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)

Tuesday 4 March 2014

Putting Mondoweiss in Context

This is a guest blog by Professor William D. Rubinstein.

He writes:

Many readers will know Mondoweiss, the website run by Jews which publishes an endless stream of anti-Israel propaganda, and whose online comments regularly includes antisemitic comments.

Mondoweiss defines itself as "a news website devoted to covering American foreign policy in the Middle East, chiefly from a progressive Jewish direction"  and claims, in Orwellian fashion, that its aim is "to publish a diversity of voices to promote dialogue on these important issues," although the only "diversity of views" on the site is the best method of destroying Israel.

According to its website, Mondoweiss has two editors (Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz), two assistant editors, and an editor-at-large. Presumably they are not volunteer workers, and money certainly doesn't grow on trees, even for websites that are updated on a daily basis.

Mondoweiss states that its website "is part of the Center for Economic Research and Social Change," an ambiguously sinister-sounding body in north Chicago. Turning to its website, the Center (CERSC, as it is known) lists five "projects" which it supports. These are publishing the International Socialist Review; holding an annual conference which two years ago was termed "Socialism 2012"; hosting "We Are Many," another website "devoted to publishing radical and activist video and audio media," and funding Haymarket Books, a radical publishing firm.

The International Socialist Review is a "bimonthly journal of politics, history, theory, and current events from a Marxist perspective."  According to the Wikipedia entry for the International Socialist Organisation, it "distributes the International Socialist Review and titles from the publishing house Haymarket Books, both of which are run by the CERSC."

This Wiki entry states that the International Socialist Organisation is "a revolutionary socialist organisation in the United States that identifies with Trotskyism, Leninism, and the Marxist tradition of socialism from below." It also publishes Socialist Worker, the ultra-left "revolutionary Marxist" journal whose placards are highly visible at any public rally of the discontented, especially when television cameras are nearby.

Haymarket Books is a radical publishing house based in Chicago, that produces a range of radical and Marxist books (some of which are rather interesting albeit always tendentious). It  is named for the Haymarket bombings in Chicago in 1886, in which seven policemen and others were murdered by a bomb apparently planted by anarchists. Bizarrely, there is a statue in Chicago commemorating not the victims of terrorism, but the men who were hanged for the crime, which is rather as if a monument were erected in New York to commemorate Osama Bin-Laden.

Being a non-profit organisation,  CERSC has to publish annual financial reports. The most recent available online annual report, for 2012, lists only one individual by name. According to this statement, the annual report was filed "in the name of" one Ahmed Sehrawy, about whom no further information is given. In 2011-2012, CERSC had assets of $1,087,000, with income of $2,096,000, and revenue of $1,358,000. Its "compensation of officers, directors, and trustees" was only $41,459, the rest of its costs going for "operating expenses."

There the trail runs cold: one would like to know far more about this range of organisations and their funding.

Information, please.

40 comments:

  1. Mondoweiss gets $20K a year from this antisemite: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-antisemitic-article-that-was.html#.UxXIEN-9uR0 (also confirmed for 2012)

    ReplyDelete
  2. I know just the person who may be able to help.
    Maybe Daph can remind me in the morning?

    ReplyDelete
  3. Here's Elder, inter alia, from his article linked to in his comment above:

    'Ron Unz is president of the Unz Foundation, which gives quite a bit of money to causes he feels are worthwhile. Some of his recipients seem to fit a pattern.

    For example, in 2009, 2010 and 2011 the foundation gave $108,000 to Paul Craig Roberts, a columnist who turned towards anti-semitism since 2006, according to the ADL.

    $74,000 went to Philip Giraldi, a fellow American Conservative columnist who has written numerous articles about the pernicious Jewish Lobby.

    Plus $75,000 to Holocaust minimizer/Hezbollah praiser/Israel hater Norman Finkelstein.

    And $80,000 to the far left, antisemitic Counterpunch magazine.

    And $60,000 to the virulently anti-Israel (and often antisemitic) Mondoweiss, where founder Philip Weiss lavishly praised Unz' article without mentioning his financial relationship with Unz!

    Between Unz' own words and where he puts his money, it sure looks like his bogus statistics have an agenda behind them.'

    http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com.au/2013/12/the-antisemitic-article-that-was.html#.UxY7zlccHIV

    ReplyDelete
  4. Doesn't Mondo have some sort of financial arrangement with The Nation? I thought it did and looking at their roster of regulars there's a great deal of symmetry.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Brian Goldfarb5 March 2014 at 11:04

    There's also this elder of ziyon deconstruction of mondoweiss, from 2012: http://elderofziyon.blogspot.co.il/2012/07/mainstreaming-of-anti-semitism-salon.html#.UxZpp_TV_9k

    ReplyDelete
  6. Daphne, an historical note: There is no reason to believe that the men killed in the Haymarket affair were killed by the men who were hanged. The trial was carried out in an atmosphere of mass hysteria and was a massive miscarriage of justice. The later governor of Illinois, John Peter Altgeld who was elected in 1893, acknowledged the terrible injustice of the guilty verdicts when he pardoned the defendants who had not already been executed. Just read the Wikipedia article entitled "Haymarket affair" to get a feel for the whole sorry episode.

    ReplyDelete
  7. I cannot add to specifics with regards to Mondoweiss. A thank you for doing the work you and Elder have done so far to contribute to uncovering what you can.

    I do think important, and ,gain some perspective in understanding just what we're dealing with here. Much, if not all of this anti-Semitic/anti-Israel mindset was created by the old Soviet propaganda machine.

    "Progressive liberals" who actively support a group of anti-Semitic Islamist Pan-Arabists; who in turn subjugate 50% of their populace based on gender, blow up civilians for "FreeDumb", hang gays from cranes in the town square, and have a death penalty for selling land to a Jew is beyond mere cognitive dissonance and a whole lot closer to brainwashing.

    In the link below Yuri Bezmenov (former KGB) explains how much of this this came to pass.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SZnkULuWFDg

    My apologies for being somewhat off topic. I found the information in the video above very helpful in my own understanding of our current situation and think others will as well.

    Best to You.
    ~Alexi

    PS. If you read Huffington P, I used to comment under the name "Anybodyseenthepopos".

    ReplyDelete
  8. To show what liars and terrorist supporters Mondoweiss are.
    They had 2 radical writers Max Blumenthal and Annie Robbins write that the Itamar massacre 3 years ago was committed by a Thai foreign worker and not the Palestinians. Even when it became known that it was the Palestinians who committed the massacre against the Fogel family, Mondoweiss refused to retract the lie that Foreign workers murdered the Fogels.
    Then again, Palestinians slitting the throats of 3 months old Jewish babies don't bother the Islamo fascist writers at Mondoweiss.

    Here is Max Blumenthal who tried to say a Thai worker massacred the Fogel family in Itamar 3 years ago.
    To read this shameful lying article.

    http://mondoweiss.net/2011/03/after-itamar-exploring-the-cynical-logic-that-makes-everyone-a-target.html
    After Itamar: Exploring the cynical logic that makes everyone a target
    by Max Blumenthal on March 15, 2011

    Even after it became known that a Palestinian committed the massacre, Blumenthal made excuses for this Arab terrorist.
    The man is a sicko who turns a blind eye to the Palestinians genocidal media against Israel.
    As Caroline Glick said, The fact that the Palestinians from Fatah and Hamas alike are Jew-hating racists should surprise no one who has been paying a modicum of attention to the Palestinian media and general culture. Since the PA was established in 1994 in the framework of the peace process between Israel and the PLO, it has used the media organs, schools and mosques it controls to spew out a constant flow of anti-Semitic propaganda. Much of the Jew-hating bile is indistinguishable from anti-Jewish propaganda published by the Nazis.

    Here is Annie Robbins saying that Foreign workers murdered the Fogels in Itamar and not the Palestinians. Annie cant believe that Palestinians would massacre Israeli civilians.
    http://mondoweiss.net/2011/04/itamar-video-says-settlement-had-night-and-day-perimeter-surveillance.html
    Itamar video says settlement had night-and-day perimeter surveillance
    by Annie Robbins on April 5, 2011


    ReplyDelete
  9. Many thanks to all commenters - I'm sure blogpost author WDR will thank you all himself.

    ReplyDelete
  10. Here's another lying article by Mondoweiss.
    Mondoweiss wrote an article claiming that a security guard murdered a Jew thinking he was a Palestinian cause the person yelled Al Akhbar
    It turned out this was a BS story by the guard who was Druze and not Jewish.

    The Druze murdered the Jewish person because he criticized the Druze guard and the Druze guard after he murdered Doron Ben Shlush made up the whole story about him person yelling Al Akhbar.
    Again, no retraction from the Mondoweiss liars.

    Here's the lying article by Mondoweiss.
    http://mondoweiss.net/2013/06/western-mistaking-palestinian.html
    Police kill Israeli-Jew near Western Wall after mistaking him for a Palestinian
    Allison Deger on June 21, 2013

    Here is the truth what happened.
    http://www.timesofisrael.com/western-wall-security-guard-charged-with-murder/
    Western Wall security guard charged with murder
    Police believe Hadi Kabalan shot and killed Doron Ben Shlush over racist comments, not because he suspected terrorism
    BY HAVIV RETTIG GUR July 4, 2013

    Prosecutors filed premeditated murder charges Thursday against 25-year-old Hadi Kabalan, a security guard at the Western Wall who allegedly shot and killed Doron Ben Shlush on June 21

    Kabalan originally claimed Ben Shlush had shouted “Allahu Akbar,” or “God is great” in Arabic, and insisted he had shot the 46-year-old Jewish man because he believed him to be a Muslim terrorist.

    But police say they now believe Ben Shlush and Kabalan had had an altercation earlier in the day during which Ben Shlush uttered racist slurs against Kabalan, who is Druze.

    According to the indictment, Kabalan asked another guard, who was also a target of Ben Shlush’s verbal abuse, if the guard would pay him NIS 1,000 to kill Ben Shlush.

    Ben Shlush was shot 14 times in the public bathroom at the Kotel plaza, near the guard post where Kabalan was stationed.

    Ben Shlush was a familiar figure at the Western Wall area, according to locals, with some describing him as a mentally unstable but apparently harmless individual.

    A witness at the scene who knew Ben Shlush, David Dahan, expressed dismay at the shooting. ”I don’t understand why he was shot. Everybody knows him and his behavior,” the witness said. “He often acted in a nervous manner. What happened here is not normal.”

    The victim was “sitting down this morning, reading the newspaper as usual,” Dahan continued. For some reason, “he began screaming and after that he approached the bathroom. After a short time, I heard at least seven or 10 gunshots.”

    Ben Shlush was survived by an ex-wife and a 16-year-old daughter.




    ReplyDelete
  11. William Rubinstein5 March 2014 at 15:48

    Many thanks for all the useful comments. Bill Rubinstein

    ReplyDelete
  12. It seems UNZ Foundation went broke in 2011... read UNZ Undone @ http://handleshaus.wordpress.com/2013/08/25/unz-undone/

    Professor Rubinstein is correct about CERSC.

    Bob Knot

    ReplyDelete
  13. Daphne Shalom:

    Just google Ahmed Sahrawy:

    "According to the 990 IRS forms filed in 2001, the Center received a large donation--perhaps a good chunk of the startup funds, from a man named Kevin Neel, who donated over 1.2 million in stock. The stock acquired by the Center is in Oracle and Phillip Morris. The Center has been selling off portions of this stock every year in excess of several hundred thousand a year, to fund a huge payroll, including $45,000 a year plus benefits to the Center's president Ahmed Sehrawy. For the year 2000-01, the total payroll in wages and benefits was $185,000 (presumably disbursed to several party organizers and staff-only $27,000 went to pay two officers of the Center.); in 2001-02, over $400,000, and in 2002-03: nearly $500,000. In 2002-03, Sehrawy made nearly $60,000 in wages and benefits."

    http://news.infoshop.org/article.php?story=04/12/18/3006900

    There is only one listed in the whitepages. Ahmed K Sahrawy

    You can see the federal tax statements for ISO’s CERSC (which owns Haymarket Books) here: http://www.guidestar.org/FinDocuments/2011/364/400/2011-364400754-0864baa7-F.pdf

    The only paid employee listed is Ahmed Sehrawy who was compensated $41,000 + benefits in 2011.

    and there is probably more.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Very interesting - I know the guest author (WDR) will be interested. Thanks, Shilotoren.

      Delete
  14. This was left by Yosef but I accidentally deleted it on my IPad
    Thanks for the comment, Yosef.

    YOSEF22ADAR
    Please read the last comment here

    http://cifwatch.com/2013/11/15/does-guardian-columnist-michael-cohen-regularly-follow-the-hate-site-mondoweiss/

    ReplyDelete

  15. YOSEF22ADAR
    November 25, 2013 @ 1:00 pm






    Rate This

    ElderOfZiyon has more posts about Mondoweiss
    and you can find them here
    http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/search/label/Mondoweiss
    .
    .
    Philip Weiss used to write for “The American Conservative” (2006-2010) as you can see here
    http://www.theamericanconservative.com/author/philip-weiss/
    According to Wikipedia
    ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_American_Conservative )
    “The American Conservative was founded in 2002
    by Scott McConnell, Patrick Buchanan, and Taki Theodoracopulos …”
    More info about Theodoracopulos here
    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taki_Theodoracopulos
    and (in Greek) here
    http://www.scribd.com/doc/151465035/%CE%A0%CE%BF%CF%85-%CF%80%CE%AE%CE%B3%CE%B1%CE%BD-%CE%B5%CE%BA%CE%B5%CE%AF%CE%BD%CE%B1-%CF%84%CE%B1-%CF%86%CE%B1%CF%83%CE%B9%CF%83%CF%84%CE%AC%CE%BA%CE%B9%CE%B1
    or here
    http://parallhlografos.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/%cf%80%ce%bf%cf%8d-%cf%80%ce%ae%ce%b3%ce%b1%ce%bd-%ce%ba%ce%b5%ce%af%ce%bd%ce%b1-%cf%84%ce%b1-%cf%86%ce%b1%cf%83%ce%b9%cf%83%cf%84%ce%ac%ce%ba%ce%b9%ce%b1/
    .
    .
    What Philip Weiss has in mind here
    (snapshot of the page http://www.philipweiss.org/mondoweiss/2009/06/last-night-therewas-a-meeting-of-my-gaza-delegation-to-talk-about-the-trip-two-weeks-after-and-i-went-to-pick-up.html
    as it appeared on June 25, 2009)
    http://sadredearth.com/key-posts/feeling-the-rage-in-new-york/
    - included in the extended analysis about “The Malice of Mondoweiss”, here
    http://sadredearth.com/the-malice-of-mondoweiss/
    .
    .
    Here’s Weiss’ glowing paean to a Palestinian Sniper who killed 11
    http://mondoweiss.net/2010/09/the-legend-of-the-silwad-sniper.html
    and here’s a post about Jewish symbols
    http://mondoweiss.net/2011/10/touring-palestine-you-see-jewish-symbols-everywhere.html
    .
    .
    For MORE links read my comment here
    http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2013/06/young-jewish-and-proud.html
    and/or SEARCH ENGAGE (e.g Philip Weiss, Mondoweiss, …)
    http://engageonline.wordpress.com/

    ReplyDelete
  16. William Rubinstein6 March 2014 at 09:05

    Thanks for the useful information. There is probably a lot more to uncover. Bill Rubinstein

    ReplyDelete
  17. Yosef, thanks to you for two links sent to me via the News and Jews from Jews Down Under website (thanks to them too). I will post them below.

    ReplyDelete
  18. From Yosef:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adam_Horowitz_(journalist)

    http://www.masada2000.org/list-HIJ.html

    Horowitz, Adam This Philadelphia, PA, Jewish anti-Jew is a fan of the Palestine Freedom Project, B'Tselem, Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), the US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel, Medical Aid for Palestinians, Jewish Voice for Peace, Free Gaza Movement, International Solidarity Movement, Palestine Festival of Literature, Rachel Corrie, Naomi Klein, and Ilan Pappe. He also enjoys the Love (Queerly) Website. Adam Horowitz has problems! Wait, there's more. Horowitz is Co-Editor of Mondoweiss, an vicioulsy anti-Israel website.

    http://www.masada2000.org/list-TUVWXYZ.html

    Weiss, Phil This journalist of the New York Observer keeps a blog, MondoWeiss. He minimizes the Holocaust experience, proudly describes his intermarriage (to a Syrian?) and his wonderful experiences taking communion in church. The worst part is he tries to be credible by proud proclaiming his Judaism. Luckily, he has no kids and probably won't. The only parts of his body that can still "get it up" are the hairs on his back every time he hears a Jews talk about the Holocaust!

    ReplyDelete
  19. Of course, I have no way of knowing whether the above info is correct or merely scurrilous.

    ReplyDelete
  20. Shalom Daphne .
    The extended Wikipedia article about Adam Horowitz no longer exists (that's why I've sent you the attachment). As it was written : "This article was nominated for deletion. The debate was closed on 31 January 2013 with a consensus to merge the content into the article Mondoweiss. If you find that such action has not been taken promptly, please consider assisting in the merger instead of re-nominating the article for deletion. To discuss the merger, please use the destination article's talk page. (January 2013)
    .
    There are a lot of info and links given
    and I've uploaded it here
    http://www16.zippyshare.com/v/51896400/file.html
    .
    .
    And here's a link from the ADL website
    (Ron Unz: Controversial Writer and Funder of Anti-israel Activists -
    - January 20, 2014)
    http://www.adl.org/anti-semitism/united-states/c/ron-unz-controversial-writer.html
    .
    .
    Daphne please contact me.

    ReplyDelete
  21. William Rubinstein6 March 2014 at 21:32

    Thanks Yosef- the sites you recommended were very valuable. Bill Rubinstein

    ReplyDelete
  22. And thanks to Yosef for these:

    http://gawker.com/266393/why-philip-weiss-left-the-observer
    http://muzzlewatch.com/2007/06/30/all-about-philip-weiss-why-he-left-the-observer-why-hes-an-israel-hater/
    .
    http://observer.com/author/philip-weiss/

    ReplyDelete
  23. May I ask what Professor Rubinstein is going to use the information for.

    Thanks.

    Bob Knot

    ReplyDelete
  24. William Rubinstein7 March 2014 at 09:28

    I may do another blog on this subject, but since it has already been posted here, it is now in the public domain. I cannot do anything with the information about their sources of funding, except to have it publicly known that they get lots of their money, it seems, from very dubious sources. I would be surprised if that stops Mondoweiss from its extremism. Bill Rubinstein

    ReplyDelete
  25. Many thanks to the person who sent me this:

    http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2011/07/mondoweiss-fundraising-hoax.html
    Sunday, July 10, 2011
    Mondoweiss' fundraising hoax
    ...
    That fundraising pitch, while signed by the blog's co-editors Philip Weiss and Adam Horowitz, was posted by a Mondoweiss blogger by the name of Alec Kinnear (read here). http://mondoweiss.net/2011/07/new-feature-announcement-number-of-replies-to-comments-on-profile.html The Vienna-based Kinnear not only blogs on Mondoweiss, he also maintains his own blogs. From one of them, we learn that Kinnear believes that 9/11 was "probably" done by the Mossad under the direction of Dick Cheney (read here), http://uncoy.com/2007/02/bbc_2s_the_cons.html and that Rachel Corrie was murdered on the direct orders of Ariel Sharon in order to gauge the American reaction (read here). http://danceonfilm.typepad.com/la_vie_viennoise/2004/04/sharons_eastern.html On another blog he maintains, we learn that Kinnear was an admirer of the late neo-fascist Austrian politician Jörg Haider (read here), http://uncoy.com/2008/10/farewell-jorg-haider.html although, oddly, he fails to mention Haider's troubling politics.
    .
    It is impossible to know for certain which of these three Mondoweiss bloggers, Weiss, Horowitz or Kinnear, wrote the fraudulent fundraising headline which falsely claimed that the blog needed help because it was "under Israeli attack". That question has not been addressed on the blog. We do know that Kinnear has made no secret of his bizarre political opinions -- in fact, he has expressed them on the Mondoweiss website, where he writes that he literally worries that Israel will stage a covert op to disrupt a benefit for the blog (read here). https://web.archive.org/web/20110701102707/http://mondoweiss.net/2011/06/help-mondoweiss-stay-afloat-under-israeli-attack.html#comment-332675 That a person with such views has unsupervised blogging privileges at Mondoweiss, and that the blog entrusts its fundraising to him and lets him post as true completely false reports which they then delete without explanation, raise serious questions about Mondoweiss and its editors -- questions about journalistic ethics and judgement which the blog should address.
    ...
    Moreover, doesn't Mondoweiss owe its readers an explanation of their lapse in judgement in granting Alec Kinnear unsupervised blogging privileges on their website? After all, his bizarre political views are on the public record.
    .
    Kinnear, in fairness, has written in his own defense that he can't be an anti-Semite because, he says, "I have many Jewish friends and colleagues". http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2011/07/mondoweiss-blamed-financial-woes-on.html Yet, see the column that elicited that familiar defense (read here), http://danceonfilm.typepad.com/la_vie_viennoise/2004/04/sharons_eastern.html

    ReplyDelete
  26. http://evanstonnow.com/story/public-safety/charles-bartling/2014-04-04/62629/car-hit-intentionally-at-main-library

    Ahmed K. Sehrawy, 54, of 829 Oakton St., was arrested at home at 4:17 a.m. yesterday and charged with aggravated assault. He is due in court on April 25 at 9 a.m.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Could you add a subscribe by email button please?

    ReplyDelete
  28. "Mondoweiss". More like Mondocrap. They are a propgandsitic site that supports terror and hate.

    ReplyDelete

Note: only a member of this blog may post a comment.