Hate Crimes Against British Jews Surge, Prosecutions Drop
(JNS.org) A disturbing report shows the number of hate crimes committed against British Jews continues to rise while the number of hate crime cases being prosecuted has dropped, according to the Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA).
Last year, there was a 26 percent surge in crimes against British Jews and 51 percent spike in reported violent anti-Semitic crimes, the group reported.
“Anti-Semitic crime has surged in the last two years and is now at a record high,” said Gideon Falter, the chairman of CAA, a British charity that exposes anti-Semitism. “Instead of demonstrating that British Jews can rely on the authorities to prosecute anti-Semitism, the number of cases charged has actually dropped.”
Out of 15,000 hate crimes prosecuted last year, only 12 of those prosecutions were for hate crimes against British Jews. As a result, “British Jews are being denied justice,” Falter said in a statement.
CAA has issued legal guidelines to educate the British Jewish community on “how to obtain justice” as authorities fail to prosecute these crimes.
Jewish Families From Syria Resettled in Louisville, Ky.
(JNS.org) Three of the remaining Jewish families in Syria were quietly brought to the United States and settled in Louisville, Ky.
The Jewish refugees, numbering 13 people including seven children, were smuggled out of Damascus, where they had been living amid the raging civil war since 2011. The families posed as Christian refugees to enter Sweden earlier this year, according to Point of No Return, a blog about Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim countries.
The families were described as able to speak multiple languages, well off and had done business with the Assad regime, according to the blog.
A Conservative synagogue in Louisville helped the families enter the U.S. and resettle in the southern town, which has already absorbed thousands of Middle Eastern refugees over the past five years.
Obama Refused to Help Iranian Opposition in 2009, Book Says
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama decided not to support the Iranian opposition during the 2009 elections to protect secret negotiations he was holding with Tehran on its nuclear program, a recently published book alleges.
“The Iran Wars” by Jay Solomon of The Wall Street Journal, several sections of which were published by the Bloomberg news agency last week, holds that Obama actively refrained from assisting the demonstrators. He ignored advisers who told him to support the opposition in Iran, even ordering the CIA to sever ties with the opposition leader.
“The Agency has contingency plans for supporting democratic uprisings anywhere in the world. This includes providing dissidents with communications, money and in extreme cases even arms,” Solomon writes. “But in this case, the White House ordered it to stand down.
Demonstrations broke out in June 2009 after then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner of elections that many in Iran felt were rigged. From the beginning, Obama and the White House downplayed the demonstrations’ importance, and when he finally did speak about them, he refrained from mentioning election fraud.
NGO Says PA and Hamas Abuse Critical Journalists and Activists
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas authorities have been abusing journalists and activists who peacefully criticize the Palestinian government, a human rights NGO asserts.
“Both Palestinian governments, operating independently, have apparently arrived at similar methods of harassment, intimidation and physical abuse of anyone who dares criticize them,” Sari Bashi, Israel/Palestine director at Human Rights Watch (HRW), said in a statement.
Human Rights Watch documented five cases—two in the West Bank and three in the Gaza Strip —in which Palestinian security forces arrested or questioned journalists, a political activist and two rap musicians for criticizing the Palestinian government. The four of those people arrested said they were physically abused or tortured.
“[Palestinian] security officers beat or kicked them, deprived them of sleep and proper food, hosed them with cold and then hot water, and made them maintain uncomfortable positions for long hours,” the HRW report said.
In Gaza, Hamas authorities denied the allegations. In the West Bank, Palestinian Authority officials could not investigate the allegations without a formal complaint.
Bashi said, “The Palestinian people fought hard to gain the protections that accompany membership in the international community, and their leaders should take their treaty obligations seriously.”
U.N. Middle East Envoy ‘Distorting History,’ Netanyahu Says
(JNS.org) Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu rebuked the United Nations envoy to the Middle East Nickolay Mladenov for his remarks on Tuesday harshly criticizing Israeli building in Judea and Samaria.
Mladenov’s comments to the U.N. Security Council “distort history and international law and push peace farther away,” Netanyahu said in a statement.
“Jews have been in Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria for thousands of years and their presence there is not an obstacle to peace,” Netanyahu said. “The obstacle to peace is the unending attempt to deny the Jewish people’s connection to parts of their historic land and the obdurate refusal to recognize that they are not foreigners there.”
Mladenov briefed the U.N. Security Council about working toward a resolution in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, emphasizing that all building in eastern Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, is considered illegal and “undermine[s] an already precarious situation.”
Netanyahu said Mladenov’s claim is “as absurd as the claim that American construction in Washington or French construction in Paris is illegal. The Palestinian demand that a future Palestinian state be ethnically cleansed of Jews is outrageous, and the U.N. must condemn it instead of adopting it.”
Apple Updates iPhone Software After Alleged Failed Israeli Breach
(JNS.org) Apple has triggered a global upgrade of its mobile operating system in response to an Israeli company’s failed attempt to break into the iPhone of an Arab activist.
Unfamiliar espionage software was used to break into the activist’s phone, according to reports published on Thursday by the San Francisco-based Lookout smartphone security company and the internet watchdog group Citizen Lab. The attempted breach was blamed on the Israeli company NSO Group.
The spyware tried to access the phone by taking advantage of three formerly unknown weaknesses in the iPhone operating system.
Apple said it fixed the vulnerability as soon as it became aware of it.
“The threat actor has never been caught before,” Mike Murray, a researcher with Lookout, told the Associated Press. He called the program “the most sophisticated spyware package we have seen in the market.”
The NSO Group said in a statement that its mission is to provide “authorized governments with technology that helps them combat terror and crime.” It did not acknowledge involvement in the attempted breach.
Nigerian Clinton Foundation Donor Investigated for Hezbollah Ties
(JNS.org) Nigerian billionaire philanthropist Gilbert Chagoury, who has been a major donor of the Clinton Foundation, was denied entry to the U.S. last year due to suspected ties to the Lebanese terror group Hezbollah.
Chagoury, 70, has been friendly with former President Bill Clinton and his wife, current presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, since the 1990s, and has donated between $1 million and $5 million to the couple’s foundation, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Chagoury has been a close ally of former Nigerian dictator Gen. Sani Abacha and has tried to influence U.S. policy in the dictator’s favor. The State Department has also been investigating the billionaire, who has Lebanese roots, for his ties to Lebanon. He is currently on a no-fly list, in part because of his connection to Lebanese Christian politician and former Lebanese Army commander Michel Aoun, whose party had signed a memorandum of understanding with Hezbollah in 2006.
A 2013 FBI intelligence report has indicated that Chagoury provided funding to Aoun funds, which Aoun transferred to Hezbollah. When Chagoury applied for a tourist visa in the summer of 2015, the State Department denied his request on grounds related to funding terrorism. Chagoury denies any link to Hezbollah.
Veteran Israeli Politician Binyamin Ben-Eliezer ‘Fuad’ Dies
(JNS.org) Veteran Israeli politician Binyamin Ben-Eliezer, known in Israel as “Fuad,” died on Sunday from renal failure complications.
Ben-Eliezer was a longtime Labor Party MK who has held several important defense and government positions. Born in Iraq, he immigrated to Israel in 1950 at age 14. He served in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) for many years and entered politics in 1984. He served on the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee and was re-elected to the Knesset several times. He held many roles including as defense minister and Labor Party leader.
Ben-Eliezer also “developed a significant friendship with the former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, with whom he had a close and genuine relationship,” Israeli President Shimon Peres said in a statement.
In 2013, Ben-Eliezer ran for president but dropped out due to a criminal investigation against him alleging financial corruption. However, the investigation was halted due to his ill health, and he retired from politics in 2014. He was hospitalized on August 25 for emergency surgery, but his condition worsened and he died on August 28. He is survived by his wife and five children.
“Binyamin Ben-Eliezer was a man with numerous credits to his name, who dedicated his life to safeguarding Israel,” President Reuven Rivlin said in a statement, Israel Hayom reported.“Fuad served the State of Israel for decades as a fighter, a commander, a public servant and a senior government minister. I knew him and I appreciated his contribution and his special personality. May his memory be blessed,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.
