Hamas arrested 150 witches in 2010, misses one…How much anti-Semitism is too much?/other news
(Below is a list of some newsletters that you can copy and paste into your browser if you care to see more, of today's news. I will be adding more websites to the newsletter list, as time permits MBS)
hudson-ny.org, imra.org.il
iris.org.il/blog
arabsforisrael.blogspot.com
NonieDarwish.com
shmuelkatz.com
blog.havivgur.com
israelinsider.net
israelsituation.com
savageinfidel.blogspot.com
thereligionofpeace.com
reutrcohen.com
littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog
waronjihad.org
israelwhat.com
muslimsforisrael.com
terrorism-info.org.il
freeman.org
freeman.org/online
freeman.org/serendipity
jihadwatch.org
fresnozionism.org
islamist-watch.org
creepingsharia.wordpress.com
salaswildthoughts.blogspot.com
WorldJewishDaily.com
memri.org
israpundit.com
sultanknish.blogspot.com
israelmatzav.blogspot.com
cufi.org
jewishworldreview.com
grendelreport. posterous.com
tundratabloid.blogspot.com
sheikyermami.com
NEWSREALBLOG.COM
atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com/atlas_shrugs
israeltoday.co.il
haaretz.com
wnd.com
ynetnews.com
familysecuritymatters.org
dailyalert.org
calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com
FRONTPAGEMAG.COM
yidwithlid.blogspot.com
israelnationalnews.com
jewishideasdaily.com
jpost.com
israelseen.com/
jewishideasdaily.com
 | - The Economist Strikes Again by Elliot Jager
- Loving Jews, Hating Jews by Alex Joffe
- Press Freedom, Israeli Style by Elliot Jager
- The Persian Puzzle by Aryeh Tepper
- Ladino! by Yehudah Mirsky
- B'shallah: Earning Eternal Enmity by Moshe Sokolow
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1. 21 Israelis Rescued, Tunisia's Jews Safe in Djerba by Chana Ya'ar
It wasn't Entebbe, but for 21 Israelis trapped in the chaos of an Arab nation gone haywire, the relief in seeing their rescuers must have been nearly as palpable.
As Tunisia swore in a new interim president on Saturday for its second change of power in less than 24 hours, Israel quietly prepared to extract its citizens.
Riots have wracked the streets of the nation since last week; former President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali ended 23 years of autocratic rule in a hasty flight on Friday to Saudi Arabia when it became clear that the violence was escalating. By Saturday, at least 42 people were dead in a prison fire, and 1,000 inmates of another prison were freed by officials who didn't want to brave a deadly rebellion brewing within the facility's walls.
But from the moment it became clear Tunisia was going up in flames, Israeli officials at the Foreign Ministry were already on the phone to Europe, according to ministry spokesman Yossi Levy.
"We have good contact partners through a third nation," he told Israel National News Sunday morning. "The moment we heard of the blockade during the upheaval we sent a message, asking for the safety of the Jews."
The complicated rescue mission took some time and involved a number of different agencies. But at 7:00 p.m. Saturday, the 21 Israeli tourists lifted off from the island of Djerba, home to most of Tunisia's Jewish community. They were flown to Germany, and from there home to Ben Gurion International Airport.
But the story does not end there.
In addition to a request to allow Israel to rescue its citizens, two other messages were delivered as well.
Safety for Tunisian Jews
According to Yacov Hadas, the foreign ministry's deputy director-general for Middle East and Peace Process Division, Israel asked its contact partner to ask Tunisian authorities to make sure the Jews would not be dragged into the conflict.
The tiny Jewish community, which today numbers fewer than 2,000, lives on the island of Djerba and comprise the country's largest indigenous religious minority. The other Jews in Tunisia live in various areas, although most are in Tunis, the capital and move back and forth from there to Europe. In 1948, the Jewish population in Tunisia was estimated at 105,000, but by 1967 most had left the country for France and Israel.
Hadas told Israel National News the message also included a request to "take all required measures to make sure Jewish community institutes as well as premises will not be affected by looting in the street as much as possible, due to the lack of physical security on the street these days."
Tunisia is home to the second-largest Jewish community in the Arab world; the largest Jewish community in an Arab country is in Morocco, currently home to some 4,000 Jews.
"In Morocco, the Jews at this point are safe," Hadas stressed. "There is no reason to believe that what is happening in Tunisia would affect them at all."
Jordanian Riots Not Related
Meanwhile, although reports of rioting by thousands of people in Jordan, Israel's eastern neighbor, initially appeared to be related to those in Tunisia, such was not the case, said Hadas. The foreign ministry official said the situation in Jordan is "completely different and over different issues."
According to Hadas, "Organizers there were planning those demonstrations in advance; they were just able to take advantage of the Tunisian upheaval" for an extra publicity push.
In Jordan, protesters scoffed at a government announcement earlier in the week that $169 million would be invested to reduce food and fuel prices, and create jobs.
"Jordan is not only for the rich. Bread is a red line. Beware of our starvation and fury," read a protesters' banner, according to news network Al Jazeera.
Nevertheless, the demonstrations in Jordan were scattered and well-controlled, as compared with those in Tunisia. International media echoed the statement by Hadas that the issue in the Hashemite kingdom is about food prices, not corruption in government – the Jordanians do not appear to have any wish to depose their king.  Israel Pics Jordan Valley from Mitzpeh Elon View It! |  Political Cartoon Sunday, January 16, 2011 View It! |
2. After Lebanon, Tunisia: Ben Ali Flees to Saudi Arabia by Dr. Amiel Ungar and Rachel Sylvetsky
Tunisia's President Ben Ali fled to Saudi Arabia on Friday, leaving Prime Minister Muhammad Ghannouchi temporarily in charge, but a new president, Fouad Mebazaa, former head of the lower house of pariliament, was sworn in yesterday closing the option of Ben Ali's return. Mebazaa promised to form a unity government, as looting, killing and prison riots swept the nation.
Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali, the dicator who had ruled Tunisia since 1987, tried a carrot-and-stick approach in an attempt to quell the rioting that went on for three weeks before his ouster.
On the carrot side, the Tunisian leader promised to create 300,000 new jobs for college graduates. The Ben Ali regime had invested a great deal in education but could not cope with the vocational expectations of the students and their desire for political participation. It was the self-immolation of Mohamed Bouazizi, a 26-year-old student a month ago in protest over high unemployment and inflation that triggered the current unrest.
A gesture to the demonstrators was the sacking of the minister of interior, Rafik Belhaj Kacem and the appointment of an investigation committee to study both the recent violence and official corruption. Another unsuccessful conciliatory gesture was the release of some of the protesters who were arrested.
The Tunisian government blamed both Islamic and leftist groups for inflaming the protests and took stern measures such as shutting down schools and universities across the country. The government also brought in military reinforcements including tanks deployed around the ruling party headquarters and the radio station.
While the opposition was disorganized and leaderless, it gathered support from various sectors of the Tunisian population as well as from the geographic breadth of the protests – from the capital Tunis to towns in the periphery.
As the situation deteriorated last week, cautious comment on the situation came from the outside. The most outspoken person was the European Union's head diplomat Catherine Ashton. Her spokesperson denounced "the disproportionate use of force by police against peaceful demonstrations".
France, the former colonial power, while refusing to play the role of the preceptor, had said it hoped that the authorities in Tunis could meet the "expectations of their people". European Mediterranean countries close to Tunisia such as France, Italy and Spain wanted to see the situation resolved as the last possible thing they wanted was a collapse that could swell the number of Tunisian migrants in their countries.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was also cautious in calling for a peaceful resolution last week. The State Department voiced its concern over "the use of excessive force", but balanced that by praising the very positive aspects of our relationship with Tunisia." Ben Ali may have been a dictator, but what succeeds him could conceivably be much worse, despite talk of a unity government..
Ben Ali seems to have overstayed his welcome. He had in effect offered Tunisians a promise of stability and prosperity in exchange for political quiescence to an autocrat. He is not the first authoritarian leader to go down that road. Even Franco tried it in Spain before WWII. But this strategy is hostage to economic performance. When the economy falters, the population feels shortchanged. It is also a treadmill because the creation of a larger middle class triggers both economic and political aspirations that the regime can satisfy with increasing difficulty. Other Middle Eastern dictators may be pondering that equation today.
3. Israel Tested Stuxnet Worm with US Cooperation, Says NY Times by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Israel, with cooperation from the United States, reconstructed Iran's centrifuges in Dimona, where it tested the Stuxnet worm that has set back Iran's nuclear program at least five years, The New York Times reported Sunday. The wildly successful virus attack has virtually achieved the same time delay as those envisioned by various scenarios of military attacks.
The clandestine operation at the nuclear center in southern Israel began at least two years ago and has severely affected Iran's uranium enrichment program far more than previously reported, the article stated, based on various sources from Israel, the United States and Britain.
One American intelligence expert told the Times, "To check out the worm, you have to know the machines. The reason the worm has been effective is that the Israelis tried it out." Then-President George W. Bush gave the go-ahead for US-Israel cooperation for the project in 2008, sources said.
Israel apparently obtained the centrifuges used in uranium-enriching plants in Iran and successfully tested the Stuxnet virus. The worm is the most advanced Cybernet weapon ever known. It not only knocked Iran's spinning centrifuges out of control, it also arranged that the computer feedback to engineers showed that everything was running as normal.
The success of the lethal worm appears to be far greater than previously estimated. "Israeli officials grin widely when asked about its effects," the Times reported.
Surprising statements in the past two weeks by American and Israeli officials have offered clear indications of the Israeli-American achievement. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that Iran's nuclear program has been set back several years, ostensibly because of America-backed sanctions.
Outgoing Mossad intelligence agency director Meir Dagan and Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Yaalon said Iran's technical problems at its nuclear sites have pushed back the time clock for an Iranian nuclear weapon at least until 2015.
By that time, Iran's struggling economy, marked by spiraling inflation, could undermine the regime of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. 4. Tuvia Friedman, Legendary Nazi Hunter, Dies at 89 by Rachel Sylvetsky
Nazi hunter Tuvia Friedman, died on Thursday at the age of 89. Friedman and another world famous Nazi hunter, Shimon Wiesenthal, worked together fearlessly day and night for several years after the Holocaust and succeeded in capturing and bringing over 250 Nazi criminals to justice, before they could go underground and disappear. They found many SS officers hiding their identities in Allied prison camps.
Some of the top Nazis captured by Friedman were SS Officer Konrad Buchmayer, sentenced to 12 years in prison and SS Officer Richard Sheigel who died awaiting trial. Brigadfuhrer Herbert Bottcher, head of the SS in Radom, Friedman's home town, and his assistant Obershtumbanfuher Wilhelm Blum, who sent 300,000 Jews to Treblinka. were both hanged after Friedman found them and had them brought to trial.
Friedman's most famous accomplishment was his work in capturing Adolph Eichmann, the man who organized the mass extermination of the Jews of Europe.. The search was hampered by the lack of a picture and Friedman found one of Eichmann's girlfriends, enabling the police to raid her home and confiscate a picture that was corroborated by Jews who had known him.
Friedman had lost his entire family in the Holocaust, except for one sister. Towards the war's end, he escaped a death sentence by grabbing the rifle of the German soldier who fell asleep while guarding him and crossed to the Russian lines where he helped their war effort.
The United States Army cooperated with the two tireless men who were willing to put their lives in danger because they had decided to see to it that the murderers who spilled innocent Jewish blood without fear would begin to tremble at the thought of Jewish retribution.
However, after a three year period, the American army stopped its Nazi trials. At this point, the two Nazi hunters parted ways. Friedman moved to Israel in 1952 while Wiesenthal settled in Vienna.
Efraim Zuroff, head of the Israel Wiesenthal Center, told Arutz Sheva that Friedman continued fighting non-stpp to keep the issue of bringing Nazi criminals to justice in the public eye.
"Friedman made sure to keep on reminding us that Adolph Eichmann was still a free man and thus made certain that we continued the efforts to locate him. He was mistaken about Eichmann's whereabouts, though, and a short time before the mass murderer was caught, Friedman claimed in a press release that Eichmann was in Kuwait." [Some think this might been a way to keep Eichmann off guard, ed.]
Zuoff described how after the Holocaust, both Friedman and Wiesenthal decided to drop everything else and devote their lives wholly to one goal—bringing Nazi murderers to justice. Friedman wrote a book "Nazi Hunter" describing their efforts.
"The fact that Friedman was a Zionist and decided to make aliyah, limited his ability to continue physically searching out and capturing Nazi criminals, but he continued to do invaluable work by collecting data, finding documentation and engaging in educational activities on the Holocaust until the end of his life," Zuroff said.
5. IDF Giving Hamas a Chance? IDF Holds Fire Despite Rocket Attack by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
The IDF has not retaliated against another Gaza terror rocket attack against Israelis on Friday, an indication it is giving Hamas a chance to prove it can protect the western Negev from rival terrorist organizations.
Friday's missile strike caused no injuries or damage, and another rocket launch either misfired or was foiled by Hamas forces.
Unlike previous attacks launched shortly after the end of the counterterrorist Operation Cast Lead two years ago, the IDF did not retaliate as Hamas deploys more forces near the Gaza security-separation fence. A Hamas spokesman told reporters that de facto Gaza Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh gave "clear and direct orders" to Hamas militia terrorists to maintain calm to avoid stronger Israeli retaliation.
Gaza-based terrorists attacked Israel with more than 20 rockets, missiles and mortar shells in the first two weeks of January, and the IDF retaliated every time, striking Hamas terrorist bases for the first time since the end of Cast Lead.
Hamas may be more concerned about a 'Cast Lead II" than protecting Israelis, following warnings from Egypt and other countries that Israel will not tolerate a continuation of the escalation in rocket and mortar attacks on civilians and soldiers.
The "ceasefire," like others in the past, is not expected to hold, Gaza observers told the Chinese news agency Xinhua. "I don't think it will last for too long because there are some smaller militant groups who don't like the idea," Gaza university professor Naji Shurab told the news agency.
Furthermore, Hamas maintains it has not abandoned "resistance", the Arab code word for rocket attacks, suicide bombings and kidnappings, against Israel. "Hamas leaders' statements are contradictory," Shurab said. "If the ceasefire lasts for too long, it means that the choice of resistance has been dropped."
He also explained that Hamas faces a political problem if it maintains calm, stating that "if Hamas imposes calm by force, it will mean that it is losing its legitimacy."
Despite a unilateral ceasefire announced by Hamas after Cast Lead, Hamas and other terrorists groups fired more than 235 missiles, including Grad rockets and mortar shells, at Israeli soldiers and civilians.
It also has deployed an advanced a laser-guided anti-tank missile, obtained from Iran. The same Kornet weapon was used by Hizbullah against the IDF in the Second Lebanon War in 2006.
Israel intelligence officials estimate that Hamas also possesses yet-to-be used advanced weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles and longer-range missiles that can reach Tel Aviv. 6. PLO Flag in Leftist Tel Aviv Demo by Gil Ronen
Police shortly detained three participants in the leftist-Arab demonstration in Tel Aviv's Museum Plaza Saturday night, on suspicions of assaulting a police officer, possession of a knife and waving the PLO flag at the demonstration. The three were freed shortly after they were detained.
Among the speakers in the protest was Kadima MK Meir Sheetrit, who spoke alongside communist MKs Dov Chenin and Muhammad Barakeh. Kadima is the largest faction in the Knesset and heads the Opposition, and the appearance of a formal representative of Kadima alongside communists signals a radicalization of the main opposition faction.
The protest was held at the Tel Aviv Museum plaza - which seems to be turning into a favored site for left-wing demonstrations, because it is much smaller than Rabin Square and therefore easier to fill with demonstrators.
The PLO is one of the world's deadliest terror organizations, and a pioneer in terror tactics such as plane hijackings. Its member factions have killed thousands of Jews and non-Jews since its founding in 1964. While the Fatah faction, which dominates the PLO, has received legitimacy from Israel since the 1993 Oslo accords, subgroups of Fatah continue to murder Jews to this day. The PLO founder, Yassir Arafat, ordered the start of the so-called "Oslo" terror war in 2000, in which more than 1,000 civilian men, women and children were massacred in sadistic attacks.
In his speech at the protest, Sheetrit - a former Likud minister who defected from the party together with Kadima's founder, the now-comatose Ariel Sharon - said: "I want to remind my friends in the Likud that [nationalist leader Ze'ev] Jabotinsky must be turning over in his grave when he sees them supporting a deed that contradicts his teachings."
The decision by the Knesset to establish committees of inquiry into foreign funding of "human rights" groups is "insulting, dangerous to the state of Israel and causes severe damage to the state's reputation because it [brands] Israel as one of the dark countries," he said.
MK Michael Ben-Ari (National Union) fired back at the leftist demonstrators Saturday night. "The demonstration will not help the leftists. The radical leftist movements have proven that they are part of those who wish to destroy Israel and they are betray the country, leaving no choice but to take steps against them. Many MKs now understand what we understood years ago. We will reveal the funding from enemy countries and put them in their place, alongside Hizbullah."
MK Danny Danon (Likud), who is to chair one of the committees of investigation, said Saturday evening: "[Peace Now Director] Yariv Oppenheimer and his friends are fighting for the democracy of other countries, not that of Israel. If the bleeding hearts from the leftist organizations went out into the streets in this weather, it is only for money and not because of ideals. They understand that the cash pipeline is about to run dry."
7. Knesset Committees Will Also Probe Nationalist Groups' Funding by Gil Ronen
In a compromise suggested by Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, the parliamentary committees that are to probe the sources of funding of radical leftist groups will also look into the funding of nationalist groups, Channel 2 reported Saturday night.
The Knesset committees will attempt to find out what foreign governments and international funds are financing the operation of leftist "human rights" NGO's that fight Israel from within. Following the NGO's claims that the committtes amount to political persecution, Netanyahu has decided that nationalist groups should also be inspected.
Nationalists groups did not express concern at this turn of events, because they are not funded by foreign governments or international funds. Private donations will not be included in the inquiries. Im Tirtzu, a leading grassroots student group that promotes Zionist values, has published evidence that shows that foreign governments have funded leftist groups through Arab funds that are connected to terror. The groups complained in response that Im Tirtzu received money from evangelist pastor John Hagee, and have tried to claim that receiving money from American evangelists can be construed as receiving funding from the United States.
It appears at present that there will be two Knesset committees with similar mandates operating side by side - one led by MK Danny Danon (Likud) and the second by MK Faina Kirshenbaum (Israel is Our Home). Both MKs have stated their intention to look into funding of leftist "human rights groups," but Danon's committee is also to look into the foreign financing of Arab land purchases.
8. Media Whips Up Flames over 'Old-New' Gilo Building Plan by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Local and foreign media Sunday whipped up opposition to an expected approval of another bureaucratic step for a previously announced building project in the southern Jerusalem neighborhood of Gilo.
The Jerusalem District Planning Commission this week is expected to approve the project, another step in a long bureaucratic process that still has long way to go before ground will be broken for 1,400 new units in the neighborhood.
Israel's Haaretz newspaper, which promotes an almost daily campaign for the "peace process" and the elimination of a Jewish presence in United Jerusalem, Judea and Samaria, emphasized that previous permission for the development resulted in the "first in a series of clashes with the United States over Israeli construction" in what it calls "East Jerusalem." The term refers to all of the land in Jerusalem that was restored to Israel in the Six-Day War in 1967. It includes areas in northern and southern Jerusalem as well as in the eastern part of the capital.
The French news agency AFP took the cue and, like Haaretz, quoted a left-wing Jerusalem city council member as saying, "This is a genuine takeover and it constitutes another nail on the coffin of the peace process," he added.
Unlike Haaretz, AFP made the effort to quote someone in favor the plan, who noted that Gilo is an integral part of Jerusalem. "There can be no argument in Israel over construction in that neighborhood," Elisha Peleg, a Likud city council member, told the news agency.
However, AFP told its readers that Gilo is a "settlement...near Bethlehem," without noting that it is a contiguous neighborhood with the rest of Jerusalem.
Less than 10 years ago, Arab terrorists in Bethlehem sent Gilo residents into shell shock with massive daily rifle and missile attacks on the neighborhood, causing deaths, injuries and widespread damage. Website News Briefs:Website News Briefs: Website News Briefs:
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Website News Briefs: http://www.jpost.com/Opinion/Op-EdContributors/Article.aspx?id=203738
Photo by: Associated Press How much anti-Semitism is too much? By ANNE BAYEFSKY
Recent incidents at the United Nations indicate that most UN diplomats do not know where to draw the line, letting hate speeches drag on without walking out.
Recent WikiLeaks cables reveal that diplomats at the UN are haunted by a thorny question: How much UN-driven anti-Semitism is too much? The original UN was built on the ashes of the Jewish people and owes its human rights foundations to the victims of the Holocaust. At today's UN, we have now learned, diplomats hunker down near the General Assembly hall "listening outside with headphones on" trying to figure out the extent of the hate-speech that those on the inside should endure before walking out.
The particular subject of the WikiLeaks cable from US officials in Stockholm was a September 2009 assembly speech by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Sweden held the EU's rotating presidency, and it fell upon Swedish diplomats to decide when Ahmadinejad had crossed pre-arranged "red lines." As it turned out, some EU members walked out of the speech, while Sweden stayed put. According to the cable, the Swedes were upset by the "embarrassing lack of EU coordination" – not by the bigotry broadcast over the UN global megaphone.
What had the Europeans confused would seem to be Jewish conspiracy theory 101. Ahmadinejad had used his UN platform to describe Jews as "a small minority [who] dominate the politics, economy and culture of major parts of the world by its complicated networks, and establish a new form of slavery... to attain its racist ambitions." Yet this roused a mere 11 of the UN's 192 members from their seats, including the US. Israel had chosen not to attend.
Five months earlier in April 2009, Ahmadinejad had mounted another UN-provided stage in Geneva and began by denying the Holocaust, claiming that the "Zionist regime" had been created "under the pretext of Jewish sufferings." At this "antiracism" gathering (dubbed "Durban 2") he continued: "The word Zionism personifies racism that falsely resorts to religion and abuses religious sentiments to hide their hatred and ugly faces." This time UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay and UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon remained glued to their chairs. Nine states, including the US and Israel, had decided to boycott beforehand, while the remaining EU states and a few others belatedly got up and left.
In September 2010 Ahmadinejad used his UN invitation to New York to suggest that 9/11 was an inside job – "segments within the US government orchestrated the attack" for the sake of "the Zionist regime." On this occasion seven countries, including the US, headed for the doors. Israel had previously figured out it was not worth going.
PLAYING MUSICAL chairs is not the only response to UN-based anti- Semitism. The vast majority listen attentively and many applaud. Sometimes no one moves at all. On June 8, 2010, the Syrian representative lectured the UN Human Rights Council: "Israel... is a state that is built on hatred... Let me quote a song that a group of children on a school bus in Israel sing merrily as they go to school and I quote 'With my teeth I will rip your flesh. With my mouth I will suck your blood.'"
The Obama administration, which chose to join this council, had a representative present, and neither he nor any other council member budged. UN officials, who routinely interrupt anything they deem insulting to Muslim states, said nothing.
Years of UN-driven anti-Semitism have clearly deadened the nerve endings of democracies. On November 29 and 30, 2010 the UN General Assembly sponsored its annual UN Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People followed by the usual anti- Israel agenda items.
From center stage in New York via Libya and Syria came the following: "Zionism, in reality, is the worst form of racism"; "The cancerous settlement in all the Palestinian territories"; "Israel shows and rears its ugly face"; "The word Israel has become synonymous with words such as aggression, killing, racism, terrorism."
Numerous states voiced their opposition to "Judaization" – UN vocabulary for the crime of any Jew on any Arab territory. They bellowed about Israeli "butchering," "apartheid," "ethnic cleansing," "genocide," "racism," "brutality," "crimes against humanity," "torture," "killing in cold blood" and "barbarism." Guilt started "over 60 years ago" – that is, with Israel's creation.
It would not have been difficult for listeners to discern that the fabrication of a cancerous Jewish state with its bloodthirsty ugly Jewish occupants was anti-Semitism. But not a single country moved. No UN gavel interrupted the speakers. Just the diplomatic niceties of thanking and bowing before Mr. President and Mr. Ambassador, and excellencies and distinguished delegates.
By the end of a year of double-standards, discrimination and hate-mongering 80 percent of all 2010 General Assembly resolutions criticizing specific countries for human rights violations were directed at the Jewish state. Only six of the remaining 191 UN member states faced human rights criticism at all, one of which was the US. And now half of the country-specific condemnatory resolutions and decisions ever adopted by the UN Human Rights Council target Israel.
THIS YEAR will be worse, as UN headquarters prepares to host the first summit of "heads of state and government" on racism in September. "Durban 3," named after its notorious 2001 namesake that took place in Durban, South Africa, is aimed at "mobilizing political will...for the full and effective implementation of the Durban Declaration." This declaration charges Israel with racism and names no other state.
In contrast to Durban 1 and 2 which were attended by very few world leaders, Durban 3 is intended to be the golden ticket for Ahmadinejad and company to promote Zionism is racism. From a New York podium, a few days after the 10th anniversary of 9/11, they will also instruct Americans about tolerance. Though Canada's Prime Minister Stephen Harper has refused to attend, Obama is still undecided.
In June 1979 Pope John Paul II made a nine-day pilgrimage to Poland, documented in a moving recent film Nine Days that Changed the World. With the power of faith and moral conviction he appealed to millions for change, turning the Soviet empire inside out. What a contrast to the European Union representatives of today hiding in UN halls with their earphones, and the Obama administration confounded about whether to come or go.
Where are the world leaders of our time who are prepared to challenge and repudiate with the power of faith and moral conviction a UN empire that is a shell of Eleanor Roosevelt's vision and inimical to our dearest values?
The writer is the director of the Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust and a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute.
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