Friday, September 07, 2018
Caroline Glick: AIPAC loses the script
In short, the version of the AIPAC-sponsored anti-BDS bill that is set to be voted on before the full House of Representatives does more to legitimize UN and European Union efforts to economically discriminate against Jews in Israel than it does to counter them. AIPAC and AIPAC-supported Republicans like Rep. Royce opted to gut the bill in order to retain the support of Democratic legislators who have been cowed into ending their substantive protection of Israel by the rising forces in their party that are hostile to Israel.
This dire situation – which foretells a future where, in the interest of preserving the fiction of bipartisan support for Israel, all pro-Israel bills are gutted to secure the support of the lowest-common denominator of pro-Israel sentiment among the Democrats – can be reversed.
The Senate version of the bill is the original version of the legislation. It is the version of the bill that should be adopted into law. Republicans in the full House can refuse to approve the Foreign Affairs Committee’s bill and wait instead to pass the Senate version.
Looking ahead, Republican lawmakers in the House and Senate need to stop agreeing to water down their initiatives to secure support from their Democratic colleagues who have been cowed into paralysis by the rising anti-Israel forces in their party. After all, if the Democrats retake control of the House in November, they will not lift a finger to secure Republican votes.
AIPAC may have made perpetuating the myth of strong bipartisan support for Israel its cri de couer. But Republicans, who are truly pro-Israel, have no reason to join them.
Melanie Phillips: The west’s antisemitism crisis
Confronted by reports of rising antisemitism, officials decided that the Jews themselves were to blame because of their “inordinate attention to the possibilities of the ‘black market’ and a lack of pleasant standards of conduct as evacuees.”Melanie Phillips: Corbyn, Farrakhan, Franklin funeral sermon
Only when the enormity of the Holocaust was finally revealed after the war did hatred of Jews become unsayable. It thus went underground — until the left’s adoption of the Palestinian narrative made it sayable again.
Now the Arabs who want to wipe out Israel are regarded falsely and grotesquely as the victims of the Jews. As a result, western antisemites are once again licensed to treat Jews with disgust.
Because Israelis take up arms to defend themselves against extermination and thus kill some of their attackers, they are viewed as aggressors. Jews can only be considered victims if they are passive, helpless and, above all, dead.
Since relatively few Israelis are being killed, they are said to be up to the Jews’ habitual trick of claiming to be victims in order to manipulate the world to their advantage.
Israelis are thus presented obsessively, falsely and malevolently as brutal, willful killers of the innocent. This unique demonization is profoundly antisemitic. But the Israel-bashers really do think it is legitimate criticism—because they believe these deranged and demonstrable falsehoods are actually true.
They resent the claim of antisemitism because they think it’s constantly used to give the Jews in general a free pass for their misdeeds. But these “misdeeds’ are lies. The Israel-bashers believe that they are true because they are antisemites.
This is why Labour’s antisemitism problem cannot be solved. Far beyond the unlovely person of Corbyn himself, it is rooted in bigotry over Israel that has become the default position of mainstream progressive politics. And that, in turn, is part of a broader picture.
Israel is the paradigm nation-state, while Jewish principles lie at the very core of Western civilization. In Britain and America, a culture war is being waged against the west and the nation state. Who can be surprised, therefore, that the Jews are at the very center of that battleground.
The holidays are over! Please join me here in discussion with Avi Abelow of Israel Unwired as we pick up developments in our crazy world (which has got even crazier in our absence, if that’s possible). We’re talking about the continuing antisemitism crisis in Britain’s Labour party, the emergence of America’s party of hatred and the remarkable sermon delivered at Aretha Franklin’s funeral.
Why Clinton Sat with Farrakhan
You don’t have to have much of an imagination to ponder what would happen if Duke [KKK Leader] received a similar place of honor at a funeral for a famous singer. Or the storm that would follow if a former GOP president were to share a platform with Duke, or, as Clinton did with Farrakhan, shake his hand. That would have been the only story coming out of such an event, dwarfing the coverage that Franklin’s funeral or even the John McCain funeral received.
But that didn’t happen when Clinton treated Farrakhan as just another friend of Aretha’s who deserved respect last Friday.
The only explanation is that, for many in the media and the liberal political establishment, hate coming from a black or Islamic group or individual is somehow less odious than hate from white supremacists — even if their rhetoric is remarkably similar.
This may stem in part from the bogus theory about prejudice that holds that it’s impossible for blacks or anyone without power to be guilty of racism. But the problem goes deeper than that absurd assertion. Hate from any source that can’t be identified as somehow tied to conservatives or Trump is simply of no interest to the political Left these days. Even worse, such hate is sometime even whitewashed by the Left — recently, in a YouTube video, Vox and Pro Publica sympathetically depicted MS-13 gang members as nice teenage kids who ride bikes and hold part-time after-school jobs.
The claim that Trump has empowered the far Right continues to be repeated by many liberals even though there is no proof that such a thing is remotely true. Trump’s policies and his administration’s personnel are diametrically opposed to the hate that Duke, the KKK, and the neo-Nazis promote.
But whatever they may think of Trump, the mainstream media should not excuse Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism and hate for whites, or pretend that it’s a result of a misunderstanding.
The Franklin funeral may be dismissed as a meaningless media event with no impact on society. But the truth is that it was a major triumph for Farrakhan and his efforts to bring his message of Jew-hatred into the mainstream. The willingness of the networks to ignore Farrakhan’s hate and the ability of figures such as Clinton and Stevie Wonder to embrace him with impunity allows the virus of hate to spread. A society in which Farrakhan’s anti-Semitism is normalized, as it was last week, is one in which Jews cannot claim to be entirely safe.
"How hard can that be -- saying that Nazis are bad?"
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) September 7, 2018
-- Barack Obama
"The Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man."
- Louis Farrakhan pic.twitter.com/KXz0Wxm4zU
.@JustinTrudeau As Krauthammer said, “Mourning dead Jews is easy. And, forgive me, cheap. Want to truly honor the dead? Show solidarity with the living—Israel and its 6 million Jews.” Apologize for abstaining on UN's June 13 "deploring" of Israeli self-defence from Hamas terror. https://t.co/7CwcDn2re0
— Hillel Neuer (@HillelNeuer) September 7, 2018
Fighting Anti-Zionism Slowly, Quietly, and Well
In June, I reviewed the superb essay collection, Anti-Zionism on Campus. In it, Andrew Pessin and Doron Ben-Atar collect testimonies and reflections from faculty and students who have found themselves denounced, ostracized, and sometimes under investigation because they’ve opposed anti-Israel activity on their campuses.Palestinian Child Terrorists Become New Face of Terror Against Israel
As Ben-Atar, professor of history at Fordham University, says, anti-Israel radicals “have taken to threats and intimidation in their battle to establish anti-Zionism as the doctrinal orthodoxy.” Few on campus have sharp ideas about Zionism, much less consider Zionism the source of all evil, as the radicals do. But when administrators are pliant and when faculty members don’t stand up to scholar-zealots, the 32 essays in this collection show that a few people can do great damage.
In discussing this disheartening material, though, I didn’t have a chance to mention a heartening and excellent essay by Jeffrey Kopstein, “Loud and Fast versus Slow and Quiet: Responses to Anti-Israel Activism on Campus.” Kopstein is no stranger to anti-Israel politics. As Director of the Centre for Jewish Studies at the University of Toronto, Kopstein witnessed the “dreary annual ritual of Israel apartheid week.”
Also a fixture on numerous American campuses, Israeli apartheid week is a designated period during which anti-Israel activists put on events and demonstrations with the single purpose of persuading anyone who will listen that Israel is at least as bad, maybe worse, than apartheid-era South Africa. Today, Kopstein is chair and professor of political science at the arguably much more toxic University of California, Irvine, where repeated disruptions of pro-Israel events have compelled administrators to put its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine on probation for two years.
The Palestinians continue to groom and employ an increasing number of child terrorists to launch strikes on Israel, throwing into further question the ability of the Palestinian government to form a legitimate state, according to a new report on child terrorists and their enablers provided to the Washington Free Beacon.In Arabic and English, Different Messages About MSF Gunman, and the Hacker Defense
At least 18 Palestinian child terrorists ranging in ages from 13 to 18 years old have been caught carrying out terrorist attacks in the first eight months of 2018, including stabbing attacks, bombings, and other types of violent terrorism, according to a new report issued by the Human Rights Voices organization, which tracks and analyzes these attacks.
Since 2015, there has been an alarming use of child terrorists by the Palestinians, according to the report, which found "at least 142 separate terrorist attacks by at least 174 Palestinian children" since September of that year. These attacks led to the deaths of seven Israelis and wounding of 58 others, including some who were children themselves.
The support for Palestinian child terrorists is raising new fears and questions about the Palestinian government's ability to govern its own state amid a parallel and recent rise in riots along the border with Israel.
"The Palestinian Authority claims it is ready and deserving of statehood. But a society that encourages its own children to engage in violence, to become armed combatants, to kill and to maim in pursuit of their parents' ambitions—contrary to the most elementary norms of human decency—is not ready, willing or able to accept the essentials of peaceful coexistence," said Anne Bayefsky, a human rights scholar who serves as director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and president of Human Rights Voices.
The brother of Doctors Without Borders (MSF) gunman Hani Majdalawi (also spelled Almajdalawi), killed last month at the Gaza border after reportedly throwing a grenade at Israeli troops, appears to have given different stories depending on the language that his audience speaks. To English speakers, readers of The Los Angeles Times, Osama Majdalawi said that brother Hani “didn’t even know how to use a weapon” and that the peaceful man’s “only interest was his work, the happiness of his parents and the love of his wife.”Senior European Officials Participated in PA Sponsored Anti-Semitic Exhibition
In contrast, an Arabic post which had appeared on Osama’s Facebook page, and which was since removed, said that Hani was a “martyr” who had “bought the weapon with his own money” and acted “completely independently.” The Arabic Facebook post was consistent with posts from other relatives and Palestinian social media sources.
Hani Majdalawi
The portrait of a quiet, apolitical family man appears in Noga Tarnopolsky’s Aug. 26 article (“Aid worker is labeled a terrorist; Israel says Palestinian killed in shootout was a nurse with Doctors Without Borders“). After quoting a cousin who said Hani “did it for the sake of Allah” and had invited family for a sort of “farewell” gathering, Tarnopolsky reported:
But Osama Almajdalawi, the nurse’s 30-year-old brother, told a different story. Speaking with The Times on Saturday, he described Hani as “a beloved young man” so committed to his work the family barely saw him.
Early last August, the Palestinian Authority launched an exhibition of anti-Semitic images in the Bedouin shantytown of Khan al-Ahmar, an illegal post between Ma’aleh Adumim and Jerusalem, slated for demolition by the High Court of Justice.
According to Makor Rishon, the exhibition was attended by PA ministers, representatives from European countries and UN agencies, including Sonia Azzam, the representative of UNESCO in Ramallah, and Genevieve Putin, the UNICEF representative in Ramallah, AY Suliman, the South African ambassador to the Palestinian Authority, representatives from Norway, the UK, the Netherlands, and Germany.
The exhibition presented Israel as a wicked and terrifying octopus whose arms uproot churches and the al-Aqsa Mosque, strangle an Arab child and destroy schools.
Other paintings portrayed IDF soldiers aiming their weapons at Arab girls; a tank wearing an American hat under which peeks President Donald Trump’s blond hair – with an Israeli soldier leading the tank toward a targeted Arab boy.
The anti-Semitic exhibition was placed in the school that was erected in the illegal village, so that the visiting foreign dignitaries could not have missed these artistic offerings.
Palestinian School Funded by Belgium No Longer Named for Mass-Murderer, but Keeps Logo Erasing Israel
Palestinian officials last month changed the name of a Belgian-funded school formerly dedicated to a mass-murderer, but gave the same controversial name to two other West Bank schools.Dem Candidate Held Event With Nation of Islam Members Outside Radical Mosque
The Martyr Dalal Mughrabi Elementary Mixed School — whose Palestinian namesake helped massacre 38 people, including 13 children, near Tel Aviv in 1978 — is now known as the Belgian Elementary Mixed School, in honor of the Belgian government and the Belgian Development Agency that first helped established it.
Yet the school — located in the town of Beit Awwa near Hebron — has not removed controversial elements from its logo, which continues to feature a map depicting Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip as a single territory. Its newest iteration shows a Palestinian flag overlaying all of Israel.
After the school first drew criticism in October, Belgium announced that it had raised the issue with the Palestinian Authority (PA) and pledged “not allow itself to be associated with the names of terrorists in any way.” It also suspended two projects related to the construction of Palestinian schools.
Yet Palestinian Media Watch, the Jerusalem-based monitoring group that first uncovered the change, said Belgium’s “good intentions” were being undermined by the PA’s simultaneous decision to name two other schools in Beit Awwa after Mughrabi.
Democratic congressional candidate Ayanna Pressley appeared outside a mosque that has played host to numerous radical figures during her primary campaign this year.Andrew Gillum: Israel Uses Gaza Terror Rockets to ‘Justify’ its ‘Outsized Response’
Dr. Wesley Muhammad gave a lecture at Boston’s Muhammad Mosque No. 11 in February entitled "The Secret Relationship between Blacks and Jews: The Homosexual Conspiracy!" Months earlier, anti-Semitic conspiracy theorist Christopher Bollyn gave a lecture on his views that Zionists and Israelis were behind the 9/11 attacks and Randy Muhammad spoke about "The Truth About UFO's."
Pressley appeared outside the mosque in July.
The Boston city councilor made headlines earlier this week when she sent yet another shock to the Democratic establishment by defeating ten-term congressman Michael Capuano. Unlike previous upsets of moderate Democrats such as New York's Joe Crowley, Capuano was a strident liberal and a member of the Progressive Caucus.
A Yahoo News profile of Pressley's primary campaign indicated she owed her win to a strong ground game, holding dozens of events in a single afternoon.
"The Pressley campaign’s day illustrated the diversity of the district, as she met with leaders from the Puerto Rican and Haitian communities and hosted an event including volunteers in union T-shirts and members of the Nation of Islam, outside the mosque where Malcolm X once served as minister," Yahoo reported.
Andrew Gillum, the progressive mayor of Tallahassee who recently won Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination, accused Israel of using Gaza terror rockets to “justify” purported “actions” against Palestinians.Andrew Gillum: Trump’s Jerusalem Embassy Move Was ‘Unnecessary’ and A ‘Provocation’
In audio reviewed by Breitbart Jerusalem, Gillum defined those purported “actions” as including alleged Israeli “outsized response” against Palestinian threats while claiming alleged Israeli disproportionate “firepower” and “pushback” are primary causes of regional instability.
Gillum made his unreported anti-Israel remarks during an interview with a far-left podcast host, Jamarlin Martin, posted on an obscure website.
Gillum’s comments were recorded in Miami on June 27, according to Martin’s podcast on GHOGH (Go Hard or Go Home), which is hosted on Moguldom.com, the domain name for Nubai Ventures, a company founded by Martin that produces editorial and video content. GHOH describes itself as providing “programming content for a Black Economic Revolution.”
The gubernatorial hopeful, whose political rise has been likened to that of Barack Obama, did not oppose Martin when the podcast host charged Israel with “apartheid” or claimed that Israeli forces killed over 60 Palestinians “for protesting” with “the endorsement of (Prime Minister Benjamin) Netanyahu.”
Donald Trump’s historic decision to move the U.S. embassy to Jerusalem was “unnecessary” and a “provocation” that has “incited more violence,” charged Andrew Gillum, the progressive mayor of Tallahassee who recently won Florida’s Democratic gubernatorial nomination.Why Britain's Jews look to France with fear
Gillum made those comments during a podcast interview in May on an obscure website.
The remarks provide a window into Gillum’s thinking on the Middle East in a race where Israel policy could become an issue. Gillum, whose views on Israel are largely unknown, is running against staunch Israel supporter Ron DeSantis.
DeSantis responded to the audio, saying it is “not representative of Florida values.”
“I’ve always stood by Israel, I will be the most pro-Israel governor in the country when I become Governor,” DeSantis added in a statement provided to Breitbart Jerusalem.
Gillum’s Jerusalem remarks came during an interview with far-left podcast host, Jamarlin Martin, who repeatedly made anti-Israel statements during the exchanges. Gillum’s comments were recorded in Miami on June 27, according to Martin’s podcast on GHOGH (Go Hard or Go Home), which is hosted on Moguldom.com, the domain name for Nubai Ventures, a company founded by Martin that produces editorial and video content. GHOH describes itself as providing “programming content for a Black Economic Revolution.”
There have been hundreds of other assaults on France’s 465,000 Jews, most recently at the weekend, when a man was beaten in the centre of Paris by three assailants screaming ‘Dirty Jew’. Media coverage of the assault was muted, particularly on the left, prompting Bernard-Henri Lévy to tweet: “This banality of evil becomes abominable.”Khan: Corbyn Unacceptable
A vigil was held in Paris after the death of Madame Knoll but both Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen were barred from attending. The leader of the far-left La France Insoumise is no anti-Semite and he angrily objected to being bracketed alongside the “extreme right”, but Mélenchon’s protestations demonstrated his blindness at how anti-Semitism has taken root among some of the younger left.
In April this year, 300 prominent figures in France signed a manifesto warning that the country’s Jews were the victims of “ethnic cleansing” at the hands of radical Islamists. What was noticeable to Philippe Val, the organiser of the manifesto, was how few young Socialists were prepared to put their name to the letter: “Those who signed from the Socialist Party were sixty plus and had retired from active politics,” he said. “The young generation is apparently more preoccupied by the Gaza Strip and Hamas, a terrorist organisation, than by the fate of their Jewish compatriots.”
What’s true of the French left is also true of the British left. There are many decent men and women in the Labour Party but for too long they have stood by and said nothing as their party has been infiltrated by anti-Semites. The endgame of such apathy is evident in the fate of French Jews.
Sadiq Khan has condemned Corbyn’s remarks about British Zionists as “unacceptable”, issuing a warning that “some anti-Semites use the word Zionist to describe Jewish people”. Speaking on LBC this morning, he said Corbyn’s comments had been “perceived by many to be racist”:UK Labour Friends of Israel chair loses no-confidence vote over Corbyn criticism
SK: “That was unacceptable, and what I think we should welcome is that Jeremy Corbyn…”
JO’B: “So he’s not racist and he’s not anti-Semitic but he said something that’s unacceptable because it is racist and anti-Semitic?”
SK: “The words he said were unacceptable and that paragraph is perceived by many to be racist… the word ‘Zionist’ has been hijacked by anti-Semites.”
Khan is absolutely right to call out those using the word “Zionist” to try to cover up their anti-Semitic views. Will Corbyn follow his example?
A British lawmaker who chairs the Labour Friends of Israel parliamentary group was defeated in a no-confidence vote Thursday by party members in her constituency after criticizing opposition leader Jeremy Corbyn over Labour’s anti-Semitism troubles.Iran Cheers On Momentum Purge of Pro-Jewish MP
Joan Ryan, a Labour MP from Enfield North, lost the vote by 94 to 92 votes, an outcome she blamed on “Stalinists, communists and assorted hard left.”
The motion does not carry any weight, but could trigger further efforts by pro-Corbyn Labour members to unseat her.
Despite the defeat, Ryan remained defiant after the vote and said it was “hardly [a] decisive victory.”
“Just to be clear I will not be resigning. I am Labour through and through and I will continue to stand up and fight for Labour values,” she wrote on her official Twitter account.
Labour Friends of Israel rallied to her defense, calling Ryan “one of the most decent, courageous and principled people in British politics” and saying “nothing about tonight’s vote changes that fact.”
Momentum’s purge of moderate Labour MPs has begun in earnest with two losing Momentum-backed votes of no confidence last night. Luton South MP Gavin Shuker suffered defeat two days after criticising Corbyn over the party’s anti-Semitism crisis on BBC Newsnight, while Labour Friends of Israel Chair Joan Ryan was narrowly defeated in Enfield North amid a flurry of Twitter abuse. Gloating Corbynistas piled in on the #WeAreEnfieldNorth hashtag, with one accusing her of “using her Jewishness as privilege”:Communists Violently Storm Council Anti-Semitism Debate, Politicians Flee in Fear
Incredibly, Corbyn’s old friends at Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster banned by Ofcom, were invited in to film the CLP meeting, jubilantly tweeting out news of Ryan’s defeat and joining in on the #WeAreEnfieldNorth hashtag:
So-called “anti-racist” campaigners have stormed a council debate on anti-Semitism, forcing politicians to flee the building, “frightened” and in tears.
The revolutionary communist Fight Racism Fight Imperialism group led the assault on Newcastle City Council as they discussed adopting the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of anti-Semitism.
Video published by Chronicle Live shows activists screaming “you should be ashamed!” and “racist!” as the councillors rush out of the debating chamber Wednesday afternoon.
The aggressive action began when the council’s Liberal Democrat opposition deputy leader, Nick Cott, introduced the IHRA definition and ended with one protestor being wrestled out.
Activists in the public gallery above shouted, unfurled Palestinian flags, abused councillors, and one man was dragged away by security after breaking into the main council chamber.
In his 2nd pro-#Corbyn cartoon in two days, @guardian's Steve Bell essentially characterises #Zionism as not just a racist movement, but one built around killing Arabs. pic.twitter.com/LHDYd2V3Wi
— UK Media Watch (@UKMediaWatch) September 7, 2018
Anti-Israeli protest rooted in hate
In late July, we at B’nai Brith Canada, the voice of the grassroots Jewish community in this country, noticed something deeply disturbing.BDS? Let's calm down
The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW), which is entrusted with the mandatory union dues of more than 50,000 hard-working Canadian men and women, had aligned itself with the Palestinian Postal Service Workers Union (PPSWU), which openly supports terrorism and the elimination of the State of Israel on its social media.
We did what concerned Canadians should do. We asked CUPW for answers. The union didn’t provide any, so on July 31, we went public with our revelation. Many members of the Jewish community — and even several CUPW members who contacted B’nai Brith confidentially — were outraged and wanted the union’s radical leadership to explain itself.
Why, they asked, are CUPW leaders wasting union resources and having meetings in the Middle East with their Palestinian counterparts when postal workers have been without a contract since December?
Fast forward by a month, and CUPW still hadn’t explained itself. Instead, it supported a small but raucous protest outside B’nai Brith offices, in a largely Jewish residential neighbourhood, with Stephen Ellis as an organizer.
The movement says its goal is to "launch broad boycotts, implement divestment initiatives, and to demand sanctions against Israel until Palestinian rights are recognized in full compliance with international law."IsraellyCool: Mocking Nike? He Just Did It!
The movement believes that only by dealing a serious cultural and economic blow on Israel will it change its policies toward the Palestinians.
It is a noisy and aggressive bunch and anti-Semitic at its core, it is driven by pure hatred and ignorance, but for all the noise it has been generating, its effect is hardly felt. Israel's economy is robust, Israeli startups are bought by international corporations all the time, and Israeli performers are well-respected worldwide.
So yes, there may be an occasional young protester who wraps himself with a Palestinian flag and shouts "Free Palestine" during Israeli events.
But after venting for a few minutes, he or she are whisked away by security and the event continues. I saw this first hand at the University of Maryland, during NBA games against Israeli teams and at venues where Israeli performers were on stage. These provocations always ended with a whimper.
Those who make this movement seem bigger than what it is are usually Israeli politicians and Jewish organizations, who see the movement as a useful tool to lash out against the Left or as a means of fundraising.
So Del Rey is not coming. Others may follow in her footsteps. This is not what will bring Israel down. Let's all just calm down.
This week, Nike showed just how #Woke they are by making an ad starring this guy named Colin Kapaernik who people say once actually played football (we’ve found no proof). Anyhoo, the Daily Freier is not about to let a mere Gazillion Dollar Sneaker Company Out-Woke us. So we’re ready to show just how #Woke we are with the Wokiest set of Woke Memes this side of Wokeachusetts. And what an amazing All-Star Woke Meme Team we assembled! The whole Gang is there! Jeremy Corbyn, Red Ken Livingstone, Linda Sarsour, Tamika Mallory, Julia Salazar, and of course the Man Himself: Roger Waters! So without further ado, we’re going to Just Do It.
More Demonization: Jewish Voice for Peace leading effort to ban DC police training in Israel
A Washington D.C. chapter of Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is spearheading a coalition of far-left groups who are calling on the D.C. Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) to end its participation in police exchanges and counter-terrorism training visits to Israel.NGO Monitor Presses Swedish Online Publication, Aid Agency to Remove ‘Defamatory’ Statements
The effort follows on a decision this past April by the Durham, North Carolina City Council to impose a total ban on police exchanges “with only one country in the world: the Jewish state of Israel.”
JVP’s DC-Metro chapter and its allies, who have coalesced to form a “silly new group”, are now engaged in an intense lobbying campaign in the D.C. area. There, they’re relying on similar strategies that proved successful in the run-up to the Durham City Council’s shameful vote last spring.
Basically, JVP is hoping it can duplicate in D.C. its recent “victory” in Durham for the undeniably antisemitic “Deadly Exchange” campaign.
As we’ve highlighted in several posts, “Deadly Exchange” is a campaign which, based solely on spurious accusations, singles out policing partnerships with Israel for prohibition:
A publication and an aid agency, both in Sweden, have come under fire for spreading antisemitic sentiments and imagery.NRK reveals: Norwegian foreign aid executive received support from Palestinian intelligence
In a letter filed on Monday with the Press Ombudsman of Sweden, the nongovernmental organization NGO Monitor accused the online magazine Omvärlden and the Swedish International Development Cooperation (SIDA) of “publishing virulently antisemitic imagery and publishing false and libelous information” about NGO Monitor.
The complaint denounces Omvärlden, which is owned by SIDA, of disseminating 16 articles last week that claim to debunk NGO Monitor’s “lies and half-truths,” which the latter labeled as “a defamatory statement.”
“Most alarming, the lead and background articles employ classic antisemitic motifs of spider-webs and conspiracy theories reminiscent of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” added NGO Monitor.
Examples of errors and false accusations, according to NGO Monitor, include, but are not limited to, Omvärlden implying that “NGO Monitor was somehow involved in death threats against a lawyer based in The Hague,” which the watchdog group labeled as “blatantly false,” in addition to calling it an “attempt to associate NGO Monitor with this and a separate assault against an Israeli NGO activist”; and an article falsely stating that NGO Monitor Founder and President Gerald Steinberg is a “former adviser to [Israeli] Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu.”
On 17 September Loai Deeb must appear in Stavanger District Court. The Norwegian-Palestinian is charged with having misappropriated and laundered NOK 10 million from his own human rights organisation, which is now bankrupt.BBC WS listeners get more unchallenged UNRWA narrative
The stakes are high for the former newspaper carrier with a fairy tale career path. In just a few years he built up a human rights organisation with global reach from his head office in Stavanger. At its height the Global Network for Rights and Development (GNRD) had 140 employees and offices in seven countries. From delivering newspapers in Jæren, the Palestinian refugee went on to earn millions in income and become institution president.
Despite accusations to the contrary, the Stavanger man has persistently claimed that the GNRD was neutral and impartial. But today NRK can reveal that in its early years the Norwegian organisation, which was dedicated to human rights and development, had close ties to Palestinian intelligence.
NRK has gained access to previously unpublished documents that show that Loai Deeb was furnished with a Palestinian diplomatic passport. Also, in an internal document, a Palestinian intelligence officer is registered as a board member of the GNRD. The organisation also received money from Palestinian National Authority officials.
The September 1st afternoon edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour‘ included an item nearly thirteen minutes long on the topic of the previous day’s US State Department announcement concerning its intention to cease contributions to UNRWA.An eleven minute BBC WS report on UNRWA funding – part one
Presenter Lyse Doucet introduced the item (from 30:06 here): [emphasis in italics in the original, emphasis in bold added]
Doucet: “The UN’s agency for Palestinian refugees – known by its acronym UNRWA – has lurched for many years from one financial crisis to the next. But now the agency supporting some 5 million Palestinians faces its greatest test. Palestinian officials as well as the UN are criticising a decision by its biggest donor the US to withdraw all funding. Israel welcomes the move saying UNRWA keeps Palestinian hopes alive of returning to their homes which now lie in Israel proper.”
Obviously uninformed listeners would not understand from that portrayal by Doucet that at most only a tiny proportion of those 5 million people could actually claim to have had “homes” over seventy years ago in what is now Israel.
Doucet first brought in the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell who noted that pupils in UNRWA schools had begun the school year, citing “526,000 pupils across the Middle East”, “711 schools” and “270,000 students” in the Gaza Strip.
Listeners then heard a reference to an aspect of the story rarely discussed by the BBC: that of UNRWA as an employer of Palestinians.
As has also been documented here, since the story concerning US donations to UNRWA broke in January, none of the BBC’s related reports have provided its audience with any in-depth examination of the agency’s purpose, its agenda, its record or its efficiency.An eleven minute BBC WS report on UNRWA funding – part two
BBC audiences have been told countless times that there are over 5 million Palestinian refugees – but not why their number has increased rather than fallen during the last 70 years or why in all that time they have not been integrated in host Arab countries.
BBC audiences have likewise been repeatedly informed that UNRWA provides education and health services to Palestinian refugees but they have not been told why people who live under the rule of fellow Palestinians in the Gaza Strip or the PA controlled areas do not get those services from the governments to which they pay taxes or why, 70 years on, there are still ‘refugee camps’ in those locations.
As we see above, neither Julian Marshall nor Yolande Knell made any attempt in this item to enhance their listeners’ understanding of this story beyond UNRWA’s talking points.
In part two of this post we will see whether or not Julian Marshall posed the Jordanian foreign minister any questions which would help enhance audience understanding of the fact that the majority of just over 2 million people registered as Palestinian refugees who live in Jordan hold Jordanian citizenship and yet still get services from the UN agency.
As we saw in part one of this post the August 30th afternoon edition of the BBC World Service radio programme ‘Newshour‘ led with a very long item described in the synopsis as follows:Three Israeli Universities Make List of Top-50 Entrepreneurial Schools in the World
“Jordan’s foreign minister has warned that cuts to the funding of the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, UNRWA, could be “extremely destabilising”. Ayman Safadi reacted to reports that the United States had decided to cut all funding it gives to UNRWA. The US had already announced a big reduction of contributions earlier this year.”
Following an introduction by presenter Julian Marshall and a report from the BBC Jerusalem bureau’s Yolande Knell, Marshall introduced his interviewee (from 04:13 here).
Marshall: “And the head of UNRWA has today been visiting Jordan – home to 2 million Palestinian refugees – where he’s been having talks with the Jordanian foreign minister Ayman Safadi and after that meeting we spoke to Mr Safadi. I asked him first what are his thoughts on UNRWA’s funding crisis.”
Readers may recall that back in May Yolande Knell also interviewed a Jordanian minister on the same topic. Then as now, no effort was made to explain to BBC audiences how that country’s decision to attack the nascent Jewish state in 1948 contributed to the creation of the Palestinian refugee situation.
Tel Aviv University, Technion-Israel Institute of Technology and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem have pride of place in the newly released 2018-2019 edition of PitchBook Universities, a compendium of the 50 universities producing the most VC-backed entrepreneurs between January 2016 and June 2018.Isi Leibler: 5779: A New Year of Hope
While the list for undergraduate programs was topped by Stanford University, Harvard, UC-Berkeley and Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Tel Aviv University ranked No. 8 with 640 graduates who founded 532 companies that raised $7.91 billion.
Technion came in at No. 14, with 468 graduates who founded 395 startups that raised $7.2 billion. Hebrew University was in 35th place with 304 graduates who founded 268 startups that raised $4.31 billion.
Tel Aviv University was the only non-US university in the top 10 for undergraduate programs and the only Israeli university on the companion list of top 25 MBA programs, ranked No. 13; 233 MBA graduates have started 221 companies that raised $3.78. Among these are Houzz; BlueVine, ironSource, Stratoscale and Gigya.
On the list of universities whose MBA graduates founded unicorn companies (valued at $1 billion or more), Tel Aviv University tied for ninth place with China International Business School, UCLA, Pepperdine, Northwestern and Washington.
We can take pride that, despite the multitude of slanders directed against us, Israel remains a vibrant democracy, an oasis in a region dominated by tyrants and murderers. Polls indicate that the Israeli people are among the happiest in the world.Jewish People Have ‘Flourished and Thrived as an Example of Humankind,’ Trump Declares in Rosh Hashanah Message
Israel is also undergoing a pulsating Hebrew cultural renaissance; more Jewish youngsters are engaging in religious studies and their cultural heritage than at any time in our history.
In addition, despite a critical media, today there is a greater consensus in Israel since the great divide over the disastrous Oslo Accords. Most Israelis wish to separate themselves from the Palestinians but feel that a Palestinian state under the current extremist leadership would be a terror state and act as a beachhead for the Iranians.
However, many hope that next year’s election will result in the creation of a much broader coalition so that small parties would no longer be able to extort the government.
With assimilation and intermarriage having reached unprecedented levels in the Diaspora, we call on more fellow Jews in the Diaspora to join us to ensure Jewish continuity, produce Jewish grandchildren and enjoy a full Jewish life in their own homeland.
Although we are an empowered people, we still face existential threats and must not become complacent. Situations may change overnight and we must continue strengthening our defenses to deter our enemies.
But one would find it difficult to argue that our extraordinary good fortune since the miraculous rebirth of our state and becoming the greatest success story of the century can be attributed exclusively to coincidences and our efforts.
We should thank the Almighty and pray that He ensures that the momentum is sustained. We should accept that what has happened is a miracle no less significant than the Exodus.
Shanah tovah!
US President Donald Trump spoke once again of his “personal connection” to Judaism on Thursday, as he held a telephone call with American Jewish leaders to mark Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year which begins on Sunday night.PM Netanyahu’s Funny Rosh Hashana Video
“I am the very proud father of a Jewish daughter, Ivanka, and my son-in-law, who I’m very proud of also — I will say that very loudly — Jared, and my several Jewish grandchildren, namely three beautiful Jewish grandchild that I love,” Trump declared.
Over a period of 20 minutes, the president spoke glowingly about Jewish contributions to the US, his efforts to broker a peace deal between Israel and the Palestinians, the recent deportation to Germany of Nazi collaborator Jakiw Palij, and his determination to combat antisemitism in America.
“Over the centuries, the Jewish people have suffered unthinkable persecution, yet you have not only endured, you have thrived and flourished as an example of humankind,” Trump said.
September 7, 2018 2:28 pm
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Education Dept. to Probe Whether Rutgers University Tolerates Hostile Environment for Jewish Students
The US Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) is reopening a 2011 case that accused Rutgers University in New Jersey...
On Israel, Trump emphasized that he had “kept my promise to recognize Jerusalem as the capital of Israel, as we have since moved our embassy to Tel Aviv to its rightful home in the holy city.”
