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	<title>FrontPage Magazine &#187; Edwin Black</title>
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		<title>It’s Not the Centrifuges &#8212;- It’s the Warhead</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/its-not-the-centrifuges-its-the-warhead/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=its-not-the-centrifuges-its-the-warhead</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 12 Nov 2014 05:40:09 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Iran]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[negotiations]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nuclear]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Obama]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[wrahead]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=245082</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The Mullahs' design is nearly perfected.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iran-nuclear.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-245086" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/11/iran-nuclear.jpg" alt="iran-nuclear" width="250" height="170" /></a>November 24, 2014 is a looming deadline for Iran, Israel, the United States and the world over its nuclear weapons program. Just days ago, the International Atomic Energy Agency [IAEA] released a report summarized by its conclusion:</p>
<blockquote><p>The Agency is not in a position to provide credible assurances about the absence of undeclared nuclear material and activities in Iran, and therefore to conclude that all nuclear material in Iran is in peaceful activities. Iran has not provided any explanations that enable the Agency to clarify the outstanding practical measures, nor has it proposed any new practical measures in the next step of the Framework for cooperation.</p></blockquote>
<p>Under Secretary of State Wendy Sherman, leading the international negotiations, has described the back and forth as “a forest of distrust.” At the same time, she declares, “Our bottom line is unambiguous … Iran will not, shall not obtain a nuclear weapon.”</p>
<p>In the background, media revelations recently disclosed secret correspondence between the Obama White House to Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei — kept even from congressional leaders and America’s closest allies, including Israel. Washington is struggling to enlist Tehran in the faltering campaign against the Islamic State. This process has juggled agreed numbers of centrifuges — a limit of 4,000 … or is it 10,000 … or is it something in between? Centrifuges are a critical component because each vertical cylinder slowly but steadily distills uranium into a highly enriched weapon-ready state.</p>
<p>However, as the world ponders Iran’s dash to enrich more kilograms of uranium, the underlying concern is not so much about the enrichment process itself, but the end product: a nuclear warhead. Iran has been developing its warhead for some sixteen years. That design is nearly perfected.</p>
<p>Compare the process to gunpowder. To use gunpowder, you need load it into a cartridge, load the cartridge and a bullet into a rifle, and then find a marksman. Iran has nearly mastered all those steps — but in nuclear terms.</p>
<p>Four technological achievements are key to completing Tehran’s nuclear weapon:</p>
<p>1) accretion of enough nuclear materials, highly enriched to weapons-grade or 90 percent; 2) machining that material into metal for a spheroid warhead so it can fit into a missile nosecone; 3) developing a trigger mechanism to initiate the atomic explosion at a precise moment during missile reentry; and, of course, 4) a reliable delivery system.</p>
<p>Start with the nuclear material. Experts estimate that a single bomb would require approximately 25 kilograms of Highly Enriched Uranium, or HEU, with a U-235 concentration of at least 90 percent. Much of Iran’s nuclear enrichment remains at 3.5 and 20 percent levels. But the numbers are deceiving. Enriching to 3.5 percent is 75 percent of the task of reaching weapons-grade. Once Iran has reached 20 percent, it has gone 90 percent of the distance. Indeed, Iran’s President Hassan Rouhani delivered a 2005 speech in his capacity as National Security Advisor in which he declared, “a country that possesses fuel cycle technology can enrich uranium —and the country that can enrich uranium to about 3.5 percent will also have the capability to enrich it to about 90 percent.” Today, Iran possesses enough nuclear material for a fast “break-out” that would finish the job, creating enough for five or ten bombs, in about six weeks.</p>
<p>Second, that HEU must be metalized and shaped into a dense spheroid compact enough to fit into a missile nosecone. Iran has mastered the metallurgical techniques using other high-density metals such as tungsten, which have been test-detonated in a special chamber to measure their explosive character.</p>
<p>Third, the spheroid must be detonated. Iran’s warhead design employs a R265 shock generator hemisphere drilled with 5mm boreholes that are filled with PETN—pentaerythritol tetranitrate, an organic high explosive favored by terrorists. When triggered with precision, the PETN array can cause a massive synchronized implosion. That will fire an internal exploding bridgewire which will in turn actuate an embedded neutron initiator to detonate the atomic reaction—and the mushroom cloud. This sequence of devices has been assembled and tested. Iran has some 500 exploding bridgewires.</p>
<p>Fourth, the warhead must be delivered. The Shabab-3 missile nosecone is large enough to accommodate the warhead. The outer radius of the R265 shock generator-encased warhead is 550 millimeters, less than the estimated payload chamber diameter of about 600 millimeters. Most of all, the Iranian military has selected the Shabab-3 not only because it possesses a range of 1200 kilometers, but because it can be detonated in an airburst some 600 meters off the ground on re-entry. The height of 600 meters was used in the Nagasaki explosion. Such a weapon cannot be crashed into the ground. It must be detonated while still airborne. Iran has a small fleet of Shahab-3 missiles.</p>
<p>Hence, Iran’s metronomic accretion of nuclear material is not just an ambiguous physics undertaking that should worry the West. It is part and parcel of a nuclear attack plan that the international community is determined to address.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>PUMP to Kick Oil Addiction</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/pump-to-kick-oil-addiction/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=pump-to-kick-oil-addiction</link>
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		<pubDate>Tue, 16 Sep 2014 04:00:57 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[addiction]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[fuel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hollywood]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[movie]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[OIL]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pump]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=240960</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[A new Hollywood movie empowers the quest to get us off oil. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/vz.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-240964" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/vz-328x350.jpg" alt="vz" width="246" height="263" /></a>ISIS has trebled its forces within recent months and in large measure finances its expansion with $10 million to $20 million per week in illicit oil sales from as many as 70 captured oil wells.</p>
<p>Iran now has multiplied its centrifuges to almost 20,000, enabling it to convert its 5 percent and 20 percent enriched uranium to 90 percent weapons-grade HEU within a 7-week breakout period. With sanctions lifted, Tehran’s monthly oil revenues have soared to almost 3 million barrels per day, generating billions of dollars per month.</p>
<p>Tiny Qatar, with only about 280,000 citizens, provides Hamas with some $400 million annually. Qatar exports more than 600,000 barrels of oil per day helping to establish an estimated $200 billion petrodollar reserve.</p>
<p>Oil is driving it all —and more.</p>
<p>American petroleum use accounts for about one-quarter of global consumption, depending upon whose numbers you’re refining. Kicking our oil addiction is an old mantra that is preached daily from the sidelines by an army of expert energy analysts and security insiders. A slick, kinetic new Hollywood movie, <a href="http://www.pumpthemovie.com/">PUMP</a>, is breaking out of the wooden oil documentary mold to help power a concerted national effort to get off of oil.</p>
<p>PUMP’s point is easily distilled: if simple fuel choice were implemented, it would quickly dilute the power of petroleum and those who sell it. PUMP combines flashy cinematography and rock music with irrefutable testimony by the likes of former Shell president John Hofmeister, Tesla founder Elon Musk, analyst Annie Korin, and Auto Channel editor Marc Rauch. I also appear in the film with the inside historical story of corporate crimes committed by General Motors and Standard Oil to cripple the electric mass transit system, which proliferated in the first years of the twentieth century, and replace it with oil consuming buses — in other words, how we got here.</p>
<p>As I wrote in my book <em>Internal Combustion </em>and subsequent works, we never needed to be addicted to oil. Never. The electric car was invented in about 1835. Until the run-up to WW I, most of the motor vehicles in America were electric-powered, until Edison’s plans were subverted by the car industry and the manufacturers switched to gas-burning internal combustion vehicles.</p>
<p>The much-vaunted hydrogen fuel cell that uses water as a feedstock is based on technology developed back in 1835. Some years ago, I drove an ordinary showroom Hydrogen-powered Chevrolet Equinox all over Southern California on a single tank of hydrogen. That hydrogen fuel was zapped from simple water, filled at a public Shell station on Santa Monica Boulevard that maintained a hydrogen pump on the side. Hydrogen supplies are abundant in the US — it’s the ingredient needed for unleaded gas.</p>
<p>More than 17 million compressed natural gas (CNG) vehicles operate worldwide. A petroleum car can be converted to natural gas in a day. But in America, less than 120,000 operate —in large measure because Honda, America’s major NGV car manufacturer, stubbornly refuses to mass market its own vehicle beyond a few thousand per year.</p>
<p>Methanol, ethanol, a basket of other alcohol and alternative fuels — all can power an automobile with virtually equal ability. This is the so-called “Open Fuel Standard” that goes hand-in-hand with the flex-fuel-designed vehicles that more than 17 million Americans drive – yet many don’t know it. A minor adjustment in the software and the fuel system would allow fuel democracy — any alt fuel from anyone willing to provide it.</p>
<p>That is the message in PUMP:  Fuel democracy to protect American democracy. Unlock the car engines the way we want to unlock our cell phones.</p>
<p>Until we have a moment of truth with ourselves, America is destined to not only be addicted to oil, but addicted to all the terrible trappings that come with oil.</p>
<p>PUMP opens September 19 at many theater screens across America, including the AMC 25 in Times Square. You can <a href="http://www.pumpthemovie.com/">locate a PUMP</a> screening anywhere in America. Prepare to get angry. Getting off of oil is easier than we think — if we mobilize national will. There has never been a better or more critical time to energize this than now.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>Temple University &#8212;- Anti-Semitism Battleground</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/temple-university-anti-semitism-battleground/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=temple-university-anti-semitism-battleground</link>
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		<pubDate>Thu, 28 Aug 2014 04:25:33 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jew-Hate]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protestors]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[temple]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Protestors stand up to Jew-Hate on an American campus.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SJP.jpg.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-239547" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/SJP.jpg-450x301.jpg" alt="SJP.jpg" width="326" height="218" /></a>Temple University has become the latest focal point for groups concerned about the spreading wave of campus anti-Semitism and academic-based Holocaust minimizing.</p>
<p>Temple student Daniel Vessal, a fellow with CAMERA (Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America), was drawn into a verbal exchange with anti-Israel activists at the Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) table during an official college event on August 20, 2014. Vessal, in his junior year at the Temple University Fox School of Business, studying Management Information Systems and Entrepreneurship, was allegedly called a “kike,” “Zionist pig,” and “baby killer.” He was slapped so hard at the SJP table that he was sent to the hospital.</p>
<p>A police investigation and legal action are underway. The assaultive SJP supporter has purportedly apologized, according to a published SJP statement, which states: “I’m sorry for what I did. I admit I lost my temper.”</p>
<p>With lightning speed, fourteen Jewish organizations reacted to the assault, releasing a joint public letter of protest to Temple University. The letter complained:</p>
<blockquote><p> “A university campus should be the setting for thoughtful discussion and intellectual debate. Such an atmosphere should be encouraged by all responsible student groups. Unfortunately, Students for Justice in Palestine is not such a group. It has a proven track record of intimidation, harassment, and incitement merging into anti-Semitism against Israel and its supporters on campus.”</p></blockquote>
<p>The swift-response joint letter was a collective effort spearheaded by the Coalition for Campus Tolerance composed of 5 organizations &#8211; Americans for Peace and Tolerance, CAMERA, the David Horowitz Freedom Center, Stand with Us and the Zionist Organization of America. Other groups that joined in included Hasbara Fellowships, Proclaiming Justice to The Nations, Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, Simon Wiesenthal Center Campus Outreach, The Lawfare Project and The Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law.</p>
<p>Students for Justice in Palestine has been accused of fomenting violence and hate at campuses elsewhere. In March of this year, the Northeastern University chapter in Boston was suspended for a year after distributing “mock eviction notices” throughout the dorms. After the mock evictions, every Northeastern student was sent an email from Robert Jose, Northeastern’s Associate Dean for Cultural and Residential Life, who asserted, “We do not condone any behavior that causes members of our community to feel targeted and/or intimidated.” After a tumult of police interrogations, online petitions, and organizational appeals by SJP, Northeastern reinstated the controversial group beginning this fall pursuant to strict oversight guidelines.</p>
<p>StandWithUs CEO Roz Rothstein noted:</p>
<blockquote><p>“All those who care about promoting a safe and peaceful environment on college campuses that encourages civilized debate should be concerned about Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) and their track record of promoting hateful campaigns across the country that can lead to violence like this.<strong>” </strong></p></blockquote>
<p>Scholars for Peace in the Middle East executive director Asaf Romirowsky added,</p>
<blockquote><p>“The latest at Temple is indicative of a larger trend growing on campuses — something we are seeing at both the faculty and student levels … giving rise to the BDS movement and to those seeking Israel&#8217;s destruction.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Romirowsky referred to “the latest at Temple.” Indeed, the university has recently been in the spotlight for minimizing the Holocaust. On <span data-term="goog_1225327687">June 9</span> of this year, Temple University president Neil D. Theobald received a formal complaint from the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law about Holocaust minimizing. Brandeis protested that Temple University Adjunct Professor Alessio Lerro had argued that “Jews are exaggerating the extent of the Holocaust to obtain political advantages.” Lerro’s remarks were made during the fractious debate over a proposed Modern Language Association boycott of Israel. In an online post, Lerro reportedly quipped, “Six million? mh…. we all know (or should know) that the counting of Jews is a bit controversial.” After a furor, a university spokesman caused further angst when he explained, “the exercise of academic freedom necessarily results in a vigorous exchange of ideas.” After that rankling apologia, Brandeis issued its stern letter of rebuke.</p>
<p>Ironically, the day after the assault against Vessal, Temple announced a record $69.7 million in charitable donations for the fiscal year. This figure topped the previous year’s take, which was $65.8 million. As a 501(c)(3), every million dollars in tax-deductible donations raised by Temple is subsidized by general taxpayers in the amount of $400,000. Temple’s fundraising brochures declare, “Our students embody what it means to be Temple Made. But they couldn’t be who they are if you didn’t do what you do.” University President Theobald has stated, “We deeply appreciate the donors who recognize the power of Temple to contribute to the well-being of our city, state and nation.” More than 137,000 individual donations were made to Temple between 2010 and 2012 alone, according to university records examined. The university’s benefactors include many major gifts from Jewish donors and foundations arising from or controlled by Jewish individuals.</p>
<p>In addition, millions of dollars have been contributed by ordinary corporations and foundations. These include UnitedHealthcare and a division of Staples, both of which have robustly funded the university. The Fox School of Business, where Vessal is a student, maintains an entire web presence for corporate partners. At press time, the Business School’s Corporate section displayed a slideshow honoring senior executives from the ranks of HSBC Bank, Marriott, American Express, Blackstone Private Equity, Korman Communities, and Hershey’s.</p>
<p>If those protesting anti-Semitic agitation and Holocaust minimizing at Temple are serious about effecting a change, they might be sending their complaints to the wrong address.</p>
<p><strong>Freedom Center pamphlets now available on Kindle: </strong><a href="http://www.amazon.com/s/ref%3dnb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Ddigital-text&amp;field-keywords=david+horowitz&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;ajr=0#/ref=sr_st?keywords=david+horowitz&amp;qid=1316459840&amp;rh=n:133140011%2ck:david+horowitz&amp;sort=daterank"><strong>Click here</strong></a><strong>.   </strong></p>
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		<title>Christians United For Israel Rocks Washington D.C.</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/christians-united-for-israel-rocks-washington-d-c/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=christians-united-for-israel-rocks-washington-d-c</link>
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		<pubDate>Wed, 30 Jul 2014 04:11:12 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[CUFI]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Hagee]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[support]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Washington]]></category>

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		<description><![CDATA[Loud and passionate support for the Jewish State at a critical moment.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bh.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-237308" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/07/bh.jpg" alt="bh" width="302" height="201" /></a>Recent events have propelled <a href="http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer">Christians United for Israel</a> (CUFI) to the front row of pro-Israel organizations.</p>
<p>The group advertised last week’s <a href="http://www.cufi.org/site/PageServer?pagename=2014Summit_Speakers">Washington D.C. Summit</a>, held July 21, as a more compact two-day program. Last year’s conclave offered a three-day affair. But if anyone thought the faith-based pro-Israel organization was becoming less relevant, they would think otherwise after attending the latest confab.</p>
<p>At the very moment when the Jewish State was under a crushing vise of global criticism for its involvement in Operation Protective Edge, CUFI (pronounced koo-PHI and not koo-FEE) roused its American heartland membership in loud, rollicking support of Israel. It did so in the pivotal capitol of Washington D.C. at a pivotal time.</p>
<p>Led by firebrand evangelist <a href="http://www.jhm.org/">Pastor John Hagee</a>, some 4,800 foot stomping, shofar-blowing Christian delegates traveled from across the nation and some from overseas to attend the non-stop cavalcade of podium grandiloquence, towering video effects, mesmerizing Israeli music, and special informational sessions. Part tent revival and part political salvo, CUFI’s Washington Summit is patterned after <a href="http://www.aipac.org/pc">the mega-gatherings staged by the American Israel Public Affairs Committee</a> in the same hall. CUFI speakers brought clarity and context to its attendees in the midst of the latest fog of the latest Arab-Israeli war.</p>
<p>Indeed, at the very hour CUFI’s convention gaveled open, the Jewish State was fiercely fighting moment-to-moment terrorist threats scampering over the Gaza border fence, paddling in from the sea, streaking in from the sky, and tunneling beneath the ground. Moreover, Jerusalem was contending with a <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/financing-mideast-flamesc_b_4874795.html">well-financed highly-politicized adverse humanitarian political machine</a> supported by American tax-deductible 501(c)(3) donations. So every round of CUFI applause and utterance of support was considered a precious gesture to beleaguered Israelis who right now need a friend.</p>
<p>CUFI’s long A-List roster of speakers included media personalities deputy editorial page editor Bret Stephens from <em>The Wall Street Journal</em>, Bill Kristol from <em>The Weekly Standard</em>, and Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist Charles Krauthammer from PBS. No fewer than five members of Congress attended.</p>
<p>Particularly on fire were two speakers: Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Conference of President of Major Jewish Organizations and investigative reporter Erick Stakelbeck from Christian Broadcast Network. Both wowed the crowd with history, insight, and reason as Israel tried to justify its right to exist&#8211;<a href="http://www.al-monitor.com/pulse/originals/2013/04/hamas-qatar-relationship-independence.html">free from terrorism robustly financed by Qatari money</a> and others.</p>
<p>Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu took time, via taped message, to thank the evangelical crowd for standing by Israel during its hourglass of need. He spoke from Israel, bunkered in a secure room at the height of the conflict that day. To thunderous applause, Senator Lindsay Graham exhorted the Israelis in their Gaza strategy to “go as far as you need to go, and do what you’ve got to do.”</p>
<p>Ambassador Ron Dermer not only exhilarated the crowd, but felt so comfortable with the audience that when he was heckled on three separate occasions by pro-Hamas Palestinian protestors, he defiantly talked back drowning out the disruptors as they were being hustled from the auditorium. Dermer felt so comfortable with the audience that he openly and repeatedly referred to the hecklers as “<a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/07/22/news-opinion/politics/with-jabs-at-obama-cufi-lobbies-for-iran-sanctions-end-to-p-a-aid">moral idiots</a>” as cheering crowds chanted “Israel! Israel!”</p>
<p>Honored special guests were Jewish philanthropists Sheldon Adelson and his wife Miriam who were lauded with a gold award for helping charitable causes.</p>
<p>More than just lip service and sloganizing, CUFI announced several major initiatives. CUFI’s leadership acknowledged from the podium that there was a distinct disconnect with the younger Christian generation — a group they call “the millennials.” Sons and daughters are increasingly detouring from the path their fathers walked, as is so common in generational divides. Increasingly the millennials are buying into BDS, anti-Israel distortions about international law and a rewriting of Israeli’s history.</p>
<p>Moreover, millennials are adopting wholesale rejection of Israel via a wave of campus teachings called “<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supersessionism">Replacement Theology</a>,” which maintains God has forsaken Israel and His “covenant” with the Jews has been replaced by a new covenant with the Church. To counter Christianity’s internal upheaval about the Jewish State, the podium proudly acknowledged 800 campus representatives in attendance engaged in a bold new student-led initiative to combat BDS, anti-Jewish agitation, and a rash anti-Israel attacks on campus, from the dorm room to the classroom. This strategy involves talking back to biased professors and the entire notion of Replacement Theology.</p>
<p>The day after the celebration, CUFI’s membership swarmed into the halls of Congress to lobby their representatives from the heartland to stop funding the Palestinian Authority until it ceases paying terrorist salaries, and to stand with Israel’s in its fight against Hamas.</p>
<p>CUFI has proven that it is an expanding organization with a broadening agenda at the precise moment that Israel needs allies in every corner.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.edwinblack.com"><em>Edwin Black</em></a><em> is the award-winning author of the international </em><a href="http://www.ibmandtheholocaust.com/"><em>bestseller </em>IBM and the Holocaust</a><em>. This article is drawn from his just-released newsbook, </em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/Financing-Flames-Edwin-Black/dp/0914153315/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1381503145&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=0914153315">Financing the Flames: How Tax-Exempt and Public Money Fuel a Culture of Confrontation and Terrorism in Israel</a><em>.</em></p>
<p>*</p>
<p><em>Don&#8217;t miss <strong>Dr. Anna Geifman</strong> on <strong>The Glazov Gang</strong> this week discussing &#8220;Life in Israel Under Siege,&#8221; &#8220;<a href="http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/anna-geifman/who-is-killing-palestinian-children/">Who is Killing Palestinian Children</a><span style="text-decoration: underline;">?&#8221;,</span> and much <span id="fbPhotoSnowliftCaption" class="fbPhotosPhotoCaption" tabindex="0"><span class="hasCaption">more: </span></span><strong><br />
</strong></em></p>
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		<title>U.S. Defunding the Palestinian Authority?</title>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 13 Jun 2014 04:50:46 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[bachmann]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[defunding]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Franks]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[House resolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[palestinian authority]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233958</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Led by Reps. Trent Franks and Michele Bachmann, the effort moves to a formal House Resolution.]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pa.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-233963" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pa-450x298.jpg" alt="Palestinians celebrating reconciliation, between Fatah and Hamas in Gaza Strip" width="282" height="187" /></a>On June 12, 2014, the spreading Congressional sentiment on defunding the Palestinian Authority escalated to a formal resolution in the House of Representatives. Some fifteen cosponsors, led by Representatives <a href="http://franks.house.gov/">Trent Franks (R-AZ)</a> and <a href="http://bachmann.house.gov/">Michele Bachmann (R-MN)</a>, have officially presented their resolution to defund the PA based on two violations of American law: the unity with Hamas and the recently-publicized <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/nov/11/british-american-aid-subsidises-palestinian-terrorism">program of monthly salaries paid to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons</a> via the PA’s Ministry of Prisoners. The resolution framers call for a “sense of the House” that all funding be stopped unless the PA takes verified actions “dissolving the unity government with Hamas,” regardless of any technocratic appearances, as well as “repealing the Law of the Prisoners and abolishing the Ministry of Prisoners … relating to compensation and recognition of convicted terrorists.”</p>
<p>Prior to this action, various preliminary resolutions were floated and announced from the floor of the House, such as an April 3, 2014 effort advanced by Ted Poe (R-TX), but never put to a vote. By entering the formal resolution, House procedures will automatically number it and refer it to the House Foreign Affairs Committee for a possible vote. That committee is controlled by Chairman Ed Royce (D-CA) and its ranking member Eliot Engel (D-NY), both of whom have publicly warned the PA about a funding stoppage. If the new resolution survives the Foreign Affairs Committee, it then goes to the full House for an up or down vote.</p>
<p>According to Congressional analysts, the new “sense of the House” resolution is not only a policy document, it is “a messaging instrument to the Obama Administration and House appropriators.” Key among those appropriators is <a href="http://lowey.house.gov/press-releases/house-foreign-operations-subcommittee-chair-and-ranking-member-warn-pa-on-us-assistance/">Nita Lowey</a>, the ranking Democrat from Westchester County, NY. Lowey sits on both the full Appropriations Committee and the key subcommittee governing State, Foreign Operations, and Related Programs. Foreign assistance begins and dies in this subcommittee. The Republican side of the aisle, including subcommittee chairwoman Kay Granger from Dallas, has been lining up staunchly against continued funding, citing the known legal obligations.</p>
<p>For Lowey, the question is whether she will break with the <a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/us-says-it-will-work-with-new-pa-government">Obama Administration, which has signaled willingness to continue funding</a> the new Hamas-infused Palestinian Authority. In some House quarters, the pending funding for the PA is referred to as the “Lowey Appropriation” with many staffers and members conceding she “is in the driver’s seat,” as one Appropriation Committee staffer phrased it.</p>
<p>Appropriation Committee staffers confirm the law is clear cut. One Lowey staffer readily pointed to the Consolidated Appropriations Act, Section 7020, Subsection F, entitled <a href="http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:3mxpL34SdvsJ:thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/cpquery/%3F%26dbname%3Dcp112%26sid%3Dcp112WW2yG%26refer%3D%26r_n%3Dhr331.112%26item%3D%26%26%26sel%3DTOC_1418554%26+&amp;cd=3&amp;hl=en&amp;ct=clnk&amp;gl=us">Prohibition to Hamas and the Palestine Liberation Organization</a><em>, </em><em>which unambiguously </em>declares: <em>None of the funds appropriated … may be obligated or expended for assistance to Hamas or any entity effectively controlled by Hamas, any power-sharing government of which Hamas is a member, or that results from an agreement with Hamas and over which Hamas exercises undue influence</em>.</p>
<p>The Lowey source explained, “The law is clear-cut, but what makes it complex is there are also important considerations. Are we subjecting ourselves to more danger? For example, is there a particular security assistance program? Should we stop that? Or, is it smarter to keep some of those of those programs going?”</p>
<p>On June 2, after the PA unification ceremony finished in Ramallah, Lowey issued this short warning:</p>
<blockquote><p>“<a href="http://www.timesofisrael.com/senior-us-lawmakers-call-to-cut-off-aid-to-pa">I am deeply disappointed with the announcement today of a Palestinian government that includes the terrorist organization Hamas. As long as Hamas rejects the Quartet principles and the existence of the State of Israel, United States funding for this unity government is in jeopardy.</a>”</p></blockquote>
<p>Lowey sources explained that the White House now controls the current year’s appropriation, which is transferred in tranches. There is little possibility that will be stopped, they say. It is the new 2014-2015 appropriation that is under review. Even if the defunding move is successful in the House, a similar measure must pass in the Senate. The Congressional deadline for any decision is October 1, 2014, House sources say.</p>
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		<title>Inside the Presidents Conference&#8217;s Rejection of J Street</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/inside-the-presidents-conferences-rejection-of-j-street/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=inside-the-presidents-conferences-rejection-of-j-street</link>
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		<pubDate>Fri, 06 Jun 2014 04:25:53 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[Anti-Semitism]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Israel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[J Street]]></category>
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		<category><![CDATA[President's conference]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=233215</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Was it really a "right-wing minority" that barred the anti-Israel organization? ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/J-Street.jpg"><img class="alignleft wp-image-233222 " src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/J-Street.jpg" alt="J-Street" width="302" height="217" /></a>The fractious public reaction to the rejection of J Street’s membership by the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations has been based on widespread dissemination of false information about the process, according to exclusive interviews with sources close to the Presidents Conference process. The sources declined to be named because, while fully conversant with all aspects of the J Street vote, they were not authorized to speak publicly. But they emphasize that J Street was rejected not by the “Left or Right” or a “right-wing minority” but by the overwhelming voting consensus of the 50-member organization. Moreover, the sources say, J Street supporters were in a smaller minority than was initially apparent because just two voting blocs controlled many of the 17 &#8220;yes&#8221; votes.</p>
<p>By way of background, after a year of trying, the controversial lobby J Street was rejected by a wide margin for membership in the Presidents Conference, <a href="http://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/about/members">the umbrella group for 50 American Jewish communal organizations</a>. <a href="http://www.thecuttingedgenews.com/index.php?article=83940">The lopsided vote rang in at only 17 for, and 22 against in a process that required 34 &#8220;yes&#8221; ballots out of 50 voting member groups.</a> But digging into the numbers reveals there is more to the story about who voted &#8220;yes&#8221; and who did not, Conference sources say.</p>
<p>J Street bills itself as pro-Israel, but has engendered controversy among the pro-Israel community about its true intentions. Since its April 30, 2014 membership rejection vote, public vitriol by J Street and its supporters in the Conference and the Jewish media have been directed at the Conference as an organization, and, in a few instances, its executive vice chairman, Malcolm Hoenlein, personally. The fallout included a threat by a Reform Judaism leader to break away as well as sarcastic jibes on J Street’s website, which were still visible at press time, more than a month after the vote.</p>
<p><a href="http://act.jstreet.org/sign/thank_you_malcolm/">One such J Street website remonstration declared</a>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Yesterday’s rejection of J Street&#8217;s bid to join the Conference validates the reason for J Street: those claiming to speak for the entire Jewish community don&#8217;t in fact represent the full diversity of pro-Israel views in our community. The Conference of President [sic] claims to be the [sic] &#8220;the proven and effective voice of organized American Jewry.&#8221; Last night&#8217;s vote removed that pretense. So join us in thanking Malcolm Hoenlein for clarifying this situation and revealing to all what we&#8217;ve long known: a new voice is needed to represent the true majority of American Jews — and non-Jewish supporters of an Israel at peace.</p></blockquote>
<p>Getting personal, the J Street rebuke included a mock thank you note:</p>
<blockquote><p><a href="http://act.jstreet.org/sign/thank_you_malcolm/">Dear Malcolm: </a>Thank you for finally making it clear that the Conference of Presidents is not representative of the voice of the Jewish community. We recognize the need for an open and honest conversation on Israel in the United States. We appreciate you being honest. Now we&#8217;ll work on the openness.</p></blockquote>
<p>J Street’s <a href="http://jstreet.org/blog/post/j-street-disappointed-by-conference-of-presidents-exclusion_1">initial public statement</a> asserted the organization</p>
<blockquote><p>is disappointed that our bid for membership to the Conference of Presidents of Major Jewish Organizations has been rejected. This is a sad day for us, but also for the American Jewish community and for a venerable institution that has chosen to bar the door to the communal tent to an organization that represents a substantial segment of Jewish opinion on Israel. We are, however, most heartened by the tremendous support we received from many of the largest and most prominent organizations in American Jewish communal life who urged their fellow members to join them in building a robust and representative community body.</p></blockquote>
<p>In response to questions for this article, J Street vice president for communications <a href="http://www.jta.org/2012/12/03/news-opinion/united-states/j-street-hires-alan-elsner-late-of-the-israel-project-as-spokesman">Alan Elsner</a> stated,</p>
<blockquote><p>We regard the vote as a closed chapter. We were happy to receive the support from the very significant organizations that backed us; and we are heartened that the vote has prompted a debate and examination of the Jewish community’s ability or lack thereof to hear diverse views and to fully reflect the positions of American Jews.</p></blockquote>
<p>Hoenlein — and indeed all other Conference officials — repeatedly declined to be interviewed on the record for this article.</p>
<p>Nonetheless the key Conference sources interviewed for this article, did respond with a surprisingly upbeat message. “I don’t think the Conference was subjected to a lot of criticism,” one source asserted.</p>
<blockquote><p>Yes, there were some references, but it was not really personalized. Most people know that the chairman [Robert Sugarman] and the executive vice chairman [Malcolm Hoenlein] did not participate in the process at all. They didn’t vote, didn’t attend the meetings, they did not express themselves and have not — before or since — expressed a public view on the issue because the Conference wanted it clear that the vote was a decision of the members, and not directed from outside or from the inside.</p></blockquote>
<p>A key source added,</p>
<blockquote><p>The vote speaks for itself. People have misinterpreted it in ways that have served their purposes. But they just need to look at the objective facts. J Street was given every opportunity in a fair and open process. Even by J Street’s own recognition, the process was fair and done the same way as every other application.</p>
<p>The sources all asserted that the vote for J Street process mirrored any democratic election in the United States. One individual declared, “Of course, the vote is always conducted by a closed ballot. But not the process, not the discussion — that is open and people expressed themselves. However, people should be free to vote their conscience and not be intimidated.</p></blockquote>
<p>None of the key sources would reveal any vote specifics. “Members of organizations have the right to ask their organizations how they voted,” stated one individual. “They can choose to tell them or not tell them. But that’s an internal matter for each organization,” adding, the ballots are now locked away “in a safe place.”</p>
<p>Asked what the lopsided vote of rejection says about the Conference, one source replied,</p>
<blockquote><p>This vote actually was not about the Conference. This was about J Street, and the proportion of the vote, I think, speaks to the fact that this was not one extreme or another. This was the expression of the majority of the members of the Conference. Had it gone the other way, I don’t know that people would have criticized. But it went against J Street, and some took the opportunity to grandstand.</p></blockquote>
<p><a href="http://www.jpost.com/Jewish-World/Jewish-News/Spat-between-J-Street-Conference-of-Presidents-may-be-indicative-of-changing-demographics-351125">Asked</a> if this is the first time the vote and the results have played out so publically, one source replied, “No. It could be about any issue,” adding,</p>
<blockquote><p>There is a lot of ignorance. Our choice is not to engage in public confrontation over these issues. But people write things that have no relationship to what really occurred or to what the Conference’s deliberative engagements are, or what the Conference even does for that matter.</p></blockquote>
<p>As an example of false reports, one key source stated,</p>
<blockquote><p>I just saw a piece today where somebody was writing about the Conference and it was completely wrong — about how votes are allocated. The reform movement and the conservative movement, for example, don’t have one vote each, as has been written. Actually, with their affiliates, they each have four votes. The reform movement affiliates are the Union of Reform Judaism, Women of Reform Judaism, the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and ARZA—the Association of Reform Zionists of America. The conservative movement also has four votes through their affiliates: the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Women’s League for Conservative Judaism, the Rabbinical Assembly, and MERCAZ — which is the Zionist Organization of the Conservative Movement. So it is has been disingenuous to keep saying their movements only had one vote when, in truth, they each had four votes. So now take those two movements — and then you have eight of the votes for J Street.</p></blockquote>
<p>In spite of the Conference source’s comment about the MERCAZ vote, a MERCAZ blog states the opposite, that the organization broke with the movement and voted against membership.</p>
<p>J Street only received 17 votes out of 42 present. If indeed many were from the two synagogue movements combined, reform and conservative, then only about 9 among the others voted yes. One of those yes votes came from the Anti-Defamation League. “<a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/04/29/news-opinion/politics/adls-foxman-explains-his-yes-on-j-street-zoas-klein-his-no">We will support</a> the admission of J Street not because we agree with them, not because we support their views, but in order to ensure the integrity and credibility of American Jewish advocacy and of the Conference of Presidents,” ADL national director told the JTA’s veteran correspondent Ron Kampeas. In a countering view, Farley Weiss, president of the National Council of Young Israel, writing in the <em>Jerusalem Post,</em> assembled a litany of actions by J Street that his organization found worthy of a negative vote. <a href="http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-Ed-Contributors/Drawing-the-line-on-J-Street-352046">One example </a>Weiss cited in his article specified that “[j]ust a few days before the Conference of Presidents vote on J Street, it became public that US Secretary of State John Kerry had been quoted as saying Israel could become an apartheid country, and that J Street defended Kerry’s remark.”</p>
<p>“So,” a key source commented, “It is incorrect to reduce it all ‘Lefties or Righties’ — it was actually the center.”</p>
<p>The key sources focused in on the public statements of the reform and conservative movement leadership. One stated,</p>
<blockquote><p>Right now, there appears to be a lot of resentment within the conservative and the reform movements over what happened, complaining that leaders spoke for them without consulting. There has been a backlash against the leaders for going public and taking extreme positions in public statements. There was <a href="http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/5/28/j-street-debate-hits-the-presses#.U4dgCiiiVkU">a public petition</a> signed by members of the reform movement and conservative moment, and they published various full page ads in the<em> Los Angeles Jewish Journal</em> and the <em>Washington Jewish Week </em>and other newspapers. They said: Who did you consult in making a decision on how to vote? &#8220;You don’t speak for me voting for J Street.”</p></blockquote>
<p>During the public fallout following the J Street rejections, the Presidents Conference was frequently criticized for operating in a secret or shrouded fashion. But when asked about this criticism, one key source rebutted,</p>
<blockquote><p>The only thing that was secret was the actual ballot. Everything else was done with full information provided to the members. The membership committee is broadly representative of the Conference. Obviously, you cannot have a committee of the whole. But like every committee, it tries to have reform, conservative, left, right, big organizations, and small organizations all represented. Believe me, if the conference goes off in a direction that is really not representative of the consensus, the whole world will hear it, because they rush to the press. You have some media that is always ready to exploit it.</p></blockquote>
<p>That source was asked again if anyone went out of their way to block or prevent J Street. “No — not at all,” that source replied, adding, “They were given — and J Street will tell you they were given — every opportunity. [J Street executive director] <a href="http://forward.com/articles/196459/j-street-fails-to-win-over-key-committee-for-presi/">Jeremy Ben Ami was invited to speak to the committee and to answer questions — which he did.</a> Remember, three presidents of member organizations [of the Conference] sit on J Street boards, so their point of view was represented.”</p>
<p>In the aftermath of the rejection, where does the Conference go from here? “Part of the brilliance of the founders of the Conference,” stated one source,</p>
<blockquote><p>is that they didn’t set hard-core bylaws. Some twenty years ago, &#8220;process and procedures guidelines&#8221; were prepared so that it would actually have some set rules. The &#8220;process and procedures&#8221; committee will afford an opportunity to anyone who wishes to make suggestions or raise issues about the process or the issues that were raised. Many certainly would welcome it.</p></blockquote>
<p>When asked if, in recent years, <a href="http://www.conferenceofpresidents.org/about/members">any other organization</a> had been turned down, one source replied,</p>
<blockquote><p>More than a dozen groups have been turned down over the past 10 years. Many did not get a positive recommendation in the committee process, or did not meet the specific requirements that are spelled out in the by-laws. For instance, there were dozens of groups that were <em>American Friends of</em> — this or that. When a substantial part of their agenda is not actual advocacy but is really just fundraising, even though it is related to Israel, they did not get accepted.</p></blockquote>
<p>Reminded that the Presidents Conference does include American Friends of Peace Now, that source explained, “Yes. It also has the American Friends of Likud. But these groups were admitted before the membership decision was made more than 10 years ago. Otherwise, the Conference would have been flooded with new members.”</p>
<p>The Conference source identified one leading Jewish organization rejected at first. “Hillel also was turned down at one point,” the source stated, “but then admitted later.” The source explained,</p>
<blockquote><p>Some groups were turned down because the Committee felt that their constitution wasn’t truly democratic or that it didn’t allow for clarity about their budget, about the membership, and about other considerations. These same questions were raised about J Street, by the way. Then, later, many of these other groups were admitted because of changes they made or other reasons.</p></blockquote>
<p>Asked point blank, “Is J Street invited to reapply?” the source answered, “Everyone can reapply.”</p>
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		<title>Rejecting the Boycotters at the Celebrate Israel Parade</title>
		<link>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/rejecting-the-boycotters-at-the-celebrate-israel-parade/?utm_source=rss&#038;utm_medium=rss&#038;utm_campaign=rejecting-the-boycotters-at-the-celebrate-israel-parade</link>
		<comments>http://www.frontpagemag.com/2014/edwin-black/rejecting-the-boycotters-at-the-celebrate-israel-parade/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 25 Apr 2014 04:10:38 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator><![CDATA[Edwin Black]]></dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Daily Mailer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[FrontPage]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[BDS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[boycott]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[celebrate israel parade]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[new israel fund]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New York City]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Protest]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.frontpagemag.com/?p=224016</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Closing the communal tent to the promoters of Jew-hatred. ]]></description>
				<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1370206259-nyc-fifth-avenue-turns-blue-and-white-for-the-celebrate-israel-parade_2112940.jpg"><img class="alignleft  wp-image-224019" alt="1370206259-nyc-fifth-avenue-turns-blue-and-white-for-the-celebrate-israel-parade_2112940" src="http://cdn.frontpagemag.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/1370206259-nyc-fifth-avenue-turns-blue-and-white-for-the-celebrate-israel-parade_2112940-450x299.jpg" width="315" height="209" /></a>If a small group of grass-roots Jewish organizations have their way, more than one hundred protestors will <a href="http://jccwatch.org/">assemble in New York City on April 29, 2014</a>, each carrying a shofar. On cue, at 5:30 in the afternoon, rain or shine, all will raise their curved rams’ horns, long and short, and wail to the heavens in visceral unison producing a piercing spectacle of protest. The cacophonous alarums will continue their outcry until the shofar blowers feel they have made their point.</p>
<p>What are they protesting? It is their communal leadership.</p>
<p>The dissident shofar blowers will assemble in front of the 59<sup>th</sup> Street headquarters of the UJA-Federation of New York. The Federation’s beneficiary, the Jewish Community Relations Council, is the chief organizer of the <a href="http://celebrateisraelny.org/">Celebrate Israel Parade</a> scheduled for June 1st. The upbeat procession of floats, runners, and marchers is normally a public show of Jewish unity in support of Israel. But this year, the parade has become a maelstrom of disunity over the participation of the controversial New Israel Fund and other groups which recent revelations now link to the Boycott, Sanctions and Divestment (BDS) movement and the campaign to delegitimize Israel internationally.</p>
<p>The outrage in some American, Jewish, and Israeli circles over the NIF’s inclusion in the highly visible parade, formerly known as the Israel Day Parade, may be more than just a passing horn blast. The discontent may be energizing a historic decision among American Jews. Just what constitutes the Jewish mainstream? Is American Jewry about to set limits on its open tent of inclusion, a precept the community wears as a badge of honor?</p>
<p>More than a few American Jews feel their community has been hijacked from within by such groups as the J Street lobby, the New Israel Fund, and other organizations that constitute a powerful, well-funded minority able to wage war against Israel seemingly in the name of the Jewish people. “These groups are anti-Jewish,” says Judith Freedman Kadish, special project director of Americans for a Safe Israel, “and they are funding groups that are anti-Semitic. They just veil their actions by saying they are trying to influence public policy and an occupation.” The accused organizations and their defenders in the Jewish media and within the Jewish activist community vigorously insist their activities are simply democratic dissent aimed at solving Israel’s problems.</p>
<p>The New Israel Fund, enabled by taxpayer subsidies of its 501(c)(3) status, <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/edwin-black/financing-mideast-flamesc_b_4874795.html">has been a pivotal funder of the BDS movement</a> that wages economic war against Israel. Until 2011, the NIF was a lead supporter of the Coalition of Women for Peace, which established a global BDS infrastructure. According to NIF financial records, in 2008 alone, the NIF bestowed $93,457 upon the Coalition of Women for Peace. Over a period of years, NIF financing of this organization reached a strong six-figure sum, which included both direct grants and those where the NIF acted as a go-between for other donors—a technique they called “donor advised funding.”</p>
<p>The NIF no longer provides money to the Coalition of Women for Peace. Now, the CWP is strong enough to gather its monies from other sources. But detractors say—the irreparable damage was done. Moreover, the BDS movement today is fortified by a conveyor belt of brutality and oppression accounts—some legitimate, some exaggerated, some invented—force fed to the world by agitation NGOs, including many financed by <a href="http://www.jta.org/2014/02/05/news-opinion/opinion/op-ed-boycotting-settlements-is-not-anti-israel">the New Israel Fund</a>. NIF’s financial records for 2012 indicate that it granted $109,615 to Breaking the Silence, $255,477 to B’Tselem, and $209,161 to Adalah. These three groups are among dozens of NIF grantees that critics accuse of operating on the front lines of anti-Israel information and distorting the facts about international law as it affects Israel. Numerous Knesset members and Israeli military men have gone on record to decry the NIF as a well-financed, foreign, multinational NGO, hell-bent on “destabilizing the Israel Defense Forces” and erasing the Jewish identity from the State of Israel.</p>
<p>For example, NIF recipient Adalah’s admitted mission is to erase Israel’s Jewish identity and get Israelis prosecuted for war crimes in foreign capitals. On its website, Adalah brags of its robust role in the now-retracted <i>Goldstone Report</i> that accused Israel of war crimes in Gaza. B’Tselem provides cameras to agitators involved in orchestrated confrontations with Israeli soldiers, even as it tolerates repeated child endangerment by Palestinian provocateurs in the process. Another NIF recipient, an online publication known as <i>+972,</i> has published a Photoshopped image graphically depicting Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu and other Israeli leaders in their underwear holding their crotches while carrying rifles, as well as a cartoon depicting former <a href="http://972mag.com/the-hater-in-the-sky-by-eli-valley/45492/">Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barack raping and eating the limbs of Barack Obama in outer space</a>.</p>
<p>On its website, Partners for a Progressive Israel, has prominently encouraged the boycott of such Israeli products as Ahava and Sodastream. If the Sodastream facility were being run by Mormons from Utah, Polish nuns from Warsaw, or Mennonites from Indiana, it would be up for a Nobel Prize. Moreover, when confronted and called on it, no one can reliably cite the international law Sodastream is allegedly violating with its factory known to treat all equally.</p>
<p>Now, several Jewish and Zionist organizations are vociferously demanding that the NIF, B’Tselem, and Partners for a Progressive Israel all be excluded from marching in the upcoming annual Celebrate Israel Parade. The NIF has participated in prior years. These grass-roots groups and individuals—about a dozen main ones— include Rabbi Elie Abadie of the architectonic Edmond de Safra Congregation in Manhattan, the Zionist Organization of America, Americans for a Safe Israel, and the campaign’s central mover, JCC Watch, headed up by Richard Allen, a private individual.</p>
<p>The anti-NIF protestors have been dismissed as a “fringe.” New York’s <i>Jewish Week</i> ran an NIF op-ed defaming the protestors as a “<a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/opinion/why-new-israel-fund-marching-israel">tiny extremist group.”</a> Ardent Israel supporter Alan Dershowitz decried the exclusion effort. The Anti-Defamation League in a statement and New York’s <a href="http://www.thejewishweek.com/editorial-opinion/editorial/making-mischief-parade"><i>Jewish Week</i> in an editorial, denounced JCC Watch</a> for a protest flyer featuring a photo of the 1933 iconic “April First” Nazi boycott of Jews in Germany.</p>
<p>In his flyer, Allen of JCC Watch was referencing that the organized international Arab boycott against Jews began on April 1, 1933, after the Mufti of Jerusalem imported Hitler’s April First boycott into the Arab and Islamic world. Few remember that April First Nazi boycott was launched by Hitler after a million-man, anti-Nazi protest in <a href="http://www.nizkor.org/hweb/people/b/black-edwin/chapter-03.html">Madison Square Garden</a> and elsewhere a few days earlier on March 27, 1933. Even fewer recall that the <a href="http://reformjudaismmag.net/rjmag-90s/999eb.html">March 27 rally</a> was preceded earlier that month by a scraggly, rag-tag assemblage of Jewish War Veterans, who marched in New York City calling for a pre-emptive boycott of Nazi Germany. As they marched, those JWV were vociferously denounced, disowned and marginalized by the leaders of organized Jewry who labeled them as “nobodies” and “extremists,” saying they “speak for no one.” History immutably records that the JWV actually spoke for many — and long before others were willing to speak at all.</p>
<p>JCC Watch and its anti-NIF coalition might be a so-called “fringe,” with an unpolished website, inelegant rhetoric and few dollar resources. But its message has struck a chord. Perhaps one hundred chords. Perhaps wailed by one hundred shofars on a street corner in Manhattan. Kadish of AFSI says she has never blown a shofar before in her life—but on April 29, she intends to be in front of the UJA offices to sound off. Allen of JCC Watch says he has been assured, “Shofars will come from far and wide as we chant ‘Hear O’ Israel.’”</p>
<p>Maybe … just maybe … something is happening.</p>
<p>The movement for the Jewish community to draw lines may have gained traction as a result of an unrelated April 11, 2014 event. The controversial lobby known as J Street, which applied for membership in the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, was subjected to what <a href="http://forward.com/articles/196459/j-street-fails-to-win-over-key-committee-for-presi/"><i>The</i> <i>Forward</i>  called “a grilling”</a> by the Conference’s membership selection committee over J Street’s ties to other BDS movement organizations, such as Jewish Voices for Peace. A source described the session as “passionate, intense—a lot of arguing.” Ultimately, she added, “the selection committee declined to vote, making it procedurally very difficult” for J Street to join the Presidents’ Conference. The esteemed Presidents’ Conference epitomizes the Jewish communal mainstream, reflecting a vast gamut of views&#8211;from Americans for Peace Now, highly-critical of Israel, to the staunchly defensive Zionist Organization of America—52 organizations in all.</p>
<p>In the days before the selection committee’s “grilling,” the leadership of several organizations and well-known commentators expressed dismay that J Street—sometimes accused of fronting for the Arab Lobby—would even apply. An opinion piece in <i>The</i> <i>Jerusalem Post</i> last fall declared, “[J Street] Founder and president Jeremy Ben-Ami refuses to recognize Israel as a ‘Jewish state’ … co-founder Daniel Levy has described Israel’s creation as ‘an act that went wrong.’ … Ben-Ami was also proven to be a serial liar when, despite his repeated denials, the anti-Israeli George Soros was exposed as one of his major contributors.”</p>
<p>Now, as the Jewish and Israeli media buzzes with the kitchen-table revolt cooked up by JCC Watch, Rabbi Abadie, and others railing against the NIF’s participation in the Celebrate Israel Parade, the umbrage against the NIF’s participation is only growing. Rabbi Abadie has threatened to pull his congregation’s participation and financial support for the parade, and like-minded Sephardic congregations have promised to join him. An article in <i>The Algemeiner</i> likened the NIF’s parade inclusion to “appeasement.” Earlier this month, <a href="http://www.jns.org/latest-articles/2014/4/10/at-50th-anniversary-israel-parade-aims-for-pride-but-gets-protests#.U1Pcg1dgyHg">Member of Knesset Nissim Ze-ev joined flag-waving protestors</a> in a Manhattan demonstration against the JCRC. MK Ze-ev declared, “Any Jewish organization which supports the BDS [movement] has no place among supporters of Israel. The UJA and JCRC, as leading organizations of American Jewry, must adhere to this policy if they are to be considered supporters of Israel.”</p>
<p>An April 4, 2014 article on the controversy in <i>The</i> <i>Jerusalem Post</i> led with the subhead: “Diaspora Affairs Ministry reconsidering its funding of future parades.” Subsequent reports conveyed confusion over whether the ministry was considering pulling funding or simply reallocating its budget. A number of Israeli officials consider themselves at war with the New Israel Fund. A source in the Celebrate Israel Parade management, not authorized to speak to the media, stated, “The parade derives its revenue from registration fees, float sponsorship, private philanthropy, and a grant from the Israeli government.” A second parade management source added, “The money from the Israeli government is not reduced but each year comes from different ministries and offices in tweaked amounts.”</p>
<p>In an interview, NIF CEO Daniel Sokatch defended his group stating, “Some of these folks are saying that the NIF is now synonymous with the boogie man … We get blamed for everything. It is patently absurd. It bears no relation to reality. It would be laughable if it wasn’t so sort of sad.”</p>
<p>Clearly, a key demonstration of Jewish unity for Israel has now transmogrified into roiling divisiveness. That’s the opposite of the parade’s intent. For this reason, NIF supporters call for the open tent of inclusion to be broad enough to allow the most dissident factors in.</p>
<p>The Jewish community is now looking at its own mainstream and some are asking if the river banks need to be more defined and steeper. Some are also asking if whether the open tent, so precious to all, can survive if burning flames are brought inside.</p>
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