The Soros-supported Center for American Progress blames rich Jews for stoking Islamophobia

American Thinker
by Ed Lasky

The Obama-allied Center for American Progress has released a report that blames Islamophobia in America on a small group of Jews and Israel supporters in America, whose views are being backed by millions of dollars.  This "network", according to the news release, have "have worked hard to push narratives that Obama might be a Muslim, that mosques are incubators of radicalization, and that "radical Islam" has infiltrated all aspects of American society -- including the conservative movement.

Who are the figures mentioned as the promoters of prejudice? Most of them are prominent Jews and supporters of Israel, such as David Horowitz, Daniel Pipes and Steven Emerson (the founder of the Investigative Project on Terrorism). The eight foundations mentioned as funding this effort include are almost exclusively ones founded and funded by Jewish donors, and lest readers not be aware of this fact, the Center for American Progress lists not only the other beneficiaries of the charities and foundations (most of them having Jewish or Israel in the title) but also goes to the trouble of naming the individuals behind these charities -- not just the donors but also those who serve on the boards.
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Who will endorse Palestine?

How will Germany vote? What about Japan? Ynet maps out global interests ahead of Palestinian UN bid

Ynetnews
by Ronen Medzini

On September 20th, the Palestinian Authority will submit its statehood bid at the United Nations General Assembly; the process will culminate with the UN's 193 member states voting on recognizing a Palestinian state. What can we expect at the vote?

Officials in Jerusalem presume that should a vote indeed take place, the Palestinians will win an automatic majority thanks to the guaranteed support of the 116 "non aligned" states," which tend to vote as a bloc and promote joint interests. Hence, Foreign Ministry officials are focusing their efforts at what they refer to as the "moral majority," that is, large, influential states – this list includes the 27 members of the European Union, global powers, and several other key states.
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Column One: Glenn Beck’s revealing visit

In general, Israeli media responded to Beck’s visit either as a non-event, or distorted who Beck is and what he is trying to do

The Jerusalem Post
by Caroline B. Glick

American media superstar Glenn Beck’s visit to Israel this week was a revealing and remarkable event. It revealed what it takes to be a friend of Israel. And it revealed the causes of Israel’s difficulty in telling its enemies from its friends.

Many world leaders, opinion-shapers and other notables protest enduring friendship with Israel. From Washington to London, Paris to Spain, policy- makers and other luminaries preface all their remarks to Jewish audiences with such statements. Once their declarations are complete – and often without taking a breath – they proceed to denounce Israel’s policies and to deny its basic rights.

US President Barack Obama exemplifies this practice. Obama always begins his statements on Israel by proclaiming his enduring friendship for Israel. Then he tells us to deny Jewish property rights, accept indefensible borders, or desist from defending ourselves from aggression.
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Arab Spring for Dummies

Last year, Israel had three stable borders and one unstable border. Now that the Arab Spring has turned into Terror Summer, those numbers have flipped around. Israel’s border with Egypt has become as troubled as the Lebanese border. And the Syrian border is following close behind.

FrontPage Magazine
by Daniel Greenfield

Obama had thought to use the Arab Spring as the linchpin of his reelection campaign, tying the unrest that brought down Mubarak to his Cairo speech. But the ugly turn of events in the region has him distancing himself from events instead.
The Arab Spring did not become the Soft Power alternative to the Bush Doctrine that his advisers expected it to be. Instead the economic protests exploited by State Department backed activists are sliding formerly pro-American countries into the Islamist camp. Read more »

With Glenn Beck by the Temple’s Walls | Rubin Reports

Glenn Beck’s program in Israel went off without a hitch, ending in a rally on the southern side of the Old City of Jerusalem. About 1000 people were in attendance, mostly Americans (contrary to the media coverage, a number of the Americans were Jews not Evangelicals) who’d come to Jerusalem at Beck’s urging, but with a sprinkling of Israelis, including a fair proportion of Orthodox Jews.

With the Old City walls to his right and in front of him, and the Al-Aqsa Mosque looming quite close, Beck handled himself with a mixture of audaciousness toward his enemies and sensitivity toward his friends. He announced a global movement, to be headquartered in Texas, to encourage average people to act against injustice, though the details of its scope and goals weren’t clear. Since you won’t get any real coverage in the media, here is the full text of the speech. Read more »

More by Barry Rubin:

 JPost | Beck gets it right when it comes to the big picture issues

As Jews, and Israelis most of all, should know, to be falsely reviled is not proof of being wrong or evil.

Having studied the Middle East professionally for 35 years, and with a PhD in Middle East history, let me make it perfectly clear: Glenn Beck, who is holding several rallies in Israel this week, has a better grasp of Middle East politics than most Western experts, as well as some Western leaders. Read more »

Egypt: Muslim Brotherhood threatens Israel's ambassador: "Zionist envoy, leave Egypt or die" | Jihad Watch

More glories of the Arab Spring from the genocide-minded, Nazi-loving Egyptian demonstrators. "‘Zionist Envoy, Leave Egypt or Die,' Demonstrators Demand," by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu for Israel National News, August 23 (thanks to all who sent this in):

[...] “Revolution,” cried out Muslim Brotherhood activists. “Revolution is stronger than the Zionist attackers. The entire Egyptian people are Hamas.”
One hostile placard threatened that the ambassador must “get out [of Egypt] or die here.”

The demonstrators also proclaimed, “Oh Zionist traitor, blood and fire are between you and us.“ They charged that “Zionists mock us with calls for peace, and their principles offend Muslim [sic].”..."

Source: Jihad Watch

Beck Announces Global Movement to Defend Israel

Jews have human rights, too

Until Palestinians recognize this, we will never have peace.

JPost
by Roz Rothstein and Roberta Seid

The recent coordinated terrorist attacks on Israel and the latest poll of Palestinian public opinion offer insight into why Middle East peace remains so elusive: The Palestinian public is simply unwilling to recognize the human rights of Jews.

Consider Palestinians’ reactions to the grisly coordinated attacks against Israel last Thursday. Terrorists assaulted travelers and soldiers in the South with gunfire, mortars, anti-tank missiles and two suicide bombers. Eight civilians – including two kindergarten teachers and their husbands who were going to vacation in Eilat – and two soldiers were murdered; 30 were wounded. A four-year-old and a sevenyear- old child were among those hurt.

Officials from Hamas, which rules the Gaza Strip, denied direct responsibility, but praised the coordinated attack. Hamas websites and some websites associated with Fatah, the political group that governs the West Bank, celebrated the assault.
Read more »

Egyptians plan million-man rally against Israel | Ynetnews

Facebook groups call for mass protest outside Israeli embassy in Cairo, as protesters demand ambassador be expelled, embassy be closed.

...protesters continue to demonstrate outside the embassy for the fifth day in a row. They called out "Expel the ambassador immediately". Others gathered outside the ambassador's Cairo residence and called fellow citizens to join them in order to "force the ambassador to leave Egypt".
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Glenn Beck Restoring Courage

Should Israel Welcome Glenn Beck's Support? Hudson New York | by Alan M. Dershowitz

All decent people, whether on the left or the right, should support Israel's right to exist as the democratic nation state of the Jewish people. All decent people should support Israel's right to defend its civilians from terrorist attacks. All reasonable people should favor a just peace that assures Israel's ability to thrive in a dangerous neighborhood and to defend its borders.

These issues should not divide decent people along ideological or political lines. Israel's existence and right to defend itself should be bipartisan issues, not only in the United States, but in all democratic countries of the world.

The reality, however, is very different. The Jewish state is demonized by the hard left in America, by virtually the entire left in much of Europe, and by most of the left and right in Ireland, Norway and Sweden. Its right to exist is denied by a high proportion of Arabs and Muslims, and most of the Arab and Muslim nations do not have diplomatic relations with Israel.

In many circles, anti-Zionism easily morphs into anti-Semitism, and in some countries Jews are afraid to walk the streets wearing any clothing or symbols that identify them as Jewish.

The general assembly of the United Nations has become the world's new Der Sturmer, whose podium hosts, and many of whose audience members cheer, virulent anti-Semites such as Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Read more »

Australia pulls out of Durban conference | The Australian

AUSTRALIA has pulled out of the United Nations Durban conference to combat racism on grounds that it would likely to be a repeat of the initial racist and anti-semitic event. Read more »

Australia now is part of the anti-Durban camp, which includes Italy, the Netherlands, Canada, Israel, the United States, and the Czech Republic.

New Cypriot FM makes Israel 2nd port of call | JPost

This will be Kozakou-Marcoullis’s second trip since becoming foreign minister, her first being a trip to Greece some 12 days ago.

New Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou-Marcoullis will visit Israel on Wednesday, less than three weeks after taking over her new post, in what is widely viewed as a sign of the importance Cyprus now attributes to ties with Israel. Read more »

Israeli energy talks ‘very serious’ | Cyprus mail
The two governments would also discuss Turkey’s warning to Cyprus not to go ahead with plans to explore and drill for natural gas.
In recent weeks, the Turkish leadership has warned Cyprus against making any moves that might ignore the rights of Turkish Cypriots, saying that if gas exploration goes ahead, it will take “appropriate measures”. Read more »

Is Terrorism Against Israel Really More Justified Than Terrorism Against Norway? Hudson New York | by Alan M. Dershowitz

In a recent interview, Norway's Ambassador to Israel has suggested that Hamas terrorism against Israel is more justified than the recent terrorist attack against Norway.

His reasoning is that, "We Norwegians consider the occupation to be the cause of the terror against Israel." In other words terrorism against Israeli citizens is the fault of Israel. The terrorism against Norway, on the other hand, was based on "an ideology that said that Norway, particularly the Labor Party, is foregoing Norwegian culture." It is hard to imagine that he would make such a provocative statement without express approval from the Norwegian government.

I can't remember many other examples of so much nonsense compressed in such short an interview. First of all, terrorism against Israel began well before there was any "occupation". The first major terrorist attack against Jews who had long lived in Jerusalem and Hebron began in 1929, when the leader of the Palestinian people, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, ordered a religiously-motivated terrorist attack that killed hundreds of religious Jews-many old, some quite young. Terrorism against Jews continued through the 1930s. Once Israel was established as a state, but well before it captured the West Bank, terrorism became the primary means of attacking Israel across the Jordanian, Egyptian and Lebanese borders. If the occupation is the cause of the terror against Israel, what was the cause of all the terror that preceded any occupation? Read more »

Jon Voight compares Palestinian terrorists to Nazis | JPost

At J'lem Holocaust event organized Glenn Beck, Oscar-winning American actor praises Israel, condemns terror attacks.

Oscar-winning American actor Jon Voight slammed Palestinian terrorism Monday, at a Jerusalem event about the Holocaust organized by broadcaster Glenn Beck.

Voight, who is not Jewish, praised Israel and the Jewish people in his speech. He made reference to suicide bombings and to the March 11 slayings of the Fogel family in Itamar. Read more »

First 'Restoring Courage' Event in Caesarea

Beck: We are entering the age of the miracles of God
JPost | By Jonah Mandel

US media personality opens four-day Restoring Courage rally in Caesarea; 2,000 Christians, mostly Americans, fly in especially for Beck’s event.

The solutions to the problems of our times are not within the reach of political leaders, rather divinity, US pundit Glenn Beck told nearly 3,000 enthusiastic followers in the Caesarea Amphitheater on Sunday night, at the opening event of his four-day Restoring Courage rally.

“I’ve spent the last few years trying to find solutions for what is happening in the world,” he said on the backdrop of the pillars of the grand stage. “While there may not be a political solution, the good news is the God of Abraham ain’t running for office,” he said to loud applause. “Be not afraid, know who he is, know his face, know that he is a God of covenants and miracles. We are leaving the age of man-made miracles of spacecraft, and we are entering the age of the miracles of God.” Read more »

Egyptian protesters promise to destroy Israel

92-Year-Old Palestinian Woman: Palestinians Should Massacre Jews Like We Massacred Them in Hebron

Palestinian Arabs respond to terror attack with glee Elder of Ziyon

The talkbacks on Palestinian Arab news sites are filled with happiness and glee at the murder of Israelis today near Eilat.

And not only the Hamas or Islamic Jihad oriented sites, but the Fatah-leaning sites as well.

Palestine Press Agency, which is a Fatah-leaning site, has commenters saying

"God praise the [Hamas] Al-Qassam Brigades" (they have not taken responsibility)

"Our Lord is with the heroes"

"[I] call for resistance in the Gaza with rocket fire and suicide bombings and the Glory of God and His Messenger"

"Tribute to the Heroes of each attack and no matter what their affiliation"

"God is great and victory is coming"

By far the most popular comment in the Hamas-oriented PalTimes is "God is great." Read more »

UN Fails to Condemn Eilat Attacks | Israel National News

The United Nations will not condemn as "terrorism" the attacks near Eilat in which eight Israelis were murdered after Lebanon's representative rejected the measure.

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 »

State anti-Semitism - not in the USSR, this time in Norway

Norway - the only country in the Western world where government representatives and state controlled media are fermenting anti-Semitism.

After the Massacre: Anti-Semitism, Islam, and Norway

by Stefan Frank | Pajamas Media

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.

Read more »

Ron Paul - Obama of the Right

Vice Chair of Republican Liberty Caucus resigns in protest against Ron Paul. Calls Paul supporters "a cult" prone to bigotry and conspiracy theories.

Adam Holland

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.”

Read more »

For Wall Street Journal, What's "Terror" in Norway is "Militancy" in Israel | CAMERA

After an armed ideologue opened fire on civilians at a Norwegian summer camp, an online Wall Street Journal headline described the incident as "Savage Terror Attacks."

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.

Read more »

BBC, True to Form, Twists Headline and Teaser Against Israel | The PJ Tatler

We should be used to it by now, but this latest example of the BBC’s habitual anti-Israel bias in its reporting is just so blatant that it shouldn’t go by unnoticed.

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?

Here’s how:

Read more »

Richard Wagner’s Music Is Effectively Banned in Israel Tablet Magazine | David P. Goldman

The composer Richard Wagner was an anti-Semite, a German nationalist, and a genius. Performance of his music—masterworks like the “Ring” cycle and “Tristan und Isolde”—is effectively banned in Israel. Should it be?

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 »

"It is true that Norway is pro-Palestinian; however, it is equally true that it is pro-Israeli"

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."

Norway is pro-Palestinian – and pro-Israeli

By SVEIN SEVJE | JPost

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 »

At the Guardian, Israeli victims of terrorism are "people" who "died"; Palestinian militant victims of Israeli counter-strikes are killed.

CAMERA Snapshots

The Guardian reports:

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.

Source: CAMERA Snapshots

Dreams of Ethnic Cleansing | Harry's Place

If Israeli state television were to broadcast a programme in which the Al Aqsa mosque and its worshippers were described as “sin and filth”, and expressed confidence that it would be swept away and replaced with houses for Jews – it would be front page news all around the world.

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 »

Park Slope Food Coop's Proposed Boycott of Israeli Goods Tablet Magazine by Jennifer Bleyer

A proposed boycott of Israeli products at the Park Slope Food Coop in Brooklyn, a 38-year-old grocery where political passions run high, is raising worries among its sizable Orthodox Jewish membership

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 »

Minorities in the IDF | By Aryeh Tepper | Jewish Ideas Daily

Bedouin soldiers in 1949

Recently, while driving by the Israeli settlement of Nokdim (where Avigdor Lieberman lives), I picked up a hitchhiking soldier. We started chatting, and I asked the soldier his name. 'Mustafa,' he said. 'You're a Muslim?' I asked. 'Yes,' he answered, 'from Haifa.' As our conversation progressed, I asked him his thoughts about Lieberman's criticism of Arab-Israeli society, saying that I thought the foreign minister wouldn't have any problem with an Arab-Israeli who serves in the army. Mustafa demurred: 'Lieberman only loves me so long as I'm in uniform.'

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 »