"So Why is There No Two State Solution?"

"Because the Palestinians want there to be no Jewish State more than they want a state of their own."

Now, here's a conversation worth listening to (no need to have one's eyes glued to the screen!)

The indefatigable Professor Alan Dershowitz talks, for just under an hour to Rabbi Marc Golub, about his steadfast championship of Israel,  the Six Day War, the lamentable impact of Arab rejectionism (by both the PLO and the PFLP), the difficulties he has experienced from the antisemites and anti-Zionists of the Hard Left (including the so-called "Jewish Voice for Peace"), the "very frightening" erosion of support for Israel among the left of the Democratic Party and among the party's younger elements, why Bernie Sanders is beyond the pale, the pernicious influence of J-Street ("Is J-Street Anti-Israel?"  "No. It Just is Not Pro-Israel ...It Tries to Appeal to the Extreme Left"), why he himself  remains a member of the Democratic Party, and much more.

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kW9cX79dPfM

However, by contrast to the Arab hardliners, Ed Husain wrote recently in The Spectator:

'A new narrative is emerging in the Middle East. New maps of the Muslim mind are being drawn and old hatreds are on the run. The anti-Semitic craze to destroy Israel was powerful in the 1960s, uniting Egypt’s President Nasser with his fellow Arabs. But now, Sunni Arab neighbours are changing course. Islamist leaders are losing their appeal — at a time when Iran, with its brand of theological fascism, poses a threat to Israel and the Arab world alike.

Polls show that the percentage of Arabs expressing trust in Islamist parties has fallen by well over a third since the uprisings of 2011. Three-quarters of Iraqis say they do not trust Islamist parties at all, and the number of young people who say they’re ‘not religious’ is also on the rise. This generation wants Arab leaders to increase economic prosperity and minimise political conflicts. And to build alliances, including with Israel.... Israel is coming to be regarded as a benign neighbour....

There are enough historical and scriptural narratives of Muslim-Jewish fraternity to form the basis for rapprochement. The enmity has, historically, been a recent blip. With an assertive Iran and an uninterested West, the Arabs and Jews have a shared interest in building a lasting alliance with each other.

 This may yet be the decade of peace.' 

Read Husain's entire article here

For Friends of Israel, a Frosty Swarthmore February

Ah, those earnest left-leaning bastions of a "liberal" education.  Don't you just love 'em?

I've written before (see here and here) of the zeal for the anti-Israel pro-Palestinian cause that seems to have taken hold at Swarthmore College, Pennsylvania, one of the top liberal arts colleges in the United States.

And now here's a look at Swarthmore College's 2019 calendar, where alumni and others turning to the February page will be confronted by this image:

Was it really necessary to depict a student wearing a keffiyeh, that universal symbol of Israel-hate among wearers in the West, in a publication that should surely be non-political and inclusive?

Presumably the keffiyeh reflects the "change, and impact on the world" that the college is fostering, according to the accompanying blurb.

Shame, Swatties, shame.

Marking a Seventeenth Birthday (videos)

Ahed Tamimi turned 17 on 31 January.  The event was marked at a rally inside Penn Station, New York:

                            https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y1qFznLWlb0

                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bmQP9CmSoL0

Don't look for Codepink's  Medea Benjamin there, however.

Look for her here:

                             https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Jn6dg6WDkyo

The Envoy, The Crooner, & The Semantics of "Occupation" (video)

"It is time to end the occupation".

So declares the "Palestinian ambassador to the UK," Professor Manuel Hassassian, in this video by our old friend Alex Seymour.  Professor Hassassian explains that he's come to lend support to a demo outside the Red Cross headquarters in London regarding the incarceration of "political prisoners" in Israeli gaols.

Trouble is, "ending the occupation" does not appear to be the ultimate goal of the demonstrators, as the song belted out by the bloke with the guitar indicates when it invokes a familiar refrain.

As for Palestinian prisoners of the Israelis, see the video and article here

And here's what another Palestinian has been saying in American regarding "the Zionists":

To quote the video's maker, memritv.org:

'Osama Abu Irshaid, the national director of the Chicago-based American Muslims for Palestine organization, said that the Zionist movement has managed to culturally infiltrate American consciousness by claiming that Israel and the United States share the circumstances of their establishment. Speaking at a symposium titled “Confronting the Zionist Myths,” which was held in Istanbul as part of the second International Palestine Forum for Media and Communications, Abu Irshaid said that this claim has some truth to it, because both countries were involved in “ethnic cleansing.” Abu Irshaid complained that while MEMRI exposes “flops” in the Arab media to American public opinion, the Arab rhetoric is always emotional.

The Al-Jazeera network broadcast the event on May 18, 2016.'

Also, check out this video and article here

Richard Millett is his good articulate self here:

"Your Future is Our Future": Bibi to the Arab citizens of Israel (plus more)

Meanwhile:

And, outside the Democratic National Convention, hate-filled ratbags screaming wretched slogans set the Israeli flag ablaze.

This must vex them:

"We Don't Want No Two State, We Want '48": Telling the Brooklyn Bridge

On "Nakba Day" in old New York, a long stream of American Arabs and assorted Israel-haters  (including a contigent of Neturei Karta nuts) tell the Brooklyn Bridge exactly what their aims are.

"We Don't Want No Two State, We Want '48" they scream over and over. 

And "There is only one solution: Intifada Revolution"

 The old "From the River to the Sea ..." mantra is both seen and heard too.  And how.

Declares their personable and articulate leader, they are "calling for the dismantling of the Entity Israel ...." and will never rest until every city from Haifa to all of Jerusalem is theirs.

(At least they're honest about their aims!)

You can see a video of this event by scrolling down this Facebook page.

There's a shorter, different video (on YouTube too) on the link below that captures some of the flavour, but not in all its infinite variety.

There is plenty more to be seen on that link, though (including a flat-chested woman who's a dead ringer for Bernie Sanders.)

A couple of dissenters take a stand:

Image: https://twitter.com/resistance48

Meanwhile, across the Herring Pond, beamed onto the Parliament building:

Image: InMinds.com

Perpetuating Propaganda: David Singer challenges Jewish Voice For Peace

Entitled "Palestine – Perpetuating Propaganda Plagues Peace Process", here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer, who previously wrote about the McGraw-Hill maps incident here and here

He writes:

McGraw Hill’s decision to trash copies of its textbook Global Politics: Engaging a Complex World  has been subjected to intense criticism on web sites propagating the “Palestinian Narrative” of the 100 years old Arab-Jewish conflict. The “Palestinian Narrative” is a concoction of lies and half-truths based on the 1964 PLO National Charter – as amended in 1968 – and the 1988 Hamas Covenant.

Catherine Mathis – a spokeswoman for McGraw-Hill – explained the Company’s reasons for destroying the textbook – which contained four misleading and inaccurate maps of “Palestine”:

"As soon as we learned about the concerns with it, we placed sales of the book on hold and immediately initiated an academic review. The review determined that the map did not meet our academic standards. We have informed the authors and we are no longer selling the book. All existing inventory will be destroyed. We apologize and will refund payment to anyone who returns the book."  

McGraw-Hill’s action follows similar criticism of MSNBC which aired the same series of maps last year on “MSNBC Live”.

 Host Kate Snow and her then guest Middle East expert Martin Fletcher made a return appearance to acknowledge that they realized after they went off the air that the maps were not factually accurate and they regretted using them.

Now, Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) has published a letter signed by 35 “prominent academics” attacking McGraw Hill’s “shocking and outrageous act of censorship of the Palestinian narrative from US schoolbooks”.

The fact that JVP openly acknowledges the offending maps are part of the “Palestinian narrative” is surely more than sufficient justification for trashing the text book – because no disclosure was made by the contributing editors that the maps they used were partisan in nature.

But the academics letter goes even further in claiming:

1. “The maps in question are historically accurate” – but gives no evidence to back up that claim.

2. “If there were in fact any minor errors with the maps they should have been corrected rather than removed altogether” – but fails to list such minor errors.

I contacted JVP requesting to know what those “minor errors” were. Rather than listing those “minor errors” JVP referred me to the fact sheet of another web site propagating the same maps and claiming they were accurate.

I then sent JVP my detailed reasons for questioning the accuracy of these four maps – adding:

“I know it would be very difficult to withdraw your letter signed by so many distinguished people but it needs to be qualified if their integrity and yours is to be maintained.

McGraw Publishing had the intellectual strength to remove the offending text book from sale when inaccuracies in the maps were brought to its attention.

I believe you now need to issue an appropriately worded supplementary letter that:

* errors appearing in the published maps drawn to your attention after your letter was published were regrettably incapable of being corrected thereby necessitating their withdrawal and the textbook from sale.

* McGraw Hill's decision to do so was justified.

Please give this letter your serious consideration and let me know what you intend doing.”

No response has been received to this and two subsequent e mails.

Misleading maps – like misleading statements – allowed to go unchallenged – soon become accepted as gospel truth if repeated often enough in text books and in the media.

Anti-Israel websites peddling the “Palestinian narrative” and refusing to publish comments seeking to correct unsubstantiated and untrue statements are increasing.

Jewish Voice For Peace does itself no credit in aligning with these insidious web sites by maintaining its deafening silence and knowingly propagating these totally discredited maps.

JVP types in Atlanta

Note from Daphne: the MSNBC map shown below appears several times on the JVP Facebook page. 

The comments below, like the signs in the photo of JVP activists above, are illustrative of the JVP's  outlook and agenda: click here for its sources of funding; (NGO Monitor has its measure)

In Washington, Israel-Hatred Rallies the Ratbags, Trump & Clinton Rally the Troops (videos)

Israel-haters, including those special clowns, the Neturei Karta nuts, have been out in force on the streets of Washington screaming their bile against AIPAC and against Israel (raucous cries of "From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free," "Gaza, Gaza, don't you cry, the fight for you will never dies," plus Israel-demonising screeching and shouting). 

The demonstration was organised by Al-Awda, the Palestine Right To Return Coalition and ANSWER Coalition.

Some of the hate-filled ratbags flaunting their bile:

 

  

And two of the speakers at the AIPAC conference:

Trump:

 Clinton:

The creep who stayed away:

In Montreal, A Comedian With A Megaphone (video)

In Montreal, with a little help from a friend from New York (and on Shabbos, tut tut) the boys from Neturei Karta come out to play:

I guess the comedian with the megaphone has never heard of historic Islamic antisemitism, the Battle of Khaybar, the deliberate humiliations of dhimmitude and jizya for the sake of Muslim supremacism.

More fun and games to be seen here

Speaking of Muslim supremacism, here's a new article by Raymond Ibrahim, describing disturbing manifestations outside the Muslim world.

Meanwhile, the president of the World Jewish Congress has condemned the outrageous proposal before UNESCO to have the Western Wall declared part of Al-Aqsa Mosque:

“For thousands of years, Jews have lived and prayed in Jerusalem. Since 1967, the State of Israel has safeguarded the right of worship of all three monotheistic religions present in Jerusalem, including the right of Muslims to pray on the Mount.

However, declaring the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest place, a Muslim site would be a travesty. Instead of fostering peace, it would only encourage extremists to step up their campaign against Jews, both in Israel and beyond.

Everybody should see that this is not about protecting holy sites; it’s about bashing Israel, it’s about sowing the seeds of strife, and it’s about legitimizing violence. It must be stopped.”

More on that here

That notorious set of four maps rears its ugly head again (hat tip: Ian):

When Rogues Fall Out: Weir's warfare with Jewish Voice for Peace

The lady and the tome she loves to plug

It seems that relations between Alison Weir, of the vicious US Israel-demonising campaign group If Americans Knew, and the vicious US Israel-demonising campaign group Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP), have ruptured.

Apparently,  some of Weir's shenanegans have proved too hard to take, even for JVP.

What's upset them, exactly? Her constant harping on the USS Liberty conspiracy theory?  Her allegations of racism directed at the late Lubavitcher Rebbe?  Her promotion of that infamous set of mendacious maps? And how do her obsessions differ from theirs? Blowed if I can work it out, but there are clues below.


That they're broiges with her is no inevitable outcome, one would have thought, given the scumbags with which JVP is riddled, of the kind who deny all suggestions that anti-Israel activity and calls for BDS is antisemitic.  See here, ar right,for instance, how JVP so facilely links to propaganda by notorious British anti-Israel activist Ben White, who as I remarked in a very recent post is on record as saying that he can understand why antisemitism exists.

Oh, and here's the JVP trying to look all spick and span.  The carbolic soap's been cleared away here, and the warts are obvious.

On social media, Ms Weir has  issued a long screed, of which I quote part:

My Reply to JVP Leaders' McCarthy-like Attacks Against Me

I have long been hearing that some JVP leaders have initiated whispering campaigns against me. This began many years ago (and long before the latest accusations, which are in a letter from JVP, below). In fact, I first heard of the director of JVP accusing me of anti-Semitism, behind my back, during the first year of my public statements about Palestine. Such actions seemed related to my political positions on Palestine, which were different from JVP's:

I endorsed Palestinian refugees' right of return, favored ending US aid to Israel, was aware of pro-Israel neocons' role in pushing the US into the Iraq war, and did not deny the significance of the Israel lobby.

The whispered attacks against me were troubling, but I tried to ignore them and continue my work.

Then, with the publication of my book last year, "Against our Better Judgment: The hidden history of how the US was used to create Israel" the attacks seemed to escalate. It appeared that some JVP leaders were attempting to thwart my talks and prevent people from learning the facts that my book and my talks contain.

(It is very important to note this is not representative of all JVP members – many of whom are colleagues and supporters. Some have put on excellent speaking events for me.)

I finally decided to write an article about this situation – "Please help us overcome the accusations against If Americans Knew," but did not name JVP, in the hope of preventing damaging division and distraction in the movement for justice in Palestine.

Before publishing this piece, I tried to clarify the situation with JVP, and emailed the national leaders asking about their statements about me. I hoped that by communicating with JVP directly the situation could be resolved. In reply I received a letter from a law firm on JVP's behalf (a partner in the firm is the JVP board chair and was the signatory on the letter).

I was surprised at the McCarthyist, guilt-through-association attacks this letter contained, and I was amazed at the great effort someone had made to monitor my every move over the past 14 years of hundreds of speeches, articles, and interviews.

JVP sent their accusatory dossier on me to about 50 chapters around the country, and has been disseminating this and other accusations widely. I've just finished an extremely busy three-week speaking tour. In several locations I learned that JVP had tried to block my talks. Fortunately, they failed in almost all locations and my presentations were received extremely well; one audience even gave me a standing ovation.

By the way, although JVP is a membership organization, there is no indication that the general JVP membership was informed or involved in these actions.

Below is JVP leaders' dossier on me, with my rebuttals below each section.

It is interesting to note that despite what seems to be a long and surprisingly intent focus on ferreting out supposedly negative information about me or potential mistakes I may have made, none of their accusations include anything about my own articles or speeches.

Instead, all their charges are based on alleged "guilt by association." Even this McCarthyist tactic, however, is based on falsehoods, as I am not even associated with those they try to claim. Please see below:

--> JVP: "Jewish Voice for Peace has chosen not to work with you because our central tenet is opposition to racism in all its forms,"

This is not true. Among other things, JVP works with Zionists, an ideology that people throughout the world feel is profoundly racist. Many people find JVP's action objectionable and will not work with JVP for that reason. At If Americans Knew, however, we believe in a broad tent, and have published JVP articles on our website, posted a link to the organization from the very beginning, and have occasionally worked with JVP members and several JVP chapters.

--> JVP: "and you have chosen repeatedly to associate yourself with people who advocate for racism."

We have not done so.

--> JVP: "You have been a repeat guest of white supremacist Clay Douglas on his hate radio show, the Free American. Clay Douglas is concerned primarily with the survival of the White race and sees malign Jewish influence everywhere. His racist, anti-Jewish, and anti-gay rhetoric can be found across the front pages of his multiple websites. In the course of your appearance with Clay Douglas on August 25, 2010, for example, you were silent when Douglas invoked the Protocols of the Elders of Zion and engaged in a racist diatribe against Jews. Your repeated appearance on this show (April 23 and August 25, 2010; February 9 and May 18, 2011) show that you knew his extremist views and chose to continue the association."

New York City, folks

Over the past 14 years I have given probably hundreds of interviews to diverse people of all ages and backgrounds from across the political spectrum, as do most writers and analysts. I try to focus on the information I feel audiences need to hear, speak as intentionally as possible, and stay on target – surprisingly difficult during interviews, as others have no doubt also experienced.

I do not vet who may or may not listen to my information and have even gone on Israeli right-wing radio. We wish our important facts to reach every possible person, and I endeavor to be polite to all my hosts, even when they are hard-core Zionists.

I always use this airtime to the best of my ability to give important facts about Palestine to listeners of all backgrounds and beliefs in an effort to counter the media misinformation about the region and about Muslims. [Emphasis added; and see here]

Some sectors of US society are specifically being targeted by misinformation that is causing an alarming growth of Islamophobia in this country, some of it taking violent turns.

I feel it is critical that our facts, which counter this Islamophobia campaign, reach every portion of our diverse population, particularly those that are most vulnerable to this anti-Muslim propaganda....

.... I believe that ending the long-standing injustice and horror in Palestine is the best way to protect human rights, security and peace for all parties and, indeed, the world. I believe the issue is too urgent to become distracted.

My goal is to try to reach everyone with the fundamental principle that all racism is wrong and to provide facts that will counter the falsehoods being given to them about Palestinians, Arabs, Muslims, Iranians, and others. [Emphasis added]

I don't pretend that I am perfect and that all my responses will be flawless; all I can do is try my hardest. I apologize if there were cases where I should have done better....

--> JVP: "Your troubling associations and choices further include giving interviews to a range of far-right outlets including The American Free Press, which the Southern Poverty Law Center has identified as a hate group"

See my answer above discussing the critical importance of giving facts on Palestine to all sectors of U.S. society.

Once again JVP is searching through my multitude of interviews for something negative to use against me and again must resort to alleged guilt through alleged (but false) association. JVP fails to mention that many diverse people have been interviewed by the American Free Press, including Cindy and Craig Corrie, Rachel Corrie's parents.....

--> JVP: "and the anti-gay, anti-Jewish pastor Mark Dankof. One of your articles appeared in an anthology that was promoted by the infamous Holocaust-denial organization, the Institute for Historical Review. We see no evidence that you have disavowed any of these outlets or institutions."

JVP's attempt to tar me by claiming that a group once promoted an anthology that contains a piece by me is a truly bizarre way to attack me! My articles have been included in at least four, perhaps more, anthologies, and every anthology has included highly respected authors, including Edward Said, Noam Chomsky, and many others.

It is revealing that JVP's accusation against me fails to mention that Rev. Dankof has also interviewed peace activists Ray McGovern and Jennifer Lowenstein, Israeli professor and author Ilan Pappe, and journalist and commentator Dilip Hiro, among many others....

--> JVP: "It should not and cannot win by fueling or endorsing any form of hate, whether against People of Color, gays, Jews, Muslims or anyone else."

I certainly agree. It also should not include hatred of Christians, conservatives, or people whose views or facts we, or one, may dislike. I truly hope JVP believes in this important principle, and that it is not like the ADL, whose definition of "hate" is often based on political stances it dislikes on Israel....

--> JVP: "At Jewish Voice for Peace, we are particularly sensitive to the long history of anti-Jewish oppression" ....

I have always opposed all forms of bigotry, and one of my very first essays was "Choosing to Act: Anti-Semitism Is Wrong."

--> JVP: "as well as the ways that Palestinian liberation work is frequently tarred with false charges of anti-Semitism."

Exactly like JVP's false charges against me.....'

Meanwhile, regarding that alleged distinction between antisemitism and anti-Zionism, British blogger Edgar Davidson has a great post here, along with the rest of this grand chart of his.

Just a taster of the full chart at http://edgar1981.blogspot.com.au/2015/05/the-anti-semitism-v-anti-zionism.html

Mondoweiss Marches On To Its Own Beat

This is a guest blog by Professor William D. Rubinstein.  His previous guest blogs are here, here, here, here, here, and here.  The last two links refer to Mondoweiss.

He writes:

I have contributed a couple of previous guest posts to this site about Mondoweiss, the online extreme anti-Zionist site.  After a period of ignoring it, the time has come to look once more at that execrable, albeit well-produced, and apparently well-financed, site.

What is the main conclusion one can draw from Israel's recent Gaza incursion?  In my view, the most important conclusion is that there was virtually no erosion in mainstream support for Israel.  I will go further, and say that there was no significant erosion in mainstream support for Israel, despite the near-universal one-sided and deeply hostile media depictions of its military activities in Gaza, normally without any account of the thousands of Hamas rockets fired at Israeli civilians.

(The normal formula for criticism was that Israel's response was "disproportionate".  During World War Two, the United States dropped millions of tons of bombs on Nazi Germany.  Germany dropped zero bombs on the United States.  No doubt this was also "disproportionate".)

No mainstream political figure of any significance deserted Israel, certainly not in the English-speaking world, with every conservative and liberal/social democratic figure affirming their support for Israel.  All of them has had the sense to realize that Israel's immediate neighbors are not Denmark, Sweden and Canada, but extremist and dictatorial regimes which would make peace with Israel only reluctantly and, in the case of Hamas, not at all.

Mondoweiss has, time and again, tried to pretend that there is a groundswell of hostility against Israel in places high and low, that will result in a cataclysmic reorientation of Western, especially American, attitudes on the Israel/Palestine question.  This is sheer fantasy, and, in the absence of real evidence, Mondoweiss highlights every piece of criticism of Israel from any American source, regardless of how obscure, trivial, or wholly predictable.  Most of these critics have actually condemned Israel many times before, and would certainly condemn Israel regardless of what it did, apart from committing suicide.

Virtually all are components of the extreme left, usually of what Paul Johnson has termed the "fascist left", for whom Israel occupies a central position in their demonology, generally to the exclusion of everything else, remarkably similar to the position of Jews in Hitler's worldview.

Most of Mondoweiss in fact consists of the highlighting of trivial examples of anti-Israel agitation or demonstrations by students, political activists, already-committed leftists, and the like.

Occasionally, though, Mondoweiss goes so far over the top that the story in question deserves wider publicity.  Some prime examples:

Steve Kloppman: "Judaism's Hijacking By Zionists Drives 70% of Secular Jews To Marry Non-Jews" (August 31, 2014).  

I kid you not  –  this was actually a Mondoweiss posting.

"Hillary Clinton Just Lost The White House in Gaza – Same Way She Lost It in Iraq the Last Time" (August 23, 2014).

 At first, I thought I had misread this story, and that Hillary Clinton had lost the nomination by not supporting Israel – but I got it right the first time: Hillary will lose the nomination by supporting Israel.  "Yes, I know I'm going out on a limb", says its author.

"Chomsky and the BDS" (July 6, 2014). 

Noam Chomsky, the ultra-left guru known for his vituperative criticism of Israel over the past thirty or forty years does not support the BDS movement.  The article consists of bucketing poor Noam for his residual Zionism – seems he's a neo-conservative in drag, as it were.

Mondoweiss has also highlighted many times the so-called Russell Tribunal on Palestine, most recently in

"Russell Tribunal Finds Evidence of Incitement to Genocide, Crimes Against Humanity in Gaza" (September 25, 2014).

 The "Russell Tribunal" (named for Bertrand Russell, the famous phiosopher who, in his nineties, became an anti-Vietnam War activist but in 1949 –  I'm not joking –  recommended bombing Moscow if Stalin didn't give up the atom bomb) is a self-appointed group of ultra-leftist activists whose verdicts on Israel are just as impartial as were the trials of Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, and the others sentenced to death at Stalin's show trials.  Of the Russell Tribunal, Richard Goldstone (yes, the South African jurist whose anti-Israel eponymous Report, later retracted by him, received so much publicity a few years ago) wrote:

"It is not a 'tribunal'.  The evidence is going to be one-sided and the members of the 'jury' are critics whose harsh views of Israel are well-known.  In Israel, there is no apartheid.  Nothing comes close to the definition of apartheid under the 1998 Rome Statute."

Nor, obviously, are the recent bombings of Gaza, to destroy Hamas's structure of rockets and weapons, an example of "genocide".

Mondoweiss gives maximum publicity to kangaroo courts like this for one reason: it takes one to know one.

Rooting For The Enemy: Hamas's Jewish Useful Idiots

 http://www.creativecommunityforpeace.com/justice/

'We, the undersigned, are saddened by the devastating loss of life endured by Israelis and Palestinians in Gaza. We are pained by the suffering on both sides of the conflict and hope for a solution that brings peace to the region.

While we stand firm in our commitment to peace and justice, we must also stand firm against ideologies of hatred and genocide which are reflected in Hamas' charter, Article 7 of which reads, “There is a Jew hiding behind me, come on and kill him!” The son of a Hamas founder has also commented about the true nature of Hamas.

Hamas cannot be allowed to rain rockets on Israeli cities, nor can it be allowed to hold its own people hostage. Hospitals are for healing, not for hiding weapons. Schools are for learning, not for launching missiles. Children are our hope, not our human shields.

We join together in support of the democratic values we all cherish and in the hope that the healing and transformative power of the arts can be used to build bridges of peace.'

It's good to see people from the arts community, including Hollywood A-listers, speaking out against Hamas in this way.  If only more, many many more, would nail their colours to the mast.

What is particularly satisfying about the above list of signatories is that it includes Roseanne Barr, who has, if reports can be trusted, made some unpleasant references to Israel and Zionism in the past but who has been outspokenly supportive of Israel for some time .

An (occasional) Hollywood personality (Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Torch Song Trilogy), the estimable Ben Stein, observed last month:

"The media in this country for a very long time has been contemptuous of Jews and contemptuous of Jewish life.

This was true during the Holocaust, when the media was largely controlled by old, lying, wealthy, white Protestant males, and it's true now when it's controlled by mostly left-wingers....

The media likes to portray Jews as bullies and murderers and . . . it's kind of amazing to me, because so much of the media is Jewish....

[T]here's a deep-seated self-hatred, especially [among] the New York City elite media.

They want to show they're not Jewish by being anti-Israel, and it's not going to work. We know they're Jewish and we know that they're not being fair to their own people, but they'll keep doing it...

Every story about the war in Gaza should begin with 'Hamas started it, Hamas endlessly refuses to have a ceasefire.'

Hamas could have an incredibly prosperous and happy, peaceful partnership with Israel, and they don't, they prefer to fight, they prefer to kill....''

Now, they might seem naive and innocuous enough, but these protesters  (see the videos here and here and here and here) disrupting in relays a fundraising dinner for Israel at the Chicago Hilton on 21 August, at which the city's mayor Rahm Emanuel and Michael Oren (Israel's ex-ambassador to the United States) spoke, are representatives of an odious organisation which effectively gives aid and comfort to Hamas: the bizarrely-named "Jewish Voice For Peace" (JVP).

Bizarrely-named, because as the heading to an article dated 20 August by Yitzhak Santis, Chief Programs Officer at Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor (where he directs the “BDS in the Pews” project) declares

 "Jews abetting Hamas are no voice for peace".

Rooting for the enemy

Sinisterly, JVP keeps its source or sources of funding firmly under wraps; needless to say, if we knew who finances it we would know who pulls its strings.

Writes Santis inter alia:

 '... JVP’s executive director, Rebecca Vilkomerson, describes her group as “the Jewish wing of the [Palestinian solidarity] movement,” with the mission “to facilitate conversations inside the Jewish community… [to] put that wedge in, saying the Jewish community’s not agreeing on these issues.”

 That’s it. JVP seeks to divide American Jews—Israel’s main foundation of international support—so as to reduce or eliminate U.S. backing for Israel for the benefit of Israel’s enemies.  

Undermining Israel ...

JVP is part of the international NGO “soft power” war, whose unrelenting attacks on Israel’s right to self-defense ultimately aid Hamas.

 This global political warfare strategy includes sustained delegitimization campaigns, BDS (boycotts, divestment, and sanctions), and promoting a “right of return” for Palestinians, which means dismantling Israel as a Jewish and democratic state.

... every step ...

 It partners with a wide coterie of radical leftist, Islamist, and Arab ultra-nationalist groups to promote its program. When asked, JVP states that they are “agnostic” about a two-state solution. But that is a smokescreen. The group’s actions demonstrate a clear anti-Israel agenda. [Emphasis added here and below]

A JVP contingent marched at a July 12 “peace” demonstration in San Francisco, where “anti-war” protesters waved Hamas banners and burned an Israeli flag while chanting in Arabic “Ya Hamas, ya habib, udrub, udrub Tel Abib!” (Oh, dear Hamas, strike a blow at Tel Aviv!)  Signs read, “From the river to the sea, Palestine will be free,” “From Gaza to Ramallah Forever Intifada,” and “F*** Zionism!” The rally’s advertising demanded an “end to US aid to Israel and to Zionist rule over Palestine.”

... of the way ...

In Los Angeles, JVP teamed up with American Muslims for Palestine (AMP) to “put on a massive die-in street theater.” AMP’s website refers to Hamas as a “Palestinian resistance group.”  In Detroit, JVP protested for the release of convicted terrorist Rasmea Odeh....

JVP calls the current conflict with Hamas “Israel’s war on civilians”—which follows Hamas PR guidelines to describe “anyone killed or martyred” as “a civilian from Gaza or Palestine.”  JVP demands an “end [to] the siege on Gaza,” a central Hamas demand. JVP insists the U.S. “suspend military aid to Israel,” which would also benefit Hamas and other jihadist terrorists. Finally, when JVP supports the call to “Stand Against Zionism Everywhere,” it is clear whose water they are carrying. JVP stands unmasked as anything but a voice for peace.'

Read the entire article (with its links) here 

"Officers, These Guys Are Threatening Us": Anti-Israel Ferals Show Their Ferocity in San Francisco

In San Francisco on 7 July, thirty peaceful pro-Israel demonstrators are taunted and menaced by  300 anti-Israel ferals, screaming abuse, calling for another Intifada, and of course the destruction of the Jewish State:

Divesting, Demonising – & In Decline: The Ultra-Liberal Churches That Are Targeting Israel

Photo: Joshua Lott, New York Times

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

A few days ago, the Presbyterian Church (USA) voted to divest its investments in three companies doing business with Israel on the West Bank.  The vote (310:303) was extremely narrow.  At the same time, the church voted to endorse “gay” marriage.  I don’t agree with either action, but as I am not a member of that church its actions are none of my business.

However, in this guest blog I would like to highlight a number of important characteristics of some mainstream Protestant churches such as the Presbyterian Church (USA) which may not be known to many readers, and focus on two such churches in particular.

These characteristics are:

(a)    Each is a small, now ultra-liberal Protestant denomination;

(b)   Each is obsessed with Israel’s alleged crimes, while utterly failing to criticise far worse and more barbaric activities by other countries, especially in the Islamic world;

(c)    Most importantly, each of these denominations is rapidly and demonstrably losing membership, to the extent that they may well disappear.

The Presbyterian Church (USA) was once a fairly conservative mainstream Protestant sect, deriving from Scotland in the Reformation.  Fifty years ago, it would obviously not have endorsed either policy referred to above.  As it has shrunk in size and importance, the church – like many others of a similar type – has moved ever further to the Left, losing ever more of its conservative members.

Israel is absolutely central to the church's current foreign demonology, not North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or (God forbid) Cuba.  One might imagine that this focus is due to the age-old, inglorious tradition of Christian antisemitism, and although this may well be a component of the church's stance, it would be more accurate to see it as a facet of the church’s anti-conservative, anti-American, anti-Western world-view, especially since it ignores the barbarism carried out every day in the Islamic world.

The main point I want to highlight here, however, is that the Presbyterian Church (USA) is, literally, dying on its feet.  Its membership has declined (see Wikipedia) from 3,101,000 in 1984 to 1,176,000 in 2013.  In 2012 and 2013 alone, it lost over 10 per cent of its total membership.  According to one church spokesman in 2013, “projections are for an anticipated loss of perhaps 500,000 members over the next three-four years, about 25 per cent of the denomination’s membership”.

Any business with this record of abject failure would, of course, sack its entire management at the first opportunity, and adopt an entirely new business model.  Not so the Presbyterians.  The more they jump on every looney-left bandwagon that rolls along, the emptier their pews become, a fact obviously not lost on whoever is in charge of this church.

Then there is the United Church of Canada, a merger of the Methodists, Congregationalists, and some Presbyterians.  Its website is a veritable pastiche of every conceivable leftwing “politically correct” bandwagon that happens on by.  “Happy World Pride”, given prominent space, turns out to be an endorsement of the “International Day against Homophobia and Transphobia”.  “The United Church of Canada Celebrates World Pride Day”, it proclaims.  “The Truth and Reconciliation Commission” (á lá post-Apartheid South Africa) is “a comprehensive response to the legacy of [Canadian American] Indians".  And so it goes: “Fast For The Climate”, “Call For Justice For Victims of Extrajudicial Killings”, automatic opposition to the Canadian pipeline, and so on.

You guessed it: only one foreign policy issue figures prominently on their website, and it ain’t North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, or Cuba.  Members of the church are called upon “to take concrete action to support the end of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories”.  What is highly questionable is the highlighting of this conflict itself, and the utter silence of the church about, say, the enormities and barbarities carried out on a daily basis throughout the Islamic world against women, non-Muslims, Muslims of the wrong sect, political dissidents, and virtually everyone else – the usual double standards of the left-liberal politically correct brigade throughout the West.

Indeed, in 2012 the church voted in favour of BDS as triumphantly reported on Press TV, to which the church kindly gave a statement.  There is more on its BDS activities here and on its history, embraced causes, numerical decline (see below), and attitude to Israel here.

Canada is a democracy, and if the United Church of Canada wants to endorse BDS or anything else, that’s its own business.  What is striking, as in the case of the US Presbyterians, is that this church is losing members at a rapid and ever-increasing rate of decline.  According to Wikipedia, the church’s membership peaked in 1964 at 1.1million.  By 2008, it had a membership of 525,000, less than half of its membership in the 1960s, with only 200,000 attending on a regular basis.  By 2010, the membership had fallen to 490,000.  According to one analyst, “it lost 55 per cent of its members while Canada’s population grew 78 per cent”.

The last Canadian census showed that two million people claimed to belong to this denomination, but the next time most of them are likely to attend a service is when they are the only person in the room unable to hear the eulogy delivered in their honour.

That church’s consistent left-wing orientation has not escaped the attention of the Canadian press and commentators, with many critics condemning the church’s stance.  “The United Church [Is] Little More Than a Left-Wing Club”, one columnist noted in The Calgary Herald (24 August 2012), and many other similar opinions are available online.  “Canada’s United Church: Christianity? Or Now Simply Another left-Wing Activist Cult?” goes one.

Here's a relevant video, highlighting the church's hypocritical double standards where Israel is concerned:

  
I suppose that, within a generation or so, this church will virtually disappear.  Many will say “Good riddance”.  What is true of this church is also true of most other ultra-liberal Protestant denominations throughout the West.  The points made here could be multiplied a dozen times.  As to the Canadian scene, to quote Wikipedia: “Non-denominational churches and conservative denominations like the Assemblies of God and Christian Missionary Alliance are growing.”

(Daphne adds: See the US Presbyterian Church's Facebook page where it is getting angry messages from Jews and Xians alike to its recent vote; more opposition outlined here and here. In view of the widely shown photo at the top of this post [credit: Joshua Lott, for New York Times] of jubilant Israel-haters shown in the the throes of a seemingly orgasmic thrill over the gift from the church of a shoddy BDS victory, it's not surprising that some pro-Israel elements on Facebook and elsewhere are reminding them that to be true Israel-boycotters they'll have to forsake their computers!  Below: crowing over the Presbyterian vote on, of all things, the propaganda channel of that notable abuser of human and Christian rights, the Islamic Republic of Iran!)