From the Editor

         

Legacy

 
“But in the Lord all the descendants of Israel will be found righteous and will exult.”
~ Isaiah 45:25 ~
 
“Israel is the only UN member not permitted to stand for election to the full range of UN bodies. So while membership of the UN Human Rights Commission now includes Cuba, Libya, Sudan and Syria — four of the seven states designated as state sponsors of international terrorism by the U.S. State Department — Israel cannot even be a candidate.”
~ Anne Bayefsky ~
http://www.mideasttruth.com/UNvsIsrael.html

 

Helen Thomas resigned this week.  I should sing her praises, as she is in fact an accomplished woman; but I cannot raise my voice to honor her, instead I condemn her and her hateful words. 

On May 27, 2010, during an event to mark, Jewish American Heritage Month, Ms. Thomas was asked if she had any comments on Israel?  She responded: “Tell them to get the hell out of Palestine.”  The interviewer, I think surprised by her statement, gave her a chance to respond again, asking if she had any better comments.  She continued: “Remember these people are occupied. And it is there land not German it is not Poland They should go home.”  Where did she want the Jewish people to go?  “Poland, Germany, and America and everywhere else.”  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RQcQdWBqt14

Ms. Thomas, for the record, is in possession of a college education, and worked a life time as a reporter, in what is supposed to be a noble and unbiased profession – or at the very least a profession where biased is clearly identified.  She covered the White House; and is of an age to well remember World War II and the Holocaust, a witness to history. 

Her remarks were taped by New York Rabbi David Nesenoff, rabbilive.com, and the video was posted on YouTube.  It did not take long for the world to hear her the venom which spewed from her mouth; which then lead to what she called an apology: “I deeply regret my comments,” she said in the statement, claiming they “do not reflect my heart-felt belief that peace will come to the Middle East only when all parties recognize the need for mutual respect and tolerance.”  Somehow that apology lacked the fervor of her original comments and sounded more like please continue to buy my books and pay me to speak at your graduation. 

 That Ms. Thomas is an anti-Semite is not news.  What is news is that it required YouTube and Facebook for her to resign.  Her public comments, made two weeks ago should have ended her career on May 27, 2010, not June 7!  Would the world have waited two weeks or two hours had her comments been directed at people with disabilities, African-Americans, AIDS patients, people with blue eyes?  No, there would have been outrage that someone with such a high White House profile would make such a blatant statement of ignorance and hatred.  Does she have the right to be a bigot?  Yes, she does; but not as a journalist, sitting among the main stream media, at White House briefings. 

Has it once again become acceptable to be anti-Semitic?  It does seem that a new era of hate has been ushered into America.  I have followed the news, of the last few weeks, concerning Israel and the world with a great deal of disbelief.  The world had condemned Israel for protecting itself from further attacks, and sadly and shockingly that condemnation has also come from the United States; the first country in the world to freely welcome Jewish people and offer them the freedom to practice their faith, just like everyone else.

“The United States, Israel’s closest ally, on Friday joined other nations in saying the blockade in its current form is not sustainable — adding further pressure on Israel to find another way to keep weapons out.” http://www.foxnews.com/world/2010/06/05/israeli-forces-board-gaza-bound-aid-vessel-encounter-resistance/

For anyone, especially America who blockaded Cuba, because it was in our national interest, and who regularly boards ships in international waters, to search them for drugs and weapons, to condemn Israel for blockading Hamas run Gaza, which Egypt also blockades is the true outrage.  Where are our leaders?  Why is it that our President did not stand for and with Israel?  http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE65005R20100606

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard now stands ready to escort ships to Gaza, willing and able to confront the Israeli military forces.  “Shirazi said Iran should encourage more international efforts to break the blockade.  ‘We should expose our enemies to a spontaneous global action and not let them achieve their heinous goals,’ he said.” http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6550WZ20100606  So the United States is standing with Iran against Israel? 

The strip of land between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean has been home to Israel, in one form or another for over 4000 years.  The Arab speaking population of this area did not begin to refer to itself as Palestinian until World War I.  Israel has repeatedly offered peace – including in 1948, when the modern nation of Israel was birthed and recognized, within eleven minutes, by the United States.  Israel offered to co-exist peacefully with its Palestinian neighbors, who instead chose to be a part of a five nation invasion, determined to push the Jewish people into the sea – they lost, and Israel won, and once again offered peace, which was rejected.  The Palestinians fled their homes, willingly becoming refugees in neighboring Arab lands, as they waited to go back and reclaim forcefully what they were unwilling to accept peacefully. 

Even if you choose to reject a four thousand year claim to this land, you must ask yourself where we will draw the line?  How far back are we going to collectively go in re-writing history?  Who has a legitimate right to be anywhere?  Must all Americans who are not Native-Americans vacate the United States?  Where should Ms. Thomas go back to?  Israel is here, and it was here long before most of those countries in the United Nations existed.  The Holocaust did happen, and the British, though late, did honor the Balfour Agreement, and Israel did and has continued to fight and win every conflict which her Arab neighbors have begun.   

George Washington, when asked about Jewish rights responded: “The Citizens of the United States of America have a right to applaud themselves for giving to Mankind examples of an enlarged and liberal policy: a policy worthy of imitation. All possess alike liberty of conscience and immunities of citizenship. It is now no more that toleration is spoken of, as if it was by the indulgence of one class of people that another enjoyed the exercise of their inherent natural rights. For happily the Government of the United States, which gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance, requires only that they who live under its protection, should demean themselves as good citizens. May the Children of the Stock of Abraham, who dwell in this land, continue to merit and enjoy the good will of the other Inhabitants; while every one shall sit under his own vine and fig tree, and there shall be none to make him afraid. May the father of all mercies scatter light and not darkness in our paths, and make us all in our several vocations useful here, and in his own due time and way everlastingly happy.” http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/US-Israel/bigotry.html

Who are we going to stand with, Helen Thomas, the United Nations, or George Washington and God?  That is all for now.

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