RUTHFULLY YOURS

Bill McKibben loves the climate. Unfortunately, he hates the environment.

For proof of that, consider McKibben’s recent cover story in The New Republic, where he asserts that the U.S. must mobilize to fight climate change with the same fervor the Allies used to defeat Hitler during World War II. After citing a few examples of recent weather events, which, in his view, prove that global warming is happening now, McKibben writes, “If Nazis were the ones threatening destruction on such a global scale today, America and its allies would already be mobilizing for a full-scale war.”

While Nazi analogies can be fun, the climate cure that McKibben, the founder of 350.org, and his friends are pushing would result in the despoliation of vast swaths of the American landscape. Indeed, it would require that an area the size of Texas and Louisiana combined be covered with hundreds of thousands of wind turbines.

The strategist behind McKibben’s climate crusade is Stanford professor Mark Jacobson, who has published papers arguing that the U.S. doesn’t need oil, coal, natural gas, or nuclear energy. According to Jacobson, the U.S. can rely solely on energy derived from wind, water, and the sun.

Jacobson has an entire claque of admirers. During his bid for the Democratic presidential nomination, Senator Bernie Sanders, (I., Vt.) adopted Jacobson’s all-renewable scheme whole cloth and made it his energy plan. That move immediately won praise from the leaders of both the Sierra Club and Greenpeace USA. In addition, the recent Democratic-party platform claims that the U.S. should be running entirely on “clean” energy by 2050. Jacobson’s all-renewable dystopia is also being promoted by actors Leonardo DiCaprio and Mark Ruffalo as well as by anti-fracking activist Josh Fox. In addition, Jacobson has formed a group call the Solutions Project, which is avidly promoting his 100 percent–renewables plan.

In his essay, McKibben adheres to the liberal-left orthodoxy by completely ignoring nuclear energy’s pivotal role in cutting greenhouse-gas emissions. Instead, he praises Jacobson’s work, claiming that it “demonstrates conclusively” that the U.S. could be running solely on renewables by 2050. Achieving that, says McKibben, would need about 6,448 gigawatts of renewable generation capacity.

As usual, the devil is in the details. Jacobson’s 50-state scenario, which is available on a Stanford University website, needs about 2,500 gigawatts of wind-energy capacity and another 3,200 gigawatts or so of solar capacity. Those are staggering quantities, particularly when you consider that current U.S. generation capacity — from nuclear to geothermal — totals about 1,000 gigawatts.

Milan Chatterjee, the former president of the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Graduate Students Association and third-year law student, informed UCLA that he would be leaving the school due to a “hostile and unsafe campus climate” fostered by Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) groups.

“It’s really unfortunate,” Chatterjee told the Los Angeles Jewish Journal. “I love UCLA, I think it’s a great school and I have a lot of friends there. It has just become so hostile and unsafe I can’t stay there anymore.”

While he was student president, Chatterjee, who is Indian-American and a Hindu, made the distribution of funds from the Graduate Students Association (GSA) for a school diversity event contingent on its sponsors not being associated with the BDS movement.

This move brought protests from BDS supporters, and a June 2016 investigation by the UCLA Discrimination Prevention Office (DPO) concluded that Chatterjee violated school policy requiring a neutral viewpoint on the distribution of funds.

In a statement, UCLA spokesman Ricardo Vazquez expressed disappointment over Chatterjee’s decision to leave but stood by the DPO’s judgement.

“Although we regret learning that Milan Chatterjee has chosen to finish his legal education at a different institution, UCLA firmly stands by its thorough and impartial investigation, which found that Chatterjee violated the university’s viewpoint neutrality policy,” the Aug. 31 statement read.

Reprinted from the Times of Israel.

A recent film clip showing ex-Israeli academic Ilan Pappé has raised eyebrows. Asked whether it was Palestinians who launched the BDS campaign in 2005 Pappé conceded, “Not really, but yes. OK. For historical records, yes.” Both Israel supporters and Israel haters have been taken aback by this forthright statement, from a leading Israel hater, that Palestinians did not create this now iconic movement.

What are the BDS movement’s origins? The question is, at one level, an historical curiosity. The movement exists, it is forging ever-deeper links with the far left and the ‘progressive’ movement, and is a force to be reckoned with. At another level, however, the history of the BDS movement is emblematic of Palestinian political history, and the recent development global antisemitism, as a whole.

Two trends are immediately evident in the history of BDS, the role of Palestinian political factions and professional Palestinians from the diaspora, which have led Palestinians toward rejectionism.

It is easy to dismiss the movement’s own origins story, the 2005 call from Palestinian ‘civil society’ organizations. The call for boycotting Israel was in explicit opposition to the Palestinian Authority (which, indeed, rejected it) and may well have originated with a rejectionist PLO faction. Indeed, many of the ‘grassroots’ organizations that signed the document cannot be traced. They were likely organs of political factions or just fabrications.

The message was simple: the “representatives of Palestinian civil society, call upon international civil society organizations and people of conscience all over the world to impose broad boycotts and implement divestment initiatives against Israel similar to those applied to South Africa in the apartheid era. We appeal to you to pressure your respective states to impose embargoes and sanctions against Israel. We also invite conscientious Israelis to support this Call, for the sake of justice and genuine peace.”

The call also put forward three demands; “1. Ending its occupation and colonization of all Arab lands and dismantling the Wall 2. Recognizing the fundamental rights of the Arab-Palestinian citizens of Israel to full equality; and 3. Respecting, protecting and promoting the rights of Palestinian refugees to return to their homes and properties as stipulated in UN resolution 194.” In short, the call demanded dismantling of Israel through the ‘right of return.’ This has not changed: the end of Israel is the core BDS goal.

A federal appeals court in New York on Wednesday threw out a multimillion-dollar judgment awarded to a group of U.S. terrorism victims, ruling that the U.S. lacked jurisdiction over a lawsuit brought by the victims against the Palestinian Authority and Palestine Liberation Organization.

The ruling is a significant setback for the 10 American families who sued over terrorist attacks in Israel in the early 2000s that left 33 dead and more than 400 injured. After a trial in Manhattan federal court last year, jurors found the PLO and Palestinian Authority liable for the attacks and ordered the groups to pay the families $218.5 million, which was automatically tripled to $655.5 million under a U.S. antiterrorism law.

On Wednesday, three judges for the Second U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the case, saying there wasn’t enough of a connection between the U.S. and the Israel attacks. There is no U.S. jurisdiction in this case, “no matter how horrendous the underlying attacks or morally compelling the plaintiffs’ claims,” wrote Judge John Koetl.

One test of jurisdiction was whether the Palestinian Authority and the PLO could be considered “at home” in the U.S. Despite the groups’ office and lobbying efforts in Washington, the appeals panel said that was insufficient to establish a substantial presence in the U.S. The groups are clearly “at home” in Palestine, the opinion said.

The victims who brought the lawsuit were U.S. citizens, but the judges said that during the Israel attacks, the shooters “fired indiscriminately” at large groups of people, meaning they weren’t expressly targeting Americans. Lawyers for the plaintiffs had argued that the attacks were aimed at the U.S. and intended to influence U.S. foreign policy.

Gassan Baloul, a Squire Patton Boggs partner representing the Palestinian groups, said in a statement: “We are very gratified that the court fully accepted our clients’ consistent position that the PA and the PLO are not subject to the jurisdiction of the United States courts in these matters.”

Nitsana Darshan-Leitner, the Israel-based lawyer for the plaintiffs, said Congress and the State Department should intervene to “ensure that these families are compensated by the PA and PLO for these crimes.” CONTINUE AT SITE

Pappe, now residing as and academic in London is a blackbelt “calumnist” of Israel and David Collier is a blogger in London a blackbelt Israel defender….rsk

Ilan Pappe is the head of a department of a UK University. Below is a video apparently signaling Pappe believes it is ‘important’ to push a line for the ‘historical record’, even if it is not ‘the truth’. What is scary is that his cause and the subjects he teaches are intimately related. How can the university not address this? In the video Pappe also seems to indicate that the BDS call did not come from within.

What does this crucial revelation do to the central pillar of the BDS movement?
Background

Although the Arab boycott against the Jews preceded the state of Israel, it was always limited in scope. The extreme left wing international activists only began to view boycott as a viable tactic following the successful boycott of South Africa. For the top strategists in the anti-Israel camp, replicating South Africa became the central aim.

So from 2002, we began to see academic and cultural boycotts arising from radical left wing groups. Here too they failed to gain momentum. As the main victims of such a boycott would be the Arabs themselves, it would be almost impossible to gain ethical support from amidst the humanitarian organisations.

Noam Chomsky speaking in 2004 said this as the boycotts faltered:

“Sanctions hurt the population. You don’t impose them unless the population is asking for them. That’s the moral issue. So, the first point in the case of Israel is that: Is the population asking for it? Well, obviously not.”

This statement was made incredibly (coincidentally?) just 12 months before the ‘Palestinian call for ‘BDS’.
The ethical problem

What concerns activists is what we witness on the street. A combination of choreographed efforts that allow antisemitic thugs to express themselves on campus under a flag of humanitarian concern. But a major part of the delegitimisation campaign is occurring in academia. It is here the theoretical ethical battle is being fought. Putting aside what you believe of the conflict itself, Chomsky in 2004 had exposed a major weakness of any call to boycott.

Israelis were never going to call to boycott Israel, but for those advocating a one state solution, the ethical problem could be restructured by including the Arab population of the 67 lands in the calculation. If residents of Ramallah, Jericho and Hebron call for boycott, then it becomes theoretically possible to claim the situation is similar to the requested ANC boycott of South Africa. For those wishing to draw parallels, this became a neccessity.

“There is no safety for honest men, but by believing all possible evil of evil men, and by acting with promptitude, decision, and steadiness on that belief.”

Those words, written in 1791 by Irish philosopher Edmund Burke, should be deeply internalized by anyone who wants to deal seriously with international affairs. In our present era of Islamic State and other Islamic terror groups, the phrase “all possible evil” seems to take on new meaning almost every day.

As in a chilling new video, first reported by the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI) and reported on by Fox News here, that shows IS “cubs”—child warriors, in this case as young as ten—executing five Kurdish fighters.

The video features scenes of beheadings and other carnage before zeroing-in on the five boys and their victims. One of the boys, identified as Abu al-Baraa al-Tunisi, warns: “The war against you has not started yet and the U.S., France, the U.K., Germany, and neither humans nor Jinn devils will avail you. Prepare you coffins, dig your graves, and await a fate similar to that of these men.”

The boys then shout “Allah Akbar” and shoot the five kneeling, red-suited men in the backs of their heads.

Although this is not the first IS video to show executions by children, it is believed, Fox News notes, “to be the first showing a mass execution carried out by multiple children.”

But for all that IS is reaching new depths of “all possible evil,” it should not be forgotten that the pioneers of various modes of terrorism in our time were, and remain, the Palestinians. That includes the phenomenon of child terrorism.

As far back as the Second Intifada (2000-2005), at least nine suicide bombings were perpetrated by Palestinian minors. And the wave of stabbing, shooting, and vehicle-ramming attacks that began last September (and has lately abated) has included numerous cases of teenage terrorists and one case of an eleven-year-old terrorist.

These minors, unlike the IS “cubs,” were not explicitly delegated their tasks by adults. Yet they were responding to endemic incitement in the Palestinian Authority, and the sorts of acts they committed have been systematically glorified—up to the recent naming of a scouts’ leadership course after a terrorist who, with an accomplice, murdered a middle-aged man and two elderly men on a Jerusalem bus last October.

Gaza-based Hamas, of course—a direct ally of IS—is hardly to be outdone by the West Bank-based Palestinian Authority when it comes to linking children and terrorism.

ISRAEL’S MEDICAL ACHIEVEMENTS

Breakthrough in search for melanoma cure. Researchers, led by Tel Aviv University’s Dr. Carmit Levy, have unraveled the metastatic mechanism of melanoma (how it spreads to other organs). They have also crucially found chemical substances that can stop the process – promising news for future treatments.
http://www.jpost.com/Business-and-Innovation/Health-and-Science/Israeli-researchers-closing-in-on-cure-for-melanoma-with-new-breakthrough-464749 http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/216807

New treatment for fatty liver disease. (TY Karen) Hadasit, the Hadassah Medical Organization’s technology transfer company, and Israel’s BioLineRx are to develop a treatment BL-1210 for non-alcoholic steatohepatitis (NASH) or fatty liver disease. It modulates the immune system to reduce scarring that leads to cirrhosis. There is currently no FDA approved treatments. http://www.hadassah.org/news-stories/NASH-liver-disease.html

Physiotherapy using Virtual Reality. Israeli startup VRPhysio matches virtual reality and physiotherapy to help patients exercise and speed up recovery. The system includes a headset, a mobile app, weights and body sensors to monitor body movement and a set of virtual reality games that aim to make exercising more fun.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/vrphysio-uses-virtual-gaming-to-help-pain-in-neck/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mq0v1tQD1CA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-QFUVXJ7TwE

A device to cure pelvic floor prolapse. (TY Dan) Israel’s POP Medical has obtained US FDA approval for the marketing of its medical device for treatment of pelvic floor prolapse. 20% of the women in the world suffer from this condition at any given moment, and 30% at some time in their lives.
http://www.globes.co.il/en/article-pop-medical-awarded-fda-nod-on-pelvic-device-1001144762

Diagnosing sleep apnea in pregnancy. (TY Nevet) 25% of pregnant women may suffer from Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA) but receive no treatment. Now researchers from Israel and the USA recommend a new diagnosis, ‘‘Gestational Sleep Apnea” (GSA) to properly describe, diagnose and treat OSA in pregnant women,
https://www.afhu.org/time-to-wake-up-to-a-new-diagnosis-with-gestational-sleep-apnea/news/
http://www.obstetanesthesia.com/article/S0959-289X(16)00038-8/abstract?cc=y=

Helping the visually impaired. (TY Nevet) Israeli startup RenewSenses develops the EyeCane, a small flashlight-like device that translates distance into sound and vibrations. Also EyeMusic which translates color and shape into music. RenewSenses has just joined Brainnovation – Israel’s Brain Technologies accelerator.
https://www.afhu.org/renewsense-enters-brainnovation-israels-brain-technologies-accelerator/news/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFsZ6RFRjtI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jVBp2nDmg7E

New soft material for artificial limbs. Researchers at Tel Aviv University and in the Netherlands have developed a breakthrough material that can be “morphed” into any shape. The programmable metamaterial could be ideal for prostheses or wearable technology in which a close fit with the body is important.
www.timesofisrael.com/new-synthetic-material-may-bring-prosthetic-relief/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxcCtimWxn0

Cardiac surgery saves Afghan boy’s life. (TY Ron) A covert operation has ensured that Yehia (born with multiple heart defects) is the first Afghan to have been treated by Israel’s Save a Child’s Heart organization, joining over 4,000 children from over 50 other countries who have been saved by SACH.
http://www.timesofisrael.com/with-cardiac-surgery-israeli-team-saves-afghani-boys-life/

Former NBA star Amar’e Stoudemire on Monday signed to play for the Hapoel Jerusalem basketball team for two years.

Stoudemire, 33, announced his retirement from the NBA on July 26, after a 14-year career. He is a six-time NBA all-star, and had career averages of 18.9 points and 7.8 rebounds per game.

“I am looking forward to playing for Hapoel Jerusalem and helping the team compete for titles,” he said, according to the Hapoel Jerusalem website. “My family and I are excited to start a new journey in Israel, a country I have grown to love.”

Hapoel Jerusalem won the Israeli championship last year for the first time in its history and will play in the EuroCup this year. The team moved to the newly completed Jerusalem Pais Arena in 2014.

The owner of the team said he was “thrilled” Stoudemire was coming on board.

“We are thrilled to have a player of Amar’e’s caliber join our team, solidifying our place among the top echelon of Israeli and European basketball,” said Ori Allon, president and majority owner of Hapoel Jerusalem, according to the site. “More importantly, bringing Amar’e to Jerusalem raises the profile of the entire Israeli Basketball League, and we hope that his joining our team will lead to increased interest in our league from basketball fans around the world as well as talented international players.”

When classes reconvene at Harvard this fall, the all-female Seneca Organization, which promotes female empowerment among Harvard’s students, will officially go “gender neutral,” in accordance with new Harvard policy guidelines. But it won’t actually have to admit any men.http://heatst.com/culture-wars/all-clubs-at-harvard-have-to-be-gender-neutral-except-womens-clubs/

How does that work? you might ask.

How does that work? you might ask.

Although male-only “final clubs” gear up for war with the administration, which has told them their members won’t be considered for scholarships or leadership positions if they remain male-only, Harvard’s Dean of Student Affairs reportedlyassured the Seneca group that it could “could continue to operate as it always has.” All it has to do is make semantic changes to its bylaws.

“Like Women in Business or Latinas Unidas, although men may apply, our membership can be made up wholly of women without incurring the sanctions of the administration’s new policy,” the group’s leader told Seneca’s members in an email.

The administration insists that Seneca can violate the new rules because it has 501(c)(3) non-profit status, and isn’t “purely social.” But Harvard’s policy seems to carry no such official exceptions; the only quality that invokes the rule’s drastic punishment is that the club is gender-specific.

An attorney who is consulting with one of Harvard’s single-gender final clubs about the policy called the Seneca exception “a very convenient carve-out.”

The new elastic interpretation also seems to coincide with outcry from Harvard’s all-female groups, who want the gender-inclusive policy enforced, just not against them. A group called the Crimson Women’s Coalition has demonstrated against the policy several times, claiming that women’s-only groups are “safe spaces” for female students, and that welcoming men opens those organizations to the possibility of sexual assault.

“By removing… spaces for women, Harvard is making our campus less safe for women,” one student protester told a crowd of demonstrators in May, just after the gender-inclusive policy had passed.

It seems, now, Harvard is actually figuring out how best to accommodate campus feminists.

The sociology department of the University of Pennsylvania is tackling only the most important issues of our time.

It has a paper in the most recent issue of Social Psychology Quarterly examining the various ways zoos are cesspools of dangerous gender stereotypes that parents (intentionally or inadvertently) reinforce with their kids. You’ll have to pay to read the full article (or have a subscription to Social Psychology Quarterly), but you can get the gist of the paper from its abstract.

The study says that adults seem to want to characterize zoo animals according to “binary” gender terminology, forcing the camels and penguins and elephants of this world to conform to either “male” or “female,” even though those particular zoo animals haven’t truly examined whether they would like to identify as their birth gender. Although zoology does allow for checking the actual sex of an animal, adults should, apparently, refrain from referring to zoo animals as a “girl” or a “boy,” unless they’ve asked the said animals.

Another problem: Parents tend to use zoo exhibits to model traditional family roles. The study says “adults mobilize zoo exhibits as props for modeling their own normative gender displays.”

Talking about “mother” and “father” animals, then, forces children to believe in traditional, gender constructs, which could harm their psyches as they grow older. Children will question whether their parents will love them even if they don’t fit a typical gender definition—all because that giraffe was characterized as male or female.

All of this makes the search for one’s place on the gender spectrum a difficult journey, apparently. No doubt, the UPenn sociology department would recommend that signs in zoos be changed to reflect a more fluid approach to wild animal sexuality.