Fatah glorifies first female Palestinian suicide bomber on anniversary of her attack
(JNS.org) On the 11th anniversary of the day she killed two Israelis and injured hundreds of others in a Jerusalem terror attack, Fatah called Wafa Idris—who according to Fatah was the first female Palestinian suicide bomber—a “beautiful flower,” Palestinian Media Watch (PMW) reported.
Idris’s 2002 bombing “turned upside down Israeli security considerations that had focused on observing young Palestinian men only,” Fatah posted in its Facebook page Jan. 28.
“The hero whose name the Zionists will remember well and so will Palestinians; the hero who sacrificed herself and her body for Palestine and became a symbol of the struggle and of Palestinian loyalty through one of the most honorable Martyrdom-seeking operations,” Fatah’s description of Idris read.
“Wafa’s mother said that she is proud of her daughter, and hopes that more girls will follow in her footsteps,” Fatah wrote, according to PMW.
Former New York mayor, colorful Jewish political personality Koch dies at 88
(JNS.org) Ed Koch, the mayor of New York City from 1978-1989 who was known during his time in office and afterward as a charismatic and outspoken Jewish political personality, died of heart failure Friday at 88.
Koch also served in the House of Representatives from 1969-1977, and after his political career was a television judge on The People’s Court from 1997-1999.
The importance of Jewish identity to Koch was evidenced by the inscription on the memorial stone at the burial plot in Manhattan’s non-denominational Trinity Cemetery which he bought in 2008: “My father is Jewish. My mother is Jewish. I am Jewish.” Those were the last words of Jewish Wall Street Journal bureau chief Daniel Pearl before he was killed by Al Qaeda in Pakistan in 2002. Koch’s epitaph also says, “He was fiercely proud of his Jewish faith.”
“Koch was a consummate and proud Jewish Democrat who advocated fiercely for the U.S.-Israel relationship and the progressive domestic policies in which he truly believed,” the National Jewish Democratic Council said in a statement Friday. “Koch’s leadership was vital in mobilizing Jewish voters in the 2008 and 2012 elections, and our community will not be the same without his prominent voice. Koch leaves behind an indelible legacy of public service and activism that has made our country a better place and strengthened America’s relationship with the Jewish State. His voice and his energy will truly be missed.”
Koch remained a vocal political commentator until his death, and in recent years vacillated on his support of President Barack Obama. In 2011, he supported Republican (and eventual winner) U.S. Rep. Bob Turner over Democrat David Weprin for Anthony Weiner’s former seat in New York’s Ninth Congressional District. He told JNS.org at the time that he endorsed Turner “to send a message to President Obama” regarding Obama’s actions such as calling for Israel to agree to pre-1967 borders with Palestinians. But Koch expressed support for Obama in the same interview, regarding the president’s words a day earlier at the United Nations General Assembly.
“Either [Obama] didn’t need the message or he got the message, because I thought that his speech at the United Nations was superb yesterday and met all of my expectations,” Koch said.
Koch went on to endorse Obama in the 2012 election despite his previous criticism of the president’s Middle East policies. “Whatever rift existed before—and there was—that’s gone,” he told the New York Times.
But Koch’s tune changed again in late 2012, when he was fiercely critical of Obama’s rumored nomination of Chuck Hagel for defense secretary, telling The Algemeiner that Hagel “would be a terrible appointment” because it would convey the message to the Arab world that Obama is seeking “to put space between Israel and his administration.” Koch slammed the president even harder when the Hagel nomination materialized.
“Frankly, I thought that there would come a time when [Obama] would renege on what he conveyed on his support of Israel,” he told The Algemeiner this January.
Jewish leaders slam Brooklyn College decision to host BDS event
(JNS.org) Prominent Jewish leaders are expressing outrage over Brooklyn College’s decision to sponsor an anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment and sanctions) event.
The BDS event scheduled to be held on Feb. 7 will feature Omar Barghouti, Palestinian activist and founder of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, and Judith Butler, a feminist philosophy professor at the University California, Berkeley and outspoken supporter of the BDS movement against Israel. Brooklyn College’s political science department is co-sponsoring the program.
“While student clubs are certainly entitled to put on whatever events they wish that conform to school guidelines, it is reprehensible that a school department is willing to officially dignify this event,” StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein said in a press statement, calling the event “an effort to promote bigotry, prejudice and hate against the Jewish state and its supporters.”
Meanwhile, a petition has also been started by students at Brooklyn College urging the school to withdraw its support, the Jewish Week reported.
Karen Gould, president of Brooklyn College, released a statement to her staff defending her decision to allow the event.
“As an institution of higher education, it is incumbent upon us to uphold the tenets of academic freedom and allow our students and faculty to engage in dialogue and debate on topics they may choose, even those with which members of our campus and broader community may vehemently disagree,” she said.
But Harvard Law professor and pro-Israel activist Alan Dershowitz, who is also an alumnus of Brooklyn College, questioned Gould’s decision to invoke academic freedom.
“Academic freedom simply does not include the power to proselytize and propagandize captive students whose grades and futures depend on faculty evaluations,” Dershowitz wrote in the New York Daily News.
“I can understand the department of political science sponsoring a genuine debate over boycotts, divestment and sanctions in which all sides were equally represented. But the event in question is pure propaganda.”
ADL leader joins Jewish groups’ call to protect Mideast Christians
(JNS.org) Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham Foxman believes that the U.S. should do more to protect Middle Eastern Christians from Islamic fundamentalism.
“We have not paid enough attention to the discrimination, persecution of Christians in the Middle East, especially by Islamic fundamentalists,” Foxman said in an interview with Newsmax TV.
“We’re watching a world where on Sunday they burn churches and on Friday they burn mosques. So there’s a lack of respect for religion,” Foxman added.
Foxman’s call echoed that of B’nai B’rith International, the world’s oldest Jewish service organization, which has also taken up the cause of Mideast Christians. B’nai B’rith is teaming up with experts to promote knowledge about Christians who are being persecuted in the Middle East.
The Jerusalem-based B’nai B’rith World Center recently hosted Assyrian Christian Juliana Taimoorazy from the Iraqi Christian Relief Council and Egyptian Coptic Christian Author Raymond Ibrahim in for discussion about persecution of Christians.
“This is an issue that’s a major human rights issue in the world, that it’s not getting the attention it deserves in the West,” said Alan Schneider of the B’nai B’rith World Center, according to CBN News.
ADL’s Foxman, who is a Holocaust survivor, has been the national director of ADL for more than 25 years. While primarily focused on combating worldwide anti-Semitism, the ADL also works to combat discrimination and violence against other persecuted minorities.
Foxman went on to urge Congress to create a special office to fight fundamentalism.
“There is an effort in Congress to establish a special office to deal with religious freedom and religious tolerance globally, especially as it relates to fundamentalism,” he said.
Despite the religion’s origins in the Middle East, Christians comprise only 4 percent of the region’s population, down from more than 20 percent a century ago, according to the Pew Research Center.
The remaining Christian communities throughout the region have come under increasing threat from the growing tide of radical Islam associated with the “Arab Spring.”
New Israeli astronaut could venture to space
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s Ministry of Science and Technology announced that it intends to renew its initiative to send another Israeli astronaut to space.
The first and only Israeli astronaut was Ilan Ramon, who died in 2003, along with the rest of the space shuttle Columbia crew. The shuttle exploded over east Texas during re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, 16 minutes prior to its scheduled landing.
Representatives of the Israel Space Agency have begun initial talks with international space officials with the goal of exploring the ramifications of such an eventuality. If the ISA can locate the necessary resources, they hope to place an Israeli astronaut at the International Space Station in the next few years.
More than 14 senior space officials from around the world were in attendance at The 8th Ilan Ramon International Space Conference, held this Tuesday through Thursday in Herzliya, organized by the ISA, the Ministry of Science and Technology and The Fisher Institute for Air & Space Strategic Studies.
Director-general of the Science Ministry, Menachem Greenblum and Dr. Paul Weisenberg, deputy director-general for Entrepreneurship and Industry in the EU, signed a framework agreement which will open doors for further cooperation with Israel on various European space projects.
Australia alarms Jewish community by scheduling election on Yom Kippur
(JNS.org) Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced that the Australian national election will be held Sept. 14, a date that falls on Yom Kippur, stirring a major debate among politicians on whether the choice of the date is insensitive to Australia’s Jewish community.
“As a matter of personal conscience I will be unable to participate on Election Day. It is my practice, with my wife, Amanda, to observe Yom Kippur,” Australian Jewish parliament member Michael Danby of the Labor party said in a statement, according to the Jerusalem Post.
About 107,000-120,000 Jews live in Australia and constitute about 0.5 percent of the population. There are a few federal electorates in the country with a large number of eligible Jewish voters, meaning the timing of the election on Yom Kippur could have a significant impact on the result.
Traditionally, Australia already holds elections on Saturday, which makes it impossible for observant Jews to participate, though they are allowed to submit their votes by mail. Given the decision to hold the election on Yom Kippur, which is observed by a larger portion of the Jewish community than Shabbat, Jewish Liberal party parliament member Josh Frydenberg tweeted that the decision “disenfranchises many Jewish Australians.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org