Monday, May 31, 2010
: Protesters attack with guns and knives, Israel Regrets 10 dead
From: The Israel Project [mailto:press@theisraelproject.org]
Sent: Mon 5/31/2010 8:37 AM
Subject: Protesters attack with guns and knives, Israel Regrets 10 dead
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TIP logo <http://www.theisraelproject.org/>
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 31, 2010
Contact:
Marcus Sheff: 011-972-2-6236427, marcuss@theisraelproject.org <mailto:ma@marcuss@theisraelproject.org>
Leah Soibel: 011-972-2-6236427, leahs@theisraelproject.org
www.theisraelproject.org <http://www.kintera.org/TR.asp?a=eeIHJLMlG7IML6J&s=skI1JeNTLhJWLfO5H&m=4nIBKOMuFkLJLVK>
Protesters attack with guns and knives, Israel Regrets 10 dead
Injured Evacuated to Israeli hospitals
Stats and Facts on Israeli Humanitarian Aid Transfers to Gaza
First Hand Testimony of Israeli Journalist Who Accompanied the Israeli Naval Commandos <http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3896796,00.html>
* Israel's Deputy Foreign Minister Danny Ayalon said in a press conference on Monday (May 31) regarding the Turkish-led flotilla that:
"The armada of hate and violence in support of Hamas terror organization was a premeditated and outrageous provocation.
"The organizers are well known for their ties with global Jihad, al-Qaeda and Hamas. They have a history of arms smuggling and deadly terror.
"On board the ship we found weapons prepared in advance and used against our forces. The organizers intent was violent, their method was violent and the results were unfortunately violent. Israel regrets any loss of life and did everything to avoid this outcome."[1] <https://www.kintera.com/kintera_sphere/Email/New/EmailEditor.aspx#_edn1>
* Israel's Defense Minister Ehud Barak expressed regret for loss of live, but said that the flotilla was a provocation sponsored by extremists who support a terrorist organization.[2] <https://www.kintera.com/kintera_sphere/Email/New/EmailEditor.aspx#_edn2>
: Activists on one ship were prepared to lynch the soldiers trying to board
Subject: Activists on one ship were prepared to lynch the soldiers trying to board
Navy Prepared to Face Anarchists, Met Terrorists Instead
Army Radio reporter Gal Lev-Rom, on board one of the Israeli Navy ships
that stopped the anti-Israel flotilla, reported on the "peace activists"
preparations to lynch Israeli soldiers and on the large weapon stocks they
brought.
Lev-Rom said that at one point around midnight, "our ships started calling
upon them to stop, or else the full responsibility would be upon them." It
was similarly publicized in news sources around that time that Israel said
it would give the boats time to adhere to the instructions before its
forces would begin to board them.
"There was no answer other than curses in English and Arabic," Lev-Rom
said. Around 4 AM, the commandos started boarding the boats, rappelling onto
them by ropes and armed only with pistols. At that point, Lev-Rom said, "
the demonstrators on board attacked the Israelis with light weaponry,
including knives and clubs, in true lynch-like fashion. The commandos are
certainly well-trained, but it's quite hard to fight back when it's 6-10 people
against one. They started beating our soldiers with bats and sharp objects
and the like, and even some pistols were taken and fired at our soldiers
Sunday, May 30, 2010
Muslim chant on Gaza flotilla points to genocidal precedent
Goldflam: "When watching the coverage of the
intl. media I noticed that some Muslim boat people are chanting in Arabic:
Haibar Haiber ya Yahud – Jaish Muhammad Sa’ufa Ya’ud
...When Muslims chant “remember Haibar” –
it is not a figure of speech it’s a genocidal political program. And
the misguided “human rights activists” are chanting right along thinking
they are singing Kumbaya or “we shall overcome”.
source: http://cifwatch.com/2010/05/30/the-free-gaza-flotilla-sailing-away-from-human-rights/
Friday, May 28, 2010
Jewish legends at White House reception marking Jewish Heritage Month
Yitzhak Benhorin ynetnews.com 5/28/10
WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama honored Jewish heritage in an unusual event at the White House on Thursday. The guest list was kept under wraps till the last moment, and in the afternoon hours many living legends of US Jewish culture began arriving to what was described as a unique event.
US President Obama addresses the guests (Photo: AP)
Thursday, May 27, 2010
From JCRC: Des Moines JCRC/Federation opposes Knesset Conversion Bill
Monday, May 24, 2010
Surprising: Aid to Gaza from Israel
From StandwithUs International http://www.facebook.com/pages/StandWithUs-International/33172352584:
What you need to know about aid to Gaza from Israel:
• Since the cease fire last January, 133 million liters of fuel entered Gaza from Israel - That's more than enough fuel to fill the gas tank of every car and truck in Israel!
• Since the ceasefire, well over a million tons of humanitarian supplies entered Gaza from Israel - That's almost a ton of aid for every man woman and child in Gaza.... See More
• Israel transfers food, medicines, clothing and school-books for all Gazans, but Hamas demands concrete for its reinforced bunkers.
• Israel transfers 15,000 tons of real aid to Gaza each and every week – so a flotilla claiming to carry 10,000 tons of concrete is clearly about a different agenda.
• International aid groups send their aid to Gaza through the Israeli humanitarian pipeline, while publicity seekers merely exploit the humanitarian agenda to promote their own media stunts.
• Humanitarian aid flows into Gaza daily, except when the crossings are rocketed by the Hamas regime.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Jorish: Banks indirectly deal with Iran
While the international sanctions regime prohibits contact with banks in Iran, 18 US banks have indirect financial connections with the Islamic Republic. In this manner, Tehran succeeds in getting its hands on the money needed to finance its nuclear program and to provide aid to terrorist organizations, including Hezbollah and Hamas.
...
Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Terrorism in the Treasury Department Stuart Levey has been traveling the world for five years asking banks to cut off ties with Iran. He gave an example in which Levey met with the managers of Deutsche Bank and showed them how they transfer currency to Iran. However, they continue to supply euros and other currencies.
Deutsche Bank is not alone. According to Jorisch, the banks that allow Iran to put its hands on the money needed for its nuclear program and terrorism support are numerous, and include some of the largest financial institutions in the world: J. P. Morgan, Bank of America, CitiBank, Societe Generale, Bank Tokyo Mitsubishi UFJ, and VTB.
[ynetnews.com 5/23/10]
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3892849,00.html
Friday, May 21, 2010
Lozowick: Polling for Peace (Or Against It)
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Polling for Peace (Or Against It) http://yaacovlozowick.blogspot.com/2010/05/polling-for-peace-or-against-it.html
I'm a fan of public opinion polls only up to a degree. They can easily be manipulated. Their questions are sometimes downright misleading, or ambiguous, or unhelpful, or all of the above. There are better ways to gauge public opinion, especially in the long run: elections for example aren't bad, or long term behaviors. Still, once you've reminded yourself to keep that pinch of salt handy, polls can have their uses.
Especially one such as this, which tells us what we mostly knew anyway, this time with confidence-inspiring numbers.
72% of Palestinians think that all of Palestine should belong to the Muslim Waqf, for example. (59% think it's essential, 12% think it's desirable). 12% say that's unacceptable - yet some of them must be saying so merely because they don't like the Muslim part of the question.
Now compare the Palestinian insistence the Israel not be here, with Israelis' positions on having a Palestinian state next door.
There's lots more where that came from. 54% of Palestinians won't accept settlers remaining in Beitar and Modi'in Illit; 66% wouldn't accept settlers remaining even as Palestinian citizens - not that there would be more of a handful who'd want to anyway. Divide Jerusalem according to neighborhoods (Clinton Parameters): 61% of Palestinians are against the idea. Jews remain in control of the Jewish Quarter of the Old City (founded in the year 1267): 76% of the Palestinians are against -though in this case, I'm glad to see that the Israelis are also hardly in favour of dividing Jerusalem - never fewer than 50% of them in favour of division.
Actually, it might be fun for the Israelis among us to answer all the questions ourselves and come back and report: according to this, are we to the left, right or center of the Israeli median. Didi and Alex need not bother: we know their answer.
Predictably, some pundits spun the poll as proof that the Israelis and Palestinians are equally against peace through partition. Josh Marshall, for example. Others were more clear-eyed, or perhaps they read the numbers before running to tell about them - Jonathan Chait, for example.
Tuesday, May 18, 2010
U.S. Is Skeptical on Iranian Deal for Nuclear Fuel
Scotland suffering from anti-Semitism
There are three generations of men in this room and most are resplendent in black kilts and sport either a silver or gold satin kippah, or skullcap. This private male gathering is called a tisch and the joyful scene continues for a few moments until Rabbi Moshe Rubin, a tall bespectacled man with a long black beard and hat, brings a halt to the celebration and offers a prayer for Gurevitz in a distinctive New York brogue.
"Now he (Gurevitz) must sign the ketubah (marriage contract). This protects the wife's rights and outlines his responsibilities to provide her with food, shelter and clothing and also that he must attend to her emotional needs," he says.
Gurevitz is called forward to a table and puts his signature to the contract which is signed by two kosher witnesses. Ten minutes later he is in the hotel's main function suite, walking down the aisle accompanied by his parents on either side. There are around 200 guests sitting on white chairs decorated with gold ribbons and, in keeping with Jewish tradition, the men sit together on the left of the hall and the women on the right. Gurevitz takes his place under a canopy called a chupah – a tradition that symbolises the home the couple are to create – and waits for his bride, Catherine. As she appears at his side a young man sings a song in Hebrew then Rabbi Rubin begins the service.
The guests have travelled from as far afield as the US, Israel and New Zealand for this special day and as the wedding falls on the date of a major Jewish festival called Lag B'Omer, millions of Jews around the world will also be celebrating. But while many of Scotland's Jews will be marking this holiday, there is a growing unease among some of the population. According to a recent report, hate crimes against Jews tripled in one year and the long-standing Jewish community in Scotland, that numbered some 18,000 in the 1950s, has fallen dramatically to just under 10,000. The demographic crisis comes at a time when Holocaust survivors are dying off – the last human contact with the most tumultuous period of Jewish history – and so senior figures in Scottish Jewry have begun an urgent inquiry into an ethnic group at threat of terminal decline.
Lavi is used to being verbally abused in the street but physical attacks are distressing. The 14-year-old is explaining what it is like to be a Jewish youngster living in Glasgow. An erudite teenager, he is proud of his religion and wears a kippah to school despite the fact it has made him a target for bigots. "I don't think it's right that I should be afraid to wear my skullcap. I am who I am, and you are who you are and we should accept that and show tolerance," he says.
In the last two years the teenager has been physically assaulted twice simply because he is Jewish. The first incident took place when he was approached by older youths as he walked home from school in Crossmyloof, Glasgow. As the group taunted Lavi, one of the boys spat in his face. "My eye really stung so I ran all the way home and scrubbed my face for about half an hour," he says.
The second attack – which also occurred in the south side of the city – was even more serious and he ended up in the accident and emergency department of a hospital after being chased and assaulted by youths near Shawlands Academy. "As we approached them they shouted, 'F***in' Jew! F***in' Jew, let's get him,'" Lavi says. He ran but was caught and punched and kicked about the head and body.
"Lavi was very badly bruised so we had to take him to casualty," interjects Sarah, his mother. "Five boys were reported for racially aggravated assault and appeared in front of the children's panel and afterwards mobile CCTV patrols were stepped up and community police officers visited schools in the Shawlands area."
There have been numerous other incidents over the past few years, she continues. She cites "Hezbollah" being painted outside a west of Scotland synagogue and "Kristallnacht" sprayed on another in Edinburgh during the 2006 July conflict between Israel and Hezbollah. Last year, after Israel invaded Gaza, Jewish graves were desecrated at Glenduffhill Cemetery in Glasgow when slogans were sprayed pledging support for Hamas and the Scottish National Party and calling for Jews to leave Scotland. One message across three headstones read: "Kill The Jews."
Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, was outraged and condemned those responsible, calling them "deranged". In another incident a prominent Jewish figure received a postcard that read, "Prepare for your demise now you megalomaniacal, overbearing Yid-like-f***! The chosen people? Look at the f***in mess you are you stinking c***. Yours Adolf. PS – I've still got your foreskin."
The worst aspect of this appalling message, says the recipient, was that it was delivered to his home.
Sarah herself has endured racist taunts, the most unsettling when she was subjected to a "mock shooting" close to the synagogue. "This car pulled up with two boys of about 18 or 19 years old inside. The window was rolled down and one of them had his hand pointed at me as if holding a gun. 'Bang! F***ing Jew!' he said, before they drove off."
When she reported the incident, the police were helpful but she says many people in the Jewish community will not report these episodes. "The problem is they are termed 'low-grade'. But it's the insidiousness of it all – the way it feels to live in a society where I know somebody will yell abuse at me in the street because I am Jewish," she says.
In April, a report for the Institute for Global Jewish Affairs said that in 2008, there were ten recorded anti-Semitic incidents in Scotland, out of 541 across Britain. In 2009, the figure jumped to 30. The study's authors, Ephraim Borowski, director of the Scottish Council of Jewish Communities and former head of the philosophy department at Glasgow University, and Kenneth Collins, chairman of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre and visiting professor at the medical faculty of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, said historically there has been little anti-Semitism in Scotland but that events in the Middle East, often accompanied by popular conflation of Israelis and Jews, can lead to anti-Semitism.
In Scotland, safety concerns among Jewish people increased after the 2007 terrorist attack at Glasgow airport. The incident led Strathclyde Police to recommend security be reviewed at synagogues and other Jewish facilities. People were warned to be careful opening mail in case it contained razor blades.
Mark Gardner of the Community Security Trust, a Jewish security organisation, says the prevalence of radical Islamist groups in the UK such as Islam4UK and Hizb ut-Tahrir is a major issue. "Any extremist group which is anti-Israeli is of concern. We have to consider tensions between Israel and Iran, or the US and Iran. "What if there was a military attack on Iran, and Hezbollah called for attacks around the world in response?" he says citing the 1994 bombing of a Jewish community in Buenos Aires that killed 86 people. That atrocity was blamed on Iran and Hezbollah by Argentine prosecutors, although both parties denied involvement and no-one has ever been convicted.
Sarah and Lavi both say that conflating Israel with Jewishness is an issue. "Not all Jews agree with the actions of the state of Israel. The political spectrum is as wide within the Jewish community as it is in any other, swinging from far left to far right. Jewish people criticise the Israeli government as much as they do the Scottish or UK governments," Sarah says.
Lavi, who refuses to stop wearing his kippah to school, says he has quarrelled with classmates over Israel. "I had an argument in class once when everyone was blaming Jews for the actions of the Israeli military. I argued that the Israeli army does not equal the Jewish army any more than the British army equals the Christian army. Some people just do not understand," he says.
THERS say anti-Semitism is low level in Scotland compared to other nations and that different factors are responsible for the falling Jewish population. Harvey Kaplan, director of the Scottish Jewish Archives Centre in Glasgow, cites several causes as we tour the small facility he runs in the basement of the ornate Garnethill Synagogue. He says Jewish communities have always "waxed and waned".
"The first Jews arrived in Scotland during the late 1600s. They came mainly from England, Holland, Germany and Austria. Many were merchants or craftsmen who came to work in the tailoring, jewellery and watch-making industries. Others were students who were drawn to Scotland because in England people were forced to swear a Christian oath before being accepted for university."
Garnethill Synagogue, built in 1879, sits on a hill in the west end of the city and Kaplan jokes that less well-heeled Jews used to refer to it as the "posh synagogue" due to its Victorian splendour. As he shows me old sepia photographs and Yiddish memorabilia, he explains that the first Jewish congregation in Edinburgh was founded in 1816 and in Glasgow in 1823. In the late 1870s the migration spread to Dundee and then further north to Aberdeen in the 1890s.
By the end of the 19th century the Jewish community had grown dramatically because of waves of migration from the Russian empire and it was then that the focus of Jewish life in Scotland relocated from Edinburgh to Glasgow. "Many Jews moved to the Gorbals in Glasgow to live in densely packed tenements.
"By 1901 there were around 5,000 and by the outbreak of the Second World War, that figure had increased to roughly 10,000. It was a hub of activity. There were kosher butchers, synagogues, Talmud Torah schools and a newspaper called the Jewish Echo was established," Kaplan says.
He insists anti-Semitism has not been a significant problem in Scotland – in England, for example, Jews were expelled during the reign of Edward I – and adds that there are similarities between being Scottish and Jewish, arguing that Scots feel dominated by the English and Jews are also a minority, an empathy that bred tolerance.
"You would get name-calling at school and in the 1920s and 1930s, landlords would put up signs saying 'No Jews'. But in the west of Scotland the dynamic was always Catholic-Protestant and so Jews occupied the middle ground," he says.
Kaplan argues that people these days generally have smaller families and there has been a trend over the last 30 years for Jewish youngsters to move to cities such as London, Leeds, Birmingham and Manchester to study, as they have larger Jewish populations. Many people are also relocating to Israel as legislation called the Law of Return gives those with Jewish ancestry and their spouses the right to settle in Israel and gain citizenship.
"Many put down roots and don't come back and often their parents will leave Scotland and move to be closer to their children and grandchildren. In fact, very few Jews live in the same place as their grandparents. The trend seems to be that the small Jewish communities are getting smaller while the larger ones remain stable," he says.
On the walls of the archive are the names and pictures of Jews who have made a significant contribution to Scottish society. They include Marianne Grant, a Holocaust survivor who came to Glasgow in the 1950s and whose art hangs in the Kelvingrove Gallery, and Rabbi Ernest Levy OBE, who arrived in Glasgow in 1961. Rabbi Levy was a remarkable man. Few prisoners survived a Nazi concentration camp but he survived not just one but seven.
He told his story in books called Just One More Dance and The Single Light and became one of Scotland's most respected religious leaders. I'd interviewed Rabbi Levy shortly before his death at the age of 84 last August and it was clear his memories of Belsen and Auschwitz were still all too vivid in his mind's eye. When he recalled "walking over a carpet of bodies" he was wide-eyed and had a terribly haunted look.
There are few Holocaust survivors left – Rabbi Levy was Scotland's last living link to Auschwitz – and Jewish people everywhere are contemplating what significance this might have for future generations who will never have this first-hand contact to the past. I asked Rabbi Rubin about this before he married Ralph and Catherine. A New Yorker from Brooklyn, he's been in Glasgow for more than 20 years and leads a congregation of around 850 people at Giffnock and Newlands Synagogue.
"It is definitely a problem the further we go from the Holocaust. I grew up in New York and was surrounded by survivors. It was there right in front of me. There was never any formal education about it at school. I look at my own children and they perhaps don't have the same feeling that I did. The story of the Holocaust has to be told and retold to the Scottish people, the Jewish people and the rest of the world," he says.
Only ten years ago Rabbi Rubin's congregation was around 1,300 so the fast shrinking population is an urgent issue that has to be addressed. "There is a dynamic community active here in Glasgow but that could change. The story of the Jew has always been moving from one place to another but the timescale could mean that in only ten years' time there may not be enough young people to make things successful and to support each other financially. Unless action is taken the likelihood is that more and more young people will move away.
"The challenge for me as a rabbi has changed and I have to show people that shul (synagogue) should be part of everyday life. But empty nests are leading to empty shuls as retired people move to be closer to their children."
Lavi is a member of Rabbi Rubin's shul and is unsure if he will remain in Scotland. His three sisters have already moved away to Birmingham, Jerusalem and Madrid, and his mother, Sarah, fully expects him to do likewise.
He spoke as he prepared to mark the Jewish festival Shavuot, which also follows Passover. Jewish people believe they were freed from their enslavement on Passover and that the Torah was given to them by God on Mount Sinai on Shavuot. In keeping with custom this week, Lavi will stay up all night studying the Torah before attending a dawn service at a synagogue with his mother.
Nearly 70 years after the Holocaust and the end of the Second World War, the teenager now finds himself a target for racists in a modern society that should have learned lessons from the past.
"There is a rap song called Never Again by Wu Tang Clan that speaks about how important it is that the atrocity of the Holocaust should never happen again.
"Is the Holocaust going to be totally forgotten, or will some passionate person or people succeed in taking education forward so that it is remembered? If you were to ask someone a few years younger than me about the Second World War, you will find that even things like Dunkirk and D-Day are being forgotten.
"It is no good focusing Holocaust education only on the Jewish community. Unless a lot more resources and emphasis are put into Holocaust education, it will become a low priority and everyone other than the victimised groups will forget – the majority of people who perished in the Holocaust were Jewish. However many other people such as gypsies, homosexuals and disabled people were also slaughtered," Lavi says.
Jewish people have lived in Scotland for more than 300 years and many have made an enormous contribution to society. But 2009 was the worst in terms of anti-Semitism since 1984, according the Community Security Trust. Victims of abuse and assaults included Jewish academics, students, schoolchildren and teachers, which prompted the Prime Minister Gordon Brown to say the increase was deeply troubling and the Conservative Party to add that Britain's Jews faced a "real and growing danger".
Although the report by Collins and Borowski said there was nothing inevitable about the demise of Scotland's Jewish community, the urgent issue facing it is to maintain an identity in a society where, until recently, this type of racism has hardly featured.
They conclude: "With few younger Jewish activists around, the problems of providing a Jewish environment for the Scottish Jews who remain will become acute."
•This article was first published in Scotland on Sunday on 16 May 2010
Thursday, May 13, 2010
ADL decries disruption of Israeli officer's talk at Univ. of Denver
DENVER, May 12, 2010: Responding to reports that a group of anti-Israel protestors tried to silence an Israeli speaker at the University of Denver, shouting insults and disrupting the presentation, Bruce H. DeBoskey, Mountain States Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League issued the following statement:
We are dismayed and disturbed by the undemocratic, bullying and confrontational tactics used by protestors to try to disrupt and silence yesterday’s presentation on military ethics by Israeli Col. (Ret.) Bentzi Gruber at the University of Denver. Nationally, ADL has seen an increasing use of disruptive tactics intended to silence the expression of pro-Israel views on campus.
Such mean-spirited efforts to stifle speech have no place in an academic environment where speakers should be free to express their ideas – and interested audiences have a right to hear those ideas – without fear or intimidation. A university campus should be the site of open discussion and exploration of varied viewpoints, not a place where speakers are harassed, interrupted and shouted down because others disagree with them.
We call on the University of Denver to issue a clear and forceful statement that such disruptive tactics are unacceptable, and that those who would disrupt presentations on campus will be asked to leave and promptly escorted out by security if necessary.”
According to witnesses, on May 11, several dozen protesters attended Col. Gruber’s presentation, repeatedly shouting insults, chanting and disrupting the presentation, which was focused on ethical issues faced by the Israeli military. At one point, a screaming protester tried to rush the podium and needed to be restrained. When protesters would not stop their disruptive behavior, university security and Denver police escorted them off the premises.
The Anti-Defamation League, founded in 1913, is the world’s leading organization fighting anti-Semitism through programs and services that counteract hatred, prejudice and bigotry.
Monday, May 10, 2010
Israel is accepted into OECD
The 31 members of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development on Monday unanimously voted in favor of accepting Israel as a member of the group, a senior Jerusalem source said.
Israeli officials have said acceptance would be an important stamp of approval for the country's economy, boosting its credit rating and strengthening ties with foreign investors.
Foreign Ministry officials earlier said that Palestinians had intensified their efforts to keep Israel out of the organization in recent days, saying that Israel infringes on Palestinians' human rights and violates OECD values.
Israel says Palestinian Prime Minister Salem Fayyad called many of the leaders of OECD countries over the past day to argue against Israel's acceptance.
Sunday, May 9, 2010
Double Standard implicit in the Legacy of Richard Goldstone
Legitimating Bigotry: The Legacy of Richard Goldstone
May 7, 2010 By Alan M. Dershowitz
http://cgis.jpost.com/Blogs/dershowitz/entry/legitimating_bigotry_the_legacy_of
Richard Goldstone, author of the notorious Goldstone report, did not become
a South African judge in the post-Apartheid Mandela Era, as The New York
Times and other media have erroneously reported. He accepted a judgeship
during the worst days of Apartheid and helped legitimate one of the most
racist regimes in the world by granting the imprimatur of the rule of law to
some of the most undemocratic and discriminatory decrees.
Goldstone was--quite literally--a hanging judge. He imposed and affirmed
death sentences for more than two dozen blacks under circumstances where
whites would almost certainly have escaped the noose. And he affirmed
sentences of physical torture--euphemistically called "flogging"-- for other
blacks. He also enforced miscegenation and other racist laws with nary a
word of criticism or dissent. He was an important part of the machinery of
death, torture and racial subjugation that characterized Apartheid South
Africa. His robe and gavel lent an air of legitimacy to an entirely
illegitimate and barbaric regime.
It is no surprise that Goldstone kept this part of his life secret from
academic colleagues, friends and the general public. I recall him at the
lunch and dinner tables in Cambridge describing himself as a heroic part of
the struggle against Apartheid. Now it turns out he was the ugly face of
Apartheid, covering its sins and crimes with a judicial robe. How
differently we would have looked at him if we knew that he had climbed the
judicial ladder on whipped backs and hanged bodies.
Now that his dirty secret has been exposed to the world, he has invoked the
defense raised by German judges at Nuremberg: "I was just following the
law." This cowardly defense was rejected at Nuremberg and by the
international law that Goldstone claimed to be applying against Israel in
the Goldstone report. It should be resoundingly rejected by the court of
public opinion. Goldstone's friend and former judicial colleague, Arthur
Chaskalson, has rushed to the defense of his fellow South African judge,
saying that it was "better to have an honest judge on the bench than another
kind." Putting aside the issue of whether Goldstone was an honest judge--his
Goldstone Report strongly suggests he is "another kind"--the German judges
offered precisely that argument at Nuremberg. "I did it to help the Jews. "
In the film Judgment at Nuremberg, based on a real case, the judge argued
that by unjustly sentencing one Jew to death, others might be helped. He
also said he had no choice but to apply unjust laws. He was convicted.
Goldstone may have persuaded himself and other judges who served the
Apartheid regime that by hanging and torturing some blacks, they would be
helping other blacks, but the only ones that were helped were the racists
who ran the Apartheid regime and Goldstone himself, who used his Apartheid
judgeship as a stepping stone and career booster.
It is interesting that Goldstone made a similar argument to friends as to
why he accepted the chairmanship of the investigative commission offered to
him by the United Nations Human Rights Council. He acknowledged that the
Council was biased against Israel. Indeed, it treats Israel much the way
Apartheid courts used to treat Black Africans: Just as there was special
justice (really injustice) for blacks, so too there is special justice
(really injustice) for Israel. Goldstone claims he took the job "to help
Israel," just as he took his previous job to help blacks. In both cases he
cynically hurt those he said he wanted to help while helping only himself.
In both cases he was selected to legitimate bigotry. In both cases, better
people than him refused to lend their credibility to an illegitimate
enterprise. But Goldstone accepted, because it was good for his career.
Goldstone is an ambitious opportunist who lacks the courage of his
convictions-- if he ever had any. He has always put personal advancement
over principle. He is a master of rationalization and self justification.
This time he has run out of excuses. He's been exposed as a poseur who will
sell his integrity for a careerist opportunity. Fortunately he now has
little integrity left to sell.
Friday, May 7, 2010
Help End America's Reliance on Foreign Oil from Funding Terrorism
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Wiesel's advice to the Palestinian Authority
Wednesday, May 5, 2010
ADL: Shahzad the latest American citizen from Pakistan arrested on terror-related charges
Following his arrest, Shahzad reportedly told investigators that he had previously received bomb-making training in Waziristan, an Al Qaeda and Taliban stronghold which serves as a center for launching attacks against U.S.-led forces in
Shahzad's family is from northwestern
Pakistani officials have detained one man in
In videos circulated on the Internet, leaders of the Pakistani Taliban claimed responsibility for the attempted bombing as revenge for the April killings of Al Qaeda's two top leaders in
While no motive has been determined in the attempted bombing, Shahzad is the latest American citizen from
The following is a list of Pakistani Americans arrested, charged or convicted on terror-related offenses in recent years:
- Syed Hashmi, an American citizen from
- Raja Lahrasib Khan, a naturalized American citizen from
- Pakistani-American David Coleman Headley pleaded guilty on March 18, 2010, to helping plan the November 2008 terror attacks in Mumbai with Pakistani-based terrorist group Lashkar-e-Taiba and planning another terror plot against the offices of a Danish newspaper that printed controversial cartoons depicting the Prophet Muhammad.
- Syed Haris Ahmed, naturalized American citizen born in Pakistan and raised in Georgia, and Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, a U.S. citizen of Bangladeshi descent, were sentenced on December 14, 2009, to 17 and 13 years in prison, respectively, for shooting casing videos of U.S. landmarks for potential terrorist attacks in the Washington, D.C. area. In July 2005, Ahmed traveled to
- Hammad Riaz Samana, a legal
- Six
- Javed Iqbal, a naturalized American citizen from Pakistan, and American citizen Saleh Elahwal were sentenced in June 2009 to nearly six years in prison and 17 months in prison, respectively, for distributing broadcasts of Al Manar, Hezbollah's TV station, and providing material support to Hezbollah.
- Uzair Paracha, a
- A group of nine American citizens and one legal permanent resident, dubbed the "Virginia Jihad Network" by prosecutors, were convicted on terrorism charges related to the Pakistani-based terror group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LET) in
- Pakistani-born American Mohammed Junaid Babar pleaded guilty in June 2004 to supplying money and materials, including night-vision goggles, sleeping bags and other items, to an Al Qaeda official setting up a terrorist training camp in
- Imran Mandhai, a U.S. permanent resident from Pakistan, Shueyb Mossa Jokhan, a naturalized U.S. citizen from Trinidad, plotted to bomb several targets in Southern Florida in 2002, including Jewish-owned businesses in Weston, the Israeli Consulate in Miami, Jewish community centers in Aventura and Broward County, electrical power stations in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, the National Guard Armory in Hollywood and Mount Rushmore. The men planned to set off a series of explosives that would cause massive power blackouts in Broward and Miami-Dade counties, which they hoped would result in lootings and chaos in
Other Americans charged with terror-related offenses have traveled to
- Zarein Ahmedzay, an American citizen from
- Five American students – Ramy Zamzam, Umer Farooq Chaudhry, Ahmed Minni, Aman Hassan Yemer, and Waqar Hussain Khan – were detained in
- American citizen Ahmad Abousamra and Tarek Mehanna, a
- Six
- Christopher Paul, an American citizen from
- Bryant Neal Vinas, an American citizen from Long Island, pleaded guilty on January 28, 2009, to providing information about New York City transit systems to Al Qaeda for potential terrorist attacks and to firing rockets at an American military base near the
- American citizen Hamid Hayat, who attended Al Qaeda training camps in
- Mahmud Faruq Brent, a