“Israeli agents uncovered information about alleged plan by Tehran to bomb Iranian opposition group’s annual rally outside Paris” with Iranian diplomat implicated

Posted on July 20, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

YNET NEWS
Mossad helped thwart major Iranian terror attack in France
by Itamar Eichner
July 19, 2018

The Mossad helped thwart a major Iranian terrorist attack in France last month, it was cleared for publication on Thursday evening. Mossad agents uncovered intelligence about an alleged Iranian plan to bomb the annual National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) rally in the town of Villepinte, a northern suburb of Paris, on June 30. According to Channel 2 News, the attack was thwarted thanks to cooperation between Israel, Germany, France and Belgium. Belgium is investigation two Belgians of Iranian origin arrested Saturday, with 500 grams of the homemade explosive TATP and a detonation device found in their car. READ MORE

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“Jerusalem comes under fire for its new Basic Law, which is similar to many European constitutions”

Posted on July 19, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

WALL STREET JOURNAL
Get Over It – Israel Is the Jewish State
by Eugene Kontorovich
July 19, 2018

In reality, Israel’s Basic Law would not be out of place among the liberal democratic constitutions of Europe—which include similar provisions that have not aroused controversy. The law does not infringe on the individual rights of any Israeli citizen, including Arabs; nor does it create individual privileges. The illiberalism here lies with the law’s critics, who would deny the Jewish state the freedom to legislate like a normal country. READ MORE SUBSCRIPTION CONTENT

JNS Knesset makes it official: Israel is a Jewish state After a heated session that lasted well into the night, the Knesset Plenum passed the controversial “Nationality Bill” into law on Thursday..Included in the legislation, which passed with a vote of 62-55 (and two abstentions) are the official recognition of Israel’s state symbols, including the menorah emblem, the establishment of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, Hebrew as Israel’s official language, the right of return for Jews living in the Diaspora, as well as the utilization of democracy as Israel’s state democratic process.

TIMES OF ISRAEL Reform and AJC leaders bitterly criticize Israel’s nation-state bill AJC ‘deeply disappointed’ by new legislation; Reform’s Rick Jacobs bemoans ‘sad and unnecessary day for Israeli democracy’

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Yishai Fleisher: “Twice this summer, a number of students have filmed themselves walking off their Birthright trips”

Posted on July 19, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

FORWARD
I’m A Settler Who Defends The Birthright Walkouts
by Yishai Fleisher
July 19, 2018

…But while many believe that IfNotNow’s left-wing walkouts of Birthright trips may be nothing more than a rude publicity stunt, there is something just and accurate in their accusation that the Jewish world has kept them in the dark about the realities of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. Don’t get me wrong — these students knowingly scammed a free (and expensive) Birthright trip in order to try and make the news when they walked out…And yet, while condemning IfNotNow’s tactics, we should consider that these student rebellions contain a fair critique of the information blackout, the cover-up, and the ambiguity of the Jewish world towards the “territories”. READ MORE

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Crains Chicago: “Obama Presidential Center isn’t quite the done deal that many Chicagoans think”

Posted on July 19, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

CRAINS
A challenge to the Obama Center reveals things we didn’t know
by Lynne Marek
July 20, 2018

…That’s why Protect Our Parks, a Chicago nonprofit he [Herb Kaplan] leads, is suing the city and Chicago Park District to stop the Obama Presidential Center from being built in Jackson Park. Caplan, 87, who once worked as a lawyer for former Mayor Harold Washington, calls the city plan to lease 19 Jackson Park acres to former President Barack Obama’s foundation for $1 a “political manipulation” that breaks the law by handing over public land and tramples the city’s legacy of open parks. READ MORE

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“‘It’s strange for us that Israel is more humanitarian than our Arab brothers,’ says father-of-two Ammar”

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

INDEPENDENT
Syria conflict: Injured civilians turn to historic foe Israel amid Deraa bloodshed
by Bel Trew
July 12, 2018

…Both Diaa and Mohammed are among a growing number of Syrians who fled fighting in the southern Syrian province and have found themselves depending on Israel, a historical foe. Some even talked of wanting to relocate to Israel, in one of the strangest developments of the seven-year conflict. Since the creation of Israel in 1948, the two countries have been bitter foes and have taken opposing sides in at least three wars, largely over the issue of the Palestinian territories. Syria, which is home to some 560,000 Palestinian refugees according to the United Nations, has refused to recognise that Israel exists. READ MORE

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“Sheldon famously wore his father’s shoes upon his first visit to Israel, so that his father, who was no longer alive [and couldn’t afford an Israel trip in his own lifetime], could join him in his first steps in the Holy Land”

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
No Holds Barred: The apotheosis of Sheldon Adelson
by Shmuley Boteach
July 9, 2018

…I have met few Jewish men or women in my life who breathe in Israel so deeply. Even Adelson’s most vociferous political opponents, who believe he wields near-divine malevolent influence, admit that he leverages that influence almost entirely with regard to policies that promote Israel. To be sure, they disagree with his positions. They either do not want America to recognize Jerusalem as Israel’s capital, or they want Israel to give away biblical lands like Hebron, or they want US President Donald Trump to be more evenhanded between the dictatorship of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and the democracy over which Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu presides. READ MORE

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UNRWA tells us there are 5.1 million Palestinian refugees; Obama’s State Department disagrees.

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

ISRAEL HAYOM (by agreement with JNS)
US report finds only 20,000 Palestinian refugees in the world
by Ariel Kahana
July 18, 2018

Members of the U.S. Congress are demanding the State Department make public a key report that includes precise figures on the number of people who became refugees in the 1948 War of Independence. The existence of the State Department assessment, compiled and classified under the Obama administration, was first disclosed by the Washington Free Beacon six months ago….Sources who have seen the report say that the State Department’s assessment was that only 20,000 of the 700,000 Arab refugees who fled Palestine during the War of Independence are still alive and displaced from their homes. READ MORE

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“On Sunday, the IDF’s 162nd Armored Division conducted a highly-publicized exercise simulating an invasion of enclave, in what was widely construed as a threat to Hamas”

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

MEDIA LINE
Israeli Military Instructed To Prepare For Large-scale Gaza Op
by Charles Bybelezer
July 18, 2018

The Israeli government has instructed the military to prepare for a large-scale operation in the Gaza Strip, to be initiated if Palestinians in the enclave do not cease flying incendiary objects into southern Israel. According to a local Channel 10 report, Jerusalem has set Friday as a deadline for the flaming kites and balloons to be stopped, a message that was conveyed to Hamas via Egyptian intermediaries. The report claimed that Gaza’s rulers, in turn, committed to grounding the “terror kites”—which have destroyed thousands of acres of land and caused an estimated $2 million in damage—by deploying additional fighters to positions near the frontier. READ MORE

NEW YORK POST Editorial Board Why are greens silent over this ongoing ecological war? Hamas’ recent tactic of launching fire kites and balloons over the border from Gaza marks something new: ecological war. Why aren’t the world’s greens screaming at this “assault on the planet”?

ISRAEL BEHIND THE NEWS ‘How shall we kill an Israeli?’ This military training camp, established with the cooperation and financial support of the Iranian regime, and specifically – the paramilitary personnel of the Revolutionary Guards’ army, provides courses for 14-year and up youngsters, so that they shoot at targets made to look like Israelis whom the trainers of this camp call “usurpers and terrorists”.

YNET Falcon sent from Gaza used for fire terrorism A common kestrel (a type of falcon) whose legs were tied to a wire with an incendiary device at the other end was found dead hanging from a tree by Israel Nature and Parks Authority (INPA) personnel earlier this week west of the Besor stream, close to the Gaza Strip border. 

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‘Progressive’ politician Alexandra #OcasioCortez connects dots between Gaza and Ferguson

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK JEWISH WEEK
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Criticizes Israel For ‘The Occupation Of Palestine’
by Charles Dunst
July 17, 2018

Democratic congressional candidate Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez decried the “occupation of Palestine” during a television interview….“The lens through which I saw this incident, as an activist, as an organizer – if 60 people were killed in Ferguson, Missouri, if 60 people were killed in the South Bronx, unarmed, if 60 people were killed in Puerto Rico – I just look at that [Gaza] incident more through just, as an incident, and to me, it would just be completely unacceptable if that happened on our shores,” she said. READ MORE

ARUTZ SHEVA
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez displays abysmal ignorance on Israel “I think what I meant is like the settlements that are increasing in some of these areas in places where Palestinians are experiencing difficulty in access to their housing and homes.”…Yeah I mean I think I’d also just… I am not the expert on geopolitics on this issue!”

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“The nuclear deal was really quite straightforward. The Iranians pretended they did not have nuclear ambitions and we pretended to believe them”

Posted on July 18, 2018 by ArchitectGuy

NEW YORK TIMES
How Israel, in Dark of Night, Torched Its Way to Iran’s Nuclear Secrets
by David E. Sanger and Ronen Bergman
July 15, 2018

The Mossad agents moving in on a warehouse in a drab commercial district of Tehran knew exactly how much time they had to disable the alarms, break through two doors, cut through dozens of giant safes and get out of the city with a half-ton of secret materials: six hours and 29 minutes. The morning shift of Iranian guards would arrive around 7 a.m., a year of surveillance of the warehouse by the Israeli spy agency had revealed, and the agents were under orders to leave before 5 a.m. to have enough time to escape. READ MORE

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