Here is a cross post from Ricard Millett’s blog

If you click th elink above you will see several images and video clips including one of me addressing the crowd.

Israel’s supporters out in force in Trafalgar Square.

Israel’s supporters came out in Trafalgar Square today to show sympathy with Israel as rockets continue to rain down from Gaza and to wish a happy 25th birthday to Gilad Schalit who is in his sixth year in isolation in Gaza having been kidnapped by Hamas from Israeli soil when he was 19.

There were some tremendous speeches.

Hasan Afzal, of British Muslims for Israel, said he supports Israel because it is “the only country in the Middle East where Muslims have freedom and democracy”.

Jonathan Sacerdoti spoke movingly about Gilad Schalit spending his 25th birthday “in prison, in Gaza with no contact with the outside world, his family or even the International Red Cross to ensure that his health is adequate”.

Joy Wolfe urged the crowd to ignore media lies about Israel and described Israel as a home for people of all religions.

She went on to call for an end to the double standards of the United Nations and some British MPs and said that Gilad Schalit probably doesn’t even know that today is his birthday and probably feels as if he has been forgotten. But she said that no one will rest until the Red Cross gets access to him and every government in the world is calling for his release.

It was an excellent afternoon arranged at very short notice by the British Israel Coalition and supported by Stand With Us.

It made a change from the previous Sunday’s terror rally at Trafalgar Square where the rhetoric called for war with Israel and signs called for Death to Israel. It’s a shame there wasn’t a similar pro-Israel rally at that time.

But with that in mind the Zionist Federation is arranging a counter-demonstration this coming Thursday from 6pm till 8pm outside the Royal Albert Hall where the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra is playing at the BBC proms.

It is in response to a Palestine Solidarity Campaign anti-Israel protest. Some sort of disruption is also expected to take place inside the Hall while the orchestra is playing.

Nearest tube stations are South Kensington (District, Circle, Piccadily lines) and High Street Kensington (District and Circle lines).

It will be an opportunity to defiantly wave Israeli flags in the faces of all those whose sole desire in life is to see the Jewish state destroyed.

Can you believe this is what is allowed to happend on the streets of London with no police  intervention to arrest people for clear incitement to hatred and violence.

At the same time people are allowed to disrupt an Albert Hall concert, cause distress and harassment to an audience and get away without being arrested for public disorder.

“It is time, Brothers and Sisters, for Al Quds to be liberated. For Islam and people of the world who wish to pray there to the one God. And we say here today to you Israel, we see your crimes and we loathe your crimes. And to us your nation does not exist, because it is a criminal injustice against humanity. We want to see Lebanon, Jordan and Egypt go to the borders and stop this now. Liberate Al Quds! March to Al Quds!”

Read it all here in Richard Millet’s blog post.

This is a cross post from Dr Ron Weiser of the New South Wales ZC of a piece published in the Australian Jewish News

There is only one reason why the Palestinians are going to the United Nations in September hoping for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian State by the General Assembly.

It is because they are not willing to pay the one price demanded by Israel and the democratic world in negotiations.

And that price is the agreement that the State of Israel can exist and can do so in its current guise – as the Homeland of the Jewish People.
That is what is missing from the Palestinian resolution.
So called obstacles such as settlements, borders, Jerusalem etc are not the core issues at all.

Nor is the existence of a Palestinian State.

The core issue is whether the Palestinians and their supporters can tolerate a Jewish presence, of any size, in their midst.

The consistent policy of the Zionist Leadership has been “2 States for 2 Peoples”.

On the 29th of November 1947 that is in fact what the UN agreed upon in Resolution 181 – “A Jewish State and an Arab State”.

As we know, the Jewish People accepted this and the Arab People rejected it.
This has been the pattern ever since – post 1967 in August in Khartoum; Oslo in 1993 ; Camp David in 2000; Annapolis under Olmert; and times in between – our acceptance and their rejection.

And most importantly for those who continue to bury their heads in the sand both on the “ultra left” and “ultra right” – this is the public and repeated and sincere policy of the Netanyahu Government.

6 Israeli Prime Ministers (including Netanyahu) have offered the Palestinians a State, in return for the one real red line Israel has – no Palestinian Right of Return.
As the realisation has dawned on almost everyone, that the Palestinians mean something different from us when we each say “2 State Solution”, we have begun to emphasise that they need to recognise Israel as a Jewish State.

For clarity.

And to avoid the continuing Palestinian double speak to the world and perhaps especially, to their own people.

President Abbas’ stated aim is a Palestinian State where no Jews will be able to reside, alongside a State called Israel to which some 4.5 million claimed Palestinians will have the right to return and which will then be a supposed democratic Bi National State.

This is a reality that should be accepted by those within our community and those people who profess to be friends of Israel generally, when they attempt to lay blame for why no resolution of the conflict has yet occurred.

The constant belabouring of moral equivalence and of blame equivalence is erroneous and counterproductive. And it is doing exactly what it is designed to do – pushing our own youth away and depressing those who remain.

The Palestinians are continuing their strategy of trying to get what they want piece by piece, without ceding a single thing.

It is beyond time now for the world to finally tell the Palestinians et al a truth they have been avoiding for Israel’s entire existence and at the same time, lying to their own people about.

The Jewish State is here to stay.

This UN move is a tactic designed to avoid that truth.

Dr Ron Weiser AM
Hon Life President ZC of NSW

It will be all hands to the pump if, as expected, the UCU passes a negative resolution relating to antisemitism tomorrow.

As if it is not bad enough that today they passed a very anti Israel motion calling among other things for a boycott, things can only get worse  as they turn their attention to challenging the definition of antisemitism.

Just why the UCU should be so obsessed with being anti Israel, and now getting involved with diminishing the threat of antisemitism is quite beyond me.  You would have thought they should be devoting all their energies to protecting universities and colleges, opposing the high student fees and concentrating on education, but it seems interfereing in international politics is more to their liking

Ronnie Fraser of Academics for Israel and David Hirsh of Engage have been at the conference today to hear the anti Israel rhetoric, and the misinformation that was circulated to persuade people to vote for the boycott motion.  Below is Ronnie’s press release.  

If the antisemitism motion gets passed we will need a very active campaign to expose the UCU and to press MPs and opinion makers to condemn the Union;s actions.

The Academic Friends of Israel
            Press Release
         �
For immediate release 29 May 2011
�
The Academic Friends of Israel condemns the University College Union for passing an illegal resolution that promotes the academic and cultural boycott of Israel
�
The Academic Friends of Israel condemns the University College Union for passing a resolution today at its conference in Harrogate which ignores the legal advice that the UCU received in 2007 which made it clear that distributing and promoting a call for the academic and cultural boycott of Israel is in breach of discrimination and equality legislation and also outside the aims and objects of the union.
�
Ronnie Fraser, Director of the Academic Friends of Israel, commented:
“If UCU distributes copies of the Palestinian boycott call to its members or promotes the call with Education International or its affiliates it is effectively asking them to participate in the boycott. As well as being in breach of the 2010 Equality act; their actions would also be outside the aims and objects of the union.
�
The rhetoric used against Israel in the debate today was totally unacceptable such as Israel is an authoritarian, totalitarian and fascist state.  The motion also contains a relentless attack on the Jewish state and follows similar motions that have been adopted at UCU conferences over the last five years.  No other state in the world has been singled out for attack in this way. There might be some justification for such an attack if the facts alleged in the preamble were true.  In fact almost everything stated is a falsehood , Moreover, any state has the right to penalise those involved in economic boycotts against it, and the implied condemnation of Israel for doing so, or for considering such action, is the application of double standards by requiring of Israel a behaviour not expected or demanded of any other democratic nation.”
�
He continued:
�
“I recognise of course that many of these issues are open to debate and discussion and that legitimate criticism of Israel is acceptable.  But the recitation of a long list of allegations against Israel, and Israel alone, without any recognition that Palestinians might bear any guilt or responsibility for the current impasse, or for their own crimes against Israelis, is one-sided and antisemitic.”
END
For further details, please contact Ronnie Fraser, Director of The Academic Friends of Israel, via email (mail@academics-for-israel.org) or 0797 3723289).
�
�
The Academic Friends of Israel
            Press Release
Appendix: UCU motion 36      �
Composite: Threats to academic freedom in Israel and Palestine                  National Executive Committee, LSE
Congress notes:
1.    Israel’s continued illegal occupation of Palestine and daily oppression of Palestinian teachers and students
2.    the restrictions on the free movement of Palestinian Academics within the Occupied Territories and crossing between the Territories and Israel and on foreign travel
3.    Israel’s ongoing construction of settlements
4.    the current witch-hunting of Israeli academics, civil rights campaigners and NGOs who are deemed to be damaging Israel’s economic interests by their political activities
5.    the recent alarming moves in the Israeli Knesset to penalise Israeli academics who support boycott action or even just provide information which may assist boycotts; this law will lay academics open to fines of £5000 with ‘no need to demonstrate that injury was done’ and to unlimited damages if losses are caused.
6.    the petition from 155 Israeli academics expressing their “unwillingness to take part in any type of academic activity taking place in the college operating in the settlement of Ariel”, calling Ariel an illegal settlement whose existence contravenes international law and the Geneva Convention.
Congress deplores these attacks on the academic freedom of our Palestinian and Israeli colleagues.
Congress instructs NEC to:
a.  circulate to all members
·        the call by the Israeli academics
·        the PACBI call for academic and cultural boycott of Israel
·        information about the current legislation passing through the Knesset threatening heavy fines and other penalties on Israelis taking non-violent action against the occupation.
b.  seek a delegation to meet the Israeli Ambassador to raise our concerns
c.   press the Foreign Office to protest to the Israeli Government
d.  raise the issue with Education International and press them to seek similar action by all affiliates
e.  publicise these threats and our actions in response.
�
Ronnie Fraser

Another remarkable list of Israel’s gifts to the world that the boycotters must now deny themselves

Isn’t it amazing that the country that is most denigrated by the UN and the laughable Human Rights Council is one of the tiniest countries yet has given more benefit to the world than virtually any other country.    It makes all the results of its amazing technical, medical and agricultural research available to all, does so much for Third World countries and is truly a Light to the World, yet comes September when a UN vote is likely to unilaterally declare a state of  Palestine with no demands on that state that it should recognise its neighbouring Jewish state and stop violence and retract its vow to destroy Israel, and all the hands of all the nations Israel has helped will go up in unison to threaten her very future existence. 

List of achivements in a wide variety of fields

Chemistry
Discovery of Quasicrystals by Dan Shechtman of the Technion[1]
Discovery of the role of protein Ubiquitin by Avram Hershko and Aaron Ciechanover of the Technion Institute (together with the American Jewish biologist Irwin Rose). The discovery led them to receive the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.[2][3]
[
Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation
Prediction of Quarks by Yuval Ne'eman of Tel Aviv University (together with the American physicist Murray Gell-Mann).[4]
Discovery of the Aharonov–Bohm effect by Yakir Aharonov and David Bohm.[5]
Formulation of Black holes Entropy by Jacob Bekenstein of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.[6][7]
Eshkol-Wachman Movement Notation – a notation system for recording movement on paper that has been used in many fields, including dance, physical therapy, animal behavior and early diagnosis of autism.[8]
Medicine
Development of the Copaxone immunomodulator drug for treating multiple sclerosis. It was developed in the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel by Michael Sela, Ruth Arnon and Deborah Teitelbaum.[9][10]
Development of the Interferon proteins by Michel Revel from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.[citation needed]
Development of the “Pillcam” by Given Imaging, the first Capsule endoscopy solution to record images of the digestive tract. The capsule is the size and shape of a pill and contains a tiny camera.[citation needed]
Optics
World’s tiniest camera – a camera the size of 0.99 mm, designed to fit in a tiny endoscope. Designed by Medigus.[11]
Economics
Work of Daniel Kahneman and Amos Tversky of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem explaining irrational human economic choices.[citation needed]
Developments in Game theory. Israel Aumann of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem received the Nobel Prize in Economics for his work in this field.[citation needed]
Biotechnology
DNA conducting electricity (called also “Nanowire”) – a conductive wire made of a a string of tiny particles of silver, a thousand times thinner than a human hair. developed by Uri Sivan, Erez Braun and Yoav Eichen from the Technion.[citation needed]
DNA computing machine system – “the smallest biological computing device” ever constructed, according to Guinness Book of Records, which is composed of enzymes and DNA molecules capable of performing simple mathematical calculations and which uses its input DNA molecule as its sole source of energy it was developed in 2003 in the Weizmann Institute of Science by professor Ehud Shapiro and his team.[12][13]
[Defense
Uzi Submachine gun - invented by Uzi Gal. The development was completed in 1955.[14][15]
Gabriel – a sea-skimming anti-ship missile.[16]
Arrow – a family of operational anti-ballistic missiles. Jointly funded and produced by Israel and the United States.[17][18]
Merkava tank – a tank optimized for crew survival and rapid repair of battle damage.[19][20]
IAI Lavi – an ambitious Israeli production of a modern fighter aircraft. The production of the plane was carried out at Israel Aircraft Industries. The production of the plane was disbanded when the Israeli government concluded it could not finance production on its own.[citation needed]
Python – a family of air-to-air missiles (AAMs) built by the Israeli weapons manufacturer Rafael Advanced Defense Systems.[citation needed]
Unmanned aerial vehicles – an aircraft that flies without a human crew on board the aircraft. Their largest uses are in military applications. Developed by Israel Aircraft Industries.[citation needed]
Nautilus laser system – a laser developed for military use. Jointly funded and produced by Israel and the United States.[citation needed]
Iron Dome – a mobile air defense system in development by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems designed to intercept short-range rockets and artillery shells. On April 7, 2011, the system successfully intercepted a Grad rocket launched from Gaza, marking the first time in history a short-range rocket was ever intercepted.[21]
Barak – a surface-to-air missile designed to be used as a point-defense missile system on warships, defending against aircraft, anti-ship missiles, and UAVs. Jointly produced and developed by Rafael and Israel Aircraft Industries.[citation needed]
MUSIC (Multi Spectral Infrared Countermeasure) – a system that counter surface-to-air heat-seeking missiles. It is manufactured by Elbit Systems.[citation needed]
MagnoShocker – combines a metal detector and a taser which could be used to neutralized immediately a dangerous person. It was developed by the mathematician Amit Weissman and his colleagues Adir Kahn and Zvi Jordan.[citation needed]
Reconnaissance satellite TecSAR – developed and built by Israel Aerospace Industries.[citation needed]
Tavor TAR-21 assault rifle – a modern assault rifle designed with the aim to be used as the IDF’s standard assault rifle. The rifle was the developed by “Magen”, the small arms division of the Israel Military Industries (IMI). The development of Tavor was completed in 2001. In 2005 Magen was sold to the Israeli company Israel Weapon Industries (IWI) which continues to develop and produce the rifle. The MTAR-21 (Micro Tavor) was recently selected as the future assault rifle of the Israeli Defense Forces, and within the next few years it will become the standard Israeli infantry weapon.[citation needed]
Technion Satellite – launched into space in July 1998, it is one of the smallest satellites in the world. Cube-shaped satellite which has 45 centimeter-long sides and weighs 48 kilograms and has an extremely low power consumption. The Technion satellite began as a student project of the Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, supervised by Haim Eshed and initiated by Giora Shaviv, head of the Asher Space Research Institute (ASRI) at the Technion.[citation needed]
Wall radar – a unique radar which utilizes Ultra Wide Band (UWB) to allows users to see through walls. Developed by the Israeli company Camro.[22]
Computer hardware
USB flash drive, originally marketed as the DiskOnKey
USB flash drive – a flash memory data storage device integrated with a USB interface. Developed and manufactured by the Israeli company M-Systems.[23]
Quicktionary Electronic dictionary – a tiny pen-sized scanner which is able to scan words or phrases and immediately translate them into other languages, or keep them in memory in order to transfer them to the PC. Developed by the Israeli company Wizcom Technologies Ltd.[24]
Laser Keyboard – virtual keyboard is projected onto a wall or table top and allows to type handheld computers and cell phones. Produced by the Israeli company Lumio.[25]
[Computer software
Lempel–Ziv–Welch algorithm - a universal lossless data compression algorithm created by Abraham Lempel and Jacob Ziv of the Technion institute together with the American Information theorist Terry Welch.[26]
Babylon – a single-click computer translation, dictionary and information source utility program developed by Amnon Ovadia.[27]

Internet
ICQ – an Instant Messaging software developed initially in 1996 by the Israeli company Mirabilis.[28]
Agriculture
Cherry tomatoes
Drip Irrigation System – a system for watering plants that dispenses a single drop of liquid at a time. Invented by the Israeli engineer Simcha Blass and his son Yeshayahu in the early 1960s. This method was very successful and subsequently spread to Australia, North America, and South America by the late 1960s.[29]
Cherry tomatoes – Developed by a group led by Nachum Kedar and Haim Rabinovich from the Agriculture Faculty of the Hebrew University in Rehovot.[30]
Energy
 

Rooftop solar hot-water system
Super iron battery – A new class of a rechargeable electric battery based on a special kind of iron. More environment friendly because the super-iron eventually rusts. It was developed by Stuart Licht of the Technion.[31][32]
Energy tower – Alternative electricity generation and water desalination technology in low cost. The Energy towers spray water on hot air at the top of the tower, making the cooled air fall through the tower and drive a turbine at the tower’s bottom. The brainchild of the American physicist Phillip Carlson which as expanded by Professor Dan Zaslavsky and Rami Guetta from the Technion.[33][34]
A unique technology for producing hydrogen in vehicles as an alternative fuel source. It is produced by the Israeli company Engineuity and was invented by Amnon Yogev and Eli Gmaazaon.[35]
Solar water heating – home facility which converts solar energy to thermal energy. Following the energy crisis in the 1970s, The Israeli law requires the installation of solar water heaters in all new homes. It was developed by Zvi Tavor.[36]
Consumer goods and household appliances
Epilator (originally “Epilady”) – an electrical device used to remove hair by mechanically grasping multiple hairs simultaneously and pulling them out. It was developed by Yair Dar and Shimon Yahav and originally manufactured at Kibbutz HaGoshrim.[37][38]
Micronized coating instant hot water pipes – developed by A.C.T.[39]
Artificial gills – a special diving system, developed by the Israeli company Like-A-Fish Technologies, which produces oxygen from water making the oxygen tanks unnecessary. It was developed by Alon Bodner.[40]
Games

Rummikub
Rummikub – a tile-based game for two to four players invented in Israel by Ephraim Hertzano.[41][42]
Hidato – a logic puzzle game invented by the Israeli mathematician Gyora Benedek.[43]
Taki – an Israeli card game invented by Haim Shafir.[44][45]
[Foods
Shkedei marak - small yellow crisp crouton squares used as a soup accompaniment.[46]
Bamba – peanut butter-flavored snack which has been manufactured by the Osem corporation since 1966. Bamba is one of the leading snack foods produced and sold in Israel.[47][48]
Ptitim – wheat-based baked pasta. It was initially invented during the austerity period in Israel when rice was scarce.[49]