Thank you, Mayor Breed! San Francisco Honors Israel on her 72nd Anniversary

Last night, San Francisco's City Hall was lit up in blue and white, to commemorate Yom Ha'atzmaut, the 72nd anniversary of Israel's independence.

From the City Hall Lighting Events Calendar:

Thank you, Mayor Breed, for this beautiful gesture of solidarity.

Today, the Israeli flag flies at City Hall, acknowledging again, the bond between our people.

"Palestine is not our cause" is trending in the Arab world

The times, they are a'changin!

The trending hashtag "Palestine is not my cause" (In Arabic  #فلسطين_ليست_قضيتي   ) from the Gulf states is surprising, to say the least. 

Here's a sample of whats appeared  today on Twitter

One post blames the Palestinians for selling their land to the Jews.

Another shows a  Palestinian mother feeding her baby a diet of hatred and treachery

This cartoon seems fairly obvious

The Palestinians reaction to this affront?  Of course, they blamed Israel!

Palestinians compare Jews to viruses on Yom Ha Shoah

In one of the most abhorent PR campaigns in a long history of abhorent PR campaigns, the Palestinians have been encouraged to leave messages on social media, comparing the Jewish people and the Jewish state to the deadly coronavirus.

This campaign of dehumanization has begun on the Yom Hashoah, when we commemorate the 6 million lives lost, because they too, were considered less than human

These and other repulsive images have been shared thousands of time using the hashtag #covid48, a reminder, if you needed one, that this  conflict has never been about the territories captured in the 1967 war- but rather the existence of the state of Israel within any borders.

Gaza Grocery store opens in the Hyper Mall

There was no social distancing in Gaza at this weeks grand opening of a new grocery store in the Hyper mall, the largest mall in Gaza, located in the Nusseirat refugee camp.   Yes, really.

The management initially assured the Gaza public that all precautions were being taken to assure their safety and well being.

Photos were shown on social media of the staff appropriately masked and gloved.

Gaza  Hyper Mall Grocery Store

Gaza  Hyper Mall Grocery Store

Grand opening day looked very different. Inside the mall, there were local celebrities (actor and comedian Mahmoud Zuaiter) giveaways, and huge shoulder to shoulder crowds.

Yet there was no social distancing.   In view of the coronavirus which has affected over 2,000,000 people worldwide and has left over a hundred thousand dead, this kind of mass gathering is foolhardy and irresponsible.

Its as if the Hamas terror group completely disregarded the health and welfare of the people of Gaza....

Go Anteaters! UC Irvine rescinds BDS resolution

The University of California at Irvine Student Senate has repealed a 2012 resolution that called for the campus to divest from companies that do business with Israel.

Meeting on March 31, the Associated Students of UC Irvine voted to repeal the earlier BDS resolution by a vote of 15 for, 6 against, with 2 abstentions.

Senator Marshall Roe introduced a resolution to repeal  R48-15 , stating it had contributed to a hostile campus climate for Jewish students.   The boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) movement was denounced as “contrary to the foundational ideals of Higher Education and thus the values of the UC.”

Senate Roe, quoted in the Jerusalem Post expressed his desire that the repeal of the highly divisive resolution would return the campus to a position of neutrality on the conflict

“I believe that embracing neutrality on this matter and thus repealing R48-15 would dispel the noxious atmosphere and create neutrality on campus, a neutrality that would foster an environment of reconciliation rather than rancor.”

When the original resolution passed in 2012, Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada gloated that the "historic" vote was a "stinging defeat" to "Zionist bullying" on campus.   He has not made a statement since the original vote was rescinded.

In the 8 years since  the passage of the  original BDS resolution, not a cent have been divested from UC Irvine, or any campus of the University of California. The UC Irvine / Israel Engineering Initiative remains strong and supports collaborative  educational research initiatives withTel Aviv University, the Technion (Israel Institute of Technology), Ben Gurion University and Hebrew University.

For more information on the repeal of UC Irvine's BDS resolution see:

UCI Student Senate Repeals BDS Resolution

UC Irvine Student Senate repeals BDS resolution