KG13 http://kahlila.posterous.com Most recent posts at KG13 posterous.com Wed, 29 Dec 2010 11:41:00 -0800 A personal and political history of Zionism in Einstein's words http://kahlila.posterous.com/a-personal-and-political-history-of-zionism-i http://kahlila.posterous.com/a-personal-and-political-history-of-zionism-i

This is a chronology starting with a summing up of medieval anti-Semitism and finishing in 1955, when Einstein died. The words are his, from letters and speeches. His views changed often, with events, but in the end he bequeathed his estate to the Hebrew University.

He was as much pro-Jew (even though an atheist) as he was anti-war. The collection of historical pix used to illustrate the story is fantastic. The sequence of letters and statements places Einstein’s famous and much-quoted anti-Israel letter to the NYT in context and shows that in general he supported Israel.

 


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Thu, 21 Oct 2010 11:24:00 -0700 Aid flotilla (New York version) aims to free Hebron for the Jews http://kahlila.posterous.com/aid-flotilla-new-york-version-aims-to-free-he http://kahlila.posterous.com/aid-flotilla-new-york-version-aims-to-free-he

Given that this event is being held to raise funds for the conquest of an Arab area - particularly given the theme and imagery it has chosen - are they not inviting international terrorists to make a landing and shoot nine passengers dead?

Amplify’d from mondoweiss.net
hebronflotilla

JEWISH COMMUNITY OF HEBRON TO HOST NYC FUNDRAISER
- CONTINUED BUILDING CELEBRATED IN JUDEA & SAMARIA (WEST BANK)
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NEW YORK, October 20, 2010 – The Hebron Fund announced today they would host a fundraiser on Tuesday November 16th at 6 PM aboard a ship holding 1000 people. The event is entitled “The Hebron Aid Flotilla.” The boat will leave from Pier 59 at Chelsea Piers.

The Hebron Fund Annual dinner, which last year was held in Citi Field stadium amidst much controversy and protest, takes on special significance this year as many are celebrating the continued construction of Jewish settlements, after Israeli Prime Minister bowed to world pressure and stopped building temporarily.

“We are thrilled at the expansion of Jewish life in all areas of the so called West Bank and we decry the anti-Semitic attempts to curb that expansion. After the world absurdly condemned Israel for a boarding a terrorist flotilla, we decided to hold our fundraiser on a ship. Our flotilla will support peace and life!”

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Fri, 08 Oct 2010 09:28:00 -0700 Mogul with sights on the LA Times, which he sees as nauseatingly pro-Palestinian http://kahlila.posterous.com/mogul-with-sights-on-the-la-times-which-he-se http://kahlila.posterous.com/mogul-with-sights-on-the-la-times-which-he-se

This is a long but rewarding, even riveting, read about one of the world's richest men, who happens to be driven by power and ambition in the world of American and Israeli politics and the media. He is a close friend of the Clintons and the Democratic Party's largest private donor. He has also been negotiating to buy 50% of Al-Jazeera (though that is not mentioned in the article).

The Influencer

An entertainment mogul sets his sights on foreign policy.

Haim Saban, a

Haim Saban, a “former cartoon schlepper,” at home in Beverly Park. A major political donor, his greatest concern is to protect Israel. Photograph by Martin Schoeller.

Saban is not given to modest ambitions. Sixty-five years old, with a broad, dynamic countenance and slicked-down wavy black hair, he is known in Los Angeles as the man who brought the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers from Japan to America; the chairman and part owner of Univision, the nation’s leading Spanish-language media company; a staunch supporter of Israel (he has dual citizenship); and one of the largest individual donors to the Democratic Party. “Haim is a force of nature,” his friend Barry Meyer, the chairman and C.E.O. of Warner Bros., said. As a youth in Israel, Saban attended an agricultural boarding school where, he says, immigrants like his parents sent children they could not afford to feed. When he was expelled for being a troublemaker, he began attending a night school, where the principal told him, “You’re not cut out for academic studies; you’re cut out for making money.” The prediction seemed to come true in 2001, when Rupert Murdoch and Saban sold their joint venture, Fox Family Worldwide, to Michael Eisner, the C.E.O. of Disney: Saban made one and a half billion dollars. It was—and still is, he points out—the biggest cash transaction by an individual in the history of Hollywood. In March, Forbes estimated his net worth at $3.3 billion.

Perhaps Saban’s greatest asset over the years has been his remarkable ability to cultivate, charm, and manipulate people. “Being charming and analytical is quite a combination,” said Shimon Peres, the President of Israel, who has been a close friend of Saban’s for more than twenty years. “Charmers from time to time get lost.” But Saban, he continued, “isn’t floating in the air.” As a way of disguising his shrewdness and his mental agility, Saban is often self-deprecating; he describes himself as a “former cartoon schlepper.” English is one of his six languages, and his adversaries are sometimes disarmed by his linguistic stumbles, but he uses words very skillfully.

Although Saban has lived in the United States for nearly thirty years, he remains deeply connected to Israel. He watches Israeli news shows, via satellite, throughout the day, and is a devout fan of the Ha’gashash Ha’chiver (Pale Pathfinder), a popular Israeli comedy troupe that performed for decades. “He knows every sketch of theirs by heart, and he uses their language very often when he speaks Hebrew,” his friend Dan Gillerman, the former Israeli Ambassador to the United Nations, said. His hundred-year-old mother and his brother live in Israel, and Saban travels there frequently. Through the years, one of his closest advisers has always been an Israeli and, in business meetings with others on his team, the two would occasionally slip into a side conversation in Hebrew.

He remains keenly interested in the world of business, but he is most proud of his role as political power broker. His greatest concern, he says, is to protect Israel, by strengthening the United States-Israel relationship. At a conference last fall in Israel, Saban described his formula. His “three ways to be influential in American politics,” he said, were: make donations to political parties, establish think tanks, and control media outlets. In 2002, he contributed seven million dollars toward the cost of a new building for the Democratic National Committee—one of the largest known donations ever made to an American political party. That year, he also founded the Saban Center for Middle East Policy at the Brookings Institution, in Washington, D.C. He considered buying The New Republic, but decided it wasn’t for him. He also tried to buy Time and Newsweek, but neither was available. He and his private-equity partners acquired Univision in 2007, and he has made repeated bids for the Los Angeles Times.

By far his most important relationship is with Bill and Hillary Clinton. In 2002, Saban donated five million dollars to Bill Clinton’s Presidential library, and he has given more than five million dollars to the Clinton Foundation. In February, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton delivered a major policy address at the U.S.-Islamic World Forum in Doha, co-sponsored by the Saban Center. And last November Bill Clinton was a featured speaker at the Saban Forum, an annual conference attended by many high-level Israeli and U.S. government officials, which was held in Jerusalem. Ynon Kreiz, an Israeli who was the chairman and chief executive of a Saban company and Saban’s closest associate for many years, attended the conference, and when I commented that his former boss appeared to be positively smitten with Bill Clinton, Kreiz replied, grinning broadly, “No! No! I remember once Haim was talking to me on the phone, and he said in Hebrew, without changing his tone so Clinton would have no idea he was speaking about him, ‘The President of the United States, wearing his boxers, is coming down the stairs, and I am going to have to stop talking and go have breakfast with him.’ ”

Read more at www.newyorker.com

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Sat, 03 Jul 2010 14:38:00 -0700 Australia's new PM is a fervent Zionist http://kahlila.posterous.com/australias-new-pm-is-a-fervent-zionist http://kahlila.posterous.com/australias-new-pm-is-a-fervent-zionist
Media_httpantonyloewe_isnde

Poster found on Antony Loewenstein's blog, essential reading on the lobby and Zionist tendencies in Australia. The Palestinian viewpoint is seldom heard in this country but Loewenstein is a tireless and fearless agitator and in spite of all the flak he gets I have never seen him dejected.

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