Dear Family & Friends,

The Jerusalem Post’s 4^th Annual Diplomatic Conference held today, Nov. 18^th at the new Waldorf Astoria Hotel in downtown Jerusalem was really spectacular, very high quality speakers, top government officials. I was there. Some results are printed herein but more to come.

The story about Sarah-Tehiya Litman whose father & brother were shot to death by Arab Muslims on Friday has postponed her scheduled wedding….but, some wonderful people are organizing a million guest wedding at Jerusalem’s largest site: Binyanei HaUma. She has invited everyone in Israel! I cry every time I tell someone about it! It’s on Thursday November 26^th, America’s Thanksgiving Day by coincidence. See the story in Arlene’s Good News Post of yesterday.

More on Paris. The euphemistic words for “Islamic Terror” are evaporating as the world absorbs the truth of today that Paris taught us, sadly necessary. However, President Obama still hasn’t called it by its name – so how can we fight it & defeat it – if we can’t name it?

A lovely, quarter moon floating in the clouds tonight.

Have a wonderful night; a safe day. All the very best, Gail/Geula/Savta/Savta Raba x 2/Mom

1.Arlene Kushner “A Specific Focus” November 17, 2015

6.

9.Jewish Teacher Stabbed in Marseilles by ISIS Supporters

10.Officials: ISIS Paris attack mastermind killed in raid

11.2 dead, 7 arrested in raid targeting Paris attack mastermind

1.Arlene Kushner “A Specific Focus” November 17, 2015

When last I posted, I wrote that – even though I chose to pass on writing about it in that particular post – there is always good news from Israel. And indeed this is so.

THIS is good news, very good news, although of an usual sort – preceded as it is by tragedy:

“Sarah-Tehiya Litman 21, whose father and brother were murdered by terrorists on Friday, and who was supposed to get married to Ariel Bigel on Tuesday [today], has announced that the wedding will only be postponed by nine days –and that the entire nation of Israel is invited. The wedding will be held at Binyanei Hauma in Jerusalem [a huge convention hall] on Thursday night – Nov. 26 – America’s Thanksgiving Day.

“The invitation-announcement is preceded by the phrase – ‘Do not rejoice over me, my enemy, for I have fallen but I have gotten up.’ (Micha 7:8)

“’This evening, instead of wearing the bridal dress, I will sit on the floor with a torn shirt,’ Sarah

told the newspaper Yediot Aharonot Tuesday. ‘But very soon, we will marry in a large and happy wedding. We will go on and be happy as Father and Netanel always were. We will not be crushed….Multitudes will come to make us happy.’”

Credit: Eliron Aharon

Sarah-Tehiya Litman 21 – a mourner & a bride – who lost her father and brother Friday, invites all of Israel to her wedding.

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203513#.VkssM5uhfIU

I wept when I read this. [Gail sez: Me, too!]

What an extraordinary people we are! How strong. Facing down terror and tragedy with love and rejoicing and mitzvot (commandments). I have seen it again and again, Jews who rise from tragedy to CHOOSE LIFE. Where a wedding is concerned, there is a special import: weddings are not to be postponed, unless it is essential to do so. For the creation of a new Jewish home should not be delayed.

And on the flip side, this is also good news:

The Security Cabinet has declared the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement in Israel – the more extreme branch of the Islamic Movement – an illegal organization. It has been headed by Sheikh Ra’ed Salah (pictured) of Umm el Fahm – a radical Arab town in the north.

Sheikh Ra’ed Salah Credit: AFP/Jack Guez

Defense Minister Ya’alon has signed a decree to this effect: any person or organization that offers services to the Movement will be operating in defiance of the law and will be jailed. The offices of 17 Islamic Movement-affiliated NGOs were shut down and several were searched. Computers were seized and bank accounts frozen.

Said the Cabinet announcement: “For years, the Northern Wing of the Islamic Movement has been leading a campaign of deception under the headline ‘Al Aqsa is in danger,’ which falsely accuses Israel of intending to damage the Al Aqsa mosque and break the status quo. Within this framework, the Northern Wing established an array of paid activists – the murabitun / murabitat – for the purpose of initiating provocations on the Temple Mount. This activity has led to a…escalation in tensions on the Temple Mount. Many of the terror attacks carried out recently were executed against the background of this incitement and propaganda.”

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/203503#.Vks1v5uhfIU

This is one of those “Mazel Tov! What took so long?” moments.

With regard to the terror attacks in Paris, there is so much to say that it cannot possibly all be addressed in one posting. I will undoubtedly be coming back to this again and again.

Today I wanted to offer a brief look at the situation from a particular perspective.

Shimon Samuels – who works from Paris as Director for International Relations for the Simon Wiesenthal Center – has an op-ed in today’s JPost that is particularly insightful and forthright.

Credit: snipview

In “What began with the Jews, has crossed a new threshold for Europe” (emphasis added), Samuels writes: ”The Charlie Hebdo/Jewish supermarket attacks of January 2015 followed years of anti-Semitic terrorism in Europe and Israel which have now led over the edge of the abyss into general mayhem.
”Despite the French government’s welcome measure of placing armed military personnel outside vulnerable Jewish targets, a cognitive disconnect has continued in media and political rejection of the features common to European and Israeli victimology.
”A London Metropolitan police official at September’s Counter-Terrorism Summit in Israel expressed his concern with Islamic State, al-Qaida and Boko Haram, but admitted that Hamas and Hezbollah did not reach his radar screen.
”Yet all jihadists view the Jew as a tactical target within a consortium of enemies…The strategic target is the delicate fabric of democracy itself.
”In the slum belts around French cities, twin cries in Arabic now resonate among native-born Islamists,fired up by jihadist imams and Internet sites: “Maut al Yahud” (Death to the Jews) and “Na’al Fransa” (Curse France).
”These young Europeans, recruited to IS in Syria/Iraq or Pakistani Koranic schools, are now returning home as trained murderers…
”These black-uniformed, suicide-belted, “Allahu Akbar” shrieking “martyrs,” crouched and swiveled their Kalashnikovs in 360 degree turns, for maximum carnage. Multiple locations for simultaneous assaults augmented general panic and confusion, especially for security and first responders.
”These are the appurtenances of Middle East terrorism – honed over years against Israel – now transplanted to European soil.
”Yet Europe appeases these forces of evil by supporting and endorsing the demonization subsets underpinning the terrorism against Israeli civilians: boycott, now called ‘labeling’ of Jewish export products; a defensive fence labeled ‘apartheid wall’; a ‘right to return’ campaign for the great-great grandchildren of refugees from 1948 British Mandate Palestine; their current leaders’ theft of Jewish heritage and the constant attrition of anti-Israel UN resolutions disproportionate to the condemnation of any other member state.

”Paris is only a way station as London, Berlin, Amsterdam, Brussels and Rome take preventive measures. As Europe rebuilds its border fences, profile-sifting trained and potential jihadists among the current refugee wave, perhaps opinion will now bridge that cognitive synaptic association, that was so axiomatic for Simon Wiesenthal, ‘what starts with the Jews never ends with them!’ A maxim that can be paraphrased as: ‘The suicide bombings, intifadas, knife stabbings, car rammings that began in Israel do not end there!’ Anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism, anti-Israelism in Europe only serve the mutual enemies of both Israel and Europe.”

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/What-began-with-the-Jews-has-crossed-a-new-threshold-for-Europe-434290

We heard Prime Minister Netanyahu saying after the Paris attacks that all terrorism is the same, that there are no “good terrorists” and “bad terrorists,” that he expects the concern of the world for our losses to terrorism as well.

But the world does not hear this, and somehow manages to rationalize the terror attacks against us as being “our fault” because we are “occupiers,” or whatever. This is worst sort of libel, which manages to give terrorists here the impression that the world somehow “understands” them.

This is not only a grave injustice to Israel, it facilitates further terrorism. And at its heart is anti-Semitism, in particular European anti-Semitism.

In the very same issue of the JPost, there is a piece by Manfred Gerstenfeld, an expert in European anti-Semitism and emeritus chair of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs.

In “Suggestions for the anti-Semitic slurs list,” Gerstenfeld speaks about the list the Simon Wiesenthal Center puts out at the end of the year of leading perpetrators of major anti-Israel and anti-Semitic slurs and incidents.

“This list,” writes Gerstenfeld, “serves as a principal address for identifying these perpetrators and to some extent bringing them to account.”

And what does he see as a foremost candidate forGaza War Diary Tue.- Wed. Nov. 17-18, 2015 Day 502-503 1am list? Why, the EU, of course.

“More than 40 percent of EU citizens of 16 and older agree with the statement that Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians. This is not only a sign of Europe’s on-going moral degeneration, it is also partly the result of EU incitement against Israel…

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Suggestions-for-the-anti-Semitic-slurs-list-434293

A paradox then. I have been feeling that we here in Israel stand separate from the rest of the world. Yet, at the same time, we are at the center of things.

More soon…

Here I want to end by honoring Sarah Litman and Ariel Bigel, who were supposed to marry tonight, by sharing a video of a bedeken, a traditional veiling ceremony. Actually there are two ceremonies on this video clip (the second one starting at about 2:45). Some of you may have participated in this traditional custom, for others it will be new. The veil is supposed to drawn over the bride by the groom so that, it is said, he is not – as our father Ya’akov was when he was given Leah instead of Rachel to marry – fooled into marrying the wrong woman. The groom is accompanied by his friends and male relatives in a procession to his bride, who awaits him as a queen on her throne, surrounded by her friends and female relatives.

This is the real stuff. The music is classic, as is the boisterous sense of joy and celebration. And there is something intimate and emotional about it.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2BSN2v3Nxgk

© Arlene Kushner. This material is produced by Arlene Kushner, functioning as an independent journalist. Permission is granted for it to be reproduced only with proper attribution. If it is reproduced and emphasis is added, the fact that it has been added must be noted. See my website at www.arlenefromisrael.info Contact Arlene at akushner18@gmail.com

2.EU envoy: Europe is not boycotting Israel or ‘settlements’

Charges of anti-Semitism over EU decision to label Jewish products are ‘belittlement of Nazi crimes,’ EU envoy asserts. By Cynthia Blank Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com First Publish: 11/18/2015, 7:31pm

EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen lashed out Wednesday at critics of the body’s controversial decision to label Jewish products made in Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights. “Talk of a European boycott just does not stand up to a reality check,” he asserted at the Jerusalem Post’s Diplomatic Conference. “Let me say loud and clear: Europe is not boycotting Israel, and Europe is not boycotting settlements.”

Faaborg-Andersen further claimed that “settlement products” will continue to be marketed in Europe and stressed that the EU’s relations with Israel were among the “closest, most diverse and most intense the EU has with any non-member state.”

Noting the increase in trade between Israel and the EU, the ambassador appeared baffled by Israeli criticism over the issue of labeling.

He said the EU had been “accused of a variety of sins” by Israeli officials since the decision was handed down – including anti-Semitism, hypocrisy, rewarding terrorism & destroying Palestinians jobs.

“I’ve been shocked to hear claims of anti-Semitism and historical comparisons or analogies to the persecution of Jews in Germany in the 30s and 40s,” Faaborg-Andersen declared. “In my mind this is a distortion of history and belittlement of the crimes of the Nazis, and the memory of their victims.”

He also dismissed claims of European hypocrisy that such labeling is limited only to Israel – and ignores around 200 other cases of territorial disputes worldwide – by contending that “these comparisons are simply not relevant because the situations are different.”

The ambassador then charged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu with hypocrisy, arguing it was his duty to explain how a “commitment to the two-state solutions fits with the continued construction of settlements.”

Faaborg-Andersen suggested construction in Judea-Samaria is a “major obstacle” to achieving a peace agreement with the Palestinian Arabs.

Concluding, the ambassador reiterated that the European Union could not be accused of boycotting the Jewish state, as it continues to strengthen its cooperation with Israel.

Despite the EU envoy’s criticism of Israel’s presence in the Biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, the 2012 Levy Report proved that presence is legal according to international law.

Related Stories

· Congressmen demand US stop EU labeling; Hamas: EU labeling ‘a step in the right direction’; Obama approves of EU labeling of Jewish products; MK: Israel to blame for EU labeling rules; ‘EU labeling is characterized by hatred of Israel’; Bennett: Terror groups rejoicing over labeling; ADL: EU labeling ‘counterproductive’; Just who is Europe harming?; Israel suspends meetings with EU over labeling

EU envoy: Europe is not boycotting Israel or ‘settlements’

&&& from the JPost.com

BREAKING NEWS

3.EU Ambassador to Israel: Talk of European boycott is not true By JPOST.COM STAFF 11/18/2015 14:32

Ambassador of the European Union Lars Faaborg-Andersen stressed on Wednesday that Europe is not boycotting Israel or the settlements. “Don’t confuse fact with fiction,” he told the Jerusalem Post Diplomatic Conference.
The ambassador expressed shock at hearing claims of anti-Semitism and invocation of the Holocaust with regard to the EU decision to label products from the Israeli settlements. “This is insulting to the memory of the Holocaust,” he asserted.
“How can a partner and friend invest millions of Euros in Israel and still be accused of boycotting it?” he asked, further noting that since Britain introduced labeling of Israeli settlement products, trade between the countries has doubled.

6.

Into the Fray: Preserving the Jewish nation-state-The imperative for a political ‘Iron Dome’ By MARTIN SHERMAN JPost.com 11/12/2015 21:10 OPINION

The strategic imperative for a political ‘Iron-Dome’ to intercept incoming barrages of demonization & de-legitimization launched daily at Israel

Soldiers stand next to an Iron Dome battery.. (photo credit:REUTERS)

Austria… undertook after the Second World War a sophisticated campaign to minimize the then-prevalent impression in the Allied world that the Austrians, having welcomed Hitler in 1938… Through cultural attractions – the Vienna Opera, Vienna Boys Choir, Lippizaner horses – Austria was eminently successful in changing that overall impression [which] made the world believe that Hitler was a German and Beethoven an Austrian– Walter R. Roberts, member of the US Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, “Public Diplomacy: Rethinking an Old Concept at Department of State Senior Seminar,” Washington, 1997

The lack of an adequate PD [public diplomacy] program has significantly affected Israel’s strategic outlook and freedom of action… Any further neglect of PD would not only restrict Israel’s strategic options, it would be detrimental to its ability to survive in an increasingly intolerant and hostile world which thinks sacrificing Israel’s vital interests or even the state itself would be a small price to pay for ending the global confrontation between the West and Islamic fundamentalism. – Eytan Gilboa, “Public Diplomacy: The Missing Component in Israel’s Foreign Policy,” November 28, 2006

Before I begin this week’s discussion, I should point out to readers that in the editing process of last week’s column, “Marshaling the intellectual arsenal to preserve the Jewish state,” several important sections were inadvertently omitted in the print version – which made for somewhat disjointed reading in places. This has been remedied in the online version – to which I refer readers, who may have had some understandable difficulty following my train of thought reading the print version.
Deadly debacle
The introductory excerpts demonstrate three things: What Israel could be doing, what Israel is not doing, and the terrible price it will incur if it continues not to do what it should – and could – be doing.
For, as Prof. Gilboa succinctly points out, Israel’s ongoing dismal defeat on the public diplomacy front has not only restricted its strategic options and constrained its freedom of action, it is beginning to jeopardize the country’s ability to survive “in an increasingly intolerant and hostile world [which] would think little of sacrificing Israel’s vital interests or even the state itself.”
Indeed, readers will recall last week I made the point that what Israel is confronted with is less a war of weapons and more a war of wits and will.
No matter how impressive Israel’s material achievements, unless it can prevail in the battle of information, ideas and images, it will not endure as the nation-state of the Jewish people in today’s interconnected world.
Perversely, for the Jewish state’s detractors its stunning successes are frequently proof of its guilt; its victories evidence of its crimes – all achieved at the expense of its alleged “victims,” and as a consequence of their alleged “repression.”
It is difficult to overstate the significance of the ominous consequences, looming ever-closer, of this ongoing, inexplicable and unacceptable debacle, which is likely to prove no less – indeed, arguably, even more – calamitous than that which left Israel unprepared for the Arab onslaught on Yom Kippur in 1973.
Sadly it is likely to be just as costly – indeed, arguably even more so – in terms of loss of life.
Increasing source of embarrassment?
Israel is in dire need of a dramatic sea-change in the manner in which it presents its case – not only in terms of the style and substance in which it conveys it, but in terms of the vigor and assertiveness in which it does so.
This is called for not only ‘vis-à-vis’ the international community, in order to rebuff the burgeoning challenges to its legitimacy. It is no less necessary for the Jewish people and increasingly harassed Jewish communities across the globe, where, rather than being a deserved source of pride, Israel is rapidly becoming an growing source of embarrassment, making identification with it more and more difficult, even hazardous.
But perhaps above all, it is most needed for its own citizenry, where the chronic lack of inspiring leadership is gnawing away at the nation’s sense of purpose, and hence its cohesiveness, resolve and resilience, spawning evermore bizarre and perilous proposals to stem the rising tide of censure and sanctions – which, if adopted, would make the country, demonstrably indefensible and untenable.
Recently, there have been signs of growing awareness of this need and the urgency of addressing it. The response, however, has been, at best, lethargic and the prescriptions for remedy, hopelessly inadequate – reflecting serious underestimation of the scale and scope of the problem.
The will to lose?
The persistent and pervasive phenomenon of continuing Israeli impotence and incompetence in the conduct of public diplomacy, despite astounding achievements in virtually every other field of human endeavor, has long been a vexing conundrum for many of the country’s staunchest supporters.
It is an enigma that I, too, have long grappled with, and after wracking my brains for well over a decade have come to a perturbing, but demonstrably inescapable, conclusion: Israel is losing the battle for hearts and minds across the world, for a very simple reason, very difficult to accept, yet very easy to prove: It simply does not want to win! I realize of course that such a startling allegation is likely to raise more than a few skeptical eyebrows, but as I said, it is eminently easy to prove its plausibility.
After all, if one wishes to determine the motivation of an organization to achieve an objective, clearly one of the most revealing indices is the amount of resources it allots for achieving it – with highly desired objectives being allotted commensurately high levels of resources, and vice versa.
Accordingly, when one encounters the pitiful resources assigned to Israel’s public diplomacy effort – less than a leading Israeli corporation spends on promoting one of its popular peanut-snacks – one is compelled to conclude that the objective of that effort – winning hearts & minds across the world – is not a high priority objective. In other words, Israel does not really want to win the crucial battle for public opinion! As loath as one might be to accept this, it is a conclusion starkly apparent from the “revealed preference” of successive elected governments, as reflected in their longstanding behavior.
Perverse tale of two ‘Iron Domes’
The reason for this frugality is, of course, not the availability of resources, but the preferences in assigning them. After all, as I have pointed out frequently, were Israel to allot a mere 1 percent of the state budget for public diplomacy, this would make $1 billion available for putting Israel’s case to the world.
Without even broaching, at this stage, the matter of the quality of the message to be conveyed, and the qualifications of the messengers intended to convey it, the mere weight of presence in the media such sums could generate is significant. It is clearly capable of making a substantial change in Israel’s ability to reach out to various publics across the globe, engage influential opinion-makers, and enhance its ability to respond to, and repulse, accusations of its attackers.
The perverse anomaly of Israeli miserliness with regard to its public diplomacy is highlighted by the comparison with the large amounts spent on projects such as the Iron Dome anti-missile system, designed to intercept inaccurate projectiles, with explosive charges usually no larger than about 20 kg.
Perverse tale (con’t)
While Iron Dome is undeniably a superb technological achievement, and undoubtedly saved many lives and prevented considerable damage in recent military encounters, its larger strategic value is far from undisputed.
For not only is it likely to be overwhelmed in a coordinated attack from several fronts, it has paradoxically allowed the Palestinians to attack Israel with greater impunity, secure in the knowledge that the damage caused by such attacks will not provoke Israel into a large-scale ground offensive, to seize and secure the areas from which they are launched. Accordingly, some have claimed that Iron Dome has, hitherto, protected the Palestinians no less than the Israelis.
By contrast, there can be little dispute over the strategic imperative for a political “Iron Dome” defense system, to intercept the incoming barrages of demonization, de-legitimization and degradation launched daily at Israel, effectively de-fanging the IDF, severely inhibiting its capacity to respond appropriately to enemy aggression and gravely undermining the security forces’ ability to provide the nation’s citizens with adequate security.
Yet to contend with this clear and present peril, only risible sums are assigned. Go figure.
The blame Bibi bears
While the need for a political Iron Dome seems painfully obvious, two things are less obvious, one of them more so than the other.
The first is why successive Israeli governments have consistently refrained from addressing this issue, despite the glaring and pressing urgency to do so. This question is especially acute in regard to the last three governments, headed by Benjamin Netanyahu, which perhaps more than most of its predecessors were subject to incessant and intensifying hostility from international sources – often fed and fanned by domestic antagonists.
It is possible to find plausible mitigating explanations for the often less-than-successful manner in which Netanyahu handled each of the harrowing situations he has been forced to contend with in the course of his tumultuous incumbency. However, what is far less clear, and less acceptable, is why, during the half-decade and more in which he has had headed the government, he has been so remiss in putting into place mechanisms and systems (read “political Iron Dome”) that could have prevented those situations from arising in the first place, or at least could have considerably reduced the severity of their impact.
I have written extensively on the reasons for this seemingly inexplicable paralysis in Israeli policy, formulated by allegedly assertive rightwing coalitions. In these analyses, I pointed to the phenomenon of what I have designated “the Limousine Theory.” This elucidates how entrenched, left-leaning civil society elites (the backseat occupants in the allegorical “limousine”) through their unelected positions of privilege and power effectively hijack the decision-making mechanisms from the elected politicians (the driver in said “limousine”) – and prevent them from implementing any policy inconsistent with their conciliatory left-wing agenda – including the conduct of an assertive, effective defense against Israel’s detractors, demanding perilous concessions from it.
Securing a political Iron Dome
Understanding this somewhat abstruse mechanism of cause and effect is crucial in being able to remedy the malignant outcomes we encounter in the Israeli political system.
This brings me to the second – and thornier – point. How can/should such an “Iron Dome” be structured to operate effectively? How can it be secured against the vagaries of Israeli politics and from being hijacked by those who would distort its intended purpose and divert it from its intended course? For it is one thing to advoc ate diverting vast sums of money for establishing the vigorous defense of Israel as the nation-state of the Jews, it is quite another to ensure its effective operation to attain that objective.
In previous “Into the Fray” columns – see for example “Intellectual warriors, not slicker diplomats” (February 20, 2013) – I have sketched a blueprint for the functioning of such an enterprise. This would be effected mainly through the use of government-funded NGOs (by means of an independent authority for strategic diplomacy under the auspices of the Prime Minister’s Office), unbound by the formalities of protocol and niceties of diplomatic etiquette, staffed by “intellectual warriors,” unfettered by constraints that limit the freedom of response (and initiative) of official organs of state.
Rechanneling of philanthropic funds
This of course leaves open the possibility of an “inappropriate” prime minister being elected, which brings me to my final point.
The chances of such a political Iron Dome enterprise being initiated from within the political system, no matter who gets elected, are slim to nil. Instead, the initial impetus must come from countervailing civil society elites and new centers of intellectual endeavor that can challenge – even replace – the back seat occupants in the allegorical limousine, so as to instruct the driver to head for a new destination.
However, that would require a radical restructuring of philanthropic philosophy by right-wing benefactors who traditionally have channeled their largesse toward charitable causes more concrete rather than conceptual…
But more on that next week in my fourth and final column on “Preserving Israel as the nation-state of the Jews” – subject of course to breaking news.
Martin Sherman (www.martinsherman.org) is founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies. (www.strategic-israel.org)

Here are your Dry Bones blog updates Dry Bones blog updates for winston@winstonglobal.org 7.Dry Bones by Ya’acov Kirschen “A 2 State Solution?” Support Dry Bones: http://www.igg.me/at/drybones%20- Dry Bones- Israel’s Political Comic Strip Since 1973 Dry Bones by Ya’acov Kirschen “A 2 State Solution?” At Charlie Hebdo, says Kerry, ‘There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale…’ US Secretary of State John Kerry (L) and US Ambassador to France Jane Hartley address reporters following their meeting with the French President at the Elysee palace in Paris on November 17, 2015 (Dominique Faget/AFP) US Secretary of State John Kerry came under fire for comments he made in Paris on Tuesday that appeared to explain the rationale driving the terrorists who attacked the editorial offices of the Charlie Hebdo satirical magazine in Paris in January. Arriving in Paris from the G20 summit in Turkey, Kerry — the first senior Obama administration official to visit France since the terror attacks on Friday in which at least 129 people were killed and more than 250 wounded — compared the two attacks and said the Charlie Hebdo attack, in which terrorists killed 11 people in January, had a clearer “rationale” than the more recent attacks. “There’s something different about what happened from Charlie Hebdo, & I think everybody would feel that,” Kerry said. “There was a sort of particularized focus & perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale that you could attach yourself to somehow & say, ‘Okay, they’re really angry because of this & that,’” he continued. “This Friday was absolutely indiscriminate. It wasn’t to aggrieve one particular sense of wrong. It was to terrorize people. It was to attack everything that we do stand for. That’s not an exaggeration.” Kerry was speaking to staff in the American embassy in Paris. Floral tributes laid on the ground during a minutes silence in Paris on Jan. 8, 2015, a day after Islamist gunmen attacked the offices of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo. (photo credit: AFP/ MARTIN BUREAU Republican presidential hopeful Jeb Bush later read aloud Kerry’s comments during a campaign stop in South Carolina and accused the secretary of state of empathizing with “barbaric” terrorists. “There should be no empathy and there’s no rationale for barbaric Islamic terrorists who want to destroy Western civilization,” he said. Colorado Senator Cory Gardner, also a Republican, tweeted: “I’m calling on Secretary Kerry to apologize for these offensive remarks. Terrorism is terrorism.” New York State Governor George Pataki, who announced his candidacy for president in May, called on Kerry to resign following the comments. “John Kerry should immediately resign or be fired. Saying there was a rationale for the Charlie Hebdo massacre is inexcusable,” he tweeted. At Charlie Hebdo, says Kerry, ‘There was a sort of particularized focus and perhaps even a legitimacy in terms of — not a legitimacy, but a rationale…’ The New York Times 4:09 PM ET Nov 18, 2015 Wed Nov 18 2015 9.Jewish Teacher Stabbed in Marseilles by ISIS Supporters News agencies and French news outlets are reporting that a teacher at a Jewish school in Marseilles was stabbed on the street on Wednesday by three people who appeared to profess support for the Islamic State militant group. Citing a prosecutor in Marseilles, Brice Robin, Reuters reported that the three people were riding on two scooters and that one of them was wearing an Islamic State T-shirt. They approached the teacher at about 8 p.m., shouted anti-Semitic insults at him and stabbed him in the arm and the leg, the agency quoted Mr. Robin as saying. Agence France-Presse quoted a police prefect, Laurent Nunez, as saying the teacher’s injuries were not life-threatening. The police were combing the area in search of the attackers, who fled the scene, the news agency said. Marseilles was the scene of another anti-Semitic stabbing in October, in which an assailant injured a rabbi and two worshipers outside a synagogue. The assailant was arrested shortly afterward. Jewish Teacher Stabbed in Marseilles by ISIS Supporters 10.Officials: ISIS Paris attack mastermind killed in raid Senior intelligence officials report that Abdelhamid Abaaoud was killed in the blasts in Paris raid. By Ari Yashar Arutz Sheva IsraelNationalNews.com Last Update: 11/18/2015, 8:23 PM Two senior intelligence officials revealed on Wednesday that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, the suspected Islamic State (ISIS) mastermind behind the lethal Paris attacks on Saturday, was killed in a raid in north Paris earlier in the day. The officials made the revelation to Washington Post on condition of anonymity. The statements have yet to be officially confirmed. Wednesday’s raid in Saint Denis was based on intelligence information indicating that Abaaoud, who is thought to have planned the six attacks in Paris that left 129 murdered, was in an apartment in the Parisian suburb. During the raid, a female terrorist, said by BFMTV to be a relative of Abaaoud, detonated her explosive belt in a suicide attack that took her life. Another suspect died by grenades and gunfire from the police. French interior minister Pierre-Henry Brandet told the French TV station that DNA tests are being conducted to identify a suspected third terrorist killed in the blast, after body parts of the third suspect were found in the rubble of the building. Those tests will officially confirm whether Abaaoud was killed in the raid. Five members of the French counter-terror unit were also lightly wounded in the raid, and an “assault dog” was killed. Aside from the dead terrorists, three suspects were arrested in the apartment and two others were found hiding in the rubble. Another two were also detained, including the owner of the apartment. Officials: ISIS Paris attack mastermind killed in raid 11.2 dead, 7 arrested in raid targeting Paris attack mastermind Soccer match called off in Germany, two Air France flights from the U.S. diverted due to bomb threats • Cellphone of one Paris terrorist found near Bataclan concert hall with text message saying “let’s go” • In Syria, France and Russia bomb more targets. News Agencies and Israel Hayom Staff Police forces prepare in Saint-Denis, a northern suburb of Paris, Wednesday A woman wearing an explosive suicide vest blew herself up Wednesday as heavily armed police tried to storm a suburban Paris apartment where the suspected mastermind of last week’s gun and bomb rampage was believed to be holed up, police said. They said one man was also killed and seven people had been arrested in the standoff, which began before dawn and continued more than five hours later. One person remained inside the apartment, but it wasn’t clear who. A senior police official said he believed that Abdelhamid Abaaoud, a Belgian Islamic State militant thought to have masterminded Friday’s deadly Paris attacks, was inside the apartment in the Paris suburb of Saint-Denis with five other heavily armed people when the raid began. The official, who was not authorized to be publicly named, said scores of police stormed the building and were met with unexpectedly violent resistance. Another police official said four police officers were injured. No hostages were being held. The Paris prosecutor’s office said SWAT teams arrested several people in the apartment. It said they haven’t been identified yet. Several additional suspects were detained near the apartment, the office said in a statement. French President Francois Hollande held an emergency meeting with senior ministers at the Elysee Palace to monitor the raid. French TV stations BFMTV & iTele both showed amateur video of Wednesday’s early morning shooting & cited witnesses in the area saying they had heard sporadic gunfire since around 4:30 a.m. BFMTV said some police were wounded during the operation, which took place near the Stade de France sports stadium, where three suicide bombers detonated their explosive belts and killed a passerby on Friday. Friday night’s attacks in the French capital, claimed by Islamic State terrorists, raised security concerns around the world, with an international soccer match called off in Germany and two Air France flights from the United States diverted on Tuesday. Also Tuesday, a cellphone was found near the site of one of Friday’s Paris shootings with a map of the Bataclan concert hall that was attacked and a text message saying “let’s go,” a source with knowledge of the investigations said. Confirming reports on French web site Mediapart and CNN, the source said the phone was found in a garbage receptacle near the Bataclan, where 89 people were killed. In Syria, meanwhile, France and Russia bombed Islamic State targets in retaliation for the coordinated Paris massacre and the downing of a Russian airliner over Sinai on Oct. 31, also believed to have been perpetrated by ISIS. French prosecutors have identified five of the seven dead assailants from Friday — four Frenchmen and a fifth man who was fingerprinted in Greece among refugees last month. But they now believe two men directly involved in the assault subsequently escaped. Late on Tuesday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration said two Paris-bound Air France flights were diverted following anonymous bomb threats, and hundreds of passengers and crew were safely removed. Flight 65, an Airbus A-380 that departed from Los Angeles, landed safely in Salt Lake City, where passengers and crew were escorted into the terminal, an FAA spokesman said. A separate flight that left Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C., Flight 55, was diverted to Halifax International Airport in Nova Scotia, Canada, where passengers & crew had also disembarked. The Halifax Airport tweeted that 262 passengers & crew members had been on board. In a brief statement, Air France said both flights had been the “subject of anonymous threats received after their respective takeoffs.” Earlier, bomb fears had prompted German police to call off a soccer match between Germany and the Netherlands in Hanover two hours before kickoff. German Chancellor Angela Merkel had been due to attend. No arrests were made and no explosives were found. “We had received specific indications that an attack with explosives was planned,” Hanover Police Chief Volker Kluwe told state broadcaster NDR. “We took them seriously, and that is why we took the measures.” Syrian targets hit by Russian long-range bombers and cruise missiles on Tuesday included the Islamic State stronghold of Raqqa. French warplanes also targeted Raqqa on Tuesday evening in the third such bombing raid within 48 hours. Paris and Moscow are not coordinating their operations, but Hollande has called for a global campaign against the radicals in the wake of the Paris attacks. Russian President Vladimir Putin vowed to hunt down those responsible and intensify airstrikes against Islamists in Syria. The Kremlin said Putin spoke to Hollande by telephone and had ordered the Russian navy to establish contact with a French naval force heading to the eastern Mediterranean, led by an aircraft carrier, and to treat them as allies. “Maybe today this grand coalition with Russia is possible,” French Defense Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian told TF1 television channel on Tuesday evening. Hollande will visit Putin in Moscow on Nov. 26, two days after the French leader is due to meet U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington to push for a concerted drive against ISIS, which controls large parts of Syria and Iraq. Obama said in Manila on Wednesday that he wanted Moscow to shift its focus from propping up Syria’s government to fighting Islamic State and would discuss that with Putin. 2 dead, 7 arrested in raid targeting Paris attack mastermind 12.PLO slams Sen. Ted Cruz for calling it terrorist group Republican Senator Ted Cruz tells Senate subcommittee that Palestine Liberation Organization, Iranian government have American blood on their hands • Palestinians slam “biased and inflammatory” hearing • Cruz: Not surprising PLO is upset by the truth. Associated Press and Israel Hayom Staff Republican presidential candidate Senator Ted Cruz Photo credit: AP The Palestine Liberation Organization on Thursday criticized Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz over a Senate hearing he oversaw on Palestinian and Iranian terrorism that it called “biased and inflammatory.” In an unusually harsh statement issued Thursday, the PLO said the Judiciary subcommittee hearing provided no Palestinian viewpoint and conflated all Palestinians with terrorists. The PLO expressed alarm at what it said was a growing trend in the United States to “dehumanize” Palestinians. In response, Cruz said, “It is not surprising a terrorist organization like the PLO is upset with the truths that were told at our hearing yesterday.” Cruz oversaw the Wednesday hearing titled “Justice Forsaken: How the Federal Government Fails the American Victims of Iranian and Palestinian Terrorism,” in which several public witnesses described acts of violence and complained about the Obama administration, arguing that its Justice Department has failed to prosecute terrorists who have killed and wounded Americans. Cruz, the first-term senator from Texas, opened the hearing with a vivid description of a Palestinian suicide bomber attack on a Jerusalem street several years ago that killed and wounded men, women and children. Cruz spoke of “Americans who have suffered greatly because of the horrific actions of Iranian and Palestinian terrorists,” and the recent surge of Palestinian terrorist attacks in Israel. “As bad as Palestinian terrorism has been, the Iranian government has more American blood on its hands,” said Cruz, who reiterated his opposition to the recent international deal to curb Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for sanctions relief. Among those who testified at the hearing was Kenneth J. Stethem, whose brother, Robert, was killed by Hezbollah terrorists during the 1985 hijacking of TWA Flight 847. “There has been no administration to date that has supported Iran and the Palestinian terrorist organizations more than the Obama administration,” Stethem said in his prepared testimony. Kent A. Yalowitz, an attorney, said he represented 11 American families who were victims of individuals working at the behest of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO. “Far from disowning these terrorists, the PA and PLO have kept them on the payroll and promoted them,” Yalowitz said in his prepared testimony. The PLO said the hearing failed to mention “recent acts of Israeli incitement,” including killings and collective punishment of the Palestinian people. “If there is a party to be condemned for their actions, it is Israel, which continues to defy international law with impunity because of the blind support it receives from people like Senator Cruz and other senators,” the organization said. “It is time for Israel apologists on the Hill to put U.S. national interests ahead of those of the current extreme right-wing government in Israel.” PLO slams Sen. Ted Cruz for calling it terrorist group .