Editor and Researcher Elisa Vandernoot

American Freedom Alliance Weekly Gazette

THE WEEK AT A GLANCE

This Week's Editorial

The Holocaust And The Truth About Genocide
By Avi Davis

How could it have happened in Europe? 

If history was a panorama dome, it might be possible to observe a vista of the Holocaust’s European antecedents.  We would be witness to Islam's armies sweeping across Middle Eastern deserts and North Africa, slaughtering Jews wherever they found them; the Crusaders leaving behind them rivers of Jewish blood flowing in the gutters of villages in the Rhineland and France; the Jews of York being massacred in Clifford's Tower; the inquisitors of Spain and their auto de fé slashing a scar across the face of that country that has never truly healed; Chmielnicki's Cossacks of 17th Century Russia, galloping across the foothills of the Ukraine, raping, pillaging, and murdering Jews  unchallenged; the pogroms of Tsar Alexander III in the early 1880s, the first modern instances of  state sanctioned murder and despoliation of Jews; the Kishniev massacre of 1905, a final stake driven into the heart of Old Russia.

Unabated and unabashed Jew killing became a European specialty and so it is often claimed by modern historians that Adolf Hitler's campaign to destroy the Jews was merely the culmination of centuries of such slaughter.  But that theory has always rankled.  The Holocaust stands alone in history as a high water mark, not just of Jewish slaughter by Europeans but also of human degradation.   Only the intersection of European anti-Semitism with human blood lust could produce something as truly brutal and barbaric as the mechanized slaughter of Jews.  The unending question, the one that never truly ceases to pound in my brain is -- how was it possible for the German people to have perpetrated such a horrifying program of inhumanity with barely a ripple of conscience?

The most immediate answer to that question is that for those who executed their orders, as well as those whose silence made them complicit in the Holocaust's perpetration, it was not inhumanity at all.  Rather, it was a service to mankind.

The very idea that one could facilitate the creation of a better world by the elimination of the less worthy elements in it, was a function not simply of German anti-Semitism but of a modern nihilism and entropy that had been metastasizing in Western civilization for a century. Darwin's theory of natural selection and survival of the fittest (and the Social Darwinism which emerged from it);Freud's probing of the subconscious, exposing man's basic impulses as fundamentally barbaric; the rampant growth of political ideologies which found the cause of man's unhappiness rooted in capitalism, wealth and greed; Nietzsche' s insistence that God was dead -- all nurtured  the growing acceptance that life had little purpose beyond immediate gratification of one's senses.   This intellectual trend ultimately lead to an erosion of religious faith and the notion that moral strictures and codes were essentially human constructs designed as instruments of power rather than as a path to purpose, meaning and civilized conduct.

The eugenics movement of the early 20th Century became the most fitting scientific analog to this collapsing sense of humanity.   The notion that humans can and should be selectively bred to improve the species began in 1865 with Francis Galton, a cousin of Charles Darwin, who believed that heredity governed  talent and character, just as it does eye color and facial features.  He coined the term "eugenics" in 1883, deriving it from the Greek "good in birth." 

In the early 20th Century eugenics was a serious intellectual and political movement with courses offered in 350 American universities and endorsed in over 90% of high school biology textbooks. In 1920, two esteemed German academics Karl Binding and Alfred Hoche published Permission to Destroy Life Unworthy of Life (Die Freigabe der Vernichtung Lebensunwerten Lebens) in which they argued that some humans had greater moral worth than others.  Here they suggested that physicians ought to be allowed to kill people deemed unworthy of life including the "terminally ill and mortally wounded; "incurable idiots" and the "unconscious." This was all fifteen years before the Nazis instituted their own euthanasia programs.

And if you believe that eugenics was just a European intellectual past time, think again.  In my June, 2009 piece California Roots of the Eugenics Movement, I describe how the Golden State became the leading sterilizer in the nation, putting to the knife to over 60,000 citizens deemed unworthy of reproduction, before a moratorium was called  on the practice in the early 1960s.  Eugenics enthusiasts were numbered among some of the West's most famous political and intellectual leaders on both sides of the Atlantic and these included Sir Winston Churchill, H.G. Wells, George Bernard Shaw, Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. and Theodore Roosevelt.

It is any wonder then that the Germans felt at considerable ease committing (in 1904), the first genocide of the century in South West Africa - all but wiping out the Herero natives there?   Or that the Turks, eleven years later, could mercilessly drive one million Armenians from their ancestral homes and force them on a death march which resulted in the disappearance of 90 per cent of the population? Or that Josef Stalin in the 1930s could allow five million Ukrainians to slowly perish from starvation?   And that all these events occurred years before the advent of the Second World War?  These perpetrators had been schooled for years in the idea of the Üntermensch - that there were lesser beings who populated the planet and whose existence stood in the way of human progress.

Perhaps this should give us pause then to remember that genocide never begins with guns, machetes and knives, but with ideas.  The Nazis only built on the concepts that, by the time they came to power, had been percolating through Western intellectual life for more than 60 years.

In our own day, we can't forget that there are bio-ethicists and philosophers such as Princeton University's Peter Singer who argues quite seriously that infants, as human beings absent cognition, have no right to life at all - at least no more than baby chimpanzees.

Years ago I remember a celebrated Australian journalist writing that whenever he contemplated the Holocaust, his biggest nightmare was not that he could have been a concentration camp victim, but that he could have been one of the guards.

This is a reminder to those of us who are regularly exposed to the noxious arguments of supporters of  assisted suicide, euthanasia, abortion and  mercy killing and who daily see the reality of animal life raised to the sanctity of human life, that there might indeed be modern day forms of  "permission to destroy life unworthy of life" Perhaps it can make us all realize that the horrors of the Holocaust began with the dehumanization of those incapable of either defending or speaking for themselves, decades before the blueprint of the first gas chamber was set to paper.

How could it happen in Europe?  The real question - and an ongoing one - is how could it have happened in the human soul?

Avi Davis is the President of the American Freedom Alliance in Los Angeles. His writings and blog entries can be found at The Intermediate Zone. 

 

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View the best of The Intermediate Zone from last week:

THE DEATH OF FDR Monday, April 12, 2010
NETANYAHU AND NUCLEAR DETERRENCE Saturday, April 10, 2010
HOW WOULD YOU LIKE YOUR EGGS? Friday, April 9, 2010
THE ‘OUT’ING OF DENNIS ROSS Thursday, April 8, 2010
A RETURN TO 1930s- STYLE DISARMAMENT Wednesday, April 7, 2010


Avi Davis can be contacted at adavis@americanfreedomalliance.org

NEWS: EUROPE AND AMERICA

Report: US Fighting Israel's Nuclear Program-Maayana Miskin
(Israelnationalnews.com) The United States has begun denying visas to Israel's nuclear scientists, according to the Hebrew-language daily Maariv. Workers at the reactor in Dimona told the paper that they had been treated poorly by US representatives, and had been told they could not travel to the States. For the past 20 years it has been common for scientists working at the Dimona reactor to travel to universities in the U.S. to enhance their knowledge in the fields of physics, chemistry, and nuclear engineering. The only reason the Dimona scientists' visa requests were refused was their work at the reactor, sources in the military establishment said. None of the researchers has had any trouble with the law, in Israel or America. A former Dimona worker told Maariv that the problems between Israel and America went beyond denied visas. The US has also created a “de-facto embargo” on equipment needed in the Dimona reactor, he said. The refusal to sell Israel certain parts began after current US President Barack Obama took office, he said. When it comes to certain other pieces of equipment, he added, the US now permits sales only if Israeli officials explain exactly what the part will be used for. "And yet, when it comes to those who manufacture nuclear terrorism, we hear a lenient approach, even though the entire world can see that Iran's leaders are making a joke out of the US,” he said. (INN)

Hillary Clinton fears al-Qaeda is obtaining nuclear weapons material-Michael Evans, Pentagon Correspondent, Washington
Terrorists including al-Qaeda pose a serious threat to world security as they attempt to obtain atomic weapons material, Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, declared on the eve of a global summit in Washington to prevent a nuclear terror attack. President Obama will call on the leaders of 47 nations today — the biggest gathering of heads of state by a US leader since the founding of the UN in 1945 — to introduce tougher safeguards to prevent nuclear material ending up in the hands of terrorists. As far back as 1998, Osama bin Laden stated that it was his Islamic duty to acquire and use weapons of mass destruction. During the two-day Nuclear Security Summit, Mr Obama will try to convince representatives, including David Miliband. who is standing in for Gordon Brown, that the dangers of loosely guarded atomic material are so grave that a global agreement is needed to stop al-Qaeda going nuclear. The summit is part of Mr Obama’s strategy to put nuclear weapons at the top of foreign policy. He signed a treaty with Russia on April 8, restricted the role and development of US nuclear weapons last week, and is trying to reach agreement on new sanctions against Iran. The Iran component of his strategy will be raised during the summit, notably with President Hu of China, who agreed to attend the event after initial doubts. (Timesonline.co.uk)

Fort Hood Suspect to Be Kept Isolated in Jail-AP
BELTON, Texas—The Army psychiatrist charged in the deadly shooting spree at Fort Hood will be kept isolated from all other inmates at the jail where he was transferred early Friday, the local sheriff said. Maj. Nidal Hasan was airlifted from a San Antonio military hospital to the Bell County Jail in Belton at about 4 a.m. Friday. He had been at the military hospital since shortly after the Nov. 5 shooting spree that left him paralyzed. Maj. Hasan is charged with 13 counts of premeditated murder and 32 counts of attempted premeditated murder. Bell County Sheriff Dan Smith said Maj. Hasan will be kept in a 12-by-15-foot cell in the jail infirmary and be under 24-hour watch. "I'm just not going to leave anything to chance," the sheriff said. Maj. Hasan won't have contact with other inmates, even when he is accompanied by a jailer to the outdoor recreation area, Mr. Smith said. His cell has a bed, toilet, television and phone that makes collect calls, Mr. Smith said. Although Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio barred Maj. Hasan from speaking in Arabic to any visitors or reading the Quran, those restrictions won't be in place at the Bell County Jail, Mr. Smith said. Fort Hood authorities—not Bell County deputies—will take Maj. Hasan to the nearby Army post for hearings and other matters, he said. Maj. Hasan faces an Article 32 hearing, similar to a grand jury proceeding, as early as July 1. After that, a military judge will determine whether there is enough evidence to go to trial. Prosecutors have not said whether they would seek the death penalty. (WSJ)

Qatari envoy was flying to see al-Qaeda agent in prison-
Matthew Lee and P. Solomon Banda
WASHINGTON - A Qatari diplomat was on his way to an official visit with an imprisoned al-Qaeda sleeper agent when he touched off a bomb scare by slipping into an airplane bathroom for a smoke, officials said Thursday as the diplomat prepared to leave the United States. The diplomat, Mohammed Al-Madadi, was heading to Colorado to pay a consular visit to the prisoner Wednesday when the incident took place aboard a United Airlines Boeing 757, said Alison Bradley, a public relations executive hired to speak for the Qatari Embassy, and a State Department official. The prisoner, Ali Al-Marri, a citizen of Qatar, is serving eight years after pleading guilty last year to conspiring to support terrorism. Marri was arrested after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, accused of being a sleeper agent researching poisonous gases and plotting a cyberattack. (AP)

NHS relax superbug safeguards for Muslim staff... just days after Christian nurse is banned from wearing crucifix for health and safety reasons-Jonathan Petre
Muslim doctors and nurses are to be allowed for religious reasons to opt out of strict NHS dress codes introduced to prevent the spread of deadly hospital superbugs. The Department of Health has announced that female Muslim staff will be permitted to cover their arms on hospital wards to preserve their modesty.
This is despite earlier guidance that all staff should be ‘bare below the elbow’ after long sleeves were blamed for spreading bacteria, leading to superbug deaths. The Department has also relaxed its ‘no jewellery’ rule by making it clear that Sikhs can wear bangles, as long as they can be pushed up the arm during direct patient care. The move contrasts with the case of nurse Shirley Chaplin, who last week lost her discrimination battle against Royal Devon and Exeter Hospital Trust, which said the cross she has worn since she was 16 was a ‘hazard’ because it could scratch patients. Mrs Chaplin, 55, had worn the silver cross on a necklace since her confirmation. But the employment tribunal told her that wearing a cross was not a ‘mandatory requirement’ of her faith, even though Muslim doctors are allowed to wear hijabs or headscarves. (Dailymail.co.uk)

Suicide bomber kills one in Russia's south- Amie Ferris-Rotman; Editing by Michael Roddy
EKAZHEVO, Russia (Reuters) - A female suicide bomber killed herself after shooting dead a policeman on Friday in Russia's North Caucasus region, where the Kremlin is struggling to contain an Islamist insurgency, police said. Suicide bombers have killed more than 50 people and injured 100 in a series of attacks that began on March 29 when two young women blew themselves up on the Moscow metro. Police said that the woman, wearing a suicide belt, opened fire at them, wounding one policeman who later died. When police returned fire she blew herself up with the explosive device strapped to her body, officers at the scene told Reuters. Dressed in a long jeans skirt and black top, her body later lay badly mutilated in a pool of blood. The shoot-out took place in the village of Ekazhevo in Ingushetia, where senior rebel leader Said Buryatskty was killed in a battle with security forces in early March. Three other militants were killed in Ekazhevo on Friday in gunfights with police, state-run news agencies reported. Earlier on Friday, a bomb exploded in the center of Dagestan's capital Makhachkala, but no one was hurt. The Moscow bombings turned the global spotlight on Russia's mainly Muslim North Caucasus region, especially Ingushetia, Chechnya and Dagestan, where Islamist militants fighting for an independent Muslim state battle with law enforcement personnel. (Reuters)

Erdoğan urges Turks in France to integrate, not assimilate
Integrate into a society by learning its language and becoming involved in its social life but never assimilate, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said while addressing the Turkish community in Paris. The prime minister spoke to an audience of 6,000 ethnic Turks living in France at the Zenith Arena late on Wednesday, the second day of his visit to France. Met with great applause when he stepped onto the stage, Erdoğan talked about the rise of Turkey and urged the French Turks to become better represented in the economic, political and social life of the country they are living in. Stressing that assimilation is different from integration, Erdoğan said no one can demand that a person assimilate. “The demand to assimilate is a crime against humanity,” he said. “No one can ask you to abandon your values, your culture.” Erdoğan said if they want to live in harmony with the society they are living with, they need to integrate into the society in the best way possible. Reminding his audience that France allows dual citizenship, Erdoğan criticized those who do not apply for French citizenship. “Apply, my brothers. Apply! Use the right to vote and to get elected that France has granted you. This is a great asset, make use of it,” Erdoğan stressed. (Todayszaman)

ACADEMIC FREEDOM

Controversial Mideast book stays in Toronto schools-Kristin Rushowy
An award-winning book about a Palestinian girl whose family suffers at the hands of Israeli settlers will remain in Toronto schools after a review by board staff found it “does not cross the line into literature promoting hate or animosity towards others.” B’Nai Brith Canada had complained The Shepherd’s Granddaughter is “vehemently anti-Israel” and had asked that the book — currently part of a province-wide reading program for Grades 7 and 8 students — be removed and was disappointed with the Toronto District School Board’s decision. “We certainly acknowledge that the main story line in this novel is presented from a Palestinian-sympathetic point of view,” Lloyd McKell, executive officer of student and community equity for the school board, said in a letter to trustees on Wednesday. “However, our professional staff assessment from our critical review of this novel is that Grade 7 and 8 readers are capable of deriving positive educational and social value from this book without developing destructive attitudes towards people ... in the current Middle East conflict.” Teachers are being encouraged to use the book to spark discussion on bias and to encourage critical thinking. (Parentcentral.ca)

The Return of Tariq Ramadan-David Solway
Islamic apologist Tariq Ramadan has returned to the U.S., the ban against his entry to the country, issued under the Patriot Act, having been lifted by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. After addressing audiences in New York, Chicago, Detroit and Washington, he will revisit Canada where he will speak at the Palais de Congrès in Montreal. The question is: What is he really up to? Ramadan is used to meeting with rock star type adulation, but a skeptical attitude may be rather more appropriate. In a talk given at Olivieri Bookstore in Montreal on January 3, 2007 to promote his book La tyrannie de la pénitence [1], philosopher Pascal Bruckner argued that the failure of Muslim immigrants to integrate into European society is owing largely to the multicultural tendency to promote special interest groups and extraterritorial ethnicities. At the same time, as Bruckner stresses in the book itself, “On oublie qu’il existe un despotisme des minorités rétives à l’assimilation si celle-ci n’accompangne pas d’un statut d’extraterritorialité.” (“We forget that there exists a despotism of minorities that resists assimilation if the latter is not accompanied by a status of extraterritoriality.”)This “resistance” is precisely the situation that Tariq Ramadan is attempting to remedy, but in a way that does not augur well for the host societies of the West. Pulpiting the ideal of Muslim social integration and positing a supposed underlying affinity between what are clearly two opposing creeds and cultures, Ramadan intends something very different from what we usually understand by “assimilation” and “accommodation.” Assimilation for Ramadan really works in reverse and means, in effect, the gradual absorption of the West into the social and political construct of Islam. Accommodation seems to imply mutuality but, again, its ultimate aim is somewhat different from what we might expect. Accommodation is what must presently be accorded to the Muslim community, which may in the course of time graciously accommodate us in turn should we convert to the faith or pay the jizzya (poll tax). Ramadan’s discourse sounds at first like he’s using a terminology of reconciliation but it’s all bling and glitz meant to embroider an ulterior purpose, something initially nebulous but no less sinister for all that. Ramadan’s agenda is not to enlighten but to distract. (Frontpagemagazine)

MEDIA BIAS

Black Tea Party Activists Called 'Traitors'-AP
Black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement — and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president.
ALBANY, N.Y. – They've been called Oreos, traitors and Uncle Toms, and are used to having to defend their values. Now black conservatives are really taking heat for their involvement in the mostly white tea party movement — and for having the audacity to oppose the policies of the nation's first black president. "I've been told I hate myself. I've been called an Uncle Tom. I've been told I'm a spook at the door," said Timothy F. Johnson, chairman of the Frederick Douglass Foundation, a group of black conservatives who support free market principles and limited government. "Black Republicans find themselves always having to prove who they are. Because the assumption is the Republican Party is for whites and the Democratic Party is for blacks," he said. Johnson and other black conservatives say they were drawn to the tea party movement because of what they consider its commonsense fiscal values of controlled spending, less taxes and smaller government. The fact that they're black — or that most tea partyers are white — should have nothing to do with it, they say. "You have to be honest and true to yourself. What am I supposed to do, vote Democratic just to be popular? Just to fit in?" asked Clifton Bazar, a 45-year-old New Jersey freelance photographer and conservative blogger. (Foxnews

What's Not Happening to American Muslims-DOROTHY RABINOWITZ
To hear Hollywood and the media tell it, American Muslims were the ultimate victims of 9/11. What nonsense.
It can't have come as a surprise that one of the now entrenched myths about America—namely, its ongoing victimization of Muslims—should have been voiced again by a leading citizen of our myth-producing capital, Hollywood. The citizen was Tom Hanks, and the occasion his March interview in Time Magazine in which he declared that our battle with Japan in World War II was one of "racism and terror." And that, he noted, should remind us of our current wars. The comments caused a furor. But Mr. Hanks, who had made them during a publicity tour—he's the producer of the HBO series, "The Pacific"—saw the issue in perfectly clear terms, which he went on to explain several times more in subsequent media appearances. We can only ponder the joy this must have brought to the hearts of HBO executives. The Hanks mini-seminar was only one of the many distortions of our still unbearably raw recent history—never mind World War II—encouraging Americans to view themselves as oppressors and racists. The latest reflection of this trend, grown steadily since the attacks of Sept. 11, came with a three-page spread in the Washington Post on March 24 about the tribulations of a Muslim soldier who reported being subjected to slurs, various other insults, and also a threatening note. His commander suggested he might do well to move to housing off base. The base in question was Fort Hood, where, last November, army psychiatrist Maj. Nidal Hasan murdered 13 fellow American soldiers.

Is the American Press Corrupt?-Bill O'Reilly
While many Americans believe the national press is biased toward the left, a more damning charge is now being debated: Are U.S. media outlets actually corrupt? Those who believe they are point to the cheerleading of Barack Obama's presidential campaign and to the recent reportage on the Tea Party movement. As you may know, the Tea Party people have been branded in some media quarters as a bunch of racist, far-right loons. TV commentators on MSNBC and CNN have actually called the Tea Party folks dirty names on the air -- all in an attempt to diminish the growing influence of the movement. But a funny thing happened on the way to the gutter. Regular Americans have apparently opted to decide for themselves about the Tea Party, and the polling is interesting. Despite all the rhetorical madness on TV, a new Gallup poll says 28 percent of Americans support the movement, 26 percent oppose it and 38 percent have not yet formed an opinion about support or opposition. Thus, there is a persuadable factor in play, and that is what the liberal media fear the most. This time last year, there was no Tea Party. Now, it is perhaps the most vibrant political force in the country. If millions more Americans sign on, liberalism will take a huge hit. By the way, Gallup also reports that the Tea Party movement breaks down this way: 49 percent Republican, 43 percent Independent and 8 percent Democratic. The issue that binds the Tea Party folks together is fear of big government. When the Founding Fathers granted the press privileges beyond those of everyday citizens, they did so with some trepidation. (Humanevents)

FREEDOM OF SPEECH

Denmark: New 'Muhammad cartoon' The Grenaa City Hall decided to remove a painting down from their Easter exhibition after complaints from visitors.
The painting's motif is a veiled woman and a pig looking at a picture of Kurt Westergaard with a bomb in his turban - exactly like in his own controversial caricature of Muhammed. Mayor Jan Petersen (S) called it an administrative decision. "But I agree with the decision, that we shouldn't have pictures hanging at city hall, which some people feel offends their religious feelings," he told P4 Østjylland. Hans Christian Sørensen, a leisure artist, was very surprised by the city hall's decision to take the picture down. He says it's humorist and denies that the picture is a provocation. "I think it's OK that Kurt Westergaard drew Mohammed, but it doesn't matter for my painting and if anybody should take offense by the subject matter, it should be Kurt Westergaard or the pig," he says. Hans Christian Sørensen doesn't understand that City Hall say they've received complaints from visitors. He was at the exhibition for several days and he only got positive comments from the public. He says the picture is surreal and funny. "Art should be original and not copy anything. We can all paint flowers, but people see so much of it. Art should be debated, that the point of it. That's the difference between art and decoration," he says. (Islamineurope)

Father of USS Cole victim can display anti-Islam decals-Warren Richey, Staff writer
Jesse Nieto's son was killed in the terrorist attack. Mr. Nieto, a civilian employee at a Marine base, was ordered to remove anti-Islamic decals from his car, but a federal judge ruled in his favor.
A civilian employee at the Camp Lejeune Marine Base in North Carolina has won his battle to display anti-Islamic decals on his van while driving on the base. Jesse Nieto, whose son was among 16 sailors killed in the 2000 terror attack against the USS Cole, had used the windows of his car as a place of tribute to his son. He displayed a gold star (a symbol of death in combat), a combat action ribbon, and the message: “Remember the Cole, 12 Oct. 2000.” But Mr. Nieto also used his vehicle to express his opinion of those who killed his son. Decals proclaimed: “Islam = Terrorism,” “We Died, They Rejoiced,” and a picture of the US flag with the words: “Disgrace My Countries [sic] Flag And I Will [defecate] On Your Quran.” He also displayed a decal picture of Calvin (from the Calvin and Hobbes cartoon) urinating on a cartoon illustration of the Prophet Mohammed. The Mohammed illustration was a re-creation of one of the cartoons that provoked Muslim protests against a Danish newspaper and sparked an assassination plot against the cartoonist. After seven years with these messages on his car, someone on the base complained. Nieto was ordered to remove them. He removed the most offensive decals, but was later cited again for violating a base traffic regulation that prohibits the display of “extremist, indecent, sexist, or racist messages” on motor vehicles. Nieto, a Marine combat veteran, decided to fight back. In a lawsuit filed in federal court in North Carolina he claimed a First Amendment free speech right to express his opinion of Islam and Islamic terrorists. (Christianmonitor)

ANTISEMITISM

Netanyahu’s Speech at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’
PM Netanyahu’s Speech at the Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day Ceremony (April, 11th, 2010)
Tonight, the eve of Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day, we remember our brothers and sisters who were murdered in the death camps, in the forests and in the killing fields. We listen to the voices of the survivors who serve as the voice of the millions who died.
Before their deaths, many of the murdered begged, “Do not forget us. Tell our story – tell the world, tell the following generations – how great our suffering was, how terrible the horror was, how great our sacrifice was.” We owe the survivors a tremendous debt for their courage to return to life, to establish families, to contribute to building the country, and for their courage to speak out and tell their stories. It is only during the past several years that we have been doing more to help and make things easier for the survivors in their twilight years, and we will continue to do so. Distinguished guests, Several months ago, I headed the Israeli delegation to the ceremony marking 65 years since the liberation of the death camps Auschwitz and Birkenau. The candle-lighting ceremony took place outside in front of the monument. It was 15 degrees celsius below zero, but it was still warmer than the terrible winter of 1944-1945 when temperatures ranged from 30 to 35 degrees below zero. We stood for about 30 minutes during the ceremony, well-dressed for the weather, but nevertheless we were freezing. Suddenly I understood a simple, chilling truth about millions of my brothers and sisters who ended up in that cursed place: those who didn’t burn, froze; and those who didn’t freeze were burned. (Jssnews)

Anti-Semitism Incidents Double in 2009-Hillel Fendel and Yoni Kempinski
The year 2009 was the worst in terms of anti-Semitism in at least 20 years, according to the annual report prepared by the Stephen Roth Institute for the Study of Contemporary Anti-Semitism and Racism at Tel Aviv University. The report, presented in Jerusalem on Sunday, was prepared in conjunction with the European Jewish Congress. The number of violent anti-Semitic incidents jumped by more than 100 percent, from 559 in 2008 to 1,129 in the year just passed – an average of 3.1 incidents every day around the world.
It appears that Israel’s counterterrorism Operation Cast Lead in January 2009 had much to do with the rise, and in fact the number of anti-Semitic incidents registered worldwide in January were higher than in any month since then. The numbers remained relatively high all year, however – and many in the Institute feel that Operation Cast Lead was merely an “excuse.” See video below. The largest increase in anti-Semitic incidents was registered in Great Britain, where anti-Semitism as measured in violence more than tripled -- from 112 incidents in 2008 to 374 in 2009. In France, the number rose from 50 to 195, and in the United States from 98 to 116. In Canada, there were only 13 incidents in 2008, thanks to what the report called “extraordinary protection on Jewish institutions,” which snowballed ten-fold to 138 in 2009.
In Russia and Ukraine, the number was down by 15 percent, from 68 to 58.
Some countries were “introduced” to anti-Semitism in 2009. Brazil and Austria had no incidents in 2008, but saw 15 and 22, respectively, in 2009. Similarly, Norway’s numbers rose from 1 to 6. In addition, there were many hundreds of verbal and other violence, threats, insults, graffiti, and anti-Semitic rallies and the like. Many incidents are assumed to have gone unreported, for various reasons. (INN)

Glorifying terrorism-Jpost editorial
By actually locating the Fatah-led governmental hub on a street named for a Hamas mass-murderer, the PA seems to signal unequivocally where its heart is.
A Channel 10 news crew, headed by correspondent Shlomi Eldar, was detained and later expelled by Palestinian Authority police in Ramallah last Wednesday. It had filmed the street where the PA’s new presidential compound is being erected but irked the local constabulary when its cameramen focused on the street-sign bearing the name of arch-terrorist Yihye Ayash. During the 1990s, Ayash gained notoriety as “the engineer.” His professional specialty was rigging explosives designed to take as many lives as possible. Primarily Ayash was an anti-Oslo saboteur, a fact which ought to make it doubly strange that the present Ramallah regime would even consider honoring him. The basis upon which the Palestinian Authority under Mahmoud Abbas at all exists, and purportedly negotiates peace on occasion, is the 1993 Oslo Accords. Yet hot on the heels of the celebration of the Oslo deal on the White House lawn, Israel was rocked by one of the bloodiest spates of terrorism to date. During 1994, 1995 and 1996 hundreds of Israelis were murdered in explosions on buses and crowded locales in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Hadera and elsewhere. Many of these attacks were Ayash’s handiwork. (Jpost)

Does Obama Want Israel to Sign a Suicide Pact?-Ken Blackwell
President Obama is often said to be pursuing a Wilsonian line in foreign policy. Wilson wanted, ineffectually, “to make the world safe for democracy.” Is Obama trying to make the world safe for Islam?
President George Washington did something amazing in 1790. He delivered an address--often described as his Letter to the Hebrew Congregation at Newport. Washington’s address was given in response to the congratulations he had received from Rhode Island’s oldest Jewish community. The Jews’ letter to the President applauded the formation of the Washington’s administration under the new Constitution. Their letter to the President used a wonderful phrase: “This government gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” These words have for centuries been attributed gratefully to Washington, but they were first addressed to him. Washington was the first ruler in human history to address the Jews as equal fellow citizens. That is but one of many reasons to honor the Founders‘ work and to recognize its continuing importance. Washington concluded his address with a ringing phrase from Scripture: “Let each sit under his own vine and fig tree and let there be none to make him afraid.” (I Kings 4:25) It’s worth remembering that amazing Washington letter. Next week, in the city of Washington, more than 40 nations’ representatives will gather for President Obama’s “Nuclear Security Summit.” Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will not be one of them. Netanyahu recently visited President Obama in the White House. There was no press availability. No joint press conference. No state dinner. No White House welcoming ceremony. Netanyahu’s limousine was nearly invisible as it left Capitol Hill. It was surrounded by a thick cordon of police vehicles as it raced through the halted traffic on Pennsylvania Avenue. If you blinked, you would have missed it. (Foxnews)

Alex Salmond calls for Israel trade rethink-Robyn Rosen
Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, has called for legal action and a review of trading relationships with Israel after David Miliband announced that Britain formally blamed the country for cloning UK passports during the Dubai operation. Mr Salmond replied to a question on BBC's Question Time last week, about the decision by the Foreign Secretary to expel an Israeli diplomat. The expulsion followed an investigation into the cloning of up to 15 British passports, in the operation leading to the killing of a Hamas leader in Dubai in January. Mr Salmond said that Mr Miliband's actions were "not enough". He said: "Friendly countries don't steal the passports of other countries' citizens and use that as part of an arrangement to assassinate their political enemies. And therefore it has to be treated in the context of the seriousness of what the Foreign Secretary believes that Israel have been doing. "Stealing peoples' passports - and indeed the assassination - must be a criminal offence. Surely, if the Foreign Secretary has now identified to his satisfaction that Israel is responsible, then he should be thinking of legal action. "In terms of the relationship with the Israeli government, it should be more than expelling a diplomat, there should be implications, for example in trading relationships. (Thejc)

Everyone knows-Melanie Phillips
According to David Ignatius, the Obama administration is preparing to impose a ‘solution’ to the Middle East impasse between Israel and the Arabs Palestinians. Apparently,
everyone knows
what such a ‘peace deal’ would look like.
Well if everyone knows, why hasn’t it been achieved?
Apparently it’s much like the
agreement that was nearly reached at Camp David in 2000 and in subsequent negotiations.
Ah yes, ‘nearly’. Only problem was the Palestinians wouldn’t have it, even though it offered them more than 90 per cent of the disputed territories and half of Jerusalem. Why didn’t they accept it? Because they wanted more. Everyone who has read the history knows what a peace deal would look like because it was offered in the 1920s, 1930s, 1940s, 1960s and 2000; only problem is that the Arabs rejected it. The Palestinians ‘know’ what a peace deal that they would agree to would look like. It would consist of peace without Israel existing at all. They’ve said so many times. For some inexplicable reason, not everyone in the Obama administration ‘knows’ this fact. Indeed, none of them seems to. Or if they do, they’re not telling us.
An anonymous American official told Ignatius:
...an American plan, if launched, would build upon past progress on such issues as borders, the ‘right of return’ for Palestinian refugees and the status of Jerusalem.
Fascinating! The Obama administration knows what everyone else doesn’t know they know. What Israeli borders does ‘everyone know’? The 1967 borders, aka the 1947 ‘Auschwitz borders’? Or the borders proposed in 2000, which included some of the settlements and the Jewish areas of Jerusalem beyond the Green Line which everyone but the Obama administration has known for the past several decades will always remain part of Israel? Why should there be a ‘right of return’ to Israel for Palestinian immigrants when the point of this imposed ‘peace deal’ is the establishment of a state of their own? Since when did ‘everyone know’ that a key aspect of the Palestinians’ ‘right to a state of their own’ is also apparently their right to someone else’s state? (Spectator.co.uk)

TERRORISM, security and policy

Taliban Capitalize on Afghan Logging Ban-Yaroslav Trofimov
Measure to Preserve Nation's Forests Instead Turns Them Over to Militants
NARAY, Afghanistan—Giant piles of prime timber line the roadsides along the Kunar River valley. The cut wood, worth tens of millions of dollars, has been slowly rotting away since 2006, when President Hamid Karzai banned logging and lumber sales in Afghanistan. The decree was designed to preserve the nation's dwindling forests. But, American military commanders and civilian officials say, this well-intentioned prohibition has led to disastrous consequences: giving a powerful boost to the Taliban-led insurgency and helping turn Kunar into one of Afghanistan's most dangerous provinces. A government-backed bill in parliament now aims to undo some of the damage by legalizing some export of timber and putting part of the profits back into local communities. The bill's future, however, is uncertain. Wood-cutting is a centuries-old traditional occupation of many local clans in this mountainous part of eastern Afghanistan, home to some of the country's largest forests. Logging has continued unabated here since Kabul imposed the ban. But now the industry is largely supervised by the Taliban. They skim off the profits and use the smuggling networks established to haul Kunar's trees into neighboring Pakistan to transport weapons and men, American officers say. As a result, logging clans are now part and parcel of the insurgency. (WSJ)

Terrorism threat to England opening match against USA at football World Cup-Richard Edwards
A gang of al-Qaeda terrorists have issued a chilling threat to cause “dozens and hundreds” of deaths by attacking England's opening game in the football World Cup in South Africa.
British intelligence officials have been alerted after the North African group, al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb, issued a statement warning that suicide bombers using “undetectable” explosives would target the England versus United States match in Rustenburg in June. The group have been behind a string of kidnaps of Westerners, and last year were condemned for the “barbaric” execution of a British hostage. It posted its statement on Jihadi website Mushtaqun Lel Jannah, translated as Longing to Paradise, saying that "al-Qaeda will have a presence in the games”. It continued: "How amazing could the match United States vs. Britain [sic] be when broadcasted live on air at a stadium packed with spectators when the sound of an explosion rumbles through the stands, the whole stadium is turned upside down and the number of dead bodies are in their dozens and hundreds, Allah willing." The State Department in America said that "appropriate precautions" were being taken to protect the month-long tournament and officials in Britain declined to comment on the report.But in a sign the threat is being taken seriously, a government minister in Italy – also named alongside France and Germany as potential targets – yesterday met with football chiefs to discuss the warning. (Telegraph.co.uk)

Obama authorises targeted killing of radical AMERICAN Muslim cleric who inspired Christmas Day bomber-David Williams
The U.S. government has put one of its own citizens, a radical Islamic preacher, on a CIA hit list. It means the agency is authorised to capture or kill Anwar al-Awlaki, believed to be in hiding in Yemen. The 39-year-old cleric, who was born in New Mexico, is said to be the senior Al Qaeda planner in Yemen and to be linked to a series of attacks against the U.S., including 9/11. Now his native country has effectively passed a death sentence on him. Last November, Awlaki was linked to a gun rampage by a U.S. Army major which left 13 people dead at the giant Fort Hood military base in Texas. He is also said to have inspired the former London student Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who is accused of trying to blow up a jet over Detroit on Christmas Day with explosives hidden in his underwear. Mutallab, son of a wealthy Nigerian banker, is thought to have been radicalised while studying at University College in London and then 'tutored in terrorism' in Yemen by Al Qaeda operatives under the control of Awlaki. Awlaki became popular among Islamic radicals for his firebrand preaching when he was an imam in San Diego, California. His sermons were attended by of the 9/11 hijackers, while a third heard him preach in Virginia. It is the first time that Washington has authorised the name of an American citizen being added to a CIA 'hit list'. (Dailymail.co.uk)

US Weapons to Lebanon Despite Hizbullah Closeness-Hillel Fendel
With the dividing lines between Hizbullah and the Lebanese Armed Forces not altogether clear, the United States has delivered weapons and ammunition to Israel's northern neighbor and thereby possibly to its enemy. The U.S. embassy in Lebanon announced last week that on April 2 it had delivered the first in a series of shipments of weapons and ammunition. The shipment included 1,000 M16A4 rifles, 10 missile launchers, 1,583 grenade launchers, and 538 sets of day/night binoculars and night-vision devices. It was stressed that the equipment would be supported with training provided by the U.S. government. Lebanese Defense Minister Elias Murr visited Washington in February to discuss military cooperation, especially U.S. assistance to the LAF to fight terrorism. A month ago, Minister Murr told Lebanese Al-Manar television that though he does not support integrating Hizbullah arms and forces within the LAF, “this does not mean we should offer Israel a favor [and disarm Hizbullah].”

Jihadism's War on Democracies-Walid Phares
Following is a chapter titled "Jihadism's War on Democracies" published in the book Debating the War of Ideas edited by Eric D Patterson and John Gallagher (Palgrave Macmillan). The chapter summarizes the three wars of ideas waged by Salafists, Wahabis, Muslim Brotherhoods and Khomeinists against liberal democracies and offer strategic suggestions for future counter radicalization policies. I do argue that under the previous US Administration there was a failed attempt to reach out to democracy forces in the Arab and Muslim world, while under the current Administration there are efforts to partner with the Islamists and engage the Jihadists at the expense of the Muslim Democrats. The term "War of Ideas" began appearing in the years following al Qaeda terror attacks against the United States on 9/11. In the days following the massacres, the mainstream media displayed a stunning lack of determination in indentifying where aggression was coming from and why. In the hours following the bloodshed in Manhattan, Pennsylvania and Washington where about three thousand- mostly civilians- were killed, the main question raised by networks, publications, and commentators was, "Why do they hate us?" Incredibly revealing, this slogan told the world and public at home that America did not know who the "they" (i.e., the attackers, who they represent, and what they wanted) were. It also underlined another stunning revelation: that what mainstream intellectuals understood from 9/11 was that sheer "hate" was the reason, and worse, the roots for this so-called hatred were unknown. (Counterterrorismblog)

Nuclear Posturing, Obama Style-CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER
There is no greater spur to hyperproliferation than the furling of the American nuclear umbrella.
Nuclear doctrine consists of thinking the unthinkable. It involves making threats and promising retaliation that is cruel and destructive beyond imagining. But it has its purpose: to prevent war in the first place. During the Cold War, we let the Russians know that if they dared use their huge conventional military advantage and invaded Western Europe, they risked massive U.S. nuclear retaliation. Goodbye Moscow. Was this credible? Would we have done it? Who knows? No one’s ever been there. A nuclear posture is just that — a declaratory policy designed to make the other guy think twice. Our policies did. The result was called deterrence. For half a century, it held. The Soviets never invaded. We never used nukes. That’s why nuclear doctrine is important. The Obama administration has just issued a new one that “includes significant changes to the U.S. nuclear posture,” said Defense Secretary Bob Gates. First among these involves the U.S. response to being attacked with biological or chemical weapons. Under the old doctrine, supported by every president of both parties for decades, any aggressor ran the risk of a cataclysmic U.S. nuclear response that would leave the attacking nation a cinder and a memory. Again: Credible? Doable? No one knows. But the threat was very effective. (Nationalreview)

Afghanistan and the Decline of American Power-FOUAD AJAMI
President Obama's "war of necessity" in Afghanistan increasingly has to it the mark of a military campaign disconnected from a bigger political strategy.
Yes, it is true, he "inherited" this war. But in his fashion he embraced it and held it up as a rebuke to the Iraq war. The spectacle of Afghan President Hamid Karzai going rogue on the American and NATO allies who prop up his regime is of a piece with other runaway clients in far-off lands learning that great, distant powers can be defied and manipulated with impunity. After all, Mr. Karzai has been told again and again that his country, the safe harbor from which al Qaeda planned and carried out 9/11, is essential to winning the war on terror. Some months ago, our envoy to Kabul, Ambassador Karl Eikenberry, saw into the heart of the matter in a memo to his superiors. Mr. Eikenberry was without illusions about President Karzai. He dismissed him as a leader who continues to shun "responsibility for any sovereign burden, whether defense, governance or development. He and his circle don't want the U.S. to leave and are only too happy to see us invest further. They assume we covet their territory for a never-ending war on terror and for military bases to use against surrounding powers." The Eikenberry memorandum lays to rest once and for all the legend of Afghanistan as a "graveyard of empires." Rather than seeking an end to the foreign military presence, the Afghans and their leader seek to perpetuate it. It spares them the hard choice of building a nation-state, knitting together feuding ethnicities and provinces, and it brings them enormous foreign treasure. (WSJ)

GLOBAL GOVERNANCE AND RADICAL ENVIRONMENTALISM

What Your TV Is Telling You to Do-AMY CHOZICK
NBC Universal's Shows Are Sending Viewers Signals to Recycle, Exercise and Eat Right. Why?
In just one week on NBC, the detectives on "Law and Order" investigated a cash-for-clunkers scam, a nurse on "Mercy" organized a group bike ride, Al Gore made a guest appearance on "30 Rock," and "The Office" turned Dwight Schrute into a cape-wearing superhero obsessed with recycling. Coincidence? Hardly. NBC Universal planted these eco-friendly elements into scripted television shows to influence viewers and help sell ads. The tactic—General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal calls it "behavior placement"—is designed to sway viewers to adopt actions they see modeled in their favorite shows. And it helps sell ads to marketers who want to associate their brands with a feel-good, socially aware show. Unlike with product placement, which can seem jarring to savvy viewers, the goal is that viewers won't really notice that Tina Fey is tossing a plastic bottle into the recycle bin, or that a minor character on "Law and Order: SVU" has switched to energy-saving light bulbs. "People don't want to be hit over the head with it," says NBC Universal Chief Executive Jeff Zucker. "Putting it in programing is what makes it resonate with viewers." (WSJ)

SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND CULTURE

The link between brain and belly-JUDY SIEGEL-ITZKOVICH
Individual levels of certain neurotransmitters can help determine what kind of diet will work best.
The aphorism that “You are what you eat” recognizes the important effects of diet on health. But recent studies seem to show that the mirror image – “You eat what you are” – is true as well. This means that the level of certain neurotransmitters – especially serotonin and norepinephrine – in the brain not only affect moods but also determine what type of diet would be most effective in helping you lose weight – and keep it off. Prof. Ilana Blum, a Hebrew University Medical Faculty graduate who specialized in internal medicine and endocrinology, has just published a Hebrew-language book on this subject. Called Lirzot Behochma! Al Ochel, Matzav Ruah, Mishkal Vechol Ma Shebeineihem (Losing Weight Wisely! Food, Mood, Weight and Everything in Between), the 199-page volume will be an eye opener to the many people who have lost weight and gained it – and more – back. Published by Yedioth Books (www.ybook.co.il), the NIS 118 softcover offers much to the layman, but is also full of scientific explanations for Blum’s advice. The author, who was assisted in the writing by Rina Lipa, was previously director of an internal medicine department at Tel Aviv Sourasky Medical Center and ran the endocrine institute at the Rabin Medical Center-Beilinson Campus. She is also the author of many studies on hormonal changes and brain function, and the influence of nutrition on how the brain works. (Jpost)

Grace Kelly: a graceful masterclass in allure-Louisa Levene
As Grace Kelly’s style is celebrated in a new exhibition, Louise Levene examines the qualities that made her so loved - particularly by the British.
Frocks in glass boxes aren’t usually much of a turn-on. Fabric conservation and display may have come a long way since I first began haunting the Victoria and Albert Museum as a child, but even the most lovingly restored dress is really only the shed skin of the beautiful, bygone creature that wore it. A dressmaker’s dummy might show off a garment’s cut but it can’t set its skirts in motion or rustle the silk of its lining. The V&A’s new Grace Kelly: Style Icon exhibition doesn’t have this problem because the 40 gowns on display are brought to life by moviegoer memories of the actress who wore them. And for those sad souls who might have forgotten how beautiful Kelly was, how easily and stylishly she shimmered through space, there are lovely little loops of film. Grace in Hollywood, Grace at the altar, Grace in Monaco: the actress; the bride and the Princess. The Princess’s wardrobe has been exhibited several times since her death in 1982 but the V&A show differs substantially from the recent frock-fests in Paris, Moscow, Rome and Monaco by bringing many new gowns and jewels together with contemporary magazine spreads celebrating her style and good taste.Although the collection is careful to cover all three areas of Kelly’s life, the emphasis is on the star at her brightest. “We wanted to refocus it completely and build up the film side of it,” explains Jenny Lister, the curator who led the treasure hunt for missing pieces. (Telegraph.co.uk)

The Armenian Genocide and the Turks- Benjamin Bidder, Daniel Steinvorth and Bernhard Zand
The month of April marks the 95th anniversary of the start of the Armenian genocide. An unusual television documentary shows what motivated the murderers and why Germany, and other countries, remained silent. Tigranui Asartyan will be 100 this week. She put away her knives and forks two years ago, when she lost her sense of taste, and last year she stopped wearing glasses, having lost her sight. She lives on the seventh floor of a high-rise building in the Armenian capital Yerevan, and she hasn't left her room in months. She shivers as the cold penetrates the gray wool blanket on her lap. "I'm waiting to die," she says. Ninety-two years ago, she was waiting in a village in on the Turkish side of today's border, hiding in the cellar of a house. The body of an Armenian boy who had been beaten to death lay on the street. Women were being raped in the house next door, and the eight-year-old girl could hear them screaming. "There are good and bad Turks," she says. The bad Turks beat the boy to death, while the good Turks helped her and her family to flee behind withdrawing Russian troops. Avadis Demirci, a farmer, is 97. If anyone in his country keeps records on such things, he is probably the last Armenian in Turkey who survived the genocide. Demirci looks out the window at the village of Vakifli, where oleander bushes and tangerine trees are in full bloom. The Mediterranean is visible down the mountain and in the distance. In July 1915, Turkish police units marched up to the village. "My father strapped me to his back when we fled," says Demirci. "At least that's what my parents told me." Armed with hunting rifles and pistols, the people from his and six other villages dug themselves in on Musa Dagh, or Moses Mountain. Eighteen years later, Austrian writer Franz Werfel described the villagers' armed resistance against the advancing soldiers in his novel "The Forty Days of Musa Dagh." "The story is true," says Demirci. "I experienced it, even if I am only familiar with it from the stories I was told." (Spiegelonline)

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