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Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 06, 2017 23 Comments
In July 2016 I documented a growing tactic in the anti-Israel movement, to blame Israel for domestic U.S. police shootings of blacks, such as Michael Brown in Ferguson. The tactic, meant to exploit preexisting racial tension and stoke anti-Semitism to turn people against Israel, had been many years in the making, as I wrote in Exposed: Years-long effort to blame Israel for U.S. police shootings of blacks:
... there has been a multi-year effort by left-wing and Islamist anti-Israel, anti-Zionist, and openly anti-Semitic activists to hijack racial tensions in the United States and redirect that anger towards Israel. That effort has been on overdrive since the shooting of Michael Brown in Ferguson and is accomplished through a combination of false and misleading statements regarding the militarization of domestic U.S. police departments and U.S. police training in Israel.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 04, 2017 8 Comments
At Cornell we mostly have great students. This is a story about some of those great students at an Israel Independence Day event who reacted in a powerful way when a small group of students from the anti-Israel Students for Justice in Palestine disrupted the event. You may recall that there have been problems with anti-Israel activists on campus disrupting any positive event about Israel. Anti-Israel activists were the vanguard of the campus anti-free speech movement, as I documented in With campus shout downs, first they came for the Jews and Israel. At places like Berkeley, Jewish students have to find non-disclosed locations for pro-Israel events. Intimidation tactics by anti-Israel students have not been as big a problem at Cornell as on some other campuses, but a dozen or twenty people can cause a lot of trouble. In November 2014, anti-Israel students, assisted by Ithaca activists, tried to physically intimidate pro-Israel students. I covered the story, Cornell Pro-Israel students taunted: “F**k You Zionist scums” (Video at the link).

Posted by David Gerstman on May 04, 2017 10 Comments
President Donald Trump appeared to rebuke Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas at least three times in their joint statement on Wednesday. First, at the beginning of his remarks, Trump recalled the Oslo Accords:
Almost 24 years ago, it was on these grounds that President Abbas stood with a courageous peacemaker, then-Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. Here at the White House, President Abbas signed a Declaration of Principles -- very important -- which laid the foundation for peace between the Israelis and Palestinians.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on May 01, 2017 6 Comments
Today is Yom Hazikaron, Israel's Memorial Day in which Israelis stop to remember the 23,169 fallen soldiers and victims of terror. An estimated 1.5 million Israelis visited cemeteries. A siren was heard throughout the country, and people came to a standstill on highways, in markets, and elsewhere to stand in silence.

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 30, 2017 10 Comments
Last week, the three Israeli paratroopers whose images were photographed as they stood in silent awe in front of Jerusalem’s Western Wall (the Kotel) shortly after its capture during the Six-Day War returned to the Old City to remember the moment and reenact the famous picture. In prior posts, we highlighted how on June 7, 1967 the three 20-something reserve duty soldiers—Zion Karasenti, Haim Oshri, and Yitzhak Yifat—inadvertently became the symbols of the Jewish people’s fulfilment of a 2,000 year old dream when the Kotel and the many other Jewish holy sites in east Jerusalem were liberated from an unjust and unlawful Jordanian occupation. As we noted, it happened when the late David Rubinger, a savvy photographer at the start of his career, also happened to be at the right place at the right time. He managed to capture what became the defining image of Israel’s extraordinary 1967 military victory and one of the most significant moments in modern Israeli and Jewish history:

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 25, 2017 10 Comments
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called off talks with the visiting German Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel over his insistence on meeting anti-Israel NGOs. Netanyahu had previously urged Gabriel not to meet with organizations that are involved in anti-Israel activism. According to German newspaper Die Zeit, “Netanyahu tried to reach Gabriel on the phone on Tuesday, but the Foreign Minister refused to talk.” Disregarding his host's request, Gabriel went ahead with his plans to meet the representatives from Breaking the Silence and B'Tselem, two groups fueling anti-Israel activism and the boycott campaign. Gabriel, who also holds the position of Germany’s Vice Chancellor, serves as the chairman of Germany’s Social Democratic Party (SPD) -- Chancellor Angela Merkel’s junior coalition partner.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 20, 2017 38 Comments
Terrorist mastermind Marwan Barghouti has organized a mass hunger strike by over 1000 imprisoned Palestinian terrorists. He announced the hunger strike in The NY Times, which initially refused to list in his bio that he was in prison for 5 murders, NY Times gives Palestinian terrorist Marwan Barghouti platform to announce hunger strike. Barghouti is considered a leading candidate to become president of the Palestinian Authority after Mahmoud Abbas, and the hunger strike is seen as a way to position himself politically. The  Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs detailed Barghouti's terror activities:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 18, 2017 6 Comments
Marwan Barghouti, mastermind of much of the violence of the Second Intifada, got away relatively easy. He "only" was sentenced to 5 life sentences for murder, plus 40 years for running a terrorist organization. He was charged with much more, but in his public civilian court trial, the Israeli judge only found him guilty of charges for which there was definitive proof. You can read the judicial finding of guilt here. But Marwan Barghouti isn't just a murderer, he's also a liar.

Posted by Leslie Eastman on April 15, 2017 0 Comments
Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, will become the first non-citizen to light a torch during Israel’s main Independence Day ceremony this year.
Hier, who in January delivered a prayer during the inauguration of President Donald Trump in Washington, DC, is one of three individuals selected for the honor by the Ministry of Culture and Sport, the Calcalist financial supplement of the Yediot Acharonot daily reported Friday.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on April 11, 2017 5 Comments
On May 13, 2016, we reported on the death of Mustafa Badreddine at an airport in Syria, Another top Hezbollah commander killed – but who dunnit?
There have been a series of assinations of top Hezbollah commanders in the recent past, including Imad Mughniyeh (mastermind of almost all attacks on Israel and the U.S.), his son Imad Mughniyeh (who was killed along with several high level operatives and an Iranian general), Hassan Laqqis (key Hezbollah link to Iranian weapons procurement) and Samir Kuntar (who killed an Israeli girl by smashing her head against the rocks on a beach).

Posted by Miriam Elman on April 09, 2017 11 Comments
Jewish Voice for Peace (JVP) is a non-Jewish organization that undermines the fight against, and enables, antisemitism by legitimizing and mainstreaming the anti-Israel movement’s assault on Jewish identity. JVP presents itself as a social justice organization committed to non-violence and peace. But as we’ve documented in dozens of posts, its tactics and affiliations tell a different story. JVP masquerades as merely devoted to ending Israel’s ‘occupation’ of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank when what it really wants is to end Israel. Its leadership and activists frequently promote and partner with extremist individuals and groups that demonize the Jewish state and delegitimize Zionism, while trafficking in negative stereotypes of Jews.

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on April 07, 2017 4 Comments
In what is being described as the largest single defense deal in Israel’s history, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) has secured a defense contract worth almost $2 billion from India. Under the contract, IAI will equip the Indian Armed Forces with long and medium-range missile defense systems that have been developed through a joint Israeli-Indian partnership. IAI has been supportive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s efforts to strengthen the Indian manufacturing base, also known as ‘Make in India’ initiative. "The current contracts represent an enormous expression of confidence by the Government of India in IAI's capabilities and advanced technologies which are being developed with our local partners as part of the Indian Government's 'Make in India' policy." IAI's CEO Yossi Weiss said.

Posted by David Gerstman on March 27, 2017 12 Comments
New United Ambassador to the UN Nikki Haley wowed the audience at AIPAC this evening, saying "The days of Israel-bashing are over," in a conversation with former Defense Department official Dan Senor. Haley told Senor that while she had heard that there was anti-Israel bias at the UN "you can’t comprehend how ridiculous it is.”
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