Tuesday, June 10, 2014
Dr. King's pro-Israel Legacy (in 5 minutes) (h/t ProIsraelBayBloggers
Down the Middle East Memory Hole
In presenting his case that Israel is very far from being a colony, Friedman may be seen as offering a strong refutation to Ari Shavit’s showy “confession” in My Promised Land that Israel is indeed guilty of the sin of colonialism: the very sin so frequently invoked by its enemies to vilify and delegitimize it. For these enemies, the idea that Jews are native to the region is inadmissible—intolerable. And therein lies a clue both to their expunging of any memory of their own Jews and to their obsessive fixation on the un-erasable affront embodied in the existence of the Jewish state.My own Jihad on “Stop the Occupation” Facebook Pages
For what is it that really delegitimizes Israel in the eyes of its detractors? Why is the BDS movement so set against it, and not against, for example, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Egypt, Sudan, to say nothing of Turkey, all of which occupy territories hastily cobbled together into states by the Treaty of Versailles and/or the disappearance of the colonial system—and all of which behave reprehensibly toward their remaining non-Arab, non-Islamic, and non-Turkic minorities? The answer is so obvious that I hesitate to put it in words. (h/t Norman F)
It all started when I made up an alias facebook account so I could say what I really wanted to on Israeli news and Pro-Israel pages. Dare I say, maybe even this very one? Being right-wing when it comes to Israel, I didn’t have the desire to sift through anti-Semitic hate messages to my personal account. It’s funny how some leftist “humanitarians” spew the most venom at complete strangers with whom they don’t agree with. I decided to go undercover in my quest to spread the truth and confirm it for myself.
The truth is a very touchy subject when it comes to Israel. No one wants to hear it. No one wants to face it. To my surprise, I received much support for my blunt and honest statements. People were glad someone finally said what they wanted to say but felt they couldn’t. It’s hard to in this sugar-coated politically correct day-and-age. I decided to go onto Pro-Palestinian or rather Israeli-hate pages and enlighten them. That lasted about half a day before I was kicked out of all of them. Not for Muslim bashing, but for having another opinion. The “Free-Gaza” and “Stop the Occupation” activists don’t really like other opinions besides their own or actual facts. Truth seekers they are not. They want to play the victim and keep it that way. You may think facebook pages are nothing to worry about, yet these groups are in the thousands, which represent the millions. They create events and incite violence. They are not just a reflection of hate but the activists of it.
I could have stopped there, but what I saw on those pages drove me further in. I will discuss my other persona I used later. I was not shocked at the photoshoped images taken out of context with blatant false information as headlines. I was not shocked at the despicable hatred towards Israelis, specifically Jews. Yes, young Muslim’s living in America still refers to Jews as descendents of Apes and Pigs. I wasn’t even shocked at the thousands who joined these pages or hundreds of likes on pictures supporting terrorism. People justified the killing of Israeli children in the name of “resistance”. What did surprise me (from reading people’s comments) was how many actually believed the complete and utter hate propaganda.
Ireland ‘the most truly Muslim country in the world’
The country in the world most faithful to the values of the Koran is Ireland according to an Iranian-born academic at George Washingon University in the US. Next are Denmark, Sweden and the UK.JPost Editorial: Religious intolerance
In a BBC interview, Hossein Askari, Professor of International Business and International Affairs at George Washington University said a study by himself and colleague Dr Scheherazde S Rehman, also rates Israel (27) as being more compliant with the ideals of the Koran than any predominantly Muslim country.
Not a single majority Muslim country made the top 25 and no Arab country is in the top 50.
He said that when their ‘Islamicity index’ was applied only Malaysia (33) and Kuwait (42) featured in its top 50 countries, compared to the US at 15, the Netherlands also at 15, while France is at 17.
Saudi Arabia rated 91st, with Qatar at 111st.
The pope saw fit not to comment on any of Abbas’s insolent distortions. But Abbas’s duplicity is underscored by his deafening silence on the Meriam Ibrahim case.Presbyterians, BDS and Israel — here we go again
She was sentenced in Khartoum to be flogged for adultery and to hang for apostasy. News of this Islamic persecution of a Christian appeared not to have reached Ramallah.
Meriam Ibrahim’s nightmare is only one of many unthinkable tragedies produced by intolerance in the Arab/Muslim world. The barbarity meted out to her is not unusual under Muslim rule, although citizens of liberal democracies such as Israel tend to assume that fanatic bigotry is universally scorned and has no place in today’s world. We see religious freedom as an elementary human right.
Yet this is not how the enemies of our forward-thinking values see things. Moreover, all too many of them learn from the West’s multiculturalism how to exploit Western credulity for the most anti-multicultural ends.
And thus Abbas adopts the guise of a magnanimous guardian of Christianity against Jewish predations, in perversion of the most basic truths of the past and the present.
For the sixth time since 2004 — this time in Detroit on June 14-21 — a minority within the denomination will attempt to convince fellow Presbyterians that Israeli-Palestinian peace can be encouraged by anti-Israel resolutions, divestment from companies doing business with Israel, boycott of Israeli products produced in the territories, labeling Israel an apartheid state and replacing church support for a two-state solution with a one-state vision signifying the end of Israel as a Jewish state.Churches for Middle East Peace Downplays Hamas' Hostility
In 2012, at the last biennial, a divestment proposal was narrowly defeated by only two votes out of 664 cast. Despite multiple defeats, divestment supporters have not given up. They are back with new tactics.
In a bulletin that it distributed to its supporters on June 6, 2014, CMEP, an umbrella organization that speaks for approximately two dozen churches and para-church organizations in the United States, soft-pedaled Hamas’ hostility toward the Jewish state.Report: Islamic Extremism a Leading Cause of Persecution of Christians
After recounting some of the events that preceded the Palestinian Authority’s decision to reconcile with Hamas, the bulletin states: “Contrary to its charter, Hamas has now given its endorsement to a government that recognizes and cooperates with Israel.”
With this statement, the organization is implying that Hamas has somehow changed its tune regarding Israel’s right to exist. What the folks at CMEP omit from their bulletin is that Hamas leaders have stated explicitly that they continue to reject Israel’s right to exist.
The World Watch Top 10 Violence List, produced by the Christian human rights group Open Doors, was based on persecution incidents between November 2012 and March 2014.Media Double Whammy for BDS
Nigeria, which was ranked as the top country for violence against Christians, has been plagued by the Islamic terrorist organization Boko Haram, which recently made global headlines for its abduction of nearly 300 Christian schoolgirls.
Several Middle East countries, including Egypt and civil war-ravaged Syria, were included in the top five.
Following the successful Rolling Stones concert in Tel Aviv, it’s not been a great week for the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. And now it’s just got worse as critical opinion pieces against BDS appear in the New York Times and Daily Telegraph on the same day.4 questions for ‘Breaking the Silence’ that the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont won’t ask
In the New York Times, Roger Cohen calls out those who opposed the Rolling Stones from performing in Israel:
Jagger was right to play Tel Aviv, if nothing else than as a powerful protest against such charges from Europe’s bien-pensants. Jews suffered systematic, industrialized Nazi annihilation in the period to which Waters alludes. There is no parallel to this in Israel, period.
To suggest there is amounts to something much worse than intellectual sloppiness. It is a form of moral calumny.
If the Guardian’s Peter Beaumont had looked at financial reports from Breaking the Silence (BtS) he would have realized that the NGO is generously funded by foreign governments and foundations like the New Israel Fund and George Soros’s Open Society Institute, and, with a yearly income of roughly 3.7 million shekels, isn’t in need of the free PR he provided the group in a Guardian/Observer feature on June 8th.No BBC follow-up on story of Palestinian professor’s visit to Auschwitz
Additionally, if you think our claim that the story represents ‘PR’ is over the top, keep in mind that Beaumont’s piece – largely consisting of ‘testimony’ from former Israeli soldiers alleging that “war crimes” and “violations of international law” are routinely committed by the IDF – runs at over 2800 words, and yet is almost entirely devoid of anything critical of the Israeli activists, or the organization which they represent.
Back in April the BBC World Service weighed in on the topic of Professor Mohammed Dajani’s visit to Auschwitz together with some of his Palestinian students.WHYSPost Vatican prayer meet missile from Gaza Strip ignored by BBC
Since his return, Professor Dajani has suffered repeated intimidation which culminated in his recent resignation from his posts at Al Quds University.
However, in line with the BBC’s usual practice, audiences are not informed that the Palestinian president’s term of office ended well over five years ago and that he has since held onto power despite holding no elected mandate.BBC approved terminology meets reality and the result is audience confusion
Notably, the BBC’s written report was not updated to include the related news that, on the same evening as the Vatican event took place, Israelis living in towns and villages in the Western Negev once again found themselves running for shelter when terrorists in the Gaza Strip fired a missile at civilians in the Ashkelon area.
There is, of course, nothing novel about the BBC ignoring missile attacks on Israeli civilians by Gaza Strip-based terrorist organisations, but the fact that as of the swearing-in of the new PA unity government at the beginning of June, Mahmoud Abbas and the PUG are now officially responsible for the prevention of such terror attacks is relevant and essential information with which BBC audiences have not yet been provided.
Obviously the BBC cannot ignore the fact that the Palestinian National Authority has been in existence for twenty years and that the vast majority of Palestinians outside the Gaza Strip live under its governance. Nevertheless, it continues the bizarre practice of describing regions it rightly describes as governed by the PA as being simultaneously “Israeli-occupied”.New York Times Censors Ad Decrying Islamist Censorship
The political motivations behind that practice are all too apparent, but no less grave than the clear breach of impartiality it demonstrates, this incongruous policy is particularly pernicious because its use of dumbed-down political sloganeering actually prevents BBC audiences from understanding the realities of the situation on the ground in contradiction of the corporation’s public purposes remit which obliges it to “build a global understanding on international issues”.
The New York Times has become complicit in a stealth jihad against free speech in the United States undertaken by Islamists and their sympathizers who masquerade as “civil rights” groups.Former Libyan Official Ramzi Al-Rumaih: Obama Pawn of Zio-Anglo-American Freemasonry
The Investigative Project on Terrorism (IPT) recently bought a full-page advocacy ad in the print edition of the Times. It discussed extensively the need for the media and government to directly address the reality that many acts of terrorism are rooted in radical Islam — as articulated by the terrorists themselves — and that Islamist groups attempt to deflect attention from radical Islam’s role.
A similar yet more concise version of the ad was scheduled to run on the NYT website the following day. However, something happened from one day to the next that caused the Times to demand that the IPT change the language immediately, or it would pull the ad.
Asked about the new demand, the Times replied: “In addition to being inundated with customer complaints. [sic] I have been asked for the immediate change by the publisher.”
The NYT ordered us to insert the word “radical” before the term “Islamist groups,” so that it read, “Stop the radical Islamist groups from undermining America’s security, liberty and free speech.”
Serbian royal family launches ‘Start Tel Aviv’ competition
Israeli Embassy in Serbia and the Royal Council for Entrepreneurship, supported by the Serbian Royal family organize “Start Tel Aviv” competition for startup companies in Serbia, which will be held on July 3 at the White Palace in Belgrade.Panama and Israel expect to finish negotiating FTA soon
The winner will have the opportunity to participate in the DLD festival, the largest international festival of innovation in Israel (www.dldtelaviv.com) from 13 to 19 September. “Start Tel Aviv” this year brings together competitors from 17 capitals, and found itself Belgrade in the company of London, Berlin, Dublin, Helsinki, New Delhi, Oslo, Lima and others.
After the visit of the President of Panama, Ricardo Martinelli, to Israel on Thursday, the two governments said they would have a free trade agreement (FTA - also known in Spanish as Tratado de Libre Comercio, TLC) within a couple of months.Israeli satellites to be eyes in the sky for international disaster aid
"I am convinced that the relations between Israel and Panama will continue to develop," said Martinelli referring to the upcoming change in government in the Central American country. He also stated that the FTA with Israel "will be ready in a couple of months."
The idea for Israel's satellites to serve as eyes in the sky at disaster sites came about as part of the ongoing cooperation between the Israel Space Agency and the U.N. Committee on the Peaceful Uses for Outer Space. Daniel Brook, an advisor to the ISA on international relations, learned about the U.N. Platform for Space-based Information for Disaster Management and Emergency Response (SPIDER), which serves as a data transfer hub in the event of international catastrophes. Nations can voluntarily submit their own images and SPIDER will forward them to the relevant authorities.Liberman set to embark on Africa visit
Seeking to join the effort, the Israel Space Agency hired ImageSat, a company that operates Israel's EROS A and EROS B satellites from the Israel Aerospace Industries building and Elop, respectively. When necessary, ImageSat will aim the satellites at disaster-struck locations. Images captured will be immediately transferred via SPIDER.
The 10-day trip, Liberman’s first to Africa since 2009, will be to Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya and Ethiopia, a Foreign Ministry statement said.New York Congresswoman Grace Meng: An Emerging Pro-Jewish Voice in Congress (INTERVIEW)
“Africa is a key objective in the foreign policy of Israel, and we will deploy political efforts so Israel can be admitted this year as an observer member of the African Union,” it quoted Liberman as saying.
“Relations with African countries have strategic importance for Israel, from a security, political and economic point of view,” he said.
Some 50 business delegates will accompany Liberman.
She may not be flashy, a firebrand speechmaker, or even very well known outside of her Queens congressional district, but despite her brief legislative career, freshman U.S. Rep. Grace Meng (D-N.Y.) has become one of Congress’s most steadfast supporters of Israel and Jewish issues. Along the way she has endeared herself to colleagues and supporters on both sides of the aisle and the Jewish community in her district.Tourism to Israel at record levels, 1.5 million visit between January-May
Meng’s demeanor, both in conversation and in Congress, reflects a modesty and candidness many of her media-darling colleagues lack, or have lost. Though it may not put her in the national spotlight, her approach appears to have paid off in winning favor with the voters at home.
Meng, 38, represents New York’s 6th District, covering the largely immigrant communities of Central Queens, Forest Hills and Flushing. According to data from the Berman Jewish Databank, the district ranks ninth in the country in both population and percentage of Jewish residents. The largest population in her district is Asian-American and Meng sees herself as a bridge between the very different cultures she represents.
Tourist entries into Israel are up by 17% for the first quarter of 2014, according to the Central Bureau of Statistics. The bureau stated that a record 382,000 visitors entered Israel this May, while 1.5 million visited between January and May this year.Israel Daily Picture: Life in Palestine 1830-1880 as Described by a Very Unusual Woman, Lydia Mamreoff von Finkelstein Mountford
A press release by the Israel Ministry of Tourism published the figures and pointed out an increase in tourism by 13% over figures for the same period in 2013, 19% more than in 2012 and 24% more than in 2011.
Of the tourists who arrived in May 292,000 landed in Israel by air and 54,000 tourists came through the border crossings between Israel and Jordan.
About fifty years ago, with the exception of some Polish Jewish families, and a few Latin monks, there were no European residents in Jerusalem. At that period the Jews did not contribute either to the civilisation of the inhabitants or the improvement of the city, but adapted themselves to the manners of the people and the exigencies of the place. The monks confined themselves to their daily avocations in the convents, and to the entertainment of wealthy pilgrims and travellers, whose visits, like those of angels, were few and far between.
The Jews, as well as the native Christians, throughout Syria and Palestine, were daily and hourly subjected to oppression, extortions, exaction, robbery and insults from their Moslem neighbours. It was no unusual occurrence for the Moslem to enter their houses, ransack closets and boxes, and appropriate any article of wearing apparel, furniture, or food that took the marauder's fancy. The local Government authorities would occasionally, when in need of funds, levy blackmail to the amount of hundreds of pounds on the Jews and native Christians, threatening them with massacre and plunder in default of payment. Consequently, Jews and native Christians dared to make any display of wealth only at the risk of losing life or property, and often both....
