Charlie Hebdo

Written by Rob Rogers on Friday, 09 January 2015 12:00 am.

The most baffling thing about the gruesome massacre in Paris is that these radical extremists claim to be massacring innocents in the name of religion. They clearly have not read the manual. 

Dershowitz said he feared that the boycott movement had become so entrenched that even if Israelis and Palestinians were to strike a peace deal, its supporters would not back down.

"I do think that a combination of factors - the occupation, the settlements - were the cause of it, but the BDS movement now questions the legitimacy of Israel's very existence," he said. "My great fear is that tomorrow, if Israel were to end most of the settlements and make peace, the BDS movement might be weakened a little bit in some parts of the United States. But I don't think it would have any impact in Europe. I don't think it would have any impact on the hard hard left. I think that they have become so wedded to Israel's demonization and delegitimization that nothing Israel does can change that effectively today."

1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall
2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and
3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.

There's no disputing what "all Arab lands" refers to.  It's every inch of ground between the (Jordan) river and the (Mediterranean) sea, a battle cry echoed in many a BDS demonstration.

For reasons unknown but widely debated and disputed within the BDS community, it appears that in some quarters the first element of that mission statement has been revised in the past two years to refer only to "Arab lands occupied in June 1967.  But many BDS factions, including their prime campus column, "Students for Justice in Palestine") continue as of today to cite the original formula (e.g., http://sjpvassar.wordpress.com/about/).

The question remains ... if it's "the occupation, the settlements [stupid]," that were the "cause" of the BDS movement, why did it take that movement more than ten years from its founding (at the infamous 2001 Durban "Conference Against Racism") to figure that out?  And why do its goals and rhetoric continue to demonize and dehumanize all of Israel, within any borders, on any land at all?

BREAKING: J Street Rejected by American Jewish Umbrella Group in 'Big Tent' Litmus Test

April 30, 2014 6:23 pm

JNS.org - In what many observers will see as the de facto expression of mainstream U.S. Jewry's outlook on J Street, the membership of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday voted 22-17 (with three abstentions) to reject the membership application of the self-labeled "pro-Israel, pro-peace" lobby.

The 42 Conference members in attendance in New York--nine were absent--exceeded the quorum of 38 needed to hold the vote. J Street needed a two-thirds affirmative vote to gain membership.

Apparently in expectation that the vote would go in J Street's favor, Jonathan Tobin wrote earlier today:

Were J Street to be denied entry to the Conference it would, however, be a huge public-relations coup and allow it to milk the situation for sympathy and depict its critics as seeking to silence a voice for peace. But its potential entry into the Conference would be confirmation that rather than a significant force on the Jewish scene, J Street is just one more insignificant Jewish group among a welter of such organizations whose infrastructure consist of little more than a staff and a mailing list.

... [T]here is a curious lack of mention over the demand, enshrined in the previous "Arab Peace Initiative," about what is called the "right of return." Namely, to satisfy PA demands Israel would have to accept the immigration of hundreds of thousands of passionately anti-Israel Palestinians who had lived in the country 60 years ago (or their descendants) and who have been fighting all that time to wipe Israel off the map.

Is the "right of return" as a condition for making peace still in the small print? I don't see that anyone else has asked that rather important question. Presumably it is still there. Consequently, what is in fact a suicidal offer to Israel is made, by selective reporting, to make it sound like an attractive offer. But if the demand for a massive immigration of hostile Palestinians is indeed dropped that in fact is the real news. Of course, the PA would passionately denounce such a step and since it has said nothing on the point one might assume that this demand still stands.

TIAA-CREF officials are asking the SEC to allow it to take no action on a shareholder proposal by activist group Jewish Voice for Peace that would require it to consider divesting from companies that contribute to violations of human rights, including companies whose business supports Israel's occupation of the West Bank.

Jewish Voice of Peace filed a shareholder proposal with the College Retirement Equities Fund on Feb. 8 that was signed by 200 investors, requesting that shareholders be allowed to vote on the issue at CREF's July annual meeting. The date and location of the meeting have not yet been set.

CREF officials in a March letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission requested that they be allowed to take no action on the proposal, said a company source, who asked for anonymity.

Sydney Levy, a spokesman for Jewish Voice for Peace, said the shareholder proposal was rewritten this year not to require divesture of a specific company.

Attorney Nitsana Darshan-Leitner of the Israel Law Center said in an interview that the Jewish Voice for Peace resolution was "anti-Semitic" and "anti-Israel."

Ms. Darshan-Leitner said her organization would sue TIAA-CREF if the shareholder proposal was enacted to ensure the enforcement of state and federal anti-discrimination and anti-boycott laws and to ensure that Israeli companies and businesses are not harmed.

Some worshipers outside the Dome of the Rock, with its now white-capped golden dome, built a replica of an artillery rocket. At Damsacus Gate, I witnessed a fairly vicious gang of Palestinian youths hurling snowballs at passersby.

They pelted a young ultra-Orthodox boy, maybe 13 years old, with real violence, hitting him so hard he fell and lost his hat. Then they set on him, smashing him with snow, then with their fists. He eventually managed to get away. There were no police or border patrol officers to be seen.

Police arrested nine Arabs from east Jerusalem over the past week in connection with a snowball attack against two haredim during the snowstorm a week and a half ago.

[ ... ]

But the innocent snowball fight got out of hand when two haredim tried to leave Damascus Gate and were accosted by approximately 20 Arabs. The Arabs threw snowballs at them from less than a meter away and tried to steal one of their hats, while shouting obscenities.

A video taken of the incident went viral on Facebook with tens of thousands of people expressing disgust.

On Wednesday, police arrested three suspects and on Sunday night arrested six people from the Old City in connection with the attack. Both minors and adults were taken into custody.