UCSD Students: Sign AMCHA Initiative Petition Condemning Campus Anti-Semitism, Anti-Israelism

The AMCHA Initiative has a new petition out condemning UCSD’s administration for ignoring the concerns of Jewish students on campus. If you’re Jewish and go to UCSD, I highly suggest you sign it.

Here’s the letter:

Dear Chancellor Fox, Vice Chancellor Rue, and President Yudof:

 

We are Jewish students at UCSD who are deeply dismayed and offended that the following UCSD academic departments and administrative offices were listed as Endorsers and Sponsors of the Muslim Students Association’s “Justice in Palestine Week: 21st Century Apartheid” (See posters here), which took place 5/14 – 5/17:

 

African American Studies Minor
Critical Gender Studies
Chican@/Latin@ Arts and Humanities Minor
Ethnic Studies Department
Cross Cultural Center

 

As in previous years, the MSA’s week of events included numerous speakers and exhibits that demonized Israel through rhetoric and imagery deemed anti-Semitic by the U.S. State Department and promoted efforts to harm the Jewish state through boycott, divestment, and sanctions campaigns.

One Jewish state for all

Ruthie Blum

Given the number of times the Israeli government has banged its head against brick walls (and security fences), is it any wonder that it has lost its marbles? The latest case in point was Thursday morning’s “goodwill gesture” from Israel to the Palestinian Authority and "Hamastan." This involved exhuming the bodies of 91 terrorists buried in Israel and transferring their remains back to the West Bank and Gaza from whence they hailed. There they were shrouded in Palestinian flags and welcomed home as “martyrs.”  Each of these paragons of Palestinian virtue had slaughtered innocent Israelis in restaurants, buses, hotels and shopping malls. Now that they’re back among the people who laud them for their actions, their families will be able to visit their graves, and school children will be taught lessons on their “heroism.”

Welfare for Fake Palestinian ‘Refugees’

Daniel Greenfield
on Jun 1st, 2012

Each century brings forth its own patriots. Once upon a time we had Patrick Henry, today we have Senator Patrick Leahy, who declared in the Senate that his opposition to an amendment that would distinguish how much of the UNRWA’s funding goes to actual refugees versus fake refugees was a patriotic act.

“I always look at what is in the United States’  interest first and foremost, and this would hurt the United States’  interests,” Senator Leahy stated firmly. It is of course difficult to find as compelling a national interest as the UNRWA, a refugee agency created exclusively for the benefit of five million Arabs, approximately 30,000 of whom are actual refugees, but all of whom hate the United States.

Senator Leahy, who could not discover a national interest in the Balanced Budget Amendment, drilling for oil in ANWR or detaining Muslim terrorists, all of which he voted against; finally discovered a binding national interest 5,500 miles away in Jordan, where “refugee camps” like Baqa’a (pop. 80,000), which are virtually indistinguishable from local towns and cities, complete with block after block of residential homes, stores and markets, multi-story office buildings, schools, hospitals and assorted infrastructure, must not be looked at too closely.

Divergent Path on Israel Helps Lobby Group Grow

WASHINGTON — There was a time not so long ago when political contributions from Americans supportive of Israel inevitably veered toward those Congressional candidates who were the most hawkish and outspoken in defending Israel and its security.

No longer. While aggressive defenders of Israel still dominate the debate, more moderate voices in the Jewish community — led by J Street, a Washington lobbying group — are expanding their ability to generate money and political capital for pro-Israel candidates who favor a less confrontational approach to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and other issues.

This week, J Street is expected to land one of its biggest names when it announces its endorsement of Senator Dianne Feinstein, the veteran Democrat from California who is chairwoman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, an important forum for Middle East intelligence. With Ms. Feinstein’s acceptance of J Street’s endorsement, the group’s political action committee plans to raise at least $100,000 for her re-election bid, the officials said.

Rabbis to EU Ambassador: Torah Doesn't Allow Giving Up Land

Israeli rabbis meet EU Ambassador Andrew Standley, explain that the Torah absolutely forbids giving land to Arabs.

 

By Elad Benari

Rabbis meet with EU Ambassador

Rabbinical Congress for Peace

 

A senior delegation of the Rabbinical Congress for Peace (RCP) met on Tuesday with Ambassador Andrew Standley, the Head of the European Union in Israel, to present the Torah view on the issue of giving up land to the Arabs.

The rabbis made it clear that the majority of rabbis in Israel and abroad are of the opinion that it is absolutely forbidden, according to Jewish law, to give up an inch of the Promised Land to the Arabs.

The rabbis also cited the halakha in the Jewish Code of Law Chapter 329, that the sanctity of life overrides all other considerations and giving up land has proven more than once that it leads to violence, bloodshed and instability.

“As rabbis we are committed to peace and to promoting peace, but a true and lasting peace, not one that will blow up in our faces before the ink of the agreement has a chance to dry,” they told the ambassador.

The Cause of Europeans' Attitude Towards Israel

Peter Martino  •  May 30, 2012 

Unfortunately, the Belgian attitude seems to be predominant in Europe today. Jewish religious practices are morally equated with intolerant Islamic behavior – but the Muslims are condoned while the Jews are criticized and the Jewish state is morally equated with Iran. The truth is deliberately misrepresented.

Last April, Belgium's Justice Minister, Annemie Turtelboom, and its Foreign Minister, Didier Reynders, went on an official visit to Morocco, where they had an appointment with Morocco's Prime Minister, Abdelilah Benkirane, the leader of the Islamist Justice and Development Party.

Benkirane refused to address Ms. Turtelboom because she is a woman; he talked exclusively to Mr Reynders. Benkirane's misogynous views are rooted in Koranic verses expressing contempt for women, considered only half the worth of men.

After Ms. Turtelboom had returned home, she admitted that although she had felt insulted, she had deliberately not responded to the humiliation to "avoid a diplomatic row." Indignant female Belgian parliamentarians of Moroccan origin demanded that the Belgian government protest the treatment of the minister. But both the minister and the government preferred to remain quiet and forget the incident.

When Israel had a champion at the UN

PETER COLLIER

Kirkpatrick defended Israel with unyielding critique of UN, charging anti-Israel diplomacy ‘has nothing to do with peace."

Photo: REUTERS

Jeane Kirkpatrick experienced an epiphany shortly after Ronald Reagan appointed her America’s permanent representative at the UN in 1981 when Israel’s ambassador Yehuda Blum came to her office for his first official visit.

She had been appalled during the previous four years by what she regarded as the Carter administration’s contemptuous attitude toward the Jewish state, and particularly by the way that preceding UN ambassadors Andrew Young and Donald McHenry had, respectively, criticized the Jewish state as “stubborn and intransigent” (and met secretly with the PLO representative), and voted for Resolution 465 condemning Israel’s occupation of “Arab territories including Jerusalem.”

 But she didn’t realize how deeply these attitudes had penetrated the US mission until she saw the way the career foreign service officers she inherited from the previous administration dismissively referred to Blum by his first name and rudely interrupted him on this first visit. She sternly pointed out to them that Blum was a Holocaust survivor who spoke nine languages, and angrily ordered them out of the room.

All of Israel is Palestinian land: PA song denying Israel's existence rebroadcast more than 25 times

http://www.palwatch.org/main.aspx?fi=157&doc_id=6914

by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik

Contrary to the Palestinian Authority's claim that it recognizes Israel's right to exist, PA TV and official cultural events continue to reinforce the message of non-recognition of Israel by depicting all of Israel as "Palestine."

This month marked the 27th broadcast by official PA TV of a song that presents all of Israel's land as Palestinian land. The song was originally performed at a Fatah event last year in the presence of PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and many other senior PA officials. The Palestinian singer declares that "my land" and "our coast" span from Rosh Hanikra in Israel's north to Rafah in the Gaza Strip in the south, and from Haifa on Israel's western coast to Beit Shean on Israel's eastern border. The fact that PA TV, which is under the direct control of Abbas' office, chose to broadcast this song numerous times, suggests the centrality of the song's message to PA ideology.

 Palestinian Media Watch has documented this ongoing PA policy of depicting a world in which "Palestine" exists and replaces all of Israel.

Click to view

The following are the words of the song:

"We commit and promise to stand behind you, oh Mahmoud Abbas, until Judgment Day. I am returning to you, the purest land, oh land of the free. No matter how long the nights of exile, I am returning to you, oh land. From Rafah to Rosh Hanikra (northern Israel) our coast, and Beit Shean (Israeli city). Above your soil, oh my land, is a picture of Garden of Eden. From Rafah to Rosh Hanikra our coast, and Beit Shean. Above your soil, oh my land, is a picture of Garden of Eden. From Rafah to Rosh Hanikra, north and south, are the picture's borders. From Haifa (Israeli city) and Tantura to the [Jordan] valley (i.e., all of Israel). I am returning to you, the purest land, oh land of the free."

[PA TV (Fatah), numerous times in 2011 and 2012,
most recent broadcast on May 12, 2012]

"UNRWA"

or years I have been part of a small cadre of determined individuals who saw clearly the damage being done by UNRWA -- the UN Relief and Work Agency for Palestinian Refugees.  Damage to prospects for peace in this region, and damage directly to Israel.

 

There is so much wrong with this agency that it's impossible to document it all in this post.  Suffice it to say the following:

 

UNRWA is the only international refugee agency in the world dedicated to one group of refugees -- the Palestinian Arab "refugees."  All other refugees are tended to by the UN High Commission for Refugees. And what's astounding is that UNRWA's rules for "its" refugees are different from the rules for all those other refugees.

"First, a Call for Prayer"

I've done this a few times lately, and each time the situation has been a crisis.  But the urgency of this situation transcends every other situation I've written about.

 

There is a boy of nine here in Israel who has been diagnosed with an aggressive cancer around his heart.  It was discovered because he had a persistent cough that would not go away.  Every major medical center -- including top flight places in the US -- that has had its doctors review the pictures (MRI, whatever), has said that it is inoperable.  They will not touch it.

 

The prognosis is so grim that the mother has made a decision to decline chemotherapy, so that he should not be made totally miserable in his last weeks or months.

 

There is, then, nothing but prayer.  And I ask it of each of you, and that you put out the word as extensively as possible.  Miracles do happen, and we cannot turn our back to that possibility. 

 

Pray for NOAM JAY BEN INBAR.

Reporter's Notebook: Studying Bible with Bibi

HERB KEINON

There is something both heartening and humorous about Netanyahu setting aside precious time to contemplate Ruth on Shavuot.

On Wednesday afternoon in Baghdad, a few thousand kilometers away from the Prime Minister’s Jerusalem Residence, the world powers known as the P5+1 – the US, China, Russia, France, Britain and Germany – sat down for much anticipated talks with the Iranians about their nuclear program. At the same time, just a few hundred meters away from the Prime Minister’s Residence, 100 or so people loudly demonstrated for the rights of Ethiopian immigrants and against discrimination.

IDF documents Palestinian using human shield

Censored video shows terrorist use woman as human shield while planting explosives. Soldiers irked by 'censorship'; IDF says not all footage taken by military is published

Yoav Zitun

Published:   Israel News

The IDF imposed an embargo on a video allegedly documenting a Palestinian terrorist using a Palestinian woman as a human shield, Ynet discovered Sunday.
Footage taken by IDF cameras in the area clearly shows the terrorist holding the woman hostage, carying her as a barrier between himself and IDF forces.
The video documents an incident that took place two weeks ago, near the Gaza border: Seven Palestinians planting explosive devices north of Beit Lahia were intercepted by IDF soldiers. The soldiers opened fire, injuring some of the men.



One of the wounded men at a Gaza hospital (Photo: AFP)

The footage shows the terrorists running toward a group of farmers. Then, one of them grabbed a woman and carried her until taking cover behind a building.

Golani Brigade soldiers, who are currently deployed in the sector, and have had the opportunity to see the footage, said it was clear that the woman was forced to run with her assailant until he found cover.

Palestinian Propagandizing Of American Children

http://maggiesfarm.anotherdotcom.com/archives/19823-Palestinian-Propagandizing-Of-American-Children.html

For those of you who, like I, enjoy “world music” it is saddening that a major venue in San Diego which largely targets children is sponsoring pro-Palestinian propaganda from a virulent anti-Israel, anti-US group operating under the misleading name Middle East Children’s Alliance. The WorldBeat Cultural Center sits on San Diego City property in Balboa Park and is funded by some prestigious foundations and corporate sponsors. This misuse of their funds, and reputations, deserves direct protests.

The Oakland Museum of Children’s Art had dropped this exhibit in October 2011, a Board member explaining:

[T]he museum canceled the show “because we lacked a formal policy for sensitive content and because were not confident that we had the resources to deal with the numerous concerns we received regarding the exhibit.”

 Rabbi James Brandt, CEO of the Jewish Community Federation of the Greater East Bay, was more direct in a joint statement with East Bay’s Jewish Community Relations Council and the Anti-Defamation League:

“A biased, one-sided perspective filled with depictions of violence has no place in a community-based museum dedicated to serving young children, including 3-, 4- and 5-year-olds,” the statement read…. 

 Even without the stars of David identifying the soldiers [which IDF soldiers do not wear], Brandt maintained, the violent images were “inappropriate for this age group.” As for the Jewish star, he said, “for children in our region… their immediate association is not with the State of Israel, but [with] their classmates who have Jewish stars on their T-shirts from our Jewish camps and after-school programs.” 

Did Muhammad Exist?

Reviewed by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

The American Spectator
May 25, 2012

http://www.meforum.org/3251/did-muhammad-exist

Go to a high-street or online bookstore, and one can find numerous biographies written about Muhammad -- the reputed founder of Islam -- by the likes of Karen Armstrong and Tariq Ramadan. These works -- generally apologetic in nature -- wholly rely on the traditional Islamic accounts of the Prophet's life, and if they ever delve into the question of the reliability of those sources, it is only in the hope of explaining away incidents in Muhammad's life that might come across as unsavory to modern readers.

Such an approach, however, simply will not do for genuine historical research. One cannot adopt a pick-and-mix method to determining what aspects of Muhammad's life actually occurred on moralistic grounds. It is in this respect that Robert Spencer's latest book differs from the writings of Armstrong and Ramadan.

Without indulging in polemics or pushing a partisan political agenda, the author simply investigates the question of whether we can really trust the traditional Islamic accounts for the life of Muhammad and the supposed early days of Islam during the Arab conquests.

To be sure, serious scholarship on Islamic historiography dates back to the latter half of the 19th century -- with the works of the Belgian Jesuit Henri Lammens and the acclaimed Geschichte des Qorans by Theodor Noldeke, to name just two pioneers of the field -- and Spencer makes no pretense to originality.

"Transcending the News"

There comes a time when it is important to move beyond the trap of current events and look higher.  Such a time is coming with the holiday of Shavuot, which will be celebrated on Sunday here in Israel, and also on Monday outside of Israel.

 

Shavuot marks the giving of the Torah to the Jewish people at Mount Sinai. 

 

 

It was a transformative and singular moment of direct revelation.  It involved all of the people of Israel, who were present and received the word of the Almighty with fear and trembling. 

 

~~~~~~~~~~

What Iran’s Rulers Want

Clifford D. May

 

It’s no longer possible to pretend we don’t know the intentions of Iran’s rulers. They are telling us — candidly, clearly, and repeatedly. Most recently last Sunday: Addressing a gathering in Tehran, Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, chief of staff of the Iranian armed forces, vowed the “full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end.”

A few days earlier, José Maria Aznar, former prime minister of Spain, during a presentation at the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, a respected Israeli think tank, recalled a “private discussion” in Tehran in October of 2000 with Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, who told him: “Israel must be burned to the ground and made to disappear from the face of the Earth.”

Dore Gold, the former Israeli ambassador to the U.N. who now heads the JCPA, wanted to be certain there was no misunderstanding. He asked Aznar: Was Khamenei suggesting “a gradual historical process involving the collapse of the Zionist state, or rather its physical-military termination?”

"And Here We See It"

It: the absolute intransigence, the lack of good intentions, the ultimate malevolence of Iran.

 

Today in Baghdad, the Iranians rejected a proposal that had been put forward by P5 + 1.  What was being sought by the international community was a cessation of enrichment of uranium to 20% (not even all enrichment!).  In return Iran would have received benefits such as medical isotopes and spare parts that Iran needs for its for civilian airliners.

 

But what Iran wanted was the easing of economic sanctions on Iranian oil export in return for Iranian pledges that UN inspectors would be permitted wider inspection of their facilities.  (Remember: agreeing to permit inspections is not agreeing to halt the process towards nuclear capability.)

 

The Iranians are saying that world powers are making the atmosphere "difficult." 

Fundamentally Freund: Tax and spend, Israel-style

MICHAEL FREUND

It isn’t enough that the taxman takes from you when you earn money, he also wants a larger piece of what you have left.

Photo: Courtesy

Just when Israel’s economic situation is facing some increasingly difficult challenges, along comes the Finance Ministry with plans to make things even worse.

With forecasts indicating that the country’s budget deficit in 2012 will come in more than 60 percent higher than previously anticipated, the number-crunchers at the Treasury are anxiously looking for ways to close the gap. Alarmed by a sharp drop in tax revenues, they have decided to do what bureaucrats with calculators do best: punch in higher figures and make the public toss yet more money into government coffers.

 Marshaling all the obtuseness at their disposal, the Treasury has floated a proposal to raise Israel’s value-added tax from 16% to 17% on July 1. This, they say, would bring the government a windfall estimated at NIS 2 billion this year, as well as a whopping 4 billion NIS in 2013.

Now at first glance this might not sound all that bad. After all, what is another 1% between friends? But that argument simply does not wash.

If a normal household experiences a drop in income and finds itself spending more than it takes in, the natural thing to do would be to reduce its outlays.

Why should government be any different in this regard? Is our bureaucracy so lean and efficient that there is simply no place left to cut? I doubt it.

Moreover, you do not need an advanced degree in economics to realize that increasing VAT will reduce consumer spending. When prices rise, demand falls. This means fewer jobs and less growth, which naturally results in... you guessed it: less government revenue down the road.

But the Treasury doesn’t appear to be giving much thought to “down the road,” preferring instead to focus on a short-term fix, even at the expense of long-term stability.

Indeed, raising VAT will only encourage greater tax evasion, driving more economic activity underground and under the table. It creates a greater incentive to cheat, further eroding standards of honesty and morality in the commercial sphere.

And then there is the question of fairness. VAT is essentially a tax on consumption.

But the government already taxes Israeli breadwinners on their income. In other words, it isn’t enough that the taxman takes from you when you earn money, he also wants a larger piece of what you have left when you choose to spend it on something.

And as many economists have pointed out, VAT is what is known as a regressive tax.

Since low-income individuals spend a larger proportion of what they earn on basic items needed for subsistence, a rise in VAT ends up hitting them harder.

If the Treasury does go ahead with the planned hike, it would be the third time in the past three years that the VAT rate has been changed. In the summer of 2009, it rose from 15.5% to 16.5%, before being lowered back to 16% at the start of 2010.

These erratic fluctuations also exact a price, as they make it harder for businesses and individuals to plan their economic horizons.

To be fair, the primary concern driving the Treasury is the desire to prevent Israel’s public debt from ballooning. In recent years, it has fallen steadily as a percentage of GDP to under 75%. But there are far better and more urgently needed ways to tame the deficit than to stick the taxpayers with a higher bill.

Israel still suffers from a bloated and inefficient public sector where waste is rampant, and our economy is being choked by monopolies, oligopolies, over-regulation and an overall lack of competition.

Hence, the Treasury would do best to wield an axe in the direction of the budget, and compel our 30 government ministries to tighten their belts.

Cutting the red tape and unleashing the entrepreneurial power of the Israeli public, rather than taxing them to death, would go a long way towards reinvigorating the economy.

In these challenging times, the Finance Ministry would do well to recall the words of Ronald Reagan, who told an audience at Kansas State University on September 9, 1982, that “Balancing the budget is a little like protecting your virtue. You just have to learn to say ‘no.’” The last thing we need is another round of taxing and spending, Israel-style.

If the Treasury is serious about cutting the deficit, then let it stop squandering money it doesn’t have before they dare to reach still deeper into peoples’ pockets. In this case, a little bit of fiscal discipline can go a long way.

Egypt: If There's No Danger of Radicalism and Islamism Why Can't You Provide Evidence?

Barry Rubin 

Consider one fact that demolishes the apparatus of nonsense about moderate Islamists and the credibility of those claiming there is nothing to worry about. These are the same people who have been declaring for more than a year that the Muslim Brotherhood is moderate. Yet now the Brotherhood's presidential campaign has shown it to be extraordinarily radical, openly demanding a caliphate and Egypt being a Sharia state. 

Suddenly the subject is changed. Nobody acknowledges that they were wrong about the Brotherhood. They focus now on a different candidate who we are told is the true moderate Islamist, as if their previous favorite "moderate Islamist" movement has now thrown off its camouflage.    

“Democracy, as Western democracies have long known,” wrote Shadi Hamid, in predicting a Brotherhood majority in the parliamentary election some months ago, “is about the right to make the wrong choice.” True. But foreign policy, as everyone has long known, is about dealing with the consequences of wrong outcomes and trying to prevent them if possible.

Knesset passes bill granting tax benefits to settlement donations

Bill initiator MK Zeev Elkin says legislation meant to make amends for lack of institutional support for settlement enterprise
Moran Azulay

 

The Knesset plenum on Monday passed in second and third reading a bill to amend the Income Tax Act, by which those who donate to settlements will enjoy tax benefits.

The initiator of the bill, Coalition Chairman MK Zeev Elkin (Likud), said that it aims to make amends for the lack of legislation that supports the settlement enterprise, although the government declared it as a top national priority.

 

Organizations that wish to construct new mosques – like the Islamic Movement or other charity groups that funnel money to Hamas – receive tax breaks, while organizations that want to settle the Negev and Galilee fall between the chairs," he said.