05/17 Links Pt2: Glick: Hillel’s moment of truth; Methodist Church Rejects BDS #BDSfail ~ EoZ

From Ian:

Caroline Glick: Hillel’s moment of truth

Two wars today are being waged against Jewish students on American university campuses. One is substantive, the other is institutional. The plight of the Jews at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island is emblematic of both.
The purpose of the substantive war is to deny Jews their freedom as Jews. As the guarantor of Jewish freedom, Israel is the subject of a systematic, multidimensional assault, carried out everywhere on campuses.
On a growing number of campuses in the United States, the only Jews who can safely express their views on Israel are those who champion Israel’s destruction.
Those who support Israel are subjected to continuous harassment by their fellow students.
The substantive battle is being led by Students for Justice in Palestine. SJP is a phantom organization with no national organization. As Jonathan Schanzer from the Foundation for Defense of Democracies testified before the US Congress last month, it is directed by former officials from non-profits including the Holy Foundation, KindHearts and the Islamic Association for Palestine that were forced to shut down after they were implicated in financing terrorist groups including Hamas and al-Qaida.
At Brown, SJP seeks to make it impossible for Jewish students to organize as Jews.
For instance, in late January, Brown Hillel hosted a discussion of Jewish identity featuring actor Michael Douglas and Jewish Agency chairman Natan Sharansky.
SJP protested the event arguing that since both men supported Israel, the event stood in opposition to “social justice.”
As Ira Stoll reported in the New York Sun, during the event, protesters outside the hall calling for Israel’s destruction made it hard for the audience of several hundred people to hear what Sharansky and Douglas were saying.

Fred Maroun: Robert Cohen in wonderland: the fanciful world of anti-Zionist Jews

A British Jewish anti-Zionist named Robert A. H. Cohen took it upon himself to respond to my Letter from an Arab to a Jew who supports BDS. Cohen is apparently a former Senior Broadcast Journalist at BBC Radio Five Live and is regularly published at Mondoweiss, Tikkun Daily, and Jews for Justice for Palestinians.
Cohen’s response is largely predictable, with the usual boilerplate accusations against Israel that one would expect from any run-of-the-mill anti-Zionist, Jewish or not. There is an immense body of work (including articles that I have written) proving each of these accusations to be lies, wildly exaggerated, or misleading. Consequently, I will not bore my readers with this here.
The more interesting part of Cohen’s response however is that it offers a window into the weird and wonderful world of anti-Zionist Jews.
In Robert Cohen’s world, Arabs have never committed any wrongs towards the Jews of Israel, especially not a centuries-old Arab campaign to deny the Jews the most basic human right of all, the right to exist.

Richard Landes: The Failures of Journalism in the 21st Century

I am finally composing my long promised book, They’re So Smart cause We’re so Stupid: A Medievalist Guide to the Jihadi Cogwar of the 21st Century. It begins with a list of the “Astoundingly Stupid Statements of the 21st Century” (#ASSO21C). I’ll be posting material from the book as I compose it. Part I introduces the key Players: Triumphalist Muslims, the Global Progressive Left (GPL), and the lethal own-goal, journalists. The following is the opening to the third chapter:
Lethal, Own-Goal, Dhimmi, Journalists: The Bane of the West in the 21st century
The Failures of Journalism in the 21st Century
Towards the end of 2000, a professional failure of epic proportions took place among Western journalists. This failure began among Middle East correspondents reporting on the conflict, which broke out anew in late September 2000, between Israel and her Arab (triumphalist) neighbors. In this phase of “lethal journalism” Western reporters, almost as a pack, systematically reported Palestinian accusations against Israel – lethal narratives – as if they were eminently credible, indeed as if they actually happened, in other words as news. These reports had their desired effect in the conflict, supporting the “underdog” and “leveling the playing field,” prolonging the war, protecting the Palestinians from Israeli efforts to prevent their terror attacks, and severely damaging Israel’s global image.
The impact, however, went far beyond what these reporters imagined. They had an electric effect on Muslims the world over, including the West. Given overwhelming proof – the Western media reported it – of the victimization of Muslims in Palestine, many a triumphalist Muslim awoke to the siren call of Jihad. Demonstrations in the West made ample room for a newly aggressive Muslim Street, and recruiting for Jihad made great headway in the heart of the enemy. In particular, Europe’s largely unassimilated Muslim population radicalized significantly.
Indeed, lethal journalists, in their cognitive disorientation, didn’t realize that, in purveying Palestinian propaganda as news, they greatly amplified not Palestinian “nationalist” efforts to get their “self-determination,” but instead they mainstreamed Jihadi war propaganda that targeted their own societies as much as Israeli – all kufar to be either converted, dhimmified, or eliminated. In so acting, they engaged in an unprecedented form of war journalism, not the traditional patriotic version of lying for your own side, but own-goal war journalism, where the journalists lied for their side’s enemies.

Shmuley Boteach: No Holds Barred: Hitler the British Zionist

To be sure, the Labour Party has produced extremely good friends of the Jewish state, like Tony Blair. But that now seems a million years ago and leaders of the party are now spewing disgusting anti-Jewish drivel.
The same Ken Livingstone who said Hitler was a Zionist then went on to declare that the State of Israel was “a great catastrophe.” The rot in the Labour Party starts at the top, with Jeremy Corbyn sharing platforms with supporters of Hamas, a terrorist organization committed to the destruction of Israel and the murder of Jews everywhere. Just a few days ago British Prime Minister David Cameron challenged Corbyn to disavow comments he made in which he referred to Hamas and Hezbollah as his “friends.” Corbyn refused to do so.
Just a few weeks ago the National Union of Students elected a new president, Malia Bouattia, who described the University of Birmingham as “something of a Zionist outpost,” complained that the government’s anti-extremism policy was fueled by the “Zionist lobby,” and was endorsed by the anti-Semitic Muslim Public Affairs Committee. That someone of such strong anti-Jewish views can be elected to the national leadership of Britain’s students is astonishing. Or perhaps not. British academics have also been at the forefront of the campaign to boycott Israeli academic institutions.
According to the Metropolitan Police, 2015 was the worst year ever for anti-Semitic attacks in London, which increased 61 percent from the previous year. The Campaign Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) reported that 2015 “saw the most anti-Semitic crime ever recorded in Britain, with a 26% rise in anti-Semitic crime and a 51% leap in violence against Jews, but a reduction in the number of anti-Semites charged by police.” The group also found that “25% of British Jews have considered leaving Britain in the past two years due to anti-Semitism and 77% have witnessed anti-Semitism disguised as a political comment about Israel.” The situation has grown so serious that the CAA said “Britain is at a tipping point: unless anti-Semitism is met with zero tolerance, it will continue to grow and British Jews may increasingly question their place in their own country.”
Indeed.

Shami Chakrabarti praised Moazzam Begg as “a wonderful advocate for human rights and in particular for human liberty”

CagePrisoners, or CAGE as it is now called, will be well known most of you. It is an organisation which we have covered extensively. A strong supporter of the deceased Al Qaeda recruiter, Anwar Al Awlaki, its main function is to advocate for those convicted of terrorist offences. The London Muslim Centre is also a familiar organisation, with close ties to the theocratic south Asian political party, Jamaat-e-Islami. It is a longstanding hoster and promoter of events featuring preachers who have supported terrorism, called for gays to be killed and advocated the establishment of a theocratic Islamic state. The Centre for the Study of Terrorism is an organisation which was founded by Dr Kamal el-Helbawy, who also established the Muslim Brotherhood aligned Muslim Association of Britain, who has supported the killing of Jewish children as “future soldiers”.
What, one might fairly ask, was Shami Chakrabati doing addressing a meeting featuring organisations which advocate hatred and theocratic politics: the precise opposite of the liberal politics of human rights?
A human rights campaigner might end up on a platform with speakers who opposed human rights, in order to campaign in relation to a specific human rights issue. Although I can’t imagine it happening, it would at least theoretically be possible for such a person to support the claims of the English Defence League founder, “Tommy Robinson”, that he is the subject of a politically motivated campaign of police harassment. But I wouldn’t expect such a human rights campaigner profusely to lavish praise Tommy Robinson, or to hold him up as a figure to be admired.
This is precisely what Shami Chakrabati did when she shared a platform with Moazzam Begg:
“It is always a privilege to follow Moazzam Begg and Gareth Pierce, so it feels a little like Groundhog Day. I’ve been following them for some years now. But I want to speak a little optimistically, because I think we could all do with a little optimism at 8 o’clock on a weeknight, when we’ve been sitting listening to some pretty awful stuff. I want to say that I’ve been following them for many years, but there is a difference. When I started speaking on platforms with Gareth Pierce and Mr Begg, the Mr Begg was Mr Begg senior: because his son was locked away in Guantanamo Bay. And now I share the platform with Moazzam Begg, and that is a source of hope and optimism for the future. And you hear what a wonderful advocate he is for human rights and in particular for human liberty.”

Hypocrite Left: Free Speech For Hate Preachers — But Not Cartoonists

Danish left wingers who called for the prosecution of Muhammed cartoonists now block plans to ban hate preachers from Denmark.
Controversial plans for a blacklist that would ban hate preachers from Denmark have exposed leftwing hypocrisy, as the people and parties who called for hate speech laws to prosecute the cartoonists who drew Mohammed are now citing “freedom of expression” as a reason to oppose the ban.
Under the proposals, the country’s immigration service would compile a list of religious speakers and imams who, as Politico reports would be denied visas for “encouraging terrorism and anti-democratic attitudes”.
Prime Minister Lars Løkke Rasmussen said he hoped the list would be revised regularly in cooperation with other countries, and cited Britain’s ban on speakers deemed extremist by the government as inspiration.
Free speech advocate Flemming Rose noted this week that hypocritically many of the people opposing the planned blacklist, in the name of free speech, were ten years ago calling for the prosecution of the artists who drew Muhammad.
As cultural editor of Jyllands-Posten, Mr. Rose commissioned the Muhammad cartoons that Muslims around the world reacted to with protests and violence, leaving over 200 people dead.

Neo-Nazi Ken O'Keefe Spreads Anti-Semitic Hatred University of Toronto

On April 29th, neo-Nazi Ken O’Keefe took to the JJR Macleod Auditorium at the University of Toronto to deliver a talk rife with anti-Semitic tropes.
O’Keefe spoke at the Canadian university for over an hour – tantamount to a tirade of quotes straight out of The Protocols of the Elders of Zion – reciting anti-Semitic conspiracy theories. These included “Jews run the media,” “the Jews control everything,” and of course, “they run the courts and the banks.”
O’Keefe’s erroneous accusation that Jews collaborate with one another in pursuit of world domination not only echoes the exact narrative falsely projected onto Jews by Hitler’s regime, it also testifies to the rampant anti-Semitism brewing on several North American campuses. O’Keefe did not address an empty crowd, nor did he offer to pay the University of Toronto to let him come and speak - quite the contrary. There were multiple rounds of applause throughout his talk. This demonstrates that some North Americans are not only intrigued, but buying into narrative of malevolent Jewish machinations.
B’nai Brith Canada – the Canadian section of the oldest Jewish service organization in the world – lambasted the event for its blatant and open expression of anti-Semitic paroxysm. The organization’s Chief Executive Officer, Michael Mostyn, stated, “O’Keefe represents a type of virulent and murderous anti-Semitism not usually heard in Canada’s public spaces.” Mostyn continued, “He propagates the malicious lie of Jewish control over the media, government, judicial system and financial sector, and even accuses Jews of assassinating former U.S. president John. F. Kennedy and staging the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Worst of all is his deplorable claim that Jews invented the Holocaust in order to ‘steal Palestine from the Palestinians.’”
O’Keefe’s lecture at the University of Toronto was just his latest stop on his “From The Heart” tour. Thankfully, he didn’t leave without providing a plethora of evidence showcasing his false, hate-filled, and lunatic anti-Semitic narrative.

Panama Papers reveal George Soros' deep money ties to secretive weapons, intel investment firm

Soros, 86, is worth an estimated $25 billion. His Open Society Institute is one of ICIJ’s main funders, granting it $1.5 million last year. The Panama Papers data reveals only the tip of Soros' offshore iceberg, the Quantum Group of Funds. The ICIJ’s leader, journalist Gerard Ryle, said he had not noticed Soros’ companies in the Offshore Leaks database until FoxNews.com called the matter to his attention.
“I suspect we would have more information [on Soros] because the public database … does not contain the underlying data,” Ryle said in an email FoxNews.com.
FoxNews.com has requested access to that data.
Because it is based offshore, the Quantum Group of Funds is not normally subject to regulation by the United States Securities and Exchange Commission. But in the mid-1990s, Soros Capital bought several SEC-regulated firms, an act which required it to disclose the basic design of the Quantum network of interlocking offshore companies and bank accounts that shield Soros’ billions.
Soros Capital set up an offshore company in the Cayman Islands for the purpose of investing private equity with the Carlyle Group, alongside members of Saudi Arabia’s Bin Laden family. Carlyle’s partners include ex-heads of state and former CIA officials. The private equity partnership specializes in buying and selling weapons manufacturing and intelligence gathering companies with government and military contracts and it also uses secret offshore companies to conduct business.

Detroit Jews ask: Are settlement boycotts the same as BDS?

For the second year in a row, the Detroit area’s Walk for Israel has rebuffed the sponsorship of left-wing pro-Israel groups because of their support for boycotting settlements.
At the heart of the dispute is a question of definitions: Is support of a boycott targeting Jewish enterprises beyond Israel’s 1967 borders the same as backing the blanket economic and cultural boycott of Israel called for by the pro-Palestinian Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement?
Andre Douville, the chairman of the coalition organizing the walk, said Partners for Progressive Israel and Americans for Peace Now fit the coalition’s definition of supporting the BDS movement.
“Simply put, our advocacy and policy statement says that any organization that supports any form of BDS would not be accepted as a cosponsor,” Douville told JTA on Friday, two days before the event, which celebrates Israel’s independence. “They want to argue that they only support it for business in the occupied territories.”
The left-wing groups – citing different criteria – say that while they support a boycott of settlement goods, they vigorously reject boycotts of Israel.

Durham University Jewish Students’ Doors Vandalized With Swastika Graffiti, Auschwitz Reference

Students at Durham University in North East England discovered antisemitic graffiti on their doors this weekend, The Jewish Chronicle reported on Monday.
According to the report, swastikas and upside-down crosses were drawn on the outside of their student accommodations, alongside the words “rape Ali,” with an arrow pointing underneath. One student house was vandalized with an SS sign and a drawing of an ape, with the words “Muslim monkey” and “Auschwitz” written on the walls.
After the targeted students complained to police and the student council, Durham University Jewish Society President Simon Zeffert said he would be “swiftly” reporting the antisemitic graffiti to the Community Security Trust, a British charity that deals with security for the Jewish community, the Jewish Chronicle said.
“It’s deeply disturbing to see these disgusting symbols being graffitied in Durham,” Zeffert said. “It doesn’t just affect Jewish people, it’s hostile to all students.”

Anti-Israel Students at Connecticut College ‘Occupy’ Office of School President in Protest Over Investigation of Mock Eviction Notices

A group of anti-Israel students at Connecticut College is “occupying” the office of the school’s president in protest over an investigation into mock eviction notices they posted across campus accusing the Jewish state of a series of crimes.
An alumnus who asked to remain anonymous due to his tracking of anti-Israel activity at his alma mater told The Algemeiner, “This is a group of students who put up mock eviction notices that were factually challenged. It was done during finals and some students were alarmed by their tactics.”
As The Algemeiner reported, students returning to their dorms last Monday encountered fake eviction notices put up by Conn Students in Solidarity with Palestine (CSSP). “Israeli demolition of Palestinian homes is RACIST, is part of a project of ETHNIC CLEANSING and COLONIZATION, and is ILLEGAL,” part of the notice stated.
In response to the notices, Connecticut College Interim Dean of Equity and Inclusion David Canton sent out a campus-wide email, stating, “Seeing these posters in residential common areas, particularly this close to final exams, has been disturbing to our students. I am writing to let you know that my office is carrying out an investigation of the incident.”

Homosexuality still illegal in Lebanon, but North Carolina boycotters not boycotting

At least 50 LGBT activists staged a protest outside the Hbeish police station in Beirut, Lebanon, to protest anti-homosexual law.
Article 534 “criminalizes ‘unnatural sexual intercourse,’ which is punishable by up to one year of imprisonment.”
This news comes after businesses, celebrities, and musical acts decided to boycott North Carolina over their decision to not allow transgender people to use any bathroom they want.
But look what I found! Some of these businesses and people have not boycotted Lebanon even though homosexuals can receive jail time. Apparently, the ability to not use the bathroom of your choice is worse than police throwing you in prison.
Bryan Adams boycotted North Carolina, but he performed in Lebanon in 2010, 2011, and 2015.
Deutsche Bank also boycotted North Carolina. However, they have a location in Beirut. In 2012, the American University in Beirut announced that the bank launched an annual MBA scholarship!
PayPal pulled out of North Carolina, but still exists in Lebanon. Pepsi also remains in Lebanon without wanting anything to do with North Carolina. Other hypocrites include Hyatt hotels and Hewlett-Packard.

Methodist Church Rejects Four Anti-Israel Boycott Resolutions

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest denominations in the United States, voted against four resolutions calling for divestment in companies that do business in Israel at their quadrennial convention in Portland over the weekend.
The resolutions called on the church to divest from Catepillar, Hewlett-Packard and Motorola. Previous similar divestment resolutions failed in both 2008 and 2012.
Democratic frontrunner and lifelong Methodist Hillary Clinton wrote an open letter last week calling such boycotts “counterproductive to the pursuit of peace.” Many observers believed that her comments were related to the boycott proposals.
Many states have also expressed their opposition to boycotts of Israel in recent months. Last week, Iowa became the eighth state to enact legislation preventing the state from affiliating with boycotters of Israel. The New Jersey state senate passed a similar measure last week.
Boycott supporters often portray their movement as part of a protest against Israeli policies, but critics have accused it of being discriminatory in tone and intention, and pointed out that many of its leaders have publicly affirmed that they seek Israel’s destruction. BDS co-founder Omar Barghouti, an opponent of the two-state solution, said in 2014 that Palestinians have a right to “resistance by any means, including armed resistance,” while leading activist As’ad Abu Khalil acknowledged in 2012 that “the real aim of BDS is to bring down the state of Israel.”

Despite Israel’s “war on human rights activists”, state gives award to radical org’s founder

Of course, the absurd claim that Israeli authorities are “persecuting” human rights activists is amplified frequently in the British media, despite the fact that nearly two dozen foreign funded, radical-left ‘human rights’ NGOs (some of which call for the end of the Jewish state) operate freely in the country.
Interestingly, the decision to grant the award to Shulman was approved by Education Minister Naftali Bennett, who Shulman once characterized – in a New York Review of Books article on Israel’s putative war on civil society – as “one of the most extreme spokesmen of the fanatical right”.
So, Shulman was given the ultimate “establishment” award by the “fanatical right” pro-settlement minister despite the fact that he is arguably the embodiment of just the kind of “peace and human rights activist” he claims is being persecuted by the “establishment”, pro-settlement right.
Our guess is that Indy editors didn’t notice the irony.

Three inaccuracies and an omission in one BBC News sentence

The sentence below is to be found in an article published on the BBC News website’s Middle East page on May 8th:accuracy
“In October last year, an Eritrean immigrant was shot and beaten to death by an angry crowd after being mistaken for an Arab militant in the town of Beersheba, prompting concern about mob reactions to people thought to be suspicious.”
Habtom Zerhom was not an “immigrant” but an Eritrean asylum seeker. The investigation into the incident showed that the cause of his death was internal bleeding from a gunshot wound – i.e. he was not “beaten to death” as claimed by the BBC. The incident occurred when Zerhom was mistaken for a second terrorist – not an “Arab militant” – during a terror attack at Be’er Sheva bus station on October 18th 2015 which is completely erased from this portrayal of events.
In addition to those omissions and inaccuracies, the link provided leads to a BBC report from October 2015 which, as has been noted here before, inaccurately represents the victim’s name and age, calling him “Mr Mulu” aged 19.
So much for editorial standards of accuracy.

AFP's Lopsided Account of Slain Palestinian Teen

When a media outlet reports on a fact sheet published by a big international NGO, what is its responsibility to readers? Do journalists have an obligation to flag shortcomings in NGO reports? AFP, apparently, thinks not.
In a widely published article, AFP summarized a UNICEF fact sheet claiming that "25 Palestinian children killed in 3 months." The UNICEF provides identifying details (date and location) in just two out of the 25 alleged cases. AFP faithfully relays UNICEF's flawed account of one of the two cases:
UNICEF cited the example on October 25 in Hebron in the West Bank of a 17-year-old girl who was "taken by IDF (Israel Defence Forces) soldiers for a search, shot with at least five bullets and killed".
"Israeli authorities said that she had attempted to stab a policeman, however an eyewitness stated that she was not presenting any threat at the time she was shot, and was shouting that she did not have a knife," it said.
Relying solely on the UNICEF report, AFP failed to fulfill its duty to independently fact-check. A quick search reveals that Amnesty International, which has no great love for Israel, noted this relevant information concerning the Oct. 25 Hebron incident:
A photo of Ershied’s body shows a knife lying near the body, and the Israeli police spokesperson has stated that she attempted to stab a border policeman.
In other words, there is a photograph that supports the Israeli account of events, a photograph that AFP ignored.

AFP Corrects Photo Caption on Palestinian Refugee

As CAMERA noted earlier, Aisha, who is reportedly 53 years old, could not have fled or been driven out of her Beersheva home 68 years ago, as the caption strongly suggests. She possibly could have lived in Beersheva and decided to move to Gaza for marriage, for example, but then she is not a "refugee" forced out of her home in the 1948 war, as the caption clearly implies.
CAMERA contacted AFP editors, asking if Aisha was an inhabitant of Beersheva. If so, why did AFP conflate her decision to move with the fate of Palestinian Arabs who left in 1948 and became refugees?
In response to CAMERA's clarification request, AFP editors have commendably corrected the caption in the agency's photo archive. The new wording now identifies Aisha as a "Palestinian refugee … who comes from a family originally from Beersheva" and adds that she "shows a collection of keys she said she inherited from her parents of their home and shops in the largest city in the Negev desert before 1948."
Unfortunately, AFP editors did not alert subscribers to the fact that the caption was corrected. Though editors did change the original caption in the archive, it is not marked with a "clarification" or "correction" note, and they did not republish the image today with the correct caption.

Breitbart’s ‘Renegade Jew’ Disgrace

But the real offense here is not Horowitz’s laughable defense of Trump’s behavior or his vapid policy positions. It’s his attempt to wrap him in the Star of David and to somehow brand his opponents as traitors to the pro-Israel cause that should trouble everyone including those that believe Trump is the lesser of two evils in 2016.
Horowitz is right to label the Iran nuclear deal as a threat to Israel as well as to the West. It was one of the seminal issues of the last four years and one on which Trump was notably silent until he started running for president. If he is elected, perhaps it will be one topic on which he won’t be as “unpredictable” as he promises to be on most issues. If so, that would be good for both Israel and the United States.
The deal didn’t happen on Hillary Clinton’s watch at the State Department and might never have occurred without her being replaced by John Kerry, but she still should be judged for being one of its supporters. On this point, as with Israel’s conflict with the Palestinians, we know what we would be getting with Clinton. She is less willing to bash Israel than President Obama or Bernie Sanders, but the person who served as the “designated yeller” at Prime Minister Netanyahu can’t be counted among its reliable defenders.
By contrast, Trump is a mystery. He claims at times to be a fervent supporter of Israel especially when he reads from scripts. But at other times, his deal-making hubris makes him sound as if he might repeat the folly of Obama and Kerry while proclaiming himself to be “neutral” between Israel and the Palestinians. His isolationist tendencies must also trouble supporters of Israel since an American retreat from the Middle East (other than a war against ISIS that Trump claims he will fight without intervening in the region) will weaken the Jewish state and strengthen foes like Iran.The Republican Party has become a bedrock supporter of Israel in recent decades while many Democrats — especially their liberal base — have drifted away from that position. But the nomination of an isolationist like Trump has undermined the thesis that the two parties are so different on foreign policy.
Again, it is possible to argue from these facts, as some ardent members of the pro-Israel community have done, that Trump is the better choice from the point of view of strengthening the U.S.-Israel alliance. But it is not possible to conclude that someone who believes Trump can’t be counted on or viewed as much of an improvement over Clinton is a traitor to Israel. It is certainly not possible to say that to Kristol, who has devoted so much effort to support of Israel throughout his career and especially as a leader of the opposition to Obama’s policies.
In the last two decades, Horowitz’s publishing and activist projects have prioritized support for Israel, which is why his confession in the last paragraph of his piece that he has never visited the Jewish state is puzzling. But even if his concern for Israel should be considered both sincere and heartfelt that doesn’t justify his use of Stalinist dialectical tactics to smear Kristol.

Trump Supporters Vs. the ‘Renegade Jew’

Let’s give credit where it’s due: As far as troll-baiting headlines go, “Renegade Jew” is pretty excellent—and yes, morally reprehensible, too.
David Horowitz’s attack on William Kristol on Breitbart.com, in a piece called “Bill Kristol: Republican Spoiler, Renegade Jew,” is a jambalaya of tedious media self-references if you excise the “renegade Jew” bit: A right-wing figure attacks a second, more prominent right-wing figure on an alt-right website—you’re asleep already, aren’t you? But when served with a pithy, two-word epithet and a frisson of the world’s oldest hatred—Jew hatred, that is—a hit piece on the editor of The Weekly Standard is enough to foment a trending topic on Twitter. It spawned an unintentionally lyrical turn of phrase that seems destined for ironic re-appropriation.
In context, “renegade Jew” was clearly intended as a blunt ethnic slur, and had apparently little to do with the substance of Horowitz’s loopy and disorganized attacks on Kristol, who is notably anti-Trump. The story, which pilloried the “renegad”e Kristol for reportedly organizing a third-party conservative challenger to Trump and Hillary Clinton, included a lengthy digression about Mike Tyson’s autobiography, and a series of bizarre asides about a phantom U.S. intervention in Egypt which did not in fact occur, at least not in real life as the majority of the non-David Horowitz community understands it.
The logic of the “renegade Jew” headline becomes clear only in the piece’s final paragraph. “I am a Jew who has never been to Israel and has never been a Zionist in the sense of believing that Jews can rid themselves of Jew hatred by having their own nation state,” Horowitz (who also wrote his own headline) felt it necessary to state. “I am also an American (and an American first), whose country is threatened with destruction by the same enemies” as Israel, he continues, specifically “Iran, the Muslim Brotherhood, Hezbollah, ISIS, and Hamas.”

Czech Jews call Terezin memorial addresses nationalist, xenophobic

The Czech Republic’s Jewish community has condemned some of the addresses delivered at a memorial ceremony at the former Nazi concentration camp in Terezin as anti-German, nationalist and xenophobic.
In a statement released Sunday, the Federation of the Czech Jewish communities denounced the keynote address delivered earlier that day by the head of the Czech Senate, Milan Stech, who said Nazi crimes could not be compared to violence committed by Czechs against Germans after World War II.
“Crimes [during the forced expulsion of Germans from postwar Czechoslovakia] were committed by individuals, whereas Nazi crimes during the occupation of the Czech territory were part of the official and carefully designed political campaign of the German state,” Stech said in his speech.
Describing the address as anti-German and nationalist, Czech Jewish groups said it did not belong at such a memorial event.
Some 3 million ethnic Germans were forcibly expelled from Czechoslovakia after the war in a move that remains a sensitive issue in Czech-German relations.

British boxer apologizes over anti-Semitic rant

On Monday, Fury issued a statement apologizing for the remarks and said, "I am in no way a racist or bigot."
"I apologize to anyone who may have taken offence at any of my comments," he said, according to the Daily Mail. "I said some things, which may have hurt some people, which as a Christian man is not something I would ever want to do.
"Though it is not an excuse, sometimes the heightened media scrutiny has caused me to act out in public. I mean no harm or disrespect to anyone and I know more is expected of me as an ambassador of British boxing and I promise in future to hold myself up to the highest possible standard,” he continued.
"Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am in no way a racist or bigot and I hope the public accept this apology," stated Fury.

Comedian Louis C.K. to perform in Jerusalem in August

It’s not a joke this time. Comedian Louis C.K. is coming to Israel to perform on Thursday, August 18, at Jerusalem’s Payis Arena.
The tickets, ranging in price from NIS 280 to NIS 730, went on sale at 6 p.m. Monday at the Louis CK website.
The provocative comedian is known for not shying away from any subject, be it sex, religion, pedophilia, politics, incest and other controversial topics. He was a writer for comedian Conan O’Brien and “The Chris Rock Show” (for which he won an Emmy as part of the writing team).
In April, C.K. told radio shock jock Howard Stern that he would come to Israel to perform in a large venue such as a soccer stadium to “get as much money over there as I would here at home.”

A Directorial Triumph: Coldplay gets Israeli direction in new music video

Released on Monday, the video has already garnered close to 3 million views, and is the third single released from Coldplay's new album titled A Head Full of Dreams.
The 4-minute short is rich in surreal imagery which, if broken down into individual shots, could easily adorn the walls of a hip gallery or make its way onto the pages of a coffee-table book. The striking visuals transform elements of daily life into magical scenarios reminiscent of dreams, playing with proportions in the realms of air, land, sea, and space.
Chris Martin, lead vocalist of the band, spoke highly of the video prior to its release in a radio interview. He referred to it as "one of the best videos...ever made," and insinuated that even if sound were to be removed from the clip, the brilliance of its imagery would remain.
"I just saw it [the video] and was like 'I can't believe that was our video,'" Martin said. "If that was someone elses, I'd be so jealous."
Martin described the newly released single as Coldplay's, "kind of...defining credo."

Israel’s LiveU to beam Summer Olympics events worldwide

The Israeli Olympic team may or may not win medals at the Summer Olympics in Brazil this year, but one Israeli start-up is tapped to come home with accolades.
Israel’s LiveU cellular-based live video transmission technology will allow broadcasters to beam images from Brazil around the world in real time, with little latency and superb picture quality, according to customer William Albarracin, who was responsible for technology at the 2014 soccer World Cup. also in Brazil.
“LiveU exceeded our expectations,” said Albarracin. “It gave us the mobility to go live from anywhere at any time. We knew the Brazilian landscape was challenging, yet we hit 9 Mbps in some areas. Also, the management system, LiveU Central, gave us flexibility and geo-location that allowed us to maximize the use of units in the field.”
Headquartered in the Tel Aviv suburb of Kfar Saba, with a US office in Hackensack, New Jersey, LiveU has been around since 2006, and is still the only company offering a remote uplink solution for broadcast-quality video without requiring a satellite or wired Internet connection.
LiveU is currently the only company offering a robust transmission solution for broadcasters, consisting of up to 14 cellular (3G/4G — LTE/WiMAX) modems over multiple carriers, as well as multiple LAN and even BGAN satellite connections (as backup). The solution works with any camera, and the system’s bonded modems (both 3G and 4G) aggregate all data connections simultaneously to achieve high bandwidth and smooth transmission, even as bandwidth and signal levels change across the different connections.

In spirit of Ayn Rand, Israeli entrepreneurship to get a boost

There are many contests and competitions in Israel each year that seek the entrepreneur with the best idea, business, or skill set. But the winner of the Atlas Award – to be given out Tuesday in Tel Aviv by the Israeli chapter of the Ayn Rand Institute – will be able to lay claim to the title of “most entrepreneurial entrepreneur.”
The institute is named for Ayn Rand, the novelist and philosopher who rose to fame based on her promotion of the philosophy of Objectivism, which says each person is responsible for his own life and welfare and must not rely on the state or even other people to make his way through life.
Israeli entrepreneurs are usually not as self-sufficient as Rand’s ideal man or woman; the tech community has a reputation of helping out others, and Israelis tend to root for each other’s success. Nevertheless, believes Boaz Arad, chairman of the institute’s local branch, the independent tendencies many Israeli entrepreneurs display – thinking outside the box, not being afraid of failure, and a general willingness to upset the existing order of technology and business – should be rewarded.

Israeli divers find largest trove of Roman shipwreck treasure in decades

A chance discovery by two divers uncovered Israel's biggest find of underwater Roman-era artifacts in three decades, archaeologists said on Monday as the priceless objects were showcased for the first time.
The treasures were found last month by divers Ran Feinstein and Ofer Raanan when they came across an ancient shipwreck near the port of Caesarea.
Standing next to his diving buddy, Raanan recounted the moment the pair realised they had discovered something special.
"It took us a couple of seconds to understand what was going on," Raanan recalled. He said they left the first sculpture on the seabed when they found it, but then when they discovered a second, they realised it was something special and brought it to the surface. They later searched the area and uncovered more ancient artifacts.
"It was amazing. I dive here every other weekend and I never found anything like that ever," he said.
The Israel Antiquities Authority sent its divers to investigate and recover the precious Roman-era cargo, which includes bronze statues, lamps, jars, animal-shaped objects, anchors and thousands of coins with images of Roman emperors Constantine and Licinius.
Some of the objects date to the fourth century, while others are from the first and second centuries, said Jacob Sharvit, director of marine archaeology at the IAA.

Who’s your daddy? Conference traces Jewish DNA back to Holy Land

If you’ve ever wondered how Jews got to Finland, Scotland or New Zealand, there’s a speaker who can answer that question at this summer’s International Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies conference in Seattle, Washington.
The six-day event with 325 venues, a Jewish film festival, and a new track — Genealogy for Educators — will spark your curiosity and help you on your genealogical journey, whether you’re sleuthing for ancestors or sending your DNA by mail hoping for a match.
Last year’s conference was held in Jerusalem, and though organizers can’t promise such a rain-free experience this August in the often-overcast Pacific Northwest, they do warn that once you dabble in this ever-expanding science, in any case you won’t want to leave the building.
“People have used the word obsession and they’re not far off,” said conference co-chair and senior research manager for Salt Lake City-based Ancestry Pro Genealogists, Dr. Janette Silverman.
“It’s costly, for sure — and those TV shows are highly addictive — but genealogical research places our family in the saga of their history and times. If we can find something that speaks to us, we can make the history personal,” said Silverman.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Hipsters Call Sefirah-Beards Cultural Appropriation (satire)

Avant-garde and trendy populations are voicing disapproval of the Jewish practice among men not to shave or take haircuts for most of the seven-week period that begins with Passover, saying that the custom is an inauthentic appropriation of their culture.
Hipsters in this forward-looking Mediterranean city expressed their distaste for the phenomenon known as the Sefirah beard, the facial hair that many religiously observant men allow to grow once Passover begins, and maintain until either thirty-three days have elapsed or until Shavuot, the next major festival a full seven weeks after Passover. While a good number of such men always sport a beard, it is the adoption of the beard-growing practice by the normally clean-shaven that the trendy personalities find problematic.
“It’s cultural appropriation is what it is,” insisted Guy Bar, 26, a pottery enthusiast. “Fedoras? Retro clothing? Glasses? Come on – that’s OUR style. I’ve been growing this beard for three years now, and now these Johnny-come-latelies decide they want a piece of this action. Sorry, gentlemen, but you don’t get what a beard is all about, and have no right to grow one.”
The Jewish practice of refraining from haircuts and shaving during Sefirat HaOmer, as the period is known, stems from several sources, the most famous of which invokes the second-century-CE deaths of twenty-four thousand disciples of the famous Rabbi Akiva during that time, as the result of a plague. The plague suddenly ceased on day thirty-three, Lag BaOmer, which is marked as a minor holiday. However, the span preceding Lag BaOmer features a number of practices associated with mourning, including refraining from cutting hair, and some Jewish men, especially among the Hasidim, extend the practices to a full seven weeks. The Omer period is marked by an attention to daily personal development and interpersonal relations, as a way of remedying the disregard that people had for one another to which Jewish tradition attributes the plague.

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