A Chareidi Woman In The IDF

An eight-year-old girl, dressed for school in her light blue shirt and dark navy skirt, presses the elevator button as she hurries to school. When the elevator appears, she dashes inside and finds herself standing next to two Israeli soldiers with M16 rifles slung over their backs. The soldiers, sporting kippot, are her neighbor’s sons, who are heading back to the base after Shabbat. The little girl looks at them admiringly. She decides that one day she’s going to be just like them—a defender of the Jewish people.

That little girl was me.

The idea that religious Israeli Jews are growing in numbers, take from and control Israeli society, and don't contribute has become part of the anti-Israel narrative. It provides cover to lament that Israeli democracy is being undermined by people who--mysteriously--are imbued by the narrator with the traits that classical anti-Semitism attributes to all Jews.

The work of women like Fayga Marks, who find ways to live out their intersectionality in positive and bridge-building ways stands as a contradiction to these gleeful predictions of the destruction of Israel's democracy because of religious Jews.

Read Fayga's story, here.

The BDS Circus is Back in Berkeley

On Wednesday evening,  hundreds of people packed into the Anna Head Alumae Hall at UC Berkeley to listen to the ASUC Senate debate divestment. After 10 hours of emotional testimony by dozens of students and faculty members, the senators voted 11-9  for the divestment bill, SB 160.

Originally published at Bluetruth, written by DrMike:

The BDS circus pulled its caravan into UC Berkeley this week, and the show featured everything we've learned to expect from the Bullying, Defamation and Slander crew:  false assertions about Israel and the history of the conflict; simultaneous denial of their true goal of full divestment from Israel while cheering speakers who referenced that goal; polarization of the campus environment with poisonous denigration of their fellow students; and a "victory" that will accomplish nothing on the ground on Israel or the West Bank, but will encourage extremism and hatred. They should be quite proud of themselves, given their goal is rejection of peace with a Jewish state of Israel within any borders--they made sure that nothing happened that would help promote peace.


After a long, drawn-out session of the ASUC (Associated Students of the University of California) student senate earlier this week, the BDS-sponsored bill passed by a 1 vote margin.  The bill asked the University to divest its investments in 3 specific companies that were charged with abetting Israeli human rights violations in the occupied territories. The bill had the usual one-sided characterizations of Israel, though the sponsors made sure that they could claim it was "even handed" by denouncing attacks on civilians on both sides. (The BDSers even indicated their willingness to have the UC system divest from companies that supported Palestinian terror, but they were apparently saddened that they just couldn't find any.) I won't go through an extensive analysis of all the flaws in the document, as there's an excellent review posted here. Rather, I'd like to focus on what occurred in the room, as well as around it in cyberspace.  I was at one of the meetings held as part of the 2010 edition of the Berkeley BDS Circus, so was perhaps less shocked than others who had not experienced this performance previously.

I'm going to refer to the group in support of the resolution as the "BDS side".  The resolution and the arguments mirrored those used at other campuses and the entire rationale for the effort came straight from one of the BDS playbooks:   “Divestment campaigns and requests for institutional divestment provide debate material that places Palestine solidarity groups in the most favorable position to present their case." The original text of the resolution even referenced the BDS movement's own website as a source. The UC Regents already had a standing statement that they were not going to change their investment policy based on ASUC resolutions, so there was not even a thought that this could have any practical effect.  So the only reason to bring up such a resolution is, exactly as stated, to provide a forum for Students for Justice in Palestine to lead a discussion to condemn Israel.   I will note that the final amended version of the bill apparently has clauses explicitly rejecting the BDS goal of the elimination of Israel. However, these amendments were inserted after the public comment period.

The tone was set right at the beginning, when one of the Jewish students introducing their alternative resolution (calling for positive investment for peace) mentioned that the leadership of the organized Jewish community was present. A hiss went up from the BDS side that was quickly silenced, but the sentiment was clear.  The BDS side then introduced their featured speaker, the author Alice Walker; Walker has a lengthy history of flirtation with the line between legitimate political criticism of Israel and overt anti-Semitic ideology.  As the open comment period began, the BDS side couldn't quite decide whether their ASUC student fees were subsidizing Israel's occupation or whether they were profiting from it. Or both at the same time. Actually, it's more likely neither-- the student fees pay for student programs, and tuition and university investments pay for the operations of the university.  But like much of the rest of the debate, facts weren't really important here; emotion was. The argument was that they simply couldn't continue to have their student fees pay for (or profit from? or both at once?) Israel's actions. And there was no charge that was too vile for them to use to this end-- one speaker went as far as to suggest that Israel was inserting rats into Palestinian girls' genital tracts. Another claimed that the IDF specifically shot Palestinians in the eye so as to blind them but not kill them (must be a newly invented Zionist magic bullet that could be fired that precisely and then stop before entering the brain, which happens to be located right behind the eyes).  Other students invoked details of genocidal episodes that have occurred to other peoples, as if the treatment of Palestinians in the West Bank was comparable to mass slaughters of populations.  It was reminiscent of the recent use (by a professor of Islamic studies at the University of North Carolina) of photos of Buchenwald to illustrate a story about Deir Yassin.

Just as in 2010, any BDS speaker was met with choreographed high volume cheers. At least this time the room was too small to allow them to gather en masse at the front to intimidate anyone who dared to oppose them, as they had done in 2010.  And just as in 2010, the loudest cheers were for the speakers who promoted the most radical anti-Israel line.  It was ironic that while the BDS side tried to claim that their resolution wasn't part of BDS, they were ecstatic when one of their speakers invoked the trinity of BDS demands: that Israel end its occupation of "all Arab lands", that Israel give equality to its Palestinian citizens, and that it recognize the fictional "right of return" that would eliminate Jewish national rights in the Jewish homeland.  They loudly cheered a student who had brought the unrepentant racist Louis Farrakhan to campus to speak. They insisted that the goal of the resolution wasn't divestment from Israel at all, yet they whooped even more loudly when a speaker stated that South Africa's ANC had endorsed divestment from Israel.   They claimed they were not anti-Israel, yet that very morning many of them had rallied in Sproul Plaza chanting the anti-Zionist anthem "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free."

One tactic that the BDS side used (which they also used at UC Riverside in their ultimately failed attempt there to pass a BDS resolution) was to claim that this resolution was the "neutral" position because it would also divest from companies involved in human rights abuses of Israelis--though they searched far and wide and couldn't find any. They clearly weren't neutral enough to look into any companies doing business with Iran-- the patron of Hamas and Hezbollah, and the source of the Fajr-5 missiles that rained down on Israel last year.  Given that all of those missiles were deliberately aimeed at Israeli cities, each constituted human rights abuses of Israelis on a massive scale.  They clearly weren't neutral enough to look into companies involved in other human rights abuses such as those doing business with Mauritania-- a country in which Arabs continue to hold black Africans as slaves. They certainly weren't neutral enough to find any other country in the world upon which to focus their attention, except for the one Jewish state, which the BDS movement targets for elimination.

What was quite telling was that many of the pro-Israel speakers indicated empathy with Palestinian suffering and stating that they too would like to see the occupation come to an end. Yet none of the student speakers on the BDS side (at least during the first 4 hours of the process when I was in the room) indicated any recognition that people on both sides of the conflict had experienced pain and loss and suffering. None of them indicated any recognition of the two offers by Israel within the past 13 years of a Palestinian state-- which would have ended the occupation against which they railed.  None of them indicated that they were doing this to promote peace between a Jewish state of Israel and a future Arab state of Palestine; when one Jewish student turned and directly asked the crowd "How many of you who are in favor of this resolution support peace between a Jewish state of Israel and an Arab state of Palestine?" only a few hands went up.  I'm not sure that those few fully understood the question.

But what went on inside the room was polite and restrained compared to what was happening in cyberspace. The two Twitter accounts being used by the BDS side (@Berkeley SJP --Students for Justice in Palestine; and @ucbdivest) are worth noting. Now many of the comments under their hashtag #UCBDivest came from elsewhere, and so these tweeters can legitimately claim that they're not responsible for them.  But they certainly give a sense of the sentiment of BDS supporters. And @UCBdivest at least, while making clear his/her biases, at least did report some of what the pro-Israel side had to say. Though by the end, while not too tired to continue reporting all of the speaking points of the BDS side, did let his/her guard slip a bit:

But that's really nothing compared to Cal's Students for Justice in Palestine, the sponsors of the shameful "Israel Apartheid Week" every year.

There's plenty more-- but you get the point. For those who aren't familiar with the term (and I wasn't until this) "zizi" might have several meanings.  Wiktionary lists it as "penis". But there's possibly a far more ominous meaning; according to the staff of the Anti-Defamation League, "zizi" is also used in extremist circles as shorthand for "Zio-Nazi". 

If you're responsible for maintaining a campus climate of respect for others, perhaps you'd want to consider the role that SJP and their resolution has played on campus this week.  Does their behavior uphold UC Berkeley's Principles of Community, which state that the university should "strive to uphold a just community in which discrimination and hate are not tolerated" , a phrase specifically included in this resolution? 

And this contribution from an SJP member at UC Riverside might be a sign for what's in store at other campuses that dance with BDS: 

Here's the tumblr post referenced in her tweet, just chock-full of trivialization of the deliberate, targeted murder of Jews:  

Ways to Get Rich During Divestment Livestreams

For this, you’ll need a jar (or piggy bank, whatever you’ll be keeping your cash in), a few friends, and your wallets.

• Put a quarter in the jar for every time someone refers to the barrier as a “security fence”.
• Put another quarter in for every time someone refers to suicide bombers in restaurants, cafes, or nightclubs in Tel Aviv.
• Put two quarters in every time someone makes a Holocaust reference.
• Put a dollar in every time someone says the bill makes them feel “marginalized”. Double this if they say this and “our campus has been divided” in the same two-minute time slot.

At the end of the night, after the vote has been handed down, use the earnings to treat yourselves for sitting through the hasbara.

Are Jewish students who have positive identification with Israel (the great majority) going to be automatically declared as "racist" by SJP and its supporters, especially if this biased and flawed resolution is upheld? For that matter, will committed Jewish and Zionist students even choose to attend Cal if the campus climate is marked by this type of organized hatred?  Whether this resolution is signed or vetoed by the ASUC president, the damage has been done.  The university administration immediately noted, in a statement by Chancellor Birgenau, "I sincerely hope we can avoid a recurrence of the rancor and divisiveness that arose in th wake of a previous ASUC vote in 2010." The DailyCal student newspaper recognized this when it wisely editorialized "Ultimately, the passage of the divestment bill leaves lingering tensions that the ASUC must work to resolve in some way. The impact of SB 160’s passage will be felt most immediately on campus, where many students already feel isolated and unwanted. Moving forward, the ASUC needs to make a proactive attempt to alleviate the ongoing friction among students that this divestment solicits. Until campus communities can find a way to come together, divestment will continue to drive us further and further apart." 


In the end, Jewish students have choices.  There will be very few students for whom Cal is the only option. And while the BDS circus will move on to another town, not caring about the campus community it leaves in its wake, the university will be the one to suffer the consequences. 

Divestment isn't happening at UC Berkeley (as the Regents already made clear), but division is-- and so are delegimitization, demonization and double standards regarding Israel. And Natan Sharansky knows what those add up to.

After Boston attack: US Muslims reliving post 9-11 experience

Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint.}

Muslims in the US are living in fear, praying that those responsible for the bombings in Boston will be apprehended and shown to be non-Muslim. Over the last few days, reports of harassment of Arabs and Muslims have been coming up throughout the US, especially at places of employment and in schools.

Apprehensions were raised among Arabs and Muslims after the New York Post published the photos of two Muslim teens, who the paper's headlines claimed, were wanted by authorities for questioning in relation to the Boston bombings.

A short time after the attack, the main headline on the newspaper’s site had stated that at least 12 people had been killed and that the main suspect was a Saudi who had been arrested by Boston Police. Law enforcement quickly denied the reports, saying they had not arrested a Saudi national, or anyone else.

The link above is to a Y-Net article, but the Boston Globe is reporting that two Chechen immigrants, brothers, are suspects for the attack in Boston.

I know that some people are crowing that these people are Muslim.

Speaking for myself, I have no intention of using this space to slander Muslims because of this.

The Jewish people in the Middle East have lived under Islamic supremacy for thirteen of the last fourteen centuries.  That's an historical fact, but it does not mean that we need to stir the pot and start screaming our heads off.

I still want to know more about what was behind this and why they did it - if they did it. Tamerlan Tsarnaev was apparently shot dead by the cops, but until such a time as his brother, Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, starts screaming "Alahu Akbar!" and "Death to America!" I am emphatically NOT going to go under the assumption that this was a Jihadi attack.

It might very well have been, but I do not know that to be the case and the fact of the matter remains that the Muslim population in the United States is a small minority and if they have fears of persecution, those fears should be considered and not denigrated.

Nonetheless, I have considerable faith in the American public and I do not believe for one second that Americans will launch into to some anti-Muslim frenzy.  We didn't after 9-11 and we're not going to do so now.

JVP BDS Boot Camp Offers Ramadan Accommodations, but not kosher meals

Jewish Voice for Peace is offering Ramadan meal accommodations in their BDS boot camp.  How sensitive of them. However, I couldn't help but notice that a kosher alternative isn't being offered. Presumably, this is because the organizers know their target audience. After all,  Paul Larudee, the son of a Iranian Presbyterian minister and his American missionary wife is a proud member of JVP.

JVP.  "Jewish" optional.  "Peace" optional.

Of the Jewish figureheads who provide the public face of JVP:  Is there any part of their Judaism they happily embrace, or are their Jewish genetics simply taken out of cold storage when needed to provide cover for Israel bashing?

This phenomenon has been referred to as "Jew-washing"

From “On Jew-Washing” and BDS", written by Yitzhak Santis and Gerald M. Steinberg

...Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is far from the Jewish mainstream. It is a fringe of a fringe – a small anti-Zionist group, whose finances are unclear, but are almost always found at events where Jew-washing is used, particularly when boycott, divestment and sanctions campaigns (BDS) are at stake. Their motivations, like their financing, are unclear and irrelevant – the fact that they provide a useful cover for non-Jews to justify gratuitous Israel-bashing is what counts.

JVP Summer camp

If your idea of an idyllic summer camp experience is playing guitar around a campfire, making lanyards and sleeping under the stars,  JVP BDS boot camp is not going to be your first choice.  But  if you're looking for self-congratulatory affirmations of personal and collective victim hood  and self righteous indignation, JVP BDS boot camp might be a good match.  Hurry. The application is due on Monday.

Yom HaZikaron: The price of freedom

In The Will to Live On renowned author Herman Wouk describes his 1955 visit with David Ben Gurion in his home in the Negev.  As Wouk gets ready to leave Ben Gurion addresses him. “You must return here to live. This is the only place for Jews like you. Here you will be free.”

 Wouk , incredulous, answers  “Free? With enemies ringing around you, with their leaders publicly threatening to wipe out ‘the Zionist entity,’ with your roads impassable after sundown – free?

 To which Ben Gurion replies: “I did not say safe. I said free.”

On Yom YaZikaron,  Israel, and those who cherish her, are reminded of the cost of freedom.  Today we remember the 23.085 who have given their lives, so the Jewish people could live free in their ancient homeland.  Today in Israel there are 17,553 bereaved families of security personnel, 2,324 orphans, and 4,964 widows of the IDF and the defense establishment, families who have made the ultimate sacrifice for their nation.

We remember.

At UC Berkeley  Hillel a packed house assembled for a Yom HaZikaron service, filled with  song, poems and prayers.

Watch Ifat Orgad and Shay Rachman sing  Eli, Eli, at Berkeley Hillel.  It was written by poet warrior Hannah Szenes, who also paid the ultimate price. She lost her life at age 23,  captured and assassinated by the Nazis, after she left the relative safety of pre-state Israel in an effort to help the remaining Jews of Europe.

Help Defeat Divestment at UC Berkeley

On Wednesday, the UC Berkeley student government will be considering the latest divestment resolution promoted by Students for Justice in Palestine.  Student governments at UC Santa Barbara and UC Riverside have rejected similar moves. We need to ensure that the same happens at Berkeley.

Please take a moment to sign the petition of community members: http://www.change.org/petitions/senators-of-the-associated-students-university-of-california-asuc-vote-no-to-divest-from-israel-3

Cal alumni should sign this petition: http://berkeleyhillel.org/alumni/alumni-letter/

Please circulate this to all of your local pro-Israel contacts.

The Divestment Slate at Cal Berkeley: Framing the Issues

What a difference a year makes.
For 2013, UC Berkeley perpetual grad student and anti-Israel activist Tom Pessah  presented the SJP endorsed divestment slate.  He's done this before.


Do you support the nonviolent divestment movement for Palestinian human rights?
 So do the following candidates for ASUC (Cal student government) office, all of whom are strong allies of Students for Justice in Palestine.
 Your vote WILL bring to ASUC the people who will advocate for justice in Palestine, so VOTE at http://election.asuc.org/ from TODAY, Tuesday April 9, at 9:00 AM until 11:59 PM on Thursday (April 11).
 The ASUC uses ranked-choice voting, so candidates should be be ordered in terms of preference (#1, #2, #3) to ensure your vote counts!
 PRESIDENT
 1. DeeJay Pepito, CalSERVE
 http://www.calserve.org/deejay/
 SENATE
 1. Talïah Mirmalek, #119, Independent and SJP member
 https://www.facebook.com/Taliah4Senate
 2. Naweed Mohabbat, #116, Independent
 https://www.facebook.com/Naweed4Senate
 3. Briana Mullen, #123, CalSERVE, or
 Solomon Nwoche, #137, Independent Campaign for Common Sense
 EXTERNAL AFFAIRS VICE PRESIDENT
 1. Spencer Pritchard, CalSERVE
 EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
 1. Nolan Pack, CalSERVE
 ACADEMIC AFFAIRS VICE PRESIDENT
 1. Valerie Jameson, CalSERVE


Tom's announcement from the 2012 election follows:

Do you support UC divestment from companies that enable Israel's illegal and racist occupation?
So do the following candidates for ASUC office, all of whom are strong allies of Students for Justice in Palestine.

VOTE at http://election.asuc.org/ from Tuesday April 10 9:00 AM until 11:59 PM on Thurs. April 12
The ASUC uses ranked-choice voting, so candidates should be be ordered in terms of preference (#1, #2, #3) to ensure your vote counts.


PRESIDENT
1. Andy Albright, CalSERVE
http://www.calserve.org/andrew-albright-for-asuc-president/

SENATE
1. Sadia Saifuddin, #138 Independent
https://www.facebook.com/SadiaSaifuddin138ForASUCSenate

2. George Kadifa, #186 SJP member, Student Action
3. Isaac Kreisman #205, Students for a Democratic University (SDU)
4. Deejay Pepito #184, CalSERVE


EXTERNAL AFFAIRS VICE PRESIDENT
We are fortunate to have three candidates running for this position who support SJP's goals (a sign of the successful work we've done on campus): Isabel Sausjord (SDU), Sydney Fang (CalSERVE), and Shahryar Abassi (Student Action).
Isabel, however, is a current and active member of SJP.

EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT
Candidates from both CalSERVE   Anthony Galace and SDU  James Chang are allies.

ACADEMIC VICE PRESIDENT
Candidates from both SDU Frank Luna  and CalSERVE Naomi Wilson  are allies.

Notice the difference in the language. In 2012 , Tom wrote  "Do you support UC divestment from companies that enable Israel's illegal and racist occupation?"  This year he couches the same movement in quite different terms ,  in the language of human rights, asking instead  "Do you support the nonviolent divestment movement for Palestinian human rights?"

The BDS movement hasn't changed. Why has the  marketing-  the selling of the movement- changed?  Dispel any notion that this is a grass roots, student lead movement- its actually highly orchestrated and well funded. There are BDS boot camps. BDS conferences. And there are professional BDS activists and trainers. The Divest Now handbook for Student Divestment campaigns specifically admonishes students "to be deliberate in the language they use to frame divestment...", and warns them not to confuse people with actual history or current politics.

Tom's betting on the proposition that its easier to sell the uninitiated on "human rights" rather than on frothing at the mouth Israel hate. He might be right. We'll see soon enough.  The ASUC- the student Senate at UC Berkeley  will be examining divesting from Israel this week

The Prisoners Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag

The Prisoners: Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag will be released later this week. It's an autobiographical  narrative of 22 Palestinian prisoners' experiences in Israeli jails compiled from interviews with prisoners released in the Gilad Shalit prisoner exchange. Norma Hashim is the editor.

No one expects it to be more than anti-Israel agitprop.

Looking for a more realistic glimpse into life in the Israeli prison system? You need look no further than MSNBC's Lockup World tour, which took its' cameras inside three Israeli prisons last year, examining  Rimonim, Israel’s largest maximum-security prison; Neve Tirza, a facility for women, and Hermon, known as “the largest therapeutic community in Israel."

Rimonim from the Times of Israel:

With 1,200 prisoners, Rimonim allows family members to live communally. Some Israeli-Arab “crime families” share a cell of up to six people, with the largest incarcerated Bedouin family boasting twenty members housed in one wing. The families are given leeway to manage their own affairs, a key factor contributing to prison security and inmates’ well-being, according to Rimonim Prison Commander Chen Benderli.

New Rimonim inmates are permitted to bring their clothes, appliances and other personal items with them to prison. Most inmates cook for themselves in communal kitchens, and prison staff eat food prepared by inmates. Jewish and Arab inmates socialize freely with guards, shaking hands and trading jokes in what Lockup producer Kimberly Greenhut called “a very social and very festive environment.”

Jewish and Arab inmates socialize freely with guards, shaking hands and trading jokes in what one Lockup producer called ‘a very social and very festive environment’“I feel like I am in a hotel,” says one Israeli-Arab inmate as he shows the camera around a spacious cell with kitchen equipment, bookshelves and private bathroom area. “Nothing is lacking.”

The report from Prison Lockup World tour was confirmed earlier this year when a clip from an Israeli prison surfaced. This clip, caught on a smuggled in cell phone camera shows life in Eshel  prison.  This is an engagement party for convicted terrorist   Samar Abu Kwick Music. Snacks.  Friends.  Samar Abu Kwick was convicted of murdering Sarah Lisha , Elad Valenstein and Amit Zana, in a 2000 terror attack at the Halamish junction in the West Bank.  Kwick is serving three life sentences.



The Times of Israel continues:

Defying the atrocity narrative, more than one convicted Hamas terrorist has been known to post on Facebook from a personal 3G smartphone, showcasing an upgraded cell with soccer banners, pets and stereo equipment. When not enjoying satellite Arab television, other “security” inmates use smartphones to help friends pick out clothes to bring them in prison. Many of Israel’s 5,000 Palestinian prisoners receive living stipends totaling $100 million a year from the Palestinian Authority — if they were convicted of violence against Israelis, that is.

Inmates of all backgrounds interviewed by Lockup appear more candid and hopeful about their future than prisoners typically encountered by the show, producers noted. “They save lives here” and “I discovered my soul in prison” are typical comments of Hermon Prison inmates, many of whom are shown engaged in academic learning or practicing a trade.

Israel’s prison system owes much of its current status to improvements undertaken during the 1990s, following passage of Israel’s Basic Law for Human Dignity and Liberty. The so-called “rights revolution” and an activist High Court helped transform Israeli prisons into facilities with relative harmony and ample rehabilitation opportunities, as well as places to which fewer inmates return for second stays.
“An enlightened society is judged by the treatment of its prisoners,” said then-High Court President Aharon Barak. “The prisoner has committed a crime and has been punished accordingly; his liberty has been taken away, but the human essence still remains. The prison walls must not come between the prisoner and human dignity.”

Remember this when The Prisoners’ Diaries: Palestinian Voices from the Israeli Gulag  is read at a bookstore near you.

The Celebration Continues: Israel at 65 Youtube

There are some charming clips on youtube, celebrating Israel's 65 birthday. Here's a few of our favorites

Happy Birthday Israel - Shining bright for 65 years featuring Israeli singer-songwriter Rosi Golan.

From StandwithUs  65 things we love about Israel in 65 seconds. 

And from the Fountainheads: Hope, Yom Haatzmaut, Israel Independence Day

 

Israel at 65 : A Week of Bay Area celebration

From the  J weekly calendar and elsewhere 

Sunday/14

 Israel’s 65th birthday celebration. Keynote speaker Rosemary Schindler, great-niece of Oskar Schindler, plus video screenings and party. At Congregation Beth Ami, 4676 Mayette Ave., Santa Rosa. 2 to 5 p.m. Free. 
“Israel in Marin.” Festival for all ages modeled after tour of Israel. At Osher Marin JCC, 200 N. San Pedro Road, San Rafael. Families with children 3 and under 9:30 to 11:30 a.m., main festival 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. Free.
Israel Memorial Day celebration. Ceremony with musical presentation. At Berkeley Hillel, 2736 Bancroft Way in Berkeley. 7 p.m. Free. (510) 318-6484.
Israel Independence Day celebration. Israeli food, dancing and booths. At Addison-Penzak JCC, 14855 Oka Road, Los Gatos. 1 to 5 p.m. Free.

Monday/15

North Peninsula Yom HaAtzmaut celebration. Israeli-style dinner, celebration and Israeli dancing. At Peninsula Temple Sholom, 1655 Sebastian Drive, Burlingame. 6 p.m. dinner, 7 p.m. celebration $5. RSVP required for dinner

Tuesday/16

Yom HaAtzmaut seder. Concept of a journey through time to explain the Zionist vision. At Congregation Emanu-El, 2 Lake St., S.F. 6:30 p.m. $18.
Community Yom HaAtzmaut celebration. Travel through Israel’s varied regions, explore tech innovations and taste Israeli food. At Oshman Family JCC, 3921 Fabian Way, Palo Alto. 4 to 10 p.m. Free.
Congregational Beth El celebrates Israel's 65th birthday  featuring Israeli music, dance and art 1301 Oxford Street Berkeley 5- 7 pm
Temple Isaiah Lafayette Pot luck Dinner, Services and Israel @65 celebration 6:00 pm 945 Risa Rd  Lafayette

Saturday/20 

Notes from the Middle East: featuring Israeli pianist Eliran Avni and Israeli American conductor Daniel Alfred Waschs leading works by Egyptian composer Nader Abbasi and Israeli composer Avner Dorman. The Oakland East Bay Symphony will also present the world premiere of Ya Way Li by Palestinian American composer John Bisharat  Paramount theater  2025 Broadway, Oakland 8:00 pm tickets $20 -$70

 Monday/22

“Blue and White Monday.” Yom HaAtzmaut celebration for young adults. At Drake, 598 Fourth St., S.F. 6 p.m. $10.

Celebrating 65 years of Israel

 From Barbara Sofer, printed by the J Post in honor of Israel's 65th birthday

 65+1 new reasons why I love Israel 2013... in no particular order

The author is a Jerusalem writer who focuses on the wondrous stories of modern Israel. She serves as the Israel director of public relations for Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. The views in her columns are her 

Here are some of my favorite from her list

Young aboriginal leaders of the Norway House Cree Nation in Manitoba, Canada, came to Israel to learn “how an ancient people can maintain their heritage while embracing the modern world, and in so doing achieve self determination.”

We Israelis talk with our hands, so a start-up called Pointgrab is developing technology so our computers understand our hand gestures.

We like to talk, period. Six heads of the hush-hush Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) star in a movie that reveals secrets of their careers. Even the director said he was startled that they agreed.

Intensity. We’re ranked first by Bloomberg in “research and development intensity.”

Mobileye Inside: Luxury European BMWs and Volvos will now protect themselves with Israeli anti-crash technology.

We are the first to arrive to help at a foreign catastrophe, yet it took us 50 days to form a government and no one seemed in a rush.

An Academy Award-winning director is about to film his first TV pilot here. It’s called Tyrant.
 The Syrian leader is also called “tyrant.” We’re taking in medical patients from his country, even though they’re officially the enemy.

When an Israeli won the gold medal for disabled rowers in Italy, no recording of “Hatikva” had been prepared for the ceremony. So she took the mike and sang the song (beautifully) herself.

Prize-winning Kharta the cow produced 18,208 liters of milk after getting post-traumatic stress treatment. She lives on a kibbutz near the border with Gaza.

The illegal foreign workers come mostly from countries that prohibit them from traveling to Israel. They don’t believe the propaganda. Neither do we!

Despite the ban, Iranians find ways to listen to Rita, the Israeli star singing in Persian.
Israel is exporting sugar to Holland for Dutch chocolate, and to Morocco for sweet tea.

Four sixth-graders from the Ma’aleh Hatorah school in Ma’aleh Adumim took first place at the seventh annual MindLab Olympics international championships, a “thinking games” competition for children from 10 countries.

They’re also good at Torah.

 Israel has won first prize in the Mindlab competition for seven years.

Bank of Israel chief Stanley Fischer turned down a raise.

Says the international advisory committee from MSNBC: Israel is a paradise for prisoners.
Despite the threat from Iran, 2012 was the best year ever for tourists.

Yes, we care. Israeli scientists have brought the aptly named Yarkon bleak fish back from the brink of extinction.

Our president carries an organ donor card.

3Flying high. A skirt-wearing religious woman passed the elite pilot’s course and became a navigator despite pressure that “a religious girl couldn’t do this."

3The world junior tennis champ is a 12-year-old from Ramle, who learned the game in a center for kids from the periphery.

Miss Israel came to Israel from Ethiopia when she was 12. She’s an orphan, brought up by her grandparents.

Said beauty queen served as an officer in the IDF.

The winner of the first season of The Voice Israel singing competition made aliya from Canada a few days before competing. The winner of the second season is an Israeli Arab from Acre.

Archeologists recently found the 2,700-year-old temple of a community that lived in Motza, west of Jerusalem.

The light rail stops are written in Hebrew, Arabic and English.

 Land of opportunity: The new head of the emergency room at Hadassah is the oldest of 11 children and grew up in a Galilee village here. His father only finished fourth grade and his mother never learned to read or write. He and three of his siblings are doctors. (He speaks Russian, too.)

 The cook-off in MasterChef Israel involved a German immigrant who converted from Catholicism to Judaism, a hijab-wearing Israeli Arab nurse and a very religious Jew from a family with 14 children. It was the most popular show of the year.

 Check out the whole list, here

Kerry, Obama and Eleven Dimensional Chess

Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint.}

From the earliest days of the Obama administration his followers have assured us what a smart fellow Barack Obama is, yet when it comes to the Middle East everything that Obama touches turns to garbage.

Today we have an article in the Jerusalem Post by Douglas Bloomfield in which he tells us this:

The State Department spokeswoman confirmed a Turkish newspaper report that Kerry wants Erdogan to play an active role in the peace process, and said Kerry asked Turkey to use its “significant influence with the Palestinians” to encourage Hamas to accept the demands of the International Quartet.

Turkey to play an active role in the "peace process"?  Turkey?  Really?

Bloomfield is skeptical:

Erdogan’s inclusion is bad news for Egypt, Fatah and Israel. Egypt resents Turkey moving on to its turf. Former Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak felt he had a monopoly as the regional intermediary and told Erdogan to keep his hands off; his successor, Mohamed Morsi, apparently feels that way as well, plus now it’s an Islamist as well as national rivalry.

Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas knows Erdogan is a close ally of arch-rival Hamas and hostile to the secular nationalist Fatah. If anything, Erdogan is more radical than Abbas, and that’s the last thing the PA leader needs. Relations between the two men are said to be cool at best. Abbas also knows Hamas wants to overthrow him and take over not only the PA but control of the PLO as well.

There are few people who Israelis distrust more than Erdogan. Bringing him in is no way to win their confidence.

This must be another example of the Obama administration's fabled eleven dimensional chess.  Whenever this administration does something both counterintuitive and counterproductive (i.e., stupid) we're supposed to believe that it's actually some super-sophisticated move that the rest of us are just not bright enough to understand.  We're supposed to believe that Barack Obama is playing eleven dimensional chess with Sheldon Cooper and Stephen Hawking.  That's how intelligent the guy is.

Obama wrecked whatever potential that there may have been in the peace process through demanding total settlement freeze and he helped the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Egypt.  Excuse me, but this is not the behavior of an intelligent individual, nor of an effective administration.  This is not eleven dimensional chess with Sheldon Cooper and Stephen Hawking.  These are not some super-sophisticated diplomatic ninja moves.  On the contrary.  What it really reflects is either stupidity or ignorance, or both, resulting in ineptitude.

And now we have Kerry wanting to bring Erdogan into the peace process?  In other words, Kerry thinks that it makes sense to alienate the Israelis and the Palestinian Authority for the purpose of courting Hamas?

I'm sorry, but this is yet another example of the Obama administration falling directly on its face when it comes to its efforts in the Middle East.  This move is not quite as dumb as demanding total settlement freeze, about which the administration (much to my amazement) actually does seem to have belatedly learned a lesson.  Nor is this nearly so horrific or treasonous as the administration's support for the rise of political Islam throughout the region.  It is merely a relatively small screw-up that will help blow the deal in the long run, but since there is virtually no hope for a negotiated conclusion of hostilities anyway, I suppose it hardly matters.

The point is that this administration, at least when it comes to foreign policy, is inept.  They do not know what they are doing and they have, in fact, made matters considerably worse.  Unless one is a craven sycophant of the administration, or of this president, we owe it to one another to point out these various mistakes and screw-ups, both large and small.  It does no one any good to pretend that a sow's ear is really a silk purse.  If Obama was half as intelligent as they tell us he is then he would not be making these profoundly stupid mistakes and his supporters would not feel it necessary to try and explain away these screw-ups as super-sophisticated ninja diplomacy.

It might be due to ignorance or it might be due to stupidity, but what it's not is effective.

Kerry should get out of the Middle East before the administration does even more damage than it has already.

Saudis build apartheid wall on border with Yemen. The world is silent

Saudi Arabia is building a fence, over 1,000 miles long from the Red Sea to the edge of Oman  in order to seal off its border with Yemen.

Security has deteriorated on the Peninsula since the Arab Spring. Yemen remains an Al Qaeda stronghold.

From the BBC:

Border security has dramatically worsened in the aftermath of the revolution, as thousands of illegal immigrants, drug smugglers and gun runners try to slip from impoverished Yemen into Saudi Arabia, one of the world's richest countries, Lt al-Ahmari told the BBC's Frank Gardner.

Five Saudi border guards had recently been killed along the border in shoot-outs with well-armed smugglers, he added.

The first part of the fence has already been built on the coast, slowing down - but not stopping - the tide of illegal immigrants.

Smugglers and militants have already shown ingenuity to circumvent the new border by using women, mules and secret paths to get into Saudi Arabia..

Will there be United nations resolutions condemning this apartheid wall? Will the International Solidarity Movement send people to sabotage it?  Will there be demonstrations in front of Saudi embassies and consulates throughout the world?

We already know that answer. All the nations of the world have not only the right  but the obligation to protect their citizens. All nations but Israel.

6.1 Earthquake hits Iran

Why has Iran built its nuclear facilities on an active faultline?

From the newswire:

A 6.1 magnitude earthquake killed 32 and injured hundreds more in a sparsely populated area in southern Iran on Tuesday, Iranian officials said. Authorities said it did not damage a nuclear plant in the region.


The report said the earthquake struck the town of Kaki some 96 kilometers (60 miles) southeast of Bushehr, a town on the Persian Gulf that is home of Iran's first nuclear power plant, built with Russian help.

"No damage was done to Bushehr power plant," Bushehr provincial governor Fereidoun Hasanvand told state TV. He said 32 people died and 850 were injured, including 100 who were hospitalized.

Water and electricity were cut to many residents, said Ebrahim Darvishi, governor of the worst-hit district Shonbeh.

The UN's nuclear watchdog agency said on its website that it had been informed by Iran that there was no damage to the plant and no radioactive release and, based on its analysis of the earthquake, was not seeking additional information. The International Atomic Energy Agency statement indicated that it was satisfied there was little danger.

  Of course, this is the same administration that has claimed that the Holocaust did not happen, and that the country has no gays.  

Israeli Couscous: I Have Learned Something New

Israeli couscous from Trader Joe's holds a special place in the hearts of the Bay Area's local pro-Israel activists. TJ's, bless them, have gone on stocking Israeli products in the face of considerable pressure from the BDS crowd to get them to stop. They have all kinds of lovely Israeli products. My own personal favorite is the Dorot frozen garlic cubes, but I am aware that many of my friends at one time bought a lifetime supply of Israeli coucous from Trader Joe's, to the extent that local activists were trading Israeli couscous recipes for months, desperate to use it all up.

I confess: I never bought any. The garlic cubes, yes, and matzo in season, but not the product I thought of as the 'fake couscous'. When I first became aware of this stuff, I had no idea what I was looking at. Couscous, to me, means, well, actual couscous, and in my childhood was usually eaten in the form of tabouli. It was also generally cooked and served by Israelis, adding to my bafflement--surely Israeli couscous is no different from normal couscous, I thought, puzzled. This odd stuff from TJ's, made up of little pasta balls like tiny ball bearings was a new substance altogether, and confused me. What made it Israeli? Why wasn't it actually couscous? What the heck was this?

I've learned a little more about it though, now, and I'm fascinated enough to be planning the purchase of a few boxes. It turns out that this peculiar carbohydrate is unique to Israel, and is actually a piece of Jewish history.

Let me take you back to the 1950s, when the newborn State of Israel is struggling to survive, and to feed its exploding population. Food is rationed. Immigrants and refugees from the Arab world are flooding into their ancient homeland and new haven. Rice is a staple food for these new Israelis, but it's not readily available because of the limited food supply and lack of imports.

David Ben Gurion to the rescue! Approaching the Osem company (yes, that same Osem whose tahini and matzo ball mix you still buy today), he asks them to come up with a rice substitute that can be produced in Israel. The result, called in Hebrew 'ptitim', is a baked wheat product, shaped like grains of rice, which can be boiled like pasta and served hot or cold. Dubbed "Ben Gurion's rice", it made its way into Israeli culinary history. The round balls of 'couscous' shortly followed.

Israeli couscous is currently very chic with foodies, to the amusement of Israelis, who seem to think of it as kid food. I am fascinated by its legacy. If matzo is the bread of affliction, this is the rice-substitute of the Ingathering, a tribute to Israeli ingenuity and determination to survive and thrive. I plan to learn to cook with it, and to give it a place in my kitchen, this most Zionist of foodstuffs.

Some reading:

http://www.haaretz.com/ben-gurion-s-rice-1.245490

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ptitim

Abe Greenhouse, "ISM Scumbag" will be presenting at JVP Annual Conference in Berkeley

From an article by Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs, written on  August 21, 2003, 2 days after a devastating bombing on a bus in Jerusalem that  killed 7 children and 16 adults. 130 were wounded, many of them children. The bomb was laced with ball-bearings in an effort to increase the suffering and magnify the injuries of the victims on the bus.

 ISM Scumbag Dishonors Terror Victims
Charles Johnson
8/21/03

Abe Greenhouse, the terror-enabling ISM scumbag who desecrated Jerusalem’s Western Wall by leaving a note that read “END THE MOTHERF*CKING OCCUPATION!!!”, sneaked into the press area at the Jerusalem bus bombing on Tuesday shortly after it happened—and the Trentonian interviewed him about it. The lousy self-centered bastard could not spare one word of sympathy for the Israeli and American children he saw murdered that day, but used the opportunity instead to whine about the poor oppressed Palestinians living under the evil occupation. This one will turn your stomach:

Greenhouse, who’s been over in Israel for about month and has joined the International Solidarity Movement, Rabbis for Human Rights and the Israeli Committee Against House Demolition since the start of his visit.

“There is a lot of danger in the work I do,” Greenhouse said. “It was a very trying experience, but nothing compared to the regular dangers Palestinians face every day.
“The bombing tonight made me want to remain here in working through this peace effort. My efforts are more important now than ever.”

The militant Islamic Jihad group claimed responsibility for yesterday’s bus bombing to avenge the killing of a senior operative in a raid last week, but Greenhouse said there’s two sides to the story....

After seeing first hand the bodies of innocents, whose only transgression was living their lives in the state of  Israel, Greenhouse's blinders stayed on. "Nothing compared to the regular dangers the Palestinians face"

Here’s the story of the Shmuel HaNavi bus bombing that Abe Greenhouse just couldn’t be bothered to tell.

The bomb that caused the huge explosion on Egged bus 2  was spiked with ball-bearings and other metal debris designed to increase the suffering of the victims on the crowded bus. The bomber was Raad Abd el-Hamid Maseqa, 29-year-old cleric from  Hebron.

 According to an Associated Press report,

 Strollers were scattered near the stricken bus, medics carried away children with blood-smeared faces and a baby girl died in a hospital before doctors could find her parents. At least five children were among the 18 dead in Tuesday's suicide bombing by a Palestinian militant who blew himself up on a Jerusalem bus. Forty children were among more than 100 people injured. The attack was the 100th Palestinian suicide bombing against Israelis since the latest round of fighting began in September 2000. The youth of the victims stands out in that grim list, and the government said the choice of target was particularly cold-blooded.

Among the victims of the bombing was Shmuel Zangari, an 11 month old baby who died of a brain hemorrhage.  His older sister,  Avigal had facial burns. His sister Esther had a horrific blast injury.  The enormous concussive waves from the bomb broke her ear drums and tore apart her lungs.

 Abe Greenhouse knows very well that a suicide bomber is a bomb with a brain- they chose the targets and their moment of detonation.  This particular murderer chose a public bus, crowded with children. Greenhouse rationalizes and whitewashes the slaughter of innocents.

Abe Greenhouse, the "terror-enabling ISM scumbag” will be presenting at the Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) Annual Meeting in Berkeley California,  DoubleTree Hotel Berkeley Marina April 19-21.

President Shimon Peres’ speech at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony April 7, 2013

We built a defensive force capable of dealing with dangers, new and old. The Israel Defense Forces, which was formed in response to the attempt to annihilate the Jewish State which had just been created, is also the right lesson from the Holocaust. It is founded upon the bravery of Jews in the Holocaust.


******************

President Shimon Peres’ speech at the Holocaust Remembrance Day ceremony in Jerusalem Sunday April 7, 2013

Dear Holocaust survivors, Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Speaker of the Knesset Yuli Edelstein, President of the Supreme Court Justice Asher Grunis, Chief Rabbis Rabbi Shlomo Amar and Rabbi Yona Metzger, our dear friend Prime Minister Tony Blair, our dear friend the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Canada John Baird, Chairman of the Yad Vashem Council Rabbi Israel Meir Lau, Chairman of the Directorate of Yad Vashem Avner Shalev, Righteous Among the Nations, honoured guests:

The Holocaust will not sink into the dark hole of history. It is here with us, burning, real. It resonates as we step on the stones of the ghettos. It floats like a ghost in the barracks of the camps. It cries from the prayer shawls, the hair, the shoes that we see with our own eyes. It whispers from the tears that dried before we said goodbye. It is reflected in the photographs of the babies in their mothers’ arms. The noise of those murderous trains which have ceased stills rings in our ears. The smoke which has not faded as it drifted into the sky above. Survivors walk among us, the Holocaust and its horrors are with them every day. Their blood flows through our veins. Their bravery accompanies every step of our lives. There was no greater horror in the history of mankind. Nothing can remove the greatest darkness that mankind has known. The 74 years which have passed are more biography than history. Millions of names are still missing, of parents and children, of whole Jewish communities who were murdered. There is no substitute for the culture, for the values, for the talents which were and are no longer. They remain as an open wound. We will not stop searching for every scrap of information, for a name yet to be identified, for a photograph that has been blurred. A third of our people, six million, were murdered with no reason. The Jewish people today are fewer in number then on the eve of WW2. We decreased in number, but not in spirit. We are working with all our might to fill the void. Physically and spiritually. To grow out of the ashes, to create out of nothing, to build protection. To build a new independence, and not tire from working for a better world, for Tikkun Olam.

The Holocaust is an orphan with no comfort and a moral responsibility without compromise. It does not permit us, the Jewish people, to turn a blind eye. It must always be a warning to the entire human family. The map of Europe stills contains local stains of anti-Semitism. Racism erupted on that land in the last century and dragged it down to its lowest point. Ultimately the murder which came from her, damaged her. To our shame, there remain some who learnt nothing. Young skinheads. False scientists dressed in false suits. Yes! There remain those who forget the Holocaust, those who deny it. Not all the flames have been extinguished. Crises are once again exploited to form Nazi parties, ridiculous but dangerous. Sickening anti-Semitic cartoons are published allegedly in the name of press freedom. The journey for justice and freedom is not yet over. When I hear the four words, ‘Let My People Go’ I feel again and again that the journey out of the house of slavery, which began in our people and has not yet ended, must not stop. It must not stop until slavery, in all its forms, is stopped. In every place, in every situation. Until the winds of freedom blow away the stench of racism and decimate the evil smoke. The civilized world must ask itself how in such a short space of time after the crematoria were extinguished, after the terrible death toll that the allied powers endured to put an end to the Nazi devil, it is still possible for the leadership, like that of Iran, to openly deny the Holocaust and threaten another Holocaust. Whoever ignores the threat against one nation, must know that the threat of a Holocaust against one nation is a threat of a Holocaust against all nations. The Jewish people are a small nation in number but large in spirit. That spirit cannot be burned in the ovens. From the ashes of the Holocaust rose spiritual redemption and political rebirth. We rose and we built a state of our own. We lost possessions, but retained our values. We returned to our ancient homeland. We renewed our moral legacy. We returned to independence. We returned to creating, to educating and we returned to hope. We built a defensive force capable of dealing with dangers, new and old. The Israel Defense Forces, which was formed in response to the attempt to annihilate the Jewish State which had just been created, is also the right lesson from the Holocaust. It is founded upon the bravery of Jews in the Holocaust.

Today, Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day is also the memorial day for 70 years since the beginning of the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. There was a never a rebellion like it. They were so few and their bravery remained as a model for so many. From now and forever. Today we salute their bravery with the flags flying in the wind of freedom. These are flags of exaltation, not only of grief. A clear line exists between the resistance in the ghettos, in the camps and in the forests and the rebirth and bravery of the State of Israel. It is a line of dignity, of renewed independence, of mutual responsibility, of exalting God’s name. As a ray of hope which was not extinguished even during terrible anguish. The ghetto fighters sought life even when circumstance screamed despair. A few days ago Peretz Hochman passed away. The small tobacco seller who became a great hero. Peretz Hochman came home to Israel and fought in Israel’s wars with the courage which typified him. He passed away only a few days before he was meant to stand with us, here today, on this stage and light the torch. His light will continue to illuminate. Raising the heroism of the fighters is not just a matter of doing justice to their bravery. It is an existential need, for each of us, for all us as a people. It is time. We did not always listen to the beat of their hearts. To the health. The time has come to repair. The history of the Holocaust is not just a lesson from the past, it is also a lesson for the future. That we will know to defend ourselves against dangers and intercept them before time. That we can rely on ourselves. That we must maintain our moral legacy, which withstood even impossible situations. That we can maintain friendship with friends, and work with them to foster a better future, for every person, for every nation, for all nations. And to guard against humanity ever losing its humanity again. We’ll ensure that every person will have the right to be different, different and equal. We will never despair. After all, we were commanded; “Do not fear, my servant Jacob” because “The Lord will give strength to his people.”

Anonymous hacks Israeli Hair Salon. They proclaim OpIsrael a Sucess

From the New York Times, reporting on the April 7, 2013 Cyber Day of rage against Israel:

Guy Mizrahi of Cyberia, an Israeli cybersecurity firm, said in an interview that the damage was not significant and that most of the attacks were “childish.”....
 
The pro-Palestinian hackers seemed to have had more success in attacking small businesses and individual Facebook pages. At midday they announced on Twitter that they had defaced the Web site of an Israeli hair salon, Peter Hair, in Ramat Hasharon, near Tel Aviv.

The salon site’s home page showed a person with a masked face, an image associated with Anonymous, holding a sign saying “Indonesian Security Down #OP ISRAHELL.” The rest of the screen was filled with a message to the government, accusing Israel of having “wronged humanity.” The hackers signed off with the message, “We are Muslims, Soldier of Allah.”

Reached by telephone on Sunday evening, the owner of the salon, Peter Imseis, said he had not been aware that the site had been hacked and added that it had not affected his business. Asked why he thought the salon had become a target, he said, “I don’t have a clue. It’s very strange.” 

Also reported- an Israeli army surplus store's website at israelmilitary.com was successfully hacked..  Anonymous  then claimed they had disabled the mighty Israeli military infrastructure.  Fortunately, their research skills are as competent as their hacking.

Anonymous: Sound and Fury and not much more

From Anonymous- their "List of confirmed affected websites during #OpIsrael" http://crypt0nymous.tumblr.com/post/47270432228/list-of-confirmed-affected-websites-during-opisrael

Anonymous claims  the following list includes latest confirmed tango downs, hacks, defaces, docks, hijacks, database leaks & releases, deletes out of the internet, admin takeovers etc.

Confirmed by WHO?  Every one that I've checked appears to be working just fine....
There is confirmation that the brave cyber-warriors of Anonymous had successfully  targeted an  Israeli children's cancer site  Classy.

Gov. websites:
http://www.cbs.gov.il/
http://www.defence.gov.il/
http://www.education.gov.il
http://www.environment.gov.il
http://www.gca.gov.il/
http://www.gpo.gov.il/
http://int.gov.il/
http://www.isa.gov.il/
http://www.lapam.gov.il/
http://mofa.gov.il/
http://www.mof.gov.il/itc/
http://www.mohr.gov.il/
http://nisa.gov.il/
http://sep.gov.il/

Other Israeli websites:
http://agreements.co.il/
http://alzheimer.org.il/
http://www.art-time.co.il
http://www.atlas-shelves.co.il/
http://bigsmile.co.il/
http://bubotmetukot.co.il/
http://biztv.co.il/
http://camellia.co.il
http://ciaobella.co.il
http://www.cogmetal.co.il/
http://www.connectionsmag.co.il
http://www.court.gov.il/
http://daniel-hall.co.il
http://dsignon.co.il
http://edanhatzilum.co.il
http://etzhaim.org.il
http://www.eximius.co.il/
http://fishgraphix.co.il
http://finephotography.co.il
http://galpro.co.il
http://www.goldbiz.co.il/
http://haifanet.co.il/
http://www.haifa-wwtp.co.il/
http://hed-haeer.co.il
http://hottam.co.il/
http://www.humor.co.il/
http://www.idf.il/
http://igmi.co.il/
http://www.inof.co.il/
http://www.insuranceoffers.co.il/
http://www.israntique.org.il/
http://www.kahane.co.il/
http://www.lawontheweb.co.il/
http://www.lawlink.co.il/
http://www.moshepapa.co.il/
http://www.misradneto.co.il/
http://www.mpi.co.il/
http://www.levechad.org/
http://natour-deal.co.il/
http://qsi.co.il/
http://www.pensya-tova.co.il/
https://smarteq.co.il/lib/_uploads/images/images.php
http://www.tama38law.co.il/
http://tapuahvedvash.co.il/
http://www.taussig-law.co.il/
http://thehome.co.il/
http://www.thenotaries.co.il/
http://www.t-pool.co.il/
http://www.visionimprovement.co.il/
http://web.ramgat.co.il/includes/x.html

Anon/Pastebins:
730 Israeli Facebook Accounts Hacked By Mauritania Attacker
Leak: http://www.connectionsmag.co.il, http://www.humor.co.il/ & http://www.art-time.co.il
95 israeli websites hacked by Aceh Cyber Team
14 israeli websites hacked by Kosovo Gold Hackers
Secret Israel Documents of http://israelmilitary.com by @TeamLHT; Leak: http://bit.ly/10I40Cm

Other medium:
100s off sites taken for op-israel by bilalsbxtra and dr samim-008
8 .il websites #HaCked and #Defaced bY #AnonGhost; Paste: http://pastie.org/7343283
Israeli Facebook Acounts HaCked by @An0nGhost
Part 1: http://pastebin.com/zdkHSvHT (400)
Part 2: http://pastebin.com/v7rfzkXm (560)
Israeli Cyber Pyrates facebook fan page hacked

Anonymous Website hacked. OpIsrael off to a Rollickingly Fun start

The website of Hactivist Group Anonymous has been hacked, bringing a highly ironic start to the April 7 2013 OpIsrael  Day o' Rage we've heard so much about.

Thanks so much to IsraellyCool for bring this to our attention.

Of of right now, the OpIsrael webpage plays a lovely version of Hatikvah, and runs MEMRI clips with Wafa Sultan.  It also offers these important facts about the conflict

1. Israel became a nation in 1312 BCE, two thousand years before the rise of Islam

2. Arab refugees in Israel began identifying themselves as part of a Palestinian people in 1967, two decades after the establishment of the modern State of Israel.

3. Since the Jewish conquest in 1272 BCE, the Jews have had dominion over the land for one thousand years with a continuous presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.

4. The only Arab dominion since the conquest in 635 CE lasted no more than 22 years.

5. For over 3,300 years, Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital Jerusalem has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity. Even when the Jordanians occupied Jerusalem, they never sought to make it their capital, and Arab leaders did not come to visit.

6. Jerusalem is mentioned over 700 times in Tanach, the Jewish Holy Scriptures. Jerusalem is not mentioned once in the Koran.

7. King David founded the city of Jerusalem. Mohammed never came to Jerusalem.

8. Jews pray facing Jerusalem. Muslims pray with their backs toward Jerusalem.

9. In 1948 the Arab refugees were encouraged to leave Israel by Arab leaders promising to purge the land of Jews. Sixty-eight percent left without ever seeing an Israeli soldier.

10. The Jewish refugees were forced to flee from Arab lands due to Arab brutality, persecution, and slaughter.

11. The number of Arab refugees who left Israel in 1948 is estimated to be around 630,000. The number of Jewish refugees from Arab lands is estimated to be the same.

12. Arab refugees were intentionally not absorbed or integrated into the Arab lands to which they fled, despite the vast Arab territory. Out of the 100,000,000 refugees since World War II, theirs is the only refugee group in the world that has never been absorbed or integrated into their own people's lands. Jewish refugees were completely absorbed into Israel, a country no larger than the state of New Jersey.

13. The Arabs are represented by eight separate nations, not including the Palestinians. There is only one Jewish nation. The Arab nations initiated all five wars and lost. Israel defended itself each time and won.

14. The PLO's Charter still calls for the destruction of the State of Israel. Israel has given the Palestinians most of the West Bank land, autonomy under the Palestinian Authority, and has supplied them.

15. Under Jordanian rule, Jewish holy sites were desecrated and the Jews were denied access to places of worship. Under Israeli rule, all Muslim and Christian sites have been preserved and made accessible to people of all faiths.

16. The UN Record on Israel and the Arabs: of the 175 Security Council resolutions passed before 1990, 97 were directed against Israel.

17. Of the 690 General Assembly resolutions voted on before 1990, 429 were directed against Israel.

18. The UN was silent while 58 Jerusalem Synagogues were destroyed by the Jordanians.

19. The UN was silent while the Jordanians systematically desecrated the ancient Jewish cemetery on the Mount of Olives.

20. The UN was silent while the Jordanians enforced an apartheid-like a policy of preventing Jews from visiting the Temple Mount and the Western Wall.

The hacked site bears the message: This site hacked by : EhIsR #opisrael are nothing!! Now is the time to know the truth about Israel.

EhIsR- I owe you a beer for this one.  Good job.

Youtube of the Anonymous website, taken this afternoon.