rettig Gur in “How and Why Israelis Vote,” I, too, think the advantages of Israel’s parliamentary system outweigh its disadvantages, and for essentially the same reason: because it keeps a great many people in the political system who would otherwise remain outside it. Critics of the system’s plethora of small parties—as Gur notes, no fewer than 43 parties have been vying for Knesset seats in this year’s election—maintain that it should be streamlined and redesigned so that only big parties would be able to enter the Knesset…What, then, might be done to further the mainstreaming of both haredi and Arab voters?…READ MORE

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