Hamas Praises Murder of Israeli Civilians

Rabbi Eitam Henkin and his wife Na'ama Henkin of Neria were murdered  by  terrorists who opened fire towards their vehicle as they were driving between Itamar and Elon Moreh.

Four of their children, ages 4, 7, and 9 and a four-month-old baby were in the car as it was attacked.

Hamas spokesperson Husam Badran referred to the murder of parents in front of their four children as a  "heroic operation."

Racist blogger Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intifada also weighed in on the murder

Equally repugnant Max Blumenthal also dehumanized the victims

As of now, not a single Palestinian leader, activist or public figure has publicly denounced the murder.

Max Blumenthal Comes to Berkeley

Via Emunah:

On July 1, Max Blumenthal brought his travelling hate show to Berkeley.

Hate speech should never go unchallenged and community members, organized by San Francisco Voice for Israel held a vigil in front of the First Congregational Church.  Organizers of the vigil issued guidelines regarding signage, reminding participants not to stoop to the hateful  level of Blumenthal's supporters.  Max Blumenthal's writing is so beyond the pale that it has earned the endorsement of the extremist group Stormfront and former KKK president David Duke.

Max derided the organizers  for their anti-racism stand, on Twitter.

Mona Holland, a self described  "civil liberties extremist" and " hasbara debunker" responded  by saying  "I can't imagine "our side" having 2 issue "don't condemn all the Jews" guidelines.

Mona lacks imagination.

Mona- have you ever seen the signage from San Francisco anti-Israel rallies?

Is this acceptable to you, Mona?

"Its the Jews, Stupid"

Any feelings about this one, Mona?

Jews are Terroist

Is there ever a time when the messaging "Kill Jews" is acceptable, Mona?

Kill Jews

The vigil in front of the First Congregational Church in Berkeley was largely uneventful. Flyers documenting Blumenthals' extremism were distributed.  Conversations were held with anyone who'd listen.

UC Berkeley grad student and SJP member David McCleary came over to chat

Even Max Blumenthal came out to take photos with the group

In which Enno Raschke rips Max Blumenthal a new one

Max Blumenthal's colleague, “independent journalist”  Rania Khalek recently tweeted a link to a video that she characterizes as Max "lay[ing] out Zionist collaboration with Nazi Germany.

What happens when Yad Vashem historian Enno Raschke watches it?  He characterizes Max’s bastardization of history as  “disgusting foolish and fraudulent,” concluding “That's not collaboration, it's Pikuach Nefesh - which calls to abandon all other principles in order to save innocent life.”

Check out the result on Storify.  Thanks to Nurit Baytch  for compiling these. 
 

Review: Max Blumenthal's book "Goliath"

From Eric Alterman and Reed Richardson at the Nation, reviewing Max Blumenthal's book Goliath : Life and Loathing in Greater Israel.:

When I was asked to do my column about Max Blumenthal’s book, Goliath, I was of two minds. On the one hand, I like to be a team player. But on the other, whenever I criticize BDS types, I apparently invite an avalanche of personal invective from its fans. (This happens when I criticize neocons on Israel as well, but to be honest, the BDS types appear to have more time on their hands for this kind of thing.) Second, I’ve known the author’s parents since he was a little boy, and whatever the quality of the book, I expected that my honest views of it might threaten three decades of friendly relations.

Reading what follows, I suspect Eric is not expecting any more invitations to dinner or Canasta at the Blumenthals in the near future. (emphasis mine)

I expected to disagree with its analysis. I did not expect it to be remotely as awful as it is. Had the magazine not published its excerpt, it would have been easy to ignore. It is no exaggeration to say that this book could have been published by the Hamas Book-of-the-Month Club (if it existed) without a single word change once it’s translated into Arabic. (Though to be fair, Blumenthal should probably add some anti-female, anti-gay arguments for that.) Goliath is a propaganda tract, not an argument as it does not even consider alternative explanations for the anti-Israel conclusions it reaches on every page. Its implicit equation of Israel with Nazis is also particularly distasteful to any fair-minded individual. And its larding of virtually every sentence with pointless adjectives designed to demonstrate the author’s distaste for his subject is as amateurish as it is ineffective. As I said, arguments this simplistic and one-sided do the Palestinians no good. There will be no Palestinian state unless Israel agrees to it. And if these are the views of the people with whom Israelis of good will are expected to agree, well, you can hardly blame them for not trusting them.

Max Blumenthal is currently on a book tour to promote his awful, simplistic, one sided propaganda tract. He'll be coming to an SJP or MSU meeting near you.

From Zero to Hero and Back again: Max Blumenthal slithers into Jewish Community Heroes Contest

Now that the JVP ringers in the Jewish Community heroes contest have been given the boot, the Israel is always wrong crowd are throwing their collective weight behind the campaign for Max Blumenthal, anti-Israel blogger. Max has garnished over 400 votes for a profile somewhat fitting for him- lacking a photo and complete with typos. Half baked? Sloppy? Kinda makes a statement, doesn't it?




Is Max Blumenthal a Jewish community Hero? You can find out for yourself.
He'll be making a local appearance next month- at a meeting of the Muslim Community Association. Saturday, November 19 · 6:00pm - 9:00pm

Max Blumenthal will find himself in the company of Hatem Bazian, who infamously called for "intifada in America", Osama Abuirshaid, Editor of Al-Meezan Newspaper and with two of the students who interupted Michael Oren at UC Irvine Taher Herzallah and Osama Shabaik

Quite a Jewish community hero.

The one positive thing that will come from this years contest- rest assured there will be more oversight at next years Jewish Community heroes contest.

UPDATE

Max resents the use of the term "slithers". Perhaps he is correct. "Oozes" may be more accurate.