486 Recording devices show NYC lawyer faked Anti-Semitic incident

Recording devices show NYC lawyer faked Anti-Semitic incident

This does not mean that all such incidents are fake. But it does show
the need to rational debate rather than knee-jerk responses to
hot-button issues.

(1) Moses was the first Holocaust survivor: Israel's never-ending Holocaust
(2) Gilad branded a Holocaust denier in Jerusalem Post. Dershowitz
likens his book to Protocols; Foxman calls him a Hitler apologist
(3) Recording devices show NYC lawyer faked Anti-Semitic incident
(4) NYC lawyer suspended after fake Anti-Semitism claim
(5) Department of Education dismisses anti-semitism charge against
Columbia University
(6) Israel's "Mosque Bill" prohibts loudspeakers; follows a string of
attacks on Mosques
(7) Lawsuit fights hotel's decision to bar Muslim employee from serving
Israeli officials
(8) Report: ultra-Orthodox spitting at Christian clergy in Jerusalem
(9) Widow claims Chabad Rabbis duped her
(10) Sheldon Adelson invests in Macao
(11) Parents demand "Purification Ritual" after Orthodox school was used
for a Muslim wedding
(14) The Separation of Women: Secular Israelis resist Haredi
gender-segregation

(1) Moses was the first Holocaust survivor: Israel's never-ending Holocaust

From: Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> Date: 1 February 2012
08:13

So it is that we don't have any rivals, adversaries or even enemies.
Only Hitlers. This is how the Holocaust is taught in school, this how it
is that Israeli students are taken to visit death camps - and how it
came to be that, as Haaretz reported on Friday, just 2 percent of
Israeli youth feel committed to democratic principles after studying the
Holocaust and 2.5 percent identify with the suffering of other
persecuted nations, but 12 percent feel committed to "significant"
service in the Israel Defense Forces.

http://www.haaretz.com/print-edition/opinion/israel-s-never-ending-holocaust-1.409942

·         Published 03:01 30.01.12

·         Latest update 03:01 30.01.12

Israel's never-ending Holocaust

The issue that should have sparked panic in last week's poll on religion
is the total consensus among Israeli Jews that the 'guiding principle'
for the country is 'to remember the Holocaust.'

By Merav Michaeli

Haaretz appeared to be gripped by panic after the Guttman Center-Avi
Chai Foundation poll on religion came out last week, as could be seen in
the frenzied front-page headline in Friday's paper: "Survey finds record
number of Israeli Jews believe in God." But the newspaper wasn't
panicking about the right thing.

Yes, there has been an increase in Israelis' attachment to Judaism over
the past decade, but that means the situation has more or less returned
to what it was two decades before that.

This same poll was first conducted in 1991, and its results were similar
to those of the latest survey. A second one was done in 1999, after the
bulk of the immigrants from the former Soviet Union had arrived in the
country, but had yet to completely assimilate; this explained the dip in
Israeli Jews' attachment to religion at the time.

A decade later, those immigrants have internalized the cultural codes of
Israeli society. Throw in an enlarged Orthodox and ultra-Orthodox
population that has counterbalanced the secularism the Russian-speaking
immigrants brought with them, and the proportion of Israelis who
subscribe to traditional Jewish beliefs remains virtually unchanged over
the past 20 years.

The issue that should have sparked panic in the survey is the total
consensus among Israeli Jews - regardless of religious, ethnic or
political differences - that the "guiding principle" for the country and
for Judaism itself is "to remember the Holocaust." Ninety-eight percent
of the respondents consider it either fairly important or very important
to remember the Holocaust, attributing to it even more weight than to
living in Israel, the Sabbath, the Passover seder and the feeling of
belonging to the Jewish people.

The Holocaust is the primary way Israel defines itself. And that
definition is narrow and ailing in the extreme, because the Holocaust is
remembered only in a very specific way, as are its lessons. It has long
been used to justify the existence and the necessity of the state, and
has been mentioned in the same breath as proof that the state is under a
never-ending existential threat.

The Holocaust is the sole prism through which our leadership, followed
by society at large, examines every situation. This prism distorts
reality and leads inexorably to a forgone conclusion - to the point that
former Chief Rabbi Israel Meir Lau announced at a Holocaust Remembrance
Day ceremony three years ago that Moses was the first Holocaust
survivor. In other words, all our lives are simply one long Shoah.

As a country, as a nation, Israel has never confronted the trauma of the
Holocaust. The shock from the terrible tragedy and the guilt feelings of
the pre-state Yishuv leadership for not being able to save the Jews of
Europe - plus the presence of the men and women who survived and were
constant reminders of both traumas - prompted Israel to repress the
Holocaust at first, and then to turn it into a placard in the service of
the national trauma, to reinforce the constant existential fear and the
aggressiveness that comes with it.

The survivors themselves have never been treated right. Just yesterday
it was reported, once again, that half of Israel's Holocaust survivors
are dependent on welfare stipends and that the government has once again
reduced its support of them.

At the same time, the "Hitlers" are always there: Just a week ago, Prime
Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said for the nth time that there is no
shortage of those who want to exterminate us completely. In other words,
there is no lack of reasons to continue to reinforce the fear of the
Holocaust - which, according to his father, historian Benzion Netanyahu,
has never ended.

So it is that we don't have any rivals, adversaries or even enemies.
Only Hitlers. This is how the Holocaust is taught in school, this how it
is that Israeli students are taken to visit death camps - and how it
came to be that, as Haaretz reported on Friday, just 2 percent of
Israeli youth feel committed to democratic principles after studying the
Holocaust and 2.5 percent identify with the suffering of other
persecuted nations, but 12 percent feel committed to "significant"
service in the Israel Defense Forces.

That's the way it is with traumas. Because of our human limitations, a
trauma that is not dealt with make us constantly see yet another trauma
approaching - even when whatever is coming has no connection to the
previous trauma and may even be a good thing. Trauma leads to
belligerence and a strong tendency to wreak havoc on one's surroundings,
but first and foremost on oneself.

What we consider rational is actually a frightened, defensive,
aggressive pattern. Our current leaders have made Israeli Judaism just a
post-traumatic syndrome, while they lead us to self-destruction.

(2) Gilad branded a Holocaust denier in Jerusalem Post. Dershowitz
likens his book to Protocols; Foxman calls him a Hitler apologist

From: Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> Date: 24 October 2011
09:59

http://www.jpost.com/LandedPages/PrintArticle.aspx?id=242902

Pro-Israel activists slam praise of 'anti-Semitic' book

By JOHNNY PAUL, JERUSALEM POST CORRESPONDENT

23/10/2011

LONDON – Uproar has broken out since American academics John Mearsheimer
and Richard Falk have endorsed a new book by a London-based Israeli
musician accused of being an anti-Semite and Holocaust denier.

Chicago University professor John Mearsheimer, author of the 2007 book
The Israel Lobby, and Princeton professor Richard Falk, the UN
rapporteur for the Palestinian territories, gave promotional words for a
book written by Gilad Atzmon.

His book, titled The Wondering Who, has been described as contemporary
cultural racism and as an attack on Jewish identity inspired by Soviet
anti-Semitism, by analysts and experts.

Renowned American law professor Alan Dershowitz said the book has
crossed the line from anti-Zionism to anti-Semitism and said their
endorsement was something he has not seen in his lifetime.

"I challenge Mearsheimer and Falk to a debate on whether they have
endorsed an anti-Semitic book," he told The Jerusalem Post on Friday. He
said he plans to expose their action widely, both in the academy and
elsewhere.

"Atzmon has adopted all the classical definitions of anti-Semitism, he
uses the same tropes borrowed from Protocols of the Elders of Zion and
other Nazi publications – that Jews control the world, are responsible
for the credit crunch, believe Hitler was right," he told the Post.

"[Mearsheimer and Falk] have crossed a red line that has never been
crossed in my lifetime.

Abraham H. Foxman, National Director of the Anti- Defamation League,
said the endorsement reveals what he knew, that Mearsheimer is an
anti-Semite.

"With his glowing endorsement of a book by a known Hitler apologist and
Holocaust denier, John Mearsheimer has revealed himself to be an
anti-Semite," he said. "For years, Mearsheimer paraded as an objective
analyst, professor and critic, and for years we were very careful not to
label him as an anti-Semite. Now he has clearly aligned himself with the
worst kind of anti-Semitism.

"Gilad Atzmon is a well-known anti-Semite and a promoter of anti-Semitic
conspiracy theories and perverse historical distortions of the Holocaust.

He is a fringe character who has suddenly gained greater attention
because of the Mearsheimer endorsement of his book," Foxman added.

Mark Gardner, director of communications for the Community Security
Trust, a charity that monitors and records anti-Semitic incidents in the
UK, said the book represents utterly contemporary cultural racism.

"Practically every page is adorned with disgusting quotes, as reflected
in a chapter titled 'Swindler's List,'" he said.

Gardner said the promotional words from Falk and Mearsheimer "elevates a
fanatical crank to literary status."

"Mearshemier's quote is an especially repulsive, as it accuses 'Jewish
leaders' of Zionism, described as "blind loyalty to Israel," and
scaremongering, described as "the threat of another Holocaust," he said.

"Atzmon's hatred is one thing, but for a Chicago University professor to
echo it with such grotesque misrepresentations of Jewish behavior, is
something else entirely," Gardner said. "The book advertiser wants all
of the profit and none of the moral responsibility."

British but New York-based journalist and blogger Ben Cohen said the
book was clearly inspired by Soviet anti-Semitism.

"When Atzmon traffics in anti-Semitic tropes – for example describing
the 'credit crunch' as a 'Ziopunch,' or declaring that The Protocols of
the Elders of Zion is an accurate reflection of the global power of
American Jews – he radiates the delight of someone liberated from a huge
emotional burden," he said in an article in this week's New York Jewish
Week.

Responding to Mearsheimer, Cohen said it cannot be left for others to
determine what constitutes hatred of the Jews.

"The term 'anti-Semitism' was coined by anti-Semites in 19th century
Germany. It's a word that's never been owned by the Jewish community.
That has to change – we cannot allow Mearsheimer and those like him to
determine what does and what does not constitute hatred of Jews," Cohen
said.

Described by its publishers, Zero Books, as "An investigation of Jewish
identity politics and contemporary Jewish ideology," a note was placed
on its website defending the backlash against the book.

"[The book is] more articulate and far more authoritative than anything
I could say. I haven't seen anything since to persuade me that we are
deluded or anti-Semitic in publishing this book. In the light of this, I
think it would be reprehensible to cancel publication because authors
were threatening to leave us. That would really make us guilty of what
we're already being accused of by some; 'you're only publishing for the
money,'" the statement read.

"So we'll take the heat, whether it's [oddly enough] from the far left
or neo-con right."

(3) Recording devices show NYC lawyer faked Anti-Semitic incident

Lying lawyer slapped

By DAREH GREGORIAN

Last Updated: 3:37 AM, December 10, 2011

Posted: 1:46 AM, December 10, 2011

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/queens/lying_lawyer_slapped_rDH2jze7X5cOTtBfYh2xRM

A Queens lawyer has been suspended for six months for falsely accusing a
New Jersey state trooper of using anti-Semitic slurs against him,
according to a ruling released yesterday.

Attorney Elliott Dear said he made up the outrageous allegations in
hopes of getting out of a speeding ticket.

Court papers say the unidentified trooper pulled over Dear, an orthodox
Jew, for going 84 in a 55-mph zone while driving with his wife in 2007.

Six days after getting the ticket, Dear sent a letter to the traffic
court saying, "This ticket shall be dismissed immediately" since he
wasn't speeding and "the officer called me a 'Jew kike' — and this
prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket," the papers say.

The letter was forwarded to Internal Affairs, which contacted Dear, who
repeated that he had been the victim of an ethnic slur.

Unfortunately for Dear — and luckily for the trooper — the traffic stop
had been videotaped on the officer's car camera, and the trooper was
wearing a recording device.

Police reported Dear's actions to the New York state lawyers'
disciplinary committee.

In a ruling made public yesterday, a panel of state Appellate Division
judges denied Dear's request for only a private rebuke, and suspended
him for six months. ==

Comment (Peter M.): This does not mean that all such incidents are fake.
But it does show the need to rational debate rather than knee-jerk
responses to hot-button issues.

(4) NYC lawyer suspended after fake Anti-Semitism claim

NYC lawyer suspended over claim that trooper used slur

Attorney Elliott Dear said fashioned the story to get out of a speeding
ticket

By Dareh Gregorian

The New York Post

December 12, 2011

http://www.policeone.com/patrol-issues/articles/4812156-NYC-lawyer-suspended-over-claim-that-trooper-used-slur/

NEW YORK — A Queens lawyer has been suspended for six months for falsely
accusing a New Jersey state trooper of using anti-Semitic slurs against
him, according to a ruling released yesterday.

Attorney Elliott Dear said he made up the outrageous allegations in
hopes of getting out of a speeding ticket.

Court papers say the unidentified trooper pulled over Dear, an orthodox
Jew, for going 84 in a 55-mph zone while driving with his wife in 2007.

Six days after getting the ticket, Dear sent a letter to the traffic
court saying, "This ticket shall be dismissed immediately" since he
wasn't speeding and "the officer called me a 'Jew kike' — and this
prejudice obviously was the cause for the ticket," the papers say.

The letter was forwarded to Internal Affairs, which contacted Dear, who
repeated that he had been the victim of an ethnic slur.

Unfortunately for Dear — and luckily for the trooper — the traffic stop
had been videotaped on the officer's car camera, and the trooper was
wearing a recording device.

Police reported Dear's actions to the New York state lawyers'
disciplinary committee.

In a ruling made public yesterday, a panel of state Appellate Division
judges denied Dear's request for only a private rebuke, and suspended
him for six months.

(5) Department of Education dismisses anti-semitism charge against
Columbia University

From: Michael <RePorterNoteBook@gmail.com> Date: 15 January 2012 11:29

January 14, 2012 5:10 PM

Kenneth Marcus Strikes Out: Department of Education Dismisses
Anti-Semitism Charge Against Columbia University

Prof. Rachel McDermott, target of Kenneth Marcus anti-Israel claim,
vindicated by Dept of Education

http://www.richardsilverstein.com/tikun_olam/2012/01/14/kenneth-marcus-strikes-out-department-of-education-dismisses-anti-semitism-charge-against-columbia-university/

Kenneth Marcus of the Institute for Jewish and Community Research,
suffered a new defeat in his campaign to enforce politically correct
pro-Israel discourse on U.S. college campuses. After persuading an
Orthodox Jewish Barnard College student to file a formal complaint
against a professor accusing her of steering the student away from an
Israel studies course and introducing a climate of hostility toward
Jewish students on campus, the U.S. Department of Education dismissed
the complaint. Among the claims offered was that Professor Rachel
McDermott made an assumption based on the student’s "Orthodox dress"
that she would feel uncomfortable with the anti-Israel environment in
the classroom.

The student and her academic advisor had a discussion about whether she
should take a course offered by Palestinian-American professor Joseph
Massad, who is the bete noir of the pro-Israel lobby. Though he played
no role in the complaint, it’s no accident that he played some part in
inspiring the action. In fact, Marcus attempted to argue that having an
uninvolved professor steer a Jewish student away from a Massad course
indicated that his department was instilling a hostile environment for
Jews on campus. How do you spell P-R-E-P-O-S-T-E-R-O-U-S?

Marcus is an officer in the far-right Scholars for Peace in the Middle
East. One of the key campus professors who helped organize the Columbia
complain was Prof. Judith Jacobson who circulated a third hand version
of the complaint which led to Marcus’ action.

A similar federal lawsuit was also dismissed against UC Berkeley. The
judge said students and faculty may express views critical of Israel on
campus and this was protected speech. Not to mention the concept of
academic freedom, which not only allows but encourages a diversity of
views in the classroom.

Marcus has also been trolling at Evergreen College in Olympia seeking to
target Prof. Steve Niva, a popular Middle East studies faculty member
who is the target of attacks by StandWithUs and the Israeli Pacific NW
consul general. Marcus inspired complaints are still active against UC
Santa Cruz and ZOA has filed a similar action against Rutgers. The
pro-Israel advocate, who formerly was an official in the U.S. Office of
Civil Rights spuriously attempted to liken a professor steering a
student to or away from a course to a real estate agent steering a
minority couple to and from a real estate transaction with a racial motive.

It is simply preposterous to claim that sending a Jewish student toward
or away from a particular course can be anti-Semitic. I’ve never heard
of such academic-legal claptrap in my life. Marcus is simply making up
concepts, throwing them against the wall like spaghetti, and seeing
which ones stick. When he sees a strand on the wall he exclaims: "Aha,
you see, anti-Semitism. I told you so."

To be clear, I believe there is anti-Semitism in the world and that when
it is found it should be exposed and uprooted. I believe in protecting
Jews and anyone suffering from ethnic prejudice. But there is no such
thing as anti-Israelism and those who suggest there is are academic
charlatans. Kenneth Marcus is a fraud. StandWithUs is a fraud. Akiva Tor
is a fraud as far as charges like this are concerned. I’m glad that a
federal court and the U.S. Department of Education have confirmed this.
It doesn’t mean Marcus will stop trying. That’s what these pro-Israel
trolls do.

Electronic Intifada has a full account of these events along with
pertinent documents from the case.

(6) Israel's "Mosque Bill" prohibts loudspeakers; follows a string of
attacks on Mosques

Date: Mon, 19 Dec 2011 06:41:07 -0800 From: "Roy Tov" <roy@roytov.com>

http://www.roytov.com/articles/hasanbek.htm

Israel's War on Mosques

"Mosque Bill" Follows String of Attacks on Mosques

Just four days ago (December 15, 2011) I published Israelis say: "A Good
Arab is a Dead Arab", where I commented on yet another violent attack of
Jews against a mosque in Burqa, near Ramallah. It wasn't an isolated
event. On October 3, 2011, I analyzed in Jewish Terror Hits Tuba the
burning of the mosque in Tuba-Zangariyye, a Bedouin village near Safed.
Similar events happen almost regularly, probably because the Israeli
administration is not very clear on its condemnations of the ongoing
religious violence. After every attack, a very tired Shimon Peres can be
seen boring to death a journalist listening to a lengthy and systematic
condemnation. The same goes for Benjamin Netanyahu. We know these
condemnations are not sincere because the culprits are never caught and
mosques in Israel stay unprotected.

Invariably, the Israeli administration claims the violence is
perpetrated by hothead rednecks, and in no way supported by the Zionist
government. Yet, in Israelis say: "A Good Arab is a Dead Arab", I proved
anti-Arab racism in Israel goes up all the way to the most respectable
literary and journalistic circles. This is done in the open, over the
mainstream media, and even on the legislative level. Israel lacks a
constitution. A recent system of Basic Laws was legislated by the
Knesset to function as a quasi-constitution, but it doesn't assure the
respect of human rights by the Zionist state. Even worse, these laws can
be exchanged as per the coalition needs, since these laws do not need to
be approved by the people as constitutions should. Nevertheless,
Israel's sovereignty was conditioned by the UN on its being respectful
of human rights. Despite its basic laws, Israel doesn't respect them.
The ongoing attempt to legislate the Jewish Fatherland Law is a clear
reminder of that. Yet, countries that like to portray themselves as
democratic – like the USA and the UK – do not repudiate Israel's racist
policies.

Now, the Knesset is trying to further advance its discriminatory
legislation. Massive protests of Palestinians holding Israeli
citizenship are taking place in Umm al-Fahm, Shfaram, Baka al-Garbiyeh,
Tira, Taiba, Sakhnin, Tarshiha, Nazareth, Rahat, Jaffa, Jisr az-Zarqa
and other towns, in a desperate attempt to stop the legislation of what
is known as the Mosque Bill.

Some protesters have been reported referring to the new bill as the
"Second Naqba." Naqba means "disaster" and "catastrophe" in Arabic. The
Naqba Day falls on the same date as Yom Haatzmaut, Israel's Independence
Day. This is not coincidence. During the 1948 Arab-Israeli War, well
over three quarter of a million Palestinians were expelled from their
homes and created the Palestinian Diaspora. It became their Naqba. Why
should the new law awake such a harsh reaction?

More often than not, evil hides behind banal actions. In the case of
state-driven evil, that means trite acts of legislation. The Mosque Bill
has been initiated by Knesset Member Anastassia Michaeli. She is a
member of Yisrael Beiteinu, the extremist party of Avigdor Lieberman,
Israel's Minister of Foreign Affairs. The new law prohibits mosques from
sounding the nighttime and early morning Muezzin calls, which use a
system of loudspeakers to beckon worshipers to pray. This is proposed in
order to avoid disrupting nearby Jewish residents. Anastassia can't sleep.

One of the clearest voices against this outrageous law came from
Palestinian Knesset Member Jamal Zahalka, from the Balad party. "The
torching of the mosques and the 'Mosque Bill' are part of a war declared
against the Arab and Muslim population by the racists and settlers. The
sound of the Muezzin, the church bells, and the blowing of the shofar,
have always existed," he said.

Let's be clear. Jews are also noisy, even when they don't blow the
shofar. They are so in a very racist way. Every morning at dawn, still
half asleep, they recite the Birkat Hashachar (Dawn Blessing). They say:
"Baruch ata adonai shelo asani goy" – "Blessed are you God, for not
having made me a non-Jew"
"Baruch ata adonai shelo asani isha" - "Blessed are you God, for not
having made me a woman"

These texts are not Biblical, but evil machinations of the sick minds
that created the Talmud, a text which sanctifies many crimes, turning
over God's teachings. If Israeli Muslim citizens are not allowed to call
for prayers, then Israeli Jews should not be allowed to utter these
clearly offensive texts publicly or blow the shofar. Please shut up
Anastassia; I don't like your noisy, satanic prayers. Jesus said
(Matthew 6:5) And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites
are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners
of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you,
They have their reward.

If Israel wants to be defined as a democracy, it must behave like one.
Laws must be public, equal for all, all equal for them, and most
importantly, respect all human rights as one. If not, then Israel
doesn't have the right to exist. The UN said so before it allowed Israel
to declare its independence.

(7) Lawsuit fights hotel's decision to bar Muslim employee from serving
Israeli officials

From: Kristoffer Larsson <krislarsson@comhem.se> Date: 10 December 2011
02:08

http://mondoweiss.net/2011/12/lawsuit-fights-hotels-decision-to-bar-muslim-employee-from-serving-israeli-officials.html

by Alex Kane on December 9, 2011 2

Mohamed Arafi is suing his employer for barring him from servicing an
Israeli delegation staying at a Washington, D.C. hotel

Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak was in town to address the Brookings
Institution's Saban Forum, and Mohamed Arafi, a Moroccan-born U.S.
citizen, was ready to work. An entire Israeli delegation, including
Barak, was staying at Washington, D.C.'s high-end Mandarin Oriental
Hotel, where Arafi has been a valet dry cleaner since late 2009. But
when he showed up to work on December 10, 2010, he was told that he was
barred from working the two floors where the Israelis were staying. The
reason given, according to Arafi, was because he is Muslim, and the
Israeli delegation did not want to be served by Muslims.

Now, Arafi and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) are
fighting back in the form of legal action alleging employment
discrimination by the hotel against Arafi. The recently filed case is
currently in district court in Washington, D.C, and comes on the heels
of an inconclusive Equal Employment Opportunity Commission ruling on the
case.

The hotel is not backing down, and responded in a Nov. 28 filing (pdf)
that they were following a national security directive from the State
Department that barred Arafi and 11 other employees from serving the
Israeli delegation.

Arafi says that the hotel has also punished him for speaking out by
cutting his workweek from five days to two days, and that his work
colleagues said demeaning things about Muslims to him after the incident
became known to them.

"What they want me to do is just quit," Arafi said in a phone interview.
"I don't want to run away…I want to stay there until I have my rights."
The company has denied Arafi's charges.

The case could also be seen a stark illustration of the consequences of
Israeli-style "war on terror" attitudes towards Muslims.

The lawsuit describes what happened (pdf), according to Arafi, when the
Israeli delegation came to the hotel:

Ms. Escander, [Arafi's supervisor], stated to Boris [another employee],
"Boris, Israel is here. You go up and get the dry cleaning for Mohamed."
Mr. Arafi was confused and asked for an explanation. Ms. Escander stated
to Plaintiff, "You know the Israeli delegation is here. You cannot go on
the 8th and 9th floor (to pick up or deliver laundry)." Plaintiff asked
for further explanation. Ms. Escander stated, "You know how the Israelis
are with Arabs and Muslims. It's better if you just let Boris go."

The lawsuit alleges that the hotel first claimed to be complying with an
Israeli government request not to have Muslims serve them. Arafi said
that after he wentto the Washington Post with his story, the hotel's
reasoning changed to saying they had no choice in the matter because of
the State Department directive. The hotel says the directive came as a
result of the department finding "irregularities" in Arafi's and the
other employees' background checks.

A Mandarin Hotel spokesman repeated that reasoning in a phone interview,
and said the lawsuit was "all sizzle and no steak." The State Department
press office did not respond to two phone calls requesting comment.

But Nadhira Al-Khalili, the CAIR attorney working on Arafi's case, says
that neither of the reasons the hotel has given excuse their actions.

"Even if [the State Department] did [issue a national security
directive], we say that it was unlawful and the hotel cannot use this
national security exemption to discriminate against Mr. Arafi," said
Al-Khalili. She noted that "this is an untested area of the law" and
that a ruling could set a precedent.

The specific law the Mandarin Oriental Hotel says the State Department
used is a provision in Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The law
prohibits employment discrimination but also states that a national
security interest provides an exemption to the law's requirements. But
Arafi and Al-Khalili say that it makes little sense that Arafi would
have "irregularities" in his background check or be considered a
security threat. Arafi has routine access to government officials and he
says that he personally serviced former President George W. Bush just
days before the Israeli delegation came through.

The case "really does have the appearance of racial discrimination of
the rawest kind," Jonathan Turley, a law professor at George Washington
University and a national security expert, told CNN. "But the hotel is
able to use the State Department to say, any complaint you have, you
should take up with the State Department."

Regardless of whether it was a State Department directive or an Israeli
request that the hotel complied with, important questions need to be
asked about the case. Is the State Department ordering private
businesses to discriminate because of Israeli attitudes? Or is a private
employer cowing in the face of an Israeli government demand?

If nothing else, the case illustrates how pervasive anti-Muslim
sentiment is in some workplaces in the U.S.

"Since I've worked at CAIR, employment discrimination has been the
number 2, and sometimes number 1, complaint," said Al-Khalili. "It's
disturbing that one additional aspect of the law is being used to
discriminate against Muslims. We're going to try and challenge it and
try to say it does not apply in this particular case."

Al-Khalili has a lawsuit filing due in the coming weeks, and vowed to
appeal even if Arafi's case is ruled against. The entire process, she
acknowledged, could take years.

(8) Report: ultra-Orthodox spitting at Christian clergy in Jerusalem

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/deaconsbench/2011/11/report-ultra-orthodox-spitting-at-christian-clergy-in-jerusalem/

Nov 4th, 2011 by Deacon Greg Kandra

Ultra-Orthodox young men curse and spit at Christian clergymen in the
streets of Jerusalem's Old City as a matter of routine. In most cases
the clergymen ignore the attacks, but sometimes they strike back. Last
week the Jerusalem Magistrate's Court quashed the indictment against an
Armenian priesthood student who had punched the man who spat at him.

Johannes Martarsian was walking in the Old City in May 2008 when an
young ultra-Orthodox Jew spat at him. Maratersian punched the spitter in
the face, making him bleed, and was charged for assault. But Judge Dov
Pollock, who unexpectedly annulled the indictment, wrote in his verdict
that "putting the defendant on trial for a single blow at a man who spat
at his face, after suffering the degradation of being spat on for years
while walking around in his church robes is a fundamental contravention
of the principles of justice and decency."

"Needless to say, spitting toward the defendant when he was wearing the
robe is a criminal offense," the judge said.

When Narek Garabedian came to Israel to study in the Armenian Seminary
in Jerusalem half a year ago, he did not expect the insults, curses and
spitting he would be subjected to daily by ultra-Orthodox Jews in the
streets of the Old City.

"When I see an ultra-Orthodox man coming toward me in the street, I
always ask myself if he will spit at me," says Narek, a Canadian
Armenian, this week. About a month ago, on his way to buy groceries in
the Old City, two ultra-Orthodox men spat at him. The spittle did not
fall at his feet but on his person. Narek, a former football player,
decided this time not to turn the other cheek.

"I was very angry. I pushed them both to the wall and asked, 'why are
you doing this?' They were frightened and said 'we're sorry, we're
sorry,' so I let them go. But it isn't always like that. Sometimes the
spitter attacks you back," he says.

Other clergymen in the Armenian Church in Jerusalem say they are all
victims of harassment, from the senior cardinals to the priesthood
students. Mostly they ignore these incidents. When they do complain, the
police don't usually find the perpetrators.

Martarsian left Israel about a year ago. He was sent back home by the
church, as were two other Armenian priesthood students who were charged
after attacking an ultra-Orthodox man who spat at them.

The Greek Patriarchy's clergymen have been cursed and spat on by
ultra-Orthodox men in the street for many years. "They walk past me and
spit," says Father Gabriel Bador, 78, a senior priest in the Greek
Orthodox Patriarchate. "Mostly I ignore it, but it's difficult.

Sometimes I stop and ask the spitter 'why are you doing this? What have
I done to you?' Once I even shouted at a few of them who spat at my feet
together. They ran away," he says.

"It happens a lot," says Archbishop Aristarchos, the chief secretary of
the patriarchate. "You walk down the street and suddenly they spit at
you for no reason. I admit sometimes it makes me furious, but we have
been taught to restrain ourselves, so I do so."

Father Goosan Aljanian, Chief Dragoman of the Armenian Patriarchate in
Jerusalem, says it is often difficult for temperamental young priesthood
students to swallow the offense.

About a month ago two students marching to the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre beat up an ultra-Orthodox man who spat at them. They were sent
away from the Old City for two weeks.

"I tell my students that if they are spat at, to go to the police rather
than strike back" says Goosan. "But these are young kids who sometimes
lose their cool."

A few weeks ago four ultra-Orthodox men spat at clergymen in the funeral
procession of Father Alberto of the Armenian Church. "They came in a
pack, out of nowhere," said Father Goosan. "I know there are fanatical
Haredi groups that don't represent the general public but it's still
enraging. It all begins with education. It's the responsibility of these
men's yeshiva heads to teach them not to behave this way," he says.

Father Goosan and other Patriarchy members are trying to walk as little
as possible in the Old City streets. "Once we walked from the [Armenian]
church to the Jaffa Gate and on that short section four different people
spat at us," he says.

(9) Widow claims Chabad Rabbis duped her

http://www.courthousenews.com/2011/10/28/41012.htm

By KEVIN KOENINGER

Courthouse News Service

Friday, October 28, 2011 Last Update: 10:33 AM PT

LOS ANGELES (CN) - An elderly widow claims father-and-son rabbis swooped
down on her the day after her husband died and coerced her into signing
over to Chabad of California her multimillion-dollar Malibu home, and
buying a $100,000 Torah, while deceptively promising "to support her
financially for the rest of her life."

Maxine Coe sued Chabad of California, Levi Pitzchak Cunin and Boruch
Shlomo Cunin, alleging financial abuse of an elder, fraud and negligent
misrepresentation, in Superior Court.

Boruch Cunin is the president of California Chabad and his son is its
assistant secretary, according to the complaint.

Coe, who was 82 when it all happened, says: "In December of 2008, while
her husband was gravely ill and in the hospital, plaintiff had been in
contact with defendants regarding having a rabbi visit her and her
husband for comfort and support, and for securing a final resting place
for her husband upon his death. In late December 2008, Rabbi Levi
Pitzchak Cunin and his father, Rabbi Boruch Shlomo Cunin, went to visit
plaintiff."

Her husband died on Jan. 13, 2009. "Within one day after the death of
plaintiff's husband, while plaintiff was grieving, defendants Levi and
Boruch Cunin offered to bury her husband at the Chabad burial plot in
Running Springs, California, and to support plaintiff financially for
the rest of her life. In doing so, the individual defendants coerced
plaintiff into signing documents by misrepresenting to plaintiff the
nature of the documents, which included the total transfer of ownership
of plaintiff's multimillion dollar family home in Malibu to defendant
Chabad, the initial appointment of Rabbi Mordechai Zev Nemtzov and the
subsequent replacement appointment of Rabbi Yakov Baitelman
('Baitelman') as plaintiff's attorneys-in-fact, and failure to carry out
their promise to plaintiff that she would stay in the house and they
would take care of all her needs and expenses. Defendants had not
disclosed to plaintiff that she would no longer own the house, that she
would still be responsible for taxes and upkeep for the house and
utilities, and that they would use plaintiff's bank account to pay for
all of her expenses without depositing any funds into the account or
using their own funds to support plaintiff.

"In 2011, plaintiff discovered the misrepresentations defendants had
made to her when she began to receive notices from her bank that her own
checks had been returned for insufficient funds on deposit."

Coe says the father-and-son rabbis "made various representations to
plaintiff because of her age and bereavement ... that it was necessary
for her to execute various documents so that her husband could be buried
at Chabad's burial site in Running Springs, California, and that
defendants would take care of her for the rest of her life."

These representations included that "a. Plaintiff would continue to live
at the property in the same manner as always; b. Defendants would take
care of all plaintiff's financial needs; and c. It was necessary for
plaintiff to execute various documents so that she could have continued
support," according to the complaint.

Coe says she "relied on such false and fraudulent misrepresentations,
and without consideration transferred title to defendants of her
multimillion-dollar beachfront Malibu home, and executed a power of
attorney in favor of defendants, among other things."

She says the rabbis also "coerced plaintiff into purchasing a Torah -
which she did not need - from defendants for $100,000 and into giving
substantial sums of money to Chabad and the other defendants ...

"In return, defendants provided nothing of value to plaintiff except a
burial place for her recently deceased husband.

"In addition, defendants moved individuals into and from the property
without paying rent to plaintiff, all in a value unknown at present, but
is subject to proof at time of trial. This violated plaintiff's
expectation of quiet enjoyment of the property and her privacy."

Coe seeks punitive damages and quiet title to her home.

She is represented by Sheldon Lodmer.

(10) Sheldon Adelson invests in Macao

From: Archer Frey <archerfrey@gmail.com> Date: Sat, 28 Jan 2012 21:56:18
-0800

Macao is also interesting. Mary Kienholz states:

"The island of Macao is located not far from Hong Kong in the South
China Sea. It has long had a reputation for all sorts of vice
concomitant with drug activity, including prostitution provided by girls
purchased from parents at a young age, gambling, and trafficking in
coolie labor.

"The island of Macao is in a strategic location for its notorious
smuggling and is still a "gambling mecca." In June 2007, a wire report
stated, "Hugh Hefner is planning to open a Playboy Mansion in the
burgeoning gambling mecca of Macau, complete with female "bunny"
dealers, a villa-style hotel and several dozen gaming tables...." In
August 2007, Sylvia Hui, in an Associated Press column, described a new
Venetian Macao Resort Hotel on the Cotai Strip connecting Macao to
mainland China. The hotel has 3,400 slot machines and 800 gambling
tables and was a dream of billionaire Sheldon Adelson, chairman of Las
Vegas Sands Corporation."

- Opium Traders and Their Worlds: A Revisionist Expose of the World's
Greatest Opium Traders, iUniverse, 2008, p12.

So Hong Kong and Macao both involved in the opium trade and both
involved in international money lending.

Nothing changes so much as it remains the same.

(11) Parents demand "Purification Ritual" after Orthodox school was used
for a Muslim wedding

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/12/parents-demand-purification-ritual-after-orthodox-school-was-used-for-a-muslim-wedding-234.html

December 12, 2011

Parents of the students of the Ohel Meir state-funded Orthodox school in
Afula were horrified when they discovered a Muslim wedding in progress
at the school. The school, which includes a synagogue, had been rented
out to local Israeli Arabs. The angry Orthodox Jewish parents demanded
that a religious "purification ceremony" be held to cleanse the school
building from the "defilement" "caused" by the Arabs – and some Rabbis
are eager to oblige.

The Orthodox Jewish parents are outraged and won't allow their children
to return to school until the school building is "spiritually purified"
from the "defilement" caused by the Arab wedding.

The City of Afula blames the school's principal, others blame the
Education Ministry.

The right wing Zionist Orthodox anti-Arab Lehava organization has
stepped in and agreed to hold the religious "purification ceremony" the
Orthodox Jewish parents are demanding, and says it will do so at another
location in Afula if it is not allowed to use the school. (Apparently,
the entire city needs to "purified" because it was "defiled" by the
wedding.)

And in all this racism, bigotry and insanity, no one seems overly
concerned about the hurt they're causing to the Arab families and their
guests.

Details in Hebrew on Walla.

(12) Haredim overturn a baby carriage - with baby in it -  to uphold the
separation of women

http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=249271

Haredim block Egged bus from passing through Mea Shearim

By Melanie Lidman

December 13, 2011

Some 100 haredim in Jerusalem's ultra-orthodox Mea Shearim neighborhood
blocked a road in order to stop Egged bus line number 1 from passing
through the neighborhood Tuesday afternoon.

In addition to standing in the road, the protesters overturned a baby
carriage - with a baby in it - in front of the bus.

In a press conference in Mea Shearim, Jerusalem Police Chief Nisso
Shaham insisted that police would not stop their activities in the
neighborhood, working to stop the separation of women.

(13) Haredim chanted slogans outside Modern Orthodox girls school,
allegedly attack modern Orthodox man

Haredim allegedly attack modern Orthodox man in Beit Shemesh

http://failedmessiah.typepad.com/failed_messiahcom/2011/12/haredim-allegedly-attack-modern-orthodox-man-in-beit-shemesh-234.html

December 12, 2011

A group of 15 haredi extremists, most likely linked to the Mea
Shearim-based Sicarii gang, massed outside a Modern Orthodox girls
school in Beit Shemesh and chanted slogans against the girls. A Modern
Orthodox resident took pictures of the haredim but was attacked by two
of them who allegedly threw him to the ground when they saw his camera.

Haredim Resume Protests At Modern Orthodox School, Allegedly Attack
Local Activist

Shmarya Rosenberg • FailedMessiah.com

A group of 15 haredi extremists, most likely linked to the Mea
Shearim-based Sicarii gang, massed outside a Modern Orthodox girls
school in Beit Shemesh today and chanted slogans against the girls and
their parents, including "Zionists are defiling our neighborhood," "get
out of our neighborhood," and "woe to immorality," the Jerusalem Post
reported.

A Modern Orthodox activist took pictures of the haredim but was attacked
by two of them who allegedly threw him to the ground when they saw his
camera. A third haredi man jumped in and stopped the first two from
doing further harm, and then the three haredim fled to the haredi
neighborhood that abuts the school.

Police arrived seconds after the haredim fled, but no arrests have yet
been made.

The haredim have been trying for months to force the Modern Orthodox
girls grammar school to vacate the school building, which abuts a haredi
neighborhood.

Even though the girls dress modestly, they do not dress in the extreme
haredi fashion. Haredim claim the girls are therefore immodestly
dressed, and demand that the students vacate the school building and
move away from where haredim can see them.

These haredi extremists have previously assaulted students, hurled rocks
at the building and at Modern Orthodox children, and called the girls
whores. They also stormed the school building, took over some of the
classrooms, and tried to vandalize them, but Modern Orthodox parents
fought back and drove the haredim out of the building.

For a time, police were stationed at the school to safely escort
students out of the building and through the screaming mob of haredi men
who called the girls whores. Before police were stationed at the school,
the haredim chased as they fled, screaming and cursing as the girls
cried and shrieked in fright.

The 15 haredim at today's protest did not appear to be the same haredim
who had previously attacked the school and its students, which may mean
that more haredi extremists have been brought in from Mea Shearim.

Rabbi Dov Lippman, a leader of the Anglo Modern Orthodox community in
Beit Shemesh who has been active in fighting the haredi attacks on the
school, said that Beit Shemesh Mayor Moshe Abutbul's continued
appeasement of the extremists was not working:

"His 'darkei shalom' [ways of peace] have merely brought more violence.
There is one clear conclusion here: If the mayor will continue to bring
more and more extremist haredim to the town, we will see more violence
from these thugs and law breakers in the name of religion, and we will
also see more religious coercion against the peaceable population – the
moderate haredi, religious-Zionist and secular communities."

(14) The Separation of Women: Secular Israelis resist Haredi
gender-segregation

Date: Wed, 7 Dec 2011 18:40:43 -0500 (EST) From: IHR News <news@ihr.org>

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/post-partisan/post/in-israel-womens-rights-come-under-siege/2011/12/01/gIQAdB16HO_blog.html

Posted at 06:26 PM ET, 12/01/2011

In Israel, women's rights come under siege

By Ruth Marcus

Women are forced to board public buses from the back and stay there.
Billboards with images of women are defaced. Public streets are cordoned
off during religious holidays so that women cannot enter.

Saudi Arabia in the misogynistic grip of sharia law? Sadly,
astonishingly, infuriatingly, it is Israel under the growing influence
and increasingly assertive demands of the ultra-Orthodox.

Of course, Jerusalem — where all these events took place — is not
Riyadh. Israeli women work, drive, vote, serve in the military — indeed,
in combat roles denied to women in the U.S. military. And, unlike the
situation in Saudi Arabia, these restrictions are not
government-sanctioned, let alone government-imposed.

But it is hardly comforting to be able to say that women remain better
off in Israel than in Saudi Arabia. In recent years, and particularly in
Jerusalem, an ultra-religious minority has sought to impose growing
constraints on the less observant majority.

As the numbers of these ultra-Orthodox, or Haredi, have multiplied, so
have their political influence — religious parties form a key part of
the governing coalition — and the scope of their demands.

"In the past two years or five years, it's just deteriorating," said
Shira Ben-Sasson Furstenberg of the liberal New Israel Fund, which has
launched a campaign to combat the "erasure" of women from public
advertising. "The Haredi are having more and more say about how our
lives are in Israel."

• During the dancing that marks the traditional end of the Simchat Torah
holiday this fall, female soldiers were asked to leave the main event.
Dancing on one side of the arena, separated from the men by a long
table, was deemed to not be separate enough.

• Ultra-Orthodox male cadets walked out of a separate ceremony that
featured singing by female soldiers because, the men claimed, hearing
women's voices would produce "impure" thoughts.

• Despite an Israeli Supreme Court ruling that banned enforcement of
separate seating, women on publicly funded bus lines that serve Haredi
neighborhoods sit in the back — and those who fail to comply have been
threatened.

• Some religious neighborhoods feature gender-segregated health clinics,
playground hours and grocery store checkout lines. An Orthodox radio
station banned female announcers, interviews with women and songs by
female vocalists.

But the restrictions are not confined to religious neighborhoods. An
annual parade to celebrate the 1967 reunification of Jerusalem has been
segregated, with separate marches by gender and separate sidewalks for
male and female onlookers.

A Jerusalem dance studio was told to lower the window blinds to obscure
the view of women rehearsing. In Ashdod, a mostly secular city, the
orchestra dropped a female singer from its lineup after complaints from
religious subscribers.

Israel is and should be a Jewish state. Religious entanglements that
would be unthinkable and unconstitutional in the United States —
establishing the Sabbath as an official day of rest, requiring that
kosher dietary laws be observed in state-owned establishments,
maintaining a separate system of state-funded religious schools — have
been in place since Israel's creation.

Likewise, it is reasonable for Israel to meet the needs of religious
Jews by exempting from compulsory military service religious men
studying in accredited institutions and religious women who pursue
national service. And clashes over rules governing religious places are
inevitable — most fraught of all, the Western Wall, or Kotel, the sacred
remains of the ancient temple.

But there is a point at which demands for accommodation go too far,
interfering with the rights of other citizens to pursue a different,
more secular course. Preventing women from praying on equal terms at the
Western Wall is bad enough. Even worse is when it's not just the Kotel
anymore.

The paradox of Israeli society is that women have long been in positions
of power. The heads of the two opposition parties are women, as is the
chief justice of the Israeli Supreme Court. Israel is the only country
to draft women into the military. And there has been some gratifying
pushback. After the military incidents, 19 reserve major-generals wrote
Defense Minister Ehud Barak a letter warning of "damage [to] the
fundamental values of Israeli society."

As Israeli officials well understand, the treatment of women in Israeli
society is not a matter of purely domestic concern — it is also a
national security issue. American taxpayers, and American Jews in
particular, will not tolerate Jerusalem as Riyadh-lite. A truly Jewish
state must accommodate the full rainbow of its citizens, not simply take
dictation from a black-hatted minority.