Betar Canada

By Melanie Phillips
April 30, 2008
URL: http://www.spectator.co.uk/print/the-magazine/features/643426/happy-60th-birthday-israel-well-done-for-surviving.thtml

Ben-Gurion would today be surprised to find, for example, that Israel is regarded as illegally occupying the West Bank (and until 2005, Gaza). Along with modern Israel, this was part of the territory of Palestine within which in 1922 the League of Nations gave Britain the task of re-establishing the Jewish national home because of the unique claim by the Jews — the only people for whom it had ever been their nation state, hundreds of years before the Arabs invaded it. In other words, far from being ‘Palestinian land’, the Jews are entitled to claim it under international law, which also gives it the right to hold on to it in self-defence. Yet ‘progressive’ opinion not only denies both law and history but demands (as do the Palestinians) the ethnic cleansing of every last Jewish settler from a putative Palestinian state (just as half Israel’s population was created by Jews driven out of their ancient homes in Arab lands). So much for anti-racism.

By Peggy Shapiro
March 26, 2008
URL: http://www.americanthinker.com/printpage/?url=http://www.americanthinker.com/2008/03/the_right_of_return_and_the_fo.html

On March 19, 2008, a group of Jewish representatives addressed the United Nations Human Rights Council to present The Case for Rights and Redress on behalf of refugees caused by the Arab-Israeli conflicts. These are not the ones who hold the title of "refugees for the longest period of time in recorded history" and who have been supported by UNRWA welfare in "refugee camps" for the past sixty years. No, the U.N. address was for Justice for Jewish Refugees from Arab Countries, the 850,000 Jews who were expelled from their homes in Arab lands. The report refers to documents recently uncovered in UN archives that "reveal a pattern of state-sanctioned oppression that precipitated the mass exodus of Jews from 10 Arab countries."

March 20, 2008
URL: http://www.solomonia.com/blog/archive/2008/03/york-university-paper-justifies-jerusale/index.shtml" target=

Solomon, on his blog Solomonia, provides a good analysis:
Honest Reporting Canada reports on a vile op-ed that appeared in the student paper at York University, justifying the massacre at Mercaz Harav: Excalibur Writer Justifies Seminary Terror Attack. Author Lama Aggad says it was no surprise as, after all, the institution was both Jewish and Zionist. Imagine. Its students would also grow up to serve in the IDF which, says Aggad, is committing a "Holocaust," and desires an Israel from "the Euphrates to the Nile" -- typical Middle-Eastern conspiracy theorizing.

College papers are no strangers to printing outrageous pieces calculated for effect, though they do usually have some scruples (one would think a Canadian paper especially so) against printing blatantly anti-Semitic applause for child murder.

I did think it worth swatting one fake in Aggad's piece, a supposed quote from Menachem Begin:
...Let's not forget the famous quote from the former Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin in his speech to the Knesset on June 25, 1982: "[The Palestinians] are beasts walking on two legs."

This is typical stuff -- fabricating a statement from an Israeli leader in order to justify murder. I had never heard this one before -- there are so many of these fake quotes floating around it's hard to keep up -- so I went looking. Fortunately, CAMERA illuminated the reality of Begin's statement years ago (while debunking Robert Fisk's use of the same "quote"...

Update: HonestReporting Canada reports the following:

We condemned the publication of a column endorsing the murder of innocent children, and asked the paper to issue a formal apology in the next edition. Our members from across Canada responded to our alert, sending hundreds of letters voicing their concerns over several inaccuracies contained in the op-ed contributor Lama Aggad.

Today, the Excalibur printed this apology and removed the op-ed from their website.

HonestReporting Canada would like to commend the Excalibur for publishing this necessary apology and thank our members, including students and community leaders, for their support and prompt action.

We would also like to acknowledge those organizations that received our alert and mobilized their members to follow up with the Excalibur. They include: Hasbara Fellowships, Betar Tagar, Media Action Group, B'nai Brith Canada, and Hillel (click here to read Hillel's excellent letter to the editor published in today's Excalibur).

By Sheri Shefa
February 7, 2008
URL: http://www.cjnews.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=14001&Itemid=101

Orna Hollander, executive director of Betar Canada, said the fact that IAW is gaining momentum shows that the Jewish community can’t afford to ignore it.

"The strategy has been… from an organized community end, to not lend credibility, to be quiet about it, not bring press around it… Four years later, I think we definitely learned that we can keep our heads in the sand, but it’s going to go on with or without us. [IAW organizers] very much control the PR and rhetoric on campus, and its time to stand up and take responsibility," Hollander said.

January 27, 2008
URL: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/SendMail.aspx?print=print&type=0&item=125049

Jacques Gauthier, a non-Jewish Canadian lawyer who spent 20 years researching the legal status of Jerusalem, has concluded: "Jerusalem belongs to the Jews, by international law."

By Shmuel Katz
December 27, 2007
URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1198517224676&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

US Ambassador Richard Jones was recently reported to have asked Supreme Court President Dorit Beinisch about the legal status of the 'settlements'.
This is indeed a subject which has long been neglected - or simply ignored. The answer to the question is a simple one, but in view of the obfuscation which has for years gathered around it, it is essential to examine its roots. They lie comfortably in the text of the Mandate for Palestine which was conferred on Britain in 1922 by the League of Nations.

By Moshe Arens
January 1, 2008
URL: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/940358.html

Olmert, who some years ago had declared "that we are tired of fighting, tired of defeating our enemies," had delivered the first defeat Israel had suffered in war since its creation.

By Daniel Pipes
November 28, 2007
URL: http://network.nationalpost.com/np/blogs/fullcomment/archive/2007/11/28/daniel-pipes-the-heart-of-the-problem.aspx

Breaking with his predecessors, Olmert has boldly demanded that his Palestinian bargaining partners accept Israel's permanent existence as a Jewish state, thereby evoking a revealing response.

By Caroline Glick
November 27, 2007
URL: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1195546731730&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FPrinter

On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly passed resolution 181. As a General Assembly resolution, 181 had no force of international law. The international legal basis for the Jewish state was the 1922 League of Nations Mandate for Palestine which charged the British government with administering the area earmarked as the future Jewish state.

By Frank J. Gaffney, Jr.
November 20, 2007
URL: http://www.townhall.com/columnists/FrankJGaffneyJr/2007/11/20/staticidal_zealotry

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is behaving like a zealot. In her ever-more-rash pursuit of a Palestinian state, she is exhibiting the syndrome defined by the philosopher George Santana, as one who redoubles her efforts upon losing sight of the objective.