Monday, February 24, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
This is the Al Jayyar Chocolate Shop in Gaza City.
I know, the first thing you think of when you see these photos is "this looks like the Warsaw Ghetto."
Monday, February 24, 2020
Monday, February 24, 2020
Elder of Ziyon
This is the Al Jayyar Chocolate Shop in Gaza City.
I know, the first thing you think of when you see these photos is "this looks like the Warsaw Ghetto."
- Monday, February 24, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
From France 24:
Here is Shakoosh performing the song on TV in January:
But Shakoosh's manager caved to the censorship.
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.
The union of Egyptian musicians has banned performances by singers of popular street music after the lyrics of a chart-topping song were deemed too racy for the conservative country.100 million views on YouTube and the Egyptian culture ministry thinks they will be able to ban it? There might not be any public performances but you can be sure that fans will continue to listen.
The ban announced Sunday targets singers of mahraganat (Arabic for festivals) which has its roots in impoverished Cairo suburbs and spread after Egypt's 2011 uprising that ousted a longtime autocratic president.
Earlier this month the song "Bint al-Giran" (The girl next door) reached over 100 million views on YouTube and was the second most played hit on SoundCloud, the do-it-yourself streaming platform.
On Valentine's Day, crooner Hassan Shakoosh performed his hit at a packed Cairo stadium to tens of thousands of fans.
But the song's lyrics -- "I drink alcohol and smoke hashish" -- sparked the ire of the union, which reflects the views of authorities and takes orders from the culture ministry in the conservative Muslim majority country.
The head of the musicians union Hany Shaker was quick to react and on Sunday banned mahraganat singers from performing at clubs, cafes, hotels and concerts.
"This kind of music which is loaded with sexual innuendo and offensive language is completely unacceptable. That's why we have pulled the plug on it once and for all," Shaker said.
A statement by the union said "legal proceedings" would be lodged against establishments that host the performers.
Here is Shakoosh performing the song on TV in January:
But Shakoosh's manager caved to the censorship.
The manager of Shakoosh apologised.Arab News adds:
"We are very sorry for our mistake and respect the union's decision," manager Camba told AFP on Monday.
He said the lyrics which offended public sensibilities were played at the stadium because of a technical glitch.
Egyptian Parliament spokesman, Salah Hasaballah, described the mahraganat singers as “more dangerous than the new coronavirus.”Yes, a country where women are routinely sexually harassed and attacked in public is saying that lyrics about hashish are too immoral.
Other MPs said the music should be banned “to protect public taste” while some politicians called for a less heavy-handed approach by urging singers to select their lyrics more carefully in accordance with morals and good taste.
MP Abdel-Hamid Kamal filed a report to Parliament Speaker Ali Abdel-Aal calling on the Egyptian Minister of Culture Inas Abdel-Dayem to hold a session to discuss what he described as “low-taste art” and how it affects society. In his report, Kamal said that the spread of mahraganat music could have a negative impact on future generations.
Member of the media and culture committee in Parliament, novelist Youssef El-Kaeed, backed Kamal saying the music “mutilated” public taste and spread undesired types of arts.
From Ian:
Netanyahu threatens war as sirens continue to wail in southern Israel
Normal Places Have Snow Days, Israel's South Has Rocket Days
Netanyahu threatens war as sirens continue to wail in southern Israel
Rockets fell near a playground in the college-town of Sderot as well in a yard of a residential home. There were no reports of physical injuries. In Netivot, rocket shrapnel fell near a house.Over 40 Gaza Rockets Fired At Israel; A Playground Suffered a Direct Hit
The PIJ claimed responsibility for the rocket fire on Monday afternoon, saying that the launches were in response to the killing of two PIJ terrorists in Damascus. "In the Al-Quds Brigades, we confirm that we are ready to confront any aggression and let the enemy know that if it continues, we will respond with full force and might," said the military wing of the terrorist group in a statement.
After a barrage of rockets was fired towards the city of Netivot in southern Israel, Hamas warned that the response to the Israeli strikes in Gaza came within a unified understanding between all the factions in Gaza that "Palestinian blood is a red line." The terrorist group warned that if the IDF expanded its strikes, Israel would face "resistance like it's never seen."
Since yesterday, over 60 rockets were fired from Gaza to southern Israel, prompting Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to warn that Israel may launch a broader campaign against Hamas in Gaza if it does not totally stop firing rockets.
“I am not hurrying into war. I know the price that our soldiers and the families of the fallen pay,” Netanyahu, whose brother Yoni was killed in action, said.
Still, the prime minister said that if there is no choice: “Woe to Hamas and Islamic Jihad when that day comes! It’s their choice.”
“We will do what it takes to bring back total security for the residents of the south,” he vowed.
"If you don't shoot them, we will shoot you. I'm talking about a war," Netanyahu said earlier on Army Radio. "I only go to war as a last option, but we have prepared something you can't even imagine."
His interview was interrupted by fresh sirens warning of incoming rockets.
Normal Places Have Snow Days, Israel's South Has Rocket Days
Facts > Fiction
— Israel Defense Forces (@IDF) February 24, 2020
Here are the facts: pic.twitter.com/SUW4cKjjyd
- Monday, February 24, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
At the start of his weekly cabinet meeting today, PA prime minister Mohammed Shtayyeh called on Palestinian workers not to work in settlements, and for building contractors not to take any jobs from Jewish settlers.
About 24,000 Palestinians have jobs working in the settlements, and most of those are in construction.
The salaries of construction workers are more than double what they would get working for Palestinians, 283 shekels a day compared to the average of 127 elsewhere in the West Bank.
The Palestinian economy is heavily dependent on salaries from Israelis.
It appears that Shtayyeh's call will not mean much.
- Monday, February 24, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
Last Friday, the Forward published what can only be considered be irresponsible piece that accuses Zionist schools of teaching students that loyalty to Israel is more important than being American.
It was written anonymously.
Imagine being a non-Jewish employee at one of these schools in New York City, maybe a security guard or a special-education teacher’s aide. You walk into the building and see Israeli flags hanging all over the place. Lessons are delivered in Hebrew — often at the obvious expense of student comprehension. Children sing HaTikvah in the morning with enforced gusto. Israeli soldiers regularly address the student body. Children wear kippot and hoodies emblazoned with the logo of the Israel Defense Forces.How irresponsible was The Forward in publishing such a piece?
Zionism is messaged in these schools as the most essential attribute of our students’ identity. It’s a huge problem.
I’ve heard teachers or administrators say at assemblies things like “you don’t belong in America,” “Israel is your country” and “the IDF are your soldiers.” When Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke to the United States Congress in opposition to the Iran nuclear deal, against the wishes of President Obama, the high school where I was working cancelled classes to watch “our Prime Minister.” That’s a real quote.
In the six schools at which I have taught, HaTikvah was sung more often than the Pledge of Allegiance or the Star Spangled Banner. Israeli national holidays are taught with a reverence or solemnity that outstrips what is accorded to religious or American ones. Veteran’s Day was never discussed, but Yom HaZikaron, Israel’s Memorial Day, had special projects and assemblies. Many of these schools receive grants from the Avi Chai Foundation, which requires recipients to declare that they “seek to instill in our students an attachment to the State of Israel and its people.”
It is obvious that Jew-haters will use this as evidence of the antisemitic charge of US Jews having dual loyalty (really more loyalty to Israel than to the US.)
But, the Forward editors argue, this is the real experience of an employee at these schools and their opinion shouldn't be silenced.
They have a point. But just because something is in an op-ed doesn't mean it shouldn't be fact checked, and the impression that one gets from reading this is that loyalty to America is simply not taught and love of Israel is pushed at the expense of everything else.
A quick look at major modern Orthodox schools in New York shows that Ramaz hosted US veterans on Veteran's Day. The Heschel School has discussions with Muslim Americans on 9/11, re-creations of Ellis Island and commemorations and with African Americans on Martin Luther King day. Beit Rabban Day School has programs on the power of words where they say "We hope they will internalize this as Jews, as Americans, and as human beings."
Did The Forward do any fact checking? While part of the article was opinion, when making such an incendiary charge it is incumbent to get some verification from specific schools whether they refer to Netanyahu as "our prime minister."
Beyond that, the anonymous author says that he or she worked at six schools in twelve years. That is a pretty poor record of keeping jobs as a teacher. Isn't it likely that a person let go from so many modern Orthodox schools might have their own issues and want some sort of revenge? Shouldn't a newspaper have higher standards in accepting an anonymously published piece than one with attribution?
This is a point that is important to me personally. As an anonymous writer myself, I strive to be as transparent as possible so anyone can fact check anything I write. If I would write about schools doing something bad, I would never generalize them and not mention their names. That is the difference between advocacy and smearing.
There is another point that cannot be understated. Love of Israel is in no way contradictory to love of America. American Jews are very appreciative to live in a country that is not only welcoming of Jews but also a staunch ally of Israel. Being able to openly march in a Yom Haatzmaut parade is something that very few diaspora Jews outside North America can even dream of. The pride of being American is part and parcel of the pride of being a Jew and a Zionist in America. Students hear the Star Spangled Banner at every sporting event, singing Hatikva in school doesn't take away the pride of being an American.
If students at Zionist schools are being taught to disparage America then that is a story that must be exposed - by specifying the schools. If these students are being taught to love Israel, where so many of their siblings and cousins live, that is not a bad thing. By portraying love of Israel as somehow a lesson to lessen one's loyalty to America, the Forward is not illuminating anything. It is doing nothing more than to give antisemites a very potent weapon.
- Monday, February 24, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
This video is causing angst on Arab websites.
Egyptian news site Youm7 wrote, "Members of the Korean delegation performed Talmudic prayers on the campus with Jewish rabbis, and the Koreans echoed the words of the rabbi: "No to Corona ... Amen." It then juxtaposed that story with the "Al-Azhar Observatory to Combat Extremism"issuing its annual report on the numbers of "intruders" in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, saying 711,428 "Zionists" visited.
Sunday, February 23, 2020
- Sunday, February 23, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
Mondoweiss, being Mondoweiss, tries to find a way to tie everything to hating Israel:
The article is idiotic, of course, both trying to justify why the Jewish state shouldn't exist and then saying that this position isn't a call to ethnic cleansing because it is unlikely to happen.
Rather than demolish the article, which isn't worth taking seriously, it prompts one to wonder if there is anything Israel has in common with billionaires, since both are so hated by the Left.
Indeed there is. Both Israel and (self-made) billionaires exist as a result of years of hard work. They didn't just pop up out of nowhere - they exist because of strategy, a plan, and execution of that plan. And they continue to exist because they work hard to stay ahead of competitors and detractors. They anticipate risks and work to counter them before they become existential threats.
People who hate billionaires and Israel say that this isn't "fair." But it isn't only fair - it is the fairest thing imaginable, where results come directly from effort and brains. Work hard, get ahead. Be lazy, fall behind.
This is an oversimplification, of course. There are plenty of people who work hard and cannot escape their poverty. There is nothing wrong with wanting to help people who make an effort and cannot succeed. But both the Bernie supporters and the anti-Israel activists aren't trying to help the victims as much as they want to punish the successful.
In short, while they like to pretend that they are trying to help the poor/Palestinians, they are really jealous of the success of billionaires/Israel.
Redistributing wealth and forcing Israel to give lands to Palestinians for free are the same demand. "You are too successful, so you must be penalized."
Are there other ways to help the lower class and Palestinians? Sure, but they aren't as easy. Nothing is easier than telling other people what they must do to fix problems.
Should some able-bodied poor people and wealthy Palestinian leaders take responsibility for their actions that might have contributed to their situation? No, of course not. Only adults must take responsibility for their actions.
Again, I am not saying that some people who are down on their luck shouldn't receive governmental help. But these leftists are going way beyond that in blaming successful people for the plight of the unsuccessful, which is completely untrue. Life isn't a zero-sum game: there isn't a finite amount of money to be distributed and there isn't a finite amount of "fairness" in the Middle East. It is possible to find win/win solutions. But the Left doesn't want to consider them. They want villains that they can blame for the world not working the way they want it to.
So, yes, there are some things that billionaires and Israel has in common.
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.
The article is idiotic, of course, both trying to justify why the Jewish state shouldn't exist and then saying that this position isn't a call to ethnic cleansing because it is unlikely to happen.
Rather than demolish the article, which isn't worth taking seriously, it prompts one to wonder if there is anything Israel has in common with billionaires, since both are so hated by the Left.
Indeed there is. Both Israel and (self-made) billionaires exist as a result of years of hard work. They didn't just pop up out of nowhere - they exist because of strategy, a plan, and execution of that plan. And they continue to exist because they work hard to stay ahead of competitors and detractors. They anticipate risks and work to counter them before they become existential threats.
People who hate billionaires and Israel say that this isn't "fair." But it isn't only fair - it is the fairest thing imaginable, where results come directly from effort and brains. Work hard, get ahead. Be lazy, fall behind.
This is an oversimplification, of course. There are plenty of people who work hard and cannot escape their poverty. There is nothing wrong with wanting to help people who make an effort and cannot succeed. But both the Bernie supporters and the anti-Israel activists aren't trying to help the victims as much as they want to punish the successful.
In short, while they like to pretend that they are trying to help the poor/Palestinians, they are really jealous of the success of billionaires/Israel.
Redistributing wealth and forcing Israel to give lands to Palestinians for free are the same demand. "You are too successful, so you must be penalized."
Are there other ways to help the lower class and Palestinians? Sure, but they aren't as easy. Nothing is easier than telling other people what they must do to fix problems.
Should some able-bodied poor people and wealthy Palestinian leaders take responsibility for their actions that might have contributed to their situation? No, of course not. Only adults must take responsibility for their actions.
Again, I am not saying that some people who are down on their luck shouldn't receive governmental help. But these leftists are going way beyond that in blaming successful people for the plight of the unsuccessful, which is completely untrue. Life isn't a zero-sum game: there isn't a finite amount of money to be distributed and there isn't a finite amount of "fairness" in the Middle East. It is possible to find win/win solutions. But the Left doesn't want to consider them. They want villains that they can blame for the world not working the way they want it to.
So, yes, there are some things that billionaires and Israel has in common.
From Ian:
Seth Frantzman: A secret Mossad Qatar trip, Hamas outreach to Egypt and Iran’s threat
UK left activists attended events with far right antisemites
Seth Frantzman: A secret Mossad Qatar trip, Hamas outreach to Egypt and Iran’s threat
In Saudi Arabia, Al-Arabiya is very interested in what a previously unknown “Mossad trip to Qatar” means for the region. “Egypt and Qatar are angry with Hamas, and they intended to cut ties with it,” the network reported, while noting that the recent Israeli discussions with Doha about continuing to fund Gaza are noteworthy. Hamas also thinks they are noteworthy, bragging over the weekend that it met with Qatar’s envoy Mohammed al-Emadi and $15 million was distributed in Gaza.Netanyahu promises sovereignty over Hebron's Tomb of the Patriarchs
In Israel, the Mossad-Qatar-Hamas story was revealed by Yisrael Beytenu leader Avigdor Liberman over the weekend and was reported locally. The story goes that Mossad chief Yossi Cohen and IDF Southern Command Maj.-Gen. Herzi Halevi met with top Qatari officials. Halevi was in the news before, in January, when he commented on the killing of IRGC general Qasem Soleimani. “We must look at the assassination as part of a fight between Iran and the US over Iraq’s character.” Halevi is known for his achievements in a three-year term running Military Intelligence. He has spoken about using deterrence in a way that does not escalate a situation and of the importance of information supremacy over Israel’s enemies, according to an article at the Begin-Sadat Center for Strategic Studies in 2018. This is a key to Israel’s “campaign between the wars” in which Israel must prepare for future struggle with Iran and its allies.
Israel now has a dedicated headquarters for the “third circle” threat of Iran in light of the IDF’s new Momentum plan. It is worth understanding this larger picture to understand some of what Hamas is up to in Gaza. Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad both are supported by Iran. PIJ is an Iranian proxy whereas Hamas is more an ally. But Hamas has been isolated over the years and also failed to achieve results in confrontation with Israel. Over 2,600 rockets fired over the last two years achieved little, and its “Great March of Return,” launched in 2018, also failed. In March 2018, two years ago, Palestinian prime minister Rami Hamdallah survived an assassination attempt in Gaza. Today, Hamas is bragging about opposing the US “Deal of the Century.”
It is important to consider the calculus to see the larger picture of Qatar’s role in Gaza. Qatar has supported Gaza for more than a decade. The Emir of Qatar even visited Gaza in 2012. In January 2019, the third $15 million payment via Israel and Hamas to Gaza was made by Qatar as part of a deal in 2018. Mohammed al-Emadi has been Doha’s point man throughout. He has visited Israel more than two dozen times, according to a Reuters interview in 2018. He also cited talks between Israel and Hamas in that year. Qatar has said its aid to Gaza helps prevent a conflict. Emadi has ruffled feathers in Gaza sometimes due to his outspokenness.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised to apply Israeli sovereignty to the Tomb of the Patriarchs and to the Jewish community of Hebron.
He spoke during a visit to the nearby West Bank Kiryat Arba settlement, where he also stated that he was authorizing the elevator project for the tomb, that would allow those with disabilities to visit the cave.
All West Bank settlements are slated to become part of sovereign Israel under US President Donald Trump’s peace plan, but according to the map, the status of Jewish Hebron is unclear.
Prior to Netanyahu's speech at a celebratory event to mark the inauguration of a new neighborhood in Kiryat Arba on Sunday, Defense Minister Naftali Bennett, who heads the Yamina Party, addressed the crowd. Bennett spoke of the need to clarify with the Trump administration that the Tomb and Hebron's Jewish community would be part of sovereign Israel under the "Deal of the Century."
Bennett said that a Jewish state without the Tomb of the Patriarchs is like Washington without the Lincoln Memorial. He also spoke against the portion of the Trump plan that calls for the creation of a Palestinian state.
The defense minister noted that "the plan speaks 159 times of a Palestinian state and references Israeli sovereignty" only 13 times.
צפייה חובה! ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו בראיון מיוחד למארק לוין ב-Fox News. pic.twitter.com/9OKvs0iYnz
— Benjamin Netanyahu (@netanyahu) February 22, 2020
UK left activists attended events with far right antisemites
Former Labour party members have regularly met elements of the far right to discuss and propagate antisemitic conspiracy theories, an undercover investigation has found.
Infiltration of the conspiracy theorist group Keep Talking found that Jeremy Corbyn supporters and confidantes of former Labour MPs have attended meetings addressed by Holocaust deniers.
During one gathering in London last year, suspended Labour supporters heard James Thring, an infamous antisemite linked to the former Ku Klux Klan grand wizard David Duke, speak openly and unchallenged about Holocaust denial.
A covert recording of Thring at the meeting captured him claiming that no deaths were recorded at the Auschwitz Nazi death camp, where 1.1 million people, mostly Jews, were systematically murdered.
“The archives from the listening posts show no evidence that they heard anything about deaths in Auschwitz; we didn’t know that this was going on … because it wasn’t,” Thring can be heard saying.
Nick Lowles, chief executive of Hope Not Hate, which along with the Jewish charity Community Security Trust monitored Keep Talking over three years, said: “Our investigation shows what the politics of some of the far left and the far right have in common – antisemitism. It’s important that these groups are not just seen as eccentric or harmless; they give conspiracies a space to survive and grow and they encourage people to keep disseminating falsehoods.” (h/t Zvi)
- Sunday, February 23, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
There was a small kerfuffle this weekend as stories came out that the official Palestinian fifth grade textbook for teaching Arabic language mentioned how great Dalal Mughrabi was - but used the wrong photo of her.
The text says
Mughrabi is the terrorist responsible for the Coastal Road Massacre killing some 38, including 13 children.
Some people are saying this is a photo of another female Palestinian terrorist, Teresa Halaseh.
Either way - Palestinian textbooks glorify terrorists. Period.
The Daily Mail yesterday also reported on terrorist incitement in Palestinian textbooks used by UNRWA schools funded by the Great Britain (and others).
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.
The text says
Our Palestinian history is replete with many martyrs who sacrificed their souls for the homeland. One of them is the martyr Dalal Mughrabi, who produced an image of defiance and heroism through her struggle. This made her memory eternal in our hearts and minds. The text before us tells a part of her history of struggle.
Mughrabi is the terrorist responsible for the Coastal Road Massacre killing some 38, including 13 children.
Some people are saying this is a photo of another female Palestinian terrorist, Teresa Halaseh.
Either way - Palestinian textbooks glorify terrorists. Period.
The Daily Mail yesterday also reported on terrorist incitement in Palestinian textbooks used by UNRWA schools funded by the Great Britain (and others).
(h/t Ibn Boutros)
The Daily Mail has discovered that tens of millions of pounds of UK foreign aid is helping fund schools in Gaza and the West Bank that use such material in lessons.
The money goes via a UN agency that some other nations have chosen to stop financing because of concerns.
The textbooks include a reading exercise for six-year-olds with the words 'martyr' and 'attack', plus poems for eight-year-olds which include phrases such as 'sacrifice my blood' to 'eliminate the usurper from my country' and 'annihilate the remnants of the foreigners'.
Nine-year-olds learn maths by adding the number of martyrs in Palestinian uprisings in textbooks illustrated with pictures of their funerals.
And ten-year-olds learn the most important thing is giving their life for 'sacrifice, fight, jihad, and struggle'.
Newton's Second Law is taught to 11-year-olds through the image of a boy with a slingshot targeting Israeli soldiers.
- Sunday, February 23, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
Channa Newman, a 77-year old professor at Point Park University who has taught there since 1964, has sued the institution claiming employment discrimination based on her Jewish and Israeli ancestry, saying that anti-Zionist faculty and students have collaborated to create a hostile work environment against her.
In 2018, Newman - who was born in Europe during the Holocaust, and who has lived in and is openly supportive of Israel - was accused of Title IX violations, meaning that she was accused of sexual harassment. During one class in November Newman said, in her opinion, that the "MeToo" movement provided false hope for women who had been sexually abused. Five days later a student filed a Title IX complaint and a week after that Newman was removed from her three classes before the school even asked her what happened. Her students knew about her suspension before she did.
Newman also was suspended from her position as chair of the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences.
It was later discovered that the student who filed the complaint was a BDS supporter and had consulted with an openly anti-Israel professor, Professor Robert Ross, before deciding to file. In other words, the Israel haters chose to attack Newman with the flimsiest of pretexts but one that the college would have to take seriously, as Title IX violations are among the most serious accusations possible against a university and it would jeopardize government funding. They are among the few ways to remove a tenured professor.
The investigation was closed in January 2019, Newman was exonerated and reinstated to her positions. But even then, she was told that other unnamed students were preparing another Title IX complaint against her.
Ironically, Newman teaches a course titled "Wealthy White Males," an examination of how rich white men dominate society. That course ended up being the nucleus of Park Point's Global Cultural Studies program. Newman ways that the course is meant to teach students to think outside the box. To accuse her of sexual harassment is absurd in the extreme - but BDSers will use any weapon to silence pro-Israel voices.
Professor Ross claims that he is being victimized in the lawsuit because of his support of Palestinians and of his (coincidental) support for students who wanted to attach Newman:
“This lawsuit attempts to use my work in the movement for Palestinian human rights as a basis to attack my support for students who felt victimized by a professor last academic year,” Ross said via email statement.Newman wrote a letter to the student newspaper responding to Ross and describing what happened and why she is suing:
Make no mistake, I, a Jew and an Israeli, am the only victim here. I am the only one who was purged from the campus, subjected to serious charges, banned from the classroom, severed from email and subjected to a frightening investigation.Newman is being attacked by BDSers because she has been outspoken and articulate about how these new "social justice warriors" are enabling antisemitism as well as racism and sexism. In 2018 she wrote:
For over a decade, the BDS movement has bullied and silenced Jews, Israelis and Zionists at American colleges and universities. But in 2018, Point Park became the first school in the United States where BDS partisans charged a professor with a Title IX sexual harassment violation.
A Title IX sexual charge is the nuclear weapon against a faculty member. Even a tenured full professor can lose his or her job through Title IX. Equally bad, a mere charge can lead to ostracism, shunning, isolation and wild lies on the web as has happened to me. In 2019, a Dartmouth fulltime professor was named peripherally in a Title IX suit. He was not thrown off campus and out of his classes as I was; but, he became a pariah and outcast on his campus, and he killed himself. It is very hard to come to work every day with this undeserved stigma and scrutiny.
The administration’s initial support of the flimsy and legally baseless claim and the brutal way they treated me is a central reason for my lawsuit. Another is the administration’s extreme tolerance for the insidious anti-inclusive, anti-Zionist, and anti-Semitic ideology of BDS. With administrative support, this hate-driven ideology – directed exclusively at the Jewish state of Israel and at supporters of Israel such as myself – has ill-served our Point Park community and the Pittsburgh community at large.
[S]ocial justice programs manage to camouflage the prejudice and hate against Jews through the tactic of splitting Jews into the binary categories of good Jews and bad Jews, with some Jews embodying the evil pole and others placed at the opposite end of the scale. Allowing some Jews to be “good” makes the social justice practitioners look like they are treating Jews fairly. But the only Jews allowed to be good Jews are those who are willing to recognize that there are bad Jews. The reality is that rather than supporting fairness, this formula works not only to solidify pre-existing anti-Semitic biases, but to enable the expression of full-blown anti-Semitism.Such facts must be silenced by the "social justice"/BDS crowd. And falsely accusing a professor of sexual harassment because she isn't 100% in lockstep with them on the "#MeToo" movement is simply another weapon to silence pro-Israel voices.
...[T]his binary vision — simplistic, deceptive and dependent on subjective moralizing judgments and on emotion — obscures what must be recognized as racist. Labeling groups, or dividing them into opposing camps of good and evil amounts to essentializing them. Whether one side is in focus or the other, the group itself remains, even if implicitly, foregrounded and stereotyped: the Jews. In my opinion, no Jew should be flattered by it. Such simplistic but effective manifestations of total anti-Semitism do not promote analyses, debates and progress.
- Sunday, February 23, 2020
- Elder of Ziyon
A tweet by the Ayatollah Khamenei:
We are not against the people of the US. What we are against is the rule of oppression, rebellion, and arrogance.— Khamenei.ir (@khamenei_ir) February 19, 2020
Today, the epitome of rebellion, arrogance and tyranny is the US government, which is controlled by the wealthy Zionist individuals and corporate owners.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
From Ian:
Lurid Antisemitic Propaganda Channel ‘TruNews’ Gets Booted by YouTube
Kuwait Airways under scrutiny after refusal to fly Israeli from London Heathrow
Lurid Antisemitic Propaganda Channel ‘TruNews’ Gets Booted by YouTube
A far-right, viciously antisemitic website that made headlines last November when it was revealed to have received media accreditation from the White House has been kicked off the YouTube platform.UK to review funds for Palestinian schools using textbooks encouraging violence
TruNews, founded by Pastor Rick Wiles, was permanently banned from YouTube on Thursday, after repeatedly violating the website’s rules regarding hate speech.
US Jewish leaders welcomed the ban on the outlet, which actively promotes a diet of Holocaust denial and antisemitic conspiracy theories.
Jonathan Greenblatt — CEO of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) — said on Twitter that he hoped other social media platforms would follow YouTube’s example by removing TruNews-related accounts.
Wiles infamously let rip against what he called a “Jew coup” on his talk show last November, as impeachment proceedings against US President Donald Trump were launched in Congress.
Wiles raved: “That’s the way the Jews work, they are deceivers, they plot, they lie, they do whatever they have to do to accomplish their political agenda.”
He continued: “People are going to be forced, possibly by this Christmas, to take a stand because of this Jew coup in the United States. There will be a purge. That’s the next thing that happens when Jews take over a country, they kill millions of Christians.”
The White House has consistently denied that it had provided TruNews with press credentials.
British officials have pledged to urgently review the tens of millions of dollars in aid the UK provides to the UN agency for Palestinian refugees, after an investigative report found that a majority of the funds have been going to schools in the West Bank and Gaza Strip which use textbooks that incite violence against Israelis.
According to a Friday report in the UK-based Daily Mail, the Department for International Development and its secretary, Anne-Marie Trevelyan, vowed to raise the issue with the Palestinian Authority, adding that London was working to carry out an independent review of the Palestinian textbooks.
“The UK Government has a zero tolerance approach toward incitement to violence,” a spokesman for the department told the Daily Mail.
The Daily Mail report included several examples of alleged incitement uncovered in textbooks used at schools funded by the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA). In one math textbook for nine-year-olds, students are asked to add up the number of martyrs from Palestinian uprisings, accompanied with images of their funerals. In another, 11-year-olds are taught Newton’s Second Law of Physics with a depiction of a boy pointing a slingshot at Israeli soldiers.
Other photos showed Palestinians using slingshots against Israeli forces and quizzed students on their potential use and effectiveness, as well as precautions to employ while using them.
Textbooks were found to praise Palestinian “martyrs,” including Dalal al-Mughrabi, who led the 1978 Coastal Road Massacre during which Palestinian terrorists hijacked a bus and murdered 38 Israelis.
The materials revealed by the Daily Mail appeared to have been provided to the paper by the Henry Jackson Society, a London-based right-wing think tank that was quoted in the article and which has released a report of its own calling for funding to UNRWA to be reconsidered.
The UK has given some $427 million in aid to UNRWA over the past five years with another $84 million pledged for the coming year. Roughly 62 percent of that funding goes to schools in the Palestinian territories, which could be using such textbooks.
Kuwait Airways under scrutiny after refusal to fly Israeli from London Heathrow
The Lawfare Project has filed a new complaint again Kuwait Airways for continued discrimination after Orna Schneider, an Israeli woman, was barred from traveling from London Heathrow to Bangkok after she presented her Israeli passport to airline staff.
Kuwait is one of many countries that either do not recognize Israeli passports, passports with Israeli visas or do not allow Israelis to visit there. The countries include Iran, Iraq, Syria and Lebanon, among others.
Though Kuwait Airways, which is the national airline carrier of the Gulf state, is outside of the their country's jurisdiction at London Heathrow traveling to Bangkok, the airline extended their authority and carried out the government's wishes by turning Schneider away from her flight.
"At this point, it is clear that Kuwait Airways’ hate for Israelis supersedes their desire to stay in business. If they simply end their illegal boycott of Israeli passengers, they’d be free to fly their planes wherever they want. [This will continue] as long as Kuwait enforces this discriminatory policy, in clear violation of national and international anti-discrimination laws," said Executive Director of the Lawfare Project Brooke Goldstein.
The Lawfare Project has been working since 2017 to hold Kuwait Airways accountable for breaching United States and international anti-discrimination laws. Due to this action, Kuwait Airways no longer runs inter-European flights or routes to JFK, according to the Lawfare Project.
“This is about an institutional policy of discrimination against a protected group under the provisions of the Equality Act 2010. If a carrier refused to carry any other minority group in the UK they would be closed down without hesitation. It is wholly unacceptable that the prejudices and discriminatory practices from a foreign country should be imported into the UK," said Robert Festenstein, Principal at RHF Solicitors and legal counsel on the case.
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