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People behind BDS are also responsible for 9/11 attack, Israeli centrist tells NY synagogue

Yair Lapid, the former Israeli finance minister and head of a centrist Israeli political party (who is just as hawkish as the government but in opposition), made news this weekend at the Jerusalem Post conference in New York saying that the BDS — Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions–  campaign against Israel is a puppet of Hamas and describing BDS leaders as “outright antisemites” linked to the “Palestinian Mufti who collaborated with the Nazis.”

On Saturday Lapid gave a speech that touched on BDS to the Park Avenue synagogue in New York. The video clip is up on his Facebook page. Here is what he said:

I’m also here to talk about the BDS movement, which has to be confronted with all our force, both in Europe and here in the U.S. The situation is getting worse, the tide is turning and either we turn it back now or it will sweep over us. We are all aware of the situation on campuses, but the Palestinians are engaged in a concrete and extremely well funded effort to take their campaign to the next level.

At FIFA, the world football association, the disaster was averted at the last moment. In Europe we have already have lost much of the progressive center, and the CEO of one of the largest telecommunications firms has publicly said that he wants to cut business ties with Israel.

Vince Lombardi
Vince Lombardi

This is not about policies, or about the settlements, or about the peace process, this is classic anti-semitism in a modern disguise. In order to fight it, we need to move as the rabbi said, in the Vince Lombardi way, from defense to offense, and remind the world that behind these movements are the people responsible for 9/11, for the terror attacks in Madrid and London, and for the 250,000 people already killed in Syria.

In order to make this case, we need our American friends, we need the Jewish community. We really need you, all of you. We are ready to provide you with whatever support you need, but in this battle you are the foot soldiers on the front lines and we are counting on you. We can disagree on some of the aspects of government policy, but when faced with external enemy we unite. American says that politics stops at the water’s edge. This is our water’s edge. The way to defeat BDS is for us to stand together and to stand tall.

Lapid’s appeal, by the way, is reminiscent of Ruth Wisse of Harvard saying some years ago that

Every Israeli has to be in the Army for two or three years of his training at least and then a month of every year at least afterwards. I think that American Jews ought to think of themselves the same way, that for a certain part of your life you are just part of that army

Are you part of that army here in the U.S.? Is that your social identity: you have your differences with Israeli policy, but when the going gets tough, you are a footsoldier for that country here? Golly.

Thanks to James North and Asa Winstanley.

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“Are you part of that army here in the U.S.?”

No. Perish the thought.

From the website:

“BDS is a strategy that allows people of conscience to play an effective role in the Palestinian struggle for justice.

Palestinian Civil Society Calls for Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions against Israel Until it Complies with International Law and Universal Principles of Human Rights” – See more at: http://www.bdsmovement.net/call#sthash.A9lD3bIV.dpuf

That’s my kind of “army’.

In other huge, great news:

“U.S. court invalidates law that let Jerusalem-born citizens list Israel on passports
Ruling considered a victory for the Obama administration who says Congress encroached on president’s power in passing law.”

http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/1.660260

ooooo, the Mufti and the Nasties. Again.
But didn’t Stern Gang (terrorists? paramilitary? freedom fighters? budding totalitarians: see below, builders of a foreign-settler-colonialist state) seek also to make a deal with the Nasties? Wikipedia thinks so

Lehi (Hebrew pronunciation: [ˈleχi]; Hebrew: לח”י – לוחמי חרות ישראל‎ Lohamei Herut Israel – Lehi, “Fighters for the Freedom of Israel – Lehi”), commonly referred to in English as the Stern Gang,[9][10][11][12] was a Zionist paramilitary organization founded by Avraham (“Yair”) Stern in Mandatory Palestine.[13][14] Its avowed aim was to evict the British authorities from Palestine by resort to force, allowing unrestricted immigration of Jews and the formation of a Jewish state, a ‘new totalitarian Hebrew republic’.[15] It was initially called the National Military Organization in Israel,[1] upon being founded in August 1940, but was renamed Lehi one month later.[16]

Lehi split from the Irgun militant group in 1940 in order to continue fighting the British during World War II. Lehi initially sought an alliance with Fascist Italy and Nazi Germany, offering to fight alongside them against the British in return for the transfer of all Jews from Nazi-occupied Europe to Palestine.[2] Believing that Nazi Germany was a lesser enemy of the Jews than Britain, Lehi twice attempted to form an alliance with the Nazis.[

“In order to make this case, we need our American friends, we need the Jewish community. We really need you, all of you. ” Lapid

The following poll is from 2013 si lets hope for Israel,s sake , the American Jews do not forget it.
Remember Mr and Mrs American Jew , send your money honey but stay out of “Our ” business.

“A new poll reveals that Israelis would prefer American Jews mind their own business. In the Jerusalem Post, Lahav Harkov reports:

Of the Israelis polled, 31.9 percent think Israeli leaders should not take into account the positions of American Jews on the peace process at all, and 33.6 percent said U.S, Jewry’s views should be considered to a small extent. Only 21.6 percent called for those views to be taken into account to a great extent, and 9.4 to a very great extent.

At the same time, however, 66.3 percent of Israelis think American Jews have a “somewhat or positive” influence on Israel’s national security. American Jews can rally behind laws that promote Israel’s safety, but when it comes to matters of policy, it seems that some of those polled would rather not hear from them at all.” J post.

http://tabletmag.com/scroll/135548/israelis-to-u-s-jews-stay-out-of-peace-process

It bears repeating that the Jerusalem Post is a rag. It is written and edited primarily by members of the ex-pat community of American Jews. Its readership is the same. The Jerusalem Post’s reputation in the U.S. is still sustained by the fumes from its heydey 40+ years ago. It once was the unofficial English language outlet of the Labor Zionist establishment. The JP’s editorials were pre- approved by the Prime Minister’s office.
It’s odd that a Jerusalem Post event got such high recognition from the White House and Israeli pols. Other Israeli dailies have much better access to the corridors of power in Jerusalem. I guess “Jerusalem Post” is easier to work with in the English language rather than the unwieldy “Ha’aretz” (where do you put the accent?) or the impossible Yediot Aharonot.

I think that Lapid is trying out the script of his latest ‘thriller’.

From 2013, CNN lovingly strokes him:

“Yair Lapid, the charismatic journalist-turned-politician who surprisingly vaulted to second place in Israel’s national election, has long been a familiar face across the Jewish state.

The 49-year-old leader of the centrist Yesh Atid party is a former journalist and talk show host, son of a prominent politician, and a one-time amateur boxer with a rep as one of Israel’s sexiest men.

Lapid segued his journalism into politics and emerged as an archetype — a voice of the middle-class Israeli striving for success, but anxious about the high cost of living, a voice representing Israelis who’ve had it with the exemptions from mandatory military service for the ultra-Orthodox, a voice of everyday optimism.”…

http://www.cnn.com/2013/01/23/world/meast/israel-elections-lapid/index.html

Now he’s segued into the abyss, armed with a case of Ziomania.

Funnily enough, in 2013: “Lapid ranked first on the list of the “Most Influential Jews in the World” by The Jerusalem Post.[2]”

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yair_Lapid