Monday, June 26, 2017
Cinnamon Stillwell and Michael Lumish: Professors Spin Antisemitic Conspiracies at Cal State-Fresno
California State University, Fresno (CSUF) is the last place that one would expect conspiracy theories about Jewish power to proliferate — because Jews make up less than one percent of Fresno’s population. But leave it to the academic world to provide fertile ground for this ugly trope.London Mayor Sadiq Khan Faces Criticism for Refusal to Back Hezbollah Terror Designation
It began last year, when CSUF sought to hire someone for an endowed professorship to be named after the late Columbia University professor Edward Said. When the hiring committee failed to appoint one of the final four applicants — all of Middle Eastern heritage — and CSUF canceled the search, an acrimonious battle ensued.
It didn’t take long for anti-Israel CSUF professors to push the antisemitic canard that Jewish faculty members and outside groups had interfered in the hiring process based on the job candidates’ ethnicity.
Joe Parks, the Equal Employment Opportunities representative on the search committee, told the Fresno Bee, “The search was canceled because when the finalists came to campus, the Jewish faculty complained.” Elsewhere, Parks singled out “the Jewish community” as being responsible for the school’s failure to hire one of the applicants.
In solidarity with Parks, Vida Samiian, the semi-retired director of CSUF’s Middle East Studies Program and dean of the College of Arts and Humanities, quit. “I have decided to resign in objection to the unethical and discriminatory cancellation of the Edward Said Professorship,” she wrote. “The administration carried out the vicious and discriminatory attacks launched by Israel advocacy groups against the search committee and the four finalists who were of Middle Eastern and Palestinian ethnicity [emphasis added].”
London Mayor Sadiq Khan has come under fire for refusing to confirm that he would petition UK Home Secretary Amber Rudd to designate all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.Seth Frantzman: We could all be Otto Warmbier
The question regarding the terror group’s status was raised last week by London Assembly member David Kurten (UKIP) in response to the presence of Hezbollah flags during an anti-Israel Al-Quds Day march in London.
“That will close the loophole to stop people marching through the streets of London with a flag with a gun on it,” Kurten said in support of the terror designation during a London Assembly meeting.
At the same meeting, Assembly member Andrew Boff (Conservative) accused Khan of not doing his job, saying the mayor seems to be “avoiding saying, ‘Yes I’ll [confirm the designation with the home secretary].’”
Rudd said she would explore the possibility of banning the annual Al-Quds Day march and designating all of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization.
In the past, the European Union has come under scrutiny for making a distinction between the so-called “military” and “political” wings of Hezbollah, only giving the “military” wing a terror designation.
The grassroots group North West Friends of Israel amassed 20,000 signatures on a petition advocating for the Hezbollah terror designation.
Otto Warmbier’s tearful confession still haunts me. There is something awful in it. The crying out of a young man who knows he faces a ruined life based on accusations of a regrettable act that he cannot undo. Warmbier faced injustice after injustice in North Korea. A sham trial, a coerced confession, a life-destroying 15-year prison sentence of hard labor, sickness and then death. He was 22 years old.
His last few days were spent back in the US after he was released on “humanitarian” grounds by the very regime responsible for his incarceration and the illness that led to his death. His supposed crime? He was accused of trying to take a government sign as a souvenir. The North Korean government claimed this act undermined the foundations of the state.
He is not the first or last to receive an unspeakable punishment while being innocent of any real infraction. Men, women and children have been executed throughout history for minor infractions. Le Miserables is based on the story of a man sentenced to harsh labor for stealing bread. Nor is the North Korean regime unique in handing down these kinds of punishments in our time. In Thailand people are sentenced for insulting the monarch. In other places they are caned or beheaded, as happens in Saudi Arabia. Women are stoned to death or murdered by their families for looking at a man the wrong way or dressing “immodestly” in countries such as Pakistan.
Albinos are lynched in east Africa. Tourists are sentenced to death, accused of smuggling drugs, in countries like Indonesia.
In discussions about the murder of Warmbier, many excuses have been made and some writers have gone so far as to blame the victim. Time magazine callously titled their story “How Otto Warmbier Made It Out Of North Korea,” and pretended his treatment was due to “the latest grim chapter” in US-North Korea relations, as if bad relations between countries excuses the arrest and death of a young man.
Other hate-mongers claim Warmbier is an example of “white privilege” and his death was deserved because of his skin color. But the only privilege he asked for was not be sentenced to decades in prison and then killed by maltreatment over accusations of stealing a small sign. That’s not privilege, that’s a basic human right.
Ben-Dror Yemini: Europe must stop funding demonization of Israel
About a year ago, the Ramallah-based Popular Art Center staged a musical performance for “the Palestinian martyrs,” titled “No to laying down guns.” There is nothing new here. This is the “education to peace” that Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared in his meeting with US President Donald Trump. Abbas declared, and the European Union is paying in funding for the center. The more interesting thing is that the grant was given as part of a special project for “increasing Palestinian public awareness of EU core values.”Anti-Israeli leader gets rockstar reception
Particularly large funding, of €2.5 million, was given to the Women’s Center for Legal Aid and Counseling (WCLAC). One of the senior employees of the WCLAC is Manal Tamimi. Tamimi propagates anti-Semitic cartoons, often defines Israel as a Nazi state, and her tweets include content such as “Vampire Zionist celebrating by drinking Palestinian bloods” and “I do hate Israel, I do hate Zionism, I wish a third intifada coming soon and people raise up and kills all these Zionist settlers everywhere.”
Furthermore, dozens of Palestinians NGOs which support the BDS movement have the support of European countries, the European Union and other foundations. Do European taxpayers know that their money is funding anti-Semitic incitement and encouragement of terrorism? Probably not. But the EU knows. A parliamentary question on the issue was submitted at the European Parliament, and the NGO Monitor organization sent a letter to the EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, specifying the activities the EU funds were used for. The Delegation of the European Union to Israel said in response that the EU was against incitement and anti-Semitism, and that funding was only provided for the goals defined in the projects.
A huge crowd at the oldest music festival in Glastonbury, Britain, received Labor Party leader Jeremy Corbyn today (Monday) amid tremendous applause and singing.Portugal: Israeli ambassador and Jewish leader physically threatened on campus - demonstrators shouted "Hamas! Hamas!"
The audience sang "Ho Jeremy Corbyn," again and again, even when Corbyn came to the stage to speak and also during and between musical performances.
Corbyn and his party were very successful in the last elections in Britain, largely because of the young generation's support.
The Labor Party under Corbyn has become extreme Leftist, anti-Israel, and even more anti-Semitic. Corbyn himself is identified with strong positions against Israel, including statements praising Hizbollah and Hamas. He recently refused to condemn these organizations, despite requests from Jewish leaders and an explicit request from the new Israeli ambassador to London, Mark Regev.
The London-based Jewish News reported that during the appearance of Radiohead in Glastonbury, there were disturbances from those who did not like the band's insistence on performing in Israel. There were those who waved PLO flags, as well as a large canvas sign that read: "Israel is an apartheid state, Radiohead, do not play there." In addition, there were calls for "liberated Palestine".
This happened at the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences, Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Interestingly, the shocking incident was kept under wraps!Psychosis-laced anti-Semitism: Anti-Israel LGBT activists ban Star of David from Chicago parade
Via Romeu Monteiro:
A Portuguese student told Romeu Monteiro about an event he helped organize at his public college campus in Lisbon in February 2016:
"We were locked inside with the demonstrators on the other side of the door screaming "Hamas! Hamas!" and they would not go away.
It was anti-Semitic: the topic of the talk we organized was not Israel, it was Portuguese-Jewish heritage.
The dean forbade police from coming on campus to remove the demonstrators. After a while we had to activate the emergency plan to evacuate.
6 body guards surrounded the Israeli Ambassador and we also had to protect Esther Mucznik [a prominent Portuguese Jewish leader/speaker].
Some people were actually trying to physically attack them, we had to push them. The demonstrators were mostly radical leftist students." (h/t Think of England)
Claims of anti-Semitism are being made over actions yesterday by organizers of a “Dyke March” in Chicago to remove certain Jewish participants from the event because they carried a Jewish LGBT Pride Flag that had a Star of David in the Middle of a rainbow flag. The flag was alleged to be “triggering” to “pro-Palestinian” participants.Nikki Haley and her son heckled during NYC gay parade
I’ll discuss the specifics below.
Was it anti-Semitism? Objectively, yes.
To single out Jews in this manner, and to apply unique standards to Jews, is anti-Semitism, regardless of subjective intent. See my lecture, When Does Anti-Israelism Turn Into Anti-Semitism?
By analogy, no one would hesitate to call actions racist if blacks were singled out for criticism using standards applied to no other group. The claim that the actions were merely “anti-Zionist” doesn’t hold up. There is no legitimate reason to single out the only Jewish-majority state, and apply standards not applied to dozens of Muslim-majority states and societies.
Yet those assertions of anti-Semitism miss the deeper issue. The objective anti-Semitism of these LGBT activists is based on a detachment from reality. Those activists single out the most LGBT-friendly society in the Middle East (Israel) for criticism and ostracism, and celebrate one of the most homophobic societies in the world (Palestinian).
To understand what just happened in Chicago, accordingly, requires an understanding of how the anti-Israel movement, particularly the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, has become pathological. It is an irrationality that is beyond reason, and it inevitably expresses itself in discrimination against Jews.
Hecklers booed and verbally attacked US Ambassador to the United Nations and former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley and her son in New York City on Sunday during the city’s annual gay pride parade.IsraellyCool: Cynthia McKinney, Israel Hater & Former Congresswoman, Disseminating Neo Nazi Memes
The incident occurred while the ambassador and her son were leaving a restaurant where they had eaten lunch.
As they were finishing their meal and leaving, other patrons began verbally abusing Haley and her son and booing them.
Haley described the incident in a tweet Monday morning.
“We,incl my son, were booed by patrons saying hateful things as we left lunch @ Pride Parade.Our country is better than this. #HateNeverWins.”
Alas, she’s not the sharpest tool in the shed (although she is a tool). Check out the octopus’ tentacles – notice the odd one out?Slurs, Swastikas Target Atlanta’s Jewish Students
ADL, AIPAC and Bnai Brith are all Jewish organizations. SPLC is the Southern Poverty Law Center, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization specializing in civil rights and public interest litigation. They happen to go after hate groups, including neo nazis. As such, they defend the African-American community (of which McKinney is a member) against hate attacks, and do other things I am sure McKinney would appreciate – like labelling anti-radical Muslim activist Maajid Nawaz an “anti-Muslim extremist.” Not only that, but they are about as Jewish as a pork chop.
No doubt McKinney ripped off the graphic from a neo Nazi group who included the SPLC on Mr Octopus because they see them also as their enemies.
It just goes to show you how hateful of Jews Cynthia McKinney truly is.
While sitting in class waiting for the bell to ring this past school year, a junior at North Springs Charter High School was scrolling through Snapchat when she discovered an image of Hitler with “My love 4 you burns like 6,000,000 Jews” written in red letters.Edgar Davidson: Israel-hating bigot Mohamed Salah returns to the Premier League
The Jewish student scrolled down and noticed a laughing emoji placed under the image by a classmate.
“I saw the picture and thought, ‘This is disgusting,’ ” said the student, who captured a screen shot of the image and reported it to the principal.
Later that day, she confronted the classmate. “I was very upset and asked how they could think the slur was funny as it was, in fact, very disrespectful,” the student said.
The response she said she received: “I don’t know. I thought it was amusing. Everyone had them.”
The incident at the Fulton County public high school was an example of a surge in anti-Semitic actions at public and private schools in the Atlanta area the past year, as reported to the Anti-Defamation League’s Southeast Region office in Buckhead and discussed in the private Facebook group of the Atlanta Initiative Against Anti-Semitism.
Update 23 June 2017: Salah has returned to the English Premier League, having signed for Liverpool for a club record £34 million.Top French News Agency Apologizes to Jewish Human Rights Group Over Map Excluding Israel
Update (one year on) 2 Feb 2015: Salah has been quietly moved out of Chelsea having barely played a game for them
The following was posted 24 Jan 2014 with the title "If Mohamed Salah is not an antisemite Abramovic can get him to prove it". Seems like he never did....
Mohamed Salah is an Egyptian footballer who has just signed for Chelsea - a club owned by Roman Abramovic - for £11 million. The English sports media this morning is covering this story with headlines like "Salah: I am not an antisemite". Of course, Salah is not an antisemite. Like most Muslim non-antisemites he does not explicitly hate all 'Jews', only 'Jews who believe they have a right to love in their historical homeland', i.e.'Zionists'.
In August 2013 Salah's team Basel FC were drawn against Maccabi Tel-Aviv in a champions league qualifier**. In the home tie Salah refused to shake the hands of the Israeli team, which is a remarkable achievement given that the EUFA protocol requires the home team to line up while the away team walks along the line shaking each hand. Salah managed to 'avoid this' by going to the touchline, pretending to tie up his shoe laces. He also refused to shake hands with any Maccabi players after the game, which Basel won 1-0. After the match Salah announced he would refuse to play in the return leg in Israel.
Agence France-Presse (AFP) has apologized to a leading Jewish human rights organization for publishing a map on its Twitter feed earlier this month that excluded Israel.IsraellyCool: WATCH: Tzipi Hotoveli vs Hostile Aussie 60 Minutes Reporter Liam Bartlett
“A regrettable fault was committed which was corrected as soon as it was noted,” AFP’s director of information, Michele Leridon, wrote to Dr. Shimon Samuels, the Simon Wiesenthal Center’s Paris-based director of international relations, according to a translation provided to The Algemeiner by Samuels.
“This error was due to the reuse of a map background used for a different subject (the division between Shiites and Sunnis in the Muslim world),” the letter continued. “Only the names of the countries directly concerned with this matter were inscribed (in the same way as if we produced a map of the Eurozone, with the name of Switzerland not appearing on the map of Europe). When we learned of our error, it was immediately corrected. A map mentioning Israel was sent to all our outlets. We sincerely deplore this incident and pray that you will excuse us.”
In a June 7 letter he sent to AFP Chairman and CEO Emmanuel Hoog, Samuels said that “inaction on this issue will be construed as an AFP endorsement of Iranian-declared policy to exterminate the Jewish state.”
Ten years ago, I wrote about the first story journalist Liam Bartlett filed for Australia’s 60 Minutes.
Back in the days when I lived in Western Australia, Liam Bartlett was a newsreader/radio announcer for Perth’s ABC. He has now progressed to being a reporter for Australia’s 60 Minutes.
The reason I mention this is that his first story for 60 Minutes – dealing with Australians fighting for the IDF and for Hizbullah – is now online. It is fascinating, and I think deals fairly with the subject matter (I also happen to remember the young Perth man interviewed, from when he was just a child). Liam manages to show what motivates these young men and women, and shows an understanding for the Israeli side. Richard Carleton he ain’t.
10 years is a long time, and judging by Bartlett’s latest offering, I’d say he has emulated Richard Carleton after all.
On the plus side, Tzipi Hotoveli killed it – despite the (minor) errors in English.
BBC’s Bowen resurrects the ‘Arafat was poisoned’ canard on Radio 4
Episode 14 of the ongoing BBC Radio 4 series ‘Our Man in the Middle East’ was devoted entirely to Jeremy Bowen’s portrayal of Yasser Arafat.The Independent Whitewashes Iranian Extremism
“The BBC’s Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen looks back over the life of Yasser Arafat. Thousands of his supporters turned out when the Palestinian’s body was flown back into Ramallah on the West Bank. “Love him or hate him, he was Mr Palestine,” says Bowen. “In death as well as in life he was the symbol of the Palestinian people and their struggle for independence – much more than a politician.” The Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s view was that Arafat was ‘ a murderer and a pathological liar’.”
Originally broadcast on June 15th under the title “Guns and Olive Branches“, the programme now opens with notification that “this programme has been edited since broadcast” – but BBC audiences are not informed what that editing entailed and the BBC’s ‘corrections and clarifications‘ page does not include any related information.
The programme begins with Bowen’s recollections from November 2004 and an interpretation of Arafat’s sartorial propaganda that unquestioningly endorses the notion that the State of Israel is actually “Palestine”.
“Even his keffiyeh – his black and white headscarf – carried a message. Arafat always wore it pushed back behind his left shoulder and down the front of his chest on the right, broad at the top, tapering down to the south: the shape of Palestine.”
Listeners repeatedly hear Bowen refer to a Palestinian “struggle for independence” with just one brief and inadequately explained reference to the fact that the said “struggle” was actually intended to wipe Israel off the map and with no mention made of the absence of any claim to “independence” during the nineteen years that Palestinians lived under Jordanian and Egyptian occupation.
The Independent’s coverage of Al Quds Day demonstrations in Iran whitewashes Iranian anti-Semitism and extremism, and calls President Hassan Rouhani a “moderate.”
Al Quds Day, as HR has explained, was founded by Iran’s leaders as a day to show support for Palestinians, reaffirm the Muslim connection to Jerusalem – and also to call for Israel’s destruction.
The Independent reports on the crowds chanting “death to Israel” and a digital countdown to the “destruction of Israel,” and then attempts to explains the reason for this:
UPDATE
Thank you to The Independent for promptly amending the first article in question. The paragraph now reads:
Angered by Criticism Over Fake News Sites, Mark Zuckerberg Joins ISIS (satire)
Saying he was furious over criticism that his site had contributed to the spread of fake news leading up to the November 8, 2016 U.S. presidential election, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg announced that he has moved to Syria and joined ISIS.Summer concert season opens with Tom Jones, Britney Spears
“The claim that Facebook is awash with false and misleading news in completely unfounded,” Zuckerberg told The Mideast Beast. “That is why I have decided to fight the American infidels on behalf of the resurgent Islamic Caliphate. Allahu Akbar.”
Since President Donald Trump’s election win, commentators have questioned what role fake news stories – such as one claiming that an FBI agent linked to Hillary Clinton’s e-mails was found dead, and another saying Pope Francis had endorsed Trump – played into the real estate mogul’s unexpected win. After defending Facebook and saying 99 percent of news posted on the site was accurate, Zuckerberg boarded a private jet to Raqqa, where he will serve as the Islamic State’s IT director.
The summer solstice has arrived and, with it, the summer concert season.IKEA recruits Israeli innovators to attend start-up boot camp
Crooner Tom Jones returns to Tel Aviv for the third time this Wednesday, June 28, to the city’s Menora Mivtachim stadium.
Then there’s the long-awaited Britney Spears show on Monday, July 3, at Tel Aviv’s Yarkon Park.
Spears will be performing a one-night show in the park as part of her upcoming world tour. Local music producers have been working to bring Spears to Israel since last year, and the performance is set to cost more than $2 million.
Local fans are clearly pumped for the arrival of the pop star, who already sent a message via Twitter to celebrity journalist, Guy Pines.
“Tel Aviv here I come!! Can’t wait to take the stage at Park Hayarkon on July 3rd! Hey @therealguypines, see you there!!” wrote Spears on Twitter.
IKEA executives will be headed to Tel Aviv this week to seek out promising Israeli innovators who could participate in the company's inaugural start-up accelerator.Israel’s first NASCAR driver completes debut race
In a global quest to find new solutions to the challenges in people's everyday lives, the Scandinavian ready-to-assemble furniture giant is opening up its first start-up program – IKEA Bootcamp – together with the global entrepreneurship cooperative Rainmaking. As part of that mission, the boot camp's leaders are traveling to eight cities around the world over the next few weeks, to recruit 10 promising start-ups to come to IKEA's hometown on September 18.
The program is looking for start-ups that can collaborate with IKEA to help solve "big problems" and create better, more affordable lives for the global population, as well as a positive impact on the planet, according to the partners.
'IKEA Bootcamp' is inviting relevant Israeli innovators to apply on the program's website to attend the Thursday evening “Head Start” event, which will be held at branch of WeWork offices.
"We are really excited to be coming to Tel Aviv with IKEA Bootcamp," said Karin Blomqvist, COO, IKEA Bootcamp. "The start-up scene in Tel Aviv is amazing and known as one of the most important ones in the world. We hope to get applications from a lot of the cool start-ups from the area as we want to meet the best start-ups out there!"
Alon Day became the first Israeli driver to compete in the Monster Energy NASCAR Cup Series — the sport’s highest league of competition.Israeli-owned hotels make travel magazine Hot List
Racing the No. 23 car for the BK Racing team, the 25-year-old from Tel Aviv — named Israel’s “Athlete of the Year” in 2016 — finished 32nd out of 40 at Sunday’s race at the Sonoma Raceway in Southern California.
It was a tough race for newcomers in Sonama.
Kevin Harvick led a 1-2-3 podium sweep for Ford while proving that veteran experience still counts for something in NASCAR. But at a track where experience and ability can separate the field, it was Harvick and a bunch of veterans who led the way.
Day won the NASCAR Whelen Euro race in England on June 11 at Brands Hatch and was planning to return to Israel after that race, then got the call to compete at the Sonoma Raceway in California.
Day grew up in Ashdod, where he learned about NASCAR from playing video games such as Grand Prix Legends.
Condé Nast Traveller (UK edition) just gave a nod to the Israel-based Brown Hotels boutique hotel chain, naming The Poli House in Tel Aviv and Brown Beach House Croatia as two of the year’s best new hotels in its Hot List 2017.Gal Gadot ranked most popular actor on social media
This year’s “Conde Nast Traveller“ Hot List 2017 will appear in the publication’s July/August 2017 edition.
Both hotels are part of hotelier Leon Avigad’s Leopard Hospitality chain, founded with his life and business partner Nitzan Perry, which also includes the Brown TLV, the Brown Beach House — both in Tel Aviv — and the recently opened Villa Brown Jerusalem.
The Brown Beach House Croatia is a 25-room property housed within a former tobacco shipment station, in the medieval city of Trogrir overlooking the Adriatic sea. The hotel group chose Croatia as an emerging market with coastal flair, said Ross Belfer, a spokesperson for the firm.
Also on the Hot List is the group’s Poli House, named for its original owner, Yehuda Polishuk.
It’s one of Tel Aviv’s historic Bauhaus properties, a ship-like structure with a one rounded end situated at one of the city’s busiest intersections, where the artsy Nahalat Binyamin neighborhood meets the Carmel Market and the grit of Allenby Street.
Gal Gadot, the Israeli star of the film “Wonder Woman,” rose to No. 1 on The Hollywood Reporter’s Top Actors list.
She had been ranked No. 4 for the past two weeks on the list, which is a ranking of the most popular actors on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and Google Plus.
The latest tracking week ended on June 20, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The new list was released Saturday. Other actors on the list include Dwayne Johnson, Zendaya, Priyanka Chopra, Lucy Hale, Jennifer Lopez, Kevin Hart, Lily Collins, Shay Mitchell and Mark Wahlberg.
Gadot, 32, has become an international sensation since “Wonder Woman” premiered. She has been a household name in Israel since winning the Miss Israel pageant in 2004, when she was 18 years old.
