Nushworld

Kate Winslet at the Golden Globe Awards 2009

2009-01-14T06:41:00.003+02:00

"Well done Winslet. I told you, do a Holocaust movie and the awards come, didn't I?
- Ricky Gervais

Being a Jew, I'm not sure what I think about that. But it's got me thinking: Is that really the only way people can win a Golden Globe award these days? Either way, I can put that comment behind me and say that Kate Winslet looked absolutely stunning at the awards show. I think I'm going to go see her movie, The Reader.

I'm Back (with a bang)

2006-12-18T11:07:00.000+02:00

Not my bangs mind you...

On the radio today they have been advertising that there will be a special campaign on the roads today due to the ridiculous number of road accident related deaths since the beginning of the year. The radio is constantly reminding us that the police will be out in force all day today and that more than 400 people have died in traffic accidents since the beginning of the year, which is since September, Rosh Hashana the Jewish new year (so the radio claimed but I have since had it pointed out that it cannot be so).

However, in the 1 hour and twenty minutes it took me to get to work this morning. I passed 3 accidents and not a single police car.

Way to go!

Lest We Forget Darfur

2006-10-10T10:44:00.001+02:00

It is reported that Eli Wiesel is to receive an honorary knighthood next November in recognition of his services to Shoah education in the UK.

While it is important for us to always remember and educate about the Holocaust, we as Jews need to remember that everyday there are people suffering at the hands of tyrants around the world. If we don't speak up, if we don't pressure our governments to do everything in their power to try and stop these people, whether in Iran, Iraq, Darfur, Cosovo or wherever in the world it is happening, then we are no better than the Germans and its' allies were in the 1930's and 40's.

As Eli Wiesel said:

"How can a citizen of a free country not pay attention? How can anyone, anywhere not feel outraged? How can a person, whether religious or secular, not be moved by compassion? And above all, how can anyone who remembers remain silent? As a Jew who does not compare any event to the Holocaust, I feel concerned and challenged by the Sudanese tragedy. We must be involved. How can we reproach the indifference of non-Jews to Jewish suffering if we remain indifferent to another people's plight?"

www.israelfordarfur.org

CALM: How can anyone equate Suicide with Intent to Kill others?

2006-10-09T14:46:00.000+02:00

People have now started calling them "Homicide Bombers" because the intent to kill others is more prevalent than the intent to commit suicide, which in the case of these men, is the consequential result. Now we have a legitimate reason to change the name... Well done CALM!

Rachel at Rachelnorthlondon.blogspot.com has an excellent piece about this latest scandal in the british press!

Sunday, October 08, 2006
Homicidal not suicidal
''Controversial posters featuring the aftermath of the London bombings are to appear next week as part of a charity's attempt to stop the number of men who commit suicide each year reaching four figures. The billboard-sized posters feature the image of the devastated No. 30 bus which exploded in Tavistock Square, killing 14 people including Hussain the bomber, and injuring over 110. It has the strapline ''Last year, 4 suicidal British men got our attention. Unfortunately, 973 others didn't. Help stop suicide. Text CALM to 80082''.
( Brand Republic 6/10/05)

The Evening Standard have just rung me up wanting a reaction. I explained, as usual, that I can't speak for all survivors, only for myself, and that I probably wasn't going to be able to muster the reaction of gibbering weeping outrage that they were looking for. But, okay, having seen it, I think that advertisement, whilst achieving one of its objectives of grabbing coverage and raising awareness, is a dud.

This advertisement, whilst achieving one of its objectives of grabbing coverage and raising awareness, is a total dud. For a charity, CALM ( Campaign Against Living Miserably) to use the 7/7 bombers' deaths in an anti-suicide billboard campaign is wholly counter-productive. As well as being in poor taste and upsetting to bereaved families and survivors of the London bombings, it is also misrepresentative, and it is likely to alienate and distress those whom the advertisements are aimed at.

It implies that the London bombers primary aim was suicide, rather than homicide. It infers that they were simply feeling suicidally depressed, like 973 other young men who committed suicide last year. It seems to be saying that the 4 bombers could have been stopped from committing suicide, perhaps if they had been made aware of the charity paying for the ads. But there is no official evidence to support the idea that the young men who killed 52 and injured almost 800 last summer were depressed. In fact, the Official Account of the July 7th bombings describes the young bombers caught on CCTV as ''hugging, seeming happy, even euphoric'' before they killed themselves.

Khan's gang of four were nothing like the target audience for this campaign - young British men who are suffering from depression, and who are thinking about killing themselves.

Okay, the bombers were technically suicidal, in that they were intending to commit suicide, but they were intending to commit suicide as a weapon, to turn themselves into human bombs in what their alleged ring-leader called a ''war''. For them, suicide seemed to be a means to an end - to a gruesome notoriety, an eternal heavenly reward, and a political act of retaliation for what they saw as the sufferings heaped upon the Ummah ( the global Muslim faithful) by the UK and US foreign policy.

What comes across from the Official Report is a picture of 4 highly radicalised young men in a small terrorist gang who were deeply immersed in extremist Islamist thinking and who saw ''martyrdom'' as ''evidence of a supreme religious commitment''. Unfortunately, their warped interpretation of their religion made their planned suicide seem heroic and praiseworthy to them - a way, Mohammed Sidique Khan said in his video statement released after his death ''to raise me amongst those I love like the prophets, the messengers, the martyrs and today's heroes like our beloved Sheikh Osama Bin Laden, Dr Ayman al-Zawahiri...''

Perhaps early therapeutic intervention could have changed their course. Perhaps texting the charity or a chat with a mental health cousellor might have stopped the death-cult gang mentality taking hold in these four British men. It's rather hard to know, as we haven't had much experience of the effect of counselling on radicalised terrorist cells plotting destruction and mixing home-made explosives in their bathtubs.

There is a world of difference between a young man contemplating ending it all, and being a suicide bomber who sees vengeful suicide-homicide as ''martyrdom''. If I was young man who was depressed and feeling suicidal, I would not like to be compared to a suicide bomber. I would be very upset at the stigmatisation. It's bad enough being depressed without people thinking you're contemplating killing innocent commuters as well. Depression is not the same as terrorism, for heaven's sake. Khan and his fellow-terrorists are not remembered as young men who tragically committed suicide. They are remembered for being mass-murderers. It is deeply offensive to make any comparison between the 973 young men who killed themselves last year, and who did not come to the charity's attention until it was too late, and the perpetrators of the worst act of terrorism on British soil.

And what's with the ''Last year, 4 suicidal British British men got our attention'' strapline? The bombings certainly got our attention. That seems to have been one of the bombers' political aims. But is suicide all about ''getting our attention''? That seems to me to demonstrate a woeful lack of comprehension as to what drives many people to commit suicide. Being unable to bear the pain of going on living is the most common reason left in suicide notes. Depression is an illness that can make life no longer bearable. I am shocked that an anti-suicide charity is running with the ''suicide = attention-seeking'' line.

The more you look at this advert, the more of a mess it is. It's a bad ad, and it's a damn shame, because the numbers of suicides in young men is a big, terrible issue, and it needs to be talked about. The charity's aims are praiseworthy. Anything that might stop young men killing themselves in anger and despair is a good thing. But O&M, the ad agency behind the campaign, and whoever signed this off, have made a bad mistake of judgement. The suicide of nearly a thousand young men each year is shocking enough. Why court this controversy with a picture and strapline that don't even make sense in the campaign's context?

British advertising has a reputation for being some of the best in the world. What a pity that this ill-conceived, thoughtless campaign is going to grab headlines for all the wrong reasons. Attempts to save young lives should not resort to linking to mass murderers in their advertising campaigns. They shouldn't need to.
posted by Rachel at 12:14 PM 1 comments

Open letter to Jerusalem Post

2006-10-04T08:12:00.000+02:00

(Background information. JP distributed a booklet that covers such subjects as Common-law Relationships and all the legal ramifications, the children of these "relationships", including artificial means needed if for some reason "natural" doesn't seem to be working -{ wonder why?}, Same-sex relationships beautifully illustrated with a picture of a Catholic actress, and such other happy Jewish subjects)

It is a sad day when your newspaper can see it as proper to distribute a booklet such as the New Family "guide book for cohabitation" that came with the paper last week, especially in the days immediately preceding Yom Kippur. Maybe your reasoning is that it's an advert and covered by your usual disclaimer that content of paid material is not your responsibility, but that's a weak excuse in this case.

It's especially sad that a publication that could have made such a strong case to right a specific wrong in Israeli society - the domination in marriage law of the Orthodox courts - has allowed itself to be hijacked into a polemic justifying, indeed, praising, the destruction of the family as a basic fundamental component of society.

A clue to where this travesty get's its morals from comes in columnist Irit Rosenblum's opening statement. "The definition of 'family' underwent a global earthquake some 200 years ago when the Western world began to worship the individual and individual rights on the altar of social progress". Her word-picture is exactly right - worship at an altar, which calls to mind sacrifice, blood-letting and pain. "Individual rights" has turned into an iconic catch-phrase which seems to trump all other moral and social concerns. And what has been sacrificed at her altar is the idea of a target, a "golden fleece", to which people should aspire. She tells us that rights to marriage in Israel are improperly restricted. She's absolutely correct, but the solution is not to do away with marriage, as she is advocating, but to correct the law to remove the restrictions.

To extend her argument. Anyone should be able to "cohabit" with whomever they want. It's purely a matter of "individual choice". If that's OK, then anyone should be able to imbibe whatever chemical substances they want - dope, smack, coke - it's their choice. Next, anyone should be able to have sex with whomever (or whatever) they want - it's their right. The slippery slope leads to the total breakdown of society, till we end up with a collection of individuals who have no absolute standards by which they can interact, other than "it's right for me!".

Marriage between consenting men and women must remain the target to which we want people to aspire. It carries within it the future of an ordered, functional society. The law should allow for other choices, but they are not the norm and there should be a clear, positive message coming out of our publications, courts and schools that point to the desired outcome instead of elevating the alternatives.

Pluto! Pluto! Home, boy. Home!

2006-09-29T16:39:00.000+03:00

Pluto is shrinking. Used to be a full-grown planet, certified member of the Solar System, up there with the big boys. Able to stay up late, drink beer with his mates Saturn and Jupiter, all that stuff.

Now, Pluto is nothing more than an "object", only allowed to play with Eris (aka Xena), Sedna and other kids we've never heard of.

This is it. Pluto is shrinking, and it's all because of Global Warming. As always, Gore has it right! We must stop it before the next smallest planet is also lost.

Mickey Mouse - Down Pluto!
Al Gore - Up Uranus!!!

A new Eurovision song contest

2006-09-29T13:18:00.000+03:00

Welcome back, Kotter!

The Europeans have done it again. They announced that they are restarting direct payments to Palestinian families before ramadan. (Deutsche Presse Agentur Published: Monday September 25, 2006 )

Any possibilities that one or two of the 40K "families" they're slushing has a Kalashnikov or two stashed away in the cupboard, looking for a friendly Jewish head to bury it's bullets in?

Anyways, to celebrate the PC "vision" of the Euro bureaucrats, I would like to start a new competition to compose song lyrics that set out in clear terms the reality that these guys simply cannot see through their blinkers.

Please try to keep it clean, just as I have done.

My first submission (to the tune of Clementine):

In a cavern, in a canyon
sewing burkhas for his kit.
Sits the leader of al Quaida,
nothing wrong, he's fighting fit.

He's the victor, he's the winner,
mighty ruler, wise Caliph!
So how come we never see him?
Could it be he's just scared stiff.

Tells a young boy
"It's the greatest joy,
kill yourself and take a Jew.
When you die and get to heaven,
Lots of pretty girls, just for you".

Chorus:
Oh, great leader, clever mullah
Pray to allah for such luck,
when you finally get to hell there's
one old virgin left to ....

Nothing to write about - too much time!

2006-09-28T17:31:00.000+03:00

STOP REVERSE THAT!

Too much to write about - not enough time.

Nushwolrd is on Hiatus in the UK and brain freeze has sent it. Wish I could say it is from the weather - but just been too busy to write and surprisingly it is not cold here.

Topics I promised myself to write about:

I just arrived in the UK from my 1st ever trip to Germany - The places is... well... full of Germans! need I say more? I didn't like it one bit because I could not separate my thoughts from those of the Holocaust and I did not enjoy being there.

I tried one night to pick up a wireless network from my hotel room. I swear that there was a wireless network I picked up called "SS". Co-incidence - I think NOT!

On the hot water tap in my room there was a red symbol that I had to do a double/tripple take because it so resembled the swatstika.

My German colleague kept telling us that the bus was coming to "transfer" us to our next destination.

and... the final straw... We walked through the center of Munich one night where they were filming a scene from a movie set in WWII. The street was lined with cars from the 1930's era, uniformed SS men walking around. I swear if anyone had walked up and asked to check my papers - I would have had to be flown out of there in a straight-jacket.

What I really couldn't get over - is that I was the only one (almost, there was one other person who piped up about it) out of a group of 6 Israeli's who seemed to be totally affected by my thoughts and memories of the holocaust. In fact, when we all went out to eat one day, and some of my colleagues ordered the Pork special, I honestly couldn't help wondering 'is this what 6 million Jews died for?' Perhaps I am niaive, but it just seems such a shame, and this is not the first time I have thought this too.

Sooooo I am not sure I will be too keen to jump on a plane back to Germany any time soon. Would rather go to East Jerusalem anyday!

Daft Parents and their Poor Children

2006-08-29T21:05:00.000+03:00

I realize that I may be getting myself into serious trouble with this post, but I simply can't hold back any longer.

Yes - this post is dedicated to all those Anglo parents living in Israel who get carried away with themselves by foisting the most hideous names on their newborn children. Monstrous carbuncles of the first order! Is there something in the water? I can only imagine that they believe that through bestowing weird and wonderful names upon their offspring, they are somehow immersing themselves in the holiness and beauty of the Land of Israel. No doubt, they think they are clever. I think they are deluded and even pretentious. They despoil the aural landscape.
We are simply astounded by some of the grotesque names that our friends have given their children! They are trying too hard. I will concede that this phenomenon is not unique to Israelis - I daresay that these Anglo parents are actually adhering to a global trend- indeed, they are following in the footsteps of celebrities such as Paula Yates, Woody Allen and, of course, Frank Zappa. Lest we forget, Zappa named his son Dweezil and his daughter Moon Unit. Allen named his son Satchel - now that's what I call child abuse! Yates called her children Fifi Trixibelle, Peaches Honeyblossom and wait for it.....Heavenly Hiraani Tiger Lily. Nebbich!

I would like to quote some of the names that our neighbours have given their children, but with the Days of Awe just around the corner, perhaps it would not be a good idea. I think that the culprits know who they are. I only hope that these misguided parents beg their children for forgiveness. The poor little kids are the victims of over-imaginative minds, and they are now scarred for life!

global warming - a cure for gore?

2006-08-29T10:52:00.000+03:00

Once upon a time, there was a man who was Vice President of the USA. Being vice president meant that he was, literally, one breath away from being the real thing. If Clinton stopped breathing, he was IT!

So, I think he should promote this solution. All mammals breath in pure, clean, cool air, and breath out hot, fetid, saturated mist. This obviously contributes to global warming. And which mammals contribute most - humans of course. Do the arithmetic - 6.5 billion people, average mass 50Kg = 325 MEGATONS (nice word that, it will get the attention of environmentalists and peaceniks alike) of air-polluting flesh. By contrast, there isn't even one megaton of elephant around.

Now, the proposal is for all humans to stop breathing. Stop spoiling the atmosphere with your unwanted heat. Leave the Earth the way you found it - pure and clean. I'm sure Gore of all people can see the merits of this argument - it has a much stronger scientific basis than all his other stuff, and it's at least as doable as his other suggestions!

Those who cannot remember history are condemned to repeat it.

2006-08-27T13:28:00.000+03:00

The story is told that Hitler, during the disaster that we now call the battle of Stalingrad, forbade his generals to read, or even possess, the memoirs written by Armand de Caulaincourt, adviser to Napoleon during his own catastrophic invasion of Russia 120 years earlier. (I'm indebted, as always, to my literary hero Herman Wouk, for teaching me this and so much more about the last war from his majestic books). Reading this work, the madman reasoned, would open his army's eyes to the possibility of defeat, and his crooked mind couldn't countenance such things.

Why is this relevant today. Because there's an old saying - "Generals train to fight the last war". But probably more importantly, politicians plan for the last war. So we need to see what went wrong in the last war in Lebanon, and make sure we get a set of politicians that understand where, why and how we failed, and prepare for round two.

To do this, we need a thorough, independent and strong investigation. Its purpose is not to point the finger at who made mistakes last time (although hopefully that will happen too), but to tell us how to prevent the same, and worse mistakes, happening again. Every citizen of Israel should be crying out to the heavens for this investigation, and should make sure they understand what it says, because the next government we elect MUST do better than the one we've got now.

Come and join us for a few coldies.

2006-08-26T22:44:00.000+03:00

Oh, the nostalgia! the nostalgia!!!

greatest athlete ever???

2006-08-23T14:54:00.000+03:00

ESPN columnist Gene Wojciechowski has a column in which he makes the following statement ...

Tiger Woods is the greatest individual athlete of our time. OK, of all time.

Now, I'm not going to say anything bad about Woods, who is a phenomenal sportsman, but I think Gene's going over the top. You can see why, when you see who he's comparing Tiger to -

"one-namers (Pele, Babe, Jack), your initialers (MJ), your nicknamers (The Great One, The Greatest), your oldies (Jim Thorpe, Willie Mays, Joe Louis), your Olympians (Mark Spitz, Carl Lewis), your netters (Martina Navratilova, Pete Sampras), your others (Lance Armstrong). "

With just one exception, they're all Americans, and they're all involved in sports that are popular in America (and in some cases, nowhere else).

I have a strong recollection of an article in Time Magazine s few years ago, titled "and quiet goes the Don" published shorlty after Sir Donald Bradman passed away in Adelaide. That writer makes my point much better that I can, when he says that if Tiger Woods keeps winning like he had until then for another 15 years, then maybe he could seriously be considered a rival, but until that time, there simply is no other individual in any sport, any time, anywhere, who comes near the perfection of the Don.

Think about ... a life-time batting average of 99.94 runs, in a career spanning 20 years! The next best is Greg Pollock, with average of 65, but over a much shorter period. Where else will you find a sportsman that is 50% better/faster/stronger than his nearest rival, ever! To come even close, Woods would need to be winning consistently with scores in the 50's. It's like running the 100 meters in 7 seconds, high jumping over 3 meters - and not just once, but over your whole career.

This will be a hard point to sell to the Yanks, who don't understand any sports that aren't played on their home turf, and who are also convinced that they have it right, even though they have to split the country into pieces in order to have a "World Series" contest in baseball. But truth is, the Don was so far ahead of anyone else that it's difficult to see even Woods taking the title off him.

Anyone else got opinions on this?

trust the BBC

2006-08-22T22:34:00.000+03:00

We should be grateful for the services provided by the Beeb. Just today, they have given a fascinating story that tells us volumes about the nature of Israel's battle.

First, notice the picture - a young child posed next to an armed but unexploded bomb. Now, in the real world, what's your first reaction to walking into a room that could at any moment be blown to smithereens ...
1. Run for your life or
2. Pick up your children, and run for their lives or
3. get your kids to stand close to the bomb, posing while the photographers get the right shot.

When we say that the Islam is a religion with a death-wish, why does the West continue to doubt it. A picture is worth a thousand words, and who would doubt the Beeb!

Second, read this bit ...
The eastern Mihaniya area, where Um Ali lives, is also largely destroyed, mostly the result of aerial bombing and artillery fire from over a hill which separates Bin Jbeil from the Israeli border less than 5km (three miles) away....There was also house-to-house fighting here, after Israeli troops entered Mihaniya and were engaged by Hezbollah fighters at close quarters.

But hang on, weren't we told, endlessly, that Israel was deliberately attacking civilian/residential areas that posed no military target. Why then was Hizbollah fighting "house-to-house" - everyone else says they weren't ever there, but who would doubt the Beeb!

So be grateful to the BBC, because they time and again show themselves for what they are - unredeemable anti-Semites who wouldn't know the truth from a bucket of their own turds.

Errr Derrrr!

2006-08-22T12:28:00.000+03:00

In this article from CNN, US Ambassador to the United Nations, John Bolton said.

"As long as Hezbollah fighters remain armed," the international peacekeeping force and the Lebanese forces "would be vulnerable."

No shit Sherlock...

So why didn't you shut up and let Israel do the job for you - you pansies!

Hizbullah have perfected time travel

2006-08-22T10:35:00.000+03:00

Browse your way to Hizbullah's Iran-based website, and you'll see this fascinating picture, together with the claim (non-Arabic readers will have to trust my sources) saying that it's a photo of them destroying an Israeli warship in their victorious war last month.

Now look again. Israel doesn't have destroyer-class vessels. This picture shows all guns have been removed. And the Australian Navy shows the same picture, dated 1998, of the decommissioned HMAS Torrens being used for submarine target practice off WA coast (hats off to Andrew Bolt in the Herald Sun).

So here's the story. Either Hizbollah are blatant liars (what??? never!!!) or they've discovered the secret of time travel, picked up an Israeli destroyer (which doesn't exist yet), moved it back in time to 1998, disguised themselves as RAN sailors on a RAN sub, and sank it. For my money, I'll believe the latter, just like all the 1.5 billion followers of the religion of Peace do.

the crystal ball is still working

2006-08-21T09:22:00.000+03:00

Sometimes, the naiveté of both our media and our Government astound me.

Headline on front page of today's Jerusalem Post - Annan to give UNIFIL "teeth". And the gist if the story is that Israel's good and true friend, in response to persuasive arguments by our Foreign Minister, is going to amend the rules of engagement to include "opening fire on Hizbullah where necessary".

I didn't know crystal balls could laugh, but mine does. Sure, UNIFIL will get orders allowing it to open fire on Hizbullah. And the moon is made of green cheese!

This "persuasive argument" by Israel's FM comes exactly one day after we sent our brave troops into Lebanon in what even JP describes as a "brazen Israeli commando raid into the heart of Lebanon". Now, what do YOU imagine is uppermost in Coffee Anal's mind, that he's going to write rules allowing UNIFIL to shoot at Hizbullah, or he's going to say something like "UNIFIL can resist any violation of the cease fire agreement, by any party, with force of arms"?

And what is that rule other than a mandate for UNIFIL to get in our way when we decide to try and stop Hizbullah re-arming and redeploying. What is this rule other than a carte-blanche for Hizbullah to go back to the good-old-days of the past six years, except now we have another enemy to contend with.

I've said it before, it's time for Egghead Omlette and his Merry Men to be shown the door.

an excellent post-event analysis of the fiasco in Lebanon

2006-08-20T01:08:00.000+03:00

As I've been saying here, the time is rapidly approaching when the people of Israel should get their chance to show Egghead Omlette and his band of merry men the door. There's a great summation of my feelings in this piece posted tonight in The New Republic, and I urge all to read it. Especially, take note of the closing paragraph ...

"Whether or not Hezbollah won this war, Iran did. It encouraged and supported Hezbollah in this catastrophic mischief, and it emerges from the adventure satisfied with its ability to hurt Israel and damage regional stability and thwart American strategy. At this moment, therefore, it is important to remember that Iran is not only Israel's problem. It is also America's problem. Indeed, it is the West's problem. There is no figure in the world right now--not Osama bin Laden, not Nasrallah, not Ayman Al Zawahiri, not the Sunni insurgency or the Shia death squads in Iraq, not the cells, Al Qaeda or otherwise, in any European or American city--that represents the Islamist danger more perfectly, with greater ideological and physical force, than Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. And he has been enjoying his summer immensely. "

was I right, or was I right !

2006-08-17T11:47:00.000+03:00

10 days ago, I made a prediction here about the likely outcome of the arrests in Britain ...

"My crystal ball tells me that within a matter of days, many left-wing pollies (I think I see the names Galloway and Livingstone, but there are more I can't read) will start a campaign for the immediate release of all prisoners, for an apology from the Home Office, and for an official complaint to the Pakistani government about the torture of the British citizens innocently going about their business in Lahore. Furthermore, they will demand that any evidence gained from following up the interrogation in Pakistan be ignored as "tainted evidence" since the techniques of "interrogation" do not conform to the British standards required for a court case."

So go have a look here in today's Guardian (hats-off to OpinionJournal - still the bechmark) ...

"Reports from Pakistan suggest that much of the intelligence that led to the raids came from that country and that some of it may have been obtained in ways entirely unacceptable here. In particular Rashid Rauf, a British citizen said to be a prime source of information leading to last week's arrests, has been held without access to full consular or legal assistance. Disturbing reports in Pakistani papers that he had "broken" under interrogation have been echoed by local human rights bodies. The Guardian has quoted one, Asma Jehangir, of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan, who has no doubt about the meaning of broken. "I don't deduce, I know - torture," she said. "There is simply no doubt about that, no doubt at all." If this is shown to be the case, the prospect of securing convictions in this country on his evidence will be complicated."

blame Canada? no need - there's always Bibi

2006-08-17T08:12:00.000+03:00

It's time for the Establishment to start doing the only PR thing they actually know how to do - shifting the blame onto some-one else. Instead of Egg Omlette standing up like a mensch and saying "the buck stops here, it was on my watch, I resign", we're starting to see the spin-doctors coming into play, and telling us that he did a WONDERFUL job, and if anything was even slightly wrong it was because of Joe Shmo or, as we now hear, Benyamin Netanyahu.

The case in point is an article in the Jerusalem Post on Wednesday August 16, titled "Cost of a tragically botched war" by Jonathan Lipow, who is described as "an economist". He says, basically, that we lost (I agree), and that it's all Bibi's fault.

"It's one thing to shave NIS 1 billion off a 33 billion budget given six months of advanced warning" says he, "It is quite another to shave off a billion 6 months into the current fiscal year when that money has already been allocated or spent. Faced with the need to slash spending fast, the IDF did the only thing possible - it cut readiness and training expenditures". So lets see, the IDF has been under notification by the Treasury that they have to review expenditure for at least 3 years, but not in the last year, since Bibi wasn't Treasurer for most of it. They had to find (incredible!) THREE PERCENT, so in anticipation of this they, by all accounts from reservists, stopped training 3 years ago (they being both omniscient and flawless predictors).

What else is Bibi's fault? The economy is stagnating. Unemployment is standing at the "staggering" level of 9 per cent, stuck there for four months (during which Bibi, again, was not Treasurer), having [start sarcasm] rocketed there from the much better level of 11 per cent [end sarcasm] when Bibi took the reins. Lipow rabbits on in this vein for 4 columns of drivel, all saying the same thing, basically that anything that went wrong in the war was due to the financial catastrophe that Bibi nurtured (average 6% GDP growth, lowest inflation, declining unemployment, etc,etc,etc).

Oh, and it's not all Bibi's fault. The head of the Bank of Israel also gets his, because he raised interest rates by one half a per cent. Clearly, this has ruined our economy. After all, the exchange rate, in a time of war, actually improved! What other sign do we need that Fischer was Bibi's accomplice in spoiling Omlettte's victory.

Let's keep an eye on this game - looks like it's only the opening shots in a long campaign to pull the wool over our eyes - again.

Has Sharon left the building?

2006-08-16T18:21:00.000+03:00

I have it on good authority (although I still hope it is not true) that Sharon has just passed away. Apparently there is a media block on the story until further notice.

Sorry to be vague but I will update if anything worth updating develops.

**UPdate**

Seems not to be true - my hopes were right and my source is crap!

Coke! Just for the Taste of it?

2006-08-15T13:22:00.000+03:00

"COCA-COLA yesterday hit back at claims that its soft drinks in India contain unacceptably high levels of pesticide residue by publishing a British laboratory report showing that they are safe to drink. "

Surely ANY level of pesticide residue is unacceptable?

Read the full report.

My response to the Auschwitz Holocaust museum

2006-08-14T18:35:00.000+03:00

I do not think very much of the response I received after sending an email in response to this article:

Herein my response to the Museum:

Dear Teresa,

Thank you so much for your reply. However I still strongly feel that the suitcase needs to be returned to the original owner's son. You claim in your letter that a great part of your resistance in this case is due to the fact that the suitcase was on loan. But what would you say if Mr Michael Levi-Leleu had visited your exhibition and seen the suitcase - would it make his claim any more legitimate. Furthermore you also claim that this is not the first time that the museum has dealt with a situation like this - but that normally, with dialogue, you are able to convince the claimant to leave the item in your possession. What would you have done if you had indeed managed to hold negotiations with Mr Levi-Leleu and failed? Would you then have returned to him the suitcase?

The fact remains that although education and preservation of the remnants of the camps seem to be your claimed purpose - and I quote "the view of the Museum's Board of Directors is that it certainly understands, most profoundly, the feelings of the families of victims of the Shoah. Nevertheless, the Museum has a responsibility towards what is left of the camp." The camps existed as extermination centers for millions of Jews, gypsies, dissidents and others. The pain suffered by the families who lost loved ones and suffered horrible conditions themselves for so many years at the hands of the Nazi's is no excuse for depriving any living person a remaining physical memory of their loved one. It just shows that you really do NOT understand, most profoundly, the feelings of the families of victims of the Shoah. If you did then there would be no question that this suitcase needs to be returned immediately.

You offered Mr Levi-Leleu a photograph of the suitcase. Perhaps this is what you should do yourselves, give him the suitcase back and put a photo of the suitcase on display, or even better turn this into an educational and PR success. Make the right choice and return the suitcase, document its return in a video and (if he agrees) interview Mr Levi-Leleu about his memories of his father. THAT is education.

Send an email to the Museum

The Auschwitz Holocaust Museum Responds to my letter

2006-08-14T18:25:00.000+03:00

Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for your e-mail. For us, this case is also difficult and extremely painful. Putting aside the legal aspects, we are faced with a conflict between natural and understandable emotions of the individual, and a complex unity, whose primary and universal goal is to preserve collective memory of the European Jewry’s tragedy through education and material testimony. The lawsuit, which we did not want, is now in progress.
In response to your questions we would like to provide you with a statement of the Museum’s standpoint.
In the autumn of 2003, a representative of the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine (CDJC), Paris, visited the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum in Oświęcim. During this visit, for the first time, he made the request to borrow an exhibit for a planned permanent exhibition in Paris entitled “The Fate of Jews from France during World War II”. The exhibit he asked for was a suitcase that had come from among the transports deported to KL Auschwitz from the occupied French territories.
The suitcases of those deported to Auschwitz which are today in the possession of the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum are among the most valuable exhibit-relics of its collections. They constitute a small remnant of the personal effects left behind by the victims of the KL Auschwitz-Birkenau gas chambers which the Nazis did not have time to recycle for their own purposes in the Reich. The names appearing on some of the suitcases are, at the same time, one of the few proofs of the death of individual people in KL Auschwitz. In the Museum’s collections there are just a handful of suitcases, whose characteristics, such as inscriptions on them or attached labels, indicate that they were brought to Auschwitz by deportees from France. For this reason, the Museum initially rejected the above-mentioned request, and offered a photograph of such a suitcase instead. The French party was not satisfied with such a solution and continued asking for an original suitcase, declaring at the same time that it would be borrowed from the Museum only for the period of the exhibition opening, i.e. the first half of 2005.
Considering the fact that one of the basic tasks of the Museum is to spread knowledge of KL Auschwitz, as well as the fact that the opening of the exhibition in Paris coincided with the 60th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, and that the exhibition was to be presented in the capital of France, the Museum decided to change its initial decision.
In the second half of 2004, the Museum chose a suitcase for the purpose. This was inventory number PMO- II-1-1786. It carried a paper label bearing the following inscription: “Boul. Villette, Paris” (typewritten), “Pierre Levy”, “48 Gruppe 10” [?] (handwritten, barely legible). The suitcase was then subjected to conservation, and the necessary formalities for the loan were prepared. Signing of the Loan/Borrowing contract and the physical taking possession of the exhibit by the French party took place in January 2005. The contract stated that by the end of June 2005 the suitcase would be returned to the Museum in Oświęcim.
At the end of May 2005, the French party informed the Museum that a person claiming to be the son of the original owner of the suitcase had been in touch with their institution. In order to respect the feelings of this relative of a victim of KL Auschwitz, the CDJC therefore asked for a change to be made to the contract such that the suitcase could remain in Paris for a “long-term” period. In making this request the CDJC told the Museum that if the Museum would agree to this it would help them to “persuade the family into not demanding its [the suitcase’s] restitution”.
The Museum raised the matter at the meeting of the International Auschwitz Council on June 21, 2005. The members of the Council, consisting of 25 experts from many countries around the world (among others, from Yad Vashem), expressed numerous doubts about CDJC’s request and expressed the view that the suitcase should be returned forthwith to the Museum. However, at the request of the French member of the Council, it was finally agreed that a temporary extension of the contract should be made. In its reply to the CDJC, the Museum thus declared that for the sake of maintaining good mutual relations, and to avoid any sense of bitterness, it was willing to extend the deadline for returning the suitcase until January 2006, stressing that this was the final date for the return of the loan. The Museum also asked for the address of the victim’s relative in order to establish contact with that person and to explain the role of the exhibits and collections of the Museum in its educational mission about Auschwitz and the Holocaust.
Unfortunately the Museum has never received the address, nor has this relative at any time contacted the Museum. It has therefore not been possible to engage in a dialogue about this matter. The Museum has had experience in the past of claims made by former prisoners or relatives of victims to claim ownership of objects from its collections, and in such cases – by clarifying the purpose of the Museum and its collections -- it has always succeeded in negotiating with such people and dissuading them from pursuing such claims.
At the end of December 2005, the Auschwitz-Birkenau State Museum was informed by the Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine in Paris about a decision that had been taken allowing a distraint to be made on the suitcase-exhibit being displayed at the exhibition organised by the Memorial de la Shoah (Shoah Memorial) in Paris. The proposer of this distraint was Mr. Michel Georges Adam Levi-Leleu, residing in Paris, the son of Pierre Levi, whose name corresponds with the one inscribed on the suitcase’s label. Shortly afterwards, the Museum received a summons from a court in France, where Mr. Michel Georges Adam Levi-Leleu claimed the right to the suitcase. He did so regardless of the letter in which the Museum had explained its opinion and had stressed the utmost importance of the integrity of its collections and of the authenticity of the site of the former KL Auschwitz-Birkenau. A similar letter was written to Mme Simone Veil by Prof. Władysław Bartoszewski, a former prisoner of KL Auschwitz, co-founder of the Council for Aid to Jews (“Żegota”), former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland, Citizen of Honour in Israel, and the Chairman of the International Auschwitz Council. At present, the case is in progress, and is due to be held in September this year.
The Museum has been considering its position and has taken advice from the International Auschwitz Council and its Board, the Polish Ministry of Culture and National Heritage, and the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs. se In any case, as time goes by, the memory of what happened at Auschwitz and the educational activity promoted by the Museum will increasingly rest on what physically remains of the camp, as well as the grounds on which it stands. The plunder was originally made in criminal fashion by the Nazis: every object had its owner before the war. But in terms of preserving memory and promoting education, dispersing these physical remnants today is a road to nowhere. The Museum believes that such difficult questions should be the subject of negotiations and dialogue; it is neither appropriate not productive to settle such matters through the courts. In this particular case, the claimant has not so far demonstrated any interest in dialogue, and for the first time in the Museum’s history, we have been sued. We are afraid that, whatever the outcome, the unfortunate but inevitable consequence of this case may be the tightening of restrictions on the Museum’s willingness to lend objects at all, anywhere, to the detriment of Holocaust education worldwide.

Yours sincerely,

Teresa Świebocka
Deputy Director of
State Museum Auschwitz - Birkenau
in Oświęcim POLAND

Message Lost in the Storm

2006-08-14T15:14:00.000+03:00

A few days ago, I wrote about Panorama - the flagship news programme of the BBC, which reported last week on the sinister fundraising activities of the Islamic charity Interpal.

The message of my original posting on the Panorama expose' was lost amidst the incendiary blog debate that followed. Quite simply, I stated that although the BBC has a reputation (among Jews) as an anti-Israeli media outlet (not without some justification), it has attracted opprobium from others for being too kind to Israel. Don't take my word for it. Bermants Blog has also commented on this, and has drawn my attention to the Panorama feedback .

Here's one example from the feedback: I have always thought that the BBC is a reliable source of news and reflect the situation where ever as it is, last night it was very disappointing, panorama was very baised to the Israeli side of the story, and did not even get close to the facts.

I find it tiresome to hear Foreign Ministry officials moaning continuously about BBC hatred of Israel (Gideon Meir is the worst offender) - see the Jerusalem Post. It might sound like a cliche but there is some truth in it - "Media Bias is in the Eye of the Beholder".

I believe that it would be counterproductive for Israel to start another anti-BBC campaign, as it probably won't make an ounce of difference to the Corporation's coverage - and as I have already pointed out, there are plenty of people out there who feel the Beeb is soft on Israel.

I will give Shankar Vedantam the last word. In an eye-opening article in the Seattle Times, the journalist described how Pro-Arab and Pro-Israeli audiences were shown the same news clips of Israeli troops in Lebanon in 1982, and how the audience reactions diverged:

Partisans, it turns out, don't just arrive at different conclusions; they see entirely different worlds. In one especially telling experiment, researchers showed 144 observers six television news segments about Israel's 1982 war with Lebanon. Pro-Arab viewers heard 42 references that painted Israel in a positive light and 26 references that painted Israel unfavorably.
Pro-Israeli viewers, who watched the very same clips, spotted 16 references that painted Israel positively and 57 references that painted Israel negatively.

Both groups were certain they were right and the other side didn't know what it was talking about. The tendency to see bias in the news, now the raison d'etre of much of the blogosphere is such a reliable indicator of partisan thinking that researchers coined a term, "hostile media effect," to describe the sincere belief among partisans that news reports are painting them in the worst possible light.