Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East.
(From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Friday 28 June 2013

"Monstrously Outrageous": Robert Spencer On Being Banned From Britain

"[B]ecause of political correctness, and because of media and general government unwillingness to face the sources of Islamic terrorism, these things remain largely unknown."  Thus asserted Robert Spencer, in the speech which has resulted in his being banned from Britain.

And here is the man persona non grata with Her Majesty's Government,talking about the "monstrously outrageous" decision with British-born Canadian broadcaster Michael Coren, both men citing the double standards that permit Islamic misogynists and antisemites to enter Britain and agreeing that the ban proves how supine Britain has become in the face of "Islamic supremacism".

Coren makes the point that Britain fought a world war against fascism ...

Meanwhile, blogging on ConservativeHome, a grassroots Conservative Party website that he edits, MP Paul Goodman (incidentally a Roman Catholic of Jewish extraction) defends the government's decision, while recognising that there are gross and troubling double standards involved:
"Such is the harm that Robert Spencer and Pamela Geller are doing to the struggle against Islamist extremism that they might as well be paid by the Muslim Brotherhood.  Although their views and outlook are not identical, both are either incapable or unwilling of making the vital distinction between Islam and Islamism - and thereby damage the combat with the latter.... 
.... Much though I detest Spencer and Geller .... Neither oppose western liberal democracy.  Neither support attacks on British troops.  And neither back the deliberate targetting of civilians (at least, as far as I know).  Furthermore, supporters of free speech should be deeply uneasy about May's use of "may" (small m) and "might".
Incitement to violence is one thing; remarks that may lead to hatred which might lead to violence are another. And although May has cracked down on hate preachers who have made remarks that may lead to hatred that might lead to violence, it can be argued that some are still slipping through the net.  I see that the Commentator has raised the case of Muhammad Al-Arifi. But what swings the balance of the argument in favour of May's decision is the intention of Spencer and Geller of speaking at an English Defence League rally in Woolwich.
The EDL is hopelessly compromised by thuggery and violence: indeed, both are intrinsic to it....  I suspect that in the Home Secretary's judgement Geller and Spencer's intention of speaking at the Woolwich event made incitement to violence probable.  It will be claimed that this is an insufficient grounds for banning either or both.  But neither are British citizens.  May is under no obligation to admit them.  She is entitled to consider the public interest in doing so - or the lack of it, as in this case.
But there is a sting in the tail.  It was not in the public interest to let Abu Qatada into Britain, either - and his case is far worse than that of either Spencer or Geller, neither of whom are terrorists.  And it is not in the public interest to keep him here.  While there is no guarantee that withdrawal from the ECHR [European Commission on Human Rights] would provide a cure-all for his case, it's worth noting that our courts have twice gone along with efforts to deport him.  If the Government is to ban the specks that are Spencer and Geller, it must expel the beam that is Qatada."
The comments beneath Mr Goodman's blog indicate a large degree of dissension, disillusionment, and disgust with the decision, however.
"The problem is that nobody in parliament really speaks up for what the majority of the population think re immigration. The political class limit their discussions to a very narrow range. Where is the political representation for thinking folk who want to see immigration fixed? In the absence of proper representation for the decent views of the majority of the population, in politics or the press especially the bbc, then its kinda inevitable the pressure cooker will continue to build up pressure. So we will have more ... voters turning to ukip [UK Independence Party] in desperation, and we will have the more extreme political groups gaining support" is a fairly typical comment, one that manages to keep the I word at bay, that is (others are not so restrained).
To quote some of The Commentator article, cited above:
'But let's even park the concerns of the non-Muslim population in the UK, and look at the recent entry of someone like Muhammad Al-Arifi, a Saudi scholar who has been widely criticised for his sectarian views. Al-Arifi has declared that Shia Muslims are “evil” and that they “set traps for monotheism" - a sure sign of creating division and discord, bringing an entire community into disrepute. Conducive to the public good? I think not.
But he was allowed into Britain, no problems at all. And allowed to proselytise on British airwaves. Again. No problem.
In February 2013 he also stated that “Al-Qaeda members do not tolerate accusing other Muslims of apostasy and they do not tolerate bloodshed” and that “...al-Qaeda leader Sheikh Oussama Bin Laden, may his soul rest in peace, did not adopt many of the thoughts that are attributed to him today”.
There's also Shady Al-Suleiman, the Australian cleric who has called, "for Allah to destroy the enemies of Islam” and who has endorsed the terrorist outfit Hamas (which Britain recognises as a terrorist entity). He's even endorsed the killing of British soldiers, saying, "Give victory to all the Mujahideen all over the world. Oh Allah, prepare us for the jihad”.
And yet, not a peep from Theresa May or the Home Office. Even amidst the concerns from the Muslim community. 
So let's recap: Geller and Spencer banned for blogging critically about Islam. Al-Suleiman and Al-Arifi given free passage despite actively fomenting sectarian divisions and endorsing terrorism.
I'm beginning to see how this all works.'
Incidentally, regarding one of Britain's home-grown extremists, Anjem Choudary, Muslim "revert" Lauren Booth (interviewed by Aled Jones and Lorraine Kelly regarding Muslim fears in the wake of the Woolwich atrocity) dismisses him as a marginal figure with a tiny following and asks why the media interviews him so often.  She also takes issue with her brother-in-law Tony Blair's warning regarding the threat of Islamic extremism (video here).

Thursday 27 June 2013

Mark His Words

Canadian columnist Mark Steyn, whose powerful articles concerning the Western condition used to be carried by the London Daily Telegraph, but sadly have not enriched its pages for many a year, has been offering what he calls "Three snapshots of western liberty".


The first concerns the once great nation that stands offshore to continental Eurabia:
'A few weeks ago, I wrote about a Canadian police department’s diversity enforcer attempt to shut down a Pamela Geller speech by getting her bounced from a Toronto synagogue. In Britain, the shut-up-he-explained crowd cut to the chase: They went to the (supposedly Conservative) Home Secretary, the ghastly Theresa May, and got Miss Geller and Robert Spencer banned from the entire country on the grounds that their presence in the United Kingdom would not be “conducive to the public good“.
By contrast, the presence of, say, Anjem Choudary, philosophical mentor of the Woolwich head hackers and a man who calls for the murder of the Prime Minister, is so “conducive to the public good” that British taxpayers subsidize him generously and provide a half-million-dollar home for him to live on. Mrs May’s Home Office has just admitted to the UK Muhhamed al-Arefe who advocates wife-beating. Perhaps Mr May will try out Imam al-Arefe’s expert advice on the beneficial effects of “light beating” on Theresa this weekend – or is spousal abuse only “conducive to the public good” of Muslim women?
The reflexive illiberalism of Britain’s so-called liberals – the urge to ban the debate rather than win it – is now so deeply ingrained they will soon be hungry for new victories. Nearly four centuries after Milton’s Areopagitica, freedom of speech is dead in England. In denying her charges access to dissenting ideas, Mrs May is inviting them to find alternative means of expression. No good will come from this.'
For links and the rest of his article see here

And for Melanie Phillips's take on the same topic see here

"O Bashar, You Coward! Send Your Troops To The Golan!" (video)

In Egypt a Saudi sheikh, who declares that "Khilafah is coming!" meets an enthusiastic response, with his listeners declaring that "Syria and Egypt are as one hand," and similar sentiments:


(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)

Wednesday 26 June 2013

Jollies In July: Brisbane Cathedral To Host AgitProp Exhibition & War On Want To Launch AgitProp Book

Photo

As seen on numerous videos on YouTube, Brisbane has a noisy and noisome band of BDS fanatics who that love to infest shopping centres making nuisances of themselves railing and ranting against retailers stocking Israeli produce.

No doubt they are cock-a-hoop at the fact that St John's Anglican Cathedral in Brisbane will soon be the setting next month for a five-week (no less!) exhibition that promises to be a propaganda fest against Israel.

The photographs on display purport to show "the poignant intricacies of life for youth in Palestine".

Nicky Stafford, the guest speaker at the exhibition's opening early next month, "will speak about her personal journey, from anger about lost childhood innocence to certainty that there is a solution to the dilemma, a solution that begins with us".

No doubt, this exhibition will be followed by another at the cathedral, of equal duration, on the "poignant intricacies of life" for children in Sderot and other centres in Israel subject to missile attacks from Gaza, as well as further exhibitions on the "poignant intricacies of life" for children suffering in Syria, and for Christian children suffering at the hands of Islamists in such genuine hellholes as Pakistan, Afghanistan and northern Nigeria.

Meanwhile, half a world away, on the day before the exhibition at Brisbane Cathedral opens, a Sheffield church hall will be the setting for the first of three book launches in the UK, this one by Israel-demonising NGO War On Want of an Israel-demonising book, Generation Palestine: Voices from the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Movement.   Launches will ensue on the two consecutive evenings at SOAS, University of London, and at Friends Meeting House, Manchester: the London and Manchester launches will be hosted by the local Palestine Solidarity Campaign branches.

Edited by Rich Wiles, the tome is, boasts the War On Want spiel,
"a must-read book about the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement. 
Generation Palestine brings together Palestinian and international activists in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement.  With essays written by a wide selection of contributors, Generation Palestine follows the BDS movement’s model of inclusivity and collaboration.
Contributors include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach, [the late] Iain Banks, Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Omar Barghouti, Ramzy Baroud and Archbishop Attallah Hannah, alongside other internationally acclaimed artists, writers, academics and grassroots activists."
Read more about this sickening initiative here

Monday 24 June 2013

"A Master Of Taqiyya ... I Don't See Him ... As A Dove, I See Him ... As A Fox": Dore Gold On Hassan Rouhani (video)

In the course of an address regarding Israel and a changing Middle East (in which, inter alia, he suggests that the rift between Israel and the Palestinians might be at present "unbridgeable" and stresses the need for a clear appreciation of what constitutes defensible borders, warning that withdrawal from the Jordan Valley would be a "national disaster") Dore Gold gives his assessment of Iran's new president ("a master of Taqiyya, Islam's doctrine of deception..."):


For his remarks in their general context see below:


Hat tip: reader Ian

"Indescribably Sad": Falk's Foetid Fan

From Facebook a week ago (hat tip: reader P)
How indescribably sad it should be for  Richard Falk that he's so desperate for validation that he has to scrape the bottom of a little wood barrel in order to acknowledge the support of a crusader who writes in an online magazine that's eschewed, publicly at least, by the hierarchy of the UK's Palestine Solidarity Campaign owing to its reputation for antisemitism.


In the long article cited in the Facebook link pictured, British anti-Israel ranter Stuart Littlewood, whose absurd ravings not infrequently find ventilation in that rabid publication, observes inter alia:
"Vengeful Zio-schemers sharpen their knives....
And there are millions of us out here who are right behind Richard Falk because he stands for justice. We are not amused by indications that the official explanation of 9/11 doesn’t add up. Nor are we happy that it was used to sucker our own governments into sacrificing troops and treasure in unlawful, unwinnable wars that have caused mega-deaths and endless suffering to innocent civilians, trashed our good name abroad and made us vulnerable to reprisals at home.
And for what? Simply to advance the crazed ambitions of the US-Israeli Axis of Greed...."
Littlewood is on record as making such foetid statements as this:
"Jews and Judaism survived 1800 years without the land of Israel, and most of today’s Jews, I’m told, have no ancestral links to that land at all. And Jews seem to like it here in the UK. They are allowed to occupy the highest positions and even make our laws. They are not leaving in droves for a squatter home on stolen Palestinian land."
And this, which was apparently picked up by a neo-Nazi British organisation and which at least one Palestine Solidarity Campaign branch linked to on its website:
"The Jewish population in the UK is 280,000 or 0.46 per cent. There are 650 seats in the House of Commons so, as a proportion, Jewish entitlement is only three seats.
With 24 seats they are eight times over-represented. Which means, of course, that other groups must be under-represented, including Muslims.
The UK's Muslim population is 2.4 million or 3.93 per cent. Their proportional entitlement is 25 seats but they have only eight – a serious shortfall. If Muslims were over-represented to the same extent as the Jews (i.e. eight times) they’d have 200 seats.
Jewish over-representation is only part of our problem. An even bigger worry is the huge number of non-Jew Zionists that have stealthily infiltrated every level of political and institutional life.
....Too many pro-Israel MPs speak and act as if they would rather wave the Israeli flag than the Union Jack....
It is business as usual between Britain and the rogue state’s amoral thugs, as Sir Gerald Kaufman calls them.”
Sadly for Falk, however, Littlewood is a marginal figure, as ineffectual as veteran anti-Israel campaigner Alan Hart, whose recent tail-between-the-legs withdrawal from the active anti-Zionist fray has left Littlewood "indescribably sad".

Sunday 23 June 2013

Melanie Phillips Booed & Taunted For Telling The Truth About Iran (video)

Watch this segment from the BBC's Question Time this week, in which Marvellous Melanie cops flak from fellow-panellist Boris Johnson for telling the truth about Iran, and is booed and subjected to derisive laughter from clowns, ostriches, ignoramuses and fellow-travellers in the (as usual carefully selected) studio audience.


(Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog)

And see Melanie Phillips's impressive article here written in the aftermath of the incident.

In NSW, The Slimy Green Stain & Stench Of Antisemitism

"This is not about the revocation of an invitation.  It's about why those who claim to be supporting Palestinian rights consistently attract the enthusiastic support of people with an explicitly racist anti-Jewish agenda."

So, reasonably, declares Peter Wertheim, executive director of the Executive Council of Australian Jewry, concerning the unconscionable flirtation of elements within the NSW Greens with the notorious German-born Australian Holocaust denier Dr Fredrick Toben (pictured, with an admirer of his, Lady Michele Renouf).

 As reported in The Australian newspaper:
'.... Dr Toben emailed Mr Shoebridge [Greens state parliamentarian and BDS crusader David Shoebridge] following an incident in March when upper house debate on a motion reporting on a study trip to Israel by a delegation of NSW parliamentarians, organised by the NSW Jewish Board of Deputies, was hijacked by pro-Palestinian MPs to attack Israel.
Mr Shoebridge's office emailed Dr Toben a link to his speech on March 25.
"Many, many thanks, Mark – and all the very best to David – and I do hope there will not be a bending to Jewish pressure after this courageous stance!" Dr Toben said in a return email the same day.
"Definitely not," came a response from Mr Shoebridge's office two days later. [Emphasis added here and below]
Dr Toben was invited to the "Sail with us in solidarity" fundraiser organised by the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine, co-chaired by Mr Shoebridge and Labor MLC Lynda Voltz, on April 3.
"There was never any intention to invite Mr Toben to the event," Mr Shoebridge said yesterday.
"Mr Toben was inadvertently invited to the event via an automated email. Once we realised who he was – namely a Holocaust denier – we withdrew the invitation and took immediate steps to ensure that he would not be contacted in any way in the future...."
Emails between Mr Shoebridge's office and Dr Toben show it took some time for the realisation to hit.
Dr Toben asked in an email on Monday, April 8: "Do you still have a spot for me on that harbor cruise? If so, then I shall book a return flight from Adelaide to Sydney and join the cruise on 2 May."
A response came the following day. "Hi Frederick. Yes there are still spaces available. It would be good to see you there. Mark for David."
On Wednesday, April 10, though, the invitation was withdrawn. "Hi Frederick, I'm afraid we're going to have to rescind our invitation to this event. I have been informed that, based on your past actions and views, your presence will likely offend a number of guests who we work with frequently. Apologies for any inconvenience. Mark for David."....'
As reported here,  unlike certain NSW colleagues Greens Party leader Senator Christine Milne, though expressing abhorrence for Toben's views on the Holocaust, has failed to condemn the invitation, while (the part-Jewish) NSW Greens senator Lee Rhiannon, who's been prominently linked to the BDS movement, has declined to comment.

For fuller coverage be sure to see also here and here (hat tip: reader Ian)

As an Australian editorial remarks following this latest incident:
"Understandably, some conclude that Israel is only collateral damage for the BDS movement. Its real target is the Jews."
 All the more reason for us to give a "thumbs up" to this video; (hat tip: reader Shirlee)

Friday 21 June 2013

David Singer On The Need To Jettison Discredited Proposals In The Quest For Middle East Peace

Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer's latest article is entitled "Palestine – Clinton's $500,000 Speech Leaves One Speechless".

Writes David Singer:

'The thought that anyone was prepared to contribute to paying former American President Bill Clinton $500000 to deliver a 45-minute speech at the Peres Academic Centre during the festivities marking Israeli President Shimon Peres's 90th birthday is truly staggering – especially after hearing what he had to say.

He regurgitated the now dead mantra that the only solution to end the conflict between Jews and Arabs was the "two state solution" – claiming:

“I just don’t think that in all these years a credible alternative has been presented that would preserve the essential character of the state of Israel  – a Jewish but democratic state.”
That solution had first been formulated in 1922 by the Mandate for Palestine (then proposed in 1937 by the Peel Commission and in 1947 by the United Nations) only to be rejected by the Arabs on all three occasions.

That same solution was available between 1948 and1967 when not one Jew lived in the West Bank or Gaza – and again that golden opportunity was not taken up by the Arabs.

Now in 2013 Clinton was urging Israel to continue pursuing the same solution under the 1993 Oslo Accords and the 2003 Bush Roadmap, although such a successful outcome had not been achieved in the last 20 years notwithstanding unprecedented diplomatic pressure being applied by the Quartet – the UN, Russia, America and the European Union.

In a speech singularly lacking in vision Clinton praised Peres, stating:
“He is one of the great men of vision in the world ... Peres lives in the future, and is always thinking about tomorrow... If you don’t have a vision of where you want to wind up, bad things are going to happen sooner or later… You have a better chance if you are driven by a vision of peace and reconciliation.”
Guest of honor Peres – together with Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu sitting next to him – would surely have been miffed to think that visionary proposals suggested by each of them more than two decades ago - were not now considered credible alternatives by Clinton to fill the void left by the doomed two state solution.

On 11 December 1984 Netanyahu told the United Nations:
"Clearly, in Eastern and Western Palestine, there are only two peoples, the Arabs and the Jews. Just as clearly, there are only two states in that area, Jordan and Israel. The Arab State of Jordan, containing some three million Arabs, does not allow a single Jew to live there. It also contains 4/5 of the territory originally allocated by this body’s predecessor, the League of Nations, for the Jewish National Home. The other State, Israel, has a population of over four million, of which one sixth is Arab. It contains less than 1/5 of the territory originally allocated to the Jews under the Mandate…. It cannot be said, therefore, that the Arabs of Palestine are lacking a state of their own. The demand for a second Palestinian Arab State in Western Palestine, and a 22nd Arab State in the world, is merely the latest attempt to push Israel back into the hopelessly vulnerable armistice lines of 1949."
Peres had expressed similar views to Netanyahu, telling the Jewish Telegraph on 19 April 1991:
”It is not obstinacy to regard the populations of Jordan, the West Bank and Gaza as having greater similarities than differences. The Jordan River is not deep enough to turn into a knife blade serving to cut one piece of territory into three slices. Most of Jordan's population are Palestinians: the residents of the West Bank are Jordanian citizens and Jordan has distributed tens of thousands of passports to residents in the Gaza Strip. Jordan is therefore an existing State. It has an army. There is therefore no need to set up another State, another army."
Clinton also spoke movingly of his relationship with assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin:
“the saddest day of my presidency was the day prime minister Rabin lost his life ... never a week goes by, even now, that I don’t think of him ..."
Clinton had apparently not thought about Rabin's vision of peace and reconciliation expressed in the Knesset on 5 October 1995 – just a few weeks before his untimely death.

In presenting the Israeli-Palestinian Interim Agreement on the West Bank and Gaza Strip for ratification – Rabin declared:
"We are striving for a permanent solution to the unending bloody conflict between us and the Palestinians and the Arab states.
In the framework of the permanent solution, we aspire to reach, first and foremost, the State of Israel as a Jewish state, at least 80% of whose citizens will be, and are, Jews.
At the same time, we also promise that the non-Jewish citizens of Israel – Muslim, Christian, Druze and others – will enjoy full personal, religious and civil rights, like those of any Israeli citizen. Judaism and racism are diametrically opposed.
We view the permanent solution in the framework of State of Israel which will include most of the area of the Land of Israel as it was under the rule of the British Mandate, and alongside it a Palestinian entity which will be a home to most of the Palestinian residents living in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.
We would like this to be an entity which is less than a state, and which will independently run the lives of the Palestinians under its authority. The borders of the State of Israel, during the permanent solution, will be beyond the lines which existed before the Six Day War. We will not return to the 4 June 1967 lines."
Alas, the visions of Rabin, Peres and Netanyahu were overtaken by the illusions of Oslo and the Roadmap, turning a backroom deal between Israel and the PLO – engineered by Peres – into a diplomatic nightmare and a political disaster.

Clinton still clings to the wreckage of an outdated and rejected proposal Peres helped revive – the creation of a second Arab state in Palestine for the first time ever in recorded history.

Clinton needs to articulate the earlier credible alternatives expressed by his dear friends and visionary heroes – Peres and Rabin – supported by their political opponent, Netayahu.

Jordan needs to become directly involved in turning their long standing visions into reality – if the Jewish-Arab conflict is to be peacefully resolved.

Indeed many Arab leaders including Yasser Arafat, King Abdullah 1, King Hussein and Crown Prince Hassan have expressed similar sentiments to Peres, Rabin and Netanyahu.

All the money in the world would not be enough to pay Clinton if he could turn  their combined visions into a permanent agreement.'

Thursday 20 June 2013

"Political Correctness Will Kill The West": An Israeli Scholar's Warning To America (videos)

Here's Israeli academic Dr Mordechai Kedar, an Arab studies specialist celebrated for his tough talking about the history and status of Jerusalem (see, for instance, here), talking in the United States a few months ago, and stressing that although many in America are oblivious, the jihadism that's pitted against Israel ("Israel is surrounded by jihadists") is also targetting the United States ("The war is not only on Israel; the war is also here" and what has been happening in Europe will be replicated in America, which is lagging fifteen years behind Europe).  In the second video he explains the concept of immigrarion in Islam, which he says is carried out "inch by inch, town by town" in order to impose Islam on the host countries; "If America does not watch it, it will be in the situation Europe is today," and within the lifetimes of most people now living.  If Israel is "sacrificed to appease the crocodile," the crocodile will be ever more hungry.  And unless the Western birthrate rises, we will sentence our civilisation to oblivion :



This is a must-heed speech!
Note, incidentally, his remarks regarding the necessity for Middle East-based journalists to be familiar with the languages of the area (Jeremy Bowen, that includes you, mate!) ...

Wednesday 19 June 2013

Egyptian Politician Makes Blood Libel (video)

Here's a Memri.org video showing truly appalling remarks made last month by Khaled Zaafrani, founder of Egypt's Justice and Progress Party:

 (Hat tip: reader Rita)

In Sydney, "Hands Off Syria Rally" Spews Hatred Against Israel (video)

In Sydney this month, supporters of President Assad held a "Hands Off Syria Rally":
Hands off Syria group in Sydney has organised a peaceful rally today in Sydney with the following objectives:
1. Protest Australian Foreign Affairs Minister Bob Carr's open and shameless political support for the imperialist proxy war against Syria!
2. Protest Australian government's record of blindly parroting Washington's propaganda line against Syria!
3. Protest both the moral and material support for extremist terrorist groups in Syria by the United States and its regional allies!
4. Protest the double standards inherent in Australian foreign policy as seen lately by Australia's failure to condemn Israel's recent act of naked aggression against Syria when the IDF attacked Damascus earlier this month! 
The following video shows a female speaker spewing invective against the United States, Israel and Zionists:


Incidentally, also addressing the crowd was that veteran of the BDS movement, Father Dave Smith:


Meanwhile, the UK-based Shia English-language AhlulBayt News Agency (whose television station, operative since 2009, aims to "show the true, undistorted nature of Islam and Islamic civilization to the West") reports:
'Palestinian Hamas movement has called on the Lebanese resistance movement, Hezbollah to quit the fight against militants in Syria.
Hamas' political bureau said in a statement that Hezbollah’s involvement in Syria has caused “sectarian strife.” 
Hezbollah Secretary-General Seyyed Hassan Nasrallah recently said the Lebanese resistance movement's presence in Syria is aimed at defending the Syrian and Lebanese people against extremists.
Nasrallah said there is an American, Israeli and Takfiri project to destroy not only Syria but the entire region.
Hezbollah chief went on to say that foreign intervention in neighboring Syria began before the resistance movement got involved in the conflict.
Nasrallah noted that most Syrians support their government, but ironically tens of thousands of militants are sent to the Arab country from undemocratic states in the region to allegedly fight for democracy.
He also emphasized that Hezbollah will not change its position on Syria in the face of threats.
“The world is coming to fight in Syria with their money, with their weapons, and with their media,” Nasrallah added....
UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said on June 13 that at least 93,000 people have been killed since the outbreak of the foreign-sponsored militancy against the Syrian government.
In May, Syrian President Bashar al-Assad said militants from 29 different countries are fighting against the government in different parts of the country.'
Here's what a convention in Egypt attended by Wahhabi clerics has to say regarding the current situation in Syria.

Tuesday 18 June 2013

With Due Regard For Ramadan, Quaker Israel-Haters Sow Their Vile Oats

I've mentioned before that I attended a Quaker liberal arts college in the United States, and admire the historic record of the Society of Friends in the promotion of gender and racial equality as much as I regard their pacifism as naively dangerous and deplore their contemporary slide into a foolish politically left mindset that in effect gives aid and succour to the enemies of the West.

I blogged some time ago about the "Boycott Derangement Syndrome" that infects Britain's Quakers.

Alas, the Quakers have again demonstrated their capacity for malice and mischief with the American Friends Service Committee due to hold (28 July-1 August) a "Summer BDS Institute for Student Leaders" in upstate New York in which college students will be given intensive training in holding campus boycotts against Israel.  This vile initiative is supported by Jewish Voices for Peace,founded in California in 1996, which as the ADL has pointed out,
'is the largest and most influential Jewish anti-Zionist group in the United States....
In the past few years, JVP has become a leader in the American anti-Israel movement and has assumed a particularly visible role in the renewed Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) campaign against Israel.... Although JVP focuses on boycott and divestment campaigns that specifically target Israeli settlements and the "occupation," the group notes that it supports more radical BDS campaigns that call for a complete economic, academic and cultural boycott of Israel.... 
JVP, like other prominent Jewish anti-Zionist individuals and groups, uses its Jewish identity to shield the anti-Israel movement from allegations of anti-Semitism and provide it with a greater degree of legitimacy and credibility.  JVP even recognizes its role as such, noting on its Web site that it is "inspired by Jewish tradition" and that the group's Jewish nature gives it a "particular legitimacy in voicing an alternative view of American and Israeli actions and policies" and the ability to distinguish "between real anti-Semitism and the cynical manipulation of that issue."...'
The AFSC website explains that this "fun in a summer camp-like environment" is intended for "All campus activists currently running or hoping to launch BDS campaigns on their campus" and will include: 

"Extensive campaign development coaching
 Grassroots organizing skill building
 Media & Messaging trainings
 Anti-oppression analysis workshops
 Nonviolent direct action planning
 Historical overview of Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions
 Relationship building with activists on campuses nationwide
 Strategy sessions with BDS movement leaders
 Two tracks for existing and new campaigns"


Moreover, "Meal and other accomodations will be made for those observing Ramadan." 

As noted in the Washington Free Beacon:
'An AFSC official said the number of attendees for this year is not yet finalized and said the 2013 program will focus on “call[ing] attention to what is happening in Israel and the occupied Palestinian territories while supporting a just and lasting peace that benefits both Palestinians and Israelis.”....
The AFSC’s Michael Merryman-Lotze, who helped organize the summer program, objected to the argument that the BDS campaign is anti-Semitic.
“We see nothing inherently anti-Semitic in the use of these proven nonviolent tactics nor in the BDS movement as a whole,” said Merryman-Lotze. “Are BDS opponents next going to argue that these same tactics were anti-White in the Jim Crow south and apartheid era South Africa?”
Merryman-Lotze also disputed claims from critics that the campaign has been ineffective.
“Why, if BDS is ineffective and largely a failure, have the Israeli government and groups like the ADL, the Wiesenthal Center, and AIPAC invested millions of dollars in developing campaigns to counter minimally funded grassroots BDS activism?” said Merryman-Lotze. “If our efforts are ineffective, why write a story about our planned training program? The answer is that BDS is effective and successful.”...'
Read the rest here

Meanwhile, as reported here,
"Shurat HaDin's American office has been investigating whether the camp violates federal and NYS anti-boycott laws and whether a legal proceeding can be brought against the organizers and participants."
(Hat tip: reader Shirlee)

Monday 17 June 2013

Blood Brothers (video)

I've just been hanging out with a friend who suggested I put this video by Tsvi Misinai on my blog.  No doubt many readers will have already seen it, but for those who haven't, it's an intriguing eye opener.


Read more about Mishinai and his solution for peace here

Here's one Palestinian official who's unlikely to be swayed (read more here and here)

Sunday 16 June 2013

"A Huge [Green] Stain On Germany's Moral Standing"

Writes Benjamin Weinthal in the Jerusalem Post:
'An initiative by Germany’s neo-Nazi NPD party last year in a state parliament to demarcate Israeli products came to light this month and closely resembles the recent Green Party bill that would label Israeli products from settlements.
The revelation last week that an anti-Israel bill from the mainstream left-liberal Green Party in the Federal Bundestag mirrors, in key provisions, the language of a far-right party stirred criticism from Israeli and German experts on modern anti-Semitism.'
He quotes NGO Monitor head Professor Gerald Steinberg of Bar-Ilan University as saying:
"This alliance between the Greens and the far Right to promote blatant double standards is a huge stain on Germany’s moral standing. Duplicitous product labeling is the thin wedge of the BDS [Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment] movement, and central to the Durban strategy of political warfare and demonization that targets Israel."
And he quotes Dr Efraim Zuroff, head of the Simon Wiesenthal’s Jerusalem office, thus:
"The fact that a mainstream German party initiates such a measure is a sad reflection of the distorted view of Middle East politics so common in recent years in the political discourse regarding Israel in certain circles of the Federal Republic. In that respect we see an unfortunate growing erosion of the traditional German support for the Jewish state which is part of a dangerous tendency in elements of German society and certain intellectual circles to extricate Germany from its moral obligations in the wake of the Holocaust. The initiative by the Green Party to have all products produced in the disputed territories is clearly short-sighted and counterproductive and will not help bring Israelis and Palestinians any closer to real and lasting peace."
Read all of Weinthal's article here

Meanwhile, Sydney academic Professor Jake Lynch and his supporters have been cautioned that their proposed severance of links with Israeli institutions of higher learning contravenes Australian anti-discrimination legislation:
'According to NSW Solicitor Andrew Hamilton of Shurat HaDin – Israel Law Center, the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement has been recognized as anti-Semitic by leading authorities such as the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) in the United States, and in a report recently released by the Simon Wiesenthal Center.
In the letters Hamilton pointed out that the Racial Discrimination Act of 1975 made it "unlawful for a person to do any act involving a distinction, exclusion, restriction of preference based on race... national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of any human right or fundamental freedom in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life."
Hamilton also warned that any "successful" boycott of Israel was illegal under the Competition and Consumer Act of 2010 if they damage the businesses they target, and that as a result parties could be investigated by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission and face legal action for damages....
Lynch [et al] seek to impose restriction on those having Israeli and Jewish national, racial or ethnic origins, whether these are goods, services , persons and organizations. The participants of the BDS movement clearly seek to violate freedoms guaranteed by federal law," Hamilton said.'
Read more here (hat tip: reader Ian)

And here's an encouraging development!

Friday 14 June 2013

Still Meshugge After 65 Years (video)

On 9 June, in New York, Neturei Karta adherents rallied to hear in-house invective against the State of Israel:


Oy!

Antisemitic Egyptian Islamist Scapegoats Jews (video)

More Islamic Jew-hatred.  Here, from Memri.org, is a grossly offensive skit that appeared on Egyptian television a few days ago:


 Hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog

Thursday 13 June 2013

BBC's Buddy: "Whoever Fights America & Its Enterprise In The Region, & Whoever Fights Israel & The American Occupation, Is Not Considered A Terrorist By Me” (video)

Here's one of the BBC's favourite pundits, their old mate Abdel Bari Atwan, who's welcome in the BBC  studio despite having said that were Iranian missiles to strike Israel he'd dance for joy in Trafalgar Square, explaining jovially to an Egyptian interviewer why Osama Bin Laden was "only half a terrorist".


 (Memri.org video; hat tip: BBCWatch)

Trampling Over A Little Country: Bonkers in Belgium

“Europe is being used in the conflict [against Syria] as a tool in the hands of Israel, the rogue state.”  So declares maverick Belgian politician Laurent Louis, like Britain's George Galloway an obsessive denigrator of Israel, as this speech suggests.

Young Louis is on this footage inveighing against Israel at a pro-Assad rally a few days ago outside the Israeli Embassy in Brussels.  Note the plethora of Hezbollah flags, one of which he grasped.

Shamefully, Louis (who perhaps knows on which side his political bread is buttered, given the increase of Islamic, and Islamic antisemitic, influences in Belgium, a trend described here and here) joined in trampling on the Israeli flag, which afterwards (as seen below) was set alight.



To date, a petition demanding his suspension from Parliament has at the time of writing attracted nearly 3500 signatures. See it (together with the above picture plus others) here

Wednesday 12 June 2013

The Nub Of The Matter: A British Muslim on Israel & the Palestinians

“How do you relinquish control when there’s a virulent Jihadist ideology and many Muslim leaders outside the region who say that not only shouldn’t Israel be recognized, but it shouldn’t be there at all?”

That question regarding Israel's presence in the Disputed Territories, came out of the mouth of a British Muslim physician of Pakistani heritage, Dr Qanta Ahmed, who visited Israel in May.

Observes an article by Evelyn Gordon in Commentary magazine picking up on the interview Dr Ahmed gave to Ha'aretz:
'[Although] Ahmed, whose parents became refugees when the 1947 partition of India and Pakistan sent 10 to 12 million people fleeing in both directions (the Ahmeds fled to Pakistan) .... understands how wrenching refugeehood can be, she’s seen her own parents create new lives–and “I also see how people came to Israel, some of them barely surviving the Holocaust, to a land where they were not used to the climate and where they had no family, and yet somehow managed to build this extraordinary, complicated nation.”
While she never says it explicitly, the implication is clear: The Palestinians’ current plight is due less to Israel’s creation than to their own insistence on living in the past, and Arab countries’ insistence on keeping them there. Instead of building new lives for themselves as other refugees have done, they clung to the dream of eradicating Israel and “returning” to its territory–a dream that has precluded peace for 65 years now, and shows no sign of dying. In 2011, for instance, the PLO’s ambassador to Lebanon asserted that a Palestinian state would still deny citizenship to all Palestinian refugees, even those already living there, in order to preserve the demand for their “return” to Israel.
Moreover ... this issue shows Israel to be “a just and moral actor,” in sharp contrast to Arab states: While it absorbed the Jewish refugees and allowed them to build new lives, Arab states refused to absorb Palestinians: They denied them citizenship and kept them in squalid camps to preserve them as a weapon against Israel.
Finally, it sheds new light even on “the occupation.” Ahmed, for instance, considers it unjustified, but admitted there’s no obvious alternative: “How do you relinquish control when there’s a virulent Jihadist ideology and many Muslin leaders outside the region who say that not only shouldn’t Israel be recognized, but it shouldn’t be there at all?” That’s a problem too few Westerners are willing to acknowledge. Yet the refugee issue highlights this ongoing desire to eradicate Israel....'
Read Evelyn Gordon's entire piece here

Colonel Richard Kemp On Fighting Israel's Fight (video)

"Israel's right ... to exist must be taken for granted, but I would vehemently defend Israel's right to defend herself.  It is essential that we stand up against the conspiracy of delegitimisation and counter the increasing trend appeasement of those who wish to bring Israel down..."

Colonel Richard Kemp, former commander of the British forces in Afghanistan, receiving a human rights award from the American Jewish Committee, makes a rousing speech in this ShalomTV video:

Tuesday 11 June 2013

British Christians Countering Anti-Israel Claptrap

The latest post from that most welcome organisation Christian Middle East Watch concerns the insidious Israel-undermining initiative "The Balfour Project" (whose mainstays include, tellingly enough for what the ladies and gentlemen of the Project have in mind regarding the Balfour Declaration's anniversary in 2017), the now UK-based John Bond, ex-secretary of the National Sorry Day Committee, Australia.

Inter alia, the post observes:
'The Balfour Project makes use of several revisionist articles to claim that Britain needs to apologise to both Jews and Arabs for its historical "balagan" (Arab for a proper foul-up), but betrays itself as another attempt at delegitimisation by its own strap-line "Contributing to justice, peace and reconciliation in the Middle East". As soon as you see the words "justice", "peace", "reconciliation" and "Middle East" in the same sentence, you know you are facing another attempt to denigrate and delegitimise the state of Israel.
The Balfour Project has already started holding meetings around the UK and while, to their credit, their meeting in Winchester included speakers opposed to the aims of the Project, most of the speakers and writers involved are also heavily connected to the BDS and delegitimisation movements, including Rev Stephen Sizer, Prof Ilan Pappe and others.
The Balfour Project aims to make sufficient impact in Britain that the Government will be forced into an apology for the Balfour Declaration on its centenary in 2017. This apology is not needed, will not contribute to peace or justice and will not diminish the depth of feelings for and against Israel. The Balfour Project claims it does not deny the right of Israel to exist, but Rabbi Dan Cohen-Sherbok threw a spanner in the works in his speech at the Project's meeting in Winchester by pointing out that if the Balfour Declaration should not have been made then does that mean that the Jews should not have been offered a homeland and that Israel should not exist today?'  (Read more here)
Meanwhile, the following, by Ian G, is cross-posted from The Almond Rod blog, and is a sequel to this cross-post:

Developing Christian Zionism, my next steps. Between the wars, 1967-73.

In 1967, I was a young Christian who had much to learn about the scriptures and even more to learn about Israel and Zionism. I would not have used that term then, but as I have already indicated here , the basics were already in place. I still had to survive school, a gap-year, discover what I really wanted to do and get into college. It would be misleading to say that Israel was at the forefront of my thinking.

For me, as for many, it is only when those years were looked at in retrospect that we realised what had been happening. What seemed like an intensely personal journey, which it was, turned out to be road on which many others were also travelling. Sometimes called 'The Jesus Movement' what had happened was actually a unique form of revival. In the past, Christian revivals have always been associated with places and spread from there. This time it took place across a generation. Roughly between the Israeli wars, a generation came to faith in Jesus Christ in a radical (proper sense - not political), evangelical and charismatic way. Denominational barriers came crashing down, and were viewed by many as irrelevant.

In 1967 a great many Christians were looking at their Bibles and wondering what is was they were witnessing. For me, as for many, these words of Jesus were taking on a new significance: “From the fig tree learn its lesson: as soon as its branch becomes tender and puts out its leaves, you know that summer is near.

Now there are many who argue that is nothing to do with current day Israel and some of them are conservative evangelical Christians. But there were and are a great many Christians who looked at the state of the world and began to wonder if these were truly the end-times.

(Before anyone posts saying the last days started with Pentecost, I know that. The question is are we reaching the end of the last days?)

We had only just begun to emerge from the shadow of WW2, the Korean War had ground to a halt, the Vietnam war was rumbling on and we had survived the Cuba crisis. Most people of my age were too young to understand the Cuba crisis, but everyone a few years older and paying attention was scared witless.

The vast armies and massive devastation of the apocalyptic books of the Bible began to look a lot less symbolic.

We were beginning to realise that we were looking at a series of 'firsts'. For the first time in history we had the capability of destroying not only ourselves but everything else as well. The end of the world was suddenly nigher than we wanted it to be. For the first time we had the ability to translate the scriptures into every language on the planet and for the first time the gospel could be preached to every nation even without going there by Radio and TV.  (The internet was in its infancy so very few knew about it and the Web was decades away.)

And of course, the big first, the clincher for many bible-believing Christians, was the emergence of the Nation of Israel in the Land and it kept on surviving wars where human reason expected that it would be destroyed. Not only that, Israel was gaining territory!

Then, we began to hear of Jews coming to believe that Jesus was the Messiah. I know that Jewish readers will have their own opinions about this last one and I will have to examine it another time.  Suffice it to say, for the moment, that the Early Christians (all Jews) decided that Gentiles did not have to become Jews in order to join the Church. Similarly, there is no reason why a Jew should magically cease to be a Jew when joining the Church. After all, Jesus is a Jewish Messiah.

Of course, it didn't work out like that historically and there are knotty issues even today. I will explore these in other posts. 

Finally, those Christians who take an interest in such matters began to realise that devout Jews were beginning to look for the coming of the Messiah. We were beginning to see some sort of understanding, a lessening of hostility and a common hope. The only difference was over one word. Christians are also looking for the (second) coming of the Messiah.

Unpacking that one word should be interesting.

Post Script

Shortly after the '67 conflict, I read Obadiah as part of my daily devotions. As a result, I concluded that some sort of conflict in Lebanon was to be expected. That one is still working itself out! I still think that Israel will have to create some sort of protected zone for the Lebanese people who want to live in peace and are also in danger from Israel's enemies, rather like the Kurds were given in Saddam's Iraq.'

Monday 10 June 2013

"Why Are They Being Foolishly Anti-Israel?": Caroline Glick On The Strange Ways Of American Jewish Lefties

Here is the Jerusalem Post's most popular columnist, talking at that paper's conference this year; her topic is the lamentable attitude of left-liberal American Jews, including Peter Beinart, regarding Israel, and what should be the response to it.
(Hat tip: reader Ian)

Destroying Israel is the goal of the BDS Movement, with its "deranged, demented perception of Israel," she rightly points out, while talking of musician Roger Waters.

So it's pleasant to be reminded that some show business personalities actually love to visit Israel, as explained in this article.

"An Answer To The Flotilla": French Pilots Supporting Israel (includes video)

Parlez-vous française?  If so, you'll find the following example of support for Israel by over 40 non-Jewish French pilots of small aircraft, who've been visiting the Jewish State,  a welcome relief: from negativity (if your French is rusty, click here):
'Dix-sept avions légers ont atterri en Israël, transportant 46 pilotes français et des membres d’équipage, venus pour soutenir le peuple israélien et visiter le pays, dans un geste, que certains considèrent comme une opposition aux activités de la flottille pro-palestinienne.
Ruby Spiegel, Président des Bonds de l’Etat d’Israël de la Belgique :
« Nous avons pris soin d’avoir une permission spéciale pour voler à l’intérieur d’Israël, de Haïfa à Massada. Massada est un point très attractif de débarquement pour les pilotes. Lorsque l’altimètre fonctionne en sens inverse, c’est quelque chose que seul un pilote peut comprendre. »
Ce groupe de pilotes sera en visite en Israël quelques jours, visitant les lieux saints et terminant leur voyage par un vol spécial à Massada, l’un des sites historiques d’Israël et le plus bas aérodrome sur terre.
Yigal Merav, Webmaster de AOPA Israël :
« Nous avons pris soin d’avoir une permission spéciale pour voler à l’intérieur d’Israël, de Haïfa à Massada. Massada est un point très attractif de débarquement pour les pilotes. Lorsque l’altimètre fonctionne en sens inverse, c’est quelque chose que seul un pilote peut comprendre. »
Nick Haze, Co-pilote :
« Je suis impatient de visiter tous les principaux sites, Jérusalem, Tel Aviv, nous allons visiter toutes les attractions principales ces trois prochains jours et apprendre autant que possible. »
Patrice Leclerc, Pilote français :
« Nous avons parcouru un long chemin avec ces avions et ces avions ne vont pas très vite, mais c’est un voyage intéressant. C’est très rare, je suppose, que des avions légers comme ceux-là viennent vous voir et je m’attends à ce que de plus en plus de gens viennent ici comme nous le faisons aujourd’hui. »
 L’initiative a été bien accueillie par les responsables israéliens et français, qui estiment que cela peut aider à changer l’image d’Israël dans le monde entier....'
Read more here (hat tip: reader Rita)


Blunt Ambition: Radical Islamists State Their Views

"One day we will liberate Jerusalem from the Jews"
"Jerusalem is Arab land, and it must become Arab territory again."
So (hat tip: Vlad Tepes blog) declare Egyptian participants in the Global March To Jerusalem filmed on  footage here

And last week in Ramallah:
'Chanting slogans in favor of the restoration of the Caliphate, the Muslim fundamentalists called on Islamic armies to "march toward Palestine to liberate the Aqsa Mosque and the rest of Palestine."
The fundamentalists also shouted slogans in support of the jihadi terrorists engaged in the fight against Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime.
Baher Saleh, a senior Hizb-ut-Tahrir official, told the crowd that it was time for Muslim armies to "liberate the Aqsa Mosque from the hands of the filthy Jews."
For footage of the Ramallah rally, held on the 92nd anniversary of the demise the Caliphate, click here, and read more here

Meanwhile, in Gaza, Christian schoolchildren are disadvantaged:


 And across the border, in Egypt, their Coptic counterparts live a nightmare.

Here are Islamists in Australia telling of where their loyalties lie and what they think of the murder of Drummer Rigby.

Interesting Vlad Tepes post here

Sunday 9 June 2013

"You Don't Look Like A Soldier To Me, You Look Like A Bloody Jew": A British MP To An IDF Soldier (video)

Here's Tory MP Patrick Mercer confiding to a BBC "Panorama" reporter something he said on a recent visit to Israel:


(Hat tip: Jean Vercors)

Friday 7 June 2013

"Jews Can Be Profoundly Stupid About Their Own Security": An Orthodox rabbi on the need to confront Islamic antisemitism

"The American Jewish world has not learned a blessed thing since the 1930s," declares the delightfully droll Rabbi Dr Gerald Meister (an activist in Jewish-Christian dialogue who passed away earlier this year) on this recently uploaded video, filmed in 2012 following his address to Christian Zionists in Nashville.  He cites Anglo-Jewry, "the Reform Jewish Establishment" and the American Jewish Congress, American Jewish Commitee, and the ADL as being among those he believes harbour a "typical Diaspora mentality" which consists of thinking that if the enemy is cosied up to, the threat it poses will dissipate.  "Silence does not make the problem go away.  If we offend certain people, it is only because we have been offended."



Click here for a tub-thumping pro-Israel address by the former American Ambassador to the UN warning that, however much some might assume otherwise, more and more radical Islamist regimes are coming to power, predicting  a West-threatening nuclear arms race in the Middle East ensuing upon Iran's acquisition of The Bomb, and declaring that a pre-emptive strike on enemy nuclear reactors is self-defence and that the United States must stand by Israel in whatever decision Israel takes.


(Incidentally, kudos to Ian G's Christian pro-Israel blog for posting this video in which a British Muslim courageously tells the truth about anti-Zionism and antisemitism.)

"A One-Sided Mandate That Finds Israel Guilty In Advance": UN Double Standards & Richard Falk (video)

A typically great video by the marvellous Geneva-based UN Watch:
'Top UN Human Rights Council official Richard Fak is furiously lobbying the 47-nation body to "investigate" UN Watch in retaliation for what he calls a "smear campaign" that sparked a firestorm of world leaders condemning the anti-Israel oficial. Falk's new report to the Council opens with a scathing and unprecedented attack on UN Watch, which he accuses of "demeaning" and "defaming" his character, and of "diverting attention" from his message.'
  Hat tip: reader Ian

Thursday 6 June 2013

Brisbane BDSers Bark & Bellow (video)

A middle-aged bloke in an acubra hat and a sprinkling of elderly women, one of whom attempts to interest a cop in a supermarket in literature demonising the Jewish State as he comes to put a stop to their antics, are among the mainly young assortment of BDS fanatics slandering Israel and making nuisances of themselves in Brisbane on one of their days out on the town to inveigh against Israeli "apartheid," "genocide," and "colonisation":


Hat tip: reader Shirlee

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Waking Up To Reality

"I think we need to wake up to the reality," says British Islamic extremist Anjem Choudary towards the end of this video, in which he vents shocking views towards non-Muslims in the wake of Drummer Rigby's murder.

He's right of course, we do need to wake up to reality, but not in the way he means. (See, by the way, this pertinent article re double standards in Britain towards the stirring up of racial hatred.)


On the very day that it's revealed that the Australian Minister for Immigration was kept in the dark for eight months about the fact that an illegal immigrant being held in a not highly secure family detention centre is a convicted member of Egyptian Islamic Jihad, comes this article regarding the ostrich-like stance of American officialdom towards the jihadist terror threat:

"Why has the U.S. government called certain Islamic groups supporters of terror in federal court, and then turned around and called these same organizations “moderates” and embraced them as outreach partners? In a number of cases from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations, the leaders of these organizations (some of whom are now in federal prison) were under active investigation at the same time they were meeting with senior U.S. leaders at the White House and the Capitol and helping develop U.S. policy. Now these same Islamic organizations and leaders have openly encouraged a purge of counterterrorism training that have effectively blinded law enforcement, homeland security, and intelligence agencies to active terror threats as seen in the inaction of the FBI concerning the Boston bombing suspects and other terror cases. This study poses serious questions as to the efficacy and even security concerns about U.S. government outreach to Islamic groups, which often turn out to be Islamist militants, enemies of Islamic moderation, and even supporters of terrorism"
 Read the disturbing rest here

On rather different note,  regarding Arab media antisemitism, please sign this petition

(For a whacky example of Iranian antisemitism see Ian G's blog here)

"The Jeu de Paume Honours Killers Of Jews"

This is a guest blog by M. Jean Vercors, from France, whose photographs with captions formed the substance of this post last year.

Writes Jean Vercors:

The Jeu de Paume in Paris is one of that city's most important exhibition spaces dedicated to photography, video, installation, and other image-based arts. Located on the edge of the Jardin des Tuileries, adjacent to the Musée de l'Orangerie, the Jeu de Paume regularly hosts exhibits highlighting important 20th and 21st century photographers, video artists, or performance artists.

From 28 May until 1 September 2013 the Jeu de Paume is honouring a photography exhibit from Palestinian militant Ahlam Shibli.

http://www.hatjecantz.de/controller.php?cmd=detail&titzif=00003576&lang=en
 An apology for terrorism

 Here (in French, with English version following it) is my letter to the museum.

 Paris, le 29 mai 2013

 Madame La Directrice Marta Gili

 Le musée du Jeu de Paume connu dans le monde et subventionné par Le Ministère de la Culture propose depuis le 28 mai au 1 septembre 2013 à  ses visiteurs, une exposition de la photographe Palestinienne Ahlam Shibli.

 Cette exposition « Foyer Fantôme » est constituée de 68 photographies de portraits de terroristes palestiniens, tous membres des brigades des martyrs d'Al Aksa, organisation classée terroriste par Israël, les USA et l’Union Européenne

 Cette exposition met en avant la mémoire entretenue par des familles palestiniennes de ces hommes et femmes morts dans de nombreux attentats-suicide commis contre des civils israéliens.

 Les légendes qui accompagnent chaque photo reprennent systématiquement la terminologie du culte de la mort: « martyr mort en opération ».

 Le musée de paume honore des tueurs de Juifs.

En cautionnant une telle exposition qui est à mes yeux pure propagande anti Israélienne, celle-ci ne peut que produire d’autres tueurs de Juifs comme Mohamed Merah à Toulouse.

la propagande désigne un ensemble d’actions psychologiques influençant la perception publique des événements, des personnes ou des enjeux, de façon à endoctriner ou embrigader une population et la faire agir et penser d’une manière voulue. Et c’est exactement ce que fait cette exposition.

Une telle exposition exaltant du sacrifice humain et les attentats suicides,

Equivaut à faire « L’apologie du terrorisme » ou « l’appel à la haine et à la violence émanant de certains photographes militants.

 Merci de bien vouloir me faire part de vos commentaires sur cette exposition.

 Veuillez croire, Madame la directrice, à mes salutations distinguées.
Jean Vercors

 NB/Copie traduite et envoyée aux Medias US, Canadiens, Anglais, Australiens et Israéliens


Paris, May 29, 2013

 Madam Director Marta Gili

 The Jeu de Paume a well known museum in the world subsidized by The French  Ministry of Culture has since May 28 to September 1, 2013 offered visitors, an exhibition of Palestinian photographer Ahlam Shibli.

This "Phantom home" exhibition consists of 68 photographs of portraits of Palestinian terrorists, all members of the brigades of Al Aqsa Martyrs, ranked terrorist organization by Israel, the U.S. and the European Union

This exhibition highlights the memory maintained by Palestinian families of these men and women who died in numerous suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.

The captions that accompany each photo automatically resume terminology death cult "martyred in operation."

The Jeu de Paume honours killers of Jews.

Endorsing such an exhibition is to my eyes pure anti-Israeli propaganda, it can only produce MORE killers of Jews as Mohamed Merah in Toulouse.

Propaganda is a set of psychological operations affecting the public perception of events, people or issues in order to indoctrinate and indoctrinate the population and to think and act in a desired manner. And that's exactly what this exhibition does.

Such an exhibition of human sacrifice and suicide bombings, equals  to "The glorification of terrorism" or "incitement to hatred and violence by some activist photographers.

 I’ll appreciate your thoughts about this.

 Kind regards,
Jean Vercors

Update: William Goldnadel, a well-known French Jewish lawyer, has written an Open Letter to the Minister of Culture: see here