From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Germany delays official signing of sub deal over corruption investigation
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Germany has delayed the official signing of an agreement to sell three new submarines to Israel over a corruption investigation into the multibillion-dollar deal.
The signing of the official memorandum of understanding for the sale had been scheduled for next week in Germany but has been postponed indefinitely, Ynet reported Tuesday.
Germany, which has committed to paying one-third of the deal, had already authorized the sale of the submarines made by the German company ThyssenKrupp to Israel. But a clause allows the agreement to be canceled if the investigation finds that it came about due to bribery or corruption.
Israel’s Defense Ministry director-general, Udi Adam, flew to Germany in an effort to prevent the outright cancellation of the deal, Ynet reported.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Schumer on Senate floor calls anti-Zionism a form of anti-Semitism
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Sen. Charles Schumer said in a speech on the Senate floor that anti-Zionism is a form of anti-Semitism.
Schumer, D-N.Y., the minority leader in the Senate and currently the highest-ranking Jewish lawmaker, added his remarks on anti-Zionism to a speech he was giving on health care. At the end of that speech, he said he wanted to thank French President Emmanuel Macron for making the same argument in a speech over the weekend.
“Anti-Semitism is a word that has been used throughout history when Jewish people are judged and measured by one standard and the rest by another,” Schumer said.
“When everyone else was allowed to farm and Jews could not; when anyone else could live in Moscow and Jews could not; when others could become academics or tradesmen and Jews could not,” he said. “The word to describe all of these acts is anti-Semitism. So it is with anti-Zionism; the idea that all other peoples can seek and defend their right to self-determination but Jews cannot; that other nations have a right to exist, but the Jewish state of Israel does not.”
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From The Times of Israel
Macron denounces anti-Zionism as a new form of anti-Semitism
Unprecedented statement from a French leader comes as he hosts Netanyahu at Paris event marking 75 years since 13,152 French Jews were deported to Auschwitz
July 16, 2017, 4:27 pm
French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday condemned anti-Zionism as a new form of anti-Semitism, in what observers said was an unprecedented statement from the leader of France in support of the Jewish state.
“We will never surrender to the messages of hate; we will not surrender to anti-Zionism because it is a reinvention of anti-Semitism,” Macron said an event in Paris marking the mass deportation of French Jews during World War II. He was directly addressing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who attended the event.
During a lengthy and introspective speech commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv roundup, a mass arrest of 13,152 French Jews in July 1942 that was part of the Nazi effort to eradicate the Jews of France, Macron forcefully denounced Holocaust denial and anti-Semitism.
Like several of his predecessors, Macron accepted France’s responsibility for the deportations, admitting that the Vichy regime actively organized them. “It is indeed France that organized” the roundup, Macron said. “Not a single German” took part, he added.
French President Emmanuel Macron delivers a speech during a ceremony commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Vel d’Hiv roundup in Paris on July 16, 2017. (AFP PHOTO / POOL / Kamil Zihnioglu)
From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Chicago Dyke March article cost me my job, reporter says
Gretchen Rachel Hammond first reported hat three Jewish women carrying rainbow flags emblazoned with Jewish stars were kicked out of the June 24 march. (Courtesy of Hammond)
NEW YORK (JTA) — The journalist who first reported the ejection of three Jewish women from Chicago’s Dyke March tweeted that she was removed from her reporting job because of that article.
In a tweet Monday, Gretchen Rachel Hammond wrote to Dyke March’s Twitter account that “You attacked, humiliated and robbed me of a job.” Hammond confirmed to JTA on the same day that she wrote the tweet.
Hammond said she could not elaborate on her tweet, citing an agreement with her employer, the Windy City Times.
You attacked, humiliated and robbed me of a job. No tears. I forgive you. Just hope you learn how destructive and pointless hatred is.
From PressTV
Assad, allies to prevail in Syria, drive US out: Ex-US envoy
A former American ambassador to Syria says the Syrian government and its allies, including Iran, will ultimately frustrate attempts by the United States to influence Syrian matters and will drive the US out of the Arab country.
Robert Ford, who served as the US’s envoy to Syria under former US president Barack Obama, made the remarks in an interview with the London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Monday.
He said the US was, first of all, mistaken in giving support to the opposition in Syria back in 2011 and demanding Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s ouster. Ford said he knew that that expression of support would encourage certain elements of the opposition to take up arms and expect a US invasion against Damascus, which he said would not be forthcoming.
Ford also said that the US would not defend the Kurdish forces it has been supporting so far in case the Kurds engaged in clashes with the Syrian forces.
“[The US] will not defend the Kurds against Assad’s forces,” the former US envoy said. “What we’re doing with the Kurds is not only politically stupid, but immoral.”
“Syrian Kurds are making their biggest mistake in trusting the Americans,” he added.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Trump administration will continue to consult with Israel on Syria cease-fire
WASHINGTON (JTA) — The Trump administration shares a goal with Israel of keeping Iran out of southern Syria, a spokesman said, and will continue consulting with Israel about a Syrian cease-fire that Israel’s government is vigorously opposing.
“There’s a shared interest that we have with Israel, making sure that Iran does not gain a foothold, military base-wise, in southern Syria,” Sean Spicer, the White House spokesman, said Monday at the daily briefing for reporters.
“So while we’re going to continue those talks, obviously we want to have the productive cease-fire, but we also want to make sure that we’re not — one of our other objectives obviously remains to make sure that Iran does not gain a foothold in southern Syria,” he said. “So we need to continue to have that discussion with Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu about his concerns, but I think there is a shared goal there.”
Netanyahu over the weekend said he opposed the cease-fire in southwestern Syria, near the border with the Golan Heights and brokered last week by the United States and Russia, because he fears it will give Iran a foothold in a region close to Israel.
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From PressTV
Israel starts building first new settlement in West Bank since 1992
Israel has started building its first new settlement in the West Bank in 25 years in defiance of the international law and the latest UN Security Council resolution against the illegal move.
On Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the illegal construction in Emek Shilo, near the city of Ramallah, as an “honor.”
“After decades, I have the honor to be the first prime minister to build a settlement in Judea and Samaria (biblical name of the West Bank),” Netanyahu said.
“There was not, and there will never be, as good a government for the settlements as ours,” he added.
The construction of the new settlement started just a week after the Israeli minister for military affairs, Avigdor Lieberman, hailed the plan as Israel’s biggest settlement expansion since 1992.
The new settlement is aimed at accommodating the residents of the illegal West Bank outpost of Amona after it was demolished by the Israeli military in February following a court order.
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From the Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Pence restates Trump pledge to move US Embassy to Jerusalem
Vice President Mike Pence speaks at the Christians United for Israel conference in Washington, D.C., July 17, 2017. (CUFI)
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Vice President Mike Pence again pledged that the Trump administration would move the U.S. Embassy to Jerusalem.
On Monday night, Pence made the vow to Christian supporters of Israel who have become increasingly restive at President Donald Trump’s failure to make good on his campaign promise.
“To the men and women of Christians United for Israel, this president hears you,” he said to cheers at the annual Christians United for Israel conference in Washington, D.C. “This president stands with you. And I promise you that the day will come when President Donald Trump moves the American Embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. It is not a question of if, it is only when.”
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