Tuesday, July 22, 2014
Alan Dershowitz: Death knell for J Street
Any pretense that J Street is a pro-Israel organization has been destroyed by that organization’s refusal to participate in a solidarity rally for Israel during the recent crisis in Gaza.AMP Official Defends Hamas, Praises Israeli Casualties
The Boston Jewish Federation worked hard to create a rally that included all elements of its diverse community. Its goal was to send a single and simple message: at a time when so many in the world are united against Israel’s efforts at defending itself from Hamas rockets and terrorist tunnels, the Boston Jewish community stands in solidarity with the nation state of the Jewish people. In order to assure that this message of unity was sent, no signs were permitted except for the unity message that was intended to be sent. That message was: Stand With Israel. Simple and straight forward.
Speakers were limited to those who were part of the broad Jewish consensus including Rabbis, political and business leaders and the highly regarded head of the Federation, Barry Shrage, whose commitment to peace and the two state solution is well known.
Initially J Street agreed to be a co-sponsor of this unity event, but then—presumably after receiving pressure from its hard left constituency, which is always looking to bash Israel and never to support it—J Street was forced to withdraw its sponsorship. The phony excuse it offered was that the rally offered “no voice for [J Street] concerns about the loss of human life on both sides” and no recognition of the “complexity” of the issues or the need for a “political solution.”
The group American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) does not shy away from its support for the terrorist organization Hamas. The group's National Campus Coordinator, Taher Herzallah, recently posted Palestine TV photos of injured Israeli soldiers and a destroyed tank to his personal Facebook page. The caption for both photos read: "The most beautiful site in my eyes." It appears that this post has been removed.Israeli Christian Leader: 'We Must Unite Against Terror'
Herzallah proudly lists being part of the 'Irvine 11', a group of students arrested after orchestrating a plan to shut down a speech by then-Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren's 2010 speech at UC Irvine, in his biography.
On Monday, The Jewish Press reported on Father Gabriel Nadaf, a leader in Israel's Greek-Orthodox Church, who wrote a letter to various ambassadors stationed in Israel asking they support the IDF during Operation Protective Edge and unite against terrorists to "safeguard the Holy Land."
"Edmond Burke, the 18th century Irish philosopher and political theorist, said, ‘The only thing necessary for evil to win is for good men to do nothing.’ Therefore, we are all brothers in the face of evil, with no regard to religion, race, and faith. The outcry about the atrocities we are crying out together. As the spiritual father of the Israeli Christians Forum, who encourages the recruitment of Israel Christians to the IDF and full integration of Christians into the Israeli society, I would like to turn to you with a plea to support and back Israel, our Holy land, and its defense forces. The country is under fire and our soldiers are fighting against terrorist organizations, whose sole purpose and goal is to destroy the State of Israel."
The Moral Blindness of the World Council of Churches
When it comes to interpreting events in relation to Israel, the World Council of Churches consistently demonstrates a mind-boggling moral blindness as it ignores reality, omits facts, and demonizes the Jewish State.Why Gaza "civilian casualty" numbers should be taken with a grain of salt
On July 11, 2014 – just four days after Israel commenced Operation Protective Edge in response to the dramatic increase in the number of rockets fired from Gaza at civilian targets in Israel – Rev. Dr. Olav Fykse Tveit, the General Secretary of the WCC, issued a document titled, “Concern over Violence in Gaza.”
This declaration begins with the words: “We strongly condemn the indiscriminate attacks by Israeli military on the civilian population in Gaza, as we absolutely condemn the absurd and immoral firing of rockets by militants from Gaza to populated areas in Israel.” This opening line uses the egregiously false allegation of “indiscriminate attacks by Israeli military on the civilian population in Gaza” in an attempt to create a non-existent moral equivalency between the actions of Israel and the actions of Hamas.
These claims are repeated by uncritical journalists on many mainstream news outlets and on social media, where Hamas supporters have been caught frequently posting pictures of injured women and children, often taken during the Syrian civil war or other conflicts and falsely depicted as Gazan victims to elicit sympathy among a public that does not have the tools to verify their authenticity. And Hamas has a very clear policy about who should be identified as a civilian on social media - absolutely anybody killed is to be identified as a civilian. Here is what social media guidelines issued to Gazans by the Hamas Interior Ministry, and translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI), have to say on the subject:Heather Mallick: Israel’s Actions in Gaza Put Canadian Civilians at Risk From Terrorists
"Anyone killed or martyred is to be called a civilian from Gaza or Palestine, before we talk about his status in jihad or his military rank. Don't forget to always add 'innocent civilian' or 'innocent citizen' in your description of those killed in Israeli attacks on Gaza."
There have also been concrete cases uncovered where unequivocal combatants have been identified as civilians. To take one example, the Elder of Ziyon blog recently exposed the case of Yousef Qandil and his son, Anas. They died in an IDF air strike in the Gaza Strip, and were described by the Palestinian news agency Ma'an as a high school student and a tailor - innocent civilians. However, according to Islamic Jihad, Yousef was a leader in its Al-Quds Brigades, and his son was a Mujahid ("holy warrior"). That also explains why Anas was not sent away from the area, to his grandparents' house, like his younger siblings and mother.
Several detailed analyses of the actual casualty figures confirm that, from the demographics alone, it is clear that Israel is definitely not indicriminately targeting Gazans - despite the rhetoric one often hears about the Palestinian casualties.
As intrepid Canadian blogger Richard Klagsbrun observed: “According to The Toronto Star’s Heather Mallick, if Israel doesn’t allow Hamas to bomb their civilian population with impunity, they’re just like the Nazis.” It should be noted that comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy and actions to that of the Nazis fits the European Union’s, U.S. State Department’s, and Canada’s Ottawa Protocol’s working definition of antisemitism.Mondoweiss Welcomed Warmly on NPR
To claim as Mallick does that “… years from now civilians in the West will be slaughtered by terrorists taking revenge for the Gaza bombings” is to suggest that Israeli self defence actions only encourage terror and put innocents in the West, meaning Canada and the US, at risk. Such arguments are not only offensive, but are repugnant and not worthy of publication. By deduction, for Canada to be safe, support for Israel should be withdrawn.
In a practice that has often marred the network's objectivity and professionalism in the past, Gladstone concealed essential background about her guest speaker, Philip Weiss, who has an extensive record of espousing radical, factually flawed claims attacking Israel. He was presented instead as a mainstream, credible expert with no substantive challenge whatsoever given to his statements. Indeed, the NPR host herself embellished and expanded on the skewed line of discussion, instead of giving listeners information they needed to put the speaker's assertions into context.CBC Retracts Scandalous Claim that Majority of Gazans Killed are Children
The format was a chatty conversation between Gladstone and Weiss, whose Mondoweiss blog feverishly lambasts the Jewish state with one-sided and frequently inaccurate charges. An avowed anti-Zionist, Weiss supports the boycott, divestment and sanctions campaign to weaken and dismantle the Jewish state. He and his fellow writers from the hard left are especially incensed that Israel has outspoken defenders, and brand them "Israel firsters" – a favored trope of anti-Semites like David Duke and white supremacist Willis Carto.
Nevertheless, Gladstone introduced Weiss without any indication of his fringe views, calling him simply the "co-editor of Mondoweiss.net." The only hint of the guest's political hue came at the very end of the program when Gladstone noted Weiss brings "a progressive Jewish perspective," an observation that hardly conveyed the nature and extent of his vituperative and unreliable assertions.
Thanks to the keen eye and quick action of HRC subscriber Brian Henry, the CBC has retracted a scandalous claim made by “A Gaza health official” in an online report on July 21 which alleged that of “the more than 500 Palestinians (who) have died in the conflict, most of them are children…”Memo to ABC, SBS: Al-Jazeera has a conflict of interest
As Henry pointed out to CBC editors, the “health official” was “not challenged on this statement in any way, nor is it pointed out that Gaza health workers answer to a govt run by terrorists. Al-Jazeera is keeping a running list of everyone killed in the conflict, including their ages. If you’ll take a glance, you’ll see that the large majority are adults: You’ll also notice that a large majority are men, which gives the lie to the claim that most Palestinian casualties are civilians.”
The integrity of coverage of the current fighting between Hamas and Israel by Australia's national broadcaster, ABC, and its sister organisation SBS, has been compromised by their problematic and repeated use of reports by al-Jazeera, an organisation owned by the government of Qatar.The End of the Liberal Critique of Israel
Biased against Israel in its coverage even at the best of times, al-Jazeera must be seen as having an egregious conflict of interest when it comes to the Israel-Hamas conflict, because Qatar is currently the biggest funding source for Hamas, and, together with Turkey, had been actively shilling a ceasefire plan that transparently serves Hamas' interests.
At this moment it is no longer possible to pretend that the conflict can be wished away by Israeli concessions that would, if implemented, create another 20 Gazas in the West Bank. Nor can one rationally argue that more Israeli forbearance toward Hamas in Gaza and a less vigorous effort to take out its vast system of tunnels shielding its rocket arsenal and terror shock troops would bring the region closer to peace when the only way to give that cause a chance is predicated on the elimination of Hamas.Hamas’ Human Shield Tactic as Reported by Foreign Journalists
If, at some point in the indefinite future, the Palestinians turn on Hamas and its less radical allies and embrace a national identity that is not inextricably linked to Israel’s elimination, perhaps then we can resume the debate about settlements and borders that J Street craves. But until that unlikely event happens, it is imperative that Americans realize that the J Street critique of Israel that is often echoed by some in the Obama administration and throughout the left is over. The only question to be asked today is whether you stand with Israel’s right to defend itself or not. Jews and others who consider themselves friends of the Jewish state must find the courage to speak up for the justice of Israel’s cause in the current crisis against the forces of hate. Viewed from the perspective of the last week’s events here in Israel, anything else is a waste of time.
6. The Japanese daily Mainichi’s correspondent in Gaza reported on 21 July:Is Israel Finally Winning the ‘Hasbara’ Battle?
Hamas criticizes that ‘Israel massacres civilians’. On the other hand, it tries to use evacuating civilians and journalists by stopping them and turning them into ‘human shields,’ counteracting thoroughly with its guerrilla tactics…
Hamas’s “Human Shield” strategy is also aimed at foreign journalists…During the current battle, Hamas’s checkpoint was bombarded, and there was temporary checkpoint at another location. To some 20 journalists who wished to leave, Hamas staff member suddenly told, “Israel closed the checkpoint… However, when I called IDF personnel at the checkpoint, he said that “We haven’t got attacked and we are open as usual…”. While were discussing what to do, the same Hamas staff member shouted, “in 5 minutes Israel seems to conduct an airstrike on here. Return immediately to Gaza!”. All the journalists returned to Gaza by car. But we remembered that Hamas, during the conflict with Israel in November 2012, also closed checkpoints to block outflow.
You can also blame social media, which amplifies the extreme voices on all sides. When was the last time someone shared an article with the recommendation, “Take a look at a sober and balanced article about the Middle East situation that respectively and accurately depicts the complex positions on both sides!!”Israel, you have our support
I am under no illusion that Israel will continue to win the hasbara war—there are already predictions that the weekend’s expanded operation on the heavily populated Gaza City neighborhood of Shejaiya will change the narrative from restraint and self-defense to disproportionality and overreach.
Until then, Israel and its supporters are being shown a fairly clear example of what does and doesn’t work in the court of public opinion: transparent goals, a distinct and ruthless enemy, and, unfortunately, an unmistakable dose of Jewish suffering.
I’m working with the Israel Plan, an NPO media organization, which has been trying to tell the truth of Israel among global Chinese people, now it’s getting popular in China, recently we did a online survey, the poll shows about 91%(1056 people) of those surveyed support Israel, 3% support Palestine, and 5% are neutral. This is not a whole picture of Chinese opinion on Israel, but it reflects many Chinese people’s preference to Israel to some degree.A Letter to the Jewish Nation: Why an Indian stands with Israel
Even though there are still lots of people holding the negative images about Israel as what I had before, but I can see more and more people are inclined to support Israel, most of them are Christians, because the Christians are increasing remarkably in China, I believe if they really found the truth about Israel in the Bible, they will like and love Israel.
In the midst of international circumstance which is not so good to Israel, we, the people who love Israel, strongly support Israel. Israel always has our support. We love Israel and support Israeli protective action.
My real admiration – like that of many other Indians – is not merely based on what you do, but based on who you are.Israel wins supporters around the world
Your scientific temper, your zeal for learning, and your quest for innovation are some of the values that Indians in my generation would like to emulate.
After surviving the most vicious genocide in human history, you opted to create a nation based on democratic values, freedom, equality for people of all faiths and ethnicities. Today, over a million Arabs enjoy equal citizenship rights in Israel and religious freedom never seen before in Middle East. Arab Israelis are active in all fields of society and hold high places in academics, civil & military administration, politics, and cultural life of Israel.
More than 5,000 people than 83 countries around the world have in the last five days photographed their passport along with a caption showing support for Israel scrawled on the palm of their hand, as part of a campaign to show solidarity for the IDF's Operation Protective Edge.Guardian op-ed mocks “claims” of Hamas use of human shields
The Facebook campaign is one of two by StandWithUs - an advocacy group that aims to influence world opinion about Israel. In one campaign, supporters from all over the world were asked to send a picture of them standing next to the flag of Israel with the slogan "I Stand with Israel". In the second, supporters were asked for images of their passports and their hands.
The strap line of a recent Guardian op-ed by Richard Seymour (a blogger at Lenin’s tomb) says it all.Economist: Is it possible to understand why Hamas fires rockets at civilians?
"In a hospital. At the beach. Hamas, Israel tells us, is hiding among civiliansTo Seymour, it seems that these ‘claims’ are all nothing but dishonest Israeli hasbara.
According to Israel, Hamas is cowardly and cynical"
Evidently, Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri was lying when he said the following:
Similarly, the following video of Grad rocket launchers discovered next to a school in Beit Hanoun, Gaza is evidently staged.
Lastly, note that the Economist characterized Hamas rocket attacks – intentional attacks on Israeli civilians which constitute war crimes under international law – as a mere “protest” against Israel.Believe Nothing From The BBC
In reading the Economist’s imputation of reasonableness to Hamas, you’d be forgiven for momentarily forgetting that they’re antisemitic extremist terror group which rejects the existence of the Jewish State within any borders.
The empathy for the terrorist group Hamas – and not merely for innocent Palestinian civilians – displayed by the ‘sophisticated’ Brits at the Economist (as with much of the UK media during the current war) is at times astounding.
For the BBC, the stories coming out of Gaza are shaped to inflame the world against the Jewish State because it is a Jewish state.MSNBC Contributor: Media Is 'Disgustingly Biased' Against Palestinians
Only yesterday I read that the Israeli government warned journalists covering Gaza that they are on their own. Israel cannot guarantee their safety.
Well it’s about time…but why not take the next step and forbid journalists from access altogether? Many are “journalists” in name only. They are enemy combatants.
Instead of guns, they use words. Instead of rockets, they use pictures. They have perfected the “dead baby strategy” to inflame public opinion against Israel.
In particular I am thinking about that British mieskeit who in the midst of Gaza can only find “suffering civilians” but not a single terrorist. The place is crawling with them but this BBC reporter can’t find a single one. The Jews are to blame. That is her story.
When Farrow asked Jebreal, “Why can't American leaders be more honest?” she responded that because of “AIPAC and because of the money behind it and because of Sheldon Adelson and because of all of us in the media,” American political leaders are forced into a pro-Israel stance.Israel’s Lieberman Vows to Prevent Al-Jazeera From Airing in Israel
That’s right. An MSNBC contributor spent over one minute ranting about how American media is “disgustingly biased” against Palestinians. She even called out Andrea Mitchell for all the “air time Netanyahu and his folks have on air on a daily basis” while she has “never see one Palestinian being interviewed on these same issues.”
But as we at NewsBusters have noted, Andrea Mitchell has a history of biased, pro-Palestinian reporting. Despite Jebreal’s claims, Mitchell has invited Palestinian advocates onto her show. On the June 15 edition, she brought Yousef Munayyer of the Jerusalem Fund on to blame Israelis for the violence. (h/t MtTB)
Fellow Ha’aretz correspondent Chemi Shalev elaborated, quoting Lieberman: “Lieberman: Just as Britain wouldn’t allow Der Sturmer (a notorious Nazi publication) from London or the U.S. Al-Qaeda TV from NY, we will work to ban Al-Jazeera from Israel.”Israeli/Hamas Divide Brings Out Best, Worst in Modern Musicians
Lieberman also called the news outlet the “central pillar of the propaganda apparatus of Hamas,” according to Shalev. The station’s Qatari owners are also believed to be funding the terror group, The Algemeiner previously reported.
It is unclear if minister was referring to all Al-Jazeera’s channels or just the Arabic language channel.
Also gaining heavy play on Facebook: “What I find so ironic is that after World War II, everybody said, ‘I don’t understand the Jews. How could they have just gone to their slaughter like that?’ OK, and then when they fight back: ‘I don’t understand the Jews. Why can’t they just go to their slaughter?’ It’s like, ‘You know what? We did that once. It’s not gonna happen again. You’re just gonna have to get used to the fact that Jews now defend themselves.”Gideon Levy Loses Haaretz 100 Subscribers
Maybe Maher can educate his fellow Progressive television host, Jon Stewart of The Daily Show. He recently attacked Israel’s methods of warning Palestinian civilians before an airstrike. Stewart may hide beyond the “comedy” label, but he knows that amongst apathetic Millennials and Generation X’ers, he is regarded as a news source.
He conveniently left out the full extent Israel goes to warn Gaza residents when they are targeting terrorists in their area. Hey Jon, I don’t recall a Hamas suicide bomber advising the Israeli children on a bus or in a pizzeria that he is about to detonate.
While complaints against Levy for his radical stances in his columns are nothing new, many of the canceling subscribers cited a column of his last week as the straw that broke the camel's back. In the column, titled “Lowest deeds from loftiest heights,” Levy slammed Israel Air Force pilots for carrying out their missions to bomb Hamas targets in Gaza.Wash. Post Admits Error Sending Pro-Hamas Reporter to Cover Anti-Israel D.C. Protest
IAF pilots, he wrote, “are the very finest of Israeli youth, destined for greatness... but they are now perpetrating the worst, the cruelest, the most despicable deeds,” in bombing targets IDF intelligence has pegged as terrorist strongholds in Gaza. “Israel’s 'heroic' pilots push buttons and joysticks, battling the weakest and most helpless of people,” he wrote, adding that for the pilots, killing was “fun, like a war game.”
The Washington Post has added a statement acknowledging the paper was in error for sending pro-Hamas reporter Britain Eakin to cover a pro-Hamas protest in Washington, D.C. on Sunday that began at the State Department and proceeded to the White House.Themes in BBC reporting on events in Shuja’iya
Newsbusters’ Tim Graham called out the Post for the egregious breach of journalistic standards in an article published Monday afternoon. Within a few hours the Post added a statement under the byline to the article.
“EDITOR’S NOTE: The Post covered a protest outside the State Department on July 20 against U.S. policy in the Middle East and Israel’s actions in Gaza. One reporter sent to cover the protest, Britain Eakin, is an intern who has written opinion pieces elsewhere that sharply criticize Israel in the conflict. The Post should not have sent her to cover the protest and, had it known of her writings, would not have done so.”
Newsbusters pointed out that Eakin had two articles attacking Israel published in the past week, one at Al Jazeera America: “Israel’s War of Disproportionate Force on Gaza”
The other at Counter Punch: “What’s Needed for Real Peace in Gaza”
Yes, Eakin says that the poor Hamas terrorists are reduced to indiscriminate rocketing of Israeli civilians because they can’t catch a break from the international community. And this is who the Post sends out to cover an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas protest in our nation’s capital.(h/t MtTB)
No terroristsNGO urges UN to condemn ‘global epidemic’ of anti-Semitic incidents
Whilst frequent and ample description is given of IDF “shelling”, “bombardment” and “pounding”, any sort of information at all on the terrorists which the IDF was fighting in the Shuja’iya neighbourhood is extremely rare and any reporting on what those terrorists were doing or what sort of weapons they used is even rarer. That of course means that the overall impression given to BBC audiences – inaccurately and misleadingly – is that the IDF was attacking civilians when in fact those civilians were caught up in a battle between the Israeli army and Hamas’ heavily armed militia.
UN Watch called on UN secretary-general Ban Ki-Moon and high commissioner for human rights Navi Pillay to speak out, citing attacks in several cities, including in Antwerp, Berlin, Boston, Casablanca, Frankfurt, London, Los Angeles, and New York.Jews Must Fight Back Against Anti-Semitism
“Given the global nature of the contagion, it’s vital that we hear the voice of the UN’s leadership and of its human rights officials, including Ms. Pillay and all of the relevant human rights special procedures and treaty bodies,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based human rights group.
UN Watch called on Ban and Pillay to echo the words of the OSCE’s 2004 Berlin Declaration against anti-Semitism, which affirmed that “international developments or political issues, including those in Israel or elsewhere in the Middle East, never justify anti-Semitism.”
It’s important to remember that this isn’t the first time Jews have faced this sort of dilemma. In the late 1940s, in London’s East End, the British Union of Fascists returned to the streets, harassing Jewish businesses and beating up Jews, frequently citing the conflict between the authorities in the British Mandate of Palestine and the Zionist Yishuv as justification.New Yorkers rally in support of Israel
At a meeting of 43 Jews in the area, who later became known as the “43 Group,” it was decided that enough was enough. The result wasn’t pretty. “In October 1947, the 43 Group was attacking an average of 15 outdoor fascist meetings a week, and by whatever means, causing more than half to close down prematurely,” wrote Morris Beckman in his memoir of the 43 Group’s exploits. Those “means” included knives, knuckledusters and bricks. And it worked. By the end of 1949, the fascists had been driven out of east London.
In these dark days, the experience of the 43 Group reminds us that in the not-so-distant past, Jews have refused to accept their lot as passive victims. The challenge now is balancing our respect for the law of the land with our resolve not to allow our synagogues to be burned or ransacked, as they were less than a century ago in Europe.
About 4,000 people, mostly from the local Jewish community, took part in the solidarity protest, chanting pro-Israel slogans and waving Israeli flags, CBS News reported.San Francisco Solidarity with Israel march
“As Israel continues its ground campaign of Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, it is clearer now than ever that there is no room for moral equivalency in this conflict,” Eve Stieglitz, one of the rally’s organizers, said, according to the JP Updates website.
“There is no symmetry between a murderous terrorist organization and a moral and democratic state that is under attack by missiles and tunnels,” she added.
On July 20, San Francisco joined with dozens of other cities around the world, gathering in prayer and in solidarity with our friends, our family in Israel.More Photos and Video from the Solidarity with Israel rally
Meeting at the San Francisco Jewish community center, a march was held to Temple Emanu-El, where a prayer gathering was scheduled
A beautiful, enthusiastic multi-generational group participated.
By popular demand, we'll be posting more photos and videos from Sundays solidarity march for Israel (Thanks to everyone who sent them in)Rabbi Menachem Creditor: Standing strong with Israel
Several months ago, Berkeley's beloved Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Congregation Netivot Shalom had a run-in with "Jewish" anti-Israel protesters. Rather than give in to bitter hatred, it simply strengthened his resolve to continue the fight for our land and our people.San Francisco: The Ugly Face of anti-Israel Protests
Please read this powerful piece by Rabbi Creditor:
From the Huffington Post
Some will call this needless hyperbole. But, having watched in this last week anti-Semitic "die-ins" in Boston, violent assaults against Jews in Los Angeles and Antwerp, and an almost pogrom at a synagogue in Paris, I'm done mincing my own words.
We will do what we must to protect our people. We have that right. We are not less deserving of life and quiet than anyone else.
No more apologies.
As the Jewish community gathered in strength and in unity, mourning our dead and praying for peace, members of the fringe group, Jewish voice for Peace became dismayed by their own irrelevance and invisibility and plotted their revenge.Protesting Palestine, targeting Jews
From an anonymous commenter:
"They strategically positioned themselves in different parts of the large sanctuary and disrupted the speeches and prayers six times, screaming unintelligibly and spitting out ugly accusations at more or less equal intervals, one person at a time, which appeared well orchestrated. They did it, despite the repeated reminders about the sacred nature of the environment, until each one was escorted outside. It was extremely upsetting and some children in the audience looked scared and visibly shaken."
Any group that would interrupt a community at prayer, any group that would deliberately frighten children, and destroy the sanctity of a sacred space deserves ostracism from the mainstream. It is tactics such as these that have made the humorless, self-indulgent activists of JVP an object of scorn and ridicule from coast to coast
CST wrote last week about the danger of anti-Israel protests in the UK involving or encouraging antisemitism, either by targeting British Jews or by featuring antisemitic language and imagery.Anti-Semitic Rallies Held in Cities Across Germany
Since then, several more examples of antisemitic incidents and other activity in relation to anti-Israel protests have been reported to CST:
According to reports, the protesters are largely composed of Muslim immigrants to Germany and neo-Nazi groups.Germany, France, Italy condemn anti-Semitic rallies
In response to the violence and protests in Germany, the president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, Dieter Graumann, cited the “explosion of evil and violent hatred of Jews, which shocks and dismays all of us.”
“We would never in our lives have thought it possible anymore that anti-Semitic views of the nastiest and most primitive kind can be chanted on German streets,” Graumann said.
The foreign ministers of Germany, France and Italy on Tuesday condemned the rise in anti-Semitic protests and violence in their countries over the conflict in Gaza, saying they will do everything possible to combat it.Europe Confronts its Anti-Israel Extremists
“Anti-Semitic rhetoric and hostility against Jews, attacks on people of Jewish belief and synagogues have no place in our societies,” German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier, France’s Laurent Fabius and Italy’s Federica Mogherini said in a joint statement issued in Brussels.
The three said that while they respect demonstrators’ freedom of speech and right to assemble, they will also do everything possible to fight “acts and statements that cross the line to anti-Semitism, racism and xenophobia.”
All of this was just a few notches down from events in Paris and could quickly escalate to comparable levels of anarchy. But the truth is that both the British and French governments have fostered the attitudes that breed such extreme outbursts. The French government has been at the forefront of European efforts to single out Israel’s settlement policy as a uniquely unspeakable crime, and likewise the British government has upheld the narrative that it is Israel’s settlement policy that has sabotaged peace efforts. And when the Commons came to debate the situation in Gaza earlier this week, most parliamentarians began by condemning Hamas rockets before swiftly justifying them as a kind of forgivable response to wicked Israel’s settlement building, a curious position given that the rockets are coming out of Gaza, from which all of Israel’s settlements were removed in 2005. But then this is the prevailing wisdom and indeed the line pushed by the BBC and Agence France-Presse, both state owned, of course.It Was Another "Death to the Jews" Weekend
European governments rightly pour scorn on the rising flames of anti-Semitism that are erupting out of the continent’s anti-Israel fringe, but at what point do these same politicians face up to their own role in fanning these flames and legitimizing the extreme views that give rise to them?
In the back of the crowd, they start burning Israeli flags. Bored Yemeni teenagers peel off to throw stones at a synagogue. The Marxists get into an argument over the Fourth International. Someone begins loudly reading their own self-published poetry through an unauthorized megaphone. ISIS sympathizers fly the black flag of the Jihad over the crowd where it tangles with a Hezbollah flag.Antisemitism flies high again at Sydney rally
Punches and kicks are thrown. Sunnis and Shiites pull each other's beards. "Comrades, comrades," an elderly leftist cries, but no one pays any attention to him. "Revolution," the hipsters yell.
The cops break it up. The crowd turns on the cops. The reporters go home and report none of it except the condemnations of Israel and the police brutality. The Hijabi appears in almost all of the photos where she is described as a Palestinian refugee. The conservative blogs that dig up her Facebook profile and prove that she's a liar are stubbornly ignored by the New York Times, The Daily Mirror and the Sydney Morning Herald.
It's another fine day in the dying West.
Sunday’s anti-Israel rally in Sydney attracted a somewhat smaller crowd than last week’s, but the flags, placards and sentiments were much the same.Windows Smashed in Belfast Synagogue
Flags again dominated the scene – I counted about ten black flags of Jihad, ten yellow flags of Hezbollah, as well as Palestinian flags, and an assortment of national and non-national flags. Conspicuously missing was an Australian flag.
Out of the blue, a brave young woman walked into the crowd flying an Israeli flag. She was about half-way through the crowd before she and the flag were tackled. Police charged in and escorted the woman to safety.
Far beyond simple expressions of support for Gaza and Palestine, and opposition to Israel’s actions, many of the placards descended into anti-Jewish themes.
Windows were smashed at a Belfast, Northern Ireland synagogue on Friday night and Saturday, Jewish community leaders told BBC News, as an upswing in anti-Semitic violence worldwide continues.Boston's Anti-Israel Activists Encourage Bigotry and Support for Terrorism
After a window was smashed Friday night and its replacement smashed again less than 24 hours later, Belfast police are treating the vandalism as a religious hate crime.
Rabbi David Singer told the news outlet the Jewish community had been "left shocked" by the incident.
"I think across the community, first of all, it's very sad that it happened," Rabbi Singer said. "I would imagine that there's a certain amount of anger that it could happen, but angry in the sense of frustration, not angry in the sense that they'd want to do anything about it." (h/t Canadian Otter)
If anything is clear, it is that leftist haters of Israel do not care about human rights. They don’t care about justice- they are bigots. They deliberately target the Jewish state and the Jews worldwide with the hope of driving support into silence.Israel Supporters Attacked By Pro-Palestinian Gang, One Man Injured
Some in the Jewish community have questioned what provokes such a response- there must be something that the pro-Israel crowd did to incite such hatred, right? Wrong. When Israel is forced to take actions, bigots run to the front lines to target the Jewish state and her supporters. Unprovoked.
The hatred of Israel haters knows no bounds and if Boston is any indication, often invokes support for terrorism. These encounters allow the world to see what pure, unadulterated bigotry looks like on full display and the true nature of the opponents of freedom and democracy in the Middle East.
Supporters of Israel were attacked by a pro-Palestinian gang as they peacefully protested yesterday, one man had to be treated at the scene and others complained of intimidation. The protest was organised to counter the enormous rally in London over the weekend by the Palestine Solidarity Campaign (PSC).Leaflets threaten Chicago Jews over Israel in Gaza
Around 6,000 people joined the Zionist Federation outside the Israeli Embassy on Kensington High Street at 2pm yesterday. Whilst they had chosen to stay away from the PSC protest a day earlier, a gang of pro-Palestinians came to the rally with the intention of causing trouble.
One pro-Israeli protester Sandy Rashty said on twitter: "They were quite violent. As I walked past one woman pushed me, called me a bitch. Another grabbed phone out of hand. Police intrvnd."
Another told Breitbart London: "I saw a man with a child being led away, I was told he had been assaulted by the pro-Palestinians.
Leaflets threatening the Jewish community because of Israel’s Gaza operation were found on parked cars in a Chicago neighborhood.'F**K Israel' Pro-Hamas Demonstration in Paris Suburb Turns Violent
The leaflets found Saturday on six cars in the Pulaski Park neighborhood, in the northwestern part of the city, threatened violence if Israel did not pull out of Gaza and end its operation in the coastal strip that began July 8, the Chicago Tribune reported.
Chicago Police opened an investigation and notified the department’s hate crimes unit, according to the newspaper.
For the third time in eight days a pro-Hamas rally in Paris turned anti-Semitic and violent. What began as a protest against Israel actions to eradicate Hamas terrorism from Gaza turned into a rampage with the so-called "Little Jerusalem" neighborhood in working class Sarcelles as the end target for rioters. The area is called "Little Jerusalem" for its large community of Sephardic Jews.Dramatic Footage as Anti-Israel Rioters Clash with French Police
According to the French news website The Local, in addition to the cars and waste bins set on fire, Jewish business were torched, including the Naouri kosher market which was the target of a flash-bang grenade attack in 2012. Rioters also tried to approach a synagogue, before being repelled by riot police.
At least 33 people were arrested for throwing projectiles and assaulting police, according to the Wall Street Journal, and several people were injured in the clashes. Police responded by firing teargas and rubber bullets.Shelly Dadon Recognized as Terror Victim
Apart from fighting with police, extremists also caused considerable damage to property in the area and even managed to briefly storm a police station; at some points rioters can be seen literally tearing up parts of the road to gather chunks of tarmac to hurl at police.
Also on Saturday, anti-Israel rioters once again attacked a synagogue in Paris's Sarcelles neighborhood, hurling a molotov cocktail in a failed attempt to set it alight. The firebomb caused light damage to the building, but attackers did not manage to break into the synagogue after Jewish youths mobilized to protect it, some of them wielding iron bars and other makeshift weapons to fight-off the assault.
The Ministry of Defense finally recognized murdered 20 year-old Shelly Dadon, hy"d, as a victim of terror Monday, over two weeks after an indictment was filed proving that her murder was due to nationalistic motives.Libya: Islamists Behead Construction Worker For Not Being … A Muslim
Dadon's family will receive government assistance due to the decision, as all bereaved families do under Israeli law.
These include psychological assistance, insurance (Bituach Leumi) benefits, and other monetary compensation.
In addition, Dadon will receive official recognition at the annual Memorial Day ceremonies held at the military cemetery on Har Herzl.
“A Filipino male construction worker was beheaded in Libya after he was kidnapped by militiamen, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said on Monday.France raid nets three suspected jihadists
DFA Spokesman Charles Jose revealed at a televised press briefing that the slain Filipino was kidnapped by militiamen in Benghazi on July 15 and demanded ransom.
‘The vehicle that he was riding in was stopped at a checkpoint,’ Jose said. ‘There were three of them – a Libyan, a Pakistani and a Filipino. He was allegedly singled out because he was a non-Muslim,’ said Jose, citing information gathered by the Philippine Embassy in Libya from the Filipino community there.
Two men and a woman have been arrested in a dawn raid in southern France on suspicion of recruiting fighters for Syria and planning attacks at home, police said.Teen Snaps Smiling Selfie at Auschwitz
The suspects were arrested in the city of Albi in a joint raid by the DGSI intelligence agency and RAID, an elite police special operations unit.
Two had returned this spring from three months in Syria and one is suspected of recruiting jihadist fighters, according to preliminary information.
Breanna, a teenage girl known by her Twitter handle @PrincessBMM, caught the ire of the Internet when she posted a smiling selfie from a visit to the Auschwitz concentration camp.Protests Set for Anti-Semitic Opera
Thousands of people responded in shock and disbelief that this girl would be smiling inside a place where millions of Jews were tortured and murdered during World War II. There were others, though, that came to her defense, shrugging it off as no big deal
Jewish groups in New York will be protesting the presentation of an opera called “The Death of Klinghoffer,” which they say is anti-Israel and anti-Semitic. According to a spokesperson for Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), “this opera should be entitled, “The Murder of Klinghoffer.”Poll: Americans Favor Jews, Catholics, and Evangelicals Over Atheists and Muslims
First produced in Brussels and New York in 1991, the opera is based on the hijacking of the passenger liner Achille Lauro by the Palestine Liberation Front in 1985, and the hijackers' murder of wheelchair-bound Jewish-American passenger Leon Klinghoffer. The opera seeks to describe the reasons behind the hijacking, portraying it as an act of desparate liberation on the part of the PLO freedom fighters, AFSI said.
On a scale of 0 to 100, 0 reflecting the coldest and 100 reflecting the warmest, Americans were asked to rate each group on a "feeling thermometer" and the results for most favorable came out almost exactly equal for the three different faiths. Jews topped the list at 63, but were trailed closely by Catholics at 62 and Evangelicals at 61. 44% of the American public rated all three in the "warmest" category.This Computerized Exoskeleton Could Help Millions of People Walk Again
Buddhists, Hindus, and Mormons all received fairly neutral ratings. Mormons stood at 48, just slightly below Buddhists at 53.
Muslims and Atheists got the short end of the stick with Atheists receiving a 41 average rating and Muslims a 40 average rating.
For years, Laureano was hell-bent on finding a way out of his wheelchair. Once he went so far as to hoist himself onto a pair of his neighbor’s crutches, only to crash face-first into an iron gate, knocking out his front teeth. But it wasn’t until 2012 that he found the answer he was looking for. While visiting his doctor at the VA one day in November, he was wheeling himself past the Spinal Cord Damage Research Center, when he saw a contraption he describes as “a robot with sneakers.” It was the ReWalk, a kind of computerized exoskeleton. In January 2013, Laureano joined a clinical trial of the device at the VA, and more than a decade after he was told he would never walk again, he took his first steps. “The day I stood up, I knew I was about to cross the threshold from impossible to possible,” he says. “It was a moment for me.”
Laureano owes that moment in large part to a man named Dr. Amit Goffer, founder of the Israeli company Argo Medical Technologies and inventor of the ReWalk. Dr. Goffer, who is quadriplegic himself, knows how devastating being confined to a wheelchair can be. Which is why in 1998, Dr. Goffer, a biomedical engineer by training, began tinkering with an alternative. Since then, so-called ReWalkers have taken Dr. Goffer’s invention to amazing places. In 2012, a paraplegic woman named Claire Lomas completed the London Marathon wearing a ReWalk. The following spring, former U.S. Army Sergeant Theresa Hannigan demonstrated the ReWalk to President Barack Obama during his trip to Jerusalem. And last fall, Laureano and an army of ReWalkers competed in a one-mile race around New York City’s Riverside Park.
