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Maria 3 aug 2010
Accusations of anti-Semitism must never discourage us from exposing Zio-Nazism
In recent days and weeks, I have been attacked with unusual ferocity and vindictiveness by the usual shipyard dogs standing guard at the gate of Israeli Nazism. They have called me, inter alia, "anti-Semitic journalist," "pro-Hamas" and a "Muslim-brotherhood operative." Two recent articles I have written seem to have upset the ever-barking watchdogs of Zionism, first an article titled "Muslims need to tackle Jewish Islamophobia," and another exposing the pseudo-Muslim Zionist agent "Sheikh" Palazzi, a notorious liar and promoter of Israeli colonialism and apartheid.
The hasbara goons just couldn't bear seeing Zionism's victims fight back, by exposing the Nazi nature of Israeli behavior whether in Gaza, the West Bank or southern Lebanon. Well, I am afraid I have bad news for these fanatical liars. This is only the beginning, and soon millions of people all over the globe will be emancipated from Zionist lies.
The recent outburst of smearing and vilification reflects the serious predicament facing Israeli hasbara efforts as more and more people around the world, including many sincere Jews, are discovering the truth about this satanic entity called Israel . Indeed, the "only democracy in the Middle East" is now being exposed as it really is, a Nazi state par excellance, a state that very much thinks, behaves and acts like the Third Reich did.
Of course, I am not going to be intimidated by the raving and ranting bullies. After all, we are too familiar with their dirty tactics and arrogant behavior. They can keep barking for as long as they want while the caravan will keep moving as the old adage goes.
In fact, their stupid regurgitation of the same stale lies, the same stale canards, and same stale charges and insinuations prove- if proof were needed- that I am on the right track. Yes, truth hurts those fearing it, and the Zionists supremacists must be really dreadful of the moment the peoples of the world will know the truth about Israel. This is especially relevant in North America and Europe where the Zionist-controlled or Zionist-influenced media has effectively enslaved the collective mind of millions of people for ages.
This is the reason the guardians of the evil temple are fighting every sign, every gesture, every statement, and every slip of a tongue which might lead to exposing the mendacious kosher narrative to light. The recent encounters of Helen Thomas and Oliver Stone with the guardians of the un-holy tribe are only food for thought for those who have the guts and the courage to call the spade a spade.
We, the peoples of the world, must keep up opposing and fighting Zio-Nazism since not doing so would lead to the enslavement of our future generations by the Nazis of our time.
We must oppose Zionism with all our mental strength because Zionism represents evil in this world. Yes, Zionism is powerful thanks to its enduring stranglehold on the politics and policies of the United States, Israel's guardian-ally. As such, Israel uses and manipulates the American empire to further Israeli goals, including ethnic cleansing and territorial aggrandizement in the West Bank. However, the strong doesn't remain strong for ever. Where is the British empire? Where is the Soviet Union?
In short, Israel, a country based on genocide, ethnic cleansing, land theft and obscene mendacity, is using America's mighty but unjust sword to spread violence, terror, racism, and bloodshed in Palestine, Lebanon, Iraq and Afghanistan.
It was Israel and its neo-con agents who eventually cajoled the manifestly gullible Bush administration to invade, occupy and destroy two sovereign Muslim nations, namely Iraq and Afghanistan. Hence, responsibility for the death of over a million Muslims in these two countries, as well as thousands of American soldiers, falls squarely on the head of the Zionist snake, Israel, and its cohorts in the US. More to the point, tons upon tons of children blood in Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as in Palestine and Lebanon, are on the murderous hands of these certified war criminals in Tel Aviv, people such as Ehud Barak, Ehud Olmert, Gabi Ashkenazi and others.
It is not our responsibility, as Muslims, if the American people rise or not rise up to deliver themselves and their country from Zionist enslavement. If the Americans are happy and satisfied with being enslaved by a tiny, brutal and diabolic entity 10,000 kilometers away, that is their choice.
However, the world's 1.6 billion Muslims can't behave likewise because Zio-Nazism is after Islam and Muslims no matter how obsequiously some Muslim leaders behave toward the American monkey and its Israeli organ-grinder.
A few years ago, a Zionist supremacist named Benny Elon met some evangelical leaders in a "Bible-belt state" in the southern United States . After chatting with these Christo-Nazis for a few minutes, Elon reportedly proposed a world-wide Christian-Jewish crusade to wipe out Islam off the face of earth. By Jewish standards, Elon wanted to carry out 267 holocausts!!!
Elon's desire was not merely a freak rabbi's mental masturbation styled after the Old-Testament genocidal episodes. He was expressing the morbid dreams and sadistic impulses of many Judeo-Nazis who have made hostility to Islam their ultimate goal, strategy and even raison d'etre. He was also addressing a country that had murdered millions of native Americans and called the genocide "manifest destiny."
Judeo-Nazism is much more than just a reaction to legitimate Palestinian resistance to Israeli colonialism and racism. It is rather an existential antithesis to every thing Islamic, every thing human, every thing just. Otherwise, what would make Israel demand the alteration of the laws of war in order to allow her to commit genocide and escape unscathed?
In short, they want to destroy all other religions and all other peoples whom they openly consider "non-humans."
Given their evil discourse, all free peoples in the world must speak up loudly against this dark peril, called Zionism.
They will try to use their ultimate weapons, including the holocaust industry and anti-Semitism to discourage the free voices of the world from calling the spade a spade. They want to coerce you and me to shut up.
But we must not shut up because our life and our future as free men and women are at stake, hence, if we did cower and shut up, God forbid, we would shed the tears of remorse and regret later.
In the final analysis, if standing against global Israeli Nazism, and if supporting the just and legitimate cause of the Palestinian people is a form of anti-Semitism, then "anti-Semitism" itself should become a moral obligation incumbent upon all the peoples of the world. But anti-Zionism is not and will never ever be anti-Semitism since many Jews view Zionism as representing the ultimate antithesis of Judaism.
Again, and for the umpteenth time, we repeat we are not and we will not be against Jews for being Jews. More to the point, we will fight with vigor all those within our ranks who display Judeo-phobic tendencies.
Having said that, I must also stress that all the insinuation about Muslim-anti-Semitism coming from Zionist mouthpieces will not make us rethink our strategic task of exposing the evilness of Zio-Nazism.
Zionism is evil even if it wears an outer Jewish or Judaic garment. And it must be fought relentlessly and fearlessly just as Aryan Nazism was fought relentlessly and fearlessly.
http://fwd4.me/0iGy
4 dec 2010, 00:45 , Respect -
Maria 3 aug 2010
Provocateurs Spray-paint "Infowars.com" on Private Property in Pennsylvania - Alex Jones Tv
(13:28) Provocateurs Spray-paint "Infowars.com" on Private Property in Pennsylvania - Alex Jones Tv
George Washington University Jewish Student Caught FAKING Anti-semitic Attacks !!
(1:53) Jewish Student practicing false-flag for Mossad career
The case of six swastikas drawn on a George Washington freshman's door may have a culprit—the freshman herself. The GW Hatchet is reporting that GW police are blaming Sarah Marshak for the swastikas.
Marshak was caught drawing the swastikas by a camera set up in her hallway. Things aren't going to go well for her now, it seems. The Hatchet reports she'll probably be expelled. The FBI got involved in her case when they thought it was real, and they won't be pleased.
14 dec 2010, 12:35 , Respect -
Maria 3 aug 2010
Swastika Girl
(4:06) Swastika Girl
A CAREER IN JOURNALISM? A proto-Judith Miller? Swastikas were being scrawled all over George Washington University in Nov. 2007 (about the time AIPAC-connected Rep. Jane Harman (D-CA)was holding her hearings into the Homegrown Terrorism and Violent Radicalization Prevention Act of 2007 - HR 1955). The hateful symbol appeared on fences, a professor's home, dorm doors.
Hillel student director at GW, Rob Fishman did his part, fanning the flames of fear & prejudice. The FBI was called in. Big crime. Then the campus cops installed video cameras and lo and behold, the erstwhile victim was caught on tape drawing swastikas on her own door, a self-inflicted wound, a freelance false-flag caper. A "Jewish student practicing false-flag for Mossad career"? or maybe a distinguished career in the new journalism, a la the New York Times' Judith Miller?
25 dec 2010, 12:51 , Respect -
Maria 25 aug 2010
Yale conference on anti-Semitism targets Palestinian identity, self-hating Jews, and anyone who criticizes Israel
This is disturbing. A Yale University center that purports to study anti-Semitism is holding a three-day conference on "the crisis" of global anti-Semitism (ending tomorrow) that is dedicated to the idea that any criticism of Israel is anti-Semitic.
The flotilla raid, anti-Semitic. Helen Thomas, anti-Semitic. The very idea of Palestinian identity, anti-Semitic.
That last claim--The Central Role of Palestinian Antisemitism in Creating the Palestinian Identity"--was put forward Monday, shockingly, by Itamar Marcus, a leader of the settler movement in the occupied West Bank. Marcus has connections to the Central Fund of Israel, which raises money here for the settlers, including their "urgent security needs."
The conference opened with a speech from an official of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, Aviva Raz-Schechter. And Charles Small, director of the Yale Initiative for the Interdisciplinary Study of Antisemitism, which is hosting the conference, said last spring that the confab was about Israel:
The largest number of papers, and therefore reflecting the greatest concern, address contemporary antisemitism and the demonization of Israel and those associated or made to be associated with Israel. There is a paper on issues of Jewish self-hatred and how some Jews, especially intellectuals, are distancing themselves from Israel.
That's anti-Semitism? Here is the panel on "self-hatred":
Plenary: Self Hatred and Contemporary Antisemitism Professor Doron Ben-Atar, Fordham University: Without Ahavath Yisrael [love for the people of Israel]: Thoughts on Radical Anti-Zionism at Brandeis Professor Richard Landes, Boston University: Scourges and Their Audiences: What Drives Jews to Loathe Israel Publicly and What To Do About It? Professor Alvin Rosenfeld, Indiana University: Beyond Criticism and Dissent: On Jewish Contributions to the Delegitimation of Israel.
The speakers' list is here. Many of the speakers have Israel agendas, including Irwin Cotler, the Canadian politician who has led attacks on the Goldstone Report; Ruth Wisse, the Harvard Yiddishist who has called on young American Jews to enlist in an army of Israel defenders in the U.S.; Barak Seener, who has incited against the Palestinian citizens of Israel as a threat from within; Anne Bayefsky of the neoconservative Hudson Institute, another Goldstone attacker; Mark Dubowitz, of the Foundation for Defense of Democracies, whose main issue is cracking down on Iran; Anne Herzberg of the NGO Monitor, again an Israel advocacy group; Samuel Edelman of Scholars for Peace in the Middle East, another Israel lobbyist; and Menahem Milson of the Elliott Abrams-linked hasbara outfit, MEMRI.
One person who alerted me to the conference, Charlotte Kates, writes: "Amazingly enough from the descriptions, this does not appear to be a conference sponsored by Hillel or other open advocacy groups, but rather by an academic center at the University. It's particularly interesting that... an academic conference scorning the very concept of Palestinian identity and inviting presenters from NGO Monitor, 'Palestinian Media Watch' and MEMRI passes almost without comment at all - and the very same people who attack Palestinian scholars' academic freedom find conferences such as this to be perfectly acceptable and legitimate."
I don't think it's possible to understand this conference without understanding the prominence of Zionist donors in prestige institutional life. The other person who alerted me to the conference, Ben White, rightly focuses on the besmirching of Yale University by the presence of this festival of propaganda: "What is the role of Yale/academia in this kind of exercise?" And what a travesty, he adds, that "fighting anti-semitism - an anti-racist struggle - is being openly appropriated by far-right Zionist groupings, the Israeli Ministry of Foreign Affairs, lobbyists like NGO Monitor, and Orientalist 'Arab/anti-terror experts'."
Update: A friend points out the role of Richard Landes. He keeps peddling the story that the death of Muhammad al-Durra (the six-year-old Gazan boy who was killed at the start of the intifada) was staged, something that Gerald Steinberg says is now "widely accepted." Landes even set up an entire website more or less dedicated to peddling the conspiracy theory; check out his attempt to present in an even-handed manner his 'five different scenarios' for the killing.
http://fwd4.me/06Qx
25 dec 2010, 12:52 , Respect -
Maria 29 aug 2010
German central banker criticized for remarks on Jews
Thilo Sarrazin
Foreign, defense ministers say Thilo Sarrazin was out of line for saying 'all Jews share a particular gene,' arguing that Muslims undermine German society, marry 'imported brides'
German government leaders condemned a central bank executive on Sunday for making anti-Semitic remarks before the publication of his book on Monday that takes a critical look at Turk and Arab immigrants.
Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle and Defense Minister Karl-Theodor zu Guttenberg said Thilo Sarrazin was out of line for comments about Jews, remarks that were also criticized by Jewish leaders in the country responsible for the Holocaust.
"All Jews share a particular gene, Basques share a certain gene that sets them apart," Sarrazin told Welt am Sonntag newspaper ahead of the release of his book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany does away with itself).
Sarrazin, a Bundesbank board member, denied he was stirring racism. He has faced heavy criticism for making disparaging comments about Muslim immigrants. Sarrazin has repeatedly created uproar for criticizing Turks and Arabs in Germany.
Westerwelle
"There's no room in the political debate for remarks that whip up racism or anti-Semitism," Westerwelle said.
Guttenberg
"There are limits to every provocation and Bundesbank board member Sarrazin has clearly gone out of bounds with this mistaken and inappropriate comment," Guttenberg added.
Stephan Kramer and Michel Friedman, leaders in Germany's Jewish community, also criticized Sarrazin, 65, a member of the center-left Social Democrats (SPD) and former finance minister in the city-state of Berlin.
"Someone who tries to define Jews by a genetic make-up is consumed by a racist mania," Kramer said.
"Enough already!" Friedman wrote in Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "No more tolerance for this intolerance. It's okay to provoke thought but enough of this baiting and defamation. We don't need any hate preachers, especially in the Bundesbank."
Embarrassment for Bundesbank
Almost 3 million people of Turkish origin and an estimated 280,000 of Arab extraction live in Germany.
Leaders in Sarrazin's SPD have called for him to quit the party and resign from the Bundesbank.
Sarrazin's comments have also embarrassed Bundesbank President Axel Weber, who some German leaders have backed to succeed Jean-Claude Trichet as president of the European Central Bank next year.
The Bundesbank has tried to distance itself from his remarks, saying they are his personal opinions and not linked to his role at the bank. The central bank requires evidence of "serious misconduct" to bring about Sarrazin's dismissal.
The central bank last year stripped Sarrazin of some of his duties. If the central bank's board voted to remove Sarrazin, the move would then need the approval of the president.
In the book, Sarrazin argues that Muslims undermine German society, marry "imported brides" and have a bad attitude. He said young Muslim men were aggressive due to sexual frustration.
"Sadly, the huge potential for aggression in this group is obvious. The Arab boys can't get at their Arab girls," he said.
"In the end, they use the German girls from the underclass who are easier to get, and then they hold them in contempt because they're so readily available."
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3945372,00.html
25 dec 2010, 13:49 , Respect -
Maria 30 aug 2010
German banker: I'm man of numbers, not anti-Semite
Thilo Sarrazin
Central bank executive Thilo Sarrazin spreads anti-Muslim messages on every stage given him, but only when he speaks against Jews does political establishment unite against him. His book launch met with protest, which Sarrazin calls 'opportunistic attack'
BERLIN It has been more than a week since Thilo Sarrazin an executive in Germany's central bank, a senior member of the Social Democratic Party, and a political provocateur has been spreading racist remarks against the Muslim minority in Germany. He did so on every media platform provided him in order to promote his new book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany is going away with itself) that was released on Monday.
Popular German tabloid Bild published selections from the book in recent weeks. In interviews held with Sarazzin in more quality newspapers n Germany, the banker came out against Islam in general and claimed that German intelligence is declining as a result of immigration. He backed up his assertions with pseudo-scientific statistics on fertility, intelligence, and labor. All of this went without any major comment.
Sarrazin's book launch. Sparking celebrity-level interest
However, when he claimed in an interview on Sunday that Jews carry a "particular gene" that sets them apart from all other nations, the German political establishment spoke up.
Chancellor Angela Merkel called for him to be ousted from the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, and promised that a discussion would be held with the heads of the financial institution. Merkels called the statements "unacceptable" and said, "These are comments that only damage and don't help integration in this country, which is a national duty."
Joining Merkel in her denunciation of Sarrazin's statement, Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said Sarrazin "crossed the line." A long list of Christian Democratic Union party members also joined in the condemnation.
Sarrazin's own party, SPD, also did not spare him harsh criticism. The party headquarters in Berline announced on Monday that it will launch an official procedure to sack him from the party.
Sarrazin: What's the fuss about?
The official launch event for Sarrazin's book was held on Monday in Berlin. During the event, Sarrazin said that he was shocked by what he called "the opportunistic attack" against him. The senior politician reiterated his claims that he is not racist, but rather "a numbers man" who isn't afraid to reveal the truth even it is inconvenient for the listener.
In defense of his hotly contested statement, Sarazzin referenced research published in scientific magazines that "reveal the genetic basis shared by European Jews." Regarding the comment itself, he asserted, "It wasn't said in positively or negatively."
'Shut his mouth.' Protest against Sarrazin
A few hundred protesters met Sarrazin at the entrance to the event hall. They made calls "to fight racism" and "to oust Sarazzin from the Bundesbank leadership." The protesters also played Turkish music at a high volume, but it couldn't be heard from within the event hall where the press conference was held.
Hundreds of journalists crowded into the hall in anticipation for Sarrazin's arrival, which was accompanied by the mad flash of cameras usually reserved for non-political celebrities.
A significant part of the press conference focused on Sarazzin's future. On the backdrop of assessments that his party is about to remove him from its ranks, he said, "I will always remain a member of the people's party."
Regarding reports that Bundestag President Axel Weber is slated to issue a statement on Monday regarding Sarrazin, the latter said, "I don't see any reason to leave the bank's executive."
For many Germans, the problem is not with the subject matter of Sarrazin's statements the increase of immigrants in Germany, especially Muslims but the way in which he expresses them in his book. Sarrazin speaks of a "German national identity" and an "inborn intelligence." He also uses statistical tools to prove that immigrants are multiplying at a faster rate than native Germans. He claims that is definitive proof of the threat to the "national identity" and "the level intelligence."
This type of discourse reminds Germans of Nazi anti-Semitism, which also relied heavily on dubious scientific tools to prove its claims. In the media flurry that has been sparked as a result, debate of the actual content of his statements has been lost.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3946308,00.html
4 mar 2011, 00:40 , Respect -
Maria 2 sept 2010
Dershowitz, NGO Monitor: Probe Amnesty's Israel biases
International human rights groups denounces scum state comments, but defends work.
BERLIN A group of prominent political, academic and Middle East commentators from the international board of the Jerusalem-based NGO Monitor called on Monday for an independent evaluation of biases in Amnesty's activities and publications, particularly related to Israel.
The head of Amnesty International's Finnish branch, Frank Johansson, sparked outrage last week when he termed Israel a scum state on his blog, a statement he has since removed following The Jerusalem Post's disclosure of his anti-Israel remarks.
When asked about the NGO Monitor statement seeking an independent inquiry, Susanna Flood, a spokeswoman for Amnesty in London, wrote on Tuesday by e-mail to the Post, Amnesty International had no need to seek an independent evaluation to determine that Frank Johansson's comments, made in his personal capacity, were inappropriate.
The NGO Monitor statement was signed by Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz; Ruth Wisse, that university's Martin Peretz Professor of Yiddish Literature and Professor of Comparative Literature; Yehuda Avner, a former ambassador to the UK and Australia; Fiamma Nirenstein, vice president of the Italian Chamber of Deputies's Committee on Foreign Affairs; Elliott Abrams, a former US deputy national security adviser for global democracy strategy; UCLA's Prof. Judea Pearl, president of the Daniel Pearl Foundation; Mideast expert and commentator Tom Gross; and Douglas Murray, director of the London-based Centre for Social Cohesion think tank.
We condemn in the strongest possible terms Mr. Johansson's recent remarks about Israel. Referring to Israel using offensive terms such as scum state is unacceptable, and does not help those that have legitimate human rights grievances, the NGO Monitor board members wrote.
Unfortunately, his statement is indicative of the anti-Israeli ideology that has permeated Amnesty International (AI), leading to one-sided calls for an arms embargo against Israel, and false accusations of Israeli war crimes and deliberate attacks on civilians, they continued.
We call on Amnesty International's new secretary-general, Salil Shetty, to condemn this statement and suspend the Finnish branch from active membership in AI until Mr. Johansson resigns.
Amnesty spokeswoman Flood told the Post that as we have already made clear, Frank Johansson has apologized fully and publicly for his statement and the offense that it has caused and he has removed his blog containing the offensive statement. We welcome these steps.
According to Flood, Amnesty International in Finland has made it clear to Frank Johansson that his comments were not appropriate and its disassociation from them. There is no question of Amnesty International in Finland being asked to suspend its international human rights work because of this matter.
The NGO Monitor board members said in their statement that legitimate criticism of Israel is entirely appropriate. But vulgar language, accompanied by the political and legal campaigns that Amnesty and others are waging against Israel, must not be tolerated. Such activities are also contrary to the noble principles and goals on which Amnesty was founded.
Amnesty International is already roiling from a recent scandal involving one of England's leading pro-Taliban advocates.
Earlier this year, Gita Sahgal, then head of Amnesty's Gender Unit, deemed Amnesty's leadership to be plagued by ideological bankruptcy and misogyny.
Sahgal was suspended in February for criticizing Amnesty for giving a platform to Moazzam Begg, the director of a campaign group called Cageprisoners, whom she referred to as Britain's most famous supporter of the Taliban. She is no longer employed by Amnesty.
According to a separate letter sent on Monday from NGO Monitor president Gerald Steinberg to Amnesty's secretary-general Salil Shetty, Ben White, author of a publication with the grossly immoral title of Israeli Apartheid: A Beginner's Guide, has been the featured speaker at a number of Amnesty UK events targeting Israel. Such hate speech is further evidence of an Amnesty agenda which is entirely inconsistent with the claim to support ethical principles and universal human rights.
Amnesty's biased agenda ignores systemic human rights violations by the regimes in Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Egypt, Gaza, and many other countries, and violates the core principle of universality in human rights, Steinberg said.
http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=186776
15 may 2011, 10:15 , Respect -
Maria 3 sept 2010
Anger at EU chief's Middle East outburst
EU trade commissioner accused of antisemitism after saying Jewish intransigence dooms Middle East talks in Washington.
EU trade commissioner Karel de Gucht has come under fire for saying Jews block Middle East peace.
A top European official was accused of antisemitism tonight after declaring that there was little point in engaging in rational argument with Jews and suggesting that the latest Middle East peace talks were doomed because of the power of the Jewish lobby in Washington.
Karel De Gucht, the European commissioner for trade, and a former Belgian foreign minister, sparked outrage after voicing his scepticism about the prospects for the negotiations which opened in the US this week. He told a Belgian radio station that most Jews always believed they were right, and questioned the point of talking to them about the Middle East.
De Gucht, who negotiates for Europe on trade with the rest of the world, and is one of the most powerful officials in Brussels, was forced today to issue a statement declaring that the views he expressed were personal.
"Don't underestimate the opinion %u2026 of the average Jew outside Israel," he told the radio station. "There is indeed a belief it's difficult to describe it otherwise mong most Jews that they are right. And a belief is something that's difficult to counter with rational arguments. And it's not so much whether these are religious Jews or not. Lay Jews also share the same belief that they are right. So it is not easy to have, even with moderate Jews, a rational discussion about what is actually happening in the Middle East."
Explaining why he thought the peace talks were probably doomed, he added: "Do not underestimate the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill. That is the best organised lobby, you shouldn't underestimate the grip it has on American politics %u2013 no matter whether it's Republicans or Democrats."
Jewish leaders were incandescent. "This is part of a dangerous trend of incitement against Jews and Israel in Europe that needs to be stamped out immediately," said Moshe Kantor, the head of the European Jewish Congress. "What sort of environment allows such remarks to be made openly by a senior politician? Once again we hear outrageous antisemitism from a senior European official. The libel of Jewish power is apparently acceptable at the highest levels of the EU."
Officials in Brussels stressed the remarks did not represent EU views or policies. De Gucht was forced to issue a statement clarifying his remarks.
"I gave an interview %u2026 I gave my personal point of view," he said. "I regret that the comments that I made have been interpreted in a sense that I did not intend.
"I did not mean in any possible way to cause offence or stigmatise the Jewish community. I want to make clear that antisemitism has no place in today's world."
Iran's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, today attacked the "doomed" Middle East peace talks and urged Palestinians to continue armed resistance to Israel. Ahmadinejad used the annual al-Quds (Jerusalem) Day rally in Tehran to scorn the Obama administration's efforts in launching the first Arab-Israeli negotiations in nearly two years.
"The people of Palestine and the people of the region will not allow them to sell even an inch of Palestinian soil to the enemy," he said.
Iran supports Hamas, the Islamist Palestinian movement that controls the Gaza Strip and opposes talks involving Mahmoud Abbas, the western-backed PLO leader who is based in the West Bank.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/sep/03/eu-official-antisemitism-middle-east-peace-talks
EU trade chief apologizes for Jewish comments
De Gucht with former FM Tzipi Livni
Karel De Gucht says he did not mean to stigmatize Jewish people by blaming Jews and 'Jewish lobby' in Washington for blocking Mideast peace. 'Anti-Semitism has no place in today's world,' he stresses
The EU's trade chief apologized Friday for blaming Jews and the "Jewish lobby" in Washington for blocking Mideast peace as the embarrassed EU head office quickly distanced itself from his comments.
Karel De Gucht, 56, said he did not mean to stigmatize Jewish people and stressed in a statement that "anti-Semitism has no place in today's world." The remarks in a Thursday radio interview came as the US formally convened the first direct negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in nearly two years.
The European Jewish Congress, an umbrella group, had demanded a retraction of De Gucht's remarks in which he maintained that Israel frustrates US-led peace efforts and warned not to "underestimate the Jewish lobby on Capitol Hill."
"That is the best organized lobby that exists there," the former Belgian foreign minister said in the interview with the Dutch-speaking VRT radio network.
"Don't underestimate the opinion ... of the average Jew outside of Israel," he said. "There is, indeed, a belief, I can hardly describe it differently, among most Jews that they are right. So it is not easy to have a rational discussion with a moderate Jew about what is happening in the Middle East. It is a very emotional issue."
Jewish groups warned that De Gucht's comments were part of a growing wave of anti-Semitism in Europe. Germany's central bank said Thursday it will ask a board member to step down for stereotyping Muslims and Jews. The official, Thilo Sarrazin said in a book published this week that Muslim immigrants in Europe cannot or will not integrate. He also has cited studies he says prove that "all Jews share a certain gene" %u2013 ideas he stressed in recent interviews.
The Foreign Ministry in Jerusalem said in a statement that "Israel rejects De Gucht's harsh remarks, and approves of the fact that Mr. De Gucht apologized for them and clarified that there is no room for anti-Semitism in our world."
European Commission spokesman Olivier Bailly told reporters De Gucht made "personal comments (that) do not reflect the EU attitude about the Middle East peace process."
In a separate statement, Catherine Ashton, the EU foreign affairs chief, expressed confidence De Gucht "did not intend any offense."
She added she was "encouraged by the positive outcome of the launch of direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority." The two pledged Thursday in Washington in the first round of talks in two years to keep meeting at regular intervals, aiming to nail down a framework for overcoming deep disputes and achieving lasting peace within a year. The eventual aim is the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state beside a secure Israel.
At issue are the borders of an eventual Palestinian state, the political status of Jerusalem, and the fate of Palestinian refugees and security. Another major issue is the Palestinians' demand that Israel freeze all settlement activities in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, which the Palestinians want to be part of their future state.
'Old anti-Semitic libels remade'
De Gucht spoke in a 14-minute interview about the Middle East peace process, citing the isolation of the Gaza Strip and divisions among Palestinians as complicating matters. He also said the talks are overshadowed by the fact that "Jewish politics have hardened."
In his Friday apology, De Gucht said he did not mean "to cause offense or stigmatize the Jewish Community. I want to make clear that anti-Semitism has no place in today's world and is fundamentally against our European values."
Moshe Kantor, of the European Jewish Congress called De Gucht's remarks part of a "new wave of new anti-Semitism growing in Europe."
"It has somehow become acceptable to attack Jews through Israel, even at the highest levels," said Kantor. "The old anti-Semitic libels of the all-powerful Jewish cabals, the recalcitrant Jew and the irrational Jews only caring for their own, are remade to fit 21st-century hostility to the Jewish state."
The European Commission runs the EU's day-to-day affairs. It has 27 commissioners %u2013 one from each EU nation handling a particular area.
Many EU commissioners come to Brussels after careers in national politics, and with some regularity they make political statements that embarrass the EU head office.
This rarely leads to dismissal. In one exception, the entire EU executive resigned in 1999 when the then French commissioner, Edith Cresson, refused to quit after she was found guilty of financial mismanagement and cronyism.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3949074,00.html
1 jun 2011, 17:17 , Respect -
Maria 10 sept 2010
Banker's resignation greeted with relief in Berlin
Hilo Sarrazin says will quit Bundesbank's board from end of September after his comments on Muslim immigrants and Jewish genes drew censure from Chancellor Merkel, prompted central bank to seek his dismissal
Germany's political establishment voiced relief on Friday after the resignation of central banker Thilo Sarrazin, who has inflamed the country with outspoken comments on race and religion.
Sarrazin said he would quit the Bundesbank's board from the end of September after his comments on Muslim immigrants and Jewish genes drew censure from Chancellor Angela Merkel on down and prompted the central bank to seek his dismissal.
His resignation, announced late on Thursday, means President Christian Wulff will no longer have to decide whether to approve the bank's request, an awkward choice that threatened to expose Merkel to a backlash from conservative voters.
Wulff, nominated by Merkel's Christian Democrats (CDU), said through his spokesman he welcomed Sarrazin's decision and the "mutual solution that had been found with the Bundesbank".
Sarrazin, 65, has dominated headlines over the past fortnight for his trenchant criticism of Turkish and Arab immigrants, some of which he set out in a new bestselling book "Deutschland schafft sich ab" (Germany does away with itself).
Newspaper Financial Times Deutschland wrote "Sarrazin does away with himself" - a play on the title of his book.
"Sarrazin thus saves himself and Germany a demoralising legal battle over his sacking. Wulff will be spared a very tricky decision - whether or not to sign off on it," it wrote.
Sarrazin's centre-left Social Democrats (SPD) have begun proceedings to expel him, though the economist has said he aims to "go to his grave" a member of the party. Polls show the SPD has been hurt by the debate over whether to eject him.
'Courageous and responsible step'
Sebastian Edathy, an SPD member of parliament's legal affairs committee, told Reuters it had been high time for Sarrazin to resign.
"If he made the decision because he saw the light, then the obvious next thing to do would be to leave the SPD," he said. Sarrazin, a former finance minister of the city of Berlin has long been outspoken, but recent claims that Jews shared a particular gene and Muslim immigrants were lowering the intelligence quotient of German society proved a tipping point.
"Was it a courageous and responsible step by Sarrazin? Yes. But at the same time this is a sad reflection on the culture of holding open debate in Germany," mass-selling daily Bild wrote.
Right-wing online forums have hailed Sarrazin as a champion of free speech who participants say is speaking painful truths.
Advocates of improving immigrant integration say Sarrazin has made it harder to hold an objective debate on the matter by polarizing opinion and obscuring the facts with disputed claims.
http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3952234,00.html
22 jun 2011, 10:42 , Respect -
Maria 5 sept 2010
Venezuela's Jews turn to Chavez over state media's anti-Semitism
Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez.
Verbal, written attacks in Venezuelan media include hints that Jews are damaging the country's economy, along the lines of the 'The Protocols of the Elders of Zion.'
COSTA RICA - The increasingly anti-Semitic commentary in Venezuela's state-sponsored media in recent days prompted the heads of the country's Jewish community to request an urgent meeting with President Hugo Chavez last week. The presidential palace responded that their request would be granted.
The verbal and written attacks have included hints that the Jews are damaging the country's economy and are following the notorious anti-Semitic fabrication "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion." It is likely related to the rising tensions ahead of the country's parliamentary elections, which are set for later this month.
"This anti-Semitism is troubling us all and it needs to cease immediately," said David Bittan Obadia, deputy chairman of the Jewish community of Venezuela Friday. "We are not saying this is the government policy; however, [the government] is capable of putting a stop to the phenomenon. It has the tools. We will be very direct and adamant in the things we will tell President Chavez."
Bittan Obadia said the attacks had come from the media, but the community's real concern was that the phenomenon would spread.
He said the president's staff had promised a meeting with Chavez in about 10 days.
A member of Caracas' Jewish community told Haaretz yesterday, "Chavez and his supporters will not give up power, irrespective of the election result, and many members of our community are concerned that if there are disturbances, we will be targeted. When there is anarchy, there are always people who use it to attack Jews."
She added, "When the mood intensifies, like during the current election campaign, there are politicians who immediately bring out the incitement against the Jews. Is this by order of the president? I don't know, but the president sees and hears everything in the government-controlled area. Many Jewish families in my area have left or are leaving."
http://fwd4.me/0k1X
28 jun 2011, 17:36 , Respect -
Maria 13 sept 2010
German banker quits for racist remarks
A German banker who caused furor with offensive remarks regarding his country's Muslim community says he will resign his post in the Central Bank's board.
Thilo Sarrazin, the high-profile German banker, announced he would quit the Bundesbank's board from the end of September, according to a report by Persian Deutsche Welle.
Analysts say Sarrazin's resignation means German President Christian Wulff will no longer have to decide his fate, exposing Chancellor Angela Merkel to a backlash from conservative voters.
According to the German website, it is the first time the Bundesbank is calling on the president to expel a board member.
Experts believe Sarrazin's comments on race, religion and immigration have hurt the German Central Bank as an independent entity.
They say Sarrazin no longer maintains a good position even among colleagues in the Social Democratic Party (SPD).
SPD officials are mulling plans to expel the former banker from the party with its secretary general Andrea Nahles saying, "Sarrazin is spreading old genetic theories and an elitist position; he divides people into useful and useless. These views are not compatible with the fundamental values of the SPD."
In his controversial book Deutschland schafft sich ab (Germany does away with itself) launched recently in Berlin, Sarrazin proclaims that Germans are in danger of becoming "strangers in their own country," demanding tighter control over immigrants.
http://www.presstv.ir/detail/142364.html
EU Commission chief vigorously condemns anti-Semitism
In a Jewish New Year greeting, Barroso says all Europeans need to condemn "racism and discrimination on the basis of belief."
BRUSSELS - In a Jewish New Year greeting, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said Europeans need to condemn anti-Semitism.
"For us all, fellow Europeans, remembrance means to vigorously condemn any forms of anti-Semitism, racism and discrimination on the basis of belief," Barroso writes in a letter to Rabbi Levi Matusof on behalf of the Rabbinical Centre of Europe (RCE).
"Be assured of my commitment and determination in pursuing that cause," he adds.
Barroso’s comments come only days after European Commissioner for Trade Karel De Gucht made remarks on the Jews perceived as anti-Semitic, in an interview with the Belgian Flemish radio.
De Gucht launched a diatribe about the power of the ‘Jewish lobby’ in the US and appeared to indicate that Jews are irrational when it comes to the Israel and the Middle East conflict "because there is a belief among most Jews that they’re right."
A European Commission spokesman said last week that President José Manuel Baroso will not sanction Commissioner Karel De Gucht for his comments on Jews he made in a radio interview, despite calls that he be fired. "On the basis of the reassurances given by Mr De Gucht to President Barroso, the president considers that the incident is closed," the spokesman said. Earlier, the Commission stressed that De Gucht’s remarks were “personal comments” that in no way reflected the position of the EU regarding the Israeli-Palestinian talks and the Middle East peace process.
The Rabbinical Center of Europe, which is an organization dedicated to meeting the religious and spiritual needs of Jewish communities in Europe, said it hopes that Barroso’s message "is indicative of a more forceful approach to anti-Semitism in Europe at all levels."
"Barroso’s welcome comments need to be internalized by all Europeans, from the unemployed European to the highest levels of the European institutions," Rabbi Arye Goldberg, RCE’s deputy director, said.
"De Gucht’s recent comments clearly demonstrate that bigoted ideas about Jews even permeate at the European leadership and this problem needs to be immediately addressed," he added.
"The fact that last year one recorded the greatest number of anti-Semitic attacks since the end of the Holocaust shows that we are going in the wrong direction and we call on the European Commission to address the growing number of attacks against Jewish sites, institutions and individuals."
In his letter, Barroso also refers to an "ethical crisis" in Europe brought on by the economic and financial crisis.
"What in the end is at stake is not only economic recovery but rather our fundamental values, the European values, the very basis upon which the European project rests: the respect for fundamental rights and democratic liberties," he writes.
The president of the Commission thanks the RCE for its "attachment to the European project" and wishes a Shana Tova, a good year in Hebrew.
http://bit.ly/cW26Rl