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Adar 2, 5767, 2/20/2007
Firing Frauds in Israeli Academiaby Steven Plaut
The real news concerning Prof. Ariel Toaff is that Bar-Ilan University has shown that it is unwilling to take disciplinary action against a crackpot professor publishing fraudulent materials and lies about Jews. There are, after all, numerous precedents from all over the democratic world of universities firing tenured professors for both fraud and for open promotion of lunatic, crackpot, obviously-false "theories". Several Holocaust Deniers have been fired from tenured jobs in the democratic world, with France's Robert Faurrison perhaps the most notorious. Professors promoting unacceptable offensive ideas or exhibiting behavior offensive to their employers have been fired in the US. Tenured professors have been stripped of tenure for the mere expression of lunatic ideas in the US and for embarrassing their own employers. Similarly, academics being caught conducting explicit fraud have also been canned. Luk van Parijs was fired from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology for fraud. Outside the democratic world, professors engaged in fraudulent research have also been fired. Even people willing to defend the most offensive campus opinions in the name of "academic freedom", such as those of University of Colorado's Ward Churchill, have agreed that he should be fired if he actually committed fraud. Western Professors endorsing or collaborating with terrorism have also been fired. There is some precedence for firing tenured faculty in Israel when fraud has been detected. All of which brings us to the case of Bar-Ilan University professor Ariel Toaff, son of Italian Rabbi Elio Toaff. As every neo-nazi web site on the planet has already publicized in jubilation, this Italian-Israeli "scholar" has published work claiming that Jews in the Middle Ages used Christian blood, including for Passover, and engaged in ritual murders. His "book", called Bloody Passovers, is a complete fraud. It gives credence to medieval "reports" that Jews murdered Christian children to use their blood for ritual purposes. It "confirms" that some Ashkenazi Jews indeed engaged in human sacrifices. Bar-Ilan's officials, facing a worldwide explosion of rage, have politely distanced themselves from Toaff. But they have not taken any action against him, have not stripped him of tenure for fraud nor fired him, and in fact have been going out of their way to circle their wagons and defend Toaff's "academic freedom." Suddenly fraud is protected academic scholarship. Toaff has generously offered to pull the book off the shelves for a little while in order to insert some "clarifications". The problem of course is not insufficient clarity but rather anti-Semitic outright fraud. Toaff is sticking to his guns, even if it means "he gets crucified" (in his words). Accusing Jews of being behind crucifixion is of course entirely consistent with his "scholarship." Meanwhile, Toaff's shenanigans illustrate better than any other why Israeli universities are sinking into a quagmire of mediocrity and how the unwillingness to act against crackpots and fraud are destroying Israeli academia.
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Adar 1, 5767, 2/19/2007
Anna Nicole Smith Wipes Israel off the Newsby Jack Engelhard
People outside the United States, mainly people in Israel, actually believe that we’re worried about what goes on beyond Anna Nicole Smith. Let me be the first to inform the world (are you listening?) that, sure, once in a while, we care about foreign affairs, but mainly it’s Anna Nicole Smith.
Anna Nicole Smith, dying as she did several weeks ago, and thus leaving behind an inheritance that everybody wants, did something that even Iran’s Mahmoud Ahmadinejad failed to do – she wiped Israel off the map, so far as news. Click on the TV, scroll to any channel, and here’s the latest not on Iraq, not 
Israelis operate on the (dangerous) assumption that their well-being depends on our thumbs up or thumbs down.
 on Sudan, certainly not on Israel, but on Anna Nicole Smith. Wall to wall, this coverage.
This is important information, especially for Israelis, who give up 10 miles of territory whenever they think we, in America, are not happy with their behavior. As soon as they think America is displeased, they say, “Okay, what do you want us to give up next?” Anything to make us (and the rest of the world) happy.
Last time I was in Israel, people asked, “Does America love us?”
I guess my answer wasn’t affirmative enough because a day later Israel they gave away Gaza.
Israelis operate on the (dangerous) assumption that their well-being depends on our thumbs up or thumbs down.
They think we’re paying attention, yes, but to Anna Nicole Smith.
In a moment, I will update the world on what else is hot here in America, on the news front, but meanwhile, let’s get back to Anna Nicole Smith. Anna Nicole Smith was an actress. No, wait. Not exactly. Anna Nicole Smith was a TV star. Well, not that, either. I give up. I really don’t know what she was.
Trust me, though. Nearly everybody claims to be the father of her baby – because of the inheritance. Did I mention that she once married a 90-year-old billionaire?
Now everybody claims to be the father. Barack Obama claims to be the father, as does Rudy Giuliani and John Edwards and John McCain and even Hillary Clinton.
Mitt Romney is the latest to claim fathership. Oh dear, my mistake. These are people running for president.
Never mind. That’s what happens when all the news is about Anna Nicole Smith, but not totally. There’s been other news.
Before Anna Nicole Smith, we were obsessed round-the-clock and round-the-dials with a jealous lady astronaut who wanted to send a romantic rival to the moon with one punch. This story was big at the time but it’s old now so there’s no sense in recapping, except that there’s always more on this if you tune in Greta or Geraldo, both of whom, incidentally, are also on top of the Anna Nicole Smith saga, naturally.
Before all that? Are you kidding me? Before all that we had the Super Bowl. For weeks leading up to this we had experts, across all the dials, discussing the commercials, the half-time show, and even the game. Like everyone else in America, I watched the game. Please don’t ask me who played. All I remember is that one team won, the other team lost.
But now, all that’s done, so we can really concentrate on Anna Nicole Smith.
To my friends in Israel, listen, please don’t be so quick to give up any more territory. You’re not doing us any favors and we have more important business.
We’ll get back to you after we’re done with Anna Nicole Smith, if that ever happens.
One more quick note. Canvass any street in America and, I’ll bet, only one person in 10 can name the prime minister of Israel – you know, what’s his name.
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Shevat 28, 5767, 2/16/2007
A Child Understandsby Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
Do I tell him or not? Will he hear about it from some other source or not? And if I do tell him, what do I say? Do we discuss his feelings?
That was part of my internal debate when I heard about Arabs (and perhaps non-Arab supporters) uprooting thousands of trees planted by children from the B'nei Akiva youth movement in honor of Tu B'Shevat. My son, you see, had been part of that nationwide B'nei Akiva tree-planting campaign. I realized that the trees that were targeted by the anti-Semitic vandals were not those my son had planted, for they were in a different part of the country, but they may as well have been. The Arabs who uprooted trees planted by Jews in the Hevron Hills would just as easily have uprooted trees planted by Jews in the Sharon Plain or in the Galilee, if they had the opportunity.
To the Arabs, those trees represent Jewish sovereignty, Jewish attachment to the land and Jewish continuity - especially when the tree saplings are themselves placed in the earth by young Jewish "saplings" growing free in the Land of Israel.
And you know what? They're right. That is exactly what they represent.
In my son's school and in B'nei Akiva, the kids learn about the origin of Tu B'Shevat in Jewish agricultural practices and Jewish law from the period of the First and Second Temples. Aside from the technical legal aspects gleaned studying the Mishnaic and Talmudic sources, there is a more subtly derived lesson: if Jews were discussing agricultural religious laws some 2,000 years ago, then that means that Jews were (and are) integral to this land.
Those trees represent Jewish sovereignty, Jewish attachment to the land and Jewish continuity.
A child educated in our ancient Jewish sources doesn't ask "why would they do that" when he hears about Arabs ripping up trees planted in the Hevron Hills; rather, he asks, "How dare they do that?"
A child educated in our ancient Jewish sources isn't fooled by imaginary "green lines" of relatively recent vintage.
So, I decided to let my son read the news reports on the incident. I believe that he already understands the situation much better than our current government ministers.
(But how do I explain to him that Jewish leaders are calmly planning - with Arab and American chieftains - the uprooting not of trees, but of thousands of our people from over that imaginary line?)
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Shevat 26, 5767, 2/14/2007
Las Vegas Odds On Israelby Jack Engelhard
In Vegas, they bet on everything; dogs, horses, and even the weather. A smart man would open a betting line on Israel. If it were me, I'd make a fortune. I'm always right. I'm not smart. I'm merely a pessimist and, according to my figures, pessimists, especially when it comes to Israel, are correct and on the money 99.8 percent of the time. Here's the scenario. The Arabs protest, the Israelis stand firm, and then, cave in, always, and I do mean ALWAYS. When Arabs rioted against the new pathway nearby the Temple Mount, I knew Israel would chicken out and give in. This happens every time. If only I could make money on these predictions of mine. THUGS AT THE SUMMITThe question of the moment is about that SUMMIT between Olmert and Abbas - will it or won't it take place? But that is not the real question, which is, since when is a thug, like Abbas, part of a SUMMIT? When Roosevelt met Churchill, that was a SUMMIT. Even when Harry met Sally, that was a SUMMIT. When Olmert (whatever you think of him) meets Bush, that is a SUMMIT. But when Olmert meets Capone (nee Abbas), that is MUD WRESTLING. CUDDLE UP WITH HITLERSome people ought to quit while they're ahead. Norman Mailer spent a lifetime building a reputation as a first-rate man of literature - but now there's this as reported in the NY Post: "It's impossible not to identify to some small degree with the protagonist [Hitler], so the book is going to be offensive to a lot of Jews." Thus spoke Mailer about his new novel, "The Castle in the Forest." How about you, Norm? You're a Jew, no? A RELIGIOUS SCIENTIST? OXYMORON?I said scientist, not Zionist. According to the NY Times, a paleontologist named Marcus Ross wrote a paper for his dissertation at the University of Rhode Island that got high marks from fellow scientists. Ross played by the scientifically correct rules BUT, he does not believe that the universe JUST HAPPENED - BOOM -- while the rest of us were asleep. No, this man Ross "believes the Bible is a literally true account of the creation of the universe." Ross's peers don't know what to do with this guy. MY (MIS)TAKE ON CARTERMaybe you did and maybe you didn't read my piece (two pieces actually) on Jimmy Carter in A-7. I'm never sure if my friends read me - enemies? oh yes, guaranteed. I'm on some 20 websites blasting my take on Jimmy. At least I thought it was 20 until I found that the language is all the same, which means, that they have one website only go under 20 different names, to give the impression of universal condemnation. These people are smart. WHO SAYS JEWS ARE SMART?When it comes to advances in research, medicine, technology and everything else that needs brain, we're right there, but on public relations, welcome to Chelm. JEWS ARE NOT PERFECT - THEREFOREUSA Today carried a piece by Rev Oliver "Buzz" Thomas that pretty much apes Jimmy Carter word for word, only condensed but just as hateful against Israel. CAMERA takes him apart chapter and verse. But what gets me is this man's call for fellow US Christians to more or less (more actually) abandon Israel. Because Israel is regarded as G-d's Chosen people, according to Thomas, "America turns a blind eye to her (Israel's) shortcomings." Israel has SHORTCOMINGS? The Jews are not PERFECT? Something must be done to teach these people about perfection, right reverend? Let's start with you, Mr. Thomas. Teach us. If you only knew how many people throughout the ages punished us for being less perfect than you. Now you want to teach us again. Thank you WHY ISRAEL?Because G-d said so - and because of the millions (billions) of people like Rev Thomas.
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Shevat 26, 5767, 2/14/2007
Epiphany Timeby Ellen Horowitz
The revelations are anything but uplifting - rude and frightening awakenings may best describe the sort of moments of truth that many of us are experiencing. It's like we can suddenly and accurately piece together the shards of a shattered national and international picture into a vast panoramic view which weaves together and connects our past, present, and future. Our devastating choices and mistakes are startlingly delineated and everything is connected. For me, the eerie feeling started at the Madrid Conference which followed the first Gulf War. By the time the toxic trio shook hands on the White House lawn in 1993, I was quite sure that the dye had been cast. The earth shook for my husband years earlier when Israel relinquished Sinai to the Egyptians. Others felt it as far back as 1967 when Moshe Dayan pulled the valiantly idiotic gesture of handing the Temple Mount - which was in our hands - over to the Muslim Wakf. Still some woke up to the nightmare a little late in the game, as their world crumbled during the incomprehensible 2005 expulsion from the Jewish communities of Gush Katif. And last summer in Lebanon did it for others. For Richard Landes, a history professor from Boston University, the apocalyptic pattern emerged when he viewed the rushes of an incident which kicked off Intifada 2000 and an unprecedented eruption and era of global terrorism. Over the last six months I've had the honor and pleasure of working as a research assistant for Professor Richard Landes. As part of my responsibilities I've spent significant time combing through damning material from the photo and film archives of the various international press agencies. As a creative person, one of my greatest fears is that of wasted efforts and potential. So as I tirelessly perused this disturbing material, I kept wondering if, when, and how the pictorial data and evidence would be used. I¹m pleased to see that Professor Landes and his production staff masterfully pieced together an epic chapter in global history. Now it¹s the concerned public¹s responsibility to disseminate this film and insist that it be viewed. Please download, view and distribute to the online public: ICON OF HATRED http://seconddraft.org/movies.phpThis is the third part of of series which started with PALLYWOOD and continued with THE BIRTH OF AN ICON. It's recommended that these first two parts be viewed in order to have a full understanding of the important issues highlighted in ICON Of HATRED. Comments and questions regarding the documentaries or the Professor's work should be directed to Richard Landes at <rl.seconddraft@gmail.com> or comment via his blogsite at http://www.theaugeanstables.comIt should be noted that this film was first screened on Hannukah at a forum held in conjunction with 7th Annual Herzliya Conference, entitled: The Media as a Theater of War, the Blogosphere, and the Global Battle for Civil Society. The Blogosphere does offer all of us an immense opportunity to critically challenge MSM outlets and their proclivity towards misinformation and propaganda. Arutz 7 is to be congratulated for staying on the cutting edge of Internet development and for enabling writers like myself to express ourselves honestly and accurately via a channel which upholds Jewish values and moral standards - and which has a full understanding of Israel's ethical obligations towards the world at large. Looking forward to sharing and exchanging views and information with a concerned and accountable online community.
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