Tuesday, March 04, 2014
Canada recognizes Jewish refugees expelled from Mideast, N. Africa
Canada on early Tuesday formally recognized the experience and status of Jewish refugees expelled from the Middle East and North Africa after Israel's founding.In defence of Zionism
More specifically, Canada accepted the recommendation of the House of Commons Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs and International Development that "Canada officially recognize the experience of Jewish refugees who were displaced from states in the Middle East and North Africa after 1948."
A letter to the editor of the Financial Times:Putting Mondoweiss in Context
Sir, In response to Ralph Coury (Letters, February 22): there was a reason for the Jewish concept of Zionism that is often totally forgotten in the propaganda discourse that serves as informed discussion today. For almost 2,000 years the Jewish people have been pushed from pillar to post by the inhabitants of those countries they were forced to settle in following their eviction from their homeland in Palestine.
Jews were kept in the status of second- or third-class citizens by their mostly Christian hosts, exploited by them, forced into trades their Christian neighbours thought “un-Christian” and, if too successful, robbed, raped and dispossessed by the kings and queens they were forced to lend money to or work for, or by their neighbours, who were often appalled at the whole idea of Judaism.
To omit this fact in Professor Coury’s response to Zionism is to entirely misrepresent the mentality of those behind it. Certainly it drove those in Europe who, driven by compassion, pushed for a return of a Jewish presence in a homeland of their own, free from such oppression. This required the kind of clandestine behaviour that Prof Coury refers to, but displacement of people in history is nothing new.
Mondoweiss defines itself as "a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish direction" and claims, in Orwellian fashion, that its aim is "to publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues," although the only "diversity of views" on the site is the best method of destroying Israel.
According to its website, Mondoweiss has two editors (Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz), two assistant editors, and an editor-at-large. Presumably they are not volunteer workers, and money certainly doesn't grow on trees, even for websites that are updated on a daily basis.
Mondoweiss states that its website "is part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change," an ambiguously sinister-sounding body in north Chicago. Turning to its website, the Center (CERSC, as it is known) lists five "projects" which it supports. These are publishing the International Socialist Review; holding an annual conference which two years ago was termed "Socialism 2012"; hosting "We Are Many," another website "devoted to publishing radical and activist video and audio media," and funding Haymarket Books, a radical publishing firm.
No charity for Israel from Amnesty International
We all thought Oxfam was the most bigoted international charity organization but along has come Amnesty International to displace it from the pinnacle of shame. What is it about these supposedly good will international organizations that makes them so disproportionately obsessed with and so biased against the State of Israel and its citizens?Even AIPAC Has Trouble Mustering U.N. Outrage
What makes them so little aware, in any consistent way, of issues in the other 192 countries in the world?
Amnesty International (AI) describes its mission as undertaking research and action focused on preventing and ending grave abuses of human rights. Indeed, it has drawn attention to some abuses in a number of countries.
It also claims to be independent of “any government, political ideology, economic interest or religion.” But this claim is spurious because AI’s main focus has been on one government and its alleged deficiencies, Israel and its behavior towards Palestinians.
One indication of the fading relevance of the United Nations in the public consciousness is how few people showed up to today’s AIPAC panel about it. In the past, few subjects would fire up pro-Israel activists more than the international body’s long-standing inquisition against the Jewish state. After all, while many issues arising from the Israeli-Palestinian conflict are morally complex, the U.N.’s mistreatment of Israel has no such nuances. From labeling Zionism a form of racism, to barring Israel from serving on any committees for decades, to passing scores of resolutions against the Jewish state and few to none against any other countries, to putting a Holocaust denier in charge of prosecuting Israeli human rights abuses, the U.N. has subjected Israel to “a barrage of obsessive, unbalanced, and relentless criticism,” in the words of President Obama’s former ambassador to the body, Susan Rice.UN’s musical chairs: Richard Falk’s wife is top nominee for Human Rights Council post
And yet, despite a set of all-star panelists–U.S. Ambassador to UNESCO David Killion, Israeli Ambassador Aharon Leshno Yaar, and human rights NGO head Hillel Neuer–only a third of the seats were full at this afternoon’s session: “Report Card: Israel at the U.N.” Last year, by contrast, the house was packed. But as the U.N. has been exposed as increasingly impotent when it comes to global crises ranging from Syria to Ukraine, it has become increasingly irrelevant in the eyes of activists. Even its arch-enemies no longer take it seriously.
Third, there is every indication that Elver would, like Ziegler, twist the hunger post to go after Israel.Head of global Islamic organization uses UN "Human Rights" Council platform for anti-Jewish rant
In 2007, Elver connected the Jewish state to “genocide” and Israelis to “Nazis.”
As UN food expert, we know exactly what her first charge will be. At a December conference in Qatar, she gave a lecture on Israel entitled “Water Apartheid.”
Like Erdogan, Elver is obsessed with what she calls in her Turkish articles the “Yahudi lobisini” — “the Jewish lobby.”
On the 10th anniversary of 9/11, Elver wrote that “the Jewish lobby” is “manipulating American politics” to ensure unlimited support for Israel.
On the first day of its latest 4-week session, the UN Human Rights Council once again provided a platform for antisemites and Israel-bashers. On March 3, 2014 Iyad Ameen Madani, Secretary General of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) said: "Israel's brutal treatment and violation of human rights of the Palestinian people...Judaization of east Jerusalem...enactment of the recent racist law...apartheid wall...must be addressed with the utmost urgency by this Council. Israel does not seem to have enough to satisfy its thirst for the oppression of the Palestinians...Israel simply wants to erase and eradicate any notion of a Palestinian identity...Israel has an unmatched disdain for human rights...and basic human decency."UN High Commissioner Navi Pillay opens latest Human Rights Council session by championing antisemitic Durban Declaration
He was politely thanked by the President of the Human Rights Council at the conclusion of his rant.
The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay is set to finish her second and final term at the end of August. Known for her anti-Israel and anti-American agenda, which includes defending the notorious Goldstone report and questioning the legality of the killing of Osama bin Laden, she is leaving office true to form. The antisemitic platform of the UN Durban conferences, and the Durban Declaration, include charging only one country with racism - Israel. And speaking at the opening of the Council's 25th session on March 3, 2014 Pillay singled out Durban for high praise. She said: "...Full implementation of the Durban Declaration and Programme of Action and Outcome Document, as affirmed by the Durban Review Conference, is no less important today than it was in 2001. My Office is already promoting the implementation of many of its recommendations through our 58 field presences."Campaign to Oust Russia, Others, From UN Human Rights Council
On the same day that Russia issued an ultimatum to Ukraine either to hand over Crimea or prepare for a Russian military assault on that sovereign nation, the Russian ambassador to the United Nations thanked delegates for supporting Russia’s election to the United Nations Human Rights Council.Feds Provide Billions to UAE Airline that Removed Israel From Its Maps
During the opening session of the UNHRC, on Monday, March 3, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov thanked delegates for supporting Russia’s election to the Council. He said that vote was “an acknowledgement of our country’s constructive approach to this sphere of multilateral cooperation.” He added, that “the protection of human and civil rights and freedoms is a basic priority.”
The irony was apparently too much even for longstanding residents of the Orwellian world of the U.N.
The federal government has provided more than a billion dollars in loan guarantees since 2009 to an Arab airline that has literally wiped Israel off the map.Andrew Bolt: I won’t fly with an airline which can’t find Israel on a map
Etihad Airways, a United Arab Emirates-based airline, scrubbed any mention of Israel or its major cities from a map showing its travel routes in the area.
Etihad has lost my business. I don’t fly with Jew-haters:Eradicate "BDS" antisemitism on campus
The offenders in both alleged incidents were believed to be from the Socialist Alternative group.Israeli Apartheid Week is a Soviet Creation
The abuse comes after research by the Executive Council of Australian Jewry found the number of anti-Semitic incidents reported in Australia last year was the second highest on record.
Education Minister Christopher Pyne warned the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement had given anti-Semitism “a fashionability among highly ignorant sections of the far Left”.
Mr Pyne said universities needed to “step in and take a very firm line” against racism on campus. “Free speech does not extend to ugly threats and physical harassment,” he said.
Australasian Union of Jewish Students political director Matthew Lesh said campus extremists were targeting individuals rather than engaging in debate.
After the defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945, the Soviet Union became the main source of state-sponsored anti-Semitism in the world. The Communist leader Joseph Stalin, who counterposed ideas of patriotism to the “internationalism” of his opponents in the party, started depicting Jews as a disloyal fifth column whose true allegiance was to Zionism, rather than the socialist motherland. (Sound familiar?) Amidst all the dark talk of “rootless cosmopolitans”—a euphemism for “Jews”—Stalin, many historians now agree, began making plans for a mass deportation of Jewish citizens to Siberia. This potential second Holocaust, in the shadow of the first one, was averted only by Stalin’s death at the height of the so-called “Doctor’s Plot,” in which mainly Jewish doctors were put on trial on fabricated charges of attempting to poison Soviet leaders.First they came for Israel…
Stalin’s successors stopped short of outright genocide against the Jews, but the anti-Semitic discrimination came thick and fast. In both the USSR and its satellite states like Poland, the communists launched anti-Semitic purges under the cover of “anti-Zionism.” There was a robust propaganda element to these actions, since the communists were keen to square their loathing of Jews with the imperatives, as they saw them, of Marxist theory. And so, from the early 1960s onwards, the Soviet Communist Party began pumping out books and pamphlets dedicated to showing that Judaism and Zionism were doctrines that glorified Jewish racism towards non-Jews.
Another BDS activist, Italian union leader Giancarlo Desiderati said that, his union having already urged its members to boycott Israel, the ‘logical next step’ was to boycott Jewish-owned and Jewish-run businesses in Rome. According to Times, Desiderati added that he and his supporters were drawing up a list of Jewish shops, "though it might be better to publish a list of streets in which a majority of the shops are Jewish and ask people to avoid those streets when shopping.”How the Oscars Helped Show the BDS Movement’s Lack of Credibility
Mr. Desiderati denied that he or his fellow unionists are anti-Semites.
Yet another trade unionist and fanatic BDS supporter, Bongani Masuku of South Africa, issued threats against Jewish businesses and supporters of Israel, declaring that they must leave the country. Although his words were condemned as hate speech by the South African Human Rights Commission, Masuku was invited to the UK, to address a UCU (University and College Union) forum in favour of BDS.
"This movie was made in Nazareth, in what is territory ultimately under control of the Israeli government. It is hard to imagine a film like this would even get off the ground in China or Russia if a filmmaker from one of those countries showed either of those governments in a similar light. So when the nomination of this film was read out loud for the entire world to hear, the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences was making the statement for those who needed to hear it that Israel is not only NOT an apartheid state, but a country where people can express themselves freely, be they Arab or Jew." (h/t Yerushalimey)College Senior’s Challenge Defeats Israel Apartheid Week Leaders
On Friday, Feb. 28, before Shabbat, Nass checked the link to the promotional trailer, and saw something odd: “this video has been removed by the user.” When Nass checked it again after Shabbat ended, he saw that the video had been replaced with one that did not include the Fox Business News clip in which he appeared.Open Letter to the President of Brooklyn College
“They buckled under the pressure,” Nass told The Jewish Press in a follow-up interview on Sunday. “Not surprisingly, they did not reveal who they are, but they did reveal what they are,” he said.
Ali Abunimah is a blogger for the website Electronic Intifada, a name that already betrays the purportedly peaceful intentions of his visit. However, his activities go well beyond voicing a disagreeable opinion. Mr. Abunimah’s internet activities range from possible incitement to outright misrepresenting the words of those who disagree with him. Worse than that, Mr. Abunimah was recently involved with the cyberbullying of a Jewish student at University of Michigan while she was in the process organizing a meeting in order to respond to intimidation stemming from the UMich Mock Eviction. I cannot speak on behalf of the administration or faculty, but as a parent and educator I would be appalled to know that my tuition dollars were going to finance this speaker’s presence.Arab men beat religious Jew in Paris train
Two of the attackers held down the 28-year-old victim, who was identified only as A. Levy, while a third strangled him and beat his face, BNVCA said on its website Monday. The report said Levy sustained some injuries but did not specify.Sephardic Jews charmed by Spanish citizenship offer
His attackers shouted the Arab word for “Jews” before attacking Levy, who is a religious Jew belonging to the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, the report said. One of them also told him: “Jew, we are going to lay into you, you have no country,” according to the report.
They stopped assaulting Levy after one of the passengers said loudly that the police were coming, according to BNVCA. (h/t dabney_c )
Maya Weiss-Tamir, an Israeli lawyer who specializes in applications for citizenship in European countries, said she had received over 1,000 inquiries since the Spanish government approved the draft citizenship bill on February 7.Argentinian entrepreneurs look to learn from Israeli success
“The new generation, young people, they want it mostly for practical reasons, they want to work in Europe, they want to live there, have a job,” the 35-year-old said by telephone from her office in Haifa in northern Israel.
Israel’s latest export to South America is the high-tech incubator, and it’s proven a very popular item in Argentina, said Ryan Fain, director of HiLabs, a tech incubator run by Hillel Argentina. HiLabs took applications for its latest program in Israel – a two-month learning and working experience for students interested in becoming entrepreneurs – for a total of ten days, after which it had to stop accepting requests to be part of the program. “We already had 300 applications for 30 spots,” said Fain. “It was much more popular than we anticipated.”Parking your car just got easier thanks to Israeli tech
Argentina’s economy is down in the dumps; the peso has lost 20% of its value against the dollar in just two months, and inflation could reach as much as 30% this year. What the country needs is a good shot of entrepreneurship, said Fain, and in its small way, HiLabs is trying to bring the message of the Start-Up Nation to the South American country’s 200,000 Jews.
Chances are you already use the Israeli app Waze to find the best route to wherever you want to drive. After arriving, you might have another Israeli company to thank for finding you a parking spot and paying for it without a hassle.Israeli researchers use nanotechnology to target drug-resistant ovarian tumors
Pango is an app that lets you book and pay for on-street and parking lot spots via iOS, Android or Blackberry device, in Israel and in a growing number of major US cities. Pango Mobile Parking, based in Kadima, just raised $6.5 million in a new funding round.
Israeli researchers have turned to nanotechnology to target drug-resistant ovarian tumors. Ovarian cancer accounts for more deaths of American women than any other cancer of the female reproductive system. According to the American Cancer Society, one in 72 American women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer, and one in 100 will ultimately die of the condition.Ancient Jewish Text Added to UNESCO’s ‘Memory of the World’ Register
Now Prof. Dan Peer of Tel Aviv University’s Department of Cell Research and Immunology has proposed a new strategy to tackle an aggressive subtype of ovarian cancer using a new nanoscale drug-delivery system designed to target specific cancer cells.
A rare Hebrew, 15th century manuscript from the Israel Museum’s collection was included in UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register for 2013, Israeli daily Ma’ariv reported on Thursday.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization described the Rothschild Miscellany as a “unique, lavishly illuminated compendium-manuscript adorned with magnificent miniatures in gold and silver leafs and precious pigments.”
