07/08 Links Pt2: Lumish: Where are the Jewish Riots?; Israel's Moloch Syndrome

From Ian:

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Michael Lumish: Where are the Jewish Riots?

I cannot but help notice the general lack of Jewish rioting.
Three Jewish Israeli kids, including an American, were killed strictly for political reasons.
And, yet, there is no rioting. Jews are not rioting in the streets of Tel Aviv. Jews are not rioting in Jerusalem... or Yerushalayim... if you like. Jews are not rioting in Brooklyn and they are not rioting in Miami.
They are not rioting in Timbuktu nor Walla Walla, Washington.
They are not rioting in Canada nor Australia nor the United States nor England nor Ukraine.

Anti-Israel bloggers assume we hate like they hate — they are wrong

I added Legal Insurrection’s name to the list of pro-Israel blogs and bloggers supporting Elder of Ziyon’s open and unequivocal condemnation of the murder of Mohammed Abu Khdeir.
In a follow up post today, Elder makes points I made this morning in Israeli reaction to murder of teen a sign of Israel’s moral strength.

Israel's Moloch Syndrome

A morally superior society doesn't clamber onto some universalist moral high ground. It isn't infinite restraint in war that makes one society superior to the other. That's a recipe for the eventual extinction of everything that society has to offer, to itself and to the world.
The elements that make one society superior to another are to be found in its culture, its arts and its sciences, in its religious inspirations, its engineering feats, its medical research, its poems and songs, its roots to the past and its vision to the future. A morally superior society protects these things by protecting them against invaders and enemies.
Charity begins at home. So does morality.
A society that is too moral to protect itself is immoral because it is incapable of protecting the sources of its morality.

Truth Revolt's Daniel Mael Debates Anti-Israel Crowd on BBC

On the 4th of July, TruthRevolt writer Daniel Mael appeared on the BBC's World Have Your Say and debated several Palestinian sympathizers including a journalist, a student, and a human rights activist.
Mael started his segment off by speaking of the "collective punishment" by Hamas that is wreaking havoc on Israeli society with the constant barrage of rockets and therefore Palestinian society as Israel is forced to retaliate.
But not only did Mael say that Hamas was a threat to Palestinian society, he added that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas is a threat in his own right. Abbas could barely eke out a condemnation of the kidnapping and subsequent murder of three Jewish children.

San Francisco Protesters Call for 'Intifada' and Death of Children

Footage of an anti-Israel rally shows that the protesters openly called for genocide of Jews and the end of the State of Israel. Protesters chanted "from the river to the sea Palestine will be free" which is normal for anti-Israel rallies. The chant calls for Israel to be annihilated- wiped off of the map between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River.
In even more extreme language, people at the rally chanted "Intifada, Intifada!" which is Arabic of uprising and calls for the death and obliteration of Israeli men, women and children. The Second Intifada, also known as the Palestinian Terror War, saw Israeli buses blown up on a routine basis.
The footage was captured by Sam Levine, Executive Director of Zionist Organization of America West, who noted that the protestors were simply calling for terrorism:

An Almost-Jihadi is Now a Defender of Israel

“I'm ashamed to admit it now,” said Kasim Hafeez, 29, on May 28 in Glendale, “but I was an anti-Semite.”
He was speaking to an audience of about 70, mostly Christians but also some Jews, at the World Outreach and Bible Training Center. The event was organized by the center and the pro-Israel organization StandWithUs.
He told the story of how he, a Muslim born to Pakistani immigrants to Britain, became a supporter of and advocate for Israel.
He now lives in the area of Winnipeg, Canada, where he is going to be doing professional Israel advocacy. In a June 12 news release, B'nai B'rith Canada announced that Hafeez has been appointed the organization's education and community relations officer for its Midwest region.
“I know my upbringing was not unique,” he said. “A lot of young Muslims are brought up with this same idea” about Israel and Jews.

They shout “damn yahood” at me in Sweden

He was subjected to threats and murder attempts in elementary school from other youths. Israel is close to his heart and he has a lot of sagacious things to tell. I have met Jonatan Dominque, one of many Jews in Sweden who intend to leave the country, because they are victims of the growing anti-Semitism in Europe.

Is the United Nations anti-Semitic?

“When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews.” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
In our world of cultural relativism, calling someone anti-Semitic is usually dismissed as beyond the pale. The usual retort is that legitimate criticism of Israel is not anti-Semitism. At the UN, it goes much further. Israel is a nation designated for special treatment, much like South Africa was years ago. Critics use the template of apartheid South Africa for the Jewish state. Because apartheid is beyond the pale of civilized norms, they argue, Israel deserves special treatment. This allows the UN to bypass any legitimate defense of Israel and Zionism. No one can defend apartheid, so it must be destroyed.

Moral distinctions

There is a major moral distinction between the murders of Eyal Yifrah, Gil-Ad Shaer and Naftali Fraenkel and that of Mohammed Abu Khdeir. The difference is that the Palestinian Authority has embraced such mass murderers as heroes and Israel punishes all murderers, whether they murder Arabs or Jews.
A Palestinian Arab terrorist who murders Israelis knows they could have streets named after them, and have Palestinian Arab children be taught to emulate them. In Israel, all murderers are condemned across the board, and are severely punished.
The failure of the world to understand this distinction is exacerbating the conflict.

Bereaved mother offers condolences to slain Arab teen’s family

Rachelle Fraenkel, the mother of slain teen Naftali Fraenkel, offered her condolences Monday evening to the family of 16-year-old Muhammed Abu Khdeir, whose burned body was found in the Jerusalem forest on Wednesday morning after he was apparently murdered by a group of Jewish extremists. Several of six Jewish suspects arrested for Abu Khdeir’s murder reenacted the crime earlier Monday, police said.
“Even in the abyss of mourning for Gil-Ad, Eyal and Naftali, it is difficult for me to describe how distressed we are by the outrage committed in Jerusalem – the shedding of innocent blood in defiance of all morality, of the Torah, of the foundation of the lives of our boys and of all of us in this country,” Fraenkel said.

Murdered Arab's Father Plays Politics with Jewish Teens' Murder

Shmuel Shai Cohen, the grandfather of murdered Israeli teen Gilad Sha'ar hy"d, was interviewed alongside the father of murdered Arab teen Mohammed Abu-Khder on Tuesday on a Voice of Israel public radio show.
Cohen immediately expressed his condolences to Abu Khder, emphasizing that the murder - which has been dubbed a "revenge crime" for Sha'ar's murder, along with two fellow Israeli teens - is unacceptable.
"Vengeance is not acceptable to us," Cohen stated.
Cohen also asked Abu Khder to speak out against the murders of his grandson and two fellow teenagers, Naftali Frenkel (16) and Eyal Yifrah (19), noting that unlike Israel's leaders, who unanimously condemned Abu Khder's murder, some Arab leaders actually lauded the Jewish teens' murder.
"The applause of your leaders have turned a small group of murderers into a nation of murderers," Cohen stated. "Those who applauded this became accomplices to murder."
Hussein, Abu Khder's father, replied evasively that this is a problem of the government of Israel. "The problem is that right-wing government does not want peace," he claimed.
Cohen then asked Abu-Khder to clarify what he meant on his comments, and on the position of Arab leaders supporting the murder of the yeshiva students, only to be told in response that the murderers could have been Jews. .
"Nobody knows who killed them," Abu Khder fired. "You have no proof."
He then rejected the possibility of a joint condolence call between the three Israeli families and the Abu Khder family.

Israel’s Defense Minister Ya’alon: Jewish Murderers Are Terrorists

Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon condemned on Sunday the brutal kidnapping-murder last week of Palestinian teen Muhammed Abu Khdeir by suspected Jewish terrorists, saying the suspects would be treated as severely as Arab terrorists.
“I am embarrassed and horrified at the cruel murder of the young Muhammed Abu Khdeir,” Ya’alon said in a statement posted to his Facebook page on Sunday evening.
“These debased murderers don’t represent the Jewish people or its values, and they must be treated as terrorists,” the defense minister said. “We will not allow Jewish terrorists from our midst to disrupt the fabric of the many different communities in the state of Israel, and to harm innocents just because they are Arabs.”

The Murder of Mohammed Khdeir Was an Act of Treason

The actual larger meaning of the horrendous murder of Mohammed Khdeir will have to await revelations about the thought processes and life choices of the six monsters who committed the crime. They did so out of “revenge” for the kidnapping and killing of the three Jewish boys, that much is clear. But unless we learn they are part of a larger organization that decided to take this action and assigned them the task (which is certainly not impossible though seems unlikely), the only true common factor between what happened to the three Jewish teens and the Palestinian teen is that they were teens killed for “nationalistic” reasons.
What the Israeli barbarians allegedly did was slaughter an innocent, an act that seems to have united the country in revulsion just as the kidnappings united the country in grief and fear.

Israeli reaction to murder of teen a sign of Israel’s moral strength

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyau personally called the family to express his disgust and to promise that the full force of the justice system will be brought to bear.
This reaction from Israeli society is not a sign of weakness, but of strength.
Where was there a similar Palestinian societal soul searching over the murders of the kidnapped teens? Where was the international hand wringing that Palestinian society has gone morally astray?
There will be no such soul searching not just over the murder of the kidnapped Israeli teens, but over the murder of Shelly Dadon.

Michael Lumish: Alexi Has Some Words

You know, every day I ask myself what it is that I want to say and do I have the time to say it?
Sometimes, thankfully, other people provide content. Sometimes they do so intentionally and sometimes I merely steal it.
This is one of those times!
My friend Alexi over at the Elder's joint wrote a comment last week that I have been meaning to get back to, but have simply failed to do so because of other obligations. Upon re-reading the comment this morning I realize that it is the kind of thing that I like to discuss and that is worthy of front page reading at Israel Thrives.

Richard Silverstein Praises Hamas And Endorses Palestinian Terrorism Against Israelis

"Let’s chalk up the gratuitous swipe at Hamas–since that movement appears more disciplined, and consistent than the settlers who dominate Israeli political discourse and their henchmen who murder little Palestinian boys–to Harel’s liberal Zionism. To his inability to acknowledge that Palestinian nationalism that aggressively resists Israeli Occupation is legitimate. That’s his problem, not Hamas’."

One need not wonder too hard what this “aggressive resistance” might entail.

Showing contempt for Jewish donors, the University of Toronto promotes professor at center of antisemitic controversy

A controversial professor at the University of Toronto's Factor-Inwentash School of Social Work, who was at the centre of an anti-Semitic classroom incident, was recently promoted by the University to the shock of many in the Jewish community.
Following the wide exposure of an anti-Semitic classroom "Jew count" facilitated by Rupaleem Bhuyan, then an untenured Assistant Professor with the University of Toronto's Faculty of Social Work, the university was deluged by complaints and concerns from its Jewish donors.
A disturbing 2009 incident involving Bhuyan was originally chronicled in the Journal for the Study of Antisemitism by her then-colleague Professor Ernie Lightman, and has since been described by other faculty at the Factor-Inwentash School. According to these reports, which have not been denied by the University, Bhuyan supported the racism of students who wanted to avoid a visit, as part of their course, to the Baycrest Centre, a highly regarded Jewish geriatric care and research facility. Adrienne Chambon, the Director of PhD Programs at the U of T Faculty of Social Work at the time, recounted that Bhuyan told her, "‘racialized’ students come from underprivileged backgrounds and were justified in not wanting to be around old Jews because they are rich and would make them uneasy. "

Indy TV critic decries attack on free expression by ‘powerful pro-Israel lobby’

In monitoring the UK media’s coverage of Israel and the Jewish world, we’ve previously noted the curious dynamic in which even culture critics (journalists who don’t cover politics or world affairs) manage to adopt the hard left party line on Israel and the perceived power of the ‘Israeli lobby’.
A case in point is a review at the Independent, by TV critic Gerard Gilbert, of the upcoming BBC2 mini-series The Honourable Woman starring Maggie Gyllenhaal. The series centers on “Nessa Stein, the daughter of a murdered Zionist arms dealer who now runs a charitable London organisation seeking a solution to the Israel-Palestine conflict.”
Half-way through the largely positive review, Gilbert adds the following, seemingly out of nowhere:
"The Honourable Woman’s fair-minded take on the savagely divisive Palestinian question would presumably make it nigh-on impossible to get made in America with its powerful pro-Israel lobbies."

NPR's Siegel Fumbles Interview, Allows Errors Against Israel

In contrast, Siegel does not correct Abu Sada when he claims that the airstrikes on Gaza are a response to the kidnapping and murder of Naphtali Frankel, Eyal Yifrach and Gil-Ad Shaar. Nor does Siegel raise the ongoing rocket bombardment of southern Israel for the rest of his interview as he continues to question, for instance, "about the fears of war, that Palestinians in Gaza hope that somebody might do some thing to prevent." He does not ask Abu Sada, for example, what intentions Hamas has or does not have to contain the fire, thereby diminishing the chances of war.
As for the second falsehood, Abu Sada refers to the three murdered Israeli teens as "the Israeli settlers." He repeats the apparently deliberate misidentification three more times later in the interview. In fact, only one of the three teens lived across the Green Line. As reported in Times of Israel:

CAIR Leader Promotes Anti-Semitism in Arabic Tweet

Nihad Awad, the rounder and executive director of the Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR), has learned from his friends in the Palestinian Authority. Last week he wrote two tweets praising the release of convicted Palestinian Islamic Jihad leader Sami Al-Arian, one in Arabic and one in English. The Arabic version used an anti-Semitic meme, blaming the powerful Israeli lobby for the terrorist's imprisonment.

Negotiations Underway to Bring Old Navy to Israel

Another US brand will open stores in Israel this year, according to Globes - this time, popular American clothing chain Old Navy.
According to the economic news site, the Gottex group, led by Joey Schwebel and Hanan Elituv, advanced negotiations to open Old Navy stores in Israel in the near future. Executives from the mega-company, which began as an offshoot of GAP, have already visited Israel and even toured the Gottex-owned IKEA branch in the north.

Top 12 Israeli apps to keep you healthy

Given Israel’s disproportionate success in the fields of medical devices and biotechnology, it is only natural that some of the most exciting health-related mobile and Web applications are coming from Israeli developers.
Some are designed for local use — such as Hadassah Medical Center’s mobile app for scheduling appointments, reviewing lab results and navigating to the center’s two Jerusalem hospitals; and Magen David Adom’s mobile app providing access to medical guidance, safety advice and training videos.
Many others are still in development, such as Sleevely, invented by two Israeli dads to help parents monitor and track their baby’s bottle feedings; and a mental-health app out of Tel Aviv University that detects changes in patients’ behavioral patterns, and then transmits them to professionals in real time.

Russia, Finland pick up Israeli golden oldies reality show

Another Israeli television format has been picked up for global audiences. This latest deal sees The Gran Plan – a factual entertainment format featuring a trio of hilarious grandmas as life coachers for the young and confused – going to Finland and Russia.
Leading commercial Finnish broadcaster MTV3 commissioned the format and has already entered into production in partnership with Banijay Finland. Russia’s REN TV are also currently in production.
The Gran Plan is an original Israeli production produced by Artza Productions in cooperation with Channel 10.

With Israeli tech, talking car tells you joke’s punchline

Kitt, the famous talking car from the TV series Knight Rider, is being brought to “life” by Robin Labs, an Israeli-California start-up that has designed an intelligent voice recognition and communication system for Android devices.
Robin’s technology is designed for to get drivers updates on traffic, routes, parking locations, gas prices, weather, and more. It can even, Company co-founder and CEO Ilya Eckstein says it can even tell jokes.

NBA legend Mutombo, Israelis team up to help Africa

On the basketball court, Dikembe Mutombo was an NBA hero to millions. Off the court, he’s a hero to tens of millions for his humanitarian work. Once he was blocking shots on professional basketball courts. Now, with the help of an Israeli group, he’s helping turn on lights and more at his home court in Africa.
Israel’s Innovation: Africa, which specializes in bringing solar power to the continent, is teaming up with Mutombo to bring electricity to a hospital in his hometown, enabling caregivers to provide help to tens of thousands who currently don’t have access to decent medical care.

Israel nets Magic Johnson visit

Basketball legend Earvin “Magic” Johnson is due to arrive in Israel later this year to take part in the opening of a new sports arena in Jerusalem.
Johnson, 54, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, is scheduled to arrive with other NBA stars on September 4 to attend the inauguration of the Jerusalem Arena, Ynet reported on Tuesday.
The visit was the brainchild of Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat who, together with the Foreign Ministry and the Israeli consulate in New York, arranged with NBA officials for a delegation of 10 active and retired players to play against local team Hapoel Jerusalem. The game is to the be the centerpiece of the opening of the new arena, located in the Malha neighborhood.