The BDS Movement Exposed

It's worth 6 minutes of your time to watch the following superb video exposing the black heart of the Boycott-Divest-Sanction movement so trendy on campuses around the world.  The film doesn't have time enough to chronicle all the villains in the piece, so we've added one of the worst: Richard Falk of Princeton and the U.N, speaking at a Harvard Israel Hate Fest in 2009:



Falk no doubt was forced to "flee" in order to observe the summer's Tesha B'Av fast.

Others on the panel at Harvard are Falk, Anat Biletzki (one of the chief BDS Israeli ringleaders) and Rhami Koury, the slippery, Harvard educated editor of Beirut's Daily Star,  the Hezbollah-sympathetic rag.  I forget the name of the gentleman third from the left.  On second thought, they all styled themselves "on the left."

It's That Caterpillar Thing Crawling Again

 The Forgotten Tractor Attack

Just when we thought it was safe to climb aboard our Caterpillar lawn tractors again, JSVP (Jewish Shriek for Peace) is turning the ignition off.  For a while, the Jewish Voice for Peace had shifted their attention to Motorola ("Hang Up on Motorola") as a diversionary tactic prompted by repeated, fatal attacks involving Caterpillar tractors by Palestinian Arabs on Jewish civilians.  As a matter of fact, the Motorola campaign is so moribund that its account has been suspended on the web for non payment.  Why Motorola?  Because: a) they weren't Caterpillar  b) Israel uses Motorola technology in its WAAS (Wide Area Surveillance System) that enables the security barrier (the "apartheid wall") to prevent  daily and lethal incursions against its civilians.  Jewish self-defense is apparently an unpardonable sin for Jewish "Progressives."  At the recent national Presbyterian conference in Minnesota, the elders called on Caterpillar to

“carefully review its involvement in obstacles to a just and lasting peace in Israel-Palestine, and to take affirmative steps to end its complicity in the violation of human rights.”

The Anglican Church has divested of its shares in Caterpillar citing the D9's use in demolishing illegal Palestinian construction.  The Archbishop of Canterbury has been mum, however, in its use in demolishing "illegal" Jewish settlements.

But sufficient time has passed - and with it, media amnesia - since four Jews were murdered in Jerusalem in 2008 by Arabs sitting at the controls of Caterpillar tractors.  The Jewish Forward reports on the BDS issue as it relates to house demolitions mainly in the West Bank.  The reporters make no mention of  the 2008 tractor attacks against Jewish civilians.  In fairness, the story does not mention Rachel Corrie either.  That it does not is intriguing, given the unavoidable, popular connection with the woman's tragic, accidental death. 
On the other hand, the Jewish victims' names were forgotten the day they were murdered.  Ms. Corrie has become the Joan of Arc of antisemites, the pure, youthful expression of "Progressive" martyrdom - the atheists' equivalent of a Shahid.  Her name is the bloody shirt of Israel hatred, waved daily by hard-line Leftist Jews, Arabs and all those beneficent Presbyterians, Methodists and Unitarians who worship it without regard for the truth of her deep involvement with the terrorist support group, the International Solidarity Movement.  Alan Rickman co-wrote a treacly, agitprop piece of dreck about her ("My Name is Rachel Corrie") and one of the Turkish IHH terror laden ships involved in the Gaza Flotilla incident bore her sainted name. 

Embarrassed by Arab proficiency in ramming their Caterpillar tractors into buses, cars and pedestrians with fatal results, the stalwarts of the Left lay off the company for two years.  In July of 2008, Hossam Dwyaat drove his tractor into traffic, killing 3 Jewish women.  Mahmoud Abbas' Al Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade claimed credit. 
In typically contorted language, The BBC headline read, "Israeli Bulldozer Driver Shot Dead".  Alan Rickman decided not to write a play about the incident.  Elizabeth Goren-Friedman and Batsheva Unterman, killed in the attack, remain nameless and faceless to the world, thanks to the mainstream media.  One woman  tossed her infant out of her car before she was killed .  The baby was severely injured, but survived.  Alan Rickman decided not to write a play about the mother.

In another bulldozer attack a few weeks later, dozens were injured.  Watch Al Jazeera's account with its subtle, Brit reporter noting that the attack occurred in a neighborhood with "luxury hotels".  He concludes with this: "The attacker came from occupied East Jerusalem."



The efficacy of the security barrier and its  virtual elimination of casualties - on both sides - is so galling to the Left that the "Progressive" camp has been reduced to beating the proverbial dead horse.

Dershowitz Adds His Voice in Exposing J Street

Alan Dershowitz has published a blistering indictment of J Street's MacCarthyite tactics on The Hudson Institute's website.   As we noted earlier, the latest J Street television/internet ad is designed to divide Americans and the American Jewish community by imputing sinister motives to liberal, Zionist voices like Dershowitz's.

Meanwhile, J Street's ongoing campaign to convince the Treasury Department to investigate Jewish American charities has produced the desired results:  Yousef Munayyer, a Palestinian writer and militant has published an article in Foreign Policy Magazine entitled, "Time to Crack Down on Settlement Funding."  Munayyer is no stranger to hyperbole and outright falsehood. A frequent contributor to FP Magazine and The Guardian, he advocates the stealth, "one state" solution (i.e. the "no state" solution for Israel).   Ergo, a perfect match for J Street.

Yousef Munayyer

Munayyer claims that 

"Ever since the Israeli occupation began in 1967, the United States has held that the transfer of Israel's civilian population into those territories is illegal and contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention, an agreement that both Israel and the United States are party to."  

Of course, the Reagan doctrine on settlements refutes his statement as do the policies of all Presidents since Reagan.  From time to time, Presidents like George H.W. Bush considered expanding settlements "obstacles", but no President has gone so far as to pursue their "illegality" under the Geneva Convention.  Moreover, the various agreements between Israel and the Palestinians - with the exception of the "Roadmap" which stipulates "settlement outposts" and "settlement freeze" - specifically do not include "settlement" language.

As to the legality of settlements, the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs has published the definitive analysis: http://www.jcpa.org/brief/brief2-16.htm

J Street's "Pro Israel" agenda strikes again.  

Jeremy Ben Ami Disses Islamic Charities

Every now and then, the real face of J Street reveals itself.  When it's not functioning as Kapo, informing on fellow Jews to an openly hostile Obama administration, it almost comically persists in pushing its "Pro Israel" brand.   This weekend the lies and facade melted away in Chicago.  Hoping to shore up the sinking campaign of Jan Schakowsky, a "J Street Right or Wrong" Obamaton, Jeremy Ben Ami swung into the windy city.  But he got more than he bargained for. 

 Joel Pollak Confronting Jeremy Ben Ami in Chicago

Joel Pollak, who hopes to replace Schakowsky in Illinois' 9th congressional district confronted Ben Ami and his recent campaign to convince the Treasury Department to investigate Jewish charities that contribute to groups beyond the Green Line in Israel.  As we pointed out here, J Street has evinced no interest whatsoever in allowing any sunlight to penetrate its own dubious fundraising via The New Israel Fund, one of its affiliates.  The NIF continues to fund groups like Adalah and The Association for Civil rights in Israel, which undertake programs that openly advocate the dissolution of the Jewish State.  Moreover, groups like CAIR and the Islamic Society of North America which have refused to identify Hamas as a terrorist organization are apparently off limits to Mr. "Pro Israel."  Some Islamic charities operating in the United States have even been indicted and convicted of terror- supporting activities.  It would seem that for these groups Ben Ami checks his investigative magnifying glass at the door.

Pollak asked Ben Ami,

"Why not investigate Islamic charities that fund anti-Israel views?"

Here is Ben Ami's response:

"I don't give a shit about Islamic charities." (oops, forgot the *!*&$!)

A casual observer might conclude that Mr. Ben Ami was expressing contempt or, at the very least, indifference to Islamic charities.  That's certainly not the way to open an honest dialogue with our Muslim brothers and sisters.  

Pollak then went on to challenge Ben Ami:

“If you showed the same enthusiasm in opposing Iran and Hamas as you do in fighting Alan Dershowitz, Elie Wiesel, and Joe Lieberman, perhaps J Street would be more popular.” 

 Who's the "Obstacle to Peace?"

  In response, Ben Ami called Lieberman "an obstacle to peace."  Just how far J Street will go in toadying up to the Obama administration is evidenced by the Chicago appearance.  The answer is that there is no position too extreme or Israel- hating for J Street to adopt.  Like the court Jews of the past, Ben Ami and J Street will go beyond any slanders against their fellow Jews to enhance its position in the corridors of power.  

 

Exclusive! John Roy Carlson Documents Discovered.

John Roy Carlson - not exactly a household name today.  Sixty years ago, however, he was  the nation's bestselling non-fiction writer.  His real name was Avedis "Arthur" Derounian, an Armenian American investigative journalist whose career was ignited by the brutal assassination of Archbishop Leon Tourian at the altar of his church in New York in 1933.  The assassins were members of the fascist Armenian, pro-Nazi group, the Dashnags.  Young Derounian spent the rest of his life fighting fascism, the Dashnags and, eventually, a burgeoning Islamic Jihadism.  His bestselling account of American Nazi groups in the 1930's and '40's was aptly called "Undercover."   His penetration of groups like The Silver Shirts, Crusaders for Americanism, The Committee of 1,000,000 and The Amerika Deutscher Volksbund (German American Bund) made up the pages of Undercover and later provided the early House on UnAmerican Activities with invaluable evidence which it used to prosecute these hate groups.  Risking his life on many occasions, Carlson was able to get close to the leaders of these often Nazi controlled groups just prior to World War II. 

Then, in 1948, presenting himself as an Armenian American, he traveled to the Middle East and - incredibly - fought in Israel's War of Independence - on the Arab side!  Of course, he was undercover yet again, reporting honestly - but secretly - about the genocidal nature of the war against the Jews and lauding the Zionists' courage and sacrifices.  Decades before Samuel Huntington's "The Clash of Civilizations" - so demeaned today among Islamists and their fellow travelers - Carlson understood the threat of Jihad not only to the nascent Israel, but to the West as well.  One of his chapter headings reads,

The World of the Koran: "Islam Uber Alles."

The book was entitled "Cairo to Damascus" published in 1951.  Carlson was the one of the first Western journalists to interview Muslim Brotherhood founder, Hassan al Banna, whom he described as "a short, squat ratty-faced man with puffed cheeks and fleshy nose...He was the most loathsome man I had yet met in Cairo."

 With a Flair for the Dramatic, Carlson Toured the U.S. for "Cairo to Damascus"

In addition to profiling the Muslim Brotherhood's "Murshid" or Supreme Guide, Carlson traveled with another Jihadi group, the Green Shirts (later absorbed into The Brotherhood) and its leader, Ahmed Hussein.  He entered Jerusalem after the fall of the Jewish Quarter and photographed and chronicled the brutal expulsion of the Jews by the Jordanian Legion.  He predicted the ominous march of Jihad because he experienced it from within.

 Carlson's Photograph of the Looting of the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem, 1948

Now, another, unpublished and untitled manuscript has emerged from the Derounian collection housed at the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research.  It was written in the early 1960's and consists of interviews and observations on the Arab world from Beirut to Baghdad.  Perhaps the most fascinating excerpts from the book have to do with Carlson's sojourn in Amman, Jordan.  He interviews a number of Palestinian refugees from the 1948 war and, most importantly, UNRWA officials, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency, established in 1949 exclusively for the benefit of Palestinian Arab refugees.  No other refugee group since then has been assigned a special UN agency.  Currently UNRWA's budget is close to half a billion dollars.  All other refugees fall under the jurisdiction of the UNHCR (United Nations High Committee for Refugees).   Perhaps most controversial of all, UNRWA has become the unofficial trough for HAMAS.  In the words of former UNRWA General Counsel, James G. Lindsay,

"UNRWA has taken very few steps to detect and eliminate terrorists from the ranks of its staff or its beneficiaries, and no steps at all to prevent members of organizations such as Hamas from joining its staff. UNRWA has no preemployment security checks and does not monitor off-time behavior to ensure compliance with the organization's anti-terrorist rules. No justification exists for millions of dollars in humanitarian aid going to those who can afford to pay for UNRWA services."

(Tip to Elder of Ziyon for the best analysis of UNRWA's first years.)

 UNRWA's First Director, Howard Kennedy (L)

Carlson's stay in Amman amounted to a refutation of the decades old refrain of victimhood by the Palestinians - namely, that all the Arabs were expelled by the neo-colonialist Zionists and that a life of squalor awaited the refugees. He conducted extensive interviews with refugees and with an anonymous American UNRWA official.  Here are two excerpts from Carlson's original:
(Images appear with the permission of the National Association for Armenian Studies and Research (NAASR)

Carlson's interviews constitute an important element in the contemporary history of the Arab Israeli conflict.  We will be excerpting more in the future. 

By All Means, Investigate!

 "Isaac Luria", the shadowy voice of J Street tasked to rally the uninformed, wants Obama's Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner (you know, the tax-evading Geithner) to follow up on the NY Times' non-story about tax exempt U.S. charities funding projects in Judea and Samaria.  Even according to the Times story, there's no beef there, and certainly, no legal violations.  According to the paper,

"The money goes mostly to schools, synagogues, recreation centers and the like, legitimate expenditures under the tax law."

Alex Safian of CAMERA goes into detail here.    J Street's "Vice President of Communications and New Media" goes on to say that

"This revelation should raise enormous red flags for the United States Treasury Department, the federal agency responsible for enforcing the law when it comes to terrorist financing and tax evasion."

Apparently unconcerned over funding by many of its constituent organizations, like The New Israel Fund, to groups that openly call for the destruction of Israel and the legitimization of Hamas, J Street is engaged in a desperate attempt to deflect attention away from two current stories that reveal just how Israel-hating the group really is.  Building a synagogue or clinic in Ofrah - according to J Street - is terrorism but funding universities in Ramallah that glorify the Sbarro pizzeria bombing of 2001 is just fine with Mr. Luria (or Ms. Luria - who knows who that is?)   

First J Street embarassment:

The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) recently came out with a report that compares Israel with the worst regimes of the 20th Century - including Nazi Germany.  So what else is new for lefty theologians? What else is new involves the noble Presbyters citing J Street as a "sign of hope."  Panic struck their Washington offices and prompted Rachel Lerner, J Street VP to "reject" the report.   Yet again, J Street is forced to publicly distance itself from the reality of its constant Palestinian cheerleading and the consequences of its anti-Israel program.  How many times does J Street's have to be unmasked before everyone sees its true face?  Remember the college branch of the organization that promptly dropped the "Pro Israel" brand from its website?  Remember the ringing endorsement of Stephen Walt of "The Israel Lobby" canard?

Next embarrassment:  Jeremy Ben Ami's former PR firm, Fenton Communications, abruptly dropped its al Fakhoora campaign.  This richly funded program, under the guise of "student education" sought to demonize Israel following Operation Cast Lead and more recently, became the U.S. branch of the Turkish IHH whose thugs precipitated the Mavi Marmara incident on the high seas.  One of al Fakhoora's stated purposes was to:

 "Assist and train students in researching and compiling information on Gaza student victims and survivors"  

Naturally, Hamas' use of human shields in schools, hospitals and private homes was not to be investigated.

The year after Senior Vice President, Ben Ami left the firm, Fenton signed a lucrative  PR deal with the Sheikhess of Qatar (those wonderful folks who bring you al Jazeera and Sheikh Yusuf  -"burn the gays" - Qaradawi)  How about a little investigation there?  Over 10 Fenton executives registered as agents of a foreign government to gain the contract.  Let Ben Ami answer a few questions about his involvement in this "Pro Israel" adventure.   Considering many of the current donors and members of his advisory board (like the "Pro Israel" Robert Malley and Saudi attorney Nancy Dutton) Ben Ami's outreach to the Dons of Doha is entirely conceivable.

Incidentally, the "transparent" J Street - aside from cloaking its spokesperson - is virtually impossible to contact.   No phone number is listed and when you finally find a number, you get a recording.  Ben Ami's former firm, Fenton, is similarly unresponsive.  Six phone calls went unanswered.

 

Yet Another J Street Shadow Group

Manufacturers have long recognized the advantage of producing multiple brands that essentially mirror each other.  The strategy is market saturation and control.  If you control the supermarket shelf, you control the market.  J Street's latest production is just such a move.  Funded by under-the-radar Soros money, along with its many anti-israel deep pocketed contributors like the Turkish Mehmet Celebi (oddly enough, of Illinois) who helped produce Turkey's epic antisemitic film, "Valley of the Wolves - Iraq" in which Jewish doctors harvest organs from Muslim children and Nancy Dutton, who represents the Saudi Royal family as their lawyer, Jeremy Ben Ami's brainchild has just unleashed a media blitz operating under the name, "Community of Yes."  Mimicking everything Obama, they hope to capitalize on the winning "Yes, We Can" theme.  "Turning No into Yes on a Two State Solution" is the hastily built website's theme, as usual, exculpating Arabs and blaming it all on the Jews they despise. 



It's more of the same J Street rant that the only obstacle to peace in the Middle East are all those nay-saying "right wingers" among American Christian supporters of Israel.  For people who profess revulsion of the notion of demonizing "the other", J Street has produced a commercial that does precisely that. The 30 second TV and internet spot goes for the low-hanging fruit (Sara Palin, John Hagee and Rush Limbaugh) that's guaranteed to bring out shudders of fear from  liberal American Jews. 

The clip begins with..."As chaos and violence in the Middle East grow..." quickly overlaid with a video of IDF commandos descending on ropes to the deck of the Mavi Marmara, clearly suggesting that it is Jewish violence that is impeding the elusive peace process.  According to J Street's playbook, there is no Palestinian Arab atrocity that is not caused by Israeli intransigence. 

Slight problem for Ben Ami & Co.  At least 63% of Americans disagree with them according to a recent Gallup poll.  Seems like they're a lot smarter than the "blame Israel first, last and always" crowd on J Street.   The spot also absurdly suggests that Jews who recognize the extremist threats coming out of both Gaza and Ramallah are somehow "denying reality." 

Will this slick piece of codswallop succeed with American Jews and other Americans?  If its past performance is any indication, it will be a flop, driving more and more people to the reality camp, the anti-J Street camp.