Double Standards

Israel has existed in its current format since 1948. For as long as that it has been treated differently from all other states/nations in the world. It has been held to another standard than all other states/nations in the world.

Israel is expected to accept being attacked on a daily basis without responding, or if they do respond do so ‘proportionately’ – do you expect that from Russia in Chechnya, or the US in Afghanistan and Iraq? Or the Syrian government i Syria. No, you don’t. In fact no one says anything like that to any other nation using military force to deal with their terrorists. Oh, sure, every now and then there’s a slap on the wrist issued by the UN or EU against Russia, US or some other country going after terrorists, but that’s it. But never on the scale or with the ferocity they go after Israel on how they deal with Hamas.

No one calls what the US does in Afghanistan or Iraq genocide, or claims that Russia are Nazis for dealing with their terrorists. Why is that?

I think the answer is very simple. Israel has the audacity to call itself a ‘Jewish state’ – a home for all Jews that want to live there. In the expectations on Israel to deal with Hamas differently than Russia deals with Chechnya, or the US deals with the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, lies a deep and dark antisemitism. Israel is being held to a different standard simply because its majority population is Jewish.

If you are not willing to stand up for Chechnya, the Taliban or Al-Qaeda the way you stand up for Hamas, Fatah and Hezbollah, then you really should not stand up for either. Really.

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Open War During the Opening Ceremony!

Russian Tanks in South Ossetia after Russia surged into the Georgian break-away province during the Olympic Opening Ceremony on Friday August 8

That headline met me when I made my usual morning tour in the bath room this morning – there, on the hall way floor, it yelled at me. I knew already: Russia and Georgia moved into open war over the Georgian province South Ossetia. during the Olympic opening ceremony yesterday. My wife cried. CNN showed Russian tanks rolling over the border. She said, “disqualify Russia and Georgia from the Games for breaking the Olympic Peace”. My thoughts went to the small Georgian troop of athletes that had just passed over the screen as they marched in. I hoped they weren’t told by anyone what had just happened. I hoped they would be allowed to enjoy the Opening without having to worry about friends and relatives. Most of all I hoped that none of them were South Ossetians, because not much of South Ossetia remain untouched by Russian and Georgian military. Then I spotted Vladimir Putin…and, well what I said about him is not suited for print.

On Friday August 8 he carried the US Flag at the Olympic Opening Ceremony.
His appearance at the Olympic Opening was the closest that the Organization Team Darfur will get to expressing their opinion IN China

Lopez Lomong, originally from Darfur in Sudan, marched, head high in front of the American Troop. Just how much does his presence influence, and how much of that influence get back to the Chinese leaders, who are actively supporting the murder of the population in Darfur? How much will the letter that 40+ athletes have signed and sent to the Chinese Leadership actually do change China’s policy in Tibet? Who, of the 40+ will be disqualified from the Games as a result of their signature?

I have no idea, but I am sure that Lopez Lomong presence as the US Flag Bearer will mean a lot for International opinion, as a morale boost for activist and protesters, and I equally sure that the Letter will mean a morale boost for Tibet.

Hongkong didn’t have an Olympic Team while under British Rule – they have one under Chinese Rule!

Morale is important both in politics and in sports. The fact that China had to march in under 3 different flags – Hongkong China, Tapei China, and People’s Republic of China not only speaks volumes as to the conflicts and changes that are underway in China, it also boosts morale for those small, but strong “national” entities.

Taipei had an Olympic Team BEFORE China did, and they still have one, despite a lot of weapons’ rattling from China Main.

Thirty years ago years ago that would not have been possible. Thirty years ago we would not have known who of the Chinese athletes were from Hongkong or Singapore. So progress is being made.

Macao would have been the fourth entity to compete under one of the four flags, had it had a National Olympic Committee, but it doesn’t

Another point here is that thirty years ago we wouldn’t have KNOWN what exactly were the human rights violations committed by China – well, we would have had some basic ideas, based on out-smuggled notes, videos and such, but we would never have actually SEEN the evidence, and that too is a change. It might be that China wants to pretend that all is peachy, but through the back-door they are leaking like a sieve. I am not sure that the leaks are not intentional. After all China benefits from openness, and they know it.

Henric

The Republic of Kosovo – World Nation # 197*

Poor Albanians… You still don’t get it.

You are under educated as much as the Serbs are. Your incompetent little joke of “country” will never be independent. You have only changed the boss.

Do you really think Americans help you because they like you? Or because you suffered? Do you really believe in American fairy-tales about the world democracy and human rights?

I am pretty aware why US want Kosovo independent. In fact, they do not want it independent as much they want it OUT of Serbia.

I think most other people too are aware of why the US wants Kosovo out of Serbia, just as we all know why Russia and Serbia wants it to remain inside Serbia.

The reserves of Kosovo coal is enough for the needs of the whole Serbia in the next 200 years (17 billions of tons)
The soil samples from Kosovo indicate enormous reserves of the oil – though very deep in the ground (but not unreachable). Also, Manas Petroleum Corp. confirmed this researching oil reserves in North Albania (visit their website here)
The reserves of galena ore and zinc ores are practically inexhaustible. These ores are concentrated in the mine of Trepca (read: Trepcha), the second biggest lead and zinc producer in Europe
Big reserves of rare minerals such the ores of boron (used in nuclear technology), nickel and cobalt.
The agricultural potential is said to be bigger than the one in Vojvodina (Serbian North)
Fresh water – no comment

It is obvious, very obvious. An Independent Kosovo is a very rich country in terms of raw materials.

However, this has nothing to do with the reason why Kosovars want out of Serbia. They want out for the same reason Finland wanted out of Russia, East Timor wanted of Indonesia, India wanted out of the Brittish Commom Wealth, Palestine wants to be a Nation of their own and Abkhasia declared their independence – People have an innate desire for self-determination. They also have the right.

Kosovars aren’t Albanians, nor are they Serbs, Turks, Romani people, Goranis, Bosniaks or other ethnic communities. They are Kosovars. That is why, ultimately, they want to be the Republic of Kosovo. That is why we should hail them as the newest member of the 194 country strong International Community, and support their efforts to remain independent and free of imperialistic interventions from the US, Russia and Serbia or any other nation who wish to strip Kosovo of her rich natural resources that are rightfully hers and her people’s.

*“Definitions of what constitutes a country also vary. Some will go with the simple view that if it is a member of the United Nations(UN) it’s a country. By that reckoning there are 192 countries in the world. But Vatican City is undoubtedly a country, and not a member of the UN, so that means the total must now be 193! Oh and then there are Taiwan and Tibet – so that’s 195.” This site is not counting East Timor and Kosovo, so…that makes 197.

Reform Judaism has a point, Nu?

 

 

“MK Yossi Beilin (Meretz-Yahad) is adamantly opposed to changing the law. “Israel’s door must be much broader, not closer to halakhic definitions,” he said yesterday. “There is no reason that the children and grandchildren, and even great grandchildren [of Jews], cannot immigrate, and recently we have had cases of great grandchildren who want to come.”
Opposition to amending the Law of Return also came from the other side of the political spectrum. “If we do not let grandchildren immigrate, it will hurt thousands of people who grew up in Jewish families, with a clear connection to Judaism, and who suffered from anti-Semitism,” said MK Zeev Elkin (Kadima). He believes that changes to the Jewish Agency’s immigration encouragement policies would be sufficient to keep out “undesirable” immigrants- non-Jews and those with a minimal attachment to Judaism. Elkin, a former consultant to the head of the Jewish Agency, says the organization focuses its immigration efforts on remote areas of the former Soviet Union, where the population is poorer. It is more difficult to persuade Jews in the larger cities, where economic conditions are better, to come to Israel, he noted.”

Halacha accepts anyone as Jewish if they have a Jewish mother or have converted to Judaism in accordance with Orthodox Tradition. Law of Return accepts anyone with a Jewish Ancestor… Hitler did as much for the Jews too – and see it put us in a pickle a second time.

 

Reform Judaism accepts anyone as Jewish if they have one Jewish parent AND has been raised Jewish, with a clear connection to Judaism – now if Halacha and the Law of Return has some sense they would pick up the logic of Reform Judaism on this and implement it ASAP.

“This isn’t enough; we have to finish you off.”

Police in Israel have uncovered a neo-Nazi ring which was responsible for vandalising synagogues and carrying out attacks on Jews and foreign workers in Israel, a court was told [on September 9].

It appears that the number of Russian Jews who will emigrate to Germany this year will be larger than the number who come to Israel; the law under which Jews from the former Soviet Union can immigrate to Germany is close to the restricted definition of “Jewish under Jewish law.” The Israeli Law of Return, however, is in fact based on the Nuremberg Laws, in which the Germans expanded the definition of who is Jewish in accordance with their own needs.

In November, 2002, an immigrant social worker was called urgently to a school in Kiryat Menachem in Jerusalem to help children and families who were hurt in a terror attack on a bus in the neighborhood. Distressed and anxious, she made her way to the neighborhood by bus. Before she got off the bus, one of the passengers, a Russian-speaking woman, said: “This isn’t enough; we have to finish you off.”

 

Recently, skinheads have been seen in Hatzor and Kiryat Shmona. In Russian bookstores in Israel, books that promote Holocaust-denial are sold openly (which is against the law), as are cassettes of neo-Nazi songs like “The Nazis are Coming.”

I thought I had seen and read everything. Am I shocked? Yes. And. No. After all Anti-Semitism has always been staple attitude in Russia, so if you don’t really identify with being Jewish, because basically, your parents are half-ass Jews brought to Israel under the Law of Return – which will take anyone with at least one Yid in the family, then is it any surprise that you bring along a culture of hatred for the Jews – after all your are not Jewish, right?

 

“There is a metaphysical dimension in the Law of Return that comes in to compensate for every drop of Jewish blood for which the Nazis wanted to slaughter the Jewish people,”says writer and essayist Maya Kaganskaya, who has also made a study of fascism in Russia. “Metaphysically, I also agree with it. But in the real sense, the Jewish people is in danger because of it. There is a problem here that is difficult to solve. It’s easy to deal with the neo-Nazi movement – they should simply be thrown out of here. I am familiar with this phenomenon from Russia, where it’s fairly popular. Nazis and Hitler become surrounded by a halo of romanticism in the struggle against the new world. But the real problem is the Law of Return. A Jewish state according to Jewish religious law and a state built on the Law of Return as it stands both lead to the end of the state. It is necessary to bring together intellectuals, demographers and legal experts who will reexamine to what extent and according to what test it is possible to accept immigrants here.”

Yup, revoke their citizenship, deport them back to Russia, and make some real changes to the legislation. It is ironic that Gentile Converts to Judaism, who most often have a true love for the Jewish People and the True Land of Israel, are often forced to jump through insane hoops to get a certified Aliyah Card and be eligible for immigration under the Law of Return, but those little scumbags can slide in, uncircumcised, uneducated and illiterate simply because they have a drop of Jewish blood in their veins. Sorry, but that’s sick.

 

“For about three years now, the Information Center for Victims of Anti-Semitism in Israel has been active. Its members track manifestations of anti-Semitism in this country through “open” sources, such as the press, and individual complaints that are made to them. The center is headed by Zalman Gilichinsky, 39, a painter by profession, a newly observant Jew who immigrated to Israel from Kishinev.

Over time he has accumulated hundreds of incidents that elsewhere in the world would be defined as “manifestations of anti-Semitism,” but in Israel, the political system and the law-enforcement authorities relate to them with studied indifference. The range of incidents is wide: non-Jewish immigrants calling Jewish immigrants Zhid, an elderly Jewish immigrant woman in Jerusalem being beaten by a non-Jewish caregiver who calls her “Zhidovka,” comments like “Hitler didn’t finish the job,” swastika graffiti found all the time in predominantly Russian-speaking neighborhoods, vandalism in synagogues and cemeteries.”

The Secular Zionist Idea has clearly gone Absolutely Stark Raving Mad!