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Sunday, May. 22 '16, Iyar 14, 5776
HEADLINES:
1. J-STREET WAS PAID BY OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO PROMOTE IRAN DEAL
2. YA'ALON TO SKIP FAREWELL CEREMONY IN HIS HONOR
3. SANDERS WANTS DEMOCRAT PLATFORM TO SUPPORT 'PALESTINIAN RIGHTS'
4. BRINGING YISRAEL BEYTENU INTO GOV'T WON'T IMPACT TALKS WITH PA
5. EGYPTAIR PLANE WAS THREATENED BEFORE CRASH
6. ISIS EXECUTES 'IRAQI SPIES' BY DISSOLVING THEM IN ACID
7. ONTARIO PARLIAMENT SHOOTS DOWN ANTI-BDS LAW
8. NEW LIGHT ON THE STORY OF RAOUL WALLENBERG?
1. J-STREET WAS PAID BY OBAMA ADMINISTRATION TO PROMOTE IRAN DEAL
by Ari Soffer
J-Street received more than half a million dollars to advocate for the Obama administration's controversial nuclear deal with Iran, it has been revealed.
The liberal Jewish group, which bills itself as "pro-Israel and pro-peace" but which critics say takes solely anti-Israel stances, was paid the money by the White House's main surrogate organization for selling the deal.
The Ploughshares Fund was named in an explosive New York Times profile of Obama aid Ben Rhodes, in which the President's chief spin doctor listed the central groups responsible for creating an "echo chamber" in order to promote the deal, even when the White House's official line didn't jibe with the facts.
According to Associated Press, the group's 2015 annual report details several organizations which received substantial funds to peddle the official White House line on the nuclear deal. Among them was National Public Radio (NPR), which received a $100,000 grant to promote "national security reporting that emphasizes the themes of U.S. nuclear weapons policy and budgets, Iran's nuclear program, international nuclear security topics and U.S. policy toward nuclear security."
Other grantees included: The Arms Control Association ($282,500); the Brookings Institution ($225,000); and the Atlantic Council ($182,500), who "received money for Iran-related analysis, briefings and media outreach, and non-Iran nuclear work," according to AP.
The National Iranian American Council received more than $281,000, while Princeton University received a $70,000 grant to support former Iranian ambassador and nuclear spokesman Seyed Hossein Mousavian's "analysis, publications and policymaker engagement on the range of elements involved with the negotiated settlement of Iran's nuclear program."
But the largest recipient of Obama administration funding was J-Street, a group which has been closely cultivated by the current White House and is viewed by many as its mouthpiece in the American Jewish community.
According to The Ploughshares Fund's annual report, J-Street was paid $576,500 to advocate for the deal - something it did ferociously, in spite of the opposition from the majority of the pro-Israel community in the US.
J-Street's dogged support for the Iran deal came despite the fact that the vast majority of Israelis, including those on the left with whom J-Street claims to align, were strongly opposed - a fact seized upon by the group's critics as proof it consistently acts against the State of Israel's interests.
2. YA'ALON TO SKIP FAREWELL CEREMONY IN HIS HONOR
by Tova Dvorin
Defense Minister Moshe Ya'alon has decided to skip his own farewell ceremony Sunday, in disgust with his ouster and in the context of him "taking a break" from politics.
The farewell-and-swearing-in-ceremony will still commence Sunday in the Kirya government complex in Tel Aviv, in the presence of top generals and government officials.
Meanwhile, coalition talks continue between delegations from Likud and Yisrael Beytenu, which would expand the government from 61 to 66 MKs.
Political analysts believe the coalition agreement will be signed no later than Monday, and that Liberman will take the position of Defense Minister Tuesday.
Ya'alon announced last week that he intends to return and contend for leadership of the Likud party.
3. SANDERS WANTS DEMOCRAT PLATFORM TO SUPPORT 'PALESTINIAN RIGHTS'
by JTA
Bernie Sanders wants to make "Palestinian rights" more of a priority in the Democratic Party platform, according to a report.
The Washington Post reported on Friday that Sanders, the Vermont Independent Senator seeking the Democratic presidential nomination, wants to see changes to a platform to better reflect Palestinian aspirations for statehood.
Sanders, the only Jewish candidate to ever have won major party nominating contests, has throughout the campaign defended Israel's right to security, but also has called for an end to "settlement expansion", and has criticized what he has said has been Israel's "disproportionate response" to Palestinian terrorism.
His grasp of the facts vis-a-vis the Arab-Israeli conflict were recently called into question after he falsely claimed Israel killed "10,000 innocents" during its 2014 war with Gazan terrorist groups.
The platform as approved in 2012 refers to aspirations for a "just and lasting" agreement that would result in two states. Much of its 300 or so words are otherwise given over to protections for Israel's security and a demand that Palestinians "recognize Israel's right to exist, reject violence, and adhere to existing agreements."
Its only allusion to longstanding American calls on Israel not to build in Judea and Samaria is "to encourage all parties to be resolute in the pursuit of peace."
The party platform stirred controversy during the 2012 convention when a vote to insert language affirming Jerusalem as Israel's capital was met with boos.
Sanders is currently trailing front-runner Hillary Clinton in delegates, and the former secretary of state appears to have all but clinched the party nomination.
Separately, Sanders told CNN in an interview that he was backing Tim Canova, a primary challenger to Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., who in her separate capacity as Democratic National Committee chairwoman has feuded with Sanders' campaign.
Sanders has said the DNC has rigged the election through its administration of its rules and by a debate schedule that at first appeared aimed at burying news coverage with placement in low-viewing time slots.
The DNC added debates and Wasserman Schultz has said that the rules were in place for years.
Wasserman Schultz, one of the most prominent Jewish members of the party's congressional caucus told the New York Times that she remained neutral in the race between Sanders and Clinton.
4. BRINGING YISRAEL BEYTENU INTO GOV'T WON'T IMPACT TALKS WITH PA
by Ari Soffer
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu began the weekly government cabinet meeting by defending efforts to expand the coalition, stating that the inclusion of the Yisrael Beytenu party will not impact on the government's diplomatic efforts vis-a-vis the Palestinian Authority.
"From the beginning, when we established the government, I said that my intention was to expand the government," Netanyahu said. "61 [the government's current narrow majority of one - ed.] is better than 59, but a government which is as wide as possible is an important thing for the State of Israel."
Emphasizing that talks were still "underway", the PM added that a "wider coalition" would enable the government to better deal with the wider range of challenges facing the country.
He further emphasized that the secular-nationalist party's inclusion into the coalition would not alter the government's commitment to engage in direct talks with the Palestinian Authority, despite Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman's critical views on the matter.
"The expanded government will continue to return to a political process with the Palestinians, and it will do this with the help of regional actors," Netanyahu stated, in an apparent reference to recent remarks by Egyptian President Abdel Fatah al-Sisi. "I personally have considered this a lot, and I intend to continue to do so."
In attacking Netanyahu and abandoning his own party's coalition talks, opposition leader Yitzhak Herzog - who heads the leftist Zionist Union party - scolded the PM for, in his words, wasting a historic opportunity offered by Sisi, instead opting for a government of the "far-right."
It has since been revealed that Sisi - along with western leaders including former Quartet Middle East envoy Tony Blair - had helped engineered "unity government" talks between Netanyahu and Herzog, in a bid to install a more compliant Israeli government.
Netanyahu also hailed news that the controversial natural gas deal looked likely to finally pass.
"The government will approve the altered gas deal. The new deal incorporates within it the comments we received from the Supreme Court," he said.
"At this point, the most important thing is not to delay, to advance and promote the issue. I think that this is a historic step for Israel's economy and its citizens."
5. EGYPTAIR PLANE WAS THREATENED BEFORE CRASH
by Tova Dvorin
Political vandals threatened the doomed plane carrying flight EgyptAir MS804, EgyptAir workers revealed Saturday, writing in Arabic "we will bring this plane down" on the plane's underbelly.
Cairo airport workers targeted the plane for its registration number, SU-GCC, which bears similarity to the surname of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
Three airline employees anonymously confirmed the incident in separate interviews with the New York Times, saying that the airport workers also scrawled the words "traitor" and "murderer" in the 2014 incident. The EgyptAir employees stressed that the incident was political, not terrorism-related.
EgyptAir upped its security measures since the incident, they said, screening workers for their political views and adding unarmed security guards to flights. Three such guards died Thursday on MS804.
Tragedy
The Airbus A320 carrying 56 passengers and 10 crew and security officers disappeared early Thursday over the Mediterranean as it flew from Paris to Cairo. It was flying at 37,000ft when it disappeared from the radar at 2:29 a.m.
However, Egyptian authorities revealed the plane emitted emergency signals some two hours later. At around the same time, sailors in a ship in the Mediterranean claimed they saw a massive fireball streaking through the sky.
Egypt's civil aviation authority confirmed a mid-air explosion had occurred, and after initially saying they weren't ruling any causes out admitted that a terrorist attack was more likely the cause than a technical failure.
International air and naval teams discovered debris of the plane Friday, 180 miles (290 kilometers) north of Alexandria. Among the wreckage: personal belongings of passengers and crew.
Mystery deepens
Conflicting reports emerged Saturday that the black boxes had been found.
"Black boxes" are the crucial components of any aircraft which record the plane's movements and technical settings at any given time in the Flight Data Recorder, as well as audio from the cockpit in the Cockpit Voice Recorder.
The Egyptian military denied the findings overnight Saturday/Sunday.
Speculation about the cause of the crash continues. Investigators from the French air crash investigation team, which is tasked with solving the mystery of the crash, told the Associated Press over the weekend that the plane's automatic detection system sent messages indicating smoke a few minutes before it disappeared from radar.
Meanwhile, leaked audio files recording conversations between the pilots and Swiss air traffic controllers revealed no problems in the hours leading up to the crash, Fox News reports Sunday, with the polit conversing with Zurich before being handed off to controllers in Padua, Italy.
6. ISIS EXECUTES 'IRAQI SPIES' BY DISSOLVING THEM IN ACID
by Ari Soffer
As the ISIS terrorist group continues to lose territory - while calling for increased attacks against the West - it is also ramping up its brutal efforts to deter would-be spies, and keep the people it rules in Iraq and Syria entirely under its control.
Infamous for its particularly gruesome, and public, execution methods, the so-called "Islamic State" reportedly outdid itself in cruelty last week, killing 25 people accused of spying by dissolving them in acid.
The macabre spectacle reportedly unfolded in the group's Iraqi stronghold of Mosul, where Kurdish forces, backed by US air power, are putting the squeeze on the jihadists.
The Iraqi News site first reported on the public execution of the men, who ISIS alleged had acted as spies for Iraqi security forces, who are also advancing on Mosul from the south.
"ISIS terrorist members executed 25 persons in Mosul on charges of spying and collaborating with Iraqi security forces," a witness told the site. "ISIS put the citizens in a large tub containing nitric acid inside one of its headquarters."
The jihadists "tied each person with a rope and lowered him in the tub, which contains nitric acid, till the victims organs dissolve[d]," he added.
Nitric acid is a highly corrosive and poisonous liquid, most commonly used to manufacture ammonium nitrate for fertilizer and explosives, as well in the production of steel.
ISIS has lost around 45% of the territory it once held in Iraq, and some 20% of the territory it held at the height of its power in Syria.
Experts have speculated that a recent string of suicide bombings in Iraq, as well as recent terrorist atrocities in Europe and threats of further attacks on US soil, are the group's way of attempting to signal to its supporters that it is still relevant, despite have lost its momentum on the battlefield.
7. ONTARIO PARLIAMENT SHOOTS DOWN ANTI-BDS LAW
by Dalit Halevi
A bill that would have banned the Canadian province of Ontario's public institutions from doing business with companies which support an anti-Israel movement was shot down Thursday, reports The Toronto Sun.
The bill, co-sponsored by Progressive Conservative MPP Tim Hudak and Liberal MPP Mike Colle, would have prohibited the government from entering into contracts with businesses that support the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
It was defeated by a vote of 18-39, with largely Liberal and NDP MPPs voting against the measure, according to The Sun.
Hudak challenged the majority government to adopt the measure and accused Liberal MPPs of trying to "play footsie" with the BDS movement.
"Look: If somebody said they weren't going to buy from a business because the owners were gay, you guys would go crazy," he was quoted as having told the Liberals. "If somebody said they weren't going to buy from a business because they came from Pakistan or they're Sikh, people would go nuts. But somehow, because they're Jewish or from Israel, oh, it's free speech all of a sudden? Come on."
Colle also asked his colleagues to support the bill, saying the BDS movement "although they try to clothe themselves in an aura of fighting for a just cause, their core belief is a hate for Israel and a hate for everything Jewish."
Members of the movement "perpetrate this hate in many, many ways with a lot of resources all over the world, and I just think we have no other position to take but to say no to this insidious, disgusting thing that attacks the Jewish people just because of who they are," he added.
The vote on the motion came as Ontario Premier Kathleen Wynne was visiting Israel for a five-day trade mission together with 130 government officials, academics, scientists and business leaders.
Prior to departing on the trade mission, Wynne said that Israeli is a priority market for Ontario and that she intends to find new opportunities and build new partnerships with Ontario's Israeli counterparts.
Wynne said earlier this week that she does not support the BDS movement or any position that promotes anti-Semitism, but also stressed Ontario must protect free speech in the province.
"Freedom of speech is something that all Canadians value and we must vigorously defend," she said, according to The Sun. "But, it's unacceptable for students, or parents, or children to feel unsafe or discriminated against."
8. NEW LIGHT ON THE STORY OF RAOUL WALLENBERG?
by Rochel Sylvetsky
What happened to Raoul Wallenberg, the brave Swedish diplomat who saved tens of thousands of Jews? This question has stayed unanswered for seventy years, despite the concerted efforts of family, government agencies and researchers.
Why has it proven impossible, so far, to trace him? Is it possible that a close look at the search for the Swedish special envoy who disappeared in 1945 might reveal less than optimal use of opportunity, cover ups and a troubling lack of coordination? Can something still be done to clear up the mystery, although finding Wallenberg alive today is improbable as he would be 104 years old?
In order to pool research and information and decide how to go on – or not to, a large and distinguished group of caring people who have been part of the search for the brave man were to meet this weekend to pool their knowledge, brainstorm and hopefully find the light that they hope will mean they are reaching the end of the tunnel.
The Round Table on the Art of the Impossible: Raoul Wallenberg's Rescue Actions in Budapest and the Search for his Fate in Moscow is dedicated to the memory of Guy von Dardel who, together with his sister and his parents, fought for more than 60 years to learn the truth about his brother Raoul Wallenberg. Its venue is the Holocaust Memorial Center in Budapest, Hungary, the city from where he disappeared.
Coordinated by historian Ms. Susanne Berger of the "Raoul Wallenberg Initiative – 70", the Round Table seats Hungarian and foreign diplomats: Szabolcs Takács, Hungarian Minister of State for European Union Affairs Tamás Magyarics, Head of the North American Department of the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Colleen Bell, Ambassador of the United States of America, NiclasTrouvé, Ambassador of the Kingdom of Sweden, Juraj Chmiel, Ambassador of the Czech Republic, Gajus Scheltema, Ambassador of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Johannes Leibetseder, Chargé d'Affaires of the Embassy of Austria.
Also attending are Jewish and Israeli public figures András Heisler, President, Federation of Jewish Communities in Hungary and Vice-President of the World Jewish Congress, lan Mor Ambassador of the State of Israel and naturally, members of the family, Marie Dupuy, Louise von Dardel and Cecilia Ahlberg.
Wallenberg was known to have been detained by SMERSH and reportedly taken to Moscow. How does one go about seeking historical records in Russia? What does Russian Law have to say about that kind of search? Three experts, one a human rights lawyer and two of them historians were to present that issue, using the two core documents that deal with gaps in the official record and listing the questions still pending.
Did Wallenberg survive past July 1947? Marvin Makinen Professor, the University of Chicago, an Ari Kaplan Database Specialist brought numbered prisoner and witness testimonies for the Vladimir Prison, where Wallenberg was reported taken.
Are there legal aspects that could be enlightening? David Matas, Canadian Barrister and Human Rights Lawyer reported on that and other experts described conditions in Russian prisons.
Sweden and Hungary, the country for whom he worked and the country in which he worked, respectively, had parts to play in the efforts to discover Wallenberg's fate and therefore those governments are integral parts of the Round Table.
Ingrid Carlberg Author and Journalist, Sweden, divulged misjudgments and mistakes that sealed Raoul Wallenberg's fate, other Swedish academic and government experts compared the difference between promises of "openness" and their omission, placing the onus on previous governments.
László Karsai Professor, University of Szeged, Hungary, presented Hungarian archival material, while the director of the Hungarian Holocaust Memorial center, Professor Szabolcs Szita told the fate of Vilmos Langfelder - Insights gained from Hungarian and Russian archives, and historian Krisztián Ungváry recounted the attitudes of Soviet occupation forces in Hungary towards Jews, Hungarians and foreign diplomats.
The planned 1953 Wallenberg show trial is another topic of interest, along with Raoul Wallenberg's secret Swedish and Hungarian contacts in 1944-45 and an analysis of the "big lie" - Kossuth Radio's announcement of Raoul Wallenberg's alleged murder by the Gestapo in 1945.
Do we have the right to demand the truth? Irwin Cotler, PC, former Justice Minister of Canada, discussed that topic in his talk, titled Pursuing justice: Legal mechanisms for defending political prisoners.
Chinese dissident Harry Wu, who was imprisoned in Chinese labor camp for 19 years and headed the Laogai Research Foundation not only supported the Round Table ideologically, he also helped fund it ,but died tragically several weeks ago. His place at the panel on political prisoners was taken by Dr. Inna Rogatchi, Author and Film Maker, President of the Rogatchi Foundation and an op-ed writer for Arutz Sheva.
She was joined by Marvin Makinen Professor,The University of Chicago, imprisoned in Vladimir Prison in Russia 1961-1963, Israel's own Yosef Begun, former Soviet dissident imprisoned in the Soviet Union for over eight years, Vadim Birstein, former political prisoner in the Soviet Union, Sasha Bogino Zona Prava, Moscow, human rights activist working to aid prisoners and to improve prison conditions in Russia, Vera Gara, Survivor of the Holocaust in Hungary.
A synagogue prayer service on Friday night was held in Wallenberg's honor and on , the Hungarian premiere of Dr. Inna Rogatchi's film "The Lessons of Survival: Conversations with Simon Wiesenthal at the Holocaust Memorial Center" took place on Thursday.
The Lessons of Survival Arutz Sheva/Inna Rogatchi
Dr. Rogatchi's words, included in the Round Table brochure summarize how the world feels about this unfinished story:
"Just think about it: we have all gathered here In Budapest more than 70 years after Raoul's heroic deeds here and his arrest. We all know that Raoul had no limits when it came to saving lives and no fear for himself when rescuing thousands of Jews.
He was of my grandfather's generation but I always felt he is a contemporary of mine, not because his disappearance left him young forever in our eyes, but because I feel he is a dear friend - and a dear friend does not age.
"According to Jewish belief a soul descends to this world to fulfill a mission. Was it a coincidence that a young representative of a prominent family from a neutral country who studied architecture found himself in a diplomatic role in the midst of the harsh period of the devastating crime and cruelty aimed at total racial extermination? History does not know such coincidences.
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"He was a Champion of Humanity, a Shining Soul. These souls do not disappear. Ever. Judaism understands that not only good souls return to this world, but evil ones as well. But it is also a human being's responsibility to keep the balance between good and evil weighted on the good side. I will never cease to be amazed at how Raoul Wallenberg, in his thirties, fought for that with all his being: his heart, his intellect, his will. And his conscience.
"Conscience is a Jewish invention," pronounced Hitler, "it is a blemish like circumcision". Well, thank him for indicating the right direction. "The death of one man is a tragedy. The death of millions is a statistic," muttered Stalin being criminally frank to the American Ambassador to the USSR. Tellingly, the account of the famous dinner of Raoul Wallenberg and Eichmann in December 1944 includes similar sentiments expressed by Hitler's chief Jew-butcher to Raoul with regard to the Nazi policy of annihilation en masse.
"Seeing the evil to his face, Raoul was not afraid of it. How many of us would be able to withstand it with such integrity and grace?:
"What was Raoul thinking when a captive of the Kremlin? I think that he was thinking of his family, and also of all those thousands people that he saved. And that he smiled.
"I always was and still am sure that we will find the truth about the outrage that the Soviets inflicted onto Raoul and his family. I know I am not alone in this.
"One June afternoon in mid-1990s, legendary Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal told me: "The world has a big debt on its hands; we all do. This is the debt to Raoul Wallenberg and his family. We are fifty years after the war, and the case has not progressed. Fifty years on!.." Now it is seventy years, and we are still putting our questions to the Kremlin. The outrage inflicted onto Raoul Wallenberg and his family, cruelly and mindlessly, was the shame of the XX century. It just cannot continue to be also the shame of the XXI century. We shall not allow it to happen."
Prophetic? Let us hope so.
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