ISRAEL MATZAV: Who makes sacrifices for peace?

An Israeli Soldier to American Jews: Wake up!

As a young Israeli who had just completed five years of service in the IDF, I looked forward to my new job educating people in the Pacific Northwest about Israel. I was shocked, however, by the anti-Israel bigotry and hostility I encountered, especially in the greater Seattle area, Oregon, and Berkeley. I had been very liberal, a member of the leftist Zionist party, Meretz, but the anti-Semitism and hatred for Israel that I have seen in the U.S. has changed my outlook personally and politically.

This year, from January through May, I went to college campuses, high schools, and churches to tell people about the history of modern Israel, about my experience growing up in the Jewish state, and about my family. I also always spoke about my military service as an officer in an IDF COGAT unit that attends to the needs of Palestinian civilians who are not involved in the conflict and promotes Palestinian civil society. Each time I would speak and take questions for an hour or more. I have shared my personal story with over 16,000 people at many, many college campuses and high schools, including UC Berkeley, Stanford, the University of Washington, Seattle University and many others. Many of those to whom I spoke were supportive, friendly, and open to hearing about my Israel. But, sadly, far too many were not.

I was further shocked by how unaware the organized Jewish community is and how little they are actually doing to counter this rising anti-Semitism, which motivated me to write this article.When I served as a soldier in the West Bank, I got used to having ugly things said to me, but nothing prepared me for the misinformation, demonization of Israel, and the gut-wrenching, anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hostility expressed by many students, professors, church members, and even some high school students right here in the Pacific Northwest.

This new form of bigotry against Israel has been called the “new anti-Semitism,” with “Israel” replacing “Jew” in traditional anti-Semitic imagery and canards, singling out and discriminating against the Jewish state, and denying the Jewish people alone the right to self-determination. The new anti-Semitism is packaged in the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign (BDS), which claims to champion Palestinian rights though its real goal is to erode American support for Israel, discredit Jews who support Israel, and pave the way for eliminating the Jewish state. One of BDS’ central demands is the “complete right of return” for all the descendants of the original Palestinian refugees, subtle language that means the end of Israel as the Jewish homeland because it would turn Israel into a Palestinian-Arab majority state.

It is surprising that an extremist group like BDS is ever taken seriously, but BDS advocates have found receptive audiences in some circles. Their campaigns are well organized and in many cases, well financed. They have lobbied universities, corporations, food co-ops, churches, performing artists, labor unions, and other organizations to boycott Israel and companies that do business with Israel. But even if these groups don’t agree to treat Israel as a pariah state, the BDS activists manage to spread their anti-Israel misinformation, lies and prejudice simply by forcing a debate based on their false claims about Israel.

To give you a taste of the viciousness of the BDS attacks, let me cite just a few of the many shocking experiences I have had. At a BDS event in Portland, a professor from a Seattle university told the assembled crowd that the Jews of Israel have no national rights and should be forced out of the country. When I asked, “Where do you want them to go?” she calmly answered, “I don’t care. I don’t care if they don’t have any place else to go. They should not be there.” When I responded that she was calling for ethnic cleansing, both she and her supporters denied it. And during a presentation in Seattle, I spoke about my longing for peace between Israel and the Palestinians. When I was done, a woman in her 60’s stood up and yelled at me, “You are worse than the Nazis. You are just like the Nazi youth!” A number of times I was repeatedly accused of being a killer, though I have never hurt anyone in my life. On other occasions, anti-Israel activists called me a rapist. The claims go beyond being absurd – in one case, a professor asked me if I knew how many Palestinians have been raped by IDF forces. I answered that as far as I knew, none. She triumphantly responded that I was right, because, she said, “You IDF soldiers don’t rape Palestinians because Israelis are so racist and disgusted by them that you won’t touch them.”

Such irrational accusations are symptomatic of dangerous anti-Semitism. Yet, alarmingly, most mainstream American Jews are completely oblivious to this ugly movement and the threat it poses. They seem to be asleep, unaware that this anti-Jewish bigotry is peddled on campuses, by speakers in high schools, churches, and communities, and is often deceptively camouflaged in the rhetoric of human rights.

The American Jewish community and its leaders are not providing a united front to combat this latest threat. Unfortunately, this repeats a pattern of Jewish communal groups failing to unite in a timely way to counter threats against us individually and as a community.

Shockingly, a small but very vocal number of Jews actively support BDS. They often belong to organizations that prominently include “Jewish” in their names, like Jewish Voice for Peace, to give cover to BDS and the anti-Semitism that animates it. A question that we, as a Jewish community must ask ourselves, is whether it is ever appropriate to include and accept Jews who support BDS and directly or indirectly advocate the ultimate elimination of the Jewish State of Israel.

I think it is not.

My experiences in America have changed me. I never expected to encounter such hatred and lies. I never believed that such anti-Semitism still existed, especially in the U.S. I never knew that the battlefield was not just Gaza, the West Bank, and hostile Middle Eastern countries wanting to destroy Israel and kill our citizens and soldiers. It is also here in America, where a battle must be waged against prejudice and lies.

I implore American Jews: do more.

Israel cannot fight this big battle alone. If you are affiliated with a Jewish organization, let it know you want it to actively, openly and unequivocally oppose the BDS campaign and those who support it. Inform yourself, your friends and families, by visiting websites of organizations like StandWithUs, Jewish Virtual Library, AIPAC, AJC and others that will update you and provide information about BDS and anti-Semitism.

I urge the organized Jewish community and its members to wake up and stand up for the Jewish state of Israel, and for all it represents, and for all it works to achieve.

The Magic of Jerusalem

Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon, displays in a new video the magic of Jerusalem as a city that combines diversity with harmony, modernity with history, and as a sacred city that for the first time in history, under Israeli sovereignty, Jews, Christians, Muslims, secular, religious, young and old are living side by side. In addition, the video shows the unbreakable bond between the Jewish people and Jerusalem.

סגן שר החוץ, דני אילון, מציג בסרטון חדש את הקסם של ירושלים כעיר המשלבת בין שונות להרמוניה, מודרניות והיסטוריה, וכעיר הקדושה, בה לראשונה בהיסטוריה, תחת הריבונות הישראלית חיים זה לצד זה יהודים, נוצרים, מוסלמים, חילונים, דתיים, מבוגרים וצעירים. כמו כן, הסרטון מציג את הקשר הבל ינותק בין העם היהודי לירושלים.

StandWithUs Deeply Concerned About Chuck Hagel Nomination

Given former Senator Chuck Hagel`s foreign policy record and public statements, StandWithUs is deeply concerned about him becoming U.S. Secretary of Defense.  We are concerned about his commitment to policies that would stop Iran`s nuclear program, isolate terrorist groups and their state sponsors, and support Israel`s right to self-defense.

Mr. Hagel has voted and argued against sanctions on Iran and Syria, refused to support designating Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps as terrorist organizations, accused Israel of "slaughter" after Israel defended itself against Hezbollah in 2006, and was an apologist for Yasser Arafat. Hagel has labeled the pro-Israel community the "Jewish lobby," despite its implications of dual loyalty and despite widespread American support for Israel.
 
We are disturbed that Chuck Hagel:
 

Refused to vote for legislation condemning anti-Semitism.

•  In June 1999, Hagel was the only U.S. senator who refused to sign a Senate letter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin condemning anti-Semitism and calling on Russia to protect Jews. The letter was run as a full-page New York Times ad.

Labeled Israel`s supporters the "Jewish lobby."

•  Hagel critically used the term "Jewish lobby" to single out the pro-Israel supporters communicating to Congress. "I have not heard a nominee for another position in President Obama`s cabinet say that any other lobbyists groups intimidate a lot of lawmakers," said Rabbi Steve Fisch.

Has been weak on Iran for more than 10 years.

• Hagel opposed 76 senators in voting against designating Iran`s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps a terrorist organization (September 2007). The "sense of Congress on Iran" read, "the United States should designate Iran`s Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps as a foreign terrorist organization...and place the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps on the list of Specially Designated Global Terrorists."

• Hagel voted in the Senate Banking Committee against legislation imposing sanctions on countries conducting certain business with Iran. It passed in committee, 19-2 (July 2008).

• Hagel was cited as "solely responsible" for holding up a bipartisan Iran sanctions bill in the Senate that already had 72 co-sponsors (October 2008).

• "Iran will not be deterred from developing nuclear arms only because the United States and the EU say they must--especially if they feel threatened and if the United States, Great Britain, France, and Israel, among others, all retain their nuclear weapons."--Excerpts from Hagel`s 2008 book, America: Our Next Chapter.

Has rarely shown he is a friend of Israel.

• Hagel was one of only 11 senators who refused to sign a letter requesting that President Bush not meet with Yasser Arafat until Arafat`s Fatah terrorists ceased attacks on Israel (November 2001).

• Hagel said he would have opposed a House resolution that blamed terrorist Yasser Arafat and other Palestinian terror groups for terrorism (May 2002). "I would have very much voted against it because it did, in fact, single out the Palestinians and Arafat as the real problem here....And it doesn`t help when we take public sides on this and castigate and assign all of the responsibility and all the blame to one side."

• After two years of Palestinian suicide bombings and terror attacks had murdered hundreds of Israelis, Hagel told an anti-Israel conference audience that the U.S. alliance with Israel should not come "at the expense" of Palestinians and that the U.S. must impose an "end game" on Israel and the Palestinians. According to a report from the conference, "The cheers were deafening. Hagel went on: `What we need isn`t a cease-fire, leading to a sequential peace process, leading to negotiations on a Palestinian state, leading to negotiations on refugees, Jerusalem, etc. That time has passed. An end game must be brought to the front, now.`"

• Hagel was one of only 12 senators who refused to sign a letter asking the EU to declare Hezbollah a terrorist organization (August 2006).

We hope that the U.S. Senate will closely question Mr. Hagel during the nomination hearings to determine whether his positions will serve the foreign policy priorities of the U.S. and its allies.

HAMAS: What do they stand for? Is it possible to make peace with them? You decide. But first, listen to what they say in this film, and read

Alan Dershowitz speaking at the 2012 StandWithUs Festival of Lights

Israel in the frame (I)Ten of the world’s top Instagramers take on the Holy Land

In September, StandWithUs brought to Israel 10 of the world’s top Instagram users to take inspiring, fun photos of daily life in the country. Here’s Part 1 of our “best of” series of selections. 

Tel Aviv beach (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Jerusalem (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Jerusalem (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Dead Sea (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Rosh Hanikra (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: VuTheara Kham)

The Western Wall in Jerusalem (photo credit: Sam Horine)

Jerusalem (photo credit: Sam Horine)

Jerusalem, a view from the rooftop of the King David Hotel (photo credit: Sam Horine)

Caesarea (photo credit: Sam Horine)

Dan Hotel, Tel Aviv (photo credit: Sam Horine)

Shalom Tower, Tel Aviv (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

On the way from Ben-Gurion Airport (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Jerusalem (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Mahane Yehuda Market, Jerusalem (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Caesarea (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Kinneret (photo credit: Carli Kiene)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: Angeliki Jackson)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: Angeliki Jackson)

Jerusalem (photo credit: Angeliki Jackson)

Tel Aviv (photo credit: Angeliki Jackson)

Ben-Gurion Airport (photo credit: Bex Finch)

Roz Rothstein interviewed ICN Vice President Dina Leeds and Arabs for Israel founder Nonie Darwish about anti-Semitism in Egypt for the “Stand With Us” television program

Roz Rothstein interviewed ICN Vice President Dina Leeds and Arabs for Israel founder Nonie Darwish about anti-Semitism in Egypt for the “Stand With Us” television program that will air on JLTV today at 3:30 p.m.  It is a fascinating program filled with the remembrances and perspectives of these two insightful and articulate women, both of whom were born inEgypt and spent their early childhood years there. 

The stark contrast between their families’ experiences in Egypt make it even more remarkable that they share so many views about the Egyptian culture and what is going on there today.  Nonie grew up as a Muslim (she has converted to Christianity) and a child of privilege following the assassination in 1956 of her father, a leader of the Fedayeen movement assigned to Gaza to kill Jews in Israel. Dina’s family were Jews who had made Egypt their home for generations. Her family and all Egyptian Jews were ordered to leave the country following the 1967 war with Israel.  

Zionist response to Metro-North lying map ads As a response to the Metro-North ads showing the Map That Lies - which even the bankroller of the ads all but admitted were a lie - StandWithUs is placing a series of its own ads, starting next week.

STAND WITH US: Billboard Wars in New York

The anti-Israel billboard campaign has hit New York 

with 100 billboards placed throughout NY & CT Metro North train stations

As always, StandWithUs will respond, and the anti-Israel messages will not get a free pass. StandWithUs did the same thing in September 2011, when anti-Israel ads appeared in NYC subway stations. 

BACKGROUND

Throughout the United States, anti-Israel groups have put up billboards calling for an end to U.S. aid to Israel, claiming Israel stole Palestinian land and blaming Israel for the lack of peace. 

From Seattle to San Francisco and from Denver to Washington State and Washington, DC, these billboards are meant to demonize Israel and misinform the public. 

Last September, anti-Israel billboards appeared in the New York City subway system in Times Square, Penn Station, Columbus Circle, and more. Just last week, we found out that there were over 100 anti-Israel billboards spread throughout the Metro-North Railroad system in Westchester County.

Anti-Israel Billboard

In response, StandWithUs will put up its own informative pro-Israel billboards to set the record straight about the Jewish connection to Israel and to inspire people by educating them about how Israel makes the world a better place. The billboards will direct viewers to StandWithUs websites like www.onlyisrael.org andwww.sayyestopeace.org.

At StandWithUs, our goal is to strengthen Israel`s voice around the world. We have been doing this for 11 years, and now we have 15 offices in locations worldwide.

Anti-Israel LA billboard campaign fails- because the haters screwed up

From the virulently anti-Israel Mondoweiss site, June 13:

Exciting news. The Coalition to Stop 30 Billion to Israel has put up 23 billboards across Los Angeles in an awareness initiative to stop military aid to Israel.

...The billboard company for Stop30Billion's LA initiative is CBS Outdoor, the outdoor advertising division of media conglomerate CBS Corporation.

Due to the tremendous pressure CBS Outdoor will undoubtedly encounter in the days and weeks ahead, Stop30Billion and its partner the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation have asked us to sign a petition to thank CBS Outdoor.

But only one week into the hate campaign, CBS Outdoor took the billboards down:

That win fell apart just one week later when the billboard company--CBS Outdoor, a subsidiary of CBS Corporation-- took all our billboards down.

They sent a curt email telling us they were canceling our contract and refunding our money because "your organization has used the ‘CBS Outdoor’ name without permission" in email messages and in our petition thanking CBS for putting up the billboards in the first place.

Needless to say, this was a punch in the stomach.

In other words, the hate crowd tried to make it sound like CBS supported their message, and overstepped.

StandWithUs has more - and they are going to put up their own pro-Israel billboards in Los Angeles in the same locations.

StandWithUs "Israel Matters" Display: Traveling to Communities and Campuses

Apartheid in the Middle East

From boycott to “buycott” Efforts to combat delegitimization of Israel send ‘economic, psychological and political’ messages.

In the latest effort to counter continuing efforts to delegitimize Israel on the world stage, a Buy Israel Week campaign will be held here Nov. 28 through Dec. 4 featuring discount coupons from more than 100 local merchants as well as from Israeli retailers themselves.

Frances Zelazny, a New York marketer who came up with the idea, said Buy Israel Week is an integrated online and print effort that is being co-sponsored by nine Jewish newspapers throughout the country, including the New York Jewish Week. The coupons will be found online at buyisraelweek.com.
She said she has been concerned not only by the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel, but more recently by the effort of the Palestinians to gain United Nations membership as a means to further delegitimize Israel.

“This is a way to counter that by pushing not just Israel’s political but commercial aspects — highlighting its food, high-tech and other innovations,” she said.
Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, has embraced the initiative because he said it “gives people another avenue to express their support for Israel and counter the increasing effort to boycott Israeli products. And it is sending various messages — economic, psychological and political.”
Although the BDS movement has not gained as much traction in the United States as it has in Europe, Hoenlein said “we have seen manifestations of it here. There are increasing voices for BDS activities in church groups and by academic and cultural figures. … We are sending the biggest names in Hollywood to Israel to let them talk about the reality of what they see in order to counter the claims that Israel is an apartheid state.”
Just last month, a group of 75 New York University faculty members signed a letter asking that TIAA-CREF, a financial services organization, divest itself from the occupation in Israel, according to Hindy Poupko, executive director of the Council of Young Jewish Presidents.
She said her group, which represents more than 25 young leadership groups in New York, “clearly supports the Buy Israel Week initiative because we view it as positive PR for Israel. It is important for Americans and in particular New York consumers to understand the variety of contributions Israel has made in every possible field. … In an age when there are almost daily calls for a boycott of Israeli products, it is critical we go out there and demonstrate that there is a strong and growing market for Israeli products.”
Poupko pointed out that attempts to boycott Ahava products sold in Ricky’s NYC stores earlier this year was met with a “buycott” and that since then “the sale of Ahava products in Ricky’s stores have soared.”
“That speaks to the power of focusing our efforts to buy Israeli products at least one week a year, and hopefully consumers will enjoy the products enough to make them part of their everyday purchasing patterns,” she added.
Hoenlein noted that not only will Buy Israel Week counter boycott efforts but it will “make people aware” of the Israeli products that are out there and encourage stores to carry them.
Martin Raffel, project director of the Israel Action Network, an initiative to mobilize the North American Jewish community to respond to the assault on Israel’s legitimacy, said Buy Israel Week is a good effort because “it supports the Israeli economy and that sends the right kind of message. And because it can be sent across the Internet, it has more of an impact.”
He added that such efforts have been held in other parts of the country in recent years. One of them is thebuyisraelgoods.org website established about 10 years ago to showcase different Israeli products and services. (See story on the site’s founder on page 10.) The America-Israel Chamber of Commerce in Chicago created it as a free service, according to its executive director, Michael Schmitt.
StandWithUs, a group that supports pro-Israel education worldwide, partnered with the chamber last year.
“They had a wonderful website and we had a wonderful global campaign,” said Roz Rothstein, the group’s chief executive officer.
She said the groups have held two campaigns, both on days on which Israeli products had been targeted for a boycott.
“We were very successful — people bought out the shelves of Israeli goods in cities around the world,” she said.
Even though boycott efforts have failed, Rothstein said she is still disturbed by the rhetoric the boycott groups use against Israel.
“Everyone should be troubled by these people who are trying to collectively punish the citizens of Israel,” she said. “A lot of them are propagandists and anti-Semites who have launched a movement that is poisonous and who use classical anti-Semitic rhetoric that needs to be condemned.”

STANDWITHUS: BUY ISRAEL WEEK NOVEMBER 28 - DECEMBER 4

SIMON DENG, FORMER SUDANESE SLAVE SAYS "CALLING ISRAEL A RACIST STATE IS ABSURD AND IMMORAL."

Simon Deng, a former South Sudanese slave in Islamist Northern Sudan, gave the following speech at Durban Watch Conference in New York on Sept. 22nd.

He passionately refuted the malicious ‘Zionism is Racism’ canard and pointed out that it is the Arab Islamists who have engaged in the ethnic cleansing of millions of Sudanese, both Muslim and Christian.  He further notes that Israel is the ultimate destination of Sudanese refugees, not Egypt -who has attacked and oppressed them.

What follows is Simon Deng’s prepared remarks  before the Durban Watch Conference:

I want to thank the organizers of this conference, The Perils of Global Intolerance. It is a great honor for me and it is a privilege really to be among today’s distinguished speakers.

I came here as a friend of the State of Israel and the Jewish people. –I came to protest this Durban conference which is based on a set of lies. It is organized by nations who are themselves are guilty of the worst kinds of oppression.

It will not help the victims of racism. It will only isolate and target the Jewish state. It is a tool of the enemies of Israel. The UN has itself become a tool against Israel. For over 50 years, 82 percent of the UN General Assembly emergency meetings have been about condemning one state – Israel. Hitler couldn’t have been made happier.

The Durban Conference is an outrage. All decent people will know that.

But friends, I come here today with a radical idea. I come to tell you that there are peoples who suffer from the UN’s anti-Israelism even more than the Israelis. I belong to one of those people.

Please hear me out.

By exaggerating Palestinian suffering, and by blaming the Jews for it, the UN has muffled the cries of those who suffer on a far larger scale.

For over fifty years the indigenous black population of Sudan — Christians and Muslims alike — has been the victims of the brutal, racist Arab Muslim regimes in Khartoum.

In South Sudan, my homeland, about 4 million innocent men, women and children were slaughtered from 1955 to 2005. Seven million were ethnically cleansed and they became the largest refugee group since World War II.

The UN is concerned about the so-called Palestinian refugees. They dedicated a separate agency for them. and they are treated with a special privilege.

Meanwhile, my people, ethnically cleansed, murdered and enslaved, are relatively ignored. The UN refuses to tell the world the truth about the real causes of Sudan’s conflicts. Who knows really what is happening in Darfur? It is not a “tribal conflict.” It is a conflict rooted in Arab colonialism well-known in north Africa. In Darfur, a region in the Western Sudan, everybody is Muslim. Everybody is Muslim because the Arabs invaded the North of Africa and converted the indigenous people to Islam. In the eyes of the Islamists in Khartoum, the Darfuris are not Muslim enough. And the Darfuris do not want to be Arabized. They love their own African languages and dress and customs. The Arab response is genocide! But nobody at the UN tells the truth about Darfur.

In the Nuba Mountains, another region of Sudan, genocide is taking place as I speak. The Islamist regime in Khartoum is targeting the black Africans – Muslims and Christians. Nobody at the UN has told the truth about the Nuba Mountains.

Do you hear the UN condemn Arab racism against blacks?

What you find on the pages of the New York Times, or in the record of the UN condemnations is “Israeli crimes” and Palestinian suffering. My people have been driven off the front pages because of the exaggerations about Palestinian suffering. What Israel does is portrayed as a Western sin. But the truth is that the real sin happens when the West abandons us: the victims of Arab/Islamic apartheid.

Chattel slavery was practiced for centuries in Sudan. It was revived as a tool of war in the early 90s. Khartoum declared jihad against my people and this legitimized taking slaves as war booty. Arab militias were sent to destroy Southern villages and were encouraged to take African women and children as slaves. We believe that up to 200,000 were kidnapped, brought to the North and sold into slavery.

I am a living proof of this crime against humanity.

I don’t like talking about my experience as a slave, but I do it because it is important for the world to know that slavery exists even today.

I was only nine years old when an Arab neighbor named Abdullahi tricked me into following him to a boat. The boat wound up in Northern Sudan where he gave me as a gift to his family. For three and a half years I was their slave going through something that no child should ever go through: brutal beatings and humiliations; working around the clock; sleeping on the ground with animals; eating the family’s left-overs. During those three years I was unable to say the word “no.” All I could say was “yes,” “yes,” “yes.”

The United Nations knew about the enslavement of South Sudanese by the Arabs. Their own staff reported it. It took UNICEF – under pressure from the Jewish –led American Anti-Slavery Group — sixteen years to acknowledge what was happening. I want to publicly thank my friend Dr. Charles Jacobs for leading the anti-slavery fight.

But the Sudanese government and the Arab League pressured UNICEF, and UNICEF backtracked, and started to criticize those who worked to liberate Sudanese slaves. In 1998, Dr. Gaspar Biro, the courageous UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Sudan who reported on slavery, resigned in protest of the UN’s actions.

My friends, today, tens of thousands of black South Sudanese still serve their masters in the North and the UN is silent about that. It would offend the OIC and the Arab League.

As a former slave and a victim of the worst sort of racism, allow me to explain why I think calling Israel a racist state is absolutely absurd and immoral.

I have been to Israel five times visiting the Sudanese refugees. Let me tell you how they ended up there. These are Sudanese who fled Arab racism, hoping to find shelter in Egypt. They were wrong. When Egyptian security forces slaughtered twenty-six black refugees in Cairo who were protesting Egyptian racism, the Sudanese realized that the Arab racism is the same in Khartoum or Cairo. They needed shelter and they found it in Israel. Dodging the bullets of the Egyptian border patrols and walking for very long distances, the refugees’ only hope was to reach Israel’s side of the fence, where they knew they would be safe.

Black Muslims from Darfur chose Israel above all the other Arab-Muslim states of the area. Do you know what this means!!!?? And the Arabs say Israel is racist!!!?

In Israel, black Sudanese, Christian and Muslim were welcomed and treated like human beings. Just go and ask them, like I have done. They told me that compared to the situation in Egypt, Israel is “heaven.”

Is Israel a racist state? To my people, the people who know racism – the answer is absolutely not. Israel is a state of people who are the colors of the rainbow. Jews themselves come in all colors, even black. I met with Ethiopian Jews in Israel. Beautiful black Jews.

So, yes … I came here today to tell you that the people who suffer most from the UN anti-Israel policy are not the Israelis but all those people who the UN ignores in order to tell its big lie against Israel: we, the victims of Arab/Muslim abuse: women, ethnic minorities, religious minorities, homosexuals, in the Arab/Muslim world. These are the biggest victims of UN Israel hatred.

Look at the situation of the Copts in Egypt, the Christians in Iraq, and Nigeria, and Iran, the Hindus and Bahais who suffer from Islamic oppression. The Sikhs. We – a rainbow coalition of victims and targets of Jihadis — all suffer. We are ignored, we are abandoned. So that the big lie against the Jews can go forward.

In 2005, I visited one of the refugee camps in South Sudan. I met a twelve-year-old girl who told me about her dream. In a dream she wanted to go to school to become a doctor. And then, she wanted to visit Israel. I was shocked. How could this refugee girl who spent most of her life in the North know about Israel? When I asked why she wanted to visit Israel, she said: “This is our people.” I was never able to find an answer to my question.

On January 9 of 2011 South Sudan became an independent state. For South Sudanese, that means continuation of oppression, brutalization, demonization, Islamization, Arabization and enslavement.

In a similar manner, the Arabs continue denying Jews their right for sovereignty in their homeland and the Durban III conference continues denying Israel’s legitimacy.

As a friend of Israel, I bring you the news that my President, the President of the Republic of South Sudan, Salva Kiir — publicly stated that the South Sudan embassy in Israel will be built— not in Tel Aviv, but in Jerusalem, the eternal capital of the Jewish people.

I also want to assure you that my own new nation, and all of its peoples, will oppose racist forums like the Durban III. We will oppose it by simply telling the truth. Our truth.

My Jewish friends taught me something I now want to say with you.

AM Y’ISRAEL CHAI!

The people of Israel lives!

Thank you.

STAND WITH US: Joy and Anguish: The Trade for Gilad Shalit

Israel released 1,027 convicted Palestinian criminals in exchange for the freedom of one Israeli hostage, Gilad Schalit, a young Israeli soldier who had been kidnapped and held incommunicado by Hamas for over five years. Many of the Palestinian criminals had murdered Israelis, including sleeping children. They expressed no regret, only the resolve to murder again. Palestinians welcomed them as heroes. The exchange was anguishing for Israelis, especially for the families whose loved ones were victims of the murderers. Yet over 70% of Israelis favored the trade.

StandWithUs - Arab Israeli on Israel Apartheid Week

Stand With Us: DURBAN 3 RING CIRCUS ATTRACTED HUNDREDS

Approximately 500 people, according to the New York police, were present at the Dag Hammerskjold Plaza across from the United Nations on Thursday, September 22, at the "alternative" Durban 3 Ring Circus with keynote speakers Professor Alan Dershowitz, filmmaker Ami Horowitz, human rights advocate Charles Jacobs, former Sudanese slave Simon Deng, and Roz Rothstein, CEO of StandWithUs, and others.

The audience chanted "Shame on the UN," and "Change your Ways," and pointed giant styrofoam fingers toward the UN. Each time Iranian President Ahmadinejad was mentioned, the crowd (wearing clown noses and wigs) booed and held up masks of Ahmadinejad.  He was referred to as the "dangerous clown of the Durban circus." The plaza was a sea of clown wigs, red noses, and masks.

 
Professor Alan Dershowitz with StandWithUs CEO, Roz Rothstein

"The real irresponsible clowns are in the United Nations building across the street," said Roz Rothstein.  "They are all human rights abusers because they ignore the real suffering around the world like slavery, religious apartheid, and genocide even though they have the opportunity to fix it.  But they don`t pay attention. They remain silent.  They are too busy.  Don`t bother them.  They are too busy finding new and different ways to condemn Israel." Alan Dershowitz encouraged everyone to seek truth, always speak up, and make sure that their voices are always heard.  "What the UN is doing is shameful.  And we are here today to make sure that it doesn`t get a free pass," Dershowitz told the crowd, many of whom were young adults under 30 years old.

Simon Deng, who escaped from slavery, explained why he especially appreciates freedom and why he stands with Israel.  Charles Jacobs, who introduced Deng, called on people everywhere to oppose slavery and other human rights crimes by proudly standing up for the truth and putting pressure on those who ignore real suffering in the world, like the United Nations constantly does. Filmmaker Ami Horowitz, who recently released his film about the incompetence of the United Nations, offered ideas about what the audience could do to make a difference. He argued that the United States should stop funding the UN as long as it continues to make a mockery of the founding ideals that led to its formation after World War II.  StandWithUs has been taking Ami Horowitz on tour to college campuses with his film.

Awards were given for the best costumes. Hila Chase who was dressed as a trapeze artist, won first place. There were jugglers, face painters, and performers on stilts who contributed to the carnival atmosphere and underscored the very serious point that UN should be mocked, not respected.

"We know that our message got across, and we will not be silent while the UN continues to abuse our trust and its own ideals. Something is pathologically wrong when an organization dedicated to human rights gives a platform to someone like Ahmadinejad. He is inciting genocide against Jews, denies the Holocaust occurred, tortures and murders his political oppositions, oppresses women, persecutes gays and religious minorities, and is racing to build nuclear weapons. He is the antithesis of what the United Nations is supposed to stand for.  Yet he is invited to speak instead of being arrested for human rights abuses while the UN focuses all its attention on the one Jewish state in the world.  It is time for Americans and others to demand that the UN change its ways. We and all the people who protested here in NYC will not stop protesting until the UN finally adheres to its own founding principles," said Rothstein.

The circus rally was sponsored by StandWithUs, in partnership with AISH Center-NY, Amcha, Americans For a Safe Israel, BridgeHouston, Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, Eagles Wings, Emunah of America, Fuel for Truth, Genocide Watch, Israel Action Committee of the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, The Jewish Federation of Greater Danbury, CT & Putnam County, NY, The New York Region of Hadassah, Northeast Queens Jewish Community Council (NEQJCC), UANI (United Against Nuclear Iran), UJA Federation of Greenwich, Z Street and the Zionist Organization of America.

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