Alarming Rise in Antisemitic Boycotts of Israeli Universities and Scholars

There have been some articles sprinkled in the media discussing Antisemitic Boycotts. This web site that I have copied is worth your attention. The web site is at http://www.amchainitiative.org/academic-boycotts-israel-antisemitic/.

Israel, the Jewish State, is predicated on a decisive and stable Jewish majority of at least 70 percent. Any lower than that and Israel will have to decide between being a Jewish state and a democratic state. If it chooses democracy, then Israel as a Jewish state will cease to exist. If it remains officially Jewish, then the state will face an unprecedented level of international isolation, including sanctions, that might prove fatal.
— Michael Oren, Israeli Ambassador to the U.S.,
May 2009

David Bancroft

More than 1,000 Faculty and 2 Academic Organizations have Endorsed the Academic Boycott of Israel

In the 1930’s, thousands of Jewish professors were kicked out of German universities, simply because they were Jews. Shamefully, today it is in the United States that Jewish professors are threatened with being thrown out of scholarly conferences, prevented from publishing in scholarly journals, and denied research or employment opportunities, simply because they are citizens of the Jewish state.

Today’s academic boycott of the Jewish state and its scholars is no less antisemitic than the academic boycott of Jewish scholars in Germany 70 years ago.

Academic boycotts of Israeli academic institutions and scholars, like virtually all anti-Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) campaigns within the last several years, have been established in response to the Palestinian political call to join the BDS movement against Israel. That call was issued in 2005 by a coalition of Palestinian organizations that include the terrorist organizations Hamas and the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine, and its purpose was to facilitate the elimination of the Jewish state. It is not surprising that most of the American founders of academic boycotts of Israel have publicly expressed their opposition to the Jewish state.

Hannah Rosenthal, the former U.S. State Department’s Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, has unequivocally condemned academic boycotts, saying: “when academics from Israel are boycotted – this is not objecting to a policy – this is anti-Semitism.” In addition 446 American University Presidents signed a statement published in the New York Times entitled “Boycott Israeli Universities? Boycott Ours, Too!”

Alarmingly, more than 1,000 faculty members, teaching students on over 300 US college and university campuses, have endorsed an academic boycott of Israeli universities and Jewish Israeli academics.

http://www.amchainitiative.org/academic-boycott-of-israel-map/

Click on the map link to see the names of faculty
who have endorsed the academic boycott of Israel

Even more disturbing is that well-known academic organizations are embracing the academic boycott of Israel. Last April, the general membership of the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) unanimously approved the resolution put forward by the AAAAS National Council to endorse the boycott of Israeli universities.

On December 15, the American Studies Association (ASA), which claims to be the nation’s oldest and largest association devoted to the interdisciplinary study of American culture and history, approved an anti-Israel academic boycott resolution put forward by the ASA National Council.

The ASA’s recent endorsement of the academic boycott of Israel has drawn scathing criticism from many organizations, including the American Association of University Professors, the Anti-Defamation League, the Simon Wiesental Center, Zionist Organization of America, American Jewish Committee, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, and Stand With Us.

In addition, two universities — Penn State Harrisburg and Brandeis — have officially withdrawn their membership from the American Studies Association, after the ASA’s endorsement of the academic boycott of Israel, and the Chancellor of University of California San Diego, one of the ASA member organizations, has issued a statement condemning the boycott.

Marijuana

SHOCKING!!

Suspicious: This image of Brooke Shield’s allegedly smoking cannabis with hardcore punk artiste H.R was leaked on the internet

I have been a supporter of legalizing the use of all illegal narcotics for years. I have never used any of them. Actually the only thing I ever smoked was a pipe and I gave that up decades ago.

My logic is that all the efforts to discourage the use of marijuana, heroin, and other drugs have been a failure. Those that want those narcotics have no difficulty obtaining them. Society has spent millions of dollars jailing people for possession the drugs. Gangs and cartels have made millions of dollars distributing them and people who challenge the cartels are murdered. This is not just a Mexican problem. It is a world wide problem. FBI data reported in U.S. News: American police made a total of 12,196,959 arrests in 2011 for marijuana use.

This past week the issue of marijuana use arrived at my home. My daughter suffers with serious acid reflux disease. It has been an ongoing problem for the past 18 months. Her doctor told her that one way to reduce the nausea and heartburn symptoms is to smoke marijuana. Medical marijuana is legal in California. Those symptoms had been under control with a variety of medications. The medications have not been effective the past few weeks. Finally, out of desperation, I said why not try the marijuana. Instant relief was the benefit. Starting this past Tuesday night she has not pleaded with me to take her to the ER.

Here is the ultimate hypocrisy.

Obama is quoted as saying that marijuana is no worse than cigarettes or alcohol. Still, he remains opposed to a nationwide decriminalization of marijuana. CNN reports Marijuana is currently classed as a schedule 1 drug, the same category as heroin and ecstasy. The Denver Post reports “Attorney General Eric Holder says the Obama administration is planning to roll out regulations soon that would allow banks to do business with legal marijuana sellers.”

Is this a great country or what?

Winston Churchill 1899

“Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world.”

This is amazing. Even more amazing is that this hasn’t been published long before now.

CHURCHILL ON ISLAM

Unbelievable, but the speech below was written in 1899… (check Wikipedia – The River War).

The attached short speech from Winston Churchill, was delivered by him in 1899 when he was a young soldier and journalist. It probably sets out the current views of many, but expresses in the wonderful Churchillian turn of phrase and use of the English language, of which he was a past master. Sir Winston Churchill was, without doubt, one of the greatest men of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

He was a brave young soldier, a brilliant journalist, an extraordinary politician and statesman, a great war leader and British Prime Minister, to whom the Western world must be forever in his debt. He was a prophet in his own time. He died on 24th January 1965, at the grand old age of 90 and, after a lifetime of service to his country, was accorded a State funeral.

HERE IS THE SPEECH:
“How dreadful are the curses which Mohammedanism lays on its votaries! Besides the fanatical frenzy, which is as dangerous in a man as hydrophobia in a dog, there is this fearful fatalistic apathy. The effects are apparent in many countries, improvident habits, slovenly systems of agriculture, sluggish methods of commerce, and insecurity of property exist wherever the followers of the Prophet rule or live.

“A degraded sensualism deprives this life of its grace and refinement, the next of its dignity and sanctity. The fact that in Mohammedan law every woman must belong to some man as his absolute property, either as a child, a wife, or a concubine, must delay the final extinction of slavery until the faith of Islam has ceased to be a great power among men.

“Individual Muslims may show splendid qualities, but the influence of the religion paralyses the social development of those who follow it. No stronger retrograde force exists in the world. Far from being moribund, Mohammedanism is a militant and proselytizing faith. It has already spread throughout Central Africa, raising fearless warriors at every step; and were it not that Christianity is sheltered in the strong arms of science, the science against which it had vainly struggled, the civilization of modern Europe might fall, as fell the civilization of ancient Rome …”

Sir Winston Churchill; (Source: The River War, first edition, Vol II, pages 248-250 London).

Churchill saw it coming……

The Great Society

President Lyndon Johnson’s campaign rally cry was all about creating The Great Society. Within days of his ascendancy to office he told us about his “War on Poverty.” The census bureau says in 2012, the official poverty rate was 15.0 percent. There were 46.5 million people in poverty.

I have stopped going to the Town Hall meetings sponsored by my congressman. For him they are a great way of showing his constituency that he is really interested in the people he represents. I was at his last meeting that was held at the local high school. I learned nothing. Pocket sized booklets of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution were free for the taking. These gimmicks have enabled him to be re-elected eight times.
The Declaration of Independence was the creation of the wealthy in 1776. The most famous signatory is John Hancock. Hancock was one of the wealthiest men in the Thirteen Colonies, having inherited a profitable mercantile business from his uncle. http://www.ushistory.org/declaration/signers/. It is the wealthy that made this country grow and succeed.

However it is the middle class that made this country an inspiration for the rest of the world. Thus far the 21st century has brought about that groups decline in significant numbers. If this country is to continue to be a beacon the government must take all action necessary to ensure those in the middle continue to thrive. As of this date the current congress has failed to “insure domestic Tranquility” and “promote the general Welfare” as directed in the preamble to the Constitution.

Recent evidence of a lack of effort to “promote the general Welfare” is the absence of legislation that would protect jobs and encourage hiring. Who cares? Not the mostly well-to-do members of Congress. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25% in 2013. And you thought the representatives were representing you. They are not! They represent their best interests. That would be the money men who contribute to re-election campaigns.

The unemployment rate dropped to 6.7% in December. Sounds good. It’s all about smoke and mirrors. The BLS wrote in its latest report in January wrote, “The number of unemployed persons declined by 490,000 to 10.4 million,” but the bureau reported that only 74,000 jobs had been created. How can this be? Simple. More people stopped looking for work and are no longer counted as unemployed. The unemployment rate is a feel good number that does not tell us the real employment situation.

This situation reminds me of George Orwell’s 1984. Lies and double talk. Two and Two could be Five. Especially if the government says so. Town Hall meetings and the unemployment rate are two of the many government efforts to make you believe that our elected representatives are making America a great success story.

Don’t you believe it!

It takes more than the ballot box to change a 317 million population nation. Demonstrations and marches are needed. How many will be willing to participate? Not enough to make the changes. And so we march along as the peasants (the federal government hates that word) doing the bidding of our masters.

Obama: Unemployed aren’t ‘lazy,’ they just need a hand

Obama: Unemployed aren’t ‘lazy,’ they just need a hand
http://www.latimes.com/nation/politics/politicsnow/la-pn-obama-unemployment-benefits-congress-20140107,0,6811727.story#ixzz2pplnAM47

The president is correct. The unemployed do need a hand. Is unending employment insurance the solution?

The total number of people unemployed for more than 26 weeks is estimated to be over 4 million. The number is decreasing very slowly. 1.3 million of those people no longer collect unemployment insurance aid. That number will increase to include all the long term unemployed by the end of 2014.

The likelihood of those unemployed for a year obtaining new jobs in their old profession is remote.

The question is, are they really unemployed or are they just going through the motions of job search to qualify for the aid? I know there are some in that category. The obvious reason is they were ready to retire when they experienced a layoff. A second reason is that they are not ready to retire but have an alternate source of income.

The remaining long term unemployed may be searching for jobs in vocations that now have limited opportunities. That situation has been created by outsourcing and automation.

Those people who really are part of the long term unemployed need re-training in a new profession. Unless they are willing to participate in a re-training program they should be denied unemployment compensation. The cost of that re-training will have to be supported by the government.

Will their new profession result in a lower annual income then they are accustomed to? Most likely the answer is “Yes.” This may not seem fair to some but in a free enterprise society there is no requirement that those with an income must support those not working for an indefinite period of time.

That is my idea. Where are the president’s ideas? Where are the Congress’s ideas? “No” to unemployment aid is not an idea.