The incoming Trump administration will be “infested” with pro-Israel figures, Palestinian-American academic Rashid Khalidi said this week.
Author: Jack Tonhaben
On Israel Visit, Monica Lewinsky Tackles Online Hate Speech
JERUSALEM – Monica Lewinsky on Wednesday tackled the issue of cyber hatred during a panel she moderated at the Israel Museum in Jerusalem. Lewinsky is an anti-bullying champion, having been the victim of personal attacks in the wake of the affair she had with then-U.S. president Bill Clinton in the mid-1990s. The panel was held as part of the Forbes 30 Under 30 Summit. “I came to be interested in the topic of bullying because of experiences that I had in the late 1990s,” Lewinsky told the audience, according to the Jerusalem Post. “And if you do not know what I am talking about, please do not Google it,” she joked. Lewinsky said that, with the advent of social media, the nature of human dialogue has changed. “I wanted to moderate this panel because of the bullying work I have been doing and seeing all of the harassing and shaming and trolling that is done on line,” she said. The affair that catapulted Lewinsky to national and global headlines took place before websites like Facebook and Twitter made public shaming as dominant as they are today. “We are now in a place, because of social media, that dialogue, online dialogue, was
Abbas Defines All of Israel as ‘Occupied’ in TV Interview
JERUSALEM – Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas defined all of Israel as an “occupation ” in an Arabic-language interview, contradicting comments he has made in the past to the Israeli media. Abbas, ostensibly Israel’s best option as a partner in peace talks, said on official PA television that the Palestinians “have been under occupation for 67 or 68 years,” thus dating the beginning of the occupation, as he calls it, to the establishment of Israel in 1948 and not the end of the 1967 Six Day War, when Israel took the West Bank from Jordanian hands. “Others would have sunk into despair and frustration,” Abbas said during the interview. “However, we [Palestinians] are determined to reach our goal because our people stand behind us,” he said. The comments, a translated version of which was published by the NGO Palestinian Media Watch on Wednesday, were made during an interview aired last month. But just a week ago, Abbas told a delegation of Jews who visited his office in Ramallah that the Palestinians want to establish a state that would “live in peace and stability alongside Israel.” “We are experiencing difficult days, and despite all that is happening, we still hold our hand out to you, in
Israeli Defense Minister Says ‘Hundreds of Jihadists’ Ready to Attack European Targets
JERUSALEM – Europe is flooded with hundreds of jihadists ready to strike, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon (pictured) said on Wednesday. Speaking at a press conference with his Polish counterpart Antoni Macierewicz, who is visiting Israel, Ya’alon warned, “What we saw in Paris and Brussels is only the beginning, and efforts to carry out terror attacks in Europe will continue.” Ya’alon and Macierewicz discussed the security situation in the Middle East and how it affects Europe, as well as ways to increase defense cooperation between Israel and Poland. Cooperation between Israel and Poland, Ya’alon told Macierewicz, will benefit both countries. Ya’alon said that Israel “regrettably” has a lot of experience dealing with terrorism, but added that the Jewish state was willing to share the knowledge and technology it has developed to face this threat over the years. Speaking of the civil war in Syria, Ya’alon told Macierewicz that Israel “did not expect there to be stability and an end to the bloodshed” anytime soon. “In the war there, there are many conflicting interests and too many players in the arena. Some of these players, the global jihad organizations for example, are determined to continue fighting,” Ya’alon said. On Thursday, Israel and security agencies
Senior Fatah Official: U.S. Is No. 1 Enemy of Palestinians
JERUSALEM – A senior official from Fatah, the party of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, called the United States “the number one enemy of the Palestinian people” in a recent television interview. Jamal Muhaisen, a member of the Fatah Ce…