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Ukraine wants to pivot New Delhi away from Moscow, attempting to undo decades of fruitful and longstanding relations.

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Citing “a person familiar with the calls”, Semafor reports that “senior Ukrainian officials had raised their objections to Carlson’s coverage of the war to Fox Executives”.

Drag queen Dudu Edri, who uses the stage name Miss Edri, says he was denied permission to bring accessories into the Knesset; security at the site denies that version of events.

By Adina Katz, World Israel News

An Israeli drag queen who visited the Knesset on Wednesday morning said that the political institution is fundamentally “homophobic” because guards allegedly refused to allow him to don a wig and heels in the building.

Last month, Dudu Edri wrote a viral Facebook post about being the victim of a hate crime when teenage boys near his apartment on Dizengoff Street pelted his window with stones while shouting homophobic slurs.

Edri, who was invited to speak to a panel of lawmakers about anti-LGBT discrimination in Israel, arrived at the Knesset building sporting a full face of heavy makeup, carrying stilettos and an ornate wig in a gym bag.

According to Edri, Knesset security required him to leave his accouterments outside of the building. He told the panel later that morning that being banned from bringing in his drag get-up was an indication of serious discrimination in the country.

“I wanted to enter [the Knesset building] with my bag [containing] a wig and heels, it’s not some huge load of cargo,” Edri, who uses the drag name Miss Cherry, complained. “People have brought much bigger things into the Knesset before.

“If the atmosphere in the Knesset is so homophobic that I can’t bring in a poor wig, I’m not surprised that a bunch of boys outside my house, who saw we were preparing for a drag show, threw stones at our window.”

Notably, Hebrew-language news outlet Mako spoke to sources at the Knesset who had witnessed the event. They said that the guards did not forbid Edri from entering with his bag – rather, they told him to wait while they consulted with a higher-up, who gave permission several minutes later.

However, rather than wait for the matter to be clarified, Edri decided to leave his bag outside and enter the building without it, the witnesses said.

The post Denied wig, heels at Knesset, drag queen slams ‘homophobic atmosphere’ appeared first on World Israel News.

Helmut Horten became wealthy in the 1930s by buying German Jewish businesses at a fraction of their value from owners forced to sell.

By Batya Jerenberg, World Israel News

Famed auction house Christie’s was criticized Wednesday for the launching of a sale of jewels owned by the widow of a Nazi profiteer who became wealthy by taking advantage of Jews who were forced to sell their businesses in Germany and other countries both prior and during World War II.

Helmut Horten started his buying spree in 1933, after the Nazis passed a law stating that only Aryans were permitted to own companies, Dutch historian David De Jong told the New York Post. De Jong wrote about Horten’s empire-building in his recently published book, “Nazi Billionaires: The Dark History of Germany’s Wealthiest Dynasties.”

Coerced by the authorities or Horten himself, he “would often buy businesses for 65 percent of their value,” said De Jong. “Jewish families sold their companies to get the hell out of Germany.”

The historian said that although Horten became a member of the Nazi party in 1937, he did so out of greed and not because he believed in its ideology.

“He was a sheer opportunist who saw an opportunity to grow from a small business owner to a department store mogul by the end of World War II.”

Horten then expanded his reach to German-occupied Amsterdam, where the Nazi authorities coerced department-store owners to sell their businesses to him.

Author Stephanie Stephan wrote a book about how Horten worked his deals, since her father worked in Amsterdam’s largest department store and was fired because he had “advised the owner not to sell,” she told the Post.

Horten bought the store at a low price. After the war, Stephan’s father filed a lawsuit in Germany against Horten but lost, “since most of the judges were old Nazis, and Horten had good relationships with them,” she said.

Stephan slammed the auction house for how it has dealt with the issue.

“For Christie’s, this auction is a matter of prestige and a matter of sales,” she told the Post. “[There was] no word about the past in their first announcement of the auction. They should have pointed out the history of Helmut Horten before…. The basis of his fortune was money extorted from Jewish property. This fact only did make [it] possible to buy jewelry and art to such an extent.”

Christie’s issued several statements in its defense.

CEO Guillaume Cerutti said the company is “aware” of “the well-documented business practices of Mrs. Horten’s late first husband during the Nazi era when he purchased Jewish businesses sold under duress.” All the proceeds from the sale, he said, “will be directed to a foundation which supports philanthropic causes, including healthcare, children’s welfare and access to the arts.”

According to estimates, the sparkly estate of Heidi Horten, who married Helmut Horten in 1966 when she was 19 and he was around 50, will fetch some $150 million. Among the many items is a 90-carat Briolette of India necklace believed to have once been owned by Richard the Lionheart and Eleanor of Aquitaine, which is valued at up to $15.6 million alone.

Whether the billionaire heiress knew how her husband amassed his fortune is open to question, but both Stephan and De Jong believe she did, as she had once engaged a historian to research his past. The subsequent report understated his profiteering, which didn’t surprise Stephan at all.

“It was clear to me that she wanted Helmut’s past to be put in a better light and glossed over,” she said.

There is no question that the jewelry was all bought legally. It is only the source of the wealth that allowed these purchases that buyers may – or may not – find repugnant.

The post Christie’s slammed for selling jewels of Nazi profiteer appeared first on World Israel News.

International politics is an arena where there are no permanent friends or foes, there are only permanent interests

South Africa-Russia relations are not new. They date back decades before South Africa arrived at a democratic dispensation in 1994; a journey in which Russia provided a lot of support. During the recent visit to South Africa of Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergey Lavrov, it was agreed that the two countries need to further deepen relations and cooperation in most spheres, including political, economic, security and social ones, as well as in multilateral and international forums

The two countries are on pace to hit $200 billion in turnover this year

Can the spirit of national unity last for more than a few days, considering that talks aimed at securing a compromise on judicial reform are reportedly failing?

By Lauren Marcus, World Israel News

After a Memorial Day which saw stark politicization of the typically somber occasion, including unprecedented clashes in military cemeteries between bereaved families with differing political opinions and lawmakers dropping out of ceremonies in which they normally participate due to political tensions, many bemoaned the prevalent feeling of disunity within Israeli society.

But a recent flare-up with terrorists in the Gaza Strip served as a rallying point for Israelis, with lawmakers from all sides of the political spectrum publicly supporting the Israeli military and offering their support to residents of southern Negev communities, who were bombarded by more than 100 rockets in a one-day span.

Even Opposition Leader Yair Lapid, who recently rebuffed calls for a pause to anti-government protests on Israel’s Independence Day, took to Twitter to emphasize his support for the government in a military context.

“The opposition will support the government in any military action that will bring peace and security to the residents of the south,” he wrote on Tuesday evening.

His sentiments were echoed by other opposition parties, who called for the Israeli military to protect citizens in the Negev.

Lapid, who is a longtime political enemy of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, has spent much of his time in recent months agitating against the premier and right-wing voters, steadfastly refusing to tone down his rhetoric for the sake of national unity.

The question now is whether this spirit of unity can survive more than a few days, considering that negotiations regarding a compromise on judicial reform have reportedly gone off the rails.

Opponents of the reform have framed the legislation, which would create changes to Israel’s legal system that would curb the powers of the Supreme Court and see elected officials wield greater influence over the courts, as an existential threat to the State of Israel.

Many judicial reform opponents have said that a compromise isn’t a viable option, and that they will only cease their disruptive demonstrations should the legislation be shelved entirely.

With this rhetoric coming from the protest movement’s leaders, along with the demonization of voters and lawmakers who support the reform, it’s unclear if Israelis can move forward as a untied bloc when dealing with other pressing issues, such as the soaring cost of living, housing crisis and lay-offs in the tech industry.

Based on a prediction from Sderot Mayor Alon Davidi, there will likely be fresh round of fighting with Gaza in the summer – so it may be just a matter of time before another clash brings the country together once again.

The post Israelis temporarily united by war – but what’s next? appeared first on World Israel News.

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