Thursday, February 28, 2013

Professor Ruth Wisse: The Arab War Against the Jews

Mike L.

{Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint.}




Harvard Professor of Yiddish and Literary Studies, Ruth Wisse, is the author of the very important work, Jews and Power.  I've put a recent video of Professor Wisse on the right side-bar of Israel Thrives and will leave it there for a week or so.  I would very much encourage you guys to give her a close listen because her view is both pristine and correct.  This is someone who is not the least bit muddled in her thinking on the Long Arab War Against the Jews.

This conflict is not a conflict between equals.  It is an aggression from the much larger Arab-Muslim population in the Middle East toward their former dhimmis and slaves.  It represents a hatred toward pluralism in that part of the world by the Arab majority and the refusal to accept the legitimacy of another people on their own land.

She argues, correctly, that anti-Zionism is actually worse than anti-Semitism because it incorporates all that anti-Semitism is while expanding it to deny Jewish sovereignty and Jewish self-defense on the land where Jews historically came from.

She also maintians that the organization of politics around hatred for the Jew within the Muslim Middle East, as well as within the international left, is not really about the Jews, at all, but about opposition to liberal democracy.  The Jewish State of Israel is merely a proxy.  It is a fashionable target through which opposition to liberal democracy, and therefore the United States, organizes itself.

One thing is certain, if political anti-Semitism, which is the very definition of anti-Zionism, means anything it means portraying Jews as a villain, either as Jews, individually, or in the collective, for the purpose of building political bridges with others around a common hatred.

My problem with the international left, and with "progressive Zionists," is that they accept the fundamental notion of Jewish guilt upon which the entire ideological structure of political anti-Zionist anti-Semitism is built.

In this way, whatever their best intentions, they nonetheless promote the kind of hostility toward us that results in violence and mass killings and war.

Until we recognize that we are not guilty of the charges leveled against us (and we aren't) then we can never convince anyone else of this truth and therefore we can never relieve ourselves of this perpetual hostility.

If "as-a-Jew" you tend to think that the Jews of the Middle East, via the government of Israel, is persecuting the Arabs under an imperialistic "Occupation" then you are promoting hatred toward us based on false grounds.  There is no "Occupation."  There is 6 million Jews surrounded by 400 million Arabs and those Jews want nothing so much in this world other than to be left the hell alone.

What you call the "Occupation" is nothing other than the means of an historically abused minority to finally protect itself from a much larger and hostile majority population in a part of the world where, outside of Israel, itself, very few people share your values of "social justice" and "human rights."

Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Meet the new Miss Israel


Yityish Aynaw, 21, from Netanya, was named Miss Israel 2013 Wednesday night.  Gorgeous.  She  is the first Ethiopian woman to win Israel’s national beauty pageant.  A former IDF officer, Aynaw came to Israel with her family when she was 12

During the competition  she said that she " hoped to go into modeling to change attitudes to dark-skinned models. I’d love to become the first Israeli (TV) host, the Tyra Banks of Israel.”



I'm sure we are all  looking forward to seeing more of  Yityish Aynaw. As you can see from the ten semi-finalists from the Miss Israel pageant, the competition was fierce.


Monday, February 25, 2013

End the Occupation of the Jews in the Middle East

Mike L.

{Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint.}


I know that this is a radical notion, particularly in the violent Arab-Muslim Middle East, but I recommend that the majority non-Jewish population in that part of the world, both the governments and the people, cease trying to murder the Jews and end their theocratically-based occupation of the Jewish people.

I do not see anyone else recommending this obvious solution to what Harvard Professor, Ruth Wisse, calls the Arab war against the Jews, but I thought that I might put it forward.  The Middle East is a vast area.  It's huge.  Within it is the majority Arab-Muslim population that constitutes something close to 400 million people.  A much smaller population is the Christian population, but they are leaving the area, an area that largely belonged to Christians for many centuries, because of religious hatred toward them.  Certainly the Copts in Egypt are among the most abused population in that part of the world and they are departing because of chronic abuse by the majority Muslim population.

The Jews, of course, are another matter.  We used to be spread throughout the region, but after we established Jewish autonomy on Jewish land in the State of Israel our rather intolerant Arab-Muslim cousins booted us out of our homes in places like Egypt and Iraq and Lebanon and thereby compelled Jewish aliyah to Israel shortly after the re-founding of our national homeland.

The truth is that the tiny minority of Jews in the Middle East have been under Arab-Muslim imperial domination for thirteen of the last fourteen centuries.  (That's a very long time, by the way.)  Throughout the first thirteen of those centuries we were largely something akin to slaves within the Muslim colonial system of dhimmitude.  We were abused as second and third-class citizens by a people who held us in theological contempt, and although dhimmitude varied in its degree of malice from time to time and place to place, we never had it better than Black people did under the system of Jim Crow in the United States.  Malice toward Jews is hard-coded in the Koran and, in fact, is stressed in the opening sentences of that particular book.

What I say is that it should stop.

I understand that ending violent, genocidal Arab-Muslim hatred toward Jews is inconceivable for most people, particularly western "progressives" many of whom honestly believe that the Jews richly deserve whatever beating we get, but I request that you consider it.  It does not take that much of a stretch of the imagination to consider the possibility that maybe, finally, the Jews do not really deserve the never-ending aggression toward us.

Think of it this way:

The Jews are a tiny minority amongst a much larger, generally hostile, majority population who have within living memory come through the slaughter of one-third our number in Europe, in part because the Arabs did not want us to escape from Europe to Palestine.   After thirteen centuries of perpetual abuse the Jews of the Middle East gained their freedom because the allies defeated Germany and the imperial Ottoman Empire in World War I and because us Jews, ourselves, fought for our own freedom within our historical homeland.

Once the Jews of the Middle East secured their freedom, and the defeat of dhimmitude, the larger Arab-Muslim majority in the region declared war upon us and that war continues to this day.  The stages of the Long Arab War Against the Jews in the Middle East are as follows:
Phase 1, 1920 - 1947: Riots and Massacres

Phase 2, November 1947 - April 1948: The Civil War in Palestine

Phase 3, 1948 - 1973: Conventional Warfare

Phase 4, 1964 - Present: The Terror War

Phase 5, 1975 - Present: The Delegitimization Effort
This war has resulted in the relative impoverishment of the Palestinian-Arabs who refuse to accept the fact that the Palestinian-Jews have, after 2,000 years, regained our national home.  If they would kindly reconcile themselves to the fact of the State of Israel they could go about making their lives better for themselves, their children, and their grandchildren and would be gratefully accepted by the Jewish population within Israel.

The western left, including G-d Knows how many western Jews, tend to believe that the reason that Arabs throw rocks at Jews is because the Jews have been mean to the Arabs.  This is false.  Arabs throw rocks at Jews out of Koranically-based race hatred toward the Jewish people, just as they have always done, combined with an intense bigoted resentment toward the fact of Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land.  This is why the Palestinian-Jews have placed check-points and a security barrier between themselves and much of the Palestinian-Arab population.  What the Arabs call the "occupation" is merely Jewish measures of self-defense and nothing else.

We are free now and we intend to stay free.

The Day of the Dhimmi is Done and when the greater Arab-Muslim majority accepts this fact then the long Arab War Against the Jews of the Middle East will end and the lives of the Palestinian-Arabs will greatly improve.

I say, give it a shot.  If Barack Obama did not encourage otherwise, the United States and the west could promote Arab liberality toward us.

The Arab acceptance of Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land is the only possible hope for peace, after all.

Until that day comes the Palestinian-Arabs will continue to ruin themselves and they will do so at the encouragement of their own leaders and at the encouragement of their cruel fellows in the greater Arab-Muslim world.

How the boycott, divestment, sanctions movement distorts the reality in Israel

I love New York.

Today, the New York Daily news ran an Op-Ed from Omar Barghouti, and then completely debunked it with their own op-ed. 

They write:

Barghouti aims in the short-term to undermine Israel’s moral legitimacy on the way to the long-term prize of securing rights for Palestinians that would effectively dismantle the Jewish state.
His dancing around this central point lets Barghouti verge on anti-Semitism while claiming respectability.
Skilled as a propagandist, he piles falsehood upon falsehood to present Israel as relentlessly oppressing the Palestinians in violation of human decency, and to hold Israel exclusively responsible for the ills afflicting them.

And so, he says, Israel must be hit with BDS — a boycott of commerce, divestment from the country’s economy and economic sanctions.

Let’s catalog his distortions:
Falsehood : Israel has vindictively crippled the Palestinians by imprisoning them behind a wall.
Truth : Israel built the wall to stop Palestinian bombers. In the three years before the barrier went up, 73 suicide attacks killed 293 people and wounded more than 1,900 in Israel. In the decade that followed, the wall drove bombings into the single digits per year by making it hard for attackers to enter Israel.
Falsehood : Israel has further crippled the Palestinians by maintaining an “illegal” naval blockade on Palestinian ports.
Truth : Israel has stopped ships from landing to prevent Palestinians from importing weapons.
In 2011, a UN report concluded: “The naval blockade was imposed as a legitimate security measure in order to prevent weapons from entering Gaza by sea and its implementation complied with the requirements of international law.”
Falsehood: The U.S. State Department hammered Israel for broad “institutional, legal and societal discrimination” against Arab citizens.
Truth : After conducting an annual review of the human rights records of countries around the globe, the department in 2010 found that all Israelis enjoy freedom of speech and assembly, fully exercise their democratic rights, are guided by an impartial judiciary and ban discrimination based on sexual orientation.
At the same time, the “institutional, legal and societal discrimination” cited by Barghouti stems partly from the exclusive control that Orthodox rabbis have over family matters of Jews, such as marriages and divorces.
State also dinged Israel with a finding that an Arab minority receives fewer services from the government than the Jewish majority and generally does not enjoy the career advantages that flow from service in the Israeli military.
Falsehood: Barghouti pulled the inflammatory quote from a two-year-old report.
Truth: He ignored the department’s latest document, which found that “The most significant human rights issues during the year were terrorist attacks against civilians” by Palestinians.
Reviewing human rights as measured out by the Palestinian leadership, State also concluded: “The three most egregious human rights violations across the occupied territories were arbitrary arrest and associated torture and abuse, often with impunity and particularly against security or political prisoners, by multiple actors in the region; restrictions on civil liberties; and the inability of residents of the Gaza Strip under Hamas to choose or hold to account their own government.”
Barghouti’s distortions point clearly to his believing that Israel is inherently a malignant force. He subscribes, for example, to “pinkwashing,” the paranoid view that Israel espouses equal rights for gays to divert the world’s attention from alleged sins against the Palestinians.
The unifying theme is that Barghouti merely seeks Palestinian civil rights. This, too, is a falsehood — his ultimate falsehood.
Soothingly, he states that he wants Israel to cede occupied territories to Palestinians and grant Palestinians a right of return to land once theirs. Both notions are central to attempts to negotiate a two-state solution between the Israelis and Palestinians.
But his definition of the terms, unspoken on the opposite page, is the creation of a single “secular, democratic state” built on an influx of Arabs who come to dominate the population and vote an end to Israel as a Jewish nation.
That, ultimately, is the nefarious truth behind his libels. It is also why many New Yorkers rose up in proper protest after Brooklyn College’s political science department endorsed Barghouti’s campus lecture.

Read the entire article here:


Buy Israel Goods week starts today, Monday February 25!


From our friends at San Francisco Voice for Israel:

                                              Buy Israel Goods week starts Monday February 25!


Once again, it's time for a BIG week-- Buy Israeli Goods.

One of the most important things we can do to support Israel is not only to buy Israeli goods, but to buy them from merchants who have been the target of BDS bullies because they sell them.

As many of you have read in J Weekly  or seen on our Facebook page, two weeks ago we quietly organized a group of shoppers to support Cliff's Variety, a small family-owned store in the Castro district of San Francisco that has specifically been targeted by the BDS hate crew for defying their orders and continuing to sell Sodastream devices and mixes. Watch this short clip  to see how SodaStream promotes coexistence, and meet some of the Arab employees whose jobs the BDSers want to take away.

The staff at Cliff's was delighted to see several dozen shoppers (carrying Buy Israeli Goods shopping bags) coming in to buy from them to thank them for standing up to BDS intimidation. And once again, a positive, friendly BUYcott overcame a negative, hate-filled BOYcott effort.

Especially for San Francisco residents, those who wish to buy a Sodastream device (or need to stock up on the mixes) will get a very friendly welcome at Cliff's Variety (479 Castro St between 17th and 18th).

Another small, locally owned store repeatedly targeted by hate groups is Zand Market at 1401 Solano Avenue in Albany. They not only carry imported goods but also their own Mediterranean and Middle Eastern foods.

A partial listing of stores that carry Israeli products is at BuyIsraelGoods.org (note that some of the information there may not be current).

San Francisco Voice for Israel/Stand With Us
www.SFVoiceForIsrael.org
www.StandWithUs. com

Join the SF Voice For Israel group on Facebook!
Follow us on Twitter @sfv4i
Visit our Youtube channel

Another post on Zionist control of Hollywood

We hear it all the time- the "Israel lobby" functions as thought police, stiffiling any criticism of Israel. Never mind that the  papers are full of criticism of Israel. Never mind that whole industries have developed simply to criticize Israel. Ignore the anti-Israel events held nearly weekly on college campuses.  In its condensed form, its just another version of the classic anti-Semitic canard- that the Jews  secretly in positions of power are the puppet masters controlling finance, government, and Hollywood.

Hollywood.

At the Academy Awards yesterday, two films highly critical of Israel were up for an Oscar for "Best Documentary". Both "The Gatekeepers" and "Five Broken cameras" received funding from the Israeli government,  a testament to Israel's vigorous democracy and its individual freedoms.  Ultimately, the Oscar went to "Searching for Sugar man", about the search for an obscure singer songwriter from the 1970's.


"Searching for Sugar man" was the opening film at the Sundance Film festival,  and won both the Special Jury Prize and the Audience Award. At the International Documentary Film Festival in  Amsterdam it captured both both the Audience and the Best Music Documentary awards.  It scored a 96% on Rotten Tomatoes. But  to the anti-Israel crowd, there was just one reason the film won the Oscar.  It was the Zionists.




The lapse in logic is breathtaking.  The brilliant, poignant story of Rodriquez didn't win because it touched people's souls.  It was because the "Zionists" controlled Hollywood. And the Zionists would do anything to prevent   "Five Broken cameras"  from winning the Oscar.  Anything. Never mind that the self same Zionists in control of Hollywood did nothing to prevent the film from being made, or to prevent its nomination.




Five Broken Cameras has attracted more than its share of controversy.  Emad Burnat, the director of the film claims he was detained at the airport until Michael Moore rescued him.  But others have called this a hoax and a publicity stunt

 From Buzzfeed Entertainment:

Was Michael Moore's Dramatic Rescue Of An Oscar-Nominated Director Just A Publicity Stunt?

Moore claimed Emad Burnat was detained at LAX on his way to the awards ceremony. Sources at the airport call Moore's account of the events “baloney,” and say the director was not detained at all.      

This morning though, a source working at LAX familiar with the situation and speaking on the condition of anonymity, offered a very different account of events.
When Burnat arrived at the Customs and Border Protection desk at LAX, the source said, he was asked to state the purpose of his visit; when he said he was here to attend the Oscars, he was asked to produce his ticket.
When he wasn't able to produce that document on spot, the source continued, Burnat was taken to a secondary inspection area where he found the ticket, showed it Customs officers, and was immediately allowed to proceed to the baggage claim.
This source insists the whole process took no longer than 25 minutes total, and was standard practice for anyone entering the country.
"He was not racially profiled," the source said."It is being used as political stunt, and a publicity stunt for the movie."The source's account is consistent with Customs and Border Protection's policies, which maintain that detention is only used when an individual is found with illegal drugs, undeclared money, or is trying to enter the country illegally.
CPB, for their part, would not comment on the incident.The agency said in a statement, "Due to privacy laws, U.S. Customs and Border Protection is prohibited from discussing specific cases. CBP strives to treat all travelers with respect and in a professional manner, while maintaining the focus of our mission to protect all citizens and visitors in the United States."Neither Michael Moore nor Guy Davidi responded to requests for comment on the allegations as of press time.          

Saturday, February 23, 2013

Just who are these Palestinian Hunger Strikers?

The twitterati are out in force, pushing their #palestinianheroes - the four Palestinian hunger strikers who are occasionally depriving themselves of food and water  as the latest ploy to get an increasingly cynical world to notice. Who are these men?   Well, the twitterati were hoping you didn't ask that question.

From Captain Barak Raz, in the IDF Spokeperson Unit


There are four prisoners who are currently on hunger strike - two of whom belong to the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization. The Palestinian Islamic Jihad terror organization  terror network in the Jenin area is considered to be among the most dangerour terror networks in the West Bank and has been responsible for dozens of terror attacks and many more attempts that have been thwart through effective counter-terrorism. In recent months, the PIJ has been attempting to reorganize its network in the Jenin area. As a reminder, in January, thirteen members of a PIJ terror cell in the Jenin area were arrested befo carrying out a kidnapping of an Israeli civilian or soldier.  The cell was found near the Eyal Crossing, just outside the Tel Aviv greater metropolitan area. Inside the car, they had ropes, duct tape, ski-masks, knives, and a fake gun.


Jaffar Ibrahim Mohammed Az Aladin
A Palestinian Islamic Jihad operative from the Jenin area, who was detained during the week of the Gaza operation, Pillar of Defense. He was arrested for his involvement in reestablishing a PIJ terror network in the Jenin area, and has been jailed several times in the past for his involvement in terror activity.  His brother, Tarik Az Aladin, is a senior figure in the PIJ and is currently deported to the Gaza Strip as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange. From the Gaza Strip, Tarik Az Aladin has been involved with directing PIJ operatives in the West Bank.

Tarik Hussin Awad Daar Hussein 
Arrested for his involvement of reestablishing the PIJ network in the Jenin area.

The other two prisoners on hunger strike are terror operatives who have been released as part of the Gilad Shalit exchange and have been recently rearrested for returning to terror activity, therefore violating the terms of their release:

Samar Tarek Ahmed Issawi
A member of the Democratic Front of the Liberation of Palestine terror organization  in the Issawiya-Jerusalem area and belongs to a family known to be heavily involved with the terror network.  Two of his brothers have been arrested on multiple occasions for their involvement in terror activity, and his sister has been convicted of assisting with smuggling funds for the DFLP.  He is currently serving the remainder of his 26 year sentence (starting in 2002), for involvement in the DFLP, several counts of attempted murder, trafficking and possession of weaponry, and for conducting training for terror operatives.  Issawi was rearrested on July 7, 2012 for violating the terms of his release by returning to activity in the West Bank.

Iman Ismail Salame Sarawna
A Hamas  terror organization operative from the Hebron area. Originally arrested in 2002 and sentenced to 38 years for planting an explosive device that injured 18 civilians, attempted kidnapping of a soldier, and involvement in a shooting incident on soldiers. Immediately upon his release in the Gilad Shalit exchange, Sawarana returned to his involvement with Hamas and was rearrested on January 30, 2012.

Friday, February 22, 2013

Arabs in Israel

Dr, Mordechai Kedar, an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam,  is a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the Syrian domestic arena. Dr. Kedar recently spent several days touring Northern California, educating  hundreds about the new realities in the Middle east following the Arab Spring.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally Zahav with permission from the author. Original materials copyright (c) by the author. 

In this important article, Dr. Kedar erases some common misconceptions regarding the Arab population of Israel. Rather than being an "indigenous" population, many were recent migrants, with various ethnic divisions differing from each other in religion, culture, origin and historical background.  He writes:

But the characteristic that most unites the Arab sector in Israel is the environment that they live in: All the Arabs in the world live in one of two situations: Either in dictatorships in their homeland, or in dictatorships in the diaspora. There is almost no Arab community in the world that lives in its homeland for tens of years in a truly democratic state. The Arab citizens of Israel are the only Arab group that lives on its land (especially if you ignore the lands from which they originated) in a democratic regime that honors human rights and political freedoms. This is the reason that Arabs outside of Israel envy the Arab citizens of Israel and call them "Arab al-Zibda", or "whipped cream Arabs".

From the Blog :  Middle East and Terrorism


Mordechai Kedar: The Arabs in Israel - Part I 



Ethnic Division
Within the Arab sector in Israel there are a number of ethnic groups who differ from each other in language, history and culture: Arabs, Africans, Armenians, Circassians and Bosnians. These groups usually do not mingle with each other, and live in separate villages or in  separate neighborhoods where a particular family predominates. For example: the Circassians in Israel are the descendants of people who came from the Caucasus to serve as officers in the Ottoman army. They live in two villages in the Galilee, Kfar Kama and Reyhaniya, and despite their being Muslim, the young people do not usually marry Arabs.
The Africans are mainly from Sudan. Some of them live as a large group in Jisr al-Zarqa and some live in family groups within Bedouin settlements in the south. They are called "Abid" from the Arabic word for "slaves". The Bosnians live in family groups in Arab villages, for example, the Bushnak family in Kfar Manda. 

The Armenians came mainly to escape the persecution that they suffered in Turkey in the days of the First World War, which culminated in the Armenian genocide of 1915. 

Cultural Division

In general, it can be said that the Arab sector is divided culturally into three main groups: urban, rural and Bedouin. Each one of these groups has its own cultural characteristics: lifestyle,  status of a given clan, education, occupation, level of income, number of children and matters connected to women, for example polygamy (multiple wives), age of marriage, matchmaking or dating customs and dress. The residents of cities - and to a great extent also the villagers - see the Bedouins as primitive, while the Bedouins see themselves as the only genuine Arabs, and in their opinion, the villagers and city folk are phony Arabs, who have lost their Arab character.

The Arabic language expresses this matter well: the meaning of the word "Arabi" is "bedouin", and some of the Bedouin tribes are called "Arab", for example "Arab al-Heib" and "Arab al-Shibli" in the North.

The Bedouins of the Negev classify themselves according to the color of their skin into "hamar" (red) and "sud" (black), and Bedouins would never marry their daughters to a man who is darker than she is, because he does not want his grandchildren to be dark-skinned. Racist? Perhaps. Another division that exists in the Negev is between tribes that have a Bedouin origin, and tribes whose livelihood is agriculture (Fellahin), who have low status. A large tribe has a higher standing than a small tribe.

Religions and Sects

The Arab sector in Israel is divided into Muslims, Christians, Druze and 'Alawites. The Christians are subdivided into several Sects: Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant, and among the Muslims, there is a distinct sect of Sufis, which has a significant presence in Baqa al-Gharbiya. There is also an interesting Salafi movement in Israel, which we will relate to later. The Islamist movement is organized along the lines of the Muslim Brotherhood and we will dedicate significant space to it in this series.

The religion of the Druze is different from Islam, and Muslims consider the Druze to be heretics. Because of this, the Druze are supposed to keep their religion secret, even from each other, and therefore most are "juhal" (ignorant - of religious matters) and only a small number of the elder men are "aukal" (knowlegable in matters of religion"). In the modern age there have been a number of books published about the Druze religion. 

The 'Alawites in Israel live in Kfar Ghajar, in the foothills of the Hermon and some live over the border in Lebanon. They are also considered heretics in Islam, and their religion is a blend (syncretism) of Shi'ite Islam, and Eastern Christianity and ancient religions that existed in the Middle East thousands of years ago. Their principle concentration is in the mountains of al-Ansariya in northwest Syria, although some are in Lebanon and some migrated southward and settled in Ghajar. The meaning of the word Ghajar in Arabic is "Gypsy", meaning foreign nomads with a different religion. In Syria the 'Alawites have ruled since 1966. The family of Asad is part of this heretical Islamic sect , and this is the reason for the Muslim objection to 'Alawite rule in Syria since according to Islam, not only do they not have the right to rule, being a minority,  but there is significant doubt as to whether they even have the right to live, being idol worshipers.

 Read the entire article here

Wednesday, February 20, 2013

George Galloway storms out of debate after learning his opponent was Israeli

Its a moment of appalling intolerance, from a man who's made it a career choice. George Galloway, from the UK's "Respect" party, stormed out of Christ Church after learning that the student he was facing in the debate was Israeli. In spite of Omar Barghouti's claim that the BDS movement targets institutions, not individuals, George argrily tweeted:



From the Cherwell website:

George Galloway, the Respect MP for Bradford West, has been accused by Oxford students of anti-semitism.

Mr Galloway “stormed out” of a debate at Christ Church on Wednesday evening, upon finding out that his opponent, Eylon Aslan-Levy, a third-year PPEist at Brasenose, was an Israeli citizen.
Mr Galloway had spoken for ten minutes in favour of the motion 'Israel should withdraw immediately from the West Bank', before giving way to Aslan-Levy.

Less than three minutes into Aslan-Levy’s speech against the motion, Galloway was made aware that his opponent was an Israeli citizen.

“I have been misled,” Mr Galloway then commented, interrupting Aslan-Levy’s speech. “I don’t debate with Israelis”. He then left the room with his wife, Putri Gayatri Pertiwi, and was escorted out of Christ Church by a college porter. When prompted to explain why Aslan-Levy’s nationality prompted him to abandon the debate, Galloway stated that “I don't recognize Israeli citizens.”

After the debate Aslan-Levy said that "I am appalled that an MP would storm out of a debate with me for no reason other than my heritage.
"To refuse to talk to someone just because of their nationality is pure racism, and totally unacceptable for a member of parliament."
Mahmood Naji, the organiser of the debate, told Cherwell that he "condemned Mr Galloway's walkout, on the basis of his opponent's nationality."
He went on to deny that he had "misled" the MP. "At no point during my email exchange with Mr Galloway's secretary was Eylon's nationality ever brought up or mentioned." He added, "nor do I expect to have to tell the speaker what his opponent's nationality is."
Cowardice and intolerance is a hallmark of the anti-Israel Cru. Just a few weeks earlier, Nancy Kricorian of Code Pink  hung up on a TV interview after she learned a representative of the Jewish community would also  be speaking

A clip of George Galloway's  very public tantrum can be viewed on youtube.



UPDATES:
Thanks to our friends at CIF Watch for the reminder of these "Best of George Galloway" moments.  Apologies for the clip show.

George Galloway giving cash to the Hamas terror group in Gaza:



George Galloway fawning over Saddam Hussein:



Hezbollah targets kosher restaurants in Europe- still think its about the "occupation"?



From YNET:


 While Jerusalem and Washington are trying to convince the European Union to add Hezbollah to terror black list, a Cyprus trial might help bring about this change.

 Six months after the arrest of Hossam Taleb Yaacoub, 24-year-old Lebanese who holds both Lebanese and Swedish passports, Yaacoub has admitted in court to membership in the Hezbollah, and gave information regarding his communications with his handler, the use of code words, and European activities of the Shiite organization, the New York Times reported Wednesday.

 Upon his arrest, the assumption was that Yaacoub intended to carry out a terror attack against Israeli targets in Cyprus. He denied this, but admitted that his handlers ordered him to look for Kosher restaurants in Limassol. In addition, he said that he was sent by the Hezbollah to other areas in which there were great Israeli and Jewish presences, such as Antalya and Amsterdam. 

 The Cypriot police arrested Yaacoub on July 7. He had a red notebook in which he wrote down the license plates numbers of buses transporting Israeli tourists.  Less than two weeks later, a busload of Israelis was attacked in Burgas on Bulgaria’s Black Sea coast, killing five Israelis and a Bulgarian bus driver. Bulgarian officials have determined that Hezbollah is  behind the attack. 


The prosecution and the defense have both declined to comment before a verdict is reached, sometime in March. But a preliminary ruling by the three-judge panel last week found that the prosecutor had provided enough evidence to proceed on all eight counts, including four charges of conspiracy to commit a felony, two charges for participating in a criminal organization, one for participating in the preparation of a crime and a charge for covering it up.
 
For all of you well-meaning people out there, if its "all about the "occupation", why is Hezbollah targeting Kosher Restaurants?

Tuesday, February 19, 2013

Neglected Facts About Hunger-Striking Prisoner Samer Issawi

Via CAMERA


Who is Samer Issawi and why had he been imprisoned? 

According to the Israel Prison Service, Samer Issawi of Issawiyeh, Jerusalem was arrested in April 2002 and sentenced to 26 years for attempted murder, belonging to an unrecognized (terror) organization, military training, and possession of weapons, arms and explosive materials. Issawi (identification number 037274735) was one of the 477 Palestinian prisoners released in the first stage of the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange in October 2011. (The Prison Service lists him as Samir Tariq Ahmad Muhammad. Multiple names are not uncommon among Palestinians. The date of his arrest, birth, his sentence term and the terms of his release are consistent with the details provided about Samer Issawi in media reports.)
In an October 2011 letter to the editor of the Guardian, Amir Ofek of the Israeli embassy in London took that paper to task for failing to provide information about Issawi's terror activities. He detailed:
Your centrefold (19 October) carries a double-spread photograph of released prisoner Samer Tareq al-Issawi in a cheering crowd, after being freed under the terms of the deal to release Gilad Shalit. It is important to point out the grave terrorism offences of which Al-Issawi was convicted, including firing a gun at a civilian vehicle in October 2001, indiscriminately firing an AK47 assault rifle at civilian buses, and manufacturing and distributing pipe bombs used in attacks on Israeli civilians....

As part of the Shalit deal, a condition of Issawi's release was that he had to remain in Jerusalem. In July 2012 he reportedly violated the terms of his release by leaving Jerusalem and crossing into the nearby neighborhood of A-Ram, and was therefore rearrested.
Other media outlets have also failed to report Issawi's violent activities. AFP, which has reported extensively over the last few days about Issawi's hunger strike, is rather vague about Issawi's violent crimes:
Issawi, 33, and Sharawna, 36, were long-term security prisoners who were initially released by Israel under a prisoner swap deal in October 2011.

But within months, they were both rearrested following unspecified allegations that they violated the terms of the agreement, with Israel ordering them to serve out the remainder of their original sentences.

Sharawna was rearrested on January 31 and began refusing food on July 1 to protest against his re-arrest and demand his immediate release.

Issawi was arrested on July 7 and stopped eating on August 1, to protest over his re-arrest and retrial based on information which was not made available to him or his lawyer. (Emphasis added.)
Likewise, AP does not specify why Issawi was imprisoned in the first place, although it does does a slightly better job than AFP. AP reports:
Issawi's original sentence was 26 years "for a terrorist act" but he had served only six years, [Israel Prison spokeswoman Sivan] Weizman said. [sic: He served nine years, from April 2002 until October 2011.] 
The four were re-arrested and sent to prison for violating the terms of their release, Weizman said. She said Issawi was banned from entering the West Bank but entered three times after he was freed.
It's unfortunate that the prison spokeswoman failed to specify Issawi's terrorist acts (and that she also misstated the length of the term that he served), but AP could have easily consulted the list of released prisoners and their crimes for more detailed information, as CAMERA had done. (Indeed, after AP's earlier, October 2011, whitewashing of the crimes of another Palestinian prisoner released as part of the Shalit deal, CAMERA had been in touch with AP editors. After pointing out the Prison Service document, AP commendably corrected.) 

How Long a Hunger Strike?
Ha'aretz's photo caption yesterday reported as fact that Issawi "has been on hunger strike for 209 days," while the AP reported that Issawi "has been on an on-again, off-again hunger strike for several months" (emphasis added). According to the Feb. 15 article by Ian Deitch, there are conflicting claims about the extent of Issawi's hunger strike. He reported:
Issawi is under medical supervision and eats periodically, [Prison spokesman Sivan Weizman] said.
Issawi's sister, Shirin, said he has been on hunger strike for 206 days. She said he has only been drinking water since January. She said the prisontakes her brother to an Israeli hospital for treatment.
The Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs, Issa Qaraqe, said Issawi began his fast in August and has been observing it intermittently.
In other words, the Israeli prison spokeswoman and the Palestinian minister of prisoner affairs agree that Issawi has been eating periodically, yet Ha'aretz reports as fact that he "has been on strike for 209 days." Even a partial hunger strike is most certainly a difficult ordeal. But why is it so difficult for Ha'aretz to stick with the facts? How long will the paper continue to supply its English readers with a steady stream of agenda-driven, whitewashed propaganda?


Read the entire article at CAMERA 

UPDATE

Capt. Eytan Buchman, an IDF spokesman, has provided CAMERA with additional details about Issawi's terror activities. He writes that Issawi
was convicted of severe crimes, which including five attempts of intentional death. This included four shootings, between July 2001 and February 2002, in which Isawi and his partners fired on police cars and buses travelling between Ma'ale Adumim and Jerusalem. In one attack, a policeman was injured and required surgery. On October 30, 2001, Isawi, together with an accomplice, fired at two students walking from the Hebrew University campus to their car in a nearby parking lot. In another case, Isawi provided guns and explosive devices to a squad, who fired on a bus. Finally, in December 2001, Isawi ordered an attack on security personnel at Hebrew University, providing a squad with a pistol and a pipebomb. Two of the squad members tracked security personnel but opted not to execute the attack

Monday, February 18, 2013

Papal Contender Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras : anti-Semitic canards

From the Times of Israel:

In a letter to the editor of the Miami Herald, Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz said that one of the leading candidates to replace Pope Benedict XVI is an anti-Semite.

Responding to a list published last week after the resignation of Benedict, which identified Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga of Honduras as a possible successor to the current pope, Dershowitz wrote:  "He has blamed the Jews for the scandal surrounding the sexual misconduct of priests toward young parishioners! He has argued that the Jews got even with the Catholic Church for its anti-Israel positions by arranging for the media — which they, of course, control, he said — to give disproportionate attention to the Vatican sex scandal. He then compared the Jewish controlled media with Hitler, because they are 'protagonists of what I do not hesitate to define as a persecution against the church."

Maradiaga, in a May 2002 interview with the Italian-Catholic publication "30 Giorni," claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis.

From the ADL, written in 2002

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) today expressed outrage at comments made by a Honduran Catholic Cardinal that implied an alleged Jewish manipulation of the American media. Cardinal Oscar Andres Rodriguez Maradiaga, in a May interview with the Italian-Catholic publication 30 Giorni, claimed Jews influenced the media to exploit the current controversy regarding sexual abuse by Catholic priests in order to divert attention from the Israeli-Palestinian crisis. 

"The Cardinal’s odious anti-Jewish conspiracy theory must be immediately and forcefully condemned by responsible voices in the Catholic Church," said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director, in a letter sent to Cardinal Walter Kasper, of the Pontifical Commission for Religious Relations with Jews. "We are outraged by Cardinal Rodriguez Maradiaga’s implication and, as John L. Allen, Jr. states in the July 19th Catholic Reporter, ‘the logic of his comments seems clear: Someone in America doesn’t like the pro-Palestinian tilt of the Catholic Church, and used their media clout to deliver payback. It’s not much of a reach to imagine who Rodriguez might suspect that ‘someone’ to be.’" 

Cardinal Rodrigues Maradiaga stated: "It gave me considerable food for thought that, at a time of total media focus on developments in the Middle East with all the injustices being perpetrated against the Palestinian people, U.S. television and press people were obsessed with sex scandals of 30 or 40 years ago." 

In a later conversation with  ADL national director Abraham Foxman, , Maradiaga apologized and said he did not intend for his remarks to be taken as perpetuating an anti-Semitic conspiracy theory about Jewish control of the media.

Out of Israel Comes Pride: Gay men in the promised land


There is reason to feel pride in Isael's LGBT record.

* Gays have had full civil rights since 1992
* Gays have full rights to serve in the military
* Gays have partner adoption rights
* Gays have partner benefits for governmental employees
* Same gender marriages preformed abroad are recognized.

Inspired by the openness of Israeli society, gay porn producer Michael Lucas has created his first non-pornographic feature  Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land,.  Check out the film trailer:





From Outsmart Magazine ,an article by  local journalist David-Elijah Nahmod
 When people think of Israel, they often conjure up images of suicide bombings, rocket attacks, and Orthodox Jews. During the opening moments of Undressing Israel: Gay Men in the Promised Land, the first non-pornographic feature from gay porn-king Michael Lucas, people in New York City’s Times Square are asked if they think homosexuality is legal in Israel. Many say they have no idea, while some assume it’s not.

 For nearly an hour, Lucas reveals the other side of life in the Jewish State. He visits the Knesset (the Israeli Parliament), where Parliament member Nitzan Horowitz issues a Gay Pride proclamation. In Tel Aviv, the country’s gay mecca, gay dad Yossi Berg, founder of Rainbow Families, walks with his young son and explains the importance of having children in Jewish culture.

 Lucas takes us to an Israeli gay wedding. He interviews an openly gay personal trainer, who shares his experience of coming out in the Israeli army, where homosexuality has been accepted since 1993.

 Throughout the film, Lucas makes it plainly obvious that much of Israel is a safe place to be openly gay.

 “Israel is more progressive than the United States,” he observes.

 Undressing Israel is not the first time Lucas’s camera has ventured inside the State of Israel. In 2009, he raised many eyebrows when he produced Men of Israel, the first in a series of gay adult features to be shot inside the country with an all-Sabra (Israeli-born) cast.

 Lucas, who works in New York City and Tel Aviv, has become one of Israel’s most vocal champions in the gay community. Unafraid of controversy, he’s been equally vocal in his condemnation of the virulently antigay regimes that exist in the Muslim world. His columns for publications like The Advocate, in which he harshly condemns the anti-Israel activism of queer-identified organizations like Jewish Voice for Peace, often draw fire, but he always stands his ground.

Read the whole interview at Outsmart

Sunday, February 17, 2013

Report Anti-Semitism in the UC System

Israel "Apartheid" week is around the corner- and for Jewish students, and for many others, it is always problematic.  Are the posters promoting the weeks' activity promoting hate?  Do they cross the line into anti-Semitism? Does the gratuituous use of the 6 pointed Jewish star on mock checkpoints make you uncomfortable?  There is now a procedure  for reporting this, and its completely anonymous. If the activities and promotional material of Israel apartheid week contribute to a hostile climate on campus, this is your chance to let people know.

UC students who have experienced anti-Semitic activity or hate crimes on campus are strongly encouraged to fill in this form for reporting incidents of intolerance on campus. 

Welcome to the University of California's systemwide intolerance report form.

The University of California's Principles of Community are grounded in our mission of instruction, research and public service. We value diversity, affirm the inherent dignity of every person and uphold communities of justice. We strive for a campus and a world free of discrimination, intolerance and hate. We are equally committed to freedom of expression, critical inquiry, civil dialogue and mutual respect.
If you experience or observe behavior that is inconsistent with our Principles of Community, please report it.

You may report in a variety of ways:
  • Report anonymously or by name, via this Campus Climate page, by selecting the University of California campus where the incident occurred from the list to the right and clicking "Continue".
  • Report anonymously to an appropriate campus office, based on the nature of the incident. Please refer to the website for the campus where the incident occurred.
  • Report anonymously via your campus' Bias Reporting page, by selecting your campus from the Local Bias Reporting menu above. If your campus does not appear on this list, there is no local reporting form available. Please use this form, instead.
  • File a report with your Campus Police Department, via the Campus Police menu above.
In addition, community members have the option to report bias incidents to their County Human Rights Commission or City Human Relations Commission.
Even if you don't want or expect any action to be taken, having a record of all campus incidents helps the University to better address issues of culture, climate and inclusion. Your report can make a difference.
On this form you may report the following issues. To see a particular definition, please mouse over the issue name.
  • Expressions of Bias
  • Hate Speech
  • Hate Crime
  • Graffiti/Vandalism
  • Intimidation, Bullying or Physical Violence
  • Bias Incidents
  • Hostile Climate
  • Other Campus Climate Issues
The University takes these issues seriously and expects that they're reported in good faith. At no time will action be taken against anyone for good-faith reporting, inquiring about or seeking guidance regarding campus issues of intolerance. Your report is confidential and, to ensure that, the University contracted with an independent provider, EthicsPoint, for this service.

You may choose to remain anonymous and, if you do, you can continue to communicate with us regarding your report through this service by providing your report key and password.
Once you've submitted your report, a designated campus official will review it. Please check back in 2 weeks to see if the campus has any additional questions for you.

The form can be found here:

Israel fears for Tunisia's Jews

Mike L.


North African country's Jewish community suffering from wave of anti-Semitic attacks, including shattered gravestones, fiery protests and verbal violence. Israel urges world to intervene in crisis

The Israeli Foreign Ministry has instructed Israel's representatives abroad to ask the international community to pressure Tunisian government officials to safeguard the North African country's Jewish community, heritage and property.

The order was issued following fears for Tunisia's 2,000 Jews due to the hostile anti-Israel atmosphere in the country and anti-Semitic statements made by religious clerics.

Some 80 gravestones have been desecrated and plundered in Tunisia's Jewish cemeteries over the past month. Tunisian Prime Minister Hamadi Jebali condemned the desecration of the cemetery in the city of Sousse, noting that security forces were working to prevent additional attacks on Jewish tombs.

"There appears to be an increase in anti-Semitic statements among local religious clerics and cases of public incitement against Jews," says a report written by Gideon Bachar, head of the Foreign Ministry's Department for Combating Anti-Semitism.

"For example, when Hamas prime minister Ismail Haniyeh's visited Tunisia in 2012, he was greeted by masses chanting, 'Kill the Jews.' Additional incidents included the torching of a Jewish synagogue, a demonstration outside the main synagogue in the city of Tunis, and the use of Israeli flags as a rag at the entrance to the toilet at the Tunis-Carthage Airport."

"There are times in the course of history when the actions of ordinary citizens spark movements for change because they speak to a longing for freedom that has been building up for years. In America, think of the defiance of those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King, or the dignity of Rosa Parks as she sat courageously in her seat." - Barack Obama (May 19, 2011)

"It has been less than two years since a vendor in Tunisia set himself on fire to protest the oppressive corruption in his country, and sparked what became known as the Arab Spring. Since then, the world has been captivated by the transformation that has taken place, and the United States has supported the forces of change." - Barack Obama before the UN General Assembly (September 25, 2012)

Yes. Yes. Yes.  I know.  It's not Obama's fault and nothing that he does, or doesn't do, matters if it has negative consequences.  He's a great president and the very best friend that the Jewish people have ever had in the history of the world.

Just because Barack Obama supports a deeply hate-filled and genocidally anti-Semitic political movement is no reason for Jewish people to disagree with his policies.  Of course, I understand that Obama's Jewish supporters will tell us that he doesn't support this movement despite the fact that he, himself, claims otherwise.  Look just because he supports the "Arab Spring" and the "Arab Spring" is the rise of political Islam it doesn't mean that he supports political Islam, only the "Arab Spring."

The "Arab Spring" is a good thing.  Forget all those news reports that we've been hearing over the last few years of riots and rapes and murders and general chaos and blood-shed and shrieking calls for the genocide of the Jews.  The "Arab Spring" is more like Rosa Parks sitting courageously on her bus or, maybe, like "those patriots in Boston who refused to pay taxes to a King."

It must be true.

Barack Obama told me so.

Friday, February 15, 2013

Valentines Week Failures Leave BDS cru broken hearted


Its been a decidedly epic week of  BDS failures.

*  On  Sunday, Feb 10 dozens of supporters of Cliff's variety store in San Francisco showed up and waited in line before the store opened for a "Buy-cott". Cliff's had been besieged by anti-Israel activists for months for daring to sell Israeli products.   In response, BDS Commandant  Dalit (Dov) Baum declared "Victory", presumably thrilled that someone, anyone had noticed the BDS'ers efforts.


Dalit is a paid employee of Global Exchange, in charge of "Economic Activism". Put her down in the column "unclear on the concept".

* Also on Sunday,  200 students and nearly a dozen Israeli companies including Intel and Check Point Software, showed up for  Stanford University’s first-ever Israel Technology Fair at the Palo Alto campus. The invited companies were either Israeli-founded, Israel-based or had significant operations in Israel 

* Acclaimed Spanish writer Antonio Munoz Molina accepted the  prestigious Israeli literary award, despite calls from anti-Israel activists to boycott the Jewish state. The Jerusalem International Book Fair attracts hundreds of publishers and authors from over 30 countries and features than 100,000 books written in numerous languages.

“The worth of a prize depends on the people who have received it before you,” Molina told reporters. “I would like to be as good as many of them.”

* Apple  announced that it will open its third research and development center in Israel.  The new center will open later this year in Raanana's industrial zone.   Apple already has R& D centers in Haifa and Herzaliya.


*  According to Israel’s Flower Growers Association  some 60 million roses, orchids, Bonsai trees and other flowers will be exported to Europe this Valentine’s Day.  Israel will send flowers to The Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, and for the first time, the UK.

* And in other Valentines day BDS fail news:  An action directed toward chocolatier  Max Brenners in Boston, left 15 pitiful dateless BDS' holes outside in the cold, while hundreds enjoyed  chocolate fondues, hot chocolates and the warm company of their loved ones.

*  The Ministry of Defense has given Rafael Advanced Defense Systems the green light to sell its Iron Dome and David's Sling missile defense systems to other countries.  This has the potential to become yet another massive BDS fail. These products  were showcased at the Aero India 2013 exhibition in Bangalore, hub of India's high-tech sector, last week.   India is  a major buyer of Israeli defense systems

To Dalit (Dov) Baum, to Global Exchange and the the entire BDS cru:   May we wish you more of such "victories"





Tuesday, February 12, 2013

President Obama's Israel Itinerary

Jerusalem and Washington have set the itinerary for President Barack Obama visit to Israel.

From YNET


Obama is scheduled to land in Ben Gurion International Airport around noon on Wednesday, March 20.

He will be welcomed by a State reception which will include speeches by President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and by the American president himself.

Obama will then fly to Jerusalem directly to Peres' residence where he'll again be ceremoniously received.

He will continue with Peres and Netanyahu to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum, where he will lay a wreath in the Hall of Remembrance.

The next stop will be Mount Herzl, where Obama will lay a wreath on Herzl's tomb as a gesture to Zionism. Obama will continue to Yitzhak Rabin's tomb, laying a wreath there as well.

In the afternoon the entourage will arrive at the prime minister's house, where Netanyahu and Obama will meet with small delegations to discuss issues such as Iran, Syria, the peace process and Jonathan Pollard.

Following the meeting a joint press conference will be held, after which the two and their staff will dine together.

The following morning Obama will depart for Ramallah to meet with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas.

Obama will return to Jerusalem by noon, when he will be taken by Netanyahu to examine a model of Second Temple Period Jerusalem.

They will continue to the Shrine of the Book, where Netanyahu will show him the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The American President will continue to see an exhibition in the Israel Museum, which will show Israel's latest developments in high-tech, bio-tech, nanotechnology and agriculture.

In the afternoon Obama will address Israelis in a public speech in the Israel Museum or in the International Convention Center in Jerusalem. The Americans have requested the presence of at least 1,000 Israelis.

Later, Obama will be hosted for a ceremonial dinner by Peres.

Friday, March 22, Obama will breakfast with Netanyahu in his home or in King David Hotel. The two will go to visit an Iron Dome battery, where Obama will meet with the soldiers manning the battery.

At 13:00 a farewell ceremony will take place in the International Airport, from which the president will depart to meet King Abdullah in Jordan.

Monday, February 11, 2013

JVP: Still Proudly Aiding and Abetting Anti-Semites

Looks like  a wide multi-ethnic group is now united in exposing JVP's hypocrisy.  Its not simply  "members of the tribe"  mumbling about the magnitude of chutzpah it takes to be  part of the "proud to be ashamed to be Jewish" group.  Now Palestinian activists are complaining that JVP just isn't anti-Semitic...enough.



Jewish Voice for Peace is the group that insists all  Jewish community events be open to them- while deliberately excluding anyone who disagrees with them from theirs.  Free Speech for me and not for thee. Their current project is attempting to stack the deck at a dialog organized by the New Israel Fund and the JCRC, entitled Love, Hate and, the Jewish State: A dialog for young Jews on Israel and social justice.
February 21, 2003, 7-10 pm.  Hijacking agendas.  Its what JVP  lives for.

Of course, being Jewish and being for peace are not criteria for membership. Anti-Israel activist Paul Larudee proudly claimed membership in the organization in an article he wrote for The American Muslim



For the peace activists who tirelessly work for the establishment of an Arab state of Palestine living side by side and in peace with a  Jewish State of Israel, JVP's most egregious fault lies its its insistence on standing shoulder to shoulder with some of the worst conspiracy theorists and haters  out there.



We saw that clearly this weekend when JVP sponsored Hassan Fouda at their San Francisco meeting. Described by a Connecticut rabbi as "the most hate-filled individual I've ever meet", Hassan has no trouble filling in "as a  Jew", when needed to Jew-wash a protest.



Even more damning is  the company Hassan Fouda keeps. After all, he is a founder and Board member of the Council for the National Interest, described by the ADL as   "an anti-Israel organization that opposes U.S. aid to Israel and disseminates demonizing propaganda about Israel to academics, politicians, and other audiences."   The CNIF has sent delegations to the Middle East that met with terrorist leaders from Hezbollah and Hamas, including two delegations that met with Hamas leader Khaled Meshal in Damascus in 2009 and 2008. 

At the JVP meeting, Hassan Fouda was reporting back on his latest trip to the region.  Did JVP listen in rapt attention as Hassan discusses his meeting with extremist Raed Salah, the leader of the Islamic Movement in Israel?

From the Mail Online:

A string of extremist statements have been attributed to Salah, though he denies having said many of them.He is said to have cast doubt on Osama Bin Laden's culpability for 9/11, suggesting instead the attacks were an Israeli plot and that Jews were warned not to go to work at the World Trade Center on that day.On homosexuality, Salah reportedly said: 'It is a crime. A great crime. Such phenomena signal the start of the collapse of every society. 'Those who believe in Allah know that behaviour of that kind brings his wrath and is liable to cause the worst things to happen.'
In 2008 he was charged with incitement to violence and racism by a Jerusalem court over a speech in which he invoked what is known as the 'blood libel' – a notorious anti-Semitic slur.In the speech, delivered in February the previous year, he was said to have accused Jewish people of using children's blood to bake bread.
At the time, Israeli newspapers quoted him as saying: 'We have never allowed ourselves to knead [the dough for] the bread that breaks the fast in the holy month of Ramadan with children's blood. Whoever wants a more thorough explanation, let him ask what used to happen to some children in Europe, whose blood was mixed in with the dough of the [Jewish] holy bread.'

Hassan Fouda proudly associates with a racist and homophobe.  Jewish Voice for peace proudly associates with Hassan Fouda.  Aiding and abetting extremists, anti-Semites and bigots. Not a proud track record for  either Hassan Fouda, or for Jewish voice for Peace.




Love-in at Cliff's Variety Store in San Francisco


Bullying, Demonization and Slander are the defining tactics of the BDS movement. In the Bay area, with its dubious distinction of being a "hub of de-legitimization" of Israel we see this clearly. Stores have been picketed, windows have been smashed, trash cans  set on fire. Not only Israeli products, but kosher products have been routinely targeted and vandalized.  Currently, a beloved community institution, family run Cliff's variety store in the Castro district of San Francisco is the object du jour of the BDS'ers wrath. The bullying of Cliff's reached a crescendo Christmas eve, with boycotters invading the store and allegedly biting a store employee. After all, to the BSD'ers, "justice" is a distilled and sanitized form of revenge, not a higher calling.

Whats an activist to do, when faced with the ugliness of the BDS movement and the brown-shirt tactics of their "peace activists"?

When faced with darkness, we increase the light. When faced with hate, we respond with love.
Feb 10 was scheduled as a Love-in for Cliff's Variety Store. People began gathering in line in front of this 75 year old neighborhood institution an hour before the store opened. The plan was simple- to engage in economic activism ourselves- to show Cliff that the community supported their decision to continue selling the products that people wanted to buy. By 11:00, dozens of shoppers had showed up. The elated reaction from store employees and management, and the smiles from the activists were proof enough that we had made the right decision.