Tuesday, October 22, 2013
Caroline Glick: Our World: A miracle and an outrage in Washington
The only lawful owners of the Iraqi Jewish archive that is being shown in Washington are the Iraqi Jews and their descendants, who are now overwhelmingly Israelis. The only place the archive should be sent is the Babylonian Jewry Heritage Center in Or Yehuda, the only museum in the world dedicated to preserving the cultural heritage of the 2,500-year-old Jewish community of Iraq.The Moral Incoherence of the Israeli Scholars Boycott Movement
Yet for the American foreign policy establishment, besotted by a quasi-religious belief that the establishment of a Jew-free Palestinian state on Israeli land will cure everything from Islamic jihad to the common cold, recognizing this simple truth is a bridge too far. Restoring the Iraqi Jewish archive to its Israeli owners would be tantamount to recognizing that the cause of the Arab world’s conflict with Israel is Arab anti-Semitism.
More troubling with calls for an academic boycott against Israel, as Anthony Julius, British attorney and scholar of anti-Semitism, observed is that it reveals an obsessive inclination to demonize Israel, not to mention a breathtaking double standard in applying moral yardsticks to Israel not used to measure the political or social behavior of any other country—including those with far more dismal records of human rights abuses, racism, genocide, terrorism, and gender apartheid, among many other national pathologies. And in making a moral exception when Israel is the target of this collective moral opprobrium, those calling for a boycott against Israel are also not only violating some of the fundamental precepts of academia, but are repeating the impulses that have historically served to marginalize, demonize, and expel Jews from society—what Julius believes to be anti-Semitism.College Professors Shamelessly Promote BDS Movement
It is also necessary to note that efforts to use professional societies and journals as vehicles to promote BDS are becoming routine. Another recent incident was the 2013 declaration of support for BDS by the Association for Asian American Studies. This marginal organization is one of the only ones to adopt a BDS resolution, but such efforts have been successful in British and more recently Irish academic unions.Arab Student Group Shows True Colors on Israel, Syria
Boycott proposals in other U.S. organizations, notably the Modern Language Association, have been proposed but to date have failed.
The Journal of Academic Freedom BDS issue demonstrates the extent to which American academic organizations continue to be an arena for BDS activists, many of whom move from one platform to another. This usefully demonstrates again the organized nature of BDS and the determination of activists to penetrate all aspects of academia. The use of “academic freedom” as a means to vilify and expel Israel from the global academic community is certain to intensify.
SAIA [Students Against Israeli Apartheid] has had an increasingly conspicuous presence on campus. When the Syrian refugee fundraiser was posted on social media sites, it was a SAIA member that was the first to comment on the event, stating sarcastically that he was “always down to whitewash apartheid!”ADL Lists ‘Top 10 Anti-Israel Groups’ in the U.S.
Despite being well aware of their lack of respect for the ISA, it was still surprising to see members of SAIA handing out flyers and waving the Palestinian flag during our event.
Initially, they didn’t interact with us, and we managed to set up our area without any conflict. While we, the Israel Student Association, were attempting to raise funds for Syrian refugees, SAIA was handing out flyers for an event that documented “the torture of Palestinian children in Israeli military detention.” It was quite a convenient time and place to be advertising for such an event.
In a statement, ADL National Director Abe Foxman said each of the groups is “fixated with delegitimizing Israel.”No means too cheap to wipe out Israel
“The Top 10 anti-Israel groups are the most significant players in the domestic anti-Israel movement today,” Foxman said. “The groups are fixated on delegitimizing Israel and convincing the American public that Israel is an international villain that deserves to be ostracized and isolated.”
The far-left sees Islamism as the only movement capable of crushing capitalism and consequently uses every means to demonise Israel – the only country in the Middle East to grant equal rights to citizens of all religions and protect the human rights of gays and lesbians.Toronto transit turns down ‘inaccurate’ anti-Israel ads
It is said that while it is hard to stand up to your enemies, it is even harder to stand up to your friends. I spent many years at the heart of left-wing politics and discovered, to my cost, what can happen when you begin to take a different view, when you do your research and realise that the accepted consensus isn’t necessarily correct; speaking out on this can result in rejection, expulsion from the club. (h/t IsraellyCool)
The Toronto Transit Commission rejected four anti-Israel advertisements for being “inaccurate and misleading.”Toronto Star Columnist Wrongly Portrays Jesus as Palestinian
Brad Ross, a spokesman for the transit commission, told JTA on Monday that the ads were turned down because they were “inaccurate and misleading.” The ads were intended to run on buses and subways, as well as the commission’s shelters.
Proposed by the Montreal-based Canadians for Justice and Peace in the Middle East, the ads were similar to the “Disappearing Palestine” ad that ran this summer in Vancouver’s transit system. The Vancouver ad showed four maps, spanning from 1946 to 2012, that suggested Israel was taking over Palestinian land.
This is not only a distortion of Jesus’ personal history, but also an anachronism. The Romans changed the name of Judea/Israel to ‘Palestine’ 136 years after the birth of Jesus, to punish the Jewish nation after their unsuccessful rebellion. In another anomaly, Jesus is turned into a Shahid – a holy Martyr of Islam. Whereas Islamic teachings do view Jesus’ gospel as part of the Islamic prophetic tradition, nowhere does Islam refer to him as a Shahid.”Official Guardian editorial legitimizes a ‘one-state solution’.
Writing in the Toronto Star on October 20, Ken Gallinger, dubbed an “ethically speaking columnist,” wrote the following non-sequitur statement: “Why are ‘good’ Christians so irredeemably more racist than their cousins outside the church? Incidentally, Jesus, the Palestinian, didn’t have blue eyes.”
Ignoring polls indicating that Palestinian residents of Jerusalem would prefer – in the event a Palestinian state were created resulting in a divided Jerusalem – to remain citizens or residents of Israel, their Oct. 21 editorial (Jerusalem elections: the ballot and the boycott) starts off by legitimizing the most radical and unrepresentative Palestinian voices:Hamas claims tunnel, calls for new intifada, praises recent terror attacks: BBC silent
These latest additions to the BBC’s record of omission are of course less surprising when one considers that it elected not to include the issue of terrorism in its definition of the so-called “core issues” of the Middle East conflict.PMW PA-associated youth magazine published list of sayings it claims are Hitler's
The PA-associated educational youth magazine Zayzafuna, whose Advisory Board include PA Deputy Minister of Education Jihad Zakarneh and the Head of the Media Department of the PA Ministry of Education, Abd Al-Hakim Abu Jamous, published a list of ten short wisdom sayings that it claimed were said by Hitler. The youth magazine gave no introduction or comment on the list other than the title "Among Hitler's sayings."PA Official Boasts: Our Security Forces Responsible for Intifada
During a televised speech which featured on the pan-Arab Al Jazeera news network, translated by MEMRI (Middle East Media Research Institute), the PA's Ambassador to Libya, Mutawakkil Taha, boasted of the achievement, claiming that most terrorist attacks during the early days of the Second Intifada were carried out by members of the PA's own security forces.Lapid: We Must Fight Anti-Semitism
"Israel decided to gather the youth who had fought it in the first Intifada, and to organize them into security forces, showering them (with money), so that they would defend it, rather than Israel having to defend itself," he said, essentially summarizing the doctrine of the Israeli Left at the time.
Finance Minister Yair Lapid (Yesh Atid) stressed on Monday the importance of fighting anti-Semitism and hate.World Council of Churches Stands By As Christians Perish, Churches Wither
Speaking at the annual meeting of the World Jewish Congress in Jerusalem, Lapid told the story of his father, former MK and government minister Tommy Lapid, who narrowly escaped being killed along with thousands of other Jews who were taken to the banks of the Danube and shot in public in the winter of 1945.
The World Council of Churches (WCC) in Geneva claims to represent and serve 345 churches worldwide. What has it done to help the persecuted churches in Iraq, Syria and Egypt? Or the flood of Syrian refugees into Jordan and Lebanon? Answer: it has devoted the whole of 2013 to promoting a World Week for Peace in Palestine Israel (September 22-28). That is, it has poured its Swiss francs into stirring up the one corner of the area that is currently almost calm.Israel becomes major partner in EU satellite program
At a gala event Monday evening in Jerusalem, Science and Technology Minister Yaakov Peri and the head of the Israel Space Agency, Menachem Kidron, signed an agreement with European Union officials to give Israeli researchers and companies access to projects associated with the EU’s Galileo satellite program.From DC to IDC: Ambassador Oren joins prestigious school
Dr. Michael Oren, who served as Israel's ambassador to the U.S. between 2009 and 2013 has accepted a faculty position at the Interdisciplinary Center Herzliya's Lauder School of Government, Diplomacy and Strategy, the college announced on Monday.NYC mayor Bloomberg wins first ‘Jewish Nobel’
The IDC Herzliya is a private institution modeled on the Ivy League universities in the U.S. Its faculty includes former Chief Justice Aharon Barak and former Education Minister Amnon Rubinstein as well as other known figures who served in senior positions in the public and private sectors. The IDC's annual Herzliya Conference is often the forum in which Israeli leaders make key policy addresses.
New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg was announced Monday as the winner of the first Genesis Prize, a $1 million award dubbed “the Jewish Nobel Prize.”How One IDF Commander Turned Back a Syrian Column in the Yom Kippur War
The inaugural award, bestowed upon “exceptional people whose values and achievements will inspire the next generations of Jews,” will be given to Bloomberg by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at a Jerusalem ceremony in May.
With just one tank, Captain Zvika Greengold withstood the might of the Syrian military. As the battle around him raged, he moved in and out of the darkness, firing at Syrian forces while remaining undetected. He persisted heroically for hours, throwing himself at the enemy in the face of almost certain death.IDF Boasts First Bedouin Tank Commander
The IDF is about to receive its first Bedouin tank commander. While about 1,000 Bedouin Arabs serve in the IDF, most of them serve as trackers, or in the Bedouin reconaissance battalion. Cpl. Mustafa Tabash will become the first Bedouin tank commander in two weeks' time, once he completes the Tank Commanders' Course, reports the IDF Website.IDF Seeks to Bring More Women Into Combat Roles; Possibly Tank Division
About one in nine Bedouin men serve in the IDF. Tabash knew in high school that he intended to serve, but he planned to serve in one of the military's academic tracks. He was accepted to this track – but then changed his mind.
The Israel Defense Force is seeking to increase the number of women in combat divisions, and may open its Armored Tank Corps to female soldiers, Israel’s Channel 2 reported, citing an officer involved in the changes.IDF Blog: IDF Uncovers Hamas Terror Tunnel near Gaza Border
The first move the IDF made to increase the number of women in combat divisions was to eliminate a running requirement, which they learned had been intimidating many female recruits. A decision to post women to the tanks units has yet to be made, the officer said.
On October 7, 2013, the IDF uncovered the opening of a Hamas smuggling tunnel in Israeli terriory. The tunnel is used by Gaza terrorists to carry out attacks and kidnappings inside of Israel. Every day, terrorists are still preparing to attack Israel from Gaza. The IDF stands ready to combat Gaza terrorism and to protect the people of Israel.
