Israel Matzav

WJC Conference - Jose Maria Aznar and Yuli Edelstein

I'm still having problems with the WiFi connection here, so I apologize in advance if posting ends up being lighter this afternoon as it was this morning.

We had a luncheon at which we were addressed by Jose Maria Aznar, the former President of Spain. He was phenomenal. He ripped Obama to shreds for his lack of leadership and said that Israel may well have to assume some of the leadership functions assumed by the United States for the last 60 years if the West is to survive. The speech was recorded for television and I will try to find it later. It was awesome.

We're now listening to Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein who also gets it. He asks how intelligent people could buy into such blood libels as IDF soldiers in Haiti harvesting organs or into Ahmadinejad's desire to destroy the Jewish state, and attributes it to anti-Semitism. Some people don't want to hear about anti-Semitism anymore, but it's the truth. The Zionists have become a substitute for the Jews - it's a more politically acceptable form of Jew hatred.

He quotes Martin Luther King: "Anti-Zionism is another form of anti-Semitism and will always be so."

Closing line: "To improve the Israeli image, we don't have to lie. We have the best material. We just have to wrap it properly and market it properly.

posted by Carl in Jerusalem @ 3:54 PM