Multi Millionaire BDS'er Medea Benjamin is a shareholder of Caterpillar

The anti-Israel movement is built upon a fragile foundation of lies, omissions and hypocrisy. Shake it just a bit, it comes crumbling down. Wait for the dust to clear- you’ll be surprised at what’s revealed.

Recently Max Samarov revealed that a professional agitator, Dalit Baum was the author of the Loyola divestment referendum. Rather than being a student led, student organized and student written initiative, it was the work of a paid operative.

Dalit Baum is currently working for the American Friends Service Committee (AFSC). Previously, she was the director of “Economic Activism for Palestine” working for Medea Benjamin’s Global Exchange. There is no indication Dalit used her position to give micro loans to Palestinians to build businesses and grow their economy. In Progressive-speak, “economic activism” means just one thing- BDS.

Medea Benjamin is the co-founder of Global Exchange. Wearing her Code Pink hat, she was front and center at the occupy movement, bemoaning the influence of the 1%. Yet both her and her colleague Jodie Evans are 1 percenters, who toy with their activists like true puppetmasters. Read how they set up and then abandoned their activists here

In spite of her populist rhetoric, Medea Benjamin controls the assets of a foundation worth 12 million dollars.

    

 

 

What does the Benjamin Foundation (Id # 84-1618483) spend its funds on?  Just what you’d expect. Extremist groups like Code Pink and JVP. Agitprop sites like Mondoweiss and Democracy now.  Thats not a surprise. However, this might be.

Where does Medea Benjamin invest her money?   In classic "Do as I say, not as I do" mode Medea's money is working hard for her in Intel, General Electric, and wait for it...Caterpillar. All objects du rage for the BDS cru. Apparently divestment does not begin at home.

Medea Benjamin may be fabulously wealthy, but she is as morally bankrupt and fundementally dishonest as the rest of the BDS cru.

BDS: Hardly a grassroots movement.

There is more "Lets pretend" going on in the BDS movement than in the Magic Kingdom. With Palestinians thrilled to work at Sodastream, happy to buy and sell Israeli products, perfectly fine riding Veolia's  Jerusalem light rail, this "Palestinian civil society" we hear so much about seems as real as Cinderella's fairy godmother.  Also in the realm of fairy tales is the claim that BDS is a grassroots movement.

In the Times of Israel, Max Samarov exposes yet another dark and dirty secret regarding BDS on campus. Its not a student led initiative- the author of the Loyola divestment resolution was a paid BDS operative.

Max writes:

On Tuesday, April 1st, Students for Justice in Palestine presented the Loyola student government with an anti-Israel divestment resolution. But what they neglected to mention was that they didn’t write the legislation themselves. It turned out that the real author was Dalit Baum, a major leader in the global Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel. Baum is not a student or faculty member of Loyola or any North American university. She is a paid operative working to co-opt student governments into following the BDS Movement’s malicious, anti-Israel agenda. And if she is writing resolutions for one school, it is likely that she is writing them for others as well.

Professional anti-Israel activist Dalit Baum drafted the Loyola BDS resolution

Dalit Baum is locally well known as an anti-Israel activist. Formerly the "Director of Economic Activism for Palestine" at Medea Benjamin's Global Exchange, she is now working for the American Friends Service Committee. She'll also be a camp counselor at the JVP divestment camp this summer.

You may remember Dalit from the attack on Cliff's,  our beloved local hardware store or from showing up in her pajamas to protest a FIDF fundraiser.

Paid propagandists aren't just a local phenomenon.

 From Arutz Sheva:

Are Israel's leftists pure ideologues or guns for hire? Yotam Feldman, who was born into the leftist camp – his father is liberal lawyer Avigdor Feldman – believes the latter.

In a Hebrew language post at the "Eretz HaEmori" blog, Feldman says that in his life, he has witnessed how Israel's "human rights movement" became a source of income for its activists. He relates how his father's old Subaru "gradually turned" into a BMW, and how the family moved from a rented apartment in Yafo to a spacious Tel Aviv apartment. "

Feldman continues:

"It is a well known but seldom stated fact that a very large part of the leftist activists in Tel Aviv earn their salaries in different ways from the human rights branch. Many of the prominent – and often most vocal – activists in the demonstrations are paid spokespeople, PR people, producers and organizers and of course, lawyers who man the tip of the pyramid in these groups."

"This is a pretty confusing situation because when you are standing in a demonstration or even just engaging in idle talk, it is not clear if the person next to you is expressing his opinion as a result of inner conviction or as an inseparable part of his job…"

 No, its not quite as "grass roots" as the anti-Israel activists would have you believe. It never has been.

Three Arrested for Storming Friends of the IDF San Francisco Fundraiser

From 22-year-old Bay Area native Ilan Benjamin, author of  “Masa: Stories of a Lone Soldier.” 

“From my first week of basic training to my last day serving next to Gaza, it was driven into our heads again and again that our purpose was to defend innocent people,” he says. “And not just Israelis but Palestinians, too. I saw whole operations foiled based on intelligence of high civilian clusters situated too close to our target. The IDF goes out of its way to protect human life. In 21⁄2 years of service, I was never given one immoral order.” 

Friends of the IDF exist to support young people like Ilan Benjamin who risk their lives to defend Israel's borders and to protect her citizens. FIDF provides educational, social and recreational programs for them, as well as support for the families of fallen soldiers.  In 2011,  FIDF brought 77 Bar/Bat Mitzvah children to a trip to the U.S., presented Rosh Hashana gifts to 4,900 widows,  hosted  700 widows at R&R centers in Israel and funded workshops for nearly 1,000 bereaved siblings. 
From the FIDF website:

The strength of the IDF, which has been guarding the State of Israel since it declared independence in 1948, derives from the selfless determination and great capabilities of the young men and women who form it. At the tender age of 18, all Israelis are drafted into the IDF. Those who serve commit to uphold the difficult tasks of defending Israel’s borders and guaranteeing the safety of its people.

 The Israeli government is responsible for training IDF soldiers and providing them with the necessary tools for their service. FIDF is committed to providing these soldiers with love, support, and care in an effort to ease the burden they carry on behalf of the Jewish community worldwide.

 The Israeli government is responsible for training IDF soldiers and providing them with the necessary tools for their service. FIDF is committed to providing these soldiers with love, support, and care in an effort to ease the burden they carry on behalf of the Jewish community worldwide

On Sunday, October 20, San Francisco Friends of the IDF  held their annual fundraiser at the Intercontinental Hotel. 

A tiny group of protesters stood in front. According to reports, some protesters appeared to be wearing  pajamas.  Is this an indication that they consider themselves a "sleeper cell" or is it just a testament to significant mental health issues? We can only wonder.

Dalit Baum of the American Friends Service Committee and Nancy Stoller stood in protest. No strangers to anti-Israel activism, both women were involved in the repeated harassment of Cliff's Variety Store in the Castro, because it dared sell Israeli products.  Noura Khouri- a woman so extreme she once referred to the saintly Rev. Cecil Williams as "racist" was also there.   Yet in spite of promotion by groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine, and Women in Black, less than 10 came in opposition.

Desperate for some acknowledgment, members of the group came into the hotel, allegedly approaching the FIDF registration desk screaming "Intifada", before they were removed by police. 

Three were cited and later released. One was charged with assault with a deadly weapon.

Protesting a non-profit that aids widows. Terrorizing people gathered in a hotel lobby. Assaulting those who disagree with them.  Thats the face of pro-Palestinian activism in San Francisco today

JVP's Rabbi Alissa Wise engages in Sinat Chinam on Tisha B'Av

From Emunah:

After 3 years of increasing pressure on Tiaa-Cref, the answer was clear. The answer was "No". No, the investment giant would not allow its shareholder's meeting to be hijacked by a fringe minority group. No, they would not allow their 3.7 million plan participants retirement futures' be dictated by a tiny minority with a political ax to grind.

What was left for JVP to do, but protest? And true to form, they scheduled their day of rage for the Jewish fast day Tisha b'Av. You didn't actually expect them to mourn the loss of our temple, did you?

At first glance, the July 16th Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), Global Exchange and American Friends Service Committee (AFSC) Tiaa-Cref protest in San Francisco seemed like a salute to corporate America, with its baffling array of signage.

 If they can't even spell apartheid, how can they possibly look it up and know what it means?

Spelling challenged anti-Israel protester in San Francisco

Song leader Dalit (Dov) Baum vainly tried to engage the handful of protesters, leading chants and songs. 

Dalit (Dov) Baum leading Tiaa-Cref protest

Eventually a  ukulele was brought out. It was that bleak. Passersby hurried past on their way to grab a bite of lunch, largely ignoring the group.

Rabbi Alissa Wise of JVP's Rabbinic Council also attended the protest. In her blog, the Palestinian Talmud, she writes

Tochecha is about our obligation to tell someone when they have done or are currently straying and behaving wrongly – whether to us, or to another. What’s more, tochecha requires us also to engage with those we are rebuking and assist them and support them in the repair of the wrong you are calling out.

Almost like a real rabbi, right? But don't let it fool you.

While I was photographing the protest, Rabbi Alissa Wise walked up to me, chanting loudly into her megaphone, and deliberately placed it inches from my ear.  It was an assault on more than my senses. We've learned to expect temper tantrums from JVP, but coming from the head of the JVP Rabbinic Council, this act was particularly appalling.  When those invested with the spiritual guidance of a group engage in such harmful, petty and vicious acts, we can see quite clearly why the group's moral compass is askew.

You have strayed, Rabbi Wise. You have behaved wrongly. Your baseless hatred, your Sinat Chinam caused you to publicly violate the personal space of a woman old enough to be your mother, simply because you disagreed with her politics.

Sadly, in her own deeply disturbing way, JVP's Rabbi Alissa Wise delivered a wordless sermon on Sinat Chinam on Tisha B'Av.

Valentines Week Failures Leave BDS cru broken hearted

Its been a decidedly epic week of  BDS failures.

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

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

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

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

The Divestment Lobby turns its Attention to the United Methodist Conference

Anti-Israel lobbyists, led by Jewish Voice for Peace and the US campaign to end the Occupation have spent thousands on efforts to pressure the United Methodist Church to divest from holdings of companies that do business in Israel.

Andrea Whitmore introduces the key players:

"Sydney Levy of Jewish Voice for Peace is a new friend, Anna Baltzer from the US Campaign is a long-time friend, Rabbi Brant Rosen, Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Rae Abileah (the young woman who got assaulted for speaking out at an AIPAC gathering, Bishop Swenson, Rev. Alex Awad (whom many of you know), Daoud Nassar from Tent of Nations near Bethlehem, Frances Remillard representing the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, and United Methodists and others from around the country whose names you wouldn't know ..."

Andrea- Rae was not "assaulted at an AIPAC gathering". Rae deliberately interrupted the US Congress in a much publicized temper tantrum. But Rae Abileah is well known for her near hysterical theatrics. Does she look like a rational voice for peace and tolerance?

Thanks to the Houston press for this photo of Rae Abileah at a local protest:



Andrea continues:
"Yesterday we (UMKR) held a luncheon for voting delegates to let them hear Israeli Jew Dalit Baum explain the cost of the occupation."

Andrea- "Israeli Jew" Dalit Baum has come out publicly calling for the destruction of Israel as a Jewish State.

The anti-Israel divestment crew has sent out frantic emails asking for additional funding- having vastly underestimated the cost of propagandizing the United Methodist delegates. The costs of hotels, transportation and food for the anti-Israel team is also escalating. But its all for a good cause- the demonization and destruction of the only democracy in the Middle east. With techniques that might have been cribbed from "Mad Men", the divestment lobbyists are keeping up the pressure.

Stay tuned. The United Methodists will be voting on Divestment very soon.