Rise to the BDS Challenge

Found this announcement in my inbox yesterday.

“Teach-in” on the
Israel/Palestine Conflict and the global, nonviolent Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS) response to it

GUEST SPEAKER: Phyllis Bennis
Fellow, Institute for Policy Studies, Washington D.C.; director of the IPS New Internationalism Project; fellow, Transnational Institute, Amsterdam, Netherlands; writer, analyst, and activist on Middle East and UN issues; board of directors, U.S. Campaign to End the Occupation, Washington D.C.

The Palestinian BDS movement — inspired by the boycott and divestment activism of both the civil rights movement in the United States and the anti-apartheid movement in South Africa — offers a real path to a just peace.

Event #1:
WAYNE STATE UNIVERSITY
Thursday afternoon
February 23, 2012, 12:15 - 1:15 pm
Law School’s Partrich Auditorium
471 W. Palmer, Detroit, MI 48202

Light refreshments will be served.

WSU Student Organization Co-Sponsors:
Arab Student Union
Arab-American Law Student Association
Muslim Law Student Association
Muslim Student Association
National Lawyers Guild – Student Chapter
Students for Justice in Palestine – WSU Chapter



Event #2:
Thursday evening
February 23, 2012, 6-7:30 pm
HOST: Detroit Renaissance District Peace Center of the United Methodist Church
Hope United Methodist Church
26275 Northwestern Highway, Southfield, MI 48076

Rep. John Conyers will introduce Phyllis Bennis

Please join the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights; Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit; Friends of Sabeel-North America, Detroit and Ann Arbor Chapters; the Palestine Cultural Office, and the National Lawyers Guild-Michigan & Detroit chapter for a Teach-in on the Israel/Palestine conflict and the global, nonviolent, and grassroots Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement in response to it.

A pivotal moment approaches for the U.S. religious communities’ engagement in the BDS movement, with the United Methodist Church, at its April 2012 General Conference, and Presbyterian Church USA, at its July 2012 General Assembly, both to decide whether to divest from the Israeli Occupation. We invite you to seize this wonderful opportunity to learn about the issues and active U.S. campaigns.

There will be ample time for questions and group discussion of the challenges and opportunities for local BDS organizing.
Light refreshments will be served.

Community supporting organizations:
Sponsors: Michigan Coalition for Human Rights • Jewish Voice for Peace-Detroit chapter
Co-Sponsors: Friends of Sabeel-North America – Ann Arbor and Detroit chapters • Palestine Cultural Office

What to do?

Well, if you're like me, and you don't have the money to sponsor a billboard, you can attend these two events. We know, those of us who have attended these kinds of events in the past, that we don't interrupt or put on obnoxious displays during the presentation, no matter how odious we find its hatred and mendacity. We ask questions in order to expose the lies.

Most of those in attendance are true believers (some to the point of lunacy) in the Nazi-inspired, Jew-hating BDS cause, but as I've discovered from past events, some attendees really don't know the facts and are there trying to get information. Sometimes you can reach these people. Plus we need to let the BDSers know that we are there as the light to pierce their dark hatred.

I've been to the Hope United Methodist Church for one of their "peace in the Middle East" conferences. They are very polite and seemingly open to opposing ideas. Last summer they even allowed Alan Gale to set up a table amidst all of the Israel-haters, that was blatantly and unapologetically pro-Israel. I was there with other Israel supporters. We spoke up. We challenged the hatred and misinformation. Alan Gale (as far as I know) wasn't invited to this occasion and will most likely not be invited back at all. He obviously attracts the wrong crowd.

I don't think these people like their cherished anti-Zionist (but never anti-Jewish, oh no, they love the Jews, see? they invited Jewish Voice for Peace) views challenged by facts.

The important thing is that we be there.

Cowznofski

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.

Recommended Reading

I started reading the Qu'ran. I forced myself to slog through the first nine chapters. Then I returned it to the library. Eventually I will read it all. It is a tough read though. There is very little narrative, but a lot of rules, warnings of what will happen if you fail to follow Allah, and lots and lots of venom against Jews and Christians, but mostly against Jews. For anyone who takes this book seriously, and we know there are a lot of Muslims who do, there can be no other conclusion than Jews are the enemy of Islam.

Muslims are warned not to take Jews or Christians as friends. Jews are responsible, it seems, for rejecting prophets and for trying to turn Muslims away from Islam, at least according to the Qu'ran. I could offer quotes and links, but better you should go and read it on your own. Read it with friends. Form a study group. Rather than take the word of the liars at CAIR, find out for yourself. I know you're busy; we're all busy. Turn off the TV for a while. Take a few days off of Facebook. Read the Qu'ran.

If you want the "Cliff Notes" version, I can't recommend Andrew G. Bostom's book, The Legacy of ISLAMIC ANTISEMITISM highly enough. He has done the dirty work of surveying the history of Islam and reprinting quotes from the Qu'ran, hadiths, conferences, and other Islamic writings concerning Jews. He also quotes Sheikh Yousef Al-Qaradhawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, the new rulers of North Africa. It's not pretty, but that's the way it is when you decide to find the truth.

And while the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt decides whether or not to honor their peace treaty with Israel, which current president of the United States is legitimizing his Jew-hatred by calling on Qaradhawi to mediate talks (speaking of self-defeating insanity) between the U.S. and the Taliban?

Keep that in mind when you are asked to donate to the re-election of our anti-Israel president. It can be argued whether or not Obama has an animus toward Jews or not. What can't be argued is his love and lust for our money.

We Are Not Alone

That is, we are not alone in battling the Jew haters and our feckless "leaders" who would rather reach out than fight back. Here is a comment by banjopop from my previous post:

http://www.hvcn.org/info/feh/

The above website is FYI and is based in Ann Arbor where a particularly small but relentlessly nasty cadre of BDS bigots has harassed a local synagogue for nearly 9 years ( with scant pushback from most of the synagogue members or officials).

One of them, Blaine Coleman ( see the " who are the herskovites" page) has even received ACLU backing for a truly vile antisemitic ad he wants run on ann arbor busses and which the transportation authority initially rejected out of hand (to their credit).

The case is pending.

I've read about these hate mongers before. I even unknowingly met one of them. Follow the link and find out more about Ann Arbor BDS fools and what's happening in Ann Arbor. As Jews, we're expected to shut our mouths and put up with this kind of intimidation.

Here is what the Jew haters and passive jihad-enablers ignore.



Cowznofski

The Birth of Civility?

There is a debate going on in the pages of the Detroit Jewish News on "civility in our Jewish dialogue". OK, I can be civil. But if you don't like what I have to say, don't accuse me of being "divisive". Rather, offer a substantive argument showing me the error of my ways. There always has been and always will be a diversity of opinion in the Jewish community, civil or otherwise. So, Sharon Lipton and the JCRC will have to excuse me if don't attend their civility seminars. (I'd have to attend in my Purim costume anyway to maintain my anonymity.) Here at Talking Tachlis, we offer a fine platform for community members to air their grievances and engage in spirited debate. We are adults. We don't need to be told how to debate. If you don't like our position on the issues, don't avoid answering our charges by hiding behind "civility".

Civility, believe it or not, can be taken too far. Take for example, this letter by Robert Cohen, JCRC president, in January second's Detroit Free Press:

Although Terry Ahwal's guest commentary of Dec. 27 conveyed a one-sided picture of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, it was encouraging to see it conclude with support for a two-state solution ("Gingrich's claim that Palestinians are 'invented' displays a pandering style of foreign policy").

Jews and Arabs often strongly disagree about where to lay blame for their conflict, but we can agree that both Israelis and Palestinians have suffered greatly. We cannot forget past events that brought Israelis and Palestinians to where they are today. But peace can only be realized if both peoples move forward toward a settlement they negotiate directly with each other based on a shared vision of a better future.

Lovely, isn't it? The very model of civility. It is even-handed, forgiving, non-confrontational, walking on the sunny side of the street with both hands outstretched in friendship.

The problem is that Terry Ahwal took the opposite stance. Read his column here.

Pretty nasty, isn't it? It's not only divisive (to the Metropolitan Detroit community) and confrontational, but it's a pack of lies, which anyone who knows anything about the history of the Middle East can easily expose. Unfortunately, as we know, when it comes to slandering Israel in the mainstream press, the slanderers are allowed to create their own facts; fact-checking be damned. The ultimate lie, sitting atop a stinking pile of defamation and dishonesty, is the final paragraph:

Gingrich should know that we Palestinian people live and exist and are the indigenous population of Palestine. For the interest of peace, Palestinians are willing to live side by side by Israel as equal and no amount of denial will eradicate us.

Do I really have to explain the unabashed mendacity of those fallacious claims? I don't think I do, but I think Mr. Cohen should have shown some support for the Jewish community and exposed Ahwal's lies in the Free Press. I'm sorry Mr. Cohen, but "one-sided" is quite a limp-wristed attack on a piece that demanded a strong response. But what's worse is the morally equivalent tone of what follows.

You credit Ahwal for his support of the "two state solution"? Palestinian leadership is interested in a one state solution, and guess which state that solution doesn't include.

Yes, Palestinians and Israelis have both suffered . . . at the hands of the Palestinians.

Anyone who has been paying attention knows that Palestinians and Israelis don't share the same vision. The Palestinian vision is a land without Israel and without Jews. That's more than strong disagreement. That has to be acknowledged when answering libels against Israel and against Jews. You want to compromise with evil? Move over, and let those of us who are willing to raise our voices speak.

Recall what Golda Meir had to say about compromising with our enemies:

I guess we have no choice. Either we do everything that is possible, and may seem to others as impossible, and just give up. Or we do everything that is really impossible and we remain alive. There’s one more basic thing that I think that people outside of Israel must realize, and if they understand and accept that, maybe other things will fall into place.

For instance, we’re not the only people in the world who’ve had difficulties with neighbors; that has happened to many. We are the only country in the world whose neighbors do not say, “We are going to war because we want a certain piece of land from Israel,” or waterways or anything of that kind. We’re the only people in the world where our neighbors openly announce they just won’t have us here. And they will not give up fighting and they will not give up war as long as we remain alive. Here.

So this is the crux of the problem: it isn’t anything concrete that they want from us. That’s why it doesn’t make sense when people say, “Give up this and give up the other place. Give up the Golan Heights,” for instance. What happened when we were not on the Golan Heights? We were not on the Golan Heights before ’67, and for 19 years, Syria had guns up there and shot at our agricultural settlements below. We were not on the Golan Heights! So what, if we give up the Golan Heights, they will stop shooting? We were not in the Suez Canal when the war started.

It’s because Egypt and Syria and the other Arab countries refuse to acquiesce to our existence. Therefore there can be no compromise. They say we must be dead. And we say we want to be alive. Between life and death, I don’t know of a compromise. And that’s why we have no choice.

I await a response. But please be civil. I'm very sensitive.
Cowznofski

Why is Shaarey Zedek and ZOA Undermining Our Jewish Community?

Metro Jewish Detroit’s Dirty Little Secrets are hurting all of us.

There is a conspiracy of silence, an “omerta” if you will, by our communal “bosses” and organs of power to hide the truth, to deflect our focus away from serious and growing threats to much more pedestrian or newly-hyped issues of the day. To read the Detroit Jewish News of late, one would think that bed bugs and cluttered closets are our biggest worries. If only that were true. Granted, it is much harder to confront difficult and inconvenient truths, but we fail to do so at our own peril.

The sad reality is that not only have our leaders failed to address the accelerating dangers; not only have they reneged on their responsibilities to be the front guard protecting our welfare and security; in too many cases, they are the problem – in bed with the wrong bed partners.

To wit, the Jewish News just weeks ago featured a front-page cover story hailing the 150th anniversary of Congregation Shaarey Zedek. In the glowing review of the synagogue’s and clergy’s vaunted history was, by way of pointing out its ecumenicalism, a brief mention of the synagogue’s commemoration of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks. No mention of the participating imam or his troubling ties to a “radical anti-Semitic” Pakistan-based Islamist organization whose founder likened Jews to parasites and presaged the “extermination” of the Jews. No mention of ADL’s warnings not to grant the legitimacy the organization craves to mainstream itself in advancing its ‘extremist ideology’. No mention that authorities stated the organization influenced the radicalization of a young American teen to become Al Qaeda’s top English language propagandist and the alleged mastermind of the cargo bomb plot targeting Chicago synagogues who was killed alongside Anwar Al-Awlaki in the recent US drone strike in Yemen. No follow-up analysis or enterprise reporting from the Jewish News. Only one small letter to the editor from a concerned communal activist that had to fight its way into the paper and only after it was gored of much substance.

And in what is perhaps the most painful and dangerous sellout of all, the Zionist Organization of America has thrown our community under the bus. Tonight at its annual Balfour Concert, the ZOA Michigan Chapter, with the backing of the national ZOA, is honoring CSZ Rabbi Joseph Krakoff, despite the fact that the ZOA knows full well about the imam’s associations because the ZOA itself made the rabbi and synagogue aware of them in vain hopes CSZ would preclude the imam’s participation or refuse itself to participate.

Instead of calling out an enabler of dangerous anti-Semitism and radical Islamism; instead of criticizing the appaling derelictions of due diligence that allowed this to transpire, the ZOA is honoring and rewarding the betrayal of our community. Why would the most stalwart of Jewish organizations make a a sham and mockery of their mission?

There is no organization stronger or more principled than the ZOA in defending Israel…in calling out university presidents, diplomats, generals, US Secretaries of State and Presidents and even Israeli Prime Ministers when they undermine Israel’s legitimacy and strength. But isn’t the strength and security of our local community worth speaking out for as well? What good are all the ZOA speakers and programs warning us of the looming threats when they help to enable and empower them in the first place? Just this past week, the ZOA Midwest campus coordinator wrote a crying appeal for communal support after a high-ranking Bedouin Israeli speaking here at the University of Michigan was treated malignly by a group of MSA students. Instead of gala concerts enabling the enablers, why didn’t ZOA, Rabbi Krakoff and his imam colleague go to the university to support the speaker, to insist he be treated civilly and to demand the university ensure the rights of Jewish students are honored and protected?

Bottom line: The rabbi didn’t want to hurt the imam. ZOA didn’t want to hurt the rabbi. Does anyone care that they are hurting our children??

CSZ and ZOA are hardly the only local institutions to have compromised our communal integrity and welfare. They are just the most recent. TT hopes desperately that all our communal organizations will take to heart their avowed obligations to speak and act on behalf of our interests. If ever there was a time for scrupulous vetting, for reassessment of priorities, for reorientation, it is NOW!

Read the report below.

ADL: “Despite its effort to ‘mainstream’ itself, IONA maintains its official ties to Pakistan and remains committed to its goals and extremist ideology.”

Joe Kaufman, Americans Against Hate: "If one wishes to keep away from extremists and caution others to do the same, one would certainly not join up with CAIR or IONA. One would shun them."

The Zionist Organization of America Michigan chapter, with the knowledge of the national organization and despite appeals from supporters and concerned community members, will confer its highest honor upon a rabbi who, along with the decision-makers of his synagogue, recently legitimized the leader of an organization described by the ADL as a “radical anti-Semitic” Pakistan-based organization seeking a global Islamic caliphate and who is also vice chair of a Michigan coalition (CIOMonline.com) which partners with CAIR, ISNA et al.

Tonight, Rabbi Joseph J. Krakoff will be awarded the Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award at the 78th annual Balfour celebration of the ZOA Michigan chapter. Just last month, at an interfaith commemoration of the 10-year anniversary of the 9/11 terror attacks (www.liftupsouthfield.org) , Rabbi Krakoff yielded his bimah to Imam Mustapha Elturk, the head of IONA, the reconstituted US arm of Tanzeem-e-Islami, an organization described as a "Nazi-style Islamist movement" in a Pajamas Media article by Joe Kaufman of Americans Against Hate. (http://pjmedia.com/blog/cair-leader-tied-to-nazi-style-islamist-mosque/).

Elturk recently penned a whitewashing tribute to Islamic sharia law. He was also quoted last year in the Arab American News mourning the death of Hezbollah spiritual leader and US designated global terrorist Sheikh Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah.

The organization's history of anti-Semitsim has been documented by ADL and many sources. According to a report in Canada’s National Post on Tanzeem-e-Islami founder Israr Ahmad and included in an Investigative Project onTerrorism (IPT) report:

“He compares Jews to parasites, calls the Holocaust "Divine punishment" and foresees the "total extermination" of Jews at the hands of Muslims.”

According to Kaufman, and as documented by many other sources chronicling the organization:

“The movement was founded by Israr Ahmad, a religious fanatic who, according to IONA’s website, had broken away from the Muslim Brotherhood affiliate Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) in 1957 because of the group’s “involvement in the electoral politics.”

A couple of Ahmad’s favorite targets are Jews and Christians, whom he chillingly describes as “enemies of Islam...”

Ahmad brought his movement to America in 1993, under the name Tanzeem-e-Islami North America (TINA). In 2003, the organization changed its name to the Islamic Organization of North America (IONA), after Ahmad had appointed Mustapha “Steve” Elturk to be the group’s new leader.

Subsequent to the name change, IONA has made the claim that it is somehow independent from TI. Yet, the web address tanzeem.us is a mirror address of IONA’s official website, ionaonline.org.

As well, the group never relinquished the harsh anti-Western and Nazi-like rhetoric of its Pakistani parent.”

The national ADL profile concurs: “Despite its effort to ‘mainstream’ itself, IONA maintains its official ties to Pakistan and remains committed to its goals and extremist ideology.”

Tanzeem-e-Islami/IONA, according to the ADL, Southern Poverty Law Center and other sources, purportedly influenced Samir Kahn, the online editor of al Qaeda's English language Inspire Magazine, who was taken out alongside American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki, in the Sept. 30 US drone strike in Yemen. According to a Fox News report citing federal authorities, Kahn “admitted he was behind the October 2010 cargo printer bomb plot” which targeted synagogues in Chicago.

The Michigan ZOA Balfour fundraiser will also honor a local Jewish member of the US military. That is certainly noble, except for the fact that the honoree rabbi’s embrace of Imam Elturk degrades the tribute to the Jewish first lieutenant. As noted by the national ADL, Tanzeem’s founder expressed support for the Taliban as it is “based on upholding the supremacy of Islamic shariah.” Last Sunday, 13 Americans were killed in a Taliban bomb attack in Kabul, Afghanistan. The death toll of US soldiers in Afghanistan now tops 1,700.


What is so vexing is that the Detroit ZOA, which made the rabbi and Congregation Shaarey Zedek aware of its objections to the imam's inclusion in the 9/11 commemoration and provided documentation of the the imam’s extremist ties, would honor the rabbi despite his failure to rescind the invitation to the imam, to back out of the event or to issue a public statement disavowing the imam and IONA. Even more curious is the ZOA’s refusal to take up the rabbi on his reported offer to bow out of the ZOA honor in the wake of this controversy.

It is reported that the rabbi turned to the local ADL and AJC to vet the imam, who greenlighted him despite the national ADL's extensive documentation and warnings to the contrary.

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/american-jihadi-samir-khan-killed-awlaki/story?id=14640013

http://pjmedia.com/blog/cair-leader-tied-to-nazi-style-islamist-mosque/

http://www.arabamericannews.com/news/index.php?mod=article&cat=Community&article=3199

http://www.investigativeproject.org/539/fbis-latest-outreach-outrage

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/american-al-qaeda-proud-traitor/story?id=11855126

http://ciomonline.com/resources/partner-organizations

http://www.islamicity.com/Articles/articles.asp?ref=RS1108-4817

http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/al_qaeda_english_magazine.htm

http://www.adl.org/main_Terrorism/samir_khan.htm?Multi_page_sections=sHeading_4

http://www.adl.org/mian_Terrorism/samir_khan.htm

http://www.splcenter.org/get-informed/intelligence-report/browse-all-issues/2011/fall/ten-years-after/grown-at-home

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2011/oct/29/us-public-opinion-afghanistan-war

http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/story.html?id=b4e39c78-3eb3-43e8-a418-cc61adc044c5

Boycott/Buycott in Florida

The BDS dopes are at it again, or were in S. Florida. Here are some short articles I received on the goings on down there. But I wonder, do the BDS idiots want to boycott everything Israeli? Can they be that stupid? That remains to be seen.

Friends of ZOA:

ZOA has received many emails and phone calls since informing the community of the BDS Boycott that took place at Publix this past Saturday. It was terrific to see all parts of the pro-Israel community work together in response. By all accounts the “Buycott” that was organized was a success. People all over South Florida purchased Sabra and Tribe hummus at Publix supermarkets and submitted letters of support to the management.

Many people want to know more about Florida’s anti-Israel community and the organizers of the BDS Boycott. The article published in today’s Jewish Journal covering the event offered few details about who these people are and what motivates them. A copy of the article appears below.

ZOA submitted a written interview to the Jewish Journal last week that offered specific details and explanations that we hoped would be passed on to the community. We were let down to see that most of the important points we highlighted were not ultimately included in the article. Specifically, we feel that the article did not accurately portray the anti-Israel activists involved in the boycott. As a consequence the public has been denied important facts and understanding. Excerpts from the written interview are included below as well.

The community needs to know that Florida’s BDS activists are anti-Jewish bigots who seek the destruction of Israel. The organizers of Saturday’s Boycott hosted an event in May called the Third Intifada Rally for Palestine. “Intifada” is a call for a violent uprising aimed at destroying Israel. During the First and Second Intifada thousands of innocent Israeli civilians, including women and children, were brutally murdered by indiscriminate terrorist attacks.

The attached video was captured at an anti-Israel rally hosted last month in front of the Israeli Consulate. It was organized by the same group, and many people on this video were present this past Saturday. Turn up the volume and listen carefully. “Intifada” and “From the River to the Sea” have only one meaning. This type of information is essential to understanding what is taking place in our community. If the pro-Israel community is to defeat these enemies they must be equipped with the facts and information needed to do so.

ZOA feels that the pro-Israel Community should be more concerned about the quality of its own efforts than it is by those of the anti-Israel Community. We urge all of you to consider inviting ZOA to your synagogue/church/group to provide a specific presentation about the status of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish efforts in Florida, and the facts information needed for us to defeat them. We want to share first hand evidence about a situation that many other organizations are unwilling to discuss publicly. ZOA believes that in order for our community to prevail over the threats of our enemies, there must be a detailed understanding of Florida's anti-Israel Community, its leadership, strategies, goals and recent activities.

JOSEPH M. SABAG, ESQ.
Executive Director
Florida Region
Zionist Organization of America


Email: Florida@zoa.org
Phone: (561) 470-1948
Address: 21218 St. Andrews Blvd., #600
Boca Raton, FL 33433
Visit Us: www.zoa.org

And

What does the community need to know about BDS in South Florida?

It is extremely important for the public to know that the leading proponents of the local BDS movement are the same anti-Jewish bigots who lead the anti-Israel community. In fact, the July 23rd boycott event at Publix was organized by the same bigots who organized May’s “Third Intifada Rally” in Miami on Israeli Independence Day. BDS is a form of economic warfare, and is presently one of the favorite tactics of Israel’s enemies. The vulnerability of the BDS movement lies in its being properly recognized as anti-Jewish rather than anti-Israel.

BDS advocates are smart enough to lie about their intentions. They’ll claim that they are simply protesting Israel’s policies, while the media takes them at their word and whitewashes them as simple activists concerned with the so-called Palestinian-Israeli Conflict. But the truth is that their efforts are aimed at seeing Israel wiped off the map – “from the River to the Sea” as their slogan says. The motivation for this stems from powerful traditions of Islamic and European hatred toward Jews. It's extremely important that the connection of BDS to anti-Jewish bigotry be further exposed and highlighted. The vast majority of self-described anti-Israel/anti-Zionist activists and openly anti-Jewish bigots would be hard pressed to explain how their perspectives differ in any meaningful way. This is made clear by the fact that they use the same methodology of demonizing and delegitimizing Israel while constantly holding her to unfair double-standards.

What can individuals in the community do to counteract BDS efforts?

Israel’s supporters generally have nothing to gain by counter-demonstrating and engaging the bigots who support BDS. It’s the retailers being targeted who need to receive the message that the public overwhelmingly supports their decision to sell products made in Israel. In responding to boycott demonstrations, many communities have held ‘buycotts’ as a method to counter, and ZOA is strongly in favor of this approach. Israel’s supporters should go to the retailers being targeted and buy the products being targeted for boycott and other items made in Israel, and they should submit a brief letter to the management at the time of purchase expressing support for the retailer’s decision to carry the products. The efforts of the anti-Israel community are indeed frustrated where they serve to increase sales of a particular Israeli product rather than to prevent them.

Finally

Florida Jewish Journal Boycott Battle

By Sergio Carmona Florida Jewish Journal

July 26, 2011



Israel's local supporters and opponents engaged in debates and arguments outside a North Miami Publix last week.



As South Florida Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions organizers conducted a boycott demonstration calling Publix to end its sales of Sabra and Tribe brand hummus and food products, they were confronted by counter-demonstrators supporting Israel.



Aventura resident and Israeli supporter Liz Becker, who attended with her friends to "buycott" Israeli products and confront BDS, felt the group was being selective when it came to boycotting Israel.



"If they're going to boycott, let them boycott right," Becker said. "Let them throw away all their cell phones right now. They can't text message or go on AIM because any form of instant messaging was created in Israel."



Becker listed items that were created in Israel such as flash drives, voicemail, camera phone chips on cell phones and more.



Weston resident Arthur Barr, who also counter-protested in favor of Israel, was amazed that the group was being selective in certain products they don't use.



"Every time they say they want to boycott Israeli products, they should boycott all the sophisticated electronics that deal with cell phones," Barr said. "Why are they not doing that? Israel makes money every time someone purchases this equipment."



The protest took place during the Sabbath. Becker said that she felt that the group deliberately planned the demonstration during that time.



"They're doing it because they know the Orthodox community cannot attend," she said. "That's exactly why they're doing it."



However, South Florida BDS organizers said that the decision to schedule the demonstration on that date was because it was the easiest day to get everybody together.



"It was easier for people to get together on a Saturday afternoon than any other time," said BDS organizer Len Kaminsky, a Surfside resident. "It has nothing to do with the Sabbath. Some of us are Jewish."



Kaminsky added that the whole idea of the protest was being anti-Zionist and not anti-Jewish.



"We don't agree with the way the Palestinians are being treated by Israel, which is a Zionist state," he added. "I'm Jewish but I'm not a Zionist. There is a difference. We defend the Jews, but we don't defend Zionism and the reason why we're here is because a lot of the products that are sold are made to benefit Israel."



Despite the turnout of Israel supporters coming out to counter-protest, community leaders don't advise that pro-Israel advocates counter demonstrate these groups. Andrew Rosenkranz, the Anti-Defamation League's Florida Regional director in Boca Raton, said "ADL opposes boycotts in policy and has historically advised against counter boycotts or demonstrations. The best support the Jewish community can give to Israel right now is to stop the flow of inaccurate information which serves as the base of the BDS movement."



Joseph Sabag, executive director for Zionist Organization of America's Florida Region in Boca Raton, said that although Israel's supporters generally have nothing to gain by counter-demonstrating and engaging those who support BDS, ZOA is in favor of the "buycott" approach.



"Israel's supporters should go to the retailers being targeted and buy the products being targeted for boycott and other items made in Israel and they should submit a brief letter to the management at the time of purchase expressing support for the retailer's decision to carry the products," he added.

Copyright © 2011, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Me? I'm in favor of the Buycott, and perhaps talking with some of the boycotters about their tactics and their demonization of the only Jewish country on Earth. But I'm obsessive that way.

One more thing: Do you think the young - uh -  lady in the following video is anti-Jewish, or merely anti-Zionist, criticizing the policies of the right-wing Israeli government. Yes, it's from 2008, but it was filmed in S. Florida. I bet she's a BDS supporter.





by Cowznofski