Asa Winstanley bugs out

Asa Winstanley is a self described " investigative journalist" and a writer for the agitprop Electronic Intifada.  The Electronic Intifada  according to Media Bias Fact Check has a "strong pro-Palestinian and anti-Israeli bias",  citing their "lack of transparency regarding funding, as well as strongly loaded emotional wording that may be misleading."

Likely Asa Winstanley fits in quite well with the EI  "stretch the truth to the breaking point" crowd.

This morning the acclaimed author Einat Wilf linked to an article in Haaretz regarding the eradication of malaria in Israel, writing  

"And once and for all (I wish!): The only ones that Zionism displaced were mosquitos. The lands Zionists acquired to establish themselves were malaria ridden, and they reclaimed those lands. Those were the lands then allocated to them in the partition map."

Apparently reading comprehension skills are not required to be an "investigative journalist" at the EI. Asa went buggy, writing "Former Israeli MP calls 800,000 Palestinians "mosquitoes" -- genocidal rhetoric from a "left-wing" Zionist."

Feedback on Twitter was swift and merciless.

But 12 hours have passed, and Winstanley's tweet is still up.  Its never been about truth for Asa Winstanley and his comrades.  Its about advancing an agenda.

Israeli born Ovadia Brothers wow New York's fashion week

Israeli twins and fashion designers Shimon and Ariel Ovadia have been wowing audiences during New York Fashion Week.

The brothers, described a few years back by GQ as Best New Designers in America have a fashion line described as “chill and fresh”and having the “exact charm, edge and creativity of New York".  WWD marvels “ how two kids without a college education or any design experience launched themselves from the observant Jewish enclave of Flatbush, Brooklyn, to a Vogue-sponsored fashion show at the Chateau Marmont. And did it without working on the Sabbath.”

From the New York Times, writing about 2017 New York fashion week

The New York Giants wide receiver Victor Cruz, left, and the rapper Fabolous sat front row.
He went on to praise the fellow New Yorkers, less like a football star than a fashion editor: “I love their aesthetic — from the energy that they put into their clothing, to the silhouettes, to the cuts of their T-shirts. It’s just really beautiful.”

On the same front-row bench sat the rapper Fabolous, who appeared not to mind the fashion-mad fan crawling at his feet, trying to get a clear smartphone shot of his Puma x Trapstar sneakers.

“One thing that Ovadia has is the dope streetwear, but there’s a little touch to it that screams New York City, screams high-end,” Fabolous said. “But it’s still comfortable and casual at the same time.”

Yet the Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah can’t see beyond his seething hatred of the Ovadia Brothers  Jewish/Israeli background, describing their New York Fashion Week lineup as “ racist chic”

Its hard to imagine anyone looking at this gritty, diverse cross-section of New Yorkers and thinking "Hmmmm. Thats racist", but Ali Abunimah manages.

Photo by John Taggart for The New York Times

Could it be this proud homage to the twins Israeli heritage that set him off? Could this mainstreaming of Hebrew, the the language of the Jewish people, have triggered Ali Abunimah's latest outburst?

Perhaps Ali Abunimah would find the designs of Paloma Spain, also exhibited at Fashion Week more to his liking? 

2016. A year of BDS fails

The Electronic Intifada's "Rah Rah BDS is on a roll" end of the year list was particularly subdued this year. (No, I don't link to hate sites) 

My comments in BOLD

Electronic Intifada claims: Activists rose up against Hewlett Packard. Campaigners in dozens of cities across six continents participated in an international week of action against Hewlett-Packard...

Yes, some cities had as much as a half dozen people holding signs.  And there was a hashtag. And a petition, too.  The net result?  See for yourself.

Electronic Intifada claims: Spanish municipalities declared themselves “apartheid-free zones.” More than 50 cities across Spain now declare themselves free of Israeli products in a campaign that began in July 2014...

Oops.  The Electronic Intifada left out a crucial bit of BDS fail information. From the October 5,  2016 J Post

In a massive blow to the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement, a Spanish High Court of the Asturias region, upheld a decision last week, declaring a Langreo City Council agreement to boycott Israel illegal.

This marks the first time that a High Court in Spain has issued a judgment relating to BDS, thanks to the legal actions brought forth by ACOM, a pro-Israel lobby group working to combat BDS in Spain

Electronic Intifada claims: Churches continued to mobilize for Palestinian rights. Denominations voted in 2016 to boycott Israeli financial institutions, and to dump or bar investments in corporations that profit from Israel’s occupation.

A  single church in California vowed not to purchase supplies from Hewlett-Packard, a company that provides equipment to Israel’s military and settlements. This was a church that had previously taken a strong anti-Israel stand, and frequently hosted extremist speakers.

Electronic Intifada claims: Activists helped defeat anti-BDS legislation. Grassroots campaigners fought back against a growing wave of legislation promoted by US state and federal lawmakers – and encouraged by Israel lobby groups and the Israeli government – to suppress BDS activism.

Grassroots campaigners fought back and lost. 14 states have passed anti-BDS legislation

In May, lawmakers in Ontario, Canada’s most populous province, made history: theirs was the world’s first full legislature to vote down an anti-BDS law...

Oops.The Electronic Intifada left out another crucial bit of BDS fail information. In December Ontario has become the first Canadian province to reject the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement

Electronic Intifada claims: G4S was forced to buckle under BDS pressure. Under years-long pressure by grassroots campaigns, the world’s largest private security firm, G4S, ditched most of its Israeli businesses.

The global security firm G4S sold its business in Israel as part of a portfolio review. 60 other businesses were sold as well.   The G4S statement on the sale 

G4S reiterates that it does not support the anti-Israel boycott by BDS or any other group. The decision to sell G4S Israel was made on strategic and commercial grounds as part of a portfolio management program established by the company in 2013. Under its portfolio program G4S has sold or identified for sale 65 businesses which have combined revenues of £1.6 billion.

G4S also rejects BDS comments relating to the conduct of business by G4S Israel. As numerous independent reviews have confirmed, G4S Israel operates to the highest business standards. G4S Israel is a well-managed business that will grow and prosper under the right new owner, providing a positive future for our 8,000 colleagues in Israel and long-term service and support for our customers.

Electronic Intifada claims: Students stood strong. Students in the US, Canada and the UK passed strong divestment measures in their student governments and trade unions, amidst intensifying smear campaigns by outside Israel advocacy groups and shady websites.

Students in the US, the UK and Canada also rejected divestment measures. There is no indication that a single dollar of university money has ever been divested from targeted businesses 

2016 was also a year when a record-breaking $1.127 billion in Israeli bonds were sold in the U.S. Since the program began in 1951, there have been over $40 billion dollars in global sales of Israeli bonds.  Sorry, Ali. Clearly rumors of Israel's impending isolation are overstated.

Use booking.com for your next Gaza vacation

The Electronic Intifada's having a bit of a tantrum because bookings.com offers accommodations over the green line.

Interestingly enough, booking.com also includes listings in that vacationers paradise, terror controlled Gaza.  Electronic Intifada doesn't seem to care about that.

This beach chalet, listed on booking.com  is just meters from the Gaza beach and offers both a swimming pool and a jacuzzi, and manicured landscaping (just like the Warsaw ghetto)

If you are interesting in seeing more photos of this lovely Gaza home, visit booking.com

Palestine: World's second most lethal country for Journalists

Its been said that nearly 80% of all "readers" never make it past the headline. Ali Abunimah  of the Electronic Intifada is again exploiting this, counting on this, with a headline that reads  "Israel world’s second most lethal country for journalists in 2014, watchdog says".

Thats not what the "Watchdog" says. Thats what Ali Abunimah claims they say.

The "Watchdog" , Reporters without Borders infographic is quite clear.

 

In a region plagued by violent extremism, Ali Abunimah wants you to ignore the elephant in the room, and to keep your focus on Israel.

Ali Oops: Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah shows his ignorance again

From the  Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah:  Is Ali all atwitter because Israel's Arrow missile defense system has the potential to save Israeli lives?

 Electronic Intifada's Ali Abunimah shows his ignorance

What Ali describes as "teaching hate and violence"  at Israel Science Day in Rabin Square is in reality the Arrow Weapon System - Israel's national missile defense system.  The  Arrow defense system  is designed to track  and disable into missiles above the earth's atmosphere, high enough to disable chemical, biological or nuclear warheads safely.  Arrow is designed to save lives, Ali.  You run a website about the Middle East.  Its time to get up to speed on some basic facts.

If Ali Abunimah  really cared about teaching "hate and violence", you'd think he'd have said something about the latest public art in Gaza.

Its a life-size model of a large  M75 rocket with a range of up to 75 miles. These rockets were launched at Tel Aviv and Jerusalem during Operation Pillar of Defense in November 2012.

Palestinian militants of Hamas armed wing Ezzedine al-Qassam Brigades stand in front of a model of an M75 rocket at al-Jalaa Square on March 10, 2014 in Gaza City (AFP Photo/Mahmud Hams )

 The words of peace that accompanied this fine bit of Palestinians public art:

“Hamas managed to take the battle to the heart of the Zionist entity (Israel) after developing its rocket system, succeeding where many Arab armies had failed.”

Gilad Atzmon: coached by JVP and Ali Abunimah on avoiding accusations of antisemitism

Its meltdown time for the anti-Israel cru, and those of us watching from the sidelines aren't shedding any tears. Its not just this week's  triple exposure of Seattle blogger Richard Silverstein,  confirming him as a bully and a fraud .  Rapid hate-monger Gilad Atzon has revealed startling new information about his relationship with the Electric Intifada's Ali Abunimah, as well as with Jewish voice for Peace.

Admittedly, Gilad Atzmon's veracity is questionable. The saxophonist is better know for his lapses into pure antisemitism than for his musical prowess.  Last year, much of the anti-Israel community disavowed and disassociated with Atzmon.  (Not so Deppen Webber and Paul Larudee of the International Solidarity movement  They used Atzmon for a fundraiser in Oakland in support of the "Global March to Jerusalem".)

Surprisingly Gilad Atzmon recently revealed that both Ali Abunimah and  Jewish voice for peace coached him on avoiding accusations of antisemitism, urging him to "refer to Zionism instead of Jewish identity"

Originally revealed via Twitter and Facebook,  Atzmon was encouraged to tell more.  And he did, writing in his blog

It is not a secret that Abunimah and myself are not on cordial terms.  Yet, we communicated briefly in 2010 following Abunimah's laughable statement on history and culture. Here is a juicy bit of information Abunimah would probably prefer to keep hidden from the public eye: On the 1st of December 2010, Abunimah wrote to me in an amicable manner:

“What you describe as ‘Jewish’ might perhaps be more accurately described as ‘Zionist,’ - and then we might find grounds for a lot of agreement”

Abunimah basically advised me to mislead my readers and say ‘Zionist’ whenever I mean to say ‘Jewish’ so we (he and I) can ‘find grounds for a lot of agreement’. Around the same time I also met with a JVP top leader who repeated pretty much the same line. "Don’t refer to Jewishness, make sure you concentrate on Zionism," she said, "you will then enjoy our support."

 According to Atzmon, both Abunimah and JVP urged him to use "Zionism" as an all purpose "get of of jail free card" , to avoid accusations of antisemitism.  Atzmon chose not to listen to their advice and later was denounced by them. 

 In Jewish voice for Peace's case, liars need good  memories.  An email from  Jewish Voice for Peace, Los Angeles sent 05/04/13 actually promoted  Gilad Atzmon's May 17 concert in the Levantine Center , over a year after their proclamation  stating " we cannot endorse events in which he takes part."   The endorsement also appears on the JVP website.

In spite of  delusions of his own integrity Gilad Atzmon is not the hero in this sordid little tale.  He is still a vile anti-Semite.  But JVP and Ali Abunimah are equally complicit through their attempts to shield this evil little man.

Delta Airlines: the latest BDS hoax

There is such a paucity of real BDS victories, that anti-Israel activists often spread lies- pretending routine business decisions are politically motivated and are signs of the "momentum" of their movement.

Years ago, Code Pink issued the usual self congratulatory pats on the back when Costco discontinued its Ahava Holiday gift pack- in January.  Such a victory for them!

Our friend Jon did a wonderful job compiling BDS hoaxes at his Divest this website. Check them out.


Today there is a new BDS hoax to add to the list. Several days ago, anti-Israel activists triumphantly crowed their success in getting Delta Airline to discontinue serving Achva halva. An article in the Electronic Intifada was picked up by dozens of anti-Israel bloggers and social media sites. Trouble is, it wasn't true.


From Avi Mayer: (If you are in Israel , buy this man a beer for me, please).

Last week, hate site Electronic Intifada breathlessly reported that Delta Air Lines would be dropping a snack produced in the industrial area of Barkan, located over the Green Line The writers, Adri Nieuwhof and Ali Abunimah, presented the move as the result of a complaint filed by an individual associated with the radical "Coalition of Women for Peace). Abunimah, the site's editor, even went so far as to fabricate a claim that "Delta Air Lines lawyers ruled that Israeli settlement-made snacks should not be served" and to link the move to the bigoted Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) Movement


Finding the hate site's reporting somewhat difficult to believe, I reached out to Delta myself and a rather different picture emerged.


The following is an email that I received a short time ago from Betsy Talton, General Manager of Corporate Communications for Delta Air Lines:

Good morning,

"We regret that a letter from an individual in our customer care department incorrectly suggested that Delta removed a vanilla halva bar because of its origin.

Like on many of our international flights, all food items on Delta flights exit Tel Aviv are sourced by our local caterer. This includes more than 1,000 local items. The item in question, a Vanilla Halva Bar, was recently removed as part of a normal catering cycle and review. In many cases products that are removed are later re-boarded. In addition, items are periodically rotated or changed in the course of our menu cycles.

The snack (fruit) that replaced the bar is grown locally in Israel. Delta makes a practice of sourcing local goods for catering in most international markets we serve.

Thanks,
Betsy

Thanks for following up on that, Avi.

BDS hoaxes:  Hampshire college. Blackrock. Harvard. Tiaa-Cref  Ahava. And now Delta joins the list of fabricated BDS victories straight from the fertile imagination of the anti-Israel cru.   Lets wish them many more such "victories"

Attempted murder. Its just "child's play" to Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada.

Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada has posted a video captioned "Israeli forces smash Palestinian child’s head to ground near Jerusalem’s Al-Aqsa". The  video has made the rounds of the usual "I hate Israel sites".  On facebook,  the hyperbole continues:

Who is this "child", this "young Palestinian boy"?

We can find the answer on the Arabic website, Wafa, the official  Palestinian news agency  which reported:

"Israeli occupation forces arrested, today Friday, the Jerusalemite teenager Hasan Afif Hasan al-Afifi (age 17), of Bab al-Hadid in the Old City, after they attacked him. Al-Afifi’s mother told Wafa that her son was arrested during the violent confrontations that occurred at the Al-Aqsa mosque today, and that her son was nowhere near the mosque and did not participate in any activities.

17 is hardly a "young Palestinian boy". Hardly a "child".

 The arrest of Hasan  al-Afifi  followed a day of clashes on the temple Mount.  According to the Lebanon Daily Star

Israeli police hurled stun grenades and fired tear gas to disperse dozens of protesters who threw stones outside the Al-Aqsa Mosque, Islam’s third-holiest site, after Friday prayers. “Several hundred worshippers threw stones at police who were stationed at the Mughrabi Gate, forcing them to go onto the plaza and push them toward the middle,” Israeli police spokeswoman Luba Samri said. An AFP correspondent said the forces had used sound bombs to disperse the crowds. Two people suffered minor injures, while one person was arrested for attempting to stab a policeman as he was being taken into custody, another Israeli spokesman added. The unrest broke out after days of tension at the compound.  Nine people were arrested Thursday. Five were Arab Israelis, who were accused of threatening Jewish and Christian visitors to the site, and four Israeli Jews, three of them right-wing activists who tried to force their way onto the plaza.

The Attorney general's office will charge Hasan with attempting to stab a soldier and throwing rocks at Israeli police.   Attempted murder . Its just "child's play" to Ali Abunimah of  the Electronic Intifada.. 

Sami Kishawi, Mads Gilbert and the Electronic Intifada: Wrong again

In an interview that just appeared in the Electronic Intifada (sorry- I don't link to hate sites) Sami Kishawi ( an undergrad at the University of Chicago and member of Students for Justice in Palestine ) publishes a discussion with Mads Gilbert ( Norwegian doctor, and member of the communist party ). Sami's got a history of being rather lose with statistics. Mads is no stranger to controversy himself, once justifying terror attacks against the US, claiming "If the U.S. government has a legitimate right to bomb and kill civilians in Iraq, the oppressed has a moral right to attack the U.S. with the weapons they may create as well." When asked if he supported a terrorist attack against the US he answered: "Terror is a poor weapon, but my answer is yes, within the context I have mentioned."

Regarding health care in Gaza:

SK: What is the health care situation in the Gaza Strip like now?

MG: As a result of the Israeli siege, there has been widespread development of anemia among children and women due to malnutrition as a result of siege and poverty. Stunting, where a child is more than two standard deviations shorter than what it should be, is sharply on the rise. In 2006, around 13.5 percent of children were stunted. In 2009, 31.4 percent under age two were stunted.

In other words, every third child is less developed than he or she should be. And stunting does not only affect growth. It also affects brain development and the ability to learn. This is a direct consequence of malnutrition. Remember, this is not caused by drought or natural disasters, but a deliberate, man-made lack of food and water, imposed, planned, and executed in the most detailed way by the Israeli government. They even calculate how many calories to let in to Gaza to avoid outright starvation but to “just” cause malnutrition since that goes under the radar of human rights abuses.

Except looking at objective indicators, this is simply not true.


According to last years National Nutrition Surveillance Report from the Ministry of Health Nutrition department using WHO statistics in the Palestinian territories:

"The surveillance system shows that major nutrition indicators of underweight (weight for age); wasting (low weight for length); stunting (short for age), tallness, overweight and obesity among children 9-12 months are all within the acceptable national and regional levels.
However, the prevalence of overweight (weight for length) of 26.6 per cent among children 9-12 months is high, and has increased by 2.2 per cent from the 2008 rate (24.4 per cent in 2008).

According to this report, stunting in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as of 2011 are below 5%.

Need some context Sami? In neighboring Egypt, the rate of stunting is 29%. In Jordan, its 8%.

Life expectancy continues to rise under the "brutal and genocidal" Zionist occupation. A Palestinian born in 2010 can expect to live to 73.4, higher than in Hungary, China, and oil rich Saudi Arabia. Its also higher than the Palestinians neighbors in Jordan and in Egypt. Its significantly higher than the world average of 67.2 years.

In the words of Daniel Patrick Moynihan: "Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts."

Nice try, Sami.

Ali Abunimah's Twitter Tirade following U of Penn's BDS rejection

Our story so far:
The University of Pennsylvannia has issued a formal statement distancing itself from the BDS conference scheduled to be held on its campus the first week in February.
In a press release, issued by StandWithUs, conference participant Ali Abunimah from the Electronic Intifada is quoted as saying “Ending the occupation does not solve the problem. The Jews do not view all human beings as equal. The 1948 borders were calculated to harm Christians, Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims.” (Chicago Sabeel Conference, October 7, 2005)."
In a very public Twitter tantrum, Ali takes offense at this quote. Is he retracting his lies? Its hard to tell.

From StandWithUs:
December 24, 2011

Ali Abunimah has denied he ever made the 2005 statement we attributed to him in our recent release about the extremism of speakers scheduled for the upcoming national BDS conference at the University of Pennsylvania in February, 2012. It is unclear which part of the statement he is retracting.

Members of a few organizations, including StandWithUs, the American Jewish Congress, the David Project and others attended the 2005 Sabeel event in Chicago, heard Abunimah’s talk and some took notes on the presentations. Three quarters of the time, the speakers told the audience stories about why they should despise Israel, and in the remaining time, encouraged them to initiate divestment campaigns in their churches. There was another speaker, George Rishmawi, who even told participants that the Israelis have a new gas that slows down the muscles of the Palestinians. These speakers did not support the Jewish and Palestinian national movements. Rather, they opposed the very existence of the Jewish state and wanted to contribute to its destruction through false accusations that lead to campaigns like BDS.

If Mr. Abunimah is retracting the statement attributed to him by those who attended the Sabeel conference in 2005, we welcome his recognition that his remarks are unacceptable and categorize him as an extremist. According to those who attended the Sabeel event, Abunimah is quoted as having said:

“Ending the occupation does not solve the problem. The Jews do not view all human beings as equal. The 1948 borders were calculated to harm Christians, Arabs, Palestinians and Muslims.” (Chicago Sabeel Conference, October 7, 2005).

We would like him to explain how the statement we quoted differs from what he actually said at the time, or why he no longer subscribes to these views.

We hope that Mr. Abunimah also retracts or distances himself from other, similar statements he has made, which are public record, such as:
“.....From its inception, the Zionist movement set out to turn a country where the vast majority of people were not Jewish into a country that gives special rights and privileges to Jews at the expense of non-Jews.....”(5/14/07)
“...In Palestine-Israel, this means abrogating all laws in Israel that systematically privilege Jews and harm non-Jewish citizens....” (10/16/07)
“Zionism’s hatred of diaspora Jews and its desire to see them removed from Europe and other places they live persists to this day.” (12/1/11)
“That is something Zionism shares with anti-Semitism, a disdain for actual Jewish culture and life as it existed.” (12/15/10)
“Supporting Zionism is not atonement for the Holocaust, but its continuation in spirit.” (10/25/10)
“It is precisely this basic insistence on equality that is perceived by Zionists as an existential threat to Israel, undermining its inherently discriminatory foundations which privilege its Jewish citizens over all others.” (12/30/07)

We hope that Mr. Abunimah confirms that he no longer subscribes to these views either.

BDS is Not About Peace

The prestigious online journal "Words without Borders" has launched a new project entitled "Cross-Cultural- Dialogues in the Middle East” The dialog was begun by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, of Iranian Muslim background, and Chana Morgenstern, an Israeli fiction writer, who met as graduate students at Brown University in the United States.

Azareen writes: “We quickly developed a dialogue about literature’s potential to provide a space for confronting some of the more challenging questions of identity and politics that define the contemporary Middle East.”

Now in Jerusalem, the pair found themselves “ engaged in a boisterous literary conversation with Israeli and Palestinian writers and artists who come from a variety of religious backgrounds. Over the next few months we will be presenting a series of interviews and articles that explore Jewish and Arab relations within Israel and the Palestinian Territories as well as the larger Middle East. One of the guiding questions of this series will be whether or not literature and film can offer a fertile space for cross-cultural and religious dialogue in the region. The series, as we foresee it, will cover emerging guerilla poetry movements, collaborations between Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals and writers, interviews with international and local film makers, reviews of the Jerusalem Film Festival, as well as an overview of various grassroots cultural organizations in the West Bank.”

This is good news, right? Open dialog, mutual respect, cross cultural communicative are truly a path to peace. No. Things are never that easy in the Middle East. Instead, Morgenstern and Van der Vliet Oloomi’s project has been condemned by BDS proponents.

According to an editorial in the Electronic Intifada (forgive me if I don’t link to it) written by Associate professor of Cultural Studies at Gaza's Al-Aqsa University Haidar Eid on August 9 2010 :

“Indeed, the guidelines issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), explicitly warn against events or projects that promote "false symmetry or balance." All "events and projects that bring Palestinians and/or Arabs and Israelis together, unless framed within the explicit context of opposition to occupation and other forms of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, are strong candidates for boycott" .

Yes. Projects that promote peace, dialog and co-existence, unless they meet the litmus test of political correctness are candidates for boycott. And the test remains (I’m paraphrasing) "Is Israel blamed exclusively and unilaterally for all the problems in the region? Are the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole exonerated from any responsibility at all in contributing to the peace process? "

According to the EI, “Indeed, the choice is clear to the vast majority of Palestinians, and intellectuals must recognize that true "cross-cultural dialogue" is impossible when one voice is being stifled, silenced and erased by another. “ And that , Prof Eid, is exactly what the BDS movement is doing to the peace process.

The movement towards Boycotts, Divestment and sanctions (BDS)is not about promoting peace. It is about demonizing Israel. Real peace activists know that the path to peace is more dialog, more interactions, and closer political, cultural and economic relationship.