POLITICS OF "ISLAMOPHOBIA"

Discover the Networks

This article provides us with some of the history of the invention of the term Islamophobia and its usefulness as a club for frightening ordinary people as well as the news media into downplaying or ignoring Islamic terrorism. As the old joke goes, "who are you going to believe? Me or your lying eyes." If fear of being labeled an Islamophobe succeeds, Islamic terrorism won't be a crime; saying unkind things about Islam will.

I'VE GOT...ISLAMOPHOBIA!

by P. David Hornik

 Muslims pressuring the U.N. to declare criticism of religion (i.e., Islam) a hate crime have a peculiar definition of what constitutes a hate crime: any slur on Islam made publicly. Since Islam is perfect and without flaw, then clearly any criticism is a slur and is completely unwarranted. To use a recent neologism that betrays an ignorance of root words, the critic is considered islamophobic, (irrationally afraid of Islam) though his actual emotions are anger and disgust at -- and loathing of -- Muslim behavior and these feelings are entirely rational and reality-based. P. David Hornik makes the point subtly and humorously in this essay.

THE WAR AMERICA FIGHTS

by Caroline Glick

  An important strategy in war is to keep the enemy off balance and defensive and timid about reacting strongly. Islam is waging war against the USA and Israel and is using psychological tools effectively. This isn't a good time for us to be politically correct.

 When you are fighting a war, knowing the identify of the enemy usually is not a problem. But, as Caroline Glick writes, we have identified the enemy only timidly and peripherally, not smack on. And even when, as in the case of Major Hasan, who murdered fourteen of his fellow soldiers, it was obvious he was a jihadist or a jihad-groupie, yet the army ignored the problem. It is a most unusual, and in many ways ineffective, war in that the American administration encourages friendly contact with the Muslim Brotherhood, a motherlode of terrorist activities, takes timid measures against Iran and ignores the terrorism emanating from much of the Muslim world, notably from the Arab sector of that world.

SHARIAH LOBBY'S PLAY ACTION FAKE - "DANGER, DANGER, DANGER!"

  James Zumwalt points out that Muslim organizations, "by playing the Islamophobia card" seek to shift the focus away from where it should be: on dangers to our freedoms. Instead they claim bias when concerns are raised about such dangers. Sharia law, which is already being cited to a sizable degree in ordinary courts and on the appellate level, reinforces practices that are alien to the West and unacceptable under our law system. In child custody cases Sharia law automatically favors the father. Multiple wives are allowed. Sex with minors is allowed. Judging from experience in other countries: as Sharia law becomes institutionalized, individual freedoms suffer, religions other than Islam suffer, groups such as homosexuals and all women end up with restricted rights or no rights. Countries that encourage the application of Islamic law to show they are tolerant, end up being intolerant to their own people and institutions.

YALE'S STERN AND ADL'S FOXMAN: ARE THEY IGNORANT ABOUT JEWISH LAW VERSUS SHARIA ISLAMIC LAW

by Jerry Gordon

  Jerry Gordon writes about the differences between Sharia Law and Halacha. Superficially, Sharia Law sounds much like Halacha, Jewish Law. Both are prescriptive for how the individual is to behave in all aspects of his life. In practice they differ widely. A person is both himself and a member of his group. The Torah is ground and guide for shaping and sharpening a reasonable adjustment between the individual and the group, allowing the individual free will and the space in which to grow in morality and intellect, while ensuring group survival and functionality. This can take many forms and variations, subject to changing conditions and environments. Jewish Law will reformulate expressions of its way of life in accordance with the laws of the host country; it strives to maintain halachic integrity within the scope of the larger society. Muslim Law is static by design, being modeled on the behavior and commands of Muhammad; it sees no reason to adjust to any one else's set of laws, which by definition are inferior to its own. Strictures alien to the Muslim include the USA's Constitution and the laws that are given life by it.

AMERICAN MUSLIMS CLAIM A RIGHT TO ISLAMIC LAW

by Richard H. Shulman

 Richard Shulman analyzes point by point an essay by Professor Aziz Huq, who argued against a law that would prohibit courts from using foreign laws, including Sharia. The case for using Sharia law in American courts and as an alternative to American law is presented as a courtesy to and a sign of tolerance of the Muslim community. It is claimed there would be little impact on American society. Shulman suggests the proper context is this: Islam declared war on us. We need to ask how does the establishment of Sharia courts aid them in their war effort?

There would be little point in letting Sharia law have legal power and then not allow its decisions to be carried out. Thus, adherence to Sharia would contribute to the subjugation of Muslim women. Would we be forced to allow everything from wife beatings to honor killer? Or would Sharia-determined decisions require review -- creating a large burden on our courts. If Sharia were given status, the next push would be to make criticism of Islam a hate crime, even if the specific allegation was accurate and objective. Were that to happen, the impact would be huge. It would in practice deprive us of the freedom to voice any criticism of Islam.

Besides minimizing the importance of the request and acting as victim, there is the implied threat. The Professor warns that rejecting the installing of Sharia would chill Muslim cooperation against terrorism. It would be difficult to see how they could cooperate less than they do. Is he threatening overt terrorism if they don't get their way?

INTO THE FRAY: ET TU, BILL...

by Martin Sherman

 As I start to write the intro to this article by Martin Sherman on Bill Clinton's Judeophobic attitude, the ticker tape reads: "3 rockets explode in Gan Yavne; morter shells fired from Gaza land in Ashdod, Gan Yavne; Egyptian Brotherhood makes first visit to Hamas-led Gaza; Islamic Jihad takes responsibility for grad rocket fire; female suicide bomber kills 3 wounds 20 in S.E. Turkey." 29oct11 The Muslims of the Arab World continue to work at destroying Israel, when they are not killing their own countrymen. But according to our affable ex-prez, it's Netanyahu and the Jooz who are withholding peace from the world. Clinton's made a boodle speaking in the Democratic-party climate of many synagogues, but apparently the Saudis pay better.

DID WESTERN LEFTISTS INVENT 'ISRAELI APARTHEID'?

by Paul Austin Murphy

 Israel is accused of apartheid because that worked so well to demonize South Africa. Never mind that the Arabs in Israel are a minority, not a majority. Never mind that Israeli Arabs have more freedom of expression than in any Arab state. Similarly Marxist Leftists call Israel 'racist' not because it's true but because it's been an effective way to shut up someone for a very long time. The need to destroy Israel is so strong, facts don't seem to matter. Paul Murphy uses a novel tactic to make this point -- he provides us with Leftist conspiracy-style retorts to actual facts, facts the Marxist Left has no problem ignoring.

HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH DURING THE 2006 LEBANON WAR AND NOW

Part 1: by Abraham Bell and Gerald M. Steinberg;
Part2: by Gerald M. Steinberg and Naftali A. Balanson

  For HRW the more things change ... doesn't apply. They don't even seem to change. This article deals with HRW fixed focus on Israel in the Lebanon War in 2006 and, now, in 2011, when Syrian abuses against human rights are rightly labeled as atrocities, HRW's coverage is scanty. One reader suggested HRW change its name. "Maybe a name like Deny Jewish Human Rights would be more appropriate."

THE MUHAMMAD AL-DURA HOAX AND OTHER MYTHS REVIVED

by Nidra Poller

  Nidra Poller writes on one of the most successful hoaxes ever perpetrated -- it's right up there with the fabricated bayoneting of Belgian babies in World War 1. At the start of the second Intifada, a 12-year old was supposedly killed by Israeli soldiers. The image of the boy, Muhammad al-Dura, cowering behind his father went around the world, creating sympathy for the Palestinian cause. It was later determined that the bullet that killed the boy couldn't have come from where the IDF was positioned. The boy was in direct line with an Arab sharpshooter, who was standing near the Arab cameraman who was paid by France 2, which refused to release the 44-minutes of film that was omitted from the film distributed to the public. We now know that even the supposed IDF attack was staged in that a distraction crew of Arabs "attacked the Israeli outpost with rocks, firebombs, and burning tires, [while] fake battle scenes were filmed in another part of the junction, out of range of the Israel Defence Forces outpost." It's not even certain that the boy was killed. The dramatic description of the scene by the French commentator, Charles Enderlin, was not eye-witness; it was dubbed in later. Enderlin has stonewalled, he has sued critics, he's written endless self-justifications; he's done everything but own up to having perpetrated a hoax, and not a very well-constructed hoax at that.

Poller then asks and answers a more significant question: what were the factors that made Al-Dura a media "success", while a real massacre of a Jewish family by Arabs -- where an infant was almost completely decapitated and the murderers readily confessed and were proud of what they did - is soft-pedaled by the media as just another news item. Why indeed are news people sometimes intelligently sceptical of planted stories and at other times act like lobotomized sheep? Her answer has relevance to so much that we are fed by a supposedly neutral Mainstream Media.

THE TROUBLE WITH MUSLIM DEMOCRACY

Daniel Greenfield

  Westerners often mistakenly believe that democracy is democracy is democracy, so if the Arabs proclaim themselves democratic, they must be our kind of people. But, as Daniel Greenfield points out, "[t]he Muslim world is so enthusiastic about democracy because it allows the majority to slap around the minority -- at least more so than it's already doing." The people haven't changed. They haven't become kinder or more mature; they just have more freedom to be nasty. In consequence, minorities such as Egypt's Christian Copts are safer under a tyrannical dictator. "In the final analysis," Greenfield points out, "the trouble with Muslim democracy is the Muslims."

IS DEMOCRACY THE CURE FOR ISLAMIC TERRORISM?

a book review by Samuel Helfont

 Samuel Helfont reviews a book by Katerina Dalacoura that casts doubt on the belief that "democracy is an 'antidote' to terrorism. From her studies, Dalacoura concluded that "there is no necessary causal link between authoritarianism in the Middle East and Islamist terrorism." This means that a democratized Egypt, should that ever occur, would no more stamp out terrorism than giving terrorists their own country to govern will dissolve their impulse towards waging jihad.

THE MARCH TOWARD A NUCLEAR IRAN

by Ray Takeyh

 President Obama's way of playing Nero playing the fiddle while Rome burned is to focus our military might on Libya and our political ire on Israel for building homes in the Territories or even in Jerusalem. As Ray Takeyh points out, the real problem is Iran and it needs to be dealt with. Sanctions have not and will not work and we can't afford to just let things happen. "Neither the turbulent order of the Middle East nor the partisan politics of Washington can afford an Islamic Republic armed with nuclear weapons." If this reality doesn't make the politicians understand what actions are urgently needed, try this: "An Iranian bomb is likely to unleash the most divisive partisan discord in this country since the 1949 debate about who lost China."

INSTABILITY SPREADING SOUTH FROM LIBYA THROUGH NIGERIA

by Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi

 Since President Obama and NATO picked Libya's Gaddafi as the Muslim dictator most urgently in need of downfall, there have been several disquieting and unintended results -- at least I hope they were unintended. As Aymenn Jawad Al-Tamimi writes, there has been an increase of instability that is spreading south. Several Libyan arms depots that we didn't strike were looted and arms and missiles are missing -- they could end up with an al Qaeda group, AQIM. The disgruntled Touareg "might forge ties with AQIM." Nigeria is already appeasing the Boko Haram, which wants Nigeria to become an Islamic state. And of course the new rulers of Libya are in favor of creating an Islamic state. Had we known that the Libyan caper would result in more hard line Islamic theocracies, we might have left bad enough alone.

NEEDED: A LEADER IN THE WHITE HOUSE

by Eytan Gilboa

 A few short years ago, President Obama spoke of a new American policy in the Middle East based on diplomacy and cooperation with moderate regimes. Eytan Gilboa writes about the collapse of the two anchors of this policy. "Turkey, once an exemplar moderate Islamic democracy, and Egypt, once an exemplar stable and moderate Arab power, have become increasingly unreliable allies." "With all the whisperings over America's weakness, it is unsurprising that players like Iran and Turkey are looking to fill the vacuum left in its place — to become regional powers with global influence." He didn't understand the region then, and he doesn't know what to do now. Except to blame Israel, of course.

A SCARLET LETTER - FOR JEWS

by Giulio Meotti

 Giulio Meotti explores the issue of the proposed Arab state that would be carved out from much of Biblical Israel (Samaria and Judea -- AKA the West Bank). Some of the land is held by Jews, dedicated, productive Jews, civilized people who have taken the brunt of the Arab attacks on Israeli civilians. Perhaps because they represent a key element in maintaining a country that is both strong and civilized, they have been demonized by the media, pro-Palestinian NGOs and groups such as Peace Now that are Jewish in name only. In striking contrast to their actual character, they are "portrayed by the media, by entertainment icons, by governmental advisers as blood-crazed zealots, 'parasites', as the single largest danger to Israel's well-being." These present-day Jewish settlers as well as every other Jew in the world would not be permitted to live in the projected Palestinian State. They would not be allowed on land where the Jewish people became a nation; where they shaped the moral code that is the foundation of Western morality; where the first Jewish settlers of Israel were able to practice their religion according to Torah.

PALESTINIAN ARAB "REFUGEES" WOULDN'T BE CITIZENS OF "PALESTINE" - EVEN IF THEY LIVE THERE!

by Elder of Ziyon

 This is an amazing report by Elder of Ziyon. The State that the Palestinians Arabs are asking the U.N. to grant them -- the State that is to be carved out of the land that is Biblical Israel and which they claim is the Palestinian Homeland -- will not be granting citizenship to the Palestinian refugees, even those living right now in Gaza, Samaria and Judea. Yes, the very same refugees that roused the sympathy of the world to help them regain land they had left voluntarily at the behest of the Arab invaders of Israel in 1948. In effect, the Palestinian Authority will continue to collect millions of dollars from the USA and the European Union, but the UN will continue to feed, clothe, medicate and education the "refugees" and Israel will continue to supply them with electricity and water. The only difference will be that Jews will not be allowed to live in Biblical Israel. What a deal!

THE FAMOUS STATE OF PALESTINE

by Giulio Meotti

 We know that yet another Arab state will not allow Jews to live in it. We've learned that Palestinian Arab refugees -- the root reason the "world" is anxious to set up the new state -- will not be allowed to become citizens of this state, not even if they are already living there. Giulio Meotti suggests what the new state will be like -- it will be just like what the old one was. We might add that if it moves steadily towards what a good Muslim state strives for, it will be a Sharia-driven theocracy that prides itself on family purity (but practices homosexuality quietly); a male-oriented society where women are chattel and slavery exists; a death-cult society that has the mentality of the 7th century culture of Mohammed and uses 21st century weaponry to ensure the world bows down to Islam and practices Sharia law.

THE DURBAN PERVERSION

by Joseph Klein

 This essay says volumes about the character of the U.N. Where else would an invented people announce it wanted someone else's land and know it has a good chance of getting it?

Joseph Klein recounts the history of a disgraceful series of conference sponsored by the United Nations. The first of these in 2001, Durban 1, supposedly designed to examine racism worldwide, turned into a racist hatefest against the Jewish state, ignoring all actual racist states. "It was marked by vitriolic displays of anti-Semitism." Durban 2 didn't have the shock value of Durban 1, but again, UN members showed an unusually high degree of cooperation in ambushing and attacking Israel. Durban 3, this September, saw the same inversion of morality, where dictators and terrorists and wholesale murderers accused Israel of being evil. Klein also tells us about a counter-Durban 3 Conference, which showed real concern for human rights. One speakers had been a slave. "[He is] a living demonstration of the 'emerging forms of slavery such as human trafficking,' perpetrated within Sudan by the racist Arab government and population, which Sudan's undersecretary so piously condemned at the Durban III conference."

LET'S VOTE FOR INDEPENDENCE!

by Steven Plaut

 In his own inimitable way, Steven Plaut points out that there are many separatist groups with better credentials for having a state of their own. The Kurds, for example, are a legitimate people yet they are split among several Arab countries, none of whom is willing to give them their own place. What makes the Palestinians so special? Plaut suggests that, should the UN Security Council vote for a Palestinian State, Israel should recognize the particular separatist groups plaguing the particular countries that voted for a Palestinian Arab state.

WAS THERE A PALESTINIAN ARAB NATIONAL MOVEMENT AT THE END OF THE OTTOMAN PERIOD?

Wallace Edward Brand

 During the 400 years in which the Ottomans ruled what later was known as Mandated Palestine, there was no Palestinian state, no Palestinian people and no Palestinian Arab nationalist movement among the local Arabs and other Muslims and non-Muslims. Yet some 40 years later, Yasir Arafat proclaimed there was a Palestinian people and Palestine had always been their land. Wallace Edward Brand examines whether there is evidence of a nationalist movement in the period between the end of Ottoman rule after World War 1 and the artificial creation of Palestinian peoplehood, during the time that the Jews were building the infrastructure of a State and redeeming their ancient homeland.

REASSESSING 'ROOT CAUSES' FROM 'RED HERRINGS'

by Martin Sherman

 Martin Sherman provides evidence out of the mouths and writings of Arab leaders that their intent has always been to destroy Israel itself. Complaining about settlements and Israel's 'occupation' of the West Bank are red herrings -- diversionary tactics -- that should be ignored. For them 'Palestine' extends "from the Jordan River to the Mediterranean Sea," mapping right on and over Israel. Israel needs to realize that the root cause of Arab enmity is "not about borders but about existence" and respond appropriately.

JERUSALEM: OUR REDEEMABLE RIGHT: JEWS HOLD LEGAL SOVEREIGNTY OVER ISRAEL'S ENTIRE CAPITAL CITY

by Michael C. Duke

 Michael Duke writes about the legal foundation stone of Israel's right to Israel and the Territories -- including all of Jerusalem -- and about a lawyer who spent a quarter of a century determining precisely that the Jews are the legal owners of all of Jerusalem. The document is the San Remo Resolution of 1920; the lawyer is Jacques Gauthier, an expert in international law. San Remo did not just set the future for Mandated Palestine -- which the Jews have redeemed and partially reconstituted -- but it also mandated the future Arab states of Iraq, Lebanon and Syria. Later, other modern Arab states were carved out of the vast expanse of the Middle East by the same authority. That trust passed to the U.N. when the League of Nations was dissolved. The U.N. has not gained respect for its embarrassing embrace of the Arab attempt to delegitimize Israel but even the U.N. must realize it can not break an irrevocable trust with Israel as beneficiary by giving away Biblical Israel to the Palestinian Arabs without simultaneously destroying the basis for the Arab Middle East.

ANNEXATION WINS HANDS DOWN OVER A TWO-STATE SOLUTION

by Matthew M. Hausman

 This is an excellent reference article. Matthew M. Hausman lays out the reasons why another Arab state in Israel's heartland would be a very bad idea. As he points out, "No amount of subterfuge can change the fact that Palestinian nationalism is an artificial construct or that Judea and Samaria were never lawfully part of any sovereign Arab nation." Were Israel to annex Samaria and Judea, she would be reclaiming land that is hers "historically, geographically and legally" by international law. "Israel can rely only on herself to craft a solution that makes legal, historical and moral sense, and which assures her security and continuity as a democratic, Jewish state."

PEQUOTS, PEKI'IN AND PALESTINIANISM

by William Rabinowitz

 This essay points out that after the Jews were defeated by the Romans and through the thousands of years of the diaspora, there was always a Jewish presence in Israel.

William Rabinowitz seems to specialize in humor-coated history, wrapping little-known historic facts in whimsy. In this essay, he writes about the Jews of Pek'in, Israel, a community where Jews have been in continual residence for the last 2 and 1/2 millenia. It is a fact that has been obscured as attention is usually focused on the immigration of Jews starting in the 19th century to redeem their ancient homeland. He also paints an searing picture of a not-too-bright current-day Jewish college student, who has absorbed a pro-Palestinian attitude from his teachers, the local Muslim students and the TV and newspapers. Rabinowitz responds with very different answers to someone who had been indoctrinated to believe that the Palestinians are indigenous to Israel and own the land.

ON A MOUNTAIN, WITH A TRUMPET

by Rabbi Meir Kahane

 Rabbi Meir Kahane was dismissed by many as a radical, a racist, a bigot, an ultranationalist. When the fashion was to believe in the similarity and basic goodness of everyone's goals and aspirations, his diagnosis of an implacable enemy utterly at odds with Judaism was unsettling. We were angered by his message; so we threw stones at the messenger and ignored the message. Now, twenty-one years after his murder, as events catch up to his analyses and predictions, we are beginning to appreciate the clarity of his thoughts and are beginning to agree with his solutions. Yom Kippur is a good time to reflect on his essay on the consequences of ignoring the danger we are in.

SPARING AGAG: HARD TRUTHS ABOUT ISRAEL'S INHIBITED WAR VS. TERROR

by Brandon Marlon

  As in the previous article, Brandon Marlon warns that Israeli's weak reactive responses to Arab aggression may be politically palatable, but eventually they will damage Israel. To make the point, he recounts the story of King Saul who was merciful to the Amalek when the situation dictated that he destroy them. Eventually this "almost resulted in the eradication of his own people." The bottom line is: "in dealing with an implacable, fanatical enemy - say, terrorists - the alternatives are neatly narrowed down to four: offer surrender, accept surrender, strike or be struck ... Harsh as it may seem, war is no time for mildness. One must be in it to win it."

ISRAEL'S PATH TO VICTORY

by Caroline Glick

 Caroline Glick asks why the Israeli Government doesn't change its course of action - hoary with age and covered with disappointments -- in dealing with the Palestinian Arabs, who promise to abide by mutually-agreed-upon rules and then do whatever they damn well please, secure in the knowledge that no matter what they do, they will suffer no permanent injury and will, almost certainly, gain new support and material benefits. A major overhaul would include redefining their connection to the Land of Israel. As Glick puts it, "[w]hile Israel has been defending its right to security, the Palestinians have been on the offensive arguing that all the land that Israel took control over from Jordan in 1967 belongs to them by ancestral right." Israel's emphasis on security needs is real and necessary but emotionally unappealing. Stupidly, her spokespeople neutrally refer to Samaria and Judea -- Biblical Israel -- as 'disputed territory.' The Arabs weep dramatically about their lost land -- that's much more appealing to an outsider. It's time Israel spoke out and told the truth: the land is hers and belongs only to her.

THE WAR AGAINST ISLAM

by David Ramati

 David Ramati's essay is on perspective. We tend to think that our present problems with specific groups of Arab terrorists began on 9/11. Ramati points out that in actuality Islam as an ideology has been at war with Western civilization since Mohammad invented it; Muslims often complaining they are the victims of attack. In an amazingly short amount of time, Islam attacked and conquered the neighboring lands, attacked and conquered Christian Spain and immediately began a campaign against Europe. Meantime, they created various ways to denigrate Christians and Jews and other non-Muslims, so that they would always be conscious of the fact that they were dhimmi, beings inferior to Muslims. Dhimmis paid a poll tax; they were pressured to convert to Islam; they wore identification badges, a yellow badge for Jews, an image of a pig for Christians. Then as now, there were no limits to Muslim ruthlessness and deception in aid of Islam becoming the dominant religion in the world. It was in Europe that their conquest was stopped. But, again characteristic of Islam, they tried again, successfully, some 700 years later. Again they went into a decline. Or should we say hibernation. Now, they are at war with us again, strengthened by oil money, a strong belief in the value of their ideology and a blood-thirsty desire for revenge for defeats.

SAFED: THE FORGOTTEN POGROM OF 1834

by Jerrold L. Sobel

 Jerrold Sobel writes about one of the pogroms against the Jews of Safad, Israel, then part of the Ottoman Empire. In 1834 the local Arabs revolted against Egyptian domination and were ruthlessly savaged. The rebels then scapegoated the Jews, and for 33 days devastated the Jewish community, dismembering children, raping men and women, beating them, plundering their money and slaughtering them. As Sobel writes, "...the fact that this pogrom occurred at all flies in the face of modern Arab propagandists and their sympathizers which claim, if not for Zionism and the re-creation of the state of Israel, native Jews and Palestinians existed in harmony for hundreds of years; a prevarication proven to be without merit." The Jews lived as dhimmis, "stateless in their own homeland ... easy prey to the whims of local populaces and their leaders."

THE FAILURE OF THE LIBERAL JEWISH ESTABLISHMENT, THEN AND NOW

by FresnoZionism

This article at FresnoZionism reviews how differently the establishment Jewish organizations and the newly-formed innovative Bergson group worked to save the lives of European Jews during the Holocaust. The established organizations headed by Rabbi Stephen S. Wise ignored that Roosevelt was part of the problem blocking rescue operations and were concerned about protecting Roosevelt's reputation. Even the news of the ongoing concentration camp extermination of Jews did not make them change their traditional ways of dealing with a crisis. FresnoZionism makes the point that these days too many Jews -- those who support J Street and/or New Israel Fund are an egregious example -- are more protective of their standing as good liberals than of Israel's urgent need for all-out support, not lip-service and not J-Street-style sabotage.

LUBA TRYSZYNSKAS: "THE ANGEL OF BERGEN-BELSEN"

by Jerrold L. Sobel

 Jerrold Sobel writes about an inmate of the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, who took upon herself the responsibility of keeping alive half a hundred children tossed outside the barracks into the freezing cold, their parents dead in the gas chamber. She kept them alive, scraping together food for them and stealing medicine until the war ended and rescue came.

THE MUNICH MASSACRE - SEPTEMBER 5TH, 1972

by Mitchell Bard

 This is Mitchell Bard's account of the massacre of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympics of 1972 by the PLO "Black September" terrorists sent on their mission by Yasir Arafat. My own recollection was driving the car while listening to Peter Jennings and some other newsmen reporting. The negotiations were finally over and the terrorists and their Israeli hostages were on their way to the airfield. Things had calmed down. The reporters could start treating Israel as they usually did. When talking about Israel and/or the Israeli team, Jennings' tone was supercilious, pseudo-analytic. In contrast, the terrorists were treated as human beings; in warmer tones, he absolved them, implying 'the debbil (Israel) made them do it.' Then came the news that when the German sharpshooters attacked, the terrorists killed the Jewish athletes. That silenced Peter Jennings. For a while.

  This is where our readers get a chance to write opinions and editorials and share articles they find informative. The Blog-Eds page for the month is updated every few days.

There is a separate file that is the index for the articles on the Blog-Ed page. You can access an article immediately from this index by clicking on the item in the index.

To access the Index, click the "Blog-Eds List" box in the Blue Strip on the top of the Blog-Ed page.

September 2011 BLOG-EDS   READ MORE
October 2011 BLOG-EDS      READ MORE

TO CONTACT US:

Submit Letters, Comments and Articles for publication.
Our website address is:http://www.think-israel.org.
Our email address is: editor@think-israel.org.