“Netanyahu’s comments come after a dramatic day where Iran drone penetrated Israeli airspace, IAF raided enemy positions in Syria and an Israeli F-16I plane was downed” [VIDEO]

JERUSALEM POST
Netanyahu: Israel will hit Iranian and Syrian targets as needed
by Herb Keinon
February 10, 2018

Israel will continue to defend itself resolutely against infringements on its sovereignty and Iran’s efforts to entrench itself militarily in Syria, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Saturday night after the most intensive IAF bombing of positions in Syria since the First Lebanon War in 1982. At the end of a long day that began before dawn when Israel identified and quickly downed an Iranian drone that penetrated its airspace, and which included the apparent downing of an Israel Air Force F16I jet that crashed in Israel after its two crew members evacuated…The crew members landed in Israel, where one of them is in serious condition, and the other was only lightly wounded. READ MORE

TIMES OF ISRAEL Condition of F-16 pilot in downed jet improves after emergency surgery

POWERLINE Omri Ceren from The Israel Project: Israel strikes in Syria. The backstory on last night’s attack.

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Democrat Congresspeople including Chicago’s own Jan Schakowsky implore Trump to continue flow of US taxpayer funds to UNRWA

HAARETZ
102 Congress Members Urge Trump: Don’t Cut Funds to UN Palestinian Aid Agency
by Amir Tibon
February 9, 2018

A coalition of 102 Democratic members of Congress sent a letter to President Trump on Thursday urging him not to cut U.S. funding of the U.N. agency in charge of assisting Palestinian refugees and their descendants in the Middle East. The letter was initiated by Reps. Peter Welch of Florida and David Price of North Carolina, and all the members who signed it are from the Democratic party…Slashes to URNWA, they write, will reduce Washington’s ‘ability to help the Israelis and Palestinians reach a two-state solution. READ MORE

J STREET New Congressional Letter Pushes Back Against Trump’s Dangerous Freeze on UNRWA Funds [I’m NOT a J Street Supporter but here’s their questionable argument that freeze “could further destabilize the region”]

READ CONGRESSIONAL LETTER TO TRUMP

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“UN’s refugee body confirms talks with Israeli and foreign governments on a deal that would enable some asylum seekers to stay in Israel permanently, resettle others”

TIMES OF ISRAEL
UNHCR in talks to send African migrants to ‘safe’ countries, let others stay
by Melanie Lidman
February 7, 2018

Israel is in negotiations with the United Nations High Commission on Refugees to resettle a portion of African asylum seekers in third countries deemed by the UN to be “safe,” possibly including Western countries, in exchange for some of the refugees to be given permanent residency in Israel.The deal would likely halt Israel’s current campaign to deport thousands of asylum seekers to African countries, widely believed to be Rwanda and Uganda. READ MORE

ALGEMEINER As Israel Issues Deportation Notices for African Migrants, Concern for Their Uncertain Fate Abounds

BLOOMBERG Gordis:Israel’s Conscience and 35,000 Migrants

JNS Why all the silence when it comes to Syrian refugees?

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Winston Churchill had a fault: “He was too fond of Jews”

COMMENTARY
Winston Spencer Maccabee
by Meir Y. Soloveichik
January 18, 2018

If, as one British wag put it, an anti-Semite is one who hates the Jews more than is strictly necessary, Churchill was believed to admire the Jews more than elite British society deemed strictly necessary. …Churchill, seeking a source of inspiration in England’s darkest hour, turned to the story behind the Jewish Festival of Lights. It is a fascinating footnote in the life of a man who wrote these words in 1920: “Some people like Jews and some do not, but no thoughtful man can doubt the fact that they are beyond all question the most formidable and the most remarkable race which has ever appeared in the world.” READ MORE

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Norwegian MP to Israel: Drop Dead

THE JEWISH CHRONICLE
Leader of Norway’s far-left party nominates BDS movement for Nobel Peace Prize
by Michael Daventry
February 7, 2018

Israeli activists have attacked a Norwegian parliamentarian’s decision to nominate the BDS boycott movement for this year’s Nobel Peace Prize. The group, which campaigns for a global boycott of Israel until it withdraws from Palestinian territories, was nominated for the prize by Bjørnar Moxnes, leader of Norway’s far-left Red Party…In a statement Mr Moxnes described BDS as a “peaceful, global human rights movement that urges the use of economic and cultural boycotts to end Israeli violations of Palestinian human rights and international law.” READ MORE

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#SJW Intersectionality and the low information Social Justice Warriors at #TeenVogue

CAMERA BLOG
Intersectionality Is Making Teen Vogue’s Editors Stupid
by Karen Bekker
February 1, 2018

CAMERA has written before about Teen Vogue‘s shift from fashion and beauty to political commentary, including pushing a one-sided Palestinian narrative to its teen readers. As it shifts to digital-only publication, it has continued this trend. Recently the magazine has lauded both the singer Lorde, who cancelled a scheduled concert in Israel under pressure from anti-Israel activists, and Amani Al-Khatahtbeh, a blogger who turned down an award from Revlon due to Israeli actress Gal Gadot’s role as Revlon’s brand ambassador and whose website contains antisemitic content. READ MORE

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“Journalist Zvi Yehezkeli feared for his life, tells The Jerusalem Post his biggest revelations on the Muslim Brotherhood were in the US”

JERUSALEM POST
False Identity: The Jewish-Israeli reporter who went undercover as a Sheikh
by Amy Spiro
February 5, 2018

Zvi Yehezkeli is a fairly well known face around Israel. For more than 15 years, the journalist and religious father of five has appeared on Channel 10 News, reporting on the Arab world. But for a couple months over the past two years, Yehezkeli became someone else entirely: Sheikh Abu Hamza. He used this identity – and a couple of others – to film an in-depth series on the role of the Muslim Brotherhood in the streets of Europe and the United States…In the first installment, Yehezkeli – or Abu Hamza, wired with secret cameras and microphones – explored the mosques, schools and bookstores of the Muslim community in Paris.  READ MORE

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“How did the Irish end up so sympathetic to the Palestinian cause?”

FREE BEACON
Trump Admin Thwarts Irish Effort to Boycott Israel, Criminalize Trade
by Adam Kredo
February 5, 2018

The Trump administration played a key role in thwarting a recent effort by the Irish government to boycott Israel and make it a crime for Irish citizens to purchase products made in contested areas of the Jewish state, a move that would have severely jeopardized Ireland’s trade with the United States, according to multiple sources familiar with the situation. The Irish Parliament was poised last week to pass a major piece of legislation that would make it crime to engage in trade with Israelis. READ MORE

JNS Why is Ireland the most anti-Israel country in Europe?

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“Israel’s economy is booming. The failure of the Arabs and BDS movement campaigns to destroy it are as spectacular as the Arab failures to defeat Israel in the battlefield”

MIDA
Israel – A Successful Powerhouse in the Collapsing Middle East
by Daniel Krygier
January 15, 2018

Economic indicators for Israel showed another successful year in 2017 as, for the first time ever, Israel’s GDP per capita has surpassed that of major industrialized countries such as Britain, Japan and France. Israel stands out among the nations that won their independence after the Second World War. Despite facing more challenges than virtually any other country, Israel has transformed from a poor and fragile socialist backwater to a first world Start-Up nation of cutting-edge technologies and knowledge during seven brief decades, while fighting for its existence…Israel’s economy expanded by 4.4 % during 2017, the highest growth rate among advanced economies. READ MORE

PREOCCUPIED TERRITORY Seeing Movement Backfire, Israel Prosper, Other Countries Demand BDS Target Them Too

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“Nikki Haley needs to shut up and realize that the Palestinian leadership is not the problem”

LEGAL INSURRECTION
Top Palestinian negotiator to Nikki Haley: Shut Up!
by William A. Jacobson
February 4, 2018

…Senior Palestinian official Saeb Erekat on Saturday accused the Trump administration of trying depose the Palestinian leadership in a “coup” and told the “impudent” US envoy to the United Nations Nikki Haley she should “shut up” with her criticism of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Erekat, who has led the Palestinian peace negotiations and is secretary general of the Palestine Liberation Organization, singled out Haley, who slammed Abbas for a recent speech that was full of anti-Semitic tropes….READ MORE

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