So moving…
We are all Jews today | Aish.com
So moving…
NZ Ambassador to Israel: Wendy Hinton Profile | NZFOI
Wendy Hinton, Ambassador of New Zealand to Israel, with Reuben Rivkin, President of Israel
Wendy Hinton took up the role of Ambassador to Turkey in March 2018. Hinton is concurrently Ambassador to Israel and Jordan. She presented her credentials in July 2018.
Hinton is a career diplomat. She has had postings in Singapore, Beijing and Taipei and in Geneva, as Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations.
From 2013 to 2017, Hinton was Ambassador to Poland and Ukraine. During these appointments she actively promoted trade with these countries. In 2015 a film co-production agreement was signed with Poland.
Hinton has worked extensively on the political and economic relationships with North Asia in the course of her career and has also spent several years focusing on multilateral issues both in Wellington and Geneva.
Hinton has a BA Hons degree in history and French from Otago University. She enjoys walking, travelling, art, music, wine and historical and family research.
Hinton and her partner, Charles Finny, own a winery, Kawarau Estate in Central Otago. The winery produces a range of award winning wine, focussing particularly on Pinot Noir. The wines are exported to the United States, United kingdom, Australia, Singapore, Taiwan and Korea. They have an adult son and daughter.
Finny headed the New Zealand Commerce and Industry Office in Taipei from 2001 to 2004; the Government’s China FTA Task Force through 2004; and had previously served as Deputy Chief of Mission at the New Zealand Embassy in Beijing, and First secretary at the New Zealand High Commission in Singapore. Charles helped negotiate several generations of the CER agreements with Australia and the New Zealand Singapore Closer Economic Partnership. He also has considerable expertise in WTO and APEC affairs. Charles Chaired the APEC Budget and Management Committee in 2000 and was the Trade Policy Adviser to the APEC Chair in 1999. He was CEO of the Wellington Chamber of Commerce 2004-2012.
He is now a lobbyist with Saunders Unsworth. Other lobbyists at Saunders Unsworth include Mark Unsworth, Roger Sowry, Megan Campbell, and Joanna Murray. Finny is Chair of the Education New Zealand Board and serves on the Boards of New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, Woolyarns Ltd, the Wellington Chamber of Commerce. He is the independent Chair of the Port Company CEO Group and of the New Zealand Institutes of Technology and Polytechnics. He served on the Victoria University of Wellington Council from 2008-2015 and the New Zealand Film Commission Board 2009-2016.
Finny is a member of the Rotary Club of Wellington. He supports the Victoria University of Wellington Foundation. He regularly donates time to support the work of the Asia New Zealand Foundation, The New Zealand Institute of International Affairs, The New Zealand Contemporary China Research Centre, the New Zealand India Research Centre, the New Zealand Centre for International Economic Law, the New Zealand United States Partnership Forum and the Wellington Chamber of Commerce.
Aside from his interests in wine, politics and international trade, Finny is a keen golfer. He enjoys the ballet and opera.
Eight things the media may not tell you about the “Freedom Flotilla” | NZ Israel Institute
David Cumin, NZ Israel Institute
1. It is incorrect to refer to the blockade as “illegal” and BSA has ruled it is irresponsible for NZ media to do so.
2. Violation of a lawful blockade constitutes unlawful activity and an interception in international waters is entirely correct if the vessel is attempting to breach a blockade, according to International Law. The detention of Mr Treen was inevitable, given his attempt to breach a legal blockade.
3. This group, like the last, has admitted their cargo is not nearly as important as the publicity – “There is also some medical aid on board, although the amount of medical aid is merely a gesture,” said Richard Sudan of Iran’s Press TV UK. “We’re talking just a few boxes.”
4. Thousands of truckloads of goods enter Gaza from Israel, even now as Hamas and other militant groups continue to indiscriminately send flaming kites, mortars, and missiles over the border. If this group truly cared about delivering aid, they could easily do so via Israel.
5. The shipmates of Mr Treen are known to support terror groups, including Hamas as PFLP.
6. There has not been violence on boats when this stunt has previously been attempted as long as the activists followed instructions and did not resist arrest. Mr Treen has admitted to resisting arrest.
7. According to the UN Palmer Report (paragraph viii), “…Where a State becomes aware that its citizens or flag vessels intend to breach a naval blockade, it has a responsibility to take proactive steps compatible with democratic rights and freedoms to warn them of the risks involved and to endeavour to dissuade them from doing so.”.
8. Israel unilaterally withdrew from Gaza in 2005 and removed all Jews in hopes it would become the “Singapore of the Middle East”. Hamas violently took control of Gaza in 2006 and has continued its conflict with Israel at the expense of the welfare of the Gazan people. Instead of building infrastructure, Hamas has invested in terror.
– David Cumin
Why ‘Fauda’ Is the Best-Kept Secret on Netflix | The Wrap
If you need convincing that “Fauda” should be your next binge-worthy Netflix offering, consider this: The series has become such a phenomenon, it’s beloved by both Israelis and Palestinians.
Written by Israeli veteran journalist Avi Issacharoff and the series’ lead actor, Lior Raz, the show centers around a team of “mistaravim,” Israeli commando soldiers who speak Arabic and operate undercover inside Palestinian territory. The high-octane drama — with both Arabic and Hebrew dialogue — tells opposite sides of the same story.
“We were shocked it made such a splash,” Raz, who is currently shooting the show’s second season in Israel, told TheWrap. “We thought, ‘Who in the U.S. would watch a show in Hebrew and Arabic?’”
Despite the language barrier, “Fauda” (chaos in Arabic), somehow managed to break out of the dark corners of Netflix’s foreign-language section and get noticed by both Hollywood heavy-hitters and New York Times TV critics. Dubbed “The Wire” of the West Bank, the show has been credited with blurring the Israeli-Palestinian divide and bringing some clarity to the disorder and confusion that has long enveloped the Middle East.
U.S. Statement at the HRC Special Session on Gaza | US Govt
Theodore Allegra
HRC 28th Special Session
As prepared for delivery by Theodore Allegra, Chargé d’Affaires,
U.S. Mission to the United Nations in Geneva
Geneva, May 18, 2018
Mr. President,
The United States remains concerned over the recent outbreak of violence along the Gaza fence. But today’s session is blatantly taking sides and ignoring the real culprit for the recent outbreak of violence, the terrorist organization Hamas. Hamas has even admitted its involvement in the violence when a Hamas official proudly announced that 50 of the 62 killed were members of Hamas.
The United States affirms Israel’s right to defend itself. We also condemn in the strongest terms actions by Hamas and other militant groups.
The recent outbreak of violence is part of a broader pattern of incitement to violence perpetrated by Hamas and its partners. In recent days, multiple news organizations have documented the Hamas incitement in Gaza. They have reported that Hamas maps and social media show the fastest routes to reach Israeli communities in case demonstrators make it through the security fence. They have reported on Hamas messages over loudspeakers that urge demonstrators to burst through the fence, falsely claiming Israeli soldiers were fleeing, when in fact, they were not. The same loudspeakers are used by Hamas to urge the crowds to “Get closer! Get closer!” to the security fence.
Hamas allegedly encouraged demonstrators to attack the Kerem Shalom crossing, the biggest entry point in Gaza for fuel, food, and medical supplies. They have sent burning kites adorned with swastikas across the fence, and taken other actions that place civilians’ lives in jeopardy. This is the real story of what is happening in Gaza, and it is clear that Hamas is to blame for the outbreak of violence.
If you want to buy “Above and Beyond”…
Hi Folks
Following our successful showing of “Above and Beyond” on Sunday as part of our efforts to commemorate Israel at 70, a number of people came forward asking how to purchase the DVD.
It is indeed an accelerating and deeply moving story. A boy’s own adventure tinged with sadness and euphoric victory but in real life.
You can purchase it through our online store. Payment and order fulfilment is through Amazon but you don’t pay any extra. The good news is that a portion of your purchase price is donated by Amazon to fighting prejudice and intolerance through NZFOI.
If you want to purchase through our online store, click this link: https://www.nzfoi.org/product/above-and-beyond/
Add the quantity you require to the box next to the picture, then click “Add to Cart” and follow the screens from there.
The 1190 Massacre | History of York
A friend of ours, Naftali Gross recently participated in a debate about BDS in York, UK. While there he visited the local castle where the Jews of York were massacred in 1190.
At the foot of Clifford’s Tower a plaque marks the darkest chapter in the history of York’s Jewish community.
On March 16th 1190 a wave of anti-Semitic riots culminated in the massacre of an estimated 150 Jews – the entire Jewish community of York – who had taken refuge in the royal castle where Clifford’s Tower now stands. The chronicler William of Newburgh described the rioters as York acting “without any scruple of Christian conscientiousness” in wiping out the Jewish community. And William was not the only chronicler to record these lamentable acts, as the Chronicles of the Abbey of Meaux in East Yorkshire, and Roger of Howden include accounts.
Anti-Semitic feeling was running high throughout western Europe in the twelfth century, stoked by the Christian fervour of the Crusades, that directed aggression against Jews across England, France and Germany, as well as against Muslims in the Holy Land. England’s new king Richard I was about to set off on Crusade himself.
Rioting had spread throughout England since prominent Jews, including Benedict of York, had been denied entry to King Richard I’s coronation banquet in 1189. Benedict was the wealthiest Jew of York and he was mortally wounded in the rioting at Westminster.
“Polish death camp” controversy | Wikipedia
“Polish death camp” and “Polish concentration camp” are misnomers[1][disputed ] that have been used in news media and by some public figures in reference to concentration camps that were built and run during World War II by Nazi Germany in German-occupied Poland.
When used about the Jewish Holocaust or about Germany’s World War II murder of Poles or persons of other nationalities in German-operated facilities on German-occupied Polish soil, these expressions have generally been meant to refer to the camps’ geographic locations in German-occupied Poland, but they can be misconstrued as meaning “death camps set up by Poles” or “run by Poles” or “run by Poland”.[2] Polish officials, organizations, and private citizens, in Poland and among the Polish diaspora, have objected to such expressions as misleading. They fear that such phrases will be understood by the uninformed as meaning that Poles operated the camps.[3]
On 6 February 2018 an Amendment to the Act of 18 December 1998 on the Institute of National Remembrance and the Commission for Prosecution of Crimes against the Polish Nation was signed into law by Polish President Andrzej Duda. It criminalizes false public statements that ascribe to the Polish nation collective responsibility in Holocaust-related crimes, crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, or war crimes or which “grossly reduce the responsibility of the actual perpetrators”. Exempted from such strictures are scholarly studies, discussions of history, and artistic activities.[4] It is generally understood that the law will criminalize use of the expressions “Polish death camp” and “Polish concentration camp”.[5][6][7]
While the Government of Israel and Jewish organizations such as the American Jewish Committee discourage use of such expressions as misleading,[8] they view the new Polish legislation as an attempt to restrict discussion of the culpability of some Poles in the Holocaust. Some Israelis have gone so far as to accuse the Polish government of Holocaust denial.[9][10] However, the original 1998 Act was already a law against Holocaust denial,[11] criminalizing “public denial, against the facts, of Nazi crimes, communist crimes, and other offenses constituting crimes against peace, crimes against humanity or war crimes, committed against persons of Polish nationality or against Polish citizens of other nationalities, between 1 September 1939 and 31 July 1990″.[12]
The Polish government initiated a campaign in support of the Amendment, using social media and broadcasts directed at Israel, the United States, and other countries.[13][14][15]
The Day We Burned Our Neighbors Alive | Tabletmag
There has been a lot of controversy in recent weeks as Poland wrestles with how to deal with the Holocaust. This book may be seen as part of that nation’s journey.
Anna Bikont appeared at the Museum of Jewish Heritage in New York on Oct. 22, 2015, in conversation with Tablet magazine literary editor David Samuels.
“I can’t sleep at night. I see it as if it were yesterday. … That terrifying scream that probably didn’t last for more than two minutes, it’s still inside me.” The woman speaking these words was 10 years old on July 10, 1941, when she saw her fellow Poles driving their Jewish neighbors into the barn. Schoolboys jeered at their Jewish classmates, hounding them toward death. Mothers wrapped their babies tight as they tried to shield them against the blows. Within minutes nearly all the town’s Jews—hundreds of them, from infants to old people—would be burned alive. The 10-year-old girl at the window watched the townspeople of Jedwabne pour gasoline at the barn’s four corners and set it alight. Then came the scream.
This account comes from Anna Bikont’s book The Crime and the Silence, which appeared in 2004 in Polish and six years later in French (it won the European Book Prize in 2011) but has just now been translated into English by Alissa Valles. In her work as a reporter for the Gazeta Wyborcza, the liberal Polish newspaper, Bikont has done obsessive, heroic work, interviewing witnesses, perpetrators, and survivors of the Jedwabne massacre and similar mass killings of Jews in the nearby towns of Radzilow and Wasosz. She has discovered a bizarre psychological phenomenon: The townspeople of Jedwabne still insist that they are the victims of Jewish slander. The massacre, they say, was perpetrated either by a few thugs, probably people from out of town, or by the Germans.
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz is one of the few lawyers, who clearly stand out of the crowd. Alan has earned the reputation of being a lawyer who ‘turned the tables completely’ in few high profile cases that he argued for. One such famous case was that of ‘Clause Von Bulow’. Most of the cases that he took up ended with successful results.
Dershowitz recently visited New Zealand as a guest of Minter Ellison and the Raye Freedman Trust. He gave a fascinating interview to Radio New Zealand. Click the media player below to listen. Enjoy.
Other than just sticking to his routine of appearing at courts for his various clients, Alan has also voiced his opinions about various social and political issues plaguing the world. He has penned dozens of books over the years, where he has spoken about problems such as the Israel-Palestine hostility, cruelty towards animals, and hypocrisies which have existed in the world for ages.
He has written hundreds of articles for various Newspapers such as ‘The Wall Street Journal’, ‘The New York Times Magazine’ and ‘Huffington Post’, with the content ranging from academic issues to terrorism. Alan has been often invited by many universities to address their students. Even after almost five decades of judicial service, Alan continues to lend his opinions in matters of legal concern.
