01/25 Links Pt2: How to Spot a Fake Siege; The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi ~ EoZ

From Ian:

I can’t help noticing that the “siege of Gaza” has largely disappeared from the headlines. I’d like to think it’s because, having finally seen what a real siege looks like in Syria, many well-meaning folks who used to decry the “siege” of Gaza have realized that Gaza was never actually besieged at all. But for anyone who’s still confused about the difference between a real siege and a fictitious one, here are two simple tests: First, in real sieges, people die of starvation, because the besieger stops food from entering; in fake ones, the “besieger” sends in 2,500 tons of food and medicine per day even during the worst of the fighting. Second, real sieges get swept under the carpet by the UN; only the fake ones merit massive UN publicity. And if you think I’m joking, just compare the actual cases of Madaya and Gaza.
In the Syrian town of Madaya, which is besieged by the Assad regime’s forces, people were reduced to living on grass because no other food was available. Rice, a staple that costs $1.25 per kilogram in other war-ravaged Syrian towns, was so scarce in Madaya that it sold for 200 times that price – an astounding $256 per kilogram, according to a report by Roy Gutman in Foreign Policy. Women were so hungry their breast milk dried up, leaving them unable to feed their babies. At least 32 people have starved to death so far, and hundreds more are at risk of starvation. One man told Gutman everyone in his family had lost 45 pounds – and they are the lucky ones; they’re still alive.
In Gaza, in contrast, even when the “siege” was regularly making headlines, there were never any reports of people dying of hunger, living off grass or unable to feed their babies. That’s because in contrast to Syrian forces, which prevented food and other humanitarian goods from entering Madaya, Israel allowed thousands of tons of such goods into Gaza every day. Even during the 50-day war with Hamas in summer 2014, while Hamas was regularly firing rockets at the only border crossing between Israel and Gaza, Israel managed to get 122,757 tons of food, medicine and fuel into Gaza through that crossing; in normal times, the volume is much higher. Indeed, Gaza’s life expectancy exceeds the global median, surpassing that in 114 countries worldwide. In places that are really besieged, life expectancy tends to be low.

David Singer: European Union Becomes Irrelevant In Resolving The Jewish-Arab Conflict

This fundamental disconnect between the EU and Israel over the Arab Peace Initiative continues to detrimentally impact on their relationship.
Full Israeli withdrawal from these territories – or even equivalent land swaps as suggested by the EU in its July 2014 manifesto – is a pipe dream – given that the creation of Islamic State since then has seen it:
1. conquer an area of Syria and Iraq larger than Great Britain – resulting in millions of Arabs being brutally slayed, injured, traumatised and physically displaced into Turkey, Jordan, Lebanon and even the EU.
2. become a distinct security threat to Israel and its Arab neighbours
The Arab Peace Initiative has been effectively consigned to the dustbin of history as a result.
Stubbornly continuing to support these key elements of the Arab Peace Initiative has led a clearly frustrated EU to take action to unilaterally end Israel’s total lawful control of Area “C” in Judea and Samaria (West Bank) by instigating the following intemperate actions:
1. Requiring Israel to specifically identify goods, products and services originating from Jewish settlements in Judea,Samaria,the Golan Heights and East Jerusalem
2. Funding and actively supporting illegal Arab housing construction in Area “C”
Israel reportedly considers that such actions by the EU give the Palestinian Arabs false hope that if they just hold out long enough – the EU will somehow be able to “deliver” Israel.
EU policy and its conduct since July 2014 has exacerbated the Jewish-Arab conflict rather than playing a constructive role in its resolution.
In reaffirming that policy in 2016 – despite total chaos occurring among Arab States in the region – the EU has clearly become irrelevant and can no longer have any meaningful role in resolving the Jewish-Arab conflict.

The Disgrace of Associating Toni Morrison With Primo Levi

A side benefit of reviewing books is that I often get books I otherwise might not splurge on. A week ago, I received the handsome three-volume set of the collected writings of Primo Levi, Italian survivor of Auschwitz. The set is edited by arguably his best translator, Ann Goldstein, and published by Liveright. I will write a thorough and conscientious book review in due course.
But I am writing this blog post in protest at the inexplicable and offensive fact that the publishers asked the American novelist Toni Morrison to write an introduction. Of all people, they had to choose such an outspoken and biased critic of Israel. Why invite a person who shows such animus towards the homeland of the Jewish people to write an introduction to the work of a man who suffered under a real genocidal regime determined to destroy him simply for being Jewish, given that, for all his criticisms and alienation, Levi remained an avowed Jew?
It’s not just the banality of her introduction, her cold words, her use of “throngs” to describe — impersonally — those who died. She cannot bring herself to mention Jews. She stands for poisonous revisionism. She, together with her partners in prejudice, have accused Israel of ethnic cleansing, apartheid, and genocide. Inevitably this leads to comparisons with Nazis. Which is precisely what the primitive, mentally challenged bullies who use such an abusive slogan in protests love to do. If any of that were true, how come after 65 years of Israel’s existence the Arab population of Israel continues to grow and thrive? Why haven’t they all been gassed? And why are denizens of the Occupied Territories and Gaza still expanding in number?
Why have they not all been killed or expelled? Are the Israelis so incompetent?  It seems that Morrison was contacted and asked to consider the invitation because Primo Levi was a left-wing secular Jew who criticized the State of Israel’s invasion of Lebanon and disliked the, albeit democratically elected, right-wing governments (criticisms I too would agree with, incidentally). The presumably liberal, left-wing publishers thought her stamp of approval on this edition would attract like-minded readers and librarians. But that does not put Primo Levi and Toni Morrison on the same moral page. (h/t Jewess)

PM: The world sees Israel as a highly sought-after commodity

The negative picture the media paints of Israel's international standing is the "complete opposite" of reality, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday, explaining that contrary to media portrayal, Israel is in fact "highly sought after."
At Sunday's weekly cabinet meeting, Netanyahu briefed ministers on his meetings with world leaders at the World Economic Forum in Davos last week.
The prime minister said, "I met with Argentine President Mauricio Macri, who told me unequivocally: 'We are turning a new leaf with Israel. Our interests and our values make this partnership necessary. Therefore, we are beginning a new era.'"
"I also met with the prime minister of Ethiopia, a very strong African country that seeks to enhance relations with us. Of course, I also met with many friends such as the leader of Azerbaijan and Dutch Prime Minister Mark Rutte, a close friend of Israel, and many other leaders, including the heads of major global corporations," Netanyahu continued.
"I was at a cyber forum along with the leaders of global cyber companies and companies that are dealing with the cyber problem. They asked me, as the prime minister of Israel, to describe what we are doing and there is great desire to learn from us and cooperate with us in this field, in all scientific fields, and -- of course -- in the fight against terrorism.

Is the Swedish foreign minister an anti-Semite?

The exchange went on, but in the end, PM Netanyahu, correctly refused to be pushed by the reporter, to label the Swedish FM, Margot Wallström, anti-Semitic.
But here is how I'd answer that unanswered question. Natan Sharansky, one of the great human rights activists, and democratic thinkers of our times, devised a widely accepted 3D litmus test for modern anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double Standards and Delegitimization and is a set of criteria intended to distinguish legitimate criticism of Israel from antisemitism.
It's clear that on the double standard test, the Swedish FM passes with flying colors, especially when one looks around the mideast, at the horrifying levels of rampant murderous violence and persecutions going on, not to mention medieval judicial systems that execute punishments by heinous means of beheadings, stonings and amputations. By not mentioning these, and singling out Israel, the Swedish FM's accusation also serves to demonize the State of Israel. So labels aside, the facts are she fulfills at least 50% of this 3D criteria. That being the case, the Swedish FM needs to seriously check her blatantly biased statements, if she sincerely wants to avoid aligning herself with anti-Semites.
Moreover, since this biased statement of hers against Israel, two horrifying Palestinian terrorist attacks on innocent Israeli civilians took place. In one, a 38-year-old mother of six was murdered in a stabbing attack, at the entrance to her house, as her 17-year-old daughter, who heard her screams, ran to her aid, only to see the terrorist stab her mother again and again. In the second, a pregnant Israeli woman in her 30s, was seriously wounded in her lung after being stabbed in clothing store, but, luckily in this case, both mother and fetus are doing well.
The Swedish FM's silence about these heinous attacks on innocent Israeli civilian women, in contrast to her deriding criticism of Israel responding in self-defense to murderous terrorists attacks, demonstrates prejudice and bias against the Jewish state of Israel.

Israeli kabbalah movement invites Israel-bashing Swedish FM to Tel Aviv event

An Israeli kabbalah movement has invited Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstrom to its convention next month in Tel Aviv.
Kabbalah L’Am is reaching out to Wallstrom, who has emerged in recent months as Israel’s most vehement critic.
The Swedish foreign minister recently angered officials in Jerusalem when she suggested that Israel was guilty of “extrajudicial killings” of armed Palestinian terrorists subdued by security forces.
“Wallstrom is known for her critical and negative stance toward Israel, but it is highly doubtful whether she has any familiarity with Israelis or with the State of Israel,” said the movement’s leader, Dr. Michael Laitman.
“The goal of the convention is to foment unity among all lovers of Israel here and abroad and to strengthen support for the State of Israel,” Laitman said. “I am convinced that if Wallstrom accepts our invitation, she will be pleasantly surprised from her trip and her interactions with Israel.”
The convention, which has been held annually for the past six years, is scheduled to be held in Tel Aviv from February 23-25.

Norwegian Ambassador meets with Hamas terror chief

Norwegian Ambassador to Lebanon Lene Lind met last Wednesday with Ali Baraka, a senior Hamas official in Lebanon who functions as the terrorist organization's representative in the country.
According to the Hamas daily Palestine, the two discussed the status of Palestinian Arabs in Lebanon, as well as UNRWA's intentions to limit its services to the Palestinian "refugees."
UNRWA, the UN body working with the descendants of Arab residents who left Israel in the 1948 War of Independence, has completely different protocols than UNHRC which works with all other refugees. UNRWA recipients "inherit" refugee status indefinitely, and it does not integrate or naturalize them into their host state. No UN organization was established to aid the 850,000 Jewish refugees who fled or were expelled from Arab countries following 1948, losing their property and possessions.
The Norwegian Ambassador promised to pass along the Hamas representative's demands to continue the economic support and services to her government.
Lind likewise "expressed her understanding for the suffering of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon," according to the report. Palestinian Arabs have numerous limitations placed on them by Lebanon, including regarding professional fields they can engage in.

Why Israel’s NGO Bill Is Vital

There’s also no doubt that these European donors are hostile to Israel. Norway – the largest individual government donor – is remarkably honest about this; its Foreign Ministry says explicitly, for instance, that it funds UNRWA, the UN agency responsible for Palestinian refugees, because it is “a guarantor that the rights of Palestine refugees, including the right to return, are not forgotten.” The “right of return,” needless to say, is Palestinian code for eliminating the Jewish state demographically by flooding it with millions of descendants Palestinian refugees.
But the rest of Europe isn’t much more subtle. For instance, the EU recently adopted discriminatory labeling requirements that apply only to “Israeli-occupied” territory, but not to territory occupied by any other country. It gives higher priority to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict than it does to other conflicts that are not only far bloodier, but have swamped it with an unprecedented refugee crisis. And the funding it pours into Israeli NGOs – more, as noted, than it gives the rest of the Mideast combined – isn’t because it thinks a 67-year-old democracy actually needs more help with democracy promotion than the world’s dozens of dictatorships; it’s because this money isn’t aimed at promoting “democracy and human rights” at all, but at subverting the policies of Israel’s democratically elected government.
By now, I doubt there’s anyone in Israel who doesn’t know these NGOs are wholly-owned subsidiaries of European governments; indeed, the main reason they conduct so much of their activity overseas these days is that they have little credibility left in Israel. But abroad, these groups are still viewed as Israeli organizations representing an authentic Israeli perspective, and they also benefit from the NGO “halo effect.”
That is why the transparency bill is so critical, and also why both the organizations and European governments are fighting so hard to kill it: Once these groups are required to state openly, on everything they do, that they’re primarily funded by European governments, it will be possible to expose them for what they really are – not independent Israeli NGOs with Israel’s best interests at heart, but agents of a hostile foreign power that is obsessed by Israel, discriminates against it and wishes it nothing but ill.

Abbas' vertical flanking

Vertical flanking is one of the most daring military assault tactics. It involves using an aircraft's firepower and maneuverability to parachute soldiers and equipment deep behind enemy lines. In Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' case, his press briefing with Israeli reporters in Ramallah last week was an attempt at such a maneuver, which involved trying to convince Israeli and western ears of his "righteousness," while avoiding direct contact with the Israeli partner.
It was a familiar Palestinian ploy that blatantly ignored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's repeated calls to Abbas to resume direct negotiations. Abbas' goal was simple -- to continue in his pursuit for unilateral international achievements and present the Israeli government as the one stalling the peace process.
Disappointingly, Abbas once again peddled his falsities: He opposes terrorism but supports "popular resistance" leaving the latter's interpretation to the youth on the streets; he supports the two-state solution, but will not recognize Israel as the Jewish state, alleging this demand has only ever been presented to the Palestinians, and not Egypt or Jordan, for example; and while he, personally, has relinquished the right of return, he claims he lacks the mandate to do so on behalf of the Palestinian people.

Court releases activist held over reporting Palestinian land-sellers

The Jerusalem Magistrate’s Court ordered the release of left-wing activist Ezra Nawi Sunday, over a week after he was arrested on suspicion he helped Palestinian officials execute Arabs for trying to sell land to Jews.
Nawi’s exit from jail, along with another arrested activist Guy Butavia, was put on hold for several hours to give police a chance to appeal against the decision, but he was later freed.
Nawi was put under house Arrest, according to Israel Radio, and Butavia was transferred to a military court.
Nawi is suspected by police of a litany of charges, including helping a person who did not have a permit in Israel, being in possession of a drug for personal use, contact with a foreign agent, attempt to cause the death of a person, fraud, conspiracy and theft and possession of a knife.
His arrest came days after an investigative TV program recorded him saying he helped track down Palestinians who sell land to Jews for punishment, including execution.

Senior Meretz Member Represents Activist Who Allegedly Handed Arabs to PA for Torture

Right-wing commentator Avihai Shorshan revealed on his Facebook page that attorney Gavriella (Gabbi) Schutz Laski is defending left-wing NGO Taayush activist Nasser Nawaj’ah, who, together with convicted pedophile Ezra Nawi, allegedly handed over Arab land brokers to the PA for arrest, torture, and on occasion execution. Nawi and Nawaj’ah were exposed by a channel 2 news program.
“This week I’ve heard [Meretz Chairman] Zehava Galon on a few occasions, including at the Knesset Constitution Committee, speaking about the need for transparency, full disclosure, and the requirement that political and social ties be fully exposed. Only her criticism is always, but always, turned against the other side,” Shorshan notes.
So where was Zehava Galon, Shorshan wants to know, when the news was raging about those left-wing human rights activists who were reveling in depriving Arab businessmen of their right to freedom, not to speak of their right to life? Why did she not make it public that the attorney for one of these two was number 7 on the Meretz Knesset list (Meretz ended up with 5 seats). Moreover, Laski is also member of the board of governors for Breaking the Silence, and is on retainer for NGO Anarchists on the Fence, which organizes weekly violent demonstrations in the Arab villages of Bil’in and Ni’lin. AF takes care of the entire production, including buses and legal representation—Laski—in case you get arrested.

Sinking lower: After expose, leftists portray TV anchor as Nazi

The radical Israeli Left is still reeling from an investigative journalistic report that aired January 8 on Channel 2's Uvda investigative program, which was based on hidden camera footage taken inside the operations of radical leftist groups. Now, a vile Facebook photomontage depicts the program's editor in chief and anchor, Ilana Dayan, as Nazi filmmaker Leni Riefenstahl, receiving a bouquet from Hitler.
The hidden camera footage showed a central activist in Ta'ayush, convicted pedophile Ezra Nawi, boasting about turning in Arabs who sought to sell land to Jews and making sure they were arrested by the Palestinian Authority – where they face torture and death. A follow-up report showed cash exchanging hands between Nawi and Breaking the Silence activists.
Channel 20, which seeks to become a right-wing alternative to Channels 2 and 10, shared the vile photo with its readers on Facebook and noted that Uvda has aired hundreds of investigative reports to date, against political parties, commercial bodies, nationalist organizations and the IDF – but while some of the reports caused uproar and reached the courts, "only the report about radical leftist groups Ta'ayush and B'Tselem led to such a brutal attack on the program and its head, Ilana Dayan."

To Change Campus Culture in Relation to Israel, Look to the Faculty

A number of articles have been written about a new organization that is going to work with faculty to address problems on campus related to Israel and the treatment of Jewish students. While the group understandably wants to present itself to funders as something new and exciting, the truth is that a number of us recognized that faculty is the key to changing the campus environment inside and outside the classroom a decade or more ago, and have been diligently working with faculty for years to expand the field of Israel Studies, respond to Israel’s detractors, and deter and defeat the campaign to boycott, divest, or sanction (BDS) Israel.
As academics, we understand that faculty hold the real power in a university and for too many years we have witnessed that power being abused by professors with anti-Israel political agendas. These faculty sometimes use their classrooms as bully pulpits to advocate personal views and to intimidate students who typically lack the knowledge to rebut the “authority’s” position and fear retribution if they speak out.
While we understand the importance of preparing students to handle the challenges they face from Israel’s detractors among their peers, we believe this is necessary but not sufficient to change the climate on campus from one that is, at best, apathetic and, at worst, hostile toward Israel, to an environment where civil discussion and the transmission of scholarship about Israel is the norm.

'Why no arrests over attack at King's College?'

The Conservative candidate for London mayor has criticized the police's handling of the incident at King’s College University on Tuesday, when a violent mob crashed a talk by former head of Israel Security Agency (ISA, or Shabak) Ami Ayalon.
The candidate, Zac Goldsmith, has expressed “worry” over the lack of arrests since the incident.
In an interview with Jewish News, he said the attack was led by people who “weren’t just saying ugly things but they were doing ugly things. They very clearly crossed the line.”
“It worries me that no one has to my knowledge been arrested or charged by the police," he added.

William F. White resources to be withdrawn from York University's film department due to York U's antisemitic mural

There is a huge mural in a public space at York University that implicitly encourages violence against Israelis while denying Israel's right to exist. It depicts what is obviously a Palestinian, clutching a large rock behind his back, while gazing at Israel and wearing a map of Palestine in which the Jewish state has been eradicated. A number of Israelis have been murdered by Palestinian rock-throwers.
Paul Bronfman is the Chairman of the company which own William F. White International, Canada's most prominent supplier of professional film equipment and resources (like Canada's Panavision). William F. White currently provides a huge amount of resources to York's film department, but that support will be withdrawn if the terror-encouraging mural is not removed immediately, according to Bronfman.
York University has a significantly-sized Jewish student population, but it is also a notorious hotbed for Islamist extremism, where anti-semitic occurrences are common, and where support for terror groups like Hamas is widespread among its radical, student union-financed groups.

Jewish Voice for Peace helps disrupt Israeli LGBTQ group Sabbath event

The “anti-pinkwashing” movement exhibits the worst tendencies of the “regressive left” as aptly explained in this video:
“Another common cause of the Regressive Left is Palestine. Perhaps originating from Karl Marx’s disdain for Jews, or perhaps an unrelated anti-Semitism, Israel has come to signify all what the Regressive Left stands for. Muslim victims? Check. Western involvement? Check. History of Imperialism? Check. A Jewish conspiracy? Check.
The Israeli-Palestine conflict has thus become the main cause of the Regressive Left. As it confirms all their prejudices, fulfills all their prophecies, and nurtures all their righteousness. It is not because they care about human lives, there are countless tragedies and situations far worse in scale and history than Israel-Palestine. Nor is it because they care about Muslim lives…. [H]ating and opposing Israel provides them with the one legitimate channel to express their anti-Semitism under the guise of anti-Zionism.”
For more on the alliance of the Regressive Left with anti-Western, anti-Semitic Islamists, be sure to read The Masochists Who Defend Sadists: The Regressive Left in Theory and Practice:
I think they hated the idea of the West and of Empire, so they made a practical and intellectual alliance with people who shared their hatred. It must be remembered, too, that the resistance and its fighters and ideas served as the forerunner of the Islamic State. The Western Left’s solidarity with Islamism and fascism is, I would argue, the Western Left’s greatest shame, at least in my lifetime….
The regressive left refers to the nominally liberal writers and intellectuals who have stopped defending liberal principles, and now expend considerable energy excusing and defending the Islamist movement and its vicious assault on secular and Muslim societies. The term has been stuck to writers like Glenn Greenwald, CJ Werleman, Chris Hedges, and a cluster of outlets like Salon, The Intercept, Alternet and countless others in the US and Britain….
In doing so, the regressive left has abandoned the people in the Muslim world it is supposed to be defending: the Muslim liberals, the Muslim feminists, the Muslim homosexuals, the ex-Muslims and atheists, the secular bloggers in Bangladesh, and the raped and tortured Yazidis, to name just a few….
The regressive left is sinister and ahistorical; it is led by masochists who defend sadists; it is an attempt to make the world safe for fascism. It must be resisted and discredited.

IsraellyCool: The WhoProfits Mafia Style Shakedown Protection Racket

This letter was received by a friend of Israellycool. It comes from the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) organisation WhoProfits:
Here’s the start:
1. “WhoProfits” is a research center dedicated to exposing the commercial involvement of companies in the continued Israeli control over Palestinian and Syrian land.
2. As part of the organization’s activities we publish information about commercial involvement in the territories occupied by Israel in 1967. Our website is open to the public and available at www.whoprofits.org.
3. We plan to include the following information about your company on our website and printed publications:
I do love their specific attention to detail regarding “Syrian land” because handing the Golan heights over to Islamic State would be a great option right now. I’m sure they’d continue the fine viniculture up there and carry on our important work of giving medical care to Syrians wounded in their war.
But I digress, the answer going back to this pernicious organisation is a great one:

Honest Reporting: NPR Erases Israel From the Map

Hot on the heels of CNN’s recent “Palestina” faux pas, it’s now the turn of National Public Radio (NPR) to erase Israel from the map.
Once again, it’s happened where we’d least expect it, this time as part of a feature on health entitled “What Are You Afraid Of In 2016? Globetrotters Share Their Fears,” which includes the map above.
As you can see, every Middle East and wider regional state appears. All except Israel, which is, instead, replaced by “Palestine.”
UPDATE
The offending map has been removed following a complaint from HonestReporting. In its place is the following:

Editor’s note: The original version of this post contained a map illustration intended to represent the countries of the Middle East and North Africa, which poll respondents identified as the region presenting the greatest risk to travelers and expatriates in 2016. The map had a number of errors. The countries of Cyprus, Israel and Turkey were either not shown or not labeled; the label for “Palestine” should have read “Palestinian territories”; and Afghanistan and Pakistan were mistakenly included. NPR apologizes for these errors.

Los Angeles Times Takes First Move Towards Correcting Saree Makdisi Op-Ed

The Los Angeles Times has taken a first, partial step towards clarifying a blatantly false claim in a Jan. 8 Op-Ed by UCLA Professor Saree Makdisi that “there is not a single high school in the Palestinian communities in the Negev desert in southern Israel” ("Why Israel's schools merit a U.S. boycott").
As CAMERA earlier noted, there are more than 40 high schools for Bedouin students in the Negev. According to Suzie Ben Harush, a southern district spokeswoman for the Education Ministry, “Under the supervision of the ministry of education there are 39 high schools in the villages of the Bedouin population.” In addition, she wrote CAMERA, there are three “more high schools under different supervision (two high schools of ‘sachnin’ net in Hura and Segev Shalom and one on the city of Rahat under supervision of the ministry of economy and industry.”
The Los Angeles Times initially declined to correct, responding that:
This reference to “not a single high school in the Palestinian communities of the Negev desert” is attributed to Adalah, which stated as much in a 2011 report. “Palestinian communities” refers to the unrecognized Bedouin villages.
Scores of CAMERA letter-writers also wrote thoughtful letters urging the paper to correct.
As a result, editors published the following correction in the Jan. 20 print edition:
Israel:A Jan. 8 Op-Ed arguing for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions cited a study saying there wasn't a single high school in Palestinian communities in the Negev desert in southern Israel. The author and the study were referring specifically to Bedouin villages that are unrecognized by Israel.

IsraellyCool: And Then A Human Being Showed Up

Here’s how this works.
I post a video that the other side doesn’t like. They have a few dozen people with probably a few fake accounts each all lined up to click and report my video as hate speech.
YouTube, without human intervention, takes it down and marks ME as a hater.
When I appeal, a human being (because in the end this kind of thing can only be decided by a human) reviews it, understands what happened and clearly reverses the perverse decision.
The bit I’d like to know, and I don’t know anyone at YouTube who can tell me, is whether all those accounts who spuriously reported me are then penalised. Clearly this is a coordinated attack. Does it carry consequences for the other side? Are they able to use the same accounts over and over to report more spurious “hate” speech that is just truth they don’t like?

YouTube-Geared Marketing Company Apologizes for Encouraging Use of ‘Holocaust’ as Clickbait

India-based marketing and analytics product Vidooly apologized to clients after recommending video-uploaders use “Holocaust” in the titles of YouTube clips to attract viewers, the UK Jewish Chronicle reported on Friday.
According to the report, Vidooly sent out a company email telling clients it was an opportune time for this, given the proximity to the UN-designated International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27.
Vidooly recommended titles like “5 Holocaust movies you must watch,” “Holocaust timeline explained for dummies” and “10 Holocaust stories you will NOT believe.” It noted that the keyword, Holocaust, was searched by YouTube users about 200,000 per month.
Ultimately, Vidooly issued an apology “to every member of the Jewish community for hurting your feelings,” the Chronicle reported.

German paper refuses to fully correct report demonizing Israel

The Süddeutsche Zeitung - Germany’s largest circulation daily broadsheet newspaper – has refused to fully correct a false assertion that tens of thousands of Israelis fled to Germany because of the policies of the Netanyahu administration.
Roman Portack, a leading media expert at the Berlin-based German Press Council, told The Jerusalem Post on Wednesday that the correction that was issued does not conform to its “Best Practice” recommendation. The media watchdog group expects SZ to insert in its erroneous article the statement: “The German Press Council made us aware in its [recent] decision that the repetition of the controversial estimate did not satisfy the standards of journalistic accuracy.”
The Munich-based SZ provided a correction online last week stating, “Editorial note: By the number it [the earlier article] deals with a controversial estimate.” Portack said the explanation is satisfactory but fails to inform the readers about the background of the dispute and why the correction was necessary.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Snow Assuages Rogel Alpher’s Guilt By Being Even Whiter Than He (satire)

Haaretz columnist and self-hating Israeli Rogel Alpher expressed a measure of relief after Israel’s first major snowfall of the year, saying that he needed to be reminded that he is not the whitest thing on Earth, and therefore not as guilty as he had assumed, but still reasonably guilty.
Alpher, 48, told colleagues in the Haaretz newsroom this afternoon that after seeing images of the snow falling elsewhere in the country, he realized his measure of shame over the relative lack of melanin in his skin could be reduced somewhat, since the crystalline precipitation reflects even more light than his skin, and that he, therefore, is not as guilty for the suffering experienced by people of greater melanin production.
“I stand by my assertion that the run-of-the-mill expression of emotional attachment to the land, typical of national anthems anywhere, expressed in ‘Hatikva,’ is equivalent to bloodthirsty Palestinian calls for the violent removal of Jewish sovereignty,” he explained. “That is primarily a function of my deeply held ethos that being a product of European civilization – that is, being white – by definition makes me complicit in the colonialism at the root of all suffering, failings, and unfortunate events in non-white societies. The whiter one is, the more guilt he bears. So while I embrace my status as existentially responsible for all of the world’s ills, I admit to some sense of relief that snow, at least, is even whiter, and I am therefore not the most guilty thing in existence.” He added that he specifically used only the male third-person pronoun in his description of the phenomenon, since guilt attaches much more readily to the Y-chromosome.

Shocking New Israeli Report: Over 40% of Europeans Hold Antisemitic Views

More than 40% of European Union citizens hold antisemitic views and agree with the claim that Israel is committing genocide against the Palestinians and behaving like the Nazis, according to data presented during Sunday morning’s weekly Israeli cabinet meeting, the Hebrew news site nrg reported.
Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day this week, Israeli Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett, who also serves as minister of education, presented the country’s 2015 antisemitism report, pointing to the trends emerging in Europe as a result of the spread of radical Islam; the refugee and migrant crisis; the anti-Israel boycott, divestment and sanctions movement (BDS); and the rise of the extreme Right.
The “new antisemitism” explored in the report deals mainly with Jew-hatred among Muslims, rather than fringe parties in various European countries. The report states that “anti-Israel protests and accusations that Israel is a blood-thirsty, illegitimate country creates a slippery slope that eventually leads to the assault on Jews identified with Israel.”
Another aspect of antisemitism raised in the report, according to nrg, is that it has led to Jewish “enclosure in guarded areas and to a record high in emigration from Western Europe.”

Poll: 67% of Israelis concerned for safety of Jews abroad

Ahead of International Holocaust Remembrance Day and in light of the significant rise in anti-Semitic incidents in Europe and across the globe, the World Zionist Organization conducted a survey, which showed that 67% of Israelis are worried for the safety of Jews abroad.
WZO Vice Chairman Yaakov Hagoel will present the survey's findings at the weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday.
The survey, which was performed by the Midgam Research Institute for the WZO, found that 39% of Israelis believe that European Jews need to immigrate to Israel due to the increasing anti-Semitism there. With that, 46% of Israelis understand the Jews who continue to live in Europe for economic, social and other reasons.
A considerable majority of Israelis (83%) said the state needs to intervene in the labor market to help new immigrants. Meanwhile, 53% of Israelis supported the idea of granting economic incentives to employers willing to employ new immigrants, and 30% supported the option of requiring public bodies or large companies to employ a certain percentage of immigrants even though it could come at the expense of native Israelis.

Merkel to open Shoah exhibit with warning on migrant anti-Semitism

Chancellor Angela Merkel will open Monday the exhibition “The Art of the Holocaust,” featuring works created by concentration camp prisoners, as the German leader pledged to combat the threat of rising anti-Semitism.
The show brings together 100 works on loan from Israel’s Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial by 50 artists created in secret between 1939 and 1945 while they were confined to the camps or ghettos.
Twenty-four of the artists did not survive the Nazi period.
The drawings and paintings on display at Berlin’s German Historical Museum depict the suffering, drudgery and terror of the conditions endured by the detainees.
But about a third of the collection shows artists’ attempts to escape their plight with their imaginations, putting to paper treasured memories and dreams of freedom beyond the barbed wire.

Polish, Croation presidents to attend Auschwitz liberation ceremony

President Andrzej Duda of Poland and Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic of Croatia are expected to attend the ceremony at the Auschwitz memorial marking the 71st anniversary of the concentration camp’s liberation.
Dozens of survivors and their relatives will also be on hand for Wednesday’s commemoration. Red Army troops liberated Auschwitz on Jan. 27, 1945 — the United Nations has designated the date as International Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The Nazis murdered 1.1 million people at Auschwitz-Birkenau, mostly Jews, but also Poles, Roma and Soviet prisoners. The commemoration features the theme “Returns.”
“Remembering all the victims, in a special way, during the upcoming anniversary, we want to mention people who, despite enormous trauma, attempted to return to normal life,” Piotr Cywinski, director of the Auschwitz Museum, said in a statement.

British MPs call for better Holocaust education

The UK parliamentary education committee has published a report stating that more teachers need to be trained to teach the Holocaust in British schools.
The committee called on the Department for Education (DfE) to pay more attention to Holocaust education, as it would other subjects in schools such as history, English, and drama, as the topic is a key part of pupils’ education and should extend beyond history lessons.
The committee, a Department for Education-backed team of MPs, launched an inquiry into the effectiveness of Holocaust education and has warned that with a rising number of schools choosing to become academies and take control of their own curriculum, there is a need to make sure education about the genocide does not become irregular.
According to its findings, most teachers have either not received any professional training in specific Holocaust education or have participated in unreliable company training programs.
In fact, the UCL Centre for Holocaust Education illustrated that more than 6,000 teachers have taken part in its training programmers, out of the possible 30,000 history teachers in 4,000 secondary schools.

New Israeli App Provides Step-by-Step CPR Instructions

EZ CPR, an Israeli smartphone app that was launched this week, provides instructions on how to perform CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) in emergency situations.
Eli Beer, president of the United Hatzalah emergency response organization, teamed up with the ESC BAZ technology solutions company to create the app. Users are given step-by-step instructions on how to administer first aid to people who lose consciousness, as well as how to use a defibrillator. Additionally, users can press an emergency button that notifies emergency medical service providers of the user’s location.
In the coming months, the app—which is currently only available in Hebrew—will roll out English, French, Spanish, and Russian versions, and will include an additional feature for instructing users on how to resuscitate babies. The app can be downloaded from the United Hatzalah Facebook page, the www.ez-cpr.com website, Google Play, and the iTunes store.

India looks to Israel to help build security fence

The ties between India and Israel are about to get tighter. The Indian government recently raised the proposal to ask for Israeli help in building a ‘smart-fence’ similar to the one that separates Israel from Egypt.
India has been concerned recently over the threat of terror attacks coming from terrorists who cross the northern border with Pakistan. The Indian government wants to significantly lower the amount of illegal entry into the country and ministers have been attempting to formulate a plan of action in recent weeks.
The Times of India reported that "In one of these meetings, they discussed whether India can adopt an Israel-type border guarding mechanism along the western frontier," a home ministry official said.
Over the past two years numerous high ranking Indian officials have visited the border between Israel and Egypt and been greatly impressed at the technology which they saw implemented there.

‘Operation Thunderbolt,’ by Saul David

The gravely difficult choice facing the Israelis was this: Do we give in to the hijackers’ demands and, in exchange for the hostages, free terrorists captured in previous attacks, even those who have Jewish “blood on their hands”? Or do we initiate a rapidly planned and daring operation that may turn out to be a disastrous failure? Both options are explored in depth, with the defense minister, Shimon Peres, supporting the military operation and the prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, undecided as the 48-hour deadline set by the terrorists approaches. David’s exploration of the various conflicts generates a high level of drama and tension for the reader, even though the outcome is known. This is the achievement of a masterly, first-rate historian.
He is also a master at detailing the chaotic action of combat: “With his team strung out behind him, Giora Zussman” — one of the Israeli commandos — “made a solo entry into the small hall that had held the Israeli hostages. He could see several empty mattresses with sheets, a number of suitcases and a table piled with passports; but no hostages or terrorists. Just in case, he sprayed the hall and the gap in the wall of boxes with bullets from his Kalashnikov until his clip was empty. As he ducked back out of the hall to reload, the two missing members of his team moved past him and into the hall, firing as they went. Reaching a room at the far end that had been used as a kitchen, they found and killed two Ugandan soldiers.”
The great value of a work like “Operation Thunderbolt” is that it relights the dim corners of past events. For the Israelis, meeting in a secure bunker known as the Pit, the problem was not so much murderous enemies as it was the role played by Idi Amin. As Peres told his staff, a hijacking had never had the “explicit support of any president, army or state.” If this was now the case, the game had changed, and the Israelis would have to send sufficient troops to fight Ugandan soldiers guarding the airport.

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