Culture test -- Insight Program (SBS -- 18 September 2007)
I didn't watch this program,- usually I do watch Insight,- but quite frankly, I didn't miss anything, from reading the transcript. It's everything I and my New-Australian friends all went through when we arrived to this country and started growing up here, then going out and going to Uni. etc.The older, "new-aAustralian" generation is trying to hang on to their kids and to their culture. It's a worry,- big worry!
I often found my mother pacing up and down the street outside our home at 1 or 2 am, in her dressing gown, talking to herself - "please God, let my child be OK"!!! I must have been already driving and at Uni., going out with my future husband even! She worried in case I'll ‘marry out’ (of my faith), in case I have an accident,- when our kids came along, she worried about them,- driving us all mad with her "Jewish mama's" worries!!! So what's new,- if the Moslems feel the same?
My generation was far more relaxed and the next is even more so!
Those first generation Muslim kids will be OK if they break loose from their parents a little,- the ones to worry about are the ones who think that their parents have strayed too far away from their religion, e.g.Islam,- unhappy perhaps with their own lives, these kids often revert back, sometimes to a much stricter form of their religion and who knows what else they might do! It happens among us Jews,- but at least our Jews are not dangerous. Fundamentalist Islam, may be very dangerous indeed!
RE "Australian values",- is an idea which I have been promoting for ages,- but should be more designed and targeted to the prospective immigrants to this country. That is,- they need to know more about what to expect when they get here. They think that they can just come to Australia, make money and live the same way forever as they did in Bangladesh, say. By the time they get here and find out that their children adopt a different lifestyle, -it's a bit late to complain.
But coping with growing kids is a problem for everyone,- we have all had to go through this phase with them. I also had to advise my Greek cleaning lady about her teenage son who was rebelling (now a well-to-do professional father of two) and some African Moslem women who came to our community, wanting to know how we keep our children from assimilating instead of integrating! We told them that like everyone else, we have failures and successes! We have to try to do our best for them, help them to remain in the fold.
But being an Australian or any other nationality as well as a Jew does not pose any problems or conflicts. Intermarriage with other faiths, does. One or the other may have to lose his or her previous faith-identity. There are no particular problems for us as women, except in the areas of religious divorce, should this occur. The strictly religious Jews, like all strictly religious people of other faiths, do have more rigid moral codes to which girls and women have to conform if they want to remain within their family and community circles. Of course, they may also encounter intergenerational conflicts as a result. For that reason, a minority of ultra-orthodox communities even forbid interactions for their kids with the outside world,- no TV, internet, socializing, etc.
But when immigrants from countries such as Afghanistan and similar come to a free and democratic society such as ours,- how can they adjust? From totally covered-up wives whom no other male is allowed to see,- to our freedom-loving flesh-showing females in Australia or USA,- then they have to try to keep their youngsters in check? Or will they try to convert all of us to their level?
(See below).
WOMEN IN AFGHANISTAN: 4CORNERS PROGRAM, ABC TV.(Monday, 24/9)
I gave up watching the shocking documentary on 4Corners in disgust! The lives of the women and girls count for naught still today after supposedly being "liberated" from the Taliban. Their PARTICULAR culture and fundamentalist Islamic religion are the absolute 'pits' where women and children are concerned!
Anyone trying to tell us that Islam is a religion of peace and tolerance;-as though it's a universal truth can fool themselves, not most of us women! If any of their men come to Australia thinking that they'll control their daughters or wives in the same manner, they should stay where they are! Let the women come here on their own and live in freedom and let those "testosterone hyped males" (as the brave interviewer said,- "it must be something in the water here!"),- leave them to rot over there. They don't deserve to live here,- their poor women are emolating themselves at an incredible rate. We should be trying to save them and leave their bastard menfolk behind to become Taliban on their own!
You should read all the comments on the 4Corners Guestbook.
For further information on how to offer support to the women and children of Afghanistan, go to the following websites:
Support Association for the Women of Afghanistan Aus
Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan
The interesting issue however is that all the Australian peak Women's groups refuse to help whenever we asked them to assist overseas Islamic women from being stoned to death, for example.. They are intimidated by the local Islamic women's organizations who claim that it is all a Zionist plot to denigrate Islam!
It is time for true feminist Islamic NGOs to work hand in hand with all other women’s groups and stop being in-denial about Islamic teachings and life-styles all over the world and the non-status of their women!
(MM)
Wednesday, September 26, 2007
Thursday, September 20, 2007
The film about Daniel Pearl" A MIGHTY HEART".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/story/0,,2172049,00.html
The death of relativism
The film A Mighty Heart goes too far in likening my son's murderers to the Guantánamo regime
Judea PearlWednesday September 19, 2007
The Guardian
I used to believe that the world essentially divided into two types of people: those who were broadly tolerant, and those who felt threatened by differences. If only the former ruled the earth, I reasoned, the world might know some measure of peace. But there was a problem with my theory, and it was never clearer than in a conversation I had with a Pakistani friend who told me that he loathed people like George Bush who insisted on dividing the world into "us" and "them". My friend did not realise that he was in fact falling straight into the camp of people he loathed.
This is a political version of a famous paradox formulated by Bertrand Russell. The stronger you insist on the necessity of tolerance, the more intolerant you become toward those who disagree. The moral lesson is that there is no such thing as unqualified tolerance; ultimately, one must be able to expound intolerance of certain ideologies without surrendering the moral high ground normally linked to tolerance.
Which brings me to my son, Daniel Pearl. Thanks to the release of A Mighty Heart, the Angelina Jolie movie which premieres in the UK this week, Danny's legacy is once again receiving attention. Of course, no movie could ever capture exactly that magical combination of humour and integrity, gentleness and resilience, that made Danny admired by so many. Still, traces of these qualities are certainly evident in A Mighty Heart, and viewers will leave the cinema inspired by them.
At the same time, I am worried that the film falls into a trap Russell would have recognised: the paradox of moral equivalence, of seeking to extend the logic of tolerance a step too far. You can see traces of this logic in the film's comparison of Danny's abduction with Guantánamo (it opens with pictures from the prison) and of al-Qaida militants with CIA agents. You can also see it in the comments of the movie's director, Michael Winterbottom, who wrote in the Washington Post that A Mighty Heart and his previous film, The Road to Guantanamo, were very similar: "There are extremists on both sides who want to ratchet up the levels of violence and hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this."
Drawing a comparison between Danny's murder and the detention of suspects in Guantánamo is precisely what the killers wanted, as expressed in both their emails and the murder video. Indeed, following an advance screening of A Mighty Heart in Los Angeles, a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said: "We need to end the culture of bombs, torture, occupation, and violence. This is the message to take from the film."
Yet the message that angry youngsters are hearing from such blanket generalisation is predictable: all forms of violence are equally evil; therefore, as long as one persists, others should not be ruled out. This is precisely the logic used by Mohammed Siddique Khan, one of the London suicide bombers, in his video. "Your democratically elected government," he told his fellow Britons, "continues to perpetrate atrocities against my people ... [We] will not stop."
Danny's tragedy demands an end to this logic. There can be no comparison between those who take pride in the killing of an unarmed journalist and those who vow to end such acts. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31 2002.
My son had the courage to examine all sides. He was a genuine listener and a champion of dialogue. Yet he also had principles and red lines. He was tolerant but not mindlessly so. I hope viewers of A Mighty Heart will remember this.
· Judea Pearl is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation and co-editor of I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl; a version of this article has appeared in The New Republic.
danielpearl.org
The death of relativism
The film A Mighty Heart goes too far in likening my son's murderers to the Guantánamo regime
Judea PearlWednesday September 19, 2007
The Guardian
I used to believe that the world essentially divided into two types of people: those who were broadly tolerant, and those who felt threatened by differences. If only the former ruled the earth, I reasoned, the world might know some measure of peace. But there was a problem with my theory, and it was never clearer than in a conversation I had with a Pakistani friend who told me that he loathed people like George Bush who insisted on dividing the world into "us" and "them". My friend did not realise that he was in fact falling straight into the camp of people he loathed.
This is a political version of a famous paradox formulated by Bertrand Russell. The stronger you insist on the necessity of tolerance, the more intolerant you become toward those who disagree. The moral lesson is that there is no such thing as unqualified tolerance; ultimately, one must be able to expound intolerance of certain ideologies without surrendering the moral high ground normally linked to tolerance.
Which brings me to my son, Daniel Pearl. Thanks to the release of A Mighty Heart, the Angelina Jolie movie which premieres in the UK this week, Danny's legacy is once again receiving attention. Of course, no movie could ever capture exactly that magical combination of humour and integrity, gentleness and resilience, that made Danny admired by so many. Still, traces of these qualities are certainly evident in A Mighty Heart, and viewers will leave the cinema inspired by them.
At the same time, I am worried that the film falls into a trap Russell would have recognised: the paradox of moral equivalence, of seeking to extend the logic of tolerance a step too far. You can see traces of this logic in the film's comparison of Danny's abduction with Guantánamo (it opens with pictures from the prison) and of al-Qaida militants with CIA agents. You can also see it in the comments of the movie's director, Michael Winterbottom, who wrote in the Washington Post that A Mighty Heart and his previous film, The Road to Guantanamo, were very similar: "There are extremists on both sides who want to ratchet up the levels of violence and hundreds of thousands of people have died because of this."
Drawing a comparison between Danny's murder and the detention of suspects in Guantánamo is precisely what the killers wanted, as expressed in both their emails and the murder video. Indeed, following an advance screening of A Mighty Heart in Los Angeles, a representative of the Council on American-Islamic Relations said: "We need to end the culture of bombs, torture, occupation, and violence. This is the message to take from the film."
Yet the message that angry youngsters are hearing from such blanket generalisation is predictable: all forms of violence are equally evil; therefore, as long as one persists, others should not be ruled out. This is precisely the logic used by Mohammed Siddique Khan, one of the London suicide bombers, in his video. "Your democratically elected government," he told his fellow Britons, "continues to perpetrate atrocities against my people ... [We] will not stop."
Danny's tragedy demands an end to this logic. There can be no comparison between those who take pride in the killing of an unarmed journalist and those who vow to end such acts. Moral relativism died with Daniel Pearl, in Karachi, on January 31 2002.
My son had the courage to examine all sides. He was a genuine listener and a champion of dialogue. Yet he also had principles and red lines. He was tolerant but not mindlessly so. I hope viewers of A Mighty Heart will remember this.
· Judea Pearl is president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation and co-editor of I am Jewish: Personal Reflections Inspired by the Last Words of Daniel Pearl; a version of this article has appeared in The New Republic.
danielpearl.org
Tuesday, September 18, 2007
ALL TOO EASY TO BLAME THE JEWS (The Australian)
All too easy to blame the Jews
"The Australian"
By Victor Davis Hanson |
September 18, 2007
WHO recently said: "These Jews started 19 crusades. The 19th was World War I. Why? Only to build Israel." Some holdover Nazi? Hardly.
It was former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews - whom he refers to as "bacteria" - controlled China, India and Japan, and ran the US.
Who alleged: "The Arabs who were involved in 9/11 co-operated with the Zionists, actually. It was a co-operation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs."
A conspiracy nut? Actually it was former US senator James Abourezk. He denounced Israel on a Hezbollah-owned television station, adding: "I marvelled at the Hezbollah resistance to Israel ... It was a marvel of organisation, of courage and bravery."
And finally, who claimed at a UN-sponsored conference that democratic Israel was "much worse" than the former apartheid South Africa and that it "undermines the international community's reaction to global warming"?
A radical environmentalist wacko? Again, no. It was Clare Short, a member of the British parliament. She was secretary for international development under prime minister Tony Blair.
A new virulent strain of the old anti-Semitism is spreading worldwide.
This hate - of a magnitude not seen in more than 70 years - is espoused not just by Iran's loony President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or radical jihadis. The latest anti-Semitism is also now mouthed by world leaders and sophisticated politicians and academics. Their loathing often masquerades as "anti-Zionism" or "legitimate" criticism of Israel.
But the venom exclusively reserved for the Jewish state betrays their existential hatred.
Israel is always lambasted for entering homes in the West Bank to look for Hamas terrorists and using too much force. But last week the world snoozed when the Lebanese army bombarded and then crushed the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, which harboured Islamic terrorists. The world has long objected to Jewish settlers buying up land in the West Bank. Yet Hezbollah, flush with Iranian money, is now purchasing large tracts in southern Lebanon for military purposes and purging them of non-Shiites.
In the US, "neo-conservative" has become synonymous with a supposed Jewish cabal of Washington insiders who hijacked US policy to take us to war in Israel's interest. Yet when the US bombed European and Christian Serbia to help Balkan Muslims, few critics alleged that American Muslims had unduly swayed Bill Clinton.
And such charges of improper ethnic influence are rarely levelled to explain the billions in American aid given to non-democratic Egypt, Jordan or the Palestinians, or the Saudi oil money that pours into American universities.
The world likewise displays such a double standard. It seems to care little about the principle of so-called occupied land - whether in Cyprus or Tibet - unless Israel is the accused.
Mass murder in Cambodia, the Congo, Rwanda and Darfur has earned far fewer UN resolutions of condemnation than supposed atrocities committed by Israel. A number of British academics are sponsoring a boycott of Israeli scholars but leave alone those from autocratic Iran, China and Cuba.
There are various explanations for the new anti-Semitism. For many abroad, attacking Jews and Israel is an indirect way of damning its main ally, the US: by implying that Americans are not entirely evil, just hoodwinked by those sneaky and far more evil Jews.
In the US, there are obvious pragmatic considerations. Some Americans may find it makes more sense to damn a few million Israelis without oil than it does to offend Israel's adversaries in the Middle East, who number in the hundreds of millions and control nearly half the world's petroleum reserves.
Cowardice explains a lot. Libelling Israel won't earn someone a fatwa or a death sentence in the manner comparable criticism of Islam might. There are no Jewish suicide bombers in London, Madrid or Bali.
This new face of anti-Semitism is so insidious because it is so well disguised, advanced by self-proclaimed diplomats and academics, and now embraced by the supposedly sophisticated Left on university campuses.
When national, collective or personal aspirations are not met, it is far easier to blame someone or something rather than to look within for the source of the failure and frustration. More recently, someone must be blamed for getting terrorists (with oil and its profits behind them) mad at us.
That someone is - no surprise - once again Jews.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution in San Francisco, is a regular contributor to the New York Post, in which this article originally appeared
"The Australian"
By Victor Davis Hanson |
September 18, 2007
WHO recently said: "These Jews started 19 crusades. The 19th was World War I. Why? Only to build Israel." Some holdover Nazi? Hardly.
It was former prime minister Necmettin Erbakan of Turkey, a NATO ally. He went on to claim that the Jews - whom he refers to as "bacteria" - controlled China, India and Japan, and ran the US.
Who alleged: "The Arabs who were involved in 9/11 co-operated with the Zionists, actually. It was a co-operation. They gave them the perfect excuse to denounce all Arabs."
A conspiracy nut? Actually it was former US senator James Abourezk. He denounced Israel on a Hezbollah-owned television station, adding: "I marvelled at the Hezbollah resistance to Israel ... It was a marvel of organisation, of courage and bravery."
And finally, who claimed at a UN-sponsored conference that democratic Israel was "much worse" than the former apartheid South Africa and that it "undermines the international community's reaction to global warming"?
A radical environmentalist wacko? Again, no. It was Clare Short, a member of the British parliament. She was secretary for international development under prime minister Tony Blair.
A new virulent strain of the old anti-Semitism is spreading worldwide.
This hate - of a magnitude not seen in more than 70 years - is espoused not just by Iran's loony President, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, or radical jihadis. The latest anti-Semitism is also now mouthed by world leaders and sophisticated politicians and academics. Their loathing often masquerades as "anti-Zionism" or "legitimate" criticism of Israel.
But the venom exclusively reserved for the Jewish state betrays their existential hatred.
Israel is always lambasted for entering homes in the West Bank to look for Hamas terrorists and using too much force. But last week the world snoozed when the Lebanese army bombarded and then crushed the Nahr al-Bared refugee camp, which harboured Islamic terrorists. The world has long objected to Jewish settlers buying up land in the West Bank. Yet Hezbollah, flush with Iranian money, is now purchasing large tracts in southern Lebanon for military purposes and purging them of non-Shiites.
In the US, "neo-conservative" has become synonymous with a supposed Jewish cabal of Washington insiders who hijacked US policy to take us to war in Israel's interest. Yet when the US bombed European and Christian Serbia to help Balkan Muslims, few critics alleged that American Muslims had unduly swayed Bill Clinton.
And such charges of improper ethnic influence are rarely levelled to explain the billions in American aid given to non-democratic Egypt, Jordan or the Palestinians, or the Saudi oil money that pours into American universities.
The world likewise displays such a double standard. It seems to care little about the principle of so-called occupied land - whether in Cyprus or Tibet - unless Israel is the accused.
Mass murder in Cambodia, the Congo, Rwanda and Darfur has earned far fewer UN resolutions of condemnation than supposed atrocities committed by Israel. A number of British academics are sponsoring a boycott of Israeli scholars but leave alone those from autocratic Iran, China and Cuba.
There are various explanations for the new anti-Semitism. For many abroad, attacking Jews and Israel is an indirect way of damning its main ally, the US: by implying that Americans are not entirely evil, just hoodwinked by those sneaky and far more evil Jews.
In the US, there are obvious pragmatic considerations. Some Americans may find it makes more sense to damn a few million Israelis without oil than it does to offend Israel's adversaries in the Middle East, who number in the hundreds of millions and control nearly half the world's petroleum reserves.
Cowardice explains a lot. Libelling Israel won't earn someone a fatwa or a death sentence in the manner comparable criticism of Islam might. There are no Jewish suicide bombers in London, Madrid or Bali.
This new face of anti-Semitism is so insidious because it is so well disguised, advanced by self-proclaimed diplomats and academics, and now embraced by the supposedly sophisticated Left on university campuses.
When national, collective or personal aspirations are not met, it is far easier to blame someone or something rather than to look within for the source of the failure and frustration. More recently, someone must be blamed for getting terrorists (with oil and its profits behind them) mad at us.
That someone is - no surprise - once again Jews.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Victor Davis Hanson, a classicist and historian at the Hoover Institution in San Francisco, is a regular contributor to the New York Post, in which this article originally appeared
Saturday, September 08, 2007
Happy New Year 5768.
AS 5768 Approaches....
Next week we Jews will begin our 5768th year on this earth! Who
would have believed this possible? If anyone had told Abraham that
his people would be around this long he probably would have been astounded.
Imagine, we did this without beheading anyone on TV, without a single
suicide bomber , without kidnapping and murdering school children,
without slaughtering Olympic athletes, and without flying airplanes
into skyscrapers.
We lasted this long despite 400 years as slaves in Egypt, 40 years of
wandering in the desert, the mighty Roman army who nailed us to
ten thousand crosses; despite the best efforts of fervent Crusaders, the
Spanish Inquisition, Hitler's third Reich, Stalin's gulags, Arab wars
of annihilation and 100 years of hateful terrorism, hundreds of
hate-filled UN resolutions.
H ow did we Jews do it? We survived by concentrating our efforts on
education, love of family, faith, hard work, helping one another and a
passionate dedication to life no matter what evil befell us.
We hung in there in the hope the rest of the world would one day overcome
its hatreds, jealousies, violence and join us in a life of cooperation
and mutual respect.
We're not there yet, but we're still hopeful. And when so many of us
enter our places of worship next week, this is what we'll pray for
with all the strength in our hearts.
Best wishes for a New Year filled with health, happiness, laughter,
success, joy, and kindness and may this coming year bring peace
and security to Israel, to the Jewish communities in the Diaspora
and to our planet.
5767/8 and counting.
Happy Birthday to Israel at 60!
Miriam M., Melbourne, Australia.
Next week we Jews will begin our 5768th year on this earth! Who
would have believed this possible? If anyone had told Abraham that
his people would be around this long he probably would have been astounded.
Imagine, we did this without beheading anyone on TV, without a single
suicide bomber , without kidnapping and murdering school children,
without slaughtering Olympic athletes, and without flying airplanes
into skyscrapers.
We lasted this long despite 400 years as slaves in Egypt, 40 years of
wandering in the desert, the mighty Roman army who nailed us to
ten thousand crosses; despite the best efforts of fervent Crusaders, the
Spanish Inquisition, Hitler's third Reich, Stalin's gulags, Arab wars
of annihilation and 100 years of hateful terrorism, hundreds of
hate-filled UN resolutions.
H ow did we Jews do it? We survived by concentrating our efforts on
education, love of family, faith, hard work, helping one another and a
passionate dedication to life no matter what evil befell us.
We hung in there in the hope the rest of the world would one day overcome
its hatreds, jealousies, violence and join us in a life of cooperation
and mutual respect.
We're not there yet, but we're still hopeful. And when so many of us
enter our places of worship next week, this is what we'll pray for
with all the strength in our hearts.
Best wishes for a New Year filled with health, happiness, laughter,
success, joy, and kindness and may this coming year bring peace
and security to Israel, to the Jewish communities in the Diaspora
and to our planet.
5767/8 and counting.
Happy Birthday to Israel at 60!
Miriam M., Melbourne, Australia.
Thursday, September 06, 2007
DARFURIAN ISRAELIS
(The difference between good and evil!MM)
Darfurian IsraelisD. Frankfurter
In this day and age, almost no matter where you live, it is hard to take pride in government. Here in Israel there's lots to brag about. Technological leadership, thriving economy, the warmth of our society, the way our youngsters defend their fellow citizens against attack in a never ending terror war ... but sadly, our elected leaders are not usually part of the positive images. So when they get caught doing something right, it's a noteworthy surprise. A story in today's Ha'aretz is one of those surprises.
Interior Minister, Meir Sheetrit, announced that hundreds of Darfur refugees will be granted citizenship of Israel. Estimates are that around 2,000 African refugees have found asylum in Israel, but the issue is not without its problems. With their pursuers having shifted whole new populations into the Sudanese homes and villages, they will have nowhere to go even after the fighting is over. It is clear that the 2.5 million who have been displaced cannot be absorbed by tiny Israel. It is also difficult to differentiate between economic opportunists and genuine refugees – not to mention the security risk associated with potential infiltrators from an enemy state said to harbour Al-Qaida. To date, the Israeli Muslim community has not come forward, and so those who are in Israel do not have a local community into which they easily integrate.
On the other hand, the Jewish state, which was rose out of the ashes of the Holocaust and became a haven for hundreds of thousands of Jews chased out of Arab countries and has a collective memory of exile to Rome and Babylon, dhimmitude in Arabia, the Spanish Inquisition, and European pogroms, cannot stand idly by.
Darfur is a world responsibility, and one in which it would be reasonable to expect the Arab and African nations to take a lead. Arab states, as yet have shown no inclination to reign in the racist Arab Muslims who are engaged in rape, pillage and plunder of the most barbaric dimensions. Nor have they shown the slightest inclination to protect the persecuted black Muslims. It is worse. In a most repulsive story, Egyptian border guards murdered Sudanese refugees trying to cross the border, seeking refuge in Israel. A physical "tug-of-war" with Israeli border guards over one of the refugees ended in an Egyptian "victory" after they pointed their guns at the Israelis. The poor refugee "prize" was simply dragged back over the border and clubbed to death. Nor have African nations offered succour to their Muslim and animist coreligionists. And the Western world has been equally unwilling to offer haven.
As we approach the Rosh Hashanna new year, we and the Sudanese refugees can only hope that the example set by Israel, absorbing a number so large in terms of its relative population, and granting the protection and benefits of citizenship to the stateless, will be part of fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isiah "The law will go out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Press your government to take heed and act.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To comment on this letter or read my archive, go to http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/
If you post this letter on other sites, please include a link to the source at
http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/113606.html
__._,_.___
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Your submissions are most welcome and will be posted in accordance with list guidelines.
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Darfurian IsraelisD. Frankfurter
In this day and age, almost no matter where you live, it is hard to take pride in government. Here in Israel there's lots to brag about. Technological leadership, thriving economy, the warmth of our society, the way our youngsters defend their fellow citizens against attack in a never ending terror war ... but sadly, our elected leaders are not usually part of the positive images. So when they get caught doing something right, it's a noteworthy surprise. A story in today's Ha'aretz is one of those surprises.
Interior Minister, Meir Sheetrit, announced that hundreds of Darfur refugees will be granted citizenship of Israel. Estimates are that around 2,000 African refugees have found asylum in Israel, but the issue is not without its problems. With their pursuers having shifted whole new populations into the Sudanese homes and villages, they will have nowhere to go even after the fighting is over. It is clear that the 2.5 million who have been displaced cannot be absorbed by tiny Israel. It is also difficult to differentiate between economic opportunists and genuine refugees – not to mention the security risk associated with potential infiltrators from an enemy state said to harbour Al-Qaida. To date, the Israeli Muslim community has not come forward, and so those who are in Israel do not have a local community into which they easily integrate.
On the other hand, the Jewish state, which was rose out of the ashes of the Holocaust and became a haven for hundreds of thousands of Jews chased out of Arab countries and has a collective memory of exile to Rome and Babylon, dhimmitude in Arabia, the Spanish Inquisition, and European pogroms, cannot stand idly by.
Darfur is a world responsibility, and one in which it would be reasonable to expect the Arab and African nations to take a lead. Arab states, as yet have shown no inclination to reign in the racist Arab Muslims who are engaged in rape, pillage and plunder of the most barbaric dimensions. Nor have they shown the slightest inclination to protect the persecuted black Muslims. It is worse. In a most repulsive story, Egyptian border guards murdered Sudanese refugees trying to cross the border, seeking refuge in Israel. A physical "tug-of-war" with Israeli border guards over one of the refugees ended in an Egyptian "victory" after they pointed their guns at the Israelis. The poor refugee "prize" was simply dragged back over the border and clubbed to death. Nor have African nations offered succour to their Muslim and animist coreligionists. And the Western world has been equally unwilling to offer haven.
As we approach the Rosh Hashanna new year, we and the Sudanese refugees can only hope that the example set by Israel, absorbing a number so large in terms of its relative population, and granting the protection and benefits of citizenship to the stateless, will be part of fulfillment of the words of the prophet Isiah "The law will go out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem." Press your government to take heed and act.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To comment on this letter or read my archive, go to http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/
If you post this letter on other sites, please include a link to the source at
http://dfrankfurter.livejournal.com/113606.html
__._,_.___
=========================================================================
ZNN - Zionism News Network - is for distribution of information about Zionism, Israel, Israeli and Zionist history, Israel advocacy and anti-Semitism and telling people about your Web site or activist issues.
Please do forward posts from this list by email with all list information and URLs to publicize ZNN and Zionist Web sites.
Your submissions are most welcome and will be posted in accordance with list guidelines.
To join send an email to ZNN-subscribe@yahoogroups.com
Contents are the responsibility of the posters.
Visit these Web sites:
http://www.zionism-israel.com
http://www.zionismontheweb.org
http://www.zionism.netfirms.com
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