Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Thursday, May 05, 2016

Algeria bans Jews from pilgrimage. Not "Zionists" - Jews.

Tlemcen synagogue

Algerian news site El Khabar reports that the government is not allowing French Jews to come on an annual pilgrimage to visit the gravesite of a 15th century rabbi.

Rabbi Ephraim ben Israel Alnaqua was a legendary spiritual leader and physician who escaped Spain (according to legend) and settled in Tlemcen, Algeria. The synagogue he established there was still there as of 1906, according to the Jewish Encyclopedia.

Since Algerian independence there have been a number of visits by Jews to the Jewish cemetery in Tlemcen (the rabbi is buried nearby). Some of the visits have been done under the radar but some publicly, including a 250-strong delegation in 2005.

These pilgrims are not from Israel. They are French Jews whose ancestors lived in Algeria. But the Algerian government is banning them from visiting.

I'm sure it is because of "occupation."

(h/t Ibn Boutros)

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From OurPassports.com:

By early 1940 Europe was in war: Poland has been conquered, and Germany with Russia where jointly controlling the country. Anyone who did not manage to escape east, into Romania, Hungary or the Baltic states was caught. No way out was seen. Hope was gone.

By this time, there were those who were lucky enough to have done just that: thousands found refuge in neighboring Bucharest and Budapest and also far up north, in Lithuania, Kaunas. This was the location of a very rich and traditional old Jewish community and now, a refuge for hundreds and even several thousand refugees, the lucky ones who managed to cross the border before it was shut tight.

As the days went by it was becoming clearer that the situation would not remain safe for long. With both German and Russian soldiers massing up on the borders of the tiny small country, all feared the worst. All began to anticipate the inevitable: the possibility of conquest and invasion into still safe Kaunas. And this was the case: On June 15th the Soviet army invaded. They were trapped.

During this year, several diplomats who were stationed in the city did the unthinkable and went even against the orders of their superiors: they issued life saving visas to hundreds and several thousand Jews and other refugees. Such actions even put their own life at risk, yet, they did so without thinking twice: Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara and Dutch representative Jan Zwartendijk.

Some though managed to obtain other means to flee occupied Lithuania as the holder of this set of documents here did: JOEL BLUMENCWAJG, a young man, obtained the rare “War Refugee Certificate” from the Lithuanian Ministry of Interior, the” Commissioner for War refugees”. The document was translated into French by the well-known Lithuanian dignitary Vladas Daumantas, then acting Kaunas County Court jury translator, who had a rich contribution to the founding of the country after World War One. The certificate was obtained prior to the occupation but put into use afterwards. Young Joel, who found refuge in the small town of Tauragė, transited through Moscow, Turkey & Syria to arrive safely into British Palestine on March 15th, 1941, after crossing the border checkpoint at Nakoura.

Not many where as lucky as he was. Following operation Barbarossa on June 1941, thousands upon thousands were shot in make shift ditches and graves throughout the Baltic States, what would later be the beginning of the end for European Jews: the mass execution of complete communities began following the invasion of the Soviet Union and would not stop until 1945.

Now, on Holocaust Memorial Day, Fatah reproduces this document to delegitimize the Jewish state by saying "This important document proves that the British colonized the land of historical Palestine."

It is a variant of a stupid argument that we have seen (and made fun of) before, that any mention of Palestine before 1948 proves that it was an Arab state of sorts, when in fact the vast majority of mentions of the term in historic literature refers to Jewish history in the area.

And it proves that nothing is beneath the terrorists of Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party.

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"Women in Parliaments" complicit in excluding Israel from forum in Jordan

Yesterday I wrote about how the Women in Parliaments Global Forum is being held in Amman, Jordan - and Israel has been banned from attending because of Jordanian bigotry.

I wondered how involved the Women in Parliaments Forum was in this, and it appears that they were fully complicit.

Here's one of their posters advertising the event from a month ago:

Even then, Israel was not included on the map:

What makes this all the more remarkable, and repugnant, is that Israel has been a big booster of the WIP.

I mentioned that in 2013, Israel won an award from WIP, and Israeli Chief Justice Daphne Barak-Erez gave a speech.

In 2015, another of WIP's conferences was held in Jerusalem, Israel.

Their Leadership webpage features a quote from Binyamin Netanyahu.

But this year these women, who pretend to be working for noble causes, allowed themselves to be complicit in excluding an entire nation because Jordan's bigotry.

The idea that a group of people who have been historically marginalized was so quick to do the same to another group of historically marginalized people is simply sickening.

An apparent attendee sent me this ironic tweet:

Now discussing "women as active agents of peace" and "bringing everyone to the table" #wipsummit2016 @elderofziyon https://t.co/bEYtINNLiu
— Charlotte Burow (@charlotteburow) May 5, 2016

This was corroborated by other tweeters at the summit:

Why are we only inviting those who hold the guns? we need to invite #women to the table in #peace negotiations @AUBinetaDiop #resolution1325
— OECD Livestream (@OECDlive) May 5, 2016

Write to the sponsors of the event - including Microsoft, Merck, Salesforce, Facebook and E&Y - and ask them whether they support excluding Israel from this forum.

Some links to get you started:

Microsoft rrt@we-worldwide.com
Merck media.relations@emdgroup.com
EY contact page, also on Twitter @EY_GovtPublic @EY_MENA and @EY_Jordan

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05/04 Links Pt2: Melanie Phillips: Hatred of Israel and Jews can’t be separated; The Holocaust Without Jews

From Ian:

Netanyahu vows: There will not be a second Holocaust

Each year, Israel stops for one day to remember the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust and to tell the stories of the survivors.
On Wednesday, the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, there will be a state memorial ceremony at Warsaw Ghetto Square at the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum in Jerusalem. President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will both speak at the ceremony, where Holocaust survivors will light six torches as part of the memorial service.
A Knesset memorial ceremony titled "Every Person Has a Name" is set for Thursday. During the ceremony, which will be held in the Chagall Lounge, Knesset members will read out the names of the Jews who were killed in the Holocaust. Rivlin, Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein and Supreme Court President Justice Miriam Naor will all be present for the ceremony.

The Holocaust Without Jews

On Thursday, Israel will mark Holocaust Remembrance Day, Yom HaShoah. As has been the custom for over six decades, a 2-minute air raid siren will be blared across the entire country and citizens from all walks of life will interrupt their daily routines for a moment of solemn reflection. Jan. 27 of this year also marked the decade anniversary of the United Nations-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day, which member states are encouraged to commemorate. Though an Israeli initiative, International Holocaust Remembrance Day has gradually been subjected to the universalizing prescriptions of those who would water down the particularly Jewish aspect of the Nazi extermination of the Jews.
The evolution of two different days of Holocaust commemoration and the ways they increasingly run counter to each other are symptomatic of the seizure of Jewish history and suffering for ulterior purposes. This victim displacement appropriates the most traumatic experience in Jewish history, pointedly erases the specificity of the events supposedly being commemorated, and then harshly chides Jews for inserting their own particularistic concerns into the discussion. At a certain point, these phenomena become a continuation of a specific form of oppression and erasure rather an antidote to “hatred.”
Imagine a remembrance of slavery that did not acknowledge the suffering of African-Americans—or a commemoration of the AIDS epidemic omitting the experiences of gay men. Such acts of dissociation would be inconceivable, the subjects of rightful denunciations and outraged protests. Yet in recent years, that is precisely what has been going on with regard to the Holocaust and its chief victims, the Jews. Last month, Britain’s National Union of Students (NUS)—which claims to represent some 7 million students across 600 campuses—debated whether it should even commemorate Holocaust Memorial Day. That this was a subject for argument is absurd enough; the actual proceedings were scandalous. “Of course there shouldn’t be anti-Semitism,” said a student speaking against the measure, offering the sort of throat-clearing assertion from which anti-Semitism almost inevitably follows. “But it’s not about one set of people.”

How Holocaust Denial Shaped Mahmoud Abbas’ Worldview

Global leaders hope that the longtime president of the Palestinian Authority can reach a peace agreement with the Jewish state. But his historical beliefs about Israel’s founding—and the Zionist movement’s alleged complicity in the murder of millions of Jews—may call that into question.
The Israeli Foreign Ministry posted a video on YouTube last December in which it accused the Palestinian Authority of using Nazi propaganda against Israel. The video shows racist caricatures created by Goebbels and Hitler in the 1930s and ‘40s that are now used by the Palestinians to incite terrorism against Jews and attack the legitimacy of the state of Israel.
The images presented in the video are horrifying, but this is by no means the first time the Palestinians have used Nazi propaganda against Jews and Israel. Palestinian and Arab media in general are saturated with anti-Semitic images, conspiracy theories, and libels. The Palestinians regularly downplay the significance of the Holocaust and sometimes deny it ever happened at all. When they do admit it, they blame it on the Jews themselves.
This anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial comes from the top. Although it is either unknown or denied in the West, PA President Mahmoud Abbas is profoundly fascinated by Nazi propaganda and has employed it in his own writings, particularly in his doctoral dissertation on the subject of the Holocaust, “The Other Face: The Secret Connections Between Nazism and the Leadership of the Zionist Movement,” which he wrote in Moscow in 1982. Two years later, Abbas published a book based on his dissertation. It is written in Arabic and, tellingly, has never been translated into any other language.
There is a reason for this: The book is inspired by and based on the work of Adolf Eichmann, the architect of the Holocaust. While he was a fugitive in Argentina, Eichmann formulated and disseminated Nazi propaganda according to which the Holocaust was a Jewish-Nazi conspiracy that sacrificed Jewish lives in order to create a Jewish state in Palestine. In his book, Abbas adopts this worldview wholesale, and the result is the subject of this article, which is, I believe, the first in-depth examination of the book to appear in English.

Nazi Propaganda returns in Palestinian incitement

El Bashayar of Egypt has an article that starts out asking, "Many Arabs and Muslims from around the world are talking about the control by the Jews on the world economy and their control of major countries' policies. Is this talk about the physical reality of the evidence, or just conspiracy theories to justify the defeat of the Arabs and Muslims in today's time?"

Very quickly its readers learn the answer: Of course Jews control the world! The Rothschilds are worth as much as $500 trillion, seven times the budgets of the nations of the world combined! They were behind the Kennedy - and Lincoln! - assassinations!

And it isn't only the Rothschilds. Look at Sergei Brin and Andy Grove (who just passed away) and Larry Ellison and Michael Dell! Look at the heads of all the major media organizations!

Good to know that they could prove definitively that their own inadequacies are not the reason that Arab nations are backward and far behind the West in every important metric. They can safely blame the Jews and go on with their lives.

Thank Allah for giving them such a great scapegoat.

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Iran To Let Women Choose How Many Men Gang-Rape Them To Death (PreOccupied Territory)

Our weekly column from the humor site PreOccupied Territory.

Check out their Facebook page.

Tehran, May 4 - In a move aimed at making the country and society more progressive, the government of Iran announced this morning it would implement new sentencing guidelines for women convicted of capital crimes such as marital infidelity, and henceforth would allow those women to select the specific number of men who would perform the mandated fatal gang-rape.

In a ruling issued by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, since normal, progressive countries naturally have positions with such a title, the government decreed today that as of Wednesday at 1 PM local time, any capital punishment meted out against women would be preceded by a procedure in which the woman chooses a number between fifteen and thirty. That number will then determine the number of court-appointed men who will repeatedly force themselves upon her and beat her until she expires.

Representatives of the Ayatollah touted the progressive nature of the new procedure. "No other nation in the region allows a convicted criminal to choose the method of punishment," boasted Saad Isti. "Not even the supposedly enlightened, liberal countries of Europe have a law such as this one. It is yet another demonstration that when it comes to actual progressiveness and openness, the West is all talk and no action." He added that Israel, ostensibly a bastion of morality in a sea of backwardness, would never dream of instituting such a liberal policy.

Legal experts explained the range of gang-rapist/executioner numbers in practical terms. "Ideally, the condemned woman would be able to pick any number, but beyond the obvious logistical and space considerations, there's simple efficacy," said Shau Vinisti, who writes about legal affairs for the Tehran Times. "Pick too low a number and the executioners will wear themselves out before the criminal is dead. Too high a number and, aside from crowding, some of the men will be unfairly left out. The new procedure as it is, I think, strikes an elegant balance between giving the condemned some freedom of choice and ensuring the mandated outcome."

Isti said that if the program shows promise, other capital criminals will similarly be permitted to make choices regarding the specifics of their punishment. Homosexuals, for example, instead of simply being hanged from cranes, will be given the choice of what crane manufacturer will have the honor of providing the equipment. Additionally, the Jewish community in Iran will be allowed to choose between the ever-present threat of persecution if the slightest hint of Zionism creeps into their behavior and the ever-present threat of government-sanctioned massacres for any reason whatsoever.

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05/04 Links Pt1: The West’s Blind Eye to Abbas’ Corrupt Dictatorship; How Western ideology empowers the jihad

From Ian:

PMW: Abbas confirms that the PA is still paying salaries to terrorists

Last week, during a debate in Norwegian parliament about the implications of Palestinian Media Watch's report "The PA's Billion Dollar Fraud," the Norwegian Foreign Minister promised to put pressure on Mahmoud Abbas at their meeting this week to stop paying salaries to terrorists. PMW's report shows that despite assurances that it had stopped paying salaries to terrorists, the PA continues to pay them, just by a circuitous route via the PLO.
In the Norwegian minister's meeting with Abbas today, according to the Norwegian daily Dagen, when Abbas was confronted with PMW's charge that the PA was still paying salaries to terrorists in prison, Abbas did not deny that the PA still funds salary payments to prisoners. Rather he confirmed that the salaries are still being paid, when he assured the Norwegian Foreign Minister that these salaries are just not paid with Norwegian money.
Norwegian Foreign Minister Brende:
"'In the meeting, I emphasized that this support program in which financial payments are increased the [longer] the prisoners serve time [in prison], is unacceptable and should be abolished. I emphasized that with the political and economic challenges that Palestinians now face, it is in their own best interest to abolish this program,' says [FM] Brende.
Abbas responded by repeating assurances that Norwegian funds are not going to finance the program." [Dagen (Norway), May 4, 2016]
PMW's new report exposes that the PA has been lying to donor countries since 2014 when they claimed that the PLO took over paying terrorists' salaries with money that did not come from the donor-supported PA budget. Today's confirmation by Abbas that the salaries continue to be paid - just not with Norwegian money - is a confirmation of PMW's main charge in the report that Abbas created the PLO Commission of Prisoners' Affairs solely for the purpose of deceiving the donor countries, and that the salaries are still financed by the PA. Were it not so, Abbas would simply have denied that the PA is connected in any way to the terrorist salaries.

PMW salary report leads Congressman to condemn PA salary rewards to terrorists

Congressman Ed Royce: "The donor community is helping the PA basically pay people to slay other people. So here is my point. I want us to use our considerable leverage to end that practice. And second, I would really like the European community in our dialogue with them to fully comprehend what's going on in this process of the [PA’s] inducements of paying people to get them to go out and slay other human beings. Can you do that? ..."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Patterson: "None of our money goes to this. It's not fungible in that respect. Our money goes essentially to pay PA debts to Israel and to other creditors. So the budget reliefs, the budget support [from the US] that you see in the budget, goes to creditors and cannot be diverted to these stipends."
Congressman Ed Royce: "But the reality is that the donor community is coming together internationally to fund the PA... Since the donor community is putting money into that pot in order - in one way or the other - to help the Palestinian people - regardless how we perceive it - we have to use our leverage to cut this out. And now is the time to do it..."
U.S. Assistant Secretary of State, Anne Patterson: "Mr. Chairman, rest assured that this will be a subject of discussion with the rest of the donor community. We see Europeans and other donors all the time and rest assured your points will be conveyed with our full concurrence."[House Foreign Affairs Committe YouTube Channel, April 13, 2016]

Expert: West’s Blind Eye to Abbas’ Corrupt Dictatorship is Undermining Palestinian Statehood

The West’s refusal to challenge the growing corruption and autocratic rule of Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas “could have a devastating effect on the long- prospects for a viable Palestinian state,” Grant Rumley, a research fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote Monday in Newsweek.
As long as Abbas continues security cooperation with Israel and “pay[s] lip service to the moribund peace process,” Western leaders will not pressure him to change, Rumley observed. He added Abbas “has tested the limits of Western leniency” since the end of the American-sponsored talks two years ago, which Abbas himself torpedoed.
Rumley raised concerns that Abbas, who is in the 11th year of a four-year term, is becoming increasingly dictatorial. Last month, Abbas established a new constitutional court, all of whose members are picked by Abbas, “that would, naturally, confirm his own presidential decrees,” Rumley wrote. When a Palestinian legislator accused an Abbas ally of corruption in March, Abbas issued a warrant for her arrest.
When teachers launched an unprecedented strike over the PA’s broken promises to raise their wages, the PA set up roadblocks to prevent the teachers from marching on Ramallah, arrested the leaders of the teachers’ union, and threatened legal action unless they returned to work. The crackdown prompted one Palestinian journalist to write that the PA “really should not continue to exist.” And a recent report from a Palestinian NGO found that in 2015, 60 percent of the nearly 200 violations of press freedom in Palestinian territories occurred in the PA-governed West Bank, with only 40 percent occurring in Hamas-ruled Gaza.

Vic Rosenthal: How Western ideology empowers the jihad

In recent years, although the great power struggle between Russia and the West remains in an attenuated form, a new source of conflict has appeared: the decentralized Islamic jihad, aimed to expand dar al Islam at the expense of the rest of the world.
Much has been written about possible reasons for the newfound aggressiveness of Muslims in confronting the West. But the explanation is not to be found in any new Islamic doctrines.
Islam was always expansionist and confrontational. What has changed is us. In the past, the West didn’t hesitate to employ its vast military superiority when confronting a less-capable adversary. This was understood by everyone. The forces of jihad were deterred from attacking us.
But now, like Israel, the West finds itself concerned that using our power would abrogate the essential human rights of its adversaries – defined as People of Color – while ‘white’ nations have no rights. We are allowed to protect individuals, but not nations or cultures. Defined as the ‘racist oppressor’, we have no right to object to their racism, while they are permitted to ‘resist oppression’ with violence.
As a result, the jihad continues to press forward on multiple fronts and the West retreats, paralyzed by its ideology and unable to use its power.

From Dagen (Norway):

Foreign Minister Brende is on a new tour of the Middle East. Tuesday afternoon and evening he had talks first with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu in Jerusalem and then Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas in Ramallah.

The agenda for the meeting with Abbas included the extensive support programs for imprisoned Palestinians. For years, the Palestinian Authority (PA) paid wages to convicted Palestinian terrorists, and the worse their act, the more money they get.

Hans Olav Syversen took up this issue in last week's oral question time, and Brende promised then to put further pressure on Abbas at the next opportunity. Brende now confirms that the issue was discussed during the meeting in Ramallah.

"In the meeting I emphasized that this funding, where financial payments increased by how long prisoners were sentenced, is unacceptable and should be abolished. I emphasized that with the political and economic challenges that Palestinians now face, it pays to abolish this scheme," said Brende.

Abbas responded by repeating assurances that Norwegian funds are not going to finance the scheme.

Last week, Israeli Arnold Roth (whose daughter was murdered in a major terror attack) told Dagen that Norwegian authorities must understand that they indirectly contribute to how the PA gives salaries to imprisoned terrorists, and they are helping to maintain a Palestinian culture that supports terror as a political tool.

If Norwegian funds aren't paying the terrorists, then whose funds are? The PA is dependent on foreign aid and its budget mostly comes from the nations of the world, so any way you slice it, the world is paying for the salaries of terrorists.

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More than 400 female Members of Parliaments and Governments from around the world re in Amman, Jordan for the Women in Parliaments Global Forum (WIP) Summit 2016 that starts today.

Under the title “Women in Politics: fast forward” the WIP Summit will "focus on the importance of parity of power, and address urgent matters such as peace, security, migration and integration."

But one delegation is apparently being barred from participating.

The head of the Jordanian House of Representatives, Atef Tarawneh, said that the Lower House refused the participation of any Israeli delegation. He told the WIP organizers ahead of time not to invite any Israelis to attend. He said in a press conference Tuesday that "we asked in advance not to invite the Israelis, and we stressed that we would not welcome the Israeli delegation."

Tarawneh indicated that he wants to ensure that the forum is hijacked to talk about Palestinian issues. He said that this event enhances the world's respect for Jordan, and constitutes an important opportunity to highlight the Palestinian issue.

In 2013 the WIP gave an award to Israel for Winner in Closing the Gender Gap - Middle East. Because Israel is a non-Arab country in the Middle East, the forum then created a separate Achievements in Closing the Gender Gap in the Arab World category, just so they could give Arabs two additional awards.

It is possible that this is all posturing on the part of Jordan's parliament, and that King Abdullah has overridden this decision. I tweeted several attendees asking if Irael was there and no one responded.

But if indeed the Israelis are banned and the WIP acquiesced to Jordan's demands, it shows how the supposedly powerful women in world governments caved to blackmail from a bigoted regime. They could and should have threatened to move the event elsewhere rather than allow a ban on one of their more prominent members - and Jordan's parliament would have been the ones to cave rather than lose the prestige of hosting this forum.

The WIP has a number of prominent partners who should be asked why they support a forum that so easily disenfranchises a nation which is a leader in women's rights.

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Last night was the Institute for Middle East Understanding annual gala.

The Israel-hating, terror-supporting members of UNRWA-USA attended and tweeted about the event.

team @unrwausa is at @theimeu gala! be sure to stop by and say hello! https://t.co/zvnwKFtYt2
— lena badr abdelhamid (@lenambadr) May 3, 2016

They were very happy to have a chance to see BDS activist and academic fraud Marc Lamont Hill.

Thank you for all you do, @marclamonthill! https://t.co/YspFFgwTjF
— Abby Smardon (@abbysmardon) May 4, 2016

They were starstruck by serial liar and antisemite Roger Waters.

.@RogerWaters loves Palestine and so do we! @abbysmardon #IMEUgala pic.twitter.com/QWCCuYpSYF
— Laila (@lailamo) May 4, 2016

The IMEU honored Hanan Ashrawi, whose organization Miftah has pushed antisemitic memes and supports violence against Jews. In a normal world, someone who had been linked to the worst kind of bigotry would be shunned forever. But Hanan Ashrawi is a rock star to the UNRWA-USA gang:

"The violence is created by the occupation which is the highest form of violence." Hanan Ashrawi. @theIMEU pic.twitter.com/NPLff9OSnO
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

Yes, these mental midgets really believe that "occupation" is the "highest form of violence" when tens of thousands of people are being slaughtered in Syria only a few miles away. These people honestly believe that Palestinians are not responsible for their own explicit support of terror because "occupation" is so terrible - but they would never dare justify violence by those whose lands are occupied by Russia or China or Turkey or Morocco.

Why is Israel, unique in the world, responsible for the violence that is done by others? The reason is because the targets of that violence are Zionist Jews. That's the only difference, and this new version of antisemitism disguised as a political opinion is heartily embraced by these women of UNRWA-USA.

They claim they support non-violence but they do not say a word against the violence practiced and supported daily by their pet Palestinians. They do not spend a penny on any programs to teach Palestinians that they must live in peace with Jews. They do not say a word against a regime that has taught its people incitement instead of normalization; turning terrorists into heroes instead of pariahs,

This is UNRWA-USA.

"@imeu challenges ignorance. Victims will not be silenced, will not be blamed anymore." Hanan Ashrawi. #Palestine
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

The implication again is that stabbing Jews is a morally neutral or honorable activity and that the people who do it are justified because they are "victims." What a great message from a tax-deductible NGO.

Incredible to have @rogerwaters perform at @theIMEU gala and talk about how he's blacklisted 4 supporting #Palestine pic.twitter.com/P4LMJDIfmc
— Maggie M. Salem (@magsmitchell) May 4, 2016

A person who spends his entire life trying to blacklist artists for performing in Israel is whining about being "blacklisted?" I am not aware of a single concert that was cancelled because of Waters' politics.

Hypocrisy, justification for terror, rabid hate for Israel, inversion of reality, and enthusiasm for people who support antisemitism and terror attacks. That is the IMEU and that is UNRWA-USA.

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05/03 Links Pt2: Springsteen guitarist slams ‘obnoxious idiots’ who back BDS; Dershowitz: The Holocaust: Many Villains, Few Heroes

From Ian:

Springsteen guitarist slams ‘obnoxious idiots’ who back BDS

Amid rumors that Bruce Springsteen will perform in Tel Aviv this summer, he and his E Street band have come under fire from supporters of boycotting Israel.
On Monday, band guitarist Steven Van Zandt — who is also known for playing a mobster on HBO’s “The Sopranos” — responded in typically direct style. In a series of tweets, he called Israel boycotters “politically ignorant obnoxious idiots” and suggested to one: “go f— yourself.”
Van Zandt has taken tweet heat before for the unconfirmed show. And he’s not alone among his bandmates.
Bassist Garry Tallent has been heckled by the Twittersphere. And self-described anti-Zionist Stanley Cohen, who has more than 20,000 Twitter followers, went after the Boss himself back in February.

David Horovitz: On Israel, Springsteen’s guitarist outriffs Ken Livingstone

Bruce’s beloved long-time guitarist, it turns out, has been defending Israel in the Twittersphere. Little Steven. Miami Steve. Silvio from “The Sopranos.” Giovanni “Johnny” Henriksen from “Lilyhammer,” if you prefer your TV dramas Scandinavian.
More pertinently: Steven Van Zandt, the founder of Artists United Against Apartheid, the force behind anti-apartheid protest song Sun City.
What began as a Twitter row over Springsteen’s recent cancellation of a show in North Carolina lurched into an argument over Israel, in the course of which Van Zandt attacked “discrimination of any kind,” stressed his patriotism, and then, when challenged on the issue of the ostensible “rogue” state of Israel, slapped back with “You and the other Israel boycotters are politically ignorant obnoxious idiots. Israel is one of our two friends in the Middle East.” He told Israel critics to “get educated.” And then, when it was put to him that “Israel totally meets apartheid definition under under itl law” (sic), came back, bless him, with, “Trust me I am at least as aware of most of the injustices around the world as you are. One solution does not fit all,” and “The problems there have existed for a thousand years and you want the solution in 140 characters?” and, best of all, “I understand how it might appear that way but your analysis is incorrect. It’s a lot more complicated than SA.”
“Complicated.” Little Steven, I could kiss you. Yes, it is complicated. Complicated. Complicated. Complicated. If it were simple, we would have solved it. If we could have done so on our own, we would have solved it. Most of us don’t want to rule the Palestinians. We don’t want to send our kids to the army, to risk their lives in conflict with the death cult Islamists. But our country is nine miles wide at its narrowest point. This region, with Hamas and Hezbollah and Islamic State and that terrifying regime in Iran, is hostile and ruthless. We are strong in our imperfect, gutsy little democracy, we’re defiant, we’re hanging in there. But meeting the challenges we face is complicated.
Please remember that, those of you tempted to fall into the Livingstone trap, those of you tempted to nod and add that caveat, as you properly condemn anti-Semitism, “Of course Israel’s totally wrong in its treatment of the Palestinians…”

BOYCOTT ISRAEL - Steven Van Zandt - Lilyhammer (h/t IsraellyCool)

The Daily Mail reports on a new report by the Campaign Against Antisemitism:

The number of hate crimes against Jews in Britain has reached a shocking new high, campaigners warn today.

An alarming new report shows that police forces recorded almost 1,000 anti-Semitic offences in 2015 – a 25 per cent rise on the previous year.

Violent attacks on Jews soared by 50 per cent and yet there was a worrying decline in the number of cases where suspects were charged.

Campaigners fear the worrying trend is being driven by Islamists, neo-Nazis and far-Left activists and students, who use social media to share sickening images similar to those seen in Nazi Germany.

In one shocking case, a mob shouting ‘Kill the Jews’ stormed a synagogue in Stamford Hill, North London, smashing windows and attacking worshippers.

I could not find any UK-wide statistics on anti-Muslim hate crimes last year. The closest apples-to-apples comparison I found was in London, where the police keep statistics on both antisemitic and anti-Muslim hate crimes.

Over the past 12 months it recorded 441 antisemitic hate crimes and 1,124 anti-Muslim hate crimes. The number of anti-Muslim hate crimes in London has soared more than 50% in the past year, with an especially large increase immediately after the Paris attacks last year.

However, there are over a million Muslims in London, and only 172,000 Jews - nearly six times more Muslims than Jews.

This means that an average Jew in London has more than twice the chance of being the victim of a hate crime than a Muslim does.

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