“Ephraim Talabi, now 55, goes to Jordan to find the former Fatah fighter Mohammed a-Sati, who ‘brought me back to sanity, to my real life’ through simple acts of kindness”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
36 years later, an Israeli POW meets the Palestinian captor who saved him
by Staff
August 3, 2018

Thirty-six years after he fell prisoner during the first Lebanon war, Ephraim Talabi decided to track down one of his captors, a man he has never forgotten and who he says saved his sanity throughout the traumatic experience — through simple acts of kindness. Talabi was captured by a Palestinian cell during fighting in southern Lebanon, and was held for 10 days. Muhammad Amin a-Sati, a Fatah man who fought against the Israeli incursion in 1982, “treated me like a human being” during those dark days, Talabi recalled in a report aired Wednesday by Hadashot TV news. READ MORE

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Contrary to what you’ve been told Tikkun Olam “isn’t the province of man at all; it is instead the work of G-d”

MOSAIC
How American Jews Came to Believe That Tikkun Olam Was at the Core of Their Tradition
Michael Weingrad
August 1, 2018

…Tikkun olam is often translated as “repairing [or healing] the world.” For American Jews it refers more particularly to a Judaism based on, or indistinguishable from, social-justice activism and left-liberal politics. Found nowhere in the Bible, the phrase appears in rabbinic and kabbalistic literature as a rather technical term with meanings having little or nothing to do with partisan politics, let alone with the “world.” And yet, as Jonathan Neumann writes in his new book, To Heal the World?: How the Jewish Left Corrupts Judaism and Endangers Israel, tikkun olam is…READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Melanie Phillips: Judaism Under Attack: The Orwellian Hijack of Tikkun Olam Neumann  [author of To Heal The World] is not the first to point out that the apparent origin of tikkun olam in the mystical “aleinu” prayer has been fundamentally misrepresented. In the context of that prayer, it is the Almighty himself in whom hope is invested to “perfect the world under the kingdom of God.” In other words, tikkun olam isn’t the province of man at all; it is instead the work of God.

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Kushner: UNRWA “perpetuates the status quo, is corrupt, inefficient and doesn’t help peace”

I24NEWS
Kushner plans to scrap special Palestinian refugee agency: report
August 4, 2018

Jared Kushner, US President Donald Trump’s senior advisor and son-in-law, has been actively working to end the special refugee status of nearly five million Palestinians through the abolishment of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestinian Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA), according to a report from Foreign Policy magazine. Kushner criticized UNRWA heavily before the Trump administration cut nearly half of its aid to the Palestinian refugee agency, according to internal emails released by Foreign Policy on Friday. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL 70 House Democrats urge Trump administration to restore Gaza aid funding J Street-backed missive asks White House to ‘immediately take action’ to alleviate suffering in coastal enclave

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“This article is an open letter to any Liberal American Jew who has ever donated or considered donating to the New Israel Fund”

MIDA
How the NIF is Ruining Israel’s Democracy
by Ziv Maor
August 3, 2018

…Like you, I am a Jew. I am also an Israeli and politically conservative. While we may differ in many things, we share a core identity and values because we are both Jewish. We, and our descendants, probably share a common destiny as well. I find it very unfortunate if that is not the case.On this premise, I would like to address what is probably one of the biggest causes of discontent for Israelis with the American Jewry – the actions of the New Israel Fund. READ MORE

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Sacha Baron Cohen’s ‘Who is America?’ show has duped a number of U.S. politicians, but not Lee Zeldin

NEW YORK POST
Congressman avoids becoming Sacha Baron Cohen’s latest fool
by Marisa Schultz
August 1, 2018

Long Island Rep. Lee Zeldin could have been the next victim of prankster Sacha Baron Cohen — but his alert congressional staff smelled a rat. Zeldin’s office got a convincing interview request on Feb. 8 from an Israeli TV station that claimed Zeldin, a Jewish Republican active on pro-Israel causes, was selected as one of 70 people being honored to mark Israel’s 70th anniversary. The station asked if Zeldin would be available for a one-hour interview in DC. It’s a ruse that duped many high-level politicians, from Dick Cheney to Sarah Palin to Roy Moore. READ MORE

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“All this noise about the new nation-state law proves that the Jewish national identity is under attack”

ARUTZ SHEVA
No Druze live better and freer than the Druze citizens of Israel
by Atta Farhat
August 3, 2018

There are no Druze in the world who can claim a better and freer life than the Druze citizens of Israel. Don’t you understand, without the Jewish nation there would be death and suffering here like in the rest of the Middle East? Don’t you understand, without the Jewish nation here that suffering would soon extend to Europe? Don’t you understand, the Druze want Israel to be strong, the Druze need Israel to be strong; otherwise, we disappear like the other minorities decimated by Islam? READ MORE

JNS Evelyn Gordon: Critics of nation-state law misunderstand Israel’s constitutional system The new law isn’t meant to be read in isolation, but in concert with other Basic Laws enshrining Israel’s democratic system and fundamental human rights.

YNET The truth about Israel’s Nationality Law This law should have been passed years ago. Since its establishment, Israel has passed 13 Basic Laws that are in many senses equivalent to a constitution. The previous Basic Laws dealt with the separation of powers, with human dignity and liberty, and so on. This law adds an element that was missing: the special character of the state as a Jewish homeland.

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#BDS is “targeting the most politically liberal wing of American Judaism, which already feels slighted over its treatment by Israeli rabbinate and government”

ALGEMEINER
BDS Advocates Try to Split the Jewish Community From Israel
by Alexander Joffe
August 1, 2018

…Despite the recent incidents, Birthright officials have announced that they will not vet applicants. This decision also demonstrates the impossible dilemmas that BDS creates for Jewish institutions. If vetting is done and applicants are rejected, the organization will be accused of exclusion and censorship. If applicants are not vetted, BDS groups will continued to exploit and subvert the organization from within. The results of the provocations were predictable condemnations and applause, divided along political lines. READ MORE

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Holocaust scholars challenge USHMM’s take on FDR and the Jews

YATED NE’EMAN
Why FDR Abandoned The Jews
by Debbie Maimon
Aug 1, 2018

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, in Washington, DC recently opened a controversial new exhibit, “Americans and the Holocaust,” that claims President Franklin D. Roosevelt tried his best to aid Jews feeling Hitler but was thwarted by public and congressional opposition. It’s a view that many historians are calling a whitewash of historical truth…Despite these authoritative studies, millions of visitors will walk away from the “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit believing that Roosevelt bore no responsibility for his administration’s massive failure to aid Jewish refugees, noted Dr. Rafael Medoff , founding director of the David Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in an interview with Yated. READ MORE

DAVID WYMAN INSTITUTE FOR HOLOCAUST STUDIES Distorting America’s Response to the Holocaust: An Analysis of the “Americans and the Holocaust” exhibit at the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum

WASHINGTON POST Holocaust Museum rethinks FDR’s World War II refugee legacy …Co-curators Rebecca Erbelding and Daniel Greene disagreed on how to grade Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s efforts to save Jewish refugees during World War II. Erbelding, an archivist at the museum, gave FDR a B-minus, while Greene, who teaches at Northwestern University, was stingier with a C-plus…“We are not trying to apologize for FDR in any way or to put a finger on the scale” 

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“Israel was “caught in the trap” set by the Tamimis”

JERUSALEM POST
How did Ahed Tamimi Become a Palestinian National Icon?
by Josefin Dolsten
August 2, 2018

When Ahed Tamimi left an Israeli prison on Sunday after eight months, she returned home to jubilation from friends and family in her West Bank hometown of Nabi Saleh. The 17-year-old Palestinian activist also was celebrated as a hero around the world for what some see as her bravery in confronting Israeli soldiers. Many in Israel, meanwhile, view her as a pawn in a Palestinian scheme to stage provocations with soldiers to make Israel look bad in the media. And many think she is succeeding. But Tamimi isn’t just any Palestinian teen. She comes from a prominent Palestinian activist family and has a long history of scuffling with Israeli soldiers. READ MORE

JERUSALEM POST Arnold Roth: More Horror than Heroism: Ahed Tamimi… The Palestinian Arabs have many needs but what this girl stands for – more anger, more bitterness and more failure – delivers nothing of value to them. They don’t hear this from the news industry – the reporters and editors who have built a podium for Ahed Tamimi and her enablers.

 

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“Ben Shapiro and the future of American conservatism”

FREE BEACON
Generation Shapiro
by Matthew Continetti
August 3, 2018

…After class, at meals, and in walks around campus, the politically engaged students invariably ask me the same question: What do I think of Ben Shapiro? Nor am I alone. Recently Eliza Gray had a similar experience while reporting on young conservatives in the age of President Trump. “Oddly enough,” she wrote in the Washington Post, “the person who appeared to be doing the most to shape the thinking of the new generation of Republican leaders was not the president of the United States—but Ben Shapiro, a 34-year-old anti-Trump conservative pundit who came up unprompted in more than a third of my conversations.” READ MORE

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