Israel in the News Jul/Aug 2014
Cartoon Threatens Jewish Genocide
An anti-Semitic cartoon published recently in Hamas’s official daily newspaper tries to scare away new immigrants to Israel and threaten everyone living there with genocide.
Captioned “Israel is preparing to accept waves of Jewish immigration from France and Ukraine,” the cartoon features hooked-nosed, bearded Jewish men marching toward Israel with their wives and children in tow. Israel is portrayed as a grave. The epitaph reads, “the invaders’ graves.” The newspaper serves Gaza and parts of the Palestinian Authority.
Hamas recently “celebrated” Israel’s 66th Independence Day with a genocide-themed video. The song in the video was to the tune of the Israeli national anthem, Hatikvah, which means “the hope.” The Arabic words twisted the message, warning that it is “the end of the hope” for Israel. It also threatens to deport or kill Israelis.
Several days later, a Hamas children’s show encouraged children to “shoot all the Jews.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Israel’s New ‘Best Friend’?
India’s new Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his desire to “deepen and develop” ties with Israel, and his record shows he is serious.
The International Business Times (IBT) calls Modi “Israel’s best friend in South Asia.” The right-wing, pro-Hindu nationalist and chief of the conservative Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Modi has long courted political and trade links with Israel, reports IBT.
BJP officials strongly endorse the policy, which “has turned into a financial bonanza for the western Indian province of Gujarat,” where Modi served as chief minister for the past 13 years.
“Under Modi’s leadership and encouragement,” IBT adds, “Israel has poured billions of dollars of investment into Gujarat. Officials from both Gujarat and Israel have visited each other over the past few years to deepen trade and economic links. Ongoing mutual endeavors include projects in industrial research and development, solar and thermal power, pharmaceuticals, infrastructure, water recycling and water desalination plants.”
BJP has praised Israel repeatedly as a bulwark against Islamic terrorism.
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Swastikas Deface Synagogue
About 200 people who recently visited the ancient Judean synagogue at Samoa near Hebron found spray-painted swastikas on the walls and PLO flags flying above them.
Less than two weeks earlier, Rabbi Shmuel Rabinowitz, rabbi of the Western Wall and other holy sites, condemned the desecration of the grave of Rabbi Halafta in the Galilee with anti-Semitic vandalism.
The Samoa ruins were first discovered in 1934. The synagogue dates back to the fourth century. Jews apparently abandoned it in the eighth century, during the beginning of Muslim rule. Muslims have built a mosque adjacent to the ruins.
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Israeli Company to Upgrade U.S. Marines
Israel-based Elbit systems defense company said its wholly owned U.S. subsidiary, Elbit Systems of America, LLC, has been awarded two contracts totaling $20.1 million to support the U.S. upgrade of the U.S. Marine Corps’ Bell AH-1W attack helicopter fleet.
The first contract, for $11.6 million, is for helmet display tracker system (HDTS) kits on the aircraft. The HDTS improves flight safety by giving crew members greater situational awareness with enhanced night vision, weapons-sighting and weapons-control capabilities.
The second contract, for $8.5 million, will add tactical video data link (TVDL) technology to the helicopters. TVDL provides aircrew information needed to detect, identify and quickly respond to threats.
Elbit Systems of America President and CEO Raanan Horowitz said, “The AH-1W is on the front lines in the battle against those who wish to harm America. These new technologies give our Marines capabilities and a level of safety never before experienced.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Netanyahu Links PA to Global Anti-Semitism
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu opened his weekly Cabinet meeting recently by addressing a survey from the Anti-Defamation League that shows more than 25 percent of the world’s population holds anti-Semitic views.
“This is the result of the Palestinian Authority’s endless incitement against Israel and attempts to distort Israel’s image and the character of the Jewish people, as we know from past experience,” Netanyahu said.
Such incitement ranges from the glorification of Nazism and Adolf Hitler to television programs featuring heavily stereotyped Jews as villains and encouraging violence against them.
The prime minister also addressed “Nakba Day,” the anti-Israel hate-fest Palestinian Arabs celebrated in May. “The PA defines the existence and the creation of Israel as a catastrophe,” Netanyahu said. “Those who see the creation of Israel as a catastrophe do not want peace.”
“We have many answers to this,” Netanyahu promised. “The first is that we continue to build our state and our united capital of Jerusalem, and we will also give an additional answer to the Nakba—we will pass the ‘Jewish Nation-State Bill’ that makes clear to the entire world that Israel is the state of the Jewish people.”
Arutz-7 (IsraelNationalNews.com)
Chloé Valdary: Standing Up for Israel
Chloé Valdary is not a name on everyone’s lips. Most people probably have never heard of her. Some who have heard of her despise her. Others consider her one of the bravest college students they have ever seen.
Chloé is an international studies major at the University of New Orleans. In 2012 she founded Allies of Israel, and in the spring of 2013 she held a pro-Israel rally called “Declare Your Freedom.” According to Arutz-7, her speech went semiviral in 10 days. Since then, her life has not been the same.
She has become a target for Israel-haters. Richard Silverstein, a Jewish man who claims to be a Zionist but appears to be an anti-Semite, tweeted a message about Chloé: “They finally did it: Found a Negro Zionist: Uncle Tom is dancin’ for joy!”
She replied in a blog post on The Times of Israel:
I am a Zionist. I am unabashedly pro-Israel, and a proponent of the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancestral homeland. Silverstein is not a Zionist, and because I disagree with him—like the old slave masters who believed that their view of the world was superior to and should be foisted upon the negro slaves—he contends that I am an “Uncle Tom” (a derogatory term meaning “house slave,” or one who is subservient and servile to white masters).
I am certain that Silverstein does not comprehend the irony. After all, white supremacists tend to possess an astounding propensity for cognitive dissonance….Silverstein is judging me on the color of my skin, not on the content of my character, or rather, the content of my treatise….In subsequent tweets, Silverstein also bashed me because of my faith. I am a Christian.1
Chloé Valdary has been covered by JewishPress.com, Breitbart.com, The Jerusalem Post, and Israel Hayom; and frontpagemag.com ran an interview with her in March. She has also written for Arutz-7, The Jewish Thinker, CAMERA, and The Times of Israel.
To view a brief but powerful clip of her advocating for Israel, click here.
ENDNOTE
- Chloé Valdary, “In Defense of Liberty,” The Times of Israel, February 24, 2014 <http://blogs.timesofisrael.com/in-defense-of-liberty>.
