Monday, November 20, 2017
I’m A Latina Who Works For The ADL. JVP’s Attack
For months now, the far-left anti-Zionist group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has been targeting our exchange program with Israel with a campaign called “Deadly Exchange”. Now, ADL is a 104-year-old organization, and becoming targets of both fair criticism and inaccurate attacks from the right and the left of the political spectrum comes with the territory for an established institution like ours. But in my time at ADL, I’ve been especially surprised at JVP’s ignorance, dangerous dogmatism and blind efforts at intersectional cause-making.When Was the "Palestinian People" Created? Google Has the Answer.
In their campaign against our program — a program that is designed to save lives — JVP makes the case that American Jewish institutions are responsible for rising levels of police brutality and racism against minorities here in the United States, thanks to their support for these types of exchanges between American and Israeli law enforcement agencies.
In other words, JVP believes Jewish institutions control how the police racially profile people of color in the United States.
I was shocked by this attack. It hewed so closely to anti-Semitic canards about the Jews secretly controlling the levers of power. How could a Jewish organization make such a hateful claim?
This radical — and willful — misunderstanding of our program was compounded last week when JVP came to protest ADL at our New York headquarters.
As the head of communications for the organization, I went to greet them and to receive their petition. But I was only seconds into my conversation with a JVP spokesperson before she demanded to know: Why didn’t ADL send anyone to hear their stories?
“I’m right here,” I said, confused.
Then she asked me point blank how a woman of color could work for ADL. Hadn’t I personally experienced racial profiling?
Yes, she actually asked me that.
Read more: http://forward.com/opinion/national/387789/im-a-latina-who-works-for-the-adl-jvps-attacks-shocked-me/
All people born in British Mandatory Palestine between 1923-1948 (today's Israel) had "Palestine" stamped on their passports at the time. But when they were called Palestinians, the Arabs were offended. They complained: "We are not Palestinians, we are Arabs. The Palestinians are the Jews".
After invading Arab armies were routed and the Arabs who had fled the war wanted to return, they were considered a fifth column and not invited back. The Arabs who had loyally remained in Israel during the war, however, and their descendants, are still there and make up one fifth of the population. They are known as Israeli Arabs; they have the same rights as Christians and Jews, except they are not required to serve in the army unless they wish to.
"The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel for our Arab unity. In reality, today there is no difference between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese." – PLO leader Zuheir Mohsen, interview in the Dutch newspaper Trouw, March 1977.
#BDSfail
Israel's economic data came out. Guess what? The campaign to destroy Israel through economic boycotts is not only unfair, misleading and wrong, but it's also a failure. Again.
Melanie Phillips: OUR CRAZY WORLD
Please join me here as I discuss with Avi Abelow of Israel Video Network the swirling rumours of a Trump administration proposal to end the Arab-Israel conflict, the gathering diplomatic storm between said Trump administration and the PLO, and the implications of the west’s current obsession with transgenderism.
Children’s Book ‘P Is For Palestine,’ Which Hails ‘Intifada,’ Draws Ire of Manhattan Mothers
Controversy erupted in a Facebook group of Upper East Side mothers this week after one member posted an advertisement for a reading of her new children’s book titled, P Is For Palestine.Barry Shaw: 1917 and the liberation of Jerusalem
The illustrated text, authored by Dr. Golbarg Bashi, includes a line that says, “I is for Intifada, Intifada is Arabic for rising up for what is right, if you are a kid or grownup!”
“Intifada” is an Arabic word meaning “tremor” that is most commonly associated around the world with two violent Palestinian uprisings against Israel in recent decades that included numerous bombing, shooting and stabbing attacks.
One responder to Bashi’s post in the “UES Mommas” group, Bryce Gruber-Hermon, wrote, “Hey everyone! Let’s talk about one of those intifadas! Real family members of mine were MURDERED. Innocent women who never carried a gun, knife, or anything more than a book. My husband has 2 bullets in his back from those intifadas you’re justifying. If you think these are okay or fair or reasonable or just part of politics, you’re flat out telling me my family deserves to be dead. You’re not that bad of a person, are you?”
The reading was held on Saturday at Book Culture on Columbus.
Allenby deliberately chose to walk into the Old City because, he said, only the Messiah should ride into the Holy City.Honest Reporting: HR Book Review: Beyond the Green Line
On December 11, 1917, Gen. Edmund Allenby’s forces officially liberated Jerusalem.
Actually, a Jerusalem delegation, led by the mayor, surrendered the city to a pair of British army cooks on December 8. Thus began a comical farce.
The Turkish army and its German commanders had fled the city ahead of the British advance, leaving the city officials nervously waiting for the liberators. The first uniformed men to arrive were privates Andrews and Church, two cooks who got lost while searching for cooking water. They wandered near the Jaffa Gate entrance to the Old City and were confronted by a large delegation of city officials. The cooks were so scared they ran back to their unit.
At 8 a.m. the following morning, James Sedgewick and Fred Hurcomb, two British sergeants, were scouting around the Old City walls when they were approached by a group of Arab dignitaries holding a white flag. The two soldiers were overwhelmed by the sudden responsibility of accepting the surrender of Jerusalem and apologized after pictures were taken for posterity, saying they were unable to accept the surrender but promised to send a more senior officer.
Later the same day, two artillery officers, majors Beck and Barry of the 60th Division, were met by a party of officials and asked to accept Jerusalem’s surrender. Again, they politely refused, saying they had to bring one of their superiors.
A Lt.-Col. Bayley, commander of the 303rd Brigade of the 60th Division, arrived shortly after their departure. He wrote, “Arriving at the top of the road within sight of the Jewish Hospital in Jerusalem and with my three battery commanders I was amazed to see a white flag waving and a man coming towards me. He said the mayor of Jerusalem was with the white flag. We sat on chairs outside the Jewish Hospital and he informed me that the Turks had left Jerusalem heading towards Jericho.”
Bayley sent a message to the 60th Division headquarters informing them that he had just accepted the surrender of Jerusalem and that he was waiting for a general to come and take over the city.
Goldberg doesn’t make grand judgments when he finds himself in situations that raise legitimate moral questions over how to deal with the Palestinian civilian population while fighting terror. He doesn’t need to. Incidents involving the military takeover of Palestinian civilian family homes in the dead of night or dealing with stone-throwing Palestinian children feature in Goldberg’s musings, offering a human and personal side to the conflict while allowing the reader to draw his or her own conclusions.Seth J. Frantzman: Chomsky and the myth of instant expertise
Many of us, and Goldberg himself, were brought up on heroic accounts of grand Israeli military operations or Mossad-style adventures. Yet Goldberg eventually becomes swallowed in the gulf between that vision and the reality of his service. Disillusionment starts to set in and Goldberg finds himself questioning the purpose of the routine guard duty, jeep patrols and arrest operations that become his world, to the extent that his coping mechanism for leaving that world is to drink himself to oblivion.
The book is highly readable and it is to Goldberg’s credit that the writing flows easily and encourages the reader to invest his or her time in following Goldberg’s journey. You may not learn everything you wanted to know about how the IDF operates and operated during the Second Intifada (and, in any case, would it have got past the IDF Military Censor?) but you will get a real insight into the life of an Israeli soldier as told through the eyes of an outsider now on the inside. That Goldberg is an immigrant from a Western country makes him far easier to relate to for the target audience.
And if his part memoir, part self-therapy puts a human face on the brave Israeli soldiers who give up some of their formative years to serve their country, then this can only be a positive thing.
Anyone who attended university in the past few decades in the US and the West in general has been subjected to the cult of Noam Chomsky, “the world’s top public intellectual.” Generations have been misled and encouraged to take the word of one man on a variety of the world’s conflicts and problems without even an iota of critique.NBC's Anachronism: Israel's 'Ongoing Occupation' of Gaza
Chomsky has fed a myth that he, and some other public intellectuals, can possess instant expertise on almost any topic from Kosovo to Latin America, class struggle, the “Arab Spring” and lately, the Syrian civil war. In his constant pushing of faux expertise he has done tremendous damage to the world of intellectuals, perpetuating a kind of Orientalism that posits that Western intellectuals like himself should be the go-to experts on everything that happens in the world, and that local experts who might have spent a lifetime living and studying their own societies can be ignored. Ironically this feeds the very Western edifice Chomsky sought to critique, and manufactures the consent he ostensibly opposed.
The ivory tower of Chomskyism has been cracked a bit by his interest in the Syrian civil war. In a piece in The Guardian on November 15 George Monbiot criticized Chomsky and others for adding fuel to “far-right conspiracy theories.” How did this happen?
It begins with the Khan Shaykhun chemical weapons attack on April 4. Then it continues with a professor named Theodore Postol, who “has produced a wide range of claims casting doubt on the Syrian government’s complicity in chemical weapons attacks,” Monbiot writes. Monbiot points out that these doubts are false; the Syrian government did carry out the attack. However, Chomsky sought to highlight Postol’s work in an interview on Democracy Now! on April 27, 2017.
Chomsky claimed that the chemical weapons investigation “was analyzed closely by a very serious and credible analyst, Theodore Postol, professor at MIT, who has a long record of highly successful, credible analyses.” Chomsky read off some other bona fides and concluded that now there are “some questions” about the “White House report.”
This is classic Chomsky. He poses as an expert on a chemical weapons attack in Syria by laundering his own views through experts he has selected. He wonders in the same interview whether we will ever find out what happened.
NBC's Vivian Salama seems to be stuck some dozen years in the past. In her Nov. 15 news story ("'An open secret': Saudi Arabia and Israel get cozy"), she writes:ADL's Jonathan Greenblatt Talks Hate Crimes on MSNBC with Al Sharpton, Ignores Sharpton's Past
An Israeli-Saudi alliance would also be vastly unpopular on the Arab street given the ongoing occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. (Emphasis added.)
In 2005, Israel withdrew every last one of its citizens, both living and dead (having exhumed remains from the cemeteries), as well as all of its soldiers, from the Gaza Strip in 2005, ending its occupation of the territory.
Following the 2005 withdrawal, then Secretary of State Rice said in a May 1, 2006 briefing:
And in fact, the Israelis do not any longer occupy Gaza; it is Palestinian territory. And that is in no small part thanks to the tireless efforts of Jim Wolfensohn, who worked day and night to make certain that that could happen.
While the United Nations and Human Rights Watch regard Gaza as still occupied, Hamas' Mahmoud Zahar disagrees, stating in 2012: "Against whom could we demonstrate in the Gaza Strip? When Gaza was occupied, that model was applicable."
Anti-Defamation League (ADL) chief executive officer Jonathan Greenblatt appeared Sunday morning on MSNBC’s PoliticsNation with host Al Sharpton to discuss hate crimes in America — and failed to mention Sharpton’s own history of allegedly inciting hate crimes against Jews.IsraellyCool: New York Times’ Lame “Correction” of Piece on Terrorist-Loving Reems Bakery
Sharpton is widely blamed for a riot in the Crown Heights neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York, in 1991 in which a mob killed an innocent religious student, Yankel Rosenbaum.
In addition, Sharpton has been blamed for inciting the 1995 firebombing of Freddy’s Fashion Mart, a Jewish-owned store in Harlem, New York.
As the Media Research Center noted in 2015, on the 20th anniversary of the attack:
Sharpton was one of the main causes of the hatred which led to fire bombing of Freddy’s Fashion Mart. He didn’t toss the firebomb, but the anti-Semitic and racial bias which came out of his mouth and out of the mouths of other while in his presence, produced the massacre as assuredly as if the fire was set with his hands.
On December 8, 1995, Al Sharpton incited the violent fire-bombing of the Jewish-owned Freddy’s Fashion Mart in Harlem, causing the the deaths of Angelina Marrero, Cynthia Martinez, Luz Ramos, Mayra Rentas, Olga Garcia, Garnette Ramautar, and Kareem Brunner – the seven victims of the massacre. There was an eighth death, Roland James Smith, the man who burned the store down.
Sharpton also played a role in fomenting racial divisions around the death of black teenager Trayvon Martin in 2012. He spread claims that the Hispanic man who shot him, George Zimmerman, was “white,” and that he had used racist language during the incident. Using his perch at MSNBC, his National Action Network activist group, and his connections with the Obama White House, Sharpton whipped national outrage over Martin’s death into a frenzy that set the stage for the violent Black Lives Matter protests of 2014, and that continues to divide the nation.
Greenblatt, a former Obama administration official, never once mentioned Sharpton’s past in his appearance on Sunday’s show. Instead, he joined Sharpton in attacking President Donald Trump for his reaction to the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, in August.
Last week I posted about a New York Times puff piece on Reems, the bakery with a mural of terrorist Rasmea Odeh. The piece entitled An Arab Bakery in Oakland Full of California Love mentioned Odeh as merely a “controversial activist”, and spent most of the time talking about how great Reems and its owner Reem Assil are, while empathizing with her in the face of poor Yelp Reviews and accusations of glorifying terrorism (which she most certainly does).BBC’s Corbin sidesteps prime issues in Balfour reports – part one
Following my post, the New York Times corrected the piece.
EDITOR’S NOTE
An earlier version of this article lacked context about the Palestinian activist Rasmeah Odeh, the subject of a mural inside Reem’s. That has been added.
Here is exactly what was added:
(In 1970, Ms. Odeh was convicted by Israeli courts for her role in the murder of two students. In 2014, she was convicted of immigration fraud in U.S. federal court and deported to Jordan in 2017.)
And that’s it. Despite adding her terrorist conviction, the piece still carries the same title An Arab Bakery in Oakland Full of California Love, still focuses on the greatness of Reem Assil and her bakery, and empathizes with her in the face of poor Yelp Reviews and terror glorification accusations.
Both of those reports opened with promotion of a theme often seen in BBC content: the exaggerated notion of the Arab-Israeli conflict as the world’s prime dispute.BBC’s Corbin sidesteps prime issues in Balfour reports – part two
Filmed: “100 years ago, a British promise – just a few words in a letter – lit a fire in the Holy Land. The Balfour Declaration ignited one of the most bitter and intractable struggles of modern times: the Arab-Israeli conflict.”
Written: “One hundred years ago, only 67 words on a single sheet of paper lit a fire in the Holy Land, igniting the most intractable conflict of modern times.”
Very early on, both reports also included promotion of Palestinian talking points concerning the Balfour Declaration.
Filmed: (synopsis) “But the Palestinians and many Arabs will greet the centenary with protest and bitter accusations – they still hold Britain responsible for a century of injustice, and conflict in the Holy Land.”
Written: “While many Israelis believe it was the foundation stone of modern Israel and the salvation of the Jews, many Palestinians regard it as a betrayal.”
As has been the case across the board in the BBC’s coverage of the Balfour Declaration centenary, both Corbin’s reports focused audience attentions on one particular part of the text. Coincidentally or not, it is that section of the text that has also been the focus of anti-Israel campaigners’ Balfour related propaganda.
Like most of the rest of the BBC’s Balfour Declaration centenary coverage, these two reports by Corbin promoted the narrative that implementation of that declaration was incomplete. In the filmed report Corbin even went so far as to describe its intention as “[t]he Balfour vision of Arabs and Jews living together in the same country”.PreOccupiedTerritory: Facts That Support Israel’s Version Of Events Should Not Be Dismissed As ‘Israel Claims,’ Israel Claims
While the Balfour Declaration’s commitment to the establishment of a homeland for the Jewish people was eventually realised (some might say despite the best efforts of the British mandate), Corbin made no reference at all in either of her reports to the fact that part of the territory originally assigned to that purpose was subsequently made over by the British (with League of Nations approval) to the creation of the Arab state known today as Jordan.
Another very significant omission in both of Corbin’s reports – particularly in light of her repeated references to Palestinian refugees – is the subject of Jewish refugees from Arab and Muslim lands: people whose rights were also supposedly safeguarded by the Balfour Declaration but whose existence and story has barely been acknowledged in the BBC’s coverage of this centenary.
Media reportage that presents the details of incidents in which Israel’s description matches observable reality must present that description at face value and refrain from casting doubt on its veracity through the addition of the clause “Israel claims,” Israel claims.German city cancels exhibit on art dealer Max Stern over restitution demands
Israeli officials made the statement at a meeting with the Foreign Press Association, members of which have often taken a less skeptical tone regarding Palestinian assertions regarding security, political, or legal occurrences than regarding Israeli contentions about the same events. That persistent phenomenon betrays unacceptable bias in the field of journalism, Israel claims.
According to Israeli officials, taking Palestinian claims at face value while treating Israeli claims as doubtful at best, if not outright false, constitutes “lack of objectivity” and “favoritism,” implying that those values have a place in journalism about Jews.
Palestinian observers who Israel claims were not present at the meeting characterized it as yet another example of Israeli perfidy. “Another day, another instance of violent Israeli oppression,”intoned Saeb Erekat.
“The world must put a stop to this genocide,” declared Hanan Ashrawi.
Recordings of the meeting indicated that Israeli officials spoke at length about what they called improper framing of stories, such as when everyday events in Palestinian society are presented only in the context of Israeli occupation, and no effort is made on the part of reporters to assign volition or responsibility to Palestinians. “OK, yeah, so?” wondered Erekat. “You see how Israel distorts reality to suit its oppressive agenda.”
“Anti-restitution bias” is being blamed for the sudden decision by the mayor of Dusseldorf, Germany to cancel a planned exhibit about world-renowned Montreal art dealer Max Stern.Nick Cave captivates Israeli audience in first of two sold-out shows
Due to open in February after more than three years of planning by Dusseldorf’s Stadtmuseum, the exhibit – entitled “Max Stern: from Dusseldorf to Montreal” – also was slated to include a stop in Israel before finishing in Montreal.
The German city officials on Tuesday cited “current demands for information and restitution in Germany” as the reason for the exhibit’s abrupt cancellation.
“There are very influential people in Germany who don’t want to see art returned to Jews,” Concordia University professor Frank Chalk told the Montreal Gazette.
“There’s an element of anti-Semitism in this. But we never suspected the mayor [of Dusseldorf] could be vulnerable to this kind of pressure,” he said.
A native of Dusseldorf, Stern took over his late father’s art gallery there in 1934, until the Nazis made it illegal for Jews to sell art. During that period, the Nazis looted hundreds of valuable artworks from his gallery.
Israeli fans were delighted and moved by Aussie rocker Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds’ first Tel Aviv performance Sunday night, calling it a concert that exceeded expectations.IsraellyCool: Nick Cave to Israeli Audience: “I Love You, I Love You, I’m F***ing Crazy About You”
Cave, who hasn’t played in Israel for 20 years, sold out his two consecutive concerts, both at the Menora Mivtachim arena.
On Sunday morning, before the performance, he held a press conference in which he spoke about his decision to counter BDS by finally coming back to Israel, a country he said he has loved since the first time he visited.
Cave also spoke about the recent, accidental, drug-induced death of his teenage son, which has moved him to perform with renewed vigor, as he wants to reach out to his audiences worldwide.
The concert began with Cave’s newer works from his most recent album, “Big Changes.”
He then moved into his music from the ’80s and ’90s, with songs like “From Here to Eternity,” “Tupelo,” and “Jubilee Street.”
Cave is often referred to as rock music’s “Prince of Darkness,” his music characterized by emotional intensity and lyrics dealing with death, religion, love and violence.
After stunning the Israel-hating world (and even those of us who love Israel) with his huge show of support for Israel (and flipping the bird at BDS) at yesterday’s press conference, Aussie rocker has put on a hell of a show in his first concert – including more emphatic declarations of love for his Israeli fans.Fans hope Ringo Starr gives some more love to Israel
What Cave lacked in friendly banter with the crowd in between songs, he made up for with constant physical interaction with the audience.
Only offering up a simple “Shalom Tel Aviv” and replying to an almost constant stream of “WE LOVE YOU!”s from the crowd in between songs: “I love you, I love you, I’m f***ing crazy about you” he replied before diving directly back into the band’s repertoire.
In the meantime, Israel haters have been imploding over Nick’s pro-Israel/anti-BDS comments.
It is delightful.
Is @nickcave taking a guided tour with a key 'Brand Israel' tourism agency, with a guide who just happens to have been a paratrooper on "the front lines" of major military assaults? pic.twitter.com/ULFp9aa7I3
— Boycott From Within (@BFW_IL) November 18, 2017
.@nickcave's performances in Tel Aviv and recent statement are a propaganda gift to Israeli apartheid. Nonetheless, we thank him for making one thing abundantly clear — playing Tel Aviv is never simply about music. pic.twitter.com/VkfRCXYnPt
— PACBI (@PACBI) November 19, 2017
* Yeah, A-Ha are coming to Israel too!
There’s been a slew of concert announcements in recent days, and one very tantalizing rumor — that Ringo Starr is in advanced negotiations to perform in Israel next year.IsraAID helps set up science and tech center in South Sudan
The news about a possible late spring performance by the former Beatles drummer was reported by the Israel Hayom daily, and couldn’t be confirmed with any local promoters.
Since 1989, Starr has toured with different variations of Ringo Starr & His All-Starr Band.
He released a new single in July, on his 77th birthday, entitled, “Give More Love,” followed by his nineteenth studio album in September, also called “Give More Love,” featuring Paul McCartney and other collaborators.
Other than Starr, some of the confirmed, upcoming concerts include Britain’s Rag ‘N’ Bone Man, otherwise known as Rory Charles Graham, whose single, “Human,” was a major hit, and was followed by “Skin.” His performance will be on May 16 in Menora’s Mivtachim Arena.
The University of Juba, in South Sudan, has joined IsraAID, an Israel-based humanitarian non-governmental organization, and other partners to set up a first center for the studies of science and technology in the East-Central African state.IsraellyCool: WATCH: Most Stunning Cable Car In The World
The Center for Science Technology Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) will train South Sudanese youth to become engineers, technicians and mathematicians with the aim of contributing to the economic and social development of South Sudan. Over the next three years, the center is expected to provide vocational training to 10,000 young people in subjects such as building and construction; electronics; computing; chemistry and optics.
The University of Juba, in partnership with IsraAID, STEM Synergy — an international NGO that aims to provide students access to education in science and engineering, the Mark Gelfand Family Charitable Fund and UNESCO, opened the center last week.
IsraAID has been working with the University of Juba since 2016 in providing training and technical support to help establish the STEM Center. The university will now lead the process, while IsraAID and STEM Synergy will continue to provide technical support and training throughout the second phase of the project, IsraAID said in a statement announcing the opening of the center.
Want to know the real reason why some people are objecting to this unbelievably cool idea? Read on.Dry Bones cartoonist’s new book looks back at early Israel
The following plan to link Jerusalem’s First Station, a beautiful redevelopment with restaurants and entertainment and a large parking lot, to the Dung Gate, the nearest point of access to the Kotel (Western Wall) by a stunning cable car is being pushed through I hope. Watch the video then we’ll look at how Ha’aretz covers this.
Here’s how Ha’aretz describes it:
The Jerusalem Development Authority is presenting the 200-million shekel ($57 million) project as a means of solving the snarled traffic around the Old City. The first phase calls for three stops: near the old train station, at the Mount Zion parking lot and on the roof of the Kedem Center, the planned visitor center at the City of David. According to the plan, each car along the 1.4-kilometer line will be able to carry up to 10 passengers, and 73 cars will operate simultaneously for a total capacity of 3,000 passengers per hour at peak times.
The system will be automatic – a car will leave every 15 to 20 minutes whether or not there are passengers. The cars will travel at 21 kilometers per hour, making the trip in less than five minutes.
The cable car will require construction of 15 large concrete pylons, the tallest of which will be 26 meters high.
Ha’aretz makes a glaring mistake “a car will leave every 15 to 20 minutes” should be every 15 to 20 SECONDS as anyone who’s ever been skiing would know (and basic maths).
What’s your favorite Dry Bones cartoon? Ask any English-speaker who came to this country after the mid-1970s and you’ll no doubt get an answer. Is it the one about sniffing cottage cheese? Getting a wintertime buzz from your kerosene neft heater? Measuring your apartment size by counting the balata floor tiles?
For over four decades, cartoonist Yaakov “Dry Bones” Kirschen has been commenting on Israeli absurdities, from the small ironies of daily life to the major geopolitical SNAFUs.
Vintage “Dry Bones” cartoons.
Recently, Kirschen took a break from current events for a look back with a new book entitled Young and Innocent: The Way We Were, a collection of classic Dry Bones cartoons originally published in The Jerusalem Post, where he started his career in Israel in 1973.
During the week, Dry Bones occupied a unique four-box layout on the newspaper’s back page. For the weekend edition, the cartoon was given a full-page layout where one of its most popular recurring themes was “You Know You’ve Been Here Too Long When…”
