Friday, June 05, 2015
Mordechai Kedar: It's not about Soccer, Stupid. It's about Israel's Survival
Let's tell the truth: the Palestine Liberation Organizaion established in June 2, 1964, three years before the "occupation", was meant to free the "Palestine" that existed then, meaning Tel Aviv, Haifa, Nahariya and Be'er Sheva and not Hevron, Shechem and Ramallah that were under Jordanian "occupation" at the time. The organization has not changed its charter as of today, nor has it changed its goal and its suggested Final Solution for the Jewish People all over the world. This was the credo of its founder, he who established the great Palestinian Nation Lie, none other than Haj Amin El-Husseini, who took an active part in the extermination of half a million Hungarian Jews in 1944.Ben-Dror Yemini: When will the free world realize Churchill was right?
Mahmoud Abbas, Jibril Rajoub and their fellow-murderers share Husseini's dreams and are trying to achieve his goals without being obvious about it, so as not to wake us up. We are asleep and they are leading us towards extermination, along international corridors, by way of the courtroom - and through FIFA. According to the Palestine Liberation Organization, all these interantional bodies are gas molecules that will strangle Israel, causing its certain death as soon as they reach the required concentration. All they have to do is open the anesthesia pipeline of "security coordination" to keep us from seeing the fatal gas they are gathering all around us.
This is not about soccer. This is about our existence in Israel, from Tel Aviv to Ariel, from Haifa to Kiryat Arba, from Be'er Sheva to Maaleh Adumim. The Palestine - all of Palestine - Liberation Organization does not want us here and it is time to tell the truth: those Accords we signed with them in 1993 were a strategic error and a fatal step for the Jewish State that followed Arafat as though he was the pied piper of Hamelin and they were a buinch of naive children - fated to be left in a cave with no way out.
It is time to send the Palestine Liberation Organization to hell in a handbasket before it becomes another Hamas state, which is can do by holding elections as in January 2006, or through a violent takeover which is what happened in Gaza in 2007. Is anyone able to promise that this won't happen in Judea and Samaria? Since no one in the world can assure us that this most realistic scenario will not take place, we must take that vital step, and every passing day makes it harder to do that most necessary thing. If not now, when? When should we do it? Should we wait until Hamas takes over and establishes a terror state in Judea and Samaria? As they are busy doing in Gaza?
Our thanks to Jibril Rajouib, the convicted terrorist who showed us the truth, as if we really needed to be told.
The intellectual elites are returning to the exact same spot these days. Organizations of students and lecturers, as well as the Orange CEO, are milestones in this disgraceful path. Arguments can be made against Israel. Some of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's statements and Israel's policy are worthy of profound criticism. But Israel is a democracy. There is a fundamental debate taking place here. The anti-Israel campaign is not contributing to the reconciliation between Jews and Arabs. It is increasing the hostility and the hatred.The FIFA fiasco: What woeful wimps
The Orange CEO wouldn't have expressed support for the boycott if it wasn’t for the atmosphere created by the propaganda of lies. It is an atmosphere and disease which is not only threatening Britain, but the entire free world. Another prestigious academic institution, the London School of Economics (LSE), decided to twin its union with the Islamic University of Gaza of all universities, although some of the university's leaders have made it clear that the annihilation of Jews is a command for immediate implementation.
The evil spirit of BDS is not only threatening Israel. It is wreaking havoc in the United States and Britain. It is threatening the free world. It is encouraging Palestinian terror and Palestinian rejectionism. The Orange CEO's declaration is another milestone in the disgraceful parade.
Churchill realized it at the time, and was concerned that this disgrace would only bring the war closer. Eight-two years have passed, and the free world is refusing to realize that Churchill was right.
Israel’s response to the Palestinian initiative to suspend it from FIFA epitomized everything that is wrong with its public diplomacy.
Almost exactly two years ago, I wrote: “Clearly, within the context of conventional wisdom… the contention that Israel’s acceptance of the legitimacy of Palestinian national claims has laid the foundations for the international assault on its own legitimacy seems, at best, counterintuitive. However, the logic behind it is unassailable and the conclusion to be drawn from it inexorable: Once the legitimacy of a Palestinian state is conceded, the delegitimization of Israel is inevitable.”
The chain of reasoning is clear and compelling – almost algorithmic. For the Zionist narrative to be re-legitimized, the Palestinian narrative must be delegitimized. For Israel to regain its legitimacy, “Palestine” must be stripped of its legitimacy. For as Nahum Barnea correctly diagnoses: “the Palestinians are not only challenging the occupation, but Israel’s actual existence.”
Unless this is grasped and acted on, even billionaires will be of no avail.
Irksome EU labeling of settler goods could snowball into BDS avalanche
Efforts to boycott Israel have been steadily gaining strength for years but are currently dominating the national agenda as never before, with senior politicians and activists elevating the imperative to fight against the so-called BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement to top priority.Debunking Old Lies: Focus on Tantura
This week, Israelis talked about little else. Last Friday, the Palestinians attempted to boot Israel out of world soccer, before abandoning the bid at the eleventh hour. On Tuesday, the UK’s National Union of Students formally endorsed BDS. On Wednesday, the CEO of mobile communications giant Orange said he would love to pull out of the Israeli market. On Thursday, the French company officially announced that it will cut ties with its Israeli subsidiary Partner.
While this onslaught of anti-Israel activity is part of a long-term pattern, the threat has never felt more tangible. The prospect of Israel being kicked out of FIFA rattled Israelis more than any damning United Nations report or union boycott had done. And the Orange squash then exacerbated the sense of siege.
The EU’s labeling plan, however, is a threat of a whole different order, a case of democratic governments gearing up to target the settlement enterprise and its relatively minor exports, but with potential repercussions for the entire Israeli economy — and for Israel’s perceived legitimacy. And many insiders believe that, sooner or later, the EU will indeed go ahead with the labeling regime.
The poet Erez Biton, who won this year’s Israel Prize for literature, in his acceptance speech called on Israeli society to unite around the rejection of the EU’s scheme. “Those who label products today are liable to label people tomorrow,” he predicted ominously.
The Israel bashers are again cycling through their tired repertoire of long-discredited lies, aided by notorious anti-israel activist/University of Exeter professor, Ilan ["The struggle is about ideology, NOT about facts"]Pappé.Legal Insurrection: Negev Bedouin problems – real and imagined
Yet again, the lie claiming that Israelis perpetrated a massacre of Arab residents of Tantura in 1948 is dredged up. Never mind that the originator of the lie was sued for libel. Never mind that he retracted his claims. Never mind that his sources denied his lies. It is a good enough lie for the famously dishonest Israel-bashing website Electronic Intifada and its frequent contributor Jonathan Cook to promote, resorting to a conspiracy theory of a cover-up by Israel and a vast network of its supporters , including CAMERA.
Let us re-examine the facts:
Theodore (Teddy) Katz, a kibbutznik and supporter of the left-wing Meretz party, submitted a Master’s thesis in 1998 to the University of Haifa, alleging a previously unknown massacre by Israel’s army had taken place in the Arab fishing village of Tantura during the1948 war. Purportedly based on testimonies he had gathered from 60 Tantura residents, Katz claimed that over 200 Arab villagers had been lined up and slaughtered by the IDF’s 33rd battalion after surrendering on May 22-23, 1948.
In an apparent attempt to join the ranks of the post-Zionist "new historians" who professed to re-examine Israel’s history and dispel what they claim are "Zionist myths" of heroism and bravery, Katz contacted journalists and television crews to try to publicize his story across the country. On Jan. 21, 2000, the Israeli daily Ma’ariv carried a five-page story by journalist Amir Gilat promulgating Katz’s claims.
Having discovered they were publicly accused of war crimes in the pages of Israel’s largest newspaper, veterans of the 33rd battalion of the Alexandroni Brigade were outraged. They maintained that the battle for Tantura was a strategic one, an attempt to stop the maritime smuggling of arms and food and to prevent the Haifa-Tel Aviv road from being cut off; and that throughout the fight for survival in a bloody war launched by the Arabs, they had maintained the strictest ethical standards. While the battle for Tantura was difficult – 14 members of the IDF battalion and about 40 Arabs were killed in street fighting – the veterans insisted Katz had lied about a massacre.
Indeed, they noted that by 10 a.m. on the morning of the alleged massacre, 99 percent of the villagers had already been transferred out of Tantura —the women to the nearby village of Faradis, and the fighters to the Zichron Ya’akov police station. In April 2000, attorney Giora Erdinast, a Peace Now activist and son-in-law of one of the battalion members, agreed to represent the veterans and filed a libel suit in Tel Aviv court against Teddy Katz. Katz reportedly received approximately $8,000 from former Palestinian Authority minister Faisal Husseini to pay for his defense.
Problems between the Bedouins in the Negev desert area in the south of Israel and the government over redevelopment plans have received a lot of media attention, including at Legal Insurrection:Legal Insurrection: Last Days in The Jerusalem Suburbs
As with every problem in Israel, there are dozens of Israeli and international “human rights” groups seeking to exploit the issue for a greater purpose unrelated to actually helping the Bedouin. So the media narrative is spun as the bad Jews trying to steal land.
The Israeli side of the story rarely is told in the media. In part that reflects media bias, in part that Israel is not very good at getting its story out.
So during our trip to the south of the country, we met with and toured the area with a local official from the Israeli government ministry which is handling Bedouin redevelopment issues. The official spoke Arabic fluently and was intimately familiar with the Bedouin tribes and culture.
On June 12, 2014, a terror cell affiliated with Hamas kidnapped Naftali Fraenkel (16), Gilad Shaer (16), and Eyal Yifrah (19) in the West Bank.Liberalism and Obama’s Jewish Pretensions
After an intensive hunt and crackdown on Hamas throughout the West Bank, they were found dead. The murderers months later were located and killed by Israeli forces.
Contrary to popular mythology, the kidnapping did not cause Israel to attack Gaza weeks later. Rather, the cause of the Gaza conflict was when Hamas started firing rockets from Gaza at Israel without stop.
While driving on the way back from Hebron, I saw a sign (Featured Image), designating a forest in the memory of the three teens. It is at the Gush Etzion junction in an area of settlements near where the teens were abducted.
The visit to Hebron was quite interesting.
Hebron had the oldest continuous Jewish community in the world — dating back several hundred years — until Arab riots in 1929 killed 67 Hebron Jews and ethnically cleansed Jews from the city.
Yet when Jews reestablished a presence in 1967, it was called an illegal settlement by many in the international community. For an informed discussion of the actual legal status of “settlements” see Eugene Kontorovich’s post and paper, Business with occupied territories, Orange telecom, and the French approach to international law.
Under the circumstances, it is, perhaps, understandable, if lamentable, that an African-American man who belonged to a Christian church with a radical left-wing pastor and who had a long history of making anti-Israel comments would consider himself almost a Jew or America’s most Jewish president ever just because he was a liberal.Obama warns Israel could lose US support at UN
But if even liberals are somewhat nonplussed by Obama’s profession of Jewish identity, they probably share his view that an Israel that is not always perfectly in accord with their political views cannot be as authentically Jewish as a black man who supports government health care legislation or views Palestinians as largely blameless for the war they’ve waging on Zionism for the past century.
As he noted in his speech last month at a Washington, D.C. synagogue, Obama has to a large extent bought into the myth that Israel used to a liberal country, but is now descending into nationalist barbarism from which both Americans and Jews should disassociate themselves. If those sentiments were widely applauded by liberal Jews, it is not just because they don’t understand that their views about the distinctions between Israel’s Labor Zionist governments of the country’s first decades and its current coalition are largely unfounded. It is because many of them also judge Israel’s actions through the lens of an American political prism that has little to do with the realities of the Middle East or that of a country that is faced with the task of navigating between faith and national identity while under siege. Indeed, perhaps it is possible to judge President Obama’s clueless approach to the peace process and even Iran a bit less harshly if we remember that many of his liberal Jewish supporters are just as naïve as he is about these subjects.
It is of course entirely possible to hold liberal political views while also understanding that détente with Iran is a foolish gambit that will make the Middle East far more dangerous. It is also possible to agree with the president on domestic issues while still being sensible enough to understand that pressuring Israel to make concessions to a Palestinian Authority that is both unwilling and incapable of making peace is a fool’s errand that actually lessen the chances of ending the conflict rather than achieving that goal. But for Obama and his inner circle, these bits of common sense go unacknowledged in no small measure because of their false conception of Judaism as a theological vessel for modern liberal politics. Under the circumstances, it would appear that the last thing Israel needs is a Jewish president, or at least one whose identity is defined by adherence to the catechism of American liberalism.
Barack Obama has warned that America's veto in support of Israel at the UN is increasingly "difficult" because of prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu's wavering stance on a Palestinian state.Iran must be cheering Obama's interview with Israeli television
Mr Obama said the lack of progress in peace efforts, and Mr Netanyahu's apparent about-turn on support for a two-state solution before and after the recent Israel elections, mean Israel is in danger of losing "credibility".
"Up until this point, we have pushed away against European efforts, for example, or other efforts because we've said, the only way this gets resolved is if the two parties work together," said Mr Obama in the interview with Israel's channel 2 on Tuesday.
"If, in fact, there's no prospect of an actual peace process, if nobody believes there's a peace process, then it becomes more difficult to argue with those who are concerned about settlement construction, those who are concerned about the current situation."
In response to a question about Mr Netanyahu's comments regarding the establishment of a Palestinian state before and after March elections, Mr Obama said: "The danger here is that Israel as a whole loses credibility. Already, the international community does not believe that Israel is serious about a two-state solution."
Rabbi Obama's tough love
If anybody had any doubts about what is in store for Israel over the next 19 months, U.S. President Barack Obama has now made it clear: a long, painful political shellacking for what he sees as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's amoral behavior.What I would have asked Obama
In order to rescue the lofty values of tikkun olam (healing the world) and Zionism from the Neanderthal conservatives who threaten to ruin Israel, Obama is going to harangue and muscle Israel into a course correction -- back to the "true" moral values of Judaism and Zionism on which he is such an expert. He is on a crusade (or should I say, jihad) to save Israel from itself, no less.
That is the upshot of Rabbi Obama's smug sermonizing over the past two weeks: in an Atlantic interview with Jeffrey Goldberg, at Adas Israel synagogue in Washington, and in an interview on Israeli television with Ilana Dayan, Obama is nostalgic for the good ol' days when WASP Israelis (white, Ashkenazi, secular and socialist, pioneers) ruled these parts and dreamed all day long of conceding the land they worked to the Palestinians and of bringing peace to the Middle East.
And since Obama so agonizes for wayward Israel, and since he is such an authority on "real" Judaism and "authentic" Zionism, he feels morally compelled to shove his point down the throats of Israeli Likud and Habayit Hayehudi voters. It's all for their own good. After all, he knows what is truly best for Israel.
Coming on the heels of a sit-down with Jeffrey Goldberg in The Atlantic and an address to the Adas Israel congregation in Washington, it was not the least bit original. On the contrary, it was basically a repeat of everything Obama has been saying to assure Jewish donors that he has Israel's best interests at heart.Top US Officials Briefed by Radical Anti-Israel NGO
This is among many reasons that Dayan need not be patting herself on the back for scoring the coveted one-on-one at the White House. Indeed, she was merely serving as a pawn in Obama's transparent maneuver to capitulate to Iran, and to keep Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's warnings about Iran from being taken seriously.
Still, a tough investigative journalist like Dayan could have made better use of the microphone. But for this, she would have had to avoid slipping into idolatry mode and keep herself from fawning like a high-school girl in the presence of a movie star whose poster hangs over her bed.
Since I don't have that particular problem in relation to America's "leader-from-behind," I prepared an alternative list of questions I would have liked to hear Obama answer.
In an unprecedented first, White House and State Department officials were given a briefing by members of the radical leftist Israeli NGO Breaking the Silence, which infamously gathers allegedly false testimony from anonymous IDF soldiers to accuse the army of improper conduct.IsraellyCool: Obama’s Channel 2 Interview Slammed In Media
The White House and the State Department both confirmed to Haaretz on Friday that the briefings took place this week, and centered on the NGO's report released last month which accuses the IDF of breaches and infractions in last summer's counter-terror Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
The meeting took place in Washington, with members of the National Security Council (NSC) being briefed in a non-governmental building instead of in the White House before State Department officials likewise were briefed by the radical NGO.
Matthew Duss, president of the Foundation for Middle East Peace, organized the briefing, and said the US officials showed great interest in the report, posing "many questions about the vetting process of the witnesses, the testimonies and the fact-checking."
Indicating the Foundation for Middle East Peace's leanings, according to its website the group's Program Director Mitchell Plitnick previously was Director of the US Office of the extremist NGO B'Tselem, and before that was Director of Education and Policy for Jewish Voice for Peace.
Pretty much everyone knows by now that the President of the United States went on Israeli TV on Tuesday night and made a total ass of himself. His comments do not seem to have been as well received in Israel as they were when he spoke at Beltway Congregation Adas Israel. There isn’t very much that I can add to the many excellent commentaries already written, but in case you missed one or more, I’ve put together excerpts from some of the better ones.Khaled Abu Toameh: Erekat: Israel, Palestinians not conducting secret peace talks
Finally, in this facebook post, Melanie Phillips asks, “Which is worse – that Obama is a cynical, malevolent politician who in his arrogance knowingly plays fast and loose with reality because he doesn’t care if anyone notices; or that he actually believes these lethal imbecilities?”
After all of that, I have just one small point to add. It’s a point the importance of which pales in comparison to his confirming what everyone already knew, that he will never use military force to stop Iran from attaining a nuclear bomb, or to his complete and utter disconnect from recent history of Israeli-Palestinian relations. I think it is worth noting, though, because it is part of Obama’s ongoing efforts to scapegoat Netanyahu for the toxic atmosphere that Obama himself has created. It illustrates, moreover, just how deceptive Obama is being.
Chief PLO negotiator Saeb Erekat said Thursday that there were no secret or public negotiations taking place between the Palestinians and Israel, and he did not expect the peace talks to resume in the near future.UNRWA Chief refuses to commit to teaching Palestinians about antisemitism
His remarks came in response to reports in some Arab media outlets suggesting that Israel and the PA were secretly conducting peace talks. Such negotiations have been frozen since April 2014.
Erekat told the Palestinian daily Al-Quds that the Israeli government’s recent decisions, especially regarding settlement construction, “indicate that it is moving ahead toward destroying the map of Palestine.”
There was no chance of resuming the peace talks in the near future in wake of the Israeli government’s “settlement plans” in the West Bank and Jerusalem, moving the offices of the Culture and Sport Ministry to east Jerusalem and applying Israeli laws to settlements, Erekat said.
He added that he did not know what France’s timetable was to present a resolution on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to the Security Council next month.
Swedish Parliamentary Panel: 2014 Recognition of Palestine Unconstitutional
A Swedish parliamentary committee claimed that the country’s recognition of Palestine last year violated the nation’s constitution, The Times of Israel reported Wednesday.UN Soldiers Break Laws, Repeatedly Park in Handicapped Parking Zones
On Tuesday, the Riksdag’s Committee on the Constitution published its annual paper [Swedish], which lists several instances in which the center-left government of Prime Minister Stefan Loefven acted improperly, including how it recognized Palestine. …
Rather, the report laments that Loefven declared his intention to recognize a Palestinian state before discussing the matter with parliament’s Advisory Council on Foreign Affairs or with the European Union.
On October 3, in his inaugural speech, the newly elected prime minister said that a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict required mutual recognition. “Sweden will therefore recognize the State of Palestine,” he declared.
The town of Katzrin on the Golan Heights has a problem.Saudis Lose Bid to Behead of the UN Human Rights Council
It’s a popular town among UN Peacekeepers stationed up in Israel’s north, but for an organization that is so obsessed with international law (at least their interpretation of it when it comes to Israel), they completely disregard the law when it comes to following it themselves.
The Katzrin regional council has recently been dealing with UN soldiers who completely and purposely ignore parking regulations.
The UN soldiers illegally park in no-parking zones. They illegally park on the sidewalks. Most disgustingly, they illegally park and take over entire handicapped parking areas, as you can see in the photo above.
Dmitri Efertzav, the mayor of the Katzrin regional council, told Makor Rishon that Katzrin is happy to host the UN soldiers who recently moved their command center over to Katzrin after being chased out of Syria, but he would appreciate if they respected local laws a bit more.
First, the good news: following UN Watch’s forceful protest campaign, covered in newspapers worldwide, Swiss TV is now reporting that Saudi Arabia has failed in its bid to be head of the UN Human Rights Council next year.Who is Really Behind BDS? We Can Cut Off BDS at the Spigot
“Before we break out the champagne,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of the Geneva-based UN Watch, a non-governmental human rights group, “the truth is that the presidency is mostly symbolic, yet the Saudi monarchy — a regime that is beheading more people than ever before — retains their power as a full voting member of the council.”
“The real question is why the U.S. or the EU refused to utter even one word of protest when we urged them, together with Saudi dissidents, to oppose the monarchy’s election in 2013? It’s a sad comment on our world that oil continues to trump basic human rights principles.”
Now, the bad news: The UNHRC today legitimized the Islamic fundamentalist regime by allowing it to play host to a “religious freedom” conference in Jeddah, a short stroll away from where they lashed blogger Raif Badawi for “insulting Islam.”
Badawi’s wife, Ensaf Haidar, is outraged.
Thousands of young people are now employed on campuses around the world, well financed and well organized, in an unprecedented effort that challenges the very legitimacy of Israel on every possible academic and economic front.Nobel winners to flock to Israel, ignoring campus boycott push
They call their movement: BDS – Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions.
Over the next few days, Mr. Sheldon Adelson and Mr. Haim Saban have called an emergency meeting of organizations concerned about BDS to answer two questions.
- From where does the finance and organizational support for BDS emanate?
- How can BDS be stopped?
The answers may be easier to ascertain than one would expect. Most recently, official representatives of the Palestinian Authority, the PA, engaged in an international effort that almost booted Israel out of FIFA, the most prestigious international sporting association, a step which could have denied any Israel sports team from competing in any sports competition, anywhere in the world.
The direct involvement of the PA in this massive BDS activity revealed what had been known for years, which is that the Palestinian Authority in Ramallah organized the BDS “movement” in 2005. The BDS web site speaks for itself. http://www.bdsmovement.net/, It is no more than a front for the PA.
BDS has indeed fostered an image that makes it seem as if it is a spontaneous grass roots movement.
While the BDS movement is using its brawn – in the form of boycott power – to urge companies to stop doing business with Israel in protest of its policies vis-vis the Palestinians, the Jewish state is responding with its brain – or rather, it has attracted the brain power of nearly two dozen Nobel laureates, who will arrive in Israel in August for five days of discussions, panels, and research.South Carolina becomes first US state to take action against anti-Israel boycotts
And despite the growing strength of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions movement on college campuses, the Nobel winners, all of whom have prestigious positions at universities around the world – as well as hundreds of students, professors, and other guests – have accepted invitations to two events surrounding the Nobel laureates, Foreign Ministry officials said.
The World Science Conference Israel (WSCI) was originally set for August of last year, but with Israel otherwise engaged in Operation Protective Edge, sponsors – including Hebrew University, the Science Ministry and the Foreign Ministry – postponed the event. Now set for August 15-20, the event will see more than 20 Nobel laureates discuss their contributions to science and give Israeli students the opportunity to meet some of the top minds in physics, chemistry, medicine, and economics.
South Carolina’s governor has signed into law a bill to stop efforts to boycott, divest and sanction Israel on Thursday afternoon, in a first for the nation on a statewide level.The Insidious Marketing of the BDS Campaign
The bill makes no mention of Israel directly, but prevents public entities from contracting with businesses engaging in the “boycott of a person or an entity based in or doing business with a jurisdiction with whom South Carolina can enjoy open trade.”
The premise of the law is that the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, colloquially known as BDS, discriminates against the people of Israel and weakens the economy of South Carolina.
“Boycott,” for the purposes of the law, is defined as the effort by companies to “blacklist, divest from or otherwise refuse to deal with a person or firm when the action is based on race, color, religion, gender or national origin of the targeted person or entity,” according to the text.
Companies also must agree not to engage in boycott activities going forward.
While South Carolina is the first state to adopt such a measure as law, several others are close behind: Illinois lawmakers passed similar legislation last month, also with unanimous support from state representatives.
The BDS movement took its marketing idea directly from the most infamously successful marketing campaign ever: Hitler’s Master Race concept. What was Herr Goebbels’ marketing strategy? “Tell a lie big enough and often enough, and people will begin to believe it.” That, along with P.T. Barnum’s “There’s a sucker born every minute,” is the complete foundation of the BDS movement.SPME BDS Monitor: US State Legislatures Fight Back, But Soccer Ban a Risk
BDS successfully uses four tactics while meshing all seamlessly and insidiously:
1. Obfuscating its ultimate goal
The world at large, and specifically most BDS supporters, believe that BDS seeks a two-state solution where a new country of Palestine will sit peacefully next to Israel. This is false. BDS’ written and stated goal is a “single state” of Palestine that includes present day Israel, the West Bank, and Gaza. Furthermore, by virtue of BDS’ several demands, Israel would no longer be a Jewish state, but rather would become – as BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti has publicly stated – “…a Palestinian state next to a Palestinian state.”
2. Leveling unadulterated lies against and about Israel
In a propaganda video (produced by Students for Justice in Palestine) to convince students to vote to divest from Israel, a female student from Loyola University Chicago states: “As an Ethiopian, I do not want the university that I attend to support a government that mistreats African immigrants seeking asylum and sterilizes 50% of the Ethiopian women upon entrance to Israel.”
Although this student most likely believes that her statement is true, her massive ignorance does not mitigate the irreparable harm that she causes. Even though this type of exaggerated lie is no different than BDS’ garden variety lies, there is no legal deterrent to stop them. A person or organization cannot be sued for committing slander or libel against a people, race, religion, or country, no matter how blatantly offensive it is.
BDS on campuses ended the year with limited gains and important setbacks. The fight has also moved decisively into state legislatures, which are voting in favor of bills prohibiting agencies from doing business with firms boycotting Israel. But internationally European states continue to warn Israel of boycotts while a variety of small measures, including the pension of a Dutch Holocaust survivor living in Israel, have been subjected to sanctions. These small but painful examples demonstrate how BDS has penetrated European bureaucratic behavior. On a larger scale, Palestinian threats to have Israel expelled from international soccer point to more corruption at the heart of that sport.BDS Movement Recruits Waterlogged Corpse of Osama bin Laden (satire)
Analysis
In May the American academic year ended with a few BDS victories and a series of important setbacks. In California the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges voted against a divestment bill. The move stands in contrast to the approval of a divestment bill earlier this year by the University of California graduate student organization.
Equally important was the overwhelming rejection of a sweeping boycott bill in a campus-wide referendum at Bowdoin College. This unusual vote took the boycott proposal directly to students rather than to student government. It came after a week of pro-BDS events and the appearance of pro-BDS speakers from the American Friends Service Committee and Jewish Voice for Peace. Bowdoin’s president had stated the college’s opposition to boycott in 2013 and noted after the vote “There was never any question about Bowdoin College joining this movement.”
The Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) was able to recruit a very high-profile ally this week. After months of courting, BDS leaders were finally able to announce today that the long-deceased corpse of noted anti-Semite Osama bin Laden had joined their cause. “This is a great day for the fight against the Israeli Zionist war machine,” BDS organizer Michael Roth told The Israeli Daily, “Mr. bin Laden is a celebrity known all over the world. His soggy carcass shares our vision, and will be invaluable in our efforts.”BBC News ignores missile attack from Gaza but BBC Arabic reports response
Roth maintains that despite the importance of the BDS movement and its goals, celebrity endorsements remain scarce. “Today, the Jews basically run the whole world – I should know, I am one. By recruiting Osama’s waterlogged remains, we’re successfully able to spread the vision of a world where that’s not the case. It’s probably the most logical thing we’ve done so far.”
On June 4th the 1.69 million people who follow the BBC Arabic Twitter account were sent the following (translated) context-free Tweet.'Repulsive' Polish Exhibit Shows Nude Tag Game in Gas Chamber
The link contained in that Tweet leads to an article on the BBC Arabic website which similarly informs audiences of “Israeli raids on the Gaza Strip, no injuries” in its headline. Like the Tweet, that article is illustrated using a picture which has nothing to do with the events being reported and, according to a reverse image search, appears to have been photographed in August 2014.BBC Arabic 4 june art
Only in the article’s fifth paragraph (out of a total of eight) did readers discover that something actually occurred before the Israeli airforce’s actions took place.
“The Israeli army announced on Wednesday evening, three rockets fall in open areas Council of settlements, “poet Negev” [Sdot Negev – Ed] , near Ashkelon, without final confirmation because of the failure to find remnants of the rocket.”
An exhibit screening an offensive video of naked men and women playing tag in the very same gas chamber where Nazis murdered Jews in the Holocaust is on display at the Krakow modern art museum in Poland - and is receiving patronage from none other than the Israeli embassy in Poland.Jewish Heritage Group to Publish Photos of Nazi-Plundered Hungarian Torahs Stashed in Russia
The exhibit opened two weeks ago, and was exposed by Channel 2 on Friday.
Entitled "Poland - Israel - Germany: The Experience of Auschwitz," the exhibit includes artists from all three countries and evidently as a result the Israeli embassy threw its support behind it.
In the video nude people can be seen entering the gas chamber one by one and then starting a game of tag. At the end of the clip a message details that the footage was shot in a gas chamber as well as in a private home basement.
Colette Avital, CEO of the Center of Organizations of Holocaust Survivors, contacted the Israeli embassy in Poland demanding answers as to why Israel is providing patronage to an exhibit of such a nature.
The Jewish Heritage Foundation announced on Thursday that it was set to publish photographic evidence of a hoard of Torah scrolls and other Judaica stolen from Hungarian Jewish families during World War II and preserved ever since in Russia.When a Piece of Paper Meant Life or Death
The Florida-based group said it had a list of the owners of the Torahs stolen by the Nazis.
As early as next week, the foundation said it “will publish irrefutable photographic evidence that Judaica stolen from Hungary and other European countries exists and can be identified and returned.”
Founded by Boca Raton resident Sibyl Silver and her late husband Robert, the foundation said it had set up a website to be launched next week that would publish “the first ever obtained photographs confirming the existence of Judaica stolen from Hungarian Jews.”
The purpose of this project by the foundation is to restore and reunite these artifacts of Hungarian Jewry with the proper owners: families and heirs.
“It is a fantastic commentary on the inhumanity of our times,” journalist Dorothy Thompson wrote at the height of the 1930s European Jewish refugee crisis, “that for thousands and thousands of people a piece of paper with a stamp on it is the difference between life and death.”LeVar Burton Hearts Israel
Seventy-five years ago this month, president Franklin D. Roosevelt’s newly appointed assistant secretary of state sent his colleagues a memo outlining a strategy to “postpone and postpone and postpone” the granting of that “piece of paper” to refugees. Breckinridge Long’s chilling memo, more than any other single document, has come to symbolize the abandonment of the Jews during the Holocaust.
Long, a personal friend of Roosevelt’s and a major donor to his first presidential campaign, was rewarded with the post of U.S. ambassador to Italy. Long’s dispatches to Washington from Rome in the early and mid 1930s praised the Mussolini regime for its “well-paved” streets, “dapper” black-shirted stormtroopers, and “punctual trains.” Eleanor Roosevelt once remarked to the president about Long, “Franklin, you know he’s a fascist”—to which an angry FDR replied, “I’ve told you, Eleanor, you must not say that.”
In early 1940, Roosevelt promoted Long to the position of assistant secretary of state, putting him in charge of 23 of the State Department’s 42 divisions, including the visa section.
Actor and producer LeVar Burton, of Roots and Star Trek: The Next Generation fame, is in Israel as one of the speakers at the “Shaping the Future” conference.LeVar Burton @ Shaping the Future lll Edtech Conference
It would be fair to say he’s a fan of Israel.
Caitlyn Jenner invited to TA Gay Pride
The City of Tel Aviv invited Caitlyn Jenner to be a guest of honor at its Gay Pride Week celebration.When the IDF Invaded Kathmandu
Jenner, 65, the former reality show star and Olympic gold medal-winning decathlete, has not responded to the invitation announced Thursday. She has garnered the media spotlight with her recent transition to become a woman.
Tel Aviv’s Gay Pride week, which begins on Sunday, draws thousands of participants each year. This year, the celebration will emphasize the transgender community.
“The fact that you provided us an opportunity to smile and revealed the personal and complex process you went through, the difficulties that stood in your way, made you a source of inspiration for us in Tel Aviv,” Yaniv Weizman, a member of the Tel Aviv-Jaffa Municipal Council, wrote Jenner in the invitation, according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
Unlike other Western countries like the U.S. and UK, which have poured millions of dollars into Nepal’s recovery, Israel has not sent money to the government of Nepal. Instead, it sent 267 people, including 124 IDF medical personnel to staff the field hospital, as well as engineers to assess damaged structures and determine whether or not they can be lived in, or if they are too dangerous and need to be razed. The delegation came with 95 tons of aid materials, including advanced medical equipment that is either nonexistent or hard to find in Nepal. According to the UN, Israel also sent the third-largest search and rescue team in the immediate aftermath of the quake, exceeded only by Russia and India—countries with more than 18 times the population of Israel.
“Usually, we are not sending money during disasters,” says Alon Melchior, the Deputy Spokesperson for the Israeli Foreign Ministry. “We have better ways of helping without sending money.” With money, you don’t always know where it goes, says Melchior, whereas when you send people and equipment to aid the population, you can actually see the impact you’re making on the ground. “We have quite a lot of expertise in emergency situations, and this is what we do best,” he says. “There are countries that are quite richer and can send a lot of money. We have other advantages, and they don’t need our money. They need our methods, expertise, and way of working quickly.”
When they arrived, the field hospital staff had no idea when they would be packing up their tents and heading home. Each day they saw nearly 200 patients; over the course of their two-week stay, they performed 85 life-saving surgeries and delivered eight babies.
One major challenge the medical staff faced, aside from the obvious distress of caring for victims of a brutal natural disaster, was the language barrier. Many of the patients spoke not a word of English and, of course, no Hebrew. An unexpected solution to that problem was the influx of Nepali volunteers who started showing up at the hospital in its first days of operation. In addition to about a dozen staff from the Nepali military hospital, there were also around 20 Nepali translators who came each day. Some of them, like 37-year-old Mira Poudel, have lived in Israel as caretakers for the elderly, and thus speak fluent Hebrew.
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