Lebanon's representative to the U.N. Security Council said it would endorse a condemnation of the attacks only if the council were to condemn Israel as well, for killing the terrorists who planned the massacre. Read more »
Dr. Michal Rachel Suissa is a Jewish Amazigh (Berber) refugee from Morocco, working as an associate professor in medicinal chemistry at University College of Oslo. She regularly lectures and has written many articles on minorities in the Middle East, human rights in the Muslim world, and the use of religion as a weapon against Jews and minorities. She is the director of the Center Against Anti-Semitism (CAA) and the editor of the quarterly magazine SMA-Info on Israel and Anti-Semitism. I asked her a few question regarding racism, anti-Semitism, and Islam in Norway.
Does Norway have a racism problem?
Suissa: Racist or xenophobic political parties do not exist in Norway. We may identify some individual examples of racist behavior, racist comments in the media, and even racist violence and murders committed by individuals, but these cases do not have an organized character and should not be considered as a particular Norwegian phenomenon. On the contrary, comparing with other countries, the low level of such behavior in Norway has been more striking.
Several churches were burned down in the 1990s. Can we call that religiously motivated violence?
Suissa: As far as we know, all church fires resulting from arson in Norway were committed by people with connections to a Satanistic or “Black Metal” milieu. The majority of the cases were solved and the culprits have been sentenced. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with the recent atrocities.
Aaron Biterman, Vice Chair of the Republican Liberty Caucus, has resigned from that organization in protest of its support for the presidential candidacy of Ron Paul. Biterman also cited among his reasons for resigning a cult-like atmosphere, promotion of conspiracy theories and anti-Semitism among Ron Paul supporters. (Read here: Aaron Biterman Resigns from Republican Liberty Caucus)
According to the blog Sara for America, Biterman has indicated that he would no longer be associated with any group that supports Ron Paul.
Per his Facebook posts, the resignation comes as a result of his refusal to lead an organization that supports Ron Paul. But, not stopping there, Biterman, a libertarian, plans to continue his battle. He has formed a new group: Push Back Against the Ron Paul Cult, “A strategy and informational forum to fight back against Ron Paul’s misguided, anti-liberty supporters.”
After armed ideologues opened fire on civilians on an Israeli bus, an online Wall Street Journal headline proclaimed that "Militants Kill Civilians In Israel Near Egypt."
Although the scale of the two bloody acts was different — the terrorists in Israel failed to cause as many casualties as might be expected from an attack on a packed bus, reportedly thanks to the calm decision-making of the Israeli bus driver — the nature of the two incidents were the same. If people who target civilians in Norway are "terrorists," then by any consistent standard those who target civilians in Israel are "terrorists." If one is a "militant," objectivity and fairness would dictate that the other is also a "militant."
In other words, the Wall Street Journal’s coverage of these two events reveals a double standard and lack of objectivity and fairness. Below are screen shots of the two online stories as the appeared in the late afternoon on Aug. 18.
As you know by now, what actually happened earlier today is that Palestinian terrorists snuck into southern Israel via Egypt and murdered 8 people and injured at least 25; hours afterward, Israel responded against terror cells in Gaza killing some of the men responsible for the attack.
So, if you were a headline writer for the BBC, how would you summarize the day’s events?
Richard Wagner, the most repugnant of musical nationalists, has become an unlikely poster child for culturally progressive Israelis. The recurring controversy over the public performance of work by the Nazi Party’s favorite composer erupted again in late July when the Israeli Chamber Orchestra, led by the Austrian conductor Roberto Paternostro, performed a much-publicized Wagner program at the Bayreuth Festival in Germany, Wagner’s self-erected shrine and a pillar of the Nazi movement well before Hitler took power. (Paternostro received a standing ovation from the largely German audience, which understandably liked the idea of Jews playing Wagner.) Morbid ethnocentrism with overtones of nationalist extremism is acceptable to the Israeli left, it seems, as long as it isn’t Jewish.
Daniel Barenboim
Every so often a prominent musician makes a point of sneaking Wagner into a public concert in Israel. Zubin Mehta, the Indian-born conductor of the Israel Philharmonic, played a Wagner excerpt as an encore to a 1981 concert; Daniel Barenboim, conducting a German ensemble, did it again at the 2001 Jerusalem Festival. And in each case public opprobrium put Wagner’s scores back on the shelf. At the Bayreuth concert, some of the Israeli musicians explained that they never would perform Wagner in Israel but felt free to do so elsewhere. Performance of Wagner’s music is unofficially—but effectively—banned in Israel. But should it be? Mark Twain quipped that Wagner’s music is better than it sounds. By the same token, banning Wagner’s music is a better idea than it sounds. Suppressing the performance of important musical works is not a small matter, though, and deserves careful thought rather than emotional reflex. Read more »
The quote above is from the article below. Here is one more statement to underline the objective nature of Norway's anti-Semitism: "It is true that Norway was pro-Nazi; however, it is equally true that it was pro-Jews."
The response of the Norwegian people and their government to the terror attacks on July 22 has been overwhelmingly in favor of not politicizing the event.
The most important consequence of the anti-Norwegian articles in The Jerusalem Post in recent weeks is not the baseless accusations they make, but that they cloud one important fact: Norway remains committed both to the State of Israel and its right to exist in security, and to the creation of a Palestinian state.
On Friday, August 5, the Post published a brave and much appreciated apology to Norway and wished the Norwegian people a time to heal. Yet in the week that followed, three seriously biased articles were published in the paper, making grave, unfounded and unfair accusations against Norway. Read more »
Israel has launched airstrikes on Gaza after blaming militants in the Palestinian territory for deadly attacks near Eilat earlier in the day. Militants said five Palestinians were killed in the strikes. Earlier at least seven people died when squads of gunmen armed with heavy weapons and explosives crossed into southern Israel from Egypt and attacked buses, cars and an army patrol, officials said.
3:30 PM Update: The Guardian has updated its opening paragraphs, which are now somewhat more open about who "died" and how they were killed:
Israeli civilians and soldiers came under sustained attack on Thursday by militants in the south of the country in a co-ordinated and audacious assault spanning three hours that left at least seven people dead and around 40 injured. The Israeli government and military said the assailants came from Gaza, and promised to use "full force" in retaliation. Hamas denied it was responsible and said it would defend Gaza with "all its strength". Within hours the Israelis had made good on their promise, killing up to six Palestinians in an air strike on Rafah, the Gaza town next to the border with Egypt. The dead were said to include the commander of the Popular Resistance Committee, Abu Awad Neirab. In southern Israel, gunfire erupted again in the evening, with two people reported to be critically wounded.
Editorials would be devoted to such a broadcast. It would be held up as proof that Israel had no intentions of negotiating a settlement with Fatah, and that the two state solution was dead. Demonstrations would be held around the world, which would be lead by Islamist groups aligned with Palestinian terrorist factions, and they would be joined by students and members of Parliament. Prominent Jewish personalities would declare that Israel had now forfeited its legitimacy. Foreign Ministers would make public statements expressing the severest concern.
When it comes to the Palestinian Authority TV, this sort of rhetoric is par for the course. Read more »
Pity the Park Slope Food Coop. Drubbed almost annually by some crabby reporter in the New York Times, satirized by author Amy Sohn in her last novel, Prospect Park West, the 38-year-old cooperative grocery store in the heart of gentrified Brooklyn suffers from an image problem. The conventional wisdom is that it’s a bastion of smug bourgeois bohemians flitting around organic produce aisles in yoga pants, proclaiming their virtuosity on everything from international politics to composting. It’s an image that hasn’t been helped by the coop’s latest media storm: a proposal by a tiny cohort of members to have Israeli products pulled from its shelves.
In truth, the coop’s nearly 16,000 members are actually a varied bunch, representing a cross-section of Brooklynites seen in few places outside of the subway. Yes, many are like me: a white, liberal, college-educated parent who lives in brownstone Brooklyn. But the aisles are also populated by Rastafarians in knit hats, silver-haired women surviving on Board of Education pensions, artsy kids who live with 10 roommates in Bushwick, and a sizable number of Orthodox Jews loading up their carts on Thursday nights in preparation for Shabbat. Read more »
When most people think of the conflict in the Middle East, they naturally enough imagine Israeli Jews fighting Middle Eastern Arabs and Muslims. But non-Jews from the Muslim, Druse, and Christian communities in Israel serve in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) alongside their Jewish peers. After completing their basic training, these soldiers swear fealty to the state of Israel on a copy of the Quran or the New Testament instead of the standard Hebrew Bible. Read more »
Harrari, accused by Egypt of being an agent of the Mossad, is set be tried in absentia on charges of 'spying for a foreign country with the purpose of harming Egyptian national interest,' news agency MENA reported on Sunday. Jordanian Ibrahim abu-Zaid, a telecoms engineer reportedly involved in the affair as well, was arrested in Egypt. Read more »
The “Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” a short book concocted by the czarist police and presented as minutes of a secret meeting where Jews plotted world domination, is the biggest falsehood that refuses to die. It’s the only book that has ever had the perverse distinction of being both globally influential and, at the same time, a forgery.
The “Protocols” are now prominently displayed not only in the Middle East, but also on the Western and Christian bookshelf. Books based on the “Protocols” are now available even in countries with hardly any Jews such as Japan. A Chinese bestseller entitled “The Currency War” and based on the “Protocols,” describes how Jews are planning to control the world by manipulating the financial system. The book is reportedly read in the highest government circles.
Recently, an Iranian stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair presented a copy of the “Protocols” published in English by the Islamic Republic of Iran in plain view. Thousands of Jews have been killed in Europe because of this infamous document. Hitler used it as a manual in his war to exterminate the Jews and Palestinian suicide bombers have been found with the “Protocols” in their pockets. Read more »
Archbishop Desmond Tutu, whose role in the fight against South African apartheid in the 1980s gained him the Nobel Peace Prize and global fame, is among the world’s most respected figures.
Barack Obama awarded him the US highest honor, the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Tutu has been called “an inspiration' and was compared to Albert Schweitzer and Gandhi. The Wall Street Journal labeled him “the best known priest in the world.” Tutu was even asked to donate his genome to scientists to discover the African roots of mankind.
With Nelson Mandela in jail, it fell to Tutu to steer the struggle against institutionalized racial oppression in a nonviolent direction. From his church in segregated Soweto, Tutu urged the imposition of economic sanctions against the white government. Since then, Tutu’s face has become the symbol of tolerance and goodness. Read more »
Senator Leahy thinks that IDF (or at least part of it) operates under a different moral code than the rest of the armies including NATO and the US; that accomplishing military objective with the least lost of life possible is not what it is after - there is something else - the blood, spilled beyond necessary. He is not advocating cutting funds to US army, no ending support or cooperation with armies of NATO or any other country. It's just the Jewish Army. The whole idea of cutting aid to certain units specifically (as if US directly funds every IDF unit) cater to antisemitic favorite: US aid to Israel. The rest of US foreign assistance, which makes the bulk of it usually not mentioned as often and not specified(though Egypt gets almost as much funds as Israel). But the key here is not money. The goal is to mention IDF in this context. And this is blood libel pure and simple.
My opinion, based on what is available in the press (and we know quite a bit about violations of human rights by other armies including the US) IDF should be used as an example of moral conduct under circumstances where the goal of the enemy is not to win, but to depict IDF in terms of human rights violations. Almost 40 years now (since 1973) Israel is fighting with militarily inferior enemies. They know they can't win a battle. Their objective is different: to give a chance to people like senator Leahy to exercise their anti-semitism.
Senator Patrick Leahy claims Shayetet 13 unit, undercover Duvdevan unit, and the Israel Air Force Shaldag unit involved in human rights violations in occupied territories.
U.S. Senator Patrick Leahy is promoting a bill to suspend U.S. assistance to three elite Israel Defense Forces units, alleging they are involved in human rights violations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
Leahy, a Democrat and senior member of the U.S. Senate, wants assistance withheld from the Israel Navy's Shayetet 13 unit, the undercover Duvdevan unit and the Israel Air Force's Shaldag unit. Read more »
Independent opinion on IDF moral conduct:
Col. Richard Kemp Testifies at U.N. Emergency Session
One night in August 2006, Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer was speaking at a fundraiser for the United Jewish Appeal’s Israel Emergency Campaign in a Toronto hotel. Before an audience of 2,500, Krauthammer extolled the virtues of those leaders who were supporting Israel in the conflict then under way with Hezbollah in Lebanon. He singled out for praise Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper, who was showing great leadership in openly siding with Israel, he said. At the mere mention of Harper, who was not in attendance, Krauthammer’s audience suddenly burst into furious applause, as though its collective gratitude for the prime minister had finally been articulated for the first time.
As prime minister, Harper has transformed Canadian foreign policy toward Israel and the Middle East. Abandoning Canada’s longstanding posture of even-handedness in the Arab-Israeli conflict, the country has become arguably the most pro-Israel country in the world. From being the first world leader to cut off funds to the Palestinian Authority in 2006 when it was taken over by Hamas, to speaking out against growing global anti-Semitism, Harper has embraced Israel as has no Canadian leader before him. “It is hard to find a country friendlier to Israel than Canada these days,” gushed Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, in 2010. “No other country in the world has demonstrated such a full understanding of us.” Read more »
Undoubtedly, some anti-Jewish calumnies did have a European origin, transmitted by missionaries and local Christians to various Muslim populations. For example, Maronites (members of a Catholic church in Lebanon) played a key role in the dissemination of the blood libel motif- namely the charge that Jews use the blood of Christian children to make matzo for Passover- in the Levant during the 19th century.
Further, it is true that historically Jews survived Muslim rule better than other religious groups deemed members of the “people of the book,” even though all such non-Muslim minorities were in theory to receive the same discriminatory treatment according to the Pact of Umar (named after Umar ibn al-Khattab: the second caliph of Islam after Mohammed’s death).
Many of the conditions of the Pact of Umar are upheld as the ideal model for the treatment of non-Muslims among orthodox, classical Muslim theologians (e.g. the requirement to wear clothing to distinguish the unbelievers from Muslims). Read more »
This is getting ridiculous. Building of 277 houses in a small town is in the news all over the world. Is that worse than a terror attack? Since the beginning of Ramadan: 63 terror attacks, 175 dead (http://thereligionofpeace.com). No one reported. At that rate by the middle of Ramadan we will have more dead bodies than the number of houses to be built in Ariel. Let's see if any will make it to the press. By the way the "settlement" in question is a suburb of Tel Aviv, about 40 minutes drive.
JERUSALEM, Aug. 15 (Xinhua) -- Despite recent international condemnation of ongoing settlement construction, Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak has given final permit for plans to build about 300 new housing units in Ariel, among the largest settlements in the West Bank, according to a Defense Ministry statement. 'The minister approved last week the marketing of 277 housing units in Ariel's Noiman neighborhood, of which 100 are intended for evacuees of Netzarim,' the statement said, referring to a former Jewish settlement evacuated during Israel's withdrawal from the Gaza Strip in the summer of 2005. Read more »
