12/04 Links Pt2: UK should expel Richard Falk, Norwegian Group apologizes to Israel for Oslo

From Ian:

---

Hillel Neuer: Why the UK should expel UN official Richard Falk

This evening in Britain, Richard Falk – the UN official whose mandate is to investigate “Israel’s violations of the principles and bases of international law” – will speak at the University of East Anglia, at the invitation of a Green Party activist.
Months after Britain denied entry to two U.S. bloggers whom it accused of promoting anti-Islamic sentiment, it is far from clear why the government is now applying a double standard by welcoming Falk – a notorious Hamas supporter, 9/11 conspiracist, and promoter of anti-Semitic theories, cartoons, and books – whom the UK government itself has officially condemned on at least three separate occasions for promoting what it described as anti-Semitism.

Norwegian group coming to Knesset to apologize for Oslo Accords

The group will be delivering an apology for the Oslo Accords, which passed in 1993 and 1995, to Deputy Knesset Speaker Gila Gamliel (Likud), the co-chair of the Knesset’s Christian Allies Caucus and a vigorous opponent of the accords from the start. They will also apologize for other policies of their government.
“Forgive us Israel as a nation for the Oslo Agreement dividing up the Land of Israel, for the money from Norway ending up supporting terrorist organizations, for not moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Israel’s eternal undivided capital Jerusalem, for not standing up to defend Israel in a world with increasing hostility, and for the anti-Semitic and anti-Zionist attitude of politicians and media in Norway,” the apology says.

German football club FSV Frankfurt ends Saudi airline contract because of Israel boycott

The Frankfurt-based FSV second league football club terminated its advertising contract with the Saudi Arabia airline "Saudia“ because the airline refuses to sell tickets to Israeli citizens. The Berliner Morgenpost reported the termination on Wedneday in an article titled “Second division Frankfurt ends sponsorship because of anti-Semitism.”
“Despite the request of FSV for a statement to the allegations , Saudi Arabia’s airline , as a state-owned Airline, referred the matter to the Saudi Arabia embassy in Berlin. For this reason, both sides decided to cancel the contractual relationship,” said the FSV club.

Edwin Black Uncovers Terrorist Financers in the U.S.

Americans tend to think of a 501(c)(3) tax exemption as the “Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval” from the U.S. Government, indicating that the organization does work of which the government approves. Not necessarily.
In Financing the Flames, Edwin Black reveals his meticulous research on “human rights” organizations that use charitable funds for distinctly non-charitable purposes. Incitement, promotion of boycotts, lobbying, and the delegitimization of the IDF and the state of Israel among both Israelis and the international community are their common characteristics. B’Tselem and the New Israel Fund (NIF) are thoroughly dissected financially and ideologically; NIF’s open political lobbying in the U.S. is particularly well documented and should call its tax-exempt status into question.

BBC Plugs Jihadi Charities

Much of the media seems to subscribe to the naïve notion that honorable endeavors attract only those with honorable ideas. Even if these Islamist charities solely pursue charitable objectives, however, they have apparently planned a supplementary purpose for these convoys: establishing terror-aligned Islamism, through the provision of social welfare, as an indispensible component of an anti-Assad Syria.
This phenomenon is not even new: it has been examined before in a piece about Interpal -- a British charity that works with the Palestinian terror group, Hamas -- in which it was made clear that charitable support for terror groups' social services only helps justify and fund the terror groups' violence.
An important step towards tackling this problem would be an undertaking by members of the media -- especially the BBC, funded by taxpayers -- to start living up to their minimal professional obligations by taking a straightforward look at the ideas and persons behind these charitable groups, which they falsely portray as paragons of virtue.

Ambassador Is Proxy Target for Israel’s Foes

Moreover, the administration should be glad that in Dermer they have someone with a direct line to the prime minister. If there are further misunderstandings between the two countries, it will clearly be due to the White House’s decision to ignore the Israelis rather than any miscommunications. Though Israel’s critics would prefer to have someone in Dermer’s place who would soft-pedal the country’s valid positions on life and death issues, the idea that the ambassador is disqualified because of his American connections says more about a desire to silence or marginalize him than it does about his suitability for the job. (h/t NormanF)

Harriet Sherwood refers to future Israeli cities in the Negev as “Jewish settlements”

First, as with all Israeli cities, citizens of all faiths will be permitted to live in all new communities built in the Negev, and it is therefore inaccurate to describe them as “Jewish”.
Even more noteworthy, however, is her use of the word “settlements” to characterize these future towns. These new cities, such as Hiran (currently a cluster of Bedouin encampments in what’s called Umm al-Hiran, 30 km from Beer Sheva), will be established in the Israeli Negev – that is, within the state’s boundaries as they were envisioned even under the UN Partition Plan of 1947, and as the boundaries were established under the 1949 armistice agreement.

Islamic Movement: All Negev Lands Belong to Islam

In an official statement released earlier this week, the movement blessed the violent protesters, calling them "heroes" for their "honorable battle stance" against the "fascist" Israeli government. The movement claims that Israel is "racist" for trying to "expel the Arabs from the Negev and confiscate the their land."
"We oppose and condemn the plans for the establishment of Jewish villages on Arab land to be confiscated in the Negev, and we see that [Israel has] a record of sadism, racism and contempt for all the Arabs."

Arabs Accuse Israel of Deploying Trees as Soldiers in the Negev

Arabs in Canada tried to protest an appearance by Canadian Prime Stephen Harper at a Jewish National Fund of Canada event because trees that the JNF plants are “soldiers in the Zionist army of occupation,” the website of the Yediot Acharonot newspaper reported.
Harper has staunchly stood in support of Israel more than any other leader in the world and plans to visit the country in January for the first time as Prime Minister.

A bad week for “Britain’s powerful Israel Lobby”

Then Universities UK produced a document on preserving free speech in universities and in one section the document gives a case study on what to do in the event that any speaker is disrupted. Remarkably, it is British Jews who are the transgressors in this fictional case study.
Case Study 4 “Israel and Palestine” describes how a university’s Jewish society and the local synagogue have expressed concerns about a pro-Palestinian speaker. The local Rabbi has even written to the local paper. During the event “there are concerted attempts to shout the speaker down and prevent him from speaking”. People are asked to leave and do so voluntarily (see page 30 of said document).
I have never heard of British Jews actually trying to prevent a pro-Palestinian speaker from speaking. It is pro-Israel speakers who are regularly shouted down as was the case recently in Sheffield when protesters stormed the stage at the Model United Nations student conference while Israeli deputy ambassador Alon Roth-Snir was speaking.

EU threatens to punish both Israel, PA if peace talks fail

One EU official said that "if the talks fail, the European Union will stop its annual aid to the Palestinian Authority." Such a drastic measure, which would cut about 300 million euros ($407 million) in annual funds, would likely cause the Palestinian Authority to collapse.
The same source warned that Israel would also suffer should the talks fail. He said 14 EU member states, including the U.K. and France, are ready to start labeling products from West Bank settlements differently than products manufactured within the Green Line. Despite the warning, the decision could take some time, as all 28 member states need to back such directives.

Abbas Threatens to 'Take Action' Against Israel if Talks Fail

Palestinian Authority Chairman Mahmoud Abbas has warned that the PA will "take action" against Israel via international bodies if peace talks fail, ahead of a visit by US Secretary of State John Kerry.
"The talks are going through great difficulties because of the obstacles created by Israel," Abbas told visiting Arab journalists late Monday at his headquarters in Ramallah.

Palestinian Authority Won’t be Part of International Olive Council This Year

Opposition by Germany and Britain to the Palestinian bid to join the International Olive Council has forced the Palestinian Authority to freeze their application in applying to become a member state of the intergovernmental Madrid-based organization. The Palestinian Authority Foreign Ministry in Ramallah prepared the application this past summer in order to be voted upon at the annual olive council meeting held in Madrid last week.

Toronto Globe and Mail Flouts Its Editorial Code of Conduct

Elder of Ziyon exposed Bell's biased column and Israeli media-watcher, Yisrael Medad, after confirming that Seideman was indeed stoned by Arab perpetrators, contacted Bell about his erroneous column. The author responded that the initial information he received was "incorrect' and that "corrective action" was taken.
Of course, this excuse is ludicrous. To pen an entire column premised on unconfirmed information is certainly unprofessorial, not to say, unjournalistic. It remains to be seen whether or not The Globe and Mail will publish a correction and apology to its readers, or whether it will continue to flout its own editorial guidelines.

There they go again

The departments have claimed their move doesn’t imply an endorsement of White’s toxic views. Instead, they simply consider White’s perspective on Israel so insightful that Brooklyn’s students should take time out of their busy schedules to hear him speak.
So what is it that two Brooklyn departments, acting in their official capacities, deem of such import? In 2006, White tried to rationalize the indefensible, after former Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad publicly proclaimed that Israel should be “wiped off the map.” The figure two Brooklyn academic departments now support expressed the opinion that “Ahmadinejad had not necessarily, as many assumed, called for an apocalyptic battle to wipe out the Jews.” Instead, White mused, Ahmadinejad was merely expressing his concerns about “Palestine’s cartographic absence.”

BDS This: 10 Israeli exports you already love

Next time someone starts in on the Boycott, Divest and Sanction crap, show them this list.
These Israeli exports may even be better than Bamba.

Exports to Turkey register significant rise

Chemical exports to Turkey noted a significant, 66 percent rise in 2013, amounting to $1.8 billion, making it Israel's third-largest market. Exports to Asian markets dropped by 4% overall, and the report pegged China as Israel's fourth-largest market.
Israel's exports to the European Union were up 4% overall. Exports to Spain rose 32%, making it Israel's eighth-largest market.

Israeli treatment cures man of tremor

Sami Zangi suffered from essential tremor for 15 years.
The involuntary shaking in his hands was so bad that he could not successfully bring a glass of water to his lips or a pen to piece of paper. In November, treatment with focused ultrasound beams developed and commercialized by InSightec appears to have cured Zangi.
Israeli doctors hope he will be the first of many to benefit from the technology.

Israel Electric Corp Trains Computer Enthusiasts to Stop Foreign Hackers in ‘Cyber Gym’

Israel Electric Corp is training hackers how to defend against cyber warfare at a new state-of-the-art “Cyber Gym,” behind the Orot Rabin power station, AFP reported from Hadera, Israel.
“Israel, we believe, is the most-attacked country,” Cyber Gym director Ofir Hason told AFP. ”And as the most-attacked civilian company in Israel, this gives us the unique capabilities to train other companies around the world to defend against system hacking.”

Israeli Start-Up Alcobra Develops New Treatment for Attention Deficit Disorder

Israeli pharmaceutical start-up Alcobra Pharmaceuticals is listed on the NASDAQ electronic stock exchange under the ticker ADHD, the disease it treats with a non-stimulant compound that is expected to come to the market in 2015.
In an interview with Israeli business daily Globes, CEO Dr. Yaron Daniely explained how the company was originally created in 2008 to develop the molecule metadoxine to help inhibit the effects of alcohol on the brain.

New insights could keep allergy and autoimmune cells out of the bloodstream

A group of Israeli researchers has found a mechanism to keep an allergy- and autoimmune disease-causing type of white blood cell from entering the bloodstream. The discovery represents a breakthrough in the understanding of the immune system and suggests a powerful new treatment approach for common conditions such as asthma.
The problematic white blood cells, called eosinophil granulocytes, are part of the immune system that fights infections. However, when eosinophil cells become overactive, they trigger many forms of asthma, gastrointestinal diseases, blood disorders and even cancers.

World's Tiniest Menorah Built By Hebrew U Lab

In honor of Hanukkah a physics laboratory at Hebrew University in Jerusalem has built the world's tiniest hanukkiah (menorah for Hanukkah). The hanukkiah, which is the size of a dust speck, demonstrates the revolutionary abilities of the lab's Nanoscribe system.
The Jerusalem-based laboratory, part of the Peter Brojde Center for Innovative Engineering and Computer Science, focuses on applying scientific discoveries into ground-breaking technology.

London marks 75th anniversary of Kindertransport

“It was the festival of Hanukkah. The transports left in the evening… the authorities didn’t want the population to know what was going on. So, after we lit the candles my father blessed us and then we made our way to the station,” says Ruth Jacobs, who, together with her brother Harry Heber traveled by Kindertransport from Vienna to Britain in December 1938.
Although a bewildering and traumatic experience — the siblings, then 10 and seven, were initially separated — theirs was a relatively fortunate story. Ruth’s foster family eventually took in her parents as domestic help and they arrived in Britain in August 1939. Their grandmother with whom they had lived in Austria perished in Auschwitz.