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.

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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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