From Ian:
Joel Pollak: Never Mind the Bomb--Israel Is Looking Fantastic
True, the headlines are dominated by one crisis after another, internal and external. The riots by Ethiopians angry at police brutality. The mounting threat of a nuclear Iran. The Palestinians’ refusal to discuss peace. The near-collapse of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s new coalition.
And yet from a broader perspective, the country is thriving as never before, and maintaining a relentless day-to-day optimism in the face of its many challenges.
This past week, I returned from a whirlwind five-day trip to Israel, where I covered a conference on law and terrorism organized by Shurat HaDin, a legal advocacy group that sues terrorists on behalf of victims and their families. It was, somewhat inexcusably, my first trip back to Israel in nearly eight years. And the changes were remarkable—the result of a rapidly growing economy, an increasing birthrate, and vastly improved national security, which enables everything else.
The changes were most noticeable in Jerusalem. Eight years ago, security guards and fences were still ubiquitous around every restaurant and café. If you wanted to go out to eat, you had to be prepared to subject yourself and your belongings to a thorough search, because terrorists had made a habit of blowing themselves up in places of public accommodation.
Now the only place that still has the same level of security is the bus station—and even that is more relaxed.
The reason public life has become safer and more convenient is that the much-reviled security barrier—the so-called “wall,” which is actually a fence for most of its length—actually worked.
Let’s Call it Red-Washing
Israel has sent one of the largest aid teams to Nepal after the recent devastating Earthquake. Over 250 doctors and experts in search and rescue were dispatched to the region. Israel’s ability to respond with such a massive and effective force is not only due to decades of experience on the battlefield, but it also expresses a centuries-old tradition of Jewish devotion to the medical arts.
The great Jewish Physicians of the medieval period are more widely known for their written works in poetry and philosophy. Their ranks included Yehuda Halevi and Moses Maimonides.
And the tradition continues today where Israel is a leader in medical innovation the world over and is currently providing emergency care not just in Nepal but also on the Syrian front, where its field hospitals are overwhelmed by the non-stop stream of victims from Syria’s civil war.
And yet despite these life-saving efforts, I suspect the critics of Israel will find a way to malign the Jewish state. Positive stories about Israel’s acceptance of gays are labeled “pink-washing”, Israeli green technology, including organic farming, solar energy and water conservation – all desperately needed in the world today – are dismissed as “green-washing”. So, here’s to a new term: “red-washing”, because no matter how you paint it, Israel won’t stop providing medical aid wherever it is needed.
Giving voice to Muslims who support Am Yisrael
As busloads of frum Jews flocked to the funeral of Zidan Seif, the Druze policeman who sacrificed his life to protect Jews in the Har Nof massacre in November 2014, our community proudly and openly showed its support for righteous gentiles. Just as we reach out to those who make the ultimate sacrifice, we have an obligation to educate ourselves about those who promote peace – especially those Muslim leaders who are striving for a peaceful Islam. These leaders are on the front lines of an intellectual battle; they are defending the Jewish claim to the land of Israel, and defending the Jewish people as authentic “people of the book” – deserving of respect and protection. They are doing so at personal sacrifice and even risk from their less appeasing brethren. And they deserve our attention.
This article is a first in a series. I will be introducing you to Muslim leaders who support the Jewish people. We need to know this information because, as Jews, we are enjoined to respect the righteous among the nations, and surely to lend support to those who wish to support us. Many prominent Rabbanim have been active in dialogue with Muslims:
As the Nakba Comes to Washington, a Wasted Opportunity
It’s still early in the life of the Nakba Museum, but at this point, the entire project looks to me like a wasted opportunity. Arguing that Israel bears a degree of responsibility towards Palestinian refugees is one thing; trotting out the same tired Arab League propaganda points is something else entirely. And however many Jews with doubts about Israel might be attracted by the museum, the vast majority will shun its message and everything it stands for.
The Nakba Museum could still be an exciting venue, both online and offline. It is ideal for an exhibition about the ongoing suffering of Palestinians in Yarmouk and elsewhere in Syria, the vast majority of whom are experiencing actual displacement for the first time in their lives. It might even host a seminar about the wholesale movement of populations in the wake of World War II, from the Sudetenland to India and Pakistan, and thence to British Palestine.
I’d even dare to suggest that they include in that list the 800,000 Jews from the Arab world who lost their homes and livelihoods following Israel’s creation—another hidden “nakba” that the Arab states, having first violently agitated against their Jewish populations, now depict as a Zionist plot to rip the Jews away from their loving Muslim neighbors.
Some histories, it seems, are more memorable than others.
Britain’s Archbishop of Canterbury Calls on Christians to Fight ‘Horrendous’ Violence Against Jews
The head of the Church of England called on the Christian community to acknowledge and fight the “horrendous” violence perpetrated against the Jewish community, the UK’s Jewish News reported Wednesday.
“Within the Christian community we need to stand against our own tendency, when exhibited over many centuries, to violence; violence against each other and above all violence against Jewish communities in horrendous and horrible ways going back well over a millennia,” said Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby.
Speaking at the Board of Deputies of British Jews’ annual dinner in London, Welby called for the development of an “ideology” to counter the beliefs of those he called “radicals,” though the archbishop failed to elaborate on who those radicals are.
“If we don’t do that we leave all the good arguments in the hands of the radicals,” he said.
The archbishop also apologized for the actions of Church of England vicar Stephen Sizer, who in 2014 attended an antisemitic conference in Iran, where conspiracy theories such as Israel’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks as well as the dominance of the “Zionist lobby” over the U.S. and the EU were presented.
US airstrike kills al-Qaeda leader who claimed Charlie Hebdo attack
A US airstrike in Yemen last month killed the senior al-Qaeda official who appeared in a video claiming the deadly January attack on French magazine Charlie Hebdo, a monitor said Thursday.
Nasser bin Ali al-Ansi, who was killed in the April strike along with his eldest son and other fighters in the port city of Mukalla, also appeared in al-Qaeda videos claiming the holding and death of US hostage Luke Somers, SITE Intelligence Group said.
The announcement of his death came in a video posted Thursday on Twitter by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula — which Washington considers the international terror network’s deadliest branch.
The air raid appears to have been carried out overnight on April 21-22, when witnesses in Mukalla said an apparent US drone strike on a vehicle parked near the presidential palace in the city killed six suspected al-Qaeda militants.
SITE described Ansi as “a senior AQAP official and military strategist.”
Danish buses torched, tagged with anti-Israel graffiti
Danish police said Friday that four city buses were destroyed in a pre-dawn fire and a fifth was vandalized with anti-Israel graffiti at a bus depot in Copenhagen.
Investigator Jens Moeller Jensen said police suspect arson and are investigating possible links to a decision last week by city transit officials to remove bus ads by a pro-Palestinian group calling for a boycott of Israeli goods.
“In paint was written ‘Boycott Israel – Free Gaza’ on at least one of the buses,” police spokesman Las Vestervig told local newspaper BT.
He said “there could be a political motive. We consider this one theory … but we cannot link it to anything for now.”
Don’t Let BDS and Palestinians Turn Soccer Into a Political Football
On 6 December, 2001, at an International Commission of Jurists session on the boycott of Israel held at the United Nations in Geneva, Jibril Rajoub physically threatened me. With his fist at my chin, and despite my visible UN pass, he hissed “Dirty Zionist, out!”
When I asked his name, he responded, “call me Mr. Palestinian terrorist.” As the only Jewish representatives, I and my colleague remained in the room. We detected, perhaps as a result, a shift to a more moderate tone among the speakers.
Like a bad penny, Rajoub is back as the President of the Palestinian Football Association (PFA), now with his fist at the chin of Joseph (Sepp Blatter), President of FIFA, demanding “Israel, out!”
BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) as a political football is the direct antithesis of the beautiful game.
The New Israel Fund is Beyond Defense
Israel has enough enemies; Hamas is rebuilding its tunnels, Hezbollah is believed to have a network of underground passageways even greater than Hamas, and the fear of Iran achieving nuclear capabilities puts the threat level at an all time high. Antisemitic activities are on the rise in Europe and French Jews are looking to leave their country for the relative safety of Israel in record numbers.
Yet the New Israel Fund and its grantee Breaking the Silence would have the world believe what the radical Islamists have been selling – that Israel is evil and Jews are the root cause of death and mayhem. It simply is not true, but truth is not as powerful as perception.
If there was any doubt about the intentions of the New Israel Fund before, this latest attempt to discredit the IDF and position a nation trying to protect its people as the aggressors should make it very clear.
Im Tirtzu Website: All The Truth about the New Israel Fund
Grassroots Zionist student organization Im Tirtzu has launched a new website called NIF Watch.. The website claims to hold all of the reports, position papers and updates on the activities of the New Israel Fund (NIF) and the organizations it supports, which have been published over the years.
According to Im Tirtzu, it also “documents the delegitimization of Israel caused by the NIF and its partners nationally and internationally.”
Among other things, the movement states, “the site shows quotations from the directors of the NIF and the heads of the organizations it supports calling for IDF soldiers to be put on trial for war crimes, calling for boycotts and sanctions against Israel, taking legal actions in court against the State of Israel, and encouraging international pressure.:
In addition, the site highlights recently published Im Tirtzu reports, including the one tracing funds from the Ramallah-based Palestinian organization that funded the reports by Breaking the Silence and B’Tselem accusing the IDF of crimes during Operation Protective Edge. (h/t Yenta Press)
Chilling College Reports Highlight Rising Antisemitism on University of California Campuses
As the school year nears its end, two articles concerning antisemitism on University of California campuses highlighted concerns of a growing trend.
The first article, published by The College Fix on Wednesday, documents instances of antisemitism at UC Santa Barbara, such as a protest wall that condemned so-called Israeli “apartheid,” which was constructed ahead of a student vote on measures to divest from Israel.
The report from UCSB also provided chilling testimony from one student, junior Margaux Gundzik, who was present at the run-up to the vote: “In those eight hours, I was told that Jews control the government, that all Jews are rich, that Zionism is racism, that the marginalization of Jewish students is justified because it prevents the marginalization of other minority groups, that Israel sterilizes its Ethiopian women (this is obviously not true), and that Palestinians in America who speak out against Israel are sought out by the IDF and denied entrance into Israel (also a ridiculous conspiracy theory).”
The Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law co-authored a report on antisemitism across U.S. campuses in 2014, and its president, Attorney Kenneth L. Marcus, told The Algemeiner that until the BDS measure, his organization had been “hearing very little from UC Santa Barbara.”
“Unfortunately, the [boycott, divestment and sanctions] resolution … changed all of that,” he said.
The UCSB report called the antisemitism on display on campus a “microcosm of sorts, of the larger issue at hand.”
Group Says Uni Vice-Chancellor Who Criticized ‘Hitler Loving’ Student Leader is ‘Puppet’ of Jewish Funders
The vice-chancellor of a major South African university has become a “puppet” to Jewish funders and “alumni interests” after his sacking of a student government president, a prominent South African alumni group declared on Thursday.
“In capitulating to the interests of Jewish funders and alumni at the institution, Prof. [Adam] Habib has in our opinion rendered himself a puppet who has to sacrifice the academic future of student Mr. Mcebo Dlamini on the altar of political correctness,” said a statement from Higher Education Transformation Network.
The group called the decision by the university, and “particularly the Vice-Chancellor,” to expel Dlamini from the student government “erroneous and disproportionately harsh.” It accused Habib of “succumbing to the demands of the Jewish funders and alumni interests at the university.”
While ignoring an incendiary comment by Dlamini on his personal Facebook page a few weeks ago, which declared “I love Adolf Hitler,” the group said “It would be unfortunate if Wits university management now has adopted ‘Gestapo-type’ management tactics of summarily expelling students and staff merely because they hold dissenting views… in this age in our constitutional democracy.”
The Guardian promotes anti-Israeli cyber-bullying of Lauryn Hill– and hides recent failures of the BDS groups
Listing her accomplishments, the Guardian article salaciously pointed out that after recording one well-known song, Hill “decided to drop out of the public eye … [and] served a brief prison term over tax evasion”. Cyber bullying of this performer (and tax evader) achieved its goal of intimidating her. Israelis will not get the opportunity to see her perform in Israel.
The following paragraph from the Guardian report of her cancelled trip is a shocking indictment of the ability of cyber-bullies to intimidate a person; not the happy ending the Guardian apparently thinks it is:
“Activists pressured Hill to cancel, with a campaign that quoted Killing Me Softly – a cover song she is famous for – to describe Israeli policies.”
Unknown “activists” waged a cyber-bullying campaign, which the Guardian does not condemn, to which this weak-kneed individual succumbed (oh, Charlie Hebdo – where are you when we need you to stand up for personal freedom of choice and expression in the arts?).
Following Lauryn Hill’s Concert Cancellation, Israel Agrees to Leave West Bank (satire)
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu promised Israel will evacuate its military and civilians from the West Bank and end its blockade on the Gaza Strip Tuesday, a day after hip hop star Lauryn Hill announced the cancellation of a scheduled concert in protest of Israel’s occupation of the Palestinian territories.
“As I’ve said repeatedly, withdrawing from the West Bank puts our citizens at risk and breaks our promise to God to rule over all of biblical Israel,” Netanyahu said at an impromptu press conference announcing the policy change. “However, weighed against the prospect of missing out on the chance to see That Thing performed live in concert, those are concessions we must be willing to make.”
Netanyahu acknowledged that removing all soldiers, military equipment and settlers from the West Bank in time for Hill’s scheduled May 7 appearance would be a challenge. However, there seemed little resistance from West Bank settlers, who agreed to vacate their homes immediately in exchange for tickets to Hill’s upcoming show. As of press time, the streets of Hebron were littered with settlers, suitcases in tow, donning kippot and vintage Fugees t-shirts.
Following the announcement, British composer Brian Eno said he has told his agent to schedule an appearance in Tel Aviv. Pink Floyd singer Roger Waters, however, said he would not return to the country until the Jews went a step further and relinquished their control over Hollywood as well as global politics, media and finance.
Richard Millett: Guardian columnist accuses The Sun of possible “anti-Semitism”.
Ed Miliband is Jewish. He does not advertise his Jewishness except for when he wants people to focus on his immigrant roots. His Jewishness does not seem to be an issue with the electorate and it is arguable as to how much of the electorate even realise he is Jewish.
However, there doesn’t seem to be anything remotely anti-Semitic in the use by The Sun of “pig’s ear”, “Save Our Bacon”, “Don’t swallow his porkies” (porky pies is cockney-rhyming slang for lies). Surely, it was merely a political front page to amuse and remind The Sun’s vast readership to vote Conservative in much the same way The Sun screamed of a possible Labour win on the day of the 1992 general election: “If Kinnock wins today will the last person to leave Britain please turn out the lights?”
Labour lost that election despite being expected to win and many have credited that Sun headline for winning it for the Conservative Party.
Kahn-Harris writes that yesterday’s front page was “cruel, abusive and puerile”. He is possibly right there, but anti-Semitic? Even he has doubts.
Kahn-Harris writes widely and, usually, superbly on anti-Semitism but this column, with its accusation of possible anti-Semitism, is especially rich appearing in The Guardian, of all places, considering The Guardian’s relentless attacks on Israel and, sometimes, Jews themselves.
What is far more worrying is the allegation that Labour activists in the parliamentary constituency of Finchley and Golders Green have been telling religious Jews that the Conservative candidate Mike Freer is gay, which he is, to try to put them off voting for him. Of that the Labour-supporting Guardian seems to be silent at the moment.
Selective BBC reporting on explosions in Sudan implies Israeli involvement
The link in that Tweet leads to an article on the BBC Arabic website which also promotes the idea of Israeli involvement in the incident despite – as noted by the Deputy Editor in Chief of the Sudan Tribune – there being no confirmation of that particular version of events or indeed any other.
One obvious question which arises is why the BBC considered this story suitable for publication on its Arabic language website but not on its English language equivalent.
Another notable point is that if the BBC is going to promote the notion that Israeli planes attacked “Sudanese military installations” despite the lack of any concrete evidence to support that claim, then obviously there is also a need to include factual information concerning the history of Iranian arms smuggling to Palestinian terrorist groups in the Gaza Strip via Sudan rather than just the standard ‘Israel says’-type mention at the end of the BBC Arabic report.
Al Jazeera America Is Imploding … But Who's Going To Notice?
The not so-slow motion train wreck that is Al Jazeera America (AJA) continues to roll on. The Qatar-owned cable news network is, though, the proverbial tree in a forest that implodes with no one around to hear. The implosion stories are dramatic and entertaining. They also don’t matter. AJA doesn’t matter. No one watches. The network has zero impact on the news cycle.
Allegations of sexism and anti-Semitism at a network owned by a government where Islam is the state religion?
The hell you say.
The story isn’t that AJA is imploding.
The story is that it is not a story that a 24 hour cable news network with billions invested in it is imploding.
UK Jews mull boycott of Galliano speech
Members of three London-area synagogues have threatened to boycott an event featuring fashion designer John Galliano, who was fired from Christian Dior over an anti-Semitic rant.
Galliano is scheduled to speak at the end of the month on a panel hosted by the three central London synagogues on the topic of religion and fashion. The event is sponsored by the chief rabbinate.
Congregants launched a petition against Galliano’s appearance, the Jewish Chronicle reported.
Christian Dior fired Galliano, a British national, in March 2011 after he was filmed making anti-Semitic statements at a Paris bar. Galliano stated his love for Adolf Hitler and told people he believed were Jewish that their mothers should have been gassed. He blamed his outbursts on addictions to drugs and alcohol.
Algerian Writer And Politician: 'Hitler Was A Genius'; By Committing Suicide, He Proved 'He Was A Man To The End
Algerian writer and politician Dr. Muhi Al-Din 'Amimour, who has held a series of senior official positions in the country, published an article on December 17, 2014 praising Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. 'Amimour called Hitler's rise from a simple sergeant to German Chancellor a "miracle," praised his success in transforming Germany into a superpower that nearly ruled the world, and called him "clever" and "a genius." He also said Hitler was "a man to the end," choosing suicide over humiliation by his enemies. 'Amimour accused "Jewish organizations" of demonizing Hitler since the 1940s to the point that he became "a global bogeyman" whose name is used as a pejorative and applied to third-world tyrannical rulers. He also accused "Zionist propaganda" of extorting European countries while exploiting their guilt over Nazi crimes.
'Amimour closed his article by expressing hope that someday the world will view Israeli leaders as it now views Hitler, and perhaps even in a worse light.
Nazi camp website hacked with child porn on WWII anniversary
The website of one the Nazis’ biggest former concentration camps was hacked with images of child pornography on Friday, the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, officials said.
Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner said the hacking of the website of Mauthausen near Linz in northern Austria was a “criminal, sick attack and deeply abhorrent.”
“Interior ministry experts are helping the private operator of the website as we speak to get the site back up as soon as possible. At the same time an investigation is under way,” she said.
Rivlin, Netanyahu honor Jewish WWII vets 70 years after VE day
Israeli leaders marked the 70th anniversary of the allied victory over Nazi Germany on Thursday evening, with President Reuven Rivlin and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu honoring US, British and Russian Jewish war vets at a ceremony at the IDF tank memorial in Latrun.
May 8 marks the anniversary of Nazi Germany’s surrender to the allies in 1945, and “the victory of the free world, over the Nazi beast,” Rivlin said.
“Around one and a half million Jews served in the Second World War, around eight percent of the entire Jewish population, and around half a million of whom, fell in battle,” Rivlin said at the ceremony. “Jewish servicemen fell as submarine commanders, fighter pilots, tank and infantry commanders, in the engineers and artillery corps, riflemen and regular soldiers. In every branch of the military, of each army which fought against the Nazis, were found decorated and dedicated Jewish heroes.
Israel and Germany mark 50 years of diplomatic relations
This month marks 50 years since Israel and West Germany established diplomatic ties. It has been an understandably complex relationship, launched two decades after the Holocaust ended and 14 years after West Germany committed to reparations “both moral and material” for the genocide committed by the Nazis. (The decision to accept German money and goods was contentious among Israelis, some of whom referred to the payouts as “blood money.”)
Normalized relations between Israel and West Germany might have been initiated years earlier had it not been for objections from Arab states. But decades on, the connection between Israel and a now-united Germany — East Germany never established formal diplomatic ties with the Jewish state — has grown beyond its historical imperative, encompassing broad political, cultural, economic and military exchanges.
Here are some highlights from that relationship:
Jerusalem to Build New Production Studio to Attract International Filmmakers
Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat announced plans to build a film and TV production studio in Israel’s capital in the hopes of attracting foreign filmmakers, Variety reported on Wednesday.
“After Richard Gere and Natalie Portman made Hollywood films in Jerusalem, and NBC filmed here last summer for the series Dig, now it’s time to move to the next stage in the development of the film industry in the capital,” Barkat said in a statement.
Portman’s directorial debut A Tale of Love and Darkness, a movie based on Israeli writer Amos Oz’s memoir of the same name, filmed entirely in Hebrew, was shot in Jerusalem along with Joseph Cedar’s film Oppenheimer, starring Richard Gere. USA’s television series Dig also filmed in the city but had to stop during last summer’s Israel-Hamas war. The 10-episode drama was the first U.S. television series to be filmed entirely in Israel.
The new Jerusalem studio aims to draw more foreign productions to Israel, while working with Israel’s public broadcaster to attract local projects, Variety said. The studio is also working to set up a partnership deal with Culver Studios in Hollywood.
Microsoft Exec: Small Israeli Companies Leading to Big Tech Successes
Despite all the talk about how Israeli companies are great at exits but not at scaling up into large corporate entities, the Tel Aviv-based general manager of Microsoft Ventures Global Accelerators declared that impact matters more than size.
“Much has been written about Israel moving from a startup nation to a scale-up nation,” said Tzahi (Zack) Weisfeld at a press briefing before Think Next 2015, Microsoft’s seventh annual innovation event in Tel Aviv.
“It was an amazing year for this industry when it comes to raising funds and exits. We had great IPOs like MobileEye and Wix. But we don’t think scale is just about size. It’s about the kind of impact you make. And we see more and more small companies having an amazing impact,” he said.
Weisfeld cited Israeli examples: Equivio text-analysis software for the legal market, acquired by Microsoft last January; and Meerkat, the livestreaming service that caused a sensation on Twitter before being bumped off and regrouping recently on Facebook. WhatsApp, not an Israeli company, has achieved major scale with just 25 engineers, he noted.
Israel’s Ben-Gurion University to Develop Robots to Help Senior Citizens
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) researchers have received a grant from Israel’s Ministry of Science, Technology and Space to develop robotic systems that will meet the needs of senior citizens.
The BGU project, titled “Follow Me: Proxemics and Responsiveness for Following Tasks in Adaptive Assistive Robotics,” will use “robotic adaptive person-following” algorithms to create robots that will adjust to specific tasks, the pace and abilities of their users, and the characteristics of their environments.
“While most person-following algorithms focus on the effectiveness and efficiency of the robot, what is unique about our approach is that we focus on the effectiveness of the human-robot interaction by introducing constructs related to proximity in human-human interaction,” Dr. Tal Oron-Gilad, a researcher in BGU’s Department of Industrial Engineering and Management, said in a statement.
In essence, the Israeli-developed robots will behave similarly to how humans interact with one another.
Israel to California: Here’s how to save water
As Californians struggle with an ever-worsening water shortage caused by a historic drought, they might look east for a solution — to the Middle East.
Israel, subject to intermittent droughts for decades, has pioneered a number of water-saving techniques. It long ago figured out how to grow crops in the desert and for decades has advised the developing world on how to manage scarce water resources.
Now, Israel is eager to share its latest know-how with drought-ridden states like California. These helpful techniques include water quotas, desalination plants and the reuse of household wastewater.
Six years ago when Israel was in the grips of its own dire drought, the government actually considered shipping in water from Turkey — more than 1,000 nautical miles away. Instead, the country embarked on a coordinated effort of recycling used water, desalination and education.
"Israel no longer has a water shortage," said Uri Shani, a Hebrew University professor and former director of the Israel Water Authority.
OurCrowd invests in Israeli ‘helmet’ to diagnose Parkinson’s
To celebrate Israel’s 67th birthday, Israeli crowdfunding platform OurCrowd announced its 67th investment in ElMindA, which has developed the world’s first FDA-approved neural functional assessment tool to visualize serious brain trauma and illnesses.
The technology, according to OurCrowd, is potentially a huge breakthrough for mitigating sports injuries, advancing brain research and changing the lives of the two billion people worldwide living with brain disorders.
With the ElMindA investment, OurCrowd closes out about two years of activity, so far investing over $110 million from its “crowd” of thousands of accredited investors in its portfolio companies, which span major investment sectors — including the Internet of Things, fintech, cybersecurity, medical technology, agricultural technology, big data and robotics.
Taglit-Birthright celebrates 15 years, half a million participants
Taglit-Birthright Israel is celebrating its 15th anniversary as it kicks off its summer season this week.
The trip, offered for free to young Jews around the world, has brought nearly half a million participants to Israel so far.
This summer alone, some 30,000 young people and their Israeli peers will tour Israel on the 10-day trip to the country's cultural and historic sites, officially putting the program over the 500,000-participant mark.
Taglit-Birthright CEO Gidi Mark said of the program's achievements: "Before Taglit, only 1,500 young Jewish people, mostly from the United States, visited Israel each year. In our first year, we brought 9,000 participants.
"Now, we bring 45,000 participants from around the world to Israel each year."
And its name is...Al Jazeera!
From Ya Libnan:
About 100 supporters of Syria’s president, Assad, gathered in front of the Damascus offices of Al Jazeera TV. The crowd accused the satellite TV station of supporting the opposition movement in Syria.
The Qatar network, according to Assad loyalists, broadcasts “lies” and “exaggerates” the nature and the volume of the anti-regime protests.
“Al-Jazeera, Jewish satellite TV”, was written on several banners, while others incited the, “people of Qatar, rebel against the Emir” of Qatar al Khalifa, where the network has its headquarters. .
(h/t Challah Hu Akbar tweet)
This video is supposed to show Syrian police shooting at demonstrators in Barza al-Balad, near Damascus:
This one allegedly shows a man who was shot (and said to be killed) in Homs on Saturday:
From Ma'an:
Flour imported from Israel will come under strict restrictions imposed by the Palestinian Ministry of National Economyto ensure the product meets standards set by the Palestine Standards Institution.
Israeli flour that isn't enriched with the vitamins and nutrients required by PSI would be banned in the Palestinian market, the ministry said in a statement Tuesday.
"Legal procedures will be taken against merchants who have flour which does not meet the required specifications," the statement said, adding that the move was taken to protect Palestinian consumers.
The statement added that inspectors in cooperation with the Ministry of Health discovered stockpiled flour which failed to meet the required specifications.
The flour has been confiscated and dumped and legal procedures were taken against the owners, according to the statement.
Ah, so Israeli flour is not up to Palestinian quality standards. And it is so dangerous, it must be dumped and not, for example, shipped to starving Palestinians in Yarmouk.
Because, they care.
In case you are interested in Palestinian flour standards, the best I could find was this document from 2005.
(h/t PTWatch)
From JPost:
Dr. Uzi Landau, Israel's Minister of National Infrastructure, warns that in the event of a unilateral United Nations declaration of a Palestinian state, he will call upon Israel to annex the Jordan Valley and large, Jewish populated blocs in the West Bank:
“We'll have to take care of our interests,” Landau told Inside Israel's Mordechai I. Twersky in a wide-ranging interview April 21. “We'll have to take protect ourselves. If such a thing happens, I'm going to suggest to my government to extend out sovereignty over the Jordan Valley and over the highly-populated blocs we have in Judea and Samaria, just to start with.”
The former chairman of the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee invoked the Bush Road Map and a letter of commitment issued by the former president committing to Israel's retention of major Jewish population centers in the West Bank in any negotiated settlement with the Palestinians. If that signed agreement can't be honored, he said, all bets are off.
“If we don't see negotiations, and if we do a policy which basically makes the entire Road Map agreement a hoax, Israel should take care of its own interests,” said Minister Landau.
This is exactly what Netanyahu should be saying. If the PA wants to act unilaterally and abrogate Oslo and the Road Map, they need to understand that Israel is under no obligation to adhere to the same agreements either. And the result will be far, far worse for Palestinian Arabs than if they would have stayed with negotiations.
The world needs to understand this as well. Nations are sympathetic to the idea of a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian state but they are basing it on the assumption that Israel will continue to adhere to its commitments that the PA is ignoring. If they know that Israel will not play a game where it is the only one that has to follow the rules, they would be much less likely to support something that will inevitably destabilize the region and make things worse for everybody.
Right now, under so-called "occupation," there is peace. It is not ideal for anyone but it is stable and getting better every year. If the PA abrogates the peace treaty, that peace will end and the Palestinian Arabs who are supposedly going to be helped by living in "Palestine" will be the real losers. This fact is self-evident but Western nations do not seem to have grasped it.
Landau's other observations are worth reading as well:
Landau said the Arab Spring has brought chaos to the Middle east, and could well spread to the important western allies of Jordan and Saudi Arabia. He questioned the logic of Israel signing a peace deal with a Palestinian leader, whose own future and that of his government, remains tenuous at best.
“Who knows what's going to happen in the future to any agreement we sign with, let's say, another chief of tribe in Judea and Samaria?” asked Minister Landau. “Today it's Abu Mazen (Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas). Who is it going to be in the future?”
Landau said the US Administration's continued insistence that a peace agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Authority is key to wider stability in the region – even in the face of spreading Arab unrest – is incomprehensible.
“This is clearly, totally detached from the present reality of the Middle East,” said Landau. “Anyone who lives here clearly understands that this is totally detached from the Middle East reality.”
(h/t Yerushalimey)
From Ian:
Col. Kemp: Media Encourage Terrorists to Use Human Shields in War
Col. Richard Kemp, former commander of British forces in Afghanistan, told a legal conference that the Western media have encouraged terrorists to use human shields in war by focusing attention on civilian casualties in such a way that Western military forces were effectively deterred from responding to terrorist attacks. He suggested that legal doctrines might need to be adjusted in order to remove the operational advantage human shields provide terrorists.
The West’s collective failure to innovate to confront the tactical problems posed by human shields, Kemp said, “has had the effect of making them more effective, and encouraging their use.”
“I’m not in any way advocating the unlawful slaughter of civilians on the battlefield,” Kemp added. However, there needed to be creative legal and operational thinking about how to prevent civilians from being used, willingly or unwillingly, to help terrorists win asymmetric conflicts against superior military forces, he said.
For example, the doctrine of proportionality might need to be expanded to consider overall military objectives, not just short-term objectives of specific attacks, he suggested.
The problem with focusing on specific attacks is that the calculation–weighing the military objective against the risk to civilians–would often discourage attacks against terrorist targets, which in turn would ensure that terrorist groups would use human shields again in the future.
Memorial to slain French Jew Halimi vandalized
French authorities said vandals damaged a memorial plaque honoring a young French Jewish man tortured and killed in 2006.
The incident targeting the monument to Ilan Halimi came amid heightened religious tensions in France, after radical Islamic gunmen attacked a Paris kosher market and newspaper Charlie Hebdo in January.
Interior Minister Bernard Cazeneuve said in a statement Sunday that prosecutors have opened an investigation into the damage to the monument in the Paris suburb of Bagneux.
Halimi’s death stunned many in France, especially in the Jewish community, Europe’s largest. Driven in part by anti-Semitism, a gang held him captive for weeks and tortured him, then left him naked and handcuffed near railroad tracks. The 23-year-old Halimi died en route to the hospital.
On Friday, French anti-Semitism watchdog group BNVCA reported that two Jewish men were attacked in Paris in the middle of the day by a pro-Palestinian gang, leaving them slightly injured.
The men, in the early 20s, were attacked by a gang of about 40 people, identified as being members of Gaza Firm, a pro-Palestinian group, and involved in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement.
Jewish Group ‘Outraged’ After Plaque Honoring Paris Murder Victim Desecrated
A major Jewish group expressed shock on Sunday after vandals in Paris desecrated a plague in memory of Ilan Halimi, a French Jew who was kidnapped in 2006, tortured and ultimately killed.
“Outrage!” the American Jewish Committee (AJC) wrote on Twitter, adding, “1st they tortured & killed Ilan Halimi, a French Jew, in ’06. Now the plaque in his memory has been destroyed in a Paris suburb.”
The memorial plague was found smashed on Saturday night in Bagneux, a southern suburb of Paris, and has since been removed for repairs, according to French daily Le Figaro. The vandals have yet to be identified.
Bagneux mayor Marie-Hélène Amiable on Sunday said she was “extremely shocked” by the incident and described the vandalism as “outrageous” and “unacceptable.”
Body of Israeli hiker Asraf retrieved in Nepal
Israeli rescue teams on Monday morning retrieved the body of the 22-year-old Israeli hiker who was killed in Nepal’s devastating earthquake over a week earlier.
Or Asraf’s remains were airlifted from a remote village in the Langtang village to Kathmandu, and will be flown Tuesday to Israel.
A member of the Israeli team that found his remains, Oren Morgan, told Israel Radio that several European hikers were also killed in the area.
He said evidence collected during the search for Asraf was handed over to the UN base in Nepal in order to form a better understanding of what happened to hikers from around the world who were declared missing following the earthquake.
Asraf, 22, was the only Israeli fatality from the 7.8 magnitude earthquake, which flattened villages and killed over 7,000, according to Nepalese authorities.
Loath to end their trip, Israeli tourists lend a hand in Nepal
After the original panic of the earthquake subsided, Sharlo thought about what she wanted to do next. “We really have nothing to do in Nepal — I’m not going to go on a trek now — so really the only thing to do is to come and help,” she said. “I wanted to come and lend a hand, instead of sitting around eating desserts and delicious shakes.”
Sharlo served in the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit, in the Israeli media internet and radio section. She said many of the journalists she worked with at Walla and Ynet called to check in on her. When she heard that the IDF was sending a full field hospital with more than 260 personnel, she knew where she could be most useful.
Sharlo arrived on the first day the IDF field hospital opened. She assisted with the crush of media interest in the first few days, from both Israeli and international outlets, and helped register Nepali patients before triage. In quieter moments, she entertained the children at the hospital, both patients and those who accompanied family members, playing with soap bubbles and balloons.
“I’ve been traveling for four months, and I was so excited to see the [Israeli] flag when I got here,” she said.
Sharlo said she almost didn’t come to Kathmandu. Hysterical Israeli media reports had painted a picture of a city that had devolved into anarchy. “We heard that all of the buildings had fallen, that there were people looting and you would immediately get robbed in the street,” she said. “Many of my friends were too afraid to come to Kathmandu.” Once she arrived, however, she was surprised to find that the city was functioning almost as normal.
Pocket device helps Nepal victims breathe
Among the Israeli medical innovations that paramedic Dov Maisel brought to Nepal to treat victims after last month’s devastating earthquake was the Pocket BVM (bag valve mask), a uniquely collapsible version of an essential device that emergency medical crews need for manual resuscitation and respiratory support.
Maisel isn’t only a user of the Pocket BVM; he’s also one of its inventors.
On the market since 2007 from the Jerusalem-based company MicroBVM, the inexpensive Pocket BVM folds into a protective case, allowing EMS workers to fit 20 of the devices into the space of two regular-sized resuscitators — yet once unfolded, the units look and operate the same as regular ones.
For responders to mass casualty scenes such as in Nepal, the ability to carry several BVMs is critical.
Some 100,000 units of the Pocket BVM are in use all over the world. It has become the resuscitator of choice for all branches of the US military, NATO forces, the Israel Defense Forces and civilian emergency medical response teams around the globe.
IsraAID Vanuatu - Cyclone Pam Emergency Aid
One to Watch: Jerusalem conference on Law of War
Among many notable aspects of the BBC’s coverage of Operation Protective Edge last summer was the extensive promotion of pseudo-legal claims made by both political NGOs and some of its own correspondents. Concurrently, BBC audiences heard reporters make frequent use of legal language such as ‘collective punishment’ and ‘disproportionality’ – although not necessarily always in its correct context – and particularly notable was the BBC’s ‘creative’ interpretation of the issue of Hamas’ use of human shields.
Readers with an interest in such topics may like to know that the Israel Law Center is holding a two-day conference in Jerusalem this coming week – May 4th and 5th – titled ‘Towards a New Law of War’. Conference sessions will be live-streamed (registration is available at the above link under ‘live stream’) and include two panel discussions which may be of particular interest to our readers.
Former IDF chief Gantz: Hezbollah turned living rooms into missile rooms
Speaking on Monday at Shurat Hadin’s conference on “Towards a New Law of War,” just retired IDF chief-of-staff Benny Gantz said that, “Hezbollah has turned villages into missile villages and living rooms into missile rooms.”
Gantz was summarizing the challenges of asymmetrical warfare being highlighted at the conference including terrorist groups’ abuse of the law of armed conflict such as using human shields or stationing weaponry in civilian homes,
Shurat Hadin’s Director Nitsana Darshan-Leitner said that the purpose of the conference was to try to help empower the IDF and other Western militaries to be able to fight more effectively against such terror groups by updating the law of armed conflict.
Gantz echoed some of those themes, saying he was making an unusual appearance as a civilian “about a very important issue being promoted here for all human kind, human rights and society.”
The former IDF chief stated, “war has changed. The civilian population became both the target of the terrorists and their human shield at the same time.”
Terror Conference Kicks off in Jerusalem: 'New Law of War'
As police scrambled to contain a possible terror attack on a Mohammed cartoon contest in Texas, legal scholars and activists gathered in Jerusalem for a conference on terrorism and its implications for the laws of war.
The conference is hosted by Shurat HaDin, an organization that sues terror organizations and terror-supporting regimes on behalf of the victims of terror. Recently, Shurat HaDin won a $330 million judgement against the government of North Korea for kidnapping, torturing and killing pastor Kim Dong-Shik, who was a U.S. permanent resident. Earlier this year, Shurat HaDin won a large judgment against the Palestinian Authority on behalf of American victims of the second intifada.
The purpose of its litigation, Nitsana Darshan-Leitner told the conference in her opening remarks Monday morning, is to cut off funding to terror groups, force them to cut their operations, and win justice on behalf of victims and their families.
‘Unity Day’ to Honor Memories of Slain Israeli Teenagers
Senior Israeli officials will hold two events next month in memory of a trio of teenagers who were abducted and murdered last summer by Hamas terrorists.
Unity Day, to be held on June 3rd, and the Jerusalem Unity Prize, will promote tolerance and cooperation between different sectors of the Jewish people in Israel, and the Diaspora – according to organizers. The prize winners – organizations and individuals who have excelled in promoting messages of unity through their work – will share an NIS 300,000 award in a ceremony to be hosted by Israeli President Reuven Rivlin.
The events were organized by the Mayor of Jerusalem, Nir Barkat, along with the parents of Naftali Fraenkel, Gilad Shaer, and Eyal Yifrah. The boys were abducted from a bus stop south of Jerusalem last year by two Hamas terrorists, who shortly after shot them, and hid their bodies.
“The Jerusalem Unity Prize and Unity Day serve to memorialize the three boys by strengthening the common bonds that exist within our Jewish people and encouraging greater tolerance and mutual respect between all sectors of our greater community,” Barkat wrote in a statement to the Tazpit News Agency.
Barkat lauded “…the ideals that were so remarkably exhibited during that most difficult period in the wake of the boys’ kidnappings and truly revealed this all-important aspect of our national identity.”
Boycott Movement Gang Attacks Two Jews on Paris Street
We have documented many times the role in the spread of anti-Semitic violence in Europe played by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.
The gross demonization and dehumanization of Israeli Jews by BDS contributes both directly and indirectly to acts of anti-Semitism. We have seen it on the streets of Copenhagen, Malmo, Frankfurt, Berlin, Paris, The Hague, London and elsewhere.
It’s why Walking While Jewish is dangerous in many cities in Europe. In Paris, Reporting While Jewish is risky as well.
While in theory anti-Zionism can be distinct from anti-Semitism, in reality on the streets of Europe they have merged.
Now there is yet another example, via Algemeiner, 40 Person Mob Assaults 2 Jews on Paris’ Boulevard Voltaire:
The gang of attackers was associated with the anti-Israel groups Gaza Firm and the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign, according to security personnel responsible for protecting the Jewish community.
Why are Germans so quick to remove Israeli flags?
The police removal of an Israeli flag unfurled at a soccer match in Berlin last week to preempt Palestinian anger is part of a longstanding practice of shunning the Jewish state’s flag in Germany.
The pattern typically unfolds in three acts.
Act 1 involves German Muslims and leftists protesting against Israel for defending its territory against Hamas rocket attacks or other self-defense measures to blunt Islamic terrorism. Act 2 unfolds with the police seizing Israeli flags at solidarity protests to placate anti-Israeli activists. Act 3 results in the authorities issuing an apology for outlawing Israel’s flag from demonstrations.
Rewind to 2009. During an anti-Israeli demonstration organized by the Turkish Islamic group, Millî Görüş, and attended by 10,000 protesters, two police officers stormed the apartment of a pro-Israel activist and seized Israeli flags hanging on the balcony and inside a window. The Duisburg police chief justified the removal of the flags to “prevent an escalation.” Prior to the storming of the apartment, Islamists pelted the flags with objects.
Pro-Israeli activists, including one with a flag, were taken into police custody in the city of Düsseldorf during Operation Cast Lead against Hamas. The raw anger of members of the “Mainz initiative for peace in Gaza” compelled five young men holding an Israeli flag to flee into a department store in the city of Mainz.
When Antisemitism Is Inevitable
One of Britain’s leading Islamist sites, MEMO (Middle East Monitor), has published an article entitled “Antisemitism Is Not Inevitable”. The article is clearly heartfelt, and it is welcome and unusual that an Islamist site would carry such unequivocal rejections of antisemitism, e.g. “we [Europeans] should be ashamed that even a modicum of anti-Jewish hatred remains. Something must be done”.
Despite this, the article is deeply flawed, due to its author’s anxiety to disprove Benjamin Netanyahu’s call for French Jews to emigrate to Israel. In trying to prove why Antisemitism Is Not Inevitable, the author, Alistair Sloan, makes serious factual omissions that he, but more especially his Islamist audience, need to hear.
In what may well be a first for MEMO or similar sites, Sloan begins by decently acknowledging the inclusive nature of Jewish-led Holocaust commemoration. He notes how this remembrance coincides with “fears of a resurgence of European anti-Semitism. It comes as Zionism becomes an increasingly unpopular and perhaps discredited ideology. The confluence of both phenomena is complex, not totally understood and highly politicised”.
This grossly undersells the demonisation of Zionism that dominates within MEMO and the wider Islamist hinterland, including Hamas, with the Protocols of the Elders of Zion in its charter: but it is Benjamin Netanyahu, not extreme anti-Zionists, whom Sloan is arguing with here.
Contemporary extreme “anti-Zionism” in its diverse Islamist, far Left, far Right and New Age settings coalesce in mirroring pre-Holocaust antisemitic motifs about Jews. This reflects old antisemitism and fuels new antisemitism, fulfilling the same psychological and scapegoat function for its adherents.
Attacking Free Speech is a Core Element of Terrorism
Afshin Ellian has a thing or two to say about terrorism.
He also has a few things to say about Islam – specifically political Islam – but many don’t particularly like to hear it. In fact, the threats against his life from radical Muslims, particularly in the Netherlands, where the Iranian dissident now lives, have become so frequent that at least one bodyguard accompanies him anywhere he goes.
But Ellian, a professor of jurisprudence at the University of Leiden, also knows a thing or two about freedom: he has spent his life pursuing it since his days as a student in Iran, where in 1978 he took part in the uprising against the Shah. After the revolution, the Ayatollah banned political discourse; threatened with execution, Ellian fled the country. He settled briefly in Kabul before further ideological conflicts led him to escape again, arriving as a political refugee in the Netherlands in 1989.
Now the human rights and counterterrorism expert works valiantly to protect the freedom that he so long fought for – even as he finds the most precious quality of that freedom itself now under threat: the principle of free speech.
Shots fired at Texas exhibit with depictions of prophet Muhammad; 2 gunmen killed
Texas police shot dead two gunmen who opened fire on Sunday outside an exhibit of caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad that was organized by a group described as anti-Islamic and billed as a free-speech event.
Citing a senior FBI official, ABC News identified one of the gunmen as Elton Simpson. The Arizona man was the target of a terror investigation. FBI agents and a bomb squad were searching Simpson's Phoenix home, ABC said.
Phoenix's KPHO TV reported that the second man lived in the same apartment complex as Simpson, the Autumn Ridge Apartments. He was not identified, and the second man's apartment was searched, the station said, quoting an FBI agent.
FBI spokeswoman Katherine Chaumont in Dallas said she had no more information about the suspects. An FBI evidence team began to go over the scene at 4:15 a.m. CST (0915 GMT) and was still working, she said in an email.
The shooting in a Dallas suburb was an echo of past attacks or threats in other Western countries against art depicting the Prophet Mohammad. In January, gunmen killed 12 people in the Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo in what it said was revenge for its cartoons.
NGO Monitor: Europe to Breaking the Silence: Bring Us As Many Incriminating Testimonies As Possible
Initial Analysis
BtS makes sweeping accusations based on anecdotal, anonymous and unverifiable testimonies of low level soldiers. These “testimonies” lack context, ignoring the fact that during the 2014 Gaza War heavy fighting took place between Israel and terror groups in Gaza, and that soldiers faced grave danger throughout the conflict from rockets, mortar shells, and terrorists emerging from tunnels dug beneath private homes. These distortions and erasures dovetail BtS’ ideological agenda and fuel delegitmization campaigns against Israel.
A careful reading of the testimonies reveals that IDF soldiers conducted themselves according to the norms expected of soldiers (Israeli or from other democratic countries) when faced with the challenges of high-intensity fighting. The testimonies (if indeed reliable) that portray questionable incidents should be fully investigated. In such instances, the testimony and relevant individuals should be referred to the Military Advocate General Corps, which can order an investigation to be opened. That BtS did not approach the MAG Corps raises serious questions regarding the NGO’s motives.
FIFA to vote on Palestinian proposal to suspend Israel
FIFA’s 209 member federations will be asked to consider suspending Israel from world soccer just before they elect their president this month.
FIFA published an agenda Monday for its election congress on May 29, including a late proposal by Palestinian soccer officials to suspend Israel.
The move, needing a three-quarter majority to pass, is unlikely to succeed after FIFA President Sepp Blatter said last month he opposed it.
Palestinian officials insist Israel’s soccer federation should be punished for restrictions imposed by security forces which limit movement of players, opposing teams and equipment.
Playing offense against BDS
We all know the old adage “the best defense is a good offense.” In an era of boycotts, divestment and sanctions (BDS), investing in Israel’s economy has become our greatest form of offense.
While it has long been a sound financial decision, today, investing in Israel takes on added relevance as an expression of confidence that the country’s economic resilience will continue despite geopolitical instability and BDS tactics. Through every challenge, Israel’s economy remains an outstanding example of innovation and progress.
The statistics speak for themselves: Israel’s 2014 Q4 growth was 7.2 percent, double initial projections. The country’s debt-to-GDP ratio – a key indicator of the strength of the economy that helps determine credit ratings and interest payments – decreased by 0.5 percent to 67.1 percent. This is lower than many developed countries. U.S. debt-to-GDP is 105.6 percent; the Euro Zone average is 107.7percent; and the OECD average is 94 percent.
For a small country like Israel, which has no real export markets in its region and is constantly in a state of heightened military preparedness, this is a considerable accomplishment
Lauryn Hill pressured to cancel Israel show
Only three days before Lauryn Hill's concert in Israel, the American R&B, soul and hip hop singer-songwriter is under heavy pressure to cancel the show.
The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement has been urging Hill to boycott Israel for the past month. Last week, pro-Palestinian activists posted a video edited to the sounds Hill's performance of "Killing me Softly" as part of her former band The Fugees, which shows her alongside IDF soldiers in the territories and compares Israel to an apartheid state.
"The presence of artists is routinely used by Israel to legitimize its policies and maintain its reputation as a normal member of the international community," the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation said in an action alert calling on people to press Hill to help the Palestinians by calling off her concert in Israel.
Instructor calls for freedom to ‘express anti-Semitism’ on campus
A recent statement by an Australian academic in favor of anti-Semitic speech elicited anger from that country’s Jewish community, which termed such sentiments “morally bankrupt” on Sunday.
Supporters of the Islamic State terrorist group have the right to “express their anti-Semitism,” Sydney University lecturer Yarran Hominh said, according to a Friday report on the news.com.au website.
“I would say yes, we should ‘allow’ them to express their anti-Semitism — within bounds, of course,” Hominh asserted.
In response, Peter Wertheim, the executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, told The Jerusalem Post that such an “attempt to justify anti-Semitic discourse on campus highlights the morally bankrupt dead end to which the entire campaign to delegitimize Israel and deny the reality of Jewish peoplehood logically leads.”
“The BDS depiction of the Jewish State as innately evil and beyond redemption is a repackage of a classical anti-Semitic trope. Nevertheless, we do take some comfort from the fact that several University of Sydney academics, including some from the anti-Israel Center for Peace and Conflict Studies, denounced these views and were not prepared to align themselves with Islamist theo-fascism. Perhaps the scales are starting to fall from their eyes,” he said.
UK Funding Granted to Palestinian Play Portraying Hamas Terrorists as Freedom Fighters
The UK Taxpayer is to fund the British tour of a play which sympathetically portrays the actions of Palestinian terrorists who killed Israeli citizens. Jewish leaders have reacted angrily, saying that they are “extremely concerned” that the play promotes “terrorism as legitimate”.
The West Bank-based theatre group behind the production has already received cash from the EU and the British council, allowing them to stage the play in the Palestinian territories, the Mail on Sunday has reported.
Now Arts Council England is adding another £15,000 to that tally enabling them to take their show on tour across the UK. It will be staged in ten British cities over the next few months, starting in Manchester in mid-May.
The Seige tells the story of gunmen and bombers from Hamas and the Al Asqa Martyrs’ Brigade who, in 2002, took refuge inside the Church of the Nativity Bethlehem, revered as Christ’s birthplace. Their stand-off against the Israeli military forces surrounding the church lasted for 39 days, only being brought to an end when a deal was struck granting 13 of the ring leaders safe passage and sanctuary in Europe.
The two directors of the play, one of whom is British, traced those men across Europe in order to record their version of the events. It is from their partisan testimonies only that the script was constructed.
IsraellyCool: Blumen Fail: Max Blumenthal’s Web Address Still Advertising Israeli Company
Last month, I posted about Israel hater Max Blumenthal’s stunning hypocrisy: having his personal website created with Wix, an Israel-made product.
When this was pointed out to him, Blumenthal used a rather lame excuse.
Well, apparently it is hard to get it replaced. Because 3 weeks later, and www.maxblumenthal.com still looks like this:
That’s a big advertisement for an Israeli company right there.
Looks like his “web designer” is snoozing on the job. Perhaps Max should chase him down to make the changes.
“Might Have Been Better Worded”
During the Gaza conflict last Summer, the BBC’s Orla Guerin filed a video report from Gaza. We were shocked that in the report, broadcast on BBC One’s “News at Ten” and on the BBC Website, she declared that despite Israeli allegations that Hamas had been using human shields, there had been “no evidence” of such a practice.
We published our own video (“Shocking Claim by Biased and Clueless BBC Journalist“) showing that there was, in fact, massive evidence of Hamas using this tactic. We urged viewers to submit formal complaints to the BBC that Guerin had misled viewers by her statement.
Well the BBC Trust has reviewed the complaints. They did agree that her statement about “no evidence of human shields” was inaccurate. Here is what they said:
“To refer to the ‘evidence’ put forward by one side would not necessarily endorse their version of events and to that extent I would agree that this might have been better worded.”
But this is as far as they would go. The BBC Trust claims that during the piece, she did refer to the firing of rockets in close proximity to residential neighborhoods. They claim that viewers should have been able to figure out that Hamas had indeed been using human shields.
Sorry but “Might have been better worded” is just not good enough.
Financial Times revives misleading ‘discarded Ethiopian blood’ narrative
The case Reed is referring to dates back to 2013, and his account of the row is extremely misleading. Whilst the MDA (Israel’s equivalent of the Red Cross) did refuse to accept blood from an Ethiopian Jewish lawmaker, Pnina Tamano-Shata, in Dec. 2013, the selective quote attributed to the MDA volunteer in question – suggesting that Ethiopian-Israelis have “a special type of blood” – is taken out of context.
As the director of the MDA’s blood service said after the row erupted, Ministry of Health regulations prohibited the use of blood donations from all people who had lived for more than a year in countries (such as Ethiopia) which have a high rate of HIV infection.
Racism has nothing to do with the Israeli policy on blood donations from citizens of Ethiopian descent. Indeed, MDA allows blood donations from native-born Israelis of Ethiopian descent who have not actually lived in Ethiopia.
Further, as Elder of Ziyon pointed out in a related post, “anyone calling Israel racist based on a policy of not accepting blood from some African countries may want to read the American Red Cross guidelines for people they don’t want to donate blood for fear of AIDS”:
‘Just not in my backyard’ for planned Dutch Holocaust memorial
It’s the Dutch Holocaust memorial everyone says they want to see built — just not in their neighborhood.
Early last year, Amsterdam’s mayor endorsed the creation of the Netherlands’ first Holocaust memorial to include the names of more than 102,000 Jewish victims deported and murdered from that country. It was relatively clear sailing until memorial planners zoomed in on secluded Wertheim Park — close to what the city declared a Jewish Cultural Quarter in 2012 — as their preferred site.
Claiming they were presented with “a done deal” last March, a group of residents living close to the park has consistently opposed constructing the $6.8 million Holocaust memorial in their neighborhood. “Not in our garden” has been a common refrain, with opponents demanding the city have the Shoah edifice built anywhere but in the heart of their leafy Plantage district.
Named for a prominent nineteenth century Jewish philanthropist, Wertheim Park is close to Amsterdam’s surviving historic synagogues, as well as buildings connected to the deportation of Dutch Jewry during the Holocaust. Just around the corner is the legendary Artis Zoo, where dozens of Jews hid among the animals to avoid capture by the Nazis and Dutch “bounty hunters.”
Jewish gravestones used to build outhouse in Polish village
The tiny Polish town of Pilica hides an infuriating secret: Homeowners who lived in the town after World War II used Jewish gravestones to build an outhouse and parts of their home, apparently in an effort to defile the memory of the Jews.
The sight of dozens of gravestones bearing Hebrew writing as part of a structure that serves as an outhouse is unsettling. The home, which has been abandoned in recent years after its owners passed away, is littered with broken gravestones, an open wound in the heart of the polish village.
Jonny Daniels, the head of the From the Depths organization that honors the memory of Holocaust victims, was summoned to the house by one of the group's volunteers in the area. He was appalled by what he found.
"I felt rage and sadness at the same time when I saw the egregious disrespect that our brothers' and sisters' gravestones had been shown," Daniels recalled. "The only thing we leave behind in this world is our good name and our burial place. The moment that is taken from us, and used to build a house or worse, an outhouse, it is deeply insulting. It wasn't enough that the Nazis tried to kill the Jews who were alive, the Poles later tried to destroy all traces that the Jews had lived."
40 Percent Rise This Year in Global Immigration to Israel, Report Shows
A new report shows that Jewish immigration to Israel from around the world rose more than 40 percent in the first three months of 2015, the UK’s Guardian reported on Sunday.
A total of 6,499 Jews arrived in Israel between January and March of this year, according to an interim report by the Jewish Agency for Israel. The vast majority of immigrants came from Europe, specifically eastern Europe. 1,971 immigrants came from Ukraine to the Jewish state, the most of any country listed, marking a 215 percent rise from the same period last year. The number of Russian immigrants rose to 1,515, an almost 50 percent increase.
French immigration to Israel rose by 11 percent to 1,413 while immigration from Britain saw a 43 percent rise to 166. Immigration from North America decreased by 7 percent with only 478 new arrivals between January and March.
Experts predicted a wave of immigration to Israel in 2015 – specifically from France – following a rise in antisemitic attacks against Jews in recent years across western Europe, the Guardian reported. It was anticipated that a large number of Jews would leave France after the killing of four Jews in January in the HyperCacher kosher supermarket attack in Paris.
Entrepreneur boasts sprinkler could end world hunger
Making a bold statement, NaanDanJain chief agronomist Maoz Aviv says he believes his company will be able to solve some of the worst problems of world hunger.
“It’s hard to believe that a little sprinkler could do so much, but our new rice drip irrigation product really has the potential to vastly improve the lives of people in the developing world,” Aviv said.
One might be inclined to take such a claim with a grain of salt (or rice). But NaanDanJain – an Israeli-Indian firm, created in 2007 when Israeli irrigation tech firm NaanDan merged with India’s Jain Irrigation Systems – is one of the world leaders in drip-irrigation, filters, climate control systems, sprinkler systems for agriculture, and other hardware and control systems used in farms across India and the rest of Asia, as well as in North America, South America and Europe.
A life-saving Jewish connection, if new UK princess named Alice
Bookmakers Sunday touted Alice and Charlotte as the most likely names for Britain’s newborn princess, the second child of Prince William and the Duchess of Cambridge, who was born Saturday.
The name Alice has particular resonance for the Jewish people: The newborn’s great-great-grandmother, Princess Alice of Battenberg, is buried in Jerusalem, and was recognized by Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial as a “Righteous Among the Nations” and by the British government as a “Hero of the Holocaust.”
During the Nazi occupation of Greece, Alice hid a Jewish woman and two of her children from the Nazis.
In 1994, the newborn’s great-grandfather, Queen Elizabeth II’s husband Prince Philip, visited Israel for a ceremony to mark his mother’s valor. [The name has now been announced it's Charlotte Elizabeth Diana]
From Ian:
Bereaved families continue their legal fight against 'Jenin, Jenin'
Representatives of bereaved family members and Israeli soldiers who fought in the Battle of Jenin in 2002 are outraged that police were called over the tent they set up to protest the film, which they say defames Israeli soldiers.
Last Wednesday, on Israel's Memorial Day for Fallen Soldiers and Victims of Terrorism, the protest tent was erected outside Attorney General Yehuda Weinstein's office to protest his decision not to open judicial proceedings against Israeli Arab filmmaker Mohammad Bakri for his film "Jenin Jenin" and its portrayal of Israeli soldiers.
In many Israelis' eyes, the film constitutes libel against Israeli soldiers by portraying the battle, in which 23 Israeli soldiers and 52 Palestinians were killed, as a wide-scale massacre of Palestinian civilians, a claim refuted by the U.N., as well as Human Rights Watch and other nongovernmental organizations. Weinstein, upholding the decision made by his two predecessors, said in December 2014 he had not been presented with "extraordinary claims not known before."
Representatives for the soldiers who fought in the battle have appealed to the president, prime minister, Knesset speaker, defense minister, Israel Defense Forces chief and attorney general to overturn the decision.
Attorney Israel Caspi, who fought in the Jenin battle and is representing the bereaved families and the soldiers, told Israel Hayom, "Police came to us and questioned us under the pretense that there had been a disturbance, which is a lie."
We Must Sever All Connections to Unesco
In 1975, the great violinist Yehuda Menuhin refused to participate in a Unesco event in Paris after the agency passed an anti-Israel resolution. From Germany, even leftist writer, the famous Heinrich Böll, denounced Unesco for its stance on Israel.
That should be the behaviour of cultural personalities today, those who believe in truth and fairness, as well: they should stop working with Unesco unless it withdraws its anti-Semitic resolutions, while academicians from around the world should express their support for the Israeli archeologists working in Jerusalem.
The measures taken by Unesco against Israel, in addition to being intolerable, are grotesque. The cultural cancellation of Israel justifies its physical annihilation. It is a process of extermination already used by the totalitarian regimes of the twentieth century, which led to the death of million of Jews.
Unesco is a United Nations body that has the task to defend education, science and culture. What is happening is a perversion and a reversal of its role.
I will personally refuse to cooperate with this body until it eliminates its intolerable anti-Semitic spirit. This entails not accepting their invitations and refusing to report on their good initiatives. Brave and free people should do the same.
Israel can win this battle only with the support of the Westerners who still care about the fate of their civilization.
Red Cross chief slams his own group’s WWII record
The president of the International Committee of the Red Cross attacked his organization’s World War II record, saying it “lost its moral compass.”
Peter Maurer, presenting the keynote address Tuesday at a Geneva commemoration of the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Nazi death camps, said the ICRC “failed to protect civilians and, most notably, the Jews persecuted and murdered by the Nazi regime.” Maurer said his group “failed as a humanitarian organization because it lost its moral compass.”
The commemoration event, jointly sponsored by the ICRC and World Jewish Congress, was attended by 200 senior members of Geneva’s diplomatic corps. It featured a panel discussion with Deborah Lipstadt, an Emory University Jewish history and Holocaust studies professor, and James Orbinski, the former international president of Doctors Without Borders, according to a WJC news release.
During World War II, the ICRC, headquartered in Geneva, was the principal humanitarian institution maintaining communications with both the Allied and Axis powers. While the ICRC provided assistance and protection to Allied prisoners of war held by Nazi Germany, it did not do the same for Jewish deportees because the Nazis refused all humanitarian requests to help Jewish victims. At the same time, the ICRC did not publicly denounce the deportation of Jews to concentration camps.
Hollywood tackles Holocaust denial
Hollywood takes on the subject of Holocaust denial as a film about Holocaust scholar Deborah Lipstadt’s legal battle against David Irving goes into production.
“Denial,” a courtroom drama, will star Oscar winner Hilary Swank as Lipstadt, and Oscar nominee Tom Wilkinson as a barrister. There has been no word yet as to who will play Irving in the work written by acclaimed British playwright and screenwriter David Hare, based on Lipstadt’s “History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier,” about her legal battle against Irving.
Irving had sued Lipstadt for libel for calling him a pseudohistorian and Holocaust denier in her 1993 book, “Denying the Holocaust: The Growing Assault on Truth & Memory.” Despite the fact that in Britain, where the trial took place, the burden of proof is on the defendant rather than the plaintiff, Lipstadt won the case in 2000 by demonstrating that her accusations against Irving were substantially true.
Lipstadt, the Dorot professor of modern Jewish and Holocaust studies at Emory University, told The Times of Israel that the film’s producers have kept her in the loop and consulted her on many aspects of the project.
Holocaust Denial is Real – and Frightening
Everyone – except the idiots of the world – knows the truth about Auschwitz-Birkenau, the largest of the Nazi death camps, and the one where an estimated 1.3 million people were murdered. It is preserved as it was in January 1945 when the camp was liberated. The gas chambers at Birkenau were destroyed by the Nazis to remove evidence of their atrocities. But the reminders of the horrors are the plentiful human hair, shoes, suitcases, and eyeglasses of the victims. Above all, there are the empty canisters of Zyklon B poison, and evidence of documentation of the Nazi planning of the genocide, mostly – at least 90 percent- against Jews.
Holocaust Memorial Day is commemorated at different times in different countries. On April 19, the UK held a Holocaust memorial event marking the anniversary of the liberation of the Bergen-Belsen camp by the British Army. It is therefore doubly horrifying that a few days before that, a group of more than a hundred people in London displayed their indifference to the ultimate catastrophe of the 20th century by laughing at the ashes rising from the crematoria in the Nazi death camps and doubting, wholly or in part, the slaughter that occurred there.
The disreputable members of the group are more than what Lenin called “political idiots.” It was the largest gathering of sheer idiots, extreme haters of Jews, that London has endured for some time. Indeed, their very extreme rhetoric and absurd falsifications of history does not allow, or makes it difficult for, anyone to be a “moderate” anti-Semite. It’s all or nothing at all.
Many of this infamous group, mostly but not all British, had been or were still members of the neo-Nazi parties: the National Front and British National Party. One of the organizers carried the book, Tomorrow We Live, written by Oswald Mosley, the leader of the old Fascist Party. Another was the 71-year-old former national organizer of the NF, and another was the former editor of the NF publications. One was the former national organizer for the BNP, who had been jailed for three months for attacking a black man with a beer bottle; he was scarred for life. One was a BNP councilor in East London, and two were NF candidates for the UK Parliament.
Obama vows 'never again' on 70th anniversary of liberation of Nazi's Dachau camp
US President Barack Obama mourned on Wednesday the more than 40,000 people who were killed at Dachau as the world marked the 70th anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi concentration camp in Germany.
"On this day, we remember when American forces liberated Dachau 70 years ago, dismantling the first concentration camp established by the Nazi regime. Dachau is a lesson in the evolution of darkness, how unchecked intolerance and hatred spiral out of control," a statement released by the US president read.
The Nazis set up the camp in Dachau outside Munich only weeks after Adolf Hitler took power. Initially designed to detain political rivals, it became the prototype for a network of death camps where six million Jews were murdered.
"From its sinister inception in 1933, Dachau held political prisoners – opponents of the Third Reich. It became the prototype for Nazi concentration camps and the training ground for Schutzstaffel (SS) camp guards," Obama said.
"As the seed of Nazi evil grew, the camp swelled with thousands of others across Europe targeted by the Nazis, including Jews, other religious sects, Sinti, Roma, LGBT persons, the disabled, and those deemed asocial," he added.
Why America needs Israel
The Obama Doctrine on foreign affairs is not only to nurture a new relationship with Iran, but also to find opportunities to weaken the longstanding bonds between America and Israel.
For years, Israeli and American interests were virtually identical: stopping the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the Muslim world, fighting Iranian hegemonic ambitions and opposing state sponsorship of terror. The president’s new vision for an Iranian-dominated Middle East certainly will come at Israel’s expense.
While Israel stays the course, the Obama administration has turned American foreign policy on its head.
The Obama Doctrine of engaging our enemies and distancing ourselves from reliable allies may defy logic, but does fit with the president’s progressive worldview of an America that has done more harm than good in the world. President Obama offers carefully chosen words of support to those who care about the US-Israel relationship, but his words are constantly betrayed by his policies and actions regarding the Jewish state.
As Sohrab Ahmari, editorial-page writer for The Wall Street Journal in London, opined in Commentary, “The worse the White House’s treatment of Jerusalem gets, the more ardent its pro-Israel rhetoric becomes...The Jewish state now faces a White House that is oblivious to regional realities, is disdainful of the Israeli body politic, and is flirting with the lexicon and tactics of delegitimization...To radically alter the US-Israel relationship, the White House also needed the backing of a domestic lobby (J Street) to counterbalance the pro-Israel establishment...The administration’s bet all along has been that it can degrade the alliance from within while maintaining an outward narrative of stalwart support for Israel.”
British PM offers defense of Israeli attacks in Gaza
Just over a week before his country’s general election, Britain’s Conservative leader Prime Minister David Cameron came out firmly in support of “standing by Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself.”
In an interview with the British Jewish newspaper The Jewish Chronicle, Cameron contrasted Hamas rocket fire with Israeli strikes against Gaza in last summer’s war between the two sides.
“Obviously we regret the loss of life wherever it takes place, but I do think there’s an important difference – as Prime Minister Netanyahu put it: Israel uses its weapons to defend its people and Hamas uses its people to defend its weapons,” Cameron said in the interview, which is due to be published in full on Thursday.
“What I’ve seen is the attacks that take place on Israel and the indiscriminate nature of them. As PM, putting yourself in the shoes of the Israeli people, who want peace but have to put up with these indiscriminate attacks — that reinforces to me the importance of standing by Israel and Israel’s right to defend itself,” Cameron said.
“I feel very strongly that this equivalence that sometimes people try to draw when these attacks take place is so completely wrong and unfair. Because Israel is trying defend against indiscriminate attacks, while trying to stop the attackers – and there’s such a difference between that and the nature of the indiscriminate attacks that Israel receives. I feel that very clearly. I’ve seen it very clearly as prime minister and I think it’s important to speak out about it,” he said.
It's Official: Obama 'The Worst US President for Israel'
Israelis overwhelmingly view Barack Obama as the worst US president for Israel in the last 30 years, a poll has shown. And while that result may come as no surprise, the degree to which respondents viewed Obama negatively is certainly remarkable.
The survey was conducted by veteran pollster Menacham Lazar of Panels Politics, and the results revealed by The Jewish Journal's Shmuel Rosner, who helped draft the survey.
The poll asked Israelis who they thought were the best and worst presidents for the State of Israel in the past 30 years.
A full 63% of Israelis voted for Barack Obama as the worst-ever president. Trailing at a distant second was former president and current outspoken anti-Israel activist Jimmy Carter, with 16%.
Khaled Abu Toameh: The Palestinians No One Talks About
Western journalists covering the Israeli-Palestinian conflict regularly focus on the "plight" of Palestinians who are affected by Israeli security policies, while ignoring what is happening to Palestinians in neighboring Arab countries.
These journalists, for example, often turn a blind eye to the daily killings of Palestinians in Syria and the fact that Palestinians living in Lebanon and other Arab countries are subjected to Apartheid and discriminatory laws.
A Palestinian who is shot dead after stabbing an Israeli soldier in Hebron receives more coverage in the international media than a Palestinian woman who dies of starvation in Syria.
The story and photos of Mahmoud Abu Jheisha, who was fatally shot after stabbing a soldier in Hebron, attracted the attention of many Western media outlets, whose journalists and photographers arrived in the city to cover the story.
But on the same day that Abu Jheisha was brought to burial, a Palestinian woman living in Syria died due to lack of food and medicine. The woman was identified as Amneh Hussein Omari of the Yarmouk refugee camp near Damascus, which has been under siege by the Syrian army for the past 670 days. Her death raises the number of Palestinian refugees who have died as a result of lack of medicine and food in the camp to 176.
Al Jazeera Employee 'Fired for Complaining about Anti-Semitism'
The former employee alleges Mahmud regularly and openly displayed "offensive and discriminatory behavior" of other forms as well, often making "anti-Semitic" and "anti-American" comments, including a rant in which he allegedly said that "Whoever supports Israel should die a fiery death in hell!"
Employees were all aware of his behavior but afraid to act because he is so "well-connected" within Al Jazeera, the suit adds, noting that when Luke complained to the human resources director he was told "candidly" that similar complaints had also been made by other employees.
Luke says that when he was eventually fired, he was told by the company he was dismissed because he "did not fit into the company culture".
"When Mr. Luke… reported the biased and discriminatory conduct of a high-level newsroom executive, the response was to circle the wagons and fire the messenger," his attorney Jeffrey Kimmel told the New York Post.
"One would expect more from an organization whose mission statement is ‘to be recognized as the world’s leading and most trusted media network.’"
Muslim Terrorism and European Jew Hatred: What’s Changed in 35 Years?
In the book Semites & Anti-Semites, renowned author and historian Bernard Lewis introduces the work with a summary of a terror attack on a Paris synagogue in 1980. When a bomb exploded at the synagogue, it killed four people including two non-Jewish passers-by. The French Prime Minister at the time, Raymond Barre, expressed his sympathies for the victims but made an interesting statement:
“They aimed at the Jews, and they hit innocent Frenchmen.”
Now imagine the impact this statement would have had, if “Jews” had been replaced with something else:
“They aimed at the Muslims, and they hit innocent Frenchmen.”
“They aimed at the English, and they hit innocent Frenchmen.”
“They aimed at the Australians… the Italians… the Indians...”
Any of these groups would understand the implication instantly.
It was a response that made a bold statement. While he did feel sorry for what had happened, he did not see French Jews the same as the ethnic French, who were somehow more “innocent” in this tragedy.
What has changed? Now France has recognized the “State of Palestine,” which is not a State but is ruled by both a terror-supporting government and a terrorist organization, neither side willing to accept Israel as the Jewish State or to accept a Jewish presence there at all, ready to commit whatever violence they deem necessary on any Jewish civilians. France is experiencing just a taste of that same terror, yet has chosen to recognize Palestine, which is nothing short of an endorsement for this terror.
UN Condemns France's 'Trivialization' of Racism
A special UN panel on Tuesday condemned the "trivialization" of hate speech in France, as it launched a two-day review of racial discrimination in the country which has seen a sharp rise in violent anti-Semitism.
"We see that the principle of equality is not completely reflected...above all due to intolerance and racism," said Ion Diaconu, the president of the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
Deploring a "certain trivialization of hate speech" in the country, Diaconu said numerous reports had shown that the was a "massive exclusion" of the Roma minority from mainstream French society in particular.
Authors in Search of Some Character: Salman Rushdie Calls Charlie Hebdo Boycotters 'Pussies'
A bunch of “pussies” who lacked “character”. That is the free character analysis offered by author Salman Rushdie for the group of six fellow writers who decided to boycott a Freedom of Expression award due to their reservations about Charlie Hebdo.
The six withdrew from the American PEN Center gala awards dinner in New York, an annual event thrown by the literary and freedom of expression group, after it was announced the centre would give its Freedom of Expression Courage award to Charlie Hebdo. The French satirical magazine has received a raft of awards this year after its uncompromising attitude to Islam was used as justification by Islamist terrorists to execute the editorial team and a number of contributors.
Double Man Booker Prize-winning author Peter Carey was one of those who decided to withdraw from the awards. The Australian blamed the attack on French “arrogance”, remarking: “a hideous crime was committed, but was it a freedom-of-speech issue for PEN America to be self-righteous about?”
“All this is complicated by PEN’s seeming blindness to the cultural arrogance of the French nation, which does not recognise its moral obligation to a large and disempowered segment of their population”.
Writer Says Charlie Hebdo Artists Were Kind Of Like Neo-Nazis
An editorial in The Guardian decries PEN American Center’s decision to give Charlie Hebdo the Freedom of Expression Courage Award, comparing the cartoonists to Nazis.
Under the headline, “I Admire Charlie Hebdo’s Courage. But It Does Not Deserve A PEN Award,” contributor Francine Prose explains her position. “As a friend wrote me: the First Amendment guarantees the right of the neo-Nazis to march in Skokie, Illinois, but we don’t give them an award,” she said.
Six writers have withdrawn from PEN’s annual gala event in protest of the award. Their argument? “Charlie Hebdo’s satirists were racist and Islamophobic—no less so because they were killed for their cartoons. To honor them, so the criticism goes, would signal support not only for their right to free expression but also the powerful bigotry that speech served,” writes Daily Beast reporter Jason Siegel.
Prose says the events surrounding the killing of Charlie Ebdo artists contribute to stereotypes that permit foreign policy missteps.
Amnesty International: Anti-Semitic or Simply Misguided?
Nevertheless, it has long been apparent that AI is critical of Israel in a totally disproportionate fashion compared with its criticism of other countries. AI has had officials and staff members who may or may not be overtly anti-Semitic but who are strongly unsympathetic toward the State of Israel and can be considered pro-Palestinian. The former executive director of AIFinland, Frank Johansson, was prone to refer to Israel as “nikkimaa” (scum state). He confessed he could not think of any other country that could be described in this way. A former staff member, Deborah Hyams, in 2008 signed a statement that Israel was a state founded on terrorism and massacres.
Probably the staff member currently most critical of Israel is Kristyan Benedict, of Indian and Trinidadian descent and a convert to Islam who has defended the implementation of sharia law in the U.K. He is described as the campaign manager for crisis work with special focus on Syria. As such, he has not commented on the 220,000 killed and the 9 million displaced in the brutal war in Syria, but he has been critical of Israel’s “occupation of the Golan Heights,” which, he declares, violates international law.
Benedict has described Gaza as an outdoor prison – not because of Hamas terrorist control of the area, but because of Israel. On a number of occasions he has equated Israel with apartheid South Africa and compared Israel with the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria. He also knew, as many of us did not, that Israel is included in the list of dictatorial regimes, such as Burma, North Korea, Iran, and Sudan, that abuse basic universal rights.
It is pitiful that AI should have descended so low in its partiality in Middle Eastern affairs and in its lack of genuine concern for human rights – at least for the human rights of Jews.
Activists corrupt noble principles in defence of Lynch
The defence of Jake Lynch and the students who stormed the lecture theatre at the University of Sydney during a talk by Colonel Richard Kemp, has been speciously framed as a struggle for the right of free speech and dissent.
No mention is made of the protesters having admitted that it was they who were trying to suppress free speech by shutting down Richard Kemp’s lecture altogether. There is a rich irony in anti-Israel academics and students invoking the right of free speech in order to deny the right of free speech to anyone they disagree with, and specifically of anyone who dissents from the disingenuous, one-dimensional caricature that constitutes their portrayal of Israel.
The right to protest or hold opposing views is not in question. When protesters held anti-Israel banners outside the lecture theatre and distributed flyers to all who entered to hear Kemp speak, they were exercising these important rights, no matter how misguided their message was. Their subsequent conduct had an altogether different and darker purpose — to deny Kemp his right to speak, and to deny the students, academics and visitors in the audience their right to listen and engage with his ideas. There is no room for competing ideas or opinions in the narrow, grim worldview of the far-left.
IsraellyCool: Roger Waters Turns His Attention To Robbie Williams
Not long after failing miserably with Alan Parsons, rock’n’roll BDSHole Roger Waters has turned his attention to Robbie Williams, set to perform in Israel in a few days.
No mention of Hamas using their children as human shields.
No mention of Hamas firing at Israeli children.
Just the usual one-sided drivel we have come to expect from Waters.
I trust Robbie will see through this and entertain us.
Madness: Tel Aviv U Issues a Call for 'Nakba' Films
In an official university email, Tel Aviv University has issued a call for submissions of films on the topic of the “Nakba and the return of Palestinian refugees.” The films are to participate in a film festival organized by the radical leftist group Zochrot, about the so-called “Nakba,” or catastrophe, as nationalist Arabs call the 1948 war for the independence of Israel.
The call for entries for the festival, which was sent to students and graduates of the university's film department, reads: “Zochrot’s initiative aims to promote the recognition and responsibility of the Jewish public in Israel for the Nakba, the perception that a return [of Arabs to the Land of Israel – ed.] would be a correction of the Nakba, and the opportunity for a better life.”
Grassrotts Zionist group Im Tirtzu sent a letter to the president of Hebrew University and to its major donors saying: “We are dismayed to see the distribution of this call for film submissions on an official distribution list of students and graduates. This encourages university students to take part in a propaganda festival calling for destruction of Israel and its citizens. Therefore, we demand that the president of the university strongly and unequivocally condemn this action and ensure that it is not repeated.”
Tel Aviv Stock Exchange CEO Is a Leader of a Pro-Boycott Organization
Considering the outrage at boycotting Israel, it is shocking that the CEO of the Tel-Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE), Yossi Beinart is a New Israel Fund leader. Beinart is a member of their International Council which “is an advisory group established in 2002 to supplement the work of the organization’s governing Board. The role of the IC is to sustain involvement of past Board members and to educate, motivate, and nurture future leadership for the Fund.”
The Tel Aviv Stock Exchange is Israel’s only stock exchange, with hundreds of public companies listed. The head of start-up nation’s stock exchange serving on the board of an organization that advocates a boycott of Israel raises many questions.
Boycotts are beyond the pale. Several Knesset members from Israel’s political left have expressed their opposition to the boycott against Israel. MK Eitan Broshi (Zionist Camp), for example, lambasted 16 foreign ministers from the European Union who called for the labeling of products from the "settlements". He said, “This is blatant anti-Israel activity and should be condemned…”
Users on Twitter Compare Baltimore Riots With Palestinian Intifada
Memes contrasting photographs purporting to show youths in Baltimore throwing stones at police officers and similar images showing Palestinian youths doing the same toward Israeli security personnel have circulated online following the outbreak of violence in Baltimore, which began last Saturday.
Pro-Israel news blog Legal Insurrection accused pro-Palestinian activists of trying to “hijack” the riots that broke out in Baltimore following the death of 25-year-old Freddie Gray to promulgate their cause.
The blog revealed various tweets, including one from human rights attorney and law professor Noura Elkat that compared the riots to an Intifada, attempting to draw a connection between Baltimore police and Israeli security tactics.
One, from anti-Israel activist Max Blumenthal, claimed Baltimore police were using a sound cannon that was “tested on Palestinians.”
MEMRI: ISIS Fighters, Supporters Hijack #BaltimoreRiots Twitter Hashtag, Discuss Race Issues, Urge Attacks On Policemen
On April 28, 2015, Islamic State (ISIS) supporters and fighters took over the trending Twitter hashtags "#BaltimoreRiots" and "#BaltimorePurge," in order to champion the merits of the Islamic State, criticize democracy, and shed light on the race-related riots currently making headlines in the U.S. It should be noted that ISIS frequently takes advantage of such calamitous events, including those involving race, in the West, in order to promote their beliefs.
The following is a review of some of the tweets from these accounts.
British Islamist Anjem Choudary tweeted: "#BaltimoreRiots even where they absurdly celebrate a black skinned leader racism still rears its ugly head. Time for change, time for Islam!"
A Jordanian ISIS fighter hijacked the trending Baltimore hashtags to show off his weapons, with a photo of rifles, bullets, grenades and an ISIS flag accompanied by the hashtags "#BlackLivesMatter, #BaltimoreRiots, and #Islamic State." In Arabic he wrote: "Strife is dormant. May Allah bless whoever awakens it. #America_Burning."
Recognizing the non-existent won't help anyone
Recognizing the non-existent won't help anyone
In the light of reports that the ALP [Australian Labor Party] may consider recognizing a non-existent Arab state of "Palestine", we should, remember that statehood requires a series of criteria, as set out in the 1933 Montevideo Convention on the Rights and Duties of States,including
- capability of governance,
- permanence of population,
- defined territory, and
- capacity to enter into relations with other states.
In fact, the Convention specifies that “the political existence of the state is independent of recognition by the other states.”
For the Arabs of Palestine, these criteria must be read in the context of the commitments by the Arabs in several agreements signed with Israel over the years.
In the attempt to declare "Palestinian" statehood in 1988, over 100 states gave their recognition. But this attempt to unilaterally dictate a solution to the Israel-Arab conflict without agreement from Israel, did nothing to resolve the conflict
So any act of recognition of a non-existent Arab state, whether by the ALP or anyone else, can have no validity nor make any contribution to resolving the conflict with Israel.
Labor sells its soul for the Muslim vote
To know just what Tony Burke will say to win Muslim votes at an Australia Palestine Advocacy Network Fundraising Dinner:
"If you are serious about justice, then we need to acknowledge and acknowledge the truth, that all Israeli settlements on Palestinian land are illegal. If we’re serious about speaking the truth then we must unequivocally be able to say that East Jerusalem is occupied…
For those who are political advocates within Palestine itself, I will never know the bravery that comes with putting your life on the line and at risk, in engaging in politics in different ways."
I’d bet many of Burke’s audience heard that as an implicit endorsement of Palestinian terrorism.
Jewish members of Labor should be fighting like fury against this dangerous pandering. Where are they?
NSW Labor leader Luke Foley is just as craven, issuing this press release:
NEW TRAVEL REQUIREMENTS FOR LABOR MPs
NSW Labor leader Luke Foley announced today that any Labor MPs receiving assisted travel to Israel would be expected to spend an equivalent time in the West Bank and/or Gaza to hear the case of the Palestinians…
“This arrangement will mean MPs understand the Palestinian as well as the Israeli case,” Mr Foley said.
Will Foley now insist that every NSW MP visiting China spend equal time in Taiwan? Every MP visiting South Korea spend equal time in North Korea?
Guardian illustrates article about ‘Killer Robots’ with photo of Israel’s DEFENSE system
Do you see the problem?
The Guardian used a photo of Israel’s Iron Dome defensive missile system to illustrate an article about autonomous offensive weapons systems. Of course, the Iron Dome is a system which knocks down enemy rockets which target populated areas of the country. Plus, the Iron Dome system is managed by soldiers in a command center who decide, once they receive information on the incoming rocket’s trajectory, if a defensive missile is launched.
So, the Iron Dome system is neither offensive nor fully autonomous, and thus can’t be considered a “killer robot”.
The Guardian photo is inappropriate and extremely misleading.
Not all ‘occupied territories’ are equal for the BBC
Apparently though, no comparable instructions are available to BBC journalists writing about Cyprus – at least if an article which appeared on the BBC News website on April 26th under the title “Mustafa Akinci wins northern Cyprus presidential election” is anything to go by.
The word ‘occupied’ did not appear in that report at all: readers are merely told that Turkey ‘controls’ the northern part of Cyprus.
“Voters in Turkish-controlled northern Cyprus have elected Mustafa Akinci as their new president.”
Audiences are also informed that:
“The island was divided in 1974 by a Turkish invasion staged in response to a short-lived Greek-inspired coup staged to secure a union with Greece. In 1983 the Turkish-held area declared itself the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.”
No mention is made of the fact (noted in the BBC’s Cyprus profile) that the only country to recognize the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus is Turkey and of course there is no reference in the report(or the profile) to “illegal settlements” or “international law” despite the fact that it was Turkish state policy to facilitate and encourage the immigration of Turkish nationals to the island during the latter half of the 1970s.
Can it really be that the BBC has only issued specific guidelines on the ‘correct’ terminology to be used when reporting on one of the world’s many conflicts?
BBC amends election guide’s ‘wealthy’ Jewish community
The BBC has apologized and amended a general election guide it had produced mainly for use by its journalists, following complaints that a description of a constituency’s wealthy Jews was anti-Semitic.
In describing the Blackley (pronounced “Blakely”) and Broughton constituency in North Manchester, the online guide referred to the “multicultural seat” containing “significant Muslim, Irish, West Indian, Sikh and Polish populations.”
However, the document went on to state that there was a “Jewish community concentrated in a wealthy pocket of large detached houses in the Higher Crumpsall and Broughton Park areas.”
It also noted that the constituency houses the King David School, “a predominantly Jewish institution that regularly ranks as one of the best performers in the country.”
The constituency’s Labor MP since 1997, Graham Stringer, who secured 54.3 percent of the vote in the last election in 2010, said the words the guide used had produced a flood of complaints from Jewish constituents, and that parts of the area’s Orthodox community suffered from some of the highest poverty levels in the country.
Tunisian students admire Hitler and Islamists
French media have revealed that students at at least two high schools in Tunisia, the land where the Arab Spring began, have marked their sports days with huge banners in support of Hitler and Islamic State (Da'esh). Are the students acting out of ignorance or conviction?
In Tunisia, "Islamofascism" is not merely a media formula. It can take on a quite concrete appearance. . . .;At the high school in Jendouba in the northeast of the country, a banner showing Hitler saluting the German flag was displayed. (France TV - Geopolis)
In another high school in the area of Jendouba, it was the black flag of the Islamic State that was put on display. . . . . (France TV - Geopolis)
In the girls high school of Kairowan (LJFK), the religious center of Tunisia, a banner showing a representation of the persecutions of the Islamic State was hung on a wall. One can see on it a masked warrior armed with a scimitar accompanied by two prisoners dressed in the typical orange pajama. One of them in flames might represent the Jordanian pilot burned alive by Da`ash [ISIL] last February. (Le Figaro, 15 April 2015)
Indian Minister Invites Israel to Send Delegation to Country: ‘My State Needs It’
The Chief Minister of India’s Maharashtra state, Devendra Fadnavis, on Tuesday invited Israel to send a delegation to the region, saying the state could really use Israel’s agricultural technology.
“We invite Israel & it’s delegation for technologies for drip irrigation, agri-equipments, post-harvest technology,etc as my state needs it,” he posted on Twitter, adding, “We not only want to import technologies but also want to manufacture it in Maharashtra.”
Fadnavis arrived in Israel on Sunday for a four-day visit. On Monday he addressed a symposium on India-Israel collaboration held at Tel Aviv University for a government initiative called Make in Maharashtra. The program’s main goal is to increase the ease of doing business in the southwestern state.
On Tuesday Fadnavis participated in the Agritech Israel 2015 conference, which showcases Israel’s technological advancements in agriculture. The exhibition will be held until Thursday.
Apple seeks to expand its new Israel R&D center
Just months after its opening, Apple is set to expand its R&D center in Herzliya in order to give workers more space, a company source told the Times of Israel Wednesday.
“The company leases a portion of its Herzliya R&D center, and it is going to lease more space in the same building in order to make it easier for the engineers there to work,” the source said.
The source also said that, unlike the news reports that appeared in the Israeli media Wednesday, the company was not quite ready to go on a hiring spree. Apple is still absorbing recent hires, particularly the staff of Linx, the digital photography start-up it acquired in mid-April.
“That said, we can’t rule out the possibility that the company will be hiring in the future,” the source added.
Israeli high school robotics teams excel at international competition
Three Israeli high school robotics teams excelled at the finals of the FIRST international robotics competition, held over the weekend in St. Louis.
The competition announced the guidelines for this year's robotics game at the start of January, and some 3,000 groups all over the world set to work to meet the challenge. Seven Israeli groups made it through the first round, and three of them performed well in the final round.
The Miscar group from Misgav and the Orbit group from Binyamina reached the final games of the first round of the finals, securing places in the top 18.
The youngest Israeli group, BumbleB from Kfar Yona, made it into the knockout round in the competition's Championship games, putting the eight-member team into the top eight in the world, the highest achievement for an Israeli team since in the 21 years of the FIRST competition.
Birthright Israel Projects it Will Surpass 500,000 Trip Participants This Year
The Taglit-Birthright Israel program said that it is on track to surpass 500,000 participants over time during its 15th year of existence, which begins in May. From May to September alone this year, Birthright projects that it will see 28,000 participants on its free 10-day trips to Israel for Jews ages 18-26.
“Prior to the inception of Taglit-Birthright Israel, only 1,500 young American Jewish adults visited Israel each year,” Birthright CEO Gidi Mark said in a statement. “In our first year, we brought 9,000-plus participants. Today, we have increased that number to nearly 45,000 participants annually from around the world.”
Mark said that Birthright’s upcoming milestone of 500,000 participants “is not only inspiring, but also motivation to continue pursuing our goal to bring Jewish young adults from all corners of the diaspora to Israel each year.”
In January 2014, JNS.org was the first to report a change in Birthright’s eligibility rules that opened up the free trips to teenagers who have already taken part in educational trips to Israel during high school.