Steve Lieblich's blog
Why form a Friends of Israel?
From The Henry Jackson Society web site, reporting on a discussion held Monday 19th July 2010, in Committee Room 14, House of Commons, London by kind invitation of Robert Halfon MP:
The distinguished panel included The Hon. José Maria Aznar, former Prime Minister of Spain, The Hon. Marcello Pera, former president of the Italian Senate, Andrew Roberts, a world famous historian and author, and Anthony Julius, a prominent British lawyer and academic.
The panel discussed the Friends of Israel Initiative’s campaign to bring reason and decency back to the issue of Israel.
William Cooper - a walk to remember
From and email sent 2 December 2010, by Ps Norman & Barbara Miller, Centre for International Reconciliation & Peace:
...this Sunday, 5 Dec, William Cooper's descendants and supporters will be retracing the steps that William Cooper [aboriginal leader] made on Dec 5, 1938 when he walked from his Footscray home to the German consulate in Melbourne [to protest about the nazis treatment of Jews].
FIRES RAGE IN ISRAEL’S CARMEL MOUNTAIN AREA
From The State Zionist Council of Victoria, 3 December 2010:
Chanukah: Festival of Light
From The Ettinger Report, by Ambassador (ret.) Yoram Ettinger, "Second Thought: A US-Israel Initiative", Jerusalem, Israel December 1, 2010:
"In God We Trust" was inspired ...by the Maccabees’ battle cry, which adopted Moses’ battle cry against the builders of the Golden Calf. A literal translation of Moses' battle cry is “Whoever trusts G-D; join me!”
The Maccabees' sacrifice and political-incorrectness inspired Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death" and New Hampshire's "Live Free or Die." The Maccabees followed in the footsteps of Abraham, Phineas the High Priest, Joshua & Calev, King David and Elijah the Prophet, who walked against the grain, in defiance of the establishment and conventional wisdom.
Inspiration to Benjamin Franklin's "Rebellion against Tyrants is obedience to God." The Maccabees were a tiny minority of “rebels” - condemned by the "loyalists/pragmatists" - rising against an oppressive super-power. They were condemned, by the Jewish establishment, as "enemies of peace" and "extremists." They prevailed due to their principle-driven, determined and can-do state-of-mind and adherence to roots and long-term vision against any odds. They demonstrated the victory of the few over the many, right over wrong, moral over immoral, truth over lies, faith over cynicism and opportunism. The Maccabees became a role-model for the US' Founding Fathers, including Paul Revere (who was referred to as a "modern day Maccabee") and the organizers of the Boston Tea Party. They realized that no free lunches were available for freedom-seeking nations.
World War II Nazi propaganda effort in the Middle East leaves a poisonous legacy
From The West Australian, 30 November 2010, by Rod Moran:
Mutual admiration: Haj Amin el-Husselnl, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, in earnest talks with Adolf Hitler in Berlin in 1941.
History does not write its lines except with blood. Glory does not build its edifice except with skulls.
Honour and respect cannot be established except on a foundation of cripples and corpses.
- Sheik Abdullah Azzam, Palestinian scholar and al-Oaida operative.
If faith, a belief, is not watered by blood, it does not grow ...Faith is propagated by counting up deaths every day, by adding up massacres and charnel houses.
- All Benhadi, Algerian Islamist.
Nazi ideology, Arab nationalism and a fundamentalist strain of Islam that advocates a politics of slaughter - those three elements form the essential roots to the pathology of one aspect of contemporary fundamentalist Islamist politics.
The above quotes vividly capture aspects of that toxic chemistry.
John Lyons: Israel bashing in The Australian
Last weekend's Australian included an article ("It's make or break time for Mid-East", November 27, 2010 by John Lyons) with the usual shallow vilification of Israel.
Fatah declares refusal to recognize Israel as Jewish state
From JPost, 27 Nov 2010, by KHALED ABU TOAMEH:
The Fatah Revolutionary Council concluded its fifth convention in Ramallah over the weekend by declaring its refusal to recognize Israel as a Jewish state.
...“The council affirms its rejection of the so-called Jewish state or any other formula that could achieve this goal,” said a statement issued by the council...
Fatah again honors perpetration of a massacre (with "peace partners" like this, who needs enemies?)
From PMW, 25 November 2010, by Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik:
Palestinian Terrorist Amin Al-Hindi was one of the senior planners of the murders of 11 Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics in 1972. This week's Fifth Sitting of the Fatah Revolutionary Council headed by Mahmoud Abbas was named in his honor.
Poster at the Fifth Sitting of Fatah’s Revolutionary Council, Ramallah Sitting named in honor of “The Shahid (Martyr) commander Amin Al-Hindi”
Two Years Since Terrorist Attacks in Mumbai, India
From a TIP Press Release, 24 November 2010:
- India, Israel share history of strong ties
- Countries' relations galvanized to prevent terrorism
- Attacks have resulted in improved cooperation in variety of sectors
Listen to TIP Conference Call with Israel's Ambassador to India, Mark Sofer (July 28, 2010)
Washington, Nov. 24 - In the two years since the Mumbai massacres, ties between India and Israel have strengthened as the two countries have joined forces to fight Islamic extremists and protect against future attacks.
On Nov. 26, 2008, the day after Thanksgiving, 10 extremists from a Pakistan-based terrorist group killed more than 170 people and wounded more than 300 others, including Hindus, Jews, Christians and Muslims in attacks on two luxury hotels, a train station, a café and other sites.
The terrorists assaulted the city’s Chabad Jewish center, killing six people, including four Israelis. The only surviving perpetrator, Ajmal Kasab, told police they targeted Israelis to “avenge the atrocities on Palestinians.”
U.N. Ignores Haiti and Darfur But Points Fingers at U.S., Israel
From FoxNews.com, November 23, 2010, by Anne Bayefsky*:
Over in Turtle Bay, the U.N. General Assembly is now wrapping up its key fall session. After taking a good hard look at human rights violations around the globe, it has come to the following conclusions about the world’s ills: In 2010, eighty percent of all its condemnations of alleged human rights abuses – twenty-one resolutions – will have been directed at Israel alone.
The Assembly will also finish the year having decided that only six more of the 192 U.N. member states raise human rights concerns. Warranting a single resolution each are Afghanistan, Burma, Georgia, Iran, North Korea, and the United States.