Arabs Fly Nazi Flag near Hevron

From: Israel National News

Hundreds of residents of Gush Etzion, south of Jerusalem, were astounded Monday morning to see an oversized Nazi flag flying next to a mosque in the Arab town of Beit Omar.

The residents notified the IDF.

A resident, Uri Arnon, told the Tazpit News Agency: "I felt we were going back 75 years, losing our hold on the land. The Arabs no longer feel the need to hide their murderous tendencies, announcing out loud that they wish to annihilate us."

An IDF spokesman said that the flag was hung on an electrical line, and that they were waiting to professionals to come and remove it.

Stephen Hawking Confirms He is Boycotting Israel

From: Israel National News

British physicist Stephen Hawking has confirmed that he will not be attending the Presidential Conference in Israel because he is joining an academic boycott of the Jewish state.

The University of Cambridge released a statement late Wednesday saying that Hawking had told the Israelis last week that he would not be attending "based on advice from Palestinian academics that he should respect the boycott."

Earlier, the university said that news reports saying Hawking was boycotting the conference were wrong, and that the noted physicist's decision to cancel his visit to Israel stemmed from health reasons alone.

The British newspaper Guardian first reported that Hawking cancelled his visit to Israel because he is backing the academic boycott.

The newspaper quoted a statement published by the British Committee for the Universities of Palestine, which described Hawking’s cancellation of the trip as "his independent decision to respect the boycott, based upon his knowledge of Palestine, and on the unanimous advice of his own academic contacts there.”

The fifth annual Presidential Conference, called Facing Tomorrow, will be held June 18-20 and feature major international personalities. This year’s conference will celebrate President Shimon Peres's 90^th birthday.

Israeli Presidential Conference Chairman Israel Maimon responded to Hawking’s announcement, saying that his decision was unjustifiable and wrong:

“The academic boycott against Israel is in our view outrageous and improper, certainly for someone for whom the spirit of liberty lies at the basis of his human and academic mission. Israel is a democracy in which all individuals are free to express their opinions, whatever they may be. The imposition of a boycott is incompatible with open, democratic dialogue.”

Harvard Students Receive Mock Eviction Notices

From: Israel National News

In Harvard University’s latest attempt to promote the delegitimization of the state of Israel, Jewish students in freshman and upper class dormitories received mock eviction notices in light of “Israel Apartheid Week”, which is currently being organized on college and university campuses worldwide.

The campaign, organized by the Harvard Palestine Solidarity Committee, distributed notices at the beginning of March which read, “We regret to inform you that your suite is scheduled for demolition in the next three days”, a reference to the group’s views regarding Israel’s treatment of the Arab population.

The Anti Defamation League (ADL) expressed outrage over the prestigious university’s latest attempts to daunt Jewish students and demonize the state of Israel saying, “This tactic is designed to silence and intimidate pro-Israel advocates at Harvard and campuses around the country.”

“Free expression has a place on campus; however targeting the dorms of Harvard students lends itself to creating tension, isolating students and fomenting hostility,” said Robert Trestan, ADL Acting New England Regional Director.

The organization also voiced its concern regarding the underlying anti-Israel message being propagated by academic institutions of higher education in the name of “intellectual pluralism,” and “free speech.”

“We recognize and support free speech, but condemn the anti-Israel views expressed in the eviction notices as factually incorrect and intolerant,” Trestan said.  “This is an example of how anti-Israel activism on campus can cross the line by causing supporters to feel isolated and intimidated.”

“Efforts like these only seek to delegitimize Israel and prevent opportunities for meaningful dialogue on campus,” said Jeffrey Robbins, ADL New England Regional Board Chair.  “It is morally disgraceful to label Israel as an apartheid state because it constructed a security barrier to keep innocent Israeli civilians from being targeted with terrorism.  This tactic of mock eviction notices is more calculated to mislead and offend than to shed light.”

Last year, over two hundred Jewish students at Florida Atlantic University’s (FAU) Boca Raton campus similarly received mock eviction notices distributed by Students for Justice in Palestine, seeking to utilize this ploy to draw attention to their claim that Israel’s “occupation of Palestine” results in the demolition of “Palestinian” homes.

“We’re taking it very seriously,” Rayna Exelbierd, a 20-year-old Jewish sophomore, said at the time. “We’re considering it a hate crime. The flier promotes hate; it doesn’t promote peace. People were scared by it. People felt threatened by it.”

Harvard University came under fire last March for hosting a conference entitled “One State Conference: Israel/Palestine and the One State Solution,” aimed at surreptitiously stripping Israel of its legitimacy and right to exist.

The conference was organized by a number of student groups including, Students for Justice in Palestine, the Palestine Caucus, the Arab Caucus, the Progressive Caucus, and the Association for Justice in the Middle East, all of which perpetrate an ideology based on the belief that Israel is an “apartheid state,” responsible for the “ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian population.”

Speakers included, Ali Abunimah, the Executive Director of the Electronic Intifada; Dalit Baum, of the BDS organization Coalition of Women for Peace; Ilan Pappe, radical left Israeli academic and fervent supporter of the BDS movement; Marc Ellis, Director of the Center for Jewish Studies at Baylor University, who compares Zionism to colonialism and Israel’s treatment of the Palestinians to the Nazi treatment of Jews; as well as a number of other academics and scholars who advocate similar beliefs.

Chuck Hagel Said Israel Headed Toward Apartheid, Netanyahu a ‘Radical’

From: Washington Free Beacon

Secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel said Israel is on its way to becoming an apartheid state during an April 9, 2010, appearance at Rutgers University, according to a contemporaneous account by an attendee.

Hagel also accused Israel of violating U.N. resolutions, called for U.S.-designated terrorist organization Hamas to be included in any peace negotiations, and described Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as a “radical,” according to the source.

Kenneth Wagner, who attended the 2010 speech while a Rutgers University law student, provided the Washington Free Beacon with an email he sent during the event to a contact at the American Israel Public Affairs Committee. The email is time-stamped April 9, 2010, at 11:37 AM.

“I am sitting in a lecture by Chuck Hagel at Rutgers,” Wagner wrote in the email. “He basically said that Israel has violated every UN resolution since 1967, that Israel has violated its agreements with the quartet, that it was risking becoming an apartheid state if it didn’t allow the Palestinians to form a state. He said that the settlements were getting close to the point where a contiguous Palestinian state would be impossible.”

“He said that he [thought] that Netanyahu was a radical and that even [former Israeli foreign minister Tzipi] Livni, who was hard nosed thought he was too radical and so wouldn’t join in a coalition [government] with him. … He said that Hamas has to be brought in to any peace negotiation,” Wagner wrote.

AIPAC had no comment.

Wagner said the remarks were made during the Q&A session. The speech took place at the Rutgers School of Law in Newark.

Wagner, a pro-Israel activist, reiterated the account in an interview with the Free Beacon and called Hagel’s comments “pretty shocking.”

“I was very surprised at his attitude because I had been listening to politicians speak about the situation in the Middle East and the U.S. Israel relationship for about two decades,” Wagner told the Free Beacon. “And it was probably the most negative thing I’d ever heard anybody in elected office say.”

The news of the comments given during the 2010 speech comes at a time when the embattled secretary of defense nominee has been forced to respond to a report that he called the State Department an adjunct of the Israeli foreign ministry during the Q&A portion of a 2007 speech at Rutgers.

The Free Beacon reported Thursday on a contemporaneous account of another speech then-Senator Hagel gave at Rutgers in 2007. The report, written by Hagel supporter and political consultant George Ajjan, claimed Hagel had described the U.S. Department of State as an extension of the Israeli government.

Sens. Lindsey Graham and Kelly Ayotte on Friday sent a letter to Hagel requesting an explanation of the alleged comments. The Anti-Defamation League also called on Hagel to explain, and the American Jewish Committee said, “Further Senate deliberation is called for before any final vote is taken.”

Hagel has disavowed the remarks and says he does not recall making them.

“I do not recall making any such statement, or ever making any similar statement,” he wrote in a reply letter to Graham and Ayotte on February 16. “I completely disavow the content of the alleged statement attributed to me.”

According to one of the 2007 event’s organizers, Hooshang Amirahmadi, who is currently running for president of Iran, Ajjan’s account of the 2007 speech is “complete nonsense.”

Amirahmadi told the Free Beacon that some of his “very good Jewish colleagues who are very pro-Israel” did not appear offended at any point during the speech.

The Daily Caller reported on Monday that Amirahmadi accepted funding grants from the Alavi Foundation, which federal law enforcement officials have called a front group for the Iranian regime.

Amirahmadi is also the head of the American Iranian Council, which awarded Hagel an expensive clock in 2002.

Another attendee at the 2007 speech, Rutgers Professor Charles Häberl said he is “certain” Hagel did not say the State Department was an adjunct of the Israeli government, BuzzFeed reported today.

When the Free Beacon contacted Häberl about the 2007 speech last Thursday, he said he was not the best person to talk to about the event.

“Have you been in touch with Hooshang Amirahmadi?” Häberl wrote in an email. “He’s the one who organized the event, and he would be the best situated to talk about it.  At the time, I was just a lecturer.”

Meanwhile, Ajjan stood by his account and said he is the only person who has provided a written report from the time.

“If somebody comes out with a transcript and those words aren’t uttered, I’d be the first one to say, ‘My apologies. I wrote something down that was wrong—I misheard it, or I misreported it,’ if that’s the case,” Ajjan told the Washington Free Beacon.

“I’m a conscientious person,” Ajjan said. “When I was blogging at that time, I did my best to record things accurately … there’s no way that I would pick a phrase like ‘adjunct of the Israeli foreign ministry.’ That’s a pretty odd combination of words to use. I wouldn’t have just pulled those out of thin air.”

When asked about Häberl disputing his account, Ajjan said he wants to make it clear he is not trying to undermine Hagel’s confirmation or the Rutgers event. He said he is still a supporter of Hagel.

“I suppose [Häberl] thinks that I’m somehow trying to disparage Chuck Hagel or cast a dark shadow over his confirmation hearings. That’s not the case at all. And I certainly don’t wish to besmirch the people who organized the event,” said Ajjan. “I very much enjoyed the event, I appreciate the people who organized it.”

The Free Beacon is working to obtain transcript and video of Hagel’s comments during the question and answer sessions at Rutgers in both 2007 and 2010, and is continuing to speak to others who attended both events.

A representative for Hagel did not respond to a request for comment by press time.

Report: Hagel Said State Department Controlled by Israel

From: The Washington Free Beacon

Fox News Channel on Tuesday reported that secretary of defense nominee Chuck Hagel failed to disclose to the United States Senate speeches delivered to controversial groups such as the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee as well as James Zogby’s Arab American Institute.

Meanwhile, a 2007 speech then-Sen. Hagel delivered at Rutgers University in New Jersey as he tested the waters for a presidential run is drawing fresh scrutiny.

Hagel said the U.S. Department of State was an adjunct of the Israeli foreign minister’s office, according to a contemporaneous report of the event.

Republican political consultant and Hagel supporter George Ajjan wrote about the March 2, 2007, speech on his website the following day, writing a description “point by point through some of the more important elements of his speech.”
“Point six“:

The State Department has become adjunct to the Israeli Foreign Minister’s office…
Wow. A very bold statement by Hagel bound to further raise the ire of the “Jewish Lobby” (yawn…), but it does express his strong belief in a comprehensive solution to problems in the Middle East. Hagel mentioned this theme several times – comprehensive, he said, in the sense that all tools should be used to achieve American foreign policy objectives (diplomatic, political, economic, and military), but also comprehensive in the James Baker sense of addressing the Arab-Israeli conflict holistically as both Bill Clinton and George W. Bush have proved too lazy and too incompetent to do.

Reached by phone, Ajjan confirmed his 2007 account of the event, saying he was “taking notes as [Hagel] was speaking.”

“If I wrote it, then that’s what happened at the time,” Ajjan told the Free Beacon.

He added that the event, which was cosponsored by the Rutgers University Center for Middle Eastern Studies and the American Iranian Council, was closed to the press.

“When [Hagel] said the State Department was becoming an adjunct of the Israeli ministry, I think that was during the Q&A,” said Ajjan. “Even in the blog, I was surprised that he said that. It was a very bold statement.”

Ajjan said he has “been a supporter of Hagel for a long time” and admired his opposition to the Iraq war in particular.

“Back in ’07, I was hoping that he was going to throw his hat in the ring for the Republican presidential primaries,” he said.

Ajjan, who ran for Congress in 2004, added he would still support a Hagel presidential bid today.
“I’d be delighted to see Hagel mount some sort of third party candidacy,” he said. “If he makes it through these confirmation hearings you really couldn’t ask for a better pedigree.”

On his Twitter feed, Ajjan expresses criticism of neoconservatives, Israel, and the war on terror that is commonplace among Hagel supporters.

Rutgers University and a spokesperson for Hagel did not respond to requests for comment by press time.

Update (2:55 p.m.): BuzzFeed found and published Hagel’s prepared remarks for the event, which can be read here, but not the question and answer section of the event. The Washington Free Beacon is still working to obtain a transcript of that portion of the event.

Morsy implies Jews control the American media

From: The Cable

Last week in Cairo, seven U.S. senators had a highly contentious meeting with Egyptian President Mohamed Morsy during which the Muslim Brotherhood leader implied that he was the victim of an American media run by the Jews.


Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) led a delegation last week to Egypt, Jordan, Israel, and Afghanistan that included Sens. Chris Coons (D-DE), Kelly Ayotte (R-NH), Lindsey Graham (R-SC), Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Kirsten Gilibrand (D-NY). Their stop in Cairo included a 90-minute meeting with Morsy that devolved into an uncomfortable set of exchanges as the senators pressed the Egyptian president to explain his 2010 comments describing Jews as "bloodsuckers who attack Palestinians" as well as "the descendants of apes and pigs."

After the meeting, McCain issued a statement saying that the senators "voiced our strong disapproval of the statement" and that the senators and Morsy "had a constructive discussion on this subject."

Morsy's spokesman issued a statement after the meeting saying that Morsy believed in religious freedom and "the need to distinguish between the Jewish religion, and those who belong to it, and violent actions against defenseless Palestinians."

But inside the meeting, the discussion over Morsy's 2010 remarks was much more heated than either side publicly acknowledged afterwards, according to Coons. Addressing the comments was the first item on the senators' agenda, and the discussion did not go well, he told The Cable in an interview.

"We tried to give President Morsy an opportunity, now that he is the president, to put his comments in a different context because he was claiming that he was taken out of context. On their face they seemed to be very offensive and inappropriate," Coons said. "It was a difficult conversation."

Morsy told the senators that the values of Islam teach respect for Christianity and Judaism, and he asserted repeatedly that he had no negative views about Judaism or the Jewish people, but then followed with a diatribe about Israel and Zionist actions against Palestinians, especially in Gaza.
Then Morsy crossed a line and made a comment that made the senators physically recoil in their chairs in shock, Coons said.

University of CA Student Association condemns entire country of Israel of ‘racism

From: Campus Reform

The University of California Student Association (UCSA) secretly passed a resolution last month which condemned the nation of Israel of “racism.”

The resolution, passed through the student organization with unanimous support, claims there is a “wealth of scholarship and legal opinion” that exists affirming “racism” on behalf of Israel.


The University of California Student Association, the “official voice of UC students” passed a resolution accusing the nation of Israel of racism.

The resolution was in response to HR 35, a California Assembly resolution condemning anti-Semitism in higher education.

No agenda for the meeting was published in advance and UCSA did not contact Jewish organizations about the vote, despite inviting SJP to give a presentation.

Internal emails, obtained by the Daily Californian reveal that the planning of the vote was kept quiet in order to intentionally suppress dissent.

Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) member Luma Haddad, acknowledged in an e-mail to her organization's board that the vote was kept quiet to prevent opposition.

“There was not much word spread about this in the last few days that led up to the meeting,” wrote Haddad. “This was done in order to prevent unwanted lobbying/intimidation tactics.”

Pro-Israel group, Stand With Us, swiftly responded with a statement condemning the tactics as “secretive” and a “guerrilla” way to conduct business.

“The resolution's attack on legitimate concerns about anti-Israel extremism and anti-Semitism is deeply disturbing, but even more disturbing are the proponents' devious, undemocratic tactics,” said Roz Rothstein, Stand With Us CEO.

She added that they “it is unacceptable that public tax money supports the UCSA when it promotes anti-Israel bigotry and willfully excludes tens of thousands of students who pay dues and whom it is supposed to represent.”

Netanyahu's Complete Speech Before the United Nations

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'Muslim Brothers plotting overthrow of Gulf States

From: Jerusalem Post

Dubai's chief of police has warned of an "international plot" to overthrow the governments of Gulf Arab countries, saying the region needs to be prepared to counter any threat from Islamist dissidents as well as Syria and Iran.

The comments by Dahi Khalfan, one of the most outspoken security officials in the United Arab Emirates, follow the detention in the UAE since April of at least 20 dissidents, according to relatives of the detainees and activists.

"There's an international plot against Gulf states in particular and Arab countries in general...This is preplanned to take over our fortunes," Khalfan told reporters at a gathering late on Wednesday marking the Muslim holy month of Ramadan.

"The bigger our sovereign wealth funds and the more money we put in the banks of Western countries, the bigger the plot to take over our countries...The brothers and their governments in Damascus and North Africa have to know that the Gulf is a red line, not only for Iran but also for the Brothers as well."

Most of the detainees since April are Islamists, targeted by an official clampdown amid concern they may be emboldened by the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood in other Arab countries such as Egypt.

UAE Interior Ministry officials have not been available to comment on the arrests. Last week, UAE officials announced that authorities were investigating a foreign-linked group planning "crimes against the security of the state".

"I had no idea that there is this large number of Muslim Brotherhood in the Gulf states. We have to be alert and on guard because the wider these groups become, the higher probability there is for trouble," Khalfan said on Wednesday.

"We are aware that there are groups plotting to overthrow Gulf governments in the long term."

Palestinian Authority Thanks IOC For Refusing Moment of Silence for Munich Olympics Massacre

From: Jerusalem Post

The Palestinian Authority has thanked the International Olympic Committee for refusing to hold a minute of silence at Friday’s opening ceremony in London to mark the 40th anniversary of the murder of 11 Israeli sportsmen at the 1972 Munich Games.

Jibril Rajoub, head of the Palestinian Football Federation, sent a letter to IOC chairman Jacques Rogge thanking him for his position, the PA’s official news agency, Wafa, reported.

“Sports is a bridge for love, connection and relaying peace between peoples.

It should not be a factor for separation and spreading racism between peoples,” Rajoub, a former PA security commander, wrote in his letter.

Wafa said that he sent the letter to the IOC chairman on Tuesday.

A senior PA official in Ramallah confirmed that Rajoub had sent the letter and said that the Palestinians were opposed to “Israel’s attempts to exploit the Olympic Games for propaganda purposes.”

A senior government official responded to the Palestinian letter by saying that “if the leadership of the PA is not willing to disassociate itself from its terrorist past, and is unwilling to see the Munich massacre as a brutal act of terrorism, then in Israeli eyes there will be big questions regarding their true commitment to peace and reconciliation.”

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon condemned the PA for terming as “racist” a moment of silence for the Israeli victims.

“No, the murder of Israelis because they are Israelis is racist, not the request to dignify and honor them,” Ayalon wrote on Facebook. “On the other hand, Palestinian Authority media refer to Munich terrorists as ‘stars’ whose path should be followed.”

“Now, more than ever, there needs to be a minute silence, not just to honor the eleven slain Israeli athletes but also to demonstrate opposition to those who laud murderers as heroes and call on others to follow suit.”

EU: Hezbollah Is Not A Terrorist Group

From: Jerusalem Post

Despite last week’s terrorist attack in Bulgaria that Israel blamed squarely on Hezbollah, the EU Tuesday rejected Israeli calls to place the Lebanese organization on its terrorist blacklist.

Cypriot Foreign Minister Erato Kozakou- Marcoullis, whose country currently holds the EU’s rotating presidency, said at a press conference in Brussels with Foreign Minister Avigdor Liberman that there is “no consensus among the EU member states for putting Hezbollah on the terrorist list of the organization.”

Such a move, she said, required unanimity from the EU’s 27 member states.

Liberman, who met Tuesday with his EU colleagues as part of the annual EU-Israel Association Council meeting, had called on the body to put Hezbollah on its terrorist list. Doing so would make illegal any financial transfer from the EU to Hezbollah or to any member of that organization. Liberman said such a move would send a powerful message both to the international community and the Israeli public.

“From ouour point of view it is unacceptable that Hezbollah terrorists meet and talk with Western diplomats in Beirut on one hand, and they pursue their terrorist activity on European soil on the other hand,” he said at the press conference.

Kozakou-Marcoullis, speaking for the EU, plainly refused the request.

“The Lebanese Hezbollah is an organization that comprises a political party [and a] social services network, as well as an armed wing,” she said. “Hezbollah is active in Lebanese politics, including the parliament and the government, and plays a specific role with regard to the status quo in Lebanon.”

Taking this and other aspects into account, she said, there is “no consensus among the EU member states for putting Hezbollah on the terrorist list of the organization. Should there be tangible evidence of Hezbollah engaging in acts of terrorism, the EU would consider listing the organization.”

Cyprus is currently holding a suspect who according to Israeli officials, has admitted under interrogation to being a Hezbollah operative. He was arrested there late last month while allegedly planning an attack on Israeli tourists.

Bulgarian press names bomber: Mehdi Ghezali:RELEASED FROM GITMO

From: The Times of Israel

Bulgarian media on Thursday named the suicide bomber who blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists, killing five Israelis and a local bus driver, in the Black Sea resort of Burgas on Wednesday as 36-year-old Mehdi Ghezali.

Ghezali reportedly arrived in Bulgaria five weeks before the bombing and arrived at the airport via taxi, Channel 2 reported. He was also reportedly given the bomb by someone else, but no further details were provided.

There was no independent confirmation of the veracity of the information. The reports surfaced soon after Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had publicly accused Hezbollah, directed by Iran, of responsibility for the bombing. The Prime Minister’s Office made no comment on the reports.

The Bulgarian reports, rapidly picked up by Hebrew media, posited various versions of how the bomber had detonated the bomb, including the suggestion that the bomber had not intended to die in the blast, but may have wanted to place the bomb on the bus and flee.

Ghezali has a Wikipedia page, which describes him as a Swedish citizen, with Algerian and Finnish origins. He had been held at the US’s Guantanamo Bay detainment camp on Cuba from 2002 to 2004, having previously studied at a Muslim religious school and mosque in Britain, and traveled to Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, and Pakistan, it says. He was taken into custody on suspicion of being an al-Qaeda agent, having been arrested along with a number of other al-Qaeda operatives.

Weekly Standard: Sweden Pressured Suicide Bomber's Release From Gitmo

From: The Weekly Standard

With a black baseball cap pulled tight over a mop of stringy long hair and a patchy, close-cropped beard, Mehdi-Muhammed Ghezali looked more like a Metallica roadie than a disciple of Ayman al-Zawahiri. He addressed the scrum of reporters in a clipped, heavily accented Swedish and accused the American government of wrongly detaining him for three years and "physically and mentally" torturing him. A book about his experiences was in the works; a documentary crew, cobbling together a film about American human rights abuses, had requested an audience; and his legal team was plotting a lawsuit against Donald Rumsfeld.

It was 2004, and Ghezali was a free man.

In late 2001, Ghezali, a Swedish national, had been detained during the battle at Tora Bora, Afghanistan, handed over to the American military, and sent to the detention facility at Guantánamo Bay. According to his lawyers, he was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Although he spoke none of the local languages, Ghezali told his captors, in the midst of the Taliban's retreat into the mountainous hinterlands of Afghanistan, he had crossed that country's border with Pakistan to study Islam.

After an intense lobbying effort by Swedish prime minister Göran Persson--and a vague promise that the country's intelligence services would keep a watchful eye on him--Ghezali was delivered to Sweden (on the government's private Gulfstream jet). The Swedish daily Dagens Nyheter noted that Ghezali had achieved "rock star status" upon returning to his homeland, a native victim of America's rapacious imperialism. And after two-plus years in isolation, the emotionally fragile former prisoner would be happy to discover "that a majority of Swedes were glad that he was home."

Muslims Barred IOC from Honoring Murdered Israelis

From: Israel National News

An Olympics official admitted that Muslim countries blocked the "One-Minute of Silence" campaign to honor the 11 murdered Israeli athletes, one of the widows said.

Ankie Spitzer, whose husband Andre was one of the athletes massacred in the Munich Games n 1972, told the European Jewish Press that Jacques Rogge, president of the London Organizing Committee of the Olympic Games, told her  that his “hands were tied” by the admission of 46 Arab and Muslim members to the International Olympic Committee.

She replied, “My husband’s hands were tied, not yours.”

The widow has been conducting an uphill battle to convince the International Olympics Committee to remember the slain athletes with one minute of silence before the opening of the Games in London next week.

It never has done so since the murders 40 years ago.

Spitzer gained support for her effort from several countries, including the United States, Britain, Australia, Belgium and Germany. A letter appealing for the minute of silence was signed by 140 Italian legislators, to no avail.

Spitzer called the Olympics “a corrupt organization, led by greed rather than the Olympic spirit. She added, “The IOC’s refusal is pure discrimination – greed and anti-Semitism.”

Israel Ignored at Obama’s Counterterror Initiative

From: CNSNews.com

As the Obama administration’s new international counterterrorism initiative develops, the exclusion of Israel becomes more glaring with each passing meeting -- most recently on Monday, at the beginning of a conference focusing on victims of terrorism.

Addressing the two-day Global Counterterrorism Forum (GCTF) event in Madrid, an administration official mentioned a dozen countries in the context of victims of terrorism – but not Israel.

Launched last fall as a “signature initiative” in what the administration calls its “smart power approach to counterterrorism,” the GCTF comprises 29 countries, with the U.S. and Turkey serving as co-chairs.

Israel’s exclusion provoked comment from the outset, given the country’s long experience both as a target of and fighter against terrorism.

The State Department says future Israeli participation is not ruled out. Still, Turkey’s Islamist-leaning government – which disputes that Hamas is a terrorist group – has worked actively to isolate Israel in the international community.

Further, 11 of the 29 GCTF members are members of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), some of which are hostile towards Israel. All subscribe to the OIC’s 1999 Convention on Combating Terrorism which states that “armed struggle against foreign occupation, aggression, colonialism, and hegemony, aimed at liberation and self-determination in accordance with the principles of international law shall not be considered a terrorist crime.”

According to the State Department, Monday’s opening of the GCTF “High-Level Conference on Victims of Terrorism” in the Spanish capital  “brings together government officials, civil society leaders and other stakeholders to discuss how countries can increase their support of victims of terror while cooperating to counter extremist ideologies.”

Addressing the event, U.S. undersecretary for civilian security, democracy and human rights Maria Otero noted that Spain, “like the United States and so many countries around the world,” has had firsthand experienced of terrorism and the pain it inflicts on society. Later, she referred to a documentary that was shown at the GCTF launch last September, recounting the stories of the victims of terror attacks in Pakistan, Jordan, Northern Ireland, Uganda, Turkey, Indonesia, India, Spain, Columbia and the United States.
Similarly, when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton addressed a GCTF event in Istanbul last month, she mentioned the challenge of terrorism in Turkey, Mali, Somalia, Yemen, Nigeria, the Maghreb and Europe, referred obliquely to Pakistan and Afghanistan, and commented on terrorist kidnappings in Latin America and the Sahel.

Israel was not mentioned, either by Otero in Madrid on Monday or by Clinton in Istanbul on June 7.

Church of England weighs link to anti-Israel Group

From: Jerusalem Post

Jewish and Christian community leaders have expressed widespread concern that the Church of England, the country's officially established Christian church, is next week set to discuss formally deepening links with a politicized anti-Israel group.

On Tuesday, the General Synod in York, the Church's national assembly and highest legislative body, will vote on a motion that seeks to formally adopt the Church's links with the Ecumenical Accompaniment Program in Palestine and Israel (EAPPI).

The motion encourages parishioners to take part in the program - which brings internationals to the West Bank to experience "life under occupation," according to its website - and urges churches to make use of the experiences of returning participants.

However EAPPI - founded by the World Council of Churches and supported in the UK by Christian Aid and the Quakers - are considered to be a controversial group and stand accused of being anti-Israel advocates whose work "runs the risk of leading to anti-Jewish sentiment." "EAPPI is a one-sided advocacy group promoting the Durban strategy of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel, supporting the Palestinian claim of a 'right of return,' which is code for ending Israeli sovereignty, and systematically ignoring continuous Palestinian terror attacks against Israeli civilians - each one a war crime," Yitzhak Santis, chief programs officer at the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor, told The Jerusalem Post.

The decision to discuss the motion has led to an outcry in the Jewish community, with British Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and the Board of Deputies of British Jews leading protests.

Alarmed that it could raise the group's profile and legitimacy, the Board of Deputies has sent a letter to all synod participants outlining their concerns.

"The Board naturally commends those who want to protect the rights of the Palestinians living in the West Bank. As a result we support any organization which encourages reconciliation, but it appears to us that EAPPI does not promote this," wrote board president Vivian Wineman. "I fear the negative impact which the passing of this motion could have on that work and on relations between the two communities." Warning that the motion could do "serious damage" to relations between Christians and Jews, Sacks said it presents a one-sided narrative on a complex and difficult issue.

"I am deeply concerned about the private members motion being debated. Were it to be passed it would do serious damage to Jewish-Christian relations in Britain, which have been so positive in recent decades. But that is not my only concern.

"The work of EAPPI does not provide its participants with a full reflection of the conflict. It presents a one-sided narrative on a complex and difficult issue. It thus fails the test of natural justice: 'Audi alteram partem - Listen to the other side.' By minimizing Israel's well-founded fears, it will not advance the cause of peace or an end to the conflict," the chief rabbi added.

EAPPI takes about 20 "Ecumenical Accompaniers" to the region every year, where they volunteer in Hebron, Jayyous or Yanoun to accompany Palestinians through checkpoints, while monitoring any perceived abuses.

They have no contact with mainstream Israelis and on their return are expected to fulfill 10 speaking events, with most doing many more.

The Council of Christians and Jews (CCJ), the UK's oldest interfaith organization, said its members have been at EAPPI meetings in which accompaniers who have returned from the Palestinian territories have given talks.

"Unfortunately the speeches and presentations can appear to be anti-Israel and run the risk of leading to anti-Jewish sentiment. This is a worrying situation for those of us dedicated to Jewish-Christian relations and the fight against anti-Semitism," the CCJ told the Post.

The Board of Deputies said the volunteers receive two weeks of residential training beforehand, with just two hours dedicated to the Israeli perspective. All of the Israeli groups they come into contact with are of the fringe Left or Right.

Hamas announces senior member is assassinated

From: Jerusalem Post

Hamas on Wednesday announced that one of its senior members was assassinated in Damascus and later blamed Israel.

The announcement, posted on the terrorist group's official website said it was unknown who killed Kamal Ranaja, also known as Nizzar Abu Mujhad, but that the group was investigating the incident.

A senior Hamas official later told AFP, "According to our information, Mossad was behind the assassination."

The official added that Ranaja was killed in his home, implicating "a group of people."

The statement on Hamas's website added that Ranaja died "in the service of his cause and his people," vowing that his blood would "not be wasted."

Hamas did not detail when Ranaja was killed.

In February 2008, senior Hezbollah military commander Imad Mughniyeh was killed by a bomb in his car in the Syrian capital, an attack the terror group blamed on Israel.

Mughniyeh was a Lebanese national who climbed the ranks of the Palestinian Fatah movement's elite Force 17 military force before moving to the Lebanese Shi'ite organization.

Arab Apartheid Against Palestinians

From: Gatestone Institute

The plight of the Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Arab countries has received little attention from the mainstream media in the West. Lebanon's apartheid laws deny Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in areas such as banking, medicine, management, law and education. Though born and raised in the country, they are denied political, economic and social rights.

The Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon are considered the worst in the region in terms of poverty, health, education and living conditions, according to a report published this week by the American Near East Refugee Aid [ANERA], one of the largest American not-for-profit organizations working in the Middle East.

This does not mean, of course, that Palestinians living in refugee camps in Jordan and Syria or other Arab countries are happy. But when it comes to Lebanon, the living conditions of the Palestinians are appalling.

The ANERA report coincided with news about mounting tensions between Palestinian residents of refugee camps in Lebanon and the Lebanese army.

The tensions reached their peak last week when Lebanese soldiers shot and killed a young Palestinian man in Nahr El Bared refugee camp. Later Lebanese soldiers prevented residents from going to the cemetery to attend the funeral.

In 2007, the Lebanese army destroyed most of the camp's houses during fighting with militiamen belonging to Palestinian armed groups and radical Islamic groups.

Two-thirds of the camp's 36,000 residents fled the fighting and found shelter in surrounding fields and valleys. Many set up new homes in the nearby Baddawi refugee camp.

Since 2007, the Lebanese army has imposed a strict siege on the camp: residents are allowed to enter and leave only after obtaining permission from Lebanese security authorities. According to the Palestinian residents, they have since been living in a ghetto.

The Lebanese authorities have also banned the residents from rebuilding the houses that were destroyed or damaged in 2007.

Palestinians are convinced that Lebanon has been trying to get rid of them for many years. Lebanon's apartheid laws deny Palestinians access to the majority of white collar positions in areas such as banking, medicine, management, law and education.

Like many Arab countries, Lebanon has always been treating Palestinians as third-class citizens. Nearly half a million Palestinians live in Lebanon's 12 camps. Though born and raised in the country, they are denied political, economic and social rights.

Palestinians cannot attend Lebanese public schools or own property. They do not have access to national health services or the social security system. Checkpoints restricting access to most of the camps, according to the ANERA report, thwart trade and commerce with neighboring counties.

"The refugees live in overcrowded camps and have to deal with discrimination, isolation and social exclusion," the report states. "The refugees often refer to themselves as 'forgotten people' and feel they are living in a hostile environment where their basic human rights are not represented or protected."

The plight of Palestinian refugees in Lebanon and other Arab countries has received little attention in the mainstream media in the West. Although many international aid organizations have been working to assist the Palestinians in the Arab world, Western journalists often turn a blind eye to the misery of these refugees.

The unconscionable condition of the Palestinians in the Arab world will end the day the Arab governments and Palestinian leaders stop lying to them and confront them with reality, namely that they need to get along with their lives and secure a better future for their children. Arab and Palestinian leaders, meanwhile, continue to deceive these people by promising them that if they wait a little longer they will one day "return to the homeland."

CAIR Official Blames Israel for Brotherhood Setback

FROM: IPT

The civil rights manager for New York's Council on American Islamic Relations' (CAIR) chapter advocated for the Muslim Brotherhood political ascension and blamed Israel for the recent events in Egypt in sequential twitter posts Saturday.

Last week, Egypt's Supreme Constitutional Court dissolved the newly-elected Parliament, one dominated by the Brotherhood and other religious conservatives, saying a third of them "were chosen on an unconstitutional basis."

CAIR-NY's Cyrus McGoldrick characterized the move as a coup d'etat by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF), which seized power immediately after Hosni Mubarak's ouster last year, and is comprised of several Mubarak apologists.

"My heart is with Egypt after yesterday's military coup," McGoldrick wrote in a Twitter post. "May Allah protect the revolution & people from the military doing Israel's bidding.

McGoldrick also advocated for the Muslim Brotherhood political dominance, denouncing "the powers" for prohibiting their takeover.

"We should have known the powers would never let the Ikhwan [Brotherhood] in through the front door," he wrote.

On Monday, the Brotherhood claimed its presidential candidate Mohamed Mursi, won elections held during the weekend. Those results have not been confirmed.

Nicky Larkin: Israel is a refuge, but a refuge under siege

I saw this at Gay and Right and it is a great read.

From: Nicky Larkin, Irish Independent

I used to hate Israel. I used to think the Left was always right. Not any more. Now I loathe Palestinian terrorists. Now I see why Israel has to be hard. Now I see the Left can be Right -- as in right-wing. So why did I change my mind so completely?

Strangely, it began with my anger at Israel's incursion into Gaza in December 2008 which left over 1,200 Palestinians dead, compared to only 13 Israelis. I was so angered by this massacre I posed in the striped scarf of the Palestinian Liberation Organisation for an art show catalogue.

Shortly after posing in that PLO scarf, I applied for funding from the Irish Arts Council to make a film in Israel and Palestine. I wanted to talk to these soldiers, to challenge their actions -- and challenge the Israeli citizens who supported them.

I spent seven weeks in the area, dividing my time evenly between Israel and the West Bank. I started in Israel. The locals were suspicious. We were Irish -- from a country which is one of Israel's chief critics -- and we were filmmakers. We were the enemy.

Then I crossed over into the West Bank. Suddenly, being Irish wasn't a problem. Provo graffiti adorned The Wall. Bethlehem was Las Vegas for Jesus-freaks -- neon crucifixes punctuated by posters of martyrs.

These martyrs followed us throughout the West Bank. They watched from lamp-posts and walls wherever we went. Like Jesus in the old Sacred Heart pictures.

But the more I felt the martyrs watching me, the more confused I became. After all, the Palestinian mantra was one of "non-violent resistance". It was their motto, repeated over and over like responses at a Catholic mass.

Yet when I interviewed Hind Khoury, a former Palestinian government member, she sat forward angrily in her chair as she refused to condemn the actions of the suicide bombers. She was all aggression.

This aggression continued in Hebron, where I witnessed swastikas on a wall. As I set up my camera, an Israeli soldier shouted down from his rooftop position. A few months previously I might have ignored him as my political enemy. But now I stopped to talk. He only talked about Taybeh, the local Palestinian beer.

Back in Tel Aviv in the summer of 2011, I began to listen more closely to the Israeli side. I remember one conversation in Shenkin Street -- Tel Aviv's most fashionable quarter, a street where everybody looks as if they went to art college. I was outside a cafe interviewing a former soldier.

He talked slowly about his time in Gaza. He spoke about 20 Arab teenagers filled with ecstasy tablets and sent running towards the base he'd patrolled. Each strapped with a bomb and carrying a hand-held detonator.

The pills in their bloodstream meant they felt no pain. Only a headshot would take them down.

Conversations like this are normal in Tel Aviv. I began to experience the sense of isolation Israelis feel. An isolation that began in the ghettos of Europe and ended in Auschwitz.

Israel is a refuge -- but a refuge under siege, a refuge where rockets rain death from the skies. And as I made the effort to empathise, to look at the world through their eyes. I began a new intellectual journey. One that would not be welcome back home.

The problem began when I resolved to come back with a film that showed both sides of the coin. Actually there are many more than two. Which is why my film is called Forty Shades of Grey. But only one side was wanted back in Dublin. My peers expected me to come back with an attack on Israel. No grey areas were acceptable.

An Irish artist is supposed to sign boycotts, wear a PLO scarf, and remonstrate loudly about The Occupation. But it's not just artists who are supposed to hate Israel. Being anti-Israel is supposed to be part of our Irish identity, the same way we are supposed to resent the English.

But hating Israel is not part of my personal national identity. Neither is hating the English. I hold an Irish passport, but nowhere upon this document does it say I am a republican, or a Palestinian.

My Irish passport says I was born in 1983 in Offaly. The Northern Troubles were something Anne Doyle talked to my parents about on the nine o'clock News. I just wanted to watch Father Ted.

So I was frustrated to see Provo graffiti on the wall in the West Bank. I felt the same frustration emerge when I noticed the missing 'E' in a "Free Palestin" graffiti on a wall in Cork. I am also frustrated by the anti-Israel activists' attitude to freedom of speech.

Free speech must work both ways. But back in Dublin, whenever I speak up for Israel, the Fiachras and Fionas look at me aghast, as if I'd pissed on their paninis.

This one-way freedom of speech spurs false information. The Boycott Israel brigade is a prime example. They pressurised Irish supermarkets to remove all Israeli produce from their shelves -- a move that directly affected the Palestinian farmers who produce most of their fruit and vegetables under the Israeli brand.

But worst of all, this boycott mentality is affecting artists. In August 2010, the Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign got 216 Irish artists to sign a pledge undertaking to boycott the Israeli state. As an artist I have friends on this list -- or at least I had.

I would like to challenge my friends about their support for this boycott. What do these armchair sermonisers know about Israel? Could they name three Israeli cities, or the main Israeli industries?

But I have more important questions for Irish artists. What happened to the notion of the artist as a free thinking individual? Why have Irish artists surrendered to group-think on Israel? Could it be due to something as crude as career-advancement?

Artistic leadership comes from the top. Aosdana, Ireland's State-sponsored affiliation of creative artists, has also signed the boycott. Aosdana is a big player. Its members populate Arts Council funding panels.

Some artists could assume that if their name is on the same boycott sheet as the people assessing their applications, it can hardly hurt their chances. No doubt Aosdana would dispute this assumption. But the perception of a preconceived position on Israel is hard to avoid.

Looking back now over all I have learnt, I wonder if the problem is a lot simpler.

Perhaps our problem is not with Israel, but with our own over-stretched sense of importance -- a sense of moral superiority disproportional to the importance of our little country?

Any artist worth his or her salt should be ready to change their mind on receipt of fresh information. So I would urge every one of those 216 Irish artists who pledged to boycott the Israeli state to spend some time in Israel and Palestine. Maybe when you come home you will bin your scarf. I did.