Muddling Toward Maturity Blog

Exodus: Jews Flee Paris Suburbs over Rising Tide of Anti-Semitism

Breitbart carries the following story:  

French-Jewish families are being forced from their homes in Paris suburbs as Europe continues to be convulsed by levels of anti-Semitism not seen since the end of the Second World War.

The Paris commuter newspaper 20 Minutes documents an “internal exodus” during 2017 of Jews from the Seine-Saint-Denis department, saying it is emblematic of broader concerns that French Jews, like their brothers and sisters across Europe, are finding it increasingly difficult to reconcile their faith with the changing demographics of the continent.  . . .

As Breitbart Jerusalem has reported, the experience of Jews in Paris is much the same across the rest of the country. More and more are feeling so unsafe that they now feel they have no other choice but to move to Israel for safety.

They are continuing a trend that has seen tens of thousands of Jews quit the country in the past decade.

More than 5,000 departures were recorded in 2016 on top of the record 7,900 who left in 2015 and 7,231 in 2014. In total, 40,000 French Jews have emigrated since 2006, according to figures cited by AFP.

On the evidence, that number will not be falling anytime soon.    [more. . . ]

CAROLINE GLICK EXPLAINS THE NEXT STAGE IN OBAMA'S ALL-OUT ASSAULT ON ISRAEL

Israel-based author and commentator, Caroline Glick, spells out the significance of the recent U.S. and U.N. moves against Israel and what they portend for the future.   She warns of the 50-nation January conference on Israel hosted by France likely to conclude by adopting another U.N. resolution further de-legitimizing Israel on the world stage. Glick suggests strategies for defeating the looming U.N. vote and offers  her thoughts on how Israel and the U.S. should proceed given the worldwide anti-Israel movement ratified by Obama.   Anything Glick writes constitutes "must-reading."  She writes:   [my bolding]

UN Security Council Resolution 2334 was the first prong of outgoing President Barack Obama’s lame duck campaign against Israel.

US Secretary of State John Kerry’s speech on Wednesday was the second.

On January 15, stage 3 will commence in Paris.

At France’s lame duck President François Hollande’s international conference, the foreign ministers of some 50 states are expected to adopt as their own Kerry’s anti-Israel principles.

The next day it will be Obama’s turn. Obama can be expected to use the occasion of Martin Luther King Jr. Day to present the Palestinian war to annihilate Israel as a natural progression from the American Civil Rights movement that King led 50 years ago.

Finally, sometime between January 17 and 19, Obama intends for the Security Council to reconvene and follow the gang at the Paris conference by adopting Kerry’s positions as a Security Council resolution. That follow-on resolution may also recognize “Palestine” and grant it full membership in the UN. 

 

CAROLINE GLICK - AMERICAN JEWRY'S FATEFUL HOUR

Caroline Glick  sees situations more clearly than most.  She writes that American Jewry now stand in ominous danger of being outcasts and hounded and harassed by Obama if they stand up to Obama over the Iran deal.  Glick writes:  (my emphases)

Over the past month, Obama has demonized and criminalized opponents of his nuclear deal.

Last week at American University Obama said that his Republican opponents are the moral equivalent of “Death to America”-chanting jihadists. Obama presented deal opponents in general as warmongers who would force the US into an unnecessary war that his deal would otherwise prevent.

And, since he said that among all the nations of the world, only Israel opposes the deal, it easily follows that the Jews who oppose the deal are traitors who care more about Israel than America.

And then this week his troops let it be known that Schumer is a warmonger and a traitor. And a Jew.

READ TUVIA TENENBOM'S BOOK "CATCH A JEW" TO KNOW WHAT ISRAELIS AND PALESTINIANS REALLY THINK OF EACH OTHER

I watched the CBN report below on Tuvia Tenenbom's book Catch a Jew which taught me that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is being egregiously inflamed by European (and also American) NGOs.  After watching the video, I came across Paula R. Sterns' poignant review rejecting Tenenbom's expectation of Israel's demise in spite of Germany and the left, the NGOS, European anti-Semitism and the UN (not to mention Arab and Iranian hostility).   Worth watching and hearing also are Caroline Glick's musings before introducing Tuvia Tenenbom.  The book sells for $19.67 on Amazon but the current Kindle price is $1.99!!  Here's the important CBN video report: 

 

Here's the CBN text:  

JERUSALEM, Israel -- When it comes to Middle East peace, the world often asks what prevents Israelis and Palestinians from making it work. A new book blames a hidden party for fueling the hate between the two.

CBN News took a closer look at the frightening influence of some European, and even American, groups.

Anti-Semitism is alive and well in Europe, with attacks in France and Austria doubling since 2013. Already this year there were deadly attacks at a kosher supermarket in Paris and terror shootings of Jews in Copenhagen.

A new book, called Catch the Jew, claims Europeans are fanning the flames of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict by exporting anti-Semitism to the Middle East.

The book is full of humor, and Tenenbom uses salty and sometimes crude language in his accounts.

"There's not only Jews and Arabs here, the way I thought, fighting it out, there is another tribe here and the tribe is called Europeans, some Americans, but mostly Europeans," author Tuvia Tenenbom told CBN News.

Tenenbom says European governments are funding organizations that say they help Palestinians, but in fact are so anti-Israeli and anti-Semitic, they create friction and even fabricate things against Israel.

"In reality, they have come to this land to implant and instill hatred in the heart of every Muslim against the Jews, and [they] also sponsor self-hating Jews," Tenenbom said.

ANTI-SEMITIC VIOLENCE HAS FRENCH JEWS HEADING TO THE EXITS

Stephen Brown reports the facts on the ground in his article,  "Exodus - French Style".

DOWNWARD SPIRAL: ERDOGAN'S RADICAL MAKEOVER OF TURKEY

 

Erik Stakelbeck reports:

WASHINGTON -- From Harry Truman to Barack Obama, U.S. administrations have long viewed Turkey as a key ally and force for moderation in the Muslim world.
 
In recent years, however, Turkey has moved in a radically different direction: journalists thrown in jail, Twitter and YouTube shut down, and political opponents threatened with prosecution.
 
It's the kind of repression usually found in places like Iran and Syria -- only now it's happening in Turkey, a NATO country with aspirations of joining the European Union.

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his AKP party, Turkey has made clear that it is setting a new course -- one that places its interests far from those of the West.

TWO OPEN LETTERS TO ALICE WALKER

Both of the following letters merit reading and careful study.

   -From Dr. Dennis MacEoin, former editor of Middle East Review - Open Letter to Alice Walker

I was, not to put too fine a point on it, shocked to the core to find that the sensitive author of The Color Purple and so many other books that speak to the heart has refused to let a Hebrew translation of that first, classic story to be published. Nor was I less shocked to discover that a woman of your merit and generally sound political judgment had joined forces with groups and individuals who campaign against the State of Israel and treat it with the sort of contempt that would be better reserved for the countries that surround it.  [more. . .]

   - Ido Aharoni - Israel's Consul General in New York - Alice Walker Scapegoating Israel: An Open Letter to Alice Walker

I am writing this letter to you with great pain, after encountering your name in the news, again, calling for a boycott on my home and country.

Recently, you urged a popular American artist to boycott Israel. In your statement you claimed that “under a campaign named ‘Brand Israel,’ Israeli officials use culture and arts to showcase Israel as a modern, welcoming place.”

As it happens, I’m the founding head of Israel’s brand-management team and the originator of the Brand Israel movement you refer to. Let me tell you the real story of Brand Israel:  [more . . .]

ARTICLES WORTH READING

     - Michelle Malkin spotlights the secretive educational agenda that is undermining the curriculum in our nations' schools in her column, "Rotten to the Core: The growing grassroots revolt against Common Core."

     - Charles Krauthammer exposes President Obama's "The Sky is Falling" rhetoric regarding sequestration.

     - Claudia Rosett pulls back the curtain on the United Nations' anti-Semitic "Alliance of Civilizations"

NEW VIDEO REVIEWS OBAMA'S ADVERSARIAL STANCE TOWARDS ISRAEL

Jim Loft writes:

Barack Obama promised Israel’s security was sacrosanct with secure recognized defensible borders. He ran as a pro-Israel candidate.  It was all a lie.  Now a new movie released today [yesterday] highlight’s Barack Obama’s shameful and dangerous anti-Israel policies.

Full 30 minute video follows:

 

IRENA SENDLER - SAVIOR OF 2,500 JEWISH CHILDREN

 From an e-mail:

Remember this woman...

 

 

Irena Sendler

Died: May 12, 2008 (aged 98)

Warsaw, Poland

During WWII, Irena, got permission to work in the Warsaw ghetto, as a Plumbing/Sewer specialist. She had an ulterior motive.

Irena smuggled Jewish infants out in the bottom of the tool box she carried. She also carried a burlap sack in the back of her truck, for larger kids.

Irena kept a dog in the back that she trained to bark when the Nazi soldiers let her in and out of the ghetto. The soldiers, of course, wanted nothing to do with the dog and the barking covered the kids/infants noises.

During her time of doing this, she managed to smuggle out and save 2500 kids/infants.

Ultimately, she was caught, however, and the Nazi's broke both of her legs and arms and beat her severely.

Irena kept a record of the names of all the kids she had smuggled out, in a glass jar that she buried under a tree in her back yard.

After the war, she tried to locate any parents that may have survived and tried to reunite the family. Most had been gassed.

Those kids she helped got placed into foster family homes or adopted.

In 2007 Irena was up for the Nobel Peace Prize.  She was not selected. Al Gore won, for a slide show on Global Warming.

Later another politician, Barack Hussein Obama, won for his work as a community organizer for ACORN.


In MEMORIAM - 65 YEARS LATER

I'm doing my small part by forwarding this message. I hope you'll consider doing the same.

It is now more than 65 years since the Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial chain, in memory of the six million Jews, 20 million Russians, 10 million Christians and 1,900 Catholic priests who were murdered, massacred, raped, burned, starved and humiliated!

Now, more than ever, with Iran, and others, claiming the HOLOCAUST to be 'a myth'. It's imperative to make sure the world never forgets, because there are others who would like to do it again.

This e-mail is intended to reach 40 million people worldwide!

Join us and be a link in the memorial chain and help us distribute it around the world. Please send this e-mail to people you know and ask them to continue the memorial chain.

Snopes:  http://www.snopes.com/politics/war/sendler.asp

"IRRATIONAL ISLAMIC JEW-HATRED IS THE ROOT CAUSE OF THE PROBLEM IN THE MIDDLE EAST"

From Robert Spencer:

Pat Condell on Useful Idiots for Palestine...

"We can see little three-year-olds being taught that Jews are apes and pigs, and how glorious it is to be an Islamic martyr and kill yourself to kill Jews. And that's what you support when you support the Palestinians. And you're gonna have to live with your conscience -- that is, if you can find one. Because we all know that when operating from the twisted moral perspective of the Islamized Left, having a conscience, or a backbone, for that matter, isn't always possible."

VICTOR DAVIS HANSON - "CAN ISRAEL SURVIVE?"

VDH concludes his article with this chilling expectation: 

So brace yourself. The next war against Israel is no longer a matter of if, only when. And it will be far more deadly than any we've witnessed in quite some time.

On the way to his concluding sentence he reminds us of facts many refuse to acknowledge:

There were three Arab efforts to destroy Israel before it occupied any borderlands after its victory in 1967. Later, it gave back all of Sinai and yet now faces a hostile Egypt. It got out of Lebanon -- and Hezbollah crowed that Israel was weakening, as that terrorist organization moved in and stockpiled thousands of missiles pointed at Tel Aviv. Israel got out of Gaza and earned as thanks both rocket showers and a terrorist Hamas government sworn to destroy the Jewish state.

The Arab Middle East damns Israel for not granting a "right of return" into Israel to Palestinians who have not lived there in nearly 70 years. But it keeps embarrassed silence about the more than half-million Jews whom Arab dictatorships much later ethnically cleansed from Baghdad, Damascus and Cairo, and sent back into Israel. On cue, the Palestinian ambassador to the United States again brags that there will be no Jews allowed in his newly envisioned, and American subsidized, Palestinian state -- a boast with eerie historical parallels.

ANTI-ISRAEL DURBAN DECLARATION REAFFIRMED

Anne Beyefsky writes:

On Thursday, Western negotiators at the U.N. caved in to the demands of envoys from Islamic states to renew a modern-day form of the decades-long U.N. smear campaign alleging that the Jewish state is racist. Diplomats agreed on a new “anti-racism” declaration that went public Friday at noon. The document is intended to be adopted by all the heads of state and government in attendance at the U.N. “Durban III” conference to be held in New York City on September 22. So far, nine democratic countries, including the United States, Israel, and Canada, have decided to boycott the event and will not agree to the racist “anti-racism” manifesto.  [more...]

Me:  A commenter well stated:   "You will never find a more wretched hive of scum and villiany...than the UN."   Another commenter wrote:  Why is the UN so anti-Israel? Find out in this short, succinct video produced by the Jerusalem Institute for Justice for Boycott Durban III.  [Below]  The writer says, "Join the demonstration on SEPT 21 across from the U.N. to Boycott Durban III"

Truth bites: (Scroll down)

• 20% of Israeli citizens are Arabs who enjoy full equality in all areas of life.

• Arab Israelis have more money, education, rights and freedom than Arabs living in any other country in the Middle East.

• Arab Israeli women were the first Arab Women to receive the right to vote.

• Arab Israelis enjoy a higher GDP than their neighbors in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and all other Muslim nations, with the exception of the oil kingdoms.

• It is estimated that 30% of UNCHR’s (the UNHRC’s predecessor) country specific resolutions were against Israel.

• In 2006-2007, the UN passed 22 resolutions against Israel, but neglected to form a single resolution regarding the ongoing Darfur genocide in Sudan.

• More than 17,000 deadly terrorist attacks have been committed by Muslim extremists since 9/11. How many has Israel committed? Zero.

• Over a thousand civilians have been killed in recent political uprisings and demonstrations in Libya, Egypt and Syria.

• It is estimated that over 70% of the state specific condemnations made by the UNHRC over the last 30 years, have been against Israel.

• Mahmud Ahmadinejad, key note speaker at the past Durban convention, represents a country which tortures and murders its civilians, arrests those who speak against the government, and forbids the international media from entering the country.

• Former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan recognized, in 2005, that the Commission’s (CHR) “credibility deficit” was “cast[ing] a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system as a whole.”

• The HRC’s resolutions against Israel equal the combined total of country-specific resolutions adopted against all other countries in the world.

• The former CHR and today’s HRC bar Israel from participating in a Regional Group, and from membership in the Commission/Council, therefore making her the only country who cannot participate in the Commission/Council.

WHITE HOUSE CLEANSES ISRAEL FROM WEBSITE

The White House has changed photo captions that originally said "Jerusalem, Israel."  Now they say only "Jerusalem."  "Israel" has been dropped.   What do you think of that?  I think it's treacherous.  It does not represent the feelings and disposition of the American people.  Obama has turned American foreign policy against our friends and allies.  Despicable.

 

HT: Pamela Geller

NYC MUSLIM HATE MARCH AGAINST ISRAEL AND JEWS

Pamela Geller has coverage with photos and video.

DERSHOWITZ - "NORWAY TO JEWS: YOU'RE NOT WELCOME HERE"

That's the title Alan M. Dershowitz gives his article published in today's Wall Street Journal.  Dershowitz, a professor of law at Harvard, chronicles his recent visit to Norway.  What he says is sad, but more than sad.  It is utterly dismaying.  Where is that independent, robust spirit that Norway exhibited during World War II, when it was a friend of the Jews?  Dershowitz writes:

I recently completed a tour of Norwegian universities, where I spoke about international law as applied to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. But the tour nearly never happened.

Its sponsor, a Norwegian pro-Israel group, offered to have me lecture without any charge to the three major universities. Norwegian universities generally jump at any opportunity to invite lecturers from elsewhere. When my Harvard colleague Stephen Walt, co-author of "The Israel Lobby," came to Norway, he was immediately invited to present a lecture at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. Likewise with Ilan Pappe, a demonizer of Israel who teaches at Oxford.

My hosts expected, therefore, that their offer to have me present a different academic perspective on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict would be eagerly accepted. I have written half a dozen books on the subject presenting a centrist view in support of the two-state solution. But the universities refused.

The dean of the law faculty at Bergen University said he would be "honored" to have me present a lecture "on the O.J. Simpson case," as long as I was willing to promise not to mention Israel. An administrator at the Trondheim school said that Israel was too "controversial."

The University of Oslo simply said "no" without offering an excuse. That led one journalist to wonder whether the Norwegian universities believe that I am "not entirely house-trained."

Only once before have I been prevented from lecturing at universities in a country. The other country was Apartheid South Africa.

MELANIE PHILLIPS - BRITISH ANTI-SEMITISM AT DEVILISHLY HIGH LEVELS

Phillips writes:

The tsunami of indoctrination in anti-Israel lies and bigotry by the British media and intelligentsia has reached such a pitch that, as blogger Edgar Davidson reports, it is now warping the minds of even pro-Israel Jews. He writes:

My daughter, who goes to an orthodox Jewish school, tells me that, when the subject of Israel is discussed in their Jewish studies GCSE class, students routinely state things like ‘the Jews have no right to Israel because they stole the land from the Palestinians’. 

In making statements like that, those regular 15-16 year old Jewish kids, are simply repeating what they are told relentlessly in every part of the media (as I have regularly reported on this web). In the midst of the big story of revolution across the entire Arab world (funny how the media is suddenly realising that these Arab countries were abusing their citizens for decades - they have been telling us all along that it is Israel that is the pariah state in the region) the BBC and Channel 4 has gone into overdrive ... to demonize Israel. Just a few examples of the anti-Israel tsunami engulfing British TV, in the last few days alone we have had:

• Scandalous BBC 'documentary' attacking Geert Wilders that also promoted the view that anybody supporting the State of Israel in any way was a criminal
• The Promise, on Channel 4, which Richard Millett sums up as ‘rich European Jews came to Palestine after the Holocaust, stole the Palestinians’ land and murdered British soldiers’.
• A film War Child,  on Channel 4, about ‘Jews killing innocent Palestinians'
• The Richard Dimbleby Lecture on BBC Tuesday 15th Feb 2011 about 'the rights of children' given by the author Richard [sic: actually Michael; MP] Morpurgo which included a very strong political anti-Israel message plus the completely unsubstantiated and ridiculous claim that Israeli soldiers were shooting at Arab children in Gaza like in a computer game (yeah, like Arabs never lie about these things - just like they claimed a demonstrator was recently killed by tear gas).

The relentless propaganda seems to be affecting just about everybody I know. It has got to the stage where even strongly pro-Israeli friends are unwittingly accepting anti-Israel bias as perfectly acceptable.

HARVARD UNIVERSITY FUND SELLS ALL ISRAEL HOLDINGS

Story here.  No explanation given.  One can guess.  (HT: Drudge)

STORM CLOUDS GATHERING OVER ISRAEL

The extraordinary Caroline Glick ponders Israel's precarious existence after the Mavi Marmara incident. The future looks scary and war-filled.

Israel is endangered today as it has never been before. The Turkish-Hamas flotilla two weeks ago precipitated a number of dangerous developments. . . Since the Navy's lethal takeover of the "Mavi Marmara", Israel has been stood before an international diplomatic firing squad led by the UN and Europe and supported by the Obama administration . . .  In the very near future, Israel will face off against Iranian, Lebanese, and Turkish ships  . . .  The "Mavi Marmara" showed Iran and its allies that they can win strategic victories against Israel by giving the IDF no option other than using force against them. This means that Israel can bank on the prospect that all the ships they are dispatching will be populated by suicide protesters. Indeed the Iranians have openly admitted this . . .

Glick foresees suicide squads used to move the world to war against Israel.

The Lebanese ships are being organized by Hizbullah-affiliated individuals and the Turkish ships are being organized by the IHH terror group that organized the "Mavi Marmara." Hizbullah's penchant for dispatching suicide squads is of course well known. And the IHH showed its devotion to suicide protests on the Mavi Marmara. So it is fairly clear that the passengers aboard the ships from both countries intend to force the IDF to kill them. 

The intensification of the suicide protest campaign against Israel is dangerous for two reasons. First, it is a model that can be and in all likelihood will be replicated on air and land and it can be replicated anywhere. Israel can and should expect mobs of suicide protesters marching on Gaza to force Israel to surrender control over its borders. Israel can expect mobs of suicide protesters marching on Israeli embassies and other government installations around the world in an attempt to increase its diplomatic isolations. 

In the air, Israel can expect charter flights to take off from airports around the world with a few dozen kamikaze protesters who will force the IAF to shoot them down as they approach Israeli airspace. 

There's much more.  If we learn nothing else from this article, it is that the pressure on Israel will only dramatically increase, and that war looms more and more likely.  Obama's abandonment of Israel only escalates the tensions.

"SPENGLER" (DAVID P. GOLDMAN) ANSWERS QUESTIONS ON HOT SPOTS AROUND THE WORLD

If you've not read Spengler before, now is the perfect time to make his acquaintance.  He's right up there with my favorite top journalists.  Brilliant is the word.  Read this column and you'll want to read everything he produces.

MELANIE PHILLIPS - "THE WORLD'S DERANGEMENT"

Melanie Phillips, the British writer and columnist, is one of those increasingly rare persons who understands the obtuseness, willful blindness, dark obsession, and hatred of the world against Israel.  She calls it "the  world's derangement." I personally see the blinding hatred towards Israel as demonic in origin and inspiration, and the major story of our time.  Phillips writes:

In the Jerusalem Post, William Shawcross has written a blistering piece about the ‘irrational, obscene hatred’ of Israel now coursing so terrifyingly across both the Islamic and western worlds . . .

What is deeply shocking – and frightening – is that the narrative the world accepts is always that of Israel the evildoer... The hatred that Israel arouses is absurd, even obscene... The Muslim world and the Western Left are in an unholy alliance; they do not want to improve the Jewish state, they want to remove it.

Phillips points out  (my emphases)

The treatment being meted out to Israel is qualitatively and quantitatively different from the treatment meted out to any other nation. Ever. It's not just that the tyrannies of the present are not even reported on, let alone seen as a worthy and legitimate target of protest. Even the great progressive causes of the past, such as the campaign against apartheid South Africa, for example, never provoked such hysterical obsession, let alone such a sustained and frenzied onslaught of lie after distortion after fabrication after blood libel. Just like the Jew-hatred of the past, the characteristics of this victimisation are unique; just like the Jew-hatred of the past, it treats the Jewish people as some kind of cosmic evil; and just like the Jew-hatred of the past, ultimately it simply defies explanation. But it is happening, right now, before our disbelieving eyes; it is quite simply a derangement of the world.

I repeat.  This obsession against Israel can only be explained as demonic and supernaturally inspired.

Phillips quotes an exceptional politician and journalist, Pilar Rahola of Spain, who delivered at the end of last year an impassioned speech supporting Israel.  Such bravery is rare.  But look at the facts related:

JAY NORDLINGER HAS A FEW THOUGHTS ON ISRAEL . . .

.. . with which I entirely agreement.  He writes:

One of the things that encourage Israel’s enemies is the idea that the Jewish state is only temporary: that it is just a passing problem, not here to stay. The existence of Israel is conditional at best: Maybe if they behave themselves, we’ll let them stick around for a few more years, until demographics overwhelm them . . .

HELEN THOMAS - THE FACE OF LEFTIST ANTI-SEMITISM

- Update 6/7/10 - Helen Thomas resigned today.  Jonah Goldberg isn't shedding any tears.  He refers to her as "slimy" and a person who has been a "nasty piece of work" for decades.  He cites a further example of her character.

- Helen Thomas tells Jews: " Get the hell out of Palestine" and go "home" to Germany and Poland.

TURKISH AID TO GAZA SONG: "WE CON THE WORLD"

- Update 6/12/10 - YouTube took down the video.  It can still be seen here.

- (Original post) This video/song is positively brilliant.  You gotta click the YouTube video below.  You gotta, gotta, gotta, gotta...  (HT: Pamela Geller)  Update:  Caroline Glick, the creator, says: 

This week at Latma – the Hebrew-language media satire website I edit, we decided to do something new. We produced a clip in English. There we feature the Turkish-Hamas “love boat” captain, crew and passengers in a musical explanation of how they con the world.

Caroline Glick's website is worth frequent visits.  Here are the words to "We Con the World":

PROFILE IN COURAGE

A high school boy carrying an Israeli flag ventures alone into a pro-Gaza Flotilla rally in LA.   (HT: AtlasShrugged)

BLOODY CLASH OFF GAZA COAST

- Update 6/1/10 - See also my post on Turkey's nefarious role in staging and encouraging this flotilla.  See also George Friedman in Stratfor Intelligence Report: Flotillas and the Wars of Public Opinion.  Anti-Israel activists took a page out of Israel's own playbook from the "Exodus" 1947 incident.  I wonder how many people will care that the convoy of ships was organized by a terrorist organization?  (On terrorist organization, see also here.)

- (Original Post) Ed Morrissey of HotAir has the most comprehensive coverage so far. Look for anti-American and anti-Israel propaganda to flourish, but be sure to read this post and see the video and get the true picture.   Organizers and people on these ships bound for Gaza were anything but "peace activists."

Cliff May quotes Claudia Rosett:

The basic narrative spun by the organizers of the "freedom flotilla" is to "break the siege of Gaza" and "establish a permanent sea lane between Gaza and the rest of the world." But there's some important information that the flotilla crew omits. Gaza is a terrorist enclave controlled by an Islamist terrorist group, Hamas, backed by Iran. It has a busy and violent history of suicide bombings, shootings and rocket and mortar attacks; and is dedicated to the destruction of Israel. It is Hamas-run Gaza that threatens its neighbors and is hostile generally to liberal, Western societies.

 

Egypt has also had miseries enough with Hamas to find it worthwhile maintaining the blockade, though this seems to be of less interest to the "freedom flotilla" crowd. This ship convoy is not about freedom and not about aid. It is patently about helping Hamas and harming Israel. 

Me: It is important to recognize that Israel had offered its ports for the offloading of humanitarian aid and then see it transported to Gaza.  But the "peace activists" would not agree.  They insisted on provoking an incident.  And, unfortunately, they succeeded.

Update:

SO YOU THINK ISRAEL SHOULD BE BOYCOTTED?

Jay Nordlinger (who linked to the YouTube video below) writes:

I just want to say that Noah Pollak’s piece on Israel and liberal American Jews is one of the best things I have ever read on the subject, or, for that matter, any subject. Go here.  Some pieces are simply bull’s-eyes — true as heck. This is one of them, in my judgment.

Also, check out this much-circulated video on boycotting Israel:

VIRULENT ANTI-SEMITISM AT OXFORD AND UC - IRVINE

Chuck Colson reports:

Are the free exchange of ideas, respect for others, and common decency alive on college campuses these days? Sadly, that depends on who’s doing the talking.

Israel’s ambassador to the U.S., Michael Oren, was invited to speak at the University of California at Irvine. Oren’s talk was interrupted at least 12 times by students who shouted insults. “How many Palestinians did you kill?” one of them yelled. “Propagating murder is not an expression of free speech!” shouted another.

The disruptive students—including officers of the Muslim Student Association—were arrested. The university’s outraged chancellor, Michael Drake, told the students they were an embarrassment to the school. “Shame on you!” he said.

But the same thing happened that very day at Oxford. Another Israeli leader, Danny Ayalon, Israel’s deputy foreign minister, was

TURKEY TURNS ON ISRAEL

Joel Rosenberg has the story.

Over the past 10 days or so:

• Turkey has canceled a NATO military exercise because Israel was invited to participate
• Turkey has aired a drama on state-run TV portraying an Israeli soldier walking up to a Palestinian child and barbarically shooting her point-blank
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Iran and Syria, including choosing to engage in military exercises with Syria instead of Israel
• Turkey has made moves to draw closer to Russia  [more...]
  

ISRAEL - ENTERING INCREDIBLY DANGEROUS TIMES

Joel Rosenberg writes insightfully about Israel and her neighbors.  He is known for his novels and for applying the prophecy of Ezekiel 38-39 to contemporary events.  Whether you follow him in his prophetic applications or not (I haven't personally studied them sufficiently to arrive at my own conclusion), Rosenberg should still be read because of the news he assembles related to Israel and the Middle East.  Here are two recent blog posts:

Israel in Danger of Being Blindsided by Two New Grave  Threats  Excerpt: [Emphasis Rosenberg's]

The first threat is the real and growing possibility that the United Nations will shift the nuclear spotlight away from Iran and on to Israel in an effort to force Jerusalem to disclose and dismantle its alleged nuclear weapons and join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty  NPT). Israel does not openly acknowledge having atomic weapons. . .

The second threat is the real and growing possibility that the world will unilaterally create and recognize a Palestinian State, not through negotiations with Israel but by fiat. World leaders have been trying to engineer a “comprehensive” final peace agreement for decades.   [more. . .]

And here is an example of his prophetic application of Ezekiel 38-39 to contemporary events:

Ezekiel 38-39: A Russian-Iranian-Libyan- Sudanese-Alliance Against Israel?

JOHN BOLTON ON OBAMA'S U.N. SPEECH: "THE MOST RADICAL ANTI-ISRAEL SPEECH I CAN RECALL ANY PRESIDENT MAKING... I WAS VERY SHAKEN BY THIS SPEECH"

Pamela Geller put up a blog post at Atlas Shrugs featuring Glenn Beck's interview with John Bolton, former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations.  I am a fan of John Bolton and value his perspectives.  Excerpts (emphases are Pamela Geller's):

Bolton: This is the most radical anti-Israel speech I can recall any president making.

Two phrases in what you've just heard, the president says that "America does not accept" and I'm quoting now, "the legitimacy of continued Israeli settlements." Not 'new Israeli settlements', "continued Israeli", which, this is Mr.Wordsmith here, that calls into question in my mind all Israeli settlements.

NETANYAHU SPEAKS AT THE U.N. - "HAVE YOU NO SHAME?"

Update: Pamela Geller has the text and video of Netanyahu's UN speech.

(Original post) - Joel Rosenberg says,

Over the years, I’ve heard Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu deliver a lot of speeches. But none so powerful as this.

Highlights from Rosenberg:

• The Prime Minister laid down the gauntlet with Iran, and the world.
• He commended the nations whose leaders and diplomats either boycotted or walked out of Ahmadinejad’s speech yesterday for their “moral clarity.”
• He also shamed those who stayed and those U.N. leaders who gave the Iranian leader — who calls the Holocaust “a lie” while publicly threatening to annihilate the Jewish people in the not-too-distant future — a platform to spew his vile beliefs.
• “To those who gave this Holocaust denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, Have you no shame? Have you no decency?”
• Must-see video clip of Netanyahu’s speech. [1 minute, 40 seconds]
  
• He showed the world original Nazi documents explaining the Holocaust that were given him by the German government and repeatedly asked world leaders, “Are these a lie?”
• He noted that President Obama recently visited a Nazi death camp in Europe and asked whether Obama gave validation to “a lie.”
  
• Netanyahu urged the world to stop Iran now from getting the Bomb, and warned the failure to do so could lead to incalculable suffering and damage.
• He challenged the U.N. for its anti-Semitic and anti-Israel “Goldstone Commission” report. The report charges the Jewish state with war crimes for defending her people from eight years of 10,000-plus rockets and missiles raining down from Gaza. What’s more, he challenged the U.N. to reject the commission’s report and thus side with Israel, or accept the report and side with and reward the Hamas terrorists in Gaza. He asked how Israel could possibly take more “risks for peace” if the world condemned Israel for defending herself from terror attacks launched from the last swath of land offered to the Palestinians in the name of peace.

It reminded me of President Bush’s speech to the U.N. in September 2002 when he challenged the world community to effectively hold Saddam Hussein accountable for dozens of violations of international law or risk irrelevance.

Today, Netanyahu challenged the world to stop Iran from acquiring weapons of genocide, or risk losing all moral legitimacy.

RAMADAN AS A FESTIVAL OF HATE

So sad.  It's all about Islamic anti-Semitism.  Click here.

MARK STEYN - ON JEWS & ISRAEL AS THE FOCUS OF THE WORLD'S HATRED

Mark Steyn offers a comprehensive synopsis of the world's increasing hatred of Israel and Jews.  It's depressing, and unfortunately I don't see anything on the horizon to offer a reprieve.  What a shameful state of affairs!  Consider:

A famous poll a couple of years back found that 59 percent of Europeans regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace.

Fifty-nine percent? What the hell’s wrong with the rest of you? Hey, relax: In Germany, it was 65 percent; Austria, 69 percent; the Netherlands, 74 percent. For purposes of comparison, in a recent poll of Egypt, Jordan, Morocco, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates—i.e., the “moderate” Arab world—79 percent of respondents regard Israel as the greatest threat to world peace. As far as I know, in the last year or two, they haven’t re-tested that question in Europe, possibly in case Israel now scores as a higher threat level in the Netherlands than in Yemen.

STATE-SPONSORED ANTI-SEMITISM IN CHAVEZ'S VENEZUELA

Scary things are happening in Venezuela.  Half of the Jewish population has already fled.  Gabe Ledeen titles her article, "Echoes of the '30s in Caracas."

The Jews of Venezuela are afraid, as well they should be. Walking their streets and visiting their homes and synagogues, I could feel the sense of foreboding that weighs heavier on them day by day. I could hear it in the urgency of their prayers during religious services, feel it in the embraces and handshakes I received when I introduced myself and my mission and see it in the eyes of the Hebraica high school students as I listened to their stories of frustrated youth. They are asking for our help, for our strength, and our voices. They cannot speak out; will we speak for them?       [more . . . ]

ISLAMIC HATE SPEECH GOES UNREPORTED IN THE WEST

Nonie Darwish collects quote after quote to make her case.  Example:

“The Jews are the Enemies of Muslims regardless of the occupation of Palestine; we will fight,  defeat and annihilate them until not a single Jew remains on the face of the earth.” (January 2009, Egyptian cleric Muhammad Ya’qoub).

On February 1, 2009, prominent sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, on Al Jazeera TV, called the holocaust "divine punishment" for the Jews and encouraged Muslims to do same by saying: "Allah willing, the next time will be at the hand of the believers [i.e. Muslims]." He then added that he would "shoot Allah's enemies, the Jews." 

She cites many additional quotes and concludes:

. . . Hate propaganda is the rule and not the exception in Muslim preaching. It must go hand in hand with demands for conquering other people, otherwise jihad will end.

Hate rhetoric comes into Muslim homes in America via satellite dishes directly from the horse’s mouth in the Muslim world. Is it any wonder that in recent Muslim demonstrations in Florida, demonstrators were telling Jews to “go back to the ovens”?

We must never underestimate the power of hate propaganda, because, quite simply, it works. Believe it or not, if you grow up hearing ‘holy’ cursing day in and day out, it can feel and sound

MELANIE PHILLIPS EXPLAINS THE MOTIVES FOR TARRING ISRAEL A "NAZI STATE"

Melanie Phillips explains Europe's motives in affixing the damning label -

It is used for very specific political purposes. Since Nazism is totally beyond the pale – and since the Israel-haters believe, falsely, that Israel’s legitimacy rests upon the Holocaust – tarring it as a Nazi state delegitimises it and thus advances the agenda of its destruction. . .

She says further:

I would also make a further point . . .  Calling Israel a Nazi state retrospectively sanitises the Holocaust and lets complicit Europe off the hook – Britain too. After all, Britain was partly responsible for the murder of thousands of Jews to whom it refused entry to Palestine -- in order to appease the Arabs of Palestine who were in league with the Nazis – and who perished in the Holocaust as a result. If the Jews have become Nazis, then their victimisation at the hands of the Nazis stops being the crime of crimes.

It also allows people safely to hate the Jews once again. As I was told to my face by a prominent man of impeccable liberal views, the enormity of the Holocaust had meant that it was no longer possible to disdain or loathe the Jews as before, at least not in public. But with Israel painted as a Nazi state, it can be open season on the Jews once again.   (More. . .)

One-Third of Europeans Blame Economic Collapse On . . .

You guessed it . . .  The Jews.  Ed Morrissey reports on the original Jerusalem Post article saying:

Anti-Semitic attitudes have increased in the wake of the economic collapse, a study across seven European countries has found, with a third of Europeans blaming the Jews for the economy.  Spain appears to have the highest levels of animosity towards Jews . . .

Morrissey goes on to say:

Make no mistake about it; the Jews of the West are in danger of getting completely marginalized at a very bad time in history for it to happen.  If those numbers continue to grow, we can expect pressure from these Western nations to abandon Israel, and more importantly, to abandon the fight against radical Islamist terrorism and Iranian hegemony in the Middle East.

Bill Moyers Rants Against Israel -- and Jews

The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) complains bitterly about Bill Moyer's egregious distortion of  the Israel-Hamas reality.

Bill Moyers, long a prominent figure with the Public Broadcasting Service, has crossed a journalist and ethical line.  In a  commentary broadcast on January 9, 2009, he not only presented several highly distorted statements about the crisis in Gaza, but also depicted Israeli violence as a consequence of "genetic encoding." In particular, Moyers falsely accused Israel of indiscriminately killing Palestinians in the recent round of fighting in the Gaza Strip and portrayed Israel's military actions in Gaza as the equivalent of America's use of napalm on villages during the Vietnam War.

. .  He claimed the dead in Gaza were the "casualties and victims of Israel's decision to silence the rockets from Hamas terrorists by waging war on the entire population."  [Emphasis added.]  He also stated that "By killing indiscriminately the elderly, kids, entire families by destroying schools and hospitals Israel did exactly what terrorists do and exactly what Hamas wanted.  It spilled the blood that turns the wheel of retribution."

Such assertions are outrageous.  Israel has not "waged war on the entire population" of the Gaza Strip of 1.5 million people; it has waged war on Hamas and its terrorist infrastructure.    (more . . .)

(HT: Jonah Goldberg at The Corner)  

A Jew Living in Britain No longer Feels Safe

Francesa Segal writes in the Guardian:  (HT: HotAir)

In August 2001, I turned 21 and my parents gave me a Star of David necklace. Then a month later, the world changed and my mother, with remarkable foresight, began her campaign to rescind the gift, begging me to take it off because she was frightened it would make me a target in the wake of mounting evidence that fanatical Islamism was tightening its grip on the country. My argument was always the same - when I am no longer safe being identifiably Jewish on the tube, I don't want to live in England.

Now it's happening and I am devastated. . .    (more . . .)

Charles Krauthammer on the Moral Grand Canyon that Separates Hamas and Israel

For Krauthammer's excellent article, click here.  (HT: Hugh Hewitt)   On Hamas' lethal arsenal (one reason why Israel is reluctant to invade with ground troops), click here.

AT THE UN, VICIOUS ANTI-SEMITISM IS MET BY A ROUND OF APPLAUSE

Anne Bayevsky writes:

Tuesday, September 23, 2008 will go down in history as the day the United Nations General Assembly provided a platform for a head of state [Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran] to spew unadulterated, vile antisemitism — and the assembled nations of the world clapped.

The United Nations has become the largest global purveyor of antisemitism in the world today.  In the full knowledge that the president of Iran denies the Holocaust and advocates the destruction of the U.N. member state of Israel, the U.N. invited him to mount the dais and gave him a megaphone.  [more . . .]

IRENA SENDLER, "RIGHTEOUS GENTILE" -- 20TH CENTURY HERO

A friend sent me this woman's heroic story of rescuing 2,500 children from the Nazis.  She passed away at 98.  Last year she was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.  It's definitely worth reading. 

HARVARD UNIVERSITY AND THE NAZIS. UNIVERSITIES ACQUIRE MORAL STAINS FAR TOO READILY

Don't look to universities for wisdom and moral guidance.  Technical skills, yes.  Wisdom and moral guidance?  No. Here's a short rundown on Harvard's coziness with the Nazi regime and its anti-Semitic stance back in the 1930s.  (HT: Jonah Goldberg who also provides an excerpt)

QUICK TAKES

1) Mark Krikorian - "The chief point of Dr. Bostom's The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism (reviewed here and here) is the same as his earlier Legacy of Jihad book — the problematic aspects of Islam, namely the sacralization of jihad war and of Jew-hatred, are not modern alien viruses but instead are integral to the faith."  See also Andy McCarthy's post (page 2)

2) Theodore Dalrymple -

And as is now well-known, a disturbing number of British Muslims have proved susceptible to the ideology of Islamism. A recent survey found that 40 percent of British Muslims under 24 wanted to live under sharia; 36 percent supported the death penalty for apostasy. Significantly, the figures for older Muslims were considerably lower. Another poll found that a fifth of all British Muslims had sympathy with the “feelings and motives” of the London suicide bombers. Only a third of British Muslims, a Guardian survey found, want more integration into British culture.

 … Pew Center research shows that six times as many Muslims in France as in Britain consider their national identity more important than their religious one: 42 percent versus 7 percent.

3) Thomas Sowell writes on the Left using Blacks as trophies or mascots.

PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY (PA) ACADEMICS: OUTRAGEOUSLY RE-WRITING HISTORY TO FOSTER ANTI-SEMITISM

What is happening in the Middle East is really chilling.  Can the world (i.e. genuine scholars) stand idly ignoring the travesty of scholarship that is taking place in the interest of bald-faced anti-Semitic propaganda?  Consider this account of what is happening by Ithamar Marcus and Barbara Crook:

• In 1998, PA historians held a conference in which they devised a policy of historical revisionism. The developing PA educational system would not aim to teach historical truth but rather to convey a political history aimed at denying Israel's right to exist in the Land of Israel. Palestinian academics, recognizing the futility of attempting to erase the documented history of the Jews, instead adopted a different solution of literally stealing the identity of the Jews by identifying ancient Hebrews as both Arabs and Muslims and denying their connection to today's Jews of the state of Israel. Another component of the negation of Jewish history is the denial of modern Jewish experience-including the horrors of the Holocaust.
• Many PA academics have gone beyond the theoretical "struggle." They teach that the killing of Jews by Muslims is a precondition of world redemption. Because Jews are inherently evil and an existential danger, their annihilation is justified self-defense, a service to humanity, and an enactment of God's will.

Here are some extracts that elaborate on the above:

ANTI-SEMITISM IN THE QUR'AN

Andrew G. Bostom writes:  

 My colleague and friend, the gifted and remarkably courageous independent scholar Robert Spencer, has kindly posted a long essay of mine, Antisemitism in the Qur’an: Motifs and Historical Manifestations at his indispensable Jihad Watch/Dhimmi Watch website.  

For those getting impatient with the delayed release of The Legacy of Islamic Antisemitism (now due out in late May), this essay derives almost entirely from the book, and as such, provides a preview of the book’s extended introductory survey. Below, I have provided the Abstract and Introduction to this lengthy essay.The full text is available at Dhimmi Watch.   (more . . .)

ARAB-AMERICAN ACTIVIST SAYS OBAMA HIDING ANTI-ISRAEL STANCE

Click here.

OBAMA'S CHURCH STRONGLY ANTI-ISRAEL

Hugh Hewitt writes:       

You have got to read the first selection on the "Pastor's Page" from Senator Obama's church bulletin, dated June 10, 2007, titled "Open Letter to Oprah."  It was not authored by Pastor Jeremiah Wright, but by Ali Baghdadi.  It includes this remarkable assertion:

I must tell you that Israel was the closest ally to the White Supremacists of South Africa. In fact, South Africa allowed Israel to test its nuclear weapons in the ocean off South Africa. The Israelis were given a blank

3,000 LATVIANS PARTICIPATE IN PRO-NAZI RALLY

Micah Halpern reports:

On Sunday, in Riga, three thousand Latvians came out to join a parade. It was a parade to honor those Latvians who belonged to and fought in and defended the honor of a notorious SS Unit known as the Latvian Legion. . .

Latvia, along with the rest of the USSR, was invaded by the Germans in 1941. Then, as now, Riga was the capital of Latvia. According to a census taken in 1935 there were 43,672 Jews living in Riga. After the war there were 150 Jews, survivors from Riga.

Most of Riga's Jews were murdered in a place called Rumbla, a "killing fields" located only seven miles outside the city. There, on two separate days, first on November 30th and then on December 8th, 1941 the Nazis - with the help of the local Latvians, mowed down 25,000 Jews.

The Jewish Ghetto in Riga, like most Jewish ghettos created during World War II, was situated in the most densely populated area of the Jewish community. In Riga that area was called Maskava. In Riga, like in every other city under their control, in order for the Nazi massacre of the Jews to succeed the Germans needed local assistance. The assistance that the Latvian community of Riga gave to Nazi Command came in the form of the Latvian Legion, proud members of the German SS.

We now know, the proof is in the numbers, that local Latvians today, are still proud of their members of the Latvian Legion. . .  [more]