Free Republic

Z Street representative Lori Lowenthal Marcus spoke out in March 2013 about the harassment the pro-Israel group received from the Obama IRS: “They told us terrorism happens in Israel. Therefore, they had to look into our organization because they thought we might be funding terrorism. We’re a purely educational entity. We didn’t fund anybody. We barely funded ourselves.” Remember: This is the same administration that wouldn’t call the Benghazi massacre a terrorist attack but accused a pro-Israel group of supporting terror.

The police investigation is underway into yesterday’s deadly attack on Brussels’ Jewish Museum, but the Jewish community is still very much on edge. Precious little information is available yet as to who precisely was responsible for the shooting which left three people—an Israeli couple from Tel Aviv and a French woman—dead, and another person seriously wounded. […] [Special Adviser on European Policy to the European Jewish Congress (EJC) Philip] Carmel accused European governments—including Brussels—of not doing enough to stamp out anti-Semitism in general and prevent such attacks from occurring in the first place. More could be done in terms of...

The Hezbollah terror group continues to see Israel as its central enemy and not the rebels in Syria, the group’s deputy leader said on Thursday. “Israel is the main enemy,” Sheikh Naim Qassem said, according to the Lebanese Daily Star. “But the tactical priority depends on the direct threat, so our confrontation with takfiri (extremist) groups derives from the direct danger they represent, and it does not affect our readiness to confront Israel,” he declared. […] “Israel is the enemy of humanity and truth,” said Qassem. “It cannot coexist with anyone.” …

Egypt’s former foreign minister, Amr Moussa, denied on Monday that he had said that Hamas must recognize Israel, Al Ahram reported. AFP several weeks ago quoted Moussa as having said that Hamas must recognize the existence of Israel in order to make it possible to move forward with a Palestinian state. …

More than one in four Germans hold anti-Semitic views, according to a report released on Tuesday by the non-profit Anti-Defamation League (ADL). The figure is far higher than most other northern European countries. Based on a worldwide survey of 53,100 adults across 101 countries, a global average of 26 percent of people can be classed as anti-Semitic, the Anti-Defamation League said. ADL researchers classed respondents as anti-Semitic if they answered “probably true” to six out of 11 statements classed as “anti-Semitic stereotypes” in their questionnaire. The most common anti-Semitic belief was “Jews are more loyal to Israel than to [this...

Israel has launched a campaign calling for the United Nations to recognize Judaism’s holiest day, Yom Kippur, as an official holiday. Israel’s U.N. Ambassador Ron Prosor sent a letter to all U.N. member states, saying there are three major monotheistic religions, but only two—Christianity and Islam—are recognized by the U.N. calendar. “Such discrimination at the U.N. must end,” Prosor said in an excerpt of the letter sent to journalists Friday by Israel’s U.N. Mission. …

A nursery school in Latvia posted a sign last week stating it was “Judenfrei” (free of Jews). Russian and Latvian media reported that the Pucite School, owned by parliamentarian Imants Paradnieks who has in the past made anti-Semitic statements, posted the sign on the gate at the front entrance of the school on May 6. …

Hamas will never recognize Israel and will not accept the conditions laid out by the Middle East peacemaking Quartet, according to the Islamist movement’s deputy leader. Speaking late on Saturday, Mussa Abu Marzuq said Hamas, which recently signed a reconciliation deal with the Western-backed Palestinian leadership in Judea and Samaria, would never agree to recognize Israel. “We will not recognize the Zionist entity,” he said at a press conference in Gaza City. […] “Hamas rejects the Quartet’s conditions because it denies some of our people’s rights,” he told reporters. “We will always refuse any conditions that deny our Palestinian rights.”...

Two founders of the Pink Floyd rock band have called on the Rolling Stones to cancel a concert in Israel in an op-ed for news website Salon.com. In the article, titled “Why the Rolling Stones shouldn’t play in Israel”, Roger Waters and Nick Mason wrote: “Playing Israel now is the moral equivalent of playing Sun City at the height of South African apartheid.” The aging rockers added that the Rolling Stones’ Israel concert comes at “a critical time in the global struggle for Palestinian freedom and equal rights.” The Stones are due to perform on June 4 at Tel Aviv’s...

The Palestinian Authority (PA) on Friday became a formal party to five global treaties banning torture and racial discrimination, and protecting the rights of women, children and the disabled, the UN said, according to AFP. Rupert Colville, spokesman for the UN human rights office, told reporters that the move followed the PA’s April 2 declaration to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon that they were adopting the treaties. In addition, the PA will on May 7 become party to an accord protecting children in conflict zones—which is an optional part of the overall child rights treaty—and on July 2 it will...

Israel Police spokesman denies claim, says, "The police are working around the clock on this issue."

A shocking video taped publicly by left-wing activists on the campus of Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum has provoked a storm of anger in Israel. The video was taken in front of a monument commemorating Holocaust victims, and features an actress dressed as a prostitute calling herself “the Holocaust,” who says the Jewish nation should thank her for teaching it “how to round up Palestinians in concentration camps.” Throughout her expletive-filled tirade the actress, who was flanked by a man who appeared to be a bodyguard, made obscene gestures and screamed at shocked members of the public who had come...

President of the European Jewish Congress Dr. Moshe Kantor spoke Sunday about the fact that Jews feel less welcome and more insecure in large parts of Europe during the release of the findings regarding the situation of anti-Semitism worldwide in 2013. […] During 2013, there were 554 registered violent anti-Semitic acts, perpetrated with weapons or without, by arson, vandalism and direct threats, against persons, synagogues, community centers and schools, cemeteries, monuments and private property. The highest number of recorded incidents comes from France: 116, a rise in violent cases has also been noted in the UK, with 95 cases compared...

A lawmaker from Hamas recently called for a “massacre” of Jews, explaining that Koran indicates that this must be done. In a televised address the lawmaker, Yunis Al-Astal, also said that Jews must be forced to pay the “jizya” tax, which under the strict Islamic Sharia doctrine, non-Muslims living under Muslim sovereignty must pay in return for the ruler’s protection. Jihadist rebels who have taken control of areas in Syria have imposed such a tax on Christian minorities. …

Arab foreign ministers on Sunday rejected Israel’s demands that the Palestinians recognize it as a Jewish state, saying such a move would undermine the rights of Palestinian refugees. In a resolution released at the headquarters of the Arab League in Cairo, the foreign ministers called the issue of Palestinian refugees an integral part of a comprehensive and just peace. It blamed Israel for the floundering of peace negotiations. The Arab statement offers strong backing to Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas, who said publicly last week he will never recognize Israel as a Jewish state despite facing strong international pressure. Abbas did...

The United States believes there is no need for the Palestinian Authority (PA) to recognize Israel as a Jewish state as part of a peace agreement, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Saturday. Psaki, who spoke to the PA-based Arabic-language Al-Quds newspaper, said, “The American position is clear, Israel is a Jewish state. However, we do not see a need that both sides recognize this position as part of the final agreement.” Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu has been adamant on the PA recognizing Israel as a Jewish state, explaining that the Arabs’ refusal to recognize Israel stands at the heart...

Wendy Sherman, undersecretary of state for political affairs and the head of the American negotiation team to the nuclear talks between Iran and six world powers (P5+1), said Saturday that the goal is to reach a permanent agreement with Iran by July 20. Sherman was speaking to reporters in Jerusalem, where she arrived in order to brief the Israelis on the latest round of talks between Iran and the P5+1 in Vienna. In what appeared to be a warning to Israel, she said the United States hopes no one will interfere with the talks. "We don't enter these talks with...

A Russian Member of Parliament (MP) burst out in an anti-Semitic tirade last Thursday, attacking other Russian lawmakers as “Jews” responsible for the 1917 Communist revolution and the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Oleg Bolychev, an MP from the ruling United Russia party, called his opponents “Jews, mired in opposition,” during a debate at the regional parliament in Kaliningrad, reports AFP. “At the start of the 1990s, foreign spies were infiltrated into our government who oversaw the destruction of our state,” claimed Bolychev. “You destroyed our country in 1917 and you destroyed our country in 1991.” …

A speech in Knesset Wednesday given by the head of the European Union Parliament caused outrage, and ultimately sparked a walk-out. Several MKs expressed upset as EU parliament president Martin Schulz, who spoke in German, repeated as fact Palestinian Authority claims of Israeli discrimination regarding allocation of water in Judea and Samaria, and of a “blockade” on Gaza. Schulz condemned Israeli “settlements” east of the 1949 armistice line as “an obstacle to peace,” and claimed, “The blockade of Gaza creates despair and extremism.” …

Thousands of hareidim protested Thursday at the entrance to Jerusalem and in Bnei Brak over the sudden freezing of funding for all yeshivas, which was ordered retroactively by Finance Minister Yair Lapid on Wednesday. […] Hareidi MKs have responded with fury to the ruling and freeze; MK Moshe Gafni (United Torah Judaism) accused the High Court Wednesday of “declaring war” on the hareidim, while MK Nissim Ze’ev (Shas) decried the “ongoing campaign of persecution. The government is attacking everything connected to religion or to the Torah world.” …