Germany sold Syria chemicals with military potential

(Germany exported 111 tons of chemicals to Syria between 2002 and 2006 that could be used in the production of sarin gas, according to a government document published on Wednesday. )

Berlin Jewish Museum Faces Criticism for Placing Jews in Glass Case for Exhibit

Seven decades after the Holocaust, the Berlin Jewish Museum asks Jewish men or women to sit in a glass box and answer questions from visitors about Judaism. Photo: © Jüdisches Museum Berlin, photo: Linus Lintner.

Almost 70 years after the Holocaust, the Jewish Museum in Berlin is fending off criticism for hosting an exhibit, “The Whole Truth, everything you wanted to know about Jews,” which asks Jewish men and women to sit in a glass box and answer questions by visitors about Jews and Judaism. Adolf Hitler’s Nazi government planned and executed the murder of six million Jews by 1945. Today “a lot of our visitors don’t know any Jews and have questions they want to ask,” said museum official Tina Luedecke, according to Fox News. “With this exhibition we offer an opportunity for those people to know more about Jews and Jewish life,” Luedecke said. But critics have voiced concern that the exhibit is not an appropriate way to educate the German public about Judaism. In addition to the glass box, another part of the exhibit includes a placard asking “How you recognize a Jew?” next to several yarmulkes, black hats and Jewish women’s hair covers. In another section, visitors are asked if Jews are “particularly good looking, influential, intelligent, animal loving or business savvy.” As to the box idea, prominent Berlin Jewish community figure Stephan Kramer, according to the Associated Press, rhetorically asked, “Why don’t they give him a banana and a glass of water, turn up the heat and make the Jew feel really cozy in his glass box?” The Jewish museum curator, Miriam Goldmann, says the “in your face” approach is necessary to deal with a subject still painful in Germany for both Jews and non-Jews. The exhibit has attracted a lot of visitors. While sitting in the box, Ido Porat, a 33-year-old Israeli, was asked what should be brought to a Shabbat dinner in Israel and why only Jewish men and not women wear yarmulkes. Another person asked about Judaism and homosexuality. Some German Jews and Israeli Jews volunteering at the museum are resigned to the idea. “With so few of us, you almost inevitably feel like an exhibition piece. Once you’ve been ‘outed’ as a Jew, you always have to be the expert and answer all questions regarding anything related to religion, Israel, the Holocaust and so on,” museum volunteer Leeor Englander said.
algemeiner

via searchlight-germany.blogspot.com

Great Berlin’s Damage Control: More Damage Than Control

Great Berlin’s Damage Control: More Damage Than Control

(Israelly Cool) The Greta Berlin controversy just won’t go away, with uber leftist Larry “the Eagle” Derfner interviewing her in light of Ali Abuminah’s damaging claims.

http://972mag.com/head-of-free-gaza-movement-anti-semitic-video-in-question-i...

It seemed the easiest way to determine if Berlin was telling the truth or lying would be for her to publish the Facebook group discussion of the video, in whole or at least in part. On Friday night, Ali Abunimah of Electronic Intifada wrote that he had just spent several hours on a discussion group where the video was posted (though, he noted, not by Berlin):

[I]t was neither preceded nor followed by any interactions that would fit the description that it “was shared with a group of people who were discussing propaganda and racism, and this link was an example of the terrible propaganda that could be spewed on websites.” This context does not exist.

I asked Berlin if she would publish the group discussion, in full or in part, and she reiterated what she wrote on FGM’s website – that the video never made it to her discussion group. She said the group discussion Abunimah monitored has over 1,000 members, while the group she meant to send the video to has 37. In other words, she said, the  group discussion for which she’d intended the video never took place, so there’s no discussion to publish. (See statement from group members in UPDATE below.)
I saw part of the Facebook discussion that Abunimah evidently referred to, and from what I saw, his description was right – but it’s not the group Berlin says she meant. She said the smaller group has been together for nearly a year, and in the last month some of its discussion topics included  “homophobia in the Middle East,” “the tragedy of the Jews from Arab countries – it’s an inseparable part of the Zionist story,” the Israeli 12th grade draft resisters, Pamela Geller, and a Tel Aviv historical exhibition on “Nakba perpetrators.”
She says she didn’t watch the Mullins video when she tried to send it to her group – which she did on the basis of its title, “Zionists operated the concentration camps and helped murder millions of innocent Jews” – but said she has watched it since. “It’s disgusting!” she exclaimed. “This is what upsets me more than anything [that such a video could be associated with her and FGM]. The man is a nut.”
I asked about her endorsement of Gilad Atzmon’s book “The Wandering Who?” which is widely considered anti-Semitic (and which I haven’t read). She said she’s “not a big fan of what he writes,” but that as she wrote in her endorsement, she found the book fascinating, funny, sad “and by the end I was exhausted. When I wrote that after reading all that I was ‘glad I’d been brought up a Methodist,’ that was meant to be funny.” I asked if she thought the book expressed hatred of Jews, and she said, “I found nothing anti-Jewish in that book,” adding that she felt Atzmon had been “demonized.”
I asked about the FGM tweet of a 1943 Nazi propaganda movie, and she  said she didn’t recall seeing the movie or sending the tweet. Regarding an FGM tweet about the infamous film “The Innocence of Muslims” that mentions “An Israeli film maker, 100 Jewish donors,” she said those details were taken from the early reports in the New York Times and other mainstream news agencies, but that since then, of course, the story had changed. “The New York Times was fooled, too,” she said.
I asked her about an FGM tweet of the “slow-motion genocide” in Gaza. She said: “That’s a term I’ve been using for a long time, I use it in my presentations. That is my view of what’s happening.” I asked her about the FGM tweet regarding the “extermination camps” in Gaza. She said: “I think if something isn’t done about Gaza pretty quickly, I think that is what’s going to happen. There are lots of reports, UN reports, that say Gaza is going to become uninhabitable. I am pretty upset by the situation in Gaza.”
Berlin, who’s 71, apologizes for hitting the wrong button on Sunday’s tweet, but not for anything else, certainly not for anything she’s said with FGM. She doesn’t strike me as a person who scares easily, or who would disown something she believes in to stay in anyone’s good graces. If she genuinely believed in crackpot, anti-Semitic ideas, I think she’d say so and stick by it. But she says she doesn’t believe in such ideas, in fact she finds them disgusting, and there’s nothing remotely close to any definitive proof that she does believe them, and I think the reason for that is because she doesn’t.
UPDATE: Statement by members of Berlin’s FB discussion group:
In the past few days there have been a flood of attacks on Greta Berlin, based on an incident that was blown out of proportion, a reaction to an innocuous post that was taken completely out of context. When Greta saw the original post published in one Facebook group, she intended to share it with our group in the context of an ongoing discussion. Unfortunately, she forgot to change the setting on the Facebook sharing feature, bringing the post to her wall instead of landing in our closed group. Since Greta’s wall was linked with the Free Gaza Movement Twitter account, the post found its way to Twitter. Isolated from our discussion, the post was understood completely out of context, leading readers to believe that Greta herself was endorsing the content of the post.
Ours is a small and secret Facebook group, 37 members strong, consisting of a very diverse set of people from different backgrounds, ethnicities and opinions. Many of us know each other personally; our mutual trust allows discussions to involve subjects that are not appropriate for public consumption, sometimes simply because our opinions are not fully ripe; we experiment with them and bounce them off each other in an attempt to understand the issues at hand, developing a better and more coherent argument.
One such topic involves the role of the Zionist movement during the Holocaust. Numerous historians before us made the claim, that leaders of the Zionist movement gave higher priority to the realization of their national project, sometimes missing opportunities to save European Jews. These priorities were made explicit in a famous quote by David Ben-Gurion, their consequences analyzed by historians such as Tom Segev and others. In this context Greta wished to highlight that anti-Semitic remarks have exaggerated and distorted this argument, claiming that Zionists have actively “run the concentration camps”.
Naturally nobody in his or her right mind would adopt such a claim, least of all Greta Berlin. Greta is highly respected and trusted by a large community of human rights activists, a co-founder and one of the leaders of the Free Gaza Movement. She’s faced down the IDF on the high seas a number of times, and is obviously no coward. If she hated Jews and denied the Holocaust, she would not be afraid to say so in public. But that’s not what she thinks, and her personal courage is a matter of record. So there is no reason for anyone to doubt her word.
Many in the media accused Greta of actually endorsing this false claim. Being familiar with the relevant discussions, we attest that understanding the context makes it plain that she does not endorse it, nor are we aware of her ever suggesting that she does.Others accused Greta of failing to provide the required context that supports her position. In the paragraphs above we tried to shed more light on this context, explaining the technical glitch that resulted in the publication of an isolated fragment of discussion, decontextualized from the rest. We hope that this will contribute  to the clarification of this unfortunate affair.
Members of the Facebook group:
Adam Rawat, London, UK
Fadwa Othman, Nablus, Palestine
Ian Raven. Leicester, UK
Kyle O’Laughlin, Chicago, Illinois, USA
Mary Hughes Thompson, Manchester, UK
Professor Mazin Qumsiyeh, Palestine
Mike Burch, Nashville, Tennessee, USA
Moe Tamim, Montreal, Canada
Mona Affaneh, Memphis, Tennessee, USA
Nadia Mansour, Los Angeles, California, USA
Ofer Engel, London, UK
Rim Selmi, Tunis, Tunisia
Robby Martin, Dublin, Ireland
Sam Siddiqui, Mumbai, India
Walid Jabari, Bethlehem, Palestine
Yani Haigh, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

Again, I call BS on Berlin’s latest explanation.

• If publishing discussions from this so-called private Facebook group would provide context and potentially exonerate her, why won’t Berlin provide screenshots as proof?
• Even if Berlin mistakenly posted it to her Facebook wall, why did she leave it up there, along with the comment in support of the antisemitic video’s contention?
• What about the explanation for the link to the Nazi propaganda film?

Tellingly, Berlin’s explanation of the Atzmon endorsement, actually demonstrates her antisemitism. As mentioned, “The Wandering Who?” is widely considered antisemitic, and for good reason. Berlin’s explanation, in which she tells of finding the book “fascinating, funny, sad”, coupled with her lame “I was being funny” excuse for her “Methodist” comment, as well as denying there was anything anti-Jewish in that book, should be seen to be the final nail in the coffin.
Update: Grab your popcorn, folks.

Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah 8 Oct 12

@engelo Are you refusing to answer the question about whether any other @freegazaorg members are part of the secret group?

Free Gaza Movement @freegazaorg

@AliAbunimah @engelo Are you refusing to apologize to me for your mistakes, Ali? I gave you ample opportunity. Greta

8 Oct 12

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Sara سارة @SazzleUk 8 Oct 12

@AliAbunimah infighting is not helping anybody, please leave this & forget. You are keeping this misunderstanding in the limelight.

Ali Abunimah @AliAbunimah

@SazzleUk Sadly, it is those who think they can mislead and lie there way out of a serious situation that perpetuate damage.

8 Oct 12

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GERMAN COURT: JIHADI TERRORISTS ON TRIAL HID PLANS IN PANTS……. |

(Tundra) And look what else popped out. H/T: Fjordman, Picture: Sheik Yer’Mami (PBUH)

Austrian and German terrorists hid plans in their underpants

Two alleged terrorists including one Austrian hid plans in their underpants to hack off heads, burn bodies and then send the videos back to their al-Qaeda bosses in Afghanistan, a German court has heard. German Yusuf Ocak, 26, and Austrian Maqsood Lodin, 22, were arrested last year and charged with membership in a terrorist organization. Prosecutors in Berlin say both underwent terrorist training in the lawless frontier region of Pakistan.

The court investigating the activities of the two Berlin-based suspected terrorists has heard how a USB stick was found in the underpants of 22-year-old Lodin which included a folder with the filename “future work”. It detailed how they would terrorise the Western world with small campaigns that “the enemy” would find it impossible to combat, and that would generate “panic” in the population.

Other folders detailed how to carry out kidnappings and murders and to inspire fear that anyone living in the West could find themselves murdered at any time. It also included details on how to avoid capture by accidentally releasing information that might lead investigators onto the terrorist’s trail. The pair had been allegedly trying to build up a network of suicide bombers in Berlin and Vienna.

The pair are charged with recruiting Islamist militants and releasing a propaganda video threatening attacks. Ocak is accused of travelling to the border region between Afghanistan and Pakistan in May of 2009 to take part in armed combat against NATO forces. He is also charged with helping to found a group called the German Taliban Mujahideen, which in one Internet video threatened Germany over its troop deployment in Afghanistan.

More here.

what an asshole

Anti-Semitism on the Rise in Germany

A highly-anticipated new report, "Anti-Semites as a Coalition Partner," which examines the increasing anti-Israel activism of politicians belonging to the German Left Party (Die Linke), has sparked a debate over the rise of anti-Semitism disguised as anti-Zionism in post-modern Germany. The study has been welcomed for drawing attention to the re-emergence of anti-Semitism in public discourse in Germany, and has even triggered a debate about Israel bashing in the German parliament.
Excerpts of the study, subtitled "The Left Party: Between Anti-Zionist Anti-Semitism and the Wish to Govern," were published by the center-left Frankfurter Rundschau newspaper on May 19. The report says: "A power has established itself within the parliamentary spectrum of the Left Party, which tolerates anti-Semitic positions.... Our thesis is that anti-Zionist anti-Semitism has become the dominant consensus position within the German Left Party."
The authors conclude: "The 'Left' is moving ever closer to governing and – as a result of vote-getting potential above all in eastern Germany – the possibility exists that for the first time in the history of the German Federal Republic a political party – which since 2010 has clearly positioned itself as anti-Semitic could gain power."
In a separate essay, "The Left Party Has an Anti-Semitism Problem" and published by the center-right Die Welt newspaper on June 8, 2010, German sociologist Samuel Salzborn wrote: "The Left Party has an anti-Semitism problem which can no longer be ignored. For the number of incidents – which originate from an anti-Semitic worldview – has increased dramatically since the beginning of the year. The pattern is always the same: ostensibly it is couched as criticism of Israel, but the arguments reveal themselves as anti-Semitic to the core. This can be seen by the participation by two current and one former Left Party representatives from the Bundestag in the Gaza Flotilla and thus with open collaboration with violent Islamists. The fact that Left Party functionaries are cooperating with radical Islamists, who have never concealed their anti-Semitic motives, is the result of a widespread radicalization of the party."
The accusations prompted a heated debate in the German Bundestag [parliament] on May 25. The debate, "Recent social scientific research into the potential anti-Semitic and anti-Israel positions and practices in the Left Party," addressed what many experts consider to be the dominant form of modern anti- Semitism in Germany: the loathing of the Jewish state. Hans-Peter Uhl, from the Bavaria-based Christian Social Union, a sister party of German Chancellor Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union, accused the Left Party of "fishing for votes in anti-Semitic voter groups."
The German Left Party is an amalgamation of former East German communists, disaffected former Social Democrats and western German Marxists. In recent years, the Left Party has turned itself into an important fixture on Germany's political landscape. It garnered 12% of the vote in the last national elections in September 2009 and is now the fourth-largest political party in Germany. It is the most popular party in eastern Germany, and is in coalitions with the Social Democrats in the regional governments of Berlin and Brandenburg.
In recent months, members of the German Left Party have been involved in a series of aggressive anti-Israel activities.
In May, Left Party deputy Inge Höger appeared at a pro-Hamas conference in Wuppertal in North Rhine-Westphalia wearing a keffiyeh showing a map labelled "Palestine" on the entire territory of the State of Israel. At the 9th Palestinians in Europe Conference, which was titled "The Generation of Return Knows Its Way," Höger spoke about the "misuse of the Holocaust" in silencing criticism of Israel's "occupation policies." She also said that Israel has for "many years starved and indiscriminately bombed the population of Gaza because they voted democratically [for Hamas in January 2006]. The legend of Israel as the only democracy in the Middle East is a farce."
Also in May, Hermann Dierkes, the leader of the Left Party in Duisburg, penned an "Open Letter" in which he compared Israeli policy towards the Palestinians with the Nazi regime. Dierkes accused the Israelis of using methods against Palestinians that look "damn close to what the Nazis did in the 30s." In 2010, Dierkes termed Israel's right to exist as "petty."
In April, the Duisburg branch of the German Left Party posted a flyer on its website with a swastika morphing into a Star of David, and called for a boycott of Israeli products. The flyer, which calls Israel a "rogue state" and a "warmonger" states: "Oppose the moral blackmail of the so-called Holocaust! Truth makes free!" This is a pun on the "Arbeit macht Frei!" sign which is located above the entrance gate to the Auschwitz concentration camp.
In March, a group called the "Bremer Peace Forum" in the northern Germany city of Bremen staged protests in front of supermarkets urging Germans to boycott Israeli products. The Forum protesters distributed leaflets showing pictures of bloody oranges and held posters with the slogan: "Save the Palestinian people."
In a Call to Action dated March 3, 2011, the German Left Party declares: "Israel has occupied the West Bank for decades, contrary to numerous UN resolutions. More and more illegal Jewish settlements are being built and Israel exports the fruits that are harvested from there. This is against international law and the exports from the occupied territories are illegal. A boycott of Israeli products will move public opinion in order to increase international pressure on Israel, just as happened in South Africa."
In May 2010, two members of the German Left Party, Inge Höger and Annette Groth, and a former Left Party deputy, Norman Paech, participated in the so-called Gaza Freedom Flotilla that attempted to break Israel's naval blockade of the Gaza Strip. Under the guise of providing humanitarian aid to the Gaza Strip, the three joined forces with Turkish Islamists in support of Hamas, which is committed to the destruction of Israel. The Left Party publicly applauded their efforts: "We are very proud," said party-leader Gesine Lötzsch said at the time.
Later that May, Höger, Groth and Paech filed a "war crimes" complaint against Israel with the German public prosecutor. The complaint accuses Israel of "numerous potential offences, including war crimes against individuals and command responsibility ... as well as false imprisonment."
The Left Party's foreign policy spokesman, Wolfgang Gehrcke, has been accused of attending pro-Hamas and pro-Hezbollah rallies in Germany, and he also has a track record of making anti-Israel statements to the German media.
Over the years, leading members of the Left Party have also waged an anti-Israel campaign. Left Party deputy Christine Buchholz has been a member of the party's "Shift to the Left" faction, which supports the "legitimate resistance" of Hamas and Hezbollah in their terrorist attacks against Israel. She has also played down the Iranian threat against Israel.
Left Party Vice President Sahra Wagenknecht, in an interview with Der Tagesspiegel in February 2010, accused Israeli President Shimon Peres of spreading "lies" about Iran's drive to build nuclear weapons. Wagenknecht and Buchholz were also the only ones to remain seated during a standing ovation for Peres during his Holocaust remembrance speech in the Bundestag.
But German anti-Semitism is not limited to just the far-left Left Party. A new study published by the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, a think-tank affiliated with Germany's Social Democratic Party, reveals high levels of anti-Semitism in Germany and a strong presence of anti-Semitism that is linked with Israel and is hidden behind criticism of Israel.
The April 2011 report, which is titled "Intolerance, Prejudice and Discrimination: A European Report," questioned roughly 1,000 people in each of eight European countries. The study found that 47.7% of Germans believe "Israel is conducting a war of extermination against the Jews." Nearly 50% of Germans believe "Jews try to take advantage of having been victims of the Nazi era." More than 35% of Germans agree with the statement: "Considering Israel's policy, I can understand why people do not like Jews."
A previous poll, "Iraq and Peace in the World," commissioned by the European Union in November 2003, found that 65% of Germans consider Israel to be the greatest threat to world peace, ahead of Iran and North Korea.
A leading member of the Left Party, Gregor Gysi, in an interview with the Mitteldeutsche Zeitung, said the accusations of anti-Semitism within his party are "nonsense." Left Party co-chairman Klaus Ernst told the Westfälische Rundschau: "We do not need any lectures from outside parties." via hudson-ny.org

Gay shame

Israel is sort of participating in the 'gay pride' festival in Berlin in June. I say 'sort of' because like good dhimmis, Israel's participation will be entirely incognito.

Berlin Municipality invited Tel Aviv to take part in the main festival, which will be taking place ahead of the gay pride events. But the Israeli delegation decided to leave out any state symbols at the stand, as well as in any performances by Israeli artists taking part in the festival.
Thus, there will be no Israeli flags and the emphasis will be on Tel Aviv as a global city – pluralistic and liberal, which accepts members of the gay community no matter where they're from. Moreover, visitors to the festival will receive information about Tel Aviv which will include a map that highlights LGBT entertainment centers.
A source within the tourism industry told Ynet that "in the past it has been proven that the correct and smart way to 'export' Israel, especially these days, is through emphasizing brands it excels in, without using anything that symbolizes the state of Israel. Unfortunately, the Israeli flag or Star of David can cause antagonism among many."
The Tourism Ministry understands this new reality and explains: "Unfortunately, this is the smart way to market Israeli brands abroad." It should be mentioned that the ministry promotes some Israeli sites and destinations without mentioning the word Israel.

One would think that Israel would (and could) at least appeal for some credit from the gay community for being the only country in this region where gays are not the subjects of 'honor killings' just because they are gay. But sadly, that is not the case. And now that we have expediently rebranded Israel into something other than the Jewish state, we aren't even going to try to get credit for the things that we do for which other countries do get credit.
Now you all see why Carl of  israelmatzav.blogspot.com was (and remains) so angry with the Foreign Ministry's Brand Israel program when it was introduced to bloggers two and a half years ago. Israel's gay community should be ashamed of itself for accepting creating these terms of participation.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

The Gay Community on the international level should be ashamed of their behavior towards Jews.  This also makes it unbearable to be a gay Jew outside of Israel.

The secret cause of Israel's PR and image catastrophe

While I agree with Israel Matzav and Zionism-Israel that Israel will not solve anything by selling *T* and *A* to replace the Jewish homeland and repackage Israel as *Sexy*, *Rich* and *Vogue* ....I certainly see the point that any image can be co-opted and it is better to just be about Love, G-d, Community but I also have no problem with *SEXY ISRAEL* existing in parallel marketing, though I sincerely think it shouldn't be state financed because I don't think it is in the interests of Israel to turn itself into Los Vegas.