Wednesday, December 11, 2013
SFSU Responds to Arab Calls for Violence Against Jews
San Francisco State University (SFSU) president, Les Wong, has responded for the second time to criticisms that calling for the murder of Jews is perhaps something less than educative. And for the second time he refuses to address the central issue, which is a call to violence against Jews by the General Union of Palestine Students (GUPS).Tenured radicals cannot be trusted with our academic freedom
Professor Wong, who earned a PhD in educational psychology from Washington State University, makes three significant points. The first is that calling for the murder of Jews is essentially a matter of free speech. That is his first and foremost point. It is not that calling for the murder of Jews might be in contradiction to university policy, the law, or just common human decency, but that calling for the murder of Jews is a matter of free speech.
We also witness the bizarre self-parody of LGBT and Women’s rights groups siding with Islamists who hate LGBT and women’s rights, all in the cause of BDS. There is a sickness beyond reason behind BDS, as witnessed by the BDS claim that Israeli soldiers failing to rape Arab women is racist and open support for Hezbollah as part of the BDS campaign.American Studies Association ‘boycott Israel’ motion: The Justification
BDS and anti-Semitism go hand-in-hand, particularly in Europe. There is a thin line between organizing abusive disruptions of speeches, concerts and lectures by Israelis and throwing the punch or thrusting the knife. That thin line has been breached in Europe, as harsh demonization of everything Israeli stokes and promotes anti-Semitic violence by Muslims to the silence or tacit endorsement of the European Left.
In other words, the people claiming that their role as scholars gives them and their proposed boycott special meaning have chosen to act like garden variety propagandists – hiding facts, substituting gut emotion for rational debate, limiting rather than encouraging inquiry and debate – to get what they want. And if they manage to eke out a victory, they will immediately try to use the virtues of scholarship they had so recently jettisoned to give their decision extra moral weight.Hillel warns Swarthmore chapter over rejection of Israel guidelines
As this story plays out, don’t forget that nothing is preventing any ASA members from writing and saying anything they like about the Arab-Israeli conflict or joining a group dedicated to defaming the Jewish state. But that’s not what they want, is it? For a professor speaking in his own name is just a partisan individual who can be judged based on the strength and honesty of his or her arguments.
The Swarthmore Hillel student board’s resolution said the guidelines “privilege only one perspective on Zionism, and make others unwelcome.” The resolution said that Swarthmore Hillel “will host and partner with any speaker at the discretion of the board, regardless of Hillel International’s Israel guidelines.”Email shows The Independent got it wrong on Antisemitism working definition
Swarthmore Hillel had said in a statement: “All are welcome to walk through our doors and speak with our name and under our roof, be they Zionist, anti-Zionist, post-Zionist, or non-Zionist.”
Fingerhut, in his letter, rejected the formulation.
“Let me be very clear – ‘anti-Zionists’ will not be permitted to speak using the Hillel name or under the Hillel roof, under any circumstances,” he wrote.
The next time a commentator hostile to Jews or Israel claims that the EU “retired” or “repudiated” the EUMC Working Definition, you can definitively respond that their Fundamental Rights Agency – per their own words – did nothing of the sort.Impartiality fail as BBC promotes FOEME objections to Red-Dead Sea project
As we’ve noted on numerous occasions, the Working Definition is not law.
However, it does represent a widely respected and practical guide (formulated by NGOs and reps from the Tolerance and Non-Discrimination section of the Office of Democratic Institutions and Human Rights in 2005) used by law enforcement agencies and human rights bodies in the EU to help determine what constitutes anti-Jewish racism.
The BBC report does not make it sufficiently clear to readers that considerable research has already been carried out, including a study of alternative options and a comprehensive environmental report. Neither does it sufficiently clarify the fact that the agreed project is in fact a pilot project involving relatively small volumes of water to be piped to the Dead Sea, which it has been established will not have a detrimental environmental impact, but which will enable further study of environmental factors.Gaza fisherman fight Israeli “savagery”: Fisking a Guardian Group feature
The article was written by Alex Renton, a commentator on issues relating to global poverty, and was based largely on his first-person account with Palestinian fishermen on a vessel off the coast of Gaza.Haaretz Violates the Rules of Good Journalism Again
We’re first introduced to the skipper of the fishing vessel in the following passage, which notes the putatively argumentative and abrasive nature of the people in the region.
Levy FALSELY alleges that Israel was “virtually the only country that collaborated with that evil regime”. It is disgraceful that he recklessly propagates this damaging canard in violation of clause 5 of the Israel Press rules that states unambiguously “Prior to the publication of any item, the newspaper and the journalist shall check the accuracy thereof with the most reliable source and with the caution appropriate to the circumstances of the case.”NY Councilwoman-Elect Laurie Cumbo Apologizes for ‘Jewish Landlords’ Comment
The fact is that dozens of countries traded and collaborated with the apartheid regime. In 1986, while apartheid was suffering worldwide opprobrium, South Africa’s main trading partners were, USA $3.4 billion, Japan $2.9 billion, Germany $2.8 billion, and U.K. $2.6 billion. By comparison, Israel’s puny $0.2 billion total trade with South Africa amounted to less than 1% of South Africa’s total trade. In addition the apartheid regime was propped up by Arab oil and financing by major European banks
New York City Councilwoman-elect Laurie Cumbo has apologized for a previous statement about the “knockout” attacks on Jews in Brooklyn blaming “the accomplishments of the Jewish community” for “feelings of resentment” among the African American community. She also said that black residents in the Crown Heights section of Brooklyn fear being “pushed out by their Jewish landlords.”Israel, Russia to launch talks on free trade zone
“I sincerely apologize to all of my constituents for any pain that I have caused by what I wrote… I have taken the last week to reflect… and I understand now that my words did not convey what was in my heart, which is a profound desire to bring our diverse communities closer together,” Cumbo said in her newly released statement.
Economy Ministry officials believe Israel’s current level of trade with Russia, estimated at some $2 billion annually, nearly half of it in the diamond trade, leaves “huge untapped potential” for expansion.Israeli Chef Develops Drip-Free Pita Bread
The agreement is also viewed as a means for strengthening Israeli-Russian political ties, and is intended, in the words of a government official who spoke to The Times of Israel on Tuesday, as part of “the continued diversification of Israel’s economic ties around the world.”
After 7 years of research, Israeli pastry-chef Shimmy Seren has perfected the "Feeli," a dripless bread cup alternative to pita bread. Seren has great plans for his new culinary invention, which is set to be an extremely convenient bread for falafels and other sandwiches.500 years on, duke apologizes for Jews’ expulsion from Gibraltar
The "Feeli" was sparked by a desire to combat the leakage frequently experienced while eating falafel in a pita, which at a certain point tends to leak tahini and and vegetables.
The duke of Medina Sidonia, D. Alonso Gonzalez de Gregorio y Alvarez de Toledo, read the apology to members of the Gibraltar Jewish Community on Monday at the Instituto Cervantes, the Gibraltar Chronicle reported.Skeletons from Warsaw Ghetto uprising discovered
It was the first time a representative of the family returned in an official capacity to Gibraltar in more than 500 years, since the 1474 expulsion, according to the Chronicle.
Archaeologists in Warsaw discovered fragments of two human skeletons that likely were buried there during the Polish city’s ghetto uprising.Gilad Shalit to Run Jerusalem Marathon
On Monday, archaeologists searching through the archive of the Jewish socialist party Bund in the basement of a former house on Swietojerska Street found a skull, arm bones and leg bones. Police will examine the bones.
Gilad Shalit will join the club next year when he runs in his first marathon. I remember him asking me questions about training when we spent the day together in London earlier this year. (Because I’d told him that I’ve run marathons.)Jerusalem Places 4th on TripAdvisor’s ‘Destinations on the Rise’ List
I also told him he should give one a go himself. He said he would think about it. He’s now signed up to run in the Jerusalem Marathon for Shalva – the association for mentally and physically challenged children in Israel.
The award highlights 54 global destinations that have seen the greatest increase in positive reviews by global travelers from year-to-year.Full Transcript: Chief Rabbi Warren Goldstein’s Opening Prayer at Mandela Memorial Service
“For travelers looking for inspiration for their 2014 travel planning, TripAdvisor travelers have helped us put a spotlight on some amazing destinations that caught the eye of travelers this past year,” Barbara Messing, chief marketing officer for TripAdvisor said in a statement.
Below is the full transcript of Chief Rabbi Dr. Warren Goldstein’s opening prayer at the memorial service held for Nelson Mandela in South Africa on December 10, 2013.Israeli Opera returns to Masada
The Israeli Opera is bringing Giuseppe Verdi’s much-loved opera, La traviata, to Masada in June 2014. Conductor Daniel Oren will take the podium as he has done in years past at the Masada International Opera Festival, while Polish director Michal Znaniecki – who specializes in open-air productions—will meld the Paris salon with the Judean Desert.From Africa with love: IDF gets first female Nigerian officer
“So we see Paris as desert, as a desolation, metaphorically of course,” Znaniecki says in a press conference video.
The Israel Defense Forces, more than any other organization, represents Israeli society. It is a melting pot that includes soldiers from all ethnic, religious and racial backgrounds, men and women, but even this human collage always has something new. For example, Israel's first female Nigerian officer, Lieutenant Toby Cohen, 21, who was born in Nigeria to a Nigerian mother and Israeli father. Her parents and 8-year-old sister live in the town of Kanu in northern Nigeria, while she immigrated to Israel on her own at the age of 17. Cohen serves in the Homefront Command.
"Even when I was 3 years old I knew I wanted to come to Israel. My father was born here and served in the Armor Corps, and our home in Nigeria was full of stories about Israel and the army," she said. "On Rosh Hashana and Passover we would always travel to celebrate with Dad's family in Israel, and as I was getting older I wanted more and more to get to know Israeli culture and strengthen my connection to Israel."
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