Dr. Patrick Slattery’s News Roundup
A service of DavidDuke.com
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Report: Netanyahu asked European leaders to vote against Israel at U.N.
(JTA) — Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu asked several European leaders to support the United Nations Human Rights Council report that slams Israel’s Gaza war actions, a British newspaper reported.
Netanyahu called British Prime Minister David Cameron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and other “key allies” last Friday before the Human Rights Council vote later that day, according to the Jewish Chronicle of London. The Israeli leader reportedly wanted the resolution to be adopted so that an alternate version, which could have been more critical of Israel, would not be drafted.
An unidentified source close to Cameron said that the British prime minister, who is publicly pro-Israel, initially thought the move would be “pure madness” but eventually voted in favor of the resolution after being assured that other European leaders were also voting for it.
Of the 47 members on the Human Rights Council, only the United States voted against the resolution, which accused both Israel and the Palestinians of possible war crimes but devoted more criticism toward Israel. Five nations abstained from voting.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Israel’s religion minister: Reform remarks taken out of context
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s religious services minister said that his remarks about Reform Jews were taken out of context, but he did not apologize for their nature.
“Of course, all Jews, even though they sin, are Jews,” David Azoulay of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party said Wednesday in a speech on the floor of the Knesset. “At the same time, it is with great pain that we view the damage caused by Reform Judaism, which has brought the greatest danger to the Jewish people, the danger of assimilation.”
His clarification came a day after he said that Reform Jews cannot be considered Jewish.
In the Knesset, he also said, “Interested parties exploited my statement to deepen the rift within the nation and increase the incitement.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Jewish groups rip Israeli religious minister’s anti-Reform remarks
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Jewish groups in the United States slammed Israel’s religious services minister for saying that Reform Jews cannot be considered Jewish.
“It would be one thing if Minister Azoulay’s ignorant and myopic views of Reform Judaism were nothing more than this his own semi-coherent ramblings,” Rabbi Rick Jacobs, president of the Union for Reform Judaism, said in a statement on Tuesday. “The real danger is that he now sits at the Cabinet Table, and is in a position to turn those views into governmental policy.”
Jacobs was responding to comments made earlier in the day by David Azoulay of the Sephardic Orthodox Shas party.
“A Reform Jew, from the moment he stops following Jewish law, I cannot allow myself to say that he is a Jew,” Azoulay said on Army Radio. “These are Jews that have lost their way, and we must ensure that every Jew returns to the fold of Judaism, and accept everyone with love and joy.”
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
5 things to know about Israel’s failed conversion reform
Israel’s haredi political parties opposed the move, as it weakened the Chief Rabbinate. Now part of Israel’s governing coalition, these parties pushed through a government reversal of the decision, returning to the pre-November status quo. Here are five things you need to know about the decision and its reversal.
1. The repealed decision aimed to ease conversions for hundreds of thousands of non-Jewish Israelis.
Before Israel’s previous government passed the decision last November, Israelis wishing to convert to Orthodox Judaism could do so only in one of the four Chief Rabbinate-run courts. That meant prospective converts had to acquiesce to strict and often arduous conversion standards, like proving Jewish ancestry a few generations back or committing to send their children to an Orthodox school.
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From PressTV
UN says Israeli blockade of Gaza blocks reconstruction efforts
A top official in the United Nations has called on the Israeli regime to end its “inexcusable” siege on the Gaza Strip as the blockade has hampered reconstruction in the coastal enclave just one year after Israeli raids on the area devastated hundreds of homes.
“The blockade remains in place and its crippling effect on Gaza is undeniable, inexcusable,” Robert Turner, operations director in Gaza for the UN relief agency UNRWA, told reporters Wednesday.
More than 2,500 were killed in Israel’s summer 2014 war on Gaza with more than 500 of them being children. Tens of thousands were also displaced in the wake of the conflict, which also brought about huge devastation across Gaza.
The UN official called for a full lifting of the blockade as he said the partial reopening of the borders would not alleviate the suffering of the Gazans.
One year after the war, homes and installations in Gaza remain flattened with twisted steel rods and concrete blocks still littering the ground in every neighborhood.
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From PressTV
Hamas says Palestinian Authority arrested 200 of its members
The Palestinian resistance movement, Hamas, says the Ramallah-based Palestinian Authority (PA) has recently arrested more than 200 of its members.
Hamas official Abdurahman Shadid made the comments on Tuesday, adding that over 200 people with the movement have been arrested since July 2 in the occupied West Bank and “most have been severely tortured.”
“Hamas members in the occupied West Bank are being submitted to their worst campaign of arrests — their biggest and longest.”
On Friday, a PA official reportedly said about 100 Hamas members had been nabbed over alleged plans to attack the PA, which is largely controlled by the Fatah party.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, in response, denounced the claims as “cover for political arrests.”
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Eurozone leaders and ministers struggled to contain their incredulity
The social media gaffe comes days after Mr Trump lost numerous business partnerships for calling Mexicans ‘rapists’ and ‘drug dealers.’
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
European Jewish group’s head takes heat for meeting with far-right leader Marine Le Pen
(JTA) — The Ukraine-born oligarch who founded the European Jewish Parliament met with Marine Le Pen, a far-right leader in France who is shunned by many Jewish groups worldwide.
Wednesday’s meeting between Vadim Rabinovich and Le Pen was in the framework of a roundtable discussion that Rabinovich held in Strasbourg, France, with 10 representatives of the Europe of Nations and Freedom bloc of nationalist parties chaired by Le Pen, who heads the National Front, the third largest party in France.
The European Jewish Congress condemned Rabinovich, who is a lawmaker in Ukraine, for meeting with Le Pen.
“That any European Jew would ever consider themselves available to fig-leaf racists and anti-Semites is shocking in the extreme,” its president, Moshe Kantor, said in a statement.
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