יום חמישי, 11 באפריל 2013

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Elder of Ziyon Daily News

Link to Elder of Ziyon

No one showed up to protest Carter at Cardozo. No one.

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 05:18 PM PDT

Not one single protester showed up to Cardozo to express outrage that Jimmy Carter was receiving an award.

A few disappointed counter-protesters were there, however, with nothing to counter-protest:




There was a small crowd of reporters and curious students there as well.

Meanwhile, other Jewish organizations expressed their outrage. Too bad they couldn't actually send anyone there and get guaranteed publicity to focus on Carter's terrible record. Even YU's own Zionist clubs couldn't muster a contingent.

The alumni who promised to physically block Carter? Nowhere to be found.

This was most disappointing.


I haven't yet heard anything about the speech, or questions asked in the ceremony itself. But from everything I can see, Cardozo's dean arranged things to minimize the chances for anything embarrassing to happen from the very start, so I'm certain the questions asked were pre-screened to put a sunny face on the debacle.

By the way, there are 600,000 virtual slaves in the Middle East

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 02:04 PM PDT

Not that it is worth mentioning or anything, because they happen to be in societies that no one really expects any better from.
Millions of migrant workers flood to the Middle East from some of the world's poorest countries in search of paid work they won't find at home.

But for some, the journey doesn't end as they hope. Instead, they become victims of human trafficking, forced labor and sexual exploitation.
A report released Tuesday by the International Labor Organization paints a horrifying picture of migrant workers who find themselves trapped in appalling conditions without any way to get out.

"Our research team interviewed hundreds of workers and their experiences independent of country were very similar, actually," Beate Andrees, the report's author and head of the ILO's Special Action Programme to Combat Forced Labour, told CNN.

"They were lured into jobs that either didn't exist or that were offered under conditions that were very different from what they were promised in the first place," she said.

Data is scarce, but the ILO estimates as many as 600,000 people may be victims of forced labor across the Middle East.

That equates to 3.4 in every 1,000 of the region's inhabitants being compelled to work against their free choice, the ILO said.

The study, titled "Tricked and Trapped: Human Trafficking in the Middle East," is based on more than 650 interviews done over a two-year period in Jordan, Lebanon, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates.

Domestic workers are particularly vulnerable because their isolation in private homes, without inspections, makes them more vulnerable to exploitation and forced labor, the ILO said.

Among the conditions they may face are: being denied proper time off; being confined to their place of work; being placed under surveillance; being made to live in degrading conditions, like sleeping in a kitchen or hallway; or having their identity papers confiscated or wages withheld so they can't leave.

In more extreme cases, they may be subject to physical and sexual violence.

A Filipina domestic worker in Lebanon told the ILO she was caught after trying to escape by climbing out over the balcony.

"My employer broke my elbow and then tied my hands behind my back. They left me one day long in my room and put a camera there. He threatened me: 'I'll accuse you of stealing money and ask for my money back, and they will throw you in jail!'" she is quoted as saying.

Meanwhile, those who are coerced into sex work within the entertainment industry face a "real" risk of violence, detention or deportation, the report said.

"Owners and managers of entertainment establishments, and sex brokers (pimps), do not hesitate to use threats of denunciation to the authorities and family repudiation, and actual psychological, physical and sexual violence, to intimidate their victims," the report says.

"The impossibility of leaving the exploiter is entrenched by the fact that women known to have engaged in sex work have limited opportunities to secure income by other means."

The presence of migrant workers is also vital to the economies of many countries in the Middle East -- and in some, they outnumber the national workers substantially, the ILO points out.

In Qatar, an astonishing 94% of workers are migrants, while in Saudi Arabia that figure is over 50%, the report says. Migrants also make up a significant part of the workforce in Jordan and Lebanon.

(h/t Yoel)

Wednesday Part 2

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 12:15 PM PDT

From Ian:
Anti-Semitism is why the Arab Spring failed
In my view, one reason why the Arab Spring succeeded in toppling old dictatorships but didn't succeed in replacing them with genuine democracy was that narrow-mindedness kept the uprisings' leadership and supporters from harnessing all existing potential. Instead of dealing with root causes of the problems, they preferred to choose a simplistic answer and solution for all unresolved issues. They had a "one size fits all" diagnosis with a single prescription for all ills: whenever there is a mess, a dilemma or a complicated situation, just point a finger at Israel and the Jews.
The Historical Revisionism of 'The Great Book Robbery'
Additionally, 'Robbery' features prominently anti-Israel professor Ilan Pappe, formerly of Haifa University and now with the University of Exeter in England, who was a driving force behind the boycott movement against Israeli academics. In featuring Pappe, the makers of 'Robbery' try (and fail) to cloak their ahistorical, biased film in the mantel of respectability by giving the impression that even Israeli Jews – albeit extreme, far leftist ones – support this narrative.
Richard Millett interviewed for Israeli documentary about antisemitism
The following 40-minute documentary about antisemitism, which aired on Israeli Channel 2 on the eve of Yom HaShoah, April 7, features interviews with Richard Millett, Abe Foxman, Howard Jacobson, and Alan Dershowitz – and includes clips of several figures who will be familiar to CiF Watch readers, including Lauren Booth, Jenny Tonge, and Ken Ovenden.
Vandals burn mezuzahs in Brooklyn building
The mezuzahs on the doorposts of 11 apartments in a Jewish neighborhood in Brooklyn, New York, were vandalized on Monday in what police are treating as a possible hate crime
Wave of Anti-Semitic Graffiti Hits Massachusetts
A wave of anti-Semitic and racially charged graffiti hit several locations in Medford, Massachusetts over the weekend, leaving local residents and officials vowing to mount a vigorous investigation into the identities of the perpetrators who desecrated the city on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day.
Turkish truckers travel via Israel to Saudi Arabia
Turkish truckers, cut off from Persian Gulf destinations by the civil war in Syria, have begun crossing by ferry to Haifa and continuing on to their destinations via Israel and Jordan.
Although diplomatic relations between Israel and Turkey were virtually frozen following the maritime clash three years ago – and the flood of Israeli tourists to Turkey dwindled to a trickle – commercial relations have thrived during this period. Turkey's imports from Israel increased from $1.3 billion in 2010 to $1.85b. in the past year.(h/t billposer)
Israeli firm talks up mankind's recovery from the Tower of Babel
You speak in your language but the listener hears you in his or hers — by phone, via the Internet, or even face-to-face. It's a linguistic revolution, say the innovators behind Lexifone
Now, an Israeli start-up claims to be perfecting the best means of overcoming that biblical curse of global language barriers.
What the 'Start-Up Nation' can do for farmers
Educating investors and others about Israeli agritech is one reason Misgav-based The Trendlines Group is sponsoring a first-ever agritech road show, according to Steve Rhodes, Chairman and CEO of The Trendlines Group. "Our goal is to introduce our promising agritech companies to potential investors and strategic partners in the US," Rhodes said. "It is also about increasing awareness among US investors and corporations about the fantastic opportunities in Israel in the agritech space."
Prof. Levitzki chosen for American Cancer Research Award
Levitzki was chosen in recognition of contributions to signal transduction therapy and work on tyrosine kinase inhibitors.
The American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) has chosen Prof. Alexander Levitzki of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem as the winner of its 2013 Award for Outstanding Achievement in Chemistry in Cancer Research
The top 65 ways Israel is saving our planet
To celebrate Israel's 65th birthday, ISRAEL21c takes a look at some of the many creative and varied ways Israel is helping to enrich and improve our planet.
The list comes in no particular order, and is by no means exhaustive. There are hundreds, if not thousands, more worthy projects going on every day. If you've got a project worth hearing about, we'd be delighted if you include it in our comments section at the end.
2,000-year-old ritual bath uncovered in Jerusalem
The remains of a 2,000-year-old ritual bath have come to light in Jerusalem, Israeli archaeologists say.
The unusually complex bath was uncovered near the modern-day Jerusalem neighborhood of Kiryat Menachem, and would have been in use around the time of the Second Temple, according to a statement Wednesday from the Israel Antiquities Authority. The remains were found in a salvage dig ahead of the construction of a new road.

I must have missed the riots when these prisoners died

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 10:25 AM PDT

Ma'an reported on April 1:
Sami Hamdan Qishta, 50, died on Monday of a heart attack in a prison in southern Gaza, the Hamas government in control of the enclave announced.

Qishta was detained in a Rafah jail on charges related to financial crimes, the Gaza ministry of interior said in a statement.
There was a similar story of a prisoner who died in a PA jail a month earlier.

Yet there were no deadly riots against Hamas and the PA for allowing its prisoners to die.

Funny, that.

Wednesday Part 1

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 09:00 AM PDT

From Ian:
Obama in Israel: the wrong apology
As displayed in the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as Hitler prepared to attack Poland without provocation in 1939, he dismissed objections by saying "Who, after all, speaks today of the annihilation of the Armenians?" setting the stage for the Holocaust. Ronald Reagan recognized this threat in 1981 when he said, "like the genocide of the Armenians before it, and the genocide of the Cambodians, which followed it — and like too many other persecutions of too many other people — the lessons of the Holocaust must never be forgotten."
More than 20 countries and 42 U.S. states already have recognized the events of 1915 as genocide. As Obama seeks to shape his Middle East policy and consider his legacy over the next four years, he should consider the promises he made as a young candidate and recognize a massacre that never should be forgotten.
Barry Rubin: Why "Progress" Toward Israel-Palestinian "Peace" Is More Likely to Bring Regional Instability
Secretary of State John Kerry has in his head every what-should-be-discredited cliché about the Middle East firmly ensconced in his head. Of course, he is not alone. I just briefed a European diplomat who came up with the exact formulation I'm going to deal with in a moment. What is disconcerting—though long familiar—is that Western policymakers hold so many ideas that are totally out of touch with reality.
Why #OpIsrael Was an #OpFail
Hackers threatened to 'wipe Israel off the Internet.' That so did not happen. Eli Lake talks to the hackers who launched the counter-offensive.
It was supposed to be a debilitating assault on Israel's Internet. On Sunday—timed to coincide with Holocaust Remembrance Day—hackers affiliated with the collective, Anonymous, launched #OpIsrael, an attack that promised to "wipe Israel off the internet."
A message purporting to be from Anonymous on the anti-secrecy website, Cryptome, threatened to expose the coordinates of "special buildings" in Israel so the next time Hamas fired missiles they "wouldn't land in desert or ocean."
U.S. Government Files Motion to Dismiss Lawsuit that Claims it Helps Fund Palestinian Terror
The 24 Americans now living in Israel who are the plaintiffs in the case filed the lawsuit in the United States District Court for Washington, DC in November claiming that the State Department had ignored congressional safeguards and transparency requirements which govern financial assistance to the PA.
PMW: Fatah calls suicide bomber "Bride of Palestine"
17 year-old Ayyat Al-Akhras became the youngest female Palestinian suicide bomber, when she killed 3 and wounded 28 Israelis in a suicide bombing near a Jerusalem supermarket on March 29, 2002. On the 11th anniversary of the attack, Fatah chose to glorify her as a hero for Palestinians, calling her the "Bride of Palestine" on Fatah's Facebook page.
CAMERA: LA Times, Gaza Kitchen Cooking Up Falsehoods
In an enthusiastic Los Angeles Times review of The Gaza Kitchen: A Palestinian Culinary Journey, Carol J. Williams, together with the cookbook authors Laila Haddad and Maggie Schmitt, take the opportunity to brew up a number of false charges against Israel ("For Gaza cooks, it's two parts rice, one part defiance"). In the introduction to her interview with Haddad and Schmitt, Williams writes:
UN panel: Libyan weapons spread at alarming rate
Libyan weapons are spreading at "an alarming rate" to new territory in west Africa and the eastern Mediterranean including Syria and the Gaza Strip where they are fueling conflicts and increasing the arsenals of armed groups and terrorists, a UN panel said.
Egypt's Christian pope blasts Islamist president
Pope Tawadros II says recent attack on St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo 'breaching all the red lines'; claims Morsi promised to protect it
Tawadros also warned that the state was "collapsing" and described Sunday's attack on the St. Mark Cathedral in central Cairo, which serves as the Coptic papal seat, as "breaching all the red lines."
He said Morsi had promised him in a telephone conversation to do everything to protect the cathedral, "but in reality he did not."
In Pictures: Savage Islamic Attack on St. Mark Cathedral Allowed by Egyptian Forces
Egyptian satirist leads choir in song
Youssef, known as Egypt's Jon Stewart, could be seen on his "El-Bernameg," or "The Program," conducting a 20 person-strong choir in a song titled "My Qatar, my Qatar," in which they ostensibly thank the oil-rich Gulf state for pouring money into the impoverished Egyptian economy.
Egypt's revolutionary cleric suspended over sermon
Religious Endowments Ministry investigating the 'preacher of the revolution' for criticizing Morsi, Muslim Brotherhood
Syrian Rebels Sought Intel on Israel
Israeli Arab who fought with 'Global Jihad' says rebels wanted intel on Israel. Security experts warn of 'dangerous phenomenon.'
Iranian Military Chief Vows to Defend North Korea from US
The Iranian commitment to stand with North Korea is another move in an escalating exchange of verbal hostilities - considered by many to be mostly posturing - and military maneuvers that North Korea, South Korea and the U.S. have engaged in over the past several

"Beat the Kikes" T-shirts worn at political rally in Ukraine

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 07:25 AM PDT

At an opposition rally in Cherkassy, Ukraine last Saturday, several people took off their jackets to reveal T-shirts that said "Beat the Kikes" in Ukranian:


A lawyer, Victor Smal, says that he was beaten when he objected to the T-shirts.

This video, however, seems to show that some people at the rally reacted strongly at the appearance of the anti-semites, ripping off their shirts, spraying them with a liquid and even beating one of them up.

Some are saying that this was a "false flag" operation to make a political party look bad.

Police questioned 36 people suspected of inciting ethnic hatred.



(h/t Vandoren)

Arab media says US ambassador called Egyptians "puppets" under mind control

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 05:35 AM PDT

In January I reported on a crazy rumor that US ambassador to Egypt Anne Patterson said that the Jews are the real owners of Egypt, that King Tut was jewish, that Israel would take over the country in 2013 together with NATO, and some other nonsense.

The US Embassy in Cairo issued a categorical denial.

A couple of weeks ago, however, the rumor resurfaced, and it has been a fixture in Arabic media since then, with hundreds of articles making these same claims (the number of people Googling and finding my post skyrocketed.)

Today, a "human rights" lawyer is reported to have brought an official complaint against Patterson, with a new embellishment to the story. Now the rumor is that Patterson was drunk at a party in Egypt, and in her stupor she said that Egyptians are all puppets under mind control. Egyptian pundits are saying that this means that US satellites are sending some sort of mind control ray to Egyptians to get them to do the US' bidding.

Hold on, it gets better. You see, the US experimented with creating superhumans in the 1960s, and during the experiments some 90% of the subjects became unusually tall; 10% however had their growth stunted.

And Anne Patterson is one of those unfortunate people.

I think the article also says that the US stole some sort of Egyptian genius gene, but I'm not sure about that part.

I don't know how much these rumors are fueled by anti-American sentiment in Egypt and how much by misogyny, but it is probably a combination of the two.

YU/Cardozo update - Carter gave anti-semitic Bible lessons, NYT coverage, more

Posted: 10 Apr 2013 02:12 AM PDT

The story made The New York Times:
When editors of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, a scholarly publication from the Benjamin N. Cardozo Law School, decided to bestow this year's International Advocate for Peace award on former President Jimmy Carter, they sought to honor his decades as a mediator and humanitarian. But in the process, they ignited a sizable conflict of their own.

That is because Cardozo is a part of Yeshiva University, an Orthodox Jewish institution where support for the state of Israel runs high. And among supporters of Israel, there are few figures more controversial than Mr. Carter, who has repeatedly criticized Israeli policy toward Palestinians and described their circumstances as apartheid.

..."Part of being a law school is being an open and diverse community with a cacophony of ideas which people are free to express," Dr. Diller said Tuesday. But, he added, "we are part of a Jewish institution and we stand for Jewish values and commitments, and part of that is support for Israel."

Brian Farkas, the editor in chief of The Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution, said that the decision to honor Mr. Carter had been mischaracterized.

He said he had spent the morning engaged in "respectful" discussion with members of the Jewish Law Students Association, and that plans were in the works for a future event that would offer differing perspectives on Mr. Carter's work.

He added that Mr. Carter, who was not available for comment, had agreed to take questions from students after his address on Wednesday afternoon.
Perhaps one of the students can ask Carter about his Sunday school lessons that were first revealed by Phyllis Chesler):
As decades-old tapes from his Church Sunday school lessons reveal, former President Jimmy Carter's bias against the Jewish state may come more from an old fashioned Christian animus toward Judaism than from concerns over the situation of Palestinians. Carter taught Christian students in Plains Georgia that Judaism teaches Jews to feel superior to non-Jews, that Jewish religious practices are tricks to enhance wealth, and that current Israeli policy toward Palestinians is based on these "Jewish" values and practices.

In a series of sermons Carter recorded between 1999 and 2003 that were published as a CD set by Simon and Schuster called "Sunday Mornings in Plains," Carter attacks modern Israel by retreading ancient anti-Semitic tropes that go back to the early church fathers and the Judaism/Christianity schism that gave birth to a millennia of Christian persecution of Jews.

1. Jews hate and feel superior to non-Jews: In the tapes, one hears -- in Southern drawl -- his ancient animus: Jews hate non-Jews:

"…this morning I'm gonna be trying to relate the assigned Bible lesson to us in the Uniformed Series with how that affected Israel and how it affects us through Christ personally… It's hard for us to even visualize the prejudice against gentiles when Christ came on earth. If a Jew married a gentile, that person was considered to be dead. … How would you characterize from a Jew's point of view the uncircumcised? Non believer? And what? Unclean, what? They called them DOGS! That's true. … What was Paul's feeling toward gentiles in his early life as a Jewish leader? [Paul was not a Jewish leader. Ed.] Anybody? Absolute commitment to persecution! To the imprisonment and even the execution of non-Jews who now professed faith in Jesus Christ. … We know the differences in the Middle East. But the differences there are between Jews on the one hand who comprise the dominating force both militarily and also politically and the Palestinians who are both Muslim and Christians. …"

2. Jewish ritual sacrifice is a dodge that relieves one from taking care of one's parents, while preserving one's wealth:

"Corban was a uh prayer that could be performed by usually a man in an endorsed ceremony by the Pharisees that you could say in effect, 'God, everything that I own all these sheep all these goats this nice house and the money that I have, I dedicate to you, to God.' And from then on according to the Pharisees law those riches didn't belong to that person anymore. They were whose? God's! So as long as those riches were belonged to the person, that person was supposed to share them with needy parents right? But once it was God's it wasn't theirs and they didn't have anything to share with their parents. So with impunity, and approved by the Pharisaic law, they could avoid taking care of their needy parents by a trick that had been evolved by the incorrect and improper interpretation of the law primarily designed by religious leaders to benefit whom? The rich folks! The powerful people! Because the poor man wouldn't have all of this stuff to give to God. He would probably, in fact he might very well have his parents in the house with him or still be living with his own parents."

3. Carter ties this Jewish feelings of superiority and religious malevolence to current Israeli policy:

"One reason is that the Israeli government headed now by Netanyahu has to depend on the ultra-right or fundamentalist Jews to give them a majority in the parliament which they call the Knesset, and the recent resignation of foreign minister Levy has left Netanyahu with only one vote margin in the parliament. So the ultra-conservative Jewish leaders demand always that they have total control over anything that relates to religion inside Israel, in particular in Jerusalem. Well, I'm not here to condemn anyone but to point out that even within ourselves, there is an inclination for, I'd say, a feeling of superiority. Wouldn't you think so? Would you agree? I know I have it."

Carter's beef with the Jews is not simply a disagreement over how Israel should treat the Palestinians. His is a deep theological hatred of the type that most Christians (including the Vatican in the 1960s Nostra Aetate) have long disavowed. This is not the "new anti-Semitism: it's the old. All the more indefensible for an orthodox Jewish religious institution to give this man an award.
As I've said in the past, I am reluctant to call people anti-semitic without serious proof. This is damning. (In the partial  transcript, which I unfortunately can no longer find online but which was emailed to me, Carter at one point criticizes biblical Judah - but calls it "Israel.")

Carter's admitting his own feeling of superiority and self-righteousness is accurate, at least. After all, he calls his group of crotchety yentas "The Elders" (without the irony that some others might employ in using that title.)

Here is his wonderful group being used as a prop by Hamas underneath a huge poster showing a map where Israel doesn't exist.


That same group happily attended an anti-Israel protest a couple of years back that effectively meant that Carter and his fellow "conflict resolution" peers agreed that Israel's legal system is illegitimate.

Is part of "conflict resolution" to allow yourself to be used by extremists on one side - or to openly embrace one side?

I am told that my protest posters will be distributed by at least one group at Cardozo today. If anyone takes photos or video, I'd appreciate it!
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