Monday, June 11, 2018
Increasingly, in our Universities, anti-Semitism travels under the guise of pro-Palestinian activism.
...Being Mein Kampf-y is back in vogue and Jews amassed in their homeland are the primary target. Islamic regimes claim the moral high ground by criticising Israel for using disproportionate force to protect state borders while they quietly bankroll illegal armies of jihadis. The use of non-state actors in the place of legitimate armies means Islamic regimes can fund illegal wars while avoiding accountability under international law, at the UN and in the media.
The UN General Assembly will convene for an emergency session this week regarding Gaza. Some Arab states object to Israel defending its borders against Hamas militants. Recent attempts to damn Israel while exculpating terrorists have failed. But they have gained support from powerful countries such as China, whose government rails against colonialism as it colonises international waters.
The Palestinian territories are so radicalised that Hamas governs Gaza. It is the foot soldiers of Islamist terror that you see running for Israel’s borders on the TV news at night. If the accompanying narration is anything to go by, we are supposed to be angry at Israel for gunning down the terrorists trying to invade it. What is the proposed alternative? Should the Israel Defence Forces lay down their arms and let the terrorists invade the only pluralistic democracy in the Middle East?
Israel was always going to be a risky venture. Theoretically, it secures a safe haven for Jews after centuries of persecution. However, their concentration in a small territory in a neighbourhood of Islamic states poses a significant threat.
Increasingly, anti-Semitism travels under the guise of pro-Palestinian activism. While it is possible to argue for the two-state solution and against Israeli policy without being anti-Semitic, it is dangerously naive to ignore the intent of Palestinian jihadis to enact the final solution by wiping Israel off the map.
Dangerously naive is the default position of progressive populists in relation to Israel. The alt-left champions jihadis while denouncing democracies. Many seem unaware of what they are defending when they criticise Israel’s national security measures.
Student activists [at the University of Sydney] have struck another blow for tyranny by celebrating a female suicide bomber who killed Israelis.
The student women’s collective at the University of Sydney featured Hamida al-Taher on the front page of campus newspaper Honi Soit. The edition was dedicated to the struggle against “Israeli colonisation”. The collective described her as a martyr. One may reason that a young woman being used as a bomb for jihad is cause for condemnation, not celebration. But the sisterhood between jihadis and Western feminism is no place for reason.
But he was mostly unarmed
In other words, it’s a reasonable calculation that for the majority of the day, he was “unarmed.” By the logic of the journalists who cover Israel, then, they should report that that the axe-wielder was another “mostly unarmed” civilian, a “protester” or “demonstrator” who had harmed nobody.A talk by Tom Gross on Israel and the media, and how Israeli PR could be improved (Feb 9, 2010)
I also expect journalists to try to cast doubt on whether he was even carrying the axe. They will probably write that the Israelis “claimed” or “alleged” he was carrying it, but there’s no proof. After all, since when do Palestinian terrorists carry axes?
I would bet that the residents of nearby Kibbutz Nirim, who were right in the path of the axe terrorist, have some sense of what lay in store for them if the Israeli soldiers had not shot him.
I doubt anybody at the kibbutz has forgotten about the terrorists who used an axe to butcher the five rabbis in the Har Nof (Jerusalem) synagogue, or Michael Nadler, the young man from Miami Beach whom axe-wielding terrorists butchered on the Golan Heights. They haven’t forgotten the Bat Ayin axe attack or the Ma’ale Adumim axe attack, the axe attacks in Afula and in the Old City of Jerusalem, and all the rest, far too numerous to list here.
But the journalists won’t mention any of that in their articles. Not because they don’t believe Palestinian terrorists have used axes. But because hiding that fact advances the Palestinian agenda. Most journalists want to see Israel forced to accept the creation of a Palestinian state along Israel’s nine-miles-wide border.
Anything that would cast doubt on the Palestinians’ nature or intentions could strengthen opposition to creating such a state.
And that’s why the media pretend that Palestinian terrorists are “mostly unarmed”—even when they are armed with the same deadly weapons that have been used by so many terrorists before them.
* “A fascinating lecture by Tom Gross, well worth watching. Even though it is from a few years ago, it is still just as relevant today and has lessons for us all.” -- William Shawcross, CVO, British writer and former Chairman of the Charity Commission. * “This is a great talk by Tom Gross – journalists and diplomats alike should watch it” -- Evgeny Kissin, leading Russian-born classical concert pianist * Tom Gross: “The media coverage of the Mideast is even worse than we think it is.” Tom Gross is a former Mideast correspondent for the London Sunday Telegraph and New York Daily News, and a contributor to The Guardian and Wall Street Journal.
Hen Mazzig: As a Queer Jew of Color, I Find Tamika Mallory’s Latest Comments Particularly Heartbreaking
As a queer Jew of color, I greeted the Women’s March with great pride and hope when it was first started. The promise that seemed to inhere in a political group organized by queer women of color was of a future I have longed for all my life.Farrakhan on #MeToo and the Jews
But all too soon, the Women’s March broke my heart. Its leaders, Tamika Mallory and Linda Sarsour, famously refused to repudiate known anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan after he made horrifically anti-Semitic remarks at an event that Mallory proudly attended.
Ever since, it’s gone from bad to worse, as the leaders of the Women’s March have chosen to opine on Israel, a state of which I’m a proud citizen.
On the heels of her refusal to denounce an outspoken anti-Semite, Mallory visited Israel and the West Bank. It will come as no surprise that Mallory’s one takeaway was that the founding of the State of Israel was a “human rights crime.”
“When you go to someone’s home and you need a place to stay, you ask ‘Can I come into your home and can I stay here, and can we peacefully coexist?’” she said shortly after returning to the United States. “You don’t walk into someone else’s home, needing a place. It’s clear you needed a place to go–cool, we got that! I hear that! But you don’t show up to somebody’s home, needing a place to stay, and decide that you’re going to throw them out and hurt the people who are on that land,” she went on. “And to kill, steal, and do whatever it is you’re gonna do to take that land! That to me is unfair. It’s a human rights crime.”
This statement is extremely ignorant. The Jews didn’t “steal” or “take that land.” The Jews won a war that the Arab nations waged against them. They were coming home to their ancestral homeland after the Nazis tried to wipe them off the planet, or, like my family, they were of the 850,000 Jewish refugees from the Middle East and North Africa fleeing persecution. They didn’t “show up in somebody’s home” as Mallory put it.
This week, the Final Call tweeted more lines from Farrakhan's address about the Weinstein question: "Do you know that many of us who go to Hollywood seeking a chance have to submit to anal sex and all kind of debauchery and they give you a little part? It’s called the casting couch. See that’s Jewish power."MSNBC host ripped lavish bat mitzvahs, settlements, Ariel Sharon
Farrakhan rose to prominence once again early this year with the release of a 2005 photo of Farrakhan with then-Senator Barrack Obama, a photo that even some of Obama's supporters believe could have derailed his 2008 presidential bid had it not been suppressed at the time. Shortly thereafter, I wrote an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal exposing long overlooked connections between the Democrats (largely members of the Congressional Black Caucus) and Farrakhan. A week later, I wrote a second op-ed for the Journal zeroing in on the relationship of DNC deputy chair Keith Ellison and Farrakhan, a relationship Ellison continues to deny exists.
More recently here at THE WEEKLY STANDARD in April, I wrote about a "recent visit by Ellison to the Chicago headquarters of the Coalition for the Remembrance of the Honorable Elijah Muhammad (CROE), an organization formed in 1987 to honor and promote the teaching of Elijah Muhammad, former leader of the Nation of Islam and mentor to Louis Farrakhan." Ellison's office has ignored requests for comment.
While some Democrats have denounced Farrakhan, others (Maxine Waters, for instance) have remained silent. Even Cory Booker, one of the party's rising stars, has resisted addressing the troubling connections between Farrakhan and Democrats. In October 2016, Booker posted a remembrance of 1995's Million Man March, which reads "Remembering the Million Man March on October 16, 1995. May the unity and spirit behind the march continue to live on." The March was organized by Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, and the photo Booker chose for his tribute includes a poster with Farrakhan's photo. Booker's office has also ignored repeated requests for comment.
Embattled MSNBC host Joy Reid on her now-deleted blog wrote posts mocking a lavish bat mitzvah, criticizing the late Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and suggesting the U.S. had no stake in the terrorist threat from Iran.ZOA to MSNBC: Fire Joy Reid for Anti-Semitic Comments & Conspiracy Theories
The 2006 posts on The Reid Report criticizing bar and bat mitzvah celebrations and addressing Iran were first reported by The Daily Caller. JTA found additional posts critical of Sharon and the media coverage of Jews and Israel.
They follow other reports since last December about a series of controversial posts on her long-shuttered blog. Reid, the left-wing weekend host of MSNBC’s “AM Joy,” has since apologized for posts considered homophobic, another promoting a 9/11 conspiracy theory and an illustration superimposing Sen. John McCain’s head onto the body of the 2007 Virginia Tech shooter.
The Daily Caller reported a blog post in which she addresses another writer who argued that Iran was a “fanatical terrorist regime.” Reid countered that Tehran’s intention was not to eradicate the United States but Israel.
“Iran’s president may be nutty, but to my knowledge he hasn’t said he wants to destroy America,” she wrote. “[Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad has called for the destruction of Israel. Perhaps for [Charles] Krauthammer and other neocons there is no distinction, but there certainly is a distinction for me, for American taxpayers, and for the United States military, which is pledged only to defend us. Israel has a quite well armed military of its own, don’t ya know.” (h/t jzaik)
The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has called upon the TV broadcasting network MSNBC to fire Joy Reid, host of ‘MSNBC’s AM Joy’ program, for uttering outrageous anti-Semitic comments and for espousing bizarre conspiracy theories. The ZOA is appalled that someone espousing her views and making the comments she has made on air has a paid slot on a major TV network and calls upon MSNBC to fire her forthwith.Better late than never
ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is truly remarkable and a sign of the sickness of our times that someone who espouses sinister anti-Semitic canards and gives voice to bizarre conspiracy theories hold a major broadcasting position on a TV network. More outrageous still is the fact that Joy Reid’s outrageous record, once discovered and publicized, has not led to her immediate firing, which the ZOA urges MSNBC to do without a moment’s delay. (h/t jzaik)
At a time when czarist Russia was characterized by violent and murderous antisemitism, encouraged from the top by Nicholas II, his royal relatives in Britain were famously noted for their pro-Jewish sentiments.Prince William to visit 'Occupied Palestinian terrritories'
Queen Victoria had a very close relationship with her Jewish-born prime minister, Benjamin Disraeli, and friendship with Sir Moses Montefiore, while Nicholas’s uncle Bertie – better known as King Edward VII on succeeding the crown after Victoria – surrounded himself with wealthy Jewish pals. Edward’s friendship with financier Ernest Cassel led some to dub the king’s palace outside of London “Windsor Cassel.”
Later, during the Holocaust, Princess Alice of Battenberg, the mother of Philip, the duke of Edinburgh and husband of the current Queen Elizabeth, volunteered to hide a Jewish family in her Athens palace, using her deafness to frustrate Gestapo questioning after the Germans became suspicious of her activities. For saving Rachel and Tilde Cohen, she was recognized in 1993 by Yad Vashem as one of the Righteous Among the Nations. A year later Philip came to Jerusalem to plant a tree in her honor at Yad Vashem and visit her crypt at the Church of Mary Magdalene on the Mount of Olives.
And yet, despite this family history and the prominent role of Britain in Zionist history, from the Balfour Declaration of 1917 to the British Mandate, no member of the British royal family has paid an official visit to the Jewish state. Philip’s visit to Jerusalem was regarded as private, as was Prince Charles’s attendance at the funerals of Yitzhak Rabin and Shimon Peres, with Charles also using the latter as an opportunity to pay homage at his grandmother’s grave.
This lack of an official royal visit has been no oversight but rather a deliberate snub to the Jewish state on the part of the British Foreign Office, which has always used royal trips to further British interests or reward friendly nations. As the most widely traveled head of state in history, partly the result of her extraordinary longevity, Elizabeth has been to all parts of the globe, including the Middle East. A quick look at her past travels includes state visits to pre-revolutionary Iran, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, United Arab Emirates, Oman, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Jordan and Turkey, with Israel conspicuously absent from the list.
SO THE visit later this month to Israel by Prince William, Duke of Cambridge and direct heir to the British throne, is a watershed moment in Israel-UK relations and a fitting recognition on the part of the British Foreign Office that after 70 years of independence, Israel can no longer be treated as an aberration.
The British royal family issued a statement on Prince William's upcoming visit to the region June 24, saying that the visit would take place in Jordan, Israel and the 'occupied Palestinian territories.'David Collier: Hezbollah flags in London again, as antisemitic hate meets Jewish resistance
The visit will be the first of its kind by a member of the British Royal family to Israel and to Judea and Samaria.
While in Jordan, the Prince, the second in line to the British throne, will deal with "strengthening relations between the two countries and royal families."
"While the complex challenges in the region are known, the non-political nature of this role enables it to learn about the residents of the region, to know the young generation, its aspirations and dreams," the statement said.
"The Prince intends to use the attention to attract his visit to focus on enlightening the hopes of young people in the region, including refugees," the royal statement said.
Speeches, hate and the usual faces
The demonstrations followed the usual pattern. The Al-Quds demonstration had speakers delivering messages of hate that blur into each other. Napier spoke. So did Stephen Sizer. Between the speeches on the pro-Israeli side, there was singing and dancing. The speeches on the ZF side were more in anger at the presence of the Hezbollah flag. Maajid Nawaz and Matthew Offord delivered two powerful speeches. In the dividing ‘no-mans’ land section, the sounds merged, making so much of what was said indecipherable.
Walking alongside the aL-Quds demonstrators, there were many recognisable faces. Mick Napier of course and Stephen Sizer. I saw representatives of the In-Minds crowd too. Tony Greenstein was there. This is the odd marriage that occurs when radical Islamist ideology takes to the streets. Just what is it that attracts non Shi’a Muslims to march under the flag of the Hezbollah? The answer is simple – when a flag dripping with antisemitism is flown, it comes as no surprise that it acts as a magnet for those also dripping with twisted hate.
Just a couple of the many of those I recognise from my research. Sarah Wilkinson and Kajsa Anckasrtrom. Both picked up in my report on the Palestine Solidarity Campaign.
The counter-protest
Last year a group of pro-Israelis had successfully managed to stop the march as it arrived at Oxford Circus. This year the organisers had changed the format, holding the demonstration first before the march towards Westminster. This led to some confusion. Nobody knew when exactly the march would begin. It also led to a question of what the route of the march would be. What was certain was that a group of Jewish activists would attempt to stop the Hezbollah flag being marched through London’s streets once more. To this end, a separate group of about 60 Jewish activists had gathered near Green Park station to wait for them. These numbers would swell. In total about 120 activists took part in the attempt to stop the march.
What crawls out of the woodwork
Situations such as this always result in Jews being attacked by others. Jews are suddenly visible and a target. One such conversation that occurred yesterday is in the edited video below. I do not know if this woman was part of the al-Quds rally or if she was simply so incensed by proud Jewish people on London’s streets that she felt the need to attack them. In any event, it is fair to say this woman is an antisemite.
Israel 'should be wiped off map', says Al Quds Day speaker as Hezbollah flags fly
This year, once again, protestors were legally allowed to fly the yellow Hezbollah flag, which depicts a hand grasping a stylised assault rifle.
This is because of a legal loophole as the militant group's military wing is banned as a terror organisation in the UK but its political wing is not, despite calls from London Mayor Sadiq Khan for the Home Office to proscribe both wings.
Nazim Hussein Ali, who said there was a connection between the Grenfell Tower tragedy and “Zionists” at last year’s event, once again led the protest.
A large cheer went up as Mr Ali urged the crowd to thank “people of Jewish backgrounds” who attended the rally, including members of the strictly Orthodox Neturei Karta sect, who oppose Zionism.
In between the speeches, demonstrators burned an Israeli flag.
A Zionist counter-demonstration was held in a designated space 100 metres from the Al Quds protest, with police officers maintaining a “neutral zone” between the two.
Supporters of Israel played the country’s national anthem on speakers, as well as Israel’s recent Eurovision-winning entry.
Fiona Sharpe, the co-founder of Sussex Friends of Israel, told the JC: “It’s important that the Jewish community has a presence here. While we don’t want to curtail anyone’s freedom of speech, we do not want it to become hate speech.
“Flying of the Hezbollah flag crosses the line – Hezbollah being a known terrorist organisation. It’s a threat to us all, not just the Jewish community.
“We wouldn’t want to see the flying of an Isis flag on the streets of London. I don’t think it’s appropriate to fly the Hezbollah flag.”
As the Al Quds march proceeded towards Downing Street, Zionist activists chanted “Terrorist scum, off our streets”, and “Whose streets? Our streets”.
This year’s pro-Hizballah parade was more repulsive than ever, with even a baby wrapped in the terrorist organisation’s bloodcurdling flag
The pro-Hizballah parade held today succeeded in being even more repulsive than in past years.
Under a heavy police presence, including a police helicopter, riot police and officers on horseback, supporters of Hizballah gathered in London for the annual “Al Quds Day” pro-Hizballah parade.
As in past years, the volunteers of Campaign Against Antisemitism’s Demonstration and Event Monitoring Unit went into the thick of it to gather evidence which we are already reviewing. Our efforts last year resulted in us bring a private prosecution against the leader of the parade, Nazim Ali, who was in charge again this year. Last year we allege that he blamed “Zionists” for the Grenfell Tower tragedy.
We had expressed grave concerns about violence at the parade, but to their credit, the Metropolitan Police Service managed to avoid bloodshed despite the presence in a small area of Hizballah supporters, the far-right and British Jewish groups opposed to antisemitism.
The organisers of the parade, a registered charity calling itself the Islamic Human Rights Commission, had issued guidance to attendees telling them that “you can bring a Hizballah flag to show support for the political wing of Hizballah.” Whilst the British Government has proscribed the “military wing” of Hizballah under the Terrorism Act 2000, the “political wing” is not proscribed.
The organisers began by distributing placards proclaiming “We are all Hizballah”, and the terrorist organisation’s flag soon began to fly over London. Some of those attending draped themselves in Hizballah flags and others wore Hizballah uniform. Some attached stickers to their flags stating that they were only showing support for the “political wing” of Hizballah, knowing that police have not been given the powers to take action.
One scene that set a new repulsive low for the parade was the sight of a man who had wrapped a baby in the flag of the genocidal terrorist organisation.
Islamic Human Rights Commission Advises Demonstrators How to Fly Hizbullah Flag at London Rally Without Facing Legal Consequences https://t.co/N0lgjRh9EY
— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) June 11, 2018
Government said to drop demand Eurovision be held in Jerusalem
The government will not intervene in determining the location of next year’s Eurovision song contest, according to a report Sunday, amid fears that ministers could torpedo’s Israel’s chance at hosting the event if they insist on holding it in Jerusalem.U.S. and U.K. bands boycott Berlin event due to Israeli embassy donation
Israel’s Kan public broadcaster is tasked with organizing the 2019 contest, but politicians have insisted that the venue be in the capital despite reports that some countries or artists could balk at taking part out of concerns of politicizing the event.
The decision for the government to back off was made during a telephone meeting on Friday between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Finance Minister Moshe Kahlon, Communications Minister Ayoub Kara and Attorney General Avichai Mandelblit, the Channel 20 news station reported Sunday.
The four decided that all negotiations on the matter will be handled exclusively by Kan. Four cities are reportedly vying for hosting rights: Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa and Eilat.
US singer John Maus announced has announced his withdrawal from the Berlin Pop-Kultur music festival due to pressure from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign.Ministry of Strategic Affairs hosts series of South Africa anti-BDS events
He is the fourth musical act to boycott the event because the Israeli Embassy is a small sponsor of the August international festival.
The festival wrote on its website earlier this month that Maus pulled the plug on his appearance because the singer does not wish “to play within a politicized setting.”
In response to calls to boycott the festival from the international BDS-Network and the Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel as well as the Germany-based Jewish Voice for a Just Peace in the Middle East, British bands Shopping and Gwenno, and British musician Richard Dawson & Band, have canceled their performance.
The Pop-Kultur festival wrote on its website: “As it was in 2017, Pop-Kultur has once again been declared a boycott target of the international BDS-Network... The goal of this campaign is the economic, cultural, and political isolation of Israel. We have received e-mails requesting that the official cooperation with the Israeli Embassy be discontinued and that the embassy’s logo, which is included on our website as a measure of transparency and represents the travel and accommodation contribution of €1,200, be taken offline. Various artists have also received messages in which they were asked to boycott the festival.
“We will collaborate with the Israeli embassy this year because our 2018 lineup includes three Israeli artists. We will receive a total travel and accommodation contribution of €1,200 from the embassy.
Over 1,500 Jews and Christians have attended pro-Israel events throughout South Africa which are focused on strengthening the local pro-Israel community and countering the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions and Israel delegitimization movements. The initiative is sponsored by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs and Public Diplomacy (MSA) together with Maccabi World Union.Groups accuse PFLP-affiliated UK NGO of being antisemitic
Four main events across the country took place from June 3-10. In cooperation with the Zionist Federation in South Africa, its local Jewish community and Maccabi World Union's branch in the country helped organize events which took place in Cape Town, Johannesburg, and Durban.
Panels discussed working together with the local Christian leadership in raising support for Israel. In tandem, the Jewish community has also participated in talks on strengthening its activities and where they were provided with effective tools to deal with Israel delegitimization and boycotts.
South Africa has long been considered the epicenter of the BDS movement, which was founded nearly 17 years ago during the now infamous Durban Conference 2001. The forum was marked by repeated expressions of antisemitism by anti-Israel activists and condemned as such by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson who chaired the conference.
The UK organization Medical Aid for Palestinians spreads antisemitic messages and funds NGOs linked to the terrorist group Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, two pro-Israel legal groups complained to Britain’s Charity Commission.Update: Durham NC Pro-Israel groups organize against City Council ban on police exchanges with Israel
The Lawfare Project and UK Lawyers for Israel filed the complaint last week, saying that Medical Aid for Palestinians (MAP) used some of its annual income of £5.4 million (NIS 25.8 m.) on political propaganda, deviating from its stated charitable purpose of providing medical aid.
“Medical Aid for Palestinians is advertised as a charity involved in the provision of health care but is also injecting antisemitic poison into British public life. British donors should know that as well as healthcare, MAP is involved with NGOs linked to a terrorist organization, the PFLP, designated as such by the UK government among others,” said Brooke Goldstein, Director of the Lawfare Project, a legal think tank and litigation fund that supports cases against antisemitic discrimination around the world.
Jonathan Turner, Chief Executive of UK Lawyers for Israel, called MAP out for providing “misleading” information, saying that visitors to its website “would no doubt be surprised to hear that life-expectancy in Gaza in fact compares favorably with Glasgow.”
On April 16h, Durham, North Carolina became the first American city to align a municipal public policy with the agenda of the virulently anti-Jewish and anti-peace extremist organization Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), which falsely blames Israel and American Jewish organizations for U.S. domestic police militarization and instances of police violence against blacks and other minorities in America, Demonization: Durham NC City Council bans police exchanges with Israel.IsraellyCool: The Most Disgusting Sight At This Year’s French Open
As we discussed, in a statement which passed unanimously, the City Council of Durham imposed a total ban on police exchanges with “only one country in the world: the Jewish nation of Israel.”
It did so without any evidence to support this discriminatory action and based solely on propaganda concocted by the radical JVP and promoted by its local activists and their allies, who together launched the “Demilitarize! Durham2Palestine” coalition and a sophisticated PR campaign.
In our prior post, we described how Durham’s City Council ended up lending legitimacy to JVP’s malicious “Deadly Exchange” campaign, which seeks to delegitimize Israel and American Jewish groups by blaming them for institutionalized racism and societal ills in America, including domestic policing problems in minority communities:
Good old Roger – never missing an opportunity to politicize everything and show his antipathy towards Israel.
Indy characterises threats made to Lionel Messi as merely ‘Israeli claims’
An article by Ben Lynfield in The Independent framed Argentina’s decision to cancel a football match against Israel as a BDS win for the Palestinians, and blamed the cancellation on Israel’s “politicization of the event” by moving the match from Haifa to Jerusalem .Editorialising, omission and inaccuracies from BBC’s Evan Davis
However, Lynfield misled readers in his piece (Israel scores own goal as Argentina match cancelled in victory for Palestinians, June 7th) by suggesting that only Israeli officials were claiming that the match was cancelled due to threats against Argentina’s superstar striker Lionel Messi.
…the Israeli embassy in Argentina announced the “suspension” of the game due, it said, to “threats and provocations” against Messi.
…
[Israeli Sports Minister] Regev blamed Argentina’s decision on “terror groups that began sending messages to players and their families with clear threats to harm their lives and those of their children. Among other things, films and pictures of children’s bodies were sent to the players.”
Lynfield also quoted a prominent BDS activist denying that threats had anything to do with the cancellation, framing claims over the threats made to Messi as a ‘he said, she said’ issue.
Notwithstanding the fact that he spent a significant proportion of the interview interrupting his interviewee, Davis’ questions related to three topics: the JCPOA deal between the P5+1 and Iran, recent events along the Gaza Strip-Israel border and the ‘peace process’.The BBC’s ME editor’s odd depiction of the Iranian nuclear programme
On the first topic BBC audiences heard Davis repeatedly opine that “military action” against Iran is inevitable – but ineffective. Notably, when the subject of Iran’s financing of regional terror was raised by Netanyahu, Davis quickly changed the subject.
[3:40] Davis: “Let’s move on and talk about events in Israel, around Israel and in the Middle East. May the 14th was a really interesting day for your country, It was the day the American embassy in Jerusalem opened and a lot of people were watching literally television news programmes split screens of the celebrations you were having and attending over that and at the same time shooting of protesters on the Gaza border. How many died that day?”
Netahyahu: “Sixty-two – fifty of which were Hamas terror fighters according to the Hamas….”
Three more of those killed in the pre-planned rioting were claimed by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad – as the BBC is no doubt aware – but Davis proceeded:
Davis [interrupts]: “So a dozen, a dozen, a dozen civilians.”
Netanyahu: “But they weren’t protesters. They weren’t protesters.”
Davis: “A dozen, a dozen civilians.”
Netanyahu: “Wait a minute….”
Davis: “You called it a glorious day. Do you still think that was a glorious day?
Netanyahu: “I think it’s a historic day.”
Davis [interrupts]: “You [unintelligible] glorious day.”
Netanyahu: “For the moving of the embassy to Jerusalem – of course it was; it was great.”
Davis [interrupts]: “You didn’t seem to show much concern for the dozen or so civilian deaths.”
Iran did not announce that it would “restart” uranium enrichment but that enrichment would be accelerated if the JCPOA fell apart.Swastikas found daubed on Dutch Jewish monument to Holocaust victims
“In case European, Russian and Chinese signatories to the deal prove unable to protect its economic benefits for Iran, Khamenei said, “I have ordered Iran’s atomic energy agency to be prepared to upgrade our (uranium) enrichment capacity”.”
The BBC’s Middle East editor’s job is to “make a complex story more comprehensive or comprehensible for the audience” and so obviously one would expect him to inform BBC audiences that over 80% of the Palestinians killed along the Israel-Gaza Strip border since March 30th have been shown to have links to various terror factions.
Instead, Bowen steered listeners towards the understanding that the description of people involved in the pre-planned violent riots, shooting and IED attacks and attempted infiltrations as terrorists is merely a “line” employed by the Israeli prime minister and presented the Iranian nuclear programme as something that ‘Israel says’ exists.
A monument to Dutch Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust was found vandalized Sunday with swastikas, with local authorities “dumbfounded” over the hate crime.Recovered in Paris flea market, 1924 Austrian silent film is a Holocaust preview
Police have opened an investigation and called on the public to come forward with any information.
The vandalism occurred in the town of Hoogezand in the province of Groningen in the northeastern Netherlands, next to a railway station that was used during World War II to transport local Jews to Nazi concentration camps, where almost all perished.
Several swastikas were found spray-painted on the monument on Sunday morning, according to Dutch TV broadcaster NOS.
“I am dumbfounded that such an action can occur in our municipality, or anywhere else,” said Rein Munniksma, mayor of the Midden-Groningen municipality, according to the NL Times website. “It is really incomprehensible that swastikas are drawn on a Jewish monument.”
A Jewish man is beaten up on the street. Jewish husbands are separated from their non-Jewish wives and children, and deported on trains. A Jewish community, led by rabbis carrying a Torah scrolls, marches down a dark road as it is banished from town.
These snapshots appear to be Holocaust history — but they are not. These are scenes from a silent Austrian film made a decade prior to the enactment of the anti-Jewish Nuremberg laws, and some 15 years before the outbreak of World War II.
The 1924 film “City Without Jews” is based on a popular 1922 novel by Austrian writer and journalist Hugo Bettauer. It astutely predicted what was to come. But only partially.
The film was conceived as a satirical response to the anti-Semitism gaining popular and political strength in Austria during the early inter-war period. Its plot depicted the scapegoating of the Jews for the country’s problems and their subsequent expulsion.
But unlike in the real Holocaust, these Jews are eventually reinstated when the Austrians realized their country was suffering from the absence of the creative and successful Jewish community. In real life, Austria’s Jews were deported beginning in October 1939, and most did not come back. Approximately one-third of Austria’s 190,000 Jews were killed, and only 5,000 were in the country by the end of the war.
In Speech to Jewish Group, Leader of World’s Largest Muslim Organization Calls for Compassion
The leader of the world’s largest Muslim organization told a leading Jewish group on Sunday that religious people must seek to solve today’s violent conflicts and embrace “rachma” — compassion and caring for people.‘The Band’s Visit,’ based on Israeli film, wins best musical in Tony sweep
Appearing at the American Jewish Committee’s Global Forum in Jerusalem, Pak Yahya, the General-Secretary of the Nahdlatul Ulama (NU) Supreme Council in Indonesia, spoke eloquently about current tensions between Islam and Judaism, which he believes are neither inevitable nor insurmountable.
In conversation with Rabbi David Rosen, the AJC’s Director of Interreligious Affairs, Yahya said of the relationship between Judaism and Islam, “Sometimes it’s a good, close relationship, in other parts of history there are conflicts and tensions. It depends on the history.”
“But overall,” he continued, “we have to acknowledge there are problems in the relationship between Islam and Judaism [today]. And some of the problems live within the teachings of the religion itself. In our current context of reality, people of religion — including Islam and Judaism — need to find new ways of … finding a new moral interpretation of religion.”
The shimmering musical “The Band’s Visit,” based on Israeli film of the same name, was the big winner at the Tony Awards on Sunday, capturing the best musical award and nine other prizes.Adaptation of Israeli show 'The Good Cop' to hit Netflix this fall
“The Band’s Visit,” about an Egyptian band that accidentally winds up in a dusty Israeli backwater, won awards for best direction, leading actor, leading actress, orchestration, sound design, original score, best book of a musical, lighting and featured actor Ari’el Stachel, who gave a heartfelt speech about his Israeli-American heritage.
“For so many years of my life I pretended I was not a Middle Eastern person,” he said, addressing his Israeli-Yemeni father and Ashkenazi New York mother in the audience. He thanked the creators of the show “for being courageous for telling a small story about Arabs and Israelis getting along at a time that we need that more than ever.”
He added: “I am part of a cast of actors who never believed that they’d be able to portray their own races, and we’re doing that.”
The show’s director, David Cromer, said the musical is also about loneliness and despair, and asked everyone to reach out to anyone for whom “despair is overwhelming.” The show had garnered 11 nominations.
The Good Cop, an American adaptation of an Israeli TV show by the same name, will hit Netflix this fall.Netanyahu touts Israel for surpassing Japan in GDP per capita
The streaming service dropped a trailer for the new show during the commercials for the Tony Awards on Sunday night, announcing that the series will be available starting September 21.
The new show - starring Tony Danza (Who's the Boss?) and singer and actor Josh Groban (who hosted this year's Tonys) is based off a Yes series that premiered in 2015. That show, starring prolific Israeli comedian Yuval Semo (best known for his many characters on Eretz Nehederet) is still running, with the third season slated to arrive next year. The father role was portrayed by disgraced actor Moshe Ivgy, who departed after the first season.
Last August, Netflix announced it was adapting the show, and that Yes would also play a producing role in the show.
Israel has officially surpassed Japan when it comes to GDP per capita, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday, a sign that the Jewish state is evermore affluent.Stars come out in Hollywood to celebrate Israel's 70th anniversary
Israel enjoys GDP per capita of $42,120 -- which is calculated by dividing the country's total economic output by its number of people. In contrast, Japan's GDP per capita is $40,850.
Netanyahu's remarks, made at a Likud party faction meeting, signal that Israel's growing economic clout and its booming hi-tech industry is overtaking, on a per capita wealth basis, Japan's vaunted consumer electronics and automobile manufacturing.
It's yet another sign that Israel's economy continues to outperform other peers in the West, including in the United States and the euro-zone.
The world average for GDP per capita is $11,730, according to the International Monetary Fund, while advanced economies enjoy an average GDP per capita of $48,970.
If you’re the Consul General of Israel in Los Angeles and you want to celebrate Israel’s 70th anniversary with a big Hollywood-style bash and call it “Hollywood Salutes Israel,” then you’re going to have to pull out all the stops and reel in some big names.
On June 10, that’s exactly what Consul General Sam Grundwerg did – at a private VIP reception for 700 guests at Universal Studios in Hollywood.
Along with congratulatory video messages from Barbra Streisand, Robert de Niro, Michael Douglas, Bill Maher, Gal Gadot, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, there was also some serious Hollywood wattage on stage, including Kelsey Grammar, Mayim Bialik, Metta World Peace and Billy Crystal.
The event also managed to corral some heavyweight Israeli stars, including Yael Groblas (Jane the Virgin), Noa Tishby, Lior Raz, Avi Issacharoff, and singer Ninet Tayeb.
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