Teaching role of Partisans in the Holocaust

'Defiance' schooling classes on Holocaust
BY MEREDITH KOLODNER
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, January 11th 2009, 8:29 PM

Some city teachers are using the film "Defiance," about Jewish resistance in World War II, in their curriculum to teach an unusual focus on the Holocaust.

The film, which stars Daniel Craig - who also is the latest James Bond - tells of two Jewish brothers who helped save more than 1,200 Jews by organizing a hidden, mobile village in the Polish forest.

"Very often students, when studying this history, think of Jews as being very passive," veteran teacher Alice Braziller said.

"I don't think you should teach the Holocaust unless you're also talking about resistance," added Braziller, who teaches at Manhattan's Satellite Academy High School/HS570.

The history of these resistance fighters is not usually taught in high school.

"This has been an unknown story in classrooms," said Mitch Braff, founder of the Jewish Partisan Educational Foundation.

"Many of the partisans were teenagers. The story is that young people can stand up against tyranny and make a difference."

The group developed an online curriculum to go with the film (www. jewishpartisans.org).

In the film, the brothers not only hide fellow Jews, they attack from the forest and kill German soldiers and their collaborators.

"It really struck me that they were very fierce and very strong," said Satellite senior Arriann Henry. "They didn't only protect themselves, they saved other people."

Bronx High School of Science has long taught a course on the Holocaust.

"Last year, we watched "Schindler's List," and we talked a lot about non-Jewish rescuers," said Sophia Sapozhnikov, who plans to use the "Defiance" curriculum in her Holocaust course.

"It's good to have examples of Jews who rescued themselves."

Sapozhnikov's grandfather survived the Holocaust by fleeing Romania during the war. Five of his siblings died in Auschwitz.

Her maternal grandmother, who was Ukrainian, saved a family of Jews by hiding them in her church.

She said the curriculum was a way of raising ethical questions about if and when killing and revenge is justified.

"At one point a character says, 'Even though hunted like animals, we will not become like animals,'" said Sapozhnikov, 30.

"Their goals change. These are people who can serve as a role model to students."mkolodner@nydailynews.com

Continued (Permanent Link)

The young Adolf Hitler: Furor over fuhrer name

Herzlichen Glückwunsch zum Geburtstag, zu unseren jungen Führer.

Last update - 14:06 17/12/2008
3-year-old Adolf Hitler finally gets his name on his birthday cake
By The Associated Press


The father of 3-year-old Adolf Hitler Campbell is asking for a little tolerance, after a New Jersey supermarket refused to decorate a birthday cake with the child's full name on it.

Heath Campbell and his wife, Deborah, are upset not only with the decision made by the nearby ShopRite, but also with an outpouring of angry Internet postings in response to a local newspaper article about the cake.

Heath Campbell, who is 35, said in an interview Tuesday that people should look forward, not back, and accept change.

"They need to accept a name. A name's a name. The kid isn't going to grow up and do what [Hitler] did," he said.

Deborah Campbell, 25, said she phoned in her order last week to the ShopRite. When she told the bakery department she wanted her son's name spelled out, she was told to talk to a supervisor, who denied the request.

Karen Meleta, a spokeswoman for ShopRite, said the Campbells had similar requests denied at the same store the last two years and said Heath Campbell previously had asked for a swastika to be included in the decoration.

"We reserve the right not to print anything on the cake that we deem to be inappropriate,"Meleta said. We considered this inappropriate.

The Campbells ultimately got their cake decorated at a Wal-Mart in Pennsylvania, Deborah Campbell said. About 12 people attended the birthday party on Sunday, including several children who were of mixed race, according to Heath Campbell.

"If we're so racist, then why would I have them come into my home?" he asked.The Campbells' other two children also have unusual names: JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell turns 2 in a few months and Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell will be 1 in April.

Heath Campbell said he named his son after Adolf Hitler because he liked the name and because no one else in the world would have that name.

On Tuesday he wore a pair of black boots he said were worn by a German soldier during World War II.

Campbell said his ancestors are German and that he has lived all his life in Hunterdon County, New Jersey, which is across the Delaware River from Easton

Continued (Permanent Link)

Pernicious UK Holocaust Education Discontinuation Hoax continues

Last spring someone started a vicious, cruel, tasteless and pointless hoax chain letter that claimed falsely that the UK had discontinued Holocaust Education. A misunderstanding was conceivable, because of a sensationalist journal article. But the hoaxer had attached the falsehood to a memorial letter about the Holocaust.

See: Holocaust Education in UK: Clarifying rumors and hoaxes

The Holocaust hoax died down, but now it has been revived. Today I got yet another of these e-mails, with an addition. The story about Eisenhower is apparently true, but the claim that the UK has stopped teaching about the Holocaust is groundless.

The first part of the e-mail is below. To my mind, there is an element of mental derangement evidenced in sending a fake message "in memoriam" for Holocaust victims. Note that the message claims that "this week" the UK removed Holocaust education from its curriculum. The report about Holocaust education that sparked the rumor was published in April 2007. It related to a study of curriculum changes done over a longer period. Nobody who actually read the report (see here ) could have understood that the changes had taken place "this week."

Please do not circulate these or any other hoax emails. Spreading lies is not "activism." Spreading lies does not help any cause - it hurts it. Do not forward any chain letters until you have checked, using a search engine, that the information is true. Just type a few words from the message in any search engine and add the word "hoax."

If you get any such chain letters, please inform the people who sent them that they are spreading falsehoods and discredited their own cause.

The person who added their own twist to the hoax (see "Modified by") has apologized. Therefore, I removed his name. He didn't know it was a hoax as he got it from someone he trusted, he said. Like AIDs and other "social diseases," hoax letters and viruses are spread by people you trust.

Ami Isseroff


Subject: MUST TAKE NOTE - UK removes Holocaust (Modified by XXXX)


Subject: UK removes Holocaust



UK removes Holocaust


It is a matter of history that when
Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces, General
Dwight Eisenhower, found the victims of the death
camps he ordered all possible photographs to be
taken, and for the German people from surrounding
villages to be ushered through the camps and even
made to bury the dead.

He did this because he said in words to
this effect: "Get it all on record now - get the
films - get the witnesses - because somewhere down
the track of history some bastard will get up and
say that this never happened"

"All that is necessary for the triumph
of evil is for good men to do nothing."

Edmund Burke

In Memorium

This week, the UK removed The Holocaust
from its school curriculum because it "offended" the
Muslim population which claims it never occurred.
This is a frightening portent of the fear that is
gripping the world and how easily each country is
giving in to it.

It is now more than 60 years after the
Second World War in Europe ended.

This e-mail is being sent as a memorial
chain, in memory of the 6 million Jews,

20 million Russians,

10 million Christians

and 1,900 Catholic priests

who were murdered, massacred, raped,
burned, starved and humiliated while the German and
Russian peoples looked the other way!
....

Continued (Permanent Link)

Yad Vashem opens Arabic Web site

Teaching about the Holocaust - in Arabic

 

Last update - 19:35 24/01/2008    

 

 Yad Vashem launches Arabic Web site to combat Holocaust denial 

By The Associated Press 

 

The Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial in Jerusalem on Thursday launched an Arabic version of its Web site, including vivid photos of Nazi atrocities and video of survivor testimony, to combat Holocaust denial in the Arab and Muslim world.

 

Among those featured on the site is Dina Beitler, a survivor of the Nazi genocide that killed 6 million Jews in World War II. Beitler, who was shot and left for dead in a pit of bodies in 1941, recalls her story on the site, with Arabic subtitles.

 

"Holocaust denial in various countries exists, and so it is important that people see us, the Holocaust survivors, that they'll listen to our testimonies, and learn the legacy of the Holocaust - also in Arabic," Beitler, 73, said at Yad Vashem on Thursday.

 

Last year, Yad Vashem presented a similar version of its Web site in Farsi, aimed at Iran, whose president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, has called the Holocaust a myth and said Israel should be wiped off the map. He has also hosted a conference that questioned whether the Holocaust took place.

 

On the Arab street, many are indeed hostile to Israel, but Ahmadinejad's comments stand out as much harsher than those of any mainstream Mideast leaders.

 

A wide range of sentiments toward the Holocaust exists across the Arab world, from simple ignorance about its details to outright denial, to a more complicated belief - often expressed by many Arabs - that the Holocaust did indeed happen but does not justify what is viewed as Israeli persecution of Palestinians.

 

Nazi literature is accessible in many Arab cities and some of the media engage in anti-Semitic incitement. However, even Iran last year permitted the broadcast of a television miniseries that told the tale of an Iranian diplomat in Paris who helped Jews escape the Holocaust - and viewers were riveted.

 

"Still, Holocaust denial is quite common," said Edward Walker, a former ambassador to Israel and Egypt.

 

"Students often write their Ph.D. theses denying the Holocaust," he said. "Children are taught by elders that the Holocaust was a hoax. It's widespread in big universities in Cairo, so that means it's probably as common in the small ones in the rest of the country as well."

 

The problem also exists in Israel.

 

Last March, a poll showed that 28 percent of Israel's Arab citizens did not believe the Holocaust happened, and that among high school and college graduates the figure was even higher - 33 percent.

 

The poll, conducted by Sami Smooha, a prominent sociologist at the University of Haifa, surveyed 721 Arabs and had a margin of error of 3.7 percentage points.

 

Raleb Majadele, Israel's lone Arab Cabinet minister, said the Yad Vashem site was imperative in battling that trend. The Internet is difficult to block with barriers of censorship and hate. "From now on, also Arabic speakers will be able to learn the truth about the Holocaust," he said.

 

Speaking in Hebrew at the ceremony marking the site's launching, he called the Holocaust a horrific act against the Jewish people, but not just against the Jewish people. "It was against humanity, against all nations, against all religions."

 

Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev said Arabic-language Holocaust education was long overdue.

 

"Providing an easily accessible and comprehensive Web site about the Holocaust in Arabic is crucial," he said. "We want to offer an alternative source of information to moderates in these countries, to provide them with reliable information."

 

The site also includes chapters about Albanian and Turkish Muslims who risked their lives to save Jews during World War II, a film that documents a recent joint visit of Jews and Arabs to the Auschwitz death camp and a 25-minute video address by Prince Hassan of Jordan.

 

"All the children of Abraham feel a sense of enormous distress at the Holocaust, which afflicted one of the branches of our interlinked family," he said in Arabic.

 

In 2007, Yad Vashem said nearly 7 million people, from more than 200 countries, visited its Web site.

 

Some 56,000 of those came from Muslim countries, including 32,500 from Arabic-speaking countries. Yad Vashem said it hoped the new Arabic site would increase that number drastically and said it had discovered encouraging findings that indicated there was a large demand.

 

On the Net:
Yad Vashem: http://www.yadvashem.org

 

Yad Vashem in Arabic

Source

Continued (Permanent Link)

Irena Sendler: A Polish "Schindler" lady

October 15, 2007
Meet Irena Sendler

October 15, 2007 - Irena Sendler. Are you familiar with the name? Most people may not be. However, by the end of this article, you will see that this is a woman who personifies courage, strength, honor, fortitude and love--traits that most of us, including myself, claim to possess, yet rarely exhibit--to an extent that is simply unfathomable. She is a true warrior; an authentic champion.

You see, Ms. Sendler, who celebrated her 97th birthday earlier this year, can lay claim to the primary role in a story that is as compelling as it is astonishing. As a young, Roman Catholic, Polish woman in 1942, Ms. Sendler defied torture and death at the hands of the Nazis in order to save the lives of 2,500 Jewish children in the Warsaw Ghetto. In so doing, she single-handedly rescued these children from death--a death that would have followed with 100% certainty--in the Nazi concentration camps of Europe.

In actuality, Ms. Sendler, at the time a social worker in Nazi-occupied Poland, began helping Jews prior to the establishment of the Warsaw Ghetto. As a member of the Zegota, an underground council facilitated to assist the Jews, Ms. Sendler took it upon herself to rescue children, since children, along with women, were almost certain to be put to death immediately upon entry into the Nazi death camps. Ms. Sendler, who is not Jewish, went as far as to don the "Star of David" whilst in the Warsaw Ghetto, so as to not draw attention to herself.

Faced with the reality of certain death if her mission became compromised, Ms. Sendler organized the smuggling of 2,500 Jewish children out of the Warsaw Ghetto and into the homes of sympathetic Polish families as well as Catholic convents and orphanages such as the Sisters of the Family of Mary and the Little Servant Sisters of the Immaculate Conception of Blessed Mary. In some cases, Ms. Sendler hand-carried children out of the ghetto herself. The children's identities were never lost. Ms. Sendler kept hidden lists in jars that tracked their original identities alongside their new identities.

Continued here: Meet Irena Sendler

Continued (Permanent Link)

Hatikva in Bergen Belsen

This little item below, that appears on a few Web logs such as here, was apparently written in April of 2007. But it deserves a much wider audience. Please do listen to the recording of the BBC from the good old days of 1945, and the recording of Hatiqva ( http://genealogy.org.il/BergenBelsenHatikva.mp3 ) made in the liberated Bergen - Belsen concentration camp.

 

It is a simple reply to Ahmmadinejad, to Norman Finkelstein and to their friends. It is a reply to anyone who denies the Holocaust, and to anyone who denies the meaning of the Holocaust for Zionism and the Jewish people. For those people, the Jewish state that did not yet exist, represented hope that the Jewish people would literally rise from the ashes.

 

For those who forgot what Zionism is really about, this is a reminder.  

 

Ami Isseroff

 

Scott Simon of NPR reports on a rare recording of "Hatikva " from almost 62 years ago. If this doesn't give you goosebumps I don't know what will.

It was recorded by a British reporter on April 20, 1945 in Bergen-Belsen when the British army liberated the few thousand survivors in the concentration camp, half of which were Jewish, most of them at the extremes of their strength. It was recently discovered and apparently was loaned to NPR by the Smithsonian Institute.

The British priest organized prayers for Kabbalat Shabbat for the Jews. It was the first time after six years of war and after more than 10 years of persecution. With a lot of effort the Jews organized themselves and, knowing they were recorded, sang " Hatikva".

As you can hear they sang the original version as it was written by Naftali Imber. Picturing them in the midst of the concentration camp singing after all they had been through renders this a very moving scenario.

 

Courtesy of Sandy Disler

 

Posted here as well. 


                                                               

Continued (Permanent Link)

Holocaust Education in UK: Clarifying rumors and hoaxes

(January 2008 update - the UK Holocaust Education Hoax lives on in a "new improved" version - http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2008/01/pernicious-uk-holocaust-education.html)

Here is further, and authoritative, information about the UK Holocaust education rumors. I wrote about the UK stops Holocaust Education hoax here:

http://zionism-israel.com/israel_news/2007/04/politically-correct-in-uk-avoid.html

The hoax doesn't seem to be going away however. I have gotten three of these letters thus far since I wrote about it last.

The letter below attempts to clarify the rumors that UK schools have stopped teaching about the Holocaust. These rumors are being deliberately encouraged by a hoax email that claims that "recently this week" it was announced that UK schools will stop teaching about the Holocaust, for fear of offending Muslims.

This is a pointless and vicious hoax. Please do not forward such letters. If you get a UK Holocaust education hoax letter, please send the originator this message with the information below, and ask them to send this message back to the people who sent it to them.

Thank you.

Ami Isseroff

16th April 2007

Dear Friend,

Over the past weeks there have been a number of rumours circulating via email regarding Holocaust education here in the UK. The emails suggest that the UK Government are removing Holocaust education from the National Curriculum and that in general British schools steer away from teaching what they might consider, a 'controversial' subject. We want to make it clear that our understanding is the Holocaust is and will continue to be on the National Curriculum and therefore continue to be taught in all UK schools.

Background

These rumours stemmed from a piece that featured in a number of newspapers including the Daily Mail, Guardian and The Telegraph at the beginning of April. See the following links:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/pages/live/articles/news/news.html?in_article_id=445979&in_page_id=1770&ito=newsnow;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/04/02/nschools02.xml;

http://education.guardian.co.uk/schools/story/0,,2048161,00.html

The news stories came about as a result of a report commissioned by the Department for Education and Skills (DfES) and undertaken by the Historical Association. The report, 'Challenges and Opportunities for Teaching Emotive and Controversial History 13-19 (TEACH)', addresses both the challenges teachers face, as well as the good practise that is occurring when teaching all emotive and controversial historical issues such as: Slavery, the Crusades and the Holocaust. The full TEACH report is available on the HA website: http://www.haevents.org.uk/PastEvents/Others/Teach%20report.pdf

In light of this story the Holocaust Educational Trust would like to clarify what to our knowledge is the situation in the UK.

Holocaust Education in the UK:

1. * The Holocaust became part of the National Curriculum for History in 1991. It is statutory for all students in England and Wales to learn about the Holocaust at Key Stage 3 usually in Year 9 History (aged 13 -14).
2. * Many students will study the Holocaust in Religious Studies, English and Citizenship lessons.
3. * The UK holds a national Holocaust Memorial Day on January 27th (marking the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau), and this is marked widely in primary and secondary schools across the country.
4. * The UK has a permanent Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum in London, visited by 1000s of people each year.
5. * The British Government sponsors two students (16 – 18 year olds) per secondary school/ further education college to visit Auschwitz-Birkenau through the Holocaust Educational

   Trusts Lessons from Auschwitz Programme (This is due to a £1.5 million grant from the Government every year from 2006-2008)

6. * School groups and private individuals visit the permanent Holocaust exhibition at the Imperial War Museum, the Jewish Museum, London, and The Holocaust Centre, Beth Shalom in Newark and educational establishments work with resources and educational programmes provided by other important organisations such as the Anne Frank Trust (UK), London Jewish Cultural Centre, and the Wiener Library.
7. * Teacher training ensures that 100s of newly qualified teachers are provided with skills and materials to ensure effective Holocaust education for their students.
8. * Existing teachers participate in training around the UK, and specialist programmes run by

   Holocaust education organisations including the Holocaust Educational Trust, Imperial War

   Museum and Beth Shalom.

   Within the TEACH report from the Historical Association, there is one particular line relating to Holocaust education which has been the focus of the press and various alarmed emails. It features in the section addressing why teachers avoid teaching certain subjects and states:

   '.. a history department in a northern city recently avoided selecting the Holocaust as a topic for GCSE coursework for fear of confronting anti-Semitic (sic) sentiment and Holocaust denial among some Muslim pupils'. (p 15)

   The key points regarding this statement are:

9. * This does not refer to Holocaust education on the National Curriculum - it is a post- 14 History GCSE course (publicly examined course)
10. * History at GCSE is not compulsory (only a 1/3 of pupils opt for history post-14)
11. * This is an anecdotal response from one teacher in one school out of 4500 secondary schools in the UK. While we cannot say what happens in every single school, our understanding is that this is highly unusual and not general practise of teachers around the country.
12. * All schools can choose which history topics they wish to study for coursework at GCSE level.
13. * There is no suggestion that this or any other school is failing to cover the National Curriculum in teaching about the Holocaust at Key Stage 3, Year 9 (age 13 – 14).

At no point does the report from the Historical Association suggest that the Holocaust be removed from the National Curriculum for England and Wales.

Obviously we and all Holocaust related organisations in the UK take this very seriously, however on this occasion we want to allay all fears and impress upon everyone that the Holocaust is not being removed from the National Curriculum. This particular incident does of course merit further investigation but in no way represents all the good work in our schools across the country.

Please do circulate this far and wide to all who have shown an interest in this particular issue and Holocaust education in general here in the UK.

Should you require further information please do contact us at the Holocaust Educational Trust by emailing info@het.org.uk

With best wishes

Karen Pollock

Chief Executive

Holocaust Educational Trust

BCM Box 7892

London WC1N 3XX

www.het.org.uk

Tel: 020 7222 6822

Fax: 020 7233 0161

Continued (Permanent Link)

Coming to terms with Gush Etzion

Coming to terms with Gush Etzion
The varieties of compassion and national grief.

We are told by those who know, that we must have compassion for the suffering of others, and indeed we do. The whole world must know by now of the death of Sheikh Ahmed Yassin. Sheikh Yassin was head of the Hamas, a blameless "militant" spiritual leader, cut down mercilessly by the evil and greedy Zionists, while he was engaged in the worthwhile pursuit of planning to send more evil Jews to meet Allah. Everyone mourns the tragic death of the blameless Rachel Corrie, who came to Gaza to defend Palestinian weapons smuggling tunnels against the heartless IDF. Who can forget little Muhamed Al-Dura, who was certainly killed by someone in front of the artful cameras of French television?

Every Palestinian child, and every politically correct and compassionate advocate, knows the names of all the Zionist massacres that ever took place, and of several that did not, and the numbers of countless victims, real and imaginary. Who does not know of Deir Yassin? What Counterpunch reader will not be able to tell you that in Jenin, the Zionists murdered 500 innocent Palestinians? No matter that actually 56 Palestinian Arabs died in Jenin. No matter that most of them were armed guerillas (or terrorists or "militants" if you like). No matter that these guerillas and their friends were responsible for murdering over a hundred Israelis in the previous month. Mohammed abu Nimr, a Palestinian who professes peace, explained that the Israelis murdered 500 Palestinians in Jenin, while the Palestinians were only engaged in nonviolent actions. Nobody remembers the names of those murdered Israelis except their relatives and friends. Mohamed Abu Nimr is going to bury the fact of their death as well.

You know who Muhamed Al Dura was. Probably you heard of Rachel Corrie. Do you know Amil Almalich? Michael Ben-Sa'adon? Israel Samolia? They were killed by a suicide bomber in Eilat just now. In a month, who will remember their names? Who will remember that they died? It was another "nonviolent action" of the Palestinians. If Israel decides one day, that it must take up arms to stop suicide bombing, won't the usual people write about another 500 imaginary Palestinian victims, and entirely ignore the real Israeli victims?

In the pages of Los Angeles Times, the 500 imaginary victims of the imaginary Jenin massacre were compared by a warped Jewish writer to the very real Jewish victims of the Nazi SS in the Warsaw Ghetto. It is not permissible for Jews to discuss the Holocaust in the context of the death of Jews, as that is part of the "Holocaust Industry," but it is perfectly fashionable to expound upon the imaginary Holocaust of the Palestinian Arabs. Without a shred of proof, the hysterical proponents of misguided compassion insist that the evil Zionists are perpetrating genocide and ethnic cleansing against the Palestinians. The facts don't matter to these disciples of Jose Saramago, of Ilan Pappe and other fiction writers. What matters is emotion.

The required emotion is hatred for Israel and Zionists. Compassion for imaginary victims is one byproduct, outrage at the imaginary crimes of the Zionists is another. Never mind that almost all the Palestinian Arabs are still very much alive, except for the ones who blow themselves up in our cities and become "martyrs." No less a person than Spanish Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago, likewise compared the imaginary victims of Jenin to victims of the Holocaust. It is fitting, since Senor Saramago is a writer of fictional novels.

In past years, the Palestinian Authority, in order to educate its people to accept peace with their Israeli neighbors no doubt, staged a yearly Nakba ceremony, to commemorate the disaster that overcame the Palestinian Arabs in 1948, when their leaders induced them to try to exercise their sovereign right to annihilate the Jewish people. The effort failed, and the perpetrators suffered. While we Israelis mark our days of mourning with a minute of silence, Palestinian commemorations seem to require gunfire and rioting. True pluralists must appreciate the varieties of grief. The Palestinians made the commemoration of this event into an organized expression of constant grief and of hate for the Jews. None of us are not allowed to forget the Nakba in writing, in art exhibits and in demonstrations. A genuine Nakba industry sprang up, with people bused to demonstrations, carrying signs of their native towns, keys of their houses. The Nakba must be remembered. Only the causes of the Nakba, like the cause of the Israeli "massacre" in Jenin, must never be examined too closely.

When did Israelis, expelled from the old city of Jerusalem and from Hebron in 1936 and 1948, ever demonstrate with keys to their houses? When did the hundreds of thousands of Jewish refugees expelled from Arab lands demonstrate with keys to their houses?

Palestinian grief is a public affair. It demands compassion. It is politically correct to have compassion for Palestinian Arabs and to describe their suffering in the minutest detail.

Israeli grief must be handled differently however. In the past, Jews were weak. It was not fitting to mourn for Jews, because that was after all, the fate of Jews. No sense getting upset over the deaths of a few more unfortunate Jews in Kishinev or Ukraine or wherever, is there? But now the Jews in Israel are no longer victims. Now it is not fitting to mourn for Jews because we are strong. We are therefore, "the oppressors." Jews don't get compassion.

All you folks who know about Rachel Corrie and Mohamed al-Dura, here are pictures of evil Zionist colonialist imperialist racist oppressors killed by "militants" of the Palestinian "resistance." Can you identify even one of them?

See http://www.zionism-israel.com/vic/123_israeli_kids_killed.htm to find the names of these Zionist victims and many others. They are our honored dead.

Very probably you heard of Deir Yassin. Every Palestinian knows this place, where berserk Jewish underground fighters apparently killed about 100 civilians. Have you heard of the Lamed Heh? Don't be ashamed. A poll showed that 50% of Israelis never heard of the Lamed Heh either. The Lamed Heh were thirty five young men of the Haganah, sent to bring supplies on foot to Gush Etzion in January of 1948. The story told of them, is that they were seen by an Arab shepherd on the way, and though they knew he might inform on them and call out an ambush, they would not kill him. True or not, this story was repeated to every Israeli child, not as a warning of the cruelty of the enemy, but as an example of the moral values of Israeli fighters.

The facts that are known for certain: they were ambushed at dawn and murdered. They were never given a chance to surrender of course. Their mutilated bodies were photographed by a British soldier, who left his film in a Jerusalem shop to be developed. He never came to pick it up. About 50 years later, the film was discovered by chance. It was decided that the pictures were too gruesome to be shown to the public. It is not politically correct, from the anti-Zionist point of view, to have compassion for Jews. >From the Zionist point of view, It is demoralizing to show casualties.

It is not politically correct either to mention that massacre outside Gush Etzion or the one that took place in May in Gush Etzion, where a large number of soldiers (Jewish of course) who had surrendered were mowed down. It is not politically correct either, to mention the (Jewish of course) civilians were murdered in Hebron or Jerusalem in 1929 or 1936.

This young man below is Danny Mas. He was the leader of the Lamed Heh. He probably died because he would not kill an Arab shepherd.

You never heard of him before, did you? The compassionate people of Counterpunch and the Nation never heard of him either. Naomi Klein, who writes fiction about Jewish Nazis in Jenin, never heard of him. He was a Palestinian martyr, more Palestinian than Izzedin al Qassam who was a Syrian. But Danny Mas was a Jewish Palestinian, so there are no Danny Mas terrorist squads named after him.

That is our fault. The fault of Israelis and Jews. Jews never liked to dwell on unpleasant things. In Jewish history, time was allowed to obliterate catastrophes. We always wanted to believe that the previous expulsion, the previous pogrom was the last one in history. Now we are safe. Those things always happened in the bad old country. Here in this new place, we are safe. This country after all, is not like Czarist Russia or medieval Poland or medieval Spain, is it? Nothing bad can happen to Jews here. This country is modern, moderate, democratic and progressive Weimar Germany.

In Israel, or Palestine, news of Arab atrocities was hushed up. We, the evil "Israel Lobby" don't want that news to get out. Palestine was, and Israel is, supposed to be a safe haven for the Jews. If we told people that Jews die here, they would say that Zionism is a failure. And indeed, when the fiction writers of Counterpunch and the Nation mention Israeli casualties, they invariably explain that these casualties are "proof" of the failure of Zionism.

So how can we come to terms with Gush Etzion, with the death of the Lamed Heh, with the deaths of over a hundred children in the recent Palestinian "nonviolent actions," with the deaths of three people in Eilat in the most recent suicide bombing? How are these Jewish deaths different from all those others, in the other countries, that we don't want to think about?

They are different. Imagine if there had been an IDF in 1942, and Israeli paratroopers could have rescued the Jews of the Warsaw Ghetto, killing their Nazi guards. No doubt the Jose Saramagos and Mohammed Abu Nimrs of the world would explain that the Jews committed a massacre in Warsaw, while the Germans had performed only nonviolent actions. No doubt a Naomi Klein would explain that Jews ought to have compassion, and that the Israelis had made her ashamed to be a Jew. But it would still be worth it, no?

Please don't have compassion for Danny Mas and the Lamed Heh, or for the sisters and wives of these victims or for the parents of those poor dead children. They don't want your compassion or your pity. These people deserve your respect and love. They made their sacrifice so that we Jews could be a free people in our own land. If you are Jewish, even if you are a writer of anti-Zionist fantasies in the Los Angeles Times, they died so that you could be free too.

That is how we must come to terms with Gush Etzion.

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)

Rabbi Moshe (Moishe) Aryeh Friedman in his element among Iranian Holocaust deniers
14.12. 2006
http://www.zionism-israel.com/log/archives/00000309.html
Original content copyright by the author
Zionism & Israel Center http://zionism-israel.com

Another installment in tales of the Rebbe from Hell. Moshe (Moishe) Aryeh Friedman had to show up, of course at the Iranian Holocaust deniers conference. He was in good company with KKK Grand Wizard David Duke, Neturei Karteh members, bona fide regular neo-Nazis and Iranian wannabe neo-Nazi Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Friedman is among his element with these progressive humanitarians, having previously allied himself with Austrian neo-Nazis and with the Hamas.
At the meeting, according to the German Stern journal, Friedman praised the Holocaust denial conference as advancing "knowledge" about the Holocaust, and claimed that the latest research shows that "only" a million Jews were killed in the Holocaust, and not 6 million. The number 6 million, according to him, was taken from a prophecy by Theodor Herzl.

According to an English language report from the Iranian Republic of Iran Broadcasting Web site:

Rabbi Moshe Aryeh Friedman from Austria and chief of the Orthodox
Anti-Zionist society of Austria, French professor Robert Faurisson, David Reis a
member of anti-Zionist rabbis society in America, Ian Bernhoff a Swedish
researcher, Fredrick Toeben a prominent German-born Australian revisionist of
the Holocaust, David Duke a political science professor in Ukraine's university,
Leonardo De Chlirchi from Belgium, Kriptian Lindenz a professor from Denmark and
Alexander Baron from Britain.

12 rabbis membering the anti-Zionist rabbis society in America and Austria
are participating in the conference. (source:http://www.
iribnews.ir/Full_en.asp?news_id=227186 )

Well, not exactly English, but close enough. The report refers to the participation of these demented rabbis and Klan Wizard Duke as "Top researchers in Holocaust meeting."

The "anti-Zionist rabbis society in America" apparently refers to the Neturei Karteh, who got a hefty subsidy from Yasser Arafat, and who are accredited to the United Nations Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) (see "The Question of Palestine"). Apparently, the inalienable rights of the Palestinians and the Iranians include Holocaust denial.

So tell me, Reb Holocaust Denier, what is the Halachic ruling for sucking the blood of your brothers? Is it kosher or not kosher?

With Jews like that, who needs Nazis?

The people really missing from this conference were the compilers of the Iran Study Group report, who should have been there to engage Mr. Ahmadinejad.

Ami Isseroff

Continued (Permanent Link)