UNESCO voted 35-8 to allow Syria to stay on human rights panel.
Lets put this in context.
8,000–11,000 people have been killed in Syria at the hands of their own Government, in the last year. Many more have been injured. Tens of thousands of protesters have been imprisoned. Over 600 political prisoners have died under torture. UNICEF has reported that over 400 children have been killed.
From UN Watch
“For UNESCO to keep President Bashar al-Assad on a human rights committee while his regime mercilessly murders its own people is immoral, indefensible and an insult to Syria’s victims,” said Hillel Neuer, executive director of UN Watch, the Geneva human rights group that heads a campaign of 55 parliamentarians, human rights and religious groups demanding Syria’s expulsion.
“The world squandered a golden opportunity to expose the Assad regime’s lack of legitimacy. Politics trumped human rights, with too many UNESCO diplomats fearful that if Syria were removed for gross violations, their own regimes would be next.”
“Today’s appalling decision calls into question the credibility of UNESCO’s mission to promote human rights. Syria’s membership is a lingering stain upon the reputation of the UN as a whole,” said Neuer."
This is an unconscionable evil, and shows how out of touch with reality UNESCO, and indeed, the entire United nations is.
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Its not over yet. The UC Davis Heckler: From CAMERA.
From a March 8, 2012 article written by Samantha Rose Mandeles
On Monday, February 27th , two Israeli soldiers gave a presentation (or at least, attempted to) at the University of California, Davis, meant to correct misconceptions about the moral standards of the IDF.
“Many IDF soldiers feel a deep sense of injustice at how some are misrepresenting them and the IDF. We want to tell you, the public, about our personal experiences,” explains the Israeli Soldiers Stories (ISS) website, an effort of StandWithUs.
Several UC Davis students associated with Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Student Association, and Jewish Voice for Peace attended the lectures (one by a Jewish Israeli and the other by a Druze Israeli) and heckled the presenters. Particularly notable was the self-identified Indian UCD student (“I'm not from Palestine, I'm Indian!”), who accused the ISS guests of turning “Palestine into a land of prostitutes, rapists and child molesters.” The student even asked the presenters “How many women have you raped? How many children have you raped? You are a child molester!” And he admitted freely: “I can embarrass myself all I want. I will stand here and I will heckle! My only purpose today is that this event is shut down!”
A Jweekly.com article further describing the heckling and apparent non-action of campus police can be found here.
Yesterday, Professor Tammi Rossman-Benjamin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-founder of the Amcha Initiative, published a letter to UC president Mark Yudof and the rest of the UC administration decrying the behavior of the hecklers. In the letter, Professor Rossman-Benjamin cites claims by audience members that the Indian student was paid $50 to shout such accusations at the presenters.
A member of the CCAP funded UC Davis pro-Israel organization, Aggies for Israel, corroborates this claim, reporting that he himself witnessed the Indian student in question (identified as Tiru Narayanan) approach another member of the pro-Israel student group and the Provost/ Executive Vice-Chancellor, Ralph Hexter, following the event. According to the student, Narayanan “apologized profusely” for his interruptions, claiming that he had been paid for his behavior and that he “needed the money.” Narayanan apparently also claimed that the students who paid him had given him a script, and that he was asked to review, memorize and deliver parts of the script as his interruption.
CAMERA's students at UC Davis have asked Provost Hexter to document Narayanan's verbal apology in writing, and are awaiting a response.
CAMERA's student Liaison also noted that Tiru Narayanan published a written apology in the March 6th print version of The Aggie, UC Davis' student newspaper. A search revealed that the apology could not be found in the online edition of the paper (though, there is a PDF of the print version available on The Aggie website). In addition, Aggies for Israel posted a photo of the piece on their Facebook group. The piece reads,
“I am writing to apologize for my behavior on Feb. 27, 2012 at the Israeli Soldier event at Wellman 106. While I was one of a group of hecklers, I became the face of the protest. Though I am still upset about the Israeli-Palestinian political situation, the manner in which I expressed my frustration was extremely inappropriate. I apologize for my behavior and my disrespect to the speakers and the university. In the current climate on campus with the spirit of Occupy, my ego and my mouth got out of hand. I know this is no excuse for my actions. I behaved in a way that is unbecoming of a student of the university and a member of my community. -Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan, second-year Medieval Studies major."
UC Davis CCAP students have scheduled a meeting with UC Davis interim police chief to discuss the incident, but report that, to the best of their knowledge, the UC administration is not taking any disciplinary action against the protestors.
The Amcha Initiative has also not yet published a response to its letter to the UC administration, though the UC Davis Dateline published a March 7th letter from Associate Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro, which stated,
“This incident is currently under review to determine what appropriate follow up action(s) should apply. The pursuit of knowledge demands the free exchange of ideas and open expression of opinions and findings, including those that some may find disturbing or offensive in content, tone or timing. We recognize that all parties share the right to free expression…Serious exchange of ideas and debate is prevented when individuals shout down a speaker and dialogue cannot take place. The university finds such behavior deeply disturbing and inconsistent with the aspirations of our Principles of Community.”
In further news:
UC President Condemns Anti-Israel Acts on Campus
The head of the University of California is condemning recent anti-Israel incidents on UC campuses.
In an open letter Thursday, UC President Mark Yudof called on students, faculty and staff members to "foster a climate of tolerance, civility and open-mindedness."
Yudof denounced hecklers who disrupted an event called "Israeli Soldiers Speak Out" at UC Davis last week. He said it was reprehensible that one protester linked the speakers to rapists and murderers.
The university president also spoke out against vandals who defaced an Israeli flag with the word "terrorists" at UC Riverside earlier this week.
Yudof says UC administrators are working on revising policies to improve campus climate for all students and prevent acts motivated by religious and racial bias
********
Occe again. To Tirumular Narayanan. This will not be over until you tell the authorities what coward set you up to do this. You should not be fielding this alone.
On Monday, February 27th , two Israeli soldiers gave a presentation (or at least, attempted to) at the University of California, Davis, meant to correct misconceptions about the moral standards of the IDF.
“Many IDF soldiers feel a deep sense of injustice at how some are misrepresenting them and the IDF. We want to tell you, the public, about our personal experiences,” explains the Israeli Soldiers Stories (ISS) website, an effort of StandWithUs.
Several UC Davis students associated with Students for Justice in Palestine, Muslim Student Association, and Jewish Voice for Peace attended the lectures (one by a Jewish Israeli and the other by a Druze Israeli) and heckled the presenters. Particularly notable was the self-identified Indian UCD student (“I'm not from Palestine, I'm Indian!”), who accused the ISS guests of turning “Palestine into a land of prostitutes, rapists and child molesters.” The student even asked the presenters “How many women have you raped? How many children have you raped? You are a child molester!” And he admitted freely: “I can embarrass myself all I want. I will stand here and I will heckle! My only purpose today is that this event is shut down!”
A Jweekly.com article further describing the heckling and apparent non-action of campus police can be found here.
Yesterday, Professor Tammi Rossman-Benjamin of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and co-founder of the Amcha Initiative, published a letter to UC president Mark Yudof and the rest of the UC administration decrying the behavior of the hecklers. In the letter, Professor Rossman-Benjamin cites claims by audience members that the Indian student was paid $50 to shout such accusations at the presenters.
A member of the CCAP funded UC Davis pro-Israel organization, Aggies for Israel, corroborates this claim, reporting that he himself witnessed the Indian student in question (identified as Tiru Narayanan) approach another member of the pro-Israel student group and the Provost/ Executive Vice-Chancellor, Ralph Hexter, following the event. According to the student, Narayanan “apologized profusely” for his interruptions, claiming that he had been paid for his behavior and that he “needed the money.” Narayanan apparently also claimed that the students who paid him had given him a script, and that he was asked to review, memorize and deliver parts of the script as his interruption.
CAMERA's students at UC Davis have asked Provost Hexter to document Narayanan's verbal apology in writing, and are awaiting a response.
CAMERA's student Liaison also noted that Tiru Narayanan published a written apology in the March 6th print version of The Aggie, UC Davis' student newspaper. A search revealed that the apology could not be found in the online edition of the paper (though, there is a PDF of the print version available on The Aggie website). In addition, Aggies for Israel posted a photo of the piece on their Facebook group. The piece reads,
“I am writing to apologize for my behavior on Feb. 27, 2012 at the Israeli Soldier event at Wellman 106. While I was one of a group of hecklers, I became the face of the protest. Though I am still upset about the Israeli-Palestinian political situation, the manner in which I expressed my frustration was extremely inappropriate. I apologize for my behavior and my disrespect to the speakers and the university. In the current climate on campus with the spirit of Occupy, my ego and my mouth got out of hand. I know this is no excuse for my actions. I behaved in a way that is unbecoming of a student of the university and a member of my community. -Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan, second-year Medieval Studies major."
UC Davis CCAP students have scheduled a meeting with UC Davis interim police chief to discuss the incident, but report that, to the best of their knowledge, the UC administration is not taking any disciplinary action against the protestors.
The Amcha Initiative has also not yet published a response to its letter to the UC administration, though the UC Davis Dateline published a March 7th letter from Associate Vice Chancellor Griselda Castro, which stated,
“This incident is currently under review to determine what appropriate follow up action(s) should apply. The pursuit of knowledge demands the free exchange of ideas and open expression of opinions and findings, including those that some may find disturbing or offensive in content, tone or timing. We recognize that all parties share the right to free expression…Serious exchange of ideas and debate is prevented when individuals shout down a speaker and dialogue cannot take place. The university finds such behavior deeply disturbing and inconsistent with the aspirations of our Principles of Community.”
In further news:
UC President Condemns Anti-Israel Acts on Campus
The head of the University of California is condemning recent anti-Israel incidents on UC campuses.
In an open letter Thursday, UC President Mark Yudof called on students, faculty and staff members to "foster a climate of tolerance, civility and open-mindedness."
Yudof denounced hecklers who disrupted an event called "Israeli Soldiers Speak Out" at UC Davis last week. He said it was reprehensible that one protester linked the speakers to rapists and murderers.
The university president also spoke out against vandals who defaced an Israeli flag with the word "terrorists" at UC Riverside earlier this week.
Yudof says UC administrators are working on revising policies to improve campus climate for all students and prevent acts motivated by religious and racial bias
********
Occe again. To Tirumular Narayanan. This will not be over until you tell the authorities what coward set you up to do this. You should not be fielding this alone.
UK-Israel bilateral trade soared 34 percent in 2011. BDS Fail.
Ali Abunimah must be spinning cartwheels with glee.
From the Jpost
UK-Israel bilateral trade soared 34 percent to £3.75 billion ($6b.) last year – proving there is no economic boycott of Israel, British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, said Wednesday.
Israeli exports to the UK stood at £2.18 billion ($3.5b.) and British exports to Israel reached £1.57 billion ($2.5b.) in 2011. This made Israel the UK’s largest trade partner in the Middle East and its 29th largest export market overall, according to UK Trade & Investment.
“These figures are big enough to be important to both countries,” Gould told economic reporters at his Ramat Gan residence. “They also implicitly give a very good answer to anyone who talks about economic boycott, and that answer is: ‘What economic boycott?’”
BDS mega epic fail.
From the Jpost
UK-Israel bilateral trade soared 34 percent to £3.75 billion ($6b.) last year – proving there is no economic boycott of Israel, British Ambassador to Israel, Matthew Gould, said Wednesday.
Israeli exports to the UK stood at £2.18 billion ($3.5b.) and British exports to Israel reached £1.57 billion ($2.5b.) in 2011. This made Israel the UK’s largest trade partner in the Middle East and its 29th largest export market overall, according to UK Trade & Investment.
“These figures are big enough to be important to both countries,” Gould told economic reporters at his Ramat Gan residence. “They also implicitly give a very good answer to anyone who talks about economic boycott, and that answer is: ‘What economic boycott?’”
BDS mega epic fail.
Wednesday, March 7, 2012
Ali Abunimah and the BDS'ers " When we lose, we win"
US President Barack Obama at AIAPC 2012: “When there are efforts to boycott or divest from Israel, we will stand against them.”
Its a rather unequivocal statement from the highest ranking elected official in America. You'd think the BDS'ers would be wringing their hands despondently. But, no, in the reality challenged world of the BDS'er, its seen as a victory.
Yes, really.
(No, its not a Purim joke)
Awww. Is Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intidfada having one of the "When we lose we win" moments?
He tweets "Great news that Obama came out against BDS".
Okay, Ali. Here's some more great news for you and your pals to celebrate courtesy of the new website BDS Global Digest :
*Canterbury City Council , Leeds City Council and the North London Waste Authority has rejected BDS'ers campaign to exclude Veolia from public contracts. Larissa Laing, head of Canterbury’s neighbourhood services said:
“Canterbury must choose its waste collection contractor under procedures laid down by Europe and adopted by this country under the Public Contract Regulations 2006. We do not think that activities in the Middle East relate to what we are considering in this contract.”
*UC San Diego Associated Students (AS) council voted last month(29 Feb) not to adopt a divestment resolution proposed by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
*A Canadian store that sold Israeli-made toiletries had been the target of regular anti-Israeli protests. The local community and others, have responded with a “Buycott” Owner Shani Bar-Oz reports: “People won’t stop calling and ordering products on the phone and online"
There you have it, Ali. BDS defeats on the municipal level, the university level and the retail level. Great news, isn't it? And I'll sleep better tonight knowing its made you as happy as it does me.
Its a rather unequivocal statement from the highest ranking elected official in America. You'd think the BDS'ers would be wringing their hands despondently. But, no, in the reality challenged world of the BDS'er, its seen as a victory.
Yes, really.
(No, its not a Purim joke)
Awww. Is Ali Abunimah of the Electronic Intidfada having one of the "When we lose we win" moments?
He tweets "Great news that Obama came out against BDS".
Okay, Ali. Here's some more great news for you and your pals to celebrate courtesy of the new website BDS Global Digest :
*Canterbury City Council , Leeds City Council and the North London Waste Authority has rejected BDS'ers campaign to exclude Veolia from public contracts. Larissa Laing, head of Canterbury’s neighbourhood services said:
“Canterbury must choose its waste collection contractor under procedures laid down by Europe and adopted by this country under the Public Contract Regulations 2006. We do not think that activities in the Middle East relate to what we are considering in this contract.”
*UC San Diego Associated Students (AS) council voted last month(29 Feb) not to adopt a divestment resolution proposed by Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP).
*A Canadian store that sold Israeli-made toiletries had been the target of regular anti-Israeli protests. The local community and others, have responded with a “Buycott” Owner Shani Bar-Oz reports: “People won’t stop calling and ordering products on the phone and online"
There you have it, Ali. BDS defeats on the municipal level, the university level and the retail level. Great news, isn't it? And I'll sleep better tonight knowing its made you as happy as it does me.
UC Davis heckler Tirumular Narayanan Apologizes for his Behavior
Tirumular (Drew) Narayanan , the now infamous UC Davis Heckler has written a public apology in the California Aggie, the UC Davis newspaper for his behavior.
Tirumular writes: "I am writing to apologize for my behavior on Feb. 27 2012 at the Israeli Soldier event at Wellman Hall. While I was one of a group of hecklers, I became the face of the protest… I apologize for my behavior and my disrespect to the speakers and the university… I behaved in a way that was unbecoming of a student of the university and a member of my community".
Damn straight, Tirumular.
As this incident grows in notoriety, more information emerges. Tirumular Narayanan is actually employed by the UC Davis Campus police . Could this be why the UC Davis campus police did not prevent him from disrupting the talk? Has he been placed on administrative leave from his position with the campus police? Has any disciplinary action been taken against him at all?
From the UC Davis campus police website:
"We are here to assist and provide security for all who attend, work, and visit our campuses…..We know we can't do it alone, and we ask our community and visitors to help us create a safe and secure environment."
How does employing a student who does not respect the constitutional rights of others create a safe and secure environment?
The UC Davis Police Support Services is "responsible for fairly and thoroughly investigating all complaints alleged against police department employees.." I strongly encourage people , especially those affiliated with the UC Davis community to write in and request a thorough and unbiased investigation.
Tirumular writes: "I am writing to apologize for my behavior on Feb. 27 2012 at the Israeli Soldier event at Wellman Hall. While I was one of a group of hecklers, I became the face of the protest… I apologize for my behavior and my disrespect to the speakers and the university… I behaved in a way that was unbecoming of a student of the university and a member of my community".
Damn straight, Tirumular.
As this incident grows in notoriety, more information emerges. Tirumular Narayanan is actually employed by the UC Davis Campus police . Could this be why the UC Davis campus police did not prevent him from disrupting the talk? Has he been placed on administrative leave from his position with the campus police? Has any disciplinary action been taken against him at all?
From the UC Davis campus police website:
"We are here to assist and provide security for all who attend, work, and visit our campuses…..We know we can't do it alone, and we ask our community and visitors to help us create a safe and secure environment."
How does employing a student who does not respect the constitutional rights of others create a safe and secure environment?
The UC Davis Police Support Services is "responsible for fairly and thoroughly investigating all complaints alleged against police department employees.." I strongly encourage people , especially those affiliated with the UC Davis community to write in and request a thorough and unbiased investigation.
Tuesday, March 6, 2012
Israeli President Shimon Peres speaks before thousands in San Francisco
Israeli President Shimon Peres delivered a historic speech Tuesday night in San Francisco before a capacity crowd at Temple Emanu'el in San Francisco. This is the first time an incumbent Israeli president has visited the area. Governor Jerry Brown was among the 2,000 people who gathered to hear President Peres. San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee presented Peres with a key to the city.
Tight security thwarted efforts by anti-Israel activists to disrupt the event. Security checkpoints were set up around the perimeter of the synagogue, and people were required to show a photo id and pass through metal detectors.
Photo from the Mercury news(Karl Mondon/Staff)
President Peres will spend the rest of his visit visiting innovative high tech businesses in the area to explore the use of social media as a tool to advance the peace process. In particular, he has expressed a desire to connect with young Arabs to help advance chances for peace in the Middle East. Peres will be in the Bay Area through Thursday.
Not sure what qualified this young woman to speak for Jews and Americans:
This evening proved her wrong, as 2,000 Jews and allies at Temple Emanu'el rose as one to recite the prayer for the State of Israel. Led by Congegation Beth Jacob's beloved Rabbi Judah Dardik, they prayed:
Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of the people Israel; Bless the State of Israel, with its promise of redemption. Shield it with Your love; spread over it the shelter of Your peace. Guide its leaders and advisors with Your light and Your truth. Help them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our Holy Land. Deliver them; crown their efforts with triumph. Bless the land with peace, and its inhabitants with lasting joy. And let us say: Amen.
Tight security thwarted efforts by anti-Israel activists to disrupt the event. Security checkpoints were set up around the perimeter of the synagogue, and people were required to show a photo id and pass through metal detectors.
Photo from the Mercury news(Karl Mondon/Staff)
President Peres will spend the rest of his visit visiting innovative high tech businesses in the area to explore the use of social media as a tool to advance the peace process. In particular, he has expressed a desire to connect with young Arabs to help advance chances for peace in the Middle East. Peres will be in the Bay Area through Thursday.
Not sure what qualified this young woman to speak for Jews and Americans:
This evening proved her wrong, as 2,000 Jews and allies at Temple Emanu'el rose as one to recite the prayer for the State of Israel. Led by Congegation Beth Jacob's beloved Rabbi Judah Dardik, they prayed:
Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of the people Israel; Bless the State of Israel, with its promise of redemption. Shield it with Your love; spread over it the shelter of Your peace. Guide its leaders and advisors with Your light and Your truth. Help them with Your good counsel. Strengthen the hands of those who defend our Holy Land. Deliver them; crown their efforts with triumph. Bless the land with peace, and its inhabitants with lasting joy. And let us say: Amen.
Transcript of Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC
Nearly 14,000 supporters of Israel heard Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC last night, with thousands more watching live on streaming video. A few dozen protesters, led by JVP and Code Pink weakly proclaimed that they were the 99%, in an anemic and failed attempt to prove their relevance.
Transcript of Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC March 5, 2012
"Thank you for the warm reception. It could be heard as far away as Jerusalem – the eternal and united capital of Israel.
More than two thirds of the Congress is in attendance here tonight.
I deeply appreciate your being here.
Last May when I addressed the Congress, you stood up to applaud the state of Israel. Now I ask the 13,000 friends of IL here to stand up and applaud you, the representatives of the American people. Democrats and Republicans alike, we applaud your unwavering commitment to Israel.
I want to recognize Yossi Peled who is here tonight. Yossi was born in Belgium. His parents hid him with a Christian family during World War II. His father, and many other members of his family, were murdered at Auschwitz. His mother survived the Holocaust, returned to reclaim Yossi, and brought him to Israel. He became one of Israel's bravest and greatest generals. And today, Yossi Peled serves as a minister in my government.
Yossi's life is the story of the Jewish people – the story of a powerless and stateless people who became a strong and proud nation able to defend itself.
And ladies and gentlemen, Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself.
I'd like to talk to you about a subject no one has been talking about recently….Iran.
Every day, I open the papers and read about these redlines and these timelines. I read about what Israel has decided to do or what Israel might do.
Well, I’m not going to talk to you about what Israel will do or will not do. I never talk about that. But I do want to talk to you about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran. I want to explain why Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
President Obama has reiterated his commitment to prevent this from happening. He stated clearly that all options remain on the table, and that American policy is not containment. Well, Israel has the same policy. We are determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We leave all options on the table. Ad containment is definitely not an option. The Jewish state will not allow those seeking our destruction to possess the means to achieve that goal. A nuclear armed Iran must be stopped.
Amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran’s goal is to develop nuclear weapons. You see, Iran claims that it’s enriching uranium to develop medical research. Yeah, right. A country that builds underground nuclear facilities, develops intercontinental ballistic missiles, manufactures thousands of centrifuges, and absorbs crippling sanctions – is doing all that in order to advance…medical research. So you see, when that Iranian ICBM is flying through the air to a location near you, you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s only carrying medical isotopes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That’s right, it's a duck --but this duck is a nuclear duck. And it’s time the world started calling a duck a duck.
Fortunately, President Obama and most world leaders understand that the idea that Iran's goal is not to develop nuclear weapons is ridiculous. Yet incredibly, some are prepared to accept an idea only slightly less preposterous: That we should accept a world in which the Ayatollahs have atomic bombs.
Sure, they say, Iran is cruel, but it's not crazy. It’s detestable but it’s deterrable.
Responsible leaders should not bet the security of their countries on the belief that the world’s most dangerous regime won’t use the world’s most dangerous weapons. And I promise you that as Prime Minister, I will never gamble with the security of Israel.
From the beginning, the Ayatollah regime has broken every international rule and flouted every norm. It has seized embassies, targeted diplomats and sent its own children through mine fields. It hangs gays and stones women. It supports Assad's brutal slaughter of the Syrian people. Iran is the world's foremost sponsor of terror. It sponsors Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and terrorists throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Iran's proxies have dispatched hundreds of suicide bombers, planted thousands of roadside bombs, and fired over twenty thousand missiles at civilians. Through terror from the skies and terror on the ground, Iran is responsible for the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.
In 1983, Iran's proxy Hezbollah blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 240 American servicemen. In the last decade, its been responsible for murdering and maiming American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just a few months ago, it tried to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in a restaurant just a few blocks from here. The assassins didn’t care that several Senators and members of Congress would have been murdered in the process.
Iran accuses the American government of orchestrating 9/11, and it denies the Holocaust. Iran brazenly calls for Israel's destruction, and they work for its destruction – each day, every day. This is how Iran behaves today, without nuclear weapons. Think of how they will behave tomorrow, with nuclear weapons. Iran will be even more reckless and far more dangerous.
There's been plenty of talk recently about the costs of stopping Iran. I think it's time to talk about the costs of not stopping Iran.
A nuclear-armed Iran would dramatically increase terrorism by giving terrorists a nuclear umbrella. That means that Iran's terror proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas will be emboldened to attack America, Israel, and others because they will be backed by a power with atomic weapons.
A nuclear-armed Iran could choke off the world’s oil supply and make real its threat to close the Straits of Hormouz. If you're worried about the price of oil today, imagine how high oil prices will be when a nuclear-armed Iran starts blackmailing the world.
If Iran gets nuclear weapons, this would set off a mad dash by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and others to acquire nuclear weapons of their own. The world's most volatile region would become a nuclear tinderbox waiting to go off.
And the worst nightmare of all, Iran could threaten all of us with nuclear terrorism. It could put a nuclear device in a ship heading to any port or in a truck parked in any city. Think about what it would mean to have nuclear weapons in the hands of radicals who lead millions in chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." For the sake of our prosperity, for the sake of our security, for the sake of our children, Iran must not be allowed to get nuclear weapons!
The best outcome would be if Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program peacefully. No one would be happier than me and the people of Israel if Iran actually dismantled its program. But so far, that hasn't happened.
For fifteen years, I've been warning that a nuclear-armed Iran is a grave danger to my country and to the peace and security of the world. For the last decade, the international community has tried diplomacy. It hasn't worked. For six years, the international community has applied sanctions. That hasn't worked either. I appreciate President Obama's recent efforts to impose even tougher sanctions against Iran. Those sanctions are hurting Iran's economy. But unfortunately, Iran's nuclear march goes on.
Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue.
We've waited for diplomacy to work. We've waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer.
As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never let my people live under the shadow of annihilation.
Some commentators would have you believe that stopping Iran from getting the bomb is more dangerous than letting Iran have the bomb. They say that a military confrontation with Iran would undermine the efforts already underway, that it would be ineffective, and that it would provoke even more vindictive action by Iran.
I’ve heard these arguments before. In fact, I've read them before.
In my desk, I have copies of an exchange of letters between the World Jewish Congress and the US War Department. The year was 1944. The World Jewish Congress implored the American government to bomb Auschwitz. The reply came five days later. I want to read it to you.
"Such an operation could be executed only by diverting considerable air support essential to the success of our forces elsewhere…..and in any case would be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources…."
And here’s the most remarkable sentence of all. And I quote:
"Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans."
Think about that – "even more vindictive action" -- than the Holocaust.
My Friends, 2012 is not 1944. The American government today is different. You heard it in President Obama's speech yesterday.
But here's my point.
The Jewish people are also different. Today we have a state of our own. The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.
We deeply appreciate the great alliance between our two countries. But when it comes to Israel's survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate.
Israel's fate is to continue to be the forward position of freedom in the Middle East. The only place where minorities enjoy full civil rights; The only place where Arabs enjoy full civil rights. The only place where Christians are free to practice their faith; The only place where real judges protect the rule of law; And as Prime Minister of Israel, I will never allow anything to threaten Israel's democratic way of life. And most especially, I will never tolerate any discrimination against women.
This week, we will read how one woman changed Jewish history. In Synagogues throughout the world, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. We will read how some 2,500 years ago, a Persian anti-Semite tried to annihilate the Jewish people. We will read how his plot was foiled by one courageous woman – Esther.
In every generation, there are those who wish to destroy the Jewish people. We are blessed to live in an age when there is a Jewish state capable of defending the Jewish people. And we are doubly blessed to have so many friends like you, Jews and non-Jews alike, who love the State of Israel and support its right to defend itself.
Thank you for your friendship, Thank you for your courage, Thank you for standing up for the one and only Jewish state."
Transcript of Netanyahu's speech at AIPAC March 5, 2012
"Thank you for the warm reception. It could be heard as far away as Jerusalem – the eternal and united capital of Israel.
More than two thirds of the Congress is in attendance here tonight.
I deeply appreciate your being here.
Last May when I addressed the Congress, you stood up to applaud the state of Israel. Now I ask the 13,000 friends of IL here to stand up and applaud you, the representatives of the American people. Democrats and Republicans alike, we applaud your unwavering commitment to Israel.
I want to recognize Yossi Peled who is here tonight. Yossi was born in Belgium. His parents hid him with a Christian family during World War II. His father, and many other members of his family, were murdered at Auschwitz. His mother survived the Holocaust, returned to reclaim Yossi, and brought him to Israel. He became one of Israel's bravest and greatest generals. And today, Yossi Peled serves as a minister in my government.
Yossi's life is the story of the Jewish people – the story of a powerless and stateless people who became a strong and proud nation able to defend itself.
And ladies and gentlemen, Israel must always reserve the right to defend itself.
I'd like to talk to you about a subject no one has been talking about recently….Iran.
Every day, I open the papers and read about these redlines and these timelines. I read about what Israel has decided to do or what Israel might do.
Well, I’m not going to talk to you about what Israel will do or will not do. I never talk about that. But I do want to talk to you about the dangers of a nuclear-armed Iran. I want to explain why Iran must never be allowed to develop nuclear weapons.
President Obama has reiterated his commitment to prevent this from happening. He stated clearly that all options remain on the table, and that American policy is not containment. Well, Israel has the same policy. We are determined to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons. We leave all options on the table. Ad containment is definitely not an option. The Jewish state will not allow those seeking our destruction to possess the means to achieve that goal. A nuclear armed Iran must be stopped.
Amazingly, some people refuse to acknowledge that Iran’s goal is to develop nuclear weapons. You see, Iran claims that it’s enriching uranium to develop medical research. Yeah, right. A country that builds underground nuclear facilities, develops intercontinental ballistic missiles, manufactures thousands of centrifuges, and absorbs crippling sanctions – is doing all that in order to advance…medical research. So you see, when that Iranian ICBM is flying through the air to a location near you, you’ve got nothing to worry about. It’s only carrying medical isotopes.
Ladies and Gentlemen, If it looks like a duck, walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then what is it? That’s right, it's a duck --but this duck is a nuclear duck. And it’s time the world started calling a duck a duck.
Fortunately, President Obama and most world leaders understand that the idea that Iran's goal is not to develop nuclear weapons is ridiculous. Yet incredibly, some are prepared to accept an idea only slightly less preposterous: That we should accept a world in which the Ayatollahs have atomic bombs.
Sure, they say, Iran is cruel, but it's not crazy. It’s detestable but it’s deterrable.
Responsible leaders should not bet the security of their countries on the belief that the world’s most dangerous regime won’t use the world’s most dangerous weapons. And I promise you that as Prime Minister, I will never gamble with the security of Israel.
From the beginning, the Ayatollah regime has broken every international rule and flouted every norm. It has seized embassies, targeted diplomats and sent its own children through mine fields. It hangs gays and stones women. It supports Assad's brutal slaughter of the Syrian people. Iran is the world's foremost sponsor of terror. It sponsors Hezbollah in Lebanon, Hamas in Gaza and terrorists throughout the Middle East, Africa, and South America. Iran's proxies have dispatched hundreds of suicide bombers, planted thousands of roadside bombs, and fired over twenty thousand missiles at civilians. Through terror from the skies and terror on the ground, Iran is responsible for the murder of hundreds, if not thousands, of Americans.
In 1983, Iran's proxy Hezbollah blew up the Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 240 American servicemen. In the last decade, its been responsible for murdering and maiming American soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Just a few months ago, it tried to assassinate the Saudi Ambassador in a restaurant just a few blocks from here. The assassins didn’t care that several Senators and members of Congress would have been murdered in the process.
Iran accuses the American government of orchestrating 9/11, and it denies the Holocaust. Iran brazenly calls for Israel's destruction, and they work for its destruction – each day, every day. This is how Iran behaves today, without nuclear weapons. Think of how they will behave tomorrow, with nuclear weapons. Iran will be even more reckless and far more dangerous.
There's been plenty of talk recently about the costs of stopping Iran. I think it's time to talk about the costs of not stopping Iran.
A nuclear-armed Iran would dramatically increase terrorism by giving terrorists a nuclear umbrella. That means that Iran's terror proxies like Hezbollah, Hamas will be emboldened to attack America, Israel, and others because they will be backed by a power with atomic weapons.
A nuclear-armed Iran could choke off the world’s oil supply and make real its threat to close the Straits of Hormouz. If you're worried about the price of oil today, imagine how high oil prices will be when a nuclear-armed Iran starts blackmailing the world.
If Iran gets nuclear weapons, this would set off a mad dash by Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Egypt and others to acquire nuclear weapons of their own. The world's most volatile region would become a nuclear tinderbox waiting to go off.
And the worst nightmare of all, Iran could threaten all of us with nuclear terrorism. It could put a nuclear device in a ship heading to any port or in a truck parked in any city. Think about what it would mean to have nuclear weapons in the hands of radicals who lead millions in chants of "Death to America" and "Death to Israel." For the sake of our prosperity, for the sake of our security, for the sake of our children, Iran must not be allowed to get nuclear weapons!
The best outcome would be if Iran abandoned its nuclear weapons program peacefully. No one would be happier than me and the people of Israel if Iran actually dismantled its program. But so far, that hasn't happened.
For fifteen years, I've been warning that a nuclear-armed Iran is a grave danger to my country and to the peace and security of the world. For the last decade, the international community has tried diplomacy. It hasn't worked. For six years, the international community has applied sanctions. That hasn't worked either. I appreciate President Obama's recent efforts to impose even tougher sanctions against Iran. Those sanctions are hurting Iran's economy. But unfortunately, Iran's nuclear march goes on.
Israel has waited patiently for the international community to resolve this issue.
We've waited for diplomacy to work. We've waited for sanctions to work. None of us can afford to wait much longer.
As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never let my people live under the shadow of annihilation.
Some commentators would have you believe that stopping Iran from getting the bomb is more dangerous than letting Iran have the bomb. They say that a military confrontation with Iran would undermine the efforts already underway, that it would be ineffective, and that it would provoke even more vindictive action by Iran.
I’ve heard these arguments before. In fact, I've read them before.
In my desk, I have copies of an exchange of letters between the World Jewish Congress and the US War Department. The year was 1944. The World Jewish Congress implored the American government to bomb Auschwitz. The reply came five days later. I want to read it to you.
"Such an operation could be executed only by diverting considerable air support essential to the success of our forces elsewhere…..and in any case would be of such doubtful efficacy that it would not warrant the use of our resources…."
And here’s the most remarkable sentence of all. And I quote:
"Such an effort might provoke even more vindictive action by the Germans."
Think about that – "even more vindictive action" -- than the Holocaust.
My Friends, 2012 is not 1944. The American government today is different. You heard it in President Obama's speech yesterday.
But here's my point.
The Jewish people are also different. Today we have a state of our own. The purpose of the Jewish state is to secure the Jewish future. That is why Israel must always have the ability to defend itself, by itself, against any threat.
We deeply appreciate the great alliance between our two countries. But when it comes to Israel's survival, we must always remain the masters of our fate.
Israel's fate is to continue to be the forward position of freedom in the Middle East. The only place where minorities enjoy full civil rights; The only place where Arabs enjoy full civil rights. The only place where Christians are free to practice their faith; The only place where real judges protect the rule of law; And as Prime Minister of Israel, I will never allow anything to threaten Israel's democratic way of life. And most especially, I will never tolerate any discrimination against women.
This week, we will read how one woman changed Jewish history. In Synagogues throughout the world, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. We will read how some 2,500 years ago, a Persian anti-Semite tried to annihilate the Jewish people. We will read how his plot was foiled by one courageous woman – Esther.
In every generation, there are those who wish to destroy the Jewish people. We are blessed to live in an age when there is a Jewish state capable of defending the Jewish people. And we are doubly blessed to have so many friends like you, Jews and non-Jews alike, who love the State of Israel and support its right to defend itself.
Thank you for your friendship, Thank you for your courage, Thank you for standing up for the one and only Jewish state."
Harassment of Jewish students on UC campuses demands your attention
An open letter to UC President Mark Yudof, authored by Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith of the AMCHA Initiative
Dear President Yudof:
Last week, two shameful events occurred on University of California campuses that made Jewish students feel targeted, intimidated, harassed, and unsafe. We charge the UC administration with failing in their basic responsibilities: to protect Jewish students from a hostile environment and to ensure their rights to freedom of speech.
On February 27 at UC Davis, Jewish student groups sponsored the presentation of talks by two Israelis, one Jewish the other Druze. The speakers were repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, whose intent was clearly to disrupt the proceedings. Not only did a heckler hurl outrageous accusations against one of the speakers, calling him a "rapist" and "child molester," but the heckler brazenly stated: “I will stand here and heckle you until you leave…My only purpose is that this event is shut down.” The heckler also told audience members that he was paid $50 by "Muslim students" to disrupt the event.
Twenty-four hours before the Jewish students' event, members of the UCD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sent a communication to SJP supporters outlining a two-pronged strategy for shutting down the event: they would pack the room with pro-Palestinian students who would leave en masse in the middle of the event, and some students would remain to continuously heckle the Israeli speakers. Both parts of the strategy were carried out at the event, as you can see HERE, and the event ultimately had to be curtailed because of the disruption.
Besides illegally conspiring to disrupt a lawful meeting and thereby suppress the freedom of speech of the Jewish students and their speakers, members of the SJP and their supporters created a physically and emotionally hostile environment for the Jewish students. According to one eyewitness:
"As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders" not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand."
Shockingly, and in stark contrast to your repeated assertions that the University is committed to protecting the rights of free speech and ensuring the safety of all students, the campus police did nothing, and even refused to take the names of disrupters. In addition, at least two high-level UC Davis administrators were present at the event, and they, too, refused to respond to these egregious violations of University policy and state law, which left Jewish students feeling unsafe and violated.
A few days later, on February 29, SJP students at UC San Diego brought to the Associated Students Council for the third consecutive year a resolution asking the University of California to engage in a secondary boycott of Israel by divesting from American firms that do business with the Israeli Defense Forces. The resolution was defeated after seven hours, but the Jewish students and faculty who supported Israel were harassed and bullied by pro-Palestinian supporters and falsely accused of racism.
Several Jewish attendees felt targeted and threatened at the meeting: A UCSD faculty member reported that it was “emotionally difficult to bear the hatred and lies.” The president of the student group, Tritons for Israel, stated that “Jewish students feel targeted, and Jewish students don’t feel as safe or comfortable on campus.” Another Jewish student said, “ I am unsafe on this campus when there is talk of divestment…and by voting ‘yes’ you are making the campus very hostile for students who go here.” The Hillel Director stated: “Many of our students clearly suffered a traumatic blow from that experience. I witnessed the verbal assault on Jewish students and the tears that followed.” At the conclusion of the meeting, one Jewish student, concerned that other Jewish students might be physically assaulted on their way home, cautioned them to avoid walking alone. (In this video, Jewish students at UCSD describe the hostility they experienced as a result of the anti-Israel divestment campaign on their campus).
In light of your May, 2010 statement that the University of California would not divest from Israel, the SJP resolution was a wholly symbolic gesture intended to further the well-coordinated international campaign to economically strangle the Jewish state and bring about its destruction, a campaign which the US State Department has deemed anti-Semitic. Sadly, the resolution effort revealed the utter ineffectiveness of what you had previously touted to the Jewish community as one of your “assertive” moves to address anti-Jewish bigotry.
Please understand that the student groups behind these incidents are not like other University-funded student organizations. The SJP has as its primary mission the promotion of anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and others efforts to harm the Jewish state. SJP chapters on UC campuses are closely allied with Al-Awda: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, an organization which advocates the elimination of the Jewish state and has ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that call for the murder of Jews world-wide. Many students in the SJP are also members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), an organization founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, a virulently anti-Semitic Egyptian-based organization dedicated to instituting Sharia law and a Muslim empire throughout the world, in part by means of violent jihad. According to an NYPD police spokesman, "some of the most dangerous Western Al Qaeda-linked/inspired terrorists since 9/11 were radicalized and/or recruited at universities in MSAs," and more than a dozen former MSA leaders and members have been convicted of terrorist activities and plots. In addition, some pro-Palestinian UC students have expressed support for the Iranian regime, whose supreme religious leader recently called for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of all Jews. In fact, one student who participated in the disruption of the Jewish students' event at UC Davis can be seen holding an Iranian flag in the left-hand side of a video clip of the event.
These two incidents cannot be written off as political disputes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students. The culpability for the harassment and intimidation lies squarely with the students from pro-Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who have directed their unmitigated, anti-Semitic hatred of the Jewish state against Jewish students who openly identify with it.
The two incidents that took place last week are by no means isolated events. They are merely the most recent examples of the longstanding and pervasive pattern of emotional and physical harassment that has been directed specifically at Jewish students, primarily by members of Muslim and pro-Palestinian student organizations with virulently anti-Semitic agendas. To make matters worse, the SJP and MSA students and their anti-Israel campaigns have found considerable support from numerous other student organizations, as well as from UC faculty and administrators. (For example, an Israel Apartheid Week event presented by the UCSD-MSA in 2010, which was replete with speakers, exhibits and imagery that demonized and delegitimized Israel and her supporters, was endorsed by the SJP and 8 other student organizations, and sponsored by 18 academic departments and administrative units on that campus, including the Literature and Ethnic Studies Departments and the Office of Graduate Studies and Thurgood Marshall College).
We must state the obvious: Jewish students face a concerted campaign of hatred, harassment and intimidation that has been promulgated by fellow students, professors, and administrators. No other minority on campus has been subjected to such a campaign, nor would the University administration tolerate such bigoted behavior were it to be directed against any other minority. In this regard, we believe that the University of California has a clear and discriminatory double standard towards Jewish students, one which is anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent.
On several occasions we have called for transparent, well-articulated policies to guarantee the safety of Jewish students and to ensure them an environment that is neither hostile nor threatening, and on each occasion you have ignored our request. We still believe these are essential and urge you to implement such policies as soon as possible.
Now, however, we call on you and the UC Chancellors to issue a public statement that: 1) condemns the campaign of intimidation and harassment of Jewish students that violates their rights to freedom of expression; and 2) denounces the economic and academic boycott of Israel and acknowledges its hostile impact on Jewish students.
We also encourage other members and supporters of the California Jewish community -- many of them UC alumni, parents, and donors -- to add their voices to ours in urging you to issue such a statement.
The Jewish community will not remain silent while Jewish students continue to be harassed and intimidated on UC campuses, and University administrators turn a blind eye.
Sincerely,
Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Leila@AMCHAinitiative.org
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Tammi@AMCHAinitiative.org
Cc: University of California Chancellors
University of California Regents
UC Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion (c/o Jesse Bernal)
California Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
California State Senator Lois Wolk (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Mariko Yamada (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Jim Nielsen (Davis)
California State Senator Christine Kehoe (San Diego)
California State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (San Diego)
Dear President Yudof:
Last week, two shameful events occurred on University of California campuses that made Jewish students feel targeted, intimidated, harassed, and unsafe. We charge the UC administration with failing in their basic responsibilities: to protect Jewish students from a hostile environment and to ensure their rights to freedom of speech.
On February 27 at UC Davis, Jewish student groups sponsored the presentation of talks by two Israelis, one Jewish the other Druze. The speakers were repeatedly interrupted by hecklers, whose intent was clearly to disrupt the proceedings. Not only did a heckler hurl outrageous accusations against one of the speakers, calling him a "rapist" and "child molester," but the heckler brazenly stated: “I will stand here and heckle you until you leave…My only purpose is that this event is shut down.” The heckler also told audience members that he was paid $50 by "Muslim students" to disrupt the event.
Twenty-four hours before the Jewish students' event, members of the UCD Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) sent a communication to SJP supporters outlining a two-pronged strategy for shutting down the event: they would pack the room with pro-Palestinian students who would leave en masse in the middle of the event, and some students would remain to continuously heckle the Israeli speakers. Both parts of the strategy were carried out at the event, as you can see HERE, and the event ultimately had to be curtailed because of the disruption.
Besides illegally conspiring to disrupt a lawful meeting and thereby suppress the freedom of speech of the Jewish students and their speakers, members of the SJP and their supporters created a physically and emotionally hostile environment for the Jewish students. According to one eyewitness:
"As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders" not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand."
Shockingly, and in stark contrast to your repeated assertions that the University is committed to protecting the rights of free speech and ensuring the safety of all students, the campus police did nothing, and even refused to take the names of disrupters. In addition, at least two high-level UC Davis administrators were present at the event, and they, too, refused to respond to these egregious violations of University policy and state law, which left Jewish students feeling unsafe and violated.
A few days later, on February 29, SJP students at UC San Diego brought to the Associated Students Council for the third consecutive year a resolution asking the University of California to engage in a secondary boycott of Israel by divesting from American firms that do business with the Israeli Defense Forces. The resolution was defeated after seven hours, but the Jewish students and faculty who supported Israel were harassed and bullied by pro-Palestinian supporters and falsely accused of racism.
Several Jewish attendees felt targeted and threatened at the meeting: A UCSD faculty member reported that it was “emotionally difficult to bear the hatred and lies.” The president of the student group, Tritons for Israel, stated that “Jewish students feel targeted, and Jewish students don’t feel as safe or comfortable on campus.” Another Jewish student said, “ I am unsafe on this campus when there is talk of divestment…and by voting ‘yes’ you are making the campus very hostile for students who go here.” The Hillel Director stated: “Many of our students clearly suffered a traumatic blow from that experience. I witnessed the verbal assault on Jewish students and the tears that followed.” At the conclusion of the meeting, one Jewish student, concerned that other Jewish students might be physically assaulted on their way home, cautioned them to avoid walking alone. (In this video, Jewish students at UCSD describe the hostility they experienced as a result of the anti-Israel divestment campaign on their campus).
In light of your May, 2010 statement that the University of California would not divest from Israel, the SJP resolution was a wholly symbolic gesture intended to further the well-coordinated international campaign to economically strangle the Jewish state and bring about its destruction, a campaign which the US State Department has deemed anti-Semitic. Sadly, the resolution effort revealed the utter ineffectiveness of what you had previously touted to the Jewish community as one of your “assertive” moves to address anti-Jewish bigotry.
Please understand that the student groups behind these incidents are not like other University-funded student organizations. The SJP has as its primary mission the promotion of anti-Israel boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns and others efforts to harm the Jewish state. SJP chapters on UC campuses are closely allied with Al-Awda: the Palestine Right to Return Coalition, an organization which advocates the elimination of the Jewish state and has ties to terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah that call for the murder of Jews world-wide. Many students in the SJP are also members of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), an organization founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, a virulently anti-Semitic Egyptian-based organization dedicated to instituting Sharia law and a Muslim empire throughout the world, in part by means of violent jihad. According to an NYPD police spokesman, "some of the most dangerous Western Al Qaeda-linked/inspired terrorists since 9/11 were radicalized and/or recruited at universities in MSAs," and more than a dozen former MSA leaders and members have been convicted of terrorist activities and plots. In addition, some pro-Palestinian UC students have expressed support for the Iranian regime, whose supreme religious leader recently called for the destruction of Israel and the annihilation of all Jews. In fact, one student who participated in the disruption of the Jewish students' event at UC Davis can be seen holding an Iranian flag in the left-hand side of a video clip of the event.
These two incidents cannot be written off as political disputes between pro-Palestinian and pro-Israel students. The culpability for the harassment and intimidation lies squarely with the students from pro-Palestinian organizations and their supporters, who have directed their unmitigated, anti-Semitic hatred of the Jewish state against Jewish students who openly identify with it.
The two incidents that took place last week are by no means isolated events. They are merely the most recent examples of the longstanding and pervasive pattern of emotional and physical harassment that has been directed specifically at Jewish students, primarily by members of Muslim and pro-Palestinian student organizations with virulently anti-Semitic agendas. To make matters worse, the SJP and MSA students and their anti-Israel campaigns have found considerable support from numerous other student organizations, as well as from UC faculty and administrators. (For example, an Israel Apartheid Week event presented by the UCSD-MSA in 2010, which was replete with speakers, exhibits and imagery that demonized and delegitimized Israel and her supporters, was endorsed by the SJP and 8 other student organizations, and sponsored by 18 academic departments and administrative units on that campus, including the Literature and Ethnic Studies Departments and the Office of Graduate Studies and Thurgood Marshall College).
We must state the obvious: Jewish students face a concerted campaign of hatred, harassment and intimidation that has been promulgated by fellow students, professors, and administrators. No other minority on campus has been subjected to such a campaign, nor would the University administration tolerate such bigoted behavior were it to be directed against any other minority. In this regard, we believe that the University of California has a clear and discriminatory double standard towards Jewish students, one which is anti-Semitic in effect if not in intent.
On several occasions we have called for transparent, well-articulated policies to guarantee the safety of Jewish students and to ensure them an environment that is neither hostile nor threatening, and on each occasion you have ignored our request. We still believe these are essential and urge you to implement such policies as soon as possible.
Now, however, we call on you and the UC Chancellors to issue a public statement that: 1) condemns the campaign of intimidation and harassment of Jewish students that violates their rights to freedom of expression; and 2) denounces the economic and academic boycott of Israel and acknowledges its hostile impact on Jewish students.
We also encourage other members and supporters of the California Jewish community -- many of them UC alumni, parents, and donors -- to add their voices to ours in urging you to issue such a statement.
The Jewish community will not remain silent while Jewish students continue to be harassed and intimidated on UC campuses, and University administrators turn a blind eye.
Sincerely,
Leila Beckwith
Professor Emeritus, University of California at Los Angeles
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Leila@AMCHAinitiative.org
Tammi Rossman-Benjamin
Lecturer, University of California at Santa Cruz
Co-founder the AMCHA Initiative
Tammi@AMCHAinitiative.org
Cc: University of California Chancellors
University of California Regents
UC Advisory Council on Campus Climate, Culture, and Inclusion (c/o Jesse Bernal)
California Speaker of the Assembly John A. Perez
California Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Torlakson
California State Senator Lois Wolk (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Mariko Yamada (Davis)
California State Assembly Member Jim Nielsen (Davis)
California State Senator Christine Kehoe (San Diego)
California State Assemblyman Nathan Fletcher (San Diego)
Monday, March 5, 2012
Notorious Anti-Semite Louis Farrakhan at UC Berkeley this weekend
From the ADL
Louis Farrakhan In His Own Words
On Jews:
“Do you know Jewish people were not the origin of Hollywood, but they took it over?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
“In 100 years, they control movies, television, recording, publishing, commerce, radio, they own it all. Magazines. Why do you want all, everything?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
“Did you know that the Koran says that Jews are the most violent of people. I didn’t write it, but I’m living to see it.”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
On Gays:
"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel…can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. HOW CAN THAT BE THE ISRAEL, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with BLOOD!"
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/06
“I call them the so-called Jews because to be a Jew you have to adhere to the statutes and laws that create the special relationship. How can you be a Jew and promote homosexual marriage?”
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04
"But all of a sudden in the night clubs, they started having transvestite shows, drag queens… Scripture say no liar, no adulterer, no effeminate will get in the Kingdom."
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03
From our friends at UC Berkeley's Tikvah
"This Saturday, (March 10 9:00 - 11:40am Wheeler Auditorium)
Louis Farrakhan will deliver the keynote address of the Afrikan Black Coalition Conference at UC Berkeley. Throughout his career, Farrakhan's hateful rhetoric has targeted Jews, the LGBT community, and Israel. From referring to the Jewish people as "the Synagogue of Satan" or "bloodsuckers" to asserting that "the real anti-Semites are those who came out of Europe and settled in Palestine, and now they call themselves the true Jews," Farrakhan consistently espouses antisemitic conspiracy theories while negating the Jewish people's right to their religion and their land.
Organized by the UC Berkeley Black Student Union, an ASUC sponsored group, Farrakhan’s visit directly attacks Jewish students on this campus. Farrakhan’s hatred cannot be tolerated. It is unfathomable that the BSU has no issue in inviting such an abjectly offensive speaker to campus.
As recently as last week, Farrakhan delivered a speech described by the Anti-Defamation League as “a textbook example” of contemporary antisemitism. According to Abe Foxman, the director of the ADL: “In the past few years Farrakhan has turned his message and the mission of the Nation of Islam into a wide-ranging campaign to demonize and scapegoat Jews.” Just days after declaring, “The government of America is owned lock stock and barrel by those Zionists that love Israel above the United States of America,” Farrakhan will speak on our campus.
But Farrakhan’s bigotry is nothing new, nor reserved solely for Jews. His prejudiced outbursts include such statements as “murder and lying comes easy for white people” and “the Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man.” Whether accusing Jews of controlling American politics, demonizing Jewish people, or proclaiming his friendship for Moammar Gadhafi, Farrakhan’s ideology serves only to promote hate.
Please take the time to let the BSU and campus leaders know that this event is unacceptable; relevant email addresses are listed below. More information about our response to this event will be forthcoming."
Salih Muhammed, Chair of the Black Student Union salih_muhammad@yahoo.com
Jonathan Poullard, Dean of Students poullard@berkeley.edu
Vishalli Loomba, ASUC President president@asuc.org
Conference organizers are on Twitter with the hashtag #ABCatCal. Give them a tweet, and let them know how you feel about Louis Farrakhan, please.
Louis Farrakhan In His Own Words
On Jews:
“Do you know Jewish people were not the origin of Hollywood, but they took it over?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
“In 100 years, they control movies, television, recording, publishing, commerce, radio, they own it all. Magazines. Why do you want all, everything?”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
“Did you know that the Koran says that Jews are the most violent of people. I didn’t write it, but I’m living to see it.”
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/12
On Gays:
"And the Christian right, with your blindness to that wicked state of Israel…can that be the holy land, and you have gay parades, and want to permit to have a gay parade in Jerusalem when no prophet ever sanctioned that behavior. HOW CAN THAT BE THE ISRAEL, how can that be Jerusalem with secular people running the holy land when it should be the holy people running the holy land. That land is gonna be cleansed with BLOOD!"
Saviours' Day, Chicago, Illinois, 2/26/06
“I call them the so-called Jews because to be a Jew you have to adhere to the statutes and laws that create the special relationship. How can you be a Jew and promote homosexual marriage?”
National Black Agenda Convention, Boston, 3/18/04
"But all of a sudden in the night clubs, they started having transvestite shows, drag queens… Scripture say no liar, no adulterer, no effeminate will get in the Kingdom."
Saviours' Day Speech, Chicago, 2/23/03
From our friends at UC Berkeley's Tikvah
"This Saturday, (March 10 9:00 - 11:40am Wheeler Auditorium)
Louis Farrakhan will deliver the keynote address of the Afrikan Black Coalition Conference at UC Berkeley. Throughout his career, Farrakhan's hateful rhetoric has targeted Jews, the LGBT community, and Israel. From referring to the Jewish people as "the Synagogue of Satan" or "bloodsuckers" to asserting that "the real anti-Semites are those who came out of Europe and settled in Palestine, and now they call themselves the true Jews," Farrakhan consistently espouses antisemitic conspiracy theories while negating the Jewish people's right to their religion and their land.
Organized by the UC Berkeley Black Student Union, an ASUC sponsored group, Farrakhan’s visit directly attacks Jewish students on this campus. Farrakhan’s hatred cannot be tolerated. It is unfathomable that the BSU has no issue in inviting such an abjectly offensive speaker to campus.
As recently as last week, Farrakhan delivered a speech described by the Anti-Defamation League as “a textbook example” of contemporary antisemitism. According to Abe Foxman, the director of the ADL: “In the past few years Farrakhan has turned his message and the mission of the Nation of Islam into a wide-ranging campaign to demonize and scapegoat Jews.” Just days after declaring, “The government of America is owned lock stock and barrel by those Zionists that love Israel above the United States of America,” Farrakhan will speak on our campus.
But Farrakhan’s bigotry is nothing new, nor reserved solely for Jews. His prejudiced outbursts include such statements as “murder and lying comes easy for white people” and “the Jews don't like Farrakhan, so they call me Hitler. Well, that's a good name. Hitler was a very great man.” Whether accusing Jews of controlling American politics, demonizing Jewish people, or proclaiming his friendship for Moammar Gadhafi, Farrakhan’s ideology serves only to promote hate.
Please take the time to let the BSU and campus leaders know that this event is unacceptable; relevant email addresses are listed below. More information about our response to this event will be forthcoming."
Salih Muhammed, Chair of the Black Student Union salih_muhammad@yahoo.com
Jonathan Poullard, Dean of Students poullard@berkeley.edu
Vishalli Loomba, ASUC President president@asuc.org
Conference organizers are on Twitter with the hashtag #ABCatCal. Give them a tweet, and let them know how you feel about Louis Farrakhan, please.
Sunday, March 4, 2012
The Two Faces of Barack Obama
.
{Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives}
Having read over Barack Obama's speech to AIPAC today what jumps out, to me at least, is the claim that Israelis have the right to make their own decisions regarding their own self-defense:
How odd.
The Obama administration has just spent months trying to convince the Israelis not to exercise any sovereign right to make their own decisions about what is required to meet their security needs.
Obama has, in effect, been arguing that the Israelis should not exercise their sovereign rights to self-defense, but to leave that to him. The argument has been that Israel must wait for the "crippling sanctions" to take effect before rushing forward to eliminate, if possible, the Iranian nuclear program. Israel has a lower "red line" on this than does the US for at least two reasons. The first, of course, is Israel's proximity to Iran, as well as its small geographic size, which makes an Israeli response more urgent to them than an American response would be to us at this point.
The second is that Israel does not have America's military capacity and therefore, if they are going to strike, they would be forced to do it before the US would need to because they have a smaller window of opportunity than does the US. Thus Barack Obama has been essentially arguing that world Jewry must leave Jewish self-defense to the United States. This is implicit in the US demand that Israel continue to wait... and to wait and wait and wait... but handing over responsibility for Israeli security to another power flies directly in the face of what Zionism is about.
And, yet, he stands before the world and claims to respect "Israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions"? This strikes me as exceedingly two-faced. You cannot, on the one hand, insist that Israel defer its self-defense to the United States, while simultaneously claiming that Israel's self-defense is up to Israel.
He seems to want it both ways.
I am suddenly reminded of another AIPAC speech a few years ago wherein Obama claimed that Jerusalem must remain the undivided "eternal" capital of the Jewish state shortly before demanding that Israel cease building housing units on the east side of town.
He lied to us then, so is he lying to us now?
I just do not trust the guy. No one who thinks that the rise of political Islam in the Middle East is a good thing, the joyous outpouring of democracy, can possibly be trusted with Israel's security.
.
{Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives}
Having read over Barack Obama's speech to AIPAC today what jumps out, to me at least, is the claim that Israelis have the right to make their own decisions regarding their own self-defense:
We all prefer to resolve this issue diplomatically. Having said that, Iran's leaders should have no doubt about the resolve of the United States just as they should not doubt Israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions about what is required to meet its security needs.
How odd.
The Obama administration has just spent months trying to convince the Israelis not to exercise any sovereign right to make their own decisions about what is required to meet their security needs.
Obama has, in effect, been arguing that the Israelis should not exercise their sovereign rights to self-defense, but to leave that to him. The argument has been that Israel must wait for the "crippling sanctions" to take effect before rushing forward to eliminate, if possible, the Iranian nuclear program. Israel has a lower "red line" on this than does the US for at least two reasons. The first, of course, is Israel's proximity to Iran, as well as its small geographic size, which makes an Israeli response more urgent to them than an American response would be to us at this point.
The second is that Israel does not have America's military capacity and therefore, if they are going to strike, they would be forced to do it before the US would need to because they have a smaller window of opportunity than does the US. Thus Barack Obama has been essentially arguing that world Jewry must leave Jewish self-defense to the United States. This is implicit in the US demand that Israel continue to wait... and to wait and wait and wait... but handing over responsibility for Israeli security to another power flies directly in the face of what Zionism is about.
And, yet, he stands before the world and claims to respect "Israel's sovereign right to make its own decisions"? This strikes me as exceedingly two-faced. You cannot, on the one hand, insist that Israel defer its self-defense to the United States, while simultaneously claiming that Israel's self-defense is up to Israel.
He seems to want it both ways.
I am suddenly reminded of another AIPAC speech a few years ago wherein Obama claimed that Jerusalem must remain the undivided "eternal" capital of the Jewish state shortly before demanding that Israel cease building housing units on the east side of town.
He lied to us then, so is he lying to us now?
I just do not trust the guy. No one who thinks that the rise of political Islam in the Middle East is a good thing, the joyous outpouring of democracy, can possibly be trusted with Israel's security.
.
Hypocrisy at Muzzlewatch: AIPAC, PennBDS, and Mitchell Plitnick
Over at MuzzleWatch, Mitchell Plitnick is upset that AIPAC has taken back his press credentials, and will not give him media access at their Annual Policy Conference.
Now, AIPAC does not consult me about these things, so I don't know why his press credentials were either granted or revoked. However, I would like to note that JVP, which produces MuzzleWatch, and of which Plitnick is a former co-director, did not protest or comment when, a month ago, the National BDS Conference at the University of Pennsylvania*, which JVP officially endorsed, revoked the press credentials of one local Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Exponent, and refused press access outright to the Philadelphia Jewish Voice.
MuzzleWatch's newfound concern about censorship rings hollow. They are happy to complain when AIPAC withholds press credentials, but the barring of the local Jewish press from a major anti-Israel conference (which JVP endorsed, did I mention that?) rates not even a yawn.
It's convenient to be the eternal victim over at MuzzleWatch, proudly wearing tape over your mouth for all to see. It's less convenient to hold all conferences to one standard, especially when one conference is being run by a group you want to please, and another by a group you despise. But that's the only way to avoid being rightly identified as a whiner and a hypocrite.
(I also hate to point this out, but AIPAC has had some trouble with JVP activists, which Plitnick certainly is, in the past. To the best of my knowledge, the Philadelphia Jewish Voice has no record of disrupting BDS conferences.)
*Please note an edit--this was formerly 'Pennsylvania State'. Thanks to a kind reader, the error has been corrected. I apologize profusely to Pennsylvania State University, and assure them that I did not mean any insult to Penn State students by suggesting that they would host an anti-Semitic conference like this on their fine campus.
Now, AIPAC does not consult me about these things, so I don't know why his press credentials were either granted or revoked. However, I would like to note that JVP, which produces MuzzleWatch, and of which Plitnick is a former co-director, did not protest or comment when, a month ago, the National BDS Conference at the University of Pennsylvania*, which JVP officially endorsed, revoked the press credentials of one local Jewish newspaper, the Jewish Exponent, and refused press access outright to the Philadelphia Jewish Voice.
MuzzleWatch's newfound concern about censorship rings hollow. They are happy to complain when AIPAC withholds press credentials, but the barring of the local Jewish press from a major anti-Israel conference (which JVP endorsed, did I mention that?) rates not even a yawn.
It's convenient to be the eternal victim over at MuzzleWatch, proudly wearing tape over your mouth for all to see. It's less convenient to hold all conferences to one standard, especially when one conference is being run by a group you want to please, and another by a group you despise. But that's the only way to avoid being rightly identified as a whiner and a hypocrite.
(I also hate to point this out, but AIPAC has had some trouble with JVP activists, which Plitnick certainly is, in the past. To the best of my knowledge, the Philadelphia Jewish Voice has no record of disrupting BDS conferences.)
*Please note an edit--this was formerly 'Pennsylvania State'. Thanks to a kind reader, the error has been corrected. I apologize profusely to Pennsylvania State University, and assure them that I did not mean any insult to Penn State students by suggesting that they would host an anti-Semitic conference like this on their fine campus.
Arab resource organizing Center Protesting Peace
In 1994 the Norwegian Nobel Committee awarded the Nobel Peace Prize to Yasir Arafat, Shimon Peres and Yitzhak Rabin, for their efforts to create a lasting peace in the Middle East.
From their press release:
"For several decades, the conflict between Israel and its neighbour states, and between Israelis and Palestinians, has been among the most irreconcilable and menacing in international politics. The parties have caused each other great suffering.
By concluding the Oslo Accords, and subsequently following them up, Arafat, Peres and Rabin have made substantial contributions to a historic process through which peace and cooperation can replace war and hate.
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize could be awarded to the person who, in the preceding year, "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations". The award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1994 to Arafat, Peres and Rabin is intended by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East. It is the Committee's hope that the award will serve as an encouragement to all the Israelis and Palestinians who are endeavouring to establish lasting peace in the region."
In 1996, Peres founded the Peres Center for Peace, in an effort to build a framework for his vision of peaceful coexistence.
From their Facebook page:
"The Peres Center for Peace is Israel’s leading non-profit organization promoting peacebuilding between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and in particular between Israelis and Palestinians. Founded in 1996 by the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres, the Peres Center conducts dozens of projects, involving thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, fostering socio-economic cooperation and people-to-people interaction in a wide range of fields, such as medicine, sports, agriculture, the environment, business, education, youth, technology, the arts, and more.
The Peres Center believes that working towards peace should not just be left to governments, but rather that Israeli and Palestinian civil society should be actively engaged in peacebuilding activities. Through bringing together Israelis and Palestinians and focusing on common Arab and Israeli social, economic, developmental, cultural and educational interests, the Peres Center enables real people-to-people relationships to be formed, paving the way to a real and lasting peace between peoples. "
On Tuesday March 7, Israel President Shimon Peres will be coming to San Francisco, to speak at the venerable Temple Emanu-El.
The Arab Resource Organizing Center plans to protest the Nobel laureate that has devoted his life to encouraging peaceful co-existence between Israelis and their neighbors. Blinded by their raw hatred of anything associated with Israel, they sent out an announcement urging people to disrupt the aging dignitary.
Their announcement follows:
Peres is a war criminal - apartheid is not a vision for a just future.
We must stand together to oppose Israeli Apartheid and the colonization of Palestine.
Let's show Peres what OUR vision of tomorrow would look like by greeting him with a mass protest at 5pm.
Bring signs, banners, chants, and your friends! Also bring flashlights and noisemakers to shine light onto Israeli apartheid and drown out Peres' lies!
Rejecting Peace. Rejecting Co-existence. Protesting a Nobel Laureate who devoted his life to justice, equality and opportunity for all. Can there be any more convincing evidence of the hatred and intolerance of the Arab Resource Organizing Center?
From their press release:
"For several decades, the conflict between Israel and its neighbour states, and between Israelis and Palestinians, has been among the most irreconcilable and menacing in international politics. The parties have caused each other great suffering.
By concluding the Oslo Accords, and subsequently following them up, Arafat, Peres and Rabin have made substantial contributions to a historic process through which peace and cooperation can replace war and hate.
In his 1895 will, Alfred Nobel wrote that the Peace Prize could be awarded to the person who, in the preceding year, "shall have done the most or the best work for fraternity between nations". The award of the Nobel Peace Prize for 1994 to Arafat, Peres and Rabin is intended by the Norwegian Nobel Committee to honour a political act which called for great courage on both sides, and which has opened up opportunities for a new development towards fraternity in the Middle East. It is the Committee's hope that the award will serve as an encouragement to all the Israelis and Palestinians who are endeavouring to establish lasting peace in the region."
In 1996, Peres founded the Peres Center for Peace, in an effort to build a framework for his vision of peaceful coexistence.
From their Facebook page:
"The Peres Center for Peace is Israel’s leading non-profit organization promoting peacebuilding between Israel and its Arab neighbors, and in particular between Israelis and Palestinians. Founded in 1996 by the President of Israel and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Shimon Peres, the Peres Center conducts dozens of projects, involving thousands of Israelis and Palestinians, fostering socio-economic cooperation and people-to-people interaction in a wide range of fields, such as medicine, sports, agriculture, the environment, business, education, youth, technology, the arts, and more.
The Peres Center believes that working towards peace should not just be left to governments, but rather that Israeli and Palestinian civil society should be actively engaged in peacebuilding activities. Through bringing together Israelis and Palestinians and focusing on common Arab and Israeli social, economic, developmental, cultural and educational interests, the Peres Center enables real people-to-people relationships to be formed, paving the way to a real and lasting peace between peoples. "
On Tuesday March 7, Israel President Shimon Peres will be coming to San Francisco, to speak at the venerable Temple Emanu-El.
The Arab Resource Organizing Center plans to protest the Nobel laureate that has devoted his life to encouraging peaceful co-existence between Israelis and their neighbors. Blinded by their raw hatred of anything associated with Israel, they sent out an announcement urging people to disrupt the aging dignitary.
Their announcement follows:
Peres is a war criminal - apartheid is not a vision for a just future.
We must stand together to oppose Israeli Apartheid and the colonization of Palestine.
Let's show Peres what OUR vision of tomorrow would look like by greeting him with a mass protest at 5pm.
Bring signs, banners, chants, and your friends! Also bring flashlights and noisemakers to shine light onto Israeli apartheid and drown out Peres' lies!
Rejecting Peace. Rejecting Co-existence. Protesting a Nobel Laureate who devoted his life to justice, equality and opportunity for all. Can there be any more convincing evidence of the hatred and intolerance of the Arab Resource Organizing Center?
Friday, March 2, 2012
Nicholas Donin and the Proud Self-Hating Jew
On February 24th of this year, Gilad Atzmon published two tweets in close succesion. The first read: It's ironic that Anti-Defamation League @ADL_National defames me calling me anti-semite, I am jewish #ThoughtPolice. US tour begins Feb 25
Shortly thereafter, Atzmon seemed to feel the need to clarify, and tweeted again. Meant to say, it's ironic that Anti-Defamation League @ADL_National defames me calling me anti-semite, I am jewish by origin.
Atzmon's followers love this line of reasoning--a Jew, they believe, even one who calls himself 'proudly self-hating', must be accepted as an authentic Jewish voice, (in fact, a more authentic Jewish voice, for some reason) and cannot be called an anti-Semite. This reminds me of the people who haunt the Internet, linking over and over to the same video of black people talking about how they like Ron Paul--proof absolute, they insist, that Ron Paul cannot be a racist.
It also reminds me of Nicholas Donin.
You may not have heard of Donin. 'Of Jewish origin', like Gilad Atzmon, he became a Christian, and was in 1225 excommunicated by Rabbi Yehiel of Paris. Donin spent his life trying to destroy Jews, and he was appallingly successful. Joining a monastic order, he first appears to have incited attacks by Crusaders on the Jewish community in France, leading to 3000 deaths. In 1236, he approached Pope Gregory IX with a list of accusations of blasphemies supposedly contained in the Talmud. Books were seized, and after the Disputation of Paris, in which Donin faced off with his old adversary, Rabbi Yehiel, the Talmud was burned in Paris.
Donin used his identity as a person 'of Jewish origin' to effectively destroy the stability of the medieval Jewish community of France. His legacy persists to this day--anti-Semitic websites still quote the same passages Donin mined from the Gemara in the thirteenth century to smear and defame Jews and Judaism.
Gilad Atzmon, the man who feels that Hitler was hard done by when Jews organized a boycott of German products, would probably have liked him. Donin and Atzmon share a deep and abiding hatred for Jews and for Judaism, and a willingness to use their status as 'insiders' to claim special knowledge, and harm other Jews.
Israeli Soldiers Stories at UC Davis. Event report from StandWithUs
Written by Gail Rubin SWU Davis Chapter
Despite hostile hecklers, protestors, and angry students shouting "rapists" "child molesters" and "liars", the two Israeli reservists brought by StandWithUs as part of its Israeli Soldiers Stories told their stories and handled themselves with dignity. Ran, the 28 year-old IDF reservist, and Ranya, the 20-something Druze woman, spoke from the heart about their lives in Israel and how they wish for peace. While the protestors represented the true face of Israel-haters, Ran and Ranya represented the heart of Israel. This event was co-sponsored by the UC Davis Chabad student club "Chai.” What the group lacks in numbers is made up by their courage and convictions, that the story of the Jewish people and the mitzvah of defending Israel remain paramount. As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders" not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand. What happened to our first amendment rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and the University of California's "principles of community" to ensure a "hate-free" campus?
The program continued, punctuated by slanderous and heinous bellowing from members of the audience. In all, at various times, there were approximately 150 in attendance. There were some 20 or so hecklers that would act as the cheerleaders who would cause the others to erupt with hoots and howls during the presentation. One protesting student was heard shouting out that the star of David worn by our StandWithUs campus professional , Matthew White, was a Nazi symbol. At another juncture, the Chabad Rebbetzin, Sorele Brownstein, despite being very pregnant, got up to speak in front of this hostile audience to defend the Jewish people. Even she was jeered at. The behavior of the disrupters was quite despicable.
The ringleader was a self-identified Indian who was extremely hostile, shouting that he was there to shut down the event, and begging to be arrested. After the event, this Indian young man approached Ran and Ranya, our speakers, and apologized to them for his behavior, and said he was paid $50 to disrupt the event. Apparently, the same Indian heckler told others in the audience that he was paid $50 to disrupt and shut down the talk.
When the program ended, a few Arabic-speaking girls approached Ranya, and apologized to her for the bad behavior of the others. Ran also recounted that at the end one Muslim student thanked him for coming and that he felt he learned some things he had never heard before.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 11 A.M. at the State Capitol
The Capitol Knesset Club, which formed last year as an interest group to address issues confronting the Jewish community and Israel, helped SWU bring Ran and Ranya to the the California Capitol. What a breath of fresh air after the previous evening's event at UC Davis. We were warmly received by several members of the State Legislature, including Speaker of the Assembly John Perez. Also, Assembly Member Linda Halderman, M.D. gave our Israeli guests a warm welcome and explained her personal family connection to Israel. About 40 to 50 people were in the audience. Ran and Ranya were then given a tour of the State Capitol, including an inside look into the Senate floor.
The leader of the Capitol Knesset Club, Ryan Pessah, said he received numerous emails raving about the Israeli Soldiers program. 50 people were in the audience. Ran and Ranya were then given a tour of the State Capitol, including an inside look into the Senate floor.
The leader of the Capitol Knesset Club, Ryan Pessah, said he received numerous emails raving about the Israeli Soldiers program.
Despite hostile hecklers, protestors, and angry students shouting "rapists" "child molesters" and "liars", the two Israeli reservists brought by StandWithUs as part of its Israeli Soldiers Stories told their stories and handled themselves with dignity. Ran, the 28 year-old IDF reservist, and Ranya, the 20-something Druze woman, spoke from the heart about their lives in Israel and how they wish for peace. While the protestors represented the true face of Israel-haters, Ran and Ranya represented the heart of Israel. This event was co-sponsored by the UC Davis Chabad student club "Chai.” What the group lacks in numbers is made up by their courage and convictions, that the story of the Jewish people and the mitzvah of defending Israel remain paramount. As fear of physical altercations mounted, several "911" calls were made. The campus police appeared but refused to remove, reprimand or otherwise take any action against the disrupters. The police stated they were given "orders" not to take action against the disrupters, but instead, to close down the program if it got out of hand. What happened to our first amendment rights of freedom of assembly and freedom of speech, and the University of California's "principles of community" to ensure a "hate-free" campus?
The program continued, punctuated by slanderous and heinous bellowing from members of the audience. In all, at various times, there were approximately 150 in attendance. There were some 20 or so hecklers that would act as the cheerleaders who would cause the others to erupt with hoots and howls during the presentation. One protesting student was heard shouting out that the star of David worn by our StandWithUs campus professional , Matthew White, was a Nazi symbol. At another juncture, the Chabad Rebbetzin, Sorele Brownstein, despite being very pregnant, got up to speak in front of this hostile audience to defend the Jewish people. Even she was jeered at. The behavior of the disrupters was quite despicable.
The ringleader was a self-identified Indian who was extremely hostile, shouting that he was there to shut down the event, and begging to be arrested. After the event, this Indian young man approached Ran and Ranya, our speakers, and apologized to them for his behavior, and said he was paid $50 to disrupt the event. Apparently, the same Indian heckler told others in the audience that he was paid $50 to disrupt and shut down the talk.
When the program ended, a few Arabic-speaking girls approached Ranya, and apologized to her for the bad behavior of the others. Ran also recounted that at the end one Muslim student thanked him for coming and that he felt he learned some things he had never heard before.
Tuesday, February 28, 2012 at 11 A.M. at the State Capitol
The Capitol Knesset Club, which formed last year as an interest group to address issues confronting the Jewish community and Israel, helped SWU bring Ran and Ranya to the the California Capitol. What a breath of fresh air after the previous evening's event at UC Davis. We were warmly received by several members of the State Legislature, including Speaker of the Assembly John Perez. Also, Assembly Member Linda Halderman, M.D. gave our Israeli guests a warm welcome and explained her personal family connection to Israel. About 40 to 50 people were in the audience. Ran and Ranya were then given a tour of the State Capitol, including an inside look into the Senate floor.
The leader of the Capitol Knesset Club, Ryan Pessah, said he received numerous emails raving about the Israeli Soldiers program. 50 people were in the audience. Ran and Ranya were then given a tour of the State Capitol, including an inside look into the Senate floor.
The leader of the Capitol Knesset Club, Ryan Pessah, said he received numerous emails raving about the Israeli Soldiers program.
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Exposing the Global march to Jerusalem
Our friends at CiF Watch have launched a new website 'Global March to Jerusalem – Exposing the Truth ' that promises to be a tremendous resource to the forces of goodness and light.
From their Press Release:
"A month before the scheduled 'Global March to Jerusalem' (GMJ), CiF Watch has launched a major new website designed to act as a resource for journalists, bloggers, policy makers and members of the law enforcement community seeking to learn more about the individuals and organizations behind the GMJ.
As was the case in previous years, a series of high-profile publicity stunts aimed at undermining Israel's legitimacy are planned for the coming months. The first major event is scheduled to take place on March 30, 2012 and is named 'The Global March to Jerusalem' (GMJ).
The concept behind it is to have a million people marching on Israel’s borders from all the surrounding countries – Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt – with the aim of reaching Jerusalem. Concurrently, demonstrations are planned in the Palestinian-administrated territories and against Israel's diplomatic missions in major cities throughout the world.
Extensive research into the march's organizers demonstrates that the Global March to Jerusalem is a result of collaboration between far left extremists, Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist groups, and has the backing of the Iranian government.
"The organizers of this march are undoubtedly aware that no country will permit mass illegal infiltration of its borders, especially by people who identify with terrorist groups and regimes dedicated to its destruction”, stated Hadar Sela, author of two seminal reports on the Global March to Jerusalem, “The results, therefore, are likely to be tragic".
Adam Levick, managing editor of CiF Watch added "It is clear that the organizers and leadership of the Global March to Jerusalem are comprised almost exclusively of terror supporters and extremists who oppose a Jewish state within any borders, and are intent on organizing a potentially violent provocation with the sole aim of eroding Israel’s legitimacy.”
Visit the site, and learn about the alarming links to extremism and terror in this 21st century crusade
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
UC Davis should be Ashamed
Two young Israelis, Ranya Fadel and Ran Bar-Yoshafat are touring American campuses as part of Israeli Soldiers’ Stories. The tour is sponsored by StandWithUs, an international Israel education organization. On Monday, Feb 27, they were scheduled to speak at UC Davis in an event co-sponsored by Chai Life-Club.
Ranya belongs to Israel’s Druze minority community. Her father and brother have both served in the Israeli military. She has a diploma in biotechnology and a bachelor’s degree in political sciences at Bar Ilan University. She begins her talk apologizing for her English- reminding people that its her third language, after Arabic and Hebrew . Bar-Yoshafat is a Jewish Israeli and is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. He is the former Israeli national champion for mixed martial arts (1999-2000) and is a lawyer in the Kenneset.
The young Israelis were here not as representatives of their government, but rather to put a human face on the conflict that too often is ignored.
What happened to them at UC Davis was a disgrace and an embarrassment. Two young people, visitors from far way were subject to a display from Davis students and community members that has no place on a college campus, where above all else, free speech and open discourse should be cherished. The repugnant behavior of anti-Israel students organizations and anti-Israel community organizations, and the deliberate negilence of the UC Davis campus police to maintain order was deeply disturbing and needs to be addressed
From a local blogger
1. The plan of the anti-Israel bashers was twofold:
*to arrive early and fill the room to capacity allowing no other people to enter–and then at a predetermined point to get up and walk out, leaving an empty classroom with no one to listen to the speakers
*and if they were unable to carry out the above plan, to continuously heckle the speakers making their presentation impossible
2. In regard to the first part of the anti-Israel plan, the pro-Israel organizers of the event changed the room at the last minute which forced the anti-Israel forces to show up after many others had already arrived to take their seats.
3. In regard to the second part of the anti-Israel plan, the main heckler, a student from India, indicated after the program had concluded that he was paid $50 by “Muslim students” to heckle so loudly that the program would not be able to continue.
4. A pre-program meeting of the “pro-Palestinian” students took place in the campus classroom in which the program was originally scheduled to take place. In that meeting, there were approximately 100 “pro-Palestinian supporters” including not only UCD students led by Students for Justice in Palestine, but also representatives of the Davis Peace Coalition, the Jewish Voice for Peace, the Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights, American Muslims for Palestine, and the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement.
Ran and Ranya were exquisite, exhibiting tremendous grace under pressure. Never once loosing focus, they stressed to the students they were at Davis to talk. They spoke about their lives in Israel- lives very similar to those of American young people. They watched Seinfeld and Friends. They went to the beach. They went shopping with their friends. But all that changed during the second intifada. They spoke of the bus bombings and the assaults on Israeli civilians. They spoke of the friends they lost. Ranya showed a memorial- "This victim was Muslim. This victim was Druze. This victim was Jewish" Her message was clear- terror affects everyone. Ran showed us a list of his friends who had died- there were nearly 20 names on it. He carries the list so he never forgets.
UC Davis police, summoned to the event because of the disruptions refused to do anything. They refused to remove hecklers and do anything to ensure that the rights of the speakers were protected
Tuesday evening, Ran and Ranya spoke at UC Berkeley. A rapt, respectful audience listen to their every word, and politely questioned them after.
UC Davis should be ashamed. Let them know here.
Ranya belongs to Israel’s Druze minority community. Her father and brother have both served in the Israeli military. She has a diploma in biotechnology and a bachelor’s degree in political sciences at Bar Ilan University. She begins her talk apologizing for her English- reminding people that its her third language, after Arabic and Hebrew . Bar-Yoshafat is a Jewish Israeli and is the grandchild of Holocaust survivors. He is the former Israeli national champion for mixed martial arts (1999-2000) and is a lawyer in the Kenneset.
The young Israelis were here not as representatives of their government, but rather to put a human face on the conflict that too often is ignored.
What happened to them at UC Davis was a disgrace and an embarrassment. Two young people, visitors from far way were subject to a display from Davis students and community members that has no place on a college campus, where above all else, free speech and open discourse should be cherished. The repugnant behavior of anti-Israel students organizations and anti-Israel community organizations, and the deliberate negilence of the UC Davis campus police to maintain order was deeply disturbing and needs to be addressed
From a local blogger
1. The plan of the anti-Israel bashers was twofold:
*to arrive early and fill the room to capacity allowing no other people to enter–and then at a predetermined point to get up and walk out, leaving an empty classroom with no one to listen to the speakers
*and if they were unable to carry out the above plan, to continuously heckle the speakers making their presentation impossible
2. In regard to the first part of the anti-Israel plan, the pro-Israel organizers of the event changed the room at the last minute which forced the anti-Israel forces to show up after many others had already arrived to take their seats.
3. In regard to the second part of the anti-Israel plan, the main heckler, a student from India, indicated after the program had concluded that he was paid $50 by “Muslim students” to heckle so loudly that the program would not be able to continue.
4. A pre-program meeting of the “pro-Palestinian” students took place in the campus classroom in which the program was originally scheduled to take place. In that meeting, there were approximately 100 “pro-Palestinian supporters” including not only UCD students led by Students for Justice in Palestine, but also representatives of the Davis Peace Coalition, the Jewish Voice for Peace, the Davis Committee for Palestinian Rights, American Muslims for Palestine, and the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) movement.
Ran and Ranya were exquisite, exhibiting tremendous grace under pressure. Never once loosing focus, they stressed to the students they were at Davis to talk. They spoke about their lives in Israel- lives very similar to those of American young people. They watched Seinfeld and Friends. They went to the beach. They went shopping with their friends. But all that changed during the second intifada. They spoke of the bus bombings and the assaults on Israeli civilians. They spoke of the friends they lost. Ranya showed a memorial- "This victim was Muslim. This victim was Druze. This victim was Jewish" Her message was clear- terror affects everyone. Ran showed us a list of his friends who had died- there were nearly 20 names on it. He carries the list so he never forgets.
UC Davis police, summoned to the event because of the disruptions refused to do anything. They refused to remove hecklers and do anything to ensure that the rights of the speakers were protected
Tuesday evening, Ran and Ranya spoke at UC Berkeley. A rapt, respectful audience listen to their every word, and politely questioned them after.
UC Davis should be ashamed. Let them know here.
The Great Gilad Atzmon Paperchase
Respectfully submitted by the Makabit, notes on the events befalling the Bay Area Zionists on the evening of February 25, Oakland, California:
Gilad Atzmon can be described in a variety of ways. You could describe him, as his adoring fans do, as a 'prolific performer, composer, author and activist'. You could describe him as nearly everyone else does, as a unhinged hater whose writings drip with classical anti-Semitism and a poisonous hatred of Jews and Judaism. Or, you could describe him, as a lady of my acquaintance does, simply as 'someone who makes a living being a self-hating saxophonist'.
A brief primer on Gilad Atzmon for those of you who may have blissfully erased him from your memory banks since the last time he popped up. Atzmon is on record as saying:
“There is no such thing as anti-Semitism”
“I wanted to be an ordinary human being, which is very unusual for a Jew.”
He is most recently the author of a book entitled The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics, described by Walter Russell Mead as "a genuinely anti-Semitic book by a deeply twisted anti-Semite — who happens also to be Jewish." The book, among other things, speculates about the truth of the blood libel, and points out in Hitler's defense that American Jews were persecuting him by boycotting German goods. Atzmon also adds, of the Shoah: I think that 65 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must be entitled to start to ask the necessary questions. We should ask for some conclusive historical evidence and arguments rather than follow a religious narrative that is sustained by political pressure and laws.
I won't even get into what he says about Israel, a nation that had the misfortune to count Gilad Atzmon as a citizen until he renounced his connections to Israel, Judaism, and sanity. (He now lives in Britain, which deserves better.) So you get the idea: proudly self-loathing, comfortable with the tropes of Holocaust denial, and reviving the ugliest smears of classical anti-Semitism.
This charming fellow is much beloved by people who hate Israel, and are pleased by the vicious image that Atzmon creates of Jews and Israelis. Which is why he is repeatedly invited to star at various 'fundraisers' for various anti-Israel activities. Most recently, this led to his being invited to Oakland, CA, on the evening of Saturday, February 25, for an evening of music and anti-Semitism, to raise funds for the Global March to Jerusalem. For reasons that will follow shortly, I do not believe that they can have possibly raised enough money to cover the cost of flying Mr. Atzmon out from England. In fact, one of the most consistent things about Atzmon's fundraising endeavors is that they never seem to raise much in the way of funds. But that is a consideration for another day.
Of course, if we was gonna be there, we were gonna be there. The Zionist activists and proud Jews of the Bay Area revved up. We took old signs out of storage, and painted new ones. There was no way Atzmon was going to speak anywhere in the Bay Area without us standing by and telling the world the truth about his vile shtick. We were a little nervous, after the peaceful organizers of this event contacted anarchists at Occupy Oakland for 'security', soliciting the response "Who do you want us to beat up?" But we went anyway. We were determined to speak truth to...whatever it is Gilad Atzmon is.
Things got complicated after that, though, because rather than face being called out for being a purveyor of hate speech, racism, and vile lies, Gilad Atzmon went on the run.
We arrived at the designated location, only to find that the only people stirring around the building were young and fashionable--not exactly the typical Atzmon fans. Several of the girls were wearing wigs teased into big Afros. It was, as we later learned, the Seventh Annual Say it Loud 70's Fashion Show.
We admired the young people's retro ensembles. But where was Atzmon? We found this notice taped to the inside of a nearby door.
As you'll note, they didn't leave an address or phone number, which is customary when a piece of theater has a change of venue, but then again, the point of the change of venue may simply have been to shake off pursuit. While a forlorn pair of Atzmon fans called several numbers, trying to find out where the event had gotten to, the Zionists surveyed the scene, and shrugged. The field was ours, and we were on the point of declaring victory and going out to dinner. We even took a few photographs.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we then found out where Atzmon was hiding. (It was cold and bleak and dark, and I was actually looking forward to dinner.) However, one of the organizers showed up to discreetly hand out flyers with the new address, and armed with one of these, we leaped back in our assorted conveyances and headed out to find Atzmon's new hide-out.
The new location was on a residential street, and as we rolled down it looking for street numbers, we came to the conclusion that the new location was probably someone's living room. But we were wrong. Oh, how wrong we were.
Atzmon's new venue turned out to be the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, and I confess that when I saw the sign, I actually shrieked a little, and our driver was so discombobulated that she accidentally parked in the cultural center's parking lot. This later turned out to be something of a problem, but we were, to put it mildly, startled.
I do not know how Gilad Atzmon managed to find shelter from the storm at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, seeing as he is neither a Muslim, nor particularly cultured, aside from his saxophone playing, which is apparently pretty decent. I can only assume that he was seriously mischaracterized to the poor soul in charge of scheduling, who therefore made the disturbing mistake of letting a man who thinks burning a synagogue is a 'rational act' into a building which serves as a mosque.
We all spilled out of our cars, and lined up along the fence in front of the ICC parking lot. We had signs, and a banner, and a flag, and we all made ourselves fairly comfortable. (It was cold, it was dark, and we were protesting a nasty bigot in front of a local Cultural Center, but other than that, we were comfortable.)
After that, things went fairly smoothly. An event organizer hovered outside, glaring at us, and denouncing our flyer as a pack of lies. A few young men, wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, were produced from somewhere, and stood around, nominally protecting the entrance to the ICC. I believe they were intended to look menacing, but they seemed more intrigued by us than anything else.
Meanwhile, no actual ticket-holders seemed to be showing up. We gathered, from hurried conversations between the organizers, that things were being delayed, while everyone was apprised of the new location. That was OK. We waited. Meanwhile, people kept exiting the ICC, many of them with young children, apparently leaving some other event inside. I felt rather awkward as they walked past me. It seemed like mere politeness to scream a warning. "Your cultural center has Gilad Atzmon in it!" I mean, I would want to know. But I wasn't sure of the etiquette for this situation. I settled for smiling politely.
The organizer-in-chief threatened to call the police, so we tried to be helpful and called them ourselves. They showed up several minutes later, and chatted with our representative and that of the Atzmon fans, familiarizing themselves with the situation.
They also turned out to be useful because, as I may have mentioned, we had parked in the ICC's parking lot, and getting out was now starting to seem somewhat perilous. I'm trying to make this whole outing as lighthearted as possible, but the truth of the matter is that any fan of Gilad Atzmon's is pretty much automatically a pretty special kind of hater, and these people scare the heck out of me. Luckily, one of the police officers, apprised of the situation, agreed to escort our car and driver out of the parking lot.
After that, we stood around and held our signs and got very cold, while the Atzmon people engaged in their favorite pastime, filming Zionists. One of them attached to one of our activists and kept him talking for the entire hour and a half we were there, filming the whole thing. A young woman smoking hand-rolled cigarettes and wearing an "I Heart Gaza" t-shirt filmed the rest of us.
Oh, yes, the actual event? Well, fewer than twenty-five people attended in the end. A trickling handful arrived and were ushered into the parking lot as we stood there. There may have been more activists outside than suckers inside.
We were freezing outside, and in the dubious company of Gilad Atzmon's fans. We were still doing better than those inside, who were listening to Gilad Atzmon. Transcript of the hideous speech that transpired inside coming up in the next post.
Gilad Atzmon can be described in a variety of ways. You could describe him, as his adoring fans do, as a 'prolific performer, composer, author and activist'. You could describe him as nearly everyone else does, as a unhinged hater whose writings drip with classical anti-Semitism and a poisonous hatred of Jews and Judaism. Or, you could describe him, as a lady of my acquaintance does, simply as 'someone who makes a living being a self-hating saxophonist'.
A brief primer on Gilad Atzmon for those of you who may have blissfully erased him from your memory banks since the last time he popped up. Atzmon is on record as saying:
“I’m not going to say whether it is right or not to burn down a synagogue. I can see that it is a rational act.”
“American Jews do try and control the world by proxy”
“There is no such thing as anti-Semitism”
“Why is it that the Jews who repeatedly demand that the Christian world should apologize for its involvement in previous persecutions, have never thought that it is about time that they apologized for killing Jesus?"
“I wanted to be an ordinary human being, which is very unusual for a Jew.”
He is most recently the author of a book entitled The Wandering Who? A Study of Jewish Identity Politics, described by Walter Russell Mead as "a genuinely anti-Semitic book by a deeply twisted anti-Semite — who happens also to be Jewish." The book, among other things, speculates about the truth of the blood libel, and points out in Hitler's defense that American Jews were persecuting him by boycotting German goods. Atzmon also adds, of the Shoah: I think that 65 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, we must be entitled to start to ask the necessary questions. We should ask for some conclusive historical evidence and arguments rather than follow a religious narrative that is sustained by political pressure and laws.
I won't even get into what he says about Israel, a nation that had the misfortune to count Gilad Atzmon as a citizen until he renounced his connections to Israel, Judaism, and sanity. (He now lives in Britain, which deserves better.) So you get the idea: proudly self-loathing, comfortable with the tropes of Holocaust denial, and reviving the ugliest smears of classical anti-Semitism.
This charming fellow is much beloved by people who hate Israel, and are pleased by the vicious image that Atzmon creates of Jews and Israelis. Which is why he is repeatedly invited to star at various 'fundraisers' for various anti-Israel activities. Most recently, this led to his being invited to Oakland, CA, on the evening of Saturday, February 25, for an evening of music and anti-Semitism, to raise funds for the Global March to Jerusalem. For reasons that will follow shortly, I do not believe that they can have possibly raised enough money to cover the cost of flying Mr. Atzmon out from England. In fact, one of the most consistent things about Atzmon's fundraising endeavors is that they never seem to raise much in the way of funds. But that is a consideration for another day.
Of course, if we was gonna be there, we were gonna be there. The Zionist activists and proud Jews of the Bay Area revved up. We took old signs out of storage, and painted new ones. There was no way Atzmon was going to speak anywhere in the Bay Area without us standing by and telling the world the truth about his vile shtick. We were a little nervous, after the peaceful organizers of this event contacted anarchists at Occupy Oakland for 'security', soliciting the response "Who do you want us to beat up?" But we went anyway. We were determined to speak truth to...whatever it is Gilad Atzmon is.
Things got complicated after that, though, because rather than face being called out for being a purveyor of hate speech, racism, and vile lies, Gilad Atzmon went on the run.
We arrived at the designated location, only to find that the only people stirring around the building were young and fashionable--not exactly the typical Atzmon fans. Several of the girls were wearing wigs teased into big Afros. It was, as we later learned, the Seventh Annual Say it Loud 70's Fashion Show.
As you'll note, they didn't leave an address or phone number, which is customary when a piece of theater has a change of venue, but then again, the point of the change of venue may simply have been to shake off pursuit. While a forlorn pair of Atzmon fans called several numbers, trying to find out where the event had gotten to, the Zionists surveyed the scene, and shrugged. The field was ours, and we were on the point of declaring victory and going out to dinner. We even took a few photographs.
Fortunately or unfortunately, we then found out where Atzmon was hiding. (It was cold and bleak and dark, and I was actually looking forward to dinner.) However, one of the organizers showed up to discreetly hand out flyers with the new address, and armed with one of these, we leaped back in our assorted conveyances and headed out to find Atzmon's new hide-out.
The new location was on a residential street, and as we rolled down it looking for street numbers, we came to the conclusion that the new location was probably someone's living room. But we were wrong. Oh, how wrong we were.
Atzmon's new venue turned out to be the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, and I confess that when I saw the sign, I actually shrieked a little, and our driver was so discombobulated that she accidentally parked in the cultural center's parking lot. This later turned out to be something of a problem, but we were, to put it mildly, startled.
I do not know how Gilad Atzmon managed to find shelter from the storm at the Islamic Cultural Center of Northern California, seeing as he is neither a Muslim, nor particularly cultured, aside from his saxophone playing, which is apparently pretty decent. I can only assume that he was seriously mischaracterized to the poor soul in charge of scheduling, who therefore made the disturbing mistake of letting a man who thinks burning a synagogue is a 'rational act' into a building which serves as a mosque.
We all spilled out of our cars, and lined up along the fence in front of the ICC parking lot. We had signs, and a banner, and a flag, and we all made ourselves fairly comfortable. (It was cold, it was dark, and we were protesting a nasty bigot in front of a local Cultural Center, but other than that, we were comfortable.)
After that, things went fairly smoothly. An event organizer hovered outside, glaring at us, and denouncing our flyer as a pack of lies. A few young men, wearing sunglasses in the middle of the night, were produced from somewhere, and stood around, nominally protecting the entrance to the ICC. I believe they were intended to look menacing, but they seemed more intrigued by us than anything else.
Meanwhile, no actual ticket-holders seemed to be showing up. We gathered, from hurried conversations between the organizers, that things were being delayed, while everyone was apprised of the new location. That was OK. We waited. Meanwhile, people kept exiting the ICC, many of them with young children, apparently leaving some other event inside. I felt rather awkward as they walked past me. It seemed like mere politeness to scream a warning. "Your cultural center has Gilad Atzmon in it!" I mean, I would want to know. But I wasn't sure of the etiquette for this situation. I settled for smiling politely.
The organizer-in-chief threatened to call the police, so we tried to be helpful and called them ourselves. They showed up several minutes later, and chatted with our representative and that of the Atzmon fans, familiarizing themselves with the situation.
They also turned out to be useful because, as I may have mentioned, we had parked in the ICC's parking lot, and getting out was now starting to seem somewhat perilous. I'm trying to make this whole outing as lighthearted as possible, but the truth of the matter is that any fan of Gilad Atzmon's is pretty much automatically a pretty special kind of hater, and these people scare the heck out of me. Luckily, one of the police officers, apprised of the situation, agreed to escort our car and driver out of the parking lot.
After that, we stood around and held our signs and got very cold, while the Atzmon people engaged in their favorite pastime, filming Zionists. One of them attached to one of our activists and kept him talking for the entire hour and a half we were there, filming the whole thing. A young woman smoking hand-rolled cigarettes and wearing an "I Heart Gaza" t-shirt filmed the rest of us.
Oh, yes, the actual event? Well, fewer than twenty-five people attended in the end. A trickling handful arrived and were ushered into the parking lot as we stood there. There may have been more activists outside than suckers inside.
We were freezing outside, and in the dubious company of Gilad Atzmon's fans. We were still doing better than those inside, who were listening to Gilad Atzmon. Transcript of the hideous speech that transpired inside coming up in the next post.
Monday, February 27, 2012
"Murdering Assad More Important Than Killing An Israeli"
Well, this is different.
Saudi cleric who once offered cash prize to whomever kidnaps Israeli soldier comes out against Syrian president
Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni is claiming that killing Syrian President Bashar Assad would be a more noble deed than killing an Israeli person.
Saudi newspaper Sabah quoted al-Qarni as saying that Assad deserves to die for heresy, referring to him as "Basharon," in a jab alluding to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Muslim cleric claimed that the Golan Heights will not be freed until Assad's "treacherous" regime falls.
I guess it's important to keep your priorities straight.
Saudi cleric who once offered cash prize to whomever kidnaps Israeli soldier comes out against Syrian president
Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni is claiming that killing Syrian President Bashar Assad would be a more noble deed than killing an Israeli person.
Saudi newspaper Sabah quoted al-Qarni as saying that Assad deserves to die for heresy, referring to him as "Basharon," in a jab alluding to former Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon. The Muslim cleric claimed that the Golan Heights will not be freed until Assad's "treacherous" regime falls.
I guess it's important to keep your priorities straight.
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Palestinian children "throwing stones'
Ask yourself- What if it were you and your children in these cars?
To label this unprovoked violence against Israeli civilians as "non-violent resistance" is deliberately deceptive and manipulative. This is precisely the act that lead to the death of 25 year old Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan.
Asher Palmer and Yonatan were killed in a terrorist attack after Palestinians threw rocks at their car, causing it to overturn on a highway near Kiryat Arba. The incident was originally reported as a traffic accident.
From Arutz Sheva
"Arutz Sheva has obtained a document detailing findings from the scene of the crash. Among the evidence that at first failed, for unknown reasons, to convince police that terrorists may have been involved: a hole in the front windshield of the car, a massive rock found in the front seat with human blood on it, a tear in fabric of the steeling wheel cover and dust indicating a blow from the rock, and damage to Asher Palmer's face suggesting an impact unrelated to the crash.
The autopsy and a CT scan of Asher Palmer's face showed evidence of facial fractures caused by a rock."
To label this unprovoked violence against Israeli civilians as "non-violent resistance" is deliberately deceptive and manipulative. This is precisely the act that lead to the death of 25 year old Asher Palmer and his infant son Yonatan.
Asher Palmer and Yonatan were killed in a terrorist attack after Palestinians threw rocks at their car, causing it to overturn on a highway near Kiryat Arba. The incident was originally reported as a traffic accident.
From Arutz Sheva
"Arutz Sheva has obtained a document detailing findings from the scene of the crash. Among the evidence that at first failed, for unknown reasons, to convince police that terrorists may have been involved: a hole in the front windshield of the car, a massive rock found in the front seat with human blood on it, a tear in fabric of the steeling wheel cover and dust indicating a blow from the rock, and damage to Asher Palmer's face suggesting an impact unrelated to the crash.
The autopsy and a CT scan of Asher Palmer's face showed evidence of facial fractures caused by a rock."
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Near lynching of Israeli teenagers in Haifa
Haifa, sister city of San Francisco, another city by the bay, has been noted for its diversity and tolerance. Until now. Details are emerging of a horrifying attack on two 19 year olds, as reported in YNET
“After we parked the car, another vehicle approaching quickly stopped next to us,” one victim said. “They asked us whether we’re Jewish, and then started yelling ‘Jews, Jews.’ We ran in different directions but they chased us.”
“They caught up with me and started to beat me up with clubs all over my body. I felt they wanted to murder me,” he said. “I saw about 15 or 20 people and felt I was finished.”
According to the second victim, the assailants came out of three vehicles equipped with clubs and metal rods.
“Seven or eight people grabbed hold of me, beat me up and kicked me all over my body,” he said. “They also tried to hit my head with a club, but I protected myself with my arms. That’s why my arms were pulverized. They hit also my head and pelvis with a rock.”
During the savage assault, the attackers decided to “leave their mark” on one of the victims, resorting to a particularly brutal tactic.
“At one point they pounded my head against the pavement,” one soldier said. “One of them grabbed hold of my arms and someone who stood above me engraved something on my head using a knife or a sharp object. I fainted.”
As it turned out, the assailants engraved the words “you dog” in Arabic on the victim’s head. "
“After we parked the car, another vehicle approaching quickly stopped next to us,” one victim said. “They asked us whether we’re Jewish, and then started yelling ‘Jews, Jews.’ We ran in different directions but they chased us.”
“They caught up with me and started to beat me up with clubs all over my body. I felt they wanted to murder me,” he said. “I saw about 15 or 20 people and felt I was finished.”
According to the second victim, the assailants came out of three vehicles equipped with clubs and metal rods.
“Seven or eight people grabbed hold of me, beat me up and kicked me all over my body,” he said. “They also tried to hit my head with a club, but I protected myself with my arms. That’s why my arms were pulverized. They hit also my head and pelvis with a rock.”
During the savage assault, the attackers decided to “leave their mark” on one of the victims, resorting to a particularly brutal tactic.
“At one point they pounded my head against the pavement,” one soldier said. “One of them grabbed hold of my arms and someone who stood above me engraved something on my head using a knife or a sharp object. I fainted.”
As it turned out, the assailants engraved the words “you dog” in Arabic on the victim’s head. "
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)