Daphne Anson: Assad Elepty

Eretz Israel is our unforgettable historic homeland...The Jews who will it shall achieve their State...And whatever we attempt there for our own benefit will redound mightily and beneficially to the good of all mankind. (Theodor Herzl, DerJudenstaat, 1896)

We offer peace and amity to all the neighbouring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to the peaceful progress and development of the Middle East. (From Proclamation of the State of Israel, 5 Iyar 5708; 14 May 1948)

With a liberal democratic political system operating under the rule of law, a flourishing market economy producing technological innovation to the benefit of the wider world, and a population as educated and cultured as anywhere in Europe or North America, Israel is a normal Western country with a right to be treated as such in the community of nations.... For the global jihad, Israel may be the first objective. But it will not be the last. (Friends of Israel Initiative)

Showing posts with label Assad Elepty. Show all posts

Friday, 25 February 2011

The BBC's Willful Blindness towards Antisemitism in the Arab Uprisings and the Jihadism of the Muslim Brotherhood

“The demonstrations have been largely peaceful – in Egypt, sometimes even good-natured,” declared BBC reporter Tim Whewell in a special edition of Newsnight last evening, focusing on the Arab uprisings.

And so there was nothing in the programme about the brutal and sustained sexual assault on CBS correspondent Lara Logan while her attackers yelled “Jew! Jew!”.

There was nothing about the antisemitic slogans defacing posters of Mubarak (and, incidentlly, of the supposedly part-Jewish Gaddafi: http://challahhuakbar.blogspot.com/2011/02/libyans-draw-star-of-david-on-photos-of.html).

And there was nothing about the exhortations to Jihad made by the inherently antisemitic Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, who is shown in this video bellowing for his countrymen to liberate “Palestine”, while the listening masses in Tahrir Square roar their approval.

And there are plenty more where that came from: http://www.memritv.org/subject/en/362.htm

It’s all part and parcel of Al Beeb’s refusal to acknowledge the true nature and ambitions of the Muslim Brotherhood, and its dismissive attitude towards those who warn of them.

Assad Elepty, a Coptic Christian in Sydney who as well as being an activist in the cause of the Copts of Egypt is also a staunch supporter of Israel (he has campaigned tirelessly against the shameful decision of Marrickville Council to join the BDS brigade), is ever alert to manifestations of Islamism in Egypt, which has cost his co-religionists so dear (and continues to do so, a Coptic priest having been found murdered with 22 stab wounds just the other day).

Here’s his take on the Muslim Brotherhood's role in the Egyptian revolution:

'Contrary to the misleading and offensive rhetoric given in speeches by members of Sydney’s Muslim community,(during a rally held near the Lakemba Mosque on 31 January 20011), the fall of Mubarak was not as a result of western influence, or that “the US or Britain dropped their “Arab Puppet”.

(A shortened version is at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJnjIf17OBg )

The reality of the situation is that the Muslim Brotherhood have had a personal vendetta with Mubarak for 30 years. He kept them on a tight leash and came down on them with ruthless force in the lead up to the December 2010 election. They lost every seat in parliament (88), and over 1600 MB members and supporters were arrested and detained.

The revolution was a gift horse “that they never dreamed of”.

I commend Frontline for their report on “the behind scenes role played by the Muslim brotherhood to ensure the demise of Mubarak”

Full transcript: http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/world/jan-june11/frontline_02-22.html

Commentary:

The revelations disclose members of the Muslim Brotherhood not only actively assisted in organising the revolution; they in fact knew it was coming, “it was the pay back”.

The senior leadership of the MB waited 3 days, before unleashing their well oiled machine and swung into action to ensure the revolution did not loose momentum.

(My question is “Was the Army aware of the pending revolution”?)

Let’s look at the actions of the army and not forget that on the day of the victory celebration, (1 week to the day after the fall of Mubarak)

The youth that organised the revolution played no role in this momentous occasion.

The Prayers, sermon and victory speech was made by the banned father figure of the Muslim Brotherhood Yusuf Qaradawi.

It was the Army that forced the hand of Mubarak and forced him to step down. Yes it was the army and not any western nation, “switching its allegiance in Egypt that brought down Hosni Mubarak”.

It was also the Army that escorted Qaradawi, guarded him and returned him to his home after the sermon and speech.

It was also the army that refused to appoint a civilian committee to re write the constitution and instead handpicked a 10 man panel to amend certain articles of the constitution exclusive of Article 2.

Egypt's Military Council, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, formed a panel charged with drafting modifications to Egypt's current (albeit suspended) constitution.

In forming this new panel, the Council dissolved another one that was formed in the last days of Mr. Mubarak's rule, which included ten renowned, and 'apolitical,' judges, academics and public personalities.

Instead of relying on those experts, the Council created a new, smaller panel that includes two Islamists. Not only is neither an expert person on constitutional issues, but one is a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood the other is a theorizer of extremist views, especially regarding the position of non-Muslims in the Islamist state he proclaims.

By excluding from the panel political representatives from all other parts of the political spectrum even those behind or participating in the 'January 25 Revolution' the military is sending an unambiguous message regarding its bias (for whatever reasons) towards the Islamists.'

Wednesday, 2 February 2011

What Al Beeb’s Jeremy Bowen Doesn’t Tell You About the Muslim Brotherhood

The BBC’s unfit-for-purpose Middle East editor Jeremy Bowen – he of the perpetual world-weary (or is that just Israel-weary?) tone and scowl, and a constant anti-Israel spin on things – has demonstrated a ridiculous and quite scandalous degree of ignorance in his 31 January BBC News website post regarding the Muslim Brotherhood – they’re just fluffy strokable pussycats according to him. Writes Jezza:

“The country's only properly organised mass political movement outside the ruling party is the Muslim Brotherhood, and it would do very well in any free election.

Unlike the jihadis, it does not believe it is at war with the West. It is conservative, moderate [that word "moderate" was later removed] and non-violent. But it is highly critical of Western policy in the Middle East.”

What utter nonsense. What irresponsible journalism. How stupidly gullible.

To help redress the balance, here’s an article sent to me by Coptic journalist and activist Assad Elepty, of Sydney, entitled ‘Mubarak Arm wrestle continues “War of Attrition”: Muslim Brotherhood Lurks ready to strike’:

The war of attrition is continuing in Egypt, and Mubarak is losing the battle.

Mubarak is not only defiant; he is arrogant and appears oblivious to the repeated calls, “Mubarak we do NOT want you”. He is a hard head, clutching on with the bare skin of his teeth. His palace has been barricaded with barbed wire and guarded by the Military.

Even the military have told him to step down. Unlike the Australian Government, Obama hears the voice of the people and has sent an envoy to convince Mubarak “it is in the best interests of Egypt that you abandon your political agenda and announce you will not contest the upcoming presidential elections scheduled for September 2011.

Mubarak has read between the lines, sees he has lost the support of Obama, and did make the announcement. Just as significantly it means Gamal Mubarak’s political ambitions ended along with his father, he has no chance of ever becoming president. Mubarak went too far last November when he used his security force to crush all opposition. The people have had enough. Shamefully less than 20% of the population participated in the November 2010 election.

The protestors are clearly winning; however the statement from Mubarak did not quell them in any way. If anything it has reinforced their determination. Mubarak is delaying the inevitable; he must step down, “simply because a blind man can see the protests will not end for so long as he is at the helm. The people have spoken.

Just as critical, a leading member of the Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt told the Arabic-language Iranian news network Al-Alam that he, “would like to see the Egyptian people prepare for war against Israel”. Muhammad Ghannem reportedly told Al- Alam that “the Suez Canal should be closed immediately, and that the flow of gas from Egypt to Israel should cease”. He added that “the people should be prepared for wars against Israel,” saying the world should understand that “the Egyptian people are prepared for anything to get rid of this regime.” He added that Washington was forced to abandon plans to help Mubarak stay in power after “seeing millions head for the streets.”

His comments are dangerous and inciteful. It clearly indicates that the Muslim Brotherhood is looking beyond Mubarak and sees their influence as a fore gone conclusion. The next phase of the revolution is the most crucial; it will set the destiny of Egypt for decades if not centuries to come drilled out.

Islamisation of Egypt, in any form would is not an option. Islam and democracy are diametrically opposed and most certainly do not go hand in hand. The Muslim brotherhood is the only organized and well funded “(by Iran & Saudi Arabia)” opposition group in Egypt. Any hasty election will see the Muslim brotherhood stroll into power. While the Muslim Brotherhood claim to be passive and non violent, they are as sly as snakes and cunning as foxes. The Brotherhood once in power would then remove the veil and deception and show their true colors with horrific consequences for Egypt, especially the minority Coptic Christians.

It has been widely reported the constitution will be re-written, any such step MUST include removal of article 2.

Any reference to Islam remains in the constitution; it will mean no change for the minority Copts and continued persecution and subservience.

I had to laugh when I read today the Muslim brotherhood have dropped their 80 year old slogan “Islam Is the Solution”, replaced it with the new slogan “participation”.

It is funny because they are outlawed and banned in Egypt, they can not legally run or “participate” for elections as the “Muslim Brotherhood”. In the past they circumvent the law by running for elections under the guise of Independents and then vote as one block in parliament. They have no regard for any law and always devise a means to bypass laws.

For those unaware, the Muslim brotherhood was started by Hassan Banna a primary school teacher in 1928. He was a lover of Hitler, and even went to Germany to meet him and organized Muslim Arabs (SS) to exterminate the Jews. (http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/op-ed/probing-the-history-of-the-muslim-nazi-alliance/)

1948 and 1949, the Muslim brotherhood sent volunteers to fight in the war in Palestine. The feud between the monarchy Egypt and the MB reached its climax when the MB organized the assassination of Prime Minister Mahmoud an-Nukrashi Pasha. This in turn prompted the assassination of Al-Banna. On February 12, 1949 in Cairo.

The MB have a sordid, ugly and vile history, this radical sect can never be under estimated. Muslim Brotherhood Ideology

Al-Banna developed the ideology and the methods of organization and recruitment that were to characterize most radical Islamist groups which may or may not have been inspired by the Brotherhood.

(http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/islamic-jihad-articles/muslim-brother-hood-ideology-defining-an-islamic-state/)

Muslim Brotherhood Goals and Ideology

Islam must dominate and not be dominated.

Restoration of the lost caliphate - i'adat al Khalifa al Mafqudah - is the chief immediate political goal of the Islamist movement.

Islam is currently inferior to the West because it deserted its roots. It will triumph by returning to its pristine form.

Social revolution and anti-colonial struggle are an integral and major part of the mission of the Islamic revival.

Violent Jihad is a central tenet of Islam and martyrdom in the cause of Allah is highly valued. Violent Jihad is the greater Jihad, while inner struggle for moral purity is the lesser Jihad.

Islam must aim to take over the entire world and assert its superiority through violent Jihad; Western civilization is doomed by its decadence and Jewish influence.

Ideas such as democracy and human rights are products of Jewish influence and Western decadence.

Society must be ruled by God and not men.

The best sort of government was a dictatorship based on Sha'aria Muslim law.

The Jews are particularly vile enemies of Islam. Israel is to be opposed because it is a foreign western implant.

The Muslim brotherhood’s rhetoric, that they are pro-democracy is utter rubbish. They have no intention of changing nor have they changed one goal or objective since their inception. It would be an absolute disaster for Egypt as if this radical bigoted sect played any role in a new government. The Muslim Brotherhood is the furthest thing possible from democracy you can ever imagine. Any new government must have a representation of Copts proportionate to their population. They have been voiceless and unrepresented for centuries. Islamisation of Egypt has seen a progressive genocide of the Copts, that now only account for 10-15% of the population. They are the last surviving Christian group in the Middle East, Once the Bedrock of Christianity. The global community has a duty to protect the Copts and ensure Egypt becomes a secular democratic society.

And be sure to see http://www.faithfreedom.org/articles/islamic-jihad-articles/muslim-brother-hood-ideology-defining-an-islamic-state/

Also, see an absolute corker of an article in today's "Daily Telegraph" by David Horovitz, re the danger Israel now faces and how Israel compares so favorably with its Middle Eastern neighbours:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/middleeast/israel/8296776/Egypt-crisis-Israel-faces-danger-in-every-direction.html

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'For as long as these antisemites wrap themselves up in the Palestinian flag, too many people are willing to turn a blind eye. Only against Jews is this type of racism openly tolerated. It is flourishing in schools, colleges, universities, unions and in city councils. In fact, so rampant is the disease now, in some settings you can be ostracised if you do not partake in the frenzy yourself. Bashing Jews has becomes a trendy position for the ignorant social justice warrior. "Palestinianism" is a viral "ponzi scheme" and as it spreads, it carries antisemitism in the undergrowth.' David Collier (2017)

'This new rise in antisemitism, which I had thought long dead, was not shaven-headed white imbeciles from the far right. It was Muslims, a large chunk of it.... Suddenly I grasped that the British far left didn’t want people to know about antisemitism because it pointed the finger at people they really, really liked. From that moment on, it all fell into place.... Time and again the same tropes emerged, the same sort of stuff that Streicher and Goebbels would have commended – and uttered.... And from that a whole bunch of other stuff emerged: the old blood libel business (a favourite of the repulsive Jenny Tonge).... Nice, avuncular, Jeremy Corbyn, with his peace badges, happily laying a wreath at the graveside of Palestinian terrorists who murdered innocent Jewish athletes, oh, and much much more.... It is the same antisemitism, exactly the same: the obsession with Israel to the exclusion of everything else, the conspiracy theory paranoias, the derangement.... Here’s the test – if you cannot see the flagrant racism in the BDS movement, and if you are obsessed with the perfidy of the Middle East’s only democracy to the exclusion of all else, you are an antisemite. That means a good proportion of the Labour Party, including the leader, and almost all of Momentum: no brown shirts, no marching bands, but the same old filth, dressed in the clothes of a polytechnic geography lecturer.'
Rod Liddle (2018)

'Before the June 1967 Six Day War, there were no such things as "settlements". Palestinians were trying to destroy and displace Israel anyhow. The core problem is not, and never was, "settlements," but the right of Israel (or any non-Muslim nation) to exist inside any borders in that part of the world.
If you take a stand that is based on a lie, then that stand cannot succeed. If you try to oppose antisemitism but pretend it is the same thing as "Islamophobia," then the structure on which you have made your stand will totter and all your aspirations will fail. If you try to make a stand based on the idea that settlement construction rather than the intransigence of the Palestinians to the existence of a Jewish state is what is holding up a peace deal, then facts will keep on intruding.' Douglas Murray (31 December 2016)
https://www.gatestoneinstitute.org/9685/britain-little-lies

'Islamophobia does NOT come from the same wellspring of hatred as antisemitism. Antisemitism is a true prejudice because the hatred and demonisation it promotes derive entirely from lies and a repudiation of rationality itself.
Islamophobia is a false allegation of prejudice which is deployed to silence rational criticism based on actual facts about attitudes and practices within the Islamic world.
[L]ethally compromised even-handedness is to misunderstand, and thus minimise, antisemitic attitudes and behaviour while shutting down legitimate and necessary discussion of the threat from the Islamic world – even to demonise as “Islamophobic” anyone who draws attention to the extent and consequences of Muslim antisemitism.' Melanie Phillips (14 December 2016)

Jews have re-assumed the role of the canary in the mine and are the first to be targeted, but the world would face the same threat if Jews did not exist. Israel has been at the front lines confronting Islamic extremism but has received scant support... For Jews, the writing has been on the wall for a long time. The virulence of the antisemitic hatred closing in on Jews in Europe (and elsewhere) is horrifying...
Europe is today facing a crisis as serious as the confrontation with Nazism. If Western leaders continue behaving like Chamberlain and fail to stand up to this global threat, it could usher in a new Dark Age in which the Judeo-Christian culture is subsumed by primitive barbarism. The writing is on the wall Isi Leibler (12 January 2015)

Expose The Lies!

There is a war of lies and deceit on the internet generating unbelievable hate by denigrating and delegitimising the legal rights conferred on the Jewish people by the League of Nations in 1922 and the United Nations in 1945. The idea that there are two narratives on the Arab-Jewish conflict is rubbish. There is only one – the factual truth that details the return of the Jewish people to reconstitute the Jewish National Home in its ancient biblical, ancestral and historic homeland after 3500 years of dispersion with the unanimous endorsement of the nation states then comprising the League of Nations.... Generals can’t fight a war without soldiers. Jews around the world need to join the fight or vacate the internet to the Jew-haters and their lies that repeated often enough eventually become accepted as truth. David Singer (2016)

The "Apartheid" Slur

The division of Judea and Samaria (West Bank) into three separate areas “A”, “B” and “C” was agreed on by Israel and the PLO pursuant to the Oslo Accords.
95% of the West Bank Arabs live in Areas A and B and their daily lives are under the total administration and control of the PLO since the Palestinian Authority was disbanded by Abbas in January 2013. The PLO has total security control in A and shares security control in B with Israel. Israel has total administrative and security control in C.
Israel is entitled to and will continue to take responsibility for the security of Jews living in the West Bank.
Jews were given the legal right to settle in the West Bank under article 6 of the Mandate for Palestine and article 80 of the UN Charter. They did so for decades until they were driven out in 1947 and not able to return there until 1967.
There are Arab roads only in the West Bank that Jews are not allowed to use. Jews are also forbidden from entering Area “A”. Selling land to Jews is forbidden by the PLO under pain of death. The PLO runs the daily lives of 95% of the West Bank Arabs and Hamas runs the daily lives of 100% of the Gazan Arabs. They have been under occupation – and subjugation – by these two evil groups for the last ten years and given no say in their future or any opportunity to elect others to lead them following the disastrous political decisions of their leaders over the past ten years. Hamas and the PLO do not accept the continued existence of a Jewish State and call for its disappearance.
The narratives did not begin in 1948 – they began in about 1917. How do you make peace with an enemy that has been obsessed with not recognising any Jewish national rights in former Palestine for the last 100 years? David Singer (2016)

The Jews of the Holy Land ... are surrounded by hostile states 650 times their territory and sixty times their population. Yet their last, best hope of ending two millennia of international persecution - the State of Israel - has somehow survived. When, during the Second World War, the island of Malta came through three terrible years of bombardment and destruction, it was rightly awarded the George Cross for bravery. Today, Israel should be awarded a similar decoration for defending democracy, tolerance and Western values against a murderous onslaught that has lasted twenty times as long. Andrew Roberts (historian)

Israel is understandably obsessed with security, but its greatest security lies ultimately not in the Israeli Defence Forces, but in political warfare.... Most of the world is not deeply interested in what happens in Israel, and probably does not want to be deluged with legalistic defences of particular actions. What it wants is a clear, calm, repeated case. It is a case – aimed more at public opinion than at foreign ministries – about freedom, democracy, a Western way of life and the need for the whole of the free world to fight terrorism. Sometimes you hear Israelis say: “It doesn’t matter what we say. The whole world is against us.” You can see why they say it, for they are indeed unfairly treated. But when they say it, they are uttering a self-fulfilling prophecy. If they won’t say what needs saying, no one else will say it for them. Charles Moore (2010)

Once again the armies of the Arab nations are coordinating their military efforts to destroy Israel - whatever they say about wishing merely to regain the lost territories.... [I]f the present Arab offensive had been launched at the pre-1967 frontiers, then the Israelis would indeed have been fighting to avoid annihilation. It seems now that the Israelis were right to maintain the ceasefire lines gained in 1967, and that to do so is the only guarantee of their continued safety.
Alan Sillitoe (The Times, 11 October 1973)

Iran and ISIS are competing for the crown of militant Islam... In this deadly game of thrones, there’s no place for America or for Israel, no place for Christians, Jews or Muslims who don’t share the Islamist medieval creed, no rights for women, no freedom for anyone... [T]he greatest danger facing our world is the marriage of militant Islam with nuclear weapons. To defeat ISIS and let Iran get nuclear weapons would be to win the battle, but lose the war. We can’t let that happen...[T]he days when the Jewish people remained passive in the face of genocidal enemies, those days are over. We are no longer scattered among the nations, powerless to defend ourselves. We restored our sovereignty in our ancient home. And the soldiers who defend our home have boundless courage. For the first time in 100 generations, we, the Jewish people, can defend ourselves....Even if Israel has to stand alone, Israel will stand. But ... I know that America stands with Israel... You stand with Israel, because you know that the story of Israel is not only the story of the Jewish people but of the human spirit that refuses again and again to succumb to history’s horrors. Bibi Netanyahu (12 Adar 5775; 3 March 2015)

The Jews are a peculiar people: things permitted to other nations are forbidden to the Jews. Other nations drive out thousands, even millions, of people, and there is no refugee problem.... [N]o one says a word about refugees. But in the case of Israel displaced Arabs have become eternal refugees.... Other nations - when they are defeated - survive and recover, but should Israel be defeated it would be destroyed.... [A]s it goes with Israel, so it will go with all of us. Should Israel perish the holocaust will be upon us. Eric Hoffer (1968)

Most of the present Arab countries were given their freedom after the 1914-18 War, or after the 1939-45 War.... Yet to listen to Arab spokesmen one might think that they had been cheated ... because they have not also got Israel. Israel is only .2 per cent of the land where Arab States have been established. Surely no fair-minded man can begrudge the Jews their own promised land when it is remembered that for every 2 acres that went to make up Israel, 1,000 acres became Arab.... Why is there an Arab refugee problem? The oil-rich countries have the money. There is no shortage of land, and the Israelis have the technical knowledge to show how it could be developed and made fertile. Bring those things together and the problem could be solved. 3rd Earl of Balfour (1968)

January 7, 2015 has already its place in the history of infamy, but also will be the date when the defenders of freedom and democracy will rise and pay tribute to those who died for their freedom and ours. Therefore, we must not forget on which side we are and who are our allies in the defense of the West and its values. Whether we admit it or not, the West is at war with an enemy who will not stop to destroy us...
The State of Israel boasts a commandment that, in one of the darkest hours in the fight for liberty Winston Churchill taught: "Never give up". Israel has proven to be a key ally in the fight against Islamism and also an example of how a liberal democracy can resist the jihadist stake and thrive as a Western nation ... Not only France but also all the West should look to Israel to defeat Islamism...
friendsofisraelinitiative.org

[I]t’s impossible to believe that an active antisemite wouldn’t – if only opportunistically – seek out somewhere to nestle in the manifold pleats of Israel-bashing, whether in generally diffuse anti-Zionism, or in more specific Boycott and Divestment Campaigns, Israeli Apartheid Weeks, End the Occupation movements and the like....[T]ell me that not a single Jew-hater finds the activity congenial, that criticising Israel can “never” be an expression of Jew-hating, not even when it takes the form of accusing Israeli soldiers of harvesting organs... Howard Jacobson (The Independent, 27 May 2013)

For Western countries to side with those who question Israel's legitimacy, for them to play games in international bodies with Israel's vital security issues, for them to appease those who oppose Western values, rather than robustly to stand up in defence of those values, is not only a grave moral mistake, but a strategic error of the first magnitude. Israel is a fundamental part of the West. The West is what it is thanks to its Judeo-Christian roots. If the Jewish element of those roots is lost and Israel is lost, then we are lost too. Jose Maria Aznar

Israel is, for us, a normal and a special country. A normal country, because it is just like any other democracy. A special country, because the Jewish culture, which eventually became the Judeo-Christian culture of the dignity of man, is the conceptual foundation of liberalism and democracy. This is why attacking Israel is tantamount to attacking Europe and the West. This is also why disputing Israel's legitimacy and its right to existence means questioning democracy. And this is why we are Friends of Israel. By defending Israel, we are defending ourselves. Marcello Pera

Israel ... is beset today by a unique combination of threats. It must defend its people from attack while defending its very right to exist. No other nation in the world faces this dual challenge. To deny Israel's right to confront some of the world's most vicious terrorist groups in order to ensure the safety of its citizens is to corrode international norms from within ... The assault on Israel is one part of a more general assault on the West, on democracy, and on the moral and cultural heritage that grew from the fruitful interaction of Jerusalem, Athens, and Rome ... Should these efforts succeed, similar efforts will certainly be turned against other western democracies. George Weigel

Apart from America itself, Israel still stands as the world's brightest model of national self-liberation based on ideals of individual responsibility and human freedom. Israel's ability to withstand Arab attempts to destroy it in one of the longest and most lop-sided wars ever fought serves as an indelible testimony to the strength of democratic culture.... We know from the past that the West paid dearly for ignoring Hitler's war against the Jews. One can only hope it will not pay as dearly for having ignored or underestimated for so long the Arab war against Israel and the Jews. Ruth Wisse

I am duty-bound to defend freedom, culture, peaceful coexistence, the civic education of children, and all the principles that the Tablets of the Law have rendered universal. Principles which Islamic fundamentalism systematically destroys. This means that, since I am a Gentile, a journalist and a leftist, I have a triple moral commitment to Israel. Because, if Israel were to be vanquished, modernity, culture and freedom would also be crushed. Even though the world has failed to wake up to this fact, Israel's struggle is the world's struggle. Pilar Rahola

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