Israel News Today

Firefighters still battling to contain blaze following Saturday's Israeli airstrike, but port officials claim operations resumed within 24 hours, dismissing any concerns over supply chain disruptions from ynet - News https://ift.tt/Wg5ZFvp

Laura E. Adkins, former opinion editor of the Forward , traveled to Poland and Germany with second gentleman Doug Emhoff in early 2023. With Vice President Kamala Harris all but anointed as the new Democratic nominee for president, Doug Emhoff, the first-ever second gentleman, could again make history, as the first first gentleman and the first Jewish spouse of an American president . Which has renewed a question I’ve been asked often since spending a week covering the man’s visit to Poland and Germany last year: What is Doug Emhoff like? As a journalist, I am naturally skeptical of politicians. I was ready to dislike Emhoff before we departed on the trip marking the 2023 International Holocaust Remembrance Day — or at least prepared for a string of hollow statements of solidarity with Jews. But after traversing difficult places and conversations with Emhoff — both during that trip and at a handful of official events since, including the first-ever vice presidential Rosh Hashanah ...

PA petitions High Court to annul law allowing terror victims to seek compensation from funders of terrorism; families claim PA's 'pay-for-slay' scheme emboldened attackers of their loved ones from ynet - News https://ift.tt/Sy6kUvM

Israeli tourists in Greece say they would have been killed if they had intervened when Fahad Qubati was attacked; I saw a motorcycle driver with a gun, chase after Israelis' from ynet - News https://ift.tt/OsgmlCM

President Joe Biden announced Sunday afternoon he is withdrawing from the presidential race after weeks of political jockeying in the wake of a disastrous debate performance and diminishing polling numbers.  “While it has been my intention to seek reelection, I believe it is the best interest of my party and the country for me to stand down, and to focus solely on fulfilling my duties as president for the remainder of my term,” Biden said in a statement. Moments later, the president endorsed Vice President Kamala Harris as his replacement.  With the backing of the sitting president, her nomination could be clinched by the 3,979 pledged delegates at the Democratic National Committee, scheduled for July 19 through July 22.  Biden said he will address the nation later in the week.  Democrats believe Harris stands a good chance of beating former President Donald Trump. Her advantage over other potential candidates partly stems from her position as a sitting vi...

IDF in overnight attack strikes Hezbollah warehouse in Adlon, about 30 km from the border after terror group fires dozens of rockets and UAVs on Golan and Galilee from ynet - News https://ift.tt/nVTBHF4

US State Department spokesperson goes against UN top court's decision and says it could delay lasting peace between Israelis and Palestinians  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/8bvS3EJ

Three assailants target Fahad Qubati after he gave Jewish tourists a ride and only fled after he proved he was an Arab-Christian; 'could have ended in murder,' mother says from ynet - News https://ift.tt/tQ1iXNY

Paris security forces on high alert ahead of Olympics amid looming terror threats, request assistance from several countries to help secure the games with police and military forces from ynet - News https://ift.tt/1Y8Hqni

The first few days of the Republican National Convention, a tone of social liberalism ruled the speeches. Jews and Sikhs prayed on stage, part of a long tradition of diverse prayer at political events. Amber Rose, an OnlyFans creator and founder of the Los Angeles chapter of the feminist march SlutWalk, proclaimed that Donald Trump supported LGBTQ rights. And to add to the chaos, Hulk Hogan ripped his shirt off while yelling about “Trumpomania.” It was a muddled message from a party whose leader has hobnobbed with white nationalists, and some of whose members have openly declared support for Christian nationalism in the past few years. Sure, speeches still focused on some of the usual Republican bugaboos, like immigration and the border, but other issues that have been core to the party’s platform — particularly opposition to abortion and to LGBTQ rights — got little airtime, at least not overtly.  That changed on the final night of the convention. Evangelical pastor Franklin...

Results correspond with findings by WHO; IDF to ensure all troops serving in Gaza are vaccinated or given booster shots; Health ministry says efforts made to prevent virus spread to Israel  from ynet - News https://ift.tt/S1ZilWF

Meta, the parent company of Facebook and the world’s largest social media company, took an unprecedented and much-needed step to protect Jews and Israelis from antisemitic harassment last week. It instituted new protocols to prevent users from skirting their rules against hate speech by substituting the word “Zionist” for “Jew” or “Israeli.” Fighting antisemitism is a bit like playing whack-a-mole. Antisemitism is an ever-evolving hatred, and conspiracy theories and tropes continue to present in different ways. For millennia, Jews have been scapegoats and cast as a source of evil. In medieval times, they were blamed for spreading disease and kidnapping and murdering Christian children; in post-WWI Europe, they were race polluters, and today, we — or “Zionists” — are attacked over the existence of Israel, which itself has become a symbol and alleged perpetrator of these antisemitic conspiracies. To effectively counter antisemitism — especially online — we must recognize that today’s...

Before the present noxious morass of publicly expressed antisemitism, wry semi-humorous statements were fashionable, such as “Jews are just like everyone else, only more so,” variously attributed to the philosopher Isaiah Berlin or a British rabbi, Lionel Blue . The implication was that Jewish people tend to provocatively cause a tzimmes and raise hackles. According to this thesis, a penchant for words and deeds likely to offend may have sparked the wrath of adversaries. This belief is newly analyzed in How the West Became Antisemitic , an erudite overview by religious studies scholar Ivan Marcus. Marcus concludes that there is “little hope that diaspora Jews will cease to be victims of some forms of antisemitism” as long as other groups reject an egalitarian, live and let live attitude. Even so, knowing the history of the often-vituperative slanging match that was inter-religious communication may be the first step for dialing down the internecine hatred. Author of The Jewish Li...

North Korean official Kim Geum Chol, visiting Russia as part of military training delegation, drowned while swimming in pond near Moscow, raising questions amid increasing military cooperation between North Korea and Russia from ynet - News https://ift.tt/1jJXlaK

Earlier this year, there was a flurry of action around a piece of federal legislation that proponents say would help address campus antisemitism. The Antisemitism Awareness Act sailed through the House in May with bipartisan support, despite concerns from some top Democratic lawmakers, among others, that it could stifle free speech. The bill would codify a requirement for the Education Department to use a controversial definition that classifies anti-Zionism as a form of antisemitism when investigating allegations of discrimination. Its supporters in the Senate, including Pennsylvania’s Bob Casey, tried to rush it through the upper chamber. But they ran into opposition from some of their colleagues and the momentum seemed to have petered out. But Casey resurrected the legislation last week as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which determines military spending and is one of the few pieces of legislation that reliably sails through a gridlocked Congress. “Sen....

Israel joins the group of countries that allows women to guard prime ministers and presidents, including the US; These are the requirements to join the unit from ynet - News https://ift.tt/uDP0Wyj

When Martha Kearns wrote the first English-language biography of the German artist Kaethe Kollwitz, she felt like she was alone. “So many people I talked to didn’t know who she was, this woman who was one of the greatest artists who ever lived,” Kearns told me. That was 50 years ago. On July 8, at a small party at a Midtown Manhattan restaurant bar to mark Kollwitz’s 157 th birthday, she declared: “I’m not alone anymore.” She sure isn’t — because five decades after Kearns wrote Kaethe Kollwitz: Woman and Artist , which appeared in 1976, Kollwitz’s legacy has achieved what many observers would call the ultimate American art-world recognition: a major show at the Museum of Modern Art, which opened last March and includes many of the most powerful prints and drawings Kollwitz created, also a few sculptures.  Works in the show, drawn from 30 different lenders internationally, offers a full view of Kollwitz’s socially conscious sensibility, and her command of printmaking that leave...

‘If you let this person walk the streets as a free man, you must understand that he will continue to destroy lives,’ says alleged victim of Simon Leviev; conman claims trial conducted merely to provide Netflix with material for Tinder Swindler sequel from ynet - News https://ift.tt/NnMYUHZ

( JTA ) — This Passover, Rabbi Michael Cahana urged his congregation to use the portion of the seder commemorating the bread of affliction to “call out the hunger of Palestinian civilians in Gaza.” Such a message “reflects the values of this congregation, of this community,” Cahana, who serves Congregation Beth Israel in Portland, Oregon, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “The fact that civilians are suffering in wartime is real and terrible, and I think it’s important that we, as a Jewish community, recognize that suffering.” Two weeks later, the Oregon Food Bank — which, for years, has received financial and other forms of support from the congregation — drafted its own statement about hunger in Gaza. This one called for a ceasefire in the Israel-Hamas war; accused Israel of perpetuating a “war against Palestine,” and said the Israeli military was “indiscriminately” targeting bakeries, aid workers and hospitals, along with otherwise hindering relief efforts in the region. While ...

As the IDF battles the remaining terrorists in Gaza, another war is being fought on the humanitarian front, as Hamas fights to control access to supplies, and few organizations can distribute it to civilians from ynet - News https://ift.tt/WPHZdXv