Blog Archives
Italian P.M.: Stop West Bank building
Reading this article from JTA this morning made me think of something new pertaining to Israel.
Have you ever had an opinion or conviction that was contrary to the majority? Whether it was school, work, family… whatever… have you ever had to go it alone when it comes to doing what you believe is the right thing? Chances are you have, and when you did I’m sure it was incredibly uncomfortable. But you stood against the tide somehow and held true to what you believed to be the right course of action. It was still hard.
Reading this article made me think of this. I picture Israel as a kid on a playground being bullied and picked on because she’s different. It’s not quite the right imagery I’m looking to portray, but I think you get the idea of what I’m referring to. Shame on Italy for calling Israel to do this. Shame on the U.S. for calling for similar action.
How much pressure has she withstood in her short existence? How many times have the Arab countries tried to destroy her? How many times have her allies pressured her to give up the land she was given and earned from self-defense?
Even if Israel were to go back to its pre-1967 borders there would be no peace with the Arab countries. They don’t want their land back, they want Israel gone. Until that happens there will be no peace. It’s not about land. It’s not.
I love the statement P.M. Netanyahu made about Jerusalem last week,
The Jewish people were building Jerusalem 3,000 years ago and the Jewish people are building Jerusalem today. Jerusalem is not a settlement. It is our capital.
I think that sums it up pretty well. If we’re going to be pressured until the last one of us jumps into the sea, then we may as well stick to our guns. Way to go, Netanyahu.
Thanks, Pat Oliphant, you anti-Semite
I make an effort to have a positive online identity through all of my media interactions, so I won’t post what I really want to about Pat Oliphant’s cartoon.
What I will say is that the perception this ‘artist’ has is not the only problem. The big problem is the newspapers that published it. How did this anti-semitic cartoon make it to print? It may as well have been published with blood-libel charges.
Here’s JTA’s response:
Jewish groups call Oliphant cartoon ‘anti-Semitic’
JERUSALEM (TJA) — Jewish groups have denounced a cartoon by a prize-winning political cartoonist as anti-Semitic.
Pat Oliphant’s cartoon, published Wednesday, shows a headless figure goose-stepping while pushing a large Star of David with fangs and pursuing a tiny woman carrying a child labeled “Gaza.” The syndicated cartoon appeared in newspapers around the world.
“Pat Oliphant’s outlandish and offensive use of the Star of David in combination with Nazi-like imagery is hideously anti-Semitic,” Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League national director, said in a statement. “It employs Nazi imagery by portraying Israel as a jack-booted, goose-stepping headless apparition. The implication is of an Israeli policy without a head or a heart. “
The Simon Wiesenthal Center said in a statement: “The imagery in this cartoon mimics the venomous anti-Semitic propaganda of the Nazi and Soviet eras. It is cartoons like this that inspired millions of people to hate in the 1930s and help set the stage for the Nazi genocide.”
The Wiesenthal Center called on online media to remove the cartoon from their Web sites.
Pro-Gazan students barricade themselves in NYU cafeteria
Ridiculous. I can’t believe the faculty is going to engage in this dialogue. This is telling me if you want something then you blow something up, hold someone/something hostage, and throw a fit.
Expel the punks.
“We’ll be trying to clarify the exact nature of their complaints and try to engage them in colloquy and conversation,” an NYU spokeswoman told the Times. “It’s a little unclear for us now.”
via Pro-Gazan students barricade themselves in NYU cafeteria | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.
Letter to the AZ Republic
Rabbi Arthur Lavinsky of Beth El Congregation in Phoenix, AZ wrote to the AZ Republic in response to an anti-Israel article written by Bishara A. Bahbah. It is reproduced here to do my part to inform.
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Earlier this week, there was a horrible anti-Israel article written by Bishara A. Bahbah in the Arizona Republic, and I decided to write a letter to the editor as a rebuttal to his lies. While I’m not sure that my letter will be published, I would like to share it with you, my friends and congregants. (As a postscript to my letter, I specified that while I am the rabbi at Beth El Congregation; I wrote this as an individual and that my views did not represent the views of those of the congregation or its officers).
Letter to the Editor:
Adolph Hitler’s Propaganda Minister, Joseph Goebbels, was famous for having said “If you repeat a lie often enough, people will believe it.” Goebbels would have been proud of Bishara A. Bahbah’s piece “The real losers in Gaza: Civilians, peace process.” Bahbah’s article was filled with familiar lies and distortions about the Middle East and failed to place the blame for the recent violence squarely on the shoulders of those responsible for the recent violence, namely the Islamo-Fascists of Hamas and their supporters.
There is indeed a tragedy of epic proportions unfolding as innocent civilians, both in Gaza and Israel, suffer terrible disruption in their lives, including countless deaths and injuries. But we must not forget that it was Hamas which decided not to extend the cease fire that it had flagrantly violated for months, and which erupted into war when Islamic terrorists launched hundreds of rockets into Israel, forcing Israel to respond quickly and decisively as any sovereign nation would do.
The express goal of Hamas is to inflict a maximum of civilian casualties, not only upon Israel but on their own population, for even Muslims who fall victims to their brothers’ bloodthirst are hailed as “Shahids” – martyrs who will enter paradise surrounded by 72 virgins, ready to indulge their desires. These terrorists actually increase the bloodshed among the ranks of their own innocent civilians by purposely embedding themselves and their armaments in neighborhoods, schools, and hospitals. In sharp contrast, Israel has taken unprecedented measures to minimize the number of civilian casualties even among its enemies. Yet sadly, because the cowardly Hamas terrorists use their women and children as pawns, the number of civilian casualties soars.
Never before have we seen the likes of Hamas cutthroats who bask in the pool of blood which they have initiated.
Hamas representative Fathi Hamad proudly declared:
“For the Palestinian people death became an industry, at which women excel and so do all people on this land: the elderly excel, the Jihad fighters excel, and the children excel. Accordingly, [Palestinians] created a human shield of women, children, the elderly and the Jihad fighters against the Zionist bombing machine, as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: We desire death as much as you desire life.”
[Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas) Feb. 29, 2008]
click this URL if you would like to watch this speechIt seems that every time Hamas is handed a resounding military defeat by Israel, its leaders call for increased violence, and vow to erase the “Zionist Entity” (They can’t even bring themselves to say the word “Israel”). Hamas caused this war by initiating a barrage of rocket fire into Southern Israel and it is now solely within Hamas’ power to end the carnage. This cannot be achieved by a cease fire imposed by the United Nations, the European Union or the United States. Hamas needs to surrender unconditionally, abstain from all terrorist activity, and begin to deal with Israel in the arena of diplomacy. Until they do, every loss of life and limb, every ounce of innocent blood spilled on both sides of the border, should rightfully be attributed to the murderers of Hamas.
Praying for a lasting and just peace for all,
Rabbi Arthur Lavinsky
Phoenix
Obama maintains silence on Gaza | JTA – Jewish & Israel News
This piece from the JTA illustrates why many Israelis do not look forward to Obama coming into office. It appears to me from the way this is read that Obama’s stance is significantly different than Bush’s. I’m also put off by his inability to speak his mind. I’ve heard he’s very careful about the things he says in order not to alienate supporters.
Taking a stand on this issue is not a popularity contest. I’ll bet Obama is a yes-man.
Read what Bush said and record it somewhere. I don’t believe Jews and Israel will receive this kind of support from Obama…
WASHINGTON JTA – Barack Obama continued to decline comment on the situation in the Gaza Strip.
“There are delicate negotiations taking place right now and you cant have two voices coming out of the United States state [sic] when you have so much at stake,” the president-elect said at a news conference on Monday.
Obama referred to efforts by the outgoing Bush administration to bring about a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas terrorists currently at war in Gaza.
Bush, for his part, repeated his red line for a cease-fire: an end to rocket attacks on Israels south.
“All of us, of course, would like to see violence stopped — but not at the expense of an agreement that does not prevent the crisis from happening again,” Bush said at the White House. “I know people are saying lets have that cease-fire, and those are noble ambitions. But any cease-fire must have the conditions in it so that Hamas does not use Gaza as a place from which to launch rockets.”
via Obama maintains silence on Gaza | JTA – Jewish & Israel News.
