Holocaust Memorial Day

"Eighteen governments have legislated January 27 as an annual Holocaust Memorial Day."

This Memorial  is particularly important in light of what is happening in Egypt and other Arab countries this last week.

I can't say I heard that much about it this year, perhaps because I came home from work with a bad cold and was barely thinking right.

But I came on it today though that wonderful website Yad Vashem

As the Jewish people’s living memorial to the Holocaust, Yad Vashem safeguards the memory of the past and imparts its meaning for future generations.  

"And to them will I give in my house and within my walls a memorial and a name (a "yad vashem")... that shall not be cut off." (Isaiah, chapter 56, verse 5)

I came across this website back in 2009 when I heard about Righteous Among the Nations, researching for Anti-Semitism in Egypt and Israel is not the enemy of Palestinians. This led to reading about the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, a virulent Jew-hater who partnered with Hitler and was instrumental in forming regiments of Bosnian Muslim Waffen SS, as well as others from the Arab world; he aided Hitler & Eichmann to further his evil  aim of eliminating the Jewish people. (I posted a picture of the Bosnian Muslim Waffen in their SS uniforms here).

I wanted to know more about those who protected Jews at great risk to themselves. I found that there were some Bosnian Muslims who had helped, and they are honoured as Righteous Among the Nations.

From Yad Veshem:

On January 27, 1945, soviet forces liberated the Auschwitz-Birkenau extermination camp, discovering the largest Nazi killing center in Europe. Auschwitz has become a symbol of the holocaust, representing the depths of man's inhumanity to man. Eighteen governments have legislated January 27 as an annual holocaust memorial day. In November 2005, the United Nations passed a resolution to mark January 27 as an international day of commemoration to honour the victims of the holocaust, and urged member states to develop educational programs to impart the memory of this tragedy to future generations. 

We live at a time when Iran seeks to destroy Israel, and their proxies Hamas and Hezbollah likewise, and the Muslim Brotherhood will surely unleash Egypt's armed forces against Israel if they can take power there and impose their Islamist ideology on that country.

If that isn't bad enough, the mindless leftists in the UK & US refuse to see the reality: "it's all about the West Bank" they whine, when a look at the facts will clearly show that the anti-semitism and hatred was whipped up a long time before 1948 (the War of Independence).

But I find that these western apologists for terrorism are not interested in the facts of a matter - only their ideologies.

There is a connection - I call Mohammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, the Father of Islamic Terrorism, there may be other claimants but as far as I know he takes the title:

The terrorist extremist organisation known as the Muslim Brotherhood" was established in Egypt in 1928, and Amin Al-Husseini becomes a central figure and ideological inspiration for the group, which spawned the terrorist groups "Egyptian Islamic Jihad" and Hamas The Muslim Brotherhood preaches Wahhabi Islam, which justifies violent means to rid the ‘Muslim world’ of its non-Islamic element. It envisions a Pan-Islamic Empire, where strict Islamic law rules over all.

In 1933 Arab Nazi political groups spring up throughout Middle East. Mohammad Amin al-Husayni became a favoured ally of Hitler, and was appointed direct responsibility for forming divisions of Waffen-SS, consisting of hundreds of thousands of Muslims, who fought for Nazi Germany. [1]

I've put January 27 in my calendar; I will honour the day.

[1] Israel is not the enemy of Palestinians.

Gurth Whitaker

Calgary, Alberta

Lux et Veritas

A Muslim Jew-hater and supporter of genocide

"A Muslim Jew-hater and supporter of genocide is flushed out by David Horowitz at a speech during "Israel Apartheid Week at the University of California San Diego. Horowitz was hosted by Young Americans for Freedom."

On May 10, 2010, Jumanah Albahri, an ex-officer of the Muslim Student Association (MSA) at the University of California-San Diego (UCSD), admitted during an event put on by Young Americans for Freedom and featuring David Horowitz as a speaker, that she supported a second Holocaust. During the exchange, Albahri also refused to condemn Hamas as a genocidal organization.

I let this video of David Horowitz answering a Muslim student speak for itself.



Is it time for clear thinking yet? How long before the liberal-leftists wake up? Could Islamic Terrorism be any clearer? Yet the current administration in the US refuses to name it.

Visit the Horowitz Freedom Center Website.

Misguided Anti-Israel Protest at Mountain Equipment Co-op stores

According to the Calgary Herald today (Saturday November 28), it's time to

Ignore boycott, it's time to BUYcott Israel

With the Aryan Guard in Calgary disbanding, it's good riddance to one bunch of anti-Semites.

Now, if only another bunch would disperse, as well. The misguided members of this particular group plan to picket at Mountain Equipment Co-op (MEC) stores today to protest the retailer's selling of Israeli-made products.

MEC management should ignore them and continue selling made-in-Israel goods.

I went over there to see what was going on and to buy something made in Israel.

There were a few picketers handing out leaflets condemning Israel, quite polite and peaceful in their behaviour, but I find their message odious. They slander MEC with their headline in their pamphlet: "Tell MEC to stop supporting Israel's was crimes". There were a few of the obligatory Yassar Arrafat scarves - quite the fashion statement on campus these days.

Of course there has to be the stupid naming of Israel as an apartheid state; they quote the egregiously misleading Goldstone report, as well as the warped opinion of the US' worst president, that big embarrassment to the United States - Jimmy Carter.

More from the Herald - this excellent comment:

Anyone who wants to boycott merchandise made in a democracy because of the despicable belief that this democracy has no right to defend itself against attacks by terrorists determined to wipe it out should be dismissed with the contempt merited.

Israel is the only country in the world that suffers condemnation for fighting back when attacked--and that bespeaks loudly of anti-Semitism, for no other reason is discernible.

One useful aspect of their pamphlet is they list the names of  brands of goods at MEC which are made in Israel; this made it easier for me to find items to purchase that are from Israel.

Thanks to the protesters for their pamphlet with the comprehensive list of goods made in  Israeli to buy when you visit at MEC.

But you can get a list here without soiling your hands taking their grubby little pamphlet.

I mentioned to every shop assistant that I talked to that I was looking for items made in Israel and they all seemed pleased.

The lady at the check out gave me an encouraging word for my support and her antipathy towards the protesters and invited me to return tomorrow (Sunday) for the pro-Israel demonstration. When she saw my Israel flag she asked me if I was Jewish, and when I said not but just a supporter of Israel she gave me an encouraging: "good for you."

The report I got from Toronto is that the pro-Israel people were more in evidence in Toronto than the pro-Hamas brigade, supported by the pictures ...

A short while ago we had the odious Sid Ryan of CUPE trying to initiate a boycott of Israeli academics, and this is the same kind of besmirching of Israel.

MEC is a co-operative and therefore it's members have a voice at the annual general meeting;the UJA Federation explains:

Become a MEC member by December 19, 2009. It costs only $5 and it gives you a say in how MEC is run at the company's Annual General Meeting.

... they  posted more information on their website - take a look if you this type of protest is repugnant to you and you would like to do something tangible to counteract it.

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary

The Media Spin on Israel

When the news media takes it's reports from Hizbullah, Hamas, or PLO sources it is usually based on outright fabrications; but leftists usually lap it up anyway.

What is harder to spot are the slight distortions, the slight twists or the spin, which although not a complete fabrication nevertheless deceive us. Because it is subtle it is more effective in its deception.

We have an expectation that our media will present us information in the news in a reasonably objective and truthful manner, and we formulate our opinions based on that assumption, however when the news concerns Israel and Palestine there is often some sort of deception involved which usually presents Israel in a bad light.

On this occasion the offending newspaper is the National Post in their headline "Peace Effort Stalls After Israel OKs Settlements, Nov. 18". The NP is usually one of the more reliable sources in this regard, however they are usually swimming against the tide of the  "mainstream media" ... which would be better named the  "lame-stream media."

Seems innocent enough but the word "settlements" completely distorts the true picture. Fortunately the NP publishes a letter to put the matter straight, but the damage is done, one more damaging distortion upon which to build the case of public opinion against Israel

Mike Fegelman, executive director, HonestReporting Canada, sheds light on the matter  ... the facts show a very different picture than that presented by the spin.

Gilo is not a 'settlement'

Contrary to the headline and body of this AFP report, the majority of the Israeli neighbourhood of Gilo is built on land legally purchased by Jews prior to 1948.

In the 1948 war, Jewish lands in Gilo were captured and confiscated by the Jordanian government. From 1948-67, Jewish landowners did not relinquish ownership to their land in Gilo and when Israel recaptured the land in the Six-Day War, Gilo was built.

Although the UN considers it a "settlement," Gilo lies within Jerusalem's municipal boundaries and is geographically contiguous to surrounding Jewish neighborhoods that pre-dated the 1967 reunification of the city.

Despite being over the 1967 Green Line, Gilo is certainly not a "settlement," in the most-used sense of the word which can conjure up images of isolated enclaves in the West Bank or hilltop outposts for those without a knowledge of the region.

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary, Alberta

US Congress votes on condemnation of the ignominious Goldstone Report

This today  from UN Watch:

Today will be an important trial for the cause of truth, justice and peace.

The U.S. Congress will be voting this afternoon on a superb condemnation of the ignominious Goldstone Report, in advance of a United Nations resolution to be debated tomorrow.

The Goldstone Report is a 500-page document that reverses perpetrator and victim, falsely accuses Israel of “deliberate attacks” against civilians, and ignores the genocidal anti-Semitism of the Hamas terrorist organization. (For more see here). 

Here's what peace activist and philosopher Moshe Halbertal writes in the latest edition of The New Republic: "The Goldstone Report as a whole is a terrible document. It is biased and unfair."

Tomorrow, the United Nations General Assembly will begin debate on an Arab-sponsored resolution to pressure the Security Council into referring Israel to the International Criminal Court.

Genocidal Sudan is a leading supporter.

According to Richard Falk, the U.N.'s permanent investigator of alleged Israeli crimes -- who accuses the U.S. of being behind the 9/11 attacks -- the Goldstone report is a key weapon in "the legitimacy war." On that, he's right. And so what the United states and other Western democracies say and do will be critical. 

I had to read that twice! The "UN's permanent investigator of alleged Israeli crimes" is a 'truther'!

Richard Falk "accuses the US of being behind the 9/11 attacks." This is the UN? Oh yes, I remember the organisation that allowed Yassar Arafat to speak to the general assembly with a gun. Din't Arafat win
a Nobel Peace Prize?

Help! The world has been hi-jacked by crazy people.

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary AB

A Black Day for Human Rights (2)

How they voted.

According to the Guardian UK the voting at the UN Human Rights Council  in Geneva today was as follows:

In favour (25): 

Argentina, Bahrain, Bangladesh, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, China, Cuba, Djbouti, Egypt, Ghana, India, Indonesia, Jordan, Mauritius, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Philippines, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Senegal, South Africa, Zambia.

Against (6):

Holland, Hungary, Italy, Slovakia, Ukraine, US.

Abstentions (11):

Belgium, Bosnia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Gabon, Japan, Mexico, Norway, South Korea, Slovenia, Uruguay.

Did not vote (4)

Angola, Britain, France, Madagascar, Kyrgyzstan.

I am not sure what the difference is between "abstaining" and "did not vote" (let me know if you understand it); this further information from the Guardian UK sheds some light on it, but it seems an overly subtle difference to me.

Gordon Brown reportedly had a heated telephone call on Wednesday with Netanyahu, who pressed him to vote against the resolution.

Brown spoke again with Netanyahu this morning, hours before the vote, and Britain then decided not to take part at all. A Downing Street spokesman said:

"We did not participate in the vote. We were involved in discussions with Israel and the Palestinians about potentially substantive improvements in the situation on the ground and therefore asked for a delay to the vote."

The Jerusalem Post has more on the reasons for UK and France not to participate in the vote:

An unnamed British diplomat told Israel Radio that in the hours prior to the vote, British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and French President Nicolas Sarkozy had tried to get clarifications from Israel that would enable the countries to vote against the resolution.

France and Britain reportedly decided to refrain from voting after the contacts with Israel failed to produce the results they were seeking. 

Well perhaps I was too hasty with my comments of quisling for Gordon Brown; I suppose I can't blame him for the state of the UN Human Rights Council. 


Gurth Whitaker
Calgary AB

ADDENDUM, apparently they are confused over at the BBC about the difference between "abstaining" and "did not vote." I found this gem on their website:

"No, we didn't abstain - we didn't vote."

Confused? We were. Apparently, there is a key difference between the UK government abstaining and not voting when the UN Human Rights Council backed a report into the Israeli offensive in Gaza.

A Black Day for Human Rights

A Black Day for justice and truth!

A Black Day for the peace of the Middle East!

A Black Day for the whole world!

The UN Human Rights Council  in Geneva today, passed a resolution endorsing the Goldstone Commission Report by 25 votes to 6, with eleven countries abstaining.

Five states, including France and the UK, declined to vote. I hand my head in shame at the coutnry of my birthday. The spirit of Winston Churchill is not alive in this administration, but the spirit of Nevill Chamberlain is in control.

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." Edmund Burke

Brown the despised Prime Minister of the UK must wear the shame, must bear the epithet 

Quisling! Traitor! Betrayer! Collaborator! Judas! Turncoat! Fifth columnist! - you Benedict Arnold!

England you did not vote;

you didn't register your vote on this sham, this farce.

You failed to vote against this collection of human-rights abusers and didn't stand firm with the only democracy in the Middle East; Israel this tiny country in the Middle East surrounded by hate-spewing, blood thirsty war-mongers who have cynically sponsored terrorism, and suicide bombers. 

"It's all about the oil stupid!"

According to the Jerusalem Post, the Israel Foreign Ministry said in a statement today:

"The council's decision undermines efforts to safeguard human rights in accordance with international law, as well as the efforts to advance the peace process in the Middle East,"

"The decision encourages terror groups in the whole world and undermines world peace. The decision also ignores the fact that the IDF took unprecedented measures to avoid harming civilians, and [ignores] the terrorists' use of civilians as human shields."

the Post went on to say:

Although the Goldstone report also accuses Hamas of war crimes, the five-page resolution adopted in Geneva explicitly mentions only Israeli violations of international law.

Ealier today, I posted the video, of the address by British hero, Colonel Richard Kemp, addressing the UN Human Rights Council, on behalf of UN Watch.

Watch the video of Colonel Kemp's address here: Self-Defense is not a Crime of War.

Concerning the actions of the IDF (Israel Defence Force) in Gaza during Operation Cast Lead, Colonel Kemp told the U.N. Council that:

'the IDF is the Most Moral Army in History of Warfare'

Read the article in Jerusalem Post here: Israel slams UNHRC over its 'one-sided, unjust decision'


Gurth Whitaker
Calgary, AB

Self-Defense is not a Crime of War

UN Watch

British Hero Tells U.N. Council: 'IDF Most Moral Army in History of Warfare'

Today's emergency UN Human Rights Council debate on the Goldstone Report predictably saw a line-up of the world's worst abusers condemn democratic Israel for human rights violations.

In a heated lynch mob atmosphere, Kuwait slammed Israel for “intentional killing, intentional destruction of civilian objects, intentional scorched-earth policy,” saying Israel “embodied the Agatha Christie novel, 'Escaped with Murder'.” Pakistan said the “horrors of Israeli occupation continue to haunt the international community’s conscience.”

The Arab League said, “We must condemn Israel and force Israel to accept international legitimacy." Ahmadinejad’s Iran said “the atrocities committed against Palestinians during the aggressions on Gaza should be taken seriously” and followed up by the international community “to put an end to absolute impunity and defiance of the law.”

What the world's assembled representatives did not expect, however, was the speech that followed (see video and text below), organized by UN Watch.

We invited as our speaker a man who repeatedly put his life on the line to defend the democratic world from the murderous Saddam Hussein, Al Qaeda, and the Taleban.

The moment he began his first sentence, the room simply fell silent. Judge Goldstone, author of the biased report that prompted today's one-sided condemnation, had refused to hear Col. Kemp's testimony during his "fact-finding" hearings. But UN Watch made sure today that this hero's voice would be heard -- at the U.N., and around the world.

UN Watch

UN Watch Oral Statement
Delivered by Colonel Richard Kemp, 16 October 2009
UN Human Rights Council: 12th Special Session

Col. Richard Kemp on the Goldstone Report

Gurth Whitaker
Calgary, AB

Hezbollah Stockpiling Munitions in Homes

Hezbollah uses the homes of civilians to stockpile weapons and munitions in Southern Lebanon, in violation of the truce, and UN Resolution 1701.

"Permanent Ceasefire to Be Based on Creation Of Buffer Zone Free of Armed Personnel Other than UN, Lebanese Forces"

Thinking people are well aware that terrorist organisations such as Hezbollah (Lebanon) and Hamas (Gaza and West Bank), are no respecters of treaties or agreements, in fact they have no interested in peace, nor the welfare and rights of their citizens.

In fact quite the opposite as we saw in the war in Southern Lebanon, Hezbollah located rockets in the niddle of densely populated civilian locations. It was their express hope that civilians would be injured or killed to fuel anti-Israel hatred. Hamas followe tha same tactics in Gaza.

Now Hezbollah are stockpiling again, in preparation for another war; aided by Syria and their sponsor Ahmadinejad.

Hezbollah are stockpiling rockets to fire at civilians in Israel - and hiding them in villages. UN wake up!

The Israeli military released video footage on Tuesday it said was taken from an unmanned surveillance drone overlooking the scene shortly after the explosion. The footage was taken by an infra-red camera in black and white.

It showed frantic activity by dozens of people around the site with people loading at least one long object on a truck. The army then said two truckloads of munitions, including rockets were taken to another hiding place in a nearby village.

Temple Mount - a tinderbox of mixed interests

It's nine years ago since Ariel Sharon visited the Temple Mount, which caused Palestinians to erupt in violent demonstrations. The second intifada was born.

Now the third Intifada is spawned... 

In 2007, the Jerusalem Municipality and Israel Antiquities Authority began rebuilding the Mughrabi Gate, one of the main entrances to the Temple Mount, perched next to the Western Wall.

While violence was minimal, the renovation work - which was immediately suspended - drew international condemnation and a Muslim outcry.

This week, violence again broke out on the Temple Mount. The difference was that in this case, there was no purported Israeli "instigation" - no Sharon visit or renovations at the Mughrabi Gate. Instead, this time around, the violence was believed to be the result of a politically motivated campaign launched by Sheikh Raed Salah, head of the Islamic Movement's northern branch.

The Temple Mount - a tinderbox of mixed interests | Jerusalem Post 

Ahmadinejad born a Jew?

“Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vitriolic attacks on the Jewish world hide an astonishing secret, evidence uncovered by The Daily Telegraph shows.“

“ A photograph of the Iranian president holding up his identity card during elections in March 2008 clearly shows his family has Jewish roots.“

“ A close-up of the document reveals he was previously known as Sabourjian – a Jewish name meaning cloth weaver.“

The Daily Telegraph UK 

"Experts last night suggested Mr Ahmadinejad's track record for hate-filled attacks on Jews could be an overcompensation to hide his past."

Anti-Semitism in Egypt

Farouk Hosni, Egypt's Culture Minister for 20 years, failed in his bid to lead the to lead the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

But this had nothing to do with his suitability for the position but it "was a Zionist plot"; complained Mr. Hosni, a notion echoed by much of the Egyptian media and government officials.

We learn that this was a "Western-Zionist conspiracy."

Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu Historic UN speech

Ahmadinejad the hate spewing illegal president, who has declared his intention to wipe Israel of the face of the map speaks at the UN

Out of the 192 Assembly members, only a few, including Argentina, Australia, Britain, Canada, Costa Rica, Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Italy, New Zealand, the United States - and Sweden, walked out of the chamber while he spoke, to dissociated themselves from this odious messenger of hatred and lies.

On Thursday Israel's Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu took to task the countries of the world that had sat silently and listened the day before to Holocaust-denier Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, asking them, "Have you no shame, no decency?"

To those who boycotted Ahmadinejad's speech, or left in protest, Netanyahu said, "I commend you, you stood up for moral clarity.

"But for those who stayed - I say on behalf of the Jewish people, my people and decent people everywhere - have you no shame? No decency? What a disgrace, what a mockery of the charter of the UN," he declared.

Netanyahu continued by saying that the UN had been "founded after the carnage of World War II precisely to prevent a recurrence of such events."

"Nothing has undermined that mission, impeded it more, than the systematic assault on the truth," he said.

"Yesterday the president of Iran stood at this podium spewing his latest anti-Semitic rants. Just a few days earlier, he claimed that the Holocaust is a lie.

"Last month I went to a villa in a suburb of Berlin called Wannsee," Netanyahu went on. "There, on January 20, 1942, after a hearty meal, senior Nazi officials met and decided to exterminate my people. They left detailed minutes of that meeting, and these meetings have been preserved for posterity by successive German governments."

Dramatically brandishing the document, Netanyahu said it instructed the Nazi government exactly how to carry out the extermination of the Jews.

"Is this protocol a lie?" he asked. "Is the German government, all German governments, lying?"

"The day before I was in Wannsee," Netanyahu continued, "I was given in Berlin the original construction plans for the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp.

"These plans I now hold in my hand," he said, showing the worn-out blueprints to the assembly. "They contain a signature by Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's deputy. Are these plans of the camp where one million Jews were murdered a lie, too?" he asked.

"Perhaps some of you think that this man and his odious regime threaten only the Jews," he said. "But if you think that, you are wrong, dead wrong. History has shown us time and time again that what starts with attacks on the Jews, eventually ends up engulfing many, many others."

Netanyahu said that the Iranian regime was fueled by a fundamentalism that had burst onto the world 30 years ago and "has swept across the globe with a murderous violence that knows no bounds, and the cold-blooded impartiality in the choice of its victims. It has callously slaughtered Muslims and Christians, Jews and Hindus and many others."

Netanyahu said that the struggle against this fanaticism pitted "civilization against barbarism, the 21st century against the ninth century, those who sanctify life, against those who glorify death."

"Ultimately," he said, "the past cannot triumph over the future. And our future promises magnificent bounties of hope." Ticking off some of the technological achievements of the last hundred years, Netanyahu said, "We will find an alternative to fossil fuel, and yes, we will clean up the planet. But if the most primitive fanaticism can acquire the most deadly weapons, the march of history can be reversed" for a lengthy period, he warned. "This is why the greatest threat facing the world today is the marriage between religious fanaticism and weapons of mass destruction.

"Is the UN up to that?" Netanyahu asked. "Will the international community stand up to the despotism of a government against its own people?" - a reference to the recent elections in Iran. "The jury is still out on the UN. Recent signs are not encouraging."

The prime minister then went on to slam the recently published Goldstone Report, which accused Israel of war crimes during Operation Cast Lead in the Gaza Strip in January.

"Not one UN resolution was passed condemning Hamas rocket attacks on Israel," Netanyahu said, "We heard nothing, absolutely nothing from the UN Human Rights Council."

The Couragious Golda Meir

A wonderful story about the courage of Golda Meir and the cowardice of Austrian Chancellor Kreisky.

Israel was viciously threatened even before the modern sate was born. Many have forgotten that the Mufti of Jerusalem allied the Palestinians with Hitler and supported genocide. Israel was viciously attacked at the birth of the modern state and throughout her recent history; she is surrounded at home by hatred and vitriolic lies, and abroad by left wingers and nazis. This is the context for her cowardly betrayal (yet again) by a European so-called ally.

Austria closed the only pipeline for Jews escaping from Russia, caving in to threats from Arab terrorists.

The Arab terrorists had captured and taken hostage "seven Jews ... among them a 73-year-old man, an ailing woman and a three-year-old child."