Saturday, February 01, 2014
“Pro-Palestinians” Versus Real Palestinians
Birnbaum [SodaStream CEO] is concerned about real live Palestinians whose families need to eat. That’s a concern noticeably absent among the usual “pro-Palestinian” types, who couldn’t care less about ordinary Palestinians’ welfare unless it happens to serve their primary goal of attacking Israel: See, for instance, the shocking indifference by “pro-Palestinian” groups to the literal starvation of Palestinians in Syria (since Israel can’t be blamed for it), or the Dutch and German governments’ efforts to halt sewage treatment and landfill projects that would primarily benefit Palestinians because Jewish settlers would also benefit. But it’s a concern ardently shared by ordinary Palestinians themselves, as a 2010 poll showed: By an overwhelming majority of 60 percent to 38 percent, Palestinians opposed the idea that they themselves should refuse to work in the settlements. Real Palestinians care about feeding their families, and they don’t want to be barred from jobs that enable them to do so.Philadelphia City Council condemns anti-Israel academic boycott
A Resolution passed yesterday by the Philadelphia City Council is a good reflection of how deeply the pushback against the American Studies Association academic boycott of Israel has reached in American civil and political society.Stand With Us: Thank You to Scarlett Johansson for Standing up to Bigotry!
Condemning the American Studies Association’s academic boycott against Israeli academic institutions and urging the Department of Education, the State System of Higher Education and all colleges and universities in Pennsylvania to reject the academic boycott.This is not the first time the City Council has weighed in on the boycott of Israel. It did so in 1965 as well
Please write a quick thank you note to Scarlett Johansson.
The boycott movement against Israel (BDS) has failed to place pressure on Scarlett to boycott Israeli goods. She will be on during half time, for the Sodastream commercial.
Read the StandWithUs statement here, issued yesterday (1/30/14).
The Creative Community for Peace (CCFP) has been in touch with Scarlett's representatives and CCFP is telling us that Scarlett would like to hear from us!
Jewish Groups Praise Scarlett Johansson Over Oxfam Decision; SWC Says People Should Donate to Other Charities
Jewish humanitarian groups on Friday praised actress Scarlett Johansson’s decision to end her eight-year role as Global Ambassador for Oxfam because of differences over boycotts of Israel, with the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Rabbi Abraham Cooper going so far as to advise people to choose other charities to help the world’s poor.SodaStream CEO: Scarlett Johansson Encouraging Us to ‘Stay the Course’
“Until the anti-Israel campaign is dropped by Oxfam, people should seek out other NGOs dedicated to helping the world’s poor,” Rabbi Cooper said, in an email to The Algemeiner.
In an interview on the BBC that aired on Friday, when asked if he thought she might falter in the maelstrom surrounding her appointment and subsequent decision to cut ties with Oxfam, ending her eight-year role as Global Ambassador, Birnbaum [CEO of SodaStream] said, “I’m getting no sense that she’s wobbling.”Anti-SodaStream Agenda: Harming the Livelihood of 500 Palestinians
“I’m getting encouragement from her that we should stay the course, and keep on doing the right thing and helping people,” he said. “She is not only a superhero in her movies, she is a superhero in real life.”
Of course, peace is likely the furthest thing from Prashad’s mind, as he is on the Advisory Board of the U.S. Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, an organization that characterizes Zionism as a form of ethnic or racial supremacy – and within any borders.'Don't issue visas to Israeli dance troupe,' BDS supporters urge New Zealand
(Curiously, the Guardian failed to note Prashad’s affiliation with the pro-BDS group, an extremely misleading omission in the context of his explicit support for boycotting SodaStream.)
As Prashad’s commentary again indicates, anti-Zionists are not only hostile to Israeli communities across the green line, but fundamentally oppose the Jewish right to self-determination, the concept of two-states for two peoples, and all efforts to promote peace and co-existence.
Remind us again why such ideological extremists are continually framed as ‘liberal’ activists by the Guardian and the mainstream media.
As of Thursday, the activists had not received a reply from New Zealand government officials.My Socialist Video Blog #3 (Satire - This one is good but there are some Syrian war photo's so NSFW)
In response, the dance troupe's artistic director Ohad Naharin said he was disappointed "to see a group of intelligent people wasting their money and their energy on something that won't result in anything. I have experienced this impotent activity for years." (h/t Bob Knot)
The Kerry plan -- can Israel say no?
Accepting Kerry's plan would revert Israel to the pre-1967 situation, in which Israel is only a nine to 15-mile sliver along the Mediterranean, dominated by the mountain ridges of Judea and Samaria, which would be controlled by the Palestinian Authority, a systematic violator of agreements, perpetuator of hate education and generator of terror. The irreplaceability of the Judea and Samaria mountain ridges for Israel's national security has been reinforced by the Arab Tsunami. It has made the Middle East -- the most conflict-ridden region in the world -- more violently intolerant, unpredictable, unreliable, unstable and treacherous.Top Palestinian Official Rejects Kerry Peace Process Proposals
Accepting the Kerry plan requires the subordination of long-term vision and security to short-term convenience, and the subjugation of realism to wishful thinking, thus jeopardizing the very survival of the Jewish state, transforming Israel from a unique asset to a burden. Rejecting the Kerry plan may create short-term tension but no long-term rift. On a rainy day, the U.S. prefers a defiant, rather than a submissive, ally. (h/t Bob Knot)
The most recent statements appear to convey Palestinian rejection of both the security arrangements and of Kerry’s proposal for the final disposition of Jerusalem. Rabbo also gestured toward Palestinian dissatisfaction with being asked to give up on the so-called “right of return,” a call to allow millions of Palestinians to flow across Israel’s borders from refugee camps scattered across neighboring countries. The demand, which would see the Jewish state physically overwhelmed, has long been treated as a diplomatic non-starter by successive Israeli governments.‘Indyk’s description of framework deal not final’
“During an off the record briefing with Jewish leaders, Ambassador Indyk reiterated the well-known United States position in support of 1967 borders[sic] plus swaps as a part of a broad discussion on ideas being discussed for a framework,” Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement Friday, a day after the call.How Much Will Kerry’s Peace Cost?
“But given this is an ongoing process and these decisions have not yet been made, at no point did Ambassador Indyk make a prediction of the final contents of a framework,” Psaki said.
Perhaps the delegates will find this whole event a little more sobering when they discover how much all of this will cost and how much they may be asked to contribute to cover these costs. For, increasingly Kerry’s efforts are looking like an exercise in bribing each side into submission. The Palestinians have long been promised astronomical levels of investment in the event that they agree to accept statehood. Then the Israeli evacuation from the West Bank alone is estimated to come with a price tag running into the billions of dollars. Once Israeli settlers have been evacuated, re-housed, and compensated, the parameters also make provision for the compensation of both Palestinian refugees and for Jews who were forced out of Arab lands. In both cases the descendants of these refugees now number into the millions. Israel is also being told that under Kerry’s parameters it would have to leave the strategically vital Jordan Valley, but that someone else will foot the bill for all manner of unmanned high-tech security paraphernalia to take the place of actual Israeli troops.Sinai-based jihadist group claims credit for Eilat rocket attack
Anyone looking to rain on Ashton and Kerry’s peace parade in Munich this Saturday need only mention even a low estimate for how much all of this is going to cost. (h/t Norman F)
The Iron Dome rocket defense system intercepted a rocket over the southern city of Eilat on Friday evening, the IDF Spokesperson confirmed.French court strips terrorist of honorary title
Two explosions were heard in the city following the sounding of the Code Red missile alert siren.
There were no reports of injuries or damage. Security forces sweeping the area for the fallen projectile. (h/t Bob Knot)
The administrative court of Montreuil on Thursday nullified the honorary residency that the suburb of Bagnolet conferred on Georges Abdallah, according to a report published on Friday by the Le Figaro daily.Hundreds of Palestinians campaign in Jordan Valley to 'reestablish village' of Ein Hijleh
Abdallah, a pro-Palestinian militant, was sentenced to life in prison in 1987 for his role in the 1982 assassinations of Yacov Bar-Simantov, a second counsellor at the Israeli embassy in Paris, and Charles Ray, a US military attache serving in Paris.
Nasser told the Post on Friday that the campaigners belonged to a collection of various Palestinian groups and communities.‘Saudi Arabia bigger threat to Iran than Israel’
The village that the activists wish to reestablish is located on land that belongs to the Orthodox Church, and its name Ein Hijleh is the original Canaanite name of the village that was once present there, Nasser said.
Iranian officials told former US State Department official that Tehran considers Saudi Arabia its primary enemy, not Israel or the United States, a Kuwaiti newspaper reported on Saturday.Turkey Political Warfare Continues, New Purge Sees 800 Turkish Police Officers Fired or Reassigned
Frederick Hof told Kuwaiti media outlet al-Rai that in a recent closed door meeting with Iranian officials, they said Riyadh’s intervention in the Syrian civil war on the side of the rebels poses a strategic threat to Tehran.
Roughly 800 Turkish police officers were fired or reassigned on Thursday - 500 just from Ankara, and another 274 from Turkey’s third most populous city Izmir – marking the latest in a series of anti-judiciary purges being conducted by Turkey’s ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP). The AKP has for months been locked in an open political war with police officers and prosecutors linked to U.S.-based cleric Fethullah Gulen, after Gulenists in December launched a series of graft probes that ensnared AKP elites. The AKP responded with a series of sweeps that systematically removed thousands of judiciary figures from their positions. The latest move comes just a few days after Erdogan lashed out at foreign media and business groups for having “always stolen the national will in [Turkey and]… pocked the resources and energy.”Calling For Jews To Be Shot Now Legal - Ontario Attorney General
B’nai Brith Canada, the country’s senior Jewish human rights organization, has been informed that the Ontario Attorney General (AG) has not consented to the laying of hate crime charges against Mr. Elias Hazineh. Hazineh, who spoke at the Iranian-inspired Al-Quds Day rally at Queen's Park to an adoring crowd, was caught on video issuing an ultimatum that Israeli Jews either leave Jerusalem or be shot.Jews flee Venezuela amid security fears
“We are disappointed by the decision not to confront hatred on the streets of Toronto,” said Frank Dimant, CEO, B’nai Brith Canada. “It seems that we have sadly grown accustomed to hearing hateful rhetoric spewed at these pro-Iranian-regime, anti-Israel events. As we have noted, Al-Quds Day, a now annual event, is a route by which Canadians are being exposed to the radical and hateful ideologies of the late Ayatollah Khomeini and the banned terrorist group Hezbollah.
In Venezuela, violent crime is prompting some of the country's citizens to seek a life abroad. The recent killing of the 2004 Miss Venezuela Monica Spear and her ex-husband in a gun attack on their car has brought into stark relief the security problems facing the country.Report: Israeli Government to Launch Major Initiative to Attract French Jews to Jewish State
Among those leaving in large numbers are members of Venezuela's Jewish community, who say a lack of personal security, combined with growing anti-Semitism, makes life in the country too hard.
The Israeli government is expected to unveil a program in the next two weeks aimed at luring French Jews to immigrate to Israel, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Thursday night.A hidden lifeline
The initiative will include a dramatic boost in the amount of Israeli emissaries operating in France; a significant increase in the public relations campaigns targeting French Jewry, and the implementation of new procedures that will expedite the absorption process for French Jews, Ma’ariv said.
December 1947. Two young soldiers stand looking out of the window towards Mount Zion in the Old City of Jerusalem from their outpost in St John’s Eye Hospital.An Israeli Company Is Testing Flying Ambulance Drones
They are waiting for dusk to fall.
They are in the operations room for the newly designed cable car called Avshalom’s Way, which it is hoped will help their besieged compatriots stranded in the Old City only 200 meters away across a deep valley.
The Jews living there were under attack by the forces of the Jordanian Arab Legion under its British commander Glubb Pasha (Lt.-Gen. Sir John Bagot Glubb), which had superior weaponry and numbers compared to the ill-armed and tiny group of Jews battling for survival. Conditions were appalling and they had resorted to eating mallow leaves to obtain basic vitamins. Nothing could get through to them, neither food, nor medical aid nor equipment.
In a medical emergency, every second counts. That’s why Israeli startup Urban Aeronautics is developing an unmanned flying ambulance called the “AirMule” that combines the in-and-out agility of a helicopter with the ability to perform rescues in dense urban environments that are difficult to manuever through in a rotor-based vehicle.‘King of Fun’ Stewart Rahr Arranges 50 Ambucycles for Israeli Rescue Service
Stewart Rahr, a.k.a “The King of Fun”, surprised a jubilant group of United Hatzalah supporters by quadrupling his initial pledge to arrange for the donation of 12 life-saving ambucycles at a ceremony held in his honor on Tuesday, Jan. 28. The self-made billionaire, 67, from New York supplied 50 ambucycles worth $1.3 million during a dedication ceremony on the roof of Aish HaTorah, in Jerusalem’s Old City, overlooking the Kotel Plaza.
Rahr, the founder and CEO of Kinray Inc, decided to make the initial donation after watching United Hatzalah founder Eli Beer’s TED talk. At first he pledged four ambucycles and then sent out an e-mail to his personal rolodex of over 700 A-list celebrities asking them to donate whatever they could to United Hatzalah, with a promise to match every donation.
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