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The IRS Campaign Against Israel—and Us It took seven years for Z Street to learn the truth about why our tax-exempt status was delayed. Lori Lowenthal Marcus

By on February 2nd, 2018

The first IRS viewpoint discrimination case to be filed, Z Street v. IRS, has been settled, with disturbing revelations about how the Internal Revenue Service treated pro-Israel organizations applying for tax-exempt status.

I founded Z Street in 2009 to educate Americans about the Middle East and Israel’s defense against terror. We applied for tax-exempt status under Section 501(c)(3) of the tax code in December 2009—a process that usually takes three to six months.

Instead, the application languished. In late July 2010, an IRS agent truthfully responded to our lawyer’s query about why processing was taking so long: Z Street’s application was getting special scrutiny, the agent said, because it was related to Israel. Some applications for tax-exempt status were being sent to a special office in Washington for review of whether the applicants’ policy positions conflicted with those of the Obama administration.

So in August 2010 we sued the IRS for violating Z Street’s constitutional rights, including the First Amendment right to be free from viewpoint discrimination—government treatment that differs depending on one’s political position.

Now we know the truth, and it’s exactly as bad as we thought. IRS documents—those they didn’t “lose” or otherwise fail to produce—reveal the following:

• Our application was flagged because Z Street’s mission related to Israel, a country with terrorism. Therefore, an IRS manager in our case said in sworn testimony, the IRS needed to investigate whether Z Street was funding terror.

• Some applications for tax-exempt status were indeed being sent to IRS headquarters in Washington for more intense scrutiny. They were selected because of the applicants’ viewpoint.

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TIME FOR GREENBLATT TO WALK AWAY :CAROLINE GLICK

By on February 2nd, 2018

Unless Trump intends to humiliate himself and America and sell Israel down the river like his predecessors did, the peace process will not be resuscitated.

On Tuesday in Bethlehem, the Palestinians demonstrated the choice the Americans now face in their dealings with Fatah – the supposedly moderate PLO faction that controls the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. President Donald Trump and his advisers can play by Fatah’s rules or they can walk away.

On Tuesday a delegation of diplomats from the US Consulate in Jerusalem came to Bethlehem to participate in a meeting of the local chamber of commerce. When they arrived in the city, Fatah members attacked them. Their vehicles with diplomatic license plates were pelted with tomatoes and eggs by a mob of protesters calling out anti-American slogans.

After the Americans entered the hall where the meeting was scheduled to take place, some of the rioters barged in. They held placards condemning America and they shouted, “Americans Out!”

Some of the demonstrators cursed the Palestinians present, accusing them of treason for participating in a meeting with Americans. According to the news reports, the scene became tense and violent. The American officials beat a speedy retreat. As they departed the city, the Fatah rioters continued attacking their cars, kicking them and throwing eggs at them, until they were gone.

The attack on Tuesday was a natural progression.

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Europe’s Failure to Exercise the Diplomacy of Truth The surrender to threats, economic opportunism, and hypocrisy. Fiamma Nirenstein

By on February 1st, 2018

The chilled relationship between Europe and Israel arises from a fundamental European misunderstanding and ignorance of Israeli national needs. In every critical political decision, whether supporting the Iran deal, condemning U.S. recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, supporting UNESCO dangerous revisionism of Jerusalem’s Jewish cultural history, or refusing to identify the true source of European anti-Semitism, Europe has consistently taken the antagonistic position towards Israel. Despite this, the general European conclusion is that the unfriendly relations are Israel’s fault due to its right-wing policies led by the nationalistic Netanyahu government. Pretending that the relationship is strained because of a right-wing Israel, allows Europe to shirk its own responsibility for the decline of EU popularity in Israel.

In Europe, a sympathetic automatic switch clicks on when the Muslim world is involved, especially when it came to the Iranian nuclear deal. This sympathy goes together with Europe’s incomprehension of Donald Trump’s personality and actions, seen as anti-liberal and extreme right-wing. Coherent criticisms of the Iranian deal are ignored. This allows Europe to avoid any honest discussion and to marginalize and personalize the review of the Iran deal that Trump advocates. Actually, the European Union’s position, instead of serving its real interests dangerously looks at the past. Business interests and political correctness must not be more important than enforcing anti-proliferation, no more serious than finally visiting Iranian military sites that hide the real secrets of Iran’s non-compliance, and most of all, considering the dangerous essence of the Iranian threat. All this poses a threat, first and foremost to the Middle East, and immediately after that, to Europe.

Instead of facing the real and present dangers of anti-Semitism, Europe is focused on fighting its past “ghosts” of anti-Semitism. Today, the “new Jew” – the Israeli, along with his proxies, the diaspora Jews – are condemned in a way that has nothing to do with the tradition of right-wing political parties. Today, the Jews are not seen in the same way, as they were 90 years ago. The face of anti-Semitism has changed, and therefore widespread right-wing anti-Semitism is quite improbable. The general perception of the Jew is no longer that of a cosmopolitan parasite and traitor of Western values, but quite the opposite. The Jews and Israel, in fact, wholeheartedly embrace Western values and customs, and this “original sin” is more likely to be readily employed by the European Left than by the Right.

The option of speaking the truth is the only way for Israel to establish a new relationship with Europe. European leaders showed that they could easily vote for the worst lies about Israel (in the General Assembly but also in other UN bodies). UNESCO, for instance, regularly votes on resolutions which deny any Jewish ties to the Western Wall and recognizes it as an Islamic heritage site. Their voting against Israel and choosing an absurd lie like denying Jerusalem ties to the Jewish People and Israel defy reason and history. And then the European leaders feign friendship to the Jewish state.

Why does Israel have a difficult relationship with Europe? Why is Europe so tough on Israel? And how do we find the way to correct this sour relationship?

Europe’s Politicized View of Israel

The respected Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS) foundation issued a report in September 2017 entitled “Israel’s Views of Europe-Israeli Relations.”1 The study is based on a poll of 1,000 Israelis, but the analysis produced has the flavor of a very personal and political viewpoint.

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No Breaks for Israel By Shoshana Bryen

By on January 31st, 2018

Israel’s red lines in Syria’s civil war have included returning fire against any entity that fires into Israel (whether Syrian, rebel, Hizb’allah, or Iranian); not permitting Iran or Hizb’allah or any of their Shiite proxies in Syria to establish permanent bases within a specific distance of the Israeli Golan border; and not permitting weapons beyond a certain level of lethality and sophistication to move from Syria to Hizb’allah. To enforce those lines, the Israeli Air Defense Force is suspected of carrying out attacks on a “scientific research center,” artillery positions, a “munitions factory,” and more. The Israeli government rarely confirms such strikes, but acknowledges that the Russians are informed of Israeli activity when necessary in an agreed-upon effort to limit the damage and not engage Russian forces themselves.

This has morphed into one of the most quietly effective relationships in the Middle East. Not an alliance, certainly, but the pragmatic leaders of both countries have concluded that each benefits by coordinating with the other.

Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu had a full agenda this week, as he went to Moscow for a five-hour meeting with Russian president Vladimir Putin after their meeting in Davos. High on the list was Israel’s growing concern about the expansion of Hizb’allah missiles and missile production facilities in Lebanon – facilitated by Iran. “It’s no longer a transfer of arms, funds or consultation. Iran has de-facto opened a new branch, the ‘Lebanon branch.’ Iran is here,” wrote IDF Spokesman Brig. Gen. Ronen Manelis. “In Lebanon, Hezbollah does not conceal its attempt to take control of the state.”

But on this and other issues, Russia, Syria’s longtime ally, is looking to reduce its exposure. As the shape of the Syrian war changes, Israel may find its working relations with Russia undermined by Moscow’s desire to exercise influence in Syria generally from afar, and by its shifting relations with Iran.

Since the start of the civil war in 2011, Moscow has enhanced its political position in Damascus and across the region. It has also strengthened its security position by upgrading its naval bases at Tartus and Latakia, while acquiring an airbase at Hmeimim. Russia is leery of committing troops to the war (Afghanistan looms large here), and there are, in fact, very few Russian soldiers on the ground. Now, as fighting on some fronts wanes, the Russians want to pull even those back. Visiting Syria last month, Putin said he would withdraw most of the troops while maintaining the bases. According to Israel’s Ha’aretz newspaper, Putin told assembled Russian troops, “Friends, “the homeland awaits you.”

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ISRAEL, MOVIES AND TELEVISION Comments turned off

Glazov Gang: Unveiling Jerusalem. Pierre Rehov’s new film embarks on a journey in search of a Temple and the Truth.

By on January 30th, 2018

http://jamieglazov.com/2018/01/30/glazov-gang-unveiling-jerusalem/

This new edition of The Glazov Gang features filmmaker Pierre Rehov. He discusses his new film: Unveiling Jerusalem, which embarks on a journey in search of a Temple and the Truth. (To watch the film, visit UnveilingJerusalem.com).

Don’t miss it!

And make sure to watch Dr. Charles Jacobs discuss Saudi Curriculum in American High Schools, where he unveils the meaning of “Jihad” in Newton:

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EDUCATION, ISRAEL Comments turned off

The Dark Secret of Two-Faced Academics by Giulio Meotti

By on January 29th, 2018

Nadine el Enany, the first signatory of the appeal against the United States’ so-called “Muslim ban”, is one of the signers of the appeal to boycott her Israeli academic colleagues.

The restrictions the U.S. administration placed on potentially hostile immigrants were intended to prevent terror attacks on Americans and their free, democratic way of life. The goal of the campaign against Israel is to attack the freest and only democracy from Casablanca to Calcutta — and a place where Muslim students are free — freer, in fact, than in many Muslim and Arab countries.

The dark secret of the hypocritical academic class is that apparently what they really relish is the idea of Israel’s destruction.

The United States government’s restrictions (or “ban”) on the admission of travelers from six Muslim-majority countries (which were chosen by former President Obama) — unless, as President Donald J. Trump has said, there can be vetting — triggered the anger of the Western academic community. Their distress seems to center around the exclusion from the United States of researchers and scholars from Islamic countries sanctioned by the American administration. Harvard, Yale and Stanford sued the White House. 171 scientific societies and academic organizations protested what they wrongly titled Trump’s “Muslim ban”. “Among those affected by the Order are academics and students who are unable to participate in conferences and the free communication of ideas”, says an appeal signed by 6,000 scientists, academics and researchers around the world.

What is more “progressive” than a Western academic community struggling to keep the scientific gates open? Sadly, however, many of those who have promoted these appeals have been instrumental in spreading other, racist, appeals to boycott their Israeli colleagues. It is, in the same universities, the “Israel Ban”. The discrimination is not directed at scientists from Yemen or Somalia, but only at those with a passport from the Jewish State.

Nadine el Enany, for instance, the first signatory of the appeal against the United States “Muslim ban”, is one of the signers of the appeal to boycott her Israeli academic colleagues. The same double standards apply to Sarah Keenan and Bill Bowring, and to Italian professor Paola Bacchetta, who teaches “gender studies” at Berkeley. Arshin Adib-Moghaddam, a professor of literature at SOAS University in London, announced that, to protest Trump’s supposed “xenophobia”, he will cancel a U.S. tour for his book. What about protesting his own xenophobia? A progressive “conscience” did not prevent Adib-Moghaddam from also signing an appeal to boycott Israeli researchers and professors.

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UNRWA: The UN Agency that Creates Palestinian Refugees by Pierre Rehov

By on January 29th, 2018

According to the UN’s own definition, the status of “refugee” cannot be passed from generation to generation — as it conveniently has been for the Palestinians. A Palestinian with a European, American or Jordanian passport has no reason to be considered a refugee. Except by UNRWA.

“Since the UN took them over, the Palestinians started burying their dead at night, without declaring them, in order to share their rations. As a result, for nearly 20 years, the official death rate in the camps was close to zero. In addition, there was a lot of movement between the camps. But these displacements were rarely recorded, so that a Palestinian could appear in several camps at the same time…” — Said Aburish, Palestinian Refugee and biographer of the late Palestinian Chairman Yasser Arafat.

UNRWA is not just a humanitarian agency. Its political stance is evident at all levels of the organization. A report from the Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, says that the 2016-2017 curriculum for elementary schools in PA, partly funded by UNRWA, “teaches students to be martyrs, to demonize and deny the existence of Israel, and to focus on a ‘return’ to an exclusively Palestinian country.”

In the context of announced budget cuts, the US administration recently announced that it will drastically reduce its financial support of UNRWA (United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees). US Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wanted the outright cancellation of the $364 million allocated each year to the UN agency, as long as it did not implement reforms and transparency, but US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was for the time being content to halve the first tranche of aid, originally set at $125 million.

At the heart of this case is the desire of US President Donald Trump to stop financing any agency or international organization that does not reflect American interests. There is also, however, a 180-degree turn on the US position in the Arab-Israeli conflict by the new administration. It seems determined not to make the same mistakes — and fall into the same traps — as previous administrations.

First, what is UNRWA?

Established in December 1949 with a one-year mandate, UNRWA aimed at its birth to help resettle the 600,000 Palestinian Arabs who had fled the conflict zone during the rebirth of the state of Israel, after five Arab armies had attacked it — and lost.

The causes of this exile were threefold, according to several polls undertaken in refugee camps and summarized in an article by Tibor Mende, published in French newspaper Le Monde on April 21, 1951:

“Some did not want to live in a Jewish state, others fled the battle and, once that was over, could not return home. Many more left because they were told that it was for a few days, a few weeks at most, and that they would return with the triumphant Arab armies. ”

Surprisingly (or not), no parallel office was created to help the 870,000 Jews expelled and despoiled by the majority of Arab-Muslim countries between 1948 and 1974 — including those militarily forced out of Judea and Samaria by the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, which hastened to rename this region the “West Bank” after illegally annexing it in 1948.

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John Kerry Chamberlain: Saving Israel From Itself…Again by Gerald A. Honigman

By on January 29th, 2018

www.geraldahonigman.comBack in President Obama’s second term in office, Secretary of State John Kerry, like his boss and other members of the same peapod (Samantha Power, Susan Rice, Joe Biden, Chuck Hagel, etc.), liked to warn Israel about such things as its isolation andalienation if it did not agree to Arab demands to return to its pre-’67 war, ’49 armistice lines (not borders) which made it an over-sized ghetto, 9-15 miles wide at its waist, where most of its population and infrastructure are located. President George W. Bush commented that Texas had driveways larger than that. I don’t know about driveways, but I also don’t doubt the size of some Lone Star ranches. And I’m pretty sure Mrs. Obama had to travel farther than that for shopping trips to Target.

Others like President Jimmy Carter supposedly worried/worry (and even wrote books) about Israel’s soul and looming “apartheid nature” if it insists on the more secure, defensible, real borders that UNSC Resolution 242 promised in the wake of the ’67 fighting–a war Israel was forced to fight after being blockaded by Egypt (a casus belli), shelled by Jordan, abandoned by the UN Emergency Force placed in Sinai after the ’56 war (largely fought over another blockade and acts of terror), and other hostile acts and constant threats of annihilation.

All of 242’s architects (Lord Caradon, Eugene Rostow, etc.)–and Presidents Johnson, Reagan, and others (including George W. Bush in his letter to Prime Minister Ariel Sharon)–agreed that Israel would never return to those pre-’67 Auschwitz lines. That, dear readers, is what the “settlement” issue is mostly all about…besides Jews having both modern, religious, and historical connections to Judea and Samaria (only since the 20th century, the “West Bank”) for over three thousand years. Question: Was Jesus born in Bethlehem of the West Bank or Bethlehem of Judea? Ask the Gospels’ Matthew.

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Israel Tries Arabic Outreach, Gets Mixed Response Military deploys social media to spread anti-Iran message Link copied… By Rory Jones in Tel Aviv and Nazih Osseiran in Beirut

By on January 28th, 2018

As Saudi Arabia and Iran spar for influence across the Middle East, Israel is using the Arabic language to seek common ground with Tehran’s enemies and sway its sympathizers.

The efforts have been met at times with hostility and ridicule—in part because Maj. Avichay Adraee, the Israeli army spokesman leading the outreach, doesn’t shy away from provocation.

Maj. Adraee’s recent output includes a Facebook post of image of Iran’s flag superimposed over the Gaza Strip and a Twitter video simulating an Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon, home of the Iran-backed group Hezbollah.
Text messaging

A tweet from the Israeli military’s Arabic-language spokesman Maj. Avichay Adraee accuses Iran for dragging down Gaza, including the message that Iran “will not care about the peoples it attempts to exert its influence over.”

With 1.2 million followers on his Arabic Facebook page and more than 181,000 on Twitter, Maj. Adraee is the face of the Israeli messaging campaign. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has issued videos with Arabic subtitles denouncing Iran, and the foreign ministry routinely posts rosy images of Israeli-Arab coexistence for its own million-plus Arabic-language Facebook followers.

For Israel, which doesn’t have diplomatic relations with most of its neighbors, social media has become a way to engage with Arabs and reinforce a growing alignment with Sunni Muslim Arab states.

The most influential of those states is Saudi Arabia. In a sign of that emphasis, the Israeli military chose a newspaper owned by a Saudi publisher when it offered the first Arab-media interview with its chief of staff in more than 10 years.

Iran is the “biggest threat to the region,” chief-of-staff Lt. Gen Gadi Eisenkot told the publication, Elaph, which is based in London, in November. “In this matter, there is complete agreement between us and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.”

An official at Iran’s United Nations mission didn’t respond to a request for comment on Israel’s media outreach.
CONTINUE AT SITE

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GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL BY MICHAEL ORDMAN

By on January 28th, 2018

Following the rains, Israel is awash with news of more successes in medical research, international trade and global recognition. Very appropriately we are about to celebrate the Jewish festival of Tu B’Shvat – The New Year for Trees and the time for the almond blossom.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Good results in pancreatic cancer treatment trials. Israel’s BioLineRx has announced encouraging initial results from its Phase 2a trials of its BL-8040 treatment on patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. After only five days of treatment the treatment substantially increased the numbers of T-cells fighting the tumors.
https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biolinerx-announces-partial-monotherapy-results-from-phase-2a-combat-study-in-pancreatic-cancer-300583808.html

Melanoma treatment shows promise. When Israel’s BioLineRx bought UK’s Agalimmune, it also acquired its AGI-134 treatment for solid tumors. BioLineRX has just demonstrated successful results of AGI-134 in two pre-clinical melanoma studies. https://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/biolinerx-reports-data-at-asco-sitc-conference-showing-complete-tumor-regression-by-agi-134-in-pre-clinical-studies-670669553.html

Predicting and preventing PIE. Post Injury Epilepsy (PIE) occurs several months after a stroke in at least 10% of patients. Scientists at Ben Gurion University have been able to detect likely PIE sufferers using EEG (electroencephalographic) recordings of theta brain waves. Early treatment with medication can prevent attacks.
https://aabgu.org/discovered-biomarker-predicts-post-injury-epilepsy/

The gene that causes colon cancer. Israel’s NRGene has confirmed the identity of a genetic mutation that causes colon cancer in 60% of its hosts. NRGene was contacted by scientists at Stanford University and used its GenoMagic software to genetically screen the DNA of inherited colon cancer sufferers.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israels-nrgene-successfully-identifies-colon-cancer-mutation/

European approval for stroke analysis system. (TY Atid-EDI) Viz.ai has received the CE Mark for its Israeli-developed Direct-to-Intervention system, ContaCT, a novel approach to stroke care that automatically analyzes brain CT-scans and notifies a specialist that a suspected large vessel occlusion has been identified.
https://interventionalnews.com/viz-ai-announces-ce-mark-first-artificial-intelligence-powered-direct-intervention-system/ https://www.youtube.com/embed/_721LqeON3U?rel=0

Personalized cancer treatment. (TY UWI and TIP) This video shows that Israeli doctors are saving lives of cancer patients by testing different treatments on samples of the tumors outside of the patient’s body. They can then determine the best cancer treatments to offer patients based on the success of the treatment.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/QK_4kO1VgPI?rel=0

Gene cancer therapy prepares to launch. Israel’s VBL Therapeutics has opened its new gene therapy production facility to manufacture VBL’s lead cancer therapy ofranergene obadenovec (VB-111), when finally approved. The Modiin gene therapy plant is one of the largest in the world, and the first in Israel.
https://globenewswire.com/news-release/2017/10/23/1151526/0/en/VBL-Therapeutics-Celebrates-Opening-of-its-New-Gene-Therapy-Manufacturing-Plant-and-Company-Headquarters.html
https://www.youtube.com/embed/4HeISdYw7d8?rel=0

An app to monitor the brain. Israel-based startup Montfort Brain Monitor won Israel’s Henry Ford Health System’s artificial intelligence challenge. Montfort’s “master app” uses a smartphone’s sensors to track a patient’s motor, cognitive, and affective activity. It can be tailored for the specific neurological disorder.
http://www.calcalistech.com/ctech/articles/0,7340,L-3730184,00.html

NIS 1 billion digital health project. In Davos, Israeli PM Netanyahu met with William McDermott, the CEO of SAP who agreed to partner with Israel on a new five-year NIS 1 billion digital healthcare project. The project aims to develop personalized and preventative medicine – regarded as a revolution in the health sector.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-netanyahu-sap-ceo-launch-nis-1b-healthcare-project-1001221143

ISRAEL IS INCLUSIVE AND GLOBAL

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