Billboard Wars

While our "leaders" engage in futile and self-destructive attempts at dialogue and outreach to people who look upon us as infidels and worse, here is what our neighbors who hate us are engaged in:

DETROIT — The latest episode in the Israel/Palestine public advertisement feud has unfolded in Michigan, but this time around, the pro-Palestinian side has had a fair chance to make its voice heard.

A new billboard protesting American aid to Israel to the tune of millions per day went up on Monday, Feb. 6, with the message “$8 Million/Day to Israel? Our Money is Needed in America!” along with a link to the website IfAmericansKnew.org, which was founded by researcher Alison Weir and includes facts about Palestine and the Israeli occupation that aren't shown in the mainstream media.

The digital billboard is shown at the Greenfield exit on westbound I-96 and will likely rotate for three months at various locations in metro Detroit, changing each month.

Daniel McGowan, executive director of Dier Yassin Remembered and a contributor to the Detroit project, said that the billboard will help spread much needed awareness.
Henry Herskovitz of Jewish Witnesses for Peace and Friends, which has staged peaceful, silent vigils in front of Beth Israel Congregation in Ann Arbor for over 8 years in order to persuade them to remove their Israeli flag because of the horrors of the occupation, said that the billboard is a project of various donors and the website. Herskovitz first noticed a pro-Israel billboard on I-75 at milepost last summer, which prompted him to spearhead the project and connect with the popular website.

The original billboard shows the message “Stand with Israel,” and is sponsored by We the People of Mid-Michigan and includes the U.S. and Israeli flags side by side.

The pro-Israel billboard was purchased by Rita Tilley of Bay City, a supporter of conservative pundit Glenn Beck who spent $2,500 of her savings. Tilley reportedly also bought a TV, which she did not own, just to watch Beck and called the lower price she received on the billboard a “miracle.”

The billboard against American aid to Israel is accepting donations at IfAmericansKnew.org in the upper right hand corner of the site, called the 'Detroit Billboard Project.'

Daniel McGowan, the executive director of the organization Dier Yassin Remembered (http://deiryassin.org, which focuses on recognition of a 1948 massacre of Palestinians) and a contributor to the project, said the billboard will help spread much-needed awareness.

“This is a small attempt to counter the overwhelming mainstream media propaganda,” he said.

“Dier Yassin Remembered helped to initiate this billboard in the hope that others will contribute to speak truth to Zionist power that drains American treasure and blood for the benefit of an apartheid state.

This billboard is a symbol that blind support of racist Israel is antithetical to basic American values.”

According to IfAmericansKnew.org, the U.S. Gives Israel through taxpayer dollars over $8 million per day, and taxes on the borrowed money from the private, non-governmental Federal Reserve Bank means that taxpayers pay interest on it, costing over $15 million per day.

The website said that an economist who conducted an audit for the Army War College found that as of 2003 Israel had cost Americans $3 trillion dollars because of the many associated and hidden costs of the support that is pledged each year.

Herskovitz said that he once traveled from Hebron in Palestine to Jerusalem and saw soldiers throw a young woman with three kids off the bus.

“A friend of the mother's told me she was sick of what they were doing and asked me to tell their story in America,” he said. “I think that getting this message out is very important.”

Notice they're big fans of "If Americans Knew", a group so far gone in their hatred of Israel, even NPR (could they be a participant in that "overwhelming mainstream media propaganda"?) ignores them.

Can we in the pro-Israel community counter this? All we need is money.

Cowsnofski

NOTE: Thanks to "banjopop" from FEH for alerting us to this.

Who Invited the Vampires Into Our House?

As we watch the events unfold in Egypt, we listen to the multitude of experts warn us against letting the Muslim Brotherhood gain a foothold in that country.  Bob Sklar, Editor for the Jewish News had an excellent column, The Right Brotherhood? in this week's JN.  He spells out in detail the dangers of this organization bent on waging jihad in, "pursuit of a shariah-governed global Islamic state known as the caliphate." 

We all remember the stories about not inviting vampires into our homes, because without an invitation they cannot enter, and you remain safe within you own house.  So while we are all pondering the fate of Egypt and the implications of the Brotherhood there, one has to wonder who is watching our front door? 

In our Jewish community there are many organizations that are looked to for advice, protection, and information.  Whether an NGO like the Jewish Community Relations Council, The Jewish News, or our local temples and synagogues, we like to believe that they have the best interests of our Jewish community and the Jewish people at heart.  We assume that they do their due diligence before they partner with outside organizations like CAIR or the Arab American News.

But after this writer read today’s Jewish News, one can only conclude that not only do these organizations not know better, they fail to take even the requisite few minutes needed to find out who they are inviting into “our” house.  In fact, their modus operandi is to want to be “friends and neighbors” with anyone and everyone no matter their history, background, or motives.  And now it appears that they have opened the front door and invited in the vampires that are just waiting to suck (or in the case of the Muslim Brotherhood – slit a throat here or there) the blood right out of all of us.

The JN article “Faith Filled” 2/10/2011, about the world faith Sabbath, held at Temple Israel on January 30^th, reported that many religious leaders from around the metro Detroit area were invited to participate in the event. 

Alarmingly, one of the participants was Imam Achman Salie.  A five minute Internet search revealed a bevy of information about Salie, and all of it very disturbing.

It was easy to find out that the Imam is a faculty member at Oakland University who “works closely” with the MSA (Muslim Student Association).  The MSA, according The Investigative Project has its roots in the Muslim Brotherhood.  But that is not Salie’s only connection to the MB.  He is also on staff at the Fairfax Institute and listed on the instructors page.  That seems innocent enough, until you find out that the Fairfax Institute is part of the International Institute of Islamic Thought or the IIIT as it is more commonly known. 

And who exactly is the IIIT?  Andy McCarthy, former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and renowned author and expert on Islam and jihad in his article International Institute of Islamic Thought and the Muslim Brotherhood clearly lays out the connection between the IIIT, the Muslim Brotherhood and the Holy Land Foundation Trial. According to McCarthy, "To begin with, the Brotherhood is prominently cited in DOJ’s coconspirator list for the HLF case. More significantly, central to the HLF prosecution was the Brotherhood’s 1991 internal memorandum, discussed in my column. The IIIT is expressly identified by the Muslim Brotherhood in that memorandum as being among “our organizations and the organizations of our friends.”

So, this begs the question: If Imam Achman Salie is tied to the MSA and the IIIT and if the both these organizations are tied to the Muslim Brotherhood, then why in the world would Temple Israel invite the vampire into our house?

posted by Aerie

2/15/2011 Update:

Here is the description about Salie as he is listed on the Fairfax Institute website:

Imam Achmat Salie holds the Alim Fadil Kamil degree in Islamic Jurisprudence, graduate degree in Arabic, MBA in E-Commerce, and doctrorate in Business Leadership.  He is the coordinator of the Islamic studies program.  He contributed to the book by Sally G. Bingham, Leading Religious Voices Speak Out on Our Sacred Duty to Protect the Environment.  He works closely with the Muslim Students Association at OU, offering advising and counseling, and speaking at on-going interfaith events. He directs the Islamic Center and participates on the advisory boards of the Islamic University Bank, Huda Montessori and Michigan Interfaith Power and Light. He is at work on a book and articles exploring the theme of Muhammad as CEO and servant leader.  He can be reached at mailto:salie@oakland.edu  Courses:  Islamic Literature, Islamic Ethics, Muhammad and the Quran, Muslims in America, Introduction to Islam, History of Islam.