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Haaretz - Tuesday May 21, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
The author explains and defends Zionism... "[H]ow would we define who is a Zionist, starting from the emergence of the Zionist movement as inspired by Theodor Herzl and his associates? Here is the definition: A Zionist is a person who desires or supports the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, which in the future will become the state of the Jewish people. This is based on what Herzl said: “In Basel I founded the Jewish state.” The key word in this definition is “state,” and its natural location is the Land of Israel because of the Jewish people’s historical link to it. ... A Zionist, therefore, is a Jew who supported the establishment of a Jewish state in the Land of Israel, and not necessarily one who actually settled in the land. ...Ever since the State of Israel was founded in 1948, the definition of “Zionist” has been revised, since we don’t need to establish another state. Therefore, its definition is as follows: A Zionist is a person who accepts the principle that the State of Israel doesn’t belong solely to its citizens, but to the entire Jewish people. The practical expression of this commitment is the Law of Return. ... With regard to the Law of Return, which some see as discriminating against Israel’s Palestinian citizens, this is the answer: The Law of Return is essentially the moral condition set by the countries of the world for the establishment of the State of Israel. The United Nations’ partition of Palestine-Eretz Israel in 1947 into a Jewish state and a Palestinian one was on condition that the Jewish state would not just be a state for the 600,000 Jews that lived there at the time, but would instead be a state that could resolve the distress of Jews all over the world, and would enable every Jew in the world to consider it home."
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Al Jazeera (English) - Tuesday May 14, 2013 Must Read Media Researcher Notes
Al Jazeera deleted this article by Columbia University Professor Joseph Massad after coming under intense criticism from the Israel Lobby... "It is Israel's claims that it represents and speaks for all Jews that are the most anti-Semitic claims of all." [The article may be viewed at http://www.scribd.com/doc/142366704/The-Last-of-the-Semites-Al-Jazeera-English]
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Hamilton Spectator - Thursday May 09, 2013 Media Researcher Notes
In criticizing another writer's letter, the authors accuse him of anti-Semitism... "This letter crossed the line between anti-Israeli sentiments to blatant racism. The writer has used old-fashioned accusations against Jews to stir up hate when he wrote that "The Zionist faction of Canadian Jewry has compromised the government." He accuses Jews of demanding from the government unconditional support for Israel in exchange for political donations and votes. He accuses the Canadian government of following a "made-in-Tel-Aviv policy." ... We request that The Spectator print an apology to our Jewish community for printing such an anti-Semitic letter." [The original letter, "Zionist minority harms Canadian interests," is at http://www.thespec.com/opinion-story/2555571-zionist-minority-harms-canadian-interests/]
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Toronto Star - Thursday May 09, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
Equal rights in "the Middle-East's only democracy"... "The separation of women and men on bus lines through religious neighbourhoods, and incidents in which Jewish zealots have spat at schoolgirls they deemed to be dressed immodestly, have raised public pressure on the government to act. ... “Women in Israel won’t sit at the back of the bus. Women in Israel will participate in state ceremonies and their voices will be heard on radio stations and in the army,” [Israeli justice minister Tzipi] Livni said. She was referring to events at which religious politicians and soldiers, adhering to a traditional edict to avoid temptation, have walked out rather than watch women singing or dancing, and to an ultra-Orthodox radio station’s refusal to employ female announcers. ... Fears of vandalism by religious modesty squads have led advertisers in Jerusalem, a holy city with a large Jewish religious community, to avoid posting images of women on buses and billboards, or at least toning down their clothing. Women who insist on sitting in the front of buses in Jerusalem have been subjected at times to verbal and sometimes physical assault. Jerusalem’s Western Wall, one of Judaism’s holiest sites, and a bastion of ultra-Orthodox ritual practice, has also been at the forefront of a challenge championed by women. “Women of the Wall” — Jewish activists seeking equal rights at the holy place where men and women pray in separate sections — have gathered there monthly for worship sessions, donning prayer shawls in defiance of Orthodox tradition."
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The Jerusalem Post - Thursday May 09, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
If you can't support your argument with facts, then just accuse your opponent of anti-Semitism... "Asked by The Jerusalem Post about Hawking’s boycott at a press briefing, Netanyahu said, “He should investigate the truth, he is a scientist. He should study the facts and draw the necessary conclusions: Israel is an island of reason, moderation and a desire for peace.” Netanyahu said that Hawking knows that there are many false theories in science. “There are also false theories in politics, and this [the slandering of Israel] is one of them, maybe the foremost among them,” he said. “There is no state that yearns for peace more than Israel, nor any state that has done more for peace than Israel.” One official in the prime minister’s entourage went even further, comparing Hawking to Shakespeare and Voltaire, both of whom held anti-Semitic sentiments. “History shows that there are people who are no less great than Hawking who believed things about Jews that it was impossible to imagine they actually believed,” he said. “I am talking about Voltaire, or Shakespeare. How do you explain that someone with the encyclopedic knowledge of Voltaire believed what he did about the Jews. How can you explain it? But it is a fact.” Apparently, the official continued, “intelligence and achievements are no guarantee for understanding the truth about the Jews or their state. What was true regarding Jews for generations, is now true about the state of the Jews.”"
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Haaretz - Wednesday May 08, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"1. The regrettable decision of world-renowned astro-physicist Stephen Hawking to cancel his participation in the upcoming President Conference could be a breakthrough moment for the anti-Israel boycott movement. The recruitment of such a universally respected and admired international figure to the cause of BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) clearly overshadows other significant gains that boycott advocates have made recently with groups such as the Irish Teachers Union or the American Association for Asian Academic Studies. ... 2. Hawking’s fame and celebrity make him a public relations prize for the BDS movement, but there is no doubt that his physical condition multiplies its impact a thousand times over. The juxtaposition of Hawking’s frail, helpless and paralyzed frame against the all-powerful and brutish image that boycotters try to ascribe to Israel could very well be molded into an iconic recruitment tool. ... 3. Judging by its initial reactions, Israel and its legions of so-called defenders will do their best to help the BDS make the most of it. The Presidential Conference could have made do with “regret”, but no, their spokespersons had to be “outraged”, thus setting a high bar for Israeli politicians who will now try to outdo each other in denouncing and condemning Hawking. To this one must add the foul and vile social media jokes of average-Joe Israelis on social media that have already found their way into the mainstream press. Not only is a campaign against Hawking bound for defeat, as any PR expert will tell you, but its fallout will be compounded the more that the protests are aimed at his physical disabilities – including the too clever by half calls for him to “boycott” the technological remedies for his affliction provided by Israeli knowhow. ... The more that Israel veers to the right, the more narrow-minded it seems, the more its leaders appear to be retreating from any genuine wish or intent to reach a settlement with the Palestinians - the more it actually confirms the perceptions that fueled the boycott movement in the first place. It is a self-fulfilling backlash. Rather than containing the damage or serving as a wake-up call, unfortunately, the reactions to Hawking’s decision to join the ranks of boycotters is much more likely to make matters worse."
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Al Jazeera (English) - Wednesday May 08, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"Palestinian poverty in Jerusalem has risen steadily over the last decade," the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) said in a statement on Thursday. A full 82 percent of Palestinian children in east Jerusalem lived in poverty in 2010, a figure that fell to 45 percent of Israeli children in the same area, according to the organisation. ... The soaring poverty levels among Palestinians were closely linked to the city's increasing economic isolation, UNCTAD said, maintaining that "segregation policies" including the building of Israeli separation barrier had left it "integrated neither into the Palestinian economy nor into the Israeli economy." ... The barrier has caused direct losses to east Jerusalem's economy of more than $1.0 billion, the UNCTAD report said, adding that the wall continues to cost the city's economy around $200 million a year in lost trade and employment opportunities. [The UNCDTAD report, "The Palestinian economy in East Jerusalem: Enduring annexation, isolation and disintegration," is at http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/gdsapp2012d1_en.pdf The first paragraph of its Executive Summary reads: "With the onset of occupation in 1967, Israeli authorities began to pursue a policy of physical, political and economic segregation of East Jerusalem from the rest of the occupied Palestinian territory (OPT), which continues apace today. Segregation strategies gained momentum during the last decade through measures that have altered the physical and demographic realities of the city and its predominantly Palestinian and Arab landscape. These include the city’s annexation and the expansion of Jewish settlements in and around East Jerusalem, as well as the construction of the separation barrier, which has effectively redefined the borders away from the pre-1967 armistice line."]
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Al Jazeera (English) - Saturday May 04, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"Residents pay taxes to the state of Israel but receive far fewer services than the neighbouring Jewish districts of Jerusalem. While Palestinians constitute approximately 35 percent of the city's population, only eight to ten percent of the municipal budget is allocated to their communities. "We have to hire someone to come and take [the garbage] because the city won't come," Amira says. "They will pick up everything on the main street but not behind it." Refuse collection is a long-standing issue for Palestinian East Jerusalemites; even Israeli officials have raised concerns about the issue, and the influx of new residents means things will only get worse. Numerous requests for comment from the Jerusalem municipality for this article have been unsuccessful."
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The Globe and Mail - Thursday May 02, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"The strength of Yair Lapid’s centrist Yesh Atid party notwithstanding, his right-wing coalition partner, Naftali Bennett’s Jewish Home party, holds key ministries with significant budgets that can finance settlement activity. Since this is assured, Mr. Bennett says he can live with negotiations as long as they don’t lead to an agreement. Meantime, within the NGO sector, activists intent on maintaining Israel’s hold on the West Bank are developing a new human-rights agenda. They want to challenge the left’s “monopoly” on human rights that they view as promoting political agendas damaging to Israel. ... The new human-rights advocates on the right may themselves have an agenda. They don’t acknowledge the occupation, assume continued Israeli control of the West Bank, define defence of basic rights as the responsibility of the sovereign power – and ignore the question of the right to vote. ... But the right won’t commit to giving Palestinians the vote if Israel holds on to much of the territories in the long term. And that leaves a gaping hole in any definition of democracy. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu acknowledged this when he said Wednesday that Israel could not become a binational state."
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Ottawa Citizen - Monday April 29, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"Columnist Robert Sibley, in his analysis, didn't mention that the apartheid analogy between Israel and South Africa was around a long time before Students Against Israeli Apartheid came on the scene. Attempts to compare Israeli policies toward the Palestinians and those of apartheid-era South Africa toward black citizens have caused controversy for many years now. After former U.S.-president Jimmy Carter won the Nobel Peace Prize for his work on the Camp David Accords and the Israel-Egypt peace treaty he titled his book on the experience Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid. Even former Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon was said to favour the Bantustan model for disposition of the occupied territories (find this and many other interesting quotes on Google)."
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Haaretz - Sunday April 28, 2013 Must Read Media Researcher Notes
"History shows that to liberate an oppressed people, there must be a rare combination of a “great soul” from among the oppressed (a Gandhi or Nelson Mandela) and a courageous and honest political genius from the camp of the oppressor (for example, Frederik Willem de Klerk). But that is not enough. A common fundamental ethos is needed – one that both sides can unite around – otherwise there is no mid-point where they can meet. Levy forgot one man and one organization that served an almost singular function in reconciliation in South Africa – Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Anglican Church. In the waning days of apartheid in South Africa, religion played a pivotal role in political reform. ... The key to change is in Israeli society, whether it is a two-state or one-state solution. What is missing is hope, faith in the future and love of humanity. Unfortunately, not only do the Palestinians not have a Mandela and the Israelis not have a de Klerk, religion, in the case of the Middle East, is as divisive as nationality. Gone are the days when the struggle was between two secular nationalist movements over borders and self-determination. Religion has leached into the political vacuum on both sides and deepened the chasm instead of bridging it."
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Haaretz - Friday April 26, 2013 Must Read Media Researcher Notes
"At the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg stands a wall on which are engraved all the apartheid laws. Some of them might be familiar to Israelis. ... [Prof. Ben] Turok, who has become an oppositionist within his own party [African National Congress], wants to see more cooperation between the business sector and the government. He says success in the fight against apartheid depends on the ANC recognizing the limits of its power and maintaining its unity. The Palestine Liberation Organization and the Palestinian Authority have failed in exactly this way, he notes. ?(Nonetheless, he is convinced that Israel will not exist for many more years.?) ... Vice chancellor-designate Prof. Adam Habib, the university’s [Witwatersrand] top executive, says the fervent pro-Palestinian activity in his country stems from the blacks’ deep identification with the Palestinians, from the memory of Israel’s disgraceful cooperation with the apartheid regime and from the fact that the Palestinians have chosen South Africa as an arena for their struggle because of its symbolic significance. ... Of the comparison between apartheid and Israel’s occupation regime, Habib says: “If you ask me whether this is an accurate description of the reality - I doubt it. But is it correct as a strategy in the struggle? Yes: There are lines of similarity between the two regimes in their policy of oppression, but the Arabs of Israel do have the right to vote, which was the main part of the blacks’ struggle.” ... Roelf Meyer is the old and the new South Africa. He served as defense minister and deputy minister of law and order under apartheid, as head of the National Party’s negotiating team during the transition, and as minister of constitutional development and provincial affairs in Nelson Mandela’s first government. ... What does this impressive man regret? Mainly that the process of negotiation and reconciliation started too late. “Had we begun five years earlier, we could have prevented a lot of bloodshed and obtained a better deal,” he says. This reply echoes in the mind of this Israeli interlocutor."
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The Jerusalem Post - Thursday April 25, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"The following ministry websites were found to have no Arabic-language information: Interior; Welfare and Social Services; Communications; Religious Services; Culture and Sport; Development of the Negev and Galilee; and Science and Technology. ... In an interview with the Post, Dr. Aviad Bakshi, an academic and the director of legal affairs at the Kohelet Policy Forum, argued that Arabic is not an official language in practice, and that subsequent laws had negated the language’s legal standing. The academic worked with the Institute of Zionist Strategies on the intellectual groundwork for the proposed Basic Law: Israel as the Nation-State of the Jewish People, which then-MK Avi Dichter submitted as a bill in 2011. The proposal sought to establish Israel as a state for the Jewish nation, and called for demoting Arabic from its official language status, and instead giving it a “special” status. ... Bakshi pointed out that if it were an official language, one would be able to submit paperwork in Arabic or speak the language when addressing the Supreme Court, and that state ceremonies would be held in Arabic as well. However, he said, this is not the case. In addition, he argued that later laws passed by the Knesset had, in effect, abrogated the Mandate-era law. Bakshi cited as an example a procedural law in criminal courts that states that if someone wants to submit evidence to the court or be a witness, he or she must use a translator if the material is not in Hebrew. ...he differed with the Fund on the issue of Arabic being an official language because it is something symbolic, which deals with the identity of the state. “If someone gives papers to the court in Arabic and has a translator, this is one thing, but for the judge to write the decision in Arabic is another,” he said." [The Abraham Fund report (in Hebrew) is at http://www.abrahamfund.org/5828]
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Haaretz - Thursday April 25, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
“We noticed that when MK Meir Kahane claimed in the 1980s that Arab men were threatening to steal our wives and daughters, such statements were perceived as part of his extremist and taboo dogma, while today such statements are no longer a fringe phenomenon but becoming more and more common in the Israeli landscape,” says attorney Einat Hurvitz, the Israel Religious Action Center’s director of Legal and Public Advocacy. She is spearheading the center’s handling of the issue and initiated the report, which was authored by attorney Ruth Carmi. “Today,” she says, “there are organizations and foundations that publish racist statements under the guise of ‘saving the Jewish people,’ ensuring its future and safeguarding its daughters, when in fact their entire aim is to create and maintain total separation between Jews and Arabs in Israel, to prevent coexistence between Jews and Arabs, to exclude and humiliate the Arab public in Israel and to label it a dangerous enemy to be guarded against.” “The most prominent include Lehava (Preventing Assimilation in the Holy Land), Hemla, Yad L’Achim, Lev L’Achim, Derekh Hayim, the website of The Jewish Voice. The racist dogma of these organizations is disseminated via posters, broadsides, conferences, websites, radio broadcasts, advertising campaigns and from the synagogue podium. Since the end of 2010 we’ve seen a clear rise in the phenomenon. The organizations promoting incitement in this area cleverly create the impression of a widespread, acute social problem of assimilation and mixed marriages that require the ‘rescue’ of Jewish women who were ‘abducted’ or ‘seduced.’ The women have to be kept away from Arab men.”
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Toronto Star - Thursday April 25, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"Are Queers Against Israeli Apartheid, which has many Jewish members, really “anti-Israel” or are they anti-apartheid? Councillor James Pasternak claims the term “Israeli apartheid” is inaccurate, hurtful and discriminatory. QuAIA claims apartheid is hurtful and discriminatory." - Michael Rouse, London, Ont.
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Haaretz - Thursday April 25, 2013 Must Read Media Researcher Notes
"But the most important factor in South Africa's success was the agreed-upon goal - one person, one vote. It is about time the Palestinians adopt this goal. It is time for them to understand that the two-state dream is becoming impossible. That the occupation is stronger than them, that the settlements are already too large and that the Palestinian state, even if established, will be no more than a group of Bantustans separated by the "settlement blocs" that grew to monstrous proportions and have won consensus approval from Israelis and the international community. ... Focusing on this demand will disarm Israel of all its excuses. What can it say? That the Palestinians aren't human? That they don't have rights like any other nation? Not every nation has a state, but every person has the right to vote."
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Haaretz - Thursday April 25, 2013 Must Read Media Researcher Notes
"Thus, with the backing of the Shin Bet's opinion, the Knesset extended on Tuesday the emergency order denying residency in Israel to male spouses under 35 and female spouses under 25 who hail from the West Bank, Gaza or enemy states. In other words, the ban applies to Arabs from outside Israel in their marriageable prime. The emergency order from 2003 has now entered its 11th year. ... Preventing a citizen from living in his country with his or her chosen spouse is a severe infringement of a basic civil right, whose protection is one of the reasons for maintaining a democracy. An order directed exclusively against the Arabs strengthens the argument that Israel is a discriminatory apartheid state."
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Ottawa Citizen - Wednesday April 24, 2013 Media Researcher Notes
Extremely biased article by unconditional defender of Israel.
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Toronto Star - Tuesday April 23, 2013 Good Read Media Researcher Notes
"“The law is clear to everyone except a handful of right-wing councillors: you can’t ban the phrase ‘Israeli apartheid,’ ” said Tim McCaskell, a member of the group that protests Israeli policies toward Palestinians. “We have advice from lawyers, and now city staff, all telling councillors that they must allow free expression at the Pride parade.” ... On Tuesday, Ford’s executive will consider a new report that confirms city staff’s earlier position that “Israeli apartheid” does not contravene the city grants policy, guidelines or anti-discrimination policies. Staff is recommending changes to the grants policy to ensure cityfunded events are in line with Toronto’s commitment to “respect, tolerance and diversity,” but make clear that wouldn’t change QuAIA’s status."
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National Post - Monday April 22, 2013 Media Researcher Notes
"Although the term Israeli apartheid may be “extremely hurtful,” it is “not contrary to the Ontario Human Rights Code or Criminal Code,” reads an April report prepared by city staff. “In summary, the City does not have the authority to adjudicate an allegation of discrimination … against Pride or [Queers against Israeli Apartheid].” ... Pride parade funding has been a hot button issue at City Hall ever since 2010, when Councillor Giorgio Mammoliti and then-councillor Rob Ford pushed to get the city to revoke funding of Pride Toronto over the presence of Queers Against Israeli Apartheid at the event."
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