All Criticism of Israel is Anti-Semitic!

Mike L.

(Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill)

There is an article in this morning's Jerusalem Post by Benjamin Kerstein entitled, "Yes, all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic!" When I first noticed it I rolled my eyes and moved on by because the premise is so obviously nonsensical. Of course not all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic. If all criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic then Israel, itself, is the most anti-Semitic country on the entire planet.

Nonetheless the idea seemed so outrageous and so patently false on its very face that I decided to see what the writer was saying. Perhaps his title, like mine above, was meant as snark. But, nope. Kerstein means precisely what he says. All criticism of Israel is inherently anti-Semitic for historical reasons. This is what he writes:

All criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic because of the specific historical circumstances under which we currently live. That is to say, the historical circumstances under which Israel and the Jews exist in the world today render any non-anti-Semitic criticism of Israel impossible. And, ironically, these are circumstances that Israel’s opponents have themselves created.

To hold that this is not the case requires acting – and demanding that others act – as if these circumstances do not exist, even as they sit as patiently as a pachyderm in the parlor waiting for us to notice them and, sometimes, when our self-willed ignorance grows too infuriating, murder our children and set off bombs in our streets.

Nonetheless, these circumstances are not complex, nor are they numerous. They are simply these: A large portion of the world, West and East, has come to believe that Arabs and Muslims have earned the right to murder Jews.

This last bit, I have to say, is unquestionably true. Those of us who follow the grassroots / netroots of the Democratic party on the question of the Long Arab War against the Jews see this constantly. That is, we are constantly told that the reason that so many Arabs and Muslims seek to murder the Jews in the Middle East is because those Jews are mean. In places like Daily Kos or the Huffington Post or the UK Guardian (not to mention TIME magazine, Harvard, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania) we are constantly told that the reason Palestinians sometimes strap suicide belts onto children and send them off into areas crowded with Jews is because Israel is a racist, colonialist, imperialist, apartheid state and that if Israel would simply end the Occupation (with a capital "O") then the local Arabs would become as gentle as narcofied lambs.

In this way, the Jews of the Middle East, who, as a tiny minority in that part of the world, have been subject to 14 centuries of persecution, are at fault for that persecution. Just as so many Germans in the early-middle part of the twentieth century told one another that the Jews have it coming, so today many, many western progressives tell themselves precisely the same thing. What it amounts to is the notion that if for 2,000 years we Jews have been unjustly persecuted and oppressed, thus artificially holding down our numbers, in this generation we really DO deserve whatever beating the Arab or Muslim world wishes to give out.

Every generation of Jews prior to 1948 was perfectly innocent, but NOW we just happen to actually be guilty.

Derived from this right, they have also come to believe that the destruction dismantling, and erasure of the State of Israel, and the slaughter, expulsion, and/or perpetual subjugation of its Jewish population are entirely legitimate and indeed desirable.

That is, ultimately, what anti-Semitic anti-Zionism of the kind found so commonly on the left is about. That's what anti-Zionism means. It means that after 2,000 years of getting our collective ass kicked it is immoral and wrong for Jewish people to come together in their own self-defense because it means effectively fighting back against Arab Muslim persecution and, as everyone seems to know, Jewish self-defense is immoral and unacceptable.

Derived from the preceding is the belief that the Jewish people in general, in Israel or the Diaspora, either do not exist as a people deserving the same rights as other peoples, or are an evil and debased people who must be slaughtered, expelled, and/or perpetually subjugated in order to prevent them from committing further debased evils.

The western left never puts it in these kinds of terms. They never would because they see themselves as enlightened anti-racists. Instead, they often talk to one another about the Occupation (with a capital "O") and what a shame it is that the Jews are behaving something like Nazis. What usually, but not always, goes unspoken is the idea that if Israel is something akin to Nazi Germany or Apartheid South Africa then it must be dismantled as a Jewish state and any such effort can only lead to war, if not a second Holocaust.

So, is all criticism of Israel anti-Semitic?

No.

I'm sorry, but despite the above the very notion is still ridiculous on its face. Nonetheless, it's not really that difficult to understand where Kerstein is coming from. Israel represents about half the world's Jewish population and it is surrounded by people numbering 60 to 70 for every Jew and a very great proportion of those people hold murderous hostility toward those Jews. People in the west do not really understand, or care to understand, what a precarious position those Jews live under. People in the west do not really understand, or care to understand, that the Jews in the Middle East have been living under siege since they were freed from dhimmitude in the early part of the twentieth century.

In the comments of Kerstein's op-ed we read this:

Freezey

Bizarre and counter-intuitive proposals like all criticism is anti-semitic are a mark of either Power or Desperation.

The western progressive-left thinks that Israel is powerful, but the truth is that the Jews of the Middle East are desperate. They desperately wish to be left alone to raise their children in peace, to work on computer and medical technology, and to send Natalie Portmans out into the world. That's what they want, but instead they live with constant hatred coming at them from all quarters and bloodthirsty violence directed at them from many in the local Palestinian population.

When malicious progressives direct their hatred toward the Jews of the Middle East they are confusing victims with victimizers and seeing their own hatred in noble terms.

There is a reason why young Jewish kids in Israel must go into the IDF and it is not because the Jews of the Middle East are essentially militaristic and mean. It is because so many of the 400 million Arabs surrounding those Jews are hell-bent for fury and hundreds of millions of westerners seem to favor the Arabs over those Jews.

One thing that I know for certain is that if the shit ever really hits the fan over there and we end up with a whole mess of dead Jews (and dead Arabs), the tendency on the western left will be to blame the Jews for the hostility against us.

That's the way it has been every generation for 2,000 years.

This one is no different.

This Bird Controls the Media

State Bird of Israel. This is what a Zionist with wings looks like.

This is a hoopoe, called in Hebrew a dukhifat. It is the national bird of the State of Israel. They are insectivores, also sunbathers. According to the good folks at Wikipedia "hoopoes sunbathe by spreading out their wings and tail low against the ground and tilting their head up; they often fold their wings and preen halfway through. The hoopoe also enjoys taking dust and sand baths."

I am, of late, developing an interest in Israeli wildlife, having realized at some point that many of the animals referred to again and again in Torah were things I really didn't know very much about. I am rather embarassed to say that well into my thirties, I believed that a hyrax was a kind of gazelle or something, when it turns out that they are actually "fairly small, thickset, herbivorous mammals in the order Hyracoidea"*. Apparently they are sort of the raccoons of the Middle East, and have been known to raid trash cans. I think they're adorable. They also get Biblical mentions, and not only in terms of being trayf, which they are, but also poetically in the Psalms; The high mountains belong to the wild goats; the crags are a refuge for the hyrax."



But enough about the hyraxes for now. Today we're talking about the hoopoe, which is also not kosher**, and which has also inspired Manchester’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign to be critical of the socialist British daily newspaper the Morning Star.


What the heck could the Palestine Solidarity Campaign have against the humble, bug-eating, dust-bath-taking hoopoe, you ask? And how did the Morning Star get involved in this? Well, I'm glad you asked. The Morning Star has a daily quiz, in which one of the questions recently made reference to the fact that the hoopoe is Israel's national bird. This is a fact suitable for a trivia quiz, right up there with the fact that the national animal of Belize is the Baird's tapir, or that the bangus is the national fish of the Philippines. And yet, there was an element in town that objected.

In a letter to the newspaper, Linda Claire, the chairwoman of Manchester’s Palestine Solidarity Campaign, asked why it had referred to the bird after it has “always been the newspaper you could rely on to support the cause of the Palestinians.”

“Maybe you don’t support the methods chosen by the international solidarity movement of BDS [boycott, divestment and sanctions against Israel] to assist the Palestinians in their struggle for freedom and justice,” she said, adding that this included any reference to Israel’s wildlife.

No, no, you didn't misread that. She considers BDS to apply to free-range wildlife. Her husband also seems to consider the hoopoe, an indigenous bird that has never been known to harm anyone who wasn't a beetle, to be a wedge fowl.

“Despite its condemnation of zionists [sic] it yet finds space to include an item in its daily quiz about Israel’s national bird. Is the Star not aware there’s a cultural boycott going on?” Claire’s husband, George Abendstern, asked in another letter.

 (George, a tip here...the Israelis did not INVENT the hoopoe. They are not MARKETING it. Its inclusion in the quiz does not indicate any sort of policy statement.) This may just leave you scratching your head in puzzlement, or, if you're a hoopoe, off to take another dust bath and take it easy, but this nutty couple underline something very real about BDS: it's not about policy, it's not about any positive goal, it's about the blind hatred of Israel, and the desire to reject anything connected to Israel--hoopoes included.

 After being criticized for being really weird, the PSC clarified. “It was not the bird we object to but what this bird represents – the racist and apartheid State of Israel.”

It's not racism they want to get rid of, folks, or the imagined apartheid...it's Israel.


*'Thickset?' say the hyraxes. 'Thanks.'

**Just as well for the hoopoe, one might point out.

Homes in Gaza

A comment in the post "Real Children's art from Gaza" implies that the Oxfam drawings from Gaza were perhaps fraudulent, since they showed homes with gables. Indeed many homes in the Middle east do have flat roofs- as an extension of the living space, and as a refuge from the heat.

But as this June 2007 Philip Rizk photo shows, flat roofs are by no means universal in Gaza. This photo of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas’s house in Gaza City, appeared in the Electronic Intifada.



Here it is, from a different angle




Rather nice, huh? Not what you'd expect from the World's largest concentration camp, is it?

Richard Millet Attacked at Anti-Israel Event

(Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives)

Richard Millet is a British pro-Israel blogger whose work can be found here:

http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/

This morning I received, along with a number of other people, the following email from Adam Levick of CiF Watch.

.
.
.

Friends:

Intrepid blogger, Richard Millett, was assaulted and subjected to racial abuse earlier this evening at an anti-Israel meeting at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London. Though Richard is a bit shaken up he is largely ok.

The pretext for assaulting Richard was because he refused to stop filming even though this was a public meeting and there were according to him others present who were filming.

This all took place in front of a room full of people - who taunted Richard - as well as speakers, Karma Nabulsi and Abdel-Bari Atwan, who are both well known on the anti-Israel circuit. Nabulsi teaches at Oxford University and is a former PLO representative while Atwan is a Palestinian journalist. Atwan of course is known for making the following statement: "If the Iranian missiles strike Israel – by Allah, I will go to Trafalgar Square, and dance with delight if the Iranian missiles strike Israel."

Fortunately, Richard has footage of what happened at the meeting which you can view at the links below. I urge you take 5 minutes to review the footage.

http://richardmillett.wordpress.com/2012/05/15/camera-grabbed-rucksack-snatched-and-racially-abused-at-soas/

http://cifwatch.com/2012/05/14/camera-grabbed-rucksack-snatched-and-racially-abused-at-soas/

This is not the first time an incident like this has taken place at SOAS. Last year a pro-Israel supporter was physically attacked by a rabid (literally) anti-Israel hater. The attacker was later acquitted.

This incident cannot pass without criminal charges being brought against Richard's attackers and disciplinary action being brought against the organizers and the speakers. Richard has already filed a complaint with the police.

We need to let right-thinking people know that the atmosphere of violence and hate against Jews on British campuses is getting out of control and those that stand silent or incite as the speakers did need to know that they are accomplices to this hatred and must be disciplined accordingly.

Here are some suggestions of things that you can do:

1. If you are in the UK, please write to your MP and ask what he/she is going to do about this.

2. Complain to the Director of SOAS, Professor Paul Webley - email - pw2@soas.ac.uk tel - 0207 898 4014.

3. Complain to Vice Chancellor of Oxford University, Andrew Hamilton - email - vcweb@admin.ox.ac.uk tel - 01865 270252

4. Complain to Abdel Bari-Atwan on twitter - @abdelbariatwan (Nabulsi does not have an active twitter account)

5. If you know a journalist or blogger, please encourage them to write about what happened. This story should be making national news.

Please don't stand silent and please be firm but respectful and polite in any communication with anyone you complain to.

Feel free to forward this email.

Adam Levick, Managing Editor
CiF Watch
http://cifwatch.com/

Real Children's Art from Gaza

An exhibit of children's art from Gaza is currently on exhibit in London, at the London Muslim Centre.

A photo essay of the art is shown at the UK's "Guardian"






"Gaza's children reveal their hopes and fears – in pictures
The children of al-Zarqa, one of the Gaza Strip's poorest areas, have been affected by a conflict outside their control. An exhibition of drawings made by primary school children from the area, which was damaged during a three-week military assault in 2009, is on show in Whitechapel. It highlights a collective yearning for a clean, safe neighbourhood"


So, does anyone remember the controversial Gaza art exhibit "A child's view of Gaza" from Oakland of last year?

Part of the controversay was, well, the drawings seemed rather, professional.
From FresnoZionism:



".....The Middle East Children’s Alliance (MECA) claims that the pictures were drawn by children from 9 to 11 years of age. That’s nonsense. Look at the drawing above. Note how the viewer’s eye is drawn to the slightly off-center focal point, the child cowering in the corner, the suggestion of despair evoked by the black shading around him. Look at the effective representation of the soldier’s face with a few strokes. Look at the sureness of the lines, the bold strokes. Whoever drew this was either an adult artist or a remarkable prodigy, sophisticated both artistically and politically."





"The paintings (color drawings) are highly sophisticated especially in relationship to detail. Did you see the barbed wire? Also, there is a carefully drawn Star of David in each work. The authenticity of the painting is remarkable for a child’s hand. The drawing of the planes and helicopters, the man in the tower, the dynamic brushstrokes that are well conceived and controlled all seem to project a more mature approach to art. Could these “children” be in their late teens, college age, or young adults [MECA says they were 9 to 11 years old]? According to the the quote, “much of the artwork was produced by children.” I wonder how “much”? Also, it is possible that the “children” were directed by an adult who supervised and perhaps completed the initial drawing."

Artist and teacher Juniper in the Desert commented...

"As an artist and teacher I can safely say... They are faked to look like children, but the detail is too pointed and expert - the helicopters for instance. The proportions and stance of the woman and child are a creation of a professional. The boot and flag, the lines are not those of a child.?"





And the Elder of Ziyon pointed outremarkable resemblances between the "children's art" and American anti-Israel propaganda posters.

An artist commenting ay the Elder's site writes: :

"I've been an avocational artist my entire life and have some experience with the styles of amateurs. The sureness of the color application -- especially in the dense, complicated scenes (which are obviously all done by the same person) -- is at variance with the primitive (faux-primitve, frankly) nature of the sketching. It's the use of color especially that gives it away to me as the product of an older person. But the complexity of the composition in the big scenes is uncharacteristic of 9-11-year-olds as well. Certainly the politicized content is atypical.

The sureness of stroke in these pictures is something you almost never find from a very young artist. The biggest giveaway I see in this regard is not actually in the complex, refined drawings, but in the more primitive ones. For example, the confidence with which the concertina wire is sketched in, in one of the primitive crayon drawings, is just not characteristic of the young. I was accounted an exceptional artist in my K-12 years, and I couldn't have achieved that confident, bold, rapid-stroking effect until I was at least 16. It's one of the hardest things to do, and you really do lack the coordination and focus for it when you're younger. A kid would draw that laboriously, with a lot of short, stubby strokes strung together -- or he would simply achieve a cruder, less symmetrical and more tentative effect."

Compare and contrast the drawings exhibited in London, with those from the controversial MECA exhibit. Do you really still believe that the Middle east children's Alliance drawings were made by children?

The General Union Of Palestinian Writers rejects Peace

From Palestinian Media Watch:
At a meeting of the General Union of Palestinian Writers last week, the union's logo was on display, showing a rifle and a quill over a map of "Palestine" that replaced Israel.

Rejecting Israel's right to exist within any borders. Glorifying violence. Does any think that the General Union of Palestinian Writers is a peace group? Does anyone believe this organization supports a homeland for the Palestinian people living side by side and in peace with a homeland for the Jewish people?

Perhaps its not surprising that this group has condemned writers throughout the world for traveling to Jerusalem to attend the International Writer’s Festival in Jerusalem. What might surprise you however, is that this group has gone one step further- and as actually singled out for derision individual writers who have decided to seek out Palestinian voices

From an article in the "Electronic Intifada" (No, I'm not going to link to it)

"Not only are some of these writers – who crossed the Palestinian picket line – like the American writer Tracy Chevalier and the Bosnian writer Aleksandar Hemon, still participating in this shameful festival, they have also asked the director of the Festival, Uri Dromi, to arrange for them to meet with 'local’ Palestinian writers in Ramallah, and to tour East Jerusalem to see the Palestinians. This Orientalist tendency to get acquainted with 'the locals’ as objects of colonial voyeurism, and through colonial intermediaries, should be met on the Palestinian side with condemnation and boycott."

Their rant continues:

"Promoting Jerusalem as a legendary city that is quintessentially Jewish, extending from 'The Tower of David’ to the 'Judean Desert’, and the participation of top Zionist writers like Amos Oz, A. B. Yehushua, David Grossman, and Etgar Keret, along with Arab writers who don’t write in Arabic such as Sayed Kashua and Bouallam Sansal, turn this festival into a carnival of irony that should be boycotted for aesthetic, cultural, and political factors."


From the festival website

"Established by the Jerusalem Foundation, Mishkenot Sha'ananim is an international cultural and conference centre in Jerusalem, serving artists and encouraging creative expression. The centre embraces a pluralistic perspective and interdisciplinary approach and sees as its goal to promote Jerusalem as a city of dialogue and tolerance.

Situated in a famous historical building dating from 1860, Mishkenot Sha'ananim was the first residential building established by Sir Moses Montefiore for Jewish residence outside the Old City walls. The structure exudes both charm and inspiration, offering a magnificent view of the Tower of David, the Old City walls and the Judean Desert. "

So, once again, the truth-challenged Electronic Intifada is wrong. There's not a word about promoting Jerusalem as a "legendary city that is quintessentially Jewish". And they've completely missed the "dialog and tolerance part".

Attended by over 60 writers from Israel and around the world, the literary encounters, readings, workshops and discussions, The Third International Writers Festival at Mishkenot Sha’ananim features respected authors from countries as diverse as Algeria and India, Italy and Argentina, Bosnia and the U.S. The festival will be held in various locations in the capital including the cinemateque, Anna Ticho House Museum and the Yellow Submarine club.

By now, it must be clear to everyone that the overarching goal of Boycotts, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS ) is not peace or co-existence. The tactic serves to isolate and condemn those who believe in these out-dated principals. The goal of BDS is the isolation and the elimination of Israel as the home of the Jewish people.

Something there is that doesn't love a wall

Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.

Robert Frost "Mending Fences"

Since construction of Israel's security barrier began, the number of attacks on Israeli civilians has declined by more than 90%. According to the IDF, 30% of Israel’s counterterrorism arrests took place at checkpoints. Today there are some 50 barriers and fences in the world today. So why is only Israel's security barrier problematic?


Mexico/US border fence



Morocco/Ceuta fence

From YNET:

"Spain built fences to keep out Moroccans; India is walling off Kashmir and Bangladesh; South and North Korea share the most heavily fortified border in the world. Elsewhere, Saudi Arabia has an epic wall project; the glitz, wealthy Arab sheikhdoms are closing the border with dirt-poor Oman; Russia is considering walling off Chechnya; Western Sahara has “the Wall of Shame”; Cyprus is entirely divided by walls; Belfast is a fenced city of brick, iron and steel barriers, and even the ultra-liberal Nederlands built a fence around the Hook of Holland.

But only Israel’s barriers have been condemned by the International Court of Justice, only Israel’s fences have received round-the-clock coverage on CNN and front page stories on the New York Times, only Israel’s checkpoints are turned into the meccas of “peace” activists and are condemned by Western public opinion as an instrument of harassment used to subjugate a proud “native” people, whose only crime is wanting freedom, or “liberation.”
While foreign fences keep out livestock and refugees from neighboring countries, only Israel’s fences and checkpoints have a truly humanitarian reason: to secure the civilian population's right to life. Only in Israel barbed wire, patrol roads, sand tracking paths, video cameras and electronic sensors are used to prevent a restaurant, a shopping mall or a hotel from being turned into carpets of human bodies."

From the Jewish Virtual library on the role of the security barrier in savings lives:

"During the 34 months from the beginning of the violence in September 2000 until the construction of the first continuous segment of the security fence at the end of July 2003, Samaria-based terrorists carried out 73 attacks in which 293 Israelis were killed and 1950 wounded. In the 11 months between the erection of the first segment at the beginning of August 2003 and the end of June 2004, only three attacks were successful, and all three occurred in the first half of 2003.
Since construction of the fence began, the number of attacks has declined by more than 90%. The number of Israelis murdered and wounded has decreased by more than 70% and 85%, respectively, after erection of the fence.
Even the Palestinian terrorists have addmitted the fence is a deterrent. On November 11, 2006, Islamic Jihad leader Abdallah Ramadan Shalah said on Al-Manar TV the terrorist organizations had every intention of continuing suicide bombing attacks, but that their timing and the possibility of implementing them from the West Bank depended on other factors. “For example,” he said, “there is the separation fence, which is an obstacle to the resistance, and if it were not there the situation would be entirely different.”
The value of the fence in saving lives is evident from the data: In 2002, the year before construction started, 457 Israelis were murdered; in 2009, 8 Israelis were killed."

Israel's security barrier is a non-violent way of saving lives. It is moveable. It is temporary, and it will come down when there is a real and lasting peace in the land. In the absence of peace, it provides security and it saves lives every day.

United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 passes

In a nearly unanimous bipartisan 411-2 vote, the House of Representatives passed the United States-Israel Enhanced Security Cooperation Act of 2012 to reaffirm and strengthen our security ties with Israel.

The bill was formally sponsored by House Majority Leader Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA) and Minority Whip Rep. Steny Hoyer (D-MD), with 294 co-sponsors

Nine representatives voted “present” but not “yes” on the legislation, and two voted against: U.S. Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas), and U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich). Several did not vote.

Find out how your representative voted here.

Did your Representative vote NO?
Did your Representative vote PRESENT?
Did your Representative NOT VOTE ?

Right now- drop them a line, send them an email or give them a call. Tell them why Israel's security is important to you and why you are disappointed in their action.

Did your Representative vote yes? Contact them and thank them.

During debate, Rep. Cantor spoke about the importance of this legislation, declaring:

"This bill reaffirms Israel's right to defend itself against threats and puts Congress on the record about America's long-standing commitment to the US-Israel strategic relationship, a unique and special relationship founded on shared interests and shared democratic values...This bill recognizes the profound threats the U.S. and Israel face in the region and reiterates our commitment to standing side by side with Israel during this pivotal and dangerous period of transition and instability.”

Cyberbullying: The new trademark of the BDS crowd.

Does the "B" in BDS stand for Bullying?

Dr. Jess Ghannam is one of our local chameleons. As a Clinical Professor of Psychiatry and Global Health Sciences in the School of Medicine at UCSF Medical Center, Dr. Ghannam is clearly one of the one 1 %. Yet, he's been spotted frequently removing his tie and suit- jacket on his way to participate in demonstrations, often donning a jaunty Che style beret in an attempt to fit in with the crowd. Dr. Ghannam will trot out his academic and medical credentials when its convenient- he is a member of a California Scholars for Academic Freedom (a group that is obsessed solely with allowing academics the freedom to demonize Israel at taxpayers expense), but he's equally at home playing anarchist at International ANSWER or Al Awda meetings.

Dr. Ghannam just sent out a mass email via the extremist Al Alwda email list, encouraging the cyberbullying of the Red Hot Chili Peppers, who are scheduled to play in Tel Aviv, Israel later this year, complete with pre-packaged tweets to RT and RT ad nauseam .

Cyberbullying is being used with increasing frequency against any artist that dares to schedule a tour in the only democracy in the Middle east.

From an article by Jerome Reilly in the Independent-Ireland

"Justice Minister Alan Shatter has launched a blistering attack on the Irish Palestinian Solidarity Group (IPSG), accusing them of "cyberbullying" the folk group Dervish who were forced to pull out of a planned concert in Israel.
The band cancelled the tour planned for June, citing an "avalanche of negativity" and "venom" directed towards them on social media websites.
Shatter, who is Jewish, said, "It is a great pity that the bullying tactics of the IPSG worked."
He added that the IPSG's appeal to human rights "ignores the constitutional rights of Irish citizens and those who live in this state to get on with their lives, to travel and to perform around the world free from bullying, intimidation and discrimination."
"It is particularly extraordinary that the orchestrated campaign targeted at Dervish occurred at a time when thousands have lost their lives in Syria and the IPSG have remained silent about the crimes against humanity."

The website BDS gone bad has done an expose of anarchist and cyberbully Tali Shapiro. Tali apparently writes personal letters to bands calling herself a "long time fan". The site asks "Why is it then she’s not even the fan band’s fan on Facebook untill it’s time to call for divestment? A quick browse through her profile shows that she almost only likes Bands and artists who announced a concert in Israel,soon after the announcement, in order to fill their public pages with calls for boycott." At least 37 out of 50 Artists that Tali Shapiro "likes" are ones that announced concerts in Israel!

Tali Shapiro in anarchist mode


So there we have it. A system of alerts and pre-packaged tweets are sent out to anti-Israel activists around the world. With the mindless group-think of the Borg they blog and tweet and spam the web, hoping to bully an artist into submission. It gives the illusion of a mass- movement where one does not actually exist. Whenever a group like the Dervishes capitulates to the bullies, it increases the BDS'ers own delusions of their power and their importance.

And thats why we need to fight back.

Al Awda: And the War continues

If its May, it must be Nakba season. And true to form, a variety of anti-Israel events are scheduled throughout California . Our local Al Awda's promotional poster carries the promise of continued "resistance"- a thinly veiled threat of violence.

The theme of continued violence carries over to the Southern California Al Awda, who have declared No Return = No Justice = No Peace!, and have scheduled a day of rage at the local Israeli Consulate on Wilshire Blvd.

Zahi Damuni's hate filled invective begins:

"Of all Zionist war crimes, none was as massive as that committed in the 1948 era with the wholesale expulsion of the Palestinian Arab people from their homes, towns and villages, as part of a calculated plan to uproot an entire population and empty the land of Palestine from its indigenous inhabitants.

The Nakba ("Catastrophe" in Arabic) of 1948 refers to this planned ethnic cleansing when the vast majority of Palestinians were ruthlessly attacked, massacred and driven from their homes into refugee camps by Zionist terror groups, and not allowed to return in violation of international law...."

And of course, he is wrong.

What Israelis, Jews and most of the world celebrates as Israel's independence, people opposed to Israel's birth commemorate as the "Nakba"- the Catastrophe. Roughly 650,000 Arabs were displaced in Israel's war of Independence. The vast majority fled without seeing a single Israeli soldier. Thousands of wealthy Arabs left in anticipation of a war. Others responded to a call from Arab leadership to leave, and were promised a quick return following a victory over Israel. That victory never came. A handful were expelled, but most simply fled to avoid being caught in the war.

A 1948 British police report from Haifa explained that “every effort is being made by the Jews to persuade the Arab populace to stay and carry on with their normal lives, to get their shops and businesses open and to be assured that their lives and interests will be safe.” In her autobiography, Golda Meir writes about going to Haifa to try to persuade the Arabs to stay.

Thousands of these handbills were distributed in Haifa, in an effort to convince the Arabs not to leave.



Israel's declaration of independence- that most Zionist of all documents states

"WE APPEAL - in the very midst of the onslaught launched against us now for months - to the Arab inhabitants of the State of Israel to preserve peace and participate in the upbuilding of the State on the basis of full and equal citizenship and due representation in all its provisional and permanent institutions. "

The true catastrophe- the real Nakba- is that after 64 years Al Awda continues to wage a war on the Jewish state- a war of words, a war of hate, a war of agitprops.

It ain't "Pinkwashing" if it's True

This one's for you, Dan:

The Equality Forum is a nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization whose mission is to advance national and international lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights through education. Since 2006, Equality Forum has spearheaded LGBT History Month. LGBT History Month honors 31 LGBT Icons—one each day—with a video, bio, bibliography, downloadable images, and other downloadable educational resources including special features for students.
They also host the weeklong Annual Equality Forum with an international focus, top-tier panel discussions, parties, an annual art exhibit, International Equality Dinner, Sunday OUT! and more.

The 20th annual Equality Forum's featured nation was Israel.

Some of the special programing about Israel's LGBT population included an exhibit of Israeli photographer David Adika's work at the 13th annual Gay and Lesbian Art Exhibit and the Tel Aviv Drag Performer/Singing Sensation Osher Sabag performing at the Drag Show at Tabu

For many, the highlight of the event was the appearance of Ambassador of Israel to the U.S. Michael Oren as Keynote speaker. From the Globes website:

"Oren mentioned three cases that highlight Israel's liberal attitude toward the LBGT community: two women IDF soldiers who harassed a lesbian soldier were sentence by a military court to prison; and an Israeli diplomat, who received a top posting in Europe, asked and received without further ado full rights for his partner; and the Israeli government did not capitulate to intense pressure from religious parties to cancel the Jerusalem Gay Pride parade, which was held to great success under heavy police protection.

"Our activists have faced many challenges, but they can build on a solid foundation of liberty," said Oren. "Today, Israel's LBGT community is part of the country's diverse and thriving social fabric. Together, we are soldiers, professors, legislators, judges, factory workers, members of the medical professions, and teachers. Together, we are not gays, heterosexuals, bisexuals, or transgenders, but proud Israelis."

Oren added, "In fact, two Palestinian organizations that are fighting for LBGT rights in the West Bank, operate out of Israel because they cannot operate freely in the Palestinian Authority."

Oren said that it is not difficult to be more liberal than Israel's neighbors, adding that Israel must be more advanced not only in the region, but in the world. "We must never cease our efforts to remove the remaining obstacles to total equal rights in Israel. We must ensure that these rights are guaranteed in law, and we must ensure that abuse at school, intolerance by certain religious circles, and public prejudice become unacceptable. Period," he said."

Congressman Joe Walsh Calls for a Single State

(Cross-Posted at Israel Thrives and Geoffff's Joint, Bar and Grill.)

Over on the Jerusalem Post, congressman Joe Walsh of Illinois is calling for the creation of a single state between the Jordan river and the Mediterranean Sea. He writes:

It reminds me of that definition of insanity: doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. By that definition, everyone who continues to cling to the delusion of a two-state solution is insane. There is no such thing as a two-state solution. It cannot work, it has not worked, and it will not work.

It is true that it has not worked and it is probably true that it will not work, but it is utterly false to suggest that it cannot work. Of course it can work. But it can only work if the Arabs allow it to work. It will not work so long as they absolutely refuse to accept Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land. It is Arab intransigence that is killing the two-state solution, nothing else.

As much as progressive-left Jews would like to blame other Jews... Jewish conservatives, the Likud, Avigdor Lieberman, the evil "settlers" (like the Fogels) with blood dripping from their sharpened fangs... for the death of the two-state solution, such blaming is little more than a product of Jewish Stockholm Syndrome. After all, if the problem is really one of "bad" Jews then it can be dealt with. We just need to scold and malign and marginalize and demean those bad Jews until they shut the hell up and move elsewhere and then everything will be A-OK and the Palestinians will, at long last, accept a state for themselves next to the Jewish one.

But, sadly, the problem here is not Likud, nor the evil settlers, nor even that arch-demon Avigdor Lieberman, but the Palestinians, themselves.

The Palestinians have broken their word again and again. They continue to intentionally fire rockets at innocent Israeli families and children, and they have betrayed the fundamental tenet of the two-state solution they tout by cutting Israel out of negotiations and going directly to the United Nations.

Moreover, the Palestinian Authority continues to incite violence against Israelis. It pays the salaries of imprisoned terrorists convicted of killing Israelis and glorifies suicide bombers at public events. The PA’s magazine Zayzafuna recently presented Hitler as a role model for the Palestinian youth on account of all the Jews he had killed.

The Palestinians have proven themselves to be absolutely murderous. What they want is a single Palestinian state from the river to the sea, just as the congressman wants a single Jewish state from the river to the sea. The difference is that the Jews have always been willing to compromise while the Arabs have never been willing to compromise. He is right, of course, that the Palestinians, a people born from the greater Arab world specifically for the purpose of opposing Jewish national rights on Jewish land, continue to incite hatred among their own children toward Israel and toward Jews, in general. It is the very hatred that they whip up among themselves that is the cause of their own misery. And while Arabs in the Muslim Middle East have been hating on Jews for a very, very long time, it is only within living memory that they have had to pay any price for their ongoing persecution of the Jewish people.

This solution is the best one for everyone, especially the Palestinians. They will trade their two corrupt and inept governments and societies for a stable, free and prosperous one. Those Palestinians that wish to may leave their Fatah and Hamas-created slums and move to the original Palestinian state – Jordan. The British Mandate for Palestine created Jordan as the country for the Palestinians. It was the only justification for its creation. Even now, 75 percent of its population is of Palestinian descent. Those Palestinians that remain behind in Israel will maintain limited voting power, but will be awarded all the economic and civil rights of Israeli citizens. They will be free to raise a family, start a business and live in peace, all of which are impossible under Arab rule.

Limited voting power.

That, right there, is the problem. Israel obviously cannot be a democracy if it only offers limited voting power to any groups of people under its sovereignty. Therefore, what Israel needs to do is not take all of Judea and Samaria, but simply declare its final borders, remove the IDF to behind those borders, and wish the Palestinians the very best luck in the world as they create their brave and beautiful new future under their own, surely democratic, government in downtown Ramallah.

And then say "bye-bye."

Good-bye and good luck.

Hollywood Group Takes on Music Industry Anti-Israel Boycotters

The United Nations International Covenant on Economic Social and Cultural rights states, in Part three, Article 15 that

The States Parties to the present covenant recognize the right of everyone:

1.To take part in cultural life;
2.To enjoy the benefits of scientific progress and its applications';
3. To benefit from the protection of the moral and material interests resulting from any scientific, literary or artistic production of which he is the author.
2. The steps to be taken by the States Parties to the present Covenant to achieve the full realization of this right shall include those necessary for the conservation, the development and the diffusion of science and culture.
3. The States Parties to the present Covenant undertake to respect the freedom indispensable for scientific research and creative activity.
4. The States Parties to the present Covenant recognize the benefits to be derived from the encouragement and development of international contacts and co-operation in the scientific and cultural fields.

In spite of this, anti-Israel activists have proposed an academic and cultural boycott of Israel, conducting an enormous pressure campaign against artists who chose to play for their fans in Israel.


From an article by William Bigelow

"A group called Creative Community for Peace is fighting back against the cultural boycott of Israel in the music industry. Made up of 30 leading music executives, talent agents and entertainment lawyers, the CCFP includes music powerhouses who represent luminaries like Lady Gaga, Celine Dion, Aerosmith, Jennifer Lopez and Justin Timberlake...

Some artist have defied the boycott and defended Israel’s right to hear them: among them are Lady Gaga, Elton John, Rihanna, Paul McCartney, Leonard Cohen, Rufus Wainwright, Herbie Hancock and Lenny Kravitz. Madonna is planning to debut her World Tour in Tel Aviv this summer, and there will be appearances by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Cirque du Soleil.

But the pressure on artists continues; the Red Hot Chili Peppers, scheduled to perform in Israel in September, have been targeted by BDS with a a Facebook page demanding the Peppers “Defy Injustice, Cancel Israel.” Will they have the guts to do what Elton John did in 2010, when he walked out on stage in Tel Aviv and said, “They’re not gonna stop me from coming here, baby”? Or have guts like Scooter Braun, Justin Bieber’s 30-year-old manager, who got death threats such as “If Justin Bieber comes to Israel, we’re gonna kill the Jew manager”?

...But in the meantime, CCFP is determined to fight back. As Steve Schnur, worldwide head of music for Electronic Arts (EA) video games, put it: “Musicians that play there don’t have to agree with the current or previous policies of the Israeli government — but they can go there and speak toward it or against it. Where else in the Middle East can an artist do that?”

A quiet month in Israel. Only 70 terrorist attacks

From the IDF website:

Following the escalation in the south in March, the month of April saw a decrease in the number of terrorist attacks against Israel. According to an Israel Security Agency report published on Wednesday (May 2), there were 70 terrorist attacks in April, compared to 229 in March.

The decline was particularly evident in the Gaza Strip region, where only nine attacks occurred in April, compared to 157 in March and 31 in February.

There was also a decline in other regions: 36 attacks in Judea and Samaria, compared to 43 in March; and 24 attacks in Jerusalem, compared to 29 attacks in March.

On the other hand, it should be noted that two rockets were launched from the Sinai Peninsula toward Eilat on the eve of Passover (April 5).

Three Israelis were injured in stabbing attacks in April. There were two stabbing attacks in Jerusalem (April 2 and 19) and one in Kfar Saba (April 24).

During the month of April, 10 rockets were fired at Israel, compared to 173 rockets and 35 mortars in March.

Interstingly, the world media continues to ignore the rocket attacks and acts of terror on Israeli soil. Absent a high profile, multi-casualty attack, the mainstream media is silent.

Jerusalem String Quartet: Making Beautiful Music

One of the main fallacies of the Israeli boycott being directed against companies and organizations that "support the occupation" is simply that anything- and I mean anything- can and will be used by the hate cru as "supporting the occupation".

An American manufactured hummus providing care packages to lone soldiers in Israel? Yep. Sending snacks to 18 year olds far from their home "supports the occupation".

Selling consumer goods over the green line- even if both Palestinians and Israelis buy them- "supports the occupation".

Paying taxes in Israel? That too "supports the occupation"

And some nice young men playing beautiful music? Apparently, that also "supports the occupation".

An anti-Israel group in the UK is planning on protesting the Jerusalem String Quartet. Their screed practically drips with venom.

Protest at the Jerusalem Quartet - In Birmingham
UNWELCOME THE ZIONIST JERUSALEM QUARTET, SUNDAY 6 MAY, 2 p.m.

Please respond to the calls for a protest outside Birmingham Town Hall to urge a boycott of the Zionist-linked Jerusalem String Quartet playing at the Town Hall, Birmingham. The Quartet is officially part of the Israeli Defence forces, performs in the illegal West Bank settlements and for Israeli embassies around the world. They are official cultural ambassadors for Israel - they promote the interests of the state and provide a cultural veneer for its policies against the Palestinians, sanitising the brutality of the Israeli State.
This is why Palestine support groups back the call for the cultural boycott of Pro-Zionist performers and artists. Come and inform people about Israel's illegal occupation of Palestinian land, its ethnic cleansing of East Jerusalem, the apartheid nature of the Israeli state and its attempt to starve the people of Gaza into submission.

The protest is scheduled for Town Hall, Victoria Square, Birmingham, UK

Jews and Methodists and all people of clear conscience realize that boycotts of companies "supporting the occupation" are simply an entry drug into full BDS - and its just another way to demonize the state of the Jewish people.

So, right now- lets show the BDS'ers what we think about the Jerusalem String quartet, playing Alexander Borodin's String Quartet D-Major, N.2 Notturno. Watch and listen and rate it up.

Surprised? The Biggest Obstacle Facing the Middle East is Not Israel

We've heard for years how, "its all Israel's fault". After all, "They wouldn't hate us if we didn't support Israel." We've been told that Israel was the key not only to peace in the region, but peace in the world.
And as many of us realized during the Arab spring, and the disorder that has followed- its simply not true.

From Israel Hayom

"Earning a fair wage and owning a home are now the two highest priorities for young people in the Middle East, displacing "living in a democracy" as the greatest aspiration of regional youth, according to the findings of the latest ASDA'A Burson-Marsteller Arab Youth Survey, the largest study of its kind of the region's largest demographic group.

The survey, which polled 2,500 Arabs aged 18 to 24 in 12 Middle Eastern states one year after the start of the Arab Spring, highlighted how larger political concerns have been superseded by more personal, economic anxieties. Being paid a fair wage was not only the highest collective priority among those surveyed – with 82 per cent of all those surveyed citing it as "very important" – but was also the highest individual priority in each of the 12 countries covered.

Asked "What do you believe is the biggest obstacle facing the Middle East?" very few respondents in almost all surveyed countries, apart from Saudi Arabia, said the Israeli-Palestinian conflict was the biggest obstacle. The number was lowest in Egypt, with only 10% saying the conflict was the region’s biggest obstacle. The number was also low in most of the Gulf emirates. However, in Saudi Arabia 53% said the conflict was a major obstacle in the region.

The poll showed that civil unrest and lack of democracy far outstripped the Israel-Palestinian conflict as a concern in most Arab countries. While not overly optimistic that the Arab Spring would spread to further Arab countries, many respondents said that if it did, it would spread to Jordan.
The survey also found that the number of respondents who felt that living in a democratic country was "very important" to them had declined from 68% in the 2011 survey to 58% this year.

These findings and others were unveiled Wednesday in Dubai at the launch of the 2012 survey. The survey involved face-to-face interviews, conducted by international polling firm Penn Schoen Berland, with some 2,500 Arabs between the ages of 18 and 24 in the six Gulf Cooperation Council nations (Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and the UAE), as well as in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, Iraq and, for the first time, Libya and Tunisia. The interviews, which were conducted exclusively with nationals of each of the surveyed countries, took place in December 2011 and January 2012."

The top ten findings:
1. Fair pay and home ownership displace desire for democracy as top priority
Young people in the Middle East say that being paid a fair wage and owning their own home are their two highest priorities – displacing their previous number-one priority, living in a democratic country
2. High cost of living remains the greatest concern among arab youth
One year after the start of the Arab Spring, the rising cost of living is the greatest concern among youth across the Middle East
3. Arab youth say that lack of democracy and civil unrest are the biggest obstacles facing them & the region
4. Regional youth see the arab spring as a positive development and now feel greater optimism about the future.
5. Arab youth feel an increased sense of trust in government but have heightened concerns about corruption
6. The arab spring will not spread further, according to the region's youth
Less than one-quarter of Middle East youth believe that protest movements will spread to new countries; among those who believe that such movements will spread, Jordan, Morocco and Algeria are seen as the most likely sites of protests
7. Traditional values are being increasingly challenged by a modern outlook
A majority of young people in every Middle East state agrees that traditional values are paramount; however, the percentage of youth who say that such values are outdated and need to be replaced continues to increase
8. The UAE is seen as a model nation by middle east youth
9. Arab youth see France most favourably among all foreign countries
10. News consumption skyrockets, TV viewership declines & blogs are booming
After a period of enormous political change, Arab youth are following the news far more keenly than ever before – but less frequently on television and more often on the Internet; they have also developed a passion for the blogosphere

Olympics won't hold minute of silence for 1972 victims

Ankie Spitzer, wife of murdered Israeli Olympian Andrei Spitzer asked for one minute of silence in memory of the eleven Israeli athletes, coaches and referees murdered at the 1972 summer Olympics in Munich. Just one minute - to promote peace.

As of now, 22,291 signed her petition at change.org.

And the London Olympic committee said no.

From the J Post:

“The IOC has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so,” Emmanuelle Moreau, IOC head of media relations, told the Post. “However, we do not foresee any commemoration during the opening ceremony of the London Games.”

Moreau insisted that “The memory of the victims is not fading away. One thing is certain, we will never forget.”

New Initiative Formed to Document and Combat Campus Anti-Semitism

From our friends at the AMCHA Initiative

The need to combat harassment and intimidation of Jewish students at American universities is urgent. But the success of those efforts depends on the persistent identification, exposure, and careful documentation of abuses. Tammi Rossman-Benjamin and Leila Beckwith, cofounders of the AMCHA Initiative, are pleased to announce that they have expanded their efforts to include a crucial investigative arm, entitled "The Investigative Taskforce on Campus Antisemitism" (ITCA)

ITCA is a non-profit research project whose investigations underpin AMCHA’s efforts and expand the work to institutions of higher education across the country. ITCA acts to:

* identify, uncover, and investigate incidents of anti-Semitism at American colleges and universities
* serve as a trusted repository of information on manifestations of anti-Jewish bigotry that violate university policy, Title VI of the 1964 Civil Right Act, and other federal or state laws.
* make its research available to legal and advocacy groups, journalists, and legislators, and collaborates with them to address the problem of campus anti-Semitism.
* Student reports of anti-Jewish bigotry are essential to ITCA’s work. The Taskforce’s website contains two options for students to report information about anti-Jewish bigotry they may have experienced or witnessed:

Students are encouraged to fill out the Student Civil Rights Survey, which assesses the campus climate for college and university students, with a particular focus on potential civil rights violations.
Students and other concerned individuals can use the "Report a Concern" page to report an anti-Semitic incident on a college campus.
All information is confidential and no information or submitted materials will be disclosed or disseminated without the consent of the student.
In the coming weeks, members of the Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice in Palestine will be holding anti-Israel rallies, talk, and exhibits on several campuses throughout the state. These events may well be accompanied by expressions of anti-Jewish bigotry which some students find intimidating and harassing.

Please inform and encourage students you know to visit the ITCA website, to answer the Civil Rights Survey, and to report incidents of anti-Jewish bigotry they may have experienced or witnessed.

Your support is vital to the success of the ITCA. Please consider contributing. ITCA is a nonprofit organization under Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. All donations are tax deductible. Its Federal Identification Number is 45-3327365. Contributions can be made through the website or by check to P.O. Box 7223, Santa Cruz, CA,95061.

Methodists Reject Anti-Israel Divestment Proposal at 2012 general conference

"Despite an intense lobbying effort by seemingly omnipresent pro-divestment activists, United Methodists have opted to retain the church's existing policy of positive engagement with Israelis and Palestinians.”

Mark Tooley, Institute on Religion and Democracy President

From the IRD website:

"Delegates to the governing body of the global 12-million-member United Methodist Church strongly voted today to reject divestment from three companies doing business with Israel. The move follows a high profile lobbying effort by pro-divestment activists.

Backed by international anti-Israel groups, United Methodist Kairos Response (UMKR) argued that the United Methodist General Conference should instruct the denomination's pension board to sell investments in Caterpillar, Hewlett Packard and Motorola Solutions. UMKR argued that the three companies profit from Israel's military presence in the West Bank.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"The decision of United Methodists against divestment rejects simplistic one-sided blame that characterizes so much anti-Israel advocacy.
Despite an intense lobbying effort by seemingly omnipresent pro-divestment activists, United Methodists have opted to retain the church's existing policy of positive engagement with Israelis and Palestinians.

Hopefully other churches, like the Presbyterian Church (USA), will follow United Methodists in resisting calls to pressure Israel alone into making concessions."

The official statement from the Divestment team, which spent tens of thousands of dollars on their efforts to push divestment on the conference delegates went something like "Even when we lose we win. So there." (I'm paraphrasing)

The BDS cru are planning on taking their anti-Israel dog and pony show on the road to Pittsburgh where the Presbyterian Church USA will also vote on a divestment measure at its General assembly on June 30.

Rev. Katharine Jefferts Schori, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church recently came out against divestment and boycotts, and instead urged Episcopalians to invest in development projects in the West Bank and Gaza.

The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the nation’s largest Lutheran denomination rejected divestment in 2007 and 2011.

The International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network: Beyond Chutzpah

Like many anti-Israel groups the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network is little more than a website and an email list, providing anonymity and a "Jewish" cover to their actual financiers and handlers. In the case of the IJAN, their primary purpose appears to be "Jew-washing" events that cross the line into anti-Semitism. Yes, as hard to imagine as it might be- there are events that even Jewish voice for Peace won't touch. Locally, the IJAN works closely with the Arab Resource Organizing Center and uses their facilities to host events. The IJAN has co-sponsored a talk accusing Israel of deliberately irradiating Mizrachi refugees. They have hosted notorious anti-Semite and Global march to Jerusalem organizer Feroze Mithaborwala. Most recently the IJAN recently paraded Hajo Meyer, a long time anti-Israel activist and Holocaust survivor on a widely discredited 12 city tour "Never again is for Everyone"

Hajo Meyer carries the endorsement of ex-KKK leader David Duke, and Hatem Bazian, a UC Berkeley faculty member with a lengthy resume of anti-Israel activities. At the IJAN sponsored tour at Rutgers University New Jersey, event organizers led by Sara Kershnar (Shown below, shortly before her arrest for interrupting a talk at the San Francisco Jewish Community Center) suddenly instituted an admission fee (in violation of university policy) to discourage Jewish pro-Israel students from entering the event.



At the IJAN "Never again" talk at DePaul University in Chicago , attendees reported:

"The organizers created an intimidating atmosphere. One attendee likened it to a Ku Klux Klan rally. No audience members were allowed to record, film, or photograph the speakers. Members of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP), which sponsored the event, patrolled the aisles looking for “contraband” recording devices. This created a tense atmosphere, which one audience member described as fascist."

"The speakers vilified current peace efforts and praised the terrorist group Hamas. They repeatedly attacked the moderate Palestinian Authority for “collaborating” with Israel by engaging in peace talks and extolled Hamas as “the democratically elected representatives of the Palestinian people." They attacked Israel’s peace treaties with Egypt and Jordan, with Bazian claiming that the treaties were simply an Israeli plot to “extend its strategic borders all the way up to Iraq.”"

"Hajo Meyer made the Nazi-Israeli equation more explicit. Exploiting his status as a Holocaust survivor, he compared IDF soldiers to Auschwitz guards. He denigrated Jews and Judaism. “The Jewish people are not a civilization,” he charged. The only religion that pro-Israel Jews share is the Holocaust religion. . . . They cannot claim they are Jewish, so therefore they had to invent the Holocaust religion, that is, with its high priest Elie Wiesel,” he said.

From the ADL:
"The tour is the latest effort by anti-Israel activists to exploit the sacred memory of the Holocaust for the purpose of painting its victim, the Jewish people, as the "new" oppressor in the form of Israel. Anti-Israel activists have regularly used Holocaust language to demonize and vilify Israel, including referring to Israeli soldiers as Nazis and comparing Israel's blockade of Gaza to a "concentration camp" or "ghetto."

Exploiting the holocaust? Why would anything from the IJAN surprise us?

From their website:

We pledge to: Oppose Zionism and the State of Israel

Zionism is racist. It demands political, legal and economic power for Jews and European people and cultures over indigenous people and cultures. Zionism is not just racist but anti-Semitic. It endorses the sexist European anti-Semitic imagery of the effeminate and weak “diaspora Jew” and counters it with a violent and militarist “new Jew,” one who is a perpetrator rather than a victim of racialized violence. Zionism thus seeks to make Jews white through the adopting of white racism against Palestinian people…

And now in an act of staggering and mind-blowing hubris, those nefarious holocaust exploiters at the International Jewish Anti-Zionist network, are, wait for it... accusing The Horowitz Freedom center of exploiting the Holocaust.

The story:

The David Horowitz Freedom Center paid for a full page advertisement in the New York Times on April 24 of this year



The ad begins:

"The Holocaust began with Boycotts of Jewish stores and ended with death camps. The calls for a new Holocaust can be heard throughout the Middle east and in Europe as well. In the wake of the murders of a rabbi and three Jewish children in Toulouse, it is time for supporters of the boycott, divestment and Sanction Israel Movement (BDS) to ask themselves what they did to contribute to the atmosphere of hate that spawned these and the murder of Jews"

And the IJAN responds (accompanied by a ubiquitous petition and request for money):
Take Action against Slander and Misuse of the Nazi Holocaust

"On April 24th, the New York Times published a dangerous and slanderous ad paid for by the David Horowitz Freedom Foundation. The ad invokes the Nazi holocaust in order to attack supporters of BDS including several professors (see William Thompson’s powerful response here). It is incumbent upon Jews of conscience and others who share our commitment to justice to speak out in defense of those who bravely promote justice for Palestinians and against the egregious misuse of the legacy of the holocaust."

The IJAN - a group that paraded a decrepit anti-Israel activist though 12 cities to exploit his status as a holocaust survivor is complaining about the "misuse of the Holocaust" It is, to paraphrase Norman Finklestein "Beyond Chutzpah"