by Steven Shamrak

Most people of this planet do not care or even know about Israel and Jews. Many of them receive glimpses of information about the Arab-Israel conflict from reports they accidentally hear on radio, see on TV, or read on newspaper headlines. Unfortunately, under bombardment from the modern media, some of them have adopted the main stream “understanding” of the issue, but still they do not care about the factual truth behind reports. Even many members of the Jewish tribe, who are still suffering from the Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) inflicted on Jewish people during two millennia of living in exile and persecution by Christians and Muslims, have become believers of these opinions continuously propagated by the world press and Western governments who are oblivious to the danger of Islamic expansion. Strangely, the fake opinions about the Arab-Israel conflict have not been refuted by the string of Israel’s governments or the Jewish leadership of the Diaspora.

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by Phyllis Chesler

I recently attended a Hebrew poetry class taught by a friend, Atara Fobar, who translates Hebrew poetry into English. Atara is a serious teacher and is the distinguished translator of Moshe Itzhaki. Every month, Atara teaches poetry to religious Jews of a certain age–to the kind of people whose delight in learning is almost child-like and which renders them ageless.

We are a bit like those Jews who continued to write and produce plays, newspapers, and musical evenings in Holocaust era ghettos, who so optimistically kept taking books out of libraries (and returning them) until they could no longer do so.

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By Gary Gerofsky

Peace Studies at McMaster University — non-violence, Gandhi peace events, love and peace — who could possibly take exception with such positive messages of global tolerance and efforts to make the world a peaceful place to live? Who would dare challenge this facade of eternal goodness and inclusion? Well, allow me to interject to explain why, in our Orwellian world, peace does not mean what it should and how a department has been hijacked by a monomaniacal agenda that concentrates on criticism of one democratic country and treats tyrants and terrorists as if they were angels. This is an agenda copied from what they do in the UN where peace has also been turned on its head to mean the enabling of: war, terrorism, historical revisionism, moral relativism, and support for groups that are anti-Western. This Peace Studies department must be viewed and scrutinized in the context of Israeli activist and sometimes-government-minister Natan Sharansky’s “3D test of Anti-Semitism: Demonization, Double-Standards and Delegitimization.” Confronting free and law-abiding countries and ignoring real tyrants as if they do not exist is now acceptable behaviour to certain academics and administrators who hide behind the false banner of “peace” to convey their love of concepts of non-peace, war, hate and envy. The custodians of higher education at universities, if they have anything to say at all, which is rare, hide behind free speech and academic freedom to slough off criticism of the campaigns being waged under their willfully blind leadership.

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By Fern Sidman

Tensions flared between dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators and members of “Students for Justice in Palestine” on Sunday afternoon, October 16th outside of Columbia University on the third and final day of the 2011 National Students for Justice in Palestine “teach-in” organized by members to prepare for their upcoming Israel Apartheid Week events across college campuses throughout North America.

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by Steven Plaut*

Israel is under assault from within and not just from the usual suspects. Its legitimacy and, in many cases, its very existence are being attacked by a domestic academic fifth column. Hundreds of professors and lecturers, employed by Israel’s state-financed universities, are building careers as full-time activists working against the very country in which they live. And the problem is growing. Fortunately, the Israeli public has become aware of the problem and is increasingly demanding that something be done about it. A not inconsiderable part of the credit for this belongs to the Middle East Quarterly, probably the first serious journal to discuss the problem a decade ago, sparking a debate that continues to challenge the Israeli academy’s offensive against the Jewish state.

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by Phyllis Chesler

And now it seems as if I am standing still while the years quickly swirl round me like autumn leaves, like diamond snowflakes. As one ages, time seems to gather speed.

Paradoxically, this particular moment in history seems to be taking place in slow motion. It seems we have been here before — but really, it is always new, always happening as if for the first time.

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By Gary Gerofsky

A young woman, 22 years of age, in her final year at York University (in Toronto, Canada) was looking for a course to fill out her credit requirements at the beginning of the new fall session. Sarah is her name — a quiet and confident woman who just wanted to maintain her good grade average and complete her education. She had never imagined getting involved in any politics or controversies on the way home to the graduation finish line.

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By Fern Sidman

Autumn in New York City will never be the same. The traditional atmosphere that marks this time of the year such as cooler temperatures, changing leaves and post-season play for major league baseball have been abruptly usurped by the menacing tone of geo-political realities. As most of us are already aware, the United Nations General Assembly will be convening for its annual session. In addition to hosting a veritable rogues gallery of assorted miscreants such as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and playing chief sponsor to yet another round of infamous Israel bashing as manifested in the Durban III conference, this year the international spotlight is on the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood.

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It is now official: Palestinians want to create an apartheid state, according to the PLO ambassador to the U.S. All the hoo-hah about Israel being an “apartheid state” is a flat-out lie propagated by anti-Semitic hate-mongers. The ambassador also ruled out the notion of a “one-state” solution, promoted by hypocritical Palestinians and their supporters — a solution which was double-speak for, “Once we get the ‘one-state,’ we take over and kill all the Jews.” From USA Today:

The Palestine Liberation Organization’s ambassador to the United States said Tuesday that any future Palestinian state it seeks with help from the United Nations and the United States should be free of Jews.

“After the experience of the last 44 years of military occupation and all the conflict and friction, I think it would be in the best interest of the two people to be separated,” Maen Areikat, the PLO ambassador, said…

Such a state would be the first to officially prohibit Jews or any other faith since Nazi Germany, which sought a country that was judenrein, or cleansed of Jews, said Elliott Abrams, a former U.S. National Security Council official. …

Arabs make up 20.4% of Israel’s population, or 1,573,000 out of 7,695,000 citizens. Yes, citizens. In addition:

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by Rebecca Witonsky*

Maikel Nabil Sanad, a 25-year old pacifist currently on a hunger strike in an Egyptian prison, is one of the Arab world’s most pioneering human rights activists. A veterinarian by profession, in April 2009, Sanad founded the “No to Compulsory Service Campaign,” which aims to end the compulsory three-year military service term for Egyptian males and reportedly has upward of 3,000 members. Last year, he became the first known conscientious objector in Egyptian history when he refused to report for duty.[1]

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by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi*

I was recently told by my aunt in Baghdad that there was a widespread belief among Iraqis that some external force was behind the protests and uprisings across the Middle East. What outside conspiracy, I wondered, could be responsible for the Arab Spring? Not to worry, however; George Saliba — the Syriac Orthodox Church’s bishop in Lebanon — offers us a simple answer. In an interview with Al-Dunya TV on July 24, Saliba declared that “the source… behind all these movements, all these civil wars, and all these evils” in the Arab world is nothing other than Zionism, “deeply rooted in Judaism.” The Jews, he says, are responsible for financing and inciting the turmoil in accordance with The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.

These remarks are not an isolated case among Middle Eastern Christians. The anti-Semitic trend has become especially apparent in the aftermath of Iraq’s assault last October on the Syriac Catholic Our Lady of Salvation Church in Baghdad, leaving 58 dead and 67 wounded in the worst attack on the Iraqi Christian community since 2003.

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by Phyllis Chesler

Recently, I participated in a Toronto conference which was sponsored by Advocates for Civil Liberties and coordinated by the rather wonderful Meryle Kates. The speakers were powerful and the audience was packed, respectful, incredibly sober and fully engaged. The title of the conference was “When Middle East Politics Invade the Campus.”

No heckling or jeering here.

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By Barry Rubin

“I do not understand Norway’s position, and I say that as a friend of Norway. If they shoot, if they fire rockets, why doesn’t Norway believe that they are terrorists? What else do they need to do? Let us not forget that Norway and the other Scandinavian countries called in Yasir Arafat and said: ‘If you want a deal, you must first renounce terrorism. You must recognize the state of Israel, and you must commit yourself to peace.’ Why is all this forgotten? What is the difference between the PLO at that time and Hamas today?”
– President Shimon Peres, May 2011

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By Fern Sidman

According to combined news sources, just two days before gunman Anders Behring Breivik opened fire on teenagers participating in Norway’s ruling party youth camp on the island of Utoya, the campers met with Norwegian Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Stoere and demanded he recognize the establishment of an independent Palestinian state.

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By Fern Sidman

Introduced by Pastor John Hagee, the founder and chairman of Christians United For Israel (CUFI), Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu addressed a gathering of thousands of ardent Christian Zionists via satellite from Jerusalem on Tuesday afternoon, July 19th at a special “Middle East Briefing” session at the sixth annual CUFI national summit in Washington.

Greeted with over 10 minutes of applause and enthusiastic cheers, Mr. Netanyahu extended his appreciation to Pastor Hagee for his, “unwavering support and commitment for Israel,” and for those Christian supporters of Israel who have the, “courage to stand up and speak the truth.” Sharing the same sentiments that he did in his speech before the Joint Sessions of Congress in late May, Netanyahu said, “Israel is not what’s wrong with the Middle East; it’s what is right about it. Israel is a country that draws from the same well as you. Both America and Israel were forged on the same principles, the same ideas and so we have shared values and common hopes for the future.”

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