Thursday, July 13, 2017
Ben Shapiro: How the Dems can lose 2018
Democrats, meanwhile, are moving hard to the left. When former Clinton adviser Mark Penn wrote an op-ed for The New York Times calling for Democrats to move back to the center, he was roundly excoriated by the leading thinkers in the Democratic Party. He was an emissary of the past; he had to embrace the new vision of the leftist future. That leftist future involved radical tax increases, fully nationalized health care, and — most of all — the divisive politics of intersectionality. Sens. Sanders (I-VT) and Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) may own the policy side of the Democratic coalition, but the heart of the Democratic coalition lies in polarization by race, sex and sexual orientation. Forget a cohesive national message that appeals to Americans regardless of tribal identity: The new Democratic Party cares only about uniting disparate identity factions under the banner of opposing Republicanism.Nonie Darwish: The Islamic View of "Feminism"
The clearest evidence for that alliance of convenience came earlier this month, when Democratic darling and Women’s March organizer Linda Sarsour was caught on tape promoting “jihad” against Trump. Sarsour said that the sort of “jihad” she liked was “a word of truth in front of a tyrant or leader.” But she deliberately used the word “jihad” because of its ambiguity, not in spite of it: Sarsour has stated that pro-Israel women cannot be feminists; she supports the imposition of “Shariah law” in Muslim countries; she has stated of dissident and female genital mutilation victim Ayaan Hirsi Ali that she wishes she could take her “vagina away”; she has long associated with the terrorist Muslim Brotherhood; she opened her “jihad” speech by thanking Siraj Wajjah, an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing who has repeatedly advocated for a violent form of “jihad.”
Democrats rushed to her defense nonetheless, hoping to preserve the intersectional concerns that animate their base. Never mind that Sarsour is no ally to LGBT rights, or that she blames “Zionists” for her problems. She represents an important constituency for Democrats, and so she must be protected. More than that, she speaks anti-Trumpese fluently, and thus is an important figure for Democrats.
This isn’t rare on the left anymore. Much of the Democratic establishment supported Rep. Keith Ellison (D-Minn.), a longtime Nation of Islam acolyte who spent years defending that group’s most extreme anti-Semitic rhetoric — a man so radical that he openly associated with the Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, which recently labeled Democratic Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) an “Israel Firster.”
Sarsour apparently identifies as a feminist. Sarsour's kind of feminism, however, embraces the most oppressive legal system, especially for women: Islamic religious law, Sharia. Sarsour's feminism is supposedly for empowering women, but it twists logic in a way similar to how Muslim preachers do when they claim that beating one's wife is a husband's way of honoring her.Linda Sarsour declares legal Jihad on people who “defame my character”
Pro-Sharia feminism is a perverted kind of feminism that could not care less about the well-being of oppressed Muslim women. Sarsour's logic concerning women does not differ much from that of Suad Saleh, an Egyptian female Islamic cleric, who recently justified on Egyptian TV the doctrine of intentional humiliation and rape of captured women in Islam. Saleh said, "One of the purposes of raping captured enemy women and young girls was to humiliate and disgrace them and that is permissible under Islamic law." There was not even a peep in Egypt's civil society about such a statement.
Here is an Australian Muslim woman calling beatings by husbands a "blessing from Allah".
Muslim feminists seem to think that they must defend Sharia and "Allah" before any other consideration -- including women. Musdah Mulia, a Muslim professor, who also claims to be a feminist, maintains that Islam is a religion of equality. She has said, "blame Muslims, not Islam, for gender inequity." Muslim anthropologist Ziba Mir-Mosseini has argued "The problem [for women in Islam] has never been with the text (the Koran), but with the context." That means, presumably, that the problem is everyone's fault except for the sources themselves: Islam, the Koran and Sharia.
The reason Islamic feminism has been perverted is because over centuries it had to conform to Islamic law, Sharia, which regulates to a fare-thee-well all behavior of women, men and children. Many Muslims, however, seem to be in denial that the main goal of Sharia is to promote life under the bondage of Sharia as good and healthy. Sharia therefore becomes a convoluted way of coercing people to adapt to tyranny.
Linda Sarsour is a controversial public figure, to put it mildly.
We have covered her here, including:
Sarsour was all over the news recently when she called for “Jihad” against Trump. Many people construed that as some form of call to religious war or violence — something understandable given the common current usage of the term by Islamic terrorists and extremists.
- her embrace (both verbally, politically, and physically — see Featured Image) of convicted terrorist murderer and immigration fraudster Rasmea Odeh;
- her organizing of the Women’s March movement;
- her tweet saying that Female Genital Mutilation victim Ayaan Hirsi Ali should have her vagina taken away;
- her “little lie” at an appearance regarding the tweet, in which she implied the Hirsi Ali tweet may never have happened, which included a racially-based attack on the white student asking the question;
- her involvement with the anti-Israel movement, where she has appeared with Keith Ellison;
- her fiery speech at an event organized by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam;
- her tweet that the “definition of courage” is a very young Palestinian child throwing rocks at Israeli soldiers;
- her public fight with Courtney Love, who called Sarsour a “Fraud”, “Vile disgrace to women and all mankind”;
- and her demand that Zionist women (who constitute the overwhelming majority of Jewish women) not be permitted in the feminist movement.
Sarsour took offense to that accusation in an Op-Ed in the Washington Post, Islamophobes are attacking me because I’m their worst nightmare:
David Collier: Scottish antisemites in Dumbarton get to throw a public party
It is a truly horrifying scenario. Almost every single person who is tagged into these images of Dumbarton activism, share hard-core antisemitic ideologies. Almost every single one.Leading French Jewish Actor and Advocate for Murdered Pensioner Sarah Halimi Targeted by BDS Activists
These are not ‘fourth kinders’
This is not the same as groups of people who think they have had a ‘fourth kind‘ experience and have been taken aboard an alien ship. This is not a funny distortion of truth. These people seem to believe that the vast majority of British Jews are some type of dangerous, subversive group. These people throw regular events to bring others into the fold, to convert them. They conflate a clear issue they have with Jews, with sympathy for the Palestinians. These are the people behind the festival in Dumbarton.
They deny it of course. The use the anti-Zionism is not the same as antisemitism defence. You only need to look at the images they share to know this is nonsense. Which brings me back to the opening image of the cigarette advert. Smoking doesn’t equal lung cancer, and not every smoker dies from a smoke related disease. But if you go and look for cigarettes in the local shop you will not see any on display. Eventually people woke up and understood the dangers. Every image of anti-Israel activism on the streets of the UK contains images of people who hate Jews and deny the Holocaust. When will people understand?
Just who are the council members supporting this group?
It is time we realised there is a disease moving swiftly through the British undergrowth. It is using sympathy for the Palestinians as a means of spreading across the countryside. It poses a threat to every single Jew on these islands. It poses a threat to the fabric of British Society. We have to stop it.
EoZ 2011 Dumbartonshire: How to fight the Scottish boycott of Israeli books
One of France’s leading comic actors, Michel Boujenah, is facing a determined effort by BDS activists to bar him from appearing at the prestigious International Festival of Carthage in Tunisia, which opens on Thursday in the capital Tunis.MEMRI: Tunisian Human Rights Association, Liberal Party Denounce Call To Ban Jewish Comedian Michel Boujenah From Tunisian Arts Festival For Being A Zionist: 'Leave Art And Artists Out Of Political Controversies'
Boujenah — a Tunisian-born Jew and outspoken critic of antisemitism in France — has been on the receiving end of a two-week campaign by local BDS activists from the “International Campaign for Boycotting Zionism,” which cited his support for Israel as the reason for barring him from the festival.
But pro-democracy activists in the North African nation countered that Boujenah was a loyal Tunisian, dismissing the boycott call as an act of discrimination.
‘I am not here to defend a person who does not need defending…as if being non-Muslim requires one to prove [one’s patriotism]! ” said Yamina Thabet, president of the Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities (TASM), in remarks translated by the Middle East Media Research Institute.
“What I denounce is the cowardly behavior of those who do not have the guts to acknowledge their hatred and therefore hide the under guise of some general excuse,” Thabet declared. “Michel Boujenah is a Tunisian who always declared out loud his attachment to the homeland. And as such, he has the right to perform in Tunisia and meet his fans in our country, and there are many of them.”
After Tunisian-born French Jewish comedian Michel Boujenah was invited to perform at the International Festival of Carthage, a music festival held every summer in the city, Tunisian activists identified with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement demanded to exclude him from the festival for being a Zionist.Evelyn Gordon: The Left’s Inversion of Anti-Semitism
In interviews, Boujenah has identified as a Zionist and expressed support for Israel, alongside support for Palestinian independence. For example, in a 2009 interview he said: "I feel Jewish, French, Tunisian, Zionist and very close to Israel, as well as a supporter of a Palestinian state." In an open letter they sent to the Tunisian Culture Ministry and to the organizers of the festival, the activists demanded to cancel Boujenah's show at the festival because "there is no place for the Zionists, whatever their nationality, in our country and festivals."
The call to ban Boujenah from the festival sparked a reaction from Yamina Thabet, president of the Tunisian Association for the Support of Minorities (TASM), who denounced it and defended Boujenah's right to perform. The Tunisian Liberal Party likewise criticized the call in a statement it posted on its Facebook page, which said: "The Tunisian Liberal Party is deeply sorry that Tunisian artist Michel Boujenah should be the subject of media and political campaigns to prevent him from performing at the Carthage Theater." The statement urged to "keep art and artists out of political controversies."
On June 29, 2017, the Tunisian media outlet Kapitalis reported on the affair and on TASM's denunciation of the call to cancel Boujenah's show. The following is a translation of the report.
The progressive left has been revising the definition of anti-Semitism for some time. It’s already old news that it no longer considers it anti-Semitic to attack pro-Israel Jews for their Jewish identity. But this process has recently taken a new twist. Not only has the definition of anti-Semitism been narrowed to exclude attacks on pro-Israel Jews, but it has also been broadened to cover all attacks on progressive leftists who happen to be Jews, even if the attack relates solely to the target’s left-wing activism.Canadian Regulatory Agency Tells Alcohol Retailers, Distributors To Stop Selling Some Israeli Wines
Consider, for instance, the uproar over the recent Hungarian campaign against George Soros, a leading left-wing activist who also happens to be Jewish. As part of his reelection bid, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban plastered the country with anti-illegal immigration posters featuring a smiling Soros bearing the slogan “Don’t let Soros have the last laugh.” Orban, who accuses Soros of funding progressive groups in Hungary that lobby for “settling a million migrants” in the country, has also called Soros himself a “billionaire speculator” and an “American financial speculator attacking Hungary.”
The campaign has outraged many people, ostensibly out of concern for anti-Semitism. The head of Hungary’s Jewish Federation protested to Orban, saying that despite not being “openly anti-Semitic,” the campaign could spark anti-Semitism. So did Israel’s ambassador to Hungary, using language which strongly implied the campaign was anti-Semitic without actually saying so, until Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu (correctly) ordered a retraction. A senior European Union official termed Orban’s use of “speculator” anti-Semitic. The Associated Press even ran a story in May headlined “Demonization of Soros recalls old anti-Semitic conspiracies.”
Some attacks on Soros are anti-Semitic, like when someone at an anti-refugee rally in Poland in 2015 set fire to an effigy of an Orthodox Jew which he said represented Soros. That’s classic anti-Semitism; it implies both that the real problem is Soros’s Jewishness rather than anything he did, and that all Jews are responsible for Soros’s actions.
The Hungarian campaign, however, targets Soros not for his Jewishness, which it never even mentions, but for his actions; specifically, the fact that he is one of the main financial backers of pro-immigration organizations in Hungary.
The LCBO, Ontario’s quasi-monopoly retailer and distributor of alcohol (with a few exceptions for wine and beer), announced that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) is forcing LCBO and all other wine vendors to cease the sale and importation of wine from two Israeli wines, Psagot Winery and Shiloh Winery.B'nai Brith Expects Disturbing Canadian Food Inspection Agency Decision Against Israeli Wines to Be Reversed Soon
The Canadian Food Inspection Agency is a regulatory agency that was formed in 1997 for the purpose of insuring the well-being of Canadians by regulating their food, plants and animals.
The regulatory agency is banning Israeli wines in Canada because the “Government of Canada does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967 (Golan Heights, West Bank, East Jerusalem, Gaza Strip).”
A letter from the LCBO sent to wine vendors on July 11 (full letter below) explained the CFIA's rationale for banning some Israeli brands (emphasis added):
The CFIA clarified that “Product of Israel” would not be an acceptable country of origin declaration for wine products that have been made from grapes that are grown, fermented, processed, blended and finished in the West Bank.The letter cites subsection 5(1) of the Food and Drugs Act, which reads:
CFIA further advised that the government of Canada does not recognize Israel’s sovereignty over the territories occupied in 1967 (The Golan Heights, The West Bank, East Jerusalem and The Gaza Strip). As such, wine products from these regions that are labeled as “Products of Israel” would not be acceptable and would be misleading as per subsection 5(1) of the Food and Drugs Act.
No person shall label, package, treat, process, sell or advertise any food in a manner that is false, misleading or deceptive or is likely to create an erroneous impression regarding its character, value, quantity, composition, merit or safety.I never thought that we would reach the point where a food, plant and animal regulation agency in Canada would take a political stance on the Arab-Israeli conflict while superfluously using whatever power they have to advance their anti-Zionist agenda.
What exactly this ban has to do with maintaining the health and well-being of Canadians (the supposed dedication of the CFIA), I do not know. Unfortunately, I don’t think that the CFIA knows either. The Daily Wire reached out to CFIA’s Media Relations department, but they refused to comment.
B’nai Brith Canada is expecting that the Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA) will soon rescind its recent decision to order the removal of certain Israeli wines from store shelves.Apologists Gear Up for Rasmieh Odeh's Last Hurrah
“B’nai Brith has received a lot of information on this matter from multiple sources and officials during the past 24 hours as we were advocating on behalf of the community," said Michael Mostyn, Chief Executive Officer of B'nai Brith Canada. "We can say now that we are expecting this disturbing decision to be corrected in short order."
According to a letter acquired by B'nai Brith and dated July 11, the Liquor Control Board of Ontario (LCBO) requested that wine vendors "discontinue any importation or sales" of wines marked "Made in Israel" and manufactured east of the Green Line, in light of a CFIA decision defining this as a "misleading" sales practice.
B’nai Brith found during its investigation of the matter that the wines in question, from Shiloh and Psagot wineries, were indeed no longer in stock or in the LCBO system on Wednesday. It appeared as though they were unavailable in other provinces, as well.
B'nai Brith expects this to change in short order and believes the aforementioned wines will be back on the shelves of Canadian liquor stores.
"There was a great deal of surprise and confusion surrounding this letter, which is circulating on social media like wildfire," Mostyn said. “From our investigation, it appears safe to conclude that a directive came from the CFIA -- but we expect a reversal soon.
"In the meantime, we call on Canadians from coast to coast to purchase Israeli wine, in order to demonstrate solidarity and friendship with the democratic State of Israel. Please mention the Shiloh and Psagot wines you would like to see on store shelves to liquor store employees."
Her supporter blindly accept Odeh's claim that her Israeli conviction resulted from weeks of vicious torture, even though the only evidence to support this claim is Odeh's word. A Red Cross monitor declared her Israeli trial fair, and her father was in contact with U.S. diplomats at the time and reported no such abuse.High Time for Sofian Zakkout, Pillar of the American-Muslim Community, to Be Investigated for Ties to Hamas
Further, her sworn plea agreement included language that renders the torture claims moot:
"At the time she made the false statements, [Odeh] knew the statements were false," the plea agreement says. She "also admits that all of these false statements were material ... She made the false statements intentionally and not as a result of any mistake, Post Traumatic Stress Disorder or any other psychological issue or condition or for any innocent reason, and not withstanding any other statement or testimony Defendant Odeh may have made at any other time regarding those answers."
Nevertheless, Odeh stood by her story days later, calling the government's case "a phony immigration charge" and blasting "the racist nature of the justice system in this country."
Her followers appear to have no second thoughts about whether their hero is an honest person, let alone an unrepentant killer. While it's one last hurrah for Odeh, the Aug. 12 event offers yet another example proving that, for Israel haters, facts really aren't important.
There is good reason to suspect that a pillar of the Muslim community in South Florida, who sits on the boards of many civil rights groups and charities, is actually a member of Hamas, the terrorist organization ruling the Gaza Strip. Sofian Zakkout, the founding president of the American Muslim Association of North America (AMANA), was born and partly raised in Gaza, which he has referred proudly to as "my nation, my hometown."Covert Watchdog Calls Founder of Students for Justice in Palestine ‘Most Dangerous Professor in America’
His fondness for his birthplace, however, is not what is worrisome about Zakkout. It is, rather, that he has spent decades cloaking himself in a veil of respectability, while actively promoting violent Hamas propaganda, including virulently anti-Semitic speech.
To grasp how dubious a character Zakkout is, one need only compare AMANA's self-described mission – and Zakkout's positions, for example, in the Florida State Advisory Committee to the United States Commission on Civil Rights, the Florida Regional Interfaith/Interagency Emergency Network in Disaster, the Miami Dade County Citizen Corps and even the Jewish-Arab Dialogue -- with his activism on behalf of Hamas.
Anonymous campus watchdog group Canary Mission named the founder of the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) movement “The Most Dangerous Professor in America” on Wednesday.Palestinian Group Hosts Terrorist Fundraising Event in Germany
The announcement came with the release of a new dossier on Hatem Bazian, a senior lecturer at the University of California-Berkeley’s Department of Ethnic Studies and founder of the school’s Center for the Study of Documentation of Islamophobia, citing his “antisemitic” actions from as far back as the 1980s. At that time, Bazian was a student leader at San Francisco State University (which was hit last month by a lawsuit brought by students claiming the school has a decades-long record of “anti-Jewish animus.”)
The report includes two videos in which Bazian is shown repeatedly calling for an intifada, or violent uprising, in America and Israel.
“Are you angry? Are you angry? Are you angry? We’ve been watching intifada in Palestine, we’ve been watching an uprising in Iraq,” Bazian chanted at a rally Canary Mission identified as taking place in April 2004 in San Francisco. “[A]nd the question is that, what are we doing? How come we don’t have an intifada in this country…and it’s about time that we have an intifada in this country, that change fundamentally the political dynamics in here [sic]. And we know…they’re gonna say it’s some Palestinian being too radical, well you haven’t seen radicalism yet!”
The Democratic Committee of Palestine hosted an event in Berlin on Saturday to raise money for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) terrorist group, according to the Berlin daily Tagesspiegl and as reported by the Jerusalem Post.A technophobe reporter tries online Israel advocacy — and nails it
The event reportedly took place in the building that also hosts Neues Deutschland‘s publishing house — a socialist newspaper.
A recent NGO Monitor report outlined how several European governments fund organizations with PFLP links. The PFLP is a Marxist-Leninist terrorist organization designated as such by the EU and other Western states. These NGOs often justify attacks against Israeli civilians, and maintain ties to known terrorists.
According to the NGO Monitor report, PFLP operatives founded some of the listed organizations directly, while other groups include staff members who were convicted of terrorism-related charges by Israeli courts. These so-called human rights organizations are at the forefront for the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions (BDS) movement, while prominent individuals within some of the NGOs are known to promote violence and antisemitism.
Berlin Mayor Michael Müller faced criticism for not blocking the PFLP fundraiser; he also faced backlash for allowing Hezbollah sympathizers and members to participate in an annual al-Quds Day march in Berlin last month.
The internet can feel like a pretty hostile place sometimes to the Israel supporter, partly due to the sheer volume of anti-Semitic and anti-Israel material out there — whether it’s in the form of a meme, a video, or a slew of hateful comments.Pro-Israel group wins legal victory against BDS at Canadian university
I’ve always reported posts that are overtly racist or which incite violence, but frankly, that doesn’t seem to register with the people at Facebook and YouTube. Weeks after I file a complaint, the posts are still up, or even more new ones have sprung up in their place.
Fortunately, it’s 2017 — Israel has got me covered.
For every problem there is a solution, and for the problem of online anti-Israel bullying, the solution is 4IL, an online suite of tools available as part of a pro-information campaign put forth by Israel’s Ministry of Strategic affairs.
4IL empowers homegrown Israel advocates to educate others against the biased and inaccurate information presented by anti-Israel propaganda machines such as the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement via a host of cartoons, articles, videos, and other media.
Sharing is caring
Easily shareable videos like “Honest BDS News” make it easy to expose BDS for what it really is on a large scale – and that’s just the tip of the iceberg. 4IL comes out with more videos all the time, dealing with subjects like campus awareness, Israeli history, and political topics of the day.
A pro-Israel North American advocacy organization announced on Thursday that it had won a legal victory after an Ontario university’s student association banned it from participating in an event last year, due to its connection with Israel.Pro-Israel Evangelical Christian Leader Urges Boycott of Roger Waters’ Miami Concert
The event in question was Social Justice Week, held at University of Ontario Institute of Technology. Robert Walker, National Director of Hasbara Fellowships Canada, had responded to an open invitation for community groups to participate.
When he was denied entry, Hasbara Fellowships filed legal action with the Ontario Human Rights Tribunal, citing discrimination. The group demanded a public apology, an invitation back to campus, and $50,000 in damages.
On Thursday, the Student Association released a public apology on its website saying it: “deeply regrets the decision made to deny Mr. Walker and Hasbara the opportunity to participate in Social Justice Week. The SA sincerely apologizes to Mr. Walker and Hasbara. The SA aims to promote healthy debate on campus and rejects discrimination of any kind, including against Israeli students or community members. We welcome Mr. Walker and Hasbara’s participation at a future multicultural event on campus.”
An American evangelical Christian leader is calling for a boycott of ex-Pink Floyd rock star Roger Waters’ Miami concert on Thursday.Jewish, Zionist Groups Call for Canadian University to Take Down Art Exhibit Created By Sister of Palestinian Terrorist
“Roger Waters is a flagrant antisemite,” Laurie Cardoza-Moore — president of the pro-Israel group Proclaiming Justice to the Nations — said on Wednesday. “All Christians, Jews and people of conscience should publicly condemn him.”
“Everybody should do what they can to voice their concern that this antisemite is spewing his despicable brand of hatred in the Sunshine State,” she continued. “Contact your local lawmakers, picket the concert, speak out on social media, but whatever you do, do not remain silent.”
In recent years, Waters, 73, has spoken out against Israel’s West Bank security barrier and become a vocal proponent of the boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement.
Also on Wednesday, the Greater Miami Jewish Federation placed on ad on the Miami Herald homepage with a message for Waters, whose concert will take place at the American Airlines Arena. “Anti-Semitism and hatred are not welcome in Miami,” it said.
Jewish and pro-Israel groups have called on Canada’s Western University to take down an art exhibit, created by the sister of a Palestinian terrorist, currently being displayed at an on-campus gallery.Pro-Israel Groups Claim Criminal Action Took Place at UC-Irvine Protest, Call on School to Hold Perpetrators ‘Accountable’
Representatives from Hillel Ontario, which oversees the Hillel Jewish centers at nine universities, and Stand With Us Canada (SWU) were both outraged by Western doctoral candidate Rehab Nazzal’s “Choreographies of Resistance,” described by Nazzal as depicting “the Palestinians’ experiences of resisting colonial violence.” The exhibit is being shown this month at the school’s McIntosh Gallery.
According to promotional material, the exhibit includes “an installation in which photographic images are projected onto hundreds of handmade slingshots as it pays tribute to Palestinians who have lost their lives in what the artist notes is an ‘intifada, or uprising.'”
Marc Newburgh, CEO of Hillel Ontario, told The Algemeiner, “We are disgusted by any attempt to justify or glorify Palestinian violence in the guise of art.”
“No minority on campus should feel that violence against their community is condoned through art, and Jewish and Israeli students should not be an exception,” said Newburgh. “Hillel has made its grave concerns with this exhibit directly known to the administration, and those conversations are ongoing.”
Nazzal is the sister of Khaled Nazzal, a former leader at the Palestinian Liberation Organization and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestinian, and one of the people behind the 1974 massacre of 22 Israeli schoolchildren and their three teachers.
Khaled, who was killed by Mossad agents in 1986, featured in Rehab’s 2014 exhibit at the Ottawa City Hall, which showcased the portraits and biographies of, as publicity material described it, “assassinated Palestinian figures…lost artists, writers and leaders,” several of whom conducted deadly attacks on civilians.
Three major pro-Israel groups have claimed that University of California-Irvine (UCI) students committed criminal acts at a protest of a Zionist event in May and have now called on the administration to hold the perpetrators “accountable.”IsraellyCool: Antisemite Goes Off Script, Gets Corrected By Fellow Haters
In a letter sent on July 6 to UCI Chancellor Howard Gillman and Douglas M. Haynes, the vice provost for academic equity, diversity and inclusion, Students Supporting Israel (SSI), StandWithUs (SWU) and the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law alleged that individual members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) committed “the misdemeanor of Disturbing a Public Meeting,” and were also guilty of “violating multiple UCI policies.”
The letter came after the three organizations contacted UCI about SJP’s role, as a group, in the sustained shout-down of an IDF “Reservists on Duty” panel on May 10, and the resulting call by program organizers for a police escort to lead attendees out of the building though a side door.
The incident occurred almost exactly a year after SJP disrupted an Israel-related film being shown on campus, for which SJP was issued a warning that SWU lawyer Yael Lerman told The Algemeiner amounted to a “slap on the wrist.”
Yet another antisemite caught on film outside the recent Palestine Expo in London. But unlike some of the others who were careful to speak about “Zionists”, this one goes for the Jewish jugular.Disgusting antisemite at the PalExpo
Watch as his fellow haters try to get him to say “Zionists” instead – and fail miserably.
Yet another Palestine flag to fly in Ireland
Yet another Palestine flag to fly in IrelandBBC ME correspondent: Jewish history in Hebron is a ‘view’
I hope that PM Netanyahu or someone has the gumption to tell visiting Irish Foreign Minister Simon Coveney how pissed off we are by yet another Irish local council flying the red, black, white and green (like most Arab states in various combinations) Palestine flag in solidarity with the people of Palestine.
Assuming they don’t Five Minutes for Israel has a graphic solution.
Red Hand banner of Northern Ireland
Moral flagging AKA virtue signalling is defined as taking a conspicuous but essentially useless action ostensibly to support a good cause but actually to show off how much more moral you are than everybody else. Ireland is doing this literally by council after council deciding to fly Palestine’s flag.
Why shouldn’t Israeli councils fly the red hand banner of Northern Ireland to show that we can be as asinine as the South Dublin County Council and interfere in a dispute where we clearly have no real knowledge and no dog in the fight?
Raising the flag to signal up yours.
Coomarasamy then told listeners that they were about to hear information concerning “the history” behind the story.Newsweek Corrects: Stevie Wonder Didn't Cancel Israel Concert
“So what is the history behind the Israeli prime minister’s clear annoyance at this decision? Our Middle East correspondent Tom Bateman is in Jerusalem.”
The history of the Tomb of the Patriarchs is of course well documented, with Abraham’s purchase of the site appearing in the Book of Genesis. While one can of course choose to believe that biblical story or not, what is not disputed is that the site was of such importance to Jews that Herod built a structure over the burial caves that is described by UNESCO’s professional team as having been “built in the 1st century BCE” – i.e. hundreds of years before the Islamic conquest of the region.
However, instead of providing audiences with a factual account of the site’s history, Tom Bateman preferred to give a narrative based portrayal of the story that cites ‘views’ – with views of course by definition being open to question and debate.
Contrary to the article, Wonder did not cancel a concert in Israel. Rather, as a May 24, 2013 Toronto Star correction stated:Anti-Israel slurs and inaccuracies go unchallenged on the BBC’s ‘Dateline London’
A previous version also said Stevie Wonder refused to perform in Israel. In fact Wonder cancelled a planned performance at a Los Angeles fundraising concert sponsored by the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces. He then said he would make a donation to organizations that support Israeli and Palestinian children with disabilities.
The Star's correction on Wonder was part of a larger correction prompted by CAMERA which also clarified that the same article erroneously reported that Bruce Willis and Meg Ryan likewise boycotted Israel, cancelling performances there. Toronto Star public editor Kathy English covered the BDS mega-correction in her May 17, 2013 column, "Bruce Willis and the Israel boycott that never was."
Regarding this week's Wonder error, Newsweek agreed with CAMERA that a correction was in order and commendably acted quickly to remove the erroneous correction to Wonder and to append a note alerting readers to the change.
The July 8th edition of the BBC News and BBC World News programme ‘Dateline London’ included an item (from around 14:00 in the video below) about India’s border disputes with China and Pakistan.Romanticizing Terror: How The New York Times Whitewashed Marwan Barghouti’s Bloody Crimes
Regular BBC contributor Nabila Ramdani managed, however, to steer the discussion away from that subject matter for some opportunistic promotion of predictable – though particularly vicious – anti-Israel messaging (from 23:00).
Ramdani: “I think this is also to do with an arms race and I think [Indian PM] Modi’s visit to Israel testifies to that. To me it’s another example of a populist global leader who’s trying to humiliate millions of Muslims around the world, not only in his own country but also in neighbouring Pakistan. He wants to portray them as the enemy within but also one that threatens externally and instead of conciliation and indeed resorting to democracy, he’s…he sees the future in a constant arms struggle with his side being armed to the teeth and ready to dispatch [kill] as many Muslims as possible when trouble arises. And this I would call it the Israeli model and this is why Modi has chosen to actually break decades of overt Indian support for the Palestinian cause and indeed decided to paly up [sic: pal up] effectively with a notorious far-right hawk like Benjamin Netanyahu. And his behaviour in Israel included snubbing Palestinian leaders – not least of all Mahmoud Abbas – but also stocking up with weapons. And frankly I found it quite outrageous that a leader like Modi chooses to side with the State of Israel which stands accused…which regularly breaches international and humanitarian laws and whose leaders past and present stand accused of war crimes and who constantly expand its illegal colonial entity. I found this quite distasteful.”
The BBC’s editorial guidelines – which of course apply to all content broadcast by the corporation – include guidance on live output which has a sub-section titled ‘Offensive Comments’.
How would you describe a man sentenced by a legitimate court of law to multiple life sentences in prison for directing numerous attacks, including suicide bombings, against civilian and military targets?After 62 Years, an Eye-Witness Account of Theresienstadt Appears in English
If your moral compass were intact, you would likely be looking for words such as “remorseless terrorist” or “cold-blooded murderer.”
But if you prefer to apply double standards to Israel and continue to indulge the fantasy that Palestinian terrorism solely springs from economic despair and social paralysis, you might end up calling him a “freedom fighter” and “political prisoner.”
“One man’s terrorist is another man’s freedom fighter,” as the popular dictum goes.
Of course, it is absurd to contend that because people may disagree over who is a terrorist or a freedom fighter, it is therefore impossible to make a morally informed distinction between the two. And Marwan Barghouti, a convicted Palestinian terrorist who masterminded the second intifada, leaves no room for interpretation.
Barghouti is often, in a perverted twist of reality, painted as a Palestinian peacemaker akin to South Africa’s Nelson Mandela. Just this past week, The New York Times ran a piece presenting Barghouti as a mere political leader, a hero of the Palestinian people who has fallen victim to the brutality of the Israeli state.
During the three years he spent as an inmate of the Theresienstadt Ghetto, the Prague-born German-language writer H.G. Adler (1910-1988) did what he could to document the horrors that went on there; after surviving the final months of the war at Auschwitz and various forced-labor camps, Adler used his notes and collection of documents to compose his 1955 study Theresienstadt 1941-1945: The Face of a Coerced Community. Unlike other ghettos, which were meant to hold Jews until they could be murdered conveniently, in the hope that some or most would die of disease or starvation in the meantime, Theresienstadt—hellish though it was—served as a Potemkin ghetto where Red Cross personnel (and others) were allowed to visit, and thus given a pretext for feigning ignorance of European Jewry’s fate. Adler’s book is being published in English for the first time. Peter Filkins writes:Art exhibit in Poland shows Auschwitz through inmates’ eyes
Should you wish to know the average daily caloric intake from potatoes for children (168 calories) in Theresienstadt, you will find it here. Should you wish to know the names of the first council of elders at the ghetto’s founding in late 1941, as well as their duties, individual character traits, and nationalities, you will find it here. Should you wish to learn about the sham bank set up in Theresienstadt, or the equally dubious café, post office, grocery, and clothing store, you will find it here. You will also find samples of poems written by inmates, the titles of hundreds of lectures delivered, descriptions of the many concerts given, and a detailed account of the efforts made to dupe the International Red Cross when it inspected the ghetto in June 1944. And of course, if you wish to learn about the deportations and the fate of the 140,000 prisoners who passed through Theresienstadt (only 15 percent of whom survived), you will find that here as well.
A new exhibition in southern Poland shows the brutality of the Nazi German death camp of Auschwitz through the artistic work of its inmates. Some of the artworks are being shown publicly for the first time.Imams protest terror at site of 2012 Toulouse Jewish school attack
The “Face to Face: Art in Auschwitz” exhibition opened last week at the Kamienica Szolayskich (Szolayski Tenement House) of the National Museum in Krakow to mark 70 years of the Auschwitz Museum. The museum’s task is to preserve the site in the southern town of Oswiecim and to educate visitors about it. More than 2 million people visited the museum last year.
The curator of the Krakow exhibit, Agnieszka Sieradzka, said Wednesday it includes clandestine as well as commissioned drawings and paintings by Jews, Poles and other citizens held at Auschwitz during World War II.
“These works help us see Auschwitz as the inmates saw it and experienced it,” Sieradzka told The Associated Press. “We stand face to face with the inmates.”
Imams from France and other countries gathered on Wednesday at the Toulouse Jewish school where an al-Qaeda linked jihadist murdered three children and a teacher in March 2012, as part of a Muslim march against terror, which began on Saturday in Paris.Evangelical Christianity’s Changing Demographics Bode Well for Israel
The march, which plans to visit other sites of terror attacks in France, was organized by Hassen Chalghoumi, the imam of Drancy in Paris, and the French Jewish writer Marek Halter.
On March 19, 2012, Merah killed four Jews at the Otzar Hatorah school in Toulouse, three of whom were children: Rabbi Jonathan Sandler, his two sons, Gabriel and Arieh, and Myriam Monsonego.
These killings followed his murder on March 11 of Imad Ibn Ziaten near the city and of two other French-Muslim soldiers, Abel Chennouf and Mohamed Legouad, on March 15. Police killed Merah on March 22.
Some 30 French, German and Tunisian imams met Myriam Monsonego’s father Jacob Monsonego, the principal of Otzar Hatorah, as well as representatives of the Jewish community in Toulouse.
In the 21st century, evangelical Christians have come to constitute the world’s fastest-growing religious group; if current trends continue, they will outnumber Catholics and possibly even Muslims in a few decades. The movement’s growth corresponds to a shift in its center of gravity; a majority of evangelicals now come from Asia, Africa, and Latin America rather than the U.S. Given that evangelical Christianity tends to encourage a positive attitude toward Jews and the Jewish state, argues Jürgen Bühler, this change could be especially significant for Israel:Galilee kibbutz accepts first Bedouin family as members
One factor that unites evangelicals across the world, whether in the Amazonian rainforests, the Niger delta, or in Chinese cities is a great love of Israel. . . . The rapid increase in the number of evangelicals may turn these countries into strategic allies for Israel, as they are becoming a significant part of the general population. In Brazil, between 26 and 30 percent of the citizens are evangelicals. In Guatemala, more than 40 percent. In Uganda, 37 percent. In Nigeria, 40 percent. Even in Muslim Indonesia, 12 percent of the population are evangelicals. Their number in China is estimated at around 100 million.
Already today, this phenomenon has political and diplomatic influence that aids Israel, both at the national level and in international organizations like the UN—and this influence is set to increase in the coming years. For instance, the previous president of Nigeria, Goodluck Jonathan, ordered the state’s representatives in the UN not to support the vote on recognizing the Palestinian Authority as a state, due to pressure from the evangelical community in his country.
Kibbutz Eilon in the western Galilee voted overwhelmingly this week to accept its first Arab family, with 116 out of 124 members backing the move.Alan Gross, after spending 5 years in a Cuban prison, is starting over in Israel
Originally from the nearby Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, the Mazal family had been renting a home in the kibbutz for the past year.
Parents Mahmoud, 49, and Hadil, 32, are both nurses and have three sons: Yazan, Adam and Amari.
Mahmoud told the Ynet news site that he befriended a fellow student from Eilon while in college, which led him to live on the kibbutz for several years in the 1990s.
He added that his father grew up on a kibbutz after being adopted by a Polish family at age 10. “Our decision to move to the kibbutz was completely accepted by our families and my mother even congratulated us. We are totally involved in kibbutz life.
Alan Gross contacted me a couple of months ago over Facebook Messenger. There was something he thought I should know.
I was pleasantly surprised. I’d only exchanged pleasantries with Gross in the several times I’d seen him since his release from a Cuban prison in December 2014, ending five years of imprisonment for his work connecting Cuba’s Jewish community to the internet.
Gross, 68, wanted to tell me his news: He and his wife, Judy, had made aliyah, immigrating to Israel under the Law of Return.
“It came through on May 3, which is Golda Meir’s birthday, and a day after my birthday, which is also Herzl’s birthday,” he said. “It was long overdue. I’d been going there for more than 40 years, and I’d worked in Israel and around the region.”
Gross was going to be stateside this week and proposed we meet at Loeb’s, a deli here — he loved Israel, but longed for pastrami.
Why break this news to JTA?
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