07/16 Links Pt2: ICC orders its prosecutor to reconsider 'Mavi Marmara' war crimes allegations

From Ian:

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ICC orders its prosecutor to consider 'Mavi Marmara' war crimes allegations against IDF

In a shocking 2-1 decision, the International Criminal Court on Thursday ordered its Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda to consider opening a full criminal investigation into 2010 Mavi Maramara flotilla war crimes allegations against IDF personnel only 7 months after Bensouda had closed the file.
With harsh language, the ICC told Bensouda that she should have more seriously considered the possibility that those killed by the IDF in the incident were “systematic or resulted from a deliberate plan or policy to attack, kill or injure civilians.”
The decision puts the ICC the closest it has ever been to intervening directly into the Israeli-Arab conflict and places the court in the position of potentially being harsher on Israel than Bensouda, who herself has been criticized by Israel for recognizing a State of Palestine.
Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely responded to the decision derisively, stating, “the International Court in the Hague has turned with this decision into a tool for Palestinian propaganda.”
Foreign Ministry Spokesman Emmanuel Nachshon echoed those sentiments, saying, “Israel harshly rejects” the ICC ruling and that “Israel had acted in self-defense and in line with international law.”
Further, Nachshon recalled that a quasi-independent Israeli commission with international observers as well as a UN Secretary General-sponsored commission confirmed Israel’s self-defense claims.

Eugene Kontorovich: Dutch Supreme Court Ruling on Israeli Criminal Jurisdiction in the West Bank

So Berland would seem to have a receptive audience for his argument that Israel cannot be understood to apply to crimes committed across the Green Line.
However, the Dutch Supreme Court came to a different conclusion (adopting the opinion of the Court's Attorney General). It began by establishing the relevant presumptions. In considering an extradition request pursuant to a treaty, a court can only reject it if the requesting state's lack of jurisdiction is clear on the face of the papers. That is, if the lack of jurisdiction is manifest without further investigation.
While the Court noted the state of international opinion on the issue, it said that Israel's lack of territorial jurisdiction in East Jerusalem and Beitar was not one of these black-and-white issues that it could in effect take judicial notice of. One would imagine that if China requested extradition regarding a crime that occurred in Spain, this would be one of the "clear" case that fall outside the presumption.
To be sure, the Court made no pronouncement on Israel's borders, and indeed suggested it would be inappropriate to do so in an extradition case. It simply decided that the lack of territorial jurisdiction is not an apparent, day vs. night, judicial notice kind of fact. Even given the presumption in favor of finding territorial jurisdiction, the fact that it was not overcome under the present circumstances is quite noteworthy. To put it simply, the conclusion that the anti-jurisdiction argument does not overcome the presumption means the argument is not a 100 percent unquestioned winner.
Indeed, it suggests that the International Criminal Court may face difficulties in exercising jurisdiction over Israeli settlements. If these are within Israeli territorial jurisdiction (albeit not sovereignty), there is no basis for the Court to act. Here again, the Court would have to overcome very high presumptions to exercise jurisdiction, because Israel is a non-member state and because of the Monetary Gold principle. While extradition is presumptively valid, jurisdiction in the ICC needs to be affirmatively established, rather than disproved.

Bernard Lewis, the intellectual giant and the grasshoppers

Bernard Lewis is the greatest scholar of the Middle East and the Islamic and Arab past in the world. The shallow political correctness in the New York Times, which has lauded the pygmie Edward Said in scathing opposition to Lewis's superior mind, is a sad statement of our times
It is a truth universally acknowledged, except by book reviewers in the New York Times, that Bernard Lewis is the most important and distinguished scholar on the history of the Middle East and of the Islamic and Arab past.
Therefore, it was startling that Jacob Heilbrunn in his review of the book Ally by Michael Oren (Sunday, July 12, 2015) when referring to the “legendary Middle East scholar Bernard Lewis,” under whom Oren studied at Princeton, repeated Edward Said’s scurrilous remark that Lewis was, “dripping with condescension and contempt toward the Arab world.”
In repeating this infamous comment, Jacob Heilbrunn reveals he writes more from a political perspective than from scholarly analysis. Even if Heilbrunn himself does not subscribe to this offensive statement, he has disgraced himself by quoting it.

BREAKING NEWS: Gunman who killed 4 Marines in Chattanooga ID'd as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez

The gunman who shot and killed four Marines Thursday during two attacks at military facilities in Chattanooga, Tenn., has been identified as Muhammad Youssef Abdulazeez, a law enforcement souce confirmed to Fox News.
The Associated Press reported Abdulazeez, 24, was believed to have been born in Kuwait, although it was not clear if he was a U.S. or Kuwaiti citizen. He was reported to be from Hixson, Tenn., just across the river from Chattanooga.
The law enforcement source said preliminary reports indicate Abdulazeez, who also died, was not on the FBI's radar leading up to Thursday's attacks.
The gunman first shot up a recruiting center before driving to the Navy Operational Support Center and Marine Corps Reserve Center and killing four Marines before he was shot, authorities said. Sources told Fox News police chased the gunman from the recruiting center to the Center, where the killings took place.
“We are treating this as an act of domestic terrorism,” said Bill Killian, U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Tennessee.

France thwarts jihadist plot to behead soldier, film killing

France has foiled a terrorist plot to capture and decapitate a member of its armed forces, officials said, underscoring the threat the country faces six months after the Islamist attacks in Paris.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said security forces had staged dawn raids on Monday to take into custody four people, aged between 16 and 23, who were “planning to commit a terrorist act against French military installations.”
A source close to the investigation into the thwarted attack, who asked to remain anonymous, said the four arrested had been planning to film the decapitation of a member of the military based in southern France.
One of the four people arrested had served in the navy, Cazeneuve said.

Three men held by police over 'plot to stage Al Qaeda terror strike in UK'

The arrest of the man at their offices in Letchworth, Hertfordshire was accompanied by simultaneous arrests at two separate homes 13 miles away in Luton.
One of the raids in Luton was led by armed police - and although no firearms were found, it had been feared that police believed the men had access to weapons.
Sources said that police swooped after learning of what was thought to be a "fairly advanced" Islamist conspiracy aimed at an unknown UK target.
It is understood that investigators are looking into possible links between the suspects and an Al Qaeda cell in Pakistan, as opposed to the Islamic State.
Counter terror chiefs are concerned that an attack on a British civilian target by gunmen armed with automatic weapons could be imminent.
All three of the men were being questioned last night on suspicion of preparing acts of terrorism.

Leaked cable confirms Israel killed Syrian general in 2008

In a scene that sounds as if it was taken out of a spy movie, Israeli naval commandos are said to have assassinated President Bashar Assad’s top security aide as he hosted a dinner party at his beachfront villa in the coastal city of Tartus in 2008.
General Muhammad Suleiman was killed after multiple bullets hit him in the head and neck as he sat around a crowded dinner table in the summer of 2008, the Intercept reported on Wednesday.
Citing recently leaked NSA documents, the report said that Israel’s elite naval commandos of Shayetet 13 stormed into Suleiman’s seaside vacation from the beach and shot the general before quickly escaping back to the sea.
According to the report, the intelligence files confirm for the first time that Suleiman was the target of an Israeli military operation, ending years of speculation that it was in fact an internal dispute that had resulted in the general’s assassination.
The document was provided by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden, who intermittently leaked thousands of classified documents from the American intelligence agency beginning in 2013.

 Erekat denies report of ongoing Israeli-Palestinian talks

Chief Palestinian negotiator Saeb Erekat on Thursday denied that there were ongoing talks between Palestinian and Israeli officials intended to defuse tension between the two sides, and possibly renew negotiations.
Erekat said he rejected a Times of Israel report “that describes a de facto agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority regarding halting international steps [toward statehood] in exchange for a settlement freeze.”
The report stated that both sides have taken a number of steps over the past three months, “not by agreement but as part of a reassessment of the situation in the region,” a Palestinian official explained.
Palestinian measures allegedly included halting, for the time being, applications to join United Nations agencies and other international bodies as part of the Palestinian push for statehood through diplomatic means.

Population Registry Shows 800,000 Jews in Post-67 Territories, As Arab Births Decline Sharply

When you add the other 400,000 Jews living in areas that have been annexed by Israel without international recognition—eastern Jerusalem and the Golan Heights—you get a whopping 800,000 Jews.
According to a comprehensive study on Jewish-Arab demographics published in 2011 by demographer Yakov Faitelson, there has been a sharp, upward surge of the Jewish population, especially among secular Israeli Jews, and a sharp decline of Arab population growth, as a result of successful Arab integration into Israel’s infrastructures of modernity.
In 2015, Faitelson issued an updated report, showing a marked decline of 36-37% in population growth among Arabs both in Israel and Judea and Samaria. At the same time, overall Jewish births have risen 47%.
The combined factors of Arab immigration to other countries in the region as well as to the West, a 44% rise in Arab mortality of the last 16 years as a result of an aging population, and the steep decline in the number Arab births is already changing the demographic reality in Judea and Samaria—where Jewish birth rates have risen by 15.16% from 1996 to 2013. Arab births in the same area and years have declined by 49.13%.

Will a Saudi Prince Really Come to Israel?

Is the Middle East going to experience another historic moment with the visit of Saudi Prince Talal bin Waleed to Israel in what could be the most significant move toward peace between the Arabs and Israelis since Anwar Sadat’s iconic trip to Israel? Or is this merely a rumor?
The Jerusalem Post ran the story of Prince Talal’s visit, subsequently ran a denial, and then scrubbed everything. What the Jerusalem Post thinks of the original story is anyone’s guess.
Unlike the Post, however, no Arab source has retracted the story. In fact, Paul Miller of the Salomon Center for American Jewish Thought contacted Moroccan Journalist, Aziz Allilou, who broke the story in the Arab world outside of Saudi Arabia. On the basis of this exchange, Mr. Miller reports that there is neither an official confirmation nor denial of the story, which originates with credible Saudi media sources in Arabic.
It is highly unlikely that the Saudi government would let the story run without a disclaimer if it were not true. And so far the story not only has legs, but it also portends the most dramatic movement toward peace in the region in recent memory.

Israel Air Force strikes terrorist target in Gaza after rocket attack

The Israel Air Force struck terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip on Thursday morning, in response to a rocket that was fired on Israel a few hours earlier.
The IDF Spokesperson's Office released a statement saying that the IDF viewed with severity the rocket attack on Israel and that it would not tolerate attempts to harm Israeli citizens.
The IDF said that Hamas was responsible for the attack.
A rocket was launched from Gaza towards Israel early Thursday morning causing rocket alert sirens to sound near Ashkelon in the Lakhish Regional Council and in Gaza border communities. According to the military, the projectile exploded in an open area near Ashkelon.
Security forces were searching for rocket remnants.

Israel and Hamas discussing deal for Gaza captives

The sources confirmed Hamas’s recent statement to the effect that Mengistu, who crossed the border in September, is in Hamas captivity but is nevertheless safe and sound. The organization’s new stance on Mengistu contrasts with its previous version, according to which the Israeli man had crossed into Egypt via a tunnel. Hamas officials, however, refused to comment on the matter during a conversation with The Times of Israel.
Meanwhile, Hamas has been sending messages to Israel regrading its desire to reach an agreement on a long-term truce in Gaza. The messages are being relayed through various international mediators, including former British prime minister and Middle East Quartet envoy Tony Blair, who has made several visits to Doha, the capital of Qatar, where he met with the head of Hamas’s political bureau, Khaled Mashaal.
Palestinian and Israeli sources told The Times of Israel that the two men met at least three times, both while Blair still held the position of Quartet envoy and after his official retirement in late June. Among the issues raised by Mashaal during those meetings were the two Israelis in Gaza, the return of the remains of IDF soldiers Oron Shaul and Hadar Goldin, the lifting of the blockade over the Strip, and the construction of a seaport and airport in the Hamas-controlled territory.

WATCH: IDF forces arrest murderers of Israeli farmer

An Israeli farmer murdered last month on Moshav Pedaya was killed in a botched robbery by two West Bank Palestinians, the Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) and Israel Police said Thursday, as the arrest of the two suspects was cleared for publication.
David Bar Kafra, 70, was beaten to death in a vineyard on the moshav on June 24th, 2015, and already the next day the Shin Bet and police arrested two Palestinians illegally in Israel, including one who worked for Bar Kafra months earlier.
On Thursday the two suspects were named as cousins Mujahd Dar Atzi and Alaa Dar Atzi, both aged 22 and residents of the village of Beit Liqya near Ramallah in the West Bank. The Shin Bet said that the two made their way into Israel the night before the murder, crossing at a checkpoint in the Jerusalem area and arriving in the area of Pedaya around midnight. They then slept overnight in a field and by morning began staking out Bar Kafra’s farm, waiting for an opportunity to rob him.

Watch: Pro-Hamas TV Reveals Jerusalem Security Fence is a 'Joke'

In a blatant red flag for the security of Israel's capital city of Jerusalem, a pro-Hamas Arab TV channel documented how Arabs freely cross the expensive security barrier erected in the eastern part of the city, in a video report posted to the channel's Facebook page on Wednesday.
The Palestinian Arab Quds TV, which features a strong pro-Hamas bent and is possibly affiliated with the genocidal terrorist organization, exposed in their video report how Arabs use a ladder to scale the wall and a rope to rappel down the other side, in addition to underground methods to circumvent the barrier.
After hopping the fence, the video shows they are free to traverse Israel, and even visit the Temple Mount, which is the holiest site in Judaism - likewise, their freedom of movement would enable them to conduct terror attacks at will, a troubling prospect given the number of attacks in Jerusalem in recent months.

Knesset reprimands but doesn't punish MK for taking part in Gaza flotilla

MK Bassel Ghattas (Joint List) behaved unethically by participating in a flotilla meant to break the military blockade of Gaza, the Knesset Ethics Committee determined Wednesday.
Ghattas, who sailed toward Gaza with activists on the Mariane last month before the boat was peacefully redirected to Ashdod by the IDF, was severely reprimanded, but did not receive further punishment, because this was his first ethics offense.
Following complaints against Ghattas by Immigration and Absorption Minister Ze’ev Elkin, Culture and Sport Minister Miri Regev, and Knesset House Committee chairman David Bitan, the committee did not accept Ghattas’s response that participating in the flotilla is the same as any other demonstration and falls under MKs’ broad, protected freedom of speech.
“MKs must make a clear difference between leading a battle to change policies, which is an inseparable part of their job and is under their broad freedom of speech, and publicly declaring that they want to break the law as part of their battle,” the decision reads.

Hack exposes Israeli link to Lebanese leader’s associates

A former Israeli political adviser communicated with an emissary of Christian Lebanese politician Samir Geagea in late 2014 as part of his ongoing correspondence with armed opposition members in Syria, a Lebanese daily revealed Thursday.
Al-Akhbar, a pro-Hezbollah daily that began last week to publish files hacked from the computer of Mendi Safadi, a Druze Israeli and former political adviser to Deputy Regional Cooperation Minister Ayoub Kara, cited an exchange between Safadi and Yossi Kuperwasser, a former director general of the Ministry of Strategic Affairs.
In the correspondence, which took place on November 26, 2014, Safadi informed Kuperwasser that a confidant of Geagea, who heads the Lebanese Forces party, was interested in sending an emissary to Israel to discuss the details of an unspecified “deal.” Safadi informed Kuperwasser that Geagea himself was meant to speak to him the following day and said the Lebanese leader was impatiently awaiting an Israeli response.

Volume of goods entering Gaza to double this year

A record volume of imports is expected to enter Gaza through the Kerem Shalom crossing in 2015, about 140,000 truckloads.
This will be about double the 70,000 truckloads that made their way via Kerem Shalom, the main entry point for cargo into the Gaza Strip, in 2014, before and after Operation Protective Edge, the Crossings Authority in the Defense Ministry said on Wednesday.
This year is expected to see an average of 600-650 trucks pass through the border point each working day.
Egypt has cracked down on smuggling from Sinai to Gaza and has kept its Rafah crossing to the Strip closed most of the time, increasing demand for goods in the Palestinian territory.
So far this year, inspectors at Kerem Shalom have thwarted 250 attempts to smuggle contraband materials into Gaza, equaling the number for all of 2014. Israel imposed a blockade on the Strip after Hamas seized control there in 2007, to prevent the entry of materials that could be used to build rockets or attack tunnels.

Turkey to build Erdoğan Stadium in Gaza

Turkey is set to build a 20,000-seat stadium to international standards in the Gaza Strip to support sports in Palestine, officials revealed on July 14.
A member of the Higher Council of Youth and Sports in the Gaza Strip, Abd al-Salam Haniyeh, said the Turkish Cooperation and Coordination Agency (TİKA) would build the stadium.
“The approval for the stadium’s construction by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is one of the best contributions Turkey has provided to Palestinian sports,” he said.
Haniyeh added the stadium would be named Erdoğan Stadium.

 Palestinans Look to Newly Influential Iran for Support

Most Israelis are none too happy about the Iran nuclear deal, but Palestinians see it as a very positive development.
With the expectation that all sanctions will be lifted from Iran, and billions of dollars of its frozen assets around the world freed, the Palestinians are expecting Tehran to become a very influential regional player – and are hopeful they will use their new-found influence to force Israel into concessions.
The hope is not necessarily connected to an Iranian nuclear threat; under the agreement Tehran reached with Western powers, Iran is not supposed to have such weapons for at least a decade, although many experts believe that the deal will allow clandestine development of such weapons far faster.
However, with new regional influence, Iran will be in a position to economically squeeze Israel, Palestinian officials believe, by favoring or refusing to do business with companies or governments that do not, in Tehran's opinion, sufficiently support the Palestinian cause.

Canadian students fight back against rogue anti-Israel professor

Joanne Naiman is an anti-Israel advocate for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. Here is our response to her latest crusade against the Jewish State:
Dear Ms. Naiman,
We, the undersigned students, both Jewish and non-Jewish, recently came across your open letter to Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne, published on Rabble.ca. As students at post-secondary institutions within our diverse and tolerant province, and across the nation, we are thoroughly disheartened that you would, in your zeal to intimidate our premier into cancelling her trip to Israel next year, resort to such depths of hatred and distortion.
Moreover, we express our concern with the plethora of articles you have authored for Rabble in support of the anti-Semitic “Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions” campaign against Israel. It is disturbing to learn that a Canadian professor emerita would use her position of academic authority to advocate for such an exclusionary, divisive movement. We respectfully request that you consider our thoughts and feelings as written below.
Like many Canadian leaders across the political spectrum, Kathleen Wynne recognizes that supporting Israel is a natural extension of the Canadian commitment to liberalism, freedom and equality. Indeed, the leaders of Canada’s three major federal political parties — Prime Minister Stephen Harper of the Conservatives, Justin Trudeau of the Liberals, and Thomas Mulcair of the NDP — have all unequivocally denounced the BDS movement.

South African official threatens to probe students for visiting Israel

Jewish groups in South Africa condemned a government official for threatening to punish students who visited Israel.
Obed Bapela, a deputy minister in President Jacob Zuma’s office, charged the students, who visited Israel recently under the auspices of the South Africa Israel Forum, with bringing the ruling African National Congress into “disrepute” and said the party would “summon” them to an investigation.
The director of the South Africa Israel Forum, Dan Brotman, told the Israeli daily Haaretz that “some of the participants, who will be future leaders in South Africa, were under enormous pressure not to come or received threats over being kicked out of their political parties.”
“The goal is not to make them pro-Israel, but to expose them to a narrative they really don’t hear in South Africa,” he said.
Bapela said Israel was “offering free trips and holidays to embarrass the ANC,” adding that it was a “campaign by Israel to distort our stand on Palestine. We have a clear position that supports Palestinian freedom. No leader of the ANC in a private capacity or for the party will visit Israel. It will be putting the ANC in disrepute.”
No official ban has been placed on members of the government or ANC traveling to Israel.

NGO Monitor: Take Our Word for It: Medical Aid for Palestinians, Al-Mezan and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights Peddle Baseless anti-Israel Narrative

On June 26, 2015, three highly political non-governmental organizations (NGOs), Medical Aid for Palestinian (MAP), Al-Mezan, and Lawyers for Palestinian Human Rights (LPHR), released “No More Impunity: Gaza’s Health Sector Under Attack.” The publication alleges the “destruction of and damage to medical infrastructure and loss of life and injury to civilians and medical personnel” during the 2014 Gaza conflict.
Like previous publications from these NGOs, “No More Impunity” is characterized by one-sided accounts, a total lack of verifiable sources, and lack of context.
More disturbingly, MAP and its partners erase the terror affiliations of three “paramedics” and “medical volunteers” who were apparently killed in an Israeli strike. Thus, they falsely accuse Israel of targeting ambulances, while ignoring Palestinian war crimes.
Misrepresenting Terrorists as an Innocent Medical Crew
This publication features an account of a Palestinian ambulance destroyed in an alleged drone strike on August 1, 2014. According to the account, the strike killed three medical personnel, four civilian bystanders, and an unidentified fatality. This is the prime example given in the report for attacks on ambulances and medical teams.

ISIS attacks Egyptian naval vessel off coast bordering Israel

Egypt's Islamic State affiliate said on Thursday it fired a rocket at an Egyptian naval vessel in the Mediterranean Sea near the coast of Israel and the Gaza Strip.
The militant group Sinai Province has focused mainly on attacking Egyptian soldiers and police in the Sinai peninsula, killing hundreds since the army toppled Islamist President Mohamed Mursi in 2013 after mass protests against his rule.
Photographs distributed online by the group appeared to show a rocket heading towards a ship and setting it ablaze on impact. Reuters could not verify the militants' version of events.
The Egyptian military said in a statement that a coastguard launch had exchanged shots with "terrorist elements," causing the vessel to catch fire. It said there was no loss of life.
Such incidents at sea are rare, though Egypt is battling an increasingly brazen Islamist insurgency in the peninsula that lies between Israel, the Gaza Strip and the Suez Canal.

Report: WikiLeaks documents reveal Saudi 'obsession' with Iran

While relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia are known to be strained, a recent WikiLeaks release of a horde of documents from Riyadh shows the extent to which Riyadh has used its petrodollars not only to promote their austere brand of Sunni Wahhabism but also to curb the spread of Iranian-sponsored Shi'ite Islam.
The documents, which the New York Times said are authentic memos from the Saudi Foreign Ministry, delve deeper into the desert kingdom's aims of undermining its Persian foe by closely monitoring the activities of its institutions and officials.
According to the report, the Saudis are described as having developed an "obsession" toward Iran. The kingdom's diplomats abroad - including those stationed in missions in Africa, Asia, and Europe - were instructed to keep close tabs on Iranian ambassadors and staff.
The documents illustrate the scope of Saudi determination to use its considerable financial clout to not only spread the doctrine of its Sunni dogma but also to work against elements abroad who are perceived as having an anti-Saudi and pro-Iranian agenda.

Saudi woman films surreal pursuit by religious police

Saudi Arabia's notorious religious police are used to getting their way in shopping centres, never hesitating to sharply rebuke women who they believe aren't dressed "appropriately". But last Monday, agents found themselves face to face with a woman who made sure she had the last word.
The incident took place in Riyadh's Nakheel Mall shopping centre. A woman was shopping with her husband when she was stopped by "muttawa" agents – a term used to designate the religious police. The officers then asked her to leave because her outfit was too "provocative".
But instead of letting herself get pushed around, she pulled her mobile phone from her pocket and began filming the agents.
The young woman doesn't appear on any of the videos that she uploaded, but in Saudi Arabia, women don't have the right to leave their homes without wearing full-body niqabs that only leave slits for the eyes. They also have to wear gloves.
For the next few hours, the woman films her bizarre pursuit by agents through aisles in the shopping centre. She has given an account of her ordeal by posting a series of short video clips to Twitter.

Senior Iranian cleric warns women will suffer from 'illnesses of the intestines and stomach' if they don't cover themselves from head to toe

A senior Iranian cleric has warned women they risk 'illnesses of the intestines and the stomach' if they fail to cover their bodies from head to toe.
Seyyed Abolhassan Mahdavi issued the warning on Monday, and said primary school children must be educated about chadors - a type of robe - so they 'grow up with modesty'.
'Currently, our brain guides us toward the chador which is the best dress for women in Islamic society since it covers the body of women from head to toe and does not draw attention,' he told state-run Fars News Agency.
Mahdavi, who is a member of a body which appoints the country's supreme leader, ranted: 'Doctors believe that frenzied emotions that enter the soul bring physical illnesses to people.
'Mal-veiling brings such frenzied emotions into the souls of people.
'According to doctors, illnesses in the intestines and stomach begin as a result of such frenzied emotions and spread to other organs of the body.

Another Auschwitz guard charged with murder by Germany

Germany is charging another former Auschwitz guard with complicity in murder, on the same day that another man was sentenced to jail for his role as a guard there.
A 92-year-old man in the city of Hanau, located near Frankfurt, was charged Wednesday for his alleged role as a Nazi SS guard.
The unnamed man was charged in juvenile court, since he was an adolescent aged 19 or 20 at the time of his alleged crimes, according to reports. He allegedly watched over transports of deportees from Berlin, and from the transit camps Drancy in France and Westerbork in Holland. According to German press reports, at least 1,075 people from these transports were murdered immediately upon arrival in the camp’s gas chambers.
He is one of several people whose homes had been searched by German investigators in February 2014.

Daughter badly hurt as Paris Jewish family attacked at home

A family that was assaulted and robbed in their suburban Paris home Wednesday may have been targeted because they are Jewish, a watchdog group said.
The report by the National Bureau for Vigilance Against anti-Semitism, or BNVCA, was about an aggravated robbery that occurred earlier in the day in Le Blanc-Mesnil.
Three masked men of African descent armed with handguns sequestered the family, two parents and their daughter, according to BNVCA. One or more of the men also attacked the daughter, causing “serious injuries” that required hospitalization, the report said. The parents were injured as well and hospitalized.
BNVCA said the perpetrators told the family they had targeted their home because they were Jewish and have money.
The perpetrators stole 2,500 euros, about $2,740, in cash, a Mercedes car and keys to the family’s jewelry shop in Paris’ 10th arrondissement, or district.
“This attack bears an uncanny resemblance to the attack committed recently in Creteil,” BNVCA wrote in reference to the rape and robbery committed in December in that Paris suburb against a Jewish couple by robbers who said they were targeted because they were Jews. “The cliche that Jews have money remains strong in people’s minds.”

49ers Running Back Jarryd Hayne Apologizes for ‘Hurtful’ Jesus Tweets

New 49ers running back and Australian rugby star Jarryd Hayne apologized on Wednesday for a tweet in which he raised the age-old myth that Jews were historically responsible for Jesus Christ’s death.
Reaching out to his Jewish fans, and the chairman of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission, Hayne tweeted: “To the Jewish community @DvirAbramovich #WeAreAllOne.”
Underneath, he keenly included a screenshot of a text message to elaborate on his apology: “I sincerely apologize for my tweets on July 1. I have come to understand how my words were hurtful to the Jewish community and this was not my intention. I immediately took the tweets down once I realized my words were incorrect.”
“I have and will always accept people of all faiths. I encourage my fans around the world to do the same,” he wrote, signing off “JH.”
Hayne — twice voted the National Rugby League’s top player — came under fire last week for tweeting that Jesus “was killed by his own people,” meaning Jews.

Israeli firm develops health-warning sensor for pilots

Israeli defense electronics firm Elbit Systems says it has developed a body sensor that could help save the lives of pilots by forewarning of possible loss of consciousness in extreme manoeuvres or because of oxygen starvation.
Named "Canary", the system is initially geared for the military market and fighter pilots who experience extreme physiological stress during sharp turns, high-speed acceleration or possible oxygen starvation at high altitude. But it may be adapted for civil aviation use as well.
Loss of consciousness because of high G-forces that prevent blood getting to the brain, known as G-LOC, is a regular concern for fast-jet pilots. Hypoxia can affect anybody flying at high altitude and can also lead to incapacitation.
Both phenomena have caused crashes and deaths over many years, said Yaron Kranz, a senior research and development director at Elbit, which developed the sensor together with Israeli start-up LifeBEAM.
Systems that can take over an out of control plane have already been developed by aircraft and auto-pilot manufacturers, but Elbit's system is different in that it senses the condition of the pilot rather than the aircraft.

Israeli tech firms wins an ‘Oscar’ for fraud prevention

Israeli fraud prevention firm Forter last week won a Silver Stevie, one of the most prestigious awards in the business world, for taking a lead in the e-commerce and fraud prevention industries.
The Stevies, given out as part of the American Business Awards, are considered “the Oscars of the business world,” and are given only to companies with “fascinating and inspiring stories of success,” according to Stevie Awards president and founder Michael Gallagher.
Forter is the only fraud prevention company that’s willing to put its money where its mouth is – refunding money to customers if they make an incorrect call about a sale that a retail website loses money on.
When hackers steal credit card numbers, there’s really only two things they can do with them – either sell them, or use them. And using them means going to a website and trying to buy something with them. Unable to stop illicit use of those numbers, consumers have no choice but to rely on retail sites to determine if their account is being used illicitly.
That’s a problem for not only consumers, but for online retailers, who often can only catch fraudulent sales after it’s too late. Often, a purloined credit card number is used even before the consumer is aware that their identity has been compromised, and when that happens, sites and credit card companies foot the bill.

Jazz: A truly dynamic duo

In addition to his amazingly eclectic skills and talent, Bobby McFerrin comes across as a guteh neshomoh . The man simply exudes positive vibes. That will surely come across in buckets when the 65-year-old American vocalist and conductor arrives here for four shows, along with stellar jazz pianist Chick Corea, between July 22 and 24 for the Israeli leg of the twosome’s Duet Tour 2015.
McFerrin is probably best known for his iconic 1988 happy-go-lucky hit pop number “Don’t Worry, Be Happy,” but there is so much more to the man. He is a 10-time Grammy winner – one was for the aforementioned pop song – and, in addition to employing a dazzling array of vocal techniques and using his body as a percussion instrument, McFerrin has had his fair share of success as a conductor. Corea is one of the true stars of the jazz world who has been at the top of the heap for more than 40 years. It is a definitively high-profile pairing that should provide quality entertainment to thousands of adoring fans here, both from the jazz world and from the pop end of the music market.
As performers of all kinds of stripes know only too well, having such a gargantuan hit like “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” can do wonders for getting you out there, but it also means the artist can get typecast. McFerrin has clearly moved on to new musical terrain over the past quarter of the century and says he is not concerned about the danger of being forever associated with that hit. “I’m grateful for everything that opened up because of that song,” says the dreadlocked star. “That song is just one example of what I do every day: playing around with my voice, experimenting with everything my instrument can do, looking for the humor in things, following where the music leads me.”

Ashton Kutcher uses Israeli app Houzz to remodel home

Ashton Kutcher has upped his role from an investor in online home design website, Houzz, to being the new face of the Israeli-created company.
The 37-year-old Kutcher can now be seen in short video clips all over social media, talking about his decision to use Houzz to remodel his childhood home.
“I think everybody has a place in their life that they call home that sort of has that feeling of home,” he says in the documentary. “The renovation we are going to be doing is on a place that I call home.”
Kutcher explains how he helped build his childhood home in Iowa with his stepfather, Mark Portwood, when he was just 13. He says his mother had long wanted to convert the basement into a lighter, airier space and as such he decided to do it for her as a surprise thank you gift. As he is located in California, the Hollywood actor — a known high-tech investor — says it was the obvious choice to turn to technology to get the project done.
Kutcher, with the help of Portwood, created an ideabook on Houzz, found a local interior designer in Iowa to implement the ideas, and bought nearly all the new furnisher through the Houzz shop. A camera crew followed them from the planning stages through construction.