Thursday, March 13, 2014
Raheem Kassam: Cameron Talks a Good Talk on Israel, But do his Promises Stack Up?
While Cameron said Britain opposes boycotts of Israel, a number of UK universities still target the Jewish State, and Britain has not once spoken out against the United Nations' bias against Israel.Cameron’s Knesset Speech: Closer to Australia and Canada than Obama
Furthermore, Britain's Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) still routinely works with organisations that are overtly hostile to Israel, and advocate one-state solution as well as boycotts. This needs to be stamped out if Cameron can truly stake a claim to his comment that "delegitimising the State of Israel is wrong. It is abhorrent, and together we will defeat it."
The mainstay of anti-Israel sentiment within the British government comes not from Left-wing MPs either, but mainly the FCO. Previously, FCO staffers have been found to be overtly pro-Palestinian, and even the Foreign Minister, Alistair Burt, was set to speak at an anti-Israel Friends of Al-Asqa event at the Conservative Party Conference last year.
Whereas Obama has threatened Israel that it will become more internationally isolated, Cameron asserted, “No more excuses for the 32 countries who refuse to recognize Israel,” and described as “outrageous” and “ridiculous” the lectures Israel receives at the UN. And Cameron also broke with Obama doctrine, and no doubt the thinking of his own diplomatic service, by refuting the notion that Israel and the absence of an agreement with the Palestinians is causing the problems in the region. Rather, Cameron spoke at considerable length about the “poison” of Islamism. A peace agreement would not stop Iran, noted Cameron, and he stressed that he was not “starry-eyed about the new regime” and shared Israel’s “skepticism” on that front.Cameron wants to do business with Israel. No one cares what the 'boycott Israel' fanatics think
If the attitude expressed in this speech were implemented as British policy, then Cameron would rightfully earn himself a place alongside Stephen Harper, Australia’s Tony Abbott and Julie Bishop, and the English speaking leaders of the West. Meanwhile Obama is earning himself a place alongside Martin Shulz and the Europeans.
I doubt if David Cameron had time to scroll through Twitter before he left for Israel this morning. But if he had been on the lookout for Israel-related tweets, he couldn't have failed to notice the hashtag #BDS.BDSers: here’s your chance for martyrdom
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel makes a lot of noise. Twitter is awash with #BDS tweets, implying that the extremists who demand that the West stop buying goods produced by Jews are in the ascendancy.
The reality is rather different.
Bilateral trade between the UK and Israel is booming to an extent never before imagined. Last year it was estimated by the FCO at £5.1 billion. Growth is accelerating every year.
Speaking today to the Knesset in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Cameron denounced the anti-Israel BDS movement and noted:
“[Israeli technology] is providing Britain’s National Health Service with one in six of its prescription medicines through Teva and it has produced the world’s first commercially available upright walking technology which enabled a British paraplegic woman to walk the 2012 London Marathon. And together British and Israeli technical expertise can achieve so much more.”
In Knesset, Cameron pans ‘abhorrent’ attacks on Israel
British Prime Minister David Cameron, in an address to the Knesset Wednesday afternoon, stressed his country’s backing for Israeli efforts to achieve peace and security, and promised his support in combating international attempts to boycott and sanction the Jewish state.NGO Monitor: UK Funds Attempt to Sabotage Israel's Judicial System: Norwegian Refugee Council's $20 Million project initiates 677 cases
“Delegitimizing the State of Israel is wrong,” he said. “It’s abhorrent. And together we will defeat it.”
“You have a British prime minister whose belief in Israel is unbreakable and whose commitment to Israel’s security will always be rock-solid,” Cameron pledged.
Jerusalem - Coinciding with UK Prime Minister David Cameron's visit to Israel this week, NGO Monitor is releasing its new report on how the UK, with the EU and other governments, is funding a major anti-Israel lawfare project of an NGO (non-governmental organization) known as the Norwegian Refugee Council (NRC), whose activities seek to sabotage the integrity of legal processes in Israel.It’s a Miracle, Says IDF General: Middle Eastern Hatred Towards Israel is Declining
"While some UK funding for NGOs supports efforts to achieve a two-state solution, a number of NGO grants are highly damaging and unjustifiable. From 2011-2015, the UK provided £6 million to NRC, one of the largest single grants to any NGO in the region, used to pursue legal cases aimed at influencing Israeli policies, lobby for international sanctions against Israel, and support international campaigns of demonization" stated Prof. Gerald Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor. "With this UK funding, the NRC also launched an international campaign targeting the Canadian judiciary." (h/t Bob Knot)
Israel Defense Forces Maj. Gen. (Res.) Amos Gilad said this week that a major geopolitical realignment is taking place in the Middle East, with countries that have traditionally displayed the greatest hostility towards Israel moderating their hard-line stance, Israel’s Channel 2 reported.Only Israel to Blame In UNRWA’s Eyes
“As far as I’m concerned, a miracle has occurred,” said Gilad, currently the Director of Policy and Political-Military Affairs at Israel’s Ministry of Defense.
Speaking recently at IDC Herzliya’s Institute for Policy and Strategy, Gilad noted that most of the dramatic changes of late have taken place in Egypt and Turkey.
UNRWA’s deputy commissioner-general Margot Ellis writes on The Guardian’s Comment is Free how the greater media focus on Syria has impacted UNRWA’s fundraising ability for emergency projects for Palestinians in Gaza and the West Bank:Alan Dershowitz: Some hard questions about the Western European double standard against Israel
Aid money follows the cameras. Cameras follow conflict. Syria is no exception. …Ellis is effectively acknowledging the symbiotic relationship between non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and aid agencies and the media. If UNRWA can only raise money on the back of media coverage of the conflict, is it any wonder that NGOs make so much effort to supply the media with one-sided reports bashing Israel?
Gaza hit the headlines during the upsurge in fighting in the winter of 2008-2009 and then again in November 2012. For a brief few days the cameras were there to capture the Israeli attack and the rockets that flew towards Tel Aviv and Jerusalem. The West Bank is even more severely “news fatigued”. The occupation, now more than 45 years old, is hardly a news story, some would say.
Why are so many of the grandchildren of Nazis and Nazi collaborators who brought us the Holocaust once again declaring war on the Jews?EU Report Demonizes Israel as Threatening Regional Security
Why have we seen such an increase in anti-Semitism and irrationally virulent anti-Zionism in western Europe?
To answer these questions, a myth must first be exposed. That myth is the one perpetrated by the French, the Dutch, the Norwegians, the Swiss, the Belgians, the Austrians, and many other western Europeans: namely that the Holocaust was solely the work of German Nazis aided perhaps by some Polish, Ukrainian, Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian collaborators.
More to the point, the report’s underlying claim about the blockade of such essential items is simply untrue. Not only have the restrictions on goods allowed into Gaza been greatly relaxed in recent years, there was never any blockade on such humanitarian items as medical supplies in the first place. Even during the intensity of the fighting of the 2009 war in Gaza, Israel held daily ceasefires for bringing such supplies into Gaza.Pink Floyd Co-Founder Roger Waters: I Can’t Be an Anti-Semite, My Father Fought Nazis
When flowers and fruits grown in Gaza are on sale in Europe, it is the height of European hypocrisy to claim that there is a “pressing humanitarian situation” and “increased food insecurity” in the Gaza Strip. Goods and people are allowed to cross between Israel and Gaza all the time. Weapons are not permitted into Gaza, nor are dual-use items that could be used for military purposes, which includes certain building materials—although Israel does permit building materials for internationally approved projects. But with little else to focus on, the report makes misleading claims about fuel supplies and bemoans Gaza’s ailing construction industry.
In a strongly-worded open letter published Tuesday by The Telegraph, Pink Floyd co-founder Roger Waters once again denied being an anti-Semite, this time invoking his Nazi-fighting father.Artists Rock and Roll for Israel
The communique was addressed to British philanthropist Gerald Ronson, chairman of the Jewish Community Security Trust charity, in response to a speech Ronson gave last week in which he singled out Waters as being anti-Israel.
Last year it was R&B singer Alicia Keys. This summer, The Rolling Stones, Neil Young, and rock band the Pixies all plan to perform in Israel.Palestinians fire 90 rockets from Gaza in one hour into Israel during Cameron's visit ... not considered newsworthy in the UK
Yet what much of the world doesn’t know or realize, is that these and other performers who publicize their upcoming gigs in the holy land, are met with the wrath and scorn of the Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) mob immediately upon doing so. The hate Israel crowd has been successful in dissuading the likes of many musicians over the past few years including big names like Carlos Santana, Elvis Costello, and Annie Lennox.
Yet with news of more and more performers boycotting the boycotters and standing up against the haters of Israel, the tide is turning.
And so it starts again. Between 55 and 90 rockets were fired by Islamic Jihad against Israeli towns. But even though this was shortly after David Cameron addressed the Knesset today** the story of this barrage is apparently not important enough to be reported on any of the 24-hours news channels in the UK. That will, of course, change as soon as Israel responds*** and we will get the usual condemnation of IsraelBBC News amplifies Palestinian Islamic Jihad’s PR line on attacks against Israeli civilians
**Rather ironically Cameron actually said in his speech that Israel "has already seen 38 missiles from Gaza this year alone" So that number was more than trebled within hours.
The report opens with more use of the euphemistic term “militants” to describe terrorists deliberately targeting civilians with military-grade weapons and – perhaps through force of habit – it is liberally peppered with the standard BBC caveat “Israel says”, despite the fact that the Palestinian Islamic Jihad was both quick and eager to take responsibility for the missile fire. Fatah’s Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade also put out statements, including one claiming four missile attacks on Sderot.Iran weapons ship causes greater stir in Arab world than West
It was actually the Arab media that elaborated on the display of weaponry. Al-Jazeera placed the event on its front page, under the headline "Israel attacks the hypocrisy surrounding the weapon seizure". It also quoted Netanyahu's speech and provided a detailed list of the weapons on the ship.Walk-in tunnels to boost vegetable produce in Gujarat
The Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya posted a wires story about the ship, while its correspondent Ziad Halabi attended the event in Eilat. According to Halabi, "the press conference doesn't change anything, as most of the Arab world is aware of the Iranian support for terror, and opposes it."
Having tasted success with poly houses and net houses, the Gujarat government is now going ahead with promoting protected vegetable cultivation through walk-in tunnels.Masters of the child animation universe
These tunnels will be promoted by a centre of excellence for vegetable cultivation being established under the second Indo-Israel Working Project near Prantij in Sabarkantha district of north Gujarat. Two other such centres are also being established with technical assistance from Israel at Talala and Kutch for mango and date palm cultivation. These centres are being set up to help farmers take to applied research, something missing in the Gujarat scenario. The centre in Prantij is spread over 20 hectares and 11 of these are being used for vegetable cultivation.
What’s bouncy, candy-colored, and has over 1 billion views on YouTube? An Israeli-made animation series for kids, that’s what.Auschwitz metal stamps used by Nazis for tattooing discovered in Poland
When Yossi Dahan’s first-born child was born, he did what most new parents do: dive head-first into the color-soaked, baby-talk loaded world of children’s video and television programs. What he found was dizzying, and not in a good way.
Metal stamps with embedded needles that the SS once used to tattoo inmates at the notorious Nazi death camp at Auschwitz have been discovered in Poland.New Anne Frank theater to open in Amsterdam
The find has been hailed by the Auschwitz museum, which now stands on the site of the camp, as one "of the most significant in years" as it was thought no original tattooing equipment survived the war.
SS soldiers used the small stamps, consisting of a two, two threes and a six or a nine, to tattoo inmates as they were processed on their arrival at the camp in German-occupied Poland. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
A new theater dedicated to the story of Anne Frank is slated to open in the Dutch capital ahead of the 70th anniversary of the teenage diarist’s deportation and death.US Holocaust Museum gets $10 million for Shoah studies
The new theater, which is in the final stages of construction, was first shown to media on Wednesday and will feature a permanent show titled ANNE that was developed at the request of the Basel-based Anne Frank Foundation — a not-for-profit organization founded in 1963 by Anne Frank’s father, Otto Frank. The Anne Frank Foundation is the sole owner of copyrights of writings of the Frank family including the hugely famous diary of Anne Frank from her days in hiding in Amsterdam.
The museum’s Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies will be renamed the Jack, Joseph and Morton Mandel Center for Advanced Holocaust Studies and will concentrate on Holocaust studies throughout the world. The center sponsors new Holocaust scholarships, training new scholars in the discipline.Fighting for the Right to Serve: Israeli Christians Brave Arab Opposition to Enlist
“The Mandel family generously helped establish the museum in its early years, and now through this campaign gift they are helping us lay the foundation for the institution’s future, ensuring the permanence of Holocaust memory, relevance, and understanding,” said Museum Director Sara Bloomfield.
It’s not a good time to be a Christian in the Middle East: a church was recently defaced in Gaza, Syrian Christians are fighting a war of survival against Jihadi groups, the Egyptian Coptic community is at an historic low point, and Nigerian Jihadists have killed over 200 in a vicious series of attacks – including schoolchildren murdered in their beds.
The Jewish State is the one bright spot, where the Christian community is experiencing the beginnings of a renaissance. Christians are increasingly enlisting in the IDF and National Service and fighting for appropriate government representation and equal rights. Among the pioneering voices in the Christian community is head of the Israeli Christians Recruitment Forum (ICRF), Father Gabriel Nadaf, whose movement can no longer be ignored.
Shadi Halul, a reserve paratroop officer and the movement’s spokesman, told ‘Mida’ about the recent change in attitude among Israeli Christians:
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