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The Press Can’t Quit Lying

by Mars ( 123 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Censorship, Free Speech, Hamas, Hezballah, Israel, Judaism, Political Correctness, Progressives at May 14th, 2013 - 12:14 pm

Once again a member of the press got caught red handed faking photos in an attempt to make Israel look bad.  Back before the swamp became a wholly owned subsidiary of the Muslim Brotherhood things like this got caught and analyzed a lot quicker.  The worst part is that this dirtbag got an award for his blatant attempt to smear Israel and the Jewish people.

http://www.extremetech.com/extreme/155617-how-the-2013-world-press-photo-of-the-year-was-faked-with-photoshop

2013 World Press Photo of the Year: Gaza Burial, by Paul Hansen

 

 

It turns out that the 2013 World Press Photo of the Year — the largest and most prestigious press photography award — was, in actual fact, a fake. The World Press Photo association hasn’t yet stripped the photographer, Paul Hansen, of the title, but presumably it’s just a matter of time. Rather than discussing the politics of photo manipulation, though — is it faked, or is it merely enhanced? — we’re going to look at how Hansen managed to trick a panel of experienced judges with his shooping skillz, and how a seasoned computer scientist spotted the fraudulent forgery from a mile off.

The photo, dubbed Gaza Burial, was purportedly captured on November 20, 2012 by Paul Hansen. Hansen was in Gaza City when Israeli forces retaliated in response to rocket fire from Palestinian rocket fire. The photo shows two of the casualties of the Israeli attack, carried to their funeral by their uncles. Now, the event itself isn’t a fake — there are lots of other photos online that show the children being carried through the streets of Gaza — but the photo itself is almost certainly a composite of three different photos, with various limbs spliced together from each of the images, and then further manipulation to illuminate the mourners’ faces.

This revelation comes from Neal Krawetz, a forensic image analyst. There were two main stages to the analysis: First an interrogation of the JPEG’s XMP block, which details the file’s Photoshop save history, and then pixel-level error level analysis (ELA). To begin with, the XMP data shows that the original, base image was converted from Raw format and opened in Photoshop on November 20, 2012 (the same date that it was taken). Then, on January 4, 2013, the XMP block shows that a second Raw image was opened and added to the original. An hour later, a third image was spliced in. Finally, 30 minutes later the photo chimera was actually saved to disk. The January 4 date is interesting because it shows that the final photo was only edited a couple of weeks before the January 17 submission deadline, not soon after original photo was taken in Gaza — in other words, it was edited specifically for the contest.

The next step is error level analysis. ELA basically compares the error level of pixels that have been modified by the JPEG compression algorithm (low amounts of change), and pixels that have been modified with photo manipulation (higher change). In the image above, which has been subjected to ELA, we see clear markers that are consistent with the photo’s spliced-and-manipulated history. Regions that have only been subjected to normal JPEG compression should have faint red/blue patches, while white patches show areas that have been subject to other forces. The bright white edges are caused by Photoshop’s sharpening algorithm — but the other bright white regions are likely due to extensive manipulation. Take a look at the man on the far left, carrying the child’s feet — his magically, digitally illuminated face is clearly shown on the ELA map. In fact, almost every face in the picture has been brightened, as have the children’s shrouds.

The final nail in the coffin is good ol’ shadow analysis. At the time the photo was taken — 10:40am, in the winter — the sun should be fairly low in the sky. The shadows on the left wall are consistent with a sun location (shown below) that should cast deep, dark shadows on the mourners’ right sides — but, as you can see, those magical light rays seem to be at work again.

Basically, Hansen took a series of photos — and then later, realizing that his most dramatically situated photo was too dark and shadowy, decided to splice a bunch of images together and apply a liberal amount of dodging (brightening) to the shadowy regions. For what it’s worth, Hansen claims that the light in the alley was natural — and to be fair, sometimes magical lighting does occur. I think most of you will agree, though, that the photo simply feels fake — there’s just something about the lighting that sets off a warning alarm in your brain. As for why World Press Photo didn’t forensically analyze the photo using freely available, advanced, accurate analysis tools such as FourMatch or FotoForensics… who knows.

Oh, I forgot to mention the best bit: Hansen was meant to provide the Raw file for his winning photo, as proof that he didn’t significantly modify the final image — but so far, he hasn’t.

 

At the least this scum needs stripped of his award.  I however, don’t predict any further punishment since the press agrees with any attempt to slander Israel.

 

Posted in Anti-semitism, Censorship, Free Speech, Hamas, Hezballah, Israel, Judaism, Political Correctness, Progressives | 123 Comments »

Germany’s World War II Occupation of Poland: ‘When we finish, nobody is left alive’

by Speranza ( 183 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Communism, Germany, History, Holocaust, Nazism, Poland, World War II at May 9th, 2013 - 7:00 pm

As the author states, the Nazis turned Poland into one vast cemetery. Hitler’s hatred of the Slavs was only surpassed by his hatred of the Jews and for 6 years Poland endured one nightmare after another. No other nation (outside of modern day Israel) has been stuck in such a terrible and dangerous neighborhood as Poland was – caught between Adolf Hitler on the West and Northeast (East Prussia) and Joseph Stalin in the East. Nevertheless Poland’s soldiers fought heroically in 1939 (it was a myth that Polish cavalry attacked German tanks with lances) and throughout World War II in the Battle of France, during the Battle of Britain (as pilots), in the Middle East and North Africa, at Monte Cassino in Italy (the Poles and French finally took the monastery and to this day the entire back of Monte Cassino is one vast Polish war cemetery), in Normandy and at Arnhem. Add in the heroic but doomed Warsaw Uprising of August 1944 and Poland’s 20th century history is one  of betrayal and heroism. As a side note, let us not forget the Polish defeat of the Red Army in 1920 at the Battle of Warsaw which probably saved Central Europe from Communism.

In Prague, big red posters were put up on which one could read that seven Czechs had been shot today. I said to myself, ‘If I had to put up a poster for every seven Poles shot, the forests of Poland would not be sufficient to manufacture the paper.’

Hans Frank, 1940

Governor-General of occupied Poland’s ‘General Government‘ territory.

by Michael Sontheimer

Adolf Hitler left no doubt about his goal before he ordered the invasion of Poland. Addressing generals and commanders at a reception he gave at his Berchtesgaden retreat on August 22, 1939, Hitler said he was not interested “in reaching a specific line or a new border.” He wanted “the destruction of the enemy.”

On September 1, 1939, German soldiers marched across the border into neighboring Poland. The vastly superior Wehrmacht forces advanced so quickly that the Polish government was forced to flee to Romania just 16 days later. On September 27, the defenders of the Polish capital, Warsaw, gave up. Nine days later, the last remaining Polish troops laid down their weapons.

Thus begun a nightmarish occupation that would last more than five years. In Poland, the Nazis had more time than in any other occupied country to implement their policies against people they classified as “racially inferior.”

The task of implementing Hitler’s plan fell to Hans Frank, a 39-year-old lawyer, Nazi Party member and brutal champion of the Nazis’ vision of racial purity. Frank was named “Governor-General” of a large chunk of Poland, an area of about 95,000 square kilometers (36,680sq mi), with approximately 10 million inhabitants. This was the western part of Poland that had been annexed by the German Reich, while the eastern half of the country was occupied by the Red Army in accordance with the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, the 1939 non-aggression treaty between Nazi Germany and the Soviet Union.

War Crimes Committed from the Outset

Frank was unashamedly proud of his ruthless regime, which contrasted with the comparatively lenient system of rule in the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia,” as the Nazis called the majority ethnic-Czech region they had occupied. In 1940, Frank told a reporter for the Völkische Beobachter newspaper: “In Prague, for example, large red posters were hung up announcing that seven Czechs had been executed that day.” That had made him think: “If I had to hang up a poster every time we shot seven Poles, we’d have to cut down all the Polish forests, and we still wouldn’t be able to produce enough paper for all the posters I’d need.”

German soldiers committed war crimes in Poland from the very outset. One soldier in the 41st infantry division noted, “Polish civilians and soldiers are dragged out everywhere. When we finish our operation, the entire village is on fire. Nobody is left alive, also all the dogs were shot.”

Wehrmacht soldiers without battle experience thought they saw snipers everywhere, and ended up firing at anything that moved — often their own comrades. And if Polish soldiers merely shot at them, the Germans took revenge by setting entire villages ablaze or taking hostages and executing them.

[........]

Although Jews weren’t persecuted systematically during the “Polish campaign,” the anti-Semitism of the German troops surfaced time and again. The war diary of one machine gun battalion noted, “All the male inhabitants are standing under guard in a large square. The only exceptions are the Jews, who are not standing, but have been made to kneel and pray constantly.”

On the very day the last Polish soldiers gave themselves up, Hitler gave a speech to the German parliament, the Reichstag, promising to “reorganize the ethnographic conditions” in Europe. Hitler appointed SS Reichsführer Heinrich Himmler to carry out this project, whereupon Himmler was named Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of German Nationhood.

Plan for German Colonization up to the Urals

Himmler had his staff draw up an Eastern General Plan, a blueprint for the German colonization of all areas up to the Urals. After all, as Joseph Goebbels claimed, eastern Europe had always been Germany’s “destiny.” The propaganda minister predicted, “Tough peasant races will stand guard in the East.” SS leader Reinhard Heydrich said German settlers would act as a bulwark against the “raging tides of Asia.”

He wanted the annexed parts of western Poland to be “depolonized” and “germanized” as quickly as possible. To this end, some eight million Jews and Poles were to be moved into the General Government, the area of Poland under Nazi military control. Their places were to be taken by ethnic Germans “repatriated” from around the Baltic and from Volhynia and Galicia in western Ukraine.

[.......]

The people deported to the General Government were only permitted to carry one suitcase each, as well as “one blanket per Pole.” Beds had to be left behind. Securities and valuables could not be taken — “wedding rings excepted.”

Himmler ordered all those living in the annexed eastern zones to be classified by race. The list of alleged “Germanic peoples” divided ethnic Germans into four groups. These ranged from those who identified themselves as German and were thus naturalized immediately, to Poles considered “capable of germanization,” who were deported for so-called “training” in the Altreich (Old Empire), as the Nazis called the area under German control before 1939. Such Poles were thus given German citizenship on a probationary basis.

A Nation of Slaves

The Nazis’ aim was to transform the Poles into a nation of slaves. In May 1940 Himmler wrote that “the non-German peoples of the East may not receive any education beyond four-year elementary school.” Their educational goal was to be as follows: “The ability to do simple sums no higher than 500, write their name, and understand that it is their divine duty to obey Germans, be honest, diligent and well-behaved.” The SS Reichsführer did not consider reading an essential element of the Polish curriculum.

In October 1940 Hitler ordered “all members of the Polish intelligentsia” to be killed. SS leader Heydrich therefore instructed the heads of the security police task forces to ensure that the remaining members of the Polish “political leadership” be “rendered harmless and placed in a concentration camp.” He also saw to it that lists of “teachers, clergymen, noblemen, legionaries, returning officers, etc.” were drawn up immediately.

[........]

In the fall of 1939, occupied Poland became a nightmare of often spontaneous and wanton terror. For instance, the head of Radom district threatened the death penalty for anyone caught felling trees in the forest for use as firewood. Throughout the country, the SS and the police slaughtered all those they considered to be Polish nationalists. The race-based expulsions and resettlement carried out by Himmler’s henchmen sowed fear, unrest and chaos.

Creation of Jewish Ghettos

But the Jews would soon be the main focus of the Nazis’ attention. Poland’s Jews were forced to wear white armbands with a blue Star of David almost two years before Jews in the Altreich were made to sew yellow stars on their clothes. As early as September 21, 1939, Heydrich decreed that “the Jewry” in the areas under his control were to be “concentrated in ghettos for easier control and subsequent expulsion.”

The occupiers set up the first major ghetto in Lodz, which they renamed Litzmannstadt, in the “Reich District of Wartheland” (also known as the Warthegau), where 3.7 million Poles and 400,000 Jews were resettled for “germanization.” In late April 1940, regional governor Friedrich Uebelhoer had 144,000 Jews corralled into an area of just 4 square kilometers (1 sq mi). As a result, the people in Lodz ghetto had to live six to a room on average.

In mid-November 1940, the Nazis set up the Warsaw ghetto, into which they packed at least half a million people. Very soon, more that 5,000 people a month were dying of hunger, typhoid and other infectious diseases in this “Jewish reservation.”

[.......]

The creation of Lviv ghetto in late 1941 more-or-less completed the imprisonment of Poland’s Jews, who could now be given “special treatment,” as their systematic annihilation was officially termed.

“The Jewish problem must be solved during the war because this is the only way it can be completed without a general global hullabaloo,” wrote Franz Rademacher, the diplomat who headed the “Jewish department” of the German foreign ministry. Although no written order has ever been found in which Hitler ordered the “final solution of the Jewish problem,” there is much evidence to suggest that the Fuhrer decided to wipe out the European Jewry in the fall of 1941.

‘We Have to Destroy the Jews Wherever We Find Them’

In mid-December of that year, Governor-General Frank told his cabinet in Krakow that he had asked Berlin what was going to be done with the Jews. The reply had allegedly been: “Liquidate them yourself.” Frank therefore announced, “Gentlemen, I would ask you to steel yourself against any thoughts of compassion. We have to destroy the Jews wherever we find them.”

Measures were quickly put into place to carry out this genocide. The SS had the first extermination camp built in Chelmno near Lodz in November 1941. To this they had added the slaughterhouses of Auschwitz, Belzec, Sobibor, Treblinka and Majdanek by the summer of 1942. The lack of technology for large-scale killing initially proved the biggest problem. At first the SS locked Jews in sealed trucks and poisoned them with exhaust fumes, but that wasn’t considered quick enough.

SS researchers eventually hit upon a more satisfactory procedure whereby Soviet prisoners-of-war and Poles in Auschwitz were poisoned using the pesticide Zyklon B, which contains cyanide. In this way, the SS murdered more than a million people at the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp alone. Rings, coins and tooth fillings from the victims were melted down, enabling Himmler’s men to send a phenomenal 33 metric tons of gold to the Reichsbank in Berlin.

[........]

Nevertheless, sympathy and solidarity with the Jews were more widespread in Poland than anti-Semitism. Tens of thousands of Jews in the General Government survived the occupation, most of them hidden by fellow Poles, even though the Nazis typically shot all the members of any family found to be harboring Jews.

Even minor offenses led to Poles being sent to Germany as forced laborers. In this way, more than two million people were enslaved.

Resistance Groups in the Forests

From the very beginning, the Nazis’ policy toward occupied Poland was beset by an intractable contradiction: You can’t destroy what you want to exploit. This dilemma became all too clear after Himmler ordered the city of Lublin and Zamosc district in southeastern Poland to be made a German “settlement area” within the General Government.

In November 1942, police officers began brutally evacuating more than 100,000 Polish farmers to make way for 20,000 ethnic Germans. Those fit for work were sent to Germany as slave laborers, old people and children were resettled in so-called “retirement villages,” while anyone deemed “inferior” or “unreliable” was deported to Auschwitz.

[........]

The defeat of the Wehrmacht forces besieging the Russian city of Stalingrad in January 1943 lifted the hopes of resistance fighters across Poland. On April 20, 1943, Governor-General Frank complained to the German head of chancellery: “The murder of Germans is increasing to an alarming degree. Trains are being attacked, and transport routes are being made unsafe.”

Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

The day before, posters had appeared on the walls of the Warsaw ghetto: “Brothers, the time has come to fight and take revenge on our occupiers. If you can bear arms, come and join our fighters! The elderly and women can provide support. Arm yourselves!” Unfortunately, weapons were in short supply. Only about a tenth of the approximately 1,200 insurgents had a gun, yet they soon found themselves up against almost 2,000 heavily-armed police officers and SS men.

The Germans even used flame-throwers on the Jewish resistance fighters. For a month, insurgents waged a desperate guerrilla war on their occupiers. Several thousand Jews were executed immediately. About 50,000 more died in the Treblinka gas chambers. On May 16, 1943, Jürgen Stroop, the SS officer in charge of Warsaw district, reported: “The former Jewish residential district of Warsaw no longer exists.”

The Nazis answered stiffer resistance with yet more brutality. Between October 1943 and July 1944, a total of 2,705 Poles were publicly executed in Warsaw. Another 4,000 were killed in secret.

Nevertheless, Governor-General Frank realized that the Germans were at a numeric disadvantage and could not keep the Poles under their thumb indefinitely. He conceded that “this negative, disapproving, destructive approach is now almost impossible to maintain.” [.......]

In a letter to Hitler, Frank raise doubts about the closing of schools as well as the mass arrests and executions by the German police. Referring to the Soviet massacre of more than 20,000 Polish officers and other professionals and academics in Katyn in 1940, Frank proposed the Poles be “actively involved in the defense against Bolshevism.” However Hitler refused to entertain any such notion, preferring ruthless brute force instead. In January 1944 loyal, obedient Frank therefore issued an order that a hundred Poles were to be executed for every German killed.

Another occupation-era tragedy occurred on August 1 that summer, when the Armia Krajowa — the home guard of the Polish government-in-exile — staged an armed uprising in an attempt to recapture Warsaw ahead of the arrival of the Red Army. Emboldened by the attempted assassination of Adolf Hitler on July 20 and the successful “D-Day” landing of Allied forces in Normandy on June 6, Polish patriots believed they could force the Germans to withdraw from Warsaw.

The insurgents managed to liberate the half of Warsaw west of the River Vistula, but the occupiers struck back with brutal might. Although the Soviets had already reached the eastern banks of the Vistula, they wanted to secure their positions before pressing on.

‘A Nation of Such Courage is Immortal’

Himmler, whom Hitler had tasked with quelling the rebellion, had the SS shoot civilians at random until ammunition began running low. The Germans then launched an offensive in which nearly 40,000 men were sent after the rebels holed up in the old town. Bitter house-to-house fighting ensued, but the insurgents lacked experience, weapons and ammunition.

More than 150,000 people died in the battle for the city. Before they eventually capitulated after 63 days, the Polish home guard sent out one last radio message from Warsaw: “A nation of such courage is immortal.”

[.......] Of the 35 million people who had lived in Poland at the start of the War, six million had perished — almost 18 percent of the population.

Red Army soldiers entered Krakow, the capital of the General Government, on January 17, 1945.

Frank’s official diary contains the following entry for that day: “The Governor-General left Krakow castle in a motorcade in splendid winter weather and brilliant sunshine.” On the journey back to his native Bavaria, Frank and three of his staff burnt most of the official files they had taken with them.

After the War, Frank was brought before the Nuremberg Trials, accused of war crimes and crimes against humanity. In a moment of enlightenment he admitted, “In a thousand years, people will still be blaming Germany.”

But in his closing remarks, Frank complained about the “most horrific mass crimes” allegedly committed against Germans in the East, acts which he said “easily match any guilt on our part.”

Frank was found guilty, and sent to the gallows.

Read the rest – ‘When we finish, nobody is left alive’

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Posted in Anti-semitism, Communism, Germany, History, Holocaust, Nazism, Poland, World War II | 183 Comments »

With the rise of the National Socialist Jobbik Party, Hungarian Jews fear for their safety

by Speranza ( 146 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Holocaust, Iran, Israel at May 8th, 2013 - 7:00 am

Unfortunately  a lot  of the feelings expressed by the  Jobbik Party are reflected to a different extent  by the more “mainstream” political parties throughout Europe.

by Colin Freeman

As the self-declared “capital” of the ultra-nationalist Jobbik Party, the town of Tiszavasvári prides itself on being a showcase for how the whole of Hungary might one day look.

Since winning control of Tiszavasvári’s local council three years ago on a pledge to fight “Gipsy crime”, the party has been on a vigorous clean-up campaign, banning prostitution, tidying the streets, and keeping a watchful eye on the shabby Roma districts at the edge of town. It even swore in its own Jobbik “security force” to work alongside the police, only for the uniformed militia, which drew comparisons with Hitler’s brown-shirts, to be banned by Hungary’s national government.

Yet Gipsies are not the only bogeyman that Jobbik has in its sights, as a sign on the well-trimmed green opposite the Communist-era mayoralty building suggests. Written in both Hungarian and Persian, it proudly announces that Tiszavasvári is twinned with Ardabil, a town in the rugged mountains of north-west Iran.

Gabor Vona delivers a speech during a rally against the World Jewish Congress Plenary Assembly in Budapest (Reuters)

On the face of it, there is no obvious reason why a drab rustbelt town in Hungary’s former mining area should seek links to a city in a hardline Islamic Republic 2,000 miles away. But this is no ordinary cultural exchange programme, and friendship has very little to do with it. Instead, the real purpose of Jobbik’s links to Iran is to show their mutual loathing of the Jewish state of Israel, which the Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, notoriously declared should be “wiped from the pages of history”.

[........]

In many other countries in Europe, such a scheme might be dismissed as just petty town hall posturing, a Far right version of the “Loony Left” gesture politics practised in British town halls in the 1980s. But it is particularly sensitive in Hungarian towns like Tiszavasvári, where anti-semitism has seen Jews wiped from the pages of history once before.

Inquiries by The Sunday Telegraph via official Holocaust archives show a dozen names of Jewish victims from Tiszavasvári, part of the mass extermination programme that gave Jews in the Hungarian countryside only a one in ten chance of survival in 1944, Some simply disappeared, while others like Andor Krausz, a 30-year-old bookbinder, and Rozsi Gruenweld, a 48-year-old shoe merchant, were murdered in Auschwitz, along with among more than 400,000 other Hungarian Jews.

A Jobbik supporter, the tattoo reads ‘My Honor is Loyalty’ (Reuters)

It was one of the most intensive anti-Jewish campaigns of Holocaust, and while it was conducted during Hungary’s period of Nazi occupation, it was done with the active connivance of the Hungarian state.

” You can see Jobbik’s true nature through this,” said Peter Feldmajer, the President of the Federation of Hungarian Jewish Communities, which today represents an estimated 100,000 Hungarian Jews, nearly 90 per cent of whom still refuse to disclose their Jewishness publicly. “They hate the Jewish people, and so does the Iranian government, and that is why they have formed this allegiance. [.......]

Such concerns will loom large in the minds of delegates of the World Jewish Congress, which opens amid tight security today at the Soviet-era Budapest Intercontinental Hotel overlooking the Danube.

Normally the Congress meets in Jerusalem, but this year it has deliberately chosen to convene in the Hungarian capital to highlight what its president, the billionaire philanthropist and cosmetics heir Ronald Lauder, describes as a “dramatic” rise in anti-Semitism in Hungary.

Much of the blame for that is attributed to the Jobbik party, which was founded just ten years ago yet now represents the third-largest faction in politics, with 47 of 386 parliamentary seats.

Also in Mr Lauder’s sights, though, is the Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, whose ruling centre-right Fidesz Party competes for many of the votes that Jobbik now vies for, and who has been criticised for not taking a firm enough stance against anti-Semitism.

[.........]

The Congress meeting adds to a growing sense of political isolation in Hungary, where earlier this year, the European Union said that Mr Orban’s party was placing too many curbs on the judiciary and media, measures it said could ultimately disqualify the country from EU membership.

While Mr Orban insists the measures have been necessary to end decades of corruption and inefficient government under his predecessors, the fear is that such measures are making it all the easier for groups like Jobbik to gain a foothold. A ban on the Jobbik party holding a counter-demonstration at the World Jewish Congress’s presence in town has only added to their sense of grievance.

Roughly translated as “the Movement for a Better Hungary”, Jobbik’s success has far outstripped similar movements in neighbouring former Communist states. Its appeal in towns like Tiszavasvári has been based partly on confronting problems associated with the country’s half-million strong Roma community, whom many Hungarians see as crime-prone and welfare-dependent.

But as the global banking crisis has hit Hungary hard, leaving more than 1 in 10 jobless, Jobbik has also revived a folk devil at the opposite end of social spectrum – the wealthy, all-controlling Jews, who were traditionally influential in the finance world.

Barely a month now passes in Hungary without a fresh furore over some anti-Semitic incident. Jewish community leaders have been attacked in the street and Jewish cemeteries desecrated. Far-Right biker gangs have also held ugly counter demonstrations to anti-Semitism rallies, entitled “Step on the Gas” days. Mr Gyongyosi, the Jobbik MP, was castigated recently for saying that a “security” register should be created of Hungarian MPs and civil servants who were of “Jewish origin”.

The Hungarian national football association, meanwhile, was recently fined after fans shouted anti-Semitic slogans during a recent World Cup qualifier. And only last week, the leader of the Raoul Wallenberg Association, a charity named after a businessman who rescued many Jews from Nazi-occupied Hungary, was beaten up after telling skinhead thugs to stop chanting “Seig Heil” at a soccer match.

[.........]

True, while verbal abuse has apparently increased, incidents of actual violence are still relatively rare in Hungary: Mr Feldmajer recollects only around 50 physical attacks in 20 years. And it is fair to say that the bootboy image by no means fits all of Jobbik’s supporters, many of whom are respectable working people whose motivations sound little different to the average UKIP supporter. The talk is of frustration with politically correct attitudes to crime and immigration, of children no longer being taught Hungarian history in schools properly, and of a loss of faith in mainstream political parties, whose economic record since communism’s collapse is patchy at best.

Typical is Sipos Ibolya, 55, a cheerful schoolteacher who is Jobbik’s deputy mayoress in Tiszavasvári. The twinning arrangement with Iran, she insists, is not borne of anti-semitism, but simple national self-interest.

“Economically, the Israelis do have too much power in Hungary,” she said.

[.........]

There was a similarly mixed picture at a Jobbik May Day fair last week, which combined elements of Glastonbury festival with a historical re-enactment society. In front of an open-air stage, burly men tattooed with skulls, crossbones and the odd swastika sat listening to bands play right-wing folk music, whose choruses of “we are all one blood” had them singing along. The sideshows, meanwhile, were devoted to displays of swordsmanship, archery and whipcracking, skill practised by the ancient Hungarian tribes whom many Jobbik supporters see as the country’s true forefathers.

But what was billed as a day of harmless, Far-Right family fun also had its darker side. At least one book stall had Hitler’s Mein Kampf on sale, and when it caught the attention of the Sunday Telegraph’s photographer, a youth was overheard was overheard saying “What are these Jews doing here?” What alarms Hungarian liberals, though, is the way that under Mr Orban’s government, such events have become part of the political mainstream. Songs by Far Right bands now do well in the charts, with one group, Carpatia, even receiving an official award, and last year, Hungary’s state-funded New Theatre planned to stage a play about a group of powerful Jews who plot the country’s downfall. Although it was eventually pulled after an outcry from anti-racism activists, it is hard to imagine such a production getting anywhere near a theatre in many other European countries.

Nonetheless, after the trauma of the Holocaust, most of Hungary’s remaining Jews have an all too well-developed sense of perspective about Jobbik. In the old Jewish quarter of Budapest, a maze of cobbled streets, synagogues and smart restaurants, few are planning to take to the streets to mount their counter-Jobbik protests. For one thing, Jews here have learned the hard way to keep a low-profile, and for another, the feeling is that while anti-Semitism comes and goes, it never disappears entirely.

[.......]

Read the rest -  Inside the far-Right stronghold where Hungarian Jews fear for the future

 

 

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Posted in Anti-semitism, Holocaust, Iran, Israel | 146 Comments »

Judge Jeanine Pirro Slams Jihad Mom: Lady, You Shouldn’t Be Allowed Here”

by huckfunn ( 13 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Barack Obama, CAIR, Crime, Cult of Obama, Democratic Party, Dhimmitude, Eric Holder, government, Headlines, immigration, Islam, Islamic hypocrisy, Islamic Invasion, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic Terrorism, Islamists, Janet Napolitano, Koran, Marxism, Muslim Brotherhood, Sharia (Islamic Law), Socialism, Terrorism at April 28th, 2013 - 11:07 pm

Yes Ma’am! I can’t think of anything I would add to the judge’s remarks. Be sure and watch the whole vid. Submitted without further comment.

Posted in Anti-semitism, Barack Obama, CAIR, Crime, Cult of Obama, Democratic Party, Dhimmitude, Eric Holder, government, Headlines, immigration, Islam, Islamic hypocrisy, Islamic Invasion, Islamic Supremacism, Islamic Terrorism, Islamists, Janet Napolitano, Koran, Marxism, Muslim Brotherhood, Sharia (Islamic Law), Socialism, Terrorism | 13 Comments »

American Jewish leaders need to stop the decay now

by Speranza ( 65 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Hamas, Israel at April 23rd, 2013 - 11:30 am

Giving the rabid anti-Semite Jimmy Carter an award makes about as much sense as giving Mahmoud Ahmadinejad an award. Carter is a vicious, vindictive, bigoted terrorist enabler.

by Isi Leibler

Visiting New York this week, I sought to assess the broader implications of the recent “International Peace Award” bestowed on former president Jimmy Carter by Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School. This unsavory display of groveling by a major Jewish institution to a committed foe of the Jewish people is not merely a stain on the entire Jewish community but highlights a dramatic erosion of Jewish values and Jewish dignity.

Many consider it a wake-up call and believe that alarm bells should be ringing in the conference rooms of major Jewish organizations.

Yeshiva University, created 127 years ago, is the crown jewel of America’s modern Orthodox establishment. Its Rabbinical Seminary was headed by the revered Rabbi Joseph Soloveitchik. Its Cardozo Law School has evolved into one of the most preeminent legal educational institutions.

Although it caters to all Americans, Cardozo prides itself on being a Jewish institution, serves only kosher food and is closed on Shabbat and Jewish holidays.

Since his electoral defeat, Carter has emerged as one of the most vicious opponents of the Jewish state, whose vile bias appears to stem from traditional Christian anti-Semitism. His theological approach even retains the odium of Jewish deicide and he is on record stating that Jews hate Christians because they are “unclean, uncircumcised,” and view them as “dogs.”

He was one of the principal architects of the campaign to demonize Israel as an “apartheid state” which led to 14 members of the Carter Center, including his former close adviser, Kenneth Stein, resigning and unequivocally accusing him of maliciously lying about Israel. Carter meets and embraces Hamas leaders, urging the US to negotiate with them. He also opposes efforts to deny Iran nuclear weapons.

Alan Dershowitz said that he could not “imagine a worse person to honor for conflict resolution.”

[..........]

He accused him of having “more blood on his hands than practically any other president” and could not understand how such a person, who “never met a terrorist he didn’t like,” could become the recipient of such an award.

Yet the administrators of Yeshiva University refused to rescind or even condemn the award to Carter. Their principal concern was to display political correctness and avoid being accused of restricting “academic freedom” or infringing on the rights of their students.

Chancellor Richard Joel declined to endorse the decision and unlike the dean of Cardozo, Professor Matthew Diller, courageously announced that he would absent himself from the proceedings. But he stressed that “Yeshiva University both celebrates and takes seriously its obligation at the university to thrive as a free marketplace of ideas, while remaining committed to its unique mission as a proud Jewish university.”

Needless to say, it would have been highly unlikely for Yeshiva University authorities to have stood aside and mumbled clichés about academic freedom had one of their student affiliates sought to honor a racist or right-wing extremist.

[.......]

There were major protests from Yeshiva University alumni and students. But the Jewish leadership establishment itself was incredibly restrained. Other than the Zionist Organization of America, no Jewish organization of substance called on the authorities at Yeshiva University to intervene or rescind the award.

ADL’s Abe Foxman remarked that the award was wrong, that it was inappropriate to honor Carter and that there was a need to “instill values” to ensure that “future mistakes like this will not be made.” But he stressed that “the university responded properly” by not intervening.

Even the outspoken Simon Wiesenthal Center, while blaming the students for failing to “exercise due diligence,” avoided calling on the university authorities to rescind the award.

IN CONTRAST, when a Jewish institution invites or honors controversial personalities on the radical political Right, or anyone out of favor with the liberal set, there are invariably widespread protests and condemnations. This was exemplified by the recent histrionic pressures and threats which led to the cancellation of the invitation extended to Pamela Geller, the outspoken campaigner against Islamic fundamentalism, to address Jewish organizations.  [.........]

Regrettably, when it comes to those demonizing and delegitimizing Israel, the trend is for mainstream leaders to bury their heads in the sand, babble about freedom of expression and the need for dialogue and avoid confrontations. They rationalize this by insisting that the overriding objective must be to create a “big tent” encompassing the widest possible range of viewpoints, including those previously considered beyond the pale of the mainstream Jewish community.

During the Cold War, Jewish communists served as apologists for Stalinism and even applauded the execution of Jews on trumped-up charges. But they were deemed rogue elements.

In contrast, their successors who today engage in vicious anti-Israeli rhetoric, promote BDS (Boycotts, Divestments, Sanctions) and campaign to persuade the American administration to exert pressure on Israel are becoming integrated as legitimate components of the mainstream Jewish community, or are simply regarded as just another facet of a “pluralistic” Jewish community.

Yeshiva University is one of the most committed bastions of the Jewish community. When its management declines to overrule the unconscionable decision of its students to honor an anti-Semite, it highlights the extent to which the rot has already advanced and penetrated organizations purportedly promoting Jewish values and Jewish interests.

Thus one should not be surprised to learn that Hillel branches on some campuses host disgusting, Israel-demonizing groups such as “Breaking the Silence” and engage in kumbaya with Muslims hostile to the Jewish state.

Even a number of federations have set aside funds for anti-Israeli institutions and initiatives.

Increasingly, radical rabbis, synagogues and Jewish cultural organizations are hosting speakers who shamelessly defame Israel.

Most current Diaspora Jewish religious, political and cultural leaders were molded during an era when the Holocaust and the struggle to create a Jewish state still dominated public consciousness.

Now, many of these are reaching the age of retirement.

[........]

When Jewish leaders stand aside or remain silent as elements hostile to the Jewish people and Israel are hosted or honored within the Jewish community, this invariably impacts on their core values. It will also legitimize and embolden Israel’s adversaries to intensify efforts to impose BDS, as exemplified last week when UC Berkeley student senators carried a resolution to that effect.

Jewish leaders committed to Jewish continuity who proclaim their love for Israel must agree upon certain codes of conduct. This has no bearing on freedom of expression. Nobody seeks to deny anyone the right to say what they please.

But if a community fails to draw red lines for its constituents, it will face chaos and anarchy and undermine the shared values which enabled the Jewish people to survive throughout the ages.

Read the rest -  American Jewish leaders: Stop the rot now

 

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Posted in Anti-semitism, Hamas, Israel | 65 Comments »

Jihad and moral relativism

by Speranza ( 115 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Egypt, Free Speech, Israel, Koran, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Correctness at April 12th, 2013 - 11:48 am

The affairs Carter, Waters, and Geller shows how dysfunctional so much of the American Jewish Establishment is. In this, they resemble the Republican Party.

by Caroline Glick

Two events happened on Wednesday which should send a shiver down the spine of everyone concerned about the future of the American Jewish community. But to understand their importance it is important to consider the context in which they occurred.

On January 13, The New York Times reported on a series of virulently anti-Jewish comments Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi made in speeches given in 2010. Among other things, Morsi said, “We must never forget, brothers, to nurse our children and our grandchildren on hatred for them: for Zionists, for Jews.” He said that Egyptian children “must feed on hatred; hatred must continue. The hatred must go on for God and as a form of worshiping him.”

In another speech, he called Jews “bloodsuckers,” and “the descendants of apes and pigs.”

Two weeks after the Times ran the story, the Obama administration sent four F-16 fighter jets to Egypt as part of a military aid package announced in December 2012 entailing the provision of 20 F-16s and 200 M1-A1 Abrams tanks.

The Anti-Defamation League, AIPAC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs and other prominent American Jewish groups did not oppose the weapons transfer.

With the American Jewish leadership silent on the issue, Israel found its national security championed by Sen. Rand Paul. He attached an amendment to a budget bill that would bar the US from transferring the advanced weapons platforms to Egypt.

Paul explained, “Egypt is currently governed by a religious zealot… who said recently that Jews were bloodsuckers and descendants of apes and pigs. This doesn’t sound like the kind of stable personality we [sh]ould be sending our most sophisticated weapons to.”

Paul’s amendment was overwhelmingly defeated, due in large part to the silence of the American Jewish leadership.

The Times noted that Morsi’s castigation of Jews as “apes and pigs” was “a slur for Jews that is familiar across the Muslim world.”

Significantly the Times failed to note that the reason it is familiar is because it comes from both the Koran and the hadith. The scripturally based denigration of Jews as apes and pigs is legion among leading clerics of both Sunni and Shi’ite Islam.

[........]

The Islamic sources of Muslim Brotherhood Jew hatred, and indeed, hatred of Jews by Islamic leaders from both the Sunni and Shi’ite worlds, is largely overlooked by the liberal ideological camp. And the overwhelming majority of the American Jewish leadership is associated with the liberal ideological camp.

If the Times acknowledged that the Jew hatred espoused by Morsi and his colleagues in the Muslim Brotherhood, as well as by their Shi’ite colleagues in the Iranian regime and Hezbollah is based on the Koran, they would have to acknowledge that Islamic Jew hatred and other bigotry is not necessarily antithetical to mainstream Islamic teaching. And that is something that the Times, like its fellow liberal institutions, is not capable of acknowledging.

They are incapable of acknowledging this possibility because considering it would implicitly require a critical study of jihadist doctrine. And a critical study of jihadist doctrine would show that the doctrine of jihad, or Islamic holy war, subscribed to by the Muslim Brotherhood and its affiliates, as well as by the Iranian regime and Hezbollah and their affiliates, is widely supported, violent, bigoted, evil and dangerous to the free world.

And that isn’t even the biggest problem with studying the doctrine of jihad. The biggest problem is that a critical study of the doctrine of jihad would force liberal institutions like the New York Times and the institutional leadership of the American Jewish community alike to abandon the reigning dogma of the liberal ideological camp – moral relativism.

Moral relativism is based on a refusal to call evil evil and a concomitant willingness to denigrate truth if truth requires you to notice evil.

[........]

This is why the American Jewish leadership refused to join Rand Paul and his conservative Republican colleagues in the Senate and demand an immediate cessation of US military aid to the Muslim Brotherhood-controlled Egyptian military even after the evidence of the Brotherhood’s genocidal Jew hatred was splashed across the front page of the Times.

It is the dominance of moral relativism in liberal institutions like the New York Times that make even the most apologetic expose of the Muslim Brotherhood a major event. And it is the dominance of liberal orthodoxies in the mainstream Jewish community that makes it all but impossible for Jewish leaders to speak up against the Muslim Brotherhood, despite the manifest danger its genocidal hatred of Jews poses not only for Israel, but for Jews everywhere.

It is bad enough that liberal Jewish leaders won’t speak out against the Koranic-inspired evil that characterizes the ideology of the Muslim Brotherhood. What is worse is what their own morally relative blindness causes them to do.

On Wednesday, we saw two distressing examples of the consequences of this self-imposed embrace of ideological fantasies.

First, on Wednesday, Yeshiva University’s Cardozo Law School’s Journal of Conflict Resolution gave its annual International Advocate of Peace Award to former president Jimmy Carter.

Carter’s long record of anti-Israel, and indeed anti-Semitic, actions and behavior made the decision to bestow him with the honor an affront not only to the cause of peace, but to the cause of Jewish legal rights. As an advocate of Hamas and a man who castigates Israel as an illegal “apartheid” state, Carter has a long record of outspoken opposition to both Jewish human rights and to viable peace between Israel and its neighbors.

For outsiders, the Orthodox Jewish university’s law school’s law journal’s decision to honor Carter was shocking, but as it works out, the Cardozo Journal of Conflict Resolution confers its prize almost exclusively on people active in pressuring Israel to make concessions to Palestinian terrorists who reject Israel’s right to exist. [.......]

In other words, Carter wasn’t chosen for the honor despite his anti-Israel record. He was selected because of his anti-Israel record.

In a similar fashion, New York’s 92nd Street Y invited virulent Israel hater Roger Waters to perform a concert on April 30. Given Waters’s outspoken opposition to Israel, his call for total economic and cultural warfare against the Jewish state and his leading role in the BDS movement, it is not possible that the 92nd Street Y was unaware of his radical, anti-Semitic sentiments.

And so, the only reasonable explanation for his invitation to perform at the Jewish institution is that the Y wanted to invite this openly anti- Semitic musician to perform. A public outcry by pro-Israel activists forced the Y to cancel his performance.

The day that Carter was embraced by the Orthodox Jewish establishment, Jewish author and activist Pamela Geller was silenced. Geller is the nightmare of the liberal Jewish establishment.

[........]

Geller’s website, Atlas Shrugs, is a clearinghouse for information on Islamic persecution of women, Christians and apostates and hatred of Jews. She also showcases the documented ties between mainstream American Islamic groups and the Muslim Brotherhood.

An indefatigable defender of Israel, Geller recently ran a highly controversial, and successful ad campaign in the New York and San Francisco public transportation systems in response to an anti-Israel ad campaign. Her billboards read, “In any war between the civilized man and the savage, support the civilized man. Support Israel, Defeat Jihad.”

Geller was scheduled to speak on April 13 at the Great Neck Synagogue in Great Neck, New York. The topic of her talk was “The Imposition of Shari’a in America.”

Last month, after learning of her talk, a consortium of Islamic and leftist activists in Nassau County led by Habeed Ahmed from the Islamic Center of Long Island launched a pressure campaign to coerce the synagogue into cancelling her speech. Members of the group telephoned the synagogue and castigated Geller as a bigot, and likened her to the Nazis in the 1930s.

In short order liberal rabbis Michael White and Jerome Davidson took over the opposition to Geller and launched a media campaign attacking her as a bigot and demanding that the Great Neck Synagogue cancel her speech.

Rejecting the distinction Geller makes between jihadists and their victims – Muslim and non- Muslim alike, White and Davidson claimed that she opposes all Muslims and so her speech must be canceled.  [.......]

On Wednesday the synagogue caved in to their massive pressure. Citing “security concerns” the synagogue board released a statement saying that while “these important issues must be discussed, the synagogue is unable to bear the burden” of the pressure campaign surrounding Geller’s planned speech. Her event was canceled.

Surveys of the American Jewish community taken in recent years by the American Jewish Committee demonstrate that the vast majority of American Jews are deeply supportive of Israel, and their views tend toward the Right side of the political spectrum in issues related to Israel, the Palestinians and the wider Islamic conflict with the Jewish state.

On the other hand, the AJC’s surveys show that for the vast majority of American Jews, Israel is not a voting issue. This state of affairs was reflected by a comment that Yeshiva University student Ben Winter made to the media regarding the absence of student protest against Carter on Wednesday. In Winter’s words, “While many students at YU feel strongly about their Zionism, few have the courage to publicly express their opinions.”

The danger exposed by the cancellation of Geller’s speech and the conferral of honors on the likes of Carter and Waters by mainstream Jewish institutions is daunting. If moral relativism remains the dominant dogma of the American Jewish establishment, the already weakly defended, but still strongly rooted, support for Israel among the rank and file of the American Jewish community will dissipate.

Read the rest - Moral relativism and jihad

 

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Posted in Anti-semitism, Egypt, Free Speech, Israel, Koran, Leftist-Islamic Alliance, Muslim Brotherhood, Political Correctness | 115 Comments »

Shemp

by Bunk X ( 47 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Bigotry, Hate Speech, Humor, OOT, Open thread, Religion at April 11th, 2013 - 10:30 pm

Shemp Howard

That’s my take on this, which led to this, where I saw this and found out this.
And THIS is The Overnight Open Thread.

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Posted in Anti-semitism, Bigotry, Hate Speech, Humor, OOT, Open thread, Religion | 47 Comments »

Anti-Semitism is why the Arab Spring was a massive failure

by Speranza ( 49 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, History, Iran, Islam, Islamists, Israel, Judaism, Middle East at April 11th, 2013 - 8:00 am

Actually the Arab Spring was a myth -  it was an uprising of reactionaries who have proven to be far worse then the rulers they replaced.

by Ahmad Hashemi

About two years ago, when the so-called pro-democracy movement, better known as the “Arab Spring,” began in the region, many commentators hailed it as “a great step forward,” “a turning point in the contemporary Arab world history”, and a “fourth wave of democratization.” I remember those days very well because my colleagues at Iran’s foreign ministry were very excited. Like most Iranians, they supported the toppling of the old tyrants in the Arab world. Many of my colleagues were saying – in private of course – that Iran would be next in the domino effect, and the whole region would take great strides towards democracy.

I was not as optimistic. I argued that, unlike Iran’s opposition Green Movement – which was an uprising backed by predominantly secular, middle class and pro-western layers of society – the major opposition forces in the Arab streets were made up of Islamists and even salafists from poor neighborhoods, not real forces for change for the good. I contended that circumstances were not ripe for a positive transformation and that quick and bloody change would only exacerbate the situation by bringing anti-West extremist elements to power.

My skepticism gained further momentum by hearing and reading news headlines such as: “With more than 2000 years of Jewish heritage, Egypt shuts down its last synagogue,” or “Attacks on Coptic places of worship continue,” and “Egyptian high profile officials call Jews `apes,`” and “David Gerbi, the Libyan-Italian Jew who returned to his homeland, receives death threats,” and “The last synagogue in Iraq is closed, signaling the end of a 2,700-year Jewish presence there.”

[.......]

“Israel is to blame” policy

With the start of the Arab Spring revolts, both the rulers and the opposition tried to portray the issues through a ridiculous but strangely rife theory that Jews were behind all the events and were busy conspiring against Muslims and Arabs. By forging competing anti-Semitic propaganda and producing conspiracies for the purpose of pointing a finger at Israel and Jews, each side tried to demonize the other side by associating it with Israel. In Libya, rebels claimed that the mother of Muammar Gaddafi was Jewish as a way of defaming the anti-Semitic dictator; Iranian officials did not hesitate to call the Syrian uprising, in its early phase, a conspiracy masterminded by Zionists; and Bashar al-Assad repeated the same accusations. And this list goes on.

In my view, one reason why the Arab Spring succeeded in toppling old dictatorships but didn’t succeed in replacing them with genuine democracy was that narrow-mindedness kept the uprisings’ leadership and supporters from harnessing all existing potential. Instead of dealing with root causes of the problems, they preferred to choose a simplistic answer and solution for all unresolved issues. They had a “one size fits all” diagnosis with a single prescription for all ills: whenever there is a mess, a dilemma or a complicated situation, just point a finger at Israel and the Jews.

This particular strategy has been employed extensively in Iran’s domestic politics since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, both as a scapegoat for internal problems and as leverage against political rivals. [.......] This is partly because, despite disavowing his words and lambasting Israel’s policy, Rahim Mashai once opined that the two nations of Iran and Israel are friends. Within this context, Jews equal evil and are considered the source of all wrongdoing, misery and misconduct.

My personal experience

I used to write in Persian but when I decided to write in English a couple of months ago, I chose to contribute to Israeli papers. To my surprise, my close friends became infuriated and told me that “writing in Jewish media is a red line and you are putting your credit and your future at stake by getting your pieces published there.” I told them I’d continue to contribute, even though I might anger my old friends and colleagues.

Unfortunately, our society is so biased and unfair when it comes to Israel and its policies that even many pro-reform, pro-democracy groups in and outside Iran deliberately distance themselves from anything that can tie them to Jews. [.........]

I strongly believe that if we are going to establish a healthy, tolerant society that respects differences, and pursues a pluralistic democracy, we have to accept that Jews and the Jewish community have been part and parcel of our own communities. This affirmation of coexistence represents the essence of today’s civilization. An ‘Arab Spring’ without religious tolerance that rests on strong anti-Semitic attitudes cannot bring about genuine democracy and freedom. In a peaceful and democratic Middle East, everyone can prosper and flourish.

As the most successful democracy, possessing a strong and diversified economy and a dynamic multiparty political system in a tyranny-affected region, Israel can be a role model. I sincerely believe that there are many other things that we can learn from each other provided that we put aside prejudice and hatred and embrace new ideas with an open mind. We need a change in mentality, and, as Muslims, we will need to make strong cordial ties with the Israeli people and build the future of our shared Middle East together with Jews and Christians. [........]

Intellectuals as well as secular and religious scholars of the Muslim world need to understand that without resolving the core principle of tolerance for the “other” – starting with Israel – they cannot reach genuine democracy and peace. We must search within ourselves for the roots of our problems. [.........] Our region has faced these problems since long before the establishment of the Jewish state in 1948 and they have nothing to do with the Israel of today.

We need to be self-critical and reexamine our values and revise the way of thinking which has led us to this chaos. We need to address this if we are to live in a better future. We should embrace and welcome the very existence of the Jewish state and its people as a dispersed but indigenous and ancient regional nation. Most of the wars and clashes in the Middle East and North Africa have taken place between the Arab and Muslim countries themselves. [........] The existing culture of fratricide and endless clashes among rival groups within the Arab and Muslim countries exist irrespective of the State of Israel and have nothing to do with it.

Some measures that could serve to heal our wounds are cultural relativism, respecting human rights, accepting the fact that the Jews and Christians were living in the region prior to Muslims, religious tolerance and respecting all faiths including Abrahamic (Judaism, Christianity and Islam) and non-Abrahamic monotheism (like the Bahá’í faith, Sikhism, and Zoroastrianism) as well as agnosticism and atheism.

Iran’s state sponsored anti-Semitism

The scourge of anti-Semitism has a long and disgraceful history which should not be reduced and limited to the Nazi crimes. For example, even “Jew” and “Jewish” still bear insulting and negative connotations in our proverbs and daily conversations. The most abhorrent example of state-sponsored anti-Semitism is theocratic Iran, particularly the current administration.

Anyone who denigrates Jews, denies the Holocaust and rejects the existence of Israel can turn into a hero overnight. Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites like Edoardo Agnelli, son of the owner of Fiat auto giant, the late French thinker Roger Garaudy (a mentally unbalanced Holocaust denier who I witnessed some years ago receiving a hero’s welcome at the Qom Feyziye Seminary, in Iran), and anti-Israel rabbis such as Yisroel Dovid Weiss and Moishe Arye Friedman are all welcome in Iran only because they hate Israel and deny its right to exist.

As writers, scholars, human rights activists and ordinary citizens of the region, we owe a historic apology to the Israelites for the harassment, persecution and mass expulsion from their ancestral lands. [........] Even though we can do nothing to undo what happened in the past, we need to have the courage to face the realities with the hope of a brighter future, enriched by a mosaic of different cultures, religions and colors.

Read the rest

Rodan Addendum: This is an interesting read why Israeli gave into Turkish demands and apologized. They see the Muslim Brotherhood block as enemies of Iran/Hizb’Allah.

While Israel is having a hard time identifying the “good guys” in the Syrian war, Turkey and Qatar appear to be supporting the sane forces of the Syrian opposition. Saudi Arabia continues to finance the extremist Sunni elements, while Turkey is attempting to create an alternative to Assad from among the Muslim Brotherhood and secular circles in Syria. Within the Middle East’s new fault lines, ranging from the Shiites in Iran to the jihadists from Iraq, the Muslim Brotherhood emerges as the most reasonable alternative. Pitted against the Iran-Assad-Hezbollah axis is the more moderate Turkey-Egypt-Syrian opposition-Hamas axis.

Yes, Hamas too. Once considered part of the Shiite axis, the movement has taken hold in the new Muslim Brotherhood axis, postponing the jihad against Israel to a later date. The strong action Hamas has taken against the organizations which have been firing rockets at Israel in recent weeks shows that its interest is to maintain quiet, which is also what its Egyptian partners are demanding.

So no, the Muslim Brotherhood — be it Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s AKP or Egyptian President Mohammed Morsi and Hamas — has not turned into “lovers of Zion” nor does it accept Israel’s existence in the Middle East. However, it has come to terms with that fact, seeing more immediate common enemies, such as Shiite Iranians, Salafists or Sunni jihadists. The Muslim Brotherhood’s rhetoric will forever sound acrimonious to Israeli ears, but given these two axes, Israel should know where its common interests lie.

Even if the apology to Turkey has not turned out well, for the time being, Israel should try to foster ties with Ankara with the understanding that connecting with the axis of the Muslim Brotherhood is critical given the ominous threat on the horizon — Iran’s nuclear capability. Resuming negotiations with the one that is caught in the middle of these two fault lines — the Palestinian Authority under the secular PLO — could defuse many of the emotions among the new partners. It will also curb the rising temperature on the Palestinian street. Although it has not reached a boiling point, it is nonetheless starting to simmer.

The Middle East is a very tribal place. Former enemies make common causes against another enemy.

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Posted in Anti-semitism, History, Iran, Islam, Islamists, Israel, Judaism, Middle East | 49 Comments »

What FDR privately thought about Jews and Asians

by Speranza ( 132 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, History, Holocaust, World War II at April 9th, 2013 - 2:00 pm
Despite being the patron saint of liberalism, in private FDR exhibited many racial biases, biases which he quietly put into effect as U.S. Government policy. Given FDR’s stereotyped views on Asians, we can now better understand his decision to intern Japanese-Americans.
by Rafael Medoff

In May 1943, President Franklin Roosevelt met with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the White House. It was 17 months after Pearl Harbor and a little more than a year before D-Day. The two Allied leaders reviewed the war effort to date and exchanged thoughts on their plans for the postwar era. At one point in the discussion, FDR offered what he called “the best way to settle the Jewish question.”

Vice President Henry Wallace, who noted the conversation in his diary, said Roosevelt spoke approvingly of a plan (recommended by geographer and Johns Hopkins University President Isaiah Bowman) “to spread the Jews thin all over the world.” The diary entry adds: “The president said he had tried this out in [Meriwether] County, Georgia [where Roosevelt lived in the 1920s] and at Hyde Park on the basis of adding four or five Jewish families at each place. [.......]

Roosevelt’s “best way” remark is condescending and distasteful, and coming from anyone else it would probably be regarded as anti-Semitism. But more than that, FDR’s support for “spreading the Jews thin” may hold the key to understanding a subject that has been at the center of controversy for decades: the American government’s tepid response to the Holocaust.

Here’s the paradox. The U.S. immigration system severely limited the number of German Jews admitted during the Nazi years to about 26,000 annually — but even that quota was less than 25% filled during most of the Hitler era, because the Roosevelt administration piled on so many extra requirements for would-be immigrants. For example, starting in 1941, merely leaving behind a close relative in Europe would be enough to disqualify an applicant — on the absurd assumption that the Nazis could threaten the relative and thereby force the immigrant into spying for Hitler.

[.......] Why didn’t the president quietly tell his State Department (which administered the immigration system) to fill the quotas for Germany and Axis-occupied countries to the legal limit? That alone could have saved 190,000 lives. It would not have required a fight with Congress or the anti-immigration forces; it would have involved minimal political risk to the president.

Every president’s policy decisions are shaped by a variety of factors, some political, some personal. In Roosevelt’s case, a pattern of private remarks about Jews, some of which I recently discovered at the Central Zionist Archives in Jerusalem and from other sources, may be significant.

In 1923, as a member of the Harvard board of directors, Roosevelt decided there were too many Jewish students at the college and helped institute a quota to limit the number admitted. In 1938, he privately suggested that Jews in Poland were dominating the economy and were therefore to blame for provoking anti-Semitism there. In 1941, he remarked at a Cabinet meeting that there were too many Jews among federal employees in Oregon. In 1943, he told government officials in Allied-liberated North Africa that the number of local Jews in various professions “should be definitely limited” so as to “eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore towards the Jews in Germany.”

There is evidence of other troubling private remarks by FDR too, including dismissing pleas for Jewish refugees as “Jewish wailing” and “sob stuff”; expressing (to a senator ) his pride that “there is no Jewish blood in our veins”; and characterizing a tax maneuver by a Jewish newspaper publisher as “a dirty Jewish trick.” But the most common theme in Roosevelt’s private statements about Jews has to do with his perception that they were “overcrowding” many professions and exercising undue influence.

This attitude dovetails with what is known about FDR’s views regarding immigrants in general and Asian immigrants in particular. In one 1920 interview, he complained about immigrants “crowding” into the cities and said “the remedy for this should be the distribution of aliens in various parts of the country.” In a series of articles for the Macon (Ga.) Daily Telegraph and for Asia magazine in the 1920s, he warned against granting citizenship to “non-assimilable immigrants” and opposed Japanese immigration on the grounds that “mingling Asiatic blood with European or American blood produces, in nine cases out of ten, the most unfortunate results.” [.......]

FDR’s decision to imprison thousands of Japanese Americans in internment camps during World War II was consistent with his perception of Asians as having innate racial characteristics that made them untrustworthy. [......]Admitting significant numbers of Jewish or Asian immigrants did not fit comfortably in FDR’s vision of America.

Other U.S. presidents have made their share of unfriendly remarks about Jews. A diary kept by Harry Truman included statements such as “The Jews, I find, are very, very selfish.” Richard Nixon‘s denunciations of Jews as “very aggressive and obnoxious” were belatedly revealed in tapes of Oval Office conversations.

But the revelation of Franklin Roosevelt’s sentiments will probably shock many people. After all, he led America in the war against Hitler. Moreover, Roosevelt’s public persona is anchored in his image as a liberal humanitarian, his claim to care about “the forgotten man,” the downtrodden, the mistreated. But none of that can change the record of his response to the Holocaust.

The observance of Holocaust Memorial Day begins Sunday night. It is the annual occasion to reflect on the Nazi genocide and the world’s response to it. In the case of the United States, it is sobering to consider that partly because of Roosevelt’s private prejudices, innocent people who could have been saved were instead abandoned.

Read the rest - What FDR said about Jews in private

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Posted in Anti-semitism, History, Holocaust, World War II | 132 Comments »

Israel hater Roger Waters washed out of YMHA event

by Speranza ( 86 Comments › )
Filed under Anti-semitism, Israel at April 5th, 2013 - 3:00 pm

He should never have been invited.

by Lori Lowenthal Marcus

So far no one is saying for sure how it happened or who made the final decision, but there are many supporters of Israel who are breathing a big sigh of relief that Roger Waters, former front man for the 1970′s rock band Pink Floyd, and currently best known for being a rabid hater of Israel, will not be performing at New York City’s 92nd Street Y on April 30th, as had been scheduled.

Waters is still a popular musician, particularly for the aging boomer crowd.  His one night appearance, “A Conversation with Rogers Waters” at the 92nd Street Y had been sold out for some time.  With a mere 900 seat capacity, however, the Kaufman Concert Hall is hardly the size of the mega-theaters Waters used to fill in his prime during his Pink Floyd days.

When news of Waters’ appearance at the 92nd Street Y first began circulating among Jews supportive of Israel, the man behind JCCWatch.org, Richard Allen, sent an email to Sol Adler, executive director of the Y.  Allen suggested perhaps Adler was not aware that Waters is a fanatical supporter of the economic warfare movement against Israel, known as BDS (Boycott of, Divestment From and Sanctions against Israel).  That email was sent on March 24, 2013.

Waters is not only a committed supporter of BDS, he bragged about having been instrumental in convincing Stevie Wonder to renege on his agreement to perform at a pro-Israel benefit in California that took place last year.  He also spoke at the United Nations on November 29, 2012, condemning Israel as an Apartheid state, and blaming Israel for denying the “Palestinian” people their “inalienable right” to “self-determination.”

In addition to these efforts to convince others that Israel must be shunned for committing “human rights violations,” Waters also was a leader of the effort to get Carnegie Hall to cancel the scheduled appearance by the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra in October of 2012.  Given his role in attempting to prevent the Israeli Philharmonic from giving a purely musical performance, it should be difficult for Waters’ supporters to complain about efforts to prevent Waters from appearance at the 92nd Street Y, where he was going to talk about his Israel-hatred.

[.......]

The Jewish Press ran a story on March 25 about Waters’ scheduled appearance at the 92nd Street Y, noting that the Y had begun nearly 140 years earlier as the Young Men’s Hebrew Association, and how ironic it was that it was going to host one of the biggest haters of Israel west of the Middle East.

And then things became a little strange at the 92nd Street Y website.

On March 26th, the Waters event at the Y was listed on the website as “postponed.”  Then, sometime during the first days of Passover, all mention of the Waters concert was removed from the Y’s website, including from its calendar listing.  However, curious callers to the box office were told that the concert was going on as planned.  By late in the evening of March 28, the event once again was listed on the website.

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The turmoil continued for the 92nd Street Y management, scheduling office, and webmaster, as the public outcry continued, reaching a crescendo on April 3.

Emails were sent to Adler at the Y and to John Ruskay, the chair of New York City’s United Jewish Appeal – Federation, asking how they could provide a forum at the Y to someone with such a visceral hatred for Israel, someone who has publicly stated his commitment to do everything within his power to destroy Israel’s efforts to protect its citizens from terrorism.

The NYC United Jewish Appeal-Federation provides more than $800,000 to the 92nd St Y.  JCCWatch’s Richard Allen told The Jewish Press that “it is unforgivable for someone who recently said ‘total BDS is the way to go,’ someone who is a clear cut enemy of Israel, to be given a platform at an institution paid for, in part, using Federation resources.”

Lionel Leventhal, a Manhattan healthcare private equity fund manager, explained to The Jewish Press why he sent an email to Federation’s Ruskay and Adler from the Y, asking them to explain, or better yet just undo, the disastrous decision to host Waters at the Y.

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Leventhal was particularly incensed because he grew up in Manhattan, and has attended cultural events at the 92nd St Y for more than 40 years. While declining to categorize himself as a particular kind of Jew – “I’m just really proud to be Jewish,” he said, there were three things that he found particularly irksome about the Waters’ gig.

“First, Waters is engaged in an organized effort to misinform artists,” Leventhal explained.

“Second, Waters has his facts upside down – he is completely mischaracterizing Israel,” he continued, “and third, the 92nd Street Y is a center for education, a center for all things Jewish, to host someone like Waters is completely antithetical to the mission of the institution.”

Craig Dershowitz is another New Yorker in high dudgeon that the 92nd Street Y booked an Israel vilifier to appear at its venue.  Dershowitz is a graffiti artist whose organization, Artists 4 Israel, promotes positive information about Israel. Dershowitz was a bit less temperate than Leventhal or Allen in his suppositions regarding the role the Y and the NYC Federation played in this drama.

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Dershowitz offered less benign explanations for the Waters event to have been scheduled in the first place.  While Allen believed that the Y leadership simply did not know about Waters’ Israel hatred, and Leventhal seemed pretty sure it was an error, Dershowitz had this to say:

“Either the Y did no due diligence, which is pathetic; or, because as an institution it is becoming more and more irrelevant the management decided to go for something controversial to draw attention to the venue; or, the leadership simply thought Waters was awesome, but then so was black and white television when it first came out, which reveals how irrelevant the Y is to contemporary arts and culture.”

Repeated phone calls by The Jewish Press to the 92nd Street Y media relations director over the course of the past week were not returned, but callers to the box office were told the event was cancelled because Waters has a “scheduling conflict.”

An article in the Jewish Daily Forward suggests the Y cancelled the event because of “heat” and quotes an April 3 statement issued by JCCWatch, but then reveals it has not received any official explanation for the cancellation.

A British Pink Floyd fan site, “Brain Dead,” seems to suggest that the event was cancelled because “certain parts of the Jewish community were not happy with the event, due to Roger’s views on Israel,” but then it links back to the Forward article which doesn’t contain any independent basis upon which to determine who was responsible for cancelling the event.

Read the rest – Israel hater waters washed out of NYC 92nd Street Y

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