Paulasays.com

Belgium - Anti-Semitic Attacks in 2008

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 01:31:00 -0500

This page is part of a section on "2008 List of Anti-Semitic Attacks" maintained by PaulaSays. This is only a partial list. If you know of an attack not reported on these pages, please send a note to .

In September: A youth aged 17 was sitting on a bench in Place Saint Job in the town of Uccle. , talking .on his cell phone in Hebrew to his mother. Stephane, 32 years old, a customer at a café, approached the youth and called out at him: "Dirty Jew, son of a whore….." and punched the youth in his face and chest with his fists. The youth pushed the attacker away and they both fell down on the ground. The police were summoned and both were taken to hospital for medical attention. When interrogated, Stephan claimed that it was he who was attacked by the youth even though eye witnesses supported the youth's version of the story. In spite of the evidence from the witnesses, no charges were filed against the aggressor.
On September 13, at about 22:00, close to the end of evening prayers, two men were loitering near the Belz synagogue on Immerseelsstraat with their two dogs. The two men were frightening children, which led to a battle of words that broke out between the men and the children. A man who heard the disturbance came out of the synagogue in order to speak to the two men and try and pacify the situation. Instead the incident grew worse. One of the attackers went home and returned with a golf club and began attacking the Jew. Two other Jews came to the help of their friend in distress but they, too, were beaten. In the meantime, the Police were called and arrested the two attackers. One of the victims received medical attention at the hospital because of the severity of the injury to his head. The brother of one the victim came to the area of the synagogue and spoke to the neighbors and families of the attackers in an attempt to calm down the situation. However, the neighbors attacked him and caught him by the throat. The Police were called once more to pacify the situation.
On September 14, a young Jew was out of the bar "Velvet Lounge" in Antwerp towards his car. When he arrived at its parking space, he was accosted by five men of North African origin. They have uttered antisemitic insults and also physically attacked. The attackers fled without the victim was unable to identify them. The victim did not need medical aid, the police have not been called and no complaint has been filed.
Also in September, Two young men of North African origin, aged about 20, approached a young woman of 29 as she got out of her car. One of the men called out to the woman: "Is there a way we could meet? Can we have a drink together?" When she understood that he was making a pass at her, the young woman did not respond and went on her way. However, when he saw that she was wearing a necklace with a Star of David, he called her "dirty little Jewess”. He continued and called after her "little whore” and "fat whore" while his friend chuckled. After that, he approached her, touched her behind and pushed her as he harassed her. The young woman did not respond and continued hurriedly on her way asking to be left alone. When she returned to her car a few minutes later, she noticed a scratch all along the left side. The scratch had not been there before the incident and she knew that the two young men saw her get out of her car. She is convinced that they were responsible for the damage.
In October, a large antisemitic tag "Joden aan het kamp" (The Jews at the camp) was discovered on a bathroom door in a building of the VUB (Vrije University Brussel), near the local computer.
In October, a swastika and other antisemitic inscriptions were found on the walls of a villa for sale in the Brussels municipality of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre. Although, the owners of the villa are not Jews, the fact remains that swastika and phrases such as "Sale Jew" in French and English were found on the exterior walls.
In October, during a conversation with students Patrick Cocriamont, a parliamentarian from the Front National party denied that during the Second World War gas chambers existed. During the conversation he revealed that links exist between some FN militants and neo-Nazi organizations.
In November, a group of Jewish students, some wearing the yarmulke, returned in Metro Mini-Europe (Heysel) to their hotel located near the Schuman roundabout in Brussels. In the subway, two young Arab-origin Muslim, came out of it and shouted in the direction of the group of Jews "Heil Hitler".
In November, a far-right senator in Belgium was videotaped singing a song poking fun at the Holocaust was broadcast on national television. The Senate called the actions by National Front senator Michel Delacroix "beyond the pale," and began an investigation. The video showed him singing an insulting song about a Jewish girl perishing at the Dachau concentration camp. The Brussels prosecutor's office also opened an investigation and will consider whether or not to remove Delacroix's parliamentary immunity.
In November, one of Brussels' mains streets, "La rue de la loi", shelters buildings with the United Nations offices as well as embassies and offices belonging to the European Union. Underneath one of the buildings belonging to the United-Nations offices, someone wrote: "ZION=FACHO".

Stories that Touch

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 04:07:26 -0400

From time to time, I find a story that touches my heart in a personal way.

This is the story of Jack Sittsamer. I never met him, though more than 100,000 people heard him speak. He passed away recently, another survivor lost to us.

Jack Sittsamer / 100,000 heard his account of Holocaust's horrors

Dec. 30, 1924 - Oct. 26, 2008
Monday, October 27, 2008
By Sadie Gurman, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

Jack Sittsamer's teenage years were spent in grueling labor behind the electric fences of six German concentration camps. He once spent days in a crowded railcar without food, water or sanitation. Some nights, he risked his life to eat. He saw the chimneys of gas chambers and mountains of shoes belonging to the dead. He watched his father die.

He survived.

Mr. Sittsamer's story is one of perseverance. But for most of his life, he couldn't tell it.

"It was painful," Mr. Sittsamer's son, Murray, said. "No one else could ever understand how it was. It was so unbelievable that people don't believe it."

But by the end of his life, Mr. Sittsamer, of Squirrel Hill, had put a human face on the horrors of the Holocaust, recounting his odyssey for more than 100,000 people in classrooms and auditoriums around the country.

Mr. Sittsamer, who gripped listeners with his life story and warned of the dangers of unbridled hatred, died yesterday of cancer. He was 83.

Mr. Sittsamer struggled to talk about his past, once passing off a blue K and L tattooed on his wrist at a concentration camp as a girlfriend's initials, Murray Sittsamer said.

But his difficulty talking about his experiences during the Nazi invasion of Poland and in some of the worst death camps eventually transformed into a desire to keep the horrors from happening again.

He believed that could be done through education, and as the president of a group of 150 local Holocaust survivors, Mr. Sittsamer relived his experiences to give young people a personal account of the nightmares of the war. Alarming as they sometimes were, those close to him said, Mr. Sittsamer's accounts were also rife with hope and optimism.

Born on Dec. 30, 1924, in Mielec, Poland, into a family of Orthodox Jews, Mr. Sittsamer experienced anti-Semitism early in life in the town of 5,000 Jews and 10,000 Catholics.

Nazis stormed his hometown in 1939 and set fire to all three synagogues, killing Jews who were inside and shooting those who tried to escape the flames.

The family lived in their home until a March morning in 1942, when Nazis beat down their door and forced them to march with the rest of the town's Jews seven miles to an airplane hangar. Mr. Sittsamer's father, Moses, a World War I veteran with a wounded leg, could not keep up. He was shot and killed while Mr. Sittsamer looked on.

Later, Murray Sittsamer said, when the Nazis sought volunteers to dig a mass grave for the 300 killed during the march, Mr. Sittsamer offered to bury his father.

That was the last time he saw his family. His mother, Perla, brother, Israel, another brother, Josef, and two sisters, Devora and Gitla, were separated and sent to camps where they were slain.

Mr. Sittsamer spent the next years in deprivation, enduring the rigors of several concentration camps, including Mauthausen, one of the worst. Luck, he would say, and the hope that he would be reunited with his brother, Israel, kept him alive.

He was finally liberated by American soldiers on May 5, 1945. He weighed 72 pounds. He sought refuge in Eggenfelden, Germany, until July 1949, when the United Jewish Federation helped him move to the United States.

In Pittsburgh, he worked for 36 years as a sheet metal worker at Tyson Metal Products and learned English during night classes at Allderdice High School.

He began speaking out about his experiences more and more after his retirement in 1986.

"The message that he sent to people was more about living than it was about anything," said Amy Hartman, whose play "Mazel" was influenced by Mr. Sittsamer's life. "It was about living well and loving well and appreciating what you have."

Mr. Sittsamer also helped the needy while working with the Jewish Assistance Fund as a board member and trustee. In 2006, he won the prestigious Jefferson Award for Public Service for his willingness to retell his experiences.

"He was on a mission to educate young people about the horrors of the Holocaust so it could never be forgotten and it would never happen again," close friend Edgar Snyder said. "It was spellbinding to hear him speak."

Neighbors and Responsibilities

Wed, 22 Oct 2008 03:29:32 -0400

A post on A Soldier's Mother:

Neighbors and Responsibilities

If you see your neighbor do something illegal, you have an obligation, according to American law (and Israeli law) to do something. When you choose not to report a crime committed by your neighbor, you can, in many countries, be charged with aiding and abetting.

Elie's unit guards around several Arab villages. Two recent incidents were the topic of our discussions as I drove Elie back to base this morning. Last night, Arabs from Azzoun threw a firebomb at an Israeli vehicle, lightly injuring the driver, who was treated at the scene and then taken to the hospital. I was curious about Elie's response that today things would be quiet.

"They won't be allowed to cross the checkpoint today. Except the doctors." Humanitarian reasons aside, the Arabs from Azzoun will not be able to cross into Israel.

In one incident, an Arab approached Elie recently and asked.
"Why can't I go in?" he asked.

"Because your neighbor threw a rock at an Israeli car," Elie answered.

"Which neighbor?" the man questioned.

"You are asking ME which of YOUR neighbors threw the rock?"

Entrance to jobs, hospitals and shopping in Israel is not a right, it is a privilege that comes with responsibilities and the simplest of these responsibilities is to act in a reasonable way. Israel has withdrawn from most of the Palestinian cities, leaving them in charge of their own social and even security-related issues. Elie’s answer was direct and obvious – meet your responsibility; be your brother’s keeper; prevent your neighbor from launching violent attacks against us, and you can enter our cities, our malls.

Even if you don’t, we’ll still let you enter our hospitals, because these are for humanitarian reasons, but we will take a few minutes to confirm you are a doctor, to check your ambulances.

Stop the violence, and we won’t have to do these checks; stop the terrorism, and you can enter our malls and cities. Stop your neighbor from throwing rocks at our innocent civilians, and neither your innocents, nor ours, will suffer. Yesterday, your neighbor threw a rock or a firebomb and so today, you will not go to work. If that bothers you, stop your neighbor today, and you can go tomorrow.

Barack Hussein Obama's Friends

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 20:44:39 -0400

A mirror reflects a man's face, but what he is really like is shown by the kind of friends he chooses. [Proverbs 27:19]

Meet Barack Hussein Obama's Friends

Read: Amir Taheri in the New York Post:

Jesse Jackson on the specifics of the CHANGE Obama wants to bring to America

PREPARE for a new America: That's the message that the Rev. Jesse Jackson conveyed to participants in the first World Policy Forum, held at this French lakeside resort last week.

He promised "fundamental changes" in US foreign policy - saying America must "heal wounds" it has caused to other nations, revive its alliances and apologize for the "arrogance of the Bush administration."

The most important change would occur in the Middle East, where "decades of putting Israel's interests first" would end.
Jackson believes that, although "Zionists who have controlled American policy for decades" remain strong, they'll lose a great deal of their clout when Barack Obama enters the White House.
"Obama is about change," Jackson told me in a wide-ranging conversation. "And the change that Obama promises is not limited to what we do in America itself. It is a change of the way America looks at the world and its place in it."
Jackson warns that he isn't an Obama confidant or adviser, "just a supporter." But he adds that Obama has been "a neighbor or, better still, a member of the family." Jackson's son has been a close friend of Obama for years, and Jackson's daughter went to school with Obama's wife Michelle.
"We helped him start his career," says Jackson. "And then we were always there to help him move ahead. He is the continuation of our struggle for justice not only for the black people but also for all those who have been wronged."

And there's more on the Middle East.

On Iran, he strongly supports Obama's idea of opening a direct dialogue with the leadership in Tehran. "We've got to talk to tell them what we want and hear what they want," Jackson says. "Nothing is gained by not talking to others."
Would that mean ignoring the four UN Security Council resolutions that demand an end to Iran's uranium-enrichment program? Jackson says direct talks wouldn't start without preparations.
"Barack wants an aggressive and dynamic diplomacy," he says. "He also wants adequate preparatory work. We must enter the talks after the ground has been prepared," he says.
Jackson is especially critical of President Bush's approach to the Israel-Palestine conflict. "Bush was so afraid of a snafu and of upsetting Israel that he gave the whole thing a miss," Jackson says.
"Barack will change that," because, as long as the Palestinians haven't seen justice, the Middle East will "remain a source of danger to us all."
"Barack is determined to repair our relations with the world of Islam and Muslims," Jackson says.

Want to hear more about Barack Hussein Obama's friends:

Meet Rashid Khalidi - Palestinian supporter and the professor at Columbia University

(Read more on Columbia University's Fall from Reality:

Khalidi is a former professor at the University of Illinois and was a close friend of Barack Obama and his wife Michelle. At a farewell dinner for Khalidi before he took the Columbia job, Obama 's speech was filled with glowing praise for his friend, including references to the many meals they had shared. He thanked Khalidi for opening his eyes about the problems of the Palestinians.

Khalidi himself has given vocal support to suicide bombers:
<http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?pageId=57231>

During documented speeches and public events, Khalidi has called Israel an "apartheid system in creation" and a destructive "racist" state.

He has multiple times expressed support for Palestinian terror, calling suicide bombings response to "Israeli aggression." He dedicated his 1986 book, "Under Siege," to "those who gave their lives ... in defense of the cause of Palestine and independence of Lebanon." Critics assailed the book as excusing Palestinian terrorism.

Khalidi's wife Mona ran the Chicago area charity, the Arab American Action Network, that received substantial assistance from the Woods Fund, a left wing foundation that Obama and unreconstructed terrorist Bill Ayers were Board members. The AAAN was notorious for its pro-Palestianian sympathies.

More friends: Jeremiah Wright

Some of Wright's wrong quotes:

"We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye... and now we are indignant, because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought back into our own front yards. America's chickens are coming home to roost."
"Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people that we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that."
“[The United States] government lied about their belief that all men were created equal. The truth is they believed that all white men were created equal. The truth is they did not even believe that white women were created equal, in creation nor civilization. The government had to pass an amendment to the Constitution to get white women the vote. Then the government had to pass an equal rights amendment to get equal protection under the law for women. The government still thinks a woman has no rights over her own body, and between Uncle Clarence who sexually harassed Anita Hill, and a closeted Klan court, that is a throwback to the 19th century, handpicked by Daddy Bush, Ronald Reagan, Gerald Ford, between Clarence and that stacked court, they are about to undo Roe vs. Wade, just like they are about to un-do affirmative action. The government lied in its founding documents and the government is still lying today. Governments lie.”
“The government lied about Pearl Harbor too. They knew the Japanese were going to attack. Governments lie. The government lied about the Gulf of Tonkin Incident. They wanted that resolution to get us in the Vietnam War. Governments lie. The government lied about Nelson Mandela and our CIA helped put him in prison and keep him there for 27 years. The South African government lied on Nelson Mandela. Governments lie."

"Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred. And terrorism begets terrorism. A white ambassador said that y'all, not a black militant. Not a reverend who preaches about racism. An ambassador whose eyes are wide open and who is trying to get us to wake up and move away from this dangerous precipice upon which we are now poised. The ambassador said the people that we have wounded don’t have the military capability we have. But they do have individuals who are willing to die and take thousands with them. And we need to come to grips with that."

And Obama's reaction? To lie...is THIS what you want of your next American president? Lies?

Obama first denied that he had ever heard Pastor Wright's controversial comments before.
Then he backtracked, ""Did I ever hear him make remarks that could be considered controversial while I sat in church? Yes."
He began distancing himself from Wright ONLY when he called his pastor the night before the February 2007 announcement of Obama's presidential candidacy to withdraw his request that Wright deliver an invocation at the event.
A spokesperson later said, "Senator Obama is proud of his pastor and his church, but... decided to avoid having statements and beliefs being used out of context and forcing the entire church to defend itself."

Hamas Blames the Jews...Again

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 13:42:00 -0400

Blaming the Jews - it's a natural tendency for Hamas, one rooted in the finest traditions of anti-Semitism and hatred. It's old and tired and yet here it is again in a new format. Hamas twists reality to try to incite hatred of the Jew, the Israeli, the enemy. Sometimes, it is almost funny - they claimed we caused the tsunami in Asia, for Heaven's sake. Sometimes, it is cruel - as when they blamed us for 9/11. And sometimes, it is simply absurd, like this recent claim that Jews are behind the financial collapse of America's banks. From the organization that claimed "There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it", we bring you Hamas' latest absurdity.

This isn't so much an "Israel" thing as a "Jewish" thing. Once again, a calamity occurs and the Jews are blamed. In the Hamas covenant (http://www.paulasays.com/articles/in_their_words/hamas_conenant.html - see article 22) it states:

With their [the enemy/the Zionist/the Jew] money, they took control of the world media, news agencies, the press, publishing houses, broadcasting stations, and others. With their money they stirred revolutions in various parts of the world with the purpose of achieving their interests and reaping the fruit therein. They were behind the French Revolution, the Communist revolution and most of the revolutions we heard and hear about, here and there. With their money they formed secret societies, such as Freemasons, Rotary Clubs, the Lions and others in different parts of the world for the purpose of sabotaging societies and achieving Zionist interests. With their money they were able to control imperialistic countries and instigate them to colonize many countries in order to enable them to exploit their resources and spread corruption there.
You may speak as much as you want about regional and world wars. They were behind World War I, when they were able to destroy the Islamic Caliphate, making financial gains and controlling resources. They obtained the Balfour Declaration, formed the League of Nations through which they could rule the world. They were behind World War II, through which they made huge financial gains by trading in armaments, and paved the way for the establishment of their state. It was they who instigated the replacement of the League of Nations with the United Nations and the Security Council to enable them to rule the world through them. There is no war going on anywhere, without having their finger in it.

They blamed us for the tragic tsunami in Asia several years ago, 9/11 in the United States, earthquakes and more...and now, yes, and now, according to Hamas, we are responsible for the economic woes in the United States.

In the “The American Economy from Deception to Collapse,” written by Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhoum . It accuses the Jews of responsibility for the collapse of the American economy (Felesteen, October 7). The main points are:

Behind the collapse of the American economy is the managerial and monetary corruption of a polluted banking and financial system ruled by the “Jewish lobby.” The “Jewish lobby” controls American capital and the economy. President Bush and the White House staff all know the “truth” but hide it from American public opinion.
The United States has become a club in the hands of the “Jewish lobby” and a way of enabling the Jews to take over the whole world. They ignore the American people, who pay a heavy price in the form of bankruptcy and the collapse of their economy. According to the article, the United States has caused destruction and pain all over the world, including Iraq , Afghanistan , Lebanon , Somalia and Palestine.
The article asks who will be brave enough to expose the “Jewish lobby” to the Americans, directly responsible as it is for the holocaust of the American economy. Will it be President Bush and the American administration, enslaved as they are to the “Jewish lobby?” The article expresses grave doubts, noting that there is no essential difference between the two Bushes, Obama and McCain.
The article again asks if “we will witness a popular American revolution against the American dictatorial regime which destroys nations, economies?...” “Will we witness the prosecution of President Bush and of his corrupt administration,” or rather, will the curtain go down on this dark affair in the history of the world “which was led by the American administration and directed by the Jewish lobby?”
Fawzi Barhoum ends the article with his hope and evaluation that the wheel of time will turn against America and Israel , and that change will come. He says prophetically, “nothing lasts forever, he who is strong today is not strong forever, and he who is weak today will not be weak forever.”

PaulaSays: Favorites

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:13:22 -0400

From time to time, I go back and read articles I wrote long ago.

Paula's Favorites

The thing that amazes me today, is how much some of yesterday's words still apply today. I read some of my old articles and I remember. They touch me today, as the events that prompted me to write in the past once touched me. As time goes by, new articles replace old ones, and yet, I still like to look back...so, if you would be interested to take the journey with me, here are some of my favorites:

Starting Young: the first post to A Soldier's Mother
How Do you Tell Him?: A post about giving a child bad news...and helping him cope
Don't You Trust Me?: About Elie, a traffic accident, and trusting him to use his training
The Israel We Haven't Lost: a new look...and an old one - on Israel
The Israeli Guard: those who watch our children and us...deserve our recognition
Those Perfect Moment: perfect moments when you realize that life IS good
A Candle and a Wave: more about those special moments in life with your children
The Ostrich Calls to Me: images of a terror attack haunt many Israelis, even when there is no attack
Trying to Be Normal: struggling to get back to normal after yet another brutal attack
Five Reasons to Come to Israel - and more: if you ever wondered why you should come to live in Israel...
From One Mother to Another: advice to Palestinian mothers - prevent your children from taking the path of violence...or face the saddest of consequences.
My Eyes Fail with Tears: the end of Gush Katif...and the end of the glory of Ariel Sharon
The Sand Lily: about cherishing a little flower, and remembering the people who planted it (Gush Katif)
The Promise He Couldn't Keep: a neighbor's promise to his wife, and the reality of living in Sderot

Starting Young: The Opening Post

Fri, 10 Oct 2008 08:07:16 -0400

A post on A Soldier's Mother:

This is how it started - so many months ago. A Soldier's Mother is a blog about an Israeli soldier -a blog about watching a boy become a man. This is the first post I made - about 6 weeks before my son, Elie, entered the army.

Tuesday, February 13, 2007

Starting Young

Starting from a very young age, Israeli boys (and girls) know that they are destined to go to the army. It's part of how they grow up, where they are headed, who they will become. For those of us who came to Israel as adults, it's something that is harder to assimilate. It's so easy, year after year, to deny that it will happen, to postpone dealing with it. So, here I am, six weeks away from when my son will enter the Israeli army, suddenly having it all become real. This blog is a soldier's mother's story.

Elie is 19 years old. A handsome boy with the most incredible blue eyes. He's smart, a volunteer in the ambulance squad, and lest you think that I think he is perfect, he's got a mighty fine temper and his room's a terrible mess. Elie is the manager of the family, the one who analyzes everything. From the time he was young, he didn't trust us mere adults to manage things. When everyone else would fall asleep on those long evening drives home after a long vacation or whatever, Elie would stay awake and keep watch. "Are we lost?" he would ask when I hesitated. Only Elie.

Once, on a trip to Eilat, we really were lost. Only Elie was awake when I pulled up to the roadblock and queried the soldier why he wouldn't open the gate to let us pass.

"Where do you want to go?" the soldier asked.

"Eilat," I answered.

He smiled, "Back 29 kilometers and make a right."

"What's that ahead of us?" I asked.

"Egypt" was his answer.

I made a u-turn, while everyone else was sleeping and looked in the mirror to see Elie's eyes watching me. Always watching. Always Elie.

So - Elie is all grown up now, a man about to go to the army. We got his "marching" orders last week - artillery unit, and already I am panicking. Not because I don't want him to go, but because I haven't had the time to accept it all. My daughter, Elie's older sister, is getting married in a few weeks and two weeks after that, Elie goes in. I've been up to my elbows in wedding plans and jitters. Dresses and caterers and invitations and most importantly, smoothing out the nerves of a happy and excited bride. And, in the middle of all this, quietly moving closer and closer was this date - end of March, 2007, my son will be a soldier.

Columbia U.'s Fall from Reality

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 02:15:08 -0400

Columbia University was once a place of wisdom and justice. You could walk through the beautiful open plaza area and hear such incredible intellectual discussions - not of hatred, but of sympathy and compassion. It was a place of grace that has fallen to a place of dismal political agendas - many featured highly in their tenure decisions. As outrageous as their ridiculous tuition has become, at least one would have assumed that a decent and shining education would be achieved, doors opened, world's illuminated. But Columbia has lost its charm, its grace, its dignity, and worse its claim to stand for justice and what is right. It lost that when it gave Nadia Abu El Haj tenure. It lost that when it brought Rashid Khalidi to be a professor there and it lost it when it invited Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, president of Iran and current day madman of the Middle East to speak.

Read about Columbia's failures:

About Joseph Massad

IDF Generals and Mossad Do NOT Endorse Obama

Wed, 08 Oct 2008 01:49:30 -0400

IDF Generals and Mossad Do NOT Endorse Obama
A video released by the Jewish Council for Education & Research, (JCER) which appeared to show several retired senior IDF and Mossad officials endorsing Democratic Presidential candidate Barack Obama has proven to be misleading, with a number of officials who appeared in the video saying on Monday that their words were taken out of context.
The film's producers stressed in response that the Obama campaign was not involved in any stage of the production.
"It's not only misleading, it was an interview about what the next president was going to have to deal with," former deputy chief of General Staff Maj.-Gen. (res.) Uzi Dayan told The Jerusalem Post. "And to know that they used this interview and took five seconds, and put me in a list of people praising Barack Obama…
"It wasn't about the campaign, it was about the political and security issues of the Middle East that the next president should be involved in," he continued. "Nothing was said about Obama or [Republican Presidential candidate John] McCain."
"I don't want other people to interfere in my elections, and I must not interfere with the elections in the United States," he said, adding that to do so would be neither "ethical nor smart."
In the video, the senior Israeli officials appear to support Obama's stated policy that dialogue with Iran would be the best way of confronting the current nuclear crisis. Dayan said that his position is just the opposite.
"I don't think that we - either the United States or Israel - should be engaged with Iran, because the Iranians will take advantage of that," the former deputy chief of staff said. "Our objective is to prevent Iran from achieving nuclear capability."
"We need more powerful, effective sanctions to delegitimize [Iranian President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad," he continued. "A military option should be prepared, but utilized only as a last resort."

Voting in America

Mon, 06 Oct 2008 10:27:53 -0400

A post on A Soldier's Mother:

Voting in America

My son Elie was born in the United States and came to Israel at age 6. His first language was English and he speaks it quite well, but his mother tongue is probably Hebrew in many ways. It is the language he uses to converse with his friends and his siblings. It is the language in which he dreams and the language in which he thinks most often.

Today, as a commander in the artillery, Elie serves in a unit standing at a check point, and often uses English to communicate with some of the Arabs who don't know how (or do not want) to speak in Hebrew. No problem. Elie steps up, speak to me in English, he tells them. During the last presidential elections 4 years ago, Elie was 17-years-old and voting wasn't an issue. Now, at age 21, he faces his first opportunity to vote in the United States elections. For all that he is an Israeli soldier; he is also an American citizen. I believe that although I have raised him to call Israel his home, he understands that there remains a connection with the country of his birth.

He will vote because that is the way we have raised him. The right to vote is what sets us apart from so many other nations. With this single act, we celebrate our freedom and tell others our opinion. Listen to me, the vote says, I have a right to my stand and here I make it. This is the person I choose to represent me.

We downloaded the forms for Elie to sign, filled out his social security and his last address in America. It's a house he still remembers. The big backyard, the blue siding of the house. The river that ran in the woods far behind the house. I keep his social security card along with his birth certificate and those of his older sister and middle brother in a special binder on the shelf. I pulled this down to get the numbers and with it found not only the birth certificates, but the footprints taken in the moments after they were born.

Those tiny feet, along with my right thumbprint, were placed on the "certificates" and given to me when I was discharged from the hospital. My older three children sat and laughed about who had the fatter foot, the smaller one. It was all so funny until one asked why they don't do the same thing here and that's when reality hit.

"They don't steal babies in Israel," I blurted out without thinking.

That was the reason my baby's footprint was put on the paper. Maybe it was less sinister. Maybe it was because they were afraid of confusing the infants in the nursery, despite the wrist bands placed on each child in the delivery room. But deep down, I always believed, always feared. It is any parent's greatest nightmare and it was with great joy I left that fear behind in America.

Whatever the reason, I don't have footprints for the two children born in Israel. After we’d completed the forms and joked about the footprints, we put the social security cards and the birth certificates back up on the shelf. Elie filed his petition to vote in the upcoming elections and will now consider his options. He doesn't live in the United States and most likely never will.
There is the American economy. This is an important factor, even for those of us who live in Israel. When the American economy starts to go bad, the impact is felt far away, here in Israel and all around the world.

There is the issue of social rights and responsibilities. Elie knows little of this and cannot understand even more. Our country provides health care for all its citizens. A doctor is a call away and a swipe of a card from our national health insurance. The visit costs less than $2.00 and for Elie, as part of his national service, costs nothing. The army sees to all his medical needs, though we insisted on taking him to our local doctor at one point and to the dentist at a different time. Elie cannot weigh who would be better for social issues in America.

Elie was raised to accept people as they are, no matter what country they come from, what language they speak, or the color of their skin. The only hesitation he has is one born of need. Elie grew up at a time when buses and malls were blowing up constantly in our country and though this has been dramatically reduced since we built the security fence, Elie and his unit can tell you that we are by no means safe from terrorist attacks (It could have been Elie).

And so Elie and all my children know to watch who gets on the bus, who enters the café. Are they dressed in such a way that they could be hiding an explosives belt? Do they make you nervous? Get off the bus. I’ll pay for another one. Get off the bus.

This issue of social rights, ironically, blends with the most important issue for us. Security and the need to be strong against terrorism. These are especially important in a country like Israel, but also an important factor in all free countries because freedom and democracy pose the greatest threat to our enemies. They use religious coercion and domination as the weapons of their battle and standing up for the values we in Israel support is important.

We are a democratic country; so much so, we allow our enemies into our government and from the podium of our parliament, they have the freedom to call for policies that would destroy us.
Our current enemies, those who pose the most immediate threat lie to our north, where Elie was stationed for several months. This is Hizbollah land, where according to their leader Hassan Nasrallah, "We have discovered how to hit the Jews where they are the most vulnerable. The Jews love life, so that is what we shall take away from them. We are going to win, because they love life and we love death."

Our enemies lie to the northeast. This is Syria. Elie spent many months on the Golan Heights, including some tense days waiting to see how the Syrians would react after Israel sent planes to destroy a building widely believed to be the beginnings of a nuclear reactor. Elie will vote for the man who takes the threat of Syria seriously.

Our enemies lie further to the east. This is Iran, led by a madman who promises that he will do all he can to accomplish in minutes more than what Adolf Hitler accomplished in six years of war. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made it clear in words and actions that he is after a nuclear bomb and that his goal is to wipe Israel off the face of the earth. Believe him.

Elie will vote for the man least likely to allow this horror to happen. And our enemies lie in many places over the face of the earth. Some are active in their hatred of Israel, others comfortable in their complacency. Elie, like all Jews living in Israel, must think long and hard before making his choice for the next American president, but one key element will be the man's knowledge of the threats we face and his commitment to our security and our future.

Elie, like most Jews living in Israel, will vote for someone who will stand firm against Iran and understand the dangers we face and are likely to face in the future. Elie has never voted before - except in one small local election that had little real impact on more than one political party's internal listing. He's been "old enough" to carry a gun and defend this country for some time and has worn the uniform of his adopted country with pride and honor.

He'll vote in the elections for the highest office in the country of his birth, as is his right, because be believes that a strong Israel makes an important ally for the United States and because a strong America makes an important ally for Israel. And Elie understands, after more than a year in the army of Israel, that those who seek to destroy the foundations of democracy and freedom started their war on our shores and took them to the United States many years ago.

What starts in Israel, often shakes the rest of the world in its own time. That's the truth of 9/11, that's the truth of the Iranian threat, and that’s the truth of what is at stake in the US elections.