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93.5% of Jews Say Goldstone Report is Biased
(IsraelNN.com) Seventy-nine percent of Israel's Jewish public disagrees with the Goldstone report's claim that the IDF committed war crimes in Operation Cast Lead in Gaza, according to a new survey by Tel Aviv University. Only 5% of the Arab sector disagreed with the war crimes claim.
The poll found that Israeli Jews familiar with the Goldstone report's main conclusion were almost unanimous in the opinion that the report was biased against the IDF: 61% of the Jews were aware of Goldstone's major finding, and 93.5% of these believed the report was biased. This opinion crossed political lines between Right and Left. The Jewish public is divided on the question of whether the government was right not to cooperate with the Goldstone committee. 46% thought it was right to do so, 20% believed it was mistaken and 34% did not know. The pollsters estimated that those who favored cooperation with the committee did so because they believed that cooperation with the committee could have softened its findings.
Among the Arab public in Israel, only 6% thought Israel's decision not to cooperate was right. 22% said it was wrong and about 70% had no opinion.
Asked whether Hamas's transfer of a video of soldier-hostage Gilad Shalit improved the chances of success in the negotiations for his freedom, 50% of the Jewish public said that it did not increase the chances, but nor did it decrease them. 37% said it increased the chances and 4% said it reduced them.
Today's Quote : Mel Gibson
"Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world." Mel Gibson
The Jewish Museum of Girona
Girona was home to a large and flourishing religious, cultural and economic community of Jews from the 9th to the 15th century when they were forced to choose between converting to Catholicism or leaving the country.
For many centuries before this sad ending the Jews built up an important position in trades like leather work, tailoring, baking, trading goods, building and of course money lending. The "call" or ghetto was separated from the rest of town by gates, they had their own ruling council and made their own laws, all possible because they paid their taxes direct to the Spanish Kings.
The museum is set in what was the last of at least three synagogues found in Girona, with its own "micvah" for ceremonial baths attached. The daily life during the middle ages is explained and how Girona established an important reputation for religious enquiry. Along with other Jewish communities in Barcelona, Besalu, Perpignan and Tortosa they established trading routes and the foundations of banking and commercial networks which helped these communities flourish.
Eventually clashes with the catholics increased, taxes were progressively raised, the local interference increased including forcing Jews to wear identifying badges and in 1391 there were several important riots where many died. In Girona after one of these attacks the remaining Jews were put in the Gironalla tower, supposedly for their protection, in terrible conditions and left for 17 weeks while their houses and businesses were looted and burned.
By 1492 when Queen Isabella issued the order requiring Jews to convert or leave within 3 months, many converted only to be hunted down in subsequent years by the Spanish Inquisition and, of the ones that fled, many went to Perpignan due to proximity but the French king expelled them a year later so the respite was brief.
Most Jewish exiles ended up in Rome, Constantinople or Salonika where the Turks welcomed their capital and skills with open arms.
Despite their persecution in Spain many families managed to convert and have integrated to such an extent that the Catalans are sometimes referred to as the Jews of Spain, referring to their work ethic and business acumen.
The Consequences are Tragic
The Consequences are Tragic
There is no monopoly on extremism. The wing-nuts are both left and the
right. Many of us have been saying for years (I've been saying it for over
40 years) that differences between parties and the wing-nuts on both the
left and the right are so miniscule to be barely noticeable.
Politics and Political campaigns are a scam. Voting is invariably
a vote AGAINST someone, for a personality or an amorphous idea, i.e.
"change and hope."
Politics is public relations and benefits accrue to the over-lords; the
wealthy and the privileged class. It is a con game and apparently it
works.
Hank Roth
----------------
The Bloodthirsty Left, Extreme Rhetoric, and Murder
AIM Column | By Cliff Kincaid | June 15, 2009
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von Brunn as
a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him.
James Von Brunn, who believed that "Obama does what his Jew owners tell
him to do," attacked the Holocaust Museum and killed a guard on the same
day it was being reported on a national basis that Obama's former pastor
Jeremiah Wright had said that "Them Jews ain't going to let him [Obama]
talk to me." It sounded as if they were reading from the same tract.
The Wright comments undercut the left-wing campaign to depict Von Brunn as
a right-winger and blame conservatives for inspiring him. It seems like
Von Brunn's anti-Semitic views are shared by some on the political left,
even those backing and very close to Obama himself.
Wright had actually made the statement one day earlier, on June 10, to
David Squires of the Daily Press of Newport News, Virginia. Wright also
said the "Jewish vote" and the "AIPAC vote," referring to the American
Israel Public Affairs Committee, are "controlling" him, and that Obama was
in danger of becoming a "puppet."
If Von Brunn's anti-Semitism is shared by Jeremiah Wright, a left-winger
who was Obama's pastor for 20 years, then anti-Semitism is not a
right-wing phenomenon. That is why the attempts by various "progressives"
to blame the Holocaust Museum murder on the right-wing are political
nonsense and flat-out dishonest.
As veteran investigator Herbert Romerstein points out, anti-Semitism is a
condition that affects the left as well. In fact, he points out that "Some
Weather Underground activists were born into Jewish families, but they
were as anti-Semitic as their gentile born colleagues." Their
anti-Semitism seems to have been an outgrowth of their anti-Americanism.
They despise Israel because it is an ally of the United States.
This is critical because Weather Underground terrorists Bill Ayers and
Bernardine Dohrn were also political associates and backers of Barack
Obama. The wall outside Ayers' university office depicts Israel as an
imperialist lackey of the U.S., as an "American-made missile" falls on
"Palestinian youth."
However, Joan Walsh of the far-left Salon.com has reportedly been on MSNBC
trying to blame "extreme right-wing rhetoric" for the murder at the
Holocaust Museum. She decries this "ugly rhetoric." This claim reminded me
of something that one of her staffers had written personally to me several
weeks ago.
I had asked Glenn Greenwald of Salon.com about his acceptance of an "Izzy"
award named after communist and Soviet agent-of-influence I.F. Stone, and
what he would say of the article in Commentary magazine about new evidence
linking Stone to Soviet intelligence.
Part of Greenwald's response was an attack on Commentary. He said, "The
fact that Stone is being smeared by the likes of the consummately
chicken-hawk, nepotistic, bloodthirsty Podhoretz family and the truly
deranged, sex-obsessed, conspiracy-monger Cliff Kincaid will make me place
my Izzy Award on an even more prominent shelf in my office."
The term "sex-obsessed" was apparently a reference to my opposition to
giving special rights to practitioners of the homosexual lifestyle. It
turns out that Greenwald is gay and has a "lover" in Brazil but I didn't
know that at the time. I hadn't thought about commenting on the
"bloodthirsty" comment until the attack on the Holocaust Museum and the
controversy over whether anti-Semitism is a right- or left-wing
phenomenon, and whether right-wingers are too "extreme."
Norman Podhoretz is the editor-at-large of Commentary and the author of
the book World War IV: The Long Struggle Against Islamofascism. He was not
one of the authors of the piece on I.F. Stone in Commentary, and his
family had nothing to do with writing it. The authors were John Earl
Haynes, Harvey Klehr, and Alexander Vassiliev. Haynes and Klehr are
historians and Vassiliev is a Russian journalist who worked for the Soviet
KGB.
Members of AIM who had received our AIM Report on this matter have
been encouraged to contact Joan Walsh, editor-in-chief of Salon.com,
with postcards that read:
Dear Ms. Walsh:
One of your bloggers, Glenn Greenwald, reacted with vile
insults when questioned about his acceptance of an award named after
Soviet agent I.F. Stone. Why would a staffer for Salon.com accept
such an award? If there is any doubt in your mind about Stone's
service to the old Soviet Union, we suggest you consult the new book,
Spies, by Haynes, Klehr, and Vassiliev. The section on Stone begins
on page 126, in the chapter titled "The Journalist Spies." Does
Greenwald also believe that Soviet spy Alger Hiss was innocent of the
charges against him? Would he accept an Alger Hiss award? What would
be your opinion on that?
Note that Greenwald's natural impulse, in response to an article in
Commentary attacking his icon, was to smear Podhoretz as
"bloodthirsty." This speaks volumes about the "rhetoric" of the left.
What makes this even more interesting is where the Greenwald comments
ended up first. Before I even had a chance to comment, they surfaced
on the blog of someone named Jane Hamsher, who advertises herself as
"the author of the best-selling book Killer Instinct" and the producer
of such films as "Natural Born Killers."
Directed by Oliver Stone, "Natural Born Killers" is about two
psychopathic killers who thrive on media attention. The two characters
"travel across Route 666 conducting psychedelic mass-slaughters not
for money, not for revenge, just for kicks," noted one review.
I'll never forget Jeff Cohen, the founder of Fairness and Accuracy in
Reporting (FAIR) -and the one who would subsequently give Greenwald
his "Izzy"-once telling me that he rejected Stone's idea of holding a
fundraiser for FAIR by showing the film "Natural Born Killers" because
he found it too gruesome.
Hamsher's Killer Instinct book is said to be the story of how she came
to be involved in "Natural Born Killers." Defenders of the film said
it was a commentary on media violence. But it inspired real life acts
of violence. Indeed, a study, The Influence of Technology, Media, and
Popular Culture on Criminal Behavior, found that the 1994 movie was
linked to a dozen murders and the 1999 Columbine school massacre (the
killers who killed 12 students and wounded another 24 were reportedly
fans of the film). The academic study was by Jacqueline Helfgott, an
associate professor at Seattle University who specializes in "the
criminogenic effects of pop culture."
A lawsuit was filed, Byers v. Edmondson, alleging that Sarah Edmondson
and her boyfriend, Benjamin Darrus, went on a crime spree after
watching the film. The suit claimed that the film producers were
liable to the victims for distributing a film "which they knew or
should have known would cause and inspire people" to acts of violence
by "glorifying" such violence and "treating individuals who commit
such violence as celebrities and heroes."
The suit was filed on behalf of Patsy Byers, who was shot during an
armed robbery of a convenience store where she worked in Ponchatoula,
Louisiana. As a result of the shooting, Patsy Byers was rendered a
paraplegic. Another victim was William Savage, who was murdered. The
suit was dismissed when a court ruled that there was no evidence that
the producers of the film had knowingly intended to incite violence.
But in an affidavit, Edmondson admitted that "During the two weeks
prior to the robbery and shooting of Mr. Savage on March 7, 1995 and
the robbery and shooting of Mrs. Byers on March 8, 1995, Benjamin
Darrus [and] I watched Natural Born Killers several time[s] in
Oklahoma. We also ingested a quantity of LSD, a hallucinogen, during
this time. Had we not seen the movie repeatedly we would not have
taken a gun. It wouldn't have occurred to me. As well, had we not been
under the influence of LSD; we never would have left Oklahoma. The
movie did have a numbing influence concerning the effects of violence
and a desire to experience it. The shooting did not take place as much
from a need for money as from a desire to experience the power of
violence."
Despite her proud role in producing "Natural Born Killers," Hamsher
wants us to believe she is against real-life violence and thinks that
the right-wing should be blamed for the attack on the Holocaust
Museum. She is recommending as a TV guest somebody named David Neiwert
who has written a book on How Hate Talk Radicalized the Radical Right.
"If any media folks need contact info for David, drop me a line," she
said. BINGO. Just like that, he was on Anderson Cooper's CNN show on
June 12.
Neiwert runs his own website called "Crooks and Liars." This seems
somehow appropriate.
Bleak for Jews of Iran
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Jews of Iran
"On the eve of the Khomeini Revolution, 80,000 to 100,000 Jews lived in Iran . Today, there are still more Jews in Persia than any other Islamic state. Despite the dangers and threats, about 25,000 Jews (it is difficult to accurately assess their numbers) still remain and show no signs of budging. In this regard, there is no difference between the Jews of Europe and the Jews of the Orient, as significant portions of both groups refuse to learn from the lessons of the past." (Prof. David Menashri, Tel-Aviv University)
Today 250,000 immigrant olim from Persia (Iran) live in Israel and as noted 25,000 remain in Iran as do thousands who stayed on in Germany and Poland - and other European countries where they have been persecuted.
Iran is now again ruled by Islamic priests and has shed it's pre-Islamic past, becoming a religious caste society which penalizes non-Muslims and imposes strict religious law and inequity on it's women.
During the reign of the Shah, Mohammed Reza Pahlavi Iran was a national, secular royalty. It had excellent relations with Israel and it's policies were favorable to the West and dissent was quickly squelched with it's hated secret police, the Savak.
"By the 1970s, Iran 's Jews formed the most affluent and most educated community per capita in the Jewish world." (Menashri)
The Shah did away with the special tax (Jizah) on Jews. The Jews did very well under the Shah but that has hardly been the history of Jews in Iran (in spite of those who try to tell us otherwise). There are many researchers who have documented the treatment of Jews and other minorities. An example are the mass conversions of 1839 (see Professor Bernard Lewis, "The Jews of Islam)
Shiites, though a minority in the Muslim world, a majority in Iran, have been much less tolerant - of the Jews pursuant to the informed writing of Lewis. Professor Lewis is a respected and also an acclaimed writer, just as Edwin Black is and neither one are considered foolish nor sloppy with their research.
Dr. Heshmat Kerman, Chairperson of the Iranian American Jewish Federation writes:
"Over 2,000 years of Iranian Jewry constitutes a unique phenomenon. In the ancient period, the Jews had a certain degree of autonomy and even maintained their own armed force . For practical purposes, the establishment of the community can be traced back to 733 BCE. There was also a substantial amount of immigration during Cyrus's time. Already with the Scroll of Esther, we have a depiction of the Jewish people and anti-Semitism." (Kerman)
"Compared to the illustrious days of the ancient period, the last 500 years have witnessed a noticeable decline in the status of the Iranian Jewry. The government of Shah Ismael implemented extremely rigid Muslim religious codes with respect to the Jews. These laws had a detrimental effect on Jewish property, status, and honor, impoverishing the Jews and stripping them of their rights." (Kerman)
"The arrival of the Alliance Israelite Universelle to Persia in 1896, the legislative revolution of 1907, and especially the rise of the Reza Shah dynasty brought tidings of hope to the community. Other communities ~W refugees from other countries - moved to Iran: the Bucharian Jews in the 1930s and the Ashkenazi Jews, notably the "Teheran children," during the 1940s. As noted above, their conditions improved under the rule of Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi; the Jews prospered in a wide array of fields, including the economy, culture, and education. Needless to say, the miraculous founding of the State of Israel inspired Iran's Jews and enhanced their communal life. The Jews left the ghetto and dispersed among the affluent neighborhoods. The community board was freely elected, and the community ran its own schools, hospitals, and institutions, including their first senior-citizens home. A younger, more educated generation began to manage the community's affairs. A fair share of Jews secured positions in the Iranian academia and sciences. Moreover, the number of Jewish students enrolled in institutes of higher learning was well above the national average." (Kerman)
"However, the Islamic revolution put an end to this halcyon age , as under the new regime there is no longer any room for Judaism. Many have departed to Israel, the United States, and other countries. The remaining Jews face heavy pressure to convert, especially its younger members. In addition, the old anti-Jewish legislation has returned: for example, only a member of the Muslim faith may inherit property; a Muslim that kills a heretic may redeem himself and procure his freedom for $2,500; and travel abroad is restricted." (Kerman)
"It is one of the many paradoxes of the Islamic Republic of Iran that this most virulent anti-Israeli country supports by far the largest Jewish population of any Muslim country." (Sephardic Studies)
"While Jewish communities in Syria, Iraq, Yemen, Egypt, Morocco and Algeria have all but vanished, Iran is home to 25,000 - some here say 35,000 - Jews. The Jewish population is less than half the number that lived here before the Islamic revolution of 1979. But the Jews have tried to compensate for their diminishing numbers by adopting a new religious fervor." (ibid)
Jews in Germany didn't believe their neighbors would become part of the killing machine either. That is the way it is in Iran. Many of the Jews have lived there longer than their Iranian neighbors. In some respects some feel more Iranian than Jewish. But, that won't save them.
"I sat among a group of Iranian soldiers watching "Lebanon, My Love" ("Lobnan eshq-e man") in a movie theater in Shiraz. Of the two general types of Iranian action films -- killing Iraqis and killing Israelis -- it was the latter. People cheered as the Hezbollah members infiltrated into the southern Lebanon security zone and ambushed the Israelis. Every time a Zionist was killed, there would be loud cheers. When the "freedom fighters" approached an unsuspecting Israeli, those around me would shout "kill the Jew!" in anticipation." (From "Freedom, within limits" published in February 1997 by "Forward" in New York. See also "Singing the blues" about Iranian Jews in the 19th century.)
It is pretty obvious that the situation for Jews remaining in Persia (Iran) is very bleak and they would do well to heed history and leave.
Hank Roth
###
Any excerpts provided here are pursuant to the Fair Use Doctrine
for educational and discussion purposes per
Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, Copyright Law.
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