Friday, November 06, 2015
Howard Stern on Roger Waters: 'He Comes Off Like an Anti-Semite'
Roger Waters may not want to "waste a single precious breath on that asshole" after Howard Stern accused the Pink Floyd co-founder of wanting "Jews to go back to the concentration camp," but on Stern's radio show this week, the host made it clear he wasn't going to lay off the subject. "I'm not the only asshole," Stern said. "I'm just the only asshole brave enough to take him on. For some reason, it's become very important to Roger to tell artists where to perform. There's so many countries with histories of abuse and slavery, but he's very focused on Israel. To me, he comes off like an anti-Semite."Sarah Honig: Ibrahim Who Begat Is’hak
Stern's co-host Robin Quivers was confused by Waters' acerbic response to Stern. "I think it's odd that instead of backing up what he believes, he calls names," she said. "Isn't that exactly the problem in the Middle East? When does he get to the point of throwing rocks?"
Tuesday's broadcast of The Howard Stern Show devoted over five minutes to Waters' "asshole" comment in Rolling Stone, and there were some sharp barbs. "Roger, you keep touring the same 30-year-old album," he said. "God bless you. I don't have any hatred for you. I don't think I'm an asshole ... By the way, I checked in, luckily the guys in Foghat have no problem with Israel. It's just one guy from Pink Floyd."
"Defending Israel isn't fashionable, I know," Stern said. "It is a tremendous distraction for Arab leaders to say, 'Let's get the Jews, let's get Israel, it's all their fault.' As long as their poor people are focused on Israel they don't wake up and realize who is stealing their money. Their lives aren't getting any better from all this crap, so don't be fooled by Roger and his statements."
The Western Wall is by no means off UNESCO’s ever-mutating agenda. Odds are it will reappear and eventually be globally consecrated as Muslim. It’s not too absurd to forecast that the day isn’t far off in which Jews would likewise be required to abjectly relinquish all attachments to the Mount of Olives. By the wisdom of redrafted Arab chronicles and UNESCO, it behooves us to obey. Hence Jerusalem isn’t one whit different from Hebron or Bethlehem.French Jews ask gov’t to probe incitement against Bernard-Henri Levy
Bethlehem’s case is the most enlightening. Until 1996 Bethlehem Arabs themselves spoke of Rachel’s Tomb. Only then, at the height of their Oslo-spawned terror offensive, did they switch to calling it the Bilal Ibn-Rabah Tomb.
Ibn-Rabah was an African slave and Muhammad’s muezzin, reputed to have fallen in battle in Syria. Indeed Damascus’s Bab Saghir Cemetery has dibs on what’s said to be Bilal’s grave.
On July 2000 Yasser Arafat insisted to Bill Clinton at Camp David that no Jewish temple ever existed. This is now official PA mantra, recited impudently and unabashedly by Ramallah’s purportedly moderate figurehead Mahmoud Abbas. He concomitantly rails that “filthy Jewish feet contaminate Muslim Jerusalem.”
PA headliner cleric Sheikh Taissir Tamimi proclaims repeatedly that “Jerusalem had always only been Arab and Islamic.” The Cave of the Patriarchs, he hectored, “is a pure mosque, which Jewish presence defiles. Jews have no right to pray there, much less claim any bond to Hebron – an Arab city for 5000 years… All Palestine is holy Muslim soil. Jews are foreign interlopers.”
Back in 1950 poet Natan Alterman penned a tongue-in-cheek reply to a near-identical proclamation (“Palestine is an Arab country and always was. Foreigners have no part in it.)” Entitled An Arab Land, Alterman’s verses appeared on the Labor daily Davar’s front-page. By replacing Biblical Hebrew names with Arabic adaptations, Alterman appeared to amplify the spirit of progressive Arab scholarship.
French Jews condemned what they termed an anti-Semitic demonstration in the heart of the French capital against the Jewish public intellectual Bernard-Henri Levy.
The event took place on Oct. 31 on St. Germain Boulevard, where a dozen-odd far-right demonstrators from the Renouveau Français group (“French Renewal”) convened with posters accusing Levy — a celebrity and supporter of France’s military intervention in Libya — of fomenting war for profit.
The protesters shouted slogans accusing Levy of being a “Talmudic philosopher” who is “waging Zionist war” and who should be “stripped of the French nationality and extradited to Israel,” according to a statement published Thursday by the CRIF umbrella group of French Jewish communities titled “Anti-Semitic demonstration in the heart of Paris.”
The statement said CRIF “extends its support to Levy” and has contacted the interior ministry requesting the initiation of a criminal investigation for incitement to hatred, which is illegal in France.
Pallywood in Olive Green
Rabbi Ascherman from Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR) claims to have escaped a settler with a knife. Five Minutes for Israel analyses the video and some of the explanations. Frankly I find too many red flags, or should that be olive flags, leading to Pallywood.What the Horrors of Kristallnacht Should Teach Us Today
What bothers me?
Below are screen grabs from the video.
- There is nothing in the assailant’s clothes to suggest settler. Granted not every person from a ‘settlement’ dresses alike but there is a definite Hilltop Youth style that is missing here.
- Assailant has a conversation with the photographer in the white shirt but does not even pretend to attack other than waving his knife when the man has moved out of range. If someone was coming towards me with a knife I would either run like hell to get away of defend myself and the other ‘victim’. This man does neither. Why?
- At one point in this ‘fight’ the rabbi is overpowered and on his knees yet no real attempt is made to seriously injure the Rabbi with either the rock or the knife.
- None of the other olive harvesters/media steps in, at any time, before, during or after. The video cameraman, Zaccaria Sadeh, a RHR employee, just continues to record. Surely a group armed with rocks and farming implements could overpower one man?
- According to various statements the Rabbi was protecting against the theft of Palestinian olives or investigating a fire in the grove set by settlers, yet the action is on a rocky, clearly uncultivated hillside not an olive tree to be scene, oops, seen.
- The assailant simply leaves (to go where?) and no one does anything, even follow at a distance to see where he is going.
Do you see something I missed?
Throughout the 1930s, nations of the world were far too tolerant of Nazism and reluctant to take any action to ameliorate the sufferings of European Jewry. In refusing to confront the Nazis, they also sealed their own devastation via the Second World War.Welcome to the Real New Middle East
In today’s times, Western nations have been far too tolerant of the forces of radical Islam. Just like the Nazis, they threaten Israel and the West jointly.
Those who spoke out against the rise of Nazism in the 1930s were often labeled war mongers. Today, those who cite the threats posed by radical Islam face the same labels and similar criticisms.
Once again, the Jewish establishment maintains its silence in the face of the current threats, fearing the reaction of the outside world as it did 70 years ago.
The horrors of Kristallnacht shocked the world, and signaled the extreme dangers posed by the Nazi regime to the Jews — and to all humanity. What will it take to wake people up this time?
Would it have been nice if Peres’s vision had come true? Of course, it would have. But as I noted last week, the counter-factual scenarios that are mooted about what would have happened if Rabin lived are as nonsensical as they are anachronistic. Oslo had already started coming apart in a maelstrom of Palestinian terror before his murder. That was way polls showed Rabin being defeated by Netanyahu in the next election at the time of his death. And there is nothing that Rabin could have done to offer a fair settlement to the Palestinians that wouldn’t later put forward by Ehud Barak or Ehud Olmert. It is also fair to point out that at the time of his death Rabin was still fervently opposed to an independent Palestinian state or the division of Jerusalem, let alone unilateral withdrawal from the territories.Obama rules out Mideast peace deal before end of term
All of which is to say Peres’s idea that all the spears would be beaten into plowshares didn’t take into account the fact that Palestinian nationalism is inextricably tied to the struggle to eradicate Israel, no matter where its borders would be drawn. Its failure had nothing to do with Netanyahu and everything to do with the Palestinians.
But while we might lament this reality, the situation that Israel now finds itself in is actually far stronger than the one Rabin left behind. Moreover, though not all of his moves or statements have been wise, Netanyahu deserves a great deal of the credit for the Jewish state’s strong economy and a strategic situation that is rooted in a wise refusal to trust in the goodwill of vicious enemies.
President Obama’s disastrous outreach to Iran is partly responsible, and Netanyahu’s new Middle East isn’t the utopia of Peres’s book. But the notion of a Jewish state that can look to Egypt and Jordan as tacit military allies is something that David Ben Gurion could only have dreamed about. And that is something very much worth celebrating.
U.S. President Barack Obama has made a "realistic assessment" that a peace deal between Israelis and Palestinians is not possible during his final months in office, a U.S. official said Thursday.Israeli Ambassador Quips About Previous Role as Space Minister, Says UN Counterparts From a ‘Different Planet’
The official spoke to reporters ahead of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's visit to the White House on Monday. It is the first time Obama and Netanyahu will have met face-to-face since the U.S. and its international partners reached a nuclear accord with Iran in July.
Netanyahu was a chief critic of the deal and lobbied Republican lawmakers to oppose its implementation.
While the nuclear accord is expected to be a major focus of the leaders' talks, they will also discuss a fresh wave of Israeli-Palestinian violence that began in October on the Temple Mount and spread across Israel.
Officials said Obama and Netanyahu would discuss steps to prevent confrontations between the parties in the absence of peace agreement. They said that while Obama remains committed to a two-state solution between Israelis and Palestinians, he does not believe it is possible before he leaves office in January 2017, barring a major shift.
Addressing the 14th annual Iranian American Jewish Federation (IAJF) gala at Lincoln Center, Danny Danon railed against the UN’s “obsession” with Israel, while the rest of the Middle East “is in the middle of a dark storm.”IsraellyCool: Hillary Clinton Op-Ed Is Acknowledgment That Obama Hurt US-Israel Relationship
“ISIS is taking control of new territory every day and the Assad regime continues to use weapons against its own people. The fighting and violence continue in Yemen, Iraq, Syria, claiming the lives of thousands every day. Yet, the focus of so much UN attention” is on the Jewish state, he said.
Where the current surge in terrorism against Israelis is concerned, Danon criticized the UN for remaining silent when Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas lied about the Temple Mount, accusing Israel of attempting to turn the Al-Aqsa mosque a Jewish site.
He also rebuked the international body for not speaking out “when Abbas said, ‘We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Israel,'” and then calling on both sides to “show restraint.”
“There is only one side instigating the violence and attacking Israelis for no reason other than the fact that they are Jews in our historic homeland,” Danon said. “And instead of holding Palestinians accountable, many in the UN want to reward them.”
Danon quipped about how his previous position as minister of science, technology and space might serve him in good stead today. “I think learning about outer space might have been even more helpful, since some of the UN officials seem to live on a totally different planet,” he said.
The Forward Clinton NetanyahuYesterday’s Forward featured a pretty unusual op-ed, from Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton. The piece was originally titled “How I Would Forge Better Ties to Israel — and Rebuild Bond with Benjamin Netanyahu.” This op-ed would seem to confirm what we have been told, beginning in 2011 by Dan Senor, and more recently by Michael Oren and even Dennis Ross — that Obama bears the responsibility for the deterioration in the US-Israel relationship.Hillary Pens Op-Ed Claiming Love For Israel: Her Record Says Otherwise
Granted, editors often write titles and Clinton may not have written this one. And the editors at the Forward, apparently realizing the implications of it, have now changed it. But the fact that she felt the need to write this at all is evidence that Israel’s supporters in the US no longer trust the Democratic party on this issue. The piece itself, however, does not persuade me to change that view as it applies to Clinton.
Clinton writes that on her first visit to Israel in 1981, “Bill and I fell in love with Jerusalem as we walked the ancient streets of the Old City.” Yet, in 2010, as Secretary of State, she berated Prime Minister Netanyahu for allowing Jews to build houses in that city. She told him at the time that planned housing units for Jews in East Jerusalem sent a “deeply negative signal” about Israeli-American relations, and harmed “the bilateral relationship.”
Clinton may love the charms of Jerusalem, but like President Obama, she subscribes to the discriminatory notion that there are parts of the city in which Jews simply should not be permitted to live. As I’ve written before, such segregated housing practices have been banned in the US, and for good reason. The argument that demographic changes in a neighborhood will predetermine the outcome of any future negotiations for a Palestinian state is merely an endorsement of the racist proposition that the future Palestinian state must be Jew-free.
While Hillary claims to be Pro-Israel, she does not address the fact that Sidney Blumenthal who just this week was referred to as the Clintons closest advisor has defended claims that Israel is Germany, and Israelis must leave Israel. Hillary & Blumenthal have exchanged what has been detailed as “rabid Anti-Israel correspondence”, and he has defended his son’s Anti-Israel work.Hilary Clinton: I Will Invite Netanyahu to the White House in My First Month as President
Max (Sid’s son) wrote a book that Eric Alterman of The Nation said “could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed),” and he has compared Israelis to Nazis.
Hillary’s other close associate, Karen R. Adler signed an open letter to New York’s Mayor Bill De Blasio attacking him for aligning with AIPAC, noting “the needs and concerns of many of your constituents–U.S. Jews like us among them–are not aligned with those of AIPAC, and that no, your job is not to do AIPAC’s bidding when they call you to do so. AIPAC speaks for Israel’s hard-line government and its right-wing supporters, and for them alone; it does not speak for us.”
Clinton’s op-ed reiterated elements of a major foreign policy speech she gave two months ago at the Brookings Institution, in which she promised to strengthen ties with Israel—including inviting the Israeli prime minister to Washington during her first month in office—and defend American allies and interests against Iranian aggression.Clinton says she will impose peace talks if elected
Last month, in a departure with current White House policy, Clinton called for the removal of Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad and the creation of a no-fly zone as a means of protecting civilians from the ravages the country’s ongoing civil war. She also issued a statement calling for an unconditional stop to Palestinian terror against Israel.
Clinton claimed that she has stood with Israel throughout her career, and rattled off her attempts to force peace talks in Israel from her four-year stint as Obama's first secretary of state as evidence.Mr. Ran, Dr. Baratz, and Mida: A Reply to Judi Ruroden
"I convened Netanyahu and Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas for three sessions of face-to-face peace talks, the last time that's ever happened," she said.
"And in 2012 I led negotiations for a cease-fire in Gaza to stop Hamas rockets from raining down on Israeli homes and communities," she added, indicating negotiations with a genocidal terrorist organization. "As president, I will continue this fight."
She said she believed Washington had a duty to bring Israelis and Palestinian Arabs to the negotiating table, and "as president I will never stop working to advance the goal of two states for two peoples living in peace, security and dignity."
The first thing I noticed in Jodi Rudoren’s attack piece on my former employer* is how she insisted on constantly referring to him as “Mr.” As she herself acknowledges, Ran Baratz is a Doctor of Philosophy. Indeed, everyone I know at work often calls him “the Doctor.” Forget bias—common courtesy would require that he be referred to as such, regardless of what she thinks of him politically.Think Tank Says New Mideast Geopolitical Situation Means Israel Needs America Less
Ever since the Prime Minister announced that Dr. Baratz would be head of the state hasbara effort, journalists in Israel and abroad have been hard at work culling everything he ever wrote in an attempt to portray him in the most unflattering light. I say this because Dr. Baratz has written hundreds of articles over the years in various publications, many if not most of which would have greatly complicated Rudoren’s attempt to portray him as a simple-minded nationalistic fanatic.
They didn’t even do a good job of going over his facebook page. If they did, they would know that Dr. Baratz is in favor of privatizing religious services, is highly and even severely critical of the ghettoization tendencies of sections of the religious right (I even published an English version of one such critique here on Times of Israel), and all sorts of other conservative positions which fit far better with classical secular liberalism than fanaticism. Those who know him would also be aware that he’s also not a Greater Israel type at all costs, either.
Rudoren’s article, much like many other attacks on Dr. Baratz, sound like rushed, ill-thought-out cherry picking meant to paint the target around the arrow rather than the other way around. So far as I know, no-one from the NYT approached either myself or any of the other editors for comment on the appointment. The same is true of the literally hundreds of religious, secular, male, and female students he has taught over the years in various forums.
The shifting geopolitical reality in the Middle East has led Israel to seek allies beyond its traditionally close relationship with the US, said a new analysis by the Washington DC think tank, the Council on Foreign Relations.NYTs Editorial: In Iran, a Deal and Then a Crackdown
One of those changes has been Israel’s increasing difficulty reconciling pressure from Washington over the peace process, especially as the Israeli public continues to elect strong right-wing governments.
The other shift happened as many of Israel’s longtime foes — Muammar Qaddafi’s Libya, Saddam Hussein’s Iraq, Bashar Assad’s Syria, for the most part — have become irrelevant or embattled, allowing Israel to square in on the threat emanating from Iran.
The authors noted that Israel has developed deeper relationships with other powers like India, Russia and China.
In China, for example, the analysis noted China’s increasing engagement with Israeli tech through cooperation on cybersecurity.
The anti-American backlash in Iran since the nuclear deal was signed has gotten so bad that one Iranian-American businessman in Tehran now likens it to a witch hunt. As alarming as that is, the crackdown will probably get worse.Will Obama Also Attempt to Waive Iran Terrorism Sanctions?
Iranian hard-liners, led by the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps, long ago signaled their implacable opposition to the deal, which constrains Iran’s nuclear program in exchange for a lifting of international sanctions. Increasingly, these forces are demonstrating how far they are willing to go to undermine the agreement and the chance of improved relations with the West, which many supporters of the nuclear deal — in America as well as in Iran — hoped would be an added benefit.
The Revolutionary Guards Corps and its allies, of course, view any such opening as a grave threat to the political system and, perhaps more important, their control of large segments of Iran’s economy.
As a warning to moderates like President Hassan Rouhani[??], who championed the nuclear deal as necessary to revive Iran’s crippled economy and promised more freedoms when he was elected, Guards agents have started rounding up journalists, activists and cultural figures. In recent days, the intelligence unit arrested several prominent people, including Isa Saharkhiz, a well-known journalist and reformist; Ehsan Mazandarani, the top editor of a reformist newspaper, Farhikhtegan; and Afarin Chitsaz, an actress and newspaper columnist.
Remember all the promises that the only sanctions to be lifted would be those related to Iran’s presumed efforts to obtain nuclear weapons? Well, many other seemingly iron-clad promises have gone by the wayside. For example, how could it be that the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA or Nuclear Iran Deal) included provisions that lift the embargo on Iran for acquiring conventional weapons, or – even more frightening – the embargo on intercontinental ballistic weapons?Family of American Killed by Hezbollah Rocket Sues Iran
So, the concern arose, what if the administration decided to waive the anti-terrorism sanctions under the tax code (specifically, 26 U.S.C. 901(j))? That regulation states that U.S. taxpayers cannot get credit for taxes paid to countries with which the U.S. has severed diplomatic relations or which the Secretary of State has designated as a supporter of terrorism.
As a general matter, the President has the authority to waive that measure “in the national interest.” Do you see the problem? It is the president’s decision to make.
Given the many sleights of hand surrounding the Iran Deal, on Sept. 22, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), former chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, sent a letter to President Barack Obama. In that letter Ryan asked Obama whether his administration had made any commitment or promise to exercise his waiver authority for sanctions imposed on Iran due to its engagement in terrorism.
The family of an American man who was killed in 2006 by a Hezbollah rocket that was fired into Israel is suing Iran and three banks for funding the Iranian-backed Lebanese terror group.Weapons experts confirm mustard gas used in Syria war
In a lawsuit filed Monday, lawyers for the family of terror victim David M. Lelchook argue that Iran, Bank Saderat (Iran’ central bank), and United Kingdom-based Bank Saderat, PLC each “provided Hezbollah with material support and resources…that enabled, facilitated and caused” the death of Lelchook.
Lelchook, a 52-year-old Israeli-American, was killed as he fled home on his bicycle in northern Israel during the 2006 Second Lebanon War between Israel and Hezbollah. Lelchook was originally from the Boston suburb of Newton and had been living in Israel for 20 years.
“Hezbollah is a proxy of Iran, which is up to ever more mischief,” said Robert J. Tolchin, one of two Brooklyn attorneys representing the Lelchook family, the Boston Herald reported. “David Lelchook was a 52-year-old man with another lifetime ahead of him, and that’s been taken away from him by a random missile. They call that war? They call that the way a nation behaves?”
Weapons experts have concluded for the first time that mustard gas was used during fighting in Syria, UN sources told AFP Thursday adding a terrifying dimension to the four-year conflict.JPost Editorial: Immoral labels
The deadly gas, first used in battle in World War I, was unleashed in the flashpoint town of Marea in the northern province of Aleppo on August 21, a source from the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said.
At that point the moderate Syrian opposition, which has been fighting to oust Syrian President Bashar al-Assad, was battling against jihadist militants from the Islamic State group.
“It is the first time that we have confirmed the use of mustard gas in Syria,” the source said, asking not to be named.
“We have determined the facts, but we have not determined who was responsible.”
Singling out Israel for special condemnation is not only wrong, it is immoral for a number of reasons. It imposes the entire blame for the failure to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict on Israel.Hotovely to Spanish FM: Labeling settlement goods ‘rewards terror’
Those who support a boycott against Israel refuse to acknowledge the historical realities of the ongoing conflict, they also ignore contemporary realities.
The present wave of violence directed against innocent Israeli citizens is yet another reminder of the depth of Palestinian intransigence and violence that has broad support within Palestinian society.
An EU decision to label Israeli products now, as the Palestinian political leadership turns to incitement and the glorification of terrorists, is not only wrong and immoral, it is dangerous. It rewards Palestinian violence while vilifying Israel, thus setting the stage for yet more violence.
Hotovely told Jose Manuel Garcia-Margallo at a Madrid meeting that the measure would also be ineffective, saying it “will not advance the peace process, and will not affect Israel’s economy.”Likud minister skips event with EU envoy in protest of settlement labeling
“The only ones to suffer from this directive is the thousands of Palestinians employees in factories in Judea and Samaria,” she said. referring to the West Bank by its biblical name.
“While you mark products, our citizens are being stabbed in the streets,” she said. “This is rewarding terrorism.”
Minister of Science Technology and Space Ofir Akunis has cancelled his participation in a joint event with the EU envoy to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen in protest over the anticipated European Union labeling directives of products from the West Bank, east Jerusalem and the Golan Heights.Watch: European Parliamentarians slam boycott in Samaria
"The labeling initiative is a dark stain on the moral fabric of Europe which bears witness to the fact that the lessons of history have not been learned," he said.
Akunis said he viewed favorably the Horizon 2020 project and other joint science and technology initiatives with the EU but that he "could not ignore the EU initiative which is nearing implementation."
"What began with calls to boycott Jewish businesses, continued with the marking of human beings, and afterwards with their systematic destruction," the Likud minister said.
Members of the European Parliament took part in a tour of the Biblical heartland of Samaria on Wednesday, to take a look at the facts on the ground ahead of an imminent discriminatory EU move to label Jewish products from the region and Judea.French supermarket chain rejects plea to boycott Israeli products
One parliament member who took part in the tour was Roger Helmer of the UK, who is Head of Delegation for the UKIP party. He spoke about the legitimate need for Jewish housing in the region in the face of European condemnation.
Helmer also spoke about the negative effects of the BDS boycott targeting the region, noting that those most affected would be the thousands of Palestinian Arabs employed at Jewish factories.
He invited more European Parliament members to visit the region and see the reality on the ground.
Citing Israeli producers’ “full compliance” with French law, the Monoprix supermarket chain declined a request to boycott products from Israel.Jewish University of Birmingham student trolled after complaining over Hitler poster
Monoprix gave its refusal in a letter it sent last week to Claudine Vegas of Toulouse, who heads the Collectif Palestine Libre (“Free Palestine Collective”) – a group that lobbies for the boycott of Israeli products as part of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, or BDS.
Vegas wrote to the management of Monoprix, which has hundreds of supermarkets across France, requesting they remove Ahava brand cosmetic products, which are produced by Kibbutz Mitzpe Shalem, located about one mile from the Dead Sea in the eastern West Bank. Ahava products are labeled as made in Israel.
Vegas claimed that Ahava’s products “come from illegal settlements, and are supplied to Monoprix at the price of appropriation, misery and injustice caused to Palestinians.”
A Jewish University of Birmingham student faced vile abuse after highlighting an Adolf Hitler poster she said was “plastered” over the campus.#IStandWithIzzy Campaign Launched in Support of UK Student Trolled by Antisemites
Police are investigating comments aimed at Izzy Lenga after she tweeted an image of the poster, which showed Hitler and the phrase: “Hitler was right”.
The 21-year-old theology student said she had been “bombarded” with anti-Semitic abuse and threats.
Miss Lenga, originally from London, said: “The backlash to my tweet has been extremely nasty and deeply upsetting.
“Bombarded by anti-Semitic hate, abuse and threats over the past week, my Twitter feed has been a constantly terrifying read.
“I am worried about the rise of anti-Semitism across Europe and the world, and at points I am worried for my safety and that of my peers, but I am most concerned for the Jewish student community.
A Twitter campaign under the hashtag #IStandWithIzzy was launched this week, after a Birmingham University student was bombarded with antisemitic messages.And How Densely Built-up Was Jerusalem?
Izzy Lenga, a British Jew, became the target of social media trolls when she tweeted a photo of a “Hitler Was Right” poster — with the message: “And for those who dont think anti Semitism is a serious issue, these were plastered over campus on Tues #NUSzones15.”
In response to her tweet, Lenga received an outpouring of Jew hatred.
“This b***h is the problem with the UK. Making everything about the Jews. #HitlerWasRight #F*ckAllNonWhites,” one user wrote. Another called Lenga’s post, “Nazi propaganda planted by ZIonists [sic].”
Supporters were equally vociferous. Among these were Deputy Head of Mission at Israeli Embassy of South Africa Michael Freeman, and British Labour MP Luciana Berger.
Following the flurry in connection with my Rachel's Tomb post, as if I implied that there were no Arabs, no Arab homes, no Arab fields in this land - but I did write that their narrative is not as truthful as the historical record, and more in line with Mark Twain's descriptions (and also here) which is contested.WATCH: A first desert harvest, in 1956
Let's look at Jerusalem to see how densely populous and built-up it was almost 100 years ago.
“To reap a harvest from a desert must be one of the most satisfactory of all operations,” declares the narrator in this 1956 newsreel.
On screen, Kaddish Luz, Israel’s minister of agriculture at the time, drives a combine through the fields of the Negev.
“The ground had never before been cultivated,” the announcer concludes.
“But the reclamation of desert for agriculture purposes is naturally of prime importance to the country, which aims at eventually becoming self-supporting.”
Hollywood celebs raise $31 million for IDF soldiers
The Friends of the IDF (FIDF) organization on Thursday night held its annual event honoring the IDF at the Beverly Hilton hotel in Los Angeles, where an outpouring of 1,200 people including numerous celebs showed their support for the Israeli army.Balfour Declaration en route to Israel?
As is the case each year, the event was hosted by Israeli billionaire Haim Saban, who together with his wife Cheryl was able to invite Hollywood notables such as actors Antonio Banderas, Jason Alexander, Mark Wahlberg, Jason Segel, Liev Schreiber, singers Enrico Macias, David Foster, and Gene Simmons of the band Kiss, as well as several others.
This year no less than $31 million were raised for IDF soldiers at the event, which was attended by 15 soldiers, including several lone soldiers who were born and raised in the US.
Among the leading donators were FIDF president and founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, who donated $8.4 million, Saban who gave $5 million, Florence and Serge Azaria who donated $5 million, and Paul and Morris Marciano who were among the founders of the company Guess and gave $2.7 million.
Saban, the largest private donator to the IDF, said that particularly at a time when there is a large call to boycott Israel, "we are here to show the amazing support of Hollywood elite and the Jewish community of the US for Israel and IDF soldiers."
Israel’s deputy ambassador to Britain has raised the possibility that the original 1917 Balfour Declaration would be brought to Israel in a special exhibition marking the historic document’s centenary in 2017.Pope Francis Tells Jewish Delegation to Vatican Joke About Antisemitic Priest
Jewish News reported that the diplomat, Eitan Na’eh, mentioned the idea Tuesday before the Balfour Day lecture at the British Library.
Na'eh spoke of the possibility of a curated exhibition in Jerusalem which would include the Declaration – a letter written on November 2, 1917, by Arthur Balfour, then the Foreign Secretary, to Lord Rothschild – as well as a letter he sent previously to various interested parties.
The document, which is normally housed at the British Library, would be temporarily relocated outside Britain for the first time.
In it, then-UK Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour declared that Britain would support the establishment of a national homeland for the Jewish People in the Land of Israel.
Na’eh said that the highlight of Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s recent visit to Britain had been a viewing of the Declaration, which had been “emotional and brought tears to his eyes”.
Pope Francis told a joke about an antisemitic Catholic priest to a group of Latin American Jews visiting the Vatican last week, the UK’s Jewish Chronicle reported on Thursday.
Claudio Epelman, executive director of the Latin American Jewish Congress (LAJC), recounted the pontiff’s stab at humor: “One day during his sermon, the priest found a way to attack Jews as usual, in a vicious way. During a pause, Jesus got down from his cross, looked at the Virgin Mary and said, ‘Let’s get out of here, Mum, they don’t seem to like us.'”
The group, which included leaders of the Jewish World Congress, reportedly found the joke funny and Epelman later told the Argentinian newspaper La Nación, “It’s incredible that the Pope would tell a joke like this. It says so much about the wonderful relationship he has with Jews.”
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