Islamic State-linked Sinai terror group claims to decapitate 10 Israeli spies
(JNS.org) An Islamic State-linked terror group in Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula has decapitated 10 men whom the terror group accused of spying for Israel and Egypt.
In a video posted online by Wilayat Sinai (Province of Sinai), which was formerly known as Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, the jihadists forced the men to confess on camera that they are spies of the Israeli Mossad and the Egyptian military, and then decapitated them and dumped their bodies on a road in the northern Sinai, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi has waged a massive campaign to destroy terror groups in the Sinai Peninsula. Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Egypt on Tuesday, meeting with El-Sisi. Putin—who received an “extravagant” welcome, according to Egyptian media—signed an agreement with Egypt to construct a nuclear power plant.
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Administration reverses course: admits Hyper Cacher attack anti-Semitic
(JNS.org and SDJW) The White House and State Department are backtracking on their answers concerning President Barack Obama’s description of the recent Islamist terror attack that killed four Jewish shoppers at the Hyper Cacher kosher supermarket in Paris.
“It is entirely legitimate for the American people to be deeply concerned when you’ve got a bunch of violent, vicious zealots who behead people or randomly shoot a bunch of folks in a deli in Paris,” Obama said in an interview with Vox.
Reporters questioned the use of the word “randomly” when the attack targeted Jews. White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest, responding to a question from Jonathan Karl of ABC News regarding whether he thought the supermarket was attacked “because it was a kosher deli,” said, “No, Jon. Any random deli, Jon.”
State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki, asked by Associated Press reporter Matt Lee if the Obama administration believes “this was an anti-Jewish attack” and “an attack on a Jewish community in Paris,” responded, “I don’t think we’re going to speak on behalf of French authorities and what they believe was the situation there.” On the day of the incident in January, however, French President Francois Hollande had called it an “appalling anti-Semitic attack.”
Psaki also said that the victims of the Hyper Cacher attack “were not all victims of one background or nationality” when, in fact, all four people killed at the supermarket were Jewish.
Earnest and Psaki changed course on Twitter following the media firestorm surrounding their comments. Earnest tweeted, “Our view has not changed. Terror attack at Paris Kosher market was motivated by anti-Semitism. POTUS (Obama) didn’t intend to suggest otherwise.” Psaki tweeted, “We have always been clear that the attack on the kosher grocery store was an anti-Semitic attack that took the lives of innocent people.”
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In anti-Netanyahu petition, J Street says Israeli PM ‘not the spokesman for all Jews’
(JNS.org) The self-described “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby group J Street has launched a petition denouncing Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s assertion that he will be speaking for all Jews when he addresses Congress next month.
J Street’s petition states, “Israel’s Prime Minister is not the spokesman for all Jews.” Netanyahu made the remarks last Sunday, telling French supporters of the Likud party that he traveled to Paris last month after the series of Islamist terror attacks there not only the prime minister of Israel, but as the “representative of the entire Jewish people.”
“He’s in the middle of a tough election campaign, battling along with other party leaders for the right to represent Israelis—but he certainly cannot claim any mandate to speak for Jews in the United States,” J Street wrote in the petition. “Add your name. Help us let his Ambassador in Washington, Ron Dermer, know that—as an American, as a Jew—Benjamin Netanyahu doesn’t speak for you.”
Jewish groups criticize Germany’s non-Jewish anti-Semitism commission
(JNS.org) German Jewish groups have criticized the government of Chancellor Angela Merkel for founding a new commission on anti-Semitism that is comprised entirely of non-Jewish experts.
The decision is “a unique scandal,” said Julius Schoeps, head of the Moses Mendelssohn Center for European-Jewish Studies. “German lawmakers and the interior minister must ask themselves why… clearly no value is placed on experts from Jewish organizations and communities,” he said, Reuters reported.
Schoeps said that the Mendelssohn Center, together with with the American Jewish Committee and the Amadeu Antonio Foundation against anti-Semitism and racism, plans to found an alternative commission that will include both Jewish and non-Jewish experts.
“Nobody would even think of creating a conference on hatred of Islam without Muslims or a round table on the discrimination of women without women,” said Anetta Kahane of the Amadeu Antonio Foundation.
The German government has not yet responded to this criticism. Meanwhile, the existing commission’s members include Werner Bergmann, sociology professor at Berlin Technical University’s Centre for Research on Anti-Semitism, and Patrick Siegele, director of the Anne Frank Centre in Berlin. This is the second such commission established by the German government. The first commission was established in 2011, with the government stating at the time that “fighting anti-Semitism in all its various forms is a political priority of the government.”
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Hitler Youth band’s drum made out of Torah scroll found in Poland
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A drum made out of an ancient Torah scroll and used by the Hitler Youth marching band was discovered recently in Poland and has been purchased by the From the Depths association, which aims to preserve the memory of the Holocaust.
Two weeks ago, one of the association’s volunteers from the city of Lodz, Poland, received information about an estate sale at the apartment of an elderly member of the Nazi party who had no heirs. The association’s representative was sent to the auction to purchase the unique drum, which was paid for in part by the Levkovich family in memory of relatives who perished in the Holocaust.
The drum was delivered to From the Depths chairman Johnny Daniels, who was dumbfounded by the rare finding.
“Once I saw the drum, I broke into tears,” Daniels said. “They probably thought the letters serve as nice ornaments. Over the years there have been reports by Jews regarding Nazi desecration of Jewish religious books and Jewish ceremonial art. We managed to locate the drum, which was made of leather bands taken from a Torah scroll. … We investigated and discovered the drum had been used by the Hitler Youth marching band in parades to boost Nazi propaganda. We do not often purchase items dating back to the Holocaust period, but because of the drum’s significance, we decided to buy it in order to convey a message and a lesson to the younger generation across the globe about the way the Nazis attempted to harm Jews in every possible way.”
Daniels has been planning to embark on a lecture tour in Poland and other countries across Europe and the U.S. After receiveing special permission from rabbis, he will travel with the drum to present it to his young audience.
“We will use this drum as a pedagogical tool and allow people to physically touch a piece of history. We believe that through the personal stories, the Holocaust can be taught in a powerful and unique way. I feel this is our personal victory to have been able to bring this drum to Israel,” he said.
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