[Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News] 05/17 Links: Max Blumenthal Attracts Jew Haters of All Stripes; Soros buys SodaStream & Teva Shares

From Ian:

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Max Blumenthal Attracts Jew Haters of All Stripes

Given Blumenthal’s own conduct, there is also every reason to assume that he fully agrees with the praise by a Stormfront member who declared that by exposing Israeli evils, “Max Blumenthal has done a great service for all of humanity here, and we WNS [i.e. white nationalists], and the rest of the world, ought to be grateful to him.”
Since the publication of my documentation in February, it has emerged that in addition to the sites I mentioned, Blumenthal’s writings were also posted on the neo-Nazi forum used by the arrested suspect in last month’s fatal Overland Park, Kansas, shootings. The shooter targeted Jewish institutions and reportedly shouted “Heil Hitler” when he was taken into custody. While the suspect’s interest in one of Blumenthal’s articles certainly doesn’t justify sinking to the level of Blumenthal himself – who tried to present the 2011 massacre in Norway as inspired by writers cited in the perpetrator’s deranged “manifesto” – William Jacobson rightly argues in a related blog post that the shocking attack in Kansas provides yet another illustration of “the intersection between neo-Nazi and anti-Zionist conspiracy theories.”
Moreover, given Blumenthal’s popularity on so many reactionary and anti-Semitic sites, it is utterly disingenuous when he now complains about being “smeared” with such racist associations only on the basis of the Kansas shooter’s interest in his work. With his relentless efforts to demonize Israel, Blumenthal has certainly done his part to show over and over again that supposedly left-wing “pro-Palestinian” activists and far-right reactionaries have no problem finding their lowest common denominator in their shared enthusiasm for anti-Semitic material.

The firebomb attack (you never heard about) on a bus of Jewish schoolgirls

There is plenty of news about Palestinian “protests” and the Israeli killing of two “protesters.”
But you never hear what those “protests” involve.
It’s not just holding signs and shouting. It’s often potentially lethal firebombing, as happened to this busload of Israeli girls on a Bat Miztvah visit to a Jewish holy site in Hebron. Hebron had one of the oldest continuous Jewish communities in the world until the Jews were driven out and massacred in 1929 during Arab riots. The return of Jews to Hebron is deemed a “settlement.”
You probably never heard about the firebombing of the bus. Neither had I, until I saw a tweet linking to this story at
an Israeli newspaper, Firebombs on Bat Mitzva Girls’ Bus, Only Arutz Sheva Reports It:

Mike Lumish: Obama Backed Boko Haram

Joel Gehrke of the Washington Examiner writes the following:

When congressional leaders asked the State Department to tailor American assistance to Nigeria in a way that would protect Christians from religious persecution at the hands of Boko Haram, an extremist group that kidnapped hundreds of Christian girls last month, then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton’s team dismissed the idea on the theory that the organization was not motivated by religion.
“This religious tension, while real, should not be mistaken as the primary source of violence in Nigeria,” David Adams, assistant secretary of legislative affairs, wrote to Congress in an Oct. 4, 2012 letter. “Similar to the United States, Nigeria’s religious diversity is a source of strength, with communities working across religious lines to protect one another.”

In other words, as late as 2012 the Obama administration considered Boko Haram to be just another religious group that comprised the rich tapestry of spiritual life in Nigeria and that, as part of the splendid diversity of the country, it represented a source of strength.
Of course, not everyone agrees with this sunny assessment.

British-born Boko Haram 'ringleader' was 'radicalised at UK university'

Mr Ogwuche, the son of a retired Nigerian colonel, was said by fellow students at University of Glamorgan in Wales to call himself "The Lion of God" and threatened to cut the hands and feet of non-believers while living in Britain.
The Nigerian, who studied business science from 2007 until he dropped out in 2010, was a member of the university’s debating society and wrote on an online profile: “I used to be in the military back at home and my goal now is to be a successful businessman.”
While living in South Wales his posts on his social media page became more extreme.

Belgium Euthanasia Doctor Organizes Instructional Tour - To Auschwitz

The leading practitioner of euthanasia in Belgium, Dr Wim Distelmans, is organizing an instructional tour to Auschwitz, the Nazi extermination camp. In ‘an invitation for a study trip for healthcare professionals,’ he describes Auschwitz as an ‘inspiring’ surrounding in which to ‘clarify confusion about euthanasia’.
In fact, Dr Distelmans’s tour does help to clarify matters: it shows that how little distance there is between Belgian euthanasia in 2014 and Nazi death camps in 1944.

NY Daily News Editorial: “Vile at Vassar”

In early April, The New York Daily News had a blistering Editorial regarding the anti-Israel Climate at Vassar College, Vassar’s miseducation, focusing on the anti-Israel climate we documented in Anti-Israel academic boycott turns ugly at Vassar.
Today the Daily News has another devastating rebuke to Vassar, focusing on the reaction to my speech at Vassar which culminated in the now-infamous posting of a Nazi propaganda poster by Students for Justice in Palestine.
I previously knew that the several academic departments which co-sponsored the anti-Israel Max Blumenthal and Ali Abunimah appearance the week before my appearance, would not sponsor me. I did not previously know that college funds were used for the Blumenthal-Abunimah appearance.

NYU SJP Hosts Anti-Semitic Rally

The New York University chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine, the same group that slid anti-Semitic "mock eviction notices" to two dorms earlier this year, held an anti-Semitic rally on Thursday afternoon. The group's "Nakba Day Die-In" featured leftist pro-terror chants such as "resistance is justified when a people are occupied" and "Zionist state, tear it down."
TruthRevolt captured video of the rally:

NYU's SJP also chanted "from the river to the sea, Palestine will be free" which calls for the end of Israel. SJP relies on half-truths and manipulations to indoctrinate college students into hating Israel and spreading Jew-hatred. Among the most outrageous claims made by SJP is that Israel ethnically cleanses Palestinians and attempts to maintain a state that is exclusively Jewish.
Students for Justice in Palestine chapters across the country are known for bullying and targeting Jewish students. According to Ilya Feoktistov of Americans for Peace and Tolerance, the group at Northeastern University interrupted a Holocaust awareness event:

UCLA's SJP Seeks To Overturn Student Govt's Anti-Divestment Vote Because Two Voters Once Went To Israel

Anti-Israel group Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) is seeking to overturn a 7-5 vote to defeat a divestment resolution by UCLA's student government because two of the voting members had taken sponsored trips to Israel. The two students, Lauren Rogers and Sunny Singh, neither of whom is Jewish, traveled to Israel in 2013, Rogers with the ADL and Singh with the American Jewish Committee (AJC).
A hearing was held by the student government judicial board Thursday evening where evidence was presented in the SJP complaints that the two students' trip to Israel were a conflict of interest and their votes last February against a resolution that had called upon UCLA to divest from Israeli companies that do business in the West Bank should be nullified.

J Street bars critical student journalist from National Summit

Mael provided the following statement:
"They granted and then revoked the credentials with no intervening communication. It amazes me that an organization that prides itself on dialogue is willing to viciously attack a student and function so childishly. The spin-machine that is J Street never ceases to amaze me. Although their dishonest organization has been rejected by mainstream Jewish Community. I would welcome any J Street member into my Jewish community. It is leftist J Street that attacks members of the community to no-end. From Hillel president Eric Fingerhut to Malcolm Hoenlein of the Conference of Presidents, they are simply disrespectful and thuggish. I would love to engage in open dialogue with Mr. Ben Ami or a J Street U student. I think it would be tremendously productive and encourage open debate."
I have not yet received a response to my request for J Street to identify any other persons barred from the National Summit, and for it’s position on barring Mael. (h/t Jewess)

Event Glorifying Holocaust Denier Canceled by London College

King’s College London has canceled a May 19 lecture intended to glorify a Holocaust denier in response to pressure from pro-Israel students.
The event was organized by the pro-Hamas publication Middle East Monitor Online (MEMO) to honor the late Egyptian Holocaust denier, Abdelwahab Elmessiri, and was going to feature speaker Azzam Tamimi, who is reported to be Hamas’s “special envoy to the UK.”

Soros buys SodaStream while raising Teva stake in first quarter

Soros Fund Management LLC, the family office of billionaire George Soros, bought shares of SodaStream International Ltd. (SODA:US) in the first quarter, the Israeli maker of home soda machines that’s plunged 18 percent this year.
The firm, based in New York, bought $24.3 million of shares of Lod, Israel-based SodaStream. The holding makes up about 0.3 percent of its $9.3 billion U.S. stock portfolio, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission yesterday. Soros also increased his stake in Israeli drugmaker Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd., already its largest holding, to 5.8 percent of the total. (h/t Yenta Press)

US denies Indyk ‘bashed’ Israel in ‘nasty tirade’ at DC hotel bar

The Free Beacon published an article earlier Saturday, citing “an individual who heard the conversation,” saying the special envoy launched a “nasty” 30-minute “tirade” against Israel, fully blaming it for the peace talks failure last month.
The “individual” said Indyk was “openly lashing out at Israel over drinks with several members of his staff and wife, Gahl Burt” at the bar in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel.
“In the 30 minute conversation, no one at the table mentioned a single wrong thing the Palestinians had done,” the source was quoted by the website as saying. “There was no self-criticism whatsoever.”
The source added that Indyk and others present “openly blamed” Jewish Home leader Naftali Bennett and his party for the breakdown of talks, through their continued announcement of settlement tenders throughout the nine-months process.

Liberman: US ‘mistaken’ in blaming settlements for failed peace talks

Addressing recent reports that US President Barack Obama, Secretary of State John Kerry and special envoy Martin Indyk have all primarily blamed the settlements for the failure, Liberman said Israel and the US are great friends and that “even good friends are [sometimes] mistaken.”
“The Americans are mistaken on the settlements. Just like they were mistaken when pushing for Palestinian elections [in 2006, which saw Hamas rise to power.] The settlements are not an obstacle to peace and never have been,” Liberman charged.
Blaming the settlements for the breakdown of negotiations, like the Palestinians have done, is an excuse, said the foreign minister.
“I’m against confrontation with the US,” he added, “but we cannot fold. We must present an alternative. There are alternative ideas and we must convince the Americans [that they are worth pursuing].”

Blaming Israel to Preserve a Theory

Just as the Clinton administration whitewashed Yasir Arafat and the PA in the 90s, so, too, did the Obama crew whitewash his successor Abbas’ incitement and refusal to end the conflict. The result is that the Palestinians believe there will never be any serious consequences for rejecting peace. Throughout the Kerry initiative, Obama and the secretary praised Abbas while reviling Netanyahu but rather than nudging the Palestinians to make peace, it only encouraged them to refuse it. But if the U.S. is ever to help move the Middle East closer to peace, it will require honesty from the administration about the Palestinians and for it to give up its settlement obsession. Seen from that perspective, it was Kerry and Indyk who did as much to sabotage the process as Abbas, let alone Netanyahu. But instead, Obama, Kerry, Indyk refuse to admit their faults and continue besmirching Israel to their friends in the press. Sticking to a discredited theory is always easier than facing the truth especially about your own mistakes.

The Dire State of the Palestinian Economy

The Palestinian economy inside of Judea and Samaria is in official crisis mode. The long-term effects of the Arab Spring as well as rampant corruption have effectively brought an end to several years of modest growth inside the territories administered by the Palestinian Authority.
Regarding the Arab Spring, Muslim nations swept up in it have responded by dramatically increasing domestic spending. As a result, the emphasis of many governments that had once provided financial aid to the Palestinian economy has shifted, with the aim of maintaining internal stability.
According to the Palestinian Finance Ministry, NIS 630 million (roughly $182,000,000) in aid has arrived from abroad since the beginning of 2014, a 65-percent decrease from the first quarter of 2013.

Venezuela to send oil to Palestinians

Venezuela, which sits atop the world’s largest oil reserves, said it would provide an initial shipment of 240,000 barrels of oil, but gave no details as to how it would send them.
“Thanks to Venezuela for supporting Palestine… to break Israel’s monopoly on our economy, for your response to our needs, for your willingness to support the Palestinian people in their long struggle,” Abbas said, according to an official translation.

Round of Iran nuclear talks ends with big setbacks

Iran nuclear talks stalled Friday, casting a shadow on earlier advances and denting hopes that Tehran and six world powers will meet a July 20 target date for a deal meant to curb Iran’s atomic program while ending sanctions on the Islamic Republic.
Deputy Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi acknowledged the meeting made “no progress” in its ambitious goal of starting to draft an agreement meant to ease a decade of Western distrust about Tehran’s nuclear agenda in exchange for sanctions relief.
In that, “we failed,” he told reporters. But while saying he was disappointed, he insisted that the result of the three-day talks that ended Friday represented no more than a setback at this point in continuing attempts to reach a deal.

Congress Moving Ahead with Legislation Targeting Hezbollah Finances

Bipartisan legislation targeting Hezbollah and its enablers continued this week to wind its way through the Senate, with Al Monitor describing the Hezbollah International Financing Prevention Act of 2014 – introduced by Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH) and Marco Rubio (R-FL) – as part of an effort by U.S. lawmakers to “snuff out the Shiite militia.” The bill had been preceded by parallel legislation in the House, and final language is expected to press for “sanctions against financial institutions… that knowingly facilitate Hezbollah’s illicit activities, including money laundering, and targets providers that knowingly transmit the militia’s propaganda channel, Al-Manar.” Sheehan’s office put out a statement quoting the Senator:

Heads roll as Austrian students tested on Nazi apologist text

Two senior Austrian educators will step down over a scandal in which a test administered to student graduates featured an essay by a Nazi apologist, the latest in a series of missteps in awarding high school diplomas.
Following a high-profile data leak and a failure to communicate new grading scales, the final straw came when this year's German test included a 1947 text by German author Manfred Hausmann, who had worked for Nazi propaganda magazine Das Reich.
Students were asked to reflect on how "The Snail" - in which a gardener decides the pest has to die to protect his plants - dealt with questions about nature and life. The test omitted to mention the broader context of the author's Nazi past.

Polish Court Acquits Turkish Students over Majdanek Nazi Salutes

Two Turkish students arrested at the site of the former Majdanek concentration camp for performing Nazi salutes in front of a group of Israeli students and shouting "Heil Hitler" have been acquitted by a Polish court in Lublin.
The pair, identified only as Mehmet A. and Mesut T., were arrested for "promoting fascist propaganda" after members of the Israeli group filed charges. If found guilty, they could have faced up to three years imprisonment in Poland.

The Anne Frank phenomenon

The “secret annex” at Prinsengracht 263, which provided a hiding place for eight Jews for two years during World War II, was saved from demolition in the 1950s, and became a museum at the relentless prompting of diarist Anne’s father Otto, the only one of the hidden octet to survive the war. (The hiders were betrayed, and Anne died in Bergen-Belsen in March 1945.)
At Otto’s insistence, the house is largely unfurnished and anything but kitschy. This is not how Hollywood would have sought to stir the emotions. This way, though, there is no distraction, no escape from internalizing the desperate measures forced upon Jews seeking to survive Nazi genocide.
Annemarie Bekker, who has worked for 10 years in the museum’s communications department, says the number of annual visitors has reached 1.2 million and keeps on growing, and that 11-12% of them are Dutch. “We thought it would go down over time, but it hasn’t,” she said over coffee in the museum’s small cafeteria.

Google Calendar goes Hebrew

Tired of always forgetting whether the Hebrew month right now is Iyar or Nisan? Dying to know if your birthday this year falls in Sivan or Tamuz? Or maybe you want to impress your rabbi?
Google just rolled out a Hebrew calendar function on its Google Calendar, enabling users to display Hebrew dates alongside the Gregorian ones.

Israeli film wins in Student Oscars

An Israeli student film has been chosen as one of three recipients of the Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Student Film.
The film, “Paris on Water” by Tel Aviv University student Hadas Ayalon, was picked as one of three winners in the foreign language category of the 41st Annual Student Academy Awards which will be held on June 7, when it will be revealed who won the gold, silver and bronze medals.

Israeli team’s prosthetic fin saves ‘Freedom’ the turtle

A badly injured sea turtle’s prospects are looking up — thanks to a new prosthetic fin designed by an Israeli team and modeled after the wings of a US fighter jet.
The green sea turtle, named “Hofesh,” the Hebrew word for “freedom,” was caught in a fishing net off Israel’s Mediterranean coast in early 2009. With his two left flippers badly wounded, rescuers had to amputate, leaving him with a pair of stumps that made it difficult to swim.

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Posted By Ian to Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News at 5/17/2014 09:30:00 PM