On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: a criticism of the UNHRC special report on Israel, a condemnation of the outrageous decision by Brazil to call the Brazilian ambassador to Israel, which shows contempt for Israeli civilians under Hamas bombings in the last decade.

Listen to the full podcast below:

“Hamas encontró aliados en nuestra América, que sin duda creen que es más fácil atacar a una democracia que condenar a quien usa el terror como sistema, de lo contrario no se entendería ni el lenguaje que usan ni mucho menos las acciones que toman”, analizó. 

La alta comisionada de la ONU para los Derechos Humanos, Navi Pillay, dijo ayer durante una reunión del Consejo que “hay una alta posibilidad de que algunas acciones militares de Israel en Gaza puedan constituir “crímenes de guerra” para condenar las acciones militares del Ejército de Defensa Israelí en Gaza.

“Sra Pillay, usted y toda la ONU saben que los 3.000 misiles que ha recibido Israel en estos últimos 30 días son lanzados desde casas, edificios, mezquitas, hospitales donde lógicamente viven civiles, el que los retiene y los hace morir como mártires es Hamas. Entonces no se confunda sobre quienes comenten crímenes de guerra y quien está matando a su propia gente”, arremetió Eduardo Kohn, quien además acusó a los países latinoamericanos ante el conflicto.

“Brasil ha usado la retórica del uso desproporcionado de la fuerza y ha acusado a Israel de poner en peligro la estabilidad del Medio Oriente. Ha llamado a su embajador de Israel en consultas, una expresión que en estos casos significa una sola palabra: vergüenza”, enfatizó Kohn.

B'nai B'rith International made headlines in the financial world this week, signing off on an encouraging annual Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report.

The statement was picked up by InsuranceNewsNet.com, "the leading, Web-based trade publication for insurance agents, home office personnel, and other professionals in the life, health and property/casualty industries."

Read an excerpt, below:

B'nai B'rith International issued the following news release:

B'nai B'rith International is encouraged by the relative stability outlined in the 2014 Social Security and Medicare Trustees Report, but concerned about the immediate need to address the funding challenges facing the Social Security Disability Insurance program (DI).

The big news out of the trustees report was the overall health of Social Security with a surplus of about $2.8 trillion, and income to the program set to exceed expenditures in 2014. These numbers are in line with last year's projections and this year's report expects Social Security's surplus to grow to $2.9 trillion by 2020.

The other important but unsurprising "news" out of the report is that the DI trust fund is at risk of being depleted by 2016. B'nai B'rith International urges Congress to increase the DI's allocation from the payroll tax--a measure which has been routinely carried out 11 times over the life of the program--or many vulnerable or impoverished people face dire consequences in their everyday lives.

"We've actually been aware that this would happen in or around 2016 since the DI's tax allocation was last adjusted in 1994. But in the current political environment, adjusting the split between the two funds for the 12th time in Social Security's history may be harder to do than it should be," B'nai B'rith International President Allan J. Jacobs said.

Both organisations sharply criticised the total lack of balance and disregard for facts in the statement that paints a simplistic and one-sided picture of what is an extremely complex situation. The ADC and JCCV also denounced the AJDS’ analysis of cause and effect that bears no relationship to the facts on the ground.

[...]

Chairman of the ADC Dr. Dvir Abramovich and President of the JCCV Nina Bassat issued the following statement:

“All people of goodwill are deeply saddened by the loss of life on both sides of the current conflict between Israel and Hamas in Gaza, but the progress towards peace can only be hindered by statements which totally lack balance, such as that of the AJDS. 

"Sadly, the now common reckless and eager rush to condemn Israel is represented by the skewed and outrageous statement of the AJDS, which zealously attacks and accuses the IDF of a massacre without any facts or evidence. It is a pity that the ADJS keeps choosing to engage in a relentless campaign of propaganda in their continuous bashing of Israel."

What is as disturbing as the absence of substantiated data is the inflammatory and pejorative language used in the statement. 

Given the world-wide conflation between anti-Israel feelings and anti- Semitism, highly emotive words such as perpetrated and massacre are calculated to arouse anger against not only Israel, but the Jewish community in Australia and are a willful disregard that language such as this destroys the harmonious nature of our multicultural society.

The Israel-Gaza conflict has dominated international headlines, inspiring civil unrest and prompting discussions of terrorism vs. national sovereignty. 

Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, penned an op-ed offering background on these discussions for El Observador, the second largest daily newspaper in Uruguay. 

Kohn places the responsibility for Operation Protective Edge squarely on the Hamas terror network, explaining the organization's charter, philosophies and ultimate goal of Jewish annihilation.

Read the entire op-ed in Spanish, below:

El Debate De Medio Oriente Llegó A Uruguay
El director de B´nai B´rith para América Latina, Eduardo Kohn, responde sobre el carácter terrorista del grupo Hamas


Un análisis de la especialista Susana Mangana, publicado en El Observador el viernes 25 de julio, sobre diferencias y similitudes entre el grupo palestino Hamas y otros que operan en la región, provocó diferentes reacciones (principalmente en redes sociales) de integrantes de la colectividad judía del Uruguay.

El Dr. en Diplomacia Eduardo Kohn, director de B´nai B´rith Internacional para América Latina, escribió un texto, reproducido a continuación, en el que da su visión sobre Hamas.

La realidad no es teoría, son los hechos

¿Quién es Hamas?

De acuerdo con la Carta Fundacional del Movimiento de Resistencia Islámica (Hamas es un acrónimo), publicada el 18 de agosto de 1988, la misma es una organización islámica que tiene objetivos precisos.

En su preámbulo señala:”Israel existirá hasta que el Islam lo destruya, de la misma manera que destruyó a otros en el pasado”. 

En su artículo 13 establece que “Palestina es una tierra islámica. La liberación de Palestina constituye una obligación individual para cada musulmán dondequiera se encuentre. No existe ninguna solución al problema palestino que no sea por medio de la Yihad”.

Hamas no es un movimiento de resistencia como se ha podido leer en estos días, sino que es un grupo que tiene como objetivo buscar los medios posibles para exterminar a los judíos. Y en ese contexto, su primera etapa es destruir al Estado de Israel. 

¿Pueden hacerlo? Hoy, gracias a Irán tienen armas como para intentar sus objetivos. Cuentan con 10 mil misiles que llegan a cualquier parte de Israel y  les da la capacidad de asesinar a casi 4 millones de personas. 
¿Por qué no lo han logrado si lanzaron más de mil misiles? Porque Israel está decidido a defenderse, grave pecado para quienes desean su desaparición.

Hamas no basa su legitimidad en la búsqueda de un Estado Palestino, como también se ha escuchado y leído. Eso trata de hacer la Autoridad Palestina. Hamas no puede querer construir un Estado cuando el preámbulo de su carta constitutiva ya señala que el gran objetivo es matar a todos los judíos:

“El Día del Juicio no llegará hasta que todos los musulmanes luchen contra los judíos y les den muerte. Entonces, los judíos se esconderán detrás de las rocas y los árboles, y éstos últimos gritarán: ¡Oh musulmán!, un judío se esconde detrás de mí, ven a matarlo”(Artículo 7).   

Bajo esas premisas, para Hamas los civiles muertos no cuentan. Son mártires y escudos humanos; sus escuelas y hospitales son refugios para sus misiles. Porque los verdaderos refugios construidos por Hamas en Gaza son para sus  armas y sus líderes, no para sus civiles.

Los ciudadanos israelíes tienen refugios para ocultarse, el ejército tiene armas para enfrentar misiles, y esa parecería ser su culpa mayor. Se califica de desproporcionado cuando  un Estado defiende a sus ciudadanos, cuando reacciona frente a una amenaza constante. Pero así funcionan las democracias: los ciudadanos exigen seguridad a sus gobernantes, y los gobiernos deben actuar en consecuencia.

Mezclar a Hamas con procesos de paz y diálogo político es falsear los hechos que están a la vista. Para Hamas, Israel debe ser borrado del mapa; allí debe existir un estado islámico. Así lo expresó,una vez más, públicamente, hace dos días en Irán el Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, líder máximo en Irán y mentor ideológico y material de Hamas.
Bajo los objetivos de Hamas, es muy cínico hablar de paz en Gaza. Hay allí 2 millones de palestinos que son  rehenes de una idea de exterminio del vecino.

La Autoridad Palestina debería reconocer públicamente los hechos. Mientras ambos, Autoridad Palestina por debilidad, y  Hamas , por sus ataques y su  violencia, sigan alentando la confrontación, la hipocresía intelectual y política que también ronda por estos lares , que acusa de uso desproporcionado de la fuerza a quien se defiende, y legitima el terror defendiéndolo sin pudor, los palestinos seguirán siendo víctimas de un marco de vida insostenible. 

Si la ONU actuara de acuerdo a lo que escribieron y soñaron sus fundadores, no habría 200 mil muertos en Siria, ni 4 millones de israelíes amenazados por misiles, ni palestinos sin esperanzas. Pero mirando sesgadamente y acusando automáticamente, se logra que  Assad siga siendo Presidente, que Hamas reciba de Estados miembros de ONU  miles de misiles, y que Mahmoud Abbas sienta que habla a la pared cuando pasea por las capitales de países árabes muy ricos y sordos.

Los que insisten en legitimar a Hamas desde sus cómodos sillones de tecnócratas, desde sus atalayas más o menos intelectuales, o desde sus odios políticos, respaldan la sinrazón de la confrontación y avivan las hogueras. 

Ambos pueblos merecen algo bien distinto para empezar, al menos, para comenzar a superar la triste realidad de los hechos.

European Union Shows Lack of Will to Defend Israel at UNHRC

Yet again, the European Union has demonstrated a lack of will in defending a sister democracy under attack from an organization that it has included on its own terrorism list.

One day after the EU’s foreign ministers adopted a statement which called for both the disarming of Hamas and endorsed Israel’s “legitimate right to defend itself,” nine European countries abstained on a one-sided United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) resolution harshly critical of Israel.

On July 22nd, the European Union foreign ministers, in a move uncharacteristic of their traditional voting patterns on issues relating to Israel and the Palestinians, adopted language that seemed to express a real understanding of the immense challenges Israel faces in fighting the terrorist organization in Gaza. It went so far as to call out Hamas’ use of civilians as human shields, a point Israel makes several times daily, to the mostly-closed ears of  international media and a large portion of the diplomatic world.

Sunrise on July 23rd brought an immediate reversion to form for the EU.

A resolution brought to the UNHRC by such human rights luminaries as Pakistan and Venezuela, filled with hackneyed anti-Israel diatribes for which the council is well known, took off after Israel for a laundry list of human rights violations, including Israel’s pursuit of Hamas terrorists in the West Bank in June and “the most recent military assault on the occupied Gaza Strip, the latest in a series of military aggressions…” The document decries Israel’s “targeting of civilians…including medical and humanitarian personnel…that may amount to international crimes…”

The resolution supports the now discredited “national consensus government” forged by the Palestinian Authority and Hamas in April, expresses deep concern over Palestinian prisoners, decries “collective punishment,” demands opening of the crossings for the flow of humanitarian “and commercial goods,” (concrete for more tunnels?) and, well, you get the picture.

Then it gets worse. It calls for Switzerland to convene the contracting parties to the Fourth Geneva convention “to enforce the Convention in the Occupied Palestinian Territories.”

The coup de grace was to call a new “independent commission of inquiry” to investigate “all violations…of human rights law in the ‘occupied Palestinian Territory’…particularly in the Gaza Strip.”

We recall the last time an “independent” commission was set in place by the UNHRC. It was headed by Judge Richard Goldstone, who, after wrestling with his conscience over the biased anti-Israel report filed in his name, publicly renounced its findings in a celebrated New York Times op-ed.

In the entire four page, double-spaced resolution, there is not one mention of Hamas by name.

The resolution was overwhelmingly adopted, with 17 abstentions, 11 of them European and nine of those European Union countries: Austria, the Czech Republic,  Estonia, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Romania and the United Kingdom. Most of them consider themselves to be good friends of Israel. But in this vote, they have incredibly and hypocritically enabled an organization that they themselves consider to be a terrorist organization.

Where is the stand-alone resolution condemning the indiscriminate rocket attacks on Israel’s cities? Has the United Kingdom forgotten its own history, when thousands of V-1 and V-2 rockets were fired from Germany into London and South East England during WWII?

In post-mortems, some Europeans tried to defend their lack of principle by saying they had salvaged the resolution from harsher language. Harsher?  This document is a “greatest hits” of the UNHRC against Israel. All but the kitchen sink has been included in its fulminating, accusatory tone.

If the EU countries had been true to their resolution of July 22nd, they’d have not only voted against the resolution, but walked out of the hall when it came up for debate. In each capitol, policy makers know they have pointed the finger not against the perpetrator of human rights violations, but the victim. The statements of “support for Israel’s right to defend itself,” ring more hollow than ever in light of the adoption of this measure.”Defend yourself,” they are saying, but only up to a point.

Compromise on principle is not new in Europe. This abandonment of Israel at such a crucial moment is unacceptable. History will surely have some condemnatory judgments when the books about this conflict are written.

A six-member group from B’nai B’rith Europe is visiting on a solidarity mission.

The group was briefed by government officials on the ongoing conflict with Hamas, learned first hand about the realities faced by Israelis in the most heavily shelled areas, and conveyed a message of unity with the people of Israel.

It visited Ashkelon, Sderot, areas in the Merhavim and Hof Ashkelon regional councils, and an Iron Dome battery.

For more than 22 years, the B'nai B'rith Bagel Brigade has been hard at work in southern California, making sure underserved children start the day with breakfast. 

Every day, more than 160 volunteers collect bakery and pastry products, driving them to low-income school districts during the school year, and homeless shelters on the weekends and during the summer. In a given month, the group distributes approximately 84,000 loaves of bread and 54,000 bagels.

The program accounts for more than 65,000 donated hours each year, and was recently featured by NBC-4 in Los Angeles, both online and on-air. The program was one of a handful highlighted as part of the I Am A Volunteer campaign.

The Columbia Lighthouse for the Blind (C.L.B.) held its second annual "Shot in the Dark Golf & Dinner Classic" on Friday, July 11, 2014. 

The event's purpose was to show an appreciation for vision loss and how it can be overcome. B'nai B'rith International, a long-time supporter of C.L.B. was a financial sponsor of the event and had leadership in attendance at the classic.

National blind golf champions Bruce Hooper and Phil Blackwell ran the golf clinic for C.L.B. clients to learn the fundamentals of golf including chipping and putting. Former C.L.B. client Mario Bonds provided electric entertainment during dinner, sports radio host Andy Pollin was the MC for the evening, and then there was the night golf tournament.

Watch the event highlight video, below:

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the people of Israel are united against the ongoing attack by Hamas; anti-Semitic attacks in the United States, Europe, Latin America; the unacceptable calls for Israeli restraint by Latin American countries; Iran and the 20th anniversary of the AMIA bombings.

Listen to the full podcast below:

Eduardo Kohn, director ejecutivo de la Bnai Brith para Latinoamérica, reflexionó en Radio Jai acerca de la delicada situación que se vive en Israel, debido a los incesantes misiles que caen desde Gaza. "Mientras Hamas pide la desaparición de Israel, el Estado judío le pide a Hamas que deje de bombardear a su población civil", señaló.

Murray Shusterman began practicing law in 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt was in the White House - and he hasn't stopped working since.

Today, at age 101, he travels each day from his Bala Cynwyd home to his Center City office at Fox Rothschild, where his work has focused on corporate and real estate law.

"What? Retire? Sit in a rocking chair and wait to die?" Shusterman said in an interview. "All my life I've been active."

[...]

The price of longevity, Shusterman said, is that the people you love disappear. All his oldest, dearest friends are gone. Their spouses too. And his brother and two sisters.

His wife of 65 years, Judith, died in 2005. Choosing her casket was a trauma.

So what keeps him going through the trials of aging and into work each morning?

"Stubbornness," said Philadelphia architect and attorney Robert Shusterman, 72, one of Shusterman's three sons. "He keeps pushing himself as hard as he can, and tries not to complain about things. He has a determination, a will to overcome impediments."

[...]

"I did all the good things and all the bad things that a young fellow does," Shusterman said. "Except I had wonderful parents, and they gave me a sense of morality and generosity, and I've always acted accordingly."

[...]

Only 54,956 people in the United States are 100 or older, according to Census statistics. That's 0.0002 of the population. By comparison, people 65 and older account for 13 percent of all Americans.

Centenarians as a group are overwhelmingly female (82 percent), usually white (83 percent), and increasingly urban. Their numbers are growing, up two-thirds between 1980 and 2010.

[...]

His involvement in Jewish causes ran deep, as chairman of the city chapter of Friends of Ben Gurion University, and in leadership positions at the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Philadelphia and the local affiliate of International B'nai B'rith.

[...]

He's journeyed beyond the average 77-year life expectancy of American men. But he doesn't fear death. He's planned his funeral and picked a coffin, not wanting his sons to bear that duty.

Pressed to name the best moment of his life, and the worst, Shusterman declined to do either.

"There's no such thing," he said. "A person has many experiences over time, some good, some bad. . . . The real secret is to be decent, to be fair, and to be forgiving - now and then even a friend will do something that annoys you. And don't take yourself too seriously."

B'nai B'rith International Director of U.N. and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels addressed "The July 9th Symposium" at the U.S. Capitol. 

The event was organized and moderated by Honorary President Richard D. Heideman to mark the 10th anniversary of the International Court of Justice's unjust "advisory opinion" ‎on Israel's security fence, which has saved an untold number of lives from Palestinian terrorism. 

B'nai B'rith was a co-sponsor of the event, which was also addressed by Ron Dermer, ambassador of Israel to the United States; Keith Harper, new U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Human Rights Council; Canadian Member of Parliament Irwin Cotler, a former justice minister and attorney general; and Frederick M. Lawrence, president of Brandeis University.

Video courtesy of the Israel Forever Foundation:

In the 20 years since the tragic bombing of the Asociación Mutual Israelita Argentina (AMIA) building in Buenos Aires, no progress has been made to hold the Iranians accountable.

That is the premise of an op-ed penned by B'nai B'rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin, which appeared in the Times of Israel the day before the 20th anniversary.

Mariaschin walks through the timeline and the politics surrounding the event, which remains the most devastating terrorist act ever in Latin America.

Read his full op-ed below:

Buenos Aires: The other Iranian crime

The deadline for reaching an accord between the P5+1 (the United States, United Kingdom, China, France and Russia, plus Germany) and Iran on the country’s secretive nuclear program — July 20 – is fast approaching. Reports in recent days have indicated the usual foot-dragging and prevarication on Iran’s part, which we have come to know over the years, reinforcing skepticism that a genuine deal to move Tehran from its objective of developing nuclear weapons can actually take place.

But there is another July date focusing on Iran, important in its own way, which may escape international attention in the midst of the meltdown of Iraq: July 18 marks the 20th anniversary of the bombing of the AMIA Jewish social service center in Buenos Aires. On that day in 1994, a massive terror bombing in the heart of the Argentine capitol killed 85 and wounded another 300. It stands as the most devastating terrorist act ever in Latin America.

In the aftermath of the bombing, the international community was led down a primrose path of arrests and a trial. It came to naught when it was clear that all of this was based on a faulty investigation and trumped-up charges. The masterminds and perpetrators of the crime — now universally believed to be Iranian agents and their higher-ups in Tehran — nor any local accomplices, have to date been brought to justice.

In 2005 then-President Néstor Kirchner’s government issued a decree formally accepting a share in the blame for the abject failure of the investigation, calling it a “national disgrace” and a widespread cover-up of the facts. That was followed by the appointment of a highly competent prosecutor, Alberto Nisman, who set out, in some detail, how top Iranian leaders had ordered Hezbollah to carry out the attack.

Nisman, working quickly, formally charged Hezbollah and its Iranian masters with the bombing, and called for the arrest of then-Iranian president Hashemi Rafsanjani and seven others, including Ahmad Vahidi, Iran’s defense minister and former commander of the Revolutionary Guards. Nisman’s case was compelling, and in 2007, Argentine authorities secured Interpol arrest warrants for five Iranians and a Lebanese national. With these Interpol “Red Notices” issued, some assumed the case was on its way to being resolved.

Even a casual observer of Iranian behavior would have come to the quick conclusion that Tehran never had any intention of arresting, extraditing or otherwise cooperating on the AMIA case. Matters stalled for five additional years, until Argentine President Cristina Kirchner, in a U.N. General Assembly speech in 2012, inexplicably announced that meetings with Iran would take place on the sidelines of the United Nations to resolve the matter, as if Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and then-President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had undergone veracity transplants.

And then, the ultimate Iranian ruse: Early last year came the announcement that the governments of Iran and Argentina had signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to establish a “truth commission” to investigate the bombing. Defending the agreement, Argentine authorities explained that while trials in absentia cannot be held in the country, prosecutors could travel to Tehran to depose witnesses.

Sounds good if you’re going to Canada or the Netherlands to gather evidence. But did anyone remotely familiar with how Iran conducts business really think that, for example, it would serve up Vahidi to be questioned by a visiting Argentinian judicial official?

By a narrow vote, the Argentine Chamber of Deputies approved the MOU. Shortly thereafter, the indefatigable and undaunted Nisman, now working under the weight of the ill-conceived MOU, published a 502-page indictment, accusing Iran of establishing terrorist networks throughout Latin America, dating back to the 1980s.

Earlier this year, the Argentine Federal Criminal Appeals Court struck down the MOU, stating that it conflicts with, and undermines an on-going investigation approved years ago by the government’s executive and legislative branches, an order both the Kirchners endorsed. The court ruled the agreement with Iran unconstitutional. The government recently appealed the ruling. Some Argentinian legislators and legal experts make the case that trials in absentia are indeed constitutional. But those suggestions will now be on hold while the appeal process soaks up valuable time, further stalling the drive to bring much-needed closure to this horrific act.

A year-and-a-half later, the MOU has produced zero results. No surprise in that. A country that seeks nuclear weapons, threatens its neighbors, sends rockets to terrorist organizations, supports the ruling regime in Damascus and is a serial abuser of human rights, would not likely own up to the murder and mayhem in caused on that July day in Buenos Aires in 1994. And because of that, 20-years and counting, there continues to be no justice for the victims and their families.

[...]

Such violent and vicious anti-Israel protests are not unique to Europe. In Los Angeles last weekend, four people were arrested for allegedly brandishing sticks and interfering with a pro-Israel demonstration. And in Boston, anti-Israel protestors physically assaulted Jews.

Alarmed that such extremist demonstrations and violence has spread to American shores, senior Homeland Security officials spoke with Jewish leaders in a conference call Monday.

[...]

Daniel Mariaschin, international executive vice president of B’nai B’rith International, said the “latest attacks on the French Jewish community remind us that our vigilance in protecting the global Jewish community cannot wane.”

Referring to the scuffles in Los Angeles and Boston, he said, “Perhaps we are importing here the kind of lawless mob-driven way of conducting these so-called demonstrations.”

Mariaschin suggested that one reason for the large demonstrations is the “absolute access people have today to all kinds of media. Anyone can access French TV or media coming out of the Middle East and can see unbridled bias. That has to account for some of this activity.”

Asked about the two violent demonstrations in the U.S. last weekend, he replied: “The level of audacity has risen to a dangerous point. In this country we have been very fortunate that we have not had those kind of European or Middle Eastern-style of demonstration, but one has to be concerned about it.”

On the latest edition of Radio JAI, Eduardo Kohn, B'nai B'rith director of Latin American Affairs, discusses several important issues facing the continent's Jewish population. 

Topics include: the double speech of the Palestinian president, the hypocrisy of the radical left in Latin America with regards to the Israel-Palestinian conflict, and the failed Fatah-Hamas agreement that proves that they cannot be partners for peace.

Listen to the full podcast below:

El director ejecutivo de la Bnai Brith Latinoamerica, Eduardo Kohn, habló en Raidio Jai sobre la hipocresía de la izquierda latinoamericana sobre la situación actual del Estado Judío y el doble discurso del lider palestino Mahmoud Abbas ante la prensa internacional, que acusa constantemente el accionar defensivo del país. "No tienen idea de lo que es vivir bajo constantes ataques, solo están para acusar a Israel," aseguró.

After Charter School of Wilmington student Monica Keszler was named winner of the B'nai B'rith  International Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge for the Delmarva region on May 27, she signed copies of her winning book, "Kira Kiwi, How Will School Be?"

In the coming weeks, Keszler will visit libraries in her northern Delaware community, sharing her story, reading to younger students and signing copies for those in attendance.

More details about the book tour can be found below, courtesy of an article in DelawareOnline.com:

[...]

High school student Monica Keszler will read her award-winning book, “Kira Kiwi, How Will School Be?” at 9:30 a.m. at the Elsmere Library at 30 Spruce Ave., New Castle County Executive Thomas P. Gordon announced Friday.

Readings also are set for 7:30 p.m. Wednesday at Kirkwood Highway Library at 6000 Kirkwood Highway and 2 p.m. July 29 at the Woodlawn Library, 2020 W. Ninth St. in Wilmington.

“We are excited to have a young, talented author like Monica Keszler conduct a reading in our libraries,” Gordon said in a statement.

Keszler, a Charter School of Wilmington student, created her book as part of the B’nai B’rith International Diverse Minds Youth Writing Challenge in the Delmarva Peninsula. Ninth- through 12th-graders in Delaware and 10 Maryland counties entered by writing and illustrating books about tolerance and diversity for readers up to fifth grade.

Keszler’s was announced as the first-place winner in May. She won a $5,000 scholarship, her book’s publication and $500 stipends for her school and classroom materials for the teacher who oversaw its creation.

Her book – about a flightless kiwi who moves to a school full of birds that fly – is being given to schools, libraries, community groups and the “Today” show’s holiday toy drive. It is available for free download in the iBooks Store.

[...]

Today, said Rachel Goldberg, director of aging policy at B’nai B’rith International, shrinking pensions and retirement accounts are contributing to a greater need than ever before.

“People retire and are often living at a much lower standard than they did before,” said Goldberg, “so even in communities where you think of the people you know as being comfortable, there’s a real question as to how comfortable they’re going to be when it becomes time to retire, whether it’s because you want to or because physically, you have to.”

[...]

B’nai B’rith officials, who have been reaching out to Jews in need for more than 170 years, say stereotypes have hurt their organization in the past. 

Part of their work involves helping ensure Jewish seniors have a home to live in, something that has become increasingly difficult for many elderly citizens across the United States, as the cost of living has skyrocketed alongside an increasing life expectancy. With a fixed income and little to no access to additional sources of funds, many seniors turn to B’nai B’rith for their affordable senior apartments.

“Obviously there are a lot of images of Jews in media as ostentatiously wealthy and all these ideas about running the entertainment industry and what not,” said B’nai B’rith’s Goldberg. “Those stereotypes about what Jews are and what Jews have still really do exist, and it affects not only public perception and anti-Semitism, but it makes it a little bit more difficult for low-income older adults who are Jewish to reach out for the services they need because people internalize those kinds of things. It’s one reason, in this community, that people are a little uncomfortable asking for help.”

Mark Olshan, associate executive vice president at B’nai B’rith, can recall one not-so-distant memory of a town in southern Florida denying the organization’s zoning request to build affordable senior housing there because, town officials and community members said, “there’s no poverty in the Jewish community here.” 

A nearby town got wind of what happened and offered land for the units, but the experience was a wake-up call, said Olshan.

The statement released Tuesday, which was written by the refugee resettlement agency HIAS, calls on the government to “welcome the stranger” in dealing with those entering the United States through Mexico from El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras.

“The safety and well-being of these migrants – and particularly the unaccompanied children – must be at the heart of every policy decision made in response to this humanitarian crisis,” according to the statement, which was signed by such groups as the American Jewish Committee, the Anti-Defamation League, B’nai B’rith International and the Jewish Federations of North America.

In the statement, the Jewish organizations call for a long term, holistic solution “that prioritizes safety and opportunity.” They call for increased border enforcement in connection with measures to ensure that those in danger of persecution in their homeland can seek asylum in the United States. 

The Jewish groups also are calling for increased funding for the U.S. Refugee Admissions Policy.

As Hamas rocket attacks on Israel intensify, the European Union seems to have a case of amnesia over who, exactly, is pushing the buttons. In a statement, the Europeans condemned the indiscriminate firing, but never once mentioned Hamas. 

Who exactly does the EU think is firing rockets at Israel?

One thing is for sure: the Hamas rockets have nothing to do with Israel's settlement policy. Yet, the European Union, which looked the other way when the Palestinian Authority threw the Kerry peace initiative overboard by announcing a reconciliation with Hamas, has, for years, been fixated on settlements as being the one and only impediment to peace.

This, despite it being widely known exactly what territory would remain with Israel, and what would go to the Palestinians -- if there were ever to be an agreement between the two sides.

The EU's posturing on this issue actually helps Hamas by deflecting attention from its nihilistic campaign against Israel, but also aids and abets Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Authority by dismissing or marginalizing Palestinian incitement against Israel and Jews.

Hamas has now added social media, texts and video threats to its arsenal, telling Israelis to prepare for suicide bombings and other terror attacks. This psychological warfare coupled with the hundreds of rockets launched at Israel demonstrates, yet again, that Hamas simply seeks the destruction of Israel.

Even after the Palestinian Authority and Hamas joined forces and announced a new Palestinian “government,” and even as the news of the kidnapping of three Israeli teens was being reported, and as Israel charged Hamas with the kidnappings, the EU’s envoy in Israel, Lars Faaborg-Andersen, was warning that Europe is “losing patience” with Israel over the settlement issue.

While all this was happening, EU member states such as Italy, Spain, France, Germany and the United Kingdom  warned investors that doing business in Israeli enterprises beyond the Green Line would transgress international law. In others words, continuing their fixation on Israeli settlements—as if it were the only issue preventing peace from breaking out.

But it is Israel that should be showing frustration with the one-note narrative the Palestinians have laid out and that the Europeans seem to be accepting, without challenge. How presumptuous for those European countries to lecture Israel on “losing patience.”

When the Oslo Accords were signed in 1993, the Palestinian side solemnly promised to end incitement. It has not. Hardly a day has passed over these past two decades without inflammatory articles in the official media, sermons by paid Palestinian Authority clerics, anti-Semitic lessons in schoolbooks and glorification and praise of terrorist acts saturating the population of both the Gaza Strip and the West Bank. Teach hatred of Israelis and Jews for more than 20-years, and you will raise a generation that sees no problem at all in taking the lives of three young men trying to get back home on that dreadful evening. More than that: you've made murder a badge of honor.

Since Oslo, the EU and most of its member states have marginalized this unending stream of hatred and have largely focused on settlements. The Palestinian spokesmen and their apologists zero in on settlements to further grind away at Israel’s international standing, and to minimize whatever concessions they must make if a deal is to be reached.

By looking past or dismissing the fomenting of hatred against Israel and Jews, the Europeans are setting back, not advancing, the cause of peace. As long as the Palestinian leadership sanctions the demonization of its erstwhile negotiating partner and its people, one can’t speak seriously about achieving an agreement, or one that can last. 

Whatever one thinks of the settlement issue, it’s not as if there has been no discussion of it in hours of face-to-face meetings. The Palestinian side would prefer to sell, and the Europeans have clearly bought into, the notion that nothing has been discussed.

Without a clear rejection of the official hatred that emanates not only from Gaza, but from official circles in the West Bank itself, we’ll not likely get to the point where real coexistence can be achieved. The Europeans should know that.

Wouldn't it better that Faaborg-Andersen and the Europeans lose their patience with those on the Palestinian side who teach children to hate and who proffer garlands and bonuses to terrorists released from prison?

Europe is losing its patience? What about Israel's patience? For years Israel has been relentlessly and repeatedly excoriated at the United Nations Human Rights Council, and yet most anti-Israel resolutions have too often been met with rote abstentions from Europe, and in certain instances, votes against Israel.

The increased hyper-criticism pouring out from a number of governments in Europe seemingly removes any pretext of objectivity in helping settle the tough issues.

In issuing declarations on settlements only, by ignoring incitement, and by not harshly criticizing Hamas by name and not calling on the Palestinian Authority to end its strange joint governing arrangement with the Gaza terrorist organization, the European states as well as the EU itself, only serve to elevate Palestinian expectations, reinforcing their belief in a zero-sum outcome to this contentious conflict. After all, why do the tough work when the European silver platter of pressure on Israel is a constant?

With Syria still burning out of control, Iraq about to split into three parts, and Iran supplying arms to Hezbollah and Hamas, along with the murder of the teens, you'd think these European countries would be "losing patience" with those developments. Instead, they zero in on Israel, which is democracy's staunchest practitioner in the region.