Blatantly Offensive Anti-Holocaust Stance

The Hamas and Fatah leadership came out in strong opposition to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency’s (UNRWA) new plan to include WWII and holocaust education into the Palestinian curriculum in their schools across the West Bank and Gaza.  To receive such vehement opposition to educating Palestinian youth about one of the worst chapters in human history is very disheartening.  We expect such morally reprehensive opposition from the Jihadi Hamas, but when it also comes from our “partners for peace” in Fatah, we are simply left hanging our heads in dismay.  The Palestinians have outwardly refered to the Holocaust as a “big lie” and claim that it is only used to gain sympathy for the Jewish cause.  This is a very sad gauge on the state of affairs between Israelis and Palestinian Arabs.  How can there be peace with someone who denies our very (recent) history?

For the full story:

http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=210371

A Nice Piece about Life in Israel from the NYTimes

This was a front page story today in the New York Times.  It covered a very meaningful and nice angle of the Israeli narrative. 

By DAVID LASKIN

Published: September 29, 2010

 

CHAIM KAHANOVICH, an 18-year-old Polish Jew, caught his first brown glimpse of the Holy Land from the deck of a steamer in November 1924. He would never leave. Dark-haired, short and solid, Chaim brought with him a teenager’s blazing passion and an ideologue’s stubborn commitment to a cause. The long, slow journey had taken him from Warsaw by train to the Black Sea port of Constanta, then by ship through the Bosporus Straits and across the Mediterranean to Palestine. There at last, rising like the back of an ox from the blue water of Haifa Bay, was the sere ridge of Mount Carmel — the Promised Land….

For the rest of the article:

http://travel.nytimes.com/2010/10/03/travel/03Israel.html

More Effort to Harass Israel on the World Stage

From the WSJ: “Israel is believed to be the only Middle East country to possess atomic weapons. Its government neither confirms nor denies their existence.”

 Israel has allegedly maintained nuclear weapons for almost 4 decades.  Had they wanted to use them for aggressive and hostile purposes or posturing, the world would have seen that already.  Unlike Iran, and every other Middle Eastern country, Israel does not parade its long range missiles down its main city streets, nor do its government leaders loudly preach utter annihilation and destruction to its enemies.  Instead this society produces more Nobel Laureates, technological advancements, and medical breakthroughs per capita than any other nation on earth.  Yet somehow, someone is feeling threatened by Israel’s alleged Nuclear arms? 

 Israel’s silent and secret nuclear program is to ensure that Jews will not face another attempted genocide or holocaust this century.  What is Iran’s excuse for very publicly developing long range missiles, preaching destruction to Israel, and producing nuclear fuel? 

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704505804575484001714966966.html?mod=WSJ_World_LEFTSecondNews

New Perspectives on an Old, Yet Relevant, Scandal

At War With Itself

By LEO DAMROSCH

DREYFUS

Politics, Emotion, and the Scandal of the Century

By Ruth Harris

Illustrated. 542 pp. Metropolitan Books/Henry Holt & Company. $35

French Jewish Officer, Dreyfus, Served 4 years on Devil's Island on false charges

The scandal known as the Dreyfus Affair still resonates after more than a century, though it has been blurred for most Americans by time and distance. It is the goal of the Oxford historian Ruth Harris to extricate the story from the myths it has generated, on both the left and the right, and to trace its tortuous evolution from 1894 to 1906 in all of its human complexity. Combining an even-tempered tone with generosity of imagination, she has achieved that goal, charting a steady course through the voluminous literature that the affair inspired and exploring the reactions of scores of soldiers, politicians, journalists, salonnières and ordinary citizens. A helpful “Dramatis Personae” at the end of the book lists nearly 150 people, all of whom are given substantial treatment during the course of the narrative.

Alfred Dreyfus grew up in a wealthy Jewish family in Alsace, a disputed eastern territory that many French people regarded as covertly German. He was 10 years old at the time of the Prussian invasion in 1870, when the French Army suffered a humiliating defeat, and he remained fiercely patriotic ever after, which motivated his choice of a military career. Intent on improving its leadership, the army began to promote officers on the basis of success in examinations rather than through the old-boy network, and Dreyfus was one of those selected for special training. The old-boy network was predictably resentful, especially when beneficiaries of the new policy were Jews, who numbered fewer than 100,000 in a nation of 38 million and were regarded by many as an insidious “enemy within.”

On Oct. 14, 1894, a few days after his 35th birthday, Captain Dreyfus spent the evening in his Paris apartment with his wife, Lucie, and their two young children. The next morning he was summoned unexpectedly to headquarters, subjected to a bewildering interrogation and placed under arrest. During the star-chamber trial that followed, he was never permitted to know the actual charges against him, which were based entirely on a torn-up bordereau, or memorandum, that a cleaning woman had retrieved from the wastebasket of the German military attaché. It was clear that someone was offering to sell low-level secrets to the Germans, and a chain of flimsy circumstantial evidence was said to point to Dreyfus. He wasn’t short of money and wasn’t entangled with women, two of the most frequent motives for espionage at the time, but his superiors decided that the handwriting on the bordereau was his, and an Alsatian-Jewish scapegoat was convenient.

For the rest of the book review:  http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/books/review/Damrosch-t.html?_r=1&ref=world

An Amazing Piece of Support in the WSJ

Israel: A Normal Country

Hostility to the Jews has been a stain on the Western world’s honor for centuries.

The following statement has been signed by Jose Maria Aznar, David Trimble, John R. Bolton, Alejandro Toledo, Marcello Pera, Andrew Roberts, Fiamma Nirenstein, George Weigel, Robert F. Agostinelli and Carlos Bustelo:

 Israel is a Western democracy and a normal country. Nonetheless, Israel has faced abnormal circumstances since its inception. In fact, Israel is the only Western democracy whose existence has been questioned by force, and whose legitimacy is still being questioned independently of its actions.

 The recent flotilla crisis in the Mediterranean provided yet another occasion for Israel’s detractors to renew their frenzied campaign. It was so even before the facts of that tragic incident had come to light. Eyes were blind to the reasons why Israel had to respond to the Gaza flotilla’s clear provocation.

 Because we believe Israel is subjected to unfair treatment, and are convinced that defending Israel means defending the values that made and sustain our Western civilization, we have decided to launch the Friends of Israel Initiative. Our goal is to bring reason and decency back to the discussion about Israel. We are an eclectic group, coming from different countries and holding different opinions on a range of issues. It goes without saying that we do not speak for the State of Israel and we do not defend every course of action that it decides upon. We are united, however, by the following beliefs, principles and aims:

 First, Israel is a normal, Western democracy and should be treated as such. Its parliamentary system, legal traditions, education and scientific research facilities, and cultural achievements are as fundamental to it as to any other Western society. Indeed, in some of these areas, Israel is a world leader.

 Second, attempts to question Israel’s basic legitimacy as a Jewish state in the Middle East are unacceptable to people who support liberal democratic values. The State of Israel was founded in the wake of United Nations Resolution 181, passed in 1947. It also arose out of an unbroken Jewish connection to the land that stretches back thousands of years. Israel does not derive its legitimacy, as some claim, from sympathy over the Holocaust. Instead, it derives legitimacy from international law and from the same right to self-determination claimed by all nations.

 Third, as a fully legitimate member of the international community, Israel’s basic right to self-defense should not be questioned. Nor should it be forgotten that Israel faces unique security threats—from terror groups such as Hezbollah and Hamas, and from an Iran seeking nuclear weapons.

 United Nations condemnations of Israel arising from last year’s Goldstone Report on the recent war in Gaza, for example, ignore the security challenges that Israel faces. All democracies should oppose such campaigns, which ultimately undermine the legitimacy not merely of Israel but of the U.N. itself.

 Fourth, we must never forget that Israel is on our side in the battle against Islamism and terror. Israel stands on the front line of that fight as a bulwark of Judeo-Christian values. The belief that the democratic world can sacrifice Israel in order to placate Islamism is profoundly wrong and dangerous. Appeasement failed in the 1930s and it will fail today.

 Fifth, attempts by people of good faith to facilitate peace between Israel and the Palestinians are always to be supported. But outsiders should beware of attempting to impose their own solutions. Israelis and Palestinians should know how to build a viable peace on their own. We can help them, but we cannot force them.

 Sixth, we must be alive to the dangers that the campaign against Israel poses in reawakening anti-Semitism. Hostility to the Jews has been a stain on the Western world’s honor for centuries. It is a matter of basic self-respect that we actively confront and oppose new manifestations of an old and ugly problem.

 The Friends of Israel Initiative has come together to encourage men and women of goodwill to reconsider their attitudes toward the Jewish state, and to relocate those attitudes inside the best of Western traditions rather than the worst. We urge them to recognize that it is in our own best interests that an increasingly jaded relationship between Israel and many of the world’s other liberal democracies is rescued and reinvigorated before it is too late for us all.

 Mr. Aznar is a former prime minister of Spain. Mr. Trimble is a former first minister of Northern Ireland. Mr. Bolton is a former U.S. ambassador to the U.N. Mr. Toledo is a former president of Peru. Mr. Pera is a former president of the Italian Senate. Mr. Roberts is a British historian. Ms. Nirenstein is vice-president of the Committee on Foreign Affairs in the Italian Chamber of Deputies. Mr. Weigel is a senior fellow at the Ethics and Public Policy Center. Mr. Agostinelli is managing director of the Rhône Group. Mr. Bustelo is a former minister of industry in Spain.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704862404575351430715581608.html?mod=WSJ_Opinion_LEFTTopOpinion 

The Passing of a National Hero

This morning I learned of the passing of Zvi Shafir ז”ל, the grandfather of good friends of mine here in Israel. This man was a great representative of a fantastic generation here who pioneered the establishment of the modern Nation of Israel. He was one of the lucky Jewish refugees from a morally tattered Europe who made it to then Palestine and toiled to create this country for the generations to come. Zvi was part of a generation who will hold legendary status in the lengthy annals of Jewish history. It is of my opinion that proper tribute can hardly be paid to Zvi and the many others of his time who created a new future, pride, and a hope of surviving and prospering for the Jewish People. I feel lucky to have known him. His passing simply highlights how my young generation must truly cherish the opportunity to still sit and learn first-hand of the tribulations of those times over 60 years ago.

Please take some time to watch this incredible video interview produced just weeks before his death by his granddaughters:

Zvi’s Memories from Gustavo Sales on Vimeo.

Our Nation is Forever Indebted

If not for the undaunted courage of Miep Gies, the world-changing diary of Anne Frank would not have survived, or perhaps ever have been written at all. Anne’s diary is undoubtedly the most widely known personal message that survives from the Holocaust. This story sheds an unequivocal light on the futile struggle for survival faced by all the Jews of Europe during the war. The story, or rather the printed book form, is a priceless element in the historical narrative of the Jewish People, and has told the world of our plight in those dark days like nothing else could.

We owe a collective gratitude to Miep Gies and the thousands of others like her that not only saw what was right and wrong, but acted upon it.

Some articles related to her passing at the age of 100:

http://haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1142077.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/12/world/europe/12gies.html?scp=1&sq=miep%20gies&st=cse

Magen David Adom, Tel Aviv

An exposure like no other.

As an active volunteer EMT with MDA Tel Aviv, Israel, I see the inner workings of the city from the streets to people’s homes. As a new immigrant in this society, no other experience has so intimately introduced me to the city and the country as a whole. It provides me with a unique cultural exposure by entering peoples homes across all strata of society.

With much of the “clientele” being elderly, this has given me a great opportunity to learn their amazing stories. This is the generation who escaped the persecutions of Europe and elsewhere in the world and established this country.

For example, this last Sunday during my shift on the intensive care ambulance, we took an 87 year old woman to the hospital with chest pain and other irregularities. On the way, I was responsible for monitoring her status as closely as possible. One of the best ways I have learned to do that is just by talking conversationally.
Captivating my imagination, she told me of her journey through British displaced persons camps in Cyprus as a Holocaust refugee from Poland. Glaring at the wrinkled blue tattoo of still legible numbers in the center of her forearm, what she described to me was the long story short. She came through the flames and built this place from scratch.

This incredible generation is, sadly and inevitably, being taken to the hospital by day and night more than I’d like to admit. I am profoundly grateful for my exposure to their lives and stories, and realize that this is an opportunity that will not exist for my children.

The stories and experiences must live on through us.

More on this to be posted soon…