August 25, 2013 at 09:26 (DesertPeace Editorial, Ethnic Cleansing, Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine)
August 21, 2013 at 07:24 (Corrupt Politics, Dictatorship, Egypt, Hypocricy, Israel)
White House spokesman says Turkish leader’s comments suggesting Israel is responsible for Egypt unrest are ‘offensive and wrong’; says reports that US is cutting military aid to Egypt ‘inaccurate’
News agencies
*
The United States condemned comments by Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan accusing Israel of having a hand in the Egyptian military’s overthrow of president Mohamed Morsi, a White House spokesman said on Tuesday.
“We strongly condemn the statements that were made by Prime Minister Erdogan today. Suggesting that Israel is somehow responsible for recent events in Egypt is offensive, unsubstantiated, and wrong,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing.
In Israel, an official in Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office told AFP: “These comments by the Turkish prime minister are nonsense.”
Earlier on Tuesday, Erdogan told provincial leaders of his AK Party: “What do they say in Egypt? Democracy is not the ballot box. What is behind it? Israel. We have in our hands documentation.”
Also Tuesday, the White House said media reports that suggest the US cut off aid to Egypt are not accurate, adding that the Obama administration is still reviewing its options.
“That review has not concluded and … published reports to the contrary that assistance to Egypt has been cut off are not accurate,” White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters in a briefing.
Earnest also said that Egypt’s detention of Muslim Brotherhood leader Mohamed Badie was not in line with the standard that the United States would hope to uphold in protecting basic human rights.
The White House will hold a Cabinet-level meeting to discuss cutting some of $1.5 billion in US aid to Egypt.
Earnest confirmed that a National Security Council meeting of top officials will take place Tuesday. Cabinet members such as Secretary of State John Kerry will participate.
Up to now, the administration has insisted that it has taken no final decision on halting aid to Egypt since the military’s July overthrow of Mohamed Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood-led government and an intensifying crackdown on Islamist opponents.
Both officials said Egypt aid would be the focus of the meeting. One official said a decision was likely on cutting some elements of US economic and military support.
Reuters, AFP and AP contributed to this report
August 15, 2013 at 08:54 (Canada, Corrupt Politics, Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine)
The extremism of Canada’s support for Israel just keeps growing.
The latest example is the Conservative government in Ottawa helping convince the European Union to list Hizballah’s military wing as a “terrorist” organization. After that decision was taken, Foreign Minister John Baird declared, “We are thrilled that the European Union unanimously has agreed to designate Hizballah as a terrorist organization. We’ve been pushing for this.”
The National Post detailed Canada’s behind-the-scenes effort to get the EU to list Hizballah as a “terrorist” organization. Despite opposition from the Lebanese government, a foreign ministry official told the paper that this was “a clear priority that was set out by the minister.”
Canadian diplomats held bilateral talks with various European countries and also pushed for Hizballah to be listed at numerous multilateral meetings. At both a recent United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime meeting and a UN conference on radicalization in Europe, Canadian officials pressed key EU officials to define Hizballah as a “terrorist” group (“Canada pushed EU to add Hezbollah to list of banned terrorist organizations, official says,” 24 July 2013).
Canadian law enforcement and security officials were also part of the lobbying effort. Reportedly, they’ve been feeding their European counterparts information about the supposed threat Hizballah poses to both Canada and Europe.
The Conservatives push to get the EU to list Hizballah was given a boost when six Israelis were killed in Bulgaria in July last year. Within hours of the bus bombing, Israel claimed Hizballah was responsible, yet more than a year later it’s still unclear exactly who committed this crime.
With a Canadian passport holder allegedly implicated in the bombing, Ottawa jumped at the opportunity to get involved in the investigation. Presumably, Canadian investigators shared information with their Bulgarian counterparts designed to steer them towards the conclusion that Hizballah was responsible.
In response to the EU listing its military wing as a terrorist group the Hizballah leader, Hassan Nasrallah, said: “Why don’t you classify the state of Israel as a terror state? Why don’t you classify Israel’s military wing … as a terror organization if you recognize Israel is occupying Arab lands and refuses to implement international decisions for decades now? The entire world bares witness to the massacres perpetrated by Israel” (“Nasrallah to EU: Why not brand IDF as terror group?,” Ynet, 24 July).
Nasrallah raises an important point that Canadian foreign affairs professionals must be familiar with. It’s a simple fact that Israeli forces have killed far more civilians than the military wing of Hizballah.
The Israeli military and its allies in Lebanon have killed thousands of civilians. In fact, Hizballah was created in large part to fight the Israeli occupation of that country. Israel has conducted scores of targeted assassinations in many countries across Europe, Asia and the Middle East.
Certainly, Canadian foreign affairs officials must remember Gerald Bull. This Canadian engineer and designer of the Iraqi “supergun” was, according to CBC journalist Linden MacIntyre, shot dead by Israel’s secret service Mossad outside his residence in Belgium in 1990 (“Murdered by the Mossad?”, CBC The Fifth Estate, 12 February 1991).
And what about members of the current Israeli government who support illegal settlers and the killing of dozens of Palestinian civilians?
But apparently none of this “terrorism” bothers Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government. The Conservatives are either ignorant or relish their hypocrisy.
Though they are allowed to support the Israeli military, Canadians can go to jail for sending money to a group operating a school or medical clinic in Lebanon “directly or indirectly” associated with Hizballah, which comprises an important part of the Lebanese governmental and social service structure.
Dozens of Canadian companies sell to the Israeli army and many groups with charitable status promote the Israeli military. The Canadian Jewish News is full of advertisements for such groups: “Express your Zionism by serving as a civilian volunteer on an Israeli army supply base,” reads one ad. Another advertiser, the Libi Fund, runs educational projects for the Israeli military.
Established in 1971 the Association for the Soldiers of Israel in Canada also provides financial and moral support to the Israeli military. A June 2009 Canadian Jewish News ad promoting the group invited readers to “show your support for the brave youth of the IDF at our gala dinner.”
Prominent Toronto couple Heather Reisman and Gerry Schwartz, who own or control more than two thirds of Chapters/Indigo/Coles bookstores, created the Heseg Foundation for Lone Soldiers. Reisman and Schwartz provide up to $3 million per year for post-military scholarships to individuals without family in Israel who join the Israeli army. After completing their military service these non-Israeli “lone soldiers” gain access to this scholarship money.
For the Israeli high command (Heseg’s board has included a number of generals and a former head of Mossad) “lone soldiers” are of value beyond their military capacities. Foreigners volunteering to fight for Israel are a powerful symbol to reassure Israelis weary of Israel’s behavior. Schwartz and Reisman’s support for Heseg has spurred a campaign to boycott Chapters/Indigo/Coles, which controls 70 percent of Canada’s retail book trade.
The Harper government is plowing full steam ahead with its support for Israel. Double standards and morality be damned.
*Yves Engler’ is the author of The Ugly Canadian: Stephen Harper’s Foreign Policy andCanada and Israel: Building Apartheid.
Written FOR
August 13, 2013 at 08:18 (ADL Hatemongering, Hypocricy, Israel, Racism)
As a matter of fact, the ADL and the entire American Jewish establishment should suspend their campaigns against anti-Semitism indefinitely and take a look at what’s going on in Israel.
When the Jewish state is this riddled with racism, its advocates abroad should be a little less outraged over the offenses of gentiles. They should be a little more humble — and a lot less hypocritical.
*
The Anti-Defamation League and the rest of the American Jewish establishment owe Jesse Jackson a big apology. They put the man through the wringer, they made him apologize in every possible forum for his “Hymie” and “Hymietown” remarks back in 1984. Yet look at the kinds of things Israeli leaders — senior government ministers, chief rabbis — get away with without ever having to apologize, without ever being punished in the slightest.
Just last week, Naftali Bennett, the fresh new face of right-wing Orthodox Judaism, said in a cabinet meeting how he didn’t like these releases of Palestinian prisoners. “If you catch terrorists, you simply have to kill them,” he was quoted in Yedioth Ahronoth as saying. The head of the National Security Council, Yaakov Amidror, told Bennett, “Listen, that’s not legal.” Bennett replied: “I have killed lots of Arabs in my life – and there is no problem with that.”
The media, the left and the Arabs made a big deal out of it, nobody else. Bennett defended what he said, and so did countless talkbackers and Facebookers.
Two days later the newly-elected Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel, David Lau, was seen on a video telling an audience of yeshiva boys that they shouldn’t watch European basketball games in public.
“What difference does it make,” Lau said, “if the kushim who get paid in Tel Aviv beat the kushim who get paid in Greece?” Kushim, especially when used in a dismissive context like Lau did, is a well-understood derogatory term for blacks.
Again, the media, the left, some Ethiopian Jews and presumably some African refugees were outraged. But Lau defended his words, blaming the media, saying “they made a big deal out of a joke.”
Who else defended his remarks about “kushim”? Bennett: “The media are pouncing on him for a joking, insignificant remark.”
So really — what was so bad about “Hymies” and “Hymietown”? Or the thousand other anti-Semitic or even just possibly anti-Semitic remarks that the ADL and other American Jewish organizations have “pounced on” since then? Israeli public figures say the same kind of garbage, the difference is that they never, ever pay a price for it, in fact they usually manage to play the victim and get away with it, and at worst will be obliged to offer some backhanded apology.
Likud lawmaker Miri Regev is doing fine after having called Sudanese refugees “a cancer on our body” to a crowd of hopped-up south Tel Avivians in May of last year, shortly before the crowd went on a window-smashing mini-pogrom against the Africans in the neighborhood.
Legendary basketball coach Pini Gershon’s career and public stature didn’t suffer at all after he explained his racial theory about blacks to a class of amused army officers in 2000.
“The mocha-colored guys are smarter, but the dark colored ones are just guys off the street,” Gershon said. “They’re dumb like slaves, they do whatever you tell them.”
Nor was there any blowback whatsoever after Bibi Netanyahu bragged in 2007 that the cuts he’d made to child subsidies had brought a “positive” result, which he identified as “the demographic effect on the non-Jewish public, where there was a dramatic drop in the birth rate.”
Imagine the scandal if an American political leader boasted publicly that his cuts to child subsidies had reduced the “non-Christian” birth rate. Imagine the ADL’s reaction. But in Israel, in 2007, from the mouth of a once-and-future prime minister — nothing.
These are just a few of the more appalling examples of the kind of racist remarks that Israeli politicians, rabbis and celebrities feel free to make. I haven’t even mentioned Avigdor Lieberman and Rabbi Ovadia Yosef. As a rule the words are directed at Arabs, now and then against blacks: either Ethiopian Jews, African refugees or athletes.
I’ve lived roughly half my 61 years in the United States, the other half in Israel. There is absolutely no comparison between American tolerance for public displays of racism and Israeli tolerance for it.
I’ve stood in the middle of Israeli crowds chanting “Death to the Arabs.” I’ve sat in a Tel Aviv soccer stadium watching and listening to an entire section of fans erupt in monkey sounds – “Hoo, hoo, hoo!! Hoo, hoo, hoo!! – after a black player on the visiting team scored a goal.
A few liberals and a few do-gooders and a few journalists wring their hands. But the racists in the street, the synagogues, the Knesset and the government go on doing their thing.
Does this mean all Israelis, or even most of them, are racists? No. Does it mean Israeli society, by commission and omission, encourages racism? Oh, yes. To a degree that would be unthinkable in the United States.
And the leaders of the U.S. Jewish establishment, Israel’s most valued, devoted, determined friends, keep pouncing on every untoward or conceivably untoward remark about Jews or the Jewish state. Yes, the ADL will send out a press release about its “concern” over the “inappropriate” remarks made by some relatively minor Israeli figure.
But it never hits hard at the major figures. It said nothing last week about Bennett or Lau. The ADL goes after anti-Semitism with a fist, it goes after Israeli racism with a sigh.
As a matter of fact, the ADL and the entire American Jewish establishment should suspend their campaigns against anti-Semitism indefinitely and take a look at what’s going on in Israel.
When the Jewish state is this riddled with racism, its advocates abroad should be a little less outraged over the offenses of gentiles. They should be a little more humble — and a lot less hypocritical.
June 19, 2013 at 09:08 (DesertPeace Exclusive, Hypocricy, Israel)
March 24, 2013 at 09:32 (Apartheid, Corrupt Politics, DesertPeace Exclusive, Hasbara, Hypocricy, Israel, Oppression, Palestine, Videos)
As I watched President Barack Obama’s helicopter pass above my home, just before landing at the Palestinian Presidential Compound next to Ramallah, I just shook my head in disappointment, first as an American, then as a Palestinian. I thought: “Another U.S. president, on another high fanfare visit, carrying the same, failed political messages.”
It was difficult to follow Obama’s visit on TV. In normal practice when dignitaries come to town, Israel disrupts the satellite signals that feed our televisions. Nevertheless, I was able to tune in to a single Arabic channel, broadcast from Lebanon, that was unaffected by this.
Peeling away all the protocols, red carpets, formalities and artificial photo opportunities, I focused on what was coined “the policy speech.” President Obama gave it in Israel at a conference center to an audience of Israeli students. The president crafted a message directly to Israeli citizens, bypassing the right-wing Israeli prime minister who, until today, continues to build illegal, Jewish-only settlements, despite America’s and the world’s disapproval.
Clear message
The message to Israel was clear: there is no better ally to Israel than the U.S. He went on and on about how Israel will always be backed by the U.S., no matter what. Militarism won the day.
To Palestinians, and the majority of the world, that message no longer makes sense. Why support Israel as a military occupier that continues to build Jewish-only settlements? Why support Israel when it (as the U.S. State Department has documented) structurally discriminates against non-Jews, both Christian and Muslim, inside Israel? Why support Israel when it refuses to allow Palestinian refugees to return to their homes? In short, if Israel has become a rogue state and is moving (as Israeli leaders have acknowledged) toward a form of apartheid, why should the U.S. be there to fund it, arm it, use its veto to protect it from the United Nations, diplomatically cover for it, and do business with it?
Given that Israel is costing U.S. taxpayers over $3 billion annually and has put the U.S. in a weaker position in the Middle East because of its intransigence, it is past due that every American demand of their government to withdraw its resources and political clout from entities that are moving the region away from peace, instead of closer to it.
Larger message
Just before Air Force One landed at Ben-Gurion Airport in Israel, President Obama’s limousine, the armored vehicle known as “The Beast,” broke down after being wrongly filled with diesel instead of gasoline. A new one was flown in and no disruptions to the schedule occurred. Nevertheless, perhaps this limousine ordeal carried a larger message: whether “The Beast” or a global superpower, it is crucial that issues are filled with accurate and appropriate substances, otherwise, sooner rather than later, they will start with a sputter and end with a total breakdown.
The U.S. has filled the peace process, for the last 20 years, with Israeli-designed falsehoods, only to bring us to a total breakdown today. I was hoping (but not holding my breath) that President Obama would shift gears on this trip and come with a message to the Israelis that the world’s superpower is now going to fill the process with accountability. That did not happen, and will not, until average Americans say, “Enough is enough.”
Sam Bahour describes himself as a Palestinian-American business consultant from Youngstown living in Al-Bireh/Ramallah, Palestine
February 11, 2013 at 13:40 (Academic Freedom, Hasbara, Hypocricy, Israel, zionist harassment)
Alan Dershowitz, famed Harvard Law Professor, is feeling besieged, bruised and battered. In his shrill campaign against Thursday evening’s BDS program presented by Omar Barghouti and Judith Butler at Brooklyn College, Dershowitz did not call for cancellation of the event, but was incensed that it was co-sponsored by the College’s Political Science Department. According to him, this was an egregious violation of students’ academic freedom. From his Huffington Post column:
[W]hen a department of a university officially co-sponsors and endorses an event advocating BDS against Israel, and refuses to co-sponsor and endorse an event opposing such BDS, that does constitute an official endorsement. Freedom of speech, and academic freedom require equal access to both sides of a controversy, not official sponsorship and endorsement of one side over the other. The heavy thumb of an academic department should not be placed on the scale, if the marketplace of ideas is to remain equally accessible to all sides of a controversy.
The BC Poli Sci Department hasn’t actually refused to sponsor an anti-BDS event, but Dershowitz thinks it would: “Based on my knowledge of the Brooklyn College political science department, they would never vote to sponsor and endorse an anti-BDS campaign.”
The effects of such bias on students can be enormous, says Dershowitz: “If I were a Brooklyn College student today and an opponent of BDS against Israel, I would not major in political science. I would worry that my chances of getting into a good law school or graduate program, would be put at risk.”
In a subsequent column, making basically the same arguments, Dershowitz further detailed the agony faced by students:
One political science student at Brooklyn College said she was afraid to criticize her department because “that’s going to put a target on my back.” Other students talked about a “chilling effect” that the department’s decision would have on them. And yet another student said that she had “an uncomfortable feeling” about raising her hand and arguing “with a professor who voted for it” and who tried to justify his vote in the classroom.
So according to Professor D, the problem is that departmental sponsorship of political events jeopardizes the academic freedom of students who will then feel “uncomfortable in class” and vulnerable to retaliation if they publicize views contrary to those “endorsed” by the department. In preparation for his column about the BC controversy, Glenn Greenwald emailed Dershowitz, resulting in a rather contentious exchange posted in full by Greenwald. Among other things, Dershowitz stated: “I would oppose a pro Israel event being sponsored by a department. . . I recently told someone who invited me to give a talk on Israel that the talk should not be sponsored by the school or a department.” When Greenwald asked for details about his request for no sponsorship by school or department for one of his speeches, Dershowitz mysteriously failed to respond.
Dershowitz, as a lawyer trained to anticipate contrary views, should have known better. He himself is a prolific lecturer, and has given political lectures sponsored by a university department, a sin he now considers so egregious that he has devoted several columns to exposing it. Just one year ago, Dershowitz was invited to speak against BDS at the University of Pennsylvania. That lecture was sponsored by both the University’s Political Science Department and its Philosophy, Economics and Politics Department. Greenwald updated his column with this glaring hypocrisy. And, unlike the BC situation, in which Dershowitz speculates that the Department would deny sponsorship of an anti-BDS lecture (I would speculate otherwise), Penn’s Poli Sci Department really did choose sides, refusing to sponsor the BDS conference held at the school at the very same time but explicitly sponsoring Dershowitz’s opposition speech. In response to this revelation, Dershowitz had no choice but to dig himself a deeper hole.
In an Open Zion column , among the grossly misleading and false statements he made was the following defense of his appearance at the Penn lecture:
When I agreed to give that talk, I was told that the event was being sponsored by Hillel alone. I was not and am not aware that it was also sponsored by a department. Had I been aware, I would have opposed such co-sponsorship, since I do not believe that academic departments should take official positions on issues of this kind.
Somehow he didn’t realize that his speech enjoyed the sponsorship of two university departments. Although he now considers such sponsorships to be a dangerous infringement of academic freedom that intimidates poor young students and influences them to change their majors, Dershowitz was so unconcerned about this clear red line that he did not inquire whether it had been crossed at Penn. Even worse than Dershowitz’s dubious claim of (self-imposed) ignorance of the multi-departmental sponsorship of his speech, he well knew that the President of the University and its Chairman of the Board of Trustees did endorse his appearance. The Chairman, David Cohen, introduced Dershowitz, reading a letter from President Amy Gutmann: “We are unwavering in our support of Israel” he read. “We do not support the message or the goals of BDS.”
Shouldn’t that have set off alarm bells to someone who feels that students are so aggrieved by one-sided lectures sponsored by a university or department? And what did Dershowitz do in response to Cohen’s introduction? Did he begin his speech decrying the official endorsement of his anti-BDS appearance, saying it would adversely affect Penn students who hold contrary views? Did he raise a protest to President Gutmann that her avowed support of Israel would make pro-Palestinian rights students “uncomfortable” on campus and in the classroom? Yeah, right.
Dershowitz’s Open Zion column was in response to another OZ column about the BC controversy penned by Amy Schiller . Dershowitz accused Schiller of lying on two points:
Amy Schiller, in her article, “NYC Politicos Rally Against Brooklyn College BDS Panel,” quotes an anonymous professor saying that the political science department sponsored “Alan Dershowitz’s 2008 Konefsky lecture where he defended torture, where there has been no one presenting the other side.” That short sentence contains two lies: 1) I gave the Konefksy lecture approximately 40 years ago in which I spoke about Professor Konefsky and the United States Supreme Court. It was an entirely academic lecture. 2) I have never defended torture. Indeed, I have repeatedly condemned it. What I have proposed is a method for making those who do engage in torture accountable to the law.
The first point is another classic Dershowitz half-truth deliberately designed to deceive. While indignantly declaring that his Konefsky lecture took place 40 years ago and was “academic” in nature, he has the audacity to conceal that he delivered a (non-Konefsky) lecture at BC in 2008 at which he presented without opposition his views on torture (for several minutes of a much longer lecture in which he presented his unopposed views on free speech and Jefferson). So Schiller’s unidentified source (I wonder why he was afraid to reveal his identity) was only wrong about the title of the lecture! Who is the liar here: Schiller’s source who mistakenly believed the 2008 lecture was the famed “Konefsky” but got the other details right; or Dershowitz, whose blanket denial clearly implied that he gave no such lecture at BC in 2008?
As to Schiller’s accusation that Dershowitz defended torture, his actual views are so complex and confusing that he can hardly accuse anyone who misinterprets them of lying. Dershowitz essentially argues that torture can work wonders in saving innocent lives, and offers a legal framework for the authorities to conduct such torture of suspects. The aspiring torturer should apply to a magistrate for a “torture warrant” and the torture should be performed by “sterilized needle under the nail.” (Note the careful attention to personal hygiene.) Still, Dershowitz claims, he’s opposed to the practice, despite the heavy price society would pay for forgoing this useful tool. “[Torture] may sound brutal,” he says, “but it does not compare in brutality with the prospect of thousands of preventable deaths at the hands of fellow terrorists.” To complicate matters even more, Dershowitz says he disagreed with the Israeli Supreme Court opinion unequivocally banning torture. Do you understand his position? Apparently Amy Schiller did not, and in Dersh’s view, she is a liar. Actually, in saying that Dershowitz “defended” torture, she most certainly was correct, as he did defend its value while opposing it on principle. If you’re not a Talmudic scholar, don’t even try to understand my (hopefully accurate) summary of Dershowitz’s position on torture.
OK, so maybe Dershowitz gave a 2012 department-sponsored speech at Penn without knowing it, and a 2008 university-sponsored speech at BC (but not the Konefsky!) about free speech, where he couldn’t help but throw in his opinion on torture. But are there more? Well, in 2010, Dershowitz received an honorary degree from Tel Aviv University (can’t get more institution-sponsored than that), and used the occasion to spout his views on Israel and the disgraceful academics who criticize it, as well as Israeli universities’ contribution to the development of new and improved methods of killing Palestinians and other Arabs (and perhaps Persians). Some very brief excerpts:
No country in the history of the world has ever contributed more to humankind and accomplished more for its people in so brief a period of time as Israel has done since its relatively recent rebirth in 1948. . . Israel’s research universities have contributed immeasurably to the defense of Israel by the development of technological advances that support the mission of the IDF. . . The Israeli military plays more than a critical role in defending the citizens of the Jewish state. It also plays an important social, scientific and psychological role in preparing its young citizens for the challenging task of being Israelis in a difficult world. . . Some of the same hard leftists who demand academic freedom for themselves and their ideological colleagues were among the leaders of those seeking to deny academic freedom to a distinguished law professor who had worked for the military advocate general and whose views they disagreed with.
Dershowitz also said: “The answer to bad ideas is not firing the teacher; but articulating better ideas which prevail in the marketplace.” Tell that to Norman Finkelstein.
It turns out that some of those “hard leftists” who were not invited by TAU to present their viewpoint were upset with the speech. A letter to the university president signed by 80 faculty members protested Dershowitz’s comments as an assault on academic freedom.
Then there’s the saga of the BDS campaign at Hampshire College in Massachusetts in 2009. While the Administration was considering whether to divest from companies doing business in Israel in accordance with the sentiment of students and faculty, did the Harvard Professor stand by on the sidelines and allowed the debate to proceed without interference? Of course not. He threatened to organize a boycott of contributions to the school: “I call on all decent people — supporters and critics of Israel alike — to make no further contributions to a school that now promotes discrimination and is complicit in evil.” In the end, College President Ralph Hexter caved in a public act of contrition, writing an obsequious open letter to the great moral arbiter from Cambridge, assuring him that the sale of a “problematic” mutual fund had nothing to do with Israel. So much for the “marketplace of ideas” Dershowitz trumpets ad nauseam. The “market” should be receptive to his ideas, but he will do his best to financially punish those who express ideas he does not like.
Most recently, Dershowitz authored yet another article in which he claims he has been attacked by the “dogs of defamation” for his pro-Israel advocacy. Item 1: Norman Finkelstein’s allegation of plagiarism, claiming that Dershowitz’s The Case for Israel quoted without citation from Joan Peters’s From Time Immemorial. Space does not permit me to rebut in detail Dershowitz’s claim of innocence, but judge for yourself. Dershowitz quoted verbatim Joan Peters’s very strange version of a Mark Twain quote, including an 87-page ellipsis, and repeated each of Peters’s dumb transcription errors. Yet Dershowitz cited Twain only, claiming that he got the quote himself, and not from Peters. Frank Menetrez wrote in greater detail about this affair if anyone is interested.
Dershowitz next complains about the “lie” that he is pro-torture, discussed above. Finally, he gets to the most recent calumny against him, where “the dogs” charge him with hypocrisy on the BC affair because of his own recent history at UPenn. Once again he disavows any contemporaneous knowledge of departmental sponsorship of his anti-BDS diatribe, and fails to mention the praise heaped on him by Penn’s Chairman and President.
Dershowitz reveals the motives behind this cabal of defamers. It is not to hurt him, because he himself is invincible. It is to set an example to younger academics, to threaten them that if they are as outspoken in favor of Israel as Dersh, they will be similarly attacked and the attacks could have more serious repercussions because of their vulnerable position:
The message is clear: If you support Israel, we will attack you like we attack Dershowitz, but you will be hurt much more that Dershowitz would. We will damage your reputation, hurt your student evaluations and decrease your chances for tenure.
How ironic that the man who played such a large role in ruining Norman Finkelstein’s academic career is now so concerned about hypothetical academic hit men who are sharpening their knives on him in a dress rehearsal for a similar jihad against young, honest pro-Israel scholars.
Moreover, Dershowitz’s overall complaint of defamation is a classic example of projection. Dershowitz is accusing others of committing the same offenses he has committed for decades. He has been on the front line of a concerted effort to demonize those who dare criticize Israel beyond the very narrow boundaries of legitimate criticism that he can tolerate. And his own attacks on others has not exactly been moderate and measured. Goldstone is a “moser,” there is a “special place in hell” for Jimmy Carter, Archbishop Desmond Tutu is “one of the most evil men in the world,” Professors Mearsheimer and Walt plagiarized their scholarship on the Israel lobby from David Duke, Norman Finkelstein suggested that Dershowitz be killed; the list is endless.
People often comment that Dershowitz is a clown who does not deserve the time and effort to discredit him. I could not disagree more. He remains a highly influential public figure on matters pertaining to Israel and Palestine, commanding an audience at the White House and filling lecture halls regularly. Give the devil his due. He has great rhetorical skills, thinks quickly on his feet, and in my opinion can on occasion out-debate far worthier opponents. He remains a rock star of pro-Israel advocacy. His brazen hypocrisy and serial dishonesty should be challenged regularly.
Written FOR
January 20, 2013 at 14:48 (Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine, Racism)
Upper Nazareth Mayor Shimon Gapso describes his job as a national mission. “Upper Nazareth was founded to make the Galilee Jewish,” he declares. “The city’s residents and I, as their leader, overwhelmingly support the principle that Upper Nazareth must fulfill this mission.”
As part of this “mission,” Gapso has decided to block the opening of an Arab school for around 1,900 Arab pupils, children in a community making up about 20 percent of the city’s population. These children must travel daily to the neighboring Arab city of Nazareth, where the schools are having problems absorbing them all.
Upper Nazareth is a mixed city, which – like Haifa, Acre, Lod and Tel Aviv – is obligated to open schools for its minority communities. This obligation, stemming from the principle of equal rights for all Israelis, means Arabs have the right to their own schools under the Education Ministry’s aegis, not only in Arab cities but also in Arab neighborhoods in mixed cities.
Gapso, who in November asked the Interior Ministry to declare that Arab Nazareth was “hostile to the State of Israel,” doesn’t seem to recognize his obligation to supply separate educational services to his city’s Arab residents. Worse, his opposition to a school for the city’s Arab citizens is a blatant attempt to “cleanse” the city of those citizens, who, he says, “undermine” the Upper Nazareth’s national mission: to Judaize the Galilee.
The term “Judaizing the Galilee” provides allegedly legitimate cover for every benighted racist position that sees the presence of Arabs in the Galilee or anywhere else as a national threat. These positions are apparently backed by some of our national leaders, who still haven’t bothered to condemn Gapso’s remarks.
One might expect Education Minister Gideon Sa’ar to immediately use his authority to order the opening of an Arab school in Upper Nazareth. But when Gapso makes remarks that Sa’ar apparently supports, and when the interior minister, the authority over the municipality, espouses racist views himself, Israelis who oppose racism and discrimination – Arabs and Jews alike – have no choice but to vote for parties that will fight both phenomena.
January 20, 2013 at 06:26 (Collaboration, Ethnic Cleansing, Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine, zionist Media)
Recently the paper put its English edition behind a paywall, requiring a subscription to read articles. But this link-up with the JNF is a new reason to make you think twice before handing over your money to Haaretz.
*
Subscription offer from liberal Israeli newspaper helps JNF, a “charity” implicated in ethnic cleansing
Israeli newspaper Haaretz is currently circulating this email. Subscribe to the paper’s digital edition during an upcoming Jewish holiday season and you will be helping the work of the Jewish National Fund, it promises.
The English edition of the liberal Zionist paper has a global reputation and is read and trusted by many Palestinian rights activists, who often look forward to the work of dissident journalists like Amira Hass and Gideon Levy.
Recently the paper put its English edition behind a paywall, requiring a subscription to read articles. But this link-up with the JNF is a new reason to make you think twice before handing over your money to Haaretz.
The ad promises that for each new subscriber to Haaretz, the JNF will plant a tree in the Carmel forests (in the vicinity of Haifa) to help replace those that were burnt down in huge 2010 forest fires.
But as Max Blumenthal wrote for The Electronic Intifada at the time, many of these trees were planted on the ruins of destroyed Palestinian villages – deliberately so in order to cover up Israeli crimes.
After 1948, when Zionist militias drove out 750,000 Palestinians by force, the new state of Israel destroyed hundreds of their villages hoping to ensure the Palestinian refugees could not return. In many cases, the JNF planted trees on the ruins.
Palestinians and their supporters have protested against the JNF with a group called Stop the JNF making some headway in the UK, for example.
Operating as a registered charity in many countries, the JNF is a long-standing Zionist institution with quasi-governmental status and authority over land in Israel – which it holds in trust for Jews only.
As well as a long history of planning for and implementing the ethnic cleansing of Palestine, stretching back to even before the 1948 Nakba, it’s also linked to more contemporary expulsions.
In the Naqab, it is involved in projects to “Judaize” the southern desert – known as the Negev in Hebrew. Palestinian Bedouin communities are being compelled to move into American Indian style reservations dubbed “development towns.”
The “unrecognized” village of al-Araqib, for example, has reportedly been destroyed by Israel and rebuilt more than 40 times since 2010.
In October 2012, Budour Hassan reported for The Electronic Intifada that JNF representatives raided the 5,000-strong town of Bir Hadaj (which is ostensibly “recognized”) alongside the interior ministry, handing out demolition orders. When local youths protested, police invaded, firing tear gas, rubber bullets and some live ammunition.
But globally, the JNF promotes itself as a “ecological” charity, playing down its involvement in these abuses against Palestinians. Haaretz focuses on this greenwashing narrative.
With thanks to Jonathan Cook for drawing attention to this email.
Written FOR
October 15, 2012 at 08:57 (Chutzpah, European Union, Hypocricy, Peace)
Alfred Nobel was a visionary who believed in a demilitarized peaceful world. In his Will he left his Nobel peace prize to those who would work for ‘fraternity among nations’,’abolition or reduction of standing armies’, and ‘holding and promotion of peace congresses’.
In Nobel’s will the award for Peace was to go to Champions of peace, those working to replace militarism with international order based on law and the abolition of national military forces. Nobel’s vision and dream was to replace the power of militarism and war, with the power of law. I believe the Awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to the European Union, does not meet the criteria of Alfred Nobel vision and spirit, and his vision of a demilitarized peaceful world.
In many ways the European Union has done much in the past sixty years for Peace and reconciliation amongst nations, but it has sadly done little for the demilitarization of Europe. Whilst the EU imposes severe Austerity measures upon many EU countries it simultaneously supports the growing militarisation of Europe by its support for US/NATO (guilty of war crimes against Iraq, Afghanistan, etc., ) It continues to support the policies of USA Nuclear weapons, held in six EU States. It supports arms sales from European States (UK, Germany, etc.,) to countries all around the world. The EU instead of upholding human rights for countries such as Palestine, has rewarded Israel by giving them special trading status and huge grants (EU tax payers money) for its Military Research and weapons thus enabling it to continue it illegal policies of occupation and Apartheid of Palestine.
I cannot support this decision to give the peace prize to EU and appeal to the Swedish Foundation Authority to hold the Nobel Committee accountable for giving, yet again, a political award instead of supporting People taking courageous, and often dangerous stands to help move the human family away from military international Relations to one based on peaceful resolution of conflict.
I believe that the reform of the nobel peace Committee is now necessary. As is the case of all other nobel prize committees which are made-up of experts in their particular field, perhaps it is time too for the NPP Committee to be comprised of people experienced in the field of Peacemaking and International Law.
Mairead Maguire is a Northern Irish peace activist, and winner of 1976 Nobel Peace Prize. (www.peacepeople.com)
September 10, 2012 at 11:11 (Hasbara, Hypocricy, Israel, zionism)
God of Abraham, and of Iran, and of Aleppo, on this, the dawn of Rosh Hashanah, a new year, we say these words to leave an old year behind, Tichleh Shanah V’kil’loteha: May this year finally end, and with it, all of its curses.
Every year, we make the same wish. And every year, the tragic colors of that year make the substance of the wish entirely different.
This year, for example. For Israelis, a year of feeling caught in the cross-hairs of one potential genocide, and helpless in the face of an actual genocide being practiced just to the north.
But there’s more. Much more. The curses we have brought on ourselves.
In Israel, this has been a year of shocking expressions of hatred and acts of terror, of Jews against non-Jews. And in all too many of these, though the victims were innocents, the assailants believed themselves to be defending a godly purpose, or acting according to a wholly worthy principle.
As this Rosh Hashanah nears, this season of moral bookkeeping, of human debt, of the foreclosure of conscience, many of the perpetrators seem to see no need to ask forgiveness. Perhaps worse, some may believe that asking forgiveness of their non-Jewish victims is wrong, a blasphemous kowtow, a betrayal of the faith.
All of which makes this year one in which we, as Jews, will need to ask forgiveness on behalf of those who will not ask.
God of all of us, you may well be as sick of this year as we are. May we, before this New Year begins, before we finish the blessing, ask the forgiveness of all of Your children whom we have harmed.
Our God is the God of Latrun. The God of the Trappist monastery where someone, angry at the Israeli government for forcing Jews out of an illegal outpost, set fire to the doors and wrote “Jesus is a monkey” in Hebrew on its walls.
We, the rest of us, beg forgiveness.
Our God is the God of Zion Square and a pasture south of Hebron. In two separate attacks last month, Palestinians causing no harm to anyone, were beaten unconscious. Our God is the God of the Hassan family of the West Bank, whose car was firebombed, injuring five members of the family, among them two four year olds. Three boys from a settlement have been arrested in connection with the bombing. No one suspected of participating has expressed regret.
We apologize in shame, and ask for pardon.
Our God is the God of Neve Shalom/Wahat al-Salam (Oasis of Peace), an Arab-Jewish village in Israel which promotes co-existence. Earlier this year, the tires of 16 cars were slashed in the village, and slogans such as “Death to Arabs” were sprayed on vehicles and on the walls of its bilingual, bicultural elementary school.
Our God is the God of the villagers of Burim, near the West Bank settlement of Yizhar. This week, dozens of olive trees belonging to the village were hacked apart, shortly before harvest season.
Our God is the God of the refugees from Africa, the people of the fences, those who have made it in, and those trapped outside. Those who are slated for internment camps after Yom Kippur, and those who, though they are children who have never known another country, may be deported anyway.
As our God is the God, also, of the Jewish victims of the Jews. The God of eight-year-old Naama Margolis of Beit Shemesh, spat upon and cursed for dressing not to the liking of a certain yeshiva. And the God of Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, whose home was repeatedly sprayed with death threats.
All of these, the victims, they are our heroes. All of these, the assailants, they are our curse.
We know those people who were caught between the fences, far from homes they cannot return to, vulnerable. We were these people. We know those people attacked for their religion, scapegoats for misplaced rage. We were those people. And not long ago.
On Rosh Hashanah, when we sit down to the festive meal, when we raise colorful foods and say the blessings and the wishes of the victimized, the powerless, the persecuted, those who bear the scars of pogrom, of hatred, of institutional poverty, of ingrained, fiery prejudice, when we ask that we be spared, we must now include among ourselves, those whom our own people have victimized.
God of all of us, we have failed You this year. You are likely sick of us as well. Grant us the strength and the wisdom, this year, this day, to recognize the curses we bring upon ourselves, and stop them before they come true. Then, perhaps only then, we will truly merit the end of the blessing:
Tachel Shanah U’virko’teha. Let the New Year begin, with all of its blessings.
July 29, 2012 at 10:37 (Hypocricy, Israel, U.S. Election)
Romney’s campaign is based on a vigorous attack on Obama’s attitude concerning Israel, with an eye on Jewish voters in swing states, such as Florida.
Meanwhile these efforts have fallen rather flat: according to a recent Gallup poll, 68 percent of American Jews still support Obama, compared to 72-74 percent four years ago.
Still, Romney can probably count on the support of his host in Jerusalem, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Aaron Miller, who served in the Clinton administration, wrote a few days ago in Foreign Policy, that when Netanyahu will blow out the candles on his birthday cake, two weeks before the elections, he will wish for a decisive Romney victory.
Obama and his campaign managers are doing their best to check Romney’s criticism, claiming that as opposed to the Republican candidate, the administration’s deeds, not words, strengthen the alliance with Israel.
During the weekend, Obama signed a bill to increase security cooperation with
Israel.
Defense Minister Ehud Barak was quick to publicly thank the president, but
Netanyahu kept his silence. Only in respond to Haaretz’s query, Netanyahu’s office said that “the prime minister thanks the U.S. administration and is expected to send a thank you note to the president.”
Netanyahu vehemently denies that he is interfering in U.S. politics, but as he himself is fond of saying: if it walks and quacks like a duck, it’s a duck. Netanyahu’s close associates, such as his political advisor Ron Dermer, are firm supporters of the Republicans. Some of Netanyahu’s strongest backers – Casino magnate, Sheldon Adelson for one – are among Romney’s campaign largest donors.
The U.S. media has reported several times that Adelson has pledged to donate no less than $100 million to Romney’s campaign to oust Obama. The New York Times reported that Adelson will visit Israel at the same time as Romney, and one can assume that the two will find time to meet.
Romney visit will last slightly longer than 24 hours, but he will be well received by Netanyahu, who will do his best to make the visit politically successful. The two will meet in the morning at the prime minister’s office, and briefly meet the press, before meeting again in the evening for dinner at the prime minister’s residence with their wives.
One small anecdote can reflect the importance Netanyahu attaches to the visit’s success. Until a week ago, Romney was planning to hold, in the very same evening a fundraising event at the King David Hotel in Jerusalem. But then he was told that the event was due to begin before the end of the Tisha B’Av fast, commemorating the destruction of both temples.
Romney and his team found themselves in an embarrassing situation. At first they postponed the beginning of the dinner until after sunset, but that still wasn’t enough to quell the criticism. The prime minister’s office came to their rescue offering a solution – instead of a fundraising event, Romney and his wife will join the Netanyahus for an after-fast dinner. Netanyahu, by the way, has no intention of fasting, but his office said that in such a symbolic evening he could explain to Romney the dangers facing Israel. The fundraising event, incidentally, costing some $50,000 will still take place, but only on Monday morning.
June 27, 2012 at 12:19 (Boycott Israel, DesertPeace Editorial, Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine)
Dear Bob Dylan,
“Please heed the call
Don’t stand in the doorway
Don’t block up the hall
For he that gets hurt
Will be he who has stalled
There’s a battle outside ragin’.
It’ll soon shake your windows
And rattle your walls
For the times they are a-changin’.”
We are members of an Israeli group called BOYCOTT! Supporting the Palestinian BDS call from within (BfW). We support the Palestinian call for the boycott divestment and sanctions (BDS) of Israel (1) until Palestinians’ most basic human rights are respected:
1. Ending [Israel’s] occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall;
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.
You have been part of a civil rights movement. You have been able to raise your voice louder than others, you can do it again. We are asking you not to perform in Israel until it respects Palestinian human rights. A performance in Israel, today, is a vote of support for its policies of oppression, whether you intend for it to be that, or not (2). Choosing not to perform will effect over 3 and a half million lives, living under brutal occupation.
As we write this, Israel continues a practice of ethnic cleansing and it is systematically driving its own Palestinian citizens off their lands. Israel is keeping a population of millions under martial-law in the West Bank, and yet another threat of wholesale massacre is looming in Gaza, in the last few days. In the late of night of 21.3.11 the Israeli air force attacked Gaza, bombing the most populated area in the world from the sky. 8 children under the age of 17 lost their lives (3). This is not an out of the ordinary occurrence, or even a rare one. Over half the population of besieged Gaza are minors (under 18 years of age), over a million are registered refugees. They are trapped inside the biggest open-air prison in the world and are under a real and immediate threat of death, as we speak.
In 2005 over 170 (and growing) civil society Palestinian groups came together and signed the BDS call. BDS is a powerful and united civil initiative in the face of a brutal military occupation and apartheid. It’s a nonviolent alternative to a waning armed struggle and it has reaped many successes and instilled much hope, in the past 6 years. BDS is a long process in which those of us who live here are deeply invested in, knowing that there’s a personal price, which non of us could withstand alone. That is why we ask for support from the international community. Your celebrity status affords you a leading role. You may choose to block the halls, or heed the call.
Sincerely on behalf of BfW,
Noa Abend
Adi Dagan
Naama Farjoun
Shir Hever
Assaf Kintzer
Gal Lugassi
Naomi Lyth
Rela Mazali
Edo Medicks
Ofer Neiman
David Nir
Leehee Rothschild
Tal Shapira
Yana Ziferblat
*
But, fame and fortune won out in your mind as you ignored all appeals of reason by acivists who were at your side for decades.
*
Now you have chosen a new side with new supporters ….
*
*
So yes, we got our answers, you are a sellout and a whore! You made your bed, enjoy your new mates…
As for your ‘music’, truth is it makes me gag when I try to listen to it today.
Happy Anniversary!
March 18, 2012 at 15:18 (Associate Post, Hypocricy, Israel, Palestine)
However, when human rights breaches and even more scandalous policies in places such as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are deliberately ignored, a serious question-mark is drawn over the real motives behind such demonstrations.
I am one of those people who don’t trust most of the Zionist rabbis who adopt a blind attitude toward the Apartheid state of Israel.
This week, Jewish leaders in Washington , D.C. , demonstrated outside the Sudanese embassy, protesting the al-Bashir regime’s excesses against rebel areas in southern Kurdufan.
The protestors accused the Sudanese government of provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking humanitarian aid from reaching people in need.
One rabbi, wore a T-shirt saying :” Stop genocide in Darfur .”
There is nothing wrong in holding protests against government repression and human rights violation anywhere in the world.
However, when championing the cause of human rights is motivated by short-sighted political expedience, highly-selective, moral confusion and moral impurity blur the picture.
I am not suggesting or demanding that at a single demonstration one would have to protest all human rights violations on earth, although this would be a good thing to do.
However, when human rights breaches and even more scandalous policies in places such as Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories are deliberately ignored, a serious question-mark is drawn over the real motives behind such demonstrations.
I am one of those people who don’t trust most of the Zionist rabbis who adopt a blind attitude toward the Apartheid state of Israel.
The hypocrisy of these gurus of racism and mendacity becomes really stark when we see them refrain from voicing even a gesture of dissatisfaction with real atrocities, some of which are quite comparable to Nazi crimes against Jews during WWII, on no ground other than the fact that the villains happen to be Jews and the victims are non-Jews.
I would want to know how many times have these so-called rabbis taken part in protests against Israel’s Naz-like policies in the West Bank, Gaza Strip, East Jerusalem and Israel proper?
How many times have these important figures protested the demolition of Arab homes, the vandalism of Arab orchards, the torching of Arab fields, the open-ended detention of innocent Arabs without charge or trial, the desecration of Muslim and Christian holy places at the hands of government-backed Jewish thugs and terrorists as well as the recurrent murderous air-raids on helpless Gazans which kill, maim and incinerates thousands?
The five-year ongoing blockade of the Gaza Strip have caused a virtual starvation throughout the coastal enclave, but most Jewish leaders, rabbis and otherwise, have remained silent, as if this was happening on another plant.
I know the answer too well. These rabbis’ consciences are alive only when Jewish lives and Jewish rights and interests are in question.
However, when Gentile lives, rights and interests are the issue, we see these rabbis succumb to apathy and disinterest.
In fact a good many of these people don’t content themselves with silence and apathy, they actually morph themselves into hysterical mouthpieces for the Israeli government and genocidal settlers by strongly defending every atrocity and every massacre perpetrated in cold blood by their brethren.
Didn’t holocaust survivor Eli Wiesel declare that ” I support Israel right or wrong” and “I really can’t bring myself to criticizing Israeli crimes?”
A few years ago, Israel launched a blitzkrieg against the nearly helpless and virtually unprotected, and thoroughly blockaded Gaza Strip, using state-of-the art of the American technology of death.
The infernal barbarian rampage, which lasted for more than three weeks, killed over a thousand innocent civilians, including more than 350 children, murdered knowingly and deliberately “in order to break the Palestinians’ will for resistance and freedom.”
As mentioned above, this nefarious aggression came on the heel of a hermetic blockade which put about two million people on the verge of starvation.
Unfortunately, not a single word of protest was uttered by people like Wiesel and his elk against the mini-genocide in Gaza. Far from that, the pseudo-moralist did every thing he could to defend Israel’s shameful act, and he did it in the name of the holocaust and its survivors!!!
Why do many Jews adopt such distinctively duplicitous, manifestly unethical stances and scandalously inconsistent attitudes when relating to crimes committed by Jews and crimes committed against Jews?
Do these rabbis and self-centered thinkers really believe their ancient myths that non-Jews are beasts of burden created by the Almighty so that they may serve Jews, as the spiritual mentor of Shas, Ovadia Yosef, said last year?
Do they think, as many within the Chabad cult, that the lives of non-Jews have no sanctity and can be expended without the slightest compunction? One rabbi from this particularly evil cult was quoted as saying that a Jew may murder a Gentile in order to extricate the victim’s organ if the Jew needed one?
I am not interested in vilifying and demonizing anyone, including Jews. I know well that there are many conscientious and humane Jews out there. But, unfortunately, the damage and ill-will caused by villainous Jews exceed by far any amount of good will generated by good Jews.
The Jews are an influential people in our world today. They control power nations and governments, including the only remaining super-power in the world, the United States .
Instead of gearing American policies toward embracing and supporting apartheid and oppression in Palestine (because the oppressors and practitioners of apartheid happen to be Jews), Jews can steer American policy toward promoting a moral world based on justice and morality, not on power politics.
We have experienced “power politics” since the beginning of time, and it proved utterly disastrous if not suicidal.
March 11, 2012 at 09:48 (Deceit, Hasbara, Hypocricy, Ignorance, Israel, Videos, Xenophobia)
Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is safe for Christians, Israel’s ambassador to the United States Michael Oren wrote in an op-ed column for the Wall Street Journal on Friday, comparing what he said was the suppression of Christian communities in Arab states to the twentieth-century expulsion of Jews from these nations.
In his article, Oren cited the continuing violence against Egypt’s Coptic Christians, the burning of Iraqi churches, a Saudi ban on Christian worship and the desecration of the Church of the Nativity in the West Bank as instances indicating a threat to Christianity in the Muslim world, adding that conversion “to Christianity is a capital offense in Iran, where last month Pastor Yousef Nadarkhani was sentenced to death.”
The Israeli official went on to compare what he called a sweeping action against Christian communities in the Arab world to the expulsion of 800,000 “from Arab countries, mostly following the Six-Day War.”
Ultimately, Oren concludes, the only place in the Middle East where Christians aren’t endangered, but are actually flourishing, is in Israel.
“Since Israel’s founding in 1948, its Christian communities (including Russian and Greek Orthodox, Catholics, Armenians and Protestants) have expanded more than 1,000%,” he added.
Oren concluded the article, in which he cites the exodus of Palestinian Christians from the West Bank and Gaza over increased pressure by Islamist groups such as Hamas, by syaing that the “extinction of the Middle East’s Christian communities is an injustice of historic magnitude.”
“Yet Israel provides an example of how this trend can not only be prevented but reversed. With the respect and appreciation that they receive in the Jewish state, the Christians of Muslim countries could not only survive but thrive,” Oren wrote.
*
And let’s not forget these attitudes…
*
*
Perhaps this Oren guy should take a daytrip to the illegal settlements (including Jerusalem) to see the reality he seems ignorant of.
March 5, 2012 at 09:25 (Activism, Associate Post, DesertPeace Exclusive, Human Rights, Hypocricy, International Solidarity, Israel, Oppression, Palestine, Photography, zionist harassment)
Gay Pride Event Coordinator Adir Steiner said, “Tel Aviv is hot right now because it’s unique. It’s in the Middle East where it’s not so easy to be gay and it’s like a paradise in an area where you would not obviously have found an open city like Tel Aviv. So people find it interesting.”
Saturday, March 3rd at 4 pm
208 West 13th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues
We hope you will join Queers Against Israeli Apartheid and the 15 other groups that have endorsed the call for action this Saturday…see list below.
On March 3rd we will gather at the LGBT Center from 4 to 6 pm to mark the one year anniversary of the Center’s banning of groups opposing Israeli apartheid. We will confront the Center’s censorship policy and its secret closed-door board of directors meetings.
It’s been a year since NY’s LGBT Community Center banned Siegebusters, the anti-occupation organizers, from using space at the Center. Since that time NYC Queers Against Israeli Apartheid has also been banned from the Center—and a “moratorium” has been imposed on ANY discussion of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict (meaning “discussion” of support for Palestinian rights). The Center’s board promised, but never delivered, a policy revision clarifying their rental/access/programming guidelines.
On Saturday, March 3, as part of Israeli Apartheid Week, we will end the ban on Palestinian-related organizing at the Center, and re-institute the Center’s original access policy of full inclusion for all queers who organize for liberation. The “moratorium” is over!
The wealthy and powerful 1% should not be allowed to silence the voices of the 99%. Queers Against Israeli Apartheid will defy the ban on March 3 — Occupy the Center!
Demands
1. End the ban on Palestine solidarity organizing at the Center
2. Open the Center to all who respect its stated mission.
3. Open the Center’s board meetings and decision-making process to the community.
ENDORSING GROUPS
Queers for an Open LGBT Center (QFOLC)
alQaws for Sexual and Gender Diversity in Palestinian Society
Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel
Brooklyn for Peace
FIERCE
Jewish Voice for Peace-NY
Jews Say No!
International Action Center
International Socialist Organization
Metropolitan Community Church of New York
New York Association for Gender Rights Advocacy (NYAGRA)
Palestinian Queers for BDS
Siegebusters
Sylvia Rivera Law Project
Workers World Party
Young, Jewish and Proud*
And now from the event
Photos © by Bud Korotzer
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
The Speakers…
*
*
*
*
*
*
The Protest …
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
After the initial protests inside the centre, the activists moved outside in front of the building. To hugh cheers, two banners were dropped from the center’s windows.
*
*
*
*
December 2, 2011 at 12:58 ('Christian' Right, Hasbara, Hypocricy, Israel, Racism, zionist harassment)
Settlers claim presence of Evangelical volunteers in religious community violates fabric of their society. Community Rabbi Eliezer Melamed approves their stay, says ‘they’re not missionaries’
Settlers living on the western hill of the religious community of Har Bracha recently sent a letter to the community secretariat, protesting the housing of Evangelical Christians in their neighborhood.
According to the residents, the presence of the Christian volunteers – who arrived to work in the community’s vineyards – violates the fabric of their society, and as a result – they hardly leave their houses.
“When we came to live in a religious community, we never imagined that one of these days we would be forced to live alongside people of a different religion, which doesn’t match our faith and lifestyle,” the residents wrote.
“We’re not interested in associating with them, or alternatively – staying away from the public domain… We live in a small, intimate place, which is greatly affected by the composition of the population living here.”
The residents warned the community secretariat that the Christians’ presence in their neighborhood may affect the possibility of taking in new families in light of the fear that “the hill will be branded – at least by outsiders – as a characterless place which takes in any ‘vagabond.'”
The Christian volunteers are part of a large group of American volunteers affiliated with Yuval – a pro-Israel Evangelical organization. The group includes dozens of people, and their stay in Har Bracha was made possible after the community rabbi, Eliezer Melamed, met with them and ruled that they are not missionaries.
The rabbi’s stand was recently published in detail in the Beit El Yeshiva website, under the title, “Respect and love for the lovers of Israel.”
Rabbi Melamed discusses the question of the Christian supporters of Israel, ruling that “in recent years we are witnessing increasing support for Israel on the part of Evangelical Christians. They view the State of Israel as the miracle of realization of the prophets’ vision…
“They stand by us and their support is very important to us as they are a key element in the United States, the strongest country in the world today.”
In the article, Rabbi Melamed explains that these are not Christians “seeking to convert us” and even refers to them as “Righteous Gentiles.”
The community spokesman, Yaakov Idels, added: “Rabbi Melamed looked into the issue thoroughly and came to the conclusion that in this specific case there is no reason for concern, as this is a good thing.
“In such matters we rely on his opinion, and as far as we’re concerned, he decides and we accept his ruling unconditionally.”
The rabbi’s stand is supported by Har Bracha Committee Chairman Yonadav Zar. “The Christian volunteers came here to help. Naturally, they need a place to stay and we’re happy to accommodate them.
“It’s natural for people to fear the stranger and unknown. The people of Israel have suffered for 2,000 years from persecutions in the name of the Christian cross, and the fear of certain residents is understandable, but I think we must overcome these fears.”
Former Jerusalem Council Member Mina Fenton, who has launched several battles against Christian organizations in Israel, is unimpressed by the calming messages of the community representatives.
“This is a very serious affair,” she says. “It’s the first time Christians are accommodated in a Samaria community, and the first time the rabbi approves of it. I’m not sure that he had all the information on the nature of these people.
“I’ve learned about these Christian volunteers and others. They began as a one-family project, and now they’re an organization of hundreds of people with Christian goals.
“I have already turned to dozens of rabbis, who are conducting a halachic inquiry into this matter.”
November 25, 2011 at 13:12 (Corrupt Politics, Hypocricy, Israel)
|
Rabbinate presents: Pork-flavored foie gras
Chief Rabbi Metzger announces plan to import special goose liver which tastes just like forbidden meat |
We plan to approve the move and help it happen,” the rabbi told Yedioth Ahronoth. “It could serve as an original Jewish solution for consumers of non-kosher meat, who will be receiving a proper substitute. As for religious Jews, I believe they will be disgusted at first, but will eventually get used to it.”
Rabbi Metzger made the remarks in a conference presenting future hospital food. The conference was also attended by Deputy Health Minister Yakov Litzman and the winner of the first season of “Master Chef”, Ina Kravasky.
October 21, 2011 at 12:14 (Associate Post, Corrupt Politics, Hypocricy, Libya, Torture)
October 11, 2011 at 11:07 (DesertPeace Editorial, Egypt, Gaza, Holidays, Hypocricy, Illegal Evictions, Israel)
After Egypt bans export of palm fronds ahead of Sukkot, government quickly approves import from Strip. Left-wing groups, foreign officials say potential deal proves Gaza blockade is political rather than security-related
*
*
Succot without the palm frond is like Christmas without the tree … perish the thought. But, thankfully the hypocrisy of zionism itself saved the day.
*
Some rambling thoughts that I wrote about Succot a few years ago can be read in the following post … THE ROOTS OF PREJUDICE AND HOW TO COMBAT IT
*
Now, LET’S EAT!
Happy Holiday!!
