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Saturday, June 02, 2018

06/02 Links: Do Jews Get to Define Anti-Semitism?; MSNBC Guest Leads Org Donating to Palestinian Terrorist Groups; IDF thwarts tractor ramming attack near Hebron

From Ian:
Evelyn Gordon: Baby Layla Shows What’s Wrong with Israel’s PR
Instead, Israel’s critics treated Ghandour’s death as proof of Israel’s evil. In other words, they effectively declared that Israel had no right to defend its border by any means whatsoever–even with non-lethal means like tear gas–unless it could somehow achieve the impossible feat of guaranteeing that no Palestinian would ever be killed under any circumstances. And if the only way Israel can win the PR war is leaving its border completely undefended, that war would indeed be inherently unwinnable; at least, among this portion of its critics.

But many people do understand that leaving a border undefended against angry mobs isn’t a tenable option. If Israeli public diplomacy had been even minimally competent, it would have made clear that this is the logical implication of blaming Israel for Ghandour’s death.

Critics might retort that even tear gas shouldn’t be used against completely peaceful demonstrators. But as the Times’ story makes clear, Ghandour wasn’t in a peaceful demonstration when she died. She had been deliberately taken from a peaceful one into a violent one.

On May 14, as in all the preceding weeks, there were actually two demonstrations taking place. One, which was largely peaceful, was hundreds of meters from the border fence. The other, which was right up against the fence, was anything but peaceful. Members of terrorist organizations threw bombs, Molotov cocktails, and slingshot-propelled rocks at soldiers. They flew incendiary kites across the border to set Israeli fields ablaze (to date, some 300 of these kites have ignited 100 fires, destroyed more than 3,000 acres of wheat and caused millions of shekels worth of damage). They vandalized the fence and tried to break through it. These are the “demonstrators” Israel targeted with measures ranging from tear gas to, when necessary, live fire, as evidenced by the fact that 53 of the 62 killed belonged to terrorist organizations.

Baby Layla was taken to the nonviolent protest by her 12-year-old uncle, who mistakenly thought her mother was there. Upon discovering his mistake, he responsibly kept her in the nonviolent section until late afternoon, when she began crying. Then, wanting to hand her off to an older relative, he “pushed forward into the protest in search of her grandmother, Heyam Omar, who was standing in a crowd under a pall of black smoke, shouting at Israeli soldiers across the fence,” the Times reported. Panicked by Layla’s crying, he deliberately brought her into the most violent part of the protest, where Israel was exercising its legitimate right of self-defense and where no baby should ever have been. And she died.

But even if it was Israeli tear gas that killed her, Israel cannot be held culpable for her death unless you start from the premise that it had no right whatsoever to defend its border against violent attacks of the type launched during this protest, even by the most nonlethal of means. That, of course, is precisely what many of Israel’s critics do think. And this is the point that Israel and its advocates should have been hammering home.
Jonathan Marks: Do Jews Get to Define Anti-Semitism?
Carly Pildis, a political organizer, is a critic of the left from within. She has been doing the good work of pleading with her fellow progressives to stop tolerating anti-Semitism. She did so admirably in her widely-read piece for Tablet, “Jews Get to Define Anti-Semitism: Not Shaun King.” The kind of anti-Semitism to which Pildis objects has brought back the “Zionism is racism” slur. That is a paradigm through which Jews are judged unfit for social justice work and the deeply anti-Semitic Nation of Islam leader, Louis Farrakhan, is rehabilitated. Tamika Mallory, a co-chair of the Women’s March, was happy to be present at a speech in which Farrakhan said, among many other equally anti-Semitic things, that “the powerful Jews are my enemy.”

Apart from a boilerplate assertion of her opposition to anti-Semitism, Mallory has not reckoned with her embrace of Farrakhan. Indeed, in the thick of the controversy, Mallory tweeted, “If your leader does not have the same enemies as Jesus, they may not be THE leader.” Law professor and blogger David Schraub spoke for many Jews of various political persuasions when he described this comment as “less of anti-Semitic dog-whistle than a bullhorn.” Mallory has since focused on shifting attention from her downplaying of the virulent, naked anti-Semitism of Farrakhan, which is still a problem on the left, to her hatred of Israel, which mostly isn’t.

Shaun King, a columnist best known for his Black Lives Matter activism, chose to focus on what he considered the most important aspect of the story. His preoccupation was with the fact that people like Schraub, who criticize Mallory for, at the very best, warmly embracing an anti-Semite, are not merely oversensitive but damned liars. Having given Mallory a clean bill of health concerning anti-Semitism, he added, “Your lies won’t work.”

This is where Pildis’s criticism comes in. How dare Shaun King give Mallory a clean bill of health, when a “central tenet of anti-oppression work is that marginalized communities are the authors of their own experiences,” and “those who experience a specific oppression get to define it”?
German intelligence: Iran still working to acquire WMD technology
Iran has been continuing its efforts to acquire weapons of mass destruction, Fox News reported Saturday, citing an intelligence report published by a German state intelligence agency.

“Iran continued to undertake — as did Pakistan and Syria — efforts to obtain goods and know-how to be used for the development of weapons of mass destruction and to optimize corresponding missile delivery systems,” said the dossier put together by the State Office for the Protection of the Constitution, the intelligence agency of the German state of Baden-Württemberg — the German equivalent of the FBI that operates at a state level.

The Iranian efforts were heavily focused on the southern German state, which is home to many specialized technology and engineering companies, the report said.

The Baden-Württemberg intelligence officials said they had gathered “intensive intelligence on activities of Iran’s spy agencies.”

The report said Tehran’s activities focused on trying to acquire “German software, sophisticated vacuum and control engineering technologies, measurement devices, and advanced electrical equipment for its missile program.”

The German intelligence agency said that Iran has also carried out espionage activities against government offices in Berlin as well as continuing to spy on Iranian dissidents in Germany.



Melanie Phillips: A strange and unfamiliar sound
A strange, startling and deeply unfamiliar sound was heard this week. A Trump tweet imploding, perhaps? Kim Jong-Un finally destroying his nuclear arsenal? A distant rumble from the Hawaii volcano?

No. It was the sound of the European Union and United Nations loudly supporting Israel against attack.

In the heaviest onslaught since 2014, southern Israel was attacked from Gaza this week by Islamic Jihad and Hamas launching dozens of rocket and mortar attacks, as well as bursts of machine-gun fire. An Israeli kindergarten was hit, although no one was hurt. After Israel pummeled terrorist targets, Egypt brokered a truce.

What was striking was that the Israel-averse European Union, United Nations, France, Italy, Germany and Ireland criticized the Gaza attackers and expressed support for Israel.

France declared that its commitment to Israel’s security was “unwavering.” Germany said the targeting of Israeli civilians was “malicious,” and that it was “Israel’s right to preserve its security, defend its borders and respond proportionately to attacks.”

Yet two weeks earlier, when Israel defended itself against the attempt by Hamas to storm the Gaza border and murder Israeli civilians, those same European nations and the United Nations grossly misrepresented what happened as the killing of unarmed civilians in “peaceful protests,” despite the vast majority of those killed by Israel being Hamas terrorists.

So what’s changed? Well, first of all, the situation on the ground.
U.S. vetoes Kuwaiti resolution calling for 'int'l protection' of Palestinians
When the Trump administration demanded a UN Security Council vote on Friday meant to counteract a Kuwaiti resolution condemning Israel, the Israelis saw the birth of a new diplomatic strategy that it hopes becomes the norm.

Under the plan, Israel would no longer face hostile votes at the council without the US counter-punching, demanding a vote on language that calls out "the hypocrisy of the council," Danny Danon, Israel's ambassador to the UN, told The Jerusalem Post on Friday.

"This is changing the rules of the game — we are now on the offense," Danon said. "Its the beginning of a new strategy and of new rules."

The US vetoed Kuwait's resolution, in the works for weeks, in a Friday afternoon vote, alongside abstentions from the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Poland and Ethiopia. Israel was pleased with the extent of opposition to the measure, and considers the tally a mark of progress, although Israeli officials expressed concern with France's vote in favor.

"The final text is certainly not perfect– we would have liked it to establish clearly Hamas' responsibility, and condemn the rocket launches against Israel," said France's envoy, Francois Delattre. "But the deep consultations in recent weeks led to significant improvements."


Michael Oren, French envoy in Twitter spat over UN Gaza vote
Israeli deputy minister Michael Oren on Saturday slammed France for supporting a UN Security Council resolution on Gaza, saying Paris was hypocritical for supporting an “anti-Semitic resolution.”

Oren’s comments, in a tweet, prompted outrage from France’s ambassador in Israel Hélène Le Gal who accused Oren of not even reading the resolution and “insulting France.”

On Friday the United States vetoed an Arab-backed UN draft resolution calling for protective measures for the Palestinians that won backing from ten countries at the Security Council. A US resolution condemning Hamas also failed.
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“Praise for the US for vetoing Security Council resolution on Gaza that didn’t mention Hamas and condemned the IDF for defending Israel,” tweeted Oren, the deputy minister in the Prime Minister’s Office who is responsible for diplomacy.

“Shame on France for supporting it. French government cannot say it’s against anti-Semitism and vote for this anti-Semitic resolution,” said Oren, a former ambassador in Washington.


Frequent MSNBC Guest Leads Organization Facilitating Donations to Palestinian Terrorist Groups
A Palestinian-American who has made numerous MSNBC appearances to castigate Israel leads an organization exposed for facilitating donations to a Palestinian coalition that includes several U.S.-designated terrorist groups.

Yousef Munayyer serves as executive director of the U.S. Campaign for Palestinian Rights, one of the most prominent anti-Israel organizations in the U.S. and a leader of the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions movement (BDS) against the Jewish state.

The Virginia-based non-profit helps steer tax-exempt donations to a West Bank coalition that includes Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and other terrorist groups through a secret fiscal sponsorship arrangement with the Palestinian BDS National Committee (BNC), Tablet reported Friday.

Before joining the U.S. Campaign, Munayyer was the executive director of the Jerusalem Fund and Palestine Center, and also served as a policy analyst for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC), according to his website biography.

Over the years, MSNBC has often brought Munayyer on as a pro-Palestinian voice when the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has made international news.

Munayyer defended Palestinian riots in Gaza during an MSNBC appearance on April 8, criticizing Israel for a "brutally repressive response." On March 6, Munayyer appeared on "Andrea Mitchell Reports" and ripped the friendship between President Donald Trump and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Iron Dome intercepts rocket fired at Israel from Gaza, no injuries
The army’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket fired at southern Israel by a terrorist group in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, the military said.

A second rocket was also launched around the same time, but appeared to fall on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The launches appear to be the first violation of a fragile ceasefire in effect since Wednesday morning, but comes after a weekend of intense violence along the Gaza border.

The two rocket launches triggered sirens in Israel’s Eshkol region, near the south of the Strip, shortly before the end of Shabbat. The sirens come as Israeli firefighters were battling huge fires in along the border caused by Palestinian fire kites.
Israel said to strike terror targets across Gaza after rocket attack
Israeli jets bombed at least two Hamas targets in the Gaza Strip on Saturday night, Palestinian media reported, after a rocket was launched at southern Israel from Gaza earlier in the evening.

According to the Hamas-affiliated Shehab news agency, the planes struck sites in Gaza City’s Shejaiya neighborhood and outside the city of Khan Younis.

There were no immediate reports of casualties.

The Israeli military would not immediately comment on the reported airstrikes.

Earlier on Saturday night, the army’s Iron Dome missile defense system intercepted a rocket fired at southern Israel by a terrorist group in the Gaza Strip, the military said.

A second rocket was also launched around the same time, but appeared to fall on the Palestinian side of the Gaza border, according to the Israel Defense Forces.

The rocket launches appeared to be the first violation of a fragile ceasefire in effect since Wednesday morning, but came after a weekend of intense violence along the Gaza border.



Israeli firefighters battle to contain huge blazes sparked by Gaza fire kites
Firefighters were working to put out three large fires along the Gaza Strip border, believed to have been started by incendiary kites flown from the coastal enclave on Saturday.

The largest fire was near to Kibbutz Carmia, adjacent to the northern Gaza Strip. Preliminary estimates suggested that between 2,000 to 3,000 dunam (500 to 740 acres) of fields and parts of a nature reserve adjacent to the kibbutz were destroyed.

Officials at the Israel Nature and Parks Authority estimated that at least one third of the Carmia reserve had been destroyed.

Residents were working alongside with firefighters to try to contain the fires that have become almost daily occurrences since the start of the “March of Return” protests along the border at the end of March.

During the protests, Gazans have been flying kites into Israel outfitted with Molotov cocktails and containers of burning fuel, setting fire to large swaths of land.

It has become a widely adopted tactic during the weekly “March of Return” clashes on the Gaza border, which Israel accuses the Hamas terror group of orchestrating as a cover for attacks and attempts to breach the border fence.
IDF thwarts tractor ramming attack near Hebron, Palestinian suspect dead
A ramming attack on a group of soldiers was thwarted on Saturday near the West Bank city of Hebron, said the IDF.

The soldiers shot dead a 35-year-old Palestinian suspect driving a small tractor who attempted to run over an IDF officer and combat soldier. No IDF soldiers were injured in the attempted attack.

The IDF said soldiers acted to stop the suspect according to the army's rules of engagement, during which the perpetrator turned around and attempted to run over civilians at the scene. Another soldier, standing on the roof of a nearby building, identified the threat and shot dead the suspect.

Palestinian media reported that the perpetrator was 35-year-old Rami Sabarna, a resident of the West Bank town of Beit Umar and father to four children.
Palestinian nurse killed in Gaza border clashes
A Palestinian nurse was killed during clashes with Israeli forces on Friday as she tried to help a wounded protester at the Gaza border, Gazan health officials and a witness said.

Palestinian militants attacked Israeli troops with gunfire and a grenade, according to the IDF spokesperson.

Razan Al-Najar's death brought to 119 the number of Palestinians killed in weekly demonstrations launched on March 30 in the Gaza Strip, an enclave controlled by the Islamist group Hamas and long subject to grinding Israeli and Egyptian embargoes.

Najar, a 21-year-old volunteer medic, was shot as she ran toward the fortified border fence, east of the south Gaza city of Khan Younis, in a bid to reach a casualty, a witness said.

Wearing a white uniform, "she raised her hands high in a clear way, but Israeli soldiers fired and she was hit in the chest," the witness, who requested anonymity, told Reuters.

An Israeli military spokeswoman had no immediate comment on Najar's killing. Israeli officers have previously said that army snipers target only people posing a threat, but that the bullets can sometimes run through them or ricochet, hitting bystanders.
Iranian official: We dealt the Zionists a 'heavy blow'
An Iranian official claimed on Friday that Israel was dealt a “heavy blow” by his country last month when 32 rockets were fired at the Golan Heights from Syria.

“For the first time since the formation of the Zionist regime, Israel received a heavy blow from the Resistance Front in the Golan Heights,” said Ramezan Sharif, a former spokesman for Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), according to i24news.

“This is the beginning of a great path. Israel should be aware that it is considered as a cancerous tumor and a violator of all rules in the eyes of the world’s freedom-seekers,” he added.

In retaliation for the rocket attack on the Golan Heights, the IDF attacked dozens of military targets belonging to the Iranian Quds Force in Syrian territory.

The targets that were attacked included Iranian intelligence sites, a Quds Force military compound in Kiswah and an Iranian logistic site near Damascus.

Following last month’s incident, senior Iranian cleric Ahmad Khatami threatened to destroy Tel Aviv and Haifa if Israel acts “foolishly”.
NATO chief: Alliance won't defend Israel in war with Iran
Jens Stoltenberg, the head of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), told a German media outlet on Saturday that NATO would not side with Israel in the event that the Islamic Republic of Iran attacks the Jewish state.

The NATO chief told Der Spiegel magazine that "the security guarantee [of NATO] does not apply to Israel" because the Jewish state is not a member of the 29 country alliance.

In response to the Stoltenberg's announcement, the German Green Party politician and former head of the German-Israel parliamentary group in the Bundestag, Volker Beck, asked on Twitter: "That raises the question. What does this clarification mean for the security dialogue between NATO, EU, Germany and Israel? It points to at least very different starting points and positions of interest."

Tensions between Israel and Iran have escalated in recent months, with Israel striking Iranian military bases in Syria, including in a May 8 attack that reportedly left 9 Iranian military personnel dead.

Stoltenberg's statement comes despite growing cooperation between Israeli and the NATO alliance, including Israel's participation in a joint naval exercise in late May. Earlier Israel-NATO joint naval and air force exercises took place in December.
Argentine federal court confirms AMIA prosecutor Nisman was murdered
An Argentine federal appeals court confirmed Friday that special prosecutor Alberto Nisman, found dead in 2015 while investigating a 1994 Jewish center bombing, was murdered.

The Federal Court of Buenos Aires said there was no doubt that Nisman’s death was a homicide rather than suicide, El Pais reported, and came as a “direct consequence” of his accusations that then-president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner covered up Iran’s role in the attack on the Buenos Aires AMIA center that left 85 dead and hundreds wounded.

The court called on the judge overseeing the case to focus on the investigation of the homicide “with the speed and seriousness that such a grave matter imposes.”

The court thus confirmed a federal judge’s ruling in December that Nisman’s death “could not have been a suicide.”
Arab MK urges Argentina to cancel friendly soccer match against Israel
Arab Israeli MK Yousef Jabarin on Friday urged Argentina to cancel its national team’s match with Israel next week, citing Israel’s actions in the Gaza Strip.

Holding the match, he said in a letter to the Argentinian ambassador to Israel, “sends a dangerous message to the Israeli government that the world is ignoring its gross violations of human rights.”

Jabarin, of the Joint (Arab) List said Argentina’s star player Lionel Messi “can not turn his back on Palestinian victims.”

He added: “I really hope the relevant bodies in Argentina will reevaluate holding the match as planned.”
Lionel Messi of Argentina leaves the field during the Brazil Global Tour match between Brazil and Argentina at Melbourne Cricket Ground on June 9, 2017, in Melbourne, Australia. (Quinn Rooney/Getty Images via JTA)

The friendly game will take place on June 9 at the Teddy Stadium in Jerusalem, just one week before Argentina’s first match in the World Cup against Iceland, on June 16, in Moscow.
Turkey transfers $10 million to UNRWA
The Turkish government on Thursday announced the transfer of an additional $10 million to fund the activities of UNRWA, the UN’s agency for “Palestinian refugees”.

The Turkish Foreign Ministry said that the aid is intended to help UNRWA deal with the financial crisis it is experiencing which, it said, is harming the education and health services it provides to the Palestinians. UNRWA's assistance is granted to Palestinian Arabs who have been defined as “refugees” since 1948 and their descendants without any time limitation.

In addition, Turkey increased the amount of flour it supplies to UNRWA to 26,000 tons and allocated $1.2 million to the World Health Organization for the treatment of Palestinian Arabs who were recently injured during the Gaza conflict.

The U.S. announced in January it would cut some of its funding to UNRWA, citing a need to undertake a fundamental re-examination of the organization, both in the way it operates and the way it is funded.

The organization later received pledges of $100 million in additional funding from Qatar, Canada, Switzerland, Turkey, New Zealand, Norway, Korea, Mexico, Slovakia, India and France as a means of making up for the aid that was cut by Washington.

UNRWA, meanwhile, is notorious for its anti-Israel activities. During the 2014 counterterrorism Operation Protective Edge, Hamas rockets were discovered inside a school building run by UNRWA.
Israel prefers Assad over Iran at its border
Israel is prepared to support the return of Syrian government forces to its northern border in exchange for the ousting of Hezbollah and Iran from a 70 to 80 kilometer zone in that area.

On Thursday, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman made a lightning quick trip to Russia to discuss an expanded deal for the ouster of Iran from southern Syria that would also include agreements with the United States and Jordan. The Hashemite Kingdom has similar concerns with regard to its border with Syria.

Israel views the deal as a first step toward the complete remove of Iran and its proxy armies from Syria.

The meeting was followed by a telephone conversation between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Prior to the visit, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called on non-Syrian forces to withdraw from the country’s southern border as soon as possible.

Washington is concerned that Moscow’s real aim in calling for Iran to exit southern Syria is to pressure the Trump administration to leave the country as well – a move that would leave Russia as the sole power player on the ground.
US said wary of Israel-Russia deal to remove Iranians from southern Syria
The United States is wary of a reported agreement between Israel and Russia that would see the withdrawal of Iranian-backed troops from Syria’s border with Israel and the return of the Syrian army to the south of the country, an Arabic daily reported Saturday.

“The US administration wants to continue exerting pressures on the regime,” Asharq Al-Awsat quoted Western diplomats as saying.

On Friday, the newspaper reported Israel and Russia had reached an agreement green-lighting Israeli strikes on Iranian targets in Syria, as well as the withdrawal of Tehran-backed troops from Syria’s border with Israel.

The reported agreement would see Iranian forces leave southwestern Syria, while allowing Israel to strike Iranian assets deep in the country. Israel agreed not to attack Syrian regime targets, the report said.

A Russian source told Asharq al-Awsat that Russia was tight-lipped about the agreement to maintain “balance” in its diplomatic ties with Israel and Iran.
Syrian government seeks to consolidate army and recapture southwest
The Syrian government wants to recapture insurgent territory in the southwest through a settlement in which fighters accept state rule or leave, the foreign minister said on Saturday.

The Syrian regime under Bashar Assad plans to disarm militias supporting the regime's civil war, including Iranian-backed militias, according to the Syrian Human Rights Monitoring Organization.

The process of disarming the militia's includes the integration of soldiers into regular units of the Syrian army or, alternatively, their release from any military service.

Walid al-Moualem also said the United States must withdraw from the Tanf base in the southeast. Damascus has not engaged in talks about the country's south, and any agreement over that region must include the pullout of US forces, he said.

The southwest, near the borders with Jordan and Israel, remains one of the big chunks of Syria still outside the control of the state, which has recovered swathes of the country with the help of Russian jets and Iran-backed militias.

Rebel factions hold stretches of Quneitra and Deraa provinces in the southwest, bordering the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights, while Syrian army troops and allied forces control nearby territory.
Iran says it supports Russian efforts to bring south Syria under army control
Iran supports a Russian-led effort to impose Syrian government control over the south of Syria, a senior Iranian security official was quoted as saying on Saturday, amid reports that Damascus is preparing a major military offensive in the area.

Russia said last week that only Syrian army troops should be on the country's southern border with Jordan and Israel.

Syrian government forces, in their strongest position since the early months of the seven-year conflict, have driven rebels out of all territory near the capital Damascus this year.

For weeks there have been reports that the government's next target would be the zone in the south, one of only two large areas left in the hands of fighters seeking to topple President Bashar al-Assad.

Washington says any offensive in the area would violate a ceasefire it has jointly sponsored with Moscow for that part of Syria, and has warned it would take "firm measures" in response.
BDS fly Hezbollah flag at Israel-South Africa photo exhibition
Protesters and supporters of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement made several attempts to disrupt the opening of the #YallaYebo photography exhibition in South Africa on Thursday night.

Several scuffles broke out as the BDS supporters waved flags of the Hezbollah terrorist group covered in red paint, and compared Jews to Nazis, while hurling abuse in an attempt to provoke violence.

The Jerusalem Post witnessed first-hand as several protesters called Jews Nazis for attending the event.

“You [South African Jews] have done this to yourselves,” on protester said, pointing at several guests waiting to get into the venue. “You can’t look at yourself in the mirror... because you know you’ve turned into a f**king Nazi.”

Another protester chanted that Israel was carrying out “the final solution.”

One guest told the Post that flying the Hezbollah flag at a Jewish event, “a terrorist organization that wants Jews dead, is as bad as flying the apartheid South African flag in front of me.
Former Downing Street Chief of Staff demands that Home Secretary proscribes Hizballah and praises CAA’s private prosecution of “Al Quds” march leader
Nick Timothy, Theresa May’s former Chief of Staff, has joined growing calls for Hizballah to be entirely proscribed throughout the UK under the Terrorism Act 2000.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Mr Timothy condemned as “farcical” the failure to fully proscribe the genocidal antisemitic terrorist organisation, instead banning its “military wing” but not its “political wing”. Noting that “Hassan Nasrallah, Hezbollah’s general secretary, even laughs at the distinction”, Mr Timothy is full throated in his demand for action.

Hizballah seeks the extermination of Jews. For example in 2004 its Secretary-General said: “If Jews all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide. It has been responsible for terrorist attacks murdering Jews from Buenas Aires to Burgas, and has even been blamed for two bombings targeting Jews in London in 1994.

The next pro-Hizballah parade is planned for 10th June.

Citing Campaign Against Antisemitism’s complaints to the Charity Commission about the charity which organises the pro-Hizballah parade, and our private prosecution of the parade’s leader, Mr Timothy berated the authorities for not acting, and also called on Government ministers to take action to proscribe Hizballah in its entirety and stop the parade from taking place as a show of support for Hizballah.
Columbia Professor Urged to Step Down After Blaming Israel for ‘Every Dirty’ Act in World
250 people signed an open letter Tuesday calling on Columbia University to urge a professor to step down over his “anti-Semitic bigotry” after he claimed Israel is behind “every dirty treacherous ugly and pernicious act happening in the world.”

Hamid Dabashi, who teaches Iranian Studies and Comparative Literature at the university, came under fire for a post shared on his Facebook page — which has since been taken down — in which he also slammed “opponents of the Iran Nuclear deal” as “diehard Fifth Column Zionists.”

He also sent out a tweet, which is still active, blaming Israel for every “ugly” act “happening in the world.”


Nearly 250 alumni, students, faculty, and representatives from Jewish groups said “Dabashi’s statements echo common anti-Semitic canards and meet the working definition of anti-Semitism that the State Department has been using for years,” in the letter to Columbia President Lee Bollinger and the school’s Board of Trustees.

They noted the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition of antisemitism, which counts the U.S. as one of its 30 member states, that stipulates that “accusing Jewish citizens of being more loyal to Israel, or to the alleged priorities of Jews worldwide, than to the interests of their own nations.”

Dabashi’s statements are the latest in a sordid history the professor has of “depicting Israelis as Nazis, comparing Israel to ISIS, [and] accusing Israel of genocide” — “promote a hostile environment on campuses for pro-Israel and Jewish students,” they warned. (h/t jzaik)
Trial Date Set in Case Accusing San Francisco State University of Discriminating Against Jewish Students
A trial date was set last week for a lawsuit accusing San Francisco State University and the Board of Trustees of California State University of violating the civil rights of Jewish students.

The complaint — filed in the Superior Court of San Francisco in January on behalf of plaintiffs Charles Volk and Liam Kern — claims “SFSU has a long and documented history of institutionalized anti-Semitism.”

The lawsuit cites a February 2017 incident when the Jewish campus group Hillel, of which Volk and Kern were both members, was “intentionally and surreptitiously” barred from participating in a “Know Your Rights” information fair at SFSU.

While the university has acknowledged that Hillel “was improperly excluded” from the event, the lawsuit claimed this decision was “sanctioned by high-ranking university officials.” The fair was organized in part by the College of Ethnic Studies and the General Union of Palestine Students.

SFSU has denied allegations that it promotes or tolerates antisemitism, and said once the complaint was filed that it is “deeply committed to fighting all forms of discrimination, including anti-Semitism.”
Knox College Concludes Investigation Into Professor Who Claimed ‘Jews Act Like Nazis’
Knox College in Illinois has concluded an internal investigation into a faculty member who claimed “the Jews act like Nazis” while critiquing Israel, but is still reviewing an antisemitic incident involving another professor.

President Teresa Amott said her administration’s probe into tweets shared by Kwame Zulu Shabazz, a visiting assistant professor of Africana Studies whose contract is due to expire at the end of the academic year, “is complete and that actions have been taken” in accordance with school policy.

She explained that “corrective action” can only be pursued if “there is a finding that a faculty member has violated College standards,” but declined to comment on what specific steps were taken.

Amott indicated that many at Knox, herself included, believe that Shabazz’s social media posts “reference anti-Semitic themes and stereotypes” — a contention rejected by the instructor, who first drew concern in April for tweets claiming that the hip hop industry is controlled by “whites/Jews,” with “Jews pulling the strings for profit,” among other comments.



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