RUTHFULLY YOURS

http://daphneanson.blogspot.com/

As we enter the UN-declared Year of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, here’s a brief round-up in snippet form of some items I didn’t have time to mention before.

Some are good, some bad, and two of the latter type are perplexing.

I list them under the names of the chief actors, in alphabetical order, naturellement.

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Woody Allen, publicly getting it at long last:

“I do feel there are many people that disguise their negative feelings toward Jews, disguise it as anti-Israel criticism, political criticism, when in fact what they really mean is that they don’t like Jews.”

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Bill Anderson, non-Jewish Aussie academic, in a letter to The Australian (20 December 2013) concerning anti-Israel Greens Senator Lee Rhiannon:

‘…. Rhiannon and other extremists in the Greens have frequently indulged in intemperate and ill-informed attacks on Israel. The NSW Greens conference in 2011 passed a proposal to “boycott Israeli goods, trading and military arrangements, and sporting, cultural and economic events as a contribution to the struggle to end Israel’s occupation and colonisation of Palestinian territory, the siege of Gaza and the imprisonment of 1.5 million people and Israel’s institution of a system of apartheid”.

This radical anti-Israel policy is at odds with the policies of both main parties in Australia and the majority of the Australians. It is also at odds with the federal Greens, which voted against a similarly worded proposal.

The NSW Greens policy is so one-sided and extreme that it could have been written by Hamas. Given that Hamas is recognised and listed by most democratic governments as a terrorist organisation, one can hardly be surprised that this position of the NSW Greens would cause concern.’

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Association of American Universities (quoted here) regarding the reprehensible Academic Boycott:

“The Executive Committee of the Association of American Universities strongly opposes a boycott of Israeli academic institutions…. Any such boycott of academic institutions directly violates academic freedom, which is a fundamental principle of AAU universities and of American higher education in general.

Academic freedom is the freedom of university faculty responsibly to produce and disseminate knowledge through research, teaching, and service, without undue constraint. It is a principle that should not be abridged by political considerations. American colleges and universities, as well as like institutions elsewhere, must stand as the first line of defense against attacks on academic freedom.

Efforts to address political issues, or to address restrictions on academic freedom, should not themselves infringe upon academic freedom. Restrictions imposed on the ability of scholars of any particular country to work with their fellow academics in other countries, participate in meetings and organizations, or otherwise carry out their scholarly activities violate academic freedom. The boycott of Israeli academic institutions therefore clearly violates the academic freedom not only of Israeli scholars but also of American scholars who might be pressured to comply with it. We urge American scholars and scholars around the world who believe in academic freedom to oppose this and other such academic boycotts.”

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Frank Baigel, who sits on the Jewish Leadership Council as president of the Manchester Jewish Representative Council, responding here to JLC chairman Mick Davis’s latest cheap shot at Israel, an article in Haaretz here:

“As Israel continues to be under continuous existential threat, I always — as all diaspora Jews should — support Israel, whichever party is in power. Until I go to live in Israel myself, I will not publicly express any reservations about the government’s policies.”

(Image at right: a cheap shot from Mick in 2010)
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Martin Bright, the Jewish Chronicle’s first non-Jewish political editor, on leaving the paper to take up another appointment:

“I have learnt much over the past few years. I have begun to understand the umbilical relationship between many British Jews and Israel, and their visceral reaction when it is attacked. I have grown to appreciate the many subtle and ingenious ways that antisemitism can express itself.”

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Pat Condell, with a chilling warning about the astonishing state-sponsored appeasement of Islamism in Sweden and all it portends for Jews (and for women); this video has had many thousands of hits, so chances are you’ve already seen it:

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/367254/print All things considered, it was a year without shame. It was the year that Miley Cyrus French-kissed a sledgehammer in the music video for her song “Wrecking Ball,” and cavorted naked on said wrecking ball. The former Disney star popularized the act of twerking in a performance at the MTV Video Music Awards that […]

http://www.nationalreview.com/node/367296/print The Beltway consensus seems to be that 2013 was a bad year for the same reason nearly every other recent year was bad: polarization and partisanship. Personally, I can think of plenty of more important things to worry about than partisanship. Democracy is about disagreements, and partisanship is often a sign of healthy disagreement. […]

FEISTY SWEDEN FIGHTS BACK BY SERVING WATER INSTEAD OF VODKA- Swedish pub serves pure water as vodka, and not completely by mistake http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4532/swedish_pub_serves_pure_water_as_vodka_and_not_completely_by_mistake

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4534/government_over_regulation_threatens_danish_pastry

Earlier this year New York City voted 8-0 to limit sugary drinks over 16-ounces. The purpose, argued by public health experts, is to prevent obesity and the diagnosis of type II diabetes.

Local businesses and national chains, such as Starbucks, were concerned with government regulation intruding on their business. New York City is known to be a dining capital and regulation will have an impact on their bottom lines.

A petition to block the plan was approved by New York’s Supreme Court calling the ban “unprecedented interference” and ruling it arbitrary and capricious. There is no research to prove that sugary drinks cause obesity or diabetes and the regulation was concentrated on certain businesses rather than being inclusive and citywide. A win for liberty and freedom from government regulation in New York City.

Meanwhile, in Denmark, the CATO Institute reported a proposal to limit the coumarin level found in the Danish pastries due to new European Union regulations. Denmark is famous for the kanelsnegler, or cinnamon swirls, containing high amounts of cinnamon. Hardy Christensen from the Danish Bakers’ Association explained the pastries have been made for 200 years and making them differently will “change the distinctive flavor and produce less tasty pastries.”

http://www.thecommentator.com/article/4529/tables_turn_us_university_boycotts_palestinian_university

THE AUTHOR, HIGHLY REGARDED MICHAEL CURTIS CALLS SARI NUSSEIBEH “A WELL KNOWN AND RESPECTED INTELLECTUAL”…..HUH? NUSSEIBEH IS AN INVETERATE LIAR, BIGOT, AND PLAIN OLD ANTI-SEMITE. I HAVE HEARD HIS “MODERATE” RANT IN NEW YORK AT ONE OF THOSE LEFTY/TRENDY SYNAGOGUES THAT JUST LOVE INTERFAITHING…..THE PA AND ABBAS SHARE THE NAZI ASPIRATIONS WHICH ALWAYS START WITH THE 2 STATE DISSOLUTION OF ISRAEL….RSK

What goes around comes around. A celebrated US university suspended relations with Palestinian Al-Quds University. But that boycott was justified. Nazi salutes and paramilitary dress decorated a rally on their campus

In light of the recent demonstrations of ignorance, bigotry, and possibly anti-Semitism exhibited by the members of the two academic bodies — the Association of Asian American Studies in April 2013 and the American Studies Association in December 2013 — who voted in favor of a boycott of Israeli academic institutions — it is a seemingly ironic twist of fate that on November 18, 2013, Al-Quds, an Arab University, was suspended by an American university, Brandeis, from continuing the partnership arrangement between the two institutions.

Al-Quds, now with 12,000 students, Palestinians, and residents of Jerusalem, was set up in 1995 in the village of Abu Dis, just east of Jerusalem. Its chief source of funding has been the Ford Foundation; recently it has received funding from the Bronfman Foundation. Its president since 1994, Sari Nusseibeh, a professor of philosophy, is a well-known and respected intellectual, partly educated at Harvard and Oxford, who has established academic relationships with Israeli universities.

Regarded by most people as a political moderate, he has publicly called for a peace process leading to a two-state solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict, and for the renunciation of the Palestinian demand for the “right of return.”

http://www.americanthinker.com/2014/01/a_few_easy_tests_to_debunk_global_warming_hysteria.html Global warming advocates went to Antarctica to prove that Antarctic sea ice had disappeared because of man.  They got stuck in ten foot thick sea ice they knew wasn’t there.  The rescue ship was also stuck for a while, but it was eventually able to back out to safer water.   This all happens in the […]

http://sultanknish.blogspot.com/ The next year  sweeps around the earth like the hand of a clock, from Australia to Europe and across the great stretch of the Atlantic it rides the darkness to America. And then around and around again, each passing day marking another sweep of the hours. In Times Square crowds of tourists gather in […]

http://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/4113/france-muslim-integration Among the long list of recommendations…the panel says that public schools in France should be taught in Arabic and African languages rather than in French. “It would no longer be up to French immigrants to adopt French culture, but for France to abandon its own culture, language, history and identity to adapt to other […]

http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Columnists/The-World-From-Here-Will-Abbas-defy-Islam-for-peace-with-Israel-336732   “Can Israeli concessions influence the Palestinians to sign an historic peace deal that ends the Arab-Israeli conflict once and for all?” Israel’s release of convicted Palestinian terrorists and Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu’s reported agreement in principle to concessions in the Jordan Valley beg an important question: Can Israeli concessions influence the Palestinians to […]

http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/175767#.UsMIF7QQQ_U

Left-wing organizations are waging a psychological war on Israelis living in the Jordan Valley, activist Danny Dayan, the former head of the Yesha (Judea and Samaria) Council, has accused.

Dayan revealed a recent incident in which one organization tried to rally support based on a poll showing that most Israelis living in the Jordan Valley want to leave – a poll which, he says, turned out to have been a complete fabrication.

“They called me from Reshet Bet. The group ‘Atid Kachol Lavan’ [‘A Blueand White Future’, which promotes a withdrawal from Judea and Samaria – ed.] was going to present the results of a survey conducted among residents of the Jordan Valley showing that most wanted to evacuate with or without a diplomatic agreement [between Israel and the Palestinian Authority],” he recalled.

“’Would you like to reply on air?’ they asked. ‘Yes, definitely. It sounds very strange to me,’” Dayan continued. “’It’s a poll done by Mina Tzemach,’ they announced happily.”

Mina Tzemach is widely renowned as a political pollster.

“So we went on the air. The chairman of that organization, and me. He said that according to the poll by Mina Tzemach, so-and-so many people want to leave the Jordan Valley,” Dayan said.

“I saw there was clear manipulation, because the results contradicted reality – which is that new residents are moving to the Jordan Valley. ‘It can’t be true,’ I said. ‘But Mina Tzemach did a poll!’ was his unequivocal response.