26 sept 2019
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The report included a large number of examples the ministry of strategic affairs said were gathered from activists’ social media, such as a cartoon of Netanyahu holding a butcher’s axe flanked by Orthodox Jews and confronting Palestinian stone throwers
Israeli and U.S. officials warned Wednesday of a rise in attacks on Jews in western Europe and urged European Union leaders to stop funding organizations that support an international boycott of Israel over its treatment of the Palestinians. Gilad Erdan, Israel’s minister of strategic affairs, said before meeting with a group of European lawmakers that the EU should make sure its money does not go to groups that support the Palestinian-led boycott movement. |
In Brussels, Erdan also released a report cataloguing alleged examples of BDS branches or activists using anti-Semitic content in their campaigns.
He accused movement activists of hiding their true agenda behind liberal values such as protecting human rights and freedom of expression.
The grassroots BDS campaign, founded in 2005, calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities.
The campaign compares itself to the anti-apartheid movement targeting South Africa in the second half of the 20th century and its nonviolent message has resonated with audiences around the world.
But Israel says the movement, which has among its goals the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to former homes in Israel, masks a deeper aim of delegitimizing or even destroying the country.
“We have proven beyond a doubt that BDS is an anti-Semitic campaign led by supporters of terror with one purpose: the elimination of the Jewish state,” Erdan said.
The report included a large number of examples the ministry of strategic affairs said were gathered from BDS activists’ social media, for instance a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a butcher’s axe flanked by Orthodox Jews and confronting Palestinian stone throwers.
BDS leaders deny allegations of anti-Semitism, saying their campaign is against Israeli policies.
“With its alliances with fascist and anti-Semitic forces around the world, Israel’s far-right regime is in no position to preach about fighting anti-Jewish bigotry,” Omar Barghouti, a BDS founder, said.
“Its propaganda claims against the anti-racist BDS movement for Palestinian rights are as credible as Trump’s climate protection credentials.”
Erdan spoke alongside U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr at a news conference to launch the report, titled “Behind the Mask: The Anti-Semitic Nature of BDS Exposed,” that urges world leaders to stop funding groups linked to the movement.
“I am here to express the United States’ position that this is anti-Semitism, and we stand unequivocally with the State of Israel in combatting this scourge,” Carr said.
AdvertisementIsrael called on the EU last year to stop funding more than a dozen European and Palestinian non-governmental organizations, alleging some of the NGOs had links to militant groups.
The European Union opposes the BDS movement and denies funding boycott activities but has defended the movement’s activities as falling under the right to free speech.
Erdan said he hopes the EU’s departing foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will cut ties with BDS-linked organizations before leaving her post. In July, she said the bloc was not funding work related to boycott activities.
In a statement released Wednesday, the EU said it has not changed its position regarding the BDS.
“While it upholds its policy of clearly distinguishing between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied by it since 1967, the EU rejects any attempts to isolate Israel and does not support calls for a boycott,” it said.
According to numbers compiled by Tel Aviv University, anti-Semitic attacks worldwide rose 13% from 2017 to in 2018. The United States, France, Britain and Germany had the most attacks.
In a survey last year for the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, nearly 85 percent of the Jewish respondents said they considered hate crimes to be a serious problem.
Carr said anti-Semitism has become a major enough issue in Europe that many Jews are thinking about emigrating.
“These numbers should be disturbing to absolutely everybody,” Carr said.
“Not just to Jews. This isn’t Right or Left, it’s not Jews or non-Jews. Nobody, no normal person should think this is acceptable.”
He accused movement activists of hiding their true agenda behind liberal values such as protecting human rights and freedom of expression.
The grassroots BDS campaign, founded in 2005, calls for boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israeli businesses, cultural institutions and universities.
The campaign compares itself to the anti-apartheid movement targeting South Africa in the second half of the 20th century and its nonviolent message has resonated with audiences around the world.
But Israel says the movement, which has among its goals the return of millions of Palestinian refugees and their descendants to former homes in Israel, masks a deeper aim of delegitimizing or even destroying the country.
“We have proven beyond a doubt that BDS is an anti-Semitic campaign led by supporters of terror with one purpose: the elimination of the Jewish state,” Erdan said.
The report included a large number of examples the ministry of strategic affairs said were gathered from BDS activists’ social media, for instance a cartoon of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu holding a butcher’s axe flanked by Orthodox Jews and confronting Palestinian stone throwers.
BDS leaders deny allegations of anti-Semitism, saying their campaign is against Israeli policies.
“With its alliances with fascist and anti-Semitic forces around the world, Israel’s far-right regime is in no position to preach about fighting anti-Jewish bigotry,” Omar Barghouti, a BDS founder, said.
“Its propaganda claims against the anti-racist BDS movement for Palestinian rights are as credible as Trump’s climate protection credentials.”
Erdan spoke alongside U.S. Special Envoy for Monitoring and Combating Anti-Semitism Elan Carr at a news conference to launch the report, titled “Behind the Mask: The Anti-Semitic Nature of BDS Exposed,” that urges world leaders to stop funding groups linked to the movement.
“I am here to express the United States’ position that this is anti-Semitism, and we stand unequivocally with the State of Israel in combatting this scourge,” Carr said.
AdvertisementIsrael called on the EU last year to stop funding more than a dozen European and Palestinian non-governmental organizations, alleging some of the NGOs had links to militant groups.
The European Union opposes the BDS movement and denies funding boycott activities but has defended the movement’s activities as falling under the right to free speech.
Erdan said he hopes the EU’s departing foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, will cut ties with BDS-linked organizations before leaving her post. In July, she said the bloc was not funding work related to boycott activities.
In a statement released Wednesday, the EU said it has not changed its position regarding the BDS.
“While it upholds its policy of clearly distinguishing between the territory of the State of Israel and the territories occupied by it since 1967, the EU rejects any attempts to isolate Israel and does not support calls for a boycott,” it said.
According to numbers compiled by Tel Aviv University, anti-Semitic attacks worldwide rose 13% from 2017 to in 2018. The United States, France, Britain and Germany had the most attacks.
In a survey last year for the EU’s Fundamental Rights Agency, nearly 85 percent of the Jewish respondents said they considered hate crimes to be a serious problem.
Carr said anti-Semitism has become a major enough issue in Europe that many Jews are thinking about emigrating.
“These numbers should be disturbing to absolutely everybody,” Carr said.
“Not just to Jews. This isn’t Right or Left, it’s not Jews or non-Jews. Nobody, no normal person should think this is acceptable.”
The Ministry of Health reiterated today its rejection of the establishment an American field hospital in the north of the Gaza Strip, warning of existence of dubious intentions behind it, while considering it an attempt “to whitewash the Israeli occupation, whose hands are covered with Palestinian blood,” and a step to further separate the Gaza Strip from the West Bank.
The Ministry said in a statement that “this project seeks to achieve Israeli goals aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and fragmenting it, and to create additional justifications for the creation of a mini-state in the Gaza Strip at the expense of Palestinian history and rights.”
It said: “The objectives of this project are known to everyone who can see and think. Israel is the first and last beneficiary as it will prevent Palestinian patients from reaching hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem for treatment.”
The Ministry of Health condemned the claim by the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas, that this project has no political connotations, stressing that it was part of a political agreement between Hamas, Israel and the US.
It wondered, “Why would the United States, which has cut off support for hospitals in occupied Jerusalem threatening as a result the lives of Palestinian patients, support the establishment of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, unless its real purpose behind it is to harm the Palestinians and harm and destroy their rights?”
It said “the attempt by the de facto authority in Gaza to claim that the project was a support from an 'American institution’ to divert attention from the US administration’s support for it, is nothing but a failed attempt to get out of this impasse.
Any project implemented by any American institution must first get the blessing and approved of the White House.”
The ministry said that “if this project was an innocent one and aims to serve our people, why not develop the existing Gaza Strip hospitals located in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and not in the northern Gaza Strip under the pretext of 'facilitating the movement of its employees to enter and exit from the territory of 1948 (Israel)’?
Is the facilitation of entry and exit of staff, who we do not know anything about their qualifications, nationalities, affiliations and goals, more pressing than facilitating the arrival of patients to the hospitals?”
It added: “If this project was so innocent, why is it being planned in secret without the knowledge of the Ministry of Health, which has carried out projects in the hundreds of millions (of dollars) in the Gaza Strip with the support of the Arab brothers, donor countries and international organizations, and why is this particular project kept secret while hiding the identity of the hospital operator and its staff, especially after the de facto authority in Gaza said that its staff will come to the hospital and leave it to the 1948 territory?”
It said the Ministry of Health is doing all it can, despite the financial crisis it is facing, to meet the needs of the people in the Gaza Strip, especially the various health centers.
The Ministry said in a statement that “this project seeks to achieve Israeli goals aimed at liquidating the Palestinian cause and fragmenting it, and to create additional justifications for the creation of a mini-state in the Gaza Strip at the expense of Palestinian history and rights.”
It said: “The objectives of this project are known to everyone who can see and think. Israel is the first and last beneficiary as it will prevent Palestinian patients from reaching hospitals in the West Bank and Jerusalem for treatment.”
The Ministry of Health condemned the claim by the de facto authority in the Gaza Strip, Hamas, that this project has no political connotations, stressing that it was part of a political agreement between Hamas, Israel and the US.
It wondered, “Why would the United States, which has cut off support for hospitals in occupied Jerusalem threatening as a result the lives of Palestinian patients, support the establishment of a hospital in the Gaza Strip, unless its real purpose behind it is to harm the Palestinians and harm and destroy their rights?”
It said “the attempt by the de facto authority in Gaza to claim that the project was a support from an 'American institution’ to divert attention from the US administration’s support for it, is nothing but a failed attempt to get out of this impasse.
Any project implemented by any American institution must first get the blessing and approved of the White House.”
The ministry said that “if this project was an innocent one and aims to serve our people, why not develop the existing Gaza Strip hospitals located in all areas of the Gaza Strip, and not in the northern Gaza Strip under the pretext of 'facilitating the movement of its employees to enter and exit from the territory of 1948 (Israel)’?
Is the facilitation of entry and exit of staff, who we do not know anything about their qualifications, nationalities, affiliations and goals, more pressing than facilitating the arrival of patients to the hospitals?”
It added: “If this project was so innocent, why is it being planned in secret without the knowledge of the Ministry of Health, which has carried out projects in the hundreds of millions (of dollars) in the Gaza Strip with the support of the Arab brothers, donor countries and international organizations, and why is this particular project kept secret while hiding the identity of the hospital operator and its staff, especially after the de facto authority in Gaza said that its staff will come to the hospital and leave it to the 1948 territory?”
It said the Ministry of Health is doing all it can, despite the financial crisis it is facing, to meet the needs of the people in the Gaza Strip, especially the various health centers.
24 sept 2019
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A political analyst says the Tel Aviv regime uses the enormous influence it wields within the United States and certain other Western countries to “get away with” the crimes it perpetrates against Palestinians.
Jim W. Dean, the managing editor of Veterans Today from Atlanta, told Press TV’s The Debate program that the US does not benefit from its unwavering support for Israel. “It basically makes the US a cosponsor of Israeli terrorism against its own citizens, including its neighbors,” the commentator said. He slammed the Tel Aviv regime for trampling on the legitimate rights of |
Palestinians, saying that “millions of Palestinians have been relegated ethnically to a lower class.”
Dean said certain Western countries are complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
“Israel is able to get away with this not only by the political influence in the US but Britain and European countries and their intelligence agencies are also involved in this,” Dean added.
The political analyst described AIPAC as “a prime example of someone that I would want to have for my intelligence operation.”
He said that the American authorities are trying to criminalize any political speech or disagreement over Israel.
In the US, “You can disagree about anybody or any country on any issue except for Israel,” the commentator said.
“The Americans twisted the hate crime laws ..to say that any criticism of Israel can only be motivated by hate and therefore, anybody that criticizes would be exposed to old hate crime legislation,” he said.
‘Israel-US alliance stems from shared Mideast views’
In turn, Founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, Michael Lane, who was also taking part in the debate, highlighted the influence of AIPAC as the largest pro-Israeli lobby within the US’s political system.
“There is no doubt that the AIPAC is a very influential organization. They have been around for a while. They are good at what they do. They are skilled.
They are influential and they have the ear of a lot of people, policy-makers in government both in Capital Hill and in the administration,” said Lane.
He described the relationship between Washington and the Tel Aviv regime as “historical” and said Israel was “a military and economic ally of the United States.”
The political commentator further said that the main reason behind the US’s financial and military support for Israel is that the Tel Aviv regime and Washington share common views in the Middle East region.
“Israel, at times, was very isolated and, in current times, has a number of friends in the area. Basically, our policy is developed and our friendship and our alliances are developed in concern with allies that have in mind the same vision for the region that the United States has. And that’s the primary reason why the United States and Israel get along so well.”
He admitted to the hostile policy pursued by the US towards other countries in the region, including Iran and Syria, and said “those are the countries that have a different view” regarding the developments in the region. “That's why the relationships tend to become more adversarial than alliance-type relationships.”
Since taking office in 2017, US President Donald Trump has been showering Israel with political gifts, including recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as its “capital” and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city as well as cutting aid to the Palestinians and closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington.
Trump has also signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.
Emboldened by the US president’s all-out support, the Tel Aviv regime has in recent months stepped up its settlement construction activities in the occupied lands in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.
Dean said certain Western countries are complicit in Israel’s crimes against Palestinians.
“Israel is able to get away with this not only by the political influence in the US but Britain and European countries and their intelligence agencies are also involved in this,” Dean added.
The political analyst described AIPAC as “a prime example of someone that I would want to have for my intelligence operation.”
He said that the American authorities are trying to criminalize any political speech or disagreement over Israel.
In the US, “You can disagree about anybody or any country on any issue except for Israel,” the commentator said.
“The Americans twisted the hate crime laws ..to say that any criticism of Israel can only be motivated by hate and therefore, anybody that criticizes would be exposed to old hate crime legislation,” he said.
‘Israel-US alliance stems from shared Mideast views’
In turn, Founder of American Institute for Foreign Policy, Michael Lane, who was also taking part in the debate, highlighted the influence of AIPAC as the largest pro-Israeli lobby within the US’s political system.
“There is no doubt that the AIPAC is a very influential organization. They have been around for a while. They are good at what they do. They are skilled.
They are influential and they have the ear of a lot of people, policy-makers in government both in Capital Hill and in the administration,” said Lane.
He described the relationship between Washington and the Tel Aviv regime as “historical” and said Israel was “a military and economic ally of the United States.”
The political commentator further said that the main reason behind the US’s financial and military support for Israel is that the Tel Aviv regime and Washington share common views in the Middle East region.
“Israel, at times, was very isolated and, in current times, has a number of friends in the area. Basically, our policy is developed and our friendship and our alliances are developed in concern with allies that have in mind the same vision for the region that the United States has. And that’s the primary reason why the United States and Israel get along so well.”
He admitted to the hostile policy pursued by the US towards other countries in the region, including Iran and Syria, and said “those are the countries that have a different view” regarding the developments in the region. “That's why the relationships tend to become more adversarial than alliance-type relationships.”
Since taking office in 2017, US President Donald Trump has been showering Israel with political gifts, including recognizing Jerusalem al-Quds as its “capital” and moving the US embassy from Tel Aviv to the occupied city as well as cutting aid to the Palestinians and closing the Palestine Liberation Organization’s office in Washington.
Trump has also signed a decree recognizing Israeli “sovereignty” over Syria’s occupied Golan Heights.
Emboldened by the US president’s all-out support, the Tel Aviv regime has in recent months stepped up its settlement construction activities in the occupied lands in defiance of United Nations Security Council Resolution 2334.
23 sept 2019
A recent report on the US news site Politico revealed that in 2017, US intelligence agencies discovered several cell phone interception devices near the White House.
They concluded that Israel had most likely installed these “StingRay” spying devices, in an attempt to listen in on President Donald Trump’s phone calls.
The Politico report was based on three good (albeit anonymous) sources, people whom the site characterised as former senior US officials with knowledge of the affair. It was denied by Israel. However, this was not remotely credible, for reasons I will return to below.
The article explained that Trump has been lazy about protecting his conversations, and often talks over open lines. This would allow the devices to intercept the contents of his calls and texts.
“Based on a detailed forensic analysis,” wrote Politico reporter Daniel Lippman, “the FBI and other agencies working on the case felt confident that Israeli agents had placed the devices, according to the former officials, several of whom served in top intelligence and national security posts.” A former senior intelligence official told Lippman that, “It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible.”
A senior Trump administration official, the FBI and other US spy agencies declined to comment on the record. After Politico published the story, Trump told reporters: “I don’t think the Israelis were spying on us… My relationship with Israel has been great… Anything is possible but I don’t believe it.”
According to the report, when the Trump administration was alerted in 2017 to the discovery of the blatant Israeli spying operation, officials did nothing. “There were no consequences for Israel’s behaviour,” Politico explained.
These revelations may be shocking to many people. They comes as no surprise whatsoever, though, to anyone familiar with the reality of Israeli spying on its supposed Western allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s laughable denial of the report – “I have a directive: No intelligence work in the United States, no spies” – is in clear contradiction to the long, proven history of Israeli spying in and on America.
The main target of Israeli intelligence operations in the US has actually been ordinary American civilians, usually those who campaign in solidarity with Palestinian human rights, and against Israeli abuses of those rights. These operations stretch back decades. In 1969, for example, the Anti-Defamation League infiltrated a convention of the Organisation of Arab Students, which was campaigning for Palestine.
Freedom of information releases show that the FBI suspected Israeli involvement in this operation; at the very least, the ADL report was likely “furnished to an official of the government of Israel due to the extremely close ties between [the] ADL and Israel.”
The anti-Palestine lobby’s operations against American citizens on behalf of Israel continue, right up to the present day. However, as this latest revelation shows, the Israelis and their lackeys also spy on the highest US officials, including the President himself.
What was their objective? The US already shares some intelligence with Israel, and funds the state to the tune of more than $3 billion every year (that’s $8 million every day). Why would Israel bite the hand that feeds it like this?
As The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah has explained, the Israelis may have had many different motives for targeting Trump in particular, not least of which was the hope that they may have heard embarrassing material that could then be used against him to their own advantage.
But the simple answer is, because they could; because over decades, there have been no political consequences for Israel’s repeated and aggressive spying operations on the US government.
Documents released by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor turned whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013 showed that Israel was considered by American counter-intelligence agencies to be one of the worst threats of all. It was up there with the “priority targets” of counter-intelligence: “China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel.”
Perhaps the most notorious case of Israeli spying on the US government involved Jonathan Pollard, a US naval intelligence officer who sold crucial documents to Israel, which then passed many of them on to the Soviet Union. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2015 by the then US President, Barack Obama.
After Pollard was exposed, Israel made a pledge not to spy inside the United States. Netanyahu’s statement about his supposed “directive” is a reference to that promise. Everything we now know about the facts of Israel’s spying in the US since then shows that this is a broken promise.
So far, Pollard has not been permitted to leave the US for Israel, as he intends, although Israel is pushing for this to happen. If he ever does get there, no doubt he will receive a hero’s welcome. That is how important its spying operations in the US are for Israel.
They concluded that Israel had most likely installed these “StingRay” spying devices, in an attempt to listen in on President Donald Trump’s phone calls.
The Politico report was based on three good (albeit anonymous) sources, people whom the site characterised as former senior US officials with knowledge of the affair. It was denied by Israel. However, this was not remotely credible, for reasons I will return to below.
The article explained that Trump has been lazy about protecting his conversations, and often talks over open lines. This would allow the devices to intercept the contents of his calls and texts.
“Based on a detailed forensic analysis,” wrote Politico reporter Daniel Lippman, “the FBI and other agencies working on the case felt confident that Israeli agents had placed the devices, according to the former officials, several of whom served in top intelligence and national security posts.” A former senior intelligence official told Lippman that, “It was pretty clear that the Israelis were responsible.”
A senior Trump administration official, the FBI and other US spy agencies declined to comment on the record. After Politico published the story, Trump told reporters: “I don’t think the Israelis were spying on us… My relationship with Israel has been great… Anything is possible but I don’t believe it.”
According to the report, when the Trump administration was alerted in 2017 to the discovery of the blatant Israeli spying operation, officials did nothing. “There were no consequences for Israel’s behaviour,” Politico explained.
These revelations may be shocking to many people. They comes as no surprise whatsoever, though, to anyone familiar with the reality of Israeli spying on its supposed Western allies. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s laughable denial of the report – “I have a directive: No intelligence work in the United States, no spies” – is in clear contradiction to the long, proven history of Israeli spying in and on America.
The main target of Israeli intelligence operations in the US has actually been ordinary American civilians, usually those who campaign in solidarity with Palestinian human rights, and against Israeli abuses of those rights. These operations stretch back decades. In 1969, for example, the Anti-Defamation League infiltrated a convention of the Organisation of Arab Students, which was campaigning for Palestine.
Freedom of information releases show that the FBI suspected Israeli involvement in this operation; at the very least, the ADL report was likely “furnished to an official of the government of Israel due to the extremely close ties between [the] ADL and Israel.”
The anti-Palestine lobby’s operations against American citizens on behalf of Israel continue, right up to the present day. However, as this latest revelation shows, the Israelis and their lackeys also spy on the highest US officials, including the President himself.
What was their objective? The US already shares some intelligence with Israel, and funds the state to the tune of more than $3 billion every year (that’s $8 million every day). Why would Israel bite the hand that feeds it like this?
As The Electronic Intifada’s Ali Abunimah has explained, the Israelis may have had many different motives for targeting Trump in particular, not least of which was the hope that they may have heard embarrassing material that could then be used against him to their own advantage.
But the simple answer is, because they could; because over decades, there have been no political consequences for Israel’s repeated and aggressive spying operations on the US government.
Documents released by former National Security Agency (NSA) contractor turned whistle-blower Edward Snowden in 2013 showed that Israel was considered by American counter-intelligence agencies to be one of the worst threats of all. It was up there with the “priority targets” of counter-intelligence: “China, Russia, Iran, Cuba and Israel.”
Perhaps the most notorious case of Israeli spying on the US government involved Jonathan Pollard, a US naval intelligence officer who sold crucial documents to Israel, which then passed many of them on to the Soviet Union. Pollard was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to life in prison. He was released in 2015 by the then US President, Barack Obama.
After Pollard was exposed, Israel made a pledge not to spy inside the United States. Netanyahu’s statement about his supposed “directive” is a reference to that promise. Everything we now know about the facts of Israel’s spying in the US since then shows that this is a broken promise.
So far, Pollard has not been permitted to leave the US for Israel, as he intends, although Israel is pushing for this to happen. If he ever does get there, no doubt he will receive a hero’s welcome. That is how important its spying operations in the US are for Israel.
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