There are times when one wonders how soon civilization will strike certain places. Goodness knows, we've waited long enough for it to happen!
When will it be? When? When? When?
One of those places may be Memphis. I'm not sure, I have never been there, despite my idol worship of the king. Until today, it sounded like a wonderful place.
Memphis frat house painted with swastikas
Quote:
The Zeta Beta Tau fraternity has not yet moved into the house on fraternity row at the University of Memphis, but the swastikas spray-painted Tuesday were accompanied by the message "welcome to frat row, Jews".
End quote.
Source:
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/10/14/1008501/memphis-zbt-house-painted-with-swastikas
"Welcome to frat row, Jews"
My guess is that it's food related. Some folks are genuinely scared of what metropolitan people eat - it frightens them, and threatens their sense of personal cultural security.
They're probably scared of brisket in Memphis. And I can understand that; once brisket arrives, the bacon-peanut butter-and-banana sandwich will start disappearing, and one more folkloric Memphis "contribution" to international cuisine will fade into oblivion. So very sad.
Thursday, October 15, 2009
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
When Israel Strikes
Frontpage magazine's Jamie Glazov recently interviewed Kenneth Levin, who among other things is a well-known commentator on Israeli politics, a Princeton historian, and author of The Oslo Syndrome: Delusions of a People Under Siege.
The interview is well-worth reading. A few highlights are presented below.
TIME RUNNING OUT
Levin: The recent missile firings, including those of the longer-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil, while provocative in their timing given the revelation a few days earlier of a secret Iranian uranium enrichment facility near Qom and given also the start of "five plus one" talks with Iran on October 1, do not in themselves add much to what has been known about Iran’s missile capabilities.
At most, they reinforce the conviction of serious observers that Iran has the missile capacity to deliver a nuclear warhead in a strike against Israel or any other Middle East target. This, coupled with evidence of feverish Iranian efforts and advances in mastering the engineering of a warhead-fitted nuclear trigger and in producing sufficient enriched uranium for a bomb, suggests that there is not much time left for the world to act if it is to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear arsenal.
FAILURE OF THE WORLD TO STOP IRAN
Levin: It is hardly clear that major world players fully share Israel’s concerns or are prepared to act to stop Iran. American-backed negotiations between European powers and Iran have gone on for years, have borne no fruit, and have not led thus far to the Europeans, or the U.S., taking much more dramatic steps against the Iranian regime. On the contrary, Western European states such as Germany have been the major source of much of the technology that has made Iran’s nuclear advances possible.
What trade and other sanctions have been imposed on Iran were won with much resistance by various powers and have obviously been too weak to have stopped Iran’s steady advance toward attaining nuclear arms.
ISRAEL'S SECURITY
Levin: This leaves Israel essentially on its own. Israel’s leaders, in previous governments as well as in the present one, have almost unanimously indicated that Israel will have to strike at Iran’s nuclear installations before Iran attains a nuclear weapon. But it obviously faces many daunting challenges to doing so effectively.
SAUDI AIR-CORRIDOR
Levin: There have been a number of news stories that Saudi Arabia has given Israel a green light to cross its territory, stories which the Saudis have denied. Even if the reports are true, using Saudi airspace would present obvious risks, including that of the Iranians being informed of the approaching attack.
AIR STRIKE
Levin: The general assumption is that Israel’s preferred scenario would be to overfly Iraq. This would be the most direct route, and American cooperation could help secure the element of surprise. But the Bush Administration is reported to have refused to allow Israel the use of Iraqi airspace, and it is hard to imagine the Obama Administration being more cooperative.
To be sure, not everyone around Obama shares
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s view that the U.S. ought to shoot down any Israeli aircraft that try to reach Iran via Iraq. But if the prevailing view in the Administration is that the U.S. can live with a nuclear Iran, there will inevitably be very strong sentiment not only to deny assistance, even passive assistance, to an Israeli raid but to apply extremely heavy pressure to dissuade the Israelis from attacking.
IRANIAN REPRISALS, DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT
Levin: Iran would very likely unleash attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. It would also very likely seek to have Hezbollah, Hamas and perhaps Syria as well strike at Israel. Hezbollah and Hamas between them have rockets and missiles that can reach most of Israel, while Syria can hit any point in the country, and the civilian population and the nation’s infrastructure – even without Syrian involvement – would be at risk. Israel would, of course, have prepared to aggressively defend itself, but the task of limiting losses would be challenging at best.
There would also be the difficult diplomatic fallout of an Israeli attack. Even those countries relieved by a successful attack would still condemn it. Organs of the UN would, of course, censure Israel. Perhaps they would have Richard Goldstone prepare a report concluding that Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by initiating aggression against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
REALISTIC ASSESSMENTS
Levin: Israel confronts the likelihood of being able to inflict at most only limited damage on Iran’s nuclear program, having to do so in the face of strong opposition from its main ally, almost certainly incurring fierce military and terror reprisals, and likewise having to deal with intense negative diplomatic fallout. Yet, with all the challenges and dangers, Israel does have options for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program and, given the certainty of the existential threat presented by a nuclear Iran, it will almost certainly act to set back the Iranian program whatever the risks and dangers.
Israel would obviously prefer to see determined action by the world’s powers to end the Iranian threat. But if there is no progress, and the coming weeks yield no obvious resolve by the United States and its European allies to take decisive action, then Israel will likely feel compelled to act by early next year if not sooner.
SOURCE:
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/10/01/when-israel-strikes-by-jamie-glazov/
ALSO READABLE HERE:
http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-israel-strikes.html
Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and is the co-editor (with David Horowitz) of The Hate America Left. He edited and wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s Left Illusions. His new book is United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.
Elsewhere on the internet one can find predictions that an Israeli strike will happen relatively soon. It would be irresponsible to speculate about dates and times.
What is, however, likely, is that such an eventuality is fast approaching certainty. There are no indications that Iran will play ball, little hope that the current round of talky-talky with the Persians will be successful, and hardly a chance that their nuclear program be stopped. The American government is determined to offer carrots, but is unlikely to utilize its sticks. That will mean that Israel will have to be, once again, the bad cop.
The interview is well-worth reading. A few highlights are presented below.
TIME RUNNING OUT
Levin: The recent missile firings, including those of the longer-range Shahab-3 and Sajjil, while provocative in their timing given the revelation a few days earlier of a secret Iranian uranium enrichment facility near Qom and given also the start of "five plus one" talks with Iran on October 1, do not in themselves add much to what has been known about Iran’s missile capabilities.
At most, they reinforce the conviction of serious observers that Iran has the missile capacity to deliver a nuclear warhead in a strike against Israel or any other Middle East target. This, coupled with evidence of feverish Iranian efforts and advances in mastering the engineering of a warhead-fitted nuclear trigger and in producing sufficient enriched uranium for a bomb, suggests that there is not much time left for the world to act if it is to prevent Iran from attaining a nuclear arsenal.
FAILURE OF THE WORLD TO STOP IRAN
Levin: It is hardly clear that major world players fully share Israel’s concerns or are prepared to act to stop Iran. American-backed negotiations between European powers and Iran have gone on for years, have borne no fruit, and have not led thus far to the Europeans, or the U.S., taking much more dramatic steps against the Iranian regime. On the contrary, Western European states such as Germany have been the major source of much of the technology that has made Iran’s nuclear advances possible.
What trade and other sanctions have been imposed on Iran were won with much resistance by various powers and have obviously been too weak to have stopped Iran’s steady advance toward attaining nuclear arms.
ISRAEL'S SECURITY
Levin: This leaves Israel essentially on its own. Israel’s leaders, in previous governments as well as in the present one, have almost unanimously indicated that Israel will have to strike at Iran’s nuclear installations before Iran attains a nuclear weapon. But it obviously faces many daunting challenges to doing so effectively.
SAUDI AIR-CORRIDOR
Levin: There have been a number of news stories that Saudi Arabia has given Israel a green light to cross its territory, stories which the Saudis have denied. Even if the reports are true, using Saudi airspace would present obvious risks, including that of the Iranians being informed of the approaching attack.
AIR STRIKE
Levin: The general assumption is that Israel’s preferred scenario would be to overfly Iraq. This would be the most direct route, and American cooperation could help secure the element of surprise. But the Bush Administration is reported to have refused to allow Israel the use of Iraqi airspace, and it is hard to imagine the Obama Administration being more cooperative.
To be sure, not everyone around Obama shares
Zbigniew Brzezinski’s view that the U.S. ought to shoot down any Israeli aircraft that try to reach Iran via Iraq. But if the prevailing view in the Administration is that the U.S. can live with a nuclear Iran, there will inevitably be very strong sentiment not only to deny assistance, even passive assistance, to an Israeli raid but to apply extremely heavy pressure to dissuade the Israelis from attacking.
IRANIAN REPRISALS, DIPLOMATIC FALLOUT
Levin: Iran would very likely unleash attacks against Israeli and Jewish targets around the world. It would also very likely seek to have Hezbollah, Hamas and perhaps Syria as well strike at Israel. Hezbollah and Hamas between them have rockets and missiles that can reach most of Israel, while Syria can hit any point in the country, and the civilian population and the nation’s infrastructure – even without Syrian involvement – would be at risk. Israel would, of course, have prepared to aggressively defend itself, but the task of limiting losses would be challenging at best.
There would also be the difficult diplomatic fallout of an Israeli attack. Even those countries relieved by a successful attack would still condemn it. Organs of the UN would, of course, censure Israel. Perhaps they would have Richard Goldstone prepare a report concluding that Israel had committed war crimes and crimes against humanity by initiating aggression against Iran’s peaceful nuclear program.
REALISTIC ASSESSMENTS
Levin: Israel confronts the likelihood of being able to inflict at most only limited damage on Iran’s nuclear program, having to do so in the face of strong opposition from its main ally, almost certainly incurring fierce military and terror reprisals, and likewise having to deal with intense negative diplomatic fallout. Yet, with all the challenges and dangers, Israel does have options for an attack on Iran’s nuclear program and, given the certainty of the existential threat presented by a nuclear Iran, it will almost certainly act to set back the Iranian program whatever the risks and dangers.
Israel would obviously prefer to see determined action by the world’s powers to end the Iranian threat. But if there is no progress, and the coming weeks yield no obvious resolve by the United States and its European allies to take decisive action, then Israel will likely feel compelled to act by early next year if not sooner.
SOURCE:
http://frontpagemag.com/2009/10/01/when-israel-strikes-by-jamie-glazov/
ALSO READABLE HERE:
http://docstalk.blogspot.com/2009/10/when-israel-strikes.html
Jamie Glazov is Frontpage Magazine's editor. He holds a Ph.D. in History with a specialty in Russian, U.S. and Canadian foreign policy. He is the author of Canadian Policy Toward Khrushchev’s Soviet Union and is the co-editor (with David Horowitz) of The Hate America Left. He edited and wrote the introduction to David Horowitz’s Left Illusions. His new book is United in Hate: The Left's Romance with Tyranny and Terror.
Elsewhere on the internet one can find predictions that an Israeli strike will happen relatively soon. It would be irresponsible to speculate about dates and times.
What is, however, likely, is that such an eventuality is fast approaching certainty. There are no indications that Iran will play ball, little hope that the current round of talky-talky with the Persians will be successful, and hardly a chance that their nuclear program be stopped. The American government is determined to offer carrots, but is unlikely to utilize its sticks. That will mean that Israel will have to be, once again, the bad cop.
International A.N.S.W.E.R throwing two more fits - Oct. 15th. and Oct. 17th.
Am in receipt of disqueting (and absurd) e-mail alert from the dark side:
Thurs. Oct. 15, 6 pm, Union Square, SF President Obama will be speaking at a major fundraiser inside the St. Francis Hotel, Union Square. Join the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Single Payer Now, the ANSWER Coalition and many other organizations.
Among the themes of the demonstration are: Healthcare Not Warfare! Money for People’s Needs, Not the Pentagon! End the Occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Haiti! U.S. Out of Latin America – Restore President Zelaya in Honduras! Overturn NAFTA and CAFTA!
Sat. Oct. 17, "U.S. Troops Out NOW! 11am, Gather at UN Plaza (7th & Market); 12noon, March; 1pm, Rally The ANSWER Coalition is one of many organizations which are part of the October 17 Anti-war Coalition. For more information on endorsers, speakers, demands and more, go to wwwdotOct17awcdotwordpressdotcom. Look for the ANSWER banners and join us on October 17.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
=============================
Six o'clock on a weekday? Hah! Better stay in and watch teevee - far more constructive than joining Richard Becker and his concubines throwing a big ole hissy in the company of several thousand cops and secret service men.
Protesting against President Obama in a city like San Francisco proves how utterly out of touch with reality some folks are.
And as for Saturday, good nei ge luck! Hope it rains on your parade. The antiwar movement is a spent force that now only appeals to the terminally disaffected and their opportunistic fellow-travelers. No one with half a brain still listens to them.
Code Pink, of course, will by their loud stupid squawking and yelping prove that this is so.
Oddballs and loonies pay attention when Richard Becker barks.
As is made very clear by two separate reports on Richard Becker's last public exhibition:
REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL ANSWER PROTEST
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/10/report-on-international-answer-protest.html
Quote: "150 to 160 people, mostly elderly, some substance abuser-types, a few young Pally looking fellows. One, maybe two, anarchist-bandanna across the ponim.
Average age of the crowd was forty or so, average skin-hue was middle-class Berkeley, average gender veered slightly towards earth-mother."
MOST MISERABLE PROTEST EVER!
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/10/most-miserable-protest-ever.html
Quote: "International ANSWER and Richard Becker were holding a protest down at the new Federal Building at Mission and Seventh, and it stank.
Okay, maybe about one hundred to one hundred and fifty middle-aged Berkeley nimrods showed up."
One hundred and fifty mid-life crises people. That's ALL that Richard Becker can attract.
Middle-aged Berkeleyite drones who insist that their lives have meaning, despite their total unimportance in the scheme of things. Old failures, neurotics, and swollen-headed armchair revolutionaries.
They enable Richard Becker, in return for flattery and a false sense of meaningfulness in their shallow content-free lives. It's a form of mutual masturbation.
Very self-indulgent, in any case.
It might be considerably more rewarding for Richard Becker to buy a trench-coat and head down to the playground with some lollipops.
Less nauseating, too.
Though it would leave his palls Forest and Gloria at loose ends.
Thurs. Oct. 15, 6 pm, Union Square, SF President Obama will be speaking at a major fundraiser inside the St. Francis Hotel, Union Square. Join the Committee in Solidarity with the People of El Salvador (CISPES), Bay Area Latin America Solidarity Coalition, Single Payer Now, the ANSWER Coalition and many other organizations.
Among the themes of the demonstration are: Healthcare Not Warfare! Money for People’s Needs, Not the Pentagon! End the Occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq, Palestine and Haiti! U.S. Out of Latin America – Restore President Zelaya in Honduras! Overturn NAFTA and CAFTA!
Sat. Oct. 17, "U.S. Troops Out NOW! 11am, Gather at UN Plaza (7th & Market); 12noon, March; 1pm, Rally The ANSWER Coalition is one of many organizations which are part of the October 17 Anti-war Coalition. For more information on endorsers, speakers, demands and more, go to wwwdotOct17awcdotwordpressdotcom. Look for the ANSWER banners and join us on October 17.
A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition Act Now to Stop War & End Racism
=============================
Six o'clock on a weekday? Hah! Better stay in and watch teevee - far more constructive than joining Richard Becker and his concubines throwing a big ole hissy in the company of several thousand cops and secret service men.
Protesting against President Obama in a city like San Francisco proves how utterly out of touch with reality some folks are.
And as for Saturday, good nei ge luck! Hope it rains on your parade. The antiwar movement is a spent force that now only appeals to the terminally disaffected and their opportunistic fellow-travelers. No one with half a brain still listens to them.
Code Pink, of course, will by their loud stupid squawking and yelping prove that this is so.
Oddballs and loonies pay attention when Richard Becker barks.
As is made very clear by two separate reports on Richard Becker's last public exhibition:
REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL ANSWER PROTEST
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/10/report-on-international-answer-protest.html
Quote: "150 to 160 people, mostly elderly, some substance abuser-types, a few young Pally looking fellows. One, maybe two, anarchist-bandanna across the ponim.
Average age of the crowd was forty or so, average skin-hue was middle-class Berkeley, average gender veered slightly towards earth-mother."
MOST MISERABLE PROTEST EVER!
http://deathbynoodles.blogspot.com/2009/10/most-miserable-protest-ever.html
Quote: "International ANSWER and Richard Becker were holding a protest down at the new Federal Building at Mission and Seventh, and it stank.
Okay, maybe about one hundred to one hundred and fifty middle-aged Berkeley nimrods showed up."
One hundred and fifty mid-life crises people. That's ALL that Richard Becker can attract.
Middle-aged Berkeleyite drones who insist that their lives have meaning, despite their total unimportance in the scheme of things. Old failures, neurotics, and swollen-headed armchair revolutionaries.
They enable Richard Becker, in return for flattery and a false sense of meaningfulness in their shallow content-free lives. It's a form of mutual masturbation.
Very self-indulgent, in any case.
It might be considerably more rewarding for Richard Becker to buy a trench-coat and head down to the playground with some lollipops.
Less nauseating, too.
Though it would leave his palls Forest and Gloria at loose ends.
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Russian treachery, Persian hubris, and the Israeli option
While everyone looks to Iran to either co-operate or decide to push the envelope in the next few weeks, it may be worthwhile to examine what the Russians are doing. After all, Russia fully intends to continue its duplicitous co-operation with the Mullahs, and Russia is one of the major weak-spots in the sanction-threat.
The Russians are using the crisis very well to their own advantage. There is, in their narrowed view, almost no downside to the Iranian threat - it is not aimed at them, and they are making both money and geopolitical hay.
If Iran develops a nuclear bomb, it will be because the Russians made it possible.
Predictably, Russia blandly denies that it is aiding the Iranians toward that goal.
Iran is the lever that Russia is using against the United States.
Moscow has made it no secret that they wish their sphere of influence in Europe back, and the Eastern European nations understand that Western Europe is firmly committed to doing nothing to counter Russian intentions. They need Russian gas, and have become accustomed to giving in.
The threat of a nuclear Iran keeps the United States pre-occupied, and forces us to deal with the Kremlin, even tolerate their designs in Europe.
If the United States does take military action against Iran, it may not be able to counter Russian involvement elsewhere, and the Europeans will loyally play their customary role as America's worst critics, which will also play into Russia's hand.
Russia's nightmare
There is, however, one option that would stymie Russia - a quick, savage strike by Israel that demolishes Iran's nuclear facilities and severely damages Iranian infrastructure.
Short, decisive, and very destructive.
Once the threat of a nuclear Iran is removed - even if only for a decade - the United States has far less reason to accede to any Russian pressure as regards Eastern Europe.
And the Western Europeans will perhaps realize quite how irrelevant they have become.
The Russians are using the crisis very well to their own advantage. There is, in their narrowed view, almost no downside to the Iranian threat - it is not aimed at them, and they are making both money and geopolitical hay.
If Iran develops a nuclear bomb, it will be because the Russians made it possible.
Predictably, Russia blandly denies that it is aiding the Iranians toward that goal.
Iran is the lever that Russia is using against the United States.
Moscow has made it no secret that they wish their sphere of influence in Europe back, and the Eastern European nations understand that Western Europe is firmly committed to doing nothing to counter Russian intentions. They need Russian gas, and have become accustomed to giving in.
The threat of a nuclear Iran keeps the United States pre-occupied, and forces us to deal with the Kremlin, even tolerate their designs in Europe.
If the United States does take military action against Iran, it may not be able to counter Russian involvement elsewhere, and the Europeans will loyally play their customary role as America's worst critics, which will also play into Russia's hand.
Russia's nightmare
There is, however, one option that would stymie Russia - a quick, savage strike by Israel that demolishes Iran's nuclear facilities and severely damages Iranian infrastructure.
Short, decisive, and very destructive.
Once the threat of a nuclear Iran is removed - even if only for a decade - the United States has far less reason to accede to any Russian pressure as regards Eastern Europe.
And the Western Europeans will perhaps realize quite how irrelevant they have become.
DUTCH MIS-INFORMATION ABOUT ISRAEL
During operation Cast Lead the Dutch state-sponsored news organization (NOS) featured reportage from Sander van Hoorn in Israel. Both Sander van der Hoorn and the NOS have a recognized anti-Israel bias.
Which at that time became blatantly obvious, as neither the NOS nor mister van Hoorn hesitated to demonstrate their true colours.
[NOS = Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch Broadcast Foundation).]
Please visit 'bad news from the Netherlands '(http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/) for an interesting perspective on informing the public.
Many European news organizations are sodden with Israel haters (the British are notorious in that regard), and both articles and programming support their views. But the Dutch are no slouches either!
[Not only the NOS, but also newspapers like the Volkskrant, Telegraaf, Algemeen Dagblad, and several other Dutch publications, serve as frequent examples.]
Sander van Hoorn and his editors decided that the Dutch viewers did not need impartial and independent news, but required slant, bias, and propaganda.
To that end, they engaged in a pattern of omission, distortion and manipulation.
An English language report detailing what they did can be found here:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/02/israels-gaza-war-in-dutch-state-funded.html
[This site: http://www.zionism-israel.com/israel_news/]
The original (in Dutch) is here:
http://www.israelfacts.eu/tv-media/nos-journaal-rapport/index.html
There are several other interesting articles about biased and bigotted Dutch reportage on that page. Scroll down to 'Israels Gaza war in Dutch state-funded media NOS'.
[Israel Facts is an excellent website for facts about Israel and the Middle East in Dutch. One would wish that more Dutch reporters and editors would start reading here: http://www.israelfacts.eu/index.php , but perhaps their busy schedules do not permit much reading.]
Dutch anti-Semitism now thrives as never before. Those who rely on Dutch news sources are mal-educated and mis-informed and have been strengthened and encouraged in their bigotry.
The country that betrayed Anne Frank along with over a hundred thousand of fellow citizens during the dark days of World War II seems intent on making Jew-hatred part of its culture.
It's a way of life, I guess.
=========================================================================
Note: a longer version of this post was originally published here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/02/dutch-state-sponsored-mis-information.html
This article has now been crossposted on this blog:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/
=========================================================================
PS. Indien er Nederlanders zijn die mijn woorden willen tegenspreken verzoek ik beleefd dat in het Engels te doen. Het merendeel der lezers hier is Engelstalig, begrijpt u wel, en dienovereenkomstig niet bemachtigd ene vloek-en-verdoemnis preek in uw taal te begrijpen, hoe schoon gij ook schrijft.
Bij voorbaat uiterst dank.
-----ATBOTH
Which at that time became blatantly obvious, as neither the NOS nor mister van Hoorn hesitated to demonstrate their true colours.
[NOS = Nederlandse Omroep Stichting (Dutch Broadcast Foundation).]
Please visit 'bad news from the Netherlands '(http://badnewsfromthenetherlands.blogspot.com/) for an interesting perspective on informing the public.
Many European news organizations are sodden with Israel haters (the British are notorious in that regard), and both articles and programming support their views. But the Dutch are no slouches either!
[Not only the NOS, but also newspapers like the Volkskrant, Telegraaf, Algemeen Dagblad, and several other Dutch publications, serve as frequent examples.]
Sander van Hoorn and his editors decided that the Dutch viewers did not need impartial and independent news, but required slant, bias, and propaganda.
To that end, they engaged in a pattern of omission, distortion and manipulation.
An English language report detailing what they did can be found here:
http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2009/02/israels-gaza-war-in-dutch-state-funded.html
[This site: http://www.zionism-israel.com/israel_news/]
The original (in Dutch) is here:
http://www.israelfacts.eu/tv-media/nos-journaal-rapport/index.html
There are several other interesting articles about biased and bigotted Dutch reportage on that page. Scroll down to 'Israels Gaza war in Dutch state-funded media NOS'.
[Israel Facts is an excellent website for facts about Israel and the Middle East in Dutch. One would wish that more Dutch reporters and editors would start reading here: http://www.israelfacts.eu/index.php , but perhaps their busy schedules do not permit much reading.]
Dutch anti-Semitism now thrives as never before. Those who rely on Dutch news sources are mal-educated and mis-informed and have been strengthened and encouraged in their bigotry.
The country that betrayed Anne Frank along with over a hundred thousand of fellow citizens during the dark days of World War II seems intent on making Jew-hatred part of its culture.
It's a way of life, I guess.
=========================================================================
Note: a longer version of this post was originally published here:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/02/dutch-state-sponsored-mis-information.html
This article has now been crossposted on this blog:
http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/
=========================================================================
PS. Indien er Nederlanders zijn die mijn woorden willen tegenspreken verzoek ik beleefd dat in het Engels te doen. Het merendeel der lezers hier is Engelstalig, begrijpt u wel, en dienovereenkomstig niet bemachtigd ene vloek-en-verdoemnis preek in uw taal te begrijpen, hoe schoon gij ook schrijft.
Bij voorbaat uiterst dank.
-----ATBOTH
Friday, October 9, 2009
Ra'ed Salah: vile sheikh inciting ignorant Muslims
Another religious psychopath speaks for the Arab umma. There's always another one. The supply is endless.
QUOTE:
Salah told Haaretz on Monday that the clashes would last as long as Israel's "occupation" of the city and Al-Aqsa Mosque continued. He said the Israeli government must understand that using force does not grant it rights to Al-Aqsa Mosque or anywhere else in East Jerusalem, and that the key to achieving calm in the area is an Israeli "withdrawal."
"No one has rights to the Al-Aqsa Mosque other than the Muslims. The mosque compound is Muslim, Palestinian and Arab, and Israel has no rights to the mosque or East Jerusalem," he said.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1119115.html
QUOTE:
Salah has been prohibited from entering the Temple Mount area for several months, and has been staying at a nearby residence while following developments. The Islamic Movement leader reiterated his call for Arabs within Israel's Green Line and in Jerusalem to protest beside the mount to "protect Al-Aqsa from the infiltration of extremist Jewish elements."
END QUOTE.
Any Jew is an extremist element, according to many Arabs. Hence the senseless rioting by under-employed teenagers and senseless dotards recently whenever a Jew appeared anywhere near the site of Solomon's Temple.
Sheikh Salah is the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. He is best known for his support for Hamas, for whom he raised millions of dollars, as well as his idiotic claim that there is no Jewish connection to the Western Wall.
SHEIKH RA'ED SALAH
"The Western Wall - on all its various parts, structures and gates, and all the names these parts, structures and gates are called – is an inseparable part of the al-Aqsa compound"
"(the Western Wall) is part of Al-Aqsa's western tower, which the Israeli establishment fallaciously and sneakily calls the 'Wailing Wall'. The wall is part of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque"
"He who says that the Jews or the Israeli establishment has any right to al-Aqsa, even to just one stone - this is an abominable attack, a falsehood, completely baseless."
---Sheikh Ra'ed Salah
Source:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3366266,00.html
The Israelis would do well to silence that man. Like many Islamic preachers, he slanders his own faith by his words and his actions, and encourages his followers towards violence and depravity in the name of Allah. The world has too many of such people. Their angry rantings drown out the voices of sensible Muslims, their thugs threaten the lives of dissenters, and their supporters in Berkeley, London, and other misguided parts of the Western World encourage the bestial passions of the mob.
The Islamic Movement of which Sheikh Ra'ed Salah is the northern head is a front group for false charities, radicalization, and recruitment.
QUOTE:
Salah told Haaretz on Monday that the clashes would last as long as Israel's "occupation" of the city and Al-Aqsa Mosque continued. He said the Israeli government must understand that using force does not grant it rights to Al-Aqsa Mosque or anywhere else in East Jerusalem, and that the key to achieving calm in the area is an Israeli "withdrawal."
"No one has rights to the Al-Aqsa Mosque other than the Muslims. The mosque compound is Muslim, Palestinian and Arab, and Israel has no rights to the mosque or East Jerusalem," he said.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1119115.html
QUOTE:
Salah has been prohibited from entering the Temple Mount area for several months, and has been staying at a nearby residence while following developments. The Islamic Movement leader reiterated his call for Arabs within Israel's Green Line and in Jerusalem to protest beside the mount to "protect Al-Aqsa from the infiltration of extremist Jewish elements."
END QUOTE.
Any Jew is an extremist element, according to many Arabs. Hence the senseless rioting by under-employed teenagers and senseless dotards recently whenever a Jew appeared anywhere near the site of Solomon's Temple.
Sheikh Salah is the head of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement. He is best known for his support for Hamas, for whom he raised millions of dollars, as well as his idiotic claim that there is no Jewish connection to the Western Wall.
SHEIKH RA'ED SALAH
"The Western Wall - on all its various parts, structures and gates, and all the names these parts, structures and gates are called – is an inseparable part of the al-Aqsa compound"
"(the Western Wall) is part of Al-Aqsa's western tower, which the Israeli establishment fallaciously and sneakily calls the 'Wailing Wall'. The wall is part of the holy al-Aqsa Mosque"
"He who says that the Jews or the Israeli establishment has any right to al-Aqsa, even to just one stone - this is an abominable attack, a falsehood, completely baseless."
---Sheikh Ra'ed Salah
Source:
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3366266,00.html
The Israelis would do well to silence that man. Like many Islamic preachers, he slanders his own faith by his words and his actions, and encourages his followers towards violence and depravity in the name of Allah. The world has too many of such people. Their angry rantings drown out the voices of sensible Muslims, their thugs threaten the lives of dissenters, and their supporters in Berkeley, London, and other misguided parts of the Western World encourage the bestial passions of the mob.
The Islamic Movement of which Sheikh Ra'ed Salah is the northern head is a front group for false charities, radicalization, and recruitment.
EXPEL THE WAQF
Recent riots by Muslims in Jerusalem are attracting the attention of sympathizers in the strangest places. In Jordan, which fought a bloody campaign against Palestinian insurrectionists during September 1971, thousands have marched demanding that ties with Israel be cut.
Quote:
'In Amman, demonstrators made their way to the Prime Ministry, where they chanted slogans urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and expel its ambassador.
They also called for the abrogation of the peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994. '
End quote.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120002.html
If Jordan were to accede to their demands, it would have momentous consequences.
For one thing, we could finally be rid of meddlesome outside-agitators in Al Aqsa.
Quote:
'Under the pact, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy places in East Jerusalem.'
End quote.
Very well. Given that 'peace with Arab nations' does NOT actually mean peace, and that diplomatic relations with Arabs is merely a state of permanent war with added costs, let the Jordanians do precisely what their rabble asks.
Then expel the Waqf and throw out those Muslim officials who have allegiance to outsiders. By their actions, their words, and their malevolent intent towards Israel they prove themselves deficient in honour and unworthy of residence in the Holy Land. Their foreign masters will assuredly welcome them with open arms.
Quote:
'Jordan's King Abdullah II demanded that Israel stop all unilateral actions in East Jerusalem, in an interview with Ha'aretz newspaper. He warned that such steps jeopardize Israel's relations with Jordan and are likely to inflame the Islamic world and derail peace efforts.'
End quote.
Peace efforts? My good man, what are these peace efforts of which you speak? Would that include the massive funding of extremists and the applauding of every brutal terrorist act?
It seems to me that peace with the Arab world, having been a chimera for so long, has ceased to have any possible relevance.
A valuable first step towards real peace would be dissolving the Waqf and deporting its officials to Jordan. Throw the beggars out.
Quote:
'In Amman, demonstrators made their way to the Prime Ministry, where they chanted slogans urging the government to sever diplomatic ties with Israel and expel its ambassador.
They also called for the abrogation of the peace treaty which Jordan concluded with Israel in 1994. '
End quote.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1120002.html
If Jordan were to accede to their demands, it would have momentous consequences.
For one thing, we could finally be rid of meddlesome outside-agitators in Al Aqsa.
Quote:
'Under the pact, Israel acknowledged Amman's right to look after all Islamic and Christian holy places in East Jerusalem.'
End quote.
Very well. Given that 'peace with Arab nations' does NOT actually mean peace, and that diplomatic relations with Arabs is merely a state of permanent war with added costs, let the Jordanians do precisely what their rabble asks.
Then expel the Waqf and throw out those Muslim officials who have allegiance to outsiders. By their actions, their words, and their malevolent intent towards Israel they prove themselves deficient in honour and unworthy of residence in the Holy Land. Their foreign masters will assuredly welcome them with open arms.
Quote:
'Jordan's King Abdullah II demanded that Israel stop all unilateral actions in East Jerusalem, in an interview with Ha'aretz newspaper. He warned that such steps jeopardize Israel's relations with Jordan and are likely to inflame the Islamic world and derail peace efforts.'
End quote.
Peace efforts? My good man, what are these peace efforts of which you speak? Would that include the massive funding of extremists and the applauding of every brutal terrorist act?
It seems to me that peace with the Arab world, having been a chimera for so long, has ceased to have any possible relevance.
A valuable first step towards real peace would be dissolving the Waqf and deporting its officials to Jordan. Throw the beggars out.
Thursday, October 8, 2009
BERKELEY DAILY PLANET - QUINTESSENCE OF INDECENCY
Sometimes I wonder whether the Berkeley Daily Planet has any shred of decency left. Is there no depth to which they will not stoop?
Then there are times when I read the damn thing, or someone sends me an article, and I must refrain from vomiting.
Today is one such time.
Trust me, you need not know what that odious rag did now.
It still baffles me, after all this time, that the editor of that foul agit-prop pamphlet, Becky O'Malley, considers herself a journalist, a gifted writer, and a decent human being. Fortunately I am not the only person in the Bay Area to be appalled by her chutzpah.
According to the Berkeley Daily Planet Watchdog:
Quote: 'The Berkeley Daily Planet, as we will show, is a font of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel expression. It defends itself from the ugly charge of anti-Semitism by professing, instead, a very strict interpretation of the rights of free speech. However, while we have found all manner of anti-Semitic hate ("free") speech, in a thorough review of all past issues we have found only one expression of hate speech directed at any other group. That other group is police officers. Since Michael and Becky O’Malley bought the paper in early 2003, we have not found one single expression of hate speech directed against gays, Muslims, blacks, or any other ethnic or religious group. ' End quote.
http://dpwatchdog.com/
MS. O'MALLEY AND HER PETULANCE
Chutzpah is not something of which one would normally accuse a person of sterling Wasp background (sarcasm!), but there is sufficient reason to make an exception.
According to the Berkeley Daily Planet Watchdog:
Quote: 'She made her name in Berkeley fighting every form of development and progress. As a member of the Landmarks Commission, in particular, she most vehemently fought against the building if a synagogue, Beth El. The Northern California Jewish Weekly, the "J" reported how she fought the synagogue in this way in its January 19, 2001 issue:
"Although the hearing proceeded, much of the time it was less than orderly. O'Malley continually interrupted, spoke over other commissioners and had to be told repeatedly by Edwards that she was out of order. She passed notes to commissioners who were not disqualified, made faces, shook her head and, at one point, left her seat, walked in front of the commissioners' table and got a speaker's card." ' End quote.
http://www.dpwatchdog.com/3anti-semitism.html
There are several very interesting links about Becky O'Malley and the Berkeley Daily Planet on the website of the Daily Planet Watchdog. It is a much more refreshing read than anything the Daily Planet has published in quite a while.
Please show your support of the exercise of first amendment rights by reading the articles on the website of the Daily Planet Watchdog
PETITION - WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS ...
And, if you are so inclined, I encourage you to sign a petition calling Becky O'Malley and her henchmen to task:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet.html
Please note: previous mentions of the Berkeley Daily Planet by this blogger and other include the following posts: Hate and the Daily Planet; Berkeley Daily Planet - Hatred's Own Propaganda Rag; Berkeley Daily Planet: Anti-Semitic Fishwrap; The Berkeley Daily Planet-The Beginning of the End; Daily Planet Watchdog and the Bitter Bitch.
If you know of any other blog posts about the Berkeley daily Planet that are not mentioned here, feel free to cite them in the comments.
The Berkeley Daily Planet is distributed free (being actually an advertising sheet, albeit one with pretensions) and is worth every penny.
=================================================
This article cross-posted on http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/
Feel free to read it twice.
=================================================
Then there are times when I read the damn thing, or someone sends me an article, and I must refrain from vomiting.
Today is one such time.
Trust me, you need not know what that odious rag did now.
It still baffles me, after all this time, that the editor of that foul agit-prop pamphlet, Becky O'Malley, considers herself a journalist, a gifted writer, and a decent human being. Fortunately I am not the only person in the Bay Area to be appalled by her chutzpah.
According to the Berkeley Daily Planet Watchdog:
Quote: 'The Berkeley Daily Planet, as we will show, is a font of anti-Jewish and anti-Israel expression. It defends itself from the ugly charge of anti-Semitism by professing, instead, a very strict interpretation of the rights of free speech. However, while we have found all manner of anti-Semitic hate ("free") speech, in a thorough review of all past issues we have found only one expression of hate speech directed at any other group. That other group is police officers. Since Michael and Becky O’Malley bought the paper in early 2003, we have not found one single expression of hate speech directed against gays, Muslims, blacks, or any other ethnic or religious group. ' End quote.
http://dpwatchdog.com/
MS. O'MALLEY AND HER PETULANCE
Chutzpah is not something of which one would normally accuse a person of sterling Wasp background (sarcasm!), but there is sufficient reason to make an exception.
According to the Berkeley Daily Planet Watchdog:
Quote: 'She made her name in Berkeley fighting every form of development and progress. As a member of the Landmarks Commission, in particular, she most vehemently fought against the building if a synagogue, Beth El. The Northern California Jewish Weekly, the "J" reported how she fought the synagogue in this way in its January 19, 2001 issue:
"Although the hearing proceeded, much of the time it was less than orderly. O'Malley continually interrupted, spoke over other commissioners and had to be told repeatedly by Edwards that she was out of order. She passed notes to commissioners who were not disqualified, made faces, shook her head and, at one point, left her seat, walked in front of the commissioners' table and got a speaker's card." ' End quote.
http://www.dpwatchdog.com/3anti-semitism.html
There are several very interesting links about Becky O'Malley and the Berkeley Daily Planet on the website of the Daily Planet Watchdog. It is a much more refreshing read than anything the Daily Planet has published in quite a while.
Please show your support of the exercise of first amendment rights by reading the articles on the website of the Daily Planet Watchdog
PETITION - WE ARE JEWS AND NON-JEWS ...
And, if you are so inclined, I encourage you to sign a petition calling Becky O'Malley and her henchmen to task:
http://www.gopetition.com/petitions/fight-anti-semitic-rhetoric-at-the-berkeley-daily-planet.html
Please note: previous mentions of the Berkeley Daily Planet by this blogger and other include the following posts: Hate and the Daily Planet; Berkeley Daily Planet - Hatred's Own Propaganda Rag; Berkeley Daily Planet: Anti-Semitic Fishwrap; The Berkeley Daily Planet-The Beginning of the End; Daily Planet Watchdog and the Bitter Bitch.
If you know of any other blog posts about the Berkeley daily Planet that are not mentioned here, feel free to cite them in the comments.
The Berkeley Daily Planet is distributed free (being actually an advertising sheet, albeit one with pretensions) and is worth every penny.
=================================================
This article cross-posted on http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/
Feel free to read it twice.
=================================================
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Palestinians are actually irrelevant
There are about seven million people who consider themselves Palestinian (considerably less who are native to the West Bank or Gaza).
There are over half a billion Arabs. Nearly a billion Muslims.
There are eight billion people on the planet.
Stark numbers. They illustrate the precise unimportance of Palestinians in the grand scheme of things.
If they weren't so inclined towards violence, we might never have heard of them.
Violence is hardly a measure of achievement. More people have heard of Leonardo DaVinci and Rembrandt than the current heads of the PLO and Hamas. It's a question of values.
In the past eight years, the Palestinian Arabs have accomplished one significant thing - the deaths of over five thousand of their own people (excluding those killed by bad drivers, honor killings, casual streetcorner murder, armed robbery, gang violence, intra-Arab murder, carelessness, politics, and stupidity - those numbers are not important to the Palestinian Arabs, nor to world citizens).
THE GLORIOUS AL-AQSA INTIFADA
In which dysfunctionality and absurd logic triumphed over civilized behaviour, civilized values, and civilized achievements.
QUOTE:
In order to comprehend the mentality of Palestinian Arabs, it is critical to understand the reasons they think that the intifada was a victory.
The answer is quite simple, and disheartening for those who think that there is any realistic chance for peace.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/10/glorious.html
QUOTE:
...all the seemingly counterproductive decisions and celebrations that Palestinian Arabs make are easy to understand. The Intifada was bad for Israelis, of course - over a thousand murdered, and restrictions on Israeli movement; armed guards at supermarkets, people nervous about taking buses, and a much more difficult life in general for all Israelis.
Since it hurt Israelis, it must be () a glorious victory.
END QUOTE.
QUOTE:
Not only were Israelis hurt and killed, but also Palestinian Arabs made world headlines.
END QUOTE.
All quotes from here:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/10/glorious.html
This blog:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
While the Israelis were dealing with missile-firing psychopaths in Gaza last January, the stalwarts of Hamas were happily whacking Fatah-members in that city. This was as important if not more to them as "resisting", and far more important than ensuring the safety of their civilians by not storing war-materiel in schools, mosques, and hospitals.
Even to Hamas, dead Palestinians are far more important than the living.
As, indeed, they appear to pro-Palestinians world-wide.
There are over half a billion Arabs. Nearly a billion Muslims.
There are eight billion people on the planet.
Stark numbers. They illustrate the precise unimportance of Palestinians in the grand scheme of things.
If they weren't so inclined towards violence, we might never have heard of them.
Violence is hardly a measure of achievement. More people have heard of Leonardo DaVinci and Rembrandt than the current heads of the PLO and Hamas. It's a question of values.
In the past eight years, the Palestinian Arabs have accomplished one significant thing - the deaths of over five thousand of their own people (excluding those killed by bad drivers, honor killings, casual streetcorner murder, armed robbery, gang violence, intra-Arab murder, carelessness, politics, and stupidity - those numbers are not important to the Palestinian Arabs, nor to world citizens).
THE GLORIOUS AL-AQSA INTIFADA
In which dysfunctionality and absurd logic triumphed over civilized behaviour, civilized values, and civilized achievements.
QUOTE:
In order to comprehend the mentality of Palestinian Arabs, it is critical to understand the reasons they think that the intifada was a victory.
The answer is quite simple, and disheartening for those who think that there is any realistic chance for peace.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/10/glorious.html
QUOTE:
...all the seemingly counterproductive decisions and celebrations that Palestinian Arabs make are easy to understand. The Intifada was bad for Israelis, of course - over a thousand murdered, and restrictions on Israeli movement; armed guards at supermarkets, people nervous about taking buses, and a much more difficult life in general for all Israelis.
Since it hurt Israelis, it must be () a glorious victory.
END QUOTE.
QUOTE:
Not only were Israelis hurt and killed, but also Palestinian Arabs made world headlines.
END QUOTE.
All quotes from here:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/2009/10/glorious.html
This blog:
http://elderofziyon.blogspot.com/
While the Israelis were dealing with missile-firing psychopaths in Gaza last January, the stalwarts of Hamas were happily whacking Fatah-members in that city. This was as important if not more to them as "resisting", and far more important than ensuring the safety of their civilians by not storing war-materiel in schools, mosques, and hospitals.
Even to Hamas, dead Palestinians are far more important than the living.
As, indeed, they appear to pro-Palestinians world-wide.
UKRAINE BOYCOTT? NA, NA, NA ......
Given that traditional Ukrainian anti-Semitism is no longer quiescent, and that since the fall of the Soviet Union violent xenophobic incidents in that region have spiraled out of control, it might be time to cast a jaundiced eye at that part of Eastern Europe.
Anti-Semitism, as everyone no doubt understands, is a fundamental part of the colorful regional culture, informing so much of the attitudes and folklore of the natives. As such, it may be a treasured European heritage which is of great symbolic value - one which many Europeans will passionately defend, especially if they are of the nationalist ilk.
Never-the-less, like so much of the old-world mentality that inspired the tumultuous events of the twentieth century, anti-Semitism is not really in tune with modernity. It has no place in a 'liberal democracy', and reflects no glory on its practitioners; it may be time to both reject traditional Eastern-European cultural mores, and to make a point, also some Eastern-European products.
"Is everybody obliged to love Jews and Israel? If I don't like Jews and Israel, does that make me an anti-Semite?"
---Serhiy Ratushnyak, mayor of the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod
Source:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118424.html
Quote:
Apparently, in the wake of the mayor's rant, Jewish leaders were quick to respond. First into the fray was Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief rabbi of Russia, who announced that he would be visiting Uzhhorod to support the local Jewish community. Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Ukraine, also condemned Ratushnyak but in the same breath, he also turned down his rabbinical colleague's offer of support.
End quote.
This blogger would advise that the Jews of Uzhorod simply leave.
Eastern Europe is the realm of death, and there is no part of the Ukraine that is not drenched in the blood of innocent victims. Why stay in a place that serves as the devil's anteroom?
Of course, the same can be said of Russia.
"Plenty of anti-Semites in Russia can use the help of Berel Lazar before he worries about anti-Semitism in Ukraine"
---Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Ukraine
Quote:
It is high time for a Jewish boycott of Ukraine. Perhaps not a total boycott, at least not at first, but at the very least some symbolic gestures.
End quote.
[Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118424.html ]
I will start boycotting Ukrainian goods the moment I find any! What do Ukrainians export?
Really, does anything come out of Kievan Rus other than trafficked human flesh?
I would be most appreciative if readers informed me of Ukrainian merchandise that they cannot live without. Or even Ukrainian items that they might consider buying.........
Anti-Semitism, as everyone no doubt understands, is a fundamental part of the colorful regional culture, informing so much of the attitudes and folklore of the natives. As such, it may be a treasured European heritage which is of great symbolic value - one which many Europeans will passionately defend, especially if they are of the nationalist ilk.
Never-the-less, like so much of the old-world mentality that inspired the tumultuous events of the twentieth century, anti-Semitism is not really in tune with modernity. It has no place in a 'liberal democracy', and reflects no glory on its practitioners; it may be time to both reject traditional Eastern-European cultural mores, and to make a point, also some Eastern-European products.
"Is everybody obliged to love Jews and Israel? If I don't like Jews and Israel, does that make me an anti-Semite?"
---Serhiy Ratushnyak, mayor of the Ukrainian city of Uzhhorod
Source:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118424.html
Quote:
Apparently, in the wake of the mayor's rant, Jewish leaders were quick to respond. First into the fray was Rabbi Berel Lazar, chief rabbi of Russia, who announced that he would be visiting Uzhhorod to support the local Jewish community. Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Ukraine, also condemned Ratushnyak but in the same breath, he also turned down his rabbinical colleague's offer of support.
End quote.
This blogger would advise that the Jews of Uzhorod simply leave.
Eastern Europe is the realm of death, and there is no part of the Ukraine that is not drenched in the blood of innocent victims. Why stay in a place that serves as the devil's anteroom?
Of course, the same can be said of Russia.
"Plenty of anti-Semites in Russia can use the help of Berel Lazar before he worries about anti-Semitism in Ukraine"
---Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, chief rabbi of Ukraine
Quote:
It is high time for a Jewish boycott of Ukraine. Perhaps not a total boycott, at least not at first, but at the very least some symbolic gestures.
End quote.
[Source: http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1118424.html ]
I will start boycotting Ukrainian goods the moment I find any! What do Ukrainians export?
Really, does anything come out of Kievan Rus other than trafficked human flesh?
I would be most appreciative if readers informed me of Ukrainian merchandise that they cannot live without. Or even Ukrainian items that they might consider buying.........
Monday, October 5, 2009
World Net Daily - it is 'daily', but that is all
This is meant in friendly yet polite criticism of well-meaning individuals who keep forwarding me pro-Israel articles from World Net Daily (and other even more dubious sources).
The World Net Daily is not a valid source of news.
It is an opinion sheet that caters to the loony fringe.
Reading the World Net Daily for any other reason than a need to laugh hysterically calls your sanity into question.
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldNetDaily
Quote:
In early 2005, WND hired Aaron Klein to run a Jerusalem bureau. ConWebWatch, a website critical of conservative new media, in early 2006 alleged that Klein's articles promoted the causes of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from those areas. The group also argued that Klein did not disclose the ties of Israeli activists tied to the far-right Kach and Kahane Chai movement.
End quote.
Kach and Kahane Chai are of course the insane fringe of the settler movement - though extremely small in number, their extremist and racist behaviour, politics, and statements are often used to discredit the entire movement.
Quote:
When Eden Natan-Zada shot and killed four people on a bus in Gaza on August 4, 2005, he was beaten to death afterwards by a crowd that witnessed the shooting. Klein wrote an article for WND claiming that Zada was "murdered" by a "mob of Palestinians" after the shooting, although he also mentioned that police called the shooting a "Jewish terror attack."
End quote.
Klein is entitled to his opinion. But he is not grounded in reality, and his heavily slanted reportage is unreliable - little that he has written stands up to even a modicum of scrutiny.
In addition to publishing the rantings of Mr. Klein, the WND is also responsible for upsetting people with a fragile grasp of reality by spreading palpably false and loopy conspiracy theories.
Quote:
During the debate over the failed 2007 Immigration Bill, WND popularized opposition to an alleged "North American Union (NAU)", a dystopian vision of a future America politically and economically merged with Canada and Mexico, in a fashion similar to the European Union. WND blames a "shadow government" in the form of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the alleged NAU plot. CFR Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon. Jerome Corsi, a popular WND columnist, has penned a book about the alleged plot called The Late, Great USA, which was promoted by the website. The "North American Union" is considered a conspiracy theory by popular social conservatives such as Michael Medved and Kimberley Strassel, and has been disputed in the mainstream media.
End quote.
The World Net Daily is not a valid source of news.
It is an opinion sheet that caters to the loony fringe.
Reading the World Net Daily for any other reason than a need to laugh hysterically calls your sanity into question.
From Wikipedia: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WorldNetDaily
Quote:
In early 2005, WND hired Aaron Klein to run a Jerusalem bureau. ConWebWatch, a website critical of conservative new media, in early 2006 alleged that Klein's articles promoted the causes of Israeli settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who opposed Israel's unilateral disengagement plan from those areas. The group also argued that Klein did not disclose the ties of Israeli activists tied to the far-right Kach and Kahane Chai movement.
End quote.
Kach and Kahane Chai are of course the insane fringe of the settler movement - though extremely small in number, their extremist and racist behaviour, politics, and statements are often used to discredit the entire movement.
Quote:
When Eden Natan-Zada shot and killed four people on a bus in Gaza on August 4, 2005, he was beaten to death afterwards by a crowd that witnessed the shooting. Klein wrote an article for WND claiming that Zada was "murdered" by a "mob of Palestinians" after the shooting, although he also mentioned that police called the shooting a "Jewish terror attack."
End quote.
Klein is entitled to his opinion. But he is not grounded in reality, and his heavily slanted reportage is unreliable - little that he has written stands up to even a modicum of scrutiny.
In addition to publishing the rantings of Mr. Klein, the WND is also responsible for upsetting people with a fragile grasp of reality by spreading palpably false and loopy conspiracy theories.
Quote:
During the debate over the failed 2007 Immigration Bill, WND popularized opposition to an alleged "North American Union (NAU)", a dystopian vision of a future America politically and economically merged with Canada and Mexico, in a fashion similar to the European Union. WND blames a "shadow government" in the form of the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) for the alleged NAU plot. CFR Conspiracy theories are not a new phenomenon. Jerome Corsi, a popular WND columnist, has penned a book about the alleged plot called The Late, Great USA, which was promoted by the website. The "North American Union" is considered a conspiracy theory by popular social conservatives such as Michael Medved and Kimberley Strassel, and has been disputed in the mainstream media.
End quote.
Shadow government? NAU plot? Bring on the black helicopters and Hong Kong policemen working for the United Nations also, please, as well as the Bilderburgers and the Freemasons.
Most egregiously, WND has perpetuated the balderdash that Obama is not qualified for the presidency because he is allegedly not a natural born American citizen.
Quote:
During the closing days of the 2008 presidential campaign, and in the weeks following Barack Obama's election as president of the United States, WorldNetDaily posted numerous articles questioning Obama's citizenship status and consequent eligibility to be president.
WND frequently posted articles on its homepage giving updates on numerous lawsuits that questioned Obama's citizenship status and were aimed at postponing the election and, later, the inauguration. These articles featured interviews with the plaintiffs, which included former New Jersey lawyer Leo Donofrio, 9/11 Truth attorney Philip J. Berg, and former Republican presidential candidate Alan Keyes. WND and Joseph Farah also touted The Obama Nation, a book critical of Obama written by WND staff reporter Jerome Corsi, which claimed that Obama was born in Kenya. Such claims were disputed by Obama's campaign, progressive bloggers, news outlets, and Hawaii's state health department.
End quote.
Gentlepersons! If you cannot vet your source as sane, grounded in reality, and at least relatively reliable, please do not forward the article.
It is indeed quite likely that the content of the article in question agrees with your every dark fear or preconception, and says what you wish to say better than you possibly could. That is immaterial. Nonsense remains nonsense, even if someone else says it too. The WND is a source of a very large percentage of all the bad karma and dysfunctionality in the known universe, and should be avoided at all costs.
I no longer wish to see bushwa from the World Net Daily. If you forward it, I will taunt you and call you names.
Friday, October 2, 2009
JTA - CULTIVATING HATRED?
Does the Jewish Telegraph Agency (JTA) promote hatred of Israelis and Israel?
Such is the accusation of a small group of angry people, whose ire was aroused by a report a while back detailing a reprehensible act alleged to have been committed by someone in Hebron.
Better questions would be: Do some people overreact? Are there people on all sides who commit stupid or insane acts?
Of course they do, and of course there are. And our side should be man enough to admit it.
We aren't the other side, which glosses over its massacres and crimes against humanity as if these were excusable in light of the paucity of their means and the desperation of their members.
Nor do we excuse the idiots who "mean well".
Do some activists do or say things which defy common sense?
Let me quote from JTA:
"
Recently, however, a group of critics launched a letter-writing campaign accusing JTA of "cultivating hatred of Israel and Israelis," urging supporters to send us this form letter. As far as I can tell, most of the complaints center on one allegation: that acid has been thrown at Israeli forces. Here's how we reported it:
Over the last year and a half, radical settlers seem to have upped the ante. They have defaced Muslim tombstones, set fire to Palestinian olive groves, assaulted Palestinians, slashed tires of IDF vehicles and thrown acid at Israeli soldiers.
The incident in question took place on Dec. 4, 2008, as Israeli forces conducted a surprise evacuation of Jewish families from a disputed four-story building in Hebron. According to several news sources (Ynet, Fox News, Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post) an Israeli police officer was injured by acid thrown into his eyes by some of those trying to stop the evacuation. The police told us as much almost immediately after the fact.
We could have also mentioned that some settlers had been warning that any attempt to evacuate the building, dubbed Peace House by Jewish supporters, would be met with violence. In a successful effort to minimize the threat, Israeli border police moved in during the day. According to The Jerusalem Post, authorities discovered stockpiles of homemade weapons. After the operation, angry settlers reportedly rampaged through Hebron, attacking Palestinians (including two who were shot outside of their home) and burning Palestinian olive trees.
When we started hearing from some who questioned the acid report, we went back to the police who said that they stood by their version of events. Of course, I guess it's possible that the Israeli police made up the acid story (and planted the piles of weapons), in an elaborate frame job aimed at making settlers look bad -- and news outlets of various political stripes fell for it. But we see no evidence of this. Regardless, the acid-throwing incident was the only part of our report our critics questioned; they did not dispute that some radical settlers had vandalized Israeli military equipment, vandalized Palestinian property, defaced Muslim graves and attacked Palestinian civilians.
We stand by our stories.
"
SOURCE:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/10/02/1008266/the-acid-test-we-stand-by-our-reporting
Rabbosai, you know the JTA is a valuable resource, both in the function of honest reporter, and as a disseminator of worthwhile information for everyone who is concerned about matters Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist.
You do not want them to merely propagandize. You want truthful reporting, solid information.
The JTA does a good job of giving you both.
We've already seen the crappy "hasbara", and saccharine puff pieces that a foolish minority insist on circulating ad nauseum - these do our side no good.
Articles laden with spelling errors and factual inaccuracies merely help the other side and harm ours.
Ridiculous conspiracy theories? We would far rather the pro-Pallies and Eury far-left make themselves look stupid by propounding those.
Save for the manifestations of crackpotism that a few of you originate, the other side would look entirely moronic by now.
Throwing verbal acid at our own is no less heinous than abusing police officers, military equipment, property, graves, or civilians.
If you do NOT like what the JTA does, please start your own damn' group.
Just be aware that you will have to do a better job than the JTA.
Might be hard ....... Our side sets the bar higher than most of the world.
Oh, and don't forget to use spellcheck.
Such is the accusation of a small group of angry people, whose ire was aroused by a report a while back detailing a reprehensible act alleged to have been committed by someone in Hebron.
Better questions would be: Do some people overreact? Are there people on all sides who commit stupid or insane acts?
Of course they do, and of course there are. And our side should be man enough to admit it.
We aren't the other side, which glosses over its massacres and crimes against humanity as if these were excusable in light of the paucity of their means and the desperation of their members.
Nor do we excuse the idiots who "mean well".
Do some activists do or say things which defy common sense?
Let me quote from JTA:
"
Recently, however, a group of critics launched a letter-writing campaign accusing JTA of "cultivating hatred of Israel and Israelis," urging supporters to send us this form letter. As far as I can tell, most of the complaints center on one allegation: that acid has been thrown at Israeli forces. Here's how we reported it:
Over the last year and a half, radical settlers seem to have upped the ante. They have defaced Muslim tombstones, set fire to Palestinian olive groves, assaulted Palestinians, slashed tires of IDF vehicles and thrown acid at Israeli soldiers.
The incident in question took place on Dec. 4, 2008, as Israeli forces conducted a surprise evacuation of Jewish families from a disputed four-story building in Hebron. According to several news sources (Ynet, Fox News, Ha'aretz, The Jerusalem Post) an Israeli police officer was injured by acid thrown into his eyes by some of those trying to stop the evacuation. The police told us as much almost immediately after the fact.
We could have also mentioned that some settlers had been warning that any attempt to evacuate the building, dubbed Peace House by Jewish supporters, would be met with violence. In a successful effort to minimize the threat, Israeli border police moved in during the day. According to The Jerusalem Post, authorities discovered stockpiles of homemade weapons. After the operation, angry settlers reportedly rampaged through Hebron, attacking Palestinians (including two who were shot outside of their home) and burning Palestinian olive trees.
When we started hearing from some who questioned the acid report, we went back to the police who said that they stood by their version of events. Of course, I guess it's possible that the Israeli police made up the acid story (and planted the piles of weapons), in an elaborate frame job aimed at making settlers look bad -- and news outlets of various political stripes fell for it. But we see no evidence of this. Regardless, the acid-throwing incident was the only part of our report our critics questioned; they did not dispute that some radical settlers had vandalized Israeli military equipment, vandalized Palestinian property, defaced Muslim graves and attacked Palestinian civilians.
We stand by our stories.
"
SOURCE:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/10/02/1008266/the-acid-test-we-stand-by-our-reporting
Rabbosai, you know the JTA is a valuable resource, both in the function of honest reporter, and as a disseminator of worthwhile information for everyone who is concerned about matters Jewish, Israeli, or Zionist.
You do not want them to merely propagandize. You want truthful reporting, solid information.
The JTA does a good job of giving you both.
We've already seen the crappy "hasbara", and saccharine puff pieces that a foolish minority insist on circulating ad nauseum - these do our side no good.
Articles laden with spelling errors and factual inaccuracies merely help the other side and harm ours.
Ridiculous conspiracy theories? We would far rather the pro-Pallies and Eury far-left make themselves look stupid by propounding those.
Save for the manifestations of crackpotism that a few of you originate, the other side would look entirely moronic by now.
Throwing verbal acid at our own is no less heinous than abusing police officers, military equipment, property, graves, or civilians.
If you do NOT like what the JTA does, please start your own damn' group.
Just be aware that you will have to do a better job than the JTA.
Might be hard ....... Our side sets the bar higher than most of the world.
Oh, and don't forget to use spellcheck.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
GOLDSTONE COMMISSION, HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH - FLIES IN THE OINTMENT
Human Rights Watch says U.S. must back Goldstone. This in reference to the report commissioned by the U.N. Human Rights Council.
QUOTE:
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration to endorse the Goldstone commission report.
The group was reacting to statements by administration officials that the report on last winter's war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was flawed and should be dealt with only by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report.
"Dismissal of all or parts of the Goldstone report would contradict President Barack Obama’s stated commitment to human rights in the Middle East and reveal an ill-timed double standard in Washington’s approach to international justice," the group said. "It would also undermine efforts to revive the peace process."
The conclusions of the fact-finding mission, led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, include a recommendation that the U.N. Security Council consider war crimes investigations should Israel or Hamas not launch their own probes within six months.
Human Rights Watch also dismissed claims that Israel was able to investigate itself.
"The U.S. claim that Israel can be relied upon to investigate itself ignores the well-documented pattern of impunity in the country for past violations of international humanitarian law," the group said.
Israel regards Human Rights Watch as implacably biased; the group claims that it is the victim of a witch hunt aimed at obscuring Israel's human rights violations.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/30/1008212/human-rights-watch-us-must-back-goldstone
QUOTE:
Posner reiterated the U.S. view that the report was "deeply flawed" and that the Human Rights Council pays "grossly disproportionate" attention to Israel.
He said the United States would back a resolution that "encourages Israel to investigate and address allegations in the report thoroughly through credible domestic processes."
END QUOTE.
DEEPLY FLAWED
It has been clear for quite a while that the UN Human Rights Council exists primarily as an instrument to further the anti-Israel activism of the international community, precisely as its predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission. Equally obviously, it is extremely doubtful that any South African judged acceptable to the international community could ever be unbiased about Israel.
In any case, friends of Israel were NOT considered for the role of chief inquisitor.
Nevertheless, the recommendation of Human Rights Watch brings up a few salient points, and while I would under no circumstance advocate acceptance of any UN-sponsored garbage regarding Israel, especially not this deeply flawed report, it would be wise to study the matter further.
[The report omits much highly relevant data, and fails to examine motives behind the testimony that it takes into account, among a number of other questionable details. The phrase that comes to mind is 'supressio veri et suggestio falsi' - surely also part of the educational background of so eminent a jurist as Mr. Goldstone, if not of his various taskmasters.]
Israel does not need to justify any of its actions or even its existence to any UN body - the record of that shameless international institution speaks for itself.
But it is essential that Israel be able to say unequivocally to its friends that its conduct was justified.
I will by no means assert that the organization Human Rights Watch is biased or incurably flawed - they perform a useful function quite admirably in the modern world, and have been criticized, excoriated even, by some of the most reprehensible regimes: Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, et autres.
But any criticism of free-world countries such as the United States, Israel, and the Western European nations, must be tempered by a proper perspective; these are not the notorious torturers and goons that call the shots in Africa, Arabia, and Latin America, nor the systematic tyrannies of the Communist world.
No Western European or Israeli leader is in any way comparable to a tyrant like Fidel Castro, a psychopath like Ahmedinejad, or a thug like Hugo Chavez.
QUOTE:
WASHINGTON (JTA) -- Human Rights Watch called on the Obama administration to endorse the Goldstone commission report.
The group was reacting to statements by administration officials that the report on last winter's war between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip was flawed and should be dealt with only by the U.N. Human Rights Council, which commissioned the report.
"Dismissal of all or parts of the Goldstone report would contradict President Barack Obama’s stated commitment to human rights in the Middle East and reveal an ill-timed double standard in Washington’s approach to international justice," the group said. "It would also undermine efforts to revive the peace process."
The conclusions of the fact-finding mission, led by former South African Judge Richard Goldstone, include a recommendation that the U.N. Security Council consider war crimes investigations should Israel or Hamas not launch their own probes within six months.
Human Rights Watch also dismissed claims that Israel was able to investigate itself.
"The U.S. claim that Israel can be relied upon to investigate itself ignores the well-documented pattern of impunity in the country for past violations of international humanitarian law," the group said.
Israel regards Human Rights Watch as implacably biased; the group claims that it is the victim of a witch hunt aimed at obscuring Israel's human rights violations.
END QUOTE.
SOURCE:
http://jta.org/news/article/2009/09/30/1008212/human-rights-watch-us-must-back-goldstone
QUOTE:
Posner reiterated the U.S. view that the report was "deeply flawed" and that the Human Rights Council pays "grossly disproportionate" attention to Israel.
He said the United States would back a resolution that "encourages Israel to investigate and address allegations in the report thoroughly through credible domestic processes."
END QUOTE.
DEEPLY FLAWED
It has been clear for quite a while that the UN Human Rights Council exists primarily as an instrument to further the anti-Israel activism of the international community, precisely as its predecessor, the UN Human Rights Commission. Equally obviously, it is extremely doubtful that any South African judged acceptable to the international community could ever be unbiased about Israel.
In any case, friends of Israel were NOT considered for the role of chief inquisitor.
Nevertheless, the recommendation of Human Rights Watch brings up a few salient points, and while I would under no circumstance advocate acceptance of any UN-sponsored garbage regarding Israel, especially not this deeply flawed report, it would be wise to study the matter further.
[The report omits much highly relevant data, and fails to examine motives behind the testimony that it takes into account, among a number of other questionable details. The phrase that comes to mind is 'supressio veri et suggestio falsi' - surely also part of the educational background of so eminent a jurist as Mr. Goldstone, if not of his various taskmasters.]
Israel does not need to justify any of its actions or even its existence to any UN body - the record of that shameless international institution speaks for itself.
But it is essential that Israel be able to say unequivocally to its friends that its conduct was justified.
I will by no means assert that the organization Human Rights Watch is biased or incurably flawed - they perform a useful function quite admirably in the modern world, and have been criticized, excoriated even, by some of the most reprehensible regimes: Iran, Venezuela, Cuba, et autres.
But any criticism of free-world countries such as the United States, Israel, and the Western European nations, must be tempered by a proper perspective; these are not the notorious torturers and goons that call the shots in Africa, Arabia, and Latin America, nor the systematic tyrannies of the Communist world.
No Western European or Israeli leader is in any way comparable to a tyrant like Fidel Castro, a psychopath like Ahmedinejad, or a thug like Hugo Chavez.
Monday, September 28, 2009
ALICE WALKER - VERY PROGRESSIVE BIGOTRY
Far be it from me to kick someone when they're down. Fortunately, Alice Walker is far from down, having been put on a pedestal and worshipped by the multitudes.
Even rabbi Michael Lerner sits up and yips when Alice Walker speaks.
Or so one would think, given that he has given her writ to write for Tikkun Magazine, which conflicted 'Jewish' persons read for stimulating self-doubt, candy-floss spirituality, and an unhealthy but oh-so-delicious dose of Jewish self-loathing.
Tikkun Magazine is probably the most objectionable and pretentious waste of printing technology on the West Coast. Michael Lerner panders to the weakest and least intellectually able segment of Jewry with a fetid mix of new-age nonsense, guilt, insecurity, cottonwool politics, and tendentious superficiality. Suffice to say that both readers and writers of that thing are beyond shame.
[Excepting, as always, the intellectually curious with a strong stomach, or literate masochists. As always.]
Not surprising, therefore, to find Alice Walker in that company.
Quote:
Known for his far-left views on Israel, Lerner lurches completely off the charts by assigning a Yom Kippur sermon to Walker, who offers up a defense of terrorism against Israelis in the latest issue of Lerner's magazine, Tikkun.
In her Tikkun essay, "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel," Walker calls suicide bombings "last-ditch resistance," and says it’s dishonest to engage in "blaming the oppressed for using their bodies where the Israeli army uses armored tanks."
End quote.
Source:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/09/22/1008054/defender-of-terrorism-against-jews-to-spea
While I hesitate to give any linkage to anti-Semites and bigots, I nevertheless feel that you should read her exceptionally long and dysfocussed rant yourself.
http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/2009/07/overcoming-speechlessness-poet.html
At least try to wade your way through some of it - I'll understand if you give up in boredom or disgust one quarter of the way through. It's only natural.
Other people have also made the struggle to read Alice Walker's poofle.
They have been repulsed. And have blogged as much.
READER: STEFFY
Quote:
"Coz if you are Jewish, Ms. Alice Walker sincerely wishes you to understand that you are the paradigm of whiteness and maleness."
End quote.
Source:
http://infectiousasian.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-cannibal-goddes.html
[Personal blog: http://infectiousasian.blogspot.com/ ]
READER: VICIOUS KITTY
Quote:
"You HAVE spoken to them, haven't you, Ms. Walker? Because to simply castigate the Jews, as if the actions of Israel happen without reason or provocation, and entirely in a vacuum, would be dishonest, hypocritical, and fundamentally racist."
And:
"Do you know what the phrase 'double standard' means?"
End quote.
Source:
http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-in-touch-with-her-inner.html
[Personal blog: http://prolongedfeline.blogspot.com/ ]
Further quote:
"It seems you are obsessed with Jews."
End quote.
READER: BBJ
Quote:
"Why are Alice and her friends boycotting the International Film Festival? Because the film festival plans to showcase films from Israel in honor of the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv, "as if Gaza was not recently besieged and bombed, and as if no Palestinians ever lived in Tel Aviv." "
[CUT] "... if you read a little more deeply on the subject, you will learn that the city was built on land purchased from its Bedouin owners. Israeli Arabs have lived, and do live in Tel Aviv, but to invoke Palestinians, whom Walker no doubt believes were kicked out of their ancient sand dune by those invaders --- , is deliberately misleading and meant to delegitimize any Jewish presence in Israel."
End quote.
Source:
http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2009/09/yes-indeed-boycotts-must-come-from.html
[Personal blog: http://balabustabluejeans.blogspot.com/ ]
Further quote:
" ...one thing that becomes very clear is that Walker knows nothing but what she has been told by very dubious companions--and has accepted it wholesale. She's probably no more misinformed than the average knee-jerk Israel hater, but she is more influential, and more dangerous. (She really is comically dim. At one point she alleges that Ariel Sharon led the attack on Sabra/Shatila, which strongly suggests to me that she has never actually read an account of what happened there, unless it was given to her by Cynthia McKinney)."
End quote.
"True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions... "
Alice Walker, a spiritual being.
Perhaps most significantly, what all bloggers cited above express is a sense of personal betrayal. Alice Walker, a feminist and progressive, and herself familiar with the spiritual disease of bigotry, should have been the last person to engage in anti-Israel activism.
Quote:
"...anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous than classical anti-Semitism "
[CUT]
"Anti-Zionism earns its racist character from denying the Jewish people what it grants to other collectives (e.g. Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood and self-determination."
End quote.
Source:
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/Anti-Zionism_is_racism.htm
Further quote:
"As a form of racism, anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism. It targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of their state for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity. To put it more bluntly, anti-Zionism condemns 5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal statelessness, traumatized by historical images of persecution and genocide.
Anti-Zionism also attacks the pivotal component of our identity, the glue that bonds us together — our nationhood, our history. And while people of conscience reject anti-Semitism, anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance .. "
End quote.
Perhaps Alice Walker isn't an 'academic sophisticate' striving for 'social acceptance'.
Maybe she has become comfortable, and conscious of the need to play well with others, in the progressive milieu.
What is clear is that she has become an anti-Israel activist.
She is NOT a classical anti-Semite.
Even rabbi Michael Lerner sits up and yips when Alice Walker speaks.
Or so one would think, given that he has given her writ to write for Tikkun Magazine, which conflicted 'Jewish' persons read for stimulating self-doubt, candy-floss spirituality, and an unhealthy but oh-so-delicious dose of Jewish self-loathing.
Tikkun Magazine is probably the most objectionable and pretentious waste of printing technology on the West Coast. Michael Lerner panders to the weakest and least intellectually able segment of Jewry with a fetid mix of new-age nonsense, guilt, insecurity, cottonwool politics, and tendentious superficiality. Suffice to say that both readers and writers of that thing are beyond shame.
[Excepting, as always, the intellectually curious with a strong stomach, or literate masochists. As always.]
Not surprising, therefore, to find Alice Walker in that company.
Quote:
Known for his far-left views on Israel, Lerner lurches completely off the charts by assigning a Yom Kippur sermon to Walker, who offers up a defense of terrorism against Israelis in the latest issue of Lerner's magazine, Tikkun.
In her Tikkun essay, "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel," Walker calls suicide bombings "last-ditch resistance," and says it’s dishonest to engage in "blaming the oppressed for using their bodies where the Israeli army uses armored tanks."
End quote.
Source:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/09/22/1008054/defender-of-terrorism-against-jews-to-spea
While I hesitate to give any linkage to anti-Semites and bigots, I nevertheless feel that you should read her exceptionally long and dysfocussed rant yourself.
http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/2009/07/overcoming-speechlessness-poet.html
At least try to wade your way through some of it - I'll understand if you give up in boredom or disgust one quarter of the way through. It's only natural.
Other people have also made the struggle to read Alice Walker's poofle.
They have been repulsed. And have blogged as much.
READER: STEFFY
Quote:
"Coz if you are Jewish, Ms. Alice Walker sincerely wishes you to understand that you are the paradigm of whiteness and maleness."
End quote.
Source:
http://infectiousasian.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-cannibal-goddes.html
[Personal blog: http://infectiousasian.blogspot.com/ ]
READER: VICIOUS KITTY
Quote:
"You HAVE spoken to them, haven't you, Ms. Walker? Because to simply castigate the Jews, as if the actions of Israel happen without reason or provocation, and entirely in a vacuum, would be dishonest, hypocritical, and fundamentally racist."
And:
"Do you know what the phrase 'double standard' means?"
End quote.
Source:
http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-in-touch-with-her-inner.html
[Personal blog: http://prolongedfeline.blogspot.com/ ]
Further quote:
"It seems you are obsessed with Jews."
End quote.
READER: BBJ
Quote:
"Why are Alice and her friends boycotting the International Film Festival? Because the film festival plans to showcase films from Israel in honor of the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv, "as if Gaza was not recently besieged and bombed, and as if no Palestinians ever lived in Tel Aviv." "
[CUT] "... if you read a little more deeply on the subject, you will learn that the city was built on land purchased from its Bedouin owners. Israeli Arabs have lived, and do live in Tel Aviv, but to invoke Palestinians, whom Walker no doubt believes were kicked out of their ancient sand dune by those invaders --- , is deliberately misleading and meant to delegitimize any Jewish presence in Israel."
End quote.
Source:
http://proisraelbaybloggers.blogspot.com/2009/09/yes-indeed-boycotts-must-come-from.html
[Personal blog: http://balabustabluejeans.blogspot.com/ ]
Further quote:
" ...one thing that becomes very clear is that Walker knows nothing but what she has been told by very dubious companions--and has accepted it wholesale. She's probably no more misinformed than the average knee-jerk Israel hater, but she is more influential, and more dangerous. (She really is comically dim. At one point she alleges that Ariel Sharon led the attack on Sabra/Shatila, which strongly suggests to me that she has never actually read an account of what happened there, unless it was given to her by Cynthia McKinney)."
End quote.
"True to my inner Goddess of the Three Directions... "
Alice Walker, a spiritual being.
Perhaps most significantly, what all bloggers cited above express is a sense of personal betrayal. Alice Walker, a feminist and progressive, and herself familiar with the spiritual disease of bigotry, should have been the last person to engage in anti-Israel activism.
Quote:
"...anti-Zionism is a form of racism more dangerous than classical anti-Semitism "
[CUT]
"Anti-Zionism earns its racist character from denying the Jewish people what it grants to other collectives (e.g. Spanish, Palestinians), namely, the right to nationhood and self-determination."
End quote.
Source:
http://www.zionismontheweb.org/Anti-Zionism_is_racism.htm
Further quote:
"As a form of racism, anti-Zionism is worse than anti-Semitism. It targets the most vulnerable part of the Jewish people, namely, the people of Israel, who rely on the sovereignty of their state for physical safety, national identity and personal dignity. To put it more bluntly, anti-Zionism condemns 5 million human beings, mostly refugees or children of refugees, to eternal statelessness, traumatized by historical images of persecution and genocide.
Anti-Zionism also attacks the pivotal component of our identity, the glue that bonds us together — our nationhood, our history. And while people of conscience reject anti-Semitism, anti-Zionist rhetoric has become a mark of academic sophistication and social acceptance .. "
End quote.
Perhaps Alice Walker isn't an 'academic sophisticate' striving for 'social acceptance'.
Maybe she has become comfortable, and conscious of the need to play well with others, in the progressive milieu.
What is clear is that she has become an anti-Israel activist.
She is NOT a classical anti-Semite.
Saturday, September 26, 2009
Alice Walker in touch with her inner bigot
One of the constants regarding the Middle-East is that profoundly ignorant people feel obliged to voice opinions in favor of a perceived underdog, without grasping the history and complexity of the issue, and without any shred of knowledge, decency, or fairness.
Facts are too much too handle. Details prevent a glib pandering to peanut gallery. Truth may be disregarded in service to ideology.
Reality and rhetoric are not the same.
Celebrities often favor rhetoric.
QUOTE:
"Walker said her decision to visit Gaza, along with members of the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, was spurred by the recent death of an older sister. She said she felt a connection to Gazans who lost loved ones in the war. "I wanted very much to be with them and to bear witness to what is happening to them, this horrible, catastrophic, terrible thing," she said."
End quote.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070313.html
QUOTE:
"Walker did not respond directly when asked whether Hamas - - - should be held responsible for Gaza's hardships.
"I think all of us have an opportunity here to just say what we believe, which is we think killing is wrong, we think stealing land is wrong, we think abusing people is wrong," she said."
End quote.
Miss Walker, would you care to explain that to the other side? Particularly to those who support AND bankroll some of the most murderous madmen on the planet?
Groups such as Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Ba'ath Socialist Parties of both Iraq and Syria, the Jund Ansar Allah, the Saudi compradores who fund the various psychopaths for Allah that infest the lands between the Atlantic and the Persian Gulf, the Islamists in Europe who send money to "charities", the social activists who gloss over crimes against humanity perpetrated by revolutionaries ........ my heavens, the list is nearly endless.
You HAVE spoken to them, haven't you, Ms. Walker? Because to simply castigate the Jews, as if the actions of Israel happen without reason or provocation, and entirely in a vacuum, would be dishonest, hypocritical, and fundamentally racist.
Surely you have delved into the issues?
"I want the Israeli government to be made accountable"
Alice Walker, in The Guardian, Tuesday 1 April 2008
[SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/01/barackobama.uselections2008 ]
Actually, I know you haven't. You have NOT investigated the issues. You took the pro-Palestinian side automatically. Ivan Petrovich could have studied you.
You have so thoroughly rejected the Jewishness to which, so briefly, you were exposed, that you take out your anger on the Jews. You defensively cloak yourself with the many incomplete Jews who do the same, telling yourself and your readers that no, you cannot be an anti-Semite, you know so many Jews..... some of your best friends are Jews..... you were even MARRIED to one of them once.....
Nor have you addressed yourself to the Janjaweed, who rape and murder black Muslims and Christians in the Sudan. You do not address yourself to the Arabicized Somalis, who hack off hands and slaughter those who are not as fanatical as themselves about their Salafist / Wahhabi ideology. You have not spoken to the fanatics in Pakistan and Afghanistan who violate and kill in the name of Allah.
Iran hangs gays, heretics, and rape victims - Ms. Walker, where is your voice? The Saudis forbid any religion but their own, Ms. Walker, have you taken them to task? Egyptians discriminate against Christians daily, dear Alice - not worthy of your mention?
Do you know what the phrase 'double standard' means?
There are so many people whose suffering means naught to you, Ms. Walker. Thousands, millions even, who suffer the cruelties of the patriarchal misogyny which is so common in so much of the world. Unbearably many, who pay for the arrogance of being women, or gays, or dissidents, or Christians, or Muslims, or Jews, with their lives.
Instead, like so many middle-class white Americans (your paying audience, I believe), you carry a torch for the supporters of evil - people who have sworn to cleanse the land of Jews, people whose most fervent desire is to exterminate a nation that has existed for four millennia, whose roots in the soil of the Holy Land go back to the dawn of time. You would endorse Israel being erased from the map with blood - because you have not studied the issues, but have lazily, priggishly, sanctimoniously, swallowed the lies.
You have joined with those who are evil, and those who are intellectually lame, and those with neither wit nor imagination.
Is their company comfortable?
The women who are killed for their family's honor have not heard your voice. The sisters and daughters who are handed over to be raped in repayment of tribal debts in Panjab and Sindh do not hear you speak on their behalf. The Moroccan teenagers married to men they have never seen, and violated on their wedding nights, may despair of you ever understanding their fears and ideals. The pubescent girls sold to leering dotards in the Yemen highlands or the cities of Saudi Arabia - you do not weep for them, you do not listen to them, you do not even feel the weight of their names.
It seems you are obsessed with Jews.
"I want the Israeli government to be made accountable"
Your statement, Ms. Walker, would not ring so hollow if the other side cared more for the lives and well-being of their own people, than they did for the violent deaths of Jews.
As it is, your opinion has a nasty racist flavor.
Your activism is little more than intellectual self-gratification.
It is your vicarious sense of victimization, no matter how false and fondly imagined, that matters most to you. There is something obscene about your pro-Palestinian activism. It is the self-indulgent self-righteousness so common among the superficialists that fuels your indignation.
The convenient and hip cause of the moment is your cause.
You have become pedestrian and unimaginative.
Facts are too much too handle. Details prevent a glib pandering to peanut gallery. Truth may be disregarded in service to ideology.
Reality and rhetoric are not the same.
Celebrities often favor rhetoric.
QUOTE:
"Walker said her decision to visit Gaza, along with members of the U.S. anti-war group Code Pink, was spurred by the recent death of an older sister. She said she felt a connection to Gazans who lost loved ones in the war. "I wanted very much to be with them and to bear witness to what is happening to them, this horrible, catastrophic, terrible thing," she said."
End quote.
SOURCE:
http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1070313.html
QUOTE:
"Walker did not respond directly when asked whether Hamas - - - should be held responsible for Gaza's hardships.
"I think all of us have an opportunity here to just say what we believe, which is we think killing is wrong, we think stealing land is wrong, we think abusing people is wrong," she said."
End quote.
Miss Walker, would you care to explain that to the other side? Particularly to those who support AND bankroll some of the most murderous madmen on the planet?
Groups such as Fatah, Hamas, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad, the Ba'ath Socialist Parties of both Iraq and Syria, the Jund Ansar Allah, the Saudi compradores who fund the various psychopaths for Allah that infest the lands between the Atlantic and the Persian Gulf, the Islamists in Europe who send money to "charities", the social activists who gloss over crimes against humanity perpetrated by revolutionaries ........ my heavens, the list is nearly endless.
You HAVE spoken to them, haven't you, Ms. Walker? Because to simply castigate the Jews, as if the actions of Israel happen without reason or provocation, and entirely in a vacuum, would be dishonest, hypocritical, and fundamentally racist.
Surely you have delved into the issues?
"I want the Israeli government to be made accountable"
Alice Walker, in The Guardian, Tuesday 1 April 2008
[SOURCE: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/apr/01/barackobama.uselections2008 ]
Actually, I know you haven't. You have NOT investigated the issues. You took the pro-Palestinian side automatically. Ivan Petrovich could have studied you.
You have so thoroughly rejected the Jewishness to which, so briefly, you were exposed, that you take out your anger on the Jews. You defensively cloak yourself with the many incomplete Jews who do the same, telling yourself and your readers that no, you cannot be an anti-Semite, you know so many Jews..... some of your best friends are Jews..... you were even MARRIED to one of them once.....
Nor have you addressed yourself to the Janjaweed, who rape and murder black Muslims and Christians in the Sudan. You do not address yourself to the Arabicized Somalis, who hack off hands and slaughter those who are not as fanatical as themselves about their Salafist / Wahhabi ideology. You have not spoken to the fanatics in Pakistan and Afghanistan who violate and kill in the name of Allah.
Iran hangs gays, heretics, and rape victims - Ms. Walker, where is your voice? The Saudis forbid any religion but their own, Ms. Walker, have you taken them to task? Egyptians discriminate against Christians daily, dear Alice - not worthy of your mention?
Do you know what the phrase 'double standard' means?
There are so many people whose suffering means naught to you, Ms. Walker. Thousands, millions even, who suffer the cruelties of the patriarchal misogyny which is so common in so much of the world. Unbearably many, who pay for the arrogance of being women, or gays, or dissidents, or Christians, or Muslims, or Jews, with their lives.
Instead, like so many middle-class white Americans (your paying audience, I believe), you carry a torch for the supporters of evil - people who have sworn to cleanse the land of Jews, people whose most fervent desire is to exterminate a nation that has existed for four millennia, whose roots in the soil of the Holy Land go back to the dawn of time. You would endorse Israel being erased from the map with blood - because you have not studied the issues, but have lazily, priggishly, sanctimoniously, swallowed the lies.
You have joined with those who are evil, and those who are intellectually lame, and those with neither wit nor imagination.
Is their company comfortable?
The women who are killed for their family's honor have not heard your voice. The sisters and daughters who are handed over to be raped in repayment of tribal debts in Panjab and Sindh do not hear you speak on their behalf. The Moroccan teenagers married to men they have never seen, and violated on their wedding nights, may despair of you ever understanding their fears and ideals. The pubescent girls sold to leering dotards in the Yemen highlands or the cities of Saudi Arabia - you do not weep for them, you do not listen to them, you do not even feel the weight of their names.
It seems you are obsessed with Jews.
"I want the Israeli government to be made accountable"
Your statement, Ms. Walker, would not ring so hollow if the other side cared more for the lives and well-being of their own people, than they did for the violent deaths of Jews.
As it is, your opinion has a nasty racist flavor.
Your activism is little more than intellectual self-gratification.
It is your vicarious sense of victimization, no matter how false and fondly imagined, that matters most to you. There is something obscene about your pro-Palestinian activism. It is the self-indulgent self-righteousness so common among the superficialists that fuels your indignation.
The convenient and hip cause of the moment is your cause.
You have become pedestrian and unimaginative.
Friday, September 25, 2009
Yes, Indeed, Boycotts Must Come From The Heart
A few weeks ago, a colleague asked for my advice about novels by black women that might appeal to high school students. Toni Morrison's "Beloved", we agreed, was too hard for our younger student to tackle, despite its staggering beauty and power. I mentioned a few authors I like who write in a less complex style--Toni Cade Bambara, Kristin Lattany, Tina McElroy Ansa, Octavia Butler,Zora Neale Hurston--"and Alice Walker," I added reflexively. "Her work isn't as well-written as Morrison's certainly, but some of the early novels--'The Color Purple' especially, are good and might appeal to the kids. The girls like historicals, I've noticed."
I didn't mention why I excluded the later novels from that recommendation--the increasingly lousy quality of the writing, the increasing delusions of spiritual grandeur, the increasingly annoying plots. By "Possessing the Secret of Joy" and "The Temple of My Familiar", I was done. There is a kind of author who writes books where characters are perfectly two-dimensional, and act out the author's ideas about gender, or race, or religion, or politics. Alice Walker is one of these. It produces a sort of novel you can only read if you agree sufficiently with the author's views to enjoy keeping company with their literary paper dolls.
I also didn't mention the issue of Walker's issues with Jews, something I first ran into as a college freshman. In writing a paper on Meridian, I became obsessed with a section of the book, in which a Jewish woman, rejected by her parents for marrying a black man, loses her daughter. After the child's rape and murder she calls her parents to tell them their granddaughter is dead. They tell her they have no daughter.
I couldn't let that passage go. I was a college student in the early nineties, learning the kind of identity politics based criticism of text you learned at the time, and I took those skills to the pages of Meridian. Jewish grandparents, I argued, of that generation, of that social background, might have ostracized their daughter for marrying a black man, or, more importantly, for marrying a gentile. But with the husband gone (as he was at this point), there was no way they would continue to reject their daughter, to reject their granddaughter. There was a lie in the text.
I was an eighteen-year-old college student, and I did not have the political understanding or the writing skills to back up what I knew, so that paper turned into a semester-long struggle with my professor. I was told, in no uncertain terms, that Jewish parents of that generation would have done exactly that. I was told that Walker was writing from 'personal experience'. And I wrote a term paper about something else, and moved on...until the day I read Rebecca Walker's memoir, Black, White and Jewish. Early in the book, Rebecca's grandmother, Alice Walker's Jewish mother-in-law, arrives to visit. Relations were strained after Mel Lowenthal married a Gentile woman, but now Mrs. Lowenthal arrives to meet her grandaughter, and buy Alice a washing machine she doesn't want. I laughed over that page, in pure delight. I knew Bubbe better than my tense, Southern professor of literature, didn't I?
Now I turn to Alice Walker's blog, led there by At The Back of the Hill's recent post. And I find there a disturbing defense of Walker's decision to sign on to the boycott of the International Film Festival in Toronto.
Why are Alice and her friends boycotting the International Film Festival? Because the film festival plans to showcase films from Israel in honor of the 100th anniversary of the city of Tel Aviv, "as if Gaza was not recently besieged and bombed, and as if no Palestinians ever lived in Tel Aviv."
Above is the famous of picture of the founding of Tel Aviv. I usually avoid the more cliched cliches of hasbara, but you will note that there is, in fact, nothing but sand around those people, and if you read a little more deeply on the subject, you will learn that the city was built on land purchased from its Beduin owners. Israeli Arabs have lived, and do live in Tel Aviv, but to invoke Palestinians, whom Walker no doubt believes were kicked out of their ancient sand dune by those invaders up above, is deliberately misleading and meant to delegitimize any Jewish presence in Israel.
Read the whole thing. It's disturbing in the extreme, and much of it is about Walker's own issues with the religious environment she was raised in. One passage of Walker's writing, once again, leaped out at me, though:
A boycott story: The Beautiful Israeli Sandals That Fit Me and Looked Great.
There they were, I was trying them on. They were fantastic. However, I live in Northern California where political consciousness is quite high and is likely to bring you down to earth when you least expect it. The saleswoman said apropos of nothing: Yes, they look wonderful on you. (Pause). They were made in Israel. Oops. Who came to mind when she said that? Ariel Sharon? Netanyahu? Tsivy Livny?
No. No Israelis at all. Who came to mind was a young Palestinian woman I had recently learned about; she had been arrested eight years ago and held in solitary confinement, in an Israeli prison, ever since. Never charged with anything. What did this woman do with her days, I thought. Could she possibly be the person who, in her cell, made these shoes? Suddenly, I could see her there in her cell. It felt cold. It felt barren. It felt lonely. She was all of these things,and more. Seeing her there, torn away from her world, made so strong an impression I lost all interest in the sandals. I could not even bear to look at them. I noticed her cell had a metal door and that there was a huge lock. I could never have purchased anything that would keep her there. I could only wish with all my heart to become a key.
I ended up buying a really boring pair of sandals made in Germany, and the irony of this didn’t escape me either.
I walked out of the shoe store strengthened in some indefinable way; I had
kept faith with the part of my spirit that knows what is right to do .
Yes, you read that right. Alice Walker is suggesting, not exactly alleging, but musing on the notion that Teva and Naot are using Palestinian prison labor to make sandals for export.
Reading the rest of the blog, one thing that becomes very clear is that Walker knows nothing but what she has been told by very dubious companions--and has accepted it wholesale. She's probably no more misinformed than the average knee-jerk Israel hater, but she is more influential, and more dangerous. (She really is comically dim. At one point she alleges that Ariel Sharon led the attack on Sabra/Shatila, which strongly suggests to me that she has never actually read an account of what happened there, unless it was given to her by Cynthia McKinney)
I'm sad, reading this, angry, and frustrated. This is pure bigotry, and it's being promoted by a woman who for at least a couple of generations of American feminists and activists has been promoted as a deeply spiritual person, a secular saint, a champion of the oppressed. Children are dying in Sderot, and Walker can't be bothered to care. She's chosen sides in a war she hardly understands, and allied herself with people who care nothing for either Israeli or Palestinian lives. I'm troubled by her ignorance, by her callousness, which I'm sure she would describe rather as deep caring. I was assigned her work in college, I've taught it to students, and as far as she's concerned, me and mine have no right to our own land and our own self-determination, no right to self-defence.
I'm going to go buy a pair of Naots, maybe two, and God knows I will not be recommending any of my students read Alice Walker. Because, you know, she's right about one thing...boycotts do need to come from the heart. I'm feeling this one.
SAN FRANCISCO JEWISH FILM FESTIVAL EXPOSED - VIDEO
Quote:
Wednesday, September 23, 2009Shocking video: the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival - Exposed This two-part short film about the 2009 SF Jewish Film Festival speaks more eloquently than a 100 blog posts about what is wrong with the Film Festival and how important it is that organized Jewish community act to ensure that something like this never happens again under Federation auspices.
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/shocking-video-san-francisco-jewish.html
...perhaps the most obscene is the treatment of the sole pro-Israel questioner, who was jeered, manhandled and bullied as he tried to, as some are fond of saying, speak truth to power.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009Shocking video: the San Francisco Jewish Film Festival - Exposed This two-part short film about the 2009 SF Jewish Film Festival speaks more eloquently than a 100 blog posts about what is wrong with the Film Festival and how important it is that organized Jewish community act to ensure that something like this never happens again under Federation auspices.
http://sfjffwatch.blogspot.com/2009/09/shocking-video-san-francisco-jewish.html
...perhaps the most obscene is the treatment of the sole pro-Israel questioner, who was jeered, manhandled and bullied as he tried to, as some are fond of saying, speak truth to power.
Thursday, September 24, 2009
WESTBORO BAPTIST CHURCH PLANNING ANTI-YID STREET ACTION
As if their hatefilled anti-Gay demonstrations, and repulsive protests at the funerals of soldiers killed in Afghanistan and Iraq weren't enough, the Westboro Baptist Church now intends to holler obscenities at Jews.
This coming Saturday, the inbred kin of pastor Fred Phelps will be bringing profound dishonour to the Christian Religion by holding up signs that say "God hates Jews" outside Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn.
See this post:
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/hate-group-to-demonstrate-at-brooklyn.html
Congratulations, mister Phelps, you stand in the company of such luminaries as Torquemada, Pope Pius VII, Martin Luther, Hitler, Stalin, Ahmedinejad, David Duke, and Mahmoud Abbas.
Blogger Adam Holland has promised to post a follow-up to the visit by those wacky Baptists. Please visit his blog (http://adamholland.blogspot.com/) to see what happens next.
I promise you, the most interesting behaviour will not be demonstrated by the members of Congregation Beth Elohim. After all, they are civilized. Which is something that Fred Phelps and his inbred brood manifestly are not.
More of Pastor "I hate everybody" Phelps and his family's zany antics can be read here:
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/westboro-baptist-church-protest-rosh.html
From the Daily Oklahoman: "Shirley Phelps-Roper, leader of the Westboro protest, said the church stopped at OU as part of a love campaign across the country ... "
Love campaign?
Harry's Place will probably also cover the event. http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/09/23/haters-plan-to-demonstrate-outside-brooklyn-synagogue/
I strongly doubt that Harry's Place (or anybody else) will be favourably inclined to these Topekan yutzes.
This coming Saturday, the inbred kin of pastor Fred Phelps will be bringing profound dishonour to the Christian Religion by holding up signs that say "God hates Jews" outside Congregation Beth Elohim in Brooklyn.
See this post:
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/hate-group-to-demonstrate-at-brooklyn.html
Congratulations, mister Phelps, you stand in the company of such luminaries as Torquemada, Pope Pius VII, Martin Luther, Hitler, Stalin, Ahmedinejad, David Duke, and Mahmoud Abbas.
Blogger Adam Holland has promised to post a follow-up to the visit by those wacky Baptists. Please visit his blog (http://adamholland.blogspot.com/) to see what happens next.
I promise you, the most interesting behaviour will not be demonstrated by the members of Congregation Beth Elohim. After all, they are civilized. Which is something that Fred Phelps and his inbred brood manifestly are not.
More of Pastor "I hate everybody" Phelps and his family's zany antics can be read here:
http://adamholland.blogspot.com/2009/09/westboro-baptist-church-protest-rosh.html
From the Daily Oklahoman: "Shirley Phelps-Roper, leader of the Westboro protest, said the church stopped at OU as part of a love campaign across the country ... "
Love campaign?
Harry's Place will probably also cover the event. http://www.hurryupharry.org/2009/09/23/haters-plan-to-demonstrate-outside-brooklyn-synagogue/
I strongly doubt that Harry's Place (or anybody else) will be favourably inclined to these Topekan yutzes.
Netanyahu at the UN General Assembly
Transcription of the Israeli Prime Minister's speech.
24/09/2009
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.
I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.
The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth.
Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.
Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments.
Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?
A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?
This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie?
One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.
But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?
A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!
Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.
This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.
In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.
The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.
Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet.
What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come.
We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.
I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.
But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after a horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind.
That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction, and the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?
Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood?
Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?
Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?
The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging.
Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.
For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.
We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.
In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis.
We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare.
You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.
Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded?
Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II.
During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.
That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances.
Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas. We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave.
Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way. Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel.
A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.
By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth! What a perversion of justice!
Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce? Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.
If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity.
And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense.
What legitimacy? What self-defense?
The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!
Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?
We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow.
Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace. Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.
And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.
In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state.
Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.
Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more." These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city - in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem. We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland.
As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.
But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.
That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace.
I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order.
The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.
Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.
Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong."
I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong.
I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.
In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.
Source:
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechUN240909.htm
-----------------------------------------
Do please take note of which nations walked out on Ahmedinejad's speech, and who stayed to give him his hearing.
Did any of the Arabs walk out?
Also please note who in our own country defends Ahmedinejad, and demands that he and his despicable goons be given the respect due to other nations.
I would offer that among his defenders are Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, the International Solidarity Movement, Paul Larudee, Richard Becker, Donna and Darleen Wallach, and every single member of the Students for Justice in Palestine.
In addition to Medea Benjamin, and no doubt Alice Walker.
When the history of this era gets written, the support given to evil ideologies by evil citizens of this country will be a black blot, and the memories of people such as Paul Larudee, Richard Becker, Donna and Darleen Wallach, Medea Benjamin, and (no doubt) Alice Walker, will be considered loathsome.
24/09/2009
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
Nearly 62 years ago, the United Nations recognized the right of the Jews, an ancient people 3,500 years-old, to a state of their own in their ancestral homeland.
I stand here today as the Prime Minister of Israel, the Jewish state, and I speak to you on behalf of my country and my people.
The United Nations was founded after the carnage of World War II and the horrors of the Holocaust. It was charged with preventing the recurrence of such horrendous events. Nothing has undermined that central mission more than the systematic assault on the truth.
Yesterday the President of Iran stood at this very podium, spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he again claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.
Last month, I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee. There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided how to exterminate the Jewish people. The detailed minutes of that meeting have been preserved by successive German governments.
Here is a copy of those minutes, in which the Nazis issued precise instructions on how to carry out the extermination of the Jews. Is this a lie?
A day before I was in Wannsee, I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp. Those plans are signed by Hitler’s deputy, Heinrich Himmler himself. Here is a copy of the plans for Auschwitz-Birkenau, where one million Jews were murdered. Is this too a lie?
This June, President Obama visited the Buchenwald concentration camp. Did President Obama pay tribute to a lie? And what of the Auschwitz survivors whose arms still bear the tattooed numbers branded on them by the Nazis? Are those tattoos a lie?
One-third of all Jews perished in the conflagration. Nearly every Jewish family was affected, including my own. My wife's grandparents, her father’s two sisters and three brothers, and all the aunts, uncles and cousins were all murdered by the Nazis. Is that also a lie?
Yesterday, the man who calls the Holocaust a lie spoke from this podium. To those who refused to come here and to those who left this room in protest, I commend you. You stood up for moral clarity and you brought honor to your countries.
But to those who gave this Holocaust-denier a hearing, I say on behalf of my people, the Jewish people, and decent people everywhere: Have you no shame? Have you no decency?
A mere six decades after the Holocaust, you give legitimacy to a man who denies that the murder of six million Jews took place and pledges to wipe out the Jewish state. What a disgrace! What a mockery of the charter of the United Nations!
Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews. You're wrong. History has shown us time and again that what starts with attacks on the Jews eventually ends up engulfing many others.
This Iranian regime is fueled by an extreme fundamentalism that burst onto the world scene three decades ago after lying dormant for centuries.
In the past thirty years, this fanaticism has swept the globe with a murderous violence and cold-blooded impartiality in its choice of victims. It has callously slaughtered Moslems and Christians, Jews and Hindus, and many others. Though it is comprised of different offshoots, the adherents of this unforgiving creed seek to return humanity to medieval times. Wherever they can, they impose a backward regimented society where women, minorities, gays or anyone not deemed to be a true believer is brutally subjugated.
The struggle against this fanaticism does not pit faith against faith nor civilization against civilization. It pits civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the 9th century, those who sanctify life against those who glorify death. The primitivism of the 9th century ought to be no match for the progress of the 21st century. The allure of freedom, the power of technology, the reach of communications should surely win the day.
Ultimately, the past cannot triumph over the future. And the future offers all nations magnificent bounties of hope. The pace of progress is growing exponentially. It took us centuries to get from the printing press to the telephone, decades to get from the telephone to the personal computer, and only a few years to get from the personal computer to the internet.
What seemed impossible a few years ago is already outdated, and we can scarcely fathom the changes that are yet to come.
We will crack the genetic code. We will cure the incurable. We will lengthen our lives. We will find a cheap alternative to fossil fuels and clean up the planet.
I am proud that my country Israel is at the forefront of these advances – by leading innovations in science and technology, medicine and biology, agriculture and water, energy and the environment. These innovations the world over offer humanity a sunlit future of unimagined promise.
But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history could be reversed for a time. And like the belated victory over the Nazis, the forces of progress and freedom will prevail only after a horrific toll of blood and fortune has been exacted from mankind.
That is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and the weapons of mass destruction, and the most urgent challenge facing this body is to prevent the tyrants of Tehran from acquiring nuclear weapons.
Are the member states of the United Nations up to that challenge? Will the international community confront a despotism that terrorizes its own people as they bravely stand up for freedom?
Will it take action against the dictators who stole an election in broad daylight and gunned down Iranian protesters who died in the streets choking in their own blood?
Will the international community thwart the world's most pernicious sponsors and practitioners of terrorism?
Above all, will the international community stop the terrorist regime of Iran from developing atomic weapons, thereby endangering the peace of the entire world?
The people of Iran are courageously standing up to this regime. People of goodwill around the world stand with them, as do the thousands who have been protesting outside this hall. Will the United Nations stand by their side?
Ladies and Gentlemen,
The jury is still out on the United Nations, and recent signs are not encouraging.
Rather than condemning the terrorists and their Iranian patrons, some here have condemned their victims. That is exactly what a recent UN report on Gaza did, falsely equating the terrorists with those they targeted.
For eight long years, Hamas fired from Gaza thousands of missiles, mortars and rockets on nearby Israeli cities. Year after year, as these missiles were deliberately hurled at our civilians, not a single UN resolution was passed condemning those criminal attacks.
We heard nothing – absolutely nothing – from the UN Human Rights Council, a misnamed institution if there ever was one.
In 2005, hoping to advance peace, Israel unilaterally withdrew from every inch of Gaza. It dismantled 21 settlements and uprooted over 8,000 Israelis.
We didn't get peace. Instead we got an Iranian backed terror base fifty miles from Tel Aviv. Life in Israeli towns and cities next to Gaza became a nightmare.
You see, the Hamas rocket attacks not only continued, they increased tenfold. Again, the UN was silent.
Finally, after eight years of this unremitting assault, Israel was finally forced to respond. But how should we have responded?
Well, there is only one example in history of thousands of rockets being fired on a country's civilian population. It happened when the Nazis rocketed British cities during World War II.
During that war, the allies leveled German cities, causing hundreds of thousands of casualties. Israel chose to respond differently. Faced with an enemy committing a double war crime of firing on civilians while hiding behind civilians – Israel sought to conduct surgical strikes against the rocket launchers.
That was no easy task because the terrorists were firing missiles from homes and schools, using mosques as weapons depots and ferreting explosives in ambulances.
Israel, by contrast, tried to minimize casualties by urging Palestinian civilians to vacate the targeted areas. We dropped countless flyers over their homes, sent thousands of text messages and called thousands of cell phones asking people to leave.
Never has a country gone to such extraordinary lengths to remove the enemy's civilian population from harm's way. Yet faced with such a clear case of aggressor and victim, who did the UN Human Rights Council decide to condemn? Israel.
A democracy legitimately defending itself against terror is morally hanged, drawn and quartered, and given an unfair trial to boot.
By these twisted standards, the UN Human Rights Council would have dragged Roosevelt and Churchill to the dock as war criminals. What a perversion of truth! What a perversion of justice!
Delegates of the United Nations,
Will you accept this farce? Because if you do, the United Nations would revert to its darkest days, when the worst violators of human rights sat in judgment against the law-abiding democracies, when Zionism was equated with racism and when an automatic majority could declare that the earth is flat.
If this body does not reject this report, it would send a message to terrorists everywhere: Terror pays; if you launch your attacks from densely populated areas, you will win immunity.
And in condemning Israel, this body would also deal a mortal blow to peace. Here's why. When Israel left Gaza, many hoped that the missile attacks would stop. Others believed that at the very least, Israel would have international legitimacy to exercise its right of self-defense.
What legitimacy? What self-defense?
The same UN that cheered Israel as it left Gaza and promised to back our right of self-defense now accuses us –my people, my country - of war crimes? And for what? For acting responsibly in self-defense. What a travesty!
Israel justly defended itself against terror. This biased and unjust report is a clear-cut test for all governments. Will you stand with Israel or will you stand with the terrorists?
We must know the answer to that question now. Now and not later. Because if Israel is again asked to take more risks for peace, we must know today that you will stand with us tomorrow.
Only if we have the confidence that we can defend ourselves can we take further risks for peace.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
All of Israel wants peace. Any time an Arab leader genuinely wanted peace with us, we made peace. We made peace with Egypt led by Anwar Sadat. We made peace with Jordan led by King Hussein.
And if the Palestinians truly want peace, I and my government, and the people of Israel, will make peace. But we want a genuine peace, a defensible peace, a permanent peace.
In 1947, this body voted to establish two states for two peoples – a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted that resolution. The Arabs rejected it. We ask the Palestinians to finally do what they have refused to do for 62 years: Say yes to a Jewish state.
Just as we are asked to recognize a nation-state for the Palestinian people, the Palestinians must be asked to recognize the nation state of the Jewish people. The Jewish people are not foreign conquerors in the Land of Israel. This is the land of our forefathers.
Inscribed on the walls outside this building is the great Biblical vision of peace: "Nation shall not lift up sword against nation. They shall learn war no more." These words were spoken by the Jewish prophet Isaiah 2,800 years ago as he walked in my country, in my city - in the hills of Judea and in the streets of Jerusalem. We are not strangers to this land. It is our homeland.
As deeply connected as we are to this land, we recognize that the Palestinians also live there and want a home of their own. We want to live side by side with them, two free peoples living in peace, prosperity and dignity.
But we must have security. The Palestinians should have all the powers to govern themselves except those handful of powers that could endanger Israel.
That is why a Palestinian state must be effectively demilitarized. We don't want another Gaza, another Iranian backed terror base abutting Jerusalem and perched on the hills a few kilometers from Tel Aviv.
We want peace.
I believe such a peace can be achieved. But only if we roll back the forces of terror, led by Iran, that seek to destroy peace, eliminate Israel and overthrow the world order.
The question facing the international community is whether it is prepared to confront those forces or accommodate them.
Over seventy years ago, Winston Churchill lamented what he called the "confirmed unteachability of mankind," the unfortunate habit of civilized societies to sleep until danger nearly overtakes them.
Churchill bemoaned what he called the "want of foresight, the unwillingness to act when action will be simple and effective, the lack of clear thinking, the confusion of counsel until emergency comes, until self-preservation strikes its jarring gong."
I speak here today in the hope that Churchill's assessment of the "unteachability of mankind" is for once proven wrong.
I speak here today in the hope that we can learn from history -- that we can prevent danger in time.
In the spirit of the timeless words spoken to Joshua over 3,000 years ago, let us be strong and of good courage. Let us confront this peril, secure our future and, God willing, forge an enduring peace for generations to come.
Source:
http://www.pmo.gov.il/PMOEng/Communication/PMSpeaks/speechUN240909.htm
-----------------------------------------
Do please take note of which nations walked out on Ahmedinejad's speech, and who stayed to give him his hearing.
Did any of the Arabs walk out?
Also please note who in our own country defends Ahmedinejad, and demands that he and his despicable goons be given the respect due to other nations.
I would offer that among his defenders are Jewish Voice for Peace, Bay Area Women in Black, the International Solidarity Movement, Paul Larudee, Richard Becker, Donna and Darleen Wallach, and every single member of the Students for Justice in Palestine.
In addition to Medea Benjamin, and no doubt Alice Walker.
When the history of this era gets written, the support given to evil ideologies by evil citizens of this country will be a black blot, and the memories of people such as Paul Larudee, Richard Becker, Donna and Darleen Wallach, Medea Benjamin, and (no doubt) Alice Walker, will be considered loathsome.
ALICE WALKER PANDERS TO THE TROLLS
White men are guilty of everything. And, in Alice Walker's cramped field of vision, you can't hardly get any whiter than the Jews. That, more than anything else, seems to be the message of her dark womb-o-centric harangue in Tikkun Magazine, delivered as a note of guilt-inducement before Yom Kippur.
Seldom have I read so loathsome, so appalling, so utterly black-hearted a screed as the turgid overblown pile of pro-Hamas propaganda that Ms. Walker sees fit to dish up for Michael Lerner's spirituality-starved acolytes, in her recent essay "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel".
Here is Uriel Hellman of JTA describing the execrable thing:
"In her Tikkun essay, "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel," Walker calls suicide bombings "last-ditch resistance," and says it’s dishonest to engage in "blaming the oppressed for using their bodies where the Israeli army uses armored tanks."
She also is under the mistaken impression that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Philistines and that Rachel Corrie was Jewish and was killed by a tank."
End cite.
Source:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/09/22/1008054/defender-of-terrorism-against-jews-to-spea
What he avoids describing in any great detail is Ms. Walker's tendency to posit the conflict in stark terms of 'good' (women equals non-white equals victim equals just equals Palestinian) versus 'evil' (white imperialist equals America equals murder, bloodshed, rape equals the West equals racism equals Israel).
Quote:
"These whites who tormented us daily were like Israelis who have cut down millions of trees planted by Arab Palestinians and stolen Palestinian water, even topsoil. They have bulldozed innumerable villages, houses, and mosques, and in their place built settlements for strangers who have no connection whatsoever with Palestine."
End quote.
There are other equally simplistic statements in her very long dull essay.
I have to believe that either Ms. Walker is extremely evil, or horrendously stupid.
As it seems unlikely that she is indeed so stupendously ignorant, though no doubt hardly well-informed, the assumption of evil, sheer vicious evil, hate-filled spiteful petty evil, is far more likely.
You may judge for yourself.Her jejune and unimaginative manifesto can be viewed here:http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/2009/07/overcoming-speechlessness-poet.html
Please drench your handkerchief with perfume before stepping into her puddle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTERTHOUGHT
This may become a preamble to an in-depth critique of Ms. Alice Walker's assault on Israel, on Jews with a love for Israel, and on Jews who refuse to think exactly like her and her odious and despicable fellow-travelers.
I am not at all certain that I wish to subject myself to the nausea-inducing torture of rereading her essay over and over again - I have already reread it several times, you should see my notes!
It becomes more objectionable with each reading.
If I ever participate in a book-burning, It will be one of Ms. Walker's tomes that I will cast into the flames.
Heretofore I had not imagined that I would even consider incinerating literature - I am not considering it now.
Do not buy Tikkun magazine. Michael Lerner and his disgusting publication do not need your money, and real toilet paper will not plug up the plumbing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Crossposting this from my regular blog, this post: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-panders-to-anti-semites.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FURTHER AFTERTHOUGHT
ao 09/24/2009
If anyone should engage in profound introspection this Yom Kippur, it is manifestly Alice Walker herself and those who to whom she pimps her simplistic cotton-wool codswallop.
I doubt that she is capable of it, however. Not unless she can find some way of feeling 'victimized', and therefore saintly, pure, and profoundly self-righteous.
Introspection is just not the custom of today's pretentious faux-intellectual Jew-haters.
Seldom have I read so loathsome, so appalling, so utterly black-hearted a screed as the turgid overblown pile of pro-Hamas propaganda that Ms. Walker sees fit to dish up for Michael Lerner's spirituality-starved acolytes, in her recent essay "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel".
Here is Uriel Hellman of JTA describing the execrable thing:
"In her Tikkun essay, "Overcoming Speechlessness: A Poet Encounters ‘the Horror’ in Rwanda, Eastern Congo, and Palestine/Israel," Walker calls suicide bombings "last-ditch resistance," and says it’s dishonest to engage in "blaming the oppressed for using their bodies where the Israeli army uses armored tanks."
She also is under the mistaken impression that the Palestinians are descendants of the ancient Philistines and that Rachel Corrie was Jewish and was killed by a tank."
End cite.
Source:
http://blogs.jta.org/telegraph/article/2009/09/22/1008054/defender-of-terrorism-against-jews-to-spea
What he avoids describing in any great detail is Ms. Walker's tendency to posit the conflict in stark terms of 'good' (women equals non-white equals victim equals just equals Palestinian) versus 'evil' (white imperialist equals America equals murder, bloodshed, rape equals the West equals racism equals Israel).
Quote:
"These whites who tormented us daily were like Israelis who have cut down millions of trees planted by Arab Palestinians and stolen Palestinian water, even topsoil. They have bulldozed innumerable villages, houses, and mosques, and in their place built settlements for strangers who have no connection whatsoever with Palestine."
End quote.
There are other equally simplistic statements in her very long dull essay.
I have to believe that either Ms. Walker is extremely evil, or horrendously stupid.
As it seems unlikely that she is indeed so stupendously ignorant, though no doubt hardly well-informed, the assumption of evil, sheer vicious evil, hate-filled spiteful petty evil, is far more likely.
You may judge for yourself.Her jejune and unimaginative manifesto can be viewed here:http://www.alicewalkersblog.com/2009/07/overcoming-speechlessness-poet.html
Please drench your handkerchief with perfume before stepping into her puddle.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
AFTERTHOUGHT
This may become a preamble to an in-depth critique of Ms. Alice Walker's assault on Israel, on Jews with a love for Israel, and on Jews who refuse to think exactly like her and her odious and despicable fellow-travelers.
I am not at all certain that I wish to subject myself to the nausea-inducing torture of rereading her essay over and over again - I have already reread it several times, you should see my notes!
It becomes more objectionable with each reading.
If I ever participate in a book-burning, It will be one of Ms. Walker's tomes that I will cast into the flames.
Heretofore I had not imagined that I would even consider incinerating literature - I am not considering it now.
Do not buy Tikkun magazine. Michael Lerner and his disgusting publication do not need your money, and real toilet paper will not plug up the plumbing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Note: Crossposting this from my regular blog, this post: http://atthebackofthehill.blogspot.com/2009/09/alice-walker-panders-to-anti-semites.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
FURTHER AFTERTHOUGHT
ao 09/24/2009
If anyone should engage in profound introspection this Yom Kippur, it is manifestly Alice Walker herself and those who to whom she pimps her simplistic cotton-wool codswallop.
I doubt that she is capable of it, however. Not unless she can find some way of feeling 'victimized', and therefore saintly, pure, and profoundly self-righteous.
Introspection is just not the custom of today's pretentious faux-intellectual Jew-haters.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)