Monday, March 17, 2014
The Goal of the Boycott by Russell A. Berman
The goal of the boycott movement is not peace: it is the elimination of the State of Israel. This is the logical implication of all its arguments. Its supporters refrain from spelling out this endgame in order to avoid scaring off moderates who would reject the eliminationist agenda, but the end of Israeli sovereignty altogether is the clear purpose of the movement. It will fail in this pursuit, and Israel will survive, but the radicalism of the boycott movement is succeeding in poisoning debate on the Middle East.The Esther Award goes to...
The boycott movement bases its animosity toward Israel on the twin claims that it is a colonialist state and that it relies on an apartheid system of racial segregation. These are not arguments but slurs, and an examination of the historical record shows that they are falsehoods.
The boycott movement ostensibly dodges the question of the political future of the region, claiming agnosticism between the two-state and one-state solutions. In fact its arguments subvert the possibility of a two-state solution — a secure Israel next to a sovereign Palestine. In its de facto opposition to the two-state solution, the boycott movement stands outside the mainstream of the political discussion about the future of the region.
It is easy to spot Haman in today’s world. The Iranian mullah’s with their destroy-Israel infatuation, a few European NGOs who back killers under the slogan of human rights, a Palestinian Authority which teaches its children to hate Jews and to detest life, to name a few.Isi Leibler: Putin, Ukraine and the Jews
But who is this year’s Esther? My vote is with Scarlett Johansson.
Scarlett, a world-renowned actress, and hidden Esther-like Jew, stood up against EU and UN-types when she said goodbye to Oxfam in favor of the Israeli SodaStream. There was an element of Purim-like turn around when Oxfam tried to pressure Scarlett to drop SodaSteram; it was they who got the cut.
The international crisis created by Putin’s military incursion into Crimea has also served to highlight, again, Russia’s relationship to the Jews. The Russian president has included radical nationalism and anti-Semitism in the Ukraine as major justifications for his intervention.
I have personal experience of the feral anti-Semitism which pervaded the region from my direct dealings with senior Soviet authorities in the campaign to free Soviet Jewry, which was the central focus of my public life for many years. I have no doubt that both in the Ukraine and Russia, a substantial proportion of the population continues to hate and fear Jews.
Yet today it is almost surreal, particularly when recalling the major contribution of Soviet Jewish dissidents toward the downfall of the Evil Empire, to observe President Vladimir Putin, the authoritarian former KGB official, displaying overt friendship toward Jews and Israel.
Isi Leibler: Confronting Foreign Media Outlets on Anti-Israel Coverage
Over the past few years, I have followed John Lyons’ Australian articles on Israel with increasing frustration.Free Lance Fauxtography, Reuters Style
With the exception of a few “fig leaves”, his reporting has been distorted, biased, and clearly designed to demonize Israel. His most recent outburst in the Weekend Australian (08/3/14), one of the most biased diatribes against Israel that I can recollect the Australian ever having published, displays a total absence of journalistic integrity.
Lyon’s reporting relies on untrustworthy and highly prejudiced sources. He utilizes false testimonies from Arab propagandists and extreme Israeli leftists. He quotes disgruntled retired Israel officials and highly questionable human rights organizations.
He even goes so far as to include obscene, uncorroborated accusations that Israeli soldiers beat a child “to a pulp”.
Last year’s death of Molhem Barakat — a Syrian freelance photographer for Reuters who was under age and had previously sought to be a suicide bomber — continues to raise questions about the integrity of the wire service’s images.Complaint Against BBC News Israel Story Upheld
The talented teenage photographer was killed covering fighting in Aleppo last December.
The latest complaint relates to an item which aired on the Today programme in June 2011. The report, by Kevin Connolly, one of the BBC’s Middle East correspondents, examined the legacy of the 1967 conflict between Israel and several neighbouring states.Fisking a Guardian claim that Bibi believes in “Israeli exceptionalism”
According to the trust’s findings, which were obtained by The Times, a listener alleged that the Today report wrongly gave the impression that Israel occupied land three times its original size as a result of the war, when it had given 90 per cent of the land captured in 1967 back to Egypt. The programme also, the complainant alleged, gave a misleading impression that Israel was not willing to trade land for peace, when it had reached peace deals with Jordan and Egypt that included transfers of conquered territory.
The trust found that the Today report had been inaccurate on both points and that the complaints should be upheld.
Nicholas Blincoe’s bio at the Guardian notes that he is an author, critic, screenwriter and former advisor to Nick Clegg – who “divides his time between the UK and Palestine”. Naturally, his time in Palestine is devoted to anti-Israel activism, as he is an enthusiastic supporter of BDS and has written a book sympathetic to the terrorist-abetting International Solidarity Movement – which he risibly suggested is a non-violent group.Al Jazeera America: Twisting Israel News, Targeting Opinion Makers
His other observations about the region include a claim that Christians are leaving Bethlehem due to Jewish persecution, and that the mission of Israeli archeology is “to erase the traces of non-Jewish civilizations.”
He also once claimed, at Comment is Free’, that the Har Homa neighborhood (in Jerusalem) is in fact located in Bethlehem.
Profit isn’t of much interest to Al Jazeera America. “That is the difference that will allow us to maintain our journalistic identity,” the network’s Palestinian-American interim CEO, Ehab Al Shihabi,told the Wall Street Journal.NGO Im Tirzu reports on Israelis taking part in Israeli Apartheid Week events
Translation: Unlike its commercial competitors (such as ABC, CBS, CNN, Fox, MSNBC, and NBC), the network doesn’t care that much about general viewer ratings. Rather, it aims to influence opinion makers like teachers, broadcasters, and editorial writers.
The paper, titled “Delegitimization Awareness Month: Information on Israelis participating in Israeli Apartheid Week events", was published this month.EXCLUSIVE: Convicted Terrorists Target UK Campuses Via New Islamist Front Group
Israeli Apartheid Week, according to its website, “is an international series of events that seeks to raise awareness about Israel’s apartheid policies towards the Palestinians and to build support for the growing Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign.” It takes place on different dates in different countries, this year running between February 24 and March 29.
Alon Schvartzer, the head of policy at Im Tirtzu, told The Jerusalem Post in an interview, “We wanted to show that Israeli organizations and individuals are justifying the BDS movement, giving it legitimization, even if they are not on the front lines.
Convicted Muslim terrorists have been targeting London universities in their latest attempt to propagandise for an Islamic state in Britain, Breitbart London can exclusively reveal.Arab states attempt to block Israeli from UN human rights post
Videos on the Need4Khilafah.com website shows the former Al-Muhajiroun member and convicted terrorist Abdul Muhid outside the London School of Economics (LSE), filming and speaking to students about Islamic Finance. The latest video was posted just two days ago, while the organisation has posted nearly 40 videos since its inception in December last year.
Many of the group's films promote radical preacher Anjem Choudary, while others show that the group is not just targeting the LSE, as another man identified as Abu Sayfullah quizzes students on the need for democracy outside Queen Mary University, London.
In a move which smacks directly of antisemitism, the Arab Group of states is attempting to block the appointment of an Israeli as a UN human rights expert. The subject matter is the rights of the elderly. Dr. Israel Doron has been proposed to become the next UN Independent Expert on the enjoyment of all human rights by older persons.The BNP’s slow return to antisemitism
The candidates for the UN independent human rights experts, called "Special Procedures", are vetted by the UN Human Rights Council Consultative Group which submits to the President of the Council a list of candidates "who possess the highest qualifications and meet the general criteria and particular requirements". On the basis of the recommendations of the Consultative Group and following consultations, the President identifies a candidate and presents it to the Council for approval.
Two recent statements by the British National Party and its leader Nick Griffin, have added to a growing sense that the party is returning to its antisemitic roots.Israeli Couple Saved From Mob in Kiev
Like several far right parties in Western Europe, the BNP has spent the past few years insisting that any antisemitism or neo-Nazism was in its past. This coincided with a focus on Muslims as the primary target for the BNP’s propaganda. In 2006, Griffin even wrote a long article on the BNP website attacking “Judeo-obsessives” who see a Jewish conspiracy behind all the troubles of the world.
Zalman Hetzklovich and his wife were walking in Kiev's Independence Square in the center of the city, when eight Ukrainians wearing uniforms and holding sticks suddenly leaped out of a van at them.Jewish Cemetery in Hungary Vandalized With Swastikas and Anti-Semitic Slurs (PHOTOS)
The Ukrainians pointed at the couple, shouting in Russian for them to stop.
"I understood that if I didn't run at that moment it would be the end of us," reported Hetzklovich. "I stopped a taxi and got in with my wife, asking the driver to get us out of there. The attackers surrounded the car and demanded the driver stop."
Unidentified vandals desecrated a Jewish cemetery in Hungary last week spray-painting swastikas and various anti-Semitic slurs on tombstones, Israel National News reported.Latvians honor Nazi allies from World War II
Residents of the Jewish community in Tatabanya were shocked to discover the offensive slogans on Friday, which included “STINKING JEWS!”, “HoloLie” and “There was no Holocaust but there will be!!!”
Former Environment Minister Einars Cilinskis, of the right-wing National Alliance, who was dismissed Friday for announcing he would participate in the procession, ignored Prime Minister Laimdota Straujuma’s orders not to attend.Turkish Cypriot FM sees bright future for Israel relations
The Jewish human rights organization, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, denounced the march and welcomed the ouster of Cilinskis.
“We welcome the steps taken by the Latvian government against the minister who indicated his intention to participate in the march,” the group said in a statement.
With a framework for a comprehensive peace agreement in hand and dreams of a central role in providing natural gas to Europe, Turkish Cypriot Foreign Minister Ozdil Nami visited Washington, DC, this week. Nami hopes that his small island, which has known its share of conflict in recent decades, can have a pivotal role in establishing regional ties, bringing Turkey and Israel together in a common economic partnership.A who's-that of biotechs snags $119M as the IPO market thunders on
Nami believes that “the Cyprus issue holds the key to many developments including closer cooperation between Israel and Turkey, between Turkey and the European Union, and in the problem-free exploitation of hydrocarbon resources.” Although he was wary about discussing the exact implications of Russian involvement in Ukraine, Nami emphasized repeatedly during a Tuesday afternoon meeting that natural gas was pivotal to unlocking Cyprus’s regional potential.
At the end of a banner quarter of biotech IPOs that put millions into the pockets of drug developers, a few smaller players are sneaking out while the window stays open. Thanks to a prolonged public appetite for life sciences companies, the little-known Ignyta, Dipexium Pharmaceuticals and Galmed Pharmaceuticals have banked a combined $119 million to fund their top prospects.Israel to showcase achievements at upcoming nanotech show
First up, cancer biotech Ignyta ($RXDX) cleared $48 million in an up-sized offering of 5.2 million shares at $9.15 apiece. With the proceeds, Ignyta hopes to push its lead candidate, the tyrosine kinase inhibitor RXDX-101, into a mid-stage study. In preliminary Phase I results released last month, Ignyta's drug showed no dose-limiting toxicities and came through with promising signs of antitumor activity, the company said.
A sure sign that Israel is establishing world-class nano-technology research infrastructure is the fact that, while Israel is experiencing a “brain drain” and the emigration of scientists in many other disciplines, top-flight nanotech scientists have been moving to Israel. In the past six years, according to INNI (Israel National Nanotechnology Initiative), 101 such scientists have come to Israel to take faculty positions at top Israeli universities.Israeli buys hugely popular London market for £400m
That by itself is reason enough to celebrate, and INNI, along with nanotechnology centers at Israeli universities, the Ministry of Trade & Industry, the Foreign Ministry, and key companies and organizations in Israel and abroad, will hold NanoIsrael 2014, the fourth bi-annual event that gathers together scientists and industry officials to discuss the newest developments in nanotech. The event will take place in Tel Aviv at the end of March.
Israeli billionaire Teddy Sagi has bought London’s immensely popular Camden Stables Market for over £400 million ($665 million).Exclusive: Arabic high-tech made in Israel
The deal between Sagi and businessmen Richard Caring and Israeli Bebo Kobo was reached after 18 months of negotiations. Sagi now owns 100 percent of the market’s shares.
The Camden markets, or Camden Lock, are a well-known tourist attraction in north London. The complex includes several markets with the largest, the Stables Market, drawing in around 40 million visitors every year.
Six months after Clalit Health Services released a series of instructional Arabic-language videos about breast feeding on YouTube, the health fund was shocked by their popularity – the combined million views they racked up eclipsed the number of breast-feeding women among the country’s 1.7 million Arab citizens.
Clalit found the solution to the mystery in the analytics: More than half of the views had come from Saudi Arabia, 16 percent from Egypt and 9% from Iraq. Only 4.5% were from inside Israel, while the vast majority came from countries that boycott its goods and refuse to establish diplomatic ties.
Arabic, which accounts for some 3.5% of online content today, is the fastest growing language on the Internet. It is projected to become the fourth-largest in 2015, up from seventh place at the end of 2012.
The growing market has created a unique opportunity for Israel’s Arab citizens.
