Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

In 1975, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution slandering Zionism by equating it with racism. In his spirited response to the resolution, Israel's Ambassador to the UN, Chaim Herzog noted the irony of the timing, the vote coming exactly 37 years after Kristallnacht.

Zionism is the national liberation movement of the Jewish people, which holds that Jews, like any other nation, are entitled to a homeland.

History has demonstrated the need to ensure Jewish security through a national homeland. Zionism recognizes that Jewishness is defined by shared origin, religion, culture and history.

The realization of the Zionist dream is exemplified by more than four million Jews, from more than 100 countries, including dark-skinned Jews from Ethiopia, Yemen and India, who are Israeli citizens. Approximately 1,000,000 Muslim and Christian Arabs, Druze, Baha'is, Circassians and other ethnic groups also are represented in Israel's population.

Many Christians have traditionally supported the goals and ideals of Zionism. Israel's open and democratic character and its scrupulous protection of the religious and political rights of Christians and Muslims rebut the charge of exclusivity.

The Arab states define citizenship strictly by native parentage. It is almost impossible to become a naturalized citizen in many Arab states, especially Algeria, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait. Several Arab nations have laws that facilitate the naturalization of foreign Arabs, with the specific exception of Palestinians. Jordan, on the other hand, instituted its own "law of return" in 1954, according citizenship to all former residents of Palestine, except for Jews.

The presence of thousands of black Jews in Israel is the best refutation of the calumny against Zionism. In a series of historic airlifts - labeled Operations Moses (1984), Joshua (1985) and Solomon (1991), Israel rescued almost 42,000 members of the ancient Ethiopian Jewish community.

To single out Jewish self-determination for condemnation is itself a form of racism. "A world that closed its doors to Jews who sought escape from Hitler's ovens lacks the moral standing to complain about Israel's giving preference to Jews," wrote noted civil rights lawyer Alan Dershowitz.

When approached by a student who attacked Zionism, Martin Luther King responded: "When people criticize Zionists, they mean Jews. You're talking anti-Semitism."

The 1975 UN resolution was part of the Soviet-Arab Cold War anti-Israel campaign. Almost all the former non-Arab supporters of the resolution have apologized and changed their positions. When the General Assembly voted to repeal the resolution in 1991, only some Arab and Muslim states, as well as Cuba, North Korea and Vietnam were opposed.

Below, you can listen to Chaim Herzog's historic speech lambasting the 1975 UN resolution equating Zionism with racism, and US ambassador to the UN Daniel Patrick Moynihan's response to the resolution as well.

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Is Zionism Racism? | Jewish Virtual Library

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Posted By simmons on February 16, 2017

The political positions of the Progressive Action Coalition at UGA are known as the Points of Unity. These political positions orient our objectives to resist administrative policies that prioritize profit over people and all oppressive forces at UGA and the greater Athens community.

PAC expected to face vilification for its anti-Zionist stance, as demonstrated by thisrecent Red & Black op-ed, in which the author claims that PAC is excluding Jewish students. The author presents Israel as an enlightened and democratic state that genuinely strives to be inclusive of all its citizens.

This rhetorical tactic attempts to obfuscate the reality in which Israel is an apartheid state that continues to ethnically cleanse and militarily occupy Palestine.

The author is the president of Dawgs for Israel, an organization at UGA which has repeatedly denied the existence of the Israeli military occupation of Palestine. The Israeli occupation is recognized by theUnited Nations, theInternational Committee of the Red Cross,Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and national governments, including theU.S. State Department.

An organization that refuses to acknowledge the widely-recognized issue of Israeli occupation cannot be taken seriously.

PAC opposes Zionism because it is a nationalistic political ideology which called for the establishment of a European Jewish-majority state in Palestine in which indigenous Palestinians already resided.

To establish Israel in 1948 and to ensure its Jewish demographic majority, the Zionist leadership ordered theethnic cleansing of Palestine. Zionist militias destroyed hundreds of Palestinian villages and carried out massacres and expulsion.

The author declared Israel is inclusion. Does this sound like inclusion? Is Israel inclusion when it expelled my grandparents from al-Lydd in 1948? By the end of 1949, 750,000 Palestinians were expelled from their homeland.

Early Zionist leaders made explicit references topopulation transfer. Even many Jews oppose the false definition of Zionism as a liberation movement. Liberation movements do not colonize, occupy and expel other peoples.

After the Six-Day War in 1967, Israel militarily occupied East Jerusalem, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip, also known as the Occupied Palestinian Territories. In the OPT, Israel continues to establish illegal settlements, annex Palestinian land, demolish Palestinian homes and severely restrict Palestinian movement, actions defined as apartheid by theUnited Nations.

Moreover, the Israeli occupation of Palestine is characterized by the routine killing and mass imprisonment of Palestinians,including children.

In Israel, more than 50 codified laws directly or indirectly discriminate against Palestinian citizens of Israel based solely on their ethnicity, rendering them second or even third class citizens in their own homeland.

Additionally, about 35 Palestinian villages in Israel, some of which pre-date the establishment of the state, are unrecognized by the government, receive no services and are not listed on official maps. The government denies them building permits, running water, electricity, roads, sewer systems and trash removal.

In order to expand Israeli Jewish communities,Israel routinely demolishes villages in the Naqab/Negev Desert. This is apartheid. The author claims to stand against Zionism is to stand against indigenous peoples rights despite Israels long history of subjugating the indigenous Palestinian people.

The author also argues that Israel sends humanitarian aid to other countries. However, this does not matter when Israel subjects Palestinians to an apartheid regime which deprives them of movement, security, agency and self-determination.

The only intersectional thing about Zionism is that it is intersectionally oppressive. When Zionists claim Israel does not discriminate against sexual orientation and religion, we remember that the brutality of Israeli occupation does not exempt Palestinian LGBTQ people and Palestinian Christians.

PAC will remain steadfast in opposing all forms of racism, including anti-Semitism, and all forms of colonialism, including Zionist settler-colonialism. PAC reaffirms its commitment to the Palestinian cause.

As the Palestinian writer Ghassan Kanafani once said, the Palestinian cause is not a cause for Palestinians only, but a cause for every revolutionary, wherever he is, as a cause of the exploited and oppressed masses in our era.

- Submitted by Osama Mor on behalf of the UGA Progressive Action Coalition and Students for Justice in Palestine

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OPINION: To support Zionism is to support apartheid - Red and Black

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and President Donald Trump Photo Credit: Screen Capture / CSPAN

Perhaps the most telling moment in President Trump's joint press conference with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu came when an Israeli reporter asked Trump about thesurge in hate crimessince his election and about his view of U.S. policy supporting the so-called two-state solution.

In deference to Netanyahu, President Trump jettisoned Washington's long-standing position that peace in the region requires two states: one Jewish and one Palestinian. And in deference to his white nationalist supporters, he declined to single out hate crimes targetting Jewish people for criticism.

Thus the president appeased both the Zionist and the fascist sensibilities that course through his embattled administration, with revealing results.

Netanyahu came to Washington under pressure from right-wing partners in his government to abandon even a rhetorical commitment to a two-state solution. Trump obliged the Israeli leader by saying he didn't care.

As far as [Israeli] settlements, Id like to see you [meaning Netanyahu] hold back on settlements for a little bit. Well work something out. But I would like to see a deal be made.I think a deal will be made. So Im looking at two-state and one-state, and I like the one that both parties like. Im very happy with the one that both parties like.

As for the hate crimes, Trump opened by citing his 306 electoral votes and then implied the post-election wave of hate crimes was nothing new, despite the fact that 27 percent of the incidents involved Jewish targets and 41 percent referenced Trump's victory, according to aThink Progresssurvey.

Said Trump: "We are going to do everything within our power to stop simmering racism and every other thing thats going on. A lot of bad things have been taking place over a long period of time.

On the one hand, Trump is giving voice to the sort of extreme Zionism voiced by David Friedman,his nominee for ambassador to Israel. Friedman has advocated Israeli annexation of the Palestinian West Bank, which would be a one-state solution, at least for Israeli Jews. The Israeli right wants to confiscate more Palestinian land while denying privileging the Jewish population over Arab residents.

On the other hand, Trump is indulging the white nationalist vision of his adviser Steve Bannon, who hasapprovingly citedItalian fascist thinker Julius Evola, and who made sure Trump's HolocaustRemembrance Day messageomitted any mention of the Holocaust's Jewish victims. The white nationalist so-called alt-right is behind the wave of hate messages, bomb threats, assaults and vandalism against Americans who are not white and Christian.

The only common denominator is Trump's fondness for bullies.

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Trump Weaves a Bizarre Blend of Zionism and Fascism in Making a New Mideast Policy - AlterNet

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

MONTREAL In this age of trigger warnings and micro-aggressions, a university campus is not where you would expect people to rally behind someone who called for physical violence.

But after McGill University student politician Igor Sadikov last week used Twitter to encourage people to punch a Zionist, supporters have defended him while targeting Jewish students who support Israel.

On Monday, the board of directors of the Students Society of McGill University (SSMU), on which Sadikov represents Arts students, rejected by a vote of 5-4 a motion calling for his removal from the board.

Students attending an SSMU legislative council meeting last Thursday reported that elected representatives declined to denounce Sadikov but stood by as a Jewish member of the council was singled out for her support of Zionism.

Jasmine Segal, who represents social work students on the council, said she came under attack for qualifying Sadikovs tweet as hateful.

Instead of dealing with this important and distasteful issue, supporters from the gallery for (Sadikov) turned the meeting to attack me and request that I be removed as a representative of SSMU due to my faith, Segal wrote in a Facebook post on Saturday.

I was left isolated and alone to respond. My fellow representatives sat in silence and permitted this malicious, prejudicial, and unjustified attack to continue.

The McGill Daily, a student newspaper that has a policy of not publishing Zionist viewpoints, reported that a pro-Palestinian activist complained at the meeting about the presence of Zionists on council.

Since SSMU has a social justice mandate, why does it allow Zionist councillors on council, when Zionist ideology is inherently (linked to) ethnically cleansing Palestinians? the activist asked. Instead of addressing Sadikovs tweet, the question period became a heated debate over how exactly to define Zionism, and over who had experienced violence, the newspaper reported.

Molly Harris, a third-year Arts student who attended the meeting, said she felt targeted as a Jew and a Zionist.

This tweet and the discourse that followed on Thursday have unleashed a wave of condemnation of Zionists and Jews at McGill and have normalized inciting violence against students who identify as such, she said by email. If anything, I feel more unsafe and more singled out now than I did last week because of the campus groups who have used Sadikovs tweet as an opportunity to express their anti-Zionist, and often anti-Semitic views.

She criticized the SSMU for failing to act promptly against Sadikov. In a statement on Saturday, the SSMU executive said it condemns violence and apologized if the abilities of any councillor were questioned on the basis of their personal identity during Thursdays council meeting.

The SSMU recognizes that this is an emotional and contentious issue revolving around differing interpretations of historical and cultural contexts, it said.

McGills administration said last week that its disciplinary procedures are confidential but it is taking action as required with respect to Sadikovs tweet. In a statement Monday addressed to the McGill community and sent to alumni, Suzanne Fortier, the principal, said she was shocked by the offensive tweet. She said McGill condemns all expressions of hatred and attempts to incite violence, but she said the administration does not have the power to intervene in the internal affairs of the SSMU.

Sadikov did not respond to messages seeking comment. On Friday, he wrote on Facebook that he had recently been reminded of tweets he wrote between 2009 and 2012, before he entered university. They contained violent slurs and discriminatory remarks targeting racialized people, women, queer people, people with disabilities, and people with mental illness, he wrote. He said he no longer holds those biases and regrets having written the tweets, which have now been deleted along with the rest of his Twitter account.

Email: ghamilton@nationalpost.com | Twitter:

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Supporters rally behind McGill student rep who called for Zionists to be punched - National Post

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

Peers SUPPORT student government rep. who called for punching a Zionist

The McGill University (Canada) student who on Twitter last week called for people to punch a Zionist has received the backing of his fellow student politicians.

The Students Societys (SSMU) Igor Sadikov, who represents Arts students at the school (and must think hes a real tough guy) remained on the Societys board of directors after a measure to have him removed was rejected.

In addition, the National Postreports that at a SSMU legislative council meeting late last week, elected representatives declined to denounce Sadikov but stood by as a Jewish member of the council was singled out for her support of Zionism.

That member is Jasmine Segal, who says she was chastised because she dared to describe Sadikovs tweet as hateful and added that requests were made that she be removed from the SSMU.

From the story:

I was left isolated and alone to respond. My fellow representatives sat in silence and permitted this malicious, prejudicial, and unjustified attack to continue, [Segal said.]

The McGill Daily, a student newspaper that has a policy of not publishing Zionist viewpoints, reported that a pro-Palestinian activist complained at the meeting about the presence of Zionists on council.

Since SSMU has a social justice mandate, why does it allow Zionist councillors on council, when Zionist ideology is inherently (linked to) ethnically cleansing Palestinians? the activist asked. Instead of addressing Sadikovs tweet, the question period became a heated debate over how exactly to define Zionism, and over who had experienced violence, the newspaper reported.

Molly Harris, a third-year Arts student who attended the meeting, said she felt targeted as a Jew and a Zionist.

This tweet and the discourse that followed on Thursday have unleashed a wave of condemnation of Zionists and Jews at McGill and have normalized inciting violence against students who identify as such, she said by email. If anything, I feel more unsafe and more singled out now than I did last week because of the campus groups who have used Sadikovs tweet as an opportunity to express their anti-Zionist, and often anti-Semitic views.

Israellycool reports Sadikov had apologized via Facebook (now made private) sort of after his tweet: I regret the way that I phrased my opposition to Zionism and the fact that some of my constituents and fellow students felt harmed by it.

Note that a commenter to that FB post wrote I can punch one [a Zionist] for you if your position does not allow you to and Sadikov liked it.

Speaking of Facebook, the Post points out Sadikov had also responded to reminders of hateful tweets he had made between 2009 and 2012 which contained violent slurs and discriminatory remarks targeting racialized people, women, queer people, people with disabilities, and people with mental illness.

He claims he no longer holds those biases and regrets having written the tweets.

Sadikovs Twitter account has been deactivated during this current imbroglio.

Read the full Post article.

h/t to Legal Insurrection.

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Peers SUPPORT student government rep. who called for 'punching a Zionist' - The College Fix

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Posted By simmons on February 16, 2017

Getty Images

Man takes selfie at London protest.

When I moved to a new, Midwestern city to attend graduate school, I did what many young, single people do: I joined a dating website. After a few weeks, I began to notice that the men who messaged me tended to fit a certain type: bookish, serious, and strongly invested in being seen as intellectual and cultured. They wore glasses, liked foreign films and cooked vegetarian food. They were, in short, a lot like me.

But one day, as I read through the profile of a young man who had sent me a reasonable polite and literate message, I noticed something jarring. At the bottom of his profile, he had affixed a disclaimer: Dont message me if youre a Zionist.

I went back to the message and read it again. It was very polite. I found myself at an impasse. I genuinely had no idea whether to answer. At the time, I didnt consider myself a Zionist and his profile didnt say Dont message me if youre a Jew. Yet at the same time I felt rebuked, as if it were directed at me. And didnt that mean it was? If I were really not a Zionist, then I wouldnt identify with that warning and Id able to answer. But I had hesitated, so I must be.

I decided not to reply to the message although I still found it preoccupying, especially after I found a number of profiles with similar warnings. They all came from young, white men who made no mention of being Jewish but described themselves as pro-Palestine and anti-Zionist, fighting against racism, sexism, homophobia, and Zionism, or having no tolerance for fascism, imperialism, and Zionism.

The simple answer would have been to ignore the warnings, to say that, since they made me uncomfortable, these men simply werent right for me. But I continued to find them perplexing. These men were my matches; they were the people that the computer had determined were most like me. And why would a 38-year-old white librarian use the limited amount of space on his online dating profile to broadcast his antipathy for Israel? Unless you are actively engaged as a Hamas fighter, chances are you spend far more time watching TV or exercising than trying to dismantle the Israeli state. It didnt necessarily surprise me that these people defined themselves as being against Israel but it did that they thought it was necessary for their future sex partners to know that right off the bat.

Eventually, I did go out with one of the men and, after a time, asked him about a picture hed posted of himself wearing a keffiyeh and holding up a Boycott Israel sign. He seemed bewildered, as if it simply hadnt occurred to him that someone might read a deeper meaning into the photo.

I didnt mean for it to be about Jews, he said, I just wanted to show that I was political and I go to rallies.

I was taken aback. How could it not be about Jews? To me, Zionism and the movement against it were only about Jews: who we were, where we could live, our history and culture. I had assumed that these questions must be central to these peoples self-conception, but that was wrong. They had been completely effaced. Because, for these men and women, Zionism actually wasnt about Jews; it was about something else. It was shorthand for what they wanted to be: free-thinking, politically conscious, liberated, sexy.

Anti-Zionism, like all political positions, had become a marker of a certain lifestyle, in the same way that vegan brunch was a marker of that lifestyle. You showcased your political beliefs to show you were political, which also meant cultured, educated, and discerning. And politics were part of everyday bourgeois life: you went to communal yoga to de-stress after your latest round of protesting the Israeli embassy or snarked about the Israeli flag in your dentists office over a round of craft beer. None of this was about Jews, of course, because you said it wasnt and what you say tends to be true and right.

I certainly wasnt exempt from that type of behavior myself, even if it took being on the other side of it to realize how grotesque it was. There were people living and dying over politics, not just Israel and Palestine, but any number of the cultural lefts pet issues. But the experience opened my eyes, not only to the way that the personal is political but to the way the political has become personal.

Emma Needleman is a writer and comedian from Philadelphia.

The Forward's independent journalism depends on donations from readers like you.

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The Sisterhood - Forward

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

Sean Adl-Tabatabai doesnt look much like a Russian propagandist. He doesnt come across much like your average alt-Right agitator either, with his neat Burberry polo shirt and his overwhelming nimbus of aftershave. And if you call what he does FAKE NEWS, he gets a little defensive.

I define my job as overseeing and editing an alternative news website thats what I do, says the founder-editor of Your News Wire as he squints into the sun on the roof of his apartment in Los Angeles. He regrets the fact that Kellyanne Conway, Donald Trumps long-suffering spokeswoman, has given alternative facts a bad name. What I mean is that we cover stories that the mainstream media isnt covering.

Stories such as: George Soros Orchestrates Devastating Plan to Kill 100,000 Haitians. And: Autism Rates in California Skyrocket Following Mandatory Vaccine Bill. And: Nicole Kidman Sent For Reprogramming After Supporting Trump. Stories that report from a looking-glass world where Hillary Clinton is connected to elite paedophile rings in Washington pizzerias, where climate change is a hoax, where Trump is mobilising US troops to counter a Chinese Pearl Harbor-style attack on California. All under a banner of NEWS. TRUTH. UNFILTERED.

Stories that have had Adl-Tabatabai, a former MTV producer from north London, accused of being part of a deliberate campaign to destabilise Western democracies with disinformation. His site has been blacklisted by an EU task force set up to combat Russian propaganda, and cited as one of the main reasons that Trump would win (or more accurately, Hillary Clinton would lose) the US presidential election.

Adl-Tabatabai, 35, lives in a Hollywood-Gothic apartment complex that you can imagine Philip Marlowe staking out in a Raymond Chandler novel. Theres something guileless about him. He actually seems to believe the stuff his site publishes or at least, to relish its textures and its tremors, like a teenager whos got a little lost inside a role-playing game. He lives with Sinclair, his American husband they signed the register in Camden at one minute past midnight on the day that David Cameron legalised gay marriage. Their apartment is filled with art, and I cant help but notice a Bernie Sanders bumper sticker too. Most of my friends and I would say, me too are liberals, he says. Im not some member of the alt-Right trying to stir up racial hatred or homophobia or anything. Im just ... very open to ideas.

He believes that the war on fake news is ridiculous its just ridiculous. The mainstream media is the sole reason for Trumps victory. They ignored the public. They didnt have their finger on the pulse. And I think whats happened since with this whole fake news debate is sour grapes. Instead of fixing the problem, theyre trying to blame someone else. And theres a certain truth to this; a recent Stanford University study concluded that the influence of sites such as his was marginal compared to the might of, say, Fox News. However, it did also note the stunning and dismaying consistency with which the participants of the study failed to tell the difference between advert, news and conspiracy.

As for the idea that hes an unwitting stooge of the Kremlin: Its so weird. Does he read Russia Today, the Moscow-sponsored news network? I love Russia Today! (Of course he does its one of his most cited sources.) You are aware that its Russian propaganda, right? Well, the BBC is British propaganda. Its the same thing. Its not the same thing. Britain has a free press, Russia does not. British journalists are not censored for criticising the Government, Russian journalists are. Publicly funded is not the same as state broadcaster I could go on. I just think theres some hypocrisy there, he pleads. What about his article that claimed the Queen would flee Britain if we didnt leave the EU, since World War Three was on its way? This particular story featured direct quotes from Her Majesty, apparently overheard by a BBC employee: One is making the necessary preparations to abandon ship A violent storm is coming, the likes of which Britain has never seen.

I knew youd mention that one, he sighs. He justifies it by telling me he put it in his CONSPIRACIES section, where the most wackadoo content ends up. (A distinction that wouldnt trouble someone who came across the story on a Facebook news feed of course.) It was a BBC employee who emailed the website. The information he was giving us was so far-fetched, it was not something I could present to my audience as 100 per cent verified fact. But I did investigate and discovered that this person could have been party to that information. And I could say: Someone is claiming this, make of it what you will. I cant say whether that was real or not.

Between clickbait, sensationalism, exaggeration, satire, trolling and agenda-driven reporting, there is a whole dreamland of grey. Adl-Tabatabai claims kinship with Info Wars, whose creator Alex Jones promoted the idea that 9/11 was an inside job. (Trumps a fan.) But his dafter stuff isnt much different from, say, US supermarket tabloids such as the Weekly World News or the BIZARRE sections of our own much- vaunted press, which relish UFO stories and celebrity reincarnations. People are so hysterical now, theres this idea that anything weird must be wiped from the web because readers are crazy, says Adl-Tabatabai. No ones saying The Sun or the Express or the Mail should be banned.

Adl-Tabatabai had what he describes as an average childhood. His father is an accountant of Iranian origin; his mother Carol is an alternative health practitioner; he grew up in a council estate with a brother and a sister and attended an all-boys Catholic school. He wasnt academic but a teenage role as an extra on Grange Hill excited his interest in the media and when he left school he found a job as a runner on Top of the Pops. (Presumably this is where his faith in the BBC began to erode the stars were MIMING! Its fake pop, folks!) He later took a course in media studies It was a pile of s**t really and worked his way up through various TV production jobs. But it was a meeting with David Icke the former BBC presenter who announced that he was the son of God on Wogan in 1990 that he describes as the biggest step to what he does now.

Inspiration: David Icke (Bruce Adams)

Adl-Tabatabi was working on a pilot for a conspiracy theory show on MTV and had been tasked with duping Icke into making a fool of himself again. He was actually a really decent guy with a few wacky ideas and I thought, no, he doesnt deserve this. He tipped off Icke who was grateful. When he was sacked from MTV, he worked for Icke for years as a web designer and producer. Icke has since turned on his amanuensis (WHY ARE YOU FILLED WITH SUCH HATRED SEAN ADL-TABATABAI? What is your motivation? And who benefits?) But Adl-Tabatabai remains respectful. Hes just misinformed. Thats fine. What I liked about him was that he was fearless.

He reflects that his mothers approach to medicine may have made him more open-minded. A lot of people dabble in strange theories. Its not confined to this small subsection of ignorant people. Believing one or two things that another person doesnt think is legitimate doesnt mean that theyre thick.

You can be really passionate that these are the facts but someone else can come along whos equally as passionate. But it doesnt matter how passionate you are the facts remain the same. When you say facts are sacred, I would argue that no theyre not.

Adl-Tabatabai does have some regard for facts. As editor, he says he spends around 30 minutes fact-checking all the stories he publishes. If a story is particularly complex it can take a lot longer. He produces most of his news from a Macbook Pro on a glass desk next to a butterfly palm beneath a circular sunburst mirror. On a typical day he writes four or five stories personally, and puts up about 15 on the site. There are four or five regular contributors, including Baxter Dmitry (a Milo Yiannopoulos fanboy whose Facebook profile is taken in front of the Winter Palace in St Petersburg) and his mum, Carol. They tend to be paid commission, so the more clicks a story gets, the more cash the site generates thank you Google! He makes an OK living, he says, but the overheads are high and its all a bit harder since people started to worry about fake news. Still, the site receives between three and five million hits per month and hes delighted to say it has celebrity fans: Roseanne Barr loves us And Elijah Wood. And whos that woman who wrote Fifty Shades of Grey?

What was the last story he rejected? He thinks about this one for a while. There was a story about Hillary Clinton dying in hospital and having a body double and heres the proof ... I considered it. People like that stuff. Wed covered a lot of her illness. But it just felt a bit cheap and nasty and there was no real merit to it.

Follow Richard Godwin on Twitter: @richardjgodwin

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Sean Adl-Tabatabai on being in the eye of the 'fake news' storm - Evening Standard

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Posted By simmons on February 16, 2017

ROSELAND A text message string containing racial and ethnically insensitive language has called attention to the male members of the Roseland Mayor and Council that were included in the exchange.

Mayor John Duthie and Councilmen Rich Leonard, Peter Smith, David Jacobs, Mark Vidovich and Thomas Tsilionis were listed as part of the chat that received the messages.

Councilwoman Michele Tolli was not.

According to Leonard, the conversations included on the long-running text string ranged from official business, such as water main breaks and committee appointments, to informal discussions, such as vacation plans and was similar to a running email chain.

Some portions of the chain between members of the boroughs governing body became problematic recently when language used in them employed racial and ethnic slurs.

The Progress became aware of the existence of these text messages last month when members of the Roseland community reached out and said they had seen inappropriate exchanges between members of the Roseland Mayor and Council and felt the voters needed to know.

Roseland Borough has been trying to deal with its affordable housing obligation and the governing body will be voting on the issue and planning strategy on how to make their mandated number of units. Affordable housing is traditionally for low-income families. These units also tend to be more diverse, and would likely have a higher percentage of minorities than traditional housing in Roseland.

The content of the text messages sent included racially insensitive language that members of the Roseland community took issue with, particularly when those involved in the exchange are making decisions on behalf of the community on issues like affordable housing.

In pursuing the story, The Progress contacted all members of the governing body and Borough Administrator Jock Watkins via email, requesting copies of the text messages and any other exchanges that included multiple members of the governing body.

Duthie, Smith, Jacobs, Vidovich and Tsilionis did not respond to the request, made Friday, Feb. 3. Watkins responded requesting clarification on Wednesday, Feb. 8.

Leonard, whose adult life has been immersed in borough politics, shared copies of the exchange after meeting with The Progress staff on Friday, Feb. 3.

Leonard was one of the council members included on the text messages and he highlighted one exchange that took place over the Memorial Day weekend in 2016.

In the texted exchange in late May last year, Tsilionis, who is of Greek descent, asks Jacobs, who is Jewish, David how do I become Jewish? I want to be half Jewish, followed by a slang reference to alleged Jewish frugality, and half African-American, followed by a word referring to the supposed procreational prowess of African-American males.

Jacobs responds with a reference to the ritual procedure that a Rabbi would have to perform on Tsilionis.

I am legally changing my name to ShwarzNigga, replied Tsilionis.

This elicits a laugh-out-loud text from Jacobs, who then needles Tsilionis over his presumably undersized maleness.

During a follow-up interview with Leonard Saturday, February 4, he mentioned his inappropriate and sad assessment of the texting that took place between the two councilmen, noting that others to whom he had shown the messages had widely differing comments about them.

When Leonard was asked why he waited to release text messages from eight months ago, he replied that he did not recall that they had happened that far back, and offered no further explanation.

Telephone interviews with the other five council members and the mayor took place from Sunday, Feb. 5 through Wednesday, Feb. 8.

Tsilionis said he had no recollection of this exchange, but acknowledged that he and Jacobs often conduct this type of banter in other venues, during which Jacobs responds to him with teasing repartee over his Greek heritage, Tsilionis said.

After having the texted quotes read to him, Tsilionis insisted that neither he nor Jacobs harbor any anti-Semitic, anti-African-American or anti-Greco bias.

I have many African-American friends and half the employees in my business are African-American, declared Tsilionis.

Regarding the possible reason behind Leonards whistleblowing, Tsilionis contended that Leonard is still smarting over having four councilmen fail to vote him in as council president during the governing bodys reorganization meeting last month; Councilwoman Michele Tolli had given the sole support to Leonards candidacy.

The reason Tsilionis gave for rejecting Leonard for council president was allegedly several conflicts of interest Leonard supposedly has been involved in, presumably relating to his real estate business in the center of town.

I dont want anyone as council president who has a conflict of interest, said Tsilionis, adding that he chose to keep quiet about it until feeling forced to mention it now.

Jacobs expressed ignorance of the matter when this issue was described to him and that he had no recollection of the messages in question. He rejected an offer of having the text-message thread read to him, explaining that he had no time because he was about to leave for New York City with his family.

Tolli said she had never heard about these text messages, that she was not involved in the string of them, and that her focus on the council is communicating with residents to promote civic, social and charitable activities throughout the community.

She declined to hear the Tsilionis-Jacobs exchange read to her, indicating she did not feel comfortable commenting on it, other than to say that whenever Tsilionis tries to be humorous, he never is.

Regarding the conflict of interest allegations against Leonard, Tolli said that she has seen no evidence of it.

Tolli also explained her vote in support of Leonards council presidency.

I think everyone should have a chance to be council president, Tolli said.

Councilman Peter Smith declined to have the messages read and insisted that his views of their synopsis described to him be kept off the record due to wariness over the accuracy of press quotes. He referred to what he called an inaccurate quote his wife, Dawn, had experienced with the Star-Ledger relating to her position on the West Essex Regional School Board.

It should be noted the Star-Ledger is in no way connected to The Progress.

At the reorganization meeting last month, Smith had said he cast his vote against Leonard becoming council president because the whistle-blowing councilman often goes off the reservation.

Council President Mark Vidovich, who was away on a business trip, indicated through the Roseland borough clerks office that he would prefer a contact through email.

The email query he preferred awaits his response.

Mayor John Duthie said he was convinced the conversation read to him was nothing more than joking among friends that has no bearing on borough business, and delivered in language that has lost the shock value it once had in society, and that it is no different than what would be bandied about in talk on a sidewalk, he said.

He referred to Leonards release of the text-messages as sour grapes and that the councilman has a personal vendetta underway.

Referring to the dialog involved, Duthie said bawdy references to male and female reproductive organs and functions are prevalent in public and throughout the media, even on the national political scene, and that the citizenry has become desensitized to them.

Giving further example, he said, his sons experience as a student in West Essex Regional High School revealed to him that sex education teachers there discuss reproductive activities using the anatomically accurate names of male and female bodily organs, describing in detail their functions.

Roseland is a great town, he said, and listed many accomplishments for which his administration is proud, and that this controversy must not diminish them.

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Racial slurs, anti-semitic text messages sent by Roseland councilman - New Jersey Hills

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Posted By admin on February 16, 2017

During a joint press conference withIsraeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahuearlier today,Donald Trump responded to a question about rising anti-Semitism through his campaign and under his administration by talking about how he won the election. Yeah, once again, he responded to a question by bragging about his Electoral College votes from three months ago.

Obviously, his maneuvering of the topic from a rise in religiously-motivated hatred and attacks to his own successes set off a firestorm on cable news and Twitter. Now, the Anti-Defamation League, which has been working to counter the rise in hate directed at Jews and other minorities in recent months, has released a statement.

Following a string of tweets praising Trump for strengthening the bond between the United States and Israel and pointing out the importance of the two-state solution, they said this:

The incident is reminiscent of the White Houses refusal to acknowledge Jews during the presidents speech to honor Holocaust Remembrance Day a few weeks ago.

Further, this is not the first time the ADL has had to publicly express displeasure with the way Trump references or, in this case, doesnt reference Jewish people.

[image via screengrab]

Lindsey: Twitter. Facebook.

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The Anti-Defamation League Has Responded to Trump's 'Troubling' Comments on Anti-Semitism - Mediaite

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Posted By richards on February 16, 2017

Category: Synagogue | Comments Off on When politics came to synagogue – New Jersey Jewish News
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