Monday, March 10, 2014
If only there were more people who were really pro-Palestinian. . .
In a way, all of this anti-Israel focus in the “pro-Palestinian” movement is not surprising, because Palestinian leaders have, for years, employed the propaganda tactics of totalitarian regimes during and surrounding World War II. Mussolini blamed Italy’s problems on worldwide communist plots, and Stalin blamed the Soviet Union’s problems on Trotsky, his exiled political enemy. Thus the peoples of Italy and Eastern Europe were convinced that their poor domestic situations were less the fault of their governments than the fault of outside forces. They were given someone convenient to blame for their problems, an “other,” so that they did not turn their criticism on their own governments. Likewise, Palestinian leaders have blamed Israel for the problems that the Palestinian Authority has perpetuated for decades. They have aimed to manufacture a single “Palestinian cause,” one that always opposes Israel and almost never creates space for talk of a two-state solution that would actually end the occupation. The “cause” does not address the corruption of Palestinian politicians, the Palestinian government’s failure to support democracy or freedom of the press, sharp divisions between Palestinian factions, issues of poverty, issues of oppression of Palestinian people throughout the Arab world, and numerous other pressing problems that huge segments of the Palestinian people are forced to face every day. The global community has picked up on this propaganda narrative and, attracted to the simplistic underdog story that it tells, lent enormous support to the “Palestinian cause.”Israelis Detained on Board Norwegian Jade as Cruise Ship Docked in Port of Tunis
Israeli tourists were denied the right to disembark from the Norwegian Jade, a vessel operated by the Norwegian Cruise Line, when it stopped in the Port of Tunis, Tunisia recently, Jewish human rights organization B’nai Brith Canada said on Sunday.One Week After Russia's Crimean Invasion, US Imposes Travel Sanctions...Against Israelis
As passengers prepared to get off the ship to visit the North African republic, the Israelis were quietly told that they were not welcomed by the Tunisian Government, the group said in a statement.
The cruise line did not advise the passengers in advance that Israeli tourists would be confined to the ship for the stop. Other Jewish passengers were unaware that their coreligionists were being detained, since no public announcements were made. They were outraged when it became known, B’nai Brith Canada said.
At the same time the US State Department is relaxing entry requirements to visa applicants with Islamist terrorist connections, and reassuring President Putin of Russia that any sanctions against travel to the US placed upon those responsible for Russia's invasion Ukraine will be limited to no more than a "few dozen" named individuals, it is dramatically increasing its rejection rate of Israelis seeking visas to visit the US.Iranian cleric: Albert Einstein was Shiite Muslim
While the State Department denies it, Israeli officials now suspect their country is being deliberately sanctioned as part of an unannounced administration policy to punish the Jewish state. This week their fears were publicly shared by none other than administration ally NY Senator Charles Schumer, who, in a letter to Secretary of State John Kerry, demanded an end to the “State Department policy of categorically denying young Israelis tourist visas that makes it nearly impossible for any young Israeli to visit the U.S.”
An Iranian cleric claims that the Albert Einstein, the great 20th century scientist who developed the Theory of Relativity, was a Shiitie Muslim, Israel Radio reported on Saturday.
The report cites a video by Ayatolla Mahadavi Kani, described as the head of the Assembly of Experts in the Islamic Republic of Iran, who says that there are documents proving the Jewish scientist embraced Shiite Islam and was an avid follower of Ja'far Al-Sadiq, an eighth-century Shi'i imam.
In the video, Kani quotes Einstein as saying that when he heard about the ascension of the prophet Mohammed, "a process which was faster than the speed of light," he realized "this is the very same relativity movement that Einstein had understood." (h/t dabney_c)
JPost Editorial: Salah’s sedition
He has again managed make a mockery of our legal system and law enforcement. Unfortunately, this is not just between him and the judiciary. It affects us all.Galway Univ: Shout down of pro-Israel speaker “unacceptable” and “will be investigated immediately”
Much of this was facilitated by the fact that for years Israel has tolerated Salah’s inflammatory speech and prodigious provocations, as if on the premise that if these were pooh-poohed, they would go away.
Instead, however, he gained stature and rose to prominence and popularity at levels that should alarm us, considering his nonstop incitement.
The longer Israel allows Salah to spread sedition with impunity, the greater his spiritual-mentor authority will grow and the more young Israeli Arabs will be swayed by his exhortations to join the procession of shahids to paradise. Making light of Salah’s subversion will not make it disappear. It does not work that way.
This video of an anti-Israel Boycottt Divest and Sanction activist at National University of Ireland – Galway, shouting profanities at Professor Alan Johnson of the Fathom journal, is beginning to get attention after our post about it on Friday. Johnson supports a two-state solution and is against BDS.After BDS controversy, college issues guidelines
The video, obtained by the Irish for Israel, features NUI Galway student Joseph Loughnane shouting as a row of students behind him banged on the tables in support and themselves shouted (off camera, as video panned towards speaker):
We reached out to the President of NUI Galway for comment, and received an email back from NUI Galway press and information officer Tomás Ó Síocháin, with the following statement on behalf of the university:
The president of Brooklyn College distributed public events guidelines formulated in the wake of the ejection of four pro-Israel students from a boycott Israel event last year.Students look to ban Sabra hummus at U. of Ottawa
Among the guidelines distributed to staff on Friday by Karen Gould was a requirement that event organizers must be affiliated with Brooklyn College.
“The students were removed from the event based upon allegations by Carlos Guzman, an event organizer not affiliated with Brooklyn College, that the students were being disruptive and passing out flyers,” Gould said in a memo to staff describing the events at the Students for Justice in Palestine forum on Feb. 7, 2013 advocating the boycott, divestment and sanctions movement.
Pro-Palestinian student groups at the University of Ottawa have launched a campaign to ban Sabra hummus from campus.A biblical analysis of the “Christ at the Checkpoint” manifesto
Sabra is partly owned by the Strauss Group, a foods manufacturer that the students allege financially supports the Golani Brigade of the Israeli Defense Forces, according to The New York Times. The students say the Golani Brigade has been accused of human rights violations by numerous organizations.
Christ at the Checkpoint organizers including blatant anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic Stephen Sizer, published a manifesto that was agreed upon and signed by all organizers. While that manifesto contains some truth, it is ambiguous and misleading at best, but also rather libelous in some cases. A closer look at it in light of God’s Word is necessary. Following in bold is the exact text of the manifesto along with Scripture to either validate its truth or rebuke its error.Ha'aretz No Longer a Newspaper
There is nothing particularly remarkable about this anti-Israel petition. Such initiatives are commonplace. Noteworthy, however, was Ha'aretz's decision Thursday evening to post the Khalidi/Butler petition in full on its English Web siteChristian Science Monitor Photo Caption Misleads
Ha'aretz published the petition without any preface or explanation. It appeared as a full, bona fide article, with a headline, a subheadline and text (the petition), including the 150 names that signed on to the document. Had editors linked to the petition as part of an article about the document, the item would have carried some news value. The current item, however, which contains absolutely zero reporting, analysis or context, is not journalism. It is free publicity for prominent anti-Israel polemicists who support the boycott of the Jewish state. Ha'aretz is blatantly carrying out the work of anti-Israel organizations.
The March 10, 2014 edition of the Christian Science Monitor Weekly [CSM] carries an upbeat article "Go-getters in Gaza" which highlights the entrepreneurial ambitions and striving for normalcy of young Gazans. Eight photographs are shown. One of the photographs shows a young girl in a scout uniform.Footballers ... or bombers? How a typical libel against Israel gets promoted and accepted
The caption reads, "PROUD A Girl Guide shows off her uniform. Girl Guides of Palestine, established in 1919 under British rule, aims to promote positive behaviour among young women."
The problem is the history this caption conceals. The first troops of the Girl Guides of Palestine were established by Annie Landau and Helen Bentwich at the Evelina School for Girls in Jerusalem. Landau, a British Zionist, ran the school for many years. The school was named after Evelina Rothschild, who belonged to the Rothschild family that funded Jewish settlement projects in what was to become Israel. This is confirmed in a book published in 1922, The Handbook of Palestine edited by Sir Harry Luke, Edward Keith-Roach. The CSM caption implicitly expropriates for the Palestinian Arab legacy what was actually, initially, a British-Jewish legacy and then expanded to include Arabs.
This ludicrous article by Dave Zirin in 'The Nation" (which claims Israeli police attacked two 'Palestinian footballers' in an unprovoked attack) with the dramatic headline "After latest incident, Israel's future in FIFA is uncertain" has been widely distributed around social media sites. The naive youngsters who distribute and read it are completely unaware that the Nation is a communist sympathising magazine (see its support for Putin's intervention in Ukraine here). But there is something extremely strange about this story. Although some of the usual anti-Israel sites are carrying the story, the source appears to be the antisemitic Palestinian news agency Maan which has a very long history of spreading complete lies.7 reasons why the Palestinian crisis & the Black struggle for freedom are absolutely nothing alike
In fact the only 'main stream' news organisation that I could find carrying the story was the leftist Israeli newspaper Haaretz - which always prints any story it can that can discredit Israel. But even Haaretz (despite the irrelevant anti-Israel picture) tells a very different story from the one by Zirin and includes the following rather relevant information about the incident that was curiously not mentioned by Zirin: "A Border Police spokesman said, “During operational activity, a group of individuals was seen just seconds before throwing bombs at security forces."
The “parallels” between the Palestinian plight and that of African-Americans have been made for decades, and this has always been spurious. Sadly, the exercise continues and seems to be growing as anti-Israel sentiment including global Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) inexplicably gain credibility.Flood of Controversy: Arnofsky’s ‘Noah’ Banned by Several Middle Eastern Countries
So, here are seven reasons why the Palestinian analogy to the Black historical struggle for freedom is hopelessly flawed (and down right offensive).
High budget biblical drama Noah, starring Academy Award winning actor Russell Crowe, will not be screened in several Middle Eastern countries, Israel’s Channel 2 reported on Sunday.Vatican says Pope’s Israel visit still on, for now
Sources within Paramount Studios, which is producing the highly anticipated film, confirmed that the film boards of Qatar, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates will not authorize the screening of Noah in their respective countries.
Paramount insiders expect the film boards of Egypt, Jordan and Kuwait to make similar decisions, Channel 2 said.
A leading Sunni Muslim religious leader in Egypt said the movie is “contrary to the ways of the Prophet and must be banned.”
For now, Pope Francis’s trip to Israel in May is to take place as originally planned, senior Vatican officials insisted over the weekend. The Vatican officials’ comments contradicted statements made by Israeli diplomatic sources, who claimed Thursday that the Holy See had been forced to cancel the visit due to an ongoing strike in Israel’s Foreign Ministry. The Foreign Ministry’s spokesman on Friday had publicly said the pope’s trip was “perhaps impossible.”Battle over Iraqi Jewish archive heads to US House
“The strike may create difficulties but for now there is nothing further as far as we are concerned,” the Vatican’s chief spokesman, Federico Lombardi, told reporters.
A new House resolution urges the State Department to renegotiate the terms for the return to Iraq of an archive of Iraqi Jewish texts.Israeli water tech reaching America’s biggest states
The nonbinding resolution in the US House of Representatives introduced Friday by Reps. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL) and Steve Israel (D-NY) “recognizes that the Iraqi Jewish Archive should be housed in a location that is accessible to scholars and to Iraqi Jews and their descendants who have a personal interest in it.”
It matches a similar resolution approved last month by the Senate.
On his visit to California last week, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu signed an agreement with California Governor Jerry Brown to, among other things, export Israeli water technology to California to help the state better cope with drought. “Through this agreement, California and Israel will build on their respective strengths in research and technology to confront critical problems we both face, such as water scarcity, cybersecurity and climate change,” said Brown. Of the seven areas the agreement specifies for cooperation, water conservation and management is listed first.Israeli selfie-app CamMe wins mobile award
What does Israel know about water technology that could now help California? For one, it’s not facing a water shortage, as a little-noticed news release by Israel’s Water Authority revealed several weeks ago – despite the driest winter in decades. With winter almost over and no substantial precipitation falling since December’s snowstorm, Israelis should by rights be facing a major water crisis. But thanks to good planning of the water economy – including use of desalinated and recycled water – the country’s natural water stores, such as Lake Kinneret are, if not full, at least in good enough shape to last until next winter without falling to dangerously low levels.
Entertainer Ellen DeGeneres made sure that the selfie –a smartphone-driven self-portrait – will continue to trend in 2014. Israel’s PointGrab, the makers of the CamMe app– which enables users to take selfies from afar – are also helping to keep the selfie hype alive with their recent win for Most Innovative Mobile App at the Mobile World Congress (MWC) 2014 in Barcelona.The museum that honors a peacemaker and his nation
The iOS app uses gesture controls to help users take selfies from up to 16 feet away — without having to touch their device. If Ellen had use CamMe, her famous selfie could have included even more famed faces.
One tourist attraction in Israel worth exploring is the Israeli Museum at the Rabin Center. Located in Tel Aviv’s Ramat Aviv neighborhood, the center is a work in progress, providing educational programs for the country’s younger generation, not yet born when Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was assassinated in 1995, and cultural events for the rest of the population. The state-of-the-art museum is its centerpiece.Israel Daily Picture: A Purim Treat from the Archives of the Library of Congress
Authorized by the Knesset in 1997 and built by renowned architect Moshe Safdie, the center opened its doors in 2005 and the museum in 2010.
“It was a very new concept,” explains international relations director Annie Eisen to ISRAEL21c, during a tour of the premises. “Until then, Israel did not have the equivalent of a presidential library. But in light of the assassination, there was a sense of urgency to do something to preserve Rabin’s legacy, and in the process to teach citizens and visitors to the country about contemporary Israeli history.”
The picture appeared in an American newspaper on April 1, 1865. The wood engraving is captioned, "The Hebrew Purim Ball at the Academy of Music, March 14." The picture contains a large sign, "Merry Purim," another sign listing the "Order of Dancing," and merrymakers wearing costumes and masks.
The picture was published in Frank Leslie's illustrated newspaper, printed in New York, NY. The Academy of Music was built in 1854 and was located in Manhattan at Irving Place and East 14th Street.
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