70 attorneys learn how to counter anti-Israel boycott, lawfare efforts worldwide • Participants volunteer to represent Israeli interests for free.

THIS IS WHAT THEY ARE BEING TAUGHT

Edna Adato and Israel Hayom Staff

Some 70 attorneys from around the world arrived in Israel over the weekend to attend a special seminar hosted by Shurat Hadin, the Israel Law Center organization, on how best to fight the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement and lawfare efforts against Israel worldwide.

The seminar, scheduled to take place between June 29 and July 5, will feature lectures on combating BDS and other anti-Semitic movements, fighting terrorism sponsoring, litigation on behalf of terror victims, and defending Israeli soldiers against allegations of war crimes.
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Chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee Nissan Slomiansky says judicial restraint is key to court’s legitimacy, and that past rulings alienated large segments of the population • Israel’s constitution is the Bible, he notes.

By Gideon Allon,  ISRAEL HAYOM

MK Nissan Slomiansky (Habayit Hayehudi) became the chairman of the Knesset Constitution, Law and Justice Committee only a few weeks ago, but that has not stopped him from issuing an orderly agenda with specific goals.

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Slomiansky does not hold his punches when it comes to the Supreme Court, and is particularly troubled by the judicial activism that defined Chief Justice Aharon Barak’s court between 1995 and 2006. Although Barak retired some eight years ago, Slomiansky says the repercussions are still felt.

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T. Belman. If Erdogan goes ahead with this invasion, the 10 million Turkish Kurds living in south east Turkey along the Syrian border will rebel and push for cessation. So Turkey risks huge domestic problems in doing so. Also Isis has its eye on Turkey just as it has on Saudi Arabia and Jordan. The bell will soon toll for Turkey.

The Turkish military is not enthusiastic and Washington may have its doubts, but President Erdogan appears determined to set up a buffer zone.

DAILY BEAST

ISTANBUL—Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is planning a military intervention into northern Syria to prevent Syrian Kurds from forming their own state there, despite concerns among his own generals and possible criticism from Washington and other NATO allies, according to reports in both pro- and anti-government media.
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U.N. Human Rights Council to vote on whether to adopt the report’s conclusions • NGOs assembling panel of military, legal experts to refute biased conclusions • Shurat Hadin-Israel Law Center seeks disqualification of ICC chief prosecutor Fatou Bensouda.

By Shlomo Cesana, ISRAEL HAYOM

By Evelyn Gordon, COMMENTARY

In the four days since the UN Human Rights Council published its report on last summer’s war in Gaza, commentators have pointed out numerous ways in which it is bad for Israel, the Palestinians and the prospects of a two-state solution. But focusing solely on the local consequences obscures the fact that this report is part of a broader campaign with much more ambitious goals: depriving the entire West of any conceivable weapon – military or nonmilitary – against terrorist organizations and thereby leaving it no choice but capitulation. And though the UN report captured all the attention, the assault on nonmilitary means was also active this week.
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Far from the genuine respect you would expect from a former Israeli ambassador, Oren seems to view America’s Jews as unreliable and quick to criticize the Jewish state.

By Rabbi Eric H Yoffie, HAARETZ

Michael Oren ca me to see American Jews as unreliable in their support of Israel, quick to criticize the Jewish state, and unable to appreciate Israel’s vulnerabilities. In his eyes, they were unsure of their own position in America. This made them incurable do-gooders, forever babbling about Tikkun Olam, and more inclined to help others than their own. To Oren’s dismay, the harder he worked, the more critical of Israel the community became.

I have finally finished reading “Ally” by Michael Oren. I was not surprised, or even deeply distressed, by the things that infuriated so many others. What bothered me was something else altogether: Michael Oren, it turns out, does not much like American Jews. In fact, he appears to view them with considerable disdain.
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By Sam Sokol, JPOST

Israel’s counter-boycott strategy needs a comprehensive overhaul, providing efforts to combat the delegitimization of the Jewish state with high level support and funding in order to move beyond mere rhetoric, a prominent Jerusalem think tank told Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday.

The Jewish People Policy Institute briefed the premier during Sunday morning’s cabinet meeting, presenting the government with its annual assessment of the state of the Jewish people and calling for Israel to switch over to the offensive in waging public relations battles.

The report recommended that “the government promptly adopt an appropriately budgeted comprehensive strategy [to combat boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns], and task a senior government official, who reports directly to the prime minister, with coordinating its operational implementation.”
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Ankara (AFP) – Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey will never allow the establishment of a Kurdish state in Syria after major gains by Kurdish fighters.

In a strong-worded warning late on Friday, Erdogan accused the Kurds of ethnically cleaning other communities from land they have taken after pushing back Islamic State forces from the Turkish border.

“I say to the international community that whatever price must be paid, we will never allow the establishment of a new state on our southern frontier in the north of Syria,” Erdogan was quoted by Turkish media as telling guests at a dinner to break the Ramadan fast.
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By Manish Rai, TOI

Nearly a century after failing to achieve nationhood in the post-Versailles period, the Kurds are now on the move. A greater Kurdistan nation-state taken from the four countries where Kurds are minorities is improbable, although greater autonomy is growing within Turkey and Syria if not Iran, and an independent Iraqi Kurdistan is becoming more likely by the day. Kurds who are scoring significant victories over Islamic State are by far the most effective force fighting IS in both Iraq and Syria.

But they appear to intend on keeping all the ground they’ve taken from the notorious terrorist group for their own national project, endangering the larger cause of keeping these two battered nation-states in one piece, and raising the prospect of another war patiently waiting at the conclusion of the current one.
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The Jewish State in its true light.-

By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

These days Obama following the law would be news. Obama not following the law is just business as usual. So this is another case of Obama doing what he can to help terrorists while ignoring the limits on his powers.

No wonder he likes the PLO. It too is run by an unelected dictator.

Here’s what the issue is…

Two lawmakers are warning the Palestinian Authority (PA) that its economic assistance from the United States could be suspended because of its decision to initiate charges against Israel at the International Criminal Court (ICC).
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By Daniel Greenfield, FPM

We know that Barack Obama has said that one of the sweetest sounds is the Muslim call to evening prayer.  We know that he has repeatedly said that Islam is a religion of peace and — side-swiping Danish cartoonists who must now fear for their lives — told the UN that the future must not belong to those who slander the prophet of Islam. 

We know that Obama has been a proponent of the idea that “Islamophobia” is a heinous offense, comparable to racial and gender hatred.  We know that the President has allowed several individuals with ties to the Muslim Brotherhood to get jobs in his administration and that he, virtually alone among the leaders of the Western world, did not go to Paris to protest the slaughter at the offices of Charlie Hebdo and at a Jewish kosher restaurant.
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By Jeff Crouere, CFP

The pace of change impacting the United States of America is accelerating at an alarming rate. This week the Supreme Court bolstered ObamaCare by rewriting the law and sanctioning the subsidies that are the centerpiece of the program. On Friday, by a 5-4 margin, the justices legalized gay marriage in all 50 states. This sweeping decision rendered meaningless the vote of Americans in states across the nation.

In essence, these Supreme Court justices, a majority appointed by Republicans, have become a leading force in advancing the liberal agenda. According to research from the New York Times, 54% of the rulings in this term have been liberal, making it the most left wing Supreme Court in 46 years.
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T. Belman.  I urge you to read the dissent. In essence the court is taking upon itself the right to do things contrary to the Constitution.  Apparently America is suffering from the same problem as Israel suffers from, a Court run amok.  In both countries the Courts are assuming powers not granted to them and thus are acting undemocratically.
Ted Cruz on Court Rulings: ‘Darkest 24 Hours in Our Nation’s History’

By Cliff Kincaid, CFP

Commentators have missed the real significance of Justice Antonin Scalia’s dissent in the gay marriage case. He calls the decision a judicial “Putsch,” an attempt to overthrow a form of government—ours. His dissent, joined by Justice Clarence Thomas, was written “to call attention to this Court’s threat to American democracy.”

His comment about the Court using the kind of reasoning we find in a fortune cookie is a funny line. But there is much of the Scalia dissent that is not funny and which serves as a warning to the American people about what the Court has done to us.
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By Ted Belman

I fell in love with Michael Oren while reading the first paragraph of his much talked about book, Ally.

He tells the story of the influences in his life to which preceded being appointed Israel Ambassador to the USA. Born in 1955 on the east coast he experience antisemitic attacks which resulted in fist fights. Because his father fought in WWII in Europe, Michael was very early on indoctrinated by his father to fight for and defend the Jewish people. He was keenly aware of the Holocaust. He vividly recalls the fear just prior to the Six Day War and the elation just after the miraculous victory.
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Jonathan S. Tobin

Like most democracies but only more so, Israel’s political system is a confusing and often frustrating mess. So when the country began to develop the enormous reserves of offshore natural gas in recent years, the only impediment to the nation becoming an unlikely energy giant came from within, not from without. The legacy of the socialist economics practiced by it’s Labor Party founders and the cumbersome bureaucracy they created that existed more to regulate and retard development rather than speed stands as an ever-present threat to its ability to remain the world’sStart-Up Nation.
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“Islamism steals from Islam for its own totalitarian ambition,” says Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a physician and Muslim intellectual who defends Israel to the world • U.S. officials can’t distinguish between IDF volunteer and Muslim joining Islamic State, she says.

By Dror Eydar, TOI

These last few years, I have been toying with the idea of gathering an assembly of intellectuals, political leaders and public opinion leaders to discuss the perils and prospects of Western civilization. Men and women who understand Israel’s role as a dam protecting the Western world from flooding and ultimate drowning. People of truth who would be decent enough to explore the complexity of the Israeli story, who would be prepared to stand courageously by Israel and defend its just cause.

One woman I would invite to this fantasy assembly is Dr. Qanta Ahmed, a scientist, intellectual, journalist, physician who specializes in sleep disorders, and a practicing Muslim. Ahmed is an expert on, and ardent opponent of, Muslim radicalization, and a great supporter of the State of Israel.
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Some nations are united by a strong founding document. Israelis have only themselves, and that has been enough.

By Haviv Retig Gur, MOSAIC

Edward Grossman’s essay captures in an impressionistic sweep the intertwined fears, joys, and dangers that make up the present-day Israeli experience. Looming over it all is the distant yet imminent Persian menace—a menace that, Grossman fears, Israel’s fractured political class may not be up to. Hence his call for a new politics of unity in the Jewish state.

While the essay neatly captures much of the Israeli condition, something important is missing. Grossman’s question, “Can Israel Unite?” seems to be premised on the assumption that the factional nature of Israeli parliamentary politics somehow mediates and reflects a deeper absence of solidarity within Israeli society itself. But in an important sense, in the most important sense, Israel is already unified, however masked that fact may be by our arguably worsening culture of political divisiveness, problems of social marginalization, growing economic and educational disparities, and all the other challenges we face.
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Watch how quickly the bidding progresses.

T. Belman. I said virtually the same thing in my preface to my recent post US reiterated its concern with Israel’s use of force.

The US is doing everything they can to characterize this as a police action between us and Hamas. Anything but a war which has different rules of conduct. They refuse to see this as a war between the enemy entity Gaza and Israel. They ignore that Hamas was elected by the people and the people support their armed resistence. Why shouldn’t they suffer for it. The same thinking goes for rebuilding Gaza. G-d forbid the Gazans should pay the price. Unfortunately Israel is similarly at fault.

Instead of reiterating UN report is biased and political and anti-Semitic, Israel should attack its fundamental weaknesses; it’s a shallow and unprofessional report, and that’s not hard to prove.

By Giora Eiland, YNET

Israel is rightfully slamming the conclusions of the United Nations commission of inquiry into Operation Protective Edge, but being right is not enough. We must also act more wisely.

Our resentment over the fact that the UN is treating us, a civilized country, with the same standards that it treats a terror organization like Hamas is understandable. But getting insulted in this case is the wrong approach. The right thing to do is to actually demand equal standards.
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