BDS rears its ugly head (again) at the Park Slope Food Coop

BDS has reared its ugly head again at the Park Slope Food Coop,  promoting a Sodastream boycott with a rather Orwellian twist of language. How can you not marvel at the twisted  mental and moral gymnastics required to call the boycott  " food justice"  for "people of color",  when the reality is exactly  the opposite?

 The Sodastream boycott has already cost 950 Arabs their jobs and their livelihoods.

From the Park Slope BDS Facebook Page. The timing was particularly interesting, as Sodatsream is scheduled to move to a new factory later this month.

The coop meeting was characterized by all the vitriol we've come to associate with BDS inserting its ugliness into our beloved neighborhood institutions and  civic organizations. This time, it was the aftermath that made it particularly special.

Writing in the Independent, a local BDS hole blamed the failure of BDS at the Park Slope Food Coop on (you guessed it) the Jews.

From the New York Daily News:

The fact that some people spoke up stridently against the boycott didn't sit well with BDS proponent Ann Schneider, who lamented in a post at the Indypendent:

"I talked to my friend, another long-time member, Carol Lipton. She reminded me that the Coop had a membership drive in the 90's and reached out to Borough Park, rather than Red Hook, Sunset Park or Brooklyn's Chinatown.

"While we have worked for four decades to create a community based on cooperation, equality, diversity, organic farming and sustainability, ‘we've incorporated members whose core values are the antithesis of ours, except for the common denominator of concern for healthful and cheap food,' Lipton said."

In other words: Those damn Borough Park Jews ruined everything.

It doesn't take a lot of effort to see the dark core of anti-Semitism in the heart of the BDS movement

Israel is for Lovers.

Think of it as Birthright for Honeymooners.

Honeymoon Israel is a private 501c3  offering highly subsidized, 9-day trips to Israel for couples 25-40, with opportunities for social action, fun and adventure.  It is completely inclusive and open to LGBT and interfaith couples. Spaces are filling up quickly- in Los Angeles, 85 couples applied for 20 spots.

Check out the itinerary from the Phoenix trip. 

From the website of Honeymoon Israel

Honeymoon Israel's agenda is for you to have fun, experience all that Israel has to offer and meet other young couples from your community. 

Our organization's agenda is to expand the definition of Jewish life in America and to offer enjoyable experiences for couples to connect with one another and to the Jewish community in whatever way works for them. Honeymoon Israel does not have a specific agenda or prescription for this but rather seeks to support couples in their own exploration and to foster the organic development of community.

In collaboration with local partners, Honeymoon Israel works with individual couples and groups of couples to explore Jewish life and values, but Honeymoon Israel is not affiliated with or promoting any specific institutions. 

From the Washington Jewish Week

“Our goal is to reach couples for whom the experience will have the greatest impact – couples who haven’t figured out how to have a Jewish family,” said Avi Rubel, a Washington native who created Honeymoon Israel with Michael Wise, a former executive director of the Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo.

A San Francisco trip is in the works. 

Who is Behind NoTaxDollarsToIsrael.com ?

The bus wars continue.  Spotted in San Francisco today

NoTaxDollarsToIsrael.com is run by Paul Larudee of the Free Palestine Movement. Paul is a proud member of Jewish Voice for Peace  and  was personally invited to Gaza by Hamas.  He has been involved in a variety of assaults on Israel's borders and sovereignty, including  the Global march to Jerusalem, and various flotillas

NGO Monitor has assembled a factsheet  highlighting the extremist rhetoric of Paul Larudee

From the NGO Monitor Factsheet

The domain ‘NoTaxDollarstoIsrael.com’ is registered to Paul Larudee who is also the website’s administrator.

Larudee’s extremism includes the promotion of antisemitic themes, rationalization and justification of terrorism, and meeting with and receiving a medal of honor from leaders of Hamas.  Hamas is listed as terrorist organizations by the EU, the US, the UK, Canada, and many other countries.

Larudee has written of Jewish/Zionist “control” over US “media” and “government”:
In his article Strangler Fig Nation, Larudee’s main theme is that Israel, through the American Jewish community, is a “parasite” 1  feeding off the host/victim nation – the United States – by “controlling” key U.S. institutions. The article includes the following points (links in the original):

“the Israel Lobby has grown with few constraints, fed by its domination of the American Jewish community, extensive control of publishing and the media, the establishment and control of strategic think tanks that provide governmental advisers, and by a well-coordinated and lavishly funded political campaign machine.”

 “Israel now controls US policy in the Middle East.”

  “Israel has thus constructed a strangler fig network of roots and vines that is feeding itself from the resources of world’s most powerful nation while gradually starving that nation… if a strangler fig is allowed to thrive, its host will wither and die, and only its form will remain as an empty shell for as long as the parasite continues to survive.”

Larudee linked the phrase “domination of the American Jewish establishment” to the website of the Institute for Historical Review (IHR). IHR is described by the Anti-Defamation League as “the world's single most important outlet for Holocaust-denial propaganda.” The Southern Poverty Law Center describes the IHR’s “real purpose is to promote Holocaust denial and defend Nazism.”

In an interview on official Iranian media outlet Press TV Larudee “noted that the Western media is controlled by pro-Zionist propagandists and this is why the international community does not react to the Israeli crimes.”

In another Press TV interview (Dec 1, 2013) Larudee said, “Well, any non-Jew is a threat to Israel. So they need to be gotten rid of one way or another.”

In another Press TV interview (July 6, 2014) Larudee said, “I think I can say with confidence that the United States will defend its citizens to the extent that it is permitted to do so by the Israeli government. The United States never goes any farther than Israel is willing to accept.”
Larudee has expressed support for terrorism, euphemistically called “armed resistance”:

In an interview on the Berkeley, California radio station KPFA, Larudee said:

“Although we 2 are totally dedicated to non-violence, we recognize that not everybody that we work with in the Palestinian community is necessarily devoted to non-violence. And under international law, it is permitted for oppressed and occupied peoples to resist using armed resistance. This is permitted and we recognize their right to do so.”

The latest bus ads on MUNI are just another ugly, inaccurate attempt to demonize Israel by enablers of terror and anti-Semitism hiding behind the veneer of "Peace activism'

Read NGO Monitor's full report on Paul Larduee here

Israeli field Hospital in Nepal to return Home

After 10 days, the Israeli field hospital in quake ravaged Nepal is packing up and heading back to Israel on Monday.

“Today the IDF completed its mission in Nepal. The mission consisted of 260 search and rescue and medical personnel and 95 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies,” said IDF Spokesperson Lt. Col Peter Lerner.

The 60-bed field hospital was set up in Katmandu. Over 16,000 people were injured and nearly 8,000 perished in the 7.8 quake. 

The field hospital treated over 1,600 patients since it was set up.

90 operations were performed on Nepal victims of the quake. 8 babies were born, including two c-sections.

Nepal's Urban Development Minister Narayan Khadka expressed the Nepal government's gratitude declared."Let me express our sincere gratitude to the government of Israel and to the people of Israel for helping us in times of very critical hours for Nepal."

More Home Demolitions in Israel

If Mondoweiss or the Electronic Intifada  reported this, the headline would scream

"Israel displaces indigenous inhabitants"

or perhaps

"Israel bird-washes ethnic cleansing"

or even

"Activists cry 'Fowl play'  as Israel deliberately removes children from their family home"

From the Times of Israel

Fights at Israel’s main international airport were brought to a halt for half an hour on Tuesday by a falcon’s nest, home to five baby birds, which set up camp in a control tower.

The nest was constructed on a navigational antenna at Ben Gurion Airport by a pair of falcons that successfully hatched  five birds, Channel 2 reported.

Airport authorities launched an operation to remove the nest amid concerns the birds would disrupt flights. Officials clambered up the 15-meter-high tower where they discovered five nestlings in the makeshift twig home.

As the worried adult birds circled overhead, the baby falcons were carefully removed and taken to the nearby Ramat Gan Safari for a check-up at the veterinary clinic.

Each bird was fitted with a harmless metal tag ring on one of its legs, which can be used for future identification of the animal. The falcons, famous for their ability to dive at high speed to snatch their prey, are to be raised at the safari and then eventually returned to the wild once they can fend for themselves.

Since the young birds needed to be moved a considerable distance from the nest’s location, there was no way to ensure that the parents would be able to find them.

Matti Friedman on the Breaking the Silence report

Matti Friedman on "Breaking the Silence"

I’ve been asked a few times about the “Breaking the Silence” report that is currently being played up by the international press, as is any report that fits the narrative of Israelis as war criminals. (Contradictory reports, like the recent one I posted here from two US military experts, are not considered news.) I hope that most intelligent people have stopped taking international press coverage of Israel too seriously. But there are a few things that are important to understand.

1. War is awful and people come back feeling upset about things they’ve seen and done. Some observers are reliable, and others aren’t. Some of the things described in the report no doubt happened as they were described. Others didn’t. Infantrymen at the bottom of the hierarchy often don’t understand what they’re seeing, or the reasons for what they’re doing, and I’m speaking from experience. Things that make no sense to a private, sergeant, or lieutenant sometimes (but by no means always) make more sense if you go a few notches up the command chain. Young soldiers tend not to understand this, certainly not at the time and not immediately afterward. For example, open-fire regulations at a particular time could seem too aggressive given your limited understanding of where you are. If you have all of the information at your disposal – and no soldier does – you might understand why. A target shelled for reasons unknown to you might have been shelled for good reason after all. Or not. You don’t know, and in many cases (but not all) it’s a mistake to think you do. Drawing broad conclusions about Israeli military practice from “testimonies” of this kind is irresponsible.

2. Professional journalists looking at this report, and at similar reports, should be asking (but aren't, of course): Compared to what? IDF open-fire regulations are lax – compared to what? Civilian casualty rates are high – compared to what? Compared to the U.S. in Fallujah? The British in Northern Ireland? The Canadians in Helmand Province? “Lax” and “high” are relative terms. If Israel is being compared to other countries in similar situations, we need to know what the comparison is. Otherwise, beyond the details of individual instances the broad criticism is meaningless.

3. Breaking the Silence is described as an organization of Israeli veterans trying to expose Israelis to the nature of service in the occupied territories, in order to have a political impact on Israeli society. That's what it was a long time ago, and it once had an important role to play. But now it's something else. Today, like B’Tselem and others, it's a group funded in large part by European money which serves mainly to provide international reporters with the lurid examples of Israeli malfeasance that they crave. They are not speaking to Israelis, but are rather exploiting Israelis' uniquely talkative and transparent nature in order to defame them.

There is actually a fairly straightforward solution to this problem. Any group genuinely fighting for the character of Israeli society should do so in Hebrew, which is the language that Israelis speak. If you're expending a great deal of energy and money translating your materials into English and speaking to foreign reporters, as we’re seeing Breaking the Silence do right now, I think it's fair to ask what, exactly, you're up to. How is speaking to the international press supposed to swing Israelis in your direction? Of course it has the opposite effect.

As long as this state of affairs continues, Israelis will be correct in identifying this group and its sister organizations as people paid by foreigners to say things that a lot of foreigners want to hear Israelis say. And Israelis will continue to live without the strong left that we need – one that comes from Israel, is part of Israel, and is concerned with bettering our society, not with posturing for an audience abroad whose hostile obsession with us has nothing to do with us at all.

Read more about the new Breaking the Silence report here:

Breaking the Silence: A Middleman For Anonymous Sources

California Community colleges reject BDS

The largest educational system in the United States -the California Community College System- has said no to BDS.

During their semi-annual meeting on May 3rd, the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges (GASSCCC) voted against divestment with a final vote of 25 in favor, 44 opposed, and six abstentions.

Over 2.1 million students are represented by the General Assembly of the Student Senate of California Community Colleges.

The California Community colleges join the University of Toledo, the University of Texas at Austin, University of Michigan, UC Santa Barbara, Princeton and the University of New Mexico- all of whom have defeated anti-Israel resolutions in the past few weeks.

15 seconds to Run

The IDF  Homefront Command  has  released an updated version of its rocket alert map on Sunday, showing people how long they have in a given area to seek shelter from rocket attacks.

The new map is based on lessons drawn from the 2014 conflict with Hamas in Gaza, Lt.-Col. Tal Michaelovich, head of public information at the Home Front Command, told The Jerusalem Post. It is part of a new public campaign designed to improve awareness among civilians during emergencies

A new spin on the water Libel: Gideon Levy lies in Haaretz

Gideon Levy writes, from behind a paywall in Haaretz

There are no swimming pools in the Gaza Strip because, among other things, there’s not enough water. Nor enough electricity; it’s only supplied six to eight hours a day. 

He's wrong, of course. 

Gaza has an Olympic sized swimming pool , opened in the As-Sadaka club  to much fanfare in 2010

Many hotels in Gaza also have swimming pools, including the Arcmed Al Mashtal

And the Commodore Gaza

There is a swimming pool in Asda City

There are even swimming pools in private homes, in Gaza, including this one featured at booking.com

Faced with incontrovertible evidence of the error of his statement, what will Gideon Levy and Haaretz do? Likely nothing.  When faced with an opportunity to demonize Israel, no lie is too big, or too small to spread. 

Work Accident. Hamas terrorist killed in Tunnel collapse

Hamas continues to divert critical humanitarian supplies into replacing its network of terror tunnels, showing disregard not only for the ordinary citizens of Gaza, but for its own operatives that toil in the tunnels.

Hundreds have been reported killed in construction of  the Hamas network of tunnels, including children as young as 16. The Institute for Palestine Studies reported in 2012 that  160 had died within the tunnels since 2007  In August 2014, Al-Jazeera reported that figure to be as high as 400. The latest causality occurred today.  According to the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades Nihad Awad Khalif  30, of Beit Lahiya  in the collapse of what was described as a "tunnel resistance project."

Nihad Khalif, killed in collapse of Hamas Terror Tunnel

Are Arabs the Indigenous People of Palestine?

One of the reoccurring themes in the propaganda war against Israel is that the Palestinians are the indigenous people and that they are resisting a Jewish European colonial invasion.   Its part of an effort to frame the conflict in a way that presents the Palestinians as the victims, rather than the perpetrators of this conflict.

This myth flies in the face of the historic, linguistic and archaeological record. Although some Palestinian Arab families can trace their lineage back hundreds of years, the vast majority are recent economic migrants who arrived in pre-state Israel in recent years.

Our friend Daniel Grynglas  answers the question “Are Arabs the Indigenous People of Palestine?” in the Jewish Press. He highlights the fact that much of the Arab immigration to the Holy land was recent. Rather than  being the indigenous inhabitant of the land, the Arabs migrated to this land to take advantage of the economic opportunities offered by the Jewish population.

“The Arab population shows a remarkable increase ….. partly due to the import of Jewish capital into Palestine and other factors associated with the growth of the [Jewish] National Home..” The (Peel Commission Report – 1937)

“..in the Jewish settlement Rishon l’Tsion founded in 1882, by the year 1889, the forty Jewish families settled there,  had attracted more than four hundred Arab families….  Many other Arab villages had sprouted in the same fashion.” (Joan Peters – From Time Immemorial p. 252 – referenced further as: FTI)

British PM Winston Churchill said in 1939: “.. far from being persecuted, the Arabs have crowded into the country [Palestine]..”

 A young journalist reporting for the Boston Post from 1948 Palestine, also highlighted the influx of Arab immigration, writing,

The Jews point with pride to the fact that over 500,000 Arabs in the 12 years between 1932 and 1944, came into Palestine to take advantage of living conditions existing in no other Arab state. This is the only country in the Near and Middle East where an Arab middle class is in existence.

Read all of Robert F Kennedys' reports from Palestine here 

Arab immigration to pre-state Israel during the British Mandate period has also been well documented in the "Rape of Palestine" (1938) by William Ziff, who has written:

"We should expect to find an exodus of Arabs from lands where Jews are settled. But exactly the opposite is true: it is precisely in the vicinity of those Jewish villages that Arab development is most marked. Arab Haifa, profiting from the Jewish boom grew from 1922 to 1936 by 130%, Jaffa by 80% and Jerusalem by 55%...In the vicinity of the Jewish villages Arab workers earn twice the wage paid in other parts of Palestine.

Once the poorest , sorriest population in this whole section of poverty stricken masses, the Arabs of Palestine are now the richest per capita of their race"

And:

Soon at Petach Tikvah a thriving agricultural colony was established. Jewish resettlement had begun in dead earnest. By 1883, three thousand of these hardy dreamers had landed in Jaffa .

Progress continued quietly and steadily. Arabs attracted by the magnetizing vitality of the returning Jew began to drift in from impoverished Syria , from Egypt , and from the desert wastes. Palestine was making enormous strides.”

Although there are some Arab families that can trace their history back for hundreds of years, the vast majority of the ancestors of today’s Palestinians were immigrants to pre-state Israel in recent historic times. 

Read Daniel's article in its entirety here.

For more information on Arab immigration to pre-state Israel, see

Who are the Palestinians?

The Smoking Gun: Arab Immigration into Palestine, 1922-1931

Nepal: The Jewish World Responds

From E Jewish philanthropy: 

Here are some opportunities to support the work of Jewish and Israeli organizations helping to meet the needs of those most severely affected by the recent earthquakes:

• AJWS – With its long-standing commitment to disaster relief in the developing world, AJWS has set up an Earthquake Emergency Relief Fund.
• Cadena – The humanitarian aid organization of the Jewish community in Mexico
• Chabad – Hundreds of Israeli backpackers and tourists are taking refuge at the Chabad center in Kathmandu.
• IsraAID – IsraAID has a disaster team en route to Nepal.
• JDC – JDC has set up an emergency campaign to provide urgent assistance, in particular medical relief and supplies in the hardest-hit areas.
• Magen David Adom – the first Israeli relief group on the ground in Kathmandu.
• Tevel – Having worked in Nepal for the last 8 years, Tevel already has 47 Israeli staff and volunteers and 55 Nepali staff and fellows currently on the ground in Kathmandu and the surrounding villages, who are redirecting their work from year-round community development to immediate disaster relief efforts. Tevel is also looking for Israel-based volunteers to help manage relief efforts from their office in Jerusalem.
• United Hatzalah of Israel – Based in Kathmandu, their rescue units will primarily focus on searching for and providing lifesaving medical treatment to survivors.
• World Jewish Relief – The British Jewish communities response to international disasters.
• Zaka – Israel’s major non-governmental lifesaving, rescue and recovery organization.

JCPA: The Gaza War 2014

From the JCPA report  The Gaza War 2014: The War Israel Did Not Want and the Disaster It Averted , executive summary

The Gaza War 2014: The War Israel Did Not Want and the Disaster It Averted is a researched and documented narrative that relates the truth as it happened. Israel was the target of thousands of rockets and mortar attacks against its civilian population, with some Israeli areas targeted that had three times the population density of Gaza. Israel clearly acted out of self-defense.

Though the images of the moment may have reflected massive damage in Gaza, the Chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Martin Dempsey, announced on November 6, 2014, that Israel had gone to “extraordinary lengths to limit collateral damage and prevent civilian casualties in the Gaza conflict.” A team of senior U.S. officers was sent to learn from Israel’s tactics. An analysis of UN satellite photos taken during the war shows that 72 percent of all damaged areas in Gaza were “within two miles of the Israeli border.”

 While this was a war Israel did not want, it was a war that inadvertently preempted a terrorist massacre inside Israel’s heartland, principally through a network of sophisticated tunnels built deep under the border, and intended to stream hundreds, if not thousands, of dedicated terrorists, many on suicide missions, in the quiet of night, to destinations where they could kill as many innocent people as possible and leave Israel mauled as never before. This was potentially Hamas’ terrorist version of the 1973 Yom Kippur War, when Egypt and Syria launched a joint surprise attack on Israeli forces in Sinai and the Golan Heights.

Israel suffered 74 dead in the war. Had the Iron Dome system not intercepted 735 rockets fired from Gaza, the Israeli casualty count would have been incalculably higher. Had Hamas accepted the Egyptian ceasefire proposal of July 15, as did Israel, Palestinian wartime fatalities would have numbered less than 200, as opposed to more than 2,100 who died by the time Hamas agreed to a final ceasefire on August 27. Thus, Hamas was fully responsible for more than 1,800 Palestinian deaths.

 Moreover, while UN and Palestinian sources claimed that 72 to 84 percent of Palestinians in Gaza killed during the war were civilians, there are strong reasons to argue that the percentage of civilian casualties was less than 50 percent, a low one-to-one combatant-to-civilian ratio that is unprecedented in modern-day warfare. In addition, we don’t know how many Palestinians in Gaza died as human shields or of natural causes during the 50 days of war, or how many were casualties of the 875 Palestinian rockets known to have landed inside Gaza.

Yet many in the international community uncritically accepted the narrative about the war advanced by Hamas and its allies. A discerning look at the facts of what happened, however, would lead to the conclusion that it is Hamas, not Israel, which should be in the dock for war crimes and crimes against humanity.

Read the full report here

Stanford Campus Defaced with Swastikas

This weekend,  several residential facilities on the Stanford campus were defaced with swastikas. The vandalism was condemned widely as a hate crime, by student groups, religious leaders and university administrators. Stanford police are investigating the vandalism as a hate crime under its Acts of Intolerance Protocol.

Stanford President John Hennessy has condemned the early Sunday morning vandalism of swastikas spray-painted around student residences as an act of hate "that has no place at Stanford..."

"I am deeply troubled by the act of vandalism, including symbols of hate, that has marred our campus," Hennessy said Sunday. "The university will not tolerate hate crimes and this incident will be fully investigated, both by campus police and by the university under our Acts of Intolerance Protocol. This level of incivility has no place at Stanford. I ask everyone in the university community to stand together against intolerance and hate, and to affirm our commitment to a campus community where discourse is civil, where we value differences, and where every individual is respected."

Later, hundreds attended a Stand in Solidarity against AntiSemitism Vigil in White plaza organized by Jewish groups on campus.

According to the Stanford review, 

Similar Neo-Nazi graffiti incidents have occurred on many college campuses. UC Berkeley, UCDavis, Harvard, Yale, George Washington University — to name a few —  have all had reported incidents of anti-semitic graffiti.

From Israel to Nepal. With love.

From the lowest place on earth, to the highest place on earth. Israel is there for Nepal.

As the impoverished nation of Nepal reels from the effect of the 7.8 earthquake and unrelenting aftershocks, Israeli teams have arrived, and are contributing with search and rescue teams, medical assistance and 95 tons of equipment. A field hospital has been set up in Kathmandu with 60 beds, two operating rooms, an X-ray and ultrasound room, labs for blood tests, two incubators  and eight intensive care beds.  122 doctors and nurses will be on duty between 7 A.M. and 11 P.M. 

Israel has more volunteers in Nepal than the US, China or the UK. 

At the time of the earthquake, there were 650 Israelis in Nepal, with 250 of them in Kathmandu. Many have been sheltering at Chabad House and the Israeli Embassy. Others have already been evacuated.

How can you help?

The Jewish Federations of North America have set up a Nepal Relief Fund

To pay by check, please make checks payable to The Jewish Federations of North America with “Nepal Relief Fund” in the memo field. All checks can be sent to:

The Jewish Federations of North America 
Wall Street Station 
PO Box 157 
New York, NY 10268

You can donate by credit card here

Action needed: Call State Education Committee Senate re: Concurrent Resolution No. 35—Relative to Anti-Semitism.

Call members of the California State Education Committee today (tomorrow is too late) and urge them to pass Senate Concurrent Resolution #35, taking a firm stand against anti-Semitism on campus

• Senate Education Committee Staff Director Kathleen Chavira, (916) 651-4105
• Senate Education Committee Chair Carol Liu, (916) 651-4025
• Vice-Chair Senator Sharon Runner, (916) 651-4021
• Senator Marty Block, (916) 651-4039
• Senator Loni Hancock, (916) 651-4009
• Senator Connie M. Leyva, (916) 651-4920
• Senator Tony Mendoza, (916) 651-4932
• Senator Bill Monning, (916) 651-4017
• Senator Richard Pan,  (916) 651-4906
• Senator Andy Vidak,  (916) 651-4914

Introduced by Senator Stone

(Coauthors: Senators Anderson, Bates, Berryhill, Block, Gaines, Mitchell, Roth, Vidak, and Wolk)

March 26, 2015

---

Senate Concurrent Resolution No. 35—Relative to Anti-Semitism.

LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL’S DIGEST SCR 35, as introduced, Stone. Anti-Semitism.This measure would urge each University of California campus to adopt a resolution condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and racism, and would condemn any act of anti-Semitism augmenting education programs at all publicly funded schools in the State of California.

WHEREAS, The United States Department of State defines anti-Semitism as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of anti-Semitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities”; and

WHEREAS, There is clear evidence of increasing and alarming incidents and expressions of anti-Semitism throughout the world; and

WHEREAS, From sea to shining sea one can witness the proliferation of anti-Semitic activity; and

WHEREAS, In February of 2015, the California Legislature’s Jewish Caucus held a press conference addressing anti-Semitic acts and in the same week an estimated 500 people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol to protest the recent rise in anti-Semitic acts occurring across the nation, including the display of the Nazi swastika symbol superimposed on to an American flag that was hung in the front of a private home in Sacramento’s River Park neighborhood, which tarnished the reputation of the Golden State; and

WHEREAS, Swastikas and other anti-Semitic sentiments have increased in recent months on college campuses across the country and around the world; and

WHEREAS, In 2014, the kinds of recorded anti-Semitic acts committed in the United States and around the world included murders; violent attacks, and death threats against Jews; arson, graffiti and property desecration; and murders at Jewish cemeteries, places of worship, schools, and community events; and

WHEREAS, These types of anti-Semitic acts also extended to soccer stadiums, the internet, editorial cartoons, and the use of Nazi salutes, leading many Jewish individuals to conceal their religious and ethnic identity; and

WHEREAS, In April of 2014, the United States Department of State released the International Religious Freedom Report recognizing that anti-Semitism continues to be internationally prevalent; and

WHEREAS, The governments of France, Germany, Italy, and the United Kingdom, the four countries where the majority of anti-Semitic incidents have occurred in Europe, have strongly condemned anti-Semitism as unacceptable in European society and have all made clear statements that such attacks on their Jewish communities are intolerable; and

WHEREAS, The State of California actively promotes tolerance to all faiths and religions; and

WHEREAS, The United States government has played an essential role in counteracting the resurgence of anti-Semitism worldwide and has consistently supported efforts to address the rise in anti-Semitism through its bilateral relationships and participation in international organizations such as the United Nations, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, and the Organization of American States; and

WHEREAS, The Legislature joins with people everywhere in unequivocally condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and rejecting attempts to justify anti-Jewish hatred or violent attacks as an acceptable expression of disapproval or frustration over political events in the Middle East or elsewhere; now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby urges each University of California campus to adopt a resolution condemning all forms of anti-Semitism and racism, including Islamophobia; and be it further

Resolved, That the Legislature condemns any act of anti-Semitism augmenting education programs at all publicly funded schools in the State of California in order to promote tolerance and acceptance of all religious beliefs in accordance with the rights afforded to each person by the Founding Fathers of this nation and the authors of the United States Constitution; and be it further

Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.

Harvard Hosts the Economic Prosperity for Peace Conference

The goal of the BDS movement has never been to build a Palestinian state- the goal to destroy the Jewish one. Joint economic ventures and coexistence projects were discounted and rejected as “normalization”.  The economic health  of the Palestinian people was regarded as collateral damage towards that ultimate goal. 

There is another way.

There is a growing segment of the peace camp that believes the road to a lasting peace between the Palestinians and the Israeli people is mutual respect and recognition, co-existence and co-operation.

Harvard Business School is hosting the Economic Prosperity for Peace Conference, organized by a group of  Arab, Israeli, and American students from Harvard and MIT Sloan School of Management who seek prosperity and peace for all the people of the region

From their website:

The idea behind the conference is to explore the role that the private sector can play in building and promoting economic prosperity for Arabs and Israelis alike as a catalyst for regional stability and cooperation. The conference will take place over one day and through addresses from keynote speakers and several different panels, explore how entrepreneurship, infrastructure development, skills-based training and education can play an important role in laying the groundwork for an eventual and sustainable peace in the region.

For more information about the Economic Prosperity for Peace Conference see:

As You Were Saying...Prosperity key to Mideast peace

Harvard Students Seek Middle East Peace Through Economic Prosperity

Harvard conference on Middle East economic collaboration: A critical win against BDS

The Bay Celebrates Israel

Via Emunah:

Photos from the Facebook page of Israel in San Francisco

Consul general  Dr. Andy David was invited to raise the Israel flag over San Francisco City hall in honor of Israel's 67th birthday.

If I knew there was going to be cookies, I would have come.

Yascher Koach, Israel and San Francisco. May you continue to go from strength to strength.

Happy: Israel 11th Happiest Nation

The World Happiness Report is a survey of global societal well-being that ranks 158 countries by happiness levels.

The six factors are GDP per capita, healthy years of life expectancy, social support (as measured by having someone to count on in times of trouble), trust (as measured by a perceived absence of corruption in government and business), perceived freedom to make life decisions, and generosity (as measured by recent donations, adjusted for differences in income).

For the second year in a row,  Israel is ranked as the 11th happiest country in the world.

"As the science of happiness advances, we are getting to the heart of what factors define quality of life for citizens," said Professor John F. Helliwell of the University of British Columbia and editor of the report. "We are encouraged that more and more governments around the world are listening and responding with policies that put well-being first. Countries with strong social and institutional capital not only support greater well-being, but are more resilient to social and economic crises."  

Top 20 Happiest countries in the world

A Rising Tide Raises All Ships. Block the Boat Irrelevant

The international shipping industry did not fare well during the global economic downturn. After years of losses, shipping firms were struggling. Global shipper TMT Group filed for bankruptcy protection last June.  South Korea's STX Pan Ocean filed for court receivership.  PT Berlian Laju Tanker of Indonesia narrowly avoided bankruptcy. Zim shipping underwent re-organization and restructuring.

In the face of these formidable financial struggles, last summer’s anti-Israel protests at the West coast docks, attracting anywhere from a half dozen to several hundred people  hardly registered a blip on the radar screen. Nonetheless, anti-Israel activists under the moniker “Block the boat’ happily took credit for Zim’s reorganization and consolidation.

Last June, Zim abandoned its Asia-North America trade route, after accumulating over 450 million in loses from 2011-2013.  Block the boat activist  tooted their “direct action” as the catalyst for this routine business decision that was years in the making,

But a rising tide raises all ships.

According to Reuters,

The shipping industry is poised to emerge from its longest downturn in three decades, buoyed by an end to years of overcapacity that have depressed freight rates since the end of a shipping boom in 2008.

 Zim’s financials have also rebounded dramatically since their restructuring

From JOC

“There will be a positive bottom line this year,” says Rafi Danieli, CEO of Zim Integrated Shipping Services, the Israeli ocean carrier that is finally emerging from seven straight years of mounting losses and a multibillion-dollar restructuring that saved it from bankruptcy.

In an interview with JOC.com in London, the 37-year Zim veteran exudes confidence that the Haifa-based carrier will be among the most profitable in the industry within four years.

Zim’s trajectory changed dramatically following a hard-fought $3.4 billion restructuring struck last July, including a $1.4 billion debt-for-equity swap that halved its interest payments and paved the way for a return to profitability.

The deal also left Zim in the control of its creditors of banks, bond holders and charter ship owners who now own 62 percent of the company, with the balance held by the former owner Israel Corp.
The company downsized dramatically during the drawn-out restructuring negotiations in a bid to cut losses that have ballooned to $1.5 billion in the past four years.

The slimmed-down, financially revamped “new” Zim can finally focus fully on operational targets of boosting efficiency, finessing customer service and relationships, sharpening its sales efforts and expanding the cargo base on core routes, according to Danieli.

Zim is targeting growth in the Asia-North and Central America market, which already accounts for some 40 percent of its revenue, and in the fast-growing and profitable intra-Asia market.

Don't bother the Free Palestine Movement with the facts of their own irrelevancy, though. They have joined forces with  the  International Committee for Breaking the Siege of Gaza to present a workshop on stopping Zim ships at the World Social Forum in Tunis.

We suspect they'll be as successful with this as they've been with their other ventures.

A rising tide raises all ships. Block the Boat and the Free Palestine movement are equally irrelevant to Zim's failures, and to Zim's successes.