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Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Canadian government denies it will criminalize boycotts of Israel
May 13, 2015 9:59am
TORONTO (JTA) — The Canadian government has denied a report that it is considering criminalizing boycotts of Israel.
The Canadian Broadcasting Corp’s website earlier this week posted a story saying Ottawa “is signaling its intention to use hate crime laws against Canadian advocacy groups that encourage boycotts of Israel,” saying such a move “could target a range of civil society organizations.”
The report came after CBC reporter Neil Macdonald asked the government what it meant by earlier statements that it would show “zero tolerance” for those who promote boycotts of Israel.
In a speech at the United Nations in January, Public Safety Minister Steven Blaney stated Canada has a “zero-tolerance approach to anti-Semitism and all forms of discrimination, including in rhetoric towards Israel, and attempts to delegitimize Israel such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel to evacuate more babies born to surrogates in Nepal following new quake
May 12, 2015 5:21pm
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel will evacuate four Israeli babies born to surrogate mothers in Nepal following the second major earthquake to hit the Asian nation in three weeks.
A Magen David Adom mission was scheduled to leave for Nepal on Tuesday night, Ynet reported, after one of the fathers called for assistance from Israel earlier in the day following the 7.3 magnitude quake. The father’s twins were born Saturday.
The four babies, all born prematurely, were in neonatal intensive care units at the Grande International Hospital in Kathmandu at the time of the earthquake. One of the fathers, Yoav Elani, said that when the earthquake struck, all of the fathers grabbed their babies, disconnected them from tubes and machines, and ran outside.
The Israeli government is currently working with Nepalese officials on the approval needed to bring the babies to Israel.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Rabbi to celebrities sentenced to one year in prison for bribery
May 12, 2015 8:32am
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Yoshiyahu Pinto, an Israeli rabbi who has counseled such celebrities as LeBron James, was sentenced to a year in prison after pleading guilty to bribing a senior police official.
Pinto, 39, also was fined 1 million shekels, about $260,000, in Tel Aviv District Court on Tuesday.
In a plea deal finalized last month, the rabbi pleaded guilty to charges of bribery, attempted bribery and obstruction of justice for attempting to bribe a senior police officer for information in another investigation about him. Pinto, the head of several charity organizations and yeshivas in Ashdod, in southern Israel, and in the United States, agreed to provide evidence that he bribed a more senior officer.
Pinto, whose attorneys had argued for community service and no jail time, will begin serving his sentence on June 28.
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From PressTV
EU must hold Israel accountable for occupation: Ex-leaders
Palestinian protesters wave national flags during a protest against Israeli settlements in the West Bank village of Nabi Saleh, May 8, 2015. © AFP
A group of former European political leaders and diplomats have called on the European Union (EU) to reassess its policy on Israel, stressing that Tel Aviv must be held responsible for its occupation of Palestinian lands.
European Eminent Persons Group – which includes former premiers, foreign ministers and ambassadors – made the request in a letter to the EU’s foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, the British daily The Guardian reported on Wednesday.
“Europe has yet to find an effective way of holding Israel to account for the way it maintains the occupation,” the letter read.
The authors of the letter also expressed doubt about the ability of the United States to lead talks between Israelis and Palestinians.
They further called for Brussels’ support for an upcoming draft resolution at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) calling for the recognition of a Palestinian state.
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From PressTV
Humanitarian ship sailing to Israeli-blockaded Gaza
The photo shows Swedish trawler Marianne of Gothenburg
A humanitarian aid ship, which set sail from a port in Sweden, is now en route to the Gaza Strip to break Israel’s years-long blockade on the impoverished Palestinian territory.
The Marianne of Gothenburg, which is part of the Freedom Flotilla III, a peaceful movement to break the siege of Gaza, began its journey on Sunday.
It will stop at ports in Helsingborg, Malmö and Copenhagen and other ports to be announced later before continuing its way to Gaza.
The vessel is carrying solar panels, medical equipment as well as five crew members and eight passengers, according to a statement by the Ship to Gaza organization, one of two groups that purchased the vessel.
The organization has called for an immediate end to the naval blockade of Gaza, opening of the Gaza port and a secure passage for Palestinians between the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.
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From Russia Today
’Nuclear war our likely future’: Russia & China won’t accept US hegemony, Reagan official warns
Published time: May 13, 2015 10:13
Edited time: May 13, 2015 13:09
Reuters/How Hwee Yong
(Reuters/How Hwee Yong)
The White House is determined to block the rise of the key nuclear-armed nations, Russia and China, neither of whom will join the “world’s acceptance of Washington’s hegemony,” says head of the Institute for Political Economy, Paul Craig Roberts.
The former US assistant secretary of the Treasury for economic policy, Dr Paul Craig Roberts, has written on his blog that Beijing is currently “confronted with the Pivot to Asia and the construction of new US naval and air bases to ensure Washington’s control of the South China Sea, now defined as an area of American National Interests.”
Roberts writes that Washington’s commitment to contain Russia is the reason “for the crisis that Washington has created in Ukraine and for its use as anti-Russian propaganda.”
READ MORE: US mulls sending military ships, aircraft near South China Sea disputed islands – report
The author of several books, “How America Was Lost” among the latest titles, says that US “aggression and blatant propaganda have convinced Russia and China that Washington intends war, and this realization has drawn the two countries into a strategic alliance.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Boston rabbi indicted for embezzling funds to pay blackmailer
May 13, 2015 8:00am
(JTA) — A prominent Boston rabbi was indicted for embezzlement and larceny for stealing money from his temple to pay off a man who was blackmailing him for his affair with a teenage male.
The indictment of Rabbi Barry Starr, who resigned a year ago from Temple Israel, a Conservative synagogue in Sharon, Massachusetts, was unsealed on Tuesday in Norfolk Superior Court, the Boston Globe reported.
Starr was not in the courtroom to hear the indictment and reportedly no longer lives in the Boston area. He will be summoned to the court for an arraignment, according to the newspaper.
Also on Tuesday in the same court, Nicholas Zemeitus, 30, pleaded not guilty to seven counts of larceny over $250, two counts of receiving stolen property over $250, one count of larceny under $250, and one count of extortion, the Boston Globe reported, citing the office of Norfolk District Attorney Michael W. Morrissey.
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From PressTV
Vatican recognizes ‘Palestinian state’
Pope Francis (C), surrounded by security staff, walks to greet pilgrims at the end of his weekly general audience at St Peter’s square at the Vatican, May 13, 2015. © AFP
The Vatican has officially recognized the state of Palestine in a new treaty.
According to the treaty, which was finalized on Wednesday, the Holy See switched its diplomatic relations from the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) to the state of Palestine.
On November 29, 2012, the United Nations General Assembly voted to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “non-member observer entity” to “non-member observer state” despite strong opposition from Israel and the US.
The Vatican welcomed the 193-member assembly’s decision at the time. However, the recent treaty, which still needs to be signed, constitutes an official recognition of the Palestinian state by the Vatican.
“Yes, it’s a recognition that the state exists,” said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.
The move comes as Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is expected to meet with Pope Francis, the head of the Roman Catholic Church, at the Vatican on May 16.
This handout picture released on October 17, 2013 by the Vatican press office shows Pope Francis (R) shaking hands with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in the Vatican. © AFP
On December 2 last year, French lawmakers voted overwhelmingly in favor of a motion to recognize Palestine as an independent state. The motion, urging the government to recognize Palestine as a sovereign state, was backed by a majority of 339 lawmakers while 151 members voted against.
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From PressTV
Ethiopians in Israel protest racism in Haifa
Ethiopians in Israel rally against police brutality and institutionalized discrimination in the city of Haifa, May 12, 2015. (© AFP)
Hundreds of Ethiopian Jews in Israel have taken to the streets in the city of Haifa to voice their anger against the regime’s racism and police brutality.
Some 400 protesters marched in the city on Tuesday under the slogan “Black or white, we are all human beings.”
The protesters carried posters reading “being black is not a crime” and demanded that the Israeli regime must respect Ethiopians in the occupied Palestinian lands. They also called for the police forces who abuse them to be imprisoned.
One of the protest organizers said Tel Aviv “should provide answers to the question of how it’s possible that members of the community continue to suffer from discrimination and crime in the neighborhoods they live in.”
Haifa resident Avishai Adaneh, 32, condemned the regime’s racism and institutionalized discrimination against Ethiopian descents.
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From PressTV
Hamas needed for Gaza: Israeli commander
Israeli Major General Sami Turgeman
An Israeli commander says Palestinian resistance movement Hamas is needed for the security of the blockaded Gaza Strip.
Major General Sami Turgeman claimed that the alternative to the rule of Hamas in Gaza would be “the Israeli military and chaos,” Israeli newspaper Yediot Aharonot reported Monday, according to the AFP.
The comments come despite the fact that the Israeli regime has been blockading the Gaza Strip since 2007, when Hamas took control of the strip after winning legislative elections.
Israel has also launched three devastating wars against the coastal Palestinian territory, killing thousands of people.
The blockade against Gaza has cut off the Palestinian territory from the outside world, and has led to economic and humanitarian crises in the densely-populated enclave.
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From PressTV
Gazan makes water treatment machine to allay water woes
Palestinian engineer, Diaa Abu Assi inspects a machine that makes seawater potable on February 28, 2015 in Gaza city. (©AFP)
A Palestinian engineer has developed a seawater desalination machine to help assuage the pain of more than 1.8 million people living under the Israeli blockade in the Gaza Strip.
Diaa Abu Assi says he has spent about past 18 months to develop the system in a bid to save lives in the besieged enclave.
“Water shortages are a real threat to life in Gaza. The only solution is to filter water from the Mediterranean,” said Abu Assi, warning that “there will be no drinkable water in Gaza” by 2020.
The project, which is supported by Gaza’s Islamic University and an Omani research organization, uses filters made of nano-material to reduce the salinity in seawater to a drinkable level. It can desalinate some 1,000 liters per day.
“The idea is to save Gaza from the disaster that awaits it in the next five years by using the one resource we do have – seawater,” Abu Assi said.
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From The Times of Israel
Kerry meets Putin, will ask to delay S-300 transfer to Iran
Moscow blames Washington for strains in ties as two discuss Ukraine crisis, Yemen, Syria and halting air defense system sale
By AP and Times of Israel staff May 12, 2015, 9:29 pm
US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi on May 12, 2015. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO / POOL / JOSHUA ROBERTS)
US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) meets with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin at the presidential residence Bocharov Ruchey in Sochi on May 12, 2015. (photo credit: AFP PHOTO / POOL / JOSHUA ROBERTS)
SOCHI, Russia — US Secretary of State John Kerry met Tuesday with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a bid to ease badly strained relations over the conflicts in Ukraine and Syria, but the tone ahead of the meeting didn’t augur well for a breakthrough on any of the many issues dividing the two powers.
On his first trip to Russia since the Ukraine crisis began, Kerry held more than four hours of talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a hotel in the Black Sea resort of Sochi before seeing Putin at his presidential residence in the city. Putin is in Sochi meeting with Russian defense officials for a week.
The top US diplomat will make the case to Putin that Russia should not proceed with its planned transfer of an advanced air defense system to Iran.
Diplomats in Moscow and Washington are at odds over an announcement last month that Russia would lift a five-year ban on delivery of an air defense missile system to Iran, drawing a hasty rebuke from the United States and Israel.
The White House said the missile system would give the Islamic Republic’s military a strong deterrent against any air attack. The Kremlin argues that the S-300 is a purely defensive system that won’t jeopardize the security of Israel or any other countries in the Middle East.
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From The Times of Israel
Survey finds 1 in 6 Jews new to faith
Ten findings extrapolated from the 2014 US Religious Landscape Study
By Uriel Heilman May 12, 2015, 5:31 pm
A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a Jerusalem neighborhood. (illustrative photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)
A mikveh, or Jewish ritual bath, in a Jerusalem neighborhood. (illustrative photo credit: Uri Lenz/Flash90)
NEW YORK (JTA) – The Pew Research Center’s newly released 2014 U.S. Religious Landscape Study offers a trove of data on American Jews based on interviews with 35,071 American adults, 847 of whom identified their faith as Jewish. Here are some of the more interesting findings about the Jews.
We’re highly educated! There are more American Jews with two or more university degrees than those who have just one – 31 percent have a graduate degree and 29 percent have just a bachelor’s degree. With a college graduation rate of about 59 percent (more than twice the national average of 27 percent), American Jews are the second most-educated religious group in America after Hindus, at 77 percent.
We’re the biggest religious minority! Judaism is the largest faith group in America after Christianity, and its relative size in America has grown slightly since 2007 – from 1.7 percent of the U.S. population in 2007 to 1.9 percent in 2014. The denominational breakdown of Jews who identify with the Jewish faith (“Jews by religion”) is 44 percent Reform, 22 percent Conservative, 14 percent Orthodox, 5 percent another movement and 16 percent no denomination.
We’re not as white as we used to be: American Jewish adults are 90 percent white, 2 percent black, 4 percent Latino, 2 percent Asian-American and 2 percent “other non-Hispanic.” That’s a notable change from 2007, when whites comprised 95 percent of American Jews, Latinos comprised 3 percent, blacks comprised 1 percent and the percentage of Asians was negligible.
A quarter of us are losing our religion: When it comes to religious retention rates, American Jews come in third, retaining 75 percent of those raised Jewish. By comparison, Hindus retain 80 percent and Muslims 77 percent. Behind the Jews are Evangelical Christians at 65 percent; Mormons, 64 percent; Catholics, 59 percent; and mainline Protestants, 45 percent. Jehovah’s Witnesses retain only 34 percent.
But 17 percent of us have found Judaism! Seventeen percent of American Jews say they were raised in another religion. Six percent say they were raised unaffiliated, 4 percent as mainline Protestant, 3 percent as Catholic, and 2 percent each as Evangelical and in some other religion.
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From The Times of Israel
Think tank fumes at foreign diplomats for skipping anti-Semitism event
160 no-shows as JCPA launches convention declaring anti-Semitism an international crime; not even Israel has indicated it will sign
By Raphael Ahren May 12, 2015, 2:45 am
The Babi Yar memorial in Kiev, Ukraine, is defaced with swastikas in September 2014 (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)
The Babi Yar memorial in Kiev, Ukraine, is defaced with swastikas in September 2014 (photo credit: YouTube screenshot)
An Israeli think tank on Monday kicked off an initiative to make anti-Semitism an international crime by launching a convention it hopes will be adopted by many states across the globe. Not a single foreign diplomat attended the event, much to the dismay of the organizers.
All 160 diplomatic representations in Israel were invited to the launch of the “International Convention for the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Anti-Semitism,” held in a West Jerusalem hotel, but not one showed up.
“It makes me sad and depressed,” said Alan Baker, a former senior Israeli diplomat, who authored the convention.
“This is indicative of the problem that we have of the denial, of the refusal of the international community to acknowledge the fact that anti-Semitism always has been and continues to be a very serious issue,” he fumed. “I can only attribute it to exaggerated political correctness — that they don’t want to be seen to be giving any kind of encouragement or support to something that might be misinterpreted by the Arab states or whatever.”
The convention aims to criminalize anti-Semitism internationally, making it an offense for which perpetrators can be extradited and prosecuted like perpetrators of genocide, racism, piracy, hostage-taking, terror, and other transgressions that are recognized as international crimes.
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From The Times of Israel
Scott Walker hints he won’t cut Israel trip short
Governor and expected presidential candidate will likely be abroad when Wisconsin prosecutor announces decision on charging cop
By AP and Times of Israel staff May 11, 2015, 5:31 pm
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Las Vegas (photo credit: AP/Julie Jacobson)
Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker speaks at the Republican Jewish Coalition, Saturday, March 29, 2014, in Las Vegas (photo credit: AP/Julie Jacobson)
MADISON, Wisconsin — Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker, who is expected to run for the 2016 Republican presidential nomination, intimated that he would not cut short his trip to Israel when a Wisconsin prosecutor said he would announce on Tuesday whether charges would be filed against a white police officer who fatally shot an unarmed 19-year-old biracial man in Madison.
Asked whether Walker planned to cut his Israel trip short to be in Wisconsin when the decision was announced, Jocelyn Webster, a spokeswoman for Walker’s office, said in an email Sunday: “There have been peaceful demonstrations in the past and we expect that to be the case in the future. As always, Governor Walker is in regular contact with executive staff, regardless of his location.”
Dane County District Attorney Ismael Ozanne had promised to give the public advance notice of the announcement in the case of Madison Officer Matt Kenny, who shot 19-year-old Tony Robinson in an apartment on March 6. Ozanne issued a brief statement on Sunday saying he would make his findings public on Tuesday.
Police have said Kenny was responding to reports that Robinson had assaulted two people and was running in traffic. Investigators said Robinson attacked Kenny but other details haven’t been released.
Racial tension between police and minorities has been running high in several US cities, most recently in Baltimore, where riots erupted after the funeral for Freddie Gray, a black man who suffered a fatal spinal injury while in police custody. Other high-profile cases of officers killing unarmed black residents include the deaths of Michael Brown in Ferguson, Missouri; Eric Garner in New York City; and Walter Scott in North Charleston, South Carolina.
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