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Kevin (our second oldest grandson) and Andy are getting married next year! Wonderful!
Kevin is the new morning co-anchor NBC TV reporter in Nashville and Andy is finishing her bachelor's degree.
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Much of the new hatred against Israel - the new anti-Semitism - substitutes the nation for the person - frequently comes from the Liberal Left who have every right to hate but they should base their hatred on facts not "Kool Aid."
But when facts cannot be found to support their hatred they just turn to being blind but then that is what hatred is - dark thinking from those who see what they want to see.
It is not unusual that this venom comes from Europe and is embraced on California's elitist campuses and is supported, if not encouraged, by professors whose hatred for America spills over the banks protected by the dams of tenure.
Why is it always the intellectuals? (See 1, 1a and 1b below.)
A response. (See 1c below.)
Oh well! (See 1d below.)
Will they, can they? (See 1e below.)
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The apologist versus the realist? You decide.. (See 2 and 2a below.)
The pressure mounts to accept Obama's lies or deception or both.
Those in The Pentagon have already been silenced. (See 2b below.)
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Sign of the times.
We have a person who has been cleaning our tile floors for many years. Honest, reliable and now he is retiring. He makes around $50,000 a year and cannot find anyone who wants to be trained and take over his business. I gave him the name of a few people who do things for us and told him to go to the Sav. Technical College and the Chamber of Commerce.
He said his own young relative is too lazy to take over his business. Unbelievable.
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Dick
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1)
An Israeli Soldier to American Jews
It’s time to wake up.
by Hen Mazzig
As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF ( Israel Defense Forces), I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically.
As part of my work as an educator at StandWithUs, between January and May this year, I traveled to college campuses, high schools, and churches sharing the history of modern Israel. I also shared about my experience growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. I also always spoke about my military service as an officer in an IDF COGAT unit that attends to the needs of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in the conflict and promotes Palestinian civil society. Each time I would speak and take questions for an hour or more. I have shared my personal story with over 16,000 people at many, many college campuses and high schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Washington, Seattle University and many others. Many of those to whom I spoke were supportive, friendly, and open to hearing about my Israel. But, sadly, far too many were not.
When I served as a soldier in the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students, professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in the Pacific Northwest.
I was further shocked by how unaware the organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this article.
This new form of bigotry against Israel has been called the “new anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in traditional anti-Semitic imagery and canards, singling out and discriminating against the Jewish state, and denying the Jewish people alone the right to self-determination. The new anti-Semitism is packaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), which claims to champion Palestinian rights though its real goal is to erode American support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave the way for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the “complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as the Jewish homeland because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab majority state.
It is surprising that an extremist group like BDS is ever taken seriously, but BDS advocates have found receptive audiences in some circles. Their campaigns are well organized and in many cases, well financed. They have lobbied universities, corporations, food co-ops, churches, performing artists, labor unions, and other organizations to boycott Israel and companies that do business with Israel. But even if these groups don’t agree to treat Israel as a pariah state, the BDS activists manage to spread their anti-Israel misinformation, lies and prejudice simply by forcing a debate based on their false claims about Israel.
To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it.
And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”
Such irrational accusations are symptomatic of dangerous anti-Semitism. Yet, alarmingly, most mainstream American Jews are completely oblivious to this ugly movement and the threat it poses. They seem to be asleep, unaware that this anti-Jewish bigotry is peddled on campuses, by speakers in high schools, churches, and communities, and is often deceptively camouflaged in the rhetoric of human rights.
The American Jewish community and its leaders are not providing a united front to combat this latest threat. Unfortunately, this repeats a pattern of Jewish communal groups failing to unite in a timely way to counter threats against us individually and as a community.
Shockingly, a small but very vocal number of Jews actively support BDS. They often belong to organizations that prominently include “Jewish” in their names, like Jewish Voice for Peace, to give cover to BDS and the anti-Semitism that animates it. A question that we, as a Jewish community must ask ourselves, is whether it is ever appropriate to include and accept Jews who support BDS and directly or indirectly advocate the ultimate elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.
I think it is not.
My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.
I implore American Jews: do more.
Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism.
I urge the organized Jewish community and its members to wake up and stand up for the Jewish state of Israel, and for all it represents, and for all it works to achieve.
This article originally appeared on Times of Israel.
With thanks to Standwithus.com
1a) Boston U Features Pro-Hamas Workshop
BU adopts biased program that forces Jewish students to empathize with terrorists into its School of Education.
By Cynthia Blank
First Publish: 7/2/2015, 8:08 AM
An anti-Israel education program that has made the rounds across high schools in the United States has now been fully incorporated into Boston University's curriculum.
According to Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT), a workshop by the founder of the Axis of Hope organization, "Whose Jerusalem," has found a permanent home at The Global Literacy Institute at BU's School of Education.
"Whose Jerusalem" focuses on the Arab-Israeli conflict, and, according to APT President Charles Jacobs, it portrays "a highly inaccurate account of history," while simultaneously trying to "indoctrinate students against the state of Israel."
Describing the program during an interview with Al Jazeera TV, creator Carl Hobart defined the workshop as "educational, civil disobedience where students are...putting pressure on our government to create a Palestinian state."
A BU professor, Hobart uses simulated negotiation exercises to argue the root cause of the conflict boils down to miscommunication, which could be resolved by rational discussion between "morally equivalent parties."
The workshop whitewashes Hamas' terrorism and treats the group as an equivalent to Israel's ruling Likud party. Jewish students are even singled out to play members of Hamas - an organization that calls for the genocide of the Jewish people.
Dr. Sandra Alfonsi, Chair of Hadassah’s “Curriculum Watch,” said, “Axis of Hope is a pedagogically flawed program by a self-styled guru of Educational Civil Disobedience promoting anti-Israel propaganda to well-meaning students who want to bring peace to the world.”
1b) American Thinker
March 27, 2015
How to Deal with Anti-Semitism on Campus
By Elise Cooper
Anti-Semitism is gaining traction on many college campuses across America. Instead of an atmosphere where ideas are exchanged and intellectual curiosity is encouraged, there is bigotry, discrimination, and offensive commentary against the Jewish population. The Israeli-Palestinian conflict is a major contributing factor, considering the divestment and the anti-Israeli campaigns. There is a culture of targeting Israel that in turn targets Jewish students. As in general society, the perpetrators appear to be one particular group: the Islamic extremists and their supporters.
Ariela Keysar, who wrote a detailed "Anti-Semitism Report" with Barry A. Ksomin, found that more than half of American Jewish college students personally experienced or witnessed anti-Semitism last year. Two glaring statistics stand out: college students are five times more likely to have encountered anti-Semitism in the U.S. than other age groups, and 54% of Jewish students in the sample survey reported having been subject to or witnessed anti-Semitism on campus.
UCLA was recently in the news with the overtly anti-Semitic actions on campus. Rachel Beyda, a Jewish student, was going to be confirmed by the student council as an appointed justice to the Judicial Board. During the process, she was asked, "Given that you are a Jewish student and very active in the Jewish community… how do you see yourself being able to maintain an unbiased view?" This interrogation coincided with UCLA's annual Israel Apartheid Week. It was reported that after Rachel left the room, the discussion consisted of "forty minutes of unequivocal anti-Semitism." Even though all thought her amply qualified, half of the council did not want to confirm her because of "Rachel's Jewish identity."
In response to this and other actions, David Horowitz of the David Horowitz Freedom Center has initiated JewHatredonCampus.org. His organization placed posters at UCLA linking the group "Supporters for Justice in Palestine" with terrorist activities. For example, one poster depicted the body of a lifeless Palestinian civilian being dragged through the streets of Gaza by Hamas operatives while tethered to a motorcycle, with the bottom caption "#JewHaters." Interestingly, UCLA's chancellor, Gene D. Block, came out strongly against what he calls intolerance and bias on the campus. But the point to be made is that he wrote his condemnation only after the poster depiction of the Palestinians, which occurred days after the Rachel Beyda incident. He needed a tit-for-tat before he publicly spoke.
American Thinker interviewed David Horowitz and two UCLA Jewish student leaders regarding anti-Semitism at UCLA. The Jewish students wonder if Horowitz is an extremist who is just adding fuel to the fire, while David Horowitz questions if some Jewish groups on campus are appeasers. Although they differ in the tactics to be used to battle anti-Semitism, all are in agreement that a contributing factor is the "liberal" atmosphere at UCLA.
Horowitz told American Thinker, "The Muslim Student Association and Students for Justice In Palestine are hate groups whose only purpose is to demonize the State of Israel. They receive campus funding and campus support. There is this hypocrisy and double standard. Think about it: if they said these things against blacks, would there still be the same reaction? With the campaign 'Jew Hatred On Campus,' we are attempting to shift the conversation from the ludicrous, whether Israel is an apartheid state, to whether these groups are hate groups. We want to put forward the truth and present the propaganda of lies."
Rebecca is a UCLA junior who writes for UCLA's Jewish news magazine, Ha'Am. She decided to engage the students who put up the Israel Apartheid Wall Installation on campus. It is painted with different misfacts about the conflict. Her feeling is that this wall is an attempt to recruit support from the black and Hispanic communities on campus, associating their experiences with Palestinian issues. According to Rebecca, the discourse was respectful, with a give-and-take, until the Muslim representative saw her necklace that identified Rebecca as Jewish. From that moment she never looked her in the eye and refused to continue the conversation. Rebecca said, "I was really bothered, since she refused to talk to me only because I was Jewish. She utterly disrespected me. It became obvious it was not OK to have a dialogue with people who want to challenge the facts. They do not want any dialogue."
Tammy, a senior and a past president of Hillel, believes that being anti-Israel, anti-Jewish state, is the "new manifestation of anti-Semitism. Yet we are fighting an uphill battle every time we try to stop the Israel Apartheid rhetoric, because we are accused of limiting freedom of speech. Yet they wanted to limit our freedoms, as evidenced with the Rachel Beyda incident. After it, many of us had breakfast with the chancellor and told him how disappointed we were that he waited to write his letter about Rachel Beyda. He apologized."
It became obvious in speaking to both sides that they are divergently apart in how to handle the growing issue of anti-Semitism. Horowitz believes that the posters and other actions are needed, because "groups like Bruins for Israel and Hillel are buying into the mythology of the Muslim groups. Instead of apologizing for our posters, they should stand up and confront the prejudices now, or it will be too late. People calling for the destruction of Israel on college campuses are waging a genocidal campaign against Jews."
Rebecca and Tammy want to marginalize these groups, and the way to do it is by ignoring them so they do not gain publicity. They both believe that a necessary step is to break down the barriers through forming interpersonal relationships with other groups, such as the blacks, Hispanics, Asians, and Armenians. Tammy summarized the feelings of many Jewish UCLA students: "If we can make people understand who we are as Jews, we can talk about what Israel stands for. For example, both the Armenians and the Jewish students have experienced genocide. We could have a mutual event about this issue. Non-Jews looked at the posters put up by Horowitz's group as offensive, because other groups don't understand the meaning behind the Jewish state, its importance to the Jewish culture, and the demographics. We need to educate different cultures through our similarities, which is where I am invested."
Rebecca agrees and feels that it is important to have cultural awareness with these other groups. She wants to celebrate "our Jewish identity instead of constantly defending it. If we are constantly put on the defensive, we are letting the other side win. We should be showing other groups how proud we are to be Jewish – to create a meaningful Jewish experience, a home for the Jewish community that makes them feel welcome through the celebration of Jewish traditions and holidays. We should be sharing these cultural and religious aspects with other groups."
Both students point to the resolution recently passed by the Undergraduate Students Association Council as proof of making strides. They realize that this could either be a starting point or just a piece of paper that means nothing. However, they feel that it is a step in the right direction, since it calls for an active fight against anti-Semitism. The provisions include respecting the rights of the organized Jewish communities at UCLA; allowing those communities to define, within the guidelines of the national definition, what is and is not anti-Semitic, just as other communities are granted that right; and including in any proposed diversity requirements classes about Jewish history and current events.
There is a definite difference of opinion on how to combat anti-Semitism at UCLA. Horowitz wants to draw attention to the Islamic atrocities and attitudes against women, gays, freedom of religion, and civil liberties. Both students interviewed feel that the best way to deal with it is to ignore it. They want the outside community and people like David Horowitz to understand they do not know better than the students on campus. They want to work with the external Jewish community but emphasize that there is a need to work "with us, not independent of us. After all, we are fighting the same fight." Both sides need to speak to one another with a willingness to listen to each other's view, because this divisiveness is not a healthy way to handle college anti-Semitism.
The author writes for American Thinker. She has done book reviews and author interviews and has written a number of national security, political, and foreign policy articles.
Read more: http://www.americanthinker.
Follow us: @AmericanThinker on Twitter | AmericanThinker on Facebook
1c)
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The IDF is preparing for the day after the signing of a nuclear agreement between Iran and the world powers and has tasked a special team with examining military options against Iran.
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