The simple sticker affixed to a Berkeley Daily Planet news box some months ago conveyed a clear warning: DON’T FUCK WITH THE JEWS.
So did the chalk marks scrawled on the sidewalk in front of a Holocaust survivor’s home after the person had dared write a submission to the paper criticizing Israel for its treatment of Palestinians: WE KNOW WHERE YOU LIVE.
Zionist extremists these days seem to be lashing out with threats whenever anything appears that questions the infallibility of the Israeli government or the humanity of its policies.
Sometimes it doesn’t even take overt criticism to bring on the backlash, which is invariably accompanied by toadying on the part of officialdom.
Here we’ll look at a few incidents, starting in Canada and working out way back to Berkeley.
Canadian test question prompts Zionist umbrage
Nick Martin of the Winnipeg Free Press writes about a language arts question that has prompted a storm of accusations from B’nai B’rith [of which esnl was once a member, back in the days when the group was concerned about racism of all sorts]:
B’nai Brith Canada is furious over a question on [the] Grade 12 provincial language arts exam that it says could promote hatred of Israel.
Education Minister Nancy Allan said Tuesday that she shares the Jewish organization’s concern, and has told department of education staff to find out how the question got on the exam, and how “to make sure this doesn’t happen again.”
The question was part of an exam meant to assess students’ ability to read, digest, understand, and analyze written material.
The specific question used as the reading material an article written by Winnipeg singer Chantal Kreviazuk, in which she deplored the horrendous suffering of children in several armed conflicts—including children killed and maimed in the Gaza Strip by an artillery shell.
Accompanying the article in the exam was the following question: “Explain whether or not you think people in the entertainment industry have a responsibility for making the world a better place?”
B’nai Brith midwest region director Alan Yusim said Kreviazuk’s description of injured children will promote anti-Israel hatred among some of the students who wrote the test.
Most students assessing that reading would not have the knowledge or the information before them to conclude anything other than that Israel victimized children, Yusim said. “I don’t see which other conclusion you could reach.
“How many said Iran, Hamas, or the Palestinian Authority” were responsible for the events that led to the children’s injuries, said Yusim, doubting many students would reach that conclusion.
“The moment I found out about this, I started working with (B’nai Brith),” said Allan. “We’re taking this very seriously.
“This is the very first time we have ever had concerns about test material, and we are evaluating the process,” said Allan.
She said all material for the Grade 12 language arts provincial test—worth 30 per cent of a student’s final mark—goes through a lengthy process involving educators, including a test development committee of 10 language arts teachers. The evaluation includes an assessment of bias or cultural sensitivity in the material.
“The article is out of a book of essays written by high-profile women, Dropped Threads,” said Allan.
She said one student—whom the province is not identifying—became upset by the question while writing the exam, and will be evaluated on the rest of the test, with that question omitted.
B’nai Brith wants the department of education to check every
student’s paper, and count the anti-Israel comments.
“Pull aside each one in which the student mentioned Israel as a victimizer,” said Yusim. [Emphasis added.]
Allan said there is already a process in which teachers marking the tests identify and bring forward any concerns about students’ answers.
Yusim said B’nai Brith first became aware of the question after students wrote the exam, which was too late to do anything about its being on the exam. B’nai Brith wants the province to measure the impact of the question on the students who wrote, consider some form of remedial action, and figure out a positive way to avoid such situations in the future.
The question would have been a problem at any time, he said, but especially now, given the international reaction to the violence around an aid flotilla trying to pass through an Israel blockade in recent days.
To which esnl can only respond, Sheesh.
So let’s see if we’ve got this right. It’s immoral in Canada to raise a question of whether or not Israel may be inflicting hardship on Palestinian children?
While B’nai B’rith is inflamed that Hamas and other groups aren’t singled out as equally culpable, the simple fact is that far more Palestinian children have been harmed than Israeli children. How many hundreds of Israeli homes have been leveled by Israeli bulldozers? How many ancient Israeli olive groves uprooted by Palestinians?
But more basically, the question involved in the furor several conflicts other than the crisis in the Levant. No one seems to have protested those mentions, and even the reporter didn’t bother to explain just what they were.
Why, one might ask, was Israel to be given preferential treatment by a minister of the Canadian government?
But many Canadians don’t seem to have bought in, if the readr comments appended to the article are any indication.
The hammer falls on UC Irvine Muslim group
On California college campuses, rowdiness used to be a tradition. But as Muslims at the University of California at Irvine have learned, it’s not tolerated when Israel’s the subject of the harangue.
Larry Gordon and Raja Abdulrahim reported for the Los Angeles Times on the group’s banishment from campus after some members disrupted a speech by Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren.
UC Irvine’s recent decision to recommend suspension of a Muslim student group for its alleged role in disrupting an Israeli diplomat’s speech has focused attention on the largely hidden world of student discipline and group punishment on college campuses.
The one-year suspension, which the group is appealing, has raised questions about whether a university should penalize only individual students for behavior that violates rules of conduct, or if collective punishment is sometimes appropriate. And it has triggered debate about whether political pressure was a factor in the case.
The University of California has a long and difficult history of grappling with student protests, dating back to the tumultuous 1960s Free Speech Movement. Still, even as student rallies over higher fees have rocked UC campuses this year, it remains rare for a campus to sanction an entire student group in a civil disobedience case, experts say.
More commonly, student organizations such as fraternities are disciplined for alcohol or hazing abuses, and individual students are sanctioned for acts ranging from cheating to harassment.
“Suspension of any group or individual is always the last place you want to go. But if the disruption was severe enough, that’s the appropriate action,” said W. Scott Lewis, president of the Assn. for Student Conduct Administration, which represents about 700 colleges and universities nationwide.
>snip<
In the UC Irvine incident, the Muslim Student Union was sanctioned for allegedly planning the protest, in which students repeatedly interrupted Israeli Ambassador Michael Oren as he tried to deliver a speech on campus, and then denying its official involvement.
Supporters of the students contend that longstanding complaints about the Muslim Student Union from politicians and off-campus Jewish groups played a role in the group’s suspension, and in the arrests of eight UC Irvine and three UC Riverside students that day.
“I think the university is caving in to the external pressure,” said Reem Salahi, attorney for the student group. No criminal charges have been filed, but the 11 students face campus disciplinary reviews.
Salahi said the Irvine campus has been inconsistent in its response to such incidents, including a 2005 speech by former Bush administration attorney John C. Yoo. Protesters heckled and interrupted Yoo over his controversial Justice Department memos on torture and terrorism suspects. UC Irvine police escorted the demonstrators outside but no one was arrested, according to news reports, and campus officials said the students did not face sanctions.
>snip<
Leaders of the Jewish Federation of Orange County said they had learned from other UC Irvine students that a disruption was planned and sent e-mails warning about the protest. Campus officials then cautioned the Muslim Student Union not to disrupt the speech, Lawhon said. The group’s leaders responded that they were not planning anything but could not control what individuals did, she said.
With disciplinary decisions still pending, members of the Muslim group would not comment about the events. But their attorney said that there was “significant disagreement” within the organization before the Oren protest and that the group did not endorse it.
Same thugs, same rap, different targets
Berkeley’s homegrown Zionist thugs are at it again, acting as agents —whether simply de facto or de jure remains an open question —of a foreign government.
Dan Spitzer, a foul-mouthed bully, and John Gertz [the guy who called esnl “a liar and a sniveling coward” for refusing to list his website] trained their guns on city councilmembers and forced them to retract proposed resolutions critical of the bloody Israeli attack on the Gaza aid flotilla.
Mal Burnstein, who mentored Bill and Hillary Clinton during their long-ago student days at UC Berkeley, wrote about the campaigns in the latest edition of the Berkeley Daily Planet.
The Planet, esnl’s last employer, went out of the print business after the pair, joined by Oakland PR guru Jim Sinkinson, an equally duplicitous bully, successfully intimidated the paper’s advertisers with over and implied threats of boycotts—all because the paper published criticisms of Israeli policies, many of them written by Jews.
In Berkeley, the latest target was Laurie Capitelli, a councilmember considered by many as the city’s next likely mayor. In nearby Richmond, the main target was Jeff Ritterman, a Jewish physician and a member of the Green Party elected to that city’s governing body.
In a piece titled “And Then They Came for Councilmember Capitelli…” Burnstein writes:
There are many opinions in the Bay Area about the Israeli blockade of Gaza and its bloody interdiction of the flotilla trying to break that blockade. This piece is not about the substance of that debate. A multitude of resolutions on the subject have been introduced and debated in clubs, organizations and public bodies. And, unfortunately, but not surprisingly, out of the woodwork has appeared some insidious operatives seeking not to win the public debate but to cut it off entirely by means of, not to mince words, threats and economic and political pressure. Again, not surprisingly, some of the same characters that used those tactics against the Planet are at it again. Look at the following posts in the web site of the Jewish Weekly, the week of June 10, 2010, following that paper’s reporting of the introduction of such a resolution condemning the Israeli action in the Richmond City Council. . .
In his first post, Spitzer wrote:
Laurie Capitelli, a Berkeley Councilman who represents a district with a large Jewish populace, is one of the co-presenters of a resolution which condemns Israel. He will introduce the measure at next week’s Berkeley City Council meeting.
What motivates Mr. Capitelli, who in the past was quite a moderate? He intends to run for mayor and believes that by castigating Israel, he will garner votes from Berkeley’s leftist community.
Mr. Capitelli is also a real estate broker with an office at Red Oak Realty on Solano Ave. “J” readers might consider contacting Capitelli at Red and letting him know what you think about both his political aspirations and his future in the real estate business…
[Emphasis added]
The second post came the next day
“Because we don’t know for certain that Capitelli has indeed decided not place on the Berkeley City Council agenda his planned resolution to condemn Israel, those who support the Jewish State should continue to let Capitelli know that ANY unwarranted action on his part castigating Israel, now or in future, will precipitate political and professional consequences.
In fact, I’m pleased to announce that the eminent John Gertz—the author of that most effective website dpwatchdog.com which helped torpedo the Berkeley Daily Planet—has just constructed another most informative site, Capitelliwatchdog.com. Check it out…
The final post came the following day, after Capitelli’s capitulation, and featured the repeated misspelling of the councilmember’s name and a call to purge a city body of another Israel critic.
No Capiletti [sic] Demonstration
Because Laurie Capiletti [sic] has now indeed bowed to reasonable protest and decided not to place an a resolution condemning Israel on the Berkeley City Council docket, a planned demonstration at his office has now been called off. But this doesn’t mean that those who support Israel shouldn’t demand that Capiletti [sic] remove the loony left ideologue who wrote the anti-Israel resolution, Mary Nicely (what a misnomer), from Berkeley’s so-called Peace and Justice Commission. Please contact Capitelli and DEMAND that he immediately remove his manifestly biased anti-Israel appointee from P&J…”
Burnstein continues:
The author of those posts, along with his cohorts—particularly John Gertz—is well known to Planet readers as having been engaged in a campaign to bankrupt this journal, or force it to become a mouthpiece of AIPAC. These people don’t want to win arguments about Israeli policies and actions, they don’t even want to have such public discussions. Rather, they want to prevent any discussion at all; or force only sycophantic admiration for all things Israeli. They use political pressure, economic pressure, social pressure, and simple name-calling as their weapons. They are a disgrace to the democratic process.
The irony of such “Brown Shirt” tactics is that, insofar as it succeeds, it cheapens Israeli democracy (as well as ours), and hides Israel’s good qualities (and there are many) behind the totalitarianism of their approach. By association with them, they mark Israel as a country too ashamed of its policies to allow them to be scrutinized. They deny Israel necessary oversight of its actions so as to be able to learn from its mistakes. Note the Israeli reversal of its harsh blockade of Gaza after international pressure and condemnation of its raid on the flotilla. These people think that blind loyalty is in the best interests of Israel; that is not democracy. They don’t want to, indeed, they fear to debate the issues, but they instead threaten and intimidate the speakers to force them to shut up. And they do that by threatening their livelihood. Some champions of democracy these cowards. As a Jew, I’m ashamed to call them coreligionists. (That’s actually a complicated story: as an atheist I can hardly be said to be a religionist; but that wouldn’t have kept me out of the ovens.) Be that as it may, we simply can’t let these tactics go unremarked or unchallenged. This started with the Richmond City Council as the Planet noted in its story of June 15. Pressure was put on Vice Mayor Jeff Ritterman and he pulled his resolution before it could be discussed. In Berkeley Council member Capitelli has been put under even more pressure. Will we let this go without answer?
And just to remind esnl readers, here’s a typical Spitzer screed, posted at the Daily Californian, the UC Berkeley campus paper, under the pseudonym “reztips” [Spitzer spelled backwards]:
Someone should tell the SJP (Stupids for Jerkoffs in Palestine) and their dimbulb MSA (Muslim Stupid Association) pals of the Palestinians that the party is over. The lights are off, the garbage you’ve strewn has been cleaned up, and you are toast. What we have left to ponder is how you morons were able to waste so much student government time and student funds on a farcical non-student issue in the first place.
Fortunately, given the make-up of next year’s student senate, we won’t have a repeat of this calamity. Tom Pessah and Emiliano can go back to the Palestinian territories and become ISM’s next martyrs, flattened just like Rachel St. Pancake. More likely, they will head to other campuses to attempt their spread of yet more camel clap…
One wonders why, if they love Israel so much, these guys don’t just vote with the bodies and move there. esnl hears there’s some nice vacant condos on the West Bank almost ready to go, as soon as they get those Palestinian homes bulldozed.
But wait, here’s another target for them!
This blog can’t wait to see the website and campaign they cook up against this guy, who had a most unflattering things or two to say about Israel and bias against the land’s original inhabitants.
But don’t hold your breath, since the guy’s part of the Israeli government, as Haaretz’s Mike Dagan reported.
Israel should do more to integrate its Arab and Haredi sectors, Minister of Minority Affairs Avishay Braverman said on Tuesday, the third day of the “Democracy and its Challenges” conference sponsored by the French Embassy in cooperation with Haaretz . . .
“We have more startups than Europe. We succeeded in building a terrific state – the state of Tel Aviv. But Israel is Carthage, without the Negev. We have the most unequal society among western nations. [Emphasis added] When we founded the nation, we were one of the most equal societies.”
Of panderers playing with fire
What these guys don’t realize is that they’re playing with fire. Relentlessly tarring critics of Israeli government actions with the broad brush of antisemitism allegations raises the real danger of reigniting the very force they claim to fear.
To confuse real concerns with the influence of a foreign power over the workings of American democracy down to the community level with a racist hatred of Jews is to risk pushing folks on the edge over the brink.
The simple fact is that Israel has a disproportionate hold over the American political process.
It used to be that serving in another nation’s armed forces meant loss of American citizenship, based on the not-unreasonable premise that loyalty belongs to the land you’re willing to die for. But when young Americans started volunteering for the IDF, that long-established provision of federal law went out the window.
When faced with the possibility of being forced to register as an agent of a foreign power, the American Israel lobby simply changed its name and now lures a quorum of Congress to its annual meetings. What other nation can make such a boast?
But any criticism is immediately branded as antisemitism, and elected officials who dare to question the depth and nature of the alliance are targeted with smears while their opponents are flooded with campaign contributions and volunteers.
That kind of pandering relationship isn’t healthy, either for the U.S. or for Israel, and much less for the people Israel evicts from the homes and lands held by families for centuries.
eats shoots 'n leaves 