04/25 Links Pt2: The Jewish story is under assault; Marc Lamont Hill – How many must die for academic boycott of Israel? ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Vic Rosenthal: The answer to globalized Jew-hatred

Israel’s public behavior needs to change. Our officials need to understand that neither the Arabs nor the West accept the existence of a Jewish state in the Middle East. They did not accept it in 1948, they do not today and they will not tomorrow. This is not based on a rational calculation of interests; it is a result of deeply felt anti-Zionism, which is globalized Jew-hatred. Our adoption of Western humanist values to an even greater degree than the West itself is never enough for them; and the Arabs rightly hold us in contempt.
Therefore there is no point in trying to hold off the pressure from the US and Europe by making concessions to the Arabs, on the grounds that these minor retreats aren’t dangerous and will make us look good. We cannot ‘look good’ to those who hate us, and the demands for concessions will never end.
There is no point in behaving humanely to those who would behave toward us as the Islamic State does in Syria, if we let down our guard. There is no point in giving up our honor as the owners of Jerusalem and the Temple Mount in order to keep the Arabs quiet. And there will be no point in not using artillery and air power, including even tactical nuclear weapons if appropriate, to shut down the missiles from southern Lebanon.
Zionism indeed changes the odds and makes it possible for the Jewish people to stand up and fight, and to win. But to realize the change we must use the power of our state and our army.
The world will not understand the need for a Jewish state, no matter how we behave. But it can be made to understand that there is one and that it will fight fiercely and without quarter against anyone that tries to destroy it.

The Jewish story is under assault

Last week, as Jews around the world prepared for Passover, the war against the Jewish people and its story — against the meaning of Passover itself — took a particularly ugly turn. A UNESCO resolution, sponsored by seven Arab countries, denounced Israel for supposed violations of Muslim rights to prayer on the site that Muslims call the Haram el Sharif and Jews call the Temple Mount. The resolution ignores the fact that the Israeli government enforces a ban on Jewish prayer at the holy site, granting Muslims exclusive right to pray there. Worse, the resolution implicitly denies the Jewish connection to the area by never actually using the term Temple Mount (only Haram el Sharif). It does refer to the Western Wall, but places that label in quotation marks while leaving the Muslim equivalent, Al Buraq, intact, as though that were the only authentic name.
Reading the resolution, one could conclude that there was no ancient Jewish temple on the Temple Mount, that the Mount isn't the holiest site in Judaism, that the Western Wall isn't the heart of Jewish prayer. One could conclude, therefore, that the Jews living in Israel today have no historic claim to the land, passed down through generations. Of all the attempts to destroy us throughout our history, the campaign against history itself is the most devious.
Passover suggests this definition of the Jews: We are a story we tell ourselves about who we think we are. The current assault on the Jewish story is so dangerous precisely because it strikes at that core idea.

Meet the godfather of Israeli experts on international law and war crimes

When the second intifada broke out full force, then-IDF chief of staff Lt.-Gen. Shaul Mofaz signed the order, stating that an armed conflict now existed. “On that day we went to war with the Palestinians, and I think in retrospect, we were right,” said Reisner.
Regarding where international law should go from here and how equipped it is to deal with fighting asymmetric warfare, Reisner has some nuanced views.
On the one hand, he expressed frustrations with what he views as randomness in what does and does not get on the banned-weapons list once you go beyond biological and chemical weapons.
He also said that the law of proportionality, deciding what attacks are permissible, is far too vague to be useful, and leads to experts on different sides talking past each other.
On the other hand, he does not think it is realistic for Israel to make an open push to change the rules.
“Any idea Israel comes up with will be converted, subverted and diverted by other elements. It’s not that I don’t think that international law has problems. It has a lot of problems.
But because of Israel’s complex diplomatic position, I don’t think it’s realistic that Israel could lead a change in international law that would make sense.”

The Self-Contradictory Liberals

Many liberals -- not least the large numbers of students involved in campus demonizations of Israel, Jews, white people and other supposed public enemies -- are morally and politically confused, not to say profoundly selective and bigoted, often in direct contradiction to their own expressed principles of peace, tolerance, diversity, and multiculturalism.
These liberals repeatedly contradict their own ideals, not least when it comes to free speech, Israel, the Middle East, Islam, and the rights of Muslim women. Many self-declared liberals behave much as did the Nazis of the early years of the Third Reich.
It would appear that, whatever Israelis and their government do may be dismissed as mere "whitewashing" to cover Israel's original "sin" of being Jewish.
Using an abusive form of political correctness and insisting on an absolutist version of multiculturalism, many devotees of liberalism often betray the ideals for which earlier human rights activists, feminists, anti-racists, and freedom fighters fought and even gave their lives.
Amnesty International, a left-wing non-governmental organization (NGO) put its pro-Muslim politics above women's rights -- a remarkable step for the world's best-known human rights agency.

Michael Lumish: Daily Kos and the hatred for "Zionists"

The genealogy of this blog ultimately goes to Daily Kos.
I started my blogging career on Daily Kos maybe ten years ago. At some point I left and became a front-pager on Maryscott O'Connor's now defunct My Left Wing. After My Left Wing proved itself comfy-cozy with anti-Semitic anti-Zionism I faded out and basically started up this joint.
But in truth, I owe many Daily Kos people and many My Left Wing people a debt of thanks for teaching me that the western-left is entirely comfortable defaming not only Israel, but "Zionists" (by whom they largely mean Jews).
The first thing that any progressive-left Jewish person needs to understand is that their own political movement does not care in the least about the well-being of the Jewish people who they conceive of as privileged and white. Hard-right anti-Semitic conservatism, of the David Duke variety, is irrelevant in the United States today. Anti-Semitism in the United States is primarily a left-wing phenomenon and it is instructive to read what the grassroots political people say about Israel and "Zionists" at places like Daily Kos, the Huffington Post, and the Guardian.
A recent piece by someone who goes under the name of "bobdevo" is illustrative.

ZOA Criticizes Biden’s Violating His Pledge by His Ludicrous Public Criticism of PM Netanyahu

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has criticized Vice-President Joseph Biden’s attack on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his government in a speech he delivered to the the extremist anti-Israel J Street group.
Biden violated his own “Biden Doctrine” pledge, and warning he announced at the 2001 ZOA Brandeis Dinner in Philadelphia in November 2001. Biden then, chastised the Bush Administration for publicly criticizing Israel, which endangered Israel by emboldening its enemies dedicated to its destruction. Biden (D-Delaware) stated, “Why is it that the one ally [Israel] we have in that part of the world, that we have the right to publicly chastise them? We would not do that with any other friend… As much as the Middle East is always on our minds, the best thing we can do is keep it off the US and world press. Such criticism emboldens those in the Middle East and around the world who still harbor as their sacred goal, the elimination of Israel… It is not for you [The Bush Administration] to tell them [Israel], nor for me, what is in their best interests. We should give them the right to determine what chances they will take.” (Melissa Radler, “Biden says Israel, US should not argue publicly,” Jerusalem Post, November 6, 2001).
The ZOA is urging an explanation from VP Biden as to why he so visibly violated his important pledge – moreover, in a speech to a Soros-funded group hostile to Israel. Why shouldn’t Biden’s Doctrine apply to himself and Obama as well the Bush administration he chastised?
In his speech, Vice-President Biden said that “I firmly believe that the actions that Israel’s government has taken over the past several years –– the steady and systematic expansion of settlements, the legalization of outposts, land seizures –– they’re moving us, and, more importantly, they’re moving Israel in the wrong direction.”
The Vice-President Biden ignored the Palestinian Authority (PA)’s anti-peace acts. He also indulged in political partisanship when he expressed the hope that the Israeli opposition would return to power, in Jerusalem. If an Israeli Prime Minister or Deputy Prime Minister were to say this publicly in respect to the U.S. political scene, that person would be roundly condemned for doing so.

Poll: Most Israelis think any of the candidates would be better for Israel than Obama

Most Israelis think the next US president — whoever that may be — will be better for Israel than Barack Obama has been, and while a majority would prefer to see Democratic candidate Sen. Hillary Clinton in the White House over Republican candidate Donald Trump, most believe Trump would get along better with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, according to a poll released on Sunday.
The survey, conducted by TNS for Channel 1 television, found 51 percent of respondents believed that any one of the current presidential candidates would be better for the Jewish state than Obama, while 26% felt there would be no change. Eight percent said the next US president would be worse than Obama and 15% said they did not know whether the US-Israel rapport would be better or worse.
Asked who they think will win the elections, 39% of respondents saw a Clinton win, 30% said Trump, with just 3% pointing to Democrat Sen. Bernie Sanders and 1% each for Ted Cruz and John Kasich. Sixteen percent said they didn’t know.
As for which of the leading candidates, Trump or Clinton, would be better for Israel, 42% said Clinton, with Trump trailing behind at 34%. The rest did not have an opinion.
While a majority (68%) held a more favorable view of Clinton, more believed a president Trump would get along better with Netanyahu.

AJC castigates Sanders for comparing Baltimore to West Bank

Jewish organization questions why senator raised Palestinian infant mortality in comments on poverty in Maryland’s largest city
“What do the serious issues Baltimore’s leadership and population are confronting have to do with daily Palestinian life in the West Bank?” asked AJC chief executive David Harris in a statement issued Monday.
“Inserting the Israeli-Palestinian conflict into unrelated American political discourse serves only one purpose, to encourage those who are narrowly focused on assailing Israel for any shortcomings, failings by the Palestinian Authority,” Harris said.
Harris noted that according to CIA statistics, “infant mortality in the West Bank, at 13.08 deaths per 1,000 live births, actually compares favorably to most of the developing world.”
He added: “Turkey’s rate is 18.87, Brazil’s is 18.60, and Iran’s is 38.04. The US infant mortality rate, at 5.87, is far from where it should be, behind the United Kingdom, at 4.38, Australia at 4.37, France at 3.28, and Israel at 3.55.”
Harris noted that “life expectancy in the West Bank, according to the CIA World Factbook, exceeds that of Egypt and Jordan, not to mention many other countries.”

Analysis: Bernie and ‘Palestine’ — a Tale of Inconsistency and Confusion

On Saturday, presidential hopeful Bernie Sanders compared poverty in Baltimore, MD, among other places, to “the West Bank in Palestine.” He said, according to the quote in Real Politics (Bernie spoke in a huge auditorium with terrible acoustics), “Two [neighborhoods in Baltimore] have a higher infant mortality rate than the West Bank in Palestine…”
It was a curious choice of words on many levels: first, just judging by the coverage of the Israeli-Arab conflict in recent years, there’s no doubt the folks in “the West Bank in Palestine” are faring much better than their brethren under the Hamas independent government in Gaza, where the choice to build down (terror tunnels) rather than up (restore collapsed apartment buildings) has made everyday life a living hell. Second, the phrase “the West Bank in Palestine” is dubious. Is it the west bank of a larger political body that’s named Palestine? Then where would Israel be on Bernie’s map? And if the candidate meant to say, “the West bank of Palestine,” once again, where would all the other parts of “Palestine” be on his map?
The solution to this puzzle is, of course, that Bernie Sanders was using “West Bank” the way he does “North Korea,” a place of great poverty and oppression, something akin to India a few decades ago, when American children who didn’t finish their vegetables were asked to think about “all the children in India.”
The fact that Sanders is using “West Bank of Palestine” as a casual reference, one that requires no deliberation or proof, the proverbial place of poor people, suggests that the greatly inaccurate comparison between Black poverty in Baltimore and Arab poverty in Judea and Samaria is a well ingrained worldview of the Senator, rather than a fact-based observation.

Listen: Comic Jackie Mason skewers Bernie Sanders on Israel stance

Jewish funnyman Jackie Mason took US Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to task Sunday for recent comments the Vermont senator made about Israel.
Speaking in an interview with Aaron Klein Investigative Radio, set to air Sunday on New York's AM 970 The Answer and NewsTalk 990 AM in Philadelphia, Mason took umbrage with Sanders' contention that Israel had used "disproportionate" force during Operation Protective Edge in summer 2014, and with his inflation of the death toll in Gaza during the conflict.
"Here’s a Jew from Brooklyn who never even saw a gentile till he was 28. Obviously, this man has a very, very big sickness. There’s something about being Jewish that makes him self-conscious and nervous. And he has to prove to himself and to the country that he doesn’t favor Israel in any way," Mason said.
Mason, a staunch Israel supporter, claimed that Sanders is "so determined that he’ll tell any lie about Israel that he can think of to say to you: ‘Do you see that? This is proof that I don’t pay for Israel. The fact that I want every Israeli to drop dead for me to prove a point doesn’t matter. If they all get wiped out, it’s not my business. The main thing is that I’m not favoring Israel.’"

EU Calls for Labelling Bernie Sanders as Jewish (satire)

In a move that has outraged Jewish groups throughout the United States, the European Union has called for Democratic Presidential candidate Bernie Sanders to be clearly labelled as “Jewish.”
“We feel that many voters are unaware of Bernie’s true identity,” one high-ranking EU official said yesterday in a statement. “Senator Sanders will have to wear a mark of some sort to signify that he is, in fact, Jewish,” the official continued. “It’s not that we’re being anti-Semitic, it’s just that we want voters to have all the facts when they’re making their decision.”
“This is deplorable”, a spokesman for the Anti-Defamation League said in a statement. “Senator Ted Cruz will not require a label signifying that he was made in Canada. This is an unfair double standard.”
Many college students and professors have gotten behind the movement known as DBS, or “Destroy Bernie Sanders.” “Bernie Sanders’ campaign is built on the backs of the 1%,” a sophomore at Dartmouth University told reporters from his campus safe space. “We feel that the electorate should know all the facts about him before supporting such a candidate.”

Imam Who Threatened Ayaan Hirsi Ali with Death for Apostasy Led Interfaith Service After Paris Attacks

A Pennsylvania imam who was fired last year by the Bureau of Prisons for his claims that author and Harvard lecturer Ayaan Hirsi Ali deserved to be killed under Islamic law for apostatizing from Islam recently led an interfaith prayer service after the ISIS attacks in Paris last November.
Fouad ElBayly, the imam at the Islamic Center of Johnstown, led the Nov. 21 prayer event, where he said:
The Islamic Center of Johnstown and all the Muslim communities in our region condemn the evil doing of the people who carried out that terrible attack against innocent people.
This is similar to the statements he made at a March 2002 prayer service for the 9/11 victims on United Flight 93, which crashed in Shanksville, PA, not far from ElBayly's mosque:
Imam Fouad El Bayly of the Islamic Center of Johnstown and Somerset asked people to be tolerant. He said the Muslim extremists who hijacked the plane also hijacked the Islamic faith.
"In the name of God, in the name of peace, in the name of brotherhood, in the name of mankind, let there be peace," he said. "We cannot condemn a nation, a religion, for the acts of a few."
But peace and tolerance are are apparently hard concepts for ElBayly to follow himself.

Question for @MarcLamontHill – How many must die for academic boycott of Israel?

Marc Lamont Hill is a professor at Morehouse College and a frequent TV Commentator. He also is coming out with a new book soon on social justice in the U.S.
Lamont Hill also is a big supporter of the “Ferguson to Palestine” movement which uses the doctrine of intersectionality to connect Israel to inner city and racial problem in the U.S. The only majority Jewish state in the world is held out as the connecting force of evil in the world.
The American Anthropological Association boycott will be mostly symbolic (like that of other groups like the American Studies Association). So perhaps it’s viewed as a no-risk easy ideological and political choice for Lamont Hill and others AAA members. But if they support the BDS academic boycott of Israel for one field of study, they necessarily advance the boycott in all fields of study since BDS makes no exceptions for medical research. The academic boycott is the academic boycott, in for one field, in for all.
Which raises a question I tweeted to Lamont Hill. Since the Technion-NYU cancer research project would be banned under the academic boycott guidelines, How Many People Must Die for BDS?
Based on past Twitter interactions with Lamont Hill and his various writings, I believe he is sincere in his beliefs. But he is sincerely wrong, and needs to answer the question whether The Technion – NYU joint cancer research should be canceled, and if so, how many people must die for BDS.

Maajid Nawaz: Malia Bouattia is symbolic of the poison of the regressive Left

I too have lived a life of racism, anger and grievance. Does the fact that I’m not frothing at the mouth about it make me any less Muslim, or any less an ethnic-minority? Are only those who choose to allow their hate to define themselves Muslim enough, or black enough?
The regressive-Left sedative of victimhood encourages a perpetual state of opposition to society, which in turn stifles aspiration, tempers expectations and - because we Muslims have our own culture – only increases self-segregation and ghettoization. There is a natural fear among the Left that challenging Islamist extremism can only aid Europe’s populist Right. But the alternative must not be instead to empower Islamist ideologues, or far-Left proto-fascists. There is a way to challenge both those who want to impose Islam and those who wish to ban Islam. The militant politics of identity over humanity, division over discussion and violence over peace should concern not only Jews, but Muslims and everyone else, too.
History has shown us what happens when angry activists consumed by a sense of a monopoly on injustice shift too far to the left. A black mirror of their struggle emerges on the far-right, breeding nothing but mutual hostility, street-thuggery and, eventually, fascism.
But if the regressive-Left has its way, why worry about medieval punishments conducted in Islam’s name? As they would have it: Let us not become the Uncle Tom that Malcolm X became. Israel is the real enemy, after all.
Let’s keep it real, man. (h/t Alexi)

New UK student leader denies anti-Semitism, racism but still backs Palestinian terrorism

The op-ed, entitled “I’m the new NUS president – and no, I’m not an antisemitic Isis sympathiser,” itself contained a link to incendiary remarks encouraging Palestinian violence and rejecting the definition of such violence as terrorism, which she delivered in September 2014 at a conference on “Gaza and the Palestinian Revolution.”
In that address, Bouattia protested that in “mainstream Zionist-led media outlets… resistance is presented as an act of terrorism” and complained that this has “become an accepted discourse amongst too many.”
Also in the speech, Bouattia expressed concern that “the notion of resistance has been perhaps washed out of our understanding of how colonized people will obtain their physical emancipation.”
Bouattia said it was a “very strange contradiction” to support nonviolence and the liberation of the Palestinians. “Internalized Islamophobia has also enabled our obsession with convincing non-Muslims of our non-violent and peaceful nature, so that we’re taking things a step further and dangerously condemning the resistance, branding groups and individuals as terrorists to dissociate from them, but at the same time supporting their liberation which is a very strange contradiction,” she said.

Edgar Davidson: The real lesson of Malia's antisemitism that everybody is missing

For all those (including especially British Jews) demanding unlimited immigration from Muslim countries, imagine millions more like Malia - only less educated and more extreme - in positions of power. This is the future of the UK. No matter how well educated and secular they are, it seems immigrants (and their children) from Muslim countries can NEVER shake off their sense of Islamic supremacism (which includes contempt for Christianity) and most of all their antisemitism. It is in their bones.
And, of course, like all leftists Malia is a Palestinianist.

Harvard educates Tzipi Livni on anti-Semitism 101

Turns out that left-leaning Israelis, or Jews from anywhere, get no favors and no special dispensation when traveling abroad.
No hugs no matter how many times they are prepared to further the “peace process.”
No kisses no matter how many times they are prepared the split the land for a “two state solution” as a reward for Arabs knifing Israeli civilians.
Tzipi Livni, once Israel’s foreign minister and cabinet member of the past, and still among the strongest voices of the Israeli left, found that out the hard way.
Or to be exact, she found it out the Harvard way, because it was at Harvard some days ago that someone, during a Q and A session, asked her about her being “a smelly Jew,” which shocked everybody who does not know what’s going on at campus these days, but surprised nobody who knows the score.

Husam El-Qoulaq. The local angle

The Harvard Law Record took an unprecedented step by closing comments on an article regarding the incident, to prevent El-Qoulaq from being identified.
Why is Harvard bending over backwards to protect the identity of Husam El-Qoulaq? Is his family major donors?
The local angle? There's always a local angle.
Husam El-Qoulaq graduated with a degree in peace and conflict studies from UC Berkeley, and served a stint as a volunteer commissioner on the City of Berkeley's foreign policy body, the Peace and Justice Commission.
Interestingly, his Linked in profile (since deleted) fraudulently implies he served on the Berkeley City Council. It is not known if he also misrepresented his status in his application to the Harvard law school.
Incidentally, the Fair Political Practices Commission in Sacramento, California sent El-Qoulaq a warning letter for failing to disclose his economic interests after leaving the Berkeley commission.

Labour activist suspended for saying Israel uses Holocaust as ‘a political tool’

Labour has suspended a party member who posted a Facebook status claiming the Holocaust was “a political tool” used by Israel.
John McAuliffe, who writes for online publications and says he is a foreign affairs specialist, claimed Israel had established “a financial racket in the West”.
In the online post he wrote: “The Holocaust has been the most useful political tool of the Zionist government in Israel to establish a financial racket in the West, whereby Israel receives an unlimited sum for the duration of its existence.
“The large level of poverty in Israel among Holocaust survivors shows they don’t care about the emotional impact they are trying to generate.
“It is about money and military technology. This further paints a clearer picture of the divide between Zionism and Judaism, and their incompatibility.”
It is not clear when Mr McAuliffe posted the comments, but a Labour spokeswoman confirmed today that he had been suspended from the party pending an investigation.
He is the latest in a line of party activists and members to face investigation for antisemitic comments.

Daphne Anson: Septic Mondoweiss Plumbs New Depths

As this writer has pointed out on the Daphne Anson blog before, the anti-Israel and anti-Zionist website "Mondoweiss" functions as a kind of general septic tank or cesspit to collect and publish virtually any kind of posting that is hostile to Israel's policies or its existence.
Many readers have questioned whether it is antisemitic as well, especially as (needless to say) it does not apply the same standards to any Arab or Islamic regime that it applies to Israel, and virtually whitewashes Muslim and Palestinian terrorism and violence.
As I pointed out in a recent posting here, many of the "Comments" it prints by readers are almost certainly antisemitic by any standard, and the site makes no effort to delete them, despite its stated policy of doing so.
Two recent postings on the "Mondoweiss" site have been so extreme that Daphne's readers should be told about them.
1) The first (11 April 2016) was by Nada Elia, described as a "Palestinian scholar-activist," and is entitled "As Threats Against BDS Grow, It Is Time for 'Sumoud' in Activist Communities". ("Sumoud" is defined as "the persistence of the Palestinian people.") Reviewing the history of Zionism, the author states that
"Close to a century ago, in November 1917, British Lord Rothschild promised Palestine as a 'national homeland' for (Europe's unwanted) Jewish communities. The rest is a history of US and Europe-sponsored settler-colonialism, genocide, and apartheid..."

IsraellyCool: My Expose On Antisemitic Professor Paavo Kinnunen Makes It To Finnish Press

Remember Paavo Kinnunen, the Finnish professor who was professing his hatred of Jewish people? My expose on him was brought to the attention of his employer Aalto University, which did nothing beyond distancing themselves from his comments and asking him to reiterate that his postings reflected his own views only.
Maybe this will change now that the story has made it to the Finnish press: Firstly in this Church paper, and then in the regular media.
Meanwhile, a look at his Facebook page reveals he seems to be trying to be more careful to leave his antipathy for Jews out of his Israel-bashing. In fact, he has made a concerted effort to quote Jews where possible (but just those he can tolerate).

Real Palestinians tire of bloody Intifada, as BDS chickenhawks cheer it on

The suicide bombing campaign of the Second Intifada killed almost one thousand Israeli civilians, and led to the construction of the security barrier. That security barrier (maliciously called the “Apartheid Wall” by groups like Students for Justice in Palestine and Jewish Voice for Peace) is now the focus of protests because it is more important to BDS supporters that Palestinians have unfettered access to kill Jews.
The current wave of terror, sometimes called the Third Intifada, the Knife Intifada, or the Stabbing Intifada) is not as bloody as the Second Intifada (yet) because knives can’t kill as many people as bombs. But that may be changing, as a bus was bombed just a few days ago. It was not immediately known if the bomb was planted or a suicide bombing. Police just released the identify of the bomber, who died in the suicide bombing. His family celebrated his death and handed out candies.
Why do BDS activists chant “Long Live the Intifada”? Because they are chickenhawks.
How easy to sit back at UT-Austin, or one of the U. California campuses, or any of the other campuses where such chants are heard and cheer on the suffering of people half a world away. It transforms their uninspiring coddled Western lives into something heroic — they get to feel that they are fighting for “Palestine” without risking a knife to the neck or a bullet to the head or nails from a suicide bomb to the abdomen.
An interesting thing happened on the way to “Long Live the Intifada” — actual Palestinians, not the Western wannabees, grew tired of it.

Jewish Rights Advocate: ‘BDS Making a Laughing Stock out of the American Studies Association’

Kenneth Marcus, president and general counsel of the the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, made his comments in the wake of a recent suit filed by his company on behalf of a group of distinguished ASA professors and members who are suing the academic body for its boycott of Israel. The ASA — a scholarly organization devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history –passed a boycott resolution in December 2013 which, according to the Brandeis Center, “was a concerted effort by a small number of BDS activists…who used their leadership positions in ASA to make anti-Israel activism the central focus of the association.”
The lawsuit maintains that the “ASA’s blatant politicization of an academic association violates District of Columbia (DC) law governing nonprofit organizations.” As a tax-exempt organization, the ASA’s stated mission of being “devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history” is being violated by the organization’s adoption of a boycott against Israel, according to the Brandeis Center.
“In a short period of time, the ASA managed to get its long-honored institution dragged through the mud, castigated by dozens of university presidents and countless other groups,” Marcus told The Algemeiner. “The cost of this is born not so much by the state of Israel as by the state of American scholarship and especially the state of American studies.”

BBC News’ double standards on terror surface again

Just two days after it managed to produce coverage of a terror attack on a Jerusalem bus without making use of the word terror, the BBC News website did find a use for that word.
An article appearing on the website’s Middle East page on April 20th was headlined “Israel arrests six members of ‘Jewish terror cell‘” and the same terminology was employed in the report’s opening lines.Shin Bet arrests art
“Israel’s security agency says it has arrested six West Bank settlers who were members of a “Jewish terror cell”.”
Later on readers were told that:
“The suspects were connected to members of another ring of Jewish extremists who had recently been apprehended and accused of a series of attacks on Palestinian and Christian targets, according to the security agency.”
This is of course not the first example of the BBC’s use of terms such as terror and extremists to describe Israelis – even though it consistently avoids such language when reporting on Palestinian terror and regularly employs euphemisms such as “resistance group” to describe the designated terrorist organisation Hamas.

German party seeks to end circumcisions and ritual slaughter

A populist, right-wing political party in Germany has published its platform, in which its intention to ban circumcision and halal and kosher slaughter is laid out.
The AfD Party (Alternative for Germany, Alternative für Deutschland) has become one of Europe's most talked about phenomena in recent months and has achieved unprecedented achievements in recent regional elections in the country.
Against the background of the waves of populist protests throughout Europe, and particularly the immigrant crisis that is plaguing the continent and Germany in particular, the nationalist right-wing party won increasing support from large parts of the German public.
AfD wages a strict policy against Islam, and rides on the waves of fear from the Muslim immigration to Germany. In an exclusive interview granted by the party chairman, Frauke Petry, to Yedioth Ahronoth three weeks ago, she came out against anti-Semitism, and attacked critics of Israel.

Under the hammer: Taft’s 1916 letter against pick of 1st Jewish Supreme Court justice Brandeis

A biting, 100-year-old letter penned by former US president William Howard Taft in opposition to the nomination of America's first Jewish Supreme Court justice, Louis Brandeis, is due to be auctioned on Thursday.
Taft's letter was dated January 31, 1916, just two days after then-US president Woodrow Wilson tapped Brandeis for the prestigious position.
The Nate D. Sanders Auctions in Los Angeles is set to launch the online auction of the four-page letter Taft wrote to Washington-based Jewish journalist Gus J. Karger. Bidding on the item is due to start at $15,000.
Taft, who apparently felt slighted after being passed over for the vacant Supreme Court post, is considered to have been the most prominent public figure to oppose Brandeis' nomination.
While historians have suggested that much of the opposition to the nomination of Brandeis to the court was based on anti-Semitism, the auction house has painted the historical document as an "anti-Semitic letter."
In what is said to be one of the first letters in which the 27th US president and 10th US Supreme Court chief justice voiced his fierce objection to the appointment, Taft lashed out at Brandeis, calling him "cunning," a "hypocrite" and a "power for evil." He also condemned Wilson for what he said was the president's "Machiavellian" and "satanic skill" in making the selection.

Jewish group aims to prevent anti-Semitic comedian from entering Canada

B’nai Brith in Montreal is trying to block the entry into Canada of French comedian Dieudonne, who has multiple convictions and fines for making anti-Semitic statements against Jews in France and Belgium.
Dieudonne, whose full name is Dieudonne M’bala M’bala, is slated to appear May 11-16 at ten sold-out shows in a 200-seat art gallery theater in Montreal’s east end.
B’nai Brith Canada is filing a complaint with the Canada Border Services Agency, “like any other citizen of Canada has the right to [do]…” organization lawyer Steven Slimovitch told the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.
Montreal mayor Denis Coderre made it clear that the comedian is not welcome.
“When you promote hatred, you promote social division,” Coderre posted on Twitter.

Rafael developed visual intel system that can track multiple rocket launch sites

State-owned defense corporation Rafael has developed a command and control system that can monitor multiple areas for rocket launch activities.
The system, known as the ImiLite Center, is in use in the IDF. It allows ground controllers to monitor dozens of zones in hostile territory, while integrating intelligence data from other sources.
An aircraft equipped with an advanced visual intelligence pod can fly more than 50 km. away from its target areas, and send back data to ground controllers, whose screens divide into multiple tracking zones, a senior source from Rafael said recently, describing the system.
The technology would enable the IDF to preemptively strike areas used by terrorists to fire on the home front in any future conflict.

In 5 years, driverless cars based on Israel's Mobileye tech

In Arnold Schwarzenegger’s 1990 sci-fi classic Total Recall, the protagonist gets into a heated argument with a self-driving cab, driven by an artificial intelligence- challenged automaton.
(It ends badly for the robotic taxi driver.) The film takes place in 2084 on Mars. But fully autonomous cars will be a reality right here on Earth by 2021. That, anyway, is Mobileye CEO Ziv Aviram’s vision of the not-too-distant future.
Aviram founded Mobileye in 1999 with Prof. Amnon Shashua of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Their company is best known for inventing a technology to alert drivers to obstacles. Using that proprietary obstacle-sensing sensor system to gather millions of kilometers of driving data, Mobileye is working with many of the world’s biggest auto manufacturers to pave the way for self-driving cars and trucks.
In August 2014, the company went public on the New York Stock Exchange, raising $890 million in the largest Israeli IPO in the United States. With the exception of Toyota and Mercedes, Aviram said Mobileye is working with all the big names in car manufacturing. He reportedly held a secret meeting with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in recent weeks.

Israeli doctor among top 100

Professor Anat Lowenstein, Chair of the Department of Ophthalmology at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center, and Professor of Ophthalmology and Vice Dean at Tel Aviv University, was selected in The Ophthalmologist Magazine’s Power List 2016.
The Magazine, which highlights the top 100 most influential people in the world of ophthalmology, noted how Lowenstein was popular lecturer at international conferences and celebrated “her contribution to, and influence in the field of medical and surgical retina cannot be underestimated.”
Lowenstein completed her medical studies at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem after which she served as a medical officer in the naval headquarters of the Israel Defense Forces for 4 years.
She completed a residency program in the Department of Ophthalmology at the TASMC and a fellowship in retinal vascular disease and vitreoretina surgery at the Wilmer Institute at Johns Hopkins University Hospital in Baltimore, Maryland.
As of the year 2000, she serves as Chairman of the TASMC Department of Ophthalmology in 2000.

Rivlin joins in Druse Nebi Shuaib celebration

Despite a long history of hostilities, Jews and Arabs occasionally acknowledge that they are cousins in that both are descended from Abraham the Patriarch.
Jews and Druse are also related in that Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses is the key prophet of the Druse faith. Nebi Shuaib, a tomb overlooking the Sea of Galilee is believed by the Druse to be the burial site of Jethro and is therefore one of the most revered of Druse holy sites. The Druse congregate there in multitudes each year to discuss communal affairs, and make a point of inviting the President of the State to join them.
The relationship between the Druse and the Jews goes beyond that of Jethro and Moses. Jethro is believed to have descended from the progeny of Ketura who became Abraham’s concubine following the death of Sarah, and who bore him six sons. So in essence, Jews, Muslims, Druse and even Christians, considering that the original followers of Jesus were Israelites, are all in essence descended from Abraham.
Rivlin referred to the blood ties between the Jews and the Druse in a somewhat different manner.

Happy Passover from Sergeant Elinoa!

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