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Monday, May 5, 2008

SHOAH AND ANTI-SHOAH

On May 1 the Israeli Nazereth District Court granted permission for the Islamic Movement to use the Town of Nazereth Soccer Stadium for it's scheduled celebration of the birthday of the prophet Muhammed; to which this year the Islamic Movement has added for the first time the commemoration of AL-NAQBA. It is most perverse that in Israel there is no apparent law against the negative commemoration "Al-Naqba". "Al-Naqba" is the Arab formalized anti-recognition of the State of Israel.

The literal meaning of "Al-Naqba" is "The Catastrophe". "Al-Naqba" would be a suitable Arabic designation for the Shoah (The Holocaust). But it is not. If there does exist an appropriate word in Arabic for the Shoah, it has been flagrantly ommitted publicly in favor of the ubiquitous view amongst the Muslims that the Shoah was an invention of Jewish propaganda.

"Al-Naqba" would be a suitable name for a suicide/homicide bomber. It is instead the name for the Arab anti-celebration to "Israel Independence Day". It is flagrantly alien, treasonous, seditious, inciteful, rude, insulting, and disgusting that Israel's Muslims, as well as many secular Arabs, celebrate this anti-Israel Commemoration Day, which day could just as well be called "Anti-Holocaust Day". It seems to matter little to the Arab citizens of Israel that they disrespect the nation of their citizenship. That citizenship should be taken away from them, as should all the rights and priviliges they enjoy as citizens of Israel. Even then the reality of their lives would not begin to match the horrors they studiously portray to the world.

It is equally disgusting and perhaps even more alarming that Israel permits, approves, and encourages such "free speech". Israel would do well to take a lesson from the pages of American post-revolution history and enact suitable "Alien and Sedition" legislation. There is a difference between free speech and treason, between testy opinion and sedition. Israel had best learn and apply the difference, for therein lies the source of Israel's demographic problem. Israel has long had the legal and moral upperhand to annex Golan, Judea-Samaria, and Israel has already annexed all of Jerusalem. These are rights won in defensive war. How is it that Israel is loathe to exercise these universally recognized rights? How is it that Israel is not loathe to perceive the distincions of free speech v. treason, and exercize proper expulsion?

Thursday, May 1, 2008

YOM HA SHOAH - HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY

Today Israel marks "Yom Ha Shoah" (Holocaust Remembrance Day) and one wonders what, if anything, the world has learned since then, especially given the unrelenting battles against Holocaust Deniers. In a twisted way Jews and Israel are still in the practice of "collaboration" and at times the distinction becomes blurred between friends and enemies.

Gilad Shalit, Ehud Goldwasser, and Eldad Regev are observing Yom Ha Shoah in the captive arms of Hamas and Hezbollah or even from their graves. Sderot and the Negev are attacked daily by Qassam rocket fire from Gaza and Sinai. Hamas gains strength from across the Egyptian border. Hezbollah grows stronger in the south of Lebanon even in the face of UN observer forces. In the middle east neighborhood, Iraq is still a terrorist training ground, and all nations are torn by terror. And the public acknowledgments by Israel and the USA about the Septemeber destruction by Israel of a viable nuclear option in Syria may or may not harbinger a repeat in Iran sometime soon. (Not that there's anything wrong with that, and may Ahmadinijad be caught on site simultaneously....)

American Foreign Policy still states that a viable "Palestinian" state should be made manifest in Judea-Samaria and Gaza side by side in peace and harmony with a diminished Israel. One could capture such a cartoon with the song, "Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true..." as the state of Israel and "Palestine" head off into the sunset on a "Bicycle Built For Two".

As we count the days from Pesach to Shavuoth, as we remember the preceding concealed miracles of Purim, let us hope that the time will come soon, that our captive Israeli soldiers are set free in great joy and in good health, that Sderot and the Negev see much rain and no more rockets, that Israel annexes Judea-Samaria, and that peace triumphs in a world that decides to remember and learn from the Shoah.