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Former Mexican president calls leading Jewish Mexican politician a ‘Bulgarian Jew’
(JTA) — Former Mexican President Vicente Fox apologized to the Jewish community after dismissing political opponent Claudia Sheinbaum, a frontrunner in the developing 2024 presidential race, as a “Bulgarian Jew.”
Fox, a right-wing populist and former Coca-Cola executive who was president of Mexico from 2000 to 2006, frequently critiques the country’s current left-wing president, Andrés Manuel López Obrador, in public appearances. Last week, he complained in an interview about López Obrador’s move to stop monthly pension payments for retired presidents by using a derogatory slur to call out “lazy” people who “don’t belong in the government or in the country,” the Los Angeles Times reported.
Sheinbaum and other leaders of López Obrador’s Morena party condemned Fox’s comments. Fox then tweeted out rebuttals, calling Sheinbaum a “Bulgarian Jew” and Marcelo Ebrard, a former foreign minister also in the Morena party, a “French snob.”
Fox is a frequent provocateur whose National Action Party is conservative and has strong ties to the Catholic Church. “The only Mexican is Xóchitl!” Fox added, referring to his preferred presidential candidate Xóchitl Gálvez, a National Action senator.
Sheinbaum’s father’s family immigrated from Lithuania and her mother’s family immigrated from Bulgaria. Ebrard is a descendant of French immigrants.
Fox later apologized, writing, “I have a profound respect for the Jewish community.”
The episode highlighted how Sheinbaum, who rarely discusses her Jewish heritage, is already dealing with questions about her identity at the start of what will be an intense fight for her party’s presidential nomination. The L.A. Times reported that she has been derided as a “foreigner” in political discourse and that she recently tweeted out her birth certificate in response.
Bájenle a sus especulaciones, ahí les va de nuevo mi acta de nacimiento. Soy 100% mexicana, orgullosamente hija de padres mexicanos. pic.twitter.com/wJJKyj2SPy
— Dra. Claudia Sheinbaum (@Claudiashein) June 28, 2023
Sheinbaum became Mexico City’s first Jewish mayor when elected in 2018. Her popularity has soared since then, and she decided to leave the post to run for a presidential nomination against the incumbent in her party. She has emerged as the main competition for López Obrador in Morena, which is expected to name a nominee in September for next year’s election.
If elected, Sheinbaum would be Mexico’s first Jewish and first woman president.
Sheinbaum, 60, was also previously a well-respected physics and engineering professor who helped the United Nations research climate change.
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The post Former Mexican president calls leading Jewish Mexican politician a ‘Bulgarian Jew’ appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hezbollah Arrested Dozens Accused of Espionage
Hezbollah members hold flags marking Resistance and Liberation Day, in Kfar Kila near the border with Israel, southern Lebanon, May 25, 2021. Photo: Reuters/Aziz Taher
i24 News – The Lebanese newspaper Al-Akhbar, identified with Hezbollah, reported Sunday that more than 200 people had been in the Dahieh quarter of Beirut since the beginning of last September on suspicion of espionage.
Among the detainees are also foreign nationals, reportedly, and all suspects have been transferred to Lebanese state security forces.
According to the report, some of the additional detainees were arrested for drug trafficking or burglary offenses they committed in the homes of residents who had left their homes. The detainees were identified as Lebanese, Syrians, and citizens of other nationalities such as Americans, French, and Brazilians.
One of the US citizens previously worked as a US police officer and toured the Dahieh neighborhood with a Lebanese citizen. He said during his interrogation that he came to document himself touring in the war. Another French citizen was arrested filming who claimed he was a journalist – when his cell phone was checked, it turned out that he had filmed a number of buildings in the Dahieh.
The report also alleged that more than 50 Syrians were arrested, some of whom were associated with opposition organizations in their country and made use of foreign citizenships they possessed to land in Beirut and photograph buildings associated with Hezbollah in Dahieh.
The post Hezbollah Arrested Dozens Accused of Espionage first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Report: Russia Recruited Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine
Newly recruited fighters who joined a Houthi military force intended to be sent to fight in support of the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, march during a parade in Sanaa, Yemen, Dec. 2, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Khaled Abdullah
i24 News – Russia recruited hundreds of Yemenis to fight in Ukraine, according to a Financial Times report on Sunday.
The phenomenon reflects a growing cooperation between Moscow and the Houthi rebels.
Yemeni men reported that they were promised well-paying jobs and Russian citizenship, but when they arrived, they were enlisted by force into the Russian army and send to the Ukraine front.
Contracts signed by the men suggested a link to Abdulwali Abdo Hassan al-Jabri, a Houthi politician, through his company. The enlistment appears to have begun in July.
The Yemenis were told they would received $10,000 in bonus, on top of a $2,000 monthly salary, with the belief that they would work in a Russian drone factory.
The contracts were in Russian, which the Yemeni men could not read. While some had fighting experience, the majority did not.
“I signed it because I was scared,” said one of the recruits who spoke to the Financial Times. Many of them have been killed since arriving on the front, brought by “scammers who traffic in human beings.”
“It was all a lie,” he said.
The post Report: Russia Recruited Hundreds of Yemenis to Fight in Ukraine first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Israel Has Let 900,000 Tons of Food into Gaza, Data Show
The International Criminal Court. Photo: ICC Website.
JNS.org – Israel has let into the Gaza Strip almost 900 kilotons of food in some 40,000 trucks over the past year, according to official data.
The data was released on Friday following the International Criminal Court’s decision the previous day to issue arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his former defense minister Yoav Gallant. Israel has roundly rejected the allegations, which it called false and antisemitic.
The food data appears to undermine the ICC’s reasoning for issuing the warrants, which it said was over suspicions that the two Israelis “knowingly deprived the civilian population in Gaza of objects indispensable to their survival, including food, water, and medicine and medical supplies, as well as fuel and electricity.”
In addition to food, about 2,600 trucks containing more than 51,000 liters of water were let in, along with almost 30,000 tons of medical equipment. An additional 10,000 aid drops took place in 140 operations.
The water supply translates to 112 liters per person daily in the north of the Gaza Strip, 39 liters in the center, and 24 liters in the south.
More than 5.7 million vaccines, including polio vaccines, were administered, and 32,000 liters of fuel were let in as well as 26 kilotons of cooking gas.
In total, 57,480 trucks carrying 1,129,774 tons of aid have been delivered to the residents of the Gaza Strip since Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas-led terrorists murdered some 1,200 people in Israel and abducted another 251, triggering a regional war and an ongoing war against Hamas.
The post Israel Has Let 900,000 Tons of Food into Gaza, Data Show first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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