Exposed: 'Breaking the Silence' collects intelligence on the IDF - Does it reach their European masters?
Greetings from Boston where I have been working all week, and where the Sabbath does not start for several more hours. I will be here until Sunday morning. Sunday is a travel day, but I'm not heading back to Israel just yet. I'm heading West... (and should have WiFi access on the plane, so you may see a few more posts on Sunday). And for those who watch the weather reports, it looks like I will once again escape a serious winter snowstorm by the skin of my teeth, God Willing.
For those of you who have forgotten 'Breaking the Silence,' they are an organization that claims to be dedicated to exposing IDF abuses of 'Palestinians' in Judea and Samaria. They are funded by
European governments, by the European Union (which awarded them the prestigious
Andrei Sakharov prize) and by private American citizens (as well as by
UNICEF and OxFam). Br'eaking the Silence' interviews
discharged IDF soldiers and
debriefs them regarding their IDF service. Or so they claim. It now seems that they do a lot more.
You might recall that recently, an organization called Ad Kan (Until Here) turned over video evidence to Israel's Channel 10 about human rights violations by 'human rights' groups
Taayush and B'Tselem.Spreading the wealth, the group handed over material on '
Breaking the Silence' to Israel's Channel 2, which reported on it Thursday night (link and video in Hebrew). The material shows that 'Breaking the Silence' is collecting military intelligence which has no connection to 'human rights' violations in Judea and Samaria or anyplace else. And the unanswered question is 'with whom does 'Breaking the Silence' share that intelligence material?' That intelligence material could clearly and presently endanger the State of Israel.
Here's a
summary in English.
In its investigation, Channel 2 cited unpublished testimonies from
Israeli soldiers that were obtained by the right-wing NGO Ad Kan, which
sent some of its members to join Breaking the Silence undercover. The
report claimed that Breaking the Silence collected “operational and
intelligence” information about IDF activities from both current and
former soldiers.
Channel 2 also broadcast videos of Breaking the Silence asking
soldiers “questions [that] appear to revolve more around their
operational activity rather issues regarding Palestinians and human
rights.”
While Breaking the Silence says it gathers anonymous testimonies from
Israeli soldiers about the IDF’s purported human rights abuses, these
testimonies have been previously criticized as being unsubstantiated and lacking context. In recent months, the group has come under increased scrutiny over the ethics of its practices.
In the wake of the new Channel 2 report, Breaking the Silence denied
any wrongdoing and emphasized that it works closely with Israel’s
military censor. Breaking the Silence CEO Yuli Novak added that several
organizations and members of the Knesset were trying “to silence” her
group.
And it seems that the next group to come under scrutiny may be 'rabbis' for 'human rights.'
In How Non-Governmental Organizations Became a Weapon in the War on Israel,
which was published in the February 2016 issue of The Tower Magazine,
Gerald Steinberg, president of NGO Monitor, wrote about a subsequent
investigative report involving Breaking the Silence and Nawi.
The broadcast became headline news and the fallout
continued for weeks. Nawi was arrested at Ben-Gurion Airport when he
tried to flee the country.
A few days later, a follow-up program aired
more hidden-camera footage, this time showing Nawi with officials from
two other prominent “human rights” NGOs—Breaking the Silence (BtS) and
Rabbis for Human Rights (RHR). Both groups were shown giving money to
Nawi, who then handed out checks to Palestinians, apparently for taking
part in violent demonstrations. RHR claimed that Nawi was paid for
providing transportation services. BtS denounced everyone involved in
the program as “Stasi,” a reference to the notorious East German
intelligence service.
Steinberg observed that even before the broadcast of Nawi with
representatives of Breaking the Silence, there was growing criticism of
the group across the political spectrum in Israel.
Prior to the Uvda broadcasts, BtS and its patrons were
the particular focus of growing anger among many Israelis on the Right,
center, and even the center-Left. This anger followed a major jump in
the visibility of BtS, which reflected the group’s million- dollar
budget. BtS events in churches, universities, and national parliaments
around the world featured “anonymous testimony” that alleged systematic
immorality by IDF soldiers, with no corroborating evidence.
In response, hundreds of IDF reserve officers petitioned the Minister
of Defense, demanding that BtS activists be barred from speaking on
military bases. In parallel, relatives of terror victims and fallen
soldiers demanded that Education Minister Naftali Bennett prohibit BtS
from speaking to high school students. NGOs like B’Tselem were also
criticized. On Israel’s popular Saturday night satire program Gav Hauma,
host Lior Schleien did a ten-minute routine based on the issue,
primarily lampooning BtS and related NGOs.
I'm amazed that B'Tselem is allowed to speak on military bases.... But what Professor Steinberg says about anger coming from 'even the center-Left' is true. Yesh Atid party leader
Yair Lapid has accused 'Breaking the Silence' of digging under the foundations of the State of Israel, and causing it both internal and external damage (link in Hebrew).
For those of you wondering why Israel feels the need to stop foreign governments from financing its NGO's, this is another data point.
Labels: B'Tselem, Breaking the Silence, Channel 2, European anti-Semitism, European Union, Gerald Steinberg, IDF, NGO funding, NGO Monitor, Oxfam, Rabbis for Human Rights, Ta'ayush, UNICEF
Far Left 'rabbis for human rights' faked an attack on 'Palestinians'
The radical Leftist 'rabbis for human rights' (or perhaps that should be 'rabbis' for 'human rights') organization has been caught
faking attacks on 'Palestinian' olive groves... can you guess where? Yes, right near
Eish Kodesh. This is from the first link.
The far-left group Rabbis for Human Rights, accused in the past of inciting Arab violence and recently of distributing anti-Semitic materials,
was exposed Monday for falsely reporting cut down olive tree branches
at the Arab village of Jaloud in Samaria, right next to the Jewish town
of Esh Kodesh.
An IDF patrol that arrived on the scene detained several Israeli
youths who were in the area and fled towards the community of Shvut
Rachel.
However, upon checking the scene, the IDF found there were no signs
on the olive trees of being cut down, and consequently the Israelis were
released. The far-left group has previously used olive harvests to stir up controversy and disputes.
The recent false claim of cutting down olive trees plays upon
accusations of "price tag" vandalism, an accusation that was used last
week to justify the attempted lynch by an Arab mob of 25 Jews as they walked from Esh Kodesh to Givat Hayovel.
'Rabbis' for 'human rights' is a great group of community organizers, but they are apparently clueless about real human rights.
Labels: anti-Israel rabbis, anti-Israeli Israelis, Rabbis for Human Rights
Anti-Israel rabbis for Obama
Desperate to shore up his flagging standing in the Jewish community, President Obama's reelection campaign released a list of '
rabbis for Obama' earlier this week. On Thursday, the Emergency Committee for Israel's
William Kristol responded to the list.
The “Rabbis for Obama,” your campaign says, are “committed to re-electing” you due to your “policy agenda that represents the values of the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish community” and your “deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel.”
Though we have differed with you on many policy matters, we at the Emergency Committee for Israel have taken you at your word as to your basic commitment to Israel’s security. Thus it was particularly shocking to see that your campaign had recruited, and was touting the support of, rabbis who have no commitment to Israel’s security, and whose values are representative of a small and extreme group of anti-Israel activists – and certainly not of the pro-Israel community.
“Rabbis for Obama” includes many leaders of the Boycott, Divest, and Sanction (BDS) Movement, a movement inimical to Israel’s well-being. It includes founders of the pro-Hamas “Fast for Gaza” initiative. It even includes one person who was pleased to dine with Iranian President Ahmadinejad in 2008 and another who says the United States and Israel bring terrorism on themselves. Several members of “Rabbis for Obama” are officials of Jewish Voice for Peace, a radical group that the Anti-Defamation League featured in its list of the “Top 10 Anti-Israel Groups in America.”
Far from demonstrating a “deep commitment to the security of the state of Israel,” these figures have demonstrated a deep hostility to the state of Israel and a deep commitment to demonizing the Jewish state and undermining the U.S.-Israel alliance. We are sure that you will be distressed to discover that your own campaign has included so many of them on the list of “Rabbis for Obama.” We cannot imagine their endorsements are ones you welcome.
According to my sources, the 'rabbis for Obama' who are anti-Israel include the following:
Jewish Voice for Peace
Chava Bahle, Suttons Bay Michigan
Rachel Evelyne Barenblat, Lanesboro MA
Haim Beliak, Los Angeles
Lynn Gottlieb, Berkeley (Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Co-founder of Shomer Shalom Network for Jewish Nonviolence, Stony Point, NY, JVP Advisory Board”
Linda J. Holtzman, Philadelphia
Rebecca Lillian, Chicago
David Mivasair, State College
Brant Rosen, Evanston, co-founder Taanit Tzedek-Jewish Fast for Gaza
Rabbis for Human Rights
Charles M. Feinberg, Washington DC
Gerald Serotta, Chevy Chase MD
Simkha Y. Weintraub, Brooklyn
Sharon Brous, Los Angeles
Aryeh Cohen, Los Angeles
Ayelet S. Cohen, New York
Maurice D Harris, Eugene OR
Ellen Lippmann, Brooklyn
Sidney Schwarz, Rockville MD
Both Jewish Voice for Peace and Rabbis for Human Rights are demonstrably anti-Israel organizations. But Obama says he's got Israel's back. And sadly, some 60% of American Jewry still believes him.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, BDS, Campaign 2012, Jewish Voice for Peace, Rabbis for Human Rights
EXCLUSIVE: Who is J Street's mystery donor?
Last September, I published a post in which I asked "
who the heck is Consolacion Esdicul?"
Another lie that was exposed by Eli Lake on Friday was the claim that most of J Street's money came from small donations by American Jews. In fact, aside from the 15% that came from George Soros, 50% came from a woman in Hong Kong named Consolacion Esdicul.The group's 990 forms -- which I've also obtained and put online for the first time here -- show the group's single largest contribution, in the odd sum of $811,697 coming from one Consolacion Esdicul of Happy Valley, a Hong Kong suburb. Esdicul, whose name is Filipino, has no presence on Google or Nexis aside from this story, and people I spoke to in Jewish groups left and right had never heard of her.
Spokeswoman Amy Spitalnick tells me the same thing the group told Lake: She is a business associate of Bill Benter, another J Street supporter from Pittsburgh who solicited Consolacion's gift. It's a large gift, but it should be put in the context of the $11.2 million the J Street family of organizations has raised over the last 2.5 years (full details below).
Esdicul's contribution was just about half of the $1.6 million the group received during the year in question. Spitalnick says that they haven't received any other contributions from Esdicul , and that their operating budget over the last three years for the group's "family of organizations" is $9.5 million.
It is, to say the least, unusual that a group would get half its budget from a foreigner doing a favor to a business associate. I left a message for Benter, who heads a medical transcription company, to ask about how that came about.
Benter, as it turns out, is one of the world's most successful betters on horse races, and Happy Valley, a Hong Kong suburb, is the location of one of the world's largest horse race tracks.
I did a lot of speculating about Connie Esdicul
here and
here. I theorized that she might be the sister of Benter's wife, Vivian Fung, or the widow of Benter's former betting partner Alan Woods. In the course of my research, I discovered that Benter was also a donor to Barack Hussein Obama, the Democratic party of Virginia and
Rabbis for Human Rights.
But the truth came to me from a source I found while in the US. The answer is really quite simple according to my source: Consolacion (Connie) Esdicul is Bill Benter's long-time secretary. She has been his secretary for the last 25 years, and may have been even more than his secretary at one time. So Benter (surprise, surprise!) is the likely source of all that money, which may not have been reported as such to the appropriate US authorities.
Just so you know that the source is authentic, here's a picture of Benter's office building:
I have the address and the phone number. Google Street View did the rest.
When you are a rich man you can buy a lot of things. But honesty cannot be bought.
Hmmm.
Labels: Barack Hussein Obama, Bill Benter, Consolacion Esdicul, George Soros, J Street funding, Jeremy Ben Ami, Rabbis for Human Rights
