Remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu at the American Israeli Political Action Committee (AIPAC) 2014 Policy Conference

Thank you. Thank you very much. Thank you. Thank you.

I -- I bring you greetings from Jerusalem -- (cheers, applause) -- the eternal, undivided capital of Israel and the Jewish people. (Cheers, applause.)

I want to thank all of you for working so tirelessly to strengthen the alliance between Israel and America. American -- American support for Israel and for that alliance is at an all-time high. And I can tell you that there is no country on earth that is more pro-American than Israel. (Applause.)

So I want to thank the leaders of AIPAC, the officers of AIPAC, the 14,000 delegates of AIPAC -- (cheers, applause) -- the members of Congress, the members of the Israeli government -- Tzipi Livni, Limor Livnat, Yuval Steinitz, Deputy Minister Elkin, members of the Knesset -- and our two able ambassadors, the ambassador of Israel to the United States, Ron Dermer -- (applause) -- and the ambassador of the United States to Israel, Dan Shapiro, and our U.N. ambassador, Ron Prosor. Everyone, I want to thank you all for safeguarding and nurturing the most precious alliance in the world, the alliance between Israel and the United States of America. (Cheers, applause.)

My friends, I've -- I've come here to draw a clear line.

You know that I like to draw lines -- (laughter) -- especially red ones. But the line I want to draw today is the line between life and death, between right and wrong, between the blessings of a brilliant future and the curses of a dark past.

I stood very close to that dividing line two weeks ago. I visited an Israeli army field hospital in the Golan Heights. Now, that field hospital wasn't set up for Israelis. It was set up for Syrians. (Applause.) Israelis treated nearly a thousand wounded Syrians -- men, women and a lot of children. They come to our border fence bleeding and desperate. Often they're near death.

And on my visit I met two such Syrians, a shellshocked father and his badly wounded 5-year-old boy. A few days earlier the man's wife and baby daughter were blown to bits by Iranian bombs dropped by Assad's air force. Now the grieving father was holding his little boy in his arms, and Israeli doctors were struggling to save the boy's life.

I heard from them and from the other patients there what all the Syrians who've come to be treated in Israel are saying. They all tell the same story. They say, all these years, Assad lied to us. He told us that Iran was our friend and Israel was our enemy. But Iran is killing us, and Israel, Israel is saving us. (Applause.)

Those Syrians discovered what you've always known to be true: In the Middle East, bludgeoned by butchery and barbarism, Israel is humane; Israel is compassionate; Israel is a force for good. (Applause.)

That border, that runs a hundred yards east of that field hospital, is the dividing line between decency and depravity, between compassion and cruelty. On the one side stands Israel, animated by the values we cherish, values that move us to treat sick Palestinians, thousands of them, from Gaza. They come to our hospitals. We treat them despite the fact that terrorists from Gaza hurl thousands of rockets at our cities.

It's those same values that inspires Israeli medics and rescuers to rush to the victims of natural disasters across the world, to Haiti, to Turkey, to Japan, the Philippines, to many other stricken lands.

Now, on the other side of that moral divide, steeped in blood and savagery, stand the forces of terror -- Iran, Assad, Hezbollah, al- Qaida and many others. Did you ever hear about Syria sending a field hospital anywhere? Did you ever hear about Iran sending a humanitarian delegation overseas? No? You missed that memo? (Laughter.) You know why? You know why you haven't heard anything about that? Because the only thing that Iran sends abroad are rockets, terrorists and missiles to murder, maim and menace the innocent. (Applause.)

And what the -- what the Iranian people -- or rather, what the Iranian regime does abroad is just as -- is similar to what they do to their own people. They execute hundreds of political prisoners, they throw thousands more into their jails, and they repress millions in a brutal theocracy.

If you want to understand the moral divide that separates Israel from its enemies, just listen to Hassan Nasrallah, the head of Hezbollah, Iran's terror proxy in Lebanon. He said this. He said: Iran and Hezbollah love death and Israel loves life.

And that's why, he said, Iran and Hezbollah will win and Israel will lose.

Well, he's right about the first point. They do glorify death, and we do sanctify life. But he's dead wrong on the second point. (Applause.) It's precisely because we love life that Israel shall win. (Cheers, applause.)

In the past year Iran's radical regime has tried to blur this moral divide. It wields out its smiling president and its smooth- talking foreign minister. But if you listen to their words, their soothing words, they don't square with Iran's aggressive actions.

Iran says it only wants a peaceful nuclear program. So why is it building a heavy water reactor, which has no purpose in a peaceful nuclear program? Iran says it has noting to hide. So why does it ban inspectors from its secret military sites? Why doesn't it divulge its military nuclear secret -- the secrets of its military nuclear activities? They absolutely refuse to say a word about that. Iran says it's not building nuclear weapons. So why does it continue to build ICBMs, intercontinental ballistic missiles, whose only purpose is to carry nuclear warheads?

See, unlike Scud missiles, that are limited to a range of a few hundred miles, ICBMs can cross vast oceans. And they can strike, right now or very soon, the Eastern seaboard of the United States -- Washington -- and very soon after that, everywhere else in the United States, up to L.A.

And the important point to make is this: Iran's missiles can already reach Israel, so those ICBMs that they're building, they're not intended for us. You remember that beer commercial, "this Bud's for you"? (Laughter.) Well, when you see Iran building ICBMs, just remember, America, that Scud's for you. (Scattered applause.)

Now, it's not only that -- only the Americans got that joke. (Laughter.) It's not only that Iran doesn't walk the walk. In the last few weeks, they don't even bother to talk the talk. Iran's leaders say they won't dismantle a single centrifuge, they won't discuss their ballistic missile program. And guess what tune they're singing in Tehran? It's not "God Bless America," it's "death to America." And they chant this as brazenly as ever. Some charm offensive.

And here's my point. Iran continues to stand unabashedly on the wrong side of the moral divide. And that's why we must continue to stand unequivocally on the right side of that divide. We must oppose Iran and stand up for what is right. (Applause.)

My friends, yesterday I met with President Obama, with Vice President Biden, with Secretary Kerry and with the leaders of the U.S. Congress. We had very good meetings. I thanked them for their strong support for Israel -- (applause) -- for our security, including in the vital area of missile defense.

I said that the greatest threat to our common security is that of a nuclear-armed Iran. We must prevent Iran from having the capability to produce nuclear weapons. And I want to reiterate that point. Not just to prevent them from having the weapon, but to prevent them from having the capacity to make the weapon. (Applause.) That means -- that means we must dismantle Iran's heavy water reactor and its underground enrichment facilities. We must get rid of Iran's centrifuges and its stockpiles of enriched uranium and we must insist that Iran fully divulge the military dimensions of its nuclear program.

Now 17 countries around the world have peaceful nuclear energy programs. They're doing this without spending centrifuges, without enriching uranium, without operating heavy water facilities and without conducting military nuclear research.

You know why Iran insists on doing all these things that the other peaceful countries don't do? It's because Iran doesn't want a peaceful nuclear program, Iran wants a military nuclear program.

I said it here once, I'll say it here again: If it looks like a duck, if it walks like a duck, if it quacks like a duck, then what is it?

AUDIENCE MEMBERS: A duck.

PRIME MIN. NETANYAHU: Well, it's ain't a chicken -- (laughter) -- and it's certainly not a dove. It's still a nuclear duck. (Applause.) Unfortunately, the leading powers of the world are talking about leaving Iran with the capability to enrich uranium.

I hope they don't do that because that would be a grave error. It would leave Iran as a threshold nuclear power. It would enable Iran to rapidly develop nuclear weapons at a time when the world's attention is focused elsewhere. And we see, as we speak, that that could happen. In one part of the world today, tomorrow in another part -- maybe North Korea.

So just remember what -- (inaudible) -- wrote a few years ago. He wrote this in a rare moment of candor. He said: If a country can enrich uranium, even to a low level, it can effectively produce nuclear weapons. Precisely. And leaving Iran as a threshold nuclear power, would deliver a death-blow to nonproliferation. Iran is an outlaw state. It's violated multiple U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting enrichment.

If we allow this outlaw terrorist state to enrich uranium, how could we seriously demand that any other country not enrich uranium?

My friends, I believe that letting Iran enrich uranium would open up the floodgates. It really would open up a Pandora's box of nuclear proliferation in the Middle East and around the world. That must not happen. (Applause.) And we will make sure it does not happen.

Because letting the worst terrorist regime on the planet get atomic bombs would endanger everyone, and it certainly would endanger Israel since Iran openly calls for our destruction.

70 years ago, our people, the Jewish people, were left for dead. We came back to life. We will never be brought to the brink of extinction again. (Applause.)

As prime minister as Israel, I will do whatever I must do to defend the Jewish state of Israel. (Applause.)

You know, I'm often -- I'm often asked whether Israel truly wants diplomacy to succeed, and my answer is, of course we want diplomacy to succeed, because no country has a greater interest in the peaceful elimination of the Iranian nuclear threat. But this threat -- this threat will not be eliminated by just any agreement, only by an agreement which requires Iran to fully dismantle its military nuclear capability. (Applause.)

Now you know how you get that agreement with Iran? Not by relieving pressure but by adding pressure. (Applause.) Pressure is what brought Iran to the negotiating table in the first place, and only more pressure will get to abandon their nuclear weapons program. Greater pressure on Iran will not make war more likely; it will make war less likely -- (applause) -- because the greater the pressure on Iran, the greater the pressure on Iran and more credible the threat of force on Iran, the smaller the chance that force will ever have to be used.

Ladies and gentlemen, peace is Israel's highest aspiration. I'm prepared to make a historic peace with our Palestinian neighbors -- (applause) -- a peace that would end a century of conflict and bloodshed. Peace would be good for us. Peace would be good for the Palestinians. But peace would also open up the possibility of establishing formal ties between Israel and leading countries in the Arab world.

Many Arab leaders -- and believe me, this is a fact, not a hypothesis, it's a fact -- many Arab leaders today already realize that Israel is not their enemy, that peace with the Palestinians would turn our relations with them and with many Arab countries into open and thriving relationships. (Applause.)

The combination of Israeli innovation and Gulf entrepreneurship, to take one example -- I think this combination could catapult the entire region forward. I believe that together, we can resolve actually some of the region's water and energy problems. You know, Israeli has half the rainfall we had 65 years ago. We have 10 times the population. Our GDP has shot up, thank God -- GDP per capita, up. So we have half the rainfall, 10 times the population, and our water use goes up. And which country in the world doesn't have water problems? Yep. Israel. (Applause.)

Why? Because of technology, of innovation, of systems. We could make that available to our Arab neighbors throughout the region that is not exactly blessed with water. We could solve the water problems. We could solve the energy problems. We could improve agriculture. We could improve education with e-learning, health with diagnostics on the Internet. All of that is possible. We could better the lives of hundreds of millions. So we all have so much to gain from peace.

That's why I want to thank the indomitable John Kerry. You know, New York -- (applause) -- and Tel-Aviv, they're the cities that never sleep. John Kerry is definitely the secretary of state who never sleeps.

And -- (applause) -- and I've got the bags under my eyes to prove it. We're working together, literally day and night, to seek a durable peace, a peace anchored in solid security arrangements and the mutual recognition of two nation-states. (Applause.)

Israel is the nation-state of the Jewish people -- (applause) -- where the civil rights of all citizens, Jews and non-Jews alike, are guaranteed. The land of Israel is the place where the identity of the Jewish people was forged.

It was in Hebron that Abraham blocked the cave of the Patriarchs and the Matriarchs. It was in Bethel that Jacob dreamed his dreams. It was in Jerusalem that David ruled his kingdom. We never forget that, but it's time the Palestinians stopped denying history. (Applause.)

Just as Israel is prepared to recognize a Palestinian state, the Palestinians must be prepared to recognize a Jewish state. (Applause.) President Abbas, recognize the Jewish state, and in doing so, you would be telling your people, the Palestinians, that while we might have a territorial dispute, the right of the Jewish people to a state of their own is beyond dispute. (Applause.)

You would be telling Palestinians to abandon the fantasy of flooding Israel with refugees, or amputating parts of the Negev and the Galilee. In recognizing the Jewish state, you would finally making clear that you are truly prepared to end the conflict. So recognize the Jewish state. No excuses, no delays, it's time. (Applause.)

Now, my friends, it may take years, it may take decades for this formal acceptance of Israel to filter down through all layers of Palestinian society. So if this piece is to be more than a brief interlude between wars, Israel needs long-term security arrangements on the ground to protect the peace and to protect Israel if the peace unravels. You see, those security arrangements would always be important, but they're even more important and critical today when the entire Middle East is unraveling. Three years ago, our region was a very different place. Can anyone sitting here, anyone listening to us, can anyone tell me and be sure what the Middle East will look like five, 10, 20 years from now? We cannot bet the security of Israel on our fondest hopes.

You know, in the Middle East, that's usually a losing bet. We should always hope for the best, but in the Middle East we have to be prepared for the worst. And despite the best of hopes, international peacekeeping forces sent to Lebanon, Gaza, Sinai, the Golan Heights, they didn't prevent those areas from becoming armed strongholds against Israel.

If we reach an agreement, as I hope, with the Palestinians, I don't delude myself. That peace will most certainly come under attack -- constant attack by Hezbollah, Hamas, al-Qaida and others. And experience has shown that foreign peacekeepers -- foreign peacekeeping forces, well, that they keep the peace only when there is peace.

But when they're subjected to repeated attacks, those forces eventually go home. So as long as the peace is under assault, the only force that can be relied on to defend the peace and defend Israel is the force defending its own home -- the Israeli Army, the brave soldiers of the IDF. (Applause.)

I'm going to reveal to you a secret. This position may not win me universal praise.

That occasionally happens when I (state ?) our positions. But I'm charged with protecting the security of my people, the people of Israel. And I will never gamble with the security of the one and only Jewish state. (Applause.)

So as we work in the coming days, in the coming weeks, to forge a durable peace, I hope that the Palestinian leadership will stand with Israel and the United States on the right side of the moral divide, the side of peace, reconciliation and hope.

You can clap. You want to encourage them to do that. (Applause.) I do, and I know you do too.

Thank you.

My friends, one movement that's definitely on the wrong side of the moral divide is the movement to boycott Israel, the so-called BDS. (Applause.) That movement will fail. (Applause.)

Let me tell you why. (Sustained applause.) I want to explain to you why.

Beyond our traditional trading partners, countries throughout Asia, Africa, Latin America, where I'll soon be going to, these countries are flocking to Israel. They're not coming to Israel; they're flocking to Israel.

They want Israeli technology to help transform their countries as it has ours. And it's not just the small countries that are coming to Israel, it's also the superpowers. You know, the other superpowers: Apple, Google -- (laughter) -- Microsoft, Intel, Facebook, Yahoo. They come because they want to benefit from Israel's unique ingenuity, dynamism and innovation.

And I could tell you the BDS boycott movement is not going to stop that anymore than the Arab boycott movement could stop Israel from becoming a global technological power. They are going to fail. (Applause.) And in the knowledge based century, the knowledge based economy, Israel's best economic day are ahead of it. Mark my words. (Applause.)

Now, wait, wait. I don't want you to get complacent -- (laughter) -- because the fact that they're going to fail doesn't mean that the BDS movement shouldn't be vigorously opposed. They should be opposed because they're bad for peace and because BDS is just plain wrong. (Applause.)

Most people in the BDS movement don't seek a solution of two states for two peoples. On the contrary, they openly admit that they seek the dissolution of the only state for the Jewish people. They're not seeking peace, they're not seeking reconciliation. But some of their gullible fellow travelers actually do believe that BDS advances peace.

Well, the opposite is true. BDS sets back peace because it hardens Palestinian positions and it makes mutual compromise less likely.

But I think these are all important points, but not the critical important. The critical thing is that BDS is morally wrong. It turns morality on its head. This is the main point. And I can tell you, it's not that Israel, like all states, is not beyond criticism. We have a boisterous democracy where everyone has an opinion. And believe me, no one in Israel is shy about expressing it -- about anything. In Israel, self-criticism is on steroids. (Laughter.)

But the BDS movement is not about legitimate criticism. It's about making Israel illegitimate. It presents a distorted and twisted picture of Israel to the naive and to the ignorant. BDS is nothing but a farce. Here's why, listen: In dozens of countries academics are imprisoned for their beliefs. So the universities of which country does BDS want to sanction and boycott? Israel -- the one country in the Middle East where professors can say, write and teach what they want.

Throughout the Middle East, Christians are fleeing for their lives. So which country does BDS want churches to divest from? You got it -- Israel, the one country in the Middle East that protects Christians and protects the right of worship for everyone. (Applause.)

Throughout the Middle East -- throughout the Middle East, journalists are jailed, gays are hanged and women are denied their most basic rights. So which country does BDS want to sanction? Take a guess. Israel -- the only country in the region with a free press, a progressive gays' rights record and where women have presided over each of the three branches of government. (Applause.)

Now, when you hear this -- and anybody can verify this -- so you have to wonder, how could anyone fall for the BS in BDS? (Laughter, applause.) How can they fall for this?

Well, you shouldn't be surprised. Throughout history, people believed the most outrageously absurd things about the Jews, that we were using the blood of children to bake matzos, that we were spreading the plague throughout Europe, that we were plotting to take over the world. Yeah, but you can say how can educated people, how could educated people today believe the nonsense spewed by BDS about Israel? Well, that shouldn't surprise you either. Some of history's most influential thinkers and writers -- Voltaire, Dostoyevsky, T.S. Eliot, many, many others -- spread the most preposterous lies about the Jewish people. It's hard to shed prejudices that have been ingrained in consciousness over millennia.

And from antiquity to the Middle Ages to modern times, Jews were boycotted, discriminated against and singled out.

Today the singling out of the Jewish people has turned into the singling out of the Jewish state. So you see, attempts to boycott, divest and sanction Israel, the most threatened democracy on Earth, are simply the latest chapter in the long and dark history of anti- Semitism. (Applause.) Those who wear -- those who wear the BDS label should be treated exactly as we treat any anti-Semite or bigot. They should be exposed and condemned. The boycotters should be boycotted. (Applause, cheers.)

Everyone should know what the letters B-D-S really stand for: bigotry, dishonesty and shame. (Applause.) And those who -- those who oppose BDS, like Scarlett Johansson, they should be applauded. (Cheers, applause.)

Scarlett, I have one thing to say to you: Frankly, my dear, I DO give a damn. (Applause.) And I know all of you give a damn, as do decent people everywhere who reject hypocrisy and lies and cherish integrity and truth.

My friends, on behalf of the people of Israel, I bring you message from Jerusalem, the cradle of our common civilization, the crucible of our shared values. It's a message from the Bible. (In Hebrew.) (Applause.) I have put before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Choose life so that you and your offspring may live.

Ladies and gentlemen, my friends, never forget -- America and Israel stand for life. We stand together on the right side of the moral divide. We stand together on the right side of history. (Applause.) So stand tall, stand strong, stand proud. (Cheers, applause.)

Thank you. Thank you. (Applause.)

Thank you very much. Thank you all. Keep doing a great job. (Applause.) Thank you.

Sam Glaser - Dancing in Jerusalem - Jewish Music

Netanyahu to Tell Obama: Pressure Abbas, not Us Diplomatic source tells Arutz Sheva Prime Minister will tell US president that he will not accede to Abbas's demands.

US President Barack Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu met in the White House on Monday.

"The United States has no better friend than Israel,” Obama said at the start of the meeting with Netanyahu. He also said that he is committed to preventing Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons.

Regarding the negotiations with the Palestinian Authority, Obama praised Netanyahu and said that there are “very important and difficult issues” being discussed in the negotiations, and Netanyahu “takes them all seriously.”

Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish nation. He also noted: “The people in Israel expect me to be strong and to withstand pressure” while he is in Washington. 

"In the 20 years since Israel embarked upon the [Oslo] peace treaty,” Netanyahu said, “Israel made great efforts to obtain peace – we evicted cities, we freed prisoners, and when you look at what we got in return – you see thousands of missiles on our cities, and suicide terrorists.”

"Israel is doing its part and the Palestinians are not,” he stated. “And that is the truth, and the Nation of Israel knows it is the truth, because they live it.”

Netanyahu called on the Palestinians to recognize Israel as the state of the Jewish nation. He also noted: “The people in Israel expect me to be strong and withstand pressure.”

As Netanyahu prepared to meet Obama in Washington Monday, an Israeli diplomatic source told Arutz Sheva that Netanyahu intends to tell Obama that he should place pressure on the Palestinian Authority (PA) if he wants peace talks to progress – not on Israel.

Abbas, for his part, is finding it difficult to give up the demand for the “right of return” of descendants of Palestinian refugees into Israel, and to recognize Israel as a Jewish state. He will ask Obama to put pressure on Netanyahu to forgo these demands and to release more terrorist murderers from Israeli jails.

The diplomatic source stressed that Netanyahu will make clear to Obama that he represents Israel's citizens, and has no intention of yielding to Abbas's demands.

Netanyahu arrived at the White House Monday in a large black 4x4 shortly before 1:45 p.m. local time (1845 GMT) as temperatures plummeted and a major snowstorm blanketed Washington.

Deputy Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) spoke Monday morning about  Obama's stated intentions to pressure Israel into massive concessions during Netanyahu's US visit this week. The two are set to meet Monday in what observers said could be a "tough" experience for Netanyahu.

"The American administration is again pressuring the wrong side," said Akunis. "You don't need to convince Israel to have a desire for peace, that desire exists. Now you need to pressure the serial refusers of peace for the past hundred years -- the Palestinians."

Akunis added "they should start with the most basic thing, recognizing the state of Israel." As basic as the recognition may be, the Palestinian Authority (PA) has consistently refused to recognize Israel as a Jewish state, creating a deadlock in the talks.

Speaking to Bloomberg’s Jeffrey Goldberg in an interview published Sunday, Obama warned that time was running out for a peace deal. He further claimed that Abbas “is sincere about his willingness to recognize Israel and its right to exist.”

Israel Matzav: What 'Free Palestine' really means

Ben Shapiro at UCLA: "BDS is just another form of anti-semitism"

An alumnus of UCLA spoke up eloquently at a meeting of the student government last week that voted on a measure urging the UC system to sell off stocks of companies that do business with the Israeli military and profit from Israel’s “occupation” of the biblical heartland of Judea and Samaria, where the Jewish forefathers lived.

After a meeting that lasted until dawn Wednesday, the UCLA undergraduate student government voted against the measure.

The accompanying video shows the man, Ben Shapiro, Editor-in-Chief of TruthRevolt.org and host of a radio show, blasting both the student sponsors and those considering the anti-Semitic measure.

“My name is Ben Shapiro,” he opened. “I'm an alumnus of this university. I'm also a local talk show host on 870 [AM] in the morning, and I got out of bed and left my one month old baby there when I saw what was going on here tonight. I've never been more ashamed to be a Bruin. I've never been more ashamed to be an alumnus of this university than to see this divestment petition being considered at this level.

“To pretend this is about occupation, to pretend this is about peace, to pretend that this anything other than vile, spiteful Jew hatred is a lie!” he said, to the sound of cheering.

“There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Saudi Arabia. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Iran. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing Palestine. There is only one reason we are discussing Israel and not discussing the vast bevy of human rights violations that happen every day in the Middle East, exponentially worse that what happens in Israel.

“Any gay or lesbian that is targeting Israel in this room seems to haveforgotten how high they hang gays from cranes in Iran. Every person of liberal bent who suggests that Israel is the problem in the Middle East seems to have forgotten that there is only one country in the Middle East that actually has any sort of religious diversity in it. The countries that are apartheid countries are those that are Judenrein – like, for example, Palestine.

“So, for us to sit here and pretend that Israel is somehow on a lower moral plane is a direct manifestation of anti-Semitism. And to hold Jews to a different moral standard than any other country or group on the face of the earth represents nothing but an age-old and historic hatred for the Jewish people. All the folks here who are pretending that the B.D.S is about anything other than that, I would like to see a poll of those folks, and see how many of them actually believe in the existence of a Jewish state, qua-Jewish state, not as a state like any other, but as a Jewish state. They don't. They don't acknowledge that existence. They don't believe in that existence. They don't believe in peace. All this is about, pure and simple, is a desire to target the Jewish people.”

The highly emotional issue attracted more than 500 people to the UCLA meeting and the public comment lasted nearly nine hours, according to campus newspaper the Daily Bruin. The council moved to a secret ballot and then voted 7-5 against the divestment measure.

Similar resolutions have been debated around the UC system over the past two years with various results. UC Riverside’s student government first voted for divestment and then reversed itself and rescinded its recommendation last spring. Student government panels at UC’s Irvine, Berkeley and San Diego campuses have approved pro-divestment resolutions.

Shapiro has written books and appeared on television as a spokesman for conservative issues.

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Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Anti-Israel conference at NYU goes on despite protests

In a follow-up on a story I broke, JPost reports:

The American Studies Association hosted a large pro-Boycott, Divest, Sanction at New York University from Friday night to Saturday evening, sparking a backlash from NYU students, who wrote a letter of protest to the school’s administration.

The letter, co-signed by 26 NYU students and student leaders from both the college Democrat and Republican groups, was hand delivered to NYU President John Sexton and to NYU faculty member and incoming ASA President Lisa Duggan.

The ASA-BDS event, which coincided with Israeli Apartheid Week in New York and was titled “Circuits of Influence: US, Israel and Palestine,” was not widely publicized and was closed to the press.

When a reporter from The Jerusalem Post tried to register as a civilian earlier in the week, she was told the conference was completely full. Flyers for the event cautioned: “Please do not post or circulate the flyer.

We are trying to avoid press, protesters and public attention.”

“We are immensely disappointed with both the nature of this event and how it has been met with complete silence from the NYU administration,” the letter said, citing the fact that invitations to the event were extremely selective and the event itself features only pro-BDS, anti-Israeli speakers.

The students condemned the fact that the event coincided – “almost to the minute” – with Shabbat, a move that the letter called “seemingly deliberate... to prevent the presentation of other views in this complex issue.”

“Our concern is that New York University, a global leader in education, is permitting the occurrence of an event that is antithetical to the principles that the global academic community stands for,” the letter said, “if anything, the university condones the event with the administration’s disconcerting silence... While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is indeed complex and deserves intense debate, hosting events that unequivocally reject and refuse to acknowledge dissenting opinions is an appalling gesture of intolerance.”

I don't know yet if anyone physically protested the event or if anyone infiltrated it.

I found one person who tweeted some highlights.The first two are pretty funny:

This one is classic, as an Arab defines antisemitism for us poor deluded Jews:


Is that speaker saying that Americans are victims of colonialism? Well, in 140 characters it does sound pretty stupid, but here is how I imagine it was presented so that academics could nod their heads and then burst out in applause:In the scale of continuum of colonizer to colonized, most peoples do not fall on the extreme axes, but somewhere in between. The exception, of course, are Zionists, who are colonizers in extremis. Yet colonization is not only of land, but colonizers can also occupy governments, businesses and collective consciousness. In that sense, perhaps the United States can also be considered colonized by the Zionist entity, as the Zionist narrative has invaded the government, the financial centers of power and the very mindset of the average citizen who is woefully ignorant of Zionist crimes and abuses. I call this colonialism of the mind "ethereal colonization." So in a very real sense, Americans and Palestinians stand together, as victims of Zionist colonialism, and we must work together to free ourselves from all forms of insidious occupation, the concrete and the abstract!Now it makes sense!If anyone finds any other tweets or social media posts about this conference ofexclusion, it would be fun to reproduce it more fully,

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Jordanian paper: "Know your enemy - Who are the Jews?"

Jordanian newspaper AsSabeel has a classically antisemitic article that "explains" everything ordinary people need to know about Jews, because one needs to know the enemy. After all, as the introductory paragraph says, we need to confirm that Jews are a demonized creation.

So let's get to the details.

Although the article is short, it does inform us that "Jews are the enemy of God and his religion of Islam." 

Thanks to the Quran, we know that Jews are known for "heresy and stubbornness and vileness and lowliness," and they are "cursed of God, and on the tongue Prophet Muhammad, peace be upon him , and on the tongue of David and Jesus and other prophets of God and prayers."

Finally, we learn that "Jews are rats who desecrate Jerusalem and destroy the basis of the Al Aqsa Mosque" and "Jews are like the devil." 

This is from a country that has a peace treaty with Israel.

Perhaps you might say that Assabeel is a conservative, Islamist paper. Would a liberal Arab paper say the same sort of things?

Maybe Alankabout, an Arabic paper that routinely has photos of celebrities (NSFW) that would be censored in most US newspapers?

Well, Alankabout has a much longer article that discusses in great detail how Jews control all the banks and money of the world, as well as how they want to steal Egyptian gold - just like they stole their gold during the Exodus.

Sounds like they are merely "anti-Zionist."

Israel Matzav: Obama: 'Stop killing Iranian nuke scientists'

The Obama administration has decided that Israel is behind the liquidation of several Iranian nuclear scientists, and has demanded that the liquidations be stopped.

Recently, as I sought to update a book I co-wrote about the history of Israel's intelligence agencies, sources close to them revealed that they felt pressure from the Obama Administration - more than a hint - to stop carrying out assassinations inside Iran.

Although Israel has never acknowledged it, the country's famed espionage agency - the Mossad - ran an assassination campaign for several years aimed at Iran's top nuclear scientists.

The purpose was to slow the progress made by Iran, which Israel feels certain is aimed at developing nuclear weapons; and to deter trained and educated Iranians from joining their country's nuclear program.

At least five Iranian scientists were murdered, most of them by bombs planted on their cars as they drove to work in the morning. Remarkably, the Israeli assassins were never caught - obviously having long-established safe houses inside Iran - although several Iranians who may have helped the Mossad were arrested and executed.

In addition to strong signals from the Obama Administration that the U.S. did not want Israel to continue the assassinations, Mossad officials concluded that the campaign had gotten too dangerous. They did not want their best combatants - Israel's term for its most talented and experienced spies - captured and hanged.

Unbelievable.... Obama wants Iran to obtain nuclear weapons.

Walk in the Footsteps of Abraham in Ancient Hebron

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: MK Moshe Feiglin's video tour of the Temple Mount

A few days ago, Israeli MK Moshe Feiglin went to the Temple Mount. (He claims Jewish law allows him to visit areas much closer to the actual Temple site than most religious Jews would be able to visit.)

The video has some fascinating scenes.

Keep in mind that Feiglin is denounced as a wild eyed Jewish fundamentalist fanatic by both the Arab and much of the Israeli media. This video does not exactly jive with that characterization.

(h/t Yerushalimey)

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: Funny BDSFail in Brighton

Israel haters apparently announced that they would hold a march on Saturday to protest a store in Brighton selling Sodastream.

As usual, Sussex Friends of Israel were there to video the proceedings:



They have lots more videos on their Facebook page.

In other news, the Sussex Jewish News featured my Hasby Award to the group on the front cover of their March issue:

The article about the award says:

Sussex Friends of Israel (SFI) is now an award-winning organisation, thanks to the incredible grassroots support of the whole community in the fight to neutralise the activities of the BDS (Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions) movement.

This community support for SFI’s activism has been recognised with the award of a special achievement ‘Hasby Award’, the brainchild of the popular and influential pro-Israel blogger ‘Elder of Ziyon’.

In the world of social media, Facebook, Twitter and online blogging Elder, an anonymous American writer, stands out from the crowd. For more than 10 years his blogs have stood up to scrutiny and he has been recognised as a trusted pro-Israel voice.

In his Award announcement, Elder described SFI as a group of people who, on their own, decided to counter-protest the haters who were intimidating the Ecostream shop in Brighton every Saturday.

The narrative also confirmed that SFI receives no help from the organised British Jewish or Zionist community, and that this lack of an organised response is what helped create SFI.

The award citation also explains that every week SFI come up with a different gimmick - handing out cookies or cake to passers-by. They mercilessly videotape and try to interview the haters, exposing their ignorance and how little they really care about Palestinian Arabs.

Elder said: “The greatness of SFI isn’t that they are counter-protesting. Their brilliance is in how they do it. They have effectively nullified and turned the tables on the anti-Israel protesters.

“On their Facebook page you can see that they generate a huge number of pro-Israel posters, often with a great sense of humour.

“No one else has the creativity, energy and effectiveness of Sussex Friends of Israel. Their model should be replicated around the world”.

Neil Duncanson, SFI’s director said: “Just to be nominated for a Hasby Award has proved the reach and reputation of SFI around the globe, especially when you consider the other esteemed nominees and past winners of the awards.

“To actually win an award is fantastic news and recognition for everyone who stands up against the hatred and lies of those who stand against Israel week in and week out.”

“I would like to thank Elder on behalf of Sussex Friends of Israel and its supporters, we are very proud that our work is held in such high regard by you and by supporters of Israel around the world”.

Elder’s blogs have been mentioned on CNN, Fox News and the New York Times. Blog posts have also been cross-published in Algemeiner Journal and Jewish Press.

The Jerusalem Report published the article Battle of the Bloggers, which called Elder of Ziyon “perhaps the most influential” pro-Israel blog.

Elder Of Ziyon - Israel News: The serious lesson from UCLA's Meltdown Girl

Amid the joking about Meltdown Girl (and here is a well-worn Internet meme used to good comedic effect on the subject), there is something important for supporters of Israel to realize.

As commenter Max writes:

Even though many of us are enjoying this moment of schadenfreude, that video contains some clues about what we're struggling with, especially on college campuses:

1. The girl is having a purely emotional experience. To her, and millions of other impressionable college kids around the world, understanding the Middle East conflict isn't about historical facts, complex political realities, or necessary security measures. It is simply an emotional issue. Pathos-based rhetoric will very often carry the day. Many of these impressionable kids get whipped into a frenzy. Which leads to my next point:

2. To much of the pro-divestment crowd, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has been reduced to a cartoon image of sadistic, imperialistic Israelis brutalizing helpless, innocent Palestinians. To them, the conflict boils down to depraved Israelis perpetrating their evil unless "we" can stop them.

This girl is probably not consciously anti-Semitic. But she's definitely been infected by this Israel-as-pure-unmitigated-evil rhetoric that's so reminiscent of some of history's more loathsome, demagogic anti-Jewish propaganda campaigns.

Indeed. The girl, Danielle Dimacali, is not an idiot. She was valedictorian in her high school class of some 700 students. The only way to understand her severe emotional reaction to a meaningless vote is to understand that she isn't using her brain when thinking about Israel. 

For people like Dimacali, Israel is not the nation state of the Jewish people. - it is a shorthand meme for evil itself. It is not a place where people are born, live, love and laugh, where people care about each other and even about those who want to destroy them. It is not a place that has given back to the world far more than it takes. It is merely a symbol of racism, oppression and tyranny,  more so than its truly tyrannical neighbors.

How do people like Dimacali get infected with such hate? Simple, actually. It is because one side of the Israel/anti-Israel debate deals with facts, and the other side deals with emotions. 

And emotions always win. 

I spoke about this in my 2010 Hasbara 2.0 lecture, but since no one wants to watch a movie-length lecture, here is a ten minute section on this very theme, along with what Zionists must do to even the playing field.

Oh, I know Lipton is not your tea of choice, not mine either. But look at this brilliant Lipton Tea commercial with the Muppets. And then watch for the moment when Animal the taxi driver switches to Yiddish.