Stephen Hawking The BDSer (video)

Well, what a surprise: here's a CNN report (complete with Matthew Kalman from The Guardian) that's slanted against those who, understandably, deplore Stephen Hawking's support for the academic boycott of Israel.

(For the reasons indicated on the previous post, any comments will be posted tardily, so apologies in advance!)
See also here

"Devout" Sydney Protester Jailed For Attack On Police Dog (video)

Oh, the delights of moving countries! No internet access at new home yet, and modem not available for collection today as promised.  Android phone locked into the UK's Orange system and not working here!  But I hope to be blogging normally soon.
Meanwhile, just to show I'm still alive, here's a taste of Sydney (hat tip: reader Shirlee):

Apologies for the inevitable tardy postings of any comments...

Palestine: Google Goes Ga Ga, By David Singer

Here's the latest article by Sydney lawyer and international affairs analyst David Singer.

He writes:

'Google has spoken – Palestine is now indeed recognized as a country by the internet giant following the change of tag line on the homepage of its Palestinian edition from "Palestinian Territories" to "Palestine".

In a statement given to the BBC, Google spokesman Nathan Tyler said:

"We're changing the name 'Palestinian Territories' to 'Palestine' across our products. We consult a number of sources and authorities when naming countries. 

In this case, we are following the lead of the UN, Icann [the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers], ISO [International Organisation for Standardisation] and other international organisations."

Dr Sabri Saidam, advisor to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, told the BBC:


"This is a step in the right direction, a timely step and one that encourages others to join in and give the right definition and name for Palestine instead of Palestinian territories

Most of the traffic that happens now happens in the virtual world and this means putting Palestine on the virtual map as well as on the geographic maps"


Tom McCarthy – a journalist for the Guardian US – has reported Google's announcement under the following headline:
"Palestine now recognised by greater power than US or Israel – Google"

Certainly Mahmoud Abbas assumed the title "President of Palestine" and disbanded the Palestinian Authority on 3 January.

Yet no map has been produced by President Abbas indicating where the country he presumably heads is located. Nor has he called for the disbandment of the refugee camps run by UNRWA and extended a call to all Palestinian Arabs around the world to come and join him in the task of building and developing this newest country in the world.

As the unelected President of Palestine, the former unelected President of the officially disbanded Palestinian Authority, the elected Chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the head of its major faction – Fatah – Abbas has led the fight for recognition of statehood and it seems that his victories at UNESCO and the United Nations have borne fruit as even organisations such as Google queue up to recognize that there is indeed a newly created country called "Palestine".

So where is the country called Palestine? What are its boundaries and who is its ruler?

Words have meaning and consequences. Playing semantics where lives and other countries national interests are involved is a dangerous game.

The recognition of this new country called "Palestine" by Google – and anyone espousing the same viewpoint – requires them to identify the precise location and area of the land that such country encompasses.

Google itself does not appear to be following its much reported announcement in other spheres of its business.

A search for "Palestine" on Google Maps only provides a map for "Palestinian Territories".

A search for "Palestine" on Google Earth Maps on-line free only reveals the following:

"Satellite View of the Palestinian territories: Gaza Strip and West Banks

Satellite View of Palestinian territories using Google Earth Data

Satellite view is showing the Palestinian territories of Gaza Strip which lies on the coast of the Mediterranean Sea, and the West Bank, a landlocked territory on the west bank of the River Jordan in the Middle East.stin

Largest city in Gaza Strip is Gaza (City), most populated cities in West Bank are Nablus (135,000), and Hebron (120,000).

Countries with international borders to the Palestinian territories are Egypt, Israel, and Jordan."

A search on Google Images for "Palestine Map 2013" only displayed a map titled "Occupied Palestinian Territory".

Google's left hand does not seem to know what its right hand is doing.

Google's credibility and reliability to provide accurate information is certainly being put to the test as a result of its latest decision.

Perhaps Nathan Tyler can enlighten Google users – because at the present time the situation appears to be very confusing.'

"If Zionism, In All Its forms, Is So Powerful ...Why Is Israel So Small?": The Almond Rod Chastises Sizer

(Still re-establishing myself in Australia, I'm not able to resume posting on a proper and regular basis until I move into a permanent abode with internet access, which will almost certainly be in the coming  week.)

As someone with an interest in Jewish-Christian relations I note that Ian G's latest post, over at his new blog TheAlmondRod, takes issue with the likes of Ian's fellow Anglican Stephen Sizer.  It concludes:

"If Zionism, in all its forms, is so powerful ...why did the Holocaust happen; why is Israel so small; why does Israel surrender land for peace...etc. etc.?

Ah, yes. That singularly unsuccessful Zionist plot to rule the world which is simultaneously rich, powerful, secret, diabolical... yawn. Where does this strange idea come from? Its a Big Lie. Goebbels practised it. Paul predicted it http://bible.cc/2_thessalonians/2-11.htm .

Actually, the lie is a distortion of promises in the Tenach and in the New Testament. It's the argument over the nature of that distortion and how to interpret scripture that separates me, and others, from Sizer and his ilk.

The day when Israel will be pre-eminent among the nations only comes with the (return of) the Messiah. This will not be brought about by precipitating Armageddon (more about that some other time). It's the rage against God that leads to a rage against real Christianity and against the Jew (again more later).

It's God's fault. He chose someone. It could have a Briton. If it had we would be fighting the French and others for a piece of  the British Isles. It would have been the same story with British names. Josh Davidson would have been born in the North of England and executed in London. And so on.

The Messiah had to be somewhere. Which brings me at last to that saner form of madness which is the Goon Show and the famous Eccles. 

Eccles, when trapped in a coal cellar and questioned on what he was doing there, replies "Everybody's got to be somewhere".

And therein is the problem. The Jews, and others, are allowed to be somewhere, just as long as it is somewhere else."

And for anyone who has not yet discovered it, here is a video recommended by reader Shirlee:

"Antisemitism Is Antisemitism, Whatever The Tone In Which It Is Expressed"

".... Whatever you say, and I don't want to hear what you have to say because it will be the same old rhetoric, we in the UK have had enough of Israel, we (the NUJ [National Union of Journalists] of which I am a member) have finally voted to boycott Israeli goods (I have been doing this since 1957 so it just legitimises it and spreads the word, all items with 7.29 in the bar code, Jaffa Carmel, etc) - universities will bring in an academic boycott and architects are now joining in too. It won't stop there, we will do all in our power to make sure that you do not take any more land (you have already taken mine and refuse to pay for it). We can no longer send money to the PLO or Hamas, but we are sending people, we are not afraid of your wall, your evil soldiers (and you worry about one missing soldier, ha!) and will continue. We used to be mild, respected you because of the so called holocaust (a nice round number 6 million, what about the homosexuals, gypsies, deformed, dissenters, they NEVER get a mention and my family were among them)

So yes, we are very angry, we are working against Israel whereas before we supported you, and we will do all in our collective power to make life as uncomfortable for you as you make it for the Palestinians, shame on you, shame on all jews, may your lives be cursedYours with no shame whatsoever and no fear"

That missive was written back in 2007 by the woman who, more recently, posted the following beneath a YouTube video:

Wrote the missive's receipient, Jewish Chronicle editor Stephen Pollard, at the time, in an article headed "The real antisemitism underlying the boycotters": 

'Those arguing for a boycott seek to present themselves as opponents of Israeli government policy rather than antisemites.... But it is - and I'll put it no stronger than this - quite remarkable how many of those who call for a boycott, on whatever grounds, turn out to be plain old antisemites.

Ms Hardyment’s sentiments are representative of the underlying views of many boycott supporters. The references to the “Nazi like killing machinea¦ backed by the world's richest jews and America”, the “so called holocaust (a nice round number 6 milliona¦)” and “shame on all jews, may your lives be cursed”, may be more obvious than some of the more sly proponents of a boycott, who are careful to couch their arguments in apparently reasonable language; but antisemitism is antisemitism, whatever the tone in which it is expressed.'

In recent days there have been more stark reminders of the antisemitism, overt and not so overt,  that underpins the BDS Movement, making, as Pollard also observed, "the 'useful idiots' of the antisemites" out of those who have yet to be infected with the world's longest hatred themselves.

Take the "damp squib" of a protest last Tuesday against the imminent opening of a Max Brenner outlet on the campus of the University of New South Wales.  Speakers at the well-advertised rally (which despite almost 200 acceptances on Facebook saw a fraction of that number actually turn up, to be outnumbered by reporters and onlookers: great illustrated write-up (h/t Shirlee) here) might have been careful to eschew any hint of antisemitism in their addresses to their followers, but in the lead-up to the rally commenters on Facebook were not so scrupulous:

'The Facebook page RALLY! Say no to Max Brenner at UNSW was set up by SJP [the so-called Students for Justice in Palestine] via the Boycott Max Brenner at UNSW Facebook group. It has hosted dozens of comments that cover the gamut of anti-Jewish stereotypes, claiming that Jews are cursed by God, are money-hungry, control the media, and are dirty and evil.

Other posts deny the Holocaust and simultaneously, with textbook cognitive dissonance, blame the Holocaust on the Jews.

The racist postings include a reference to “evil greedy money-loving nature of Jews”, and the claim that “Only news (that) Jews are happy with goes through via media”. Another post reverts to classical religious bigotry: “Of course I have a problem with Jews. You are not the cursed people and were not Banished from the holy land for nothing lol.” Non-Jews who defend Jews come in for opprobrium with the comment: “Tip rats = Jew lovers.”

An especially vicious post rails against “the dirtiest most evil people on earth using the holocaust to their advantage as leverage to establish the state of israel. it was all planned.”

The UNSW Student Representative Council Ethnic Affairs Officer, Charlotte Lewis, was so shocked she posted: “Reading over these comments has left me gobsmacked at the outrageous anti-Semitic slanders mentioned on this event. If I see one more antisemitic comment, I’m taking this to the University.”

In a later post, Lewis stated: “I am the Ethno-Cultural Officer, meaning I need to look out for any hate speech towards any ethnic group. I have witnessed many accusations that the Holocaust didn’t exist, and that Jews are money-hungry pigs. Due to this, several Jewish students actually feel unsafe to step foot into the University, meaning I actually DO need to solve this problem.”

Lewis informed the page owners that the UNSW Chancellery had been made aware of the page, and its anti-Jewish content, but the university administration appears not to have taken action.

The present National Anti Racism campaign slogan, “Racism, it stops with me”, seems to have fallen on deaf ears among the administrators at UNSW, which has one of the most culturally diverse campuses in Australia.

It has been left to other UNSW students who share Lewis’s disgust to establish their own Facebook page Defend Max Brenner at UNSW, featuring screenshots of the anti-Jewish posts on the RALLY page to highlight the racism it has spawned. These students posted their own comments on the RALLY page, protesting its anti-Semitism and demanding an end to the anti-Jewish vitriol. For the most part, their demands went unheeded. Some anti-Jewish posts were deleted, but were replaced by others.

SJP has yet to ask itself why it provides a sympathetic home for naked Jew-hatred. SJP organisers wax indignant at the merest suggestion they are complicit in fomenting anti-Semitism. Instead, they accuse anyone who points out the raw racism they attract of trying to “censor” them with the intimidating charge of anti-Semitism. It is difficult but necessary for them to understand their own role in attracting and hosting content which expresses racism against Jews. It is easy, but false, simply to assume any claimed offence is merely feigned for political or other advantage.' (Read more here)

Photo by Joshua Levi (Australian Jewish News)

And as this photo accompanying this Australian Jewish News report by Josh Levi shows, one of the "useful idiots" in question was a manipulated child.

And we see more antisemitism, nakedly expressed, beneath a report here that Press TV's correspondent in Australia, Edwina Storie, is suing Aussie blogger Andrew Landeryou.

Some choice delicacies from the comments section:

NIQ
May 2, 2013 9:57 AM

This story brings tears to my eyes! I am of no denomination nor any belief or disbelief. I am not a Muslim, nor a Christian, nor anything. I am none of the above. The bucket I fall in is not in the list. ...and I know I will remain in that position. What a beautiful human being you are Edwina! Utmost respect from a male who unmistakably sees and recognizes a genuine female being. I too, do my part in this fight against this ZIONIST JEW SCOURGE. Honor and truth will prevail in the end... theses parasites are doomed. I will be standing next to you when victory relieves us all. Timelessness is ours, oblivion is theirs!

A low life zionist
May 2, 2013 9:30 AM

You know Edwina we zionist vultures are low life people ,we control western media ,we brainwash people to cry for jews and you know jews don't consider goyim people as human being! ,and we have low life people who work for JIDF and they infesting internet with their stupid lies and propaganda ,Be strong Edwina we are vulture zionists!

ahmed
May 2, 2013 8:31 AM

Hey sis this is nothing new.press TV reporters have 2 get use 2 this type of attack when they reveal the truth.if this guy is an Australian I dnt blame him.he must b a decendent of a murderer or rapist or child molester that we're shipped from Europe.this is history.u go for it.

TurkMan
May 2, 2013 5:46 AM

That's the way Zionist Jew scums work,,, First they try to bribe you if it doesn't work they try to defame you and if that doesn't work they kill you. They are the Cancer of Planet Earth.

786
May 1, 2013 11:13 PM

These Zionazi Jews only go after defenceless women and children! They have never won a real war with real men(Hezbollah and Hamas)! They are very good at brainwashing, lying,stealing nothing else. Edwina, I read their news on how you would be "stoned to death" if you were in Iran..Please take a mini vacation and visit IRI. We Muslims love and respect you for your bravery, courage and standing up against these Nazis... against the enemy of humanity.

Aga
May 1, 2013 8:43 PM

Edwina Storie, you are most welcome to revert to Islam.

Clare Short Takes A Swipe At Christian Zionism

This recent Facebook post (hat tip: reader P, who tells me that its author is posting anti-Israel links there virtually round the clock) refers to Christians United For Israel.

Meanwhile, the post's author, our clerical friend from Virginia Water, is surely scraping the bottom of the barrel when he invokes that embarrassing leftwing Labour sufferer from foot-in-mouth disease, former British government minister Clare Short, a practised anti-Israel warhorse, as an ally in the fight against specifically Christian support for Israel.

Says Clare, plugging Sizer's tome attacking Christian Zionism:

“This is a very fine and important book.  All Christians who believe that Jesus favoured peacemakers, should read it and realise what terrible harm is being done in the name of Christianity.  And all who are concerned about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict should read it to understand how Christian Zionism disables the US as fair minded mediator.  European foreign policy thinkers should read it,because this distortion of US political space, puts a greater responsibility on European governments to stand up for justice and international law”

Gaza: A Bolt From The Blue For The Greens

I see that tomorrow the NSW Parliamentary Friends of Palestine have, for the Israel-demonising faithful and the merely gullible (at $A75 or $A100 a ticket), a dining and sailing experience on behalf of the oppressed of Gaza.

As Herald Sun columnist Andrew Bolt reminds us today, the mistreatment of Gazans is grim, but it is Hamas who are doing the mistreating, yet people like NSW parliamentarian David Shoebridge and his fellow-Greens are studiously ignoring such violations of human rights while saving all their excoriation for Israel:

'It’s three weeks since his arrest but Ismail Halou still has streaks of purple bruising on the soles of his feet. The 22 year-old was filling cars at his family’s petrol station in Gaza City at 5pm on April 4th when a black jeep pulled into the forecourt, plain-clothed police stepped out and ordered him into the car. He was blindfolded and driven to the nearest police station.

“I could hear the screams of people being beaten in the rooms next to me. Two men held my legs down and tied them together on a wooden board then they beat the soles of my feet with a plastic rod. They beat me for at least five minutes. I was crying and screaming with agony. It was the worst pain I’ve ever felt,” Mr Halou recalls.

It was only after the beating that police officers set to work trying to shave off the one-inch fin of gelled hair that was the cause of his arrest…

Police in Gaza, a Palestinian coastal enclave run by Islamist faction Hamas, have arrested at least 41 men on charges of immodesty this April.

Most of them were beaten, all of them had their heads forcibly shaven. Some were shaven because their haircuts that were deemed culturally inappropriate, others because their trousers were either too low-slung or too fitted. In at least two cases, police also cut-up jeans deemed too tight.' 

Incidentally, today as well Bolt draws attention to this example of reverse racism, in an ad for a TV show host on Canada's tax-funded equivalent of the BBC. Perhaps they just want to increase the representation of non-white males on the show, in order to reflect the diversity of society and provide children with a variety of role models.  Fair enough, but hopefully that's all it is and unlike the BBC the Canadian national broadcaster will know when enough is enough: a grotesquely disproportionate degree of discrimination in favour of ethnic minorities, making presenters of "white British" identity virtually obsolete, has been evident on the BBC in kids' shows for a very long time.