Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From Russia Today
‘Don’t demonize Israel’: Canada passes anti-boycott motion
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 23:33
Canada’s Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. © Chris Wattie / Reuters
Canada has passed a motion to condemn “any and all attempts” to promote the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel both at home and abroad.
The motion passed on Monday by a 229-51 vote, CIJ News reports. The bill was introduced by members of the Conservative Party and won support from Liberal Party members. The motion calls on the government to condemn attempts by Canadian organizations, groups, and individuals to promote the BDS movement, claiming it “promotes the demonization and delegitimization” of Israel.
The BDS movement, like Israeli Apartheid Week, has no place on Canadian campuses. As a @McGillU alum, I’m disappointed. #EnoughIsEnough
— Justin Trudeau (@JustinTrudeau) March 13, 2015
BDS is a global grassroots movement that is trying to pressure Israel to “comply with international law and Palestinian rights” through the boycott of products and companies that profit from violating Palestinian rights. It also includes Israeli cultural and academic institutions.
Inspired by the successful BDS movement that aided in ending South African apartheid, its supporters believe the movement is the only way to push for a solution to the Palestinian-Israeli conflict.
120+ cities have now registered to participate in #IsraeliApartheidWeek! #BDS
— BDS Movement (@BDSmovement) February 23, 2016
Speaking after the vote, the National Council of Canada Arab Relations said, “At its core, the vote on the anti-BDS motion would go against the spirit of Freedom of Speech, a right enshrined in Canada’s Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Democratic governments do not ordinarily attempt to dictate the political views of their citizens. NCCAR Chair, Gabriel Fahel, reminds us that ‘freedom of speech and conscientious objections to buying products from countries that contravene international law are core values of a free and democratic society.’”
The CEO of the Center for Israel and Jewish Affairs, Shimon Fogel, however insisted that the boycott movement “does not contribute to peace and is not pro-Palestinian.”
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From Russia Today
Refugee teen charged with rape of social worker after finishing course on how to behave with women
The incident took place in the Belgian town of Menan near the French border. The minor, who “has been staying in the center in Menan already for five months,” followed the “young cook into the basement,” where he allegedly raped her, An Luyten, a spokeswoman for the Red Cross Flanders, told RT.
She added that the teenager “apparently already had an eye on her for quite some time.”
Belgian prosecutors confirmed that the Afghan minor had attacked the young woman, who works for a catering firm providing services to the Menan refugee center, adding that a judge had ordered that the suspect be detained in youth custody until his next hearing.
According to the Red Cross Flanders, which runs the center, the “boy” had attended a course on how to behave towards women given by the organization just two weeks before sexually assaulting the young girl.
From Russia Today
Syria backs US & Russia-brokered ceasefire ‘if fight against terrorists continues’ – media
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 10:22
The Syrian government has accepted the terms of a ceasefire deal announced by the US and Russia, a foreign ministry source said, as cited by Sana news agency. But Damascus wants the fight against terrorists such as Islamic State to continue.
The source added that Syrian authorities would coordinate with Russia to decide which groups and areas would be included in the “cessation of hostilities” plan.
Syria said that it was important to seal the borders and halt foreign support for armed groups, as well as to prevent “these organizations from strengthening their capabilities or changing their positions, in order to avoid… wrecking this agreement,” according to the source.
The source said that Syria “affirms readiness to continue to coordinate with the Russian side to identify the areas and armed groups that are to be included in the ceasefire during the period it is in effect.”
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From The Independent
Syrian civil war: On the road to Aleppo – where people have abandoned all in the shadow of Isis
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Don’t host Holocaust denier David Irving, Dutch group appeals to event halls
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — A Dutch watchdog group on anti-Semitism called on owners of event halls not to host Holocaust denier David Irving, who reportedly is planning a lecture in The Hague.
Irving, who has been barred from several countries and was jailed in 2006 in Austria for denying or minimizing the Jewish genocide, is scheduled to speak somewhere in The Hague on Feb. 25, the Center for Information and Documentation on Israel, or CIDI, wrote in a Feb. 20 statement.
It called on “all owners of event halls in The Hague to offer no platform to the convict” from Britain.
The topic of the lecture that Irving plans to deliver is “Hitler, Himmler, and the Homosexuals,” according to CIDI.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Las Vegas’ Jewish mayor talks about her city, how husband would love to run against Trump
Carolyn Goodman, the mayor of Las Vegas, in her office, Feb. 10, 2016. (Ron Kampeas)
LAS VEGAS (JTA) — You haven’t heard a lot about Carolyn Goodman, which may be just how she wants it.
Goodman, 76, was elected mayor of this city in 2011, succeeding her husband, Oscar Goodman, who had served three terms and was barred by term limits from running for a fourth. She was reelected last year.
Whereas Oscar is “flamboyant,” as Goodman puts it in an interview in her office overlooking the strip, she is more self-effacing. She is prone to be gracious in victory, once praising her opponent following a tough municipal election as having “good intentions” for Las Vegas. Oscar, a former mob lawyer who played a version of himself in “Goodfellas,” had once called another challenger a “piece of crap.”
She’s also disarmingly candid, confessing that she was “born a brunette” and recounting with pride the adoption of her four children, whose photos surround her.
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From PressTV
Elements in foreign-backed FSA militants oppose Syria truce
From Russia Today
N. Korea pledges attack on US mainland if ‘high-density strike’ military drills go ahead
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 17:01
North Korean leader Kim Jong Un guides Korean People’s Army (KPA) military drills © KCNA / Reuters
North Korea has threatened to attack South Korea and the United States if the two allies conduct joint drills in March. Pyongyang says the exercises are preparations for war and says it will retaliate.
“All the powerful strategic and tactical strike means of our revolutionary armed forces will go into preemptive and just operation to beat back the enemy forces to the last man if there is a slight sign of their special operation forces and equipment moving to carry out the so-called ‘beheading operation’ and ‘high-density strike,'” the Supreme Command of the Korean People’s Army said in a statement carried by state media, according to Reuters.
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From Russia Today
French court delays decision on Calais ‘Jungle’ camp eviction
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 14:21
© Pascal Rossignol / Reuters
A French court has delayed making a decision on whether migrants can be evicted from the ‘Jungle’ refugee camp in Calais. The ruling was set to be made at 19:00 GMT, but has now been postponed until Wednesday or Thursday.
The court in the northern city of Lille was expected to come to a decision Tuesday evening on whether to go ahead and demolish the southern half of the camp. However, just hours before the deadline, the court said it was postponing its ruling.
“We will not know today,” a source at the court told AFP, adding that a decision was now not expected until Wednesday or Thursday.
The local authorities say the camp presents a sanitary risk and had warned the estimated 1,000 people living there that they would be evicted Tuesday evening. Charities say the actual figure could be in excess of 3,000. A judge who is set to rule on the case visited the site Tuesday to meet those who have taken up refuge at the camp.
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From Russia Today
NATO used Ukraine conflict to overcome ‘identity crisis’ – Russian envoy
Published time: 23 Feb, 2016 02:23
Russia’s permanent envoy to NATO, Alexander Glushko. © Grigoriy Sisoev / Sputnik
NATO has used the conflict in Ukraine to confront its own internal crisis, said Russia’s permanent representative to the bloc, Alexander Grushko, who also warned that Moscow considers NATO’s “containment policy” towards Russia to be a threat.
“Many of alliance representatives I’ve talked to confessed that the events in Ukraine have been used as a means to overcome NATO’s identity crisis,” Grushko said speaking at London’s Royal United Services Institute on Monday.
He said that the speed in which “NATO made a turn and ceased all practical cooperation with Russia, shifting military planning attention to countering the so-called threats from the East” demonstrates that the alliance has been pedaling its own agenda from the start.
NATO has been pursuing a policy of containment reinforced by military build-up that threatens Russia’s national interests, Grushko stated.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Italy summons US envoy over wiretaps, including Netanyahu-Berlusconi conversation
(JTA) — The Italian government summoned the U.S. ambassador to complain about reports that the United States eavesdropped on a conversation between Israeli and Italian leaders, among others.
John Phillips was called in to “clarify” the latest WikiLeaks revelation, the country’s foreign ministry said Tuesday, the French news agency AFP reported.
The latest batch of U.S. government cables released by WikiLeaks, an organization dedicated to government transparency, reveals eavesdropping in 2010 and 2011 on German Chancellor Angela Merkel and U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, as well as on then-Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. WikiLeaks released the cables to German and Italian newspapers.
One conversation was between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Berlusconi following the fallout between the Obama and Netanyahu governments over an Israeli announcement of building in eastern Jerusalem made during a visit to Israel by Vice President Joe Biden.
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From PressTV
DNA evidence debunks Turkey claims over Ankara blast culprit
DNA evidence shows that the culprit behind a deadly blast in Ankara was Turkish-born, not Syrian as initially claimed by Turkish authorities, says a security official.
Last Wednesday, a car bomb went off next to several military buses near Turkey’s armed forces base in Ankara, killing 29 people. The following day Turkish Prime Minister Ahmet Davutoglu laid the blame for the incident on a Kurdish People’s Protection Units (YPG) fighter, Salih Necar, hailing from the northeastern Syrian city of Hasakah.
However, the Kurdistan Freedom Hawks (TAK) group claimed responsibility for the blast on its website on February 19.
On Tuesday, a senior Turkish security official, citing DNA evidence collected from the blast site, stated that Abdulbaki Somer, born in the eastern Turkish city of Van, was the bomber. The announcement fully corresponds with claims made by TAK.
“The DNA report has been published. We saw that it was not Necar,” the Turkish official told Reuters on condition of anonymity as the report is yet to be made public.
“The bomber’s DNA matches that of Abdulbaki’s father. It looks like the bomber was Abdulbaki Somer, that’s what the report is saying,” he said.
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From The Guardian
Sharri Markson defamation suit aims to test boundaries of antisemitism
Lawyer for NSW Labor MP Shaoquett Moselmane says he is suing News Corp journalist to establish whether criticising Israeli government can be called antisemitic
A defamation suit against News Corp journalist Sharri Markson by a New South Wales MP aims to test when criticism of Israel can be equated with antisemitism, according to a solicitor running the case.
Labor’s Shaoquett Moselmane will on Friday serve Markson, a senior writer with the Australian, with a statement of claim about a column published online on 2 February under the headline “ALP’s antisemitic views behind push for trip ban”. It ran in print on the same day under a different headline.
The piece highlighted a May 2013 speech by Moselmane in which he attacked the Australian’s coverage of Israel and Palestine, referring to a “political lobby group that is cancerous, malicious and seeks to deny, misinform and scaremonger”.
