Christian Century editor blogs with virulent anti-Semites

theoptimisticconservative 

I’ve been watching this one from the sidelines for the last couple of weeks, hoping the leadership at Christian Century would take it seriously when the organization CAMERA notified the venerable Christian publisher than one of its editors, James M. Wall, blogs at a site where anti-Semitism is rampant.
Veterans News Now, which purports to have the interests of American military veterans at heart, is a hotbed of conspiracy theories, 9/11 Truther-ism, and anti-Semitism.  CAMERA highlights one particularly ugly post by someone named Mike Stathis, “Zionist Washington Ensuring End of America,” from June 2011.  See the link for CAMERA’s samples from the post; it is stuffed from beginning to end with the full complement of memes and themes in anti-Semitic demagoguery.  The passage I quote here might have been lifted directly from Nazi propaganda ca. 1935:

Israeli prime minister Netanyahu gets flak for yielding to China

John Reed Benjamin Netanyahu faces a domestic political scandal with possible international repercussions after news emerged that his government withdrew a witness in a US lawsuit brought on behalf of terrorism victims after facing pressure from China. On Monday an Israeli government official and a lawyer representing the victims confirmed a newspaper report this weekend that the Chinese government threatened to cancel a visit by the Israeli prime minister to China in May if he allowed a former intelligence official to testify against Bank of China in a New York court. Mr Netanyahu called Michael Oren, his ambassador, back to Jerusalem for a meeting on Sunday after Yedioth Ahronoth, an Israeli newspaper, broke the story, which will be embarrassing for a politician who has made the fight against Islamist terror groups a hallmark of his three terms in office. The Israeli prime minister’s office declined to comment on the affair.

3100 Year Old City Could Date Back to David and Solomon

One of the world's most famous battles took place in this area, between David and Goliath.

By: Yori Yanover

The southern city gate, a typical four-chamber Iron Age gate, with the Valley of Elah in front.
Photo Credit: Institute of Archaeology, Hebrew University

During the past 30 years, the biblical narrative relating to the establishment of a kingdom in Biblical Judea has been the subject of many debates among hostorians and archaeologists. Were David and Solomon historical figures, rulers of an urbanized state-level society in the early 10th century BCE, or did the dwellers of Eretz Israel reach this level of social development only at the end of the 8th century BCE, a whole 300 years later?

Israeli Lacrosse team may forfeit world cup game on Sabbath‏

Toronto, July 18 2013 -- B'nai Brith Canada looks forward to the excitement 
about to play out on the Oshawa field tonight as Canada meets Israel in the 
women's Lacrosse World Cup competitions. Both teams have shown amazing 
athletic ability and team spirit in reaching this point in the competition. 
Now that it is certain that the Israeli squad will qualify for the 
championship rounds, the team has stated that it will stand by its vow to 
respect the Jewish Sabbath despite the fact that they will likely be forced 
to forfeit the game in light of the refusal of the governing Federation of 
International Lacrosse to accommodate.

The IDF’s Night’s Watch: Israel’s Eyes in the North

Israel Defense Forceshttp://www.idfblog.com/2013/07/18/the-idfs-nights-watch-israels-eyes-in-the-north/
 

When terrorists from Lebanon raided the Israeli northern coastal city of Nahariya, Cpl. Rotem Saidon’s relatives were among the victims. This dark chapter in her family’s history has given Saidon, a soldier in the Israeli Navy, an incomparable perspective of what it means to defend Israel from attack by sea.

It is often said that every Israeli citizen knows someone who was killed or injured in battle or a terror attack. That is why for many Israelis, defending their homeland is not just a national imperative – it is a personal obligation. So it is for Cpl. Rotem Saidon, a Command and Control Center operator in the Israeli Navy.

With 70 percent of the state’s eight million citizens settled in the country’s narrow coastal plain, the Israeli Navy bears an immense responsibility for national security. Especially on Israel’s sensitive northern border with Lebanon – which extends many kilometers into the sea – the work of the naval soldiers who monitor the waters from the IDF’s command and control center is truly vital to the nation’s defense.

FGM Debate Continues in Muslim Lands

Irfan Al-Alawi
July 18, 2013 at 3:00 am

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The Al-Azhar authorities stated in 1997 that cutting female sexual organs -- even partially -- has no foundation in Islam, is medically harmful, and should not be carried out. "Everyone pretends like it never happened."

While overshadowed apparently by the general civil conflict over the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) regime in Egypt, the spreading problem of female genital mutilation (FGM) has recently shaken the land of the Nile.
Yet the mass upsurge against the tyrannical fundamentalism of the MB is related, however obscurely, to the protests against FGM.

"Will the EU Reverse?"

Let's wait and see...

 

Prime Minister Netanyahu delivered a satisfactorily firm response to the EU announcement of new "guidelines" on areas past the Green Line (emphasis added):

"I would expect those who truly want peace and stability in the region would discuss this issue after solving more
urgent regional problems such as the civil war in Syria or Iran's race to achieve nuclear weapons. As the Prime Minister of Israel, I will not allow the hundreds of thousands of Israelis who live in Judea and Samaria, on the Golan Heights and in Jerusalem, our united capital, to be harmed. We will not accept any outside diktat about our borders. This issue will be decided only in direct negotiations between the sides."
http://imra.org.il/story.php3?id=61529

White House Hosts Array of Muslims With Terrorist Links

The White House has welcomed the Muslim Brotherhood, Gama’at al-Islamiyya and a Saudi clan whose sons fight for al-Qaeda. 

 

By Clare Lopez 

 

Related Stories

• Report: Muslim Brotherhood to Form Rebel Egyptian Army
• U.S. Tells Egypt to Stop Arrests of Muslim Brotherhood Members
• Egyptian Revolution Triggers Unexpected Regional Realignment
• Morsi Supporters Vow Jihad and to Burn Christians

Headlines

• White House Hosts Array of Muslims With Terrorist Links
• Report: Muslim Brotherhood to Form Rebel Egyptian Army
• U.S. Tells Egypt to Stop Arrests of Muslim Brotherhood Members
• Imam on Jerusalem's Temple Mount Incites Hundreds

The world watched a stunning demonstration of Saudi financial muscle following the Egyptian coup d’état in early July 2013, as it pumped some $5 billion into bare Egyptian coffers in a single day. The timing and the display left little doubt that Saudi royals, who’d been deeply alarmed at the Muslim Brotherhood takeover of Egypt, have been very busy indeed behind the scenes with the Egyptian military.
Saudi alarm likely had as much to do with the chaos in Egyptian streets as it did with the Morsi Brotherhood regime’s burgeoning relationship with Iran, the Saudi nemesis in the Persian Gulf, Syria, and perhaps above all, in the nuclear weapons business.

With Egypt now deeply dependent on the Saudis and its other Gulf benefactors, like the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Kuwait, the muddled U.S. position that remains stuck on Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood (MB) becomes less tenable by the day.

'Startup Tel Aviv' revealed

What is it about the White City on the Mediterranean that has turned it into the Silicon Valley of the Middle East?

By ISRAEL21c Staff

Tackling the tough challenges in Startup Tel Aviv. Photo by Flash90.

With more than 600 tech startups in its 20 square miles, Tel Aviv is second only to California’s Silicon Valley, attracting investment and guidance from giants including Google and eBay.

Claims Conference: Has it No Shame?

by Isi Leibler
July 17, 2013
http://wordfromjerusalem.com/?p=4731

For more than a decade, there have been passionate pleas for the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, the organization responsible since its inception for the distribution of over $70 billion of restitution payments, to review its management, governance and oversight procedures and prioritize the distribution of discretionary funds so that aged Holocaust survivors desperately in need of assistance could live out their remaining years with a modicum of dignity.

ZOA Urges State Dept: Stop Referring to Eastern J'lem As "Palestinian Territories"

The Zionist Organization of America (ZOA) has written to the State Department urging them to stop referring to eastern Jerusalem as “Palestinian Territories.” Eastern Jerusalem is actually the eastern half of the city of Jerusalem, including the ancient Jewish section populated by over 200,000 Jews, the Temple Mount and the Western Wall, Judaism's holiest sites. The ZOA has described this usage as factually and legally inaccurate, politically biased and prejudicial to the prospect of genuine peace negotiations.

New EU directive about Israeli settlements raises serious questions

Missing Peace

On Tuesday Israeli media reported that the European Union is about to issue a new directive which conditions all future cooperation agreements with Israel on the directive that they not include Israeli settlements on the Golan Heights and the West Bank.
The directive to all member countries forbids the financing, giving of scholarships, cooperation, research stipends and prizes to anyone residing in Judea and Samaria and east Jerusalem, Haaretz reported on Tuesday.
According to the directive, any future agreement signed with Israel must include a clause stipulating that the settlements are not part of the sovereign state and are not included in the agreement.

"Tisha B'Av"

Today is the saddest day on the Jewish calendar.  A day of mourning and fasting.  It is the day on which the Temples were destroyed, and, traditionally, is seen as the time at which a number of other calamities have fallen the Jewish people.

 

We are taught that the Second Temple was destroyed in 70 CE because of sinat hinam -- causeless hatred between Jews. 

 

Credit: bleon

 

And it is this that I want to address here before going on to other matters.

 

~~~~~~~~~~

 

It is difficult for me to write this, but I must. For healing cannot proceed without acknowledgement of what is happening.

Individual Rights vs. the Barrel of a Gun

Ali Salim

When, as Arabs, we see how Western society agonizes over everything concerning the legal system and the rights of the individual, we can only conclude that democracy is a recipe for self-destruction, and that the last thing we should do is adopt it. It seems obvious that we should use the West's lack of commitment to its own existence to finalize Islam's global mission.

How Dare Israel Put Its Interests Ahead of US Foreign Policy!

Kevin Jon Heller Ah, hypocrisy — thy name is the United States. First up, US anger at Israel for not supporting a lawsuit concerning allegations that the Bank of China laundered money for Hamas and Islamic Jihad: Israeli Ambassador to the US Michael Oren was called back to Israel to take part in an emergency meeting convened this weekend by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu so that Oren could pass on  messages sent by the US administration and Congress in the wake of tensions between the two countries. The tensions and lightening visit stem from the US’s outrage at Israel’s decision to back out of their commitment to a terror prosecution involving the allegedly laundering monies for Hamas so that Netanyahu and his family could embark on their State visit to the country last May. This weekend Nahum Barnea and Shimon Shiffer from Yedioth Ahronoth broke the story and revealed that the Chinese government threatened to cancel Netanyahu’s visit if Israel refused to promise that senior Israeli defense officials would refrain from testifying against the Bank of China in a federal court trial currently underway in New York.

Pakistan: Violations against Christians Soar

by Mohshin Habib

She is on death row for a comment that Jesus Christ is not dead but that the Prophet Mohammed is dead. Pakistan is now one of the most dangerous places for Christians to live.

Rimsha Masih, a young Pakistani Christian girl, who was arrested in August 2012 by Pakistan's police for alleged blasphemy, has escaped the country with the direct help of Canadian Immigration Minister Jason Kenney and AVAAZ, a civic organization. Local media and her parents said she was as young as 11 at the time of her arrest; medical reports classified her as an "uneducated" 14-year-old with a mental age younger than her years. Accused of burning pages of the holy book for Muslims, the Quran, Masih, under Pakistan's "blasphemy laws," faced the death penalty.

Terror Group Gaza rocket fired at Israel Photo: AP Gaza rocket fired at Israel Photo: AP Get Breaking News Alerts to Your Desktop Red email - send us news tips Hamas manufacturing rockets that can reach Tel Aviv

Terror group testing medium to long range M75 rockets that can reach Tel Aviv metropolitan area
Yoav Zitun

 Hamas is testing medium to long range missiles that are designed to reach Tel Aviv, Ynet has learned. The group manufactures its own 8-inch M75 rockets and stores them in special caches in the Gaza Strip.

IDF Chief of Staff Benny Gantz said Monday that while there is calm in Gaza, Hamas continues to enhance its capabilities "less through tunnels and more through self-production."

The American Deep State

Sultan Knish

-->

Few myths are as beloved among liberals as the idea that wars could be put down to a conspiracy of defense contractors. Throw together Haliburton, Northrop Grumman and GE along with some retired generals and you have the makings of your next war.

The fabled military-industrial complex was a dimwitted descendant of the WW1 era Socialist notion

that wars were the product of industrialists and without them, the working peoples of every country would naturally get along.  Then came WW2, which was fought between a Communist empire, a National Socialist oligarchy, a Socialist American government and a Britain that would kick out Churchill as soon as the war was over and swap him out for Labour and the Socialist dream.

None of these Socialist or aspiring Socialist systems could get along. The Nazis and Commies had started out by looting their own citizens, the Nazis based on religion and ethnicity, and the Commies, based on these things and a thousand others, and the mere existence of wealth, and when all that money was gone, and the paintings were sold and the only hope lay in sending tanks across the border, went to war.

PA Arab Women Infiltrators Disguised as Observant Jews

Two PA Arab women disguised as observant Jews caught attempting to bypass security checks

By Chana Ya'ar 

Arab women

Two Palestinian Authority Arab women disguised as observant Jews tried to infiltrate pre-1967 Israel through the Hizme checkpoint in Samaria (Shomron) recently – but an alert security officer caught them.

The IDF and Border Police invest massive efforts into protecting the barriers that separate the Palestinian Authority from areas of pre-1967 Israel, and PA officials are intent on transforming those lines into permanent borders – if not pushing them back even farther.

Nevertheless, PA Arabs work hard to infiltrate into the other side of the barrier, where much of Israel’s Jewish population resides.

In this instance, an officer of the Gal Battalion waved the #143 public bus over to the side of the road for a routine security check before allowing it through the Hizme checkpoint in Samaria.

While heading towards the back of the bus, he notice two women wearing the hair covering that is common to observant Jewish women. At least one was holding a siddur, a Jewish prayer book.

Irresponsible Narratives and the Lives they Impact

-->

GS Don Morris, Ph.D.

I find it interesting how people determine narratives around issues, people, situations and circumstances. Everyone does it; many create their positions driven by highly motivated agendas. Others create their narratives based upon minimal information and still others assume the publicly shared position shared by a psychologically important person in their lives. Many people simply adopt the most convenient and non-threatening narrative available-you see even this allows one to believe he/she is being socially responsible.

Ah, but there are flaws with each of these approaches and what goes wanting is the truth, authentic justice and courage of one’s own convictions. Multiply this by a population and one can better understand why a society and/or a culture collapse over time.

Let us examine the concept of narrative development. Common to all of the preceding descriptions are that words alone are used to create narratives. Furthermore, the selected words are derived from a person’s personal choice of the words available to each one of us-it is a conscious and deliberate choice, well at least for those who are “paying attention” and not simply “going along with the crowd”.

Cabinet approves Negev civilian development plan

By HERB KEINON

Plan includes move of 10,000 soldiers from Tzrifin training bases to mega-base being built south of Beersheba.

Entrance to IDF base Photo: REUTERS/Eliana Aponte

 

The cabinet on Sunday approved a half billion shekel, five-year civilian development plan for the Negev, which will complement the multi-billion shekel plan to move much of the country’s military infrastructure from the center of the country to the south.

Under the plan, industrial zones will be subsidized, three new industrial parks will be developed, and subsidies for hi-tech workers will be used as incentives for companies to move to the Negev.

Some 10,000 soldiers are scheduled to move from instruction bases in Tzrifin to a huge mega-base being built 20 kilometers south of Beersheba.

ADL Blasts ‘Vehemently Anti-Semitic’ TV Show ‘Khaybar’ Currently Airing in Middle East

  http://www.algemeiner.com/2013/07/12/adl-blasts-vehemently-anti-semitic-tv-show-khaybar-currently-airing-in-middle-east/

Scene during filming of upcoming Khaybar series.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) Thursday condemned as “vehemently anti-Semitic” the TV miniseries “Khaybar” currently being aired in the Middle East and across the Arab World.

“With Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East going through historical upheavals, it is absurd and outrageous that the entertainment of the Ramadan season promotes the Muslim subjugation of caricatured Jews,” said Abraham H. Foxman, ADL National Director.

Peaceful, Huh?

Aussie Dave

Kafr Qaddum is a palestinian village in the “West Bank” and the site of weekly protests, which pro-palestinian websites characterize as “peaceful”, but at which the IDF regularly finds itself taking action.
According to Israeli website 0404, the following video was taken there last week.
Click here to view video

Translation: This is what they are taught in schools in the West Bank: to harm IDF soldiers. Yesterday was “Festival” in Kafr Qaddum. Many of the villagers came to listen to lectures inciting against Israel, the people of Israel and of course IDF soldiers. Highlight of the evening came in the form of a show with the participation of children. They demonstrated how to attack IDF soldiers using stones and slingshots. Harm the soldiers until the soldiers fall to the ground, take their weapons, and the rest is obvious.

I think we can understand better from this how truly “peaceful” their protests – and intentions – are.

"Give Me a Break!"

Yesterday I wrote about the fact that Netanyahu is making one last effort to secure a toughening of the US stance on Iran, thus: 

 

"Israel desperately wants to see the Obama Administration harden its position on Iran immediately — to convey to Iran that if it does not halt its nuclear program, its regime will not survive....'increased pressure on Iran,' led by the US, notably including the revival of 'a real military threat'"

 

Today we see a response from US officials, ostensibly designed to reassure our government:  Don't worry, they are saying, we're not going to ease the sanctions on Iran, even if we do want to "test" Rohani with direct talks that will take his measure.

 

“'We are open to direct talks, and we want to reinforce this in any way [we can],' a senior US official said, adding that the administration sees 'words that indicate Iran might be going in a different direction.'"

 

http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-to-step-up-pressure-on-iran-seek-direct-talks/

 

Educating Daniel Pipes On Islamic Antisemitism

by Andrew Bostom

It is common knowledge to every schoolboy and even every Bachelor of Arts,
That all sin is divided into two parts.One kind of sin is called a sin of commission, and that is very important,
And it is what you are doing when you are doing something you ortant,
And the other kind of sin is just the opposite and is called a sin of omission
and is equally bad in the eyes of all right-thinking people, from
Billy Sunday to Buddha,
And it consists of not having done something you shuddha
—Ogden Nash

Writing in the Toronto Sun (published 5/16/13) Farzana Hassan claimed Daniel Pipes’ most recent pronouncement on the subject, ostensibly, of “Islamic Antisemitism,” was as follows:
He said the religion of Islam itself is not inherently hostile to Jews, and Muslim Antisemitism scarcely existed before the establishment of the state of Israel.
Pipes, however, subsequently claimed Hassan’s account of his talk to the “Muslim Committee Against Antisemitism,” was “sympathetic, but inaccurate.”

Daniel Pipes doth protest Ms. Hassan’scharacterization far too much.

Never denying that he spoke the actual words Hassan claimed, Pipes instead provided this purely casuistic response that avoids the logical implication of his alleged words—and in fact reinforces Hassan’s interpretation of their meaning!

Israel Vindicated: 1948 as told by those who lived it

 by Phillipe Assouline

Robert F. Kennedy, martyred liberal icon, was a reporter for the Boston Post in 1948. He was sent in the spring of that year to Mandatory Palestine to cover the lead up to the British withdrawal. His dispatches are a fascinating glimpse back in time and invaluable historical records.  And yet they are also a testament to the ideological stagnation of the Arab world vis a vis Israel.

Then, as now, Israelis saw themselves as fighting for survival against irrational enmity. Then as now, the Arab world abounded in hostility to the very idea of a Jewish presence in its midst which it justified by casting itself as the victim of Western conspiracies.  R.F.K.’s accounts and other primary sources would appear to vindicate Israel’s version of events.

At the heart of Arab grievances against Zionism lay the claim that an indigenous people (the Palestinian Arabs) were ethnically cleansed by Zionist colonialists aided by the West. Zionists have long held that, though the Holy Land was not empty at the dawn of political Zionism, the Turkish backwater was in no way inhabited by a distinct people, nor did the Zionists ever adopt a policy of ethnic cleansing.

Kennedy in his first dispatch, puts the Arab claim (which was perhaps more controversial then) to rest almost as an afterthought:

Egypt crisis brings Fatah, Hamas tensions to new high

By KHALED ABU TOAMEH
  
PA official: Hamas meddling in Cairo’s internal affairs; Egypt crisis dashes hopes of reconciliation between Fatah and Hamas; on Temple Mount in Jerusalem, hundreds of Muslims demonstrate against ousted Morsi during prayers.

Palestinian Fatah members carry their weapons as they take part in a parade. Photo: REUTERS

The crisis in Egypt has aggravated tensions between Fatah and Hamas, dashing hopes of reconciliation between the rival Palestinian parties.
While Fatah supports the military coup that toppled the Muslim Brotherhood regime, Hamas has come out in favor of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

Related:

• Fatah calls on Palestinians to overthrow Hamas in wake of Morsi's fall
• Palestinian official: Egypt turmoil leaves Hamas high and dry

During Friday’s prayers at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, hundreds of Muslims staged a demonstration in support of Morsi.