The European Students' Union is holding a convention in Montenegro this week.
They just passed an anti-discrimination statement.
The statement on #Antidiscrimination just passed!🎉 This is such a big news for ESU as we are all in the same page working against these issues in #Europe. More info on this is yet to come in the upcoming days! 🔜 pic.twitter.com/pDPcHIBAna
I don't have the full text yet, but my sources tell me that this statement incorporates the IHRA working definition of antisemitism, which includes as examples:
Denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination, e.g., by claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.
Applying double standards by requiring of it a behavior not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.
Using the symbols and images associated with classic antisemitism (e.g., claims of Jews killing Jesus or blood libel) to characterize Israel or Israelis.
Drawing comparisons of contemporary Israeli policy to that of the Nazis.
Holding Jews collectively responsible for actions of the state of Israel.
This is huge. Many Israel-haters reject the idea that they are antisemitic even though they do exactly what these examples point out. But applying double standards to the Jewish state and denying Jews the right to self-determination really is antisemitism dressed up as a political opinion.
For a major student union to adapt this definition is a big deal, and it will go a long way towards protecting Jewish students on campus in the 39 countries the ESU is represented.
(h/t Daled Amos)
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In late October, Robert Gregory Bowers, a vicious anti-Semite, walked into the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh and shot and killed 11 people. Several people were injured, four of which were police officers. It was tragic—but of course, everyone blamed President Trump for reasons only morons understand. There were protests when he visited the site. Everyone was creating controversy when there needed to be none. But now, we have another controversy that could be brewing that isn’t related to Trump. It centers on anti-Semite Linda Sarsour. The anti-Israel activist seems to have been exposed for cheating the Tree of Life synagogue from money fundraised after the tragic shooting.
Update: Update: Islamic Center claims it will send the $155k check to Tree of Life synagogue. As for remaining $83,634, it will go to vague "projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity." So all that $ raised will simply vanish, it appears.
Now, some money was given to Tree of Life, around $10,000, but that was part of an effort to repair Jewish cemetaries that were vandalized. Since the shooting, around $240,000 were raised, but it appears little, if any, has been sent to Tree of Life. Of that $240,000-figure, $155,000 went to the the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh.
Hen Mazzig of The Jerusalem Post initially said that $400,000 was raised for Tree of Life, but then offered a correction, noting that $160,000 was raised by Sarsour as part of an effort to fix Jewish cemeteries and $240,000 was raised after the shooting. The corrected tweet is in the thread above.
Tree of Life received just $10,000 from the cemetery campaign, but doesn't appear to have received a dime from the post-shooting fundraising effort, but now the Islamic Center of Pittsburgh says they will supposedly send its six-figure check ($155,000) to Tree of Life. According to Conservative Review’s Jordan Schactel, the other $83,634 will go “to vague ‘projects that help foster Muslim-Jewish collaboration, dialogue, and solidarity. Oh, and as for the money raised for Jewish cemeteries, several never received the funds that were promised.
CNN commentator Marc Lamont Hill addressed the opening meeting of the United Nations commemoration of the International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People Wednesday.
"This year marks the 70th anniversary of the Nakba," he said.
"The Israeli nation continues to restrict freedom," Hill stated. "There are more than 60 Israel laws that deny citizenship rights to Palestinians just because they are not Jewish."
He called the "Israeli criminal justice system" a "term I can only use with irony," as "Palestinians are routinely denied due process of law."
Hill further accused Israel of turning Gaza into "the world's largest open-air prison."
"As an American I’m embarrassed that my tax dollars contribute to this reality. No American president has taken a principled stand for Palestinian rights. I’m saddened though not surprised that Trump has further emboldened Israel’s behavior.
He called the US recognition of Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and the relocation of the US embassy to Jerusalem as a "powerful provocation" and a"death knell" for the peace process.
Airbnb’s partial boycott of Israel last week came just as the Arab world, Africa, and Eastern Europe moved closer to the Jewish state. These two diametrically opposed developments – one negative and one positive — showed that a race is on between competing global movements to determine whether Israel will sink or swim in the international area.
On the negative side, on November 19, the Silicon Valley-based tourism behemoth Airbnb announced that it is delisting Jewish-owned properties located in “Israeli settlements in the West Bank” from its website. Airbnb chose not to delist properties in the so-called “West Bank” owned by non-Jews.
Airbnb’s decision to adopt a policy that is openly discriminatory towards Jews was the result of years of lobbying and pressure from the UN Human Rights Council, which the Trump administration left in June. The UN Human Rights Council was joined in its campaign by the European Union (EU), by EU member states, and by U.S.-based foundations ideologically aligned with the hard left.
These forces, which share an aversion to nationalism, and ascribe to post-nationalist globalism, have combined since at least 2001 to achieve the goal of delegitimizing the existence of the Jewish state while legitimizing terrorism and war against Israel.
Airbnb’s move is a testament to the effectiveness of this campaign — as are the growing disenfranchisement and intimidation of pro-Israel students on college campuses; the boycotts of Israeli exports; and the mainstreaming of extremist politicians who refuse to accept the legitimacy of Jewish nationalism or Jewish self-determination.
In a series of recent exposes, prime funding sources of the anonymous Canary Mission, a controversial site that does pro-Israel people a service by listing thousands of anti-Semitic and disproportionately anti-Israel individuals, professors, and organizations, were revealed, inciting debate over the legitimacy of the organization. It was discovered that two of the benefactors of the organization are the Helen Diller Family Foundation and the Jewish Community Federation of San Francisco, both of whom have terminated their funding for the time being, persuaded by dissidents of Canary Mission.
The criticism of the organization has arisen overwhelmingly from left liberal progressives, proponents of BDS and staunch opponents of Israel, with claims of ‘McCarthyism,’ as well as laments about the expansiveness of the operation (over 2000 names are currently listed) being voiced. Others claim that Canary Mission punishes mere ‘criticizers of Israel,’ not deniers of Israel per se.
Canary Mission, however, maintains the integrity of its research ethic and its commitment to facts when listing information on anyone. The guidelines are explicit concerning their methodology, with the criteria for making ‘the list,’ so-to-speak, being as follows:
An anti-Semite is defined per the definition of the United States State Department, supporting terrorist organizations, violating the safety of Jews or Zionists, demonizing Jews or Zionists, or promoting the BDS movement. There is nothing controversial about these standards, unless of course, advocacy of terrorism, hate crimes, and violence are now morally grey areas.
Each individual profile is assembled through meticulous research of public domains--Twitter, Facebook, university profiles, etc. No name is published without sufficient material to corroborate an allegation of anti-Zionist rhetoric or action. This is paramount to the validity of Canary Mission as any and all claims are wholly substantiated such that any attempt to dispute the facts is inherently futile.
In a recent Facebook post linking to a petition in support of Ilhan Omar (D-MN), Linda Sarsour asserted the age-old anti-Semitic trope that American Jews remain loyal to Israel over the US (what she called "democratic values,") as well as asserting that these Jews “masquerade as progressives.” For Sarsour, her venture into explicitly antisemitic territory only reaffirms her antisemitic demagoguery. In past actions, Sarsour has espoused the Muslim Brotherhood and the Nation of Islam, both radical and virulently antisemitic organizations, in the process legitimizing the values of these two organizations and conflating them with those of her own secular organization, the Women’s March.
Her recent comments are a continuation of a troubling trend of figureheads of the left wing espousing antisemitism. Sarsour is far from the only figure against Jewish influence in America. She is joined by newly-elected congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) as well as newly-elected Attorney General of Minnesota and purported 2020 presidential candidate Keith Ellison. Previously, Omar has advanced the antisemitic conspiracy that Israelis hold the world in the palm of their hand by way of ‘hypnosis.’ Tlaib has forcefully denied the legitimacy of a Jewish state, while Ellison has strong ties to the Nation of Islam and Louis Farrakhan, who last month compared Jews to “termites” and referred to Jews as “anti-black.”
The growing ties of high-ranking Democrats and leftist figures to antisemitic beliefs has largely contributed to antisemitism becoming more mainstream and relatively commonplace. So why haven’t people wised up to the overt acts of bigotry committed against Jews by prominent political figures? The answer is largely the result of selective enforcement of values and groupthink of progressives.
The Women’s March is meant to achieve a noble goal: reinforcing the rights of women during a time in which women statistically are given fewer societal opportunities to succeed than men. The gender wage gap, fewer job opportunities afforded to women, and domestic violence are all real phenomena which can and should be fought by activists like Sarsour. But rather than commit to the issues pressing women today, Sarsour interjects her bigoted views against Israel and Jews into the work of her organization. Sarsour at one point stated that there was no room for Zionists in the feminist movement, a discriminatory statement which subversively seeks to alienate Jews from the progressive ideals of her movement. Just as well, Sarsour’s open association and fandom of Louis Farrakhan, much like that of cofounder of the Women’s March, Tamika Mallory, cements antisemitic sentiment at the crux of the organization and mainstream progressive values.
It’s a twisted logic that has guided Sarsour: as she strives for equality for all, she belittles and discounts Jews from her narrative of tolerance, in the process contradicting the values for which she allegedly stands. Jews are effectively at the bottom of the food chain of minority groups, indeed viewed more as the oppressors than the oppressed, making it socially acceptable to berate and demean the Jewish people(often under the name "Zionists.")
The receptiveness of the left-wing to Sarsour’s peddling of antisemitic ideology has lead to such demagoguery becoming increasingly popular among Democrats. Sarsour is an embodiment of progressive ideals: child of immigrants, self-described person of color, Muslim, woman, and she is only really controversial among certain Jewish and conservative circles--arguably making her more popular among Democrats. Progressives believe her and trust her for this reason, leading to somewhat of a groupthink effect with regards to Sarsour’s vile rhetoric on Jews and Zionists, and resulting in a common understanding among Democrats that pro-Israel Jews do not and cannot mesh with progressive values.
Sarsour’s conniving tactic to alienate Jews from progressives, has, unfortunately, succeeded to a large extent. In New York City, a place intrinsically tied with progressive values, over 50% of hate crimes were perpetrated against Jews this past year, with a rapid increase in antisemitic attacks in the run-up to the midterm elections as voter enthusiasm peaked. Nationally, similar statistics hold true, with Jews prevailing as the most persecuted religious group in major liberal cities like Los Angeles, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Diego, despite Jews comprising a tiny part of the population.
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Cairo, November 28 - A prominent Muslim preacher sounded an alarm this week that Jews are attempting to make their foundational documents, beliefs, and practices seem Jewish, a development that continues what he called an ongoing Jewish effort to appropriate ideas, places, and resources.
Sheikh Mahuj Dambut of the Jasqil Demal Mosque in the Egyptian capital downtown area warned during a sermon broadcast on national radio Tuesday that Jews have not been content to restrict their nefarious activities to the reestablishment of Jewish sovereignty in the ancient Jewish homeland despite Muslim objections - they have also spent thousands of years trying to make everyone think the ancient set of books recording Jewish history, prophecy, and wisdom, as well as the practices that flow from them, are somehow Jewish.
"These parasite usurpers will stop at nothing," he declared. "If they succeed in the evil project of convincing the world the Jewish Scriptures are Jewish, what will follow? We cannot allow this travesty of truth to continue. All Muslims must fight those who associate Jews with so-called Jewish heritage; who make the spurious connection between the culture of the Hebrew Bible and the culture of those who follow its teachings; and who have demonstrated time and time again that they care nothing for the sensibilities of the vast majority of humanity who would rather see them under someone else's boot, and defined by the wearers of the boot."
Sheikh Dambut admonished his listeners and followers not to fall prey to Jewish ruses. "The Jews would have you believe their faith is Jewish," he proclaimed. "But they lie. Do not fall for the trickery that is Jewish adherence to Judaism. It is all just a sordid attempt to create artificial legitimacy for themselves, as if they have some sort of tradition that goes back thousands of years, to a place called Judah. I tell you, Allah hates the Jews, because they try to assert they are Jews. We will not accept such perfidy."
Some listeners believe the sheikh did not go far enough. "It's not just Judaism the Jews are trying to make Jewish," insisted a man listening to the broadcast in a barber shop, who gave his name as Muhammad. "There are famous people, both living and dead, that Jews are trying to make everyone think are, or were, Jewish. Albert Einstein. The Marx Brothers. Senator Joseph Lieberman. King David. Hillel the Elder. Maimonides. Spinoza. Moses Mendelssohn. It's cultural appropriation of the highest order, and we have to do something about it."
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Palestinian children are still being taught that “Palestine” includes all of Israel. Decades after the Oslo Accords, the PA and Fatah still don’t recognize Israel's existence.
The photo above is a prime example of this. The Palestinian Authority Presidential Guards posted this image of a young boy making the “V” symbol for “victory” while holding a Palestinian flag. Behind him is the PA map clearly named “Palestine” that includes all of Israel and the PA areas.
The names of the following Israeli cities and regions are written in the colors of the Palestinian flag on and around the map: “Haifa,” “Jerusalem,” “Safed,” “Nazareth,” “Jaffa,” “Tal Al-Rabia (i.e., Tel Aviv, see note below),” “Tiberias,” “Be’er Sheva,” “Ramle,” “Ashkelon,” “the Negev,” “Lod,” “Acre,” and “Beit Shean.” “Gaza” is also marked. The text on the image, states that Palestinians will “return”:
Posted text: “#Good_morning #The_Palestinian_Presidential_Guards”
Text on image: “Palestine We will surely return”
[Official Facebook page of the PA Presidential Guards, Nov. 25, 2018]
Another Palestinian way of saying that all of the State of Israel is “Palestine” is to describe it as stretching “from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea.” This is one of the PA's popular slogans. Recently it was repeated by a university lecturer who described the “great Palestinian dream”:
The great Palestinian dream: To liberate "Palestine" from the River to the Sea
Last Friday, Adele Raemer, a 63-year-old teacher from Kibbutz Nirim, and two other Israelis testified in Geneva at another UN “Human Rights Council” anti-Israel farce whose name reveals its bias: The “Commission of Inquiry on the 2018 Protests in the Occupied Palestinian Territory.” Israel’s government won’t cooperate, justifiably. Why legitimize the latest UN lynch mob, targeting the alleged “military assaults on the large-scale civilian protests that began on 30 March 2018.” But these brave Israelis touchingly described how Israelis – and Palestinians – have suffered since Israel’s 2005 Disengagement-for-Peace from Gaza, what the UN falsely calls “the occupied Gaza Strip.”
“It’s a misnomer to call these ‘protests.’ They were violent attacks,” Raemer exclaimed in Geneva. Testifying for four and a half hours, she explained how Hamas bombs and burns her progressive paradise in the Negev – in undisputed, within-the-Green-Line-Israel. Asked, repeatedly, “Why do you stay?” she answers poignantly, patriotically, “It’s my home. Why should I leave?”
Resenting Israel’s impotence, she says, “I don’t remember voting for Hamas, but they – not my government – run my life. They decide when I go into my safe room – or not. They decide when school is open for me to teach – or not.” Adele, and her children, grandchildren, students, and neighbors, are held hostage by 30,000 thugs harassing the Jewish State instead of building the Palestinian state they claim to desire.
It’s a long way from the Grand Concourse in the Bronx to Geneva via the Negev, but this Bronx-born kibbutznik-turned-activist feels compelled to defend her home. Immediately after she finished Young Judea’s 1972-1973 yearlong course, the Yom Kippur War erupted. Adele returned to Israel to make her life with her people. Inspired by 1970s-style communal Zionism, she eventually settled on Kibbutz Nirim, today a farming community of 372, smack on Gaza’s border.
Back then, three decades after Egypt nearly overran the plucky, two-year-old kibbutz in 1948, Nirim was a Zionist cliché in living color, an egalitarian community making the desert bloom. These farmer-idealists weren’t limousine liberals but true progressives. Most supported a Palestinian state. They happily cooperated with their Palestinian neighbors.
A Palestinian man with links to the Islamic State group was arrested in Italy Wednesday on suspicion that he was planning a terror attack on the island of Sardinia, according to a state prosecutor.
State anti-terror prosecutor Federico Cafiero de Raho said the suspect planned to poison the water supply in the central island town of Macomer as well as a nearby military base, with ricin and anthrax.
The suspect was identified by the Il Fatto Quotidiano daily as Alaji Aminun, a Palestinian refugee from Lebanon, who moved to Macomer.
The arrest came two months after Lebanese authorities arrested another Palestinian refugee on suspicion of plotting to poison the water supply of a military barracks there. At the time, officials said the suspect had been linked to the Islamic State and had worked with another man, apparently Aminun, to “carry out a mass poisoning in a foreign country” through “poisoning food during a public holiday,” without specifying the location.
Earlier this week The Forward had an article talking about how much Muslim charity CelebrateMercy raised for Jewish causes in the wake of antisemitic attacks over the past year.
Thee is no skepticism about what the head of the charity is saying about how the funds are being distributed; not all the funds raised have been disbursed but the plans being made are reported without any independent research. No digging into IRS forms, for example.
The Forward is asking readers to help us review the tax filings of thousands of American Jewish charities. We’ll teach you how to dig into a charity’s finances. Then, we’ll assign our reporters to follow up on what you find.
All you need to help is some time, and maybe a cup of coffee.
The American Jewish community has an extraordinary abundance of nonprofit institutions. Many of them are doing good, important work. But it’s difficult to know which ones are living up to the responsibility of spending tax-exempt donations wisely.
At the Forward, we spend a lot of time looking at the financial information that the federal government requires charities to make public. We’ve found some really big stories there.
But we usually focus on just the fifty or so largest charities in the American Jewish landscape. There are more than two thousand Jewish charities that file tax returns.
If we work together, we can do some serious watchdog reporting on these groups, which handle billions of dollars in tax-exempt donations.
Given previous reporting from that reporter, Josh Nathan-Kazis, we know that he will scrutinize and report on every piece of dirt, real or imagined.
To the Forward, Jewish charities are suspect while Muslim charities are assumed righteous.
Interestingly, The Forward itself is a non-profit. And it's own records show some interesting things that donors might want to know about that organization.
For example, in 2016, the Forward Association lost some $7.6 million according to its NY State CHAR500 filing. That's a lot of money, more than double what it lost in 2015.
But its president, Sam Norich, had $462,000 in compensation - an $80,000 raise over 2015.
Is this the best use of charitable funds for The Forward Association?
(Norwich apparently had a lifetime salary but they decided in 2014 to pro-rate his salary for the next few years over his expected lifespan. Maybe other non-profits give sweetheart deals to their executives, but that is hardly a responsible use of non-profit funds.)
It gets worse.
The Forward Association spent $539,000 on fundraising, but (when you subtract the money automatically transferred over from The Forward Fund (which requires no fundraising) the total amount raised was $1.4 million, meaning fundraising was an astounding 38% of the total amount raised, a percentage that would raise eyebrows for any auditor of a charity.
Speaking of auditors, the 2016 return was audited and found to have a ton of mistakes, the sort of thing that Nathan-Kazis would crucify any other Jewish organization for.
The mission of the organization according to these filings is "TO PROMOTE AND STRENGTHEN JEWISH PEOPLEHOOD YIDDISH CULTURE AND SOCIAL AND ECONOMIC JUSTICE. IT PURSUES THESE GOALS THROUGH ITS PUBLICATIONS AND PHILANTHROPIC GRANTS AND THROUGH COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS WITH OTHER LIKEMINDED ORGANIZATIONS." Yet it has not made a single grant in the past two years on record.
This is all from a small amount of checking, mostly a single year's records.
You can find previous years' 990 forms here if you want to take a crack at it.
If the Forward was so fearless in its reporting as it pretends, then when will we find its analysis of its own non-profit paperwork, which upon a cursory glance seems at least as problematic as many of their "scoops" on Jewish charities that actually do something positive for the community rather than demonize large portions of the Jewish community as The Forward does, every day.
UPDATE:
The @jdforward reported on a number of financial scandals of Jewish charities that used Loeb & Tropper as accountants.
Guess who else hired Loeb & Tropper AFTER these stories? Yup, the non-profit that runs The Forward. pic.twitter.com/8rlZtulj2D
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At Academia.edu, Jonathan Slosser had written a paper showing that over four years after the 2014 Gaza war, B'Tselem still inaccurately calls many Hamas terrorists "civilian."
And instead of the "human rights" organization decrying Hamas' use of child soldiers, it blames Israel for killing legitimate targets in a war.
Here is a selection of his findings.
B'Tselem:
Ahmad Salim Lafy 'Abdin 17 years old, resident of Gaza city, killed on 31 Jul 2014 in Gaza city, by gunfire from an aircraft. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed in his family's home in the a-Nasar neighborhood.
Hamas Al Qassam Brigades:
He loved to join the resistance and join the Mujahideen. He loved working in the ranks of the Qassam Brigades and was committed to all the duties required in order to serve the path of jihad. He joined the Al-Qassam Brigades in a military course and was stationed in the advanced posts on the eastern border. He joined the battalion's corps of brigades and was creative in this field and obtained more than one level. One of the most prominent jihadist acts carried out by our martyr during his jihadist life was digging tunnels, preparing combat points, guarding tunnels, and transporting food, drink and equipment to the mujahedeen in time of war. The occupation planes attacked him when he came out for a jihad work and he was bombed before he reached the desired place.
B'Tselem:
'Othman Fawzi Lafy 'Abdin 17 years old, resident of Kh. al-'Adas, Rafah District, killed on 31 Jul 2014 in Kh. al-'Adas, Rafah District, by gunfire from an aircraft. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed while standing in the entrance to his home.
Qassam Brigades:
He joined the Mujahideen When he learned of the martyrdom of Jihad and the martyrdom of martyrdom, he joined the mujahideen with all sincerity and sincerity. He was diligent in the fight for the sake of Allah and was keen on all military activities to develop his physical and mental skills.
B’Tselem:
'Imad Nassim 'Issa Seidam 16 years old, resident of Rafah, killed on 02 Aug 2014 in Rafah, by gunfire from an aircraft. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed when he returned to his home, which had been bombarded two weeks earlier, to feed birds he was raising.
Qassam Brigades:
In the year 2012 and since the age of fifteen years old line Imad named in the ranks of the Martyr Izz el-Deen al-Qassam to be one of its sons in the battalion martyr martyr / Amir Qafa on the shore of the city of Rafah, and before joining our martyr was helping the Mujahideen and keen to serve them. Abu Anas was one of the first pioneers in the commitment to all military activities.
B’Tselem:
Fayez Tareq Fayez Yasin 16 years old, resident of Gaza city, killed on 01 Aug 2014 in Gaza city, by a missile fired from an aircraft. Did not participate in hostilities. Additional information: Killed together with his father as they were about to leave 'Ali Bin Abi Talib Mosque in a strike on vehicles that had come to evacuate injured people to hospital. Three other people were killed in the strike.
Photo from Yasin family:
Like Amnesty, B'Tselem has had years after the evidence came in to adjust its databases to reflect the hundreds of "civilians" who were proudly claimed by terror groups as one of their own.
B'Tselem is more honest than HRW and Amnesty in how they report casualties, but a lie is a lie. And there is no excuse for them to continue to publish databases with false information that they know very well is false.
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Being the parents of a child murdered by a proud and pleased woman who doesn't stop boasting about what she did was never going to be easy.
Regular readers know that Malki, our sweet, vivacious fifteen year-old eldest daughter was one of the victims of the Hamas bombing of the Jerusalem Sbarro pizzeria on August 9, 2001. The mastermind of the attack, convicted for her role in scoping out the target site because of the attractive number of Jewish children who frequented it and planting the human bomb there before fleeing, was sentenced to 16 terms of life imprisonment. She was the first-ever Hamas female jihadist. Her name is Ahlam Tamimi.
Tamimi walked free, along with 1,026 other Arab terrorists - most of them killers - in the catastrophic deal Israel made with the Hamas terrorists to secure the freedom of an Israeli hostage, Gilad Shalit, in October 2011. She has been living free-as-a-bird in Jordan, not under cover, not in hiding, ever since.
She married another convicted Arab terrorist/murderer, Nizar Tamimi, in the summer of 2012. He is her cousin. (Another cousin is Ahed Tamimi, the 17 year old blondish "icon" of Palestinian "resistance" recently released from an Israeli prison.)
The United States Department of Justice unsealed terrorist charges against Ahlam Tamimi on March 14, 2017. That same day, her name was added to the FBI Most Wanted Terrorists list and the US let it be known it was asking Jordan to extradite her to face charges in a Washington courtroom. The two countries have had an active extradition treaty since 1995.
On Giving Tuesday, the Middle East Forum is warning Americans about the risks of giving to charities that are active in areas of the world where terrorist groups operate. This comes in the wake of an investigation into World Vision, the international evangelical aid charity, and its continued refusal to acknowledge the depths of its involvement in the financing of a designated terrorist-funding Sudanese charity linked to Osama Bin Laden, or to take any corrective measures to ensure it doesn’t happen again.
Writing in the Christian Post on November 3, the Forum revealed the full extent of the role played by World Vision in a 2015 decision by the Obama administration to approve the transfer of $115,000 of taxpayers’ money to the Islamic Relief Agency (ISRA), which the U.S. government designated as a terrorist organization in 2004 because of its close links to Bin Laden. The Christian Post article followed a July 2018 report the Forum wrote in National Review first uncovering the scandal, which was covered by media all around the world.
In response to the Christian Post article, World Vision referred to the Forum’s evidence as “false,” “unfair” and “outrageous.” World Vision declined, however, to address the Forum’s questions about the history of its financial relationship with the Bin Laden-linked charity, or the matter of a fraudulent identification number submitted to the U.S. government as part of World Vision’s grant application.
The Middle East Forum has now responded to World Vision’s latest obfuscation with a detailed post refuting World Vision’s attempt to muddy the waters.
Cliff Smith, Director of the Middle East Forum’s Washington Project, said: “It is not our intention to impugn any of the good work that World Vision does. But an appropriate response to the discovery that your charity has been working with a designated terrorist entity connected to Bin Laden is not denial and obfuscation, but reflection and internal investigation. World Vision should answer, substantively, without dodging questions, the issues raised by the documented facts we discuss, and let the chips fall where they may. Taxpayers and other World Vision supporters would better welcome a charity that could admit making such a serious mistake.”
Authorities arrested a motorist suspected of trying to run down two men leaving a Los Angeles synagogue, and detectives are investigating the case as a hate crime, police officials said Monday.
The driver yelled anti-Semitic remarks at the men Friday night, made a U-turn and drove at the pair, who took cover behind a car and an electrical box, said Deputy Chief Horace Frank.
The suspect made another U-turn and targeted the men, then tried to speed away but crashed into another car in the largely Jewish Wilshire-area neighborhood, Frank said.
No injuries were reported.
The suspect, Mohamed Mohamed Abdi, was born in Mogadishu, Somalia, but is now a U.S. citizen, officials said. The 32-year-old was arrested for investigation of assault with a deadly weapon and remained jailed. It wasn’t known Monday if he has an attorney.
The FBI joined the investigation, and Abdi could face federal charges, Frank said.
Great people walk amongst us every day, so
common, so ordinary, that they’re usually taken for granted and rarely thanked.
Who notices when we pass a nurse, a storekeeper or a guard in the entrance to a
supermarket?
I would like to thank these everyday
heroes: The men and women of the army and security services that protect
us. The citizens who have tackled armed terrorists with their bare hands
without a thought for their own safety. All the people who have
stepped closer to suicide bombers to shield others from the
explosions. The doctors, nurses and paramedics who see the dead and the wounded
again and again while working tirelessly to save lives. The amazing Zaka
volunteers who come after every attack to clean up the pieces.
Every person who, just to fulfill their daily
routine, has to pass places where people they loved were murdered – shopkeepers
who go to work, children whose parents or relatives were murdered in their own
home, people who live their regular lives in places where bombs fell, bullets
flew and terrorists exploded. The children whose clear thinking saved their
younger brothers and sisters are heroes. The mothers and fathers who raise
their children in happiness and joy, knowing that when they are eighteen, they
will have to go to the army and possibly to war and horror. The children who
grow up with the news of dead soldiers, bereaved parents and memories of the
funerals they attended and still are full of motivation to work hard, serve the
country and protect us all.
Sometimes going to a club, café or party is
an act of heroic defiance. The people who refuse to be cowed by terrorism and
insist on living their lives to the fullest. The people who rather than
being consumed by hate and trauma strive to make the world a better place, full
of compassion, even for our would-be murderers –
All of
you are the source of my strength and hope.
In Israel we live under the shadow of death,
of current and remembered horrors. Suicide bombing must be one of the
most evil things invented by man. Turning kites and balloons, children’s toys,
into weapons of destruction and terror is a diabolical level of creativity. Again,
and again we are surprised by the depths of depravity but, BUT we must remember
that the other side of greatest evil is greatest good.
We see this awe inspiring good in our everyday
heroes. These courageous, stubborn, compassionate, good people are OUR people,
the Maccabees of today, the heroes of tomorrow.
Most people don’t recognize the heroism of
the everyday Israeli. Maybe it’s because we don’t make a big deal out of it.
After all, what choice do we have? Lay down and die? Be miserable? But the
thing is that this is a big deal. And for that I say: Thank you. All of you.
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Matti Friedman at the 2018 Jewish Media Summit (photo credit: Chaviva Gordon-Bennett)
You have to admire Matti
Friedman. He bucked the entrenched wisdom to expose the unfairness (here
and here)
of the media’s excessive focus on Israel by, for instance, the Associated
Press. And he did so as a liberal when being liberal, for the most part, means
being down on Israel. In other words, Friedman doesn’t allow his political
beliefs to color the truth—something that’s not as easy as it sounds,
especially when one has a journalist’s platform to use or abuse.
Today I discovered that
Friedman’s not only a great writer whose morals remain intact, he’s also a
rousing speaker, personable, witty, and fun. You can listen to him rapt, for as
long as he’s willing to give of his time, and still be left wishing for more.
The former AP columnist held forth on the subject of How to Report the Middle East from the Middle East at the Jewish
Media Summit in Jerusalem, and even gave the audience a chance to ask
questions, which he answered with long, thoughtful responses.
Friedman, an Israeli Canadian
journalist, began by describing how small Israel is within the world at
large, the infinitesimal space taken up by its land mass. Even within the
Middle East, Israel takes up just one small sliver of land and has a population
of fewer than 8 million people, out of the 411 million people--overwhelmingly
Arab--who populate the Middle East as a whole. Despite this, when Friedman
worked there, the AP had more correspondents covering Israel than it had
covering the very large country known as China. There were, in fact, more correspondents
in the AP’s Israel bureau than in all the combined countries of
Sub-Saharan Africa.
Israel, moreover, is being
covered as a “conflict story,” says Friedman. This despite the violence and
recent horrific death toll a short distance away in Syria, or the bloodshed in
Iraq. Compared to what is happening in other Middle Eastern countries, Israel
is a very safe place, indeed. And when Friedman goes on to compare the number
of Jerusalem fatalities (27) to that of other cities in the year 2017, the
contrast is even starker. During the same time period the number of fatalities
in Indianapolis, for example, was 175. In Jacksonville, Florida, 133.
Friedman says that there is a
lot of framing going on when it comes to reporting the news. He gave an example
of how this works: your editor sends you to cover a pro-Trump protest. You get
there and while there’s a lot of police, there are actually only two
protesters.
As a journalist, you’re faced
with two choices. You can call your editor and say, “There’s no story.”
But, as Friedman says, editors
hate that, and if a writer does this too often, he puts his job on the line.
The other alternative is to frame the story: "A small, but vocal protest . . ."
In framing the story, the
journalist isn’t lying. He hasn’t said anything untrue, but he’s giving the
readers what they want, rather than the real story. So it is with framing the
Israel story as a conflict story or a moral story in which Israel is always in
the wrong. This, although Israel is much safer than many other Middle Eastern
countries, its major cities safer than many major American cities. This,
although the IDF goes to extreme lengths to avoid loss of life of civilians in,
for instance, Gaza.
Friedman also talked about how
journalists can zoom in or out of a story to give a certain impression or
picture. The example he gave was the highlighting of the suppression of the English
language in Montreal, where English speakers are a minority, in favor of the
French-speaking majority. English lettering on signs, for instance, is
regulated for size. Seen from this perspective, this is oppression of a
minority, something that is accepted as immoral by the world as a whole.
But if you zoom out of the
picture, you see that actually, this regulation of the English language is a
response to the fact that North America, for instance, the United States, is
overwhelmingly English-speaking. Montreal’s French-speaking community is the
real minority, which hopes to protect its language and culture by regulating
the use of the English language in that city.
Zooming in gives you one narrow
picture. Zooming out then, gives you the bigger picture. Journalists covering
Israel, says Friedman, are unfortunately “zooming in really tight” to highlight
Arab oppression.
Friedman spoke of the
“brilliant branding’ in creating the concept of the Two-State Solution. (Don’t
like the Two-State Solution? You’re against a solution.) He also spoke about
the accepted notion that the root of the conflict is the occupation of Israel
in 1967 and that only with the end of the occupation will there be peace. But
clearly, said Friedman, this is incorrect. Friedman reminds us that the PLO,
the Palestinian Liberation Organization, was formed in 1964, before Israel took
over Judea and Samaria in 1967. What
then, were they planning to “liberate?”
Friedman also spoke of the
shortsightedness of journalists in expecting that Israel could just vacate the
territories. “The vacuum Israel is being asked to create is not Nevada. The
vacuum created in the West Bank would more likely be filled with guys in black
masks.”
During the question and answer
period, I asked Friedman for his thoughts on how words and terms are used and
abused by journalists to paint a certain picture, how the evolution of
inaccurate terms takes place so that they become part of our accepted lexicon
for Israel. I gave the example of Professor Ruth Wisse of Harvard who says that
the word “conflict” in regard to Israel, is a misnomer, that in reality, it’s “the
Arab war against the Jews.”
(At this, Friedman gave a
start, shocked.)
I gave a second example. The
term “West Bank,” describes the territory in question as if one were standing
in Jordan. As if it were the actual bank of a river, which it is not. This
territory is not, in fact, within sight of any body of water. I mentioned that
the correct, most accurate geographical description of the territory is “Judea
and Samaria.”
“West Bank” has, nonetheless,
become the accepted nomenclature for the territory. I wanted to know Friedman’s
thoughts about journalists (like me) insisting on using the correct terms: if
doing so is effective and if it can be done without making the writer look
slightly insane or rabidly political. I want to be taken seriously. But I also
don’t like to use what I see as propagandist words and terms in my writing.
It gets my back up.
While Friedman obviously didn’t
agree with Prof. Wisse about the word “conflict,” he thought of another
excellent example of the issue I raised. The word “refugee” means something
different when applied to Arab refugees. The standard is different.
But in terms of language use,
Friedman said we should ask ourselves, “Does this piece explain what’s going on
to the people of Poughkeepsie?”
That sounded to me like a
pretty good litmus test.
Friedman was thoughtful as he
wound up his response to my question. “Maybe someone should take a closer look
at this question of words and terms,” he said.
I didn’t tell him that someone
already had. That someone would be me. I wrote a piece called Israel is Engaged in a War of Words
in 2014, the very same year Friedman exposed the double journalism standards
applied to Israel.
It was my first piece for the Algemeiner and I had been pleased with
how it turned out. But I didn’t want to toot my own horn on Friedman’s turf, so
I kept quiet.
I still wrestle with the
awkwardness of not using words like “Palestinian” or “West Bank.” And of
course, I refuse to call it a “conflict.” It’s caused me a lot of trouble
during my blogging career. Some find my insistent use of these terms insulting
and iconoclastic, while the worst of my detractors think my refusal to use
accepted terms and words an actual symptom of mental illness.
It takes a thick skin to be in
the blogging world. Refusing to use terms one sees as sly propaganda for the
other side takes not a little courage because of the inevitable abuse it
brings. It is my dearest hope that other bloggers who take the side of Israel,
will join me in using only accurate language to describe Israel and its
challenges.
Matti Friedman is a reasonable
and honest journalist. I hope he will think over the issue I raised and maybe
even write about it someday. I’d like to think that we might even find a place
of agreement and comfort.
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.
By the time the second intifada began in 2001, Hamas and Fatah had built up a powerful terrorist infrastructure in the West Bank; only by reoccupying the territory did Israel succeed in putting an end to Palestinian attacks. Likewise, argues Evelyn Gordon, the only way to end Hamas’s rocket fire and other attacks would be to reoccupy the Gaza Strip—at a price that few Israelis today are willing to pay:
[Reoccupying] Gaza would have very high costs—in soldiers’ lives, in international opprobrium, and possibly in saddling Israel with responsibility for Gaza’s civilian problems. . . . No democracy could undertake such a costly plan without widespread public support, but especially not Israel, because any major military operation requires a massive call-up of reservists, and Israeli reservists tend to vote with their feet. They’ll show up in droves for an operation with broad support, but an operation widely considered unjustified will spark major protests. . . .
But with the option of reoccupying Gaza unavailable, the two main options left are both short-term fixes. One is a smaller-scale military operation. The last such operation, in 2014, bought Israel’s south three-and-a-half years of almost total quiet, but at a price (for Israel) of 72 dead and massive international opprobrium. Another such operation might buy a similar period of calm, but at a similar or even higher cost. And it would have to be repeated again in another few years, by which time Hamas may be better armed and capable of exacting an even higher price.
The second option, which [Prime Minister] Netanyahu evidently favors, is to negotiate a long-term ceasefire. This might buy a similar period of quiet, though since it hasn’t been tried before, there’s no guarantee. And it has several obvious advantages: no deaths, no international opprobrium, and most likely, greater support within Israel (though, judging by past experience, not abroad) for a more forceful response once the ceasefire collapses, as it will at some point.
But this option also has some obvious downsides. First, it’s devastating to Israeli deterrence, since it shows that firing rockets is a good way to get Israel to capitulate to your demands. Second, it ensures that when the inevitable next round arrives, Hamas will be able to inflict much more damage than it could today. . . . Either of these options would only postpone the inevitable: barring a miracle, Hamas will eventually become overconfident and cause Israel enough anguish to provoke it to reoccupy Gaza.
The 3,903 Palestinians killed in Syria in the past seven years are of no interest to the Western correspondents and their editors.
The Western media's obsession with Israel has created the impression that the only Palestinians living on this planet are those who are residing in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. This impression does injustice to the Palestinians who are facing horrendous conditions, torture, and death in the Arab countries, especially Syria.
Who cares about the suffering of these Palestinians? No one. Every week, scores of foreign journalists travel to the Israel-Gaza border to report on clashes between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian rioters. Have any of these journalists thought of travelling to Syria or Lebanon to report about the atrocities that are being committed against the Palestinians there? Of course not. Why should they do so when the story lacks an anti-Israel angle?
The number of Palestinians killed in Syria will soon reach 4,000. Perhaps then, with that gruesome milestone reached, will Western correspondents in the Middle East wake up to the enormity of the crimes that are really being perpetrated against Palestinians?
This blog may be a labor of love for me, but it takes a lot of effort, time and money. For over 19 years and 40,000 articles I have been providing accurate, original news that would have remained unnoticed. I've written hundreds of scoops and sometimes my reporting ends up making a real difference. I appreciate any donations you can give to keep this blog going.
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Thursday, November 29, 2018
Elder of Ziyon
