John Kerry’s Wife’s Foundation Supports Anti-Israel Propaganda

Cartoon by Gary Varvel/Creators Syndicate.

A food cart that hands out anti-Israel propaganda with each of its sandwiches has received funding from a foundation run by Secretary of State John Kerry’s (Who served in Vietnam...OM) wife.

Conflict Kitchen, a pop-up restaurant located at the intersection of Carnegie Mellon University and Pittsburgh University, seeks to use food to educate (Shouldn't that be indoctrinate...OM) locals and college students about countries that are allegedly in conflict with the United States.

It recently began serving Palestinian food wrapped in leaflets that include quotes from Palestinians defending terrorism and opposing the existence of Israel.

“How can you compare Israeli F-16s, which are some of the best military planes in the world, to a few hundred homemade rockets?” states one quote on the wrapper, a reference to Hamas rocket attacks against Israelis. “You’re pushing them to the absolute extreme. So what do you expect?”

“Palestinians (HAMAS?...OM) are not going to just let [Israel] in and drop their arms,” it adds. “No, they’re going to kill and they are going to die.”

The statements on the wrappers were taken from interviews with Palestinians. They are published without quotation marks and do not appear to be edited for accuracy.

Another section of the wrapper refers to the creation of Israel as “an intentional and ongoing offensive.” It also alleges that Israel deliberately blocks Palestinians from obtaining drinking water, opposes non-Jews from becoming citizens, and has assassinated or imprisoned all of the non-corrupt Palestinian leaders.

According to the wrapper, Conflict Kitchen is supported in part by the Heinz Endowment, which is chaired by Kerry’s wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

A spokesman for the Heinz Endowment told the Washington Free Beacon that it gave Conflict Kitchen a $50,000 grant last April to support its relocation to another site in Pittsburgh.

He declined to say whether the Heinz Endowment would continue to support the group in the future, but added that, “the opinions of Conflict Kitchen do not represent those of the Heinz Endowment.”

As secretary of state, John Kerry has devoted much of his time to pushing Israeli-Palestinian negotiations, but has made little progress. In addition to blaming the rise of the Islamic State on the lack of a peace deal last week, Kerry also claimed earlier this year that Israel could become an “apartheid state” if it doesn’t reach an agreement.

The Conflict Kitchen’s wrapper—as well as two recent events it held with anti-Israel activists—is drawing criticism from the local pro-Israel community.

One event featured Laila El-Haddad, a Palestinian activist who supports a one-state solution and the boycott campaign against Israel.

A second event featured University of Pittsburgh professor Ken Boas, a board member of the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions-USA, who reportedly compared Israel to South Africa under apartheid and called on the audience to support a boycott of Israel.

Gregg Roman, community relations director for the Jewish Federation of Greater Pittsburgh, said that Conflict Kitchen organizers have declined to include speakers who are supportive of Israel at the events.

Roman says his request was rejected by Conflict Kitchen’s co-director, Jon Rubin, who is an associate professor in the School of Art at Carnegie Mellon University.

“I reached out to Professor Rubin at the end of his event and asked if it would be possible have a member of the Jewish or Israeli community in Pittsburgh to offer a mainstream point of view. And we were flat out rejected,” Roman told the Free Beacon. “We look forward to breaking bread with him if he changes his mind.” (Does it surprise anyone that a professor WHO doesn't want to hear another point of view?...OM)

Rubin did not respond to request for comment from the Free Beacon. However, according to Pittsburgh News, he recently said the pro-Israel community has “plenty of other” platforms to present its views.

“The goal of our project is to represent the voices of the people that we are working with, [the Palestinians], so it does not make sense to have someone from Israel on every one of the panels,” said Rubin. “We may have an Israeli perspective at some point, and I understand their desire to have their narrative told, but they have plenty of other formats to do that.”

Boas made a similar argument during his Conflict Kitchen lecture.

“For a lifetime we’ve been hearing one side,” said Boas, according to the Jewish Chronicle. “From the Jewish Chronicle to the New York Times. Why do we continually have to have balance and get into debates and have discussions?”

“Israel needs to be held accountable for what it’s done and what it’s doing,” Boas added. “This is not a symmetrical issue. Israel is the occupying force, and the Palestinians are the occupied people.”

Previously, Conflict Kitchen served Iranian food along with leaflets that included quotes that claimed a nuclear Iran would not be a threat and that the United States would profit from any military intervention.

“Iran should equally have the right to develop nuclear weapons,” said one quote on wrapper.

“In general, Iranian people have no issues with the Jews,” said another quote. “What Iranians resent is the creation of the state of Israel because of the disaster that it created for millions of Palestinians. To this day, Israel refuses to recognize the United Nation’s resolutions for Israel to leave the occupied lands.”

The Heinz Endowment was not listed as a supporter of Conflict Kitchen on the Iranian food wrapper.

According to Conflict Kitchen’s Palestinian leaflets, it also receives funding from the Sprout Fund, the Benter Foundation, and the Studio for Creative Inquiry. The Benter Foundation is run by horse-racing tycoon and Democracy Alliance member Bill Benter, who was revealed to be a major funder of liberal Middle East lobbying group J Street in 2010.

Source: http://freebeacon.com/national-security/kitchen-nightmares/

Who Says Israel Is Not Under God's Protection?

Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system is fired to intercept enemy rockets

More claims of divine intervention are being reported in the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, with an operator of Israel’s Iron Dome missile-defense system saying he personally witnessed “the hand of God” diverting an incoming rocket out of harm’s way.

Israel Today translated a report from a Hebrew-language news site, which noted the Iron Dome battery failed three times to intercept an incoming rocket headed toward Tel Aviv last week.

The commander recalled: “A missile was fired from Gaza. Iron Dome precisely calculated [its trajectory]. We know where these missiles are going to land down to a radius of 200 meters. This particular missile was going to hit either the Azrieli Towers, the Kirya (Israel’s equivalent of the Pentagon) or [a central Tel Aviv railway station]. Hundreds could have died.

“We fired the first [interceptor]. It missed. Second [interceptor]. It missed. This is very rare. I was in shock. At this point we had just four seconds until the missile lands. We had already notified emergency services to converge on the target location and had warned of a mass-casualty incident.

“Suddenly, Iron Dome (which calculates wind speeds, among other things) shows a major wind coming from the east, a strong wind that … sends the missile into the sea. We were all stunned. I stood up and shouted, ‘There is a God!’

“I witnessed this miracle with my own eyes. It was not told or reported to me. I saw the hand of God send that missile into the sea.”

The commander’s account is reminiscent of a recent newspaper headline which trumpeted the possibility of supernatural protection.

“Their God changes the path of our rockets in mid-air, said a terrorist,” was the headline in the July 18 edition of the Jewish Telegraph.

It was a partial quote from Barbara Ordman, who lives in Ma’ale Adumim on the West Bank.

Her exact quotation was: “As one of the terrorists from Gaza was reported to say when asked why they couldn’t aim their rockets more effectively: “We do aim them, but their God changes their path in mid-air.”

She opened her piece by noting: “In October 1956, [Israeli Prime Minister] David Ben Gurion was interviewed by CBS. He stated: ‘In Israel, in order to be a realist, you must believe in miracles.’”

Ordman also noted religious texts, specifically the Jerusalem Talmud, teaches Israelis not to depend on miracles for survival.

“It argues that we must not desist from our obligations and must not wait for miraculous intervention from the Supernatural,” she wrote.

Meanwhile, the Times of Israel reported a senior officer in Israel’s army said divine miracles protected his soldiers during fighting in the Gaza Strip.

Givati Brigade commander Col. Ofer Winter told the weekly publication Mishpacha that he “witnessed a miraculous occurrence, the likes of which he had never seen before during his military career.”

IDF Col. Ofer Winter

Winter indicated a predawn raid intended to use darkness as cover was delayed, forcing the soldiers to move toward their objective as sunrise was approaching.

With the troops in danger of being exposed at daybreak, Winter explained how heavy fog quickly descended to shroud their movements until their mission was accomplished.

“Suddenly a cloud protected us,” he said, referring to clouds the Bible says guided the ancient Israelites as they wandered in the desert. “Clouds of glory.”

Winter said only when the soldiers were in a secure position, the fog finally lifted.

“It really was a fulfillment of the verse ‘For the Lord your God is the one who goes with you to give you victory,’” he said, quoting Deuteronomy 20:4.

The Times of Israel notes Winter made headlines over an official letter he sent to battalion and company commanders July 9, telling his subordinates that “history has chosen us to spearhead the fighting (against) the terrorist ‘Gazan’ enemy which abuses, blasphemes and curses the God of Israel’s (defense) forces.”

The dispatch came under fire from some, since it portrayed the Operation Protective Edge as a religious war against non-Jews. The Israeli government’s stated aim is to stop rocket attacks at Israel and destroy a network of tunnels dug under the border from Gaza used to launch terror attacks inside Israeli territory.

In his interview with Mishpacha, Winter defended his message, saying everyone finds God when in combat.

“Anyone who attacked me for the letter apparently has only seen weapons in pictures, was never in combat, and doesn’t know what fighting spirit is,” he said, revealing that before going into action his custom was to recite the blessing with which the ancient Israelite priests would bless the army before it went to war.

“When a person is in a life-threatening situation he connects with his deepest internal truths, and when that happens, even the biggest atheist meets God,” he said, claiming soldiers see so many miracles, “it is hard not to believe [in God].”

Source: http://www.wnd.com/2014/08/hand-of-god-sent-missile-into-sea/