Wednesday, January 08, 2014
This barrier stops fascists: A response to Bethlehem Unwrapped
Some of you may be thinking, well, the Israelis would say the barrier works wouldn’t they? OK, so what do the Palestinian terrorists say? They should know. Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Ramadan Abdallah Shalah said ‘[The Israelis] built a separation fence in the West Bank. We do not deny that it limits the ability of the resistance [i.e., the terrorist organizations] to arrive deep within [Israeli territory] to carry out suicide bombing attacks …’ (23 March, 2008).’Kay Wilson: Ben White’s attack on terror victim is “tinny, whinging, and bitter”
Why not project that admission onto your pretend barrier?
Demonising Israel and Israelis by being reductive and decontextualising about the conflict – that is how the intellectual separation barrier works. That’s how it cuts off so many well-meaning European folk from playing a constructive role in promoting peace. It fosters a style of ‘activism’ that turns global civil society into a force that hampers the quest for peace.
You have been inviting people to write graffiti on the pretend wall. I’d take my cue from the great US radical, folk singer, and Dylan precursor, Woody Guthrie. He had a big sticker on his guitar: ‘this machine kills fascists.’ I’d amend that and stick it on your wall – ‘this barrier stops fascists’.
Ben White, it is an honour to be called a vandal, I take my new-job description with the utmost gravity. You have inspired me to continue to do whatever I can to sabotage and desecrate every vulgar, cruel, pompous, destructive, arrogant, ignorant, presumptuous, pithy lie and falsification that you, and people like yourself are bent on disseminating.Comparing Islamists and radical leftists (Satire)
You have inspired me with your hatred. I will return to Bethlehem and spray my price tag of peace on any wall that I can. I will do it for Pikuach Nefesh, the Jewish injection that calls us to be our brother’s keeper. I will do it for all Israeli, Palestinian, Christian and Muslim victim of global jihad. But most of all Ben White, I will do it just for you.
Following on from previous posts which looked at the difference between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, and what leftists really believe, it is also worth now looking at the difference between Islamists and radical leftists. As the following table shows there is clearly nothing in common between these two groups.
Anti-Israel George Mason group plays race card on Pres for opposing boycott
The propaganda-named Students Against Israeli Apartheid (SAIA) now is playing the race card against GMU’s President, who tweeted his opposition to the academic boycott of Israel:U Texas at Dallas terminates membership in American Studies Association
There’s no racism in those tweets.
Except that the SAIA say that the reference to “blowing up” relationships is a racist referral to all Palestinians as bombers, GMU President Cabrera’s Racist Tweet Opposing Academic Boycott:
Most universities which were listed as Institutional Members of the American Studies Association have left it up to particular departments which took out the membership to decide whether to continue.Anti-Israel ‘lessons’ in American classrooms
Of the 83 Institutional Members listed by ASA, at least 11 deny being members, as detailed in the List of Universities rejecting academic boycott of Israel.
Prior to today, an additional 5 members had withdrawn, and the University of Texas at Dallas today makes 6 withdrawals.
Anti-Israel and anti-Semitic curricular materials have now become endemic in American public schools. Examples abound and are surfacing from Massachusetts to California where concerned and sometimes angry parents are reacting.Academic conference from Hell
At issue is not only the insidious nature of materials that inculcate anti-Israel biases disguised as history and multicultural lessons, but also – just as has been the case too often on American campuses – the often flaccid response by educators, elected officials and sometimes the mainstream Jewish community.
American Jewish organizations came late to the problem of anti-Israelism on the campuses. If this same poison spreads to the entire public school system, America will become a very different place for its Jews.
It looks to be a veritable festival of post-modernism, post-colonialism and academic gobbledygook– with no shortage of anti-Zionism and Israel-bashing.NGO Monitor: How European Governments Propel the Boycott War
OK. You got your pinkwashing and your redwashing. But where’s the session on bluewashing? (According to The Electronic Intifada, that’s when Israel provides humanitarian assistance to disaster victims and then dares to publicize the fact.)
For example, the group calling itself “Coalition of Women for Peace” runs a BDS framework that targets Israeli businesses and other institutions, as well companies that work with the Israeli firms. They are active throughout Europe, largely financed by two grants from the European Union, German political foundations, Holland, Norway and Sweden. In most cases, the funding process is hidden behind a heavy wall of secrecy. (CWP’s Facebook page features pictures of officials holding a PFLP flag — the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian is a terrorist organization, as recognized by the EU, and is responsible for numerous attacks against civilians.)Breaking the Silence is part of the problem in the Israel debate
Beyond these widespread BDS attacks, every battle has a specific externally-funded NGO dimension. For example, the MLA boycott campaign is paid for, in part, by the Dutch Government. For a number of years, the Dutch have been a major source of income for an organization known as Electronic Intifada (EI), which is run by a Palestinian activist — Ali Abunimeh.
As detailed research by NGO Monitor has shown, in its books and presentations, BtS tailors the accounts of low-ranking soldiers to fit a predetermined conclusion that Israeli policy is the “intimidation, instilling of fear, and indiscriminate punishment of the Palestinian population.” The discredited Goldstone Report on Israeli “war crimes” is quoted repeatedly on such unsubstantiated allegations.MEMRI: Professor At Al-Quds University: The Holocaust Must Be Taught In PA Schools
This political agenda is widely supported by blatantly anti-Israel groups such as the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People, which hosted a “special event” in co-operation with BtS on October 21 2013. Jewish Voice for Peace, which promotes boycott, divestment, and sanctions, and seeks to “drive a wedge” within the Jewish community, co-sponsored a BtS event in California.
Prof. Muhammad Al-Dajani Al-Daoudi, a political science lecturer at Al-Quds University and founder of the Wasatiyya ("Middle Way") movement in Palestine, called in an article he published on November 26, 2013 on the website fikraforum.org to teach about the Holocaust in Palestinian schools.Anti-Semitism Links Boycott of Israel to Quenelle
The following are excerpts from the article:
The truth is that it’s nowhere near that simple. Here’s why: In the post-Holocaust era, there isn’t a single example of something defined as “anti-Zionism” that hasn’t been contaminated by anti-Semitism. When the Arab League launched its “anti-Zionist” boycott in 1945, three years before Israel’s creation, its target was the besieged Jewish community in British Mandate Palestine. When the Soviet Union threw in its lot with the Arab regimes during the Cold War in the name of “anti-Zionism,” the primary victims were Soviet Jews. When Poland’s ruling communists launched an “anti-Zionist” campaign in the late 1960s, the people whom they purged were Jewish. And when left-wing German terrorists hijacked an Air France plane in 1976, they demonstrated their “anti-Zionism” by separating the Jewish passengers from the non-Jewish ones.Several French cities ban Dieudonne performances
Today’s boycott activists need to be reminded of this sordid history. They need to be asked why the cause of Israel’s elimination is a magnet for individuals like Dieudonné, as well as for the myriad others who warn darkly about the power of the so-called “Israel Lobby,” or the existence of an “Israel Firster” mentality among Jews. Is it just a coincidence? Or are we dealing with a situation in which anti-Semitism is acceptable so long as it calls itself by some other name? Are we really so dim as to be fooled by an exercise in rebranding? After all, if the anti-Semitic Nazi salute were not illegal in France, there would be no need for the “anti-Zionist” quenelle.
Shows were banned by mayors in Marseille, Bordeaux, Tours and Nantes, the opening venue of the comedian’s national tour that was to launch Thursday, Reuters reported.Ex-British Footballer Collymore Calls for Police Response to Online Anti-Semitism From Football Fans
Interior Minister Manuel Valls in a circular on Monday sent the non-binding recommendation to French mayors to cancel Dieudonne performances.
Stanley Collymore, a popular former British footballer and now sports broadcaster, called for police and Twitter to take action against online hate speech targeting Jewish fans and Tottenham Hotspur, a British team from a historically Jewish neighborhood, whose fans are often referred to as “the Yids.”New movie about murder of Jew in Paris comes amid renewed focus on French anti-Semitism
On Monday night, Collymore posted a collage of the hateful tweets, mostly from supporters of rival team Arsenal, including, “Every Tottenham fan can be put back in the gas chambers and gassed on to death!” and “I laugh at your oven baked ancestors.”
Halimi was kidnapped in Paris in January 2006 by a gang of at least 16 men and women led by Youssouf Fofana, a professed anti-Semite of Ivorian descent who had Halimi starved, mutilated and beaten for 24 days in a cellar before dumping him in Sainte-Genevieve-des-Bois. Fofana was sure he would be paid ransom because Halimi was Jewish. Halimi died on his way to the hospital.Israel Venture-Capital Technology Disposals Jump to Decade High
Israel’s technology industry showed signs of maturity as the value of disposals by venture capital firms in 2013 soared to the highest in a decade as the proportion of smaller deals declined, IVC Research Center said.Sleep apnea detector saves lives
Sales of technology companies backed by venture-capital investors totaled 35 transactions worth a combined $4.2 billion, the Tel Aviv-based industry-research group said in a report published today. The average $120 million value was more than double the $55 million 10-year mean, amid a “dramatic decline” in deals of less than $10 million.
For many patients, detecting severe apnea episodes is expensive and complicated – unless they are using a small, sleek device by Israeli biotech company, Itamar Medical, whose WatchPAT uses a novel technology to measure cardiovascular stress in patients who suffer from apnea episodes, and alerting medical or rescue personnel in time to save them.3D holograms help Israeli heart surgeons
RealView Imaging LTD says it has recently completed a successful clinical study in which surgeons used live-action 3D holograms of their patients' beating heart to help them operate.‘Safe City’ gives town’s residents more protection, free connection
To illustrates the technology, the company has produced a video it says most accurately shows the system's capabilities. Developers say a live observer really would see a 3D hologram of a patient's beating heart or other organs floating in mid-air in real time. Images shot by conventional 2D cameras cannot convey the imagery as it would be seen by a surgeon.
To the growing list of Israeli cities with free wifi networks for citizens and visitors add Ramat Hasharon, a city of 40,000 in central Israel.Filipino caregiver a favorite to win ‘X-Factor Israel’
After several successful pilot days, the city plans to roll out the network over the next few months, covering 80% of the area of Ramat Hasharon.
What’s unique about this network is how it was born – not as a specific decision by the municipality to set up a wifi network, but as a byproduct of its “Safe City” project, designed to allow officials to quickly respond to catastrophes and emergencies, as well as ensure civil safety, through a network of cameras and sophisticated communications. And Ramat Hasharon’s Safe City program is garnering attention from places as far away as Taiwan, with a Taiwanese delegation visiting several weeks ago to check it out.
Israeli viewers of the country’s myriad of reality shows have grown accustomed to successful candidates from various backgrounds, including black-clad ultra-Orthodox Jews, Ethiopian immigrants and a German convert to Judaism who became a celebrity chef. But they’ve never seen someone like Rose Fostanes before.Jewish refugees from Arab lands slowly gain recognition
The diminutive woman with a booming voice has taken “X-Factor Israel” by storm and emerged as a national phenomenon. Known simply as “Rose,” she is mobbed by fans wherever she goes.
However, after “The Forgotten Refugees,” those who had been affected began to speak up. Soon enough, places as far off as Canada were shining a spotlight on the Jewish refugee conflict. There was even interest in the Arab world, a point that’s illustrated in “Shadow in Baghdad.”
At some point, Menuhin’s story attracted the attention of an Iraqi journalist who wanted to know more about her father’s disappearance. This development provided a compelling narrative to Dror’s film and he decided to structure the documentary around Skype conversations between Menuhin and the young anonymous reporter.
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