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Tuesday, July 02, 2013

7/02 Links Part 2: European Hate Roundup, India & Israel Growing Partnership and R.F.K in Israel

From Ian:

The Untold Truth: 150 Million Europeans Hate Israel
In a thought-provoking new book, Demonizing Israel and the Jews, Dr. Manfred Gerstenfeld, a board member of the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, posits that today, well over 150 million Europeans believe that Israel is exterminating the Palestinians. This current widespread demonic view of Israel is a new mutation of the diabolical beliefs about Jews which many held in the Middle Ages, and those promoted more recently by the Nazis and their allies.
Why is the left so blinkered to Islamic extremism?
In the past decade or so some progressives have found themselves - either through political expediency or something worse - on the side of the far-right.
Some have intentionally thrown in their lot with what any politically astute person would recognise as fascism, while others have simply been unwilling to acknowledge that fanatical movements don’t always comprise of white skinheads with bad tattoos and football shirts.
The result, as the report notes, has been an anti-war movement working enthusiastically with those advocating the murder of homosexuals, a left-wing Mayor of London embracing a man who said Adolf Hitler had been sent by Allah to punish the Jews, and a group set up ostensibly to oppose fascism warmly welcoming religious fascists into its own ranks.
Israel upbraids Dutch over ‘preposterous’ Mideast report
A Dutch report on the Middle East conflict that paints Israel as the sole aggressor drew a harsher-than-normal response from Jerusalem recently, in a challenge to its traditionally close ties with the Netherlands.
The report, published in March by the Advisory Council on International Affairs, has also been harshly criticized by pro-Israeli Dutch politicians, who charge that it is full of factual errors and unfairly biased in favor of the Palestinians. Among other shortcomings, critics bemoan that the report, entitled “Between Words and Deeds: Prospects for a sustainable peace in the Middle East,” calls for sanctions against Israel because of settlements yet advocates talking to Hamas and omits any reference to Palestinian terrorism.
Leaked Foreign Office e-mail implies British government collaboration with Israel boycott groups
To add to the concerns, the FCO's desk officer in question, Oliver Fairlamb, is known to promote anti-Israel imagery on his Facebook page. He is a member of the group "YES' to strike action to safeguard teachers pensions" on Facebook too, and his 'cover photo' on the social networking site is an image of what is believed to be a Palestinian town with graffiti on the walls that states, "We won't leave our home" alongside Palestinian flags.
Paul Charney, the Chairman for Britain's Zionist Federation told The Commentator: "I am perturbed that the FCO have had dialogue with groups that call for boycotts against the only stable democracy in the Middle East. Boycotting Israel undermines universal liberal rights and bilateral trade. It usually serves to politicise personal agendas and ends up punishing the wrong people. We call on William Hague to put a stop to these communications and draw a firm line in the sand. The government must be clearer in its rejection of boycotts especially those that unfairly single out Israel."
Church of Scotland’s chutzpah debases interfaith trust
It was Christians who sought interfaith dialogue in the aftermath of World War II, when they realized Christendom’s contribution to the anti-Semitism that powered the Holocaust. Decades of fruitful dialogue were based on principles of mutual respect and genuine understanding of the core beliefs and self-definition of the other. COS and its ilk, however, have understood nothing about the centrality of Israel in Jewish life, or about the 3,500-year connection of the People of the Book to its Torah.
COS’s brazen plunging of a dagger into interfaith understanding does not improve the lot of a single Palestinian.
Ex-Israeli suffers VIDEO
A former Israeli tennis player and her wife have been the victims of an anti-Semitic attack in their own home in a suburb of Antwerp, Belgium. Police have refused to accept a complaint against those who made the attack. anti-Semitic abuse in Belgium (h/t Zvi)
Previously covered by EOZ: Here
400 Demonstrate in Paris Against Suicide Bomber Exhibit
Some 400 people took to the streets of Paris on Sunday afternoon in front of the Jeu de Paume museum to demonstrate against a photo exhibition which seeks to glorify Palestinian Authority Arab suicide bombers who characterize themselves as ‘’freedom fighters,’’ as well as showcasing “those who lost their lives in fighting the occupation”, the European Jewish Press (EJP) reported.
The demonstrators, who were cordoned off by French riot police to guarantee their security, observed a minute of silence in memory of the victims of terrorist attacks, according to EJP.
Vandalism strikes Portland Jewish institutions
Two Jewish institutions in Portland, Ore. — a synagogue and a community center — were defaced with racist graffiti.
“White power” was written in red spray-paint on promotional banners at the Mittleman Jewish Community Center and Neveh Shalom, a Conservative synagogue, on June 27, police said, according to The Oregonian. Both institutions are located in southwest Portland.
A future told by Intel: Ultra-light, ultra-powerful, ultra-cheap
Usually, engineers slaving away in the R&D labs of big tech companies don’t get a chance to see their work at work – unless they wander into an electronics store where customers are trying out their products. In an effort to correct this disconnect, Intel last week held an event for its Israeli worker ants to experience the glamour and glitz of the major product rollouts the company puts on at big tech events, like CES in Las Vegas and Computex in Taiwan.
India & Israel: Increasing Partnership in Trade & Security
Relations between India and Israel are strengthening based on growing security, trade and agricultural ties. Since Israel and India established diplomatic relations in 1992 following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Indian-Israeli relations have rapidly improved. Today Israel is India’s second largest arms supplier after Russia. According to PR Kumaraswamy, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi, “Growing military cooperation extends beyond arms sales to technology upgrades, joint research, and intelligence cooperation. Despite its possible implications for use against Iran, on January 21, 2008, India launched a 300-kilogram Israeli satellite into orbit.”
Italian Prime Minister Letta’s first visit to Israel
Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu sought to highlight Israel’s “common foundations” with close ally Italy on his Italian counterpart Enrico Letta’s first visit to the Jewish State Monday, as he described Italian heritage as “a great inspiration for the rebirth of the modern Jewish state”.
Hailing the allies’ extensive bilateral cooperation across the fields of trade, science, technology and medicine, he focused his hopes for a heightened partnership on the US-motivated revived Mideast peace process, as he insisted Secretary of State John Kerry’s recent efforts “deserve consistent and constant European support, and I’m sure that Italy will give that support”.
In Shiloh, an intriguing discovery alludes to the Tabernacle
The Tabernacle or Tent of Meeting -- which, according to the Bible, housed the Ark of the Covenant -- was a temporary structure made of wooden beams and fabric, not materials cut out for thousands of years of survival.
Nevertheless, undaunted, archaeologists have searched for evidence of the Tent of Meeting for years, which they posited would be found in ancient Shiloh (next to the settlement of Shiloh in the Binyamin region). Now it appears their efforts have borne fruit, yielding assumptions that the Tent of Meeting indeed stood there.
Israel Vindicated: 1948 as told by those who lived it
Robert F. Kennedy, martyred liberal icon, was a reporter for the Boston Post in 1948. He was sent in the spring of that year to Mandatory Palestine to cover the lead up to the British withdrawal. His dispatches are a fascinating glimpse back in time and invaluable historical records. And yet they are also a testament to the ideological stagnation of the Arab world vis a vis Israel.
Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies. R.F.K.’s accounts and other primary sources would appear to vindicate Israel’s version of events.