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President Biden walks off from interview with MSNBC a little prematurely – even as the cameras continue to roll.

The post WATCH: Biden wanders off set at end of MSNBC interview appeared first on World Israel News.

A group of Palestinian Arabs forced their way past a group of female IDF soldiers, who had been deployed to maintain a no-entry zone near the Ein Sukkot spring in the Jordan Valley.

During the ensuing confrontation, the Arabs threatened and mocked the soldiers, who ordered the Arabs not to enter the area – but declined to take action.

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On March 29, Evan Gershkovich, a prominent reporter for the Wall Street Journal, became the first US journalist arrested in Russia since the Cold War. Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB), which Gershkovich believed had been following him on a previous assignment, erroneously claims he was involved in “espionage in the interests of the American government.” On May 23, his pre-trial detention was extended for 3 months. He could face up to twenty years in a Russian prison on these trumped-up charges.

Gershkovich’s arrest is the latest in a steady devolution of human rights in Russia—a trend that accelerated following Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Russian authorities recently sentenced opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza to 25 years in prison, where fellow dissident Alexei Navalny also continues to waste away. 

A top adversary arresting a US journalist in such a brazen show of contempt should jolt the free world into action. But aside from Gershkovich’s employer, the Wall Street Journal, and a few motivated civil society groups, primarily Jewish organizations, the rest of the West has remained conspicuously silent throughout his ordeal. Whether this stems from a lack of interest or the belief that activism will not yield results is unclear. What is certain, however, is that there is a better way, informed by historical precedent directly connected to Gershkovich’s own life story—that of the movement in defense of Soviet Jewry.  

Though the Russian regime is different than its Soviet predecessor, the ideology of the two look largely the same. Moscow’s horrific treatment of its citizens, dissenters, and the free press surely evokes dark memories for many who are old enough to remember the Cold War. Among those persecuted in the Soviet Union, Soviet Jewry was forbidden from practicing its faith and refused emigration by Moscow. These Jews became known to the world in the 1960s-80s as Refuseniks. 

Drawing inspiration from the Torah, the movement to liberate these Jews took up the motto “Let My People Go” after Moses’ recurring plea to Pharoah. Today, the movement to free Soviet Jewry is remembered the world over as one of the most successful campaigns for human rights in history. 

In fact, Gershkovich’s own parents, Ella Milman and Mikhail Gershkovich, were two of the beneficiaries of the movement for Soviet Jewry, and moved to the United States when Soviet authorities finally relented and allowed Jews to emigrate en masse. 

The movement for Soviet Jewry not only provided Jews and its allies in the cause of human dignity with a sense of common purpose, it also became the first mass, sustained campaign to expose the moral hollowness of Soviet ideology. The movement unmasked human rights abuses and the disregard for the dignity of the individual that was so prevalent under Communist totalitarianism. In particular, the leadership and moral clarity of Natan Sharansky, a political prisoner of conscience and crucial figure within the movement, inspired freedom-seeking people of his generation and those for decades to come.

One of those inspired was the future United States president Ronald Reagan. While his predecessors pursued détente and parity with the Soviet empire, Reagan firmly believed that the totalizing system of Soviet communism was no match for the West’s openness of free markets and respect for human freedom. In fact, Reagan’s distaste for détente played a central role in his decision to primary then-incumbent US President Gerald Ford, a fellow Republican, in the 1976 election. He argued that Ford’s policies had caused the US to fall behind the Soviet Union militarily and diplomatically and that new leadership and vision were necessary to prevail over the USSR.

Reagan was not an idealist. He firmly believed in the necessity of military power to defend American security but rejected the belief that realism must be devoid of morality. He frequently pressed the Soviet Union on human rights concerns publicly, bluntly declaring it an Evil Empire. Without grappling with and exposing the ideology that motivated the Soviets’ behavior, the United States could not effectively galvanize support domestically and abroad to pressure the Soviet regime. Under his presidency, after nine years in the Soviet prison system, Sharansky was freed and allowed to emigrate to Israel. Sharansky is believed to be one of around one million Jews who fled the Soviet Union and made aliyah to Israel. About 500,000 more moved to the United States. 

Lessons from the movement for Soviet Jewry are applicable today. The images of Evan Gershkovich standing prisoner in the Russian defendant’s cage should unite and inspire world Jewry and human rights advocates once again. It is time for a new movement to form that is no less coordinated and no less unrelenting in its pursuit of justice. In that effort, we should welcome any and all allies who view Moscow’s crimes in Ukraine and at home as an affront to human dignity, as the United States Congress and President Reagan did in the 1980s.  

Raised in New Jersey, Gershkovich moved to the capital Moscow in 2017 to take a job with the English-language news publication Moscow Times. After a stint at the Agence France-Presse, he joined the Wall Street Journal in January 2022. A month later, Russia’s attack on Ukraine became the center of world affairs.

Gershkovich’s reporting on the Russian military, civil society, and economy shed light on Moscow just as the government moved into overdrive to distort the true state of affairs at home. When detained in Yekaterinburg, Gershkovich was reportedly working on a story about the Wagner Group, a US-designated transnational criminal organization whose mercenaries terrorize civilians in Ukraine as well as Syria, Libya, and elsewhere in Africa.

The movement for Soviet Jewry was more than just an example of successful political organization. Above all, it shed light on the Torah’s value of every individual’s innate dignity. It was a unifying cause not only for Jews around the world, and particularly in the United States, but also for members of Congress and human rights advocates across the political spectrum. Its message can carry weight again today.  

Gershkovich’s life story embodies the success of the movement for Soviet Jewry and the value of the individual that it conveyed. The West should not become desensitized to Moscow’s abuses or give up on these beliefs now. Drawing on inspiration from its Soviet predecessor, we should once again encourage a movement to rise up that works to ensure that Gershkovich’s arrest is not ignored. Putin should be put on notice for his human rights record, much as his predecessors were decades ago. 

The post Evan Gershkovich is the Product of Human Rights Activism. Why Have We Given Up on It Today? appeared first on Providence.

Dr. Naomi Wolf Uncovers Pfizer’s Depopulation Agenda, as Evidenced by Its Own Documents

The Vigilant Fox, June 25 , 2023

41-Year-Old Model and Hollywood Actress Katerina Pavelek Ended Her Life at an Assisted Suicide Clinic in Basel, Switzerland in …

The post This Month’s Most Popular Articles appeared first on Global Research.

Artificial Intelligence: A Tool of “Empowerment” and/or “Devastation and Impoverishment”

By Ben Bartee, June 29, 2023

Surveying the latest transgressions against decency, morality, and humanity itself by artificial intelligence and its biological architects. One theme I’ve tried to work …

The post Selected Articles: Artificial Intelligence: A Tool of “Empowerment” and/or “Devastation and Impoverishment” appeared first on Global Research.

The special operation led to the thwarting of the plot to harm Israelis on the eastern Mediterranean island nation.

By JNS

Israel’s Mossad intelligence agency on Thursday publicized a secret operation in Iran which thwarted a plot to target Israelis in Cyprus.

The hit squad head, whom the agents captured in Iran, provided information earlier this week that led Cypriot intelligence services to foil an attack that the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) intended to target Israelis.

The man was named as Yusef Shahabazi Abbasalilu. He admitted in the investigation that he was sent to Cyprus to harm Israeli businessmen.

“In a unique, daring mission within Iranian territory, the Mossad was able to seize the mastermind of the terror cell, who then admitted [to the terror plot] in detail during his interrogation, which led to exposing and the taking apart of the Cyprus terror cell,” the Mossad stated.

The Mossad passed the information along to Cypriot authorities, and Cyprus intelligence prevented the attack, local media reported on Sunday.

Abbasasulilu revealed that an operative from the intelligence unit of the IRGC sent him to Cyprus for the operation and that the Revolutionary Guards provided him with the assassination target details. In Cyprus, he was connected to a Pakistani group that had committed assassinations in the past.

“We will get any party that promotes terrorism against Jews and Israelis all over the world, including on the soil of Iran,” a senior Mossad official stated.

The Islamic regime has made clear threats to murder not only Israelis but also Jewish leaders worldwide. A report in February revealed that Iran was creating maps of Jews to assassinate if Israel struck its nuclear facilities.

The post Mossad abducted Cyprus hit squad head in Iran appeared first on World Israel News.

White House expected to approve transfer of Army Tactical Missile System to Ukraine – after President Biden had previously feared its use could lead to major escalation.

By World Israel News Staff

The Biden administration is poised to transfer advanced, long-range missile systems to the Ukrainian military, in a step the White House has hitherto refrained from taking, amid fears it could lead to a major escalation in the ongoing war between Kyiv and Moscow.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the White House is now close to granting approval for a request to transfer the Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) to Ukraine.

The ATACMS has a range of approximately 190 miles, and would enable Ukraine’s military to strike deep into Russian territory.

President Biden previously declined to approve the transfer, fearing the missile system’s use could prompt Russian President Vladimir Putin to expand the scope of the war further.

With Russia using Iranian-made suicide drones for attacks on Ukraine, however, and the recent abortive coup attempt by the mercenary Wagner Group in Russia last week, the Biden administration is now reportedly interested in further upgrades to Ukraine’s military capabilities – including transfer of the ATACMS.

The Journal report cited multiple Ukrainian defense officials who said the signals coming out of the U.S. have changed in recent weeks, indicating Kyiv is likely to receive the missile systems.

Such weapons would bolster President Volodymyr Zelensky’s bid to recapture the Crimea, annexed by Russia after the 2014 war with Ukraine.

The U.S. has pushed back against the report, however, with Pentagon officials tell Reuters they are “not aware of any imminent decisions as it relates to ATACMs.”

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Communist virus research is fine, not Jewish doctors helping autistic children.

By Daniel Greenfield, Front Page Magazine

In May 2023, the Biden administration restarted a National Institutes of Health grant to an organization that had been conducting bat coronavirus research at the Wuhan Institute of Virology believed by many to be the source of the recent pandemic.

The Trump administration had originally halted the funding over concerns that it had contributed to experiments that were considered to represent ‘gain of function’ and had the potential to be weaponized by the Chinese military. To add insult to injury, taxpayers may have also paid twice for the grants. But the Biden administration has restarted the bat virus grant with the EcoHealth Alliance despite concerns raised by prominent researchers and journalists.

The United States has spent tens of millions of dollars funding research in China so that even beyond the military and espionage elements, we are backing our own biggest rivals.

Academic Boycott of Judea and Samaria

In June 2023, the Biden administration reversed another Trump research mandate, this time cutting off scientific cooperation with Israeli institutions of higher learning on territory that it deems should be turned over to the PLO, Islamic Jihad, Hamas and other ‘Palestinian’ groups.

The primary victim of this policy will be Ariel University and researchers there.

The Biden boycott was only revealed when researchers at Ariel University were turned down. The State Department then declared that in a complete reversal of Trump administration policy, “participation in joint projects with Israel in the fields of science and technology in areas that came under its control after June 5, 1967” was “not consistent with American policy.” That would potentially include not only Ariel University, but also parts of Jerusalem.

While the names of the researchers involved have not been made public, Ariel University has many talented people working on a wide variety of problems like Dr. Michal Hochhauser who is working to help autistic children integrate better into society and Konstantin Borodianskiy, PhD who is investigating how to coat titanium implants, like those used in hip replacement surgery, with natural materials so that they bond more securely with bones in surgical patients.

The U.S-Israel Binational Science Foundation (BSF) encompasses BARD research on agriculture and BIRD research on industrial R&D including homeland security applications to counter terrorists. The Biden administration’s boycott of Ariel University and other researchers and facilities located in those parts of Israel claimed by terrorists cuts them out of the program.

While the Trump administration was unwilling to finance bat virus research in China, but was willing to work with Ariel University on medical, agricultural and national security research, the Biden administration will fund research in China, but not Israeli work on helping autistic kids..

During a better time, Ambassador David Friedman had joined Prime Minister Netanyahu at Ariel University to announce that the “geographic restrictions”, as they had persisted during the Obama administration and past administrations, “no longer comport with our foreign policy” of viewing Jewish communities in Judea and Samaria, known to some as the West Bank as “inconsistent with international law.”

Deleting a single sentence, Ambassador Friedman revealed, was anything but simple and required “an inter-agency process with numerous branches of Government.”

“We are righting an old wrong and strengthening yet again the unbreakable bond between our two countries,” he declared. Now Biden has brought back the wrong and broken the bond.

The United States obviously isn’t obligated to conduct any kind of cooperative research with foreign countries, and yet choosing China over Israel is highly revealing of the real agenda.

Double Standard

The Biden administration has refused to ban funding for research in the People’s Republic of China, but has chosen to ban it, no matter how benevolent, in parts of the Jewish state. Democrat administrations are willing to fund dangerous viral research in China, but not explore ways to teach autistic children to cope with the challenges of their environment in Israel.

Gain of function research that creates deadly viruses in one of the world’s most ruthless nations was fine, but bonding hip implants to bones in one of our closest allies is beyond the pale.

Even the Department of Defense has funded research in Hong Kong which is under the control of Communist China. The CDC and NIH have funded research at Chinese universities in Beijing, Shanghai, and Najiing with no interest in the legitimacy of the Communist regime’s control over these territories or the legitimacy of the regime. But when it comes to Israel, Democrat administrations scruple over who has the right to the land that the university is on.

The Communist regime’s right to rule China is not contestable, but Israel’s right to its country is.

Unlike Communist China, Israel is run by a democratically elected government. Ariel University is located in the city of Ariel and has a student body of over 10,000. The city of Ariel, also known as the capital of Samaria, is built near the ruins of an ancient 3,000 year old Israelite city. No Arab Islamic colony had ever existed on the site. The graves of Joshua, the leader of the original Jewish return to Israel, and of Caleb, the other righteous biblical scout, lie near Ariel.

And yet the Biden administration considers the Communist Chinese regime to be more legitimate than the scientific researchers living and working in Ariel.

“The State Department is telling the entire U.S. government not to cooperate with Jews in Judea and Samaria. And of course it was sent to Congress in secret, and only revealed because reporters found out. “The Biden administration defends funding scientific research in Wuhan with the Chinese Communist Party, but they’re discriminating against and banning cooperation with Jews based on where they live,” Senator Ted Cruz said.

“The ZOA condemns the Biden administration’s reinstatement of a discriminatory, antisemitic boycott of research, development, science and technology cooperation and joint projects with Israel, in lawful Jewish areas that invading Arab nations seized from the Jewish people in 1948-1949, which Israel recaptured and liberated in the defensive 1967 war,” Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) National President Morton A. Klein stated.

The Biden administration has made it clear that it is more open to scientific cooperation with the ruthless regime of Communist China than the Jews of Ariel.

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Ruling could have major ramifications for Orthodox Jews in the US.

By Andrew Bernard, The Algemeiner

In a unanimous ruling with significant ramifications for observant Jews, the US Supreme Court on Thursday enhanced protections for religious employees by clarifying its interpretation of Title VII of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protecting against religious discrimination in the workplace.

Justice Samuel Alito, writing for all nine justices, said that lower courts had made a “mistake” in their understanding of the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Trans World Airlines, Inc. v. Hardison, a 1977 case involving religious liberty and employment law.

According to Alito, lower courts interpreted the 1977 decision to mean that employers only need to provide accommodations for religion in the workplace if those accommodations do not impose more than a very small — or “de minimis” — cost on the employer. However, he argued, the high court had actually ruled that employers need to show that religious accommodations, such as allowing an employee to wear a turban or observe the Sabbath, impose an “undue hardship” on the employer before refusing them.

“A bevy of diverse religious organizations has told this Court that the de minimis test has blessed the denial of even minor accommodation in many cases, making it harder for members of minority faiths to enter the job market,” Alito wrote in his opinion. “What is most important is that ‘undue hardship’ in Title VII means what it says, and courts should resolve whether a hardship would be substantial in the context of an employer’s business in the commonsense manner that it would use in applying any such test.”

The case decided this week, Groff v. DeJoy, involved a former postal worker, Gerald Groff, who sued Postmaster General Louis DeJoy after Groff quit his job for being forced to work on Sundays. Groff is an evangelical Christian who observes a Sunday Sabbath during which he is not permitted to work according to his beliefs. However, he was nonetheless required to do so after the US Postal Service signed a contract with Amazon for Sunday deliveries. He launched his religious discrimination suit after two years of ad-hoc accommodations failed to meet his religious needs.

Jewish groups on Thursday welcomed the Supreme Court ruling as a major win for all people of faith in the workplace.

“The previous standard was the key obstacle to providing religious employees of all faiths the protection the law offered,” Rabbi Abba Cohen, vice president for government affairs and Washington director of Agudath Israel, which filed an amicus brief for Groff, said in a statement. “The standard was so low that employers didn’t even bother trying to accommodate the employees, and employees didn’t bother asserting their rights, knowing that they would suffer aggravation and expense on a losing case. Now, we are confident that the law better reflects what Congress desired and intended when it sought to protect the rights of religiously observant employees.”

Kenneth Marcus, founder and chairman of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, which also filed an amicus brief for Groff, told The Algemeiner that Thursday’s ruling was a big victory for religious freedom.

“It means that employers can no longer use the same excuses to deny Orthodox Jews and other religiously observant employees from doing what is required by their religious practice,” Marcus said. “This should mean that a lot more workers will be able to get the accommodations that their religion requires, such as schedules that don’t require them to work on Shabbat.”

Other Jewish groups including the American Jewish Committee, the Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America, and the Anti-Defamation League issued statements supporting the Supreme Court’s ruling. Groff was also supported by Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Sikh, and Islamic groups.

While the decision clarifies the Supreme Court’s understanding of Title VII, the ruling is not a complete victory in Groff’s favor. The case will now be remanded to lower courts to decide whether the religious accommodations that Groff demands would place an “undue hardship” on the Post Office.

According to Marcus, this process will have to be repeated in future religious discrimination suits.

“The courts will have to work out each case on its own basis looking at an array of factors including the number of other employees and what their schedules are and what is required in order to meet those needs,” he said.

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