Monday, June 16, 2014
War of Independence isn't over
The difference between extremist Palestinians and Palestinians with whom we hold peace talks is an imaginary one created by the Israeli Left, which has tired of bearing the burden of maintaining the Jewish presence in the Land of Israel. If a poll was taken of the Palestinian public, it is certain that the kidnappers would be seen as heroes at the forefront of the effort to realize the dream of removing the Jews from their homeland. The only difference between Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh and Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas is that Haniyeh says what he really thinks, while Abbas masks his intentions with sweet words and doublespeak. It is a great shame that there are Israelis who have been captivated by the charm of the false rhetoric of Yasser Arafat's disciples, exalting the victims of the peace process.Video: Arabs Attack Jews in Jerusalem's Old City
While the Israel Defense Forces and other Israeli security entities are doing everything they can to find the kidnapped teens and the citizens of Israel are united in prayer and concern, some Israeli media commentators have rushed to explain that the kidnapping was the result of a lack of a political horizon and the fact that Jews live in Gush Etzion. This interpretation is an evil distortion of reality. The truth is completely different. The teens were kidnapped because they were Jews living in their historic homeland, regardless of the location of their place of study or residence. Jews were maliciously murdered in the past by Palestinian terrorists at the Dolphinarium discotheque in Tel Aviv, a hotel in Netanya, a restaurant in Haifa and on the streets of Jerusalem. Only people with short memories have forgotten the history of our modern-day return to Zion, in which many Jews were killed for no reason, even before the Six-Day War and the liberation of our homeland.
Jews were walking back from the mass prayer that was held at the Western Wall (Kotel) Sunday for the teens abducted by Hamas Thursday, when Arabs attacked with chairs and rocks. The Jews held their ground until police intervened.Arabs attack Jews in the Old City of Jerusalem
Michael Lumish: Why Shouldn't They Kidnap Jews?
Within recent decades Arab and old Soviet propaganda convinced the well-meaning (and not so well-meaning) in the progressive-left that Jews are "Occupying" the innocent "indigenous" population of "historical Palestine."
The progressives - in the years since the 1967 war allegedly turned Jewish Israelis into "Goliath" - convinced the majority of diaspora Jews that Israel is somehow "illegally occupying" what is, in fact, the current and historical land of the Jewish people.
Jews are accused of illegally occupying the very land that we come from and many diaspora Jews unwittingly (or so one hopes) promote the notion.
Reader Post: Jews and Race – The “Skin Color” Argument in Anti-Israel Discourse
What does all of this have to do with skin color and race? The answer is a simple one. The Jews, as mentioned above, are an indigenous Middle Eastern tribe who, despite centuries of racist persecution and attempts at cultural extermination, never lost their identity, religion, culture, blood, or any of the key components that make Jews a native people of the Middle East. Indigenous status cannot be lost via colonization and exile. Rather, it has to be given up willingly, either via assimilation or a complete rejection of one’s indigenous cultural identity. For example, one can easily find a white North American claiming Cherokee or Choctaw heritage, but if they are not accepted as a member of the tribe, keep none of the traditions, and do not identify as a member of said tribe, they cannot be considered indigenous in the anthropological or political sense. With all of that said, it should go without saying that Jews are, and remain, a people of the Middle East as opposed to their host countries, unless one also accepts that white European Americans are now native to North America rather than Europe.David Singer: Palestine – Negotiating semantic minefield becomes pressing necessity
Two former Australian Foreign Ministers – Bob Carr (2012-2013) and Gareth Evans (1988-1996) – have published an article this past week engaging in a semantic tug of war with Australia’s current Foreign Minister – Julie Bishop – over Australia’s recently declared policy of refusing to describe East Jerusalem as “occupied territory”.Israel summons EU envoy over ‘blatantly one-sided’ declaration
What is completely inexcusable is that Carr and Evans relied only on this International Court of Justice decision – whilst apparently failing to consider the following established international law with specific application to the West Bank – namely:
The Mandate for Palestine 1922 – especially article 6 – and article 80 of the United Nations Charter and
Security Council Resolutions 242 and 338
These provisions provide the legal basis for Israel using the term “disputed territory” and Australia rejecting the pejorative term “occupied territory” used in countless UN Resolutions – misleadingly suggesting an Arab entitlement to 100% exclusive sovereignty.
The Arab-Jewish conflict has been an ongoing battle of words as much as a series of real live battles fought by the Jews against its Palestinian Arab neighbours, the armies of six Arab States and a myriad number of terrorist groups over the last 130 years.
The head of the Foreign Ministry’s European division, Rafi Schutz, on Monday morning complained to Ambassador Lars Faaborg-Andersen about a proclamation adopted by the EU’s foreign ministers and their Arab colleagues after a meeting between the groups last week in Athens.IAF strikes targets in Gaza in retaliation for rocket fire
“The declaration was so blatantly one-sided, it basically read as if it was dictated by the Arab League,” a senior Foreign Ministry official told The Times of Israel. “It hails the Fatah-Hamas union and praises the Palestinians’ ‘commitment to democracy and human rights,’ but doesn’t reflect negatively in any way on the rockets fired from Gaza at our citizens, or anything else the Palestinians do wrong.”
The 10-page declaration does not explicitly mention Hamas, nor does it mention rocket attacks against Israeli civilians or any other form of Palestinian terrorism, merely condemning “all acts of violence against civilians” and calling for “full respect of international humanitarian law.”
On the other hand, the declaration — adopted last Wednesday at a summit headed by EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton and Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby — is not short of harsh criticism for alleged Israeli violations. For instance, the European and Arab foreign ministers expressed concern over the “grave humanitarian situation in the Gaza Strip largely caused by the closure imposed by the Occupying Power,” according to the declaration.
The IDF released a statement confirming the airstrikes, which targeted arms-manufacturing facilities and weapons caches. Most of the targets are situated in the northern Gaza Strip, while one of them is in the southern part of the coastal enclave.Ben-Ari: Would Netanyahu Send His Wife to Gaza Hospital?
"The IDF will not tolerate attempts to harm the citizens of the State of Israel and its soldiers," the army said. "It will act against anyone who uses terrorism against the state."
Hours earlier, Palestinian terrorists fired a salvo of rockets from Gaza at southern Israel. Two of the rockets were intercepted over the city of Asheklon by an Iron Dome anti-rocket battery. According to IDF assessments, the rockets were fired by Islamic Jihad operatives.
Former MK Michael Ben-Ari on Sunday night expressed sharp criticism at the “kid glove” treatment the wife of Palestinian Authority chief Mahmous Abbas was getting at one Israel's top hospitals. “Our pity and caring for our enemies shows how stupid we really are. While our kidnapped boys are sitting in the shadow of death, the wife of the shepherd of these terrorists is getting the best of care from us.”The Palestinian Arab Cause Gets Vicious in Boston
Media reports Sunday said that wife of Abbas was convalescing in Tel Aviv's Assuta hospital after undergoing foot surgery. The report by Yeditot Aharonot said that Abbas' wife was being held under heavy security in a private room, with no roommates. She is said to have undergone a knee transplant.
The war to destroy Israel has come to Boston, Massachusetts. The Massachusetts Bay Transit Authority (MBTA)—part of Greater Boston’s transit system-- has become a ground-zero in the propaganda war against Israel. Several anti-Israel organizations have been sponsoring anti-Israel ads on the exterior of Transit buses.CJP Slams 'Deliberately Inflammatory' Anti-Israel Ad Campaign
Recently, a new ad has labelled Israel as an apartheid state that kills children. It says that , “Since September 2000, Israel’s military has killed one Palestinian child every four days, using US tax dollars.”
In case you didn’t do the math, that’s about 1,400 children. The ad calls for an end of US support for the ‘APARTHEID’ Israel.
As propaganda, this is a stunningly successful ad. It’s brief. It demonizes its enemy. It gets your attention.
Barry Shrage, president of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies, slammed the “extremely misleading…deliberately inflammatory” advertisements that were placed in the Boston subway system last week that demonized the Jewish state.Sorry, Alison Weir. Americans Know. You can't fool them.
The campaign was sponsored by the radical group Ads Against Apartheid which lies and accuses Israel of being an apartheid state similar to South Africa among other charges.
One of the ads accused Israel of building "Jewish-only" homes inside of "Palestine" which another asked if Israel "wants peace...or land."
The attack on the USS Liberty was a tragic accident that unfolded during the 6 day war. Ten United States investigations and three Israeli inquiries conclusively established the attack was a mistake. According to the Jewish Virtual libraryJewish Leader Speaks Out Against Anti-Christian Attacks at Israel Allies Summit
Israel ultimately paid nearly $13 million in humanitarian reparations to the United States and to the families of the victims in amounts established by the U.S. State Department. The matter was officially closed between the two governments by an exchange of diplomatic notes on December 17, 1987.
The USA and Israel have closed the matter, but flotidiot and anti-Israel activist Joe Meadors and his handlers at If Americans Knew are determined to keep the incident alive.
To Joe Meadors and Alison Weir. Americans Know, and that's why no one showed up to your little stunt.
Joe Meadors writes about a memorial service for the men killed and wounded in the attack on the USS Liberty, and asks " What if you gave a memorial service and nobody came?"
The head of the World Jewish Congress, Ronald Lauder, expressed solidarity with the global persecution of Christians, at the Jerusalem Day Convention with the Israeli Allies European Summit in Budapest, Hungary.Methodist pension board divests from co. supplying Israel
“I will speak out across the globe with world leaders and with ordinary citizens, and I will tell them that we will never tolerate any kind of anti-Christian threats, just as we will not tolerate anti-Semitism,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder told Jewish and Christian leaders gathered at the summit. “Your fight is my fight.”
A press release issued by United Methodist Kairos Response, a movement within the church that advocates on behalf of Palestinian Christians, said the decision to divest from G4S was “due in part to concerns about the company’s involvement in human rights violations in the Israeli prison system and the military occupation of Palestinian territories.”Presbyterian DVD Advances Anti-Israel Movement in US Churches
The move comes just days before another mainline Protestant denomination, the Presbyterian Church (USA), is scheduled to consider five resolutions that would advance divestment from companies that deal with Israel’s military and one that would reconsider whether the church supports a two-state solution.
The pervasive anti-Israel polemic throughout the eight episodes contained in the DVD (as well as the study guide it accompanies) should come as no surprise considering the purpose for which the IPMN was established. This grassroots organization of the PCUSA was “established in 2004 with a mandate from the denomination's General Assembly for the purpose of encouraging wider and deeper Presbyterian involvement with Palestinian Christians and advocating for the human rights of Palestinians under military occupation.” Sadly, the IPMN has used its mandate for pro-Palestinian activism as a pretext for demonizing Israel.Concerns over Israel top foreign agendas of two British trade unions
The union’s Wolverhampton branch, which allegedly has connections to the extreme-left Socialist Workers Party, submitted a motion that attacks Israel and criticizes UNISON executives for failing to implement previous conference resolutions that called on local government contracts to deliberately ignore Israeli companies’ bids.Atzmon and Duke and Galloway
Another resolution to be discussed in the conference echoes calls to introduce Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions measures, which call for local councils and public organizations to exclude Israel when considering contracts or entering bargaining processes.
The news that Gilad Atzmon has called white nationalist/antisemite David Duke a “proud white man” and a “humanist” should hardly surprise anyone who has been paying attention to the Jew-hating filth he has spouted in recent years.Roman Abramovich invests $10-million in Israel’s StoreDot
Although many of Atzmon’s former fans on the anti-Zionist Left have edged away from him, George Galloway boasted only last year that Atzmon was teaching him to play the saxophone.
Now I have no idea to what extent Galloway shares Atzmon’s views, but I’ll simply note that while he could not bear to sit at the same table as an Israeli, he has (or had) no problem taking music lessons from the execrable Atzmon.
Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich, owner of London’s Premiere League Chelsea FC, has invested $10 million in nanotechnology startup StoreDot, according to a report by the Wall Street Journal.Starbucks puts Israeli phone charging tech in shops
StoreDot, which is developing electronics based on bio-organic materials, wowed the world in April with its 30-second nano-dot prototype battery set for mobile phones.
The WSJ report says Abramovich’s private asset management company Millhouse carried out the investment in May.
Tables in Starbucks coffee shops are to be outfitted with Israeli-developed Powermat charging pad technology, where customers can place their compatible devices and charge them wirelessly.Polish oil terminal installs Israeli security solutions
Powermat pads have already been installed in some Starbucks location in San Jose and Boston, with more locations to be outfitted during the coming months, first in the US, and then in Europe and Asia.
The systems are NICE Situator and NiceVision and are being used by Naftoport as part of a security program that involves integration of previously installed solutions for enhanced incident management and situational awareness.Meet The 6 Israeli Startups On ‘Forbes’ Top 10 Health Tech Changing The World
"Integrating our disparate security systems within NICE Situator has made our security team more efficient, effective, and agile by automating response processes and administration," said Cezary Jozwiak, head of Security at Naftoport. "It gives them a single operating platform through which they can proactively monitor, manage, and maintain the safety and security of the port, reducing risks and improving incident management."
When six of the ten companies on Forbes’ “Top 10 Health Tech Changing the World” are Israeli, it’s fair to say that Israel is not only the Startup Nation, but the Health Tech Nation as well. Israeli technologies overwhelmed the list not only with the variety of life-saving applications, but their ingenious and innovative way of doing so as well. Here are six startups on the list:The Hives spread to Tel Aviv
Local fans of The Hives attending their show on June 17 at Bloomfield Stadium in Jaffa along with the Pixies (as part of the two-day RockandRoller Festival) will be getting the band they know and love. And The Hives will be getting something new, an appearance in a new country, one of the elements that Almqvist said is keeping things fresh for them.Israel Daily Picture: From the 4 Corners of the World: Another Picture Collection from New Zealand Part I
“We’ve made a point over the last year of going to new places and we’re really excited to be coming to Israel,” he said, inquiring about what there is to do in Tel Aviv. With The Hives having outlasted the life span of most bands, Almqvist added that there’s no sense of urgency to make any changes as long as people still want to see them and enjoy their music.
The New Zealand collection is remarkable for the angles of some of the pictures -- such as the women at the Western Wall, above -- different from many of the other conventional "postcard" pictures taken at the time.
Some of these photographs/slides were taken by Frank Mason Good in the 1860s.
Color film was not available until years later. The color slides were transparencies with color applied.
