On Monday night (23/5), I went to a PSC event held at the P21 Gallery in Euston. Miko Peled was speaking at a book launch for the latest edition of his book ‘The General’s son’. Peled outdid himself; nastier than Blumenthal, more distortion than Pappe, more unhinged than Barkan.
Miko Peled is lost. I am not a great believer in generalisations, so dislike the all-inclusive labels such as ‘self-hater’. Each of these individuals has taken a different journey along the way, but there are clearly deep personal issues with them all. Miko Peled bathes in the perverted adoration of the similarly inflicted. Like a Big Brother winner, Peled profits through what is wrong with him. It is highly unsettling to witness.
I do not need to go into detail over all the distortions of yesterday’s talk. The trap Miko Peled fell into is evident from the outset. He realised that some of the Zionist tales were myth, which to him made the Arab narrative pure gospel. This argument I have heard from them all, the flawed logic of the true believer – one false idol replaced by another. The classic ‘non sequitur’ of the ignorant.
For Peled, Israel has to be removed from the map, no question. The ‘settlers of Tel Aviv’ could become, if the Arabs are willing to forgive them, just the ‘polite guests’ inside the new state. His historical narrative is so false it has to be deliberate, his description of the present seems designed to mislead.
Miko Peled overstepped the mark several times, most notably when he spoke of antisemitism and Islamophobia. It was this, rather than the fake stories about the conflict, that I found the most objectionable. I’ve become immune to the constant distortion about the historical conflict, and more attuned to the underlying messages. Peled did not disappoint.
Luke Baker, a man who openly expresses disdain and dislike for Israel is the Jerusalem bureau chief of Reuters, one of the world’s largest news services. He is also the outgoing chairperson of Israel’s Foreign Press Association (FPA).
Baker’s behavior on Twitter has given a window into his personal views, and those views are not at all impartial when it comes to Israel.
On the contrary, Baker’s tweets have been mocking, sarcastic, negative, and dismissive with regard to Israel and only with regard to Israel. Based on HonestReporting’s research, Baker has rarely, if ever, demonstrated such behavior or views toward Palestinians or toward any other party in the world. So what did Luke Baker actually say? Aside from routinely omitting critical context and basic fairness, Luke Baker frequently speaks about Israel in language that is beyond unprofessional, but actually demeaning, flippant and insulting, including:
- referring to Israeli security as “idiocy“;
- calling certain political groups “Jewish nutjobs“;
- calling an Israeli Foreign Ministry video “bizarre“;
- referring to criticism by Israeli diplomats as “mocking“; - in a serious article, respected Arab-Israeli journalist Khaled Abu Toameh criticized certain ignorant and biased behaviors toward Israel by foreign press. Baker described the content of Abu Toameh’s article as “a joke” and comprised of “silly anecdote[s]“; and
- in a blatant perpetuation of racial and religious stereotypes, Baker referred to a statement by Israel to the high court as “chutzpah.” (The Reuters Handbook also says, “Do not use language that perpetuates sexual, racial, religious or other stereotypes. Such language is offensive, out of date and often simply inaccurate.”)
This month, a British feminist historian, Dr. Catherine Hall, refused half a million dollars because the money is connected to an Israel-based foundation.
The Dan David Foundation had absolutely no trouble finding two other European feminist historians (Drs. Arlette Farge and Dr. Inga Clendinnen) and awarding them the distinguished prize.
The matter is a curious one. First, because Hall herself not only declined the prize; her supporters, the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine released the news of her rejection. Hall and her supporters/handlers clearly want credit for her "politically correct" sacrifice. Perhaps a pro-Islamic or a British anti-Zionist foundation will soon find a way to reward her. Perhaps others will then follow suit. The British Committee for the Universities of Palestine described Hall’s decision as “a significant endorsement of the campaign to end ties with Israeli institutions.”
The matter is also curious because the Committee posted a press release on May 10th—and Ha’aretz did not report this until May 22nd. Ha’aretz states that Hall declines this prize “after many discussions with those who are deeply involved with the politics of Israel-Palestine.”
The Huffington Post Arabic has an interesting article by a Jordanian film producer named Tareq Baddar.
He writes that he went to pray in a mosque, where the preacher cursed the Jews at the end of the sermon, and talked about all their bad traits, their plots, their being behind all wars, all sins, and indeed all catastrophes in the world. This institutional antisemitism is widespread practice in many mosques, especially in the Middle East, and is woefully under-reported. The targets of these curse are Jews, not "Zionists."
Tareq writes that the preacher forgot that Islam permits Muslim men to marry Jewish women. Therefore, Jewish women can be mothers of Muslims. So how is a Muslim going to a sermon in a mosque supposed to feel when his mother or favorite aunt is cursed?
Also, Baddar writes, the preacher forgot that Qadhafi, Saddam, and other bloodthirsty Arab leaders are all Muslim. Leaders of the Islamic State are Muslims, but they aren't cursed in these mosques, only Jews.
He adds that the sheikh forgot about all the Muslim and Arab promiscuous singers and artists, Arab porn sites on the Internet, even though it is a common theme among preachers that Jews spread promiscuity in order to corrupt Muslim youth.
Baddar even calls these kinds of preachers “plagues."
There were a couple of negative comments to the article, including one that says that we must remember that Jews control the banks, media, Hollywood and casinos and another that couldn't believe that any Muslim was criticizing criticism of Jews.
One other point: when a rabbi is heard, or misinterpreted, as saying anti-Muslim or anti-Arab comments, there is a mad rush by reporters to jump on the story to use this as proof of religious Jewish bigotry. Yet even with this article where a Muslim calls out the antisemitism that is heard in hundreds of mosques every single week, it is published only in Arabic for an Arab audience. In the end, the news consumers only hear about the (very often distorted) words of Jewish religious leaders and nothing about the far worse incitement that is endemic in mosques. Even this article, by a Western-educated Muslim, was written only in Arabic and will almost certainly not reach outside that universe (I would be very surprised in HuffPo translates it into English.)
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
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Tel Aviv, May 25 - The week after an acrimonious end to negotiations between Likud and Labor over the formation of a national unity government, the head of Labor is surreptitiously and wistfully monitoring every photo, status, video, comment, and reaction of the prime minister on social media.
Isaac Herzog has repeatedly visited the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat profiles of Binyamin Netanyahu over the last week and a half, his fingers and eyes lingering over each development with a mixture of longing and remorse etched onto his face. Observers report that Herzog can be heard alternately muttering retorts or snide comments at Netanyahu's posted content and staring, holding back tears.
He has also established a second, separate identity in each of those applications, under which the Zionist Union faction leader has paid visits to the profile pages of Yisrael Beiteinu chief Avigdor Liberman in each of those social media platforms, and left critical, derogatory, or passive-aggressive comments. Liberman is currently involved in negotiations to accept a senior cabinet position in Herzog's stead after the latter refused to accept Netanyahu's conditions for membership in the governing Coalition.
"You should lose weight," commented Instagram user DefinitelyNotBuji on the most recent photos posted by Liberman. The same user ID could be seen referring to Liberman as a "rebound" on Twitter and wishing him various misfortunes on Facebook. But most of Herzog's time and attention online has been devoted to devouring every post and comment of Netanyahu while making a supreme effort not to let the prime minister know he has been doing so.
Some observers suspect Netanyahu does know. "When Bibi announced in front of the entire Knesset yesterday that his door was still open to Herzog, it has to be seen in the context of last week's breakup," said analyst Caroline Hax. "Netanyahu loves tormenting Buji. He hasn't faced an Opposition head so victimizable in so long, he's clearly enjoying himself. The guy is heartless, but it's never been about the heart for him. It's about power, and he holds all the cards."
Herzog has also been observed trying to make a show in Netanyahu's presence of having a healthy alliance with other MKs, with mixed success. The Opposition leader's efforts to make Netanyahu either jealous or regretful appear to have had little effect on the premier, but they have aroused the ire of his longtime partner in the Zionist Union leadership, Hatnua chief Tzipi Livni, despite both party leaders' understanding that any relationship with Livni is inherently temporary.
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Palestinian Authority education continues to poison Palestinian children with hate and terror promotion messages, even using cultural mediums like school plays. Palestinian Media Watch closely follows PA education and the messages transmitted to children and youth. A recent play at a PA high school for boys reinforced the PA libel that Israel fabricated the many recent stabbing attacks by Palestinians by planting knives near innocent Palestinians who were then shot and killed by Israelis for no reason. At the Tuqu' High School for Boys, which is part of the Bethlehem Education Directorate under the PA Ministry of Education, this libel was reinforced by depicting Israeli soldiers as cold-blooded murderers in a school play.
In the play performed in front of hundreds of high school students, actors portray Israeli soldiers arresting a Palestinian youth. The soldiers make the Palestinian kneel and lie on the ground, then they plant a knife next to him to frame him as a stabber, and finally shoot him in cold blood. Other actors portray Palestinians carrying away the "Martyr's" body. [Official Facebook page of Tuqu' Municipality (PA), May 11, 2016]
In a rare moment of truth, former Jordanian Prime Minister Abdel Salam Majali admitted that the Palestinians were not "fully qualified to assume their responsibilities, especially in the financial field..." According to the study, the Jordanian public is totally opposed to the idea of confederation, even after the establishment of an independent Palestinian state. They fear the confederation would lead to the "dilution" of the Jordanian identity, create instability and undermine security.
The reality is that the two-state solution has already been fulfilled: the Palestinians got two mini-states of their own -- one governed by the Palestinian Authority and the second by Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Today, there is only one solution: maintain the status quo until Palestinian leaders wake up and start working to improve the living conditions of their people and prepare them for peace with Israel.
Given the number of adamant opponents of Israel on the committee, we know there can be no plank about the conflict that will not place the party at odds with what has been a bi-partisan consensus on the issue. Moreover, if the Sanders forces are not satisfied with what will already be a departure from past stands, then the Clinton camp can have no confidence that an attempt to tilt the party even more towards the Palestinians will fail on the convention floor. As I noted yesterday, the spectacle of the will of the majority of the delegates being thwarted by party officials intent on passing a pro-Israel document won’t be repeated. That means that although they may find the GOP alternative to be so repulsive that it gives them no choice but to stick with their party, pro-Israel Democrats must, if they are honest, now admit they are no longer a clear majority within their party. Sanders and the far left may not yet be in complete charge of the Democrats, but their influence is undeniable and increasingly decisive.
Democrats may argue, as Sanders does, that even-handed doesn’t mean anti-Israel. But in practice, as Sanders illustrated this spring when he not only wrongly blasted Israeli efforts at self-defense as “disproportionate” but also made wild, exaggerated claims of Israeli killing civilians that show his mindset. It is one thing to be “pro-Israel and pro-peace” as J Street claims to be or even to assert that appeasement of Iran is in Israel’s interests. But it is quite another to have prominent Israel-bashers and BDS advocates among those in charge of declaring where the party stands on important issues.
The Democrats have ceased to be a pro-Israel party and become one where Israel-haters are not only welcomed but given honor and power. If they are honest, pro-Israel Democrats must understand that they are on their way out in their old political home. Anyone who doesn’t understand that’s one of the clear outcomes of the 2016 campaign is in a state of denial.
Bernie Sanders may not have won the Democratic party’s nomination, but he did win the opportunity to cement an anti-Israel agenda into the platform, and he is taking it. Also the Left’s mainstreaming of Pedophillia and news from Israel.
The Palestinian militant group Hamas is to carry out a string of public executions in the Gaza strip, the patch of territory it controls.
The executions were announced by Hamas’s attorney general in Gaza, Ismail Jaber. “Capital punishments will be implemented soon in Gaza,” he said. “I ask that they take place before a large crowd.”
Thirteen men, most convicted of murder connected to robberies, are currently awaiting execution, another Hamas official, Khalil al-Haya, said on Friday at the main prayers.
If all those go ahead, Gaza’s execution rate relative to the size of its population will overtake that of Saudi Arabia’s in one go.
Amnesty International was very upset, and asked Hamas' nonexistent "attorney general" to reconsider:
Gaza's Attorney General must halt planned executions, death penalty is inhuman punishment & will not deter crime pic.twitter.com/PRRUNYk2Gx
— AmnestyInternational (@AmnestyOnline) May 23, 2016
Hamas considered all of the anti-execution pleas from NGOs and others very carefully.
And today Hamas' version of the "Palestinian Legislative Council" announced that the executions will continue as planned.
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In an article about the Temple Mount, the Times of Israel says "Jews believe the site was home to the first and second Jewish temples before being destroyed by the Babylonians and Romans, and thus revere it as the holiest site in Judaism."
This is the sort of lazy writing that attempts to be even-handed and accurate yet fails. By saying that Jews merely "believe" that the Temples were built on the Temple Mount is to consign historical fact into a mere claim. There is no doubt by any serious person that the Temple Mount was the site of the Second Temple, and while there may be little direct archaeological evidence that the First Temple was built on the same site, it cannot have been built elsewhere, for the simple reason that it is inconceivable that the Second Temple would have been built anywhere other than the site of the First Temple.
Beyond that, it is not only Jews who "believe" that this was the site of the Temples - Christians do as well.
So by trying to be unbiased, the TOI shows unconscious bias against history as well as the faith of over two billion people.
This unthinking bias about the area doesn't end there, though.
The same article, and countless others, describe the Mount today as "the flashpoint mosque complex in Jerusalem’s Old City which houses Islam’s third-holiest shrine."
What is now called the Al Aqsa Mosque is not universally considered Islam's third holiest shrine.
According to Shia Islam, Najaf and Karbala are holier than Jerusalem with some even claiming that Karbala is holier than Mecca and Medina. (Wikipedia once acknowledged this in this page, which was changed after I pointed out this fact in 2010. It now implies, but doesn't say, that Jerusalem is holier than Karbana and Najaf.)
Describing the Al Aqsa Mosque as the third holiest site in Islam is simply wrong. At best, it is the third holiest site in Sunni Islam. (You can also argue about whether Mohammed was describing Jerusalem in his "night journey" story - it is not at all clear that he was.)
Journalists pretend to be so careful to be "accurate" about the Jewish view of the Temple Mount - to the detriment of Jews.
Journalists are sloppy about being accurate about the Muslim view of the Temple Mount - again, to the detriment of Jews.
(h/t Chaim) 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.
Dozens of released Palestinian prisoners who had served decades in Israeli regime jails have not received their allowances for the past three years, said a senior Palestinian official.
According to Eisa Qaraqei, who heads the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs, the Palestinian consensus government must solve the issue of the long-delayed salaries of the former prisoners with immediate effect. “Long delays have devastated the lives of many ex-prisoners who served more than 20 years behind Israeli bars,” he told Gulf News. “The longer the salaries are delayed, the more former prisoners and families suffer and find it rather difficult to survive.”
Qaraqei pointed an accusing finger at the Israeli occupation and some Western countries that put in massive pressure to deprive the Palestinian prisoners and former prisoners of their financial rights under the pretext that prisoners and ex-prisoners are “terrorists” who should not be entitled to any financial privileges.
Responding to pressure, the Palestinian National Authority (PNA) closed its Prisoners Affairs Ministry in September 2014 and replaced it with a commission that would report directly to the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) which began to handle the payment of the prisoners and former prisoners and the PNA’s annual budget to the PLO was raised to cover the needs. Israel claimed that the PLO commission is identical to the old PNA Ministry of Prisoners’ Affairs in everything but name.
According to Palestinian law, once a Palestinian is arrested by the Israeli occupation forces, the PNA starts granting him 1,400 Shekels a month; the prisoner’s salary increases to 2,000 Shekels once the prisoner reaches two years in prison, 4,000 Shekels after five years in prison and jumps to 6,000 Shekels when the prisoner reaches ten years in prison. The scheme for those who serve more than five years in Israeli jails even enhances when they are released, but those who are released before five years of imprisonment receive only a financial aid of six months’ allowance as lump sum. No further assistance is given.
I like how Gulf News says that paying terrorists is their "financial right."
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The Foreign Ministry has no overall strategy, lacks funds and is failing to achieve its goals in the battle against the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign against Israel, a damning state comptroller’s report charged on Tuesday.
State Comptroller Yosef Shapira’s annual report criticized a range of “failings” in the ministry, underlining an inability to present any significant achievements in the battle against the BDS movement that has targeted Israel over its alleged mistreatment of the Palestinians. Prominent among the failures in dealing with BDS, the report highlights shortcomings during the 2014 Gaza War.
“A lack of cooperation between the Foreign Ministry and the army spokesman, and a lack of speed in getting information to the media, brought about an advocacy failure during Operation Protective Edge,” the report says, using the army moniker for the conflict. “Foreign Ministry projects meant to improve Israel’s image in target communities around the world are lacking in their planning, management and implementation, and are failing to achieve their designated goals,” the report added.
Survior of the 1979 Nahariya terrorist attack tells her story to foreign war correspondents, who walk away in tears, shock at her lack of hate, and in awe of her refusal for revenge.
When Smadar Haran spoke, not a single pair of eyes around the table at the Rimon Hotel in Tzfat was without tears. The foreign guests and journalists who sat around her – all of them veteran war correspondents – thought they had already written and seen everything. But this meeting with Haran, who lost who her husband Danny and her daughters Einat and Yael during the terror attack on Nahariya in 1979, somehow managed to shake them up. While with one hand they were writing down every word, with the other, they were wiping away tears.
This was the first time that the Foreign Ministry had ever flown in a delegation of European war correspondents. The purpose of the trip was to expose the journalists to the terror that Israelis have to deal with, and find correlations between the Israeli and European fight against terror.
The delegation were taught about the security arrangements at Ben Gurion International airport, received a tour of the Israeli border with Syria, and visited injured Syrians who were undergoing treatment at Ziv medical center in Tzfat. However, the headline of the trip was with Haran.
The half-full banquet hall, divided into the men's side and the women's side, admitted about 100 attendees. A black flag with white script was on display, on both the screen and on the podium. "Why," I said to the woman next to me, "is this flag there? Is that not the ISIS flag?" The woman, later identified as Naeema, said it was not, and called her son, one of the organizers, to address the question. It seemed difficult for him, too; he went off to look for someone else more knowledgeable to the help with the problem. Naeema explained that the writing was different. "I can read Arabic," I said. No one could be found to answer the question.
As the event started late, Naeema began a conversation. We talked about our origins and how long we had been in Canada. She said she had been here 40 years, so I asked about the disconnect between enjoying 40 years of democracy, yet trying to end it. I mentioned a book published by Hizb-ut-Tahrir: "Democracy is Infidelity: its use, application and promotion are prohibited."
Naeema said she was not qualified to debate the topic, but that democracy had done nothing good for people, so she and other believers would follow the rule of Allah. Reflecting on the Muslim Brotherhood's year in power in Egypt, I asked if she were prepared to have a dictator claim to be Allah's spokesman even if he abused the power. She said she had never thought about it like that, but, again, that she was not qualified to debate the topic. As the conference began, the conversation stopped.
Peace and love and bombing houses of worship, bro.
My main question is whether any students told Ami to go to hell, and if so, how many compared to the ones on the video? It is entertaining and it is bad enough that any students say what they said, but are they the majority?
(h/t Yenta)
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From Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign chief Mick Napier this past Saturday, a message on Facebook declaring, with regard to his group’s latest picket of a Barclays Bank branch in one of Scotland’s major cities: “Very good response from public today while pointing out Barclays' profiting from Israeli massacres via its investments in arms supplier Raytheon. The suits who profit from Israeli mass murder are even worse than the killers.” And a very good response from Napier’s followers, with numerous “Likes” and a large number of “Shares”. Runs one early comment: “History repeats itself, Barclays were a target of anti-apartheid movement (South Africa). As I recall they were very slow to get the message then.” Napier’s reply: “Exactly. All those who were too young to play a role against Apartheid South Africa by pressurising Barclays to divest have a chance to oppose the much worse Apartheid system in operation on Israel/ Palestine by forcing Barclays to divest from the Israeli arms supply chain.” [Emphasis added]
On the same Saturday, south of the Border, in London, fellow anti-Israel fanatics from the “Football Against Apartheid” group persist with their campaign to have “Apartheid Israel” expelled from FIFA (the Fédération Internationale de Football Association ): see this video:
To quote its maker, anti-Israel activist Alex Seymour (aka Seymour Alexander): “Manchester United playing against Crystal Palace, two teams with Football Against Apartheid supporters amongst their fans. We were at the magnificent stadium at Wembley to leaflet and spread the word amongst football's devotees that Israel, as the only country in the world currently practicing apartheid in both sport and in day to day life, should not be allowed to get away with it and has to be penalized where it will most affect the man in the Tel Aviv street, by being excluded from FIFA, as part of the general BDS campaign to free the people of Palestine from the yoke of Israel's near 50 year occupation.”
Watch the video carefully, and you’ll see the proud sign “The Emirates FA Cup”. Yes, that’s the trophy that the victorious team’s captain (in this case Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney, whose team won the game by two goals to one) got to lift at the end of the match, to the jubilation of Man U’s supporters.
The Emirates Football Association Cup. Think about that for a second. Get the irony? The man with the Irish accent (a fixture of the campaign to have Israel kicked out of FIFA) and the buttonholed interviewees who eagerly join him in frothing about Israeli “apartheid” seem either blissfully unaware of, or blithely indifferent to, human rights abuses in the Emirates. Could that be because the Zionist Entity is not involved? I mean, if it’s an unjust society’s associations with FIFA they want to rant about and demonstrate against, the Emirates would not be unreasonable start.
After all, the Emirates has a legal code based on a strict interpretation of Sharia that involves many offences against modernity and many violations of human rights: flogging and stoning of offenders; incarceration and torture of political dissidents, including agitators for reforms during the so-called Arab Spring; abductions and sinister disappearances of people who incur the state’s displeasure; the inevitable subjugation of women; latter-day slavery and sexual abuse of domestic workers; judicial whippings … Need I go on?
(Heck, unlike traduced little Israel the Emirates don’t even have a free press!)
Here’s another of the “Kick Israel out of FIFA” videos, earlier in this year’sfootball season, courtesy of Alex Seymour.
To quote him: “The local Derby between 2 top London teams (result a 2:2 draw) brought out the crowds on a damp Saturday and our leaflet volunteers were kept busy updating sympathetic soccer fans on the latest murderous activities of the Israel army of occupation in Palestine. Those killers whose favourite sport is not football but the kidnapping, torture and murder of Palestine children, poor innocent victims of the Zionist project that will never even have the chance to kick a football without the fear of an IDF sniper terminating their short life so that the murdering 'sportsman' can the same evening go brag about his brave exploits in the pubs of Tel Aviv.”
Notice how our Irish friend exploits the “apartheid” slur when speaking to the young black woman. Notice how she accepts the validity of the slur without demur. All this, notwithstanding the fact that condemnation of the “apartheid” slur has been made by South African black people, notably Christian Democrat leader Dr Kenneth Meshoe(https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v27sNLIEOes), his daughter Esther (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tz49wS_oVsM) and more recently Zimbabwe-born University of Witwatersrand law student Leon JamaineMithi (http://www.oregonlive.com/opinion/index.ssf/2016/05/calling_israel_an_apartheid_st.html). All of those named consider the apartheid analogy an insult to black people who suffered under white minority rule in South Africa. In Mr Meshoe’s words: "The very idea that Israel is an apartheid state cheapens the word apartheid – it's an insult to every South African who endured the inhumanity and pain of it."
As the Chief Rabbi of the United Hebrew Congregations of Great Britain and the Commonwealth, Dr Ephraim Mirvis, who grew up in South Africa, wrote recently (http://www.newstatesman.com/culture/2016/02/i-grew-south-africa-so-believe-me-when-i-say-israel-not-apartheid-state):
‘Under apartheid, a legal structure of racial hierarchy governed all aspects of life. Black South Africans were denied the vote. They were required by law to live, work, study, travel, enjoy leisure activities, receive medical treatment and even go to the lavatory separately from those with a different colour of skin…It was subjugation in its rawest form… I found myself confronted every day by a society that would routinely degrade and demean black South Africans, not just culturally or socially, but also in the eyes of the law… Contrast that with Israel, a country whose Arab, Druze, Bedouin, Ethiopian, Russian, Baha’i, Armenian and other citizens have equal status under the law. Anyone who truly understands what apartheid was cannot possibly look around Israel today and honestly claim there is any kind of parity. They would need only to visit Hand in Hand, an organisation that runs schools where Jewish and Arab pupils learn together, or meet the Israeli-Arab judge Salim Joubran of the Supreme Court of Israel. They might note the appointment last month of Mariam Kabaha as the national commissioner for equal employment opportunities in the economy ministry, or hear that just this month, Jamal Hakrush became the first Muslim Arab to be appointed a deputy commissioner of the Israel Police. Indeed, the difference is so stark that one might argue there is a good case for ignoring the apartheid slur altogether. Yet the tragic reality is that every time the word is used in the context of the conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, the two sides become polarised yet further and peace becomes ever more distant. As the word “apartheid” is an icon for malevolence, it can only be received by Israel with resentment and suspicion. In turn, extremist forces in Palestinian society can only benefit from a reinforcement of the notion that the very existence of Israel is illegitimate. In short, the apartheid slur provides fuel for those who seek to polarise and it obstructs those who seek peace….’
But do those who peddle the slur really seek peace on a two-state basis, or do they seek the end of Israel? One academic pedlar of the slur, and one who maintained that all South African black people agreed with it, was the ghastly (now dead) Dr Patrick Wolfe, a Yorkshire-born (non-Jewish) academic in Australia, who can be found on video telling an Arab interviewer at great length how Israel compares to apartheid-era South Africa; Wolfe made contentious and highly unpleasant comments about Jews (including a blanket denial of the Jewish genetic origins of Mizrahim) and about Zionists, which should not surprise those who recall that in Arena journal during 2012 he wrote an article, dedicated to the memory of Edward Said, called “New Jews for Old” – the new being the Mizrahim who “replaced” the “constituency” of six million (“or however many there were” as he told the above-mentioned interviewer) that the Ashkenazi Zionists lost in the Holocaust. Here’s Wolfe’s abstract:
“For the Western world, as Edward Said pointed out, the final taboo is not our own national narratives but Israel's. Indeed, Said's magisterial output can reasonably be read as an engagement with the West's elementary myopia concerning Zionism. Where my own case of this myopia was concerned, the initial illumination did not come from Said's work, which I had yet to encounter, but from MaximeRodinson'sIsrael - A Colonial-Settler State? When, having read Rodinson's book, I later came across Said, I read him first and foremost as a Palestinian. Accordingly, as I began to think about trying to register my debt to Said for this article, I went back to Rodinson's book. For something like thirty years I had held onto the crystal-clear insight that it had given me. Israel's relationship to Palestinians is like Australia's relationship to Aborigines. In both cases, European intruders have striven to dispossess indigenous peoples and replace them on their land. The name for this relationship is settler colonialism. Since that time, I have recurrently attempted to refine my understanding of the central concept/project of settler colonialism, which, being an exercise in replacement, I have seen as primarily governed by a logic of elimination.”
Clearly Wolfe, like others of his ilk,did not wish long life to the state of Israel.
“…. As more people all around the globe join in the struggle for justice and equal rights for all, they are realising that Israel’s oppression is not confined to occupied Palestine, but reaches into their own lives, wherever they may be. And wherever the crackdown on BDS is happening, people are becoming acutely aware of the fact that Zionism functions as a global apparatus that seeks to shut down the will of the people everywhere, and erode our freedoms, in order to increase the power of politicians, multinational corporations, and the global arms and security trade. The net effect of this crackdown on popular dissent is an increased determination to resist Zionism, and to engage further in the global intifada that BDS represents.Fighting Zionism, then, is a global responsibility, if we cherish our human rights wherever we may be. The alliances that are forming to confront and defeat it - alliances such as Gaza to Ferguson, indigenous rights groups, prison abolition networks, and more - are organic, growing out of a deep conviction that we are fighting a racist ideology and its violent manifestations in various parts of the world. And because of the global reach of Zionism, global solidarity and international alliances are key to our struggle against this oppressive system.”
This repellent sentiment, with its suggested overtones of Israel as “Jew among the nations”, the scapegoat sought out for obloquy to explain the world’s ills, has attracted comments from someone called Anthony Shaker. Whether this is the Dr Anthony F. Shaker who from April 2013 until March this year was a visiting scholar at the Institute of Islamic Studies at McGill University (https://www.mcgill.ca/islamicstudies/people/visiting-scholars) I am unable to say, though a look at some of the latter’s online output such as this http://www.counterpunch.org/2014/04/18/are-western-policies-evil-or-desperate/suggests that it very well might be.
The commenter called Anthony Shaker says:
[First, in reply to a commenter called “Ribon”]
“You conflate everything into the single point that every Zionist is fixated on: the survival of the Jewish-only race colony. You distort everything with this racist drivel about Muslims, Palestinians and everyone you hate for self-serving reasons.You stand for brutality and murder, and the world will not stand for it anymore.So, you can huff and puff all you want, Sleezy Ribbon [sic], but Zionist Apar[t]heid is the same dead end that Afrikaaner Apartheid was to South Africa. Time to clean up your act or leave. There is no in-between. You are a foreigner in the Middle East and nothing will change this.”
[Secondly, addressing the article’s author, the following ordure]
‘Thank you for this timely article.People have almost forgotten that Zionism is an ideology that predates Nazism, which it has inspired. Hitler homed in on its most exclusivist, most racist features. In Mein Kampf, he openly expressed his admiration for its proponents' "racial consciousness."In short, before WWII Zionism served as a model for one of the most macabre chapters in human history.Both during and after the war, Zionist organizations helped demolish mainstream Jewish identities, above all in United States, taking over one Jewish community after another.So, people also forget that Zionist Jews were a tiny, fanatical minority before World War II.
What happened after WWII has been the tragedy of tragedies for the rest of humanity: Zionism being held up as "the highest aspiration of the Jews," and war after war in the Middle East.No one is supposed to dare say a word against this delusion, even though many Jews despise the suspicions it is bringing upon them.There have always been "Christian" Zionists around. Sadly, today there are too many non-Jewish Zionists pretending to love the Jews, while loathing the very ground they stand on. They don't want Israelis back into their countries as refugees from Israel's Apartheid regime, so they keep harping about the BDS and the threat it poses to Israel's "right to exist." Israelis are leaving in droves. Israel's millions of victims are so many cockroaches to the "friends of Israel."We all have to be say clearly that Zionism is an ideology of racial self-worship. It has to be stamped out, like other pernicious totalitarian ideologies. It has pushed the world to the edge of the abyss, and it is high time that citizens everywhere take a firm stand and try to stop this global menace.’
(Emphasis added.)
In her article Nada Elia wrote, inter alia:
‘The otherwise reputable publishing house, McGraw-Hill, caving in to Zionists, has destroyed textbooks that depicted the “loss of Palestinian land” postcard, apologised to its critics, and offered a refund to customers who bought the book before it was removed from its inventory.’
On my own blog, Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer has several recent guest articles pointing out how mendacious the “loss of Palestinian land” map set (referred to above as a “postcard”) is, and how justified and necessary McGraw-Hill’s withdrawal of that particular slur made in the book Global Politics: Engaging a Complex Worldagainst Israel is.
One of the pro-Israel quotations I have on my blog’s sidebar is one by Singer:
”There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations. These misleading maps were deliberately prepared to date from 1946 – intentionally papering over the momentous events that had occurred between 1917 and 1945. Attempts to unravel binding precepts of international law established between 1917 and 1945 – and failing to insist on their being upheld and enforced – has a lot to do with the sorry situation the world finds itself in today. Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth.”
As evidenced not only by the maps, but by the “apartheid” slur and other tropes, never was a truer warning expressed.
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Wednesday, May 25, 2016
