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Hate Week-Ben White at UC Irvine
Gary Fouse
fousesquawk
http://garyfouse.blogspot.com
On March 7, the UC Irvine Muslim Student Union initiated their week-long Israel Apartheid week. The first speaker was British freelance journalist Ben White. White has written a couple of books condemning Israel for its “maltreatment “ of Palestinians (which get rave reviews from Iran’s Press TV), and Israel is pretty much the only issue in his life as he travels around giving anti-Israel speeches. On this occasion, he pretty much gave his “off-the-shelf” speech about the “injustices” Israel commits against the Palestinians. He spoke of the restrictions on movement of the Palestinians . However, he did not dwell on the reasons for those controls. Naturally, it was not his wont to discuss minor little issues like Palestinian terrorism, suicide bombers, rockets being lobbed into Southern Israel from Gaza-just Israel controlling what kinds of goods could be allowed into Gaza. White also spoke of the “illegal settlements “ in the West Bank but never, of course, mentioned the murders of Israeli settlers by Palestinians. There was, of course, no mention of the slaughter of the Fogel family in 2011.
In the question and answer session, I reminded White of his previous speaking appearance at UCI in 2010, when an audience member questioned him about the then recent murder of an Israeli family living in one of the West Bank settlements. In White’s response, he had dismissed them as “illegal settlers.” The woman responded that they were “Jewish human beings”, at which point, White said, “OK. They were illegal Jewish human being settlers”. (A real wide guy.) I then told him that since that last appearnce at UCI, there had been another murder of an Israeli family, this time the Fogel family in Itimar. I described the murder of the five family members including three children-also including a months-old infant in its crib who had its throat slashed. I also mentioned that the reaction of many Palestinians was to hand out candy in the streets in celebration. I asked why he never condemned those things.
In his answer, White gave the standard “I condemn all murder of innocents” response then compared it to the civilians killed in Gaza by Israeli airstrikes. Of course, I could have come back with the fact that Hamas and Hezbollah use civilians as human shields, but the ground rules for questions was to ask your question then return to your seat before the question would be answered. (The obvious reason for that is to eliminate follow-up responses to bad answers.)
White is typical of the anti-Israel crowd. They will talk forever about Israel’s so–called “crimes”, but never mention the atrocities by Palestinians or other Arab states. It is only when bothersome questioners bring them out that they will of course “condemn all acts of violence against innocents” and immediately change the subject to those who get killed in the cross-fire between the Israeli army and the terrorists who hide behind human shields.
There wasn’t that much of crowd to hear White-perhaps 50 people. Even his supporters in the audience looked bored. He lost them early on in the speak because he is a pedantic and boring speaker. He speaks again Monday evening. That’s double punishment for the MSU members who feel obligated to come out and support the event. In contrast, on Tuesday, we will have the fiery Amir Abdel Malik Ali.
Source:
You’re not too smart are you?
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An editorial in the Israeli daily Ha’aretz says Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak are creating “falsehoods and deceptions on the Iranian issue.”
The article, published on Sunday, said while former Israeli premiers such as Ariel Sharon and Ehud Olmert did not allow war rhetoric against Iran “to reach apocalyptic proportions,” Netanyahu has baselessly turned the Iranian issue into the be-all and end-all.
According to the editorial, while there is a consensus among experts that Iran’s nuclear energy program “is being conducted methodically” and does not pursue a military capability, Netanyahu and Barak are creating “falsehoods and deceptions” on the issue.
“Many people, among them [Israel’s] Chief of Staff [Lieutenant General] Benny Gantz” believe that Iran will not produce a nuclear weapon, the article adds.
Gantz said on April 25 that he does not believe Iran will pursue nuclear weapons after years of efforts made by Tel Aviv and its allies to convince the world otherwise. He described Iran’s leadership as “very rational,” who would not make such a decision.
Tel Aviv has recently been subjected to harsh criticisms by the regime’s military-intelligence officials over its stance towards Iran.
On April 27, former Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency) director Yuval Diskin said Netanyahu and Minister for Military Affairs Ehud Barak were not fit to stand at helm of the Israeli regime.
“I will tell you things that might be harsh. I cannot trust Netanyahu and Barak at the wheel in confronting Iran. They are infected with messianic feelings over Iran,” Diskin said.
Pointing to the recent wave of criticisms targeting the Israeli policies on Iran, senior Iranian author and Middle East expert Dr. Ismail Salami said, “A rift the size of a potential coup is taking shape between the Israeli government and the military-intelligence men over Iran, a fact which threatens the ruling Israeli political apparat on the one hand and exonerates Iran of all years-long groundless allegations on the other.”
The US, Israel and some of their allies have repeatedly accused Iran of pursuing military objectives in its nuclear energy program.
Washington and Tel Aviv have time and again threatened Tehran with a military strike against its civilian nuclear facilities.
Iran argues that as a signatory to the Non-proliferation Treaty (NPT) and a member of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), it has the right to develop and acquire nuclear technology for peaceful purposes.