Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, October 26, 2017

10/26 Links Pt2: Israeli wins judo gold in UAE, which refuses to play anthem; Conan and the barbarians

From Ian:

Israeli wins judo gold in UAE, which refuses to play anthem, raise flag

An Israeli judoka won a gold medal on Thursday at the Abu Dhabi Grand Slam judo tournament, but had to sing his own private “Hatikvah” because the organizers refused to play the Israeli national anthem.

He also had to celebrate his victory under the International Judo Federation’s flag, because the emirate banned the display of Israeli symbols.

Tournament organizers did not play Israel’s national anthem as Tal Flicker stood on the podium after receiving his medal in the men’s under-66 kilograms (145 pounds) category.

With the medal around his neck, Flicker sang his own “Hatikvah” while the International Judo Federation’s (IFJ) anthem played in the background.

On the women’s side, Gili Cohen won bronze in the under-52 kilograms (114 pounds) class. The Israeli flag was not flown on her behalf either.

The entire Israeli team was required to compete without any Israeli identifying symbols, and had been told before the tournament that there would be no acknowledgement of their home country — a discriminatory policy imposed solely on the Israeli competitors.

Flicker said later that he made up his mind to sing his own “Hatikvah” on the podium from “the moment that I won the gold.”

WATCH-DISGRACEFUL.
ISRAELI Tal Flicker presented with his gold medal at #JudoAbuDhabi2017 without Israeli anthem or flag. Nice to see Tal singing something and I'm guessing it's the #Hatikvah @Ostrov_A pic.twitter.com/RzwGdn0Bh8
— SussexFriendsIsrael (@SussexFriends) October 26, 2017

Judo Federation chastises Abu Dhabi over Israeli treatment

The International Judo Federation is demanding that the United Arab Emirates treat Israeli athletes equally after reports it is banning the Israeli flag at an upcoming contest.

The Abu Dhabi Grand Slam is reportedly banning Israeli athletes from wearing their country's symbols on uniforms and is singling Israel out with a ban on displaying its flag or playing its anthem.

A letter from the IJF to the president of the UAE Judo Federation obtained by The Associated Press says "all delegations, including the Israeli delegation, shall be treated absolutely equally in all aspects, without any exception."

It highlighted the body's core ideals that "every individual must have the possibility of practicing sport, without discrimination of any kind."

The letter was sent to the World Jewish Congress, which represents over 100 Jewish communities, and had asked the IJF to intervene and "protect the rights of the Israeli national judo team and keep the spirit of sport free of political discrimination."

There was no comment Wednesday from the UAE, which has no diplomatic relations with Israel.

Conan and the barbarians

The anti-Israel activists who confronted Conan O’Brien as he walked along the West Bank’s security barrier were not pleased. The leader of the group, marching toward Conan and unable to contain herself, lobbed her first challenge while still 20 feet away. “Didn’t you say shakshuka was Israeli a couple of days ago?”

He replied as most of us might: “Shakshuker?”

Now close enough for Conan to hear, she repeated her cross-examination on behalf of the tomato and egg dish. “Didn’t you say it was Israeli?”

CONAN: “Oh, I don’t know what it is. I know that –”
ACTIVIST (shaking her head): “So why would you say that?”
CONAN: “Say what?”
ACTIVIST: “That shakshuka is Israeli.”
CONAN: “Well, they served it to me on El Al, so… I… but…”

The ringleader switched to a gentler tone, that of an elementary school teacher eager to show she was disappointed, not angry. “I mean,” she said softly, “it’s a Palestinian dish.”

“Okay, well I apologize. Alright.” What else could he say? He’s a television show host, not a culinary geographer.

But Conan had just been bamboozled on shakshuka. Although the dish as we know it originates in North Africa —Tunisia, Libya, Morocco, or Algeria, depending on whether you ask a Tunisian, Libyan, Moroccan or Algerian — its strong connection to Israel has been acknowledged by Saveur, The New York Times, Serious Eats and many others. For this we can thank the large population of North African Jews who brought the recipe with them when they emigrated to Israel, popularizing it there and, ultimately, across the world. These same North African Jewish communities are said to have been instrumental in creating the version of shakshuka recognizable to us today.

Arab writer freaks out in discussing "Jordan is Palestine" conference

We discussed briefly the recent "Jordan is Palestine" conference held in Jerusalem. My opinion has been that while I think the idea is quixotic in the extreme, I like the idea of these sorts of ideas getting publicity, if for no other reason that it puts pressure on Arabs.

An op-ed about the conference in Egypt's El Beshayer doesn't disappoint, as the writer Bassam Badarin tries to ridicule the conference but ends up revealing his own hate.

Badarin correctly points out that the two Arabs who spoke at the conference don't really represent anybody. He claims (several times) that the conference was created by the Likud.

Some nice lines:

[The conference] reaffirms the certainty that Israel is not only occupying the West Bank, but is hindering the future of Jordanians and trying to create a deep crisis internally with superficial maneuvers that overturn the Wadi Araba agreement.

We have already said that the settlements in Hebron are not intended to control only the West Bank, which is already under control, but to subjugate Amman and Cairo and threaten Mecca.

And its expansionist ideology is a permanent indicator of hostile intentions not only against the two peoples, but also against humanity and the Arab nation...

But my favorite was at the end:

What is remarkable is that the Jordanian paries and trade unions are not able to exploit the issue and respond from the depth of Amman with similar conferences that scream against the enemy entity because only hatred of the entity today brings together the feelings of Jordanians and Palestinians together.

Indeed, hating Israel has been the only glue that unified Arabs for 70 years. And their real fear is that this glue is falling apart.

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.

Vic Rosenthal's Weekly Column

A woman named Jenny Listman wrote a blog post accusing recently deceased Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel of touching her inappropriately at a public event 28 years ago, when she was 19. Today when the subject of sexual harassment of women is “trending,” it created a furor, raising multiple issues: was her accusation true, and if so was it appropriate for her to make it public after Wiesel’s death when he could not respond? Was it ethical for her to air an accusation for which there could be no evidence except her own word? If true, did the allegation diminish Wiesel’s moral authority?

The Jewish Daily Forward published a story about Listman’s accusation. Almost immediately it was met with a firestorm of criticism and withdrawn, with an apology that it did not meet their “journalistic standards.” (My immediate reaction: the folks that published the cartoons of Eli Valley for years have standards?) But they made the legitimate point that they could not verify her story.

My own feeling is that her account rings true. And after consideration, I think she was not wrong in making it public.

28 years after the incident, the only evidence that exists is Listman’s testimony. There is no way to corroborate or falsify her account today. But there is also no moral requirement that Listman must have other evidence besides her memories before she tells her story. Her experience, if she is telling the truth, is something that she knows firsthand. Her position is different from that of a journalist, who is obliged to verify the accounts of external sources. So the Forward’s withdrawal of the article does not imply that she should not have published it herself – and certainly does not imply, as some social media commentators have said, that she lied or was otherwise culpable.

Many have also said that she had no right to make the accusation after Wiesel was dead and not able to defend himself. But suppose he were alive and denied it. How would his denial change anything? It would still be “she said, he said.” It is considered dishonorable to bring a charge after its target is dead, but in this case it has no practical significance. Who knows, maybe he would have admitted it and apologized.

The reason the case has created so much controversy, of course, is that it was Elie Wiesel and not a random construction worker that allegedly placed his hand on her right buttock and squeezed. It was Nobel laureate Wiesel, the LA Times’ “most important Jew in America,” a man who had survived Auschwitz and Buchenwald and, by his books and other activities arguably did more to bring the Holocaust into public consciousness than any other individual. He made it personal: six million is a number, but Elie Wiesel was a boy whose family was murdered almost in front of his eyes.

Some say that by accusing Wiesel of behavior that is morally reprehensible, Listman has cast doubt on everything that he has said and done. His legacy will forever be that of a sexual harasser rather than a moral exemplar.

I doubt this. Wiesel was a human being, like Washington, Jefferson, JFK and others who have been criticized on moral grounds. He was also a celebrity, with all the distortion of one’s own importance that comes with that. Wiesel was a man of a different time (even if by 1989 he should have known better). None of this excuses his alleged behavior, but that behavior is irrelevant to power of his testimony and his accomplishments.

Listman’s supporters argue that abuse of women is so common as to be invisible, they have had enough, and the way to stop it is to expose it, even if – especially if – the perpetrator is powerful or a celebrity. This strikes me as not unreasonable, as long as key distinctions – like the ones between verbal and physical harassment, and between butt pats and rape or murder are not blurred. Not everything is “violence,” and some harassment is worse than others. I think she would agree with me on this.

Personally, I wasn’t a big fan of Wiesel. What he suffered and what he witnessed were real, and especially in his memoir, Night, he raised awareness of the true monstrousness of the Holocaust, the degree of evil inherent in its perpetrators. Later, he opposed the trend in some eastern European countries of whitewashing their own cooperation with the Nazis. He supported oppressed peoples, but he had no illusions about which side was right in the conflicts surrounding Israel, and spoke out in her favor. He did humanity a great service, and he justly received the Nobel Prize and countless other honors.

But being a celebrity can have deleterious effects on a person, as has been demonstrated countless times by famous musicians, actors, writers and politicians. All the adulation, the admirers surrounding him and telling him over and over how great he is, make the celebrity think that possibly he really is above the rest, and that what is forbidden to ordinary people is permitted to him.

Elie Wiesel was a celebrity, and he loved it. He loved being invited to the White House, being knighted by the Queen, and visiting Buchenwald with Barack Obama and Angela Merkel. He loved it too much, and in his excessive self-regard, he allowed himself to be used. Honoring Wiesel was a way of washing the blood off of the hands of the international community that had either killed Jews or closed its eyes during the Holocaust. And it was a way for those like Barack Obama and European leaders to distract attention from their present-day anti-Jewish policies.

Wiesel kept the Holocaust in everyone’s consciousness, which was a good thing and a bad thing. It was good because, at least for a time, it made Jew-hatred unpopular. It was bad because it provided a safe way for those who opposed the Jewish people’s right of self-determination to nevertheless feel good about themselves; and in a phrase that has recently caught on, to virtue-signal. Left-wing Americans who support organizations like J Street that are in practice anti-Israel, or even those that favor BDS, a program that explicitly calls for the end of the Jewish state, can get teary-eyed contemplating the dead Jews of 70 years ago, while favoring Palestinians over the living ones of today.

I found the social media response particularly interesting. The emotional content of posts by Listman’s supporters, most of them women who had experienced some form of harassment themselves, was strong. But the negative ones (by both men and women) were even more vehement. On Facebook, she was called a liar, a fraud, a “crackpot” and a “mental case,” accused of cynically seeking publicity for herself by attacking a great man, and worse.

Some of the strongest reactions against Ms Listman come from Jews whose primary connection with the Jewish people seems to be the Holocaust. They are neither observant Jews nor politically active Zionists (discussing this phenomenon, Arthur Hertzberg once said that their knowledge of Judaism is in inverse proportion to their degree of Holocaust-obsession). Their Jewishness seems to be expressed primarily by studying about and commemorating the Holocaust, through literature, movies and various memorials and events. Their prophet was Elie Wiesel, and criticism of him cuts to the heart of their belief systems.

At the end of the day, I think that this controversy is unimportant. Elie Wiesel the celebrity may have acted badly, as celebrities do when their celebrity goes to their head, which I think is what happened. His accomplishments aren’t diminished by his mistakes, which were less significant. I also believe that Jenny Listman did the right thing by making her story, which I believe, public. The continual barrage of harassment which women face day in and day out is real, and the announcement that they are “mad as hell and not going to take it anymore” is legitimate and should be honored – even by the famous or powerful.

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.

10/26 Links Pt1: PMW YouTube account reinstated; How to Prevent a Third Lebanon War

From Ian:

PMW: Why did YouTube just close down PMW... again?

Today YouTube closed down Palestinian Media Watch's main account, making hundreds of important videos inaccessible to governments, think tanks and media who find this material of critical importance.

Over the past two weeks, someone has been trying to damage PMW by submitting complaints to YouTube about PMW videos in four different PMW accounts in three different languages. The accusation is that PMW is violating YouTube's "policy on harmful or dangerous content." Because of the range of accounts being targeted, it appears that someone is systematically submitting complaints about PMW videos to prevent us from reporting on Palestinian incitement, and YouTube has gone along with this.

This is outrageous. PMW reports on and exposes the "harmful or dangerous" messaging coming from the Palestinian Authority, Fatah, and Hamas, and plays a critical role by internationally exposing the Palestinian Authority's hate and terror promotion.

By shutting down PMW videos, YouTube is "shooting the messenger," and enabling Palestinian hate and terror promotion to flourish.

PMW asks our readers to turn to YouTube and demand that they reinstate PMW's account and all of its videos that expose hate and terror, and return our accounts to "good standing."

PMW YouTube account reinstated, thanks to your efforts!

Dear Friends of PMW,

PMW's main YouTube account, https://www.youtube.com/user/palwatch, is back!

Thanks to all of our friends whose contacts and pressure on YouTube quickly convinced the company to reinstate our account and return it to good standing.

Unfortunately, some videos on other PMW accounts are still blocked. We hope that this will be resolved shortly.

I want to personally thank everyone who reached out to PMW and to YouTube, which shows that the cumulative effect of individual actions can make a difference.
Itamar Marcus, Director

[MEMRI's Account is still down]

Australian MP: PMW presentations explain Palestinian youth violence

Michael Danby, Labor Member of Parliament: “Unfortunately, Palestinian leadership have encouraged young people to carry out acts of terrorism—including throwing rocks through the windows of cars and trucks, causing death and injury—through their media, involved in violent incitement. Anyone in this parliament who has been to the many sessions of Palestinian Media Watch that have taken place here over the last 15 years has seen some of the appalling material on television in that area. Honestly, if one is to support a two-state solution and a peace process, one of the things we have to address in the future is this incitement of young people by the Palestinian Authority.

Australian MP: PMW presentation exposes PA’s deceit

Tim Wilson, Federal Liberal Member for Goldstein: "Having visited Jerusalem myself, I have seen... some of the efforts of the Palestinian Authority and those who support them to deceive the public into getting misrepresentations or misunderstandings about what actually occurs particularly under the State of Israel. In fact, one of my visits to Israel many years ago, we were given a briefing about the activities of Palestinian [Media] Watch, which was particularly scrutinizing Palestinian media, and how they sought to misrepresent information to build a perception of victimhood that was not always in accordance with reality."

At film screening, "expert" says that all Israeli students in Belgium are Mossad agents

The Belgian town of Nivelles, near Brussels, hosted a "Solidarity Film Festival" earlier this month.

One of the films screened is a 2014 documentary called "This Is My Land" by French-Israeli Tamara Erde where Jewish and Arab schools are shown to emphasize each own's narratives in the classroom and to ignore the other. Erde's incentive to create the film:

During my army service, which took place during the second Intifada in 2002, I began to see up close the Israeli army’s operational methods in the operations held against the Palestinians. This was, for me, the first blinking of a red light, an alarm of sorts. But more time needed to pass before I discovered just how ‘blind and ignorant’ I was in terms of my knowledge about the “other side,” and the history of my country and area. Several years later, I found myself wondering, “How could I have never doubted before what I was taught?”

The "expert" chosen to discuss this film at Nivelles was Marianne Blume, an anti-Israel professor who lived in Gaza for ten years and worked at Al Azhar University there.

She said at the screening that it is an "open secret" that almost all Israeli students in Belgian universities are Mossad agents. "Everything that comes from Israel should be boycotted", she said.

She called Israel a "foreign body" in the Middle-East.

Blume also complained about Belgium cooperation with Israel in the fight against terrorism, saying that such cooperation is a "threat to Belgian democracy”.

No one challenged her, of course. Her words fit right in with many of the types of people who go to "solidarity film festivals" to begin with.

The drinks and snacks at the screening were sponsored by...Oxfam.

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Passport Index ranks all national passports by a "Power Rank" of the number of countries a passport holder can enter without a visa.

This is a pretty good metric to determine which countries are isolated from the world and which ones are full members.

This year Singapore ranks first, with 159 countries that a Singapore passport holder can visit freely ,followed closely by Germany with 158.

Israel is ranked 50th out of 199 countries with a score of 137, which isn't a stellar score but considering that most Muslim majority countries would not allow people with Israeli passports to enter altogether, it is a respectable score.

How does Israel compare with other countries in the Middle East and North Africa?

With the exception of the UAE, it isn't even close:

Israel is not isolated at all. It is more a part of the community of nations than every single one of its Muslim critics.

So for all the people who have dedicated their lives to telling the world that Israel is a pariah nation - you are once again proven to be liars.

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NJ attorney general accuses town of trying to keep Orthodox Jews away

From NJ.com:

MAHWAH -- Fearing an influx of Orthodox Jews from New York State, the Township of Mahwah introduced two hateful and discriminatory ordinances that illegally targeted that community, the state Attorney General's office alleged in a stunning complaint filed against the town on Tuesday.

The harsh public rebuke of both the actions of Mahwah's elected officials and the anti-Semitic sentiment of some residents likened the conduct of the town to the actions of "1950s-era white flight suburbanites who sought to keep African-Americans from moving into their neighborhoods."

The nine-count complaint, filed in Bergen County Superior Court, seeks a return of more than $3.4 million in state Green Acres grants received by Mahwah and an injunction blocking the two ordinances.

"This is an extensive complaint ... but the bottom line is very simple -- the township council in Mahwah heard the angry, fear-driven voices of bigotry and acted to appease those voices," Attorney General Christopher S. Porrino said in a statement.

The first ordinance, which went into effect at the end of July, limited the use of Mahwah's recreational facilities to New Jersey residents.

The second, which was introduced but not passed, was the expansion of an existing ordinance that banned signs on utility poles, amended to include any "device or other matter." It effectively would have banned the formation of an Orthodox Jewish religious boundary known as an eruv, which is designated by white piping called "lechis" on utility poles, the state alleged.

"I repeatedly warned the council of these consequences for months," Mahwah Mayor Bill Laforet said Tuesday.

The religious boundary, which in this case extended from Rockland County, allows Orthodox Jews to do everyday things such as carry house keys or push baby strollers outside of the home on the Jewish Sabbath.

Despite approval from the utility company, the township ordered that the lechis be removed. A group called the Bergen Rockland Eruv Association and residents from Rockland County filed a federal lawsuit in August to allow the lechis to stay.

A ban on an eruv, or threats to have it removed, is "tantamount" to housing discrimination because it could prevent Orthodox Jewish families from living in Mahwah, according to the complaint (which can be read at the end of this story).

Many residents have come out in support of the township's decision, creating Facebook groups and online petitions.

But the complaint takes Mahwah's residents to task for their alleged behavior.

The council, the state says, was "influenced largely" by the "vocal anti-Orthodox Jewish sentiment" from some residents on social media and in public meetings.

"I was wondering if there are any thoughts and procedures in place to keep the Hasidic Jewish people from moving into Mahwah?" one resident asked at a June 29 council meeting. "They have chased us out of two towns we lived in and now they are buying up houses in Suffern."

"I don't know if you noticed, but the Hasidics have been making themselves very comfortable in our town parks," said another.

A third suggested people bring their dogs to town parks in an effort to "scare them away."

Residents also called Mahwah police to report that people who appeared to be Orthodox Jews were using parks, though the callers did not allege that the people were doing anything wrong, the complaint says.

Here are some of the antisemitic comments that residents wrote in an anti-eruv petition:

"This group of people is known for entering a community and taking it over for their own advantage. They are known for taking a lovely community and turning it into a run down, dirty, unwanted place to live."

"Our town is such a great place and if these things move in they will ruin it."

"I do not want these things coming into my town and ruining it."

"They are trying to move into Mahwah once they do our schools will suffer, our taxes will go up. And Mahwah will reach new levels of welfare recipients."

"They are clearly trying to annex land like they've been doing in Occupied Palestine."

"I don't want these rude, nasty, dirty people who think they can do what they want in our nice town."

"I don't want my town to be gross and infested with these nasty people."

"They destroy what they have and run things to the ground. Give them one piece of property and before you know it there are thousands of non-tax payers in our great town."

"This is a soft invasion. Next, we will see homes called 'places of worship or schools' for this religious[sic] organization as a way for the members of this religious organization to avoid paying property taxes. I do not want to pick up the tab!"

The law to attempt to ban the eruv is not even the most antisemitic act done here by the township. The ordinance to bar the parks from being used by people who are non-residents of New Jersey was an especially odious way to attempt to keep Jews out of Mahwah even before the eruv would have been built. Mahwah residents complained about Orthodox Jews using their playgrounds:

Ironically, these complaints became public during a discussion during a town meeting about swastikas that were found in the town.

But the township enacted the law anyway, changing the text from saying that the township's parks could be used by "residents and non-residents alike" to saying that that may be used by "New Jersey residents only," obviously meant to exclude Jews from neighboring Rockland County in New York.

The chief of police of Mahwah said that this law was unenforceable. What he was being asked to do was itself against the law - because residents wanted police to stop and ask for ID only those people in the parks who do not look like they belong - meaning, only Orthodox Jews.

The Town Council then moved to remove the chief of police for refusing to enforce this discriminatory law!

He wrote to the Bergen County Prosecutor's office asking for advice, and the prosecutor specifically told the chief of police not to enforce this ordinance because it is patently illegal to ask for IDs from people based on their appearance.

Residents are telling reporters that, of course they aren't antisemitic. But the sequence of events shows that this is pure, modern manifestation of treating Jews (in this case, religious Jews) as vermin.

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.

10/25 Links Pt2: PA Admit Working in Israel Boycott Movement; Caterpillar Stock Surges. BDS fails

From Ian:

Palestinian Authority VP: Our People Are Working in Israel Boycott Movement

The vice president of the Palestinian Authority said the body has "our people work[ing]" in the anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement, according to audio exclusively obtained by the Washington Free Beacon.

Mahmoud al-Aloul, who assumed the position as PA President Mahmoud Abbas's first-ever deputy in February, said in a recording dated to March: "We have relations with BDS, our people work there and we have delegates there. We cooperate with BDS on all levels, and not only with the BDS, but every group whose aim is to boycott Israel, we are with. Every group working to lay siege on Israel and isolate it from the world, we are with it."

In a second audio recording, from August, a reporter with an Arabic-language news outlet asked al-Aloul, "Do you, as the PA, support BDS?"

"Yes, of course," said al-Aloul.

Asked how the PA shows that support, al-Aloul said, "In every way … We actively participate in the events they organize."

Al-Aloul stopped short of acknowledging financial support for BDS initiatives, but said the PA is "very pleased with their activity and endorse it."

These comments mark a departure from past statements by PA leadership distancing itself from the BDS movement, including a 2013 comment by Abbas stating, "We do not support the boycott of Israel."

Anne Bayefsky: Protect American business from blackmail – Congress, pass the Israel Anti-Boycott Act

The two goals of the U.N. blacklist are first, devastating Israel’s economy, and second, circumventing a negotiated solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. For according to existing legal agreements, ownership of disputed territories is to be determined through negotiations between the parties – not by U.N. bullies.

Asked about the blacklist on Aug. 22, State Department spokesperson Heather Nauert, told reporters: “We have made clear our opposition regarding the creation of a database of businesses…and we have not participated and will not participate in its creation or contribute to its content.”

The response is disingenuous. Last December the Obama administration agreed in the General Assembly to the overall U.N. regular budget, knowing full well that the budget included funding for the blacklist. Hence, American taxpayers are currently paying 22 percent of all the costs of creating the blacklist. That sounds like a “contribution” to those of us who don’t speak diplo-babble.

Which brings us to the bottom line.

U.N. High Commissioner Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein is the last person on Earth who should be telling American companies how to run their businesses.

And on the off-chance that U.N. letterhead makes American CEOs nervous, they need to be reminded that they owe their allegiance to American law and public policy.

It is past midnight for Congress and President Trump to step up and answer this U.N. assault on American businesses and our ally Israel.

Three simple, morally unambiguous steps will do it:
- The expeditious adoption of the Israel Anti-Boycott Act.
- The immediate resignation of the United States from the specious Human Rights Council
- The refusal to send Prince Zeid another penny.

Neil Macdonald: Israel is an Apartheid State

Serial offender of journalistic ethics Neil Macdonaldwrites in Canada’s CBC News that Israel is an “apartheid state.”

Just one problem: it isn’t. Not by any accepted international standard nor by the dictionary definition.

So how does Macdonald come to this conclusion? By misrepresenting facts.

While a columnist is entitled to express an opinion (no matter how absurd it may be), changing facts, misquoting sources, and taking information out of context is never allowed, not even in an opinion piece.

Where is Macdonald’s support?

Littered with a litany of links, Macdonald’s article seems to have lots of support. Except that most of the links actually say the opposite of what he claims.

…with a long list of Israeli political leaders, academics and public figures … all of whom have warned that the Jewish state is becoming, or already is, an apartheid state.

Most of the people referenced specifically say that Israel is not an apartheid state.

I love Israel and I'm a foodie. Which is why my friend Herb sent me a segment of a series on the Cooking Channel called Food: Fact or Fiction? The segment in question is on the origins of foods with holes and is called Hole in One.

Herb thought I would like the part about the history of the Bundt cake, since it turns out that the Bundt cake's history is intertwined with that of the Jewish women's organization, Hadassah.

I couldn't access the video on the website. Helpful to the bone, Herb found me a youtube copy of fair quality, good enough for me to watch it through to the end. Which I did. It was a great story that referenced a fabulous cake my mother used to make called Tunnel of Fudge.

I thanked Herb. But something nagged at me. And so a day later I watched the clip again.

Yes. There were the shots of the Israeli classroom and of the two Hadassah hospitals in Israel.

The cakes looked luscious. The history of the cake and its pan seemed sound. But something was missing.

And that's when I realize what was missing in the Hole in One segment on Hadassah and the Bundt cake: the word "Israel" was not once mentioned.

Which is why it is ironic that the narrator opens the story this way, "The origin of the Bundt cake is drizzled in controversy, so much so that people don't know what to call it."

Apparently, the State of Israel is so "drizzled in controversy" the Cooking Channel doesn't know what to call IT, either.

We're offered a brief history of Hadassah, "Hadassah was founded in 1912, founded by an American woman named Henrietta Szold. Its mission was to improve healthcare for people, and especially women, at home and abroad."

"Abroad?"

Ahem. You mean "ISRAEL."

Here is where I thought to myself: they're afraid to mention Israel. Israel is controversial. The left hates Israel and the left kicks up a fuss whenever anyone champions the Jewish State or even mentions it in public. So the word "Israel" is unsavory.

Not to mention, Hadassah is the Women's Zionist Organization of America. If they can't say "Jew," and they can't say "Israel," they sure aren't going to want to say "Zionist."

Richard D. Heideman, president of the American Zionist Movement spoke about this phenomenon in a recent article about the upcoming American Zionist Shabbat Initiative. "Unfortunately, for some, Zionism has become a dirty word and idea. However, if Zionism is a dirty word then Judaism must be likewise, because all of our Jewish sources, tradition and culture revolve around Israel, it is impossible to separate one from the other."

There you have it: Zionism is a dirty word. These dishonest food historians don't mind discussing controversy as it relates to the origins of a cake, up until that cake has a connection to Israel.

At that point, all bets are off.

Hole in One goes on to describe Hadassah Founder Henrietta Szold as a "fundraising powerhouse" but the narrator never speaks of Szold's motivation for raising that money. (Because. Dirty word.) From the Hadassah website:

Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America is the largest Jewish organization and the largest women's organization in the United States.

It was founded in 1912 by American born Henrietta Szold, who was so deeply moved by witnessing the poverty and sickness in Jerusalem, that she founded a women's organization to provide medical aid.

The first two nurses arrived in 1913, followed by a full-scale medical team. The organization set up well-baby clinics and infirmaries and later hospitals were set up all over Israel. A nursing school, medical school, school of pharmacy, school for dentistry, school of public health and school of occupational therapy were established. While the volunteers of Hadassah worked to gather funds for this expanding health network, Hadassah's membership grew to hundreds of thousands of women in all fifty states of the United States . . .

Over the last decades, Hadassah affiliates have developed in 34 countries, (between them Israel), under the aegis of Hadassah-International. These men and women of all backgrounds help support medical and scientific research in Israel.

Eureka! So that's what all that cake baking was about: providing medical care to people in Israel. That is the reason Szold founded Hadassah! But you'd never know that from listening to Hole in One.

The viewer is told how bake sales morphed into selling the actual Bundt cake pans, seconds from Nordic Ware: "[Hadassah] went on to use this money to fund schools and hospitals. And those pan sales helped to fund the Hadassah Medical Organization. And what did THEY do? Something amazing. They went on to develop a breakthrough method that could detect a gene mutation that could lead to breast cancer."

That should have been: Hadassah went on to use this money to fund schools and hospitals in Israel.

The Hadassah Medical Organization consists of two hospitals in Jerusalem, Israel. That's where the "breakthrough method" to detect the BRCA gene mutation was developed. In Jerusalem, Israel. Because Hadassah is the Women's Zionist Organization of America.

I spoke to the Israel Director of Public Relations for Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America, Barbara Sofer, to get her take on all this: "Indeed, Hadassah women invented the American version of the Bundt pan. They were always baking to support Israel where all of our projects are. I have a fantastic one myself in the shape of a Magen David.

"The dollars from every cake baked and cake pan sold went to build the new hospital in Ein Kerem (after Mount Scopus was captured by the Jordanian Arab Legion in 1948); support the thousands of children who came in the waves of immigration from decimated communities in Europe and North Africa; and to support the new medical school. Hadassah women have never known to be shy for their support of Israel, it would hard to miss the destination of those funds. Rose Joshua, the woman whose idea it was, made Aliyah from Minneapolis."

I asked Sofer if she'd care to venture a guess what Rose Joshua would say about the omission of the word "Israel" from a history of Hadassah and the Bundt cake. Here is what she said:

"Rose Joshua, a brilliant and articulate woman, would have found sharp words to express her anger that it wasn't mentioned that Hadassah, the largest Jewish organization in the Diaspora, was directing its fundraising to Israel. Likewise, she would have been livid that credit for Hadassah Hospital medical achievements in service of men and women around the world, would not be credited to the young Jewish State."

Think of it, all those housewives baking cakes, doing what they knew how to do, hoping it would be enough: enough to get medical care to their sisters and brothers in Israel. They'd be stirring the batter, whipping the eggs, unmolding the cakes onto platters, thinking of Israel. They thought of camels and oranges and children dancing in kibbutzim, as they labored in their hot kitchens, kitchens that smelled of chocolate, spice, and sugar. They dreamed about a place where Jews could live in safety, peace, and freedom. Making cake after cake after cake, they minded not one bit: it was all for the sake of Israel.

It's an ugly thing that the main force driving all those wonderful women to bake all those cakes in their hot kitchens, was not once mentioned in Hole in One, as if it were a dirty secret that all that effort was expended on Israel. But the failure to mention the sole reason the Bundt pan was created goes beyond ugliness. Hiding the motivation of Henrietta Szold and all the cake-baking Hadassah women means the viewer has been cheated out of hearing the real story, a truly great story: the story of magnificent women who have saved lives—so many lives—using whatever skills they had at hand.They baked cakes—CAKES—to save lives in Israel.

In Israel.

Henrietta Szold photo by Alexander Ganan עברית: אלכסנדר גנן [CC BY 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons

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The Smiths To Reunite Just To Perform In Israel And Piss Off Roger Waters (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

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London, October 25 - Legendary British indie band The Smiths will play together for the first time since 1987, in a series of concerts in Israel for the sole purpose of irking former Pink Floyd front man and BDS proponent Roger Waters, a spokesman for lead singer Morrissey announced today.

Lee Hackiss, a representative of the iconic entertainer, informed reporters in a press release that the influential group would reunite for a series of Tel Aviv performances in late 2018 despite longstanding bitterness and differences, because their irritation with Waters has now overcome their opposition to playing together again, and the best way to under Waters's skin would be to make an ostentatious demonstration of supporting a cause he has devoted his career to opposing.

"Creative, personal, and legal issues plagued The Smiths from the beginning," the statement read. "Those challenges reached a peak three decades ago and have hardly dissipated, but in the interim, Roger Waters has become the most self-righteous, insufferable ignoramus, and The Smiths have collectively realized that their desire to stick it to Waters far outweighs their unwillingness to work together."

Morrissey and guitarist/keyboardist Johnny Marr have heretofore posed the most intractable opposition to reforming the group, especially following a 1996 lawsuit by Marr against the other band members. Contacts toward a reunion, even a temporary one, between Marr and Morrissey occurred in 2008, but brought no results. Of all former Smiths, Morrissey has voiced the most strident and uncompromising opposition to reuniting, declaring in 2006, "I would rather eat my own testicles than reform the Smiths, and that's saying something for a vegetarian." In an interview, his spokesman explained the change of heart.

"Morrissey has always sought to get political," he noted. "One of the band's titles is even called Meat Is Murder, and they were loud about their opposition to Thatcher, the monarchy, and all sorts of Establishment trappings, not to mention 'mainstream' pop music. Waters has taken on a similar tone for his pet causes, but he's become so self-righteous about Palestine, so mired in, shall we say, 'alternative facts,' for so long, that the typical trademark dark lampooning characteristic of The Smiths doesn't in our assessment go far enough. Morrissey contacted Marr, [bassist Andy] Rourke, and [drummer Mike] Joyce about this project a couple of weeks ago by e-mail, and they all agreed it would be worthwhile."

"I don't actually care about Israel-Palestine one way or the other," confessed Joyce. "But an opportunity to troll Roger Waters? That's a project I can throw myself into."

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10/25 Links Pt1: Fatah Admits Its True Goals - Media is silent; Leibler: The enemy of my enemy

From Ian:

Evelyn Gordon: The Embassy, the NIF, and the U.S.-Israeli Jewish divide

Nor is this surprising. That same month, in response to a tweet asking whether Israel is “an evil country” or “just committing ethnic cleansing on a regular basis,” the NIF’s Israeli president, Talia Sasson, tweeted, “It is both.” Also that month, Ruchama Marton, founder and president of one of the NIF’s best-known grantees, Physicians for Human Rights, published an op-ed in Haaretz advocating for BDS.

In other words, the NIF has no problem with a chief executive who publicly calls Israel “evil” and falsely accuses it of systematic ethnic cleansing. And despite claiming that it doesn’t “fund global BDS activities against Israel nor support organizations that have global BDS programs,” it has no problem with its grantees’ chief executives publicly promoting BDS. Given this, is it any wonder that even soft-left groups like Women Wage Peace don’t want to be associated with the NIF?

Nor can the NIF be dismissed as a fringe organization. Unlike, say, the widely condemned Jewish Voices for Peace, the NIF is well within the mainstream American Jewish fold; Rabbi Rick Jacobs, today the president of America’s largest Jewish denomination, the Reform movement, used to chair one of its grant committees. And with annual donations topping $26 million in 2016, from a long list of donors, it clearly has a non-negligible support base. It’s not in the top financial tier of American Jewish organizations, but neither is it anywhere near the bottom.

A generation ago, an organization whose executives and grantees spouted anti-Israel canards or advocated anti-Israel boycotts would have been as toxic among American Jews as it was among Israelis. That fact that today’s NIF instead has broad support among American Jewry tells Israelis everything they need to know about how far away from Israel many American Jews have moved.

Given this, it’s not surprising that a growing number of Israelis view Diaspora Jewry negatively. The only question is whether anything can be done to close this widening rift before it’s too late.

Fatah Admits Its True Goals — but the Media Won’t Retweet

Palestinian officials and groups that are often deemed to be “moderates,” have once again been very clear about their desire to destroy Israel and forswear peace. But many in the media won’t report on it.

The Palestine Liberation Organization (PLO) — an umbrella organization for Palestinian groups headed by Palestinian Authority (PA) President and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas — recently tweeted: “Our goal is the end of Israel. … We don’t want peace. We want war and victory.”

The tweet, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu pointed out, was inspired by a quote from Yasser Arafat, Abbas’ predecessor.

The tweet was posted — and then quickly deleted — by the PLO’s mission in Columbia. As of this writing, not a single major US news outlet has reported on the tweet.

The PLO, established in 1964, was a US-designated terrorist group until after the Madrid Conference in the early 1990s. As the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) noted in a February 2016 Algemeiner op-ed, Arafat’s decision to side with Saddam Hussein in the first US-Iraq War resulted in a loss of support from his Arab donors. This loss of crucial funds, coupled with the fall of its patron — the USSR — put Arafat and the PLO in a corner.

In response, the PLO agreed to the Oslo Accords, which created the PA, and allowed for Palestinian leaders to come to the West Bank (Judea and Samaria) and Gaza.

In ironic twist, terrorist's father wins human rights award

The father of a terrorist who murdered three Israelis won an international lawyer prize on Sunday for defending another terrorist's wife.

Attorney Muhammad Alyan's son, terrorist Baha Alyan, perpetrated the October 2015 attack in Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem, killing three Israelis.

Baha was killed by security forces.

Alyan recently represented Nadia Abu Jamaal, the widow of terrorist Ghassan Abu Jamaal, who participated in the November 2014 terrorist attack on a synagogue in the Har Nof neighborhood in the capital, which killed five worshippers and a police officer.

The terrorist in this attack was also killed by security forces.

Outrageously, for representing Abu Jamaal, Alyan received the prize for best international human rights attorney in a ceremony held in Al-Quds University in Abu Dis, east of Jerusalem.

The university collaborated with the International Institute for Human Rights and Peace in Caen, northern France, to present the award.

Caen's local bar association, along with its Palestinian counterpart, the French human rights institute and Al-Quds University held the ninth annual International Palestinian Pleading Competition for Human Rights on Sunday.

Many diplomats attended the event, including from Belgium and Canada, along with French MPs and human rights activists.

Palestinian Arabs and other anti-Israel and antisemitic Arabs are seething over two tweets by Saudi writer Saud al-Fawzan, a columnist for the Saudi Al Asharq newspaper.

Al-Fawzan's first tweet said:

I rented furniture from a Jewish store, and when my flat burned down, I met the owner of the store, who said (to his workers): “Furnish the flat on my account”. I regretted each time that I “paid a Riyal to save an Arab”

“Pay a Riyal, save an Arab” was the name of a campaign of donations for the Palestinians, conducted in Saudi schools, organized by the Saudi government 30 years ago.

That tweet was met with a torrent of antisemitic replies, but not a small amount of support for al-Fawzan as well.

Then he tweeted:

I am not the Jews’ lawyer, but truth must be said: Show me one Jew who killed a Saudi, and I will show you a thousand Saudis from ISIS and Al-Qaeda who killed their own kind with explosive belts.

This received hundreds of very angry replies.

Arab media is picking up on this story.

The cracks in the antisemitic, anti-Israel and pro-Palestinian stances in the Arab world are getting wider every day.

While the spread of the Internet has had a huge impact on an Arabs who are now questioning the hate they were taught as they grew up, it is worth noting that this writer's attitude was apparently changed by a single Jew doing him a big favor.

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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Palestinians burn British, American and Israeli flags on anniversary of Balfour Declaration in 2015

Now, this is how to do propaganda.

The Palestinian Authority Ministry of Education and Higher Education announced on Tuesday the launch of a campaign, in cooperation with the PA's Supreme National Committee, to get Palestinian high school students to write 100 thousand letters addressed to Britain's Prime Minister Theresa May against the Balfour Declaration on its centenary.

According to a ministry statement, these messages will be written in different languages, and a number of them will be published in the media.

In addition, a moment of silence will be observed in all Palestinian schools in commemoration of the letter.

The ministry instructed school districts to organize events on November 1 in every schoolyard, and to invite the media and Palestinian leaders to participate.

Every student is supposed to hold a sign in Arabic or English denouncing the Declaration and insisting on an apology from Great Britain.

The Palestinian Authority eagerly and cynically uses children in an effort to get news coverage of its political goal to destroy Israel. And the wire services that will show pictures of these children holding signs will not mention that the PA forced them to do it, and make it appear like a grassroots movement of angry youths.

Children are being weaponized. And the money behind this campaign comes from your tax dollars.

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Bethany Mandel writes in The Forward:

Last week, Quebec introduced a “burqa ban” – a prohibition against Muslim women wearing the full-face covering (which is actually called a niqab, not a burqa) in the public sphere. The law bans those working in public service or using public services from wearing veils or any sort of facial covering. Teachers and doctors, and anyone else who works for the government, would be subject to the law, as would anyone taking the bus.

Similar bans have been passed across Europe, like the national ban on burqas in schools in France and the total ban on full-face veils in France and Belgium. When the bill was passed in Belgian parliament, lawmakers cited security reasons for the ban, also claiming the veil is a tool of oppression.

But the ban in Quebec is the first time such measures have been taken in North America.

...We Jews especially should stand up for religious liberty rights, regardless of what that faith is. We especially should be in the business of opposing legislation like “burqa bans,” because any attempt to get a minority religious group to assimilate inevitably affects Jews as well.

...And as we saw in France, these bans don’t just affect Muslims, but almost certainly will come to affect Jews who also cover their heads for religious reasons. If Canada proceeds down this path, Jewish men will no longer be able to wear yarmulkes, and religious married women will be banned from wearing a wig (sheitel) or scarf.

If Jews are interested in practicing some ideological consistency, not to mention preventing ourselves from becoming collateral damage in a misguided attempt to assimilate Muslims, this is just the kind of legislation we should be pushing back against. We’re too well acquainted with religious discrimination to bow out of this one.

After the uproar over the proposal, the person who introduced it clarified what it was meant to do:

{t]he law would be in effect only at the moment of identification. Someone embarking on a municipal bus would have to show their face in order to use a transit pass with photo ID, but would not have to remain unveiled for the duration of the ride.

People would have to uncover their faces in order to ask a question of library staff or register at a medical clinic or hospital, but could leave their faces covered while browsing bookshelves or sitting in the waiting room. The ban would extend to public services such as attending university classes, seeking court documents from a clerk or picking up children from a public daycare.

“These are commonsense rules,” Vallee told reporters. They would apply to anyone whose face is obscured, including those wearing large sunglasses or scarves, she said.

The law does not stipulate fines or sanctions for those who fail to comply and does allow for accommodation requests, with guidelines as to the process expected to be ready in the coming months.

The lawmakers blew it with the original rationale of "social cohesion" being the reason for the ban, since, as Mandel notes, that is a slippery slope that could apply to any religious symbol.

However, there are two real reasons that the niqab should be banned in the public sphere, and perhaps beyond. One is the basic idea of identifying people, as noted in the revised reason for the ban - people should not be allowed to wear masks of any sort in schools and when boarding buses because normal social and official interaction requires seeing someone's face and identifying them to be who they claim to be. Otherwise someone could kidnap little Maryam from day care pretending to be her mother.

The more important reason to ban the niqab (and burqa), which the Quebec lawmakers didn't mention, is that those garments are a violation of women's rights. Islam does not require that a woman's face be covered, but too many extremist Muslims force women - either directly or through social pressure - to wear the veil. It is akin to torture.

As feminist Phyllis Chesler puts it:

In a burqa or chadari, one has no peripheral and only limited forward vision; one's hearing and speech are muffled. One's facial expressions remain unknown; no eye contact is possible. Movement is severely limited. A first-time burqa wearer may feel that she cannot breathe freely and that she might slowly be suffocating. She may feel buried alive and may become anxious, claustrophobic. (Try on a burqa, this experience is easy to confirm). Imagine the consequences of getting used to this as a way of life. But maybe one never gets used to it. I have heard many descriptions of what Saudi women do the moment their aircraft leaves the Kingdom's terra firma: they immediately fling off their "coverings."

A burqa wearer, who can be as young as ten years old, must surely experiences both isolation and sensory deprivation which are, essentially, forms of torture which can lead to depression, anxiety, even a psychological breakdown. According to my colleague, psychoanalyst and Arabist, Dr. Nancy L. Kobrin, the burqa may "create an artificially induced autistic-like environment." Covering up the five senses is harmful to the woman in the burqa; making it impossible to recognize or identify such a woman is potentially harmful to others.

If you care about security, you should be against all face coverings. If you care about women's rights, you should be against the use of the Islamic veil.

(I am reading Chesler's new book, "Islamic Gender Apartheid - Exposing a Veiled War Against Women." This is a major theme of the book, which I hope to review next week.)

If Quebec wanted to ban the hijab (headscarf,) I would be against it 100%. That would indeed be a violation of freedom of religion. The hijab doesn't impede women's freedoms.

But the niqab/veil (and more so the burqa, which has been used to hide hundreds of suicide bombers) is a violation of the rights of women - and it is a security risk as well.

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