A bright future for Australian multiculturalism -- part 2

geoffff

Take a look at this.

Congratulations Bob Carr. Congratulations Malcolm Fraser. At least there will be no longer a problem about being lost for words on the steps of the Lakemba Mosque. The stones and the trees of Gaza should cover pretty much any topic.

There might be a problem in the rest of Australia.

The Human Rights of the Jewish People - 1

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

Mike L.

Dan Bielak has written a piece entitled It's about Standing Up for the Human Rights of the Jewish People that I would like to take a little time exploring.  It is one of Dan's persistent themes that what those of us who care about the well-being of Israel must do is simply tell the truth of the Jews in the Middle East.

I must admit that when someone starts speaking to me about the truth I tend to cringe because I recognize the inherent subjectivity and inevitable bias in considering truth in history, much less politics.  The most important book to date on the difficulties of historical and academic objectivity is Peter Novick's That Noble Dream: The 'Objectivity Question' and the American Historical Profession.

Nonetheless, and Novick would agree, most in the social sciences recognize "truth" as an ideal to be striven towards and not something to be prostituted in the service of politics.  I want, therefore, to hold Dan's piece out as a reference for further discussion and intend to do so by highlighting, as the spirit moves me going forward, some of his bullet points.

Today, let's look at this.

Dan writes:

Refugees caused by the conflict between the Muslim Arab states in the Middle East and Israel: Approximately 400,000 to 700,000 Arab refugees from Israel; Approximately 800,000 to 1,000,000 Jewish refugees from Muslim states in the Middle East

I don't know about these numbers, really, but they are reasonably close to the ones that normally get bandied about.  I know of no reputable study that comes close to a definitive statement on the numbers, but that doesn't mean such a study is not out there.  Generally we read about 700,000, or so, refugees from both sides, with the Jewish side being somewhat higher.

I guess one question to ask would be, do the people who form and spread opinions about the Arab-Israel conflict know about the Jewish refugees?  The Jewish nakba, if you will.  I do not know the answer to that question.

Directly after the Holocaust, and right on the heels of the establishment of Israel, the Arab countries chased out their Jews.  People were killed and property was absconded from Jews all throughout the Middle East so that now there are virtually no Jews left throughout that part of the world other than in Israel.  These Jewish refugees were absorbed into Israeli society and therefore are not refugees any longer and certainly their children are not.

The Arab refugees, of course, were put up in camps by the surrounding Arab nations who use them, generation upon generation, as pawns in their ongoing war against Jewish sovereignty on Jewish land to this day.

I do not know the extent to which people know this, including people who persistently spit hatred and fire at the Jewish state of Israel.  But if they do know it then they are moral hypocrites.   If they don't know it, perhaps they should learn a little more history before spouting their righteous opinions in the public sphere.

In any case, Dan is right on the money when he says that this whole issue is about standing up for the human rights of the Jewish people.  That is precisely what this is about.  Over the recent decades the Arabs have successfully portrayed their ongoing aggression against the Jews in the Middle East as a matter of the "national liberation of the Palestinian people."

Before that they simply spoke of pushing the Jews into the sea and before that we were dhimmis under Muslim imperial rule.

I just find it remarkable that 13 centuries of Jewish oppression in the Middle East seems to have been airbrushed out of popular knowledge.  Although dhimmitude varied in different times and different places it always represented second or third class citizenship for Mizrahi within Muslim societies.

And this must be recognized as a big part of the context out of which Israel emerged.

The Noose Tightens

Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

Ever since the Obama administration saved Hamas from any significant retaliation by the IDF during "Pillar of Defense," and ever since dictator Abbas went to the United Nations for the purpose of Palestinian statehood recognition, I get the distinct impression that many pro-Israel advocates are becoming increasingly worried.

Just today I read three pieces from three serious individuals each of which indicates a hardening of attitudes.

Adam Levick of CiF Watch has a piece entitled, Hanukkah Diarist: Antisemitism and the flight of the ‘progressives’.

This may be the saddest piece of the three because it neatly outlines how just as the world failed to come to the defense of the Jews during the Holocaust, so it entirely ignores the constant genocidal screechings coming out of the Muslim Middle East today.

Levick writes:

While, even in the most “enlightened” circles, the failure of so many to reveal, yet alone seriously confront, the Nazi genocide as it was being perpetrated is well-documented, in our post-Shoah world the homage paid posthumously to Jewish victims is nearly universal among the respectable class.

Indeed, such pieties are often observed, if perfunctorily, by even the most shrill critics of the modern Jewish state.

However, in observing the failure of such a large segment of the ‘progressive community’ to engage in serious moral resistance in the face of explicit threats by many leading Islamists (such as the leaders of Hamas) to annihilate the Jews, it seems extremely unlikely that the next coordinated assault on world Jewry would be radically confronted.

Also the FresnoZionist has written Why disproportionate response pays.

The FresnoZionist responds to the recent story about a few Israeli soldiers chased off their position under a hail of Palestinian-thrown rocks in Hebron.  I think the FZ has about had it.  He points out that the essential irrationality of Jew hatred precedes the rational mind and that the Jews of the Middle East need to fight back hard if they wish to secure any possible future peace.

In order to change the political landscape, it’s necessary to change the psychological one. The way to do this is not by careful surgical strikes, defensive strategies, and unbalanced concern for the welfare of those who are trying to kill IDF soldiers. It is by massive, disproportionate response to attacks.

While some are afraid that this would create legal and diplomatic problems, these problems appear anyway based on false and exaggerated ‘evidence’ — see the Goldstone report, for example.

Israel should hit its enemies hard. Deep down, even the Norwegian diplomats will understand.

 Meanwhile Shoula Romano just penned Message to hypocritical world.

Romano runs down the most recent Arab-Israel history by reminding us that every time Israel retreats from land they get attacked more.  She reminds us that ever since Israel ethnically-cleansed Gaza of Jews in 2005 there has been near constant rocket attacks into southern Israel and the world has given its silent assent.  She therefore insists that Israel should not capitulate to a Palestinian state on Jewish land.  She writes:

Recent anti-Israeli UN resolutions and condemnations remind us again that the world has not changed and still prefers the Jews to be persecuted, victimized, helpless and defenseless. The Israeli people must send a clear message back to the world that they prefer their survival as a strong and powerful Jewish state over any morally bankrupt approval or sympathy.

The Israelis must reject any world pressure to resume negotiations with the allegedly "moderate" Abbas for the establishment of another Hamastan in the West Bank in order to be embraced at last by the anti- Semitic international community.

What I think is that Jews throughout the world are feeling a tightening of the noose.

I really like the Jews, so it's quite a shame what fascists they've become.

Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

That was not the title of this recent Daily Kos diary, but it might as well have been.  It's one of those pieces written by non-Jewish liberals that expresses the profound regret that, although they have nothing but affection and respect for the Jewish people, Israel has gone fascist.  It's one of those sentiments that is often expressed as the idea that it's a terrible shame that Jewish Israelis not only learned nothing from the Holocaust, but have become themselves something akin to Nazis.

The author writes:

So I packed up my family and we went to live in Israel in 1963. We spent two years there only to cut a three year Fellowship short to come home to work against the war in Vietnam.

My kids were 2 and 5 when we arrived in Israel and they were in the preschool that was everywhere in Israel at that time. The government was socialist and I fell in love with socialism. My kids were involved in every holiday and we were too. It was delightful.

Apparently, however, the Jewish socialist utopia which was Israel almost fifty years ago was simply not to last.  So, what does the author think of Israel as it is, lo these many years later?

Today I am revulsed by Israel and its adoption of fascism. Yet the Jewish culture I remember is wonderful! Why have they destroyed it?

The author does not tell us just how it is that he thinks that Israel has adopted fascism.  Whatever the reason, however, this kind of thinking (which is quite prominent on the progressive-left) is what Professor Richard Landes refers to as "moral schadenfreude," which he defines as follows:

it is the core of the anti-Judaism I discussed above. It designates the thrill (frisson) that accompanies the ability to accuse Israel, to knock it off its moral pedestal, to announce (as one of my friends did repeatedly in the years after al Durah) “this time Israel’s lost the moral high ground.” Somehow there is a great pleasure that accompanies inflicting moral pain on the Jews. Somehow one gets great pleasure from being able to say, “You Jews, two thousand years you suffered persecution and no sooner do you get power, but you turn around and do it to the poor Palestinians. You’re just as bad as everyone else (off the pedestal), you’re as bad or worse than the Nazis (sadistic version).”

Landes believes that the source of this pleasure in anti-Jewish moral schadenfreude is a contemporary western secular form of moral supersessionism.  Superssionism was the belief that because the Jews have, in the case of Christians, rejected the divinity of Christ or, in the case of Muslims, have distorted the teachings of Allah while rejecting his Prophet, they have been replaced as the the "chosen people" by the Christians or by the Muslims, depending on who is doing the anti-Jewish accusing.

Landes writes:

One of the implications of this analysis is that the Western secular Left is also supersessionist, as in the case of Jostein Gaarder. In order to pose as the moral cutting edge of global consciousness, the Left seems to feel that putting Israel down makes them look good. Few cases make a stronger case that, imagining one can be a better person without believing in God, can lead one to disastrous moral immodesty. After all, all those Christians and Muslims who beat up on the Jews invoked their belief in God to justify their contempt and sense of moral superiority. So, having tossed aside God, we secular, atheist, progressives… beat up on Jews, thinking we’re morally superior.

Lethal Narratives are like rich truffles, so tasty that there seems an almost bottomless appetite for them, and the European intelligentsia are like a fat man with a 300+ cholesterol count who just can’t stop popping those yummy truffles of moral Schadenfreude. Jon Donnison tweets a picture of a dead Syrian baby as a dead Gaza baby. WTF? What business does a BBC correspondent have in participating in dead baby porn? Does he realize he’s playing the role of a picador, trying to spur the Arab bull into a rage so he’ll attack Israel?

In the various ways that progressives express hostility toward Israel, perhaps my very least favorite is when they do so out of alleged love for that country.  While parading their own moral superiority to the Jewish people they simultaneously help to lay the ideological foundation for the next round of violence against us.  Whatever his intention, the Daily Kos writer who tells the world that Israel has become a fascist state is, by logical necessity, also saying that it must therefore be destroyed.

There is only one thing to be done with fascist countries and it is precisely what the Allies did to Nazi Germany during World War II.  When people call Israel fascist, or claim that it has become something akin to Nazi Germany, what they are really saying is that it must be crushed... for its own good, of course.

Australia's Desertion of Israel --- Isi Leibler

geoffff

In the diplomatic debacle at the United Nations General Assembly pertaining to the vote of recognition to the Palestinian Authority, two countries considered solid supporters of Israel, abandoned us at the crucial moment.

Israel was shocked when Germany abstained, especially as Chancellor Angela Merkel had stated earlier that Germany would vote against the Palestinian initiative.

The other unexpected defection was the last moment abstention of Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s Labor government, considered a strong supporter of Israel.

On a few recent occasions, votes by Australia at the UN appeared to deviate from the norm, but this was rationalized as temporary pandering to the Arabs to solicit votes for elections to the Security Council.

The dramatic tilt against Israel was spearheaded by Foreign Minister Bob Carr who exerted enormous pressure on the Labor caucus and compelled Prime Minister Gillard to backtrack from her decision to oppose the Palestinian initiative. Had she not complied, she would have been humiliatingly defeated and possibly toppled as Prime Minister.

Carr was vigorously supported by former Labor Prime Minister Bob Hawke, at one time one of Israel’s greatest supporters, notorious (whilst inebriated) for having called on Israel to “nuke” the Palestinians if they failed to halt the terror. Hawke was intimately connected to Israel’s Labor leaders but after Menahem Begin was elected Prime Minister in 1977, he changed his views and today regards Israel as “intransigent”. He was supported by another veteran Labor politician, former Foreign Minister Gareth Evans, who since retiring from government has been consistently canvassing the Arab cause. Both fervently lobbied Labor ministers to repudiate Gillard’s policy.

Carr was only appointed to his post in March this year. Prior to that he had served for 11 years as Premier of Australia’s largest state, New South Wales.

Ironically, he was once considered a close friend of the Jewish community. He is knowledgeable about Jewish affairs and has a genuine and sensitive understanding of the Holocaust. In 1977, he was a founding member of the Labor Friends of Israel.

He subsequently became a passionate admirer of Amos Oz and appears to have absorbed much of his far left outlook on Israeli affairs.

In 2003, as State Premier, he dismayed the Jewish community and friends of Israel by presenting the Sydney Peace Prize to Palestinian political activist, Hanan Ashrawi, renowned for her rabid demonization of Israel.

Carr visited Israel in August this year meeting Israeli and Palestinian leaders including Ashrawi.

On his return to Australia, he raised eyebrows when he dispatched a delegation to Iran to solicit votes for Australia’s UN Security Council candidature. There were also unconfirmed rumors circulating that undertakings were made to the Arabs in return for their support.

His backing of Israel during the Gaza campaign was lukewarm. In the Senate, he made the astonishing statement: “Any response by Israel needs to be proportionate and not lead to civilian casualties. We have on more than a dozen occasions called on both sides to exercise restraint”.

Setting aside the moral equivalence inherent in this remark, he was effectively demanding that Israel - which more than any army in history goes out of its way to minimize civilian casualties - take no action to defend its citizens from missile attacks.

He was even more forthcoming after the UN vote when he proclaimed “I don’t apologize for the fact that Australia has interests in the Arab world. If we had voted no, that would have been a body blow to our interests in over 20 countries. The truth is they all see this as a bedrock issue.” He also dismissed suggestions that the Palestinians intended to exploit their new observer status to initiate charges of war crimes against Israel at the International Criminal Court.

Carr’s change of policy was confirmed when he joined the European bandwagon and hauled Israel’s Ambassador to Australia, Yuval Rotem over the coals following Israel’s decision to build homes in the Jerusalem suburbs and adjacent areas - which the Bush Administration had agreed should remain within Israel.

Australia has a long association of friendship with Israel dating back to Australian troops who served in Palestine during both World Wars. Labor leader Dr. H.V. Evatt was UN President in 1948 when the Jewish state was proclaimed and since then until today - with the exception of Prime Minister Gough Whitlam from 1972-1975, - successive Australian governments of all political persuasions, displayed strong friendship towards Israel.

The Liberal (conservative) government under Prime Minister John Howard, which governed Australia for 11 years prior to Labor’s electoral victory in 2007, was especially supportive of Israel and could be compared to the Harper Government in Canada today.

When Howard visited Israel in 2000, I had already made aliya and reluctantly accepted his invitation to accompany his delegation to meet with Arafat. Afterwards he solicited my opinion and I told him that I regarded Arafat as a duplicitous terrorist and did not believe he had any intention of seeking a peace settlement. I recall his response: “Should Arafat ever renege on the commitments to peace which he conveyed today, I give you a clear undertaking that as long as I am Prime Minister, the Jewish community and the people of Israel will never have reason to feel that I let them down”. Howard kept his word and in subsequent years emerged as Israel’s greatest champion amongst world statesmen.

Labor, headed by Kevin Rudd, gained office in 2007 and three years later was succeeded by Julia Gillard. Under both Prime Ministers, but especially Gillard, Labor maintained an evenhanded bipartisan approach towards Israel.

Much of this historical bipartisanship can be attributed to a vigorous Jewish community, renowned as being one of the most vibrant Zionist communities in the Diaspora. Its leadership has never failed, to speak upand take a principled stand on behalf of Israel when appropriate.

With close to 500,000 Moslems now living in Australia, many concentrated in key Labor Party electorates, their influence has impacted on a number of Labor Ministers. Combined with the vehement anti-Israeli orientation of the far left Labor factions, this enabled Carr to persuade the Cabinet to tilt its policy against Israel.

However it is premature to totally write off the Australian Labor Party. It has a long tradition of friendship towards Israel and many of its leaders were distressed with recent developments. Besides, although understandably disheartened, Prime Minister Julia Gillard remains solidly pro-Israel, reiterating her view that this abstention was a mistake and will only serve to embolden Palestinian extremists.

The opposition Liberal Party adamantly supports Israel. Former Prime Minister John Howard described the government’s tilt as “pathetic” and an “embarrassment”.

Elections are scheduled next year and recent polls indicate that the Liberals may win by a landslide.

But unless Gillard succeeds in persuading the Labor Party caucus to change its approach, in the short term Israel should not expect support from Australia under Foreign Minister Carr. Like many of our European “friends”, Carr may continue insisting that his motivations are based upon having the Jewish state’s security at heart and trying to save Israel from itself. But when the chips are down, he will abandon us as he did at the UN General Assembly

Obama Strikes Against Israel

Mike L.

{Cross-posted at Israel Thrives and Pro-Israel Bay Bloggers.}

Two different stories, one in the Times of Israel and one in Y-Net, infer that the Obama administration is now taking a measure of revenge on the Jewish State of Israel for daring to build housing for its citizenry in eastern Jerusalem.  Given Obama's objection to Israel fighting back against Hamas, it may also be the case that Obama is punishing Israel for daring to defend itself from the Hamas rocketeers.

According to the Times of Israel:

NEW YORK — A series of hard-hitting amendments that would have severely penalized the Palestinian Authority, along with several states and international bodies, for the successful bid last week to upgrade the PA’s status to a “nonmember observer state” at the UN failed to pass in the Senate Tuesday. One of the defeated amendments would have closed down the PLO’s office in Washington...

According to Capitol Hill observers familiar with the amendments, they were removed due to pressure from the White House. While the Obama administration actively opposed PA President Mahmoud Abbas’s UN General Assembly move — which saw a vote of 138-9 last Thursday in favor of upgrading “Palestine” to a nonmember observer state — it was concerned that the proposed amendments would limit its options when dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian issue going forward.

While it's unclear just how "actively" the White House actually opposed dictator Abbas's successful UNGA bid to see "Palestine" recognized as a non-member state, it does seem clear that Obama has, in fact, actively prevented the the US Senate from taking action in support of Israel.  This is fully consistent with Barack Obama's ongoing hostility toward that country.  Obama wrecked whatever potential that there may have been in a negotiated conclusion of hostilities through his demand for total settlement freeze.  He blamed Israel for his own miscalculations.  And he then went forward to help usher the Muslim Brotherhood into power in Egypt and, thereby, assisted the rise of political Islam throughout the Middle East.

According to Y-Net:

The European countries plan to impose sanctions on the Israeli government: Freezing agreements, labeling items that are manufactured in the settlements and lowering the level of diplomatic relations.

"In the aftermath of the decision to upgrade the Palestinians' status in the UN to that of a non-member observer state, Netanyahu acted like the leader of a criminal gang, not like the prime minister of a country that is a member of the world body," the European official said. "We were shocked by the decision to build (more housing units beyond the Green Line). It shows that all of Netanyahu's statements regarding the two-state solution idea are meaningless."

It is safe to say that the Washington is encouraging Europe's conduct. The White House authorized Europe to punish Netanyahu's government. This has nothing to do with Netanyahu's behavior during the US elections. The Obama administration realizes that a way must be found to jumpstart the negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians and reach an agreement.

It's difficult to draw hard and fast conclusions on stories such as the above.  Nonetheless, it is not unlikely that the Obama administration is taking behind the scenes actions against Israel as a punitive measure for green-lighting future homes in the eastern section of Jerusalem and for daring to defend itself during the recent conflict with Hamas.

Some will say, strangely enough, that smacking around Israel is good for the Jewish State.

There are any number of "progressives," including "progressive Zionists," who think that punishing Israel is the true yardstick of friendship and alliance with that country.  The more one smacks around Israel... for its own good, of course... the greater a friend one is.

I hope that I can perhaps be forgiven for doubting that a kick in the teeth is the behavior of a friend.

Barack Obama is no friend to the Jewish State of Israel, nor therefore a friend to the Jewish people, in general.

The evidence for this conclusion continues to mount, yet I am certain that it will continue to be ignored by Obama's "progressive Zionist" supporters.  Jeremy Ben-Ami and Peter Beinart must be very pleased.

Aussie Pollie Tells It As It Is

geoffff





This is a speech in the House of Representatives that deserves to be preserved and kept under glass:

Lifted from Hansard:


Thursday, 29 November 2012

Speaker Smith, Tony, MP




Mr TONY SMITH (Casey) (11:20): In so many ways the conflict between Israel and Hamas terrorists is a
struggle between the enlightened values of a modern democracy and the benighted values of mediaeval theocracy;

a struggle between Jerusalem, where women serve as Supreme Court justices, and Gaza, where a woman's sworn testimony is worth half that of a man's; a struggle between a government that rules by the ballot and a government that rules by the bullet;

a struggle between a society in which liberty of conscience is protected and a society in which freedom of speech is rejected.

At its essence it is a struggle between civilisation and barbarism.

These are harsh words but it is time for some straight talk, time to assess the cold, hard facts in the cold, hard light of day.

Those facts reveal that Hamas is an armed and dangerous terrorist movement with mass murder on its mind.It not only seeks the destruction of Israel as a political entity but also craves the extermination of every Jewish man, woman and child. You do not need to take my word for it. Article 7 of the Hamas covenant declares:

… the Islamic Resistance Movement aspires to realize the promise of Allah, no matter how long it takes. The
Prophet, Allah's prayer and peace be upon him, says: "The hour of judgment shall not come until the Muslims
fight the Jews … when the Jews hide behind trees and stones, and each tree and stone will say: 'Oh Muslim, ohservant of Allah, there is a Jew behind me, come and kill him' …

In other words, the official doctrine of Hamas preaches that the coming of the Mahdi, the Islamic redeemer, will be ushered in by divinely inspired genocidal slaughter of the Jews.

The movement is not very fond of gays either. Hamas foreign minister Mahmoud Zahar calls homosexuals 'a
minority of perverts and the mentally and morally sick'.

Nor has the Arab Christian community of Gaza fared too well under Hamas rule. There has not been a Christmas tree in the central square of Gaza City since Hamas seized total power in 2007. A few years ago the Palestinian Christian manager of a Gaza Bible Society bookstore was shot dead after being accused of evangelising on behalf of his faith. I note in passing that the invitation to this year's government staff Christmas party features a caricature of Tony Abbott as a green-faced grinch. But the real Grinch who stole Christmas is alive and well in Gaza, packing an AK-47 and wearing a green Hamas headband.

The contempt shown by Hamas for the most fundamental principles of liberty should come as no surprise.

Afterall, no-one should be surprised that theocrats do not turn out to be democrats. But what is astounding is the aid and comfort offered to hardline Islamic extremists by hardline Australian leftists. This past weekend a few hundred protesters assembled in Sydney to denounce Israel for having the temerity to defend itself from incessant Hamasrocket fire.

The Greens were there, Marxists were there and so were some jihadi sympathisers. It was bizarre tosee advocates of same-sex marriage parading shoulder to shoulder with advocates of a global caliphate who think that homosexuals should swing at the end of a rope. But as the TV footage showed, there were banners of the Greens and Socialist Alternative flying alongside the Hezbollah flag. Speaking from the podium was the most fanatical opponent of Israel in this parliament, Greens senator Lee Rhiannon.

While speaking on the Middle East,I would be remiss if I did not mention this government's disgraceful reversal of policy at the United Nations.

Foreign Minister Carr describes Australia's decision to abstain from the General Assembly vote on the elevationof Palestine's status as 'a good compromise'. But it was no compromise; it was a cave-in. It was a cave-in by a beleaguered Prime Minister prepared to sacrifice anything, including support for Israel, on the altar of her own political survival. We all want to see a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict but this will only be possible when those pledged to Israel's destruction finally see the error of their ways. The upgrade of Palestine'sstatus at the UN will set back the prospects of peace. It will embolden Palestinians to think they can get their way without any need to—[time expired]


A pity. I could have kept listening all day.

hat tip Shirlee

update

A letter to the Hon. Tony Smith MP


Dear Mr Smith,

On behalf of this blog's readers in the US, Canada, UK and especially in Australia I would like to warmly thank you for your courageous speech in the House of Representatives on 29 November 2012

For what it is worth it is now on the front page

Israel and the Jewish people of whom Israel is the heart need real friends now more than ever. We know about fair weather friends. The ones who turn away and fall silent while the attacks grow ever more vicious.

Again thank you

Sincerely

Che Gorilla

Tony Smith's website is here. Do drop him a line. Friends should not be taken for granted.

Australia and Israel

Shirlee Finn






A guest post from blog friend Shirlee.and a reminder that there are many good Christians (thanks Shirlee I needed that) --. lifted from Daphne Anson

The Montgomery Bible

 And the Sydney launch of Kelvin Crombie’s new book El Alamein and the Jewish Survival

Shirlee Finn

Little did I realise last Monday November 26th, when I went to State Parliament for the launch of Kelvin Crombie’s new book, El Alamein and the Jewish Survival, that I was in for such a special treat.

I must admit my main interest initially was to see the Tenach – Old Testament, which was presented to Field Marshal Montgomery as an official gift of gratitude for his role in saving the Jewish community in Palestine from the impending conquest by the German-led forces commanded by General Rommel.

Not only was it emotional seeing such a part of the history of Palestine, it was an extremely informative talk about the whole war time history of the region and how grateful the Jews of Mandate Palestine were to the Australian Forces keeping them safe.

The words on the inscription, attached to the Tenach and encased on the cover in silver and mother of pearl are:

"Field Marshal Viscount Montgomery, GCB, DSO, the gallant leader of the victorious forces by whose hand God has placed salvation in Zion in the days of El Alamein presented in token of the everlasting gratitude of Palestine Jewry by the Vaad Leumi, General Council of the Jewish Community in Palestine".

During the twenty-four years he lived in Israel Kelvin heard from dozens of older Jewish people about the importance of the battle of El Alamein for the survival of the Jewish people in the land of Israel. One of these was Professor Alex Carmel from Haifa University. In the late 1980s Kelvin and Prof. Carmel together tracked down the Tenach, which the Jewish leadership of Eretz Israel had given to General Montgomery after the victory at El Alamein, at the UK office of CMJ (Churches Ministry among Jewish People). It was hidden away and forgotten.

Recalled Kelvin:

"The parent organisation which owned Christ Church was CMJ, and during its two hundred years of existence had amassed a sizeable collection of artifacts which were mostly tucked away in an attic in their UK headquarters. One artifact, at least as far as this topic is concerned, stood out: the 'Montgomery Bible'. On one occasion in the late 1980's while visiting CMJ's UK office I was joined by an Israeli professor named Alex Carmel.

Alex informed me that once many years before he had been shown a special Bible belonging to General Montgomery On this visit I was determined to discover this special Bible, and finally one staff member recalled seeing it tucked away in a filing cabinet. So we opened the cabinet and there it was. It was a sight to behold — a beautifully made Hebrew Bible, with silver and mother of pearl on the cover."

 Kelvin brought this Bible back to Israel and displayed it in the museum at the Heritage Centre, of Christ Church in the Old City of Jerusalem, which he had established . He used it when lecturing Israeli groups about Gentile involvement in the restoration of Israel. Most of those gallant soldiers at El Alamein and other battles which fought the Axis (German and Italian) forces in the region were Gentiles – whose very presence hindered the penetration of the Holocaust into the Middle East.

It is currently in Australia in Kevin’s care for the 70th anniversary of the battle of El Alamein, fought in 1942.

Kelvin Crombie grew up in rural Western Australia, listening to stories of the Anzacs from uncles who served in the Middle East in the Australian Army during the Second World War; and also due to various direct Israeli connections such as an Israeli family on a nearby farm; and the Six Day War in 1967.

He subsequently went to Israel in 1979.  This in turn led to him developing a very keen interest in Israel and the Jewish people. He was not a practising Christian and he is not Jewish. He went to Israel in 1979, as he told me, because he was searching. In the process he found his faith in G-d. He met and married his Dutch wife in Israel, where they lived for 24 years and raised their four daughters.

In 1986 Kelvin was asked by to become the guide at Christ Church, the Anglican church in the old City of Jerusalem, hosting thousands of people monthly, including secular Israelis studying the beginning of modern history in Jerusalem and the land of Israel.

As a guide he not only lectured these numerous groups but also had to undertake considerable research. During this research he discovered numerous historical artifacts. These included several large and unique models of Jerusalem as well as the largest portrait of Jerusalem, the 1879 Jerusalem Panorama, a painting, and the very special Montgomery Bible. One model, discovered by Kelvin in 1986, was made in Jerusalem in 1864; it revealed a tunnel going under Christ Church. In that same year, 1986, the tunnel was re-discovered, but not excavated.

Kelvin pioneered the "In the footsteps of the Light Horse" tours, doing his first of over hundred tours to Beersheba in 1988. In 2007 he was one of the main instigators of the re-enactment of the Charge of Beersheba and was the guide for the Light Horse tour. He periodically guided or spoke to Australian diplomatic, military and trade delegations visiting Israel.

He has written five books concerning the history of the period in Israel after 1798, mostly associated with the British and Anzacs, and has co-produced several documentaries on the same subject. His main work on the Anzacs is entitled Anzacs, Empires and Israel's Restoration 1798-1948.

In 1992 Kelvin travelled to El Alamein and together with Allied, German and Italian veterans recalled the 50th anniversary of this battle. Shortly afterwards during a meeting with the then Israeli prime minister, Yitzhak Rabin, he spoke of his visit to El Alamein. Rabin then spoke quite passionately about the danger that faced the Jewish people in Eretz Israel had the Germans won at El Alamein. A similar attitude was voiced by General Uzi Narkiss (the commander of the Israeli forces who captured Jerusalem in 1967) when Kelvin also interviewed him. It was clear that this sentiment was known by every section of the Jewish community who lived in the land of Israel during that traumatic period.

This present book goes more in-depth on this subject matter than his two previous books relating to the Middle East during the Second World War (Anzacs, Empires and Israel’s Restoration 1798-1948 and Israel) and includes more material from German sources. Apart from providing historical data, it reveals some of the motives behind this Nazi-Muslim agenda for destroying the Jewish communities of the Middle East. This aspect is important as similar forces of evil are still in evidence today.

El Alamein and the Jewish Survival was launched at Christ Church in Jerusalem early in November; in the House of Lords in London that same month, at a meeting convened by the present Viscount Montgomery; this past week in Parliament House in Sydney; and 2nd December at the Friends of Israel Western Australia "Gallipoli to Jerusalem Day" in Perth. It is also planned to have the "Montgomery Bible" on display at these functions.

There is so much more to this very interesting man. Over the years Kelvin has become involved with other ANZAC military heritage and commemoration projects in Israel. He is a participating member of the Association of the Heritage of the First World War and was one of the initiators of the 2007 Ride of Peace and re-enactment of the 1917 Light Horse charge at Beersheba where he guided the seventy-strong group of horsemen.

Kelvin is occasionally asked by the Australian Embassy, the Australia/Israel Jewish Affairs Council, the Israel-Australia Chamber of Commerce, the Australian Army and others (including recently a WA Government delegation) to provide exposure to visiting delegations concerning the ANZAC involvement in the land of Israel.

He has also completed in conjunction with the Hatikvah Film Trust a documentary detailing this entire story entitled "From Exile to Restoration" (in Britain, "The Destiny of Britain", and in USA, "The Cyrus Call").

Living in Israel ---- elinor

                                                                                                    אלינור                                                                     

The one thing I most wanted to do when I moved to Israel was to live alone. I had gone from my father’s home to my husband’s home and the sound of nothing at all called to me. In those days, flats were scarce and even harder to find. Unlike in my home cities, there were no TO LET (Canada) or FOR RENT (USA) signs in the windows of empty flats—indeed, there were virtually no empty flats in Jerusalem. There were, however, several ways of finding whatever there was. The Jerusalem POST advertised a few; there were lively rumours floating around and there was an agency downtown called SHE’AL, which means ‘ask’. And ask I did, arriving there at sunrise to look at the listings—or more often over the shoulders of younger and better Hebrew speakers at the brief and discouraging register. Didn’t work.

My daughter kindly took me in until further notice, as it was she who initiated my move to the Holy Land, and no good deed goes unpunished. I searched and hunted and six weeks later found a furnished flat—2 bedrooms, dining, living rooms and a kitchen just big enough. Didn’t know what to do with the second bedroom because the ‘furnished’ part ended with the first. Jerusalem does not build for singles.

There was no telephone and no hope of one for three months. I thought that was terrific—reading without interruption, no jumping out of the tub to answer wrong numbers, although when I did get a phone it had the former number of an electrical industry and I leapt out of beds, tubs and hallways until I realized that I didn’t know enough people to justify that behaviour. I washed my laundry by hand and hung it out the window. If I missed the line, it was a walk of three flights of stairs down to rescue my dripping wet and then filthy articles. I cleaned the floors with a sink sponge because I didn’t know the Hebrew for ‘mop’. No TV, just my radio/tape player, a stack of favourite performers and lots of books. It was heaven.

Miriam, my gentle, elderly next-door neighbour, spoke Polish, Yiddish and Hebrew; I made do with English and French. She assured my daughter that she’d look after me—I couldn’t imagine how the needs of a North American psychiatric researcher could be met by an Orthodox woman 20 years older and cultures apart, but she was dedicated and I was grateful.

Coming home on my first day in the flat I flipped on the lights and blew every one of them. I looked for the fuse box but it was so dark I couldn’t find anything, so I knocked on Miriam’s door and pointed to the chasm I’d hoped to fill with light. Ah! she cried, Hafuzim!! Of course. Hafuzim were located in the vast flat cupboard along the passage to our doors and revealed a panoply of fuse-boards from the year dot to the present. As we searched for the one that might help me, neighbours began to come home and of course all stopped to identify (but not mark) their own, give undoubtedly good advice or just clutter up the narrow hallway as we experimented with each fuse box. At last, my lights came on. One man said (in English, where had he been?): Call your landlord, that shouldn’t have happened. Please tell Miriam, I begged, I don’t have a phone. That started an entirely new commotion. Of course I had to turn immediately into Miriam’s apartment—without the requisite phone number. Go explain.

Landlords in Israel are generally as contentious as in any country but Jerusalem landlords are tough as can be. Lucky me, I had a sweetheart of a one who promised to come up from his home in Be’er Sheva ASAP.

Friday morning, early, the landlord arrived with his giant wife, three children and a baby. He installed a new fuse box—the envy of all the neighbours. Collecting his children he apologized for the American toilet roll strewn over the flat—they had never seen such a remarkable item. I thanked him profusely, or should I say pro-fuse-ly… 

cross posted Israel Thrives

Sorting the antizionists from the antisemites.

geoffff

As if both are not the exact same thing. Bigots and racists from the "right side of history".  At least they are determined to make it "right".

I don't read the Fairfax press (the most non-antisemitic newspapers in Australia -- they are always pre-emptively  denying it) so I missed this.

At the very height of Pillar of Cloud, while Israelis were defending themselves as best they could from attacks on their  civilians including quite deliberately children, without hurting alien civilians, including children used as shields by Nazi inspired terrorists,  Australia's most famous non-antisemitic cartoonist drew this:



The Palestinians are the Jews and the Jews are the Nazis. How very clever. And as for Michael Leunig?

He is Pastor Martin Niemoller himself. What a good Christian. He used to be a Nazi too but after he was imprisoned by the other Nazis and Germany lost the war he stopped.

Leunig proclaims passionately he is not an antisemite. He is a Christian he says and he will swear on his Christian bible he is not an antisemite. Perhaps his Christian bible is the problem.

You are an antisemite Michael Leunig and it is not bitter or spiteful at all to call you on this. It is just terribly terribly sad. He deserves a wider audience.


cross posted Israel Thrives

.

From the wrong side of history ...

geoffff

A 2004 article by former ALP federal minister Barry Cohen straight from the "wrong side of history".

We do not know what side of history,  Gareth Evans, Bob Carr and the ALP believe is the right side. They do not say exactly.   Likely it is too obscene to even think about.

The Anti-Semitic Labor Party

October 25, 2004

Page Tools

Former ALP minister Barry Cohen used to be proud of his party because it fought prejudice. Not any longer.

It's a sepia-toned family portrait taken in the late 1930s of Mendel and Mindel Kozerwoder and their children Itzek, Charna, Malka, Mania, Yidel, Moishe and baby Faigele. There's nothing unusual about it but it is very precious to me, for they are all members of my family who, with one exception, perished in the crematoriums of Chelmno and Auschwitz.

Clasped in the hands of my great-uncle is a photograph of my grandparents, Moishe and Zelda Kozerwoder. Itzek, the only survivor, gave me the photograph after I returned from a visit to Poland, during which I went to the villages of Pajcczno and Dzialoszyn, from which my grandparents departed in the late 1890s. Their travels took them to England, South Africa (where my father was born) and finally to Australia, just after the outbreak of World War I.

The photo is the only image I have of the many members of my family who were murdered by the Nazis. When I look at it my emotions range from gut-wrenching pain to seething rage. It has ensured that I belong to that school of Jewish resolve whose motto is "never again".

There is nothing special about what happened to me and my family. Many Jewish families suffered the same fate.

I became aware of the Holocaust in 1944 as the Allied armies swept across Europe and liberated the death camps. I was only nine years old but I can still recall the pain I felt as I watched the newsreels of the emaciated survivors and the mountains of corpses.

Soon afterwards I was sent to boarding school to prepare for my bar mitzvah. There was a noticeable shortage of synagogues in the country town of Griffith, NSW, where I was born and where my father was the local dentist.

Gradually, Labor's Left and more extremist elements became increasingly shrill in their denunciation of Israel.

My introduction to anti-Semitism commenced on my first day at school. The school sergeant refereed three fights between myself and classmates who called me "a dirty f---ing Jew". I was lucky. Bloody noses and black eyes were nothing compared to what happened to those members of my family who did not have the prescience to depart Europe as my grandparents had done

It didn't, however, make it easier to ignore the taunts and the occasional vicious remark that came at the most unexpected moments and from the most unexpected quarters. Like most Jews in a predominantly Christian society, I developed a defence mechanism to cope. Humour was one weapon. Knowing the history and roots of anti-Semitism was another. So, too, was the pride in seeing the survivors of the Holocaust recreating a Jewish nation for the first time in 2000 years.

The survivors of the camps, a million Jews expelled from Arab countries and idealists from all over the Diaspora overcame the combined Arab military forces to ensure that not only did Jews have a haven, but one that was free and democratic. Israel has remained that way, in stark contrast to its Arab neighbours.

Australia is probably the least anti-Semitic country in the world, but what happened to my family made a deep impression on me. I became obsessive about discrimination; be it fighting for civil rights in the US, or against apartheid or the appalling treatment of our indigenous people.

I was, however, an armchair critic mouthing off endlessly about what the government should do.
Then a friend hit a sensitive nerve. "What are you doing about it?" he asked. It wasn't difficult to decide. I knew the enemy was on the political right: Nazis, fascists, conservatives, whether from the extreme right that led to the Holocaust or the social exclusion practised by the genteel middle class.

In 1964 I joined the ALP. Not that the Labor Party of the early 1960s was a beacon of light, for there were many ALP members still steeped in the White Australia philosophy and indifferent to the suffering of Aborigines. But those who spoke up about such injustices were almost all from the ALP.

By the time I arrived in Canberra in 1969 as the MP for Robertson I felt at home in the company of those led by Gough Whitlam, who forced the Labor Party to change.

However, I can still recall the wry amusement my opposition to apartheid caused colleagues.


I was accused of being obsessive on the question of racism and to that charge I plead guilty. I became deeply involved in the fight for Aboriginal rights and to this day one of the proudest moments of my life was to be one of a small group of "yesterday's heroes, looking frail and aged", who were brought on stage at the Reconciliation Conference in Melbourne in 1997 to be honoured for our work in the 1967 referendum.


I have often been asked if my being Jewish was ever an issue during my 20 years in Federal Parliament. Not to the best of my knowledge. I cannot recall a single anti-Semitic remark from either side of the House. That did not mean that everyone agreed with my views on Israel. Nor did I expect them to. However, while my views remain the same, the Labor Party's these days are very different.

The Labor Party has always had Palestinian supporters but they used to have little influence on the party's policy. They were more than counter-balanced by the influence of then ACTU president Bob Hawke. In the immediate aftermath of the Yom Kippur War and before my first visit to Israel I attended a meeting he addressed in Sydney. I have not heard a more passionate, nor better informed, defence of Israel or more scathing indictment of its opponents.

Convinced that MPs could understand Israel's problems better if they went there, I organised a series of delegations. By the time I retired in 1990 more than half the ALP caucus had visited Israel.

But gradually, Labor's Left and more extremist elements, such as the Greens and Democrats, became increasingly shrill in their denunciation of Israel. I found out what Israel was up against when representing Australia at Inter-Parliamentary Union conferences from 1973 until 1981. Created to foster peace and democracy, the union was dominated by communist dictatorships, Third World "democracies" and the 22 Arab countries. Every IPU conference devoted a major part of its sessions to denouncing Israel.

It was a mirror image of the UN, whose obsession with Israel was aptly illustrated by Israeli ambassador Abba Eban when he said: "If a resolution was put before the UN that the earth was flat and that Israel caused it, 145 would vote for it, five against with 45 abstentions."

That trend has infected the ALP. The handful of pro-Palestinian supporters has grown steadily as the party has become dominated by the education mafia; former public servants and party union apparatchiks.

Plenty will say: "Why shouldn't the Labor Party support the Palestinians?" No reason, providing the case they put is not based on the lies spouted by the Palestinian propaganda machine.

Nowhere is Israel subjected to more criticism than in Israel. Demonstrations in excess of 100,000 are regularly held in Rabin Square. Supporters of the Peace Now movement have protested in support of Palestinians. In contrast, when Jews have been massacred by terrorists there have been wild celebrations in the Arab streets.

How can any social democrat ignore such barbarism? There are Labor MPs who are vigorous supporters of Israel but their numbers are diminishing and they are being drowned out by the more vociferous members of Labor's hard Left.

When Australian Jews respond to the grotesque exaggeration about Israel, we are accused of being part of the "Jewish lobby". Israel's opponents in Australia now include those who support the Palestinians not for ideological reasons but because of the increased number of Arab voters in their electorates.

This trend reached a crescendo in the aftermath of September 11. For me September 11 was the clearest demarcation ever between good and evil. Yet many Australians could not contain their glee that at last "the Yanks had got their just deserts".

I have never been able to fathom the vicious anti-Americanism that permeates so much of Western society. Despite all their faults, Americans have been the one constant bastion against totalitarianism of the right and left. Does anyone doubt that fascism and communism would have been defeated without the US? From the left's point of view, the triumph over communism has been America's greatest crime.

The disintegration of the Soviet Union and the revelation that matters were far worse than even the Americans had claimed, forced the left to face up to the fact that for decades their defence of tyrants such as Stalin, Mao, Pol Pot, Castro et al was inexcusable. There were no apologies, however. Being on the left means never having to say you're sorry or admit you're wrong. This goes a long way to explaining their attacks on George Bush, Tony Blair and John Howard, while ignoring the monstrous crimes of the Assads, Saddams, Gaddafis and other Arab despots. The war on terrorism and the war on Iraq have given the left a new lease on life.

But this time it has a new twist, a distinctly anti-Semitic one. It surfaced immediately after September 11 and was summed up in comments by Sydney Morning Herald columnist Alan Ramsey, who suggested that the cause of September 11 was America's Middle East policies and their failure to rein in the Israelis. This has been repeated ad nauseam by one left/liberal commentator after another.

Israeli scientist Haim Harari nailed this nonsense in a speech earlier this year: "The millions who died in the Iraq-Iran war had nothing to do with Israel. The mass murder happening right now in Sudan, where the Arab Muslim regime is massacring its black Christian citizens, has nothing to do with Israel. The frequent reports from Algeria about the murders of hundreds of civilians in one village or another by other Algerians have nothing to do with Israel. Saddam did not invade Kuwait, endanger Saudi Arabia and butcher his own people because of Israel . . .
The Taliban control of Afghanistan and the civil war there had nothing to do with Israel. I could go on and on."

Anyone who believes that "reining in the Israelis" will bring peace and prosperity to the Middle East should change their medication. The ranting and raving, common among the extreme right, has been taken up with gusto by the left. When it started to infect the social democratic wing of the Labor Party I became extremely worried.

There will be those in the ALP who will say "our policies support Israel's right to exist, so what are you complaining about?" That's not good enough. Not for me.

I'm sick of the calumny heaped on Israel - most of which is a pack of lies. I'm sick of Labor leaders making all the right noises to Jewish audiences while an increasing number of backbenchers launch diatribes at Israel. When the likes of Labor MP Tanya Plibersek rise in the House of Representatives and call Ariel Sharon "a war criminal" and Israel a "rogue state", or Opposition whip Janice Crosio makes the absurd claim that Israeli forces had destroyed Bethlehem, Nablus and the Jenin refugee camp, I want to hear more than stony silence from those in the Labor Party who say they support Israel. Some do. Most don't.

How long is it since any Labor leader gave the sort of passionate and accurate defence of Israel we used to hear from Hawke or Kim Beazley?

I don't want even-handedness when it ought to be obvious to all but the blind that there is no moral equivalence between a country that seeks to defend its citizens from thousands of terrorist attacks, and the terrorists themselves. I want to hear Labor MPs stand up and be counted. I want to see an end to well-known Labor identities marching behind banners equating Israel with Nazism.

Silence on these issues isn't good enough for me. If people want to criticise Israel, fine - plenty of Israelis do. But let it be reasoned criticism, and if they want even-handedness let them also berate the Arab world for its denial of basic human rights for any of its citizens.

Let's hear the Labor feminists take the Arab nations to task for their abominable treatment of women. Let's hear those Labor supporters, who are so loud in their denunciation of homophobia, demand an end to the barbaric treatment of gays. Let's also hear civil rights activists bemoan the lack of basic freedoms available to most of the 300 million Arabs in the 22 Arab countries.

There will be some who will argue that I am exaggerating; that the evidence is sparse; that this typical Jewish paranoia. Not at all. It came from the horses' mouths, and the head horses at that. Before the Iraq war one of the most senior NSW right-wing MPs told me: "I understand and support Israel's position, but in my group, I'm the only one."

Soon after I told a Labor legend: "Anti-Semitism is now rampant in the Labor Party." I expected a vigorous denial. His response confirmed my worst fear: "I know," he said
.
For better or worse my character and life were shaped by the anti-Semitism I experienced as a boy and a young man. I was proud to belong to a party that fought all forms of prejudice. Not any longer.

The Australian Labor Party can choose any path it likes. So can I.

Barry Cohen was arts minister in the Hawke government. A longer version of this article (which Barry Cohen asked not be published until after the federal election) first appeared in the Australian Jewish News

Open Letter to British Foreign Secretary William Hague

geoffff

It could just as easily be written to Bob Carr. I hereby openly redirect it. This is an open letter open redirection to the Australian Foreign Minister.

As an aside, remember when the ALP seemed the natural home of the Australian Jews?  Mark this day.

It marks the end of all that. The Liberal Party of Australia* will be the principal beneficiary of yesterday's UN vote in more ways than one.

From Mindy Weisenberg

Dear Mr Hague 

You have stated that if Israel tries to defend its population through a ground offensive in Gaza "it risks losing the sympathy of the international community." 

Let me tell you something about the sympathy of the international community Mr Hague. My father was liberated from Buchenwald concentration camp in 1945, having lost his entire family but gaining the sympathy of the international community at the time. After 6 million Jews had been annihilated at the hands of the Nazi regime, the international community had plenty of sympathy for the Jewish people. There is always plenty of sympathy for victims. 

Israel doesn't need the sympathy of the international community. What it needs is to defend its citizens. 

When as a tiny country it gained its independence in 1948 it had to absorb 800,000 Jews who were thrown out of Arab lands in the Middle East, and it did so without fuss and with dignity giving them shelter and a place of security in which their children could grow up to become productive citizens. When Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon and Syria tried to destroy Israel in 1948 and again in 1967 they took in hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Arabs, but did they give them dignity or shelter? No they left them to rot in refugee camps in order to maintain a symbol of grievance against Israel and use them as a political tool against the Jewish state.. What has arisen in those camps is a complicated situation, but it is what has led to Gaza today. 

So don't lecture Israel on international sympathy Mr Hague. Not when Israel has just sent in 120 truck loads of food into Gaza to feed the Palestinian people there, because their own leadership is more interested in using its population as human shields, launching rockets against Israel from within major civilian centres. 

Don't lecture Israel on international sympathy Mr Hague. Not when Israel targets with as much military precision as it can, only terrorists and their bases, trying its utmost to prevent civilian casualties. 

Don't lecture Israel on international sympathy Mr Hague. Not when the Palestinian media deliberately uses images of victims of the Syrian civil war and presents them as casualties in Gaza to gain international sympathy. 

Go read your history books Mr Hague, go see that since the beginning of the twentieth century all the Arabs wanted to do was destroy Israel. Go look at the country of Israel now since the Jews have established a state there. Go read what advances in science, medicine, biotechnology, agriculture and high tech Israel has developed, and dedicated that knowledge to making the world a better place for humanity. Can you imagine any other country that after 60 years of continuously being under attack could have achieved so much. 

So Mr Hague don't lecture Israel on international sympathy. Israel will do whatever it takes to defend itself from outright attack on its citizens, whether it be from Hamas, Hizbollah, Iran or any other country or terrorist group that attacks it. 

And if it loses the sympathy of the international community so be it. We don't need the international community's sympathy. We don't need another 6 million victims. 

Yours sincerely 

MINDY WIESENBERG 


hat tip Israel Thrives

update

*This may not be entirely true. The other significant beneficiary so far is the Israeli construction industry.

A good day's work.

Facts about Islamophobia in Europe

geoffff