From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Senators Cardin and Portman write to ACLU to defend anti-BDS bill
Sen. Ben Cardin speaking during a press conference at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, D.C., Oct. 1, 2015. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — An anti-BDS bill with strong bipartisan backing would not infringe on First Amendment protections, its sponsors said in a letter to the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the proposal.
“We cannot state this strongly enough: the bill does not ‘punish U.S. persons based solely on expressed political beliefs,’” says the letter sent Thursday by Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md., and Rob Portman, R-Ohio.
The measure would expand existing law that bans boycotts imposed by foreign governments to include those imposed by international organizations.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish Ohio Senate candidate condemns ADL, backs figures on ‘alt-lite’ list
Josh Mandel being interviewed by Roll Call in Washington, D.C, in 2012. (Douglas Graham/Roll Call/Getty Images)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Josh Mandel, the Ohio treasurer who is running for the Republican nomination for U.S. senator, expressed solidarity with figures listed by the Anti-Defamation League as having a “hateful impact” on the political scene.
“Sad to see @ADL_National become a partisan witchhunt group targeting people for political beliefs,” Mandel said Thursday on Twitter. “I stand with @Cernovich & @JackPosobiec.”
Attached to his tweet was a tweet by Mike Cernovich, a blogger who was on the ADL list, with a link to an article by Cernovich claiming the ADL wanted him killed, although it cited no evidence.
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From The Times of Israel
White nationalist, opponent charged in Sacramento melee
California wants to extradite right-wing activist who is currently jailed for hate crimes after posting ‘Fight Terror, Nuke Israel’
SACRAMENTO, California (AP) — California authorities announced charges Tuesday against a white nationalist and a counter-protester after a violent melee outside the California state Capitol building last year, a number that falls far short of the 101 people the California Highway Patrol recommended charging.
The charges stem from June 2016, when 14 people came away with stab wounds, cuts and bruises after more than 300 counter-protesters, many of them wearing masks, confronted about 30 members of the white-nationalist Traditionalist Worker Party. Two of the injured people survived critical stabbings.
The Sacramento County District Attorney’s Office said other arrests are expected, but prosecutors rejected numerous other charges the highway patrol sought after its eight-month investigation.
Investigators could not learn the identities of those committing the most violent offenses, Chief Deputy District Attorney Steve Grippi said in a statement, and the district attorney’s office is not pursuing many of the more minor recommended charges.
A KCRA-TV reporter and his cameraman were confronted by protesters who shouted “no cameras” as they grabbed at their equipment.
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From PressTV
Trump to end CIA program to arm and train anti-Assad militants
The Trump administration has decided to end the CIA’s years-long covert program to arm and train what they call Syrian moderate opposition, militants fighting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad.
Quoting two unnamed US officials, The Washington Post reported the suspension of the program on Wednesday, while the CIA declined to comment on the topic. White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders also declined to comment at the White House briefing.
The CIA program began in 2013 as part of the efforts by the Obama administration to overthrow Assad but produced no tangible results. Another downside of the program is that some armed and trained rebels defected to Daesh and other radical groups.
According to the officials, the shuttering of the program shows Trump’s attempts to bolster closer relations with Russia. “It’s a signal to Putin that the administration wants to improve ties to Russia,” one of the officials said.
The decision to scrap the CIA program was made about a month ago, after an Oval Office meeting with CIA Director Mike Pompeo and National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster and before Trump’s July 7 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit in Germany, according to the officials. They also said that it was not part of US-Russian negotiations on a ceasefire in southwestern Syria.
Read More:
- US jets hit Syria convoy advancing on militant base
- US threatens Syria over ‘planned gas attack’
- Russia wants US to clarify Syria ‘no-fly zones’ proposal
- Russia, Syria blast US strikes targeting anti-Daesh forces
This is not the end of US involvement in Syria as Trump signed off in May on a plan to arm the so-called Syrian Democratic Forces — a Kurdish rebel group — using Department of Defense funds; and a separate effort by the US military to support other Syrian rebel groups with air strikes and other actions will continue, the officials said.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
B’nai B’rith slams State Dept. for saying ‘lack of hope’ drives terrorism
WASHINGTON (JTA) — B’nai B’rith International faulted the Trump administration for adopting the “Palestinian narrative” in the State Department’s annual report on terrorism.
In the report released this week, the State Department listed as “continued drivers of violence” a “lack of hope in achieving Palestinian statehood, Israeli settlement construction in the West Bank, settler violence against Palestinians in the West Bank, the perception that the Israeli government was changing the status quo on the Haram Al Sharif/Temple Mount, and IDF tactics that the Palestinians considered overly aggressive.”
“It is astonishing that State is parroting the false Palestinian narrative,” B’nai B’rith said in its statement Thursday. “If it were not released by the State Department, it would be easy to mistake the inflammatory and accusatory language as coming directly from the Palestinians.”
While such an assessment would be uncontroversial coming from a think tank or even Israeli security officials, it is unusual in a State Department statement, particularly under President Donald Trump, who has been outspoken in condemning Palestinian incitement.
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From PressTV
Syria demands reparation from US, allies for destroying Syria infrastructure
In letters to the United Nations, Syria has demanded compensation from the US and its “illegitimate coalition” allies for bombing civilian targets and destroying the country’s infrastructure, calling for an immediate halt to such strikes.
Syria’s permanent mission at the United Nations made the comments in two letters addressed to the world body’s secretary-general and the UN Security Council’s president, RT reported on Friday.
The Damascus government “insists that these attacks must come to an end, and that the members of this illegitimate coalition must bear the political and legal responsibility for the destruction of infrastructure in the Syrian Arab Republic, including responsibility for compensation,” said the letters.
The letters also underlined that the ongoing US-led airstrikes – purportedly aimed at destroying Daesh terrorists – “continue to claim the lives of hundreds of innocent Syrian civilians.”
Such bombings have led to a “near-total destruction” of homes and vital infrastructure, including the “utter destruction” of oil and gas facilities, wrote the letters.
According to the report, in the letters – which were devised last week — Damascus once again insisted on the illegitimacy of the US-led air campaign in Syria, emphasizing that it is being carried out in violation of international law as it lacks any form of authorization from the Syrian government.
Backing its assertions, Damascus further referred to two recent cases, where the coalition’s war planes destroyed Syrian oil and gas facilities.
It pointed to the May 27 bombardment of Hasu Albu Awf village in Hasakah Province by the US-led jets, saying the assaults “completely” destroyed many homes and killed at least eight civilians, “most of them children.”
Such attacks, along with US and EU-imposed economic restrictions on Syria, “are impeding the maintenance of those economic facilities and jeopardizing the prospects for development and reconstruction” in the nation, the letters added.
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From PressTV
Hezbollah, Syria liberate several border areas from terrorists in joint offensive
Fighters from Lebanon’s Hezbollah resistance movement, backed by Syrian warplanes, have managed to liberate several border areas between the two countries from the clutches of the Jabhat Fateh al-Sham Takfiri terrorist group, formerly known as al-Nusra Front, in an ongoing joint counter-terrorism operation.
Hezbollah fighters managed to liberate Sahl al-Raweh, Sahr al-Haweh, Wadi Dakik, Taftanaz and Wadi Zaarour Baren areas in the Juroud Arsal region on the outskirts of the Lebanese town of Arsal on Friday.
In the western Qalamoun mountains in Syria, Hezbollah fighters also recaptured al-Burkan hill and al-Koreh Awwal, Zalil al-Haj and Harf al-Sabah areas from terrorists, with the aid of heavy artillery fire.
The whole region straddles the border between the two countries and the joint operation to liberate its militant-areas began in the early hours of Friday. According to the Lebanese resistance movement and the Syrian army, the offensive will continue until the entire region in cleansed from the presence of Takfiri terrorists.
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At least 17 terrorists were killed in the operation, in which five Hezbollah fighters also lost their lives.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Why this poster of a Jewish man and a Muslim woman kissing caused a scandal in Europe
A poster in the Dutch city of Rotterdam encouraging free choice of romantic partners, May 25, 2017. (Courtesy of Femme for Freedom)
AMSTERDAM (JTA) — In a country where sex toys are displayed in shop windows and television commercials often feature nudity, a picture of a clothed, heterosexual couple kissing may not seem like the stuff of scandal.
But precisely such an image — part of a poster campaign celebrating diversity in the Netherlands — has triggered acrimonious debate, charges of racism, acts of vandalism and even threats by those who found it offensive.
The reason: The women pictured in a series of posters were wearing Muslim headscarves – including one woman who was shown kissing a man wearing a kippah.
To some of the detractors, the poster campaign was a provocation designed to upset the sensibilities of Dutch Muslims and other non-white minorities. But to campaign supporters — including some prominent members of the Dutch Jewish community — it was an important statement about the need to counter radicalism and coercion in the Netherlands’ growing Muslim minority.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Three Palestinians reported killed in riots over Temple Mount metal detectors
Israeli police and Palestinians clash in eastern Jerusalem, July 21, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)
(JTA) — Three Palestinians were killed in clashes between rioters and police in Jerusalem and the West Bank over the Israeli government’s decision to keep in place indefinitely metal detectors at the entrance to the Temple Mount, the Palestinian media reported.
Thousands of Israeli soldiers and troops were deployed in eastern Jerusalem following riots Thursday, which resumed Friday afternoon, Israel’s Channel 2 reported. Six police officers and an unknown number of rioters were injured Friday outside the Old City of Jerusalem, a spokesman for the Israel Police reportedly told the Palestinian Maan news agency. The police said they were not immediately aware of fatalities in clashes.
According to Maan, a 18-year-old from the eastern Jerusalem neighborhood of Silwan was shot in the neck. Another Palestinian died in the hospital from wounds he sustained during clashes in the a-Tur neighborhood of eastern Jerusalem. A third Palestinian sustained fatal injuries during a riot at the Abu-Dis village near Jerusalem, and later died of his wounds in a hospital in Ramallah, according to Maan. He was identified by local sources as 17-year-old Muhammad Mahmoud Khalaf.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Thousands rally in Israel for same-sex couples who want to adopt
Hundreds protesting in support of the right of LGBT couples to adopt children, outside the Ministry of Absoption in Tel Aviv, July 20, 2017. (Tomer Neuberg/Flash90)
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Thousands rallied in Tel Aviv to show their support for same-sex couples who want to adopt children.
The demonstrators held signs reading “We are not second class citizens” and “Bibi go home” at the rally Wednesday evening. Television anchor Nadav Borenstein and singer Harel Skaat, who are both gay, hosted the rally near the Kiriya military headquarters.
Clashes between protesters and police led to the arrest of five demonstrators., Ynet reported.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Businesses use Kushner’s White House connection to lure Chinese investors
Jared Kushner at Israeli President Reuven Rivlin’s residence in Jerusalem, May 22, 2017. (Yonatan Sindel/Flash90)
(JTA) — Two businesses working with Jared Kushner’s family real estate company used his status as a top aide to President Donald Trump to lure Chinese investors, even after the firm had apologized for touting the connection during a sales pitch in May, CNN reported.
References to Kushner are part of online promotions by two businesses that are working with Kushner Companies to find Chinese investors willing to invest in an apartment complex in Jersey City, New Jersey, according to the CNN report published Friday.
The promotions for the project are posted in Chinese and refer to Kushner Companies as “real estate heavyweights,” going on to mention “the celebrity of the family is 30-something ‘Mr. Perfect’ Jared Kushner, who once served as CEO of Kushner Companies.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Brooklyn family of 5 kicked off JetBlue flight
(JTA) — A family of five from Brooklyn was sent off a JetBlue flight in Florida, with the reason in dispute.
Tamir Raanan and his wife, Mandy Ifrah, were ready to fly home with their three children from Fort Lauderdale last month when their 1-year-old daughter kicked the seat of the passenger in front of her.
Ifrah told the New York Daily News that she apologized to the woman and then set about calming her child. She also told other news outlets and airport security that the woman told her she should tie her child’s feet down before switching seats.
The airline asserted that after “a verbal altercation that included physical threats,” the family was asked to deplane.
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