Hebrew U. refuses to remove anti-Israel professor from advisory board role
(JNS.org) The Hebrew University of Jerusalem has refused to remove Professor William Schabas from the advisory board of a law faculty publication despite his anti-Israel views, Israel Hayom reported.
Schabas was recently appointed to head the U.N. Human Rights Council’s investigation into Israel’s conduct during Operation Protective Edge, despite his well-publicized political views, sparking outrage among Israeli politicians.
Israeli lawyer David Schonberg wrote to Hebrew University requesting Schabas’s dismissal from the advisory board role in light of the U.N. appointment and his history of inflammatory comments about Israel.
The university’s law faculty dean, Professor Yuval Shany, responded to the request with a letter stating that Schabas “was appointed to the academic advisory board for the periodical based on his expertise in human rights law, not because of his political stance.”
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Hezbollah leader: ISIS plans to expand to Jordan, Saudi Arabia
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Hezbollah leader Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday warned Druze leaders in Lebanon of the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) jihadist terror group, the Lebanese Daily Star reported.
In his first meeting in three years with Lebanese Druze leader Walid Jumblatt, Nasrallah warned that ISIS poses an existential threat to all minorities in the region, including in Lebanon. According the Daily Star, Nasrallah clarified Hezbollah’s position on the current state of regional affairs, which was relayed to the newspaper by a Hezbollah official who spoke on condition of anonymity.
Nasrallah said, “All the reports we receive indicate that the Islamic State is planning on expanding toward Jordan and Saudi Arabia by undermining the security and stability of these countries.” ISIS, he added, is “seriously considering expanding toward new arenas, and this should be treated not as a conspiracy, but rather as a battle of life and death no less important than fighting the Israeli enemy, as its actions and objectives only serve Israel.”
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West should arm Assyrian Christians and Yazidis, editorial says
(JNS.org) The United States and European Union should help arm Assyrian Christians and Yazidis to protect their ancient homelands from the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terror group, an editorial by the Assyrian International News Agency (AINA) argued.
“The United States and Europe, under the auspices of the United Nations, must establish an Assyrian Defense Force for the Nineveh Plain, Baghdad and other Assyrian areas, as well as a Yazidi defense force for the area of Sinjar and Zumar,” AINA wrote.
Most Iraqi Christians belong to an ethnic group known as the Assyrians, who largely inhabit the region known as the Nineveh Plains in northern Iraq. The Assyrian people consider themselves to be direct descendants of the numerous ancient Mesopotamian civilizations such as the Sumerians, Akkadians, Babylonians, and Assyrians.
According to AINA, more than 200,000 Assyrians have fled from their homes in the Nineveh Plains north of Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city. Additionally, tens of thousands of Yazidis have fled their homes due to the ISIS threat.
Many Assyrians and Yazidis have fled to Iraq’s Kurdistan region, where Kurdish Peshmerga forces have fought to protect the region from ISIS fighters. But after ISIS fighters threatened Erbil, the capital of Kurdistan, the U.S. began providing air support and weapons to the Kurds as well as helping Yazidis flee to safety. The French and British governments have also promised aid for the Kurds.
While the Kurds have provided protection to the Assyrians and Yazidis, AINA believes the latter two groups should also have a right to protect themselves.
“No one will protect the Assyrians and Yazidis but themselves, because they have their lives, their way of life, their lands and their homes at stake. The right of self-defense is fundamental. Assyrians do not ask the world to defend them, only to be allowed to defend themselves,” AINA’s editorial stated.
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Britain may suspend some arms shipments to Israel if fighting resumes
(JNS.org) The British government may restrict some arms shipments to Israel if the fighting between Hamas and Israel resumes.
During a review of British exports to Israel, the government’s business department had flagged 12 licenses for “components which could be part of equipment used by the Israel Defense Forces in Gaza,” The Guardian reported. These licenses include equipment for military radar, combat aircraft, and tanks.
“We welcome the current ceasefire in Gaza and hope that it will lead to a peaceful resolution. However, the UK government has not been able to clarify if the export licence criteria are being met,” British Business Secretary Vince Cable said.
“In light of that uncertainty we have taken the decision to suspend these existing export licences in the event of a resumption of significant hostilities,” he added.
Cable, who hails from the center-left Liberal Democrats party, has been in a coalition dispute with the Conservative Party—which is led by Prime Minister David Cameron—over restricting arms sales to Israel.
Cameron has said he supports Israel’s “legitimate right to self-defense” and believes that restricting arms exports may by an empty gesture that would hamper the British government’s relationship with Israel and peace efforts in the region.
The development that Britain may block arms sales to Israel come amid a new Wall Street Journal report that the White House halted a shipment of air-to-ground missiles to the Jewish state last month.
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More than 1,000 gather in LA for fallen soldier Max Steinberg’s memorial
(JNS.org) More than 1,000 people gathered at the Saban Theatre in Beverly Hills, Calif., to honor the life and military service of Max Steinberg, the Los Angeles native who died while fighting for Israel in Gaza last month.
Steinberg, 24, was a lone soldier serving as a sharpshooter in the elite Golani brigade when he was killed along with six other Israel Defense Forces soldiers in Gaza on July 19. Despite knowing little Hebrew, Steinberg joined the IDF after visiting Israel on a Birthright trip in 2012.
At the gathering, Steinberg’s parents, along with Jewish community leaders and Israeli political figures, came to honor the fallen soldier’s dedication to Israel.
“Nothing can duplicate the love showered on our family by the people of Israel,” said Evie Steinberg, Max’s mother, the Times of Israel reported.
Steinberg was buried at Israel’s military cemetery on Mt. Herzl in a ceremony attended by more than 35,000 people.
“Max is [now] resting in peace [on Mt. Herzl] with Theodore Herzl, Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, Prime Minister Golda Meir, and tens of thousands of other heroic soldiers,” Evie said.
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Russell Brand calls for boycott of Israel
(JNS.org) British comedian and actor Russell Brand has called on banks, pension funds, and other businesses to sever any ties to Israel or ongoing deals that “facilitate the oppression of people in Gaza.” In particular, Brand singled out the Barclays bank, which he said manages “the portfolios of an Israeli defense company called Elbit, which makes the drones that bomb Gaza.”
“The message they give us is the exact opposite of the reality, they’re acting like they’re part of our community,” Brand said on the new episode of his online show, “The Trews.”
Brand also asked viewers to sign a petition on the Avaaz campaign website, which is pressuring companies and brands to rethink their investment in Israel. The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement petition has massed nearly 1.7 million signatures, but some of the brands listed are defending their ties with Israel. Hewlett-Packard stated that “respecting human rights is a core value” of its business and that the company uses Israeli security checkpoints to allow employees to “get to their place of work or to carry out their business in a faster and safer way.” Caterpillar said that while it “shares the world’s concern over unrest in the Middle East,” it doesn’t have neither “the legal right” nor the means “to police individual use of its equipment,” which has come under scrutiny for its role in the bulldozing of Palestinian homes.
Brand previously criticized Fox News host Sean Hannity’s interview with Palestinian-American guest Yousef Munayyer. In the video, Brand said Hamas terrorists might use “what we would perceive or term as acts of terror” to defend themselves against Israel.
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Canadian media personality: Jews provoke hatred
(JNS.org) Canadian media personality Gilles Proulx was called out by the Quebec wing of the Centre for Israel and Jewish Affairs (CIJA) for expressing anti-Semitic views on a Montreal radio show regarding Israel’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza. He also published a column expressing similar views.
“No need to be an expert to say that Israel could make Washington, Paris or Ottawa bend, knowing in advance that its diaspora, well established, will make any government submit!” Proulx wrote in the Journal de Montréal.
“The diaspora is scattered around the world, where they take economic control, provoke the hatred of local nations, whether it is in Spain, for example, with the Inquisition, or again later with Adolf Hitler,” he said on Montreal’s Radio X last week.
Eta Yudin, a CIJA spokeswoman, said Proulx’s comments are “classic anti-Semitism,” evoking the ancient canard of Jews wielding excessive power and provoking “deserved” violence.
“We’re disappointed that this kind of discourse goes unchecked and unchallenged,” Yudin said.
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