Sunday, January 26, 2014
Confusing The World With the Facts on "Palestine"
Palestine is a geographical area, not a nationality.
Palestine was and is solely a geographic name. Therefore, it is not surprising that in modern times the name ‘Palestine’ or ‘Palestinian’ was applied as an adjective to all inhabitants of the area between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River – Palestine Jews and Palestine Arabs alike. In fact, until the 1960s, most Arabs in Palestine preferred to identify themselves merely as part of the great Arab nation or citizens of “southern Syria.”UN Propaganda Campaign Against the Legitimacy of Israel Reaches Epidemic Proportions
The term ‘Palestinian’ as a noun was usurped and co-opted by the Arabs in the 1960s as a tactic initiated by Yasser Arafat to brand Jews as intruders on someone else’s turf. He mendaciously presented Arab residents of Israel and the "Territories" as indigenous inhabitants since time immemorial. This fabrication of peoplehood allowed Palestinian Arabs to gain parity with the Jewish people as a nation deserving of an independent state.
The UN propaganda campaign against the legitimacy of Israel has now reached epidemic proportions. On January 20, 2014 the UN organized its first Solidarity Year event for "civil society." In one of the UN's main galleries, it conducted a public screening of the film "Where should the birds fly?" and sponsored a subsequent discussion with Palestinian filmmaker Fida Qishta and journalist Laila El-Haddad. Here is just some of what the film included: Mona Samouni (age 11 or 12): "The Israeli soldiers were shooting at the people, as if they were not human, as if they were chickens or mice. For the Israeli army this is something without meaning. But the victims were very precious to us, even though they didn't consider them human." Fida Qishta: "Even the presence of international observers does not prevent daily random Israeli gunfire. The Israelis seem to be playing a deadly game with Palestinians who are just trying to work and live, taunting them and intimidating them, sometimes killing them." At the close of the UN afternoon of portraying Israelis as Nazi-like wanton baby killers, the Chairman of the UN working group that organized the affair, Maltese diplomat Bernard Hamilton, asked the crowd to do their utmost to promote the film.Iranian Supreme Leader Khamenei Denied Holocaust
MEMRI Disproves Iranian FM Zarif's Claim To ABC That Khamenei's Statements About Holocaust 'Myth' Were 'A Bad Translation'; Khamenei Also Praised French Holocaust Denier Roger Garaudy
In a September 29, 2013 interview with ABC's George Stephanopoulos, in which Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif was questioned about Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's statements that the Holocaust is a "myth," Zarif claimed that Khamenei is not a Holocaust denier and that the statements – which can be found in English on his official English-language website – were a "bad translation" and "out of context." Khamenei had made the statements in a February 2006 speech to Iranian Air Force officers.[1]SodaStream Scores Another Super Bowl Rejection
However, a MEMRI investigation reveals that FM Zarif's claim is false; in Khamenei's original statements, which can be accessed on Khamenei's official Persian-language website, Khamenei did indeed call the Holocaust a "myth."
The fix is easy. SodaStream can just remove those four words. After all, having Johansson on board is too big an asset to squander on a banned commercial. Then again, knowing SodaStream, it couldn't have scripted things any better. SodaStream will be able to milk the publicity of another banned ad. The uncensored version will blow up on YouTube, just as last year's nixed spot did. Over the next few days it can argue that Fox doesn't care about the environment, favoring the promotion of Coke cans and Pepsi bottles. Other ads have called out the competition by name in the past, and SodaStream can rule by being the exception.
Danby slams Oxfam
Labor MP for Melbourne Ports [Australia], Michael Danby, has slammed the overseas aid organisation Oxfam International for attempting to censor its ambassador, actress Scarlett Johansson, over a commercial endorsement she signed with Israeli drink company SodaStream.KQED capitulates to Bullies
Danby said it was a farce that Oxfam had such ludicrous priorities such as attacking Ms Johansson given the 130,000 civilians killed in Syria, the revelations about 11,000 tortured or starved to death in Assad’s prisons and the 2 million+ Syrians who are now refugees from their own country.
During Friday's morning pledge drive, local radio station KQED offered the home carbonation system, Sodastream, as a thank you gift for subscribers.Mid-East Truth: Boycott SodaStream! Boycott Israel! Boycott Scarlett Johansson! Boycott everything!!!
The BDS cru saw blood.
Via social media, an organized campaign began to bully KQEd into capitulating to their demands. While the pro Israel community were busy at their day jobs, the "Don't they have a life?" contingent began the process of pressuring the station.
Most Israelis think peace talks will fail, poll finds
An overwhelming majority of Israelis think current peace talks with the Palestinians will not lead to an agreement, according to a poll published on Saturday.PLO Official: Negotiations Will Fail, Time to Take Up Arms
A huge 87 percent of respondents answered “no” when asked if they thought the negotiations would result in a peace deal.
Only seven percent said “yes”, according to the survey conducted by Shiluv Millward Brown and broadcast on the privately owned Channel 2 television.
Tawfiq Tirawi, who was found guilty as an accomplice in a 2002 Tel Aviv suicide attack that killed one Israeli woman and injured 29, wants to go back to the business of warfare. It's established, then: every single time Israel negotiates with the Palestinians, it ends in a bloodbath.Palestinians To Redefine ‘Non-Violence’ To Include Explosives, Projectiles (Satire)
Tawfiq Tirawi told Beirut-based al-Mayadeen satellite channel on Friday that “It is not possible under any circumstances that a Palestinian state will be established in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip 20 years from now.”
But his international legitimacy stands to suffer if he resorts once again to violence, an approach that the Palestine Liberation Organization specifically eschewed as part of the Oslo Accords of 1993. Whereas Arafat saw fit to ignore that provision of the agreement entirely, Abbas counts more on international support, and risks jeopardizing his own hold on power if international aid dries up as a result of choosing violence once again.Why Israeli TV Boycotted Harper's Visit
Abbas therefore decided to put to a popular vote the notion that the Palestinian Authority could simultaneously adhere to the principles of non-violence and try to kill as many Israelis as possible through such non-violent means as drive-by shootings, restaurant and hotel bombings, suicide attacks on public transportation, stabbings, vehicular homicide, and bludgeoning.
Israel's mainstream media conducted an unofficial boycott of Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's visit to Israel last week. The leading nationwide television channel, Channel 2, devoted only a single minute of coverage to Harper's address to the Knesset, and did so only in the second half of the evening news program, according to Maariv's Kalman Libeskind, who analyzed the shameful phenomenon in his latest column. Half of that minute covered hostile Arab MK Ahmed Tibi's heckling of Harper.Israel reopens spigot for cement into Gaza
Channel 10, the second nationwide commercial channel, completely blacked out the visit. Its news show did not cover the speech with even a single second of airtime.
Israel said Sunday it had agreed to authorize the transfer of more construction materials into the Gaza Strip, several months after cutting off supplies in the wake of the discovery of a tunnel burrowed from the Strip into Israel.Islamic Jihad Threatens Suicide Bombings, Escalation
Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon approved the entry of roughly 1,000 tons of cement and building materials into the Hamas-controlled Palestinian territory for repairs necessitated by destruction caused during December’s severe storm, in addition to other projects facilitated by UN agencies, according to a spokesman for the Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories.
A clash seems to be looming between Israel and the radical Islamist movement Islamic Jihad, as they abandon pledges made under a fragile ceasefire that ended the last full-scale war in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip.Top Iranian military official warns Kerry against attacking Iran’s nuclear facilities
Israel recently targeted two of the group's terrorists for firing rockets at it, and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised to teach Gaza-based terrorists a "lesson" for repeated breaches of the ceasefire.
Islamic Jihad has in turn threatened to take its war to Israel, both through suicide bombings in major Israeli cities and by fomenting violent unrest in Judea and Samaria - against both Israeli and Palestinian Authority security forces.
Maj. Gen. Mohammad Ali Jafari was responding to a statement by Secretary of State John Kerry made on Thursday to Al Arabiya that if Iran does not abide by the interim Geneva agreement with the 5+1 world powers reached in Geneva, “the military option of the United States is ready and prepared to do what it would have to do.”An Iranian Moderate Exposed Everyone thought Iran's foreign minister was a pragmatist. They were wrong.
“Mr. Kerry!” Jafari replied. “Know that a direct conflict with America is the strongest dream of the faithful and revolutionary men around the world. Your threats to revolutionary Islam are the best opportunity. Muslim leaders for years have been preparing us for a decisive battle. I think it’s unlikely that your wise men would allow America to be placed on one side of this decisive battle and take the ridiculous military option from the table into action.”
Above all else, Rouhani and Zarif aim to preserve the Islamic revolution, not to transform it, as was the passion of the fallen left-wing Islamist revolutionaries who gathered round Khatami and briefly resurfaced in the pro-democracy Green Movement, which Khamenei crushed in 2009. (Neither Rouhani nor Zarif raised a word against the brutal crackdown.) Although Khamenei unquestionably would have preferred Saeed Jalili to be president, he has probably lucked out with Rouhani. Rouhani at home and Zarif abroad are infinitely more effective at hunar-e ta’amul. While Rouhani tries to re-weave the unity of the Iranian elite, badly frayed by the turmoil of 2009, and by Khamenei’s vindictive demolition of Rafsanjani’s political network, and by the anti-clerical populism of Ahmadinejad, Zarif is endeavoring to rebuild the Islamic Republic’s standing beyond its borders. Given his soft manner, his wit, his reassuring English, and his ease with handshakes (difficult for many Iranian revolutionaries), and given the West’s profound fear of another war in the Middle East, Zarif’s biggest problem may be the Supreme Leader’s habit of speaking the unvarnished truth.Egypt death toll climbs to 49
Egyptian officials say the death toll from clashes between security forces and protesters on the third anniversary of the country’s 2011 uprising has risen to 49.Bennett: No ties between Israeli actions and rise of anti-Semitism
The Health Ministry, quoted by the official MENA news agency on Sunday, said another 247 were wounded. The agency quotes the Interior Ministry as saying 1,079 were arrested.
Bennett is scheduled to present a report on anti-Semitism to the cabinet on Sunday that will include a European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights’ poll indicating that a quarter of European Jews refrain from visiting sites or wearing clothing and symbols that identify them as Jews, for fear of anti-Semites.Poll: 13% of Poles Think Jews Guilty of 'Blood Libel'
Almost a third of European Jews are mulling emigration as a response to heightened anti-Jewish sentiment, according to the agency.
“Despite what people might think, anti-Semitism does not strengthen our ties with Jews overseas,” Bennett said in a statement on Saturday evening. “For every Jew who makes aliya as a result of anti-Semitism, there are many others who cut ties with Judaism and the Jewish way of life.”
Mr. Yaakov Hagoel, head of the World Zionist Organization's Department for Activities in Israel and Countering Antisemitism, revealed Sunday the staggering results of a new poll - which shows that anti-Semitism still remains strong in Poland.Employee of Majdanek Museum Charged with Anti-Semitism
The survey found that 63% of respondents believe that "there is a Jewish conspiracy to control the banks systems and international media." 18% of respondents answered "yes" to the question, "Are the Jews responsible for the death of Jesus Christ?". 13% percent of the respondents claimed that they agree with the fact that Jews use Christian blood for ritual purposes.
Officers detained the Poles in the eastern city of Lublin on Thursday and charged them with incitement to hatred, after three of them were caught putting up posters at bus stops reading "Zionists Leave Lublin", police said in a statement quoted by the news agency.Himmler's personal letters found in Tel Aviv
They identified one of the men as 50-year-old Krzysztof K. -- omitting his last name because of privacy laws -- who according to local media worked as a graphic designer at the museum at the former Majdanek camp.
''I'm going to Auschwitz. Kisses, your Heini," reads the final line in a letter from SS commander Heinrich Himmler to his wife, one of hundreds of such letters found in a private collection in Tel Aviv.The wolf in sheep's clothing
Himmler, one of the architects of the Final Solution and one of the most powerful men in Nazi Germany, wrote hundreds of letters to his wife, his mistress and his daughter. The collection, which includes photographs and even recipes, was kept under the bed of Tel Aviv resident Chaim Rosenthal for 40 years. It will be published in a series in the German newspaper Die Welt.
This horrific duality has been the subject of psychological study -- a type of schizophrenia, the result of a terrible and demonic ideology of dehumanization toward Jews. A centuries-old hatred of Jews ripened in the minds of the Nazis, who turned it into a horrible genocide.Lockheed Martin announces investment in Israeli cyber security
One strange and thought-provoking coincidence is that Himmler's letters, hidden for decades, are seeing light now, just as the nations of the world are falling for the fatherly smiles and false words of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani and his ministers. The Iranian leadership is the heir of Himmler, Mufti Haj Amin al-Husseini and Yasser Arafat. Like predatory wolves, they declare that their centrifuges will continue to spin to solve the Jewish problem, and like ingratiating sheep they write letters of love, peace and cooperation to the world. Considering our historical lesson, we Jews cannot fall for the temptation. Finally, after 2,000 years, we have our own fate in our hands.
American security contracting giant Lockheed Martin on Sunday announced that it and EMC will invest in “advanced technology projects” in the fields of cloud computing, data analytics and related cyber technologies in Beersheba’s technology park.The Rise of the Age of Context: Robert Scoble – @Scobleizer – comes to Israel for Wearables Conference / May 2014
“Our goal is to foster applied research and continued growth in Israel’s technology sector,” said Lockheed Martin vice president of international engineering and technology John D. Evans. “We recognize evolving global needs, as well as the wealth of innovation taking place within Israel and its universities.”
The announcement comes ahead of Israel’s first cyber security conference, meant to promote the country as a hub of digital security.
Blogger and Rackspace Startup Liaison Officer, Robert Scoble travels the world connecting and meeting with startups. He’s coming to Israel this coming May for WearableTech Israel, which takes place in Tel Aviv on May 12.Netanyahu jokes he may sue Yahoo
A clip from the Prime Minister’s Office showed Netanyahu shaking hands with Mayer and then adding sheepishly: “By the way, I wanted to tell you that I thought of taking you to court for the trademark on the name — Netanyahu-Yahoo, of course.”
According to an official statement, he also said that “Powers were once measured by their size, but today they are measured by their number of unique users. I want you to enlarge your presence in Israel and we want to expand our partnership with you.”
During their conversation, Mayer surprised Netanyahu with the news that she had scheduled a July trip to Israel, where she may or may not be made to face a lawsuit for trademark infringement.
