Thursday, October 29, 2015

Norwegian doctor Confirmed: Mad Mads Gilbert to speak in Berkeley

Extremist Mads Gilbert is coming to Berkeley, sponsored by the usual suspects, including   Jewish Voice for Peace-Bay Area, Middle East Childrens Alliance, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, NorCal Friends of Sabeel, American Muslims for Palestine, the American Friends Service Committee and  Bay Area Women in Black and Students for Justice in Palestine (UC Berkeley).   Mads Gilbert is a  political activist and member of the fringe Norwegian Maoist ‘Red’ party.  He rose to notoriety in the days following the attack on the World Trade center, when he justified the attack that left nearly 3,000 innocents dead.
 
In an interview for the Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet Gilbert said "The oppressed also have a moral right to attack the USA with any weapon they can come up with." When asked directly "Do you support a terror attack against the USA?," Gilbert replied, "Terror is a bad weapon but the answer is yes within the context which I have mentioned."
 
He’ll be speaking at the South Berkeley Senior Center Thursday night, Nov. 12 at 7pm.
 
According to NGO Monitor: 
 
In 2009, Dr. Gilbert traveled to Gaza's Al-Shifa Hospital as a member of the Norwegian Aid Committee, NORWAC, an NGO funded by the Norwegian government ostensibly to provide health care services in partnership with the Palestinian Ministry of Health. During the fighting and afterward, Gilbert repeatedly and falsely accused Israel of deliberately targeting civilians and invented allegations of use of illegal weapons, while making no mention of evidence that Al-Shifa hospital had been used for military purposes and also shielded the Hamas leadership.
 
Hamas' use of Shifa Hospital in Gaza  was disclosed by Wikileaks:


 
NGO Monitor president, Prof. Gerald Steinberg continued:
 
"We urge media outlets and human rights organizations to treat Dr. Gilbert's comments and assessments from Gaza with great caution...By justifying terror, supporting Hamas and fueling the conflict, NORWAC and Mads Gilbert have violated the Hippocratic Oath - 'first, do not harm'."

Norwegian Doctor Confirmed  Justifying terror, supporting Hamas and fueling the conflict - all in a days works for Mads Gilbert and his Jewish Voice for Peace sponsors

 
 

Wednesday, October 28, 2015

American Muslims for Palestine: Celebrating British Colonialism

American Muslims for Palestine is doubling down on their assertion that the coins of the British mandate reflect their ancestral heritage



(Pssst. The Hebrew letters stand for Eretz Yisrael- the land of Israel)

From the  1925 New York Times,writing about the new coins



By a recent decision of the British government, Palestine is to have its own coinage, the names of the units sheckels, dinars and prutahs being those used  in an ancient monetary system closely connected with Jewish history

Two years after, in 1927, the New York Times announced the news coins with a headline "Hebrew Coins Circulate again"




The British colonial powers' homage to an ancient Israelite civilization is an odd thing for the American Muslims in Palestine to embrace  under the theme of "Reclaiming Our Narrative".  Perhaps "Borrowing a Narrative" or   "Inventing a Narrative"  might be closer to the truth.

Tuesday, October 27, 2015

A Complete Guide to "Normalizing"

For the Palestinian activists and their hard left enablers: A guide to "normalizing", from the extremist PACBI.


Don't you dare humanize anyone who disagrees with you.  Don't even think it.

Its about "institutions", not  "individuals'. This will give you a convenient out if you are accused of "McCarthyite" tactics and blacklisting.  (But shhhh. You know as well as I do that its about individuals that disagree with you.)


There can be no solution to the conflict that leaves Israel intact.  Treat anyone who disagrees as an enemy.


 Justice = Just us. Just us. Just us. Just us.  Got it?  Good.



More advice for Palestinian activists and enablers:

Avoid genuine peace-seekers. Treat sincere attempts at dialog as an existential threat to your dignity. Speaking outside of your usual echo-chamber  may subject you to inconvenient truths, and therefore should be avoided.  Complain loudly about being silenced while refusing to talk to anyone who disagrees with you.  That's the battle-cry of an authentic Palestinian activist.


Monday, October 26, 2015

Walmart Offers Israeli Soldier Costume for Halloween

Walmart is now offering an Israeli soldier costume for children, for Halloween.



Ok, then.

Why is Facebook censoring Bernard-Henri Lévy: Things We Need to Stop Hearing About the ‘Stabbing Intifada’ ?

From Stand With Us: Why did Facebook pull every single posting of Bernard-Henri Lévy's column, "Things We Need to Stop Hearing About the ‘Stabbing Intifada’"? They'll leave up detailed instructions on how make sure your knife attack on an Israeli is fatal, but they took down and won't even let you post the column by one of France’s most famed philosophers, a journalist, and a bestselling writer.
So we're posting the text here. Please, share and complain to Facebook. This is so very wrong.
See the full article at Algemeiner 
********************
Lévy is considered a founder of the New Philosophy movement and is a leading thinker on religious issues, genocide, and international affairs. His 2013 book, Les Aventures de la vérité—Peinture et philosophie: un récit, explores the historical interplay of philosophy and art. His new play, “Hotel Europe,” which premiered in Sarajevo on June 27, 2014, and in Paris on September 9, is a cry of alarm about the crisis facing the European project and the dream behind it.
**************
Bernard-Henri Lévy: Things We Need to Stop Hearing About the ‘Stabbing Intifada’
It is painful to hear the phrase “lone wolves” applied to the handful — and perhaps tomorrow the dozens and then the hundreds — of killers of Jews “liked” by thousands of “friends,” followed by tens of thousands of “Tweeters,” and connected to a constellation of sites (such as the Al-Aqsa Media Center and its page dedicated to “the third Jerusalem intifada”) that are orchestrating, at least in part, this bloody ballet.
It is equally painful to listen to the refrain about “Palestinian youth no longer subject to any control,” after seeing the series of sermons published by the Middle East Media Research Institute, in which preachers from Gaza, facing the camera, dagger in hand, call upon followers to take to the streets to maim as many Jews as they can, to inflict as much pain as possible and to spill the maximum amount of blood; doubly painful to hear that refrain from Mahmoud Abbas himself, at the outset of this tragic chain of events a few weeks back, describing as “heroic” the murder of the Henkins in the presence of their children, and then expressing indignation at seeing the “dirty feet” of Jews “defiling” the Al-Aqsa Mosque and declaring “each drop of blood” shed by “each martyr” who dies for Jerusalem “pure.”
Not only painful and intolerable, but also inapplicable, is the canned phrase about “political and social desperation” that is used to explain — or excuse — criminal acts. Everything we know about the new terrorists, their motives and the pride their relatives take in converting, post-mortem, crime into martyrdom and infamy into sacrifice, is, alas, much closer to the portrait of the robotic jihadist who yesterday would take off for Kashmir and today turns up in Syria or Iraq.
It is highly doubtful that “intifada” is the right term to apply to acts that bear more resemblance to the latest installment of a worldwide jihad of which Israel is just one of the stages.
It is doubtful that erudite disquisitions on occupation, colonization and Netanyahu-esque intransigence explain much about a wave of violence that counts among its favored targets Jews with sidelocks — that is, those Jews who are the most conspicuously Jewish, those whom their killers must consider the very image of the Jew, and who, by the way, are often at odds with the Jewish state when not in open secession from it.
It is doubtful that the very question of the state, the question of the two states and thus the question of a negotiated partition of the land — which is, for moderates on both sides, the only question worth posing — has anything to do with a conflagration in which politics has given way to fanaticism and to theories of vast conspiracy, one in which some decide to stab random others as they pass by because of a vague rumor reporting a secret plot to deny Muslims access to Islam’s third holiest site.
It is doubtful, in other words, that the Palestinian cause is being helped in any way by the extremist turn. On the other hand, it is absolutely certain that the cause has everything to lose by it, that the reasonable heads within the movement will be the ones who wind up flattened by the wave, and that the last proponents of compromise, along with what remains of the peace camp in Israel, will pay dearly for the reckless condemnations of the imams of Rafah and Khan Younis.
Intolerable and inapplicable, too, is the cliché of the “cycle” or “spiral” of violence, which, by putting the kamikaze killers and their victims on the same footing, sows confusion and amounts to an incitement to further action.
Intolerable, for the same reason, are the rhetorical appeals “for restraint” and disingenuous pleas “not to inflame the street,” which, as with the “spiral of violence,” reverse the order of causality by implying that a soldier, police officer or civilian acting in self-defense has committed a wrong equal to that of someone who chooses to die after spreading as much terror as he possibly can.
Strange indeed, how tepid are the condemnations of the stabbings of innocent passers-by and rammings of bus stops — condemnations that I have to think would be less half-hearted if the acts had occurred on the streets of Washington, Paris or London.
More than strange — disturbing — is the difference in tone between the equivocal reaction to the recent killings and the unanimous and unambiguous international outpouring of emotion and solidarity elicited by the fatal hatchet attack on a soldier on a London street on May 22, 2013, a scenario that was not very different from those unfolding today in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv.
Intolerable, again, that most of the major media have paid the grieving Israeli families only a fraction of the attention they have paid the families of the perpetrators.
Intolerable, finally, the minor mythology growing up around this story of daggers: The weapon of the poor? Really? The weapon one uses because it is within reach and one has no other? When I see those blades, I think of the one used to execute Daniel Pearl; I think of the beheadings of Hervé Gourdel, James Foley and David Haines; I think that the Islamic State’s videos have clearly gained a following, and that we stand on the threshold of a form of barbarity that must be unconditionally denounced if we do not want to see its methods exported everywhere. And I mean everywhere.
This article was translated from the French by Steven B. Kennedy.

UPDATE:

The articles are back. For now

Mother of Palestinian Terrorist Pulls Out Knife in Interview, Threatens to Carry Out Attack

This is what Israel faces. Chilling evil.

via MEMRI

Umm Muhammad Shamasne, whose son Muhammad was killed while perpetrating a terror attack on a bus in Jerusalem on October 12, was recently interviewed in her home by the Lebanese Al-Quds TV channel. Offering the interviewer candy to celebrate her son's martyrdom, Umm Muhammad Shamasne said that she hoped her other sons would follow in his footsteps, and pulled out a knife, threatening: "My deeds will speak louder than words." The interview aired on October 22, 2015.

Sunday, October 25, 2015

Winning a Debate with An Israel Hater

Via Dr Mike:
Cross-posted at Legal Insurrection  and at Bluetruth

“It often happens in the middle of an otherwise pleasant day — you’re shopping, or walking across a college campus, and you encounter THEM. They’re holding signs that claim Israel is an “apartheid state” and charge Israel with committing “genocide” against Palestinians. They’re calling for boycotts against Israeli products, and divestment from companies that do business with Israel.

You know supporting Israel is the right thing to do. And you’re not alone. For decades, polls have shown a large plurality, usually a majority, of Americans back Israel. But here’s the problem: you don’t know how to respond – or if you even should – to these Israel haters.

This is an all-too-familiar sight, and has become more frequent in the past decade as Israel-bashing extremists have taken their hostility into the public square.

Their words don’t represent a simple disagreement with specific actions or policies of the Israeli government. Instead, they’re an open call for the elimination of the one country that shares American values in a region full of despots and anti-American fanatics. Simply put, they’re not just promoting a Palestinian state, they’re demanding that it replace the Jewish one.”

This is the opening of my new book, “Winning A Debate with an Israel-Hater“, published earlier this month by Shorehouse Books.
Winning A Debate With An Israel Hater Cover
I wrote this book to give people the information they need to effectively confront these extremists in their own neighborhood—not to change the minds of those protesting Israel, but rather to let the general public hear the other side of the story.

It’s extraordinarily important that we don’t let the lies of the PIDS (People with Israel Derangement Syndrome) go unchallenged. According to Manfred Gerstenfeld’s book Demonizing Israel and the Jews, they have managed to get over 150 million Europeans to believe that Israel is “exterminating” the Palestinians; you don’t want to see them successfully selling that malignant myth on your neighborhood.

As a grassroots Israel activist, I have over a decade of experience countering anti-Israel groups in the San Francisco Bay Area, not only in person but also on TV and radio. I’ve also given many talks, both to pro-Israel and to more neutral audiences.


This handbook distills all of that experience into a useful guide for Israel supporters, and also does it with some satirical humor to both entertain, and make the points easier to remember.

Successful advocacy, however, is not just knowing the facts; it’s delivering them with effectiveness, and– just as importantly– avoiding mistakes that can undermine those facts. Here is a bit of advice that I call “The Five Commandments of Successful Advocacy” (Perhaps you were expecting a different, more biblically connected, commandment number? Sorry, I don’t want to suggest that these small kernels of advice were the result of any type of divine revelation.)

COMMANDMENT #1: TELL THE TRUTH (OR AT LEAST DON’T KNOWINGLY LIE)

It’s important that our side be credible. You won’t be able to fact-check on the fly when confronting the PIDS, so it’s vital to stick to what you already know is the truth.
Of course, this is even more important in any online encounter where your words can remain visible for an eternity. You don’t want your rhetorical gaffe about Israel to end up like a drunken party photo posted on Facebook. Even editing a blog post or deleting a Tweet is no protection against the infamous “screen shot” that captures what you initially sent into cyberspace.
It should also go without saying that we don’t need to resort to “Pallywood” techniques of faked pictures and maliciously edited videos to make our points. And we don’t want to find ourselves in the moral sewer inhabited by PIDS who, during Operation Protective Edge, posted pictures of the murder scene of the Fogel family—butchered in their home by Palestinian terrorists—claiming them to be Gazan victims of IDF operations.
Also, beyond substance, consider style. Nothing undercuts the punch of an online comment like bad speling and gramur, ‘cause if you don’t rite good then your statement looks fulish.

COMMANDMENT #2: AVOID AD HOMINEM ATTACKS

Never say that the person you’re responding to is an idiot. Even when he is. (For those who remember the original Saturday Night Live “Point-Counterpoint” sketches, avoid the “Jane, you ignorant slut” response.)
These people may be wrong on the facts and their train of thought on this issue may not be running at full speed, but they are often otherwise quite functional and rational. Instead, take a deep breath and simply point out the errors of either facts or logic.
Although you can go “Law and Order” on them and “impeach the witness” if the person (or the organization they represent) has a track record of making statements that are demonstrably wrong. The person seeking the moral high ground should also occupy the rhetorical high ground.

COMMANDMENT #3: DON'T GENERALIZE

Avoid overly broad statements such as “all Palestinians are supporters of terrorists.” Do too many of them support radical Islamist terror? Absolutely—even one is too many. But recognize that just as you want the PIDS to make unforced errors to which you can respond with authority, they want you to do the same. Don’t help them out. You can blame the Palestinian leadership for refusing to negotiate peace with Israel, but you can’t blame every Palestinian-in-the-street for that.

COMMANDMENT #4: DON’T DISTORT

Avoid conflating all anti-Israel activism into the most extreme position (which is, for you newbies, supporting Hamas and its calls for genocide).
There are ample ways to counter anti-Israel arguments without accusing every Israel boycotter of secretly holding a “Friends of Hamas” membership card. (Though some of them might.)

COMMANDMENT #5: USE POSITIVE LANGUAGE

The PIDS couch their anti-Israel screeds in the language of “human rights.” You should use similarly sympathetic terms, as they’ll appeal to the audience. Neil Lazarus suggests that whenever possible, include the words “hope,” “peace,” “children,” and “future” in any statement that you make. As in “Israelis want a future of peace for their children, and also for Palestinian children. We hope that the Palestinian leadership will end its 67 year war against Israel and come to the negotiating table.”
Winning a Debate with an Israel-Hater is available on Amazon.com in both paperback and Kindle.

——————————

H.Res.293 - Expressing concern over anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement within the Palestinian Authority passes

U.S. House Committee on Foreign Affairs has unanimously passed H. Res. 293, a bipartisan resolution that condemns incitement within the Palestinian Authority.

Sponsored by  Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), with 57 co-sponsors,  the resolution urges President Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials to “discontinue all official incitement” and applauds attempts by both people at co-existence

Full text of the resolution follows:

RESOLUTION
Expressing concern over anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement within the Palestinian Authority.
Whereas the 1995 Interim Agreement on the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, commonly referred to as Oslo II, specifically details that Israel and the Palestinian Authority shall “abstain from incitement, including hostile propaganda, against each other and, without derogating from the principle of freedom of expression, shall take legal measures to prevent such incitement by any organizations, groups or individuals within their jurisdiction”;
Whereas in spite of the Oslo II agreement, the President of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas repeatedly describes released Palestinian terrorists as “heroes” and Fatah’s military wing publicly threatens to kidnap soldiers and launch missiles at Israel on the Fatah Facebook page and website;
Whereas the Palestinian Authority pays monthly “salaries” to families of Palestinian terrorists incarcerated in Israel;
Whereas in June 2013, Abbas referenced Israeli acts which “indicate an evil and dangerous plot to destroy Al-Aqsa and build the alleged temple”;
Whereas in a November 2014 address commemorating the 10th anniversary of Yasser Arafat’s death, Abbas said that as Israel has no claim to Jerusalem, he will not allow the Temple Mount to be “contaminated by Jews”, and threatened that Jewish prayer at the site would cause a “devastating religious war”;
Whereas in November 2014, jailed terrorist and Fatah leader Marwan Barghouti called for “comprehensive resistance and the rifle” against Israel;
Whereas Palestinian Authority Deputy Minister of Information Al-Mutawakkil Taha told official Palestian Authority daily newspaper Al Hayat Al Jadida in early 2012 that, “Israel has gone beyond all forms of oppression practiced by fascism throughout history” and that it“does more than racist discrimination and ethnic cleansing”;
Whereas official Palestinian websites and Facebook pages, including those of Abbas’ Presidential Guards and Palestinian Authority schools, recurrently show maps of the land without reference to Israel and in November 2012, the Palestinian Authority erected a statue in central Bethlehem square that displayed a map of the “state of Palestine” covering all of Israel;
Whereas the Oslo II agreement further dictates that Israel and the Palestinian Authority “will ensure that their respective educational systems contribute to the peace between the Israeli and Palestinian peoples and to peace in the entire region”;
Whereas Zayzafuna, a monthly educational magazine for children sponsored by the Palestinian National Committee for Education, Culture and Sciences, regularly presents Adolf Hitler as a role model and in January 2012, Facebook pages of several Palestinian Authority high schools posted images of Hitler with his quotation, “I could have killed all the Jews in the world, but I left a few so that you would know why I killed them”;
Whereas a teacher in a summer camp near Nablus in July 2013 can be seen in video footage leading children in a call and response saying, “Palestine is an Arab land from the river to the sea. We want Haifa, we want Acre”;
Whereas in July 2013, Palestinian official television aired a video of two girls reciting a poem that calls Jews “barbaric monkeys, wretched pigs” and asserts that Jerusalem is not for Jews, because Jerusalem “vomits” out the Jews who are said to be “filth” and “impure”;
Whereas section 7040 (e) of the Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2015, requires the Secretary of State, if the President waives section 7040 (a) of that same Act, to “certify and report to the Committees on Appropriations prior to the obligation of funds that … the Palestinian Authority is acting to counter incitement of violence against Israelis and is supporting activities aimed at promoting peace, coexistence, and security cooperation with Israel”;
Whereas the Palestinian Authority has not fully lived up to its prior agreements with Israel to end incitement and should do more to prepare the Palestinian people for peace with Israel: Now, therefore, be it
Resolved, That the House of Representatives—
(1) expresses support and admiration for individuals and organizations working to encourage cooperation between Israelis and Palestinians, including—
(A) Professor Mohammed Dajani Daoudi, who took students from al-Quds University in Jerusalem to visit Auschwitz in March 2014 only to return to death threats by fellow Palestinians and expulsion from his teacher’s union;
(B) the Israel Palestine Center for Research and Information, the only joint Israeli-Palestinian public policy think-tank;
(C) United Hatzalah, a nonprofit, fully volunteer Emergency Medical Services organization that, mobilizing volunteers who are religious or secular Jews, Arabs, Muslims, and Christians, provides EMS services to all people in Israel regardless of race, religion, or national origin; and
(D) Breaking the Impasse, an apolitical initiative of Palestinian and Israeli business and civil society leaders who advocate for a two-state solution and an urgent diplomatic solution to the conflict;
(2) reiterates strong condemnation of anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement in the Palestinian Authority as antithetical to the cause of peace;
(3) urges President Abbas and Palestinian Authority officials to discontinue all official incitement and exert influence to discourage anti-Israel and anti-Semitic incitement in Palestinian civil society; and

(4) directs the United States Department of State to regularly monitor and publish information on all official incitement by the Palestinian Authority against Jews and the State of Israel.

Saturday, October 24, 2015

San Francisco Protest in front of the Israeli Consulate

Via Emunah:

In 2008, 8  students were massacred  in the school library of Mercaz Harav, in Jerusalem. 15 were wounded.   Jewish websites were filled with photos of the blood-soaked library. The rest of the media was strangely silent.  The world, it seems, does not mourn dead Jews.

In a gesture near sociopathic in its scope, anti-Israel activists in the Bay area took to the streets to protest, lest anyone in the city pay attention to the dead Jews.  I recall them  standing in front of the Israeli consulate chanting  “Stop killing our children”.  Our hearts were broken over the lives lost, and still they taunted us.

They felt no compassion for the slaughtered children, who were, after all, only  Zionists.  Settlers.   Anything to strip them of their essential humanity.

That scene was repeated last Thursday at 6, again in front of the Israeli consulate. I watched, from a safe distance, while local extremist groups called for the destruction of  Israel. The usual chants of  “From the river to the sea”  were punctuated with  “we support the Intifada” and  "ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeek ya Filistin"  ("with our blood we will redeem you Palestine”).   In case their intent was unclear,  a new chant “We don’t want 2 states. We want 48”, referencing all of Israel,  pierced the air.  Activists standing by the “Jewish Voice for Peace” banner did not blink an eye.

In the last  few weeks in Israel, a  young Israeli boy, 13 was stabbed riding his bike. He is still fighting for his life. An elderly woman  was stabbed in the back.   A rabbi was hacked to death with a meat cleaver.   Ten Israelis are dead, over 175 injured in a cascade of violence spurred on by incitement at the highest levels.   And in San Francisco, again, anti-Israel activists took to the streets, lest anyone in the city pay attention to the dead Jews.

They stood with Hamas headbands. With shirts featuring the PFLP  terrorist Laila Khalid that stated  “My heroes have always killed colonizers”.   

I soon realized that there was no such thing as  a “safe distance” with this crowd. Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER came over repeatedly to harass me.  Cheryl Davila of the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission hissed “Bitch” at me.     When I  saw the young men furtively glancing at me as  they wrapped their kuffiyehs over their faces, I knew it was time to go.

This was not Gaza.  This was not the West Bank.  This was San Francisco 2015.

Incitement to Violence from Gaza's Islamic University

From the Facebook Page of the Student Council of Gaza's Islamic University


The University held a festival, in front of a packed audience



Glorifying violence





All photos from here

Incitement to violence takes place in all levels of Palestinian society. Government,  mass media, social media and the educational system are all complicit, and this remain a huge obstacle to a lasting peace in the Middle East

Thursday, October 22, 2015

Berkeley Human Welfare Commission rejects BDS bill

On Wednesday, October 21, the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission rejected a resolution advocating divestment from companies that did business in  Israel.   Hundreds gathered in the South Berkeley Senior Center  to participate in  the public comment period.   Legendary UC Berkeley professor Ron Hassner , Rabbi Menachem Creditor,  Rabbi James Brandt,  community leaders and  grass root community members joined together to ask  the Commission to reject this hateful and divisive resolution.




The resolution was defeated, with 5 voting against it,  2 for it, and 1 abstaining.


An open letter to the commission, signed by  Rabbi James Brandt of the Jewish Federation, Rabbi Yonatan Cohen of Beth Israel, Rabbi Menachem Creditor of Netivot Shalom and Rabbi Yoel Kahn of Beth El  in the Berkeley, as well as many others expressed dissatisfaction with both the content of the resolution and the process involved in bringing it to the Commission.

From the letter:

We were deeply troubled, however to learn about the resolution before the Human Welfare and Community Action Commission recommending that the Berkeley City Council list Israel under the Oppressive States Business Policy” Not only is this resolution completely unbalanced in its representation of the heartbreaking and complex conflict between Israelis and Palestinians, it is also a major distraction from the vitally important work of the HWCAC. It is disturbing that so much time and resources are being spent by the HWCAC on a divisive international issue unrelated to its mission, at a time when we all need to work together to improve our beloved city….

Additionally, we were shocked to learn that the HWCAC has been discussing this issue for a year without consulting anyone outside the small circle of supporters of divestment. This represents a grave breach of process and diligence that should have been undertaken when considering such a sensitive  and controversial issue…”




From StandWithUs:

"BDS activists attempted to hijack the commission to further their narrow, political, extremist agenda but the commissioners refused to succumb to this pressure and defeated the resolution," said Johanna Wilder, StandWithUs Northern California Associate Director, who spoke at the Commission meeting. 


The HWCAC discussed this issue despite the Berkeley City Attorney's clear stance that divestment is outside the scope of the commission, which is charged with tackling local poverty issues. Fortunately, numerous commissioners recognized this and rejected divestment so that the HWCAC could go back to fulfilling its crucial mission. 


Divestment supporters engaged in racist slander against Israel accusing it of committing a "Holocaust" against Palestinians. In addition to this trivialization of genocide they employed more typical propaganda, smearing Israelis as colonizers and erasing the indigenous rights of the Jewish people in their homeland. 


For more information on Berkeley's defeat of the divestment resolution see

Tuesday, October 20, 2015

Berkeley's Human Welfare Commission plows ahead with anti-Israel resoultion

Via Emunah:

In spite of a warning from the supervisory Health Housing and Human Services Office of the Director, Berkeley's Human Welfare Commission is continuing to plow ahead with their anti-Israel resolution

In a letter to the Commission, Acting Director of Health Housing and Human Services Kelly Wallace wrote:

The three take-home messages I hope to leave with you with are:
 1) For any issue that you address as a commission there needs to be a clear nexus with the primary functions of the commission as articulated in the BMC; 
2) The Commission must communicate with any other commissions, boards and/or departments that share partially or wholly the responsibilities for the issues being addressed; and 
3) There will be increased expectations of the HWCAC in meeting your defined role as the Board of the Community Action Agency. 




The clear nexus with the primary functions of the Commission?  It appears to be articulated in the only change to the referendum since the Sept 16 meeting.

WHEREAS, many members of the Berkeley community have immigrated or have roots in the conflict region and have a vested interest in its future; 

and WHEREAS, the ongoing conflict is a source of ongoing discussion among different groups of citizens in our city....

There you have it. Clear as ...mud?

People from the Middle East live here and talk about the conflict, and therefore it is within the purview of the Human Welfare Commission to pass over the needs of the Berkeley poor, and spend a year discussing a toothless foreign policy resolution.






UC Berkeley Responds to Hate

From Rabbi Adam Naftalin-Kelman, Executive Director, Berkeley Hillel


...yesterday Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organized an ‘International Day of Action.’  The protest occurred on the steps of Sproul Plaza.  Being out there for two hours was incredibly difficult to see and hear.  To hear students yell their support for an Intifada was gut wrenching and emotional for me, Berkeley Hillel staff and Jewish students. 

 For many students, this was their first encounter with others who do not share their strong love for Israel.  What did make me proud was to see so many Jewish students who love Israel out there on Sproul, containing their emotion, holding up Israeli flags and signs, and showing their love and support of Israelis and the Jewish people.  

Special thanks go out to Bears For Israel and Tikvah: Students for Israel for their leadership in organizing a thoughtful and important counter message.  In addition to the students’ leadership, the caring nature of Berkeley Hillel’s Jewish Agency Shlichah, Dror Stein’s leadership and love for Israel helped the student leaders along with so many Jewish students deal with the difficult event.  Jewish students that walked by were appreciative of the work they did.  Their leadership was a beautiful example for all of us.  They conducted themselves with restraint and maturity that would make Am Yisrael proud.  When confronted with difficult individuals or conversations, they respectfully engaged with them without escalating the situation.  While I felt such pain and sadness when I read SJP’s signs and when I heard their chants, at the same time, I gained such strength and was full of pride to be a Jew and lover of Israel, thanks to the leadership and commitment of the students. 





Sunday, October 18, 2015

Standing with Israel Across the Globe

Via Emunah:

Across the world, people are standing  in solidarity with Israel, in her fight against terror.

Madrid




Rome



Seattle (via the Mike report)



And in Berkeley, a lower key approach:



Friday, October 16, 2015

Extremists seek to hijack Berkeley Human welfare commission

"Scapegoating Israel while shielding Palestinian leaders from accountability may be gratifying to some, but it won’t help Palestinians or Israelis build a more just and peaceful future."

From the J Weekly, the Jewish Newsweekly of Northern California,  written by Max Samarov and Johanna Wilder 

Extremists seek to hijack Berkeley welfare commission


On Oct. 21, the Berkeley Human Welfare and Community Action Commission will debate divestment from companies doing business with Israel. This is occurring despite the Berkeley city attorney’s opinion that the proposal is outside the scope of the commission, which exists to help the Berkeley City Council tackle poverty locally. But what is even more troubling is how extremists from the boycott, divestment, and sanctions movement are pressuring the city of  Berkeley to abandon its progressive values and the vital mission of the commission to pursue a narrow, anti-Israel political agenda...

The city of Berkeley has a choice. It can allow its politics to be hijacked by extremists, or it can live up its progressive values and reject divestment. The welfare commission could then return to its critically important mission of advising the City Council on the social welfare needs of the community.

Read it all here

A new vote will be held at the South Berkeley Senior Center 2939 Ellis St, Berkeley, Oct 21. Please be there by 6:30, to get a seat.  Let the Berkeley Human Welfare Commission know that extremist groups such as AMP and JVP do not speak for the Berkeley community






Thursday, October 15, 2015

Baha Aliyan: They aren't making peace activists like they used to

They aren't making peace activists like they used to.

Mazin Qumsiyeh, darling of Sabeel and "Professor and Director, Palestine Museum of Natural History, Bethlehem University" has just described Baha Aliyan, the man who terrorized a bus full of civilians as a "peace activist." What kind of depravity and moral inversion would lead anyone to describe the cold-blooded  murderer of 2 innocent civilians as a peace activist?



Several days ago "peace activist" Baha Aliyan, 22, and Bilal Ranem, 23 boarded an Egged bus on  in East Talpiot, armed with a gun and a knife.

From YNET

They started shooting and stabbing passengers while the bus kept moving, killing a man in his 60s and wounding 10 others. One of the wounded, a man in his 40s, was evacuated in critical condition and was declared dead at the hospital.

Two others were seriously wounded - women aged around 60 and 40, who suffered stab wounds to their upper body. Two others were in moderate condition: a woman of about 60 years old with gunshot wounds to her upper body and a man in his 30s. Three were lightly wounded, and two were suffering from shock.

Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for light, and light for darkness
Isaiah 5:20

Tuesday, October 13, 2015

U.C. Berkeley's International Day of Action for Palestine

Via Emunah:

Tomorrow  UC Berkeley will be participating in the "International Day of Action on University Campuses for Palestine", sponsored by the MSA and  SJP.  Or was it the Day of Rage?  Or is that Thursday?  Its so confusing

Whats a busy Palestinian activist to do? How can anyone possibly keep track of all these carefully orchestrated spontaneous protest events?

Our friend Mike from the Mike Report has a handy suggestion: The Palestinian Desk Calendar 



Thanks for clarifying that, Mike.  It must be the International Day of Hurt feelings

Tomorrow  UC Berkeley will be participating in the "International Day of Hurt Feelings on University Campuses for Palestine", sponsored by the MSA and  SJP.  Speakers Include Hatem Bazian - UC Berkeley Lecturer, Liz Jackson, a Lawyer with Palestine Legal, and Ronnie Barkan, BDS Activist.

The International Day of Hurt Feelings been widely advertised throughout the Berkeley campus. 






As Palestinian extremists slaughter Jews in Israel, simply for the "crime" of being Jewish, as elderly Rabbis are hacked to death with cleavers, as little boys riding their bikes are stabbed, I expect no words of peace at this event . I expect no words of moderation. 

I expect to hear the justification of endless war and violence that Palestinian activists call "resistance"

I hope I am wrong.