Dershowitz: Amnesty International Redefines "War Crimes"

Copied from LGF

The two principal “human rights” organizations are in a race to the bottom to see which group can demonize Israel with the most absurd legal arguments and most blatant factual mis-statements. Until last week, Human Rights Watch enjoyed a prodigious lead, having “found” - contrary to what every newspaper in the world had reported and what everyone saw with their own eyes on television - “no cases in which Hizbullah deliberately used civilians as shields to protect them from retaliatory IDF attack.”

Those of us familiar with Amnesty International’s nefarious anti-Israel agenda and notoriously “suggestible” investigative methodology wondered how it could possibly match such a breathtaking lie.

But we didn’t have to wait long for AI to announce that Israel was guilty of a slew of war crimes for “widespread attacks against public civilian infrastructure, including power plants, bridges, main roads, seaports, and Beirut’s international airport.”

There are two problems with the Amnesty report and conclusion. First, Amnesty is wrong about the law. Israel committed no war crimes by attacking parts of the civilian infrastructure in Lebanon.

In fact, through restraint, Israel was able to minimize the number of civilian casualties in Lebanon, despite Hizbullah’s best efforts to embed itself in population centers and to use civilians as human shields. The total number of innocent Muslim civilians killed by Israeli weapons during a month of ferocious defensive warfare was a fraction of the number of innocent Muslims killed by other Muslims during that same period in Iraq, Sudan, Afghanistan, Algeria, and other areas of Muslim-on-Muslim civil strife. Yet the deaths caused by Muslims received a fraction of the attention devoted to alleged Israeli “crimes.”

This lack of concern for Muslims by other Muslims - and the lack of focus by so-called human rights organizations on these deaths - is bigotry, pure and simple.

Read the whole thing

Mel Gibson's SIGNS of anti-semitism

HatTip: IsraellyCool

Time for a brief bit of humor while we wait for all heck to break loose the moment school begins about two weeks from now.

LGF: Extremist Groups Recruiting at UK Schools

“If you go to freshers fairs at University College London, the School of Oriental and African Studies and the London School of Economics next month, you will find Hizb ut-Tahrir undercover. Vice-chancellors have been wilfully blind to the problem. Recruitment of students is going on. That is categorical. Universities are not on top of this.”

Never could happen here. Not in the USA. Not in California. Not at UCI. Nope. Simply impossible. We shouldn't even consider it.

Read the whole thing

Humor: How to Negotiate with Terrorists

Disclaimer: This is HUMOR! If you don't like it, to quote Salt-N-Pepa, "Press stop, pick up the needle, or turn the radio off."

A humorous look at how to negotiate with terrorists

Hat tip: The Sanity Inspector on LGF

A writer for The Ali G Show comments on anti-Semitic humor in the UK

I caught this op-ed today, written by Jamie Glassman, a writer for The Ali G Show, about anti-Semitic humor at the Edinburgh Arts Festival. The section below was especially of interest. Reading this op-ed made Edinburgh sound exactly like UCI.

One was a left-leaning angry Australian conspiracy theorist, Steve Hughes, whose show The Storm is an assault on all things Western. “I want to bash Condoleezza Rice’s brain to bits and kill that f****** Jew Richard Perle.” Hughes is the one at the Pleasance Courtyard while Perle is an adviser to George W. Bush as he was to Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton on foreign affairs.

The second was a far more charming African-American comic who for much of the show was thoughtful, funny and even quite sweet. But he seemed to have a problem with Jews, too. Reginald D. Hunter is doing sell-out shows in the new E4-sponsored venue, the Udderbelly. Three hundred come along every night to see Hunter’s Pride and Prejudice and Niggas. You should see the poster.

I was laughing along until he announced that he was about to be extremely controversial and break the last taboo of stand-up comedy. Long silent pause. "Jeeeeews" Another long pause with some giggles from the audience. "You see, you’re not allowed to say that."

He went on to say how its illegal to deny the Holocaust in Austria. He has a good mind to go to Austria, stand in the street and say the Holocaust didn’t happen so that he could get arrested and tell the judge he was talking about the Rwandan holocaust. Whether or not he thought there should be a law against going to Rwanda and denying that genocide, he didn’t say.

By claiming that making a joke about Jews is the one last, great comic taboo, he simultaneously provides the moral justification for a crack at the Jews and he silences them from the right to complain, as this would only confirm the unspoken premise: that Jews are overprotected in society or even worse that Jewish media controllers are obsessed with silencing any criticism of their own.

His joke is essentially one about freedom of speech and selective Jewish control of that freedom, but he gives the lie to his true feelings by his choice of example. Of all the possible targets, of all the things he might wish to say, his complaint is that he is not permitted to parrot the greatest anti-Semitic slur of the last hundred years — that the Holocaust never happened. As a believer in free speech, I am not convinced by the criminalisation of Holocaust denial, but that does not mean I am confused about the motives of those who wish to utter it.

Read the whole thing here

'Silence Begets Evil Actions'

So says Avner Shalev, Chairman of Yad Vashem.

UCI's silence - refusing the appropriately label the anti-Semitism that appears almost weekly on campus - only encourages the anti-Semites to increase their intensity with every visit. Perhaps the UCI administration works in this fashion:

Statements from those who liberated the concentration camps

In response to the following quote from the Reuters article on the current Holocaust Cartoon Exhibition in Iran (looking for a link to those cartoons if anybody has it):

“We wanted to challenge European taboos. Why should questioning the Holocaust be a taboo?” he said. “Why should anyone who talks about it (the Holocaust) be fined or jailed?”

CrimsonFisted brought to my attention a great link with lots of information on the Holocaust - good to use against the Holocaust deniers:

A Teacher's Guide To The Holocaust-Liberators

I have never felt able to describe my emotional reaction when I first came face to face with indisputable evidence of Nazi brutality and ruthless disregard of every shred of decency...I visited every nook and cranny of the camp because I felt it my duty to be in a position from then on to testify at first hand about these things in case there ever grew up at home the belief or assumption that the stories of Nazi brutality were just propaganda.

--General Dwight D. Eisenhower, Supreme Commander, Allied Forces, Europe, Letter to Chief of Staff George Marshall, April 12, 1945

Tell Chancellor Drake that anti-Semitism at UCI is not acceptable!

Chancellor Drake's lack of even a public acknowledgment of the anti-Semitism at UCI as wrong (imitating his predecessor's similar actions) says very clearly that UCI recognizes that attacks on Jews and Judaism are a fully-acceptable form of civil debate at the University.

Please follow Ted Bleiweis's lead and print this Microsoft Word version or Adobe Acrobat PDF version of the following letter, sign, and mail or fax (1-949-824-2087) it to Chancellor Drake.

We need YOU to tell the Chancellor that things need to change.

Thank you for your support.

____________________
Today’s Date


University of California, Irvine
The Chancellor's Office
Irvine, CA 92697-1900


Dear Dr. Drake,

The University of California, Irvine (UCI) has for year’s hosted events on its campus whose participants have utilized inflammatory and hateful speech towards the State of Israel and the Jewish people as a whole.

This year a week-long program, entitled “Holocaust in the Holy land,” had been presented. It featured speakers calling for the destruction of the State of Israel, touting an acknowledged terror organization, Hamas, as the “people’s choice” and called Israel “the Fourth Reich”. Woven into the speeches were age old anti-Semitic themes. The perpetrators constructed an “apartheid” wall, and stationed intimidating guards dressed as Israeli soldiers nearby. The title itself denigrates the Jewish people, and contains an implied denial of the Holocaust during which over six million Jewish people were murdered.

The University’s stated policy has been, and remains that these campus activities are protected speech under the First Amendment. While this may be legally correct, it gives the appearance of official sanction by UCI.

In your May 30, 2006 message you stated “Hate speech is difficult to define precisely. It is largely defined by the individual hearing it…” Make no mistake; the annihilation of over two thirds of Europe’s Jewish population began with hate speech. The University and its leadership must recognize that it has a duty, and an obligation, as educators to denounce anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial, and repudiate those whose demonstrations seek incitement against, or call for the destruction of, other human beings.

As a resident and a taxpayer of Orange County, I therefore call upon you as Chancellor of UCI to exercise your first amendment rights: that is, to take immediate and appropriate steps to publicly distance the University from those individuals who spew anti-Semitism, Holocaust denial, or any form of hate speech.

Sincerely,





cc: Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger
Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamonte

OC Jewish Life Article: Getting Proactive in Tackling Anti-Semitism on Campus

In August 2006, OC Jewish Life published Ted Bleiweis's follow-up article to his July 2006 article.

The text and printable versions of letter to UCI referred to below is available here.

Last month, I did little kvetching in this column. Author Michael Wex, wrote a book that said we Jews were Born to Kvetch. I only kvetched a few paragraphs.

I kvetched about three important points: 1. Our community needs to be kept better informed by its leadership. 2. Community organizations must channel more funding for Jewish education on campus, especially in the area of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial. 3. “Ordinary” community members must take an active role in challenging anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial in our communities and on our campuses.

You might say, “So, Mr. Monday morning quarterback, it’s easy to give advice. What are you doing about this?” Fair enough! I remember how my grandparents used to yell at the television, when a news report came on that they didn’t like. Then it hits me like a bolt from the blue! I won’t just kvetch! I’ll write a column! I’ll write a letter! I’ll speak to anyone willing to listen. Better yet, I’ll arrange an event or two of my own!

I telephoned Jewish friends to hear what they knew. They didn’t know much at all. (Most were relieved that I wasn’t yet another person soliciting a donation) Next, I phoned various synagogues and organizations that I attend. Finally, I contacted the alphabet soup of Jewish community organizations in Orange and LA counties. I focused on those that were intimately involved in with the UCI situation. My “gripe” was that I had heard about the “Holocaust in the Holy land” farce (sponsored by the UCI Moslem Union) from a radio talk show.

After spending many hours of telephone and face-to-face conversations with key Jewish organizational people, I began to understand the problems more clearly. Everyone comes from a different political, religious, philosophical, you-name-it point f view. It works the same way with Jewish organizations. This one wants to show a movie; that board member says, "No it's too controversial!" This one schedules a meeeting with the chancellor; that group doesn't get invited. This organization says it's protected speech; the other says, "No, it isn't." So it goes. This isn't to say that they're not working earnestly.

I phoned Kevin O’Grady, associate director of ADL; then I called Rabbi Keiffer at Temple Beth Emet. Both were to very eager to participate in a community forum. Rabbi Keiffer suggested June 30, Shabbat evening services. I said “great idea”, never hinting that I feared no one would be in town. It was July fourth weekend. Dr. O’Grady invited Jeffrey Rips, Executive Director of Hillel O.C. Surprisingly, the turnout was wonderful.

Both Speakers gave informative insights into the UCI problems. They noted that the UCI administration has never publicly acknowledged that anti-Semitic activities occurred on campus. A woman who attended classes CSUF said many of her professors were clearly teaching biased and revisionist history about Zionism and Israel. Dr. O’Grady said that was a problem on many campuses across the nation, including UCI.

Before the event a letter adopted by Temple Beth Emet was distributed to all attendees. Both speakers publicly endorsed the letter and encouraged everyone to mail it to Chancellor Drake. The temple president officially sent a copy to UCI, Rabbi Keiffer forwarded copies to his colleagues on the O.C. Board of Rabbis, and Dr O’Grady forwarded it to more than 1,000 people. Several other shuls and organizations have endorsed the letter.

What’s the moral of the story? Don’t be a Monday morning quarterback! Get informed! Get involved! Write letters, talk to your friends. Encourage your shuls and Jewish organizations to be more vocal and proactive in stamping out anti-Semitism. Our schools and universities should be centers of knowledge understanding, not hatred.

Ted Bleiweis, a business owner in Orange County, is a concerned member of the Jewish community.

OC Jewish Life Article: Allowing Anti-Semitism on Campus is Dangerous

Thanks to Ted Bleiweis for publishing the following article in the OC Jewish Life in July 2006. I would have linked to it earlier, but the publisher refused to even respond when I emailed him asking him to put this on his website. With the permission of the article's author, here is the text of the article:

In the past, public Holocaust denial was espoused by a relatively few (nevertheless dangerous) bunch of hate-filled "crazies". The situation has changed drastically today. Holocaust denial and trivialization have become ever more acceptable and commonplace in our society. It is one of the vilest forms of anti-Semitism. The president of Iran engages regularly in it. He has also stated that “Israel will be wiped off the map”. Newspapers in “moderate” Moslem nations continually mock and trivialize the Holocaust.

Several weeks ago, a program took place on the UCI Campus sponsored by a well-financed Moslem Student Union. An “apartheid wall” was erected with a “checkpoint” manned by Moslem “students” dressed as Israeli soldiers. Above the “checkpoint” a sign read “Holocaust in the Holy Land,” the title of the week long program.

Similar demonstrations have taken place at UCLA, UCSD, and other tax-supported niversities throughout the state recently and over the past several years. The source of funding for these “events” remains a mystery.

Through out the week passersby were subjected to hate-filled speeches calling for the destruction of Israel. One of the speakers proclaimed Hamas as “the people’s choice,” while another called for an “Islamic” Jerusalem. Also on hand were two well-known traveling anti-Israel, anti-Zionist Jews. Rounding out this three-ring circus of haters was a Moslem speaker whose topic was entitled “Israel: the Fourth Reich.”

A handful of Jewish organizations were on hand to distribute accurate information to students many of whom have no knowledge of the reality of the Holocaust. Jewish demonstrators marched with signs denouncing the lies perpetrated by the organizers of the event.

One of the more troubling aspects of this whole UCI affair was the response issued by UCI Chancellor, Michael V. Drake. It read in part “…the first amendment provides great latitude regarding our freedom of expression. The university has a legal obligation to assure the free exchange of ideas, however infuriating we may perceive particular views with which we disagree…” I believe that it is his obligation, as an educator (and his right under the first amendment) to clearly and unequivocally denounce hate speech of any kind. I believe that it is his public duty as chancellor to distance the university from such reprehensible activities.

Sadly, over the past few weeks, I have spoken with leaders and members of various congregations and men’s clubs. Most knew nothing about these events. I found out, coincidentally, by tuning into The Larry Elders talk show. He was outraged at the events going on at UCI and other California campuses.

People are frightened about this. Friends whose children have been accepted to UCI opted to attend other universities, because this has gone on unchecked for many years. An official of a campus Jewish organization privately told me that he wished that he was attending another university.

Such characterizations of the Holocaust attempt to equate the calculated murder of millions of Jews with the unfortunate casualties of a war not of our making. It is an insult of monumental proportions to the memory of those who perished and a slur on the entire Jewish nation. It attempts to diminish the Jewish people by casting us as the perpetrators rather than the victims.

It is time for each and every member of the Jewish community to act. We need to call or write Chancellor Drake, the UC Board of Regents, and Governor Schwartzenegger and demand that they publicly repudiate hate speech of any kind, particularly on our university campuses. We need to hear more from our community leaders and organizations about how they are effectively dealing with this. Finally, we need to channel more funding from these Jewish agencies towards better education and support for Jewish and non-Jewish students on our campuses in dealing with anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial.

We no longer can afford to sit quietly and witness the alarming rise of anti-Semitism around the globe. European nations have reported a dramatic rise in anti-Semitic acts, including violence against Jews and Jewish property. We must not allow those that hate us to erase the memory of the six million, especially in our schools and universities. History has taught us that silence only encourages our enemies.

Ted Bleiweis, a business owner in Orange County, is a concerned member of the Jewish community.

Read Ted's follow-up article here.

UK Liquid Bomb Plotters May Have Recruited from Universities

According to the Sunday Telegraph:

Waheed Zaman, 22, a bio-chemistry student and the president of the Islamic Society at London Metropolitan University, was one of 24 people arrested last week. Material found at two portable buildings used by the society includes documents advocating jihad and a pamphlet on how to deal with approaches from the security services.

Oh, you mean materials from the UCI MSU's Alkalima magazine like:

• this pamphlet with an article called "Why We Fight" which ends by stating "the freedom fighters will continue to fight until their land is liberated or until they are blessed with martyrdom"?
  
• this pamphlet accusing Israel of genocide when in reality Israel does not deliberately target civilians and the "Palestinian" population has exploded (that's some genocide). Compare and contrast this to the Palestinian terrorist organizations who enshrine in their official documentation and media broadcasts that their sole goal is to push the Jews to the sea and to hunt down every single one of us (a.k.a. genocide) - it is these terrorist organizations which the MSU, SAS, and other UCI student organizations and faculty year after year praise without question.
  

These are only some of the most recent examples of attacks via the MSU Alkalima - that magainze has been publishing these attacks for years. There's also been attacks on Jews via the New Unversity newspaper, by their speakers, by their exhibits, and in some cases, violence itself.

I am not surprised that, as in our situation, someone in the UK has been bringing this to the attention of their universities' administrations and, as in our situation, they've been at best, ignored and at worst, punished for doing so:

Prof Anthony Glees, the director of Brunel University's centre for intelligence and security studies, criticised university authorities for ignoring the threat to national security in their midst. "Institutions have not sought to address the problem: they have instead sought to undermine those who have raised the issue," he told this newspaper.

I can only hope that the UK universities with complacent administrations are being sued out of existence for their inappropriate actions.

Read the whole thing here

Great article by Bill Bennett: "Why Israel Fights"

Hat tip: Terp Mole on LGF

Let Kofi Annan condemn Israel. Let ex-State Department officials wring their hands. Let the Security Council issue its condemnations if it must. But at the end of the diplomatic doublespeak and the denunciations of editorial writers here and abroad, let the countries on the frontlines, fighting for their existence, act like any normal country would under attack and save themselves. In so doing, they will save those who also strive to be normal, democratic, and free. For if Iran’s “frontline” succeeds, Israel and the U.S. will cease to exist on the globe below which Hezbollah’s rifle is held. And al Qaeda will cheer the outcome for its newfound ally.

The whole article

Astounding Video of the Abuse of a Dead Child by the Lebanese Red Cross "Helper" in Qana

From LGF: Directed by the Green Helmet Guy

Conclusive proof that the photographs from Qana were cynically staged, as “Green Helmet” directs cameramen in a video from German TV (with English subtitles). They actually take the body of a child out of the ambulance, transfer it from the light stretcher used in the ambulance to the heavy duty gurney used in the rescue operation (to create the impression that it has just arrived from the bombed area), uncover it, and pose it for photographs.

And the civilians there ALLOWED this to happen - HELPED this guy.

More about this

And More

And More

And More

For comparison: The Jewish View of Life, Death, and Mourning

Myths and Facts About The Conflict With Lebanon

A friend of mine tipped me off to this:

HonestReporting.com and Aish.com have put out a 2-minute film about the current conflict. It puts the information out there, plain and simple.

Myths and Facts About The Conflict With Lebanon

(requires Macromedia Shockwave Flash)

On the same topic, HonestReporting's blog tipped me off to a great article in the Baltimore Sun called:

Dump myths to start on a path to a real Mideast peace

Daniel Pipes on the Seattle Jewish Federation shooter

I used to read Daniel Pipes on a regular basis until he dropped off the deep end with racial profiling and internment camps.

Today, however, the Jerusalem Post published a column by him on the Naveed Haq, who according to news reports allegedly murdered one person and wounded five others after pushing his way in to the building with a gun to a 14-year-old girl's back. (I have to say "allegedly" since he hasn't been convicted yet)

What concerned me - and what I think everybody needs to read - is the following statement in that column:

sudden jihad syndrome never erupts in isolation, but results from a steady diet of antisemitic, anti-Zionist, anti-Christian, and anti-American incitement fed by Islamist mosques, schools, voluntary associations, and media. Leftist demonizing of Israel further contributes to the problem.

Say, isn't that exactly what we've been experiencing at UCI on a near-weekly basis? Is that the basis of the ZOA complaint to the US Department of Education's Office for Civil Rights, as well as the findings and recommendations by the US Commission on Civil Rights?

People who know Mr. Haq confirm that this barrage of influences shaped his outlook. "Haq didn't like President Bush," notes one person. Another said Mr. Haq "displayed a streak of anti-Semitism, sometimes making offhand comments about Jews." He complained that "Jews run the media" and believed Jews control the U.S. economy.

Gee, isn't that Amir Abdel Malik Ali's line - someone so favored by the MSU that they gave him a monetary reward as a thank you for his efforts?

Blame for Mr. Haq's evil rampage falls on the executioner himself and on the Islamists and leftists who manipulated his confused mind and susceptible character.

Ya hear that MSU and SAS? I can't make it any clearer.

In fact, let me also alert Chancellor Drake: if any violence happens as a result of the anti-Semitism promoted at UCI, the UCI administration will be held responsible since UCI never enforced the rules that were, are, and will continue to be violated right in front of multiple members of the UCI administration. At best, I believe the term would be "negligence".

UPDATE

Mr. Pipes added a weblog with more info on Naveed Haq

An American volunteer in the IDF speaks his mind

This was brought to my attention by this soldier's mother, whom I happen to know.

Remember one thing while reading this: Zachary Taylor's derriere is on the front lines of this current conflict - at any moment, he could be attacked and killed, or worse, kidnapped and tortured. Keep that in your head when you read his calm review of the situation.

Where is Israel Headed?

Zachary, keep yourself safe. We salute you.

Another anti-Semite test

I had bookmarked some LittleGreenFootballs entries and finally got a chance to read a few today (I still have about 100 RSS links from LGF and other sites to go through).

This one stuck out: Egyptian Blogger Asks the Real Questions

I have a hard time believing that an anti-Semite might fall for such a blatant question, but you never know - the anti-Semites who come to campus might just be begging to reveal their true nature. If you get an outlandish response, please find this post in the archives, and post the response you received as a comment. I'm curious how many anti-Semites will take the bait.

Op-Ed: Institutional Failure at Reuters

GIYUS (Give Israel Your United Support) has linked in a great article summarizing the Reuters mess. I especially love the way the article starts:

Though I am five thousand miles away, I think that I can detect the vibrations emanating from West Norwood Cemetery in London. For surely Paul Julius Reuter, the German rabbi's son who founded the Reuters News Agency a century and a half ago, is spinning in his grave.

Read the whole thing here

BTW, GIYUS is an organization dedicated to broadcasting the truth about the situation surrounding Israel and Jews around the world. If you click on this link, you can download a Windows 2000/XP program called "Megaphone" that sits in your Windows system tray and pops up every once in a while with a link to a poll, a news article, and sometimes even a video from the current conflict.

You can click "No Thanks" and it'll go right away, or if you click the link, it'll take you to that poll, news article, or video. The polls themselves are non-scientific, so I usually ignore them, but it's a great source for breaking news. Plus, it gives one an opportunity to do something with the information - with a few simple mouse clicks, I've written my Congressman and Senators via one of the Megaphone links. If you have time during the day to keep informed about current events and want to do something about it, please download and install the Megaphone software.

StandWithUs has footage straight from the IDF of Hezbollah's use of civilian human shields

See it all here

How to pick out an anti-Semite

A friend of mine turned me onto this one.

Stanley Crouch describes a simple test to see if someone is an overt anti-Semite:

My point is a simple one, which is that no amount of Jewish novelists, mass media entertainers, radio, television and film executives, public school and college teachers, broadcasters, investigative journalists and whatever else have changed the fundamental religious identity of the United States. What the worst Jews have done is whatever the worst of any other ethnic group have done - stolen, murdered, kidnapped and bilked. The essence of anti-Semitic bigotry is the same as any other bigotry in that the souls of the minority among Jews who are criminals are seen as emblematic and an explanation of behavior.

In the mind of the anti-Semite, those bad things were determined by the fact that the perpetrator is a Jew. Next case.

(note that this is one of many tests to see if someone is an anti-Semite - until I have a moment to put in a link, look through my blog's archives for discussions on the 3 D's)

Read the whole thing here

"We Will Not Capitulate"

A friend of mine turned me onto this one. I suggest you read Ben Caspit's suggested text for a speech by Prime Minister Ehud Olmert:

We Will Not Capitulate

missile attack on haifa

Hat Tip: GIYUS.org A home video showing a Hezbollah missile hit a residential neighborhood in Haifa. Note the missile alarm followed by the blast itself. This is gruesome evidence of Hezbollah aiming to threaten civilian life in Israel. moments from the attack on haifa taken by Israel Glaser & Omer Zengut from Bat-Galim Haifa