by Ronn Torossian
The New Israel Fund has the chutzpa to stand with Europe's bias against Israel.
Over the past few weeks, headlines worldwide have featured a new European Union requirement that goods produced in Israeli settlements must not carry the generic "Made in Israel" tag and must be specially labeled.
In reaction to this decision, across America, Israel and civilized people worldwide, there was outrage.
For example, The United States State Department said that the ruling encourages the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The State Department said the U.S. “unequivocally opposes” any efforts to “economically pressure, isolate, or otherwise delegitimize Israel.”
Israel's Foreign Ministry said this decision sets a "double standard" that unfairly singles out Israel when there are dozens of territorial disputes around the world. Danny Danon, Israel’s ambassador to the United Nations, said the decision was "another example of Europe continuing its surrender to Israel's enemies. The EU’s discrimination against the Zionist enterprise will provide legal cover for anti-Semitism."NGO Monitor said product labelling is “a stepping stone for full-fledged BDS against Israel, particularly in Europe.”
In Israel across the political spectrum this labeling has been attacked. There is no difference between products produced across the Green Line and those produced in Israel proper, Left-leaning Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid said and noted that this ruling was "effectively a call for the de facto boycott of Israel," an "irresponsible move”, “a direct continuation of the boycott movement against Israel, which is anti-Semitic and misguided,” and a "stain on the EU." Yisrael Beytenu head Avigdor Liberman sarcastically suggested stamping settlement goods with yellow stars (a reference to the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust).
The head of the Jewish Agency, and former Labor Party leader, Isaac Herzog, conjured a parallel between the E.U.’s decision and the U.N.’s 1975 “Zionism is Racism” resolution, which his father, Chaim Herzog, Israel’s U.N. ambassador at the time, famously tore up in front of the General Assemby. Herzog continued to note that to mark products made in factories over the Green Line is “a prize for terror.” Former justice minister and Yamina party head Ayelet Shaked said the ruling had a “stench of antisemitism,” explaining that there is no similar mandate with regard to any of the other numerous territorial conflicts, such as Tibet, Cyprus and Western Sahara.
Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, an American Jewish leader placed ads in the New York Times, featuring a large bottle of wine labeled with a Jewish star reminiscent of the yellow stars Jews worn in Nazi Germany.
“For centuries, and most famously in the 1930s, Jews and their businesses were labeled by Europeans,” the ad reads.“Now, just decades after the Holocaust, they're at it again.”
“True to form and history, Europe's actions are only against Israel and Jews,” the ad reads. “The EU does not label olive oil from Turkish-occupied Northern Cyprus, nor fish from Moroccan-occupied Western-Sahara, nor Goji berries and, most significantly, gold and other resources being plundered from Chinese-occupied Tibet. “Singling out Jewish businesses means Europe's latest measure has nothing to do with justice,” it continues. “It's a centuries-old, uniquely European prejudice: naming and shaming Jews.”
Eugene Kontorovich, professor at George Mason University’s school of law said, “Now Jewish products are the only ones to have to bear special labels based on their origin. This is a new kind of yellow star put exclusively on Jewish goods,” referring as well to the badge Jews throughout Nazi-occupied Europe were forced to wear as a means of identification.
But do you know who celebrated? The radical extremist American Jewish non-profit, The New Israel Fund, which continues to openly advocate and financially support boycotting of Israel. This policy of the European Union is perfectly in line with the policies of The New Israel Fund.
As their website states, the New Israel Fund (NIF) will “not deny funding to organizations that call for a boycott of settlement products…” In plain English, $30 Million Dollars a year is raised from American Jews to boycott post-1967 Israel – including the historic Western Wall, Rachel's Tomb, the Cave of the Patriarchs, thriving Ma’aleh Adumim, Shiloh and other Israeli cities. The NIF supports a boycott of Israel.
How can Jews continue to donate to this group, whose name should really be The New anti-Israel Fund (except there is nothing new about the world being anti-Israel...). Yet donors to the New Israel Fund include Oz Benamram, the Bertha Foundation, Moriah Fund, Sparkplug Foundation, Firedoll Foundation and Telos Group.
NIF donors, open your eyes and stop supporting anti-Israeli organizations. You can support Israeli hospitals all of which employ Arabs and Jews, heal Arabs and Jews indiscriminately - and many other worthy Israeli causes. Don't join anti-Semitic Europe, don't help boycott the Jewish State.
Ronn Torossian is one of the most well respected Public Relations professionals in the world, and founded 1 of the 15 largest PR firms in the U.S..
Source: http://www.israelnationalnews.com/Articles/Article.aspx/24807
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