PRESS RELEASE May 20, 2013  Contact: Lenny Ben-David NGO Monitor 054-216-8155 lenny.bendavid@ngo-monitor.org

Report: U.S. Government Funding for Mideast Political NGOs Undermines U.S. Policy Jerusalem - A report presented to Members of Congress today by NGO Monitor shows that U.S. Government funding of several political NGOs in the Palestinian Authority and Israel contradicts U.S. policy, has a negative impact on the peace process, and lacks the independent oversight necessary to prevent abuses. Professor Gerald M. Steinberg, President of NGO Monitor, a Jerusalem-based research institute, is meeting this week with Members of Congress, congressional staff, Washington think tanks, journalists and foreign policy decision-molders. The 13-page report, The Negative Impact of U.S. Government Funding for Mideast Political NGOs, is written by Steinberg and Naftali Balanson, NGO Monitor Managing Editor. The 38-page appendicesinclude a directory of the political NGOs involved and correspondence with U.S. government agencies and officials.

Why Did The Church of Scotland Deny The Right of Jews to Israel?

The following by David P. Goldman is reposted here with permission of the Middle East Forum:

Snaking the Scotch

by David P. Goldman
Asia Times
May 6, 2013

http://www.meforum.org/3499/snaking-the-scotch

Ethnocentrism is the snake in Christianity's garden, and last week it slithered into the Church of Scotland. It took the form of a screed denying the special claim of the Jewish people to the Land of Israel.

By no coincidence, the most successful Christian communities embrace the State of Israel, while the least successful ones abhor it. Almost four-fifths of Americans identify themselves as Christians, for example and two out of five worship every week. Less than two-fifths of Britons say they believe in God, by contrast, and only one out of eight attends weekly services. More than half of Britons never go to church, against only 18% of Americans.

PRESS RELEASE May 6, 2013  Contact: Lenny Ben-David NGO Monitor 054-216-8155 lenny.bendavid@ngo-monitor.org  Governments' Funding of Anti-Israel NGOs Abets Church of Scotland Attack on Judaism Jerusalem - The Church of Scotland's latest report, The Inheritance of Abraham? A Report on the "Promised Land," rejects the connection of the Jewish People to the Land of Israel and is strongly influenced by Sabeel, the radical Palestinian-Christian organization. Sabeel's funding comes partly from the governments of the Netherlands, Sweden and Canada via third party Christian aid groups, NGO Monitor said today. The Church of Scotland's report also erases Christian "guilt" over "centuries of anti-Semitism" and contests the usage of the Holocaust as a basis of support for Israel.

The War Against The Jews: The Roots Of Anti-Zionism In Antisemitism

The following by Efraim Karsh is reposted here with permission:

The War Against the Jews

by Efraim Karsh
Israel Affairs
July 2012, pp. 319-343

http://www.meforum.org/3299/war-against-jews

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The sustained anti-Israel de-legitimization campaign is a corollary of the millenarian obsession with the Jews in the Christian and the Muslim worlds. Since Israel is the world's only Jewish state, and since Zionism is the Jewish people's national liberation movement, anti-Zionism—as opposed to criticism of specific Israeli policies or actions—means denial of the Jewish right to national self-determination. Such a discriminatory denial of this basic right toonly one nation (and one of the few that can trace their corporate identity and territorial attachment to antiquity) while allowing it to all other groups and communities, however new and tenuous their claim to nationhood, is pure and unadulterated anti-Jewish racism, or anti-Semitism as it is commonly known.

Pat Condell On The Guardian: The Ugliest Newspaper In The World

Pat Condell's target this time is Great Britain's The Guardian, in particular--and liberals in general.

He starts off with The Guardian's antisemitic hatred of Israel, and just goes on from there.

Here we go:

There Must Be Something About Israel Worth Criticizing!

Benjamin Weinthal describes how modern Jew-hatred and loathing of Israel is restrained in the US and Canada in way that it is not in Europe:

After my over 10 year presence in Europe, I appreciate that I may be stating the obvious for folks who have experienced the anti-Israel mini-movements that punctuate Europe. However, for those that thankfully lack this experience, it is worth stating very clearly: in the US and Canada, there are major countervailing forces that help stymie the kind of modern Jew-hatred—namely, the loathing of Israel—that contaminate broad swaths of Europe's populations.

Weinthal has a number of interesting insights into the difference between pro-Israel advocacy in Europe as opposed to how it manifests itself on the other side of the Atlantic in the US and Canada.

One particularly relevant, and enduring insight, is quoted from the Jewish social philosopher Theodor W. Adorno, who did research on anti-Semitism following WWII.

Video: When Anti-Zionism becomes Anti-Semitism

This video was taken at the annual Al-Quds rally at Queen's Park in Toronto on August 28, 2011.

It is an alarming reminder of how anti-Semitism frequently emerges in the form of "criticism" of Israel.

At this rally, Israel is called "a cancer", is accused of "sucking resources and blood", and Hezbollah flags were flown (a banned terrorist organization).

The video also shows how those who genuinely believe in human rights often share a podium with hate-filled extremists. Activists should be accountable for the company they keep:

Article Arlene Kushner: UNRWA's Anti-Israel Bias

UNRWA's Anti-Israel Bias

by Arlene Kushner
Middle East Quarterly
Summer 2011, pp. 84-91 (view PDF)

On October 22, 2010, the outgoing director of the New York office of the U.N. Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Andrew Whitley, stunned his listeners at a Washington conference by arguing that "the right of return is unlikely to be exercised to the territory of Israel to any significant or meaningful extent," and that UNRWA should help resettle the refugees rather than perpetuate their refugee status.[1]

Confronted with a barrage of criticism from the Palestinian Authority and many Arab states, Whitley quickly backed down, claiming, "It is definitely not my belief that the refugees should give up on their basic rights, including the right of return."

Middle East analyst Daniel Pipes commented: "That UNRWA might contemplate going out of business and helping end the Arab-Israeli conflict … was too good to be true."[2]