Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Friday, April 15, 2016

Footnotes to the Bernie Sanders "Jewish Outreach" fiasco

As soon as the Sanders campaign announced that Simone Zimmerman would be his national Jewish outreach coordinator, controversy erupted over her previous articles and Facebook posts, including profane ones, that stridently criticized Israel.

But a Jewish Sanders supporter not associated with the campaign, tweeting as "JewsforBernie," posted this:

Don’t believe the smears against Bernie’s Jewish outreach director. pic.twitter.com/oTnodJOr2H
— Jews for Bernie (@jewsforbernie) April 14, 2016

So I asked:

Could @simonerzim show documentation or photos of her anti-BDS work on campus that @jewsforbernie says she led? https://t.co/AxwU80pqd7
— ElderOfZiyon (@elderofziyon) April 14, 2016

I was answered:

@elderofziyon https://t.co/QkTI8Cv9zu
— Jews for Bernie (@jewsforbernie) April 14, 2016

So I looked at that source (and one other provided.)

But it didn't show opposition to boycotting Israel at all. Her speech at the 2011 J-Street Conference showed opposition to how BDS activists at Berkeley acted, as well as how their Zionist opponents acted.

Good afternoon. You’ve heard the other panelists discuss the merits of BDS and whether it’s effective. I recognize that BDS seeks to address serious human rights issues in Israel and the Territories. However, at UC Berkeley, rather than creating discussion, it was my experience that our BDS campaign created a polarizing atmosphere where both sides sank further into the extremes of their positions. I felt that it fostered animosity, squashed nuance, and alienated the rational voices most essential to addressing these complex issues.

Zimmerman firmly places her self in between the extremes of the strident anti-Israel voices of BDS and the Zionists:

In the back of the room was a group of students with powerful voices unable to make them heard. They were Jewish social justice activists, moved by humanist and progressive values, some anti-war, some anti-occupation, all socially conscious, concerned with the problems in Gaza as well as the emotion and fear tied to the anti-divestment movement on campus. They didn’t identify fully with either side. No green stickers, no blue stickers. Some goals of the bill spoke to their progressive values. However, their commitment to Israel made some of them mistrustful of the movement before them. The polarity created by both sides was alienating not just for these students, with whom I have quickly come to identify, but also for students who lacked a serious connection to the issues.

So I pointed out that this hardly showed her position to be anti-BDS, and an almost surreal discussion came about between me at "JewsforBernie"

Denim Dave ‏@DTenenbaum 15 hours ago

@jewsforbernie @elderofziyon "I know nuanced views are really hard for you to accept but UNPROVEN ASSERTION SANS EVIDENCE. PERIOD."
Jews for Bernie ‏@jewsforbernie 15 hours ago

@DTenenbaum @elderofziyon You could have video of her saying BDS is antisemitic and you'd insist it wasn't evidence of anything.
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 15 hours ago

.@jewsforbernie No, I would welcome such a video, Or article. Or tweet. Your links showed ambivalence, not opposition. But let's ask her!
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

So, @simonerzim, will you say unambiguously that you oppose the idea of boycott or divestment or sanctions against Israel? @jewsforbernie
Jews for Bernie ‏@jewsforbernie 14 hours ago

@elderofziyon She already did. You’re replying to our screen cap of her doing so!
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

.@jewsforbernie So no harm in me asking her to make it explicit, right? Are you afraid she won't?
Jews for Bernie ‏@jewsforbernie 14 hours ago

@elderofziyon She’s been on the job 3 working days and hasn’t been greenlighted for press.
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

.@jewsforbernie @simonerzim has tweeted in the past 24 hours. You seem to have a problem with accuracy. I'm asking for one word from her.
ElderOfZiyon ‏@elderofziyon 14 hours ago

This Twitter thread should make a good post. But I'll give @simonerzim a few hours to answer my question. @jewsforbernie is not truthful.
Jews for Bernie ‏@jewsforbernie 14 hours ago

@elderofziyon Coming from one of the kings of dishonest right-wing smears of liberal Jewry, that's rich.

Of course Zimmerman never answered my question.

Three interesting things happened since this exchange.

One is that the Sanders campaign suspended Zimmerman:

On Thursday, Senator Bernie Sanders’s campaign suspended Ms. Zimmerman, 25, after revelations that she had used vulgarities in Facebook posts about Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel and Hillary Clinton. The suspension, hours before a Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn, made for an embarrassing misstep for Mr. Sanders, a secular Jew who, despite having lived briefly in Israel and being the most successful candidate of his faith in American history, is being pummeled by Mrs. Clinton among Jewish voters.

But the suspension was also an important moment in the small but deeply felt universe of Democratic Jewish politics, which has been torn apart on generational and ideological lines over the acceptable level of criticism of Israel’s right-wing government.

With Ms. Zimmerman’s history of opposition to Israeli policies in the West Bank and Gaza, her hiring drew concerted and ultimately overwhelming pressure from American Jewish leaders. Her suspension showed that when it came to the high stakes and intense scrutiny of presidential politics, the establishment’s view of Ms. Zimmerman and her brethren as dangerous radicals still held sway even with Mr. Sanders, a candidate promising a revolution.

Two is that Peter Beinart came out in support of Zimmerman:

“This is the American Jewish community eating its own,” said Peter Beinart, a mentor to Ms. Zimmerman and a leading voice in liberal Zionism. “Simone is the best of the best. Most of the other kids have given up on the community. She cares deeply and wants to make it live up to its own stated ideals.”

And the third is that the JewsforBernie tweeter was outed:

FYI: This is the obnoxious guy behind @jewsforbernie: https://t.co/ajhV7h0f81 #EnoughSaid
— Jacob Kornbluh (@jacobkornbluh) April 15, 2016

Daniel Sieradski is a very iconoclastic far left yeshiva-educated Jew. His Jewschool site has been around forever and while I hadn't visited it for many years my impression was that he had some intellectual honesty.

This exchange proved that wrong.

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04/14 Links Pt2: Anglo Jewry confronts Labour anti-Semitic surge; The Soviet Campaign to Eliminate Passover

From Ian:

Fred Maroun: Why the BDS Movement is Destroying a Future Palestinian State

From the moment Israel declared its independence, one of the main Arab tactics has been to exploit the Jews' Achilles heel – their highly developed culture, which respects and values life, and their support for human rights.
Of Arab origin, I have long known about the Arab stereotype of the West and Israel -- that they are weak because they care about the lives of their own people and they are eager to respect the human rights of their enemies. Golda Meir is reported to have said, "We can forgive the Arabs for killing our children. We cannot forgive them for forcing us to kill their children."
Until now, Israel has conformed to that Arab stereotype -- such as with "knocks on the roof" in Gaza to warn residents to leave buildings being used for military purposes before they are targeted -- but in conversations with Zionists, it seems that this attitude is changing. While Jews will always value life, their determination to minimize enemy casualties and to respect their human rights at almost all costs might be unraveling, and it is the Palestinians who are likely to pay the price.
During the War of Independence, the Arab side ensured that not a single Jew was left on the Arab side of the 1949 armistice lines, but a large number of Arabs were allowed by Jews to remain on the Israeli side. Today those Arabs constitute 20% of the Israeli population.
Israel's respect for the human rights of Arabs living in Israel has been used by Arabs against Israel. The idea of any Jews on the Arab side is demonized and any "normalization" with Jews is aggressively discouraged

Isi Leibler: Anglo Jewry confronts Labour anti-Semitic surge

Ten years ago, I was accused of pandering to hysteria when I praised Melanie Phillips’ groundbreaking book, Londonistan, detailing the alarming growth of anti-Semitism in the UK and predicting further deterioration unless the British government drastically altered its approach.
Many British Jews, especially those living in Jewish enclaves, were in denial, simply unwilling to face reality.
Their attitude is brilliantly portrayed in Howard Jacobson’s 2010 Man Booker Prize-winning novel, The Finkler Question, which satirically portrays a British Jew desperately seeking to become socially acceptable.
The Anglo Jewish establishment has frequently been referred to as “trembling Israelites.” They were “shtadlanim” (court Jews) who, to quote a former president of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, crafted a policy based on “Why must one shout when a whisper can be heard?” Their overriding concern was to avoid rocking the boat by minimizing public protest wherever possible.

Merciless London Musical Skewers Jeremy Corbyn

Just when Jeremy Corbyn thought it couldn't get any worse, a rollicking stage musical has debuted in London openly mocking the Labour Party leader's intellect, his terror-loving friends and his sexual performance.
The entire run of Corbyn the Musical, which first previewed on Tuesday at the Waterloo East Theatre, is already sold out.
On stage, Corbyn is mercilessly lampooned as a hapless Communist wannabe—rejected by the Soviet Union, and unable to get it up.
Perhaps most worryingly of all for Corbyn—who is overshadowed by wicked caricatures of Tony Blair and Vladimir Putin—you leave the theater feeling sorry for the beleaguered left-wing leader.
This extremely camp musical is set in the early months of Corbyn's first term in office. He has taken power after a freakish turn of events render current Prime Minster David Cameron and his heir apparent Boris Johnson unable to win the election despite Corbyn's historically low approval rating. (h/t Alexi)

Hamas media paints a rosier picture of Gaza than Western media does

Here are stories from today's Hamas-run Palestine Times newspaper about how life is getting better in Gaza.

Israel now allows Gaza fishing boats to go further out to sea, and they are now catching more fish.

Israel is working with the Dutch government to add an additional pipeline to provide Gaza power plants with more fuel.

New generators in Gaza are slowly easing the electricity crisis there.

A Qatari diplomat is arriving in Gaza today (going through the Erez crossing from Israel!) in order to sign some more development projects there.

36 cars were imported into Gaza through Israel, including six taxis.

All of these stories are from a single day in this Hamas newspaper.

No one is saying that life in Gaza is wonderful, but Western media and anti-Israel NGOs are generally not interested in portraying it as anything other than a besieged, bombed out wasteland. It is ironic that the people who hate Israel the most are in some ways more honest in their reporting about the "siege" than hundreds of Western reporters who have their own narratives and agendas.

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Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

Sometimes the task of defending Israel’s image in the world seems hopeless. Our traditional enemies, the Arabs, are in disarray, but the international Left, Europe, and the US administration continue to batter Israel in the information war. Every other day it seems that a new organization, publication or website pops up whose objective is to blacken Israel’s name. Almost unlimited funding seems to be available for these enterprises from the EU, European governments and sources linked to George Soros. Activist groups hijack religious, academic and labor associations and pass BDS resolutions or distribute anti-Israel material. Tendentious lessons creep into school syllabi.

At the same time, it has become harder for pro-Israel people to speak. The response on campuses to pro-Israel speakers – or anyone connected with Israel, regardless of his politics, is disruption and even violence; and this behavior is condoned by administrators, who, if they don’t agree with the disruptors, are afraid to challenge them.

Particularly in the US Jewish community, the anti-Zionist forces have been gathering strength, turning the traditional Jewish establishment organizations more and more in their direction. Battlegrounds include the campus Hillels, the Jewish Federations and Community Relations Councils, and even the religious movements. The Reform movement, never a bastion of Zionism, seems to be actively looking for reasons to criticize Israel and make demands, regardless of what Israelis think. Jewish Voice for Peace, which the ADL once called one of the top ten anti-Israel groups in the US, has expanded dramatically in the last few years from a tiny bunch of Bay Area wackos to a national force with its dirty fingers in every pro-BDS resolution and demonstration against Israel.

Code Pink – formerly a generalized leftist/feminist group, now specializing in attacking Israel – Black Lives Matter, and countless others have adopted opposition to the Jewish state as an essential piece of their ideology and justified it by appeals to the logically incoherent concept of ‘intersectionality’ (all oppression is the same, blacks, women and Palestinians are oppressed, ergo feminists and blacks must oppose Israel). Incoherent, perhaps, but practically it has been very effective in recruiting new blood to the anti-Zionist ranks.

I had lunch today with a pro-Israel Canadian today who wanted to know what he personally could do. Well, he could oppose all of the above, I suggested. But there are far more of them than there are of us, and they are very well-funded – much better than we are. And they are better at it than we are.

The Canadian said that it seemed to him that the anti-Israel forces were well-organized and even coordinated, and we were just flailing. Maybe he’s right, or maybe it just seems that way from our point of view. But there’s no doubt that we are losing the battle for Western public opinion (I suspect we are doing better among the Arabs, who are worried about Iran and scared by the explosion of chaos in their world).

Our cause is just, historical truth and international law are on our side. And yet we continue to lose the information war. Why?

There are at least two reasons. One is that people’s opinions are driven by emotions and only afterwards justified by reason, and we are not arguing on an emotional level. And the other is that we are not giving reasons that make sense, either rationally or emotionally.

I think there is a solution, or at least a strategy. We can call it “Strategic self-respect.”

We must present a unified message. It needs to be grounded in historical fact, and be internally consistent and complete. It needs to express the reason for being of today’s Jewish state, and our reason for supporting it. It must be a moral message, and emotionally powerful. It needs to make people get up and take action. And it must make them feel good about themselves for doing so.

The enemy has a story that is internally consistent and complete and couched in moral terms. It is also compelling; they are experts at appealing to emotions. Of course it is based on lies and told by terrorists, but once inside their conceptual scheme, it explains everything. Unfortunately, many Jews, even in Israel, accept the enemy’s narrative.

Individuals like my Canadian friend and unofficial groups can’t change this themselves. In today’s Jewish world, there is just one authoritative source, and that is the state of Israel. No matter what J Street, the Reform movement, the various Haredi sects, or the editorial board of Ha’aretz think, no one else can speak for the Jewish people. The state and its government must find its voice, amplify it, and transmit a consistent, powerful message in every language to every corner of the world (since everyone seems to think they know our business better than we do).

The message must include this:

The entire Land of Israel belongs to the Jewish people by historical, legal and moral right. Judea, Samaria and eastern Jerusalem are not ‘occupied’, they are integral parts of the state. Palestinian Arab terrorists are insurgents trying to overthrow the legitimate sovereign.

The Jewish people has existed for thousands of years and is the original indigenous people of the land. The modern State of Israel was created to ensure the preservation of the Jewish people. The War of Independence and the struggle that led up to it were pursued to restore the self-determination of the Jewish people and prevent its domination or persecution by Western or Arab colonialists.

The borders of the Jewish state were inherited from the Mandate for Palestine, including Jerusalem, and the illegal Jordanian occupation from 1948 to 1967 did not diminish the legitimacy of these boundaries. The ‘Green Line’ has no political significance, as stated in the 1949 cease-fire agreements.

Israel may choose to cede some territory in return for reciprocal concessions, but the Palestinian Arabs have no inherent right to any part of the land of Israel.

This must be clearly articulated by the Prime Minister and the Foreign Ministry and its employees. Our allies and enemies should understand that this is our position. It must be assumed as a starting point for any peace negotiations. Along with the historical facts that support it, it must be taught in schools and become common knowledge to Jews and Arabs in the Land of Israel. The world needs to know: like it or not, this is where the Jews are coming from.

This position would have some diplomatic consequences. It implies that there is no legitimacy to an Arab right of return. It contradicts the “Arab initiative,” which blames Israel for the conflict and offers ‘normal relations’ in return for a complete reversal of the 1967 war and return or compensation for Arab refugees and their descendents. It implies that there is no rationale for ‘land swaps’, since there is no imputation of Arab ownership to land beyond the Green Line. It implies that settlements are legal.

It would also have important psychological and emotional impact. It represents a non-apologetic Zionist stance and presents the moral basis for the state. It does not accept guilt for the Arab nakba and does not ask us to compensate the Arabs for the consequences of their racism and aspirations to genocide. It makes it clear that our sacrifices are justified.

Those who are committed to the anti-Israel narrative won’t be converted to our position. But they can be challenged to try to refute it. And possibly our self-respect will favorably impress liberal Western Jews, many of whom who seem to have forgotten their identity.

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.

04/14 Links Pt1: Fatah: “Glory and eternity” to female suicide bombers; Rocket sirens in Gaza Belt

From Ian:

PMW: Fatah: “Glory and eternity” to female suicide bombers

Suicide bomber who murdered 6 is: "The hero Andalib Takatka... carried out a Martyrdom-seeking operation in Jerusalem in which 6 Zionists were killed, and dozens injured"
Suicide bomber Ayyat Al-Akhras who murdered 2 and wounded 28 is:“Bride of Palestine”
“Don’t tell it - show it,” is a golden rule in marketing. With that in mind, you could say PA Chairman Abbas has a funny way of showing it.
While Abbas recently proclaimed to Israeli TV viewers that he “extends his hand in peace” to Israelis, his own Fatah movement raises its hands in honor of suicide bombers who have killed Israelis.
Fatah this week glorified two of its female suicide bombers who in total killed 8 and wounded over 100 Israelis in 2002. On Facebook, Fatah posted their pictures and referred to one as “hero” and the other as “bride of Palestine.”

US accuses Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians

The Obama administration accused Israel of using excessive force against Palestinians during a wave of deadly violence, in an annual report that pointed to a global decline in human rights.
The annual report by the State Department into human rights abuses around the world accused Israeli forces of “excessive use of force” in the Palestinian territories, and “arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse, often with impunity,” by the IDF, the Palestinian Authority and Hamas.
According to numbers cited in the report, 149 Palestinians were killed in 2015 by Israeli security forces, but only 77 were in the course of attacking Israelis.
“There were numerous reports of the ISF (Israel security forces) killing Palestinians during riots, demonstrations, at checkpoints, and during routine operations; in some cases they did not pose a threat to life,” the report read.
The numbers clash with Israeli accounts that some two-thirds of Palestinians killed during a wave of violence beginning in October were in the midst of attempting or carrying out attacks and the rest died in clashes with security forces.

Col. Richard Kemp: Israel an ‘Outpost of Strength,’ Europe on ‘Spiral Downward to Obliteration’

Discussing the challenges democracies face in confronting unconventional warfare, a retired British Army officer on Tuesday touted the Jewish state as exemplary.
Asked about the case of the IDF soldier currently under investigation for killing a subdued Palestinian terrorist who had just committed a stabbing attack against a comrade-in-arms, Colonel Richard Kemp – once the commander of UK forces in Afghanistan — said, “All people make mistakes, and soldiers are no exception, particularly since they are under immense pressure, may suffer from a lack of sleep, physical discomfort and often great fear.” The only relevant question, he added, is how an army and a country respond to violations, when they are determined as such.
Addressing the Gatestone Institute — a New York-based think tank specializing in strategy and defense issues — Kemp told The Algemeiner that the immediate public condemnation of the soldier in question by Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon and IDF Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot before all the facts of the case had even been established, was a function of their awareness of the “continual and unjust international pressure on Israel, no matter what it does.”

As they do every year, Tikkun Magazine has released its "Passover Liberation Seder Haggadah Supplement" where the Jews turn into the ancient Egyptians and Palestinians are the new Jews.

One paragraph is notable. Perhaps stung by criticism in previous years that a Haggadah that exclusively demonizes Jews and makes Palestinians into saints is a little skewed, Tikkun adds this for a twisted type of perspective:

We are not Jews who reject Israel or think that it is the worst human rights violator on the planet. It is NOT! The United States’ role in Iraq, Afghanistan, Syria, Yemen, supporting dictatorships in South and Central America, seeking to overthrow progressive regimes (and not so long ago in Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos), the genocide in Darfur, the repression of Buddhism in Tibet and systematic denial of basic human rights in China, Russia, Iran, Saudi Arabia and many other Arab states, and the horrendous deeds committed by the Islamic State (ISIL or ISIS) are moral outrages of equal or greater proportion (and you can add others to this list). And we are aware that the attempt by Hamas to bomb the cities of Israel in the summer of 2014, though provoked by Israeli acts and by the intransigence of the Israeli government in refusing to end the Occupation of the West Bank and in blockading Gaza and causing much suffering, contributed greatly to an electoral victory of the hard-right-wing in Israel, which is unlikely to allow either Palestinians equal rights or a Palestinian state to emerge. And we have great compassion for Israelis who fear that the violence of the Islamic State, only a short distance from Israel, might spill over to Palestinians. But the way to prevent all this is to end the conflict with Palestinians and create a lasting peace by manifesting a spirit of generosity and seeing the spirit of God in the Palestinian people as it is in all people including even the most reactionary Israelis.

See? The US is just as bad as Israel! Darfur, Iran and the Islamic State are at least as bad as Israel!

And Hamas? Well, Tikkun certainly understands why Hamas was provoked to "attempt" to bomb Israeli civilians. But that is not Hamas' crime. No, the inexcusable thing Hamas did was to contribute to Israelis voting for Likud.

You literally cannot parody such a twisted mindset.

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From North Korean news agency The Rodong Sinmun:

Supreme leader Kim Jong Un received a floral basket from Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas with the approach of the Day of the Sun (the birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung) and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic ties between the two countries.

It was handed to Foreign Minister Ri Su Yong by Ismail Ahmed Mohamed Hasan, Palestinian ambassador to the DPRK, on Monday.

That wasn't the only expression of love between the power-mad military dictatorship and North Korea:

Ismail Ahmed Mohamed Hasan, Palestinian ambassador to the DPRK, gave a reception at his embassy on Wednesday on the occasions of the Day of the Sun (the birth anniversary of President Kim Il Sung) and the 50th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations between the DPRK and Palestine.

Present there on invitation were Ri Su Yong, minister of Foreign Affairs, Ju Yong Gil, chairman of the Central Committee of the General Federation of Trade Unions of Korea and chairman of the DPRK-Palestine Friendship Association, Pak Kun Gwang, vice department director of the C.C., the Workers' Party of Korea, So Ho Won, vice-chairman of the Korean Committee for Cultural Relations with Foreign Countries, and other officials concerned.

The Palestinian ambassador in a speech referred to the feats of President Kim Il Sung who set a revolutionary example in the national liberation struggle of the oppressed people in colonies for freedom and independence.

The people and leadership of Palestine will make positive efforts to boost the friendly and cooperative relations between the peoples of the two countries, the ambassador noted.

He wished the Korean people success in the struggle for building a thriving socialist nation under the wise guidance of Marshal Kim Jong Un.

Abbas also sent a telegram to the Supreme Leaderm as reported in the official Palestinian Wafa news agency:

The president said in a telegram of congratulations: "We extend to Your Excellency and through you to the people of Korea friend the warmest congratulations and best wishes, for the passage of fifty years of bilateral relations, which coincides with the celebration of the 104th anniversary of the birth of the leader and the leader Kim Il Sung."

He added, "Korea was one of the first countries that established diplomatic relations with Palestine,... to support the rights of our people in all forums and at all levels, and people struggling to regain their rights and establish their independent state with the backing and support of our brothers and friends, and you are in the forefront, and we are proud of the historical relations with your friendly country, and we appreciate the principled positions based on the right to the just cause. "

Birds of a feather.

(h/t בחור טוב)

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The "Jewish Voice for Peace" group seems very upset that McGraw-Hill removed a textbook from circulation after I showed that it included a false piece of anti-Israel propaganda.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 12, 2016

Dozens of Prominent Academics Urge McGraw-Hill Education to Reverse Decision to Censor Palestinian Loss of Land Maps

Last month, publishing giant McGraw-Hill Education withdrew and destroyed copies of a US college level textbook because of complaints from supporters of Israel over a series of maps showing loss of Palestinian land from 1946, shortly before Israel was established, to 2000.

In response to this shocking and outrageous act of censorship of the Palestinian narrative from US schoolbooks, dozens of respected Palestinian, Israeli, and American academics have signed onto the enclosed open letter calling on McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its decision. Signatories include Rashid Khalidi, Noura Erakat, Noam Chomsky, Judith Butler, Sarah Schulman, Avi Shlaim, Ilan Pappé, and Angela Davis.

Here is the letter they signed. Keep in mind that these people are considered "academics."

Academics Urge McGraw-Hill Education to Reverse Decision to Destroy Textbook

We, the undersigned, urge McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its recent decision to withdraw and destroy the US college level textbook, “Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World”, which was made following complaints about a series of maps showing loss of Palestinian land from 1946 to 2000.

This blatant act of censorship, in response to complaints from those who seek to suppress a free exchange of knowledge and ideas about Israel and Palestine, is shocking and unacceptable.

The maps in question are historically accurate and vividly illustrate Israel’s dispossession of the Palestinian people and appropriation of their land, which is why the Israeli government and its supporters wish to suppress them. If there were in fact any minor errors with the maps they should have been corrected rather than removed altogether. Last year, in a similar act of censorship, the cable news network MSNBC apologized for airing a similar series of maps and retracted them.

It is imperative that students be able to visualize history, including through the use of maps, in order to learn how to analyze and understand it. Further, it is essential that faculty and students have access to educational materials that speak to the dispossession Palestinians have experienced, and continue to experience today. We cannot have a truly comprehensive understanding of Palestine or Israel without this information.

We urge McGraw-Hill Education to reverse its decision and reinstate the maps and textbooks in question.

First these academics say that the maps are historically accurate, but they they admit that the maps may have "minor errors" that "should have been corrected." Which is it?

It is neither. The maps are lies from beginning to end, both individually as well as in the way they are presented as a series. But you wont find any of these "academics" actually answering the proofs that they are propaganda. If they were true academics, who wouldn't lower themselves to answer my proofs, they should answer the objections of Yaacov Lozowick, who really is a historian unlike virtually all of the signatories.

If you need more proof that these "academics" are academic frauds, think about this: I am willing to bet that not one of them has actually seen a copy of this textbook. They are defending this propaganda map without knowing if it even fits in with what the text is saying! They argue that "it is essential that faculty and students have access to educational materials that speak to the dispossession Palestinians have experienced" but without reading the book, how can they know that this is appropriate in this case?

Here are the facts, since I've seen the full context and they haven't. The section of the book on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is less than two pages. The text mentions the separation fence and refers to the series of maps as showing where the fence is - but the maps don't show that.

I don't know whether it is the authors or copy-editors of the book who are to blame, but the reference the book gives for the Map that Lies is an obscure article, written in Arabic, that was published in a now defunct website. It was not published as an academic paper anywhere as far as I can tell.

Furthermore, the map was not created by the author of that paper; it was grabbed from some propaganda site and thrown in by the webmaster just to add an illustration. The paper was about possible security-specific solutions between Israel and a Palestinian state and had nothing to do with supposed land loss.

In short, there is no academic source for this series of maps. It was placed in the textbook even though it had nothing to do with the text, referencing a paper that had no relationship with the map to give it academic cover. There was some effort involved on the part of someone to include this piece of propaganda and to hide its origins from anti-Israel hate groups.

The academics who signed this don't give a damn about truth. They are saying that anti-Israel lies must be inserted in every possible medium and venue. In this sense they are echoing what professor Amy Kaplan said at a BDS conference on how to try to incorporate anti-Israel propaganda in courses that have little to do with the topic.

McGraw Hill did the right thing because the maps are filled with lies, the source for the maps was falsified (or laundered, if you prefer,) , and the graphics had nothing to do with the actual text. The Isrsel-haters know that the maps are a great propaganda tool and they cannot stand the fact that its lies have been exposed so publicly, both in this case and by MSNBC last year.

There are 37 signatories of this absurd letter. Being a signatory of this letter defending the indefensible is a very good indicator that these "academics" are simply frauds who are willing to sacrifice the truth in their hatred for Israel.

So here is the list of these academic frauds, courtesy of JVP. I include links where I previously showed them to be liars and deceptive (or quoted others who did.) Note also that there is at least one prominent J-Street member, Rebecca Alpert.

Nadia Abu-El-Haj, Professor at Barnard College and Columbia University

Rebecca Alpert, Professor of Religion, Temple University

Sofya Aptekar, Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Sa’ed Atshan, Visiting Assistant Professor of Peace and Conflict Studies, Swarthmore College

Elsa Auerbach, Professor Emerita, University of Massachusetts Boston

Daniel Boyarin, Hermann P. and Sophia Taubman Professor of Talmudic Culture, Departments of Near Eastern Studies and Rhetoric, University of California at Berkeley

George Bisharat, Emeritus Professor of Law, UC Hastings College of the Law, San Francisco

Judith Butler, Maxine Elliot Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and the Program of Critical Theory at the University of California, Berkeley

Noam Chomsky, Institute Professor & Professor of Linguistics (Emeritus), Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Omar Dajani, Professor of Law at the University of the Pacific’s McGeorge School of Law

Angela Davis, Author and activist

Estelle Disch, Ph.D., Professor Emerita of Sociology, University of Massachusetts Boston

Lisa Duggan, Professor of Social & Cultural Analysis, New York University

Nada Elia, Program Manager, Global Cultures Program, Northwest Language Academy

Noura Erakat, Assistant Professor at George Mason University

Andrés Fabián Henao Castro, Political Science Department, University of Massachusetts Boston

Margaret Ferguson, Distinguished Professor of English at the University of California, Davis

Katherine Franke, Sulzbacher Professor of Law, Director of the Open University Project, and member of the steering committee of the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University

Marilyn Frankenstein, Professor of Media and Society, University of Massachusetts Boston

Randa Jarrar, President of Radius of Arab American Writers

Rashid Khalidi, Edward Said Professor of Modern Arab Studies, Columbia University

Martha London, University of Massachusetts Boston

David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English, University of California, Riverside

Saree Makdisi, Professor of English and Comparative Literature, UCLA

Ussama S. Makdisi, Professor of History and Arab-American Educational Foundation Chair of Arab Studies, Rice University

Bill V. Mullen, Professor of American Studies, Purdue University

Nadine Naber, Associate Professor, Gender & Women’s Studies and Asian American Studies, University of Illinois at Chicago

David Palumbo-Liu, Louise Hewlett Nixon Professor, and Professor of Comparative Literature, Stanford University

Ilan Pappé, Professor with the College of Social Sciences and International Studies at the University of Exeter, director of the university’s European Centre for Palestine Studies, and co-director of the Exeter Centre for Ethno-Political Studies

Rachel Rubin, University of Massachusetts Boston

Sarah Schulman, Distinguished Professor of the Humanities, City University of New York, College of Staten Island

Avi Shlaim, Emeritus Professor of International Relations, St. Antony’s College, Oxford

C. Heike Schotten, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Massachusetts Boston

Jack Shaheen, Distinguished Visiting Scholar at New York University’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute and The Hagop Kevorkian Center for Near Eastern Studies

Simona Sharoni, Professor of Gender and Women’s Studies at the State University of New York at Plattsburgh

Barry Trachtenberg, Director, Judaic Studies Program, University at Albany – SUNY

Judith E. Tucker, Professor of History, Georgetown University

This is a very useful list - a list of so-called academics who act in opposition of what academia is supposed to stand for. Anyone who attends any of their schools - or pays tuition for someone who does - should really ask their deans whether they are proud to have educators who explicitly favor hate and lies over the truth.

(h/t Alyssa)

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04/13 Links Pt2: Israel Is Here to Stay; The Left’s political orthodoxy is the gateway drug to jihad

From Ian:

Aaron David Miller: Israel Is Here to Stay

Is Israel doomed? Will bad demography, bad neighbors, and bad Israeli behavior turn the once hopeful and idealistic notion of a thriving Jewish democratic state into a veritable Middle Eastern Sparta -- isolated in the international community and struggling to survive in a hostile region even as it occupies a restless and growing Palestinian majority?
Having worked the Israel issue for half a dozen secretaries of state, I certainly wouldn't want to minimize the challenges Israelis face at home and abroad.
Still -- and I concede up front that the view from Washington, DC isn't the same as the one from Jerusalem -- I'm more convinced than ever that Israel is here to stay. I may not be around to mark Israel's 100th birthday. But Israelis will. And here's why.

The Left’s political orthodoxy is the gateway drug to jihad

By Bret Stephens
The Tsarnaevs took their bomb-building tips from Inspire, an online English-language magazine published by al-Qa’ida’s branch in Yemen.
But the influence of the Awlakis of the world cannot fully account for the mindset of these jihadists.
They are also sons of the West — educated in the schools of multiculturalism, reared on the works of Noam Chomsky and perhaps Frantz Fanon, consumers of a news diet heavy with reports of perfidy by US or British or Israeli soldiers.
If Islamism is their ideological drug of choice, the political orthodoxies of the modern Left are their gateway to it.
Take the most recent issue of Inspire. Mixed in with step-by-step photos on how to build a timed hand-grenade and an analysis of the Charlie Hebdo massacre, there’s a long article on the oppression of blacks in America, starting with the killing of Ferguson’s Michael Brown.
The spring 2013 issue contains a “message to the American nation” from al-Qa’ida commander Qassim al-Reimy in which he asks whether “meddling in our affairs and installing whomever tyrant agents and lackeys you want who kill and oppress (is) forgivable?”
“Leave us with our religion, land and nations and mind your own internal affairs,” the commander — now emir — writes. “Save your economy, look after your concerns, for it is better than what you currently are.”
This isn’t the language of Islam, with its impressive tradition of conquest. It’s the language of the progressive Left, of what Jeane Kirkpatrick at the 1984 Republican convention called the “Blame America First” crowd.

Junior Elder took this snapshot of a church sign that he passed by. He amused because he assumed that the verse was a funny translation of Psalms 117:1, "Praise the Lord, all ye nations (goyim); laud Him, all ye peoples." (JPS 1917 translation.) His assumption was that someone was too clever by half and mistranslated "goyim" as "gentiles" which is how the word is sometimes used colloquially, even though it means "nations."

But a closer look shows that the sign didn't quote Psalms, rather it quoted Romans in the Christian Bible.

The verses are so similar, though, that it was worth researching.

Romans of course was written in Greek, and the word at issue here is "ἔθνη," , pronounced "ethnē." Strong's translates this as "a race, people, nation; the nations, heathen world, Gentiles."

Apparently sometimes in the Christian scriptures the word refers to nations, and sometimes to gentiles.

The mystery is why the King James Bible chose to use "gentiles" here instead of what was obviously a copy of the quote in Psalms - which it translates as "nations." The scholars that translated the King James Bible certainly would have known that the verse in Romans was simply a Greek translation of the Hebrew verse in Psalms.

The Christian commentaries clearly want to emphasize translation of the term as "gentiles" based on the context - and this is the theme of the chapter, where the word "goy" is quoted from other parts of the Jewish scripture and translated as gentiles as well! 15:9 quotes Psalms 18:50 (Hebrew verse numbering), and 15:10 quotes Deuteronomy 32:43 (where in context the word clearly refers to nations besides Israel.)

The chapter is apparently trying to retrofit the Jewish scripture to refer to Christian theology, which explains why the translators chose to use the word "gentiles" rather than "nations." Clearly the Tanach sometimes used the word "goy" to refer to Israel alone as well so the translation seems more to be geared towards religion than accuracy. (The Biblical mentions of Israel as a "nation" and as a "people" are the best answers to those, like the PLO, who insist that Jews are not part of a nation but merely members of the same religion.)

It is just amusing to me that possibly the first people to translate "goyim" into "gentiles" n English were, in fact, gentiles!

(Maimonides used the word "goy" to mean gentile several centuries before King James. But in Biblical Hebrew it never meant an individual gentile.)

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Obama Hires Bill Cosby To Reassure Americans To Trust Iran Deal (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Washington, April 13 - Amid continued revelations that the Obama administration has failed to push back against Iran's repeated violations of the nuclear deal struck last year, the president has engaged the services of trusted comic icon Bill Cosby to reassure worried citizens that all is going according to plan and that the wisest course of action is the one the White House has been pursuing.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters of the hire this afternoon (Wednesday) at a press briefing, and expressed the hope that Cosby's stature in the entertainment industry would help sell the administration's policy to a skeptical American public. He then introduced the 78-year-old entertainer to the White House press corps for some brief remarks. Cosby did not take questions.

"I think I speak for all Americans when I say that Bill Cosby inspires confidence," said Earnest, recalling the actor's character Dr. Cliff Huxtable from the 1980's sitcom The Cosby Show. "Whether as Dr. Huxtable or as himself, nobody invites trust the way Bill Cosby does."

The comedian thanked Earnest and told the assembled journalists he was honored to accept the president's offer. "What this country needs right now is someone to calm the populace, to assuage their anxieties over the Iran nuclear deal and its enforcement," intoned Cosby. "And that is what I intend to do. I look forward to reassuring the country that they have nothing to fear from Iran anymore. The Islamic Republic will serve as a source of stability in the region, and we certainly need not suspect there is anything ulterior about the arrangement."

"I lend my reputation and credibility to this endeavor because I believe it is in the best interest of the country and the world," continued the veteran television personality. "Certainly I do not think Iran, or the administration, would violate the trust placed in them, and certainly not take advantage of our vulnerabilities, or those of our allies, to pursue anything untoward. They also would not abuse the new status that the nuclear deal gives them to unfair advantage over the less powerful to violate them in any way."

"Do not give credence to stories that the administration has been intimidating officials who might challenge the agreement's wholesome image," added Cosby. "They have ulterior motives, and don't have your best interests at heart. Trust me. Trust us. Bill Cosby wouldn't hurt you or betray your trust, would he?"

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04/13 Links Pt1: Dershowitz: Sanders Must Clarify Where He Stands on Israel; Glick: Obama’s nuclear contrition

From Ian:

Alan M. Dershowitz: Bernie Sanders Must Clarify Where He Stands on Israel

While the media has focused on Bernie Sanders' egregious overstatement of the specific number of innocent Palestinians killed in Operation Protective Edge, the more revealing aspect of what he told the Daily News is his generalization that Israel indiscriminately leveled hospitals and apartment buildings. Although he did not explicitly say that the Israel Defense Forces deliberately targeted civilians and civilian structures, his canard can certainly be understood that way by those Israel haters who are actively supporting his campaign.
The word "indiscriminate," especially applied to Israeli military actions, has acted as a code word among Israel-bashers for war crimes and even genocide. The reality is that the Israeli military efforts to stop Hamas from indiscriminately killing Israeli citizens with rockets and through terror tunnels has been the opposite of indiscriminate, as Colonel Richard Kemp and other military experts have attested. No other country in history has gone to such lengths in trying to distinguish between military and civilian targets, even in the face of an enemy that regularly uses its own population as human shields, and that hides military equipment in schools and hospitals. Israel's efforts to protect its citizens compare favorably to the U.S. and NATO led military bombing campaigns in Iraq, Syria, and other areas, in which civilians have also been used as human shields.
At best, Mr. Sanders' comments on Operation Protective Edge reflect a disappointing lack of interest in the specifics of what happened during the course of the seven-week war. As has been noted by several commentators, Senator Sanders is a long-term elected official who deals with some frequency with the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and who should be expected to avoid gross misstatements on the topic. Mr. Sanders has done nothing to assuage these concerns: in two recent interviews, Mr. Sanders mistakenly put the number of civilians killed at "over 2,000" and again described the Israeli response as "disproportionate."

Bucking Sanders, PM says Israel would not hesitate to act strongly against Gaza again

Two days after Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders charged that Israel acted “disproportionately” during the 2014 fighting in Gaza, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Tuesday that Israel would not hesitate to hit Gaza hard again, if necessary.
“Israel is surrounded by extremist Islamic radicals, and therefore we need to guard our borders, and this is also true regarding the communities surrounding Gaza,” Netanyahu said in Yeroham at the seventh annual Negev Conference.
“In another couple of months we will mark two years since Operation Protective Edge, and those who attacked us from the Gaza Strip took an unprecedentedly heavy blow. We will – of course – not hesitate again to act strongly against anyone who wants to endanger Israeli citizens.”
Netanyahu said that security is a precondition to all the development his government is promoting in the country’s South.

Meet the outspoken critic of Israel who is Bernie Sanders' new Jewish outreach director

Simone Zimmerman, the Bernie Sanders campaign’s newly hired national Jewish outreach coordinator, is quite familiar with the American Jewish establishment.
She is used to fighting against it.
During the 2014 Gaza war, Zimmerman was one of the leaders of a group of young Jews that held regular protest vigils outside the offices of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, reading the names of Palestinians and Israelis killed in the conflict.
She opposes Israel’s occupation, wants Hillel to allow participation by groups that support the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement against Israel, is against Jewish federation funding for Israeli projects in the West Bank and wrote favorably of the efforts of Jewish Voice for Peace, a pro-BDS group, to get “international corporations to stop profiting off human rights abuses.” (The Anti-Defamation League has called JVP one of America’s top 10 anti-Israel groups.)
“We’re paying attention to what’s happening in Israel — and we are angry,” Zimmerman said in a column on her fellow millennials in Israel’s daily Haaretz in February.

Bernie’s New Jewish Outreach Director: ‘F–k you, Bibi’

The Sanders campaign’s newly hired Jewish outreach director wrote an expletive-laden Facebook post last year that condemned Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a mass-murderer.
“Bibi Netanyahu is an arrogant, deceptive, cynical, manipulative asshole,” wrote Simone Zimmerman, a former J Street student activist, in the March 3rd 2015 post. “F#ck you, Bibi … you sanctioned the murder of over 2,000 people this summer.”
At a later date, Zimmerman edited the post, replacing “asshole” with “politician” and “F#ck you” with “shame on you.” The Free Beacon obtained screenshots of the original and edited posts.

UNESCO draft resolution says Israel plants "Jewish fake graves" in Jerusalem

Item 19 on the 199th session of UNESCO's Executive Board which is taking place this week includes a draft resolution from Algeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Morocco, Oman, Qatar, and Sudan.

This resolution goes over a litany of complaints about Israel, including how it allows Jews to visit the Temple Mount, or, as it says, "the continuous storming of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif by the Israeli right-wing extremists and uniformed forces, and urges Israel, the Occupying Power, to take necessary measures to prevent provocative abuses that violate the sanctity and integrity of Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram Al-Sharif."

But there is a new bizarre accusation being brought up:

This lie has been around since 2012, when the Al Aqsa Foundation for Endowment and Heritage claimed that Israel planted thousands of fake graves around the Temple Mount.

In 2013 a Muslim cleric in Jerusalem claimed that the ancient Mount of Olives cemetery was filed with fake Jewish graves.

In 2014 another Muslim committee claimed that Israel created a new cemetery also filled with fake graves.

The irony of course is that Muslims have been proven to be planting hundreds of fake graves for years.

As far as the rest of the resolution, those Umayyad palaces that are mentioned were discovered and are being preserved by those awful Jews. Yet they were built using plundered stones from Byzantine churches and even the second Jewish Temple.

No one is "converting" them into Jewish ritual baths - those had been there for a thousand years before the Umayyad palaces were built.

How will UNESCO act when being given this laundry list of lies?

(h/t Gidon Shaviv)

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From i24News:

The brother of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas was on Monday hospitalized in Tel Aviv in serious condition, Ynet reports. His arrival at and admission to the hospital took place in secret.

Abu Louai, who lives in Qatar and who turned 81 last month according to Ynet, was admitted to Assuta Medical Center, where Abbas' wife and brother-in-law have previously been treated. Recently diagnose with cancer, Abu Louai chose to receive treatment in Israel.

Abbas' brother initially began his treatment at Assuta, an expensive private hospital, before returning to Qatar after a stay of several days at the hospital. Now, ahead of his next treatment, he has once again been admitted to the Tel Aviv-based medical center, arriving via Jordan.

In summer 2014, Abbas' wife, Amina Abbas, was admitted to Assuta for an operation on her leg. She returned to Ramallah after several days at the hospital.

Six months ago, just as the current escalation in violence was beginning, Abbas' brother-in-law — Amina's brother — was hospitalized at Assuta for life-saving heart surgery.

It is not as if he lives in the West Bank and had few options as to where to be treated. Abu Louai lives in Qatar and took advantage of his relationship with his brother in order to be able to be treated in Israel!

It has happened in the past. A daughter of one Gulf royal family went to Israel for a heart operation. Hamas leaders have sent their family members to Israel for treatment.

The Assuta Medical Center specializes in "medical tourism" to attract patients from outside Israel.

As usual, the demand to boycott the Jewish state disappears when you need it for something.

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Video: Parking shortage is "violation of human rights" for Golan Druze

Yaron London is a left-wing Israeli TV commentator, but he makes a Druze from the Golan Heights (and the UNHRC, sorry for the typo) who is claiming that Israel is violating his human rights look like an idiot.

The other Druze lawyer on the show is sort of amazing.

There is a lot to learn about the Golan Druze in this show; for example that Druze residents of the Golan still manage to go to University of Damascus for free - and then get jobs as doctors in Israel.

(h/t Yoel)

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