"Congress Should Make It Clear That It Does Not Support This Deal"

I spotted this cartoon on Bruce's blog, and thought it very apt.

Meanwhile, the Washington, DC-based Emergency Committee for Israel has given a short stark warning:

"The Geneva Agreement is a defeat for the United States and the West. It fails to uphold even the minimum demand of repeated U.N. Security Council resolutions that Iran must stop enriching uranium. For the next six months, the centrifuges will not be dismantled and will continue to spin, uranium will be enriched, the 20 percent enriched uranium will stay in Iran, and a reactor designed to produce bomb-ready plutonium will remain just months away from completion. Iran will continue its march to nuclear weapons, with perhaps a brief pause in some parts of the program -- but it will be a pause that refreshes, since Iran will be rewarded right away with significant sanctions relief, with the additional likelihood that the rest of the sanctions regime will begin to crumble.

Congress should make clear that it does not support this deal. Congress should make clear that just because the Obama administration seems to have taken all our options off the table, our allies need not follow us down this futile path of accommodating the Iranian regime's nuclear ambitions. In particular, Congress should make clear the United States will support Israel if Israel decides she must act to prevent a regime dedicated to her destruction from acquiring the means to do so." (Emphasis added]

The Lynch Mob Goes Gallic: "Nous souhaitons vous communiquer...notre soutien au Pr. Jake Lynch"

My previous post concerns a despicable victory for the loathsome academic boycott of Israel in America, and now, I learn, Sydney's BDS-promoting Professor Jake Lynch has a French fan club.

Here, in translation, is a billet doux in his honour, sent by a bunch of Israel-bashing "intellectuels, enseignants et chercheurs français" to the Australian Ambassador to France:

"We, French teachers, academics, researchers and intellectuals, wish to inform you of our support for Prof. Jake Lynch (of Sydney University), who has been subjected to legal proceedings by Israel, for refusing to collaborate with the Israeli occupier.

The lack of sanctions against Israel at government level to enforce international law and stop the Israeli occupation and colonisation, leads responsible citizens of every country to support the BDS (Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions) campaign, demanded by the Palestinian civil society.

Any self-respecting intellectual has even more moral duties in this domain, inasmuch as she/he has the potential for knowledge and reflection, allowing her/him to act for the defence of Human Rights and against barbarism.

We are pleased that no Australian organisation or institution joined in these slanderous attacks launched by Israel against Prof. Jake Lynch, Director of Sydney University’s Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies (CPACS).

Incidentally, these attacks deny the freedom of expression and opinion to an academic all the more respected because he has been acting as did before him the men and women who made possible the abolition of segregation in the United States, during the African American struggle for black civil rights, and in South Africa during Apartheid.

Reminder : In 2009, Professor Lynch wrote to the Australian university authorities, asking them to stop collaborating with the Technion University of Haifa and the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, because of the systematic oppression of the Palestinian people, against which these universities have never protested, despite the fact that the Palestinian academics are the direct victims.

In 2012, Professor Lynch refused the permission to use his name on an application under the Sir Zelman Cowen fellowship program. He refused to sponsor Professor Don Avon of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem which is heavily involved in occupation and colonisation.

For example, this university did not hesitate to extend its campus on Mount Scopus, by stealing Palestinian lands. Furthermore, it supported the students who took part in the massacre of the Gaza population during the 2008-2009 “Cast Lead” operation. It is also involved with the Army Command College and collaborates widely with Israeli arms industries.

It is therefore clear that Prof. Jake Lynch who is perfectly entitled to choose whom he should sponsor, is not guilty of any “discrimination” (one must cease to reverse roles), and that the complaint lodged by the Israeli law firm Shurat HaDin at the Australian Federal Tribunal, is simply an attempt at intimidation. It is to be noted that Prof. Dan Avnon is not a complainant in this case !

Jake Lynch has already received the support of nearly 2,000 intellectuals and academics throughout the world.

As French intellectuals, teachers and researchers, we too were anxious to tell you about our support and our respect for Prof. Jake Lynch."

Read more, and see pictures of a Parisian rally in support of Lynch, here

From an article in the Australian Jewish News earlier this month by academic and B'nai B'rith Anti-Defamation chairman Dr Dvir Abramovich:

More BDS Malignancy Among Academics

To quote from an op ed by BDSer David Lloyd, Distinguished Professor of English at University of Southern California, on the monstrous Electronic Intifada website:

'Something extraordinary happened on Saturday evening at the American Studies Association’s annual meeting in Washington, DC.

At a packed open meeting called by the ASA’s National Executive Council to discuss a resolution to “endorse and honor” the Palestinian call for a boycott of Israeli academic institutions, speaker after speaker rose to express strong support for the resolution.

They urged the council to vote on it without further delay or deferral....

Out of 44 speakers, whose names were submitted in writing and then drawn at random from a box, 37 spoke in favor of the boycott. They ranged from senior professors to graduate students and even undergraduate members of the association. All recalled the association’s fundamental commitment to the study and critique of racism and the US histories of imperialism and settler colonialism.

Many made the connection between Israel as a settler colony and US complicity in politically and materially supporting its colonial projects. In doing so, several remarked that they were members of the association because its commitment to anti-racist and anti-colonial scholarship made it especially hospitable to their work. For them, the connection was self-evident between anti-racist work within the United States and solidarity work with the victims of a settler colonial project that has the fullest support of the United States.

Over and over, speakers refuted the charge that endorsing the boycott is a contradiction that engages in limiting academic freedom in the name of academic freedom. They pointed out that this assertion is simply false, in the face of a campaign of misrepresentation [which] implied that the boycott targets individuals on account of their national belonging or identity.

If anything, the resolution stands to further academic freedom — in particular that of Palestinians whose access to normal scholarly life is continually infringed by occupation, blockade, collective punishment in the form of school closures, and the denial of the fundamental right to travel. No Israeli scholar would be denied the right to express or publish an opinion, attend a conference, do research, or travel wherever they wished....But the most significant thing about this event was that already it showed that engaging in the boycott, and even in discussion of the boycott, is an extension of academic freedom....'

More to read on that sorry saga here
And on the vile Mondoweiss website here

Meanwhile, an "own goal" from a committed BDSer in Britain, a person of Jewish origin (I'm told) whose frequent postings against Israel on Facebook are often breathtaking in their viciousness.

Shortly after posting this

he posted this

(For more academic malignancy see my next post)

Israel's Ambassador Taub Looks On The Sunni Side Of The Iran Deal

Israel's ambassador in London, Daniel Taub, has been speaking to The Independent newspaper about the Geneva deal on Iran:

“Our concern is that this deal doesn’t provide everything that’s necessary. We look at the deal and we see that the entire mechanism, the infrastructure that’s been established, by deceit, under the nose [of the International Atomic Energy Agency] is really left intact. Not a single centrifuge is dismantled, not a single aspect of the Arak plutonium heavy water reactor, not a single aspect of the military aspect of the programme is actually dismantled. It all remains in place.

The 10,200 centrifuge that were spinning on the eve of the agreement will still be spinning on the day after the agreement.

Our fundamental concern is that at the end of this six-month period… Iran is not going to be further away from being a nuclear weapons

state – it might actually be closer to it. We’re troubled by what’s in the agreement; we’re troubled by differences. One of the things that is troubling to us is that within less than a day of the signing of this agreement there seemed to be a fairly fundamental difference of interpretation between Iran and the negotiators over the right of enrichment .... If there’s such a fundamental difference on principle, then what are we going to do when it comes to issues of practice?...."

However, he also told the paper that concern at the prospect of a nuclear Iran on the part of the Sunni states presents Israel with "a moment of opportunity" to forge links.

Read the report here

A Twin For Tower Hamlets

"[I]n 2002, Jenin camp suffered a serious military incursion by the Israeli army during the second Palestinian Intifada or ‘uprising’. Forty percent of the camp was destroyed, many people were killed including non-combatant women and children."

That's an excerpt from the website of the Tower Hamlets Jenin Friendship Association.

In once heavily Jewish but now heavily Muslim Tower Hamlets  the Mayor and his Cabinet have already approved a proposal to twin Tower Hamlets with Jenin, and the following form letter is being sent to councillors from the ruling Labour group ahead of the full council meeting tomorrow:

"Dear Councillor

I am writing to you to ask for your support for the motion to be proposed at the Council meeting on Wednesday, to twin the borough of Tower Hamlets with the Province of Jenin in Palestine.

I believe that such a twinning would be of great mutual benefit to the people in both areas. The Palestinian people of Jenin are reaching out for international relationships and support and in my view the vast majority of people in Tower Hamlets would like to enter into such a relationship. At the same time, this would be of benefit to the people here in Tower Hamlets, as they learn about the lives of the Palestinian people, and our schools, colleges and other community groups can be enriched by the connections made.

Such links can also contribute to the pursuance of social justice in this part of the world, as twinning can provide an expression of hope that one day all the people there, whether they be Muslim, Jewish, Christian, or of no faith, may live together peacefully." 

Can anyone doubt that the call will be heeded?

Israel: Australia's Abbott Sets The Tone

Aussie Foreign Minister Julie Bishop

The Sydney Morning Herald (like its Fairfax stablemate, the Melbourne Age, not a newspaper highly supportive of Israel) reports inter alia:

'The Abbott government has swung its support further behind Israel at the expense of Palestine, giving tacit approval to controversial activities including the expansion of Jewish settlements in the occupied territories.

Acting on instructions from Foreign Affairs Minister Julie Bishop, government representatives at the United Nations have withdrawn Australia's support for an order to stop ''all Israeli settlement activities in all of the occupied territories''....

Former foreign affairs minister Bob Carr described Australia's withdrawal of support for Palestine as ''a shame, in the deepest sense''...'

For "Czechoslovakia" Read "Israel"

The dirty deal of appeasement has of course been done, and the Israel-haters are gloating. 

The great Melanie Phillips closes a characteristicly insightful, and in this case chilling, article on the West's myopic stupidity ("It's 1938 all over again") thus:

"....Rouhani is in any event not the main guy. The west was negotiating with a mere puppet. The only person who matters in Iran is the Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei.

....Khamenei’s regime remains committed to wiping Israel ‘off the page of history’ because of the regime’s deranged, psychopathic hatred of Jews whom it regards as not human at all but, in Khamenei’s recent words, like ‘rabid dogs’.

....The fact that the US, UK and EU casually dismissed such chilling words suggests that they are similarly indifferent to what history tells us is the terrible fate that follows from such words, unless those who utter them are stopped.

But wait.

After the deal was signed, the White House said that

‘Israel has ‘good reason to be skeptical about Iran’s intentions…’

Think about that for a moment. Being ‘sceptical about Iran’s intentions’ means you think it is lying about those intentions. If the White House thinks Israel has good reason to believe Iran is lying, it follows that the White House must also think Iran is lying. If the White House thinks Iran is lying, how could it have done this ‘confidence building’ deal and part-lifted the sanctions regime imposed upon this lying, west-attacking, Jew-hating regime?...."

Read her entire article here
As reported here in a pseudonymous article by a former CIA operative in Iran's Revolutionary Guard (see also here):

'As the world’s 5+1 powers resumed nuclear negotiations with Iran in Geneva on Wednesday, supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei attacked Israel and the U.S., saying the Islamic regime is using those negotiations as a gimmick to get stronger.

(An aspiring MEP, she's the leader of the Welsh Greens)

Khamenei, in a speech to thousands of commanders of the Basij militia, which has been suppressing millions of Iranians seeking freedom from the mullahs’ rule, referred to the negotiations and said: “Some have translated [Iran’s] ‘heroic flexibility’ [in] stepping back from goals and values of the Islamic regime [to achieve a nuclear settlement] and some enemies based on this have claimed retreat by the Islamic Republic....

“The ‘heroic flexibility’ means an artistic maneuver and the use of different tactics to reach different goals and ideals of the Islamic regime,” he said. Stalling tactics for more than a decade have allowed Iran to greatly enhance its nuclear capability, allowing to mobilize as a fully-armed nuclear nation within weeks.

Khamenei had previously supported the negotiations by the regime’s new government under President Hassan Rouhani and talked of “heroic flexibility,” implying that the regime will give up some ability of its nuclear program....

“The holy Quran necessitates this decree for all prophets, faithful and the ordinary people where all of us must answer in the face of our covenant to God,” Khamenei said. “[B]ased on the clear decree in the Quran, this covenant [is] to stand against the enemy in the fronts of military, political and economy and also not back down from the enemy.”

Khamenei called Israel a “rabid dog,” “unclean,” “illegitimate” and “a bastard.”

“The Zionist regime is destined to destruction, because this miserable regime was imposed [on the Middle East] based upon force, and no imposed phenomenon can last,” he said....'

Valdary Goes Viral (video)

And no wonder.  This lovely, self-assured American student, Chloé Simone Valdary, whom we've met before on this blog, here delivers as cogent an indictment of BDS and as ringing an endorsement of the Zionist cause as any that we are likely to hear.  For the background to the video see this site (hat tip: reader Ian)

Rage, Rage, Against The Dhimming Of the Light

Universities.  Seats of learning and, as such, bastions of enlightenment, one would have thought.

Alas.  Far from upholding the principles of Western liberalism and of gender equality (the latter hard won by women in the academy) the vice-chancellors of Britain's universities have surrendered twenty-first century Western norms to the demands of seventh-century Islamic misogyny, by agreeing to gender separation at lectures where speakers demand it.

So long, that is, as the inferior sex is not seen as such by having to sit at the back of the room, as in many Muslim gatherings.

Reports the London Daily Telegraph:

 'Universities can segregate students during debates as long as the women are not forced to sit behind the men, university leaders have said.

Segregation at the behest of a controversial speaker is an issue which arises "all the time” and banning men and women from sitting next to each during debates is a "big issue" facing universities, Universities UK has said.

As a result they have issued guidance which suggests that segregation is likely to be acceptable as long as men and women are seated side by side and one party is not at a disadvantage.

In a new guidance on external speakers, vice-chancellors' group Universities UK says that universities face a complex balance of promoting freedom of speech without breaking equality and discrimination laws.'

Beneath an outraged op-ed from a female columnist in the same paper, one male Islamic apologist has commented tellingly [emphasis added]:

"....You are targeting and attacking Muslims and nothing else. There is nothing 'backwards' about gender segregation. Do men enter women's bathrooms and vice versa? Why do women pray behind men? Because they are 'lower than men??' no because men would be staring at women's asses if they were in front. We muslims (I am a convert to Islam myself not born Muslim, I'm white European) have our reasonings and it is not without rational, you may not like it, but the only ones shuvving [sic] anything down anyone's throat are angry and hateful non-muslims who have beef with Muslims not the other way around. Jews segregate too, but you are not targetting Jews because you would be labelled "anti-semetic" and be losing your job at a newspaper for it, but Muslims are open season."

But these are secular events, not religious ones, taking place in university lecture halls and rooms, not in mosques, and in those circumstances it is utterly unconscionable that university vice-chancellors should cave in to Islamic demands.

Evidently, segregation is fine, so long as it's only women who are being insulted: it's unthinkable that the vice-chancellors would agree to black people being forced to sit apart from white at the behest of some speaker from the Ku Klux Klan, for instance.

Athough I do not usually agree with Richard Dawkins, Peter Tatchell, and Polly Toynbee, I applaud them, and the many other appalled people (some Muslims and ex-Muslims among them) who have put their names to the following petition:

'Universities UK (UUK) has issued guidance on external speakers saying that the segregation of the sexes at universities is not discriminatory as long as “both men and women are being treated equally, as they are both being segregated in the same way.”

UUK add that universities should bear in mind that “concerns to accommodate the wishes or beliefs of those opposed to segregation should not result in a religious group being prevented from having a debate in accordance with its belief system” and that if “imposing an unsegregated seating area in addition to the segregated areas contravenes the genuinely-held religious beliefs of the group hosting the event, or those of the speaker, the institution should be mindful to ensure that the freedom of speech of the religious group or speaker is not curtailed unlawfully.”

We, the undersigned, condemn the endorsement of gender apartheid by Universities UK. Any form of segregation, whether by race, sex or otherwise is discriminatory. Separate is never equal and segregation is never applied to those who are considered equal. By justifying segregation, Universities UK sides with Islamist values at the expense of the many Muslims and others who oppose sex apartheid and demand equality between women and men.

The guidance must be immediately rescinded and sex segregation at universities must come to an end.'

To sign the petition click here

The Hand That Rocks Wikipedia ...

Among the more eyebrow-raising of the referees enlisted by peripatetic – recently in South Korea, he's since been on a lecture tour of Algeria – anti-Zionist crusader the Reverend Stephen Sizer, to convince his diocesan bishop  that, contrary to perceptions by the Board of Deputies of British Jews (among others), he's not antisemitic, is retired aerospace engineer Tony Gratrex.

Mr Gratrex wrote in part in his letter to "Dear Bishop Christopher":

"In the late 1960's I lived close to Dachau whilst working in Munich. This gave me the opportunity to visit the concentration camp there many times.

Each time I visited the camp I would a[l]ways ask myself the same question; what were the Christian Church leaders in Germany doing at this time? The answer was, keeping their heads down most of the time.

Then I found out there were some few like Dietrich Bonhoeffer who didn't. In the early 1980s I was living and working in Israel. It was only then that I became aware of the history of what happened to the Palestinians....

For me Stephen Sizer is another Dietrich Bonhoeffer, but I pray there will be a better outcome.

Oh! the ironies of history."

It hardly takes a Mensa IQ to recognise, and reject, the repellent analogy implied.

A blogpost on Harry's Place stated, inter alia, a couple of years ago,

"Gratrex is an organiser for the Reading Palestine Solidarity Campaign. Reading PSC [which unlike many if not most PSC branches does not shrink from linking on its website to overtly antisemitic material, causing concern even to a prominent anti-Zionist Jew, as seen in this JC blogpost  dating to 2010 and its comments] keeps tabs on the Viva Palestina convoys, and is very supportive of their work.Gratrex has also been a guest speaker at Oxford PSC, attended a branch meeting at Bristol PSC, and was affiliated with the Bristol Convoy of Viva Palestina....

 Here is what Gratrex thinks about “the Jews”, in a comment addressed to Jenny Tonge:

I admire the work you do and am in agreement with virtually everything you say except for your attitude regarding the media.

You state that the jews do not control the media but that it is under self censorship. This is patently wrong and only a cursory glance using the internet will show that a majority of the media is jewish owned or controlled.

During the interview you use the expression “who pays the piper calls the tune” and that is precisely the problem when one considers who controls the international banking system.So Jews control the media, global financing, and the world. [Emphasis added here and below]

Gratrex left the comment on the blog of Alan Hart, a 9-11 truther.

Here’s Gratrex on reading about the Holocaust in an article about an Israeli spy in Germany:

With the mention of the holocaust in this article I can only think again of Norman Finkelsteins book; The Holocaust Industry (Reflections on the Exploitation of Jewish Suffering). How much longer is Israel going to continue to blackmail the world?"

 Another blogpost on Harry's Place, by a different author, subsequently added:

'In the original report, Harry’s Place revealed who Gratrex thought controlled the media and international banking ....

Here’s another comment, not in the original report, that Gratrex left on an overtly anti-Semitic blog:

 Not all adherents to the Torah are enemies of humanity. You are forgetting the Neturei Karta Jews

 Aside from the obvious anti-Semitism of calling all but a tiny handful of Jews “enemies of humanity”, one wonders what attracted Mr Gratrex to this particular blog…'

Reader P, who's supplied me with several screenshots of Sizerisms in the past, has sent me this recent screenshot from Facebook:

Gratrex was commenting following fulminations by Stephen Sizer about changes to his own biographical entry on Wikipedia and on Wikipedia's editing policy:

"I am really sick of the way some people are manipulating my Wikipedia entry. I would be very grateful if some balance could be restored and some of the innuendo, slander and just plain nastiness could be removed or put more constructively ["That unmistakeable odour of Zioslime," commented one of his followers]."

A pro-Palestine activist from Worcester advised that, in response to that lament, he'd logged into Wikipedia to edit Sizer's entry, only to have what he'd written removed:

'....I added information at the end of the "censorship incident" section. I wrote the following:

"Less widely reported is the fact that [Joseph] Weissman’s attacks on Stephen Sizer were conducted from behind multiple anonymous identities and that in addition to his offensive blog (he falsely accused Stephen Sizer of “supporting terrorist activity against Israel”). Weissman himself sought to censor Stephen Sizer’s views, writing letters to organisations hosting Stephen Sizer “demanding that they cancel his appearances”

I used the following two references:

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/.../english-cyberbully.../

 http://seismicshock.wordpress.com/.../richard.../

I have just been back to the page and my addition has gone. I found an edit history section in which it appears that the person who I presume has removed my submission has put a comment alongside the record of their edit as follows "(Are you joking? No, this can't be included)".

Do I simply put it back? Do I complain? What is my next step? Any advice warmly welcomed.'

 Sizer:

"Yes put it back. This is how the Zionist Lobby try to make Wikipedia their private tool of propoganda [sic]."

Reply:

'So I have just seen! The latest message  – accompanied by a warning triangle with exclamation mark.

" Please stop adding unreferenced or poorly referenced biographical content, especially if controversial, to articles or any other Wikipedia page. Content of this nature could be regarded as defamatory and is in violation of Wikipedia policy. If you continue, you may be blocked from editing "....'

 Sizer:

'Take it up the food chain. Threaten to have her blocked for arrogance...

I know of some heavyweight 'friends' about to engage with Wikipedia –  watch this space..." 

Reply:

"My addition has been reinstated again as indicated previously to the censor in a message. I note that she is a very active Wikipedia contributor and so if she were to be blocked herself then I suspect that might hurt. I will pick this up again tomorrow...."

Sizer:

"'Very active Wikipedia contributor' that's how you exert influence - like being a generous donor to a university until they invite a Palestinian guest speaker..."

Sizer again:

"....[E]very initiative puts the Lobby on the defensive. Every proactive step, however small, challenges their position and forces them to be reactive – and remember they are reading this too. Among those who 'follow' me are some known to be working for the Lobby."

Reply:

'I have been back to your wiki entry, Stephen and added the Anthony Julius quote which acknowledges that you reject "any position that threatens the territorial integrity of Israel as a sovereign nation" and describes your work as having “the merit of clearly setting out the issues that divide the two sides, and furthermore doing so without the rancour or sheer nastiness of tone typical of the polemics in the conflict". It might not undo all of the poisonous lies and distortions that have been spewed out but I think it does represent a rational and credible alternative perspective to some of those cluttering up the page.'

Alas and alack!

The official publication date of Anthony Julius's magisterial tome on antisemitism in Britain, Trials of the Diaspora, was May 2010.  Since that date (if not before), Sizer has left on record at least one statement undermining the claim that he 'rejects "any position that threatens the territorial integrity of Israel as a sovereign nation"':

Here's a screenshot:

 Oy!

I wonder why Wikipedia, being allegedly in thraldom to "the Zionist Jews," has so far neglected to add an amendment pointing that out ...

"One Cannot Occupy His Own Home": Naftali Bennett

In this video, already widely seen, the highly articulate Naftali nails it: if Iran is permitted to acquire a nuclear weapon, the entire Middle East will become a "nuclear nightmare".  But he also tells Christiane Armanpour why he won't accept the term "Occupation," and what the Palestinians must do to secure peace with Israel.

Stop Hurting Israel: American pro-Israel group opens a petition

With the slogan "While Israel is negotiating peace ... Europe is hurting Israel," an American pro-Israel organisation has opened a petition, to which as many signatories as possible are obviously sought.  The gist of the petition is:

"The European Commission has adopted Guidelines that ban funding and cooperation with Israeli entities in the West Bank, eastern Jerusalem, the Golan Heights and Gaza. These Guidelines are economic warfare against Israel. They contradict international law and agreements, EU legal precedents, and the EU’s treatment of other nations with disputed territory – and they undermine the peace process. If you believe in fairness, you cannot let this stand."

Implicit in the organisation's initiative is the threat of economic retaliation via a boycott of European goods if the Guidelines are actually enforced.

See more here

"A Legal Victory Will Present A Great Opportunity To Spread The Boycott Campaign Among Australian Academics"

A poster boy from Sussex Friends of Israel

BDS advocate Jake Lynch, Associate Professor of Peace Journalism and Director of the Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Sydney, is a member of the TRANSCEND Network for Peace, Development and Environment, and the chief advisor for TRANSCEND Media Service-TMS. In an online article on the latter's site he's written a detailed article about the lawsuit he's facing from ShuratHaDin and the background to the case:

"The right of academics in Australia to join the boycott of Israel is under threat from Shurat HaDin, an Israeli law centre that has filed suit against me in the Federal Court, under anti-discrimination laws. The ‘Originating application starting a representative proceeding’ accuses me of ‘acts which involve distinction, exclusion, restriction and preference based on the Israeli national and ethnic origin’ and ‘based on the Jewish race’ of ‘goods, services, persons and organisations’.

The court paper is notable, however, for its sparsity in the use of specifics, about what I actually have said and done. I chaired a public meeting at the University of Sydney in 2009, in response to ‘Operation Cast Lead’, the attack on Gaza months earlier. ... Julia Gillard, then Australia’s Deputy Prime Minister ... characterised the attack as no more than ‘Israel exercising its right to defend itself’, and weeks later led a high-level political and business deputation to Tel Aviv.

 Australian diplomacy was positioning itself on the extreme pro-Israeli fringe of world political opinion. In November 2010, by which time Gillard had toppled Rudd and taken his job, Australia was one of just seven countries to oppose a motion at the UN General Assembly, condemning ethnic cleansing in Jerusalem. So, the public meeting at the University was dominated by discussion about what we, the public, could do, to compensate for the dangerous posturing coming out of Canberra....

.....We are gearing up for a vigorous contest in court, and keeping up the pressure to push back political interference with decisions on research funding. A legal victory will present a great opportunity to spread the boycott campaign among Australian academics. My hunch is that there is a large potential constituency, silenced up to now by fear. Our job is to dispel that fear." [Emphasis added]

 Meanwhile (how sweet it is!) read about some spectacular BDS own goals here

Nasties on Video

At the Arc de Triomphe, with a big banner in English, the better, no doubt, to (try to) catch headlines, a bunch of French screamers reacts to the Hollande government's cordiality with Israel:

Another cacophony of hate can be heard in this video of nasties in New York, performing various antics as they protest a fundraiser for the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.

"Lincoln Center, Don't You Know, Brand Israel's gotta go" are among the sentiments chanted by the nasties, drawn from the New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel and other ratbag groups.

Lair of the Jackals

Famous author Frederick Forsyth in his column in the British Daily Express the other day, in the wake of the exhumation of Yasser Arafat and resultant finger-pointing at Israel: "So exactly how did Yasser Arafat get so rich?":

".... I have seen acres of breast-beating journalism about Palestinian misery but never an examination into where all the donated money has gone over the years. For this is certain: Arab donors and a generous non-Arab world have donated many billions to the Palestinian cause.

 For example, since the founding of Israel in 1948 literally billions of pounds have been donated to help Gaza's people have a decent life.

If it had been invested shrewdly and well, Gaza today could be a mini-Monaco. It could have a deepwater freight port, a flourishing fishing port and a leisure harbor crammed with the yachts of wealthy visitors. It could have resort hotels on the sea and farms, ranches and orchards in the hinterland.

It has nothing of these. It is a failed state of poverty, misery and violence. So what happened to all that money?

A lot went on guns, explosives for bombs and material to build rockets to launch at Israel. But the bulk has certainly suffered the fate of most wealth in that neck of the woods.

It has simply been embezzled, not by Israelis but by Palestinians and above all by their leadership cadres.

The donations continue to flow in... and disappear."

(Hat tip: Bruce's MidEast Soundbites)

"France ... Will Do Everything For Peace & For The Safety Of Israel"

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius has won his country praise and affection among Israelis for his part in scuppering John Kerry's proposed deal with Iran in the nick of time.

The feel good factor has extended to French President François Hollande's official visit to Israel, with Netanyahu telling him:

"All of Israel is following your arrival with feelings of love and honest friendship. We respect your stance that a nuclear weapon in Iranian hands poses a danger not only to Israel but to the whole world."

As reported here by Moran Azulay, President Hollande, visiting the Israeli legislature, heard Netanyahu declare:

"In this House I said a few times that I accept the solution of two states for two people, within the frame of real peace, and the resolution of the conflict… Not every member of the Knesset ... agrees with these statements but on one matter most of us are united – for the peace to be real it must be two-way.

You cannot ask Jews to recognize a Palestinian national state without demanding Palestinians recognize a national state for the Jewish People.

 I call Abu Mazen from here: Let's break the freeze, come to the Knesset, I'll come to Ramallah. Come to this stage and recognize the historical truth – the Jews have a connection of close to 4,000 years to the land of Israel.

 The Jews have the right to self-determination,  and in a true peace Palestinian demands of Israel will end ..."

 President Hollande pledged that

"I will always remain a friend of Israel ....

France will not .... concede, and it will do everything for peace and for the safety of Israel.  As long as we are not entirely sure that Iran gave up on a nuclear weapons – we will keep our stance"

 He went on:

".... I come to say in Israel, in the name of France: The friendship between us is firm, more than the passing leaders who come and go, and even more than ups and downs of international life.... [Iran] is a country which itself is the product of a long and magnificent history. We have nothing against the Iranian people, it deserves civil nuclear energy, but we cannot accept that they will have a nuclear weapon because it poses a threat to Israel and other countries in the region and we all know that well: It is a danger to the world....

 I say here in a clear manner that we will continue with the sanctions as long as we are not certain that there is an unequivocal concession by Iran of its nuclear military program."

There is more here
 Hat tip:  Jean Vercors
And here

Palestine – No Elections, No Solutions, observes David Singer

Here's the latest article ("Palestine – No Elections, No Solutions") by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

'The PLO negotiating team – headed by perennial negotiator Saeb Erekat – resigned this week in the middle of a nine month period set aside for intense and secret negotiations with Israel to achieve the creation of a second Arab state – in addition to Jordan – in former Mandatory Palestine.

 PLO Chairman, head of Fatah, unconstitutional self-styled President of the defunct Palestinian Authority and unelected President of the “State of Palestine” Mahmoud Abbas was quick to point out on Egyptian TV:

“Either we can convince it to return, and we’re trying with them, or we form a new delegation.”

Either way – it will be a waste of time.

The “two state solution” posited by these currently stalled negotiations is doomed to failure.

Ramzy Baroud – a Palestinian-American journalist, author and editor who taught Mass Communication at Australia’s Curtin University of Technology, and is Editor-in-Chief of the Palestine Chronicle – explains the futility of further negotiations with the PLO in his article “Why a winning Palestinian narrative is hard to find”:

“In an initially pointless exercise that lasted nearly an hour, I flipped between two Palestinian television channels, al-Aqsa TV of Hamas in Gaza and Palestine TV of Fatah in the West Bank. While both purported to represent Palestine and the Palestinians, each seemed to represent some other place and some other people. It was all very disappointing.

Hamas’ world is fixated on their hate of Fatah and other factional personal business. Fatah TV is stuck between several worlds of archaic language of phony revolutions, factional rivalry and unmatched self-adoration. The two narratives are growingly alien and will unlikely ever move beyond their immediate sense of self-gratification and utter absurdity.”

These irreconcilable differences between Fatah – the dominant faction in the PLO – and Hamas – not a member of the PLO – have remained unresolved since 2007.

In the absence of any unified representation for the Palestinian Arabs living in the West Bank and Gaza - how can any agreement between Israel and the PLO ever bring about a final end to the Arab-Jewish conflict that has raged unresolved for the last 130 years?

Mahmoud Al-Zahar, a Hamas official based in Gaza, told his movement’s daily newspaper –   Al-Resalah – in August this year that Hamas should act to isolate Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and strip him of any representative capacity over his decision to negotiate with Israel.

“The PA has dealt the final blow to reconciliation talks, and Hamas will never accept the negotiation track and its result.”

CBN News confirmed Hamas’s stance on 30 September in its article “Hamas: No Agreement That Includes Israel’s Right to Exist”:

“We will not recognize any agreements at the expense of our land, rights and religious sites,” Asharq al-Awsat quoted Hamas officials on Sunday. “Palestine — the whole of Palestine from the [Mediterranean] sea to the [Jordan] river [i.e., Israel] — is the property Palestinian people and our nation, and no usurper has any right to a speck of dust of its territory.”

A spokesman for the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, the so-called military wing of Hamas, promised to be “at the heart of the new intifada.”

 And Islamic Jihad member Ahmed al-Mudallal said, “Resistance in Palestine is the spearhead in the confrontation with the Zionist project, which targets Jerusalem, al-Aksa [mosque on the Temple Mount] and the whole of Palestine.”

Hamas vowed never to accept any agreement that includes recognition of Israel’s right to exist.

“Negotiations and security coordination with the Zionist enemy form a cover for the continuation of the occupation’s crimes against our territory, our people and our religious sites,” the statement continued.

“We call upon all Palestinian forces and factions to reject the path of these wasteful negotiations, which have proved their failure to achieve our people’s dreams and only brought them more waste, loss and division in the face of the occupation’s crimes and plans.”

Hamas called on the Palestinian Authority’s Fatah faction “to end negotiations and security coordination with the enemy and to return to resistance, national reconciliation and Palestinian unity.”

Fatah responded by saying it “will remain committed to Palestinian unity and will continue to work for the unity of the people, territory and the Palestinian leadership, which is represented by the Palestine Liberation Organization,” [Saudi newspaper] Asharq al-Awsat reported.

US Secretary of State John Kerry showed once again how little he understands about the Jewish-Arab conflict he is spending so much time trying to resolve – telling TV audiences in Israel and the West Bank:

“The alternative to getting back to the talks is the potential of chaos. I mean, does Israel want a third intifada?"

Kerry obviously fails to appreciate that it is Hamas and its backers that will instigate a third intifada – especially if Israel and the PLO look like miraculously agreeing on anything.

Kerry should be focusing on the common denominator that has virtually guaranteed the failure of negotiations during the last seven years – the refusal of both Hamas and the PLO to allow the Palestinian Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank to hold fair and transparent triennial elections to determine who should represent them in final status negotiations with Israel.

Elections will end the culture of political impotency which has proved an impenetrable barrier to the Palestinian Arabs claimed right to self determination.

Without such elections – no final and binding agreement between Israel and the Palestinian Arabs is possible.'

Brothers Up Front: Hizb ut-Tahrir accuses Australia of waging a war on Islam

Earlier this month, on 7 November, a debating panel at the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney on the topic "God and His Prophets should be protected from insult" included Uthman Badar, a representative of the Islamic extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir, which wants a worldwide Caliphate with sharia law for everyone.

As The Australian newspaper ("Top debate spot for Muslim hardliner") reported, Badar

'has called Australian Diggers in Afghanistan "fair game" whom Muslims had an obligation to attack.

The event will be sponsored by AMP, and recorded by the ABC. It will also be broadcast by the BBC.

Uthman Badar, who will take part in the IQ Squared debate put on by the St James Ethics Centre in Sydney, has also called on Muslim Australians to boycott Anzac Day because it celebrates British colonialist attempts to seize Muslim land from the Ottoman Empire.'

Banned in many countries, including Arab and Asian ones, but tolerated in Australia and the dear deluded old Motherland, Hizb ut-Tahrir has a history of antisemitism, the Australian Jewish News (8 November) citing as examples its calls for Israel to be "blown off the map" and for "Muslim armies" to "eradicate Israel and purify the earth of Jewish filth".

This blog has mentioned Hizb ut-Tahrir several times, to demonstrate its intemperate nature.

It's surely unconscionable that the St James Ethics Centre should provide a platform to Islamofascists of that kind.  (More on the debate in "God and His Prophets Should Be Protected From Insult" here)

As Vic Alhadeff, head of theNew South Wales Jewish Board of Deputies, said:

"This group and its various global affiliates trade in hate and stand for everything that is anathema to Australian values.  The best course of action is simply to stay away from this so-called debate.  Why give them a platform for their offensive positions?"

"The government is playing a dirty, dirty game .... The fundamental objective of these policies is to change Islam, to secularise Islam, to produce a so-called 'moderate Islam': a state-sanctioned version of Islam that is secular, politically impotent and localised ...."

Sisters at the back: News Limited photo

Alhadeff's words are underlined by remarks at the 600-strong Hizb ut-Tahrir conference in the Sydney suburb of Lidcombe, where a lengthy report was launched claiming that the Australian government via counter-terrorism initiatives and endeavours to wean youth away from radicalism is attempting to divide the Muslim community and undermine hardline Islamists by waging what Wassim Doureihi, Hizb ut-Tahrir's leader Down Under, called "a war on Islam":

"Know your rights.  When ASIO calls the simple message is that you open the door and slam it on their face....

Not only do you reject it [goverment funding for counter-terrorism and counter-extremism], you spit on it because it is money that will be the source of your demise.  It's not engagement, it's entrapment."

Read more from the brothers (and see what you can of the sisters) here

On Eden's Murder

 Many pro-Israel bloggers and commentators have noted the very different  media responses to the terrible murders of two off-duty soldiers, 25-year-old British drummer Lee Rigby at the hands of two Islamic savages in broad daylight on a London street earlier this year, and last week the vicious stabbing by a Palestinian terrorist of 18-year-old IDF member Eden Atias while he was asleep on a bus between Nazareth and Tel Aviv.  Eden had been drafted into the army only three weeks previously, and was returning to basic training.

Whereas Lee's killing sent shockwaves around the civilised world, they point out, Eden's has received comparatively little publicity or denunciation.

The British blogger Edgar Davidson exemplifies the indignation very well; see here

And he is indignant, too, about the apparent apathy towards Eden's murder demonstrated by the Anglo-Jewish press, "notwithstanding their dismal record of failing to either stand up for, or even report accurately on, Israel"; see here

Amid the comparative silence regarding the slaughter of the sleeping Israeli boy, have come some truly appalling comments that demonstrate, if any demonstration is necessary, the unpleasant mindset of Israel's most inveterate critics.

Arch-critic Richard Silverstein devotes an entire blogpost to denouncing an Israeli rap artist's intemperate rant made (as the rapper has since explained) in the white heat of his reaction to news of Eden Atias's murder (and no doubt with the controversial recent prisoner releases fresh in his memory):

"Despicable murderer: may his name and memory be erased.... Now he’ll enter an Israeli prison like a great hero!  He’ll earn a few college degrees, grow up and join the leaders of all the main Palestinian terror groups.  He’ll get out [of prison] to shouts of joy  about “freedom fighters” and they’ll make him a mayor!

May the names and memories of all these ghouls [corpse-eaters] be erased!  We should burn down these prisons with all of them inside.  Not a moment later we should raze Jenin, whose residents boast that they’re a fortress of terror against Israel.  Everything that they respect should be burned to ashes and erased.....

.... People of Israel, awaken! ...."

Writes Silverstein, inter alia:

"Israeli rap star, Subliminal (aka Yaakov Shimoni), posted a racist, genocidal Kahanist screed on Facebook in response to the murder of an Israeli soldier, Eden Attias, on an Egged bus in Afula this week.  While the killing of the sleeping soldier by a Palestinian boy was a horrifying crime, the response by one of Israel’s leading hip hop stars is chilling both because of its virulence and because of his celebrity.  Israel, already a country filled with intolerance, race-hate and Islamophobia, will be further provoked by such anger from a popular performer beloved by the country’s youth."

Silverstein adds:

"Being right-wing and pro-Israel has raised Shimoni’s international profile. When Subliminal toured France in 2004, his concerts were met with protests led by French leftists and members of the Arab and Muslim communities.

I can imagine he may have an even worse time of it in France the next time he dares to raise his head there."

Silverstein's blog (this screenshot, above, shows just some of the comments it has attracted)  has prompted one commenter to observe pertinently to Silverstein, whose blog is with much chutzpah but little justification called "Tikkun Olam" as if his blinkered "progressivism" has the remedy for healing the world:

"Wait. the murder of a sleeping soldier in a public bus is not worthy of a post. BUT the rant of an angry punk who is fuming ABOUT the murder is worthy of the post. How does this ‘Promote Israeli democracy’? It only makes someone like me who hates right wing fascists think that there is truth in that you so called ‘peace activist’ are no less crazy then they are but just from supposedly the other side. I think you forgot why you started this journey in the first place."

Quite so.

For The Love Of Israel (video)

An inspirational episode in the stricken Philippines:

More here

Moodey Blues: Prominent Christian anti-Zionist's insupportable defence of BDS

Stephen Sizer's staunch champion Jeremy Moodey, who heads the Embrace the Middle East NGO (formerly BibleLands), has been pontificating about BDS.

He states, inter alia:

'.... I do not accept that BDS is all about stigmatising just one side in the conflict. It is a recognition that there has been, since Israel's seizure of Palestinian land in the 1967 war, a grossly asymmetrical power balance in Israel's favour. This is an inevitable consequence of occupation and US military backing for Israel and has been illustrated in the last two Gaza conflicts (2008/09 and 2012) when the Israeli death toll of 19 was dwarfed by the Palestinian death toll of 1,642 ...

Israel often makes the point about the power balance between itself and the surrounding Arab states, but this is a red herring. At the heart of the Israel-Palestine conflict is an inter-communal power imbalance, between two peoples endeavouring to share the same land. This is not any more about an interstate conflict.

So, where there is an asymmetric power balance, and the stronger power refuses to engage in meaningful dialogue ... then the international community is entitled to bring pressure to bear on the stronger power. BDS is a non-violent tool to this end...'

Stephen Sizer is on record as stating: "Israel has attacked openly every one of its neighbours in its short history," a despicable distortion of the truth, of course.

Is Mr Moodey of the same mind?  Surely he, who now decries"a grossly asymmetrical power balance in Israel's favour," cannot be so ignorant of the history of the Middle East since 1948 that he fails to recognise that, reflecting the grossly assymetrical power balance prevailing in Israel's disfavour, in 1967 Israel was attacked yet again by neighbouring Arab countries .  Fighting for its very existence against five hostile forces, the tiny Jewish State won a famous victory that was nothing short of miraculous and the territory that Mr Moodey describes as having been seized  was territory that Israel found itself in possession of at the ceasefire. 

five Arab armies

Surely he is well aware that those Arab armies included Egypt's, the most powerful of them, and Jordan's, which had ignored Israel's warning not to do so, and that it was they who in 1948 had seized what he would consider Palestinian land.  Surely he is aware that from 1948-67 Egypt held Gaza and Jordan the West Bank, and that neither country had made the slightest attempt to establish a Palestinian state.  Furthermore, the Arabs were entrenched in their characteristic rejectionism of Israel's right to exist: until the 1970s not one Arab nation was prepared to negotiate with Israel.

Mr Moodey's comparison of Israeli and Palestinian casualty rates is a non sequitur,  an idiotic point: during the Second World War far more Germans were killed in air raids than were Americans.  Does that mean that Germany had a better moral case than America had: by his logic, it looks that way.

And of course in raising that matter Mr Moodey overlooks the many 100s of Israelis, including infants, who have over the years  been murdered by PLO terrorists and by suicide bombers.

Sadly, like Sizer, Mr Moodey lacks any empathy at all, it would seem, for the Israelis, surrounded as they are by fanatical Muslim extremists dedicated to their country's destruction; he ignores the fact that Israel has had to become strong in view of the prevailing threat to its very existence.

(Incidentally, off topic but still in the field of interfaith relations, see this disturbing article)

Israel Aids The Philippines, But The BBC Keeps Shtum About It

An IDF soldier with aid to the Philippines

In a rectangular box, the BBC News website has this eye-catching item about the typhoon-ravaged Philippines:

Aid at a glance
ASIAN DEVELOPMENT BANK: $500m emergency loans and $23m in grants
AUSTRALIA: $9.3m package, including medical staff, shelter materials, water containers and hygiene kits
EUROPEAN COMMISSION: $11m
JAPAN: $10m, including tents and blankets. 25-person medical team already sent
SOUTH KOREA: $5m plus a 40-strong medical team
INDONESIA: Logistical aid including aircraft, food, generators and medicine
UAE: $10m in humanitarian aid
US: $20m in humanitarian aid, 90 marines, aircraft carrier plus logistics support
UK: $16m (£10m) package including emergency shelter, water and household items. HMS Daring deployed to region

From this list, Israel is conspicuous by its absence.

Philippines-bound Israeli troops at Ben Gurion Airport

Yet, as in all disasters of the kind that's devastated the Philippines, except when (as in the case of Iran's earthquake in 2003) its help has been hatefully rejected (“The Islamic Republic of Iran accepts all kinds of humanitarian aid from all countries and international organizations with the exception of the Zionist regime”) Israeli humanitarian aid to the stricken nation has been swift and generous.

This present instance is called Operation Island of Hope, and, as reported here, on Monday

'a lead expedition of five search, rescue, and medical experts arrived in Tacloban, Philippines and formed a situation assessment determining the urgency for a rapid IDF response. Based on this assessment the of the Chief of the General Staff, Lieutenant General Benjamin (Benny) Gantz, order to deploy a large-scale delegation to the disaster zone.

Lt. Col. Peter Lerner, IDF Spokesman:

 “The Home Front Command has soldiers and officers who excel in the fields of search and rescue and highly professional medical doctors experienced in such complex missions. Over the years they have been to Japan, Haiti, Ghana, Bulgaria, and Turkey, where they diligently donated from their resources and knowledge to those in need.”

An advanced multi-department medical facility, equipped with approximately 100 tons of humanitarian and medical supplies from Israel, will be rapidly established in the city of Tacloban to provide medical care for disaster casualties. The facility will be constructed of a children’s department, a women’s department, an ambulatory care department, and a general admission department, operated by IDF doctors, nurses, paramedics, pharmacists, mental health professionals, x-ray technician, and lab workers.

The delegation comprises of officials in the National Search and Rescue Unit of the Home Front Command headed by the unit commander, Colonel Ramtin Sabti, as well as senior doctors in the IDF Medical Corps, headed by the Vice Surgeon General of the IDF Medical Corps, Colonel Doctor Dudu Dagan.'

1500 toys are being provided to the children of the devastated region, and a team almost 150-strong flew out of Ben-Gurion Airport on Wednesday.

There really is no excuse for the BBC's silence: it certainly knows of the existence of the official IDF blog (to which I've linked above), which  is choc-a-bloc with news, videos, and photographs, and is constantly updated.

So, will the BBC (like Israel-baiters on social media who have never a kind word for the Zionist Entity) stay shtum indefinitely? We shall see ...