Sharansky on McCain: “The American people lost a man of rare integrity this week, and I lost a very dear comrade in arms. May his legacy live on”

Posted on August 27, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
In memory of McCain’s service to America, Israel and the Jewish people
by Farley Weiss
August 28, 2018

…Sen. John McCain of Arizona, who died on Aug. 25 at age 81, was an extraordinary friend of the Jewish people. He was an outspoken defender of Israel and a close friend of former Sen. Joe Lieberman of Connecticut. The many articles written about McCain and Israel have not included some of the most amazing acts of friendship and love he had for Israel and the Jewish people. Being a member of the local Phoenix Jewish community for 39 years allowed me to meet the senator on a number of occasions, and we were privy to some amazing actions and comments by the senator that have not been widely reported. READ MORE

PJ MEDIA Prayers, Sermons, the Apostles’ Creed: The Inspiring Story of John McCain’s Faith as a POW The Vietnamese starved him and beat him, he suffered dysentery, and his body was permanently scarred by his injuries and the beatings. McCain, a lifelong Episcopalian who attended an evangelical Baptist church, found his strength in prayer.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Natan Sharanksy: John McCain understood why I refused to leave prison The late US senator translated his firsthand knowledge of the horrors of captivity and dictatorship into a lifelong pursuit of justice

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Trump policy: “The U.S. is not neutral between #Israel, America’s democratic friend and ally, and the #Palestinians, who are neither”

Posted on August 27, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

AMERICAN THINKER
Taking an Axe to the “Peace Process”
by Shoshana Bryen
August 29, 2018

The Trump administration has restored the United States to the position of honest broker – emphasis on “honest” – and taken a hatchet to a series of fantasies underlying the notion of an Israeli-Palestinian “peace process.” Twenty-five years after the Oslo Accords ushered in radical, despotic, kleptocratic Palestinian self-government, the Accords are dead…The Washington rumor mill believes that President Trump’s next move will be to change the definition of Palestinians as “refugees” in the American lexicon.  Palestinians will cease to be the only population in the world in which refugee status is handed down generationally through one’s father… READ MORE

FRONT PAGE MAG Trump Cuts Palestinian Funding No more unconditional aid to corrupt, terrorism-enabling Palestinian leadership

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USHMM: “Mr. Palij’s deportation was an important moment in ensuring that the murders of millions of Jews would not fade from popular memory”

Posted on August 27, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK TIMES
How the Nazis Got to New York: Immigration Fraud
by Ali Winston
August 23, 2018

The 95-year-old Nazi who was deported this week after living quietly in Queens for decades was not the only member of his squad to come to New York City. Jakiw Palij, a former member of the Hitler’s Schutzstaffel, or SS, arrived in Germany on Tuesday, 14 years after the federal government stripped him of citizenship. But the story of how Mr. Palij arrived in the United States, acquired citizenship and built a life in Queens is not one of a lone Nazi thwarting immigration laws, but of a trio of Third Reich soldiers working together to find haven in America, one vouching for the other two on visa applications. READ MORE

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Gabala Music Festival “demonstrates the excellent relations Israel has with Azerbaijan, which is a predominantly Islamic state in the Shia tradition”

Posted on August 26, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
The sounds of Jerusalem in a tolerant Muslim state
by Iris Georlette, Staff
August 26, 2018

The Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra performed for the second time in the Gabala International Music Festival. Created by conductor Dmitri Yablonski and pianist Farhad Badalbeyli, the festival is one of the most important classical music events in Azerbaijan…Jews had been living in Azerbaijan for over 2,500 years and the community claims it can trace back its’ origin to the destruction of the Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III in 720 BCE. READ MORE

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EVENT #StandWithUs Chicago 7th Annual Campus Champion Gala Sunday November 4

Posted on August 26, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

5:00 PM Sunday November 4, 2018
B’nai Jehoshua Beth Elohim (BJBE)
1201 Lake Cook Road, Deerfield, IL
Honoring Zahava Wein and David N. Jonas
Keynote Speaker Colonel Richard Kemp
Click here to register

StandWithUs is an organization that educates high school and college students about Israel in our increasingly anti-Israel world. They sponsor hundreds of pro-Israel events yearly on campuses around the country with regional staff providing support to students who need our help combatting BDS and the forces who delegitimize Israel.

If you haven’t declared yourself a Campus Champion yet, please do so by 9 AM on August 31 to have your name in the printed invitation! Click Here to Declare Your Championship Level! StandWithUs, also known as the Israel Emergency Alliance, is a 501(c)(3) organization. Your gift to StandWithUs is fully tax deductible to the extent provided by law.

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“Imagine how American Jews would feel if Israelis told them how they should vote, what leaders they should support, and how they should practice their religion”

Posted on August 26, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
Ronald Lauder Treats Israelis Like Misbehaving Children
by Shmuley Boteach
August 22, 2018

… Lauder has joined the J Street crowd that believes it knows what is best for Israel and will “save it from itself.” Does he realize how paternalistic he sounds? As though Israelis were small children who need to be lectured by an American billionaire about what’s best for them, even though he does not live in Israel, has not served in its military, and does not pay taxes there. Israelis are perfectly capable of deciding what is in their best interests and have the opportunity to vote for the politicians who represent their views. READ MORE

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Channel 2 report claims White House to announce major policy change on Palestinian Right of Return

Posted on August 25, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Trump taking Palestinian right of return ‘off the table,’ report claims
by Michael Wilner
August 25, 2018

The Trump administration will oppose Palestinian claims to a “right of return” for the descendants of refugees from modern-day Israel, according to an Israeli television report broadcast on Saturday. The Channel 2 report claims the White House will announce its stance on the refugee matter…some time in the next few days, ahead of the start of the UN General Assembly in New York…the report claims that the administration will state fewer than one million Palestinians should classify as refugees, diverging dramatically from United Nations Relief and Works Agency statistics claiming more than five million Palestinians qualify for refugee status. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL US set to announce it rejects Palestinian ‘right of return’ — TV report Israel’s Hadashot News says Trump Administration will also declare it opposes UN criteria for determining Palestinian refugees, and will move to further weaken UNRWA refugee agency

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US State Dept: Hamas’ control of Gaza is why we’re reallocating $200m in aid

Posted on August 24, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

REUTERS
Trump cuts more than $200 million in U.S. aid to Palestinians
by David Brunnstrom
August 24, 2018

The United States is cutting more than $200 million in aid to the Palestinians, the State Department said on Friday, amid a deteriorating relationship with the Palestinian leadership. A senior State Department official said without elaborating that the funds, originally planned for programs in the West Bank and Gaza, would address “high-priority projects elsewhere.”…The announcement came at a time when the Palestinian leadership has angered the White House by boycotting its peace efforts since President Donald Trump recognized Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and moved the embassy there, reversing decades of U.S. policy. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA Bolton: We will de-fund the UN Human Rights Council  U.S. National Security Adviser John Bolton said on Thursday that the United States intends to cut funding to the UN Human Rights Council from which it withdrew in June. “We are going to de-fund the Human Rights Council,” Bolton told The Associated Press in an interview, while warning that other UN agencies could also be up for cuts in U.S. funding.

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UCLA & Tufts: First amendment means its okay to demonize Israel

Posted on August 24, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ALGEMEINER
UCLA to Host Student Conference That Advocates ‘Destruction’ of Jewish Self-Determination
by Shiri Moshe
August 22, 2018

National Students for Justice in Palestine announced on Sunday that it will host its eighth annual conference at the University of California, Los Angeles, drawing concerns from some members of the school’s pro-Israel community. The event, based on the theme of “resistance in the face of adversity,” will take place from November 16-18. In a note explaining the conference’s goals, National SJP and its chapter at UCLA defined Zionism — a diverse national liberation movement that supports the Jewish people’s right to self-determination in their historic homeland — as “ethnic cleansing, destruction, mass expulsion, apartheid, and death.” READ MORE

JNS Tufts University stands by new ‘Colonizing Palestine’ course Despite pushback from students and several Jewish organizations, Tufts University is standing by a controversial new course it plans to offer this fall titled “Colonizing Palestine.” According to the class description, the course proposes to “explore the history and culture of modern Palestine and the centrality of colonialism in the making of this contested and symbolically potent territory.”

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“Israel is being wrongly condemned for something that not one Muslim state has ever been condemned for: identifying its nationality with its religion”

Posted on August 24, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

GATESTONE
On Israel’s Nation-State Law
by Denis McEoin
August 22, 2018

...Israel, though a Jewish state, does not have an official religion — not even Judaism. As such, it imposes no religious conformity on any of its citizens. There are secular Jews, Christians, and Muslims. Muslims who become agnostics or atheists, even those who openly leave Islam or convert to another religion, are far safer in Israel than in any Muslim country. Israeli laws — for all of its citizens — are made by members of the Knesset; there, the laws are debated openly and given force by an independent judiciary, just as laws are in other genuinely democratic countries such as the USA or the UK. READ MORE

BEGIN-SADAT CENTER Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Why Israel Needs the Nation-State Law The fact that Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish People is rejected by all of Israel’s Arab neighbors without exception. Consider, for instance, Article 20 of the Palestinian National Charter, which says (with my interpretations in italics): “The Mandate for Palestine, and everything that has been based upon it” (international decisions to establish a Jewish State) “are deemed null and void. Claims of historical or religious ties of Jews with Palestine are incompatible with the facts of history and the true conception of what constitutes statehood”

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