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bring rationality to the discussion of US foreign policy as well as
document the threat of Zionist terrorism, subversion, and ethnonational financial warfare
while I finish The Israel Lobby and American Society.
For more info click here or here!
In addition, I am liquidating my extensive comic book collection to support my pro-Palestinian anti-Israel projects. Some go back to the 1960s, but most go back to the 80s when I was working on digital special effects software and script doctoring.
Many like Nexus (optioned by Disney) have relevance to pop culture views of Jews, Palestinians, the Holocaust, terrorism, and Islam. If you have any special interests, let me know at ThorsProvoni@aol.com.
I can be inspired to add blog entries relating comic books, pop culture, and US foreign policy. I am gradually listing all my comic books at Joachim's comic collection.
wa-laqad katabnaa fi-l-zabur min ba`di-l-dhikri anna-l-arda yarithuha `ibadiya-l-salihuna We have decreed in the Psalms, from beside (in addition to) the reminder, that the land shall be inherited by My righteous (pious — salihuna) servants.
The Promise: Peshitta Matthew 5:5
ܛܽܘܒ݂ܰܝܗܽܘܢ ܠܡܰܟ݁ܺܝܟ݂ܶܐ ܕ݁ܗܶܢܽܘܢ ܢܺܐܪܬ݂ܽܘܢ ܠܰܐܪܥܳܐ tubihun limkika dehenun ni'rtun le'ar`a To the meek their happiness as they will inherit the land.
The Promise: Greek New Testament Matthew 5:5
Makarioi hoi praeis hoti autoi kleronomesousin ten gen Fortunate are the humble, because they will themselves inherit the land.
The Promise: Biblia Vulgata Matthew 5:4
Beati mites: quoniam ipsi possidebunt terram. Blessed are the meek, for they will inherit the land.
But the humble shall inherit the land (i.e. Palestine),and delight themselves in the abundance of peace.
Key Principle
Tip O'Neill said: "All politics is local."
Martillo's globalization extension: "All local politics is global and all global politics is local." (See Mondoweiss comment.)
Acting with justice: Sayings of the Fathers 1:14
[Hillel] was accustomed to say: If I am not for myself, who is for me? And when I am for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?
Ode to Cholent by Heinrich Heine
Holy cholent, dish celestial, Daughter of Elysium: If he'd only tasted cholent, Schiller would have changed his hymn. God devised and God delivered Unto Moses from on high, And commanded us to savor Cholent for eternity.
Heine's Original German from Prinzessin Sabbat
Schalet, schöner Götterfunken, Tochter aus Elysium! Also klänge Schillers Hochlied, Hätt er Schalet je gekostet.
Schalet ist die Himmelspeise, Die der liebe Herrgott selber Einst den Moses kochen lehrte Auf dem Berge Sinai,
Wo der Allerhöchste gleichfalls All die guten Glaubenslehren Und die heil'gen Zehn Gebote Wetterleuchtend offenbarte.
I run a hi-tech company. I am an inventor and created a key technology that makes it extremely hard for governments and mega-corporations to control the Internet (see Routing in a Bridged Network). Americans can probably thank me that they have any access over the Internet to news reports that have not been sanitized by US corporate media.
Because of my business in the Middle East, I have become concerned about US Israel policy and have begun to apply my background in Eastern European and Jewish studies on behalf of pro-Palestinian anti-Israel and anti-Zionist activism.
According to Rich Barlow's review of Presidential Courage: Brave Leaders and How They Changed America 1789-1989 ("Looking back at presidential courage and folly," Boston Globe, May 29, 2007), the author Michael Beshloss finds that "Truman's recognition of Israel in the election year of 1948 was marbled with political calculation, but in the end it was principle -- his longstanding admiration for Wilsonian human rights and his belief that a Jewish state, after the Holocaust, was a logical extension -- that guided his decision."
Such analysis is questionable. In 1947 the Holocaust had not yet clouded American ethical judgment as it did after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, and application of Wilsonian principles would have meant rejecting Zionism as an affront to the concept of democratic self-determination. Zionists may wish it otherwise, but Truman supported the theft of Palestine by racist Eastern European ethnic Ashkenazi colonists purely as an opportunistic tactic to gain victory over Dewey at the sacrifice of the native population of Palestine.
Even if Truman's decision had been brave, it was still completely evil as a matter of ethics, and it has gradually poisoned US foreign policy and domestic politics to the point that a political clique, whose primary loyalty lies with Zionism, has manipulated the US government into invading and occupying Iraq to the benefit of the State of Israel and to the detriment of America. In the end Truman may have created the necessary conditions for the possibly permanent harm that George W. Bush's presidency has done to American democracy.
The news report below shows the absurd lengths to which the "organized Jewish community" will go to make sure that no one is allowed to discuss the State of Israel honestly and openly.
The intimidation described below has the feel of a David Project operation. That organization has a history of abusing of people associated with college ME programs, and it defamed Sheikh Zayed at Harvard surreptitiously without revealing that certain groups and individuals at the University were acting on its behalf. Rachel Fish, who served as the primary David Project agent at Harvard University, now works at the David Project office in New York City.
It really does not matter whether the David Project is directly leading the campaign against Susan Abulhawa and her novel, for the David Project works by leverage. It educates employees at media organizations to be Israel advocates so that they can spike or facilitate stories according to David Project criteria of "benefit to the Jews." The David Project also works to place its trainees at Jewish communal organizations, which through skillful manipulation can serve as appendages of the David Project.
I wonder whether Rabbi Bruce Goldwasser of Temple Sholom might be related to David Project Director Ralph AviGoldwasser. The David Project and its friends often work through family connections. Temple Sholom is involved in one of Joe Kaufman's activities (see the news report below). Kaufman has also been involved in hassling American Muslim communities in conspiracy with Larry Klayman. All of these groups and individuals have association with FrontPage Magazine. They share information and techniques even when they are not directly collaborating.
Censorship at Barnes and Noble
May 24, 2007, Bayside, NY -- Barnes and Noble Booksellers of the Bay Terrace Shopping Center hosted author Susan Abulhawa to give a brief talk about her book The Scar of David, which was first published in December, 2006.
After the talk attendees brought their copies to her to sign.
Earlier in the day, Ms. Abulhawa had attended a Kingsboro Community College class, whose professor had made the book assigned reading this semester. According to a Kingsboro College spokesperson, such attendance did not constitute a college-sponsored event.
The original Barnes and Noble event was to have included a reading from the novel, but Rabbi Bruce Goldwasser of Temple Beth Sholom in Flushing encouraged a call-in and a boycott of the bookstore as intimidation. He claimed, "It's an historical novel based on made-up stuff. The made-up stuff is that Israelis were forcing the Arabs out of their homes."
Temple Beth Sholom is taking part in the Terror Free Oil campaign of Joe Kaufman, who is the Chairman of Americans Against Hate and CAIR Watch. CAIR is the Committee on American-Islamic Relations, whose "mission is to enhance understanding of Islam, encourage dialogue, protect civil liberties, empower American Muslims, and build coalitions that promote justice and mutual understanding."
The incitement against Ms. Abulhawa and her book started approximately three weeks ago when Queens Jewish Community Council President Jan Fenster and Executive Director Cynthia Zalisky circulated a memorandum throughout the Queens Jewish Community that stated the following.
QJCC values freedom of speech, recognizing that this right is accompanied by responsibility. QJCC does not want to add to the publicity of this book with rallies or newspaper articles/letters to the editor, but suggests a letter writing/phone calling campaign to the Bayside Barnes and Noble stating displeasure with this author's appearance and the lack of balance of Israel's point of view. The issues of the Middle East are complex and require a thoughtful presentation. If Banes and Noble still wishes to have this woman appear then it behooves them to invite an author that relates Israel's point of view such as Michael Oren or Dore Gold.
Please inform your congregations of this unfair and biased presentation.
According to a Barnes & Noble spokeswoman the store received about 15 phone calls a day, many negative, and four Queens rabbis faxed a joint letter of condemnation. CAIR faxed a complaint about the pressure tactics and asked that the scheduled reading take place.
When the Ms. Abulhawa and her literary agent Mark B. Miller arrived, they found that the space for an audience had been filled with display tables. Between 7:15-7:30 PM as attendees arrived, many police officers stood in front of the building. One policeman stated that they were taking their lunch break
Mr. Miller told the audience that not everyone is so afraid to address the crimes committed against Palestinians. "The French publisher will release the French version in 2008 on the 60th anniversary of Israel's formation to make sure that the Israeli version is not the only version the public hears."
Ms. Abulhawa remarked that the central idea of the book was not hers but originates with Palestinian author GhassanKanafani, who presented the idea of an Arab child raised as an Israeli Jew in "Return to Haifa." Israeli agents assassinated Kanafani in 1972. Kaiss al-Zubaidi directed a movie version of Kanafani's story. The film was released in 1982.
Ms. Abulhawa's book is a page turner and tear jerker in which the metaphor of the scarred stolen child stands for the theft of Palestine. Ms. Abulhawa wanted to "show the Palestinian narrative in a human light." She said, "Art is about finding common human ground and making the connections."
When asked why CAIR attempted to intervene, she pointed out that she cannot speak for CAIR but noted, "I am a Muslim and a big supporter of CAIR. They are a civil rights group. They saw a violation."
Ms. Abulhawa told the audience, "BarackObama gave an abominable cowardly speech to AIPAC. None of the candidates take a moral stance. We fought a civil war against racial subjugation. We should not support that crime in another country. Israel is founded on the concept of entitlement of one people at the direct detriment of another."
Ms. Abulhawa added that the historical backdrop of her novel was accurate, but all of the characters are fictitious even if some of the story like the orphanage chapter was drawn from her experiences.
She said, "My friends cursed me for making them cry so much." Then she added, "Anytime you humanize Palestinians, you get shut up." But perhaps not this time. Mr. Miller disclosed that a Dutch studio has shown interest in producing a movie based on the book.
MEMRI made the mistake because Sanabel is speaking colloquial Palestinian, whose prefixes for the present/future tense differ from those in standard newspaper Arabic.
We (will) shoot the Jews in colloquial Palestinian is mnetokh-el yahood. We (will) shoot the Jews with prefixes from standard newspaper Arabic is netokhu-lyahood. (Colloquially, I believe that would sound more like subjunctive.)
The Jews (will) shoot us in colloquial Palestinian is betokhoonaa-lyahood. The Jews (will) shoot us with prefixes from standard newspaper Arabic is yetokhunaa-lyahood. (I think it would sound weird, but I am not a good judge of natural-sounding Arabic.)
Because it really is not possible to confuse the forms if one has any genuine experience in speaking colloquially and interacting with Palestinians either within the pre-1967 borders or in the Occupied Territories, the MEMRI translation is yet another example of the diet of ignorance, fabrication and falsification that Israeli Zionists and their American Hilfswillige (helpers) feed both to the American public and also to themselves.
Boston--March 14, 2007--President Bush appointed Imam TalalEid of Quincy, Massachusetts to the United States Commission on International Religious freedom, a bipartisan federal agency based in Washington, DC.
The United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) is a US government agency created by the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998. It monitors the state of freedom of thought, conscience, and religion or belief abroad according to the definition in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. The Commission gives independent policy recommendations to the President, the Secretary of State, and the Congress.
The USCIRF advises the US Department of State which countries it believes should receive designation as a Country of Particular Concern for violations of religious freedom. The Secretary of State is not obligated to follow the USCIRF recommendations.
Eid was born in 1951 in Lebanon. He studied at al-Azhar University in Cairo. In 2005, the Harvard Divinity School conferred upon him the degree of Doctor of Theology.
Eid is Founder and Director of Religious Affairs at the Islamic Institute of Boston. He served as Imam at the Al-Nasir Mosque in Tripoli for seven years and as Imam and religious director of the Islamic Center of New England from 1983-2005. He currently serves as Muslim chaplain at Massachusetts General Hospital and at Brandeis University.
The USCIRF's first Muslim Commissioner was UCLA law school professor KhaledM. Abou El Fadl. But TalalEid is the first "cleric" on the Commission. TMOasked Imam TalalEid to comment on his role in the Commission as a representative of Islam.
"In the mosque, the Imam is not the center, rather God/Allah, the Creator. The rabbi is a cleric, but his/her role is different than that of the priest. Even Christian clerics differ in their role toward their communities. And thus do the Imams."
Eid continued, "I am willing to engage people in dialogue. To have a dialogue with people of shared principles is important. But more important is to have dialogue with people who are different, probably very different. People should learn how to solve their social problems through dialogue. Hatred and violence can bring destruction and may cause tragedies and misery."
"The Commission's role is to suggest solutions to problems related to religious freedom to the best of my understanding and belief. I may not be able to solve the problems of the world, but I have to start somewhere."
Cambridge--May 18, 2007--TMOattended the opening reception of a photo exhibit entitled "Walls of Martyrdom: Tehran's Propaganda Murals" at Harvard University. To show the power of imagery in Iranian culture, FontiniChristia displayed photographs of Tehran's public murals in an exhibit designed by GhazalAbbasyAsbagh.
Asbagh's husband AlirezaKorangy participated in the panel, "Murals and Martyrdom in the Islamic Republic of Iran."
Asbagh and Korangy stand in front of Teheran Mural in the CGIS South concourse at 1730 Cambridge St., Cambridge, MA. Another panel, "A Comparative Perspective of Martyrdom and Propaganda Art in Iraq, Lebanon, and the Palestinian Territories" followed. The program claims, "The exhibit's primary objective is to document and present images that are part of the daily urban experience in Tehran…the exhibit also aspires to debate and deconstruct…the extent to which they express revolutionary fervor and religious fundamentalism or merely the regime's anxieties and insecurities." Some felt the art expresses Iran's "death culture." Yet others found that the smiling martyr murals clearly celebrate transcendence, like the American "Give me liberty or give me death."
"Martyrdom is the legacy of the Prophet," an Islamic pieta, depicts the veiled Prophet Mohammed (pbuh) mourning over a young martyr. A young volunteer in the Iran-Iraq war is pictured in a field of flowers stretching into the horizon.
Iranians remember their war heroes as beautiful souls. American war heroes are memorialized with white crosses, but seldom remembered so personally.
A Palestinian female martyr is honored with a quote, "God knows I love my children, but I love martyrdom more." The inscription reads: "22 year old Palestinian woman, RimaSalehAriashi, mother of two children, who sought martyrdom in 2004 in occupied Palestine that resulted in the death of four Zionists."
One mural demonstrates the threat of satellite TV. A hand reaches out from a satellite dish with a match to burn Iranian culture, which is represented by stylized flowers, as one might see in a traditional mosque.
Exhibit designer Asbagh agreed that the some of the murals have some similarity to Soviet realist posters. She said, "I am happy to bring a little of the real Tehran to the USA."
She has long noticed a major disconnect between the reality of Iran and the coverage of Iran in the US media. She hopes that this exhibit can help Americans to get to know Iranians as people.
Asbagh mentioned that the Iranian encounter with Americans can prove disappointing because Americans tend to know so little about the world in general.
Evidence: Frivolous Lawsuit intended as Ethnic Intimidation
Boston--May 22, 2007--New court evidence reveals that David Project directors and several attorneys were planning to stop construction of the Roxbury Mosque.
One attorney suggested, "How about simply appealing the building permit and tying things up?"
"Ultimately our interest is based on the premise that…people in the ISB are supporters of terrorism and sworn enemies of America and Jews," said real estate developer Steve Cohen.
The group decided to investigate potential parking violations and other legal technicalities.
On July 22, 2004 David Project director Anna Kolodner started panicking.
"The steel is going up on the Mosque," she wrote to the group. "We need to have a plaintiff. This is a priority. Please contact any individuals that would consider this role and let us know."
Using the lawsuit, Kolodner demanded records from the Boston Redevelopment Authority to use for negative publicity.
Realizing that few Americans could care less where the Islamic Society of Boston obtained their mortgage, Cohen discussed creating suspicion by using vague language to question the mosque's non-criminal foreign "connections."
"However, the First Amendment will bar any governmental action against the mosque based on these connections - not in the absence of incitement that might lead to 'imminent action.' So all we are left with is a public relations campaign."
This admission betrays a premeditated decision to incite hate by using "terrorist" as an ethnic slur to manipulate public sentiment, while their plaintiff sued the city for selling to Muslims.
"The suit itself will have to stick to the narrow constitutional issues, which have nothing to do with the terrorist connections," Cohen continued. "However, the pr campaign surrounding the suit can strike a different chord: i.e. that the city of Boston should not be subsidizing a mosque or any organization with terrorist connections."
"We will be much more effective if we let others ask this question than if we do so ourselves," Cohen strategized.
On September 2, 2004, Anna Kolodner wrote, "Filing the lawsuit will serve to trip the switch on the larger agenda of exposing the radical fundamentalist underpinnings of the Mosque and its leaders…We need to develop a media campaign and identify who will be the public spokesperson for the group…We need an expert in power point to develop a presentation that can be used with the media, politicians, and community groups."
That power point expert would turn out to be the notorious Robert Spencer.
Letter to Black America on Palestinian Rights and June 10th March & Rally
To Black America:
It is time for our people to once again demand that the silence be broken on the injustices faced by the Palestinian people resulting from the Israeli occupation.
On June 10th, the national coalition known as the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation (endtheoccupation.org) will be spearheading a march and rally to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the beginning of the illegal Israeli occupation of Palestinian territories.
We, the signatories of this appeal, ask that Black America again take a leading role in this effort as well as the broader work to bring attention to this 40 year travesty of justice.
United Nations resolutions have called for the Israeli withdrawal, yet the Israeli government, with the backing of the USA, has ignored them. The Israeli government has appropriated Palestinian land in open defiance of international law and overwhelming international condemnation.
Within the USA anyone who speaks in favor of Palestinian rights and justice is immediately condemned as being allegedly anti-Israel (and frequently allegedly anti-Semitic), shutting down legitimate discussion.A case in point can be seen in the current furor surrounding former President Jimmy Carter who was criticized for his assertion in his best-selling book, Palestine:Peace Not Apartheid, that Israeli obstructionism lies at the root of the failure to achieve a just Palestinian/Israeli settlement.
As Nobel prizewinner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has written, "People are scared in the US, to say 'wrong is wrong,' because the pro-Israeli lobby is powerful--very powerful. Well, so what? For goodness sake, this is God's world! We live in a moral universe. The apartheid government was very powerful, but today it no longer exists."
Many of those who most outspokenly agree with President Carter and Archbishop Tutu are American Jews. And many American Jews, including the national organization Jewish Voice for Peace, will be among those rallying for Palestinian rights on June 10th – as will many other Americans, including member groups of the leading anti-war coalition United for Peace and Justice.
Leaders from Black America have repeatedly and historically been among the most outspoken proponents of justice for the Palestinian people.Our leaders have defended the Palestinian people's right to full self-determination and an end to the Occupation as central to peace in the region.Our leaders have not criticized the Jewish people but they have expressed outrage at the Israeli government that collaborated with the apartheid South African government (including in the development of weapons of mass destruction) and emulated South Africa's treatment of its Black majority in its own treatment of the Palestinian people.
As we struggle to build our country's support for Palestinian human rights, we widen the door for both Arab and Black Americans to deal with the issues that join them together, as well as those that separate them. We will help to energize - and to heal - both communities.
June tenth and Juneteenth: will our struggles lead the way to a new emancipation of others?Our own integrity as a people, let alone our own experience with massive injustice and oppression, demand that we step forward, speak out, and insist on a change in US policy towards the Palestinian people.Since when have an illegally occupied people been wrong in demanding and fighting for their human rights and land?Since when have such people and their cause not been worthy of our support?
Please join us on June 10th!
Signed by (affiliation for identification purposes only)
Salih Booker, former Executive Director of Africa Action
Khephra Burns, author, editor, playwright
Horace G. Campbell, Professor of African American Studies and Political Science
Dr. Ron Daniels, President, Institute of the Black World 21st Century
Bill Fletcher, labor and international activist, and writer
George Friday, United for Peace and Justice Co-Chair, National Coordinator, Independent Progressive Politics Network
Rev. Graylan Scott Hagler, Senior Minister, Plymouth Congregational United Church of Christ; National President, Ministers for Racial, Social and Economic Justice of the United Church of Christ
Mahmood Mamdani, Herbert Lehman Professor of Government in the Departments of Anthropology, Political Science and Public and International Affairs
Manning Marable, Professor of Public Affairs, Political Science, History and African-American Studies
George Paz Martin, National Co-Chair of United for Peace and Justice and Green Party U.S. Activist
E. Ethelbert Miller, literary activist; board chair, Institute for Policy Studies
Prexy Nesbitt, speaker and educator on Africa, foreign policy, and racism
Barbara Ransby, Associate Professor of History and African-American Studies
Cedric Robinson, Professor, Department of Black Studies
The Rev. Canon Edward W. Rodman MDiv.LCH,DD. Professor of Pastoral Theology and Urban Ministry at the Episcopal DivinitySchool, Cambridge, Ma.
Jamala Rogers, Black Radical Congress
Don Rojas, former director of communications for the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People
Zoharah Simmons, human rights activist
Chuck Turner. BostonCity Councilor
Hollis Watkins, Former Freedom Singer and staff member of Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee; human rights activist (1961 – present)
Dr. Cornel West
Emira Woods, co-director, Foreign Policy In Focus, Institute for Policy Studies
City Councilman Chuck Turner Reaches Out to Roxbury Muslims
Boston–May 12, 2007–TMO attended a Rainbow Caucus meeting at City Councilman Charles Turner's office in Roxbury. Viewed as more of a spiritual leader than a politician, the Councilman is fondly addressed as "Chuck" by his supporters. The Rainbow Caucus focuses on minority inclusion in the Green Rainbow Party (GRP).
The Green Rainbow Party of Massachusetts unified the Green Party and the Rainbow Coalition in 2002. Traditionally, the Greens advocate for the environment while the Rainbow Coalition focuses on issues of social justice for urban people of color. Most of the meeting dealt with internal issues. Toward the end of the meeting someone suggested that GRP might be able to expand their minority support base by specifically addressing issues of concern to local Muslims.
GRP has taken reasonable positions on matters of foreign concern, calling for "the end of all American military and economic aid to Israel" and rejecting US intervention in Sudan.
GRP has not yet addressed local Muslims' biggest headache: the coordinated media and legal campaign against the Roxbury mosque.
Chuck Turner told TMO, "It wasn't our major concern."
Relatively wealthy Muslim immigrants tended to vote Republican until 2004. Then they switched to Democrat even though Democrats like Hilary Clinton returned some Muslim campaign contributions.
Turner explained to TMO that Muslims want to be in the elite class, but it's time to face reality.
"Arabs and Pakistanis are the Negroes of the world," Turner said.
Rainbow Coalition leaders first conceived of the Roxbury Mosque in 1989. The primarily African American Muslim Council of Boston (MCB) was to manage the project but due to lack of funds passed control of the project to the predominantly Arab Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). The new Arab leadership tended to ignore the local community. They made no special effort to hire local African American construction workers.
In 2003 when anti-mosque articles began to appear in the Boston Herald, the ISB pursued a policy of apologizing to the Boston Jewish community instead of apologizing to its friends in the African American community. The whole conflict has been a good learning experience for the ISB.
GRP activist Mike Heichman told TMO, "Chuck Turner was very eager to work with the Muslim community."
The stage is set for greater participation of Massachusetts Muslim Americans in the Rainbow Caucus. Muslim voters could potentially replace unfriendly Democrats and Republicans through the Green Rainbow Party.
Boston–May 12, 2007–New evidence has surfaced which indicates efforts to enlist professional critics of Islam, including Muslims, in the conspiracy against the Islamic Society of Boston (ISB). Attorney Jack Fainberg, who previously helped construct a legal case against their mosque, volunteered discovery materials to the ISB.
The ISB shared with TMO a June 1, 2004 opposition email which refers to an unnamed "pro-Jewish Muslim ally in Boston," who used Roxbury Community College connections to help conspirators investigate parking infractions the mosque might have committed inadvertently, that could be used in a legal attack.
Khaleel Mohammed, an academic who advocates "Islamic reform" to right-wing audiences, was also mentioned in the anti-mosque correspondence.
An October 1993 Boston Herald article linked a quotation from Mr. Mohammed about mosque financing with two succeeding anonymous quotations so that he would appear to accuse the ISB of connections to "fundamentalist Islamist politics."
In discovery emails, Mohammed discusses with professional Israel advocates the allegedly “Wahhabi” content of library materials at the ISB. Mohammed was invited to comment about his involvement with the anti-mosque group.
"I am sad to find out that organizations are now using government funds to combat the building of mosques," Mr. Mohammed began.
"I have imparted no 'secret' information to anyone…I don't know any of the people in the Boston Mosque. I would at most say that if they are into radical Islam, I would be against their building a mosque."
Mr. Mohammed informed TMO that he verified "some translations [of statements by] someone on the mosque board" for a good friend at the ADL.
According to the ISB, Islamic scholar Dr. Jamal Badawi claimed under oath that the pro-Israel Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) misrepresented a political comment made in Arabic by ISB Board of Trustee member Dr. Walid Fitaihi.
In April 2007, Dr. Walid Fitaihi returned from Saudi Arabia to offer "an apology without condition" to Jewish leaders in Brookline, Massachusetts for his words, which "he recognized were offensive to Jews."
Fitaihi was on a list of twenty Muslims compiled by the David Project, the ADL and Steve Emerson.
On February 3, 2005 at a synagogue in Newton, Massachusetts, Jihad Watch director Robert Spencer summarized their broad and unsubstantiated allegations in a PowerPoint presentation entitled "The Boston Mosque: Do Tolerance and Diversity go both ways?"
Boston, MA — May 9, 2007– Boston immigration judge Robin Feder scheduled a full day deportation hearing for Imam Hafiz Muhammad Masood of the Sharon mosque on October 11, 2007 instead of the requested July date. Because Masood cannot work until the immigration matter is resolved, this five-month wait is a hardship.
The Boston-area chapter of the Muslim American Society ran a signature drive and fundraiser for Masood, his wife and eight children. The organization has raised approximately $13,000 on his behalf. Local clergy including Rabbi Barry Starr of Temple Israel in Sharon, Rev. Theodore Newcomb III of the Orthodox Congregational Church UCC in Mansfield, Rev. HoracioDaValle of First Baptist Church, Mansfield, and Rev. Diane Teichert, of First Parish Unitarian Church, Canton have signed the petition and tried to help in other ways.
The deportation case is complex and relates to whether Masood departed the USA as required upon expiration of his student visa. An immigration attorney has provided a parking ticket issued to Masood's car during the period he was supposed to be outside of the country as evidence of illegal entry.
If Masood, his wife, and his five eldest children are deported, it will be very frightening for his three youngest children, who cannot stay in the USA alone even though they are US citizens. Masood has indicated he will apply for political asylum if immigration succeeds in obtaining a final deportation order.
The imam's brother, Hafiz SaeedMasood, is the founder of Lashkar-i-Tayibba, a Kashmir liberation movement, and ImamMasood and his family would be in danger in Pakistan if forced to return. ImamMasood has denounced his brother and has had no contact with him for a long time.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) arrested Masood, his son Hassan and 31 others on November 15, 2006 and held them for one week as a part of a multi-state immigration sweep. Most of the detainees came from states whose Muslim population tipped the 2006 elections to the Democrats.
Real estate developers in Sharon have expressed interest in the Islamic Society of New England's Sharon property.
AOL now offers free email to everyone. Find out more about what's free from AOL at AOL.com.
Who is Charles Jacobs? by Karin Friedemann, Boston
A Polish immigrant armed with only a BA from Rutgers and a Masters in Education from Harvard has proven exceptionally effective in manipulating the US government and major American institutions into following policy blueprints created by his Israel advocacy organization, the David Project. Charles Jacobs, like Charles Krauthammer and Richard Perle, obtains speaking engagements through a PR firm called Benador Associates, which specializes in pro-Israel campus events focusing on Islam and terrorism. Like Alan Dershowitz, Charles Jacobs considers himself a progressive liberal. Fareeha Iqbal, a student at MIT, disagrees.
"Dr. Jacobs' talk expressed blatantly racist and anti-Islamic views. In fact, I have never seen Islamophobia exuded so blatantly at a public forum at MIT, nor such racist views aired at a panel discussion on human rights."
CAMERA
CAMERA, co-founded by Jacobs in 1982, is a media-monitoring organization dedicated to enforcing pro-Israel, anti-Arab and anti-Islamic bias in the news. It was a pioneer in the technological aspects of mass-marketing hate. One of the first media pressure groups to invest in the software necessary to create database capabilities for email blasting tailored messages to specific target groups, CAMERA sends out action alerts instructing its members to overwhelm newspaper and politicians' offices with hundreds of emails and threatening phone calls to complain and argue about any media coverage critical to Israel or friendly to Islam.
Columbia Unbecoming
In 2002, a network of national Jewish organizations met to evaluate what they saw as an alarming rise in anti-Israel activity on campus. From those meetings emerged the Israel on Campus Coalition (ICC), which is founded in partnership with Hillel and the Charles and Lynn Schusterman Family Foundation. (The three organizations share a building in Washington.) The David Project is an affiliate member of the ICC. In October 2003, the David Project agreed to provide funding for a film, produced by Ralph Avi Goldwasser, to slander professors Rashid Khalidi, Joseph Massad, Hamid Dabashi, and Georges Saliba of Columbia University's Department of Middle East studies. Joseph Massad became known as "one of the most dangerous intellectuals" on campus. Calls for the professor's dismissal were issued by Congressman Weiner and by the editors of the Daily News and the New York Sun, and the propaganda film was shown in Israel before a government minister at an anti-Semitism conference.
Sheikh Zayed/Harvard
The David Project regularly placed racist anti-Arab and anti-Muslim speakers on Harvard campus, but its first major accomplishment was blocking a $2 million donation from the late president of the United Arab Emirates, Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahyan, for a chair in Islamic Studies at the Harvard Divinity School. The Project's 2003 smear campaign was coordinated with the ADL. By preventing Zayed from contributing to Harvard, Jacobs sought to minimize future input from Arabs and Muslims into discussions of developments at Harvard University.
American Anti-Slavery Group The American Anti-Slavery Group grew directly out of Jacobs' pro-Israel advocacy. The group supports the Sudan People's Liberation Army (SPLA), which has been employed by the US in order to destabilize the Islamic Republic of Sudan and is believed to have trained along with Israeli forces at Otis Air Force base in Massachusetts.
The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) is based in Boston and works with Christian Solidarity International. The organization has been closely involved in filming fraudulent "slave redemptions." Jacobs was presenting the issue as one of northern Arab "slavers" and African Christian southerners. In addition to claims of slavery, Jacobs has also described Sudan as a "terrorist, genocidal" state engaged in a "holy war." Charles Jacobs and his American Anti-Slavery Group's carefully designed "PR puff pieces" have managed to secure national media coverage. This campaign to vilify Arabs and Muslims is a multimedia effort that supplies huge quantities of lurid, both popular and pseudo-academic hate material.
Save Darfur
JCRC sponsored organizations that are staffed by Israel advocates trained by the David Project have further poisoned human rights discourse with the dishonest Save Darfur campaign aimed at divesting from Sudan as well as from any non-American corporation that does business with Sudan. Just as the American Anti-Slavery Group cloaked an earlier anti-Sudan campaign in the language of human rights and anti-racism, David Project trainees and affiliates have proven exceptionally effective at creating a new anti-Sudan crusade to spread yet more US-inspired chaos throughout the horn of African under the cloak of a holy battle against a non-existent genocide.
While pro-Palestine activists have struggled for years to slow the stream of US public funds to Israel, Jacob's anti-Sudan campaign is probably the quickest divestment success in US history. Thanks to the ongoing efforts of JCRCs, affiliated groups and a multimillion dollar multilevel marketing campaign, Sudan divestment resolutions have become law in Iowa and are in the process of approval in 12 states. Although US involvement in Sudanese politics can only be a disaster for the Sudanese and for America, this sort of propaganda serves the purpose of turning Arab and African Americans against each other in order to prevent them from mounting any jointly organized political efforts. The David Project and the JCRC, who have had more than one director in common, work hand in hand to minimize the potential political influence of groups who might oppose continuing US funding of Israel.
Muslims Sue the David Project
In 2006, after the David Project was found instigating a lawsuit against the City over the construction of a new mosque, Dr. Yousef Abou-Allaban, chairman of the board of the Islamic Society of Boston, addressed Charles Jacobs in an open letter that was quoted in the Boston Globe.
"We would like to know why you and others at the David Project appear to be so intent on inflaming relations between our communities," Abou-Allaban wrote. "Do you really hate us that much?"
In a landmark defamation suit, the ISB detailed "a concerted, well-coordinated effort to deprive ... members of the Boston Muslim community of their basic right of free association and the free exercise of their religion." Discovery materials from the ISB lawsuit have exposed a network of Neocons in the establishment, pro-Israel organizations, the mass media, and Islamophobic academics, working together to make the public fear the Muslim community.
The list of defendants in the lawsuit include Steven Emerson, a self-proclaimed 'expert' on radical Islam whose documentary, "Jihad in America," has been widely discredited, William Sapers, a director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, the Boston Herald, Boston's FOX TV station, the David Project, and Citizens for Peace and Tolerance (CPT), whose president is Dennis Hale, a speaker for the David Project.
Some Jewish groups have distanced themselves from the conspiracy to deprive Muslim Americans of their constitutional rights, which is a federal crime, but Nancy Kaufman, executive director of the Jewish Community Relations Council of Greater Boston stated, "None of those organizations [who signed statements supporting the mosque] are members of the organizations of the JCRC. We don't consider them to be a part of the mainstream Jewish community."
Conclusion
Much of the mainstream media's negative coverage of Muslims arises from the continuous stream of poisonous accusations and racist insinuations distributed as press releases by the David Project and its affiliates. Until recently, Israel advocacy organizations, posing as Jewish communal organizations as they put their primary efforts into subverting US foreign and domestic policy, have remained mostly invisible to American political scientists, who focused on traditional political lobbies like AIPAC.
Karin Friedemann is editor of World View News Service in Boston, focusing on the Islamic world. Please visit http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/wvns/.
PRESS RELEASE Emails show pro-Israel anti-Mosque Campaign in Boston
Summary: The David Project conspired with real estate agents, lawyers and politicians to organize a campaign to deny the Boston Muslim community their 1st amendment rights to worship freely.
Contact: Karin Friedemann karima4483@aol.com. World View News Service May 8, 2007
This week, Jessica Masse, interfaith coordinator of the Islamic Society of Boston, publicly released recent discovery materials obtained as part of the ISB's conspiracy lawsuit, which reveal that an Israel advocacy organization met with real estate investors, attorneys, and Republican activists at their office at 210 South Street in Boston to discuss an action plan "to present a legal challenge" to the Roxbury Mosque project.
On May 28, 2004, Anna Kolodner, executive director of the David Project, sent an email congratulating the group for their successful meeting.
"Discussion of issues and individuals involved in the Mosque led to some preliminary steps as we continue to gather information and develop an action plan."
Three days later, Kolodner circulated an idea.
"Given that they may not have parking, Josh [Katzen] suggested we might thwart them through the building permit process for the intended parking."
Joshua Katzen is a member of the team of aggressive real estate developers that wanted to unravel the land deal between the City of Boston and the ISB. Another anti-ISB activist, Jonathan Leffell, who is a principal of Rosemont Trust Real Estate Development Corporation, is chairman of the New England "Friends of the Israel Defense Forces" while William Sapers, who instigated the anti-Mosque campaign and who owns an insurance agency in Cambridge, has invested in real estate under the corporate name Hemisphere Inc. Sapers is a director of the Combined Jewish Philanthropies, which is an umbrella organization for mainstream Jewish communal organizations in Greater Boston. Steve Cohen, owner of CEA Group, another Boston area real estate agency, took the operational lead in the conspiracy against the ISB.
Steve Cohen suggested to Anna Kolodner that the group recruit a "Jewish" law student from Harvard to assist their attorneys, Evan Slavitt, who is also a Massachusetts Republican Party leader, and Jack Fainberg, who is a business litigator.
Other participants in this on-going private discussion were Avi Goldwasser, ahi-tech financier andmovie producer, Larry DiCara, who is a Republican politician, and Harvard undergrad Mickey Segal, who is a David Project intern, and Monty Gold, who is Anna Kolodner's husband. Steve Cohen, who is originally from New York, also consulted with Rabbi Melman,a New York-based Israel advocate, who opposes ceding an inch of land to the Palestinians.
The team's initial attempts received lukewarm reactions. Reporter Jonathan Wells had complained that he was "pissed that none of the other local media had picked up his story."
"Filing the lawsuit would be the initial lead/newsworthy component of the media angles," Anna Kolodner advised him. This would give the David Project a soapbox.
Anna Kolodner put David Project co-founder Charles Jacobs in charge of "enlisting support of the Black Church community in the suit as a possible plaintiff," but no one in the Black community was willing to participate.
The David Project had to make do with an Italian American who lives in Mission Hill, nowhere near the Roxbury Mosque.
Policastro's suit was dismissed in 2007 by a judge as being "without merit," but the team was not worried about winning the frivolous lawsuit. It had been a ploy to create negative publicity. Real estate investor Steve Cohen gloated over "the fact that a governmental action was taken in Boston may make this mosque more vulnerable to legal, political or media attack."
In this same email, entitled "Conversation with Jon Wells," Cohen mentioned reporter Jonathan Well's divorce and estrangement from his children like a weakness to exploit.
"After I come up with something to report, he and I will have lunch," Cohen bragged.
He also reported more of what he had learned from Wells.
"[T]he ADL is much more concerned and knowledgeable about this matter than their public statements would indicate. But, being associated with various ecumenical [read: interfaith] efforts, they are reluctant to be the lightning rod on this issue. Jon speculates that they would welcome the assistance and initiative of a bunch of independent guys (like us) who are not afraid of getting some bad press."
Steve Cohen described how he had specifically instructed the Fox TV news reporter Jonathan Wells to use language associating the mosque with terrorism.
According to his May 20, 2004 email, Cohen wanted to seek out information about the ISB's source of donations in the Middle East. Depending on the country of origin, the group would create a sensational news story saying the mosque was financed either by "the Wahhabi movement in Saudi Arabia or by the Moslem Brotherhood," which, they would claim "advocate the violent victory of Islam over the west [sic]."
Cohen went on about his conversation with Wells. "We both agreed that it would be very powerful if it could be proven that this is the source of the funding for the Mosque."
Cohen repeatedly contacted the executive producer of the Investigative Reporting unit at Fox25 News in Boston to pressure him and in one conversation instructed Jonathan Wells how to use the Freedom of Information act to obtain records from the Boston Redevelopment Authority about the City's sale of land to the Muslim community.
Cohen further explained his strategy to Anna Kolodner of the David Project:
"Aside from our 1st Amendment claims and the various other strategies to attack the mosque, ultimately our interest is based on the premise that some of the senior people in the ISB are supporters of terrorism and sworn enemies of America and Jews, and that the construction of the mosque may be funded by Wahhabis… If we are going to convince others to support our cause, especially in the media, we will need reasonably well-supported allegations."
The David Project collaborated with
Robert Leikind, the executive director of the ADL;
Steve Emerson, a discredited self-styled "terrorism expert," who founded the Investigative Project,
Rita Katz, a discredited former FBI informant, who co-founded of the SITE Institute; and
Ilana Freedman, a Republican politician, who is a managing partner of Gerard Group of "counter-terrorism experts" in Tyngsborough, Massachusetts,
to create a "comprehensive document regarding the individuals/organizations/history etc. of the Mosque, which will be the backbone of the media campaign."
The email discussion shows that the team wanted to enlist Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby in the anti-ISB campaign.
In 2004, the David Project, a 501c3 charitable organization, appears to have received half a million dollars in tax-payer funded government grants while organizing the campaign against the Roxbury Mosque.
Karin Friedemann is editor of World View News Service, focusing on the Islamic World.
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