Steven Plaut |
Original articles on Israel and related issues written by Steven Plaut, a professor at an Israeli university. |
Thursday, May 31, 2012
1. Leftist Attorney General Circles the Wagons to defend Leftist who
Incited to Murder For those who think I am exaggerating when I say that Israel has a corrupt politicized dual justice system, one for leftists and the other for everyone else, then just consider the following news item: You may recall the reports here about one Eyal Nir, a far-leftist anti-Israel lecturer in chemistry at Ben Gurion "University," the Bir Zeit of the Negev. Nir posted calls and threats to murder non-leftists on his Facebook page. The same Attorney General's Office that rounds up and arrests Rabbis by the bushel if they dare to recommend that people read a book of which the Leftists disapprove was petitioned to prosecute Nir. Today it was announced that Nir will not be prosecuted. And don't hold your breath waiting for Rivka Carmi, the Cabbagehead president of Ben Gurion "University," to do anything about Nir either. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/Flash.aspx/241322 Case Closed Against Inciting Lecturer The State Attorney's Office announced, Thursday, that it was closing the file of a Ben Gurion University lecturer who had called, on his Facebook page, to "break the necks" of right wing participants in last year's Jerusalem Day Flag Dance parade. The announcement cited lack of evidence. The Legal Forum for the Land of Israel, which filed the complaint has announced that it will appeal the "surprising" decision. "Law enforcement cannot ignore such a blatant incitement to murder, said Forum Director, Nachi Eyal. Here is the earlier story about Nir's incitement to murder: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/144866#.T8d9nLA9Wbu Leftist Professor: 'Break the Necks' of Right-wing 'Scoundrels' A senior Ben Gurion U. professor urges people "break the necks of right-wing scoundrels," but the university blocked protests on its website. By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu First Publish: 6/12/2011, 12:46 PM / Last Update: 6/12/2011, 1:04 PM A senior Ben Gurion U. professor urges people to "break the necks of right-wing scoundrels," but the university blocked protests on its website. 2. http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/156375#.T8d99LA9Wbs Ben Gvir: Protest 'Victim' Was Really a Leftist Radical Reports that right wing activists beat an 'alleged' African illegal alien later revealed the 'victim' was a radical Israeli leftist. David Lev Media reports in Israel on Thursday morning said that protesters at a rally Wednesday night demanding the government do something about illegal African migrants had attacked a passerby from among the illegal aliens. Several reports said that right-wing protesters beat the African, while others said that they just cursed and insulted him. But as it turned out, the "passerby" was not an an African migrant. Actually, said right-wing activist Itamar Ben-Gvir, the "victim" is an Israeli, an Ethiopian Jew. He apparently went to the protest in order to create an incident for the cameras so it would appear that right-wing activists were harassing and attacking Africans. The leftist "victim," Hanania Vanda, is an archaeology student at Ben Gurion University and a self-declared radical leftist, Ben Gvir said. Vanda has allegedly written that he envisions "radical" solutions to several of the burning issues in Israeli society, including the illegal alien issue. Ben Gvir said Vanda presented himself as a Sudanese refugee on Wednesday night, and joined a group of illegal Africans congregating near the protest by residents of south Tel Aviv against the ongoing crime by the Africans and lack of enforcement by police. He then moved towards the body of the protest and began shouting out epithets and curses, apparently in an attempt to incite the protesters. While some of the protesters responded in kind, no one hit Vanda, Ben Gvir said, and none of the footage taken by television and other media showed that Vanda had been struck. "Vanda tried to pull a fast one, and unfortunately some media outfits allowed themselves to be suckered into believing his story, failing to check the facts," Ben Gvir said. "While the easy story for the media is the one they tried to portray of 'right wing activists attack Africans,' the fact is that the photos and video do not back this up. Actually, when Vanda finally admitted that he was an Ethiopian Jew, he was welcomed by the protesters." Ben Gvir also protested the fact that many of the news outlets that reported the "attack" did not seek to get a response from him or other right-wing activists who actually participated in the demonstration. "I cannot remember an incident in which right-wing activists complained that they were attacked by leftists that the media did not follow through and seek the other side of the story, as they reported what they said were the 'claims' of the right wing victims. When it comes to claims against the right though, anything goes – there is no investigation by the media, and they don't even bother looking at the materials that they themselves filmed." Wednesday, May 30, 2012
1. You know the name Shlomo Sand, the anti-Semitic pseudo-historian
from Tel Aviv University who has a "book" out consisting largely of recycled myths taken from Neo-Nazi web sites and claims that the Jews were never a people. You know, unlike the Palestinian people, which has been a people since antiquity. Comrade Sand has a new "book" out now about how Jews have no ties to the Land of Israel either. Unlike Arabs. Sand was in the news a few days back for claiming he received "death threats" (in my opinion these claims being fabrications). Sand is an expert on the French cinema who woke up one morning a few years back and decided that he is actually an expert in Jewish history. He has no academic publications in Jewish history. Well, Sand is now back. It seems he is now claiming to have suffered from suppressed memory syndrome regarding a vicious murder of a Palestinian by them Zionists. Sand claims to have suddenly remembered this 45 years after the "fact." In an interview with a jihadist web site in Australia, here is the latest discovery by Tel Aviv University's leading "historian": Shlomo Sand, the pseudo-historian Stalinist from Tel Aviv University, claims he witnessed murder of a Palestinian and did nothing about it. Also admits being a Stalinist. http://www.australiansforpalestine.net/63729 (see web page for full interview) Excerpt: One night in September 1967 he witnessed soldiers abusing an elderly Palestinian man who had been arrested with a large amount of dollars in his possession. "I climbed onto a crate and watched a harrowing scene through the window," he writes. "The detainee was sitting tied to a chair, and my good buddies were beating him all over and occasionally pressing burning cigarettes into his arms. I climbed down from the crate, threw up and returned to my post shaking and frightened. A little later, a pickup left carrying the body ... My friends shouted to me that they were going to the Jordan River to dump the body." You were armed - why didn't you intervene? You could have fired in the air, summoned help. "I lost my senses completely. I was afraid to intervene. The fact that I did not try to do anything to stop them depressed me for years and resonates within me to this day. That is why I write about in the book, because I still have guilt feelings. I am ashamed that I did not do anything. When I got back from reserve duty in Jericho, I went to see MK Meir Wilner [head of the Israel Communist Party]* and told him about it. I also consulted with [the writer] Dan Omer, whom I had met during the fighting, when we both shook as we shot in Abu Tor. Omer, who was five years older than I, adopted me. He and Wilner said there were too many cases like that and there was nothing to be done. That night I felt that I had lost my homeland, namely my childhood neighborhood in Jaffa, along with my parents, the neighbors and the school. A concrete homeland that I lost at that time." Why are you invoking this now? "In the book I do a national reckoning. You know, I am not anti-national. ... Did you go back to the murder of the Palestinian man in order to say , "Look, I am one of you and once I was even made to be a bit of a war criminal"? "Like everyone, I too am a bit of a war criminal. That is part of my life. Some time after that reserve service in Jericho I became a daily activist in Matzpen (the Maoist organization - SP) and distributed leaflets and sprayed slogans on walls at night and got beaten up. I was a member of the political fringe. I am not a victim, but my psychological distress started then, at the age of 20. The years in Matzpen** gave me a great deal, and the political activity was a type of healing. I later left the organization heartbroken, and in despair sank into drugs. My partner and my best friend got into heroin. Maybe because I am Polish I did not follow them, and instead of heroin I took matriculation exams and entered university. The best friend committed suicide. Others left the country." * Vilner was a hard-core Stalinist who ran Israel's communist party. Note how Sand's first instinct is to report the "story" to his party Kommissar ** Matzpen was a treasonous Maoist group whose members formed an espionage and terror cell led by Udi Adiv in the 1970s. Adiv is out of prison and teaches at Israel's taxpayer supported "Open University" today. 2. Lost in Translation: CAMERA Report on Haaretz' English edition's habit of treason and lying through mis-translation: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=2&x_outlet=55&x_article=2238 Meanwhile, Haaretz' ace traitor-reporter is about to be indicted for espionage: http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-4236080,00.html Journalist Uri Blau to be indicted Journalist implicated in Anat Kam affair to be charged with unauthorized possession of confidential information. *** Blau has been running special features in recent weeks in the Haaretz weekend magazine attempting to smear anti-Left watchdog groups and web sites. 3. Occupying Palestinians is one thing but now LSD-touting Rabbi Moonbeam, Mikey Lerner, the pseudo-rabbi editor of Tikkun Magazine, and Rabbi Woodstock Waskow, his sidekick from the "Renewal" pagan movement, have found a crime that Israel has perpetrated that simply cannot be forgiven. This atrocity is the worst crime Israel has ever carried out, said Lerner: Israelis develop 'cannabis without the high' May 30th, 2012 in Biology / Biotechnology Israeli scientists have cultivated a cannabis plant that doesn't get people stoned in a development that may help those smoking marijuana for medical purposes, a newspaper said on Wednesday. According to the Maariv daily, the new cannabis looks, smells and even tastes the same, but does not induce any of the feelings normally associated with smoking marijuanathat are brought on by the substance THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol. "It has the same scent, shape and taste as the original plant -- it's all the same -- but the numbing sensation that users are accustomed to has disappeared," said Tzahi Klein, head of development at Tikkun Olam, the firm that developed the species. "Many of our patients who tried the new plant come back to us and say: 'You tricked me,'" because they assumed they had been given a placebo, he said. According to Maariv, Tikkun Olam sought to neutralise the effect of the THC and to increase the effect of another substance called CBD, or cannabidiol, which has been shown to help diabetics and to ease various psychiatric disorders. Not only does it leave users stone-cold sober, it also doesn't induce the munchies, the hunger pangs that the drug's smokers generally suffer. Despite the innovation, it is unlikely to have any impact on Israeli law, which outlaws the use of marijuana as illegal except for medical purposes. According to figures published earlier this year by Sheba Medical Centre and the Israel Cancer Association, medical marijuana has been approved for use by about 6,000 Israelis suffering from various illnesses. (c) 2012 AFP "Israelis develop 'cannabis without the high'." May 30th, 2012. http://phys.org/news/2012-05-israelis-cannabis-high.html 4. Israel is currently debating four different proposals designed to criminalize the use of Holocaust imagery and rhetoric by ultra-Orthodox "chareidim." The black suited anti-modern folk and their children have conducted some rowdy protests in Israel in which they bedeck the kids in yellow Jewish stars reminiscent of those of the Holocaust. Some of Israel's radical leftists are suddenly free speech absolutists regarding this. In reality, Israel's leftists are generally fascists who oppose democracy and freedom of speech. But they are afraid that the new bills, if passed, could be used to prosecute leftists who proclaim each morning with their lattes that Israel is a Nazi regime. In any case, today two leftist law professors write an Op-Ed (Hebrew only) in Maariv denouncing the new bills. The two are Mordechai Kremnitzer, from the Hebrew University law school and a stalwart of the Leftists Israeli Democracy Institute (IDI) (http://www.isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Joel%20Amitai%20-%20Mordechai%20Kremnitzer.htm). He has a long track record of worrying about the "rights" of terrorists but not of their victims. He is joined by Amir Paz-Fuchs, one of the most anti-Israel radical leftists (http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/Editorial%20-%20Lee%20Kaplan%20-%20Amir%20Paz-Fuchs%20-%20bravest%20Israelis.htm) teaching law in Israel. Fuchs teaches, or rather preaches, his extremist ideology at the Kiryat Ono community college. Both have been active in demanding that the government crack down on the freedom of speech of rabbis and settlers and Im Tirtzu students (http://coteret.com/2010/02/05/dr-amir-paz-fuchs-mccarthyism-pure-and-simple/ ). Fuchs is also associated with the IDI. The two are suddenly great believers in free speech absolutism. It must be protected speech to call people Nazis and call Israel a Nazi regime, claim the great democrats. One itsy bitsy problem with this. Neither of these two great defenders of freedom of speech ever had a single word to say about the fascist SLAPP suit against me by anti-Semite Neve Gordon nor about the anti-democratic decisions by anti-democratic judges in Israel, when they chose to close ranks with Gordon and find in his favor. Just to remind you, Neve Gordon illegally entered Ramallah in 2001 to interfere with Israeli military anti-terror operations and to act as a human shield to express solidarity with wanted Palestinian murderers and protect them from the Israeli military. On an internet site I described his "human shield" solidarity group as a group of "Judenrat wannabes." After all, they were self-appointed Judenrat-like representatives "negotiating" with the world's worst mass murderer of Jews. Gordon filed a frivolous SLAPP suit against me for "libel" for use of that expression. He filed in Nazareth court in order to get an Arab judge. The Arab woman judge in Nazareth court issued a verdict agreeing with and endorsing Gordon in all things, a verdict in which she also proclaimed support for Holocaust "revisionism" and proclaimed Israel a country sitting entirely on lands stolen from another people. Then, in the first round of appeal, the Nazareth Appeals court overturned most of the verdict but left standing the judgment that use of the word "Judenrat" in a sentence about someone engaged in illegal treasonous activities is not protected speech. It allowed Gordon to retain 10,000 NIS in damages. Later a panel of three justices at Israel's Supreme Court refused to overturn this residual part of the judgment and agreed that use of the word "Judenrat" in a sentence about someone's illegal treasonous activities, in which he was protecting wanted murderers, is NOT protected speech. The writer of that anti-democratic ruling was Eliezer Rivkin, the Deputy Chief Justice, who retired this week from the bench. So use of the word "Judenrat" is libel, ruled the gaggle of anti-democratic judges. Of course, leftists and Arabs calling people Nazis is always protected speech in Israel and not a single Leftist has ever been convicted of libel for doing so. Suddenly the leftist duo from the Israel Democracy Institute think prohibiting use of "Holocaust era rhetoric of symbols" is undemocratic and that use of these should be protected speech. Yet neither has ever had a single word to say about the judicial atrocity committed by those anti-democratic judges in the Gordon-Plaut suit. And it is obviously NOT because they have never heard about the suit. Tel Aviv University's law journal ran an article (albeit biased and distorted) about the court case last year. In short, as usual leftist "academics" in Israel only believe in freedom of speech for leftists. Anti-democratic infringements on the freedom of speech of non-leftists are never matters deserving of comment or condemnation. Tuesday, May 29, 2012
1. Israel's Left is having a field day in attacking the Israeli
public for its "racism" against African infiltrators. The Left always thinks that attacking and demonizing other Israelis will make them want to vote for the Left. Haaretz is including such denunciations as part of its daily morning doses of treason. And the foreign press and its anti-Semitic fellow travelers are chortling in delight. So just what is going on? First, let's shine some light of accuracy upon the usual media horse manure about Israel. Israel has for many years been an attractive employment base for foreign "guest workers," who have been welcomed into the country by the many tens of thousands and come to Israel in the first place because of employment opportunity and attractive wages. Almost all of the home care workers for elderly Israelis are foreign guest workers. These usually enter the country legally, although there are often problems when their visas run out because they do not want to leave. They prefer to remain in Israel and be "exploited," the nonsense term universally used by the Left to refer to their employment by Israelis. Second, until recently the bulk of guest workers were from the Far East. Filipino day care workers became so common that the Hebrew word "Filipino" is used as a synonym for day care workers, such as "Where is your Filipino from? Mine is from Sri Lanka!" For years the bulk of guest workers (including in the construction industry and in agriculture) were Thai, Filipino, and Chinese, with a handful from Sri Lanka and Romania and Central/South America. They were accepted with affection and approval by almost all Israelis and were never regarded as much of a social problem, even when they stayed on too long beyond their visas. They were hard working and well behaved, almost never involved in crime. The East Asians of course were not "white" and so their welcome and acceptance shows the lie in the claim that Israelis are protesting against the Africans because the Africans are not "white" like Israelis. Things began to change a few years ago when masses of African infiltrators started entering the country. In most cases they simply walked in from the Sinai Peninsula, where even today the border with Egypt is wide open. Successive Israeli governments refused to erect a security fence along much of the border, to preserve the pretense that Israel is at peace and in harmony with Egypt, even after repeated terrorist infiltrations and atrocities carried out along this unsecured border. The gap in the border controls was also used to smuggle in the bulk of the prostitution "manpower" in Israel, largely women from Eastern Europe. It is how all the drugs enter Israel. And it is how the masses of African infiltrators came in. At first, the media tried to paint the Africans as desperate "refugees" fleeing the massacres in the Sudan, and indeed a handful were from the Darfur. The media hectored Israelis about how "we too were desperate refugees" and with "remember the stranger among you" quotes from the Bible, almost the only quote the Leftist journalists know from the Bible. (Never mind that the Bible is referring to righteous converts to Judaism.) Never mind that to enter Israel the Africans had to enter Egypt first where no one was murdering them or preventing them from seeking work THEREt. But the wages in Israel for such "refugees" were at least ten times higher than in Egypt. And they did the math. Meanwhile, the business about the infiltrators coming from the Sudan is literally an urban myth. At least two thirds of the infiltrators now in Israel are from Eritrea, an impoverished despotic Moslem country on the Red Sea crawling with Islamofascist terrorist groups. They come to Israel for the wages. It is widely believed that al-Qaeda terrorists are among them. And unlike the Thais and Filipinos, they are decidedly NOT hard working and well behaved. Many carry diseases and many more take to crime. There have been repeated attacks on Israelis, especially women, by the Eritreans, and the crime stats in South Tel Aviv are in the stratosphere. The Israeli Left is overjoyed by the flooding of Tel Aviv by the Eritreans. That is because the Left supports ANYTHING that makes Israel a less Jewish country or undermines the existence of the country demographically. The Lefties would prefer an unlimited Palestinian "right of return," but are willing to make do with south Tel Aviv being converted into an African slum. The Africans live eight to a room and seek work illegally, getting paid under the table. Until now the government turned a blind eye to the problem. The Left loves seeing Tel Aviv Africanized just as long as no Africans move into any buildings in which leftist yuppies live. Instead, the Eritreans crowd into the neighborhoods of low-income blue-collar Israelis who do not have the capital to flee the neighborhoods for safer, better ones. Curiously, the Leftists have never proposed that maybe the Moslem Eritreans should all seek work and move to nice homes in the Gaza Strip or in the territories now under the control of the Palestinian Authority, their fellow Moslems. I have not heard of a single Eritrean moving there. South Tel Aviv residents are enraged and are increasingly holding rowdy street protests demanding a solution. In some of these, the protesters let of steam and throw curses and even a few rocks. No African has been killed by the hotheads and as far as I know none has even been injured. This has not stopped the anti-Semites from painting the protesters as the moral equivalents of Nazis on Kristallnacht. Far too little and far too late, the Israeli government is reluctantly looking for "solutions," including putting illegals into holding prisons in the Negev for up to three years. A smarter move would be to pay Eritrea some cash and then ship them all back home from out of Eilat. And of course the Netanyahu people are STILL not seriously trying to close the border. I would also suggest that, until the Eritreans are deported, they be sent to live in Hashomer Hatzair (Marxist) kibbutzim and in the buildings in which anti-Zionist leftist faculty members at Tel Aviv University and Ben Gurion "University" live. I am sure at least 60 could be fit into Neve Gordon's apartment. 2. http://www.melaniephillips.com/zionism-and-bigotry Always a pleasure and a duty to read Melanie Phillips: 28 May 2012 Zionism and bigotry Published in: Daily Mail More Sharing ServicesShare | Share on delicious Share on facebook Share on twitter Share on print In the wake of the festival of Shavuot, when Jews have been celebrating the giving of the Ten Commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai from where he presented them to the Jewish people camped at its foot, I have been brooding over the fact that Zionism has become a dirty word in Britain and the west. For many in these societies, Zionism has now become equated with racism. This group libel, once regarded with revulsion by decent people when the Soviet-Arab axis got the UN to endorse it in 1975, has now become the prism through which the BBC, academia, the artistic and theatrical world and much of the rest of the cultural establishment now frame all references to Israel. This helps explain the attempted boycott of the Israeli theatre company Habima, playing Shakespeare's Merchant of Venice at London's Globe theatre this evening in conditions of the tightest security (apparently the expected interruptions by bigots have so far been relatively minor). The profound malice and ignorance behind such reflexive demonisation of Israel are rendered all the more hallucinatory by the sanctimonious and unchallenged assumption of the moral high ground which these idiots believe they occupy. This is as grotesque as it is terrifying. Zionism is no more nor less than the self-determination of the Jewish people -- as a people, and not just as adherents of the Jewish religion. Jews are in fact the only people – as a people -- for whom Israel (ancient Judea and Samaria) was ever their national homeland. Those who deny Zionism thus deny Jewish peoplehood and the fundamental right of Jews to live as a people in their own ancestral homeland, Israel. Unique in the world, Jews are both a people and adherents of a religion. Intrinsic to and inseparable from the religion of Judaism is the land of Israel; more specifically, the centrality of and longing for Jerusalem and its Temple. Deny that centrality and you rip the heart and soul out of Judaism. Those who deny the right of the Jews to Israel and Jerusalem deny the right of the Jews to their own religion. Judaism is like a stool supported on three legs – the nation, the religion and the land. Saw off any of these legs and the stool collapses. Does this mean that all Jews are Zionists? Of course not, no more than it means that all Jews are religious. But just as the hatred of Jews on theological grounds has always threatened the lives and safety of all Jews including those who are not religious, so the anti-Zionist hatred of Jewish self-determination is a form of bigotry which threatens the lives and safety of all Jews, whether or not they are Zionists. And the fact that there are some anti-Zionist Jews who themselves hate the expression of Jewish self-determination in the form of the State of Israel is a manifestation of that same self-same bigotry no less for being such a tragically twisted example. The anti-Zionist madness of our time is thus far more pernicious even than hatred of Israel, pathologically obsessive and malevolent as that is in itself. Bad enough that for so many people in Britain and the west, Israel has been successfully demonised as a pariah state on the basis of a unique systematic campaign of falsehoods, distortions and libels about its history and behaviour, untruths which have nevertheless become the unchallenged basis for public discussion. But far worse even than this is the assumption underlying this lazy defamation, that Zionism is a creed that is itself a particularly aggressive kind of racism or colonialism. This vicious prejudice has turned truth, reason and decency inside out. The right of the Jews to their own historic national homeland has been recast, entirely falsely, as a usurpation of the 'right' to that land of 'Palestinians' – who never actually existed as a discrete people in the first place. Those Jews who are Zionists now find themselves as a result cast as racists and social pariahs – merely for asserting the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their own historic homeland. Those who are driven by a vicious and bigoted hatred have thus been allowed to cast the victims of their hatred as themselves hateful people. Zionist Jews are thus defamed and victimised many times over – and by those who have the gall to claim the moral high ground in doing so, from luvvies Emma Thompson and Ken Loach to the boycotters and thugs who harass and bully Zionist Jews on campus. This is a truly chilling situation, reminiscent of the mass brainwashing and hijacking of thought that took place in the Soviet Union – not surprising when you consider the Soviet-Arab axis that back in the seventies set out to destroy Israel by capturing and subverting the western mind. In practical terms, it means that by definition it is not possible to persuade people what has actually occurred and what the true facts are, since such propositions will be dismissed out of hand -- on the basis that everyone knows that the lies about Israel are actually the unchallengeable truth. But just as in the former Soviet Union, there are plenty of decent, rational people who do understand very well what is happening here, and its broader and lethal implications for the safety of the entire western world. For those people and others who have yet to be persuaded -- not to mention the duty to record this infamy into the memory of the world -- the truth behind this terrible departure from reason and decency over Israel and Zionism must continue to be publicly told. Sunday, May 20, 2012
1. Amiram Goldblum (Hebrew University, Pharmaceutical Sciences)
Calls on Israeli Left to Undermine Israeli Democracy and Have its Agenda Forced Upon Israel by Foreign Powers A few days ago an assembly of all the groups and movements of Israel's radical Left took place in Tel Aviv. Among the key speakers there was Prof. Amiram Goldblum, a founder of "Peace Now," and a faculty member at the Hebrew University in Pharmaceutical Sciences. Goldblum is a radical Leftist with a long track record of political extremism (see this: http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_context=8&x_nameinnews=100&x_article=84 and http://isracampus.org.il/third%20level%20pages/HebrewU%20-%20Amiram%20Goldblum%20-%20Likud%20leaders.htm ) The assembly and Goldblum's speech there are reported in detail in the May 18, 2012 issue of Makor Rishon. There Goldblum is quoted as calling on Israel's Left to stop wasting its time attempting to persuade the general public to embrace its political agenda, evidently because it is clear that the public will never do so. Goldblum said he has no interest in the Israeli electorate and general public and called upon the radical Left to go directly to political groups abroad, outside of Israel, and recruit them as pressure groups to coerce Israel into accepting the agenda of the Israeli Left. In other words, Goldblum is openly contemptuous of democracy and Israeli sovereignty. Goldblum is cited there as saying, "Israel's future regarding elections and demography has already been predetermined first and foremost, and excuse me for the express, in the bedroom with the settlers and of the ultra-Orthodox living in Israel." He went on to warn that the fact that religious people were having so many children would ultimately result in the Right gaining strength in elections. Since the Left was losing its ability from year to year to get elected, the solution was to have the Left's agenda coerced and imposed upon Israel by non-Israeli foreign political entities. He also denounced the residents of the suburbs of Jerusalem, those living in suburbs that happen to be across the Green Line, as evil "settlers" who should be evicted. 2. I have argued for years that there operates in Israel a dual judicial system, one for leftists and one for everyone else. Well, now it turns out that there is someone who holds the same opinion – (retired) Judge Uri Struzman, who has taken the Supreme Court to task in the past for its political biases (see http://www.hebron.com/english/article.php?id=457 ) . Struzman now denounces the courts for treating settlers as non-humans. His words. He writes this in Haaretz, of all places (Hebrew only, at http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1711631) It has to do with how the courts deal with orders for evicting people from property they do not clearly own. In general for humans, the judge writes, those being evicted have the automatic right to a hearing before a court before the writ is executed, so that they can state their own case. Even for the myriad Besouins and their fictional claims to ownership of the entire Negev. Indeed this is so even in the case of convicted Arab terrorists and murderers. The court grants them a hearing before any eviction or demolition order is executed so that they can have their day in court. But in the case of settlers, the courts are insisting that they are NOT entitled to such due process and to a court hearing in which they can state their cases. The conclusion being that in contrast with Arab murderers, the court does not regard settlers as humans. 3. The process of jihadization and radicalization of Israeli Arabs continues and is spreading even to the most moderate of Israeli Arab population subgroups. Take Haifa Arabs, mainly Christian, solidly middle class and yuppies, thoroughly integrated. Haifa Arabs are increasingly displaying political extremism. On Israeli Independence Day I observed PLO flags on a number of buildings in which Haifa Arabs reside in the downtown area. Naturally, the municipality of "Red Haifa" had nothing to say about that. Freedom of speech, you see. In the past the municipality under Mitzna allowed PLO flags to fly on buildings owned by the municipality like the Beit Hagefen "Arab-Jewish Cultural Center." Well, this year every single Arab school in Haifa shut down on "Nakba Day" in order to mourn Israel's creation and existence. This is illegal under Israel's Nakba Law, which says that no group getting any public funding may "commemorate" Nakba Day. It turns out that the principals and teachers in all these schools instructed the students NOT to come to school on Nakba Day (May 15). The same Haifa Municipality and the Israeli Minister of Education however continue to pump public funds into these schools. Do you think an American municipality would pump money into a school shutting down to mourn the loss of the war by Nazi Germany? (News Source: Zman Haifa, May 18, 2012) 4. More on Tel Aviv University's "Nakba Day": http://www.haaretz.com/opinion/the-nakba-day-fiasco-at-tel-aviv-university-the-government-s-own-fault.premium-1.431467 5. Among the most malicious anti-Israel groups these days are radical homosexual groups. These also are invariably anti-American and anti-capitalism. Basically these are Double Pink groups, homosexuals dreaming of the bliss of life under communism. Well, I was a bit curious about the history of the treatment of homosexuals under communist regimes. To tell you the truth, I did not know much about it. So I did a fast search. And while I would never suggest that "Wikipedia" is much of a valid source for anything, you can get a pretty good picture of the rough outline of the answer to my question here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Communism_and_homosexuality With all the caution one must exercise whenever looking up anything on Wikipedia (its entries on Israel and Jews have largely been hijacked and sabotaged by anti-Semites), you see the general picture. Treatment of homosexuals has always been enormously worse under communism than under capitalism, much like it has always been infinitely worse in Moslem countries than it has been in Israel. And that is why the radical homosexual groups are so anti-capitalist and anti-Semitic. For non-wikipedia sources that make the same point, see http://distributedrepublic.net/archives/2006/05/01/the-treatment-of-homosexuals-under-communism , http://gblt.webs.com/Communism_and_Gays.htm and http://www.asylumlaw.org/docs/china/ins0301_china_homosexuals.pdf . Friday, May 18, 2012
Dorit Beinisch was the Chief Justice of Israel's Supreme Court
until retiring recently. While already retired, she is still writing verdicts for some cases that began while she was on the bench. Beinisch was the worst Israeli practitioner of the anti-democratic doctrine of "judicial activism," which holds that court judges can just make up laws and "right" as they go along and that unelected judges should have the right to veto and dictate laws against the will of the elected representatives of the people. In other words, judicial activism is judicial tyranny. Yesterday Beinisch and two other judges issued what is without a doubt one of the very WORST court rulings in Israeli history, and for that matter one of the worst in the history of the democratic world. The ruling is based on illiteracy and ignorance. But even worse, for all intents and purposes it overrides the fundamental principle of all democracies that one is innocent until proven guilty. Beinisch's latest venture into judicial activism is to reverse that principle when it comes to women claiming to be victims of discrimination. Henceforth in Israel employers will be presumed guilty unless they can prove that they are innocent whenever any woman can be found who drew a salary less than any man. This act of sabotage of Israeli democracy was triggered by a suit in which a woman claimed she was underpaid due to the fact that she was a woman. Under Beinisch's new "law," employers will be presumed guilty of discrimination whenever a woman employee claims she was paid less than a male employee. It does not matter WHY she was paid less. And the woman does not even have to prove she suffered any damages from the discrimination she alleges took place. So a panel of three judges who have probably never taken an economics course in their entire lives presume to pontificate about what the causes and sources of pay disparities are in the labor marketplace. Their position is clearly that each and every wage disparity must be presumed to be a reflection of discrimination unless it can be proven otherwise. And proving otherwise is an extremely complicated and burdensome affair. Consider the following: it has been established statistically that fat people on average earn less than thin people. Under the Beinisch rules the simple fact of such a disparity must be presumed to be a reflection of discrimination against fat people. But there is no reason at all to think this is the case, and at least a thousand alternative explanations for why such a gap in wages exists, having nothing at all to do with discrimination. Fat people may be less healthy on average than thin people, may suffer more injuries, may be unable to perform certain job functions (such as climbing telephone polls). In addition fat people may be characterized more often by certain personality characteristics than are thin people. They may have less self-discipline, less ability to delay gratification, less perseverance. Certainly less energy. They also may have less interest in certain types of education or jobs compared with what appeals to thin people. If ANY of these many reasons explains the gap in wages, discrimination has been ruled out. But notice the difficulty. It is not a trivial matter to prove in a statistical or legal way which of the reasons explains the fat-thin pay gap. Ordinarily, the burden of proof for any fat person claiming that the reason for a lower pay is discrimination against fat folk would be on the plaintiff, who would have to provide persuasive evidence that the other 1000 conceivable factors and reasons are not the actual cause. And the exact same problem exists for pay disparities between the tall and the short (which also exist), or male-female, or Jewish-Arab, or Ashkenazi-Sephardi, or young-old pay disparities. The truth is that in many cases it is not clear at all what precisely produces a specific pay disparity. My wife is a university faculty member like me and makes more money than I do. Under the Beinisch rule this proves I am a victim of discrimination and I can sue the university. (She would insist that the REAL reason is that she is simply smarter than me, which is why it is just and proper that I have to do all the hoovering in the house.) I have not done sued – I prefer the legal redress solution of helping my Missus spend all the extra wampum. I have never in my life met a student who believes he got the grade he deserved, and I have never met a person who gets the salary he thinks he deserves. Since everyone thinks they have been cheated and shortchanged by the universe in some way, everyone has a grievance. Courts that operate based on common sense do not make judgments based on complaints and feelings of people. Plaintiffs have to prove their claims with hard evidence. But not in the post-Beinisch version of Israel's Brave New World. Every feeling of resentment and sense of having been shortchanged will be presumed to be objectively valid and reflecting discrimination. Equality patrols and a Soviet-like wage boards of bureaucrats will intervene and dictate to every single employer in the country what wage should be paid to which employee. Employers will have to spend the bulk of their resources fighting off the Equality Patrols and producing proof that they have NOT discriminated, leaving them with little time to do things like produce goods and services. Israel's feminists are beside themselves with glee at all this. Part of the irony here is that the immediate defense tactic of many employers will be to desist from hiring women altogether, to avoid comparisons of male and female pay, in order to save themselves from being harassed by the Equality Terrorists. But the more serious and long-lasting damage is that in her last gasps as a judge, Madame Beinisch is underlying the basic principles of judicial democracy in Israel. Here is a dangerous precedent that regards you and me as guilty unless we can provide overwhelming econometric evidence and scientific analysis showing that we are innocent. 2. Stop Funding Tel Aviv University by Michael Freund The Jewish Press May 16, 2012 http://www.michaelfreund.org/11707/stop-funding-tel-aviv-university Send RSS Share: Be the first of your friends to like this. One of Israel's leading universities seems to have lost its way. In a move that is as incomprehensible as it is shameful, Tel Aviv University (TAU) agreed to allow a student group to hold a ceremony commemorating "Nakba Day," when Palestinians bemoan the establishment of the state of Israel. The event included the reading of Palestinian poetry, a moment of silence and the recitation of an alternative version of the Yizkor prayer Jews traditionally say in memory of their loved ones. In case their intent was unclear, the organizers of this anti-Israel hatefest went out of their way to elucidate the reasons behind it, with one telling Haaretz in no uncertain terms that Israelis need to realize that, "We're talking about a disaster that must be known on a human level." Another student involved in planning the event said she saw it as a way "to remember the tragedy and great loss that befell the people who were here before '48." Have these people lost their minds? What on earth would prompt Jewish students at an Israeli institution of higher education to lament the founding of their own country? Clearly, something is very wrong at Tel Aviv University. Though ostensibly a Zionist institution, its administration ignored the pleas of various public figures and permitted this outrage to go forward. Indeed, for an institution whose website states that it has "a deep commitment to Israeli society and the Jewish people," it is hard to fathom what would prompt university officials to sign off on such nonsense. After all, this has nothing to do with the boundaries of free speech or the fundamental right to criticize one's government. It is about delegitimizing Israel and attempting to undermine its very existence. Promoting Nakba Day is a crucial political goal of the Palestinians. Giving it a platform not only fosters a false narrative of history, but it also plays directly into the hands of those who wish to dismantle the Jewish state. At a time when Israel is facing existential threats from its neighbors, there can be no excuse for allowing the publicly funded grounds of an Israeli university campus to serve as a staging area for assaults on its continued survival. Clearly, university administrators have lost sight of one of the essential purposes of education. As the 18th-century political philosopher Baron de Montesquieu pointed out, the promotion of love for one's country "ought to be the principal business of education." This is so patently obvious that it should not even need to be stated. Then again, given some of the radical faculty that populates various departments at Tel Aviv University, it should hardly come as a surprise that this basic idea has been all but overlooked. As Dr. Steven Plaut and the IsraCampus organization have been documenting for years, various TAU departments have become hothouses for anti-Israel hotheads. These range from a professor who denies that the Jews are a nation to another who has referred to the residents of Judea and Samaria as "Jewish Cossacks." Yet another TAU instructor justified a Palestinian grenade attack on Israeli soldiers as a legitimate act of resistance while others have affirmed their support for efforts to boycott the Jewish state. If you find this hard to believe, just go to the IsraCampus website (www.isracampus.org.il) and see for yourself how various anti-Zionist and Marxist loons have been indoctrinating Israel's younger generation at TAU with toxic views. Anyone concerned for the future of Israel should be concerned by what is happening on campuses such as Tel Aviv University. A growing cadre of Israeli academics are preaching extremist far-left views and turning the hallowed halls of higher education into profane pillars of puerile Palestinian propaganda. There is no reason why the Israeli taxpayer, or pro-Israel Diaspora Jews, should continue to generously fund TAU even as it serves to undercut the values they hold dear. For all their talk of principle, college administrators can be swayed if enough pressure is applied. And that is what needs to be done in order to restore some sanity, and Zionist commitment, to Israeli academia. So the next time you reach for your checkbook and consider making a donation to Tel Aviv University, do yourself and the Jewish people a favor: stop and think whether your money is truly going to a good cause. In the current environment, chances are it isn't. Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Occasionally when I am convinced that everyone is sick of hearing
about current events and news atrocities, I comment on what I think are interesting non-political aspects of life in Israel. On more than one occasion I have noted that I regard Israeli music to be the greatest cultural achievement of modern Israel. Israeli theater is mediocre. Israeli television is a human rights atrocity. Israeli literature is sometimes okay, but you need to ignore the fact that almost all the writers are far-leftist moonbats. Israeli cinema invariably reeks, except the recent "Footnote" movie was pretty good. But Israeli song is delightful and incomparable. There are a dozen different kinds of Israeli music, from Oriental to religious to pop, to old desert/camel music, to Russian revival, to folksy. And it captures and incorporates musical themes from all over the world, from Greece to Russia to Brazil to Italy to Bukhara, and also Arab music. A particularly excellent strand of Israeli music involves Yemenite performers, my own all-time favorites being the incredible (late) Zohar Argov, and the much-alive Daklon. And I want to tell you the story of one particular Yemenite song, which I think exemplifies so much of what is fascinating and enchanting about Israel. The song captures the complex richness of Israeli society. The song is named The Boat Song (Shir Ha-oniya), although is more familiar as "I am Gedalia." Its melody is a striking one based on traditional Yemenite musical themes. But the words are the most fascinating part of it. Yemenite Jews in Israel have by now been largely gentrified and the bulk are middle class or yuppies today. But when they first arrived in the 1950s (with some waves of immigrants who came earlier), they were at the bottom of the "social ladder," like Ethiopians are today. Yemen was and still is one of the most primitive places on earth. And its Jews were very much a product of conditions there. They nevertheless developed their own strong and unique set of religious traditions (for example, often Yemenites read Haftara portions that are different from BOTH those of Ashkenazim and Sephardim). And Yemenite Jewish education was so deeply devoted to the works of Maimonides (the RAMBAM) that even today I suspect the average Yemenite blue collar worker knows more Maimonides than most professors of Judaism. In any case, the song I want to introduce to you describes the adventures of one such working-class uneducated Yemenite youth living in the 1950s. The working class life of the naive and innocent youth is described in beautiful and flowery Hebrew, containing Biblical expressions and images and literary language. Basically, it is a monologue of the young working class Gedalia, who decides to give up his life dragging heavy sacks about and go to sea as a seaman. He travels the world while writing letters to his father. He describes his journey as searching for the lost 10 tribes and the messiah. One sentence that touches me personally whenever I hear it is where he describes his life as traveling the seas eating pita and tomato together with his small siddur or prayerbook. I kind of like to think of myself as having a bit of Gedalia in me, wandering the world with a small siddur, although in my case it is more with hotel room service, a laptop, and Boeing jets.. The song of the life of the Yemenite youth and the powerful Yemenite melody however contain a surprise. Both were composed by Ashkenazim, having not so much of a drop of Yemenite blood in them. The author of the words was the great Israeli poet Natan Alterman (see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nathan_Alterman) while the melody was composed by the great composer Moshe Wilensky (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moshe_Wilensky). I would like to invite you to listen to the song, which can be heard on youtube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rcwuUV9vEs4 (also at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPc5JAwsAlE). You will not be sorry you listened. If you read Hebrew, then you can read along with the lyrics appearing here: http://shironet.mako.co.il/artist?type=lyrics&lang=1&prfid=326&wrkid=5542 You can also see the Hebrew transliterated into English letters here: http://www.hebrewsongs.com/?song=gedalyahrevaish There seems to be no English translation of the lyrics, so here is my own translation, although this really does not do justice to the lovely Hebrew lyrics: The Boat Song I am Gedalia, but a quarter of a man But I am growing, If I have no home, at least I have the road And above the road the moon shining. I have one side curl and another one Together Payot (payos) I have dragged enough sacks already And run hither and thither Now I want the distant horizon I want to go to sea For the world is so very large And one has to see it all, The cities and the market places And the Ten Tribes To see the wild ox of the Messiah (tradition that this will be food eaten when Messiah comes – SP) The whale (leviathan) and the slivering snake (images and terms from books of Job and Isaiah -- SP) I will glance at it once or twice And then Sail on, Sail on, my boat. I shall take with me some tomato, A small prayerbook, and some pita While from the deck of the boat I look out. The captain comes by to ask me Where are traveling to, Gedalia? America is over here to the left, And to the right is Australia. And I respond: Sir, All places are beautiful, The entire world belongs to the Almighty God, While all men are brothers. For the world is so very large And one has to see it all, How everything in it is arranged, Where it is hot and where it is cold. And what is evil and what is beautiful in it, And who is doing the floor mopping, And I will see it once or twice, Then Sail on, Sail on, my boat. Then when the day arrives, I tell the captain, Get prepared, It is here that the ocean ends, And time that we return to the Yarkon (creek in Tel Aviv) Then in the port, the crowds are cheering, And the wind instruments thunder, My father is singing thanks to God, Gedalia, sit and rest. And he weeps and then he laughs, And asks me, where have you been? Oh how far away I have been, father, Lift your eyes and see. I was in the world so large, And saw everything in it, On my life I swear to you that It was worthwhile For the world is beautiful, Ya Father (oh father), And there is room in it for everyone, Ya Father, I will glance at it once or twice, And that is the song of the boat.
1. Today is "Nakba Day," the day in which the Jews for a Second
Holocaust join their Islamofascist friends in mourning Israel's creation and existence. Being a fella with a good sense of commercial potential, I wanted to suggest that we all print up Nakba Day greeting cards and send them to tenured traitors and other aficionados of the Palestinian "right of return." Here are some card slogans I have thought up – Halmark are you listening?: One, two, three, MANY Nakbas! Nakba-ize unto Victory! A little Nakba never hurt anyone! My professor went to Nakba Day and all I got was this lousy tee shirt. Remove the illegal Palestinian settlements sitting on Jewish land! Two-state solution: One for the Jews and One for the Kurd, but none for the Arabs who live down the Lane Bulldoze an anarcho-fascist today! Help the Palestinian prisoners maintain their hunger strike! End the Illegal Syrian Occupation of the Gilad Don't wall them out – Fence them In! I love the Smell of Napalm in the Morning! When this drone is a rockin', we'll come a-knockin'!! Rachel Corrie Pancake Syrup for Sale! We switched your 72 virgins with a 72 year old virgin! While we are on this, you probably know the Dolly Parton classic song "Jolene." It is on youtube and you can see the lyrics here: http://www.lyricsfreak.com/d/dolly+parton/jolene_20041709.html Well, I thought Nakba Day is deserving of its own song, set to the same melody. It is to be called, Jenin. Not to be confused with the anti-Semitic lying smear movie "Jenin Jenin" by terrorist Mohammed Bakri, which my song can neutralize! Here goes: Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin I'm begging of you please desist from sham Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin Let's attack it just because we can Your terror is beyond compare With flaming bursts of jihad flare With choppers from the IDF so keen The choppers fire and all is cool Their Gatling guns with ammo full And we know just what to do, Jenin Let's round up terrorists in their sleep There's nothing they can do to keep Our agents from denazifying, Jenin And I can easily understand How we could snatch Their Terrorist Man Cause you don't know what he means to me, Jenin Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin I'm begging of you please desist from sham Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin Let's attack it just because we can You can have your choice of men And we'll assassinate again You''re the number one for me, Jenin I had to have this talk with you Our happiness depends on you Cause termination's what we do, Jenin Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin I'm begging of you please desist from sham Jenin, Jenin, Jenin, Jenin Let's attack it just because we can 2. How 'Nakba' Proves There's No Palestinian Nation By: Steven Plaut Over the past few years, the term nakba has become the favorite nonsense word of the Anti-Israel Lobby. Meaning "catastrophe" in Arabic, it has been embraced by anti-Semites all over the planet to refer to Israel's creation, which supposedly imposed a "catastrophe" upon the "disenfranchised Palestinian Arabs." Of course, the real catastrophe that befell the Arabs in 1948-49 was that they failed in their attempt to annihilate Israel and exterminate its population, and for that they paid a price. Meanwhile, Nakba Nonsense has been spreading. Google finds over 85,000 web pages referring to Israel's creation as a "nakba," and a Yahoo search finds even more than that. The anti-Israel web magazine Counterpunch cannot mention Israel without using the term. Even Israel's leftist minister of education, Yuli Tamir, has ordered that the nakba be taught as part of the curriculum in Israeli schools, where Israel's schoolchildren can be taught to mourn their own country's existence. (Tamir, who was previously a professor of education at Tel Aviv University, is so bizarre that in the summer of 1996 she published an article in the Boston Review defending female circumcision in the Third World and denouncing those who expressed disgust at the practice – see http://bostonreview.net/BR21.3/Tamir.html.) Nakba ceremonies are now held each year by leftist professors at Israeli universities who mourn the very creation and existence of their country. The nakba of the late 1940's and 1950's that befell large numbers of Jews living in Arab countries who were suddenly expelled, persecuted, and stripped of their property does not interest such people. Those Jewish refugees made new homes in Israel and actually outnumbered the Palestinians who fled. Meanwhile, an urban legend has been fabricated about the origin of the term "nakba" – a fairy tale that claims the word was a banner waved by Palestinians starting in 1948, and that its very use shows how deep the roots of "Palestinian nationality" go. So here is a little current events quiz: What is the real origin of the term "nakba" and what is its original meaning? If you get the answer to the quiz wrong – in other words, if you say it refers to the events of 1948 – you are in very good company. I myself would have flunked the quiz up until a few days ago, when I stumbled on the correct answer. Not only does the bandying about of the "nakba" nonsense word not point to any "depths of roots of Palestinian nationality," it proves the very opposite: namely, that there is no such thing as a Palestinian nation or nationality at all. The authoritative source on the origin of "nakba" is none other than George Antonius, supposedly the first "official historian of Palestinian nationalism." Like so many "Palestinians," he actually wasn't – Palestinian, that is. He was a Christian Lebanese-Egyptian who lived for a while in Jerusalem, where he composed his official advocacy/history of Arab nationalism. The Arab Awakening, a highly biased book, was published in 1938 and for years afterward was the official text used at British universities. Antonius was an "official Palestinian representative" to Britain, trying to argue the cause for creating an Arab state in place of any prospective homeland promised the Jews under the Balfour Declaration of 1917. By the 1930's Antonius was an active anti-Zionist propagandist, and as such was offered a job at Columbia University (where some things don't seem to change much). He served as an academic fig leaf for xenophobic Arab nationalists seeking to deny Jews any right to self-determination in or migration to the Land of Israel. And he was closely associated with the Grand Mufti, Hitler's main Islamic ally, and also with the pro-German regime in Iraq in the early 1940's. Antonius was so passionately anti-Zionist that he continues to serve as the hero and mentor of Jewish leftist anti-Zionists everywhere. For example, the late Hebrew University sociology professor Baruch Kimmerling relied on Antonius at length in his own pseudo-history, Palestinians: The Making of a People (Free Press, 1993). So how does Antonius provide us with the answer to the current-events quiz concerning the origin of "nakba"? The term was not invented in 1948 but rather in 1920. And it was coined not because of Palestinians suddenly getting nationalistic but because Arabs living in Palestine regarded themselves as Syrian and were enraged at being cut off from their Syrian homeland. Before World War I, the entire Levant – including what is now Israel, the "occupied territories," Jordan, Lebanon and Syria – was comprised of Ottoman Turkish colonies. When Allied forces drove the Turks out of the Levant, the two main powers, Britain and France, divided the spoils between them. Britain got Palestine, including what is now Jordan, while France got Lebanon and Syria. The problem was that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians and were seen as such by other Syrians. The Palestinian Arabs were enraged that an artificial barrier was being erected within their Syrian homeland by the infidel colonial powers – one that would divide northern Syrian Arabs from southern Syrian Arabs, the latter being those who were later misnamed "Palestinians." The bulk of the Palestinian Arabs had in fact migrated to Palestine from Syria and Lebanon during the previous two generations, largely to benefit from the improving conditions and job opportunities afforded by Zionist immigration and capital flowing into the area. In 1920, both sets of Syrian Arabs, those in Syria and those in Palestine, rioted violently and murderously. On page 312 of The Arab Awakening, Antonius writes, "The year 1920 has an evil name in Arab annals: it is referred to as the Year of the Catastrophe (Am al-Nakba). It saw the first armed risings that occurred in protest against the post-War settlement imposed by the Allies on the Arab countries. In that year, serious outbreaks took place in Syria, Palestine, and Iraq." Yes, the answer to our little quiz is 1920, not 1948. That's 1920 – when there was no Zionist state, no Jewish sovereignty, no "settlements" in "occupied territories," no Israel Defense Forces, no Israeli missiles and choppers targeting terror leaders, and no Jewish control over Jerusalem (which had a Jewish demographic majority going back at least to 1850). The original "nakba" had nothing to do with Jews, and nothing to do with demands by Palestinian Arabs for self-determination, independence and statehood. To the contrary, it had everything to do with the fact that the Palestinian Arabs saw themselves as Syrians. They rioted at this nakba – at this catastrophe– because they found deeply offensive the very idea that they should be independent from Syria and Syrians. In the 1920's, the very suggestion that Palestinian Arabs constituted a separate ethnic nationality was enough to send those same Arabs out into the streets to murder and plunder violently in outrage. If they themselves insisted they were simply Syrians who had migrated to the Land of Israel, by what logic are the Palestinian Arabs deemed entitled to their own state today? Palestinian Arabs are no more a nation and no more entitled to their own state than are the Arabs of Detroit or of Paris. They certainly are not entitled to four different states: Jordan, Hamastan in Gaza, a PLO state in the West Bank, and Israel converted into yet another Arab state via the granting of a "right of return" to Arab refugees. Speaking of Palestinians as Syrians, it is worth noting what one of the early Syrian nationalists had to say. The following quote comes from the great-grandfather of the current Syrian dictator, Bashar Assad: "Those good Jews brought civilization and peace to the Arab Muslims, and they dispersed gold and prosperity over Palestine without damage to anyone or taking anything by force. Despite this, the Muslims declared holy war against them and did not hesitate to massacre their children and women…. Thus a black fate awaits the Jews and other minorities in case the Mandates are cancelled and Muslim Syria is united with Muslim Palestine." That statement is from a letter sent to the French prime minister in June 1936 by six Syrian Alawi notables (the Alawis are the ruling class in Syria today) in support of Zionism. Bashar's great-grandfather was one of them. 3. The 'Nakba' Debunked Posted By Steven Plaut On June 2, 2011 The world media are filled with Goebbels-style Big Lies about the "Nakba," the supposed "catastrophe" and "ethnic cleansing" of Arabs when Israel was created in 1948. But now an interesting source has come along to debunk this massive campaign of lies and disinformation. Consider the following citation (emphasis added): The Arab armies seemingly entered Palestine [in 1948] to protect the Palestinians from the Zionist tyranny but, instead, they abandoned them, forced them to emigrate and to leave their homeland, imposed upon them a political and ideological blockade and threw them into prisons similar to the ghettos in which the Jews used to live in Eastern Europe, as if we were condemned to change places with them. The Arab States succeeded in scattering the Palestinian people and in destroying their unity. Ok, current events students, name the source for that quote. The answer is … (drumroll) … Abu Mazen (Mahmoud Abbas), the "president" of the Palestinian Authority, who wrote this in an article in the Beirut magazine Falastin el-Thawra, in March 1976. (Item cited in the weekly column by Ben-Dror Yemini in Maariv, May 27, 2011.) And that is not the only useful citation from Abu Mazen, also cited in the same column by Yemini. It turns out that last week the very same Abu Mazen had an article in The New York Times in which he claimed to tell his own personal "Nakba" family story. There he asserted that the Jews expelled the Arabs right after the UN's partition resolution of 1947 (which called for creating two new countries, a Jewish and an Arab state, in the area of the British Mandate). Abu Mazen also wrote that he and his family were expelled (from Safed) to Syria and forced to live there in an old canvass tent. Well, Ben-Dror Yemini did some homework. The UN resolution, first of all, was in November 1947. The battle for Safed took place in May 1948. Second, Abu Mazen's family in Safed was very wealthy, with more than enough ready capital to coast along comfortably for quite some time. But most significantly, Abu Mazen's family went to Jordan, not to Syria. Only much later did they move to Damascus. In addition, Safed Arabs fled in large part in 1948 because they were expecting retaliation for the pogroms they themselves had launched against the Jews of the city in 1929. And just who is the source for claiming that Abu Mazen was lying through his fangs in that Times piece? Why, none other than Anu Mazen himself, again. In 2009, he gave an interview to the Palestinian Authority TV channel, telling about his family's wealth and their move to Jordan. Furthermore, that same week, left-wing Haaretz quoted one Ismail Fahr a-Din from the Golan Druse village of Majdal Shams claiming he remembered very clearly the Palestinian refugees arriving in that town (back then still under Syrian occupation). Only one itsy bitsy problem, though. Turns out, the "witness" is 57 years old and so, was born 6 years after Israel's war of Independence. More generally, I think that any time anyone suggests that we need to empathize with the "Nakba" of the "Palestinians" they should be directed to contemplating East Prussia. East Prussia, where, in many ways, World War II began (in Hitler's campaign for Danzig), was emptied out near the end of the war, with hundreds of thousands of Germans fleeing the approaching Red Army and the impending battles, and with hundreds of thousands more evicted after the Soviets pushed through East Prussia into Berlin. In all, 1.8 to 2.2 million East Prussians were driven out or fled. That is 4 times the number of "Palestinian refugees" from 1948-49. Parts of East Prussia were annexed by Russia, the rest being incorporated into Poland. And what about mourning for their "catastrophe?" No one, not even the worst bleeding-heart in the West, has ever believed East Prussians deserve any sympathy or support or compensation for their "plight." They were part of the German monstrosity that had launched the war, and they became refugees as a direct result of the crimes and aggressions of the German people, crimes they most enthusiastically endorsed and in which they participated. Exactly like the circumstances under which "Palestinian Arabs" became refugees as a result of launching a genocidal war of aggression and then losing. Think the "Palestinians" deserve compassion? Not until the East Prussians are granted a "Right of Return." See also http://archive.frontpagemag.com/readArticle.aspx?ARTID=27761 And http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/2008/05/palestinian-state-bans-commemoration-of.html Jordan bans Nakba celebrations Monday, May 14, 2012
1. It seems that Israel's radical anti-Israel "academics" have a new
tactic. A series of them pretend to be "victims" of threats. (A different series, including an "academic" at Ben Gurion University, keep issuing death threats to murder non-leftists!) You may recall that anti-Semite Neve Gordon ran to the police a couple of years ago with the claim that he had received a "death threat." What he then showed was a note in a child's hand – which you can see here (http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/neve-gordon-death-threat.jpg). It says "I will tell Ben Gurion to kill you, signed Im Tirtzu." Not clear if it means Ben Gurion University, since Ben Gurion himself is dead. Some death threat! In any case, there was reason to believe that Gordon himself invented it or asked a 10 year old to scribble it out for him so he could clame Im Tirtzu. Why do I say that? Because during Gordon's fascist SLAPP suit harassment against me he also filed a false police complaint against me that I was supposedly threatening him, this after he got an email letter from Italy insulting him. The police dismissed it with mirth. So there is precedent for believing that Gordon invented this "threat" as well. Well, now the latest academic anti-Semite to report a "death threat" is Shlomo Sand, the Stalinist pseudo-historian who took his expertise on the French cinema and decided to use it to write a "book" claiming that modern Jews are simply converted Turks and other pagans and that all real Jews became Palestinian Arabs. He also claims the Jews were never a "people," you know – unlike the ancient Palestinian Arab nationality. Much of Sand's "thesis" consists of myths taken from Neo-Nazi web sites and recycled. Ronen Shoval, head of Im Tirtzu, writing in Haaretz (Hebrew http://www.haaretz.co.il/opinions/1.1225829) accuses Sand of being an accomplice of Holocaust Deniers. He says that Sand uses the same "methodologies' as Holocaust Deniers and seeks to adopt the ideas of Holocaust Deniers in order to delegitimize Israel and bring about its extermination. And then all of a sudden Sand claims to have gotten a "death threat." The evidence is that he says he got one. He claims he got a note with some talcum powder in it sent to him and threatening him. The news report on this from Haaretz appears below. Well, I personally do not believe a word of it. Sand, who has a book called "The Invention of the Jewish People" could plausibly himself be "The Inventor of the Talcum Powder Threat." There is also the possibility that a critic sent Sand talcum powder as a sort of editorial comment of Sand's diaper rash. Here is the Haaretz report: http://www.haaretz.com/news/national/police-investigating-death-threat-white-powder-sent-to-tel-aviv-university-historian.premium-1.430201 Police investigating death threat, white powder sent to Tel Aviv University Historian Prof. Shlomo Sand, author of 'The Invention of the Land of Israel' says letter calls him 'anti-Semite, Nazi'. By Talila Nesher | May.13, 2012 | 9:50 PM Prof. Shlomo Sand, a Tel Aviv University history professor, said Sunday that he had received an envelope containing white powder and a letter that included death threats. In the letter, which was received by the secretary of the university's Department of History, the professor was accused of being an "anti-Semitic," among other things. The letter also threatened Sand that he would "not live much longer." In a conversation with Haaretz, Sand said, "I opened a series of letters as usual, and then all of a sudden a white cloud jumped out. I was shocked that the powder got on to my hands and threw down the letter. It's been brought to the attention of the security officer and the police sent a squad car to the site and the substance was taken for a test." Sand, who intends on filing a complaint with Israel Police on Monday, said he was concerned after having received the letter. "They wrote that I'm an anti-Semite, Nazi, that my time will come. It's a very unpleasant feeling," he said. The history professor said it was possible that his new book, " The Invention of the Land of Israel: From Holy Land to Homeland," might have been what caused someone to send him the letter. "Four years ago, when I published my previous book, 'The Invention of the Jewish People,' there were fewer crazy people than there are today," Sand told Haaretz. Throughout the day, the police examined the substance and discovered it was not of a chemical nature. The police also opened an investigation into the case. In Sand's book on the Jewish people, the author attempts to prove that the Jews now living in Israel and other places in the world are not at all descendants of the ancient people who inhabited the Kingdom of Judea during the First and Second Temple period. Their origins, according to him, are in varied peoples that converted to Judaism during the course of history, in different corners of the Mediterranean Basin and the adjacent regions. Not only are the North African Jews for the most part descendants of pagans who converted to Judaism, but so are the Jews of Yemen and the Ashkenazi Jews of Eastern Europe. 2. The Soros team vs. kosher food: http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/14/the-left-wing-movement-to-hijack-kosher-food/ 3. Suggestion for Tel Aviv University, from Steven Plaut Gents: Since you have decided to approve a Nakba Day event on campus property to mourn the creation and existence of Israel and to demand the recognition of the "Palestinian Right of Return," I would like to suggest that you show us the courage of your convictions. After all, this week is also the exact date of another tragic event in history, the defeat of another national struggle for self-determination and human rights. That is right, this week is the anniversary of the Tragischer Tag, the Tragic Day, the date in which the great tragedy of the German people took place, in which Hitler was defeated and the Reich was overrun and its independence lost. The British and American aggressors and their allies and accomplices won their imperialist war and carried out a terrible ethnic cleansing of the Volkdeutsch, just as the Jews carried out ethnic cleansing of Palestinians in the Nakba that Tel Aviv University is about to commemorate. Moreover, the Germans evicted en masse by the millions from their homes in Central and Eastern Europe have never been granted their inalienable "Right of Return" to their homelands. SO why should not Tel Aviv University ALSO approve the holding of a Tragischer Day mourning event in Antine Square, smack on campus property (even though Tel Aviv University spin PR people have been trying to lie to people and claim it is not campus property!). Indeed, since most of the same people who will be holding Nakba Day will also want to participate in Tragischer Day, maybe the two events can be held together, together with PLO flags and swastikas. I am sure the communist atheists and the Islamofascists who plan to say a special "alternative Yizkor Prayer" at the Nakda Day event can also say one for the German victims of ethnic cleansing and aggression. Can there be any doubt that many faculty members from Tel Aviv University, including most of the departments of history, psychology department, linguistics, political science, sociology, and law will be interested in attending both events. 4. David Newman (AKA Neve Gordon Lite), the anti-Israel leftist McCarthyist from Ben Gurion University who produced an anti-Semitic "documentary" for British television, a notorious enemy of freedom of speech, has a hysterical McCarthyist article in the Jerusalem Post for a change, http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/Article.aspx?id=269792, in which he writes: "In recent years, spurred on by extremist right-wing groups, members of the Boards of Governors have also become increasingly involved in the political debate surrounding Israeli universities and their academic staff. Many of them have blindly supported the false assertions of well-oiled and funded groups, such as Im Tirtzu, NGO Monitor, IsraCampus and Academic Monitor, that the universities have become hotbeds of 'anti-Zionism' without ever bothering to check the facts on the ground." Well oiled and funded, he said? Once again Newman proves what sort of "scholar" he is and what sort of academic standards exist at Ben Gurion "University." Newman by the way is on the board of Tikkun magazine, which I guess passes for a learned academic journal these days at Ben Gurion "University." 5. Here is a thought. Obama's sudden endorsement of "gay marriage" is likely to alienate many of Obama's key constituencies. Hispanics, blacks, and Moslems are notoriously anti-homosexual. If Obama's posturing loses him significant support, this could be pink lace curtains for him! Indeed, the only solid Obama constituency that will approve of his endorsement of "gay marriage" will be the non-Orthodox Jews, you know – the same people who claim they practice the ethics of the religion that Friday, May 11, 2012
1. Commenting on Obama's sudden endorsement of "gay marriage," which
is actually so unpopular among the general population that it could cost Obama the election (witness – every state that has voted on ballot propositions has voted AGAINST it, including three socially liberal ones -California, Maine and Oregon - and North Carolina, which Obama carried in 2008, did so just this week by a vote of 61% to 39%), James Taranto in the Wall Street Journal writes: Victory has a thousand fathers, as John F. Kennedy observed, but defeat has two mommies. (From http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304203604577396221780005972.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_MIDDLETopOpinion ) 2. Eureka. Friends, I think I have found a cure for Islamofascism! All we need to do is find 71 more exactly like this: http://news.yahoo.com/blogs/sideshow/70-old-virgin-says-she-finally-ready-love-195206620.html 3. Israel's Left is aghast. Netanyahu managed to snooker them and wangled for himself a new national unity coalition, which will last another 18 months or so. By announcing elections in September, he stampeded what is left of the Kadima Party into joining his coalition because Kadima faces obliteration in any new election. The Left is soiling itself in rage. How dare Netanyahu and Mofaz (chief of Kadima now) dare do such a "dirty trick." Mofaz had sworn on his grandmother just 3 days before joining the coalition that he would not do so! Dirty tricks say you? Well, these are the very same leftists he orchestrated and celebrated the most infamous "dirty trick" in Israeli history when Shimon Peres undercut a national unity coalition involving the Likud and Labor in 1990, much to the chagrin of Yitzhak Rabin by the way, to set up his own Labor-led government with some religious parties. Rabin dubbed the attempt by Peres, which failed, the "Stinky Trick." Of course, Rabin and Peres later had their own stinky trick when they passed one of the Oslo accords with the Arab fascist parties only thanks to bribing two members of Raful's rightwing party to cross ideological lines in exchange for payoffs. 4. Freedom of speech in Israel? Not for non-leftists. In recent days the rightwing Knesset Member Michael Ben-Ari (National Union Party - http://michaelbenari.com/) produced and distributed leaflets protesting the rulings of Israel's anti-democratic Supreme Court judges, who ordered the government to evict some settlers from their homes while refusing to order similar evictions of Negev Bedouins form land son which they are illegally squatting and do not own. Ban-Ari's leaflets show the justices involved wearing Arab kaffiya head-scarves. The director general of Israel's court administration then petitioned the Attorney General to prosecute Ben-Ari for "incitement." In Israel the word "incitement" refers to any opinion with which the radical Left disagrees. The McCarthyist director general claims one may not express criticism of the politics or rulings of any judge in Israel, kind of like in Stalin's Soviet Union. Ben-Ari has parliamentary immunity in any case. But the very fact that a head of the judiciary initiates prosecution of someone for expressing a political opinion about the political opinion of some other public figures, in this case judges, illustrates wonderfully how anti-democratic is the Israeli Left and how poorly protected is freedom of speech in Israel. 5. Worth reading: Sam Sokol on the "Nakba": http://m.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=87269442&cat=2 6. The heads of Tel Aviv University have been nailing for lying to the public. They were trying to defuse the worldwide wave of rage at them over the decision to hold "Nakba Day" events on the TAU campus, mourning the creation and existence of Israel. Hey, we have no say over this, the PR Spin doctors for TAU are now saying, because the Nakba Day "protest" is to be held outside the campus, where we have no control. Except that the Nakba Day event is to be held ON THE CAMPUS, in Antin Square, which is campus property, right next to the main entry gate. It lies outside the main TAU campus fence on Haim Levanon Street but it is unambiguously campus property, where no one can even hand out leaflets or sell Pepsi without campus permission. That is why the Dean of Students was asked and had to approve this Nakba atrocity, which he did approve, and that is why the university asked the organizers of it to pony up cash to pay for the presence of campus security personnel there. If it were really in a public space, none of that would be required. So in short the PR people and officials of Tel Aviv University have been caught with their pants on fire! Thursday, May 10, 2012
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/05/learn_from_elizabeth_warren.html
May 10, 2012 Learn from Elizabeth Warren By Steven Plaut I think the attacks against Elizabeth Warren, who pretended to be an American Indian to advance her career, are wrong. To the contrary, she simply did what we all should be doing! She sabotaged America's racist affirmative action regime, or -- the term I prefer to call it -- America's affirmative apartheid. She should be our role model. We should all do the same thing she did and proclaim ourselves members of whichever fashionable list of preferred "minorities" the racists administering affirmative apartheid happen to be promoting this week. There are lots of ways we can do so. First, anthropologists believe that the human species originated on the African continent. So, by my reckoning, that makes us all African-Americans. Why can't we proclaim ourselves such on the "race identification forms" used for hiring and college admissions? In addition, I have always had a special sense of repulsion at the Ivy League institutions implementing affirmative apartheid. Just consider this: until the 1960s, American Ivy League universities openly and unabashedly had quotas designed to keep out Jews. Until the 1960s they did not hide this and proudly admitted to the quotas. And then, a few years later, the very same institutions were again discriminating against Jews because Jews had been defined as part of the "white" ethnicity against which their affirmative apartheid programs were discriminating. Remember when the liberuhs used to pretend that affirmative action preferences were needed to compensate members of groups who had in the past been victims of discrimination? Well, Harvard and its sisters today proudly discriminate against the very same Jews against whom they proudly discriminated in the past and for which discriminative affirmative action is supposed to be the remedy. Got all that? Of course, for the Jewish victims of affirmative apartheid there are a few additional Warren-like alternatives. Since all Jews originate in Asia, or more specifically the Middle East, which is in Asia, all Jews can claim to be Asian Americans. True, the affirmative apartheid Klansters arbitrarily define Asia as the territory east of the Himalayas in order to deny Indians, Arabs, Kurds, Persians, Armenians, Azeris and Turks the benefits of affirmative apartheid preferences, but let us watch them try to defend this geographic definition of "Asia" before a courtroom! That's not all: most Jews can claim to be Hispanics. Why? Because so many Jews have ancestors who lived in Spain and its colonies or on the Iberian peninsula. Take me, for example (and I hear my wife in the background saying, "Take him, please!") Despite my Germanic Ashkenazi surname, we Plauts originated in medieval Spain. So ever since I was a freshman in college in Philadelphia, I have proclaimed myself a Hispanic. True, I do not speak Spanish, but since when is that relevant? Lots of other Hispanics do not speak Spanish. How many African-Americans speak African languages? Let's watch the affirmative Klansters drag out some tape measures to measure skull shapes and noses and utilize other Nazi anthropological methods for establishing race to keep us out! And if all that fails, we can all claim to be Native Americans -- at least all of us who were born in the United States and so are natives and have bona fide birth certificates. Oh, and none of us have to be "pure blooded" members of the preferred minority group in question. True, the affirmative Klansters want us to have a certain minimum portion of "blood" from the preferred racial group to "count," a bit like the way Adolf Hitler's people defined race. Let's see them try to defend that in court! If every single one of us is a member of a favored minority, then the apartheid system of affirmative action cannot function. And since affirmative action is supposed to be a form of compensation for those who have suffered past discrimination, isn't it about time that we introduce reverse affirmative action? This would be a system of preferences and special benefits for those people who have been discriminated against by 45 years of affirmative action programs. The prime beneficiary group should be Asian-Americans, whose numbers are kept down at the most competitive universities in America (except at Berkeley and UCLA, where the voters forced the state to stop discriminating, and Asians rapidly became the majority of undergraduates). But plain-vanilla Caucasians also deserve to be beneficiaries. There is one other thing worth bearing in mind. And that is that the affirmative action lobby, and this includes just about all feminists and liberals, is strongly opposed to racial equality and equal opportunity on principle. The problem has to do with the most common error in social science: the superstitious belief in "natural homogeneity." This is the ridiculous belief in the axiom holding that, in the absence of discrimination, every single demographic and ethnic group in society should have numerical representation in all things, in all professions and all salary classes, proportionate to their numbers in the population. Thus, according to this superstition, any departure from perfect numerical homogeneity in "representation" must be due to discrimination. Never any need actually to document or prove discrimination. The statistical disparity is all the proof needed. Of course, the economic and social reality is that equal opportunity never produces homogeneity, and heterogeneity in numerical "representation" almost never has anything at all to do with "discrimination." Thomas Sowell's books are overflowing with proofs and illustrations. Indeed, the only way to achieve numerical homogeneity is to suppress equal opportunity and competition and merit-based hiring and to impose quotas and outright discrimination upon society. And that is exactly what the feminists, the race-hucksters, and the liberals really want! So take it from this African-American Asian Hispanic Native American! The best way to end racism and discrimination in America is for all of us to follow Elizabeth Warren's lead and sabotage affirmative apartheid once and for all! 2. http://frontpagemag.com/2012/05/10/elizabeth-warren-dances-with-lies/ Elizabeth Warren Dances with Lies Posted By Ann Coulter On May 10, 2012 Elizabeth Warren, who also goes by her Indian name, "Lies on Race Box," is in big heap-um trouble. The earnest, reform-minded liberal running for Senate against Scott Brown, R-Mass., lied about being part-Cherokee to get a job at Harvard. Harvard took full advantage of Warren's lie, bragging to The Harvard Crimson about her minority status during one of the near-constant student protests over insufficient "diversity" in the faculty. Warren also listed herself as an Indian in law school faculty directories and, just last month, said, "I am very proud of my Native American heritage." Except, oops, she has no more evidence that she's an Indian than that buffoon out of Colorado, Ward Churchill. The Boston Globe immediately leapt to Warren's defense, quoting a genealogist who found a marriage license on which Warren's great-great-uncle scribbled that his mother, Warren's great-great-great grandmother, was a Cherokee. This is not part of the official marriage license. (If I scribble "Kenyan" on Obama's birth certificate, does that make it true?) But let's say it's true. That would make Warren a dotriacontaroon — 1/32nd Cherokee. That's her claim to affirmative action bonus points? You don't know what it's like to be 1/32nd Cherokee, to never have anyone to talk to, spending so many evenings home alone, wondering if there was some other 1/32nd Cherokee out there, perhaps looking at the same star I was. Soon, however, the preponderance of the evidence suggested she wasn't even 1/32nd Cherokee. The census records for 1860 list the allegedly Cherokee great-great-great-grandmother, O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford, as "white." Also, Warren's family isn't listed in the Cherokee registry. (Unlike Democrat voter rolls, to be on the Cherokee list, proof is required.) On the other hand, we have what her son scribbled on his marriage license — something, by the way, that none of his siblings claimed about their mother. So now we're down to Warren's reminiscence that her great-aunt used to point to a portrait of her great-great-grandfather and call him an Indian, noting his high cheekbones. Family lore is not proof. Proof is contemporary documentation, produced under penalty of perjury, such as a census record. My mother told me she found me under a rock, but I don't put that on job applications. The universities that employed Warren rushed to claim that her fake Indian ancestry had nothing to do with it. They speak with forked tongue, causing heap-um laughter. (Harvard was so desperate for diversity, it made a half-black dilettante president of the Harvard Law Review!) To grasp what a sin against political correctness this is, consider the Jesuitical debates about blackness regularly engaged in at our universities. About the time Lies on Race Box was getting a job with Harvard as a fake Indian — valued for her fake hunting and tracking skills — a debate broke out at Northwestern University law school about whether a potential faculty hire was black enough. One professor wrote a heated three-page letter to the hiring committee complaining that the recruit "should not be considered a black candidate," explaining, "(n)ot all with dark skins are black," nor should they be considered "black in the U.S. context." (Flash to: My exact position on Obama.) Warren has defended herself, claiming she did it only so she would be invited to powwows, or what the great white father calls "meetings," saying she hoped "I would be invited to a luncheon, a group something that might happen with people who are like I am." What on earth does "people who are like I am" mean? Let's invite Elizabeth because she's 1/32nd Cherokee. We really need the 1/32nd Cherokee perspective around here. Maybe she has some old recipes that are 1/32nd Cherokee! Then, the Warren campaign claimed it was sexist to question Warren about her bald-faced lie: "Once again, the qualifications and ability of a woman are being called into question by Scott Brown … It's outrageous." First, Scott Brown has barely mentioned Warren's stinking lie. But, second, the only people who consider it a "qualification" to be 1/32nd Cherokee are university hiring committees. Possible Warren campaign speech: "I am a dotriacontaroon American. I want to be a voice for those who are 1/32nd Cherokee, but also 1/32nd Pequot, 1/32nd Mohawk — basically the senator for all dotriacontaroons. Isn't it time we had a senator who was 1/32nd Cherokee?" Now it's beginning to look like her ancestors not only did not suffer, but caused the suffering she's getting the benefit of. The great-great-great-grandfather married to the not-Cherokee O.C. Sarah Smith Crawford turns out to have been one of the white enforcers on the brutal Trail of Tears, helping round up Indians from their homes in order to march them to a less desirable part of the country. What's next? "Yes, and my other grandfather, Theophilus Connor …" BULL CONNOR? "Yes, but I swear, James Earl Ray is not a BLOOD uncle. We're related only by marriage. At least that's what my cousin John Wayne Gacy used to always tell me." Warren's lie is outrageous enough to someone like me, who isn't a fan of race-based affirmative action programs. Still, she is a liar, and she stole the credit of someone else's suffering. For liberals, it should be a mortal sin: Elizabeth Warren cheated on affirmative action.
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