Month: February 2012

I’m at a stopover on my way to Houston, where I’m speaking at the Baker Institute tomorrow night at 7pm (see below for details). I’ve just noticed that there is a long article about this event at the Jewish Herald-Voice, “Houston and the Texas Gulf Coast’s Jewish Community Newspaper Since 1908.”

It’s filled with the usual offensive nonsense, mostly drawn from the ADL’s defamation of me. The point, of course, is to scare people away from coming to my talk. Hopefully, however, it will pique people’s interest and help to publicize it.

That would be good, since the Baker Institute seems to be doing nothing to promote it. In fact, there’s not even any mention of it on their website, and is on none of their events calendars, even though local people have been trying to get it posted for several days.

The Jewish Herald-Voice article claims that a student allegedly finds my views “appalling” and “reprehensible,” but doesn’t name the student nor report what specifically in the many facts about Israel-Palestine I have reported that are so “appalling.” 

Quite likely, if this anonymous student really does exist, s/he is either (1) an Israel partisan or (2) has not actually read my articles for him or herself.

I remember once being interviewed by an NPR host who claimed that I sometimes used “anti-Semitic imagery.” I asked him what specifically he could possibly be referring to. He, of course, couldn’t answer; this had been fed to him by someone else — somewhat embarrassing for an interviewer. Needless to say, this didn’t air.

On the other hand, the Jewish Herald may have gotten it wrong and the student was actually referring to Israeli actions, which are frequently both appalling and reprehensible. 

UPDATE:

I’ve just gotten off the phone with another person from the Baker Institute and was told that the lack of a listing on the website is because the event is not being held in the institute itself and does not have webcast capabilities. Such events they don’t list. I’m not sure how or why that location was chosen.

Odder still, according to the Jewish Herald report, after my event was already scheduled, the Baker Institute Student Forum then “worked with the Consulate General of Israel” to schedule an Israeli spokesperson to give a talk the day after mine. That event is being held in the institute itself and has webcasting capability. 

EVENT DETAILS: 

“Israel-Palestine: Beyond the Headlines” — lecture by Alison Weir

February 9, 7pm — Sewall Hall Room 307.

It is building 65 on this map: http://www.rice.edu/maps/colormap.pdf. Parking is available in Founder’s Court visitor lot which is directly across from the building.

For information: contact@ifamericansknew.org / 202.631.4060

Hosted by the Baker Institute Student Forum James Baker Institute for Public Policy/Rice University 

 

 

I just saw this action alert. I hope a huge number of people will phone and take action. It would be nice if we could save at least one life.

Khader has a wife and two small daughters. Another baby is on the way. I hope they can grow up with a father.

WHAT: Peaceful Silent Demonstration in solidarity with political prisoner Khader Adnan who has been on Huger Strike in Israeli Prison for 53 days. http://bit.ly/w5qjBf

Israel National News reports that a young Jewish teenager fell in love with an Arab, converted to Islam, and decided to marry him, running away from home to do so. The parents, horrified, called the police, and after weeks of searching, located her.

While many parents would quite likely be concerned at a young daughter running off, there is another dimenstion to this story.

It turns out that Israel has something called the “Lehava anti-assimilation organization.” The Israel News article reports that this organization was in constant contact with the family, and will now “guide the family on how to treat their daughter.” The paper quotes its announcement:

“The organization will continue treating the young woman and help her return to the Jewish people. The organization welcomes the activities of the police and calls on the authorities to handle this phenomenon. We will continue to fight for the return of the daughters of Israel to the people of Israel.

The article reports that the stunned mother bemoaned the fact that “Girls here are exposed to minorities daily, on the way to school and back… It definitely can happen to anyone. My daughter was perfectly normal, full of joie de vivre, surrounded by friends. My daughter was a victim.”

She went on to say:

“Unfortunately, there is no immunity to almost anyone. In my worst nightmares I never dreamed it would happen to us.”

The article reports that a deputy mayor from a nearby village announced with concern that a growing number of Jewish girls are moving into Arab villages, a claim that the paper reports was confirmed by “Israel’s pro-Jewish Identity NGO Yad L’Achim.”

A related article tells of yet another organization, “The Family Lobby,” which responded to the deputy mayor’s report by claiming:

“The painful phenomenon of Jewish girls who cross over into Arab society is the direct result of the weakening of the family unit and the deterioration of the status of fathers in the Jewish family in recent decades – due to the activity of militant feminist women’s groups.'”

An observer might be forgiven for wondering whether the phenomenon is perhaps connected to something more basic: the self-destructive nature of a colonial system built on ruthless militarism and subjugation of others, an artificially manufactured society whose much-vaunted kibbutz system involved separating children from parents and parents from children – in considerable contrast to the Middle Eastern extended-family culture it sought to displace… but that still exists next door.