Israelis crowned European debate champs in English and ESL

Abigail Klein Leichman

In a first, Israelis win trophies not only for English-as-a-second-language debate but also English as a native language debate in annual competition.

Tel Aviv University’s victorious debate team at the 2018 European Universities Debating Championship in Serbia. Photo via Facebook

Four members of Tel Aviv University’s Debate Team made history in Serbia by capturing the trophies for both the open English and English-as-a-second-language (ESL) categories at the 2018 European Universities Debating Championship (EUDC) held at Novi Sad Business School in Serbia.

Noam Dahan and Tom Manor, reigning champions of last year’s ESL category, this year competed in the open English category and beat out all other competitors, including debaters from the universities of Cambridge and Oxford in England.

In the ESL category, the duo of Amichay Even-Chen and Ido Kotler took first prize, making the fourth consecutive year Israeli debaters have won this title.

Debaters from Tel Aviv University competing in the 2018 European Universities Debating Championship in Serbia. Photo via Facebook

The 20th annual tournament from July 31 to August 4 involved more than 700 participants from 30 countries, competing in British Parliamentary Style. The format pits four teams against each other in two opposing sides, with two teams per side and two members per team.

Each strives to provide the most persuasive and comprehensive case to an assigned topic after only 15 minutes of preparation. A different topic is debated in each round. The top teams continue on to elimination rounds.

The Israeli Debating League sent 20 teams from nine universities and colleges from all over Israel. Five of the teams reached the elimination round. The Israelis kept their cool throughout the nine-round tournament even as contestants from Qatar refused to debate with them. EUDC officials later reported that they “consider such behavior unacceptable at any debate competition. In light of this, we took a decision to make the [Qatar University] team ineligible to break [advancing to the elimination rounds]” and proposed amendments to the organization’s constitution to address this type of issue more clearly.

Livni: Netanyahu Government Secretly Wants Hamas to Stay in Power

Benjamin Kerstein

Former Israeli Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni of the Zionist Union addresses attendees at the “Haaretz Q: with New Israel Fund” event at The Roosevelt Hotel in the Manhattan borough of New York City, December 13, 2015. Photo: REUTERS/Andrew Kelly.

Israel’s opposition leader Tzipi Livni ferociously criticized the Netanyahu government on Saturday, saying that it has adopted a secret policy of keeping the terrorist group Hamas in power in Gaza.

According to Israel’s Channel Two, Livni said of the government, “It is difficult for them to conduct negotiations while aware of the concessions that must be made, therefore they prefer Hamas instead of strengthening the moderates,” an apparent reference to Mahmoud Abbas’ Palestinian Authority, which rules the West Bank.

Livni added that the government has moved from a declared policy of toppling the Hamas regime to a secret one of “using the Hamas regime.”

The government did so, she said, because “it prefers a Hamas regime … to a larger process that would also include the legitimate Palestinian Authority.”

As a result of this, Livni asserted, the government “conducts a dialogue with extremist terrorists and at every public opportunity tells the Israeli public why the pragmatic elements who at least speak openly about two states are the ‘real enemy.’”

Netanyahu’s Likud party struck back at Livni almost immediately, saying in a statement, “We call on Tzipi Livni to show responsibility and stop serving as the spokeswoman for Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), who pays huge salaries to the murderers of Jews and tries to ignite a new war in the south by economic strangulation of the residents of Gaza,” referring to economic sanctions leveled by Abbas against Hamas.

Livni’s office issued a ferocious response to the Likud’s statement, saying, “It’s worthwhile for the Likud, which collaborates with Hamas, transfers money and pays salaries to terrorist organizations whose reason for existing is to murder Jewish children — not to preach morality. Whoever prefers those who send martyrs, they should be quiet. Only the Likud could release thousands of terrorists, maintain them, and call those concerned with Israel’s security traitors.”

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Following Infiltration, Lieberman Cuts Fuel Supplies to Gaza ‘as Long as the Violence Does Not Stop’

Benjamin Kerstein

Tear gas canisters are fired by Israeli troops at Palestinian demonstrators during a riot on the Israel-Gaza border, June 8, 2018. Photo: Reuters / Mohammed Salem

Following an infiltration attempt in which 20 Palestinians succeeded in breaching the border fence between Israel and the Gaza Strip, Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman announced that all fuel supplies Israel provides the coastal enclave will cease immediately.

“As long as the violence in the Gaza Strip does not stop completely, including the sending of incendiary balloons and burning tires toward the Israeli towns, the fuel and gas supplies to the Gaza Strip will not be replenished,” Liberman wrote on Twitter Saturday evening, Israel’s Channel Two reported.

The infiltration occurred on Friday as 14,000 Palestinians rioted in several places along the border fence as part of the ongoing “march of return.” Terrorists succeeded in placing an explosive device that blew a hole in the fence, allowing around 20 Palestinians to reach Israeli territory.

The IDF opened fire and most of the infiltrators fled back to Gaza. However, four of them headed for an IDF sniper position. Three were killed by IDF fire and the last succeeded in crossing back over the border.

Several other infiltration attempts was apparently foiled on Saturday, with the IDF Spokesperson’s Office saying that a number of suspects were tracked and arrested trying to cross the fence at several points along the border.

Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh pledged that the border violence would continue, saying, “Woe to you if you stop the march of return before the siege is lifted. Our march is not for diesel and dollars, but it is our people’s natural right.”

Yahya Sinwar, Haniyeh’s superior in the organization, explicitly stated several months ago that the goal of the march was to murder Israelis and conquer the entirety of the Jewish state, saying that rioters “will uproot the borders, we will pluck out their hearts, and we will pray in Jerusalem.”