Here are
some headlines you might have missed in the last few days. Let’s take a fresh
look at them.
Today’s selection—and
comments--comes from December 15-18, 2013.
The war
against Israel
- Livni: Israel's Legitimacy is Under
Global Attack (12/16/13, Arutz Sheva
- Sirens wail in southern Israel as
rocket fired from Gaza (12/15/13, Times of Israel)
-U.S.
academic group votes to boycott Israel (Haaretz, 12/16/13)
- Schooling
the ASA on boycotting Israel (Times of Israel, 12/15/13)
--
The war
against Israel didn’t rest during this news cycle. The delegitimization of
Israel moved forward (“ Livni:
Israel's Legitimacy is Under Global Attack”). Sirens continued to wail in
southern Israel.
Even the
Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) industry got its licks in against
Israel: the American Studies Association (ASA), a 5,000 members American
academic organization, voted overwhelmingly (by a 66+ per cent margin) to
boycott all Israeli academic institutions (“U.S. academic group votes to
boycott Israel”). The ASA said it did this to fight for Peace in the Middle
East.
Right.
As a
consequence of their vote, one of Israel’s great modern heroes (heroines), Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner, wrote an essay for the Times of Israel (“Schooling the
ASA on boycotting Israel”). You should remember this woman’s name. She an
Israeli who has founded an NGO called, Shurat HaDin—the Israel Law Center.
During her
tenure, she has done something no one before had ever done: she successfully
sued terror states for hundreds of millions of dollars (the total now is over a
billion dollars). She uses the court system to hold to account terrorist organizations
and the regimes that support them. She has also begun to fight against
discrimination and boycotts through her own ‘lawfare’ strategies.
She is no
amateur. She is no fool. She is not a naïve innocent tilting at windmills.
You should
remember her name: Nitsana Darshan-Leitner.
She knows her
law—and she knows how to drag anti-Israel haters into court. She knows how to put
a price on attacking Israel.
She now
writes (ibid) that the ASA will become a priority because, she explains, its
boycott vote violates international, federal and state law in the United
States. That vote, she says, leaves the ASA and its membership open to both
civil and criminal liability (ibid).
To get a
sense of her ability to use the law to fight, recall another recent BDS lawsuit
of hers—in summer 2013, in Australia. There, she filed a class action complaint
over an Australian professor's participation in and public support of boycotts
of Israel (Rina Tzvi, “Shurat HaDin files class action complaint over
Australian professor's participation and public support of boycotts of Israel”,
Arutz Sheva, July 31, 2013). Her complaint was filed under the Racial Discrimination
Act of 1975, the Australian Human Rights Commission. Her complaint alleges that, under the Racial
Discrimination Act 1975 with the Australian Human Rights Commission, the
boycott activities undertaken by the named Australian University professor had
been specifically outlawed.
In her essay
on the ASA, she pointed out that the New York State Legislature has made illegal such
boycotts as the ASA has passed. She then wondered aloud how many of the voting
professors worked in New York State.
She reminded
these professors that the Ribicoff Amendment to the Tax Reform Act of 1976
makes it a federal violation to “participate in or cooperate with an
international boycott.”
She pointed
out that their boycott is potentially subject to lawsuit under anti-boycott
legislation through Export Administration Regulations—and she advises the ASA
to prepare for their future by reading the International Convention On The
Elimination Of All Forms Of Racial Discrimination, which the United States
ratified on October 21, 1994.
Nitsana
Darshan-Leitner, of Shurat HaDin—Israel Law Center—is a lawyer who knows how to
defend Israel with a big stick. She has already used that stick to inflict more
than a billion dollars’ worth of damage against Israel’s enemies.
May she
continue to file against Israel’s enemies. May she continue to succeed.
Here’s
hoping she files her lawsuit. Here’s hoping also that she sues as well individual
professors from the ASA.
It’ll be
good for them. It’ll give them an education. It will teach them that bigotry
and hate can be expensive—and humiliating.
The
Leftist war against Israel
- Haifa University Rejects
Nobel-Winning Professor Over [his pro-Israel] Politics (12/15/13, Arutz
Sheva)
-Ministers
Endorse NGO Taxation - Livni to Appeal (12/15/13, Arutz Sheva
-AG Opposes NGO Law (12/15/13, Arutz Shev)
- NGO bill approved by ministers
despite controversy (12/15/13, Ynet)
--
While the
BDS battle unfolded above, Israel watched another Israeli Leftist attack
against Israel. The provocation for the Left this time was legislation to tax
all NGOs which bring money to Israel in order to delegitimize and demonize the Jewish
state. The Left called this legislation narrow-minded and anti-democratic.
Israel’s Leftist Attorney General said the bill was unconstitutional.
That was a
funny thing for Israel’s Attorney General to say. Know why that’s funny?
Israel
doesn’t have a constitution.
Here are key
elements of the bill. You tell me if the bill hurts Israel’s democratic
status—or if it helps to make Israel strong enough to continue to remain
democratic.
The bill
proposes a 45% tax to be charged on nonprofit foundations and organizations that
receive foreign donations and then take part in the following activities:
•Advocating
the boycott, divestment, or sanctioning of Israel or its citizens.
•Calling for
the trial of IDF soldiers in international courts.
•Denying
Israel’s existence as a Jewish and democratic state.
•Inciting to
racism.
•Supporting
armed struggle against the State of Israel by an enemy state or terror
organization.
Today, dozens
of anti-Israel NGOs come to Israel. They spend more than 35 million NIS a year
to demonize and attack Israel. But for those who voted for it, this bill
represents a way for Israel to protect itself.
Does Israel
have the right to do this?
You decide.
The Arab
Middle East
- Syrian Army Drops Explosive Barrels
on Aleppo (12/16/13, Arutz Sheva
- NGO: Death
toll in Syrian bombing raid on Aleppo rises to 76 (12/16/13, Ynet)
- Attacks
across Iraq kill at least 29 people (12/16/13, Ynet)
---
While
Israeli Leftists cried out against Israel’s desire to protect itself from its enemies,
no Leftist anywhere had a single word to say about the horrid killings that
occur daily in Syria or Iraq. No Israeli Leftist spoke out. No member of the
ASA (story above) has been quoted as speaking out about anything other than
boycotting Israel.
Now, the
Syrian government drops explosive barrels into its population (“Syrian Army
Drops Explosive Barrels on Aleppo”). The barrels killed at least 36
people—including 15 children. No one seemed to care. The only thing that
mattered was the damn Jews.
What must
the G-d of Israel think of these people?
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