Sunday, January 03, 2016
Bernard Lewis (1976): The Return of Islam
From the foregoing, certain general conclusions emerge. Islam is still the most effective form of consensus in Muslim countries, the basic group identity among the masses. This will be increasingly effective as the regimes become more genuinely popular. One can already see the contrast between the present regimes and those of the small, alienated, Western-educated elite which governed until a few decades ago. As regimes come closer to the populace, even if their verbiage is left-wing and ideological, they become more Islamic. Under the Ba’thist regime in Syria, more mosques were built in the three years after the Jaysh al-Sha’b incident than in the previous thirty.Ben-Dror Yemini: The enlightened and the benighted
Islam is a very powerful but still an undirected force in politics. As a possible factor in international politics, the present prognosis is not very favorable. There have been many attempts at a pan-Islamic policy, none of which has made much progress. One reason for their lack of success is that those who have made the attempt have been so unconvincing. This still leaves the possibility of a more convincing leadership, and there is ample evidence in virtually all Muslim countries of the deep yearning for such a leadership and a readiness to respond to it. The lack of an educated modern leadership has so far restricted the scope of Islam and inhibited religious movements from being serious contenders for power. But it is already very effective as a limiting factor and may yet become a powerful domestic political force if the right kind of leadership emerges.
In the period immediately preceding the outbreak of the Six-Day War in 1967, an ominous phrase was sometimes heard, “First the Saturday people, then the Sunday people.” The Saturday people have proved unexpectedly recalcitrant, and recent events in Lebanon indicate that the priorities may have been reversed. Fundamentally, the same issue arises in both Palestine and Lebanon, though the circumstances that complicate the two situations are very different. The basic question is this: Is a resurgent Islam prepared to tolerate a non-Islamic enclave, whether Jewish in Israel or Christian in Lebanon, in the heart of the Islamic world? The current fascination among Muslims with the history of the Crusades, the vast literature on the subject, both academic and popular, and the repeated inferences drawn from the final extinction of the Crusading principalities throw some light on attitudes in this matter. Islam from its inception is a religion of power, and in the Muslim world view it is right and proper that power should be wielded by Muslims and Muslims alone. Others may receive the tolerance, even the benevolence, of the Muslim state, provided that they clearly recognize Muslim supremacy. That Muslims should rule over non-Muslims is right and normal. That non-Muslims should rule over Muslims is an offense against the laws of God and nature, and this is true whether in Kashmir, Palestine, Lebanon, or Cyprus. Here again, it must be recalled that Islam is not conceived as a religion in the limited Western sense but as a community, a loyalty, and a way of life—and that the Islamic community is still recovering from the traumatic era when Muslim governments and empires were overthrown and Muslim peoples forcibly subjected to alien, infidel rule. Both the Saturday people and the Sunday people are now suffering the consequences.
Jewish terrorism encouraging Arab terrorism?BDS Discredits Itself
The video from the "wedding of hate" was aired on Wednesday's news broadcast. The very next morning, it was a political commentator on Israel Radio - public radio - who thought he still has a chance to spew out his political views. "In my humble opinion," he said, "Arab terrorism encourages Jewish terrorism." He is of course against Jewish terrorism. He's only explaining it and helping understand it. There's no need to provide explanations or to try to understand it, not the Jewish underground of the early 80s, Baruch Goldstein in the 90s, or the "price tag" hooligans in recent years. An understanding of this kind is more suitable for Baruch Marzel, not a political commentator on public radio.
The truth is that the commentator said something completely different: "Jewish terrorism encourages Arab terrorism." And that's interesting. Because support for Jewish terrorism is next to nonexistent. Yes, there are several hundreds of hooligans from the extreme right wing in Israel, and it's safe to assume they have several thousands of supporters, and if we exaggerate, we'll reach something that is less than one percent of the population. Compared to that, Palestinian support of the current wave of terrorism - meaning, slaughtering Jews with knives - is at 67 percent. Even Mahmoud Abbas stresses this is a "justified popular unrest." When a Jew is murdered in a terror attack, candy is being handed out on the Palestinian street. However, when a Palestinian child is murdered by a Jew, and this happens on average once every few years, 99 percent of Israelis are shocked, condemn it, and are feeling remorse. So saying Jewish terrorism encourages Arab terrorism is like saying an ant can carry an elephant.
But damn the facts. When the comment "Jewish terrorism encourages Arab terrorism" is said, it is seen as coming from among the enlightened, the thinkers, and the progressives. But when the opposite it said, that "Arab terrorism encourages Jewish terrorism," it is seen as coming from among the benighted. Both of these statements are benighted. Not just on the right, on the left as well.
The boycott, divestment, sanctions movement has taken a special interest in Malaysia.
That’s not surprising since Malaysia is an aggressive violator of rights. Its Sedition Law permits the government to intimidate its critics, and for this and other reasons it’s press is rated “not free” by Freedom House. Anwar Ibrahim, a leader of the opposition, is serving a jail term for sodomy, “a charge seen as politically motivated,” according to Freedom House. Anti-Semitism is rampant and has received official encouragement. Freedom House also reports discrimination against homosexuals (“same-sex sexual relations are punishable by up to twenty years in prison”), Shiite Muslims (last year 114 Shiites were arrested while attending a religious ceremony), and women. Since BDS is eager to distinguish its attacks on Israel from attacks on Jews, and to define itself as part of a human rights movement, it is refreshing that it has turned its attention to Malaysia.
Sorry, my mistake. The Palestinian BDS National Committee does mention Malaysia prominently in its list of seven major achievements for 2014. But it mentions Malaysia only because a BDS coalition has been established there, as well as in Egypt. The penetration of BDS into anti-Semitic countries with poor human rights records is, from the standpoint of the BDS movement, an exciting sign of its growing international reach.
This is no anomaly. Prominent BDS activists, Ali Abunimah and Anna Baltzer, showed up and spoke at the “BDS for Justice” conference in Kuala Lumpur in September 2015. In her thirty plus minute address, Baltzer had nothing to say about Malaysia’s repression of its own citizens but did have the poor taste to complain before her Malaysian audience of the “state repression” BDS activists supposedly encounter in the U.S. Of course, since Baltzer was speaking at a Malaysian university, and Malaysia, according to the U.S. State Department, restricts academic freedom, “particularly the expression of unapproved political views,” Baltzer couldn’t say anything without risking the punishment of her hosts. Did I mention that one of the reasons BDS deems Israel, whose universities remain centers of dissent, deserving of boycott is its supposed indifference to academic freedom?
Malaysia: a hotbed of anti-Semitism
Anna Baltzer, a national organizer of boycotts, divestments and sanctions (BDS) against Israel in the United States, was heartened to receive a warm welcome at a recent conference in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.Analysis: Tel Aviv shooting more similar to ISIS copycat attacks than terror wave in Israel
She found the political atmosphere was much more open to the BDS cause than in the U.S. “You are way ahead in that way,” she told the Malaysians. She envisioned Malaysia as her ally, “our secret weapon in this international campaign.”
Erna Mahyuni, who blogs for Malay Mail Online, takes a different view of Malaysian public opinion. She headed one of her blogs, “The Ridiculous Malaysian Obsession With Jews,” reporting that, “I walked into a local bookstore at Great Eastern Mall to find a special display dedicated to Adolf Hitler’s Mein Kampf.”
Both Baltzer and Mahyuni were responding to the same phenomenon. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) runs a global survey of anti-Semitic attitudes, estimating how many citizens of each country express anti-Jewish attitudes. India, for example, is estimated at 20 per cent. In Malaysia, the number is 61 per cent, higher than Iran.
How can that be? The country has had no conflict with Israel and Jews are so rare in Malaysia that most citizens never see one. Yet this is the only state in the Pacific region where Israel and the Jews are often on the public agenda. For many years, the government has promoted anti-Semitism. Now it’s part of the national culture. There’s nothing else like it outside the Middle East.
It is still not clear if he was aided by an accomplice or acted alone and arrived at the scene of the murder alone - in a car or on a bus. The assailants in other terror attacks of recent months - most of whom were Palestinians from the West Bank or east Jerusalem - whether they stabbed or ran over their victims, did not flee the scene of the attack. This fact indicates that they wished to be killed by security forces.Updates on Tel Aviv shooter: Believed to still be in Metropolitan Tel Aviv area
This is not the case with the suspected assailant from Arara. He did not wait for security forces to kill him, but escaped with the hope that he would be able to hide. The attack bears more of a resemblance to the terror operations inspired by ISIS in Brussels, Paris or California, in which a single attacker, a pair of assailants or a group of terrorists engage in a murderous rampage.
In any event, there is no doubt that the easy access to videos, programs and instructions on the Internet, detailing how to make an explosive device or effectively kill someone, provide inspiration to anyone who wants to carry out a terror attack.
The attack raises some difficult questions on the functioning of the Shin Bet and police. One of the biggest of these questions is whether there was tracking and follow up on the suspect after he was released from prison. It is surprising as well that authorities allowed the suspect's father to keep a firearm in the house, while his son, a former security prisoner with mental problems, is living at home. Those same authorities will also have to explain why they prevented the publication of the suspect's name in the media in the first 24 hours after the attack, but allowed the publication of his picture.
The police and Shin Bet (Israeli Security Agency) are continuing their search for the suspected perpetrator from Friday's shooting in Tel Aviv. Large swaths of police squads were deployed in Bat Yam, although police have still not yet caught him.Netanyahu to Israeli Arabs: You can't enjoy Israeli rights while failing to obey state's laws
The suspect, named on Saturday as Nashat Milhem, 31, is believed to still be armed with the submachine gun he allegedly used in the attack, and to pose a clear and present danger to the public.
Since the publication of the suspect's name and picture, police received hundreds of calls from central Israel from civilians who gave them information and said that they had spotted him in several places where they believe he may have been hiding. Some of the information has been checked and verified.
Police decided to review all claims that the suspect was seen running from street to street in the Gush Dan area, and in turn, many roads were closed in Tel Aviv and the surrounding area.
Security officials estimate that the attacker has not yet left the central Gush Dan area, mainly due to the lack of information regarding his whereabouts elsewhere.
Mystery: Why did armed man refuse to shoot Tel Aviv terrorist?
Shortly after police publicized the name of the suspected gunman, 31-year-old Nashat Milhem of Arara, Netanyahu spoke out about the need to fight incitement and increase law enforcement in Israeli-Arab areas.
“There are many among Muslim Israeli citizens who have come out against the violence and are crying out for full law enforcement in their towns. At the same time, we all know that there is wild incitement by radical Islam against the State of Israel in the Arab sector. Incitement in mosques, in the education system, on social media,” he said, vowing to continue efforts to stop the incitement.
The prime minister said he is unwilling to have a state within a state in Israel, in which some citizens live in “enclaves with no law enforcement, with Islamist incitement and an abundance of illegal weapons that are often fired at happy events, weddings, and during endless criminal incidents.”
“That time is over,” Netanyahu declared.
According to several reports from the murderous terror attack in Tel Aviv Friday, at least one of the bystanders at the scene of the attack was armed with a handgun, but he failed to use it against the terrorist.MK Ohana proposes easing restrictions on gun licenses
David Malka, who owns the Sidewalk Café, which is located at the scene of the attack, said that the terrorist "ran in our direction and kept on firing. Three bullets struck here, and he hit [the] Japanika [restaurant] as well. He ran toward Gottlieb street. Me and two other guys chased after him. We had no weapons. He pointed the weapons at us, and by the time security forces arrived, he had disappeared. I saw him right in front of my eyes and I identified him in the security camera footage.
"One of the guys, who wore civilian clothes, carried a weapon, but he did not draw his handgun," said Malka, who was cited on several news sources. "I don't know who the guy was. There were three or four of us. We told him to shoot, but he didn't fire. He didn't function, it seems he was in some kind of shock."
While it is certainly possible that the man with the handgun was in a state of shock, another possibility being floated by many on social media is that he was afraid of being prosecuted if he fired at the terrorist.
The Likud's newest Knesset member, Amir Ohana, responded to yesterday's terror attack in Tel Aviv by calling on the government to ease the restrictions on gun licenses.Officials ‘increasingly believe’ TA shooter also killed cabbie
"I decided to take upon myself the issue of easing the permissions for citizens to carry firearms. If there is not yet a lobby for this, I will create it. If it has been created, I will revive it," said MK Ohana. "The desire is for all citizens without a criminal past and/or relevant medical issues, who serve in the reserves, to be allowed to carry a licensed gun should they so wish."
He further wrote, "Yes, this could sadly lead to more accidents with weapons... but there is no basis to the assumption that more lives will be lost through accidents than lives will be saved in our terror-stricken country. More trained people carrying licensed weapons = more terrorists neutralized at the scene = fewer lives lost.
Security officials increasingly suspect that the murder of a taxi driver in Tel Aviv on Friday afternoon is connected to a fatal shooting attack in the city’s Dizengoff Street that occurred a short time earlier, Walla news reported Saturday.CNN's Brianna Keilar: Tel Aviv Is Israel's Capital
Police and the Shin Bet internal security service believe Israeli Arab Nashat Milhem, the suspected shooter who killed two people and injured six others at Simta Bar in the city center, was also involved in the killing of 42-year-old Ayman Shaaban, a Bedouin from Lod, the report said.
Shaaban’s body was found in the north of Tel Aviv about an hour after the shooting attack, in the city’s Yunitsman Street. Police have concentrated much of their search effort for Milhem in that area, according to Walla.
Shaaban had three wives and 11 children, his family said on Saturday.
His wife Sadia said Shaaban “lived for his children” and said she did not know how the family would manage without her husband.
Urging viewers to tune in to her upcoming 2 pm EST "Newsroom" broadcast, CNN's Brianna Keilar reports at the end of "Wolf":PreOccupiedTerritory: Meretz Kinda Disappointed Tel Aviv Shooting Wasn’t Anti-Gay (satire)
Hi there. I'm Brianna Keilar. And we are starting with breaking news of a possible terror attack in Israel. We are following this manhunt for the person who opened fired at a pub in Israel's capital. Two people were killed in the middle of the afternoon in the shooting in Tel Aviv.
Unfortunately, in the short time between the end of "Wolf" and the opening of "Newsroom" no one at CNN managed to tip off Keilar, a fellow at Georgetown University's Institute of Politics and Public Service, that Jerusalem, not Tel Aviv, is Israel's capital.
Thus, the intrepid anchorwoman gamely carried on, kicking off the "Newsroom" broadcast:
Hunt for the person who opened fire at a pub in Israel's capital. Two people were killed in the middle of the afternoon in this shooting in Tel Aviv. It's 9:00 p.m. there now and night has long since fallen, but this killer is still on the loose.
Leaders of the Meretz Party confessed Saturday that they felt let down upon discovering that yesterday’s shooting in Tel Aviv was in fact anti-Jewish terrorism and not anti-gay terrorism.Female soldier wounded in Hebron sniper attack
Party Chairwoman Zehava Gal-On and fellow MKs Michal Rozin and Tamar Zandberg told reporters that when word of the attack, which killed two and injured seven, came to them, some of the initial speculation included the possibility that the shooter targeted homosexuals, given the association of the location with known gay hangouts. However, as police ruled out that possibility and focused primarily on the likelihood that the attack was motivated by anti-Israel feelings, the lawmakers heaved a collective sigh of disappointment and began the emotional shift from indignation at the targeting of gays to righteous justification of terrorism against Jews.
An IDF soldier was moderately to seriously wounded in a shooting attack near the Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site, according to the army.Palestinian arrested after bungled Jerusalem stabbing
The soldier had a bullet wound in her pelvis, according to the Magen David Adom emergency medical service. She was evacuated to Jerusalem’s Shaare Zedek Medical Center for treatment.
The victim was a cadet in Hebron on a field trip as a part of the army’s officer’s training course, the IDF said in a statement.
The apparent sniper attack, which took place at approximately 2 p.m. Sunday, targeted the parking lot at Hebron’s Tomb of the Patriarchs holy site.
The gunfire came from the nearby Abu Sneineh neighborhood, the army said. Soldiers have launched a manhunt for the shooter.
A young Palestinian attempted to stab an Israeli in the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood of Jerusalem on Sunday afternoon.UN Media Centre Ignores Murdered Israelis
A large number of police officers were deployed to the area, and a suspect who matched the description of the assailant was detained, according to police.
There were conflicting reports of injuries, with the Magen David Adom emergency service saying no one was injured, while Hebrew media reported that one person sustained a very minor shoulder wound.
According to police, a Palestinian brandished a knife at a bus stop and lunged at an Israeli man standing nearby. The knife failed to cause any injury to the Israeli, police said.
In what has become a routine abuse of facts, the United Nations Media Centre continued to edit comments that have to do with Israelis being attacked and murdered by Palestinian Arabs.JPost Editorial: Spy lessons
On December 15, 2015, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Cécile Pouilly gave a press briefing about situations in “Burundi, Israel / Occupied Palestinian Territory, and Cuba.” In her opening statement about Israel, she said the following:
“We continue to be gravely concerned at the unrelenting violence in the Occupied Palestinian Territory and in Israel. Since the current escalation started at the beginning of October, 21 Israelis and 117 Palestinians have lost their lives (along with two foreign nationals), with thousands more injured.
The UN Media Centre reported the comments as follows:
“Although international attention has waned regarding the crisis in Israel and the Occupied Palestine Territory, the United Nations human rights office today warned that the region is still rife with violence and the recent escalation in the fighting has claimed 117 Palestinian lives, along with two foreign nationals and injured thousands more.”
Poof. The murdered Israelis were erased. The Palestinians and two foreign nationals were killed, but the murdered Israelis were wiped from the comments and history of the United Nations Media Centre.
What is troubling about the revelations regarding US eavesdropping on Netanyahu, however, is the fact that Obama explicitly promised in January 2014, shortly after the Merkel imbroglio, to stop snooping on the leaders of close US friends and allies.Hillary Clinton Said Pro-Hezbollah Site's Anti-Netanyahu Article Was 'Interesting Reading'
“The leaders of our close friends and allies deserve to know that if I want to learn what they think about an issue, I will pick up the phone and call them, rather than turning to surveillance,” he said.
Does this mean that Obama does not consider Israel a close friend or ally? Or does it mean that the US president’s promises are sometimes not backed up with actions? Either way, the Journal story should be a cause for concern.
As we start 2016, it behooves Obama to do for Israel what he has done for agents of Cuba, Russia and China, as well as for numerous Guantanamo prisoners, when he signed to release them so that they could go home to their respective countries.
In this light, Israel’s request for an ill, harshly punished Israeli agent named Jonathan Pollard to be sent home after 30 years in US jails does not seem too much to ask.
Hillary Clinton, the frontrunner for the Democrats’ 2016 presidential nomination, expressed interest in a virulently anti-Israel article written by a radical anti-Israel activist, and published in a Hezbollah-affiliated news site, while she was serving as Secretary of State.After The Trump Terror Vid, Can We Start Calling Her ‘Al Shabaab Media Advisor Hillary Clinton’?
The article, titled, “The Bibi Connection,” was published by Al-Akhbar, a Hezbollah-affiliated website, and was forwarded to Clinton by Sidney Blumenthal, a top unofficial advisor of Clinton’s.
The article was actually written by Blumental’s son, Max Blumenthal. The son has often been accused by Jewish advocacy groups of using anti-Semitic slurs in his articles.
In an email dated January, 21, 2012, and released to the public on New Year’s Eve 2015, Hillary described the piece as “interesting reading.”
A top State Department official, Jacob Sullivan, agreed, saying Blumenthal’s write up was “really fascinating.”
Max Blumenthal has described himself as anti-Zionist, meaning he does not recognize the legitimacy of a Jewish state in the land of Israel. His most recent work, “Goliath,” is a book “that makes even anti-Zionists blush,” according to the left-wing Forward.
Hell, even CNN reported after Mrs. Clinton’s fantastical statement: “Ultimately, however, there is no evidence of ISIS using videos of Donald Trump for recruitment.”Jewish man charged with July murders of Palestinian family in Duma
You don’t have to be a genius to see how forlorn they are in their writing that it wasn’t actually true.
But of course now every news outlet under the sun is running a story entitled: “ZOMG TRUMP IS IN A TERROR RECRUITMENT VIDEO” as if Mrs. Clinton was right all along.
She wasn’t right all along. She made it up, broadcast her idea live on international television, and someone in the Al Shabaab media team went, “Oh sh*t. You know how we can steal some of that international news coverage that ISIS keeps getting? Let’s actually make that video!”
Sure enough, Al Shabaab begins to spike on Google Trends over the past 24 hours, currently locked neck and neck with “Islamic State” as a search term.
So instead of “Former Secretary of State”, can we start calling her “Al Shabaab Media Advisor” Hillary Clinton? I know I will.
Prosecutors filed indictments Sunday against two Jewish suspects, 21-year old Amiram Ben-Uliel of Jerusalem and an unnamed minor, in a July terror attack that killed three members of a Palestinian family.New Egyptian ambassador arrives in Tel Aviv, the first since 2012
On July 31, a firebomb attack on the home of the Dawabsha family in the West Bank village of Duma led to the immediate death of toddler Ali Saad Dawabsha. Parents Riham and Saad succumbed to their wounds in the hospital within weeks of the attack. Five-year-old Ahmed, Ali’s brother, remains hospitalized in Israel and faces a long rehabilitation.
The indictments mark a key breakthrough in the case, which shocked Israelis and led to unprecedented measures against Jewish terror suspects, including a cabinet vote to extend to Israeli citizens counter-terrorism practices such as detention without trial.
A court-imposed gag order that has been in place for months was lifted Sunday, allowing for the first time the publication of the chief suspect’s name.
Egypt’s new ambassador to Israel arrived in Tel Aviv Friday, ending a period of over three years in which the embassy had no top envoy.ISIS flag appears on the roof of Tel Aviv penthouse
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu praised Hazem Khairat’s arrival.
“I welcome the re-stationing of an Egyptian ambassador to Israel, which will enable us to further strengthen relations with this important and central Arab country,” he said during the weekly cabinet meeting Sunday in Jerusalem..
Foreign Ministry spokesman Emmanuel Nahshon confirmed Khairat’s arrival in a short statement Sunday, adding that the ministry wished him “good luck.”
The Foreign Ministry said it was unclear when Khairat would present his credentials to President Reuven Rivlin, but that it would likely happen soon.
Police on Sunday have opened an investigation regarding the circumstances surrounding the discovery of an Islamic State (ISIS) style flag, that was found in a penthouse apartment on Recanati street in the northern section of Tel Aviv.Iranian protesters storm Saudi embassy after execution of Shi'ite cleric
Another flag related to Islam was found at the site. The flags were hand made with white markings on a black cloth resembling the ISIS flag, and were hung on the outdoor balcony of a penthouse apartment.
The neighbors reported the flags to the police and filed a complaint. The maintenance manager of the building found the flag when he went up on the roof of the building. A source within the police stated that those involved in hanging the flag are being investigated.
According to a report in Yedioth Aharonoth, the maintenance manager said that the building is undergoing some remodeling and there is scaffolding in place which could allow people from the outside to gain access to the penthouse porch. The owners of the penthouse apartment are currently abroad.
Iranian protesters stormed the Saudi Embassy in Tehran early on Sunday morning as Shi'ite Muslim Iran reacted with fury to Saudi Arabia's execution of a prominent Shi'ite cleric.Why the Israeli Left Fears the New NGO Law
Demonstrators who had massed at the embassy gates to protest at Nimr al-Nimr's execution broke into the embassy and started fires before being cleared away by the police, Iran's ISNA news agency reported. Pictures were tweeted that showed parts of the interior on fire and smashed furniture inside one office.
Shortly afterwards, Iran's Foreign Ministry issued a statement calling for calm and urging protesters to respect the diplomatic premises, the Entekhab news website reported.
Iran's hardline Revolutionary Guards had promised "harsh revenge" against the Saudi Sunni royal dynasty for Saturday's execution of Nimr, considered a terrorist by Riyadh but hailed in Iran as a champion of the rights of Saudi Arabia's marginalized Shi'ite minority.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, attacking Saudi Arabia for the second straight day over its execution of the Shi'ite cleric, said politicians in the Sunni kingdom would face divine retribution for his death.
The shrill reaction to the proposed NGO law in Israel is hardly unexpected. It is consistent with the reflexive reaction to any perceived incursion on the monopoly that the Israeli Left believes itself entitled to.Fear and Loathing in York University
Whether it is holding themselves out as the only guardians of human rights, or the truest patriots because of their self-conceived courage in confronting the institutions of the state, the Left has long believed that it should be accorded great respect and unencumbered flexibility in how it conducts itself.
For a long time, the citizens of Israel fell into line and acted accordingly. But something tectonic has taken place in Israel, and the Left ignores this at its peril. What has changed is that there has been an awakening to the relationship that Left-wing NGOs, whose mission is to demean and de-legitimize the state of Israel, have with foreign governments — mostly in Europe.
That relationship is based on financing. Lots of it.
In my three years at York University I have made a conscious effort to avoid any participation in campus politics. Acutely aware of Sayre’s law that “academic politics are so vicious precisely because the stakes are so small”, I gave a wide berth to the often vitriolic Israeli-Palestinian debate. In light of recent events, I feel a moral obligation to speak out against a concerted campaign to vilify and intimidate Jewish students and institutions on campus.IsraellyCool: Roger Waters Starts 2016 In Same Spirit Of Israel Hate
Earlier this month a student submitted a motion to implement online voting in future elections for student government. This student was labeled a “pro-Israel racist” by members of “Students Against Israel Apartheid (SAIA) York”. The justification provided for these serious accusations was that the student in question was an executive on Glendon Campus’ Hillel. Moreover, non-Jewish students who voiced support for the electronic voting motion were defamed as “racists” and “murderous extremists” by association and were accused of “collaborating” with the Jewish student in other pro-Israel activities (a more detailed account of the incident can be read here)
This unapologetic anti-Semitism — attributing defamatory political beliefs to students on the sole basis of their involvement in a Jewish organization – has two insidious aims. The first objective is to intimidate Jewish students from participating in the political process at York University. How many Jewish students will submit political motions in the future after witnessing the crude slander of the Jew who had the misfortune of petitioning for electronic voting? The second aim is to discourage Jewish students from membership in Jewish organizations such as Hillel. Over the past year, SAIA York and its many allies on campus have worked hard to define what makes a “true Jew” and to demarcate which organizations are appropriate for Jewish students to join.
Rock’n’roll BDShole seems to have made a new year’s resolution: to continue with the hateful anti-Israel lies and propaganda.BBC News ignores Gaza missile attacks, BBC Arabic reports Israeli response
His first post on social media for 2016: a video apparently made by the people in B’i’lin (I presume Bassem Tamimi – father of Shirley Temper and master propagandist – was involved), with Pink Floyd’s Hey You as the soundtrack.
The video is from the perspective of the palestinian children. The embattled children of Sderot, or even those in Jerusalem being stabbed in recent weeks, are not represented.
The lyrics “Don’t give in without a fight” is encouraging their “resistance” – which we all know is not just stone throwing (in itself capable of causing death and severe injury). It includes the types of the terrorism that security barrier Roger and company portray as keeping the children from reaching the sea is designed to help keep out.
Late on the evening of January 1st residents of communities bordering the Gaza Strip once again had to scramble for cover from incoming missiles.Facebook Weighing Ban on Anything Related to Israel-Palestine Conflict (satire)
Hours later the IDF responded with strikes on terrorist infrastructure in the Gaza Strip.
In line with a pattern often seen since the end of the summer 2014 conflict, the missile attacks received no English language coverage on the BBC News website but the Israeli response was reported in an article headlined “Israel launches attacks on sites in the Gaza Strip” which appeared on the BBC Arabic website on the morning of January 2nd.
Citing server problems and widespread user ignorance, Facebook Tsar Mark Zuckerberg is reportedly contemplating a ‘total ban’ on anything related to the polarizing Israeli-Palestinian Conflict.Israel hosts world's first aviation cyber innovation center
“Look, I’m a billionaire genius and I didn’t build this social media platform for Israelis and Palestinians to post as if they’re all suffering from OCD, and certainly not for a bunch of white people outside the region who don’t know jack sh*t about the conflict apart from what they see on ‘nonpartisan’ news stations or Wikipedia,” Zuckerberg reportedly said. “All of these Facebook Pages, Facebook Groups, and individual comments on timelines are f*cking up our servers… except for The Mideast Beast. We’re all kind of fine with those idiots.”
Such a ban would mark a significant escalation in the behemoth’s efforts to censor user activity. As The Mideast Beast’s Marcus Thunderbolt reported, Facebook has also previously mulled introducing a ‘minimum postgraduate education requirement for commenting’ on Israel and Hamas’ repeated military confrontations, as well as the Arab-Israeli Conflict in general.
Airports and airplanes will soon become safer and friendlier for travelers, thanks to a joint collaboration between Tel Aviv University and the International Air Transport Association (IATA), the global trade association for the airline industry.Israeli companies put the fun in physical therapy
The first-of-its-kind collaboration agreement, signed in July, establishes a joint center for innovation in aviation based at the university’s Blavatnik Interdisciplinary Cyber Research Center (ICRC).
IATA and Tel Aviv University will promote research and development in areas including big-data analysis, cyber-security, authentication for security purposes, and safety and security checks relevant to the field of international flight.
“The agreement has two aspects: developing a new set of tools for civil transportation for IATA; and training IATA personnel in cyberspace [security],” says Prof. Gen. (Res.) Isaac Ben-Israel, an Israel Air Force veteran who heads the ICRC and the university’s Yuval Ne’eman Workshop for Science, Technology and Security. He also chairs the National Council for Research and Development and the Israel Space Agency.
“We have started on the training aspect,” Ben-Israel tells ISRAEL21c. “The toolkit will be a matter of research. We have initiated the research and still have a long way to go.”
“Adherence to traditional physiotherapy approaches is painfully low, and boring routines often demotivate patients and fail to improve patient health as intended,” says Dudi Klein, founder and CEO of BioGaming, one of several Israeli companies using virtual-reality gaming and robotics technology to introduce fun into physical therapy exercises.New video pays tribute to the Jewish victims of Paris attack
“For all of the digital and mobile innovations in the healthcare space, physiotherapy has been a bit left out,” he adds. “If telemedicine is enabling more cost-effective, convenient and connected healthcare, then BioGaming is the equivalent for rehab. Our platform takes it a step further by making therapy into a game to be won.”
In November, the Tel Aviv-based BioGaming introduced two industry firsts to physiotherapists in the United Kingdom, Europe and Israel: the BioGaming at-home rehabilitation system and companion iOS and Android applications to facilitate communication with patients.
The BioGaming home platform uses patented motion-detection algorithms to power a Microsoft Kinect 3D motion-capture camera. The camera can be connected to Microsoft Windows for computers or paired with a provided Xbox One for use with a television.
Over a year has passed, yet the memories of the victims killed during the terrorist attack at the Hyper Cacher supermarket in Paris, have not been forgotten.
Israeli musician Shai Barak has produced a music video, together with artists and musicians in multiple countries and languages using the slogan: Je Suis Juif.
The slogan became the symbol of the attack around the world and especially in France last year, including at a mass protest in which Frenchmen held up signs showing their support for the victims.
Barak approached popular Jewish singers from across the globe, and together they recorded a pop song that they hope will send out a message of Jewish unity. The song was written and sung in 3 languages: Hebrew, English and French.
All the singers from around the world filmed themselves using smart-phones in "Selfie" format.
The video, which was the brainchild of Jerusalemite journalist Zvika Klein, who previously produced a video of 10 hours of silent walking in Paris as a Jew, hopes to be the first Jewish Selfie music video. It is aimed at uniting Jews from all denominations around the world and is therefore sung in multiple languages.
