Tel-Aviv Vistas

Cast of "House" visits Israel

2011-05-21T12:06:00.001+03:00

Cute Israeli TV Promo for Trinny & Susannah coming soon to dress Israel

2011-03-05T16:45:00.001+02:00

Ending Demonization of Jews Must Be Part of Egypt's Democratic Aspirations

2011-02-19T19:43:00.003+02:00

Huffington Post, surprises with an important article by Rabbi Abraham Cooper, an Associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and its Museum of Tolerance:

Ending Demonization of Jews Must Be Part of Egypt's Democratic Aspirations

Let's face it. The people's revolt in the streets of Egypt caught everyone by surprise and so-called experts and pundits are still scrambling to contextualize it and prophesy about the nation's future.

But the 18-day drama proved that revolutions are messy -- even ones birthed on Google and sustained by Facebook and Twitter. Ask CNN's Anderson Cooper or FOX News' Gregg Palkot, who were among the journalists attacked in Tahrir Square.

Now comes belated word of the brutal mob sexual assault on Lara Logan, a veteran correspondent covering for CBS' 60 Minutes during the jubilant celebration over Hosni Mubarak's ouster. The network had apparently made a decision not to go public about the incident and released details only after it was clear that other media would break the story.

It was painful listening to CBS's description of the horrors the mother of two suffered after she was separated from her crew and assaulted. Thank G-d she was finally rescued and we pray for her full recovery.

But it is a shame that CBS omitted one important detail from their release: The 200 member mob was screaming "Jew, Jew" during their vicious attack. Logan is not Jewish.

Why is this important? Because the issue isn't just the hate of one frenzied mob, but a society's mindset. For in today's Egypt, a nation searching for its 21st century identity, there is no more vile a curse that you can hurl at someone than to call him or her a Jew. A dangerous exaggeration? I don't think so: A 2010 Pew Poll confirmed that 95 percent of Egyptians hold negative views about Jews.

That fact may help explain why simultaneously there were anti-Mubarak protesters holding posters with President Mubarak's face covered by the reviled Star of David, even as pro-Mubarak forces depicted western media as spies for Israel and protesters as agents of "outside forces." And who might those sinister forces be? A few years back, official Egyptian state television ran a 41-part series during Ramadan titled "Horseman without A Horse" based on the infamous Protocols of the Elders of Zion, the vicious Czarist-era conspiratorial screed swallowed whole by large swaths of Arabs and Muslims "proving" that Jews lurk behind every evil in the world.

Officially sanctioned anti-Semitism, the popular negative stereotypes ingrained in books, combined with the hatred of the Muslim Brotherhood, make the Jew Egypt's poster child for all things hated or feared.

Read rest of the article here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-abraham-cooper/jewhatreds-next-victim-ma_b_824709.html

Israel's Sea Turtle Rescue Center

2010-06-19T12:36:00.004+03:00

Here's a bit of positive news about Israel you won't find on your local news stations (outside of Israel), on the efforts of Israeli Biologist/Zoologists and environmentalists in attempting to save and bolster sea turtle populations in the Mediterranean Sea.

It's Sea Turtle nesting season here in Israel, where every morning staff and volunteers from the rescue center scout the beaches for newly laid eggs from the previous night to collect them into protected nesting areas.

Here's a clip about the wonderful work this center does in English:

רשת ב' ורשות השידור מצנזרות את עומק השנאה האנטישמית של מדינות ערב

2010-06-12T23:27:00.006+03:00

מכתב שנשלח לרשת ב' ונציב הקובלנות של רשות השידור ב-9 ביוני 2010

Syria to UN: Israel glorifies sucking Arab blood

חדשות משמעתיות לגבי האופי האנטישמי של ממשלת סוריה

מסוג החדשות שהמאזינים לרוב לא ישמעו בתוכנית הבוקר כמו סדר יום, עקב תפיסת עולם המצנזרת לרוב חדשות שמציגות את העולם הערבי במערומיה האנטישמיים.

עצוב שהרשות הציבורי שותפה למשטר המדיה טוטליטרי כאן בארץ העוסקת בסילוף שבדרך ההשמטה.

דווקא עתה כשהעולם הערבי יחד עם תנועות השמאל למיניהם סביב העולם מכרסמות מידי יום את הלגיטימציה של קיומינו, צריכה ישראל לעמוד על המשמר מביטויים כאלה, והיכן "כלב השמירה של הדמוקרטיה"? למה רק המדיה היהודית\שמרנית\אמריקאית מחוץ לישראל עומדת על המשמר מביטויים כאלה?

זוהי תעודת עניות למדיה הישראלית והשידור הציבורי.

לתשומת לבכם

מאזין

נעם רותם

תל אביב

רשת ב', רשות השידור, והמדיה הישראלית: כישלון של שנים לחתור לאמת עקב הטיות לא הוגנות

2010-06-12T23:15:00.004+03:00

מכתב שנשלח לרשת ב' ונציב הקובלנות של רשות השידור ב-5 ביוני 2010

לאומבודסמן שלום רב,

אבקש נא שתצפו בקליפ הנ"ל, השנון וכל כך מדויק בהקשר לצביעות המשט הטורקי לעזה, שגם מצביע על כישלון של 30 שנה של המדיה הישראלית שלא באמת חותרת לאמת והגינות, אלה לאג'נדה עם הטיה שמאלנית בלתי הוגנת וסבירה כלפי אזרחי מדינת ישראל, וביודעים או לא יודעים משתפת פעולה במסע הצלב של הדלגיטימציה כנגד מדינת ישראל, וכל זה מאחורי אצטלה ונימה מתחסדת של מדיה "הוגנת" ודמוקרטית.

קליפ "עובדים על העולם" פרודיה מצחיקה לשיר "אנחנו העולם" שבאפקטיביות שנונה מביאה את הצביעות מאחורי המשט.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQ66qEl-fqo

הקליפ נוצר ע"י אשת המדיה קרוליין גליק, שאני לא מחסדיה, אך אי אפשר גם להכחיש שהיא מביאה עובדות לגביי הסכסוך הישראלי ערבי וערבי-פלסטיני שפשוט לא מקבלים במיינסטרים-מדיה הישראלי שכולל גם את רשות השידור, ורשת ב'.

לא, אני לא מצפה שכל שדר ישראלי יציג כך את הדברים, אך בכל זאת יש תחושה מבוססת שיש קמפיין מכור מראש של המדיה הישראלית מזה 30 שנה. הוכחה לזאת אפשר פשוט למצוא ב-Wall Street Journal, וכל יום במדיה השמרנית המתונה הדומה לה בארה"ב, שמידי יום מביאה פרספקטיבות לגבי הסכסוך שלרוב לא מוצגת ע"י המדיה הישראלית.

קחו למשל את ערוץ החדשות PJTV באינטרנט שדיווחה (http://www.pjtv.com/?cmd=mpg&mpid=121&load=3675) שכל תכולת האוניות במשט מהוות רק 25% ממה שישראל מעבירה כל יום לרצועת עזה. למה צריך לשמוע על זה שמה ולא בתוכניות הבוקר של רשת ב' ?
עוד עובדות על הסיוע הישראלי הרב לרצועת עזה אני לומד מהועדה הקנדית היהודית ולא בתוכניות הבוקר של רשת ב': http://www.cicweb.ca/scene/2010/06/israel_aid_to_gaza/ למה?
בערוצי המידייה הנ"ל אני שומע שאלות השוואתיות נוקבות: כמו למה השתיקה הרועמת של האו"ם והעולם על טביעת האונייה הדרום קוריאנית, אני לא שומע שדרנים ישראלים מעלים את השאלות האלה.
דוגמה נוספת לא מזמן הייתה טבח נוראי של מורדים בקונגו של 900 אזרחים חפים מפשע, שום קריאה לדו"ח דומה גולדסטון, ושום שאלות קשות מידי המדייה הישראלית לקהילה הבינלאומית וניציגי האו"ם בהקשר לצביעות הזאת!

אפשר היה להמשיך בעשרות אם לא מאות דוגמאות דומות אך אפסיק כאן ואציעה את השאלה והאתגר הבא לרשת ב' ורשות השידור

למה שלא פעם בשבוע במקום אחת מתוכניות הבוקר בין 8-9 (הפריימטיים של שידורי הבוקר) שלא תשימו את ד"ר יצחק נוי, איש אשכולות, איש מדיה, של רשות השידור ורשת ב', לא פחות חכם (לטעמי: יותר), לא פחות אינטלקטואל (לטעמי: יותר), עם השקפת עולם שונה מהמיינסטרים השמאלני ותנו איזון ,ופלורליזם-אינטלקטואלי אמיתי, לשידור הציבורי גם בימי חול בבוקר. כל עוד אתם לא עושים את זה או משהו דומה, אז אני וקהל רב בציבור הישראלי נמשיך, די בצדק להרגיש שאנו חיים תחת שילטון מדיה טוטליטרי ושחלק מהאמת פשוט מצונזר ע"י המדיה הנוכחית במיוחד בהקשר לצביעות, סילוף העובדות, והשנאה הבלתי-נדלית של העולם הערבי, פלסטיני-ערבי, והשמאל העולמי כלפי מדינת ישראל, שלא לדבר על האג'נדה האמיתית של רבים בקבוצות האלה, שהיא חיסול הישות והאופי היהודי וציוני של מדינת ישראל, תוך כדי סילוף העובדות ההיסטוריות -- וכנגד זה המדיה הישראלית עונה לרוב בשתיקת כבשים...

בתודה מראש לתשומת לב,

בכבוד,

נעם רותם

תל אביב

Radical Muslims Cynically and Sinisterly Abuse Democratic Tenets of Free Speech

2010-04-23T16:31:00.006+03:00

Radical Muslims play with words and, cynically and sinisterly abuse democratic tenets of free speech in order to spread their intolerant hatred and undermine western civilization

Israel's Secret 18 Month Air Lift of Food and Medicine to Biafra 40 years ago

2010-04-09T20:19:00.004+03:00

This past week, channel 2 news here in Israel unveiled this amazing story from 40 years ago.

While the world stood silent, 40 years ago Israeli pilots and air-crews conducted a secret air-lift of food and medicine to the besieged Biafran nation. For 18 months in face of great risk and peril of being shot down by Nigerian Migs under the cover of night they flew red-cross propeller cargo plains into Biafra to bring life saving supplies. Now 40 years later, the pilots and crew meet at a reunion to retell their story.

The full reports from local channel 2 news, in Hebrew only can be found here: http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Channel-2-Newscast/Article-5fd65dc2acec721004.htm

More than 900 people who have been killed by Ugandan rebels in northeastern Congo since Christmas

2010-03-30T21:28:00.003+03:00

Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/02/04/uganda-massacre-lords-res_n_163907.html

NAIROBI, Kenya — An aid group on Wednesday accused U.N. peacekeepers of failing to protect more than 900 people who have been killed by Ugandan rebels in northeastern Congo since Christmas, but the U.N. denied the allegations.

Medecins Sans Frontieres field coordinator Hakim Chkam said the attacks by the Lord's Resistance Army were so brutal that workers had only found 17 survivors. They included a 4-year-old girl whose attackers had attempted to twist off her head.

Where's Goldstone when you need him...

Pilar Rahola is a Spanish Politician from the Left, journalist and activist and is a passionate Defender of the United States & Israel

2010-03-30T21:15:00.002+03:00

Source: http://portalofideas.blogspot.com/2009/01/pilar-rahola.html

Conclusion:

I am not Jewish. Ideologically I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not as anti Israeli as my colleagues? Because as a non-Jew I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of the Jews, it is the duty of the non-Jews.

As a journalist it is my duty to search for the truth beyond prejudice, lies and manipulations. The truth about Israel is not told. As a person from the left who loves progress, I am obligated to defend liberty, culture, civic education for children, coexistence and the laws that the Tablets of the Covenant made into universal principles. Principles that Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. That is to say that as a non-Jew, journalist and lefty I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed too.

The struggle of Israel, even if the world doesn’t want to accept it, is the struggle of the world.

Fatah dedicates square to woman who led massacre that killed 37 Israeli civilians

2010-03-27T16:55:00.004+03:00

An event that was largely ignored by Israeli and global mainstream media that occurred the same week when Biden visited Israel and the only news that got attention was a building complex in east Jerusalem.

Fatah holds ceremony naming square after terrorist By KHALED ABU TOAMEH 15/03/2010

Despite the Palestinian Authority’s announcement that it had postponed the inauguration of a square in el-Bireh named after Dalal Mughrabi, the Fatah woman who led the 1978 Coastal Road massacre in which 37 Israeli civilians and an American photographer were killed, and 71 were wounded, Fatah officials on Thursday evening went ahead with the ceremony.

The Disgrace and Hypocrisy of Obama's treatment of the Israeli PM

2010-03-27T12:16:00.004+03:00

1 British and 1 Australian Newspaper make a poignant case on this matter.

Barack Obama’s humiliation of Israel is a disgrace by Nile Gardiner UK Telegraph writes:

"I very much doubt that even third world tyrants would be received in such a rude fashion by the president...The ritual humiliation of the Israelis is an absolute disgrace, and yet another example of how the Obama administration views its allies with indifference, contempt, and at times outright hostility. It is extraordinary how far the Obama team has gone out of its way to grovel to state sponsors of terrorism, such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad or Muammar Gaddafi, while kicking America’s friends in the teeth...

Israel is literally fighting for its survival on a daily basis against an array of vicious terrorist groups, from Hamas to Hizbollah, while facing a looming threat from a genocidal, nuclear-armed Iran. President Obama’s top priority in the Middle East should be preventing Iran from building a nuclear weapons programme. Instead he seems obsessed with kowtowing to America’s enemies by bashing Israel at almost every opportunity"

Nile Gardiner UK Telegraph, is a Washington-based foreign affairs analyst and political commentator. He appears frequently on American and British television and radio, including Fox News Channel, CNN, BBC, Sky News, and NPR.

Obama's anti-Israeli hysteria dangerous and destructive by Greg Sheridan, Foreign editor From The Australian writes:

"When Obama met the king of Saudi Arabia, a nation in which no one votes, women are subject to severe and demeaning restrictions and it is against the law to have a Christian church, Obama bowed in deep respect. When Obama ran into Venezuela's murderous despot, Hugo Chavez, at a summit, there was a friendly greeting observed by all...You might even conclude that Obama is trying to interfere in internal Israeli politics and bring down a government. This is something post-colonial, post-multicultural Obama would never do with Iran, but with Israel, the US's longstanding ally, it's fine."

Persecution of Christians in Gaza

2010-01-30T21:34:00.003+02:00

Israel Channel 2 reports on the persecution of Christian Arabs in Gaza: http://www.mako.co.il/news-channel2/Friday-Newscast/Article-d9e226ca42b7621004.htm
Accounts of churches being torched, Christians being denied their freedom of expression and religion, physical and even lethal use of aggression against the Christian community in Gaza.

Elizabeth Cohen CNN: Wowed by Israeli Field Hospital in Haiti

2010-01-19T21:04:00.001+02:00

Sky News Covers Israeli Rescue Team in Haiti

2010-01-18T20:51:00.004+02:00

Story of Israeli rescue team that toils for 8 hours, cutting through metal and concrete in order to save 1 man under the rubbles, followed by the birth of 1 Haitian baby in the Israeli field-hospital. The first and only international hospital operating in Haiti during the 1st week of the international recuse efforts.

הצביעות של דו"ח גולדסטון

2009-12-26T20:50:00.003+02:00

מתוך ישראל היום
http://news.walla.co.il/?w=/2680/1625285

...
עוד בספטמבר התרחש באפגניסטן אירוע שזכה לפרסום, שבו הצבא הגרמני ביקש סיוע אווירי מחיל האוויר האמריקני במתקפה אווירית נגד שתי מכליות שנתפסו על ידי הטליבאן, תקיפה שתוצאותיה היו 142 הרוגים ובהם 40 אזרחים.

בשנה שחלפה הוטחה ביקורת נגד ארה"ב בנוגע לפעולותיה בפקיסטן, שם היא עושה שימוש במל"טים כדוגמת ה"פרדטור" לחיסול אנשי אל־קאעידה ובעלי בריתם הפקיסטנים.

אובאמה הגביר את השימוש במל"טים בפקיסטן תוך שהוא מאשר, בתשעת החודשים הראשונים לכהונתו, כמות תקיפות השווה לזו שאישר הנשיא בוש בכל שלוש השנים האחרונות לכהונתו.

על פי הערכות מקובלות, מאז 2006 נהרגו כ־700 אזרחים מתקיפות של מל"טים אמריקניים. התקשורת הפקיסטנית דיווחה כי 687 מההרוגים היו אזרחים. המומחה האוסטרלי ללוחמה נגד טרור שעבד עבור מפקד הכוחות האמריקניים בעיראק, הגנרל דיוויד פטראוס, מקבל את ההערכות הפקיסטניות ומסכם שנכון לסוף אוקטובר 2009 - שלוש שנים של תקיפות מל"טים הובילו למותם של 700 אזרחים ו־14 מנהיגי טרור.

במילים אחרות, לטענתו, תקיפות המל"טים האמריקניות מחסלות 98 אחוז אזרחים ורק שני אחוז מנהיגי טרור. הערכות אמריקניות אחרות חולקות על קביעה זו וטוענות כי כשליש מההרוגים הפקיסטנים היו לוחמים בעוד שני שלישים היו אזרחים.
...
הטענה המרכזית של גולדסטון נגד ישראל איננה מתבססת אך ורק על היחס בין מספר האזרחים ההרוגים למחבלים במהלך מבצע "עופרת יצוקה". הדו"ח מצטט מקורות ישראליים ופלשתיניים לגבי מספר האבידות בצד הפלשתיני, כולל מידע של צה"ל המראה כי בין 60 ל־75 אחוז מהנפגעים הפלשתינים היו לוחמים

ישראל היום מדווח על שנאת ישראל במצרים

2009-12-26T20:44:00.003+02:00

http://www.israelhayom.co.il/site/newsletter_opinion.php?a=2700

יעקב אחימאיר:בביקור במצרים:
הוזמנתי לשם כדי להיפגש עם עיתונאים מצרים ואחרים, יוזמה שנועדה לסדוק את הקרח - סליחה, את האיבה והשנאה המקיפות את צוות השגרירות. לא, אינני מוכן להמיר את הביטוי "שנאה" במונח מרוכך לתיאור היחס המצרי לשגרירות ולישראל! אם אעשה כך, אחטא לאמת...כן, גם עיתונאי שאמור לדעת, להבין, מתקשה לתפוס את עומק השנאה הסובבת את ישראל במצרים. את המציאות הזאת אין לטייח. יום־יום "חוטפות" ישראל ושגרירותה בקהיר "מטחים" מצד אמצעי התקשורת... ערה נוספת נאמרה לי: גם אם ישראל תיסוג לגבולות 67', יחסה של מצרים לא ישתנההמצריים...ואפילו במאוחר, הציגה הליגה נגד השמצה, הארגון היהודי־אמריקני החשוב, דו"ח חמור על עוצמת האנטישמיות באמצעי התקשורת.הדו"ח נשלח למובארק כדי למחות על האדישות שבה מצרים הרשמית מתייחסת לתופעה הנפוצה.

From Baghdad—frightening reports of gay pogroms, where homosexual men are targeted, tortured, slayed

2009-12-26T20:33:00.004+02:00

New York Magazine, brings the chilling details in this exposé, which hasn't made any of the mainstream evening news reports, nor are there any signs that there will ever be some equivalent Goldstone report for these prevalent atrocities

http://nymag.com/news/features/59695/

9/11 Memorial Dedicated in the Jerusalem Forest Hills

2009-12-04T22:05:00.005+02:00

From the poignant Israeli commemoration speech

"We recall the tragic events of 9-11 and *vow* that such a loss should never occur...WHY HERE in ISRAEL, in Jerusalem? Because IF ANY NATION ON EARTH, if any city in the world, has endured similar horrors, can share comparable pain, can equally perceive the inherent threat to civilization and life, is able to continue to battle evil, will swear to eternally remember the outcome and the price, is committed to seek peace while standing guard against war, and share similar human national and democratic values with the United States -- It is here in Israel at the gates of it's capital Jerusalem"

למה אף אחד לא מדבר על הגזענות שמאחורי הפשרה שרק לא יהודים יעבדו בשבת באינטל

2009-11-21T22:50:00.002+02:00

מכתב לתוכנית סדר יום ברשת ב'

לתשומת ליבכם -- נושא לסדר יום שנעלם מהמדיה הישראלית

איזה מין מדינה קובעת שרק אנשים מדת מסוימת מותר להם לעבוד במפעל ביום מסוים. לא שמעתי מימי על החלטה כזאת גזענית במדינה דמוקרטית, ולמרות זאת לא שמעתי אף התייחסות לנושא הזה במדיה

מכתב פתוח לראש הממשלה בנושא גירוש ילדי העובדים הזרים

2009-11-05T20:46:00.008+02:00

לכבוד ראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו

שאלה לי אליך בנושא, הילדים האלה, האוהבים את מדינת ישראל, פטריוטים למדינת היהודים, רובם ככולם ישרתו בצבא, הם וילדיהם ייטמעו בחברה היהודית הישראלית.

לעומת זאת יש כמיליון אזרחים ערבים במדינת ישראל, רובם ככולם, לא מקבלים ולא רוצים להיות חלק ממדינה יהודית, ולא מעט מהם אף שונאים את המדינה היהודית.

ולמרות זאת אתה נותן לשר הפנים שלך, עם דעות וביטויים שמקומם במאות שקודמות לשלנו ,לגרש ממדינת ישראל את אלה שאוהבים ורוצים להיות חלק ממדינת היהודים

מה ההיגיון?

לתשומת לבך, אני אזרח מודאג ממרכז המפה הפוליטי. המייצג אוכלוסייה עם ערכים ציוניים יהודיים ואוניברסאליים.

איפה אתה עומד אדוני ראש הממשלה?

יחסי ציבור חייבים להיות חלק מהמערך האסטרטגי של מדינת ישראל

2009-10-16T21:33:00.008+02:00

מכתב פתוח לראש הממשלה בנימין נתניהו

אני אזרח מודאג, ורבים כמוני בארץ לא מעכלים איך ממשלות ישראל לדורותיהם לא השכילו להבין שזירת יחסי הציבור הוא חלק מהמערכה הקיומית של מדינית ישראל!

30 שנה הערבים שופכים כסף באוניברסיטאות בארה"ב וסביב העולם, וגדל דור "שלא ידע את יוסף", והיום יש מיליארדים של בני אדם סביב העולם שמכירים רק את ההיסטוריה המשוכתבת של הערבים והמוסלמים, ואף קול ישראלי\יהודי מאזן לא מגיע ולא נשמע כנגד השקר הגדול של דורינו. וכך הגענו עד הלום, מציאות בלהות שרוב יושבי תבל חושבים שישראל היא מטרד קולוניאלי שיש לעקר אם לא לעקור מהמזרח התיכון.

אתה ראש ממשלה, שאמור להבין בנושא יחסי ציבור ואת חשיבותו האסטרטגית והקיומית. תעשה מעשה, תבטל היום רכישת טייסת מטוסים, ובמקומה תקים מערך יחסי ציבור מטובי האנשים בעולם (יהודים ולא יהודים אוהדי ישראל), ותעשה יותר לקיומה של עם ישראל מאשר כל טייסת מטוסים נוספת הייתה יכולה לעשות.

בתודה מראש,
נעם רותם

Netanyahu delivers a poignant, dignified, stirring, "keep it real", no holds barred, speech at the UN

2009-09-25T20:52:00.004+03:00

Netanyahu delivers a poignant, dignified, stirring, "keep it real", no holds barred, speech stating the simple yet obvious multifaceted historical connection of Jews to the land of Israel. That the real danger in the world is a cold blooded, barbaric fundamen...tal Islamic creed of terror that undermines all basic and decent human rights achieved in the past 400 years and yet this threat is met with misappropriated and hypocritical agendas by the UN, mainstream media and the World at large

60 Minutes Report on Torture In Iran

2009-04-25T21:55:00.002+03:00

While the world gathered to ostracize Israel on false and warped claims in Durban II -- here’s just one example of hundreds of millions of real cases of true evil and abhorrent human rights violations that are overlooked regularly and daily by the mainstream media

Ahmad Batebi tells CNN's Anderson Cooper, in his 1st U.S. television interview how he was tortured for 9 years in an Iranian prison and how he managed to escape.

Watch CBS Videos Online

Cleric on Egyptian TV calls for Boycott of Starbucks Because Logo has Queen Esther in it

2009-04-18T15:54:00.013+03:00

This is actually a news item that poignantly and befittingly came out around Purim time this year.

Sadly many politically correct left wing Israelis misguidingly find Purim too war mongering for their tastes -- as the Jews at the end of the biblical story actually get to defend themselves from their enemies, which they end up, killing and defeating. Regardless of the sophomoric skewing of both the story and its historical context, which is an obvious allegory to a scenario that sadly repeated itself through out Jewish history countless times from the Greeks and Romans through the Crusaders, middle-ages and up to and including modern times, where Jews did not actually have the opportunity to defend themselves -- it would serve these and other PC moonbats worldwide to catch this news worthy item about the dangerous dim-wittedness of "modern" Islamic culture in so called "moderate" countries like Egypt.

If should be duly noted that Egypt is not a free country nor free society, and as such lacks free speech -- so that if this anti-semetic mind boggling idiocy was on Egyptian TV its because it was not just allowed to be on -- but in fact had the full backing of the authorities.

A quintessential depiction of the nature of Israel’s struggle against Arab terrorist and guerrilla forces

2009-01-16T19:23:00.004+02:00

A sad but true quintessential depiction of the nature of Israel’s struggle against Arab terrorist and guerrilla forces

Hamas takes pride in using women and children as human shields in fighting Israel

2009-01-10T21:06:00.004+02:00

From Palestinian Media Watch:

A Hamas representative in the PA legislative council, takes pride in the fact that women and children are used as human shield in fighting Israel. He describes it as part of the "Death Industry" at which they excel, and explains that the Palestinians "desire death" the same way Israelis "desire life".

The following is the full text:

For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters againset the Zionist bombing machine, as they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as you desire Life.

Hamas is committing three war crimes

2009-01-02T23:03:00.006+02:00

Alan Dershowitz poignantly stated the obvious in an op-ed he wrote today for the WSJ titled: Israel's Policy Is Perfectly 'Proportionate' Hamas are the real war criminals in this conflict

Until the world recognizes that Hamas is committing three war crimes -- targeting Israeli civilians, using Palestinian civilians as human shields, and seeking the destruction of a member state of the United Nations -- and that Israel is acting in self-defense and out of military necessity, the conflict will continue.

...
In a recent incident related to me by the former head of the Israeli air force, Israeli intelligence learned that a family's house in Gaza was being used to manufacture rockets. The Israeli military gave the residents 30 minutes to leave. Instead, the owner called Hamas, which sent mothers carrying babies to the house.

Hamas knew that Israel would never fire at a home with civilians in it. They also knew that if Israeli authorities did not learn there were civilians in the house and fired on it, Hamas would win a public relations victory by displaying the dead. Israel held its fire. The Hamas rockets that were protected by the human shields were then used against Israeli civilians.

These despicable tactics -- targeting Israeli civilians while hiding behind Palestinian civilians -- can only work against moral democracies that care deeply about minimizing civilian casualties. They never work against amoral nations such as Russia, whose military has few inhibitions against killing civilians among whom enemy combatants are hiding.
...

See the full op-ed on the WSJ website:
Israel's Policy Is Perfectly 'Proportionate' Hamas are the real war criminals in this conflict

Mr. Dershowitz is a law professor at Harvard. His latest book is "The Case Against Israel's Enemies" (Wiley, 2008).

Israel's answer to the "Obama Girl" youtube video clip: "The Livni Boy"

2008-12-20T21:02:00.004+02:00

And here’s another one in a slightly different vain--a real LOL campy take-off of the original Obama Girl, with all the sexy trappings (Israeli style) for some young Likud MK candidate

Syria's genocidal intentions

2008-06-09T19:25:00.003+03:00

From the Washington Times

Syria, like Iran, makes no secret of its genocidal intentions toward Israel. Both actively support a number of major terrorist groups. Syria maintains especially important links to Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the PFLP-GC and Hezbollah - which is an Iranian proxy.

Syria cannot afford to detach itself from Iran because Tehran provides the minority Allawi regime with protection against the Sunni majority in Syria. Also, Syria's dominant position in Lebanon is contingent on Hezbollah.

Tel Aviv Celebrates 10th Anniversary of Gay Pride Parade

2008-06-07T21:49:00.024+03:00

Tel Aviv adorned it’s main boulevards this past week with rainbow colored flags as revelers of all persuasions streamed along the main route of the city’s 10th annual gay pride parade that converged at Gordon Beach, one of the city’s central beach fronts, for a free outdoor concert. As usual for this annual parade, gays and lesbians weren’t the only ones out celebrating. Tel Avivans of all ages and statuses were out embracing the event, the community, and the festivities. All of which made for a colorful love fest of freedom of expression in a city that enjoys celebrating its unbridled spirit, diversity and a good beach party.

It should be duly noted that in stark contrast, homosexuality is a crime under the Palestinian Authority, where Gay’s are persecuted and sent to jail. Similarly in Egypt gay men can be sentenced anywhere from 3 and up to 25 years for homosexuality. And in general, the status of gays and lesbians in the Arab and Muslim world is for the most part a dire one.

Some photos I snapped at the event:

Click on any photo for a larger view. The entire album can be viewed here

Some more photos from other people can be found on Flickr by clicking here and here -- don't miss the Israeli soldier girl with a rainbow flag in her shirt pocket

Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit record high in 2007

2008-06-07T21:26:00.003+03:00

Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit record high in 2007, Ha'aretz, 03/06/2008
By Rhonda Spivak

WINNIPEG - Anti-Semitic incidents in Canada hit a record high in 2007, according to a recently released report by the League of Human Rights of B'nai Brith Canada.

The group recorded 1,042 anti-Semitic incidents in Canada in 2007, up 11.4% since 2006. A 59.1% increase was noted on Canadian college and university campuses.

In Montreal, anti-Semitic incidents increased 16 percent from 2006 to 2007, and regional Quebec showed a significant increase of 282 percent from the previous year.
Advertisement

The study also showed that over the past 10 years anti-Semitic incidents have jumped 400 percent in Canada.

Nearly 30 percent of all incidents in 2007 were attributed to internet activity. Of these, nearly one-third involved threatening or harassing communications.

Synagogues were targeted in 22 incidents, in Montreal, Toronto, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Richmond British Columbia, Hamilton and Barrie, Ontario. There were 28 incidents of violence in 2007, down from 30 in 2006. Incidents of harassment were up from 588 in 2006 to 699 in 2007.

"The 2007 findings indicate that anti-Semitism is not just at the fringes of Canadian society," Frank Dimant, executive vice-president of B'nai Brith Canada said in a news release. He also noted that incidents are no longer "primarily confined to urban centers."

84% of Palestinian Arabs support the Massacre at the Rabbinical Seminary

2008-04-05T22:16:00.003+03:00

Last month “Israel Today” headlined this story based on a survey by Khalil Shikaki based in Ramallah and is considered a reliable pollster of Palestinian society . The survey also shows unprecedented support for the shooting of rockets on Israeli towns from the Gaza Strip and for the end of the peace negotiations between Palestinian and Israeli leaders.

The New York Times also covered this story which can be found here: Poll Shows Most Palestinians Favor Violence Over Talks

Thousands of Palestinian Arabs Celebrated Jerusalem Terrorist Attack on the Rabbinical Seminary

2008-03-07T10:46:00.021+02:00

By Noam Rotem

Thousands of Palestinian Arabs in Gaza celebrated the Jerusalem terrorist attack on the Rabbinical seminary on March 5th. AP, Reuters, AFP, Jerusalem Post, Ynet and other news organizations reported on this story--here is one sample from Ynet:

Palestinians distribute sweets in celebration of Jerusalem terror attack as Hamas promises 'this is only the beginning'. Gaza's streets filled with joyous crowds of thousands on Thursday evening following the terror attack at a Jerusalem rabbinical seminary in which eight people were killed. In mosques in Gaza City and northern Gaza, many residents went to perform the prayers of thanksgiving. Armed men fired in the air in celebration and others passed out sweets to passersby.

Missing from these descriptions are what should have been the appropriate adjectives describing the nature of this kind of behavior by the popular masses of Palestinian Arabs, i.e. qualifiers such as : abhorrent, disgusting, despicable, nauseating, obnoxious, obscene, repugnant, repulsive just to mention a few.

Of course one of the main reasons these adjectives are missing, has to do in no small part to Political Correct ideological censorship, which has infected every corner of western perception, impeding on free uncensored speech and thought. Worse yet is the fact that societies afflicted with this autoimmune disease are unaware of the censorship that is continuous, is on going, and distorts the most essential and fundamental comprehension of reality.

Furthermore this PC distortion field, distracts from an important fact of the real story is, and that is that the Palestinian population is not really an innocent by stander. They voted in terrorist and fascist organization. As already reported in the past in Tel Aviv Vistas, a Pew research report from last year found that 70% of Palestinians believe that suicide bombings against civilians can be often or sometimes justified.

Israeli Cows are Greenest in the World

2008-03-04T22:51:00.003+02:00

Dalia Mazori of Ma’ariv reported last week (28.02.2008) that Israeli cows were awarded "The Most Environmentally Friendly Cows" at the annual conference of International Dairy Federation (IDF). Dr. Yisrael Palmenbaum explained that the methane gas emitted by cows, is caused from the fermentation of food in the cows digestive system. Israeli cows are fed a rich diet of seeds as opposed to their counterparts in New Zealand and other grazing countries, that feed on a lot of green fiber, which takes much longer to digest causing more methane gas in the process.

The Benefits of Industrialized Agriculture

2008-03-04T16:29:00.005+02:00

Here's an interesting clear-eye article from the International Herald Tribune (having nothing to do with Israel or the mideast), showing the benefits of Industrialized Agriculture. Not to take away from the many benefits of Organic farming, this article shows why on mass the world needs industrizlied farming and the dangerous effects PC ideololgoy has on millions of Africans.

FOOD FANTASIES: Africa's organic farms

By Robert Paarlberg

...Nearly all of Africa's farms are thus de facto "organic." Poor and non-productive, but organic.
Cereal crop yields in Africa are only one-third as high as in developing Asia, and only one-tenth as high as the United States. Average income from this kind of farming amounts to only a dollar a day, which is why nearly 80 percent of all those officially classified as poor in Africa are farmers, and why one third of all farmers are chronically malnourished.
Without modern agricultural science, food production in Africa has fallen ominously behind population growth. Total agricultural production per capita today has fallen 19 percent below the level of 1970. Increasingly, Africans must depend on imported food aid...
In this fashion, and perhaps without realizing it, wealthy countries are imposing the richest of tastes on the poorest of people. The rich are, in effect, telling Africa's farmers they should just as well remain poor.

Robert Paarlberg is a professor of political science at Wellesley College in Massachusetts and the author of "Starved for Science: How Biotechnology is Being Kept Out of Africa.

Former Brazilian-Israeli Behind Google's Now-Famous Logo

2008-02-13T11:04:00.005+02:00

Google's Operating Systems Blog has an article this month titled Designing Google's Logo that's interesting to read from a design perspective and cites Ruth Kedar as the graphic designer who developed the now-famous Google logo.

The article goes on to say that Kedar met Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page through a mutual friend nine years ago at Stanford University, where she was an assistant professor.

Wikipedia cites that Ruth Kedar was born in Brazil, moved to Israel where she received a degree in Architecture from the Technion – a leading Israeli Institute of Technology. She later came to the US to attend the Stanford University Masters Program in Design. More about Ruth Kedar’s graphic design studio can be found at Kedar Designs and other digital art work of hers at Ruth Kedar's Art Studio .

פשיטת הרגל של המדיה הישראלית: והפעם יומן השבוע ברשת ב' עם פאר לי שחר וניסים קינן סוחרים במוסר יחסי זול ופופוליסטי

2008-02-09T13:49:00.000+02:00

מאת נעם רותם \ By Noam Rotem
ביקורת ותגובה לכתבה בתוכנית יומן השבוע ברשת ב' יום שבת 10:00 בבוקר 9.2.08

בתוכנית יומן השבוע של רשת ב' המגישה ועורכת פאר לי שחר השמיעה כתבה של ניסים קינן בו רואיינו שני ילדים בני 13, אחד משדרות ואחד כפר חנון בצד הפלסטינאי. הכתבה הוגשה כאילו הכול שווה וכולם אשמים במידה שווה ורק הפוליטיקאים הרעים משני הצדדים הם הגורמים לסבל האזרחים ואם רק ניתן לילדים לעשות שלום הרי שלום גדול ישרור באיזור כולו.

אבל העובדות הן:
--שחמאס חרטה על דגלה את השמדת מדינת שישראל כנגד אמנת האו"ם לעומת ישראל שקיבלה על עצמה שתי מדינות לשתי עמים.
--שחמאס ומיליטנטים פלסטינאים הם שיורים רקטות מתוך אזורי אוכלוסיה אזרחית ומשתמשים באזרחים כמגן אנושי, דבר שקודם כל נחשב פשע מלחמה, זה בניגוד לכל אמנה של זכויות אדם, והכי חשוב, זה נעשה מתוך חוסר התחשבות בחיי אדם ככלל ושל הפלסטינאים בפרט.
--שחמאס ומיליטנטים פלסטינאים הם שיורים ישירות על אזרחים ישראלים ובמטרה להרוג אזרחים, לעומת צה"ל שמנסה רק לפגוע בלוחמים המתחבאים בקרב אוכלוסיה אזרחית בניגוד לכל אמנה של זכויות אדם.
--שישראל יצאה מעזה, ובמקום להשקיע בחינוך, ניהול תקין, שגשוג, איפה הפלסטינאים משקיעים את האנרגיות וכספים שלהם? --בהסתה, חינוך לשנאה, נשק התקפי לפגוע באזרחים...

כמובן שילד בן 13 לא ידע להעלות את העובדות האלה, כל שכן אם הוא התחנך על ברכי המדיה הישראלית, והרי אין הרבה סיכויים שיקרא את ה-Wall Street Journal, שם כן היה מוצא את העובדות.

פשוט ביזיון של פאר לי שחר וניסים קינן לאינטליגנציה של המאזינים, לרמה עיתונאית, ובגידה לעובדות של מי המפרים האמיתיים של זכויות אדם. האנלוגיה לפשיטת רגל הזאת, תארו לעצמכם שהיו מראיינים ילד בלונדון וילד בדרזדן בזמן מלחמת העולם השנייה והיו מציגים כאילו כולם אשמים במידה שווה ואין צד רשע המפיר כל צלם אנוש. הכתבה הבוקר הייתה פשוט תרגיל זול ופופוליסטי, רווי אידיאולוגיה של תקינות פוליטית ומוסר יחסי בלי הצגת העובדות ובלי בדיקה אמיתית רצינית ועמוקה של הסוגייה.

בימים אלו מתנהל מלחמת דלגטימציה כנגד מדינת ישראל בזכות שלה להתקיים ולהגן על אזרחיה והכול מתוך אצטלה של תקינות פוליטית ומוסר יחסי. וכמה טוב לדעת שרשת ב' יחד עם פאר לי שחר וניסים קינן הם שותפים למלחמה הזאת נגדינו, במקום לספק את העובדות כנגד ההאשמות נגדינו שרובן ככולן חסרות בסיס ומונעות מאידיאולוגיה אנטי-ישראלית חסרת פשרות.

אבל ברשות השידור כמו בארץ ככלל, כנראה אין נשיאה באחריות, ואין חובה לתת דין וחשבון וכך נמשיך כנראה להיחשף לרמה עיתונאית מתחת לכל ביקורת.

Israeli Singer Accompanies the MacBook Air Commercial

2008-01-20T00:15:00.000+02:00

VC Café the tech-blog that tracks Israeli tech startup news from a Silicon Valley perspective reports that the woman's voice behind the Apple MacBook Air commercial is 29 year old Israeli singer Yael Naim: Israeli singer serenades launch of MacBook Air. The article goes on to say that Yael was born in Paris to Tunisian parents who immigrated to Israel when she was 4 years old.

12-year-old Kfar Sava girl defeats 20 men (in chess tournament)

2008-01-20T00:03:00.000+02:00

Ha'aretz reports this weekend on this cute story: click here for the full original article. Following is an excerpt and highlight from the story:

...
The most important official event of the tournament took place on Tuesday in a long row of chess games played by grandmasters from Israel, Ukraine, Poland and Germany. At the same time, dozens of Jews and Arabs participated in the Galilee competition, which offered $20,000 in total prize money.

But most of the spotlight was on a simultaneous exhibition match between a 12-year-old Israeli girl, Marsel Efroimski, and 20 chess players seated next to each other who waited anxiously for the young girl's fast-paced moves. Efroimski, the child of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, lives in Kfar Sava and is a seventh grade student. She says that since age eight, she has been playing chess. Her inspiration and her primary influences came from her father and grandfather.

"Chess is a game that requires a lot of thought," Efroimski said. "I know that it's not a game that draws crowds, but it's a very interesting game and in Ma'alot-Tarshiha, there were actually people who were interested and came to watch the games or participate."

The 20 courageous players did not stand much of a chance against the girl who in November was crowned the world youth chess champion in the under-12 girls category at the championships that were held in Turkey. The title earned her an invitation to receive the congratulations of President Shimon Peres.

Within an hour of beginning the chess matches at the community center in Ma'alot-Tarshiha, 20 victories were credited to Efroimski, who stood throughout the entire competition, as is customary, and merely sprinted from one chessboard to the next.

The little discussed plight of a million Jews who were expelled from Arab lands decades ago

2008-01-07T20:14:00.000+02:00

From a previous Haaretz weekend magazine : All I wanted was justice
By Adi Schwartz

One family’s 50-year fight for restitution of an Alexandrian hotel sheds light on the little discussed plight of a million Jews who were expelled from Arab lands decades ago

Below extensive excerpts, read entire original article here

Albert Metzger never left his hotel. Although he owned another six hotels in Alexandria, and was actually in charge of the entire hotel industry in northern Egypt, for him the seaside Cecil Hotel was the jewel in the crown. From the time he built it in 1929 Metzger lived there, in a private apartment on the first floor, supervising every movement and every employee closely. Within a few years the hotel in the heart of Alexandria Bay had become famous, and turned into one of the most famous meeting places in the Levant. British author Lawrence Durrell, who lived in the city for a few years, commemorated it in his "The Alexandria Quartet."

One morning in November 1956, however, Albert Metzger was forced to leave. The gallery of famous guests who used to stay at the hotel - from Al Capone, to Josephine Baker, to Winston Churchill - couldn't help him. Nor could the fact that the battle of El Alamein had been planned on its first floor, at a time when the hotel had served as the headquarters of the British Police. Nor could the fact that Metzger himself had built and created the place ex nihilo.

That morning Metzger went from being a wealthy businessman whom everyone in Alexandria knew, to being persona non grata, an enemy among his fellow Egyptians. In the days following the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign, Egypt had decided on a campaign to punish its Jewish community, which numbered about 50,000 souls. The Jews lost their citizenship, their businesses and bank accounts were confiscated, and they were not allowed to work. The Cecil Hotel, like hundreds of other assets, was taken away by the Egyptian regime for one reason only: Its owners were Jewish.

Overnight Metzger turned from multimillionaire to penniless refugee. Even when he decided to leave the country and try his luck elsewhere, the authorities refused to allow him to take out money, property, jewelry, books or pictures. Only one suitcase full of clothing, weighing 20 kilograms. He left by car accompanied by his family and headed for the Libyan border, leaving behind an entire life that had gone down the drain.
...

"They told me I'd never win," says Patricia Metzger, 69, in a phone conversation with Haaretz from Dar es Salaam, "but I'm a very stubborn woman. I wanted to return to Alexandria and run the hotel, but the Egyptians told me 'Forget it, it's over.' They kept dragging things out, and in the end they offered us very low compensation. They didn't want to give up the hotel, and that's why they said that if we didn't accept their offer, they would bury the matter for a few more years. I cried when I heard the sum they had offered us for this beautiful hotel, but I agreed, because in any case this may be the longest lawsuit in history. All I wanted was justice."

Back on the agenda
Patricia Metzger's campaign to achieve justice sheds light on a little-discussed aspect of the Israeli-Arab conflict: In the wake of the War of Independence and the establishment of Israel, two major population movements took place in the Middle East. The one that is frequently mentioned is the Palestinian exodus, but at the same time almost one million Jews were forced to leave Arab countries where they had lived for hundreds of years. According to official Arab statistics, some 850,000 Jews left those countries from 1948 to the beginning of the 1970s, and about 600,000 of them were absorbed in Israel. For the sake of comparison, the United Nations data estimate the original population of Palestinian refugees at 720,000.

Moreover, the property the Jews left behind in Arab countries was much more valuable than the property of the Palestinians: The mount of Jewish-owned land alone is estimated at 100,000 square kilometers - four times the size of Israel.

Before the Annapolis summit and now, prior to the visit to Israel of U.S. President George W. Bush, several Jewish organizations are trying to put this subject back on the world agenda. Prof. Irwin Cotler, a Canadian MP and former justice minister, wrote a detailed opinion in November on behalf of the Justice for Jews from Arab Countries organization, along with its director and another legal expert...

An expert on human rights, Cotler points out that the definition of refugee in international law - as a person with "a well-founded fear of being persecuted for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion" - clearly applied to the Jews from Arab countries. Indeed, the onternational community has already recognized the suffering of these Jews - including in statements by the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in the 1950s. In 2000, during the Camp David negotiations, then U.S. president Bill Clinton said that Israel was full of Jews who had lived in Arab countries and immigrated to Israel because they had become refugees in their own countries.

Cotler's detailed opinion mentions that the Arab world's refusal to accept the existence of the State of Israel gave rise to a negative attitude and discrimination against the Jews, and even to violence. The 1948 decision by the Arab League in effect determined the policy that Jews would be considered "members of the Jewish minority of Palestine" - i.e., citizens of an enemy country, Israel. The decision also stipulated freezing Jews' bank accounts, imprisonment of Zionists and confiscation of their property. For all these reasons the Jewish population in the Arab countries declined during the first years after Israel's establishment: in Yemen from 55,000 to 4,000; in Iraq from 135,000 to 6,000; in Aden from 8,000 to 800; in Egypt from 80,000 to 50,000; in Libya from 38,000 to 4,000; and in Syria from 30,000 to 5,000.

In each country the situation was different. Ada Aharoni, a native of Cairo who left with her family in 1949, remembers a happy childhood, but also the swift decline after the Partition Plan of the UN General Assembly in 1947.
...
Aharoni's family decided to leave for Israel. The ships, which couldn't sail directly to Israel, first arrived in Marseille. "Father had deposited all our money in a Swiss bank in Cairo," she recalls, "and the first day we arrived in Marseille, we went to the bank. There the branch manager told him that there wasn't a single cent, because Egypt had confiscated the account."

The shock caused Aharoni's father to suffer a heart attack, from which he had difficulty recovering. His elder brother, a judge in the supreme rabbinical court in Cairo, died of cardiac arrest while on the plane to Paris. The grandmother of her best friend refused to leave the land of her fathers, threw herself down the stairs and died on the spot.

Jewish 'nakba'
The second anti-Jewish wave in Egypt, which took place in 1956, hit the Metzgers. The family had arrived in the 19th century from France, but Albert, and his father, were born in Egypt and spent almost their entire lives there. Only a few years earlier he had received the title "emir," because of funds he raised for charitable projects and his status in Egyptian society. But with the outbreak of the Sinai Campaign in October 1956, the situation deteriorated.

Some 1,000 Jews were arrested immediately upon the outbreak of the war, and about 500 places of business were confiscated. In the mosques of Cairo and Alexandria a government order was read calling for Jews to be treated as "enemies." Bank accounts were blocked, and Jewish managers and salaried workers were fired. Judges and lawyers were expelled from the professional organization, and Jewish engineers, doctors and teachers were not allowed to work.
...
Prof. Aharoni believes that a major mistake is being made. In her opinion, this is not only a matter of doing historical justice to entire communities that were lost, but also a matter of great importance to the present. She discovered that first hand when, a few years ago, she gave a course at the University of Pennsylvania entitled "The Nakba [Arabic for 'catastrophe'] of the Jews of Egypt and Arab Countries." Over half the 50 students in the class, she recalls, were Arabs from Egypt, Jordan, Iraq, Syria, Palestinians and Israelis, as well as several Iranians. They all expressed great anger when she presented the subject of the course, and claimed that "nakba" refers only to the tragic events experienced by the Palestinians in 1948. However, she says, toward the end of the course one of the participants, a Palestinian PhD in sociology, got up and said in amazement: "We checked the data carefully, and the numbers and facts you gave us were in fact correct. I'm surprised that you Jews, who are known to be intelligent, enlightened and smart, haven't publicized this important and interesting story. How is it that we never heard this story? Why don't you tell the story of the nakba of the Jews from the Arab countries?"

Aharoni was curious to know why it was so important to him that the story be publicized. "Because it rescues my honor and that of my people," he replied. "It makes us Palestinians realize that we're not the only ones who suffered from the Arab-Israeli conflict. It makes things much easier for us. This information enables us to stand erect and opens opportunities for a sulha [reconciliation]. The condition for a sulha is that the side that causes injustice to the other side has to pay for it. Full reconciliation is reflected in the sulha ceremony where the payment is made. Now I understand that those Jews already paid for the sulha, when they lost all their property and were forced to disperse, just like us Palestinians. The conditions of the sulha have already been fulfilled. If the Israeli government publicizes that, the two nations will be able to progress to a process of true peace. We won't feel that we are the only underdog, because the Jews from the Arab countries were victims. You also experienced a catastrophe, and the time has come to engage in a sulha and to stop killing one another."

Original Article in Hebrew:

זה היה ביתם
מיליון היהודים האחרים שגורשו ממדינות ערב לאחר הקמת מדינת ישראל, נשכחו משום מה
...
פרופ' אהרוני סבורה שזאת החמצה מצערת. לדעתה, לא רק שמדובר בעשיית צדק היסטורי עם קהילות שלמות שאבדו, אלא שיש בכך גם חשיבות רבה להווה. על כך היא למדה ממקור ראשון, כשהעבירה לפני כמה שנים קורס באוניברסיטת פנסילווניה על "הנכבה של יהודי מצרים וארצות ערב". יותר ממחצית מחמישים הסטודנטים בכיתה, היא מספרת, היו ערבים ממצרים, ירדן, עיראק, סוריה, ערבים פלשתינאים וישראלים, וגם כמה איראנים. כולם הביעו תרעומת כשהציגה את נושא הקורס, וטענו שהמלה נכבה מתייחסת רק לאירועים הטרגיים שעברו על הפלשתינאים ב-1948.

ואולם, היא אומרת, לקראת סוף הקורס קם אחד המשתתפים, דוקטור לסוציולוגיה פלשתינאי, ואמר לה בהשתאות: "בדקנו את הנתונים, ואכן המספרים והעובדות שנתת לנו היו נכונים. אני מתפלא איך אתם היהודים, שידועים כאינטליגנטים, נאורים וחכמים, לא פירסמתם את כל הפרשה החשובה והמעניינת הזאת? איך קרה שלא שמענו אף פעם את הסיפור הזה? למה אתם לא מספרים את סיפור הנכבה של היהודים מארצות ערב?"

אהרוני הסתקרנה לדעת מדוע כל כך חשוב לו שהסיפור הזה יפורסם. "כי זה מציל את כבודי ואת כבוד עמי", השיב לה. "זה מביא אותנו הפלשתינאים להכרה שאנחנו לא היחידים שסבלו מהסכסוך הערבי-ישראלי. זה מאוד מקל עלינו. המידע הזה זוקף את קומתנו ופותח אפשרויות לסולחה. התנאי לקיום סולחה הוא שהצד שגרם עוול לצד השני ישלם על כך במשהו. הפיוס המלא מקבל את ביטויו בטקס הסולחה שבו מתבצע התשלום. עכשיו הבנתי שהיהודים האלה כבר שילמו עבור הסולחה, כאשר הפסידו את כל רכושם ונאלצו להתפזר, בדיוק כמונו הפלשתינאים. תנאי הסולחה הרי הושלמו. אם ממשלת ישראל תפרסם זאת ברבים, שני העמים יוכלו להתקדם לתהליך של שלום אמיתי. אנחנו לא נרגיש שאנחנו האנדרדוג היחיד, כי גם יהודי ארצות ערב היו קורבנות. גם אתם עברתם קטסטרופה, ואכן הגיע הזמן לעשות סולחה ולהפסיק להרוג אחד את השני".

A Suicide Bombing that Killed 50 in a Crowded Mosque and the Deafening Silence of Hypocrisy

2008-01-07T14:54:00.000+02:00

Back in December and prior to the assassination of Benazir Bhutto there was a brutal suicide bombing in a crowded Mosque that killed 50 people. Reuters reported the incident in the following manner:

A suicide bomber killed at least 50 people on Friday in a mosque in the home compound of Pakistan's former interior minister, Aftab Khan Sherpao, in what appeared to be a political attack on the Muslim holy day of Eid al-Adha. About 100 people were injured.

The bomb, packed with ball bearings and nails, ripped through a crowd of hundreds at a mosque in Sherpao's home compound in a village called Sherpao, not far from Peshawar. The suspected bomber sat in a middle row among the worshippers and set off his bomb as prayers ended and people gathered around...

Editorial Comment
We've seen Arabs and Muslims take to the streets around the world in mass and in frenzied and violent demonstrations over a cartoon of Mohamed. At the same time absolute silence regarding the vile and viciously anti-American and anti-Semitic cartoons which are a staple in the Arab press. But maybe the height of hypocrisy is the utter silence regarding the copious blood letting by Muslims of Muslims as in this incident. And in response to this Mosque massacre there is no pan-Muslim uproar, no worldwide demonstrating by alleged moderates, instead just the deafening silence of hypocrisy.

Former Sudanese Slave and Prominent Human Rights Activist--Simon Deng, blasts Desmond Tutu and Stands up for Israel

2007-12-23T15:55:00.000+02:00

Simon Deng a modern day hero, is a native of the Shiluk Kingdom in southern Sudan, an escaped jihad slave and a leading human rights activist. Simon Deng visited Israel last month and is a unique defender of Israel. In 2005 he gave a poignant and passionate speech at a conference in Geneva. Following is an excerpt from that speech:

My name is Simon Aban Deng. I am from Sudan. I am a Shiluk by tribe. I am a Christian by religion. I belong to a people who have been subjected to mass murder, slavery, systematic rape, religious persecution, enforced starvation, dislocation, exile. We are the victims of genocide, both physical and cultural. We have been targeted for annihilation as human beings and as members of a culture. These miseries did not fall upon us from the sky; we have been and remain the victims of the radical jihadist regime in Khartoum.

The scale of our losses has been enormous in the two genocides perpetrated by the Islamists - two, not one. Starting in 1955, the year before independence was granted by the British, up until 1973, 1.5 million Southern Sudanese Christians were slaughtered by the Arab/Muslim dominated government in Khartoum. From 1983 until just 3 months ago when a peace treaty was brokered by the United States, we Southern Sudanese lost 2 million more to what Khartoum calls a holy war against the infidels. Yes, I am an infidel according to their definition. I think many of you are as well. We black "infidels" in the South, Christians and other non-Muslims, refused to be ruled by Islam, and we refused to be Arabized.

Our only offense was our determination to remain faithful to our religion and to honor our African cultures. For these "crimes" The National Islamic Front regime has committed genocide against us. Not only has that genocide produced the largest body-count of murdered innocents since the Nazis and the work of Joseph Stalin's followers, but it has also produced the largest population of refugees anywhere on earth since the Second World War.

Editorial Comment: And I ask: where are you Ms. Christian Amanpour, in light of this account and your saliently distorted and blatantly disingenuous "God's Holy Warriors". (A more extensive rebuttal to Ms. Amanpour's insincere series will follow at some later time).

This past month Simon Deng wrote the following article, which seems to have been originally published on The David Project and then reproduced on several other Blogs-- The Jewish Advocate, Gay and Right and Aish. Following is the article in its entirety:

Disappearance of Bishop Tutu
By Simon Deng

Late last month, I went to hear Bishop Desmond Tutu speak at Boston’s Old South Church at a conference on “Israel Apartheid.” Tutu is a well respected man of God. He brought reconciliation between blacks and whites in South Africa. That he would lead a conference that damns the Jewish state is very disturbing to me.

The State of Israel is not an apartheid state. I know because I write this from Jerusalem where I have seen Arab mothers peacefully strolling with their families – even though I also drove on Israeli roads protected by walls and fences from Arab bullets and stones. I know Arabs go to Israeli schools, and get the best medical care in the world. I know they vote and have elected representatives to the Israeli Parliament. I see street signs in Arabic, an official language here. None of this was true for blacks under Apartheid in Tutu’s South Africa.

I also know countries that do deserve the apartheid label: My country, Sudan, is on the top of the list, but so are Iran, Saudi Arabia and Egypt. What has happened to my people in Sudan is a thousand times worse than Apartheid in South Africa. And no matter how the Palestinians suffer, they suffer nothing compared to my people. Nothing. And most of the suffering is the fault of their leaders. Bishop Tutu, I see black Jews walking down the street here in Jerusalem. Black like us, free and proud.

Tutu said Israeli checkpoints are a nightmare. But checkpoints are there because Palestinians are sent into Israel to blow up and kill innocent women and children. Tutu wants checkpoints removed. Do you not have doors in your home, Bishop? Does that make your house an apartheid house? If someone, Heaven forbid, tried to enter with a bomb, we would want you to have security people “humiliating” your guests with searches, and we would not call you racist for doing so. We all go through checkpoints at every airport. Are the airlines being racist? No.

Yes, the Palestinians are inconvenienced at checkpoints. But why, Bishop Tutu, do you care more about that inconvenience than about Jewish lives?

Bishop, when you used to dance for Mandela’s freedom, we Africans – all over Africa – joined in. Our support was key in your freedom. But when children in Burundi and Kinshasa, all the way to Liberia and Sierra Leone, and in particular in Sudan, cried and called for rescue, you heard but chose to be silent.

Today, black children are enslaved in Sudan, the last place in the continent of Africa where humans are owned by other humans – I was part of the movement to stop slavery in Mauritania, which just now abolished the practice. But you were not with us, Bishop Tutu.

So where is Desmond Tutu when my people call out for freedom? Slaughter and genocide and slavery are lashing Africans right now. Where are you for Sudan, Bishop Tutu? You are busy attacking the Jewish state. Why?

New Bezeq TV Ad: Invites us to Come Rediscover Home

2007-12-22T23:54:00.000+02:00

The video ad takes viewers on a series of candid family scenes, where one family member stumbles by chance on some unexpected and poignant moment of another family member. These small stolen observations, unveil something new about those closest to them. The voice over at the end of the clip says: "one can always discover something new about those closest to us". Bezeq telecom, Israel's oldest and leading land line provider, invites viewers to come rediscover home (the implication being the new unexpected land line offerings)

UK: Children's Sing-Along DVD Which Glorifies Suicide Bombing

2007-12-21T15:31:00.000+02:00

London's Evening Standard online entertainment magazine thisislondon.co.uk reports about a shocking sing-along children's DVD which glorifies suicide bombing found on sale in one of Britain's terrorist hotbeds.

Read the full report along with accompanying photos here: British children targeted with terror sing-along DVD for would-be suicide bombers

The disc - part of an Egyptian-made series - is on sale in West Yorkshire, where three of the July 7 bombers lived, and is aimed at youngsters from the local Muslim community.

Introduced by a cute cartoon chicken, it contains three songs in Arabic which are illustrated with a video story. But any impression of its being an innocent music DVD is immediately dispelled by a song with English subtitles about two children who lose their mother when she blows herself up in a suicide bomb attack.

The song, sung as if told by the bomber's daughter, ends with the young Arabic girl vowing to follow in her mother's footsteps.

...

האמנה הפלסטינאית עדיין מכילה 10 סעיפים הכוללים את חיסול מדינת ישראל ומאבק טרור להשיג מטרה זו

2007-11-24T12:28:00.000+02:00

For the benefit of Hebrew readers who get little to no exposure to a serious contrarian debate in the Israeli media the previous article has been translated into Hebrew

ארגון ציוני אמריקה הוציאה השבוע פרסומת בגודל עמוד שלם בניו-יורק טיימס, הרלד טריביון, והמהדורה האנגלית של הארץ, האמורה להזכיר למזכירת המדינה רייס כמו גם לקוראים, שהאמנה הפלסטינאית עדיין מכילה 10 סעיפים הקוראים לחיסול מדינת ישראל ומאבק טרור להשיג מטרה זו. את הפרסומת עם כל 10 הסעיפים ניתן למצוא כאן באתר ציוני אמריקה.
להלן כמה נקודות עיקריות:

סעיף 22: התנגדות לכל פיתרון פוליטי כאלטרנטיבה לפירוק הכיבוש הציוני של פלסטין
סעיף 12: להשלים את שחרור פלסטין, והכחדת הכלכלה, הפוליטיקה, הצבא והתרבות הצינוית
סעיף 19: המאבק המזוין היא אסטרטגיה ולא טקטיקה...והמאבק לא יחדל עד השמדת המדינה הציונית והשחרור המלא של פלסטין
סעיף 17: מאבק ציבורי מזוין הוא השיטה הבלתי נמנעת לשחרור פלסטין
סעיף 25: יש לשכנע מדינות בעולם למנוע הגירה יהודית לפלסטין כשיטה לפתרון הבעייה

דבר מערכת
לאור האמנה יש מקום להזכיר מספר עובדות היסטוריות:

השם פלסטין נטבעה ע"י הרומאים לחבל ארץ יהודה גם כמידת עונשין לאחר מרד העצמאות הכושלת של היהודים כנגד האימפריה הרומאית שהתחילה בשנת 66 לספירה
יש התיישבות רציפה של יהודים בארץ ישראל למעלה מ-3,000 שנה והרבה לפני הכיבוש הערבי במאה ה-7
עד לעלייה היהודית בתחילת המאה ה-20, הישוב הערבי לא קראה לעצמה פלסטינאים ולא היית לה ספרות, או תרבות שביטאה זהות כעם לחבל ארץ ענייה זו
הרבה ערבים שלאחר מכן זיהו עצמם כפלסטינאים היגרו לארץ בתחילת המאה ה-20 כתוצאה של פיתוח כלכלי שהביאה העלייה היהודית
לו הבריטים היו פותחים את שערי הכניסה לארץ בזמן השואה, אז מיליוני יהודים היו יכולים להינצל ממות באירופה בידי הנאצים והיום לא הייתה מאבק דמוגראפי על חבל ארץ צרה זו
לבסוף יש לזכור שהייתה כמות שווה של פליטים יהודים ממדינות ערב, ובשונה למדינות ערב, ישראל קלטה פליטים יהודים מכל רחבי העולם עם שפות ותרבויות שונות לתוך ישראל הקטנה. לעומתם מדינות ערב השולטים על שטחים נרחבים של כדור הארץ והמשתרעים מהאוקיינוס ההודי במזרח ועד האוקיאנוס האטלנטי במערב סירבו לקלוט ערבים שדיברו אותה שפה ותרבות בניצול ציני של חיי אדם כחלק מהאסטרטגיה כנגד מדינת ישראל

Palestinian Charter Still Contains 10 Articles Promoting Terrorism and the Destruction of Israel

2007-11-21T15:04:00.000+02:00

The ZOA (Zionist Organization of America) took out a full page ad this past week in the New York Times, Herald Tribune and English edition of Ha'aretz reminding readers that there are still 10 articles in the Palestinian charter that promote terrorism and the destruction of Israel. Click on full page ad to see all 10 articles. Following are highlights from some of these articles:

Article 22: Opposing any political solution offered as an alternative to demolishing the Zionist occupation in Palestine...
Article 12: Complete liberation of Palestine, and eradication of Zionist economic, political, military and cultural existence
Article 19: Armed struggle is a strategy and not a tactic...and this struggle will not cease unless the Zionist state is demolished and Palestine is completely liberated
Article 17: Armed public revolution is the inevitable method to liberating Palestine
Article 25: Convincing concerned countries in the world to prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine as a method of solving the problem

Editorial Commentary
A few historical facts are prudent here in light of the charter:

The term Palestine was coined by the Romans for the Judean state as a repressive measure to the failed Jewish rebellion for independence from the Roman Empire in 66 C.E.
Jews have continuously lived in the land of Israel for over 3,000 years and prior to the Arab conquest in the 7th century
Until Jewish immigration in the 20th century to the land of Israel, the sparse Arab settlers never referred to themselves as Palestinians or had any notable body of literature, culture, or national identity pertaining to this strip of land
Many Arabs, later to call themselves Palestinians immigrated to Israel as Jewish immigration presented new economic opportunities to this largely economically dormant landscape
Had the British opened the flood gates to the the land of Israel during World War II, millions of Jews murdered by the Nazis could have been saved and there would have been no demographic conflict over this narrow strip of ancient Jewish homeland
There were a similar number of Jewish refugees from Arab countries in wake of Israel’s independence and the collapse of British and French colonialism in the near east. But in contrast to the Arab states, Israel absorbed Jewish refugees of different languages and cultures from around the world into the tiny strip of land called Israel. The Arab countries on the other hand, with vast territories stretching from the Indian Ocean in the east to the Atlantic ocean in the west, put Arab refugees in refugee camps, despite that they called them their brethren and despite their speaking the same language and culture, in a cynical use of human life in order for them to serve as part of a strategic tactic to undermine the Jewish state

Two Iraqi children treated in Israel for open heart surgery

2007-11-17T17:16:00.000+02:00

Back in October, two Iraqi children were successfully treated in Israel for emergency open heart surgery, as part of an Israeli initiative to treat children from around the world who would otherwise not have access to such operations.

The 5-month-old girl and 11-year-old boy were selected from among 40 other Iraqi children during a one-day cardiology clinic held in Jordan earlier this week by the Israeli-based organization Save A Child's Heart(SACH).View an online image gallery of this news item

SACH has performed heart surgery on 35 Iraqi children and over 1700 children from 28 other countries since its inception in 1996. Nearly half of the children treated are Palestinians or residents of other Arab countries.

The children are treated at the Wolfson Medical Center in Holon and are housed at the SACH Children's Home in Azur for the duration of their treatment.

Save A Child's Heart is an Israeli based, humanitarian organization and is one of the largest undertakings in the world providing urgently needed pediatric heart surgery and follow-up care for children from third world and developing countries.

All children, regardless of race, religion, sex, color, or financial consideration receive the best possible care that modern medicine has to offer. The entire surgical, intensive care, and nursing staff substantially volunteer their services and donate their time!

Editorial Comment
Israel makes up 0.1% of the world's population, it has no oil resources, and has been in an existential struggle for survival since its inception, threatened repeatedly by much larger surrounding Arab countries. And yet this humanitarian program, is one of the largest of its kind, with no comparable Arab program out there(despite hundreds of billions of dollars from oil revenue), and certainly no similar humanitarian program in the business of also saving Jewish children's hearts. Sadly, the approach in the Arab world is practically the opposite. Instead of humanitarian acts, demonization and indoctrinated hatred of Israel and Jews is too often common place across too much of the Arab world, where despot regimes and dysfunctional societies (see Yemen for example with 70% illiteracy amongst women), deflect the anger of their deprived masses by using Israel and the Jews as their scapegoat.

Short video clip of story:

More Israeli TV Commercials

2007-10-16T20:47:00.000+02:00

By Noam Rotem
Local cellular carrier Cellcom advertises it’s new on-the-second billing where you only pay for the exact amount of seconds you talked. Ad includes quintessentially Israeli scenes depicting of how when ones says: “just a second” they don’t literally mean a second. The tag being: in life, not always is a second really a second but at cellcom it really is

Back in Passover local cellular carrier Pelephone ran a seasonal ad for surprise prizes for all its customers for the holiday. Playing off of the Passover tradition where children search for the Afikoman towards the end of the Seder, which are then redeemed for prizes by the Seder host. The ad is accompanied by a Ladino rendition of one of the children songs from the Passover Seder.

In a more recent Pelephone summer campaign for free sms’s from abroad to Israel--provides reason enough for an EL AL flight to turn around with the tagline being: looking for an excuse to return abroad ...?

Finally the local McDonald’s franchise pokes fun at Israeli taxis driver’s English skills by having one call up to ask how do you say McDonald’s in English (it’s the same in Hebrew) in order to promote their freshly cut Arabic style salad now to be found at your local Israeli McDonald’s

Ahmadinejad's September UN Visit

2007-10-13T12:58:00.000+02:00

By Noam Rotem
Last month I was in NY and went down with my family to attend the Jewish protest rally against Iranian president Ahmadinejad's UN visit. The bulk of the protesters were students from New York-area Jewish day schools, many of those being modern orthodox. But there were also representatives from every major Jewish organization along with Christian supporters of Israel.

Some of the most effective words spoken vis-a-vis the hypocrisy behind Holocaust denying Ahmadinejad's invitation to speak at Columbia University came from former Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu on a FOX News interview where he exposed Columbia University's disingenuousness by posing a question along the following analogy:

Can anyone imagine Columbia University (or the UN for that matter) inviting and providing an open stage for some hypothetical African despot, who has a record for repeatedly denying the historical truth of the African slave trade and repeatedly threatening to wipe off the face of the earth another African nation?

The question is rendered rhetorical given Columbia University's disingenuousness--reinforced by its past record of rejecting the free speech rights of ROTC recruiters, yet not of Holocaust deniers!?

Newt Gingrich also weighed in on this matter poignantly pointing out the persecution of gays and women who are the primary targets of criminal sentencing in Iran for adultery which can end in death by hanging or by stoning!

Why are so many left liberals, silent on these basic and crucial human rights issues when it comes to Arab and Muslim dictatorships, yet Israel with by and large progressive western conduct and liberal policies toward gays and women remains the center of their relentless, biased and unfair condemnations? Tel Aviv Vistas' position on this matter is that this is the manifestation of the new anti-Semitism.

It should be noted that in countries such as Iran, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Oman and the United Arab Emirates, homosexuality is punishable by death. Additionally, in Bahrain, Lebanon, Kuwait, Qatar and Syria, homosexual acts can result in jail time...

Some Tel-Aviv Vista exclusive photos and video from the demonstration opposite the UN:

Leading Media Organizations Along with Several Independent Investigations Conclude that Muhammad al-Durah was not shot by Israeli Soldiers

2007-10-02T22:33:00.001+02:00

Respected media organizations like the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Atlantic Monthly and Commentary magazine have published detailed investigations that all conclude that the footage was either staged or simply edited to show something that didn’t happen.

On October 2, 2002, a German television documentary film by Esther Schapira called Three Bullets and a Dead Child: Who Shot Muhammad al-Durah? was broadcast, and concluded that IDF bullets could not have killed Al-Durah.
Independent Israeli physicists have separately proven mathematically and physically that the IDF forces on the ground could not see al-Durah and his father from their outpost and that it was physically impossible for their bullets to have killed al-Durah. Moreover, some of the evidence even indicates the not unlikely possibility that al-Durah’s death might have been staged

The full investigative report below as it appears on the ZOA site: Was Muhammad Al-Durah's Alleged Killing A Staged Fraud By Palestinians?

September 04, 2007
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Morton A. Klein, 212-481-1500
ZOA: France-2 TV must release entire 27-minute footage

New York -- The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) is calling upon France-2 Television network to release the full, never before publicly broadcast, 27 minutes of footage surrounding the alleged killing of a Palestinian Arab boy, Muhammad al-Durah, on September 30, 2000 at Netzarim junction in order to clarify whether the boy’s alleged killing was a staged Palestinian propaganda incident. Al-Durah’s alleged death was filmed by a local Palestinian cameraman, Tala Abu Rahma, and a mere 55 seconds of selected footage from his 27 minutes of filming became the basis for a story by France-2’s correspondent, Charles Enderlin, who had not been present on the scene at the time. The 55 seconds of footage shows al-Durah and his father seeking cover during a crossfire between an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) outpost and Palestinian police and gunmen, who were shooting from 7 main locations, including the towers behind the Israeli post, and the boy later slumped over, allegedly dead. The broadcast, basing itself on Abu Rahma’s words, claimed that the boy was shot by Israeli troops. Enderlin’s story, which France-2 provided free of charge to the rest of the international media, led to world-wide accusations against Israel that the boy had been deliberately killed by IDF during a shoot out with Palestinian Authority (PA) forces.

The edited 55-second al-Durah footage was shown repeatedly worldwide and particularly on Arab television networks, resulting in a wave of hatred and terror directed against Israel and Israelis. On October 12, two IDF soldiers, Yosef Avrahami and Vadim Novesche, who had mistakenly wandering into PA-controlled territory, were murdered, their bodies disemboweled beyond recognition and their entrails passed around and literally chewed and swallowed at a PA police station in Ramallah after they mistakenly wandered into PA-controlled territory. The mob invoked Durah’s death as a justification for its barbarism.

The Orr Commission, which investigated the violent rioting by Israeli Arabs in October 2000, concluded in its final report that “Muhammad al-Durra’s picture, which was distributed by the media, was one of the causes that led people in the Arab sector to take to the streets on October 1, 2000.” Also, the Mitchell report, drafted in May 2001 by a joint U.S.-European committee, also noted that the al-Durah incident was one of the events that sparked the Palestinian Arab violence.

Additionally, innumerable suicide bombers and other Palestinian terrorists have cited al-Durah as a justification for their crimes. In June 2005, a 21-year old Palestinian Arab woman, Wafa Samir al-Bis, who was stopped on her way to blow herself up and kill as many Israeli children as possible at the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba, acknowledged that she specifically wanted to kill children in revenge for the death of Mohammad al-Durah. Moreover, al-Durah is prominently featured in al-Qaeda recruitment videos and on Hizballah banners. The murderers of Wall Street Journal ‘s Daniel Pearl interspersed their video of his beheading with the France-2 film. Throughout Europe, and particularly in France, Muslims have used al-Durah as a rallying cry in their attacks against Jews, which broke out shortly after the Durah film was broadcast ( Jerusalem Post, October 23, 2006).

For the past six years, PA television has continuously aired a film showing al-Durah in heaven beckoning other Palestinian children to “martyr” themselves by becoming terrorists so that they can join him in paradise. Postage stamps bearing his crouched image have been issued in Jordan, Egypt and Tunisia, a street in Baghdad and a square in Morocco bear his name, while many schools across the Arab world are named after him. His image has even been reproduced on a designer dress in Saudi Arabia.

However, the accusation that Israeli forces deliberately targeted a boy (and his father), whom they had clearly seen is debunked by investigations and evidence that has already come to light, and which suggests even that al-Durah’s death did not occur, including the following:

The 55 seconds of Abu Rahma’s footage that was publicly broadcast does not show al-Durah dying or any bloodstains where the boy and his father were crouched, nor any ambulance evacuating them.
No autopsy was ever performed on Muhammad’s body.
In the weeks that followed the event, physicists Nahum Shachaf and Yosef Doriel conducted investigations on behalf of the IDF’s Southern Command. Both men separately proved mathematically and physically that the IDF forces on the ground could not see al-Durah and his father from their outpost and that it was physically impossible for their bullets to have killed al-Durah.
3 hours of raw footage from Reuters and Associated Press taken at the vicinity at the time show dozens of Palestinian boys attacking Israeli guards posts with stones, Molotov cocktails and projectiles, appliances etc. Yet, if the IDF had wanted to deliberately kill children, it could have easily done so yet none were killed and al-Durah was the only one allegedly killed on the scene.
The few people who have been allowed to watch Rahma’s entire film have stated that it is impossible to conclude that al-Durah was killed because he is shown in this unpublicized footage to be raising his elbow and right leg, turning his head and looking around furtively, then putting his head and elbow back in position, but leaving his leg suspended in air ( FrontPageMag.com , August 29, 2007).
Al-Durah’s father was allegedly wounded in the arm elbow and leg -- but no blood appears in the footage.
The cameraman, Talal Abu Rahma, claims that the IDF were firing for an astonishing 45 minutes at al-Durah and his father which is not only absurd but, if true, would have resulted in many wounds, bloodstains and bullet marks that are simply not present in the footage.
The al-Durahs were sheltering from gunfire behind a concrete wall and barrel not visible to IDF soldiers in the guard post from which they were allegedly shot and on which there are no bullet marks ( FrontPageMag.com, August 29, 2007).
Respected media organizations like the Wall Street Journal, CBS News, Atlantic Monthly and Commentary magazine have published detailed investigations that all conclude that the footage was either staged or simply edited to show something that didn’t happen.
On October 2, 2002, a German television documentary film by Esther Schapira called Three Bullets and a Dead Child: Who Shot Muhammad al-Durah? was broadcast, and concluded that IDF bullets could not have killed Al-Durah.

According to the cameraman, Abu Rahmeh, Mohammad bled for 20 minutes. But, in the film clip broadcast the world over, and in the additional 3 seconds not commonly seen by television viewers, there are no signs of blood on the Al Durahs, on the wall behind them, nor on the ground.

The findings of this German documentary and other investigations shown that, at a minimum, the probability that the IDF killed al-Durah is virtually nil and, more likely, the event was either staged or edited to lead to the false conclusion that al-Durah had been killed by Israeli forces. Yet France-2 refuses to release the full 27 minutes of its own footage to public scrutiny and has sued three French Jews who accused them in various ways of manufacturing a blood libel against Israel by purposely distorting the events at Netzarim junction that day.

ZOA National President Morton A. Klein said, “It is past time that France-2 stop hiding behind legal action aimed at penalizing those who have questioned the veracity of its report that misleadingly lead the world to believe that Israeli forces deliberately killed this Palestinian child, if in fact al-Durah was killed at all. Even without seeing the full 27 minutes of France-2 footage, which it has simply refused to publicly release, it is already clear that it is highly unlikely, if not in fact impossible, that IDF bullets killed al-Durah (again, if in fact he was killed).

“This staging of a phony murder and lying about Israeli killings of Palestinians would be nothing new for the PA. It is has been demonstrated on several occasions that the PA and other terror groups have deliberately staged propaganda incidents involving non-existent massacres, like the one that supposedly occurred at Jenin in April 2002 in which PA officials claimed that 5,000, then 1,000, then 500 Palestinian civilians had been killed. (In fact, 52 Palestinians, at least 30 of them combatants, were killed in the heart of a civilian area in a ground battle which also claimed the lives of 23 Israeli soldiers).
The PA has been known to present live bodies as corpses and stage armed confrontations in collaboration with sympathetic media. Or, to give another example, the Lebanese terrorist group Hizballah last year mounted an elaborate hoax in which an ambulance was made to appear as if it had been deliberately targeted by Israeli forces, only this hoax was quickly exposed. Or in June 2006, when a girl, Hoda Ghalia, was killed with six other members of her family on a Gaza beach in an explosion for which the PA accused Israel although the IDF had not been conducting any military operations in the area. It has also been reported that Palestinians have been filmed on stretchers taken to and from ambulances, with the supposed casualties then climbing off unhurt when the news cameras have left the scene.

“As this particular incident was not exposed in a timely manner and has been shown to have inspired further acts of terror against Israelis and other Westerners, we call upon France-2 Television to come clean by releasing the entire footage so that all can make an informed judgment on the events at Netzarim junction on September 30, 2000. It is deeply suspicious that France-2, if it believes its story to have been correct and truthful, has refused until now to release the footage which ought to back up its case, and has instead attempted to silence and penalize those who have raised legitimate and searching questions about its story. We also urge all American Jewish organizations to call upon France-2 to release the footage.”

The UN & the face of the new Anti-Semitism

2007-09-21T00:59:00.000+02:00

UN Watch exposes the hypocrisy, indifference and moral inversions of the supposedly reformed UN Human Rights Council. Millions of victims and 191 countries ignored. Darfur atrocities denied. Self-proclaimed defenders of Palestinian rights -- Assad, Ahamadinejad, Khaddafi and UN expert John Dugard -- say nothing of Hamas and Fatah killing of Palestinians. Council President Luis de Alba, ambassador of Mexico, rejects the speech as "inadmissible" -- and bans such remarks from being delivered again.

Please view this highly important video clip to its chilling end
Hillel Neuer is executive director of UN Watch, a human rights NGO in Geneva, Switzerland

The objective anti-Semites

2007-09-04T19:27:00.000+03:00

British researcher Robin Shepherd says a new form of anti-Semitism lies at the root of much of Western Europe’s criticism of Israel.
From yesterday's Haaretz: The objective anti-Semites, by Anshel Pfeffer

Robin Shepherd is not the first person to try and define the world's oldest hatred, but he is perhaps one of the most unlikely. The senior research fellow at the Chatham House think tank in London has no significant connection to the Jewish people, and his visit to Israel last week was only his second. But he still believes his decision to spend a year researching the new European anti-Semitism is perfectly relevant for any serious observer of international affairs.

When asked about his interest in the subject, he first answers on a philosophical level by quoting the polemicist Christopher Hitchens, who has said that "only a moral cretin thinks that anti-Semitism is a threat only to Jews." He then offers an academic explanation: "The Israel-Palestine conflict is one of the key issues in international relations, and there are very few people in this field without a position on it." His last work was on the wave of anti-Americanism sweeping Europe, and this led him to believe that a new form of anti-Semitism was also at the root of the increasingly critical attitude toward Israel there.
...

The article ends off with the following interesting observation

Religion of politics
Israel's poisonous critics who say they are not anti-Semites often state that there are prominent Jews among their ranks. Shepherd says this is one of the most interesting points that he plans to research.

"I know there is a tendency to call them self-hating Jews, but the key point is much more subtle. This is where you have to understand people like Noam Chomsky, who is American but an iconic figure for the European left. He is not a self-hating Jew, but his political standing in the left is more important for him than his Jewish identity. That's why the extreme Jewish critics of Israel almost always come from the far left - for them, politics is the most important part of their identity. They are in thrall with a system of thought that happens to have as one of its main objects of belief an obsessive hatred of Israel.

"It might be personally painful for them, but the ideological left is a secular religion, more than any other political group, and for them this religion comes before being Jewish," he says.

Day 2 of School in Sderot: Seven Kassam Attacks

2007-09-03T13:26:00.000+03:00

12 Sderot Children Hospitalized for Shock After Kassam Attacks
by Hana Levi Julian and Hillel Fendel

(IsraelNN.com) Twelve Sderot children were hospitalized at Barzilai Hospital in Ashkelon Monday morning in the wake of a barrage of seven Kassam rockets fired by Islamic Jihad terrorists in northern Gaza.
The missiles had slammed into various parts of the city, including one that scored a direct hit on a house next to a day care center. A staff member at the day care center told Army Radio that the director ran into the room to give warning that an attack was underway. None of the staff heard the Color Red alert system that provides a 20-second window in which to seek shelter from attacks.

IDF soldiers raced into the building and carried 15 babies out to safety...
For the rest of this article see: 12 Sderot Children Hospitalized for Shock After Kassam Attacks

IDF foils 15-year-old Palestinian suicide bomber

2007-08-30T23:48:00.000+03:00

Israeli radio reported that the IDF foiled a 15-year-old Palestinian who tried to attack Israeli soldiers near the northern Gaza Strip. The bomber, who was strapped with explosives, was stopped on Tuesday night as he approached the soldiers. Details were not provided on how the army persuaded the teenager to surrender rather than detonate his bomb.

The incident, officials said, demonstrated the growing use of children by Gaza-based terror groups.

For further information on the criminal indoctrination and abuse of Palestinian children by Palestinian authorities and culture, see earlier published article here on Tel-Aviv Vistas titled: Palestinian abuse of Palestinian Children

Shin Bet Warns:'Hamas in Damascus Ordered a Mega Terrorist Attack'

2007-08-27T08:58:00.000+03:00

JTA News reports that the Hamas leadership abroad has ordered the group to carry out a major terrorist attack in Israel, the Shin Bet said. The deputy chief of Israel's domestic intelligence service told the Cabinet in a briefing Sunday that Hamas, since it seized control of the Gaza Strip in June, has smuggled in 40 tons of weaponry from nearby Egypt, a radical hike in quantities.

Editorial Commentary
Yet another news item that one is unlikely to come across on CNN. They of course would rather ignore inconvenient facts that conflict with their news narrative of Israel as the perpetrator. So facts that present Israel as a victim of relentless pursuit of indiscriminate violence by Palestinian terrorist organizations is simply censored.

Furthermore no one’s mentioning the fact that the order came out of Damascus Syria, a ruthless dictatorship harboring this internationally recognized terrorist group. For more “delightful” facts about Syria see: Syrian Minister Compares US & Israel to a Snake

All of this is yet another example of the alarming specter of the real-life grotesque rendition of 1984 that Jews and Israel find themselves confronting .

Taglit-birthright Israel: Touching Videos and a $30 million donation

2007-08-23T16:40:00.000+03:00

Touching video compilations from the Taglit-birthright Israel experience

In a related item from YNET

...
American billionaire Sheldon Adelson and his wife, Dr Miriam Adelson, donated on Sunday $30 million to the Taglit-Birthright Israel project, during an event sponsored by President Shimon Peres and held at his Jerusalem Residence.

"The gift by The Adelson Family Charitable Foundation (ADCF) will significantly contribute to fulfilling Taglit-birthright israel’s mission to provide every young Jew with the opportunity to visit Israel for the first time," Taglit said in a statement.
...
The first major gift of $5 million to Taglit-birthright israel by the Adelsons in December 2006 enabled those on waiting lists to participate in the winter trips to Israel. In total, ADCF has given $60 million to Taglit-birthright Israel in the last twelve months, the single largest calendar year gift to a Jewish continuity program in history.

Dr Miriam Adelson, a physician and native Israeli said, “A number of participants had told us that they had been on waiting lists for these trips, and only because of the increased trip capacity this summer, were able to participate in the program. I am so proud to share my beautiful country with so many young people and welcome ‘home’ our big, extended family.

"As we look forward to celebrating Israel’s 60th anniversary next year, we are honored to help ensure that any young Jew who wants to visit the wonderful nation of Israel has this opportunity of a lifetime,” she said.
...

Israeli satellite company employed in tracking human rights crisis in Darfur

2007-08-23T15:22:00.000+03:00

The Israeli commercial satellite company ImageSat, is being employed by Amnesty International in order to track the worst human rights abuse crisis of this century in Darfur. ImageSat along with a few other international commercial satellite companies are providing many sizable discounts and donations of satellite imagery in order to help locate refugee camps and provide an indelible record of the unimaginable magnitude of this human rights abuse crisis.

These images along with explanations can be found on the site:
EYES ON DARFUR

Profile of an Immigrant Family from Albania in Israel

2007-08-19T22:45:00.005+03:00

Ha’aretz in its weekend magazine every week profiles one family living in Israel as part of an on going series that’s been going on for years and adds up to an amazing and fascinating mosaic of the Israeli landscape. This week the profile was of a family that immigrated from Albania in 1991
The full article on Ha’aretz website can be found here:
Family Affair / The Chilis
By Avner and Reli Avrahami Or Akiva

Chili: Means a lock of light hair on a dark head (in Albanian).

The cast: Agim (59), Anna (54), Daniella (29).

The home: Third floor (on the right), apartment building, 70 square meters, with a living room, three other rooms and a mall (Orot), visible from the window. They have been here since 1993 ("We were the first family"), paying the shekel equivalent of $67,000 ("All of it a mortgage"). They pay back NIS 1,430 a month and are pleased. "Our city is Or Akiva - we don't go to Hadera" (Agim).
...
the apartment is full of embroidered pictures (done by Anna), statuettes (from around the world), decorative objects and small red-and-black flags (Albanian). The large flatscreen TV is broadcasting Top Channel (an Albanian station), and resting in the narrow bureau is Skenderbeu, an Albanian brandy ("five star"), named for an Albanian hero who defeated the Turks in the 15th century. The tour begins.
...
Livelihoods and occupations: Agim has worked for Amnir, a Hadera-based plant that recycles plastics and paper, for 14 years. He is a shift manager ("from shredding to granulation"). He works in weekly rotating shifts - a week in the morning, a week in the afternoon, a week at night ("I prefer night") - and travels back and forth in a privately owned 2002 Fiat Punto.

Anna: Retired. She worked for Hogla, a paper products plant (in Hadera), and took early retirement in January of this year due to back problems ("I had an operation"). Until then she was in charge of the toilet paper machine. As a pensioner, she receives 70 percent of her former salary and is pleased with the arrangement ("I was smart when I worked out the contract"). At the same time, she is sad at having had to conclude a career as a gifted bowler.
...
Daniella: Almost a B.A. in English language and literature, which she studied at Seminar Hakibbutzim Teachers College ("I had two exams left"). She works a five-day week as a technical writer for Newstar, a firm that develops platforms for immediate messages on cellular phones in the high-tech area of Haifa. She travels to and from work by bus and receives traveling expenses. Her work consists of documenting (in English) every product made by the company and ascertaining that the texts are readable.

Agim's bio: Born in Tirana, Albania, in 1948. His father owned a printing press, which the government nationalized; it then made him work in it as a laborer ("We were considered capitalists"); his mother was a housewife. After graduating in economics from the University of Tirana (1969), he worked in a trucking company as director of wages and transports planner. In 1991, a year after the communist regime collapsed, he and Anna immigrated to Israel with the family. Six years earlier, Enver Hoxha, who ruled Albanian for 41 years and made the life of the population hell ("He was worse than Stalin"), died.

The Hoxha years: Fear ("The first lesson of education was to keep quiet") and hunger ("We received 600 grams of cheese a week"). Agim relates that two of his uncles were executed and an aunt was tortured so brutally that she became barren. The collapse of the regime was like a dream for him ("Until I actually boarded the plane, I didn't believe it would happen").

Anna's bio: Born 1953 to the Matityahu family in Vlore, a port city in southwestern Albania, the eldest of three children (she has a brother who is a violin maker in England and a sister who lives in the United States). Her family is originally from Greece. Her father and mother worked as accountants for collective farms. Her elementary school was on a kolkhoz for which her father worked (near Tirana), and she spent her high-school years at a teacher-training boarding school ("I did a lot of crying there"). After graduating (1971), she was sent to teach in a poor village in the north of the country. It was in this period that she met Agim.

The meeting: 1972, on a train to Tirana. She, a teacher, was on her way home from the village where she worked; he, an economist, was on the way home from the transportation cooperative, where he worked. They sat opposite each other, and not by chance. Anna knew a woman who was engaged to a friend of his. When they parted on the station platform, they knew their story was just beginning.

The wedding: 1977, at home ("There was no banquet hall). Before the party they went to the interior ministry with two witnesses ("Every neighborhood had an interior ministry"). Her mother made the wedding dress, his suit was made by a tailor whom Agim invited to his home. The party lasted two days: Saturday in the bride's home, Sunday in the groom's. They ate a lot of meat, drank "Tirana" ("a better beer than [the Israeli brew] Maccabi") and raki, a homemade arak (which is kept in their home in Israeli mineral-water bottles), and then went on honeymoon.

Honeymoon: Two weeks in the "Workers' House" of Vlore ("free").

Immigration to Israel: March 1991 ("We waited for the Gulf War to end"). Agim encountered the first pizza of his life at the airport in Rome ("We ate nonstop"), and they spent the entire sum that they received from the Jewish Agency on sweets. They arrived in the Galilee town of Carmiel at midnight and found the apartment they were housed in depressing, but a visit to the supermarket the next day raised their spirits ("We filled up a cart without knowing what we had taken"). Carmiel was filled with Albanians, and Daniella had no integration problems.
...
Dreams: Agim - "A trip to Europe"; "I have a dream that I don't want to reveal now," says Anna, looking at Daniella; "Mom - enough!" Daniella says.

Daniella's dream: "What Mom said."
...
Romance: Coffee among the archaeological ruins at Caesarea (Anna and Agim).

God: "There is no God," Agim states. Daniella agrees. Anna can't say that.

Quarrels: Plenty. Agim says there are fights of a minute and a half ("Daniella is the referee"). Their wish for her is that she finds someone who understands that "family is sacred."

Politics: "I am for peace and against occupation," Agim says. In the big picture, he thinks highly of Shimon Peres ("the best"). Anna agrees. Both of them are in favor of equality in the country (Agim: "Everyone should either do army or two years of national service"). Daniella did her military service in the Israel Air Force as a secretary ("I had a terrific time").

Israeli-born friends: They have none ("Only Nehemiah and Aada from Nir Zvi") and don't understand why.

Happiness quotient (scale of 1-10): Everyone - 10. Agim: "Believe me, it is not my country, but I'm happy."

Albania: "My country" (Agim); "I won't forget Albania, either" (Anna).

Granddaughter of former chief rabbi of Israel writes a best-seller about her tempestuous life

2007-08-19T22:45:00.003+03:00

From this past weekend’s Ha’aretz Magazine. Click on following title for the full article:
Between cocaine and commandments
By Dalia Karpel
Granddaughter of former chief rabbi of Israel writes a best-seller about her tempestuous life including sex on the synagogue floor

So what if she's the granddaughter of the second Ashkenazi chief rabbi of the State of Israel? Maybe just for that reason she rushed to have sexual relations at the age of 15, on the floor of the synagogue in London, of all places, where her father served as the rabbi? Today, at the age of 50, Reva Mann is convinced that the reason for her journey of self-destruction was that she was lonely and miserable. Lonely and miserable enough to produce an autobiographical novel full of good and bad deeds - about doing it on your wedding night through a hole in a sheet, about the husband who runs to the rabbi with his wife's panties to receive the approval that she is indeed "kosher," and about why, in the name of God, he shouts "Gevalt!" even when he has it so good in bed.

On Sunday in the wee hours of the morning, Reva Mann flew to London from Israel on the occasion of the recent publication of her book: "The Rabbi's Daughter: Sex, Drugs and Orthodoxy" (Hodder & Stoughton). A few hours before the flight she spoke excitedly about the busy week awaiting her in London: interviews for the British editions of Time and Elle magazines, as well as The Evening Standard, Sky News, the BBC, etc.

This week the book landed on the shelves of the bookstores. "The entire edition was almost sold out after the interview I gave to the The Sunday Times (London) supplement at the end of July," said Mann excitedly. "People bought copies by phone. The publisher has started to print a second edition."

Mann, a divorced mother of three, is enjoying this PR campaign: She was photographed twice for the article in The Sunday Times supplement: once disguised as a righteous ultra-Orthodox woman, and once wearing a suggestive outfit, sitting with her legs apart on a chair, with a glass of wine in her hand. It seems that from now on there is no more need to explain anything, and the book will sell itself. First in Britain, and soon in France and the United States as well. Mann, a person who was cured of her drug addiction and has become addicted to shopping, will be happy to pack her bags.

Unconditional love
Mann does not mention in her book the name of her famous grandfather, Isser Yehuda Unterman, because she worries that it will cause harm to her children. Her grandfather came to Israel from Liverpool and served as the chief rabbi of Tel Aviv before being appointed the Ashkenazi chief rabbi of Israel in 1964. He served in that senior position for 26 years, until his death in 1973.

Unterman is described in the book as having soft blue eyes, and wearing a silk robe during prayers in the synagogue. She says he loved her unconditionally - the opposite of her strict and restrained parents. Even when she did not demonstrate expert knowledge of religious texts, he was forgiving, and spoiled her. Every summer vacation, he visited her in her apartment in Rehavia, opposite the Heichal Shlomo synagogue in Jerusalem.

From the mid-1980s Mann has been living in a house in the German Colony, purchased for her by her late father Morris Unterman, rabbi of the West End Marble Arch Synagogue in London. He also left her an inheritance on which she is living. In recent years she has been writing a kind of personal column for two Jewish newspapers: The London Jewish News and the Boston Jewish Advocate. She dreams of a literary career and is now writing her second book, a comedy on the End of Days - "fiction for a change, and not a book about myself," she says.

"The Rabbi's Daughter" took shape in her mind two months after her mother committed suicide in an old-age home in Jerusalem, in the summer of 2004. Mann contracted breast cancer at the time. "I underwent chemotherapy, it was hard, and I only wanted to return to life, but I didn't have anything to return to. Even though I had my three darling children who live with me in Jerusalem, cancer provokes the question: 'Why do I deserve this?' My oncologist told me that there is no proven reasons for cancer, but that didn't convince me, and I had to deal with the question of why I had fallen ill. I started to write my life story in order to understand what had happened. Writing was a kind of healing. Before this book I didn't write anything, and the moment I got started, writing became a challenge. I decided that I can write.

"I came to my writing teacher, Judy Labensohn, with 20 pages. I had no hair on my head and I was very weak from the radiation. Labensohn lives five minutes from my house and getting to her was like climbing the Everest. She marked all the pages in red. She simply erased almost everything. I was shocked, but I was happy because I knew that I was the outstanding pupil who had found a teacher."

A few months later Mann completed the first version of the book. She sent the draft to an agent in England who decided to represent her, and says he came back to her in two weeks with a contract from a British publisher and from Dial Press in America. For half a year she went over the manuscript with a literary editor from New York and prepared it for printing.

The result - how shall we put it? - shakes you up. The scene when she loses her virginity in the synagogue reaches its climax with a cry of pain on the royal-blue carpet, under the ner tamid (eternal light). Mann stands naked in front of the Holy Ark and shouts "Hallelujah!" She hears steps, and before she gets back into her dress, the doorman of the synagogue is standing in front of her and reprimanding her: "You'd better go home now." The doorman, a righteous person, never revealed her secret.
...
For rest of article click here

A branch of Germany’s left that is vehemently pro-Israel

2007-08-19T22:45:00.001+03:00

From Ha'aretz's Magazine section from 2 weeks ago. Click on title for full article.

Letter from Berlin: The anti-anti-Zionists
By Benjamin Weinthal

The square in the former East Berlin named for Rosa Luxemburg, the Polish Jewish social revolutionary who was murdered by right-wing extremists in 1919, served as my introduction to the pro-Israel left in Germany. After moving to Berlin in 2002, I attended a May 1 demonstration at Rosa Luxemburg Square. There among maybe a thousand union members and other left-wing activists, I found myself pleasantly ambushed by a group of a dozen or more young people waving massive Israeli flags and buzzing around the demonstrators. This bizarre scene was a cause of cognitive dissonance: Was it possible for there to be left-wing, non-Jewish Germans who were also militant supporters of Israel?

The answer, apparently, is yes, as an astonishing thing has happened in the leftist political and intellectual culture of Germany. Though the left here, as in the rest of Western Europe, continues to be overwhelmingly anti-Israel, one can now point to a slice of the German left that identifies itself as pro-Israel and is creating a flourishing anti-anti-Zionist leftist culture.
...
The pro-Zionist Left in Germany is not made up of pro-Israel Evangelical Christians, but rather is a loose coalition of card-carrying leftists who fight to bring their camp back into the labor movement and advance the rights of gays and other sexual minorities.
...
There is no cookie-cutter approach to characterize the complex spectrum of groups and publications that promote active solidarity with Israel. In addition to the hardcore Anti-Germans, this colorful leftist mini-movement includes anti-nationalists (who argue that every national state should be abolished, but that Israel should be the last to go), pro-Zionists, moderate quasi-anarchists and anti-fascists. A sharp break with the majority leftist German culture, which is contaminated by an intense aversion to Israel - and a common left-wing anti-Semitism - unifies these diverse groups in their staunch support of Israel.

An ephemeral entity?
Members of the pro-Israel left have churned out an impressive number of books and journals addressing traditionally taboo topics on the left, with critiques of subjects ranging from political Islam to "respectable," liberal anti-Semitism. This curious development is not an expression of philo-Semitism; rather, it grounds its critique of social structures in the critical theory writings of the philosophers Theodor W. Adorno and Max Horkheimer, as well as a flexible Marxist philosophy and Freudian psychoanalysis.

Is the pro-Israel German left simply an ephemeral entity, or does it constitute a sustainable new left capable of breathing fire and light into central Europe?

Andrei Markovits, a University of Michigan political scientist and professor of German studies, observes that there are "considerably more pockets of pro-Israel groups in Germany in comparison to the 1980s." The Romanian-born Markovits, who is Jewish, has the stature of a public intellectual in Germany and Austria. We spoke by phone when he toured Germany in late June publicizing his book "Uncouth Nation: Why Europe Dislikes America," which examines the interplay between anti-Americanism and anti-Semitism in Europe.

The publisher of "Uncouth Nation" in Germany, Konkret Literatur Verlag, also recently published a German edition of "Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars," by the Israeli scholar Yaacov Lozowick, director of archives at Yad Vashem. That's a title sure to produce anxiety in Germany where, according to an opinion poll carried out by the influential weekly magazine Der Spiegel, a majority of Germans during the first week of the Second Lebanon War last year did not believe Israel had the right to defend itself against Hezbollah's rockets.
...
Call of the jungle
The magazine Bahamas is the leading publication of the hardcore pro-Israel, Anti-German communist movement, whose members advocate unconditional solidarity with Israel. Its founders chose the name Bahamas in 1992 as a sort of an ironic rejoinder to the Communist Alliance in Hamburg, whose majority faction urged the Anti-Germans to immigrate to the Atlantic island nation.

Karl Nele, a co-founder of the publication, said the development of Israel solidarity was a response to the German left's "strong support for the [second] intifida" and "an anti-Zionist consensus formed from the political left to the political right" that is deeply anchored in German society. The Holocaust also informs Bahamas' militant defense of Israel as "a place of refuge for Jews."

Bahamas carved out new territory on the German left in explicitly supporting the U.S.-led wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. In a 2003 conference, the magazine's co-founder Justus Wertmueller said that the removal of a "fascistic regime with strong National Socialistic features" represents "liberation for the population." The national security of Israel was also an overriding rationale for Bahamas' support of the Iraq war.

Wertmueller, whose remarks were reprinted in the magazine, went on to suggest that "the problem is still that German and Islamic resentments are identical: anti-Western, anti-liberal, anti-Semitic. German-Islamic friendship stems from the fact that the Germans recognize themselves in political Islam, because it is fascist and at the same time gives the impression of being an indigenous culture."

In contrast to the unqualified pro-war position of Bahamas, over at Konkret, Gremliza editorialized a month before the start of the allied invasion that "I would have no objections if it could be guaranteed that Saddam Hussein's regime could be removed and replaced by a humane one, without the collateral deaths of fifty or a hundred thousand or more Iraqis and without unleashing other monsters elsewhere." While the overwhelming majority of the German left remained painfully silent about the repressive Ba'ath regime, the anti-Germans highlighted Saddam's crimes.
...
Ivo Bozic, a founder and co-editor of Jungle World, says the publication is "explicitly anti-anti-Zionist, anti-anti-Semitic, and anti-anti-American." He also notes that the paper's writing is peppered with "self-irony." The Jungle World editorial staff traveled to Israel in 2004 to devote an entire issue to the politics and culture of Israeli society. They visited a training camp for Israeli tank drivers, conducted interviews with writer Etgar Keret and filmmaker Benny Barbash and got a taste of the club scene in Tel Aviv. They also had meetings with Palestinians, but did not come away with great sympathy for their struggle.
...
Jungle World is not bound by what it sees as a kind of rigid socially and politically correct style of journalism among the German left media, where a hyperactive sense of inhibition prevents criticism of political Islam, or coverage of the lack of women's rights, sexual minority freedoms, labor rights and parliamentary democracy in the Arab world.

The German Jewish journalist Henryk M. Broder divorced himself from the mainstream German left in 1981, when he published an open letter in the weekly Die Zeit ("The Times") critiquing the anti-Semitism of the left. He also writes occasionally for Jungle World. His first best-seller, "Hurray, We're Capitulating" (2006), is a fiercely combative indictment of Europe's soggy response to a growing and radicalized political Islam.

The book most identified with Broder, however, is his 1986 "The Eternal Anti-Semite," a critique of liberal and leftist anti-Semitism. He summed up his scathing indictment of the German left with the stinging line: "You're still your parents' children. Your Jew today is the State of Israel." Broder, and the Holocaust survivor Jean Amery, who wrote exhaustively about the interplay between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism on the European left, both serve as kind of sine qua non of the criticism launched by the pro-Israel left against the majority liberal-left here.
...
Reconciling realities
... anti-Jewish sentiment is indeed on the rise. The Verfassungschutz, the country's domestic intelligence agency, claimed in its most recent annual report that there has been a dramatic increase over the past two years in criminal offenses and anti-Semitic slurs. The Friedrich Ebert Foundation, a German think tank with close ties to the Social Democratic Party, released findings of a 2006 study that revealed alarming levels of extreme right-wing attitudes, including among leftist and Green Party voters. A BBC poll conducted earlier this year determined that 77 percent of Germans have a pejorative view of Israel, the highest percentage in Europe, yet the opinion editor of die taz seems to feel the need to debunk the charge of anti-Semitism.

How does one reconcile the fact that the mainstream left is developing a cottage industry dedicated to avoiding dealing with anti-Semitism and with the purported aim of the political left to abolish racism, which necessarily includes anti-Semitism?

Dr. Lars Rensmann, a political theorist who teaches at the University of Michigan and who has written extensively on the subject, says anti-Jewish bias is not confronted because of the faulty conception "that one is exonerated from the charge of anti-Semitism because one is left."
...
Andrei Markovits views the phenomenon of pro-Israeli German leftist publications as "a counterweight to the overwhelmingly pro-Palestinian tone of the German media." To this, Dr. Dieter Graumann, vice president of the Central Council of Jews in Germany, said: "It is nice that they stand up for Israel, but unfortunately these groups are not a true political power."

Graumann points to a dangerous heavyweight on the political scene in Germany: the newly formed Left Party, which is already the third strongest political party in the country. In the fall of 2006, the party invited a Hamas minister to meet with its representatives in parliament, the only political party in Germany to commence high level diplomatic contact with the Palestinian party. And a faction within the party (Linksruck, which means, roughly, a "shift to the left") justifies terror as a method of resistance against the "oppressor state" of Israel.

To Graumann's thinking, the Left Party is little better than an extension of the Socialist Unity Party of the now-defunct East German government, which "supported the Black September group and issued money and munitions for the destruction of Israel." Graumann also cites the potency of the newspaper Neues Deutschland, the former party organ paper of the SED, which today attracts many of its readers from the Left Party, and published an anti-Israel cartoon that could have appeared in the anti-Semitic Nazi paper Der Stuermer.

The Left Party just secured its first election victory in a western German federal state, Bremen. Oskar Lafontaine, the party's co-chairman and a popular political writer, argues that Iran is entitled to nuclear weapons because Israel possesses nuclear capability. The pro-Israel left intelligentsia views Lafontaine as the embodiment of a fiery left-wing German nationalism that tends to spill over into raw nativism. This new political party is, according to Graumann, riddled with anti-Israelism. The pro-Zionist left argues Lafontaine is a phony leftist and cites his praise for the "interface between Islam and the German left" as proof for his reactionary outlook. The foreign policy spokesman of the party, Norman Paech, frequently employs Nazi terminology to describe Israel, and equates the Israeli campaign in Lebanon in 2006 with a "war of annihilation," a term otherwise reserved for the Nazi destruction of European Jewry.
...
Is it possible to cite other left-wing newspapers in Europe that meet the criteria of vehemently opposing anti-Semitism, anti-Zionism and anti-Americanism? The leftist journal "Dissent" is perhaps the only comparable reference point, but that is an American publication. And can one point to other clusters of non-Jewish, pro-Israel leftists on the continental European left? This radical minority of pro-Israel leftists in Germany and Austria might very well have jumped into the avant-garde leftist future. The pressing question is, is anyone paying attention?

Medal of Valor for Israeli Officer who Sacrificed His Life by Jumping on a Grenade

2007-08-08T23:52:00.000+03:00

Israel radio reported that 142 soldiers who fought in the Second Lebanon War, last summer including an officer who sacrificed his life by jumping on a grenade to save his soldiers, were chosen by an IDF committee to receive medals of valor and citations of excellence for the courage they displayed during Israel's war against Hizbullah last summer.

Editorial Commentary
Compare this to the phenomenon one finds in the Arab/Moslem world where radical indoctrination causes people to kill themselves in order to take innocent lives rather than save lives (See article on this blog: Teaching Children Martyrdom).
It’s this stark contrast regarding the sanctity of life, from the horrors of 9-11, to suicide bombers blowing themselves up in Israeli cafes, and discotheques, to mosques in Iraq, which needs to be brought into focus by the media, politicians and people everywhere if one really want to address the core issues in the middle-east.

Syrian Minister Compares US & Israel to a Snake

2007-08-05T15:42:00.000+03:00

Israel Radio reported today that Syrian Information Minister Mohsen Bilal publicly attacked Israel and the United States, comparing both countries to a snake "ready to attack at any minute, even if it knows it will die." Bilal, speaking to the Persian Gulf newspaper Al-Hilaj, characterized Israel an "immoral" nation lacking in values.

Editorial Commentary
This coming from a country that wiped out the entire city of Hama (in Syria) back in 1982, killing 20,000 people as part of Hafez Assad’s systematic persecution of the Muslim Brotherhood. Occupied parts of Lebanon for close to 30 years, has been engaged in ongoing subversive activity against the Christian factions in the Lebanese government.

A country that provided safe haven to Alois Brunner, who served during World War II as the personal secretary to Adolf Eichmann, and was condemned to death in absentia by two French courts in 1954. Brunner was responsible for the deportation of French and Greek Jewry to death camps.

Finally Syria is country with a litany of blatant and systematic human right abuses as documented in this U.S. Department of State report

Egyptians kill 4 Sudanese refugees at Israeli border

2007-08-05T13:55:00.000+03:00

The report appeared on Israel TV on Channel 10 on Friday night. An account of the report was filed by Associated Press and appears on the Ynet site
See the full report here

Egyptian soldiers beat two refugees to death, shoot others, Israeli TV reports

Egyptian soldiers killed four Sudanese refugees, beating two to death in front of horrified Israeli soldiers, an Israeli TV station reported Thursday, screening what it said was army surveillance video and interviews with the soldiers.

Egyptian police said that authorities arrested two Sudanese refugees Thursday, seriously injuring one when he scuffled with police. But Egyptian police Capt. Mohammed Badr did not report any deaths.

Channel 10 TV said the incident happened late Wednesday night. In the video, the refugees are seen running toward the border with Israel. Then, according to one of the soldiers, who was not identified and whose voice was distorted, Egyptian soldiers opened fire, killing two.
...
Last month, Egyptian border guards shot and killed a Sudanese woman and wounded four others. She was the first Sudanese refugee to be killed

In an earlier report on this blog titled: Sudanese Mother and Child Reunion, I posted the story of Israelis who held no bars to reunite Sudanese refugees with their child who got stuck on the other side of the border when they smuggled across the Israeli--Egyptian border. That same blog posting also included a story of Sudanese refugees hosted by a Jewish Jerusalem family.

It went on to ponder about the silence of the so called enlightened-world to Egypt’s brutal dictatorship and its litany of human rights abuses. Finally it stated that though the status of the Sudanese refugees in Israel remains unclear, the story of Israelis providing shelter for African Moslems, fleeing Arab atrocities, for the most part goes untold and unnoticed...

Solel Solar inks huge solar power deal in California

2007-08-02T14:41:00.000+03:00

by Merav Ankori
Globes www.globes.co.il
July 25, 2007
http://www.globes.co.il/serveen/globes/DocView.asp?did=1000235907&fid=1725

Solel Solar Systems Ltd. will sell 553 megawatts of electricity to California's PG & E Corp. (AMEX:PCG) (Pacific Gas and Electric Company) from a solar power plant that the company will build in the Mojave Desert at an investment of some $2 billion. PG & E's nine-square mile Mojave Solar Park is due to begin operating in 2011. PG&E said that the power, enough for 400,000 homes, will go to customers in northern and central California. The Mojave Solar Park project is now the world's largest single solar commitment.

New Ad Campaign Uses Everyday Israelis

2007-08-01T22:20:00.000+03:00

From the Advertising section of Today's NYTs

(Read the full story here: travel.nytimes.com/2007/07/30/business/media/30adv-w.html)

The North American office of the Israel Ministry of Tourism is running an $11 million ad campaign - the ministry’s largest ever - that suggests visitors will “love Israel from the first ‘Shalom.’ ”
...
Featuring a cross-section of welcoming Israelis who include an archeologist, chef, cowboy, dancer and high-tech executive, the ads are part of a plan to double North American tourism to Israel by 2010, said Arie Sommer, Israel’s Tourism Commissioner for North and South America. Approximately 600,000 North Americans traveled to Israel last year, 30 percent of the country’s total and its largest single group of visitors
...
Mal MacDougall, chief creative officer of Communications Plus in New York, the ministry’s ad agency, said these individuals “are a cross-section, real Israelis. They’re not models or famous, they’re real, everyday people.”

He also said they were chosen because they represent the “breadth Israelis have. For example, the dancer does studies in the animal world. We tried to get people who were not just a doctor, who do nothing but be a doctor.”

The campaign’s tagline, “You’ll love Israel from the first ‘Shalom’ ” was chosen, Mr. Sommer said, because it reflects the “warm feelings between American people and the people of Israel.”

Maya Weiser, the dancer in the campaign, is shown posing on a beach in Tel Aviv. The copy asks, “Who can say ‘Shalom’ more eloquently” than she, and explains that she has danced since she was 6 and been a member of the Batsheva Dance Company, and that she now studies animal science at Hebrew University.
...

Three Stories of Personal Change

2007-08-01T18:37:00.000+03:00

From the Ha'aretz Gallery Magazine section Three stories of personal change: a doctor who used to weigh 100 kilos and is now a triathlete; a computer programmer who began running at age 44 and now completes marathons; and a lawyer who gave up law for yoga.

Outdoor Friday Evening Musical Kabbalat Shabbat Services at the Tel-Aviv Seafront

2007-07-29T18:30:00.000+03:00

Beit-Tefila, is a diverse, pluralistic, non denominational Tel-Aviv congregation, in the spirit and format of Bnei Jeshurun in NYC. The congregation celebrates together musical Friday night Kabbalat Shabbats, holidays and Jewish Lifecycle events. Beit-Tefila is home to secular and traditional Israelis in greater metropolitan Tel-Aviv. Its member are from all walks of Israeli life.

Services are based on the traditional text, accompanied to melodically arranged tunes, both traditional and more modern ones. In addition a few modern inserts are interjected into the abridged traditional liturgy including Modern Hebrew poetry, modern classic Israeli song standards, and even an occasional universal one like Louis Armstrong’s What a Wonderful World, sung in its Hebrew translation.

This summer as part of its outreach to Tel-Aviv, Beit-Tefilah has teamed up with the management of the Tel-Aviv Port, which runs the beautifully renovated old Port district now home to an expansive wood boardwalk lined by restaurants and cafes. In a quieter section of the boardwalk, at its southern edge where the Port runs into Metzitzim Beach, Beit-Tefila in the spirit of outdoor summer homes and events is conducting outdoor public Kabbalat Shabbat services every other week during the months of July and August (details regarding dates can be found at their site: http://www.btfila.org/)

An article about Beit-Tefilah from the local Hebrew edition of Timeout can be found here: http://www.btfila.org/5767/newslet/timeout.htm

Short video clip of highlights from the service

70% of Palestinians justify suicide bombings; Most American Moslems Doubt Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks

2007-07-27T15:31:00.000+03:00

Yediot reports today from an earlier Pew research report that 70% of Palestinians believe that suicide bombings against civilians can be often or sometimes justified.

In a related item another Pew research report released this past May, on attitudes of American Moslems, found that many doubt that Arabs were responsible for the 9/11 attacks and just 40% of Muslim Americans say groups of Arabs carried out those attacks.

Sudanese Mother and Child Reunion

2007-07-25T21:11:00.001+03:00

A story of Israelis who held no bars to reunite Sudanese refugees with their child who got stuck on the other side of the border when they smuggled across the Israeli--Egyptian border.

The refugees retell how Egyptian border patrol used live ammunition with shoot-to-kill intent on the unarmed refugees as they attempted to flee from Egypt into Israel.

Editorial Commentary
Imagine how left-liberals in the west (Israel included) would have reacted if it were Israelis doing the shooting. But they (i.e. left-liberals), together with the UN and the rest of a so called enlightened-world is for the most part silent to Egypt’s dictatorship, brutality and litany of human rights abuses.

Even though the status of these refugees in Israel remains unclear, the story of Israelis providing shelter for African Moslems, fleeing Arab atrocities, for the most part goes untold and unnoticed.

And in a related item from Ha'aretz:
Sudanese refugees find home with Jerusalem family
By Amiram Barkat
20/07/2007
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/884086.html

The Gal family of Jerusalem has been hosting a family of refugees from Darfur for the past week...The Sudanese, two parents and four children, have settled into the two bedrooms of the Gals' children. Amir, the son, is in summer camp and Lior has moved to her parents' bedroom.

The apartment was filled with the smell of the Egyptian broad beans the guests were cooking in the kitchen yesterday.

Helen Gal says the two families had started sharing their meals and tasting each other's cooking. "They asked me why we don't like spicy food," she says.

...

Helen admits she had fears before the guests arrived. She even advised her daughters what to do if any inappropriate action was taken against them. "I heard they had a boy of 15 and it made me nervous," she explains. But the fears soon dissipated. The guests turned out to be quiet, polite and pleasant people. The 15-year-old boy turned out to be a girl, Amal, who made friends with the Gal's elder daughter Mia, who is a few months older.

Amal was surprised to learn that Mia is still going to school and asked if she could go too if she stayed in Israel. Mia was surprised to discover what had caused the small scar on Amal's forehead. "She told me she had been shot in the head. I asked her how she survived and she said she was in the hospital for months," Mia says.

Abdullah says Amal was shot in 2002 during an attack by the Janjaweed militias on their village. He says the militias set fire to the village and his old father, who could not run away, was burned to death. Abdullah journeyed with the injured Amal to a hospital in Khartoum and stayed with her until she recovered. But then he was warned not to return home and fled with his daughter to Egypt. The rest of the family joined them a year later.

They waited with tens of thousands of other Sudanese refugees in Cairo for an immigration visa to a Western country. Life became quite comfortable once Abdullah, who speaks fluent English, found work in a computer store. But things changed drastically in December 2005 after a demonstration the refugees held outside the offices of the UN's refugee commission.

The Egyptian security forces dispersed the protest violently, killing some 30 refugees in the process, according to Amnesty International. Abdullah said that life in Cairo became intolerable. "There was a terrible fear, at any moment the police could come and put you in jail," he said.

About a month ago Abdullah contacted Bedouin smugglers who agreed to take the family to Israel for $700. Beyond the border they were caught by troops of the Israel Defense Forces who gave them water and blankets. After a short stay in a military camp they were sent to a hotel in Be'er Sheva, and from there arrived at the Wohl Rose Garden in Jerusalem.

The Gal family's full name has been withheld at the family's request. David and Abdullah are fictitious names, used on the instruction of the UN's refugee agency.

For more information, see the Web site of the Israeli Coalition for Darfur and Sudan
Refugees, www.israel-for-darfur.org

Tel Aviv Chosen The Best Weekend Getaway by New York Magazine

2007-07-25T15:30:00.001+03:00

Back in April New York Magazine chose Tel Aviv as the best weekend Getaway. Here's another great video presentation by the YouTube vlogger Hollyyyyyyy, who puts together some wonderful and affective Israel PR presentations

EL AL Flies high-school students from Sderot to New York

2007-07-22T13:59:00.000+03:00

El-Al is flying today 10 high-school students from Sderot, to New York City to pick up its new Boeing 777 named "Sderot", after the Negev town that has been rocketed on by Palestinian terrorist militia from Gaza for the past 6 years.

The students will spend 4 days in New York City. Their itinerary includes sightseeing, the latest Harry Potter movie and attending Tisha B'Av services at a local New York synagogue.

Tel-Aviv Friday Beach Scenes before Shabbat 20-07-2007

2007-07-20T23:04:00.000+03:00

Summer Heat Wave: US Presidential Campaign Heats Up...with Babe Videos

2007-07-20T20:36:00.000+03:00

Talk about a hot campaign season, it's hard not to smile and have some summer fun with the latest American Political banter to hit YouTube with “Hott4Hill”, “I Got a Crush on Obama” and “Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl”, the latter 2 courtesy of BarelyPolitical.com (http://www.barelypolitical.com/)

Hott4Hill, self produced by 21-year-old Taryn Southern for fun (and fame), is the cuter and more intelligent of the two in my view. Her brightness clearly shines in this interview with Chris Matthews (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kxemPw2mEwg).

I Got a Crush on Obama

Obama Girl vs Giuliani Girl

Sexy Tongue-in-Cheek Ad for Israel

2007-07-20T15:39:00.001+03:00

Created by a small local media production house. (Please note this video clips is rated R and includes strong language and sexual situations)

Why they call it the Holy Land--explained

Muslim, Italian and Zionist

2007-07-20T15:38:00.001+03:00

By Saviona Mana
Originally published in Ha'aretz on Fri., July 13, 2007
Read the entire English Ha'aretz article here
and the Hebrew version here: מוסלמי. איטלקי. ציוני

It's not every day that a Muslim intellectual puts his own head on the line to defend Israel's right to exist. But that is exactly what Magdi Allam, an Egyptian-born Italian writer and journalist, has been doing for years. He recently published a book whose name alone is enough to endanger his life: "Long Live Israel - From the Ideology of Death to the Civilization of Life: My Story."
...

In "Long Live Israel" ("Viva Israele" in Italian), Allam directly links the denial of Israel's right to exist to the death cult being nurtured in fundamentalist Islamic circles, and refers to "the ethical erosion that has led to even the denial of the supreme value of the sanctity of life." Allam sees Israel as "an ethical parameter that separates between lovers of civilization and those who preach the ideology of death." The sanctity of life, he writes, "applies to everyone, or to no one."
...

"Those who like me and more or less agree with me see it as a provocation. 'What did you need this for, don't you have enough problems?' they asked. Those who don't like me and condemn me for my opinions see this as additional proof that I am a traitor to the Arab cause and an enemy of Islam, have sold myself to Israel and work for the Mossad. But for me, 'Viva Israele' is a song of praise to Israel's life and to everyone's life. My book opens with the words: 'What you are about to read is a declaration of faith in the sanctity of life, 'the sanctity of life of every human being.'"

...

"The Israeli withdrawal from Lebanon and Gaza demonstrates that the problem is not the need to withdraw from territories occupied in preemptive wars, but rather the Arabs' lack of desire to recognize Israel's right to exist. Israel erred in 1967 when it accepted the formula of territory for peace, and thus placed its very existence up for public auction. Experience teaches that the right to life cannot and should not be a subject for negotiation and bargaining. No negotiations should be held with extremists and terrorists who deny Israel's right to exist."

...

Regarding the question of the Islamization of Europe, Allam says, "Europe is already a bastion of Islamic extremism. Just look at attack on Mike's Place in Tel Aviv, which was carried out by British suicide bombers drafted by Hamas; the massacre by Islamists in Madrid and in London; the slitting of director Theo Van Gogh's throat in Amsterdam; and the dozens of Islamic terror attacks that were prevented in Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Belgium and Holland.

...

"This multicultural Europe, which has trampled its values and betrayed its identity, is satisfied with reacting to the obvious terror, which is only the tip of the iceberg, but is afraid to deal with terror's ideological and organizational roots."

...

Why don't we hear the voices of the moderate imams?

"Because they're afraid. They're a minority and they're afraid. Only a handful of Islamic intellectuals, journalists, women and clerics have shown courage and condemned terror and Islamic extremism, and as a result they were sentenced to death by the terrorists. But make no mistake, even those moderates who condemn Islamic terror often legitimize terrorists who massacre in Israel. They feel there is good terror, which massacres Israelis, and bad terror, which threatens their lives..."
...

Tel Aviv, Street Scene, Nahalat Binyamin

2007-07-20T15:30:00.003+03:00

Tel Aviv, July 6th, the weekly Friday arts & crafts street fair at the Nahalat Binyamin Promenade

Palestinian abuse of Palestinian Children

2007-07-20T15:30:00.001+03:00

Teaching Palestinian Children Martyrdom
Here’s a little piece that should send any decent child loving human being in uproar, and bring some attention to the incomprehensible levels of Arab cultural dementia.

Under any normal circumstances such an uproar should include so-called left-liberals who make hating the Jewish State a lifestyle. But it’s self evident that we don't live in a normal world, maybe there never really was one, only the semblance of one. Be that is it may, this insane indoctrination is like some mad Kafkaesque twilight zone episode meets Invasion of the Body Snatchers--where Left ideology under the pretense of liberalism, has become a supporter of religious Fascisms, in both a latent and active manner.

These clips were taken directly from Palestinian TV. The first 2 are courtesy of PMW (Palestinian Media Watch), it’s telling tagline: A self portrait of Palestinian society

Important to also note, that the first two clips while from a few years ago, are from the so-called "moderate" PLO/Fatah TV station. The last clip discusses a recent recording from the more radical Hamas movement TV.

Hamas Mickey Mouse look-alike indoctrinates Palestinian children to hatred and terrorism

Liel Kolet & Bill Clinton Sing Imagine

2007-07-20T15:29:00.000+03:00

Liel Kolet at age 15 performed the song Imagine on Shimon Peres' 80th birthday, and invited President Bill Clinton to sing along. The clip was shown on TV shows across the globe. The young singer received invitations to perform from around the world.

In Reaction to Britain’s University & College Union Boycott of Israeli Universities

2007-07-17T09:11:00.001+03:00

Thomas Friedman in his Op-Ed from June 17, 2007
http://select.nytimes.com/2007/06/17/opinion/17friedman.html
called this boycott for what it is-- anti-Semitism:

...
So to single out Israeli universities alone for a punitive boycott is rank anti-Semitism. Let’s see, Syria is being investigated by the United Nations for murdering Lebanon’s former prime minister, Rafik Hariri. Syrian agents are suspected of killing the finest freedom-loving Lebanese journalists, Gibran Tueni and Samir Kassir. But none of that moves the far left to call for a boycott of Syrian universities. Why? Sudan is engaged in genocide in Darfur. Why no boycott of Sudan? Why?

He ends off the article with these final words:

...But just singling out Israeli universities for a boycott, in the face of all the other madness in the Middle East — that’s what anti-Semites would do.

Thomas Friedman starts off the article with the following poignant anecdote while attending a doctoral graduation ceremony at Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

These were Israeli Arab doctoral students — many of them women and one of whom accepted her degree wearing a tight veil over her head. Funny — she could receive her degree wearing a veil from the Hebrew University, but could not do so in France, where the veil is banned in public schools. Arab families cheered unabashedly when their sons and daughters received their Hebrew U. Ph.D. diplomas, just like the Jewish parents.

How crazy is this, I thought. Israel’s premier university is giving Ph.D.’s to Arab students, two of whom were from East Jerusalem — i.e. the occupied territories — supervised by Jewish Israeli professors, all while some far-left British academics are calling for a boycott of Israeli universities.

In a related item here's a great video presentation by the YouTube vlogger Hollyyyyyyy, who puts together some wonderful and affective Israel PR presentations

UK: Denial and willful blindness is modus operandi

2007-07-16T23:33:00.001+03:00

In a poignant article by Boston Globe Columnist Jeff Jacoby
Avoiding the M-word, July 11, 2007.
(The article can be read in it’s entirety on the Boston Globe site by clicking on the linked title )
Jacoby writes:

...

The first three statements, disingenuous but quite politically correct, were made respectively by (1) Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, (2) London Mayor Ken Livingstone, and (3) Daud Abdullah, deputy secretary general of the Muslim Council of Britain. Just days before the second anniversary of the deadly 7/7 London transit bombings, and less than a year since 24 British Muslims were arrested for plotting to blow up passenger jets over the Atlantic, the three men spoke as if they had no inkling that Britain is a battleground in militant Islam's global jihad -- as if only a boor or a bigot could imagine that Muslims might somehow be linked to the car bombs in London and Glasgow.

And the fourth statement? Those were the blunt words of Hassan Butt, a onetime spokesman for the radical Islamist organization al-Muhajiroun, who has renounced his former life. In an essay published last week in the Daily Mail, Butt emphasized that jihadists are motivated not by opposition to British or US foreign policy but by a fundamentalist theology that seeks to subject the entire world to "Islamic justice." Radical Imams teach their followers that they must fight for Dar al-Islam (the House of Islam) against Dar al-Harb (the House of War -- i.e., infidels to be defeated). And "in Dar el-Harb, anything goes, including the treachery and cowardice of attacking civilians."

By turning a blind eye to the radical theology of the jihadists, Butt says, mainstream Muslim institutions make it easy for the extremists to recruit new followers. His words apply equally to political leaders like Brown and Livingstone: "They refuse to broach the difficult and often complex truth that Islam can be interpreted as condoning violence against the unbeliever -- and instead repeat the mantra that Islam is peace, and hope that all of this debate will go away."

Wars cannot be won through denial and willful blindness. Yet in ways large and small, Western leaders and institutions deliberately avert their gaze from the reality of the Islamist threat. UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon blames global warming, not Sudan's jihadist regime, for the genocide being carried out in Darfur. A leading candidate to succeed President Bush, Illinois Senator Barack Obama, maintains a lavish campaign website, complete with detailed position papers that have nothing to say about radical Islam's aggressive war. Another candidate, former senator John Edwards, prepares a 5,200-word speech to the Council on Foreign Relations -- and devotes just 19 of them to the menace of Islamic extremism.

...

Political correctness is no strategy for victory. Islamic fascists will not hate us less if we avoid all mention of the theology that inflames them. Winning the war the jihadists have declared -- the war of Dar al-Islam and Dar al-Harb -- begins with moral clarity. Denial is a luxury we cannot afford.

In a reltated item: Some British schools drop Holocaust studies to appease Muslims

Libyan Supreme Court Upholds Death Sentences of Innocent Medical Staff

2007-07-13T15:38:00.000+03:00

International Herald Tribune reported yesterday that:

The Libyan Supreme Court on Wednesday upheld the death sentences of 5 Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor who are charged with intentionally infecting more than 400 Libyan children with the AIDS virus in 1998.

A 2003 investigation by two of the world's leading AIDS experts, rejected by the Libyan court, concluded that the children's HIV was caused by unsanitary medical conditions at Benghazi Children's Hospital.

Editorial Comment
Another small case in point of the real Arab and Moslem Mideast, rampant with fabrications and falsifications. Lacking any real semblance of due process and democratic justice, and yet in comparison, garners such little condemnation from the those waiving the banner of human rights.

Bulgarian Music Idol Contestant Sings Naomi Shemer

2007-07-13T14:59:00.000+03:00

Israel Radio 2 on its Friday morning weekly cultural and entertainment magazine had a cute tidbit regarding the Bulgarian Version of American (Music) Idol where contestants chose to sing songs in foreign languages from around the world, and one of them chose an old quintessential Israeli folk-classic by Naomi Shemer: The Eucalyptus Grove. Despite a few small mispronounced words here and there, this is very sweet:

חורשת האקליפטוס - כוכב נולד בולגרי - Funny blooper videos are here

Interview with Beirut Resident on Israel Radio

2007-07-12T13:37:00.000+03:00

In an interview on Israel radio today a Beirut resident who went by the name of “Tony” (hopefully a pseudo name to protect the innocent), bemoaned the economic downturn and lack of tourism in Beirut, one year after Hizbullah crossed the Israeli border in July 2006 killing and capturing Israeli reservists that triggered the summer of 2006 war between Israel and the rogue Shiite Islamic fundamentalist, Iranian backed, Hizbullah(*).

The same resident went on to say that he thought that the situation could have been a lot better this summer in Beirut had Israel been able to dismantle Hizbullah.

An example of one small tid-bit of a larger unheard mosaic that one is unlikely to come across today on CNN, Al Jazeera or the New York Times

(*) Hizbullah's chief stated objective is to establish Islamic rule over Lebanon according to the religious teachings of the late Iranian leader, Ayatollah Khomeini.

The Conference on the future of the Jewish People

2007-07-11T23:34:00.000+03:00

The Conference on the future of the Jewish People 10-12.6 2007, conducted by The Jewish People Policy Planning Institute (JPPPI)

Special coverage can be found on the English Edition Ynet Site.

Highlights so far include

PM: I'm Jewish, then Israeli
Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, addressing a conference on the future of the Jewish people, said he identified himself as "Jewish first, then Israeli."

'Jews face gathering storm'
Former Canadian justice minister Irwin Cotler: Threat to Israel and Diaspora at level unprecedented since 1938

The Jewish people are facing a "gathering storm" in the form of threats posed by a genocidal Iran, Hizbullah, al-Qaeda, Hamas, and local terror cells which target Diaspora Jews, former Canadian Justice Minister and Jewish activist Irwin Cotler told a conference on the future of Jewish people in Jerusalem on Tuesday.
...
Dennis Ross, the former US ambassador to Israel said that "Iran is led today by a regime that believes in the destruction of Israel, and they're developing the means to actually do it."

From the conference, Israel radio's international hour with Dr. Yitzhak Noy interviewed a professor from McGill University who spoke about the sophistication of the new anti-Semitism that cloaks its bias in veils of anti-Zionism and delegitimization of the state Israel through falsified populist pretenses of so called "human rights" issues.

Israeli Models

2007-07-10T00:37:00.000+03:00

Please note videos might be preceded by a brief ad

Israeli Supermodel--Bar Refaeli: Sports Illustrated Debut

Actress Rotem Sela kisses cute reporter from leading Israeli entertainment show

Roni Superstar: teen music idol-cum-nubile model

Ana Aronov (on right)--Russian Israeli Dance instructor-cum-Celebrity on account of her performances on the local edition of “Dances with the Stars” talks with Russian Israeli reporter Natasha Mozgovaya

ירון לונדון לא רואה הבדל בין ברית מילה וכריתת דגדגן

2007-07-03T20:04:00.000+03:00

צבי יחזקלי היום בתוכנית לונדון וקירשנבאום הביא כתבה על המנהג הברברי הנפוץ במצריים של כריתת הדגדגן. ירון לונדון בהערת אגב לא ראה הרבה הבדל בין ברית מילה שלא משחיטה עובדתית בכהוא זה בחיי המין של הגבר, לעומת כריתת דגדגן שנקראת לא לשווא באנגלית—Genital Mutilation דהיינו השחתת איבר מין שגוזלת לאותה ילדה שבקושי חוותה חיים מלהנות מחיי מין מספקים—איזה נורא! למי יש הזכות לעשות את זה!

לא משנה שרוב הגברים האמריקאים נימולים בלי קשר לדתם מטעמי בריאות. לא משנה שארגון הבריאות העולמית מצאה שגברים שנימולו באפריקה יש להם סיכוי הרבה יותר קטן להידבק ב-AIDS –אבל ירון בשלו—הוא כנראה לא נותן לדברים שוליים כמו עובדות ומציאות מלהפריע לו לבטא הבל כזה. צבי יחזקלי הוכיח שגם הוא לא הגאון שעושים ממנו—באומרו שזה סה"כ בסדר, אם עושים כריתת דגדגן ע"י רופא...נו באמת!

הייתי רוצה לראות אותם גיבורים גדולים אם היו משחיתים להם את איבר המין ולא יוכלו עוד מלפני גיל התבגרות מלהנות אי פעם מחיי מין מספקים. נראה אותם...תסלחו לי--פלצנים--כולכם. לו היו הומניסטים באמת (ולא פסבדו) קודם כל הם צריכים לבקש סליחה ממיליוני הנשים בעיקר מצפון מזרח אפריקה ובעיקר מוסלמיות שנגזר עליהן לוותר על חלק מגופם, נפשם, ונשיותם לתרבות פאטריארכאלית פרימיטיבית (להזכיר ש- Tel-Aviv Vistas שמה על דגלה לתאר את המציאות כפי שהיא, ללא מסננים של תקינות פוליטית).

בסופו של דבר יש כאן עוד דוגמא מצערת של האליטה הלא באמת עמוקה שיש במדינה הזאת, הנגועה בהטיות, עוורת מתקינות פוליטית, ובלתי מעורערת, כי קול חד, בהיר, אינטלקטואלי ומלומד כפי שמוצאים ב-Wall Street Journal לא נמצא בארץ הזאת ואם לא נקרא לסדר ביטויים כאלה אז גם לעולם לא יהיה...

At least 116 killed in Hamas takeover of Gaza

2007-07-01T23:24:00.000+03:00

A new wikipedia entry titled The Battle of Gaza (2007) -- sources figures provided by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) that estimates that over 550 people were wounded and at least 116 killed during the fighting in the week up to 15 June.

'Executing one by one'

MSNBC filed a ghastly report (http://today.msnbc.msn.com/id/19219238/) with sub-section titled 'Executing one by one'

Fatah officials said Hamas shot and killed seven of its fighters outside the Preventive Security building. A doctor at Shifa Hospital said he examined two bodies that had been shot in the head at close range. The officials and the doctor spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of reprisals.
A witness, who identified himself only as Amjad, said men were killed as their wives and children watched.

“They are executing them one by one,” Amjad, who lives in a building overlooking the Preventive Security complex, said by telephone. “They are carrying one of them on their shoulders, putting him on a sand dune, turning him around and shooting.”

The killers ignored appeals from residents to spare the men’s lives, said Amjad, who declined to give his full name, fearing reprisal.

Scott Olson of The Trading Post in his blog post:
The Trading Post: Fatah vs. Hamas. The two state solution?
put it best:

It's hard to make any sense out of what is going on in the Palestinian Territories. When a small and heavily armed faction of your religion has essentially turned itself in to a death cult there really doesn't seem to be any need for civilized people to try and negotiate with them. They have one thing on their minds: the destruction of Israel, no matter what the cost, including their wives and children's lives

Editorial
The Palestinian Arab terrorist militias that rule the Palestinian Authority ultimately bear the seeds of their own destruction. Violence and hatred beget violence and hatred. Fascists governments and societies that indoctrinate virulent hatred as is the case in many Arab countries and regimes, will inevitably suffer from their own medicine.

The mass killings of Arabs by Arabs in Iraq, Lebanon, Syria, Algeria, and now the Palestinian Authority are all cases in point and possibly portents to places like Egypt, Jordan and Saudi Arabia where radical Jihad movements are on the move.

Tel Aviv Vistas: Sights & Sound from YouTube vloggers

2007-07-01T18:53:00.000+03:00

Ode to "urban Tel Aviv: beach life, nightlife, architecture, people, places, pubs and clubs--a collage of the city that never sleeps" as compiled in this slide presentation by a 27 year old YouTube vLogger (includes a few cute guys and babes that make up the Israeli mosaic)

Tel Aviv: "The Real Story" as compiled by this 26 year old Israeli YouTube vlogger (http://www.youtube.com/snowstorm81)

Free Hugs Campaign, Tel Aviv, October 2006

Israeli Television Commercials

2007-07-01T18:50:00.001+03:00

Pesek Zman (“Timeout”) Candy Bar: playing on ideas of creation, ceativity, and a divineness of a timeout from creation and ceativity

Actimel Probiotic Drink: “You’ve got a friend in me”: When you love someone you want to protect them

Mei Eden (Eden Water), mineral water: 70% of you body is water. What water do you fill your body with?

Orange Cell Phone Carrier: Tagline: When someone is special to you, you go to lengths to surprise them

Local Cable Provider "Hot": provides a "Hot Babe" to promote it's VOD (Video on Demand) Service, which also includes TV series. Playing on a divorce scene the Tagline is: "It's so simple to finish chapter 1 when chapter 2 is already awaiting you...

Local cellular carrier "Pelephone": Tagline: "we wanted to remind you that during Hannukah miracles do happen..." as part of the thier sales promotion for free SMS messages during the Festival of Lights :)

Voices For Israel

2007-07-01T18:44:00.000+03:00

Voices For Israel

From the Voices For Israel Website:

About Voices For Israel

Voices For Israel is an independent, non-profit organization that uses music to promote Jewish unity and solidarity with Israel and to raise much-needed funds to benefit charities in Israel.

Voices For Israel is not affiliated with any political movement or ideology in Israel. The artists who participate in our projects come together from all corners of the Jewish world because they agree with Voices For Israel's overriding central principle: to assist fellow Jews in need.

History
Voices For Israel was conceived on a blustery Motzei Shabbat (Saturday night) in the winter of 2001. Jordan B. Gorfinkel and Beat’achon were set to perform in Cleveland, but right after Shabbat ended, the community learned of a suicide bombing in Jerusalem that had occurred that day, with many casualties. Beat’achon approached the rabbi of the shul where the concert was to take place, to ask if the show should still go on. The rabbi answered, absolutely it is particularly at a time of tragedy that the community needs to come together.

The show went on and became an event of solidarity with Israel. The group concluded the evening with an impromptu vocal rendition of Hatikva, the Israeli national anthem. As Gorfinkel recalls, "A community member approached us after the show and urged us to record our Hatikva, saying that it is ‘exactly what the Jewish people need at this time."

Partnering with Jewish Music star performer and recording artist Yehuda!, Gorfinkel expanded the idea to encompass the broader Jewish music world. “Israel is hurting and I wanted to help,” he said, “but what could I do, an artist, living in America?” The answer was to use his creativity and contacts to rally what would become the largest gathering ever of Jewish Music stars, to benefit victims of terror in Israel.

The Idan Raichel Project: "If You Go ..."

2007-07-01T18:43:00.001+03:00

This song from Idan Raichel's landmark 2002 album offers a haunting fusion of Israeli Popular and ethnic Ethiopian folk music.

If you Go
Free translation by Noam Rotem

If you go, who will hug me like this,
who will listen to me at the end of a day,
who will calm and comfort me,
only you know how

And if you go, who will I wait for from the windowsill, in a holiday skirt, so that when he arrives, he'll hug me like you do when you arrive

When you go, I will go out unto the sun, to the gilded field, morning and night, a moon will illuminate my face, that dreams, all day, only of you

And when you arrive, you'll lift me up and carry me in both your hands, from the field to the river, you'll wash my face and speak words unto me, that only you know how

About Idan Raichel Project
From the Idan Raichel Project on MySpace

While recent headlines are dominated by news of conflict and war in the Middle East, an Israeli musical collaborative has achieved success by looking beyond intercultural differences and celebrating the value of diversity. Infusing a blend of traditional Ethiopian folk music, Arabic poetry, Yemenite chants, Biblical psalms and Caribbean rhythms, ...

NPR worte in 2005: Israeli Musicians Find Unity in Cultural Fusion
by Derek Rath
"Day to Day, December 6, 2006 · The Israeli group, the Idan Raichel Project, blends the music of the country's rich immigrant community with the traditional sounds of the nation. The unique mixture of Ethiopian, Arab and native Israeli music has made them stars in Israel, and paved the way for their American debut. "

אם תלך

מילים: עידן רייכל
לחן: עידן רייכל

אם תלך מי יחבק אותי ככה
מי ישמע אותי בסוף היום
מי ינחם וירגיע
רק אתה יודע

ואם תלך למי אחכה בחלון בשמלה של חג
שיגיע, יחבק אותי ככה, כמו שאתה מגיע

כשתלך לשמש אצא, בשדה המוזהב, בוקר וערב,
ירח יאיר את פני שחולמות כל היום רק עליך

וכשתבוא תישא אותי בשתי ידיך, משדה לנהר,
תרחוץ את פני ותגיד לי מילים
כמו שרק אתה יודע

Book review: What's Left? How Liberals Lost Their Way by Nick Cohen

2007-05-16T17:24:00.000+03:00

Book review appeared in Ha'aretz on 04/05/2007
by Michael Fox

In his new book, Nick Cohen confronts the moral relativism of the left, and shows that one can oppose fascism and still be a card-carrying liberal

Nick Cohen is a child of the left. When he was 13, a teacher he admired told him that he was a Conservative. Cohen was bewildered. Nice people did not vote Tory; it was as simple as that. The adult Cohen has not changed his allegiance but, as the title "What's Left?" implies, he has begun to question what it means today to be of the left. The book's title can be interpreted in another way too, for Cohen is also asking what remains of the left. What became of the left that he once knew?

Cohen writes a column for the Observer, the Sunday stable companion of the Guardian. He also contributes regularly to the socialist weekly the New Statesman. He must find these two left-of-center newspapers increasingly uncomfortable homes because Cohen has parted ways with the mainstream British left over one defining cause: the war in Iraq. With other like-minded progressives, he is a signatory to the Euston Manifesto.

This declaration of principles signed by a group of the democratic left in Britain includes both supporters and opponents of the Iraq War but asserts that "we must define ourselves against those for whom the entire progressive-democratic agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic 'anti-imperialism' and/or hostility to the current U.S. administration." This, in effect, is the thrust of Cohen's book. Cohen would not have it that, in asking how liberals lost their way, he has abandoned the left, though many have accused him of apostasy.

His views on society are still dictated by his concern for the downtrodden, but he is aghast that his erstwhile comrades have entered into an unholy alliance with militant Islam, an ideology that stands for all that the liberal left ought to despise: the suppression of basic freedoms and the subjugation of women. Cohen has no quarrel with those who opposed the war against Iraq because they believed that it would end badly.

After all, it turned out that they were right. What he found hard to stomach was that so many on the left could not acknowledge that, in opposing the war, they were keeping in place one of the vilest regimes on the planet. On February 15, 2003, at least one million marched through the streets of London in a mass demonstration against the war. Not a single placard at that demonstration mentioned Saddam Hussein. Ian McEwan's novel "Saturday" takes place in its entirety on the day of that impressive march. The protagonist of the novel watches the march and wonders at its carnival atmosphere. Cohen quotes him as reflecting: "If they think - and they could be right - that continued tortures and summary executions, ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide are preferable to an invasion, they should be somber in their view."

At least, thinks Cohen, these ostensible anti-fascists should have recognized that in demonstrating against the war, perhaps with justification, they were opposing the overthrow of a fascist regime. But there was worse to come. Once the Americans with their allies had defeated Saddam Hussein, liberals should have, in Cohen's view, put their weight behind the efforts to democratize the country and put down sectarian violence. But the opposite happened. By using the term "insurgency" for the sectarian anarchy that then engulfed Iraq, the liberal media painted the suicide terrorism of the Baathist and Islamist gangs as resistance to a foreign occupier.

Full revolution The wheel had turned full circle. In the 1980s, Cohen explains, it was the right that placated Saddam Hussein and the left that excoriated him. Now, consumed by its hatred of America, the left was as near as damn it cheering for the victory of a totalitarian regime that it had once honorably opposed.

Until then, he thought that the left had a fairly good record against fascism and totalitarianism, though he does not gloss over the appeasement of fascism and communism by soi disant progressives in the 20th century. Nor does he excuse the left for its part in the shameful European inactivity over the massacres carried out mainly by Serbs in the former Yugoslavia. But, on the whole, the left was, for Cohen, on the right side of most humanitarian issues of the century. Cohen believes that, in many ways, the victory of social democratic doctrines in the West - the welfare state, the almost universal legislation to promote equal rights for women, homosexuals and ethnic minorities - has compelled liberals to seek a fresh role.

The left had long hated racism, but it was only toward the end of the century that it fell into the trap of moral relativism. To criticize Islamists was racist and so, in its wholly praiseworthy abhorrence of racism, the left connived at the suppression of human rights in the non-Western world and painted itself into the anti-American corner in which it now finds itself. Much of all this has been said before, of course, but what makes Nick Cohen's book a good read are the wit and the sheer gusto with which he demolishes his targets. He believes in the power of ideas and he blames the obfuscatory character of postmodernist jargon for what he sees as the left's abandonment of reason.

Like Orwell before him, he regards clarity in writing as the best enemy of totalitarianism. He has knockabout fun with the failure of contemporary academics to communicate. Bad writing conceals bad ideas. He singles out a passage from a dreary academic article that seems to justify the Hindu practice of sati (suttee). That you cannot be sure whether the writer is for or against a widow flinging herself on her husband's funeral pyre is, for Cohen, a symptom of the new malady of the left.

Cohen is amusing too when he shies at such predictable Aunt Sallies as Harold Pinter, Edward Said and Noam Chomsky. But it is sad, though inevitable, that Cohen finds it necessary to note the fall from impartiality into moral equivalence of such a universally respected institution as Amnesty International. The prison camp at Guantanamo Bay is, goodness knows, a disgrace of which the United States should be ashamed. But Amnesty's comparison of Guantanamo Bay with Solzhenitsyn's Gulag Archipelago was an outrageous example of the relativism of which Cohen ceaselessly complains. No prisoner has been deliberately killed at the notorious American prison camp; untold millions perished in the Gulags. Anti-Semitism smites Cohen's family has not been Jewish for a century but, bearing the surname he does, it was inevitable that he fall victim to the anti-Semitism of the New Left. In February 2003, he wrote an article for the Observer in which he pointed out that the organizers of the mass march represented a merger of far left and far right.

The first e-mail he received was a sympathetic one from a fellow journalist that ended up with the warning: "You are not going to believe the anti-Semitism that is about to hit you." Until then, Cohen says - perhaps a little disingenuously - he did not believe that there was racism on the left. But then, he went through his e-mails and, as he says, "I couldn't believe the anti-Semitism that hit me." The anti-Semitism of the left that he encountered brought him to devote to it a chapter of the book. Cohen is no Zionist, but he recognizes anti-Semitism in much of the unbalanced criticism of Israel that today is common currency of the left.
On this subject I cannot resist quoting, without comment, an excerpt from the chapter on the Jews in "What's Left?":

"The moment when my bewilderment settled into a steady scorn came when the Guardian's online talkboards carried a discussion about me and another supporter of the war from the left with a Jewish name, which was entitled 'David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen Are Enough to Make a Good Man Anti-Semitic.' The political incorrectness was too much for one contributor. Rightly, she protested that naked bigotry infused the debate. The Guardian readers should have headlined it 'David Aaronovitch and Nick Cohen Are Enough to Make a Good Man, or Woman, Anti-Semitic.'" For anyone who believes that it is still possible to be a liberal without condoning fascism, this is a timely book.