|
THE LEGACY OF KRISTALLNACHT
By Avi Davis
 The news story which appeared across the world on October 24th held a slight irony. Yaron Svornay, an Israeli journalist, claimed to have found relics of Kristallnacht – the Night of Broken Glass, in a dump on the outskirts of Berlin. German locals in the area indicated that after the atrocities of November 8-9, 1938, when more than 200 synagogues and thousands of German Jewish homes and businesses were looted and destroyed, the government had hauled several hundred tons of debris to the site. Svornay, who only recovered a few items that could be said to clearly validate the spot as a Kristallnacht mausoleum, has asked the German government to excavate the dump to prove its historicity. To date, the government has shown no interest in such an undertaking,
There is a good reason for their reticence. Kristallnacht, whose 70th Anniversary fell this week, is an event most Germans would probably rather forget. The pogrom unleashed against the Jews of Germany and Austria on those two days is a reminder of one of the darkest episodes in a very dark period. For Kristallnacht culminated nine centuries of state sanctioned pogroms against European Jewish communities. The word “pogrom” is actually a Russian word coined to describe state tolerated or sanctioned violence against ethnic groups. And true to form, the Russians, by the late 19th Century, had transformed the pogrom into something of a governmental art form – the most vicious and coordinated attacks against Jewish villages occurring in 1881-82 following the assassination of Tsar Alexander II and in 1905 with the brutal murders and rapes of Kishniev. During the Russian Civil War, both Red and White Armies, remembering their anti-Semitic training, perpetrated unspeakable acts of violence against Jewish communities throughout Russia. In one such attack, my own family suffered a devastating tragedy, when my maternal great-grandparents were burned alive in a Kiev synagogue. Their youngest son (my grandfather) was saved only when he was flung by his father from a second storey window.
The events of November 1938,however, took the pogrom to a new historic level. Germans from left to right, socialist to fascist, prided themselves on the differences that existed between themselves and their Slavic neighbors to the north. The thought of mobs rioting through city streets, given a free hand by police and the army to ransack private property and murder at will, rebelled against all their cultured dispositions. While millions of ordinary Germans may have been deeply anti-Semitic and already inured to Nazi brutality, nothing could have prepared them for the extent of the violence of those two days and nights. While lurid newspaper accounts around the world reported the scale of the destruction and massacre (in addition to the unparalleled physical destruction, over 100 Jews were murdered and 20,000 sent to concentration camps) Germans awoke on the morning of November 10th to the unhappy reality that the Russian north had come to Germany.
It was also not lost on the Nazi leadership that Kristallnacht fell two days shy of the 20th anniversary of the Armistice which brought about the surrender of the German army in the First World War. That humiliation, which had scarred the psyches of countless Germans, had been blamed squarely on the Jews – a libel that Adolf Hitler utilized to extraordinary effect in summoning support for his twelve year long anti-Semitic campaign.
The reality is that Kristallnacht was never designed as an attempt to teach the Jews a lesson. Instead, it was planned to inform the German people that in the 20th Century German Jewish citizens could be robbed, beaten and murdered and no one would intervene, much less protest. In fact, the tepid response of the democracies (who still fumbled, hoodwinked, in the darkening shadows of Munich), confirmed that the German people would be able to settle their Jewish problem without too much concern about what the rest of the world might think. In this way, the citizens of Germany were being psychologically prepared for a far more grisly undertaking - dispatching the entire Jewish population of Europe.
In our own day, we can see how well the lessons of Kristallnacht have been absorbed by dictatorial regimes. The governments of Zimbabwe, Myanmar, Sudan, Syria, Iraq, Cambodia, Afghanistan, Chile, Guatemala and Nicaragua have all, over the past 60 years, staged their own performances of Kristallnacht which have then led to greater depredations against their own populations. But more ominous still is the way in which restive minorities within democratic states are beginning to sense how rioting - or the mere threat of it- can be used to intimidate a majority population. The Los Angeles riots of 1992, the French riots of 2005 and the Danish Cartoon riots of 2006 all possess echoes of Kristallnacht. Without a firm and unequivocal response to such violence, the continued manipulation of minority grievances and the willingness to exact retribution against a dominant culture, may become more a hallmark of modern democratic life than any of us care to envisage.
The Jews of 1930s Germany, for all the suffering they had already endured, were not out of their minds in believing that “the pogrom” was a thing of the past and that such an event could never occur modern day Germany. The shock of discovery that beneath the facade of German civility raged a barbaric blood lust that would not be quenched by the mere enactment of discriminatory laws, is a reminder to us all that nothing should be taken for granted. The notion that one can negotiate with a country whose leaders sanction violence against their own population or that states in general should seek to appease their own minority groups who seek to intimidate through violence, should be dismissed as dangerous delusions. The recently discovered relics of Kristallnacht in a Berlin dump, therefore represent far more than the ghost of a distant anti-Semitic event; they are the reminders of how quickly supposed civility can transform into barbarity and how vigilant must the West remain in assessing the re-emergence of atavistic forces which impel state sanctioned violence and encourage mob rule.
Avi Davis is the Executive Director and Senior Fellow of the American Freedom Alliance.
He can be contacted at isdev@ix.netcom.com
Want to comment on this article? See Avi Davis’ new blog
NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA
“Like it or not, the most significant and largest number of current terrorist threats to the US come from Muslim-origin countries and terrorists who themselves are Muslim.”
CAIR Maligns Homeland Security for Doing Its Job-Steve Emerson
According to its recent press release, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding that the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) explain its 2004 operation conducted prior to that year's national elections. In doing so, it dismisses the legitimate pursuit of intelligence leads and seems to beg immigration agents to look the other way when they stumble into someone who turns out to be in the country illegally. Reporting about the recent release of documents related to the 2004 operation, an October 30th New York Times story states that the DHS action focused on some 2,500 foreign nationals, most from Muslim countries of origin. They were questioned by federal agents about their background and potential involvement in security threat activities, and any knowledge they might have had related to such activities. About 500 of the interviewees were arrested for immigration law violations, but none were arrested for any national security charges. CAIR asserts that the 2004 operation amounted to religious or ethnic "profiling" since the majority of the aliens interviewed were Muslim. The Times article cites government sources who say that the operation was based on "priority leads" generated by intelligence information garnered from a variety of U.S. agencies, indicating that those selected for interviews may have had links to, or knowledge of, security threat activities, particularly those that may have related to the 2004 elections. The process of generating those leads, per the government sources, included analyzing intelligence provided by the CIA.
"Women need to be covered up, men lashed for fornication [outside marriage] and hands cut off for theft and breaking Sharia law,"
 Islamic radicals make mockery of hate laws-David Cohen
JUST days after Home Secretary Jacqui Smith announced tough new measures to name and shame foreign-based extremists and prevent them coming from abroad to stir up hatred in the UK, firebrand preacher Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad cocked a snook at her new initiative, the Evening Standard can reveal.
More than 200 Muslims at a packed public meeting in Tower Hamlets were told by organiser Anjem Choudary: "We have a special surprise, a special treat for you. Sheikh Omar Bakri Muhammad will be joining us on a live feed from Lebanon." He added: "As Muslims, we will not submit to any man-made law, any government, or any prime minister - Bush or Brown - or [to] Jacqui Smith. We submit to Allah." Choudary, who with Bakri led the fanatical Al-Muhajiroun organisation - notorious for its glorification of terrorism and the 9/11 attacks before its banning and dissolution in 2004 -warmed up the crowd, two Sundays ago, with his own inflammatory rhetoric. "It is our religious obligation to prepare ourselves both physically and mentally and rise up against Muslim oppression and take what is rightfully ours," he said. "Jihad is a duty and a struggle and an obligation that lies upon the shoulders of us all. We will not rest until the flag of Allah and the flag of Islam is raised above 10 Downing Street." To loud cheers of "Allah Akbar" [God is great], he railed: "There are three types of Muslims, those in prison, those of us that are on our way [to prison] and non-practising Muslims. Brothers and sisters, if you do not fear your home being raided by the Kufar [non-believer] police, you are not enforcing the Sharia."
“The ministry is currently studying proposals by numerous world academic centers and universities including several universities from Britain, the United States, and Germany,”
Radical Islamic preacher Abu Qatada sent back to prison for attempting to flee the UK
 Hate preacher Qatada faces life in jail over 'plan to flee the country'- Ian Drury and Neil Derbyshire
Radical cleric Abu Qatada could be sent back to jail permanently after being caught allegedly plotting to flee to the Middle East. Home Office lawyers will appear at a hearing of the Special Immigration Appeal Commission to present what they say is proof that the fanatic has breached his strict bail conditions.
If the SIAC agrees, the extremist - described as Osama bin Laden's ambassador in Europe - will be returned to Belmarsh high-security prison in South East London. Home Office officials, however, would still prefer to deport him to his native Jordan. Qatada was released from Long Lartin jail, in Worcestershire, in June after convincing the courts that a return to his homeland - where he is wanted on terrorism charges - would breach international human rights law. The court accepted that Qatada himself would not face torture, but it was ruled some of the evidence used against him may have been obtained by torture, and he was bailed. The Home Office is appealing against the ruling. His bail conditions included being tagged and a ban on using mobile phones, computers or the internet. But the lawyers will argue that, by plotting to flee the country, the 57-year-old has proved he is too much of a danger to be allowed to walk the streets.
At a preliminary hearing last Friday the SIAC agreed he could be arrested, and Qatada - who has 22 separate bail conditions in total - was seized by police at his West London home on Saturday. (Dailymail.co.uk)
Germany looking into Shariah banking
Islamic finance gaining ground in Germany
(MENAFN - Arab News) While the United Kingdom and London in particular may have the pole position in facilitating Islamic finance in Europe, Germany potentially could emerge as an even bigger market for Islamic finance on condition that it gets its act together in several areas especially on introducing enabling legislation and increasing government support. At the first major Islamic finance conference held in Germany and organized by IIR Deutschland in Frankfurt last week, the message was clear that despite the lack of government involvement in the sector, the number of Islamic finance transactions is increasing especially in the real estate and capital markets sectors. "The politicians for their own reasons simply appear not to be interested in facilitating Islamic finance as in the UK," explained Dr. Simon Grieser of the law firm Mayer Brown LLP in Frankfurt. At the same time, Dr. Grieser could not explain why the momentum created by the issuance of the first quasi-sovereign Sukuk (Islamic securities) in Europe by the German state of Saxony-Anhalt in 2006, has not been further leveraged. "I do not understand why there have not been more issuances in Germany especially by local corporates and why the market has not capitalized on the Saxony Anhalt Sukuk, which was successful and subscribed largely by European investors. It is very disappointing," he added. It is of course possible to structure Islamic financial transactions in Germany and indeed acquire an existing bank and "convert" it into an Islamic bank, subject to the provisions of the German banking Act and approval from the German Federal Financial Supervisory Authority (BaFin) and the Deutsche Bundesbank (the central bank). But despite the fact that Germany is one of the three largest economies of the world and German trade with the GCC countries is much bigger than the UK's trade with the region, Islamic finance has not featured as strongly as it has in London's trade and investment relations with the Muslim countries. (Menafn.com)
Head of Somili Youth believes that beating children is essential
Norway: Ok to hit children
It's proper to hit children, says former head of the Somali Youth in Lillehammer, Mohammed Osman Yusuf.
Yusuf was beaten and whipped when he was a child. He thinks that beating children is absolutely essential so they will understand what they shouldn't do. He says that many immigrants think it will be almost impossible to raise children the first time they hear when they come to Norway that they're not allowed to hit the children. There are quite many countries where beating children is part of the upbringing. When people then come to Norway and it's not allowed to raise children, they feel that the toolbox is empty, says Yusuf.
He thinks that children deserve birching for example when they use naughty language. Yusuf thinks children aren't injured by being beaten. He himself thinks he wasn't injured by it. A new study shows that immigrant children are beaten twice as often as children of Norwegian parents. The Children Ombudsman, Reidar Hjermann, says the problem is extensive. Violence in upbringing is a pattern and becomes a natural part of children's upbringing, says Hjermann, who thinks that society hasn't been capable enough of teaching immigrants about children's upbringing. Lawyer and Liberal Party politician Abid Q. Rajas explains violence in children's upbringing as such: It happens not because the paretns are evil, but that they truly believe that this is the best way to bring up children. He thinks it's absolutely wrong to hit children, but is glad that the attitude is now being brought up. (Islamineurope)
ACADEMIC FREEDOM
Palestine Solidarity Campaign tries to prevent Israeli ambassador from speaking at UK university
Israeli ambassador speaks at UK university despite pressure to cancel-Jonny Paul
The University of Edinburgh has rejected calls from a radical anti-Israel group to cancel the visit of Ron Prosor, Israel's ambassador to Britain, to the university on Tuesday.
Speaking on "The Middle East Today: Regional Challenges, Global Implications," Prosor addressed a packed lecture hall of more than 350 students at the school. The ambassador was scheduled to speak at the university in March but the talk was canceled. The university cited logistical reasons but distanced itself from a claim that a threatened protest by the Scottish Palestine Solidarity Campaign, a radical offshoot of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, was behind the decision to cancel. Under the heading "Ambassador of crime in Edinburgh, Israeli ethnic cleansing continues, Israeli ambassador not welcome," the solidarity campaign sent e-mails and published on its Web site the contact details of university staff. The group told people to contact the university and ask why it was hosting "the ambassador of the rogue state of Israel." When the event was canceled, the group claimed victory. On its Web site it said: "The ambassador of child murder, ethnic cleansing and threats of 'Holocaust' on Gaza has called off his planned talk. Prosor cites security concerns but in reality he, and Edinburgh University, realized that the planned protests would have channeled some of the fury that millions now feel at Israel's never-ending crimes against the Palestinian people." A university spokesman told the The Jerusalem Post at the time: "During the normal planning processes it became clear that logistical problems meant it would not be possible for the lecture to go ahead without disrupting lectures and seminars scheduled for the building at that time. The university hopes to be able to rearrange this event at a venue which does not give rise to practical difficulties of this nature." When the talk was rescheduled, the solidarity campaign again published the contact details of the university's principal, rector and secretary, telling people to contact them to demand they withdraw the invitation. (Jpost)
Iran helping universities establish Islamic studies departments: official Tehran Times Culture Desk
TEHRAN -- Iran is supporting world academic centers in establishing departments of Islamic studies, the Persian service of IRNA reported on Tuesday.
Iran’s Ministry of Science, Research and Technology feels the necessity to help establish and strengthen departments of Islamic studies, an official from the cultural department of the ministry announced on Tuesday. Gholamreza Khajesarvi added, “The ministry’s International Scientific Cooperation Office is in charge of the issue and is to pursue the case to help establish new departments, provide the necessary articles on Islam, and dispatch scholars to the centers.” He further noted that the office has much experience in establishing departments of Persian studies across the globe, and expressed hope that the office will also be successful in establishing departments of Islamic studies as well. “The ministry is currently studying proposals by numerous world academic centers and universities including several universities from Britain, the United States, and Germany,” he continued. “The departments will be set up to train and educate experts on Islam so as to assist in the introduction of Islam and its realities to the world in a proper academic setting,” he explained. The ministry has recently prepared guidelines to help establish and support the departments of Islamic Studies, Khajesarvi said, adding, “The guidelines have recently been signed by the minister and have been submitted to all the academic centers to announce ways and means of cooperation.” He also remarked that a committee has been formed to follow up on the issue and that it bears the entire responsibility for oversight in the matter.
FREEDOM OF SPEECH
New report details the intimidation that moderate and ex-muslims face by Islamic extremists in Europe
 Muslim reformers and critics of Islam around Europe are being silenced by Islamic extremists.
The new Centre for Social Cohesion report, Victims of Intimidation: Freedom of Speech within Europe's Muslim Communities warns that unless European governments take urgent action to protect these individuals and their right to freedom of speech, Islamic extremists will be empowered and the evolution of a peaceful, tolerant 'European Islam' will never take place. The report is available here.
Victims of Intimidation, by Douglas Murray and Johan Pieter Verwey, tells the stories of nearly 30 Europeans of Muslim background - some believing Muslims and others not - who have been threatened by Muslim extremists. Based on interviews with many of these individuals, the report details the substantial threats and violence they have faced as a result of critical inquiry into aspects of their faith or lifestyle. The victims of this intimidation include politicians, journalists, writers, artists and human rights activists. Their personal stories are diverse and wide-ranging. Some have criticised Islam itself; others seek to reform traditionalist practices. All, however, have been targeted on the pretext that they have broken Islamic rules and traditions. Many of the individuals featured in Victims of Intimidation have suffered physical assault and are forced to live under constant police protection as a result of their words and actions. Several tell of community and religious leaders' failure to support proponents of moderate Islam. Others warn of ineffectual government responses to coercion by extremists. (Socialcohesion.co.uk)
"It's like apartheid South Africa having a conference at the UN on racial harmony,"
Saudi Arabia to lead UN talks on religious tolerance-Neil MacFarquar
UNITED NATIONS, New York: Saudi Arabia, which deploys a special police force to ensure that only one narrow sect of Islam predominates in the kingdom, is sponsoring a discussion at the United Nations on religious tolerance starting Wednesday. More than a dozen world leaders are expected to attend, including President George W. Bush, Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain and the Saudi monarch, King Abdullah, making a rare appearance at the UN headquarters. Officially, the United Nations does not sponsor religious discussions, so the two-day session of the General Assembly is being billed as a meeting on the "Culture of Peace," and most of those attending are government rather than religious figures. But human rights defenders are crying foul that Saudi Arabia is being given the platform of the United Nations to promote religious tolerance abroad while it actively combats anything similar at home. "It's like apartheid South Africa having a conference at the UN on racial harmony," said Ali Al-Ahmed, a Shiite Muslim dissident from Saudi Arabia based in Washington. In the lead-up to the conference there has also been a pitched battle among Western states trying to safeguard freedom of speech and Muslim states attempting to get a statement or resolution passed that condemns anything that might echo the Danish newspaper cartoons that mocked the Prophet Muhammad. The compromise formula is that there will be no formal final resolution but an oral statement saying that disparaging other religions should be condemned. (IHT)
Muslim’s protest honour killing story in Toronto Life
 Facebook group created to protest Toronto Life cover story
Tomorrow's looking it could be a very busy day for Sarah Fulford. Toronto Life’s editor is scheduled to speak at Ryerson University in the evening, but it’s quite possible she’ll spend her day fielding phone calls from readers angry about the latest cover story published by her magazine. A group called the Urban Alliance on Race Relations has created a Facebook page, urging people to phone Fulford and express their concerns about Mary Rogan’s cover feature on Aqsa Parvez, the 16-year-old who was murdered last year. After Parvez was strangled, her father Muhammad Parvez phoned 911 and told the dispatcher that he had killed his daughter. Muhammad and his son Waqas will be tried sometime next year. The Facebook group, which currently has 127 members, offers five “talking points”, which callers are encouraged to bring up in phone conversations or messages to Fulford. (mastheadonline.com)
Europe, the Missionaries’ Battle Ground-Paul Belien
The plight of converts to Christianity in Muslim countries is well known. What is less known is the plight of Muslim converts to Christianity in Western Europe. Last week Dutch television broadcast a documentary which shows how former Muslims in the Netherlands are frequent victims of intimidation and violence. A few weeks ago, an immigrant from Iraq was knifed in the Dutch town of Rolde by another immigrant from Iraq. The victim was a former Muslim who had converted to Christianity; the assailant was a Muslim who took offense. Though similar events recently occurred in Rotterdam, Zutphen and Hengelo, the Dutch media prefer not to report them, the documentary said. A former Muslim, who wished to remain anonymous because of the danger, told Dutch television that after his conversion to Christianity his car had been bashed with iron bars and stones thrown through the windows of his house. In one incident a Turk tried to assassinate his sister who had become a Christian. An asylum seeker from Iraq was told by the police to move to an undisclosed location. A Moroccan girl was also advised by the authorities to relocate. One Christian convert received a telephone call from the local imam who threatened him with Koran verses calling for the death of apostates. “I am afraid, not just for myself, but also for the lives of my wife and children,” he said. Muslims who become Christians and subsequently try to convert others take serious risks, the police has warned. Nevertheless, many Muslim converts feel it to be their Christian duty to tell their family and friends of Jesus’ love for them. (Brusselsjournal)
Media Bias
Washington Post admits to biased coverage during the past election
An Obama Tilt in Campaign Coverage-Deborah Howell
The Post provided a lot of good campaign coverage, but readers have been consistently critical of the lack of probing issues coverage and what they saw as a tilt toward Democrat Barack Obama. My surveys, which ended on Election Day, show that they are right on both counts. My assistant, Jean Hwang, and I have been examining Post coverage since Nov. 11 of last year on issues, voters, fundraising, the candidates' backgrounds and horse-race stories on tactics, strategy and consultants. We also have looked at photos and Page 1 stories since Obama captured the nomination June 4. The count was lopsided, with 1,295 horse-race stories and 594 issues stories. The Post was deficient in stories that reported more than the two candidates trading jabs; readers needed articles, going back to the primaries, comparing their positions with outside experts' views. There were no broad stories on energy or science policy, and there were few on religion issues. Bill Hamilton, assistant managing editor for politics, said, "There are a lot of things I wish we'd been able to do in covering this campaign, but we had to make choices about what we felt we were uniquely able to provide our audiences both in Washington and on the Web. I don't at all discount the importance of issues, but we had a larger purpose, to convey and explain a campaign that our own David Broder described as the most exciting he has ever covered, a narrative that unfolded until the very end. I think our staff rose to the occasion." The op-ed page ran far more laudatory opinion pieces on Obama, 32, than on Sen. John McCain, 13. There were far more negative pieces about McCain, 58, than there were about Obama, 32, and Obama got the editorial board's endorsement. The Post has several conservative columnists, but not all were gung-ho about McCain. (washingtonpost.com)
ANTISEMITISM
Auschwitz architectural plans uncovered-JPost Staff
The German newspaper Bild published never-before-seen architectural plans of the Auschwitz extermination camp on Saturday that reveal, in their unequivocally marked sections, that everyone involved in the operation of Auschwitz knew full well that it was intended for the systematic extermination of human beings, the paper said. The floor plans, cross-sections and maps on yellowing paper, mostly on a scale of 1:100, were reportedly found during the evacuation of an abandoned Berlin apartment. They were drawn up between 1941 and 1943. The 28 documents include detailed blueprints of prisoner barracks, gas chambers marked clearly Gaskammer (Gas chamber) in a Gothic-inspired font and a cross-section of the gate into which the rails of trains entered carrying Jews, Gypsies, homosexuals, disabled persons and other people the National Socialists sent to die. One of the maps carries the handwritten signature of Gestapo commander Heinrich Himmler. The plans were not construction plans but were drawn after Auschwitz-Birkenau was built (on the foundations of an old military base from the Austro-Hungarian Empire). On January 20, 1942, Nazi officials met in the resort of Wannsee east of Berlin where they devised the Final Solution, and this has traditionally been taken by historians as the beginning of the Nazis' extermination campaign. One of the drawings, predating the Wannsee Conference by eight months, sheds new light on the chronology of the German genocide machine. Dr. Hans-Dieter Kreikamp, chief director of the Bundesarchivs, the federal archives in Berlin, said the find was of "extraordinary importance." "The plans are authentic certificates of a systematically planned genocide of European Jews," Bild quoted Kreikamp as saying. As the plans show a "Laundry and shower room" leading into a "Dressing room" and then to the "Gas chamber," there could be no doubt of the purpose of the large room marked Gaskammer. The documents rebut the last of those who would deny the Holocaust, Bild said in its report. (JPost)
"The Discovery of America by Columbus Was Made Possible by the Money of the Jewish Aristocrats"
Director of Iranian TV Series 'Secret of Armageddon' Comments on MEMRI TV's Translation of Series; Confirms 'Protocols of Elders of Zion'; Claims 'Discovery of America by Columbus was Made Possible by Money of Jewish Aristocrats" – Who Thought America Was Promised Land-MEMRI
Following are excerpts from an interview with Said Mostaghasi, director of the Iranian TV series "The Secret of Armageddon." The interview aired on the Iranian news channel IRINN on September 25, 2008.
To view this clip on MEMRI TV, visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/1883.htm .
Mostaghasi: "Protocols of Elders of Zion' Confirmed As Zionists" Goals By 'Many Documents and Many Reliable People'
Said Mostaghasi: "Zionism already existed three or four centuries ago - in the 16th century - although it wasn't called Zionism then.
"What is the connection between [Zionism] and the plan [for an Israel] 'from the Nile to the Euphrates?'
"They acted very slowly. They have a very well-known text called The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which contains many issues, including all their goals and plans. There are 24 protocols. They claim that the Protocols does not belong to them, but there are many documents and many reliable people who have determined that it indeed belongs to the Zionists. The Protocols describes a gradual process that takes place worldwide, and explains how they will take over the world. The fundamental issue is not [expansion] from the Nile to Euphrates - the "Greater Israel" that they talk about now, from the Nile to the Euphrates. Instead, their main goal is world domination. The 'Nile to the Euphrates' plan and the establishment of the State of Israel are tactical measures, but the fundamental goal is to take over the world.
"They began this plan three or four centuries ago - or perhaps earlier, but we have documents regarding the past three or four centuries - and it has progressed in a decisive manner."
Interviewer: "You are talking about The Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which Herzl and his successors have tried to implement. What are these protocols? What do they contain?"
Said Mostaghasi: "There are 24 protocols, which constitute a charter..." (MEMRI)
“The routine of European Jewish life includes two anti-Semitic events per week.”
 Windows of Hungarian synagogue smashed on eve of 70th anniversary of ‘Kristallnacht’ -EJP
BUDAPEST (EJP)---A Jewish group says windows of a synagogue in eastern Hungary were smashed by unknown people last Saturday night, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Nazi pogroms against Jews known as ‘Kristallnacht’ or Night of Broken Glass.
The Brussels-based Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE), an organization dedicated to assist rabbis across Europe in their daily activities, said the incident took place late Saturday in a synagogue in the Jewish Community Center in Debrecen, some 230 kilometers east of Budapest. Police opened an investigation. “We left the place at about midnight just after we concluded the Torah classes held by Chabad emissaries in Debrecen,” Zachi Slotsky, a member of an association of Israeli students studying in the city’s universities. "The attack must have occurred a little while after we left", he added. The Rabbinical Center said: “Unfortunately, this is not an outstanding case but rather part of the daily life of Jews in Europe.” “The routine of European Jewish life includes two anti-Semitic events per week. European Jews are the target of attacks dispersed all over the continent,” the RCE said. “These attacks confirm the assumption that there are still widespread feelings of prejudice against Jews, and that to combat this phenomenon, a genuine alteration in Jewish response is eminent.” (EjP)
TERRORISM, INTERNET, JIHAD
Bin Laden planning an attack on the U.S. that will dwarf 9/11
Warning of new bin Laden attack-Paola Totaro
OSAMA bin Laden is planning an attack against the United States that will "outdo by far" September 11, an Arab newspaper in London has reported.
- bin Laden 'planning US attack' - Goal to 'outdo' September 11 - al-Qaeda reinforces training camps
And according to a former senior Yemeni al-Qaeda operative, the terrorist organisation has entered a "positive phase", reinforcing specific training camps around the world that will lead the next "wave of action" against the West. The warning, on the front page of an Arabic newspaper published in London, Al-Quds Al-Arabi - and widely reported in the major Italian papers - quotes a person described as being "very close to al-Qaeda" in Yemen. The paper is edited by Abdel al-Bari Atwan, who is said to be the last journalist to interview Osama bin Laden in 1996. According to the report, bin Laden is himself closely following preparations for an attack against the US and aims to "change the face of world politics and economics". The operative is quoted as saying that "this will be shown by the fact that we now control a major part of the south of Somalia". The ex-operative says he remains in contact with current chiefs of the organisation in Yemen and that only six months ago bin Laden had sent a message to all jihad cells in the Arab world which asked them not to interact with their governments or local political parties and to deny any request for mediation or formal talks. The source also said that during the next few days the terrorist organisation may send a sign of its violent intentions. (theage.com.au)
UK’s fight against terrorism is hampered by its own PC codes
Confusing PC language 'hampering' anti-terror fight, government watchdog says
Politically correct language is hampering the fight against terrorism, a Whitehall report warned yesterday. Town halls and other public sector bodies were told by ministers last year to replace the phrase ‘terrorist attacks’ with ‘anti-Islamic activity’. They were urged not to refer to ‘extremism’ and instead talk about ‘community resilience’. But far from rallying Muslims against terrorists, the language has spread confusion, says the report from HM Inspectorate of Constabulary and the Audit Commission. The watchdogs warned ministers the Government should listen to local concerns before handing out instructions. It quoted one anonymous local government leader: ‘The key thing is about who the words come from. ‘If they come from a respected religious or community member they will have more impact than if they come from a Government minister.’ Rules on terrorism and language were sent to town halls by the Home Office just under a year ago. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith drove home the message in a speech in which she referred to terrorist attacks as ‘anti-Islamic activity’. She also indicated the phrase ‘war on terror’ would no longer be used by ministers. The report looked at the impact of the £50million Preventing Violent Extremism programme launched two years ago to recruit public services to try to persuade young Muslims against supporting terror networks. It said there were sensitivities over language in some places but in others ‘there was a preference for plain speaking so that issues could be dealt with openly rather than being avoided or disguised as something else’.It also found the campaign had been marred by a failure of the agencies involved to share information. The Home Office sent out ‘Counter Terrorism Communications Guidance’ to all councils last December. It said that confrontational language should be dropped in favour of talking about shared values. (Dailymail.co.uk)
UK militants back Jihad according to leaked report
Thousands of Islamist militants in the UK are actively supporting jihadist activities at home and abroad, according to a leaked Government document.
The secret report states that Britain will remain "a high-priority target" for international terrorists aligned with al Qaida for the foreseeable future. And it warns that a network of extremist cells exists in the UK, with the main concentrations in London, Birmingham and Luton. The document - marked "restricted" - was reportedly drawn up by the intelligence branch of the Ministry of Defence, MI5 and Special Branch. The threat from Islamist extremists is "diverse and widely distributed" and the number of terrorists in Britain is "difficult to judge", states the report. But it cites estimates from the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre that there are "some thousands of extremists in the UK committed to supporting jihadi activities, either in the UK or abroad". And it states: "For the foreseeable future the UK will continue to be a high-priority target for international terrorists aligned with al Qaida. "It will face a threat from British nationals, including Muslim converts, and UK-based foreign terrorists, as well as terrorists planning attacks from abroad." In 2006, the then head of the Security Service, Dame Eliza Manningham-Buller said that MI5 was aware of 30 major terrorist plots and had 1,600 people in 200 cells under surveillance. Last year, her successor Jonathan Evans said the number had grown to 2,000. A Home Office spokesman said: "We do not comment on leaked documents." (ITN)
ENVIRONMENTALISM and Science
“There are better ways to protect the environment, to encourage sustainable choices and to support recycling without making it harder for those who are already struggling to make ends meet in a difficult economy.”
 In Mayor’s Plan, the Plastic Bag Will Carry a Fee-David W. Chen
In its struggle to make New York more green, the Bloomberg administration has tried discouraging people from using plastic bags. It has taken out ads beseeching residents to use cloth bags and set up recycling bins for plastic bags at supermarkets. But now the carrots have been put away, and the stick is out: Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg has called for charging shoppers 6 cents for every plastic bag needed at the register. If the proposal passes, New York City would follow the lead of many European countries and become one of the first places in the United States to assess a so-called plastic bag tax. Seattle voters will weigh in on a similar measure next year, and other places, like Los Angeles and Dallas, have studied the idea. City officials estimate that the fee could generate $16 million a year, a figure that Mr. Bloomberg would no doubt appreciate, given the lingering and concussive effects of the global economic crisis on the city’s economy. But while the fee would burnish Mr. Bloomberg’s environmental record, it might not be a lasting source of revenue. Just a few weeks after Ireland adopted a similar, though much heftier tax in 2002 — charging shoppers 33 cents a bag — plastic bag use dropped 94 percent, and within a year, nearly everyone in that country had purchased reusable cloth bags. Still, the mayor believes that the 6-cent fee would have a major impact on consumers’ behavior. Environmentalists like the sound of Mr. Bloomberg’s idea. But from the corner deli to the high-end grocery store, other New Yorkers are not so sure. At the 2000 N.Y. Deli on Second Avenue at 103rd Street in East Harlem, the owner, Sammy Ali, 30, said his customers would balk at paying for plastic. “No way,” Mr. Ali said on Thursday. “They ask us for plastic bags for free as it is. When we say no, they curse us out. They demand a bag for a 25-cent bag of chips.” (NYT)
“For far too long, animal scientists have avoided casting an
essential critical eye over their work. But the evidence increasingly suggests that much medical progress has been made in spite of animal experiments, not because of them.”
Should we experiment on animals? No-Gill Langley
As a forthcoming European Union directive promises to transform the way testing on animals is carried out, a researcher and an animal advocate debate whether the practice can ever be justified
• Should we experiment on animals? Yes, says Colin Blakemore
• http://www.telegraph.co.uk/scienceandtechnology/science/sciencenews/3353960/Should-we-experiment-on-animals-Yes.html
• As scientists and human beings, we have a moral duty to prevent suffering wherever possible, whether in humans, mice or monkeys. But if you use animals in research or testing, pain and suffering are inevitable.
 Yes, such experiments are regulated, but that regulation still permits animals to be infected with fatal diseases and to be lethally poisoned without pain relief. In British laboratories today, animals are still burned, paralysed, brain damaged, and given heart attacks and electric shocks. There is growing evidence that the value of animal experiments has often been overstated, and their limitations seriously underplayed. For far too long, animal scientists have avoided casting an essential critical eye over their work. But the evidence increasingly suggests that much medical progress has been made in spite of animal experiments, not because of them. For example, last year the British Medical Journal published an independent review of treatments for five human illnesses, which found that drugs that worked in animals were useful for humans in only 50 per cent of cases. That's a success rate similar to tossing a coin. Medical research based on such poor odds wastes animals' lives and must be delaying vital treatments. When that research involves the use of non-human primates, our close evolutionary cousins, it becomes even more contentious.
Some primate researchers say these experiments can't be replaced with non-animal research methods, a claim refuted in a new report by members of the Focus on Alternatives coalition. Replacing Primates in Medical Research looks at five key areas. In each, there has been a catalogue of failed treatments. For example, at least 37 HIV vaccines that have been tested on primates have failed in humans; none has succeeded. In the case of stroke treatments, 95 experimental drugs have passed animal tests but failed in human clinical trials. (Telegraph.co.uk)
Society and CULTURE
“According to the American Psychiatric Association “The debate is over. Over the last three decades, the one overriding finding in research on the mass media is that exposure to media portrayals of violence increases aggressive behavior in children.”’
Sex and the Single Kid-Mona Charen
What we elect to air.
So it’s the day before the election that will supposedly sweep away all vestiges of conservatism in American life and what do I find? The Washington Post carries a front-page story about TV contributing to teen pregnancy. “Teenagers who watch a lot of television featuring flirting, necking, discussion of sex and sex scenes are much more likely than their peers to get pregnant or get a partner pregnant, according to the first study to directly link steamy programming to teen pregnancy.” The study, published in the journal Pediatrics, followed 700 12- to 17-year-olds for three years. Those who viewed the most sex-drenched TV shows were twice as likely as their peers to impregnate someone or get pregnant themselves. The Post interviewed the usual “experts” for reactions to the research. “We have a highly sexualized culture that glamorizes sex,” said Valerie Huber of the National Abstinence Education Association. Well now, there’s an understatement! Look no further than the pages of the Washington Post itself. It features an almost-daily ad on Page Two that touts “Sex for Life” and features imagery of a man and woman with come hither looks. She dangles her bra over his shoulder. Recently, the Post saw fit (as did the New York Times and I’m sure many other “family” newspapers) to publish an obituary for that great cultural icon Jerry Gerard, whose contribution to the world was pornography like Deep Throat and The Devil in Miss Jones. I don’t know about you, but I could have let him meet his Maker unheralded. Publishing an obit for a pornographer (remember when that was a dirty word?) is part of the general mainstreaming of pornography. You can order it at most hotels now. And so can your kids if they are in a separate room and you are not very careful. Sometimes the Playboy channel is offered without the necessity to order it by phone. Isn’t that grand for the kids who are in the adjoining room to mom and dad? (NationalReview)
How therapy dogs are helping disabled vets
 Veterans Helped by Healing Paws-Karen Jones
DEUCE is a chocolate Labrador retriever who knows exactly which patients at Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington give the best treats, said his owner, Harvey Naranjo. Both he and Deuce are part of the Military Advanced Training Center, a department at Walter Reed that cares for severely disabled veterans. A certified therapy dog, Deuce assists with rehabilitation and helps relieve stress. He excels at both, said Mr. Naranjo, who brought him to the center three years ago to help the growing number of severely disabled veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. “Medical technology has given us the opportunity to save more lives with this conflict, but they are surviving devastating injuries,” said Mr. Naranjo, adaptive sports program coordinator and a certified occupational therapy assistant at Walter Reed. Encouraged by Deuce’s success with patients, Mr. Naranjo contacted accredited service dog organizations and learned that several had started programs specifically for recent veterans. “These soldiers are a very young population; they do not want canes or crutches,” said Mr. Naranjo, who is also a specialist in the Army Reserve. Many veterans, after suffering traumatic injuries, are “fighting to get their independence back, and dogs give them a sense of independence,” he added. Service dogs are 24/7 companions that can retrieve and carry objects, open doors, call attention to safety hazards, help with stress and balance difficulties, and provide a bridge back to society. “Veterans can feel vulnerable walking around with these disabilities,” Mr. Naranjo said. “When they go out with a service dog, it draws attention away from the injury.” (NYT)
www.americanfreedomalliance.org
No longer wish to subscribe? Please click here (type unsubscribe in the subject box)
|
