Niall Collins is an Irish TD (Member of Parliament) who is the foreign affairs spokesperson with the main opposition party Fianna Fáil and one of the forces behind the "Occupied Territories Bill" banning goods and services from Israeli "settlements" to the point that tourists who buy souvenirs in Jewish-owned shops in Jerusalem could be fined up to €250,000 and subject to up to five years’ imprisonment.
Here is is interviewed on a show about how pro-Palestinian voices are supposedly silenced (not quite sure how this show wasn't affected by this insidious plot). During the interview, while answering a question on this supposed suppression of pro-Palestinian voices, he says he says that the issue cannot solely be blamed on Trump, but also that pesky huge Jewish lobby.
I wouldn't entirely blame the Trump administration either in terms of when we're apportioning blame to the United States, because right across right across corporate America and right across America I think at every level there's a huge Jewish lobby who who have helped to create the the problem that we're now discussing.
Scratch a "pro-Palestinian" voice and you find antisemitism.
The host actually cuts Collins off to go back to his Jewish guest Neve Gordon to stop Collins from embarrassing himself.
(h/t Tomer Ilan)
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The Arab world's discrimination against Palestinians continues.
On July 10, Lebanese Labor Minister Kamil Abu Sulaiman launched a campaign to combat "illegal foreign workers" in different parts of Lebanon, including the closure of shops that employ foreign workers illegally and the seizing of companies employing foreign workers without work permits, in order to give priority to local Lebanese workers.
It is meant to be a response to the influx of Syrian refugees into Lebanon who need work, but it disproportionately affects the Palestinians who have lived in Lebanon for decades but are still considered foreign workers who are banned, by law, from many jobs.
Lebanese law prohibits Palestinians from practicing more than 60 professions. In addition, they have to go through extra administrative tasks beyond that in order to obtain work permits.
Palestinian factions protested the government move, saying that they are appreciative to Lebanon's government for opposing the "Deal of the Century" but expressing concern over these new laws that will affect them disproportionately.
According to the 2017 census, the number of Palestinians in Lebanon stands at 174,422 individuals living in 12 camps and 156 communities in different areas of Lebanon. UNRWA says there are over 450,000 "registered Palestine refugees." Which means that conditions in Lebanon are so bad for Palestinians that over 60% of them had no choice but to leave with their families.
Needless to say, Palestinians under "occupation" in the West Bank do not emigrate in such high numbers.
This supposedly friendly Arab country treats Palestinians worse than Israel does by every single metric. Yet the media and supposedly "pro-Palestinian" groups are virtually silent at official Lebanese policy to disenfranchise Palestinians.
Which just proves that the real reason anyone pretends to care about Palestinians is because they hate Israel, not because they give a damn about Palestinian human rights.
Indeed, even the criticisms of Lebanon by Palestinians themselves is muted and attenuated with praise for their supposed - and fictional - support for the Palestinian cause. The only vitriol is for Israel, which seems to care more about their actual human rights than most Arabs do.
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The Birthright program is often in the news, mainly because of the tremendous work it does to strengthen the Jewish sense of identity of young Jews by creating the opportunity for them to visit Israel for free.
The Birthright trips have expanded over the years and now you can choose your own theme/itinerary:
o Active: Dive-in to the ultimate outdoor adventure and get ready to hike, bike, and climb your way through Israel o Professional: Delve deeper into your professional industry by experiencing the best of Israel through an occupational lens o Culinary: Savor the flavor of Mediterranean cuisine and develop your palate and culinary skills alongside some of Israel's finest chefs o Spiritual: Embark on a meaningful quest through mystical Israel. Connect with the land, the people and yourself o Cultural: Get lost in Israel's thriving city centers and explore music, theatre and award-winning film o LGBTQ: Join like-minded peers on a curated tour of Israel's thriving LGBTQ culture Study Abroad: Make the country your classroom and travel Israel for 12-14 days. You will experience all the best parts of our Classic trip and master a topic of your choosing earning 3 credits in the process
Birthright Israel seeks to ensure the future of the Jewish people by strengthening Jewish identity, Jewish communities, and connection with Israel via a trip to Israel for the majority of Jewish young adults from around the world.
Our hope is that our trips motivate young people to continue to explore their Jewish identity and support for Israel and maintain long-lasting connections with the Israelis they meet on their trip. We encourage our alumni to take active roles in Jewish organizations and to participate in follow-up activities worldwide.
But Birthright also gets into the news because of the attempt by left-wing groups to politicize what the program does. These groups offer suggestions -- if not outright demands -- that the Birthright 10-day program includes a 'balanced' introduction to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
The J Street U campaign emphasizes that it is important for American Jewish students to be well-informed and to receive a full and nuanced picture of the challenges facing Israel today, including the threat that the occupation presents to its long-term future as a democratic homeland for the Jewish people. The petitions warn against the damaging consequences of excluding and omitting Palestinian voices and narratives from the conversation.
So now J Street has started its own alternative to Birthright trips.
Why is this a concern?
Because of J Street's controversial agenda to use the US to impose its politics on Israel.
Israel’s supporters have the right and the obligation to speak out when the policies or the actions of the Israeli government are hurting the long-term interests of Israel and the Jewish people.
J Street presents itself as a more liberal alternative to AIPAC. But it is more than that. Unlike AIPAC, which advocates for Israeli policy independent of politics and who leads the Israeli government, J Street actively pushes its own agenda in the US in order to influence the policy in Israel. For example, unlike AIPAC, J Street actively involves itself in US elections and supports only Democratic candidates. Considering how Democratic candidates are moving the left and are less supportive of Israel, that is a major concern that needs to be addressed.
While J Street U has put together its own "Birthright trip, this is not the first time J Street has tried this.
The blog Mystical Politics has a copy of the original press release from J-Street posted by J Street U director Daniel May on January 25, 2011, announcing a trip in conjunction with Birthright. (The press release has been removed from the J Street site):
J Street U is very happy to announce that we will be leading a free, ten-day Taglit-Birthright trip this summer titled, "Explore Israel: Progressive Zionism and Social Justice."
This trip is an incredible opportunity to connect with the Israel that isn't on the front page or in the guide books. Move beyond the headlines, and see what's really happening on the ground.
If you're Jewish, age 18 - 25, and have yet to take a peer group trip to Israel, we strongly encourage you to sign up and be the first to know when registration opens.
The trip is a chance to appreciate the vibrancy of Israel's history, culture and landscape from a perspective that acknowledges your Jewish and progressive values.
The best way to discover the richness of Israeli society and the full contours of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is to travel around Israel and meet people from the diverse groups of the region. There is simply no substitute for seeing the land and connecting with the people.
On the trip, we'll speak with members of Israeli civil society working to advance the goals of democracy and human rights. Our itinerary will provide a cross-section of Israeli opinion.
This trip is a gift of Taglit-Birthright Israel and will be provided by The Israel Experience, Ltd. [emphasis added]
The intended focus of the trip was political -- from a 'progressive' perspective, focusing on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and meeting representatives of human rights groups -- as opposed to Jewish identity and connection to Israel. That was, and is, their prerogative. However, the description does not seem like it would mesh with the Birthright goals of identity and connection
He contacted Birthright and encouraged others to as well, and in the end, the Birthright trip was canceled.
Moriel Rothman, President of the J Street U student board, issued a statement which read in part:
J Street U had planned our trip in order to forge an avenue through which liberal-minded college students – who may otherwise not engage – could develop a deep and lasting relationship with the Jewish homeland. The trip was to include the traditional highlights of a Taglit-Birthright experience – visits to Masada, the Kotel, and Yad Va’Shem – as well as opportunities for students to engage with Israeli human rights advocates, journalists, and politicians involved in the struggle to preserve the democratic future of the Jewish homeland.
...Despite their initial approval for a trip that would provide just such an experience, Birthright’s leadership has now decided that it is inappropriate for JStreetU to organize a trip because we are politically oriented. Nonetheless, comparable organizations with different politics than ours participate and help organize trips every year. For instance, AIPAC’s “Capital to Capital” Birthright trip is designed for Jewish political activists who are “significantly involved in the American political process.” Given that other such trips are regularly offered, we were surprised and saddened that our trip was suddenly deemed inappropriate. [emphasis added]
Again, there are politics and there are politics. FresnoZionism in the same post makes reference to the politics of Moriel Rothman:
What is J Street U? Its National Board President U is a Middlebury College student named Moriel Rothman. Here is how he explains the controversy around the Sheik Jarrah / Shimon haTzadik neighborhood in East Jerusalem. Pay attention not only to his words, but his tone:
…the Jerusalem municipality has been bending to the will of fanatic Jewish settlers, and producing - based on archaic documents from the Ottoman period and manufactured Israeli law - eviction notices to a number of Palestinian families, and in some cases - such as with three families in Sheikh Jarrah- acting on those eviction notices by force and removing those Palestinian families from their homes. The municipality’s actions are hugely problematic from a moral standpoint: not only are Jews buying up and/or stealing Arab land in East Jerusalem, but Arabs are moreover unable to buy land in the primarily Jewish West Jerusalem… These policies are also hugely problematic from the standpoint of peace, as East Jerusalem must be the capital of the future Palestinian state, and the Clinton Parameters, which state that Palestine will get control of Arab neighborhoods and Israel will control Jewish neighborhoods, are made harder and harder to implement with each infiltration of Jewish settlers into Arab neighborhoods like Silwan and Sheikh Jarrah. [emphasis in the original]
This is the example set by a head of J Street U at the time.
In the end, it appeared that the provider J Street U was working with, Israel Experience, did not clear the arrangement with Birthright in advance.
J Street U students are petitioning Birthright CEO Gidi Mark to “provide more Birthright trips that speak to the values of social justice, democracy, and peace that are so important to young, progressive Jews. [emphasis added]
“We said such a trip, as described in a brief conversation with the Israel Experience, would likely be out of keeping with our longstanding policy of not conducting trips with a political orientation,” Birthright said in a statement.
A spokesperson for Birthright subsequently confirmed that the policy was adopted in 2009, when the organization decided not to partner any longer with groups that are “overtly political.”
Prior to 2009, Birthright trips were run in conjunction with the Zionist Organization of America and the Union for Progressive Zionists, the precursor to J Street U.
Birthright continues to partner with AIPAC, though references to the pro-Israel lobby group were scrubbed recently from the website of the Israel Experience. Birthright said AIPAC did not fall under the 2009 policy change because the organization does not generally seek to influence Israeli policy. [emphasis added]
For years, we have run a Capital-to-Capital trip through another trip provider, which focuses on the Israeli political system. The provider has been running this trip, with input from AIPAC, a mainstream Israel advocacy group, long before JStreet was established. It focuses on Israel’s political structure, with an approach similar to a political science class; the trip has never been tilted to one side of the political spectrum. [emphasis added]
In the end, J Street went on the trip on their own.
How did it go?
In a J-Street U mailing no longer online, Daniel May, Director, J Street U, wrote on June 21, 2011
I can tell that these two weeks are making a life-long impact on the participants. And amidst the painful stories of this conflict, that fact is giving me tremendous hope. But I don't want you to hear it from me. I want you to hear it directly from the students...
Simone Zimmerman, Berkeley ‘13 – Read her whole post here.
As aspiring peacebuilders, we have already been given so much to challenge us, and we have barely chipped the surface. I feel a tremendous amount of responsibility already, and a tremendous amount of privilege for being able to participate in this journey with J Street U. I’ve been to Israel many times in many different capacities, but this is my first trip where I am finding that I can, without contradiction, bring together my deep love for this country with my deep commitment to exploring the toughest challenges facing Israel today. [emphasis added]
After Zimmerman, a former J Street student activist, was hired by the Sanders campaign, it was discovered she previously wrote on Facebook, “Bibi Netanyahu is an arrogant, deceptive, cynical, manipulative asshole,” according to the Washington-based Free Beacon.
She continued: “F— you, Bibi, for daring to insist that you legitimately represent even a fraction of the Jews in this world, for your consistent fear-mongering, for pushing Israel in word and deed, farther and farther away from the international community, and most importantly, for trying to derail a potentially historic diplomatic deal with Iran and thus trying to distract the world from the fact that you sanctioned the murder of over 2,000 people this summer.”
She edited the post on March 3, 2015, changing “asshole” to “politician” and the second expletive to “shame on you.” She was dismissed by the Sanders campaign after being its Jewish outreach coordinator for only two days.
Simone Zimmerman. Screengrab from Haaretz video on YouTube
Considering the example of J Street's past activities against Israel, the attitude demonstrated in the past by J Street U leaders like Moriel Rothman and the activities of the products of J Street U leadership such as Simone Zimmerman -- who is one of the founders of the virulently anti-Israel If Not Now -- suspicions of J Street "Birthright-style" trips are natural.
Day 6: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict and the Occupation 101
Morning: Settlement Tour and Palestinian Village
Afternoon: Hebron
Evening: Group conversation
Overnight: Jerusalem
Day 7: Israel and Palestinian Perspectives Over the Green Line
Morning: Ramallah–Palestinian self-rule under occupation.
Afternoon: Conversation with Settlers
Evening: Israeli and Palestinian Peace Activists
Overnight: Ein Gedi
There is nothing wrong with criticism of Israel.
The issue is not criticism but rather J Street's record of undercutting Israel and its subversion of support for it.
o We see it reflected in J Street statements o We see it reflected in J Street's actions. o We see it reflected in J Street's support for anti-Israel Democratic candidates o We see it reflected in J Street 'graduates'
J Street is a special interest group with its own agenda.
It is a political agenda that contrasts with AIPAC, just as its politicized idea of an Israel trip contrasts with Birthright trips that encourage Jewish identity and connection with Israel.
Neither AIPAC nor Birthright have a particular agenda that it imposes or politics it is trying to push onto others.
The same is not true of J Street.
The goal of its trip is just one more way for J Street to push its agenda.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Last month, Lebanese Foreign Minister Gebran Bassil tweeted that he supports the right of Lebanese women to pass citizenship to their husbands and children, except if they are married to a Palestinian or Syrian men.
It caused a bit of a ruckus in Lebanon but his explicit bigotry didn't make a ripple in the international media..
Earlier this month, he again went to Twitter to say, “It is normal to defend the Lebanese labour force against any other foreign labour, whether it be Syrian, Palestinian, French, Saudi, Iranian or American, the Lebanese come first!”
The Syrians and Arabs of Palestinian descent who are in Lebanon generally have nowhere else to go, so of course they need jobs. Yet he lumps them in with other foreign workers, who are also an important part of the workforce as they are throughout the Middle East.
Again, there was some regional controversy over his comments, and the rest of the world yawned. I didn't see any "pro-Palestinian" groups issue statements of condemnation.
Anti-Palestinian bigotry in the Middle East is simply not a story unless it can be ascribed to Lebanon's southern neighbor.
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One of the more obvious cases of psychological projection from the "pro-Palestinian" camp is the "X-washing" accusation, which is predicated on the idea that Israel is so obsessed with the "occupation" that essentially everything the nation or Israelis do is either in support of oppressing, or a ruse to distract the world from, the Palestinian Arabs.
In reality, Israelis live their lives without thinking much about their would-be genocidal neighbors unless there are rockets falling. Real life involves work, school, entertainment, culture and family where the Palestinian issue is simply not thought about very much, except for people who work in NGOs or are extreme leftists.
Contrast this with how Palestinians view themselves.
Palestine Expo is a unique experience, which proudly celebrates Palestinian art, history and culture whilst fostering discussion and activism in the UK. Palestine Expo combines the use of traditional forms of education with cutting edge technology to raise awareness about Palestine. Palestine Expo brings people together to celebrate Palestine like never before.
While the expo does spend some time on "Palestinian culture" with fake date-palm trees and a "Palestinian wedding" from 1900 (way before any Arabs identified themselves as Palestinian,) it spends more time not celebrating Palestine but bashing Israel:
Virtual Graffiti: Hold a virtual spray can and graffiti your message of freedom across the apartheid wall. Banned items: Look inside the back of a lorry to see what everyday items are banned from entering Gaza, due to the siege imposed by Israel.
BDS: Have a go at knocking down apartheid in a game of BDS bowling.
Education: what obstacles will you face on your journey to school? Walk towards the oversized book to find out.
Child prisoners: See what state a child’s bedroom is left in after Israeli troops arrest them during a night raid.
Water: Fill up the buckets and watch the scale tip when measuring water disparity between Israel & Palestine.
Checkpoints: Walk with the most vulnerable Palestinians who pass through checkpoints daily. Will you be able to answer their questions?
Apartheid wall: See how you interact with your family during a meal with the Apartheid wall cutting through the dinner table. A symbol of how families are separated by the wall.
Settlements: 3D settlements placed on the disappearing maps will show you the density and increase of Israeli settlements over time.
Sport in Palestine: Score some goals and have a kick about in the football area where you can learn how occupation restricts the beautiful game.
A&E in Gaza: Feeling unwell? Visit doctors in the Gaza hospital and see the difference in treatment Palestinians receive.
UN tent: Hear personal stories from three generations on the impact of the Nakba and importance of the Right to Return. Set in a 1948 UN tent.
The conference part of the "expo" has essentially nothing about Palestinian history, culture or celebration. It is completely an anti-Israel conference.
Here's detail from day 1, you can click on the other images to see the entire program.
Once you see this in context, you realize that even the exhibits that celebrate "Palestinian culture" are really meant to create the myth of Palestinian culture, as up until the 1960s there was no such thing outside of the larger Arab and Levantine culture. Even those exhibits are created with the idea of Israel in mind - Palestinians must make up a fake history in order to lay claim to the land that is stronger that the Jewish claim.
The most laughable example of that comes from this exhibit:
Tapestry: Over 70 metres of tapestry pieces stitched by Palestinian women. This collection illustrates Palestine from Neolithic to current day.
The Neolithic period was the final stage of the Stone Age - 12,000 years ago.
Palestine Expo isn't designed to celebrate Palestine but to incite hate against Israel. Which is pretty much what the entire Palestinian cause is really is about to begin with.
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Across the street from Congregation Beth Sholom, where the event was held, protesters waved signs and chanted “Free Palestine.”
“I’m not opposed to ambulances, but you have to understand this ambulance is part of the larger picture of Israel,” said Rich Siegel, a Teaneck resident and co-director of Deir Yassin Remembered, which organized the protest. “Any time there is a pro-Israel event we need to be out here to support Palestine.”
The demonstrators were joined by a group of anti-Zionist Orthodox rabbis from the Neturei Karta movement. As the event went on, counter-protesters gathered nearby and the two groups began chanting back and forth.
Were the protesters "supporting Palestine" or protesting Israel? The signs they were waving, and the comment by Siegel, show the answer:
There is nothing "pro-Palestinian" in these protests. The one sign that says "free Palestine" says "End Israel" before that. In video, the only chant that one can hear from the purported "pro-Palestinian" protesters is "Baby killers" - protesting a service that saves babies' lives.
The caption for the photos, however, say "A group of pro-Palestinian supporters organized by 'Deir Yassin Remembered' protest outside of the event."
This protest, tiny as it was, shows the truth: that there is no such thing as a "pro-Palestinian" movement. It is all anti-Israel. If Israel would disappear and be taken over by an Iranian proxy like Hezbollah, not one of these people would be in the streets chanting "Free Palestine," just as no one was in the streets protesting Jordan's annexation of the West Bank in 1949.
Again, they are not protesting Israel's government policies nor are they saying they want Palestinian independence. They are protesting an Israeli ambulance response service that saves lives without asking the religion of those they help.
Teaneck's Muslim mayor, who is far more pro-Israel than the pseudo-Jews protesting the ambulance service, was at the fundraiser:
Mayor Mohammed Hameeduddin said he saw firsthand the diversity and skill of Magen David Adom’s volunteers while visiting Israel in 2014.
Hameeduddin was dining in a restaurant when a man had a seizure. Within minutes, the ambulance service responded to help.
“The vans arrived and out came people of all different backgrounds, working together to save lives,” he said. “This organization gives us all hope for the future, hope for our children and hope for peace. That’s what we all want.”
If protesters were truly pro-Palestinian, they would support Magen David Adom, not protest it.
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While the previous and current president have often spoken of greatly reducing America’s involvement in Middle Eastern affairs, the events of the past several years have time and again shown that doing so often causes grave problems. While cautioning against excessive ambitions, Hal Brands argues that Washington has no choice but to remain engaged in the region:
[It] is a fantasy to think that the United States can disengage from the Middle East without consequence. This is because America still has pressing interests in that region—and because those interests are as unlikely to protect themselves today as they ever have been in the past. Growing Russian influence, Iran’s hegemonic ambitions, the potential resurgence of key terrorist organizations, and the massive political instability and violence that plague large swaths of the region are real problems that demand competent management. America’s partners in the region can do more to manage those problems than they have done to date, but they remain manifestly incapable of doing so without significant U.S. support.
[Furthermore], hasty withdrawals are likely to be followed by hasty re-engagements. After the United States left Iraq in 2011, the state nearly collapsed, Islamic State surged to prominence, and an emergency military intervention—which has now lasted nearly five years—was needed to repair the damage. If the United States disengages from Syria and Afghanistan today and the result is a significant terrorist attack, the pressure to get back into the region and take decisive military action will be strong indeed—even if that means shortchanging other geopolitical priorities. If America goes home from the Middle East, it will sooner or later face pressures to go in big.
Taking UNRWA at its word, the loss of US support in 2018 may have helped its overall funding efforts.
At this moment, it does not appear that the Trump administration’s decision to cut off funding to UNRWA has had a negative impact on UNRWA’s operations.
However, an Al Jazeera report in September claimed that the United States allowed Gulf states to fund UNRWA in 2018, but that funding in 2019 “will be subject to agreeing with the US demand to count only 500,000 refugees out of the five million” claimed to exist by the agency.
At this time, UNRWA has not reported any pledges from Gulf states.
Withholding funds to UNRWA satisfies those that have advocated for an end to sending US taxpayer dollars to such an “irredeemably flawed” organization. However, the funding cut in 2018 came with no policy success to show for it.
The Trump administration should work with Congress to condition future funding to UNRWA on its acceptance that “Palestine refugees” refers only to the original refugees from the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. Then, their descendants should be categorized as “other Palestinians in need.” This would be consistent with US policy towards those seeking refugee status in our country.
This approach would put the onus on UNRWA to refuse US funding, and may spur other donors to do the same. Right now, UNRWA is winning this definitional battle. A shift in strategy, however, can help us win the war over fake refugee status.
On April 8, 2019, President Trump announced the designation of Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) as a Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO), including its Qods Force (see Appendix).[1]
This report will discuss the impact of the designation, economically and militarily, both within Iran and on the regional and international level.
The IRGC As An Economic Organization
The IRGC, part of Iran's military, is a huge economic entity; its economic arms are an integral part of Iran's strategic infrastructure in construction, energy, communications, and agriculture. Designating the IRGC as an FTO will be a tremendous blow to its economic might within Iran and to its ability to operate outside Iran.
The Economic Aspect Of Designating The IRGC As An FTO
Thus, designating the IRGC an FTO constitutes a continuation of the Trump administration's policy that focuses on economic sanctions against Iran. If the U.S. sanctions to date have mainly concerned the oil sector – the main sector of Iran's economy – and banking, the sanctions will now harm the Iranian regime's most vital economic entity.
This move appears to be aimed at thwarting Iran's partial consent to the guidelines of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF)[2] aimed at fighting money laundering and terrorism – guidelines which Iran has so far rejected for fear that by consenting to them it will expose the IRGC and its organizations to direct harm. Under European pressure, Iran has so far obtained a series of postponements for the imposition of FATF guidelines on it, and there is now a fear that Iran will obtain special status, in the framework of which it will be required to comply with only some of the FATF laws and regulations. The Trump administration's move at this time to designate the IRGC an FTO appears to preempt the possibility that Iran will accept such a special arrangement, which would allow the IRGC to continue its activity in the country and across the region.
4500 new settlements? Wow, with say 10,000 people per settlement, that's 45 million Jews immimently ready to move to the West Bank! https://t.co/2QhQ0g3vjd
You are ignorant and hateful and don't give a damn about most of your fellow Jews. You coddle people who want to exterminate the Jews. You know nothing of your heritage or history and have no pride in Judaism.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Hamid Dabashi, a professor at Columbia University, writes in Al Jazeera that Muslims and Jews should work together to fight antisemitism.
Sounds reasonable. right?
But this is a smokescreen for Dabashi to to spew his own hate - to claim that Zionism is an ally of antisemitism, that Israel is a colonialist state beholden to European powers while at the same time the Europeans want to export all Jews to Israel, and other hateful nonsense that appears to actually justify modern Muslim Jew-hatred.
For example:
The Zionists claim that the establishment of the state of Israel is to protect Jews against persecution. This is a false claim. The establishment of the state of Israel in Palestine, where Jews have always lived alongside Muslims and Christians, was a European colonial project and as such has exacerbated the terror coming towards the Jews.
Meaning, Muslims who killed Jewish immigrants were justified because it is all Europe's fault.
Let's back up to how Dabashi describes contemporary European antisemitism:
The numbers are staggering and Europe-wide. "Antisemitism is rising sharply across Europe, experts have said," according to a recent report by the Guardian, "as France reported a 74 percent increase in the number of offences against Jews last year and Germany said the number of violent anti-Semitic attacks had surged by more than 60 percent". The article further says: "The figures confirm the results of three recent Europe-wide surveys showing Jewish people feel at greater risk, and are experiencing markedly more aggression, amid a generalized increase in racist hate speech and violence in a significantly coarser, more polarized political environment."
The deep roots of anti-Semitism in Europe are widespread and murderous. From a prolonged history of pogroms to the Crusades to the horrors of the Holocaust, and a long and nasty history in between, European Jews have been the consistent subject of baseless slander, vicious defamation, malignant lies and rumours, wild and vilifying conspiracy theories, all resulting in massacres and ultimately genocide under Nazi Germany. In no other continent, country, or culture have Jews ever been so brutalised as they have been in Europe.
Although no other clime or continent is entirely immune to it, anti-Semitism is a specifically European disease, with European Christianity a main culprit in the carnage.
But look at all the recent attacks against Jews in Europe:
In 2012, in Toulouse, Mohamed Merah shoots dead four people, including three children, at a Jewish school.
In 2014, Mehdi Nemmouche attacks the Jewish Museum in central Brussels, killing two Israeli tourists, a French volunteer and a Belgian museum receptionist.
In 2015, gunman Amedy Coulibaly, claiming allegiance to the Islamic State group, takes hostages at a Jewish supermarket, killing four.
Also in 2015, Omar El-Hussein, a 22-year-old Dane of Palestinian origin, killed a Jewish volunteer security guard outside a synagogue and wounds two police officers.
In 2018, 85 year old Holocaust survivor Mireille Knoll was savagely murdered by two men, one of whom shouted "Allahu Akbar" as he was killing her.
And these are just the major events. In Sweden, "pro-Palestinian" protesters have been heard saying they want a new intifada to kill the Jews and call Jews "apes and pigs."
They aren't Christian.
Dabashi deliberately erased every single major deadly incident of antisemitism in Europe in order to support his argument that all European antisemitism is Christian. The only mention of an actual attack was the murder of Ilan Halimi by a Muslim gang - but Dabashi just calls them a gang.
In other words, Dabashi - while pretending to be against antisemitism - is erasing rampant Muslim antisemitism in Europe, virtually the only flavor of antisemitism that has actually been killing Jews in Europe over the past decade.
Why does he do this? By mentioning Halimi's murder he shows that he is aware of the many deadly attacks against Jews by Muslims in Europe, so this cannot be an oversight. Dabashi wants to deliberately erase history to bolster his thesis that Muslims cannot be antisemitic and only European Christians can, Why?
The answer can be found in his vitriol against Zionism:
Today, anti-Semitism is real and Zionists are categorically unqualified even to detect, let alone to fight it. Jews are the victims, Zionists the beneficiaries of anti-Semitism. ...
To fight anti-Semitism, the fighter must have moral authority. As a racist apartheid state, Israel lacks that moral authority. As an ideology of racist occupation of Palestine, Zionism lacks that moral authority. As active, hardcore or liberal advocates of that ideology of land theft, occupation and incremental genocide of Palestinians, Zionists lack that moral authority.
According to Dabashi, Zionism is so evil that Zionists have no moral authority - the implication that they have forfeited their very right to be considered human beings.
Of course, Palestinian terror attacks towards "Zionists" in pizza shops and discos are justified because Zionists are immoral subhumans. But he is saying more than that by not mentioning any Muslim attacks against Jews in Europe. That deliberate omission can only be interpreted as a justification for the murder of Jews by Muslims.
The Muslims in Europe weren't attacking Jews bur fighting back against the evil of Zionism. That's why these attacks don't fall in the category of antisemitism - murdering a Holocaust survivor is the action of a freedom fighter. After all, statistically speaking, she was probably a Zionist.
The irony is that while Professor Dabashi says that Zionists cannot claim to be able to define antisemitism, he has proven in this very essay that he is supremely unqualified not only to speak about antisemitism but about any moral issue whatsoever.
Hamid Dabashi is a completely disgusting individual who whitewashes and justifies Muslims murdering Jews.
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Last week, the council of Pitzer College—a liberal-arts school in Claremont, California—voted to end its study-abroad program with Haifa University. The college’s president has declared he will not abide by the resolution of the council, a body made up of representatives of the faculty, staff, and students. But the results, writes Jonathan Marks, are nonetheless disturbing:
Pitzer maintains programs in China and Rwanda, both uncommonly repressive regimes with no regard for academic freedom. And look! They’re embarking on a program with the University of Zimbabwe, “conditions permitting.” . . .
So, to square its rejection of Israel with its rejection of absolutely no other country, the council’s motion focuses wholly on the specifics of Israel’s visa policy. Among other things, that policy bars from the country certain supporters of boycotting it. There is, of course, no reason to make that the line a nation must not cross. . . .
[T]he reason for the Pitzer boycott is the same as it has ever been [for boycotts of Israel]: to strike a blow against the intolerable presence and strength of Jews in the Middle East. Yes, the motion suggests that there may be ways to permit students to travel to Israel without dirtying themselves through contact with Israel’s universities. And yes, the motion allows for the possibility that other countries may one day also be deemed too filthy to touch. The American Studies Association said much the same thing when it voted for a boycott [of Israel] in 2013. Somehow, it hasn’t gotten around to boycotting anyone else yet. . . .
This is the first time that the stakeholders of a college—not a student government association, but the faculty, staff, and students of a college—has voted to ignore the protests of those in their community who consider [the boycott-Israel movement] anti-Semitic and to ignore their own responsibility to protect scholarship and teaching from partisanship. And all to spit on a country most of them don’t know a blessed thing about.
After a strongly worded statement from United States Ambassador to Germany, Richard Grenell, the German government has disallowed a planned anti-Semitic "Boycott, Divestment, Sanction" event in Berlin, and expelled its headline speaker, convicted Palestinian terrorist Rasmea Odeh.
The Jerusalem Post reports that the German government and the Berlin Department for the Interior responded quickly to international outcy following the announcement that Odeh was set to speak at a "Palestinian Women in the Liberation Struggle" in the country's capital city, even after initially pledging to allow the event to go forward.
Odeh, a member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), was the mastermind and lead bomber in an attack on a Jewish grocery store in Israel in 1969 which left two Hebrew University students dead and scores injured. She was convicted and jailed for a decade before being released in a prisoner exchange. Eventually, she ended up in the United States. She was finally deported back to her home country of Jordan in 2017, after U.S. authorities discovered she had lied about her terrorism convictions on her immigration application.
The elderly Odeh remains a hero to anti-Israel activists across the globe, and has fans in both Congresswoman Rashida Tliab (D-MI) and Women's March leader Linda Sarsour, according to William Jacobson at Legal Insurrection. No surprise, both women have been known to express anti-Semitic views.
After the Carnival in Aalst, Belgium, featured caricatured Jewish figures with money and rats, UK Lawyers for Israel (UKLFI) and the Simon Wiesenthal Centre (SWC) requested that UNESCO remove Aalst from its List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity.
The Carnival at Aalst has been recognized on the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity since 2010.
A petition urging the removal of the Carnival from the list has received over 14,000 signatures.
“UNESCO should not continue to endorse this repeated violation of its values by retaining the Carnival on its Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity”, Jonathan Turner, chief executive of UKLFI commented.
“The date of the Bureau’s meeting, 21 March, is the United Nations International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination. This will be a good opportunity for the members of the Bureau to show that they really mean it,” Dr. Shimon Samuels, SWC’s Director for International Relations, said.
The Ambassador of Poland to UNESCO has endorsed the request.
UKLFI is an association that fights anti-Israel and antisemitic activity. The SWC is a global human rights organization that researches the Holocaust and hate in a historic and contemporary context. The SWC is accredited by UNESCO and an Associate Partner NGO.
The Dutch Chief Rabbi, Binyamin Jacobs, said that the portrayal at the Aalst Carnival was “shocking” and contained “typical, antisemitic caricatures from 1939.”
Capital Research Center reproduced some Instagram posts by "free.palestine.1948," an account that Rashida Tlaib followed until the story broke.
The interesting thing about the offensive images is that they generally were about "Israel" and not officially about Jews.
So I would like to ask J-Street, Jewish Voice for Peace, Rashida Tlaib, Omar llhan and her apologists: Which of these images, if any, are antsemitic and which are merely "legitimate criticism of Israel?"
If anyone on the Democratic side that supported the watered down condemnation of all bad things could honestly answer, it would be very illuminating.
And if their answer depends on whether the images were shown on a "pro-Palestinian" or a white supremacist site, that speaks volumes as well.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Protests by the Palestinians in Lebanon are unlikely to draw any attention from the international community, including so-called pro-Palestinian groups that are active especially on university campuses in the US and Canada, among other places.
The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are willing to raise their voices against the mistreatment of Palestinians at the hands of their Arab brothers. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are prepared to defend the rights of women and gays living under Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those that are prepared to advocate for democracy and free speech for Palestinians living under the repressive regimes of the Palestinian Authority in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip. The real "pro-Palestinian" groups are those who are prepared to condemn Lebanon for its racist and discriminatory measures against Palestinians, living and dead.
Hiding at a university campus and spewing hatred against Israel does not make one "pro-Palestinian." Rather, it makes one just an Israel-hater. Will the "pro-Palestinian" groups listen to the urgent messages coming from the people in Lebanon they claim to represent?
The upcoming Israeli elections will give Israelis the chance to vote on the future direction Israel’s new government should take in resolving the future of Judea and Samaria (the West Bank) and Gaza (“disputed territories”) – the last remaining 5 per cent of the territory of the Mandate for Palestine where sovereignty still remains unallocated between Arabs and Jews.
The choices offered to Israeli voters should be explicitly spelt out by the political parties contesting the elections. The newly-elected government’s stated policy should be implemented. This basic premise of democracy has been undermined in America as Trump’s election commitment to build his promised border wall remains unfulfilled because of Congress’s opposition.
Trump should not similarly attempt to thwart the mandate of Israel’s next government.
Trump should shelve his long-overdue ultimate deal indefinitely – due to the changed circumstances that have demonstrably arisen since his well-intentioned thought bubble in November 2016.
Instead – Trump should:
Pledge his Government’s full support for Israel’s next duly elected Government
Reaffirm the core commitments made by President Bush to Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon in Bush’s letter dated 14 April 2004 – endorsed overwhelmingly by the Congress by 502 votes to 12 (“Bush/Congress Commitments”).
Those core American commitments – made to procure Israel’s unilateral withdrawal from Gaza – included:
Opposing any peace plan other than the 2003 Bush Roadmap
Being strongly committed to Israel’s security and well-being as a Jewish state.
Not supporting any right of return by Palestinian refugees to Israel
Regarding as unrealistic a full and complete withdrawal from the disputed territories.
Congress could endorse this Trump initiative – reinforcing continuing bipartisan support for Israel.
Peace will remain elusive – but Trump will have saved himself from drowning in a cesspool that has swallowed previous American presidents who believed they had the answer to ending this unresolved 100 years old conflict.
As readers will recall, I have, for years, been urging the initiation of a largescale initiative for the incentivized emigration of the Arab population in Judea-Samaria and Gaza, as the only viable policy option that can facilitate (albeit not ensure) the continued survival of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people—as it is, demonstrably, the only policy option that allows Israel to adequately contend with the geographic and demographic imperatives required for such survival.
This week, I encountered strident—albeit somewhat doleful, and certainly unintended—support for my thesis from a rather unexpected source—the well-known historian, Benny Morris.
Morris: Coming full circle?
Once a member of the so-called New Historians, a radical, left-wing group of academics, who challenged the traditional Zionist view of the inception of Israel—particularly the displacement of hundreds of thousands of Arabs due to the fighting during the 1948 War of Independence—Morris has come to adopt a far more understanding view of the alternatives facing the then-nascent Jewish state—and its resultant actions.
Indeed, in many respects Morris has come “full circle”—at least in terms of prevailing public perceptions of his political positions. Once denounced as an anti-Zionist, considered too radical for employment in the Israeli academe, and who was imprisoned, rather than serve as an army reservist in the “occupied territories”, he now not only defends, but endorses, the coercive displacement of Arabs—indeed, even lamenting that it was not sufficiently implemented.
In this regard, he has chided Ben Gurion for being overly reticent: In a 2004 interview with Haaretz’s Ari Shavit, he declared provocatively: "If he was already engaged in expulsion, maybe he should have done a complete job…my feeling is that this place would be quieter and know less suffering if the matter had been resolved once and for all.”
Morris speculates: “If Ben-Gurion had carried out a large expulsion --the whole Land of Israel, as far as the Jordan River. It may yet turn out that this was his fatal mistake. If he had carried out a full expulsion - rather than a partial one - he would have stabilized the State of Israel for generations."
Six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.
Here is part 20.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.
Here is part 19.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
Nearly six years ago I gave a lecture at Yeshiva University on how to answer anti-Israel arguments. Since the lecture was over an hour and twenty minutes, I decided to break it up into 20 sections, one each to answer one popular anti-Israel argument.
Here is part 18A.
We have lots of ideas, but we need more resources to be even more effective. Please donate today to help get the message out and to help defend Israel.
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Wednesday, July 17, 2019
Elder of Ziyon
