Rich Gulf nations fail to honor pledges to help Syrian refugees!

We already knew, for years,  Gulf Arab nations love to pledge hundreds of millions of petrodollars to help their Palestinian brethren - and often fail to pay up.

Now, the UN is saying that they are doing the same thing - to the real refugees in real danger from Syria:

Mr. Panos Moumtzis, Regional Refugee Coordinator for the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said unfortunately, the dramatic deterioration of the situation inside Syria was continuing to have serious implications for the region. Three-quarters of those fleeing were women and children.

As of today, (9 April) the figures had reached 1.3 million refugees registered. This was a significant increase as 12 months ago, the figure was 30,000. The 1.3 million represented 120 per cent of the planning figure which was thought to be reached by June 2013.

Funding for operations currently sat at 31 per cent as UNHCR had requested $1 billion for the Regional Response Plan, though only received $300 million. This acute shortfall meant that a breaking point had been reached. The public services provided by host countries had been stretched to the maximum, or depleted, and they required support from the international community. In addition, the deterioration of the situation in Syria maintained the outflow of refugees, and without support, there were concerns for the regionalisation of the conflict.

...Answering questions, he said UNHCR was waiting for the materialisation of the bulk of the pledges made in Kuwait by the Gulf States (Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and United Arab Emirates had each pledged $300 million for the humanitarian needs of refugees) and it was hoped these would arrive soon. The modality of the pledging process was that the money could be passed to United Nations agencies, though other pledges were made through national agencies. How exactly the aid was delivered was not the concern, it was more that the pressing needs of the refugees were met.

Yet again, the West is shown to care more about Arab lives than Arabs do!

I always maintained that the reason Gulf states wouldn't pay their pledges to the PA was because they were sick of the Palestinian issue, the infighting and the inability to compromise to make peace already with Israel.

This case is different. In this case, there is a real humanitarian crisis, not a manufactured one. There are real refugees, not descendants.  Here we have a real need to help people who simply cannot help themselves, as opposed to Palestinian Arabs who simply whine that they deserve more and more.

But the rich oil states are not paying up even here.

It looks more like they are simply selfish jerks who like to talk big but run away when asked to make good on their promises.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Israel saving lives in Syria

The first paragraphs of this story in GlobalPost are extremely misleading, implying that Israel is trying to take a piece of Syria:

Israeli military personnel are operating in non-combat capacity in an area across Israel's border with Syria, GlobalPost has learned.

This area may be in Syrian territory that, with the redeployment of regular Syrian army units to Damascus, has become a contested arena for various rebel groups.

Israel and Syria have been in a formal state of war since the founding of the State of Israel in 1948. There are no diplomatic ties and no contacts, except through UN offices; it is illegal for Israelis to enter Syria, and Syrians entering Israel are considered enemy infiltrators.

UN peacekeeping forces have safeguarded a demilitarized zone along the generally quiet border since the end of the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The last Israeli soldiers known to have been in Syria were returned to Israel in an exchange of POWs following the war.

Reports that Israelis may be operating, even in non-combat capacities, in an enemy state can be compared to information indicating that American military personnel are operating in North Korea — if North Korea lay on the American border, and if it was consumed by a civil war in which extremist elements were involved.

Say what?

What is really going on can only be discerned many paragraphs later:

Late last month, after 11 Syrian citizens were treated in Israeli hospitals, AFP reported that the Israeli army set up a field hospital on the Israeli-Syrian border to provide emergency care on-site. The army spokesman has refused to comment on the report.

Standing on the northern Golan Heights, a white tent-like structure is visible within Israeli lines, on the grounds of military base 105.

"I think behind the scenes there are steps being taken to prepare. We haven't set up a field hospital for thousands. But there is some preparation, more ambulances, more doctors, more medical equipment. We're ready. It's only logical," Ret. Col. Eshkol Shokron, who commanded the Golan Division until his retirement last August, told GlobalPost.

"It’s a terrible situation there. Injured people are dying in the field because of a lack of medical treatment. Sometimes they just bleed. If possible, caring for them on the border without bringing them into Israel is better. I think the army is doing things in the field."

When asked by GlobalPost if non-combat military personnel are operating across the Syrian border, Israeli Defense Forces spokesman, Capt. Eytan Buchman, did not deny the possibility.

In a written statement, he replied, "The IDF places a great deal of importance on the provision of humanitarian care when necessary. As such, we have provided initial medical assistance to a number of Syrians over the past few months. We cannot at this time comment on the process that takes place during such incidents. The IDF's primary goal is to provide for the safety and security of the State of Israel and its residents."

Whether there is an established base of medical operations on the border itself, or whether Israelis are operating just across the frontier, "the State of Israel doesn't need to take sides in the war," Shokron said.

He added that there is reluctance in Israel to address the matter head on because of concerns that wounded Syrians, both civilians and combatants, could flood the Israeli border.

"If we advertise that there's a hospital here, the whole world will come. If they understand there's an option here, and no one will shoot at them, that the army is moral and will take care of them, of course it is their best option."

Ret. Brig. Gen. Shlomo Brom, an expert on Israeli military strategy, says the significance of any Israeli presence across the Syrian lines would be tactical, not strategic, and that he doubts there exists a "permanent Israeli presence" across the border.

"It may mean there are ties or communication developing with some of the saner, more secular rebel groups," he said. "Dialogue like this is essential to cope with new security demands. Israelis may go in and out as the situation demands. But I'd say its farfetched to believe that any Israelis are sitting there in a permanent capacity."

In other words, the area near the border has become effectively a no-man's land and in the absence of any governance there, Israel is acting to secure its own border and to (secondarily) help provide medical care to those who need it.

The beginning of the report made it look more like a land grab. And no doubt Israel haters will interpret it that way as well.

There is another point that is important to stress - Israel does not want thousands of Syrians requesting asylum in Israel, for its own security purposes, so giving medical treatment to them in Syria itself provides the care they need without endangering Israel.

(h/t Zvi)

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Turkish Marmara activist: "We asked for it"

From Hurriyet Daily News:

They never expected it. Neither did they really want it to come. But when Israel’s formal apology for the Mavi Marmara raid did arrive they were caught off guard. And when Erdoğan went ahead and accepted the apology they were deeply perturbed.

What made the matter even more disturbing for them was the fact that the Israeli apology was accepted only days after Erdoğan had equated Zionism with racism, saying it should be considered “a crime against humanity,” much to the joy of the Turkish members of the international Muslim Brotherhood.

As if this was not bad enough, one of the principle activists on the Mavi Marmara, the actor Sinan Albayrak, came out in remarks to daily Akşam after the Israel apology saying he wished the government had prevented them from trying to break Israel’s Gaza blockade in the first place.

“What is the importance of the apology? ‘We killed nine people and are sorry’ – of course it sounds ridiculous. I say this is what the state should have done. If only it had prevented this at the start. But we asked for it. We went there ourselves.”

This is what Albayrak said. Confused as his remarks appear to be, they nevertheless express a regret that cannot have gone down well in Islamist circles. Especially the bit about “We asked for it.” Some are suggesting now that those who were on the Mavi Marmara when it was raided by Israeli commandoes should bring charges against the Turkish state, seeing as a prominent personality on the ship now says it could have prevented them from trying to breach the Israeli blockade.

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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Fayyad offers resignation

From Reuters/YNet:

Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad offered his resignation to President Mahmoud Abbas
on Wednesday following a rift between the two men over government policy, two sources told Reuters.

Sources close to Fayyad confirmed the report.

Abbas was due to return to the West Bank from Jordan on Thursday, and it was not immediately clear whether he would accept the resignation of the US-educated economist.

...Initially successful in revitalizing a sluggish Palestinian economy, Fayyad ran into trouble last year when Israel and the United States withheld vital funds to punish the Palestinians for seeking de facto statehood at the United Nations.

They said the unilateral move ran counter to previous accords and their financial penalties meant Palestinian public sector salaries went unpaid, stoking street protests.

Abbas's Fatah party accused Fayyad of failing to foresee the turmoil and the party's council issued an unprecedented rebuke last week, saying: "The policies of the current government are improvised and confused in many financial and economic issues."

Earlier this week I quoted Abbas as telling the Fatah revolutionary council that he was livid at Fayyad and that something would happen within three days.

Speaking earlier on Wednesday about the rumors of a division between Fayyad and Abbas, a senior diplomat in Jerusalem said Western aid donors would be very upset to see the respected prime minister leave his post.

"Fayyad's departure would have a serious impact on relations with the international community," said the diplomat, who spoke on condition of anonymity. "It is hard to overstate how important Fayyad has been."

The diplomat added that Fayyad's institution-building drive in the West Bank had been "the single best thing" that had happened in the Palestinian territories in recent years, adding that the premier was also highly trusted by Israeli leaders.

Fayyad's close ties with the West have irritated senior Fatah officials, who have accused him of trying to build an unassailable powerbase, despite the fact that he had no significant political support amongst ordinary Palestinians.

This is well known. For years Fayyad - who has no constituency of his own and was never elected - has been praised endlessly by the West for his relative transparency and financial expertise, getting rid of much of the cronyism and corruption from the Arafat days.

Fatah, of course, hated him from the start because he was not a member of Fatah.

Also, unlike every other Palestinian Arab political leader, Fayyad has no ties to terrorism - something that also ensures his unpopularity.

Very few Western pundits ever noted the shakiness of Fayyad's term in office, and the folly of relying on such a man as a symbol of how the PA is getting its act together. On the contrary, people like Thomas Friedman assumed that Fayyad was a symbol of how great the PA was, rather an an anomaly that showed how utterly corrupt the rest of the PA is by contrast.

A great deal of the international legitimacy of the PA derives from a man who was chosen to be prime minister undemocratically, bypassing even the most basic of Palestinian Arab constitutional measures, by a president who has remained in office far beyond his term. Which is pretty much what you need to know about the legitimacy of the "State of Palestine."

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No one showed up to protest Carter at Cardozo. No one.

Not one single protester showed up to Cardozo to express outrage that Jimmy Carter was receiving an award.

A few disappointed counter-protesters were there, however, with nothing to counter-protest:

There was a small crowd of reporters and curious students there as well.

Meanwhile, other Jewish organizations expressed their outrage. Too bad they couldn't actually send anyone there and get guaranteed publicity to focus on Carter's terrible record. Even YU's own Zionist clubs couldn't muster a contingent.

The alumni who promised to physically block Carter? Nowhere to be found.

This was most disappointing.


I haven't yet heard anything about the speech, or questions asked in the ceremony itself. But from everything I can see, Cardozo's dean arranged things to minimize the chances for anything embarrassing to happen from the very start, so I'm certain the questions asked were pre-screened to put a sunny face on the debacle.

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By the way, there are 600,000 virtual slaves in the Middle East

Not that it is worth mentioning or anything, because they happen to be in societies that no one really expects any better from.

Millions of migrant workers flood to the Middle East from some of the world's poorest countries in search of paid work they won't find at home.

But for some, the journey doesn't end as they hope. Instead, they become victims of human trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation.

A report released Tuesday by the International Labor Organization paints a horrifying picture of migrant workers who find themselves trapped in appalling conditions without any way to get out.

"Our research team interviewed hundreds of workers and their experiences independent of country were very similar, actually," Beate Andrees, the report's author and head of the ILO's Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, told CNN.

"They were lured into jobs that either didn't exist or that were offered under conditions that were very different from what they were promised in the first place," she said.

Data is scarce, but the ILO estimates as many as 600,000 people may be victims of forced labor across the Middle East.

That equates to 3.4 in every 1,000 of the region's inhabitants being compelled to work against their free choice, the ILO said.

The study, titled "Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East," is based on more than 650 interviews done over a two-year period in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because their isolation in private homes, without inspections, makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and forced labor, the ILO said.

Among the conditions they may face are: being denied proper time off; being confined to their place of work; being placed under surveillance; being made to live in degrading conditions, like sleeping in a kitchen or hallway; or having their identity papers confiscated or wages withheld so they can't leave.

In more extreme cases, they may be subject to physical and sexual violence.

A Filipina domestic worker in Lebanon told the ILO she was caught after trying to escape by climbing out over the balcony.

"My employer broke my elbow and then tied my hands behind my back. They left me one day long in my room and put a camera there. He threatened me: 'I'll accuse you of stealing money and ask for my money back, and they will throw you in jail!'" she is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, those who are coerced into sex work within the entertainment industry face a "real" risk of violence, detention or deportation, the report said.

"Owners and managers of entertainment establishments, and sex brokers (pimps), do not hesitate to use threats of denunciation to the authorities and family repudiation, and actual psychological, physical and sexual violence, to intimidate their victims," the report says.

"The impossibility of leaving the exploiter is entrenched by the fact that women known to have engaged in sex work have limited opportunities to secure income by other means."

The presence of migrant workers is also vital to the economies of many countries in the Middle East -- and in some, they outnumber the national workers substantially, the ILO points out.

In Qatar, an astonishing 94% of workers are migrants, while in Saudi Arabia that figure is over 50%, the report says. Migrants also make up a significant part of the workforce in Jordan and Lebanon.

(h/t Yoel)

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Wednesday Part 2

From Ian:

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Anti-Semitism is why the Arab Spring failed

In my view, one reason why the Arab Spring succeeded in toppling old dictatorships but didn’t succeed in replacing them with genuine democracy was that narrow-mindedness kept the uprisings’ leadership and supporters from harnessing all existing potential. Instead of dealing with root causes of the problems, they preferred to choose a simplistic answer and solution for all unresolved issues. They had a “one size fits all” diagnosis with a single prescription for all ills: whenever there is a mess, a dilemma or a complicated situation, just point a finger at Israel and the Jews.

The Historical Revisionism of ‘The Great Book Robbery’

Additionally, ‘Robbery’ features prominently anti-Israel professor Ilan Pappe, formerly of Haifa University and now with the University of Exeter in England, who was a driving force behind the boycott movement against Israeli academics. In featuring Pappe, the makers of ‘Robbery’ try (and fail) to cloak their ahistorical, biased film in the mantel of respectability by giving the impression that even Israeli Jews – albeit extreme, far leftist ones – support this narrative.

Richard Millett interviewed for Israeli documentary about antisemitism

The following 40-minute documentary about antisemitism, which aired on Israeli Channel 2 on the eve of Yom HaShoah, April 7, features interviews with Richard Millett, Abe Foxman, Howard Jacobson, and Alan Dershowitz – and includes clips of several figures who will be familiar to CiF Watch readers, including Lauren Booth, Jenny Tonge, and Ken Ovenden.

Vandals burn mezuzahs in Brooklyn building

The mezuzahs on the doorposts of 11 apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, were vandalized on Monday in what police are treating as a possible hate crime

Wave of Anti-Semitic Graffiti Hits Massachusetts

A wave of anti-Semitic and racially charged graffiti hit several locations in Medford, Massachusetts over the weekend, leaving local residents and officials vowing to mount a vigorous investigation into the identities of the perpetrators who desecrated the city on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.

Turkish truckers travel via Israel to Saudi Arabia

Turkish truckers, cut off from Persian Gulf destinations by the civil war in Syria, have begun crossing by ferry to Haifa and continuing on to their destinations via Israel and Jordan.
Although diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey were virtually frozen following the maritime clash three years ago – and the flood of Israeli tourists to Turkey dwindled to a trickle – commercial relations have thrived during this period. Turkey’s imports from Israel increased from $1.3 billion in 2010 to $1.85b. in the past year.(h/t billposer)

Israeli firm talks up mankind’s recovery from the Tower of Babel

You speak in your language but the listener hears you in his or hers — by phone, via the Internet, or even face-to-face. It’s a linguistic revolution, say the innovators behind Lexifone
Now, an Israeli start-up claims to be perfecting the best means of overcoming that biblical curse of global language barriers.

What the ‘Start-Up Nation’ can do for farmers

Educating investors and others about Israeli agritech is one reason Misgav-based The Trendlines Group is sponsoring a first-ever agritech road show, according to Steve Rhodes, Chairman and CEO of The Trendlines Group. “Our goal is to introduce our promising agritech companies to potential investors and strategic partners in the US,” Rhodes said. “It is also about increasing awareness among US investors and corporations about the fantastic opportunities in Israel in the agritech space.”

Prof. Levitzki chosen for American Cancer Research Award

Levitzki was chosen in recognition of contributions to signal transduction therapy and work on tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has chosen Prof. Alexander Levitzki of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the winner of its 2013 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research

The top 65 ways Israel is saving our planet

To celebrate Israel’s 65th birthday, ISRAEL21c takes a look at some of the many creative and varied ways Israel is helping to enrich and improve our planet.
The list comes in no particular order, and is by no means exhaustive. There are hundreds, if not thousands, more worthy projects going on every day. If you’ve got a project worth hearing about, we’d be delighted if you include it in our comments section at the end.

2,000-year-old ritual bath uncovered in Jerusalem

The remains of a 2,000-year-old ritual bath have come to light in Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologists say.
The unusually complex bath was uncovered near the modern-day Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem, and would have been in use around the time of the Second Temple, according to a statement Wednesday from the Israel Antiquities Authority. The remains were found in a salvage dig ahead of the construction of a new road.

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I must have missed the riots when these prisoners died

Ma'an reported on April 1:

Sami Hamdan Qishta, 50, died on Monday of a heart attack in a prison in southern Gaza, the Hamas government in control of the enclave announced.

Qishta was detained in a Rafah jail on charges related to financial crimes, the Gaza ministry of interior said in a statement.

There was a similar story of a prisoner who died in a PA jail a month earlier.

Yet there were no deadly riots against Hamas and the PA for allowing its prisoners to die.

Funny, that.

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Wednesday Part 1

From Ian:

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Obama in Israel: the wrong apology

As displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as Hitler prepared to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, he dismissed objections by saying “Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?” setting the stage for the Holocaust. Ronald Reagan recognized this threat in 1981 when he said, “like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it — and like too many other persecutions of too many other people — the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten.”
More than 20 countries and 42 U.S. states already have recognized the events of 1915 as genocide. As Obama seeks to shape his Middle East policy and consider his legacy over the next four years, he should consider the promises he made as a young candidate and recognize a massacre that never should be forgotten.

Barry Rubin: Why “Progress” Toward Israel-Palestinian “Peace” Is More Likely to Bring Regional Instability

Secretary of State John Kerry has in his head every what-should-be-discredited cliché about the Middle East firmly ensconced in his head. Of course, he is not alone. I just briefed a European diplomat who came up with the exact formulation I’m going to deal with in a moment. What is disconcerting—though long familiar—is that Western policymakers hold so many ideas that are totally out of touch with reality.

Why #OpIsrael Was an #OpFail
Hackers threatened to ‘wipe Israel off the Internet.’ That so did not happen. Eli Lake talks to the hackers who launched the counter-offensive.

It was supposed to be a debilitating assault on Israel’s Internet. On Sunday—timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day—hackers affiliated with the collective, Anonymous, launched #OpIsrael, an attack that promised to “wipe Israel off the internet.”
A message purporting to be from Anonymous on the anti-secrecy website, Cryptome, threatened to expose the coordinates of “special buildings” in Israel so the next time Hamas fired missiles they “wouldn’t land in desert or ocean.”

U.S. Government Files Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit that Claims it Helps Fund Palestinian Terror

The 24 Americans now living in Israel who are the plaintiffs in the case filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for Washington, DC in November claiming that the State Department had ignored congressional safeguards and transparency requirements which govern financial assistance to the PA.

PMW: Fatah calls suicide bomber "Bride of Palestine"

17 year-old Ayyat Al-Akhras became the youngest female Palestinian suicide bomber, when she killed 3 and wounded 28 Israelis in a suicide bombing near a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002. On the 11th anniversary of the attack, Fatah chose to glorify her as a hero for Palestinians, calling her the "Bride of Palestine" on Fatah's Facebook page.

CAMERA: LA Times, Gaza Kitchen Cooking Up Falsehoods

In an enthusiastic Los Angeles Times review of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, Carol J. Williams, together with the cookbook authors Laila Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, take the opportunity to brew up a number of false charges against Israel ("For Gaza cooks, it's two parts rice, one part defiance"). In the introduction to her interview with Haddad and Schmitt, Williams writes:

UN panel: Libyan weapons spread at alarming rate

Libyan weapons are spreading at “an alarming rate” to new territory in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean including Syria and the Gaza Strip where they are fueling conflicts and increasing the arsenals of armed groups and terrorists, a UN panel said.

Egypt's Christian pope blasts Islamist president

Pope Tawadros II says recent attack on St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo 'breaching all the red lines'; claims Morsi promised to protect it
Tawadros also warned that the state was "collapsing" and described Sunday's attack on the St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo, which serves as the Coptic papal seat, as "breaching all the red lines."
He said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the cathedral, "but in reality he did not."

In Pictures: Savage Islamic Attack on St. Mark Cathedral Allowed by Egyptian Forces
Egyptian satirist leads choir in song

Youssef, known as Egypt’s Jon Stewart, could be seen on his “El-Bernameg,” or “The Program,” conducting a 20 person-strong choir in a song titled “My Qatar, my Qatar,” in which they ostensibly thank the oil-rich Gulf state for pouring money into the impoverished Egyptian economy.

Egypt’s revolutionary cleric suspended over sermon

Religious Endowments Ministry investigating the ‘preacher of the revolution’ for criticizing Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood

Syrian Rebels Sought Intel on Israel

Israeli Arab who fought with ‘Global Jihad’ says rebels wanted intel on Israel. Security experts warn of ‘dangerous phenomenon.'

Iranian Military Chief Vows to Defend North Korea from US

The Iranian commitment to stand with North Korea is another move in an escalating exchange of verbal hostilities - considered by many to be mostly posturing - and military maneuvers that North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. have engaged in over the past several

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"Beat the Kikes" T-shirts worn at political rally in Ukraine

At an opposition rally in Cherkassy, Ukraine last Saturday, several people took off their jackets to reveal T-shirts that said "Beat the Kikes" in Ukranian:

A lawyer, Victor Smal, says that he was beaten when he objected to the T-shirts.

This video, however, seems to show that some people at the rally reacted strongly at the appearance of the anti-semites, ripping off their shirts, spraying them with a liquid and even beating one of them up.

Some are saying that this was a "false flag" operation to make a political party look bad.

Police questioned 36 people suspected of inciting ethnic hatred.



(h/t Vandoren)

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Arab media says US ambassador called Egyptians "puppets" under mind control

In January I reported on a crazy rumor that US ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson said that the Jews are the real owners of Egypt, that King Tut was jewish, that Israel would take over the country in 2013 together with NATO, and some other nonsense.

The US Embassy in Cairo issued a categorical denial.

A couple of weeks ago, however, the rumor resurfaced, and it has been a fixture in Arabic media since then, with hundreds of articles making these same claims (the number of people Googling and finding my post skyrocketed.)

Today, a "human rights" lawyer is reported to have brought an official complaint against Patterson, with a new embellishment to the story. Now the rumor is that Patterson was drunk at a party in Egypt, and in her stupor she said that Egyptians are all puppets under mind control. Egyptian pundits are saying that this means that US satellites are sending some sort of mind control ray to Egyptians to get them to do the US' bidding.

Hold on, it gets better. You see, the US experimented with creating superhumans in the 1960s, and during the experiments some 90% of the subjects became unusually tall; 10% however had their growth stunted.

And Anne Patterson is one of those unfortunate people.

I think the article also says that the US stole some sort of Egyptian genius gene, but I'm not sure about that part.

I don't know how much these rumors are fueled by anti-American sentiment in Egypt and how much by misogyny, but it is probably a combination of the two.

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YU/Cardozo update - Carter gave anti-semitic Bible lessons, NYT coverage, more

The story made The New York Times:

When editors of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, a scholarly publication from the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, decided to bestow this year’s International Advocate for Peace award on former President Jimmy Carter, they sought to honor his decades as a mediator and humanitarian. But in the process, they ignited a sizable conflict of their own.

That is because Cardozo is a part of Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish institution where support for the state of Israel runs high. And among supporters of Israel, there are few figures more controversial than Mr. Carter, who has repeatedly criticized Israeli policy toward Palestinians and described their circumstances as apartheid.

...“Part of being a law school is being an open and diverse community with a cacophony of ideas which people are free to express,” Dr. Diller said Tuesday. But, he added, “we are part of a Jewish institution and we stand for Jewish values and commitments, and part of that is support for Israel.”

Brian Farkas, the editor in chief of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, said that the decision to honor Mr. Carter had been mischaracterized.

He said he had spent the morning engaged in “respectful” discussion with members of the Jewish Law Students Association, and that plans were in the works for a future event that would offer differing perspectives on Mr. Carter’s work.

He added that Mr. Carter, who was not available for comment, had agreed to take questions from students after his address on Wednesday afternoon.

Perhaps one of the students can ask Carter about his Sunday school lessons that were first revealed by Phyllis Chesler):

As decades-old tapes from his Church Sunday school lessons reveal, former President Jimmy Carter’s bias against the Jewish state may come more from an old fashioned Christian animus toward Judaism than from concerns over the situation of Palestinians. Carter taught Christian students in Plains Georgia that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are tricks to enhance wealth, and that current Israeli policy toward Palestinians is based on these “Jewish” values and practices.

In a series of sermons Carter recorded between 1999 and 2003 that were published as a CD set by Simon and Schuster called “Sunday Mornings in Plains,” Carter attacks modern Israel by retreading ancient anti-Semitic tropes that go back to the early church fathers and the Judaism/Christianity schism that gave birth to a millennia of Christian persecution of Jews.

1. Jews hate and feel superior to non-Jews: In the tapes, one hears -- in Southern drawl -- his ancient animus: Jews hate non-Jews:

“…this morning I’m gonna be trying to relate the assigned Bible lesson to us in the Uniformed Series with how that affected Israel and how it affects us through Christ personally… It’s hard for us to even visualize the prejudice against gentiles when Christ came on earth. If a Jew married a gentile, that person was considered to be dead. … How would you characterize from a Jew’s point of view the uncircumcised? Non believer? And what? Unclean, what? They called them DOGS! That’s true. … What was Paul’s feeling toward gentiles in his early life as a Jewish leader? [Paul was not a Jewish leader. Ed.] Anybody? Absolute commitment to persecution! To the imprisonment and even the execution of non-Jews who now professed faith in Jesus Christ. … We know the differences in the Middle East. But the differences there are between Jews on the one hand who comprise the dominating force both militarily and also politically and the Palestinians who are both Muslim and Christians. …”

2. Jewish ritual sacrifice is a dodge that relieves one from taking care of one’s parents, while preserving one’s wealth:

“Corban was a uh prayer that could be performed by usually a man in an endorsed ceremony by the Pharisees that you could say in effect, ‘God, everything that I own all these sheep all these goats this nice house and the money that I have, I dedicate to you, to God.’ And from then on according to the Pharisees law those riches didn’t belong to that person anymore. They were whose? God’s! So as long as those riches were belonged to the person, that person was supposed to share them with needy parents right? But once it was God’s it wasn’t theirs and they didn’t have anything to share with their parents. So with impunity, and approved by the Pharisaic law, they could avoid taking care of their needy parents by a trick that had been evolved by the incorrect and improper interpretation of the law primarily designed by religious leaders to benefit whom? The rich folks! The powerful people! Because the poor man wouldn’t have all of this stuff to give to God. He would probably, in fact he might very well have his parents in the house with him or still be living with his own parents.”

3. Carter ties this Jewish feelings of superiority and religious malevolence to current Israeli policy:

“One reason is that the Israeli government headed now by Netanyahu has to depend on the ultra-right or fundamentalist Jews to give them a majority in the parliament which they call the Knesset, and the recent resignation of foreign minister Levy has left Netanyahu with only one vote margin in the parliament. So the ultra-conservative Jewish leaders demand always that they have total control over anything that relates to religion inside Israel, in particular in Jerusalem. Well, I’m not here to condemn anyone but to point out that even within ourselves, there is an inclination for, I’d say, a feeling of superiority. Wouldn’t you think so? Would you agree? I know I have it.”

Carter’s beef with the Jews is not simply a disagreement over how Israel should treat the Palestinians. His is a deep theological hatred of the type that most Christians (including the Vatican in the 1960s Nostra Aetate) have long disavowed. This is not the “new anti-Semitism: it’s the old. All the more indefensible for an orthodox Jewish religious institution to give this man an award.

As I've said in the past, I am reluctant to call people anti-semitic without serious proof. This is damning. (In the partial  transcript, which I unfortunately can no longer find online but which was emailed to me, Carter at one point criticizes biblical Judah - but calls it "Israel.")

Carter's admitting his own feeling of superiority and self-righteousness is accurate, at least. After all, he calls his group of crotchety yentas "The Elders" (without the irony that some others might employ in using that title.)

Here is his wonderful group being used as a prop by Hamas underneath a huge poster showing a map where Israel doesn't exist.

That same group happily attended an anti-Israel protest a couple of years back that effectively meant that Carter and his fellow "conflict resolution" peers agreed that Israel's legal system is illegitimate.

Is part of "conflict resolution" to allow yourself to be used by extremists on one side - or to openly embrace one side?

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I am told that my protest posters will be distributed by at least one group at Cardozo today. If anyone takes photos or video, I'd appreciate it!

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Posters for Jimmy Carter protests at Cardozo

If anyone who plans to protest needs a poster...there's a Kinko's at Union Square.

If you don't know what a Gharqad tree is, you need to read the Hamas charter.

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Tuesday Links Part 2

From Ian:

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Elliott Abrams: Irish Teachers Teach Hatred of Israel

One could pile statistic upon statistic, but that would be a vain effort when it comes to minds like those of the members of the Teachers Union of Ireland, who voted unanimously on the boycott; not one soul had the wit or independence of mind to object or to question. One can only pity the poor Irish student who might think for himself or for herself, might wish to spend a term in Israel at a place like the Technion, and might not share in the biases of the teachers. The message from teachers to students is pretty clearly “shut up.” And meanwhile, of course, no mention (much less boycott) by the Irish teachers of China, Saudi Arabia, Cuba or anyplace else where students are “struggling for the right to education under extremely difficult conditions” that include repressive governments, no academic freedom, political tests for admission to higher education–and in the Saudi case greatly restricted opportunities for girls. What a lesson to their students: ignorance, bias, bigotry, narrow-mindedness, and anti-Semitism wrapped in self-righteousness.

Israeli filmmaker says he’ll file police complaint about assault in France

According to Horowitz, the French reactions to his side of the story shifted when Gaëlle Milbeau-Rhodeville, the General Delegate of the International Film Festival of Aubagne, as well as the mayor of Aubagne, shifted their message to the press, trying to “lessen” the direction of Horowitz’s accusations, he said, and asking him to retract his story.
“They said, ‘We know it wasn’t anti-Semites or Arabs,’” said Horowitz. “But how do they know?”

Isi Leibler: Candidly Speaking: Sanctimonious Jewish bleeding hearts

We are entitled to expect Zionists not to behave like the naïve “fellow travelers” who during the Cold War blindly endorsed communist peace petitions which ultimately only promoted the interests of the Evil Empire. It is unethical and unconscionable for bleeding-heart American Zionist “friends” to display disrespect and intervene to thwart the policies determined by the democratically elected leaders of Israel or offer them patronizing advice on how best to ensure their security.

Israeli leaders praise ‘staunch friend’ Margaret Thatcher

Israeli leaders and legislators on Monday praised the deceased former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher, speaking to her strong character and calling her a friend of the Jewish state. Thatcher, known as the Iron Lady, piloted the UK government for 11 years. She died Monday morning of a stroke at age 87.
Thatcher “was truly a great leader, a woman of principle, of determination, of conviction, of strength… a woman of greatness,” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said. “She was a staunch friend of Israel and the Jewish people. She inspired a generation of political leaders. I send my most sincere condolences to her family and to the government and people of Great Britain.”

Ex-British PM Margaret Thatcher dies at 87

MK Avigdor Liberman, the former foreign minister, noted that Thatcher was the first British prime minister to visit Israel. “I remember well the tears she shed on her visit to Yad Vashem and the empathy she expressed for our nation’s past and future challenges,” he said, calling her a great friend of the Jewish people. ”Margaret Thatcher was a strong and courageous leader and stateswoman, who showed great foresight and was not afraid to act in the interests of her country and people.”

Mini-UAS Training & Simulation Center for Finnish Defense Forces (FDF)

Simlat Ltd., an Israeli Company, has been awarded a contract to deliver its UAS Training and Simulation systems to FDF as part of Mini-UAS contract awarded to Aeronautics Ltd.

Ormat to build $245m geothermal power project in Indonesia

Israel’s geothermal company Ormat Technologies has signed a $245 million deal to provide geothermal energy in Indonesia. The Yavne-based company will design the Sarulla geothermal power station in Sumatra and supply its Ormat Energy Converters to the new power plant.

Munich 11 athlete inducted to Sports Hall of Fame

David Berger, a weightlifting team member of the Israeli delegation to the 1972 Munich Olympics will be inducted into the National Jewish Sports Hall of Fame on April 21.
The American-born athlete won bronze and gold medals in the 1965 and 1969 Maccabia Games in Israel before he attended the Munich Olympic games and was part of one of the worst tragedies in Jewish history, where 11 Israelis were taken hostage and brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists.

Israeli robot could be your next ‘milkman’

Israeli cows lead the world in milk production, and Israeli dairy companies have set up projects in far-flung places like Argentina and Vietnam to export Israeli know-how on feeding, milking, and raising cows. For many farmers in the developing world, Israeli know-how has fostered a revolution in milk production, enabling dairy farmers to triple or quadruple their output. Now, agritech start-up MiRobot is ready to bring the world the next big Israeli dairy farm innovation — a robot that will completely automate milk production, at a far lower cost than anything else available.

Oh crazy Israel! Rachel Johnson returns to the kibbutz where she and Boris worked

Almost 30 years ago I was a pale-skinned, fair-haired teenage girl visiting Israel for the first time with her even paler-skinned and fairer-haired older brother.
We'd come to work as volunteers at a kibbutz north of the Sea of Galilee, on the green banks of the Jordan river, just below the volcanic pointy hills of the Golan Heights and a few miles from Syria.

Stand With Us: 65 Things We Love About Israel in 65 Seconds

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Also:

A Rock is a Bullet: The Consequences of Palestinian Rock-Throwing

Ahikam’s mother still keeps the rock that changed the trajectory of her son’s life and that of her family. “We always knew that rocks were weapons and we’ve been suffering from this rock for decades,” says Edna, holding the giant rock in her hand. “Because of this, one-third of my son’s brain is missing. He walks with a limp, has back problems, cannot feel with his right hand and suffers from a weaker right side. I take him to physiotherapy three times a week. I had so much hope for him when he was born, there was so much potential.”

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Roger Waters hypocritically responds to 92Y cancellation

Roger Waters, the crazy anti-Israel musician who has been memorably described in the comment section here as a "Pink Floyd cover band member," was scheduled to give a talk at the 92nd Street Y in New York, a Jewish community center, on April 30.

After much pressure on the Y, the talk was canceled with no explanation.

Now, Waters has issued a statement:

There has been some chatter about the cancellation of my interview at 92Y. By way of clarification, here is what I know.

I was invited by 92Y to take part in an interview at the Theresa L. Kaufmann Concert Hall on the 30th April this year. ...

Things were complicated when the Opera House in São Paulo, Brazil requested my presence for four full productions of Ça Ira, my opera on the French Revolution, around conflicting dates. In the end, the date for the dress rehearsal of Ça Ira fell on the 30th April, and so, reluctantly and very apologetically, I asked the team at 92Y if my appearance could be re-scheduled. Assistant Director Jennifer Hausler, who had been helping all along, couldn’t have been more understanding, gave me some alternative dates in June and I accepted June the 19th. Everyone was happy. Well, perhaps not quite everyone.

On April 3rd, my publicist in NY received a phone call from Susan Engel, the Director of Lectures at the 92Y, cancelling my re-scheduled engagement without explanation. She did leave a telephone number which we called, but it was only an answering machine with the message that 92Y was closed for Passover. We left messages asking to talk to Susan Engel but have so far received no reply.

I have since been made aware of rumblings on the net suggesting that resistance in the local Jewish community to my coming engagement may have had something to do with its cancellation. If that be the case it saddens me. In these troubled times, opportunities for serious, measured discourse are too precious to be discarded on the altar of sectarian prejudice. Not to talk is not an option.

While the 92nd Street Y should have never have invited this Israel-hater to begin with, it should also have been forthcoming on the reasons for the cancellation. This was a bit passive-aggressive for my taste - it would have been far better for them to have stated that his simple-minded anti-Israel position establishes him as a person who could not be trusted to give any sort of serious talk on any topic.

Waters' hypocrisy shines through on his declaration, "Not to talk is not an option." As a person who supports "BDS," surely Waters knows that he is supporting the silencing of Israeli opinions worldwide. He supports boycotting Israeli universities, Israeli books, Israeli poems, Israeli music, Israeli dance and indeed Israelis giving talks in other countries. He supports the disgraceful displays of haters interrupting concerts, lectures and dances simply because the performers were Israeli, no matter what the content of their performances.

For a person like that to say "Not to talk is not an option" really means that Waters reserves the right for his drug-addled ramblings to be heard wherever and whenever he wants, but he will not extend that same right to anyone who is peripherally connected to the Jewish state. That is pretty much the definition of hypocrisy.

As far as I know, Waters never responded to this excellent open letter by an Israeli musician .So when he says he wants to talk, it means he only wants to talk - but he certainly doesn't want to listen. Waters, for all his high-minded babble about walls and talking is not really interested in dialogue, but in having a forum to spout his crazed thoughts to swooning fans without fear of contradiction.

It is best to leave the lunatic out of the Hall.

(h/t shmuckler )

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