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ISRAEL

Suppressing Pro-Israel Views at the University of Chicago The University’s newspaper removes an op-ed challenging a noxious boycott request by anti-Israel radicals.Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/suppressing-pro-israel-views-university-chicago-richard-l-cravatts/

The suppression of pro-Israel views on campus has been a troubling development in the ongoing cognitive war against Israel. Now, the silencing of pro-Israel voices even appears in college newspapers. The McGill Daily, as one troubling example, has a long-standing, publicly announced policy of never publishing pro-Israel content in its pages, deeming it to be racist or oppressive in its support of the Jewish state. 

This week, the University of Chicago’s student newspaper, The Chicago Maroon, followed that same ignoble path by violating journalistic and free speech ideals in retracting an op-ed written by two students, “We Must Condemn the SJP’s Online Anti-Semitism,” who questioned the tactics and ideology of members of the University’s chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine(SJP), a perennially toxic and corrosive anti-Israel group of radicals. 

On January 26th, as the op-ed by Melody Dias and Benjamin ZeBrack noted, SJP had posted on its Instagram page the shocking admonition, “DON’T TAKE SH*TTY ZIONIST CLASSES.” Students were asked to “Support the Palestinian movement for liberation by boycotting classes on Israel or those taught by Israeli fellows.” According to the SJP post, any students who enrolled in these classes would be “participating in a propaganda campaign that creates complicity in the continuation of Israel’s occupation of Palestine” and that, in its view, “Israeli-centered classes are designed to obscure Palestinian perspectives.”

Terror in Tel Aviv – 2 dead, several critically wounded; terrorist on the loose

Several people were injured, some critically, in a shooting attack on a crowded street. Two died in hospital.

By World Israel News Staff

Several victims were wounded, some critically, in a shooting spree in Tel Aviv Thursday evening.

“Unfortunately, the deaths of two were determined upon their arrival here. Four more are in very serious condition, two more are in moderate condition, and one in light condition,” Ichilov hospital said in a statement.

At about 9 p.m., gunfire erupted on the lively Dizengoff Street.

In an update later in the evening, MDA medics and paramedics said they provided medical treatment and evacuated nine wounded to the Ichilov Hospital, Sheba in Tel Hashomer, and Wolfson.

“Two men in their 30s were evacuated to Ichilov Hospital during resuscitation operations, and after the doctors’ efforts, their deaths were determined,” the update said.

“Three were seriously injured, including a 38-year-old man, a 28-year-old woman and a 20-year-old man were evacuated to Ichilov Hospital with gunshot wounds.

“Four lightly wounded were evacuated to hospitals, including a 30-year-old man with a gunshot wound to Sheba.”

United Hatzalah volunteer EMT Akiva Kauffman, who was one of the first responders at the scene at Dizengoff Street, reported, “There were a number of very serious scenes in which attacks took place. I treated and transported one person who was in serious condition in one of United Hatzalah’s ambulances to the hospital. Additional injured people were transported in other ambulances both from United Hatzalah and other ambulance companies.

”Additionally, the Psychotrauma and Crisis Response Unit responded to the incident and treated numerous people who suffered emotional shock and trauma due to having witnessed the shootings.”

Beyond the police counter-terrorism units, the IDF has deployed its Special Forces in the heart of Tel Aviv.

Police are telling residents to stay indoors, as the terrorist is still on the loose. A manhunt is underway.

Ben & Jerry’s Tries to Force Food Apartheid An unprecedented turning-point lawsuit over E. Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria. Edwin Black

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/ben-jerrys-tries-force-food-apartheid-edwin-black/

For the first time in human-rights history, an international mega-corporation has attempted to coerce a licensee into food apartheid. This unprecedented contractual demand has provoked a turning-point lawsuit that asks whether it is legal to attempt to force a food licensee to discriminate against entire communities, especially ethnic ones. More distilled, the lawsuit asks to uphold the basic right to be fair, ethical and legal.

The litigants are “David,” the tiny Ben & Jerry’s licensee in Israel vs. the twin “Goliaths,” Ben & Jerry’s of Vermont and its billion-dollar parent company, multi-brand behemoth Unilever.

Ironically, the effort to compel this food apartheid springs from none other than the alleged icon of social values, Vermont-based Ben & Jerry’s. The famous, funky ice cream brand—operated by aging millionaire hippies Ben Cohen and Jerry Greenfield—has demanded that its longtime Israeli licensee stop selling in eastern Jerusalem, as well as in Judea and Samaria, also known as the West Bank. These regions are predominantly populated by Arabs.

From the beginning, Ben & Jerry’s Israel’s owner, Avi Zinger, knew he could not comply with such an illegal request. In Israel, where communities and entire villages are historically ethnic, commercial discrimination by ethnicity, neighborhood or geographic location is strictly illegal. The United States has enacted laws forbidding similar “redlining” activities by food distributors, service providers and financial institutions.

A Ramadan intifada? Ruthie Blum

https://www.jns.org/opinion/a-ramadan-intifada/

(April 5, 2022 / JNS) The Muslim month of Ramadan, which began on Friday night, is already proving to be the challenge that Israeli authorities had anticipated. Palestinians and radicalized Arab Israelis swarming the Old City of Jerusalem’s Damascus Gate on Saturday and Sunday attacked police, who were stationed at site to keep the peace.
The irony is inescapable. Ramadan, one of the Five Pillars of Islam, is marked by fasting and serious prayer. The 29- to 30-day period is when Muslims are supposed to focus on faith, spiritual contemplation and self-discipline. In Israel, however, the holy days are a source of potential—and often realized—peril for citizens and tourists of all religions. The proximity of Passover and Easter, rather than cause for monotheistic celebration, only serves to make the security situation more precarious for residents and visitors alike.

In a futile attempt to keep the imminent chaos at bay, Israeli and American leaders, along with counterparts in the Arab world, made a point last month of warning against the unrest that all knew was inevitable. Unfortunately, none aimed the admonition at the actual culprits—Palestinians and those among their Israeli brethren planning and carrying out mass murder.
At a press conference on March 27 following a meeting with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters that he and the Israeli premier had “discussed ways to foster a peaceful Passover, Ramadan and Easter across Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem, a city of such profound importance to Jews, to Christians, to Muslims.”

US pressuring Israel – reality testing Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinge

https://bit.ly/3J98u1i

According to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory, reality testing is the ability to see a situation for what it really is, rather than what one hopes or fears it might be.

The Ben Gurion doctrine

Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, pressures Israel to refrain from sharing with the co-equal US Congress its own concerns about the adverse impact of the US policy toward Iran on the national security of the US and Israel.

Secretary Blinken is, also, pressuring Israel to refrain from acting unilaterally, in order to avert the regional and global wrath of a nuclear Iran.

In addition, the chief architect of President Biden’s foreign and national security policy is pressuring Israel to freeze Jewish construction – while encouraging Arab construction – in Judea and Samaria and East Jerusalem, re-divide Jerusalem and to withdraw to the pre-1967 ceasefire lines, which were defined as “The Auschwitz Lines” by Abba Eban, Israel’s former Foreign Minister, who was a leading Dove.

Israel’s Prime Minister is advised to follow in the footsteps of Israel’s Founding Fathers – from Prime Minister David Ben Gurion through Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir – who considered the defiance of US pressure to make reckless concessions as a central factor in their national security policy. While it triggered short term confrontations, it produced strategic long term US respect for Israel. The US appreciates principle-driven allies, who do not sacrifice their national security and cradle of history on the altar of diplomatic and economic convenience, even when it entails defiance of US pressure.

RONALD LAUDER AND RUTHIE BLUM ON ISRAEL

Why is there so little coverage and so little protest. ?”No “Jewish Lives Matter” no “We Are All Israelis Now.”

VIDEO

https://www.instagram.com/tv/Cb22nGaFZXw/?utm_medium=share_sheet

COLUMN

Ruthie Blum- JIHAD BY ANY OTHER NAME

https://www.jns.org/opinion/jihad-by-any-other-name/

GOOD NEWS FROM AMAZING ISRAEL FROM MICHAEL ORDMAN

When my family gathers around the Seder table on April 15th,2022 we recall the dark Passover of April 19th 1943 and the battle in which the small number of persons remaining in the Warsaw Ghetto rose up against the Nazi murderers and held them off for one month. Passover on April 23, 1948, heralded the Israeli Declaration of Independence on May 14, 1948. Since then, the Jews who have lived in Palestine for centuries welcomed those persecuted in the Diaspora and the Jewish state has become a major player in technology, agriculture, science and medicine, and the arts, as Michael Ordman catalogs in his dazzling blog.

And in an event of supreme historical irony the following headline caught my attention:

https://www.reuters.com › world › europe › germany-loo…

Berlin is considering buying a missile defense system from Israel or the United States to defend against foreign threats. As my late mother would say “Go Know!”  rsk

www.verygoodnewsisrael.blogspot.com

 

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS
 
Medical clowns aid Ukrainian refugees. (TY JNS) The huge numbers of Israeli volunteers aiding refugees from Ukraine in Moldova include the medical clowns of Dream Doctors (see here previously). Their costumes, big red noses and funny antics light up the faces of exhausted Ukrainian women, children, and elderly men.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/israeli-medical-clowns-bring-smiles-relieve-stress-for-ukraine-refugees-in-moldova/   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wfYFumNRjLA
 
Ukraine field hospital treats thousands. Israel’s “Shining Star” field hospital has been established by the Israel Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Health, and Sheba Medical Centre, assisted by Israel’s healthcare system. In its first week it treated 1,100+ adults and children, including a 10-year-old heart patient.
https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324428  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NWOB3FNuP6U
https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukrainian-girl-and-her-hamster-reach-israels-field-hospital-after-escaping-bombings/ https://www.israelnationalnews.com/news/324853
 
Second booster reduced deaths by 78%. Israeli HMO Clalit, Sapir College and Ben-Gurion University studied 563,465 Israelis aged 60-100 who were eligible for the fourth coronavirus vaccine. They reported a 78% decrease in COVID deaths. In a 40-day period.
https://www.timesofisrael.com/study-indicates-4th-shots-were-key-to-saving-lives-among-over-60s-in-omicron-wave/  https://www.jpost.com/health-and-wellness/coronavirus/article-702441 +++
 
Hope for advanced head & neck cancer patients. (TY WIN) Researchers at Ben-Gurion University have developed an innovative treatment for Head & Neck Cancer (HNC) sufferers. It blocks the hyper-activation of a specific cell-signaling pathway that is found in over 40% of HNC patients.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/head_neck.aspx
 
Accurate diagnosis. (TY UWI) Tel Aviv University researchers have discovered that after a minor head injury many children later displayed symptoms that were often misdiagnosed as ADHD. 200 children were monitored and 25% were found to suffer chronic persistent post-concussion syndrome, requiring much different treatment.
https://www.israel21c.org/minor-head-injury-leads-to-chronic-syndrome-in-1-of-4-kids/
 
International research grants. Ben Gurion University’s Dr. Shai Pilosof has won a $100,000 grant from the International Human Frontier Science Program Organization (HFSP) for researching animals and environment. His colleague Dr Benjamin Palmer is investigating the diversity of color in the natural world.
https://in.bgu.ac.il/en/pages/news/pilosof_palmer.aspx
 
 

Palestinian school curriculum – peaceful coexistence? Ambassador (Ret.) Yoram Ettinger

https://bit.ly/3tXACQC

Female fighters are glorified for sacrificing their sons and husbands in (Jihad) battle, as role models and as a proof that Islam ensures women’s “equality with men in sacrifice and self-sacrifice in invasions and battles” (Islamic Education, Grade 8, Card 8, Quarter 1, Semester 1, 2021–22, p. 29).

Dalal Mughrabi, the perpetrator of the 1978 terror attack on a civilian bus from Haifa to Tel Aviv – which left 38 Israelis murdered, including 13 children – is praised as a brave “female Arab jihad warrior” (Social Studies, Grade 9, Semester 1, 2021–22, p. 20).

Overview

The Palestinian Authority’s school curriculum (Please see documentation in the next section) was established in 1993 by Mahmoud Abbas, when he was Arafat’s deputy.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority is the most factual description of the rogue Palestinian walk; a direct contrast to Palestinian diplomatic talk.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority focusses on the pre-1967 area of Israel.

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority has been consistent with the 1959 Charter of Mahmoud Abbas’ Fatah (8 years before the “1967 War”) and the 1964 Charter of Mahmoud Abbas’ PLO (3 years before the 1967 War), before Israel regained control of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).

The school curriculum of the Palestinian Authority is consistent with the anti-“infidel” precepts of Islam, aimed to eliminate the “infidel” entity in the abode of Islam and bring the “infidel” to submission.

McGill and Tufts Mobilize Against Israel The toxic language and ideology of activists who hijack the Israeli/Palestinian debate. Richard L. Cravatts

https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/2022/04/mcgill-and-tufts-mobilize-against-israel-richard-l-cravatts/

As yet more evidence that a core group of activist McGill students is in the thrall of radical anti-Israelism, Students’ Society of McGill University (SSMU) voted to adopt a “Palestine Solidarity Policy” proposed by the student club Solidarity for Palestinian Human Rights (SPHR). The mendacious, one-sided policy statement asserted that “McGill University invests in, or engages in close collaboration with several corporations and institutions complicit in an entrenched system of settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians” and that Israel maintains a “system of settler-colonial apartheid [which] is characterized by a brutal regime of land theft, checkpoints, house demolitions, environmental destruction, deportation, and extrajudicial killings at the hands of soldiers, police, and settlers.”

In light of these alleged conditions, the policy called for the SSMU to “campaign for McGill University’s complete boycott of all corporations and institutions complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians,” as well as “complete divestment from all corporations complicit in settler-colonial apartheid against Palestinians,” committing McGill institutionally to a five-year campaign to elevate the Palestinian cause and demonize the Jewish state.

At McGill University, anti-Israel sentiment is already so endemic that the University’s student newspaper, the McGill Daily, refuses to run any content that is pro-Israel or defends Zionism or the Jewish state, and a 2021 editorial, seeming to speak on behalf of the whole student body, denounced Israel’s purported “colonialism, imperialism, and genocide in all forms,” condemned “McGill’s Zionist involvement, which is reflected in their continued investment in Israeli and international businesses located on occupied Palestinian land,” and claimed, in language similar to this latest policy statement, that the “Israeli occupation of Palestinian land is nothing short of apartheid.”

‘Pay-for-slay’ Abbas takes his cue from ‘Iran-Deal’ Blinken By Ruthie Blum

https://www.jpost.com/opinion/article-702916

Following Tuesday night’s terrorist attack in Bnei Brak, Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas issued what the media reported as a “rare condemnation.” While it’s true that Abbas doesn’t usually come out against the murder of Israelis (though, in this case, three of the five people killed were not Jewish), his statement should not be viewed as cause for optimism.

On the contrary, the PA chief hasn’t changed his colors one iota. Nor has he ceased the stipends for “martyrs for Allah” through his proud “pay-for-slay” program. No, the message he conveyed, allegedly due to pressure by Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz, was carefully worded in a way that would satisfy the powers-that-be in Washington.

“The killing of Palestinian and Israeli civilians will only lead to further deterioration of the situation, especially as we are approaching the holy month of Ramadan and the Christian and Jewish holidays,” he declared, going on to warn “Israeli settlers” and others not to use the “incident” as an excuse to carry out assaults on “our Palestinian people.”

He then referred to the “cycle of violence,” asserting that a “permanent, comprehensive and just peace is the shortest way to provide security and stability for the Palestinian and Israeli peoples and the peoples of the entire region.”

As a consistent rejectionist of peace with the Jewish state, whose very existence he opposes, Abbas was simply parroting US Secretary of State Antony Blinken.

At a joint press conference on Monday in Jerusalem with Prime Minister Naftali Bennett, Blinken reported that he and the Israeli premier had “discussed ways to foster a peaceful Passover, Ramadan and Easter across Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, particularly in Jerusalem, a city of such profound importance to Jews, to Christians, to Muslims.”