Monday, April 23, 2007
The Protocols of Herr Sivan
explanations for what is happening to Israel and the Jewish people:
'Everyone must ask: Why were the Jews so blind as not to see the evil
coming? Why were they so complacent when the sword was being brandished
before their faces? But the fact is that for many years our "prophets" so
lulled us that we no longer saw reality and failed to anticipate the
evil...
'Every charge made by the Jew-haters has thus been repeated without change
by some of our own brethren. Is it any surprise, therefore, that these
uncircumcised of heart did not attempt to prevent the disaster and were
not aroused to come to the rescue of their people in its time of trouble?
On the contrary, we can be sure that their ilk have been, and always will
be, a stumbling block and a plague to the whole House of Israel...
'It is useless to try to convince those Jews who hate Zion and Jerusalem,
and whose sole wish is to make us forget the memory of our ancestors, our
beliefs, and our sense of kinship. Having destroyed our traditions and
mocked and derided the whole heritage of Israel, why should they spare the
Land from their venom?'
- Peretz Smolenskin, "Let Us Search Our Ways" (1881).
2. The Protocols of Herr Sivan:
INN (http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122203) reports that
the vicious anti-Israel leftist Eyal Sivan was chosen to serve as the
official governmental marketer of Jaffa oranges. Sivan specializes in
making anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hate propaganda films. He who also
teaches in the cinema department of Israel's Sapir college in the Negev.
Tom Gross reports that he was one of the clowns participating in "Israel
Apartheid Week" Nuremberg Rallies. Sivan may be best known for having
filed a frivolous SLAPP "libel suit" against French philosopher Alain
Finkielkraut, after the latter called him an Anti-Semite. The French
court eventually tossed Sivan's case out. Israel Media Watch claims that
Sivan's film "The Specialist" showed senior Nazi official Adolf Eichmann
in a favorable light. Sivan, says IMW, did not deny he had used cinematic
manipulation to achieve this end, and this film, too, hurt the feelings of
many.
From a previous posting from July 2006:
French Court Dismisses Malicious SLAPP "Libel" Suit against Jewish
Philosopher:
PARIS (EJP)--- French-Jewish philosopher Alain Finkielkraut has been
discharged by a Paris court after being sued by an Israeli film director
whom he described as "one of the current actors of Jewish anti-Semitism".
Interviewed in 2003 on the French Jewish radio RJC about Eyal Sivan's
film, "Route 181, fragments d'un voyage en Palestine-Israel" (Road 181,
Extracts from a Palestinian-Israeli journey), which was broadcast on a TV
station, Finkielkraut called the film maker "one of the actors of today's
particularly hard and frightening Jewish anti-Semitism".
The philosopher criticised Sivan for having made a link between the
Israeli treatment of the Palestinians and the Holocaust.
"But those who are sewing a Star of David on our chest want to claim the
yellow star for themselves," Finkielkraut said at the time.
Eyal Sivan, a leftwing militant, decided to sue Finkielkraut for his
"slanderous words which constitute an infringement to my honour and
consideration".
In the past, Eyal Sivan has supported actively the boycott of Israeli
products in order to denounce Israeli policies towards the Palestinians.
Israeli professor and former ambassador to France Eli Barnavi testified in
court for Alain Finkielkraut while two other Israeli professors, among
them Haim Bresheeth, testified in favour of Sivan.
Film maker Eyal Sivan
Critical analysis
Finkielkraut, who also received the support of Claude Lanzmann, director
of the famous film "Shoah", said that he reacted to the "violent
unilateral character" of Sivan's movie which represents the history of
Israeli-Palestinian relations "as the aggression of one people crazed by
the Shoah against a profoundly peaceful people."
"I don't know why this man is indignant about being called anti-Semitic,
that's what he is," Lanzmann said when he testified in favour of
Finkielkraut.
Sivan's "Road 81" film was distributed in small independent Paris
theatres.
The film maker accused Finkielkraut of being one of those people "ready to
fight against the last Israeli citizen, including myself, to preserve the
state of Israel". "This is not my position," he added.
The court rejected Sivan's complaint.
"Finkielkraut only credited the other side with intellectual attitudes and
never attributed a precise fact which could be proved," the presiding
judge, Nicolas Bonnal, said.
"Above all he gave a critical analysis of Sivan's work and of its
political positions," he added.
Sivan told EJP he was surprised by the ruling.
"It is clear to me that I was the victim of defamation," he stressed.
"This has nothing to do with a simple opinion debate."
In another case, Finkielkraut has been sued and accused of libel by French
anti-racist association MRAP (Movement Against Racism and for Friendship
Among Peoples) for comments made during a conference in 2003 on
''Anti-Semitism: the Left against itself''.
In a reference to the failure of the Durban conference on racism in 2001,
Finkielkraut said: "a movement was created in Durban against racism and
for popular anti-Semitism".
Comments about French identity
MRAP's president Mouloud Aounit, took it as a personal attack and accused
Finkielkraut of hinting that MRAP was anti-Semitic. A public prosecutor
representative has asked for Finkielkraut's discharge. The decision will
be made shortly.
Finkielkraut, who is one of France's most notable French intellectuals
along with two other Jews, Bernard-Henri Levy and Andr Glucksmann, already
made headlines at the end of last year when he had to apologize for
comments about the riots which took place around France in an interview
with Israeli newspaper Haaretz.
In the interview, Finkielkraut underlined that many immigrant do not
identify with France.
"If immigrants say 'the French' when they are referring to the whites,
then we are lost. If their identity is located somewhere else and they're
only in France for utilitarian reasons, then we're lost.
"I have to admit that the Jews are also starting to use this France. I say
to them, 'if for your France is a utilitarian matter, but your identity is
Judaism, then be honest with yourself: you have Israel."
Some of Finkielkraut's answers were translated to French and published in
the national newspaper Le Monde before they grew into a general
controversy and condemnation of Finkielkraut, who was accused of racism.
From left to right
Considered as a free-speaker in politically-correct France, Alain
Finkielkraut has been described by some as one of the leading
"neo-reactionary" figures along with interior minister and presidential
candidate, Nicolas Sarkozy.
Finkielkraut started his career as a militant of the left but drifted
through the years to the right, making many enemies on the way.
In 2005 he strongly defended a petition against anti-white racism in
French suburbs. Controversial French comic Dieudonne told EJP Finkielkraut
was "one of his main enemies."
The philosopher claims he is being harassed by his opponents with repeated
lawsuits but other intellectuals accuse him in private of provoking
controversies in order to get publicity and sell more books.
Finkielkraut has a weekly show on national French radio and on the Jewish
radio RCJ.
Afterword: Had Sivan been allowed to forum shop the suit into Nazareth
Court, Finkelkraut would have been found guilty of "slander", as would
Deborah Lipstadt. David Irving however would have been awarded a large
cash award in damages.
3. WHAT right of return? by Dersh:
http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/articles.cgi?ID=2106
4. Rare victory for common sense:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/847083.html
5. Professors for a Strong Israel
Statement to the Press - 22 April 2007
----------------------------------------------------------------
Re: Professor Yosef Ben-Shlomo z"l
Professors for a Strong Israel mourns the loss of Professor Yosef
Ben-Shlomo, a great man of letters and of the spirit, a formative force in
public opinion and a devoted lover of the Land of Israel and of the
settlement enterprise. He gave over his last years to teaching in the
pre-military academies, in the hopes of instilling Jewish and Zionist
values in his students and training them in analytical thinking.
We recall as well Prof. Ben-Shlomo's participation in hunger strikes that
PSI organized to protest Ehud Barak's dangerous and defeatist policy as
Prime Minister.
We offer our condolences to the Ben-Shlomo family.
Professors for a Strong Israel
Tel: 050-551 8940
6. What to do with Bishara:
http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/122202
7. US Officialdom and the Middle East:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27973
8. Apologizing for Islamist anti-Semitism:
http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=27921
9.
http://thejewishpress.blogspot.com/2007/04/maariv-celebrates-independence-day-by.html
Monday, April 23, 2007
Maariv Celebrates Independence Day by Orthodox Bashing
The headline in Maariv came out on Israel's Memorial Day, hours before the
59th Independence Day celebrations were about to begin. "The family of
Rabbi Elyashiv Were Celebrating when the Mourning Siren Sounded," screamed
the headline. It referred to the family of Rabbi Yosef Sholom Elyashiv,
one of the most important of the Ashkenazi rabbis in Israel, generally
considered the heir to Rabbi Elazar Shach as leader of the "Lithuanians".
The headline aroused immediate anger and resentment throughout Israel.
Memorial Day in Israel always begins with a siren in the evening, during
which the entire country stands at attention for a moment of
contemplation. The fruitloops from the Neturei Karta always make a point
of showing their contempt for the Israeli dead soldiers and refuse to
participate. But that is just one more example of the fact that the
members of the Neturei Karta cult hold contempt in general for us actual
Jews. Some other groups of Chareidi extremists sometimes mimic them when
the siren sounds. But here was the family of Rabbi Elyashi himself joining
the loonies in showing disrespect for the Israeli dead?
Except they weren't. In reading the actual news story, it turns out that
the real scandal here is the low level of journalistic integrity of
Maariv. The story was a complete fabrication. The family of the Rabbi did
not show disrespect.
To the contrary.
The whole true story was that on the afternoon BEFORE Memorial Day began,
the family of the Rabbi held a Bar Mitzvah celebratory meal. It was held
without music and some other normal outward accouterments of celebration,
because it took place during the Omer, during which celebrations for Bar
Mitvahs and bris ceremonies are toneddown. Knowing that Memorial Day was
coming and that the siren would sound at 8:00 PM, the Bar Mitvah took
place from 4 PM until 6 PM, and was ended long before Memorial Day began
at all.
It is true that Maariv also claims to have spoken with a nameless busybody
who claimed that there was more celebrating that evening in a soup kitchen
in Bnei Barak run for the poor he had entered, honoring the family, and
claimed he heard some music as well. Maariv journalists took his word for
it and did not bother to find out if this were so or if the family of
Rabbi Elyashiv were even involved.
So the scandalous headline in Maariv REALLY should have read: "Maariv
Journalists were Inventing anti-Orthodox Lies while the Mourning Sirens
Sounded."
