Sáenz Announced A Federal Investigation Must Be Re-Opened In The Death Of Alberto Nisman

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International commends Argentine prosecutor Ricardo Sáenz for insisting a federal investigation must be re-opened in the death of former special prosecutor Alberto Nisman. In his statement on Feb. 25, 2016, Sáenz declared that Nisman was murdered and his death was not a suicide.
 
On Jan. 19, 2015, Nisman was set to testify about his findings that former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, Foreign Minister Héctor Timerman and other members and allies of the government had negotiated a pact with Iran in order to provide impunity to the accused of carrying out the 1994 Argentine-Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) building bombing, but Nisman was found dead a day earlier. In January of 2013, Argentina and Iran signed the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), which led to the creation of the “Truth Commission.” This agreement allowed Tehran to “investigate” the AMIA attack, and demanded that suspects would be interrogated in Iran. Questions still loom over the MOU.
 
B’nai B’rith is pleased that the investigation is finally heading in the right direction. We are hopeful that justice will soon triumph and questions, which have gone unanswered for far too long, will finally be answered. 

​B’nai B’rith International is outraged at the election of Syria and Venezuela to key leadership positions on a committee focused on eliminating the “subjugation, domination and exploitation” of global populations.
 
The Syrian regime denies the rights of its own people, year after year subjecting them to brutal conditions as it continues to unleash a war against its own population. Human rights violations in Venezuela are well-documented and abhorrent.
 
The election of these two nations, notorious and unrelenting human rights abusers, once again demonstrates the hypocrisy of the U.N. system.

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International strongly condemns The Los Angeles Times for publishing a full-page ad that ran on Feb. 24. The ad advocates boycotting a free trip to Israel that is being included in this year’s Oscars “swag bags” for host Chris Rock and 25 Academy Award nominees. The ad is sponsored by the Jewish Voice for Peace and the U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation.
 
B’nai B’rith commends Variety for rejecting the same pro-Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement ad in its latest edition, and The Los Angeles Times should follow Variety in rejecting it. Promoting BDS is another way of endorsing delegitimization against Israel.
 
We urge The Los Angeles Times to reject such blatantly anti-Israel ads in the future and encourage other news organizations not to publish these types of intolerant pro-BDS ads, which do nothing to advance peace between Israel and Palestinians. 

​B’nai B’rith International led several members of the European Parliament on a five-day visit to Israel. This trip promoted the Jewish state as an influential leader in education, technology, agriculture and medicine. The delegation included the following members of the European Parliament Lars Adaktusson (Sweden), Ramona Manescu (Romania) and Davor Stier (Croatia).
 
“It is necessary for diplomatic leaders to receive accurate information regarding Israel and what it deals with on a near daily basis—such as violent terrorist attacks,” B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman said. “This mission provided an informative and vital experience that permitted members of the European Parliament to recognize that Israel is a dynamic and diverse country with a thriving economy.”
 
The trip, staffed by B’nai B’rith World Center – Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider and Eric Fusfield, deputy director of the B’nai B’rith International Center for Human Rights and Public Policy, allowed participants to immerse themselves in Israel’s culture by touring the Old City of Jerusalem, hearing from Israeli military officers at the Gaza border about the country's unique security challenges and visiting Yad Vashem, Israel’s official Holocaust memorial. The delegation also visited wounded victims of the Syrian war at Ziv Hospital and met with Knesset members Yaakov Peri (Yesh Atid), Anat Berko (Likud) and Nachman Shai (Zionist Union).  

B’nai B’rith International has issued the following statement:
 
B’nai B’rith International condemns the Seattle Mideast Awareness Campaign’s (SeaMAC) latest ad, which promotes the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) anti-Israel movement. A billboard sponsored by the group, located near O’Hare Airport in Chicago, is calling for a boycott against Israel. Similar ads like this one, paid for by SeaMAC, have been showing up across the nation.
 
SeaMAC’s accusations against Israel are unwarranted and despicable and further BDS’ goal to delegitimize the Jewish State, which is the only democratic country in the Middle East.
 
According to its website SeaMAC works with other local pro-BDS organizations that help finance the ads the group runs. Some of these other organizations are the Jewish Voice for Peace-Portland, Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Tree of Life Educational Fund-West Coast and the D.C. Riders for Peace.
 
The ad’s funders endorse anti-Israel hatred, and the advertisers are giving hatred a platform. B’nai B’rith strongly advocates for these appalling ads to be taken down. 

Yair Lapid Rejects Palestinian Capital in East Jerusalem

In an address before B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin and more than 100 Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations delegates on the second day of its 42nd consecutive annual Leadership Mission to Israel, Defense Minister Moshe Yaalon said that Israel will not intervene in the Syrian civil war, though Israel is supplying humanitarian support.
 
“Syria will leave us with two bad options: we will have either Daesh or Iran on our border,” Yaalondeclared, and he also said that Israel will not tolerate the delivery of chemical agents to any combatants, nor will Israel tolerate disturbances on its borders. He told the audience that in the last two years there have been 20 attacks on Israel’s borders by Iran and its proxies, which is why Israel strongly rejects the current political process led by Russia.
 
Turning to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, Yaalon detailed the incitement and manipulation that emanates from the Palestinian Authority. He said they continue to educate their children that Tel Aviv has been occupied since 1948, and it is Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas who rejects the two- state solution and denies that Israel is a Jewish state for the Jewish people.
 
The defense minister also said that Israel is grateful for its close relationship with the United States and that he expects the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) discussions around the next decade of U.S. – Israel cooperation to be completed this spring. “We know what we want, the U.S. knows what it is willing to share with us,” he said.
 
Yaalon was one of three high-ranking Israeli government officials to address the delegation on Feb. 15 today. Gilad Erdan, who is simultaneously Israel’s minister of public security, minister of strategic affairs and minister of information, and Yesh Atid Chairman Yair Lapid were the other two.
 
Erdan focused on the fight against Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). “Both BDS and what some are calling ‘lone wolf’ attacks stem from the same foundation: the de-legitimization of Israel and the denial of the Jewish people to have a state,” he said. Demanding that social media take responsibility for their part in allowing people to use them for terror, he explained that the technological capability and basic willingness on the part of Facebook and Twitter is there, but it is taking time for them to understand how severe the situation is.
 
Erdan praised the conference’s anti-delegitimization efforts, noting its programs such as America’s Voices, which organizes week-long missions to Israel for prominent headline makers with widespread credibility from various fields; its lawfare initiative; and Grapevine, a pro-Israel website geared toward the younger generation.
 
Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid told the delegation that even though some consider the recent Iran deal an Israeli loss, “I fought shoulder to shoulder with the government against this deal. I don’t think Israel has lost, I think the world has lost.”
 
On the Israeli-Palestinian conflict he said that Israel must maintain the security situation, and that there would not be a second disengagement—no more unilateral withdrawal. “We left 3000 greenhouses in Gaza to help build the Palestinian economy; instead they shot 25,000 missiles and built tunnels.” On Jerusalem, he said the majority of Israelis will not agree to divide the city, “so that is off the table and we will have to compromise somewhere else.” When pressed as to why he rejects the possibility of a Palestinian capital in East Jerusalem, he declared, “because it’s ours.”
 
Lapid, critical of previous negotiations, doesn’t think the two-state solution is dead, but said he would not pre-negotiate a settlement in the media.
 
Extensive, wide ranging expert panels and discussions on Iran post-Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action, the Mideast Regional situation and dynamics, anti-Semitism and BDS, and Israel’s social fabric were also conducted throughout the day.
  
The proven and effective voice of organized American Jewry for six decades, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, of which B’nai B’rith is a member, advances the interests of the American Jewish Community, promotes broad-based support for Israel, and addresses critical concerns facing Israel and world Jewry.
 
The delegation will be in Israel through Feb. 18 and will be meeting with high-level Israeli leaders, academics, diplomats and opinion makers across the political spectrum. 
(This statement is being shared, with permission, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.)

B’nai B’rith International President and Executive Vice President Take Part

The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations convened its 42nd consecutive annual Leadership Mission to Israel on Feb. 14 with a delegation of more than 100 leaders from the Conference’s 53 member organizations, the largest group ever. B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin are taking part in the mission.
 
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed the group at an opening dinner and thanked the delegates for “taking the message of Israel far and wide,” referring to the recent visits to Turkey and Egypt by Conference members. He emphasized his commitment to the unity of the Jewish people saying, “All Jews must feel at home and welcome in Israel.”
 
Netanyahu identified two parallel contradictory trends worldwide: an ongoing multinational hostility toward Israel at the United Nations, International Criminal Court and European Union together with what he termed an “obsession” with Israel in international forums. While at the same time, countries like China, India, Russia and Japan are coming to Israel because of their concern with militant Islam and the terrorism it produces, and to benefit from Israeli operational experience and intelligence in fighting terror as well as Israeli technologies, such as cyber security, improved water management and desalination, agriculture and biotechnology.
 
“We need these countries who are coming to us to change their votes in international forums,” stressing the need to press this point.
 
Netanyahu identified what he called “a triple standard that is applied to dictatorships, democracies and the Israeli democracy.”
 
He also noted that during the last year he has sensed a greater understanding of Israel internationally, in part because terrorism has touched all four corners of the earth.
 
Netanyahu told the group that major Arab countries are changing their view of Israel. They don’t see Israel as their enemy, but as an ally against the radical Islam of Iran and Daesh. “Israel straddles meeting challenges and seizing opportunities,” he said.
 
This perception was shared by Conference of Presidents Chairman Stephen M. Greenberg and Executive Vice Chairman/CEO Malcolm Hoenlein who positively described their meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt in recent days..
 
The delegation met earlier in the day with Minister of Justice Ayelet Shaked, who explained the Transparency Bill currently making its way through the Knesset, saying that that “when foreign governments interfere out of the public eye, they undermine our sovereignty.” She also said that many of Israel’s critics are hypocrites because while they level accusations at Israel over alleged human rights violations, they say nothing about the bloodshed in Syria.
 
Maj. Gen. (Ret.) Amos Yadlin also briefed the group on Israel’s current geopolitical situation. He highlighted the fact that “countries we studied as children don’t exist anymore, they have disintegrated.” Yadlin noted that five years into the “Arab Spring,” we expect to see more of the same in the coming five years as the “Middle East is in havoc and will continue to be so.” On Iran, Yadlin said “the agreement is problematic, but not a holocaust.” He said there is no threat of a nuclear bomb in the near future, but in the long term, we understand that the Iranians will have a nuclear program. Furthermore, he said that unlike elsewhere in the world, ISIS is not the main threat to Israel, Iran and its proxies, particularly Hezbollah, are.
 
The proven and effective voice of organized American Jewry for six decades, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, of which B’nai B’rith is a member, advances the interests of the American Jewish Community, promotes broad-based support for Israel, and addresses critical concerns facing Israel and world Jewry. The delegation will be in Israel through Feb. 18 and will be meeting with high-level Israeli leaders, academics, diplomats and opinion makers across the political spectrum.
 
 (This statement is being shared, with permission, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.)

Opposition Leader Isaac Herzog on the two-state solution: 

Leader of the Opposition and Head of the Zionist Union Party, Isaac Herzog, declared in an address to the 42nd annual Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations Leadership Mission to Israel delegation on Feb. 16 that “the true reality is that we are in the midst of the Third Intifada, which clearly has the support of various groups and schools of thought in the Muslim world.” Herzog noted that eight attempted terrorist attacks occurred just yesterday. B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman and Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin are taking part in the mission.
 
Reiterating his ultimate support of a two-state solution, he said “under the current leadership of both sides, there is no way we can progress even one iota,” and added that he couldn’t promise that he would be able to reach an agreement with the Palestinians at this time. Herzog also made it clear that any final status agreement would be subject to a national referendum.
 
He outlined his three-point plan endorsed last week by the Labor Party, which consisted of: completing the security barrier around the settlement blocs and placing barriers around the 28 Arab villages in the Jerusalem area. “We are not telling the truth when we say they are a part of the Jerusalem municipality,” he said; Transfer civilian control to the Palestinian Authority and implement confidence-building steps that will enable the Palestinians to start building a state, including in the fields of agriculture and transportation; and initiate a multi-national ‘regional conference’ to address the host of problems in the Middle East.
 
Herzog communicated his demand for a construction freeze outside the established settlement blocs and said, “In a way, the borders have already been drawn.” When asked about Ariel specifically, he said that it was one of the established blocs and would remain. He also said that Gaza must be part of the solution and called for simultaneous measures to relieve some pressure on the Palestinians there and to ensure the safety of Israel.
 
The delegation was briefed by the senior staff of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs on a range of pressing issues. Deputy Foreign Minister Tzipi Hotovely delivered comments that outlined some critical challenges for the future. Among them, she cited the ‘Jewish challenge’ saying that although Taglit-Birthright has brought more than 500,000 young Jews to Israel for 10-day visits, it has not managed to equip participants with the intellectual basis required to enrich the pro-Israel side of the international debate. She said, “It is the task of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs to find the next birthright.” The Deputy Foreign Minister also called for pressuring international donors, who fund 30 percent of the Palestinian Authority’s budget, to do more to guarantee that their contributions are not used to support incitement.

The delegation had a chance to meet informally with ambassadors and representatives of 35 countries. The group was also privy to an off the record security briefing by Israel’s Deputy Police Commissioner Maj. Gen. Zohar Dvir.
 
Minister of Education and Minister of Diaspora Affairs Naftali Bennett spoke to the delegation this afternoon exclusively about education in Israel, and how he is using education as an agent for change. He cited the recent “massive investment” in Israeli-Arab schools, for new teachers in particular, as well as hiring, for the first time, a head of Haredi education.  He said “we need to teach the Haredim English and math, but on their terms.”
 
The minister said that in the next three years he intends to more than double the number of high school students learning highest-level math, from 8,500 per year currently to more than 18,000. “That is the real future of the ‘start-up nation,’” he said.
 
On a positive note, the minister expressed delight that in the past two months 253,000 Israeli kids have been playing Code Monkey, an interactive game that teaches computer programming. He also shared that for the first time every Arab student from kindergarten on is now learning Hebrew, which greatly increases their future job prospects.
 
The proven and effective voice of organized American Jewry for six decades, the Conference of Presidents of American Jewish Organizations, of which B’nai B’rith is a member, advances the interests of the American Jewish Community, promotes broad-based support for Israel, and addresses critical concerns facing Israel and world Jewry.
 
The delegation will be in Israel through Feb. 18 and will be meeting with high-level Israeli leaders, academics, diplomats and opinion makers across the political spectrum.
 
 (This statement is being shared, with permission, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.)
​

B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin took part in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations meeting with Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi in Cairo today.
 
The two-hour meeting covered a wide range of domestic and international issues, including U.S.-Egyptian and Israeli-Egyptian relations, regional threats, especially those posed by terrorist organizations and their supporters and Iran post-Joint Comprehensive Plan Of Action.
 
The Jewish leaders said that they had an open and very productive discussion, and that they were impressed by the president’s analysis on a wide variety of issues. The delegation arrived from Turkey and will soon head to Israel for the annual Conference of Presidents Leadership Conference.
 
The leaders said, “We came away with a greater understanding of the challenges and opportunities and how we can play a constructive role in addressing them and fostering international cooperation.”
 
(This statement is being shared, with permission, from the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations.) 

B’nai B’rith International has facilitated a visit to Israel by diplomats from around the globe posted at key agencies of the United Nations. Coming at a time of continued widespread inattention to a growing wave of terrorism targeting Israelis, the just-concluded trip provided the diplomats with direct exposure to Israel’s extraordinary security challenges, diverse democracy and global humanitarianism.
 
The group met with a variety of relevant Israeli government officials and civil-society leaders. Participants visited the Knesset and the Supreme Court of Israel—meeting with an Ethiopian-born parliamentarian from Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s governing party and a former chief justice—in addition to the Old City of Jerusalem and Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The diplomats met with victims of recent Palestinian terrorist attacks and also travelled to Israel’s borders with Syria and Lebanon for briefings by Israeli military officers and U.N. peacekeepers, and discussed the threats posed by increasingly powerful groups such as Hezbollah and the Islamic State.
 
The delegation, staffed by B’nai B’rith World Center – Jerusalem Director Alan Schneider and B’nai B’rith Director of United Nations and Intercommunal Affairs David Michaels, took part in a five-day trip to the Jewish state. Representing Bulgaria, Cyprus, Honduras, Lithuania, Micronesia and Uganda, participants came from the United Nations headquarters in New York; the world body’s Geneva hub, which is home to the U.N. Human Rights Council and other agencies; and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in Paris.
 
“Nothing can dispel misunderstanding about Israel’s record as a dynamic, humane democracy in the face of adversity like actual exposure to the country, its leaders and people. B’nai B’rith is singularly positioned, as a U.N.-accredited global organization, and one with a presence in Israel dating back to 1888, to help bridge the gap between perceptions and reality,” B’nai B’rith International President Gary P. Saltzman said.
 
The diplomatic delegation to Israel was made possible by the generous support of the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust.
 
While in Israel, the delegation met with locally stationed United Nations officials responsible for advancing the Middle East peace process, and attended the inauguration of a school shelter near the Gaza Strip, donated by B’nai B’rith Europe. The school shelter is intended to protect students from Hamas rocket fire. Group members heard from experts about persistent Palestinian incitement against Jews, learned about Israeli efforts to develop the quality of life of Arab citizens and respond to disasters abroad, and encountered injured Syrians being treated by Israeli medical professionals despite their origin in a country formally hostile to the Jewish state. Finally, delegates spoke with leaders of religious minorities in Israel, and toured an Israeli university campus to witness Israel’s diversity and innovation in scholarship first-hand.   
 
“We initiated this program because B’nai B’rith is committed to giving diplomats and other policymakers a genuinely full and accurate grasp of what Israel is, and all that it faces. The Middle East has only one democratic nation—the State of Israel—and it is essential that key players in the international community have a chance to see what an inspiring country Israel really is,” B’nai B’rith International Executive Vice President Daniel S. Mariaschin said.
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