Big fat lies from Marin's 14 Friends of Palestine

Fat chance we’d ever get the truth from Jane Jewell’s Marin-based group, 14 Friends of Palestine.

On their website,  the group spreads the egregious lie that “Israel restricts the amount of food going into Gaza, a ruthless and deliberate policy whereby the dietary needs of the Gazan people are chillingly calculated to keep the population alive at a near starvation level.”

It’s a complete falsehood.

There are no restrictions on food going into Gaza, and Gaza farmers export agricultural products to the Middle east and Europe.  Rather than facing starvation, obesity is becoming a public health priority in Gaza. Gaza's stores, and restaurants are filled with luscious offerings

Gaza exports agricultural products.  “Strawberries are an important source of income in Gaza for Palestinian farmers and their families,” said the Israeli Defense Ministry’s Coordinator of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT) unit, which facilitates the exports. “The export and sale of strawberries from the Gaza Strip has yielded revenues of about 13m NIS so far this harvest season, a 290% improvement over last year,” 

Rather than a population kept at “near starvation levels”, peer reviewed medical literature documents the Palestinians' struggle with Western rates of obesity.  

An article published earlier this year  (PLoS One. 2019 Jan 25) Epidemiology of coronary artery disease and stroke and associated risk factors in Gaza community found

The overall obesity in our study was found to be 47.8%, with higher prevalence in females (60.2%), the mean BMI was 30.35. It is in line with previous study performed in urban Palestinian population of Ramallah, describing an obesity prevalence up to 41% (49% and 30%) in females and males respectively.

The cross-sectional study covered 5 Gaza governorates,  both urban and rural.

An earlier article,  Obesity and overweight: prevalence and associated sociodemographic factors among mothers in three different areas in the Gaza Strip-Palestine, published in BMC Obesity concluded:

·        

The prevalence of obese and overweight cases among women is high. Obesity is a serious public health problem in the Gaza Strip and must be emphasized because the trend is continuously increasing.

A glance at Gaza's social media proves beyond a doubt that there are no restrictions on food entering Gaza,  and that there is no current risk of "starvation".

From the Facebook page of Gaza's Al Jayyar for chocolate

Starving Gaza? Al Jayyar for Chocolate

Starving Gaza? Al Jayyar for Chocolate

Just what does Jane Jewell think is being restricted?

Photos from the buffet at Gaza's Almathaf, proudly displayed on their facebook page

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Starving Gaza?  The Buffet at the Almathaf

Is it ignorance, or are Jane and her friends just big fat liars? Your guess is as good as mine.

Jane Jewell. Photo from Washington report on Middle east Affairs

Anti-Israel Activists miss the boat. Block the Boat fail.

In 2010, anti-Israel activists at the Port of  Oakland  sought to block a Zim cargo ship from docking. They issued press-releases declaring victory well before the targeted Zim ship had even steamed through the Golden Gate. Mainstream media was complicit in spreading their lies.

Photo from the San Francisco chronicle

Fast forward.

Its deja vu all over again.

The same activists, spearheaded by the extremist Arab Resource and Organizing center planned a similar action for this weekend, organizing largely via social media.  Originally calling for  activists to meet at the West Oakland BART station at 5 am, they inexplicably changed direction, re-issuing a call for action at 3pm.

There is some speculation that they knew they would be unable to achieve critical mass at 5am, while most of the local anarchists were still sleeping off their beer hang-overs, and that was the primary reason for the change. 

From Jane Jewell, of  the Marin county group 14 friends of Palestine

But there is also some speculation that the organizers were made aware that they were targeting the wrong ship.  Although it appears on the Zim website, the EverLasting is not a  Zim vessel. It was a fools choice for the Block the Boat organizers: Do they block the wrong boat, or do they block a boat that hasn't arrived yet?

Via twitter:
The Everlasting was off-loaded without incident, and the Piraeus became the focus of the action.

At 3, several hundred gathered at the West Oakland Bart station, and began the march to the docks. It was a typical Bay Area "peace" rally.

And as usual in the Bay area, not a single of the sponsoring "human rights" groups said a word about this glorification of violence . And as usual, although the protesters were happy to declare "victory", there was no real effect on port functions.

From the Oakland Block the boat march

The flag of the terror group Hamas was proudly displayed.

Hamas terror flag at Oakland block the boat march

No one would ever mistake the Block the boat activists for patriots, as they joked about burning American flags

From John Driscoll, of the Port of Oakland

At about 4:30 pm today, approximately 500 protesters entered the Port's maritime area (seaport) and demonstrated along Middle Harbor Road, near the Oakland International Container Terminal.  The protest was related to the Gaza-Israel conflict in the Middle East.

As of 5:30 pm, the protesters were leaving the seaport.  As a cautionary measure, law enforcement is maintaining a presence on-site.  Seaport operations were not impacted by the protest.  Operations scheduled for tonight and tomorrow are currently expected to proceed as planned.

As of 6:30, the Piraeus had not yet docked.
 

Wishing the haters of peaceful co-existence many more such victories.

The protesters did accomplish one thing from this utterly pointless maneuver.  A fundraiser for "The Vagina Monologues."  scheduled for the waterfront was cancelled and forced to relocate. The organizers scrambled to find a last minute venue to relocate their event

The Block the boat action has done more than hurt the reputation of the Port of Oakland as a stable hub for U.S. shipping.  The block the boat activists have proven themselves to be bad neighbors all around.  I'm certain no one is surprised.

UPDATE: In spite anti-Israel activists claims to the contrary,  the Longshore and Shipping News reported  Thirty ILWU members worked the ship, starting at 10 PM Tuesday and completing the work at 4 AM Wednesday.

Greta Berlin and friends: Berkeley hate-fest

(Guest post by DrMike and Emunah)

Berkeley, the home of the Free Speech Movement, is a city known for its devotion to various liberal/radical causes.  But those who preached against war and prejudice might well wonder what has happened when an otherwise liberal church has aligned itself with raw anti-Semitism.  

The Berkeley Fellowship of Unitarian Universalists brought the notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon to town a few years ago  and faced a community protest.  A supporter of Atzmon showed up with a Hassan Nasrallah  shirt and a  Hamas flag. Nasrallah has called for the genocide of the Jewish people, saying  “If they (Jews) all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide. (Daily Star, Oct. 23, 2002)  Since when is incitement to genocide a Unitarian value?   Atzmon delivered as expected- and people left his talk in tears, upset by his intolerance and hatred.  Can't say that we didn't warn them. 

Attorney Stephen Pearcy is wearing ashirt featuring Hassan Nasrallah, the leader of the militant group Hezbollah,  who has  commented: “If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak and feeble in psyche, mind, ideology and religion, we would not find anyone like the Jew. Notice I do not say the Israeli.”

Now one might think that after this fiasco that the BFUU had learned its lesson.  Apparently, though, they have decided that promotion of anti-Semitism is one of their values.  In the wake of the Greta Berlin controversy, in which the leader of the Free Gaza Movement was found to have repeatedly and deliberately promoted Holocaust denial and Nazi propaganda, Berlin found herself unwelcome not only across the internet but also in person.  When the likes of Ali Abunimah, Jewish Voice for Peace and Students for Justice in Palestine--who promote vicious lies about Israel and compare Gazans to Jewish victims of the Nazis-- denounce you for anti-Semitism, you know you've gone way past the point of no return. So Berlin's speaking engagements to promote her book began to disappear.  Enter the BFUU, which decided to host Berlin after a well-respected bookstore in Marin County cancelled her appearance.  They weren't alone-- a Marin group called 14 Friends of Palestine, whose leader Jane Jewell has promoted a lame excuse that Berlin's computer was hacked and who also posts admiringly on Atzmon's website, came on board to co-sponsor the event.  Jane stood gleefully in the BUU, selling t-shirts and absorbing the hate.

Not content to have only Berlin speak, the BFUU then invited two other charter members of the "not only do we hate Israel, we're not so keen on Jews" club--Alison Weir  and Jeffrey Blankfort.  And they had the unmitigated gall to title the evening "On Zionism and Anti-Semitism".

Though Berlin was visibly disappointed that there were fewer than 2 dozen people in attendance, we're happy to help spread her words, as well as Weir's and Blankfort's, to a wider audience.  Because when confronted by Jew-hatred and lies, it's important to out, name and shame not only the perpetrators, but those who facilitate them.

On October 18 , the BFUU hosted Greta Berlin, Alison Weir and Jeff Blankfort in a talk on anti-Semitism and Zionism.  This is the first part of our summary of the talk

The BFUU’s own Rev. Ben Myers began the talk with a sincere blessing for dialog and communication. Rev Myers led the room in song evoking Rabbi Nachman of Breslav’s teaching that the whole world is a narrow bridge.  The main thing is to not to fear at all.   He left the hall before the speakers began.  It was a smart choice.

Greta’s handlers were very carefully not to let her speak about her most current outing as a card-carrying holocaust denier.  Greta’s time was limited to discussing her book “Freedom Sailors”., the story of the first blockade-running flotilla to Gaza.   She discussed the role of Texas Activist Riad Hamad in organizing the flotilla and  his $25,000 donation of matching funds to help buy the boat.  Its a generous amount of money for a middle school teacher to have at his disposal. She discussed how his suicide was inadvertently caught on camera, though she neglected to mention how he had clumsily taped his mouth and bound his hands together in an effort to implicate the “Zionists” in his death.  She discussed readily lying on her press releases in an effort to mislead the Israelis.  Greta’s world  appears to be truth optional- facts be damned if they don't advance her ideology.

Even before the flotilla departed there was trouble. Then as now, infighting plagued the anti-Israeli activists. Greta declared: 

“When the boats finally arrived on the 21st of August, nobody was talking to anybody else. Because we were mad at the Greeks. The Greeks hated the Americans. The Americans hated the Greeks. We had boat people vs. land people. If you get 2 activists in a room, you get 14 opinions.  If you get  44 activists in a room, you get a war, I'm not kidding.”

After arrival in Gaza, Greta described how “ the Palestinians took care of us for 5 days. “.

Greta Berlin greeting her minions in Gaza

 Indeed they did.  As Paul Larudee reported  in his talk on the flotilla in Hayward, a while back:

“It was a huge celebration. It was just amazing After that it was Palestinian hospitality run amok. They put us in the best hotels. They still have nice hotels there... The prime Minister and his entire cabinet invited us to dinner near his home...it was right after the Olympics you remember so he gave us all medals that said “Free Gaza”...one honor after the other....”    This was in what they allege is the world's largest outdoor prison, and an equivalent to Auschwitz

Free Gaza  and Ismail Haniyeh

 

 Greta is convinced of the success of her mission, saying  "We made them 3 promises before we left."

#1 - We would return.

#2 - We would take out Palestinians. And

#3    We would make sure that the world would know.

"And we have done all 3 of those. Gaza has been put on the map because of the Free Gaza Movement. Viva Palestina, the Global March to Jerusalem, the Gaza Freedom March. None of those would have happened had it not been for Free Gaza. "

Shhh. Don't tell Greta- all of those high profile publicity stunts have been abject failures.

Later:: Alison Weir on anti-Semitism