What's New

Resources updated between Monday, September 11, 2017 and Sunday, September 17, 2017

September 15, 2017

Supporters of Hezbollah

Iran pays $830 million to Hezbollah Article

UN peacekeepers in the Central African Republic (File photo)

UN Watchdog Organization: UN mishandling Central African Republic abuse claims Article

The General Debate held at the UN General Assembly (File photo)

Keep Your Eye on the U.N.'s Fat Kleptocats Article

President Donald J. Trump (File photo)

Trump administration backs bill to halt aid to Palestinians Article

Former U.S. Ambassador to the UN John Bolton (File photo)

Former UN Ambassador John Bolton dismisses U.S. reform effort at UN as "just the usual rhetoric" Article

A burning device on the London Underground carriage

Manhunt after 'terror incident' at London Tube station Document

A TV screen in Tokyo reporting news about the North Korean missile launch

North Korea Fires Ballistic Missile Over Japanese Airspace Again Article

King Salman, left, with his son, now Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Salman

King's forces arrest prominent Saudis in warning to critics Document

September 14, 2017

UN Special Rapporteur Mutuma Ruteere, whose report to the UN General Assembly contained the claim that no religious fanaticism exists in Saudi Arabia (File photo)

Saudi Arabia has reassured the United Nations that religious fanaticism "does not exist...in any form" in its country. The statement is found in a new report to the UN General Assembly produced by the UN's Special Rapporteur or expert on "racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance." The report of Mutuma Ruteere, who is from Kenya, is dated August 4, 2017.

The Saudis sent a communication to be included in Ruteere's report, which also includes this Saudi self-analysis: "religious fanaticism does not exist in Saudi Arabia in any form, nor is any minority made to suffer from harassment." The patently false claim is simply reproduced and left unchallenged in the new UN report. The UN expert instead responded: "[t]he Special Rapporteur wishes to thank all those who contributed to the present report" - including Saudi Arabia.

In Saudi Arabia's words:

"49. The Government has informed the Special Rapporteur that there are no Nazi groups or fanatics in Saudi Arabia...The Government has informed the Special Rapporteur that religious fanaticism does not exist in Saudi Arabia in any form, nor is any minority made to suffer from harassment. Such behaviour constitutes a criminal act under Saudi law..."

Actually, according to Freedom House's latest 2017 report on the country, "Islam is the official religion, and all Saudis are required by law to be Muslims. A 2014 royal decree punishes atheism with up to 20 years in prison. The government prohibits the public practice of any religion other than Islam and restricts the religious practices of the Shiite and Sufi Muslim minority sects." Moreover, 15 of the 19 terrorists on 9/11 were Saudis, and as of December 2016 more than 2,000 Saudis were fighting abroad with terrorist organizations.

Saudi Arabia is an elected member of the UN's top human rights body, the UN Human Rights Council.

UN Report: "Religious Fanaticism Does Not Exist in Saudi Arabia" Development

Border Police officers at the scene of an attempted stabbing attack near Hebron, September 23, 2016

Attempted Palestinian stabbing thwarted near Hebron Document

September 13, 2017

The brochure distributed at UN Headquarters, September 11, 2017

Pakistan, candidate for spot on UN "Human Rights" Council, spreads lies about its human rights record at UN Development

Senior White House adviser Jared Kushner (L) with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah, August 24, 2017

Facing U.S., Israeli pressure, Palestinians pull bid to join UN tourism body Article

September 12, 2017

U.S. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand, who withdrew her co-sponsorship of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act in August (File photo)

At least two Democratic legislators have withdrawn their support for a bill aimed at countering a UN-led discriminatory boycott effort against Israel. Illinois Rep. Bobby Rush withdrew his co-sponsorship of the House version on September 5, 2017 from the "Israel Anti-Boycott Act". New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand withdrew her co-sponsorship from the Senate version in August.

The Anti-Boycott Act was introduced by Republican Senator Rob Portman (Ohio) March 23, 2017 in response to the UN Human Rights Council's adoption of a resolution that mounts a Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. The resolution has spawned the creation of a blacklist - euphemistically entitled by the UN a "database" - of companies directly or indirectly doing business in Arab-claimed territory. Rather than negotiate with Israel - and thus recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state - over final ownership of territory, the UN resolution and its Palestinian sponsors aim to strangle Israel economically.

The Anti-Boycott Act would prohibit U.S. entities from participating in boycotts or requests for boycotts imposed by international governmental organizations, including the UN, against Israel.

As of September 12, 2017, the Senate version has 48 co-sponsors (35 Republicans, 13 Democrats) while the House version has 253 co-sponsors (187 Republicans, 66 Democrats), excluding the withdrawn co-sponsorships of Rep. Rush and Sen. Gillibrand.

Democrats are showing their true colors on Israel by withdrawing co-sponsorship from Israel Anti-Boycott Act Article

An Iranian missile (File photo)

Options to Cease Implementing the Iran Nuclear Agreement Document

September 11, 2017

Members of the Salomon family, killed in a terror attack in their home on July 21, 2017

UN Human Rights Chief blames Israel for exercising self-defense, ignores Palestinian terrorism Development

Former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton (File photo)

"Speaking during a radio interview, former United Nations ambassador to the UN John Bolton advocated for the Trump administration to withhold funding to the U.N. Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), which ministers to Palestinian 'refugees.'

Bolton argued the financing should be held back until UNRWA is abolished and any of its 'legitimate functions' absorbed into the office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, which attends to all refugees worldwide besides Palestinians.

'I think that UNRWA ought be abolished and it's legitimate functions folded into the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, which, as you mentioned, is the UN agency that deals with everybody else," stated Bolton.

'It is anomalous to say the least that refugee status can be deemed to be inheritable. That is something that the world has never seen before. And I have seen UNRWA's work on the ground. And it is highly politicized.'

Continued Bolton on UNRWA: 'Its culture is very anti-Israel. It would be anti-American more visibly if we didn't give it hundreds of millions of dollars every year. And I think the only way to shake things up is to abolish this agency and to put its functions into the High Commissioner's office.'..."

John Bolton: Time to Abolish UN's Palestinian 'Refugee' Agency Article

The United Nations logo

Will Trump Conquer the United Nations?

Armed French police officer (file photo)

A French Jewish leader and his family were assaulted in their home near Paris in what representatives of French Jewry said was an anti-Semitic attack.

In the attack Thursday night, three men, two of whom were wearing masks, broke into the home of Roger Pinto, the president of Siona, a group that represents Sephardic Jews. The attackers beat Pinto's son and wife in the home in the northeastern suburb of Livry Gargan, the Dreuz news website reported Sunday.

One of the attackers said: "You Jews have money," according to the family members.

The family members told police that the attackers, who they said were black men in their 20s or 30s, took their credit cards and jewelry, interrogated them for hours about additional items them could steal and threatened to kill them. The men ran away after Roger Pinto managed to discretely call rescue services on a mobile phone.

The Pintos were taken to hospital for treatment. They suffered some minor injuries and were deeply traumatized, the report said.

The incident, one of several cases in France in recent years in which criminals apparently singled out Jews based on the belief that they have money, provoked passionate condemnations from the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities and the National Bureau of Vigilance Against Anti-Semitism. Both groups said the incident was an anti-Semitic attack.

Bernard-Henri Levy, the French Jewish philosopher, agreed, writing on Twitter Sunday: "Shocked by the anti-Semitic attack Friday night [sic] in Livry-Gargan. Solidarity with Roger Pinto and his family, the victims."

In an unusual move, the Israeli ambassador to France, Aliza Bin-Noun, also condemned the incident on Twitter and asserted it was an anti-Semitic attack.

In 2014, three men broke into the home of a Jewish family in Creteil near Paris. One of them raped a young woman there while another guarded her boyfriend, whom they took prisoner. A third took the couple's credit card to extract cash from an ATM machine. They too allegedly said they targeted the couple because they are Jewish.

Occurring amid a major increase in anti-Semitic violence in France accompanying Israel's war with Hamas in Gaza that year, the Creteil incident echoed for many the traumatic murder and torture in 2006 of Ilan Halimi, a Jewish phone salesman who was abducted by a gang led by a career criminal with a history of targeting mostly Jewish victims.

Some French Jews regard Halimi's murder as the turning point in the emergence of a wave of violence against Jews in France and Belgium, in which more than 12 people have died since 2012 in at least three jihadist attacks on Jewish targets.

French Jewish family beaten in anti-Semitic home invasion Document

U.S. Senator Ted Cruz addressing a pro-Israel rally (File photo)

"Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely (Likud) headed to Washington DC Monday morning for meetings with Trump administration officials and members of Congress, in part to promote the Foreign Ministry's efforts to end the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and the special status it has extended to generations of Arabs living across the Middle East.

While most refugees supported by the United Nations are aided through the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), aid to Palestinian Arabs claiming refugee status has been administered by UNRWA.

Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA has permitted Arab refugees to transmit their status to their descendants, creating second, third, fourth, and even fifth-generation "refugees" who born and raised in Arab states including Jordan, Lebanon, and Syria, yet categorized by the UN as "Palestinian refugees". While the UNRWA counted some 750,000 Palestinian Arabs as refugees in 1949, the number has risen nearly sevenfold since, with over 5 million now claiming refugee status through UNRWA.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry and some members of Congress have called for an end to the perpetual refugee status accorded to Palestinian Arabs, pushing for UNRWA to be dissolved as an independent agency and incorporated into the larger UNHCR...

Senator Ted Cruz (Texas-R), who earlier this year proposed the US nix funding for the UN over its anti-Israel bias, is scheduled to meet with Hotovely during her Washington trip to coordinate their efforts against the UN agency..."

U.S. congressmen and Israeli officials team up to take on UN agency Article