Friday, June 13, 2014
Ryan Bellerose: Sacred Cows Make the Best Hamburger
Last year, I wrote an article about the indigenous status of the Jewish people. At first, a lot of Native people were really upset, because for almost 47 years they have been told that the Arabs are the indigenous people AND NOBODY EVER CHALLENGED IT. You see, for the Left, and this includes most indigenous people, men like Chomsky and Said have been Sacred Cows. They were glib, well read, and could turn a phrase very well. So nobody ever delved very deeply into their claims of Jews being settler colonists from Europe who were stealing Arab land. I was actually told by one Indian “Dude, Chomsky says the Arabs are indigenous, you are just an Indian from Paddle, you can’t argue with people like Chomsky.” I laughed and then brought out the big guns. First I asked that person if white people were indigenous to Canada because they have been here for almost 5 hundred years now. Of course he said “No of course not.” I then asked him if his people were no longer indigenous because they were not actually from the far North but had been transplanted there and thus displaced from their own ancestral lands. He responded “No, being displaced doesn’t remove our rights as indigenous people NO MATTER HOW LONG WE ARE DISPLACED FOR.” It was at that point I simply said “If people do not lose their indigenous status through being displaced, and people do not subsume indigenous status through conquering indigenous people and “replacing them,” then the Arabs are not indigenous to the ancestral lands of the Jewish people. Jews have been there for three thousand years and everything that makes them Jews began there.” It was an epiphany for him because he now posts and reposts stuff supporting the Jewish state of Israel, because he realizes that the same arguments used to attack the indigenous rights of Jews, are the same arguments used to attack ours.'Muslims are the new Jews' is Another Excuse for Islamists by HuffPo's Mehdi Hasan
On May 29th, Huffington Post UK 'Political Director' Mehdi Hasan published another piece about Islamophobia. It came in the wake of alarming gains made by far-right parties in the European elections. As acknowledged by its author, it also came in the wake of a shooting at a Jewish Museum in Brussels in which an Israeli couple and a Belgian woman were shot dead. A fourth victim, critically injured during the shooting, succumbed to his injuries as I was drafting this post.Alan Dershowitz: BDS is an immoral movement.
The only suspect in the shooting, an Islamist jihadi and French national named Mehdi Nemmouche, was not identified and arrested until the day after the publication of Hasan's article. However, similarities to the shooting carried out by Mohammed Merah at a Jewish school in Toulouse in 2012 were already apparent, as was the attack's probable anti-Semitic intent.
Nevertheless, Mehdi Hasan thought that now would be good time to say this:
"In some respects, Muslims are the new Jews of Europe. The vile shooting at the Jewish Museum in Brussels on 24 May, in which three people were killed, might make this statement sound odd. Anti-Jewish attacks are indeed on the rise in Europe, which is deplorable and depressing, but thankfully anti-Semitism is now taboo in mainstream political discourse in a way in which Islamophobia isn't. These days, most anti-Semitic attacks are carried out by second-generation Arabs and are linked to anger over Israeli policies."
For whatever it's worth, I do not believe that Mehdi Hasan is himself an Islamist. By which I mean that I have seen no evidence that he wishes his own freedom to be subject to the demands of State-imposed Islamic Law of any kind. That said, he displays a disturbing readiness to endorse Islamist arguments and talking points, the chief function of which is to re-describe the victimisers as victims.
The wolf is real. Don’t let it eat you: A reply to the charge that Jews ‘cry’ antisemitism’ too readily
So if we agree that getting it right every time is unrealistic, it means you have to be either over- or under-vigilant.Universities Listen When Alumni Protest
Well, as history shows, the price to be paid for being under-vigilant against Jew-hatred can be colossal.
That price dwarfs the price to be paid for being over-vigilant. Because it is unlikely that anyone making the “crying wolf” accusation would be doing so out of good faith.
No, the “crying wolf” allegation is almost exclusively made by those who do not take antisemitism seriously – or by those who take it so seriously that they to some degree endorse it.
After all, it is easy to criticise the manner in which someone is guarding a community against a wolf if you either don’t believe the wolf exists, or if you want it to devour the members of that community. The wolf is real. Arguably no gentile – and certainly no antisemite – should ever dictate to Jews how to guard against it.
Anti-Israel propaganda is pervasive on college campuses these days, particularly now that Israel Apartheid Week (“IAW”) is in its tenth year. Many pro-Israel alumni are unaware of what goes on at their alma maters, while others know but are at a loss regarding whether or how to respond.A ‘peace wall’, a ‘separation barrier’ and a question for the BBC
As the anti-Semitism in campus agitation has become ever more apparent, some graduate boosters have taken to cancelling their annual pledges in protest. The withdrawal of a single donation is unlikely to change institutional policy, but it provides an opportunity to educate those who are supposed to be in the business of education, and occasionally stimulates constructive dialogue. This is no small task considering the loathing for Israel expressed by so many in academia and their complicity in suppressing contrary viewpoints.
In a recent letter to the administration of Clark University, I cancelled my annual pledge after learning of an “apartheid wall” sponsored on campus by Students for Justice in Palestine (“SJP”) during Israel Apartheid Week. The purpose of the letter was not simply to vent, but to expose the revisionist message of IAW. The body of the letter (with some changes for the sake of brevity and civility) appears below.
Of course Israel is far from the only country in the world to have built such a structure in order to safeguard its civilians and one example lies right on the BBC’s doorstep. Over fifteen years have passed since the signing of the Good Friday Agreement and yet some 48 peace walls – the first ones having been constructed in 1969 – still stand in Northern Ireland.Context-free Tweet from BBC’s Gaza correspondent
The BBC’s Ireland correspondent Chris Buckler recently produced a very interesting and informative programme titled “Northern Ireland: A Bitter Legacy” which was broadcast on BBC Radio Four’s ‘File on 4′ programme on June 10th. The entire programme is well worth a listen; not least in order to appreciate how a long and bitter conflict can be reported with empathy for the people on both sides and in non-judgmental terms.
Notably, in this report and in other coverage of the same topic, the BBC has adopted – and uses – the terminology of ‘peace walls’ or ‘peace fences’, apparently identifying no need to come up with its own “acceptable generic descriptions” in order “to avoid political connotations” in this case.
The context of that Tweet – which Abualouf did not bother to provide to his followers – is that the man killed was involved in terror attacks against Israeli civilians.BBC Click drifts from technology into ME politics
Mohamed Awwar (also spelt in some reports Alaawor, Alarur or Awaer) was a member of a Salafist Jihadist terror cell which was responsible for the April 21st missile attacks on Sderot among others. He was also employed as a Hamas policeman and at his funeral, both Hamas and Global Jihad flags were used to wrap the body.
In fact, Israel proposed to the committee a plan which would facilitate the entry of operative 3G technology to the PA-controlled areas. No response was received from the Palestinian side.Worst prediction about Israeli presidential vote goes to Times of London
It is not of course the case that there is no 3G technology available in PA-controlled areas. Users can already make use of roving technology provided by Israeli suppliers and, as is the case with some Israeli companies such as Hot Mobile and Golan Telecom, potential Palestinian suppliers would not need to have their own physical infrastructure in order to provide 3G service to their customers but could roam on existing ones, thereby reducing the number of antennae.
The 3G issue is of course not just a technical one, but a subject which – like water – has been politicized in order to advance a specific narrative. Regrettably, on this topic and others noted above, Jen Copestake did not ask the necessary questions in order to bring to BBC audiences the facts behind the politicized narrative she amplifies in her reports.
Yet, here’s what Times (of London) Middle East correspondent Catherine Philp wrote in her pre-election analysis published on June 10 (pay wall): "Mr Rivlin’s closest contenders are the Nobel chemistry laureate Dan Shechtman and a former supreme court judge, Dalia Dorner."Germany to conduct study on anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism
When the votes in the first round were tallied at a little before 1 pm Israeli time, Rivlin was on top with 44 votes, Meir Sheetrit came in second with 31, Dalia Itzik had 28, Dalia Dorner received 13 and Dan Shechtman trailed the pack with just one.
Anyone can of course make a mistake. However, as we’ve demonstrated in previous posts about her coverage of the region, Philps’ wildly inaccurate election prediction isn’t a one-off when it comes to misreading the politics of the region.
The German Ministry of the Interior will undertake a study on anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism, a senior adviser to President Joachim Gauck told the Simon Wiesenthal Center in a letter obtained by The Jerusalem Post.Argentine neo-Nazi group approved as political party
The letter, by Gauck’s senior diplomatic and foreign policy adviser, Ambassador Heinz-Peter Behr, came in response to a request sent last month by Wiesenthal Center associate dean Rabbi Abraham Cooper, who has been demanding such studies in correspondence with several European leaders.
In his request to Gauck, Cooper cited a study by the German Friedrich Ebert Foundation that found that nearly half of Germans, and 40 percent of Europeans overall believe that “Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Palestinians.”
Buenos Aires Judge Ariel Lijo granted the approval for Bandera Vecinal, or Local Flag, on Wednesday. The party, which is expected to participate in the 2015 presidential elections, had signed up the required 4,000 members.Neo-Nazis on the Rise in Europe, Jews and Minorities Must Take Action
The Jewish political umbrella DAIA said Biondini “has publicly and repeatedly supported the figure of Adolf Hitler and Nazism. DAIA reiterates its position to not legitimize as a political party those who justify hatred and encouraging violence against the Jewish community and others in our country.”
In 1988, Biondini led chants of “Death to traitors, cowards and Jews” at a gathering of extreme-right demonstrators in Buenos Aires. At the time, Biondini’s group was called the National Alert, reminiscent of the cry “Germany, awake!”
In all, nine Neo-Nazi Parties will sit in the European Parliament. Some parties will occupy more than one seat. How many more seats will they acquire in the next election? Perhaps the answer to that lies in our hands.$25K donation boosts 1.5 million penny Holocaust memorial
Approximately 43.11% of European voters never made it to the voting booth. How many non-voters were Jews? How many were immigrants? Jews and other minorities must vote in all upcoming elections.
We cannot accomplish victory alone. If Jews want to stay in our host country, and even if they don’t, it’s time to speak out and get involved. They must ensure that no upstanding citizen is bullied or marginalized. Jews are morally obligated to be a light unto the nations, which entails speaking up for all those who are morally abused.
We need to join together with all minority groups, and campaign to safeguard the legitimate rights of upstanding minorities to remain in Europe. We cannot afford to stand by and hope the despicable rise of Neo-Nazism will somehow disappear. ”Never again” will become “yet again” if we continue to have a “don’t bother me about it just yet” attitude.
The planned memorial in Hernando, a city in northern Mississippi located about 30 miles south of Memphis, Tenn., will hold 1.5 million pennies donated by local schools and businesses to commemorate the approximately 1.5 million Jewish children murdered by the Nazis.Ohio breaks own Israel Bonds buying record
The $25,000 gift to the Unknown Child Holocaust Remembrance Penny Project is from Baptist Memorial Health Care, The Associated Press reported.
Designed by architect Doug Thornton of Architectural and Engineering Resources for Construction, the memorial will feature a spiral path leading to six wall sections forming a fractured Star of David that will be covered by the 1.5 million pennies. Inside the star will be a bronze sculpture designed by Rick Wienecke called “The Unknown Child.”
In addition to making the largest single purchase of Israel Bonds, Ohio also holds the record for the highest amount of Israel Bonds held by a state treasury at $105 million, according to the weekly, which noted the buy had bipartisan support in the state legislature.UConn to create energy student exchange program
“It shows the commitment the state of Ohio has made toward the State of Israel under Treasurer Mandel’s leadership, and it’s a solid investment for the state’s portfolio,” Alan Gottlieb, chairman of Israel Bonds for Greater Cleveland, told the Cleveland Jewish News.
Thanks to a donation from a Pennsylvania charity, UConn will develop an exchange program with the Technion-Israel Institute of Technology for students and faculty to learn at the separate institutions.Israel to expand ties with Narendra Modi govt
The exchange program has been established through the UConn Founcation after it received a donation from Satell Family Foundation, a Pennsylvania nonprofit that – among other things – supports energy and health care projects in Israel. The nonprofit's founder, Ed Satell, graduated from the UConn School of Busines 50 years ago.
Expressing confidence that the relations between the two countries would go even further with a new government in New Delhi, Israel has said that the partnership needs to extend beyond defence and agriculture to public security and civilian trade.Epson seeks Israeli apps for its AR glasses
The outgoing Israeli Ambassador to India, Alon Ushpiz, also pledged Tel Aviv’s support and technology for the new government’s plan to clean up the Ganga river, explaining that his nation has some of the best water technologies in the world.
Speaking to The Indian Express, Ushpiz said the India-Israel trajectory is very positive
Israel looks to expand ties with Modi govt, offers help in Ganga clean-up and relations are an evolution process in which “every new layer is built on the previous one”.
Weighing only 88 grams, the glasses contain a slew of sensors and imaging components that enable users to see on the glasses what they could see on their Android device’s screen. Similar to Google Glass, users could see a stream of email or Twitter posts through the glasses as they go about their daily business. They could watch YouTube videos, or any other web content, with all images beamed to the glasses via Bluetooth.2,000 for Shabbat meal? Call Guinness
The point of the Moverio, said Riffaud-Cangelos, is for use with augmented reality apps. “For example, you could have an app where a person would see an overlay of how to change a tire while they are actually doing it. The user would focus the glasses on the bolts or the jack and be shown a pattern of how to use them. They could then follow the pattern being displayed, thus saving them time, effort and money.”
When 2,000 people sit down to eat Shabbat dinner this Friday night at Hangar 11 in the Tel Aviv port, they’ll be setting a Guinness World Record. For real.Rwanda, Israel sign deal for stronger ties
“It’s an incredible statement,” said Jay Shultz, the founder of the Am Yisrael Foundation, an umbrella group created to manage the nine organizations founded to enhance the lives of English-speaking immigrants in Tel Aviv. “We have a mandate to make sure that Tel Aviv is a place where people can have Shabbat.”
Rwanda has signed a partnership agreement with Israel that establishes a forum for consultations between the two States. The bilateral deal is also expected to boost Rwanda's foreign direct investments from Israeli businesses.Sinead O’Connor to perform in Israel in August
The deal was signed in Kigali by the visiting Israel Minister for Foreign Affairs Avigdor Lieberman and his Rwandan counterpart Louise Mushikiwabo yesterday.
The two signed a Declaration of Intent, which aims at forging closer relations, and a memorandum of understanding on consultations between the two countries.
Nearly two decades after making headlines by attacking a photographer in Israel, Irish Grammy winner and pope photograph-destroyer Sinead O’Connor will play one show in Israel in August, Channel 10 reported.Single Dad’s Hoop Dreams Come True in Tel Aviv
The show’s date, however, does not yet appear on the singer’s website.
O’Connor, 48, who is known as much for her provocative stunts as for her music, last played in the country in 1995, but her well-received concert was overshadowed by a physical altercation with Israeli paparazzi in Jerusalem’s Old City.
In 1997, the Irish performer announced plans to hold another concert in Jerusalem entitled, “Two Capitals, Two States,” but decided to cancel the show after receiving death threats from extremist Israelis.
Maccabi Tel Aviv point guard Tyrese Rice crashes to the bench courtside, exhausted and drenched in sweat. Around him, cameramen jostle for position to best capture the Euroleague MVP. Rice doesn’t miss a beat, grabs a mic, and leans in to the camera lens.Tens of thousands celebrate gay pride in Tel Aviv
“Tal, mazel tov on your bar mitzvah. This is your special day, you’re the real MVP. Congratulations.”
It’s a little over two weeks after Rice led Maccabi to their sixth Euroleague championship, and here at the end of practice in Tel Aviv, bar mitzvah boys are lining up for video blessings and selfies with the guard, who earlier in the season was a second-string player who seemed in danger of being cut.
Tel Aviv was draped in rainbow colors Friday morning, and many of the city’s streets were closed off as tens of thousands of revelers took part in the annual Gay Pride parade.100 Years of Jewish Archives on Display in NYC
Loud music blasted along the parade’s route, thick with people dancing to the beats and waving rainbow flags. Drag queens wearing heavy makeup, dresses with sequins and high heels bounced along to the music alongside scantily clad men and women.
“I LIVE REQUIRE HELP.”
These four words, sent in a cablegram from Luba Mizne in Warsaw to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in July 1945, perfectly encapsulate the theme of an exhibit opening tomorrow at the New-York Historical Society. Aptly titled “’I Live. Send Help:’ 100 Years of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee,” the exhibit commemorates the aid organization’s 100th anniversary by sharing its diverse collection of photographs, artifacts, film clips, and documents with the public in partnership with the New-York Historical society.
Highlights include a 1940 letter from Albert Einstein to JDC Chairman Edward Warburg, in which he praises the JDC for its work in organizing the evacuation of refugee children from Europe, and a cablegram sent from Henry Morgenthau, U.S. Ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, to Jewish philanthropist Jacob Schiff in New York, requesting assistance for Jews in Palestine at the start of World War I. There’s an audio recording of entertainer Eddie Cantor endorsing the JDC’s work during WWII, and of Alaska Airlines president James Wooten describing his involvement in the JDC-organized evacuation of Jews from Yemen.
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