Tuesday, November 05, 2013
Peter Beinart leaving Daily Beast for The Atlantic Media Company, Haaretz
Peter Beinart, the liberal Jewish blogger, is leaving The Daily Beast for The Atlantic Media Company, where he will serve as contributing editor for both The Atlantic and National Journal. Beinart will also join the Israeli newspaper Haaretz as a senior columnist.The Anti-Zionist Civil War on the Left
Beinart, a former New Republic editor, joined the Daily Beast in November 2008 and in 2012 launched "Zion Square" -- later changed to "Open Zion" -- a blog dedicated to "an open and unafraid conversation about Israel, Palestine, and the Jewish future." Formerly a fixture on the AIPAC speaking circuit, he has in recent years become a hero on the Israeli left -- and a pariah on the right -- for advocating against Israeli settlements and in support of a two-state solution.
To give you a taste of how outrageous this book is, Blumenthal even has the nerve to recount a conversation with Israeli author David Grossman who has been an important figure in the peace movement in which he lectured the Israeli about the need for the state to be dismantled and for its citizens to make their peace with the need to rejoin the Diaspora rather than to cling to their homes. Grossman responds to Blumenthal by walking out and telling him to tear up his phone number. Blumenthal attributes Grossman’s reaction to Israeli myopia.Film: Relations between Israel, UK tarnished by Mandate period
Melanie Philips, a British author and publisher, said the film told the “story of the utmost treachery and malice, as the British upended their international treaty obligation” under the mandate. She argued that the British public is besieged with anti-Israel propaganda that obscures the history of British action during the mandate.The uncomfortable silence of British Jewry
“It is essential that people understand this history, in order to show them that, contrary to what they believe, Israel stands for law, history and justice,” she said.
In what’s becoming a regular and predictable occurrence, yet another leading British politician attacked Israel and the American Jewish lobby. This time it was MP and former Foreign Secretary and Lord Chancellor, Jack Straw. Speaking of Israeli “theft” of Palestinian land and “Germany’s obsession with [defending] Israel,” Straw lamented the “unlimited funds available to Jewish organizations … used to divert American policy and intimidate candidates.”Israel’s wild pig population was originally from Europe, researchers say
In a country where the two main religions, Judaism and Islam, both forbid its consumption, researchers say that Israel’s feral pig population was originally European, likely arriving with the Philistines more than 3,000 years ago.By An Odd Coincidence The Top 10 Worst Countries In The World For Women Are Muslim Majority Nations
24/7 Wall St. reviewed the 10 nations that received the worst score in the World Economic Forum’s 2013 Global Gender Gap Report. Each country was graded based on its score in four key areas: economic participation and opportunity; educational attainment; health and survival; and political empowerment. Countries scored worse by each measure when the gap between men and women for that measure was the widest.Islamic University Dean Supports Stoning
The rector of the Islamic University of Rotterdam (IUR) values stoning as an appropriate punishment, NRC Handelsblad newspaper reported Thursday. The Lower House is demanding clarification from Integration Minister Lodewijk Asscher.Anti-Zionism: the "big" ideology
Anti-Zionism explains history in terms of the struggle of Jews to control the world. The chosen weapon is not force but conspiratorial games. Jews are clever ‘Elders of Zion’ type manipulators. They rely not on their own physical power but on that of others: political powers and the media do their bidding.Academic Boycott of Israel Will Not Bring Peace
Zionists twist those powers to get special treatment for Israel. They get what they want by pushing the right knobs, manipulating the right leaders, hijacking American foreign policy; playing the Holocaust card for all its worth. Their behaviour is “beyond chutzpah” in the words of Norman Finkelstein, a member of the anti-Zionist priestly caste.
Today, however, academic freedom is incorrectly equated with unrestricted faculty free speech and the “correlative obligations” or presenting “divergent opinions” have been swept away. As the late Gary Tobin put it, “Academic freedom has evolved from protection against political influence to job security — an employment contract rather than an intellectual contract.”Report: EU Diplomats Participating in PA Incitement Activities
Nowhere is this more true than in the case of the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement against Israel and Israeli academics.
Here academics have taken the lead in attempting to condemn and restrict access to an entire country through vilification, through lies and exaggeration, and by efforts to restrict the free speech of others.
Diplomats and parliamentarians, mainly from European countries, have actively participated in popular resistance events and activities initiated by Palestinian Authority Arabs in Judea and Samaria, a report released by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC) has found.Israelly Cool: How To Deal With BDSholes
The report has found that in isolated cases, these European diplomats and parliamentarians also participate in activities on the ground which defy Israel. The report cited as an example the French diplomat who was documented as she physically attacked an Israeli soldier during a demonstration in support of illegal Bedouin squatters.
Props to the quick thinking person who posted this note on the Apple computer belonging to a BDShole at Oxford.BBC correspondent compares anti-terrorist fence to Berlin wall, fails to mention terrorism
Beyond its multiple accuracy failures, this broadcast is clearly no more than a politically motivated polemic which adopts both its theme and its language from the repertoires of anti-Israel campaigners. What it certainly does not do is to provide BBC audiences with any “insight” (as claimed in the programme blurb) into why the anti-terrorist fence had to be built or why its presence is still a regrettable necessity. Gebauer’s total abstention from any serious mention of the subject of Palestinian terrorism indicates that he did not intend to inform his audiences at all: his frankly repugnant ‘moral’ posturing and his co-opting of childhood memories are merely a vehicle for the promotion of an all too transparent political standpoint – in clear breach of BBC guidelines on impartiality.Missile attack on Israeli civilians not a ‘flare-up’ for the BBC
Despite the fact that the incident began when the Israeli soldiers were attacked, the BBC puts the deaths of Hamas terrorists first in its order of reporting, leading the average reader to understand that chronologically, the injuries to Israeli soldiers came after the terrorists were killed.Irish Times: Graphically Illustrating Bias
The Irish Times has a habit of confusing journalism with activism when it comes to reporting on Israel. Last year, the newspaper didn’t just report on the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign in Ireland, it told its readers how they could join in the boycott.Stephen Sizer: "Zionism's Awful Anti-Christian Legacy"
Now, the Irish Times has produced a puff piece of a story that reads like an advertorial for an anti-Israel organization. “Graphic illustration of Palestinian concerns” begins (emphasis added):
The first infographic produced for the website Visualising Palestine, published in February 2012, was sensational. It showed what happens during hunger strikes, giving examples from history and featuring Palestinian administrative detainee Khader Adnan, who persevered for 66 days before Israel agreed to free him.
An article in Israel Today, a pro-Israel Christian magazine, focuses on a pastor called Lynne Hybels, who is evidently not a Christian Zionist. Lynne Hybels need not concern us here, but the article concludes by saying:'Kristallnacht' ad for German health spa sparks outrage
"While certainly not an anti-Semite, she is guilty by close association with those who accuse Israel of everything from genocide to deicide. Perhaps unwittingly, she is carrying on Christianity’s awful anti-Semitic legacy."In response, Stephen Sizer has left the following comment on Facebook: "No, Israel Today is carrying on Zionism's awful anti-Christian legacy."
A health spa triggered controversy with an advertisement on its website to enjoy a “long romantic Kristallnacht,” ahead of this week’s anniversary of the night Nazi forces burned synagogues and murdered Jews across Germany in 1938.Jewish group: Germany complicit in concealing looted Holocaust art
The health spa, Kristall Sauna-Wellnesspark mit Soletherme, is located in Bad Klosterlausnitz in the eastern German state of Thuringia.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's spokesman Steffen Seibert said the government was informed "several months ago" about the case. He said authorities in Berlin were supplying "advice from experts in the field of so-called 'degenerate art' and the area of Nazi-looted art."Kafka’s Hebrew notes go on display
Pages from the notebook used by Czech Jewish author Franz Kafka for his Hebrew language classes will be available for public viewing this week at the National Library in Jerusalem. The display is part of the Open House Jerusalem 2013 program taking place this weekend, the Yedioth Ahronoth newspaper reported Sunday.Israeli start-ups set to make a splash in UK, again
Kafka, who wrote in German, is regarded as one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. He planned on moving to Israel, and began looking for a Hebrew tutor. He was introduced to one Puah Manchel, who had moved to Prague from Mandate-era Jerusalem to study at the Charles University in Prague.
London doesn’t lack a start-up scene, but that won’t stop the city from importing dozens of Israeli start-ups for the second annual Innovate Israel, the largest Israel business conference outside of the Holy Land. This year’s event promises to be even bigger than last year’s, with over 500 attendees expected at the one-day event on December 4. Attendees representing some of Europe’s largest companies and investment houses, along with government and tech industry figures, will hear from senior figures from companies like Facebook, Microsoft, Google and Virgin.Crowdfunding grows up, as giant GE fund gets involved
Crowdfunding, an investment model that lets small investors become venture capitalists with as little as $10,000 to put into a start-up, has come of age. On Monday, OurCrowd, an Israel-based crowdfunding platform started by veteran Israel tech investor Jon Medved, announced that it had entered into a co-investment agreement with GE Ventures, the US company’s corporate venture capital unit.
Under the deal, GE Ventures will be able to co-invest with OurCrowd in select early-stage companies in the areas of energy, healthcare, software and advanced manufacturing.
