[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/18 Links Pt2: Debunking the Apartheid Smear; Blumenthal and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism ~ EoZ

Tuesday, February 18, 2014

[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 02/18 Links Pt2: Debunking the Apartheid Smear; Blumenthal and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: The anti-Zionist challenge to the Jewish establishment

As a form of economic warfare, boycotts aim to harm the profitability of targeted entities and either force them to toe the boycotters’ line, or force them out of business. That is, the aim is either coercive or eliminationist.
As a form of cultural warfare, the goal of boycotts of cultural or academic institutions is to place their targets outside of polite society, and so annihilate them culturally, professionally and socially.
In other words, unlike other forms of expression, the principle aim of boycotts is not engagement, or even incitement. It is destruction. Therefore, the question of whether or not boycotts are also a form of speech is entirely irrelevant.

Max Blumenthal’s ‘Goliath’ and the Mainstreaming of Anti-Semitism

While Blumenthal was perfectly capable to adjust his presentations according to the audience he was addressing, he provided a chilling demonstration of what he hoped to accomplish with Goliath during an event at the University of Pennsylvania, where he was hosted on October 17 by political scientist Ian Lustick to promote his book. Lustick noted at one point in the discussion that Blumenthal showed in Goliath that “Israel is not just a little bit fascist, Israel is a lot fascist,” and according to Lustick, this was the “ultimate delegitimizer,” because after World War II, “nothing fascist can even be allowed to survive.” Referring to the biblical story of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrha, Lustick invited Blumenthal to fancy himself in the position of God in order to decide whether there are enough “good people” in today’s Sodom-like Israel to save it from destruction. Blumenthal, who clearly didn’t need convincing that Israel as a Jewish state shouldn’t be allowed to survive, responded by explaining that his first concern was relieving “the suffering of the indigenous people of Palestine.” According to him, the only way to achieve this was by placing “external pressure” – such as the BDS (boycotts, divestment and sanctions) movement is advocating – on Jewish Israelis in order to force them to choose between emigrating and agreeing to “become indigenized” by accepting Arab dominance in political, cultural and social terms.

Crisis in Arab civilization

The cruel violence among ethnic and tribal brothers in Syria is indicative for the depth of the crisis in that civilization. No coalition of warriors can open the way to the creation of an open civil society. The identities of the groups are being defined by ethnicity and/or religious affiliation. If a coalition of warriors would be able to defeat the other coalitions, a new dictatorship will be created – and this new dictatorship can only equal the old one since there is no prospect of successfully suppressing the traditional value systems while introducing those of liberal open societies.
This is a bitter dilemma for the ruling classes running Arab dictatorships: giving up complete control over the security forces and media to freely elected politicians, the initial conditions for a civil society, leads automatically to unleashing the extremist powers which would immediately overthrow the ruling classes – in other words: giving up control is a form of suicide.
In order to legitimize their hold on power, dictatorships by definition need antagonists.
The ideal enemy is Israel, the land of the Jews, who have been ridiculed by the Arabs since the very beginning of the Islamic religion.

The peace process and the Apartheid smear: We need to be armed with the facts

So how can Israelis and friends of Israel respond? The most important tool is the truth. The Britain Israel Communications and Research Centre (BICOM) has produced a pamphlet on the Apartheid Smear, deconstructing it and countering it with facts, statistics and quotes. It focuses on the reality of Israel as a multi-ethnic democracy with a well-respected judiciary; a country which has Arabic as an official language, invests in economic opportunities for its minority populations and works to improve access to higher education.
It discusses how the smear damages hopes for peace by stoking extremism, demoralising those who support peace and damaging the chance of compromise, mutual recognition and reconciliation. It also debunks the myth of Zionism as a ‘racist ideology’ and goes into detail about the origins of the smear in the well-funded, and often antisemitic ‘anti-Zionist’ campaigns conducted by the Communist states during the Cold War often in collaboration with Arab countries.
Perhaps most importantly it shows that there is an alternative for those who are interested in a just solution to this long running conflict. The pamphlet shows that one can be pro-peace without singling out one side for incessant criticism. Nelson Mandela challenged people to support those on both sides of the conflict who seek mutual recognition and peace. Only that stance can create an international environment conducive to two states for two peoples.

The boycotters

When someone like the demagogue rock-artist Roger Waters asks musicians to cut their ties with Israeli artists and audiences, or English ruffians interrupt the performance of the Israel Philharmonic, one cannot help being reminded of the way Jewish musicians were treated in Nazi Germany and Austria, not to mention the proscription of Jewish composers like Mendelssohn, Mahler and Schönberg.
That many of the instigators of the anti-Israel boycotts are themselves academics and self-described intellectuals, some of them self-hating Jews and even Israelis, only proves the point that Christopher Caldwell, a senior editor of The Weekly Standard, made in a recent article in The Financial Times, i.e. that “academic boycotts are all about the boycotters” who, like all “public intellectuals” (he referred to the American Studies Association (ASA ), which decided to boycott Israeli universities and academic institutions) “are at heart more public than intellectual.”

Netanyahu: Israel boycotters are anti-Semites

European calls for a boycott of Israel are "an outrage," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Monday.
"I think the most eerie thing, the most disgraceful thing, is to have people on the soil of Europe talking about the boycott of Jews," Netanyahu told visiting American Jewish leaders in Jerusalem on Monday. "I think that is an outrage. That is something we are re-encountering. In the past, anti-Semites boycotted Jewish businesses and today, they call for the boycott of the Jewish state.
"I think it's important that the boycotters must be exposed for what they are -- they're classical anti-Semites in modern garb. And I think we have to fight them."

Huckabee lambasts BDS movement, peace negotiations, praises Scarlett Johanssen

The politician went on to laud actress Scarlett Johansson for resigning from Oxfam after the human rights organization repudiated her for promoting SodaStream International Ltd, which employs Jews and Palestinians in the West Bank.
“Much to her credit, she showed she has more sense than 99.9 percent of the people sitting in the UN today,” he said. “She showed she has far more scholarship and understanding of the issues than most of the people serving in the foreign service and diplomatic core.”

San Diego State University divestment resolution to be debated

The Aztecs for Israel are fighting back. Signs such as this are appearing all over campus. Good for them, fighting the message of BDS hate with love.
Wishing the Aztecs for Israel the best of luck as they continue to fight back against the bigoted BDS movement currently dividing their campus

I’m Committing Crimes Against My Citizens, But I’m Not Israeli, So Who Cares? By Korean Supreme Leader Kim Jong-Un (satire)

I thought it would be easy – when Israel does even the smallest thing to displease anyone, the Security Council jumps all over them. Hey, I figured, I’ll just go them one better, suppressing dissent, the whole deal. But nada. Bupkis.
I thought at first the world’s lack of will stemmed from the fact that my people aren’t Arabs. Then I remembered that the Syrians ARE Arabs, and the world doesn’t seem to care about them, either. What does a non-Jewish state have to do to get the world’s negative attention? And now that I actually have that attention for a brief moment, what can I expect? More bupkis, in all likelihood. What’s a megalomaniacal dictator to do?
I suppose we could try invading the South.

'Guardian' Contributor Lauds British Suicide Bomber's 'Heroism'

No finer example of willful ignorance can be found anywhere in the world than on the pages of The Guardian. I assure you – you won't find better (worse?), even in the deepest recesses of Obama's administration.
I sent an email to colleagues earlier in the week with the subject line "UNBELIEVABLE!!!" The issue at hand was George Monbiot's glaringly idiotic piece on how we should consider British jihadis going to fight in Syria as committing an act of "heroism."

NY Times column on anti-Zionism a reminder of its own publisher’s past

The New York Times raised some eyebrows in the Jewish community last week with a lengthy feature about four self-described religious Jews who oppose Israel. In an apparent attempt to legitimize Jewish anti-Zionism, the article stressed that Zionism “was not always the norm among American Jews” and that it was only “the persecution of European Jews [which] turned many American Jews into Zionists.”
Interestingly, one of the most famous “religious Jews” who opposed Zionism did not change his mind even after the Holocaust. That was the Times’s own publisher from 1935 to 1961, Arthur Hays Sulzberger.

Reader secures correction to inaccurate claim in BBC website report

BBC Watch reader Funzarian also noticed that historical inaccuracy and contacted the BBC News website’s Middle East desk. The reply received stated:
“As you correctly point out, the war followed the creation of Israel, and we have changed the wording accordingly.”

Would the UK media normalize anti-black racism like they do with antisemitism?

Has antisemitism become so socially acceptable within the media and among the cultural elite that most don’t blink an eye when a political figure, journalist or artist explains social or political problems by evoking the specter of powerful, malevolent Jewish forces in Hollywood and in Washington?
Whilst there is of course nothing wrong with the Indy publishing the interview – odious bigotry and all – we can’t help but be disturbed by the banality of the manner in which it was contextualized, indeed normalized.

Vandals cover Toulouse with swastikas

Swastikas and other hate graffiti were painted on buildings throughout the French city of Toulouse.
Sunday night’s vandalism, which also included far-right symbols, struck an LBGT center, a university and cemetery, and the offices of left-wing candidates in elections next month, according to Radio France International. Police have not identified any suspects.
The graffiti attacked Jewish groups and compared Jews to homosexuals, RFI reported.

Hungarian Jewish Community Discovers 100 Holocaust-Era Torah Scrolls Confiscated in WWII

Budapest’s Unified Hungarian Jewish Congregation (EMIH) on Monday said it will announce details regarding the discovery of more than 100 Holocaust-era Torah Scrolls that had been confiscated during World War II.
In a statement, EMIH called a press conference for Tuesday at Budapest’s Obuda Synagogue, where Executive Rabbi Shlomo Koves “will announce a historic discovery of the largest single collection of priceless confiscated sacred property of the Hungarian Jewish community in the Holocaust.”

2,300-year-old village discovered on road leading to Jerusalem

Work to uncover the remnants of an approximately 2300-year-old rural settlement that was discovered on a road leading to Jerusalem in August 2013 was completed recently, the Israel Antiquities Authority announced Tuesday.
The village was occupied for approximately two centuries during the Second Temple Period and is located near the 'Burma Road' (not far from Mitzpe Harel).

Peru looks to become Israel's most important partner in Latin America

Peru is one of the beneficiaries of Israel’s agricultural technology and has received assistance from Israel in other areas as well. Minister of Agriculture, Yair Shamir who met Humala when he visited Peru last May, was near the head of the receiving line that greeted Humala as Peres escorted his Peruvian guest into the reception hall.
Shamir said then that taking into account Israel’s proven abilities in agricultural, industrial and security technologies, he had been given the impression that the Peruvian government sees Israel as a strategic partner in Peru’s economic development, Jerusalem Post reported.

Israel, Western energy companies eye Cyprus gas talks

With billions of dollars at stake, Israel and major Western energy corporations are closely watching renewed Cyprus peace talks that could clear the way for major gas projects with a role for Turkey.
Export plans for the eastern Mediterranean have been taking shape over the past five years since US firm Noble discovered the Leviathan field in Israeli waters and the Aphrodite field off divided Cyprus.

Israel’s Energiya Global to solar power 8 percent of Rwanda

Yosef Abramowitz, an Israeli-American solar energy pioneer and cofounder of Arava Power Company in Israel, has begun making inroads into solar-powering Africa.
Today, Abramowitz and his company Energiya Global announced that Energiya has secured $23 million in financing and about $710,000 in grants for an 8.5-megawatt solar energy plant in Rwanda.
Abramowitz is the president of Gigawatt Global Coöperatief and is currently the CEO of Energiya Global, Gigawatt’s Israeli affiliate that provided seed money and strategic guidance for the African project.
Together the companies closed financing from the Norwegian sovereign wealth fund Norfund, Dutch development bank FMO, London-based Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (EAIF) and the Norwegian engineering and procurement contractor Scatec.

Twitter Trends Expands to Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa

In a blog post, Twitter said, “Twitter Trends capture the pulse of the planet. We want to make it easy for anyone in any part of the world to find out what is happening around them, and Trends make that possible.”
The decision to include the three Israeli cities came as Twitter added another 50 urban locations to the Trends feature, accessible by entering #Jerusalem, #TelAviv or #Haifa in Twitter’s search bar or re-setting your location to reflect your favorite of the three Israeli cities.

IDF Blog: Druze Soldiers Dance with Joy after Finishing a 63-Kilometer Beret March

The beret march of the all-Druze Herev Battalion is unlike any other in the IDF. It’s a long march not through the wilderness, but through the lands they defend, and the villages of their families.