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Ex-French Foreign Minister: Natural to Be Antisemitic After Damage by IDF

Bernard Kouchner, former Foreign Minister of France, in Manhattan, New York, US, Sept. 22, 2018. Photo: REUTERS/Amr Alfiky

JNS.org — “How can you not be antisemitic when you see the damage done by the Israeli army? Look at Gaza, it’s a field of murder and disaster. Families are breaking up,” former French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner declared on Sunday.

He spoke in an interview on with Paris Jewish radio station Radio J.

He added, “of course there were Hamas attacks on Oct. 7. And God knows that revolted me. But to take revenge with 40,000 dead, if the figure is true,” before being interrupted by the journalist, Frédéric Haziza.

“You’re saying with what’s happening in Gaza, it’s normal to be antisemitic?” Haziza asked him.

“It’s not normal, but the reaction can be that,” answered Kouchner, who was foreign minister from 2007 to 2010 under President Nicolas Sarkozy.

“Antisemitism is the science of fools. It’s a very deep-seated evil. France has always been antisemitic,” he added.

Criticizing Israel’s “disproportionate war” in Gaza, Kouchner said that as a former humanitarian physician (he co-founded Médecins Sans Frontières (Doctors Without Borders) and founded Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), he could not help but feel indignant. “A lot of people have been massacred. It’s a murderous reaction. I’m not satisfied with that,” he said. “I’ve spent my life caring for people.”

Earlier this month, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu publicly rebuked French President Emmanuel Macron for calling for a partial arms embargo on Israel.

“I have a message for President Macron. Today, Israel is defending itself on seven fronts against the enemies of civilization,” said Netanyahu. “All civilized countries should be standing firmly by Israel’s side. Yet President Macron and some other Western leaders are now calling for an arms embargo against Israel. Shame on them,” he said, adding: “What a disgrace.”

Israel, Netanyahu said, will “win with or without their support, but their shame will continue long after the war is won.”

The rebuke is part of a deterioration in relations between Israel and France. Macron, a centrist, is under a fierce attack by the left-wing over his country’s relations with Israel and his administration’s attempts to limit anti-Israel rioting.

Macron called for sanctions on Israel in an interview aired with the France Inter radio station on Oct. 5. “I think that today, the priority is that we return to a political solution, that we stop delivering weapons to fight in Gaza. France is not delivering any,” he said.

After the Hamas invasion of Israel, antisemitic acts in France jumped by 1,000 percent in the last quarter of 2023. Since the start of 2024, they have almost tripled, with “887 acts” recorded in the first half of the year, according to figures from the French ministry of interior.

Kouchner was born in Avignon in 1939, to a Jewish father and a Protestant mother. His paternal grandparents were Russian-born Jews who immigrated to France and died later in Auschwitz.

The post Ex-French Foreign Minister: Natural to Be Antisemitic After Damage by IDF first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Israeli Troops Capture Around 100 Hamas Terrorists in North Gaza Hospital, Military Says

Israeli soldiers operate in the Gaza Strip amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas, in this handout picture released on Jan. 2, 2024. Photo: Israel Defense Forces/Handout via REUTERS

Israeli soldiers captured around 100 suspected Hamas terrorists during a raid in Kamal Adwan hospital in northern Gaza, the military said on Monday.

Gaza health officials and Hamas have denied any militant presence at the hospital, which Israeli forces stormed on Friday and left on Saturday.

“The soldiers apprehended approximately 100 terrorists from the compound, including terrorists who attempted to escape during the evacuation of civilians. Inside the hospital, they found weapons, terror funds, and intelligence documents,” the military said.

Gaza‘s health ministry, which is controlled by the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, said the troops had detained dozens of male medical staffers and damaged the hospital.

“A few of the fully identified terrorists disguised themselves as medical staff so we didn’t have any alternative but to check the medical staff as well,” a military official told journalists in an online briefing.

Footage circulated by Gaza‘s health ministry on Saturday — which Reuters could not immediately verify — showed damage to several buildings after the Israeli forces withdrew.

The military official said that troops had caused limited damage to the hospital when entering it and that soldiers also had to destroy what he described as “dual use” equipment, like oxygen tanks, which if detonated could have harmed anyone at the complex.

Medical staffers refused to evacuate the hospital or leave their patients unattended. Hundreds of displaced Palestinians had also been sheltering there.

The military official said that suspected Hamas men arrested were stripped to check them for weapons. “After checking them we supplied them with clothes,” he said.

Gaza medics said at least two children had died inside the intensive care unit after Israeli fire hit the generators and oxygen station in the facility on Friday.

The military said civilians at the hospital were kept safe, despite heavy fighting near the complex. Fuel, medical equipment, and blood units had been provided to the hospital and electricity and oxygen supply had been ensured, it said.

Captured Palestinian militants have confessed that terrorists had taken over all of the hospitals in Gaza, using the medical facilities to hide military activities and launch attacks.

The post Israeli Troops Capture Around 100 Hamas Terrorists in North Gaza Hospital, Military Says first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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X Suspends Iranian Supreme Leader’s New Hebrew-Language Account

Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei speaks during a meeting with Iran’s parliament members in Tehran, Iran, July 21, 2024. Photo: Office of the Iranian Supreme Leader/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS/File Photo

JNS.org — Social media platform X, formerly known as Twitter, on Sunday suspended an official account of Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, one day after it was created.

The suspension of the @Khamenei_Heb account came shortly after it featured the tweet: “The Zionist regime made a mistake. It erred in its calculations on Iran. We will cause it to understand what kind of strength, ability, initiative, and will the Iranian nation has.”

The tweet appeared to be a reference to Israel’s Oct. 26 retaliation for the Islamic Republic’s Oct. 1 ballistic missile attack.

X is owned by Elon Musk, who has expressed support of Israel. He visited Israel in November and attended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s speech in Congress in July. He is also on record as advocating free speech on X and in general.

X did not immediately say why it suspended Khamenei’s account. The notice about the suspension referred readers to a text on X’s website that explains that suspended accounts were “found to be in violation of our rules,” which prohibit “violent and hateful entities.”

The post X Suspends Iranian Supreme Leader’s New Hebrew-Language Account first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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Michelle Obama Backs Harris in Michigan, Where Trump Courts Muslim Vote

Kamala Harris and Michelle Obama, Kalamazoo, Michigan, October 26, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Rebecca Cook

Republican Donald Trump appealed to Muslim voters in Michigan on Saturday as Michelle Obama made an impassioned plea on behalf of Kamala Harris at the Democrat’s own rally in the battleground state.

In Michigan, Harris and Trump are battling for voters that include an Arab American and Muslim population concerned about Israel’s bombardment of Gaza, and union workers worried about how electric vehicles could reshape the US auto industry, which is headquartered in Detroit, the state’s largest city.

Election Day is Nov. 5 but early voting was under way in Michigan, as it is many states.

Speaking at a rally outside Detroit, Trump said he had just met with a group of local imams, arguing that he deserved the support of Muslim voters because he would end conflicts and bring peace to the Middle East.

“That’s all they want,” Trump said in the Detroit suburb of Novi, also pledging to auto workers at the rally that he would reverse economic decline in the Detroit area and nationwide.

Trump fully backs Israel but has not said how he would end the conflict there.

Even so, Trump appears to be gaining support from some Muslim Americans upset with President Joe Biden’s and Harris’ support of Israel, and despite Trump banning immigration from some Muslim majority countries in his first term as president.

Imam Belal Alzuhairi of the Islamic Center of Detroit joined Trump on stage, saying, “we ask Muslims to stand with President Trump because he promises peace.”

With some 8.4 million registered voters and 15 electoral college votes of the 270 needed to win, Michigan is one of seven competitive US states that will decide the election. It is part of the “Blue Wall” that is considered Democrats’ best chance of electing Harris, along with Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

OBAMA TAKES THE STAGE

In the southern Michigan city of Kalamazoo, about 130 miles (210 km) away, Harris drew contrasts between her and Trump on issues such as abortion rights, taxes and healthcare.

But first Obama, the popular wife of former President Barack Obama, fired up the crowd by drawing distinctions between the two candidates on personal character and qualifications, saying there was a double standard in how Trump and Harris were being treated.

“I hope you’ll forgive me that I’m a little frustrated that some of us are choosing to ignore Trump’s gross incompetence while asking Kamala to dazzle us at every turn,” the former first lady said, urging any undecided voters to “snap out of whatever fog they’re in.”

Obama also addressed women’s health at length, saying Trump has failed to demonstrate understanding of its complexity and that his vows to rescind the Affordable Care Act passed during her husband’s presidency would affect the “entirety of women’s health, all of it.”

“We as women will become collateral damage to your rage,” she said, later introducing Harris to an animated crowd.

Harris was several minutes into an upbeat address when she was interrupted by a demonstrator who repeatedly yelled, “No more Gaza war.”

After Harris supporters shouted down the interruption, Harris responded, “On the topic of Gaza, we must end that war,” then picked up where she left off, asking voters to “turn the page on the fear and the divisiveness.”

“Over the last eight years, Donald Trump has become more confused, more unstable and more angry, and it is clear he has become increasingly unhinged. But the last time, at least there were people who could control him, but notice they’re not with him this time,” Harris said.

Ahead of the rally, Harris met with women medical providers in Portage, Michigan, where she said the country was in a healthcare crisis following the 2022 ruling by the US Supreme Court that overturned Roe v. Wade, which had guaranteed a women’s right to abortion nationwide.

Harris heard from six women medical providers who described being inundated by patients from other regions due to a lack of reproductive healthcare in their areas since Roe was overturned.

After leaving Michigan, Trump traveled to Pennsylvania, where he tried to reel in young voters with a rally on the campus of Penn State University, at one point bringing the school’s wrestling team on stage with him.

“We have to finish it off with a big victory on Nov. 5,” he said.

POLLS SHOW TIGHT RACE

Harris is leading Trump nationally by a marginal 46% to 43%, a recent Reuters/Ipsos poll showed. In Michigan, Harris leads by even less – 47.6% to 47.1%, according to opinion poll aggregator FiveThirtyEight.

Since the 2020 election, Michigan has instituted early in-person voting for the first time and begun permitting jurisdictions with more than 5,000 people to begin processing and tabulating mail ballots eight days before the Nov. 5 Election Day.

So far, 19.5% of registered voters in Michigan, or nearly 1.42 million people, have voted, Michigan’s State Department said on Friday. Only 10,900 were in-person early votes, while the rest were returned absentee ballots.

The post Michelle Obama Backs Harris in Michigan, Where Trump Courts Muslim Vote first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

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