Tuesday, May 13, 2014
J Street, I Dare You to Condemn PA War Crimes
Hey J Street, I dare you to create one Facebook post that puts part of the blame for the failed peace talks on the PA’s incitement to kill Jews. Seems like a no-brainer for a “pro-Israel” and “pro-peace” organization, right?Amos Oz is a Dangerous Opportunist
In the past six days on its official Facebook page, J Street has blamed settlements and/or Bibi for the collapse of the peace processes three times. Meanwhile, it has yet to mention even once the PA’s unwillingness to make any concessions, the PA’s glorification of terrorism, and the PA’s continuous incitement to genocide (which is a war crime) as even slight obstacles to peace.
J Street claims to be “pro-Israel” and pro-peace,” but it only condemns Israel and it ignores obvious obstacles to peace committed by the PA.
War crimes and the glorification of terrorism seem to me to be pretty large obstacles to peace; shouldn’t these PA actions be blamed at least partially for the collapse of the peace process? Or how about the PA’s recent partnership with the terrorist group Hamas?
He sent an autographed copy of his book along with a love letter to Marwan Barghouti, convicted murderer of innocent Jews and planner of the Second Intifada, Israel's greatest massacre of civilians.Auschwitz Survivor's Son Hits Back at Oz's 'Nazi' Slur
Now Amos Oz has called the unidentified price taggers, whom he has considers exemplars of right wing Jews in Judea and Samaria, "neo-Nazis", condemning them to a similarly sinister, diabolical fate. Oz previously referred to traditional Jews as "filth." (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Nationalistic screen writer and satirist Tal Gilad, whose father is a famous Holocaust survivor, has fired back at famed writer Amos Oz for his statement that so-called Hilltop Youth and perpetrators of Price Tag attacks are “Hebrew neo-Nazis.”PCUSA Activists Promote Three Big Lies in Zionism Unsettled
Gilad's Facebook post Sunday was widely shared and lauded.
"Hello Amos Oz,” wrote Gilad, who was the main scriptwriter for the Latma satire show.
"The word 'Nazi,' or – in the form that is considered somehow softer – 'neo-Nazi', is too often used as a doomsday weapon on any subject, apparently because people like you, who blurt it out freely, are unable of fathoming the depth of horror of Nazism and what it perpetrated," he accused.
"People are always trying to place this term in a mold that will make it understandable for our consciousness. But that is impossible, because a Nazi is not simply someone very bad, or a nationalist, or a traffic policeman. A Nazi is something else, from a different reality. (h/t Elder of Lobby)
Since its founding in 2004, the Israel Palestine Mission Network of the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been engaged in an ongoing effort to delegitimize Israel and its supporters, Jews especially, in the United States.
Three Big Lies
Zionism Unsettled promotes three big lies.
The first big lie is that Zionism as a political movement and Israel as a country have been sheltered from debate, particularly in mainline churches in the U.S.
The second big lie is that Jews were well treated in Muslim countries in the Middle East until Israel's founding in 1948.
The third big lie is that Israel is singularly responsible for the suffering of the Palestinians. “Zionism is the problem,” the text states on page 56.
MSNBC's Ed Schultz: Gays 'Really the Ones Persecuted' in Nazi Holocaust
MSNBC's Ed Schultz just found out that Twitter is forever when he tweeted that gays were "really" the ones persecuted during Hitler's holocaust.Divestment Losses Piling Up for BDS
The MSNBC host Godwined himself before anyone else even said a word with a tweet where he informed the world of who was the "real" target of Hitler's Final Solution.
"Gay people were really the ones being persecuted in Hitler's Germany," Schultz blurted out on his EdShow Twitter feed at 4:50 PM on May 12.
Schultz accompanied his Tweet with an image of a webpage that reported on the thousands of gays that the Nazis reportedly put to death or otherwise interned in their odious death camps.
The divestment strategy seems to be a real bust for the BDS this year.Vassar SJP Tweets and Then Deletes Nazi Propaganda
A case in point is the University of New Mexico, where the Graduate and Professional Student Association reversed an earlier decision to divest from Israel because the pro-Israel side did not get the chance to defend its position against divestment.
Even without representation from the pro-Israel community, the earlier measure ended in a vote of 10-10, with the meeting chair casting the deciding vote. Israel’s defenders only had to sway one voter to defeat the measure.
Hating Israel apparently isn't enough for the Students for Justice in Palestine chapter at Vassar College; the group tweeted Nazi propaganda late Sunday evening before eventually deleting the photograph amidst critisism.Does Israel have the balls to BDS the Methodists?
The offensive tweet was captured by the blog Mystical Politics, which also found a summary of the anti-Semitic image that the Nazis first directed toward the Netherlands in 1944:
Let’s start with the obvious. However unlikely the Methodist Conference 2014 may decide in June to reject a motion to recommend BDS. It might even support the side that doesn’t persecute Christians. On the other hand pigs might fly.The (well-justified) J Street exclusion
However in the real world, the most likely result is a sanctimonious condemnation of Israel, accepting every Palestinian charge as fact. They will loudly proclaim their neutrality but pass some form of boycott resolution that will allow them to present themselves as righteous without too much pain (or any pain) to themselves.
That has been the Methodist method for several years. If you have the stomach check out the Facebook page of the Methodist Liaison office in Jerusalem. Every post is an attack against Israel. They are emphatically not neutral.
J Street has not sought to take its place within the family of “major American Jewish organizations.” Rather, it has argued it should replace an existing Jewish community that it claims has grown insular, unresponsive and too close to an Israeli government many American Jews dislike. It has spent the last several years relentlessly attacking the so-called Jewish establishment. Should it be surprising that this same establishment refused to grant it entry to one of its major bodies?Danny Glover pushes for Tel Aviv festival boycott
J Street has told a story which has captured many imaginations. Unfortunately, it is only a story. The mainstream American Jewish leadership is not and has never been opposed to peace or peace negotiations or strong American leadership in support thereof. It has not attempted to silence or exclude organizations which advocate those views, such as American for Peace Now, which is part of the Conference. There have been disagreements, personality clashes and harsh words spoken over the years. That will always be so. But unlike J Street, the American Jewish establishment, in all of its diversity, is not collectively acting as though the last twenty years did not happen. J Street is, and in so doing is giving voice and platform to those who would see Israel destroyed. That is its greatest flaw. And it is a compelling reason to keep J Street out of the Conference.
The film, “American Revolutionary: the Evolution of Grace Lee Boggs,” is due to be screened at the DocAviv festival, which is running through May 17.Shindler’s Listless Op-Ed in the NYT
In a statement, Glover and nine others featured in the film, along with Boggs, the 98-year-old philosopher and activist whose life is chronicled in the documentary, said: “We stand in solidarity with the people of Palestine, and support their call for cultural and academic boycott of Israel… we were shocked to find the film slated to be screened at the DocAviv festival in Israel on May 13th and 15th. This was scheduled without our knowledge.”
They said they attempted to have the screenings canceled, but “the festival organizers and film producers informed us that this was not possible and they would move forward with the screening, over our objections.”
In his NYTimes op-ed, “Bibi’s Big PR Stunt“, Colin Shindler writes as if he’s become unmoored from comprehending what Benyamin Netanyahu actually said.Economist's Nicolas Pelham Deceives About Christians
Some examples:
a. It seems that Mr. Netanyahu wishes to define the country as the nation-state solely of the Jews.
b. Israel’s first right-wing prime minister, Menachem Begin, did not make the 1979 Camp David agreement with Egypt conditional on recognition of Israel as a Jewish state.
c. The suggestion that Israel should be recognized as a Jewish state emerged clearly after the Israeli army’s offensive in Gaza, Operation Cast Lead.
Charging "Israel's multiple self-professed lobbyists" for having "donned the mantle of Christian saviors," The Economist's Nicolas Pelham cites Proverbs to excoriate: "Deceive not with thy lips." Writing yesterday in Haaretz ("Christians in Israel and Palestine"), it is Pelham himself who repeatedly deceives.To Assuage Human Rights Groups, IDF To Switch To NERF Bullets (satire)
Population Decline or Growth?
First, he completely misleads about Israel's Christian population, claiming it has declined, when in fact it has increased by 268 percent since 1949. He writes:
The IDF faces violent groups of Palestinians almost daily across Judea and Samaria, groups that are outfitted with digital cameras specifically to document how the soldiers respond to provocations. Since the videos invariably do not include the often-deadly provocations themselves, Israel finds itself perpetually on the defensive about the military’s treatment of demonstrators. To forestall such unpleasantness, the IDF set out to identify and implement certain preventive measures.Looking at Anti-Semitism and Anti-Zionism From a Literary Perspective
A special committee that included a representative of Human Rights Watch convened over several weeks at the Ministry of Defense in Tel Aviv, and succeeded in generating several operative recommendations, chief among them the replacement of rubber bullets with NERF™ foam balls produced by the Hasbro corporation.
Judith is the main character in my book, Fields of Exile, which was published last week. Before the book has even come out, I’ve already been asked countless times why I chose to write a novel on this topic – a question I was never asked about my first book, Marrow and Other Stories – because it turns out that Fields of Exile is the first fictional narrative to tackle the issue of anti-Israelism on campus.Simon Wiesenthal Center Slams State-Funded Russia Today Television for Anti-Semitic Program; Demands Apology (VIDEO)
I spent years writing a novel on this topic because I was so distressed about the anti-Israelism around me that I really couldn’t write about anything else. It was like having a fish hook in my stomach.
I was pained not only by the most obvious manifestations of anti-Israelism, like Israel Apartheid Week – during which, year after year, I witnessed the emotional and psychological damage wreaked on Jewish students and professors – but also the increasing normalization of Israel-bashing in classes, in faculty meetings, and at conferences. I was appalled that in certain disciplines it was almost de rigueur to trash Israel.
Samuels said he sat through “eight minutes of raw Jew-hatred and unambiguous group defamation, horrified that a Russian government-financed television would screen this, Australian produced, ‘Juice Rap News’ clip’s pathetic claim to political satire.”Civil Rights Lawyer Says ‘There Are Many More Glenn Miller’s Out There’
“My first thought was, by chance I had captured the EU banned Iranian Press TV,” Samuels said. “Then perhaps, that RT must be parodying Soviet antisemitism in order to condemn it.”
“But no! We were treated to the self-hatred of Holocaust revisionist, Norman Finkelstein, and then a series of classical antisemitic canards including Jews and money, their control of the United States etc. The rest of the clip is arguably an endorsement for Palestinian terrorism and of the BDS boycott campaign against Israel.” [covered by EoZ here]
Richard Cohen, executive director of the Southern Poverty Law Center, the veteran Alabama-based civil rights law group, said Frazier Glenn Miller, the former Ku Klux Klan leader who killed three people at Jewish community buildings in Overland Park, Kansas, last month, is just one of many.Sharp rise in French Jews leaving for Israel
“There are many more Glenn Millers out there,” Cohen told the UK’s Jewish Chronicle in an interview published at the weekend. “Our government isn’t doing enough to counter this directly.”
The SPLC brought a case against him in the 1980s over his activities with the Ku Klux Klan, and Miller was found in contempt of court and jailed for three years.
The Jewish Agency for Israel, a global body responsible for the immigration and absorption of Jews into Israel, said 1,407 people left France for Israel between January and March against 353 people a year earlier.Non-Jewish couple donates Holocaust Torah to alma mater
“This phenomenon is speeding up” said Ariel Kandel, the head of the Jewish Agency’s French chapter.
“We will not finish the year with four times more the number than in 2013 but if the current rhythm continues, there will be more than 5,000 French people leaving for Israel, something that has never happened since its creation in 1948,” he said.
A non-Jewish couple from Arizona donated a 250-year-old Torah scroll recovered from the Nazis to Virginia Commonwealth University.Selfie helpie: Israeli innovation transforms phone camera imaging
The couple, Martin L. Johnson and Olinda Young of Phoenix, are collectors of antiques and art; an interest in old Bibles led to them to acquire eight Torah scrolls. In recent years, the two have donated Torahs to the University of Pennsylvania, Loyola University in Chicago, Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles, the University of Arizona and Arizona State.
The company, Corephotonics, has developed a dual-lens phone camera that can produce crystal-clear images even when the zoom function is used. Because the parallel 13-megapixel lenses also have their own sensors, the camera boasts improved low-light performance, producing cleaner images with less noise.April Sees Four New Records for Israel Tourism, Upward Trend Continues
According to a review on Engadget, which awarded the technology 9.2 points out of 10, the use of two lenses also provides “a degree of depth analysis,” meaning that the camera can automatically blur backgrounds in portrait shots and autofocus more quickly.
A record-breaking 385,000 visitor entries were recorded in the month, 9 percent more than in the same month last year, according to Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. 342,000 of these visitors were tourists (defined as staying more than one night), which is 14 percent more than in April 2013.'World still doesn't understand Israel's influence in high-tech'
In order to neutralize the impact of the Passover and Easter holidays, the statistics for March and April combined were also examined by the Bureau: 687,000 visitors came in that two-month period, 5 percent more than the same period last year. Of those visitors, 625,000 were tourists, 14 percent more than the same period last year.
The Bureau also revealed that between January and April 2014, 1.16 million visitors arrived in Israel (including day visitors), 5 percent more than the same period in 2013 and 2012. Of these, 1.05 million were tourists, 16 percent more than 2013.
Jeff Pulver, a serial high-tech entrepreneur, became a technology guru and startup idol 20 years ago when he identified the technology developed in Israel by VocalTec Communications for transmitting voice over the Internet. Among the first to invest in Twitter and Foursquare, Pulver is a leader in the Voice Over IP industry. He is also a respected proponent of television broadcasts streamed over the Internet -- one of the hot topics on the Internet today.Mayim Bialik explains why she Celebrates Israel
When Pulver arrives in Israel, his schedule is usually full and he barely has a moment to breathe. This crowded calendar is set before he makes the trip. Many high-tech entrepreneurs have asked to meet with him, and make pilgrimages to hear his advice. It is not easy to find a free spot in his schedule for an interview.
Still, Israel is an extraordinary case. He comes here often.
Stand With Us: US and Israel: Shared Values
