The Hares Boys are now murderers

Two years ago, the Biton family 's existence changes in the blink of an eye. Adva Biton, and her three young daughters Avigail, 4,  Naama, 6, and Adele, then 2 were injured when Palestinian "boys" hurled rocks at their vehicle, causing their car to swerve off the road and collide with an oncoming truck.  

The thugs who nearly destroyed the Biton family became a cause celebe in anti-Israel circles.

Hares boys propaganda poster

Hares Boys propaganda poster

The ISM started a letter writing campaign in support of the "schoolboys" Mohammed Kleib, Mohammed Suleiman, Ali Shamlawi, Ammar Souf and Tamer Souf, saying they "were were arrested and charged with 20 counts of attempted murder for allegedly throwing stones at an Israeli settler’s car", and alleging "They received these charges despite an overwhelming lack of evidence".  There was not a word about the devastating injuries received by Adele.

A mother and 3 young girls were nothing more than "setters" to the ISM,  and the thugs terrorized them were repeatedly framed as the victims,  with the ISM writing,  "It is difficult to comprehend how terrible this ordeal must be for the boys and their families."

Today Adele Biton died from complication from the injuries she received in the accident . May she rest in peace.  The "Hares boys" are now murderers.

People of good faith, from all regions and all walks of life mourned the little girl.

From YNET

Muawiya Qabha, the Arab medic who saved Adele on the night of the attack, eulogized her, saying: "Words can't explain the pain I feel and tears are choking my throat. How could a superhero be defeated? It's just not possible," he said.

Qabha had been in touch with the Biton family in the past two years, and was the guest of honor at their Mimouna celebration last year. Earlier in the evening, he arrived at the hospital to comfort Adele's parents. "There is no sadder moment than this. Adele, my little girl, you were a hero when you were alive and will continue to be one in your death. I will always remember you."

Qabha further stressed: "Adele did not pass away, she was murdered in a terror attack by a criminal."

Roseanne Barr in Berkeley: The Selective Outrage of the Morally bankrupt

Via Emunah:

Roseanne Barr is coming to the Magnes Museum in Berkeley on Tuesday, to discuss "Israel, the Jews and me". There is a lot of justifiable curiosity about her personal journey towards Zionism.

It was only last year, after all that Roseanne's program with notorious anti-Semite Gilad Atzmon was promoted by the extremist anti-Israel group, Jewish Voice for Peace.

How does one go from hobnobbing with extremists and anti-Semites to publicly supporting Israel as the nation state of the Jewish people? How does such a dramatic about face happen in a matter of months?

I have a ticket. I hope to find out.

Ben (the son of) Zoma had asked and answered in Pirke Avot: "Who is wise? He who learns from all people". The community is hoping to learn from Roseanne's personal journey.  The Jewish Community Relations Center is sponsoring the facilitated discussion with her.

Always outspoken, Roseanne is becoming even more controversial in recent days with a series of tweets that push the line of acceptable discourse. 

From the Sacramento Bee:

Barr’s Twitter page has since become a battleground with the 62-year-old comic lobbing rejoinders to obscene and anti-Semitic slurs directed at her. On Wednesday, Barr tweeted, “Proud to have spam blocked 25k Jew haters today! #UCDavisDivest toads.”

Read more here: http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/article9771911.html#storylink=cpy

Our friends at Divest this  recently had a good discussion about  Twitter ( statements of 140 characters or less), remarking that social media as a whole

enables those stupid things we all say (especially in our younger years – things that might still make us wince upon remembrance) to be broadcast around the globe where they get to live on forever in screen grabs of Twitter feeds and Facebook timelines long since deleted.

Concluding

But as these thirty-second communication tools become proxies for what we are thinking, or bricks in the wall of confirmation bias too many of us are building around ourselves, it might be time to reflect on how tools originally designed to help us make friends should not be used to destroy lives.

How seriously should we take Roseanne's Twitter outbursts? Roseanne Barr is a public figure, but she is not an academic or a journalist. She's a comedienne- essentially a shock jock , who uses the literary tools of exaggeration and hyperbole to drive home her points.

Does it make us uncomfortable? Yes- but its meant to.

Opponents of Israel are using Tuesday's event as yet another reason to rage against the Jewish community. Jim Harris, founder of Stop AIPAC, and a familiar face at anti-Israel protests throughout the Bay area has started a petition "End Your Support for Roseanne Barr's call to "nuke" a California University".

He writes:

On Tuesday, February 17th, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of San Francisco will be hosting a talk by Roseanne Barr in Berkeley, California. We are shocked and saddened at this, as Roseanne Barr has long been so uncivil in her speech, even to the point of supporting violence against masses of people.  The latest, but certainly not the only, is her tweet of Feb. 10th that stated "I hope all the Jews leave UC Davis and then it gets nuked!"

Jim ends his petition (currently signed by a few dozen people) with a demand.

We demand that JCRC remove its sponsorship for this talk. To support civility. To reject all calls to violence. 

Jim Harris is providing us with yet another example of the selective outrage of the morally bankrupt anti-Israel activist. There were no calls or petitions for civility when pro-Israel activists were threatened and attacked at events he organized and attended. There was no condemnation of the genocidal aspirations of Hamas or the local organizations that enable and excuse them. And there was no calls or petitions for civility  when JVP promoted  Gilad "Burning synagogues is a rational act" Atzmon, just a few short months ago. And as Europe collapses, as Jews living Jewish lives are slaughtered, Jim Harris chooses to be outraged over 140 poorly chosen words.

On Tuesday, we'll be testing Ben Zoma's words, first hand. What can we, as a community, learn from Roseanne Barr's personal journey?   One thing is certain. Human beings are capable of much more nuance and subtlety when not restricted to 140 characters or less.

UPDATE:
The talk, originally scheduled for Tuesday night, has been cancelled

The Rising Tide of BDS on California Campuses

Behind a paywall at Haaretz, a  glimpse into the opaque funding of the BDS movement on California campuses. According to Dr. Andy David  the Israeli Consul General in San Francisco, there are 133 anti-Israel organizations, with an estimated budget of 9 million dollars a year in the Bay area  “including 95 full-time people who do nothing else" .

There is nothing grass roots about it. Yet for all its funding and all its efforts, the BDS movement on campus has yielded almost no tangible results

The Rising tide of BDS on California Campuses: 

...Prof. Ron Hassner at Berkeley’s political science department isn’t overly impressed with the BDS movement’s achievements.

In not one instance has a vote for BDS affected campus policy — in fact, California campuses and universities throughout the United States quickly declare they won’t change their policies toward Israel or companies, regardless of the student vote, he says. 

“In other words, this starts as student politics and ends as students politics .... And since it doesn’t affect university policy, it goes without saying that it has no effect on Israel,” Hassner says. “It also has no effect on Palestine because these resolutions aren’t aimed at supporting Palestinians. They aren’t pro-Palestinian but rather anti-Israeli resolutions, which is a shame.” 

Students are missing chances to reach out to Palestinians and offer financial, material and emotional support, he says. 

“These repeated votes have had one effect only: a deterioration of the campus climate leading to outbursts of anger and even violence,” Hassner says, adding that Jewish students have been subject to verbal abuse and sometimes physical abuse amid a steady rise in anti-Semitic incidents. 

“These anti-Jewish outbursts are not surprising since the anti-Semitism is rooted in the BDS movement itself,” he says. 

“At divestment meetings on my campus, BDS opponents have accused Israelis of putting rats in the vaginas of Palestinian women, stealing Palestinian organs and poisoning the water in Gaza. You’ll recognize these as classic anti-Semitic tropes from 19th-century Polish blood libels, for example.”

Read it all at Haaretz. 

A whole bunch of people no one has heard of are boycotting Israel

Over 100 "artists" have announced a cultural boycott of Israel . And not surprising, they aren’t exactly household names.  We're not talking  the "A" list, here.

Peter Kosminsky, Who?
Mike Leigh. Wasn’t he the one...? Er, no.
Jimmy McGovern, Huh?
Phyllida Lloyd,  sounds kinda familiar, but...no.
Max Stafford-Clark, Oh, oh, oh- didn't he play the kooky sidekick in, no... sorry. I'm mistaken.
Will Alsop OBE,  Alsop's Fables, right? Right?
John Berger,  I'm sure his mother loves him
Miriam Margolyes,
Maggie Steed,
Riz Ahmed,
Anna Carteret,
Jeremy Hardy,
Brian Eno, I’ve heard of him!
Richard Ashcroft,
Gillian Slovo,
China Miéville,
Aminatta Forna,
Hari Kunzru,
Liz Lochhead,
Hanan Al-Shaykh,
Peter Ahrends,
David Calder,
Caryl Churchill,
Sacha Craddock,
Selma Dabbagh,
Ken Loach,
Roger Michell,
April De Angelis,
Andy de la Tour,
Mike Hodges,
Rachel Holmes,
Ann Jungman,
Kika Markham,
Simon McBurney,
Andrew O’Hagan,
Courttia Newland,
Michael Radford,
Lynne Reid Banks, 
Kamila Shamsie,
Alexei Sayle,
Roger Waters, the nutbar from pink Floyd
Mark Thomas,
Susan Wooldridge,
Laura Mulvey,
Pauline Melville,
Khalid Abdalla,
Bidisha,
Nicholas Blincoe,
Leah Borrromeo, Played Emily in Homestead Highs' production of "Our Town" (or is that the wrong Leah Borrromeo?)
Haim Bresheeth,
Victoria Brittain,
Niall Buggy, NO!!!! Not Niall Buggy!!!! Actually, I have no idea who Niall Buggy is
Tam Dean Burn,
Jonathan Burrows,
Taghrid Choucair-Vizoso,
Ian Christie,
Liam Cunningham,
Ivor Dembina,
Shane Dempsey,
Patrick Driver,
Okin Earl,
Leon Rosselson,
Sally El Hosaini,
Paul Laverty,
Eyal Sivan,
John Smith,  He had a fling with Pocahontas a few centuries back, right?
Mitra Tabrizian,
Siobhan Redmond,
Ian Rickson,
Tom Leonard,
Sonja Linden,
David Mabb,
Rose Issa,
Gareth Evans,
Alisa Lebow,
Annie Firbank,
James Floyd,
Jane Frere,
Kadija George,
Bob Giles,
Mel Gooding,
Tony Graham,
Penny Woolcock,
Omar Robert Hamilton.

After 13 years of demonization, this is the best the haters can muster up.

Whats this I've heard about Taylor Swift in negotiations to play in Israel?

Half of the "journalists" killed in Gaza are terror operatives

Its been widely claimed that 17 journalists had been killed by the IDF while reporting from  Gaza.
The list was suspect from the very beginning.  two names from the list,  Simone Camilli  and his translator Ali Abu Afesh were killed watching Gaza policemen attempting  to defuse unexploded ordnance.

1.    Hamid Abdullah Shehab – “Media 24″company.
2.    Najla Mahmoud Haj – media activist.
3     Khalid Hamad – the “Kontnao” Media Production company.
4.    Ziad Abdul Rahman Abu Hin – al-Ketab satellite channel.
5.    Ezzat Duheir – Prisoners Radio.
6.    Bahauddin Gharib – Palestine TV.
7.    Ahed Zaqqout – veteran sports journalist.
8.    Ryan Rami – Palestinian Media Network.
9.    Sameh Al-Arian – Al-Aqsa TV.
10.  Mohammed Daher – Editor in al-Resala paper.
11.  Abdullah Vhjan – sports journalist.
12.  journalist Khaled Hamada Mqat- Director of Saja news website.
13.  freelance journalist Shadi Hamdi Ayyad.
14.  photojournalist Mohammed Nur al-Din al-Dairi – works in the Palestinian Network.
15.  translater Ali Abu Afesh – Doha Center for Media.
16.  Italian journalist Simone Camilli – photographer in the Associated Press.
17. Abdullah fadel Murtaja.

Meticulous research from the Meir Amit  Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center   found that eight out of the 17 names were Hamas and Islamic Jihad operatives or  worked in Hamas media outlets, adding  “The Palestinian Journalists Union and the Gazan branch of the Information Office tried to hide the military-terrorist identity of the terror operatives, and present them as journalists"

Izzadin Al-Kassam operative Abdullah Murtaja appeared on the list of 17 "journalists" killed in Gaza this summer. Does he look like a journalist to you?

The Israeli Defense Forces achieved a 1:1 civilian to combatant ratio almost unprecedented in the history of  urban warfare.

For more information about the 17 journalists killed in Gaza

Examination of the Names of 17 Journalists and Media Personnel Whom the Palestinians Claim Were Killed in Operation Protective

Who Were the 'Journalists' Killed in the Gaza War?

Half of names of Gaza journalist casualties are terror operatives, or members of Hamas media

IJAN"s irrational assault on the venerable ADL

In response to the grand jury decision not to issue an indictment against the white police officer who shot and killed Michael Brown, an unarmed African-American in Ferguson, Missouri, the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) called the tragedy a wake-up call, “reminding us that the problems we face as a nation transcend Ferguson.”

Karen J. Aroesty, ADL St. Louis Regional Director, and Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director issued the following statement:

The events in Ferguson, Missouri should prompt all of us to do some very serious soul-searching.
We start from the premise that America is a nation governed by the rule of law. We were not in the grand jury room, we did not see the evidence, but we respect the grand jury’s integrity and their commitment to meeting the heavy responsibility thrust upon them. Friends of the Brown family, members of his community, and people across the nation may disagree with the outcome, and that is their right. But disagreement is never an excuse for violence.

At the same time, this tragedy should be a wake-up call reminding us that the problems we face as a nation transcend Ferguson. Fifty years after the passage of the landmark Civil Rights Act of 1964, our society is still not free from bias, racial prejudice, and discrimination. African-Americans are still the most frequent targets of hate crimes in America, black students are suspended or expelled from our public schools at a much higher rate than white students, and there are many other examples that show the continuing racial divide.

Michael Brown’s father has said that he does not want his son’s death to have been in vain. Rather, he wants it to lead to positive change, “change that makes the St. Louis region better for everyone.” We commend him for that, and hope that we can all come away from this tragedy with an understanding that will help not only St. Louis, but our whole nation. This is an appropriate moment to look at ourselves honestly, to confront the prejudice and bigotry that tarnish our society, and to commit ourselves to ensuring that we have a justice system that all Americans can trust.

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

The ADL statement  was widely condemned by the IJAN, the extremist International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network,  who wrote

The ADL's decision to firmly support the police and attempt to silence nation-wide collective action is no surprise given their history of collaboration with and support of police violence and surveillance in the US. The ADL directly trains tens of thousands of police and other “security forces” and leads population control training of US Police by Israeli military and police forces. By facilitating the training of US police in Ferguson and other cities, the ADL acts as a driving force in the cross-pollination of the most repressive practices and the increasing militarization of police forces in the US and Israel.

We are disgusted that the ADL continues to stick to what it knows best: racism.

Why would the extremist IJAN deliberately  mischaracterize the ADL’s statement? What kind of  irrational moral inversion does it take to call a statement that urges Americans to engage in 'soul searching" because their nation is still not free from free from “bias, racial prejudice, and discrimination.”, racist?

You’ll find the answer at the Mike report

Jeff Robbins in a guest post at the Mike Report, has provided the answer, writing,  “The plan” as far as the Arabs were concerned was to “peel” American Jews away from the major American Jewish organizations, and in that way dilute American support for Israel.

Robbins provides the background:

In late 2004, as I was nearing the end of my tenure as President of the World Affairs Council of Boston, a foreign policy forum, we invited Nabil Fahmi, the then-Ambassador of Egypt to the United States, to speak to a group of Boston’s civic leaders about the Mideast. Fahmi delivered the predictable fare, blaming Israel not only for the Arab-Israeli conflict but for the region’s problems more generally. Straying somewhat from my proper role as host, I questioned him directly, and sharply, about his version of events, and insisted that he address the recently-released United Nations Arab Human Development Report written by Arab social scientists that placed blame for the Arab countries’ woes on the Arabs.

When it was time for him to leave, Fahmi made a special point of coming to see me to say goodbye, and asked me to come see him the next time I was in Washington, D.C. This was a gracious act on his part, particularly given my critical questioning of him in a public setting, and I did go see him at the fortress-like building that is Egypt’s Embassy to the United States. The meeting took place on November 22, 2004 in Ambassador Fahmi’s office, with only the two of us and his note-taker present. For an hour, Fahmi leaned back in his chair and explained to me that “the plan” as far as the Arabs were concerned was to “peel” American Jews away from the major American Jewish organizations, and in that way dilute American support for Israel.

We've seen JVP's childish rants against AIPAC and StandWithUs.  The IJAN has the JNF and the ADL in its crosshairs.  Other Jewish organizations are also under attack. This is not a spontaneous grass-roots response- its a concerted, coordinated Arab-lead effort.

Jeff Robbins' answer to to this challenge? "Israel Advocacy Organizations Need To Up Their Game"

Bassam Eid: We Palestinians hold the key to a better future

Read and share this powerful statement from Bassam Eid, the founder of the Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group, originally posted at the Times of Israel

He writes:

After 66 years of mistakes and missed opportunities, it is time for us Palestinians to create the conditions for peace and to work for a better future. It is time that we stopped pretending that we can destroy Israel or drive the Jews into the sea. It is time that we stopped listening to Muslim radicals or Arab regimes that use us to continue a pointless, destructive, and immoral war with Israel. 

Acknowledging the truth about Israel, he continues

Despite what we tell ourselves, Israel is here to stay. What’s more, it has a right to exist. It is the nation of the Jews but also a nation for Israeli Arabs who have better lives than Arabs anywhere in Arab countries. We must accept these facts and move on. The antisemitism promoted by Hamas, Fatah, and the BDS movement is not the answer for us Palestinians.

The answer is to live in peace and democracy, side by side with Israel. We missed many opportunities to do that. We missed it in 1947 when Arab regimes encouraged us to refuse the UN partition plan. We missed it between 1948 and 1967 when we refused to create a state next to Israel. We missed it again every time after that when we refused a two-state solution presented to us.

Yet we know that Israelis want to live in peace, and that the vast majority of Israelis are friendly and neighborly. We know that Palestinian violence results in Israelis being discouraged about peace and electing ever more right-wing governments. We know that Egypt was able to secure a very favorable peace deal with Israel because Egypt agreed to accept Israel and to give up on violence. We know that the soft approach works with Israel, and yet we continue to use violence and extremist rhetoric.

Israel will never accept a large influx of Palestinians that would change the Jewish character of Israel. This means that insisting on the return of millions of refugees into Israel is pure delusion. In addition to this, the villages that we tell Palestinian refugees that they will one day return to no longer exist. We are simply lying to ourselves.

His vision for the future:

What we Palestinians need is a strong civil society and strong democratic institutions, and we need an end to human rights violations, including those perpetrated by Palestinians and other Arabs. Well-meaning international donors must ensure that their money is spent towards this goal, and not towards propping up either Hamas or Fatah. There is no doubt that much work is needed, but at the very least we need to reverse the current trend that is causing Palestinian society to drift even further towards corrupt and brutal rule, both in Gaza and in the West Bank. Ironically, it is only in East Jerusalem, under Israeli rule, that most Palestinians feel adequately represented by their politicians. 

Read it all here

Something smells fishy in Gaza. Fisherman caught smuggling terror supplies

One of the tried and true memes of anti-Israel activists in the digital age is "Israel targets fishermen." It does happen, because apparently its more cost effective to use a boat in Gaza for smuggling, rather than actually fishing.

On Jan 19,   the Israeli Navy and the Shin Bet intercepted a  "fishing" boat traveling from Sinai to the Gaza Strip, carrying material for the production of rockets and mortars.

This is precisely why there is a legal maritime blockade on Gaza.

From the J Post

During questioning, the three suspects on board told the Shin Bet that their smuggling attempt was aimed at assisting Hamas’s military wing, the Izzadin Kassam Brigade, by providing it with raw material for building rockets and mortar shells.

The Israel Police’s southern district also took part in the investigation. According to security officials, many details on sea-based smuggling attempts between Gaza and Sinai emerged during the investigation, shedding light on how Hamas’s military wing uses the Mediterranean as a smuggling route.

Hamas also uses the sea for the smuggling civilian products to sell to Gaza’s residents, and uses the profits for its purposes, the Shin Bet added.

“Recently, Hamas has invested much in exploiting naval smuggling routes, partly due to Egypt’s efforts to prevent smuggling tunnels that linked Sinai and Gaza,” it said.

The three suspects captured on board the boat were charged on Wednesday at the Beersheba District Court with a range of security offenses.

Read it all here

UC Davis Divest: Adding Insult to Injury

Driven to national prominence by Rev. Al Sharpton, the story shocked the nation. In 1987, Tawana Brawley,  a 15 year old girl was found lying inside a trash bag, her body smeared with feces, and defaced with racial insults. She claimed she had been raped and kidnapped by a group of white men in N.Y.

A state grand jury later determined that Brawley had fabricated her claims.

Should we be less compassionate towards  the victims of hate crimes because of Brawley’s actions?  Should we doubt the authenticity of their claims, because once we were fooled ?

Of course not.

Yet a group of extremists, in an open letter to the chancellors of UC Davis have suggested just that, implying that pro Israel activists fabricated the anti-Semitic attack on the Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi.

The fringe group of activists, including

ANSWER Sacramento
Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights
Friends of Sabeel Sacramento Region
HIMA Mesopotamia
Jewish Voice for Peace, Sacramento Chapter
Palestine American League
Palestinian American Congress
Palestine Israel Working Group of Nevada County
Sacramento Area Peace Action
Sacramento BDS
Veterans for Peace Chapter 87
Wellstone Progressive Democratic Club

had the audacity to  imply that the vandalism at the Jewish fraternity at UC Davis was self-imposed, writing "the spray painting might have been perpetrated in a deliberate, twisted, effort to discredit the student government action." After all,  they claim,  it may have happened once before.  It’s an egregious and shameful implication, serving only to add insult to injury. With  no supporting evidence, this group of extremists has discounted and questioned the veracity of the victims of a hate crime,  using this baseless speculation to further their own political agenda. Their final scurrilous appeal to the UC Davis Chancellors ended with the request that the rejection of BDS be rescinded, writing "Finally in this context, we urge you again to reconsider your public rejection of the ASUCD Senate resolution."

Its yet another in a series of shameless attacks on the Davis pro-Israel community, adding insult to injury once more.

Tonights the Night : Stanford Divest part 4

For those of you who bemoan the lack of leadership from Hillel on behalf of pro-Israel students,  I present to you an email from Rabbi Serena Eisenberg, the Executive Director of  Hillel at Stanford. 

Dear Friend of Hillel at Stanford,

As many of you have heard, tomorrow, Tuesday, February 10th, the Associated Students of Stanford University (ASSU) Senate will consider a bill recommending university divestment from companies doing business in Israel. I write to provide some additional context and information in advance of the vote.

A two-thirds majority is needed for the non-binding bill to pass. Our students' work reaching out to the senators indicates that equal handfuls of student senators have made their decisions to vote one way or the other; the rest are undecided or may abstain. Jewish students have been advocating and lobbying in a variety of ways, including meeting with individual senators, utilizing social media, holding campus events, and developing collateral educational and PR materials. Student leaders developed a website (Coalition for Peace) and Facebook page, and launched a petition drive in conjunction with supportive alumni which to date has gathered over 3,000 signatures in just two weeks. A comprehensive binder was compiled and provided to each student senator, including counterpoints to the bill, collected letters (from Stanford Nobel Laureates and professors), and additional materials.

In addition to the student senate vote on Tuesday, there may be an effort to place a divestment referendum on the spring, campus-wide student election ballot. And students advocating for divestment have asked the university's Advisory Panel on Investment Responsibility, which vets investment issues and makes recommendations to the Board of Trustees, to review their request for divestment and recommend it to the university trustees.

The "Stanford Out of Occupied Palestine" Coalition (SOOP) which proposed the bill has been extremely sophisticated and active in the past year. The coalition includes at least 18 campus organizations, and their efforts have included extensively posting flyers in all dorms and on a wide variety of Stanford list-serves; door- to- door solicitation of signatures for a pro-divestment petition; numerous op-eds; a sophisticated website and frequent events.

This year's campaign follows many years of significant divestment efforts, including student senate bills brought and defeated in 2007, 2010, and Spring, 2013. In Fall, 2013, the national conference for the Students for Justice in Palestine brought 300 pro-BDS Palestinian student activists to Stanford. Over time, the divestment movement has developed increasingly sophisticated messages and growing support even among Jewish students and community members. We no longer see periodic attempts, but rather a constant stream of programming engaging students as well as faculty. This year in particular, the climate has felt palpably intimidating and hostile for some Jewish students. There is a trend for students affiliated with Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) to demur dialogue with students who identify as Zionist or pro-Israel (either Jews or gentiles), claiming to do so would "normalize the occupation." This stance erodes civil discourse and is at odds with the values of any university.

Hillel at Stanford is working with senior university administrators to address these concerns and advocate for an educational environment for all students to feel safe to clarify and express their diverse identities and opinions. In past weeks, Hillel at Stanford has presented many opportunities for civil discourse for both the Jewish and wider university communities with our Ask Big Questions initiative, as well as convening forums, town hall meetings, and panel discussions on Israel/Palestine issues. Next week we will host a Shabbat dinner for students to process after the vote with a range of Stanford professors.

Student mobilization these past weeks arose from a robust foundation of year-round Hillel at Stanford Israel strategies to empower our 1800 Jewish graduate and undergraduate students. Our Hillel staff includes a full-time Israel Fellow and a strong program team who benefits from regular and intensive professional development including staff trainings, leading Stanford Birthright trips, the Hillel International professional's trip, and the Hartman Hillel fellowship.

We are TREMENDOUSLY grateful for the support and partnership of so many people and organizations who are helping students to reframe and defeat this acute campus issue, which many believe is but one tactic in a much larger strategy of isolating Israel through Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS). In just the past two weeks, our students have benefited from guidance and resources from the JCRC, Hillel International, the Israel on Campus Coalition, the Israeli Consulate, Ameinu, the American Jewish Committee, Stand with Us, BlueStar Media, and our long-term partnerships with Taglit-Birthright, AIPAC, Jstreet, and the David Project (plus others we are surely forgetting to mention!) Each of these partners contributes to a strong and pluralistic pro-Israel campus climate. While we continue to believe that our local Hillel team of student leaders, staff, faculty, board, and alumni is best positioned to coordinate and organize among the various organizations, we are grateful for the valuable input and diverse points of view that have significantly strengthened our impact. For example, one of the (non-Jewish) student senators went on a David Project Israel trip this winter break, and he could ultimately be one of the swing votes in Stanford's student senate vote this Tuesday.

We will update you following the ASSU Senate vote Tuesday night, and Hillel at Stanford will continue to work tirelessly to sustain and strengthen the impact of robust Israel educational, advocacy, and travel opportunities throughout the year, for Stanford students who are and will invariably become leaders at all levels of local, national and international life.

Your support is so very much appreciated. Donations can be made to the Coalition for Peace student mobilization fund, and please consider making a contribution to Hillel's ongoing and robust Jewish life programs. Many thanks to those who have already made gifts. We are so very grateful for your continued interest and ongoing support.

Sincerely,

Rabbi Serena Eisenberg

Executive Director, Hillel at Stanford

Use Red Hand Day to raise awareness of the plight of Palestinian child soldiers

February 12 is Red Hand Day, a world wide initiative to raise awareness against the use of child soldiers

This could be an opportunity to raise awareness about the cynical use of Palestinian children as soldiers in the war to eliminate Israel. Instead, highly politicized group have blurred the message, claiming   "Children are involved in numerous armed conflicts all over the world. Recent examples are Afghanistan, Chad, Centralafrican Republic, Colombia, the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), India, Iraq, Israel and the occupied territories, Myanmar (Burma), Pakistan, Philippines, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Syria, Thailand and Yemen. "

Are you active on social media?

You can held build awareness of the cruel use of children as soldiers in the Palestinian territories.
Use the hashtags  #RedHandDay and #UNICEF, and tweet out photos and articles that document this egregious form of child abuse.

How our taxpayer dollars finance Palestinian terror

Acclaimed author  Edwin Black's disclosure on how  British and American aid subsidizes Palestinian terrorism has gone virtually unnoticed in the Western media. Nearly 6% of the Palestinian budget is diverted to prisoner salaries.  "Donor countries" such as the United States, Great Britain, Norway, and Denmark finance this.

He writes:
Here's how the system works. When a Palestinian is convicted of an act of terror against the Israeli government or innocent civilians, such as a bombing or a murder, that convicted terrorist automatically receives a generous salary from the Palestinian Authority. The salary is specified by the Palestinian "law of the prisoner" and administered by the PA's Ministry of Prisoner Affairs. A Palestinian watchdog group, the Prisoners Club, ensures the PA's compliance with the law and pushes for payments as a prioritized expenditure. This means that even during frequent budget shortfalls and financial crisis, the PA PA pays the prisoners' salaries first and foremost – before other fiscal obligations...

Under a sliding scale, carefully articulated in the law of the prisoner, the more serious the act of terrorism, the longer the prison sentence, and consequently, the higher the salary. Incarceration for up to three years fetches a salary of almost $400 per month. Prisoners behind bars for between three and five years will be paid about $560 monthly – a compensation level already higher than that for many ordinary West Bank jobs. Sentences of ten to 15 years fetch salaries of about $1,690 per month. Still worse acts of terrorism against civilians, punished with sentences between 15 and 20 years, earn almost $2,000 per month. 

These are the best salaries in the Palestinian territories. The Arabic word ratib, meaning "salary", is the official term for this compensation. The law ensures the greatest financial reward for the most egregious acts of terrorism.

 Read  Edwin Blacks most recent bestseller, Financing the Flames for more information

Medical innovation conference in Tel Aviv

Darned Israelis make it so inconvenient to launch and effective boycott.

The latest example of the creative energy and innovation of Israel that has the BDS'ers gnashing their teeth is MedinIsrael, scheduled next month in Tel Aviv.

Representatives from over 60 countries around the world will gather in Tel Aviv March 23rd -26th in a conference that will introduce the latest life-saving Israeli medical innovations.

More than 120 Israeli medical device and health information technology companies  will be participating in the conference.

Profiled are
* B-Cure Laser, the world’s first portable/home use Low Level Laser Therapy (LLLT) pain treatment device,
* BioGaming, an Israeli start-up that has won 1st prize Innovation Award at Medica 2014, which develops virtual reality computer games for orthopedics and sports rehabilitation
*EnzySurge, with products designed to treat chronic wounds and promote long-term natural healing processes.
*Doctome, an accessible, affordable telemedicine service which allows people around the globe to consult a caregiver in their own language by video and chat,
*Biovo Technologies, which has engineered groundbreaking ventilation devices for surgical patients
* Epsilor, a manufacturer of custom medical battery packs and charger solutions for emergency, surgical, therapeutic, and other healthcare applications.
*Integrity Applications,  which has developed a non-invasive blood glucose monitor

For more information, check out the MedinIsrael conference webpage

JVP tries to change the conversation at Davis

Jewish voice for Peace picks up its marketing strategy from Don Draper and Mad Men:
"If you don't like what is being said, then change the conversation."

Via Gabi Kirk, the paid JVP shill who is a regular at California Campus divestment proceedings.

Gabi Kirk doesn't seem genuinely concerned with the feelings of the Jewish students targeted in their homes- she cares only about the media, and how to spin the news.

She writes:

As you already know UC Davis passed a divestment resolution this week. Earlier today, it was discovered that the Jewish fraternity house AEPi was spray painted with two swastikas. 

http://www.sacbee.com/news/local/crime/article8865731.html

Almost all media coverage has tied together this hate crime with divestment and quoted AEPi students claiming it was because of divestment that this happened. We are hoping to lift up the statement below from SJP and their allies, saying how we are proud to work in a coalition with SJP and all the others signed on, in support of human rights, and how we also condemn both hate crimes and efforts to group non-violent efforts like divestment in with these hate crimes. 

Sac Bee could use some letters to the editor and please feel free to share other media coverage that warrants a response. 

Gabi Kirk often comes across as bitter and jealous.

 

 "As a Jew", Gabi, don't you want Jewish students to have a safe place on campus?

Anti-Israel activists threaten to silence LGBT voices at UC Santa Cruz

This weeks events at UC Davis highlighted the increasingly shrill intolerance of anti-Israel activists and their efforts to drown out opposing voices on California campuses. The  exposure of the anti-Semitism at the heart of the BDS movement, the taunts of "Allahu Akbar"directed towards Jewish students and the poisoned campus climate have had a chilling effect that extends well beyond the boundaries of the bucolic Davis campus.

No, Davis is not alone in this struggle.

Tyler Gregory, the Director of Programs and Development  at A Wider Bridge was recently invited to UC Santa Cruz by the staff of Hillel.  The  program was scheduled for the Lionel Cantu LGBT Center on campus. According to Tyler, his objective was " to engage LGBT students with Israel through the experiences of Israeli LGBT people – their challenges and victories, their fight for equality, and their desire to live and to love."

Tyler Gregory has documented how  "students and faculty, unsuccessfully attempted to use intimidation to cancel the event", and failing that, threatened to drown out their voices.

No, it was not the Westboro Baptist church trying to silence the voices of LGBT activists. It wasn't a far right homophobic  group, motivated by religious fervor. It  wasn't a neo-fascist group.
Had it been, perhaps this story would have been more widely heard,

It was anti-Israel activists that threatened to silence LGBT voices at UC Santa Cruz

Tyler writes:

The day of the program, Israel's detractors at Santa Cruz began contacting the LGBT Center to demand that the program be canceled and then to threaten that they would block students' entry to the event. The environment in and around the LGBT Center, intended to be a safe place for students, became so hostile and threatening that the program was relocated. With the leadership of Cantu Center Director Deb Abbott, Hillel Director Jim Atkins, and UC Santa Cruz Provost Elizabeth Abrams, the program moved forward successfully at the campus' Merrill College.

What is it about what I had to say that so angered or threatened the protesters that, rather than simply not attend, they seemed determined to deny interested students the opportunity to learn, engage, and come to their own conclusions? Our nuanced message about Israel and its LGBT community — thriving, yet still yearning for equality, doesn't fit well into their black and white world, in which Israel is nothing more than a pariah state. The students who came to the program that evening learned that the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have allowed gays and lesbians to serve openly since 1993, the same year Bill Clinton signed "Don't Ask Don't Tell" into law. They discovered that LGBT Israelis have been protected from workplace discrimination since 1992, while the US Congress in 2015 has still failed to pass ENDA. At the same time, I didn't shy from sharing that same sex marriages are not yet legally performed anywhere in Israel and that beyond the gay "mecca" of Tel Aviv, homophobia is still widespread. Why? Because these realities aren't about promoting or rejecting Israeli governmental policies – they're about relating shared experiences to build understanding and connection.

Read it all here.

Dam. Who would fall for such an obviously staged photo?

One popular form of "Pallywood" are the photos and videos staged specifically to demonize Israel

Palestinian Rap group Dam tried their hand this week, with their "selfie" going viral on social media. It was captioned "A selfie while the Israeli military running after me"

Who would fall for such an obviously staged photo?

Richard Silverstein, for one.

A spokesperson for the band has reportedly confirmed that the photo was staged. The DAM associate told Buzzfeed News they did not want to be quoted on record because “they’re enjoying watching the reaction the photo is generating online”. After nearly 24 hours, an admission, of sorts, was released

A Conversation about Anti-Semitism in Europe

 An important event is being held at Temple Isaiah next week.

The American Jewish Committee (AJC) San Francisco and Temple Isaiah of Lafayette will be hosting  “Making the World Safer for Our Next Generation: A Conversation about Anti-Semitism in Europe,” on Tuesday, February 10, at 7 p.m. in the Sanctuary.

A panel of European consul generals will discuss the threatening rise of anti-Semitism in their countries. We will learn how they are dealing with the situation and what we can do to further the safety of Jews worldwide. This timely discussion is co-sponsored by a number of East Bay congregations and Jewish organizations

International Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi stands with its brothers at UC Davis

Andrew Borans of the International Jewish fraternity Alpha Epsilon Pi issued a strong statement of solidarity with our brothers at UC Davis.

    Alpha Epsilon Pi (AEPi) condemns, in the strongest possible terms, the anti-Semitic hate crime that occurred this past Saturday morning at the University of California, Davis. (UC-Davis)

    AEPi’s 9,000 undergraduate and 85,000 alumni brothers stand strongly in solidarity and support with our brothers at UC-Davis.

    On campuses throughout North America and Europe, AEPi brothers have been leading the Jewish community and leading the student movement to defend Israel. Because of that leadership, in the last few months alone, our brothers have been the targets of anti-Semitic attacks at a dozen universities including Oregon, the Claremont Colleges, Arizona, Calgary, Loyola, Ohio, Ohio State, Vanderbilt, Temple, Emory, SUNY-Oneonta, Tufts and, now, in Davis.

    Last week, our UC-Davis brothers proudly defended Israel while the student government voted to adopt a hostile anti-Israel resolution.  Within hours of that vote, during the Sabbath night, our fraternity house was vandalized with swastikas. Anti-Semitism is on the rise on college campuses across the world, and the “BDS movement” — the effort to boycott, divest from, and sanction Israel — is the chief face of campus anti-Semitism.

    Alpha Epsilon Pi International has dispatched staff and security experts to Davis to assure that our brothers are safe in their university and safe when expressing their Judaism and support for Israel.  We are cooperating with university and law enforcement authorities in the ongoing criminal investigation.  Additionally, we are working in coordination with the Secure Community Network — the national homeland security initiative of the Jewish Federations of North America and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations — to assure the safety of our Brothers across the world and to educate students, college administrators, and local communities about the rising tide of anti-Semitism.

    AEPi will not allow any brother — or any Jew — on any campus to be intimidated or threatened because of their ethnicity or their support for Israel.


He followed up with a statement reassuring the parents of students in the fraternity.

In which UC Davis Senator Azka Fayyaz attempts to play victim

Today the Daily Aggie, the school paper of UC Davis contained an op-ed by Azka Fayyaz, entitled "Letter to the community from ASUCD senator Azka Fayyaz".  Its not an apology.  Azka's a bit upset about her recent notoriety, and wants everyone to know for a certainty, that she is the victim. Really she is.

She writes:

On Thursday, January 29, 2015, after the ASUCD Senate voted “Yes” by a supermajority to pass the Divestment Resolution, I posted a picture with the Pro-Divestment community on my personal Facebook with a satirical caption.  Although I made a comment on the picture stating that the caption was satirical, the anti-divestment community conveniently left out the comment from the rest of the picture and took the caption out of context.

Her claim isn’t valid- the comments are posted in context, and there is nothing that indicates that her deeply offensive statements were anything other than her sincere feelings.

 It was a screen shot, Azka. If it were edited or altered you'd be able to prove it. Its your Facebook account.

Instead, Azka, you took it down.

Do you really  expect us to believe  this is satire ?

 If you were convinced that the context of your statement would exonerate you, why did you immediately close down your Facebook page?

The depth of her animosity  towards those who disagree with her extremist views is made crystal clear with her statement, published in the Aggie. To this Muslim Student Association activist, her students peers are part of  the "Zionist lobby', and their only motivation could possibly be money.

As a veiled, Muslim senator, I have been attacked many times during my term by the anti-divestment community on campus, specifically the leadership of both AEPi, the Jewish fraternity at UC Davis, and Aggies for Israel, who have made it their mission to harass me over social media and actively censor my online presence during this summer’s atrocious Operation Protective Edge, which resulted in the death of over 2,000 Gazans. More specifically, these communities have violently stalked me on Facebook and reported the contents of my profile to the Zionist lobby groups which they have been paid to represent. 

A simple adjustment of your Facebook privacy setting would have taken care of that, Azka.  And if you hadn't  conveniently  hidden your account your claims of being “violently stalked”  and “harassed” on Facebook could be easily substantiated.



Azka Fayyaz concludes "My hope is that any intelligent person is able to discern between satire and fact."

We can, Azka. Yes we can. And that why we fear for the future of UC Davis.

Extremist anti- Israel groups planning on protesting AIPAC again

A consortium of  extremist anti-Israel groups, including Code Pink,  End The Occupation, Jewish Voice for Peace,  Students for Justice in Palestine East  and If Americans Knew have begun plans to disrupt the Washington AIPAC Policy Conference, in an effort to  "Shut Down AIPAC"

With nearly 14,000 expected in DC  to help nuture a strong relationship between Israel and America, the assorted fringe groups are going to have a rather difficult time.

Maybe their friends from Hezbollah will join them again this year.

 

Expect the usual shrill disruptions, inane signage and mindless blather that is characteristic of a Code Pink event.

As of now, their agenda includes.

February 28-March 3, Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu will be in DC to address AIPAC, join CODEPINK and Humanity for Palestine for actions to #ShutDownAIPAC! 

(For information about civil disobedience actions or to become an organizational endorser please contact anna@codepink.org)


Saturday, February 28, 2015
1:00PM Know Your Rights/Civil Disobedience Training at the CODEPINK house  (1241 Evarts Street NE, Washington D.C) 

7:00PM – 10:00PM –  #OneStruggle #OneFight at Trinity Lutheran Church in DC
Join Philip Giraldi, organizers from Ferguson, Missouri, and a Student for Justice in Palestine (SJP) organizer to discuss the similarities between systems of oppression across the globe.

Sunday, March 1, 2015
12:00PM Rally at the Washington Convention Center
Join activists from around the country to call for an end to Israeli apartheid to #ShutDownAIPAC! Converge at the Washington Convention Center to send the message that the movement to #FreePalestine is gaining strength and momentum.

Monday, March 2, 2015
5:00 PM Candlelight vigil at the Washington Convention Center
Join activists for candlelight vigil to remember the names of those lost and humanize the conflict

Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Flyer Drop on the Hill during AIPAC’s Lobby Day in Congress
Congressional Call-In Day