Wednesday, November 28, 2018
WOW: Money Raised After Pittsburgh Shooting Went To An Islamic Center With Terror Ties
In late October, Robert Gregory Bowers, a vicious anti-Semite, walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 people. Several people were injured, four of which were police officers. It was tragic—but of course, everyone blamed President Trump for reasons only morons understand. There were protests when he visited the site. Everyone was creating controversy when there needed to be none. But now, we have another controversy that could be brewing that isn’t related to Trump. It centers on anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. The anti-Israel activist seems to have been exposed for cheating the Tree of Life synagogue from money fundraised after the tragic shooting.CNN pundit: Palestine from the river to the sea
Update: Update: Islamic Center claims it will send the $155k check to Tree of Life synagogue. As for remaining $83,634, it will go to vague "projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity." So all that $ raised will simply vanish, it appears.
— Jordan Schachtel (@JordanSchachtel) November 27, 2018
Now, some money was given to Tree of Life, around $10,000, but that was part of an effort to repair Jewish cemetaries that were vandalized. Since the shooting, around $240,000 were raised, but it appears little, if any, has been sent to Tree of Life. Of that $240,000-figure, $155,000 went to the the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh.
Hen Mazzig of The Jerusalem Post initially said that $400,000 was raised for Tree of Life, but then offered a correction, noting that $160,000 was raised by Sarsour as part of an effort to fix Jewish cemeteries and $240,000 was raised after the shooting. The corrected tweet is in the thread above.
Tree of Life received just $10,000 from the cemetery campaign, but doesn't appear to have received a dime from the post-shooting fundraising effort, but now the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh says they will supposedly send its six-figure check ($155,000) to Tree of Life. According to Conservative Review’s Jordan Schactel, the other $83,634 will go “to vague ‘projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity. Oh, and as for the money raised for Jewish cemeteries, several never received the funds that were promised.
CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill addressed the opening meeting of the United Nations commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People Wednesday.Caroline Glick: While Airbnb Boycotts, Israel Builds Diplomatic Strength
"This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba," he said.
"The Israeli nation continues to restrict freedom," Hill stated. "There are more than 60 Israel laws that deny citizenship rights to Palestinians just because they are not Jewish."
He called the "Israeli criminal justice system" a "term I can only use with irony," as "Palestinians are routinely denied due process of law."
Hill further accused Israel of turning Gaza into "the world's largest open-air prison."
"As an American I’m embarrassed that my tax dollars contribute to this reality. No American president has taken a principled stand for Palestinian rights. I’m saddened though not surprised that Trump has further emboldened Israel’s behavior.
He called the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem as a "powerful provocation" and a"death knell" for the peace process.
Airbnb’s partial boycott of Israel last week came just as the Arab world, Africa, and Eastern Europe moved closer to the Jewish state. These two diametrically opposed developments – one negative and one positive — showed that a race is on between competing global movements to determine whether Israel will sink or swim in the international area.Canary Mission - answering leftist allegations
On the negative side, on November 19, the Silicon Valley-based tourism behemoth Airbnb announced that it is delisting Jewish-owned properties located in “Israeli settlements in the West Bank” from its website. Airbnb chose not to delist properties in the so-called “West Bank” owned by non-Jews.
Airbnb’s decision to adopt a policy that is openly discriminatory towards Jews was the result of years of lobbying and pressure from the UN Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration left in June. The UN Human Rights Council was joined in its campaign by the European Union (EU), by EU member states, and by U.S.-based foundations ideologically aligned with the hard left.
These forces, which share an aversion to nationalism, and ascribe to post-nationalist globalism, have combined since at least 2001 to achieve the goal of delegitimizing the existence of the Jewish state while legitimizing terrorism and war against Israel.
Airbnb’s move is a testament to the effectiveness of this campaign — as are the growing disenfranchisement and intimidation of pro-Israel students on college campuses; the boycotts of Israeli exports; and the mainstreaming of extremist politicians who refuse to accept the legitimacy of Jewish nationalism or Jewish self-determination.
In a series of recent exposes, prime funding sources of the anonymous Canary Mission, a controversial site that does pro-Israel people a service by listing thousands of anti-Semitic and disproportionately anti-Israel individuals, professors, and organizations, were revealed, inciting debate over the legitimacy of the organization. It was discovered that two of the benefactors of the organization are the Helen Diller Family Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, both of whom have terminated their funding for the time being, persuaded by dissidents of Canary Mission.
The criticism of the organization has arisen overwhelmingly from left liberal progressives, proponents of BDS and staunch opponents of Israel, with claims of ‘McCarthyism,’ as well as laments about the expansiveness of the operation (over 2000 names are currently listed) being voiced. Others claim that Canary Mission punishes mere ‘criticizers of Israel,’ not deniers of Israel per se.
Canary Mission, however, maintains the integrity of its research ethic and its commitment to facts when listing information on anyone. The guidelines are explicit concerning their methodology, with the criteria for making ‘the list,’ so-to-speak, being as follows:
An anti-Semite is defined per the definition of the United States State Department, supporting terrorist organizations, violating the safety of Jews or Zionists, demonizing Jews or Zionists, or promoting the BDS movement. There is nothing controversial about these standards, unless of course, advocacy of terrorism, hate crimes, and violence are now morally grey areas.
Each individual profile is assembled through meticulous research of public domains--Twitter, Facebook, university profiles, etc. No name is published without sufficient material to corroborate an allegation of anti-Zionist rhetoric or action. This is paramount to the validity of Canary Mission as any and all claims are wholly substantiated such that any attempt to dispute the facts is inherently futile.
Does Britain’s focus on the Kindertransport hide a guilty conscience?
This Saturday marks the 80th anniversary of the arrival of 206 Jewish children from Germany to Britain; these were the first of some 10,000 who would arrive over the next eight months, thanks to an effort that came to be known as the Kindertransport. Robert Philpot notes that, while the UK is right to be proud of this effort—without parallel in any other country—this year’s celebrations overlook London’s mixed record when it came to Jewish refugees. Most importantly, when the British government let the children into the country, it made a conscious decision to bar their parents, most of whom perished in the Holocaust:CNN Finds a Quarter of Europeans Are Anti-Semitic. But the Reality for Europe’s Jews Is Even Worse.
[T]he focus on the Kindertransport also hides a somewhat guilty national conscience, both about those who were not able to escape to Britain, and the fates—including internment and deportation—which befell some of those “lucky ones” who did, . . . some of [whom] were later designated “enemy aliens” [since they came from Austria and Germany, with which England was at war] and faced internment and deportation to Canada and Australia.
Britain adopted a highly restrictive policy toward migrants throughout the 1930s. No exceptions were made for refugees, meaning that by early 1938 there were only about 10,000 Jewish refugees in the country. . . . The introduction of the notorious White Paper of 1939, which capped Jewish migration to Mandatory Palestine at 20,000 per year, closed off another potential route of escape. “The world is divided into places where [Jews] cannot live and places where they may not enter,” lamented the future Israeli president Chaim Weizmann. . . .
Only after Kristallnacht—in the face of strong public support and with even newspapers which had previously been sympathetic toward the Nazis and hostile toward Jewish refugees rapidly changing their tune—did the numbers of refugees admitted to the UK begin to climb. Even then, however, it is important to remember that the Kindertransport was not a government initiative, but, as Tony Kushner of Southampton University has argued, “a voluntary scheme funded and implemented by the British public.” . . .
Adding insult to injury, the anti-Semites blamed the Jews for their own oppression: 18 percent of Europeans polled said that “anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the everyday behavior of Jewish people.” At the same time, 28 percent claimed that “most anti-Semitism in their countries was a response to the actions of the state of Israel,” a particularly laughable effort at victim-blaming, given that Israel was only founded in 1948, shortly after Europe’s genocide of its Jews in the Holocaust.Netanyahu: Denying Israel’s right to exist is the ‘ultimate’ anti-Semitism
Then again, 34 percent of Europeans polled told CNN that they knew “little or nothing” about the Holocaust, so their ignorance of virulent and widespread European anti-Semitism before Israel is perhaps less surprising.
These numbers are bad enough on their own. But they do not paint the whole picture, which is substantially worse for European Jews and Jewish life. To understand why, consider this analogy: Imagine you knew that 1 in 4 passengers on airplanes were profoundly prejudiced against people like you, and prone to verbal and physical harassment against your community. You’d probably stop flying on airplanes for the most part, and try to disguise yourself as much as possible when compelled to do so. For many European Jews, the airplane is the European continent, and this has been their everyday situation for some time. As a result, shocking numbers of European Jews conceal their Jewishness in public, and many have left Europe entirely.
And we’ve known about this for some time.
In 2013, the European Union’s Agency for Fundamental Rights conducted its own in-depth survey of European anti-Semitism. Crucially, they did not simply poll non-Jews, but asked Jews about their own experiences of anti-Semitism. The findings were disturbing. Nearly 40 percent of European Jews said they feared to openly identify as Jewish “all the time” or “frequently,” including 60 percent of Swedish Jews, 51 percent of French Jews, and 45 percent of Belgian Jews. A new survey released yesterday found that 43 percent of Dutch Jews similarly hide their Jewish identity. In her analysis of CNN’s findings, the channel’s chief international correspondent Clarissa Ward stumbled on more evidence of this phenomenon, writing, “A happy life is a hidden life, we were told again and again by French Jews who refused to appear on camera.”
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that denial of Israel’s right to exist is the “ultimate” form of anti-Semitism.Why is the story of the Jewish refugees so little known?
Asked in an interview with the CNN to react to a poll from the network indicating over 20 percent of Europeans believe Jews have “too much influence” across the world, Netanyahu accused the extreme left and radical Islam of perpetuating the world’s oldest hatred, while refraining from criticizing right-wing leaders accused of using anti-Semitic tropes.
“I’m concerned because I think anti-Semitism is an ancient disease that rears its ugly head. It first attacks the Jews, but it never stops with them. It then sweeps entire societies,” he said.
Despite this concern, Netanyahu commended “most of the European countries’ governments” for working to combat anti-Semitism, specifically naming German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Emmanuel Macron, British Prime Minister Theresa May, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban and Austrian Chancellor Sebastian Kurz.
Netanyahu focused much of his criticism of European anti-Semitism from what he dubbed “new anti-Semitism,” which he differentiated from the “old anti-Semitism in Europe that came from the extreme right.”
“There’s also new anti-Semitism that comes from the extreme left and also the radical Islamic pockets in Europe that spew forth these slanders and lies about Israel, the only democracy in this entire region, the only one that has the courts, human rights, rights for all religions, gays, everything, I mean, the whole thing is ridiculous,” he said.
Seventy years ago, the newly-established State of Israel opened the floodgates to hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees. Many were Holocaust survivors from the displaced persons camps or remnant communities of Eastern Europe, but the biggest contingent seeking refuge in Israel came from Arab and Muslim countries.Jews expelled from Arab states call on UN to recognize their plight
The official day to remember the exodus of Jewish refugees from Arab countries and Iran is November 30, but Jewish institutions and organizations around the world, in association with Israeli embassies, are holding commemorative conferences, film screenings and lectures throughout November and into December.
More Jews (850,000) fled Arab countries than Palestinian refugees (approximately 711,000), and their exodus was one of the largest movements of non-Muslims from the region until the mass flight of Iraqi Christians. Although they were non-combatants, Jews had to run for their lives from persecution, arrests on false charges, mob violence and executions. Their property was seized and they were left destitute. The Arab and Muslim world has neither recognized, nor compensated them.
Yet the issue and its implications for peace has barely penetrated the Israel-Arab debate within Jewish communities, let alone trickled into mainstream consciousness.
The question of Arab and Islamist anti-Jewish hatred goes to the heart of the conflict with Israel. So why have Jewish refugees been so neglected?
Israel treated the refugees as Zionists returning to their homeland. Mizrahi Jews were encouraged not to look back at the past, but to build new lives for themselves in Israel and the West.
Seventy years after the exodus and expulsion of some 850,000 Jews from Arab states and Iran, the heads of communities of Jews from Arab countries are demanding the United Nations officially recognize the suffering they were forced to endure.Raymond Ibrahim: The dire consequences of rewriting Western-Muslim history
In a letter to U.N. Secretary General Antonio Guterres, community leaders, among them Dr. Shimon Ohayon, director of Bar-Ilan University's Dahan Center and chairman of the Alliance of Moroccan Immigrants wrote, "While the U.N. organizes events to mark the departure of 450,000 Palestinians from Israel upon the establishment of the state, following a war imposed on Israel, we do not see recognition of the expulsion of Jews from Arab countries."
They said, "We believe the U.N. strives for justice for all refugees around the world, including Jewish refugees who were expelled from Arab lands. We therefore seek to establish a memorial day for the Jews' expulsion from Arab lands."
From Islam's first contact with Western civilization and for more than a millennium thereafter, Muslims behaved not unlike the Islamic State and on the same conviction: that Islam commands war on - and the enslavement or slaughter of - non-Muslims.Ben-Dror Yemini: The anti-Semitic propaganda worked on Airbnb
During this perennial jihad that began in the seventh century, almost 3/4 of Christendom's original territory was permanently swallowed up by Islam. European nations and territories were attacked and/or came under Muslim occupation (sometimes for centuries). An Islamic army of 200,000 martyrdom-seeking jihadis came as late as 1683 to conquer Vienna, but failed.
Between the 15th and 18th centuries alone, approximately five million Europeans were abducted and enslaved in the name of jihad. Muslim slavers of the Barbary States of North Africa wreaked havoc all along the coasts of Europe; America's first war was against these Islamic slavers.
In short, for well over a millennium - punctuated by a Crusader rebuttal - Islam posed an existential threat to Western civilization. Yet today, the predominant historic narrative is that Muslims are the historic victims of intolerant Western Christians.
But all this is history, it might be argued. Why not let it be and move on, and begin a new chapter of mutual tolerance and respect?
This would be a somewhat plausible position if not for the fact that, all around the globe, many Muslims are still exhibiting the same imperial impulse and intolerant supremacism of their forbears.
In classrooms all across the Islamic world, Muslim children are taught to glorify the jihadi conquests of yore - while despising infidels.
CNN's anti-Semitism survey was published following Airbnb's decision to remove Jewish settlement listings in the West Bank. The immediate response was anti-Semitism. Left-wing organizations around the globe, especially the radical left, rejoiced over Airbnb's decision, which they see as a personal victory.Israeli Minister Asking 5 US Governors to Sanction Airbnb
It is true that the impact on Israel's economy is negligible, but this is a symbolic victory: when a famous singer cancels a concert in Israel, the impact on the Israeli economy is negligible, but the propaganda victory is certainly significant.
The BDS movement is an anti-Semitic movement for all intents and purposes, not because it promotes boycotts or sanctions against Israel. It is anti-Semitic because its leaders reject Israel's very right to exist, as well as the Jewish people's right to self-determination
The BDS movement is anti-Semitic because it uses the anti-Semitic methods of the past—the demonization of Israel. The BDS movement is anti-Semitic, even if they have Jewish members, since history shows us that anti-Jewish organizations always used Jewish members to advance their agendas.
Many of the positions highlighted by CNN's anti-Semitism survey are the result of worldwide anti-Israel propaganda, which presents IDF soldiers as criminals.
However, it should be noted that not every boycott on settlement-made products is anti-Semitic, just as opposing the Jewish settlement enterprise doesn't make one an anti-Semite.
I, too, oppose the expansion of Jewish settlements, at least outside the major settlement blocs in the West Bank. As far as I know, I am not anti-Semitic. On the contrary, I am a clear and active supporter of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish and democratic state.
So the question remains. Is Airbnb's move anti-Semitic? To answer this question, we must turn to the definition of anti-Semitism, which has been adopted by many countries and organizations around the world, including the US State Department, the British Labour Party (after a heated debate, and despite the opposition of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn), and by a European Parliament committee.
An action is defined as anti-Semitic when Israel receives a different treatment than other countries.
Minister of Strategic Affairs Gilad Erdan on Tuesday addressed US state governors, asking them to impose economic sanctions on the rental giant Airbnb and to speak against it publicly.Facebook removes viral video protesting Airbnb boycott
Following the company’s announcement last week that it intends to remove from its site the listings of some 200 housing units in Judea and Samaria, an inter-ministerial team was convened to examine possible action against Airbnb. The team was established by the Ministry of Strategic Affairs in cooperation with the Ministries of Tourism, Foreign Affairs, Justice and Economics, as well as the Tax Authority. One of the prescribed steps was sending letters to US state governors, in which Minister Erdan would ask for their support against the Airbnb move.
The letters were sent to New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, California Gov. Jerry Brown, Illinois Governor Bruce Rowner, Missouri Governor Mike Parson, outgoing Florida Governor Rick Scott and Florida Governor-elect Ron DeSantis.
“As the minister in charge of the campaign against the BDS, I would like to draw your attention to Airbnb’s announcement that it will remove Israeli businesses located in Judea and Samaria from its website,” Erdan wrote the governors. “In this way, the company adopts the anti-Semitic practices and narratives of the BDS movement. The BDS is not a movement that is interested in promoting peace or a better future for the Palestinians, but rather in demonizing and discriminating against the State of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East and the strongest US ally in the region.”
A song posted on Facebook by two British-Israeli brothers in protest against home-rental company Airbnb's contentious decision to remove listings in Israeli settlements in Judea and Samaria was itself removed by the social media platform after it began to go viral.Not authorised
Brothers Sruli and Mendy Portnoy, of the musical duo Portnoy, found a creative way to protest Airbnb's decision and wrote a protest song which they filmed themselves performing and posted on Facebook.
The clip quickly notched up more than 70,000 views before being removed by the social media giant, which offered no explanation for the move.
In response, the Portnoys decided to record and film themselves performing a full-length version of the song, which they again posted on Facebook. This time, as well as taking Airbnb to task, they also took a jab at Facebook.
"It's unfortunate that a well-known platform like Airbnb succumbed to BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions movement] bullies who are determined to spread anti-Semitism," they said. "We don't like getting involved in politics, but when the line between politics and blatant racism becomes so gray, we feel obligated to make our voices heard against what we consider to be blatant discrimination."
Like its predecessor, the new video went viral as well, quickly winning over 40,00 views. The second video was still available for viewing on Wednesday morning.
Your ad was not approved because your Page has not been authorised to run ads related to politics and issues of national importance!IsraellyCool: “Concentration Camp” Gaza Listings on Airbnb
I guess 5MFI won’t be advertising in Facebook any more.
Boost your postAnyone who ever administers a page in Facebook has seen this message about boosting your latest post. On occasion Five Minutes for Israel has taken advantage of the offer when I thought a specific post was important enough or universal enough for a little extra effort (and cash). Air BDS and airbnb delete or deactivate fell into this category.
I guess not any more. This blog can’t advertise comment on politics or issues of national importance? Are we authorised to sell sunglasses?
So how does one get authorised?
Following through on their suggestion, I clicked on a link and was presented with what I thought was an odd question. Where do I live?
‘Israel’
Oh joy, I am authorised to target readers in Israel and only Israel. As Five Minutes for Israel only appears in English, advertising is not likely to be all that effective in Israel.
It seems that only US, UK and Brazilian advertisers can authorise their pages for political and issues of national importance and then presumably only target residents of those countries.
With Airbnb’s disgraceful show of antisemitism in the news, I thought I would take a look at some of the listings on the site from the palestinian-controlled areas. Naturally, I thought I’d start with Gaza, described by so many palestinians and their supporters as an “open air prison/concentration camp.”CAIR Official Mocks Muslims in U.S. Military After Praising Terrorists
At the time of this post, there were a number of listings from Gaza – none of which resembled a prison cell or concentration camp barracks. Like…
Chatet Berlin, with its swimming pool and games area
Of course, this does not surprise me. But I thought I’d get some use out of Airbnb by using them to point out the lies being peddled about Gaza – because I sure as hell won’t be using them for anything else.
Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) official Zahra Billoo continues to judge Muslims who do not fall in line with her radical agenda.BRUTAL: Sen. Lindsey Graham Scorches Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez For Comparing Refugee Caravan To Jews Fleeing Holocaust
Last week, Military.com reported that the U.S. Air Force formally granted Staff Sgt. Abdul Rahman Gaitan a religious waiver to don a beard in service. Gaitan is the first Muslim airman to receive such an accommodation.
In response, Billoo mocked Muslims serving in the U.S. military, sarcastically tweeting: "Great news, MashaAllah [according to God's will]. You can now rock your Sunnah beard while bombing your Muslim brothers and sisters."
Billoo, an attorney, leads CAIR's San Francisco-Bay area chapter.
Instead of praising the U.S. military for overturning long standing practices to accommodate religious practices, Billoo basically labeled American Muslims in the military as traitors for participating in combat operations targeting terrorists in predominately Muslim-majority countries.
This sentiment is not surprising given Billoo's history of defending terrorists. On Saturday, at an American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) conference, Billoo glorified Palestinian "martyrs' families" whose relatives participated in a terrorist attack against Israelis – or as Billoo called it: "an act of resistance."
Sen. Lindsey Graham has a way with words. And when the South Carolina Republican is looking to strike, he rarely misses his target.
Graham on Monday was incensed about a post on Twitter from incoming Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a Socialist Democrat from New York. On Sunday, the 29-year-old former bartender compared caravan members at the U.S.-Mexico border — many of whom stormed the border and had to be repelled by tear gas — with Jews during the Holocaust.
"Asking to be considered a refugee & applying for status isn’t a crime. It wasn’t for Jewish families fleeing Germany. It wasn’t for targeted families fleeing Rwanda. It wasn’t for communities fleeing war-torn Syria. And it isn’t for those fleeing violence in Central America," Ocasio-Cortez wrote in her post.
Graham decided to teach the young congresswoman — who apparently doesn't know what the three branches of government are, despite a degree from Boston University in economics and international relations — a thing or two.
"I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC. Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana," Graham wrote on Twitter.
I recommend she take a tour of the Holocaust Museum in DC.
— Lindsey Graham (@LindseyGrahamSC) November 26, 2018
Might help her better understand the differences between the Holocaust and the caravan in Tijuana. https://t.co/05vCexiClE
IsraellyCool: “Jihad” Jenny Tonge Claims Nurse Terrorist Was Innocent
This morning I posted about Ramzi Abu Yabes, the terrorist nurse who tried to murder some IDF soldiers by ramming his car into them. Alas, he went from pushing the pedal to pushing up daisies…thankfully.State Funds Nonprofit That Provided ‘Material Support’ to Iran, Hamas
There is no disputing what he tried to do – it was caught on camera and even the palestinian propaganda outlets admit to it.
Someone who apparently didn’t get the memo is Jew-hater “Jihad” Jenny Tonge
Remember, this is a Baroness and member of England’s House of Lords.
Unfortunately, given what we see coming out of the UK these days, Tonge and her vile views seem to represent the norm rather than the exception (hat tip: Simon).
The State Department's bureau of political-military affairs continues to direct tens of millions of dollars to a nonprofit that paid a $2 million-dollar fine and admitted to providing "material support" to Iran, Hamas, and other groups the U.S. considers terrorists or terrorist-linked.Anti-Israelism, or Worse, at Pitzer College
The lucrative contracts for IED and other bomb removal continued despite the Trump administration's tougher policies on Iran and pledge to undertake a maximum diplomatic and financial pressure campaign against Iran and terrorist groups linked to it.
The Norwegian People's Aid, or NPA, an Oslo-based humanitarian non-profit strongly affiliated with labor unions, has at least a six-year history of working for the U.S. Agency for International Development and more recently for the State Department for demining and other bomb-removal efforts around the world.
In April, NPA settled a civil suit with the Justice Department, agreeing to pay a fine of $2 million for failing to disclose its work in Iran and involving other U.S.-banned entities in a grant application for USAID work in Sudan.
The faculty of Pitzer College, a small elite California school, has turned a critical eye toward the college’s study abroad programs. That makes sense. After all, they’ve got one in China where, according to the State Department, the government restricts “political and social discourse at colleges, universities, and research institutes.” Academic subjects “deemed politically sensitive,” such as civil rights, are “off limits.” I mean, Chinese President Xi Jinping wants to turn the academy into a “stronghold that adheres to party leadership.” That doesn’t sound very Pitzer at all!Pitzer College Condemned Over Faculty’s Vote to End Study Abroad Program in Israel
College campuses are sensitive to anti-Muslim prejudice. It’s no surprise, then, that Pitzer’s faculty might want to reexamine the school’s relationship with a country that, according to Sigal Samuel of The Atlantic, keeps an estimated one million Muslims in internment camps. In the camps, they are compelled to renounce Islam and “recite Communist Party propaganda songs for hours each day.”
It also makes sense that they’d want to get out in front of the situation in Brazil. There, campuses were recently “stormed by military police” and staff were “arrested for their political views in the wake of the presidential election.” Pitzer has a study abroad program there, too.
In Rwanda, according to Freedom House, scholars and students can be suspended for “divisionism.” Freedom House rates Rwanda “not free.” Among many other conditions, “space for free private discussion is limited in part by indications that the government monitors personal communications. Social media are widely believed to be monitored, and the law allows for government hacking of telecommunications networks.” That doesn’t sound very Pitzer either! But Pitzer has a study abroad program there.
So what study abroad program has so riled Pitzer’s faculty? The one at the University of Haifa in Israel.
In response to the Pitzer faculty’s motion, University of Haifa President Ron Robin issued a statement saying, “The University of Haifa is highly disappointed that Pitzer College’s faculty has voted to suspend the school’s study abroad relationship with the University of Haifa. While we support the values of freedom of speech and academic freedom, we oppose the BDS movement against Israel as well as boycotts targeting any individual or institution on the basis of nationality, ethnicity, religion, race, gender, or other discriminatory factor.”Israeli academics dropped from conference in South Africa due to BDS pressure
“As Pitzer’s Student Senate articulated in a powerful resolution,” he added, “the faculty’s decision is ‘a flagrant advancement of a political agenda at the expense of students who seek opportunities in Middle East/North African Studies, Arabic, Hebrew, Christianity, Judaism, Islam, and the intercultural relations of Israeli and Palestinian ethnicities.'”
“Indeed, Israel’s commitment to an open and inclusive society in which multiculturalism and interfaith tolerance thrive is no more evident than on the University of Haifa campus, where an approximately 25-percent-Arab student body exceeds the 20-percent-Arab population of the country as a whole,” the statement said.
Robin also slammed the Pitzer faculty for treating Israel unfairly, saying, “Importantly, the Student Senate also noted that Pitzer College subjected its relationship with University of Haifa to a double standard vis-à-vis its review process for other study abroad programs. We invite all who have any questions about University of Haifa to come visit the University themselves and draw their own conclusions about our academic community.”
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin — director of the campus antisemitism monitoring group AMCHA Initiative — also condemned the faculty motion, saying it was part of a larger campaign against the Jewish state.
“For years the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel — which coordinates the academic boycott of Israel as part of the larger BDS movement — has implied its target is only Israeli universities and scholars,” she said. “Faculty who implement PACBI’s boycott are directly harming and curtailing the rights of the students and faculty on their own campuses.”
Rossman-Benjamin called on Pitzer University President Melvin L. Oliver to “act immediately to address this egregious faculty behavior that subverts the educational opportunities and violates the academic freedom of his students.”
Israeli academics have been dropped from a conference at a South African university following pressure from organizations that support boycotting Israel.IsraellyCool: Now I’ve Been Accused of Trafficking in Organs
Tuesday’s decision by the organizing committee of the “Recognition, Reparation, Reconciliation” event set to be held next week at Stellenbosch University came after it received a letter last week from a number of groups that back the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
“Given our own settler colonial and apartheid past, our freedom struggle and the legacy of inequality, violence, racism and trauma we live with today, we find the false symmetry between an aggressor state and the popular resistance movement to be egregious. We cannot abide by a move which effectively ‘normalizes’ Israeli apartheid,” the groups wrote in the letter.
They also objected to the “seeming absence of authentic Palestinian representation” and said Mohammed Dajani, who is set to take part in the conference, is “promoted by the pro-Israeli lobby to posit a so-called ‘moderate’ Palestinian line.”
The harassment and defamation campaign continues, with another Jew hater posting publicly an outright lie about me:National Geographic Corrects on History of Disputed Territories
I only import guitars sorry (just kidding!)
But on a serious note, I post this here for a number of reasons.
One, to put this on record in case these evil specimens attempt to harm me or my family. I want all those inciting to face the full wrath of the law if anything were to happen (G-d forbid).
Two, to put it on record that this is an outright libel. Any defamation lawyers out there who read Israellycool are invited to contact me so I can go after these shameless liars. Malicious intent is a given (Unfortunately, Shurat HaDin have proven themselves to be totally disinterested and useless).
Three, to shine a light on the tactics of those who are threatened by facts and logic. They do not try to rebut anything I write. They give up and immediately try to destroy me with personal attacks and lies. Because everything I post is backed up. Even when I expose Jew haters, I use their own posts to prove it.
Remember, if you are on the same side as such people, you are clearly on the wrong side.
CAMERA’s Israel office yesterday prompted correction of a National Geographic article on the preservation of biblical archeological texts which contained an ahistorical reference to disputed West Bank land. As first noted yesterday on the Elder of Ziyon blog, an article in December print edition of National Geographic erroneously reported that the disputed territories had at one point prior to the Oslo Accords been under Palestinian control (“The search for sacred texts”):Man accused in anti-Semitic rampage could dodge jail time
In 1993, after signing the Oslo Accords – which provided a framework for returning disputed territories to Palestinian control – the Israeli government launched Operation Scroll, an urgent survey of all the archaeological sites the country potentially stood to lose.
At no point in history prior to the Oslo Accords did Palestinians control the West Bank or any other land, and therefore it is inaccurate to refer to their “return” to Palestinian control. The disputed West Bank was under Ottoman control until 1917, at which point it fell under British control as part of the Mandate. In 1948, when the British withdrew, and Israel’s War of Independence ensued, the West Bank fell under Jordanian control. The Jordanians ruled the territory until the Six Day War, at which point, Israel gained control of the West Bank. The first Palestinian government came into existence only with the signing of the Oslo Accords.
CAMERA relayed this information yesterday to National Geographic editors, who thanked CAMERA and promptly published an online correction. It states:
December 2018
The Bible Hunters, page 47: The 1993 Oslo accords provided a framework for transferring disputed territories to Palestinian control; they were not returned to Palestinian control.
The man accused of going on an anti-Semitic rampage at a Bronx nursing home could dodge jail time by instead going to rehab under a plea deal struck on Tuesday.Anti-Semitic vandalism painted outside Jewish homes in Seattle
Alen Califano is accused of barging into a Jewish nursing home in December 2017 terrorizing residents and even repeatedly bashing an 84-year-old man on the head with a fire extinguisher while shouting, “I’m going to kill you, you mother f—ng Jew!”
At a Bronx court appearance Tuesday, Judge Nicholas Iacovetta said he wants Califano, who has alcohol and substance abuse problems, to go to an inpatient rehabilitation facility instead of serving jail time.
“Mr. Califano meets the diagnostic criteria … and treatment is appropriate,” Iacovetta said, adding, “An institutional incarceration in a correctional facility is not necessarily at this time.”
Prosecutors and a defense attorney for Califano consented to the judge’s proposal.
Califano is due back on Jan. 7 when he is expected to enter his guilty plea. Until then he needs to continue to go to an outpatient program and must stay out of trouble.
Anti-Semitic vandalism was discovered outside the homes of Jewish residents of West Seattle.Dutch rail says it will compensate for transporting Jews to Nazi death camps
The red spray-painted words were discovered on Monday. Residents believe it was painted there overnight, the West Seattle Blog reported.
The word “JEW” was spray painted on a garage and “F*** JEW THIEVE” on the pavement.
The residents of the affected homes told the blog that they are Jewish, but said that they have not had any problems with neighbors or received any threats.
The Seattle Police Department told the blog that they are investigating the incident.
The Dutch national railways company will for the first time pay individual compensation to relatives of Jews deported to German death camps during World War II, the country’s rail provider announced Tuesday.Michigan professor unearths inmates' music from Auschwitz
The announcement comes after talks between National Rail (NS) top director Roger van Boxtel and former Ajax football club physiotherapist Salo Muller, who lost both his parents during the war.
Muller has been fighting since mid-2017 for individual compensation from the NS, who transported his parents by train from Amsterdam to the notorious Westerbork transit camp in northeast Netherlands. From there they were sent to their deaths at the Auschwitz extermination camp in Poland.
“We have decided together to… appoint a commission,” the NS said in a statement.
“This commission is tasked to look at how the NS, for moral reasons can pay individual compensation,” it said.
As with many other Dutch companies, the NS continued in the service of Nazi occupiers after Germany overran the lowlands country in May 1940.
In 2016, Patricia Hall went to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Museum hoping to learn more about the music performed by prisoners in World War II death camps.How an American Moses helped lead Romania’s Jews to the Promised Land
The University of Michigan music theory professor heard there were manuscripts, but she was "completely thrown" by what she found in the card catalogs: unexpectedly upbeat and popular songs titles that translated to "The Most Beautiful Time of Life" and "Sing a Song When You're Sad," among others. More detective work during subsequent trips to the Polish museum over the next two years led her to several handwritten manuscripts arranged and performed by the prisoners, and ultimately, the first performance of one of those manuscripts since the war.
"I've used the expression, 'giving life,' to this manuscript that's been sitting somewhere for 75 years," Hall told The Associated Press on Monday. "Researching one of these manuscripts is just the beginning – you want people to be able to hear what these pieces sound like.
"I think one of the messages I've taken from this is the fact that even in a horrendous situation like a concentration camp, that these men were able to produce this beautiful music," she said.
Sensing the historical importance of resurrecting music for modern audiences, Hall enlisted the aid of university professor Oriol Sans, director of the Contemporary Directions Ensemble, and graduate student Josh Devries, who transcribed the parts into music notation software to make it easier to read and play.
With a few obvious exceptions, there was a hardly a worse place to be a Jew in the 20th century than Romania. During the Holocaust, about half of the region’s approximately 300,000 Jews were exterminated. In the following four decades of Communist rule, the community faced severe restrictions, including a strict limit on the number of Jews allowed to emigrate to Israel.South Korea to buy Israeli early warning radar to deter North despite thaw
But by the end of the century, Romania began shedding its history of economic stagnation and political repression, and began instituting democratic reforms. Today, it is part of NATO, boasts EU membership, and has a vibrant civil society, a relatively free press, and an independent judiciary, though significant challenges remain.
Now, a new book by Alfred Moses — an 89-year-old American Jewish attorney whose work with Romanian Jews in the 1970s and ’80s earned him the ambassadorship to Bucharest under president Bill Clinton — recounts Romania’s journey from a communist dictatorship to a Western-style democracy.
“Bucharest Diary: Romania’s Journey from Darkness to Light” is an essential read for anyone interested in the region’s general and Jewish history. It’s by a modern-day Moses — a man who was more responsible for letting his people go to Israel than any other figure.
Moses first traveled to Bucharest in 1976 as part of an American Jewish Committee delegation. Romania at the time was under the iron rule of communist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.
“On the trip, I was approached by a couple of young men who asked if I was American, and if I was Jewish,” Moses told The Times of Israel in a recent interview. “I said ‘Yes,’ and then they began pouring out stories about how everything is blamed on the Jews, and how terrible life was for Romanian Jews. For the next 13 years, I got the Jews out of Romania.”
South Korea plans to buy two Israeli early warning radar systems, it said on Tuesday, as it reinforces air defenses against North Korea despite fast-improving relations.Foreigners made 77% of investments in Israeli tech firms in past two years
The decision to adopt the two Green Pine Block C radar systems, built by ELTA Systems, a subsidiary of state-owned Israel Aerospace Industries, was made at a defense acquisition committee, Seoul's arms procurement agency, DAPA, said.
DAPA did not specify the value of the order, but an official at the defense ministry put it at 330 billion won ($292 million), saying the systems would be deployed in the early 2020s.
The project is intended to boost South Korea's capabilities to "detect and track ballistic missiles from a long distance at an early stage," DAPA said in a statement. It did not mention North Korea.
But South Korea's defense ministry said last December it would buy additional early warning radars after North Korea successfully tested an intercontinental ballistic missile and declared completion of the "state nuclear force" a month earlier.
Reclusive North Korea and the rich, democratic South are technically still at war because their 1950-53 conflict ended in a truce, not a peace treaty. (h/t Zvi)
Foreign investors have piled investments into Israeli high-tech firms, injecting some 77 percent of the total amount of money raised by Israeli startups in the past two years, the largest share since 2013, a new report shows.Israeli tourism booming in Poland despite Holocaust rhetoric
US investors are the dominant players in the local market, capturing a massive 35% of capital raised by Israeli companies, according to a November 2018 report by IVC Research Center, which tracks the industry. Chinese, British, Japanese and German investors accounted for around 3% of investments each.
Some 368 foreign multinational corporations (MNCs) are active today in Israel, with most of them starting their operations locally after acquiring a startup, leading to a growth of their activity in subsequent years.
The presence of large multinationals in Israel “is a major foundation stone” of the local industry, the report said, as they have become “knowledge hubs” that have helped inspire many new Israeli firms. Notable are the semiconductor sector, widely influenced by the presence of Intel — and the networking systems sector, influenced by companies like Cisco.
Among the MNCs that are operating in Israel are Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant, a relatively newcomer onto the scene; Google, Bosch, AOL, Qualcomm, Facebook, Merck, IBM, Sony.
In the first three-quarters of the year, five new R&D MNC centers were set up, after 12 started operating in 2017.
Shopping was the last thing on Sarah Hirsch’s mind this summer when she boarded a flight from Tel Aviv to this capital city.Rabbis Say Prayers After 30-Day Period Mourning 11 Lost Jewish Lives In Pittsburgh
It started out as a Holocaust pilgrimage. Hirsch, 67, flew to Warsaw in August with her husband, Naftali, and a friend to see where her older brother was murdered at the age of 3, along with three of her grandparents and all of her uncles and cousins.
“I told myself I would do nothing but study and mourn,” Hirsch, who was born shortly after World War II in what today is Romania, told JTA after touring the Auschwitz death camp. “It would be an in-and-out,” she said of her and her husband’s first visit to Poland.
Hirsch, a retired lawyer, also was antagonized after Poland passed a law early this year outlawing rhetoric that blames the nation for any Nazi atrocities during the Holocaust. She fears it will whitewash some Poles’ crimes amid the genocide — as do many other critics of that legislation, which triggered a diplomatic crisis between Israel and Poland.
But like a growing number of Israeli tourists who have discovered Poland’s charms, Hirsch said her experiences on the ground softened her attitude.
“It developed into giving myself the opportunity to enjoy also the good things,” including shopping, she said. “I saw a young generation here that had no part in the Holocaust trying to build a normal, democratic country with many, many beautiful things despite its singularly tragic history.” (h/t Zvi)
Thirty days after the deadliest attack in American Jewish history, the Rabbinical Assembly—the worldwide association of Conservative rabbis—distributed to its members pieces of writing by two of its leaders who survived the tragedy: Tree of Life Synagogue Rabbi Jeffrey Myers and New Light Congregation Rabbi Jonathan Perlman.
“The horrific shooting of American Jews being shot while at prayer on Shabbat morning shocked the world,” RA CEO Julie Schoenfeld told JNS. “While many might be inclined to treat violent or hateful speech as less consequential than physical violence, Judaism has always recognized the imminent danger that hate-filled language poses to innocent people and to the community as a whole.”
“The 11 innocent victims of the Tree of Life shooting and the countless people who were traumatized by it remind us of the rectitude of Jewish tradition’s admonitions against hateful speech,” she continued. “In the aftermath of this heinous act, however, countless people of good will from every faith, culture, background and nationality came forward to care and to help.”
“Especially here in the United States, Jewish communities were supported and strengthened by the caring of our neighbors, and also by the kindness of strangers,” added Schoenfeld. “We also saw clear demonstration of the strength, openness and caring of American society, and were reminded once again of our duty to strengthen it.”
In prepared thoughts, Myers wrote: “Shloshim marks the end of a 30-day period of mourning. Our self-imposed restrictions are eased. But what of the emotional restrictions: the nightmares, fear, insomnia and trauma?”
“Who ends those? Where do we turn when our faith is shaken to its core,” continued Myers. “In times of tribulation, we have always turned to the Psalms: ‘I turn my eyes to the heavens; from where shall my help come? My help comes from God, Maker of heaven and earth.’ ”
