Tuesday, July 15, 2014
IDC fights war on another front
As Israel’s security forces remain embroiled in the ongoing conflict with Hamas along the country’s southern border, students at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya (IDC) are engaged on another equally important front: hasbara or public diplomacy.Dershowitz: BDS Opposes Israel's Existence
The Student Union at the IDC opened a “Hasbara Room” on Thursday – the first day of Operation Protective Edge – with the purpose of providing factual information about the situation on the ground to people around the world, as well as countering the misinformation and lies being disseminated on social media sites.
“Israel is not very strong at hasbara, while Hamas and the Palestinians are very good at spreading the word in the media,” said volunteer coordinator Karen Yoseph, a 27-year-old masters student at the IDC. “We are trying to combat that and we are trying to expose that a lot of times Hamas is lying.”
In a recent educational video for Prager University, famed Harvard Law professor Alan Dershowitz stepped across the aisle to fight on behalf of the one issue connecting him to the right: strong support of Israel.BDS: The Attempt to Strangle Israel
Unlike most pro-Israel videos, Dershowitz refrains from soliloquies praising Israel's achievements, but instead attacks a movement most familiar to him as a University professor, namely, the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement and the dark, genocidal motives lurking beneath it.
At the outset, Dershowitz makes it clear he supports the creation of a Palestinian state and also opposes the settlements in Judea and Samaria, but also strongly condemns the BDS Movement, calling it immoral in "singling out Israel of all the world's countries for economic strangulation." He attacked the movement on four fronts:
Anti-Semite Ali Abunimah Calls Egyptian Ceasefire A 'Ploy'
Ali Abunimah, the anti-Semitic editor of the anti-Israel blog Electronic Intifada, called the Egyptian ceasefire proposal a pro-Israel ploy on Tuesday morning.Pew Research: Republicans Support Israel Much More Than Democrats
"I didn't say in my post, but Egypt "ceasefire" ploy also attempt to create conditions for Israel-backed Abbas militias to return to Gaza."
This is not the first time that Abunimah has taken aim at Israel during Hamas' offensive. In one tweet, Abunimah accuses Israelis of "cowering" as they hide from Gazan missile fire:
A Pew study conducted during the first week of the Israel/Hamas conflict (7/8-14) and released on Tuesday reports support for Israel among Americans remains strong. What has changed is the gap between Republican Party supporters (73%) and Democratic Party supporters (44%), which is wider than ever.
Tuesday's poll reports that 51% of Americans say they sympathize more with Israel, 14% sympathize more with the Palestinians, 15% do not sympathize with either side, and 3% sympathize with both.
However, Republicans are much more likely to sympathize with Israel, an alliance that has gotten stronger. The percentage of Republicans who sympathize more with Israel has risen from 68% to 73%; while the support of Democrats has fallen since April from 46% to 44%. The share of independents siding more with Israel than the Palestinians has slipped from 51% to 45%.The study also demonstrated the more conservative the respondents are the more likely they are to support Israel.
When the Neighborhood Bully Fires Back
The neighborhood bully just lives to surviveIndependent op-eds spew hate and vitriol at Israel
He’s criticized and condemned for being alive
He’s not supposed to fight back, he’s supposed to have thick skin
He’s supposed to lay down and die when his door is kicked in
He’s the neighborhood bully
– Bob Dylan, “The Neighborhood Bully”
Much of English language media is returning to an old standby: Israel as the neighborhood bully. Sometimes this perspective is stated outright; more often it simply underlies the way stories are presented.
Hamas is usually referred to as a “militant group,” without indicating that it is also the elected government of Gaza. We get the impression of a renegade gang acting outside any official capacity. Working with Hamas is Islamic Jihad; though the two are aligned against Israel they are also in conflict with each other within the larger context of their shared Islamic extremism.
Yet, rarely is “Islamic extremism” mentioned, the widespread phenomenon that greatly overshadows the size of tiny Israel and negates its image as neighborhood bully.
The Independent doesn’t have a Jerusalem correspondent at the moment. So, during the war, they’ve been mainly relying on stringers and wire service reports. However, their lack of on-the-ground coverage hasn’t stopped them from using the ‘expert’ analysis of a few of their op-ed contributors:Despite continuous rocket fire since morning, Guardian declares ‘ceasefire holding’
In contextualizing the UK media each day during the war, we can honestly say at this point that recent Indy’s attacks surpass even the Guardian in the level of malice and vitriol directed towards Israel and its ‘Zionist’ supporters.
Finally, you may recall that last October the Indy published a spirited editorial refuting accusations that the paper was institutionally antisemitic, claiming that the charges were “false”, “myopic” and “willfully ignorant” – words which actually quite aptly characterize the hateful agitprop directed against the Jewish State by Fisk, Bar-Hillel and Alibhai-Brown over the last few days.
Yet, in a Guardian Live Blog entry posted about 2 hours ago, the blog’s editor Matthew Weaver declared the following:IDF responds to 6 hours of Hamas rocket fire, and Guardian blames Israel for breaking ceasefire!
The ceasefire is holding for now despite the launch of seven missiles from Gaza, Peter Beaumont reports from Beit Lahia.
In addition to the fact that Weaver significantly under-counted the number of rockets fired at Israel since the morning, do we really even need to note that the launch of even “seven missiles” from Gaza of course means that the ceasefire is NOT in fact holding?
This is simply surreal.Guardian’s war blog uncritically cites commentator who likens Israel to a child molester
Dozens of Hamas rocket attacks evidently don’t count as a ceasefire violation according to the Guardian’s blog editor Matthew Weaver, but Israeli retaliation – six hours into the Hamas assault – constitutes an official end to the agreement.
This isn’t just an obfuscation, but a complete and total fabrication.
Like any live blog on a serious news site, the Guardian’s running blog of the Gaza War is, presumably, supposed to post significant events and snippets of relevant commentary relating to the conflict. Yet the blog’s editor, Matthew Weaver, somehow thought the following odious smear (posted about 30 minutes ago) by Alexi Sayle (Author, comedian, and Palestine Solidarity Campaign Patron) was newsworthy and relevant to the debate about the conflict.Guardian’s Jerusalem correspondent takes aim at ‘hasbara goons’
Though we’re not sure what his Tweet was specifically referring to, the word ‘hasbara’ (a Hebrew word which merely means ‘explaining’) is often used by anti-Israel activists to characterize, in a pejorative manner, those who defend Israel online.Pallywood now pallywooding alleged Israeli pallywooding
Tellingly, if you Google the term “Hasbara Goons”, the first two results show posts from the hate site, Mondoweiss.
We reported the other day how Pallywood swings back into action for Gaza conflict with images of carnage from Syria, Iraq and elsewhere being passed off by anti-Israel propagandists on social media as reflecting the current Gaza conflict.BBC’s Bowen tries to persuade TV audiences that Hamas does not use human shields
It gets worse.
Now there are accusations that Israel is faking injuries, in essence doing it’s own Pallywooding:
There’s only one problem with that, as exposed at Twitchy.
The photo in question is from a magazine shoot about women in the Israeli army.
Of course what Bowen neglects to clarify to audiences is that the suffering of the ordinary people in the Gaza Strip is actually inflicted by Hamas which – rather than using concrete to build homes and nursery schools – chooses to build cross-border tunnels for terrorist purposes and – rather than using their taxes for social and health programmes – elects to put resources into its missile arsenal.Where's the Coverage? NYT, Others Ignore Attacks on Paris Synagogues
As we have previously noted here, none of the BBC reports from the Gaza Strip so far have even tried to adequately inform audiences about Hamas’ use of human shields. In this report, Bowen not only fails once again to provide accurate information on that topic; he uses another interviewee to try to persuade audiences that it is not true.
The New York Times and other major American media outlets have completely ignored attacks this past weekend on three Paris-area synagogues, one involving a firebomb and another which left hundreds of Jews trapped for hours and several injured.Paris synagogue attacks ignored by BBC
In contrast, the BBC did elect to report on what it bizarrely termed a protest “against the BBC’s coverage of the conflict in the Middle East – and the conflict itself” in Manchester on July 12th. Obviously the BBC has not yet come to terms with the fact that the current upsurge of violence in the Gaza Strip and Israel is not the conflict in the Middle East. That may perhaps be explained by the fact that BBC journalists apparently read (and saw fit to link to) the website of a pro-Assad supposed ‘anti-war’ organization which could not be bothered to rally itself on behalf of the 170,000 dead, 680,000 injured and five million refugees in Syria.How the BBC’s ME editor prevents audiences from understanding the background to the Gaza conflict
To date, the BBC has completely failed to report the fact that terrorist groups linked to Fatah – the dominant party in both the PLO and the PA – have, according to their own announcements, been playing an active part in the hostilities. Likewise, as previously noted here, the BBC’s reporting has made no effort to inform audiences of the incitement and glorification of terror coming from Fatah and PA sources.Rules for using photographs (Gaza, Pallywood) (satire)
Of course there is nothing novel about such serious omissions: the BBC consistently refrains from reporting Fatah and PA incitement and glorification of terrorism, with the examples during the recent kidnappings of three Israeli teenagers being just the latest.
Together with all that, the BBC is also consistent in avoiding informing audiences of the real significance of the fact that the Palestinian unity government inaugurated at the beginning of June made no effort to disarm the plethora of terrorist organisations – including Hamas – in the Gaza Strip in order to comply with existing agreements with Israel and the resulting ‘Hizballah model’ whereby an internationally recognized terror group retains its own rival militia whilst at the same time being party to a government.
The Rules and Guidelines for Westerners reporting on the Middle East has now been updated with the following mandatory rules on using photographs:Europe’s Jews: Unwanted, Dead or Alive
Rule 8 (Using photographs)
If at any time you cannot find relevant photos that can be used to portray Israel as aggressor and Arabs as victims, then simply use photoshop. You can either just doctor existing photos, or better still create your own scene using the ever obliging Palestinians. If you have no volunteers then simply find a pile of rubbish anywhere and place a child's toy or doll on the top - this enables you to tweet a photo with the caption "all that remains of nursery destroyed by Israel". Other variations of this are to place a broken wheelchair on top and use the caption "all that remains of disabled people's home destroyed by Israel".
When the historian and founding president of Brandeis Abram Sachar wrote a history of the Jewish journey from the death camps to the establishment of the State of Israel, he called it The Redemption of the Unwanted. I’ve always found the term to be depressingly appropriate, both as a profound statement on the flipside of the Jews being the “chosen people” and as an insight into postwar Jewry.As Rockets Fall, 900 New Immigrants Arrive in Israel
Though the Holocaust was over, anti-Semitism was not. And while some Jews bravely chose to rebuild from the rubble–they were rebuilding not just European Jewry but Europe itself, though their European brethren would never concede as much–the Jewish people had understood their status. They were not fleeting victims or convenient scapegoats (or at least not only those things); they were unwanted, dead or alive.
Since the beginning of Operation Protective Edge, some 475 new immigrants have arrived in Israel – and another 400 are expected in two days. Speaking at a meeting of the Knesset State Control Committee, Immigration and Absorption Minister Sofa Landver said that the immigrants had arrived from a wide variety of countries, including the US, the UK, and France, and had been sent to live in areas around the country, including in the south.Watch: Ashkelon Residents Dedicate Torah Scroll Under Fire
Speaking at the Committee, Landver said that the Nefesh B'Nefesh (NBN) organization, which helps Jews in North America immigrate to Israel, was “doing wonderful work. The decision to leave the United States is a difficult one, but we will support any organization that brings Jews to Israel. In the near future we will begin a campaign in France to help Jews there become familiar with the possibilities for housing and employment in Israel.” Four hundred new immigrants are expected in two days time, she said.
Residents of the southern city of Ashkelon didn't let a few rockets spoil the dedication of a new Torah scroll Sunday.Crown Heights family names baby for 3 slain teens
The city is situated just 13 miles north of the Gaza Strip, and residents have just seconds to seek shelter after hearing the Code Red warning sirens. But amid the music and noise of the loud and typically boisterous celebration it appears that many either did not hear the sirens or simply carried on dancing regardless.
While many participants can be seen running for shelter, others stayed and witnessed the Iron Dome missile defense system shoot down incoming rockets.
Yankee and Bina Teitelbaum of Crown Heights, Brooklyn, named their newborn son Eyal Gil-ad Naftali on Monday, in honor of the three kidnapped and murdered Israeli teenagers Eyal Yifrach, 19, Naftali Fraenkel, 16, and Gil-ad Shaar, 16.They’d Rather Walk Than Live with Israel
The latest addition to the Teitelbaum family joins four other children, including a girl Shalhevet named for the murdered infant Shalhevet Pass in 2001, and a son Ehud, for the late IDF soldier Ehud Goldwasser.
Speaking to The Times of Israel hours after the baby’s circumcision, Yankee explained:”These kind of situations. There’s a special feeling of unity throughout the Jewish people.” Naming a child for the murdered students serves as “a constant reminder” of that feeling, he said.
The rejection of the light rail has precedents going back to the 1930s when Palestinian Arabs rejected and sought to destroy the country’s new electricity grid that had been constructed by the Jewish community. Just as one Arab social worker who used to take the light rail told Rudoren that he would rather walk than go on using a symbol of Israel’s permanence, then some Arabs preferred to go without electricity. When international philanthropists purchased the greenhouses being left behind by Jewish settlers in Gaza after Israel’s 2005 withdrawal so as to benefit local Arabs, the structures were burned to the ground within hours by those who were supposed to profit from them.8 Dead in Mortar Attack in Egypt's Sinai
According to the report, the mortar rounds were fired at a military post in the provincial capital of el-Arish, killing a soldier as well as seven civilians, including a child.Obama administration supports Assad chemical weapons plants compromise
The military post is located near a compound of residential buildings in the al-Salam district. The main security headquarters and the local government offices are also located in the same area.
The Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad is still holding onto at least 12 chemical weapons production facilities it was supposed to destroy by June 30, and the Obama administration is supporting a proposal to obliterate initially only seven of them in the interests of a breakthrough deal.Netanyahu warns against a bad nuclear deal with Iran
The remaining five, apparently all underground facilities, must be dismantled, but the compromise would allow further negotiation over how that would take place, and how the destruction would be verified.
The U.S. position, hedged with stern warnings to the Syrians, was revealed this week in remarks by Robert Mikulak, the top American diplomat at a meeting of the executive council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) in The Hague.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned Sunday that any nuclear deal leaving Iran with the capability to enrich uranium would be “catastrophic.”Western Powers Warn 'Big Gaps' Remain with Iran
“It would be a disaster for the United States and for everyone else,” Netanyahu said as a deadline loomed for an agreement on Iran’s disputed nuclear program between the West and the Islamic Republic.
Arriving in Vienna for the talks, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said "significant differences" remain - a view echoed by France and the UK.Despite gaps, Kerry pushing for Iran deal before deadline
"We haven't made the decisive breakthrough," the BBC quoted UK Foreign Secretary, William Hague, as having said. "There are very significant gaps."
The talks in Vienna bring together Iran and the P5+1 group, comprising the US, UK, France, China, Russia and Germany.
All the countries except Russia and China have sent their highest-ranking foreign envoys.
US Secretary of State John Kerry said Tuesday that he was still focused on reaching a nuclear deal with Iran by a July 20 deadline despite “real gaps” after two days of talks in Vienna.As Iran Nuke Talk Deadline Looms, Lawmakers Urge White House to Involve Congress
“After my conversations here … it is clear that we still have more work to do. Our team will continue working very hard to try to reach a comprehensive agreement that resolves the international community’s concerns,” Kerry told a news conference.
A bipartisan group of lawmakers is pushing the Obama administration to work more closely with Congress as the P5+1 powers near the July 20 deadline to reach a nuclear agreement with Iran that would force the Islamic republic to put its atomic program beyond use for weaponization. In a letter signed by 344 House members, lawmakers called for any final nuclear agreement with Iran to force “Iran’s permanent and verifiable termination” of ballistic missile development, unconventional weapon development, terrorism financing, and nuclear proliferation activities:Iran: 411 Executions in the First Half of 2014
At least 411 prisoners have been executed in Iran from the beginning of January 2014 to the end of June of the same year. This indicates that the execution wave, which recommenced after the most recent Iranian presidential election, is continuing. According to reports by Iran Human Rights (IHR), more than 870 people have been executed since the election of Mr. Hassan Rouhani in June 2013. IHR calls on the international community to take serious measures to stop the execution wave in Iran.The Most Dangerous Man In The Middle East
Qassem Suleimani is the deadliest man in the Middle East that you’ve never heard of.NYT: How the Flatow Case Exposed Collaboration Between Major Banks and Iran
The 57-year-old Suleimani is a virtual ghost — he’s never pictured, never seen and never accounted for. His location in the world is only ever rumored, and not even his closest advisors know where he’ll pop up next. His presence is always felt but never seen.
Suleimani is the commander of the Qud’s Force, a highly secretive Iranian security and intelligence operation that will do anything to protect the Islamic Republic of Iran. He became Qud’s commander in 1998 and in 2005 was named by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamanei, as “a living martyr.” He has delivered fewer than a handful of public speeches, and few photographs exist of him.
Earlier this week The New York Times outlined how a case brought by Stephen Flatow against Iran exposed the chicanery used by major international banks to evade sanctions and do business with the Iranian regime.US envoy warns circumcision bans will create Jew-free Europe
Flatow brought a lawsuit against Iran for its financing of Palestinian Islamic Jihad, which was responsible for a bus bombing in Gaza in 1995 that killed his daughter, Alisa. Flatow won a $250 million judgment against Iran but was unable to collect. Instead, he went after the Alavi Foundation, which he alleged was a front for the Iranian government. The suit alerted prosecutors to financial machinations that major banks engaged in to evade the sanctions against Iran.
The Obama administration’s anti-Semitism monitor has added an issue to his office’s portfolio: defending circumcision in Europe.Couple arrested for threats on Hamptons synagogue
Circumcision has become a top focus for Ira Forman, the State Department’s special envoy to monitor and combat anti-Semitism. He has been using the pulpit his office provides to warn European governments that moves to ban ritual circumcision could lead to the demise of their countries’ Jewish communities.
“Because circumcision is essentially universal among Jews, this can shut down a community, especially a small vulnerable community,” Forman said.
Asli Dincer, 44, and her ex-husband Melih Dincer, 31, sent email messages to the Jewish Center of the Hamptons in May and June, threatening an explosion there during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. Ramadan began on June 29.Jewish doc sees red from JetBlue
The two were arrested July 11 at New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport upon their return from Turkey. They were arraigned on Friday in East Hampton on charges of making a terrorist threat, falsely reporting an incident, menacing and conspiracy, according to NBC New York.
WPBF, a local Palm Beach area news station reported that Dr. Lisa Rosenberg said that she had been sitting in her seat speaking on her cell phone to a friend about Israel. Rosenberg was reportedly complimenting Israel on how it has been handling the current conflict with Hamas. She also said she had expressed concern about the safety of her daughter, who is planning to study in Israel next year.Two charged with assault after Palestine House protest turned violent
According to Rosenberg, a woman who had apparently overheard her conversation came up to her and identified herself as a Palestinian. “Zionist pig. This is just the beginning,” Rosenberg claims the woman cursed at her.
Apparently an altercation ensued, and a JetBlue flight attendant intervened. A supervisor appeared on the scene and told Rosenberg she needed to get off the plane. (h/t Jewess)
Two people have been charged with assault after this month’s violent protests outside Palestine House in Mississauga, Ont., both allegedly supporters of Palestine House who attacked Jewish Defence League members.Yahoo buys Israeli streaming startup RayV
JDL president Meir Weinstein said a member of his group met with police on Thursday, and the charges are both related to Palestine House members using sticks to allegedly assault people.
“I don’t have any issues with people screaming back and forth to make their point but anyone that’s going to take a club and start trying to bash people over the head has no place in Canada,” said Mr. Weinstein.
Yahoo announced Friday it has bought an Israel-based startup specializing in streaming high-quality video to computers and mobile devices.ReWalk files for $58 million IPO
Yahoo did not disclose financial terms of the deal to acquire RayV, which will become part of the California company’s research and development team in Tel Aviv.
“The (RayV) team lives and breathes video, and have become industry pioneers,” Yahoo said in a Tumblr post.
ReWalk has filed for a $58 million initial public offering and will list on the Nasdaq under the symbol RWLK, according to a report in The Wall Street Journal. The news item says the company formerly known as Argo Medical Technologies will use the funds to support development of its robotic exoskeleton for people with spinal cord injury.Vanessa Williams Defiantly Promoting Israel
Earlier this month, reports swirled about the imminent IPO offering.
While rockets rain down on Israel, singer and actress Vanessa Williams continues to explore our land – and promote it to her hundreds of thousands of followers.
With others staying away from Israel at this time, it is refreshing to see a celebrity not only supporting us with their words (which is important), but by their actions.
Vanessa Williams is a beauty – inside and out.
