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Israel Tag

Posted by Mary Chastain on March 18, 2017 9 Comments
Big Bang Star Mayim Bialik has a strong response to Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour's claims that a Zionist cannot be a feminist. Sarsour's attack on Zionist feminists took place in a column in the far-left The Nation magazine, Can You Be a Zionist Feminist? Linda Sarsour Says No. Sarsour has generated much controversy because while she claims to be a progressive, she endorses Sharia law and has viciously attacked people like Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Sarsour tweeted that Ali should not even be allowed to have a vagina; that was a particularly malicious accusation given that Ali underwent female genital mutilation as a child.

Posted by Miriam Elman on March 09, 2017 8 Comments
On Monday night (March 6), Israel’s parliament (the Knesset) passed in its second and final reading a law barring the entry of foreign nationals who have “knowingly and publicly” called for boycotting Israel or who “represent an organization” that calls for such a boycott. The law extends the ban to those foreign visitors (excluding permanent residents) who back the anti-Israel BDS (boycott, divestment, and sanctions) movement and to those who support the boycott of settlement goods in Judea and Samaria/the West Bank. The legislation, which passed with 46 votes in favor and 28 against, was sponsored by center-right political parties and had been in the works for over a year, as discussed in detail in my prior post, Will Israel Bar Entry of Foreign BDS Activists?

Posted by Vijeta Uniyal on March 06, 2017 5 Comments
What is being seen as a sharp departure from India's longstanding Middle East policy, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will not be visiting the Palestinian Authority during his historic visit to Israel, the first ever by a sitting Prime Minister of the country.  "Contrary to expectations that Modi would include Palestine in his itinerary like many ministers did in the past, he will be travelling only to Israel", the leading Indian newspaper Time of India wrote. Prime Minister Modi is expected to visit Israel in July to mark the 25th anniversary of the establishment of formal diplomatic ties between the two countries. According to the Times of India, the Palestinian Authority's (PA) envoy to India was 'shocked' at Modi government's decision to skip the customary visit to the Palestinian Territories. "Mr. Modi is not visiting Palestine on this occasion. Inshallah [By Allah's will], our President [Mahmoud Abbas] will be here this year," PA-envoy Adnan Abu Alhaija told the Indian newspaper.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on March 06, 2017 21 Comments
The so-called "Day Without A Woman" strike scheduled for March 8 was first conceived by a group of extremists under the banner of the International Women's Strike, through a call to action posted in The Guardian newspaper, Women of America: we're going on strike. Join us so Trump will see our power:
As a first step, we propose to help build an international strike against male violence and in defense of reproductive rights on 8 March. In this, we join with feminist groups from around 30 countries who have called for such a strike.... The women’s marches of 21 January have shown that in the United States, too, a new feminist movement may be in the making. It is important not to lose momentum.

Posted by David Gerstman on March 05, 2017 4 Comments
Last week Gen. (ret.) Michael Herzog (brother of Israel's opposition leader Isaac Herzog) wrote a remarkable article (.pdf) in The American Interest. Herzog, who has been involved in Israeli-Palestinian negotiations since 1993 didn't write his article to place blame (though he does) for the failure of the 2013-2014 talks overseen by then-Secretary of State John Kerry but "it is my sincere hope that this analysis will inform a meaningful policy debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict." But if you Google Herzog's name for the past week, precisely one news organization covered the article: The Times of Israel. Some blogs such as The Tower and Yaacov Lozowick have written about it too. One would think that an insider's view of peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians would draw a lot of attention, but it didn't. Presumably that is because Herzog didn't blame Bibi first.

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 27, 2017 4 Comments
Breaking the Silence (BtS)—Shovrim Shtika in Hebrew—is a group of Israeli veterans who collect and disseminate ‘testimonies’ of alleged breaches of military ethics which they claim were witnessed and perpetrated by soldiers while they were serving in the West Bank and Gaza. BtS activists present themselves as patriotic Zionists who love their country. They also defend their organization as a whistleblower that works to keep the state moral by speaking out against IDF atrocities committed against Palestinians. But the reality is that BtS has long been discredited as a fringe group that acts to “fuel BDS.” The group once garnered a fair share of admirers during its formative years. Today it’s rejected by most of the Israeli mainstream public.

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 23, 2017 2 Comments
CPAC 2017 has shown its support for Israel in numerous ways, but the panel on the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) provided excellent points to defeat the movement. "BDS isn't about taking Israel out of business," said Lisa Daftari from Foreign Desk News. "It's about taking Israel off the map."

Posted by Mary Chastain on February 23, 2017 15 Comments
An Iranian commander with the Revolutionary Guard has threatened America with a "slap in the face" should she underestimate's the regime's military. From Reuters:
"The enemy should not be mistaken in its assessments, and it will receive a strong slap in the face if it does make such a mistake," said General Mohammad Pakpour, head of the Guards’ ground forces, quoted by the Guards' website Sepahnews.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 21, 2017 12 Comments
Nikki Haley always has been pro-Israel. But as U.N. Ambassador, she doesn't get to voice purely personal opinions, but rather, speaks for the administration. Yet, any ambassador cannot help but bring his or her own style and wording to the job. We certainly saw that with Ambassador Daniel Patrick Moynihan, when he lambasted the U.N. General Assembly after passage of the infamous (and now revoked) 1975 "Zionism is Racism" Resolution 3379. Given that the rhetoric from the anti-Israel boycott movement, including far-left regressive Jews, mirrors the "Zionism is Racism" resolution, it's worth revisiting Moynihan's words.

Posted by David Gerstman on February 19, 2017 11 Comments
Barak Ravid, the diplomatic correspondent for the Israeli daily Haaretz, has a reputation of getting great scoops, especially of the sort that makes Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu look bad. In a story with a sensational headline that has lit up anti-Netanyahu social media, Ravid reported, Exclusive Kerry Offered Netanyahu Regional Peace Plan in Secret 2016 Summit With al-Sissi, King Abdullah. The sub-headline read, "Kerry's outline included Arab recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Netanyahu claimed he couldn't get his coalition to back it."

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 15, 2017 9 Comments
The press conference is now over. Video below. Quick Takes: Much warmer relationship than the tense Obama-Bibi appearances, where they could hardly contain their disdain for each other. Substantively, Trump did exactly what any good mediator would do -- not try to impose a solution on the parties. His point was that whatever form a peace deal takes that is acceptable to the parties, it's acceptable to him.

Posted by David Gerstman on February 15, 2017 4 Comments
Hamas, the terrorist group dedicated to Israel's destruction, in the Gaza Strip has a new leader, and it shouldn't be surprising that he's a convicted murderer. Convicted of the murder of other Palestinians who had been accused of helping Israel, Yehya Sinwar was imprisoned in 1989 and served 22 years until he was released six years ago as part of the deal to release Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit. Sinwar is on the U.S. "Specially Designated [Terrorist] Nationals" List.

Posted by William A. Jacobson on February 13, 2017 10 Comments
Isreali Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is visiting the U.S. this week, and will meet President Trump. An important question is what is the status of the American popular opinion towards Israel. There is a misconception that American political support for Israel is a result of the "Israel Lobby" and "Israel Firsters." Those are terms frequently thrown around by regressive leftists and anti-Israel activists, a not too subtle play on the traditional antisemitic claim that Jews are disloyal to their home countries. Polling consistently shows, however, that Americans overwhelmingly support Israel, and that support has increased over the past decade, as we reported last year, Gallup: Americans still overwhelmingly support Israel. The "Israel Lobby" actually is the American people, and political support reflects popular opinion.

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 10, 2017 11 Comments
On Wednesday, the New York State Education Department apologized for including an ‘anti-Israel’ political cartoon on its global studies Regents Exam. The exam was administered to 10th graders back on January 24. In an earlier post on the controversy, we wrote that critics—including students, teachers, and a prominent NY politician—had charged that the cartoon was offensive anti-Israel propaganda.

Posted by Miriam Elman on February 02, 2017 23 Comments
Anti-Israel and antisemitic propaganda are common on America’s college and university campuses. But as we’ve highlighted in a number of recent posts, this discriminatory and biased messaging and materials appears to be filtering down into the public education system. In a post last April we noted how anti-Israel materials have been systematically introduced into the curriculum of a Newton, MA high school. Then at an Ithaca, NY third grade classroom we recently documented efforts to indoctrinate kids into becoming “freedom fighters for Palestine”:
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