The Bulldozer at the Gates of Hell

10 Comments

1. 

   Oui on January 2, 2014 at 8:47 am

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   Public Diplomacy Ministry DG Daniel Seaman Puts His Foot in It … Again

   (Tikun Olam) – Daniel Seaman, one of the Israeli government’s ace hasbara flacks has stuck his foot in it again.  Earlier today, the Palestinian ambassador to the Czech Republic died when he opened a safe that had remained unopened for thirty years.  Apparently, there were explosives inside which exploded. His death was accidental and not the result of a terror attack.

   In yet another deeply offensive social media gaffe, Seaman published the Facebook post (his account from which the offending post has been scrubbed) displayed here.

    « click for more coverage

   Note that he placed the word “ambassador” in quotation marks as if to imply that Palestine wasn’t a country and couldn’t possibly have an ambassador.  This coming from an Israeli “diplomat” who serves a government that claims to support a two-state solution.

   Homicidal Impulse of the Pro-Israel Social Network Hasbarocracy

   ○ Hillel: Organized to Stifle I/P Opinion On Campus
   ○ Netanyahu’s PR man: Israel to pay students to defend it online
   ○ PM Netanyahu’s designated social media chief down but not out
   ○ JPost editor’s notes: Danny Seaman’s farewell voyage
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     Oui on January 7, 2014 at 4:55 am

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     Hillel’s Policy on Campus Speakers

     To the Editor:

     As a Swarthmore alumna, I remember the anti-Zionist bias that permeated student groups in the late 1980s. Israeli speakers were heckled and Zionist students harassed. But I am disheartened by the national Hillel organization’s decision to distance itself from events at which Israel’s policies are questioned.

     When Abram Sachar, my grandfather, built Hillel, it was as a place where all Jewish students would feel welcome. My father, the historian Howard Sachar, continued this tradition of inclusion during his years of service to American Jewish campus life.

     For centuries, the strongest communities of the diaspora have been those that encouraged discussion and debate. Our willingness to engage dissenters rested on logic and morality. I fear that the trend to stifle legitimate criticism of Israel comes from a collective fear: that the occupation of the West Bank has forced Israel and those who unquestioningly support it to cede the moral high ground. For Israel’s sake and our own, we must re-embrace the tradition of open discussion of any topic with intellectual rigor.

     MICHELE SACHAR
     New York, Dec. 30, 2013

     ○ MLA to bar pro-Israel campus groups [Hillel] from making presentations at Chicago conference
2. 

   Oui on January 2, 2014 at 10:09 am

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   Jewish National Fund’s Iconic Blue Box Sends One-State Israel Message

   (Forward) – For over 100 years, the Jewish National Fund‘s iconic little blue donation boxes presented on their tin sides a dream of a Jewish state that spanned, uninterrupted, from the Jordan Valley to the Mediterranean Sea.

   The Israeli government officially dropped that dream in 2009, when Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced his support for a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

   The little blue boxes didn’t get the memo.

    « click for article
   Blue Box Bob visits the Hebrew Academy of Morris County (HAMC)

   Today, the JNF‘s coin collection boxes, which sit on tables in Hebrew school classrooms throughout the Jewish Diaspora, are still decorated with a map that depicts Israel without the Green Line that, on most maps, distinguishes Israel from the Palestinian-populated West Bank, which it has occupied since wresting it from Jordan in the 1967 Six Day War. The lack of a Green Line was noted in a December 24 blog post on the anti-Zionist website Mondoweiss.

   Asked about this, a spokeswoman for JNF denied in an interview with the Forward that the maps on the boxes are maps of Israel. “This doesn’t say this is a map of Israel,” said Neta Yoffe, JNF’s director of communications. “This is a blue box… Nowhere do we talk about it being a map of Israel. We just focus on the wonderful work that we do for the country.”

   Canadian tax agency protected Jewish National Fund from scrutiny

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     Oui on January 17, 2014 at 5:17 pm

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     Nice catch, kudos to The Forward.

     ADL’s One-State Double Standard

     (The Forward) – Chile’s El Palestino soccer club recently raised the ire of pro-Israel groups when it decided to redesign its team jerseys, replacing the numeral one with a one-state map of Palestine. Because they show the entire map of Israel as Palestine, these jerseys effectively erase Israel, making it seem like the state doesn’t exist.

     In a blog post last week, I asked how the Simon Wiesenthal Center and Anti-Defamation League can condemn these jerseys for using a one-state map, while staying mum about the fact that the Jewish National Fund does the exact same thing on its charity collection boxes.

      « click for story
     Deportivo Palestino new innovative shirt design

     The ADL hadn’t gotten back to me by the time the post went up, but they’ve since emailed me this response so that I can update Forward readers on their stance. Here goes:

     “There is no comparison between the JNF blue box and the team jerseys worn by Chile’s “El Palestino” soccer club. The Chilean team’s shirts are a highly politicized form of incitement which negates Israel’s existence, while the JNF boxes have a representation of the internationally recognized country of Israel.”

     Huh. It’s hard to know how this explanation is supposed to defuse the idea that there’s a double standard at work in certain pro-Israel groups when it comes to one-state maps. As far as I can tell, though, three claims are being made here. Let me try to unpack them.

     If ‘Palestine’ Jerseys Incite Hatred, What About JNF [Blue Boxes]?

     Cross-posted from my diary @ET – Syria Expendable In Joint US-Israel ME Power Schemes.

3. 

   TarheelDem on January 3, 2014 at 7:39 pm

   SoS Kerry has two items to bargain with–$3 billion in foreign aid in the face of austerity-minded Republicans and the US veto in the UN Security Council.  

   Recognition of a Palestinian state at the UN changes the diplomatic basis by which Israel acts dramatically.  That possibility is all queued up in the UN waiting for the appropriate opportunity.

   Sharon will be most remembered for his provocation at the al Aqsa Mosque while (phony) negotiations were going on between Ehud Barak and Yasser Arafat.

4. 

   The Voice In The Wilderness on January 6, 2014 at 6:46 pm

   As one who opposed meddling in the internal affairs of Iraq, Syria, Egypt, and Iran, I have to ask, “What gives us the right to meddle in the internal affairs of Israel?”

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     Oui on January 7, 2014 at 12:59 am

     It’s not domestic nor “internal” affairs. Israel violates Palestinian rights since 1948 and especially gross violation of human rights since 1967, occupations of Judea and Samaria [West Bank] and continued settlement building, intimidation and harassment. Israel defies UN Security Council resolutions.

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       The Voice In The Wilderness on January 7, 2014 at 9:49 am

       And our occupation of Northern Mexico, California, Hawaii and indeed all US territory?

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         Oui on January 7, 2014 at 4:19 pm

         Collapse of the European colonial powers after the devastating Second World War, created a wave of independence seeking  nations across the globe. In the Middle East, the colonial powers France and Great Britain extricated their military and new nation states were created. Israel was created by decree of the United Nations and this body set the boundaries. The International Court of Justice in The Hague has made a non-binding ruling on the security wall, the green armistice line and occupied Palestinian territories. It is the veto power of the US that prevented rights of the Palestinian people to be established in their own state. On rogue nations, sanctions were enforced when Security Council Resolutions were neglected. The US and Israel need to abide by International Law.

         “And our occupation of Northern Mexico, California, Hawaii and indeed all US territory?”

         You are absolutely correct, the US has a lot to answer for and the lawlessness continues into the new 21th century. You know the saying: “Might Is Right.” It’s true, Israel and the US are close and have the same immoral values on rendition, espionage, torture, assassinations, black prisons and dehumanization of detainees. War dehumanizes both sides in the conflict as Europe has learned painfully in the 20th century. It’s about time to give peace a chance when Israel’s security is enhanced by the treaty. Israel’s wall of separation has led to more incitement of hate between parties since 2003, not less. Israel has been more secure, yet the war hawks have gained more political clout in domestic politics.

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           The Voice In The Wilderness on January 7, 2014 at 7:05 pm

           You are absolutely correct, the US has a lot to answer for and the lawlessness continues into the new 21th century. You know the saying: “Might Is Right.” It’s true, Israel and the US are close and have the same immoral values on rendition, espionage, torture, assassinations, black prisons and dehumanization of detainees. War dehumanizes both sides in the conflict as Europe has learned painfully in the 20th century.

           Can’t quarrel with you there. You are absolutely right.