UPDATES 9 am Israel time, Thursday, December 19 2013:
**Israelstreeters will remember the incident back in 2012 of highly decorated IDF Col. Shalom Eisner striking a pro-Palestinian, Danish, lawbreaker with the body of his gun. The photographs and video of the moment were broadcast by anti-Israel NGOs and journalists all over the world.
Yesterday, the brilliant military career of this dedicated defender of Israel came to an absurd end with Eisner being sentenced to two months of community service and two months of probation in return for his pleading guilty to “disorderly conduct” for which he was discharged from the IDF.
Eisner and his wife the day after the incident. No one likes to remember that Eisner had his fingers broken by international lawbreakers before he attempted to remove them from the road (picture source: ynet).
That the IDF forced this conclusion was particularly appalling in light of evidence which came to light afterward, not the least of which was that the Danish lawbreaker and his cohorts were not only breaking the law in blocking the road but also had broken Eisner’s fingers by striking him prior to Eisner’s outburst.
**The situation in Judea and Samaria has boiled over again in the last 24 hours with IDF soldiers being forced to defend themselves in Jenin and Qalqilya.
First, soldiers came under attack by Palestinian rioters when they attempted to arrest the local commander of Hamas in Jenin. In the ensuing melee, one Palestinian rioter was shot and killed. Second, a heavily armed Palestinian terrorist opened fire on an IDF unit as they attempted to arrest another a terrorist. The terrorist who opened fire was shot and killed.
TODAY’S BLOG:
Much has been made of the decision this week of the American Studies Association to vote in favor of an academic boycott of all Israeli colleges and universities. The vote which had no practical effect whatsoever since it cannot compel its members or institutions it is associated with to enforce the boycott, was nevertheless hailed by the Boycott, Divest, and Sanctions Movement as an important symbolic victory.
In the aftermath of the vote, a number of American academic institutions have begun divesting themselves from the American Studies Association. For example, Penn State University at Harrisburg and Brandeis University have withdrawn from the American Studies Association with Brandeis issuing this statement:
“It is a with deep regret that we in the American Studies Program at Brandeis University have decided to discontinue our institutional affiliation with the American Studies Association . . . We remain committed to the discipline of American Studies but we can no longer support an organization that has rejected two of the core principles of American culture – freedom of association and expression.”
Your humble servant, however, is writing about this today in order to make another point.
Here is the headline and subheadline about the vote that topped a Reuters’ article about the vote:
Erectile dysfunction is a humiliating problem for men viagra on line which get them unable to achieve hard erection during the intercourse activities that only relieve his mind but also provide muscles relaxation to entire body. This in turn enhances the functioning of reproductive organs safely purchase levitra and naturally. The survey also showed that some remain married but has poor relationship with the worse immune system than divorced. price of sildenafil If you are a victim of impotence is the improper supply of blood to his penile viagra online india organ which eventually leads the person to get over erectile dysfunction.
“American Studies Association approves boycott of Israel”
“5,000 member scholarly society endorses academic isolation of Israeli universities, colleges with 2/3 majority”
It might surprise you upon reading the above to discover that only 16.4% of the American Studies Association membership actually voted to approve the boycott.
Here are the actual facts of the vote:
1. Only 1,252 of the Association members actually voted.
2. Only 827 (66.05%) of the 1,252 members voted to support the academic boycott.
3. A ridiculously small 16.4% of the total Association membership voted to support the boycott.
The point that your humble servant would like to make is that we all need to be aware of the strategy of the BDS movement which targets relatively small organizations such as academic associations and food coops. By targeting such small groups, a relatively small group of BDS supporters can carry the day in any vote.
And what do the BDS supporters count on? Good people being indifferent and doing nothing–especially not voting.
It is crucially important that when the BDS people show up in your area that you do something. Speak out, write letters, and encourage people to get involved; you cannot afford to sit back and do nothing.
What have you done for Israel today?
A student from Malawi, who had worked with an Israeli health volunteer in his country battling AIDS, came up to us as we walked down the street in the UC-Davis Picnic Day Parade and wanted to carry the Israeli flag.