News of the Riverdale Bomb Plot-- or is it not the news?

Jonathan Mark of the New York Jewish Week comments on the Riverdale bomb plot. His take? The major media is out to lunch covering the story and has been replaced by alternative media such as the Village Voice, The Nation, The Amsterdam News, and on Air America. We could expand the list by adding The Worker and the countless bloggers who believe the would-be bombers were entrapped by the FBI.

As is usual in “entrapment” stories, Jews aren’t interviewed for their understanding of entrapment, or how the Riverdale plot seared Jewish sensitivities.

The Voice might have spoken to Samuel G. Freedman. A writer for The New York Times, he has written with great sensitivity about ethnic profiling and the humiliation felt by one Muslim girl when she was stopped by airport security. Freedman told The Jewish Week, “The fact is, you can’t be entrapped unless you participate in your own entrapment. There’s a big difference between profiling, say, a high school girl, and profiling people who are demonstrably criminal with histories of violence. There’s a huge, huge difference there.”

As Mark well understands the story is far from over. Read the The Chill is Gone.

Israel is not 60+ years old

Much is made over the State of Israel being a relatively new country--created by a remorseful world out of guilt for the loss of 6,000,000 Jews murdered by the Nazis during World War II. Despite this belief, as recently stated by President Obama, it's wrong. While the Holocaust might have been the catalyst that drove the United Nations to at long last give life to British intentions as to the Jews return to the land as expressed in the Balfour Declaration, the underpinnings of modern Israel are far older than that.

US Senator Robert Menendez of New Jersey took to the floor of the Senate to speak about Israel on June 16, 2009. His speech followed the attack at the US Holocaust Museum in Washington, D.C.

This tragedy reminds us of the need of sound understanding of one of the darkest episodes in the history of the world. Far too many misrepresent the significance of the Holocaust, especially in regard to the State of Israel and her people. And far too many people deny it happened altogether, out of bigotry, hatred, and spite.

In the face of so much misunderstanding, I am compelled today to speak up about the role of the Holocaust in Israel's history and Israel's challenges in preventing anti-Semitic murder from continuing to happen.

Menendez clearly understands--"While the Shoah has a central role in Israel's identity, it is not the reason behind its founding and it is not the main justification for its existence."

To those who believe that Jews fell out of the sky into the midst of, as one commenter said in response to a recent post, "Indian country," the history outlined in Menendez's remarks may come as a surprise. I do not expect that anti-Semites will accept his comments as true, but there is not too much I or anyone else can do about them. Fair minded people, on the other hand, may come away with a new understanding and a new view.

Here is the speech from the Congressional Record. The index entry is [Congressional Record: June 16, 2009 (Senate)][Page S6613-S6614]From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov][DOCID:cr16jn09-91].

The UN's Ban Ki-moon honours courage of Palestinians

The boys and girls at the United Nations continue to defy logic when it comes to issuing news releases regarding the plight of Palestinian refugees.

A short while ago, the UN was beaming with pride as one of their top officials endorsed the "tradition" of Muslims caring for refugees. The only exception to this generosity is the Palestinian community that left Israel in 1948 and who continue to swelter in refugee camps set up in Arab countries.

Unlike Israel, which took in more than 650,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries immediately following the Independence War and immediately began a process to integrate them into the new country's society, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt, herded the same number of Palestinians into camps in those countries.

60+ years later, the Palestinians are denied citizenship in their host countries, denied work permits, and basically treated as non-entities. For what purpose other than to foster anti-Semitism?

On June 30, 2009, according to a UN press release, "Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon paid tribute today to Palestinian refugees, who he said had shown great courage in the face of conflict, as well as to the efforts over the past 60 years of the United Nations agency tasked with assisting them."

Rather than ask for absorption of refugees, the UN lauds their courage. They should have the courage to insist on citizenship in Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. They have been the pawns of the world's Arab and Muslim community for way too long.

Another Iranian Demonstration- this one in Paris

This past June 20th a demonstration different than the one unfolding on the streets of Tehran took place. This one, in Paris, was held by exiled Iranian opposition groups, the most organized of which is on the US Terror List, the the Mujahedeen-e Khalq or the People's Mujahedeen of Iran (MeK or PMOI).

Led by a firebrand, Maryam Rajavi, the MeK is still designated a terror organization despite its renunciation of terrorism directed against other Iranian targets.

Ms. Rajavi's remarks are on the website of the National Council of Resistance of Iran - Foreign Affairs Committee. Her speech's 4,000 words are difficult to abstract. So the speech is presented here. It's worth a read.

The Myth of Zionism as Imperialism

Delegates at the UN and professors on university campuses worldwide brand the State of Israel the creation of a racist and colonialist European imperialism. This libel of the Jewish state betrays an ignorance of the history of the Jews and the story of the Zionist movement. From the beginning, the Zionist movement has been a foe of imperialism.

So begins an op-ed appearing in today's jpost.com, "The myth of Zionist imperialism"by Eli Kavon, a member of the faculty of Nova Southeastern University's Lifelong Learning Institute in Davie, Florida.

Kavon discusses the roots of Zionist thought and, importantly, asks the question, "If the Zionist founders of the State of Israel were, indeed, imperialists, what empire did they represent?" I'm sure that Zionism's opponents that come across this post will come up with something. But the fact remains that Israel is not a colonial or racist state.

Just When You Think They Don't Care - ICRC takes Hamas to task

Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, held incommunicado for nearly three years, is the subject of the International Committee of the Red Cross as it calls on Hamas to allow visits and communication with the soldier.

According to an ICRC press release,

Since Mr Shalit's capture in June 2006, the ICRC has repeatedly asked Hamas to allow the exchange of Red Cross messages between Gilad Shalit and his family. The most recent requests were made at the highest level, but these and all others have been refused.

Repeated requests by the ICRC to visit Gilad Shalit to ascertain his conditions of detention and treatment have also been refused. Visiting people deprived of their freedom and enabling them to exchange personal news with their relatives is one of the ICRC's main humanitarian tasks. In 2008, the organization visited nearly half a million detainees in 83 countries, including nearly 36,000 who were registered and monitored individually.

You can read the full press release here.

Terror sponsor assets hidden in plain sight in NYC

More than 10 years ago our family attempted to seize assets belonging to the Alavi Foundation, a NY based "charity" that we claimed was part of the Iranian government. Although thoroughly rebuked by the US government at that time, the government is now singing a different tune.

FoxNews reporter Eric Shawn has covered the Alavi Foundation and the government's new attempt to get to the bottom of its activities.

FoxNews has the story, 5th Avenue Skyscraper Center of Iranian Mystery, accompanied by Shawn's video report.

Obviously, this is a work in progress. I hope good news will follow.