International

Concert of pro-Israeli Tunisian cancelled after protests

TUNIS (WJC)–A musical show scheduled for the Carthage International Festival has been called off after its actors sparked outrage on the internet for performing for Israelis. Selim Baccouche, actor and organizer of the musical ‘Nouraniet’, canceled his show after his co-actor, Tunisian performer Mohsen Cherif voiced support for Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in a […]

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Middle East

Resolution on U.S. money for UNRWA makes way through House

By Shoshana Bryen WASHINGTON, D.C. — In January 2010, the Canadian government announced that its aid would be redirected from UNRWA to “specific projects in the Palestinian Authority that will ensure accountability and foster democracy in the PA.”  The total amount of money was the same, but the president of Canada’s Treasury Board said, “It

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Middle East, Shoshana Bryen

Cantor seeks suspension of U.S. aid to Lebanese Armed Forces

WASHINGTON, D.C. (Press Release)– House Republican Whip Eric Cantor  on Monday issued the following statement regarding Lebanon and the Lebanese Armed Forces’ (LAF) relationship with Hezbollah: “Since 2006, America has provided the Lebanese army with $720 million in aid. This includes stocks of M16 rifles, missile launchers, grenade launchers and night-vision devices. The purpose of the assistance was

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Middle East, USA

Israeli photographer freed by Libya

JERUSALEM (WJC) — Rafael Haddad, an Israeli citizen arrested and imprisoned in Libya in March while photographing Jewish sites, has returned to Israel after being freed in a deal reportedly engineered by Israel’s Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman. Haddad, who has dual Israeli-Tunisian citizenship, had gone to Libya in March to photograph former Jewish community buildings

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Middle East

Report: U.S. to sell 84 F-15s to Saudi Arabia in $30 billion deal

WASHINGTON, D.C. (WJC) — The United States government is set to sell Saudi Arabia 84 Boeing F-15 fighter jets worth US$ 30 billion over a ten-year period, despite Israeli “reservations” to the deal, the ‘Wall Street Journal’ reports. However, the package would not include on-board targeting systems as advanced as those used in US or

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Middle East, USA

Israel commission hears Netanyahu in Gaza Flotilla inquiry

JERUSALEM (WJC) — Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has again defended the raid by Israel’s Navy on the Gaza-bound ‘Freedom Flotilla’ on 31 May 2010, during which nine Turkish activists on board the ‘Marmara’ were killed. Netanyahu told the Turkel Commission – a panel investigating raid – that Israel’s actions were justified. The flotilla was

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Middle East

French monument defaced by anti-Semites

MARMANDE, France (WJC)–A monument to the victims of World War II in south-western France has been spray-painted with anti-Semitic graffiti. French Interior Minister Brice Hortefeux expressed “horror and sadness” after the discovery of anti-Jewish slogans and symbols at a memorial to the deportation and resistance in Marmande, in the Lot-et-Garonne department. The words ‘lies’, ‘Zionism’,

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Middle East

Commentary: Scapegoating versus politics in the Middle East

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM–Some basic definitions useful for living in civilized societies and on their fringe: A scapegoat is an individual or group blamed for faults properly due to some other individual or group. Scapegoating is a way to pass on responsibilities for offenses real or imaginary. A minority is often chosen as a scapegoat,

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East, USA

Adventures in San Diego Jewish History, November 26, 1954, Part 3

Compiled by San Diego Jewish World staff Free Jewish Press Makes Better Jewish Community Southwestern Jewish Press, November 26, 1954, Page 5 (Jewish Communal Leader in Los Angeles) It is not enough for the Jewish business or community leader to insert an occasional “greeting” in the independent Jewish newspaper. They must, instead, recognize their economic

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Adventures in SD History, Middle East

Commentary: American 'liberals' supporting Palestine miss the point

By Ira Sharkansky JERUSALEM –Two items came to my mailbox this morning. One is another demand from a well-intentioned innocent in Olympia that I butt out of the issue about the Food Coop’s boycott of Israel. This friend is a political maven who seems to be operating according to the Introduction to Political Science he

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Ira Sharkansky, Middle East

Senate confirmation of Justice Kagan hailed by NJDC, ADL

WASHINGTON, DC  (Press Release)- National Jewish Democratic Council (NJDC) Chairman Marc R. Stanley released the following statement in response to today’s Senate confirmation of Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme Court of the United States: “The National Jewish Democratic Council heartily applauds the Senate’s vote to confirm Solicitor General Elena Kagan to the Supreme

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USA

Commentary: PA's editing of Boney M's songlist epitomizes effort to erase Jewish history

By Morton A. Klein and Dr. Daniel Mandel NEW YORK — Last week, a small item of news shed piercing light on the reason for the intractability of the Arab war on Israel. The well-known 1970s disco group, Boney M, invited by the Palestine International Festival to give a concert in Palestinian Authority (PA)-controlled Ramallah,

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Middle East, USA