Monday, November 16, 2015
Eugene Kontorovich: The ‘true origins’ of the E.U.’s Israel labeling policy
In other words, the E.U. has transformed “origin” rules that are universally interpreted as being about place to being about people. This goes far beyond correcting any alleged confusion about whether the Golan Heights is in Israel, to providing a uniquely discriminatory interpretation of “true origin” in origin-labeling requirements.In Israel, Hungary’s FM says his country opposes settlement labels
One might add the guidelines appear internally inconsistent as well. The test to apply is whether an area is “part of the … territory” of the labeling state. Yet they approve “Palestine” labels while not suggesting that Palestine is a state at all, and thus has no territory. Moreover, it seems to exclude West Jerusalem from the scope of the guidelines, though clearly the E.U. position is that is not part of the territory of Israel. All this is bound to be very confusing to consumers.
To be sure, many people who oppose Israel’s presence in the West Bank may not care about the singularity of this rule; they will be happy with measures intended to discourage Israel’s presence. But just as the policy is not really about geographic labeling, it is also not about the peace process or a Palestinian state. The rule applies in full to the Golan Heights. So Israel is presumably also being pushed to return this area to one of the competing Syrian regimes — the al-Nusra Front, the Islamic State or the Assad regime. The absurdity of such a policy suggests that the E.U. move is motivated more out of generalized hostility to Israel than concrete policy disagreements.
Any sympathy the European Union may have generated among most dovish Israelis with its West Bank labeling is lost by its extension of these rules to the Golan.
Hungary opposes the introduction of special labels for products made in Israeli settlements, the country’s foreign minister said Monday, calling it “irrational” and arguing that it hurts efforts to promote Israeli-Palestinian peace.We are all fighting like Israel now
Last week, the European Union, of which Hungary is a member, published guidelines on how member states should label certain products made by Israelis beyond the country’s internationally recognized borders.
“We do not support that decision,” declared Péter Szijjártó, also Hungary’s trade minister, who is currently visiting Israel. “It is an inefficient instrument. It is irrational and does not contribute to a solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict], but causes damage.”
Just as Israel follows the movements of Hamas commanders in Gaza, so Jihadi John will have been tracked for months before the missile fell from the sky. Some of that surveillance may have been done electronically, but it must be assumed that the terrorist was wise enough to make life difficult for his pursuers by dumping his smartphone and laptop.The New Israel Fund and those who support them are helping terrorists
In Gaza, Israel supplements high-tech surveillance with a network of informers. America and Britain will be trying to do the same in Raqqa and the rest of Isil-controlled Syria. The aim will be to keep the likes of Jihadi John under the surveillance of human or electronic eyes as close to constantly as possible.
The goal will be to identify the fleeting opportunity – probably measured only in minutes – when the target can be killed without innocent civilians being harmed. So it is not good enough to discover where someone like Jihadi John happens to sleep, or where he guards hostages. In each of these locations, a drone strike would also kill those unfortunate enough to be nearby.
The best option is to strike when the quarry happens to be in a small and enclosed space, either alone or accompanied by those who share his notoriety. This explains why targets are often killed in cars. Jihadi John appears to have been dispatched as he entered a vehicle shortly before midnight - when the street around him was probably empty.
But the success of operations of this kind depends on speed. As soon as the target steps into the car, he must be spotted and this information relayed to a command centre. A drone then has to be placed on station - all within minutes. If a decision is taken to fire a missile, this will be only the final act of a long drama.
The network that is capable of gathering this information will probably rely on human agents as much as electronic surveillance.
There was a time when the Western world, including America, would publicly condemn Israel’s assassinations of Hamas commanders in Gaza. Today, by contrast, the US and its allies are assembling their own version of Israel’s system of retribution. There is a reason for that change. Israeli commanders always point out that the Middle East is “a bad neighbourhood” in which tough choices are an unpalatable necessity. The global reach of Islamic extremism, however, means Western leaders too now feel they can and must strike the same hard headed posture they once professed to spurn. (h/t Effect)
Israel National News reported, as did all of Israeli media, that the Palestinian Arab terrorist who killed a Jewish father and son Friday was turned in by his own father and brother to Israeli security services – they admitted that were concerned that if they did not, their homes would be destroyed.
Israeli security forces arrested the suspected murderer, who killed 40-year old Yaakov Litman and his 18-year old son Netanel who were en route to a pre-wedding celebration (Sarah, Yaakov's daughter and Netanel's sister, was to be married this Tuesday. The wedding has been postponed).
Even for Israeli security, this was a quick feat – and it saved who knows how many lives, time and resources for security – and it happened because Israel’s policy of destroying the homes of terrorists works. It scared the father and brother of an Islamic Jihad would-be-martyr.
The suicide terrorist commits suicide – and he needs to know a price will be paid by those left behind.
Israel saves human lives – and deters jihadists by letting them know their families' homes will be the price paid for their acts. Each demolition is vetted by the courts, even though that means a delay.
And while Israeli soldiers protect Israel, and most American Jews stand with Israel, there remain those who fund the legal battles of the families of terrorists who wish to prevent this deterrent from being used.
Can there be a clearer example of standing with terrorists?
IsraellyCool: A Map Of Palestine From 1759!
Part 1: The Map TitleIsraellyCool: Another Map Of Palestine, Another Own Goal For Israel Haters
Basically the word “Palæstina” is the only thing the anti-Israel tweeters have to go by here, because here’s the English translation via Google Translate.
Not only exhibiting the old kingdoms of Judah and Israel in their 12 distinct tribes but even their different eras and the condition of the sacred pages indicated map search. Newly elaborated work and study by Tobias Conrad Lotter, geographers aug. Vindel 1759.
So no, this is not a map of Palestine in 1759. This is a map of the 12 Ancient Tribes of Israel and was created in 1759.
Part 2: The History Of Judaism Is All Over The Place
The only reason the word “Palæstina” appears on the map, is because that is the term used by the Romans for that particular geographical area in attempt to erase Jewish memory. Everything else on that map? A detailed lesson in ancient Jewish history!
Now let’s look a bit closer at that map on the right.Bankruptcy and Mud
At the top is written “Palestine IN THE TIME OF SAUL” – as in King Saul, Jewish king of Israel predating Kings David and Solomon.
So yet again, we have the haters trying to disprove the Jewish origins of this land – and doing the exact opposite.
Which won’t be the first time Greta has screwed up in this way.
Many of the bankrupt European countries hostile to Israel now find themselves faced with a massive influx of Middle Eastern and African refugees. They are the brothers and sisters of the hundreds of thousands of murdered Muslims and the millions of refugees in tents, with only Allah ( s.w.a.t) to pity and protect them. Many die in leaky boats, in a desperate attempt to reach the safe shores of Europe. Those who do make it safely, join the Muslims in the Islamic enclaves where they have been plotting against their hosts for years.The Litman Murders: The Untold Story Of An Empty Wedding Hall
The West has waited far too long to wake up to the realization that the Palestinian problem is not the cause of regional events. Therefore, The West's obsession with forcing a "solution" on Israel and the Palestinians will change nothing for the better, it will only expand the catastrophe to the doorstep of Israel and the Palestinian Authority, the only islands of security and stability for Arabs, Christians and Jews in the Middle East.
In the shadow of the calamity of the refugees, we are slowly understanding that the issue of the return of the Palestinians to "Palestine," which we hang on to so frantically, is an anachronistic, politically manipulated mirage. There is nothing to be done but settle the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees as part of the overall settlement of all the Middle Eastern refugees -- if, that is, our Arab brothers ever succeed in extricating themselves from the swamp of the "Arab Spring."
What is strange is that the Gulf States, particularly Saudi Arabia and Qatar, which fund Islamic terrorism and pay the salaries of the radical clerics who incite murder and destruction, are silent when it comes to accepting refugees into their countries. Saudi Arabia has hundreds of thousands of empty, air-conditioned tents at its disposal, used only during the hajj pilgrimage. They could help shelter the millions of Sunni Muslim Syrian and Iraqi refugees. But Saudi Arabia does not open its gates to them, not even to a small number.
Now, by accusing each other for our refusal, hesitation and rejection of every proposal that might bring the Israelis to the negotiating table, we have finally managed to put an end to the "problem of Palestine." As our elders have said for years: "Falastin ['Palestine' in Arabic] begins with falas [bankruptcy] and ends with teen [mud]."
Which is why it falls to me to try and convey the details to you, dear Reader, and to the world, if only the world would listen for the short time it will take me to tell this story.Watch: Palestinian kids play 'hide-and-go-stab'
This is the story of the heinous double-murder of Rabbi Yaakov Litman and his 18 year-old son, Netanel. The car was filled with various members of the Litman family, seven all told. They were on their way to Metar, where their daughter Sarah’s groom to be, Ariel Biegel, the rabbi’s son, would be called to read from the Torah on his last Shabbat as a single man. Candies would be thrown at him by the joyous congregants, wishing him a long and sweet life with his bride. There would be singing, and two families getting to know each other over shared meals, and lots and lots of mazal tovs.
But it was not to be.
The car was set upon by Arab terrorists who laid in wait for Jewish prey, in a car by the side of the road. The terrorists sprayed the car filled with Litmans, taking out father and son, leaving a mother and various other family members wounded and grieving.
Sarah Techiya Litman, the bride to be, would not have been with them. It is traditional for the bride-to-be to have her final Shabbat as a single girl, in the company of her friends. By tradition, the bride and groom are not to see each other in the last several days before the wedding, as this is bad luck. So it was that when Sarah said goodbye to her father and brother, she said goodbye to them for good.
She had no inkling, of course, that this was to be the case.
Incitement in Palestinian Arab society has reached a new low as captured in a disturbing video being shared on Arab social media in recent days, which reveals that the latest rage in playground games among Palestinian Authority (PA) schoolchildren is "hide-and-go-stab."Hamas: First Judea and Samaria, then the rest of 'Palestine'
In the video, filmed at the Farah "refugee camp" near Jenin in Samaria, four Arab children play the part of Jewish victims replete with kippahs on their heads, and walk past where a child playing the role of the Arab terrorist is lurking behind a corner. He then jumps out and pretends to stab each of them in turn with a knife, using the handle side of the lethal weapon.
The children fall, shouting "ima," the Hebrew word for mother, as they play out the part of Jewish victims and other children videotape the entire "game."
The new fad, educating the next generation of terrorists who have come as young as 11 in the recent wave of attacks.
Hamas plans to “liberate” Judea and Samaria first, and then the rest of “Palestine”, the group’s deputy leader Ismail Haniyeh declared on Sunday.Former Jordanian MP Abu Sukkar Praises Stabbings, Calls for More Attacks
Speaking to the Palestine newspaper, Haniyeh outlined his desired strategy for the destruction of Israel through the “Al-Quds Intifada”, which is what Hamas is calling the current terror wave against Israel.
First and foremost, he called for a conference in Gaza of the interim leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) in order to protect and develop the intifada.
The intifada is the best way to achieve statehood, claimed Haniyeh, and in order to achieve that, leadership that is coordinated on the field must be established, and an agreement on the goals of the intifada must be reached.
Those goals, according to Haniyeh, are: The “liberation” of Gaza, Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem and the terrorist prisoners being held in Israel, and then a plan on how to liberate the rest of “Palestine”.
Palestinian Cleric in Antisemitic Diatribe on Official PA TV: The Jews - Slayers of the Prophets
The world revolves around the Palestinians – and it has got to stop
The world seems to turn on a Palestinian axis. It is remarkable that the Palestinian Arabs, who have no historical, cultural or legal rights to the land of Israel, are endowed with so much international and economic patronage by the European Union, the United States, the United Nations, and other organisations, such as Oxfam and Christian Aid. How did the Palestinians and their international backers manage to achieve such a feat? Why does the world revolve around the Palestinians?False Friends: The Global War Against Israel
There are two answers to this. One is the Palestinians’ cynical calculus of terror. They have learnt that violence is rewarded by the West. Acts of terror against Jews only strengthen the West’s belief that a Palestinian state is the answer. Hence the two-state solution based on the so-called pre-1967 borders. But the West is being fooled. Palestinians do not want a political solution, not when terrorism reaps dividends. That’s why Yasser Arafat instigated the second intifada. He did it to mask his rejection of the Camp David deal in 2000. And what happened? The world blamed Israel for the “occupation,” which garnered further sympathy for the Palestinians.
Arafat, Hamas and Mahmoud Abbas all know that terrorism focuses worldwide attention on Israel. Should the Palestinians ever have their own state, Western leaders and newspapers would lose interest and turn their full attention to other matters such as Kurdish dispossession, Chinese human rights abuses or the enslavement of women and children in Syria. This is not what the Palestinians or other Arabs want. They want the Israeli-Palestinian conflict to continue because it exerts unbearable pressure on the Jewish state.
Just as people in Paris were murdered one day last week, Jews in Israel are murdered virtually every day.Martin Indyk’s Latest Low
Undoubtedly, Rabin wanted peace -- virtually all Israelis want peace -- but not at any price. He never envisaged the creation of a Palestinian state: the Oslo Accords provided for the establishment of a "provisional self-government," not a state.
Rabin did not contemplate infinite and unconditional negotiations: the Oslo Accords call for a five-year period of negotiations, and include the possibility of breaking off the talks if one of the parties does not respect the spirit in which the Accords were to be implemented.
In addition, Rabin, seeing the rise of violence, wanted during the last weeks of his life to break off the talks. If the Oslo talks did not live up to their expectations, it was in continuing to pursue the vain and useless negotiations -- exactly the opposite of what Rabin had envisioned.
Palestinian leaders have an overwhelming responsibility for what has happened during the last twenty years. Not only have they continued to make the very demands that Rabin rejected -- and that no leader in a comparable situation could ever accept; they have done worse.
Israel cannot make peace, because there is no one to make peace with.
Peace implies conditions. One of the first is that those with whom a country intends to make peace also want to make peace. Nothing, however, indicates that Palestinian leaders have the slightest intention of making anything that even resembles peace.
One hopes the French will not surrender to terrorists; neither should the Israelis.
On the issue of Syria, Indyk engaged in similar sophistry, resting on questionable logic. “For the historical record,” he said, “five Israeli prime ministers, including Netanyahu, offered a full withdrawal from the Golan. … If you want to ask, ‘Where would you have been if’ — you would have been where you are with Egypt today: A revolution and a counterrevolution later, you still have a peace treaty with them. Guess what? ISIS [Islamic State] is in the Sinai, but you have an arrangement with Egypt under which you can help fight ISIS.”Dear Mr. Indyk….
Huh?
Israel tried to make peace with Syria by giving up the Golan Heights and was rejected. And this, like the bloody civil war in which pro-Assad regime forces and rebels are massacring each other, is Israel’s fault?
Yes, Indyk bemoaned, had Israel reached a deal with Syria in the past, “It would have transformed the Israeli-Arab conflict in a dramatic way. We missed the opportunity for a comprehensive peace between Israel and its neighbors — Lebanon would have followed as well. Problems with Hezbollah would have been in an entirely different context. And the U.S. would have remained the dominant power in the region. You can trace the arc of the decline of American influence in the region to that moment, when we failed to get the Syrian deal.”
Mr. Indyk, with all undue respect, the “decline of American influence” can be traced to the election of President Barack Obama. To blame Israel for that travesty goes beyond your usual chutzpah. Kudos for letting your immoral compass guide you to new low levels of discourse that, fortunately, most Israelis are no longer listening to.
You have been quoted as saying that Pres. Abbas, who is currently in the tenth year of what was supposed to be a four-year term, “could become a partner tomorrow for the deal [Israel would] like to make if there was a settlement freeze,” and also that, “I can tell you, from personal experience, they [the settlements] are the problem.” This is very strong language, indeed: Israeli settlement-building activity is apparently the only obstacle to a full-fledged peace agreement with the PA. It is precisely this language that seems to me to be unrelated to all the most relevant facts.US Ambassador to Israel: ‘History Will Be Kinder’ to Obama-Netanyahu Relationship (INTERVIEW)
Let us assume for the moment that Israel were indeed to enter into a “settlement freeze,” however that vague term is defined. What next? According to you, what is next is a peace deal between the government of Israel and the PA. That deal would provide, first and foremost, for a cessation of all hostilities between the two parties. And then, of course, there would have to a settling of borders, resolution of the ‘right of return’ of Palestinians to Israel, an agreement as to control of Jerusalem and its holy sites, water and air rights, the military force to be mustered by the new state, etc. But, first of all, there would have to be a cessation of hostilities. What is a peace agreement, after all, if it doesn’t usher in peace?
And so the question arises: would Pres. Abbas be able to enforce on the Palestinian side the promise to end hostilities? No serious person can doubt that the answer is ‘no’. The plain, unhappy fact is that Mr. Abbas is a ‘leader’ who does not lead that one portion of his population—the Islamist terrorist goups, starting with Hamas and including all the numerous other groups dedicated to the destruction of Israel—whose cooperation would be vital to a genuine cessation of hostilities. The men (and women) with the guns—and the knives, the rockets, the explosive vests, and the underground tunnels—are the members of Islamist terrorist groups, and they view Mr. Abbas as their rival and enemy, not as their leader.
A day before Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and President Barack Obama met at the White House earlier in the week, I shared the “Press Stage” at the Jewish Federations of North America General Assembly with US Ambassador to Israel Daniel B. Shapiro. Instead of living in the story of the moment, the diplomat took a longer view on the world leaders’ much-discussed relationship.Hamas seeks to sanction Israel's media
“Frankly, I think that when history is written about this period, out of the day-to-day political narrative and the tensions that exist in both countries, I think the history will be kinder to [Obama and Netanyahu] and kinder to what they achieved together than what sometimes comes across in the day-to-day media coverage,” Shapiro told me.
The following is an edited and condensed version of the rest of my interview with Shapiro.
Palestinians have begun their latest legal campaign against the Jewish state - this time, targeting the Israeli press.On Visit to Israel, London’s Boris Johnson Bearish on BDS, Bullish on Trade
Salama Marouf, head of the Hamas media office, has accused Israeli news stations of managing a deliberate attack against Palestinian journalists since the outbreak of the so-called "Al-Quds intifada."
According to Marouf, his office records Israel's "crimes" against media teams and will deliver a report to international and legal bodies, including the United Nations.
This report, adds Marouf, will also serve as the basis for a suit against Israel at the International Criminal Court at The Hague.
In addition, Marouf has called on the International Federation of Journalists to remove Israel's membership.
“It’s fantastic to see that cutting-edge technology, such as Cycle Safety Shield developed by Mobileye in Israel, is being utilized to help make London’s roads safer,” said London Mayor Boris Johnson during his trade mission to Israel earlier this month.Adoration of the Palestinians: Guardian cartoon shows Boris Johnson tackling baby Jesus
Johnson arrived in Israel with an official trade delegation, mainly to promote bilateral trade in technology between the cities of London and Tel Aviv. His mission was to promote the British capital’s high-tech sector, in a bid to get more Israeli companies to expand to London and make IPOs (initial public offerings) on its stock markets.
London is currently home to 141 Israeli high-tech firms, according to London & Partners (the mayor’s promotional agency) and the IVC Research Center. There are currently 16 Israeli tech firms listed across London Stock Exchange’s markets with a combined market value of £3.7 billion ($5.6 billion).
Johnson was also very critical of the movement to boycott Israel, deriding them as “a bunch of corduroy-jacketed lefty academics.”
“I cannot think of anything more foolish than to say that you want to have any kind of divestment or sanctions or whatever or boycott, against a country that when all is said and done is the only democracy in the region,” he said in an interview with Israel’s Channel 2.
It’s also necessary to understand that the cartoon was inspired by this 1564 painting by Peter Brueger the Elder ‘The Adoration of the Kings’, in which the Virgin Mary is seen cradling the infant Jesus.Eugene Volokh: U. Minnesota student government rejects annual recognition of 9/11, citing in part “potential perpetuation of Islamophobia”
A commentary on ‘Adoration of the Kings’ suggests that the presence of soldiers in the painting “may reflect the Spanish occupation of the Netherlands at this time”.
Was Bell alluding to the Israeli occupation?
Either way, Bell’s cartoon certainly seems to be echoing frequent Palestinian efforts to present themselves as the direct descendants of Jesus and Mary. Unlike the ‘adoration’ for baby Jesus by the kings, Johnson is seen crudely trampling on the sanctity of the virgin birth.
Moreover, Bell’s cartoon can arguably be seen as a promotion of Palestinian Liberation Theology.
An article by Kasey Carpenter (in the Minnesota Republic, a student paper) broke this story, and reports:Black Activists Double Down on Hate with #F***Paris Hashtag
On Tuesday, November 10, the Minnesota Student Association (MSA) — the undergraduate student government at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities (UMN) — rejected a resolution for a moment of recognition on future anniversaries of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks….
At-large MSA representative and Director of Diversity and Inclusion David Algadi voiced severe criticism of the resolution….
Ms. Carpenter and her editor kindly shared with me a copy of the e-mails that Mr. Algadi sent to them in response to their queries. In the second, he “summarize[d]” his position as “I am well aware that 9/11 was a devastating tragedy but I am also fearful for the welfare of our Muslim and Middle Eastern students on campus, of which I identify with.”
Resentful black activists and their comrades started a backlash against the huge public sympathy for the Parisian victims of the Islamist terror war. On Sunday, they used Twitter’s hashtag #F#ckParis to reveal their emotional reaction to their loss of attention.In the wake of Paris, University of Toronto's radical fanatics will gather Wednesday to support terrorists
Breitbart News’ Milo Yiannopoulos reported, the social media backlash began almost immediately by Black Lives Matters activists upset about how the historic terror attack by ISIS that left over 120 dead had stolen the media spotlight overnight on Friday.
A small sampling of the tweets show no sympathy towards the killed and wounded in Paris. Instead, the left-wing activists described the slaughter in France as retribution for the Western colionialist, imperialist, racist, and white culture. The tweets cited included France’s long history with Haiti and Africa, as well as France’s popular ban on Muslim’s Afghan-style face-covering ‘niqab’ cloaks.
The #F#ckParis hashtag also was retweeted by radicals in both America and Europe who supported the Islamist attack and open borders for refugees.
With the carnage branded freshly onto our memories and the blood not yet all washed away from this week's monstrous Paris terrorist attacks, you might imagine that a gathering in Canada to celebrate terrorists who committed similar atrocities would seem somewhat ill-timed.Edgar Davidson: LSE's Middle East Centre hosted a workshop on Israel - but only invited anti-Israel activists to speak
Evidently, the University of Toronto Student Union's "Social Justice and Equity Commission" disagrees with that premise.
In what might be a fertile recruiting ground for al Qaeda, this Wednesday, November 18, at University College, a radical subset of students, along with U of Toronto extremists calling themselves, "Students Against Israeli Apartheid," are effectively having a solidarity with terrorists meeting.
Let's leave aside for the moment the warped lie of characterizing the only country in the middle east that has free speech, respects gay rights, and enshrines enfranchisement for all its citizens regardless of race, gender, or religion as "apartheid," though their libel is an insult to common sense.
Even more of an insult, with the echoes still ringing from the merciless mass-murders in Paris perpetrated by ISIS, is the paean to terrorism implied by the U of Toronto gathering.
I am in the middle of correspondence with Professor Craig Calhoun, Director of LSE in connection with issues of antisemitism and discrimination by the LSE's Middle East Research Centre. This is partly based on the fact the Centre's leading members recently signed the boycott Israel letter, but there are other issues going back several years. I cannot yet reveal all of the details of the dispute, but Calhoun has really shot himself in the foot with the following defence against one of the accusations (namely that the Centre discriminates against Israel). He said:It’s Dangerous to Be Jewish and Pro-Israel at Vassar College
The Centre holds events on Israel. The last one was a public event in September on “taking the pulse of Palestine-Israel 20 years after Oslo”. The Centre was also involved in hosting the Israeli Ambassador in February 2015 for an LSE public lecture. In addition, the Centre has a Visiting Fellow, Dr Rebecca Steinfeld, who works on Israel.
Here is my response to that particular defence:
It turns out that this response is rather embarrassing for you since it would be difficult to find better examples that prove the accusations I have made about the Centre's discriminatory policy against Israel. Let's analyse each of these examples in turn:
Jewish students at Poughkeepsie, N.Y.-based Vassar College, responding to a 2015 questionnaire, said that at Vassar, it’s unwise to advertise that you are Jewish because it will threaten a student’s sense of safety. Jewish students self-censor pro-Israel opinions out of fear of retribution from intolerant peers and professors. At Vassar, voicing a pro-Israel view brands you a fascist, a racist, a colonialist, and morally compromised. The intolerant atmosphere suppresses freedom of expression, constructive debate is impossible, and conformity to an anti-Israel orthodoxy is demanded.IsraellyCool: Code Pinker Ariel Gold Slips Up In Description Of Her Arrest
Unfortunately, at Vassar, criticism of Israel often crosses the line into antisemitism.
Although there is zero tolerance for racist, homophobic, or sexist hate speech or activity on campus, Vassar tolerates antisemitic hate speech.
I’m not talking about legitimate criticism of Israel, its policies, and its government. According to the U.S. State Department, criticism becomes antisemitic when it satisfies one or more of the following: It demonizes Israel (calling it “apartheid,” “Nazi,” or “the worst human rights abuser in the world,” or exaggerating Israel’s actions out of all sensible proportion); it delegitimizes Israel (claiming that it has no right to exist as the nation-state of the Jewish people); it holds Israel to a double standard of behavior, a standard higher than for any other nation (singling out Israel in the United Nations for human rights abuses while ignoring China, Iran, Cuba, and Syria or accusing Israel of mass killing of civilians in Gaza while ignoring Hamas’s use of human shields). Historically, antisemitism was directed at individual Jews. Today, it is directed toward the Jewish state.
When she’a not disrespecting holy sites to Jews, or the memory of those murdered in the Holocaust, Code Pinker Ariel Gold is trying to obstruct the IDF at the Bil’in protests, along with her friends the Tamimis.Sinjar: Mass grave of Yazidi women executed by Isis discovered in Iraq
Yesterday, she complained about being arrested by the IDF.
Notice the brash dishonesty. After claiming she was arrested at a “nonviolent” demonstration, she then complains her life was endangered by the soldiers who held her up while rocks were “coming from afar.”
In other words, rocks being thrown by her fellow anti-Israel protesters at this so-called “non-violent” demonstration.
And clearly even Gold did not feel they were harmless, given her description of feeling her safety was being endangered.
Does she even realize how stupid she sounds as she contradicts herself?
Update: In her tweets, Gold repeats the claim she was being used as a “human shield” against the rocks (thrown by her buddies).
A mass grave believed to contain the remains of more than 70 members of Iraq's Yazidi minority has been unearthed east of Sinjar town, following an offensive against Isis by Kurdish forces.Russia: Hezbollah not a terror group, their cooperation in ISIS fight should be encouraged
Isis overran the Yazidi terrirority of Sinjar in north-west Iraq in August 2014 and began systematically killing, capturing and enslaving thousands of its inhabitants - in what the United Nations has said may have constituted an attempted genocide.
The mayor of Sinjar and local Yazidis who visited the site described clumps of hair, bones, money and keys which they believed to older women from the village of Kocho.
Younger women from the town were taken into sexual slavery, but the older ones were led behind away before gunfire was heard a short while later.
Moscow does not consider Shi'ite Muslim group Hezbollah to be a terrorist organization, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov was quoted by the Interfax news agency as saying on Sunday.German ‘Nazi grandma’ jailed for Holocaust denial
Russia is seeking an international agreement on what groups active in the Syrian conflict should be deemed terrorist and which can be involved in negotiations for a political settlement, but Moscow's view differs from that of Washington.
On Saturday, participants at talks in Vienna on Syria agreed that Jordan will coordinate efforts to compile a common list of terrorist groups.
"Some say Hezbollah is a terrorist organization. We maintain contacts and relations with them because we do not consider them a terrorist organization," Bogdanov was quoted as saying on Sunday.
"They have never committed any terrorist acts on Russian territory. Hezbollah was elected by people to the Lebanese parliament. There are cabinet members and ministers who are from Hezbollah in Lebanon. It's a legitimate socio-political force."
A German woman dubbed the “Nazi grandma” was sentenced to 10 months in jail for Holocaust denial.Muslim NYC cabbie attacks Jewish passenger
Ursula Haverbeck told a court in Hamburg last week that the Nazis’ Auschwitz death camp is “only a belief.”
Haverbeck was charged in April with Holocaust denial after calling the Holocaust in a statement broadcast on television ”the biggest and most sustainable lie in history.” She made the statement to reporters outside of the trial of former SS guard Oskar Groening.
Groening was convicted in July as an accessory to the murder of 300,000 in Auschwitz.
Haverbeck challenged the court to prove that Auschwitz was a death camp, the German Deutche Welle reported. She was sentenced on Nov. 12.
Magistrate Bjoern Joensson, who issued the sentence, said it is “deplorable that this woman, who is still so active given her age, uses her energy to spread such hair-raising nonsense.”
A Muslim cab driver was questioned by New York City police after he allegedly attacked a Jewish passenger.Israeli cyber-security firm gets GE award for Internet technology
The complainant, businessman Moshe Indig, told Arutz Sheva Sunday: "I took a cab from Manhattan to Brooklyn yesterday at 8 PM. I asked the driver to make a phone call. He refused but then relented and put the call on the speaker. When he saw that I was speaking Hebrew, he said: 'I hate the people and the language you are speaking. If I had known that you were a Jew, I would not have given you the call."
"When he dropped me off in Brooklyn I started walking and suddenly he got out of the vehicle and ran toward me and started punching me in the head. I was immediately concerned that he might have a knife or some other weapon, so I hit him forcefully. He grabbed my kippah and my cellphone and ran away."
Indig tried to grab back his belongings but the driver drove off and Indig fell from the car and was hurt. He later filed a police complaint. The cabbie was summoned to questioning and will probably be charged with a hate crime within the next few days.
GE (General Electric) is getting into the cloud business – and it’s taking Israeli cyber-security firm ThetaRay along with it.Israel’s Panoramic Power acquired for $60 million
After investing along with several partners $10 million in ThetaRay last year, GE presented the company at its recent Minds and Machines Conference in San Francisco with its Industrial Innovation Award for offering the “Most Innovative Industrial Internet Technology.”
The ThetaRay technology, said GE, will be used in its big data platform for industrial and business cloud development, called Predix.
According to Mark Gazit, CEO of ThetaRay, “our relationship with GE will make it possible for many more industrial companies to benefit from our groundbreaking solution. We are honored to receive this award, and proud to be part of the Predix ecosystem.”
One of North America’s largest energy and energy-related services companies has bought an Israeli energy-management company for $60 million.Israel uncovers Roman mosaic as it builds visitors’ center for earlier find
Houston-based Direct Energy electric retail supplier announced the acquisition of Panoramic Power on November 12. The deal was arranged through Direct Energy’s parent company, Centrica.
Founded in 2009 in Israel, Panoramic Power quickly became a global pioneer in energy-management solutions and was recently named one of the top 100 IoT (Internet of Things) startups by Forbes magazine.
The wireless and self-powered Panoramic Power device offers commercial and industrial business customers real-time visibility and actionable energy insights regarding energy consumption, operating costs and efficiency with the help of cloud-based analytics.
The company, which also has New York and UK offices, has deployed more than 25,000 sensors at 700 sites across 30 countries.
Israel’s antiquities authority on Monday unveiled a 1,700-year-old mosaic floor in the center of the country that archaeologists found last year while building a visitors’ center meant to display another mosaic, discovered two decades earlier at the same location.If it looks like a duck, quacks like a duck, is it a clue to the rise of Jewish Galilee?
The authority said the newly discovered Roman-era mosaic measures 11 meters by 13 meters (36 feet by 42 feet) and paved the courtyard of a villa in an affluent neighborhood that stood during the Roman and Byzantine eras. The scenes include hunting animals, fish, vases and birds.
“The quality of the images portrayed in the mosaic indicates a highly developed artistic ability,” said Amir Gorzalczany, who directed the excavation.
The new mosaic was found just a few meters (yards) from the first one, in what is today the city of Lod.
The tapered head, flattened bill and graceful curve of the neck are unquestionably that of a duck. The bird’s head decorates a small, 2,200-year-old bronze incense shovel found during this summer’s dig at a Hellenistic-era site near the Sea of Galilee, and its ancient owners may be the key to an investigation into how and when ancient Judeans populated the Galilee.Ronaldo buys Israeli jet
A Hebrew University team led by Dr. Uzi Leibner discovered the shovel amid the ruins of Khirbet el-Eika, a site just west of the Sea of Galilee near the Horns of Hattin, during August’s excavations. Leibner sought to elucidate who the inhabitants of the Galilee were in the early Second Temple period.
The hills of the Galilee were densely populated with Jewish villages during the late Second Temple period and thereafter. The historical Jesus was born in the small Galilean town of Nazareth a little more than 2,000 years ago. The gospels and contemporary historical texts describe a region populated by Jews who rose up against the Roman Empire en masse in 66 CE. In the centuries thereafter it was the heartland of rabbinic scholarship, literature and Jewish life in Roman Palestine.
But the Galilee apparently wasn’t always that way. Current research indicates the area was settled by non-Jewish peoples when the region was ruled by the Persian and Greek empires between the fifth and third centuries. Only at the very end of the Hellenistic period, with the rise of the Hasmonean dynasty of Maccabee fame, did it come under Jewish rule.
Football’s biggest star Cristiano Ronaldo paid €19 million for a business jet made by Israel Aerospace Industries, according to Portuguese media reports.Muslim Israeli Arab Student Declares Pride in Being Zionist
The Real Madrid star, who is currently starring in an Israeli television commercial for the HOT cable channel, wasted no time in trying out his new toy. According to the Correo da Manha newspaper, he flew the second-hand Gulfstream G200 from his home in Madrid to London earlier this week to the premiere of a documentary film about him.
Israel Aerospace Industries updated the G200 jet in 2011 to the G280.
The G200 can hold up to 12 people – 10 passengers and two pilots. The jet has a kitchen and two bathrooms.
A Muslim Israeli Arab declared his pride in being politically right-wing, and criticized both the leadership of his community and the Israeli Left, Israeli news site nrg reported on Friday.
Abdol Abugosh, 25, a student of communications at Jerusalem’s Open University, made these declarations at a demonstration at Tel Aviv University to condemn violence. Waving the Israeli flag, he leveled his wrath at the Palestinians, Israeli-Arab members of Knesset and the Left.
“We demand that the Arab MKs stop incitement, stop directing the new generation towards destructive hatred, sectarianism, treason and war,” Abugosh announced to a group of like-minded Israeli-Arab students. “We all work, study and live together, and we came here to demonstrate our support for coexistence.”
Abugosh also said that only right-wing governments have addressed the needs of the Arab community. In contrast, he said, “The Left is condescending and busy with empty talk.”
He said he prefers “[Jewish Home Party head] Naftali Bennett, who promotes Arabs working in the hi-tech industry,” to left-wing politicians, and defended Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu against accusations of racism against Arabs.
