Sunday, March 02, 2014
Why Liberals Must Repudiate the BDS Movement
Like the far-Leftists who failed to recognize the evils of the Soviet Union, many Americans today—including some of its most influential editors—can’t see what’s wrong with anti-Israel activism. And liberalism itself is in now in danger.Convicted terrorist who blew up Israeli students was once hired as Obamacare navigator
Indeed, as many have already noted, the Palestinian Authority itself does not support a boycott of Israel, and its president, Mahmoud Abbas, has said so quite explicitly. Even some among the extremists have admitted that many tactics used by the anti-Israel industry, and BDS in particular, are counterproductive. Norman Finkelstein, who has accused Jews of exploiting the Holocaust for their own and Israel’s gain, has nonetheless described the BDS movement as “a hypocritical, dishonest cult” led by “dishonest gurus” who want to “selectively enforce the law” by posing as human rights activists. Noam Chomsky, who for decades advocated dismantling Israel in favor of a “binational” state, has said that any movement that targets Israel alone can be attacked as anti-Semitic and “unfortunately, this [characterization] is with justice.” He has also said that the BDS movement’s “hypocrisy rises to heaven,” criticizing Barghouti, the movement’s founder, for advocating a full boycott of Israel despite having studied at Tel Aviv University.
All this points to the immense importance of the media’s coverage of anti-Israel extremism: By refusing to report accurately on it, media outlets enable forces that fundamentally oppose any genuine reconciliation to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. They help empower extremists—some too extreme even for their fellow extremists—who use bullying and sometimes unethical tactics to marginalize and silence precisely those voices who might help bring about reconciliation between Israelis and Palestinians. And more than anything else, they give hope to those who will never accept a Jewish state and, in refusing to do so, make peace impossible.
When the Illinois Department of Insurance (IDI) conducted a background check on Rasmieh Yousef Odeh, a former member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who murdered two Hebrew University students and wounded 10 others in a grocery-store bombing in 1969, they found a clean record — the Federal Bureau of Investigation had no information on Odeh. (RELATED: Sebelius: It’s possible for convicted felons to become Obamacare navigators)Mainstream charities have donated thousands to Islamic group fronted by terror suspect
But the U.S. Attorney’s office for the Eastern District of Michigan brought Odeh’s crimes to light, prompting the IDI to terminate Odeh in late November and issue a disciplinary report on the ordeal, according to National Review.
Unsurprisingly, Odeh, who used as many as nine aliases to evade authorities, ”failed to reveal the conviction on her [navigator] application,” IDI found.
A controversial Islamic rights group fronted by a man charged with attending a terror training camp in Syria is being bankrolled by two mainstream British charities, including a foundation set up in the name of Dame Anita Roddick.
CagePrisoners, an organisation founded by Moazzam Begg - who has just appeared in court on terror charges - has been given £120,000 by the Anita Roddick Foundation, which distributes part of the former Body Shop owner’s £100 million fortune.
A second charity, the Joseph Rowntree Charitable Trust, a Quaker-run fund set up by the chocolate-maker and philanthropist a century ago, has also paid CagePrisoners £305,000 over six years.
Last week, Begg, 45, who became director of CagePrisoners after his release from Guantanamo Bay in 2005, was one of four suspects picked up in Birmingham over alleged links to terrorism in Syria.
Britain's Establishment Welcomed Moazzam Begg with Open Arms – Now What?
Begg has previously, repeatedly written for the left-wing newspaper the Guardian, and was even one of the subjects of an Early Day Motion (EDM) in the British Parliament, signed by the likes of Jeremy Corbyn MP, Mike Hancock MP, former deputy speaker Nigel Evans MP, Chris Huhne, and Peter Bottomley MP. The EDM was started by Sir Bob Russell MP, who has previously been embroiled in stories about his denigration of the Holocaust.Let's call BS on the BDS
Even the huge human rights outfit Amnesty International jumped on the Begg bandwagon, agreeing to host him and his group in 2010, leading to the resignation of one of its high-profile representatives, Gita Saghal.
Saghal described Begg in a leaked e-mail as "Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban".
I know one. And I know why. The campaign against Israel is not about facts, so it cannot be overthrown by presenting more or sharper versions of them. There is no convincing a bigot. The only way for a Jew to appease an anti-Semite is to stop being a Jew.BDS Is Toxic Even To Its Allies
And I am having none of that.
When we study up on answers to give to the boycotters and the anti-Semites-turned-anti- Zionists, we are telling them that we somehow have an obligation to defend the truth to liars. I feel no such obligation, nor should any of us. I do not answer to them. I do not seek their respect, much less their permission to defend my country and ensure my peoples survival.
Don’t get me wrong, I understand the reflex to defend yourself. I know what it’s like to want people to see what you see, to face facts and see reason. But that urge, that very human need, is based on a false assumption that reason, facts and truth have anything at all to do with the argument.
Advocates of BDS cannot make the genocidal comments by its leaders palatable, no matter how often they use buzzwords like “human rights” and “international law.” That is why the name of Omar Barghouti, who said “the two state solution…was never a moral solution to start with,” was so often cited during the debate at UCLA, to prove that the destruction of Israel was the ultimate goal behind the divestment resolution.Oxford Students Vote Against BDS Movement
BDS advocates continue to lose when they are exposed as hypocrites, propagandists, and occasionally anti-Semites. Nevertheless, they view each loss as a victory because the supports of Israel give them free publicity, they get a platform to attack Israel, and they believe this will allow them to (if nothing else) erode Israel’s image just a little bit more. But this article in the Daily Bruin shows that it may ultimately be the BDS movement that becomes marginalized in American society, as long it has brave opponents who are ready to speak the truth.
[The vote was in 2013, however it's presented in the article as being current, h/t jelsie]
Oxford University, which is ranked as one of the top five universities on the planet, has categorically rejected two motions supported by the BDS Movement. A motion that called upon Oxford students to boycott Israeli institutions and products was defeated, 69-10, with 15 abstentions. Another motion calling for students to partake in the BDS movement was similarly defeated. As a result, neither motion will proceed from the Oxford University Student Union to be placed before the National Union of British Students Conference.Windsor's Shame: Canadian university votes for BDS
The Students' Alliance at the University of Windsor in Ontario has just written itself into the annals of infamy by becoming the first university in Canada to vote in favour of BDS via a referendum of undergraduates.Norway’s YMCA embraces BDS movement
Days before the vote, vandals broke into the locked office of the the vice-president of academic affairs at the university's Student Alliance (UWSA), Jake DeJong, ransacked it, and scrawled a Star of David and the word "Zionist" on a flag bearing the motto "Support our Troops".
Windsor police are treating the incident as a hate crime.
Norway’s Young Men and Women’s Christian Association recently aligned itself with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.Caroline Glick Interview: The Two-State Model Is 'a Recipe for Disaster'
The Norwegian YMCA-YWCA “encourages broad economic boycott of goods and services from Israel and Israeli settlements to pressure the Israeli government to follow up on UN resolutions and end the illegal occupation of Palestine,” the organization wrote in a statement published on its Norwegian-language website last week.
With 30,000 members in over 500 different chapters and affiliated Scouts groups, the Norwegian YMCA-YWCA — or KFUK-KFUM in its Norwegian acronym — is among the country’s largest and oldest youth groups. (h/t Bob Knot)
"The two-state solution isn’t inevitable. It is impossible. It will never happen--and the quicker we realize this, the better for all concerned.”Embarking for US, Netanyahu says Israel will reject pressures
So says prominent Israeli journalist Caroline Glick, the senior contributing editor at the Jerusalem Post, and the most-read Israeli columnist worldwide.
Glick is in the U.S. to launch her new book, The Israeli Solution: A One-State Plan for Peace in the Middle East. In it, she explains how and why the two-state solution embraced by both the U.S. and Israeli governments has failed continuously for the past ninety years, and is doomed to failure today as well. She then argues that the policy should be abandoned and replaced with one based on the application of Israeli law to Judea and Samaria (the West Bank).
Before departing from Ben-Gurion International Airport for his “important trip to the United States,” Netanyahu took a hard line on his Monday meeting with President Barack Obama, saying he would resist “pressures” and “stand steadfast on the State of Israel’s vital interests.”'We Will Not Freeze Construction in Judea and Samaria'
“In recent years the State of Israel has been under various pressures. We have rejected them in the face of the unprecedented storm and unrest in the region and are maintaining stability and security,” he said, referring to the three-year-old Arab Spring. “This is what has been and what will be.”
Although Netanyahu would like the talks with Obama on Monday to focus on Iran, the White House appears to have a different agenda.
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu promised Likud MKs over the weekend that he would not let the US pressure him into accepting a construction freeze in Judea and Samaria, just before taking off for Washington.Hundreds of Palestinian Arabs Riot Against IDF; Five Wounded
"There will not be a decision made to freeze construction in Judea and Samaria," Netanyahu told senior Likud members Saturday night.
Over 200 Palestinian Arabs hurled stones at the IDF after a funeral in the Palestinian Authority Friday, resulting in five injuries, according to AFP.International Community Pledges $220 Million to PA
The clashes came after Motazz Washaha, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine suspected of being directly involved in terrorism, was found dead in his home in Birzeit following a Thursday morning raid by the IDF.
Representatives of 22 nations pledged their support for the Palestinian Authority (PA) Saturday, but the UN urged more action for refugees "in need of aid" in an "increasingly dire" situation, according to AFP.Rouhani admits: Iran intended to build a nuclear weapon
The Conference on Cooperation among East Asian Countries for Palestinian Development (CEAPAD) in Jakarta ended with Japan - one of the world's biggest donors to the PA - pledging $200 million, most in financial assistance to the Palestinian Authority and for infrastructure development.
Iranian President Hassan Rouhani admitted over the weekend that his country indeed had a plan to develop nuclear weapons, but that the program was stopped. The reason, according to Rouhani: "It is a sin."Rouhani tells Iran generals to cut hostile rhetoric
In an interview with the Russia Today news portal, the Iranian president said, "We are not after weapons of mass destruction. That's our red line."
It must be noted this was the first time Iran has admitted to desiring to develop nuclear weapons, after adamantly denying such accusations in the past.
President Hassan Rouhani urged Iran's military leaders on Saturday to let diplomacy prevail in dealing with potential foreign threats, in a clear reference to efforts to end the nuclear dispute and decades of hostile relations with the West.Netanyahu to urge Obama to rule out Iranian enrichment
"It is very important to formulate one's sentences and speeches in a way that is not construed as threat, intention to strike a blow," Rouhani said in a meeting with Iran's top military echelon.
"We must be very careful in our calculations. Launching missiles and staging military exercises to scare off the other side is not good deterrence, although a necessity in its proper place," the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying.
While Jerusalem anticipates that Obama, at their talks on Monday, will want to focus heavily on the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Netanyahu is anxious to emphasize his concerns over the content of a permanent nuclear accord with Iran, which is currently being negotiated between Tehran and the P5+1 world powers. Primarily, Israel’s Channel 10 news reported Friday, Netanyahu is adamant that Iran must be denied any ongoing capacity to enrich uranium, since he fears that, as it improves its enrichment technology, it would be able to speed rapidly from low-level enriched uranium to nuclear weapons-grade enrichment levels. Obama, by contrast, has said he can envisage Iran maintaining the capacity to carry out low-level enrichment, under a highly intrusive inspection and supervision regime.'US pressuring Israel to stop killing Iran nuclear scientists'
According to CBS News, Obama administration officials have communicated to Israeli intelligence their wish for a cessation of the targeting of scientists in order to allow diplomatic negotiations aimed at rolling back Iran’s nuclear program to take their course.The big retreat. No Egypt HIV miracle cure after all
While Israel has never officially acknowledged that it was behind the killings, it is widely believed that Mossad agents carried out the hits in an effort to slow down Iran’s nuclear development as well as to deter the country’s top scientific minds from cooperating with the government’s clandestine weapons program.
Over the past week, and as reported in the English-speaking world by The Commentator here, the Egyptian coup leaders' media stooges launched one of the most absurd attempts to legitimise a dictatorship in recent history -- a claim that the military had invented a miracle cure for HIV and Hepatitis C, (Swine Flu was later thrown in as a bonus).Turkey passes law to shut schools run by Erdogan rival
Now it is being claimed that the Egyptian military (with the help of God, of course) has merely invented a new diagnostic device. We will come to that in a moment. But first, lest anyone be in any doubt about what was being claimed, it is worth recalling what was originally said.
Turkey’s parliament has passed a bill to close down thousands of private schools, many of which are run by an influential Muslim cleric embroiled in a bitter feud with the government.FIFA okays religious head covers for soccer players
The move is the latest blow struck in a rivalry between Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his former ally Fethullah Gulen which has seen the Turkish government entangled in a graft scandal and shaken to its core.
In a late-night session on Friday, lawmakers in the 550-seat house voted 226 for and 22 against the bill which sets September 1, 2015 as the deadline to shut down the network of schools.
FIFA ratified the use of head scarves for women, a measure which had been provisionally approved in July 2012 mainly so that women Muslim players could use the hijab.Israel’s Elbit wins US border work after Boeing dropped
"We had a request from the Sikh community to play with headgear and to avoid discrimination against men, it was decided that what applied to women can apply to men," said FIFA secretary general Jerome Valcke.
"We will work exactly on the definition on these covers."
Elbit Systems Ltd. (ESLT) won a $145 million contract for border-surveillance technology, the Department of Homeland Security announced today on a federal website. The program may eventually reach $1 billion if legislation to rewrite U.S. immigration laws passes Congress and helps fund the project’s expansion in the Southwest, said Brian Friel, a Bloomberg Industries analyst.Ben-Gurion University Researcher May Have Cure for Type 1 Diabetes
The defense electronics company beat some of the top U.S. government contractors, including Lockheed Martin (LMT:US) Corp., General Dynamics Corp. (GD:US) and Raytheon Co. (RTN:US), Friel said. The department stopped funding for the original border-surveillance system, led by Boeing Co. (BA:US), after delays and technical issues.
While methods of insulin administration have improved and modes of measuring how much insulin to give are far superior than they were in the 1920s, when insulin was discovered, there have been no major advancements toward a cure for Type 1 diabetes for almost a century.
Until now, Dr. Eli Lewis believes.
“Tissue damage actually plays a role in Type 1 diabetes… but it is often overlooked and under-studied,” Lewis—a world-renowned expert on autoimmune disease and the director of the Clinical Islet Laboratory of the Department of Clinical Biochemistry & Pharmacology at Ben-Gurion University (BGU)—told JNS.org.
“There was at least one stone that was left unturned.”
