Ray Cook - As I See It

Israel, Zionism and the Media

Page 44 of 46

Iran’s Hogwarts Hogwash

For those of you who doubt that anti-Zionism does not equate to anti-Semitism just look at a recent TimesOnline article by Daniel Finkelstein here:
http://timesonline.typepad.com/comment/2009/02/harry-potter-an.html

Iranian TV is ludicrously promulgating Harry Potter movies as part of the Zionist global conspiracy, Jewish corruption of the world’s moral fibre and so on and so on into ever more demented rhetoric. (NB that Zionist=Jewish and please note carefully what is said in the video which makes it clear that Iran makes no distinction between Zionists, Israelis and Jews)

And all this is done by seeming academics in smart suits speaking calmly and eruditely. It would be hard to keep a straight face if it were not so scary.

Although I can’t believe that many Iranians really believe this sort of twaddle, nevertheless, it can, drip by poisonous drip, erode their ability to think rationally.

In the Arab world especially there is an ongoing vicious Jew-hating propaganda industry which now seems to have spread to Iran (which is not an Arab state, of course).

In 1933 much of Europe was primed for genocide. In 2009 it seems that much of the world is moving inexorably toward agitating for a second Holocaust whilst the would-be perpetrators deny the first one.

Andy Roddick – a mensch

I seem to have overlooked the strong stance Andy Roddick took when he boycotted the Dubai Tennis Championship after Shahar Pe’er had been denied a visa.

What’s more, he was the defending champion.

His decision is brave and ethical. 

Andy Roddick is a mensch.

Bishop Willamson apologizes – so that’s all right then…?

… no it is not.

This is his statement as reported by the BBC to be on the SSPX (Society of St Pius X) website – although I can’t find it anywhere:

In a statement published on the SSPX website, the bishop says his superior, Bishop Bernard Fellay, and the Pope “requested that I reconsider the remarks I made on Swedish television four months ago, because their consequences have been so heavy”.

“Observing these consequences I can truthfully say that I regret having made such remarks, and that if I had known beforehand the full harm and hurt to which they would give rise, especially to the Church, but also to survivors and relatives of victims of injustice under the Third Reich, I would not have made them.”

He added: “On Swedish television I gave only the opinion… of a non-historian, an opinion formed 20 years ago on the basis of evidence then available and rarely expressed in public since.

“However, the events of recent weeks and the advice of senior members of the Society of St Pius X have persuaded me of my responsibility for much distress caused. To all souls that took honest scandal from what I said before God I apologise.

Basically he is saying he stands by everything he said  but he’s sorry if he offended anyone. Sorry, I’m still offended.

Bishop Williamson seems to have problems with the historical truth of the most well documented event in human history but believes the accounts of miracles in second-hand accounts written two thousand years ago about the divinity of Christ. His not being an historian does not seem to have affected him when it comes to the truth of Christ’s ministry of which there are no living witnesses, but he can’t believe the evidence of hundreds of thousands of witnesses, survivors and documents or the confessions of the perpetrators of an event which took place just 70 years ago. He only has to read Rudolf Hoess’s ‘Commandant of Auschwitz’ to gain a little historical insight. I urge him to do so. There are several museums of the Holocaust around the world, including one in the UK. I think he’d find a visit enlightening. Or why not ask one of the small group of survivors in his home country about gas chambers and death marches and executions and ghettos.

But if you want to know what Williamson really believes about the Jews then here is a little taster:

“However, until they re-discover their true Messianic vocation, they may be expected to continue fanatically agitating, in accordance with their false messianic vocation of Jewish world-dominion, to prepare the Anti-Christ’s throne in Jerusalem. So we may fear their continuing to play their major part in the agitation of the East and in the corruption of the West. Here the wise Catholic will remember that, again, the ex-Christian nations have only their own Liberalism to blame for allowing free circulation within Christendom to the enemies of Christ.”

And Pope Benedict has rehabilitated this man! It’s outrageous.

Oh, and if you are still not convinced; remember Paul Touvier, wanted for war crimes and crimes against humanity for his involvement with the Vichy government and collaboration with the Nazis, deportations of Jews from France and the murder of Jewish hostages at Rillieux-la-Pape. He was indicted and went into hiding.  In 1989 he was discovered – in the Society of Saint Pius X Priory in Nice.

I rest my case.

Israeli judiciary says ‘No’ to racism

It’s interesting to note the number of times Israel is accused of being racist whilst its independent judiciary strongly counters these claims.

Case in point reported by the Jerusalem Post http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1235410717593&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull.

A man who displayed a racist bumper sticker – “No Arabs – No Terror” (in Hebrew of course), and drove with it through the West Bank, has been convicted by Judge Shulamit Dotan for incitement to racism.

“The call ‘No Arabs – no terror’ is tainted with racism because it connects the entire Arab population, without any differentiation among its members, and the execution of heinous terror acts”

This slogan is one already branded by a former attorney-general as an illegal racist incitement. The extreme right-wing group that espouses this nasty cause fall little short of calls for ethnic cleansing and genocide. 

By staunchly upholding the founding principles of the State the judiciary clearly demonstrates that not only is Israel not a racist state but it will not tolerate such egregious views expressed publicly.

Does the reader know of any Arab state that would protect its Jewish citizens from similar outrages? Can’t think of any. Just a minute… nope, not one. In fact, most are engaged in fomenting hatred of Jews and Israel and the destruction of the State and the annihilation of its citizens. The world, meanwhile, focuses firmly on Israel and accuses it of racism and apartheid. Strange world we are living in.

Pastor Sauce

Bishop Williamson is back. He has a lot of reading to do about the Holocaust. He did promise to find out more about the subject. We await his conclusions with interest.

Meanwhile he showed decidedly un-Christian behaviour as he left Argentina pushing his fist into the face of a persistent reporter and then shoving him into a pillar. Where’s the other cheek Bishop Williamson? Where’s forgiveness? It’s straight to the confessional, I fear.

Pasta Politics

Israel is being criticised by Hillary Clinton over not allowing pasta across the border into Gaza. It’s in trouble for not allowing other stuff in too, such as building materials.

Today Ha’aratez announces ‘Pasta is not a weapon’ http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1067055.html. But it could be. Do you remember the 7/7 bombers who used ‘innocent’ food products to create bombs. This is Israel’s fear. But is this fear more important than the impression blocking this and other shipments gives to the outside world? 

Israel’s main priority is to protect its own citizens and bring pressure for the release of Gilad Shalit (who I actually doubt to be alive. I hope I’m wrong). But Israel is consistently losing out in the propaganda battle against Hamas. There is no doubt Hamas can use all sorts of stuff to manufacture weaponry. Can Israel really stop this by an embargo? Even if they can, they bring upon themselves accusations of ‘collective punishment’.

Now, for me, ‘collective punishment’ is a close relative of ‘war crime’, two phrases with enormous emotive weight when used against Israel. ‘Collective Punishment’ is what the Nazis did. ‘War Crimes’ is a phrase redolent of Nuremberg. And so Israel is beaten with the stick of its own people’s collective nightmares. These two terms when used against Israel are blunt instruments which fail to distinguish between Israel’s actions and motives and those of true criminal regimes (Sadaam Hussein and President Bashir of Sudan for example). 

Israel has to make careful calculations weighing the appeasing of world opinion against the threat such appeasement brings to its own people. If it eases the embargo to bring some relief to Gazans will this result in more rockets? Maybe it needs to take the risk to demonstrate that this is the case. With a White House now determined to show a more even-handed approach and to seek rapprochement with the Muslim world, Israel may have no choice in the end.

Ahmed and Dangerous

Lord Ahmed’s recent fall from grace which saw him jailed for 12 weeks for texting whilst driving minutes before being involved in a fatal accident, brings to mind his recent hypocritical stance with regard Geert Wilders and the film ‘Fitna’.

What has this to do with Israel? Well, today there was a certain degree of uproar in Israel because one of the participants in a reality TV show, similar to the UK’s ‘Survivor’, called one of his shoes ‘Mohammed’. You may have been made aware lately of the significant insult that shoes can carry in Islam, so calling your shoe by the name of The Prophet is insensitive to say the least.

Whilst not condoning such behaviour I was bemused by the Israeli Arabs who tried to light a fire with extremely damp tinder. Channel 10 have been accused of racism and incitement against Arabs. Ha’aratez reports:

Sheikh Ibrahim Tzarzur called the clip a “degrading and ugly campaign” against the Prophet Mohammed. He accused Channel 10 of organizing a campaign against Islam and Christianity and of “playing with fire”

If you remember, this follows the incident where a TV host mocked Jesus Christ and Mary.

It seems that the most disgusting anti-Semitic propaganda campaign since Julius Streicher and Der Stuermer does not exercise the religious conscience of the Arab world in defending Jewish sensibilities. No doubt because they believe the trash is true. I speak of the noxious and nauseous plethora of anti-Semitic literature, TV ‘documentaries’, blood libels, belief in The Protocols and much more which is vomited out of the Arab world’s broadcasting orifices daily. And you would never guess who the worst culprits are? Yes, Hamas and Hezbollah.

So what’s this to do with the Lord Ahmed? Well he was instrumental, if you recall, in ratcheting up the rhetoric to have Geert Wilders banned from the UK because of  his film ‘Fitna’ which is alleged to be offensive to Muslims. This same Lord Ahmed who invited the self-styled Israel Shamir, a Swedish anti-Semite of the first order, to a book launch in London.  This book contains the following statements about Jews (I quote from Stephen Pollard’s analysis at the time) : 

“Jews control … a big share of mass media”; ‘the Jewish supremacy drive’  (is) the one reason for wars in the Middle East, and … ‘Jews love Empire’. Shamir also suggested that the large Muslim population in Britain was important to turn the tide of ‘Judaic Values’ in Britain

So it seems that Islamic outrage against religious slight does not stretch to Jews or Judaism either in the UK or the Middle East.

Viva Israelia!

If you believe that Israelis don’t care about the human misery in Gaza then take a look at the israelity.com website article ‘Victims donating to victims’.

Even though the reporter states that the majority of the population supported its government in its attempt to end the terrorising of its citizens in the South, nevertheless they are not immune to the suffering of their neighbours.

Two activists Lee Ziv and Hadas Balas “decided to collect clothing, bedding, nourishment and other essentials from donors to bring them in to Gaza.”

“There is no connection to politics,” said Ziv. “We don’t represent a side, we just see an immediate need for blankets for people who have nothing to cover them at night and milk for infants who have nothing to eat.

… A woman called who had a mortar fall on her house”

Their efforts have resulted in 10 truckloads of aid being sent across the border with Gaza.

But listen to this: Kibbutz Kfar Aza has “offered up its warehouses as a depot for the donations” even though this Kibbutz is one of the victims of Kassam rocket fire.

It seems that Israelis can distinguish between those intent on destroying them from innocent civilians who are as much the victims of Hamas as they are of Israel, indeed, more so. Sadly, the world does not see this side of Israel. Read it all here http://israelity.com/2009/01/23/victims-donating-to-victims/

King Christian had the right idea

During the Nazi occupation of Denmark, King Christian X once discussed with a minister the prospect of the Germans introducing the wearing of the Yellow Star for his Jewish subjects.  He is recorded as having suggested that if that ever came to pass all Danes should wear it, including himself. Contrary to popular myth, it never happened; the wearing of the Yellow Star was never introduced in Denmark, probably because the Danish people, surely one of the most heroic in all Europe, managed to smuggle almost every Jew (about 5000 including some of my relatives I am told) into neutral Sweden overnight.

This story gave me an idea. Let all WTP tennis professionals agree to have their passports stamped by Israeli immigration, then let’s see what happens next time someone tries to delegitimise Israel and its citizens by denying them access to a tennis tournament.

Amnesty International in (White) Cloud-Cuckoo-Land

Amensty International who claim both Hamas AND Israel committed war crimes (in the case of Israel white phosphorus and in the case of Hamas indiscriminate firing of rockets) now wants an arms embargo against Hamas and Israel and wants the UN Security Council to impose it.

Is this a sick joke?

There is already an effective embargo against Hamas which is why they build tunnels and smuggle in weapons. Can the toothless UN stop that? Fat chance.

Secondly, although Israel sources its phosphorus from outside the country (the US of course) does AI seriously think that the US would support this embargo?

Of course not. What AI want to do is make a point. They are very fair-minded people at AI. They are willing to admit that terrorists use terror to further their political and religious aims. Thank you. But hold on, they also want to stop Israel from using white phosphorus without anyone as yet (apart from the IDF) making any effort to find out when it was used, why and to what extent.

Take a look at the picture on the BBC website here: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/7904929.stm?lss Anyone ever heard of Photoshop and Pallywood? When WP lands it immediately throws up a smokescreen. Can you see one? The only smokescreen I can see is the one that Hamas is constantly throwing up.

The IDF claims that WP was not used directly against civilians and used defensively, often TO AVOID civilian casualties. How? Well if you are an ethical state who does not want to return fire on terrorists who have placed themselves amongst that civilian population and at the same time you need to protect yourself, then using WP is an option that any battlefield commander would be justified to use to protect his own troops.

It is, however, illegal to do so, according to International Law, in built-up areas. In that case “the law is a ass…and the worst I wish the law is that his eye may be opened by experience”. As with any law, especially rules of war, each case must be considered in context, and examined in the light of the realities of the specific circumstances. WP is not an anti-personal weapon and should not be used as such.

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