Paul Larudee: The $10,000 Nakba Road Trip Fail

Paul Larudee has been on the outs of the social justice warrior club for quite a while. Even the regressive left knows to keep their distance from the piano tuner from El Cerrito. His  ties to the Iranian mullahs, his support of the Syrian  butcher Assad,  and his endorsements of notorious anti-Semites have contributed to his persona non grata status in the local activist community.

The failure of his Nakba tour surprises nobody. Paul took his show on the road, and  it was not a success.

A plea for money from terror apologist Paul Larudee :

Paul Larudee in happier times. Photo from Contra Costa Times

“You mean they will actually pay us to come and speak?” This was Amena’s reaction when I told her that the North America Nakba Tour would be self funding. In the Middle East and often in Europe, speakers are usually funded by philanthropists or institutions with deep pockets. We had no such backing, but plunged ahead, anyway.

We planned in reverse. How much can we raise? An honorarium of $500 plus travel expenses is quite reasonable, but we decided on $500 for two speakers from overseas, and we figured that we could make the travel fit into that. Next, we decided on our itinerary and filled in the events afterward. Finally, we decided on the expenses.

OK, not a perfect fit, but Allah Kareem (God is Benevolent), as they say. Someone will rescue us.
We were hoping to raise at least $17,500 (35 events x $500), and hopefully more from generous audiences. The reality is that although the scheduling was successful, two were canceled (one allowing us to keep the deposit), and five gave no more than half the requested amount. Fortunately, others exceeded the requirement, so that we expect to raise $15-16K.

Unfortunately, our expenses didn’t stick to the plan, and we have a roughly $10,000 deficit, as you can see in chart below. Can you help us? We would like to repeat this tour, with improvements, but if we can’t recover our costs, there’s little hope of this...

Expense (actual or estimated)	Amount
Visas (US & Canadian + second try on US)	$   1436
Airfare (speakers, with upgraded transatlantic, coordinator, attempts to bring Canadian visas)	6491
Vehicle purchase + tax, less estimated resale	4640
Extended warrantee	1400
Used luggage rack + lock	390
Auto Insurance	700
Car maintenance	300
Health insurance for speakers	1412
Gasoline (estimated for 12,000 miles @ $.15/mi.)	1300
Tolls & parking	200
Travel equipment	200
Speaker travel per diem	510
Road service	130
Gifts for homestay hosts	849
Telephone and mobile internet for speakers	380
Food, lodging, supplies on the road	2500
Entrance to parks and monuments	900
Medical	200
Driver compensation	2000
TOTAL	$  25938

Sorry, Paul. Failure to plan on your part does not  constitute an emergency on anyones part.

Incidentally, Paul's "nonprofit "Association for Investment in Popular Action Committees  EIN 20-5516191 reported  over $166,000  in contributions last year.  Where could all that money be vanishing to?

A Rising Tide Raises All Ships. Block the Boat Irrelevant

The international shipping industry did not fare well during the global economic downturn. After years of losses, shipping firms were struggling. Global shipper TMT Group filed for bankruptcy protection last June.  South Korea's STX Pan Ocean filed for court receivership.  PT Berlian Laju Tanker of Indonesia narrowly avoided bankruptcy. Zim shipping underwent re-organization and restructuring.

In the face of these formidable financial struggles, last summer’s anti-Israel protests at the West coast docks, attracting anywhere from a half dozen to several hundred people  hardly registered a blip on the radar screen. Nonetheless, anti-Israel activists under the moniker “Block the boat’ happily took credit for Zim’s reorganization and consolidation.

Last June, Zim abandoned its Asia-North America trade route, after accumulating over 450 million in loses from 2011-2013.  Block the boat activist  tooted their “direct action” as the catalyst for this routine business decision that was years in the making,

But a rising tide raises all ships.

According to Reuters,

The shipping industry is poised to emerge from its longest downturn in three decades, buoyed by an end to years of overcapacity that have depressed freight rates since the end of a shipping boom in 2008.

 Zim’s financials have also rebounded dramatically since their restructuring

From JOC

“There will be a positive bottom line this year,” says Rafi Danieli, CEO of Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the Israeli ocean carrier that is finally emerging from seven straight years of mounting losses and a multibillion-dollar restructuring that saved it from bankruptcy.

In an interview with JOC.com in London, the 37-year Zim veteran exudes confidence that the Haifa-based carrier will be among the most profitable in the industry within four years.

Zim’s trajectory changed dramatically following a hard-fought $3.4 billion restructuring struck last July, including a $1.4 billion debt-for-equity swap that halved its interest payments and paved the way for a return to profitability.

The deal also left Zim in the control of its creditors of banks, bond holders and charter ship owners who now own 62 percent of the company, with the balance held by the former owner Israel Corp.
The company downsized dramatically during the drawn-out restructuring negotiations in a bid to cut losses that have ballooned to $1.5 billion in the past four years.

The slimmed-down, financially revamped “new” Zim can finally focus fully on operational targets of boosting efficiency, finessing customer service and relationships, sharpening its sales efforts and expanding the cargo base on core routes, according to Danieli.

Zim is targeting growth in the Asia-North and Central America market, which already accounts for some 40 percent of its revenue, and in the fast-growing and profitable intra-Asia market.

Don't bother the Free Palestine Movement with the facts of their own irrelevancy, though. They have joined forces with  the  International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza to present a workshop on stopping Zim ships at the World Social Forum in Tunis.

We suspect they'll be as successful with this as they've been with their other ventures.

A rising tide raises all ships. Block the Boat and the Free Palestine movement are equally irrelevant to Zim's failures, and to Zim's successes.

Vancouver Block the Boat Fail. The Free Palestine Movement Lies, and issues a hasty retraction.

On September 9, the Free Palestine movement sent out a whopper of a lie calling a non event at the Vancouver port a "4 day stand-off".  Social media reports showed only 5 protesters at the dock.

Photo via Twitter

Only a handful of activists showed up to  Block the boat in Vancouver

The Free Palestine Movement stated:

Vancouver Canada Blocks Israeli Ship: Tremendous Victory

In a four-day standoff pitting human rights groups and organized labor against Israeli shipping giant Zim, the giant was defeated today in Vancouver, Canada.

The huge container ship Zim Djibouti first docked at the high-tech Deltaport facility on September 5, only to discover that the workers had agreed to respect a picket line set up by human rights advocates. The coalition of picketers, under the name Block the Boat Vancouver, were trying to prevent the unloading and loading of the ship, as a solidarity protest against Israel's 47-year blockade of the port of Gaza and the recent Israeli sttack on Gaza that killed more than 2000 Palestinians, mostly civilians, as well as 72 Israelis, almost all soldiers.

The ship then returned to open water along the Pacific coast and stayed there several days, until midnight last night. At that time it set course for Port Angeles, on the US side of the passage to Vancouver. By unloading at an unexpected US port, the company apparently hoped to circumvent the blockade.

It didn't work. Perhaps the logistics of arranging passage by land through another country for the hazardous cargo on board was too much, or perhaps the docking facilities were inadequate for the huge ship, but it turned back and returned to the open sea. At the time of this report, it has still failed to declare a new destination and arrival time.

This is a huge victory for the Vancouver coalition, undoubtedly costing Zim enormous sums in fuel, delays, and having to carry excess cargo to unintended destinations, impeding the other operations. It also continues the string of Block the Boat actions at ports on the US west coast that began with the August picket in Oakland, California of another Zim ship that ended with similar results.

Let's all congratulate Vancouver and encourage ports all over the world to refuse Israeli ships and ships from Israeli companies. Customers will have to think twice about using an Israeli line for their cargo, as delivery becomes less certain. Hopefully this is just the beginning of a world wide campaign against Zim and all other Israeli shipping, until Israel reconsiders its policy of blocking all shipping to and from Gaza.

After issuing this obviously false statement declaring a "tremendous victory", the Free Palestine movement retreated, tail between its legs and issued a retraction, of sorts. The next day they issued another email, readily admitting there was "no picket line or blockade", but still attempted to take credit for the delay, claiming "it seems probable" it was on the basis of a union decision.

Their current email states:

We apologize for erroneous information in the item below. Although the sequence of the boat actions is correct, there was no picket line or blockade. Instead, the organizers provided information to the union, ILWU Local 502, and its members, including flyers distributed at the Deltaport facility. Beyond that, we have no information on how and why the ship was turned away, but it seems probable that it was on the basis of a union decision.

 

Currently, after trying to dock at Port Angeles, the ship has returned to a stationary position off the coast of British Columbia, and is listing a destination of Vancouver but an ETA that has already passed.

Please accept our regrets for the false information.

To the lying, scheming (just until they are caught in the act) Free Palestine Movement, I have just this to say about your alleged "victory" at the Port of Vancouver.

Post hoc, ergo propter hoc 

In which The Free Palestine movement whines

Awww. The hapless Free Palestine Movement's billboard request was denied, and they are upset. Likely  FPM will eventually find a different vendor with less meticulous standards to display their propaganda, but in the meanwhile,  thank you, CBS Outdoors, and thank you Reed Saunders for your good judgement. 

From the free Palestine movement:

Dear Friends of Palestine,

The following message concerns a project that we are supporting with your donations and especially the donations specifically earmarked for billboards and other advertising.

The FPM Team

CBS Outdoor Billboard Censorship

    "A lobby is like a night flower: It thrives in the dark and dies in the light.” – former AIPAC foreign policy director Steve Rosen

CBS Outdoor has shown itself to be an arm of the Israel lobby, if there was any doubt. 

 When Beth Daoud of the Colorado BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) Campaign first approached CBS Outdoor about leasing space to express a message critical of Israel's human rights abuses of Palestinians, she received a rather strange response.  "That's fine," said Reed Saunders, the CBS Outdoor sales rep, "but our requirements are that you must not use the words "Israel" or "Jew".

 With that challenge, Beth's group paired with No Tax Dollars To Israel, a tax exempt nonprofit organization that advocates withholding tax money and exemptions from abusers of human rights, including the state of Israel.  Together, they came up with the wording "Want peace? Stop ethnic cleansing in Palestine."  Beth sent it to Saunders and got approval.

 The partnering groups then chose the design and illustration to go with the wording, submitted a final copy to Saunders, and waited.  And waited.

 Nearly two weeks went by before Saunders replied, "I'm sorry to report that the billboard design was not approved and will not be accepted. No explanation was given, nor am I expecting one."

 The explanation is not needed.  CBS Outdoor also removed billboards in southern California that advocated stopping aid to Israel.  The Israel lobby has also worked overtime to prevent similar ads from seeing the light of day in Seattle, New York and other locations.

 Rest assured that you have not heard the last of this story.  We will not rest until this ad is displayed for all to see.

Wishing the Free Palestine Movement many more sleepless nights.

Awww. Another setback for the Free Gaza Movement

Oh, no! Their ship fell through. It must be Israel's fault. Its ALWAYS Israel's fault.

The latest update from the Free Gaza blockade runners:
June 14, 2011

Nothing except piracy and brute force will stop us from going.

As reported previously, our partner, the International Committee to Break the Siege of Gaza, lost its 320-passenger ship due to interference ("sabotage") of the purchase. We believe that heavy-handed tactics were applied to the owner not to sell.

Nevertheless, the ICBSG is back in business, with a smaller vessel, and FPM will be on it, albeit with a reduced delegation of only five U.S. citizens. We are consulting with our delegates and FPM organizers, and can confirm that among the delegates will be Ambassador Sam Hart, USS Liberty veteran Joe Meadors and FPM co-founder Paul Larudee. We are still waiting to hear from two others, and will let you know the final roster in the coming days.

In the past few weeks, many of our delegates, including Cynthia McKinney and Father Louis Vitale, have reported that they would not be able to come for reasons including medical procedures, scheduling, and competing commitments. The delays in the departure date have also compromised the ability of some delegates to participate. Self-selection has therefore played a significant role in determining the make-up of the delegation.

Through such trying times, we take inspiration from the Palestinian culture of sumud (steadfastness), which absorbs all disappointment and endures all reversals of fortune. It is this quality that assures that when opportunity appears, the Palestinians will be there to recover their land and their rights. We can do no less than to be at their side, and to help create this opportunity.

The FPM Team