Thursday, September 11, 2014
Yale Students 'Disrespected' That Ayaan Hirsi Ali Is Speaking On Campus
The Muslim Students Association at Yale University has written a letter expressing concern that the William F. Buckley, Jr. Program on campus is hosting women’s rights activist Ayaan Hirsi Ali to speak about Islam. The Somali-born Hirsi Ali is an outspoken critic of organized religion, specifically Islam, which was used as justification for genital mutilation and attempting forced marriage.Anti-Israel Group Plots Secret BDS Vote
In an email obtained exclusively by TruthRevolt, Abrar Omeish, an MSA board member, asks for campus organizations to stand against Hirsi Ali’s proposed talk. Hirsi Ali is “a speaker who is very well known for her hateful comments towards marginalized groups, especially the Muslim community. It is making many Muslims on campus feel unwelcome and uncomfortable,” she wrote.
“We would like to point out though that her main source of fame - or, rather, infamy - has been her inflammatory comments about Islam and its followers. Not only are these comments hateful, but they are also very hurtful to the Muslim community, particularly to Muslim students at Yale,” she continued.
Through its efforts, the MSA managed to recruit 35 other campus groups and student organizations to stand against Hirsi Ali's talk because she "is being invited to speak as an authority on Islam despite the fact that she does not hold the credentials to do so." Hirsi Ali is scheduled to to give a lecture titled “Clash of Civilizations: Islam and the West” on Monday September 15th.
Anti-Israel activists at the City University of New York (CUNY) have launched a stealth campaign to pass a student government measure boycotting Israel during a meeting scheduled for tomorrow evening during the Jewish Sabbath, when observant Jews could not attend, according to sources aware of the situation.The court’s in session
Pro-Israel student activists and others accuse CUNY’s Doctoral Students’ Council (DSC) of intentionally trying to silence opposition to the measure by holding the vote at a day and time not amenable to many who would speak out against the divestment resolution.
The vote was quietly publicized earlier this week only among its supporters, spurring accusations that the DSC is attempting to ram through the divestment measure without input from pro-Israel voices, according to sources who were only made aware of the situation after an internal DSC email about the vote was leaked.
The DSC, a student body group that claims to represent popular opinion, first informed its members of the upcoming vote last Friday, Sept. 5, according to a copy of the email message obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.
Dominique Nisperos, the DSC’s co-chair for communications, informed members that no materials about the resolution would be handed out, a decision that has raised concerns among critics.
The UNHRC is occupied territory.Hillel Neuer: "Imagine rockets fired at your countries' airports; how would you react?"
It is controlled by corrupt third world regimes who abuse its platform to promote their self-serving and hypocritical agendas. They have no historical right to this territory.
Their traditions don’t embrace human rights. They don’t speak its language.
For its own sake, the Council must be liberated by the leaders of the free world so it can fulfill the mission for which it was created. Gross violations of human rights go uninvestigated and unpunished because these corrupt bigots have hijacked and continue to occupy the body created by the international community to protect and enhance human rights.
I’m not a lawyer and even I see through this transparent and flagrant abuse of authority to promote the UNHRC’s warped political agenda.
This is not a Commission of Inquiry created in good faith but a charade intended to stage a show trial for the sole purpose of discrediting Israel.
By its actions, the UNHCR bestows its blessing on the tidal wave of anti-Semitism currently sweeping streets and campuses around the world. It is complicit in the movement to demonize and delegitimize Israel with a view to creating the public opinion to justify Israel’s annihilation.
Cruz Headlines Conference Featuring Hezbollah Supporters
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) is headlining a conference on Wednesday funded by a controversial Clinton donor that will feature pro-Hezbollah and pro-Assad speakers in Washington, D.C.Has Pro-Christian Conference Been Hijacked by Pro-Iran/Hezbollah Dhimmis?
The “In Defense of Christians” summit is a gathering of Middle Eastern Christian leaders that seeks to raise awareness about the threats to Arab minorities from ISIL.
However, critics fear several of the speakers will try to use the event to bolster Washington’s support for the Syrian regime in its ongoing civil war and help Bashar al-Assad restore his legitimacy and power.
The roster of speakers includes some of the Assad regime’s most vocal Christian supporters, as well as religious leaders allied with the Iranian-backed terrorist group Hezbollah.
Funding for the conference was provided by Clinton donor and Lebanese-Nigerian billionaire Gilbert Chagoury, according to organizers. The wealthy businessman pledged $1 billion to the Clinton Global Initiative in 2009.
Chagoury is also reportedly backer of Lebanese politician Michel Aoun, Hezbollah’s top Christian ally in the country, according to U.S. diplomatic cables published by WikiLeaks.
A group of Christian activists in the United States is warning that an upcoming summit about Christianity in the Middle East is not what it appears to be.Ted Cruz Booed Off Stage At Middle East Christian Conference
The summit, organized by a newly formed group called “In Defense of Christians,” may look like a pro-Christian conference intended to promote the cause of religious freedom in the Middle East.
But according to some, the event organizers are using massacres and expulsions of Christians and Yazidis by Sunni extremists in Syria and Iraq in order to promote the interests of Iran and its Mideast clients – the Assad regime in Syria and Hezbollah in Lebanon.
This warning has been offered by the Middle East Christian Committee (MECHRIC), a consortium of activists from the Assyrian, Syriac, Chaldead, Maronite, Coptic, and Melkite groups in the United States.
Cruz was not reading from a teleprompter, nor did he appear to be reading from notes.Sen. Cruz booed at In Defense of Christians Dinner
“Religious bigotry is a cancer with many manifestations,” he continued. “ISIS, al-Qaida, Hezbollah, Hamas, state sponsors like Syria and Iran, are all engaged in a vicious genocidal campaign to destroy religious minorities in the Middle East. Sometimes we are told not to loop these groups together, that we have to understand their so called nuances and differences. But we shouldn’t try to parse different manifestations of evil that are on a murderous rampage through the region. Hate is hate, and murder is murder. Our purpose here tonight is to highlight a terrible injustice, a humanitarian crisis.”
“Christians have no greater ally than Israel,” he said, at which point members of the crowd began to yell “stop it” and booed him.
Ted Cruz Stands Up to ‘Hatred and Bigotry’ at Conference of Middle Eastern Christians
Sen. Ted Cruz (R., Texas) said in an interview with the Washington Free Beacon that the “hatred and bigotry” he encountered when he was booed off the stage at a Middle Eastern Christian conference for defending Israel on Wednesday night was like nothing he has previously seen in his political career.You can't win with B'Tselem
“I’ve certainly encountered audiences that disagreed with a particular point of view. But this virulent display of hatred and bigotry was remarkable, and considerably different from anything I’ve previously encountered,” Cruz said, just a few hours after his pro-Israel speech to the In Defense of Christians conference was drowned out by shouts and jeers from the audience.
The senator was booed off stage at the conference, which is aimed at raising awareness for the persecution of Middle Eastern Christians, after saying that Christians “have no greater ally than Israel” and calling on the audience to support the Jewish state.
“The division and anti-Semitism expressed tonight by some of the crowd is not reflective of the teachings of Christ, and is in fact directly contrary to the tenets of Christianity,” Cruz said.
Chief Military Advocate General Maj. Gen. Danny Efroni said the Israel Defense Forces would investigate the alleged crimes that Israeli troops committed during Operation Protective Edge. Who was the first to dismiss this move and ignore the fact that the Military Police was already investigating two criminal cases? Human rights group B'Tselem. How surprising. This organization, whose director, Hagai El-Ad, has essentially become a Hamas apologist by refusing to call it a terrorist group, is convinced the IDF is at fault. He called the new probe a cover-up.'Even if Spiderman headed the probe, Israel would object'
By assuming this posture, B'Tselem says that the U.N. panel that was appointed to investigate the operation is more credible than the IDF investigators. This, despite its anti-Israeli chairman, William Schabas. In fact, B'Tselem has not come out against Schabas in any discernible way.
B'Tselem is one of the senior members of an anti-IDF coalition. Its members include Haaretz contributors. When Gideon Levy, a columnist at the paper, penned a piece that criticized Israeli Air Force pilots ("Lowest Deeds from Loftiest Heights"), many readers said they would end their subscription. Another Haaretz reporter, Amira Hass, recently wrote that Hamas would be wise to reject Israel's demands during the Cairo cease-fire talks.
Professor William Schabas, who is leading the U.N. commission of inquiry into Operation Protective Edge, told London-based Arabic-language newspaper Asharq Al-Awsat on Wednesday that he will not step down from the position despite complaints of his reported anti-Israel bias.The UN is Unworthy of Shining Israel's Shoes
"I will not resign unless the [U.N. Human Rights Council] considers my presence as head of the committee to be a hindrance to the investigation," Schabas told the newspaper.
Schabas went on to say the he feels anyone leading the commission would be criticized for anti-Israel bias. “Even if Spiderman was heading the probe, they would’ve attacked him," he said.
"I don't hate Israel and I do not want to enter into an argument on my previous stances on Israel."
So the United Nations has launched another legal and political blood libel against the State of Israel, its officials and citizens-soldiers, this time for the war of defense in Gaza.Brigitte Gabriel keynote speaker at United Nations
It is amazing to observe the moral presumption and ideological arrogance of the world's most absurd organization.
An organization whose "blue helmets" not only drank champagne while in Bosnia people were killing each other, but also sexually abused children around the world, from Cambodia to Kenya.An organization which asked Iran to head its department against death penalty.
An organization which allowed Saudi Arabia to lead the global fight against female discrimination.
An organization which basically stated that genocide in Darfur is part of global warming.
An organization whose officials compared Jews to dogs (Richard Falk docet).
An organization whose schools shelter Hamas rockets and terrorists.
An organization which has always been deaf and blind on the Israeli Jews' suffering and is now hunting not only the "settlers", but also the Israelis in the Tel Aviv coastal area.
NGO Monitor: ‘Breaking the Silence’ and Gaza
The shooting war in Gaza was again accompanied by a massive political and media attack against Israel, with accusations of “war crimes” and “human rights violations” in parallel to the barrages of rockets and missiles.AJC Transatlantic Institute shocked as Members of the EU Parliament are encouraged to call Israel’s actions “Holocaust”
The weapons and soldiers in the political war are led by the Palestinian and Arab propaganda machine and reinforced by their sympathizers in the media.
In addition, a small but visible number of disgruntled Israelis, with access to a great deal of money, provide an important fig-leaf of legitimacy. Under the guise of human rights groups and non-governmental organizations (NGOs), they use the façade of moral principles to promote a highly immoral and blatantly anti-Israel agenda, based on double standards and lies.
Among the most active is an NGO calling itself “Breaking the Silence” – supposedly highlighting “the silence” of ordinary Israelis regarding the many “crimes” of the government and army.
As IDF soldiers in Gaza were defending Israel, Breaking the Silence mounted its own blitz. The group’s leaders published no less than 10 attacks on the IDF in leading newspapers in Europe and elsewhere around the world, accusing the IDF of “collective punishment,” causing “unreasonable harm to Gazan civilians,” and “functioning as executioners who have lost respect for human life.”
For example, Idan Barir published an article in The Telegraph, “Israel’s shelling of Gaza is a vast game of Russian roulette.” He blamed Israel for seeking to “frighten and disorient the civilian population” while alleging, in direct opposition to the evidence, that the attacks in Gaza “were not motivated by any specific intelligence information.” Instead, the war in Gaza was designed to punish innocent Palestinians.
The AJC Transatlantic Institute is shocked that a panelist invited by the EU Parliament Human Rights Subcommittee encouraged MEP’s to call Israel’s actions in Gaza “Holocaust”Evaluating Mahmoud Abbas - And How to Relate to Him
“Comparing Israel’s self defense in Gaza to the Nazi genocide of six million Jews is an obvious and enormous historical falsehood that belittles the real Holocaust and its real victims and demonizes the Jewish state,” said AJC Transatlantic Institute Director Daniel Schwammenthal. “It thus fits the 2005 working definition of anti-Semitism of the European Union Monitoring Centre on Racism and Xenophobia, now called the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. It is disappointing that the Committee Chair Elena Valenciano Martinez-Orozco failed to challenge such an outrage.”
At the hearing, Nurit Peled, an Israeli professor of linguistics, said: “Will anyone remember the day the Holocaust of Gaza had begun, or had reached its peak? I doubt it.” She added: “I am a linguist, and therefore very conscious of the power of words. I know that I have just said ‘Holocaust’ – and so it is.”
Peled, who in 2001 received the Sakharov Prize, the European Parliament’s award intended to “honour exceptional individuals who combat intolerance, fanaticism and oppression,” urged parliamentarians to also use the term “Holocaust” to describe Israel’s actions in Gaza.
“So until someone comes up with a better term that suits exactly these atrocities, this is the term I suggest we use, with all its connotations of racism, cruelty and the indifference of the world,” Peled said.
“The fact that this statement was made by an Israeli does not in any way alter, let alone justify, the vile essence of her comments,” Schwammenthal said. “It is irresponsible – and ironic – that a linguist would encourage such flagrant misuse of the word ‘Holocaust.’”
While a few Members of Parliament said Peled’s statement was “inappropriate,” the AJC Transatlantic Institute urges the Chair, Ms. Valenciano, to publicly condemn and distance herself from this outrageous comparison. “Neither the children in Gaza nor in Israel are served by allowing anti-Semitism to be expressed in the European Parliament,” Schwammenthal said.
Everything has now gone wrong for Abbas. The destruction in Gaza matches the destruction of the Second Intifada, precisely what Abbas deplored in respect of Arafat. Hamas exploited the formation of the unity government for a scheme to overthrow Abbas in the West Bank. Haniyeh is projected to defeat him by 61% to 32% in the upcoming election for the Palestinian presidency.Hamas may break taboo and seek to negotiate with Israel, leader says
Israeli politicians who propose to renew peace negotiations, with Abbas or whomever, are advised to make two basic stipulations. First, that Israel will negotiate only with a Palestinian government that officially recognizes its obligation to demilitarize Gaza. Second, that no agreements can be signed until the Palestinians hold the projected elections for their parliament and presidency -- and the outcome is known.
Moussa Abu Marzouk, deputy head of Hamas’s political bureau, told Palestinian Al-Quds TV on Wednesday that Hamas may be forced to negotiate with Israel, since the vast majority of Gaza Strip residents demand it.Australia, EU slam Israel's declaration of 4000 dunams in West Bank as state land
“From the point of view of Sharia (Islamic law), nothing prevents negotiations with the occupation. Just as you negotiate with it using weapons, you can negotiate using words,” Abu Marzouk said. “I believe that if things continue as they are now, Hamas may not have a choice. I say this in all honesty, [negotiations] have become a quasi-popular demand at the moment among all people in the Gaza Strip. Hamas may find itself forced to adopt this policy.”
Abu Marzouk noticeably struggled to articulate his movement’s new position, a reversal of earlier stances which forbade direct contact with Jerusalem.
“When the basic rights of the residents of Gaza become a burden for our brothers in the PA and the government to such an extent, policies which used to be almost taboo for the [Hamas] movement could become part of its agenda.”
Australian Foreign Minister Julie Bishop, meanwhile, issued a statement saying that in a conversation with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman on Monday, she said that Australia was “deeply concerned” by the Gush Etzion move, which she described as taking place “south of Bethlehem.”Lapid quoted bogus Saudi pro-Israel statement as fact
“The expropriation undermines prospects for a negotiated two-state solution, with Israel and a Palestinian state existing side-by-side in peace and security, within internationally recognized borders – a goal to which Australia remains committed,” she said.
Bishop said that the announcement “is unhelpful so soon after the Gaza conflict,” and called on Israel to reconsider the decision.
What makes Bishop’s statement stand-out from the other somewhat rote and automatic condemnations that continue to come from the US and Europe is that in June, Australia said it would no longer describe east Jerusalem as “occupied territory”: in January, Bishop took issue with calling the settlements illegal; and in November, Australia abstained on two annual anti-Israel resolutions at the UN, one calling for an end to all settlement activities.
Advocating normalization with the Arab world in his speech, Lapid on Monday reiterated his call for a regional conference on the future of Gaza to be attended by Israel, the Palestinian Authority and several Arab states, among them Saudi Arabia.It' s Time for Zionists to Become Offensive
“A solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] will include strict security arrangements as well as normalization and cooperation with the moderate Arab states including Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States,” Lapid said at the World Summit on Counter-Terrorism.
“Anyone who thinks this vision is too ambitious is invited to read what the foreign minister of Saudi Arabia, Saud Al-Faisal, said in Jeddah on August 21,” he continued. “At the height of the fighting in Gaza he called for coexistence with Israel, condemned hatred for the Jewish state and placed the responsibility for the war on Hamas.”
But several academic experts and Israeli officials, including a veteran policy analyst who has been covering the Gulf region for decades, told The Times of Israel that the Saudi foreign minister had never made any such statement in public.
“The statement Lapid quoted never occurred,” an Israeli official said, insisting on anonymity lest he be seen as attacking the minister.
“I looked for this statement and couldn’t find anything. It never happened,” said Joseph Mann, an expert on Saudi Arabia at Bar-Ilan University.
Similarly, we need to start pointedly asking: What do the Arabs even mean by “Palestine”? When they founded the Palestine Libration Organization in 1964, to “liberate Palestine,” what “Palestine” were they “liberating”? Fifty years’ history demonstrates that Gaza, then in Egyptian hands in 1964, never was the target during Olympic Games attacks. Judea and Samaria, then under Jordanian occupation, never was the target of bus bombings. We need to point to the three logo depictions – those pictures worth three thousand words – and to 1964, and we need to start advertising those pictures and explaining what 1964 means. “Palestine” — for every “Palestinian” group, organization, and association, whether overtly terrorist or seemingly passive — means Tel Aviv and Haifa, not Jenin and Khan Younis. It is time for us to ask – on T-shirts, at soirees, even at the beginning of every speech: “What ‘Palestine’ was the Palestine Liberation Organization planning to liberate when the P.L.O. was founded in 1964?”Israeli band is a Zionist plot to steal Arab music, says Palestinian
It Is Time for Zionism to be Offensive. It is time to stop “giving them the ball” and playing sixty minutes in desperate pursuit of their fumble or interception. For those who hate us and find Zionism offensive, maybe it is time that we Zionists finally became offensive and went on the offensive.
A Beirut-based Palestinian writer said Thursday that a project by an Israeli band to perform songs by Arabic diva Fairouz in Hebrew is a Zionist and Jewish plot to plunder Lebanese culture.Joan Rivers got death threats, hired bodyguard after pro-Israel comments
Writing in the Lebanese outlet Al Akhbar, known for its staunch anti-Israel and pro-Hezbollah stance, Abdul Rahmam Jasem accused Israeli band Turquoise of profiting from the Arab world’s artistic and cultural heritage.
Dubbed the “Jewel of Lebanon”, Fairuz is considered one of the most respected singers in the Arab world.
Singer Dalit Friedman and guitarist Oren Eliezri created Turquoise in 2012 to produce an EP of Fairouz’s songs in Hebrew. They say they have translated Fairuz’s hits like Sa'alouni El Nas (“The People Asked Me”) in part to share the Lebanese singer’s works with an Israeli audience.
Late comedienne Joan Rivers was forced to hire a bodyguard in the last weeks of her life after she received death threats in response to pro-Israel comments she made during Operation Protective Edge, according to The Hollywood Reporter.AIPAC Active on Anti-BDS Legislation
Blaine Trump, a personal friend of the Jewish comic, told the paper that a TMZ report which captured her remarks on the Gaza conflict in late July made Rivers fear for her safety.
“When she came out and said Israel had every right to bomb Hamas, the death threats started rolling in,” Trump told the Reporter.
Get ready for a new round of accusations that the Israel lobby stifling debate.British ministers emphasize condemnation of anti-Semitism
According to a report on the popular website Buzzfeed, the Israel lobby group, AIPAC is helping draft legislation to limit the effectiveness of the BDS in the US and Europe.
A source told Buzzfeed that the legislation would place anti-BDS conditions on the U.S.-EU free trade agreement, deny federal contracts to American companies participating in the boycott, and authorize state governments to divest from companies involved in BDS.
“In effect, it’s a boycott of those who boycott,” the source said. “It applies the successes we learned from Iran sanctions and applies them to those who seek Israel’s political destruction.”
A different type of legislation aimed at barring colleges that boycott Israel from receiving state funding failed to attract support in New York and other states earlier this year. Opponents of the measure argued that the laws constituted a violation of free speech.
In an unprecedented display of coordinated government messaging on condemnation of anti-Semitism, no less than five senior cabinet ministers have given similar statements in a 24-hour period.Senior British MP: BDS Just Like Nazi Boycotts Against Jews
Home Secretary Theresa May told the Conservative Friends of Israel’s summer reception in Parliament that she found it “shameful” that the prevention of anti-Semitism both in the UK and across Europe still had to be addressed.
Having just met a number of government MPs each of whom had sizable Jewish constituencies, she said she was “appalled” by the concerns expressed by the MPs. May had also read recent reports from the protective organization Community Security Trust which indicated a steep rise in anti-Semitic attacks.
“Accounts of Jewish people being verbally abused on the streets, placards displaying loathsome threats, bricks being thrown through the windows of synagogues are like any form of hate crime – abhorrent and unacceptable,” she said, adding she had also noted that in a straw poll conducted by the Jewish Chronicle, 63 percent of Jewish people in North London were questioning their future in the UK amid the rise of anti-Semitic attacks.
Speaking at the Holocaust Education Trust, Former Education Secretary and current Conservative Party Chief Whip Michael Gove warned of what he termed as the "resurgent, mutating, lethal virus of anti-Semitism."From ‘pro-peace’ to ‘pro-Palestinian’ – the British TUC switches sides
Gove also said that attempts by anti-Israel activists to equate Israel with Nazi Germany were a form of holocaust denial, noting the presence of banners and placards at anti-Israel rallies such as "Stop Doing What Hitler Did To You" or "Gaza is a Concentration Camp", according to the Guardian.
Ironically, some of those signs often appeared at the same demonstrations as more openly anti-Semitic banners and slogans such as "Hitler Was Right", which were seen at pro-Palestinian marches throughout Europe.
Gove labeled attempts to equate Israel's actions to those of the Nazis as a "deliberate attempt to devalue the unique significance of the Holocaust, and so remove the stigma from anti-Semitism," and said that they paved the way to more violent anti-Semitic acts.
The decisions taken yesterday by Britain’s Trade Union Congress (TUC) on the subject of Palestine mark the end of an era.The UK & EU Must Immediately Stop Arms Sales To Israel, Declare Miliband's Trade Union Masters
Just a few years ago, the TUC was electing people like Roger Lyons, the head of Trade Union Friends of Israel (TUFI), as its President. Lyons was followed as TUC president by Michael Leahy, a founder of Trade Unions Linking Israel and Palestine (TULIP). When pro-Palestinian campaigners tried to bring up the question of support for a boycott of Israel or the Histadrut, they were shunted aside. TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber played a leading role as a force for moderation in the global trade union movement.
Today, things are completely different.
Britain's Labour Party is based in the trade union movement, with most Labour MPs being sponsored by various unions. "Red Ed" Miliband, the party's leader (and occasional avowed "Zionist", from a Communist background), is thus in thral to the unions, like his predecessors in the job.Pro-Israel Ohio U. student arrested for reading Legal Insurrection blog post out loud during protest (#ousenate)
Yesterday (10 September) the Trades Union Congress (at present headed by Bradford bus driver Mohammed Taj) which represents fifty-four of the largest unions in Britain and accounts for some six million members, voted overwhelmingly at its meeting in Liverpool to adopt its General Council's Statement on Gaza,
We previously covered how Meghan Marzec, the President of the Ohio University student Senate, hijacked the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge to bash Israel with a Blood Bucket Challenge.Gideon Levy recycles a likely fabricated Golda Meir quote for the Irish Times
It reflects the nature of the anti-Israel movement on campus that they would politicize a charity fundraiser for an incurable disease.
What kind of people do such things? Anti-Israel campus activists, that’s the type of people.
At a Student Senate Meeting tonight, pro-Israel students protested this abuse and, according to reports, several of the pro-Israel students were escorted out and arrested by campus police, via the student newspaper, The Post,
As CAMERA has previously documented, in 2004 Gideon Levy claimed in a Ha’aretz column that “Golda Meir said that after what the Nazis did to us, we can do whatever we want,” but was later forced to admit that he had no source for the quote. In an email to CAMERA, he acknowledged: “Therefore we dropped the quotation in the original version in Hebrew and by mistake it was printed in the English version.”Guardian publishes repulsive letter evoking Israel-Nazi analogy
He’s at it again.
A gushing profile of Levy, a favorite of anti-Zionists in the Western media, was published on September 11th in the Irish Times by Lara Marlow, titled “Holocaust makes Israelis think international law doesn’t apply“.
Though Regent’s claim that Israeli attacks evoke the 1938 Nazi pogrom against innocent German Jews known as ‘Kristallnacht’ is completely ahistorical and extraordinarily offensive, the suggestion that Israel’s war against Hamas represented ‘collective punishment’ on scale with “Nazi reprisals” against civilians during World War 2 is simply delusional.BBC audiences again fobbed off with HRW press release presented as ‘news’
Whilst the IDF took extraordinary (arguably unprecedented) measures during the recent war to avoid civilian casualties in Gaza (amidst the widespread use of Hamas of human shields), the Nazis systematically used murderous reprisals against innocent civilians on a massive scale. Frequently, if partisans killed a German soldier, Nazis would round-up and execute all the men and teenage boys in a nearby village, often employing a reprisal ratio of one hundred civilians for every German soldier killed.
In addition to the six million Jews (and millions of others) systemically murdered by the Nazis, it is believed that such ‘reprisals’ over the course of WWII may have accounted for “hundreds of thousands [of innocent civilians] killed in Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Greece, and France”, and likely over a million in Poland and the Soviet Union.
On September 9th the BBC News website published an article titled “Israel ‘coercing Eritreans and Sudanese to leave’” on its Middle East page and the main thing BBC audiences are able to learn from it is that a BBC staffer read a press release put out by the political NGO ‘Human Rights Watch’ on the same day.Remembering The 9/11/01 Horror & The 9/12/01 Hatred When Two NY Sports Radio Hosts Blamed The Attack On The Jews
The article is 555 words long, not including its headline, photo captions and sub-headings. It includes a recycled filmed report by Richard Galpin from January 2014 which was previously discussed here. One hundred and forty-five words of the report can be described as original BBC content; mostly dedicated to the response solicited from the Israeli foreign ministry. The other four hundred and ten words are rehashed statements from the HRW press release, as shown below.
But the 9/12 drive home is still scorched into my memory also. Not because the black curtain and sandpaper-like air still filled the air, but for the hatred coming from the car radio.Kipa-Clad Jew Nearly Run Down, Called ‘Cancer,’ by Passersby in Netherlands (VIDEO)
During the drive home, as usual, the radio was tuned to NY Sports radio station WFAN, featuring its afternoon stars, Mike Francesa and Chris Russo. These two were entertaining because of their sports knowledge and because listeners could tell these two really hated each other; there was always an undercurrent of tension on their show because an argument could spring up at any moment.
This day, however, the day after the attack on American soil, these two agreed. They agreed to launch a fact-deprived commentary blaming both Israel and American Jews for the attack on America the day before.
Even worse, Russo opined (and Francesa agreed) that American Jews needed to prove their loyalty as Americans; choose between Israel, which Mike called "a failed experiment," and the U.S. The two bigots suggested Jews in America should take a loyalty oath to the country to prove that they were loyal to the US and not Israel.
How did WFAN react to this blatant anti-Semitism? Suspension? On-air apologies? After all, this is the station that six years later fired Don Imus, their number one money-maker, for calling the Rutgers girls basketball team "nappy-headed hos." Sadly, WFAN reacted by sweeping their hosts' comments under the rug, while their cash-cow bigots denied it ever happened. The station even claimed they "lost" the tape of the day's programming.
NY Post columnist Phil Mushnick blasted the pair more than once for their denials.
A hostile rider on a motorized scooter almost hit a Dutch Jew walking down a street in The Hague on Friday evening, while other passersby called him a “cancer.”Major Sneaker Co. Pushes Tel Aviv as Surfer’s Paradise
“In the district, I feel really unsafe,” local artist Fabrice Schomberg told local media.
On Saturday, he filed a complaint with the police over the attack, noting, “That’s why I stopped over a year ago with wearing a yarmulke.”
The incident happened during the filming of a documentary report for the EO TV program 3Onderzoekt. For the report, Schomberg strolled through one neighborhood on Friday night, wearing the traditional Jewish skullcap, as Jewish men do going to or from synagogue.
“A boy drove me on his scooter and tried almost to kick me. I jumped back in the nick of time. Yes, it’s all on camera,” he said.
Israel’s surf is the star of two new edgy videos that show off the country’s waves as never before. Surfing in Israel just got a major visual boost thanks to Arthur Rashkovan, the Vans Israel go-to-guy, and the team (including film director Yakir Avrahami) he put together for an amazing video that will have you gawking at the Mediterranean Sea. ‘Vans Israel Surf — Rockets & Barrels’ was filmed in summer 2014 as Hamas-fired rockets flew over the Tel Aviv skies. “I want to show there’s a great lifestyle of surfers here and great spots to surf,” Rashkovan tells ISRAEL21c. The description of the video reads: “A mix of barrels, carves and airs with the right sound track provided by the Tel Aviv garage punk group, The Crotches, created a real off the wall surf video. We chose to show only surf and aloha vibes and not rockets in the Israeli sky. Enjoy.” Part of Rashkovan’s job as the Vans Israel marketing solutions point man is to organize skate and surf demos and music events, and create clips showing off Israel’s outdoors. Rashkovan also runs his own surfing company, DoctorSurf, and is a co-founder of Surfing for Peace. Shortly after the release of the Vans surfing video, he released another video featuring inspiring surf moves on Mediterranean waves. He says this clip took its inspiration from “70s B fiction movies” to the original tune “The Devil Went Down to the Holyland” by Israeli band Betzefer.Naval Visit Deepens Ties Between Druze Leaders and IDF
The Israel Navy Commander recently invited important members of the Druze religious community to visit a major Israel Navy base. The visit aimed to strengthen ties between the Druze and greater Israeli communities.Ashkenazi Jews descend from 350 people, study finds
This week, Commander of the Israel Navy Vice Admiral Ram Rothberg invited Druze dignitaries to visit the IDF’s naval base in Haifa. The Druze delegation, led by its spiritual leader Sheikh Moafaq Tarif, visited the base to strengthen empower community building between the Israel Navy and the Druze community.
Israel’s Druze population is known for its special commitment to the IDF. Today, 85 percent of Israel’s male Druze population chooses to join the Israeli military. About 130 Druze sailors currently serve in the Navy, and many of them plan to continue their service far beyond their scheduled release dates.
A new study concludes that all Ashkenazi Jews can trace their ancestry to a “bottleneck” of just 350 individuals, dating back to between 600 and 800 years ago.No cord on board: Cadillac rolls out wireless chargers
The study, published in the Nature Communications journal Tuesday, was authored by Shai Carmi, a computer science professor at Columbia University, and more than 20 medical researchers from Yale, Columbia, Yeshiva University’s Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center, Hebrew University of Jerusalem and other institutions.
Researchers analyzed the genomes of 128 Ashkenazi Jews and compared them to those of non-Jewish Europeans in order to determine which genetic markers are unique to Ashkenazi Jews. They found that the Ashkenazi Jews’ genetic similarities were so acute that one of the study’s researchers, Columbia professor Itsik Pe’er, told the Live Science website that among Ashkenazi Jews, “everyone is a 30th cousin.” (h/t Bob Knot)
Fasten your seatbelts. Your car charger is going cordless.
Israeli wireless tech company Powermat, which announced in June its plans to equip several Starbucks coffee shops with its wireless charging spots, says it’s joined forces with Detroit automaker General Motors to provide similar technology to its 2015 Cadillac ATS sedans and coupes, to be released in the fall. Toward the end of 2014, GM will add Powermat spots to its Cadillac CTS sport sedan and Escalade SUV.
“Our lifestyles have evolved in a more mobile way than ever before, and with that comes an even greater need for access to power in those places where we spend the majority of our time,” said Powermat CEO Ran Poliakine. “Our integration into the Cadillac ATS is only the first step in the evolution of portable power in places that include your car, your coffee house and even your favorite sporting arena.” (h/t MtTB)
