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Israel Tag

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 19, 2014 6 Comments
We reported previously on Anti-Israel student group suspended at Northeastern for vandalism, intimidation, disruption. That group was Northeastern Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP). Ilya Feoktistov has an excellent write-up on the group at FrontPage Mag, including images of its leader, law student Max Geller, wearing a Hezbollah t-shirt and carrying a weapon in the Palestinian Territories. A rally in support of Northeastern SJP was held on March 18. The rally was hyped in advance by anti-Israel websites like Mondoweiss and Electronic Intifada, and among branches at SJP at numerous universities. The co-sponsors included a wide range of left-wing groups: Northeastern SJP Rally Press Release Co Sponsors The expectation was that there would be a mass rally. It didn't turn out that way. There were at most about 200 protesters according to participants. It's pretty obvious from photos and video that many if not most of the protesters were not even students, but a coalition of local (and rather aged) activists and some union members with gripes unrelated to Israel: Calling the President of Northeastern a "Zionist Goon," as reflected in the video, was bad enough, and was typical of the attacks. https://twitter.com/conorkelly94/status/445931489898024960 Chanting "Long Live the Intifada" was much worse.  The Second Intifada alone caused the deaths of approximately 1000 Israelis and 3000 Palestinians. Supporters of Venezuela and the Hugo Chavez socialism agenda were handing out flyers:

Posted by 0387erp on March 17, 2014 7 Comments
The anti-Israel Boycott, Divest and Sanction movement has been trying to intimidate celebrities, including musicians, into not visiting or playing in Israel. Through social media, the BDS crowd tries to create the impression of widespread support and to isolate the celebrities. Those social media strategies can be resisted by showing social media support for the celebrities. About six weeks ago, in the days leading up to the Super Bowl, I launched the "I support Scarlett Johansson against the haters" Facebook page. At that point it was just myself and three friends inviting our friends and encouraging them to do the same, with the half-serious goal of getting 10,000 likes in about three and a half days. We exceeded our goal by 50% and today have steadily climbed toward 32,000. I-support-scarlett-johansson-facebook So when word started circulating that an anti-Israel, BDS hate group was preparing to pressure Neil Young into canceling his upcoming summer show in Tel Aviv with a petition of about 6,000 people...it was a piece of cake to call upon an already established base of people instead of having to start from scratch. It took the BDS crowd almost two months to pull together 6,000 people; we blew past them in a week and are still growing, I support Neil Young against the haters. I Support Neil Young against the haters Facebook Page Banner The key thing is that we did this with no budget, no advertising and no infrastructure of any kind, while the BDS movement (the ubiquitous "haters") have an organization, a staff and allegedly an army of volunteers. This may seem surprising, but it really shouldn't be.

Posted by David Gerstman on March 15, 2014 11 Comments
During the past year, three English speaking heads of state have spoken in Israel. Nearly a year ago, President Barack Obama addressed the people of Israel in the Jerusalem's International Convention Center. In January, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper addressed the Knesset. This week British Prime Minister David Cameron did too. The contrasts between the President Obama's speech and those of Harper and Cameron are striking. First of all, President Obama chose to forego addressing the Knesset on his first state visit to Israel. According to Jay Carney, “The president will speak to all of the Israeli people in front of an audience of young Israelis who … have it within their hands the power to shape Israel’s future." In other words, President Obama doesn't like the direction Israel is taking (Israel held election two months earlier) and will seek to engage Israelis who may be more receptive to his message that Israel's elected leaders. Although the president was addressing university students, he refused to allow students from Ariel University attend his speech. To be sure, President Obama said many of the right things in his speech. He even acknowledged that Israeli efforts at making peace resulted instead in being "... faced terror and rockets." But these professions of sympathy come across as perfunctory.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 12, 2014 5 Comments
We previously reported on the profanity-laced shout-down of Professor Alan Johnson at National University of Ireland at Galway by anti-Israel activist Joseph Loughnane. If you haven't seen the video yet, watch it. It's a microcosm of the culture of anti-Israel intimidation on many campuses, fostered by anti-Israel faculty propagandists pushing their policial agenda at places such as conferences run by NYU and the American Studies Assocation. (Language Warning) ) Professor Johnson, the subject of this abuse, has written a blog post about the incident and what he believes was behind it, BDS bullies at Galway University:
Third, ‘Israel’ and ‘Palestine’ have become tied up with the performance of political identity in the West in a most dangerous way. ‘The Palestinians’ are a stage on which the BDS activists act out their identity. To make that possible, ‘The Palestinians’ must be reduced to pure victims of the evil Nazi-Israelis. For only those kind of Palestinians can enable feelings of moral superiority, purity, quest, meaning, even transcendence of sorts. Palestinians being starved by Assad hold no interest. Palestinians being thrown from rooftops by Hamas members hold no interest. When Salam Fayyad is building up the Palestinian Nation the BDS activists just yawn, or denounce him as a collaborator. Only as agency-less pure victims can the Palestinians play their allotted role as a screen onto which the individual projects his or her identity of the righteous activist. It is the Palestinians misfortune that they have become this.
[caption id="attachment_80976" align="alignnone" width="488"](Professor Alan Johnson being shouted down at NUIG-Galway) (Professor Alan Johnson being shouted down at NUIG-Galway)[/caption] As I previously reported, NUIG-Galway has promised an investigation and condemned the conduct. In my follow-up, however, NUIG-Galway declined to provide details or even to commit to making the result public, although it did clarify its prior statement by adding that the investigation will include violations of the student code, as follows (in part):

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 11, 2014 10 Comments
The announcement recently by Mahmoud Abbas that the Palestinians never, ever would recognize a Jewish state garnered plenty of headlines. It quickly was followed up by a similar announcement from the Arab League and Fatah party. Watch this speech by Abbas, which led to the headlines, and read the text. It appears that the peace negotiations were a farce from the get-go. Abbas is in favor of the 1 1/2 state solution -- one for the Palestinians in the West Bank and Gaza, and another half a Palestinian state within Israel itself through the unfettered and unrestricted "return" of 1948 refugess in the war started by the Arab plus their descendents. It is clear that any peace deal only is a first step. Abbas, the supposedly most moderate Palestinian leader Israel is likely to see (according to Obama-Kerry), does not accept a Jewish national entity. That's the bottom line. Transcript via MEMRI:
Mahmoud Abbas: "Our position is that the settlements – from start to finish – are illegal. They talk about settlement blocs, or about settlements here and there, but we say that every house and every stone that were placed in the West Bank since 1967 and to this day are illegal and we do not recognize them." […] "No resolution that we agree upon with the others will be passed unless it is confirmed by popular referendum of all the Palestinians worldwide." Applause […]

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 09, 2014 12 Comments
This video of an anti-Israel Boycottt Divest and Sanction activist at National University of Ireland - Galway, shouting profanities at Professor Alan Johnson of the Fathom journal, is beginning to get attention after our post about it on Friday. Johnson supports a two-state solution and is against BDS. The video, obtained by the Irish for Israel, features NUI Galway student Joseph Loughnane shouting as a row of students behind him banged on the tables in support and themselves shouted (off camera, as video panned towards speaker):
“You’re f-ing Zionist, f-ing pricks, get the f–k off our campus”
Language warning ) We reached out to the President of NUI Galway for comment, and received an email back from NUI Galway press and information officer Tomás Ó Síocháin, with the following statement on behalf of the university:
NUI Galway has over 110 societies and 50 clubs on campus, reflecting the diverse interests of students and staff. The University has a pluralist ethos and all societies have the freedom to both express and communicate those views to students and staff. They must, however, act within the law and in accordance with the University’s code of conduct. The behaviour portrayed is unacceptable and has no place at any forum of discussion or debate. This matter will be investigated immediately. NUI Galway has a long and proud tradition of welcoming visitors and guests to the University’s campus, to both engage in and observe robust debate. The University will take steps to ensure that this remains the case and that all speakers are given the dignity and respect they deserve.
The investigation presumably will not be limited to Loughnane, but also the students behind him banging and shouting in support as he ordered Prof. Johnson to "get the f-k off our campus".

Posted by Laurel Conrad on March 08, 2014 8 Comments
I'd like to re-pose the age-old question: "If Israeli Apartheid Week happens on campus and no one notices, does it make a sound?" Israel Apartheid Week (IAW) officially took place on campuses across the U.S. over the course of February 24-March 2, although the exact boundaries of the "week" varied somewhat. When we set out to monitor events at Legal Insurrection, we expected an avalanche.  But it never showed up.  There were events, but none seemed to have much energy or attendance. We're just starting the "Israeli Apartheid week" in Europe too, but even in Sussex, England, only 8 people showed up to the BDS march.  That may reflect that even in Britain, a hotbed of anti-Israel activities on campus, IAW is losing steam, UK Students Say 'Israel Apartheid Week' Losing Steam. Has Israeli Apartheid Week peaked already in the U.S.? The Jewish Press reported that pro-Israel counter-events outnumbered IAW events. We had trouble finding reports of any large-scale IAW activities, and those that did occur failed to draw coverage or attendance on numerous campuses. For example, at the University of Maryland, only 12 of 426 invited guests rsvp'ed as attending the IAW event, "The Wall Must Fall." Neither did the event receive any coverage from their student newspaper.

University Maryland IAW

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 05, 2014 6 Comments
The Leftist-Islamist anti-Israel coalition relentlessly complains about the Israeli military blockade of Gaza.  On a number of occasions they have put together flotillas of civilians to break the blockade. One of those flotillas, organized by Turkish Islamists and loaded with European leftists, led to the controntation in 2010 in which nine people were killed after Israeli troops boarding the ship were attacked and beaten: (Mavi Marmara Passengers Attacking IDF, May 31, 2010 -- additional footage here) That blockade is legal, as even a U.N. panel ruled (and U.N. panels almost never side with Israel). Israel today seized a ship loaded with long-range missiles destined for Gaza via Iran. Here are two videos:

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 04, 2014 2 Comments
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is addressing the AIPAC conference this morning.

Posted by David Gerstman on March 04, 2014 0 Comments
The video embedded at the bottom of the post is of Dr. Massad Barhoum, the medical director of the Western Galilee Medical Center, one of three Israeli hospitals to treat Syrians wounded in that country's civil war. He tells of how his hospital was informed by the IDF that they would be receiving Syrian casualties. He gives the background of his hospital too. It is six miles from Lebanon and has come under rocket fire. It serves the 600,000 residents of the Galilee - Jews, Christians, Muslims and Druze - that make up the "tapestry" of the population in northern Israel. He also explains that there's an extra worry the Syrians have when they find themselves in Israel - that they are alone with no support system. Dr. Barhoum speaks with empathy of those patients who, all of a sudden, find themselves receiving help from a country they have been taught to hate. The whole talk is worth listening to. Dr. Barhoum speaks well and is direct but understated. But here are three quotes that stood out:
  • "Who are these wounded? These mysterious patients who travel in secret, the whole story is wrapped in melodrama, victims of war seeking medical salvation at the hands of their sworn enemies. Yet when they past through the gates of my hospital, the cease to be Syrians. Just as when we walk through the gates we cease to be Jews, Muslims, or, like me, an Arab Christian. They are patients, we are caregivers and nothing else matters."
  • "Arriving unconscious they awoke to a strange language and the sudden terrifying realization that they are in Israel. For every patient this fright, this mistrust is natural. They have been saved by the Israel they have been told to fear and hate. But I have seen this terror dissolve into trust, to appreciation and thanks for the Israeli doctors who saved their lives."
  • "... But still we help. Israel's decision to provide medical care to Syrians in their time of need is recognition of a shared humanity and compassion. That to us has no race, no ethnicity, and no borders."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2014 21 Comments
Jeffrey Goldberg has carved out what for a journalist covering the Middle East is an enviable niche -- vigorously pro-Israel yet not anti-Obama. When Bibi Netanyahu lectured Obama on the Middle East in a White House press conference in 2011, Goldberg leapt to Obama's defense with the following declaration:
Dear Mr. Netanyahu, Please Don’t Speak to My President That Way
That niche is why Goldberg landed an interview with Obama on the eve of Netanyahu's visit to the White House, detailed in Goldberg's column today, Obama to Israel -- Time Is Running Out. The interview is best described as preparing the public for what is to come: The Obama administration twisting Bibi's arm off as to John Kerry's "framework" under the threat of the U.S. stepping aside from defending Israel against the worldwide, decades-long lawfare and boycott movement. It's the same threat John Kerry made several weeks ago, but now it's coming from Obama's own lips, as Goldberg noted (emphasis added):
On the subject of Middle East peace, Obama told me that the U.S.'s friendship with Israel is undying, but he also issued what I took to be a veiled threat: The U.S., though willing to defend an isolated Israel at the United Nations and in other international bodies, might soon be unable to do so effectively. “If you see no peace deal and continued aggressive settlement construction -- and we have seen more aggressive settlement construction over the last couple years than we’ve seen in a very long time,” Obama said. “If Palestinians come to believe that the possibility of a contiguous sovereign Palestinian state is no longer within reach, then our ability to manage the international fallout is going to be limited.”
For Goldberg to characterize Obama's statement as a "veiled threat" is pretty significant. To me, it wasn't a veiled threat, it was just a threat.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 02, 2014 10 Comments
Friday and Saturday was the super-secret, closed-door BDS organizing conference held by NYU's American Studies Department under the direction of Lisa Duggan, an NYU Prof. and incoming President of the American Studies Association. Duggan, a big supporter of the anti-Israel academic boycott, apparently did not want dissenting voices present: duggan The agenda was stacked with anti-Israel professors. The lunchtime program explicitly was oriented toward organizing anti-Israeli groups on campus, including an appearance by someone from Students for Justice in Palestine. NYU American Studies Conference February 28 2014 part poster The conference was controversial not just because of the topic, but the one-sided stacking of the deck by an academic department and the exclusion of non-approved attendees. The event was not even open to all NYU students. A group of NYU students wrote a letter of protest to NYU's President, which reads in part:
From the beginning, this event has been shrouded in secrecy; Professor Lisa Duggan, the event’s sponsor (in a post that has now been removed) cautioned, “PLEASE DO NOT post or circulate the flyer. We are trying to avoid press, protestors and public attention.”
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