Jews attacked in France
Three Jews wearing kippot were attacked on Saturday, June 2 in the city of Villeurbanne, just outside Lyon in eastern France. Ten men armed with iron rods and hammers perpetrated what the French Interior Ministry has officially classified as an antisemitic attack. Two of the three victims were hospitalized, one with injuries to the head, and the other with neck injuries. The three victims, ages 19, 21 and 22, had been heading home when they were confronted by a gang of three, apparently Muslim, North Africans. A verbal argument erupted, and the Africans summoned seven friends. When they arrived, the group attacked the young Jews with hammers, clubs and metal rods. French Prime Minister Jean-Marc Ayrault harshly condemned the incident saying “this is a serious case of unexplained violence. We will fight antisemitism with the law, but through education as well.”

—Israel Hayom/exclusive to JointMedia News Service

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N.J. political race turns ugly
The Democratic race between Reps. Steve Rothman and Bill Pascrell in New Jersey has morphed into a battle over religion and political views on Israel, as some local Arabs attacked Rothman for being Jewish and pro-Israel. “One side says, ‘We want this Jew out of office’ and, frankly, it’s pretty unsettling…They emphasized [Rothman] is a Jewish congressman,” Ben Chouake, president of NORPAC, a pro-Israel political action committee based in Englewood Cliffs, told the Washington Free Beacon. Last week an Arabic campaign poster surfaced in the area, expressing support for Pascrell and urging the Arab community to elect “the friend of the Arabs.”
According to Josh Block, a Democratic strategist and former AIPAC spokesman, “the pro-Pascrell posters…are not calling to elect the candidate who supports a strong relationship between America and the only democracy in the Middle East, one which is rooted in progressive Western values—women’s rights, gay rights, tolerance, freedom of speech, freedom of religion, etc.”

 —JointMedia News Service

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Yeshiva students graduate as intelligence agents
The pre-military AMIT academy in Rosh Pina, Israel recently graduated a class of yeshiva students, who spent the last 17 years studying and training for army service in intelligence units and for positions in spy agencies. The academy is the only civilian institution that offers training and instruction specifically geared toward religious students. The students conduct research, surveillance, translation, covert operations and counterespionage. They also watch Al-Jazeera, learn Arabic, and read the Quran while simultaneously studying the Torah and Talmud. Eventually, these young men may be recruited to elite intelligence units within the IDF. Among the graduates of the academy is a senior official with the Shin Bet, Israel Hayom reported.

—Israel Hayom/JointMedia News Service

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Jerusalem and Tel Aviv featured as Google ‘World Wonders’
Google will feature the Old City of Jerusalem as well as historic sections of Tel Aviv on its new platform, the “World Wonders Project.” An addition to Google’s Street View service, the project, launched May 31, allows “travelers” to take virtual tours of historic neighborhoods and sites with a panoramic street-level view.  Users will be able to go on virtual tours of some 132 historic and heritage sites from 18 countries. The project is presented in six languages, including Hebrew.

—Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JointMedia News Service

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Photos reveal Iran cleaning nuclear-research site
Satellite photographs posted May 30 by the Washington-based Institute for Science and International Security apparently show Iran cleaning a military site where nuclear-weapons research took place, the Wall Street Journal reported. The images of the Parchin site, taken May 25, display what seems to be the deployment of heavy machinery to move earth and equipment as well as the demolishing of two buildings, according to the Journal. Even before the new images were revealed, the International Atomic Energy Agency had been pressing Iran to allow inspectors to visit Parchin due to suspected nuclear testing there.

—JointMedia News Service

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U.S. Commerce may label Arabs “disadvantaged minority”
The U.S. Commerce Department is considering classifying Arab Americans as a socially and economically disadvantaged minority group, making them eligible for special business assistance, after the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) petitioned the department on the issue earlier this year. According to “The Hill,” ADC asserts that Arab Americans have faced discrimination and racial profiling since the U.S. increased security measures following the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. However, FBI statistics released last November show that out of 1,409 religion-based hate crimes in 2010, only 13.2 percent were anti-Islamic. Meanwhile, 65.4 percent of those hate crimes were anti-Jewish. If the Commerce Department’s Minority Business Development Agency (MBDA) approves the ADC petition by June 27, Arab American entrepreneurs will gain greater access to capital, contracts and trade opportunities.

—JointMedia News Service

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PJ Library delivers 3 millionth book
PJ Library, a Jewish non-profit which gifts award-winning children’s books to families across North America, Israel, and the world, delivered its three millionth book on May 30 in Livingston, NJ.  Springfield, Mass. Philanthropist Harold Grinspoon, who founded PJ Library in 2005, made the delivery of “Noah’s Swim-a-thon” (by Ann Koffsky) to siblings Jordana and Ryan Goldstein, ages 5 and 8, respectively.

—JointMedia News Service

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Arab author forces cancellation of book that includes Israeli writers
After withdrawing her manuscript from a University of Texas anthology of women’s voices from the Middle East because two of the 29 writers were Israeli, Arab novelist Huzama Habayeb caused the volume’s cancellation by convincing a total of 12 Arab writers to withdraw their contributions. Habayeb — born in Kuwait, raised in Jordan and currently living in Dubai — called “Palestine” her homeland when complaining to the university’s Center for Middle Eastern Studies about the inclusion of Israelis Yehudit Hendel and Orly Castel-Bloom in the book. Israel is “an allegedly legitimate literary Middle Eastern component that desperately seeks acceptance, notwithstanding its ‘genocidal’ practices against Palestinians,” Habayeb said, according to FrontPage Magazine. “All the Arab writers whom I managed to contact withdrew their contributions,” she said. Although the University of  Texas initially planned to proceed with publication without Habayeb’s article, the book was cancelled after the additional authors withdrew their contributions.

—JointMedia News Service