Monday, May 29, 2017
Jewish Voice for Peace’s Hidden Agenda
A Jewish Voice for Peace demonstration. Photo: Twitter.When starting a political movement, choosing the right name is perhaps the most important step. We tend to make snap decisions about whether or not to support an organization based on what its name implies. The danger, of course, is that an organization can misrepresent itself with false connotations.Jewish Voice for Peace internet ad supported failed Palestinian terrorist hunger strike
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has done just that, because the group does not represent the views of most Jews — and it does not stand for peace.
While their name may sound innocent and upstanding, JVP seeks to delegitimize and demonize the State of Israel through the use of double standards and false allegations. JVP is also an avid supporter of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement, which attempts to harm, isolate and weaken Israel — the only Jewish state in the world, and the only democracy in the Middle East.
A more accurate name for the group would be Jewish Voice for Palestine — because it seems that JVP truly opposes the existence of a Jewish homeland. This year, the group even went so far as to invite Rasmea Odeh as the guest of honor at their National Membership Meeting. Odeh is a convicted terrorist who murdered two Israeli college students in 1969 by planting a bomb in a supermarket in Jerusalem. An organization that supports terrorists cannot claim that they also support peace.
Only hardcore anti-Israel activists in the West seemed to care, like Jewish Voice for Peace.
JVP, which also was one of the biggest supporters of convicted supermarket bomber and immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh, was all in for Barghouti, including helping organize protests and petitions.
Very little that JVP does surprises me any more given their obsessive demonization of Israel, enabling of anti-Semitism by providing Jewish cover, and twisting of Jewish holidays into anti-Israel events.
I was surprised, though, to find a JVP pop-up ad supporting Barghouti at the left-wing Israeli Haaretz website (the image below is a pop-up ad screenshot from my phone when visiting the Haaretz home page on May 26, 2017)
Israeli government admits: UN has broken the law in Jerusalem
After repeated delays, the state finally responded Sunday to the request for an interim injunction filed by Regavim against the illegal construction carried out by the UN at the Government House in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood.
The state admitted for the first time that the extensive construction activity there, including works to preserve the historic buildings in the compound, as well as the construction of additional illegal structures in the compound, were carried out without permits. "The planning and building laws of the State of Israel apply to the compound and to the works that are the object of the petition, and the UN is expected to act in accordance with the principles of the relevant planning and building laws."
In a petition submitted by the Regavim movement to the Jerusalem District Court two months ago, it was revealed that the United Nations had committed a large number of building offenses during the past year, in a site registered in the Land Registry in the name of the State of Israel.
The state expressed its opposition to issuing an interim injunction prohibiting continued construction of the compound, since the UN enjoys immunity from prosecution and legal action against it.
The State noted that "if there are differences between the State of Israel and the United Nations on this issue, they should be brought to a solution through diplomatic channels" and detailed the contacts held by the Foreign Ministry over the past few weeks with relevant UN officials in Israel and New York.
Terror-hunting attorney sets her sights on Western Union and Boeing
Western Union and Boeing had better look out. The American giants are in the cross-hairs of an Israeli lawyer with a track record of humbling huge corporations and winning multi-million-dollar settlements for her clients.Stand With Us: 20 VICTORIES FOR ISRAEL AND ANTI-DISCRIMINATION LEGISLATION!
Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner has spent the past decade filing lawsuits for the victims of terror attacks against the governments, banks and corporations that enabled or financed the violence. As a result of her efforts, more than $200 million has been collected for terror victims and their families (including out of court settlements), and some $600 million in assets has been frozen.
Darshan-Leitner has also used the courts to fight against what she considers to be unfair lawsuits against Israeli military commanders. In one notable case, she stopped a Spanish lawsuit against Israel’s Chief of Staff Dan Halutz over a bombing raid in Gaza by filing a similar suit against Javier Solana, a top Spanish politician who had overseen NATO’s bombing of Kosovo. Spain changed the law.
May 25, 2017, in a unanimous vote in the State House, Nevada became the 20th state to take a stand against anti-Israel discrimination, striking a blow against those who are engaging in economic warfare against Israel.Michael Oren: The war that made the Mideast: A half-century ago, Israel battled its Arab neighbors; we still feel the ramifications
Legislatures in Blue States, Red States, and Purple States across the nation are voting in overwhelming numbers to protect their states from the discriminatory campaign known as Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS).
StandWithUs, in close cooperation with our partners at Christians United for Israel (CUFI), Israeli American Council, Israel Action Network, Israel Allies Foundation, The Israel Project, and the American Jewish Committee, has taken a major role in educating representatives, senators, and municipal assemblymen/women about the dangers BDS poses to their state economies and policies. The seamless cooperation among the organizations and the bipartisan support from coast to coast make clear that this nation stands with Israel and against discrimination.
StandWithUs and our partners will continue the work of educating legislators and together, we will claim more victories against the battle to isolate and boycott Israel.
At midnight, June 11, 1967, a battle-blackened Israeli soldier stood on Mount Hermon and looked out across an unrecognizably altered Middle East.The Six Day War that lasted 50 years
Around him, the Golan Heights, once a Syrian redoubt, was entirely in Israeli hands, as was the formerly-Jordanian West Bank further south. From Egypt, the entire Sinai Peninsula had been seized along with the Gaza Strip. Other Israeli soldiers were swimming in the Suez Canal and, for the first time in millennia, raising the Star of David over a united Jerusalem. Most astonishingly, these transformations took place over a mere six days, marking one of history’s most brilliant — and controversial — campaigns.
All wars in history inevitably become wars of history. No sooner do the guns grow silent then the debate begins over whether the war was justified and its outcome positive. The arguments surrounding the Civil War, for example, or even World War II, fill volumes.
But few wars in history have proved as contentious as the Six-Day War. On American campuses, students and faculty members still lock horns on the question of Israel’s right to Judea and Samaria — the West Bank’s biblical names — and the Palestinians’ demand for statehood in those areas. U.S. policy-makers, meanwhile, devote countless hours to resolving the war’s consequences diplomatically. Obsessively, it seems, the media focuses on the realities created by those six fateful days.
Of course, the PLO was created before the Six Day War when there were no Jews living beyond the green line. Nation building was always a low Palestinian priority. Terrorism did not arise in response to Jewish settlements. Exchanging land for peace won’t end the conflict because the land Palestinians have in mind is not what Israel gained in 1967, but rather what it achieved in 1948.Gerald Steinberg: Turning Point: From Partition to Delegitimization
Ironically, the glory of the Six Day War also placed Palestinians on the map. And it unmasked the hypocrisy of the Muslim world, which continued its wars with Israel not on battlefields but in universities, intellectual magazines and at the United Nations. None of these countries cared about Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza until Israel captured those territories in a defensive war. Only then did the land assume both legal and political significance. The Palestinian cause became the most enduring weapon with which to defeat Israel.
And Palestinians themselves revealed their true intentions not just in their genocidal charters, but also by repeated rejections of peace offers that would have given them a homeland, just not the one they wanted, seemingly less interested in having their own state than in the destruction of the Jewish one.
Other territories that Israel captured and eventually returned led to peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan. Without the Six Day War, those alliances, and the border security that ensued, may never have been forged.
But with terrorism ascendant, Palestinian unity nonexistent and boycott resolutions championed around the world, the imagined peace following the Six Day War still remains elusive. Despite the passage of 50 years, those six days in June 1967 never really came to an end.
Today, Israel celebrates Jerusalem Day, marking 50 years since the victory in the Six Day War. Much of the international community will, however, mark the anniversary on June 6, 2017.NGO Monitor: New European Funding Cycle to the Secretariat
Now and in the coming weeks, I am speaking in Ireland, the United Kingdom, and Israel – confronting the different narratives regarding the Jewish State and the 50th anniversary. In Jerusalem, I will have the privilege of sitting with Elliott Abrams, who served in foreign policy positions under Presidents Reagan and Bush, and is now Senior Fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations, to analyze the changes in the international perception of Israel.
In these venues, I will be discussing how the narrative surrounding Israel has changed.
In the first 20 years of Israel’s existence, the State and its people were “David” – small, weak, and threatened with annihilation. During these years, the international community supported Israel’s struggle to maintain sovereignty.
1967, however, marks a turning point. For some, it represents the end of the vulnerability that existed after 1948 and reunification of Jerusalem, while for others it marks the start of “the occupation” and the emergence of Palestinian victimization.
On May 18, 2017, Danish Minister of Foreign Affairs Anders Samuelsen held a series of meetings in Ramallah, where he signed agreements for an additional funding cycle of $8.3 million1 to the Human Rights and International Humanitarian Law Secretariat (“the Secretariat”), which distributes funds to numerous anti-Israel organizations. The Secretariat is a joint funding mechanism of the Danish, Dutch, Swedish, and Swiss governments, operating out of Bir Zeit University in Ramallah.Wonder Woman strikes down BDS plan to block Lebanon screening
On the previous day, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met with Samuelsen. Having been alerted to the additional Secretariat funding, “Prime Minister Netanyahu said that the true reason for the absence of a solution to the Palestinian issue is incitement and asked that Denmark halt assistance to Palestinian organizations that support BDS activity.”
A large portion of the Secretariat’s budget is distributed as core funding to radical Palestinian non-governmental organizations (NGOs) that incite violence and terrorism; are active in global BDS campaigns against Israel; engage in legal warfare attempting to indict Israeli officials at the International Criminal Court (ICC); and employ demonizing rhetoric, such as making spurious charges of Israeli “apartheid” and “war crimes.”
The Campaign to Boycott Supporters of Israel in Lebanon (CBSI) is continuing to work toward a boycott of the Hollywood film Wonder Woman, starring Israeli actress Gal Gadot. But at least for the time being, these attempts have been unsuccessful, and the film is due to be screened in theaters across Lebanon.Convicted terrorist chosen as one of '50 faces' of Jerusalem
As Wonder Woman trailers reach critical mass and Gadot makes the rounds on daytime and late-night talk shows, ahead of the film's release in June, the Lebanese campaign published a second post on Sunday. In it, the campaign warned that since the film stars an Israeli actress, its screening is against Lebanese law. Lebanese movie theaters that had screened trailers for the movie were tagged in the post.
The campaign against Wonder Woman began in April, when the movement sent a letter to the Bureau for the Boycott of Israel within Lebanon's Ministry of Economy and Trade. The letter noted that Gadot is the former beauty queen of Israel, who served in the IDF and publicly supported Operation Protective Edge in 2014. Since then, however, Lebanese filmmakers have promoted the film and called on the public to buy tickets in advance.
50 people have been chosen to represent the Citadel Museum's "50 years- 50 faces" project.Tel Aviv LGBT film festival targeted by anti-Israel boycotters
Among those receiving honored status on the site is the terrorist Ali Jadda, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) who participated in an attack on Jews and sat in jail until he was released in the 1985 "Jibril Deal."
The project, which appears on the internet site of the Museum for Jerusalem's History, tells of Jadda's youth and of his feelings in the wake of the liberation of the the Old City where he resided.
"But the new era did not favor him and he became acquainted with the hatred and tension which still simmered under the surface. Border police arrested him and humiliated him in front of passersby. Even at home in the Old City, Ali was witness to the difficult ramifications of the new situation. The Israelis, drunk with victory and joy, did as they wished in the Old City. They entered his city, neighborhood and community with crudeness and arrogance as if there had never been any residents in the city. All this was too much for Ali who joined the PFLP which arose after the occupation..."
Jadda was one of the perpetrators of the "night of grenades" in 1968 and he and his friends threw grenades at innocent passersby on Strauss street in Jerusalem.
The upcoming LGBT film festival in Tel Aviv has been hit with a wave of cancellations after BDS (boycott, divestment, sanctions movement) activists targeted participants.Jewish Ryerson student 'felt targeted' over placement request
While TLVFest, which has been around for more than a decade, urges "full social and political equality to all, regardless of religion, race, sex or sexual orientation," many of the directors and films scheduled have had second thoughts after being contacted on social media.
Many in particular cited their concerns with the festival being partly sponsored by the government through the Culture and Sport Ministry.
Citing pressure from activist groups, South African director John Trengove withdrew from his appearance at TLVFest.
Trengove is the director of The Wound, a film set in South Africa that showcases an initiation ceremony for teenage boys from the Xhosa ethnic group that includes a circumcision.
Despite originally planning to appear for the screening, which is the festival's opening night show, Trengove notified the organizers last week that he will not be attending, and asked that they pull his film.
However, she wasn’t prepared in the slightest for what happened with her third-year placement coordinator in the faculty of social work, Heather Bain.New York Times Unleashes Onslaught of Five Op-Eds Hostile to Israel
After making it clear to Bain about her preferred placement, Katzman said the field coordinator advised her in an e-mail in late August of 2015 she did not follow up with the JCC or UJA because their values appeared to be “in opposition” to the values of the School of Social Work.
Bain listed those values as the advancement of anti-oppression; anti-racism; anti-colonialism and decolonization; feminism; anti-capitalism; Queer and trans liberation struggles; issues in disability and madness (cct); among others (many of which are not listed on the school’s own website.)
“My understanding is both agencies have a strong anti-Palestinian lean,” Bain continued, suggesting that if Katzman agreed to bring a “critical awareness” (of Palestinian solidarity movements) to either agency she might reconsider.
While the two agencies where Katzman wanted to be placed are known to be pro-Israel, she said their websites do not indicate any anti-Palestinian policies in the slightest.
When the New York Times opinion page hired Bret Stephens and Bari Weiss, two outspoken Zionist veterans of the Wall Street Journal, a friend of mine warned me that the hires could be a mixed blessing from a pro-Israel perspective.BBC ME editor recycles his ‘Israeli Right killed the peace process’ theory
Now all the anti-Israel editors already at the Times will feel like they can let loose with impunity, because the hiring of Stephens and Weiss provides a ready response to accusations of “bias.” So said my friend.
Or, as I put it back on April 13, writing about Stephens: “Anyone who thinks the Times hiring of him was motivated primarily by a desire to respond to the paper’s pro-Israel critics might want to think again.”
My friend’s warning turned out to be prophetic.
In the weeks since the news of the Stephens and Weiss hires broke, the Times has — as if compensating — unleashed a barrage of op-eds savagely hostile to Israel and Jewish interests. Among them:
Bowen’s remarkably trite portrayal of the Israeli political map does not include any explanation of the fact that the land to which he refers was designated by the League of Nations as part of the Jewish homeland or that it was subsequently occupied by invading Arab armies in 1948. Likewise, completely absent from Bowen’s recollections of the atmosphere prior to Rabin’s assassination is the surge in Palestinian terror attacks that took place after the Oslo Accords were signed in September 1993.Jewish Student Driven Out of Berlin School by Threats and Violence from Muslim Classmates
Referring to the Oslo II agreement, Bowen tells listeners that:
“People on both sides opposed what was happening. The peace rally in Tel Aviv [at which Rabin was assassinated] came as Israel was preparing to hand over the main cities and towns in the West Bank to Palestinian control. The prospect of giving occupied land to the Palestinians sent the Israeli Right into a fury.”
He then gives a highly debatable cameo of the atmosphere at the time:
“Some on the Israeli Left had worried the rally would be a flop. The Right had been making the most noise, shouting the rest of the country down.”
Listeners are told that: [emphasis in italics in the original]
“If Rabin had lived the Oslo process might still have failed. It had serious flaws for both sides. Some Israelis, especially on the Right, argue that plenty of Palestinians would never accept a Jewish state. They didn’t trust Arafat and looked with loathing on Hamas and Islamic Jihad; two groups that wanted to destroy Israel – not make peace.”
Beatings and abuse from Muslim classmates have been cited by the parents of a Jewish teenager as the reason they removed him from a leading Berlin school.IsraellyCool: The Best Proof “Zionist” Is Jew-Haters’ Code Word For “Jew”
The 14-year-old was born in London to a British mother and a German father. According to a report in the Sunday Times, the student was kicked and punched by students of Middle Eastern and Turkish origin so many times he was left fearing for his life. One of the attackers is alleged to have threatened to shoot him with a mock gun he believed was real.
The Central Council of Jews in Germany described the bullying allegations at the Friedenauer Gemeinschaftsschule in Berlin as “anti-Semitism of the ugliest form.”
The Times reports Ferdinand and his parents — Gemma, an entrepreneur from London, and Wenzel, a human rights organiser — chose a multicultural environment for their son’s schooling. Until recently the family had hosted a Syrian refugee in their Berlin home.
“I loved the fact that the school was multicultural . . . the kids and teachers were so cool,” Ferdinand said.
If you ever needed proof the word “Zionist” is the antisemites’ code-word for “Jew” look no further than this news item:British family reportedly pelted by stones by youths yelling ‘Jews’
A public broadcaster in Hungary broadcast an Iranian leader attacking George Soros as “an evil Zionist-American multi-billionaire,” spurring condemnation from Hungarian Jewry.
On Wednesday “Hirado,” the main news show of the state MTVA channel, also included quotes from Sayyid Ali Hosseini Khamenei, the supreme spiritual leader in Iran, saying that Soros was responsible for destabilizing and defeating former Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmedinejad’s regime.
Soros is vehemently anti-Israel, funding many anti-Israel NGOs, including those that actually disseminate their own antisemitism. He is an anti-Zionist. So those labelling him a Zionist are clearly trying to hide their Jew hatred behind the facade of “anti-Zionism.”
Soros has blamed European antisemitism on “the policies of Israel and the US.” I guess he will do so again here, which will stoke his own hatred of Israel. It’s about time he learned that the cause of antisemitism is….hatred of Jews.
A Jewish family was reportedly pelted by stones by a group of youths shouting "Jews" in the seaside area of Kent over the British bank holiday weekend, according to Jewish neighborhood watch group Shomrim.‘No Jews,’ painted on home for sale in New York
The parents and their five children aged between eight and 15 were playing at Minster Beach on the Isle of Sheppey on Sunday afternoon when the incident occurred.
The family from London's Stamford Hill area -- home to Europe's largest haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community -- cut short their vacation out of fear for their safety, Shomrim said in a series of Twitter posts on the incident.
The volunteer group said it was providing support to the family and accused Kent Police of failing to dispatch officers to the scene at the time of the incident. Kent Police responded that during the victims' phone call to the police, the informant and suspects left the scene and officers deemed there was no further risk.
The words “No Jews” were spray painted from floor to ceiling on the walls of a home for sale in Rockland County, New York.Rafael unveils deadlier precision missile with more armor penetration
Anti-Semitic messages also were painted throughout the home, including in the kitchen and on the floors. The graffiti was discovered in the empty home, which is for sale, last week, by a home inspector who was checking on the structure for a couple that wished to purchase it.
The inspector was acting on behalf of an Orthodox Jewish couple, CBS New York reported.
The Haverstraw Police told local media that the incident is being investigated as a hate crime.
The Anti-Defamation League condemned the anti-Semitic attack “which was designed to send a message of fear and intimidation not just to the victim, but also to the broader community,” said Evan R. Bernstein, ADL New York regional director, in a statement. “The vandalism of a home for sale in a county with a rapidly growing Jewish community sends a deplorable message that Jews are not welcome. We expect that community leaders and elected officials will make clear that all are welcome in Rockland and that anti-Semitism and bigotry have no place in our communities.”
Rafael Advanced Defense Systems Ltd., an Israeli defense technology company, said it has developed a fifth generation of its SPIKE missile that can be fired from vehicles, helicopters, ships and ground launchers.MAY 28, 2017
The SPIKE LR II is a multipurpose missile, weighing just 12.7 kilograms (28 pounds), which can be launched from any SPIKE Launcher. For increased lethality, SPIKE LR II includes two warhead configurations: a Tandem HEAT configuration that is capable of increasing armor penetration by more than 30 percent, and a new multipurpose blast warhead.
SPIKE LR II has a range of 5.5 kilometers (3.42 miles) when fired from ground launchers (an increase of more than 35% above the 4-kilometer range of the original SPIKE LR) and up to 10 kilometers when fired from a helicopter. The missile also has an electro-optical seeker with sensors and can track a target using artificial intelligence features.
“The development of the SPIKE LR II is based on Rafael’s vast experience in the development of a wide variety of missiles over the years, and was largely possible due to Rafael’s close cooperation with the users at the IDF and other militaries around the world,” said Moshe Elazar, executive vice president and head of Rafael’s Land and Naval Systems Division.
GREEK DEVELOPER ENERGEAN SIGNS FIRST ISRAELI GAS SUPPLY DEAL
In a move aimed at increasing competition in the Israeli electricity sector, Greek developer Energean Oil & Gas has secured its first gas supply deals for Israel's Karish and Tanin reservoirs.Fruit-pinching out as new app tests for freshness
The company's subsidiary cIsrael, which intends to begin providing gas to the domestic market by 2020, has signed agreements with independent power provider Dalia Power Energies and its sister company Or Power Energies. The two firms will be purchasing an overall amount of up to 23 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to operate the Dalia power plant – Israel's largest private power station – as well as future such facilities to be built by Or, the partners announced on Sunday.
"This is a significant day for the Israeli gas market," said Mathios Rigas, chairman and CEO of Energean Oil & Gas. "These are the first contracts for gas supplies from the Karish and Tanin fields signed with the Dalia group, the largest private power producer in Israel. The agreement is a substantial step towards bringing competition and cheaper energy to the market for the benefit of Israeli consumers and the country’s economy."
Located in the north of Israel’s exclusive economic zone, the Karish and Tanin reservoirs jointly contain about 58.7 bcm of gas and 14.3 million barrels of condensate in contingent resources – those that have been discovered but not yet commercially developed. In addition to these quantities are prospective resources with high chances of success, including approximately 25.6 bcm of gas and an additional 4.3 million barrels of condensate.
Israeli startup AclarTech has developed a mobile app that allows to monitor, in real time, the ripeness, freshness and quality of fruit and vegetables.Israeli solar panel ‘tree’ is planted in central France
The Ness Ziona, Israel-based firm’s AclaroMeter will change the way farmers make their decisions and will “revolutionize” the global food market by helping prevent wasted products and making them accessible to wider populations, the company says on its website.
Today, farmers decide when to pick fruit based on instinct or lab tests. “These methods are extremely inefficient and not standardized, leading to a yearly loss of approximately 50% of worldwide grown fruit” and vegetables, the company said, with some wasted even before it gets to consumers’ homes.
With the Aclaro meter, users scan the fruit with their built-in smartphone camera and with a standard portable molecular sensor, the SCIO.
-This captures a large set of measurements about the fruit and its environment, revealing data like the fruit’s sugar content, acidity, firmness, weight and color, as well as its GPS location and weather conditions at the time of sampling. The data is then uploaded to the cloud and is processed by a tailormade algorithm that compares the data to tens of thousands of other samples of previously inspected fruit.
A solar tree with giant square leaves that converts sunlight into electricity was unveiled in the central French town of Nevers on Monday, allowing passersby to charge their phones, surf the internet… or just enjoy the shade.StandWithUs UK – Educating about Israel in the UK
The town of 37,000 on the Loire River is the first in Europe to experiment with the technology developed by Israeli company Sol-logic.
Inspired by the acacia tree found in the Israeli desert and African savanna, the futuristic-looking “eTree” also supplies water and street lighting.
The first prototype was unveiled in Israel in 2014. A year later the first operational model was presented at the COP 21 climate conference in Paris.
Since then solar trees have been planted in around 10 cities in Israel and the US.
