Canary In The Coal Mine

Muslim Comic Series Aims to Break Through in US

by *Jeff Karoub, Associated Press  |  WashingtonExaminer.com  |  October 12, 2011

 

Comic book fans might call it a great origin story: In the aftermath of 9/11, a Muslim man creates a comic book series, "The 99," inspired by the principles of his faith. It builds a global audience and investors contribute millions for it to continue and expand.

In two vastly different cultures, Naif Al-Mutawa's (Pictured) tale hits a few roadblocks — "villains" if you will: Censorship from Saudi Arabia, home to the main Muslim holy sites; in the United States, a struggle to build an audience where free expression has been hampered by a post-9/11 rise in suspicion and scrutiny of all things Islamic.

For Al-Mutawa, it's evidence that tales like his are needed to counter hardline, intolerant ideologies of all stripes.

"That's one of the things that was most disappointing to me in the beginning," Al-Mutawa said on a recent visit to Detroit. "You have two birthplaces: You have the birthplace of Islam, which initially rejected it (and) the birthplace of democracy and tolerance, this country, that I'm now facing resistance in — the two natural places for this product."

Al-Mutawa's reputation in the Middle East and elsewhere has grown since the 2006 debut of "The 99," as well as its rollout into animation. The series is named for the 99 qualities the Quran attributes to God: strength, courage, wisdom and mercy among them.

The comic book spawned a TV series and 26 half-hour episodes of the 3-D animated version of the "The 99" have been sold to broadcasters. They are expected to be released early next year in more than 50 countries, and a second season is in production.

Al-Mutawa, a U.S.-educated psychologist from Kuwait, has been promoting "Wham! Bam! Islam!" a PBS documentary that tells the story of "The 99" from an idea hatched during a cab ride to its raising of $40 million in three calls for investors. The promotional push is supporting the animated series, the vehicle by which his company hopes to turn a profit.

"The 99" grew out of his childhood love of Batman, Superman and their superhero brethren, along with a desire to provide role models for his five young sons.

"Basically, 'The 99' is based on Quranic archetypes, the same way that Batman and Superman are based on Judeo-Christian and Biblical archetypes. And just like Batman and Superman are secular story lines, so too are 'The 99,'" he said.

"It seemed to me that the only people using mass media when it came to things to do with religion — at least my religion — were people who were doing very destructive things. So the question was how do I challenge that in a way that's secular yet cannot be dismissed as Western?"

Critics on both sides of the religious and cultural divide see subversion in Al-Mutawa's superheroes. Some hardline Muslims say the series subverts their faith by embodying the attributes in human characters, while a few non-Muslim American critics have labeled it sneaky Islamic indoctrination.

Al-Mutawa said it took investment by an Islamic investment bank to make his series "halal," or acceptable to Saudi officials. The nation's government-run broadcaster has since bought the rights to the animated series. So has The Hub cable network in the U.S. — though the latter has indefinitely postponed airing it after some critical columns and blog posts.

"One of the comments on the blogs that ended up delaying us was someone who warned that we can't let the Muslims brainwash our children like the Mexicans did with 'Dora the Explorer,'" Al-Mutawa said.

Still, he's measuring broader acceptance in other ways. Al-Mutawa worked with DC Comics last year on a six-issue crossover that teamed "The 99" with The Justice League of America.

"They start out with distrust between the two teams of superheroes — Superman punches one of my guys early on," Al-Mutawa said. "And then they figure out during the arc that it's the bad guys causing the distrust."

Robin Wright, author of "Rock the Casbah: Rage and Rebellion Across the Islamic World," said Al-Mutawa has "been way ahead of the curve in figuring out how you challenge extremism and how you create alternative role models to Osama bin Laden or Hassan Nasrallah (Hezbollah's leader) for kids and adults."

Muslim characters are rare in U.S. comic books but there have been some inroads.

Marvel Comics has Dust, a young Afghan woman whose mutant ability to manipulate sand and dust has been part of the popular X-Men books.

"I don't view a Muslim superhero as avant garde," Marvel editor-in-chief Axel Alonso said. "Muslims comprise approximately 23 percent of the world's population, and we like our comics to reflect the world in its diversity."

Dust wears a robe and veil to observe Muslim hijab, or modest dress. Another character, M, is a woman of Algerian descent who only recently revealed her faith in the pages of "X-Factor." Like millions of other Muslim women in the real world, she "does not observe hijab, and often dresses quite provocatively," Alonso said.

Other characters have not been so accepted. In late 2010, DC Comics introduced Nightrunner, a young Muslim hero of Algerian descent raised in Paris. He's part of the global network of crime fighters set up by Batman alter-ego Bruce Wayne. Conservative bloggers decried the move, noting that instead of tapping a native French person, they opted for a minority.

Frank Miller, whose dark and moody take on Batman in "The Dark Knight Returns" in 1986 energized the character, has taken a different tack in his latest work, "Holy Terror," which tells the story of The Fixer and his efforts to stamp out Islamic terrorists.

The graphic novel initially took root as a look at Batman's efforts to fight terrorism, something that grew out of Miller's experiences of being in New York during 9/11. As he worked on it, it became apparent that it wasn't suitable for the DC character.

"As I developed it and worked on it, the subject was too serious and the character's actions were not Batman," he said.

The book has been criticized as anti-Islamic propaganda, but Miller says that's not his notion.

"I lived through a time when 3,000 of my neighbors were incinerated for no apparent reason. I lived through the chalky, smoky weeks that followed and through the warplanes flying overhead and realized that, much like my character, The Fixer, I found a mission," he said.

As for "The 99," he said has not seen it but welcomes Al-Mutawa's efforts.

"I come in with my own very pro-Western-they-attacked-my-city-point of view," Miller said. "If other people have other points of view to bring in, I just welcome it."

Al-Mutawa called "Holy Terror" par for the historical course for Islam.

"There's no denying that terrible things have happened in the name of my religion — as they have in the names of most religions, if not all religions," he said. "As human beings, we're a little bit lazy. We don't like to change the schemas in our minds. We like to fit new information into existing schemas. That's why to some people anything to do with Islam is going to be bad."

*Matt Moore contributed to this report from Philadelphia.

Source:  http://washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/music/2011/10/muslim-comic-series-aims-break-through-us

The Weekly Schmooze: Howard Stern vs. anti-Semites

by Lahav Harkov  |  JPost.com  |  August 25, 2011

 

A JPost column wrapping up Jewish culture news worldwide: UK's Kosher cooking star; Katy Perry slammed for pro-Israel tweet.

A few weeks ago, the Schmooze pointed out a trend in which Jewish comedians come up with creative Middle East peace initiatives. This week, it seems that the new comedy trend is anti-Semitism. In a New York Times article about Chris Tucker's career revival,Rush Hour director Brett Ratner reveals that Tucker calls him "Jew Boy," adding "he can call me whatever he wants, because we're friends." 

Next,  a quiz. Who did comedian Andy Dick call a "money-grubbing Jew" with "a big fat hook nose" in a radio interview last week?

A) David Letterman
B) Howard Stern
C) Jon Stewart

The correct answer is B, Howard Stern. Dick accused the shock jock of not paying him for hosting a show on Stern's digital radio channel, Howard 101. Stern, classy as always, said to Dick: "You're not getting paid a dime because your show sucks…Stop looking for handouts and waiting for the Jew to give you a job."

Singer Katy Perry was bombarded with anti-Israel tweets on Tuesday, after she wrote "Shalom" to an Israeli fan and said that she was praying for Israel.  One twitter user wrote "aren't they killing Palestinian babies at this moment?" Another tweeted: "I hope your private jet crash lands in Palestine so they stamp on you like the whore you are. See if Israel will help you." Perry later defended her tweet, writing "a kid asked me to pray for him, and I did. I don't support any side of violence in any place for any reason."

It looks like the Funny or Die's hit "Black and Jewish" video was more influential than expected. Two of the artists mentioned in the song – Drake and Lenny Kravitz – have collaborated on a new track, "Sunflower," for Kravitz's upcoming album Black and White in America.

 

On the other side of the pond, a Jewish mother from Manchester may be on the way to becoming the UK's new favorite TV cook. Bernette Clarke has become very popular ever since she was seen cooking in a televised documentary about the northern England Jewish community called Strictly Kosher. Now, the Jewish Chronicle reports that Clarke has traveled to London for a screen test, to see if she can reveal her recipes on a morning talk show. "I'm lively enough and I've got enough recipes to keep them going every single week for a year," Clarke said. Nigella, watch out!

The American football season is set to begin in two weeks, and JCCs of North America want in on the action. The umbrella organization for Jewish community centers has started an online fantasy football league with weekly prizes, with ESPN fantasy league expert Matthew Berry serving as league commissioner. Registration is at www.discoverjcc.com. Good luck!

A rock 'n' roll legend passed away this Monday. Jerry Leiber, who penned classic songs like "Hound Dog," "Love Potion No. 9," and "Stand By Me" with his writing partnerMike Stoller died at age 78. Leiber and Stoller ushered in a new era of teen-targeted music in the late 1950s, and continued to churn out hits for decades. Here's one of the duo's biggest hits, Elvis's "Jailhouse Rock."

 

The Weekly Schmooze collects the hottest Jewish culture news from around the world. Ranging from celebrities to philanthropy to quirky communities, we're here to schmooze about Jews. If you have any news to share with The Weekly Schmooze, write to: [email protected]

 

Source:  http://www.jpost.com/JewishWorld/JewishFeatures/Article.aspx?id=235359

The Nonverbal Message of Jihadis

by Nancy Kobrin, PhD, Joan Lachkar, PhD  |  FamilySecurityMatters.org  |  July 1, 2011

 

An Expression of Hatred and Terror of Women.

This article addresses how early "traumatic" childhood development leads to aggression, terrorism and destruction which is expressed by jihadi nonverbal violent communication. Many analysts, sociologists, psychohistorians have questioned and have been baffled by how entire nations can develop such hatred and sadism toward others. Many have repeatedly discussed early childhood abuse and trauma in the Muslim world, but do not specifically address how this affects women, especially the little girl who grows up to be a mother -- mainly the hatred and envy toward women and thus the need to destroy her. This means that they are terrified of her -- that is their terror, which in turn is projected into us under the guise of political terrorism.

 

This kind of negative maternal bonding does not allow the woman freedom instead it leads to suffocation, control and domination. While this might sound far-fetched to some, the unconscious infantile thinking and the terrors of the jihadi go something like this: "I now have control of mommy, her breasts, her vagina and her mind. She will do what I want her to do!”

 

Our last piece, “Driving Miss Daisy Saudi Style” stirred up a lot of these issues relating to the human rights of women and hence the impetus for writing this article. We both have written extensively on the role of women in the Muslim world, mainly man's relationship with the mother as a maternal object and how this reflects on negative maternal attachments as the male child internalizes the devalued abused mother as a self perception, especially as victim. 

 

Kobrin in her Banality of Suicide Terrorism, is the first to link the murderous behavior to the devalued female in Arab Muslim shame-honor culture. She also explains how this dynamic spreads through radicalization into pockets of western culture where the female has also been devalued in a patriarchal family attracting non-Arab Muslims to convert to Islam again under the guise of jihad, joining up to live out their violent fantasies in real time.

 

If a regime were to be selected as the most horrific one for human rights violations, it would be Saudi Arabia.  Their rulers prohibit freedom of speech, freedom of religion/press, beheadings, stoning, amputation, threats, kangaroo courts and other barbaric methods to keep women "in check," let alone drive a car. We must not forget the continuation of the burka even in scorching desert heat and temperatures. The Saudis set the golden standard for hating their mothers and all other females even though they may try to claim otherwise, their aberrant nonverbal behavior towards females speaks volumes.

 

We cannot help thinking how these violent jihadis coming out of Saudi Arabia can be likened to the song from West Side Story, "Dear Officer Krupke" in which one of the gang members sings:

 

“Gee, Officer Krupke, we're very upset; 

We never had the love that ev'ry child oughta get. 

We ain't no delinquents, 

We're misunderstood !” 

 

 

In our culture we send violent boys or men for a psychological evaluation and treatment whenever possible. Obviously we cannot send jihadis for psychiatric treatment, but we do want to emphasize how the impairment of traumatic bondingwith the devalued female is inextricably linked to childhood trauma within the collective psyche of jihadis. 

 

It is imperative to address how early traumatic childhood developmental arrestleads to relentless aggression, terrorism, sadism, and destruction. The cure is not a quick fix and will take generations to address the problem of bonding with violence if there is no democracy for women.

 

After experiencing such deprivation it is understandable how they become sadistic because they do not develop the healthy feedback of a superego or moral consciousness to guide them through life.

 

We advocate that more historians, politicians, homeland security specialists, sociologists studying terrorism and violent behavior begin to consider seeing jihadi behavior through the lenses of trauma and psychopathology tied to the rampant abuse of the female, their mothers, in order to profile, apprehend and dismantle the terrorist threat. Nonverbal behavior of the violent traumatic bonding is key.

 

We view this kind of psychopathology the jihadis exhibit as a mental illness. This does not mean that the jihadis can not be held accountable for their actions. In fact, all criminal acts can be viewed through a psychopathology lens. Lachkar in How to Talk to a Borderline expands this even further how violence, rape and murder borders on the edge of psychosis. 

 

Sander Breiner, M.D., a learned psychoanalyst who has much knowledge and experience concerning Arab Muslim culture and who is author of Slaughter of the Innocents: Child Abuse through the Ages and Today, 1990 wrote the following to us after our “Driving Miss Daisy” piece. We wanted to share his thoughts with you -- our readers:

 

“In the first two years of life the brain quadruples in size (also [there are] many chemical changes). Every child's identity, self-image, self-concept, imago, etc. etc.  is established (though not consciously remembered), and neurologically imprinted. That child's identity is based on identification with its primary caretaker in those crucial two years (mother). No matter how hard she tries, how she feels about herself is non-verbally communicated to the child [our emphasis added] whereby he identified with her and shapes its own self-image. No wonder children as adults will have a hurt, damaged, impaired self-image regardless of their sex. The self-hatred is commonly projected and does affect one’s self image and even worse gets passed on generation to generation. Changes in the household of the nuclear family that is supportive of mother can make a change. This will take at least two generations to be generally successful (40 years).”

 

Part of the change that is now afoot in the Arab world has to do with changing the role of women. The attitude and role women play in the Middle East have had an enormous impact on family dynamics. Given this, it is also a diverse yet shame-honor culture where many of these issues are hidden as it is too excruciatingly painful to discuss these kinds of issues in public. 

 

To conclude, this is where the brilliance of Leonard Bernstien and the jihadis meet. The song “Dear Officer Krupke” is about gang violence which is also relevant to jihadi violence and dramatically draws our attention to the severe problem of the maltreatment of women in the Arab Muslim world. The phenomenon of jihadism is spreading throughout the world and radicalization in our view is rooted in the abuse of the female. We go so far as to say that in all cultures and pockets of patriarchal families where the female is prone to be abused, there will always remain the risk of producing violent jihadis but Saudi Arabia wins the prize. So our hats off to you ladies of Arabia (or should we say burkas) for the “drive” to drive and there is no stopping now!!

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Dr. Nancy Kobrin, a psychoanalyst with a Ph.D. in romance and semitic languages, specializes in Aljamía and Old Spanish in Arabic script. She is an expert on the Minnesota Somali diaspora and a graduate of the Human Terrain System program at Leavenworth Kansas. Her new book is The Banality of Suicide Terrorism: The Naked Truth About the Psychology of Islamic Suicide Bombing. 

 

FamilySecurityMatters.org Contributor Dr. Joanie Jutta Lachkar is a licensed Marriage and Family therapist in private practice in Brentwood and Tarzana, California, who teaches psychoanalysis and is the author of The Narcissistic/Borderline Couple: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Marital Treatment (1992, The Many Faces of Abuse: Treating the Emotional Abuse of High -Functioning Women (1998), The V-Spot, How to Talk to a Narcissist, How to Talk to a Borderline and a recent  paper, “The Psychopathology of Terrorism”  presented at the Rand Corporation and  the International Psychohistorical Association. She is also an affiliate member for the New Center for Psychoanalysis.

 

Source:  http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.9854/pub_detail.asp

Anti-Semitic Entertainers

by Giulio Meotti  |  IsraelNationalNews.com  |  May 27, 2011

 

The opinion makers and entertainers who speak from journals, books, televisions, satellites, university desks, have been instrumental in feeding the public opinion with lies and hatred against Israel and the Jews. They pass off the idea that it is just pure common sense delegitimizing the existence of Israel, imagining it as an “apartheid state” and describing it as a “s--y little country” bound to die (the words of a late French ambassador in London).

Cinema is the most attractive show business for the haters of Israel. The Danish director Lars von Trier just told an audience at the Cannes film festival that he thought Israel was “a pain in the ass” and he was himself “a Nazi”.

The Iranian Deputy Culture Minister for Cinematic Affairs, Javad Shamaqdari, sent a letter to the Cannes Festival to praise Von Trier’s words: “I understand much about him and I sympathize with him”, said Shamaqdari. This is the man who has the duty to “purify” Iranian movies from any Western contamination. It’s a Nazi style project that led Shamaqdari to support the French Holocaust denier, Dieudonné M’bala, who met President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Teheran.

Von Trier’s words are revealing of the cultural sickness and rape of the cinematographic industry. The French icon and Oscar awardee, Jean-Luc Godard, has often called Israel “a cancer on the map of the Middle East” and “a paradoxical form of Nazism”. Two famous British directors, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh, are among the staunchest supporters of the boycott of Israel.

In 2009, several prominent actors and filmmakers, among them Danny Glover and Jane Fonda, boycotted the Toronto International Film Festival to protest a week of screenings of Israeli films to mark the Tel Aviv centennial (another “settlement” for them).

The International Documentary Film Festival in Amsterdam has been a parade of violence on Israel. David Fisher, director of the New Foundation for Cinema and Television, says that “there is a consensus at the festival against the state of Israel and what it represents”.

Two years ago a film festival in Scotland returned funding to the Israeli Embassy after succumbing to pressure from anti-Israel activists who threatened to picket the event.

The sad paradox of this anti Israeli hysteria is that the only Israeli movies, such as “Lebanon”, that have received global awards, are all extremely anti-Zionist. The United Nations just screened Julian Schnabel’s latest film “Miral”, that virulently demonizes IDF soldiers. The Arab director, Mohammad Bakri, globally known for his fake movie “Jenin Jenin”, called the Israeli troops “dogs”.

In the Arab world films like “Schindler’s List” have been banned because they are “sympathetic to the Jewish cause”.

The twentieth century will be remembered for the “Jew Süss”, the anti-Semitic movie commissioned by Joseph Goebbels and that perverted the beautiful novel by Lion Feuchtwanger, the most beautiful hymn to the Jews of the Middle Ages that it is impossible to read without tears.

Our century is going to be dominated by haters travestied as boring, radical chic. “What will Comrade Bolshakov show us today?”, Stalin would ask. His terrified cinema minister, Ivan Bolshakov, had to gauge Stalin’s mood. Today the anti-Semitic entertainers are possessed by Ahmadinejad’s nightmare, which until yesterday was only a dream: The Zionist entity will disappear.

Ahmadinejad has repeated this many times: Israel is a country already dead and never existed because it lacks historical roots. The conceited chorus of the European “chattering classes” has passed from parlor anti-Semitism to having substantially called into question Israel’s very right to exist. It should be met with the launching of a counter-boycott of this judeophobic star system.

 

Source:  http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/10282

Megan Fox 10 Leftists Who Need Condolences on the Death of their Hero Osama bin Laden

by Megan Fox  |  NewsRealBlog.com  |  May 6, 2011

 

 

Inevitably, following the general pleasure at the news the Osama bin Laden is finally residing in Hell, it will come to light that certain members of the Left are quietly miserable over his passing. They are the ones for whom evil is not really definable, terror is in the eye of the beholder and America is always wrong. In other words, most of the hard Left and virtually the entire media elite. That’s a pretty big list, so I thought I should narrow it down to the ones who will be the most despondent over this delightful news for America.

In accordance with the new tone of civility, NRB suggests you send a personal sympathy card to each grieving individual on the list. You can click here and email this highly appropriate condolence with just the right touch of maudlin snark. (Contact information will be provided.)

 

10. Patty Murray

Dubbed the “dumbest woman in congress” (although I think Cynthia McKinney is suing for the rights to that title), Patty Murray once lauded bin Laden’s kindness and generosity in comparison to the callous and brutal America. No, really.

Trying to explain why Osama bin Laden might be popular in the Arab world while Americans were not, she said he was “building schools, building roads, building infrastructure, building day-care facilities, building health-care facilities, and the people are extremely grateful. We have not done that.”

Nah, America hasn’t built any schools or roads or infrastructure, unless you count the 133 health clinics built by Americans at a cost of $345 million or the water treatment plants now serving almost 2 million people that cost the American taxpayers $1.6 billion or the new sewer system benefiting over 5 million people to the tune of $254 million.  Nope, according to Murray we just bomb stuff and bin Laden is the real hero.

To send Senator Murray a condolence card, post on her Twitter page (@PattyMurray) or her Facebook page and show her you care. After all, one man’s brutal dictator is another man’s fuzzy-wuzzy love-muffin who builds schools.

 

9. Medea Benjamin and the staff of Code Pink

Medea Benjamin, founder of Code Pink and famed champion of the Muslim Brotherhood and bloody die-ins, is searching for meaning in the death of Bin Laden.

Let us give meaning to the death of Osama Bin Laden by putting an end to the violence. Sign the petition to President Obama: Enough — Let the Peace Begin.

Yes, let’s search deep within ourselves to find meaning in the death of a madman who seriously had it coming. That sounds like a ginormous waste of time. While the Left is doing that, I’m going to clip more coupons to help offset the skyrocketing inflation. I can feel the peace already.

What confounds me about Benjamin is for all we know she might have been working for bin Laden! But since the word “traitor” has absolutely no meaning anymore she’s free to traipse about the globe stabbing her country in the back. She has hand delivered a letter from Hamas to Obama. She has hand delivered $600,000 to militant Muslim insurgents responsible for killing American soldiers. She’s a courier for terror! Despite her machinations to appear glad that bin Laden is dead, I would bet it’s just the opposite.

You can send your deepest sympathies to Benjamin on her Twitter account (@medeabenjamin) or email [email protected].

 

8. Cynthia McKinney

Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, most famous for socking a Capitol Hill police officer in the face for asking her for ID, has a long history of embarrassing herself and her nation. But while her “Jerry Springer Show” antics were kind of funny at home, it got ugly when she took the show on the road.

While trying for the second time to get through an Israeli blockade to deliver “humanitarian” supplies to Hamas (which usually amounts to large amounts of cash that gets used to buy more rockets to shoot at Israeli children) McKinney was arrested. From an Israeli prison, she penned this laugh-riot.

Zionism has surely run out of its last legitimacy if this is what it does to people who believe so deeply in human rights for all that they put their own lives on the line for someone else’s children. Israel is the fullest expression of Zionism, but if Israel fears for its security because Gaza’s children have crayons then not only has Israel lost its last shred of legitimacy, but Israel must be declared a failed state.

I agree that Israel is a failed state; they failed to rid us of McKinney. I was hoping for a life sentence. Considering McKinney’s hatred of Israel, she has lost a kindred spirit in bin Laden in the fight against the evil Zionists.

Send your e-greeting of sympathy to McKinney via Twitter or Facebook.

 

7. Michael Moore

Michael Moore famously stated emphatically after the towers fell that there is no terrorist threat. And since Moore doesn’t believe in terrorists, it’s not surprising he finds himself very concerned over Bin Laden’s burial at sea. He tweeted his disapproval.

OBL buried at sea according 2 Muslim tradition. Yes most Muslim funerals I’ve attended, we got in a chopper & tossed the deceased in L. Erie

Personally I think he should be glad the special forces bullets weren’t dipped in bacon fat. But more sensitivity is called for in this situation because as unhinged as Moore is, there’s no telling what will push him over the edge. Moore is torn up over his favorite non-terrorist biting the dust and he deserves some sincere understanding.

Send him your warmest wishes and salutations at [email protected].

 

6. Roseanne Barr

I know you’ve probably gone out of your way not to see or hear from Roseanne Barr since she butchered the national anthem. Me too. But if there was ever a woman crying out for help, she’s it. Christian charity simply means nothing if you can’t reach out to the hideously lost and so with that in mind, someone should try. Roseanne has gotten more and more bizarre over the years. Recently, she claimed the Israelis were shooting rockets at themselves.

I think rockets are being fired by your own sources, since less than ten israelis have been killed by them. You are bullshitting the world as you pocket money made from arms sales, along with bibi and your agents in Hamas. step down all men in power!

These kind of theories could have been written by Bin Laden himself. For all we know, that’s where she got them! Maybe she was a big YouTube fan of his. I guess we’ll never know. Her recent tweets suggests she’s glad he’s dead, but I don’t think she really understood him. If she had, she would realize he supported all the same things she does like the destruction of Israel, lying about Israel and ginning up hate stories about Israel. And I heard he liked to dress up like Hitler and bake little replicas of Jews in his oven too.

Send cards to Roseanne on Twitter (@TheRealRoseanne).

 

5. Helen Thomas

Jobless and now losing a fellow anti-Semite, Helen Thomas must be in the depths of despair. Thomas has never made any secret of her hatred for Israel and support of Hamas and can always be counted on to give the Hezbollah point of view, as the late, great Tony Snow so wonderfully pointed out. The final straw that sent Thomas to the unemployment line was her caught-on-video statement regarding the Jews and her view they should return to Germany and Poland.

 

 

Lovely.

Unfortunately for us, Thomas couldn’t be persuaded to return to Lebanon from where her parents immigrated. With the depth of feeling Thomas has in her shriveled little heart for members of terrorist organizations, bin Laden’s death is sure to hit her hard.

Send your sympathy greetings to [email protected].

 

 

4. Jane Fonda

Considering how much Jane Fonda hates America and Americans at war, as evidenced by her traitorous activity in Vietnam including but not limited to posing with anti-aircraft guns that killed Americans and lying about the conditions in which our prisoners of war were kept, we’re fairly certain Fonda is a sad sack upon hearing a fellow America-hater is dead. People who hate America tend to stick together.

Not only does Fonda love the commies, but she’s BFFs with Code Pink’s Jodie Evans who personally traveled to Afghanistan and met with leaders of the Taliban! Good gracious! It makes one dizzy just thinking about the audacity of these dopes.

Fonda is also a Palestinian sympathizer who once scheduled a meeting with Yassir Arafat. And even worse:

[J]ust days after terrorists had killed some 3,000 people on 9/11, Fonda said that instead of retaliation, the U.S. should try to understand the “underlying reasons” behind the murderous attacks.

The retaliation must be tearing her up inside.

To comfort Fonda in her time of sorrow, send your e-sympathy greeting to her on Twitter (@JaneFonda).

 

3. Noam Chomsky

It’s time to play “Guess Who Said It!” Your choices are Noam Chomsky or Osama bin Laden.

We should not forget that the U.S. itself is a leading terrorist state.

If you guessed bin Laden, you would be wrong. Chomsky, a self-described anarchist and general America-hater is probably working furiously on a manifesto indicting the United States for breaking international law by killing bin Laden right now. Chomsky has been highly critical of the American response to Islamic terrorism and frequently downplays the 9/11 attacks:

Chomsky dismisses the atrocity of 9/11 as one that was dwarfed in magnitude by Bill Clinton’s 1998 missile attack on a factory in the Sudan following the bombings of two U.S. embassies by al Qaeda, in which no one was injured.

Telling an MIT audience of 2,000 that the U.S. military response against the terrorists in Afghanistan was a calculated “genocide” that would cause the deaths of 3 to 4 million Afghanis, Chomsky denounced America as “the world’s greatest terrorist state.” He also traveled to the Muslim world to repeat the charges of U.S. genocide and terror to millions in Islamabad and New Delhi.

Not surprising. It’s likely that Chomsky has a pretty big soft spot for bin Laden after the murderous terrorist praised him as “one of the most capable” citizens of the United States. He could definitely use an e-card and probably some tissues.

Send sympathetic musings to [email protected].

 

2. Bill Ayers and Bernadine Dohrn

Pentagon bomber and attempted cop-killer Bill Ayers joined Code Pink in their protest in Gaza against the Israeli blockade when Hamas was lobbing mortars into Israel. It’s pretty interesting how connected everyone on this list is. I bet they’ve all been to the same cocktail party a time or two where they tell Bush jokes and plot to subvert the Constitution. Ayers and his terrorist wife Bernardine Dohrn must be singing the bin Laden blues. He did what they had plotted unsuccessfully to do. You can’t tell me they weren’t pleased as pie to watch the Pentagon go up in smoke. These are the same people who thought Charles Manson, who randomly and brutally killed a pregnant Sharon Tate, her husband and their friends for no reason other than he is a complete psycho, was a freedom fighter.

“First they killed those pigs, then they ate dinner in the same room with them, then they even shoved a fork into the victim’s stomach! Wild!” In greeting each other, delegates to the war council often spread their fingers to signify the fork.

Ayers is famous for equally alarming statements.

Kill all the rich people. Break up their cars and apartments. Bring the revolution home, Kill your parents.

Osama bin Laden is clearly a kindred spirit with these two American terrorists and I assume, much like their unwavering love for communist dictators, bin Laden won’t be left out of their list of “greats.”

To send your regards, contact Ayers and Dohrn at [email protected].

 

1. Louis Farrakhan

Often called the craziest bastard on earth (okay, maybe just by me), Louis Farrakhan tops the list of those who are mourning the death of the last craziest bastard on earth. (It is also important to note that Farrakhan and Bill Ayers live in Obama’s Chicago neighborhood. Coincidence? Or have we at last located the doorway to Hell right in the heart of Hyde Park? Somebody alert George Noory!)

Now that bin Laden is dead, Farrakhan can take his place in the outrageous Jew-hating category.

Some of you think that I’m just somebody who’s got something out for the Jewish people. You’re stupid. Do you think I would waste my time if I did not think it was important for you to know Satan? My job is to pull the cover off of Satan so that he will never deceive you and the people of the world again.

Losing a soul-brother like bin Laden is going to leave a serious hole in Farrakhan’s pool of resources for new material against Jews. Luckily, he still has his alien friends.

You can reach out to him via Twitter (@TheOfficialHMLF).

Leave your suggestions in the comment section for other leftists who could use our comfort and sympathy as they mourn the death of their terrorist hero, Osama bin Laden.

 

Source:  http://www.newsrealblog.com/2011/05/06/10-leftists-who-need-condolences-on-death-of-hero-osama-bin-laden-1/

B.I.G. - BUY ISRAELI GOODS - Day on Wednesday March 30, 2011

March 28, 2011, by WeHo News staff, West Hollywood, California

 

 

On March 30, StandWithUs and the American-Israel Chamber of Commerce are calling for a BIG - Buy Israeli Goods - Day. Responding to a global anti-Israeli boycott on the same date where protestors will stand outside stores asking shoppers not to buy Israeli products, the BIG Day effort urges schools, campuses, synagogues, community organizations, and individuals to counter the boycott and celebrate Israel by designating March 30 as a day to purchase Israeli goods at local stores. 

 

Linda Slucker, NCJW's President, and Nancy K. Kaufman, NCJW's CEO, have asked us to show our support for Israel by participating in the BIG Day effort by purchasing Israeli products on Wednesday, March 30.

 

For more than 60 years, NCJW has been committed to ensuring the survival and security of the State of Israel and has been actively involved in contributing to her future by sponsoring programs that foster and support education, promoting the empowerment of women, and bridging the gaps in society for Israel's vulnerable women, children, and families. In recent years, a dangerous and very serious delegitimization campaign has been waged against Israel. Supporting efforts like BIG Day is just one of the many ways NCJW is standing for the establishment of a just and permanent peace for Israel and helping to create a vibrant future for the women, children and families who live there.

So please mark your calendars for Wednesday, March 30, find a local shop that sells your favorite Israeli goods, and join NCJW in support of Israel on BIG Day!

 

Sincerely,

 

National Council of Jewish Women/Los Angeles

 

1. Find out where to buy Israeli goods in your community at http://www.buyisraelgoods.org
2. Download a flyer promoting BIG Day from StandWithUs at http://www.standwithus.com/mail/images/BIG%20flyerLow.pdf
3. Read Shari Eshet's recent NCJW Insider post "In Israel, Every Second Counts" at http://www.ncjw.org/insider  

 

Source: http://wehonews.com/z/wehonews/archive/page.php?articleID=5856

Kiss Bassist Undeterred By Jerusalem Bombing

by Josef Federman, Associated Press  |  News.Yahoo.com  |  March 25, 2011

 

 

JERUSALEM – The legendary Kiss bassist Gene Simmons says that watching Jerusalem go through a deadly bombing this week has not changed his belief that Jews and Arabs can live in peace.

The Israeli-born entertainer, on his first visit to his homeland since leaving as a child 52 years ago, said he was visiting Yad Vashem, the country's national Holocaust memorial, at the time of Wednesday's blast. The memorial is about two miles away from the site.

Simmons said the attack, which killed a female British tourist, was the work of extremists who can't cope with the move toward freedom and democracy sweeping through the Arab world. "We can't give these losers headlines," he told The Associated Press on Friday.

"There's one thing that unites Israelis, Arabs and all humanity. We all strive to be free," he said. "There's a new generation of Arabs who are doing astonishing things. ... We have to take a moment to honor Arabs for having the courage to stand up."

Musician Gene Simmons during an interview with The Associated Press in Jerusalem, Tuesday, March 22, 2011. Kiss' Israeli-born frontman, Gene Simmons, is shouting out loud at the string of musicians who refuse to perform in his homeland.  (AP Photo/Bernat Armangue)

Simmons said that he has already begun arrangements for multiple Kiss concerts in Israel, and that the band would also love to perform in the Arab world as well. But he said the band, known for its makeup, flamboyant outfits and pyrotechnics, would steer clear of politics when they perform.

"It's the greatest show on earth," he said.

Simmons is in Israel with his longtime girlfriend, actress Shannon Tweed, filming material for his reality show, "Gene Simmons Family Jewels." He said he's toured Jerusalem holy sites, ridden a camel and enjoyed watching Tweed, a statuesque former Playboy Playmate, float in the Dead Sea.

 

Source:  http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110325/ap_en_mu/ml_israel_people_gene_simmons

Why Totalitarians Hate Jews

by George Jochnowitz  |  FrontPageMag.com  |  March 11, 2011

 

 

This review is reprinted from the Winter 2011 issue of Midstream.

United in Hate: The Left’s Romance With Tyranny and Terror.  By Jamie Glazov.  Los Angeles: WND Books, 2009.  xxxii + 264 pp.

Jamie Glazov was born in the USSR in 1966.  His parents were both dissidents, who felt they had to flee.  They left the USSR in 1972 and settled in Halifax, Nova Scotia, in 1975.  Glazov grew up in a family that knew about the horrors of totalitarianism.  He eventually earned a Ph.D. in history and is now the managing editor of Frontpage Magazine, an online political journal that fights totalitarian tendencies in leftist thinking.  To a certain extent, Glazov is continuing a fight against totalitarianism and anti-Semitism that was begun by Hannah Arendt.

In 1951, Arendt wrote a book, The Origins of Totalitarianism, which has since become a classic, exploring the 20^th-century phenomenon of totalitarianism.  One-fourth of this work is devoted to the question of anti-Semitism.[1] Arendt wrote the book shortly after World War II, but her decision to link an ancient prejudice to a modern political ideology is as valid today as it was then.  Glazov, in his book, provides us with a quotation to illustrate this connection.  Ulrike Meinhof, one of the founders of the terrorist Baader-Meinhof Gang, said, “Auschwitz meant that six million Jews were killed … for what they were: money Jews. … Anti-Semitism is really a hatred of capitalism.”[2] Meinhof was proud of her anti-Semitism.

Meinhof, to be sure, was a terrorist.  Unfortunately, many leftists who have never committed acts of violence take positions approaching hers.  Noam Chomsky, for example, would never describe himself as an anti-Semite and became famous for his writings on linguistics before he had published anything about politics.  Chomsky visited Hezbollah in 2006[3] despite the fact that its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, had said about Jews, “If they all gather in Israel, it will save us the trouble of going after them worldwide.”[4] Chomsky showed by his visit that he had chosen not to understand that Nasrallah was calling for genocide.

Glazov feels that there are two basic reasons that the left has joined Muslim terrorists to oppose Jews and Israel. “First … leftism, like Islamism, detests modernity, individual freedom, and any value placed on individual human life. … In addition, Jews are seen as being synonymous with the oppressive structures of corporate capitalism and globalization.”[5] Oddly, nowhere in the book are Israel’s kibbutzim ever mentioned.  Before Israel became an independent state, its cultivated land consisted of either kibbutzim (communal farms) or moshavim (cooperative farms).  A kibbutz was unambiguously a socialist enterprise; a moshav was partly private and partly communal.  Since farms take up much more space than cities and towns do, most of the land owned by Jews during the days of the British Mandate was either entirely or partially the property of socialist communities.  Corporate capitalism indeed!  Leftist opponents of Israel have chosen not to know this fact, and Glazov has not reminded them or us about this piece of history.

Glazov’s book is divided into four sections: (1) The Believer, (2) Romance with Tyranny, (3) The Death Cult Cousin: Islamism, and (4) Romance with Terror.  The first part sets the tone for the whole book.  Believers don’t question.  They have faith.  Marxism is not a religion, but it does demand belief—blind belief—in the doctrines it teaches.  Leftists today may ignore Marx’s writings about economics, but they support and have always supported regimes that suppress free thought.  As we saw above, Glazov says that rejecting modernity and individuality is what links leftism to Islamism..

Some readers may disagree with Glazov’s allegation that leftism detests modernity, individual freedom, and the value of individual human life.  At this point, we should remember that a liberal is not a leftist   For example, Nadine Gordimer, responding to an interviewer who described her as a white liberal, said, “I happen to be white, but I’m not a liberal, my dear. I’m a leftist.”[6] Glazov writes of many leftists who certainly are not liberals but rather supporters of totalitarianism, the various systems of thought control that Arendt talked about in her 1951 book.

Hannah Arendt’s good friend, Mary McCarthy, praised North Vietnamese society because she felt it had controlled thought and recreated human nature.  McCarthy wrote, “The phenomena of existential  agony, of alienation, don’t appear among the Vietnamese—probably in part because they lack our kind of ‘ego,’ and our endowment of free-floating guilt.”[7] It is amazing that a novelist as informed and sensitive as McCarthy could actually believe that North Vietnam had ended ego and free-floating guilt; it is even more amazing that she could believe this was a good thing.  McCarthy certainly was not alone.  Shirley MacLaine, who visited China in 1972, wrote that she had never seen a quarrel in China and went on to say that “it slowly dawned on me that perhaps human beings could really be taught anything, that we were simply blank pages upon which our characters are written by parents, schools, churches, and the society itself.”[8] MacLaine is unambiguously cheering the idea of thought control and the desirability of erasing human differences.  I should add a personal note here:  I lived in China twice, during the spring semesters of 1984 and 1989, and I saw and heard lots of quarrels.  MacLaine, of course, is echoing Marx and Engels, who said that after the final stage of communism was achieved, people would no longer have any disagreements and the state would wither away.

Glazov, as we saw above, said that the left had joined with Islamism to oppose Jews since Jews were linked to globalism and capitalism.  But there is a more profound factor in the hostility that totalitarians feel toward Jews: Jews argue.  They think dangerous thoughts.  Marxist regimes reject thinkers and intellectuals.  Chairman Mao exiled teachers and writers to the countryside to learn from the peasants.  Pol Pot simply killed them.  Mao and Pol Pot didn’t attack Jews because there weren’t any in China and Cambodia (the Jews of Kaifeng, China, had assimilated and become invisible long before Mao ruled the country).  Hitler, to be sure, never explained why he had to kill people who were Jews or descended from Jews.  Perhaps he felt that the genetic flaw he had to eradicate was the argument gene.

Since Jews argue, a variety of beliefs may be found among them.  There have certainly been Jews who were Communists; there are even Jews today who are sympathetic to Islamism.  All the same, it is logical that argument and free thought are a problem for totalitarians.  Totalitarians hate Jews.  Hitler’s decision to try to eradicate Jews from the world was nevertheless irrational.  Germany was a country that always respected scholars and intellectuals, and Hitler did not eliminate scholars the way Mao and Pol Pot did.  Jews were heavily represented among Germany’s academics and scientists.  Hitler knew he needed scientists because he wanted Germany to be able to produce atomic weapons, but anti-Semitism took priority over this need.  Einstein fled Germany; Edward Teller and Szilard fled Germany’s ally, Hungary.  Enrico Fermi, who was not Jewish but was married to a Jew, fled Europe when Mussolini extended Hitler’s racial laws to Italy.  Hitler, for reasons that will never be fully understood, felt that killing Jews was virtuous and that virtue took precedence over his country’s military needs.

Hitler was a music lover who admired the music of Anton Bruckner, Richard Wagner, and Richard Strauss.  He almost certainly would have adored the music of Gustav Mahler, but anti-Semitism came first.  Mahler had been born a Jew, and so his music was banned, as was the music of Mendelssohn, another composer of Jewish descent.  Jewish musicians fled, if they were lucky and able to do so.  Those who didn’t escape were murdered.

Today, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is echoing the irrationality that Hitler put into effect 70 years ago.  Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons has led many nations to impose sanctions against it.  Israel may decide that it has to launch a pre-emptive attack against Iran’s nuclear facilities.  Ahmadinejad has no practical need for these weapons, which are threatening his country’s security rather than protecting it.  But he is amassing atomic bombs as part of a policy announced by moderate President Ali Akhbar Rafsanjani, who has in effect suggested that Iran should turn itself into a suicide bomb.  In the annual Al-Quds (Jerusalem) sermon given on December 14, 2001, Rafsanjani said that if one day the world of Islam comes to possess nuclear weapons, Israel could be destroyed.  He went on to say that the use of a nuclear bomb against Israel would leave nothing standing, but that retaliation, no matter how severe, would merely do damage to the world of Islam.[9]

President Ahmadinejad, unlike Rafsanjani, is no moderate.  How can sanctions frighten him if he is not afraid of exposing Iran to nuclear retaliation?  Like Hitler, Ahmadinejad doesn’t care how much damage he will do to his own people if that’s the price he has to pay to act out his insanely murderous plans.

Hitler, as we have seen, eliminated Jewish musicians and music by composers of Jewish ancestry, but he did not hate music per se.  Stalin attacked Prokofiev, Shostakovich, and Khachaturian for composing music that was bourgeois—whatever that means—but he did not hate music per se.  On the other hand, as Glazov informs us, “The Taliban illegalized music completely in Afghanistan, and Ayatollah Khomeini banned most music from Iranian radio and television.”[10] Lenin did not ban music, but he wouldn’t listen to it.  “It makes you want to say stupid, nice things and stroke the heads of people who could create such beauty while living in this vile hell.”[11] During Chairman Mao’s Cultural Revolution, the only musical works that could be performed were eight revolutionary operas selected by Mao’s wife, Jiang Qing.  The idea of limiting and censoring music is at least as old as the 4^th century B.C.E., when Plato wrote that in the Republic he envisioned, the flute and other instruments “capable of modulation into all the modes” would be banned.[12] We don’t think of Plato as a totalitarian, but he shared the totalitarian rulers’ fear of the power of music to unleash the human spirit.

Plato expressed an idea that is related to thought control: he called for the Noble Lie, a contradiction in terms if ever there was one.  In particular, he said that the people should be taught that Rulers were made with gold, Auxiliaries with silver, and craftsmen with iron and brass.[13] Chairman Mao also divided people into three categories.  The first was Mao himself; the second was the Party; the third was the laobaixing, the ordinary people (literally the “old 100 surnames”).  When I was teaching in China in 1989, during Beijing Spring, passers-by approached me and asked questions, often in Chinese.  One man asked me whether, if Plato were alive today, he would consider Chairman Mao an example of the Philosopher King.  My Chinese is not very good, but the man was very patient and made sure that I understood his question.  Since I disapprove of the politics of both Plato and Chairman Mao, I said yes.  The question led me to understand that it was no accident that Mao and Plato both wanted to ban certain kinds of music.

Plato said that literature should be altered so that people should not fear death: “The poets must be told to speak well of that other world.  The gloomy descriptions they now give must be forbidden, not only as untrue, but as injurious to our future warriors.”[14] We are reminded of the perpetrators of 9/11, who willingly died so that they could kill, even though their dramatic and well-coordinated plan could not in any conceivable way have helped the cause of Islam.  And as Glazov writes, “Palestinian children blew themselves into smithereens while their parents celebrated, proud that their offspring had become shahid (martyrs).”[15] Totalitarians love death, unlike Jews, which may be another  factor in explaining why totalitarians are so anti-Semitic.  “Two of the most outstanding Jewish characteristics are the love of life and the enduring struggle to survive.  For Islamists, as for Nazis and communists, this is an egregious transgression against their faith.”[16]

Genocide was Hitler’s primary goal.  Stalin engineered a famine in his war against the kulaks that killed millions. Mao caused the greatest famine in all human history.  Pol Pot killed about a third of his own people.  The Kim Dynasty has caused years and years of starvation in North Korea.  Ahmadinejad is looking forward to fighting a nuclear war against Israel.  Totalitarianism is about death.  Life is about learning more every day.  Those who fear learning also hate life.  As Glazov shows us, that is why totalitarians are united in hate.

 

Notes:

[1] Hannah Arendt, The Origins of Totalitarianism, New York: Harcourt, 1951.

[2] Glazov, p. 209.

[3] Ibid., p. 214.

[4] “Nasrallah’s Nonsense,” editorial, The New York Sun, March 11, 2005.

[5] Glazov,  p. 211.

[6] “Johannesburg Journal: A Vibrant Battler of Apartheid Keeps her Vibrancy,” The New York Times, May 10, 2002.

[7] Glazov, p. 65.

[8] Ibid., p. 79.

[9] MEMRI Special Dispatch 325.

[10] Glazov,  p. 141.

[11] Ibid., p. 18.

[12] Plato, Republic, Book III: 398-400.

[13] Ibid., Book III: 414.

[14] Ibid., Book II: 383-387.

[15] Glazov,  p. 106.

[16] Ibid., p. 105.

 

Source:  http://frontpagemag.com/2011/03/11/why-totalitarians-hate-jews/

Behind the Boycott Calls - Conspiracy Theories and Support for Terrorism

Dear Readers,

Please read this urgent ALERT researched and prepared by sister blogger, IsraeliGirl:

"On Feb. 22nd the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra will appear in Carnegie Hall. As usuall, the BDS (Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions) movement is fast to act and a demonstration is planned to take place outside Carnegie Hall while the Philharmonic plays inside.

I've done some research into who is behind this boycott call and demonstration and uncovered dark conspiracy theories and support for terrorism are the motives in this case.

My findings are in the article below as well as a call for action to send letters to Carnegie Halls management to support the Israeli Orchestra and counter the impact of the boycott demonstration.

Music is the voice of peace, but to some anything to do with Israel is a reason for hate. A few weeks ago, singer Macy Gray was the target as she planned her visit in Israel. Now it's the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra, which is on tour in the US this February. A protest is being planned outside Carnegie Hall while the Philharmonic plays inside. Giyus.org decided to investigate who's behind this protest and what's the real motive. Our investigation led us to bizarre organizations spreading dark conspiracy theories and supporting terror.

A press release by Palestinian News Agency names Adalah-NY as the main group organizing the protest against the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. A look at their donations box shows that Adalah NY is operating under the umbrella of the Wespac Foundation.

Enter Wespac Foundation which calls itself "the leading force in Westchester County for peace and justice". On its web site, Wespac explicitly blames Israel of crimes against humanity, calling for "an end to all policies of apartheid and ethnic cleansing;". Furthermore, Wespac supports the right of return for Palestinian refugees and "the right of all people to resist occupation and oppression". In essence, Wespac supports the elimination of the Jewish state using any means to fight the "oppressive" zionist entity.

Wespac Foundation is led by Nada Khader. There is no better way to learn about an organization than to study the person who runs it. Mrs. Khader is a Palestinian woman that has been living in the US since she was a child. She is a frequent speaker at campuses across the states and many of her speeches are available online.

Mrs. Khader is very articulate. Listening to her speeches uncovers conspiracy theories and support for terrorism that shed a different light on her views and those of the organizations she represents. Here are a couple of quotes from Mrs. Khader speeches:

• “They [the Palestinians] have not been allowed to live lives of dignity and that was the cause of the rockets [fired by Hamas on Israeli citizens] by the way” (source - speech given in Binghamton University, February 12, 2009)

• "The Hollywood industry has created over 700 commercial films for American consumption that portray my [Arab] community in a derogatory manner [...] Why? To justify American policy in our region [the Middle East]. It is easier for Americans to accept dropping bombs on Palestinians in Gaza, on Palestinians in Lebanon, on Iraqi people, on Lebanese people. It is easier for you to accept that when you are used to seeing dehumanized images of Arabs every single day. So there is a collusion between the Hollywood industry and the Pentagon"  (source - talk given at Greenwich, CT, October 2008)

Read carefully what Mrs. Khader is saying - she justifies shooting rockets, specifically aimed at children and women in Israeli cities. She justifies terror against civilians. She also believes that Hollywood and the Pentagon secretly work together to manipulate the American public opinion.

So while the Israeli Philharmonic will give a beautiful classical performance inside Carnegie Hall, those that support terror and feel that Hollywood and the Pentagon are collaborating against them will demonstrate outside. 

Take Action

Send a support letter via email addresses below to the executives at Carnegie Hall. Tell them the background of the demonstration taking place outside. Counter the hate spread by Adallah NY and support the The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. "

1. [email protected]
2. [email protected]

Thank you.

Source:  IsraeliGirl

Macy Gray Lets Fans Decide If She Should Nix TA Shows

by David Brinn and Lahav Harkov  |  JPost.com  |  January 20, 2011        

US soul singer, who is target of pro-Palestinian boycott campaign, tells 'Post': "I like coming to Israel."  

Photo by: AP

Like Elton John,  Leonard Cohen, Paul McCartney and countless other international performers before her who have performed in Israel in recent years, American soul singer Macy Gray has been the target of a pro-Palestinian lobby campaign to convince her to cancel her two shows next month at Reading 3 in Tel Aviv.
 
However, unlike those stars - who after various considerations bucked the boycott - or other high-profile performers like the Pixies and Elvis Costello who did buckle to the pressure and canceled their already scheduled and sold out shows, Gray did something different. She asked her fans what to do.

She posted a message on her Facebook fan page this week  asking her fans’ opinions on  whether she should cancel the shows “in protest of Apartheid against the Palestinians.”
 
"I'm booked for two shows in Tel Aviv," Gray wrote. "I'm getting a lot of letters from activists urging and begging me to boycott by not performing in protest of apartheid against the Palestinians. What the Israeli government is doing to the Palestinians is disgusting, but I want to go. I have a lot of fans there that I don't want to cancel on, and I don't know how my not going changes anything. What do you think? Stay or go?"

Around 2,000 people reacted to Gray's status update, with the majority writing messages like "cultural boycott is an integral part of the fight against apartheid" and "cancel your tour and stand up for human rights."
 
Others responded differently. “Please don’t give in to the haters – they claim that Israel practices Apartheid, but the last time you played in Israel, the Arab students of Israel’s Hebrew University were equally able to watch you play. That’s not apartheid; that’s freedom!” wrote one referring to her last performance here in 2009.

Shortly after Gray posted the question to her fans, Israel Online Ambassadors, a group dedicated to online hasbara, asked fans on Wednesday to tell Gray she should perform in Israel. They also implied that they would start a counter-boycott, writing: "Make it clear to Macy Gray that if she listens to the propaganda against Israel and cancels her visit, you will find it impossible to buy her products for moral reasons."

Another hasbara organization, StandWithUs, told its members to "share with Macy Gray why she should play in Israel and ignore the haters...Respond with love and educate her!"
 
Having evidently weighed the various responses, Gray announced via Twitter on Wednesday that she had decided to honor her commitment to perform in Tel Aviv.  
 
“Dear Israel fans. Me and the band will be there in 20 days. Can’t wait. See you then. Peace,” she wrote.
 
Gray told The Jerusalem Post earlier this week in a phone interview from Los Angeles before posting her Facebook query that she enjoys coming to Israel and has particularly fond memories of the Jerusalem show.
 
“I like coming to Israel. I’ve been all over Jerusalem, at all the historical places, things you guys would call it touristy,” she said. “When I told friends in Tel Aviv I go to the all the tourist things, they just roll their eyes. It’s like if you came to Los Angeles and went to the Wax Museum.  But I love all the historical things in Israel, and I’m going to go to them again this time. I really enjoy it.”
 
Yaron Cohen, who handles PR at Reading 3 said that the shows’ producer Ilan Elkayam had been in touch with Gray and was told she was not canceling the shows.
 
“As far as we know, everything is full steam ahead,” he said.  “Macy has a very a very good relationship with Ilan and with Reading 3, and if seems like the show is going on.”
 
Cohen added that despite Gray’s unorthodox method of deciding on the issue,  there was nothing unusual about the efforts to push her to change her mind about performing in Israel.

“Everyone who decides to perform here gets inundated with the pro-Palestinian lobby campaign with the goal of convincing them to cancel their shows,” he said.
 
Gray has appeared in Israel three previous times without any incident or any public attempt to muffle her unique voice.  
 
“The issue never came up and she never mentioned anything about possibly not coming,” said Hillel Wachs, who was part of the production for the 2009 Jerusalem show. “She likes Israel, she has great chemistry with the audience and it was clear that she had a really good time here. She was letting anyone who wanted come backstage and hang out and talk to her. Not many artists do that.”  
Another local promoter added that going public on Facebook with her deliberations was a clever move on Gray’s part, but is not convinced that her decision to go through with the shows is final.
 
“I don’t think it’s the end of the story yet,”  he said. “There might be more intense pressure put on her as the date approaches.”

Source:  http://www.jpost.com/ArtsAndCulture/Music/Article.aspx?id=204461