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Monday, November 07, 2016

Think about this before you vote Democrat: DNC didn't want to commemorate the Holocaust

For those of you who have not voted already, think about this before you even consider pulling the lever for a Democrat: The Democratic National Committee doesn't believe it's necessary or appropriate to commemorate the Holocaust. They believe there are too many Jewish holidays already.

By the way, please note the date on the email. This happened just a few months ago.

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Monday, April 28, 2014

It's that time of year again

Last night, as my son and I drove back from the north, we made a bathroom stop at a rest area on Route 6 South. It was distinctly uncomfortable. The entire service area was filled with Arabs, who were behaving wildly. The restaurants were closed, the gas station was closed, and although 4-5 people were inside the supermarket, no one else was being allowed in between 6:45 pm (shortly before we arrived there) and 6:00 am. Because the traffic on Route 6 - the country's main north-south highway and only toll road - is constant, the rest areas are supposed to be open 24/7/365. By definition, by the way, the restaurants therein are not Kosher (because they are open on Shabbat), but you can usually buy pre-packaged food that is Kosher.

Sunday night was the eve of Holocaust Memorial Day. It was also one of the last days on which high school and post-high school yeshiva boys are on vacation - they return to their studies on Wednesday and are there until August. Many of them took advantage of the warm weather to go on one last trip. And many of them did not return home before sundown.

But this is the time of year when the Israeli media trains its cameras on yeshiva boys - looking for any who move a muscle during the siren (which is in the morning only on Holocaust Memorial Day - in our family, we always stand still for it) or who otherwise behave in ways deemed improper or disrespectful. Last night, one such group was 'caught' in Beit Shean, and another in Jerusalem's Sacher park. But a secular group behaving even more rowdily was ignored, because they weren't part of the agenda.
The one news site that reportedly did not veer from the annual "tradition" of hunting down hareidim "desecrating" the day was Walla!, which on Sunday reported that "dozens of hareidi families arrived at Jerusalem's Sacher Park, occupied themselves with barbecues, and started the work of grilling."
What remarkably was not covered by the news source was the jovial game of soccer held by a group of secular Israelis directly adjacent to the hareidi barbecue.
The selective reporting angered more than a few journalists on hareidi issues, who posted enraged responses on their Facebook pages.
Reporter Yedidya Meir, whose photographs of the soccer game were published on the site Hareidim 10, wrote sarcastically "certainly tomorrow (the soccer game) will be on (Walla!'s) front page."
"It's already played out," a hareidi businessman from Jerusalem told Arutz Sheva. "Galloping over to Sacher Park to 'trap' hareidim eating dinner has worn itself out, and I'm happy for that."
"Just like we don't expect that seculars will not hold barbecues on Shabbat and holidays because 'they celebrate the Shabbat differently,' the time has come for you to understand that a hareidi 'caught' eating in Sacher Park isn't, Heaven forbid, due to the disrespect he has for this day," noted the businessman.
It is worth noting that the date for observance of Holocaust Memorial Day was instituted by the Israeli Knesset in 1951, and that a number of rabbis did not adhere to the practice, arguing instead that the Ninth of Av has been set aside as the day to mourn national tragedies to the nation of Israel. Similarly the Chief Rabbinate previously in 1949 decided on the Tenth of Tevet as the date for memorial, given that it is the date of the siege of Jerusalem by Babylon.
When we got back into our car last night, I told my son that the rest stop is open on Shabbat, open on Yom Kippur and open on the 9th day of Av. Perhaps it is like the edict under Jewish law that we are more stringent with rabbinic prohibitions because they are more in need of strengthening. And even more stringent with post-rabbinic (rabbis cannot make new edicts today) prohibitions that have no basis in Jewish law.

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Her Ugliness spits in Israel's face

Housing Minister Uri Ariel has slammed European Foreign Policy chief Catherine Ashton after Her Ugliness chose Holocaust Memorial Day - which commemorates the European slaughter of Jews 70 years ago - to endorse the Hamas-Fatah unity deal.
“On the eve of Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Memorial Day, she spit in the face of those who fight against terror around the world," he accused. "European support for the deal will encourage Hamas terror, and will ensure that Europe loses it moral authority as a party that can help solve the conflict.

In a statement, Ashton said that even if Hamas was considered to be a terror group by the EU itself, negotiations between Israel and the Palestinian Authority must continue. “Negotiations are the best way forward,” she said. “The extensive efforts deployed in recent months must not go to waste. The EU calls on all sides to exercise maximum restraint and to avoid any action which may further undermine peace efforts and the viability of a two-state solution. The fact that President Abbas will remain fully in charge of the negotiation process and have a mandate to negotiate in the name of all Palestinians provides further assurance that the peace negotiations can and must proceed," she added.
An ugly statement by an ugly woman representing some of the most despicable 'world leaders' on the planet. But perhaps Shas MK  Eli Yishai summed it up best:
“Europe's positive reaction to this deal is insulting and upsetting, but expected. Just like 70 years ago, Europe closes its eyes to the dangers that face Jews. Times have changed, but European hypocrisy hasn't,” he added.
Indeed. 

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Monday, April 08, 2013

One man's answer to the Nazis

One man who took the vow of 'Never again' more seriously than most was Rabbi Meir Kahane HY"D.

As a Holocaust Memorial Day 'treat,' I have four short videos of Rabbi Kahane fighting the Nazis in Skokie in 1976-77. Especially for those of you whose reaction is disgust, but who have never heard Rabbi Kahane (you know who you are), I urge you to listen to him at least once in your lifetime.

Here's video 1. Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Dan F for all four of them).



Here's video 2. Let's go to the videotape.



Here's video 3. Let's go to the videotape.



Here's video 4. Let's go to the videotape.



For those of you who are wondering why there seemed to be so many old people in these videos, it's because there were. Mrs. Carl, who was a teenager at the time, has told me that the people who were most opposed to the Nazis marching - and therefore most in favor of Kahane - were the elderly who had survived the Holocaust. They had learned the lesson. Have we?

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Never forgive, never forget!

This is the caption that goes with this picture.
The Rabbi that you see in the picture was about to be shot by the nazis (yemach shmem), but he asked to read the Kaddish prayer for all the Jews, who were still alive next time him, which is forbidden in Jewish Law. You can see the despicable nazi soldiers smiling behind him as he awaits his fate. If you look at his tefillin it has also been desecrated, so they could mock and humiliate the Rabbi further. This is pure evil that you are looking at, there is nothing else to say.
I suspect that the caption is incorrect, and that he actually said Kaddish (the prayer for the dead) for the Jews lying next to him who were executed before him.

May God obliterate the memory of the despicable Nazis and their followers. 

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Feiglin: Israel misuses the Holocaust

And from one straight shooter to another....

MK Moshe Feiglin (Likud) told the JPost on Sunday that Israel should stop taking foreign dignitaries to Yad VaShem because the government is misusing the Holocaust to justify Israel's existence.
“They have made it as if we have to have a Jewish state because of the Holocaust,” he told the Post. “When the diplomats are brought to Yad Vashem, they are speechless. But giving only security reasons for being here does not work with new generations in Europe who care about rights. The other side’s incorrect arguments about the land being theirs are more persuasive than the pragmatic arguments about what would happen if there were no Jewish state.”

Feiglin insisted that “The reason for the state of Israel, for our existence, is not security, but our national goal. But the Holocaust teaches us that we should always be strong, not only physically but also morally.
“Without understanding the deep justification for our existence here in the land of Israel, no army will help us. This is a very important point.”
I could not agree more. In fact, this is from something I wrote about this topic four years ago after President Hussein Obama went to the Buchenwald concentration camp and said that Israel's existence was justified because of the Holocaust.
Unless one has spent several years here - and in particular unless one has spent several Holocaust Memorial Days here - it is difficult to understand the way in which the Zionist movement and the State of Israel have made the Holocaust a part of the State. By making the Holocaust into an occasion for Zionist (and not just for Jewish or personal) mourning, the State of Israel has inadvertently brought about the conclusion that it needs the Holocaust to justify its existence. Please consider the following:

1. The day that was chosen for Holocaust Memorial Day was the Hebrew date in 1953 that matched the Gregorian date on which the Warsaw Ghetto fell. This date effectively excluded the ultra-Orthodox community (whose members constituted the bulk of the Holocaust victims) because it falls in the month of Nissan - a month in which we do not mourn publicly. The Chief Rabbinate - which at the time was in religious Zionist hands - urged making Holocaust Memorial Day on the 10th day of the month of Tevet - a day that is already observed as a fast day in the Jewish calendar. They lost that battle.

2. The official title of Holocaust Memorial Day in Hebrew is Yom HaShoa v'HaGvura - Holocaust and Heroism Day. Until recent years, most of the day's official events related to resistance in the ghetto - as if there were something shameful about people who were slaughtered without resisting. It was almost as if the Holocaust victims were expected to perform as an army. This was also offensive to many in the religious community, who believe that the Holocaust was God's will for reasons that we cannot and will not understand. More about that here.

3. The State has taken upon itself to track down and punish Nazi murderers - most notably Adolf Eichman and, in recent years, John Demjanjuk (who was actually acquitted here). The Nazi and Nazi Collaborators Punishment Law (1950) gives the State the power to punish those who committed crimes against the Jewish people (and was probably the first instance of a State claiming extra-territorial jurisdiction). Similarly, the government negotiated with the West German government to obtain reparations for the Jewish people as a whole. Ben Gurion regarded the State of Israel as the successor to the Holocaust victims. Not that there's anything wrong with that, but the State's co-opting of the Holocaust narrative as part of its historical narrative (as opposed to it being more generally part of the narrative of the Jewish people), could lead someone like Obama to the wrong conclusion.

4. The State of Israel doesn't observe the anniversaries of any pogroms perpetrated by Tsarist Russia (for example). The only 'Memorial Days' here are for the Holocaust and for fallen soldiers. In fact, in recent years, there has been controversy in Israel over the closing of places of entertainment on Tisha b'Av, the date that the Holy Temples were both destroyed, and the only other day of the year on which places of entertainment are (or were in Tel Aviv) required to be closed.

Now obviously, there's a lot more to it than that, and just as obviously the Arab countries have an interest in portraying Israel's existence as being justified solely by the Holocaust so that they can claim that they are being forced to pay for Europe's iniquities. But the extent to which the State of Israel has made the Holocaust into a Zionist event to the exclusion of every other instance of Jewish suffering may unfortunately help the Arab narrative gain wider acceptance than it would otherwise.

And why did Israel's founders use the Holocaust as a justification for founding the State of Israel? Because they were trying to be like all the other nations. Many of them were trying to flee from God and from what they called the 'religion of the diaspora,' and so they could not bring themselves to use the real justification for there being a state of Israel, and for it to be specifically located on the land of Israel - the Jewish homeland - and not in Uganda or anyplace else. The Jewish people have owned the land of Israel for more than 3000 years. Wherever and whenever they went anywhere else they prayed to return to the land of Israel. The land of Israel was given to us by God. That is the only 'justification' for the reason why Jews should live in the land of Israel.

We don't need the Holocaust to 'justify' our being here. We need only three words:

God said so.
I suspect MK Feiglin would agree with me too. 

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Sunday, April 07, 2013

What's going on in Israel today


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Saturday, April 06, 2013

Tired of being heros?

For years we've been told about how easy it is to make the transition from Memorial Day to Independence Day here in Israel (the two are on consecutive days which begin and end at sundown). Now, many of the bereaved families are understandably tired of sucking it up and pretending they can make that sharp switch. But they're still thinking within the box. They're calling for Memorial Day to be moved up by one day.
Tamir-Shurki and attorney Yossef Tamir posted a petition online calling on the State of Israel to mark Remembrance Day a day earlier, on Sunday, April 14, and thus create a gap between the day of mourning and the day of celebration. Nearly 5,000 people had signed the petition by Saturday.
"Remembrance Day may be the hardest day of the year for tens of thousands of families in Israel. This is a day in which the entire country joins in mourning and remembrance of the people closest to them [the bereaved families]," Tamir-Shurki said.
"The bereaved families go through an upheaval and enormous pain. Beyond the enormous mental pain, there is a physical effort, of running around from cemeteries to monuments and to different remembrance events. When the day is over, each bereaved person wants to lay their head down and rest. Instead, on their way home from the cemetery, they encounter roads blocked for Independence Day celebrations," he added. 
"A minute after their terrible day of mourning ends, everyone except for them moves to Independence celebrations all over the country, which is unbearable, and a continuous injustice to thousands of families in Israel," he bemoaned.
Tamir-Shurki added that the proximity of the end of Remembrance Day to Independence Day shows disrespect to the bereaved families and their fallen loved ones.
"The very people who paid the ultimate price (except for the fallen soldiers), are the ones who can't participate and find themselves on the outside of the national celebration," he said.
I agree with them. But I would go further. I would move Memorial Day to a date on which a significant number of soldiers were lost in battle or a significant number of victims of terror were lost. One day that comes to mind is the day of the battle of Sultan Yakub in the 1982  Operation Peace for Galilee. I'm sure others can think of others.

There is no intrinsic connection between the 4th day of the Jewish month of Iyar and the deaths of soldiers and terror victims. Surely a more appropriate day can be found.

And after that, maybe we can talk about finding a more appropriate day for Holocaust Remembrance Day (Yom HaShoah).

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Friday, April 05, 2013

Looking for something to do in New York on Sunday?

I cannot think of a more appropriate place to spend Holocaust Memorial Day than in front of the United Nations Mission of the country that denies the previous Holocaust simultaneously with preparing the next one.

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Monday, January 28, 2013

Rupert Miurdoch apologizes for anti-Semitic cartoon

The Sunday Times of London is having a hard time coming up with a real apology for that anti-Semitic cartoon in Sunday's edition, so owner Rupert Murdoch has apologized for them. See the tweet above.

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Friday, April 20, 2012

Netanyahu preparing the people of Israel for war with Iran?

Here's video from Prime Minister Netanyahu's speech on Wednesday night at the start of Holocaust Remembrance Day. The speech is in Hebrew, but I have a partial English transcript and I will paste it below the video. My friend Dan F. believes that Netanyahu's speech is meant to prepare the people of Israel for war with Iran. Could it be?

Let's go to the videotape.



And here's the partial transcript in English:
[Translation]
April 19, 2012

Prime Minister Netanyahu’s Speech at Holocaust Remembrance Day

Yesterday morning, I visited an old-age home for Holocaust survivors. There, I met Idit Yapo, an amazing woman of 104, clear and lucid. Idit fled Germany shortly after Hitler gained power, in 1934.

I met 89-year-old Esther Nadiv, one of Mendele’s twins. She was reading a book, Golda Meir’s biography, and she told me, with a glint in her eye, she said: “I am so proud, so very proud to be a part of the State of Israel which is in constant development.”

I met Hanoch Mandelbaum, an 89-year-old survivor of Bergen-Belsen. Shortly after he came to Israel, as a young carpenter, he helped construct the desk upon which Ben Gurion signed the Declaration of Independence. That is MiSho’a liTkuma – from holocaust to resurrection.

And I met Elisheva Lehman, an 88 year-old Holocaust survivor from Holland, who was a music teacher.

I asked Elisheva if she would play something for us and she did. She enthusiastically played “Am Yisrael Chai” and we all sung together. It was quite emotional.

Ladies and Gentlemen,
Am Yisrael Chai [The nation of Israel lives]

Our enemies tried to bury the Jewish future, but it was reborn in the land of our forefathers. Here, we built a foundation for a new beginning of freedom, hope, and creation. Year after year, decade after decade, we built the foundations of our country, and we will continue to yearly strengthen the pillars of our national life.

On this day, when our entire nation gathers together to remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the six million Jews who were murdered, we must fulfill our most sacred obligation.

This obligation is not merely an obligation to remember the past. It is an obligation to learn its lessons, and, most importantly, to apply them to the present in order to secure the future of our people. We must remember the past and secure the future by applying the lessons of the past.

This is especially true for this generation – a generation that once again is faced with calls to annihilate the Jewish State.

One day, I hope that the State of Israel will enjoy peace with all the countries and all the peoples in our region. One day, I hope that we will read about these calls to destroy the Jews only in history books and not in daily newspapers.

But that day has not yet come.

Today, the regime in Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop atomic weapons to achieve that goal.

I know that there are those who do not like when I speak such uncomfortable truths. They prefer that we not speak of a nuclear Iran as an existential threat. They say that such language, even if true, only sows fear and panic.

I ask, have these people lost all faith in the people of Israel?

Do they think that this nation, which has overcome every danger, lacks the strength to confront this new threat?

Did the State of Israel not triumph over existential threats when it was far less powerful than it is today? Did its leaders have any qualms about saying the truth?

David Ben Gurion told the people of Israel the truth about the existential dangers they faced in 1948 when five Arab armies tried to snuff Israel out in its cradle.

Levi Eshkol told the people of Israel the truth in 1967 when a noose was being placed around Israel’s neck and we stood alone to face our fate.

And when they heard these truths, did the people of Israel panic or did they unite to thwart the dangers? Were we paralyzed with fear or did we do what was necessary to protect ourselves.

I believe in the people of Israel – and this belief is based on our experiences. I believe that the people of Israel can handle the truth. And I believe that they we have the capability to defeat those who seek to harm us.

Those who dismiss Iran’s threats as exaggerated or as mere idle posturing have learned nothing from the Holocaust. But we should not be surprised.

There have always been those among us who prefer to mock those who tell uncomfortable truths than squarely face the truth themselves.

That is how Zev Jabotinsky was received when he warned the Jews of Poland of the looming Holocaust.

This is what he said in 1938, in Warsaw:

“It is already THREE years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry, who are the crown of World Jewry. I continue to warn you incessantly that a catastrophe is coming closer. I became grey and old in these years, my heart bleeds, that you, dear brother and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all-consuming lava… I see that you are not seeing this because you are immersed and sunk in your daily worries… Listen to me in this twelfth hour: In the name of G-d! Let anyone of you save himself, as long as there is still time, and time there is very little.”

But the leading Jewish intellectuals of the day ridiculed Jabotinsky, and rather than heed his warning, they attacked him.

This is what Sholem Asch, one of our nation’s greatest writers, said about him:
“What Jabotinsky is now doing in Poland is going too far. His statement is detrimental to Zionism and to the vital interests of our people… It is disgraceful that these are leaders of a nation.”

I know there are also those who believe that the unique evil of the Holocaust should never be invoked in discussing other threats facing the Jewish people.

To do so, they argue, is to belittle the Holocaust and to offend its victims.

I totally disagree. On the contrary. To cower from speaking the uncomfortable truth – that today like then, there are those who want to destroy millions of Jewish people – that is to belittle the Holocaust, that is to offend its victims and that is to ignore the lessons.

Not only does the Prime Minister of Israel have the right, when speaking of these existential dangers, to invoke the memory of a third of our nation which was annihilated. It is his duty.

There is a memorable scene in Claude Lanzmann’s documentary Shoah that explains this obligation more than anything.

In the harsh existence in the Warsaw Ghetto, Leon Feiner of the Bund and Menachem Kirschenbaum of the General Zionists met with Jan Karski from the Polish World War II Resistance Movement.

Jan Karski was a decent, sensitive man, and they begged him to appeal to the conscience of the world against the Nazi crimes. They described what was happening, they showed him, but to no avail.

They said: “Help us. We have no country of our own, we have no government, and we even have no voice among the nations”

They were right.

Seventy years ago the Jewish people did not have the national capacity to summon the nations, nor the military might to defend itself.

But today things are different.

Today we have an army.

We have the ability, the duty and the determination to defend ourselves.

As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never shy from speaking the truth before the world, no matter how uncomfortable it may seem to some.

I speak the truth at the United Nations; I speak the truth in Washington DC, the capital of our great friend, the United States, and in other important capitals; And I speak the truth here in Jerusalem, on the grounds of Yad VaShem which are saturated with remembrance.

I will continue to speak the truth to the world, but first and foremost I must speak it to my own people. I know that my people is strong enough to hear the truth.

The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat of the State of Israel.

The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an political threat to other countries throughout the region and a grave threat to the world peace.

The truth is that Iran must be stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons.

It is the duty of the whole world, but above and beyond, it is OUR duty.

The memory of the Holocaust goes beyond holding memorial services; it is not merely a historical recollection.

The memory of the Holocaust obligates us to apply the lessons of the past to ensure the basis of our future.

We will never bury our heads in the sand.

Am Yisrael Chai, veNetzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker
[The Nation of Israel Lives, and the Eternal one of Israel does not Lie]

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Monday, April 16, 2012

Video: And you shall tell your children

On Thursday, Israel will commemorate the Holocaust. While I have written in the past that I have my issues with the manner in which the State of Israel commemorates the Holocaust, there is no doubt that we must remember and we must teach our children, because unfortunately events like the Holocaust can happen again. I believe that it is important to watch this hour-long video - and to pass its lessons on to our children (many of whom are too young to watch the video).

Let's go to the videotape (Hat Tip: Ricky G).

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Friday, April 15, 2011

Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) vigil

I received the following via email:
Yom Hashoah Mobilization Committee

PRESS RELEASE

April 11, 2011

A Yom Hashoah vigil is scheduled for Sunday, May 1st at 12:00 P.M. in front of the Iranian Mission to the United Nations on Third Avenue and 40th Street (622 Third Ave.)

Members of the Jewish community are expecting to gather to commemorate the millions of innocents who perished in the Holocaust and to remind the public and our elected representatives of the imminent danger to the world community posed by the spreading of Iran’s anti-Semitic rhetoric and its nuclear program.

This generation is currently witnessing the dehumanization of the Jewish people by some Arab media and the demonization of Israel, the reputation of which has been a victim of libel and defamation. Painfully reminiscent of what happened before the extermination of 6,000,000 Jewish people, it seems that history is repeating itself.

We cannot remain silent. The appeasement and funding of entities which promote the hatred of others, such as the Palestinian Authority and the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNWRA), cannot be tolerated any longer. Until they stop the promulgation of hatred, they should not be supported.

For more information about this event, please contact Lynne at 516-521-9333 or hashoah.mail@gmail.com.

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Thursday, January 27, 2011

Iran's Holocaust denial continues

Haaretz reports that Holocaust Remembrance Day is being observed in Tehran on Thursday, "despite... Ahmadinejad's public denial of the Holocaust's existence."
A main memorial event will take place Thursday at the UN New York headquarters, and information centers in 63 different UN-member countries have received both written materials and documentaries on the Holocaust, surprisingly including centers in Tehran, Cairo and Beirut.

In addition to receiving the multimedia materials, information center heads have undergone a special UN sponsored course in Berlin both to educate them in Holocaust history, as well as provide training in organizing their own local Holocaust memorial events.

Kimberly Mann, head of the Holocaust and United Nations Outreach Program, told Haaretz on Tuesday that Tehran, Cairo and Beirut are in fact amongst the major cities who received Holocaust education texts and films.
But if you think that means anything has changed in Iran's attitude toward the Holocaust... think again.
In advance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on January 27, several Iranian websites published articles denying the Holocaust. The website of the Iranian "Adolf Hitler Research Society" (http://ns.gigfa.com/) recently posted an undated article titled "A Reassessment of the Holocaust," claiming that photos documenting the Holocaust were doctored and forged by the Jews. Also, on January 26, 2011, the Iranian semi-official news agency Mehr published the first in a series of articles by French Holocaust denier Robert Faurisson, titled "Holocaust: The Historic Fraud."

The article on the website of the Iranian "Adolf Hitler Research Society" (http://ns.gigfa.com/) stated that Israel and the West are disseminating lies and forgeries regarding World War II and the Nazis' extermination of Jews. To prove its assertions, the website presents what it claims are doctored photographs, accompanied by detailed explanations.

The society's main website contains various pages devoted to Nazism, Hitler's life, the history of the Third Reich, and other topics. It also links to the society's other websites, including a news website (/www.hitlernews.com) and an online bookstore (www.hitlertruth.com); the latter claims that it is against racism and is historical, not political, in nature.[1]
There's much more here.

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Anti-Semitic film won't be screened in Germany - for now

With their usual impeccable tact, Turkish filmmakers have set January 27 - the day on which the nations of the world hang their heads in shame over their silence during the attempted extermination of the Jewish people - as the release date for Valley of the Wolves - Palestine, which is a blatantly anti-Semitic film dealing with the Mavi Marmara incident. But there's one country where Valley of the Wolves will not be released on the 27th, because otherwise it will be classified as pornography and advertising it will be forbidden. That country is Germany.
The FSK has so far refused to grant the film, called "Valley of the Wolves Palestine" a youth rating certificate, which automatically places it in the adult category. German law forbids adult-rated films from being marketed using posters and other forms of public advertising. The film board will meet again on Thursday to review the decision. Should it be upheld, the movie's distributor, Pera Film Ltd., would be able to appeal to the Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons.

A Pera spokesperson declined to comment on Wednesday, saying the company would wait for the FSK ruling scheduled for Thursday. She said Pera would abide by the decision to postpone the release date.

The film's plot centers around superhero Alemdar's hunt for the commander who ordered the raid. It involves Israelis planning the creation of a "Great Israel" and, in one scene, shows an Israeli soldier questioning Alemdar about why he came to Israel. "I have not come to Israel," the hero responds. "I have come to Palestine."

In another scene, an Israeli soldier threatens Alemdar by saying: "Know that you can't escape our promised lands!" The hero says in response: "I don't know where you were promised ... but I promise you it's graves!"
Read the whole thing. I'm not aware of this film being banned anyplace. What could go wrong?

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Sunday, January 23, 2011

Like son, like father?

We already knew that his son, Marc Schneier, is a moonbat. In fact, my friend Debbie Schlussel refers to Marc Schneier as 'Al Sharpton's rabbi.' Now, Schneier's father, Arthur Schneier, one of the most senior rabbis of the Modern Orthodox community in the US gets in on the act in a big way. It's too bad they don't know how to spell 'rabbi' at al-Arabiya, so Schneier lost a letter off his title. But this one is a doozer.
One of the leading U.S. rabbis on Saturday paid tribute to UN chief Ban Ki-Moon by calling him a "mensch" -- the Yiddish word for a person of great integrity -- at a Holocaust remembrance service, a day after the UN slammed Israeli’s settlement building in the West Ban.

The UN secretary general donned a kippah skullcap to honor Jewish Holocaust dead and survivor and other top UN diplomats went to the Park East synagogue in New York, where Rabbi Arthur Schneier has in the past welcomed Pope Benedict XVI and other leading religious dignitaries.

Schneier, who himself went through the Nazi crackdown in the Budapest ghetto in World War II, highlighted the "dwindling group of survivors" from the Nazi death camps who will be honored on International Holocaust Remembrance day on January 27.

"I never thought I would see the day when I would see the German and Russian ambassadors sat next to each other here," he said.

While Ban has often had tough words for Israeli policies, the rabbi called the UN leader a believer in "compassionate diplomacy, diplomacy from the heart."

Schneier called Ban "a mensch" and said "there is no greater tribute."
Note how al-Arabiya keeps stressing over and over again (there's another time I didn't cut and paste) how anti-Israel Ban is. But that didn't phase Schneier one little bit. Like son, like father, indeed.

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