Earlier this summer, when the anti- Israel forces inexplicably crowed "victory" over preventing a Chinese freighter in Oakland harbor from unloading, they claimed that "Labor" supported BDS against Israel. And, of course, they were wrong. While some labor union members might support some aspects of the boycott, sanctions and divestment movement , many labor members in both the leadership and the rank and file were deeply embarrassed by the claims and actions done in their name.
This letter was sent to the local Consul General of Israel, Akiva Tor, on behalf of state and local labor:
Akiva Tor
Consul General
State of Israel
San Francisco, CA
Dear Mr. Consul General
I am writing you regarding the incident that took place on June 20, 2010, in which a group of anti-Israel demonstrators picketed at the Port of Oakland resulting in members of ILWU Local 10 not unloading a Zim container vessel based on an arbitrator’s determination that the picket line present a “health and safety” risk. The vessel was unloaded the next day.
We want to make it perfectly clear to you and to the people of Israel that our union is fundamentally opposed to efforts to interfere with Israeli ships or cargoes and to the larger “boycott, divestment, and sanctions” effort being directed against Israel. We repudiate such tactics as antithetical to efforts to bring about real peace in the Middle East. We believe that the proper role of the US labor movement is to support efforts to bring about a just settlement that will enable Israel, the national homeland of the Jewish people, and a future Palestinian state to live side-by-side within safe and secure borders, free from war, terrorism, and in mutual respect and recognition.
It is our understanding that anti-Israel resolutions supporting this activity were passed in the Alameda and San Francisco Labor Councils. We wish to assure you that our union was never consulted about these actions and we repudiate them.
Moreover, we are very concerned that events such as occurred June 20 could result in the diversion of freight from the Port of Oakland to the Port of Los Angeles/Lon Beach or other ports along the Pacific Coast. We represent members who provide trucking and rail services for containerized shipping leaving the Port of Oakland and we do not believe that our members’ jobs should be placed in jeopardy because of the efforts of fringe groups to demonize Israel.
We hope what occurred at Oakland will be a one-time event that will never be repeated. We will be urging our brothers and sisters to insure that this is the case.
Marty Frates Secretary-Treasurer
cc: James Hoffa, International President, IBT
Rome Aloise, President, Teamsters Joint Council 7
Randy Cammack, President, Teamsters Joint Council 42
Art Pulaski, Exec. Secretary-Treasurer , CA Labor Federation, AFL-CIO
Bob Balgenorth, President, CA State Building and Construction Trades Council
Josie Camacho, Acting Exec. Secretary-Treasurer , Alameda Labor Council
Tim Paulson, Executive Director, San Francisco Labor Council
Bob McEllrath, International President, ILWU
Richard Mead, President, ILWU Local 10
Members, Executive Committee, Alameda Labor Council
Members, Executive Committee, San Francisco Labor Council
Omar Benjamin, Executive Director, Port of Oakland
The Lesson:
When they claim "Palestinian Civil Society " supports BDS it means them and a few hundred of their friends
When they claim "Labor" supports BDS it means them and a few hundred of their friends
When they "Jews" or "Israelis" support BDS, it is as meaningless
BDS is a fringe movement organized by doctrinaire haters, desperate for any kind of "victory" in an effort to build "momentum". But with ten years of failure behind them, sometimes this means victories need to be created- literally pulled out of the magicians hat. For the rest of us, its hard to ignore the 80 billion dollar growth in Israel's GNP since the BDS movement began.
The BDs'ers, and the entire movement to deny the Jewish people the right to self determination in their ancient homeland is based the the most fragile of lies, supported by the words of Lenin “To speak the truth is a petit-bourgeois habit. To lie, on the contrary, is often justified by the lie’s aim." Nonetheless, the rest of us will continue to speak truth to power, and we'll continue to fight the good fight.
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Friday, August 20, 2010
A Tale of Two Cities: A Photo Essay
Living in the San Francisco Bay area, you are lead to believe that Israel is the root of all evil. With over 60 groups dedicated to Israel's destruction locally, and hatefests almost daily, it's not surprising many people have a skewed world view. There is an Anti Israel group for haters of all political beliefs in the bay area. Whatever flavor your pathology takes, there's an anti Israel group to fit your needs. Hate Israel because you feel it has betrayed it's socialist roots.? Try International Answer. Hate Israel because you want to see the entire Middle east as an Islamic caliphate? Al Awda's your ticket. Hate Israel because you felt mom and dad never loved you.? Try the international Jewish Anti Zionist network. Hate Israel because you're queer and reject Jewish patriarchy (but somehow embrace Islamic patriarchy?). Try QUIT. Hate Israel because all your friends do? Try Jewish voice for peace.
Are you smart enough to know you have nothing smart to say ? Then Mimes for Gaza is waiting for you!
Too dumb to know you have nothing smart to say? Code Pink just might be the right match. There is a veritable buffet of anti Israel hate clubs out there. For the rest of us, it should be reassuring to know that the Bay area is exceptional in America in it's red/green obsession with the destruction of the only democracy in the middle east
New York City might very well be the reverse of the spectrum. Even the ordinary grocery stores are full of Israeli products. You can buy your Dorot garlic without fear that it has been vandalized by some Kate Raphael wannabe. And you can buy it in both Key Food and the Supersol.
Why, yes, that is "Zohan" brand hummus in the handy squeeze bottle! Harry Potter in Hebrew? No problem. The NYC cable TV lineup includes JLTV, channel 120- a Jewish station with a strong Zionist bent. And Freedom Square Park in Queens is dedicated to Israeli Independence.
The base of this Flagpole in Freedom Square park in New York City reads "Theodore Herzl: Fighter for freedom". It is located in the Kew Gardens Hills Zionist District. And it has been there for years, without graffiti, without vandalism, without uproar. Ahavat Yisrael is so strong in some neighborhoods, that its increasingly common to find buildings faced with gleaming white Jerusalem stone.
Its easy to be a Jew, and a Zionist in New York. Much easier than here in the San Francisco Bay area, considered one of the 5 hubs of delegitimization of Israel by the Reut Institute.
Are you smart enough to know you have nothing smart to say ? Then Mimes for Gaza is waiting for you!
Too dumb to know you have nothing smart to say? Code Pink just might be the right match. There is a veritable buffet of anti Israel hate clubs out there. For the rest of us, it should be reassuring to know that the Bay area is exceptional in America in it's red/green obsession with the destruction of the only democracy in the middle east
New York City might very well be the reverse of the spectrum. Even the ordinary grocery stores are full of Israeli products. You can buy your Dorot garlic without fear that it has been vandalized by some Kate Raphael wannabe. And you can buy it in both Key Food and the Supersol.
Why, yes, that is "Zohan" brand hummus in the handy squeeze bottle! Harry Potter in Hebrew? No problem. The NYC cable TV lineup includes JLTV, channel 120- a Jewish station with a strong Zionist bent. And Freedom Square Park in Queens is dedicated to Israeli Independence.
The base of this Flagpole in Freedom Square park in New York City reads "Theodore Herzl: Fighter for freedom". It is located in the Kew Gardens Hills Zionist District. And it has been there for years, without graffiti, without vandalism, without uproar. Ahavat Yisrael is so strong in some neighborhoods, that its increasingly common to find buildings faced with gleaming white Jerusalem stone.
Its easy to be a Jew, and a Zionist in New York. Much easier than here in the San Francisco Bay area, considered one of the 5 hubs of delegitimization of Israel by the Reut Institute.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
So, Hows' that Boycott Going? The epic fail of BDS
Israeli economic growth unexpectedly accelerated to an annualized 4.7% in the second quarter of 2010, growing at its fastest pace in over than two years. The Israeli economy's rebound from the global financial crisis has been powered by exports, with sales abroad (excluding ships, aircraft and polished diamonds) increasing in July to $3.8 billion.
“This is really an economy running on all pistons,” said Jonathan Katz, a Jerusalem-based economist for HSBC Holdings Plc
How are the BDS'ers reacting? I imagine them sitting in a dark room, with their hands over their ears chanting "La. La. La. I can't hear you". A recent email sent by local Al Awda extremist Dr. Jess Ghannam showed the myopia of the BDS movement. Jess is a regular on the local anti-Israeli front, recognizable by his signature accessory , a jaunty black "Che beret." Yeah, he's like that. Jess touted some of the key successes the BDS movement has achieved, but seems to have missed what many of us have noticed- the tremendous failures and the lying, in an effort to achieve that longed for "momentum". Jess and his cohorts have always displayed wholesale disregard for standard economic indicators.
In Jess's world, JVP attempt to pressure retirement fund Tiaa Cref to divest from Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) was a success. Yet Tiaa Cref. said "No". And also in Jess-land, BDS hoaxes Hampshire college, Blackrock , even Costco no longer selling Holiday gift packs after the holiday season ended- well, to Jess, these are victories.
Dr. Ghannam, as a psychologist, what does it means when someone is so self deluded? How would you diagnose someone so far removed from reality? We want to help, Dr. Ghannam, really we do. We're Zionists and we care.
“This is really an economy running on all pistons,” said Jonathan Katz, a Jerusalem-based economist for HSBC Holdings Plc
How are the BDS'ers reacting? I imagine them sitting in a dark room, with their hands over their ears chanting "La. La. La. I can't hear you". A recent email sent by local Al Awda extremist Dr. Jess Ghannam showed the myopia of the BDS movement. Jess is a regular on the local anti-Israeli front, recognizable by his signature accessory , a jaunty black "Che beret." Yeah, he's like that. Jess touted some of the key successes the BDS movement has achieved, but seems to have missed what many of us have noticed- the tremendous failures and the lying, in an effort to achieve that longed for "momentum". Jess and his cohorts have always displayed wholesale disregard for standard economic indicators.
In Jess's world, JVP attempt to pressure retirement fund Tiaa Cref to divest from Israel Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) was a success. Yet Tiaa Cref. said "No". And also in Jess-land, BDS hoaxes Hampshire college, Blackrock , even Costco no longer selling Holiday gift packs after the holiday season ended- well, to Jess, these are victories.
Dr. Ghannam, as a psychologist, what does it means when someone is so self deluded? How would you diagnose someone so far removed from reality? We want to help, Dr. Ghannam, really we do. We're Zionists and we care.
Saturday, August 14, 2010
Zionism is Self Determination
A new article in Haaretz by Sholomo Avineri says it well:
" The essence of the Zionist revolution is the view that the Jews are a nation, and as such, they have the right to national self-determination in a political framework. This principle was accepted by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, in its decision to partition British Mandatory Palestine into two states - Jewish and Arab (not Jewish and Muslim-Christian ).
Israel views itself as a Jewish nation-state, exactly as Poland views itself as a Polish nation-state and Greece as a Greek nation-state, or as the Palestinian state, when it arises, will view itself as a Palestinian nation-state."
Avineri continues
"Anyone who rejects the Jews' right to define themselves as a nation denies them a fundamental human right, to which Jews, just like the Palestinians, are entitled. Arab refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state attests to something very deep and troubling: unwillingness to accept the Jewish people's right to self-determination. "
Zionism, love of Zion and the belief that the Jewish people have the right to self determination in their ancient homeland has been misunderstood for generations.
Yet Psalm 137, a Zionist statement was articulated thousands of years ago:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us mirth: 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'
How shall we sing the Lord'S song in a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.
The best answer to bad information is as always , good information:
Good sources of information on Zionism include:
Zionism - Definition and History
Zionism and Israel
Zionism and Israel on the Web
Zionism: a definition
" The essence of the Zionist revolution is the view that the Jews are a nation, and as such, they have the right to national self-determination in a political framework. This principle was accepted by the United Nations on November 29, 1947, in its decision to partition British Mandatory Palestine into two states - Jewish and Arab (not Jewish and Muslim-Christian ).
Israel views itself as a Jewish nation-state, exactly as Poland views itself as a Polish nation-state and Greece as a Greek nation-state, or as the Palestinian state, when it arises, will view itself as a Palestinian nation-state."
Avineri continues
"Anyone who rejects the Jews' right to define themselves as a nation denies them a fundamental human right, to which Jews, just like the Palestinians, are entitled. Arab refusal to accept Israel as a Jewish state attests to something very deep and troubling: unwillingness to accept the Jewish people's right to self-determination. "
Zionism, love of Zion and the belief that the Jewish people have the right to self determination in their ancient homeland has been misunderstood for generations.
Yet Psalm 137, a Zionist statement was articulated thousands of years ago:
By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion.
Upon the willows in the midst thereof we hanged up our harps.
For there they that led us captive asked of us words of song, and our tormentors asked of us mirth: 'Sing us one of the songs of Zion.'
How shall we sing the Lord'S song in a foreign land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget her cunning.
Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth, if I remember thee not; if I set not Jerusalem above my chiefest joy.
The best answer to bad information is as always , good information:
Good sources of information on Zionism include:
Zionism - Definition and History
Zionism and Israel
Zionism and Israel on the Web
Zionism: a definition
Thursday, August 12, 2010
New Seasons in Portland: The latest BDS victim
Jon at Divest this has pointed out the predictable misfortune that befalls any institution dragged down the path of BDS. The latest victim targeted appears to be the New Seasons chain in Portland, Oregon, who really are just "trying to mind our own(local )business."
New Seasons, here's what you can expect during the coming weeks, courtesy of "Divest this" (italic comments mine....)
1. A divestment resolution is brought before a representative body of a large respected institution (such as the Berkeley Student Senate, the Aldermen of the City of Somerville, or the professional leadership of the Presbyterian Church) by a group of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists. (or in this case, your grocery store)
2. Because most members (and leaders) of the BDS group come from outside the community being asked to divest, local activists are given a high profile to make the divestment action seem as though it is welling up from the community itself. (The boycott petition is being circulated worldwide. do you really think that someone in the UAE has the right to tell local shoppers what they can and can't buy?)
3. Discussions of divestment are carried out behind closed doors or are rushed in hope that a divestment vote can be taken before the wider community becomes aware of what is being voted on in their name.
4. At some point, word gets out regarding what is happening and a controversy, often leading to a last-minute public hearing, ensues.
5. At the hearing, BDS activists do what they do best: zeroing in on a few, emotionally charged issues (the suffering of Palestinian Arabs, complete with bloody photographs), the flushing of alternative facts and history down the memory hole, and demands that support for BDS is the only democratic and moral choice for the institution considering divestment.
6. Hastily organized opponents of the measure do their best to publicly respond, although their messages tend to be all over the map (refutation of the other side’s facts, history lessons, passionate condemnations of the divestment resolution as unfair, etc.)
7. The body considering divestment either votes it down immediately (in which case, skip to step 12) or passes it.
8. If passed, word immediately goes out on a hundred Web sites, 200 blogs and 500 Facebook pages that the institution is now in full agreement with the real message of divestment advocates: that Israel is an Apartheid state alone in the world deserving economic punishment. (if it fails, like the Davis Co-op, the Berkeley Bowl, or Trader Joes, no one hears another word about it ever again)
9. People in the community wake up one morning to discover that a tiny minority has handed the reputation of the institution over to a single-issue, partisan group that is now leveraging their name for their own narrow political ends.
10. Outrage ensues, both from inside the community (which was never consulted before their representatives signed the institution up to join the BDS bandwagon) and externally.
11. Responding to the outrage, and appalled at how the decision is being portrayed publically (despite assurances by BDS advocates that a divestment vote was a simple, uncontroversial human rights matter), the institution finds a way to vote down or otherwide undo the hasty, controversial decision.
12. The BDSers howl at their reversal of fortune, throwing a public tantrum if divestment is voted down at a public hearing, and impotently threatening electoral revenge against those who decided the reputation of the organization should not be handed over to divestment crew, just because they demand it.
13. Because of divestment’s short-lived success, the institution is falsely listed as a divestment supporter for months or years to come in hope that other organizations will follow this now-pretend example.
14. Despite their threats, the BDSers move on, leaving the local leaders alone to deal with the bitterness and wreckage this entire incident has caused.
15. Wash, rinse, repeat at the next institution.
Whats a community to do, when a local institution such as New Seasons is hijacked by a few for their political gain? In this case, resistance is often fertile. According to the anti-Israel petitioners, ENER-G wheat free crackers, MANISHEVITZ memorial candles, KEDEM tea biscuits, TELMA broth cubes, OSEM falafel mix, OSEM couscous, FRONTIER bulk dill weed, and FRONTIER bulk citric acid from Israel are all sold at New Seasons. Its time for another BUYCOTT! Go to the stores. Buy these products, and thank the manger for continuing to carry them. And tell your friends to do the same.
New Seasons, here's what you can expect during the coming weeks, courtesy of "Divest this" (italic comments mine....)
1. A divestment resolution is brought before a representative body of a large respected institution (such as the Berkeley Student Senate, the Aldermen of the City of Somerville, or the professional leadership of the Presbyterian Church) by a group of Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) activists. (or in this case, your grocery store)
2. Because most members (and leaders) of the BDS group come from outside the community being asked to divest, local activists are given a high profile to make the divestment action seem as though it is welling up from the community itself. (The boycott petition is being circulated worldwide. do you really think that someone in the UAE has the right to tell local shoppers what they can and can't buy?)
3. Discussions of divestment are carried out behind closed doors or are rushed in hope that a divestment vote can be taken before the wider community becomes aware of what is being voted on in their name.
4. At some point, word gets out regarding what is happening and a controversy, often leading to a last-minute public hearing, ensues.
5. At the hearing, BDS activists do what they do best: zeroing in on a few, emotionally charged issues (the suffering of Palestinian Arabs, complete with bloody photographs), the flushing of alternative facts and history down the memory hole, and demands that support for BDS is the only democratic and moral choice for the institution considering divestment.
6. Hastily organized opponents of the measure do their best to publicly respond, although their messages tend to be all over the map (refutation of the other side’s facts, history lessons, passionate condemnations of the divestment resolution as unfair, etc.)
7. The body considering divestment either votes it down immediately (in which case, skip to step 12) or passes it.
8. If passed, word immediately goes out on a hundred Web sites, 200 blogs and 500 Facebook pages that the institution is now in full agreement with the real message of divestment advocates: that Israel is an Apartheid state alone in the world deserving economic punishment. (if it fails, like the Davis Co-op, the Berkeley Bowl, or Trader Joes, no one hears another word about it ever again)
9. People in the community wake up one morning to discover that a tiny minority has handed the reputation of the institution over to a single-issue, partisan group that is now leveraging their name for their own narrow political ends.
10. Outrage ensues, both from inside the community (which was never consulted before their representatives signed the institution up to join the BDS bandwagon) and externally.
11. Responding to the outrage, and appalled at how the decision is being portrayed publically (despite assurances by BDS advocates that a divestment vote was a simple, uncontroversial human rights matter), the institution finds a way to vote down or otherwide undo the hasty, controversial decision.
12. The BDSers howl at their reversal of fortune, throwing a public tantrum if divestment is voted down at a public hearing, and impotently threatening electoral revenge against those who decided the reputation of the organization should not be handed over to divestment crew, just because they demand it.
13. Because of divestment’s short-lived success, the institution is falsely listed as a divestment supporter for months or years to come in hope that other organizations will follow this now-pretend example.
14. Despite their threats, the BDSers move on, leaving the local leaders alone to deal with the bitterness and wreckage this entire incident has caused.
15. Wash, rinse, repeat at the next institution.
Whats a community to do, when a local institution such as New Seasons is hijacked by a few for their political gain? In this case, resistance is often fertile. According to the anti-Israel petitioners, ENER-G wheat free crackers, MANISHEVITZ memorial candles, KEDEM tea biscuits, TELMA broth cubes, OSEM falafel mix, OSEM couscous, FRONTIER bulk dill weed, and FRONTIER bulk citric acid from Israel are all sold at New Seasons. Its time for another BUYCOTT! Go to the stores. Buy these products, and thank the manger for continuing to carry them. And tell your friends to do the same.
Wednesday, August 11, 2010
WAR DRUMS ARE BOOMING
Lebanon rejects US concerns over military help
BEIRUT — Lebanon's defense minister says he would reject any American military assistance to the Lebanese army if it comes with conditions that the weapons not be used against Israel.
Elias Murr was commenting Wednesday on a decision by a U.S. congressman to suspend $100 million of aid over concerns the weapons could be turned on Israel and that Hezbollah may have influence over the Lebanese army.
Iran plans help to Lebanon army, as U.S. blocks aid
Iran has offered support to Lebanon's army, a week after a deadly cross-border clash between Lebanon and Israel which prompted U.S. lawmakers to block funding to the Lebanese military.
The offer from Iran, which supports Lebanon's militant Shi'ite group Hezbollah, could fuel Western concern that Tehran is increasing its influence near Israel's northern border.
Lebanon charges politician with spying for Israel
A Lebanese military prosecutor charged on Tuesday a Christian party member who was formerly an army general with spying for Israel, the first politician to be charged in a widening espionage case.
Judge Sakr Sakr accused Fayez Karam of the Free Patriotic Movement of dealing with "the enemy's intelligence and meeting their officers abroad, and giving them information by phone", according to the charge sheet.
Karam, who belonged to the movement headed by Michel Aoun, a former army chief now allied to the Iranian-backed Hezbollah group, was also charged with providing Israel with information on the Free Patriotic Movement, Hezbollah and other parties.
BDS is Not About Peace
The prestigious online journal "Words without Borders" has launched a new project entitled "Cross-Cultural- Dialogues in the Middle East” The dialog was begun by Azareen Van der Vliet Oloomi, of Iranian Muslim background, and Chana Morgenstern, an Israeli fiction writer, who met as graduate students at Brown University in the United States.
Azareen writes: “We quickly developed a dialogue about literature’s potential to provide a space for confronting some of the more challenging questions of identity and politics that define the contemporary Middle East.”
Now in Jerusalem, the pair found themselves “ engaged in a boisterous literary conversation with Israeli and Palestinian writers and artists who come from a variety of religious backgrounds. Over the next few months we will be presenting a series of interviews and articles that explore Jewish and Arab relations within Israel and the Palestinian Territories as well as the larger Middle East. One of the guiding questions of this series will be whether or not literature and film can offer a fertile space for cross-cultural and religious dialogue in the region. The series, as we foresee it, will cover emerging guerilla poetry movements, collaborations between Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals and writers, interviews with international and local film makers, reviews of the Jerusalem Film Festival, as well as an overview of various grassroots cultural organizations in the West Bank.”
This is good news, right? Open dialog, mutual respect, cross cultural communicative are truly a path to peace. No. Things are never that easy in the Middle East. Instead, Morgenstern and Van der Vliet Oloomi’s project has been condemned by BDS proponents.
According to an editorial in the Electronic Intifada (forgive me if I don’t link to it) written by Associate professor of Cultural Studies at Gaza's Al-Aqsa University Haidar Eid on August 9 2010 :
“Indeed, the guidelines issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), explicitly warn against events or projects that promote "false symmetry or balance." All "events and projects that bring Palestinians and/or Arabs and Israelis together, unless framed within the explicit context of opposition to occupation and other forms of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, are strong candidates for boycott" .
Yes. Projects that promote peace, dialog and co-existence, unless they meet the litmus test of political correctness are candidates for boycott. And the test remains (I’m paraphrasing) "Is Israel blamed exclusively and unilaterally for all the problems in the region? Are the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole exonerated from any responsibility at all in contributing to the peace process? "
According to the EI, “Indeed, the choice is clear to the vast majority of Palestinians, and intellectuals must recognize that true "cross-cultural dialogue" is impossible when one voice is being stifled, silenced and erased by another. “ And that , Prof Eid, is exactly what the BDS movement is doing to the peace process.
The movement towards Boycotts, Divestment and sanctions (BDS)is not about promoting peace. It is about demonizing Israel. Real peace activists know that the path to peace is more dialog, more interactions, and closer political, cultural and economic relationship.
Azareen writes: “We quickly developed a dialogue about literature’s potential to provide a space for confronting some of the more challenging questions of identity and politics that define the contemporary Middle East.”
Now in Jerusalem, the pair found themselves “ engaged in a boisterous literary conversation with Israeli and Palestinian writers and artists who come from a variety of religious backgrounds. Over the next few months we will be presenting a series of interviews and articles that explore Jewish and Arab relations within Israel and the Palestinian Territories as well as the larger Middle East. One of the guiding questions of this series will be whether or not literature and film can offer a fertile space for cross-cultural and religious dialogue in the region. The series, as we foresee it, will cover emerging guerilla poetry movements, collaborations between Israeli and Palestinian intellectuals and writers, interviews with international and local film makers, reviews of the Jerusalem Film Festival, as well as an overview of various grassroots cultural organizations in the West Bank.”
This is good news, right? Open dialog, mutual respect, cross cultural communicative are truly a path to peace. No. Things are never that easy in the Middle East. Instead, Morgenstern and Van der Vliet Oloomi’s project has been condemned by BDS proponents.
According to an editorial in the Electronic Intifada (forgive me if I don’t link to it) written by Associate professor of Cultural Studies at Gaza's Al-Aqsa University Haidar Eid on August 9 2010 :
“Indeed, the guidelines issued by the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI), explicitly warn against events or projects that promote "false symmetry or balance." All "events and projects that bring Palestinians and/or Arabs and Israelis together, unless framed within the explicit context of opposition to occupation and other forms of Israeli oppression of the Palestinians, are strong candidates for boycott" .
Yes. Projects that promote peace, dialog and co-existence, unless they meet the litmus test of political correctness are candidates for boycott. And the test remains (I’m paraphrasing) "Is Israel blamed exclusively and unilaterally for all the problems in the region? Are the Palestinians and the Arab world as a whole exonerated from any responsibility at all in contributing to the peace process? "
According to the EI, “Indeed, the choice is clear to the vast majority of Palestinians, and intellectuals must recognize that true "cross-cultural dialogue" is impossible when one voice is being stifled, silenced and erased by another. “ And that , Prof Eid, is exactly what the BDS movement is doing to the peace process.
The movement towards Boycotts, Divestment and sanctions (BDS)is not about promoting peace. It is about demonizing Israel. Real peace activists know that the path to peace is more dialog, more interactions, and closer political, cultural and economic relationship.
Sunday, August 8, 2010
A Star is born: Will an African American convert become the next "Israeli Idol"?
Barry Rubin writes:
"Among the scores of ridiculous things said, thought, and written about the Arab-Israeli conflict, the pretense that it has something to do with "race" ranks high among them.
As the waitress whose family had come from Ethiopia put the pizza on the table at the Tel Aviv restaurant, I contemplated the ridiculous misuse of "race" as a factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Regardless of skin color, we belong not only to the same country by way of citizenship but also to the same nation and people in a very profound way that isn't true for countries that are merely geographical entities. "
The conflict in the middle east has never been about "race", though the green/red alliance locally attempts to paint it as a conflict between brown and white; between "colonialist" and "indigenous".
34-year-old African-American Nikia Brown’s story, one of thousands,yet one of a kind, makes this clear.
Nikia Brown is a 34 year old African American woman, from Kansas City, Missouri. Nikia and her family converted to Judaism three years ago. “We were searching for something, and we ended up going to synagogue services once,” said Brown. “Then the more we learned about Judaism, the more we fell in love with it. It comes from someplace deep in our hearts." Nikia, her husband and their daughter visited Israel and fell in love with the land and people, and decided to make aliyah.
Brown spoke limited Hebrew when she decided try out for the Kochav Nolad ("A Star is Born),the Israeli "American Idol". The judges, including Dana International and Pablo Rosenberg, loved her voice. She is now one the 18 finalists in the eighth season of the singing competition series.
Its lovely to see how the Israeli community has rallied around Nikia and her family. Yoel and Orly Ganor, the directors of Ulpan Or have volunteered their services to for Nikia, to help her master the nuances of hebrew that she will need to win the competition. We all wish her the best of luck. Yascher Koach, Nikia!
Read more here
"Among the scores of ridiculous things said, thought, and written about the Arab-Israeli conflict, the pretense that it has something to do with "race" ranks high among them.
As the waitress whose family had come from Ethiopia put the pizza on the table at the Tel Aviv restaurant, I contemplated the ridiculous misuse of "race" as a factor in the Arab-Israeli conflict. Regardless of skin color, we belong not only to the same country by way of citizenship but also to the same nation and people in a very profound way that isn't true for countries that are merely geographical entities. "
The conflict in the middle east has never been about "race", though the green/red alliance locally attempts to paint it as a conflict between brown and white; between "colonialist" and "indigenous".
34-year-old African-American Nikia Brown’s story, one of thousands,yet one of a kind, makes this clear.Nikia Brown is a 34 year old African American woman, from Kansas City, Missouri. Nikia and her family converted to Judaism three years ago. “We were searching for something, and we ended up going to synagogue services once,” said Brown. “Then the more we learned about Judaism, the more we fell in love with it. It comes from someplace deep in our hearts." Nikia, her husband and their daughter visited Israel and fell in love with the land and people, and decided to make aliyah.
Brown spoke limited Hebrew when she decided try out for the Kochav Nolad ("A Star is Born),the Israeli "American Idol". The judges, including Dana International and Pablo Rosenberg, loved her voice. She is now one the 18 finalists in the eighth season of the singing competition series.
Its lovely to see how the Israeli community has rallied around Nikia and her family. Yoel and Orly Ganor, the directors of Ulpan Or have volunteered their services to for Nikia, to help her master the nuances of hebrew that she will need to win the competition. We all wish her the best of luck. Yascher Koach, Nikia!
Read more here
Boycott Divestment Sanction Israel : great youtube from Stand With Us
Interesting how activists that genuinely seek peace and mutual cooperation are threatened and ostracized by those seeking Israel's destruction, and how moderates on both sides have become the real victims of the self labeled "progressive" BDS movement.
Wednesday, July 28, 2010
Husam and Lily, Together At Last
Picture from, "Staff & Collective" at AROC.
Lily Haskell is located on the far left. She actually looks happy.
Lily Haskell, Program Director
Lily Haskell is a Moroccan American activist who has been working with AROC since 2007. She has previously interned with the National Lawyers Guild San Francisco Chapter, and worked with several youth development organizations: Telegraph Hill Neighborhood Center, Girls Inc of Alameda County, and Diversity Works. As a volunteer, she currently also organizes with Break the Siege. Previously, Lily has contributed and led Arab organizing and educational initiatives through cultural and political work, as well as anti-war organizing. Lily graduated from Wesleyan University with a Bachelors Degree in Sociology.
Husam Zakharia is located on the far right, a smug look with eyes closed.
Husam Zakharia, Legal and Outreach Coordinator
Husam Zakharia began working for the Arab Resource and Organizing Center in 2009. He has volunteered time to the organization before working, with ADC-SF and AROC on and off for four years, and has been on the board organizing at UC Berkeley for Students for Justice in Palestine. He has also assisted in coordinating university-wide elections for UC Berkeley's Associated Students of the University of California and has won campaigns for CalSERVE (Cal Students for Equal Rights and a Valid Education). Husam is a co-owner and operator of the Berkeley Free Clinic and currently volunteers his time as a lay health care worker treating acute illnesses in the East Bay. He has a degree from the University of California Berkeley majoring in Near Eastern Studies, with an emphasis in Arabic Language and Literature.
Both of them are cretins. Anti-semitic and proud of it. Haters of the Jewish community. They freely associate with other anti-semites and groups that seek the destruction of Israel, the slaughter of Jews, and the demonization and deligitimization of the Land of Israel with the use of lies and half-truths.
Lily Haskell.
She is a member of AROC, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, as well as a former intern of the National Lawyers Guild/San Francisco. On December 9, 2008, at an anti-Israel rally, with use of a bullhorn, Lily led this vile chant:
"Israel Supporters watch your backs, or we'll push you down a shaft!"
This was said in response to the untimely demise of our brother Dan Kliman who just recently had fallen to his death in an elevator shaft.
Three of us heard this loud and clear. This vile woman, Lily Haskell, entertained no moral qualms whatsoever, took no issue with issuing a threat in public, in front of police and bystanders, knowing full well that only we would understand its meaning. Her evil behavior will not be forgotten.
Husam Zakharia. Also a member of AROC, and another cretin. An anti-semite who recently assaulted a young Jewish woman on UC Berkeley Campus.
The assault and battery even made the news in Arutz Sheva:
Anti-Israel Activist Attacks Jewish Girl on Campus
So, Lily and Husam are indeed together at last. Now we know where Husam gets his paycheck that allows him to take one class at UCB in order to maintain a presence there. Our eyes are on you Husam, you asshole. As for you Lily, let go of the hate, let go of the hate.
Tuesday, July 27, 2010
Ahava Sales Skyrocket in Maryland: When we fight back we win
When the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Washington found out that the pro-Palestinian group Sabeel DC had organized a protest and boycott call at Ulta in Silver Spring, Maryland last Saturday, the organization sent out an action alert urging supporters to visit the store and buy Ahava.
The store completely sold out of Ahava products.
“They cleaned the shelves out. It was the best Ahava sales weekend the store has ever seen. They had to order an expedited shipment” afterward, said Arielle Farber, director of Israel and International Affairs for the Community Relations Council. “The greater Washington community is not going to stand for this campaign to delegitimize Israel."....
Carrie Lannon, Ulta’s director of public relations, said in a statement that “Ulta selects the products that its stores carry based strictly on products’ sales and customer interest. Ulta does not take a position on or get involved with politically charged issues in relation to the merchandise that it offers in its stores.”
Read the full story here:
The moral, folks? When we fight back we win.
Here's how to help:
sign up here
http://www.buycottisrael.ca/form.php
Do you support Israel? Are you fed up with calls to boycott Israeli goods and services? Want to do something about it? NOW YOU CAN. Sign up for BUYCOTT ALERTS today.
They'll alert you when a boycott initiative needs to be countered, and we'll let you know the results of every BUYCOTT action.
The store completely sold out of Ahava products.
“They cleaned the shelves out. It was the best Ahava sales weekend the store has ever seen. They had to order an expedited shipment” afterward, said Arielle Farber, director of Israel and International Affairs for the Community Relations Council. “The greater Washington community is not going to stand for this campaign to delegitimize Israel."....
Carrie Lannon, Ulta’s director of public relations, said in a statement that “Ulta selects the products that its stores carry based strictly on products’ sales and customer interest. Ulta does not take a position on or get involved with politically charged issues in relation to the merchandise that it offers in its stores.”
Read the full story here:
The moral, folks? When we fight back we win.
Here's how to help:
sign up here
http://www.buycottisrael.ca/form.php
Do you support Israel? Are you fed up with calls to boycott Israeli goods and services? Want to do something about it? NOW YOU CAN. Sign up for BUYCOTT ALERTS today.
They'll alert you when a boycott initiative needs to be countered, and we'll let you know the results of every BUYCOTT action.
Friday, July 23, 2010
I Am Trying So Hard To Have Patience With Bad History
Alice Walker is trying my last nerve one more time. You may recall that Alice has popped up in this blog in the past, speculating that Israeli sandals are made with prison labor and exchanging racist blessings with little old ladies.
Well, now she's written an introduction to Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation by Saree Makdisi. I will probably never read this book--I imagine that fairly few people will read this book--but the introduction is so very special that I have to share a few passages with you.
Alice begins with what has become a fairly common theme in her writings about Israelis and Palestinians, the analogy that she draws between her childhood in the racist American South, and the situation of the Palestinians. She continues:
After four hundred years of enslavement followed by over a century of brutal harassment and soul thrashing by white supremacists who had all along wanted only our labor or our land (when we, African or Native American people, possessed land) this internalized self-hatred kept people of color in the United States timid and bowed down with feelings of unworthiness and shame. Like the Palestinians of the last Sixty years, since the coming of European Jews to settle in Palestine after Hitler and the Holocaust in the Thirties and Forties, or like the indigenous people of South Africa (or Africa in general) my people (African, Native American and Poor European) could not fathom, for the longest time, what had hit them. After all, who could imagine it?
Please note, once again, that for Alice, Jews living in what is now Israel before the 1930s simply do not exist, despite the fact that in 1914, say, Jews were 7.6% of the population of Palestine, and in 1922, it was over 11%. Once again, also, for Alice, Jews are 'Europeans'. The thought of proud Sephardi families tracing their lineage in Jerusalem back dozens of generations, or of Jews from North Africa and points farther east made refugees from Arab countries simply does not exist in the hypnotic historical fantasy she's engaging in here.
There you are sitting by your own fire, living peacefully with your family and clan, never having harmed anyone (for the most part), praising and worshiping your own peculiar god. In come a trickle, and then a flood of strangers. First, you feed them, offer them a seat by your fire. Let them admire your little ones. Perhaps you generously teach them how to plant whatever grows around your compound. Perhaps you give them a turkey to keep them from starving in what they persist in calling “the wilderness.” Perhaps you lend them a starter set of goats. Living in the lap of generous nature, speaking generally, there is a certain kind of greed and stinginess that is quite beyond your understanding.
And here comes the next part of the fantasy...the simple, tribal, bucolic life assumed to have happened in Palestine before the nasty (not even Poor) European Jews showed up. I think what Alice is presenting here is loosely based on the Thanksgiving story we were taught as children--if she mentioned teaching the Yahud to plant fish in the corn hills, I could be sure--but it does seem to leave out the complex history of the region, in favor of a sort of general sentimentalized fantasy about simple tribal life.
In contrast to that simple, honorable life, of course, is the 'greed and stinginess' of the European Jew, quite beyond the understanding of the innocent and naive Palestinians. Greedy, greedy Jews. Enough said.
And of course, missing from Alice's patronizing portrayal of happy rural Arabs is any understanding that these simple country folk know what Jews are. They have a long history with them. They've banned them from holy sites of their own faith, for example, and occasionally massacred them. Alice refers a few passages back to "being black and living in the United States under American style apartheid. The daily insults to one’s sense of being human. Not just the separate toilets and water fountains with their blatantly unequal lettering and quality of paint, but the apparent determination of the white population, every moment, at every turn, to remind any person of color, no matter how well spoken or well dressed, or how well educated or in what position of authority in the black community, that they were niggers, objects of ridicule, contempt, and possible violent abuse." Yes. That's what it was like to live as a Jew in the Arab world, Alice.
I'm reminded of a seder where I listened as a man told his daughters about growing up Jewish in Baghdad. "We had good friends who weren't Jewish," he said, "but you had to remember all the time that anything could happen." Then he told a story about walking to school while boys threw stones at him and called him a Jew.
But I digress, I digress from Alice's happy ahistorical history of the European Jewish Conquest of the Palestinian Tribal Lands. Let's look at the next paragraph.
Way back in Europe, though, your “guests” have come up with a plan to assuage their hunger for more: more land, more money, more crops, more food, more things to buy and sell, and drawn maps that have your “territory” on it like a large pie, and they are busy dividing up slices of it. You, sitting by your fire, your little ones clamoring for a bedtime story or another mango, date, olive or fig, are not on the map at all.
At this point, please notice, Hitler, who's been so far presumed to be these folks' reason for being here just vanishes, and the Jews morph into full-fledged European imperialist invaders. Please note, also, that I am not actually sure that mangoes were grown in Mandate Palestine. I could be wrong, and Israel does grow mangoes for export now. And this is a dumb thing to focus on. But I'm not sure about the mangoes.
Coming back to your fire, the strangers smile at you, learn your language, as if respecting it, admire your culture. But you notice they’ve brought strange gadgets that they use to measure things. At first you and your neighbors laugh: these crazy people, you say to each other, why, they would measure even the sky! But soon you do not laugh, because they have measured a road that goes right through your living room. They have destroyed all the villages on one side of yours, already. You did not know, because you couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing, and besides, you do not understand their language, though they, many of them now, certainly understand yours. Why should you learn the language of your guests, you think.For a long time it doesn’t make sense to make the effort. And when you begin to understand that your guests are your enemies, it seems horrible to you to try to learn to speak their wicked tongue.
I'm deeply intrigued by the way the whole Israeli War of Independence, especially the part where five peaceful, rustic, innocent Arab nations rolled tanks into the fledgling State of Israel, appears to simply not exist in Alice's narrative.
I'm equally impressed at her portrayal of mid-twentieth-century Palestinians as having, apparently, never seen 'measuring gadgets' before.
But mostly I'm appalled. This woman either knows nothing of the history of this conflict she opines so freely on, or she's lying about it to appeal to a certain audience, and either is shocking. Alice Walker's version of the origins of the Israeli/Palestinian struggle is historically false, bigoted against both Jews and Arabs, and based on a twee, prepackaged narrative of the invasion of indigenous lands. Epic fail.
Well, now she's written an introduction to Palestine Inside Out: An Everyday Occupation by Saree Makdisi. I will probably never read this book--I imagine that fairly few people will read this book--but the introduction is so very special that I have to share a few passages with you.
Alice begins with what has become a fairly common theme in her writings about Israelis and Palestinians, the analogy that she draws between her childhood in the racist American South, and the situation of the Palestinians. She continues:
After four hundred years of enslavement followed by over a century of brutal harassment and soul thrashing by white supremacists who had all along wanted only our labor or our land (when we, African or Native American people, possessed land) this internalized self-hatred kept people of color in the United States timid and bowed down with feelings of unworthiness and shame. Like the Palestinians of the last Sixty years, since the coming of European Jews to settle in Palestine after Hitler and the Holocaust in the Thirties and Forties, or like the indigenous people of South Africa (or Africa in general) my people (African, Native American and Poor European) could not fathom, for the longest time, what had hit them. After all, who could imagine it?
Please note, once again, that for Alice, Jews living in what is now Israel before the 1930s simply do not exist, despite the fact that in 1914, say, Jews were 7.6% of the population of Palestine, and in 1922, it was over 11%. Once again, also, for Alice, Jews are 'Europeans'. The thought of proud Sephardi families tracing their lineage in Jerusalem back dozens of generations, or of Jews from North Africa and points farther east made refugees from Arab countries simply does not exist in the hypnotic historical fantasy she's engaging in here.
There you are sitting by your own fire, living peacefully with your family and clan, never having harmed anyone (for the most part), praising and worshiping your own peculiar god. In come a trickle, and then a flood of strangers. First, you feed them, offer them a seat by your fire. Let them admire your little ones. Perhaps you generously teach them how to plant whatever grows around your compound. Perhaps you give them a turkey to keep them from starving in what they persist in calling “the wilderness.” Perhaps you lend them a starter set of goats. Living in the lap of generous nature, speaking generally, there is a certain kind of greed and stinginess that is quite beyond your understanding.
And here comes the next part of the fantasy...the simple, tribal, bucolic life assumed to have happened in Palestine before the nasty (not even Poor) European Jews showed up. I think what Alice is presenting here is loosely based on the Thanksgiving story we were taught as children--if she mentioned teaching the Yahud to plant fish in the corn hills, I could be sure--but it does seem to leave out the complex history of the region, in favor of a sort of general sentimentalized fantasy about simple tribal life.
In contrast to that simple, honorable life, of course, is the 'greed and stinginess' of the European Jew, quite beyond the understanding of the innocent and naive Palestinians. Greedy, greedy Jews. Enough said.
And of course, missing from Alice's patronizing portrayal of happy rural Arabs is any understanding that these simple country folk know what Jews are. They have a long history with them. They've banned them from holy sites of their own faith, for example, and occasionally massacred them. Alice refers a few passages back to "being black and living in the United States under American style apartheid. The daily insults to one’s sense of being human. Not just the separate toilets and water fountains with their blatantly unequal lettering and quality of paint, but the apparent determination of the white population, every moment, at every turn, to remind any person of color, no matter how well spoken or well dressed, or how well educated or in what position of authority in the black community, that they were niggers, objects of ridicule, contempt, and possible violent abuse." Yes. That's what it was like to live as a Jew in the Arab world, Alice.
I'm reminded of a seder where I listened as a man told his daughters about growing up Jewish in Baghdad. "We had good friends who weren't Jewish," he said, "but you had to remember all the time that anything could happen." Then he told a story about walking to school while boys threw stones at him and called him a Jew.
But I digress, I digress from Alice's happy ahistorical history of the European Jewish Conquest of the Palestinian Tribal Lands. Let's look at the next paragraph.
Way back in Europe, though, your “guests” have come up with a plan to assuage their hunger for more: more land, more money, more crops, more food, more things to buy and sell, and drawn maps that have your “territory” on it like a large pie, and they are busy dividing up slices of it. You, sitting by your fire, your little ones clamoring for a bedtime story or another mango, date, olive or fig, are not on the map at all.
At this point, please notice, Hitler, who's been so far presumed to be these folks' reason for being here just vanishes, and the Jews morph into full-fledged European imperialist invaders. Please note, also, that I am not actually sure that mangoes were grown in Mandate Palestine. I could be wrong, and Israel does grow mangoes for export now. And this is a dumb thing to focus on. But I'm not sure about the mangoes.
Coming back to your fire, the strangers smile at you, learn your language, as if respecting it, admire your culture. But you notice they’ve brought strange gadgets that they use to measure things. At first you and your neighbors laugh: these crazy people, you say to each other, why, they would measure even the sky! But soon you do not laugh, because they have measured a road that goes right through your living room. They have destroyed all the villages on one side of yours, already. You did not know, because you couldn’t imagine anyone doing such a thing, and besides, you do not understand their language, though they, many of them now, certainly understand yours. Why should you learn the language of your guests, you think.For a long time it doesn’t make sense to make the effort. And when you begin to understand that your guests are your enemies, it seems horrible to you to try to learn to speak their wicked tongue.
I'm deeply intrigued by the way the whole Israeli War of Independence, especially the part where five peaceful, rustic, innocent Arab nations rolled tanks into the fledgling State of Israel, appears to simply not exist in Alice's narrative.
I'm equally impressed at her portrayal of mid-twentieth-century Palestinians as having, apparently, never seen 'measuring gadgets' before.
But mostly I'm appalled. This woman either knows nothing of the history of this conflict she opines so freely on, or she's lying about it to appeal to a certain audience, and either is shocking. Alice Walker's version of the origins of the Israeli/Palestinian struggle is historically false, bigoted against both Jews and Arabs, and based on a twee, prepackaged narrative of the invasion of indigenous lands. Epic fail.
Sunday, July 18, 2010
Shop Gaza!
After eating at Roots, and sleeping in luxurious comfort at the Gaza Commodore, what does the typical Gaza tourist want to do? They want to shop! And now, all their shopping dreams have come true, with the opening of the Gaza Mall
According to the Gaza mall website and the wonders of Google translate:
"The Gaza Center for shopping the first shopping mall in the Gaza Strip is owned by a group of partners, investors, and consists of the Mall of two levels: the ground is a fast-food restaurant and hypermarket has all the needs of the family and institutions, while the upper floor is dedicated to clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, children's games." (Yes, what comes to my mind, too is "just like the Warsaw ghetto")
The Gaza Mall, which was officially opened on Saturday, is the first mall in the Gaza Strip to be opened since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
According to the Gaza mall website and the wonders of Google translate:
"The Gaza Center for shopping the first shopping mall in the Gaza Strip is owned by a group of partners, investors, and consists of the Mall of two levels: the ground is a fast-food restaurant and hypermarket has all the needs of the family and institutions, while the upper floor is dedicated to clothes, shoes, accessories, jewelry, children's games." (Yes, what comes to my mind, too is "just like the Warsaw ghetto")
The Gaza Mall, which was officially opened on Saturday, is the first mall in the Gaza Strip to be opened since Hamas took control of Gaza in 2007.
Friday, July 16, 2010
Demonizing Israel for love or money
Its been obvious for some time that the Internet is one of the main fronts in the battle for hearts and minds in the war in the Middle East. Qatar believed in the power of the web so strongly, they hired a large public relations firm, Fenton Communications to advocate on line for Hamas, er...Gaza...
According to an article by Ken Timmerman, Qatar hired the public relations firm to
• Train a spokesman for the group and provide “leadership development curriculum for student leaders”
• Conduct “spokesperson training sessions” for student leaders
• Monitor social networking and mainstream media outlets and blogs
• Develop press materials and “pitch stories to university and mainstream press”
• Train students how to research, compose, and produce propaganda clips
• Conduct outreach “to potential political partners in the United States”the cash from Qatar bought a sophisticated U.S. media campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion to generate support for the Hamas-led government and the people of the Gaza strip.
After Fenton communication registered as a foreign agent the story was exposed, and they dropped the account like a hot potato.
Don't despair, children. Even if you don't have the power, backing and funding of a Middle eastern emirate behind you, there are still ways you can demonize Israel via the net.
h/t fatima
Yes, you too can troll the Internet, demonizing Israel in your spare time. The volunteers trained by MAS will act and speak as ordinary net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal. They work around the clock writing anti-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Sign up as a "virtual volunteer" for the Muslim American Society, and they'll show you how.
According to an article by Ken Timmerman, Qatar hired the public relations firm to
• Train a spokesman for the group and provide “leadership development curriculum for student leaders”
• Conduct “spokesperson training sessions” for student leaders
• Monitor social networking and mainstream media outlets and blogs
• Develop press materials and “pitch stories to university and mainstream press”
• Train students how to research, compose, and produce propaganda clips
• Conduct outreach “to potential political partners in the United States”the cash from Qatar bought a sophisticated U.S. media campaign aimed at manipulating public opinion to generate support for the Hamas-led government and the people of the Gaza strip.
After Fenton communication registered as a foreign agent the story was exposed, and they dropped the account like a hot potato.
Don't despair, children. Even if you don't have the power, backing and funding of a Middle eastern emirate behind you, there are still ways you can demonize Israel via the net.
h/t fatima
Yes, you too can troll the Internet, demonizing Israel in your spare time. The volunteers trained by MAS will act and speak as ordinary net-surfers and as citizens, and will write responses that will look personal. They work around the clock writing anti-Israeli responses on Internet websites all over the world, and on services like Facebook, Twitter and Youtube. Sign up as a "virtual volunteer" for the Muslim American Society, and they'll show you how.
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Yawn: Marking 5 years of Failure: BDS Media Day fizzles
A call from the usual suspects to turn July 9th into BDS Media day has taken on water and sunk like a brick. Locally, the Meserele verdict and ensuing “Will loot for justice” riots took precedence over the non story of BDS "success".
Anti-Israeli activists were urged by their handlers to “celebrate their achievements” on July 9th by
- Publishing BDS articles in the local and national press;
- Briefing journalists on BDS activities, establish enduring relationships and make a case with them on why they should cover BDS;
- Staging public actions with focus on media, such as direct action and launching of high profile campaigns, publicize legal actions, expose violators and promote public debates;
- Use alternative media to mark the anniversary;
The day instead was marked by neither sound nor fury, nor press coverage.
I visited the Berkeley Bowl, a local independent grocer on July 9th, to see what was happening in the campaign to bully the Bowl into compliance by the local enforcers of "political correctness". The store was quiet, though I couldn’t help but notice they’ve added a new line of Israeli olive oils to their stock.
The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement has a long history of failure. The single best documentation of the divestment movement can be found here
"During the very period when BDS was supposedly on the march, the size of Israel’s economy (as measured by GDP) nearly doubled from $110B to $190B. Now given that the BDS project is based on their activity having economic consequence for the Jewish state, the takeaway from this chart seems to be that such consequence has been an explosion of growth in the Israeli economy."
A recent article in Bloomberg News called the Israeli economy one of the world's "happy stories"
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman described Israel was one of the small number of countries, such as Canada and Australia, that were able to weather the current crisis well. Israel’s rebound from the global financial crisis has been powered by exports, which make up almost 50 percent of gross domestic product.
Israel’s economy expanded an annualized 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010, led by exports.
Omar, what were you saying about "momentum" in the BDS movement again?
Anti-Israeli activists were urged by their handlers to “celebrate their achievements” on July 9th by
- Publishing BDS articles in the local and national press;
- Briefing journalists on BDS activities, establish enduring relationships and make a case with them on why they should cover BDS;
- Staging public actions with focus on media, such as direct action and launching of high profile campaigns, publicize legal actions, expose violators and promote public debates;
- Use alternative media to mark the anniversary;
The day instead was marked by neither sound nor fury, nor press coverage.
I visited the Berkeley Bowl, a local independent grocer on July 9th, to see what was happening in the campaign to bully the Bowl into compliance by the local enforcers of "political correctness". The store was quiet, though I couldn’t help but notice they’ve added a new line of Israeli olive oils to their stock.The Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement has a long history of failure. The single best documentation of the divestment movement can be found here
"During the very period when BDS was supposedly on the march, the size of Israel’s economy (as measured by GDP) nearly doubled from $110B to $190B. Now given that the BDS project is based on their activity having economic consequence for the Jewish state, the takeaway from this chart seems to be that such consequence has been an explosion of growth in the Israeli economy."
A recent article in Bloomberg News called the Israeli economy one of the world's "happy stories"
Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman described Israel was one of the small number of countries, such as Canada and Australia, that were able to weather the current crisis well. Israel’s rebound from the global financial crisis has been powered by exports, which make up almost 50 percent of gross domestic product.
Israel’s economy expanded an annualized 3.6 percent in the first quarter of 2010, led by exports.
Omar, what were you saying about "momentum" in the BDS movement again?
Thursday, July 8, 2010
SF Board of Supervisors and SFPD agree: shut up and take it, Jews!
The following three violent Jew-beating incidents are brought to you by the members of the SF Board of Supervisors who encourage or enable popular anti-Semitism by expressing their hatred of Israel.
It is also brought to you by the numerous opinionated politically correct windbags for whom SF is the centre of the world, and by the letter J.
Incident ONE
Several angry Palestinians and their supporters attack one old Jewish man wearing a kippa and blowing a shofar. This happened on the sidewalk in front of the Israel consulate before an anti-Israel protest on Tuesday July 6, after four o'clock. There were about fifty or sixty people present – thirty Palestinians and their friends (International ANSWER members, Codepink, etc.), twenty police officers (SFPD), and maybe ten Jews. Once violence broke out, the mob rushed the elderly Jewish gentleman with arms flailing, intent on mischief.
For several seconds, no one intervened, not even the SFPD. It is quite likely that the San Francisco officers were unfamiliar with even the concept of 'violence'.
The pro-Palestinian side notes the accusation that the Jew had committed a shocking and offensive act by blowing a shofar, and shows more of the rally here.
They did not put the actual incident itself on youtube.
Incident TWO
Richard Becker and his posse get rowdy with another Jewish gentleman. Several courageous Palestine supporters, one Jew.
Same place as the above incident, with much the same police response.
Incident THREE
Big Palestinian wrestler tries to strangle a weasely little man holding an Israeli flag directly in front of the Israeli Consulate. After several minutes, the police intervene. For which they are roundly cursed by Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER (Richard Becker's handyman and household servant).
The three Jews involved were all cited by the police. Jews are supposed to be passive.
Whereas critics of Israel are examples embraced by a large segment of the San Francisco population, and have the moral support of Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, and other members of the SF Board of Supervisors.
It is also brought to you by the numerous opinionated politically correct windbags for whom SF is the centre of the world, and by the letter J.
Incident ONE
Several angry Palestinians and their supporters attack one old Jewish man wearing a kippa and blowing a shofar. This happened on the sidewalk in front of the Israel consulate before an anti-Israel protest on Tuesday July 6, after four o'clock. There were about fifty or sixty people present – thirty Palestinians and their friends (International ANSWER members, Codepink, etc.), twenty police officers (SFPD), and maybe ten Jews. Once violence broke out, the mob rushed the elderly Jewish gentleman with arms flailing, intent on mischief.
For several seconds, no one intervened, not even the SFPD. It is quite likely that the San Francisco officers were unfamiliar with even the concept of 'violence'.
The pro-Palestinian side notes the accusation that the Jew had committed a shocking and offensive act by blowing a shofar, and shows more of the rally here.
They did not put the actual incident itself on youtube.
Incident TWO
Richard Becker and his posse get rowdy with another Jewish gentleman. Several courageous Palestine supporters, one Jew.
Same place as the above incident, with much the same police response.
Incident THREE
Big Palestinian wrestler tries to strangle a weasely little man holding an Israeli flag directly in front of the Israeli Consulate. After several minutes, the police intervene. For which they are roundly cursed by Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER (Richard Becker's handyman and household servant).
The three Jews involved were all cited by the police. Jews are supposed to be passive.
Whereas critics of Israel are examples embraced by a large segment of the San Francisco population, and have the moral support of Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, and other members of the SF Board of Supervisors.
Wednesday, July 7, 2010
INTERNATIONAL ANSWER ENABLES JEW HATING MOB
At an anti-Israel protest yesterday in San Francisco's financial district three middle-aged Israel supporters were attacked. Fortunately no one was hurt. One of the victims, an elderly gentleman with a shofar, was rushed by several young Arab-Americans while Forrest Schmidt of International ANSWER screamed abuse.
Later a large Arab American tried to crush a pro-Israel activist whom he attacked after trying to destroy the sign that the activist was holding.
Forrest Schmidt hastened to add oil to the blaze after police had separated the two.
A third pro-Israel demonstrator was tackled by people standing around Richard Becker, head of International ANSWER.
Again, Forrest Schmidt was instrumental in furthering disruption.
Mister Schmidt seems to be developing quite a talent for making an already venomous and hate-filled event even more dangerous and explosive.
Who knows - this skill may 'come in handy' in Oakland after the Mehserle verdict is announced.
In all three instances, the SF police were markedly absent, and did not prevent the attacks.
After these assaults, the police persuaded the pro-Israel side to move to the other side of the street due to the great likelihood of further acts of aggression.
For the next two and a half hours, the crowd of Arab-American teenagers, liquor store owners, SF State U and Berkeley professors, and International ANSWER agitators screamed invective, and revolutionary slogans that promised to eradicate Israel.
"Falastin Arabbiya, kullu kullu Shah'ddiya"
'Palestine belongs to the Arab world, we are all its martyrs' - a holy war chant indicating Jihadi sentiments.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
This oft-repeated chant is the promise to ethnically cleanse Jews and Israel off the map.
"Ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeeq ya Falastin"
'With our souls and our blood we will redeem you oh Palastine' - the war cry for the momentous battle to eradicate the Jewish stain on the holy land and reclaim it for the Arabs and Islam.
There were several speeches about genocide, claiming that Israel was guilty of ethnic cleansing, despite the Arab population of Israel proper increasing several fold since independence, thus mirroring the massive increase in people labeled 'Palestinian' in surrounding countries.
There was no mention whatsoever of the massacres perpetrated by Jordan against Palestinians during Black September, nor of the desperate struggle of Lebanese Christians, Muslims, and Druze against the terror unleashed in Beirut by the PLO during that country's civil war, nor even of the mistreatment and expulsion of 'Palestinians' in the Gulf States after Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Crimes against Arabs by other Arabs, no matter how horrendous, are not part of Richard Becker's agenda. Even if they dwarf the number of Palestinian deaths from the Arab world's war against the Jews a hundred fold.
In contrast to other hate-fests organized by stalwarts such as Richard Becker, Forrest Schmidt, Lily Haskell, and the revolutionarily inclined faculty members of several universities in the Bay Area, this time there was scant mention of Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran - though there was repetitive angry rhetoric about Afghanistan and Iraq, and praise for the fighters in those countries 'resisting' imperialism.
I did not see any members of the National Lawyers Guild there, but their presence was nevertheless keenly felt - certainly by the SFPD, who seemed quite hesitant about their abilities to control the hostile mob.
Around seventy revolutionaries and Jew-haters, about forty Israel supporters, and perhaps two dozen of SF's finest.
Also in attendance: Jim Harris aka Tom Joad (hack for JVP / ISM), plus self-righteous harridans from Codepink and Women in Black. And several nice middle class Berkeley Jew-haters.
Not present: the San Franciscan pro-Palestinian politicians who endorsed the anti-Israel resolution tabled two weeks ago, representing the public face of the effort to attack Israel in the SF political establishment: Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, et al.
This demonstration was NOT about peace, it was NOT about justice for Palestinians, it was NOT about achieving an equitable solution to a political problem; it was about Jew-hate.
Which the pro-Palestinian side demonstrated repeatedly.
Later a large Arab American tried to crush a pro-Israel activist whom he attacked after trying to destroy the sign that the activist was holding.
Forrest Schmidt hastened to add oil to the blaze after police had separated the two.
A third pro-Israel demonstrator was tackled by people standing around Richard Becker, head of International ANSWER.
Again, Forrest Schmidt was instrumental in furthering disruption.
Mister Schmidt seems to be developing quite a talent for making an already venomous and hate-filled event even more dangerous and explosive.
Who knows - this skill may 'come in handy' in Oakland after the Mehserle verdict is announced.
In all three instances, the SF police were markedly absent, and did not prevent the attacks.
After these assaults, the police persuaded the pro-Israel side to move to the other side of the street due to the great likelihood of further acts of aggression.
For the next two and a half hours, the crowd of Arab-American teenagers, liquor store owners, SF State U and Berkeley professors, and International ANSWER agitators screamed invective, and revolutionary slogans that promised to eradicate Israel.
"Falastin Arabbiya, kullu kullu Shah'ddiya"
'Palestine belongs to the Arab world, we are all its martyrs' - a holy war chant indicating Jihadi sentiments.
"From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free"
This oft-repeated chant is the promise to ethnically cleanse Jews and Israel off the map.
"Ba ruh, ba dam, nafdeeq ya Falastin"
'With our souls and our blood we will redeem you oh Palastine' - the war cry for the momentous battle to eradicate the Jewish stain on the holy land and reclaim it for the Arabs and Islam.
There were several speeches about genocide, claiming that Israel was guilty of ethnic cleansing, despite the Arab population of Israel proper increasing several fold since independence, thus mirroring the massive increase in people labeled 'Palestinian' in surrounding countries.
There was no mention whatsoever of the massacres perpetrated by Jordan against Palestinians during Black September, nor of the desperate struggle of Lebanese Christians, Muslims, and Druze against the terror unleashed in Beirut by the PLO during that country's civil war, nor even of the mistreatment and expulsion of 'Palestinians' in the Gulf States after Saddam invaded Kuwait.
Crimes against Arabs by other Arabs, no matter how horrendous, are not part of Richard Becker's agenda. Even if they dwarf the number of Palestinian deaths from the Arab world's war against the Jews a hundred fold.
In contrast to other hate-fests organized by stalwarts such as Richard Becker, Forrest Schmidt, Lily Haskell, and the revolutionarily inclined faculty members of several universities in the Bay Area, this time there was scant mention of Cuba, Venezuela, and Iran - though there was repetitive angry rhetoric about Afghanistan and Iraq, and praise for the fighters in those countries 'resisting' imperialism.
I did not see any members of the National Lawyers Guild there, but their presence was nevertheless keenly felt - certainly by the SFPD, who seemed quite hesitant about their abilities to control the hostile mob.
Around seventy revolutionaries and Jew-haters, about forty Israel supporters, and perhaps two dozen of SF's finest.
Also in attendance: Jim Harris aka Tom Joad (hack for JVP / ISM), plus self-righteous harridans from Codepink and Women in Black. And several nice middle class Berkeley Jew-haters.
Not present: the San Franciscan pro-Palestinian politicians who endorsed the anti-Israel resolution tabled two weeks ago, representing the public face of the effort to attack Israel in the SF political establishment: Chris Daly, David Campos, Sophie Maxwell, John Avalos, et al.
This demonstration was NOT about peace, it was NOT about justice for Palestinians, it was NOT about achieving an equitable solution to a political problem; it was about Jew-hate.
Which the pro-Palestinian side demonstrated repeatedly.
Saturday, July 3, 2010
Jethro Tull hate speech page on Facebook
Today the Jethro Tull fan facebook page is populated by racists and anti-Semites.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jethro-Tull-Fans/7835344629
There are quite a number of Jethro Tull fans in the Arab world. Many of them seem to be old-fashioned bigots and psychopaths in the style of Husseini and As-Sawad.
Sample one: "Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them"
Sample two: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews - when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
I am baffled why this is has happened.
Not being a Jethro Tull fan, I do not know if their music is a natural fit for racial hatred and Arabic revisionism - probably everything in this world can be bent to those goals.
And seemingly everything in Cairo, Jordan, and Damascus, is.
Currently there are several Jew-haters there saying the most appalling things. Please report that page for racism/hate speech.
"The internet seemingly exist for FOUR things: recipes, cute kitten pictures, pornography, and anti-Semitic rants."
Fair enough. The pro-Palestinian crowd do not use computer access for recipes or cute kitten pictures.
They make up for that by overusing the other two categories.
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Jethro-Tull-Fans/7835344629
There are quite a number of Jethro Tull fans in the Arab world. Many of them seem to be old-fashioned bigots and psychopaths in the style of Husseini and As-Sawad.
Sample one: "Christians in Jerusalem want Jews to stop spitting on them"
Sample two: "The Day of Judgement will not come about until Muslims fight the Jews - when the Jew will hide behind stones and trees. The stones and trees will say O Muslims, O Abdullah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him."
I am baffled why this is has happened.
Not being a Jethro Tull fan, I do not know if their music is a natural fit for racial hatred and Arabic revisionism - probably everything in this world can be bent to those goals.
And seemingly everything in Cairo, Jordan, and Damascus, is.
Currently there are several Jew-haters there saying the most appalling things. Please report that page for racism/hate speech.
"The internet seemingly exist for FOUR things: recipes, cute kitten pictures, pornography, and anti-Semitic rants."
Fair enough. The pro-Palestinian crowd do not use computer access for recipes or cute kitten pictures.
They make up for that by overusing the other two categories.
Rallying for Shalit - Pro-Israel in San Diego: An example to be emulated
Can we do something about Israel hate? You bet we can! And someone is doing it. The San Diego Israel Coalition held a rally for Gilad Shalit, in captivity for four years.
Here's a video of NBC TV News coverage - Gilad Shalit Rally in San Diego
It is quite a coup for a brand new organization to get network news coverage for their event. Watch these folks and learn!
In San Diego Jewish News, Tinanarie Bernard reports about the San Diego Israel Coalition :?
Here's a video of NBC TV News coverage - Gilad Shalit Rally in San Diego
It is quite a coup for a brand new organization to get network news coverage for their event. Watch these folks and learn!
In San Diego Jewish News, Tinanarie Bernard reports about the San Diego Israel Coalition :?
... Following the now infamous flotilla incident, a new group has formed in San Diego — the San Diego Israel Coalition — to discuss what individuals can do locally to support Israel. Before the Coalition even formed, the group, eager to support Israel amid local pro-Palestinian rallies, managed to do something small, remarkable and upwardly focused: they, along with Morris Casuto of the Anti-Defamation League, organized a peaceful pro-Israel counter rally. The counter rally drew local press and helped empower the local community to take back the dialogue from an increasingly noisy and hostile media.
“We took the other side by surprise and motivated hundreds of San Diegans that there was a place for them to stand up and show their support for Israel,” said Audrey Jacobs, who, along with Michael Lurie, is organizing the group.
Due to the overwhelmingly positive response, Jacobs and Lurie formed the San Diego Israel Coalition, “a grassroots, passionate, inclusive pro-Israel group focused on powerful and peaceful Israel advocacy in San Diego, working in partnership with all local pro-Israel organizations,” Jacobs said.
By the time this article goes to print, they will have had their first community-wide meeting to mobilize future actions.
.. For more information on the San Diego Israel Coalition, email Audrey Jacobs at sdisraelcoalition(at)gmail.com.
The San Diego Israel Coalition joins a growing number of grass roots groups like San Francisco Voice for Israel and the San Diego team group, the Orange Country Task Force and others. They will be working together to beat state-wide BDS initiatives and other organized "spontaneous" anti-Israel activity. They need our help. If you live in California, they need you! Wherever you live, you would do well to follow their example.
Ami Isseroff
Thursday, July 1, 2010
Kill A Jew Day: Anti-Semitism on Facebook
kill a jew day
Date:
Friday, July 9, 2010
Time:
12:00am - 11:30pm
Location:
Everywhere
Description
you must kill at least one jew
Forgive me if I don't link to it. Over 100 people have reported they will attend the event, "Kill a Jew day" on Facebook . And no, don't try and convince me its all in jest. Anti-Semitism is no joke.
According to the JTA, Anti-Semitic incidents around the world more than doubled in 2009 over the previous year. The record number of incidents -- cases that show clear anti-Semitic content and intention -- included 566 incidents of vandalism of Jewish property, which constituted 49 percent of all incidents. Hundreds of incidents against Jewish people and property did not meet the criteria. Many other incidents went unreported.
Perhaps if enough people report this page it will be shut down, as a direct incitement to violence. If that happens, expect Jewish Voice for Peace to claim that the voices of the people have been muzzled by the Zionist lobby.
UPDATE: The Jewish Internet Defense Force reports that 240,000 people received notice of this story as the result of action alert they initiated , and the offending event was removed in hours.
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