All going well, Israel’s Lunar Lander is due to land on the Moon on April 11. Here’s an illustration of its amazing journey through space. Quite a technological feat.
Israel’s election: As voters head to polls, it’s all about Netanyahu | NZ Herald
Israel’s election campaign has been a three-month roller coaster of mudslinging, scandals and more scandals.
But when voters head to the polls tomorrow, one name will be predominantly on their minds: Benjamin Netanyahu.
At its core, the vote boils down to a referendum on Netanyahu, the man who has dominated Israeli politics for the better part of three decades.
Labour’s hate files expose Jeremy Corbyn’s anti‑semite army | Sunday Times
UK Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn
The Labour Party has failed to take disciplinary action against hundreds of members accused of anti-semitism under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership, according to internal documents leaked to The Sunday Times.
A hard drive of emails and a confidential database last updated on March 8 reveal how the party’s system for dealing with such complaints is bedevilled by delays, inaction and interference from the leader’s office. They reveal members investigated for posting such online comments as “Heil Hitler”, “F*** the Jews” and “Jews are the problem” have not been expelled, even though the party received the complaints a year ago.
Dr. fired twice over ‘give the Jews the wrong meds’ tweets | Arutz Sheva
Dr. Lara Kollab, who was fired from her residency at the Cleveland Clinic after old anti-Semitic tweets surfaced, was accepted to a residency program in California and then fired from it.
Kern Medical Center in Bakersfield, California, said in a statement dated Monday that it notified Kollab on March 15 that her position as a first-year internal medicine resident was withdrawn effective immediately.
“Dr. Kollab submitted information that was false, misleading, and incomplete to Kern Medical during the interview and match process,” the statement said.
The statement continued: “Kern Medical is dedicated to the health and wellbeing of our patients and expects the highest level of integrity and compassion from our staff. We value that a key part of our mission is to teach and train our resident physicians to always provide exceptional care to all patients, regardless of race, religious background or social standing.”
Kollab wrote scores of anti-Semitic social media posts between 2011 to 2017, which she said in an apology after they publicly resurfaced were written because she had “difficulty constructively expressing my intense feelings about what I witnessed in my ancestral land,” following visits to Israel and the West Bank.
Among the posts that got the most attention was a tweet from 2012, when she was a medical student, which said: “hahha ewww.. ill purposely give all the yahood [Jews] the wrong meds….” Kollab graduated from the Touro College of Osteopathic Medicine in New York, which calls itself “the largest private university in the U.S. with Jewish roots.”
Entebbe pilot Michel Bacos who stayed with hostages dies | BBC
Michel Bacos, the Air France captain hailed as a hero for refusing to abandon his passengers when Palestinian and German hijackers seized the plane in 1976, has died in France aged 95.
The plane, carrying some 260 people from Tel Aviv to Paris, had stopped off in Athens, where the hijackers got on board and demanded it change course.
The hostage drama ended six days later at Entebbe airport in Uganda, when Israeli commandos stormed the terminal.
Bacos died in the French city of Nice.
Awarded France’s highest civilian accolade, the Légion d’Honneur, he told the BBC in 2016 that as captain “it would be impossible for me to leave my passengers, unimaginable”.
The Holocaust Memorial of 70,000 Stones | BBC
Stolpersteine, or ‘stumbling stones’, are commemorative plaques honouring victims of the Holocaust
At the end of a quiet, suburban cul-de-sac in north-eastern Berlin, Michael Friedrichs-Friedländer quickly ushers me into his garage. He casts a watchful glance down the road, as if to check I’ve come here alone.
“I’d ask you not to mention the precise location,” he said. “The neighbours all know what I do, but I don’t want any outside trouble.”
Inside, the garage smells of fresh cement, with lingering wafts of strong coffee and cigarettes. There’s a back door open onto a garden, letting in a wash of late-afternoon sun. A large-scale map of Germany is pinned to the far wall. In the corner, there’s a simple workbench, where Friedrichs-Friedländer has left a hammer, a set of metal stamps, and a sheet of paper bearing a series of names, dates and the word ‘Auschwitz’.
For the last 14 years, Friedrichs-Friedländer has hand-engraved individual Holocaust fates onto small commemorative plaques called Stolpersteine, or ‘stumbling stones’. Each plaque is a 10cm brass square affixed on top of a cuboid concrete block that’s installed into the pavement directly before a Holocaust victim’s last known, voluntary residence.
There are now more than 70,000 of these stones around the world, spanning 20 different languages. They can be found in 2,000-plus towns and cities across 24 countries, including Argentina, Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Hungary, the Netherlands, Russia, Slovenia and Ukraine. Together, they constitute the world’s largest decentralised memorial.
US President Donald Trump formally recognises Israeli control of Golan Heights | NZ Herald
US President Donald Trump signed a proclamation on Monday recognizing Israel’s sovereignty over the Golan Heights, reversing more than a half-century of US policy.
Standing alongside Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the White House, Trump made formal a move he announced in a tweet last week. The president said it was time for the US to take the step after 52 years of Israeli control of the strategic highlands on the border with Syria.
Netanyahu had pressed for such recognition for months. Trump’s action gives him a political boost weeks before what’s expected to be a close Israeli election.
Israel captured the Golan from Syria in the 1967 Mideast war but its sovereignty over the territory is not recognized by the international community.
Jews outraged after mosque leader blames Mossad for Christchurch attack | Newshub
New Zealand’s Jewish community is outraged and revolted after a prominent mosque leader blamed Mossad for being behind the Christchurch terror attack.
On Saturday, a group called Love Aotearoa Hate Racism organised a rally for the victims in Auckland’s Aotea Square.
Ahmed Bhamji, chairman of the Mt Roskill Masjid E Umar, gave a speech questioning where the gunman got his funding from. He said he suspected it came from “Mossad” and “Zionist business”.
Sean Plunket interviews Juliet Moses | Magic Talk
Juliet Moses answers questions about the Jewish Community’s relations with the Islamic Community on Sean Plunket’s Magic Talk show.
Synagogues joint letter to Christchurch Mosques
The rabbis from the Auckland Hebrew Congregation and the Wellington Jewish Community Centre sent the following joint letter to the Christchurch Mosques:
