03/01 Links Pt2: The BDS Movement Isn’t Working; The country BDS doesn’t want Oscar winners to see ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Time to draw lines and defend them

Everyone – including Ahmadinejad – has a right to voice their position on the issue. Moreover, Bollinger indicated through his action, America’s greatest universities have a duty to confer legitimacy and grant a prestigious venue to Ahmadinejad to air his genocidal position.
After Columbia gave legitimacy to a man who seeks to murder every Jew, how could anyone object to anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate groups merely insisting that the US end all assistance and support for Israel? How could it be illegitimate to blame Israel for the suffering of the Palestinians? How could it be illegitimate to teach Jewish kindergarteners that there is something intrinsically hurtful about the map of the Jewish state when a Jewish university president invited a man who called for that state to be wiped of the map to speak to his students? Last week Strategic Affairs Minister Gilad Erdan held a “top secret” conference for Jewish leaders from around the world to develop strategies and action plans to fight BDS.
Pollster Frank Luntz reportedly shared with the 150 conference participants the dismal results of a survey he had taken of American Jewish university students.
According to Luntz, only 42 percent of American Jewish students surveyed said that Israel wants peace.
A mere 31% of the students believe that Israel is a democracy.
According to media accounts, the Strategic Affairs Ministry set out what its experts believe is the sort of language pro-Israel activists should use to counter BDS propaganda. The language, participants were told, should be inclusive, not condemnatory.
For instance, people opposing BDS should say, “Boycotts divide people, and that’s part of the problem, not the solution.”
On the other hand, it would be a big mistake to say, “The BDS movement is not about legitimate criticism. It’s about making Israel illegitimate.”
It’s hard to escape the sense that in advocating these slogans, the government has missed the point, and the boat.
You can’t engage people who believe you are evil.

The BDS Movement Isn’t Working

The BDS movement in the United States seeks, as it does in other nations, to make Israel into a pariah state. How is it doing? The most recent Gallup report, which includes its 2016 results as well as some numbers from prior years, is one indication that BDS is failing here.
In 2005, when the most recent wave of boycott activity commenced, Gallup asked survey respondents: “In the Middle East situation, are your sympathies more with the Israelis or with the Palestinians? 52 percent sympathized more with Israel, 18 percent more with the Palestinians. More than ten years of relentless campaigning against Israel later, and 62 percent sympathize more with Israel, 15 percent more with the Palestinians.
What about Democratic support for Israel? As is well known, there has been a growing gap between Republicans and Democrats on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Indeed, Democrats are not only an audience for BDS but also an audience for the Obama administration’s complaints about the present administration in Israel. Yet the gap was greater in 2005 than it is today and at 53 percent, the percentage of Democrats who sympathize more with Israel than with the Palestinians is much better than the 41 percent recorded in 2005.
But the young have been special targets of the BDS movement, treated every year to Israel apartheid week, struggles against Zionist hummus, and divestment campaigns. Indeed, young people have been less sympathetic than older people to Israel in the recent past. Nonetheless, this year, 54 percent reported sympathizing more with Israel; 23 percent sympathized more with the Palestinians. In 2005, 51 percent reported sympathizing more with Israel. It’s true that sympathy with the Palestinians was considerably lower in that age group in 2005, in the neighborhood of 17 percent. But it had been at 29 percent just a year before. In short, the BDSers have not been able to budge opinion among the young so far.
What if we ask the question a different way? Gallup also asks whether respondents view Israel favorably or unfavorably. This year, 71 percent of American surveyed viewed Israel favorably or very favorably. In 2005 that number was 69 percent. Although Israel’s favorability ratings are off of their 25 year high — 79 percent viewed Israel favorably during the first Persian Gulf War — they are otherwise about the highest they have been during the past 25 years.

History’s Role in the War on Jews

For those who know little about what happens to Jews when they don’t have power, the creation of Israel and its continued importance doesn’t resonate. If you judge Israel solely by a measure of whether it is uniformly perfect as opposed to the context of a war with Palestinians who will not recognize its legitimacy no matter where its borders are drawn, you may be inclined to view it as worthy of being as branded a pariah state. The calls for economic warfare being voiced by groups like Jewish Voices for Peace or for its dismantling by that group’s leftist allies can be seductive when you not only don’t understand that Jews have rights to the country but also that when Jews are left powerless and at the mercy of other peoples, the result is, as Schama notes, a legacy of horror.
The point here is that those who wish to speak up for Israel need to understand that it is only historical ignorance and willful blindness that can cause us to fail to notice that those who wish to deny Jews the rights to statehood and self-defense — rights that are not denied any other people — are engaging in an act of bias that is indistinguishable from anti-Semitism. While academic anti-Zionists see themselves as promoting a point of view that is distinct from those who are killing Jews in the streets of Paris or Jerusalem, they are, in effect, attempting to provide the killers with a moral legitimacy they don’t deserve.
As Schama observes, in the end, Zionism is the “prize whipping boy” of intellectual in the post-colonial era in search of a scapegoat. Such crusades, he says, always require a villain, and we know who will always play that role in the European imagination. If we are to ensure that this same contagion of hate doesn’t spread any further in the United States, it will take not merely a generation armed with the facts and historical knowledge needed to answer the false charges of the Israel-haters. It will also require the moral courage to oppose the intellectual fashions of our day that will enable us to stand up to the intellectual anti-Zionists call them by their right name: anti-Semites.

EU approves $274 million in aid for Palestinians

The European Commission announced Tuesday that it has approved a new assistance package for the Palestinian Authority worth $274.1 million.
In a press release, the Commission said it is the first part of the 2016 package, $184 million of which is set to be funneled directly to the PA, with a focus on education and health services, support for hospitals in East Jerusalem, and assistance to poor families.
The remaining $89 million will go to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency in the Near East (UNRWA).
The statement said a second package will be announced later in the year.
“The European Union renews its concrete commitment to the Palestinians,” Federica Mogherini, the EU high representative for foreign affairs, said in a statement. “Through this package, the EU supports the daily lives of Palestinians in the fields of education and health, protecting the poorest families and also providing the Palestinian refugees with access to essential services. These are tangible steps on the ground that can improve the lives of Palestinian people.”

Jewish leaders endorse Cruz ahead of Super Tuesday

Texas Senator and presidential hopeful Ted Cruz announced on Sunday the formation of a “Jewish leadership coalition” made up of three dozen American Jewish leaders who have lent their support to the Cruz campaign.
The announcement came on the heels of NORPAC President Ben Chouake’s endorsement of Cruz last week. NORPAC is one of America’s largest non-partisan pro-Israel political action committees.
Other members of the new leadership coalition include Yeshiva University Director Rabbi Zev Reichman; Sarah Stern, President of the Endowment for Middle East Truth; Shabtai Society founder Rabbi Shmully Hecht; and Michael Ledeen of the Foundation for Defense of Democracy.
Last December Cruz won the backing of 25 leading Orthodox rabbis from around the United States.

Emails reveal Hillary's plans for Israel

In the list of "steps" Clinton’s office expected the PA to take there are few concessions to Israel. The PA would be asked to stop incitement against Israel, with Sullivan noting that PA hides “behind local officials” whenever the issue is raised. The plan also calls for the PA and Israel to organize classroom forums bringing together Israeli and PA students to help nurture mutual understanding.
In addition, the PA would be required to put Israel on government-issued maps, and the historical Jewish connection with Jerusalem “acknowledged”.
The remaining actions for the PA to undertake include more permanent housing for refugee camps and anti-corruption efforts in the PA legal justice system.
Israel, on the other hand, would, in the framework of some larger agreement, be expected to make a number of serious concessions, including the creation of a voluntary compensation fund to encourage Jews to leave Judea and Samaria. The plan notes does note that housing construction would be tolerated within the major settlement blocs, but not beyond.
Israel would also be pressured to open up Area C, which is under full Israeli control, to Arab economic interests, in particular giving them greater access to rock quarries.
The outlined plan also included transferring greater security control of Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority police, giving them full control of Area B and working to minimize IDF operations in Area A.

Clinton aide’s email slams Netanyahu’s ‘relentless disparagement’

An email from a longtime Hillary Clinton adviser reported the “relentless disparagement” by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of the then-US secretary of state at a closed-door meeting of AIPAC in 2010.
The email from journalist Sidney Blumenthal was among a batch of emails from Clinton’s computer released Monday by the State Department. They are part of a trove sent and received by Clinton, the leading contender among Democrats for the 2016 presidential nomination, on a personal account while serving as secretary of state.
Carrying the subject line “RE: Netanyahu,” the Blumenthal email allegedly quoted Netanyahu as saying that “if we can’t sleep, Hillary is not going to sleep” while asking those at the meeting to pressure the US to be more aggressive toward Iran — information he got third-hand, according to the Hebrew-language Ynet website.

Oberlin anti-Semitic rant Prof hosting BDS event this week

Last week The Tower magazine broke the story of a “social justice writing” professor at Oberlin, Joy Karega, who engaged in some bizarre anti-Semitic and anti-Israel commentary on Facebook.
The short version is that Karega, at least based on what she posts on Facbeook, sees Zionist and Jewish conspiracies almost everywhere, including claiming Israel was behind 9/11, and that the Charlie Hebdo attack and downing of Malaysian Airlines Flight 17 were Mossad false flag operations. She also circulated and posted about the Rothschild family controlling the media and seeking global domination, so no mere anti-Zionist loon here.
Bradley Burston, a leftish harsh critic of Israeli policies who feels “anti-Semite” is overused, thinks the label fits here, Progressive Except for Jew-Hate? Pure anti-Semitism on the Purely anti-Israel Left:
In recent years, one of the few unifying Israel-related experiences on the North American left has been that of sincere critics of Israeli policies being unfairly and often vociferously attacked as anti-Semitic.
What happens, though, when a leftist critic of Israel actually does veer into vile, high-octane, Klan-grade anti-Semitism?
Is the anti-Israel hard left prepared to denounce the real thing – authentic Jew-hatred from a progressive?
The test case is before us. It comes from Oberlin….

Oman withdraws from hosting youth sailing Worlds due to Israeli participation

Oman has withdrawn from hosting the 2016 Youth Sailing World Championships which were due to take place in December after refusing to submit written confirmation that it is able to guarantee full and equal participation by all, in accordance with World Sailing's Regulations.
Israel's Yoav Omer and Noy Drihan did not have an opportunity to defend their titles at the youth windsurfing World Championships in Langkawi, Malaysia, late last year, with World Sailing blaming Malaysian authorities of forcing Israel's windsurfers to withdraw from the event. The governing body added that sanctions would be imposed in the future event of a breach of the "no discrimination" regulations at a regatta.
World Sailing then demanded written confirmation from all venues that have already been selected and confirmed for forthcoming World Sailing championships to guarantee they can meet the updated regulations, resulting in Oman's withdrawal.

The country BDS doesn’t want Oscar winners to see

Last week, two groups affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) Movement took out a full-page ad in the L.A. Times excoriating the Israeli Government for offering an all-expenses-paid trip to the Holy Land for Oscar nominees. Leveling the false, but oft-repeated charge that Israel is an apartheid state, they called on the nominees to turn down the opportunity to visit.
Many countries run public relations campaigns in the U.S. to burnish their national brands and promote tourism. Only Israel – the one democracy and America’s strongest ally in the region – is systematically singled out and criticized for it.
While turning a blind eye to the horrific human right’s records of virtually every other country in our region – from Iran’s jailing of journalists and murder of political dissidents, to the Syrian regime’s slaughter of its own people, to Yemen’s brutal repression of religious minorities – the BDS Movement looks for any opportunity to go after Israel.
This Movement’s goal is clear and simple: to demonize, delegitimize, and ultimately, destroy the world’s only Jewish state through economic warfare and vile lies – the same tactics long employed by anti-Semites to attack the Jewish people. Instead of pursuing peace and justice as BDS activists claim, these groups sow the seeds for hate and conflict, publicly rejecting a two-state solution and calling for Israel to be removed from the map.
The ad raises the question: why exactly is the BDS Movement so desperate to keep people from seeing Israel with their own eyes?

Incredible new boycott announcement from Israel boycotting artists

1 March 2016 update (details below): Two 2016 Oscar winners (Mark Rylance and Asif Kapadia) are officially ASS-HOLES
We are a group of 700 extremely important and famous artists and actors. One of us was in a pop group 35 years ago and another played a minor character in one of the Harry Potter movies. We even boast a comedian who appeared in an episode of the Young Ones 33 years ago. In our letter to the Guardian we announced a boycott of Israel, singling out the tiny Jewish state for punishment for a set of made-up offences communicated to us by a respected member of the peaceful Hamas organisation. Of course, even if these fabricated offences were true we know they pale into insignificance compared with the crimes against humanity being carried out by many dozens of countries around the world, but we would never dream of criticising those countries and we would love to offer our services if only they would have us.
Our letter therefore proves beyond doubt that we are all
Anti-Semitic Sanctimonious Hypocritical Old Leftist Egotistical Scumbags (ASS-HOLES)
Update: 1 March 2016. Two of the 2016 Oscar winners are officially ASS-HOLES. Mark Rylance - the Brit who won Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars - is one of the signatories of the antisemitic boycott Israel campaign. The latest list is here. And of course Jeremy Corbyn is one of his mates (is there an antisemite he is not mates with?)

MEND and Lauren Booth

If you want to be known without doubt as a group that is keen on antisemites, especially when you already have your own record in this foul field, one of the very best bets is to invite Lauren Booth to speak at one of your events.
This is what the Islamist agitation outfit MEND will do next month. She’s billed alongside failed Tory Baroness Warsi and Labour MP Naz Shah, by the way.
This is one of my favourite deranged Booth moments:
And what of the PSC’s rather too cosy relationship with the Zionist blog Harry’s Place?
I don’t think it would be, er, quite fair to characterise this blog’s “relationship” with the self-styled Palestine Solidarity Campaign as “cosy”. But when praise of the notorious antisemite and Holocaust denier Gilad Atzmon is the cause, Booth rises furiously to the occasion.
Booth has also been a big fan of another old friend of this blog, hate publisher Sameh “Organ Theft” Habeeb.

Large German university cancels BDS event with Palestinian official

Ruhr University Bochum—one of Germany’s largest public academic institutions—informed the Jerusalem Post via Twitter messages on Monday that it cancelled a slated March Boycott, Sanctions, Divestment (BDS) lecture targeting the Jewish state.
“The university management cancelled the event taking place in RUB's rooms,” wrote the university to the Post on Monday.
The Post reported on Saturday on the planned lecture from Salah Al-Khawaja, a member of the executive committee of the Palestinian National Committee BDS, who was scheduled to speak on “Palestinian civil resistance against the Israeli occupation power and settler politics as well as the Stop the Wall and BDS campaigns.”
The university notified the Post in German and English tweets about the cancellation. The German tweet provided a link to the cancellation notice posted on the university’s website.

City University of New York Takes Action in Wake of Allegations of Antisemitism on Its Campuses

The City University of New York (CUNY) is taking two measures in response to recent allegations of antisemitic activity across its campuses, The New York Post reported Monday. A letter written by CUNY to the major Jewish and pro-Israel organization that levied the allegations, obtained by The Algemeiner, describes the measures in more detail.
According to The Post, CUNY Chancellor James Milliken has ordered an independent probe into the allegations, to be undertaken by two lawyers from the firm Zuckerman Spaeder. One of these lawyers is Paul Shechtman, a former state criminal-justice director and assistant federal prosecutor. The other is Barbara Jones, a retired federal district judge and former chief assistant to the Manhattan District Attorney.
In addition, CUNY will assemble a Campus Climate Task Force, which CUNY described in its letter to the pro-Israel advocacy group Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), obtained by The Algemeiner: “We will appoint a task force of administrators, faculty and students to review the ways CUNY colleges promote a campus climate that supports a respectful exchange of ideas, identify best practices across CUNY and learn from the experiences of other universities. The task force will make recommendations for appropriate campus and University action.”

Colorado Anti-BDS Legislation Advances

On Friday, by a vote of 54-10 with one excused absence, the Colorado State House of Representatives voted to divest the state’s public pension plan (PERA) from foreign companies involved in boycotts of Israel. All 10 dissenters were Democrats, including Alec Garnett (D-Denver), who was a sponsor of the bill, and had voted in favor of it in committee.
One amendment adopted on the House floor included language indicating that US companies are already prohibited from boycotting allies, thus explaining why the bill is limited to foreign companies.
Under the bill, PERA would have until January 2017 to identify any companies boycotting Israel in which it had holdings, and to notify them of its findings. Those companies would then have 180 days to cease boycott activities, after which time PERA would divest itself of them.
The policy mirrors the Iran divestment and Sudan divestment policies already in place.

Ahead of ‘Israeli Apartheid Week,’ Clandestine Group Releases Dossiers of Anti-Israel Activists at Columbia U

A clandestine organization that documents anti-Israel campus activity last week released a detailed report on Columbia University, just as the school’s annual “Israeli Apartheid Week” was set to kick off. The report was produced in response to “numerous student requests that we urgently investigate … radical anti-Israel activity,” Canary Mission’s press release stated, claiming that “Columbia University has become a hotbed of hate, serving as a home for extreme anti-Israel and anti-American groups.”
Canary Mission’s report profiled thirty-nine of the major campus activists over the past several years, including students and professors. Many of these individuals, it noted, belong to groups such as Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP).
One undergraduate profiled, for example, is a member of both SJP and the Muslim Student Association. According to the report, she has worked to bring speakers to campus who sided with Palestinian terrorists; rejected the designation “terrorist” applied to a person convicted in US Federal Court of responsibility for deadly bombings in Israel; helped construct the mock “apartheid” wall on campus during “Israeli Apartheid Week;” and publicly denied that Jews have the right to define Judaism and Zionism for themselves.

Guardian article inadvertently demonstrates the malice of BDS

As we’ve often demonstrated, despite the best efforts of boycotters, Israel is thriving. The economic impact of BDS on the state’s economy is extremely marginal. However, not only do these facts about Israel’s success and resiliency fail to impress BDS activists, but they often seem breezily unconcerned with evidence suggesting that those most hurt by their movement are those they’re putatively attempting to help.
A recent Guardian report on the lay-offs of hundreds of Palestinians following the closure of Israeli-owned SodaStream’s West Bank factory, following a long boycott campaign, included an extraordinary quote by a BDS leader attesting to this indifference.
Mahmoud Nawajaa, the BDS coordinator in the West Bank town of Ramallah, called the loss of the Palestinian jobs at SodaStream “part of the price that should be paid in the process of ending the occupation”. He called on the Palestinian Authority to do more to find jobs for the workers.
Nawajaa’s reaction to the loss of hundreds of well-paying Palestinian jobs speaks volumes about the malice and ideological extremism of his movement. The real-world impact of their campaign on the lives of actual Palestinians seems to make no difference to them whatsoever.

Islamic group probed by FBI sent money to Australia to finance Monash Uni scholarship

AN Islamic organisation investigated by the FBI for terrorism links sent money to Australia to finance a Monash University scholarship and invited a respected University of Melbourne lecturer to speak at its conference.
The International Institute of Islamic Thought, founded by the Muslim Brotherhood, was raided by US authorities in 2002 and former personnel have previously been linked to Palestinian Islamic Jihad and Hamas.

Anti-Zionists to hold ‘Nakba’ film festival in Haifa next week

The anti-Zionist and ultra-leftist organization Zochrot prepare for their “Nakba” Film Festival at Haifa’s Cinematheque, with the goal of embedding the Palestinian “catastrophic exoduses” as part of Israeli dialogue.
The festival is set to begin on Friday despite strong objections by the mayor of Haifa who specified that the festival will not be funded by the cinema, but solely by the movement itself.
Despite fundamental objections by the mayor and by the Minister of Culture MK Miri Regev (Likud) of any government-funded cultural institutions - such as the cinematheque - hosting “Nakba” events, the film festival is still due to take place on Friday.
As the event nears, members of the Likud Youth Movement prepare to demonstrate in protest stating that "The sole purpose of the festival is to change the consciousness of the general Israeli public, and in particular the people of Haifa, by promoting ‘Nakba’ and not the independence and the establishment of our state, and the Palestinian ‘right of return’ which undermines those who fought for the legitimate concept of this right for Jews in Israeli society."

NY Times's Erlanger Absolves Dahlan, Boosts Barghouti, and Ignores Abbas's Incitementc

Downplaying Terror
The article doesn't only downplay inciting comments by Abbas. Erlanger also minimizes the link between contenders for Abbas's crown and anti-Israel terrorism.
In a passage about Muhammad Dahlan's financial support for "Fatah's militant wing, the Tanzim," Erlanger writes that the group "has sometimes clashed with the security forces." This may be true. But it is equally true that the Tanzim has targeted and murdered Israeli civilians.
This is true according to The New York Times itself, which in 2002 reported, "Rather than attacking just soldiers and settlers — the stated policy of their political leaders — Fatah fighters, known as Tanzim, are blowing themselves up among civilians within the boundaries of pre-1967 Israel, just like fighters from Hamas."
Among the Tanzim's victims is Ofir Rahum, a 16-year-old Israeli boy lured to his death in 2001 by a Palestinian posing online as a potential romantic partner.
And as a 2002 report in The New York Times noted, "nine ultra-Orthodox Jews, including six children, from a few months old to 15, were killed by a suicide bomber in Jerusalem" by an attacker Israel determined was affiliated with the Tanzim.
Erlanger again mitigates terror links when he introduces Marwan Barghouti, a man "sometimes called the Palestinian Mandela for his long period in an Israeli prison and his efforts to bring Hamas and Fatah together."
Who exactly it is that calls Barghouti "the Palestinian Mandela" is not specified in the article. Surely, though, it not Israeli leaders. Nor is it the families of those murdered at Barghouti's behest.
Although the reporter does later note that Barghouti is "serving five consecutive life terms for murder," readers are likely to view the conviction with skepticism after Erlanger went out of his way to compare Barghouti to the hero of the anti-Apartheid struggle.

Subconscious Bias in The Guardian? Surely Not…

An article on the so-called Israeli “culture wars” in The Guardian refers to:
the rightwing extra-paramilitary political group Im Tirtzu
The dictionary definition of paramilitary is “relating to, being, or characteristic of a force formed on a military pattern especially as a potential auxiliary military force.”
The right-wing pressure group Im Tirtzu may have gained a reputation for controversy and even offense in some of its campaigns. Its members, however, are certainly not armed and do not engage in any paramilitary activities.
Given that Im Tirtzu does describe itself as an “extra-parliamentary political group,” it’s likely that The Guardian’s description of Im Tirtzu was the result of a copy-writing error.

Reviewing BBC News coverage of internal Palestinian affairs

The BBC’s interpretation of what “the story” is about is of course very limited and its coverage focuses overwhelmingly on the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. Although the conflict is clearly just one story among many in the region, only very occasionally do audiences see stand-alone reports about Palestinian affairs which are not framed within that context and do not have an Israel-related component.
Insight into internal Palestinian politics which would enhance audiences’ comprehension of Palestinian society (as well as the conflict) is relatively rare in BBC coverage. Reporting on social and human rights issues within Palestinian society is even more scarce and thus BBC audiences see a blinkered and largely one-dimensional view of Palestinian life.
For example, news of a legislator threatened with arrest holed up in a parliament building would surely have made BBC headlines were the story in any other location.
Despite having an office in Ramallah, the BBC has elected not to cover that story – and many others – to date.

Police probing months-old anti-Semitic incidents at Boston school

A suburban Boston middle school is investigating two anti-Semitic incidents there from months ago that were only reported to police last week.
The incidents at the F.A. Day Middle School in Newton, Massachusetts, occurred in October and January, according to the Newton Tab. Superintendent David Fleishman and Mayor Setti Warren in a joint letter to the community on Friday noted the late reporting to law enforcement.
Newton Police spokesman Lt. Bruce Apotheker told the Tab in an email statement that police were “forwarded an anonymous letter” on February 22 informing them of the incidents. He said the police are working with the school administration.
School principal Brian Turner said in a letter to parents on Thursday that the incidents are being investigated by police and school officials.

KKK Leader Thanks Jewish Man for Saving His Life After Violence Erupts at White Supremacist Rally

A Ku Klux Klan leader thanked a Jewish man for pushing him out of harm’s way during a violent confrontation between KKK activists and anti-KKK protesters in California on Saturday, the Los Angeles Times reported.
The fight began after half a dozen Klan members arrived at Pearson Park in Anaheim, where they were scheduled to hold a rally. Several dozen protesters, waiting for the Klansmen at the site, immediately confronted them when they arrived, according to the LA Times.
Brian Levin — director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino — was at the scene trying to interview the KKK ringleader, whom he identified as William Quigg, when the violence broke out. Levin, who is Jewish, said he was standing next to Quigg when a crowd of angry demonstrators swarmed around the Klan members. Levin pushed the Klan leader away from the mob.
Levin said he then asked Quigg, “How do you feel that a Jewish guy just saved your life?”
“Thank you,” replied Quigg, whose organization is known for its white supremacist and antisemitic views.

Netflix buys ‘The Greenhouse’ from Israel’s Yes network

The latest Israeli television program to be picked up by an American media company is the award-winning teen drama The Greenhouse (HaChamama in Hebrew) created by Giora Chamizer from Nickelodeon and Yes.
This is the first Israeli show to be purchased by Netflix, according to the Israeli news site Globes. It will be released for streaming in 2017.
Nutz Productions, a subsidiary of Ananey Communications – which airs Viacom channels including MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon, and Nick Junior in Israel — will handle production of the American version of the show under Chamizer. The series will be filmed on the shores of the Sea of Galilee as is the Israeli version, though the fictional setting is to be Southern California.
Netflix recently began offering its subscription services in the Israeli market.

Netanyahu tells African envoys: This will mark Israel’s return to continent

Over the last two months Netanyahu has met in Jerusalem with the president of Kenya, who was here last week and extended an invitation to visit, and the foreign minister of Rwanda. Ghana’s foreign minister is scheduled to arrive later this month, as is Ethiopia’s deputy prime minister.
Netanyahu said that Israel was formulating an “Africa strategy,” and that Israel and Africa’s rediscovery “should have happened a long time ago. It’s happening now because it’s so clear that this is good for Africa and it’s good for Israel. We face a multitude of challenges and opportunities.”
The prime minister said that he would like to see “the closeness of our relationships reflected also in the voting pattern of the African Union.
“I would like to eventually get to that point with the African Union, because you should vote for the interests of your own countries and you should vote for the interests of Africa,” he said. “And I have no doubt whatsoever that today the interests of Africa and the interests of Israel cohere.
They’re almost identical, and in some respects... and in many respects they are identical. So, I want to see that reflected in our bilateral relationship and also in our multilateral relationship.”
The strongest common interest, he said, was to defeat Islamist extremism.

Apple takes a bite out of Israel's high tech scene

The technology giant has quietly created a hardware development center in Israel, where engineers are crafting top-secret future products; it has so far invested $1.2 billion in Israel and continue to eagerly recruit new Israeli employees.
The conference room where Johny Srouji meets us overlooks the landscape of the hi-tech buildings of Herzliya Pituach. Laid out on the white table, as if in an intricate military ceremony, are the most glittering gadgets Apple released last year: iPhone 6s, iPhone 6s Plus, iPad Pro and the new MacBook computer - aligned side by side, spaced accurately.
Steve Jobs, Apple's late founder, who was known for his obsessive zeal for aesthetics, would probably be proud. "Apple's core values dating from Jobs’ period remain unchanged to this day," Srouji tells us. "Value number one at Apple is to provide customers with products that enrich their lives, and the best way to do this is by using a beautiful design, the best hardware and the best software. We possess mastery over all these areas, thus providing the best experience. This is what makes us unique."

Universal flu vaccine is world health game-changer

Universal flu vaccine is world health game-changer
Israeli company Biondvax has developed a flu vaccine that can be used to vaccinate against every type of flu, including deadly strains like bird and swine flu.
Is flu about to be eradicated once and for all? Dr. Ron Babecoff, the CEO and founder of Israeli company BiondVax, which has patented a vaccine with potential to banish every strain of flu, certainly thinks so.
“If somebody once thought it would be impossible to eradicate the flu, we are living proof that dreams can be realized,” he tells ISRAEL21c.
Vax, the world’s most advanced company in universal flu vaccine research. The Ness Ziona-based company is in late Phase 2 clinical trials and recently announced that Israel’s National Authority for Technological Innovation will fund up to 40 percent of a $920,000 project towards ongoing development of the vaccine.

IsraellyCool: Gloria Gaynor’s Incredible Words In Support Of Israel

A few days ago I posted about singer Gloria Gaynor expressing how honored she felt to be receiving the Martin Luther King award from Ido Aharoni, Israel’s Consul General in New York, which was to occur on the weekend.
But look at what she has posted (twice) since receiving it.

What an unspeakable honor to be presented the Martin Luther King, Jr. Award by Consul General of Israel, Ido Aharoni today at my home church. I fell in love with Israel the first time I went there. Now to receive a peace award from a nation that personifies peace in the midst of a raging storm is more humbling than words can express. I am eternally grateful.

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