Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News

Monday, August 14, 2017

08/14 Links Pt1: Latma is Back: All About the Facts; Abbas and PLO condemn US Senators

From Ian:

Legal Grounds Resurrects Latma to Explain How the So-Called Palestinians Lie

I proudly introduce here a one-of-a- kind video produced by the Legal Grounds Campaign, co-chaired by Jeff Daube and myself: “All About the Facts.”
The Latma team has created a song for the video: A biting parody that is laugh-out-loud funny. In English with Hebrew subtitles.
While we expect this to appeal to young people who are ignorant about Israel’s realities or have been misled by false information, we believe you, too, will be delighted by it.
Additionally, we have designed a short website that viewers will be able to connect to after seeing the video; it provides basic facts about Israel’s rights in the land.

PMW: Mahmoud Abbas and PLO condemn US Senators

At a meeting of the PLO Executive Committee, led by PLO chairman Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO condemned the US Senators of the Committee on Foreign Relations for their vote in favor of the Taylor Force Act, which calls to cut all funding to the PA if it continues paying salaries to terrorists and allowances to families of so-called Martyrs.
The PA's rewarding of terror has been a source of contention between the Palestinian Authority and its American and European funders since 2011, when Palestinian Media Watch first exposed the PA's practice of rewarding terrorist prisoners. The U.S. Congress finally decided to act decisively after becoming aware that the family of the murderer of American veteran and university student Taylor Force, who was murdered last year in Tel Aviv, would be receiving a lifetime monthly stipend.
The Palestinian Authority sees all Israelis and all visitors to Israel as legitimate targets and therefore rewards the terrorists and families of those who are either imprisoned or killed. Accordingly, PA leader Mahmoud Abbas is defying the international community including the donor countries by continuing to spend $355 million a year on these payments.
The PLO Executive Committee's condemnation of the US Senators is another statement by Mahmoud Abbas that he has no intention of seeing the murder of Israeli civilians and visitors to Israel as terror and therefore will continue to reward the killers.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar: Israel-Jordan peace agreement: The emperor has no clothes

Jordan today, it must be concluded, is working non-stop behind the cover of its peace treaty with Israel to destroy the Jewish State and create a Palestinian one instead. What is worse is that Israel refuses to admit to the situation and continues most carefully to keep the agreement, hoping calm will prevail along the border until the next elections. Every politician knows that if, during his term, relations with Jordan deteriorate, the media – our shallow, slanted and agenda-ridden media – will accuse him of being the cause of the agreement's nullification, making him pay the price in the next round of elections. That is why politicians bolster up the temporary tactical quiet, ignoring the strategic threat to the very existence of the state posed by the peace agreement.
If Israel's leaders felt endangered by the actions of Abdullah, they would do something to prevent his destructive activities, cleverly disguised as military and economic cooperation. The problem is that in their view, short term tactical advantages are preferable to attending to strategic problems that affect the long term. We are all going to pay a high price for this way of running things on the part of Israel's decision makers – as can be seen by the security equipment crisis last month in Jerusalem.
King Hussein was all for Israel's continued existence and did not question Jerusalem 's status. That's why peace with him was positive in general. His son Abdullah changed his father's strategy and works tirelessly to create a Palestinian state on the ruins of the destroyed Jewish one. Now that King Abdullah's nefarious scheme has been revealed, Israel must rethink its Jordanian route and work to create a Palestinian Arab state in all or part of Jordan, since the majority of the people there are Palestinian Arabs.
The alternative is establishing a Palestinian state on Israeli territory with its capital in Eastern Jerusalem, a strategic danger to Israel.
There is no reason that the Jewish people, who returned to its land after 2000 years of exile, should pay with its very existence for the survival of the Hashemites brought by the British from Hijaz to rule the most artificial country in the world – Jordan.

“From an organizing perspective, the tactics of getting local state and federal governments to condemn the bigoted BDS movement provide a common platform and points of unity for people in the United States to start working on. Such legislation – and debate over it - provides a concrete way for citizens and their leaders to directly connect with the issues… and it also provokes a discussion that is often difficult to provoke on the true racist nature of BDS.

And the movement has had an impact on how people think about and discuss the conflict. It’s been great in affecting the discourse and just mobilizing people. Suddenly the discussion around the country is: does BDS represent an act of bigotry that merits the anti-racist legislation condemning it? Which is a very different question than whether or not BDS warrants its self-description as a human rights campaign.”

The above is actually not a quote but rather a paraphrase of statements made by BDS activists regarding how we should perceive their stunning lack of actual victories, given the decade and a half the boycotters have been trying to generate any actual wins for their “movement” (beyond getting stacked student governing bodies to pass meaningless boycott resolutions, or corrupting dying institutions to the point where they will do the BDSers bidding).

The sentiment in the original quote can be summed up by the actual sentence which precedes it which reads: “Advocates of BDS, meanwhile, say that the lack of concrete victories is incidental to the movement’s success.

As I’ve noted before: how nice for them! For such a formulation means that whenever they actually pull some nasty bit of boycott or divestment work over the finish line, it’s time to pop the champagne corks and insist everyone in the world fess up to BDS’s unstoppable momentum. But if they lose, they should still be given credit for opening up conversation and making previously suppressed topics (i.e., their condemnations of Israel that actually ring out across the physical and virtual universes 24/7) discussable.

My paraphrase of their original “we win by losing” argument at the top of this piece should highlight the absurdity of the boycotters’ contentions and pretensions. For can anyone reading this imagine a scenario in which any BDSer anywhere would embrace the notion that every one of the dozens of anti-BDS bills that have been debated in the country represents victory for their enemies – whether or not those bills get passed?

While I’ve generally been lukewarm about the use of legislatures and courts to settle BDS-related disputes (especially when ground-level political alternatives are available), I’ve come to appreciate the utility of creating actual hard costs on those wishing to boycott the Jewish state in the form of having to give up the large American market in exchange for boycotting the small Israeli one.

But whatever you think about this or that piece of legislation (including one making its way through Congress as you read this), we can rest assured that if the bill passes or fails (for any reason), the boycotters will come up with a explanation for why either decision should accrue to their victory column.

But if we play by their rules, then passage of the bill (or any of the dozens of similar bills already passed by state governments) represents a stunning humiliation for the BDS “movement,” and any failure of these bills still counts as a victory for us since it “opens up discussion” of why the boycotters are a bunch of bigoted, hypocritical jerks.

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The Goyim Know!

One of the weirder memes that the right-wing antisemites love is "The Goyim Know." Reports from Charlottesville indicate that there were signs held by the white supremacists with hose words and that they broke out into chants of "The Goyim Know."

A search of the Internet finds a few of these memes, almost invariably with Orthodox Jews making the purported statements of fear:

As my readers know, I am the card-carrying leader of the worldwide Jewish and Zionist conspiracy.

So I felt the need to clarify exactly what the goyim know, since the signs were a bit ambiguous.

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Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah mad one of his long, meandering, threatening speeches about how powerful Hezbollah is and how weak Israel is on the 11th anniversary of the end of the Second Lebanon War.

He obliquely threatened to shoot rockets at Israel's Dimona nuclear reactor, as he bragged that Israel closed down the ammonia tanks in Haifa after a previous threat.

As usual, the brave leader issued his speech by video instead of in front of his fans, out of fear that a Hezbollah spy for Israel would assassinate him.

But one point he made that I didn't see in the English reports that is worth mentioning.

Last month, President Trump met with Lebanese prime minister Hariri where he praised Lebanon's role in the fight against terror. Trump said, "The Prime Minister and I have just concluded an extensive conversation about the challenges and opportunities facing Lebanon and its neighbors. Lebanon is on the front lines in the fight against ISIS, Al Qaeda, and Hizballah. "

Nasrallah said, "The words of Trump that his country and Lebanon are partners in the war on terror reflects his political ignorance because Hezbollah is a partner of the [Lebanese] government."

In this case, Nasrallah is correct. To claim that Lebanon is fighting against Hezbollah is indeed ignorant - the Lebanese army ignores and even sometimes partners with the more powerful Hezbollah in the south.

Hezbollah is part of Lebanon's government and has complete military control over a significant part of the country, with not a word of dissent from the Lebanese government. Nasrallah has veto power over any Lebanese government initiative.

Trump's words indeed were naive. the Lebanese government as it stands now is part of the problem, not the solution.

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.

George Soros Invests in Occupied Terrtories

I received this press release from the Kohelet Policy Forum:

Memo: Geroge Soros’s Investments in Occupied Territories

San Leon Energy, headquartered in Dublin, Ireland, is an oil and gas exploration company with assets and operations in Albania, France, Ireland, Nigeria, Poland, Spain, and Morocco.

As part of its Morocco operations, San Leon drills in Western Sahara. In 2015, the company reported finding gas in its Laayoune-4 well, and announced that it would be applying, in conjunction with Morocco’s Office National des Hydrocarbures et des Mines (ONHYM), for a new eight-year license to continue exploration. When asked about the company’s operations in Western Sahara, San Leon’s lawyer, Daniel Martin, said the company has not talked with the Saharawis since they are “not a representative people.”

George Soros’s investment management companies have held significant shares in San Leon at least since 2010 and till 2016 (latest full Annual Report). Quantum Partners LP is “a private investment fund that’s operated by Soros Fund Management. ”

Since 2011, when it managed USD 24.5 billion , Quantum is Soros’s family private wealth management fund . In 2011, Quantum Partners LP, was the single largest significant shareholder of San Leon energy with 19% of companies shares. In mid-2015, Quantum Partners LP held 8.52% of San Leon , and a year later in 2016, 3.5% .

It is clear that Soros Fund Management were completely aware of San Leon’s massive Western Sahara business activity from the very start. San Leon never hid its Western Sahara business. Further, as early as in 2010, San Leon’s extraction preparations and construction at its Western Sahara sites were completely public .

So when Soros, through his donations to the New Israel Fund and J-Street, makes it clear that he is against any activities in what he considers occupied territories, that doesn't apply to his activity in any other occupied territories.

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If you oppose some of David Duke's antisemitism, you can't support the rest (poster) (update)

Leftists are rightly up in arms over David Duke's appearance at the neo-Nazi, white nationalist rally in Charlottesville.

But they are strangely silent when he shows his support for BDS and for Roger Waters.

If you are going to denounce Jew-hatred, you don't get to pick and choose. And if you do, it shows that you are using antisemitism to make a political point, and that you really don't care about antisemitism.

But we already knew that with the silence that most "progressives" have towards officially sanctioned antisemitism by Arab governments, by Palestinians, by UNRWA, and by the Left.

I was inspired by this tweet:

I was blocked by @ChemiShalev @haaretzcom for pointing out that David Duke &Co cheered Roger Waters https://t.co/1xvAt1qiDV
— Petra Marquardt-B. (@WarpedMirrorPMB) August 13, 2017

UPDATE: I was forwarded this photo of Chemi Shalev and Roger Waters, whom David Duke likes so much:

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08/13 Links: HRW Sarah Leah Whitson's Jewish Problem; Charlottesville And The Charlatan Linda Sarsour

From Ian:

NGO Monitor: Sarah Leah Whitson’s Jewish Problem Appears Again at Human Rights Watch

Human Rights Watch (HRW)’s long news release (“Israel: Jerusalem Palestinians Stripped of Status,” August 8, 2017) consists of a compilation of “testimonies” Palestinian residents of east Jerusalem, who are permanent residents of Israel but not citizens.
In the release, and as has been her practice for 15 years, Sarah Leah Whitson, Director of HRW’s Middle East and North Africa Division, attacks Israel with a stream of false claims and demonization. According to Whitson, “Israel claims to treat Jerusalem as a unified city, but the reality is effectively one set of rules for Jews and another for Palestinians” (emphasis added).
The attempt to portray the situation as Jew versus Palestinian is wrong and reflects an on-going attempt by Whitson to manufacture claims of discrimination. The issue has nothing to do with religion or ethnicity. Rather, the key distinction is whether the individual is an Israeli citizen or not. As detailed in HRW’s own report, Palestinians from East Jerusalem are not citizens of Israel. Israeli citizens who live in the eastern part of the city (roughly considered to be based on the 1949-1967 cease fire lines following the Jordanian occupation), whether they are Jewish or Arab (or otherwise), have the same rights as all Israeli citizens. And notably absent from the HRW report is the basic fact that Palestinians in east Jerusalem have the option to apply for citizenship (thousands have been granted such status), but most choose not to for political reasons.
In addition, permanent residents of East Jerusalem are granted many of the same benefits as citizens including national insurance, health care, and free movement throughout Israel, etc. As in all Western countries, however, and contrary to HRW’s claims, the maintenance of residency status is not without requirements. It is also important to note that Palestinians who are permanent residents also have the right to field candidates and vote in Jerusalem’s municipal elections. (Many choose not to.) Many of the “discriminatory” policies falsely alleged by Whitson and HRW actually result from the failure of Palestinians to exercise their right to vote and elect municipal leaders who will implement their desired policy outcomes.

Anna Baltzer is back with a program to make Blacks hate Jews

Anna Piller was a pretty young woman who had a non-religious Jewish mother and gentile father and who, by her own admission, was not raised Jewish nor did she know anything about the Jewish religion. Anna dreamed of getting a job after college that would allow her to travel with a good income and a chance to be in the limelight.
Ida Piller, Anna’s grandmother, narrowly escaped the Nazis in World War II and was a big supporter of Israel who even had her art displayed permanently in Israel. Anna found that sinecure of her dreams working for Hamas and Palestinian terrorists as a “proud Jewish woman” who supports Hamas against the Jews of Israel.
Her family hid this from grandmother Ida by having Anna change her last name to Baltzer and she went on to tour colleges, law schools, churches, even synagogues accusing Israel of atrocities that did not occur and excusing Arab terrorist attacks as “resistance.”
Ida Piller died recently so Anna was able to use both the names Piller and Baltzer. Anna’s mother at first told her daughter she was “brainwashed” by the Arabs, but later decided to support Anna in her campaign of lies and anti-Semitism because, after all, Anna was acquiring money and fame. Who wouldn’t want that for a child? Never mind that she was helping to further the killing of other people’s children for fascists in Gaza.

IsraellyCool: Terrorist Rasmea Odeh Honored at Chicago Farewell Event

Last night was terrorist Rasmea Odeh’s farewell event in Chicago. If the organizers are to be believed, there were over a thousand there to pay tribute to her.
Some of the event was live-streamed on Facebook, but as usual I have gone through the footage to save you having to wade through all the filth yourself, while shining a light on the sickening lies, terror support, and general moral bankruptcy of these people.
We’ll start with “low-lights” of Angela Davis’ keynote address. Note in particular:
Claims the very real immigration fraud and terrorism charges against her were all just trumped-up
Talk of “resistance to the occupation” (i.e. terrorism)
Calling Chicago “colonized land”
Mention of other convicted murderers as heroes, including Mumia Abu-Jamal and Assata Shakur (with a parallel being drawn between Odeh and the latter)
Insinuating Trump was only elected because of racists
Mention of all kinds of racism except one kind (guess which!)
Accusing Israel of trying to assert racial domination
Imploring the crowd to follow Odeh’s example
Babies cooing during the speech. Yes, people brought their babies
Calls of Free free Palestine after the speech
Next we have Odeh herself. She is first introduced as a wonderful person and heroine by the speaker, after he also speaks of liberating all of “historical Palestine.” The cheers she gets are truly sickening.

According to an op-ed in Jordan's Ammon News, there was a Haaretz article suggesting that Israel, Jordan and the Palestinians would be better off as a single confederation.

This is about as progressive an idea as one can imagine to help Jews integrate into the Middle East.

So the reaction by this op-ed writer, Helmi Al Asmar, is instructive.

He frames this proposal this way:

The Zionist collective mind is constantly working to think of finding ways to legitimize its strange existence among us. The occupation of the usurper was and will remain in the Arab collective collective conscience an emergent tumor that will never be part of the body of this land.
The latest of the tricks that the Zionist mind creates is what Prof. Gabrielle Mucid [?] of Israel: A confederation between Palestine, Israel and Jordan, claiming that there are many reasons, political, economic, security, psychological and historical, make the solution of confederation ideal for the Arab-Israeli conflict!

The idea is of course stupid, and would result in the end of Israel.

But the Arab reaction reveals much more: the idea that Jews actually belong in the Middle East is horrifying and they will never be accepted as people who truly belong where they are actually more indigenous than most Arabs.

The writer, Helmi al Asmar, was born in the West Bank and now lives in Jordan. He is also a poet.

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Hypocrisy alert: Chicago Slutwalk actually HURTS Palestinian women

From Tablet:

About 300 people showed up Saturday at the downtown Chicago park that served as the rally point for the [Chicago Slutwalk], among them a contingent of about a dozen individuals who were part of a movement called Zioness, whose signs depicted a woman dressed in a red t-shirt and proudly displaying the Magen David.

According to Zioness organizer Amanda Berman, who had flown in from New York specifically to attend Chicago Slutwalk, representatives of the movement were there in solidarity, not protest.

“This conversation has been going on for quite a long time I think between the whole Jewish progressive community,” Berman told Tablet. “It took a turn after the [Dyke] March and the messaging that Zionists can’t be feminists, progressives or activists in social justice causes. Zionists and Jews have always been on the forefront of social justice issues, and to be alienated and marginalized because of who we are is unacceptable, hurtful, and bad for the people that we all want to fight for.”

While a series of speakers addressed issues that included sex worker rights and solidarity with transgender women of color, a series of vitriolic pro-Palestine, anti-Israel speeches set the event’s tone. Among participants, too, a battle between signs was waged in the background: While the Zioness representatives were not expelled, every time they held up one of their placards, a group of Slutwalk participants raised red umbrellas—the international symbol of solidarity with sex workers—in order to cover them.

“I was holding up my sign, and two or three people at a time would walk in front of me and pushed my sign out of the way,” a Zioness participant named Judy said. “Whenever I moved my sign, they would follow me to block me. They didn’t say anything. They just assumed I was a hateful person who could not be a feminist because I am a Zionist.”

“They don’t want us to participate and it is unfortunate that we are being targeted because we are Jews,” Berman asserted. “I just asked someone, who said Jews were welcomed but Zionists were not, ‘what is a Zionist?’ She didn’t answer. I asked her why I was not welcome and she replied “I’m done engaging.’”

A more detailed explanation was provided by an invited Palestinian speaker named Leilah.

“You cannot be a Zionist and a feminist!” Leilah insisted to raucous agreement. “If you believe Zionism and feminism are compatible then you believe feminism has the room to accept the genocide, racism and displacement of indigenous people. Not today. Whether you like it or not, we refuse to allow feminism to be a safe space for any form of hate including Zionism.”

Slutwalker organizers responded by leading a prolonged chant of “free Palestine.”

The irony is apparent from this 2015 article in the anti-Israel Middle East Eye that noted that anti-Israel rhetoric crowds out any chance of Palestinian women gaining real rights:

An example of the social oppression of women within Palestinian society is their lack of protection under the Palestinian legal system. Rawda Basir believes that in Palestine “men are always given the benefit of the law”. One example of this is relaxed prison sentences for those who kill in the name of family honour.

Al Jazeera reported a rise last year in Palestinian “honour killings”: murders carried out most often by family members against women accused of “immoral sexual conduct”. Basir also cites the fact that girls under the age of 18 must be accompanied by a man to file charges of rape.

...
When asked about the dual effects of political and social oppression of women in Palestine, Flora Salman, a supervisor at Sawa, responded, “[the occupation] might be a factor but it’s not the main cause for the violence against women.”

Salman instead focuses blame on the patriarchal social structure within Palestine: “The males give themselves the right to behave to the women as if she is his own property.”

When Slutwalk women robotically chant "Free Palestine," they are contributing to the actual repression of women in Palestinian society by sweeping real women's issues there under the rug.

And there is lots of this repression.

A 2014 UN report notes:

A societal culture of shame, the patriarchal nature of Palestinian society, and pressure from family and the community in cases of gender-based violence, make it difficult for women to reveal their plight. Inadequate laws, lack of protection services, and low confidence in justice and security institutions further hamper opportunities for women to seek redress. As a result, most violence cases are not reported and never enter the justice system.

A recent post here listed many anti-woman factors under the Palestinian Authority (things are of course worse under Hamas):

According to the UN, there are no specific laws or provisions in the Palestinian Authority or under Hamas rule that protect women against domestic violence and sexual violence.

If women are not able to provide/show evidence of “force”, “threats” and/or “deception” to support rape claims, they risk being criminalized for “adultery.”

The Palestinian Authority has adopted the Jordanian 1960 "rape marriage" law that says that a rapist will not be prosecuted if he marries his victim. These laws often result in rape victims being coerced by family or courts to marry their rapists.

While rape is illegal, the woman is often the one who must defend herself since the rape laws only apply “provided that such a woman is not a prostitute and is not known for her immoral character.”

Murderers who claim to have murdered women in order to ‘maintain family honor’ can be exempted from judicial sanction.

Marital rape is not against the law.

This study showed that Palestinian women only went public about being abused sexually only where the abuse was extremely traumatic, publicly apparent, and the victim absolved of blame. 10% of the women who went public were murdered. Usually the family would respond with measures like hymen reconstruction, marriage to the rapist, and abortion to “nullify” sexual abuse.

Women are not allowed to marry without permission from their guardian, Men may marry up to four wives.

A Palestinian Arab man can divorce his wife for any reason, but Palestinian women can request divorce only under certain circumstances. When a divorce is initiated by the woman it means that she must give up any financial rights and must return her dowry.

Sexual abuse of women and children are rampant but swept under the rug. 37% of married Palestinian women were exposed to some form of violence by their husbands in the previous year alone, nearly 12% exposed to sexual violence in the previous year. 65% of those who were exposed to violence stayed quiet about it because of cultural mores.

20% of Palestinian women are married before they are 18, almost always to older men, which is a human rights violation. Because of child marriages, 10% of all Palestinian women between 15-19 give birth in any year.

The highest rates of violence against women are found where the families tend to be more religious, in Gaza and Hebron.

The Palestinian Basic Law, by saying that ‘the principles of Islamic Shari’a shall be a principal source of legislation’, can be interpreted in a manner which undermines the rights of women according to a UN study.

I'm not even going into Shari'a law here, which is far worse than Palestinian law for women. (Linda Sarsour has publicly defended Shari'a law, which calls into question her own qualifications to be called a feminist.)

When Slutwalk and Linda Sarsour attempt to link feminism with Palestinian nationalism, they are working to undermine Palestinian women's rights and contributing to physical and psychological abuse of Palestinian women by their own people.

Slutwalk Chicago reportedly says on their Facebook page "we demand an end to sexual violence and to the social codes of shame, silence, and blame surrounding it." Yet they are doing exactly what they claim they are against by silencing the topic of Palestinian women as victims of violence by their own society - silence that is exactly because of shame and blame by Palestinians.

Slutwalk is part of the problem for Palestinian women. And there are no "progressive" women who are willing to say this out loud for fear of, again, being "shamed" by the people who claim they are in the forefront fighting the shaming of women.

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In other news, Gaza has swimming pools

A 5-year old boy drowned in the Gaza Strip in a swimming pool on Saturday.

In other news, Gaza has lots of swimming pools.

Here are some that are in Gaza City itself all from a Facebook page of Gaza City swimming pools.

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08/12 Links: Anti-Israel Curricula Used Across the US; It’s All Right to Enjoy a Good BDS Fail

From Ian:

Anti-Israel Curricula Used in World History Courses Across the Country

A monograph published late last month of anti-Israel curriculum used in Newton, Mass., public high schools has led to revelations of similar materials in circulation at other school districts in the country, the report's researcher told the Washington Free Beacon on Thursday.
Steven Stotsky of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) said that since the release of his findings in "Indoctrinating Our Youth: How a U.S. Public School Curriculum Skews the Arab-Israeli Conflict and Islam," he has received phone calls alerting him to disquieting curricula being used in Michigan and California.
"We turned over a rock and discovered a significant problem," said Stotsky, about his deep dive into textbooks, articles, timelines, and maps used from at least 2011 to 2015—some possibly still in use—for World History course sections on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and Islam in Newton's two public high schools, which are among the most prestigious in the country.
The materials included the Arab World Studies Notebook, a textbook the American Jewish Committee has previously condemned as filled with "factually inaccuracies," "overt bias," and "unabashed propagandizing"; a timeline of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict that almost entirely omitted instances of Palestinian terrorism; and a misrepresentative translation of the Hamas charter.
Stotsky said procedures must be established for vetting all materials brought into the classroom.
"Teachers are pulling things off the Internet, and a lot of it is fine, but a lot of it not. They can't just be giving this stuff to students," said Stotsky.
He questioned the decision to teach the Israeli-Palestinian conflict in a history class at all.

Caroline Glick: McMaster’s Policies Completely Contradict Trump’s, Natural Continuation of Obama’s

Jerusalem Post contributor Caroline Glick criticized National Security Adviser H.R. McMaster’s leadership of the National Security Council on Friday’s Breitbart News Daily with SiriusXM host Alex Marlow.
Glick said the problem with McMaster is that “in key issue after key issue, particularly in relation to the Middle East,” he “opposes the things that the president ran on and that he was elected on.”
She quoted Ayaan Hirsi Ali, one of the world’s leading activists against Islamic supremacism, writing in the Wall Street Journal that “President Trump, during the campaign, insisted that it was necessary to go after the political ideology of radical Islam, and he’s just completely stopped.”
“She called on Congress to pick it up and take it on since the president seems to have lost interest in it,” Glick said of Ali’s article. “Whether it’s Iran and countering Iranian influence and rising hegemony in Syria and in Iraq, Lebanon, Yemen, Bahrain, and, of course, Iran’s nuclear weapons program, these are very, very key issues for the United States and for all of its allies in the Middle East. And on all of these issues, in practice, we see that the policies that the National Security Adviser, H.R. McMaster, is pushing are at loggerheads with – completely contradict – the policies that President Trump ran on and continues to say that he wants.”
“For instance, I wrote in my column in the Jerusalem Post this morning, the United States special forces are fighting side-by-side with the Lebanese armed forces, which are controlled by Hezbollah, to the side of Hezbollah, which is a global terrorist organization, against ISIS,” she said.
“This is President Obama’s policy, was to try to get the United States to help Iran to take over Syria, without allowing the American people to know that, by saying, ‘Well, we’re fighting ISIS in Syria,’” she explained. “Allow Iran and Hezbollah to take over Syria and present an existential threat to Jordan and a massive strategic threat to Israel and to U.S. interests, in the name of fighting ISIS.”
“This, we see, is a policy that President Trump continues to implement,” Glick said with dismay. “It’s a very, very troubling thing.”

It’s All Right to Enjoy a Good BDS Fail

It is tricky to assess the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel. On the one hand, one does not want to underestimate the damage to Israel’s reputation done by even unsuccessful campaigns. The campus boycott movement, about which I have written extensively, succeeds not only when students actually vote to divest but also when onlookers, who have no dog in the fight between pro-Israel and anti-Israel activists, come away with the impression that Zionism is, if not a dirty word, at least suspect. We have been fortunate that BDS has done so much of late to discredit itself, but it would be a mistake to underestimate the campaign’s potential.
At the same time, BDS thrives on the appearance of momentum. Even in the midst of astonishing losses, like the most unlikely one it suffered at the hands of the Modern Language Association, BDS does its best to make it appear as though it is on the right side of history and history is coming at us faster and faster. We do not want to do the work of BDS propagandists for them by making it seem as if they are gaining momentum when they are not.
With those considerations concerning campus boycotts in mind, I welcomed Lana Melman’s injunction over at Algemeiner not to underestimate the parallel cultural boycott of Israel. As Melman pointed out, that movement has its ups and downs. Sometimes a rock star like Elvis Costello decides not to play Israel. Sometimes, resisting considerable pressure, other rock stars, like the Rolling Stones and, most recently, Radiohead, perform there. Arguably, 2017 was a good year in this regard. But, as with academic BDS, the cultural boycott succeeds when artists are compelled to question whether Israel is a place they can, or even should, do business.
Still, in the spirit of not seeing momentum where it likely does not exist, I take respectful issue with Melman’s judgment that cultural boycott pressure is mounting. Consider—welcome fans!—the case of Radiohead. Melman observed that more than 50 artists called for the group to cancel its concert in Israel. But is more than 50 a lot? This is not everyone’s yardstick, but I would not consider any group that I could jam into the house for a cocktail party very large.
I would add that the number of artists who signed was only 47 and they needed to count Archbishop Desmond Tutu as an artist to get to that rather sad number. Almost every signatory—I counted at most five who did not fit into this category—was among the usual suspects of the cultural boycott. So is gathering 47 people, virtually none of whom was new to the effort, to get after Radiohead a sign that the movement is gathering steam? Or is it a sign these people need to learn how to work a Rolodex? And, as a reminder, Radiohead performed.

08/11 Links Pt2: Mayim Bialik Talks About Being a ‘Proud’ Zionist; In France: Only the insane murder Jews

From Ian:

Dershowitz: Forward Article is “Most Despicable Ever in Jewish Media”

The National Board of the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has released the following statement:
The ZOA is horrified, pained and shocked by the defamatory, obscene, hateful, ludicrous error-filled article published last week by Steve Davidson in the Forward Jewish Weekly in which ZOA President Morton Klein, a child of Holocaust survivors, born in a displaced persons camp in Germany, was listed number 6 (with Jew-killers/Jew-haters ) of “19 people Jews should actually be more worried about than Linda Sarsour.” It’s significant to note that Klein has received Hadassah’s Myrtle Wreath Award, Brith Shalom’s Humanitarian Award for “outstanding dedication to fighting indifference, intolerance and injustice”, the Holocaust Humanitarian Award, Defender of Israel Award, US State Departments Certificate of Appreciation Award for “outstanding contributions to national and international affairs and as distinguished lecturer,” the Jabotinsky Award, Akiba Hebrew Day School National Zionist Leadership Award, and AIPAC’s Certificate of Appreciation for “distinguished service for demonstrated leadership on behalf of a strong and secure US-Israel relationship.” The Jewish Exponent listed Klein as one of the top 12 “activist Jews of the Century.” Morton Klein painfully remarked, “My 95-year-old mother, a Holocaust survivor who lost most of her family due to the most anti-Semitic horror in history, called me crying when she was made aware of this devastating article listing me with the most monstrous Jew haters and Jew-killers of our era. She was hysterically crying in fear for my safety and reputation because of this insane article. She said it reminded her of the hideous Nazi propaganda against Jews during the Holocaust period.”
Eminent Harvard Law professor and prominent liberal Alan Dershowitz wrote “[the] Forward published the most despicable article ever in Jewish media. Lists Mort Klein, President of ZOA, along w/ David Duke and Farrakhan…”
Others on the list alongside Zionist leader Morton Klein include Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the terrorist group Hezbollah; Ayatollah Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme leader; Ismail Haniyeh, leader of the terrorist group Hamas. All of them have called for destruction of the Jewish State of Israel and the murder of Jews. Also included are all “actual violent jihadists”.
The Forward newspaper/Davidson has destroyed its own credibility by promoting major falsehoods in this article and by including Zionist, pro-Jewish, child of Holocaust survivors, president of the oldest pro-Israel organization Morton Klein on a par with the most monstrous Jew haters and Jew-killers of our era! The Forward falsely stated that Morton Klein is more dangerous to Jews than anti-Semite, Israel-hater, pro-BDS extremist Linda Sarsour.

Morton Klein on Forward article: 'Defamatory lies'

Klein, obviously furious, said:. "They call me a danger to Jews? When I fight with my heart and soul for the Jewish people every day for the past 24 years?" he asked. "They write these defamatory lies. They say I cozy up to anti-Semites."
"I cozy up to anti-Semites? I fight anti-Semites." declared Klein. " I have gotten rid of Israel-haters from key government posts. Charles Freeman, who was going to be National Intelligence Director, James Zogby, who was going to work in the State Department, Salam al-Marayati, I led those fights, and I was successful, and they say I cozy up to anti-Semites?"
"James Zogby who heads the Arab-American Institute, one of the most anti-Israel people in the country, wrote an article decrying 'The vocal and muscular ZOA that his risen like a phoenix.' Obviously, everything I've told you makes it quite clear that I am not one of the 19 most dangerous people in the world' said Klein.
"The Boston Globe defended me. The New York Post defended me. Even a top reporter at Haaretz, Amir Tibon told me to send anyone that wants a quote to him, and he would tell them that this is ridiculous. And Amir Tibon is a left-winger!"

In France, a curious fact emerges: Only the insane murder Jews

A Muslim suspect rammed six police officers with his car in the Paris suburb of Levallois-Perret. Two French officers sustained severe injuries. The French media and authorities had no doubt. “Terror returned to Paris”. “A voluntary act”. Nobody questioned the motive of the Algerian terrorist who tried to shed the policemen's blood. No one called him a lunatic.
“What do you think, should this insane person be put in a psych ward while we contemplate the reasons for his actions?” the Crif, the central organization of French Jewry, posted on Facebook about the attacker in Levallois-Perret. It was a provocative but brave reference to the French establishment for its dealing with the slaying of a Jewish woman, Sarah Halimi, by a Muslim man, Kobili Traore, who was sent to observation as per his insanity plea even though he has no record of mental illness. He shouted “Allah Akbar” while killing Halimi and throwing her from the window. The judiciary’s omission of the aggravated element of a hate crime caused by anti-Semitism, according with CRIF President Francis Kalifat, is a “cover up” of the anti-Semitic character of the crime.
The French media only covered Halimi’s death two months after it happened.
We have seen this mechanism before with another Halimi, Ilan, a beautiful Jewish boy kidnapped at the outskirts of Paris, held prisoner for 24 days, tortured to death just because he was a Jew. The brave French journalist Guy Millière wrote that “Ilan 's screams were heard by neighbors because they were especially atrocious: the killers disfigured the flesh of the young man, broke his fingers, burned him with acid and eventually with fire”.
As in the case of Sarah Halimi, anti-Semitism was denied by the political authorities, the police and the media in the death of Ilan. As Francis Szpiner, the lawyer for the family of this boy, said, "the silence killed Ilan Halimi and justice has helped to perpetuate this conspiracy of silence, because the public was not told why he was killed”.
It seems that in France, as in the rest of Europe, a lunatic is especially lunatic if he strikes the Jews. I see the same conspiracy of silence from the European élites when the Palestinian terrorists strike the Israelis living in Judea and Samaria. The double stigma of “settler” and “Jew” makes them unwhorthy of headlines and truth.
Have the European Jews become themselves “settlers”, unworthy of attention, compassion and justice?