On Sunday evening November 20th, over 800 ardent supporters of Israel gathered for the Zionist Organization of America’s 114th Justice Louis D. Brandeis Award Dinner at the Grand Hyatt Hotel in Manhattan. The star-studded gala event paid special tributes to radio talk show host Glenn Beck, Republican presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann and US Congresswoman Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R) of Florida.

Presented with the first ever Sheldon and Dr. Miriam Adelson “Defender of Israel” award, Mr. Beck was introduced by Mr. Adelson, a gaming industry mogul and a long time devotee of Israel. In his introductory remarks Mr. Adelson described Mr. Beck as a “very special man. We knew he was a giant even before we met him. I’d never known a Christian Zionist like Glenn Beck.  He tells the truth about the Arab war against Israel.”

Adelson, also the publisher of Israel Hayom (now Israel’s largest daily newspaper), added there is “no greater supporter of Israel in the media today” than Beck.  When Palestinians murdered five members of the Fogel family in last March’s Itamar massacre, Beck dedicated an entire show on Fox News to the tragedy and “displayed the pictures that almost every other television network ignored”: Palestinians celebrating the event by handing out candles in the streets, Adelson said.

Noted for his exceptional devotion to Israel and the Jewish people as evidenced in his August 2011 “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem near the Temple Mount and his forthright positions on his FOX television program, Mr. Beck declared that he has placed his “chips on the table” by saying, “I wear it as a badge of pride to be a Zionist. The Jewish people and the land of Israel has a right to exist and I am not ashamed to speak the truth.” Extending plaudits to his hosts and the rich and vibrant legacy of the ZOA as a foremost advocate for a greater Israel, Mr. Beck’s address was frequently punctuated by thunderous applause. Warning of ominous times ahead, he said, “The world is on the eve of profound and dramatic change and we have an 18-month window to change the world.”

Referencing a panoply of issues such as the geo-political realities of the Arab Spring, the burgeoning Iranian nuclear threat, the nascent Occupy Wall Street movement, the danger of George Soros funded organizations, the incessant animus towards Israel emanating from the Obama administration and the prevalent denial of the Holocaust, Mr. Beck issued a clarion call for unity amongst Christians, Jews and all good people by saying, “We must lock arms and stand as sentinels for if we fail to do so things could get worse. I come to you as a brother and not as a Christian. The world does not hate you, but the enemies of G-d hate you. You, the Jewish people never gave up on G-d. You have been loyal and you never embraced the G-d of the stranger and for that Israel has been promised by G-d to the Jews.”

In a voice reverberating with palpable emotion and zeal, Mr. Beck ruefully observed that “what is happening in the world is grotesque.” “When Ahmadinejad of Iran says the Jews will burn in the fiery hell of Islam, he means it. We must say ‘Never Again’ and we must mean it. Words are meaningless. It is a time for action and only through the mighty Hand of the G-d of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob will we be saved.”

Choked up with tears, Mr. Beck vividly recalled his trip to Auschwitz this past summer and what it meant to him. “I demand to be counted so others will not be numbered. We must tell the truth and we must never forget. We must never repeat the mistakes of the past. Evil will grow again and this evil plant grows in darkness and we must shed a bright light upon it.”

Exhorting his audience to “rely on eternal truths,” he chided the Occupy Wall Street demonstrators as being “just like the fascists that they say they’re against. It is like a formulaic stage play replete with hypocrisy.” He added that the struggles we face for our existential survival are “personal” and that “we must go out as individuals and make a difference.” Borrowing words from Abraham Lincoln, he warned against becoming imbued with vengeance and bellicosity when he said that our mantra should be, “With malice towards none and charity for all” and said that “as the world plunges into darkness, we must be a beacon of light.”

To that end, Mr. Beck made an oblique reference to an endeavor that he is undertaking on December 8th and while what he was eluding to remains nebulous at this juncture he had tongues wagging at the conclusion of his address as audience members engaged in speculation. “Either he is announcing his candidacy for public office or he is planning to convert to Judaism,” said a ZOA member who chose to remain anonymous.

Also delivering a powerful and heartfelt address was Minnesota Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R) who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2012. Telling her audience that her inextricable ties to Israel and the Jewish people originate in her personal religious beliefs she said, “It all began in the Book of Genesis which says that ‘Whoever blesses Israel will be blessed and whoever curses Israel will be cursed’ and I stand behind these Divine words.”

Just hours before the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna released its much awaited report confirming Iran’s “development of a nuclear explosive device,” this very topic was vigorously addressed at a forum at the 92nd Street Y on Manhattan’s upper east side. Excerpts from the powerful 2011 documentary “Iranium” (which documents the genesis of Iran’s nuclear threat, beginning with the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and the ideology espoused by Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khomeini until today) was screened before the 200 audience members. Simulcast to a variety of venues around the country, the distinguished panel members had the opportunity to answer questions from audience members who were not present at the location.

Moderated by the film’s director, Alex Traiman (who was also involved in the production of other films documenting the rise of radical Islam and those who carry out terrorist attacks in the name of Allah such as “Obsession” and “The Third Jihad”), the panel consisted of Nazie Eftekhari, a prominent Iranian-American activist and the founder and CEO of The Araz Group, a family of companies that includes HealthEZ and America’s PPO. Having grown up in Iran, Ms. Eftekhari’s prodigious efforts have been focused on spotlighting the excessive human rights abuses against Iranian citizens that take place every day in her native country along with initiating a campaign of global support for the protection of the civil rights of Iranian dissidents.

Joining Ms. Eftekhari on the panel was former Assistant Secretary of Defense Richard Perle, who served in this post during the Reagan administration. Mr. Perle is a member of several think tanks, including the Hudson Institute, the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and the Center for Security Policy. He is also a resident fellow of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research.

Opening with images from “Iranium” in which media personalities report on the immense amount of pressure Iranian embassies throughout the US and Canada placed on those theaters screening the film and their demands that presentations be canceled, the panelists offered a historical overview of the progenitors of the Islamic revolution and political metamorphoses that have gripped Iran over the last century. “When Khomeini came to power in 1979, he was never elevated to Ayatollah, despite common misconceptions,” said Ms. Eftekhari. She added that the previous Ayatollah and the Shah of Iran severed ties in 1962 and it was then that Iranian women were accorded the right to vote. “The Shah’s father was a secular ruler who did not force women to cover their hair and if the various mullahs disagreed with his ruling they would be horsewhipped.”

Condemning then president Jimmy Carter for welcoming Khomeini and helping in the Shah’s ouster, Ms. Eftekhari said she saw a glaring resemblance between the demonstrations leading to the Arab Spring and the Iranian revolution of 1979. “As a liberal Democrat; as a supporter of Hillary Clinton and a fan of Barack Obama, I was terribly upset and extremely disappointed to know that the leaders of my country did not stand up and speak out when the people of Iran exercised their rights of free speech and dissent in June of 2009, following the national elections. Hillary Clinton has said that the leadership of those dissidents demonstrating in the streets of Teheran did not want help from the USA and I simply don’t believe that.”

Tensions flared between dozens of pro-Israel demonstrators and members of “Students for Justice in Palestine” on Sunday afternoon, October 16th outside of Columbia University on the third and final day of the 2011 National Students for Justice in Palestine ”teach-in” organized by members to prepare for their upcoming Israel Apartheid Week events across college campuses throughout North America.

Holding aloft both Israeli and American flags and signs saying, “SJP Brings Stealth Jihad to Columbia University,” “Stop Hamas Terror Against Jews and Christians” and “Occupy Columbia With Truth and Justice – Not Lies and Anti-Israel Incitement,” the pro-Israel supporters represented such organizations as Americans For a Safe Israel (AFSI), the National Conference of Jewish Affairs (NCJA), Amcha – Coalition for Jewish Concerns and the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam (HRCARI).

Rancorous debates and raucous arguments broke out between the two sides as the Zionist contingent engaged the SJP members, as they exited the university on the corner of 116th Street and Broadway. “Our conference is about advocating for human rights in Palestine. Our Palestinian brothers and sisters are being subjected to the most severe degree of oppression on a daily basis by the Israeli colonialists and occupiers and we are here to put forth our message that a Jewish state is a fundamentally racist concept as are the apartheid practices of that state,” said Amina Fayyid, a SJP student organizer.

According to the SJP web site, one of the objectives of the conference is to “facilitate and support the advancement of existing campaigns and the development of new campaigns with particular (but not exclusive) emphasis on Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) of Israel.” Among the multifarious seminars and workshops taking place at the conference is one titled “Indigenous Struggles: situating Palestine as a settler-colonial project,” which ostensibly explores “understanding Palestine within comparative settler colonial framework while seeking to re-align the Palestinian movement within a universal history of decolonization, and imagining new possibilities for Palestinian resistance, solidarity and common struggle.”

Helen Freedman, executive director of Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI), said, “Israel is the only stable democracy in the Middle East and these student activists know very well that Palestinians living in Israel have a much better lifestyle than they would in any other Arab country; yet their goal in organizing such a conference is to perpetuate the myths, incessant lies and blatant distortions that they use in their quest to demonize Israel. What we are witnessing here today is nothing short of the most egregious form of anti-Semitism cloaked in the clever subterfuge of anti-Zionism.”

Before noon on Wednesday, September 21st, scores of stalwart Christian supporters of Israel, along with sizeable contingents of Jews, poured into Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations to express their indignation over the unilateral Palestinian bid for statehood, expected to take place on Friday as part of the annual UN General Assembly meeting. Sponsors of the rally said that a coalition of close to 50 Christian and Jewish organizations, along with the Israeli government, had taken part in mobilizing over 5000 people to attend under the banner of the “Eagles Wings Coalition Council.” Many rally participants had traveled from across the United States and Canada to attend.

Just as President Barack Obama concluded his address to the General Assembly in which he exhorted the Palestinians to abandon their quest for a unilateral declaration of statehood at the United Nations, speaker after speaker underscored the irrefragable anti-Semitism and blatant anti-Israel predilections that have come to define the mantra of the UN.  According to UN Watch in Geneva, over the last five years, the UN Human Rights Council has adopted 70 resolutions condemning specific nations, and 40 of those have been levied against Israel. Likewise, the General Assembly has adopted approximately 20 anti-Israel resolutions each year, compared to only half a dozen targeting other countries.

The demonstrators also roundly condemned the Durban III conference that is scheduled to take place tomorrow and marks the 10th anniversary of the first Durban Conference in South Africa. The ostensible agenda of the UN sponsored conference was to have addressed issues of global racism, sexism and xenophobia, but rapidly morphed into a series of forums in which anti-Israel non-governmental organizations used their time to propagandize against the Jewish state.

“The original Durban conference equated Zionism with racism,” said Robert Stearns, director of Eagle’s Wings. “Thankfully, the United States government and many others have not participated in the Durban conference, and yet it continues. A Durban event in Geneva went so far as to invite the president of Iran as the keynote speaker. When he’s your keynote speaker at a human rights rally, you should know there’s a problem,” he added. In addition to the U.S. and Israel, Australia, Austria, Bulgaria, Canada, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand and the United Kingdom are boycotting Durban III.

Throwing his hat in the ring as the Republican contender for the vacant congressional seat in New York City’s 9th district is Bob Turner. On Tuesday, September 13th, a special election will be held pitting Turner against New York State Assemblyman David Weprin (D). Recently, FrontPage sat down with Mr. Turner to get his perspective on the issues confronting Americans today.

Fern Sidman: Mr. Turner, can you tell us, why, at age 70, having never been involved in politics, you are running for elected office?

Bob Turner: Actually, my political career began 18 months ago when I ran against former Congressman Anthony Weiner. While I lost that election, I did garner 41% of the vote, which signified to me that a sizeable number of voters in the 9th congressional district felt that Weiner was not representing their positions on the issues. Personally, when I heard Weiner speak I was outraged at his absurd explanations for supporting the disastrous policies of the Obama administration.

I then contacted Mike Long of the New York Conservative Party and asked him who was opposing Weiner on the ballot and who I could send a check to. When he told me that he was running unopposed, I was quite surprised and Mike told me that we need an independent candidate with strong business experience who can effectively articulate the conservative position on the issues. It was then that he asked me to run and after giving it careful consideration I decided to do it. After losing the race I had thought my political career was over, but I was nominated by the party to run again, and they asked if I would give it another try. There are serious problems facing our country as we are totally off course on a panoply of domestic issues and our foreign policy is a complete mess. With that in mind, I felt the voters of the 9th congressional district should have a choice in who represents them in Washington, rather than being saddled with someone who rubber stamps the president’s policies.

FS: Concerning your career as a cable television executive, what can you bring to the table as far as business management skills?

BT: My business career spans over 40 years, as I’ve worked for CBS and Gray Advertising. I’ve been both president and chief executive officer of four different companies with revenues of over 100 million plus. I started one of these companies completely from scratch with a knowledge of capital markets and how to get new money to invest in businesses. I have hands-on experience in growing businesses, both domestic and international, and that knowledge will prove to be invaluable when dealing with fiscally irresponsible policies of the Obama administration. As a business person, I respect the person who works hard, and don’t want the tax dollars of the middle class to be squandered by incompetents. Right now our country is being run by academics and career politicians and what we’re sorely lacking in these deliberations is a pragmatic approach to the economy; a bona fide business plan that has been proven successful so many times.

FS: What are your plans for stimulating job growth and lowering taxes for the small business owner in Brooklyn and Queens?

BT: There are three principal areas that we need to focus on. Firstly, we need to tap into resources in the energy field. We need to ask all energy companies to work on a domestic program immediately and that means domestic drilling and off-shore resources. In New York State, we’re not doing nearly enough to exploit our natural resources. In other states, such as Pennsylvania, there are over 70,000 people employed in the steel industry, and if we explore our options, we, too, can become a major employer in the energy field.

In order to help these development plans along we must immediately remove the litany of government regulations that are strangling the private business sector, and we must start encouraging American ingenuity and creativity. The intentions of this administration have met great uncertainty especially when it pertains to repatriating foreign profits. This means that U.S. corporations can repatriate earnings attributable to foreign business operations at a greatly reduced tax rate, and right now, there is more than $1 trillion in U.S. corporate profits that reside overseas.  The mistake that this administration has made, and other Democratic administrations have made for decades, is that they think they can compel businesses to keep their investments in the U.S. by taxing profits generated by American companies in foreign countries, and that is simply untrue. By encouraging companies to spend money on plant equipment and new product development, you will give them incentives to spend their money here, thus creating more jobs.

We had best dramatically reduce government regulations rather quickly, as Obamacare is crippling small businesses and is literally pulling millions of dollars out of them. We’re looking at higher insurance premiums and let’s remember that the insurance companies are only making a 2 percent profit. What you have are substantially less benefits and inadequate healthcare. In addition to insurance companies, financial and corporate institutions are being hard hit by this as well. Soon, jobs will be sent to London and Toronto. These are the unintended consequences of massive regulations. Rather than creating an environment that would make borrowing money easier, it just makes it more cumbersome.

Addressing thousands at his much heralded “Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem on Wednesday evening August 24th, former Fox News talk show host Glenn Beck exhorted his audience to immerse themselves in doughtiness and “stand up for Israel” in the face of the existential siege that the Jewish State finds herself under by the international community.

Speaking from the Southern Wall excavation site in Jerusalem’s old city, Beck, an intrepid supporter of Israel and the Jewish people, delivered an ominous portent of geo-political realities. “Today, the world needs courage more than ever. You don’t have to be a prophet to know that things are not going well in the world. The threats are mounting. Darkness is falling,” he intoned.

Speaking of the potentially lethal ramifications of the Arab Spring, he added, “When I saw Tunisia’s and Egypt’s rulers crack and fall and the world called it the Arab Spring, I said: Where could this be going? And behind these revolutions was a familiar force, a force that will place those nations under a new pharaoh. And that force, I said, would come up to the borders of Israel. And so it has. You see evil rear its head in our time. You see the signs again. The swastikas are on display in the street marches. This week they’re holding up signs in Cairo that say: We’re building the gas chambers. They dress their children in suicide belts. They are given the choice, and they choose death.”

Making an oblique reference to the upcoming United Nations General Assembly meeting in September in which a vote will be taken on the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Beck lambasted the world body by saying, “In New York, the so-called leaders of the world talk about abuses of human rights. But what they will do is abuse the very meaning of the phrase “human rights.” Human rights they say. But who will they focus on? Libya? Syria? North Korea? No. They will condemn Israel. Tiny Israel. Democratic Israel. Free Israel. Israel, which values life above all other things.”

He furthered chided the world body by saying, “When the Fogel family was killed in their sleep the world barely took note. The grand councils of earth condemn Israel. Across the border, Syria slaughters its own citizens. The grand councils are silent.”

Focusing on the vehement acrimony that engulfs Israel by the international community, Beck declared to thunderous applause, ”When the world turns its back on Israel and the Jewish people, the world turns its back on the source of all human rights.”  Beck, a Mormon, peppered his address with religious references when illustrating Israel’s role in respecting the sanctity of human life since the dawn of time. ”Without the Jewish people, humanity would not know that every individual life has dignity, that every life is sacred, that God names every star and knows every soul. That was God’s message to Abraham and Moses. It is the message of the Jewish people to the world, and by their very existence they teach it to us.”

He added, “Nowhere in the Torah or the Christian Scriptures do you see the phrase words ‘human rights.’ But there is a lot in there about responsibilities. Everything we know about human rights and civilization came from this place. Whether you live by 613 commandments or 10 or just one golden rule, they all came from here. This throne of the Lord.”

Heaping accolades on the Jewish nation for their iron will to survive and thrive against incessant horrific adversity, Beck said, “In Israel, there is more courage in one square mile than in all of Europe. In Israel, there is more courage in one soldier than in the combined and cold hearts of every bureaucrat at the United Nations. In Israel, you can find people who will stand against incredible odds… against the entire tide of global opinion, for what is right and good and true. Israel is not a perfect country. No country is perfect. But it tries… and it is courageous.”

“We are facing a new Holocaust, and people of all faiths must demand that the truth be heard,” declared Oscar-winning American actor Jon Voight on Monday evening, August 22nd in Jerusalem. Voight, 72, joined former FOX News personality Glenn Beck as the featured speaker at the central train station in Jerusalem in an event commemorating the Holocaust. As a lead up to Beck’s “Restoring Courage” rally on August 24th, Monday evening’s event, which was carried on Beck’s new television network, featured a powerful film about Holocaust survivor Rudy Wolf’s visit to his childhood home in Germany. Other speakers at the event noted the significance of holding a Holocaust-themed evening at the former Jerusalem train station, which recalled the train tracks leading to Auschwitz — tracks that could have been destroyed, but weren’t.

Assuming a flinty posture on the exacerbation of terrorism aimed at Israel, Mr. Voight intoned, “The Palestinian radicals have only one prayer on their lips: To remove every Jew from Israel.” He received a standing ovation when he said, “We will not bend to terrorism in any way, shape, or form for the sake of peace.”

“How have we come to a time when blowing up babies and cutting their throats are an acceptable means to a political goal?” Voight queried his audience, referring to the barbaric murders of five members of the Fogel family in the settlement of Itamar in March of this year. “I feel complete contempt for anyone not intelligent enough to see that the media propaganda portraying the Palestinians as victims endangers the state of Israel,” he continued to rousing applause.

“If you stare evil in the eye, it’s a coward,” Beck told his audience of Christians and Jews. “If you confront your biggest fear, it goes away. It’s not enough to remember the Holocaust, because it has happened time and time again. This will be the generation that stops it in its tracks and says ‘never again, we mean it.’”

On Sunday, August 21st, former FOX News talk show host and conservative commentator Glenn Beck delivered an address laden with palpable emotion at the Roman amphitheater in Caesarea, Israel, as part of the first fixture leading up to his ”Restoring Courage” rally in Jerusalem on August 24th. Speaking to over 3,000 mostly American attendees, Beck exhorted his audience at the monumental venue built in the first century by Herod the Great to “not only love Israel but love the Jewish people as they are.”

Declaring that the entire world is “reentering the age of miracles of God,” he received thunderous applause when he said, “While there may not be a political solution, the good news is the God of Israel ain’t running for office.”  While not directly addressing the geo-political realities that Israel faces or his staunch opposition to the creation of an independent Palestinian state, Beck said, “Let the Jewish people know, no matter what our governments may say, we are not our governments, we stand with you. We bring truth, we bring peace, we bring support, we bring comfort.”

Simultaneously broadcast to over 80 countries throughout the world and close to 1,200 viewing parties, Beck’s remarks focused on the religious teachings that inspired him in his heartfelt love for Israel, namely the Books of Esther and Ruth. “When Ruth told her mother-in-law Naomi, ‘wherever you goest I shall go, your people shall be my people and your G-d shall be my G-d’, those words were a driving force for me.”

Joining Beck on stage were Pastor John Hagee, an American evangelical icon and founder and president of the Christians United For Israel (CUFI); American born Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, chief rabbi of Efrat; David Barton, a world renowned historian; and Dr. Mike Evans, an award-winning journalist and New York Times bestselling author who has sold over 23 million books. Providing musical entertainment for the evening was Grammy nominated R&B/soul/gospel singer Vernessa Mitchell, who was joined by a vibrant cadre of Israeli singers and musicians.

“The Jews are still the apple of God’s eye, still the chosen people, still the covenant people,” declared Pastor Hagee to a standing ovation as he took the podium. In a powerful statement on the ubiquitous campaign aimed at delegitimizing Israel and its growing isolation in the international community, he drew an analogy with the late President John F. Kennedy and his historical “Ich bin ein Berliner” speech, when Hagee announced “Ani Yisraeli” (I am an Israeli). He then led the rally participants in chants of: “I am an Israeli!”

Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, formerly of the Lincoln Square Synagogue on Manhattan’s upper west side, spoke of Jewish appreciation for the support of the Christian pro-Israel community, and in particular, that of Glenn Beck, who, Riskin said, is a “deeply patriotic American, a true friend of Israel.” Lauding the stoic character of the Christian supporters of Israel, Rabbi Riskin said, “We are not alone. We are Jews and not Christians. You Christians, nevertheless, have the courage to love us in our otherness. We are profoundly grateful for your courage to love us and stand with us.”

John Bolton, former United States ambassador to the United Nations, had some strong words for the world body on Monday evening, July 18th as he delivered a broad-based foreign policy speech during the Chairman’s Club dinner at the sixth annual Christians United for Israel (CUFI) national summit in Washington, DC.

Speaking from the podium of the Washington Convention Center, Ambassador Bolton addressed the upcoming vote scheduled for September at the United Nations General Assembly in which the Palestinian Authority will call for nation states to cast their vote for the establishment of an independent Palestine.

“This effort is an attack on Israel’s legitimacy,” said Bolton, adding that it comes as no surprise because “for the last two and a half years, President Obama has been negotiating on behalf of the Palestinians.” Supporting Israel’s right to live in “peace and security,” Bolton said that the solution to the seemingly intractable Israeli-Palestinian conflict must be resolved by the “parties of conflict” and not by the machinations of the United Nations. He called on Congress to “pass a law taking the wind out of the Palestinian sails; and should get Obama to be an honest broker in Middle East peace negotiations and get his thumb off the pedal of the Palestinians.”

Reminding his audience of over 600 that this is not the first time in modern history that the Palestinians have attempted to declare their own state, he said, “In 1988, they [the Palestinians] did the same thing and then joined specialized agencies of the United Nations to further their agenda.”  He also noted that the intended vote reflects a repudiation of US foreign policy and is a “direct contravention of UN resolutions 242 and 338.”

Calling for the US to employ strong measures against the UN if it does something “profoundly wrong” by de-legitimizing Israel, Bolton said the US should tell the Europeans that if they adopt this resolution, there will be no funding for the UN.  Back in 1988, former Secretary of State James Baker threatened any UN agency that funded the PLO, Bolton added. The US must state unequivocally that “we’re not going to give the UN legitimacy or authority in this matter and we’re not going to allow the UN General Assembly to have an effect on Middle East policy,” intoned Bolton.

Receiving rousing ovations and thunderous applause, former Fox News television personality Glenn Beck told an audience of over 5,000 gathered at the Christians United for Israel (CUFI) national summit in Washington that if the pernicious trends in global anti-Semitism culminate in another genocide, “then count me as a Jew, and come for me first.” Mr. Beck delivered these remarks as part of his keynote address at the “Night to Honor Israel” gala banquet at CUFI’s sixth annual convocation on Tuesday evening, July 19th.

Having just returned from a trip to Israel where he addressed the Knesset Committee on Immigration, Absorption and Diaspora Affairs at the invitation of Deputy Knesset Speaker Danny Danon, Mr. Beck opened his speech by announcing his donation of $10,000 to the “CUFI On Campus” student organization that battles anti-Israel propaganda on hundreds of college and university campuses across America. Referencing his emotional trip to the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp, he stated his oft-repeated belief that the inherent rights of the U.S. Constitution and those delineated in the Declaration of Independence were mandatory requirements for the prevention of massive human rights violations. “The founding fathers had the answer 150 years before Hitler showed up,” he said, but reminded his audience that for two millennia, the Jewish people were not accorded those rights in the countries in which they resided.

Until the modern state of Israel was established in 1948, he said, the Jews “have had no home base” and added that “this is why the nation of Israel is vital.” Recalling the painful history of the Jewish nation, he intoned, “They have been smeared. They have been maligned. But to our shame as human beings most of all, they have been forgotten in times of need.” Speaking directly to the Jewish people he said, “No one can protect your rights better than you. To rely on others is to ensure economic slavery at best, and death camps at worst.”

Spotlighting the existential siege that the Jewish State finds herself under by the looming Iranian nuclear threat and the forces of radical Islam in the Middle East and throughout the world, Mr. Beck concluded his address by issuing stern warnings to the enemies of Israel and the Jewish people. He said that “times have changed,” and that the Jews would no longer stand alone in any potential confrontation.

“This is still America 2011. We are not the Christians of the Crusades. We are Christians United For Israel,” he declared.

Reiterating Mr. Beck’s sentiments was Pastor John Hagee, founder and chairman of Christians United For Israel, who also delivered an impassioned address. ”Mr. Ahmadinejad: Do not threaten the people of Israel and the people of America,” he said. Citing those miscreants throughout history who have sought to eradicate the Jewish people, he noted, “Look at Pharoah of Egypt and Haman of Persia in the story of Purim and you will have some idea of G-d’s punishment for you.”

The hallowed halls of Yale University in New Haven, Connecticut were rocked with controversy last week when it was announced that a well-respected scholarly program called the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Anti-Semitism (YIISA) was scheduled to be terminated.  In a statement issued by the iconic ivy league institution, Donald Green, a political science professor at Yale and Director of the Institution for Social and Policy Studies, said that the decision was predicated upon YIISA “generating little scholarly work that earned publication in highly regarded journals, and its courses attracted few students.” Citing the Center for the Study of Race, Inequality and Politics as another example of an “underachieving program,” Dr. Green said that “YIISA suffered the same fate because it failed to meet high standards for research and instruction.”

These allegations have been zealously disputed by a veritable repertioire of top-tier academics, Jewish leaders and political commentators who have suggested that the university acquiesced to the strongly-worded critiques of YIISA programs by leading Muslim personalities and organizations. Referencing the seminal and highly enlightening 2010 YIISA sponsored conference entitled “Global Antisemitism: A Crisis of Modernity,” Abby Wisse Schachter writes in a New York Post op-ed piece of June 7th that studying “Christian anti-Semitism is fine; political Jew-hatred, like communist or fascist anti-Semitism, no problem. But get anywhere near Muslim or Middle Eastern anti-Semitism, as presenters at YIISA’s conference did last year, and you’ve crossed the line.”

Schachter also imputes a conspiratorial tone to the decision to shut YIISA’s doors by reporting that subsequent to the conference, ”the PLO representative in America scolded the school’s president, Richard Levin, complaining of the attention paid to anti-Semitism among Palestinians and Muslims.” The PLO “ambassador” in question, Maen Rashid Areikat, expressed his umbrage to Levin in a letter saying, “It’s shocking that a respected institution like Yale would give a platform to these right-wing extremists and their odious views. I urge you to publicly dissociate yourself and Yale University from the anti-Arab extremism and hate-mongering that were on display during this conference.”

The conference addressed the virulent nature of Islamic anti-Semitism, considered by experts in the field to be the most pernicious manifestation of modern-day global antipathy. Anti-Semitism in the Western academy was also meticulously examined and hundreds of pages of research materials were produced.

Led by the renowned sociologist Charles Small, YIISA was established in 2006 as the largest research unit in North America devoted to a nuanced exploration of anti-Semitism in its various incarnations with a focus on its urgent contemporary significance. Its clearly defined stated mission was ”to explore this subject matter in a comprehensive, interdisciplinary framework from an array of approaches and perspectives as well as regional contexts.”

Each year, respected scholars who have published monographic studies on anti-Semitism have gathered for YIISA sponsored colloquiums. Among those scholars attached to YIISA programs include Irwin Cotler, the former Canadian attorney general and minister of justice, David Hirsh of Goldsmiths College in London, Phyllis Chesler, emerita professor of psychology and women’s studies at the City University of New York and Bassam Tibi, emeritus professor of international relations at the University of Goettingen.

Fashionable Fifth Avenue in New York City was transformed into a sea of blue and white on Sunday, June 5th, as tens of thousands participated in the annual “Celebrate Israel” parade, while hundreds of thousands of onlookers cheered on the litany of synagogues, schools and organizations that participated in the jubilant march. Reports indicate that the attendance was the largest in its 47-year history.

Former Soviet dissident and Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora, Yuli Edelstein served as the grand marshall and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg along with Michael Oren, the Israeli ambassador to Washington, led the parade down its route to 74th Street.

A virtual repertoire of dignitaries made appearances including Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D) of New York’s 8th congressional district, City Council Speaker Christine Quinn, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, as well as leaders of the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), and the United Jewish Appeal (UJA) representing various Jewish communities.

The flag of Israel was a ubiquitous site as well as “Old Glory” which were held aloft by participants in each group. Such schools as Yeshiva of Flatbush, Magen David Yeshiva, Shulamith School for Girls, Yeshiva Derech HaTorah, the Rambam Yeshiva, the Hebrew Academy of the Five Towns and Rockaway (HAFTR),  the North Shore Hebrew Academy, the Jewish Foundation School, the Hebrew Academy of Nassau County,  the Frisch School, the Ramaz School, the Joseph Kushner Hebew Academy, the Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva of Edison, New Jersey, the Rosenbaum Yeshiva of North Jersey, the Westchester Hebrew High School, the Solomon Schechter Schools of Queens, Manhattan, Nassau County, Bergen County, Monmouth County, Raritan Valley and Westchester were well represented with their entire student bodies as were many others.

A plethora of floats and marching bands were also on hand with sound systems playing Hebrew music and traditional Israeli songs relating to the cultural and religious legacy of the Jewish state.  Float sponsors included El Al Airlines, Bank HaPoalim/Bank Leumi, American Friends of Magen David Adom, the 92nd Street Y, the Jewish National Fund, RAJE – Russian American Jewish Experience, the American-Israel Friendship League, the Jewish Community Relations Council, and the UJA Federation of New York.

The predominant theme of each participating group was the centrality of Israel to the collective Jewish identity as well as calls to maintain the holy city of Jerusalem as Israel’s eternal, united and undivided capital. The subtle undercurrent of geo-political realities also permeated the parade route as many remained shocked and outraged over the dramatic shift in US foreign policy as it pertains to Israel.

“I’m a black Christian woman who loves Israel and what she represents to the free world. I roundly condemn, in the strongest of terms, President Obama’s arrogant and hostile posture towards the only stable democratic ally we have in the Middle East. How dare he even entertain the ludicrous notion of Israel retreating to the clearly indefensible 1967 borders? It is clear as day that this president would love nothing more than to see Israel destroyed by her enemies”, declared Coretta James of the Christians United For Israel organization, as she stood on the sidelines watching the parade.

On Friday morning, June 3rd, several dozen people gathered across the street from the Jacob Javits Center on Manhattan’s west side to voice their outrage and indignation over the decision of the board of trustees of the City University of New York (CUNY) to grant an honorary degree to playwright Tony Kushner. The site was selected because it was the venue of the commencement ceremonies for the 2011 class of the John Jay College of Criminal Justice; the same CUNY school that saw fit to bestow the honorary degree to the Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright for his literary accomplishments.

A polemical firestorm erupted a month ago when CUNY trustee Jeffrey S. Wiesenfeld (an investment adviser and one-time aide to former New York State Governor George E. Pataki) represented the lone dissenting voice at a CUNY board meeting on May 2nd in which he expressed his vehement opposition to the nomination of Kushner for an honorary degree.

At the time, Mr. Wiesenfeld cited a litany of anti-Israel statements made by Mr. Kushner and spoke of the “disingenuous and non-intellectual activity directed against the State of Israel on campuses throughout the country, the West generally and oftentimes the United States as well.”  Mr. Wiesenfeld also pointed to direct quotes that Kushner made to the media. Among them are:

“[Israel was] founded in a program that, if you really want to be blunt about it, was ethnic cleansing, and that today is behaving abominably towards the Palestinian people.”
— Yale Israel Review (winter 2005)

“I’ve never been a Zionist. I have a problem with the idea of a Jewish state. It would have been better if it never happened.”
— The New York Sun reporting Kushner comments made at a conference in NY (10/14/02)

Ha’aretz reporter: “But you are saying that the very creation of Israel as a Jewish state was not a good idea.”
Kushner: “I think it was a mistake.”
— Ha’aretz (4/7/04)

“I am not a Zionist in case you haven’t noticed.” Kushner cited “the shame of American Jews for failing to denounce Israel.”
– Chicago Tribune (4/10/02)

“[Israel is involved in] a deliberate destruction of Palestinian culture and a systematic attempt to destroy the identity of the Palestinian people.”
– New York Sun (10/4/02)

Under routine circumstances, the CUNY board “rubber stamps” nominations of this kind, but subsequent to Mr. Wiensenfeld’s address, the trustees voted to deny Kushner a degree. Displaying obvious consternation, Kushner penned a critically worded letter to CUNY Chairman of the Board Benno Schmidt and the other trustees. Admonishing them, Kushner intoned: “Did any of you feel that your responsibilities as trustees of an august institution of higher learning included even briefly discussing the appropriateness of Mr. Weisenfeld’s using a public board meeting as a platform for deriding the political opinions of someone with whom he disagrees?”

Regarding his views on Israel, Kushner wrote in the same letter, “I believe that the historical record shows, incontrovertibly, that the forced removal of Palestinians from their homes as part of the creation of the State of Israel was ethnic cleansing, a conclusion I reached mainly by reading the work of Benny Morris, an acclaimed and conservative Israeli historian whose political opinions are much more in accord with Mr. Weisenfeld’s than with mine.”

Several days later, Mr. Schmidt released a statement saying the trustees had made a “mistake of principle, and not merely of policy,” in withholding the degree for Mr. Kushner from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. In an attempt to quell widespread criticism, CUNY Chancellor Matthew Goldstein urged Mr. Schmidt to convene a board meeting on May 9th at which time the trustees reversed their previous decision and voted to approve an honorary degree for Kushner.

“Ahmadinejad: Remember What Happened to Haman” was one of the many signs held aloft on Sunday afternoon, March 20th, as close to 500 Jews gathered on Purim day for a public reading of Megillat Esther (the Book of Esther) that was held outside the Iranian mission to the United Nations on Manhattan’s east side. Organized by Americans For A Safe Israel (AFSI), Amcha – the Coalition for Jewish Concerns, Z Street and the Jewish Political Education Council, the reading was held as a symbolic representation of the indefatigable nature of the Jewish people and G-d’s intervention in their survival throughout the millenium.

“Purim is a day that we celebrate the survival of the Jewish people against evil rulers who sought our complete annihilation in the city of Shushan in Persia. In every generation the names of our oppressors and their countries of origin may change, but they are driven by one common denominator and that is visceral hatred of the Jew,” intoned Larry Domnitch, a freelance writer and designated reader of the megillah.

“Today we will read about the plans for mass extermination of the Jewish people designed by the prototypes of evil, namely Achashveirosh and Haman. We are gathered here today to remind the modern day Haman who resides in Iran named Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that we will not be silent while he creates his plans to ‘wipe Israel off the map.’ As in the days of Queen Esther, we will raise our voices to G-d, seeking His divine intervention and we will boldly speak out against a regime that is not only a nemesis to Israel, but to the entire free world,” he added.

Glenn Richter, long-time Jewish activist and former leader of the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, introduced the leaders of the sponsoring organizations as the crowd held specially made Purim groggers (noisemakers) with the face of Ahmadinejad and a red line cancelling it out, along with other signs and Israeli flags. “The Obama administration is willfully deluding itself by touting the line that the source of all the problems in the Middle East is due to Jewish settlements in Judea and Samaria,” he declared. ”It is clear that the source of anti-Western and anti-Israel terrorism today emanates from Iran; the very same government that sought to destroy us centuries ago,” he added.

During the megillah reading, the sounds of acrimony could be heard from a small contingent of Neturei Karta counter-protestors who chanted, “Down, Down, the State of Israel,” and held signs lambasting Zionism as antithetical to against Judaism. On each occasion that the name of Haman was read aloud, the noise generated by the plethora of groggers and loud boos by those gathered to hear the megillah drowned out the hateful rhetoric of the counter-protestors.

Subsequent to the megillah reading, Helen Freedman of the Americans For A Safe Israel said, “We are putting the government of Iran on notice and we are here today to tell Ahmadinejad and other sponsors of terrorism against Israel and the Western world, that your fate is sealed. Learn from history. When you lift your hand against the Jewish nation, you will succumb to defeat, just as Haman did in Persia and all the others after him.”

Human rights activists of all stripes took to the streets on Sunday afternoon, March 6th, in a rally supporting the upcoming congressional hearings in which Rep. Peter King (R-NY) will discuss the increased radicalization of American Muslims and the potential for the implementation of Sharia law in the United States. Approximately 80 members of the Human Rights Coalition Against Radical Islam, the Liberty Alliance, the Coalition to Honor Ground Zero, Americans For a Safe Israel, Liberty Rocks, Blue Collar Corner, and Women United International gathered in the pouring rain near Times Square to make their voices heard. Rep. King is the chairman of the Homeland Security  Committee in Congress and has represented New York’s 3rd congressional district since 1993. His district includes parts of Nassau and Suffolk counties in central Long Island.

“Muslim and non-Muslim alike to stand together in solidarity, speaking out as a collective American voice. Concerned Americans will take a unified stance against a rising Islamophobia caused by anxiety, misinformation, and ignorance.  Despite best efforts to engage and integrate into American society, certain leaders nonetheless, continue to see Muslims outside of the American family portrait. Rep. Peter King,  for example, will hold congressional hearings addressing, ‘The Radicalization of Muslim communities in America,’ with testimony solely focusing on the Muslim community.”

As Americans are murdered here and abroad by Islamic radicals, Imam Rauf tries to turn the facts upside down, and blames the United States for Islamist violence and hatred. He says that “US policies were an accessory to the crime of 9/11.” He claims that Muslims are targets of widespread discrimination, hate speech and physical attacks. Meanwhile, the imams are working overtime to make Sharia law look benign. Indeed, Imam Rauf claims that the American political structure is already sharia compliant.

We are living in the most dangerous of times and as Americans we would have hoped for a president who had the courage and temerity to label the enemy as they are. Those who threaten our safety and welfare are radical Islamists living amongst us and those on foreign shores and we should have leadership that is not afraid to say just that.

I am both appalled and totally shocked that Rabbi Schneier has enabled Imam Rauf in his quest to implement Sharia law in America. No one who truly cares about human rights and interfaith partnership can ignore the widespread and well documented evidence of slaughter and barbaric human rights abuses of non-Muslims, women, young girls, and gays under Sharia Islam across the globe.

Those who support the efforts of Imam Rauf and Daisy Khan to help in the proliferation of sharia law can only be classified as “useful idiots” as Vladimir Lenin once said. The agenda of radical Islamists is clear, yet those who are indignant over “purported racial profiling” don’t grasp the concept that these forces would use violence and terrorism against anyone who is not a Muslim, as they have done for centuries.

As a young boy I was sold into slavery to radical Islamists. I am so proud to now be an American and I exhort you all to hold on to our freedoms for dear life. Over three million Christian Sudanese people were murdered by Islamists and we must fight to uphold our cherished democratic principles before they are taken from us.

Graphic depictions of the most egregious forms of human rights abuses against women in Iran took center stage at a special seminar in New York City on March 3rd. Sponsored by “Iran180,” an organization dedicated to spotlighting the litany of human rights abuses that take place on a daily basis in Iran, the seminar was entitled, “Securing Gender Equality: Iran and the CSW.” Held at 777 UN Plaza, a building directly across the street from the United Nations, the objectives of the gathering included raising awareness of Iran’s violations of women’s rights and the staging of symbolic protests against the welcoming of the Islamic Republic of Iran as the newest member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women at its 56th session.

Among the speakers were the Honorable David Kilgour, J.D., co-chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran – Shabnam Assadollaki, host and producer of Hamseda Persian Radio in Canada – Fakhteh Luna Zamani, CEO and co-founder of the Association for the Defense of Azerbaijani Political Prisoners in Iran – Renee Redman of the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center – Reza Khalil, former Iranian Revolutionary Guard member and author of “A Time To Betray”, winner of the 2010 National Best Books Award – Fariba Davoodi, a formerly imprisoned Iranian women’s rights activist, and Mertash Rastegar, an Iranian blogger and international law expert.

Quoting the findings of exiled Iranian lawyer, Zohreh Arshadi, Mr. David Kilgour, co-chair of the Canadian Friends of a Democratic Iran intoned, “the Iranian penal system is a principal means of sustaining inequality of genders. Its ludicrous premise is that women are deficient in abilities.” He added that Arshadi stresses that Iranian women, “have managed to achieve equality in one field only: equal right to imprisonment, exile, torture, being killed and now being slaughtered…”

Speaking of the many Iranian women who are unjustly imprisoned, tortured and often sentenced to death for crimes they did not commit, Mr. Kilgour relayed the narrative of Sakineh Ashtiani, a mother of Turkic descent (a minority known to be targeted for human rights abuses, especially in Teheran) who did not speak Farsi or understand her charge of alleged adultery. “She was incarcerated and beaten, then humiliated in front of her family by a public lashing. Her plight and narrow escape from death by stoning became a successful test case for the global community’s response to the regime’s misogyny,” he said.

Mr. Kilgour also spoke of Irwin Cotler, a Canadian member of parliament and chair of the Inernational Responsibility to Protect Coalition who recently warned that Iran is on an “execution binge,” while engaging in a “wholesale assault on the rights of its own people.” He added that, “in 2011 alone, the Iranian regime has already executed at least 120 people. It now leads the world in per capita executions, many of which are in secret, taking place after arrests, detentions, beatings, torture, kidnappings, disappearances, and brief trials in which no evidence is presented.”

On Wednesday, February 16th, a most unique and historic colloquium was convened in Toronto by the Advocates For Civil Liberties (ACL), a new and dynamic organization of attorneys, professionals and concerned citizens dedicated to spotlighting the egregious manifestations of anti-Israel propaganda on university campuses across North America. The day-long symposium that drew over 400 people was entitled “When Middle East Politics Invade Campus,” and was held at the Hyatt Regency Hotel in downtown Toronto. The forum featured a panoply of distinguished speakers, including such vibrant and erudite intellectual personalities as Israel National News op-ed contributor, Dr. Phyllis Chesler, emerita professor of psychology and women’s studies at CUNY. Dr. Chesler is also journalist, noted lecturer and author of 13 books including, “The New Anti-Semitism” and “The Death of Feminism.”

The other speakers included Dr. Catherine Chatterley, a research fellow at the University of Manitoba and founding director of the Canadian Institute for the Study of Anti-Semitism; Judge Hadassa Ben Ito, an international jurist and past president of the International Association of Jewish Lawyers and Jurists; Dr. Gil Troy, professor of history at McGill University, renowned author and presidential historian; Elliot Chodoff, a Major in the Israel Defense Forces and a political and military analyst specializing in the Middle East conflict and the global war on terrorism; Dr. Richard Cravatts of Boston University and author of a forthcoming book entitled, “Genocidal Liberalism: The University’s Jihad Against Israel;” Andrew Roberts, founding member of the Friends of Israel Initiative and a noted British historian, author and lecturer; and Salim Mansur, professor of political science at the University of Western Ontario.

Spearheaded and organized by conference coordinator Meryle Kates, the ACL has been established to advocate for civil liberties protection in Canada, particularly in university settings. Their efforts have been devoted to countering unbalanced anti-Israel messages from organizations whose objectives are to promote propaganda against the State of Israel, with the result of inciting anti-Israel sentiment and hostilities. The directors of the ACL include Lorne Saltman, an attorney with the firm Cassels Brock & Blackwell, LLP, Stephen Posen of Minden Gross, LLP, and Robert Grant of FusionPro UK.

According to their mission statement, “the ACL seeks to collaborate with academic officials to devise appropriate, enforceable ground rules for campus political activities. Increasingly, demonstrations such as, but not limited to the upcoming ‘Israeli Apartheid Week’ on campus, create a hostile atmosphere, and one that stifles the genuine exchange of views on sensitive Middle East issues. Groups promoting Israeli Apartheid Week attack the very concept of dialogue and freedom of speech. Rather than engage in civil discourse, these groups become involved in hateful protests to delegitimize Israel’s standing internationally, and create a climate of intimidation for many members of the university community.”

Serving as moderator for the proceedings was Jonathan Kay, a managing editor at Canada’s National Post newspaper and a columnist on the newspaper’s op-ed page. “The only way to disprove a lie is to establish the facts,” declared Judge Hadassa Ben Itto, as she delivered the opening remarks of the conference via video feed from Jerusalem. Judge Itto is best known for her scholarly monograph entitled “The Lie That Wouldn’t Die, The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” (2005), a text that has been used for a century to demonize Jews and delegitimize Israel. “In 1964, the Protocols were finally declared ‘the hoax of the century, yet both the Jewish people and Israel are now targets of haters who still insist that there is a Jewish conspiracy to dominate the world,” she ruefully observed.

Referencing the tendentious climate on campuses as it pertains to Israel and the spurious “scholarship” that is being substituted for facts, Judge Itto said, “The organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week prove that they know nothing about Israel. Professors at some universities are guilty of presenting distorted information about Israel along with one-sided bias and slanderous rhetoric. Boycotts of academics and the assault on the free marketplace of ideas are replicas of the public square where public opinion is dictating policy today.” Adding that she personally witnessed “real apartheid” in South Africa years ago, she condemned the concept of an Israeli Apartheid Week as “outrageous” and called for responsible educators to set the record straight.

Students at such respected academic institutions as York University in Toronto are no stranger to the acrimony that is engendered during Israeli Apartheid Week, as their campus has previously morphed into a hotbed of anti-Israel and anti-Jewish hatred during past events of this kind. In a very special panel dedicated to the voices of those who have experienced this phenomenon, Mr. Kay introduced five York students who articulated their views and expressed concerns about the future.

Sara Akrami, an Iranian human rights activist and second year political science student at York said, “Clubs are established at York with the sole purpose of creating discord and promoting anti-Israel violence and the administration takes no action against them.” Ms. Akrami noted that the November 2010 appearance of British parliamentarian George Galloway was opposed by a majority of the students at York. Galloway is a highly polemical figure who achieved notoriety as a rabid hater of the Jewish state, asserting that Israel created “conditions in the Arab countries and in some European countries to stampede Jewish people … into the Zionist state.”

Akrami decried the “inhumane and terrorist activities of the Islamic Republic of Iran,” and added that those on campus who support the draconian regime of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad have “treated her organization with hostility and disrespect.” She angrily admonished Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and called upon him to ”stop dealing with the Iranian government.”

Others such as Josee Chiasson, a fourth year student at York completing an honors BA in psychology, has undertaken the task of uniting Christian and Jewish leaders on campus, and has assumed the role of president of Christians United for Israel (CUFI). “I knew nothing of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict during my first year at college. It was only when I visited Israel and witnessed the truth firsthand, did I begin to understand that the insidious rhetoric of the organizers of Israeli Apartheid Week simply did not hold true.”

Issuing an impassioned clarion call to the Western world on the litany of existential dangers that radical Islam represents to America’s cherished democratic principles, author David Rubin’s meticulously researched monograph reveals that Islam is in actuality a political ideology predicated on a pernicious dogma, rather than the “religion of peace” that its proponents purport it to be.

The Islamic Tsunami: Israel and America in the Age of Obama (Shiloh Israel Press) is an exceptionally well-documented treatise on the gamut of commonalities that are endemic to both Israel and America in terms of religion, politics and culture. Rubin calls on all free peoples, especially Americans, to take serious heed of the escalating dangers that Islam represents in terms of the perpetuation of bellicose actions bent on mass murder or the more insidious and subtle kind of aggression that is manifested by the potential silent incursion of Sharia law into American jurisprudence.  He exhorts both Jews and Christians alike to carefully examine the Judeo-Christian value system that has bound them together for centuries and strongly suggests that they create concrete alliances in order to thwart the nefarious agenda of radical Islam; thus preserving “Western civilization” as we know it.

Rubin speaks with authority as he explains the Islamic concepts of dhimmitude (slave status for all “non-believers”), how the Koran metes out punitive measures against infidels, and outlines the ultimate goal of Islamic global dominance in the form of a Caliphate. Rubin is neither an alarmist nor is he suffering from paranoia and to his credit he does not posit himself as an abstract theoretician or a think-tank denizen. Having studied the Koran, the Bible, as well as plumbing the depths of resources on American history as it pertains to the views of the founding fathers and more recent events, Rubin’s book is replete with a plethora of highly enlightening quotes from these sources that help to state his case.

As a Brooklyn-born American Orthodox Jew who now lives in Israel, he has first hand experience of the travails of Islamic terrorism as he ruefully recalls his victimization and that of his three-year old son, Ruby. In December of 2001, while driving home to Shiloh from Jerusalem, Rubin and his son were both injured in a terrorist attack carried out by Islamic militants. When Rubin arrived at the hospital he was told that he was “the hospital’s 1000th victim of terrorism” and recalls that he was later told by a surgeon that “the bullet which entered the head and traveled through the neck of my three-year old boy missed his brain stem by one millimeter.” Determined to assist others facing similar crises, Rubin founded the Shiloh Israel Children’s Fund, an organization dedicated to relieving the trauma suffered by child victims of terrorism.

Chants of “not one inch” could be heard in midtown Manhattan on Tuesday afternoon as members of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI) joined forces with members of the Lubavitch movement, who represented the World Committee for the Land of Israel, in a spirited demonstration. Protesters came to show their support for the abrogation of the moratorium on settlement building that had been in place for the last 10 months throughout Judea and Samaria.

Over 200 demonstrators gathered outside the Israeli consulate on East 42nd Street and Second Avenue, holding aloft signs saying, “No freeze, no appease, Bibi stay strong,” “Build!! Don’t destroy Jewish homes and synagogues,” “The land of Israel belongs to G-d: do not relinquish it,” and “Jerusalem, Hebron, Golan, Judea and Samaria: ours forever.”

Helen Freedman, executive director of AFSI told the crowd, “We are here today to celebrate the renewal of building in Israel. We congratulate Prime Minister Netanyahu for resisting the pressure from President Obama and Mahmoud Abbas to extend the construction freeze in Judea, Samaria and Jerusalem. We must call on Prime Minister Netanyahu to remember that nations rise and fall, but the Jewish people have maintained their right to the entire land of Israel for 4000 years.”

Among the speakers were Rabbi Aaron Raskin of Congregation B’nai Avraham in Brooklyn Heights; Rabbi Weinberg from Kansas City; Dr. Michoel Friend from 770 Chabad – co-organizer of the demonstration; Janet Lehr, who blogs at Israel Lives; Evelyn Haies, president of Rachel’s Children Reclamation Foundation; Ezra Zareh, an attorney from Merrick, NY; and Robin Ticker, who represented Jewish Women of Lubavitch.

“We are here today to publicize and advocate for the adoption of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s platform of staunch opposition to the relinquishing of any part of Eretz Yisroel,” said Michoel Friend of the World Committee for the Land of Israel. “This position is predicated on halacha (Jewish law) and giving away parts of Israel leads to the tragic loss of life and thus is halachically prohibited,” he continued. “What has led our Jewish leaders to even contemplate the notion of doing this? It is the exile mentality that makes them think that they can curry favor with the non-Jewish world by giving away the land that G-d promised to His people for eternity. We must take our leaders and our rabbis to task for having neglected to stand up and cite halacha in support of Israel,” he intoned.

In an effort to spotlight the egregious human rights abuses that take place on a daily basis in Iran, the pro-Israel student advocacy organization “Stand With Us” staged a silent demonstration in Manhattan on September 19th at the entrance to Central Park on 59th Street and Columbus Circle. The protest came in response to Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s visit to New York and his upcoming address to the United Nations General Assembly slated for September 23rd.

Approximately 60 people attended the silent protest which featured “street theater.” Participants placed blue duct tape over their mouths to signify the lack of free speech or dissension in Iran. Others held signs that depicted the horrific human rights abuses that take place in the country. While there were no speakers or organized crowds chanting, the powerful message of those suffering under the draconian rule of the Iranian regime came across loud and clear. Attendees included longtime Jewish activist Helen Freedman, the New York City coordinator of Americans for a Safe Israel (AFSI), who was accompanied by a contingent of AFSI members. Freedman declared:

“We came here today to stand in solidarity with those Iranian citizens who are being beheaded, stoned and buried alive for speaking out against the tyrannical rule of the Iranian ayatollahs. It is the pinnacle of hypocrisy for Iranian President Ahmadinejad to come to New York and speak at the United Nations while his own citizens are not granted the basic rights of free speech that we take for granted in this country. We also hold the UN responsible for extending an invitation to Ahmadinejad.”

Holding aloft photos of dissidents who have been tortured and murdered by the Iranian regime, the demonstrators also held signs saying, “Down with dictators,” “In Iran, you are KILLED for opposing the government,” “Iran is the world sponsor of terrorism – imagine them with nukes!” and “Impediment to peace – Iran.”

Most of the signs present displayed a photo of Ahmadinejad’s face.  Many of those who participated in the demonstration were Iranian dissidents, now living in the United States and the United Kingdom, and others who personally felt the lash of Ahmadinejad’s government.