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‘Worst persecution in country’s history’: Bribery charges against Netanyahu crumble

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

The bribery case against the Israeli prime minister has very little chance of succeeding, judges tell prosecution.

By World Israel News Staff

Judges presiding over the trial of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu regarding Case 4000, aka the Bezeq-Walla affair, told state prosecutors on Thursday that the have very little chance of winning, Hebrew-language media reported.

According to the charges, the prime minister had received favorable news coverage on a website owned by telecommunications provider Bezeq in exchange for regulatory favors to the telecom giant.

Netanyahu was officially indicted in November 2019 in three cases involving breach of trust, accepting bribes, and fraud. Case 4000 is considered the most significant.

“The worst political and legal persecution in the country’s history is collapsing. It is impossible not to be shocked by everything that has happened until now, and by what is revealed step by step. Even if it takes years – the truth must come to light,” Justice Minister Yariv Levin, an architect of the proposed judicial reforms, stated, according to Israel National News.

“An entire country celebrated the bribe he never took. A thousand arrows of ‘leave, you’re corrupt’ were shot into his back every day, and he remained standing,” Information Minister Galit Distel Atbaryan said, INN reported.

“Oceans of rage, frustration, and pain must have burned in him, but he didn’t show it. He revealed nothing.

“This trial is the darkest low point that the State of Israel has known,” she added. “The conspirators, the persecutors, and the perpetrators must still be held accountable, but tonight I just want to say thank you to Prime Minister Mr. Benjamin Netanyahu,” she concluded.

Diaspora Minister Amichai Chikli slammed the opposition, blaming them for the years-long anti-Netanyahu campaign that divided the country while there was no basis for their charges against “a man who has dedicated his life to the revival of [the State of] Israel.”

שבע שנים, חמש מערכות בחירות, כאוס פוליטי, אינסוף שנאה וחרמות, מחאות מדי שבת מבלפור דרך כיכר גורן והגשרים ועד קפלן, שלילה מוחלטת של חזקת החפות, עינויי עדים, הדלפות סיטונאיות מחקירות, שיימינג שאי אפשר לתאר במילים לאדם שהקדיש את חייו לתקומת ישראל.

ובסופו של דבר, כשהחברה שלנו פצועה…

— עמיחי שיקלי – Amichai Chikli (@AmichaiChikli) June 22, 2023

“Seven years, five election campaigns, political chaos, endless hatred and boycotts, protests every Saturday from Balfour Street through Goren Square and the bridges to Kaplan, the complete denial of the presumption of innocence, torture of witnesses, wholesale leaks from investigations, shaming that cannot be described in words against a man who has dedicated his life to the rise of Israel,” Chikli fumed.

“And in the end, when our society has been wounded by baseless hatred and that wretched ‘Crime Minister gang,’ along with a few more disgruntled ex-ministers whom the public sent home, continues on its way, it turns out that everything has collapsed. There was no bribery, no fraud, no submarine affair, and no gas scandal.

“How proud I am to stand on the side of the truth, on the side of the ‘ignorant bibists’ who prove time and time again that they are the most intelligent public, on the side of Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and on the side of a camp whose love for the people of Israel, for the heritage of Israel and for the State of Israel does not rely on anything else.”

Just over a week ago, Opposition leader Yair Lapid, perhaps the most vociferous opponent of the prime minister and a leader of the anti-Netanyahu protests, testified at Netanyahu’s trial. A lawyer noted a contradiction in his version of events, which appears to have strengthened the defense.

The post ‘Worst persecution in country’s history’: Bribery charges against Netanyahu crumble appeared first on World Israel News.

EU wants to steal €200 billion from Russia to reconstruct Ukraine

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

Ukraine’s dreams of reconstruction crushed by rising costs.

‘Disgusted’: Congressional Human Rights chair announces boycott of prominent anti-Israel NGOs

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

“It just occurred to me, I’m gonna boycott them. Any hearing I have on human rights, Amnesty is not invited, nor is Human Rights Watch, because of their smear, their horrible smear,” Rep. Chris Smith stated.

By Andrew Bernard, The Algemeiner

The chairman of the Congressional subcommittee responsible for human rights announced on Thursday that he would boycott representatives from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch from testifying before his committee because of their position that Israel is an “apartheid” state.

Speaking at a hearing on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in the UN, the Palestinian Authority and NGOs, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s subcommittee on Global Health, Global Human Rights and International Organizations, said he was “disgusted” by the two human rights organizations.

“It used to be that Amnesty International was all about political prisoners, and they had a very sterling reputation,” Smith said. “They have reneged on all of that…Apartheid is an abomination… To sit there and take that type of language and smear Israel with it is appalling and Human Rights Watch is doing the exact same thing…I’ve had representatives of those groups come and testify on other issues.

“But you know, it just occurred to me, I’m gonna boycott them. Any hearing I have on human rights, Amnesty is not invited, nor is Human Rights Watch, because of their smear, their horrible smear.”

Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch did not immediately respond to The Algemeiner’s request for comment.

In a 2021 report titled “A Threshold Crossed,” Human Rights Watch declared that Israel was now an apartheid state. Amnesty International released a similar report in 2022. Those findings have been widely condemned by Israel, US elected officials and Jewish groups, but have been increasingly normalized among international human rights organizations.

Thursday’s hearing also heard extensive testimony from expert witnesses that track antisemitism and anti-Israel bias in international fora.

“Antisemitism is the elephant in the room that the international community has ignored, looking for all sorts of other reasons to blame the conflict on.” said Itamar Marcus, director of Palestinian Media Watch. “It’s now embedded in Palestinian Authority worldview and is being echoed at CUNY University and around the world.”

Noted refusenik and former head of the Jewish Agency Natan Sharansky, in his testimony, urged the Biden administration to focus on the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism following the administration’s release of a strategy to combat antisemitism that also recognized alternative definitions.

“I call on the American administration, which has done such a wonderful job in building a comprehensive plan, to stick to this definition of antisemitism,” Sharansky said.

“We will not be able to win if people of the left will be attacking antisemitism on the right, and people on the right will be attacking antisemitism on the left. There should be no left and right. Demonization of Jewish people, demonization of the State of Israel, the double standard on Jews, the double standard towards Israel, the delegitimization of Jews and Israel is one and the same phenomenon.”

Rep. Smith said he intends to hold further hearings on antisemitism and anti-Israel bias, including within the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

The post ‘Disgusted’: Congressional Human Rights chair announces boycott of prominent anti-Israel NGOs appeared first on World Israel News.

WATCH: This Afro-Brazilian sport unites Israelis from across the country

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

The capoeira community is very welcoming to newcomers, “everyone is accepted” – Orthodox, Arab, elderly, young and everything in between.

The post WATCH: This Afro-Brazilian sport unites Israelis from across the country appeared first on World Israel News.

Nonprofit founded by Jewish family changes lives in Cambodia

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

Five young Cambodians assisted by the nonprofit recently spent time in Australia, including attending a Shabbat dinner.

By Georgia L. Gilholy, JNS

If an Australian Jewish high school student hadn’t missed a deadline in 2009, her family might not have gone on to found a nonprofit, which is helping young people some 4,300 miles away in Cambodia.

After Stephanie Palti filed her paperwork too late, the then-14-year-old’s high school principal told her she had missed out on a volunteer project building houses in rural Cambodia. Her parents decided to make it a family mission. Six months later, Stephanie, her parents Aviv and Michelle, her sister Jessica and two others set out for the Southeast Asian country’s second-largest city to volunteer for two weeks in a rural school and orphanage.

“Two weeks that changed our lives,” according to the website of Cambodia Rural Students Trust, which, after subsequent volunteer trips, the family founded in 2011.

In 2023, the nonprofit is covering tuition, health and dental insurance, and other expenses for 104 Cambodian students. It also operates “social enterprise” projects, including a tree-planting mission, university scholarships and a bicycle-donation project to help students commute to school.

Late last month, the nonprofit brought five of the Cambodian students to Australia. They shared their stories with supporters of the nonprofit—including David Southwick, a member of the Victoria Parliament, and his wife, Hayley—at Melbourne’s West Brighton Club.

Lita Seng, one of the five students, told JNS that the nonprofit empowers students by giving them a quality education and the chance to contribute to their community.

“I strongly believe that education is the only key to achieving life’s goals,” she told JNS.

The five visiting Cambodian students experience a Shabbat dinner at the home of the Palti family.

Seng found the Friday-night dinner “a lot more meaningful than imagined,” and she particularly appreciated the peaceful and restful atmosphere, she told JNS.

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Amish Woman and Horse Killed in Tragic Accident With Semi-Truck

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

A heartbreaking tragedy occurred in Wisconsin, wherein a woman and a horse were killed and a 30-year-old man was injured after a semi-truck crashed into an Amish buggy. The occupants of the buggy were thrown out of the vehicle and the buggy was destroyed, while the semi-truck sustained moderate damage with its driver being unharmed.

The Lafayette County Sheriff, Reg Gill, spoke on these occurrences of buggy accidents, saying that they are unfortunately not uncommon. He was alerted of the incident via a dispatch center concerning the crash on State Highway 81, and added that the siblings were most likely returning from an Amish gathering. Gill further noted that buggies are a frequent sight on the roads.

In October 2021, a similar crash happened in Grant County, Wisconsin, resulting in the death of two people, including a youngster, after a rear-ending caused five individuals to be thrown from the buggy, as reported by KCRG. The following month, eight Amish people were injured and one died in north-central Wisconsin as a result of a buggy being hit at “highway speeds”, according to KARE 11. The driver was apprehended for allegedly operating under the influence of a controlled substance and inattentive driving, based on reports from the authorities.

The Wisconsin Amish population is the fourth largest in North America, with a population of more than 15,000, according to Amish America. The community began in 1920, with the oldest settlement being the Medford Amish settlement.

‘DISGRACEFUL’: Biden administration is ‘bending Israel’s hand,’ DeSantis says

Posted on June 23, 2023 by admin

In an exclusive interview with Israel Hayom on Thursday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vowed to stand by the Jewish state if elected president. The Republican contender slammed the current U.S. administration’s Mideast policies, particularly with regard to the Iranian threat.

“The US-Israel relationship should be ironclad. We have no better ally in the Middle East,” he said.

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