Friday, June 06, 2014
Eugene Kontorovich: The Apartheid Libel, Demolished
Whatever critics may think about Israel’s control of parts of the West Bank, the “apartheid” label is such a gross distortion that it can only discredit them. It is inaccurate in terms of both international law and the facts on the ground. And it raises the question of why critics of Israel use the label, despite the risk of discrediting their arguments with their rhetorical overkill.The Anti-Zionism of J Street
The answer can be found in the unique international response to South Africa’s apartheid regime. Numerous countries, from Turkey to Russia to Armenia, occupy and annex territory. Numerous countries—perhaps most—are grossly undemocratic, discriminate against minorities, and deny political rights to much or all of their population. Yet only the apartheid label resulted in orchestrated international sanctions that sought to completely eliminate a specific regime. Falsely applied to Israel, the accusation is clearly not a serious criticism, but a diplomatic weapon. It is not about the reality it seeks to describe, but the reaction it seeks to elicit—in a word, BDS. For some, it serves as a scare tactic to push Israel toward dangerous concessions. For others, it is a step toward literally destroying Israel as a Jewish state. Israel has paid a very high price for avoiding anything like apartheid. Creating Palestinian self-rule in Gaza and much of the West Bank has required Israel to forcibly expel its own citizens from all of Gaza and parts of the West Bank. And it has subjected Israel to an unprecedented terrorist war coordinated by the PA, as well as ongoing rocket attacks from Gaza. Yet the international community continues to perpetuate the libel of the apartheid accusation. This indifference to the price in lives and security Israel has paid seems to suggest a stark truth: Whatever Israel does, it can never be safe from such diplomatic demagoguery.
The biggest problem with the controversial group isn’t its bullying, mischaracterization of opponents, outrageous lobbying positions, or childish huffing and puffing. It’s their implicit rejection of everything Zionism stands for.Cleveland Unites over Anti-Semitic murals
Why does the Zionist movement still exist, while the Women’s Suffrage movement has been gone for nearly a century?
Both movements were founded and led by utopian visionaries whose dreams were initially decried—both inside and outside their circles—as unrealistic, if not dangerous to their group’s well-being. Both based their claims on liberalism, dignity, and human rights. And, most importantly, both movements succeeded in their goals. The Jewish people now have a sovereign state of their own, while women have the right to vote in almost every country on earth.
It seems, then, that the questions of women’s right to vote and the Jewish people’s right to a state are both answered. The debates ought to be over. No one would seriously suggest that after nearly a century, women should now be disenfranchised. Similarly, the 66-year existence of a Jewish state is an immutable and irreversible fact, and no mainstream figure is arguing for its abolition. So why, and why now, is the American Jewish community undergoing such a storm of conflict and recrimination over the issue of Israel?
Anita Gray, regional director of the ADL has described the paintings as "highly offensive and anti-Semitic." adding "We are appalled by the intolerance and bigotry these signs convey...The owner of this establishment has the right to have it decorated as he chooses, but we urge fellow members of the community to join us in saying, loudly and clearly, that such hate is not welcome here, and we categorically reject it."Mayor calls for graphic mural to be taken down at Biggies gas station
The owner of the gas station/grocery store Brahim "Abe" Ayad Ayad was born in the United States but is of Palestinian descent. Expect JVP to express its outrage at the Zionist lobby attempting to stiffle Palestinian activism in 3, 2, 1.....
The Rolling Stones in Israel: It’s only rock ‘n roll, but we loved it
Two 70-year-old men and their band sang, strummed, danced, preened and cackled their way through a magnificent roster of rock and dirty blues classics in Tel Aviv on Wednesday night, and left an audience of 50,000 Israelis inspired, exhausted and delighted. The Rolling Stones in Israel: Sometimes, you can get what you want.Mick Jagger’s top 12 Hebrew phrases
This was no ordinary concert, obviously. This was the greatest band in the world. And for the first time in their lives and ours, they were playing in Israel.
It might have been his band’s first visit to Israel, but Mick Jagger had learned plenty of Hebrew for Wednesday night’s Tel Aviv show. Here is the complete list of the Rolling Stones singer’s audience-friendly Hebrew remarks:Stones’ Jagger reprises Hebrew in goodbye tweet
“Thanks to everyone in Israel for a wonderful reception. It was an amazing show and I’ll always remember it,” the singer wrote in Hebrew on Twitter Friday afternoon, shortly before the band was set to leave Israel for the Netherlands.Sympathy For the BDS Devil
Jagger also included a picture of him touring Jerusalem’s Old City, outside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, from Wednesday. He paid the visit to Jerusalem, also stopping at the Western Wall, hours before the Stones played their first ever Israel show on Wednesday night.
Only in the eyes of the supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign who, in their usual style, unsuccessfully attempted to bully the Stones into canceling their Israel appearance. Indeed, such is their failure rate, as evidenced by the number of top-tier performers playing in Israel this summer, BDS’s only resort is to gain publicity in the media.Rolling Stones to perform in Israel despite pressure from Pink Floyd members to cancel
Why did Sky News give BDS the unwarranted publicity? In its report “Rolling Stones Play Controversial Israel Gig,” the story is less about the successful concert and mostly about giving oxygen to the BDS movement:
Recently, two surviving founders of Pink Floyd sent the rock band equivalent of a diplomatic cable — an open letter published in Salon — to the Rolling Stones. They asked Mick Jagger and his crew to cancel their first-ever concert in Israel to demonstrate solidarity with the Palestinian people and their struggle against occupation.One-Sided CBS Promotes Pink Floyd's Tirade Against 'Racist Regime' of Israel
But Pink Floyd hit a wall.
The Stones not only went on with the show Wednesday night in Tel Aviv but delayed their opening by 45 minutes to allow devout Jews time to reach the concert after the end of the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, during which Orthodox Jews cannot drive, handle money — or press “Play” on the Stones’ “Exile on Main Street” album.
CBS This Morning reporter Anthony Mason uncritically promoted the band Pink Floyd's campaign to boycott the "racist regime" of Israel and attack the Rolling Stones for performing in Tel Aviv. After a clip of Pink Floyd's song "Another Brick in the Wall," Mason reminded that the group wanted "the Stones to join them in a boycott and build a cultural wall around Israel." The segment featured not a single quote from anyone opposing the boycott or supporting Israel.Promoting Hate Speech: Haaretz Plumbs New Depths
Instead, Mason promoted the group's cause and explained that Roger Waters, Pink Floyd's lead singer "is a vocal opponent of what he believes is Israel's illegal occupation of Palestine." Instead of providing any balance, he featured Waters at a United Nations conference denouncing, "We found that the state of Israel is guilty of a number of international crimes." In a statement, members of Pink Floyd lectured the Rolling Stones for daring to defy the boycott. (h/t MtTB)
While Masalha accuses Israel of being a racist state, he may wish to reflect on his own choice of words when describing the senior Israeli security officer whom is the object of his rage:Al Jazeera Senior Analyst: Jews Should Know Their Place
"Ophir was a young, darkish security man, perhaps a descendant of converts from the Arabian Peninsula, perhaps from the Atlas Mountains. But one thing was clear, his black color looked very shabby, tattered and stained with evil."It is astonishing that a newspaper that promotes its “liberal” sensitivities could allow a sentence such as this to get past the editorial process. It does however, reveal that Masalha is driven by the same racism he claims to be a victim of.
Goldberg had tweeted a link to an article in the left-leaning Israeli publication Haaretz headlined, “Why all Israelis are cowards,” with the commentary: “Haaretz publishes headlines that al Jazeera never would, in part because al Jazeera is often more sophisticated.”Haaretz Goes Full-Blown Conspiracy
This prompted Bishara to call Goldberg a “coward” and state, “You give jews a bad name. Shame on you.”
Bishara went on to criticize Goldberg as “a prison guard of the Israeli occupation” and instruct him to show “some Jewish humility.”
“Take it from someone more educated & better informed about the issues you write about,” Bishara wrote. “Some Jewish humility is good for you.”
Bishara’s comments were deemed by critics as an example of anti-Jewish invective and prompted Goldberg to wonder if Al Jazeera endorses Bishara’s comments.
Jeffrey Goldberg, a self-reverential and prolific pundit who often writes on Israel-Palestinian issues, set off a mini-firestorm yesterday when he criticized the left-wing Israel daily Haaretz for a commentary headlined, “Why all Israelis are Cowards.” But lost in that controversy was an equally significant Haaretz book review entitled, “Was the Iranian threat fabricated by Israel and the U.S.?” The recent review and interview—written and conducted by Haaretz staff blogger and academic Shemuel Meir—treats with great credulity Gareth Porter’s recent book Manufactured Crisis: The Untold Story of the Nuclear Scare. Porter weaves together his narrative with questionable sources, fuzzy interpretation of sources, and cherry-picked data. The result is a forgettable tale easily refuted by legitimate sources and data Porter chose to ignore.Human Rights Watch Doesn’t Understand Terrorism
Kenneth Roth, the executive director of Human Rights Watch, is a prolific tweeter. And as with most policymakers, analysts, and activists who expound on Twitter, often their tweets can provide windows into their minds more illuminating than carefully edited essays.Anti-Israel Opera to Be Viewed Live by Hundreds of Thousands
Alas, from this recent tweet, it appears that Roth doesn’t really understand terrorism. He opines, in twitterese, “Abusive #Nigeria army is big part of why we have Boko Haram. Leahy Law key to ensure US aid doesn’t reinforce abuse.” Now, don’t get me wrong: Nigeria is an extraordinarily corrupt country and its army is often dysfunctional. Nor is the Nigerian army by any means a paradigm of human rights.
But even if the Nigerian army is complicit in human rights abuses, Boko Haram doesn’t exist as a protest against the army. It exists because of the influence of Saudi-funded preachers who have for decades sought to introduce radical theological interpretations into Western Africa and elsewhere in the world, some of which have taken root. The speech by Boko Haram leader Abubakr Shekau, which I have previously written about and in which he justified his kidnapping of the still-missing Nigerian school girls, is quite illuminating. It is at once a rant against Christianity, a call for the re-institution of slavery and what in Shekau’s mind would be a perfect Islamist order, and finally a general condemnation of both democracy and the West.
The following is an open letter to the New York Metropolitan Opera general manager concerning “The Death of Klinghoffer,” an anti-Jewish and anti-Israel opera: reasons to reject it and viable replacements for it in HD transmission.Does NYU have a Jewish problem?
This story line can be characterized fairly as “Understandably aggrieved Palestinian Arabs wreak vengeance on disabled Jew standing in for all his perfidious co-religionists.” This is an obscene inversion of the reality that was the Achille Largo cruise ship hijacking and subsequent terrorist murder of passenger Leon Klinghoffer. In this regard, it must be noted that the librettist, Alice Goodman, during the writing of the opera rejected her American Jewish heritage by joining the Anglican Church, the leadership of which is known for its hostility toward Israel. Goodman is now a parish priest in England.
The most troubling aspect of the Met’s scheduling of “The Death of Klinghoffer” is the live HD transmission of this opera, set for November 15, 2014—one of 10 such transmitted opera performances planned for the coming season—to more than 2,000 theaters in 66 countries (including more than 700 U.S. theaters). This would make the live performance immediately available to hundreds of thousands of people (and potentially millions according to the Met), giving wide international distribution to what is, at its heart, an anti-Jewish slander. (h/t Jewess)
After SJP at Northeastern University slipped mock eviction notices under hundreds of dorm rooms earlier this spring, the group was immediately suspended.Orim Shimshon, Television Star
When SJP at UCLA, earlier this month, demanded that candidates for student government sign a statement pledging they will not go on any trip to Israel sponsored by three Jewish organizations, UCLA Chancellor Gene Block and UC President Janet Napolitano issued statements of condemnation and committed UCLA's VP of Student Affairs to intervene.
When Vassar's SJP chapter published a vile Nazi cartoon a few weeks ago, Vassar President Catharine Hill condemned it as "racist" and "anti-Semitic," committed to a full university investigation and a review of SJP's status on campus, and demanded SJP take responsibility for its actions.
The silence of NYU President Sexton makes the answer resoundingly clear: Behavior that would never be tolerated from student groups or faculty when directed against other minority groups at NYU is perfectly acceptable when it comes to the Jews. (h/t Jewess)
Israellycool regular Orim was recently interviewed on Israel’s channel 2 for his tireless support of Israel, including his latest appearance at an anti-Assad rally.Orim Shimshon interviewed on Israel's Channel 2 News
Islamist Camp Ramah? The Guardian imagines a kinder, gentler Hamas
A good illustration of the Guardian’s habit of engaging in such propaganda was evident in the photo used to illustrate a report today (June 3) by Peter Beaumont titled ‘Israel condemns US for backing Palestinian unity government‘.Following CiF Watch post, the Guardian quietly removes image of Camp Hamas
Their decision to illustrate the story with a photo of Palestinian children innocently frolicking at a Hamas summer camp would lead the causal reader to assume the benign nature of the Hamas summer experience (a Palestinian version, it seems, of Camp Ramah). Of course, this assumption would be ‘slightly’ undermined if Guardian readers were to view photos showing other camp activities.
Their decision to use a photo of Palestinian children frolicking at a Hamas summer camp was deceptive for two reasons. First, the photo they used was only one in a series published by Getty Images in 2013 which were most notable for shots depicting the kids engaged in jihadist paramilitary training. Second, the image – conveying the putatively benign nature of the Hamas government – could be seen as an editorial decision to make light of Israeli concerns about the consequences of the US legitimization of the Islamist extremist group.Hamas in 10 Words or Less
Yet even given the need for brevity that is an accepted requirement of modern day journalism, do these short descriptions convey the most accurate information about the group? Is the refusal of Hamas to recognize Israel the most important fact to tell readers about the group? Or by specifying only that Israel (and in the Washington Post article the U.S.) believes it to be a terrorist organization, are the media implying that the nature of the group is unclear? Is the group more a “militant” group that one responsible for terror?BBC’s ‘Vatican expert’ misleads on Pope’s speech at Yad Vashem
Towards the end of his article (which in parts reads more like a PR communique than a report by an impartial BBC journalist), Willey also informed readers that:Al-Qaida’s media wing using Israeli company for secure email
“At the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial, Pope Francis paid eloquent tribute to the sacrifice made by six million Jews who died at the hands of the Nazis all over Europe.”
Leaving aside the fact that, by definition, a “sacrifice made” involves some sort of active personal choice which the millions murdered by the Nazis did not have the opportunity to exercise, the fact is that – contrary to the inaccurate impression Willey gives to BBC audiences – the Pope did not mention the figure six million or the word ‘Jews’ throughout his entire speech at Yad Vashem, the full text of which can be read here.
The Middle East Media Research Institute discovered that the group was using Safemail, which according to its website “is owned and operated by Secure Information Technologies Ltd., which is a privately owned company registered in Israel and with offices in Israel, the UK and Japan.”Report: International Olympic Committee pledges funds for 'Munich massacre' memorial
The company describes itself as: “The most secure, easy to use communication system. It includes encrypted mail system with collaboration features and document storage functions. Always accessible at any time from anywhere!” According to the MEMRI report, released on April 25, “Al-Qaida’s Embrace Of Encryption Technology – Part II: 2011-2014, And The Impact Of Edward Snowden,” the al-Qaida media wing announced on April 9 that an open interview of Maulana Asim Umar, the head of al-Qaida’s Shari’a Committee in Pakistan, would take place.
The memory of the Israeli Olympians killed during the 1972 Olympics will be honored with a memorial in Munich and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has pledged substantial funds for the project.Stand-up for a cause
According to a report in the Munich based Suddeutsche Zeitung, the IOC plans to contribute 250,000 US dollars to the memorial that will focus on the biographies of the victims that were killed in the incident that came to be known as the "Munich massacre."
Koby Mandell was 13 years old on May 8, 2001, the day he decided to skip school with his friend Yosef Ishran and instead go hiking in a dry riverbed near his home in the Israeli settlement of Tekoa.The Israeli start-ups behind Google’s 3D technology
He and Yosef were both killed that day by Palestinian terrorists, their skulls shattered with massive rocks and their bodies stabbed, bludgeoned and then dragged into a cave in the Judean desert.
Even one year into the Second Intifada, with Israeli buses exploding every week and helicopter gunships buzzing over Gaza, the brutal murder of these two boys sent Israelis reeling.
Koby’s parents, natives of Silver Spring, Maryland, who had moved to Israel a few years before, stood on the edges of the commotion – the political condemnations of violence, the newspaper interviews and the whizzing missiles and bullets of tit-for-tat retaliation – and stared down the gaping hole in the middle of their lives. The impossible task for them, now, would be trying to fill it.
In the years since, they have established the Koby Mandell Foundation, which runs camps and therapeutic counseling events for family members who have lost loved ones to terrorism. And this week, when the bi-annual stand-up show Comedy for Koby returns to Israel for its seventh year of side-splitting fundraising in the name of the Koby Mandell Foundation, they will also do something Koby always loved: laugh.
Petah Tikvah-based Mantis Vision and Raanana-based SagivTech are supplying core technologies for Google’s Project Tango, which is set to enable devices equipped with cameras, sensors and sophisticated algorithms to create a 3D model of the user’s environment and interact with it. Mantis Vision is key to Tango, producing the the main 3D engine used by the system.UK’s Largest Water Company Uses Israeli Water Technology
Google has been working on Tango for some time, and this week announced details of the project. The company is preparing a Tango software development kit (SDK), to be released in June, to be paired with a tablet containing Nvidia’s Tegra K1 processor. The SDK and tablet will be available for $1,024. Google hopes that developers will develop cool games and applications that will bring 3D to “the masses.”
United Utilities, the UK‘s largest listed water company supplying around 7 million homes in the North West of England, is the latest water utility to discover the merits of floating fine bubble aeration technology, developed and marketed by Israel’s Mapal Green Energy.Study links circumcision to lower prostate cancer rates
Announcing the installation of Mapal Green Energy’s Floating Fine Bubble Aeration (FFBA) system at its Horwich sludge plant, United Utilities said that it is upgrading its current installation with new equipment which is expected to be significantly more energy efficient.
The study, published in the British urology journal BJU International, was based on interviews with more than 3,000 men in the Montreal area between the ages of 40 and 75. The study’s authors found that men who had been circumcised, whether in infancy or later in life, had lower rates of prostate cancer than those who had not.New Discoveries in Ancient Jewish Settlement Uncovered in Hebron
Overall, the study found that circumcised men were 11 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who were not circumcised, a differential that the authors dismissed as not statistically significant. However, the difference was much more marked among black men, with the study finding that circumcised men were 60 percent less likely to develop prostate cancer than those who were uncircumcised. The study also found that prostate cancer was 45 percent less likely to develop among men circumcised after age 35.
Remains of a Jewish settlement from the Second Temple period were partially uncovered in the western and southern sections of Tel Hebron, near Tel Rumeida in Hebron, and visitors were allowed to see them.
These remains were found outside the the Middle Bronze Age (the Patriarch period) wall that was previously found in Hebron.
An industrial area was discovered with an olive oil press, cisterns, a workshop with a furnace and ponds. From the industrial area, there is a road that leads to the city square and center of the town, but that section hasn’t been excavated yet.
In an amazing find in the agricultural areas, stone tools were found, as well as a stamp in ancient Hebrew, with the words “King of Hebron” on it.
