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Thursday, October 28, 2021

What a Nut Case ....Iran man gets jail, lashes for stealing cashews

 

An Iranian court sentenced a man to 10 months in prison and 40 lashes for stealing three packs of cashews, Fars news agency reported Monday.

The conservative news agency described the verdict as surprising and pointed to the “disproportion between the sentence and the crime committed.”

It called on the judiciary to “explain or correct” the ruling against the 45-year-old father of three.

The judiciary’s Mizan Online agency announced the formation of a “special commission” in Qom province to study the issue of the “proportionality of the offense.”

It did not specify where the trial took place.

The commission “will try to use all legal abilities to reduce the sentence,” Mizan Online said.

It added that the offender had “been sentenced to one year in prison for theft in 2019, but his sentence had been suspended due to the return of the stolen goods.”

The latest ruling drew ridicule on social media, with many drawing a comparison with the classic Victor Hugo novel “Les Miserables.”

“Nearly 160 years after the publication of Les Miserables… the Jean Valjeans continue to be condemned,” one user wrote, referring to the ex-convict depicted in the book.

Fars explained that the sentence was final because it was not appealed. It did not disclose the name or location of the convicted man.

Sex offender Berland begins fraud sentence as followers mass outside jail

 

Berland at his Bar Mitzva

Berland now still wearing his tefillin


Convicted sex offender Rabbi Eliezer Berland entered prison on Thursday to serve out a fresh sentence for fraud, after he swindled his sick and elderly followers out of millions of shekels.

Around a thousand of his supporters gathered outside the prison from Wednesday evening to protest his conviction.

Berland and his extremist Shuvu Bonim sect returned to the spotlight this month with a number of arrests in connection with the suspected murder of a teenage boy and the unsolved murder of a man in the 1980s and 1990

Berland started his jail term on Thursday after he was convicted of fraud in June, in a plea deal that saw him sentenced to 18 months. The sentence will include time already served as Berland spent a year in jail before being released to house arrest in February of this year.

Berland was arrested in February 2020, after hundreds of people filed police complaints saying that he had sold prayers and pills to desperate members of his community, promised families of individuals with disabilities that their loved ones would be able to walk, and told families of convicted felons that their relatives would be freed from prison.

In the arrest raid, dozens of boxes of powders and pills were found at Berland’s home that were given to supplicants as “wonder drugs.” Laboratory checks revealed them to be over-the-counter pain medication and candy, including Mentos.

At the time of his sentencing, the judge ruled that Berland’s offenses were “committed systematically and out of greed, taking advantage of the complainants at their most difficult time during periods of crisis.”

Berland’s supporters gathered outside the Nitzan Prison in Ramle on Wednesday evening, where they held a protest and all-night study and prayer session, surrounded by heavy police presence.

The supporters will additionally set up a protest tent near the jail, while Berland’s lawyers have said they will request that he be quickly released for good behavior and cooperation, the Walla news site reported.

Berland is starting his sentence as police make apparent progress in the investigation into the suspected murder of a teenage boy and the unsolved murder of a man connected to his sect, with the arrest of eight suspects, reportedly including the son of a former senior cabinet minister.

According to the Kan public broadcaster, law enforcement are probing whether Berland was personally involved in the disappearance and suspected murder of 17-year-old Nissim Shitrit and the murder of 41-year-old Avi Edri.

Shitrit was allegedly beaten by the sect’s “religious police” four months before he was last seen in January 1986. In a documentary released by Kan in 2020, one of Berland’s former disciples said that the religious police murdered the boy, dismembered him and buried his body in Eshtaol Forest near Beit Shemesh. His remains were never found and the case was never solved.

The second murder reportedly connected to the arrested suspects was of Edri, who was found beaten to death in Ramot Forest in the north of Jerusalem in 1990. Kan reported that Edri’s murder was tied to Shuvu Bonim by former disciples. It too has remained unsolved for over 30 years.

Nissim Shitrit (L) and Avi Edri in undated photos (Courtesy)

The cult-like Shuvu Bonim offshoot of the Bratslav Hasidic sect has had repeated run-ins with the law, including attacking witnesses.

Satmar Rebbe, R' Aaron Refuses a guy that wants to give him a hitch

 

The Priest Of Jaffa a Jews Dies, Buried In Izbica Mass Grave Where His Parents Were Murdered in the Holocaust


  A tragic holocaust story reached its bitter end this week after 80 years. The Bishop of Jaffa, who was born to a Jewish family from Zamosc and miraculously survived the holocaust by hiding with gentiles, died and was flown to be buried in the mass grave where his parents perished.

Wednesday, October 27, 2021

'I wish Hitler were still here murdering your children!' Shocking anti-Semitic rant is captured on doorbell camera in Flatbush

 


A man in Brooklyn was captured on camera going on an aggressive anti-Semitic rant as a woman walked down the street. 

Ring surveillance footage recorded the unidentified man in the Flatbush neighborhood of Brooklyn yelling hateful profanities at a woman: 'Jewish b***h, the f**k outta here, the f**k outta here, you f**king Jewish b***h.'

He continues: 'That's why I wish Hitler was still here, murder your children, you and your husband.' 

The camera is set above two doors semi-enclosed behind a staircase. The aggressive man is seen standing on the sidewalk in broad daylight. 

The family, who is off camera, seems to catch his eye as he turns around and begins berating them.  

Another person is seen sitting on the stairs not reacting as the man goes on his threatening rant. 

The disturbing video was tweeted by NY Scanner, an account that post crowd sourced videos of crime and other wild scenes from around New York City. 

Hate crimes in New York City have sky rocketed in the past year. In 2020, NYPD reported 209 hate crimes through September. This year the police department recorded 424 hate crimes in the same time period equating to an increase of 103%. 

The Jewish population in the city has seen hate crimes against their community spike 50%. Last year, NYPD recorded 98 hate crimes against Jewish people through September while they reported 147 hate crimes against Jews in 2021 for the same time period. 

Overall crime in New York City increased by 2.6% in September 2021, compared with September 2020. While, crime year-to-date decreased by 0.2% compared to 2020. 

Republican senators introduce bill to block reopening of Jerusalem consulate

 

A group of 35 Republican senators has introduced a bill to block the Biden administration from reopening the US consulate in Jerusalem.

The “Upholding the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Law Act of 2021” proposal, spearheaded by Senators Bill Cassidy, (Republican-Lousiana) and Bill Hagerty (Republican-Tennessee), aims to prevent the US administration from relaunching the de facto mission to the Palestinians in Israel’s capital.

With Republicans lacking a majority in both houses of Congress and with no Democrat likely to back legislation aimed at thwarting a key Biden administration policy initiative, the GOP bill has virtually no chance of passing.

The consulate was shuttered by former US president Trump in 2019 and its staff were folded into the US embassy, moved to the city a year earlier, in what the Palestinians view as a downgrading of their ties with the US.

US officials maintain that reopening the consulate is simply a return to the pre-Trump status quo and part of Biden’s pledge to renew relations with the Palestinians that were severed during the previous administration. Moreover, they point out that nearly a dozen other countries already operate consulates in Jerusalem that serve the Palestinians.

However, Israel is opposed to the Biden administration’s plan to reopen the consulate, viewing it as an encroachment of their sovereignty in the city and one that will lead to a flood of other countries moving to open diplomatic offices in Jerusalem to serve the Palestinians.

“President Biden continues to push forward his inflammatory plan to establish a second mission in Israel’s capital city of Jerusalem—one for the Israelis and a second one for the Palestinians—despite the fact that this plan violates the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 and is completely opposed by the Government of Israel,” said Hagerty in a Tuesday statement introducing the bill.

“The Jewish State of Israel is one of our greatest allies. The Biden administration must not threaten this relationship with a plan that is in clear conflict with US law, which states Jerusalem should not be divided,” Cassidy said in his own statement.


Osem launches vegan tuna in Israel


 Osem-Nestlé launched a new plant-based tuna fish, or vuna, last week. The vegan-friendly product will be manufactured and sold in Israel, and there are plans to sell it to the global market down the line.

Made from plant-based protein, including protein from soy beans and peas, vuna has a similar consistency and taste to the real deal.

In the initial stage, vuna will be marketed to restaurants, cafes, and other food establishments in Israel before being offered to private consumers.

The tuna market in Israel is estimated to be worth around 700 million shekels (around $219,000). Around 1 million servings of tuna are ordered at restaurants across the country every year. The most popular tuna dish in Israel is tuna salad.

According to Osem-Nestle, 44% of Americans, 65% of Europeans, 42% of Chinese, and 30% of Israelis say they try to eat less meat, chicken, and fish to either save their planet, improve their health, or over concerns for animal welfare

"Thank you, God, for helping me get out of hell'

 

Dozens of notes of Holocaust survivors living in the United States were placed this week at the Kotel Wall in Jerusalem through an initiative by the World Zionist Organization and Holocaust Heroes Worldwide.

A special ceremony was held at the sacred site that survivors watched from home via Zoom. The event was attended, among others, by Tova Dorfman, vice chairman and head of the WZO's Department for Israel and the Commemoration of the Holocaust Worldwide, and Moran Alfasi, founder and executive director of Holocaust Heroes Worldwide.

The notes were collected over the past year and a half from Holocaust survivors living in Florida. Most of the survivors have never visited Israel and many have not traveled to the Jewish state in almost two years due to the coronavirus pandemic.

According to the survivors, leaving a note in the walls of the Western Wall, was a "dream come true."

"I hope the memory of the Holocaust will prevail long after we are gone," one survivor wrote in his note. "May there be world peace and peace for the Jewish people, and may future generations keep their eyes open to what is happening to make sure that something like this never happens to any other person or people."

Another survivor wrote,"Thank you, God, for helping me get out from hell alive to see the birth of our country Israel."

After the ceremony, Dorfman said, "It is a privilege to help Holocaust survivors in the Diaspora place notes and wishes at the Western Wall and share this experience with them.

"Next year will mark 80 years since the Nazis' Final Solution to annihilate the Jewish people, and when the last living Holocaust survivors among us get a chance to pray, from near or afar, in Jerusalem, the capital of the Jewish state, it is a message of victory."

Gas Stations Across Iran disrupted ..... Blame Israel

 

Gas stations across Iran on Tuesday suffered through a widespread outage of a government system governing fuel subsidies, stopping sales in an incident that one semi-official news agency referred to as a cyberattack.

Gholam Reza Jalali, the commander of Iran's Civil Defense Organization, accused Israel of carrying out the attack.

"The Zionists are behind the severe disruptions" to the country's gas stations. On Monday, Jalali said Israel was incapable of significantly harming Iran.

An Iranian state television account online shared images of long lines of cars waiting to fill up in Tehran. An Associated Press journalist also saw lines of cars at a Tehran gas station, with the pumps off and the station closed.

State TV did not explain what the issue was but said Oil Ministry officials were holding an "emergency meeting" to solve the technical problem.

The semi-official ISNA news agency, which called the incident a cyberattack, said it saw those trying to buy fuel with a government-issued card through the machines instead receive a message reading "cyberattack 64411," which is reportedly the digits comprising the phone number for Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei. Most Iranians rely on those subsidies to fuel their vehicles, particularly amid the country's economic problems.

While ISNA didn't acknowledge the number's significance, that number is associated to a hotline run through the office of Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei that handles questions about Islamic law. ISNA later removed its reports.

No group immediately claimed responsibility for the outage. However, the use of the number "64411" mirrored an attack in July targeting Iran's railroad system that also saw the number displayed. Israeli cybersecurity firm Check Point later attributed the train attack to a group of hackers that called themselves Indra, after the Hindu god of war.

Indra previously targeted firms in Syria, where President Bashar Assad has held onto power through Iran's intervention in his country's grinding war.

Iran has faced a series of cyberattacks, including one that leaked video of abuses its notorious Evin prison in August.

The country disconnected much of its government infrastructure from the internet after the Stuxnet computer virus – widely believed to be a joint US-Israeli creation – disrupted thousands of Iranian centrifuges in the country's nuclear sites in the late 2000s.

Sticking their thumbs into Israel's Eyes ..EU official meets with groups designated by Israel as terrorist entities

 



Officials from the Office of the European Union Representative met Tuesday with members of the six Palestinian groups that Israel had designated as terrorist organizations.

The move was announced last week by Defense Minister Benny Gantz following an investigation that, according to Israeli officials, proves that the groups, which are ostensibly designed to promote human rights or operate as civil society organizations, are in fact linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine. The PFLP is a terrorist group designated, among others, by Israel, the United States, and the EU.

Posting through its special "EU and Palestinians" Twitter handle after the meeting, the EU representative's office said it took the matter seriously and asked Israel for an explanation as to why it decided to outlaw the groups.

US steps up pressure over settlements...Strongly Opposes Jews Building in Their Own Land

 


What a chutzpah!
In what was the Biden administration's harshest public criticism of Israeli settlement policy to date, the State Department on Tuesday said it strongly opposed Israel's plans for additional construction by Israel in Judea and Samaria, saying it was damaging for peace prospects between Israelis and Palestinians.

"We are deeply concerned about the Israeli government's plan to advance thousands of settlement units tomorrow, Wednesday, many of them deep in the West Bank," State Department spokesperson Ned Price told a briefing.

"We strongly oppose the expansion of settlements, which is completely inconsistent with efforts to lower tensions and to ensure calm, and it damages the prospects for a two-state solution," Price said.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Israel on Sunday published tenders for about 1,300 new settlement homes beyond the Green Line and authorities are also expected to discuss proposals for another 3,000 homes.

Washington was continuing to raise its views on the issue directly with senior Israeli officials, Price said. He also said that Israel's plans to retroactively "illegal outposts" was "unacceptable."

Since President Joe Biden took office in January, US officials have emphasized that they oppose further expansion of Jewish settlements.

A senior Biden administration official said earlier this month that Israel was aware of the administration's view of the need to refrain from actions that could be seen as "provocative" and undermine efforts to achieve a long-elusive two-state solution between Israel and the Palestinians.

Former Trump administration Mideast envoy, Jason D. Greenblatt issued on Wednesday a strong rebuke of the administration's reaction to the Israeli construction. Greenblatt, who was one of the main architects of President Donald Trump's peace plan and visited the region frequently during his years in the White House, took to Twitter, writing: "Mistake on Biden Administration's part. So-called "settlements"-really neighborhoods/towns/cities-aren't [the] reason there's no peace. US should: stop using this as an excuse for why there's no peace; stop comparing Israel & PA actions-they're not the same. Also-nothing about Hamas??"

Prime Minister Naftali Bennett had until Sunday mostly held off announcing new settlement construction since taking office in June, as he sought to ease tensions with Washington.

Florida ends investments in Ben & Jerry's Parent Company Unilever

 

Florida state entities will cease new investments in Unilever, Ben & Jerry’s parent company, as of Tuesday, because the ice cream maker plans to stop selling its product in Judea and Samaria.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican, in July triggered a 90-day review mandated by Florida law which mandates divestment from companies boycotting Israel. Ben & Jerry’s says it is ending its sales only in Judea and Samaria and is seeking the means to continue sales in Israel, but Florida law does not make the distinction between Israel and Judea and Samaria.

As of today, the 90-day review, during which companies may notify Florida of any plans to reverse course, ends. Unilever, which has disavowed the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement, has previously said it has no control over Ben & Jerry’s business decisions, due to an internal agreement between the conglomerate and the ice cream manufacturer’s independent board.

The ruling over new investments does not affect the $39 million Florida already has invested in Unilever, the Florida Politics website reported.

At least eight states have initiated reviews of investments in Unilever in the wake of Ben & Jerry’s boycott of Judea and Samaria.

Tuesday, October 26, 2021

The Gift of Tears

 Make sure you have tissues nearby when watching 

Facebook Suppressed Breitbart News Traffic by Twenty Percent

 

The Wall Street Journal has published internal material from anonymous sources at Facebook revealing that the company introduced tools that suppressed the traffic of Breitbart News by 20 percent, and other conservative publishers by double-digit margins. 

The company introduced two tools after the 2016 election that disproportionately harmed conservative publishers. 

The Journal highlights internal Facebook research showing that if both tools were removed, it would increase traffic to Breitbart News by 20 percent, the Washington Times by 18 percent, Western Journal by 16 percent, and the Epoch Times by 11 percent. Facebook eventually removed one of the tools while keeping the other — but it is unclear which of them had the most impact on traffic. 

According to the Wall Street Journal, one of Facebook’s researchers feared, “We could face significant backlash for having ‘experimented’ with distribution at the expense of conservative publishers.”

 The story also revealed that Breitbart News is relegated to a “second tier” of the platform’s News Tab, where it gets less exposure than its corporate establishment competitors. 

On top of this, Facebook is directly paying Breitbart News’s competitors, establishment media conglomerates including the Washington Post, the Wall Street Journal and the New York Times — while offering no such compensation to Breitbart News.

 Despite Facebook’s favoritism and financial support of its establishment competitors, Breitbart News continues to be wildly popular with Facebook’s users. In August, data from Facebook-owned social media analytics company Crowdtangle showed Breitbart News demolishes its competitors in generating engagement from Facebook’s users. The data showed Breitbart earned more Facebook engagement than The New York Times, the Washington Post, and HuffPo combined. Breitbart surpassed the Wall Street Journal and CNN by healthy margins as well.

Read more at Breitbart

Light Rail in Tel Aviv Completes First Full Test-Run

 

Message to Biden: Afghanistan Was Enough – Don’t Touch Jerusalem

 

Question: Why is Agudah quiet? Where is their outrage?

A broad coalition of Israeli organizations has expressed outrage in wake of the US’ intention to reopen its consulate in Jerusalem for Palestinian Authority Arabs and is planning a series of events to protest the planned American consulate on Agron Street, situated in western Jerusalem.

Yehudit Katsover and Nadia Matar of the Sovereignty Movement warned that “establishing an American Consulate for the Palestinian Authority in Jerusalem is the de facto partition of the city and its transformation into the capital of Palestine.”

They further noted that the position of all Israeli governments was and remains that a united Jerusalem is the indivisible capital of Israel.

“Jerusalem is not Afghanistan and we will not allow the sights from Kabul to be replicated in Jerusalem and Judea and Samaria,” they said.

Sarah Haetzni, chairperson of the My Israel organization, said the government has the ability to prevent the American move.

“The Israeli government has the legal and moral authority to prevent the establishment of the Palestinian consulate in the heart of Jerusalem. The establishment of the consulate will constitute recognition of the partition of the city, and must be prevented regardless of the cost.”

Matan Peleg, CEO of the Zionist Im Tirtzu movement, said that “since the establishment of the State of Israel, there has never been a situation in which a foreign country imposed upon Israel the opening of a special consulate in its capital for the Palestinians. This is an extremely grave blow to Israel’s independence and a fundamental undermining of its position. It is inconceivable that the one undercutting Israel in this way is its closest ally.”

“On the other hand, it is worthwhile for the current American administration to remember that the US also needs allies. Israeli society is a friend of the American people. This is not something that one does to friends. We call upon the American administration – if it is so urgent for you to open a special consulate for the Palestinians – open it in Ramallah, not in Jerusalem,” he said.

Meir Deutsch, CEO of Regavim, added that according to the Geneva Convention, the host state is the one that must authorize the opening of a consulate for a foreign country.

“We demand that our elected officials act like a sovereign government and protect the national interests of the citizens of the country and not allow this consulate to open. United Jerusalem is the indivisible capital of Israel,” he declared.

Nili Nahori, of Israël is Forever, warned that “we will not allow the Americans to determine the fate of our capital. Our exclusive sovereignty over Jerusalem will determine our sovereignty over the entire country.”

Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) President Morton Klein stated that the ZOA “stands with Israel against the attempt to legitimize a terror-supporting regime by giving it a consulate in Jerusalem, Israel’s eternal capital.”

“Not only will this be a step towards the division of Israel, it will also be a prize to a regime that pays to slay, names streets after terrorists and negates the Holocaust. We call on the Biden Administration to stop pressuring Israel into allowing such an abomination which would only reward Palestinian Arab terrorism and their refusal to accept the existence of a Jewish State,” he said.

“The United city of Jerusalem is the capital of the state of Israel and only the State of israel. And as such, she alone should decide who opens what official offices in her capital,” said Rabbi Pesach Lerner, Chairman of the Coordinating Council for Jewish Homeland.

The coalition plans to hold a protest in front of the former US consulate on Agron Street on Wednesday at 5PM.

Aryeh Savir is director of the International division of Tazpit News Agency.



‘Swear to god, true story,’ Biden says as he tells ‘false’ Amtrak story for 5th time

 


President Biden on Monday repeated — for the fifth time this year — a made up story to illustrate his closeness to Amtrak and a former conductor named Angelo Negri.

Biden told the tale — declared “false” by CNN — during a speech at the NJ Transit maintenance facility in Kearny, NJ, as he touted the $1.2 trillion Senate-passed bipartisan infrastructure bill that would boost funding for Amtrak.

“I apologize because some of you have heard this,” Biden said as he told the reliable laugh line.

“When I was vice president I used to like to take the train home because my mom was very sick and dying. And I’d come home every weekend,” said Biden, whose mother died in 2010.

“I’m getting on one Friday and then one of the senior guys on Amtrak, Angelo Negri … walks up to me and he goes, ‘Joey baby!’ He grabs my cheek. And I thought the Secret Service was gonna blow his head off. I swear to God, true story.”

Biden continued: “I said, ‘What’s up, Ang?’ He said, ‘Joey. I read in a paper. I read in the paper, you traveled 1,000 — 1,200,000 miles on Air Force planes.’ Because they keep meticulous tabs of it.”

Biden said that Negri had done the math and said, “You know how many miles you travel on Amtrak, Joey? … 2,200,000 miles… So Joey, I don’t want to hear this about the Air Force anymore.”

Negri retired from Amtrak in 1993, meaning he didn’t work there when Biden was vice president from 2009 to 2017. He died in May 2014.

Biden usually says the story happened in his final year as vice president, but he didn’t include that detail Monday. His mention of his mother’s death suggests it may have happened earlier.

But there’s an additional factual issue: CNN reported in June that “Biden’s account simply does not add up. Biden did not reach the million-miles-flown mark as vice president until September 2015, according to his own past comments.”

It’s unclear if Biden confused mileage details, dates or the name of the Amtrak employee. The frequent retelling of the story comes as Biden’s critics accuse him of being in mental decline ahead of his 79th birthday next month.

The White House did not respond to The Post’s request for clarification.

Yeshiva Boys Dress Like Armed Arab Murderers to "bring joy to the Chassan Ve'Kalleh"

 


I am positive that there wasn't a person that attended that wedding that lost a loved one to an Arab savage.

What would the world have said if they dressed up in Nazi uniforms? Better yet, if goyim dressed up like that at a wedding? 

On videos that circulated throughout social media this past week, Yeshiva students can be seen dancing at a wedding to the sounds of Arab music, while in the middle of the circle numerous  yeshiva students danced while dressed like Arabs armed brandishing rifles.

After numerous attempts to figure out exactly what was taking place, the BeChadrei Charedim news site set forth to uncover the truth behind the incident that spread widely on the internet.

According to their report, the wedding took place in the Sequoia wedding hall in the town of Ma’aleh HaHamisha, and the armed Arabs that were seen in the video were actually Chareidi yeshiva students from the yeshiva in Meitzad, who put on Arab dress and brandished toy rifles that were intended to look like real ones.

The participant who spoke to BeChadrei Charedim added that the dance was planned in advance, and the students had been practicing for it for a number of days, all in honor to bring joy to the Chosson and Kallah.



Ambassador Michael Oren Slams Biden Admin. For “Anti-Semitic” Policies

 

Former Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren slammed the Biden administration for its plan to unilaterally reopen a consulate in east Jerusalem despite Israel’s opposition to the move, calling it an “anti-Semitic policy.”

“It’s a decisive reversal of the US recognition of Jerusalem as our capital,” Oren, who served as ambassador under former President Barack Obama, said in an interview on Radio 103FM on Monday morning. He referred to the situation before President Trump closed the US consulate in east Jerusalem as absurd.

“It was a totally absurd situation. Not only are these American policies impractical, they’re anti-Semitic,” Oren said. “It’s the only place in the world where Jews are banned from living in certain neighborhoods. Would anyone dare pass such a law in New York?”

Oren also spoke to Yisrael Hayom about the consulate issue and recalled a “humiliating incident” during his term as ambassador, when the US still maintained a US consulate in east Jerusalem. He said he was summoned to the State Department and castigated for the demolition of an outdoor toilet in east Jerusalem. “The demolition was authorized by the Israeli courts,” Oren stressed. “The incident, like other humiliating incidents was germinated at the American consulate in Jerusalem.”

Oren said he spoke about the issue at the time with Jewish organizations. “I showed them the consulate’s website. Everything on it was a Palestinian narrative, in Arabic and English only. You wouldn’t know that there was a single Jew in Jerusalem from that website. I told them – this is antisemitic, do something about it. They weren’t willing to stand up against the State Department. The consulate made sure to avoid even an appearance of American recognition of Jerusalem as Israel’s capital and they embittered the lives of successive governments here every time they built a new neighborhood for Jews in Jerusalem, and every time they tried to enforce planning and building laws in east Jerusalem.”

“We have to stand up for our interests,” Oren asserted. “I can see a crawl toward that old antisemitic policy when the ambassador in Washington is summoned for every demolition of illegal construction in east Jerusalem and every brick that is laid in Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem beyond the Green Line. It is a matter of sovereignty and national honor. This is our capital. We must set boundaries, even when we’re talking about our greatest friend. This is the moment when I expect our government to do so clearly, firmly and respectfully.”