Wednesday, January 01, 2014
Israel Outlaws Hamas’s European Front Group CEPR; IDF Could Arrest its MP Board Members on Arrival
Citing emergency defense regulations, Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon has outlawed The Council for European Palestinian Relations, a Belgian-registered non-profit organization that serves as terror group Hamas’s mouthpiece in Europe.St James’s Church’s replica of Israel’s security wall cost….£30,000
The members of parliament include British Labour MEP Richard Howitt, German representative Alexandra Thein, Swiss MP Geri Müller and British MP Norman Warner, a member of the House of Lords, who was a health minister in Prime Minister Tony Blair’s government, and now serves on the All-Party Parliamentary Group for Palestine. Former British International Development Secretary Clare Short, who resigned in 2003, when the UK entered the Iraq War, is Chair of CEPR’s Board of Trustees, and would also be barred from Israel by the move.
For British Jews the replica wall and Bethlehem Unwrapped are a disaster. I agree with Melanie Phillips when she states that its inevitable effect will be “to incite hatred against Israel and all who support its defence”, which means even more vigilance at synagogues, Jewish schools and Jewish events.Unwrapped: An ugly Guardian smear
Some will benefit though. Ottolenghi and his chef partner Sami Tamimi and Dembina, Zaltzman and Cohen will have had their faces and names plastered all over the gates of the Church which looks out onto one of the busiest roads in London. Not forgetting Justin Butcher, Geof Thompson, Dean Willars and Deborah Burton who all helped to design the replica wall (see below).
In the end the £30,000 cost of the wall could have been donated to help those that St James’s Church, Piccadilly, really claims to care for: the people of Bethlehem.
Of course, suggesting that Israel engages in codified segregation by erecting such a fence fails the most obvious tests of logic and common sense, as Palestinian Arabs who live in the West Bank are NOT citizens of Israel and therefore can’t possibly be expected to enjoy the same rights and privileges. Suggesting that Israel’s barrier represents “segregation” (a word which typically refers to separation or isolation based on race) is as absurd as claiming that United States is practicing ‘segregation’ on their southern border because Mexican citizens aren’t allowed to automatically cross the ‘fenced’ border into America.
In short, there is no racial component to Israeli checkpoints and security fences.
Finally, it is interesting to note that when you look closely at the Guardian’s photo it is cut off around the lower left where two Brits (Sharon and Lesley Klaff) spray painted in red the words “THIS WALL SAVES LIVES”.
Time For The Vicar To Hang His Head in Shame?
One of the many condemnations of the church’s behaviour (in collusion with Interpal and other Israel-demonising bodies) comes in the form of an Open Letter from a distinguished British scholar, Professor Denis MacEoin, editor of the Middle East Quarterly, proving his doughty pro-Israel credentials yet again:St. James Church – Full contact list
”….Throughout the Middle East, Christians are dwindling rapidly in numbers, mainly because extremist Islamic groups drive them out. Israel is the only country in the region where Christian numbers have been growing steadily since 1948. It goes without saying that Israel is the only country across the Islamic world where Jews can live safely, after almost a million were killed or driven out of Arab lands in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Those few Jews who live in Iran live on a knife-edge.
This list of email addresses was kindly submitted by reader ‘John’ in the UK. I am posting it all because I am sure there are many people out there who would like to write.You can address it to Lucy Winkett and put everyone else in the CC box with a comma between addresses.CAMERA Prompts Washington Post Correction on Israel's Christians
CAMERA's Washington office has prompted correction of a Dec. 14 "On Faith" article by Sally Quinn which erroneously referred to "the gradual disappearance of the Christian community in Israel and Palestine."HuffPo: Academic Israeli Boycott: Perspectives From Two Generations in Higher Education
Irrespective of political views, as a scholar, an educator and university president, I am a member of the community of academicians committed to advancing intercultural communication as well as identifying strategies, attitudes, beliefs and values that bridge human differences, rather than creating further division. That some of my fellow academics (such as the American Studies Association, the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association and Association for Asian American Studies) have chosen to take a stand against the very intellectual exchange that we are committed to by definition as academics, I find hard to understand. It is contradictory to our scholarly code of conduct.Postscript to Harriet Sherwood’s ASA boycott story: Major BDS FAIL!
In his CiF Watch guest post on Dec 15, Jon (from the blog DivestThis!) argued that the ASA was setting itself up for failure, and that if the vote was to pass, “it will be a vote of an organization that has discredited itself, even before the rest of the academy marginalizes them still further by pointing out that…an academic boycott is the opposite of academic freedom“.92 universities reject academic boycott of Israel
Then, following the vote, an interesting thing occurred: A remarkably large segment of American academia indeed took steps to marginalize the ASA and stand up for the principles of academic freedom threatened by the boycott resolution.
More than 90 American universities have released statements rejecting the American Studies Association's (ASA) decision to boycott Israeli academic institutions so far, and several have cut ties with the organization in protest.Guess What: 2013 Was a Great Pro-Israel Year on US Campuses!
The Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations expressed appreciation to university presidents and chancellors who "stood up against this discriminatory and unjustified measure and rejected the ASA boycott of Israel."
For years those engaged on the pro-Israel side of the battle for hearts and minds of American college students have watched in horror as anti-Israel forces – whether they call themselves “pro-Israel” or not – metastasized on campuses.JPost Editorial: Quenelle salute
The Israel-demonization events, the infiltration by Israel vilifiers into what were formerly at least moderately pro-Israel institutions, and the disruptions of Israeli or pro-Israel events, were met almost always with either complicity or a hands-off response from the academic administrations, faculty, and often eventhe organized Jewish leadership on campuses.
Things were so bad that Arab Israeli journalist Khaled abu Toameh famously wrote that on his speaking tours of U.S. campuses, he found more sympathy for Hamas than he does in Ramallah.
It was no coincidence that Dieudonne’s transformation took place precisely at a time when anti-Jewish and anti-Israel sentiment was becoming more popular in Europe. Pierre-Andre Taguieff, a French specialist on racism, told The New Yorker that Dieudonne “has quite a keen intuition for the movements of public opinion and he immediately sought to instrumentalize this creeping anti-Antisemitism in public opinion by bringing it into his sketches, as a popular provocation, as a means of connecting with people on a visceral level.”France probes anti-Semitic gesture at Toulouse Jewish school
The popularity of the quenelle salute is a reflection of the popularity of Dieudonne. And his popularity is in turn a testament to the increasing acceptability of anti-Jewish, anti-Zionist sentiments in France and elsewhere in Europe. And this, to put it mildly, is a worrying trend.
Toulouse prosecutor Michel Valet told AFP that he opened the inquiry on December 13, the “same day” he was informed about the photo by a staff member of the school. Leaders of the local Jewish community said the photo first appeared several weeks before.Israel’s tech successes 2013: The rest of the story
In the photo, a young man wearing black sunglasses and a white T-shirt with the likeness of Yasser Arafat is making a gesture known as the quenelle, seen by many as reminiscent of the Nazi salute.
Without question, 2013 was a banner year for Israeli technology. According to a report released this week by PwC Israel, Israeli high-tech exits in 2013 were worth $7.6 billion, the best year since 2006. The biggest deals of the year, of course were those involving Waze (bought by Google for close to a billion dollars), Trusteer (bought by IBM for a similar amount), and the Wix IPO (the biggest Israeli IPO yet).Israeli apps winning awards for innovation, creativity
According to the report, Israeli successes went far beyond computer/Internet tech; collectively, the most successful Israeli exits were in the area of life sciences, where M&A/IPO activity amounted to $2.5 billion, and involved many more companies than the tech/Internet/mobile sector did.
Israel is very successful when it comes to start-ups - even more so, in creating mobile phone apps, which in today's iPhone and Android-obsessed society are very much in demand.Govt clears proposal for buying 15 UAVs from Israel
Many Israeli-created apps are becoming household names and are routinely winning awards for their innovation and creativity.
Channel NewsAsia takes a look at some of these Israeli apps and why the country is getting the nickname, the 'app start-up nation'.
Boosting surveillance capabilities of the army along the borders with China and Pakistan, the government has cleared the procurement of around 15 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) from Israel at a cost of around Rs 1,200 crore.Israeli partnership bears fruit for Indian growers
A proposal to procure these Heron UAVs was approved by the Cabinet committee on security headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at its recent meeting, sources told PTI here.
With a population of 1.2 billion, a limited water supply and difficult growing conditions, India’s agricultural journey to self-reliance has been a difficult one. While the country has made headway in feeding its people, more work needs to be done to educate and train farmers about diversification and sophisticated growing techniques to raise yields. At www.freshfruitportal.com, we take a look at an agreement reached between India and Israel to open centers of excellence for fruit and vegetable production, which could go a long way in propelling the country toward a new level of horticultural productivity.Israeli Settler Doctor Provides Free Care to Ailing Palestinians
On a day when snow still covers the Judean hills, a Jewish doctor from Efrat drives into the neighboring Palestinian village of Wadi Nis. He is greeted by the local Palestinian villagers with smiles and warm hellos. “There’s the doctor,” says one Palestinian woman to another as Dr. Yitzchak Glick lowers his car window to say hello.Israeli ultra-Orthodox leader to receive UK honor
To the people of Wadi Nis and six other Palestinian villages in the Gush Etzion region, the kippah-wearing Dr. Glick is a familiar and welcome face. The U.S.-born doctor, who made aliyah with his parents in 1974, makes personal house calls every week, providing medical treatment to ailing Palestinians free of charge.
Queen Elizabeth II of England will award one of the UK’s highest civilian honors to Isaac Schapira, an ultra-Orthodox Israeli citizen.Dublin Jewish museum to expand despite opposition
Schapira, the son of the late United Torah Judaism party leader Rabbi Abraham Yosef Schapira, will be given the Officer of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire award for “strengthening the ties between the UK and the Haredi community,” the British embassy said in a press release Tuesday.
The Irish Jewish Museum requested permission to demolish five houses, including an old synagogue, the Irish Independent reported Monday.Holocaust survivor meets her liberator after 68 years
Local residents had expressed concern about traffic congestion in the area as the museum’s visitor numbers are projected to increase five-fold to 50,000 a year.
It’s been almost 70 years, but Marsha Kreuzman still remembers the moment she laid outside the steps of a Nazi crematorium wishing she could die.First Definitive Proof of Ancient Blue Dye ‘Tekhelet’ Discovered in Israel
Kreuzman had already lost her mother, father and brother to the Holocaust, and death seemed inevitable, she said.
But then an American soldier picked up her 68-pound body and whisked her to safety.
The first definitive proof of production of the ancient blue dye “tekhelet” in Israel was revealed during an Israel Antiquities Authority presentation at a Jerusalem conference.Decoded: Jerusalem’s oldest Hebrew engraving refers to lousy wine
Derived from shellfish, tekhelet is mentioned in the Torah as the dye used in the clothing of the High Priest in the Jerusalem Temple, as well as being mixed in with white in the fringes of the tzitzit garment. But the origins of tekhelet were lost after the Roman exile, and most tzitzit fringes today are colored exclusively white. Over the past century, experts—including the late Chief Rabbi Dr. Isaac Herzog—have attempted to rediscover the origins of the dye, tracing it to the hillazon snail.
The carving was discovered on a clay jug in the Ophel area, near the southern wall of the Temple Mount, by a Hebrew University archaeological team headed by Dr. Eilat Mazar. It is considered the most ancient Hebrew engraving to emerge from the archaeological digs in Jerusalem to date.
However, the meaning of the cryptic inscription eluded researchers until Professor Gershon Galil of the University of Haifa interpreted it as a classification of a type of wine stored in the jug. He published his findings in the journal “New Studies on Jerusalem.”
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