Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Noted academics launch effort to counter anti-Israel sentiments on campus
(JTA) — A group of noted academics has launched an initiative to combat rising anti-Israel and anti-Semitic activity on campus.
Led by Mark Yudof, president emeritus of the University of California System, and Kenneth Waltzer, former director of Jewish studies at Michigan State University, the Academic Engagement Network aims to combat “Orwellian efforts” to tie Israel to everything from the unrest in Ferguson, Missouri, to tuition rates.
“In the face of activities aimed at vilifying Israel, AEN members will facilitate robust and civilized discussions relating to Israel on campuses, promote academic freedom and freedom of expression, stand for human rights for Arabs and Jews, and engage colleagues and students to better understand these complex issues,” Yudof, the network’s chair, said in a statement this month.
The network, which is preparing a manual for university administrators addressing threats to academic freedom posed by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, includes past Harvard University president and former Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers on its advisory board. Also on the board is Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, Holocaust historian Deborah Lipstadt and the former Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion chief, Rabbi David Ellenson.
From PressTV
Daesh has lost 14 percent of territory in Iraq, Syria: Study
The Daesh Takfiri terrorists have in a year lost nearly 15 percent of the land that they had had under control in Iraq and Syria as the group suffers more setbacks in the two countries, a study shows.
The results of a study by IHS Jane’s Defense Weekly published on Tuesday showed that Daesh has lost control over more than 13,000 square kilometers of the territory it controlled in the two Arab countries since January, a net loss of 14 percent.
The main areas that are no longer under the control of the terrorists include a vast region along the Syrian-Turkish border as well as the two major cities of Tikrit and Baiji in northern Iraq.
The defeats in northeastern Syria in June included the city of Tal Abyad and its border crossing, which Daesh lost to the Kurdish and Arab fighters. The defeat effectively cut a main supply line of Daesh from Turkey to its de facto capital of Raqqa.
From PressTV
Syria army troops deal hard blows to Takfiri terrorists
Government forces have killed dozens of foreign-backed Takfiri militants during a series of mop-up operations across Syria, the official SANA news agency says.
Military sources said Syrian army soldiers killed 14 members of the Jaysh al-Islam terrorist group during separate offensives in the Marj al-Sultan and al-Nashabiyeh villages near the capital.
Syrian army forces also launched an operation in the Jobar district of Damascus, killing 16 Jaysh al-Islam militants.
An unspecified number of Takfiri militants were killed as Syrian government forces raided a terrorist hideout in the town of Arbeen.
Elsewhere in the towns of al-Hadath and Hawarin in the western province of Homs, Syrian fighter jets attacked Daesh positions, destroying several pickup trucks with heavy machine guns mounted on them and a sizable cache of munitions.
From PressTV
Iraq army advances into Ramadi center
Iraqi forces advance into the center of the Ramadi city, which has been under the control of Daesh terrorists since May.
The push to retake the capital of Iraq’s western province of Anbar was launched overnight on Tuesday, with Sabah al-Noman, spokesman of the Iraqi counter-terrorism service, saying, “The city will be cleared in the coming 72 hours,” AFP reported.
“We went into the center of Ramadi from several fronts and we began purging residential areas,” he added.
The country’s elite counter-terrorism force is leading the operation, which is also joined by the Shia-dominated Hashid al-Shaabi volunteer group of fighters.
Local media outlets reported that the beginning of the operation featured heavy confrontation between the armed forces and the terrorists in the south of the city, which resulted in a number of casualties from both sides.
In the northern parts of the city, 14 members of security forces and volunteer fighters lost their lives in a bomb blast carried out by the Takfiri militants. At least six Daesh members were killed during clashes with Iraqi armed units.
From Russia Today
Turkish bar association sues national intel agency & police over ISIS slave trade
Published time: 23 Dec, 2015 11:46
© Youssef Boudlal / Reuters The head of a regional Turkish legal association says the organization has filed a criminal complaint against the Turkish authorities after a German documentary alleged that Islamic State are carrying out a slave trade of women on Turkish soil. TrendsIslamic State, Syria unrest, Syria-Turkey
Bektas Sarkli, the head of Gaziantep Bar Association, has brought the suit against the Turkish law enforcement and intelligence agencies following allegations that Yazidi women and children were being trafficked.
“We decided to file a complaint after the allegations were made on German ARD TV. They alleged that the Yazidi people were traded by ISIS (Islamic State/IS) in a slave market here in Gaziantep. The prosecution must investigate this,” Sarkli said.
Read more
“If there is evidence, then the suspects must be caught and tried. If there has been neglect of duty on the side of the security forces or intelligence, then they must be punished,” he added.
Click here for the full story
From The Daily Mail
Almost 100,000 illegals stopped at the UK border: As 1m migrants enter the EU this year, number trying to get into the UK doubles
- The official statistics do not include the thousands of migrant stowaways
- Almost 7,000 people are in Calais waiting to sneak into the UK on a truck
- More than one million migrants and refugees arrived in Europe this year
- Hauliers complain that some of the refugees are becoming more violent
- For more on the EU refugee crisis visit www.dailymail.co.uk/refugeecrisis
Staggering figures showing the flood of illegal migrants trying to sneak into Britain were released last night.
Nearly 100,000 people have been stopped at our besieged borders over the past 12 months – more than twice the number in 2014.
The shocking statistics are a nightmare for Government ministers – made even worse because the total ignores the thousands of stowaways thought to have made it across the Channel. Further startling figures yesterday showed that more than a million migrants have entered Europe this year – a four-fold increase on 2014.
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
France is Israel’s largest source of aliyah for 2nd straight year
(JTA) — For the second consecutive year, France is the largest provider of Jewish immigrants to Israel with a record total of 7,328 newcomers in 2015.
The number of French citizens who immigrated to Israel under its law of return for Jews, or made aliyah, from Jan. 1 to Dec. 1 constituted a 10 percent increase over the 6,661 French olim who came during the corresponding period last year, according to Jewish Agency for Israel figures obtained Tuesday by JTA. In all of 2014, a total of 7,238 olim came from France.
Last year’s total, which was the highest since the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, was surpassed last month with the arrival of 468 French Jews. According to the Jewish Agency, French aliyah has increased because of a mix of factors, including the community’s fear of anti-Semitic attacks, economic stagnation in France and its members’ attachment to Israel.
The most dramatic increase in aliyah this year came from Russia, which provided more than 6,000 olim in the first 11 months of 2015 — some 44 percent over the 4,458 who came in the corresponding period last year. In total, slightly more than 5,000 came from Russia last year.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Report: Adelson largest funder of Jewish news service
(JTA) — Billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson is the largest single funder of JNS, a U.S.-based Jewish news service that is the sole distributor of content from his right-wing newspaper Israel Hayom.
The Adelson Family Foundation has committed at least $1.2 million to JNS, the daily Forward reported Tuesday, citing publicly available tax documents.
The first grant of $300,000, given in 2013, made up 65 percent of JNS revenue that year. Adelson’s foundation gave another $450,000 in 2014, and said that year it had committed an additional $450,000 to JNS for the future, according to the Forward.
Publishers and editors with six local Jewish newspapers that subscribe to JNS, which was established in 2011, told the Forward they did not know Adelson is the major funder of the news service.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Late Moroccan king honored for protecting his country’s Jews
JERUSALEM (JTA) — King Mohammed V of Morocco was honored posthumously for protecting his country’s 250,000 Jews during World War II.
Kivunim: The Institute for World Jewish Studies presented the first Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.-Rabbi Abraham Heschel Award to the king’s granddaughter, Princess Lalla Hasna of Morocco, on Sunday at B’nai Jeshurun synagogue in New York City. It was part of a three-day conference to mark the group’s 10th anniversary.
The program ended with a joint concert of Jewish and Arabic music by David Broza and Mira Awad.
During World War II, King Mohammed V kept the lives and property of the country’s Jews under his protection and did not subject them to the discriminatory laws set down by the pro-Nazi Vichy government in France; Morocco was then under French rule. Later, in response to anti-Jewish rhetoric in the wake of the creation of the State of Israel, Mohammed V warned Muslims not to hurt Moroccan Jews, reminding them that Jews had always been protected in Morocco.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel’s US envoy sends holiday gifts produced in settlements
(JTA) — Israel’s ambassador to the United States, Ron Dermer, sent holidays gifts with products produced in settlements to strike back against those advocating a boycott of Israel.
In a letter posted to the ambassador’s Twitter account, Dermer said the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, or BDS, was promoted by “fanatics and fools” who are “promoting a new anti-Semitism.”
“In response to this effort to cast a beacon of freedom, tolerance and decency as a pariah state, I have decided this holiday season to send you products that were made in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights,” Dermer wrote, using the Hebrew terms for the West Bank. “I hope you will enjoy them.”
The letter accompanied a photograph of holiday gift boxes labeled “Embassy of Israel Washington, D.C.”
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From Russia Today
‘Coup’ against EU? Poland accused of trampling democracy after new law on top court
Published time: 23 Dec, 2015 13:57
Poland’s Constitutional Tribunal © Agencja Gazeta / Reuters Poland’s ruling Law and Justice party has passed a controversial law that regulates the country’s highest judicial body. Critics deem the move to take control of the Constitutional Tribunal as an attack on an independent judiciary.
With the Law and Justice party (PiS) in control of both houses of parliament, the law passed with 235 votes for and 181 against late on Tuesday. Once approved by the upper chamber and the president, it will immediately come into force.
The amendment will require the 15-member Constitutional Court to pass most of its rulings with two-thirds of votes, rather than the current simple majority, and will require at least 13 judges to be present, as opposed to the nine previously needed.
Critics say the new amendment will be make it next to impossible for the court to reach valid rulings on controversial issues and to block disputed legislation.
“We lawyers and citizens watching this believe the main idea is to tie the hands of the judges so they cannot react in a timely manner,” Katarzyna Szymielewicz, an activist with the pro-democracy We Are Watching You initiative, told AP.
The Polish Supreme Court criticized the latest amendment in a statement sent to parliament last week, arguing that it was aimed at “hampering or preventing the Tribunal from performing its duties.”
“The systemic position of the Tribunal is one of the few guarantees preventing a dictate of the majority,” it said.
The law introduces obligatory waits of three to six months between the time a request for a ruling is made and a verdict, compared with two weeks currently. This “presages huge potential delays and, in fact, the paralysis [of the court],” the Supreme Court added.
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