Tuesday, August 26, 2014
Exposing Edward Said as academic fraud
In Making David Into Goliath, Joshua Muravchik dissects many of the myths and frauds that Edward Said built up around himself. And yet the myths can never be entirely destroyed because of the crucial role that he played in the alliance between the New Left and Third World nationalists. His ideas helped assign intellectual credibility to the intertwining of two reactionary totalitarian movements struggling to remain relevant by denouncing every newer system of government and thought.Anti-Israel Activist Ali Abunimah Accused of ‘African-Hating’ After Comparing President Obama to White Supremacist
Like many racists, Edward Said’s denunciations of others were really expressions of his own limitations. Said condemned his academic enemies for failing to see the diversity of the east, when it was Said who refused to see the diversity of the west. Edward Said reduced his opponents to crude stereotypes while accusing them of reducing Arabs and Muslims to crude stereotypes.
Edward Said accused his opponents of constructing colonialist myths, but his obsession with Israel led him to promote a colonialist myth in which his imperialist ancestors were the true indigenous people and the Jews, the majority of whom were Middle Eastern refugees, were foreign usurpers.
An outspoken anti-Israel activist has found himself in the cross-hairs after comparing comments made by President Obama to white supremacist rhetoric.Finance Minister Yair Lapid at the dock 17 in Germany (h/t dabney)
Late last week, Ali Abunimah, the founder of the controversial Electronic Intifada blog, tweeted, “When Obama says Israel is in a ‘tough neighborhood,’ he’s echoing the white supremacist rhetoric that justifies the killing of Black men.”
Responding to the tweet in a Facebook post, Dumisani Washington, Director of the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel, said Abunimah was himself guilty of racism.
“In typical Arab supremacist, African-hating fashion, Electronic Intifada founder Ali Abunimah compares ‘Black men’ to genocidal, misogynistic, child slaughtering jihadists like Hamas and Islamic Jihad,” Washington wrote, “Maybe he thought we were too stupid to notice.”
In an email to The Algemeiner Washington added, “Thank you, Mr. Abuminah for proving once again that there is no difference between White supremacists and Arab supremacists – right down to the enslavement and subjugation of Black people. Oh yes, go find your own narrative and stop trying to steal ours.”
Another African-American activist and commentator, Chloé Valdary, also took exception to Abunimah’s assertion.
Describing Abinumah’s comment as “extremely offensive,” Valdary told The Algemeiner, “Unless Abunimah doesn’t think racist bigoted organizations like Hamas and ISIS threaten Jews, he’s essentially justifying Arab supremacism by claiming that its victims are racists.”
“But in the same way blacks were threatened by white supremacists,” Valdary said, “Jews are also threatened by Arab supremacists. Abuminah’s inversion of reality and colonialist revision of history does not change that fact.” (h/t MtTB)
A hate incident by Elon Gold
This past Friday night, instead of having my usual guests for a festive Friday night dinner in my home, I had three compassionate Los Angeles Police Department officers standing in my kitchen explaining the difference between a “hate crime” and a “hate incident.” My family was the victim of the latter."Holocaust in Gaza" Hyperbole
We were walking home in Los Angeles after a Friday night dinner at a friend’s house, dressed nicely for Shabbat, easily identifiable as a Jewish family. We waited for a light to change on a corner of a major intersection when a black Mercedes SUV pulled up alongside us. Four Middle-Eastern men in their 20s were in the car. The one in the back rolled down his window and yelled, “Free Palestine!”
I immediately turned to face them, knowing I was in danger, remembering the rabbi who was gunned down in Miami on his way to synagogue. This was the beginning of either a hate crime or a hate incident, but either way, hate was coming our way. We all know too well that “Free Palestine” means free Palestine from every Jew. As they chant “Free Palestine, from the river to the sea,” that doesn’t mean they want a two-state solution — they want Hitler’s Final Solution and a Jew-free Middle East.
Then this Arab young man opened the car door, stepped onto the street and yelled at me, my wife and four young children: “I hope your children die! Just like you are killing children in Gaza!”
We all stood silently in utter horror and fear.
In such an environment emerged the outrageous paid advertisement appearing in The New York Times National edition on Aug. 23, 2014, bearing the signatures of some 300 individuals wrapping themselves in the mantle of "Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors of the Nazi genocide" and accusing Israel of committing a "massacre" and of ongoing "occupation" and "colonization of historic Palestine."Phyllis Chesler: "Holocaust Victims" Challenge Elie Wiesel
Leave aside for the time being this grotesque abuse of the historical consciousness of the genocide of the Jewish people in order to promote a new campaign to isolate and demonize Jews and set the stage for a repeat of past horrors. It is also instructive to look at the raw numbers of real campaigns of massacre and genocide and contrast them to the situation in Gaza [and the West Bank] in order to comprehend the deceit, the anti-historical mendacity of those who would use the language of mass murder and victimization to promote a new blood libel against the Jewish state and people.
Here are some numbers to digest:
From June 22, 1941 until May 8, 1945, about five and a half million Jews perished as a result of the German-inspired genocide against the Jews. That calculates to 3,890 Jewish children, women and men put to death every single day for 1414 days. This slaughter was in turn a hot spot within a conflagration driven by German supremacism that took 35 million lives in Europe alone, amounting to nearly 25,000 war-related deaths every single day for 1414 days.
Saturday's ad is an open letter by “Jewish survivors and descendants of survivors and victims of Nazi genocide.”Survivors for Hamas – Really?
One signatory is listed as the “spouse of a hidden child;” some are identified as the children of survivors, as child refugees, or as relatives of refugees (who escaped the Holocaust); some are listed as the grandchildren of survivors and refugees, some are described as the great-grandchildren of survivors, and some merely as “relatives” of survivors and of victims.
Three hundred and twenty-seven names are classified in this way. Are these signatories playing the Holocaust trump card too? Do they have Wiesel’s credentials or gravitas?
Who are these signatories? Why do they hesitate to proudly list the name of the organization which has sponsored this ad? To find who that might be, the reader is directed to a mysterious website listed at the bottom of the ad.
Only then will you will learn that the ad has been bought and paid for by IJAN – The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network.
I am reading about certain Holocaust survivors who have grouped together to blame Israel for everything under the sun. To further rub it in, they openly declare their love and pity for the Islamist terror group Hamas. The slander was gladly picked up by the BBC and Britain’s The Guardian, whose headline reads like this: “Holocaust Survivors and their Descendants Accuse Israel of Genocide.”Filling Nasser's shoes
They number around 300 and call themselves the International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network. In published remarks for The New York Times they say, “We must raise our collective voices and use our collective power to bring about an end to all forms of racism, including the ongoing genocide of Palestinian people.”
From what planet does this come?
How does logic get so twisted and how can people who saw unspeakable genocide straight up make such false claims?
Qatar played a role in destroying all these potentates: it hosted the US bases that crushed Saddam in 2003, it supported the Muslim Brothers and Mohammed Morsi in Egypt, it encouraged the rebels in Libya and sought to transform the Syrian civil war into a Sunni jihad.Isi Leibler: Gains and losses of Operation Protective Edge
But Qatar’s outsized role comes up against the balancing factor of Saudi Arabia. Saudi Arabia, the home of the holy sites, has sought not to ruffle feathers in the region, but rather to preserve a certain balance. The Saudi king supported the rise of Sisi and hosted him on a mini-pilgrimage or umrah on August 11. One of the strange outcomes of Qatar’s alliance with Sunni radicals is that the Saudis are now perceived as “moderates” in the region.
Qatar’s bid to become a new Nasserist regional hegemon in the Middle East was probably never going to work, given its tiny size, but its role will continue for years to come. Its enemies won’t welcome its overthrow because that would cast the whole of the Gulf into chaos, and after all, they want the Qatari-supported jihadists to stem the Iranian threat to the region, which after the internal Arab rivalries is always in the background.
Israel cannot claim a military "victory" as long as Hamas remains in Gaza and if the rockets are not soon silenced, Israel may yet be obliged to take further drastic military ground action. Meanwhile the terrorist organization has taken a tremendous battering. Tunnels were demolished, missile sites destroyed, infrastructure severely damaged and key leaders assassinated. The suffering endured by the people of Gaza must impact on their leaders, especially as they may be impelled to hold some sort of election in the not-too-distant future.Protesters Disrupt Chicago Pro-Israel Event
One of Israel's greatest obstacles has been the ambivalence and at times outright negative attitude of our principal ally. At one stage, U.S. President Barack Obama demanded that Israel open Gaza's borders prior to demilitarization, thus presenting Hamas with an outright victory. His moral equivalence, support for the involvement of pro-Hamas Qatar and Turkey in the mediation process, and -- even in the midst of a war -- his threats to limit arms shipments, were incompatible with repeated assertions of "having Israel's back." This behavior encouraged Hamas to believe that with western media support there would be increasing global pressure on Israel to give in to its demands.
On the positive side, for the first time, the bulk of Arabs states are snubbing and even condemning Hamas. Egypt may play a crucial role in the future and could be the key to the ultimate demilitarization of Gaza. It is apparent that Netanyahu's contentious willingness to engage in indirect negotiations with Hamas was motivated by a desire to work in tandem with Egypt.
A “Chicago Stands with Israel” event Thursday featuring speakers like Mayor Rahm Emanuel, Senators Mark Kirk and Dick Durbin, and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren drew more than 600 paying guests, a small group of whom had their own agenda for the evening.UK police curb protests at store with Israeli products
As the speakers addressed the audience, a group of protesters, organized by Jewish Voice for Peace, stood up two at a time, shouting things like “We are Jews, shame on you, end the occupation now.” After they were briskly removed by security, another group of protesters would rise, chanting similar slogans while waving orange banners with words like “Shame.” At least five groups stood up, and by the end event-goers started swatting protesters with napkins and throwing water at them.
Police have halted daily anti-Israel protests in front of a cosmetics store in Manchester, England, that sells Israeli cosmetics.Israeli expat denied service at Florida gas station
The protests at Kedem have been held since the start of Israel’s military operation in Gaza early last month.
Greater Manchester Police have ordered the pro-Palestinian protesters and Israel-supporting counter-protesters to a “designated protest area” nearby, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
An employee at a South Florida gas station allegedly told a customer that she was no longer welcome because she is an Israeli.Anti-Hamas Statement Signed by Hollywood's Brightest Expected to Grow
The Jewish owner of the Shell station said he was looking into the allegations by the customer, a woman originally from Tel Aviv and a resident of Coral Springs for the past 15 years.
The woman told the Coral Springs Talk website that the employee said last week, “You guys are killers and your money is not welcome here.” She thought the employee was the owner.
Nearly 200 of the entertainment industry’s biggest names have signed on to a statement that unequivocally condemns the U.S. government-designated terrorist group Hamas and “ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in [their] charter,” while advocating a “commitment to peace and justice” for Israelis and Palestinians.Uruguayan Communist Party agrees to erase anti-Israel mural
The signature campaign is the work of the Creative Community For Peace (CCFP) “an organization of prominent entertainment industry executives devoted to using art and music to build bridges for peace.”
CCFP board members reached out to actors, comedians, musicians and industry power players to show a “shared commitment” to “Israel's right to defend its people against the terrorist organization known as Hamas as well as empathy for the loss of all innocent lives.”
The Communist Party in the Uruguayan coastal city of Punta del Este agreed to a request by the local Jewish community to remove a mural on a city building accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza.Israeli Industry Leader Urges Europe not to Boycott
Jewish community leaders met met last week with party leaders at the city’s municipal building to discuss the mural painted on the side of a building on a main thoroughfare. The Jewish leaders presented the community’s view about the Israel-Gaza conflict and the implication of the graffiti, and the Communist leaders decided to remove the graffiti.
“STOP: No to the genocide in Gaza,” the mural reads in Spanish. “400 children” also was painted on the wall, which was signed by “Red Ant.”
The head of the Manufacturers' Association of Israel (MAI) has urged his European counterparts not to boycott Israeli businesses, warning that such a move could harm local Arab workers as well, in a letter seen Monday.July Terrorism Stats Show Spike in West Bank Violence
The open letter to European industry leaders comes a week before Israel is due to end exports of poultry and dairy produce from Judea and Samaria to the European Union (EU).
"I am asking for your support and assistance to convince the business community in your country not to use economic means to penalize their fellow Israeli manufacturers and exporters," Zvi Oren wrote in the letter obtained by AFP.
"Such actions can only affect our region in a negative way by loss of jobs and growth on both sides," the letter added, noting the economic damage dealt by such a move on not only Israeli but also Arab employees.
Israel’s internal security agency, the Shin Bet, released statistics for July which revealed a significant spike in violence within the West Bank. Although overshadowed by the terror attacks from Gaza, the increase in the West Bank is troubling.A third of Jerusalem’s light rail cars wrecked by violence
While 2,622 rockets and mortars were fired from Gaza towards Israeli towns and cities in the month of July, there were also 424 attacks reported in the West Bank. This is an almost five-fold increase from the 89 attacks recorded in June. The escalation was particularly noticeable in Jerusalem, which recorded 83 attacks in July, up from only 11 in June.
Lost in the numbers were the 24 rockets fired from Egypt’s Sinai Peninsula by Islamist terrorists sympathetic to Hamas.
The “sharp increase in attacks and riots” in the West Bank and Jerusalem also included 35 IEDs, 13 small arms shootings and 459 firebomb attacks.
Only 15 of the Jerusalem’s light rail’s 23 cars remained in operation as of Tuesday. The public transportation system has faced disruptions as a result of violence that has continued sporadically for two months.Al Qaeda Hostage Peter Curtis Now Safe in Tel Aviv
The light rail has been confronted by frequent occurrences of rock- and firebomb-throwing, damaging many cars and leaving them unfit for use. Several East Jerusalem residents have been arrested during incidents of destruction.
Some stations, including the one in Shuafat in northern Jerusalem, have been damaged multiple times.
Kidnapped American reported Peter Curtis who was held for two years in Syria by Al Qaeda was released to UN peacekeeping forces in the Golan Heights. He is now believed to be safe in Tel Aviv in the care of the American government.Man indicted for aiding accomplice to killers of Israeli teens
Curtis was given a medical check at the United Nations peacekeeping base on the Israel-Syria border and then transported to safety in Israel. He will be debriefed by the F.B.I. before he returns home.
The circumstances surrounding Curtis’ release are unclear, as American policy prohibits paying ransoms to terrorist groups. There are still many hostages, among them Americans, held by various groups. More than 80 journalists have been kidnapped in the past few years in Syria.
A resident of East Jerusalem was charged on Tuesday with aiding the escape of a suspected accomplice in the kidnap and slaying of Israeli teenagers Naftali Fraenkel, Gil-ad Shaar and Eyal Yifrach.Gazans Increasingly Fighting for Islamic State (VIDEO)
The Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office filed an indictment in the Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court for obstruction of justice and harboring a criminal against Wail Karame, a resident of Anata, a Palestinian village on Jerusalem’s northeast municipal boundary.
Despite the conflict raging between Israel and the Palestinian terror group Hamas in Gaza, several Palestinian terrorists from Gaza have been fighting for the Islamic State jihadist group in Iraq and Syria.PA security questions employees of Abbas rival
According to Vocativ, several Palestinians from Rafah, Nuseirat, and Jabalia in Gaza have died fighting for the Islamic State.
Citing Islamic State forums and social media accounts, Vocativ said two of the Gazans who were recently killed were from the Sinai-based al-Qaeda-affiliated terror groups Ansar Beit al-Maqdis and Ansar al-Dawla al-Islamia.
According to the Jordanian Jafra News website, PA security agents are looking at Fayyad’s possible involvement in an alleged coup to overthrow the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank.Gaza’s Christians Brew Illegal Wine in Defiance of Hamas
Two other officials, senior PLO executive committee member Yasser Abed Rabbo and former head of intelligence Tawfiq al Tirawi were also said to face having their bank accounts, personal files, and phone calls “audited.”
Last week Abbas ordered his security services to probe Israeli claims that it had uncovered a Hamas plot to topple him and start a third intifada against Israel.
After Hamas came to power in Gaza 2007, the group quickly instituted a number of new laws, including a ban on the possession of alcohol. Currently, if a person is caught with alcohol, it’s often thrown out. According to Isa, a Christian winemaker living in Gaza, there also might be some form of punishment—but he fears it could be worse for a Muslim than for the Christians.US: UAE bombs Libya Islamists as turmoil deepens
What the punishment will be, Isa doesn’t say. Instead, he and his friend Tony explain they have to speak in code when they want to get together to share the wine, often around Christmas, birthdays, and other excuses for a celebration.
“I just share with trusted persons,” Isa states. “I don’t want to get in trouble with the government.” Isa doesn’t share his wine with Muslim friends for fear of who might inform Hamas.
The bombing raids were first reported by The New York Times, and Islamist forces in Libya had also alleged the strikes had taken place.Marketing Campaign Shows IS's 'Headless West'
“The UAE carried out those strikes,” one American official told AFP on condition of anonymity.
Asked about the account, a senior US official said “the report is accurate.”
The United States did not take part or provide any assistance in the bombing raids, said the two officials, who could not confirm that Egypt and the UAE had left Washington totally in the dark about the attacks.
A campaign has been launched showing national and international monuments without their heads, as a symbolic take on the IS trademark for executions.Details emerge of IS killing of 670 Shiite prisoners in Mosul
On Tuesday, Arutz Sheva spoke to Israeli publicist Gil Samsonov, who is behind the entire campaign, to gain insight on the marketing strategy.
Samsonov notes at the outset that the current campaign is a continuation of a campaign that began last month, in which the monuments were drawn with Iron Dome defense systems and missiles.
This was a subdued campaign, with no blood, but the message shines through," he said. "The effect is very strong."
The UN mission in Iraq has also verified reports of a massacre of prisoners and detainees from Mosul’s Badoush Prison on June 10, she said. Interviews with 20 survivors and 16 witnesses described Islamic State gunmen loading between 1,000 and 1,500 prisoners onto trucks and driving them to a nearby uninhabited area. Armed men told the Sunnis to separate themselves from the others.Labour MP: British Muslims Are Doing 'Humanitarian Work' in Iraq/Syria, Joining ISIS No Different to Joining Israeli Army
According to the accounts, gunmen then yelled insults at the remaining prisoners, lined them up in four rows, ordered them to kneel and opened fire, reportedly killing up to 670 prisoners.
“Such cold-blooded, systematic and intentional killings of civilians, after singling them out for their religious affiliation may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Pillay said.
Labour Member of Parliament Yasmin Qureshi has caused outrage after comparing the idea of young British Muslims joining ISIS to the idea of young Jewish Britons joining the Israel Defence Forces.Iran becomes first country to arm Kurds
Qureshi, who has previously had to apologise for offence caused by comparing the situation in Gaza to the Holocaust, also claimed that most British Muslims going to Iraq and Syria were going for "humanitarian reasons" in a bizarre Sky News interview yesterday.
“The Islamic Republic of Iran was the first state to help us … and it provided us with weapons and equipment,” Barazani said at a joint news conference with Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif.As Hamas shoots Iranian missiles, Germans plan mission to Tehran
Militants led by the Islamic State (IS) jihadist group launched a major offensive in June that overran large areas of Iraq, and began a renewed push earlier this month that saw Kurdish forces pushed back towards their regional capital of Irbil.
The Kurdish setbacks sparked a campaign of US air strikes in northern Iraq and an international effort to provide them with arms and ammunition, and they have since managed to claw back some territory from the militants.
The German Near and Middle East Association, or NUMOV, as it is known by its German acronym, backed by high level German businessmen and politicians, is planning a trade mission to Iran in December. With Iran’s continued nuclear activities, its human rights abuses, and its current missile support for Hamas during its attacks on Israel, Jewish and human rights activists are furious.Thugs rough-up Jewish couple, drive off flying Palestinian flags
NUMOV is on the forefront of those pushing for German trade with Iran. NUMOV CEO Helene Rang said is a recent interview, “German companies will have to act fast and seize the lucrative opportunities offered by the market” on July 18 in Deutsche Welle.
Following its December 6 delegation of German entrepreneurs to Iran, NUMOV predicts Iran “could emerge as the greatest market in the Middle East…The purpose of the delegation’s trip is to initiate new business contacts and serve to deepen the preexisting economic relations [between Germany and Iran].”
A gang of anti-Semitic thugs roughed up a Jewish man and his wife on the Upper East Side on Monday evening before fleeing in cars flying Palestinian flags, police sources told The Post.Eccentric ‘Jewish’ soccer star Mario Balotelli joins Liverpool
Two cars and multiple motorcycles pulled up to the couple on East 63rd Street near Third Avenue just after 8 p.m., and the assailants began yelling “anti-Jewish statements,” the sources said.
One of the goons threw a water bottle that hit the wife, and the 27-year-old husband was punched in the side of his head when he came to her defense, according to law enforcement sources.
Police sources said the creeps then raced back to their waiting vehicles, some of which bore Palestinian flags, and took off.
Liverpool signed Italy striker Mario Balotelli from AC Milan for 16 million pounds ($26.5 million) on Monday, taking a calculated gamble on a headline-grabbing player known as much for his controversies as his goals.Israeli tech beats out biggest pen kid on the block
“I’m happy to be back because I left England and it was a mistake,” Balotelli said. “I wanted to go to Italy but I realized it was a mistake.”
Balotelli was raised by a Jewish Italian foster mother from the age of three. Born Mario Barwuah to immigrants from Ghana in Palermo, he publicly and memorably embraced his foster mother, Silvia Balotelli, after scoring the goals in a win over Germany which secured Italy a place in the Euro 2012 finals (where Italy lost 4-0 to Spain).
Israel’s N-Trig has scored a major victory over a veteran competitor in the pen technology business, an item that is rising from the virtual dead. Microsoft has decided to use N-Trig’s pen technology for its new Surface Pro 3 tablets, taking over from Wacom, one of the world’s biggest makers of pen devices and graphic tablet technology.Revolutionary stem-cell ALS treatment begins advanced trials
Japan-based Wacom is a veteran in the pen and touch arena, producing graphic tablets and electronic stylus devices, known in the business as electronic pens, for over three decades. The company has 80% of the world market for graphics tablets and related products – so the “incursion” of N-Trig into what had been an ongoing partnership between Wacom and Microsoft is a significant win for the Israeli company.
As the Ice Bucket Challenge raises millions for research into amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), an Israeli treatment to ease symptoms and slow the progression of ALS and other incurable neuromuscular diseases is going into Phase 2 clinical trials in three major US medical centers.Steve Wozniak Speaking to Hillel Fuld about His First trip to Israel, the Startup Nation (h/t Yoel)
Petah Tikva-based BrainStorm Cell Therapeutics’ NurOwn platform is based on a technique developed by Profs. Daniel Offen and Eldad Melamed at Tel Aviv University for growing and enhancing stem cells harvested from patients’ own bone marrow. The enhanced cells secrete elevated levels of nerve-growth factors that protect existing motor neurons, promote motor neuron growth and reestablish nerve-muscle interaction.
Last June, the publicly traded BrainStorm raised $10.5 million in private investments, and in July it was notified of the allowance of its US patent application.
