“The normally vibrant city of Tel Aviv has turned eerily quiet as residents and business owners grapple with fear and uncertainty due to threats of retaliation from Iran

Posted on August 16, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
Empty Tel Aviv braces for Iranian attack
George Valente / Media Line
August 15, 2024

Tel Aviv-Yafo, known worldwide as Israel’s vibrant center for business, commerce, and entertainment, is normally a city full of life. The streets are usually packed with shoppers, its beaches lined with sunbathers, and the night is alive with parties and events. Tourists flock to the markets, cafés, and cultural landmarks that make the city a top destination for travelers. But these days, a different picture emerges. The streets are eerily empty, with stores shuttered early and a haunting quiet replacing the usual buzz. Fear has crept into the atmosphere, and an anxious tension hangs over the city. For residents and business owners, this shift is palpable…Sadi, an Arab Israeli taxi driver, described the situation to The Media Line: “People do not want to come to the Middle East right now; they do not feel safe. … I have never seen something this bad before. We are barely surviving. READ MORE

JNS Israeli delegation heads to Doha for hostage talks Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu agreed to dispatch on Thursday a high-ranking delegation to Doha, Qatar, for talks to secure the release of 115 hostages being held by Hamas in Gaza in exchange for a ceasefire in the war. The delegation is being led by Mossad chief David Barnea and Israel Security Agency (Shin Bet) head Ronen Bar. Negotiations are set to resume with the participation of senior American, Qatari, Egyptian and Israeli officials. Hamas reaffirmed on Wednesday that it will not attend the session…

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The City of Chicago has been sitting on a request from the Israeli American Council to hold a solidarity march during the Democratic National Convention

Posted on August 15, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

NEWSWEEK
Chicago Officials Under Fire After Blocking Pro-Palestinian Protest At DNC
Courtney McGinley
August 15, 2024

Chicago officials are under fire after their last-minute restrictions on the Democratic National Convention protests, calling the limits on sound equipment and other essential tools a direct attack on free speech rights. The City of Chicago informed organizers of the pro-Palestinian rights group the Coalition while they are permitted to assemble and march with the tens of thousands expected to protest next week, the city has limited their ability to communicate their message about ending U.S. aid for Israel…The spokesperson for the Coalition and National Chair of the U.S. Palestinian Community Network said this is a targeted attack on the group’s First Amendment Rights. READ MORE

JTA Tel Aviv’s ‘Hostage Square’ is coming to Chicago for the DNC — whether or not a pro-Israel march gets a permit Pro-Israel activists will mount a “Hostage Square” during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago next week, in a bid to spotlight the plight of Israeli captives at a time when the city is preparing for large pro-Palestinian demonstrations. The public art installation, organized by the Israeli American Council, will be held on a private lot and does not need require a permit, a spokesperson told JTA. They have not disclosed the exhibit’s intended location, though they say it will be close to the convention, which will be held at the city’s United Center.

JEWISH INSIDER Pro-Israel group struggling to gain permit to rally at DNC — while pro-Palestinian groups got green light For several weeks, the City of Chicago has been sitting on a request from a pro-Israel group to hold a solidarity march during the Democratic National Convention, even as it has granted permission for a coalition of pro-Palestinian activists to demonstrate when the proceedings kick off later this month. The Israeli American Council, a nonprofit organization representing Israeli-Americans that seeks to strengthen ties between the U.S. and Israel, filed two applications with Chicago’s Department of Transportation at the beginning of July…

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Doran: “In response to Hamas’ Oct. 7 terror attack, the Biden-Harris administration assembled a team tasked with toppling Bibi”

Posted on August 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TABLET MAG
The Anti-Israel Sanctions Machine
Michael Doran
August 11, 2024

President Biden recently achieved a historic first for which he has received no credit. He is the first president to form an interagency team dedicated to imposing sanctions on an ally, namely, Israel. To be sure, the United States sanctioned allies on many occasions. Recent examples of this kind include sanctions designed to prevent Germany from completing the Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, and sanctions on Turkish defense industries to penalize Ankara for its procurement of the Russian S-400 surface-to-air missile system..,led an interagency team of targeteers tasked with finding individuals and groups to sanction—not to reverse a specific policy, but to weaken if not topple the government of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.READ MORE

BREITBART Joel Pollak: Kamala Harris’ New ‘Jewish Liaison’ Led Biden’s Effort to Sanction Israelis Vice President Kamala Harris has named Ilan Goldenberg, who spearheaded the Biden administration’s sanctions against Israel, as its new liaison to the Jewish community Monday. Michael Doran documented in Tablet magazine on Sunday how Goldenberg, a left-wing Israeli-born peace negotiator, helped lead an unprecedented effort by the Biden administration to hunt and target Israelis for sanctions — in the middle of a war against Hamas terrorists.

WALL STREET JOURNAL Ruth Wisse: Can Josh Shapiro’s Party Forgive Him for Telling the Truth His 1993 college op-ed on the Middle East was vindicated by events, so of course he had to apologize. The damage antisemitism has done to the Democratic Party and the country isn’t best reflected by Kamala Harris’s rejecting Josh Shapiro as her running mate. Far more telling is the Pennsylvania governor’s apology for an opinion piece he published in his college newspaper.

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“The persistence of the pro-Palestinian movement suggests it still has the capacity to do damage in swing states like Michigan, which has large populations of Arab American voters”

Posted on August 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM POST
Neo-Nazism, Islamism: Who is Imam Asad Zaman, hosted by Tim Walz?
Mathilda Heller
August 12, 2024

Tim Walz, Kamala Harris’s new running mate in her presidential campaign, has hosted an extremist Islamist Imam Asad Zaman on several occasions, the Washington Examiner first reported over the weekend. Walz hosted Zaman three times in 2019, once in 2020, and again in 2023, among others, the Washington Examiner reported. The Washington Free Beacon found last week that Walz appeared alongside an antisemitic scholar at a conference called “Challenging Islamophobia,” hosted by CAIR in 2019. The Washington Examiner revealed Friday that Walz has also donated $100,000 to the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, a non-profit headed by Asad Zaman. According to court records, the Muslim American Society was once described as “the overt arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in the United States.” READ MORE

MONDOWEISS [AN ANTI-ISRAEL SITE] Minnesota activists criticize Tim Walz for refusing to meet with Palestinians Walz has never, not once, decided to sit down to meet with a Gazan family. He’s refused all attempts to sit down and talk to any of us, and he has refused to meet with a single mosque here in Minnesota about what’s happening in Gaza. But on the flip side, he rushed immediately after October 7 to go to the synagogues, to go to a stand with Israel rally, to order flags be flown at half-staff in honor of the Israeli victims.

POLITICO Harris faces an ‘uncommitted’ quandary of her own Vice President Kamala Harris won’t be able to escape the protesters demanding a cease-fire in the Israel-Hamas war that have dogged her and President Joe Biden for months. Harris faced off with a small group of protesters at her rally Wednesday in Dearborn, Michigan, a scene that made clear that critics of U.S. policy in the Middle East are only partially satisfied with the change at the top of the Democratic ticket…

DEFENSE NEWS US approves $20 billion weapons sale to Israel amid regional tensions The U.S. has approved $20 billion in arms sales to Israel, including scores of fighter jets and advanced air-to-air missiles, the State Department announced Tuesday. Congress was notified of the impending sale, which includes more than 50 F-15 fighter jets, Advanced Medium Range Air-to-Air Missiles, or AMRAAMs, 120mm tank ammunition, high explosive mortars and tactical vehicles…The contracts will cover not only the sale of 50 new aircraft to be produced by Boeing, but will also include upgrade kits — new engines and radars, among other upgrades — for Israel to modify its existing fleet of two dozen F-15 fighter jets.

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Noting a need, these four medical professionals left their practices behind and took their ‘vacation’ to volunteer in Israel and help where they could

Posted on August 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TIMES OF ISRAEL
Foreign doctors answer the call to help in Israel’s hospitals and rehab centers
Diana Bletter
August 10, 2024

Retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Robert Ezenauer had never been to Israel and it was on his bucket list. So, when the 70-year-old pediatric ophthalmologist heard through a friend that Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba was looking for an ophthalmologist to fill in for two weeks to replace doctors who had been called up for reserve duty, he volunteered. “I just thought, it’s a way I can support Israel and help out kids,” Ezenauer told The Times of Israel. He had been a battalion surgeon for the US Special Forces in Afghanistan and Iraq and also operated on children during the wars in both countries. “Helping kids is what I like to do,” he said. READ MORE

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Trudeau’s government “on a campaign to kill off pro-Israel and pro-Jewish charities”

Posted on August 12, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

TORONTO SUN
Trudeau government unfairly targets two Jewish charities
Warren Kinsella
August 12, 2024

In Trudeau’s Canada, some charities seem to be more equal than others…This week, the Trudeau Liberal government published notices revoking the charitable status of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) and the Ne’eman Foundation. The JNF has branches in the United States and the United Kingdom, and has been active in Canada for 123 years. Among other things, it plants trees in Israel, builds infrastructure like dams and reservoirs, and creates parks. Its Canadian chapter helped build a 1,700-acre park in Israel, for instance, one that is used by Jews and non-Jews alike. As parks are. READ MORE

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Columbia University deans and president failed miserably, “showing contempt for the Jewish community”

Posted on August 10, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JNS
Minouche Shafik resigns as Columbia president citing ‘period of turmoil,’ ‘toll on my family’
August 14, 2024

Citing a “period of turmoil where it has been difficult to overcome divergent views across our community” that has taken a “considerable toll on my family,” Minouche Shafik announced on Wednesday that she is stepping down, immediately, as president of Columbia University. “I am making this announcement now so that new leadership can be in place before the new term begins,” she wrote. She added that at the request of the U.K. foreign secretary, he next job will be to chair “a review of the government’s approach to international development.” Under Shafik’s leadership, Columbia’s campus became a place that Jewish faculty and students have said is rife with Jew-hatred and unsafe for Jews. READ MORE

JNS Three Columbia deans who ‘touched on ancient antisemitic tropes’ resign Three deans at Columbia University, who the university’s president said exchanged  messages that “disturbingly touched on ancient antisemitic tropes,” have resigned, The New York Times reported on Aug. 8, adding that a fourth, who participated “to a lesser extent,” remains in his job. “About time. Actions have consequences, and Columbia should have fired all four of these deans months ago,” stated Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), chair of the House Education and the Workforce Committee..

ASSOCIATED PRESS Judge dismisses antisemitism lawsuit against MIT, allows one against Harvard to move ahead A federal lawsuit accusing Massachusetts Institute of Technology of tolerating antisemitism after the Oct. 7 attacks in Israel has been dismissed while a similar one against Harvard University can continue.

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“We should not forgive the leaders of the protest movement for politically exploiting the hostage families after October 7”

Posted on August 10, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JPOST
The protest movement is weaponizing the hostage crisis
Benjamin Anthony
August 14, 2024

Internal Israeli discord was on full display before October 7. White hot rallies surrounded judicial reform. Sufficiently complacent about the security of their state, too many Israelis designated their fellow citizens as their mortal enemies – a luxury no Israeli has any right to indulge in. Hamas took the temperature of the Israeli street and struck a blow from which it will take Israel generations to recover. Israelis responded with a simple cris-de-coeur: unity! Benny Gantz and Gadi Eisenkot, both opposition members and former IDF chiefs of staff, joined the war cabinet as minister and observer, respectively. Reservists flooded bases in unprecedented numbers. Protests largely paused, and where they did take place, they focused on the urgent need to retrieve all of the 251 hostages kidnapped into Gaza. READ MORE

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Blacklisting Chicago therapists for being Zionist

Posted on August 9, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

FREE PRESS
Inside the Campaign to Blacklist ‘Zionist’ Therapists
Sally SateL
August 12, 2024

In March of this year, a therapist on a professional listserv in Chicago passed on a request by a potential patient seeking a therapist who was “a Zionist,” because the patient was dealing with feelings about the “current geopolitical climate.” Many mental health practitioners rely on such online groups to make and accept referrals for patients. It’s common for the request to indicate a preference for a therapist of a particular ethnicity, gender, religion, or age range. But what happened after this request was made on the Facebook group Chicago Anti-Racist Therapists was not at all common. When therapists responded by putting their names forward on the listserv, one member took action. She announced to the group: “I’ve put together a list of therapists/practices with Zionist affiliations that we should avoid referring clients to.” READ MORE

JTA A popular Belgian author wrote he wanted to ‘ram a sharp knife’ through every Jew he meets. He says it was satire. An influential Belgian author is being sued by the European Jewish Association after he wrote that Israel’s bombing of Gaza made him want to “ram a sharp knife through the throat of every Jew” he meets. Herman Brusselmans, a popular novelist and public intellectual who appears regularly on television, sparked turmoil in Europe’s Jewish community with his weekly column in the Belgian magazine Humo on Sunday.

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Memo to America: “Major war would affect the life of every American in ways we can only begin to imagine.”

Posted on August 9, 2024 by ArchitectGuy

JERUSALEM STRATEGIC TRIBUNE
America the Unprepared
Michael Mandelbaum
August 2024

…The second source of danger is the rapid, ongoing change in militarily relevant technology, specifically the digital revolution and the remarkable recent progress in artificial intelligence. A country that lags behind in making use of these technologies in battle will lose to a country on the cutting edge. Because the pace of technological transformation is so rapid, even in areas where the United States has a lead over other countries – and the report suggests that in some of them China may already have overtaken America – that advantage is precarious. To make matters even more dangerous, modern technology in the hands of an enemy can have a devastating impact on the American homeland. According to the Commission, a cyberattack on critical infrastructure could affect “the availability of power, water, wastewater, and the systems that underpin economic, transportation, and financial systems. Access to critical minerals and goods needed to run the U.S. economy and build weapon systems would be completely cut off.  READ MORE

To read “Commission on the National Defense Strategy” issued last month by Congress, click here.

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