Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 19, 2013

Farsi translation of Walt/Mearsheimer praised in Iran

The Persian rendition of 'The Israel Lobby and U.S. Foreign Policy' has been unveiled in Tehran, Iran.

Penned by John J. Mearsheimer, the book was unveiled in a ceremony held in Tehran on August 18, 2013, in the presence of cultural and media scholars.

Praising the translation of the book in Parisian, Nader Talebzadeh, recognized Iranian documentary maker and journalist, asserted that the book is like an attractive movie right from the beginning until the end that can play a significant role in raising awareness about the role and nature of Zionist lobbies in the US’s politics and foreign approach.

Reza Montazami and Mehran Nasr have jointly translated the book in Persian.

Talebzadeh stressed the need for raising global awareness on the issue of Zionism, and stated that there is a lot of potential in various artistic fields to exploit the current anti-Zionistic atmosphere in the world to counter their influence.

He further added that there are numerous prominent figures in the world who have voiced readiness to run courses on the field in Iranian universities. Figures like Michael Jones and Kevin Bert, American analyst of Islamic issues, and Jerry D. Mason.

He further called on the government to work out plans and programs to make use of such a golden opportunity to disseminate knowledge about the negative influence of the Zionist lobby in the world.

Elsewhere in his speech, he posited the Islamic Revolution as a fantastic raiser of awareness about Zionist and the realist of the Zionist regime as well as its role in world and regional equations.

“One of the achievements of the Islamic Revolution was that it showed the world the real face of the Zionist regime,” he said. “The Islamic Revolution bestowed a spiritual understanding to the world of the Zionist activities and still continues to do so with Iran being the forerunner of the movement. Designation of the Quds Day by Imam Khomeini was a turning point in this regard and got the world to earnestly consider the issue.”

Maybe Walt and Mearsheimer can give free lectures in Iran on how Israel is the source of all evil in the world. I'm sure they'd get paid handsomely.

(My earlier articles showing that the claims in their book are ridiculous can be seen here and here with some other nice links here, here is Walt making a sick moral equivalence between Jewish settlers and those who murder them, and this nice revelation of Walt's praising of the Qaddafi regime while taking a trip funded by the regime.)

Old video of Erdogan visiting Herzl's grave causing him embarrassment

The accusations in the Muslim and Arab world of political opponents being Jewish or Zionist continue.

A video of Turkish prime minister Tayyip Erdogan visiting the grave of Theodor Herzl, founder of Zionism, apparently during a 2005 trip, is causing him embarrassment as it has resurfaced on a number of websites. To make matters worse, he is shown next to then-prime minister Ariel Sharon.

Towards the end we see Erdogan paying respects at the grave of a master terrorist in Ramallah, but that is not controversial at all.

Apparently, opponents of the Muslim Brotherhood are circulating this to discredit Erdogan's support for the Islamists.

Similarly, the statement that antisemitic preacher Yusuf Qaradawi made recently - that "even the Jews" never performed a massacre like the army in Egypt did last week - is now being spun as if Qaradawi was "praising the humanity of the Israeli Army"!

Photos of Qaradawi with Neturei Karta nutcases cannot be far behind.

Iranian general threatens US, Israel; says nuke negotiations won't change policy

From Tehran Times:

Brigadier General Massoud Jazayeri of Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said on Monday that U.S. and Zionist forces in the region are militarily “within the area of action of the Islamic Republic of Iran.”

He also said, “It is surprising that certain U.S. officials are still talking about military threats against Iran and simplistically believe that such threats can affect Iranian political strategists.

“The strategic mistake of the United States is that they have not realized that the carrot and stick approach is now outdated.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Jazayeri said that the major policies of the Islamic Republic would not be affected by nuclear talks or negotiations about other issues.

He added that the United States can only get closer to Iran if it apologizes to the great Iranian nation and drops its hostile stance.

In other words, "Keep acting like suckers, America."

8/19 Links Part 1: World Wide Terror Threat, Why Obama needs al-Sisi, Echoes of Black September

From Ian:

Terrorists ‘aim to hit Israeli, Jewish targets worldwide’ in coming weeks

Israeli and Jewish targets all over the world are likely to be sought out by terrorist organizations in the coming weeks, the Israeli government’s Counter-Terrorism Bureau warned in strikingly strident tones on Monday, listing dozens of countries where it said it had “concrete” indications of a terrorist threat.
It cited concerns about terrorist acts timed to coincide with the forthcoming Rosh Hashana (New Year), Yom Kippur and Succot festivals, and also said that the anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks in the US was likely to be “a favored period” for al-Qaeda and other global jihadist groups to attempt to carry out acts of terrorism.

Israeli travel advisory takes Turkey off vacation destination list

The advisory, issued every year before the High Holidays and Passover when Israelis travel abroad in droves, grouped Turkey together with Azerbaijan, Nigeria and Kenya as countries where there are continuous potential threats, and where non-vital travel should be avoided.

Al-Qaeda said plotting attack on European trains

According to the report, which cited unnamed sources in the US National Security Agency, top-ranking members of the Islamic terror group recently participated in a conference call in which various methods of attacking railways in Europe were extensively discussed, including planting bombs in tunnels or on the trains themselves and sabotaging train tracks and electrical systems.
Reportedly, in response, German authorities have stepped up security and surveillance on the country’s national rail system.

Why Obama needs al-Sisi

Obama cannot publicly declare that he wants the Egyptian army, which has been an ally of Washington for decades, to defeat the Muslim Brotherhood, a movement which produced quite a few terrorists, including current al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahri. Therefore, he is refusing to call the ouster of Islmist President Morsi a "military coup" – as it should be – and stresses that while Morsi was elected democratically, he ran Egypt according to the interests of the Muslim Brotherhood, rather than according to the interests of the general public.
Addressing the issue publicly for the first time on Thursday, Obama did try to play down the long-standing friendship between Washington and the Egyptian army, which is based on US interests: An open Suez Canal; open airspace for American logistical flights; preservation of the peace with Israel and the war on terror in Sinai and Gaza.

Al Sisi: We won't Kneel in the Face of Violence

The commander of the armed forces, Gen Abdul Fattah al-Sisi, warned that his troops will not stand by silently in the face of violence. "Whoever imagines violence will make the state and Egyptians kneel must reconsider; we will never be silent in the face of the destruction of the country," he said in a statement posted on Facebook.
He also said, however, that his message to Morsi supporters was that there was "room for everyone in Egypt" and the military had no intention to seize power.

Egypt on Brink of Hell – Analysis

Dr. Mordechai Kedar, a renowned Middle East expert from Bar Ilan University, thinks Egypt could turn into “hell” if Islamists smuggle in weapons from Libya, Sudan and Sinai, and use them against the security forces.
The military in Egypt decided to depose Mohammed Morsi, who was elected president by a razor-thin majority of 50.7%, after it saw how Islamist leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan “neutered” the military in Turkey.

Joel Pollak: Egypt: Echoes of Black September

"Black September" became a potent symbol for Palestinians as the PLO carried out revenge attacks around the world--including the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. In addition, the PLO relocated its forces to Lebanon, where it quickly became a force for instability, terror, and destruction.
Yet King Hussein preserved the most pro-American regime in the Arab world--one that not only has a free trade agreement with the U.S., but a somewhat freer (albeit less innovative) economy than Israel and a relatively warm peace treaty with Israel as well. Few would dispute that the status quo is better than PLO rule would have been.

Hosni Mubarak to be freed in days, officials say

The officials said there were no longer any grounds to hold the 85-year-old former autocrat because of the expiration of a two-year legal limit for holding an individual in custody pending a final verdict.
His lawyer predicted that he would be released by the end of the week, once corruption charges against him were cleared.
The former president is still being held on another corruption charge but the attorney, Fareed El Deeb, was confident that this charge would also be dropped within days, Reuters quoted him as saying.

Egypt’s Genocide recognition call politically motivated

“For us, it is naturally important for an Arab country like Egypt to acknowledge and condemn the Armenian Genocide, given especially that the Armenians have played an essential role in the history of Egypt. But on the other hand, the selection of timing gives grounds for concerns a little bit, especially in the context of these regional political re-arrangements,” he told Tert.am.

No more Turkish soaps in Cairo

Maybe Turkey’s prime minister will learn to keep his mouth shut about the goings-on in Cairo, now that the Egyptians have decided to hit back where it (melodramatically) hurts most — the Turkish soap opera industry.
Days after Recep Tayyip Erdogan called for putting Egypt’s military leaders on trial for the violence that has swept the country over the last week, several Egyptian television channels have decided to boycott a number of popular Turkish dramas and soap operas.

25 police executed after northern Sinai ambush

Suspected militants on Monday ambushed two mini-buses carrying off-duty policemen in Egypt’s northern Sinai, killing 25 of them execution-style and wounding two, security officials said.
The militants forced the two vehicles to stop, ordered the policemen out and forced them to lie on the ground before they shot them to death, the officials said.

Dozens of Egyptian Brotherhood members killed in jailbreak as army warns against violence

Some 38 supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood died on Sunday in an incident at an Egyptian prison, security and legal sources said, giving conflicting versions of the deaths.
The Interior Ministry did not immediately confirm the death toll, but said in a statement that a number of detainees had tried to escape from a prison on the outskirts of Cairo and had taken a police officer hostage.

In Egyptian village, Christian shops marked ahead of church attack

On June 30, when millions of Egyptians took to the streets to protest against now ousted President Mohamed Morsi, residents of Al Nazla marked Christian homes and shops with red graffiti, vowing to protect Morsi's electoral legitimacy with “blood.”
Relations between Christians and Muslims in the village, which had worsened since Morsi's election in 2012, grew even more tense as Islamists spread rumors that it was Christians who were behind the protests against Morsi and his ouster by the military on July 3.

3 Nuns Paraded like 'Prisoners of War;' 2 Christians Killed; 58 Churches, Properties Attacked in Egypt

Islamists burned down a Christian school, paraded three nuns on the streets like "prisoners of war," and sexually abused two other female staff even as at least 58 attacks on Christians and their property were reported across Egypt over the last four days. At least two Christians have died in the attacks.

Cairo Cracks Down on Al Jazeera Channel

The military interim government in Cairo is cracking down on a key adversary – satellite news network Al Jazeera, which is widely seen as being biased in favor of the Muslim Brotherhood.
“The Cabinet has assigned competent authorities to assess the legal status of the Al Jazeera satellite channel, accusing it of threatening stability and national security,” local media said, according to a report on the Egypt Independent Sunday.

Report: Hezbollah's Top Syria Commander Killed

Arab media reported Sunday that a senior Hezbollah terror leader was killed in recent days in a battle with Syrian opposition forces. The battle occurred in the Damascus area.
The reports did not identify the terrorist, but in recent days Hezbollah-affiliated news outlets showed images of the funeral of senior Hezbollah commander Ali Hossam Nasser. The funeral took place in the area of Nabatiya in south Lebanon. Nasser is considered the supreme commander of Hezbollah forces in Syria.

Israeli officials: Iran talks do only one thing – give Tehran more time

The only thing talks between Iran and the world’s powers have achieved until now is buy Tehran more time, Israeli officials said Sunday, following EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton’s comment that the P5+1 group is eager to restart the talks.
“We are skeptical in the extreme,” one official said of a new round of talks. He said there was no hope the talks would help “unless the Iranians feel the pressure is being upgraded.”

Catherine Ashton plans meeting with new Iranian foreign minister

Catherine Ashton’s office said the 28-nation bloc’s top diplomat called Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Saturday to congratulate him on his appointment.
Ashton says she and the nations negotiating with Iran on the nuclear issue — the five permanent UN Security Council members plus Germany — are looking forward to engaging with Tehran’s new negotiating team as soon as it is appointed to find a diplomatic solution.

Australian Sheik to Obama: Oh Enemy of Allah, You Will Be Trampled upon by Pure Muslim Feet

“Listen, oh Obama, oh enemy of Allah, you who kiss the shoes and feet of the Jews. Listen! The day will come when you are trampled upon by the pure feet of the Muslims.”

BBC corrects article saying Rouhani only opposes "occupation"

On August 2, I noted that the BBC was whitewashing a quote from "moderate" Iranian president Rouhani, pretending that he was only against the "occupation":

As I wrote then,

While it appears that Rouhani used the word "occupation," the BBC is - seemingly purposefully - misleading its readers into believing that he is only talking about the hated "occupation" but has no problem with Israel. Iran, of course, considers all of Israel to be "occupied" so this terminology in the headline and subhead is deceptive - and seemingly purposefully so.

Simon, who brought the article to my attention, wrote to the BBC:

The story refers to President Rouhani making threatening comments regarding
Israel. In mentioning Rouhani's use of the term "occupied", the story does
not make it clear how this term would be interpreted in Farsi.

In English, "Israeli occupation" commonly refers to the West Bank and Gaza
Strip. In Farsi, "Israeli Occupation" refers to the State of Israel itself,
as well as the West Bank and Gaza.

By falling to draw this distinction, the article misleads readers,
insinuating that Rouhani is merely threatening Israel's continuing
occupation. In reality, he issued a threat against an entire nation.

Thus, the article is factually inaccurate.

Over two weeks later, the BBC responded:

We have reviewed the article in question and agree with the interpretation that Hassan Rouhani's remarks were aimed at the State of Israel. We have amended the story accordingly and added a footnote explaining the correction.

Here is the article now with the correction:

Getting the truth out there is hard work, and while correcting an article that no one is reading any more is not ideal, it at least helps ensure that similar problems are not repeated in the future.

Congratulations, we have achieved peace. Don't ruin it with a "peace plan."

Today, the Israeli-Arab conflict is the least violent it has ever been.

This year, only one Israeli has been killed in a terror attack. Less than 15 Palestinian Arabs have been killed (B'Tselem says 11, and OCHA-OPT says 13), most of whom were involved in rock or firebomb attacks.

The lowest number of Israeli deaths in any year since 1948 has been six (2009 and 1982) according to this chart.

While this isn't the year with the lowest Palestinian Arab casualty count (1999 had only 8 deaths), it is the second-lowest since 1987.

In other words, this is (so far) shaping up to be the least-violent year since the beginning of the first intifada and quite probably since the founding of modern Israel in 1948.

We have achieved just about the best we can ever hope to achieve. Things were far worse in the years before the State of Israel was reborn, they were worse in the 1950s with the fedayeen attacks and the 1960s with the "commando" attacks and the 1970s with the more modern terrorist attacks. During all of those periods, Israel responded quite furiously, so both sides lost many people.

This is what peace looks like. The status quo is not perfect, but compared to everything else in the past hundred years, it is damn good. Call it a detente, call it a standoff, it doesn't matter - Arabs and Israelis have come close to stopping killing each other.

Even in Gaza, Israeli policies have made Hamas and Islamic Jihad think twice about shooting rockets into Israel. Rocket fire hasn't ended but life is getting close to normal in Israeli communities in the Negev.

And as long as there is no aggression against Israel, Israel is helping make the lives of Palestinian Arabs get better and better. As I noted recently, some 28% of the money being paid to West Bank Arabs is coming from Israeli employers. The Israelis are granting more work permits, paying better wages (roughly double what Palestinian Arabs are paying,) with better benefits.

At least some of this can be credited to Netanyahu with his much derided concept of "economic peace" as a basis for real peace moving forward.

If you want to compare the situation against perfection, which is the standard tool in the anti-Israel playbook, yes, things fall short. But if you want to compare the situation against any other time period, the situation is the best it has ever been - and possibly the best it ever can be. Compared to the rest of the region, Israel's peace is even more striking.

Why is there peace now? Very simply, because the leaders of the Arabs in the West Bank and Gaza (as well as Hizballah in Lebanon) have a lot to lose by fomenting violence. That is the key to peace - creating a situation where the downside of attacks is much greater than the upside of what could be accomplished by violence. Choosing violence (on a macro level) has nothing to do with "justice" or "rights" or anything like that - it is a simple cost/benefit analysis of what can be gained versus what can be lost.

Is this year an anomaly? I don't think so. While there is certainly an element of luck involved, the fact is that the situation makes it more "expensive" to attack Israel than to keep still. Of course one cannot predict the future perfectly - if Hamas comes up with a new way to kidnap an Israeli it seems likely they will try it out; if Hamas gets into a fight with Salafist groups then they might shoot more rockets over, if Islamic Jihad gets Iranian money while Hamas is hung out to dry, things might change drastically in Gaza. But for the foreseeable future, calm is in everyone's interest.

And "peace" isn't. The idea of a new push in the long moribund "peace process" is being pushed from the outside, not from the parties themselves.

What would be the real-life consequences if there was a "peace agreement," no matter what its parameters?

Just this month, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs crossed into Israel -visiting the beach, shopping - during Ramadan, without incident. If the "peace process" is successful, that will be an international border and crossing will be much more difficult in Ramadans to come.

Today, tens of thousands of Palestinian Arabs work, happily, for Israeli employers, with decent wages. If "peace" would break out, this would all but disappear and the PA economy would be in even worse shape than it is today.

Palestinian Arab exports to the West would be more difficult.

And, without a doubt, the terror groups who find the idea of formal peace with Israel to be anathema will work overtime to prove their relevance - by shooting rockets and planning suicide bombings, to reclaim their former glory.

Peace will not bring friendship. Anyone who believes that only has to look at how Egypt and Jordan regard their peace treaties with Israel. They have been respecting the treaties but they have not stopped their incitement; arguably in recent years anti-Zionism and antisemitism in those two countries has gotten worse.

Unless you are wedded to the idea of an impossible peace where Israel and the PLO are allied, you should realize that today, we have real peace.

After any agreement is signed, we will see more deaths on both sides, guaranteed.

Efforts should not be put into a fantasy peace plan. Instead, we need a dose of realism. The factors that can destabilize the current peace are the ones that need to be neutralized.

This means doing real work to integrate Palestinian Arabs into Arab countries as full citizens. This means working towards a Syria that is neither Assad nor Al Qaeda, but one that gives its people hope and weakens both Hizballah and Iran. This means a policy that truly supports liberal, democratic forces in Egypt and Tunisia and elsewhere. It means working towards a Middle East that resembles more closely the de facto peace currently enjoyed by Israel and Palestinian Arabs, where the cost of war is much higher than the status quo.

None of this is easy. But none of it is fantasy, either, which is what the "peace process" has been from the start.

Tamarod Gaza gaining steam; releases video slamming Hamas

I had mentioned the Tamarod Palestine Facebook group that was making Hamas so nervous.

That group was against both Hamas and Fatah. But Tamarod Gaza is only against Hamas, and they are growing, now with over 30,000 Facebook "Likes."

They are pushing for a major anti-Hamas rally in Gaza on November 11, and just released a video slamming Hamas for its actions.

The video says that Hamas practices "murder, torture, vandalism and bullying, bribery, smuggling, as if they were one of the gangs in the Middle Ages, but it's shameful shameful that they practice [these crimes] in the name of religion and the homeland and the resistance..."

The group misses the old Hamas, the one that fought only against Israel. "The Hamas of today is not the Hamas of Yassin," they say.

Tamarod Gaza's message ends by saying "All our options are open, but we disagree with you as to the choice of weapon. We are not raising arms against our brothers, but you are; we are after bloodshed but you are; we do not drag bodies in the streets, but you do; we will not kill children and men, women and young people, but you do; we do not demolish mosques, but you do; we understand Palestine and its people and their will, their pride and dignity but not you."

Hamas has said that Fatah is behind this group and has started a crackdown on suspected members.

Arabic media is off the deep end; impossible to puzzle out the real story anymore

Usually, one can figure out what is going on in an Arab country by reading the propaganda and spin on different sides of the story and boiling it down to something approximating truth.

Right now, for Egypt, this is impossible.

Rumors and pure hate are far more in evidence than actual facts. We are seeing possible Pallywood situations, such as this one where Al Jazeera apparently accidentally showed a fake dead person, who had no wound and then moved his leg:

But we have real Western reporters who have seen real deaths, without any doubt, of hundreds of MB members, so even if this one is fake, this video turns from Pallywood into - anti-MB propaganda.

Make no mistake - the Egyptian leadership and many other Egyptians loath the Muslim Brotherhood. Nothing says "hate" in Arabic like calling your opponents Jews. Here is a fake MB logo going around:

The Brotherhood is doing the same; I had mentioned the rumor that Sisi is really Jewish, and that is now being accepted as fact by Islamist websites without any skepticism.

Last month a rumor started that the Muslim Brotherhood met secretly in Islanbul to plan the next stages of their plan to take over Egypt again. The "leaked minutes" of the supposed meeting have gotten bigger and bigger over several weeks, until now the meeting is said to have determined to put women and children in the rallies, to hold demonstrations constantly to exhaust Egyptian security, to start a campaign of suicide bombings in Egypt, to encourage Hamas and Takfirist groups to fan throughout the Sinai and attack the Suez Canal, to earn a billion dollars from arms smuggling and then use those arms to destabilize Egypt.

While the MB is capable of doing this stuff, it is all fantasy from their opponents. Constant rumors in Egypt about Hamas attacks in the Sinai are similarly unlikely.

And this is the problem - one literally cannot believe a thing one reads in the Arabic media. Even Al Jazeera and Al Arabiya are being shown to be unreliable as they report on their side of the story above all.

This is the worst I have ever seen, even worse than the Shiite/Sunni media wars over the Syria situation.

Freedom Tower, now

It's been a while since I posted a photo of Lower Manhattan. Last time (I think) was two years ago, when the new World Trade Center was under construction.

Previously, as in 2008, I had done entire panoramas of the area.

Here is what the new World Trade Center looked like last week.You can see a number of new buildings built since 2008, making it a completely different skyline to what it was.

Daughter of SA activist talks about demonization of Israel

Esther Meshoe, daughter of conservative South African parliamentarian, Dr. Kenneth Meshoe, refutes false allegations of apartheid on the part of Israel.

((h/t IsraDocuMentalist)

El Al plane turns around for 11-year old cancer patient who lost passport

From The Daily Mail:

An Israeli airline – with the support of everyone on-board – turned around a plane to pick up an 11-year-old cancer patient.

All set to fly to New York August 7 to attend a camp for paediatric cancer patients, Inbar Chomsky, was taken off an El-Al Airlines flight after her passport went missing. Despite a frantic search by airline staff, passengers and the group Chomsky was travelling with, her passport was gone, flight attendants had no choice but to remove the sick girl.

Tears in their eyes, everyone said good bye to the devastated young girl after a half hour search aided by airline staff and passengers failed to turn up the girl’s passport, according to Haaretz.

‘El Al sadly called her mother to tell her that Inbar’s passport was lost and that the girl, who had been fighting illness so valiantly, would not be able to fly to Camp Simcha’ Rabbi Yaakov Pinsky, director of of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline wrote in Yeshiva World News. ‘What a horrible experience for an 11 year old girl.’

Minutes after the doors closed and the plane taxied away from the gate, a fellow camper looking through another girl’s backpack found Chomsky’s passport and told flight attendants, according to Haaretz.

What happened next is virtually unheard of, especially post-9/11.

The plane’s pilots immediately stopped the plane, according to Haaretz, and after about 45 minutes were able to convince air traffic control to let them return to the gate to pick Chomsky up, Pinsky wrote.

Still overcoming her disappointment while at the gate with Elad Maimon, program director of the Israeli branch of Chai Lifeline, Chomsky and others watched in disbelief as the plane turned around, said Haaretz. 'The flight attendants could not believe their eyes,' Maimon told the paper. 'They told me they had never seen such a thing.'

‘Planes rarely return to the gate after departing, read an El Al statement, continuing that ‘after consulting with El Al crew on the plane and El Al staff at the airport the decision was made and the plane returned to pick up Inbar.’

Passengers cheered and cried, wrote Pinsky, saying they shared ‘Inbar’s happiness and excitement,’ and calling it ‘one of the greatest moments’ he has ever witnessed.

Located in the Catskill Mountains roughly two hours north of New York City, an area long-popular with Jewish tourists, Camp Simcha is a summer camp meant to uplift the spirits of children living with cancer and other similar medical problems, according to its website. Campers are medically supervised and take part in sports, carnivals, talent shows, helicopter rides and other activities.

Bayard Rustin and black civil rights leaders' support for Israel in the 1970s

As the US gets ready to mark the 50th anniversary of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s famous March on Washington, it is a good time to remember one of the organizers of the march, one of King's colleagues, and an indefatigable supporter of civil rights, Bayard Rustin, who will be posthumously honored with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Rustin was not only a famous supporter of civil rights, but he also supported gay rights, was an outspoken opponent of antisemitism, and a staunch supporter of Israel. As the book "Bayard Rustin and the Civil Rights Movement" notes:

Rustin always wrote and spoke against anti-Semitism. In the summer of 1967, the SNCC Newsletter published a pro-Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO), anti-Israel article, which Rustin was quick to denounce....

Rustin was a strong supporter of Israel. As in the SNCC Newsletter, black anti-Semitism often took the form of opposing Israel and supporting the PLO as representing victims of imperialistic "Zionism." Rustin, in contrast, saw the Jewish state as a social democratic island surrounded by theocratic dictatorships. In supporting Israel, he was supporting a cause important to most Jews and, by implication, showing that the much publicized anti-Semitic statements of black militants did not represent a broad black viewpoint. In June 1970, the A. Philip Randolph Institute ran a full-page ad in the New York Times, "An Appeal by Black Americans for United States Support to Israel." The ad expressed support for "the most democratic country in the Middle East." It was sympathetic to the plight of Arab refugees but argued that continued conflict did them more harm than good. In its last line, the text urged that the United States provide Israel "with the full number of jet aircraft it has requested."

This was an astonishing statement for someone who had once been a pacifist.

In his column, Rustin frequently spoke out for Israel. Here is his column about the Yom Kippur War:

Rustin was also the director of BASIC, the Black Americans to Support Israel Committee, which published this remarkable full page ad in the New York Times when the UN was about to vote on the infamous "Zionism is Racism" resolution. Here is the entire ad, with the notable African Americans who signed it (including Hank Aaron, Harry Belafonte, Vernon Jordan and others) formatted to you can read it here: