LA raises 33.5 million for the Friends of the IDF

The annual fundraiser thrown by the Los Angeles branch of the Friends of the IDF has raised a record 33.5 million dollars.

The gala event , chaired by Israeli-American businessman Haim Saban was attended by Barbra Streisand, Pamela Anderson, Arnold Schwarzenegger , Kathy Ireland, Sylvester Stallone and over 1200 other guests.

FIDF was established in 1981as a 501(C)(3) not-for-profit organization with the mission of providing and supporting educational, social, cultural, and recreational programs and facilities for the men and women of the IDF. Today, FIDF has more than 120,000  supporters, and 15 regional offices throughout the U.S.

Via MarketWatch

Notable donations made at the event included $9 million from Larry Ellison, co-founder and Chairman of Oracle Corporation; $5 million from Sheldon and Miriam Adelson; $5.2 million from brothers Maurice and Paul Marciano of Guess Jeans; $3.6 million from Cheryl andHaim Saban; $2 million from Steve Tisch, Chairman and Executive Vice President of the New York Giants; $1 million from Leo David, founder of the Western Region of the FIDF; and $1.6 million from The Helmsley Charitable Trust. In addition, first-time attendees and donors Michael and Susan Dell gave $1.8 million to fund IMPACT! educational scholarship programs

Jewish Voice for Peace to protest Baltimore Synagogue

JVP is organizing a  protest of a Baltimore synagogue, for daring to host a  fundraising event for the friends of the IDF.  The extremist group is encouraging the harassment of attendees.    JVP has a long, checkered history of disrupting Jewish community events.  This is just the  sort of activity that earned JVP a place on the ADL's list of anti-Israel groups.

Protesting a synagogue.  Really, JVP.  Can you get any lower?

JVP's announcement follows

Join Baltimore Jewish Voice for Peace for a picket of the Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF), which is holding a fundraising gala on Tuesday, October 29 at Chizuk Amuno Congregation in Pikesville.

FIDF initiates and helps support educational, social, cultural and recreational programs and facilities for Israeli soldiers. They financially support the IDF, which is the chief enforcement arm of Israel’s illegal occupation of Palestine.

The IDF's violations of Palestinian human rights are notorious and well documented. While Israel shuts down Palestinian and international humanitarian aid organizations, more land and resources are stolen in the West Bank, Gaza is under siege, and the Israeli Knesset votes to forcibly relocate tens of thousands of Bedouin citizens of Israel from their traditional lands. All the while, Israeli soldiers kill Palestinian civilians.

Join Baltimore Jewish Voice for Peace to say Baltimore does not support the occupation of Palestine! Bring signs, banners and noise makers, and meet by the entrance on Stevenson Road to greet gala visitors as they come into the parking lot.

When: Tuesday October 29, 5:00 PM

Where: 8100 Stevenson Road, Pikesville, Maryland

Directions: From Baltimore/East, take I-695 west towards Pikesville. Take exit 21: Stevenson Road. Turn right at the stop sign onto Stevenson Road and Chizuk Amuno is immediately on the left. From Columbia/West, take I-695 east towards Towson. Take exit 21: Park Heights Avenue/ Stevenson Road. Cross Park Heights Avenue to the service road that parallels I-695 (Brooks Robinson Drive). Proceed to the next light, Stevenson Road. Turn left onto Stevenson Road. Turn left into the Chizuk Amuno entrance.

If you're coming, please let us know at baltimorejvp@gmail.com. If you want to carpool from Baltimore, let us know.

San Francisco Friends of the IDF raises $900,000 for Israel

Way to go, San Francisco!

Over 300 people attended Sunday nights Friends of the IDF fund raiser, and nearly $900,000 was donated to support the brave young men and women who keep our people safe. Not too shabby coming from one of the hubs of anti-Israel organizing in the world, but we've got a long way to go to match So Cal.


 From Yeshiva World 

Over $20 million was raised at the annual Friends of the Israel Defense Forces (FIDF) Western Region Gala yesterday, Tuesday, October 22, 2013. More than 1,000 FIDF supporters and dignitaries from the United States and Israel gathered to express their support for the Israel Defense Forces (IDF). FIDF National Board Member and major supporter, Haim Saban, and his wife, Cheryl, served as chairs of the star-studded FIDF Gala that took place at the Beverly Hilton Hotel in Beverly Hills, CA.

Notable donations made at the event included $4.5 million from Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, Founder and President of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, $3.5 million from Vicki and Ron Simms of Simms Commercial Development, $2.3 million from Cheryl and Haim Saban, $2 million from Younes Nazarian, Co-Founder of Qualcomm, and his wife Soraya, and $1 million from Larry Ellison, CEO of Oracle. Simon Cowell of American Idol and X-Factor also attended the event and announced a donation of $150,000 to benefit the IDF soldiers. The funds raised at the Gala will go towards wellbeing and educational programs for IDF soldiers

There are other appreciable differences between  Northern and Southern California.  Is it an exclusively Northern California phenomenon that the so called peace groups advocate and practice violence?

The Northern California J Weekly reports

Police arrested and booked three people who protested outside of a Friends of the IDF fundraiser held Oct. 20 at the InterContinental Hotel in San Francisco. Fewer than 10 protesters were at the event, according to officials. Julia Pereira, 19, of San Francisco and Powell DeGange, 28, of Berkeley were arrested for trespassing and resisting arrest when they entered the hotel after being told to leave, said Albie Esparza, a spokesperson for the San Francisco Police Department.

A few minutes later, Nancy Mansour Leigh of New York was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon and disturbing the peace, police said, after she attacked a hotel guest with a bullhorn. She and a few other protesters had entered the hotel shouting anti-Israel slogans and “engaging in verbal altercation with hotel patrons that became a physical assault,” Esparza said. All three have been released but will later face charges in court.

Nancy Mansour Leigh, also known as Harrabic Tubman, is a co-founder of a group "Existence is Resistance".  The group sells shirts emblazoned with the picture of notorious  PLFP hijacker Leila Khaled, captioned  "Resistance is not terrorism" .

From the Resistance is existence website 

She was described by Ramsey Clark's International Action center as a spokesperson for the Hamas linked Viva Palestina delegation to Gaza.   Precisely the sort that might conflate assault with a bullhorn with "non-violent resistance".

Incidentally, although Students for Justice in Palestine and Women in Black both promoted this protest, they have been silent in condemning the violence.

UPDATE:
An anonymous commentor on this blog has indicated that Nancy Mansour Leigh was eventually acquitted of the changes

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

Hotel owner must pay damages for discriminating against Jewish fundraiser

"If my (family finds) out there's a Jewish event here, they're going to pull money from me immediately."

Friends of the IDF had scheduled a pool party and fundraiser in the Shangri-la hotel in Santa Monica. Owner Tehmina Adaya ordered that signs and banners promoting the event be removed, and allegedly yelled, "Get these [expletive] Jews out of my pool," as she ordered a halt to the fundraiser.

A jury decided that the hotel decided that the hotel and Adaya violated California's Unruh Civil Rights Act, which bars hotels and other business from discriminating on the basis of sex, race, color or religion, and awarded the Friends of the IDF awarding $1.2 million statutory damages. An amount for punitive damages will be determined Thursday.

Yeah. its all about the "occupation".

UPDATE
From Verdict Search California
Vol. 11 Issue 37  Sept 24 2012
The jury unanimously found that the hotel and Adaya had violated California state law. It also decided
that almost every one of the 18 individual plaintiffs was negligently inflicted with emotional distress and that most had been intentionally inflicted with emotional distress. Thus, the jury ordered Adaya and Indus Investments to pay $1.25 million in damages and statutory penalties, with each individual plaintiff awarded differing amounts, including some individual plaintiffs who were awarded sums adding up to more than $100,000. The jury also found that Adaya and the hotel had acted with malice, oppression or fraud. Subsequently, the jury awarded punitive damages of $440,000.  Therefore, the total
recovery would be $1.69 million.