Amnesty International has placed sole blame on Israel for the breakdown in the cease-fire between Israel and Hamas that led to Operation Cast Lead from December 2008 to January 2009. There wasn't much of a ceasefire to begin with, as Hamas treats all ceasefires as opportunities to re-group and they often break them anyway. Yet Amnesty International's document blames Israel entirely. It only briefly mentions the relentless Hamas fire on Sderot, Israel, and doesn't appear to consider that a violation of a ceasefire. Never mind that no country would ever tolerate thousands of rockets being launched at a traumatized civilian population. The Amnesty International report notes that Israel broke the ceasefire because of "Palestinian militants" (also known as terrorists) who were digging a tunnel into Israel. Certainly when Palestinian "militants" try to cross over into Israel with the intent of harming civilians, this could bring about a conflict and the blame should be laid with those "militants" that the media treats with kid gloves.
The NGO Monitor has slammed Amnesty International's report for its biased nature:
• In 2008, Amnesty again focused disproportionately on Israel’s response to aggression from Gaza, and led the NGO campaigns accusing Israel of “collective punishment” and “war crimes.”
• Amnesty’s publications in the region portray Israel as among the worst human rights violators in the Middle East (second only to Iran). In 2008. Amnesty issued more in-depth reports (9) and “Wire” articles (22) on Israel than any other country.
• The data indicate that media attention and ideology, in contrast to universal human rights, drive Amnesty’s agenda. Amnesty’s anti-Israel press releases consistently reflect the organization’s role in influencing international public opinion.
• Amnesty International’s 2009 Annual Report (for events in 2008) further demonstrates the NGO superpower’s highly biased approach. Amnesty grossly distorts the conflict, selectively reports events to erase the context of terrorism, ignores human rights issues not consistent with the political agenda, and repeats un-sourced and anecdotal claims.
• Amnesty promotes an overwhelmingly Palestinian narrative of events, blaming Israel for the end of the Gaza ceasefire and the weapons’ smuggling tunnels under the Egyptian border.
• The section on “Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories” employs highly exaggerated language and absurd allegations. Amnesty accuses Israel of “unprecedented use of force” in Gaza, “virtual imprisonment,” and bringing the Palestinians to the “brink of human catastrophe,” and charges that “impunity remained the norm for Israeli soldiers.”
Throughout 2008, Amnesty International continued its highly disproportionate condemnations of Israel’s policies, and led the NGO campaign accusing Israel of “collective punishment” in defense against aggression from Gaza. At the same time, this NGO superpower, which claims to promote universal human rights, largely ignored the hundreds of Hamas’ rocket attacks on Israeli civilians. NGO Monitor’s systematic analysis shows how AI’s reports lacked credible evidence, erased the context of terrorism, distorted international legal terms, selectively used data, and myopically focused on Israel as part of the wider ideological campaign to demonize the Jewish state.
For instance, Amnesty’s August 27 statement headlined “Trapped – collective punishment in Gaza” grossly misrepresented international humanitarian law and immorally equated Palestinian terror attacks targeting Israeli civilians with justifiable Israeli responses aimed at ending these attacks. Israel’s legitimate security concerns were entirely dismissed, and the role of other players in the conflict (i.e. Egypt, Hamas) were also erased.
Amnesty International isn't that different from the United Nations. When these organizations repeatedly ignore 10,000 rockets that have destroyed life for Israelis in the south, they suggest they have a very weak grasp on reality or morality. When these groups ignore the rights of an Israeli prisoner who was taken in an unprovoked attack, they also suggest their lack of morality. Like many biased organizations, this one spends most of its time attacking the tiny State of Israel. We shouldn't be surprised.
The Holy Land Foundation (HLF) was established in 1988 by Shukri Abu Baker, Mohammad El-Mezain and Ghassan Elashi. It was listed as a non-profit, tax-exempt organization headquartered in Richardson, Texas. It also maintained branch offices in New Jersey, California, and Illinois. Members of the group were found guilty in November 2008 of providing material support and resources to Palestinian terrorists under the guise of humanitarian work.
On December 4, 2001, the Bush administration seized all HLF assets and records because of its Hamas connections. Today two of the founders were sentenced to 65 years in prison for tax fraud and allocating money to a recognized Islamic terrorist group.
Here is an excerpt from the Jerusalem Post, via the Associated Press:
Two founding members of what was once the largest US Muslim charity were each sentenced to 65 years in prison Wednesday for funneling millions of dollars to Hamas.
Shukri Abu Baker, 50, and Ghassan Elashi, 55, were among the five members of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development sentenced to prison by US District Judge Jorge Solis. The men and Holy Land were convicted in November on 108 charges.
The convictions followed a mistrial in which the government in 2007 failed to sway jurors that the now-defunct charity, based in the Dallas suburb of Richardson, was in fact aiding Hamas.
The two Holy Land leaders were convicted on charges ranging from supporting a terrorist organization to money laundering and tax fraud. The group wasn't accused of violence but of bankrolling Hamas-controlled schools and social welfare programs.
Mufid Abdulqader, 49, was sentenced to 20 years on three conspiracy counts. Mohammad El-Mezain, 55, got 15 years for one count of conspiracy. Abdulrahman Odeh received 15 years for three conspiracy counts.
A judgment of $12.4 million was assessed against four of the defendants because they were convicted of money laundering.
"These sentences should serve as a strong warning to anyone who knowingly provides financial support to terrorists under the guise of humanitarian relief," said David Kris, assistant attorney general for national security, in a statement.
Hamas was designated a terrorist organization by the US in 1995, making it illegal to offer the group support. Hamas has taken credit for hundreds of suicide bombings targeting Israeli civilians.
Alternative energy makes sense in Israel, a country that is warmer because of its geographical location. It also makes sense from the perspective of reducing reliance on foreign sources of fuel from countries like Iran that finance terrorism.
This week 40 investors from California visited Israel to see the world-famous clean technology opportunities Israeli entrepreneurs have to offer.
Despite the poor US economy, American investors see the down market as a business opportunity, and Israeli clean technology companies in renewables, water and energy are on their radar.
Among the participants in the clean tech mission to Israel are some of the biggest names in the California investment community including Atiq Raza, former COO of AMD and now at Khosla Ventures; George Coelho a managing partner for Good Energies; Josh Green, a general partner for Mohr Davidow Ventures; and Michael Allman, the CEO and president of Sempra Generation.
Giving event organizers - the California Israel Chamber of Commerce (CICC) - their wish list before hand, the visitors met with dozens of Israeli companies. The guests, representing 25 different companies, landed in Israel on May 18, and for four days explored collaboration opportunities with Israeli firms and co-investment opportunities in this growing sector.
Some of the companies they met with included Metrolight, an energy saving electricity ballast company, and Better Place, the electric car sensation. Younger companies such as GreenRoad Technologies, an energy efficiency company, water tech innovators TaKaDu and AquaPure; and solar energy companies HelioFocus and ZenithSolar were all on the agenda.
Young, clean and green
An event including 20 promising research projects from Israeli universities was also a highlight, says Shuly Galili the executive director of the CICC. "The big highlight will be the start up companies that they are going to see," Galili tells ISRAEL21c. "The selection was done by them," she points out.
"It's a good mix from various sectors," she adds. "That's a big part of it. They want to see a variety of companies that are potentially fundable."
The CICC office is based in Silicon Valley in California - an interesting place in a down economy, according to Galili. "Investors are excited to make investments because valuations are down, and there is less noise in the market. We tend to see good entrepreneurs at these times," she explains.
Interest in clean technology continues to run high, despite the economic downturn. "Both the Obama administration and governments worldwide are pouring money into this sector. It won't be an area that investors will neglect because there are other partners in this area," says Galili.
Some of the delegates on this new mission have already invested in the clean tech arena, while for a lot of the guests, it will be their first trip to Israel. Beyond onsite visits to research facilities, the group will also see a number of showcases of innovative clean technology companies, and will meet with President Shimon Peres, an advocate of pushing renewable energy into the mainstream.
I want to thank everyone in the U.S. military for their decision to serve and their work to keep the United States safe.
The Associated Press reported that troops in Iraq and Afghanistan honored their fallen during the Memorial Day holiday. Here is a brief excerpt from the article:
In Iraq, soldiers and Marines stood solemnly during a playing of Taps at Baghdad's Camp Victory. They saluted a memorial of a single helmet propped on a rifle beside a pair of boots.
Thousands of miles away, in the Afghan capital of Kabul, soldiers left mementos at a similar memorial for two comrades who recently died.
"Memorial Day for us is intensely personal," Gen. David McKiernan, the outgoing U.S. commander in Afghanistan, told a crowd at Camp Eggers. The training command based there has lost 70 soldiers since last Memorial Day.
"It is the empty seat in the mess hall, the battle buddy who is no longer here, or the friend who did not return from patrol. And it is the commitment to carry on with the mission in their honor," McKiernan said.
In Iraq, long the main focus of America's "Global War on Terror," the loss has been no less bitter.
"We grieve their loss and we smile at their memory," Brig. Gen. Peter C. Bayer Jr. told a crowd of about 100 at Camp Victory on the western outskirts of Baghdad.
Please note: Images are property of the Associated Press.
Violence in Pakistan has surged over the last few years. Many people are unaware of the situation in Pakistan and the threats to the stability of the region. Due to Pakistan's strikes on Taliban, the refugee situation in the country is growing. The UN is estimating more than 1.4 million have fled. One spokesperson with the UN stated that this could be the worst displacement situation since Rwanda.
The increasing control of the Taliban has been oppressive for civilians—some of which have been publicly flogged or killed for alleged spying or offenses contrary to Islam. Unfortunately, the Obama administration quietly backed the Swat Valley peace deal, which formally introduced sharia law to the area at the government's consent and dictated that Taliban put down their weapons. The deal, which was largely about appeasement, did not hold because the Taliban did not accept it.
Pakistan, a largely unstable country, has nuclear weapons. The United States does not know the location of all of the weapons and some experts have said that Taliban could gain some access to the nuclear arsenal. Pakistan continues growing its nuclear programs. Meanwhile the US has approved 1.9 billion dollars in aid to Pakistan.
I interviewed Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Center about the situation. Here is a link to that interview.
I have always found the antagonism against Jews who live in settlements to be hypocritical. There seems to be this idea that Jews have no right to live on Middle Eastern land, but that Arabs do. This distasteful attitude implies no hope for coexistence between Jews and Arabs if a tiny settlement is considered to be such a threat. There are plenty of Muslim settlements within Israel that non-Muslim Israelis can't even approach. No one seems to complain about this. Palestinian leaders themselves have expressed their unwillingness to accept Israel or the Jewish presence in the Middle Eastern region (which was contiguous since biblical times).
Avigdor Lieberman, who has earned a reputation for being brutally honest, explains the situation clearly. From Arutz 7:
Jewish cities in Judea and Samaria are no obstacle to peace, Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman said Thursday in a meeting with industrialists. Despite widespread misconceptions, Israel's conflict with the Arab world began before Israel gained control over Judea and Samaria during the Six Day War, he said.
"What was the situation prior to 1967? There was no Jewish settlement, and there was no peace. It was just like the situation today, the same exact tension, the same exact terrorism,” he stated.
Lieberman referred to Jewish settlement as “hityashvut,” avoiding the often derogatory term, “hitnachlut.”
While he expressed willingness to talk with the Palestinian Authority, Lieberman also said he was disappointed by the behavior exhibited by senior PA leaders. PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas and his second-in-command Salam Fayyad have announced plans to charge Israel with war crimes.
"You can't have it both ways. You can't look to us for help, while at the same time turning to the Hague Court and accusing us of crimes against humanity,” Lieberman said. “That stands in opposition to every agreement we've signed.”
"We're not looking for conflict, we support dialogue and are working towards coexistence,” the foreign minister continued. “But the days of Israeli obsequiousness are over.”
Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu's meeting with United States President Barack Obama was highly successful, Lieberman told his audience. Israel and the U.S. are in agreement when it comes to several crucial regional issues, he said, including the need to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, the dangers posed by Iran's support for terrorism throughout the region and Israel's need to maintain an edge in the field of military technology.
Israel and the U.S. also share hopes for a peace deal with the PA, he said. “There is some disagreement over how to reach that goal, but we agree on the destination. The argument is over tactics alone.”
An Israeli father-and-son "farm team" is rolling out a mobile laboratory to help agronomists in Africa and Asia.
Shelef Agricultural Laboratory, an 11-year-old company specializing in the analysis and diagnostics of plants and soil, developed the mobile lab to assist large farm operators in practicing what is known as "precise agriculture." This involves regulating the correct amount of fertilizer and protecting crops from disease and pests.
Shelef's founder, former vegetable grower Oded Yaffe, has conducted agricultural research and development for the past 40 years. His son Uri, an agronomy student at Hebrew University's Rehovot campus, serves as Shelef's operations manager and unofficial English-language spokesman.
"My father saw a serious need for a mobile laboratory in his consulting work around the world," Uri Yaffe explains to ISRAEL21C. Like many other Israeli agriculture experts, Yaffe provides assistance to farmers abroad - many of them in developing nations.
As consumer demand for alternatives to hazardous pesticides and chemical fertilizers has escalated, so have the number of examinations and inspections farmers need to perform routinely. But in countries such as Kenya, Ethiopia, Georgia, and China, the vast distances between fields and labs make the process unwieldy and can render test results inaccurate.
From water conservation to pest prevention
Shelef's mobile lab solves the problem by providing all necessary tools on the back of a truck or other towed vehicle that can be driven right onto the field. Performing soil and leaf analyses on site allows the farmer to determine the exact amount of fertilizer required for the crops. That prevents over-fertilization, which creates water pollution, and helps conserve water used for irrigation.
The mobile lab also allows for rapid discovery and analysis of diseases and pests that may be developing and spreading in the field and crops. In addition, it can be used as a "mobile classroom" for professional training of farmers and their workers on any kind of farm.
"This is intended mainly for sales abroad," says Uri Yaffe. "In the US, there are already labs that give these kinds of services. Different solutions are needed in other countries."
The Yaffes introduced the unit at Agritech 2009, an international agricultural exhibition which took place this month in Tel Aviv. This annual event, now in its 17th year, is expected to bring together more than 7,000 foreign visitors from 115 countries to interact with leading agriculture technology companies.
The mobile lab will carry a price tag of $200,000 to $350,000, depending on the accessories required. Though no units have yet been sold, Shelef is negotiating business deals with governments and semi-private farming enterprises in several countries.
"We sell the knowledge, service, consulting, and training," says Yaffe. "Our customers understand the benefit of this kind of service, because it pays itself back sometimes even in a few months. In Kenya, we calculated expenses with a local farmer and realized that in under one year they can pay back their costs just by saving on fertilizer and increasing yields."
While the United States' policies in the Middle East are often upsetting, including pressure on Israel into suicidal and irrational compromises, I have always appreciated this country's law enforcement. There is no denying that America is the greatest nation when it comes to protecting citizens. The following story is about yesterday's bomb plot in New York. The diligent work of the FBI and NYPD prevented any potential harm to civilians who pray at the Riverdale Temple.
New York City's police commissioner told media that the four men involved wanted to commit "jihad" when they plotted to bomb a Jewish temple and shoot down military planes.
Four men were arrested on Wednesday in a suspected plot to bomb a synagogue and Jewish community centre in New York City and to shoot at military planes with stinger missiles, law enforcement officials said.
A joint release from the acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, the FBI and the New York Police Department said the suspects were charged with plotting to detonate explosives near a synagogue in the Riverdale section of New York's Bronx borough.
The men were also charged with plotting to shoot military planes located at New York's Air National Guard base at Stewart airport in Newburgh, New York, with stinger surface-to-air guided missiles, the statement said. Newburgh is about 60 miles (96 km) north of New York City.
"The defendants wanted to engage in terrorist attacks. They selected targets and sought the weapons necessary to carry out their plans," Lev Dassin, acting US attorney for the Southern District of New York, said in the statement.
The four men, identified as James Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams and Laguerre Payen, were arrested after buying an inactive missile and inert explosives in a sting operation run by the FBI and other agencies, the complaint said.
"While the bombs these terrorists attempted to plant tonight were -- unbeknownst to them -- fake, this latest attempt to attack our freedoms shows that the homeland security threats against New York City are sadly all too real," New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a separate statement.
New York has remained on high alert for another attack since the September 11, 2001 attacks that destroyed the World Trade Centre and killed almost 3,000 people.
New York Gov. David Paterson said three of the men are US citizens and one of Haitian descent. "This case clearly illustrates that the threat of terrorism in New York is persistent ... (and) affects all of our communities, regardless of race, religion, or ethnicity," Paterson said.
Last June, Cromitie told an FBI informant in Newburgh that his parents had lived in Afghanistan and that he was upset about the number of Muslims being killed in the war there and in Pakistan by American forces, the complaint said.
Cromitie said if he died a martyr, he would go to "paradise" and that he was interested in doing "something to America," the complaint said. Last July, he told the informant he wanted to join Jaish-e-Mohammed, a Pakistan-based group Washington designates as a terrorist organisation, to "do jihad," according to the complaint.
In October, Cromitie and the other men began a series of meetings at a house in Newburgh to plot their attacks and just last month they selected the synagogue and Jewish community centre and conducted surveillance, it said.
The complaint said they bought an arsenal in May that included improvised explosive devices containing inert C-4 plastic explosives and a surface-to-air guided missile provided by the FBI that was not capable of being fired.
Representative Peter King, a New York Republican, said the suspects planned to undertake their attack Wednesday using a car bomb outside the synagogue.
"Tonight was the night the attacks were being carried out," King told CNN. He said the four men were all Muslim, one born Muslim of Afghan descent and three who converted in prison.
The complaint quoted from video and audio recordings made by the FBI during meetings between the men and the informant.
During one trip in November to Philadelphia to attend a Muslim Alliance of North America meeting, the complaint says Cromitie said, "The best target (the World Trade Centre) was hit already" and "I would like to get (destroy) a synagogue."
On April 28, Onta Williams told the informant the US military "are killing Muslim brothers and sisters in Muslim countries so, if we kill them here ... it is equal." And David Williams said if Jewish people were killed in the attack, "it does not matter," the complaint said.
The defendants are expected to appear in White Plains, New York, federal court Thursday.
Each man is charged with one count of conspiracy to use weapons of mass destruction within the United States, which carries a maximum penalty of life in prison, and one count of conspiracy to acquire and use anti-aircraft missiles, which also carries a maximum penalty of life in prison.
A woman was wounded and evacuated to Ashkelon's Barzilai Hospital earlier today following an attack on Sderot. Several people were treated for shock and the victims' home sustained damage. Rocket and mortar shells that have been fired this month by Gaza terrorists did not hit homes or civilians until today. However, as I've previously stated, it's only a matter of time before one of these so-called "homemade rockets" hurts Israeli civilians.
In response the Israeli military targeted two weapons production sites in Gaza City and four smuggling tunnels on the Gaza-Egypt border.
The rocket was a 115-millimeter projectile, a police source told the Jerusalem Post.
A police bomb disposal team retrieved the rocket's remains for analysis shortly after the attack.
"These are the types of rockets we have grown accustomed to seeing since 2008," the source added.
The attack came as Rome Mayor Gianni Alemanno was touring the town with Noam Schalit, father of captured IDF soldier Gilad Schalit. The two visited the home where the rocket landed, and Schalit told residents of the town he identified with their plight.
"We went through a war like this in the North and heard plenty of booms," he said. "Straight after arriving in Sderot, the Color Red warning siren was sounded and we heard the loud boom. Unfortunately we are all-too familiar with this."
Schalit added that he "doesn't envy Sderot residents" and that he wished the town quiet.
When asked about efforts to free his son, he said, "We are waiting patiently and hope to hear good news."
The Sderot residents told Schalit to intensify his fight.
"Your problem is that you're too gentle and polite, you need to shout," one of them said. "I am also a father and I know what it's like when they take a child from you. You shouldn't carry on like that."
Alemanno said he hoped the attack was an isolated incident and that it wouldn't lead to another war and more rocket-fire. He said the fundamentalists were a problem for the entire Western world, not just for Israelis, and vowed that the City of Rome would help Sderot residents repair the damage cause by the Gazan rockets.
He also said the city had decided to grant Gilad Schalit honorary citizenship and that Noam would be invited to the city to accept it on his behalf.
Tuesday's attack also came a day after Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met US President Barack Obama in Washington and the latter said the situation in Sderot was unacceptable, adding that he'd seen the situation there himself.
Earlier Tuesday, Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) head Yuval Diskin told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee that there was "no chance for an effective peace process so long as Hamas rules the Gaza Strip."
The following, although not related to the Middle East, is extremely important and relevant.
Current financial troubles is obviously a topic that has been on the minds of everyone. Here is an "official" response to the financial crisis from the Ayn Rand Institute:
"One of the methods used by statists to destroy capitalism consists in establishing controls that tie a given industry hand and foot, making it unable to solve its problems, then declaring that freedom has failed and stronger controls are necessary."
—Ayn Rand, 1975
These words were written more than 30 years ago, but they apply exactly to today’s financial crisis. Today’s problems are the result of a government-controlled financial and housing system that rewarded irrational behavior and punished responsible behavior. Yet they are being blamed on “the free market”—with more controls offered as the solution.
Why? For the same reason that the controls were passed in the first place. The dominant moral and political ideas in our culture lead Americans to believe that a free market, with its unfettered pursuit of self-interest, is immoral and destructive—whereas a government that controls and manipulates the economy in some indefinable “public interest” is seen as a source of economic security and prosperity.
On these pages, ARC experts clarify the fundamental issues involved in the current crisis—the controls that led to it, the ideas that led to the controls, the destructiveness of the government response so far. And they provide the antidote: an explanation of the true, benevolent nature of the morality of rational self-interest and the political-economic system of laissez-faire capitalism.
Today's "Sharia and Jihad Review" on PJTV includes coverage of the unstable Pakistani arsenal that can fall into the hands of the Taliban and a story from Yemen in which a childrens' hospital was named in a honor a suicide bomber.
Another story that deserves mainstream coverage comes from the UK where a young Muslim was wise enough to avoid recruitment with an Islamist group and is now speaking out quietly.
In the article the teen says he was recruited by Al-Qaeda-inspired terrorists who urged him to attend a Pakistani jihadist camp. The teenager described being approached by Islamists at a mosque in south London that was also frequented by the failed July 27 bombers.
Apparently this is the first insider account of how radical Muslims prey on youth. The teenager, who is now 18, said that despite some of his anger he did not want to hurt or kill anyone which influenced his decision not to work with the terror group.
An Israeli company is creating a tulip-shaped tower housing a receiver that drives a jet-turbine. This breakthrough technology reduces solar fields to the size of a baseball diamond. Israel21C has the details:
Rising up, like a mirage in the middle of the desert outside Eilat, is a giant yellow tulip in whose heart lies a massive crystal. Surrounding it: a field of mirrors that slowly move back and forth, following the sun.
Hallucinatory though it may sound, this is no mirage. The tulip is actually a solar tower with an aperture that directs sunlight into a solar receiver that drives a high-powered turbine, and the 30 tracking mirrors below are called heliostats.
It's an ambitious project initiated by Israeli company AORA to construct the world's first solar-thermal powered gas turbine station. The plant, with its distinctive 30-meter high tulip-shaped tower, is now nearing completion at Kibbutz Samar in Israel's southern Arava region.
AORA, of Israeli EDIG group, is a developer of applied ultra-high temperature concentrating solar power (CSP) technology. The breakthrough of CSP is that it can power a 100kW gas micro-turbine; other solar technologies currently available can only power much larger steam turbines. AORA says it is the worlds' first company to commercialize the use of a solarized gas turbine engine.
The government recently showed support when Minister of National Infrastructures, Binyamin Ben Eliezer signed AORA's license provide solar electricity to the national grid -- the first such license to be granted by Israel to solar-thermal technology.
Being able to run the equivalent of a jet engine on solar power, means the system is efficient at far smaller power blocks, Yuval Susskind, COO of AORA, explains to ISRAEL21c. This enables smaller scale projects that require less land and shorter towers (30m vs. 70-120m and more), and which are easier to build, finance and operate.
"Israel has all the climate conditions, but we don't have huge available tracts of land. AORA is the first to bring the size of a solar field down to something like a soccer pitch or a baseball diamond," says Susskind.
Former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, Dr. Dore Gold, appeared on the Doha Debates, hosted at Georgetown University. Dr. Gold was asked if the United States should get "tough" on Israel. Dr. Gold argues that an Israeli-Arab peace must come from within Israel and its Arab neighbors and not from outside pressure. Furthermore, he argues, a peace agreement will not resolve United States' foreign policy threats such as al-Qaeda. [1]
The following excerpt is from an article, written by columnist Stephen King, that was published in Irish Examiner this week. It's a good read and puts things into perspective regarding the unwarranted international obsession with Israel:
If I were Jewish, I would be told I’m paranoid for thinking the world and its media are out to get me. After all, the fact that Israel is the world’s one and only Jewish state – amidst a vast ocean of Muslim states – inevitably makes many Jewish people think it’s them, and not Israel as such, which is in the media’s sights. But I’m not Jewish. Besides, just because people are paranoid doesn’t mean others aren’t out to get them.
A quick scan of the world’s trouble spots makes my point. The well-respected International Crisis Group is currently tracking 70 conflicts around the world, from Afghanistan and Algeria to Yemen and Zimbabwe. Yes, 70: we live in a dangerous world.
Some of these are very familiar to us: Northern Ireland, Iraq, the Basque country, North Korea and, of course, Israel and the Palestinian territories. Others are not nightly news: Kashmir, Burma, Eritrea and so on. And then there are the conflicts we have forgotten about, or never really heard about too much because they are far away or poor, or both: Armenia versus Azerbaijan, Mindanao in the Philippines, Morocco/western Sahara and Aceh.
Some of the 70 hotspots are especially deadly. Millions of black Africans have died in Congo in the past decade, well below most people’s radar.
Sri Lanka has had a bit of a focus in recent weeks – though hardly the minute-by-minute wraparound coverage Gaza had in January. How many of us were really aware of the fact that more than 80,000 people have died in a quarter of a century of civil war?
Try this. Google "Tamil Tigers" and you will receive 2.3 million results. Google "Hamas" and you get 10 times as many – and Hamas hasn’t been around nearly as long. It’s the same if you Google "Tamils" and "Palestinians". Is the difference that the Tigers might have killed Rajiv Gandhi but, unlike the Palestinians, have rarely brought their murderous tactics to Europe directly? The Sri Lankan conflict, at least in its military phase, looks as though it is coming to an end. The work of peace-building will last for years to come.
The same could be said about Chechnya. The Russians have just announced the end of their "counter-terrorism" operation. There are no solid figures for the number of civilians killed since the second war began there in late 1999, but estimates range anywhere between 25,000 and 200,000.
Put that in context. Israel might be geographically small – smaller than Munster – but in population terms Chechnya is absolutely tiny. A region with a little more than one million inhabitants has seen anything up to one-fifth of its civilian population killed in two decades of war. And one school siege aside, we have largely looked the other way.
By comparison, 6,000 Palestinians – armed and civilian together – out of a Palestinian population in the territories three to four times that of Chechnya have died since the second intifada of 2001.
It goes without saying that any civilian death is a tragedy – and, very often, an outrage – but search for Chechnya on the DFA website and you only receive one-tenth of the number of hits that you do for Israel. No-one believes the DFA is somehow in league with the Russians and supports their quasi-colonial war against Chechnya, but it does go to show some perspective has been lost somewhere along the line.
Yes, there is public feeling about the Palestinians and their rotten deal. I’ve never heard Chechnya being discussed on the DART, whereas I have heard Israel being trashed on buses as well as at smart dinner parties. Besides, who’s ever heard of a "Sri Lanka out of Tamil Eelam" march through Cork or calls for a boycott of Russia?
But whose fault is that? Dare I suggest, the media? As a result, Israel has learned a lesson from the Russians and the Sri Lankans: impose a media ban and the world leaves you pretty much alone. No one could condone the ban during the Gaza offensive – and being host to the world’s second largest press corps, after Washington, means you pay a high price in terms of stroppy hacks – but it does seem to work.
SO WHY why the obsession with Israel? It’s the only country in the world whose existence is queried is one reason. It’s the Holy Land to the world’s two largest faiths is another. That al-Qaeda sometimes backs the Palestinian cause makes Israel/Palestine strategically important – but that’s true of Chechnya, too.
Maybe it’s the oil in the Middle East region that makes Arab countries important in western capitals (while distracting from their own despotism)?
Could it be some wrongheaded notion of guilt for having set up Israel after the Holocaust, when actually Israel fought British imperialism for its independence? Could it be, as many Israelis believe, that we see Israelis as Jews and, therefore, as bloodthirsty sub-humans in the latest manifestation of centuries-old anti-semitism?
Or is it just anti-Americanism? Perhaps it’s a little to do with each of these factors. But could it actually be that we see Israelis as very much like ourselves – sophisticated, prosperous, well-educated, fairly pale-skinned democrats? Do we hate ourselves that much? It’s either that or Israel simply isn’t deadly enough to deter the journalists too afraid to work in fly-ridden Congo.
Gaza for breakfast, back to the pool at the American Colony Hotel in time for tea, and pick up an attractive girl or strapping lad at a bar after dinner. Same again tomorrow, please. Just try doing that in Darfur.
Every year the Muslim Student Union at UC Irvine hosts events demonizing the State of Israel. The events often cross the line into antisemitism. The group is certainly within their rights to hosts events, no matter how theatrical and repugnant. This year is no different.
What is concerning, however, is that thousands of student tuition dollars subsidize these programs which promote ethnic hatred and lies regarding the State of Israel. Last year student government allocated over 5,000 dollars to the group for their May events which only serve to propagate antisemitism and ethnic hatred against Israelis.
Another concern at UCI is one that I have pointed out in many earlier posts when I was a student. The administration at UCI gives the Muslim Student Union far too much control on campus, including the ability to bully student journalists for filming bigoted programs and allowing Muslim Student Union members to police their own events. When bullying and harassment occurred at UC Irvine, the campus police has been unhelpful and the Dean of Students' office even more so. When I was a student, I was accused of being an outsider for voicing my concerns-- a ridiculous claim as I lived in student housing. Since I am an alumnus, now there is perhaps some basis for calling me an "outsider." For that reason, rather than remark about events this year, I'd like to include an update from a group that cannot be accused of being "outsiders."
The OC Task Force, which has been steadfast in documenting and addressing the problems of antisemitism at UCI, has this update:
It is incumbent upon the University to provide adequate security and police protection for all of its students, especially when organizations such as the Muslim Student Union at UCI bring incendiary and hate speakers to the campus. The UCI administration has allowed untrained MSU members to act as “security guards” for their own events. This should not be tolerated as it creates an unsafe and potentially hazardous environment for students, faculty and visitors to the campus. If the university does not have the resources to provide adequate police protection, then perhaps they should require those groups to pay for additional qualified uniformed campus police. From top: MSU supporters “guard” Cynthia McKinney. Middle: Audience member approaches Ms. McKinney’s podium to ask a question and is immediately met by several MSU supporters. Bottom: Dean of Students Sally Peterson escorts audience member away from the podium.
Cynthia Mckinney derides Israel and America.
Click here to sign a petition condemning antisemitism at UC Irvine.
There is no honor in so-called "honor" crimes. Yet women, and sometimes gays, are the victims of such crimes in much of the Islamic world. This murder is committed to restore the social and political standing of a family or community when it is believed that the victim has violated traditional behavioral expectations. An honor killing can also be based on hearsay or gossip that is perceived as damaging to a woman’s relatives.
This month a 30 year old Jordanian woman and mother of six was brutally murdered by her brothers in an honor crime. The victim’s brothers, aged 19 and 22, stabbed the woman in her father’s home over the weekend. The woman was stabbed over twenty times in the chest and stomach.
After murdering their sister, the two men went to the nearest police station and turned themselves in. They claim to have killed their sister to cleanse their family's honor due to her apparent desire to be independent.
The woman was the 10th victim of a so-called honor killing in Jordan this year-- and the second this month. Perpetrators of these crimes in Jordan often receive very light or no sentence for their crime.
To learn more about these crimes, visit Muslims Against Sharia's "Stop Honorcide!" campaign.
This song was written by Aharon Amram and performed by Ofra Haza. It is considered to be a classic among Yemenite Jews and Israelis, following the tradition of most Yemenite Jewish music. In Arabic "Galbi" means "my heart."
This video was shown for the first time at the Rally for Israel, Human Rights and Peace, organized in Geneva on 22 April 2009, during the U.N. Durban II conference. The mother of Venus, the rescued Sudanese girl, appeared in person to thank Israel for its humanitarian act. [1] [1] YouTube
Religious hatred cannot get any more overt and despicable (from Al-Bawaba):
A new fatwa published in Egypt determines that the source of all the existing pigs in the world is Jews, who were cursed by Allah. The new edict was issued by Sheikh Ali Osman from the Egyptian Waqf ministry.
Due to their Jewish roots, Sheikh Osman says, it is permissible to slaughter all the pigs. The religious scholar was quoted as saying by a Jordanian newspaper that he personally believes the source of the pigs is Jews and thus the consumption of pork meat is banned in Islam.
This shouldn't come as a surprise. According to some passages in the Qur'an, such thinking is pretty explicit.
For example:
"Say: ‘O people of the Book! Do ye disapprove of us for no other reason than that we believe in Allah, and the revelation that hath come to us and that which came before (us), and (perhaps) that most of you are rebellious and disobedient?’ Say: ‘Shall I point out to you something much worse than this, (as judged) by the treatment it received from Allah? those who incurred the curse of Allah and His wrath, those of whom some He transformed into apes and swine, those who worshipped evil -- these are (many times) worse in rank, and far more astray from the even path’!" (Qur’an 5:59-60)
This Egyptian sheikh has a solid following and is in charge of religious endowments in Egypt.
It's still Basketball season but I found the following story which is featured on the NFL website interesting and inspiring:
Rulon Davis went off to fight in the Iraq war.
Fight for his country, a far cry from the sports world, where Davis is currently competing, as an undrafted 25-year-old free-agent defensive end, for a spot on the Broncos' roster.
Adapt and overcome.
It's an inspirational edict U.S. Marines frequently say to each other. Yes, Davis witnessed death. Soldiers he considered friends were killed.
"Unfortunately, yes," he said. "They're the real heroes. Not me. People think, 'Wow, you did all this.' But I don't think it's that big of a deal because I didn't have to sacrifice my life, like some of these other guys. Really, the honor is on them."
Heroes come in many forms. Broncos defensive backs Champ Bailey and Brian Dawkins are often considered heroes.
Davis has been considered a football hero, too, having started the past two years at the University of California. That was part of his new life, after his four-year commitment to the Marines and six-month tour in Iraq in 2004.
"That's serious. Marines are tough people, man," said Broncos rookie tight end Richard Quinn Jr. "My dad was one."
And Davis' football stardom at Cal would come after his motorcycle flipped on a Los Angeles freeway interchange and left him crawling, too late, in an attempted escape from under a rolling semi.
Pain is weakness leaving the body.
Davis, 6-feet-5 and 281 pounds, didn't play much high school football in Covina, Calif. So upon graduation he joined the Marine Corps reserves. He first got the idea after spending his eighth- and ninth-grade years at the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Texas.
"I fell in love with the corps," he said. "The structure, the discipline, the leadership traits. The routine of things. Organization. It was my thing. I liked it a lot. I wanted to live my life as a Marine."
He went through the Marines' rigorous training program, then served one weekend a month in the Marine reserves when he decided to also play football at Mount San Antonio Junior College in Walnut, Calif.
He had 16 1/2 sacks as a freshman. Davis still loved the Marines, but now he also loved playing football. And Pac-10 schools scouted him, and offered a scholarship. The Marines would make one more call, however, to go to Iraq.
"I wanted to get back as soon as I possibly could to start playing football again," Davis said. "But I had to do my job. I signed the contract, and I like to honor my commitment."
Davis does not give specifics of his tour of duty. When asked, he politely asked to change the subject. Civilians who have never served can only understand they will never understand.
"It's tough," he said. "I think about it all the time."
Today I interviewed Elan Journo, a senior fellow at the Ayn Rand Institute. The major topic we discussed was Pakistan and the sharia law that is now in effect in the tribal belt of the country. You can view the interview here.
An article written by Journo in 2007 suggests that that U.S. has been on the path of appeasement long before President Obama. Here is an excerpt of Journo's piece which was published in Capitalism Magazine:
Why is Washington so unprepared to deal with this danger to U.S. security? The answer lies in how we embraced Pakistan as an ally.
Pakistan was an improbable ally. In the 1990s its Inter-Services Intelligence agency had helped bring the Taliban to power; Gen. Musharraf's regime, which began in 1999, formally endorsed the Taliban regime; and many in Pakistan support the cause of jihad (taking to the streets to celebrate 9/11). But after 9/11 the Bush administration asserted that we needed Pakistan as an ally, and that the alternatives to Gen. Musharraf's military dictatorship were far worse.
If the administration was right about that (which is doubtful), we could have had an alliance with Pakistan under only one condition--treating this supposedly lesser of two evils as, indeed, evil.
It would have required acknowledging the immorality of Pakistan's past and demanding that it vigorously combat the Islamic totalitarians as proof of repudiating them. Alert to the merest hint of Pakistan's disloyalty, we'd have had to keep the dictatorial regime at arm's length. This would have meant openly declaring that both the regime and the pro-jihadists among Pakistan's people are immoral, that our alliance is delimited to one goal, and that we would welcome and support new, pro-American leaders in Pakistan who actually embrace freedom.
But instead, Washington evaded Pakistan's pro-Islamist past and pretended that this corrupt regime was good. We offered leniency on Pakistan's billion-dollar debts, opened up a fire-hose of financial aid, lifted economic sanctions, and blessed the regime simply because it agreed to call itself our ally and pay lip-service to enacting "reforms." After Musharraf pledged his "full support" and "unstinting cooperation," we treated the dictator as if he were some freedom-loving statesman, and effectively whitewashed the regime.
Since we did not demand any fundamental change in Pakistan's behavior as the price of our alliance, we should not have expected any.
Pakistan's "unstinting cooperation" included help with the token arrests of a handful of terrorists--even as the country became a haven for Islamists. Since 2001, Islamists have established a stronghold in the Pakistani-Afghan tribal borderlands (where bin Laden may be hiding). But our "ally" neither eradicated them nor allowed U.S. forces to do so. Instead in 2006 Musharraf reached a truce with them: in return for the Islamists' "promise" not to attack Pakistani soldiers, not to establish their own Taliban-like rule, and not to support foreign jihadists--Pakistan backed off and released 165 captured jihadists.
Far from protesting, President Bush endorsed this appeasing deal, saying: "When [Musharraf] looks me in the eye and says" this deal will stop "the Talibanization of the people, and that there won't be a Taliban and won't be al Qaeda, I believe him."
We have gone on paying Pakistan for its "cooperation," to the tune of $10 billion in aid. The Islamists, who predictably reneged on the truce, now have a new staging area in Pakistan from which to plot attacks on us (perhaps, one day, with Pakistani nukes).
Why did our leaders evade Pakistan's true nature? Faced with the need to do something against the totalitarian threat, it was far easier to pretend that Musharraf was a great ally who would help rid us of our problems if we would only uncritically embrace him. To declare Musharraf's regime evil, albeit the lesser of two evils, would have required a deep moral confidence in the righteousness of our cause. The Bush administration didn't display this confidence in our own fight against the Taliban, allowing the enablers of bin Laden to flee rather than ruthlessly destroying them. Why would it display such confidence in dealing with Pakistan?
But no matter how much one pretends that facts are not facts, eventually they will rear their heads.
This is why we are caught so unawares by the crisis in Pakistan. Our blindness was self-induced.
A Muslim house of worship, according to a Hamas religious leader is actually "the prime factory educating Jihad Fighters." The Hamas leader asserts the need for Jihad, explaining the necessity of spreading Islam over the entire earth.
"True foundation and education start in the mosques... Do you realize what the mosque is? It is a prime factory educating men to fear and please Allah; [it is] the prime factory educating Jihad fighters... The mosque is the life of Muslims, and the symbol of their courage and honor... The Palestinian fetus in its mother's womb, the Muslim fetus throughout the world in its mother's womb, call [on Muslims] to unite through fear of Allah, through pleasing Him, and through choosing Jihad and Resistance [terror]." [1]
Today I interviewed Dr. Yaron Brook of the Ayn Rand Institute about the United States' "war on terror" and how it is being fought. The interview, which will perhaps be considered provocative by some, is certainly thought-provoking. It can be viewed here.
It has been nearly five years since September 11, 2001—the day that Islamic terrorists incinerated thousands of innocent individuals in the freest, wealthiest, happiest, and most powerful nation on earth.
On that day and in the weeks after, we all felt the same things. We felt grief, that we had lost so many who had been so good. We felt anger, at whomever could commit or support such an evil act. We felt disbelief, that the world's only superpower could let this happen. And we felt fear, from the newfound realization that such evil could rain on any of us. But above all, we felt the desire for overwhelming retaliation against whomever was responsible for these atrocities, directly or indirectly, so that no one would dare launch or support such an attack on America ever again.
To conjure up the emotions we felt on 9/11, many intellectuals claim, is dangerous, because it promotes the “simplistic” desire for revenge and casts aside the “complexity” of the factors that led to the 9/11 attacks. But, in fact, the desire for overwhelming retaliation most Americans felt after 9/11—and feel rarely, if ever, now—was the result of an objective conviction: that a truly monstrous evil had been perpetrated, and that if the enemies responsible for the 9/11 attacks were not dealt with decisively, we would suffer the same fate (or worse) again.
After 9/11, our leaders—seemingly sharing our conviction in the necessity of decisive retaliation—promised to do everything possible to make America safe from terrorist attack. In an almost universally applauded speech, President Bush pledged to eradicate the enemy by waging a war that was to begin with Al Qaeda and the Taliban but that would “not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been . . . defeated.” In the same speech, Bush vowed: “I will not yield, I will not rest, I will not relent in waging this struggle for freedom and security for the American people.”1
To fulfill the promise to defeat the terrorist enemy that struck on 9/11, our leaders would first have to identify who exactly that enemy is and then be willing to do whatever is necessary to defeat him. Let us examine what this would entail, and compare it with the actions that our leaders actually took.
Who is the enemy that attacked on 9/11? It is not “terrorism”—just as our enemy in World War II was not kamikaze strikes or U-boat attacks. Terrorism is a tactic employed by a certain group for a certain cause. That group and, above all, the cause they fight for are our enemy.
The group that threatens us with terrorism—the group of which Al Qaeda is but one terrorist faction—is a militant, religious, ideological movement best designated as “Islamic Totalitarianism.” The Islamic Totalitarian movement, which enjoys widespread and growing support throughout the Arab–Islamic world, encompasses those who believe that all must live in total subjugation to the dogmas of Islam and who conclude that jihad (“holy war”) must be waged against those who refuse to do so. Islamic Totalitarians regard the freedom, prosperity, and pursuit of worldly happiness animating the West (and especially America and Israel) as the height of depravity. They seek to eradicate Western Culture, first in the Middle East and then in the West itself, with the ultimate aim of bringing about the worldwide triumph of Islam. This goal is achievable, adherents of the movement believe, because the West is a “paper tiger” that can be brought to its knees by sufficiently devoted Islamic warriors.
Given that the enemy that attacked on 9/11 is primarily ideological, what, if anything, can our government's guns do to defeat it? Our government cannot directly attack the deepest, philosophical roots of Islamic Totalitarianism; however, to defeat Islamic Totalitarianism as a physical threat, it does not need to do so. Why? Because an indispensable precondition of an active, threatening Islamic Totalitarian movement—one for which individuals are willing to take up arms—is its active support by Arab and Islamic states that assist, embody, and implement it. Without this state support, Islamic Totalitarianism, and thus Islamic terrorism, could not exist as a major threat.
The kassam situation remains unresolved. Terrorists in Gaza have not stopped launching kassams and mortars at Israeli towns. Palestinian Arabs continue smuggling weapons into Gaza to indiscriminately attack Israelis. Much of the time (thankfully) no damage or injuries are reported during kassam attacks. Unfortunately, it is only a matter of time before these rockets and mortars do cause damage or physically hurt a civilian.
The IAF bombed two smuggling tunnels in two separate air strikes in the southern Gaza Strip on Friday afternoon, the IDF said.
Gaza health official Moaiya Hassanain said one person was lightly wounded.
The air strikes came a day after a Kassam rocket fired by Palestinian terrorists in the Strip hit the Eshkol region. No one was wounded and no damage was reported in the attack.
Reports of a second rocket attack Friday turned out to be false.
Some two weeks ago, senior defense officials told The Jerusalem Post that Israel had yet to decide whether to purchase the US Vulcan Phalanx to counter the Kassam threat and would only make a decision after viewing a live test of the rapid-cannon system scheduled for this summer.
Also Friday, some ten Palestinians clashed with a group of settlers near the Havat Gilad outpost in the Shomron.
The settlers claimed that the Palestinians entered an agricultural area in Havat Gilad with two tractors.
IDF troops broke up the fighting and were pelted with stones thrown by the Palestinians. No one was reported wounded.
Overnight Thursday, IDF troops arrested nine Palestinian terror suspects in the West Bank.
Three suspects were arrested near Jenin, two near Nablus, two in the Ramallah area and two close to Hebron. They were all transferred for interrogation.
Also Thursday night, Palestinians threw two Molotov cocktails at Israeli vehicles traveling near Bethlehem in the West Bank. There were no casualties, but a car sustained damage.
A smear campaign has forcibly removed a senator in student government at UC Berkeley. The following is an article I wrote about the senator and the campaign against him. The article was published today at FrontPageMag.com:
John Moghtader, a senator in student government at UC Berkeley, has experienced the forced removal from student office due to a personal smear campaign against him that was launched by the campus’s Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and their supporters in student government. Moghtader, a previous senator with UC Berkeley’s Associated Students of the University of California (ASUC), the student government, is also the president of a student group known as Tikvah: Students for Israel (Tikvah SFI) that is devoted to Israel advocacy on campus. It is the only serious voice of opposition to a near constant drumbeat of pro-Palestinian Israel-bashing activism on the Berkeley campus.
On November 13, 2008, on an Eschelman Hall balcony overlooking a concert being held on LowerSproulPlaza by the Zionist Freedom Alliance, a brief physical altercation broke out between concertgoers and activists from Students for Justice in Palestine. The incident occurred after SJP students hung Palestinian flags at the Zionist event in violation of ASUC policy that says groups must have consent before they hang flags. Moghtader was in the area of the fight but was clearly uninvolved, according to both eyewitnesses and a video taken at the event. The videotape has been viewed by the District Attorney of Northern California and UC Berkeley’s student newspaper editorial board, but has not been released to the public because it may be used as evidence during a criminal court case.
According to eyewitnesses from both Tivkah SFI and the Zionist Freedom Alliance, Husam Zakharia, an SJP student, reportedly started the fight by punching a recent pro-Israel alumnus attending the concert in the right cheek. These eyewitness accounts plus the video which was seen by editorial board of the Berkeley paper and the ASUC attorney general, Michael Sinanian, led Mr. Sinanian to conclude that the recall against Moghtader was “based on lies.”
The SJP students, however, claimed that Moghtader hit two female members of their group, including a female student named Dina Omar. SJP members also claimed Moghtader made derogatory and racist comments — despite video and eyewitness evidence that suggests the senator’s involvement was nonexistent.
The SJP students involved in the alleged altercation were contacted for this article but did not respond to questions regarding their involvement and the potential lawsuit against Dina Omar.
These alleged false charges by Ms. Omar and other SJP students led to a recall election to remove Moghtader from office, an election which in times of great financial duress for the UC system, has cost the University of California $25,000.
Mr. Moghtader expressed his frustration and concern regarding what he says can only be characterized as a smear campaign against him.
“It’s been really difficult. This whole ordeal has lasted many months now. It’s been about five months, almost six months,” he told me. “It’s been really draining on me. I learned that standing up for Israel on a college campus doesn’t come without a price. For me, and my group, there was a lot of intimidation, bullying—things like that. Because I was a pro-Israel senator I feel that I had a target on my back. It has been very challenging.”
While John Moghtader was busy fending off false and very serious charges from the SJP, he had hoped to count on support from established Jewish organizations on campus. But rather than supporting John, Hillel, the largest campus Jewish organization, its affiliated students groups, and the Hillel director, Ken Kramarz, have echoed SJP's smear campaign against the former ASUC senator. Kramarz has done so in statements to media, to the Jewish community, and in a national conference call — without soliciting John's response to SJP's allegations. Hillel's left-leaning subgroup, Kesher Enoshi, condemned Moghtader in the daily school paper and supported the recall campaign against him.
Moghtader expressed his dismay that Jewish organizations did not come to his defense or even remain objective regarding the episode, noting that Hillel was quick to issue a statement condemning pro-Israel students while sympathizing with the SJP students.
“I’m not pleased at all with the way Hillel has handled the situation,” Moghtader explained. “Immediately following the incident on November 13 Hillel issued a statement condemning the mutual violence without investigating. It was the Jewish students that were attacked up there.”
The now-removed ASUC senator also pointed out that the school newspaper editorial board, who have been allowed to view video evidence, took his side and urged students to vote “no” on recalling him from his student government seat. “The school newspaper endorsed me flat out,” Moghtader says. “The school paper jumped to my defense while I was begging the Jewish organizations to help me out.”
Some have reasonably asked why the exonerating video was not released to the student body Moghtader explained that he was under strict advice from his attorney but that he discussed the fact that a video vindicating him existed. “I was under advisement not to release the video because it could be used in a libel case. Showing it in a public way would potentially jeopardize the case,” said Moghtader. “I knew that there was a video showing me standing off to the side during the altercation. I even said a few days after the fight in an op-ed that I had a video that proves me to be innocent. Every opportunity I got I said that I was innocent. I tried to make my case. I was honest, forthright.”.
Moghtader believes that the students who made the false charges against him ought to be held accountable for what they put him and the entire campus through, including the $25,000 of University of California money used to forcibly remove him from his student government seat. When a case was presented to the state District Attorney in Northern California, no charges were brought against John Moghtader or any other Jewish student.
The trumped up charges against John Moghtader are so rooted in fraudulent claims, say witnesses and supporters of the former senator, that Moghtader and his attorney feel they’ll be able to win a libel lawsuit against the SJP students who weaved a melodramatic story about Jewish students attacking so-called innocent Palestinian supporters.
Regardless of where one stands on the Israel-Arab conflict or any other political issue, it is clear that Moghtader did not do anything to warrant removal from office. The SJP organization and ASUC owe him and the entire campus an apology. Moghtader, who is by all accounts an innocent man, was forcibly removed from student office because his political views varied from the anti-Israel students at UC Berkeley who lied in order to stifle an opposing view.
I am a journalist and researcher, and have written numerous research and investigative pieces. My work has been published with several notable organizations, including CAMERA on Campus, the Jewish Policy Center, Pajamas Media, and the Investigative Project on Terror.
My interests include ethics and epistemology, history, economics, and international relations.
I graduated from the University of California, Irvine with distinguished honors, earning a Bachelor of Arts in English. Presently I am pursuing a Master's degree at USC Annenberg School for Communication & Journalism in the field of Broadcast Journalism. I can be reached at Reut AT reutrcohen DOT com.
