Joel Leyden reflects on international public relations, public affairs, Internet marketing, search engine optimization SEO, crisis communications, social networking - Web 2.0 and the State of Israel.
Israel Government Press Office (GPO) Recommends Restaurants in Gaza
In anticipation of foreign correspondents traveling to Gaza to cover reports of alleged humanitarian difficulties in the Hamas run territory, and as part of efforts to facilitate the work of journalists in the region, the Government Press Office is pleased to bring to your attention the attached menu andinformation for the Roots Club and Restaurant in Gaza.
We have been told the beef stroganoff and cream of spinach soup are highly recommended. You may wish to enquire of a possible discount upon presentation of a valid press card.
There is also the possibility of an enjoyable evening on the Greens Terrace Garden Cafe, which serves "eclectic food and fresh cocktails".
A video of the club's luxurious facilities may be viewed here.
Booking in advance is advisable, and as the website states, the Roots Club is fully equipped for hospitality and corporate events.
Correspondents may also wish to enjoy a swim at the new Olympic size swimming pool as reported in the Palestinian media to have been opened last week.
Jerusalem ---- May 29, 2010 …. The "Gaza Freedom Flotilla", a group of ships carrying up to 800 people and 10,000 tons of supplies destined for the Gaza Strip has the alledged aim of stirring international debate regarding the humanitarian situation in Gaza. However, questions have been raised as to their motives especially given evidence of the organizer's direct ties to international terrorist organizations including al Qaida and Hamas.
Israel security sources have told the Israel News Agency that the main organization behind the "freedom" flotilla that is now sailing towards the Gaza Strip is called The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation (IHH), a so-called "relief" organization from Turkey.
This is an organization unabashedly proud of its close ties to Hamas, a terror organization as recognized by the United States, Israel and the European Union (EU).
The Turkish Humanitarian Relief Foundation is openly supportive of Hamas, an organization that is widely seen as the one of the largest perpetrators of human rights violations, having violently seized control of the Gaza Strip, and committed immeasurable human rights violations against its own people, not to mention hundreds of terror attacks initiated targeting the citizens of Israel.
These aren't the only roles the IHH has played to support Islamic terror, as if this wasn't enough. In fact, not only is IHH linked to global Islamic terror organizations, but it is the direct supporter of not only terrorism against Israel, but a primary backer of world-wide terrorism against nations which practice democracy.
At the heart of many terrorist networks are so-called Islamic "relief" organizations have proven invaluable as sources of cash, weapons, and recruitment of terror operatives. So effective is their role in covering up terrorist activity from the international intelligence community under the guise of promoting humanitarian aid, that Osama bin Laden has admitted that these NGO "charities" have been al-Qaida primary source of funding and have enabled the build-up of his organization to fly under the radar.
Examples of Islamic organizations funneling funds to terror organizations masked as NGOs include: the Benevolence International Foundation, Global Relief Foundation, Taibah International Aid Association, all of whom and countless other have been shut down, banned and its leaders arrested by the US government.
The IHH is one of such organizations, a primary example of an NGO that functions as a "charitable" organization in order to divert resources to terror activity.
In a working paper for The Danish Institute for International Studies, an independent international affairs research institution of Denmark, terrorism analyst and expert witness for the prosecution in U.S. terrorism trials, Evan Kohlmann details IHH's extensive affiliation with the Islamic terror network, including: explicit ties to Hamas, al-Qaida, as well other militant Islamic organizations based in Algeria, Libya, Turkey.
Even in Turkey there have been hostile exchanges between the IHH and the Turkish government, who had previously made efforts to combat home-grown terrorism. In December 1997, Turkey authorities began a criminal investigation into IHH when sources revealed to them that the IHH had purchased semi-automatic weapons from Islamic terror groups. Their Istanbul bureau was thoroughly searched and the local leaders arrested. Inside the bureau an array of items were found: "firearms, explosives, bomb-making instructions and a jihadi flag." After analyzing seized IHH documents, the Turkish authorities determined that the arrested leaders had been on their way to fight in Afghanistan, Bosnia, and Chechnya.
During the 1999 earthquake in Turkey, the IHH was banned from providing relief aid efforts because the organization was deemed by the government as a fundamentalist organization and would not provide transparency of their bank accounts to Turkish officials.
It is odd that today Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports the IHH in their attempt to break the maritime closure of the Gaza Strip, and ranks the IHH's efforts as his "top priority" for the country.
The IHH has also provided aid to insurgents seeking to kill American troops in Iraq. In his working paper, Kohlmann notes that the IHH played a large role in providing "charitable donations" to insurgent rich areas in central Iraq such as Fallujah and that the current president of IHH and organizer of the "Freedom Flotilla", Bulent Yildrim, had galvanized anti-America sentiment and incitement in these areas against U.S. troops during the Iraqi War.
Not only have the IHH stirred trouble in Turkey for supporting terror, but their aims to promote terror activity have reached a worldwide level.
In 1996, phone records of the IHH showed calls to an Al Qaida guesthouse in Milan and to Algerian terror cells throughout Europe.
Kohlmann also cited that famed counter-terrorism magistrate Jean-Louis Bruguiere found that in the mid 1990's Bulent Yildrim also conspired to recruit members in anticipation for a coming jihad, and sent IHH members to war zones in Muslim countries in order for them to gain combatant experience. He sought to obtain support by these Muslim countries for the IHH by transferring weapon and explosives caches to these countries.
Jean-Louis Bruguiere has also testified to a U.S. Court in 2003 that the IHH played a "central role" in the attempted al-Qaida Millenium bomb plot targeting Los Angeles International Airport, among other areas of the world. Bruguiere added that the IHH is a "cover-up" NGO which had served to recruit, forge documents and traffic weapons for the terrorists involved in the terror attack attempt.
The same U.S. Court document cites that the IHH has also had contact with Abdurahman Alamoudi, founder of the American Muslim Council, who is serving a 23 year sentence for illegal transactions with the Libyan government and was part of a Libyan plot to assassinate the Saudi Crown Prince Abdullah.
The IHH organization is banned in Israel as part of a group of organizations ironically titled the "Union of Good." Israel Defense Minister Ehud Barak signed an order citing the IHH as an organization that fund-raises and assists Hamas.
It would be comical to assume that an organization so entrenched in terror activity has good intentions in orchestrating a large PR publicity stunt for an area with a supposed "humanitarian crisis", and it would be naïve to assume that most of the so called peace activists on the ships heading towards Gaza are unaware of their organization's connections with terror.
In fact, one of the 39 principles of Islamic Jihad or Holy War practiced and advocated by Al-Qaeda's Jihad, which was exposed in a private study by Israel researcher Col. Jonathan D. Halevi (res.), explicitly illustrates a how-to chapter on performing electronic Jihad.
These people are not riding donkeys, rather these 21st century Jihadists have their fingers dancing on computer keyboards across the globe. In performing electronic Jihad - Al-Salem attributes paramount importance to the Internet as a component for Jihad. He calls believers to join the Jihad against all Jews and Christians by participating in Internet forums to defend the Islam and Mujahideen, to preach Jihad and to encourage Muslims to learn more about this sacred duty. The Internet provides an opportunity to reach vast, target audiences on Facebook, Twitter and YouTube and respond swiftly to opposing allegations. Islamic computer experts are asked to use their skills and experience in destroying American, Jewish and secular Websites as well as morally corrupt web sites. The so called Gaza Peace ships are using this inciteful electronic Jihad as they broadcast live using the Internet from their ships.
Sadly, much of the international media from the BBC, SKY News and CNN to Reuters, AP and AFP are not reporting about recent previous terror activity and present media public relations tactics of the IHH, as well as the long history of bogus NGO's created to divert funds to Islamic terror groups. The IHH and organizations similar to it have always sought to generate PR publicity stunts of providing humanitarian aid in order to mobilize their extremist base and the "Freedom Flotilla" is yet another example of this.
The Israel News Agency, which is accredited by Israel Government Press Office, was the first on line news organization in Israel. The INA reaches up to 60 million readers through Google News and Internet social networking channels such as Facebook, Twitter and YouTube from New York, London, Moscow and Paris to Toronto, Los Angeles, China and India. Leyden is presently launching the United States News Agency using the INA as a successful working model.
Firstly, accept my sincere apologies for being unable to refer to you as “Elvis,” for the obvious reason that you aren’t really Elvis.
Secondly, allow me to address your decision to cancel the show planned for Israel. I attempted to understand the reasons you referred to in your cancellation notice. You addressed the “humiliation of Palestinians civilians in the name of national security,” and I wonder what you meant.
Controversial Decision
Elvis Costello’s hypocrisy / Ariana Melamed
Pop star shuns Israel, but didn’t call off US, Britain shows after Iraq invasion
Perhaps you’re referring to the roadblocks and fence we built in order to prevent suicide bombers from exploding in our buses and coffee shops. The dramatic decline in Palestinian massacres, from an average of one a day to almost nil may indeed be humiliating for them, as you noted.
Or maybe you referred to Operation Cast Lead. If that’s the case, you are in fact condemning us for deciding to put an end to eight years of rocket attacks targeting our kindergartens. If you think this is demagoguery, please go ahead and check the timers which the “humiliated” terrorists set for the rockets. They were aiming for the hours where our children head to kindergarten and to school.
Immediately after doing so, these terrorists rushed to hide being their own women and children. And why did they do so? So you, Costello, will see our response on your television screen, and proceed to express shock and suddenly call off your show in Israel – a year and a half later.
What exactly did you expect? That we’ll allow Islamic terror to butcher our citizens? We should remind you that we were not the ones to send our army thousands of kilometers away to spill blood at some remote islands near Argentina. We’re fighting for our very homes.
On this issue, Costello, you may wish to ask what British soldiers are doing in Afghanistan and Iraq, and why they’re humiliating the Afghan people every day without the latter ever dispatching suicide bombers or rockets to Britain. Did you also call off your shows in England? And what about the United States? Will you continue to perform there while Guantanamo is still intact?
Will you boycott our medical advances?
You refer to human rights, Costello, while ignoring the fact that Israel is a democracy. You should look into the State of Israel’s attitude to minorities, compared to our neighbors whose side you took. Let’s see how long it will take before you’re decapitated, should you aim to lead a Gay Pride Parade in Gaza or Hebron. Are you aware of the state of Christians in the Gaza Strip, or the state of women’s rights there? Your silence on these matters attests to the honesty of your claims.
You should also ask yourself why all these “humiliated” people would love to get an Israeli ID card. If we’re so bad to them, why are they infiltrating Israel in every possible way?
Also ask how many Fatah members were murdered after being hurled off roofs by Hamas and how many dozens of Muslims are being butchered by other Muslims every day. Look into the number of Sudanese Muslims who sacrifice their lives in order to escape to our “apartheid” state. They do so while fleeing the massacres committed against them by other Muslims.
Yet all of this is apparently of no interest to you. At the same time, you will likely not boycott all the medical, economic, and agricultural technologies produced by Israel. Through them, Israel saves hundreds of millions of people every year from disease and hunger. There is no self-respecting major high-tech or biotech company without some kind of representation in Israel. Meanwhile, our aid delegations are the first to show up in any disaster site worldwide, from Thailand to Haiti.
And what do the merchants of hatred who sold you their goods produce? What is their contribution to humanity? Oppression, terrorism, poverty, and fundamentalism.
It’s hard to ignore the fact that the only state facing the kind of attitude you displayed is the Jewish State. But, as Jews, we’re used to it. We don’t think you’re an anti-Semite, heaven forbid. You’re just a self-righteous hypocrite who wishes to be politically correct and go with the flow of the “sexy leftist camp” when it comes to criticizing Israel.
On a final note, I just want to remind you, Costello, what turns a person from an “artist” to a “phenomenon.” It’s about daring to innovate, rather than going with the flow. This can also be reflected by the art you produce. It’s nice music, but not much more than that. You know what; perhaps this is the difference between you and truly shining stars, such as Ray Charles (who you once referred to as “nigger”) or even Elvis. On this issue, all residents of the Middle East may be in agreement: There is only one Elvis out there.
Joel Leyden, a native of New York, has practiced international public relations, public affairs, crisis communications, reputation management, Web 2.0 and journalism for 25 years.
As an Internet pioneer in Israel, he co-created Israel's first commercial Website - NetKing in 1995.
In addition, Leyden produced the first Website for an Israeli prime minister, established the first condolence website for assassinated Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin, created the Israel Defense Forces Website, was the first SEO - search engine optimizer in Israel and serves today as both commercial PR / SEO and publisher of the Israel News Agency, Israel's first on-line news organization.
Joel Leyden, the proud father of three children, is a leading father's and children's rights activist in Israel advocating equal access and reforms in Israel's gender bias family court custody laws and public child welfare departments for children of separated and divorced parents in Israel.
Joel Leyden, who has university degrees in journalism, psychology and mass communications, resides in a suburb north of Tel Aviv, Israel and in New York City.
