Wednesday, April 13, 2016
Aaron David Miller: Israel Is Here to Stay
Is Israel doomed? Will bad demography, bad neighbors, and bad Israeli behavior turn the once hopeful and idealistic notion of a thriving Jewish democratic state into a veritable Middle Eastern Sparta -- isolated in the international community and struggling to survive in a hostile region even as it occupies a restless and growing Palestinian majority?
Having worked the Israel issue for half a dozen secretaries of state, I certainly wouldn't want to minimize the challenges Israelis face at home and abroad.
Still -- and I concede up front that the view from Washington, DC isn't the same as the one from Jerusalem -- I'm more convinced than ever that Israel is here to stay. I may not be around to mark Israel's 100th birthday. But Israelis will. And here's why.
The Left’s political orthodoxy is the gateway drug to jihad
By Bret Stephens
The Tsarnaevs took their bomb-building tips from Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qa’ida’s branch in Yemen.
But the influence of the Awlakis of the world cannot fully account for the mindset of these jihadists.
They are also sons of the West — educated in the schools of multiculturalism, reared on the works of Noam Chomsky and perhaps Frantz Fanon, consumers of a news diet heavy with reports of perfidy by US or British or Israeli soldiers.
If Islamism is their ideological drug of choice, the political orthodoxies of the modern Left are their gateway to it.
Take the most recent issue of Inspire. Mixed in with step-by-step photos on how to build a timed hand-grenade and an analysis of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, there’s a long article on the oppression of blacks in America, starting with the killing of Ferguson’s Michael Brown.
The spring 2013 issue contains a “message to the American nation” from al-Qa’ida commander Qassim al-Reimy in which he asks whether “meddling in our affairs and installing whomever tyrant agents and lackeys you want who kill and oppress (is) forgivable?”
“Leave us with our religion, land and nations and mind your own internal affairs,” the commander — now emir — writes. “Save your economy, look after your concerns, for it is better than what you currently are.”
This isn’t the language of Islam, with its impressive tradition of conquest. It’s the language of the progressive Left, of what Jeane Kirkpatrick at the 1984 Republican convention called the “Blame America First” crowd.
Anti-Zionism Is Anti-Semitism. Get Over It.
The first lesson is that it’s time to do away with the anti-Zionism/anti-Semitism debate. Whatever its intellectual merits are, or were, it’s largely irrelevant in an environment scorched by the flames of prejudice masquerading as thought. To ponder minute differences when students are fulsomely supporting the sort of stuff that would’ve made Henry Ford blush is like debating nautical safety long after the iceberg has been introduced to the Titanic’s hull.Patriotism sky high in Israeli high schools, poll finds
It’s a painful and difficult realization—most of us thoughtful cats crave nuance and strive to see the world in all its complicated glory—but the second lesson is harder still: Hate has no patience for fine points. Those folks—earnest, no doubt—who argued that professing the Jewish faith did not necessarily entail supporting the Jewish state’s right to exist should look at the recent news as into a mirror. They could start by reading the editor’s note affixed to the Oberlin students’ letter, correcting the initial impression that the five who supported the hateful professor were members of Students for Palestine, or SFP, a pro-Palestinian on-campus group. “SFP,” read the correction, “refrains from actions or letters on Jewish students’ behalf, given that it is a Palestine solidarity organization.” In other words, SFP itself is admitting what its Jewish supporters will not, namely that the struggle isn’t between those who support Israel’s right to exist and those who, regardless of their faith, oppose it, but between Jews and those who find their existence as noxious in Ohio as they do in Or Yehuda. If you’re Jewish, SFP bluntly states, you can’t support the pro-Palestinian movement, because the pro-Palestinian movement is currently predicated on the belief that Jews alone of all people should be singled out for calumny.
Those who believe Jews control the media and the banks, or that it’s OK to respectfully debate whether or not they do, make no distinction between the good, enlightened Jews who wash their hands of Israel and the bad ones, who have the temerity of adhering to their faith and their nationality like any other normal people in the world. And those Jews who believe that their liberal sophistication will somehow save them from the wrath of bigotry should strongly reconsider: Never send to know for whom the anti-Semites troll; they troll for thee.
Israeli high school students have a strong patriotic sentiment, a recent Israel Hayom poll shows.Israel-Palestine: It's not as simple as you think
The poll was conducted by New Wave Research on behalf of Israel Hayom's weekend political supplement between March 27 and March 30, using a random representative sample of 308 Jewish students currently in grades 11 and 12, with a maximum sampling error of 5.7%. The full results will be released on Friday.
The respondents were asked questions on a variety of issues, including current affairs. They were also asked general-knowledge questions and about their preferred recreational activities.
Some 85% said they loved Israel, and 89% said they saw their future in Israel. The popularity of the Israel Defense Force was also evident: 88% said they planned on enlisting, and more than 50% said they believed the IDF was the most moral military. Some 65% endorsed the saying, "It is good to die for our country," attributed to Zionist icon Joseph Trumpeldor. Almost 60% said they subscribed to right-wing views, with 23% saying they were centrists. Only about 13% said they considered themselves left-wing.
Tshediso Mangope is a human rights activist with a particular interest in the resolution of conflict(s) in the Middle East. The tour to Israel was organised by the South African Israel Forum.Boycott Israel campaign is wrong
When it comes to Israel, no one wants to hear anything that sounds like support or at the very least sympathy for the Jewish people. The idea of hearing any person who sympathises with innocent women and children who are killed by extremists or the right of existence of the state of Israel is terrifying.
But I argue that this is problematic particularly if we are indeed serious about ending the conflict in the Middle East and brokering peace between the Israeli and Palestinian people. For this reason I decided to visit these two countries so that I can experience the conflict that I have committed almost my whole life to help resolve.
I could not imagine any other way of experiencing this conflict without getting into the shoes of those affected and hearing from both sides how they want the rest of the world to help them resolve their issues. So I visited these two countries and I was shocked by the amount of falsehoods upon which my views on Israel were edificed. At the end of my visit, I was convinced more than ever that more needs to be done to correct these falsehoods and help the people of Israel and Palestine to find a lasting resolution.
"There has been a sustained campaign to demonize the state of Israel without adequately understanding the real issues." So wrote Tshediso Mangope, a young South African human rights activist, following a recent, eye-opening visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories.IsraellyCool: The UK Parliament Will Debate Foreign Aid Paying Palestinian Terrorists
Before his trip, Mangope, a long-time supporter of South Africa's ruling African National Congress, had been a dedicated advocate of a boycott of Israel. But seeing the complexity of the situation firsthand, and meeting the "many peace-loving Arab and Jewish people engaged in a process of finding peaceful ways of resolving the conflict," changed his mind.
Sadly, not everyone has Mangope's clear vision, nor his courage in declaring openly that he was wrong to support a boycott of Israel in the past.
A perfect example is Rekha Basu's April 5 column, which faithfully repeated the distortions fostered by those activists whose loathing of the Jewish state is what grounds the "sustained campaign" described by Mangope.
Late last night the following notification went out to over 200,000 people who’ve signed a petition for the UK Government to more carefully check exactly what their foreign aid budget is being spent on.Mark Regev: ‘Israel is only Middle East country to mirror British values’
This was the petition started by the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday after their huge exposure of the scandal of what happens to UK Foreign aid. The headline of their first big story centred around money that goes to convicted Palestinian terrorists and their families specifically for killing Jews in Israel.
That was followed one week later with a huge feature on Israellycool blogger and my good friend, Kay Wilson. It’s absolutely sure that her personal, British story had a big impact on public opinion and drove the petition up another 100,000 signatures that Sunday. All the facts and figures in the world can just slide by but a personal story about Kay and the two monsters who attacked her and killed Kristine Luken cannot be ignored.
Israel is the only Middle East country that mirrors British values, new Ambassador Mark Regev has said in his first public address in the role.UK Labour, the Church, and cancerous anti-Semitism
The envoy, who took up his post last week, spoke of his hopes of further enhancing bilateral ties to more than 400 guests at the Board of Deputies annual president’s dinner in central London.
Reflecting on the incoming festival of Pesach and its story of freedom from oppression, Regev, the former foreign media spokesman for Benjamin Netanyahu, said: “We can all take great pride in the freedoms Israel guarantees to all citizens – Jews and non Jews alike. In the in great expanse of the Middle East, in a region plagued by extremism, violence and tyranny, Israel stands out as beacon of freedom and pluralism. Israel enjoys a rambunctious parliament, feisty media and active civil society second to none.
“So when British people look at the Middle East and search for a country that reflects their values – rule of law, tolerance of others – there is only one country. I am proud to be that country’s ambassador to the Court of St James.”
Two British public figures have addressed the anti-Semitic issue. One is Sadiq Khan, a Muslim of Pakistani origin, Member of Parliament for Tooting, London since 2005, the Labour candidate for Mayor of London in the 2016 election. He admitted he wore a “badge of shame” because of the antisemitism in his party. He criticized Corbyn for not taking a tougher stand on the issue.Dershowitz: BDS ‘Regressive, Repressive, Anti-Peace’
Khan declared that more of the offenders should have been expelled. The members of the National Executive of the Party should be trained in what antisemitism is. It may well be that these utterances of Khan were as much politically motived -- aimed at London’s Jewish population -- as genuine. Then again, that may be unfair.
Yet, he is conscious that his Conservative Party rival, Zac Goldsmith, privileged and wealthy MP for Richmond, London since 2010, is half-Jewish.
The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, was blunt about the problem. Antisemitism persists in “dark corners” of Britain, including the Labour Party and major universities. It has now reached the highest level for thirty years. Antisemitic language and attitudes should not be tolerated.
He did not say that Labour was “riddled” with antisemitism, but asserted there are real problems. Corbyn was unfit to govern unless he eliminated antisemitism from the Party.
Carey asked a question which UN organizations and BDS bigots always avoid asking or trying to answer. Where do we find equivalent international action, as is customary against Israel, against Saudi Arabia or Sudan which are hostile to Christians or ban worship by them, or against the human rights abuses in Iran?
Carey blamed the savage ideology of ISIS, al-Qaeda, and Al Shabaab, shaped by mistaken and warped theologies, for the hatred against Jews and Christians.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement threatens the future of Israel and the United States, Harvard Law School professor Alan Dershowitz warned on Sunday, claiming that it “aims to corrupt the minds of the young people today who, in 20 years, will be policy-making leaders in politics, journalism, business and religion.”Meltdown At College Debate Championships Over Palestinian Terror Resolution
Its “false education,” its “pervasive lying,” has a “terrible impact on people,” Dershowitz said in his keynote address at a conference called “Combating The Boycott Movement Against Israel,” held this weekend in Los Angeles. He then cited as an example presidential candidate Bernie Sanders, “a decent person, [who] the other day casually stated that Israel had killed over 10,000 civilians in the 2014 Gaza War. But this is a complete fiction, made possible by the pervasive lying.”
Dershowitz urged pro-Israel advocates to fight such lies with the truth, at every opportunity. This “truth” includes showing that BDS proponents do not want a “two-state solution” to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and are less “pro-Palestinian” than they are “anti-Israel.”
To illustrate, he recounted an anecdote about a talk he once gave at the University of California at Davis, at which the “pro-Israel” people in the audience unanimously supported “two states for two people,” while those supporting the other side unanimously rejected that position. “They don’t merely want a Palestinian state, because they could have that on the two-state solution,” he said. “They are more interested in denying the Jews the same right they reserve for themselves.”
The 2016 U.S. Universities Debating Championship, which took place at Morehouse College in Atlanta over the weekend, was marred by controversy after one of the propositions to be debated was revealed to be “This House Believes That Palestinian Violence Against Israeli Civilians Is Justified,” a decision that led to some participants to walk out.Majority of Oberlin Faculty Sign Letter Condemning Colleague’s Anti-Semitic Facebook Posts
The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a frequent topic at college debate tournaments — past prompts have included whether a Jewish state should have been created somewhere other than the Middle East, and whether Israel should have unilaterally disengaged from the Gaza Strip in 2005. Other past championship questions have also had the potential to cause offense, such as arguing over whether the feminist movement has a right to exclude trans women.
But the wording of the question for the sixth of eight opening rounds was criticized for forcing half of all participants, who are assigned their viewpoints, to argue in favor of committing terror attacks on specific civilians. People who spoke to The Tower said they believed the wording of the question to be unprecedented. The debate prompt was especially distressing for participants who were Jewish or otherwise had ties to Israel, as they may have been forced to choose between losing crucial points in the national championship and advocating for murdering people they knew.
The debate format gives participants 15 minutes between announcing the subject and beginning the debate. “Once the topic is released, debaters are probably not going to react immediately, because they are on a timed clock,” Jessica Weiss, a second-year student at Willamette University who attended the tournament, explained to The Tower. “Once my partner and I got the topic, we immediately started walking to [our assigned] room in a rush. I was shocked, a lot of people were shocked. We were opposing the topic, so it wasn’t as bad for me, but I was still emotionally affected by it. I was tearing up and my partner was trying to calm me down.”
A majority of faculty members at Oberlin College have signed a letter condemning a colleague’s anti-Semitic social media posts. Joy Karega, an assistant professor at Oberlin, has been heavily criticized since The Tower disclosed her Facebook posts in February.U of Michigan-Dearborn Faculty Senate Votes Down 2 Anti-Israel Resolutions
“When the anti-Semitic Facebook posts by one of our colleagues came to light, many of us on the Oberlin faculty initially thought it prudent to wait for our administration to come forward with a response grounded in careful deliberation and due process,” the letter, which has 174 signatories, states. “It has now become clear that these complex discussions are going to take a while longer.”
“Bigotry has no place on the Oberlin campus (or anywhere),” the letter continues. “It sullies the values of equality and mutual support that are embedded in our institutional DNA as the first coeducational college and the first to admit students of all races as a matter of policy. … As scholars and teachers who treasure all Oberlin has been and must continue to be, we condemn any manifestation of bigotry on our campus — especially from our faculty.”
The Faculty Senate at the University of Michigan-Dearborn voted down two anti-Israel resolutions at its Tuesday meeting, The Algemeiner has learned.Opponents Mobilize as BDS Votes Loom at New York City Graduate Schools
Its chair, Professor Tim Kiska, told The Algemeiner Wednesday that he considered the discussion during the meeting “appropriate.”
“Anybody connected with our university community was welcome to be heard,” he said. “I felt the speakers on both sides of these questions were marvelously eloquent. The university setting is one of academic expression.”
According to a university spokesperson, the first resolution called on the university to endorse an academic and cultural boycott, as well as to avoid all forms of funding or subsidies, to Israel. It further supported the rights of scholars and students to engage in research and public speaking in support of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign, without recrimination or coercion. That resolution was voted down 31-6, with one abstention.
Anti-BDS activists are preparing for student government votes in the coming days on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) resolutions against Israel at both the City University of New York (CUNY) and New York University (NYU), The Algemeiner has learned.Is SFSU President Les Wong Part of the problem?
However, while most campus BDS campaigns target undergraduates, these are targeting graduate students.
The first is CUNY, where the Doctoral Students Council of the CUNY Graduate Center will vote Friday afternoon on a resolution calling for an academic boycott of Israeli institutions. The vote culminates a series of anti-Israel events over the past several weeks promoting the resolution.
In response to that campaign, “CUNY Docs For Dialogue” recently launched a petition arguing that the BDS resolution would violate “long-established academic principles defending the free exchange of ideas.” Moreover, it continues, BDS wrongly blames only Israel for the impasse in the conflict and is counterproductive for obtaining peace. Further, it claims, the resolution, if passed, would make CUNY campuses “divisive and uncomfortable for many of our Jewish and pro-Israel faculty and students.”
Our community is dismayed and disappointed by the lack of civility and disrespect that we saw this week at San Francisco State University. Eyewitnesses reported that police and administrators stood by and did nothing while bullies from the General Union of Palestinian students (GUPS) and other groups screamed obscenities in an attempt to disrupt an appearance of Jerusalem mayor Nir Barkat on campus Afterward, the response of university to the disruption was predictably lukewarm.Labour Member Says Jewish Donors Shunning Party Over Rise in Antisemitism; Blames Corbyn’s ‘Crass, Hateful, Ignorant’ Leadership
Imagine if any other student group had been targeted. Would the response have been the same? Where are the safe spaces at SFSU for Jewish students?
San Francisco State University's General Union of Palestinian Students (GUPS) has been in the news before. The president of the organization, Mohammad Hammad posted a photo on his tumblr account , declaring "I seriously can not get over how much I love this blade. It is the sharpest thing I own and cuts through everything like butter and just holding it makes me want to stab an Israeli soldier."
The San Francisco State University General Union of Palestinian students neither condemned Hammad's words, nor distanced themselves from them.
Why does SFSU continue to tolerate the intolerable?
It may be a top-down approach.
Major Jewish donors are turning their backs on Britain’s Labour Party, according to an op-ed in the Daily Mail over the weekend.Haaretz plumbs 'new low' after calling terror victim a 'racist'
Labour member and donor Michael Foster, who wrote the piece, attributed this to antisemitism within the party, which he said has increased under its current leadership.
“The growing number of incidents since Jeremy Corbyn took over the party machine is too great to be a coincidence,” wrote Foster. “Jeremy has emboldened these people because he clearly leans towards Hamas, the violently anti-Israel Palestinian party that governs Gaza. Hamas have included the antisemitic libel, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, in their constitution.”
As a result, he said, so far this year, “No major Jewish donor has yet given one pound to the central Labour Party.” The Jewish community, which according to Foster “donated almost one-third of the £9.7 million that Labour received from private donors” during last May’s General Election, is protesting their dismay over Corbyn’s “crass, hateful and ignorant” leadership. Foster, whose own family donated £400,000 to the Labour party during the previous election, says he now believes Corbyn is “too weak” to fight against antisemitic elements in his own party.
Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan (Jewish Home) harshly criticized Haaretz Tuesday, after television and film critic Rogel Alpher called a film shown in memory of terror victim Dafna Meir "racist."Reviewing the BBC News website’s coverage of terror in Israel: October 2015 to March 2016
"It seems that there's no limit to the lows Haaretz can reach," Ben-Dahan stated. "Haaretz stopped being Zionist a long time ago."
"As is typical of leftists, Rogel Alpher - instead of dealing with the unique character of Dafna Meir - threw around the usual leftist accusations, 'racism' and 'occupation," he added. A Palestinian teenager stabbed Meir, a mother of six, to death in Othniel in January, in front of her children. "Dafna Meir was an icon for the Jewish people, and she will continue to be."
Our monthly round-up of the BBC News coverage of terror attacks in Israel (see related articles below) enables us to take a broader look at the corporation’s coverage of that subject throughout the six months since the latest surge in terrorism began.
During that time the Israel Security Agency has documented a total of 1,639 attacks, ninety of which – i.e. 5.49% – have received coverage on the BBC News website.
Thirty-three people – Israelis and foreign nationals – have been killed in those attacks since October 1st 2015 and hundreds wounded. Three of those fatalities (9%) were not reported at all by the BBC and of the casualties which were reported, twelve people (i.e. 40%) were not identified by name. Only four of the victims had their photographs published by the BBC.
The BBC’s public purpose remit includes ‘Global Outlook’ which is interpreted by the BBC Trust as meaning that audiences “can expect the BBC to keep them in touch with what is going on in the world, giving insight into the way people live in other countries” and includes the pledge to “build a global understanding of international issues” and “enhance UK audiences’ awareness and understanding of international issues”.
CAMERA's Israel office prompted correction of an Agence France Presse article last week which incorrectly reported that the Entebbe hijackers singled out Israeli passengers. In fact, the terrorists singled out Israeli and non-Israeli Jewish passengers.Guardian admits that Israel related articles generate highest level of abusive comments
In fact, not all non-Israel passengers were released. Jews who did not hold Israeli citizenship were also not released. All non-Jewish passengers were released.
Following communication from CAMERA staff that day, AFP commendably corrected and refiled the story. The corrected article states: "By the time the commandoes arrived, non-Israeli and non-Jewish passengers had been released by the hijackers, leaving about 100 hostages."
The Guardian, as part of their “series on the rising global phenomenon of online harassment”, commissioned research into the over 70 million comments left on its site since 2006, and concluded that articles on “Israel/Palestine” generate the highest level of abusive reader comments (The Dark Side of Guardian Comments, April 12).
The relevant graph and accompanying text is shown below. (Note that the red text “Abusive comments about Israel/Palestine” along the top black line was added by UKMW to make the graph clearer. Confirmation that our reading of the graph was correct can be found here.)
These results wouldn’t come as a surprise to readers of this blog.
A Boulder man was arrested for sending letters containing white powder that turned out to be “benign” to two Jewish organizations in the Colorado city pleaded guilty to committing two felonies.London: Orthodox teens harassed by man yelling 'Kill the Jews!'
Jeffery Thomas Klinkel, 34, pleaded guilty late last month to one count of felony menacing and one count of using a hoax chemical or biological weapon, the Daily Camera reported Monday.
He will be sentenced on June 1 and faces up to five years in prison.
On April 6, 2015, the Boulder JCC received a letter that read, “This Goyim is enjoying the blood of her enemies for Passover” and contained a suspicious white powder later determined to be cornstarch.
Two Orthodox Jewish teenagers were verbally attacked in London on Monday.Students connect to stamp out European anti-Semitism
The pair, one aged 14 and the other 17, were walking in the Stamford Hill neighborhood when a strange man came at them yelling "Allah Akbar! F---ing Jews! Kill the Jews!"
Though the assailant did not physically harm the two, he remained in the area and yelled anti-Semitic remarks to other passers-by. The two teens quickly called Shomrim, the local Jewish neighborhood watch organization, for help.
Police officers arrested the man for disturbing the public order with racially aggravating circumstances. He has not been identified and is only described as being 23 years old.
The students came together at Brandeis University in suburban Boston, as well at more than a dozen other locations in North America, from Harvard to Emory, along with two in Israel and one in Canada. Participants read a statement dedicating their Havdalah ceremonies “to the countless Jews that fear publicly contributing to the spirit (ruach) of the people of Israel.”Pope’s skullcap put under the hammer for Israeli charity
Some then posted photos and videos on social media under the event’s hashtag.
On a cold evening on the Brandeis campus, dozens of students, some at a Reform-Conservative event and others at an Orthodox one, recited the blessings to Debbie Friedman tunes and lit Havdalah candles over wine. Freshman Max Silverstone, who read the statement at the Reform-Conservative event, said a recent trip to Poland opened his eyes about the difficulties facing European Jewish students in expressing their identity.
A white skullcap worn by Pope Francis is up for auction with thousands of dollars in proceeds going to Israeli charity Save A Child’s Heart.Little-Known Zionist Series by Salvador Dalí Goes On Private Display in New York
The “authentic skullcap” given by Francis to an Italian TV show host during an audience in Rome in two years ago is expected to fetch some $36,000 in the rare online auction.
The pope was captured on camera taking the new skullcap offered to him by Damiano Cavadi during an audience in St Peter’s Square in 2014. Footage of Francis carefully inspecting the cap before swapping it with his own became famous in Italy.
A series of biblical and Zionist-themed paintings by Salvador Dalí has gone on private display in the heart of New York City in an effort to showcase through art the historical connection of the Jewish people to the land of Israel, the collection’s owner told The Algemeiner.Tel Aviv folk-rockers spin a video hit
Art dealer Hillel Philip, who owns one of 250 sets of prints of Dalí’s little-known “Aliyah, the Rebirth of Israel” series, told The Algemeiner, “You have all of Jewish history, all the dreams of the Jews for 2,000 years, in these paintings.”
The paintings were commissioned by Shorewood Publishers in 1967 for the 20th anniversary of the state of Israel. The set is comprised of 25 mixed-media paintings highlighting important religious, historic and political moments in Jewish history. The series received a special endorsement from Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion.
The music is all right, but it’s the world-spinning animation in a music video for Israeli acoustic folk-rock band Jane Bordeaux that’s turning heads at home and around the globe.
The music video for “Ma’agalim” (Circles) shows an animation of a wooden doll stuck in place and time in an old, forgotten penny arcade.
As the doll trudges on her track, life spins on around her, dovetailing with the melancholy tune sung by the group in Hebrew.
Despite the language barrier, the video has racked up hundreds of thousands of views on Vimeo, YouTube and elsewhere.
Jay Leno raises $50K in one minute for Israeli EMS service
Comedian Jay Leno may have broken a record when he raised $50,000 for Israeli EMS organization, United Hatzalah, in just one minute. The former Tonight Show host also donated $36,000 out of his own pocket to buy a fully equipped ambucycle for the organization to use to save lives in Israel.
Leno’s latest philanthropic pursuits came about at a special concert fundraiser for United Hatzalah at the Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York on Sunday.
Leno performed a comedy set at the event. He then called Eli Beer, founder and president of United Hatzalah, to the stage.
“What you guys are doing is so special I am so proud to be here and be part of it,” Leno told Beer. “I have 117 motorcycles in my collection but none of my motorcycles save lives. I want to donate an ambucycle with all of the trappings.”
Israeli Paramedic Talks About Carrying the ‘Weight of the Entire Country on Your Shoulders’ (VIDEO)
An Israeli paramedic talked to Vice News recently about the responsibility that comes with his job, and how it takes a toll on his life.
Aron Adler, who works for Magen David Adom and responds to near-daily incidents of Arab violence in east Jerusalem, said, “I’ve had nights where I haven’t slept and [have] woken up with nightmares. Been out of focus for days after some of these days. But when we’re there, we do what we’re trained to do.”
“When you go out to a call like this, in a way the weight of the entire country is on your shoulders,” he added. “When someone gets hit by a car, it’s his tragedy; it’s his family’s tragedy; his friends’. But on a national level, you don’t feel it. But when it’s a terror incident, it’s everyone’s child; it’s everyone’s friend.”
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
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