From Ian:
UC Santa Cruz Student Warned to Abstain From Pro-BDS Vote Due to His ‘Jewish Agenda’
A Jewish member of the student government at University of California, Santa Cruz was warned to “abstain” from voting on a pro-BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions movement) resolution because he is the president of the schools’ Jewish Student Union and was “elected with a Jewish agenda.”
The incident occurred prior to a vote by the UCSC student council to annul a veto an earlier Israel divestment bill. On Nov. 17, the UCSC voted 28 in favor and five against, with seven abstaining, to reinstate a divestment resolution that was vetoed in 2014.
In a text message sent to UC Santa Cruz Jewish Student Union (JSU) President Daniel Bernstein, the sender wrote, “You will be abstaining, as the president of JSU that is the right thing.”
“There was also a comment tonight that you were elected by a..hmm Idk if these are the right words but let’s say…a Jewish agenda,” the text message added.
In response, Bernstein posted on Facebook, “The implication that I, as a Jewish student and leader in the Jewish community, should not be allowed to vote on an issue that so deeply impacts the Jewish community, and that I should abstain because I cannot be trusted due to an alleged, ‘Jewish agenda,’ echoes the racism Jews have faced all over the world throughout our history.”
Sanders Accuses Israel of ‘Overreacting’ to Hamas Missile Attacks [video]
Bernie Sanders has accused Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu of being responsible for what he said was Israel’s “overreacting” to Hamas missile attacks last year and causing civilian damage.
The man who wants to be the first Jewish President, although he says he has no use for organized religion, told Rolling Stone:
War is terrible unto itself. But I think that Israel overreacted and caused more civilian damage than was necessary.
They have very sophisticated weapons systems. They make the case, and I respect that, that they do try to make sure that civilians are not damaged. But the end result was that a lot of civilians were killed and a lot of housing was destroyed. There was terrible, terrible damage done.
He obviously is not running after Tea Party voters.
Sanders left out of his comments what he said at a Town Hall meeting earlier this year, as reported here:
After saying that Israel overreacted, he added, as seen as seen and heard in the video below:
On the other hand, you have a situation where Hamas is sending missiles to Israel, and you know where some of these missiles are coming from? They are coming from population areas.
Source: Palestinian President Canceling Meetings Due To 'Deteriorating Health'
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ health has significantly deteriorated in recent days, according to a source in the office of the Palestinian leader.
The PA insider, who spoke to Breitbart Jerusalem on condition of anonymity, said a meeting between Abbas and Chinese Vice Prime Minister Wang Yang was delayed for two hours last Friday because of what the source described as Abbas’ “weak” physical condition.
The insider further revealed that numerous other meetings were cancelled over the past few days, though Abbas did sit down with some foreign delegations.
The source in Abbas’ bureau said the Palestinian leader has been visiting his medical team in Amman, Jordan with increased frequency over the past few weeks.
The office of PA Spokesman Nabil Abu Rudeineh released the following statement in response to a Breitbart Jerusalem query on the matter of Abbas’ health:
“No meetings were cancelled or delayed, including the meeting with the Chinese guest. President Abbas is in good health.”
Khaled Abu Toameh: Fatah torn over potential end to dispute between Abbas and Dahlan
Fatah leaders are divided over Egypt’s latest efforts to end the long-standing dispute between Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and his political rival Mohamed Dahlan.
Abbas and Dahlan, a former Fatah security commander from the Gaza Strip, are reported to have met recently in Cairo under the auspices of Egyptian President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi.
The meeting was the first between Abbas and Dahlan since the beginning of the crisis between them four years ago.
At the request of Abbas after their falling-out, the Fatah Central Committee expelled Dahlan from its ranks. The PA president has since accused Dahlan of murder and financial corruption.
Palestinian official: Gaza border deal reached with Egypt
A senior Palestinian official on Monday said the Palestinian Authority has reached an agreement with Egypt to reopen the Gaza Strip's main border crossing in an arrangement meant to bypass the territory's Hamas rulers.
Azzam al-Ahmad, an aide to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, said the deal was reached recently in Cairo. He said it aims to open the Rafah crossing "to the maximum possible" to allow the movement of students, laborers, medical patients and even commercial goods.
Such a deal could bring great relief to Gaza, whose borders are largely sealed by Israeli and Egyptian closures. It could also mark a setback for Hamas, which violently seized control of Gaza from Abbas in 2007. However, a top Hamas official gave the plan a cool reception, raising questions about its viability.
The Rafah crossing is Gaza's main gateway to the outside world. Few Gazans are permitted to travel through the Israeli border to the north, though Israeli crossings are used to transfer cargo into Gaza.
Egypt has kept the Rafah crossing virtually sealed since the 2013 military overthrow of Islamist President Mohammed Morsi, who was a close ally of Hamas. Due to the closure, thousands of Gazans are waiting to travel abroad.
The Sunny Side of Terror TV
In recent weeks, the publication of Daniel Polisar’s study of Palestinian public opinion published by Mosaic magazine has been a subject of intense debate. His thesis demonstrating the overwhelming support among Palestinians for violence against Jews and the belief that Israel should be destroyed ought to be a game changer in discussions about peace in the Middle East. Yet predictably left-wingers who prefer fantasy to reality have sought to discredit his work by claiming he was wrongly painting Palestinians as “irrational animals.” Polisar eviscerated that specious and utterly false argument published in the Forward, so there’s no need for further comment about his critics here. But those with lingering doubts about the subject would do well to read the feature published in the Sunday New York Times that provides a useful addendum to the discussion. In it, the Times paints a not entirely unsympathetic portrait of Al Aqsa TV, the broadcast outlet of the Hamas terrorist group in Gaza. While the article has a bizarre, upbeat tone, it also makes it clear that one of the leading outlets of Palestinian popular culture reflects exactly the same spirit of support for violence and delegitimization of Israel that Polisar’s study revealed.
The article, written by the paper’s stringers in Gaza rather than anyone associated with its Jerusalem bureau, portrays life at the station where on-air personalities encourage Palestinians to go out stab, shoot, or blow up as many Jews as they can find. Of course, this advice is couched in the language of “resistance” in which such activities are depicted as “fighting the ‘occupation’” rather than bloodthirsty murder of random Jews. Indeed, the article never actually comes clean about Hamas ideology which views all of Israel — the parts inside the 1967 lines as well as Jerusalem and the West Bank — as occupied territory and that any Jews, man, women or child, soldier or civilian, is a fair game for murder. But it does give a sense of the purpose of the station’s programming, albeit from an insider’s view.
In perhaps the most telling line, it says that one of the station’s presenters was so moved by a “foot-stomping” song encouraging mayhem against Jews that he joked about being “worried about stabbings in the studios.” The humor of the situation in which station personnel say their content is so inflammatory that Palestinians present might not wait to see a Jew to start the violence may be lost on some but we get the point.
The Palestinian Activist Who Resigned from B’Tselem to Fight the Palestinian Authority
This experience [of being arrested and intimidated by Yasir Arafat’s security forces] strengthened Eid’s resolve to monitor abuses by the Palestinian authorities. But the leadership of B’Tselem was divided about whether the group should make itself the watchdog of Palestinian authorities as well as Israeli. Those who placed human rights above ideology wanted to do so, but there was another group . . . that sympathized with the PLO, and wanted B’Tselem to keep its emphasis solely on Israel. In July 1996, Eid announced his resignation from B’Tselem and set about creating his own organization.
Eid’s Palestinian Human Rights Monitoring Group (PHRMG) kept a critical eye on Israel’s actions, publishing reports on home demolitions, detention of Palestinian prisoners, violence by Israeli settlers against Palestinians, and the like. But this time, Eid focused primarily on Palestinian authorities. “I feel I must protect my nation from any kind of authority, even its own authority,” he explained. “I want the Palestinians to build a democratic state, not just extend their authority.” . Eid’s own organization, and his even-handed approach to injustice, would be another casualty of the heightened state of conflict and the accompanying lack of regard for truth that continue to characterize the failure of the Oslo peace process. In 2011, Eid’s PHRMG ran out of funds and closed its doors. All Palestinian human-rights groups depend on European funding, and the funders turn out to be more concerned with abuses by Israel than by the PA.
Myths and Facts about Israeli Arabs
The fact that several perpetrators of Friday’s terror attacks in Paris were French citizens ought to pose a serious logical dilemma for all those liberals who blame terrorism on Western behavior. After all, it has become accepted wisdom on the left that Israel severely oppresses its own Arab citizens. But if terror is truly a response to oppression and Israel truly treats its Arab citizens worse than other Western countries do, how do you explain that while French Muslims have repeatedly committed terror attacks against their own country, Israeli Arab involvement in anti-Israel terror is negligible? In the latest wave of anti-Israel attacks, for instance, only two out of almost 100 perpetrators were Arab citizens of Israel – and one was a woman with a history of suicide attempts who was apparently just trying to achieve her own death by brandishing a knife in a crowded bus station and ignoring police orders to drop it.
Fortunately for liberals’ cognitive dissonance, there’s no need to reconcile these seemingly irreconcilable axioms, because both of them are nonsense. I debunked the theory that terror stems from “relative deprivation” last week. And the accepted wisdom about how Israel treats its Arab citizens can be debunked simply by examining some of the findings of the Israel Democracy Index, a sweeping annual survey whose 2015 edition was released last week.
Unsurprisingly, the IDI didn’t show that Israel has become the first country in history to eliminate discrimination or racist attitudes; both still exist, just as they do in every other Western country. Indeed, a majority of Jewish respondents readily acknowledged that Israeli Arabs still face discrimination, which is clearly a necessary step toward reducing it.
Nevertheless, an overwhelming majority of Arab respondents evinced no desire to live anywhere but Israel when asked the following question: “If you had the opportunity to become a citizen of the United States or any other Western country, would you prefer to move there or to remain in Israel?” Fully 83.4 percent said they would rather remain in Israel – virtually identical to the proportion among Israeli Jews (84.5 percent). That strongly implies that Israeli Arabs don’t consider their situation to be too bad; if they did, more would express interest in emigrating.
Will Cameras on the Temple Mount Work?
One of the proposed solutions to overcome the problem created by the status quo question on the Temple Mount was to place cameras to monitor the Temple Mount compound to ensure that Jews do not pray and Muslims do not riot. However, the installation of cameras does not necessarily mean that the cameras can be installed. If they are installed, they will be destroyed.
The camera agreement was made through the mediation of Secretary of State John Kerry. King Abdullah of Jordan declared that the agreement was at his initiative.
The dilemma is that the mosque compound is controlled by radical Islamic organizations like the Islamic Liberation Party and Hamas. Both groups stand against Jordan, the United States, and the Palestinian Authority. The PA was not part of the agreement and is actively opposed to it. Therefore, Palestinians do not feel committed to the agreement and will not allow it to be implemented.
Jerusalem's Mabat 2000: Catching terrorists in the act
The Jerusalem Police's Mabat 2000 unit operates some 400 security cameras all over the Old City. It were these cameras that documented many of the terror attacks that plagued the nation's capital in recent weeks, and these cameras that helped police track down the perpetrators who got away.
"Mabat" is an acronym in Hebrew that stands for "technological surveillance center," as well as a word which means "look."
The unit, whose cameras give real-time footage of almost every alley in the Old City, has been security forces' eyes for a while. Its members have identified terrorists many times, leading to their quick arrests.
The unit is expected to receive a significant upgrade soon, with new and improved cameras replacing older models.
"We have a 95 percent identification rate, there's nothing like it anywhere else," said Doron Turgeman, commander of the Jerusalem Police's David subdistrict, "I think any police commander would dream of something like this."
Why Pakistan should recognize Israel
Sometimes it becomes inexorable and practical to change the paradigms, let the past stay in the past and forget about historical incidents in order to open doors that lead to peace, prosperity and harmony.
History documents that Pakistan and Israel are never directly involved in hostility or disputes with each other. However, in showing solidarity with Arab countries and in support of Palestine, Pakistan has categorically refused to recognize Israel as an independent state since its inception. Our history books and widespread stereotypes have played a major role in filling our hearts and minds with hatred against Israel.
Considering the cost-benefit analysis and without abandoning support for the Palestinians here are some of the reasons to accord recognition to Israel:
Shmuley Boteach: Why Is the AJC Defending John Kerry on Israel?
In 1943, when Peter Bergson took out full-page ads in The New York Times to alert America to the slaughter of European Jewry and the inaction of the American government, the American Jewish Committee (AJC) tried to have him deported. A Jewish activist who protested the Roosevelt administration’s inaction to save the Jews of Europe was seen as an unwelcome irritant by the AJC.
Perhaps I should therefore not have been surprised when the AJC attacked me recently for placing a full-page ad in The New York Times this past weekend criticizing Secretary of State John Kerry’s failure to stand with America’s closest Middle East ally — Israel — and for his moral blindness on the Jewish state.
Does the AJC share Kerry’s view that Jews are being brutally murdered because of the settlements? Does Executive Director David Harris agree that these atrocities are part of a “cycle of violence,” thereby equating the killers and the victims?
I know that Harris is a passionate Zionist, and a distinguished Jewish leader who could not possibly agree with Kerry’s moral equivalence.
A Jewish Ex-State Department Official Tries to Embarrass Netanyahu, and Fails Miserably
Netanyahu’s harasser was David Makovsky, a former senior aide to Martin Indyk, the Obama administration’s Middle East envoy. Indyk was well known for pressuring Israel to make one-sided concessions to the Palestinians, and then blaming Israel through anonymous leaks if the Jewish State did not give in to his demands. Makovsky was Indyk’s right-hand man.
The Israeli prime minister spoke at the Center for American Progress, a leading liberal Washington, DC think tank, on November 12, in a concerted effort to reach out to the Democrats. But some people were determined to block this olive branch. The Washington Post reported: “David Makovsky, a fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, asked the Israeli leader what his ‘Plan B’ was to preserve Israel as a majority Jewish, democratic state if Palestinian and Israeli leaders cannot agree on restarting peace talks.”
Makovsky’s question was profoundly disingenuous in two important ways.
First, Israel is already a “majority Jewish, democratic state.” Twenty years ago, the Israelis withdrew from the areas where 98% of the Palestinians live. Israel’s forces retreated from the cities of Nablus (Shechem), Jenin, Qalqilya, Ramallah, Bethlehem, Tulkarm, Jericho and almost all of Hebron. Later, they withdrew from 100% of Gaza.
Israeli Jewish, Arab birth rates now even
No longer behind the “demographic eight ball,” Israel's Jewish population has increased its birth rate significantly in recent years – to the point where it is now almost on par with the Arab birth rate.
In 2014, according to statistics released by the Central Bureau of Statistics, the average Arab woman in Israel had 3.17 children, compared to 3.11 for Jewish women.
In 2000, those numbers were far different, with Arab women having an average of 4.3 children, while Jewish women bore 2.6 children on average.
Demographers said that the 0.6% difference between the Jewish and Arab birth rates is “negligible,” and if the demographic trends that have been in effect for the past decade continue, the Jewish birth rate will eclipse the Arab one.
The data was released in honor of International Children's Day, which is being commemorated this week.
USAID & EU Funded Organization Opposes Israel’s Banning Of Islamic Movement
The only organization in Israel to oppose banning this terrorist movement was Sikkuy, “Described as a “shared organization of Jewish and Arab citizens, working to implement full equality on all levels between the Arab Palestinian and Jewish citizens of Israel.”
Issuing a statement on Facebook, Sikkuy said they “..condemn wholeheartedly the decision of the Government of Israel to ban the Northern Islamic movement. This is a legitimate political movement…This decision is another step in the persecution of the Arab population, deepening tension between the country’s Arab citizens, and lessening citizens ‘ confidence in legal political organizing.”
Their statement continued, “This government takes step to suppress legitimate political movement which may lead the conflict toward a religious war. This is a dangerous move for anybody that cares about future relations between Jewish and Arab citizens. We call for all the democratic forces in Israel to speak out against this decision, and the curbing of democracy could lead to more injuries, and Arab citizens and their organizations may not be the only victims and Israeli society will pay the price.”
According to its website the organizations’ “Funders – 2014-15” include European Union, USAID, and New Israel Fund (NIF). Sikkuy received a grant of $1,061,275 (2011-2014) from USAID and an additional grant of $898,898 (2013-2016). In 2011-2013 the New Israel Fund (NIF) authorized grants worth $557,585 to Sikkuy (2013, 2012, 2011).”
The EU & US Aid are funding an organization which opposes the banning of Muslim Brotherhood. Lovely.
Iran cuts down on some, but not all nuke technology
However, diplomats familiar with the report said that the country is keeping thousands of machines that could be used for such a purpose on standby.
The UN’s International Atomic Energy Agency report and the diplomats’ assessments present a mixed picture of the pace of Iran’s moves to comply with the July 14 deal it signed with the six countries and come about a month after the deal was formally adopted on October 18.
Since then, the report showed that Iran has significantly reduced the number of centrifuges meant to enrich uranium, which can produce nuclear fuel, isotopes for research, or the core of an atomic bomb, depending on the degree of enrichment.
It said 11,308 centrifuges were standing at Iran’s main enrichment center as of Nov. 15, about 3,000 fewer than previously. It also noted cuts at a smaller facility, for a total reduction of about 4,500 of the nearly 20,000 machines Iran had previously set up.
But the diplomats said all of the machines that have been taken out were previously idle. Thousands of centrifuges that were spinning uranium into enriched levels used for fuel are no longer online but remain on standby and can be restarted at short notice.
Iran violates nuclear deal, uranium stockpile on the rise
Iran has succeeded in violating the terms of its nuclear deal with the West, a confidential report by the UN nuclear watchdog seen by Reuters revealed on Wednesday.
According to the International Atomic Energy Agency's (IAEA) report, Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium has actually increased in the past three months by 460.2 kilograms.
Under the deal signed with six world powers in July, Iran's stockpile of low-enriched uranium must be slashed to no more than 300 kilograms.
However, according to a senior diplomat the current increase is the result of a normal fluctuation and "there is nothing special in that."
IAEA is already under fire for allowing Iran to inspect its own covert nuclear sites, most significantly the Parchin military base where nuclear detonator tests have reportedly been conducted.
Expert: Failure to Stop Sanctioned Airline from Arming IRGC Underscores Loss of US Leverage
The Obama administration’s failure to stop a sanctioned Iranian airline from sending weapons and personnel to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) in Syria reflects a loss of American leverage, Emanuele Ottolenghi, a senior fellow at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, wrote Monday in an analysis published at The Hill.
Observing that Mahan Air, which has been sanctioned by the U.S. Treasury Department since 2011, “might as well rename itself IRGC Air” for the support it gives to the Iranian force, Ottolenghi explained:
Mahan uses its commercial fleet to support Tehran’s regional proxy wars while easily buying planes from European suppliers and getting ground services at foreign destinations. Unless the Obama administration is ready to inflict heavy penalties on firms, especially in Europe, enabling Mahan to continue its operations with impunity, the credibility of current U.S. policy on Iran will be further eroded.
REPORT: American Bank Purchases Aircraft 'Connected To Iranian Regime'
The Bank of Utah has purchased a Boeing 737 airliner from Al Naser Airlines, an Iraqi company with deep ties to Mahan Airlines – an Iran-headquartered company that assists the Tehran regime in pursuit of its global ambitions, according to a new report.
Mahan Airlines is known to help the Iranian military with troop transports, including sending members of its Quds Force into the ongoing civil war in Syria.
According to the International Business Times, the jet was purchased on October 20, and there is no record for where the plane is currently located.
Al-Naser Airlines was prohibited from doing business with the United States in May as part of the sanctions against the Iranian regime, creating a scenario where the Bank of Utah has potentially engaged in a violation of U.S. law.
In May, the Treasury Department found that Al Naser was “providing support to Iran’s Mahan Air,” stating the Iraqi company was “involved in [an] Iranian scheme to purchase airplanes.”
Report: Iran Refuses to Budge on Assad, May Scuttle Syria Talks
Despite the demands of the United States and its allies, Iran is insisting that Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad remain in power as part of any plan to end the Syrian civil war, “presenting a potentially fatal blow” to diplomatic efforts to end the conflict, Jay Solomon of The Wall Street Journal reported on Tuesday.
The U.S. and its closest Middle East allies, including Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Qatar, have demanded that Mr. Assad leave office as part of efforts to reconcile Syria’s warring factions. Secretary of State John Kerry has voiced hopes in recent weeks that Russia and Iran, Mr. Assad’s closest allies, will agree to a political transition in Damascus that excludes the Syrian dictator, provided their security and economic interests are respected.
A leading Iranian diplomat at the Vienna talks, however, on Sunday reaffirmed Tehran’s position that foreign powers cannot decide to bar Mr. Assad from future elections. A communiqué released after the meeting in the Austrian capital said the United Nations would seek to hold a vote in Syria in around 18 months. …
“The Islamic Republic of Iran did not allow this issue to be included in the final statement,” Iran’s deputy foreign minister, Hossein Amir-Abdollahian, told state media on Sunday. “We emphasized that only the people of Syria have the right to decide on this matter.”
US Approves $1.29 Billion Arms Sale to Saudi Arabia
The US State Department has approved a $1.29 billion arms sale to Saudi Arabia to replenish its weapons arsenal amid a bombing campaign in Yemen.
The sale “will replenish the Royal Saudi Air Force’s (RSAF) current inventory, augmenting Saudi Arabia’s capability,” a State Department official said.
The deal includes a shipment of more than 19,000 smart bombs, including 5,200 Paveway II laser-guided bombs in their GBU-10 and GBU-12 variants, along with 1,100 of the more modern, longer-range GBU-24 Paveway III bombs, AFP reported.
Saudi Arabia is leading a coalition against Iranian-backed Houthi Shi’a rebels in Yemen. The Saudis have been criticized by some human rights groups for civilian casualties resulting from the bombings in Yemen. Saudi Arabia is also part of the US-led coalition against the Islamic State terror group.
The EU's Embarrassing Little Secret in Labeling Israeli Products
The EU alleges that the "Interpretive Notice" has nothing to do with a boycott of Israel, and the U.S. has officially concurred in that assessment. The EU says the Interpretive Notice merely responds to "a demand for clarity from consumers, economic operators and national authorities." But this is disingenuous.
There is a long list of separatist movements in the EU, some demanding independence, others demanding greater autonomy. It is easy to imagine that some Jews in Israel have corresponding sympathies with such movements and "demands for clarity" about the products of the respective European states. Surely some Israeli Jews would like to buy Scotch whisky only from the few firms that are still in Scottish hands. How can Israelis' right to know fairly be denied? Israel is entitled to request that Europeans label their products accordingly.
What has happened is another manifestation of the infuriating zeal of the European Commission to issue endless directives to all member states in order to impose uniformity in cases where most Europeans never imagined that uniformity was necessary.
CTV Gives Undue Platform to Anti-Zionist Professor to Discuss EU Labeling Controversy
What this interview failed to properly address and contextualize is how the European Union’s decision to label goods made in Israeli settlements is a racist policy that bears all the hallmarks of antisemitic Holocaust-era practices where European Jews and their stores were branded with yellow stars.
The EU doesn’t recognize a sovereign government in disputed areas like Tibet, the Western Sahara, Kashmir, Northern Cyprus, and Crimea, to name just a few, but Israel is the only country in the world being singled out for politically motivated opprobrium.
This fatally flawed proposition will not only hurt goods produced in Israel, but will imperil the jobs of over 30,000 Palestinians who are gainfully employed and have work insurance in the settlements.
This ploy of scapegoating Israel via the settlements is untenable and serves only to stigmatize Israel and demonize the Jewish state. Israel’s presence in these areas didn’t come about in a colonial conquest, but was the result of pan-Arab aggression in 1967.
Importantly, the EU’s efforts have only protracted the conflict, served to assault Israel’s legitimacy, and fanned the flames of hatred against world Jewry.
And CTV altogether failed to mention that Professor Rabkin is a member of an anti-Israel group, Independent Jewish Voices,
Activists send 'ISIS wine' from Golan Heights to EU envoy
The Tekuma faction of Jewish Home found a creative way on Wednesday to protest the European Union's controversial decision to label Jewish products from Judea, Samaria and the Golan Heights.
EU ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Andersen received a personal package from Tekuma chairman and Agriculture Minister Uri Ariel, Channel 2 reports Thursday.
The package contained a bottle of wine labeled "soon to be produced by the ISIS winery in the Golan Heights."
Along with the package was a note from Tekuma director-general Ofir Sofer, stating, "I don't want this wine to be called (Arabic name) Jawlan, but to continue to be called Golan."
Tekuma explained the purpose of the stunt was to "wake EU countries up to the danger of Islamic State jihadists lurking on the borders of all countries, and force them to join in wiping out the terrorist organization."
Phyllis Chesler: How Hitler-era brown shirts took over Hunter College
I have long referred to CUNY as the Communist University of New York because both the faculty and administration lean far left. If there is indoctrination going on, that indoctrination is anti-Israel and pro-Palestine; it is certainly not pro-Israel and anti-Palestine. But these paranoid ravings, this scapegoating of Jews, Zionists, and Israel for the very crimes being committed by Arab terrorists and their supporters, which include large chunks of the American professoriate, is what the new totalitarianism sounds like.
If there is intimidation, bullying and Blood Libels on campus it is anti-Semitism/anti-Zionism, not Islamophobia or anti-Arab-a-phobia, and it is coming from the Muslim-Brotherhood inspired Left; from Islamic-inspired and Christian liberation theology inspired Jew-hatred among angry African-Americans; from the anti-Zionist/anti-Semitic behaviors of the world’s political leaders; and from the silence of our own professoriate—a silence which amounts to complicity as well as to cowardice.
This “million student march” throughout all of CUNY was endorsed by the NYC Students for Justice in Palestine, a creation of the Muslim Brotherhood, a terrorist organization outlawed in Egypt; by their cells at Hunter College, the College of Staten Island (where I taught for nearly 30 years), John Jay College (where I taught for a semester), by the Law School at CUNY, and by St. Joseph’s College and Pace College.
The Students for Justice in Palestine and the Muslim Student Association must be stopped. They are supported by a terrorist organization and should not be allowed on an American campus. They are not a “club.” They are Brown-shirts on the move.
David Collier: Are Anthropologists that stupid?
There is a vote taking place at the American Anthropological Association meeting in Denver tomorrow over the boycott of Israeli academic institutions. I am far more in tune with the BDS movements actions within the UK but having analysed the dedicated boycott website and seen their attempt to deceive the doubters through a Q&A page, it is clear that the method and flawed logic crosses the Atlantic without too much difficulty.
I never understand why anyone would vote for someone, anywhere, in any election, without knowing precisely where they stand and what they will do with your vote. BDS is deliberately vague and evasive, and yet naively people give them power, many out of genuine, well intentioned humanitarian concern, without ever knowing an answer to a simple question:
What is the BDS end-game?
If this vote was to materially concern those participating, it is unlikely votes would be cast without fundamental questions being asked. Here people play with other people’s lives, hiding behind empty rhetoric and soft sounding slogans. From the evidence that the stronger BDS gets, the further away the peace talks move, these votes cost lives.
There is little point arguing about the conflict itself, when clearly whoever is considering voting in favour has already decided either Israel is responsible for the current situation, or simply feels frustration at the impasse and is jumping on the BDS wagon because it is the only game in town. The BDS history of the conflict is so one-sided and so extreme that it is unlikely to make people educated on the conflict change sides. You would either follow that line of propaganda already or BDS are filling an empty vessel with it (by empty vessel I simply mean people who do not have a grounded knowledge of the history of the conflict).
Students Ban Liberal Muslim, Host CAGE Islamist On SAME DAY
An outspoken Muslim journalist who advocates a “sexual revolution” in the Islamic world has reportedly been “no platformed” by a Student Union (SU). The students deny this, claiming officers were “tired” and preferred “dialogue” to allowing her to speak alone.
Despite allegedly banning journalists Mona Eltahawy, London’s School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) is proudly hosting Asim Qureshi of the Salafist ‘human rights’ group CAGE tonight at an event called “Islamophobia and British values”.
Mr. Qureshi has personally described the ISIS executioner Jihadi John as a “beautiful”, “kind” and “humble” man.
Liberal Muslim Ms. Eltahawy is unpopular with many conservative Muslims after writing books such as Headscarves and Hymens: Why the Middle East Needs a Sexual Revolution and speaking out against sexual violence in the Islamic world and the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in her native Egypt.
UK Jewish MP raps Twitter over handling of anti-Semitism
A Jewish member of the British Parliament criticized Twitter for its slow response to a barrage of anti-Semitic tweets she received last year.
Luciana Berger, 34, the Labour Party’s shadow minister for mental health, was subjected to as many as 2,500 anti-Semitic tweets over a three-day span in October 2014. On Wednesday, she said that Twitter has not taken enough steps to curb anti-Semitic content on the site, which she still receives.
“It did feel that progress was frustratingly slow,” Berger, Britain’s youngest Jewish parliamentarian, told the Jewish Chronicle in London about last year’s incident. “Twitter asked me to report any abusive tweets using what was then an onerous online system which took a few minutes to report every tweet.”
She said that Twitter has improved its reporting platform over this year, but it still leaves too much room for contextualization. For instance, the word “kike,” as she argued Wednesday, has no “justifiable context” and should be consistently removed from the site.
Dutch students decorate dorm room to look like Nazi death camp
University students in the Netherlands redecorated a Jewish classmate's dorm room to look like a Nazi death camp, Dutch media reported according to JTA on Wednesday.
The incident, reported by Dutch daily Volksrant on Friday, involved members of Leiden University's Minerva Society, Holland's oldest student association.
As part of an apparent hazing ritual, several seniors redesigned the room of a freshman student living in university housing. That student is believed to be Jewish, the daily noted.
Volkskrant obtained a video of the room, which shows mass graves painted on the floor, barbed wire hanging from pipes and the German words "Arbeit macht frei" spray-painted on the room's walls.
The words, meaning "work makes you free" are a reference to the signs Nazis hung at the entrance to several concentration camps, most notably Auschwitz in Poland.
Polish anti-refugee protesters burn effigy of Orthodox Jew
A Polish demonstration against taking in Muslim refugees ended with the burning of an effigy of an ultra-Orthodox Jew holding the flag of the European Union.
Dozens protested Wednesday evening in front of the city hall in the western Poland city of Wroclaw.
The protest comes in the wake of the Nov. 13 attacks on multiple sites in Paris that left at least 129 dead. The Islamic State claimed responsibility for the attacks and police believe that one the terrorists entered the European Union with the flood of Syrian refugees.
The crowd shouted: “United Catholic Poland! National radicalism! Down with the European Union!” The demonstration was organized by the National Radical Camp and All-Polish Youth.
Beijing hosting major China-Israel investment event
Beijing is to host the largest-ever China-Israel investment and technology summit. The event, organized by Israel’s Ministry of the Economy and the Infinity Fund, will be held on 4-6 January 2016, hosting more than 1,000 entrepreneurs, businesspeople, and investors from the two countries, as well as senior Chinese and Israeli government officials, headed by Israeli Minister of National Infrastructures, Energy and Water Resources Yuval Steinitz, China’s Minister of Science and Technology Wan Gang, and Director General of Israel’s Ministry of the Economy Amit Lang.
Infinity Israel-China Fund managing director Eyal Rosenthal said, “Chinese investment in Israeli technologies will exceed $10 billion within five years." The summit will include presentations by top Israeli companies in their fields and the matchmaking network of Chinese funds and investors with Israeli companies and entrepreneurs.
The China-Israel Investment Summit has been organized in response to the growing interest by Chinese companies in the Israeli economy in recent years, and the acquisition of Israeli companies. The summit has the full support of Chinese government and has the assistance of the Israeli Embassy in Beijing. The objective of the summit is to encourage collaboration by Israeli and Chinese companies in technology, innovation, and investment.
Israeli Company Develops Revolutionary Drug Safety System
When you open a bottle of pills you bought at the pharmacy, you assume that the manufacturer has sophisticated processes in place to assure the medicine or vitamins will do the job they’re supposed to. The integrity of the seal and how it could affect the contents of the bottle is something that most people never think of.
Surprisingly, after seals were fastened onto the bottles, there wasn’t any way to test their quality aside from random sampling — until the Israeli company DIR Technologies invented a system that checks every unit with thermal imaging. Operators can find and fix problems causing faulty seals whenever they occur, without destroying a sample or holding up the production line.
Last April, pharma giant Pfizer signed a five-year agreement with DIR that includes integration of its Induction Integrity Verification System (I2VS) on select packaging lines.
The Haifa-based company also won the 2015 Innovation Award at the ACHEMA World Forum, an international event for chemical engineering and the process industry.
Israeli Economy Makes Gains in Third Quarter as Exports Spike
Israel’s economy grew by an annualized 2.5 percent in the third quarter of 2015, largely due to an increase in private spending and exports, Reuters reported on Monday.
Israel’s economy bounced back in the third quarter after a weak first half, growing by an annualized 2.5 percent on the heels of a rebound in exports and investment, initial data showed on Monday. …
Private spending – which had been Israel’s main growth driver of late, posting gains of about 6-7 percent a quarter between the second quarter of 2014 and the first quarter of 2015 – took a breather in the second quarter, rising just 1.5 percent. But spending rebounded 2.4 percent in the third quarter.
Exports – 35 to 40 percent of economic activity – grew 4.4 percent in the July-September quarter, while investment in fixed assets rose 0.7 percent, led by residential building, and government spending rose 1.6 percent. All three components had fallen in the prior two quarters.
IsraellyCool: Michael Bolton Got Jewy In Israel
You may recall crooner Michael Bolton was recently in Israel.
I still have no idea as to why he was here, but a new photo and caption of him has surfaced on Facebook, of what he did tefillin time.
If this was his first time, it means he was never Bar Mitzvah’d.
Better late than never. Mazal tov!
Meanwhile, it looks like Michael enjoyed it here.
Comedy for Koby returns to Israel
The twice-annual Comedy for Koby tour returns to Israel at the end of the month, featuring comics Kermet Apio, Erin Jackson, Bob Zany and Israeli-born comedian-compere Avi Liberman, who founded the event with The Koby Mandell Foundation.
Proceeds from the event, which will reach seven cities from November 28 through December 6, helps bereaved families heal from terror attacks and other tragedies through activities of the family-founded foundation.
This season’s comics include Kermet Apio, an American comic from Hawaii known for his family-friendly humor; Erin Jackson, from Washington, DC, who co-hosts “Exhale,” a candid new talk show on Earvin “Magic” Johnson’s ASPiRE television network; and Bob Zany, a veteran stand-up comic who appeared in the 2010 Comedy for Koby Tour and is known for his trademark cigar on stage.
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