The Cheney Observer
press gallery: Will a change of horses work?
By Rana Qaisar
ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly, concluding a three-day debate, passed a unanimous resolution on Friday to condemn the desecration of the Quran by US soldiers and the inhuman treatment being meted out to prisoners at Guantanamo Bay. The resolution called upon the US government to hold an inquiry into these incidents. When the ‘unanimous’ resolution was passed, hardly 30 members were present in the House.
Most of the speakers who participated in the three-day debate were from the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA). The government allowed them to drag the debate beyond what was necessary only, but surely keeping in view the sensitivity of the issue, to provide the anti-US venom-spitting political mullas a cathartic opportunity to restrict them to parliament only. Otherwise, there was no logic to continue the debate when the US administration had already condemned the desecration of the Quran and ordered an inquiry soon after Islamabad had registered its protest with Washington on May 7.
http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=story_14-5-2005_pg7_32
Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick strengthen opposition to AUT boycott
By israelinsider staff and partners May 15, 2005
At least three British universities will oppose the boycott imposed by the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) on Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University in April, according to sources at the schools.
Representatives of the AUT branches at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick will object to the boycott in the AUT's special council meeting scheduled to reconsider the boycott next week.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/AntiSemi/5555.htm
Iraq - The Devastation
by Dahr Jamail
published by Tom Dispatch
Iraq - The Devastation
The devastation of Iraq? Where do I start? After working 7 of the last 12 months in Iraq, I'm still overwhelmed by even the thought of trying to describe this.
The illegal war and occupation of Iraq was waged for three reasons, according to the Bush administration. First for weapons of mass destruction, which have yet to be found. Second, because the regime of Saddam Hussein had links to al-Qaeda, which Mr. Bush has personally admitted have never been proven. The third reason -- embedded in the very name of the invasion, Operation Iraqi Freedom -- was to liberate the Iraqi people.
http://progressivetrail.org/articles/050107Jamail.shtml
Big Dig expands search for problems
By Associated Press January 7, 2005
Big Dig inspectors are expanding their search for construction errors in the new Interstate 93 tunnels, hoping to learn whether problems that could lead to leaks were isolated to a section of the $14.6 billion roadway or are more widespread.
http://www.boston.com/news/traffic/bigdig/articles/2005/01/07/big_dig_expands_search_for_problems/
…isms
"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere." Martin Luther King
Blunt gets his agenda in session
By JOSH FLORY of the Tribune’s staff
Published Sunday, May 15, 2005
JEFFERSON CITY - He might not deserve all the credit, but Gov. Matt Blunt got nearly everything he wanted in his first legislative session.
Even before lawmakers finished their work Friday afternoon, Blunt held a news conference at his Capitol office to tout victories on a slew of campaign priorities: new restrictions on injury lawsuits, tighter workers’ compensation rules, a new school funding formula, a boost in education spending and a new job incentives program.
http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/May/20050515News004.asp
U.S., European Leaders Feud
By NATHANIEL POPPER
April 8, 2005
BALTIMORE — Transatlantic tensions spilled over at an intimate gathering of Jewish philanthropists this week, when a British Jewish communal leader accused his American counterparts of being "almost imperialistic" and of exaggerating the extent of antisemitism in Europe.
http://www.forward.com/articles/2957
Joseph Massad’s Mangled Lexicon
By Gilead Ini
IHC Abstract
This disturbing article highlights the ongoing “popular” antisemitism in universities in the United States and elsewhere. A professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia University, Joseph Massad, has made a name for himself as he shapes - and teaches - Middle Eastern dynamics in a manner which fits his skewed and extreme anti-Jewish/anti-Israel worldview.
All readers are encouraged to read this article in its entirety. It is important to know how U.S. tax dollars are paying for an “Ivy League” course in antisemitism and hate.
The IHC recommends you read the article in full.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/vi/070420051
What are Islamic Schools Teaching?
By Daniel Pipes
IHC Abstract
Recent studies and investigations into Islamic schools in the United States and Canada have revealed an Islamist agenda that includes promoting antisemitism, radical Islamic ideas, segregation from one’s country and condemnation and intolerance of all other religions, including Judaism and Christianity. Islamic institutions other than schools also have adopted this agenda. Venomous anti-Jewish and anti-Christian materials have been found at U.S. mosques. And in Canada, the head of the Canadian Islamic Congress has publicly endorsed the murder of all Israelis over the age of 18. Outside pressure from politicians, journalists, researchers and moderate Muslims must be brought to bear stating clearly and frequently the unacceptability of this situation.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/viii/070420052
FACES FORWARD: Back From Iraq, Marine Aims for Laughs as a Comic
By Heather Robinson
April 8, 2005
If the young Woody Allen had been a tough guy, he might have been something like David Rosner. A study in seeming contradictions, Rosner is a stand-up comic and a reserve Marine Corps major — a self-described "recovered hypochondriac" who served in the first Gulf War and Operation Iraqi Freedom. For the latter, he was deployed six months in Iraq and Kuwait during 2003 as an intelligence officer, for which his duties included gathering information to make and maintain expeditionary airfields.
http://www.forward.com/articles/2959
The UN's (United Thug's) Shameful Anti-semitism
By R.J. Rummel, 4/8/2005 6:32:24 AM
Israel is a liberal democracy. It has as high a Freedom House overall rating of free, and scores on political rights as does the United States, Canada, and United Kingdom; on civil liberties, it is only slightly below them, but still much better than many democracies, and certainly a whole lot better that the dictatorships and monarchies that surround it.
Yet, and maybe partly because of this, it is the pariah in the United Nations. It is the only UN member systematically excluded from participation in, as far as I could determine, all the committees and UN bodies. For example, it has recently been rejected for membership on the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, UN Human Rights Committee, UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, and UN Racial Discrimination Committee. And, Israel is denied membership in every one of the important UN's five regional groups.
http://www.hawaiireporter.com/story.aspx?52a7897b-19d1-4895-b582-283bbcf2e878
Opinion : THE POPE WHO TURNED ANTISEMITISM ASIDE
Posted by Senior Editor on 2005/4/7 15:37:00
By Jeff Jacoby
As a young boy in the 1930s, my father attended public school in Snina, a town in eastern Czechoslovakia. Twice a week, a Catholic priest would come in to teach the catechism, during which the few children who were Jewish were sent to wait outside. As they left the classroom, my father recalls, the priest invariably made some insulting remark about the Jewish people.
For Jews in the Europe of my father's youth, such Christian contempt was a fact of life. Its origins lay in the church's ancient claim that God had rejected the Jews when they rejected Jesus and that his covenant with Israel had been superseded by a new covenant with a "new Israel" -- namely, the Christian church. This 'teaching of contempt fed an often virulent anti-Semitism, which created the climate for Europe's long history of persecuting Jews. Sixty-five years ago that history culminated in the Holocaust.
http://www.theconservativevoice.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=4601
POPE JOHN PAUL II AND THE JEWISH PEOPLE
Rabbi Marvin Hier
In terms of reconciliation with the Jews, I believe that Pope John Paul II was the greatest Pope in the history of the Vatican with respect to his relationship to the Jewish people.
- Rabbi Marvin Hier, CNN's Larry King Live Show, Tuesday, April 4, 2005
As you read this, the funeral of Pope John Paul II is taking place. For twenty centuries, the Catholic Church has had a turbulent relationship with the Jewish people. Jews were persecuted and held responsible for the death of Jesus, and were often the victims of Church-instigated pogroms and antisemitic attacks.
http://www.juedische.at/TCgi/TCgi.cgi?target=home&Param_Kat=3&Param_RB=33&Param_Red=2293
The Pope Who Turned Antisemitism Aside
By Jeff Jacoby
IHC Abstract
In the sea of Catholic contempt for the Jewish people during and before the Holocaust, not every priest in that era treated Jews with disdain. The Boston Globe cites examples of respect and tenderness for a covenant people in the story of young priest whose name was once Karol Wojtyla. He died last week and was buried on Friday as Pope John Paul II. Jeff Jacoby in this article reminds readers of the years-long stand and many instances of refusal on the part of John Paul II to enter into the bias and antisemitism of his generation. As a young bishop at the Second Vatican Council, he spoke up powerfully in support of “Nostra Aetate,” the landmark Vatican declaration that renounced the idea of Jewish guilt for the death of Jesus and affirmed that God’s covenant with the Jews is unbroken. In 1986 he paid the first visit by a pope to the Great Synagogue in Rome, where he stressed the debt that Christians owe to the Jews, “'our elder brothers.” In 1993, he formally recognized the State of Israel, repudiating forever the old theology that Jews were doomed to everlasting exile, never again to be sovereign in their homeland. He became the first pope to publicly beg forgiveness for Christian wrongs done to Jews. And in 2000, on a deeply emotional pilgrimage to the Holy Land, he became the first pope to pray at the Western Wall. As Pope John Paul II is laid to his rest, Jews and Christians will weep together.
The IHC recommends you read the article in full.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/vi/120420051
Jewish students resign
by: SJ reporter
Luciana Berger
Three Jewish members of the National Union of Students have resigned from their posts, citing NUS inaction against antisemitism as their grounds.
Luciana Berger (co-convenor anti-racism & anti-fascism campaign) and Mitch Simmons (co-convenor ethical & environmental campaign) both of the NUS National Executive Committee, together with Jonny Warren (NUS Steering Committee – who was standing for re-election) took the decision in front of NUS conference following a claimed year’s worth of inactivity by their National Union, and two days worth of apathy to antisemitism at the annual meeting.
http://www.somethingjewish.co.uk/articles/1435_jewish_students_resi.htm
Confronting Reality: Antisemitism in Australia Today
By Jeremy Jones
IHC Abstract
Although antisemitism is socially unacceptable in Australia - with government, media and religious institutions ensuring that it does not become acceptable - there are nevertheless well-documented cases for various manifestations of it in recent years. This article examines the presence and the sources of antisemitism in Australia, while arguing the ongoing responsibility of political and moral leadership to confront it.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=5/e/130420051
Antisemitism Revisited
By Asaf Romirowsky
IHC Abstract
It is 60 years since the liberation of Auschwitz and we are facing a resurgence of antisemitism in Europe. Why? Why now?
European antisemitism transformed from the medieval religious form to the Nazi racial/genetic form. Currently, both European and Muslim antisemitism embrace aspects of both the old antisemitic canards and the Nazi junk science. In Europe it is manifesting as anti-Zionism.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/vi/130420051
Terrorist victims right to file law suits, supported by Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center
TORONTO, April 18 /CNW/ - The Canadian Coalition Against Terrorism wastoday commended by the Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center For HolocaustStudies for their continuing campaign to have acts of terrorism, includingsuicide bombing, become the basis for allowing victims and victims' familiesto sue States, organizations and individuals who promote such atrocities.Said Friends' Director of National Affairs Leo Adler, "we will dowhatever we can to help them when they meet with Parliamentarians thisTuesday."Adler also noted "this is the first step in a process to see that theplanners, recruiters, financiers and propagandists are made responsible forthe fallout of their actions."Friends of Simon Wiesenthal Center for Holocaust Studies wants theCanadian government to take the lead in a sustained international effort todeclare suicide bombings as crimes against humanity.
http://www.newswire.ca/en/releases/archive/April2005/18/c6835.html
A Firm but Fallible Friend: Pope John Paul II and the Jews
By Sean Gannon
IHC Abstract
He was a man who took paths never taken by those who led before him, but also continued on some of the old ones. In this article by Sean Gannon, he shows why Pope John Paul II deserves much praise as well as some criticism regarding his relationship with the Jewish people.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/b/viii/200420051
A Brief History of an Enduring Forger
By Jerome Chanes
April 22, 2005
This is the second in a series of three poetry reviews, published in celebration of National Poetry Month.
'Lies have short legs" is a proverb invoked by historian Richard Levy in discussing historical frauds and forgeries. Clearly, in the case of a slew of antisemitic libels — most infamously "The Protocols of the Elders of Zion" — such folk wisdom is just plain wrong. "Protocols" may well be the longest-legged lie of modern times, and no amount of light shed on the "hoax of the 20th century" has been able to kill it.
http://www.forward.com/articles/3052
Shifting Political Alliances Raise Alarm for U.K. Jews
By Forward Staff
April 29, 2005
British Prime Minister Tony Blair goes to the voters next week to seek a third term, following a brief but heated election campaign in which his most controversial decision, taking his nation to war in Iraq, hardly played a role.
But while the Middle East appears to have caused few problems for Blair during the campaign, it has generated some uncomfortable moments for Britain's 270,000-member Jewish community.
http://www.forward.com/articles/3099
Natan Sharansky’s Resignation
By Anthony David Marks
Natan Sharansky has been at odds with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s Gaza Disengagement Plan for some time, so his resignation from the Cabinet on 2 May 2005 was not a complete surprise. Sharansky was Minister for Jerusalem and Diaspora Affairs. He feels Israel is giving away something with nothing in return. Mr. Sharansky asserts that Israel has a golden opportunity to demand the Palestinians incorporate democratic values and practices into their body politic before Israel relinquishes any territory. Israel should act while it has leverage. This has not been done and there are no plans to do it. Without continuous outside pressure, there is little chance the Palestinians will advance democracy one iota. In all probability, Hamas’ involvement in Palestinian affairs will guarantee a society administered by Muslim extremists.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=4/c/040520051
Sharansky Quits Cabinet Over Gaza Plan, Naming Conditions for a Return
By naTHANIEL POPPER
May 6, 2005
Israeli political resignations usually receive more notice in Israel than in America.
Not this week.
Natan Sharansky's resignation Monday from his post as Israel's minister for Diaspora and Jerusalem affairs was front-page news in America, where he is still remembered as a former Soviet refusenik and has become known as a favorite of President Bush. But Israeli newspapers brushed his resignation to the back pages, like another political maneuver in Jerusalem.
http://www.forward.com/articles/3132
Antisemitism in the Turkish Media: Part 1
By MEMRI
IHC Abstract
Our long-time friend and only true Arab ally is showing signs of capitulating to the same deplorable antisemitic attitudes that have come to plague the Muslim world. MEMRI offers translated excerpts of articles published in the Turkish press clearly displaying a new and unprecedented antisemitic phase in Turkey. Jews are being blamed for running the world, orchestrating natural disasters and masterminding the worst cases of genocide known to mankind. The resourceful nature of the Jewish people, as well as their alleged disproportionate economic and political presence, is being peddled as the casus belli for the rise of Hitler in Germany and his program of extermination. On the other hand, Zionists are the ones accused of influencing Hitler to put the Holocaust into motion, so as to stir Jews to emigrate from Europe to Palestine.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=5/e/080520051
MEMRI: Antisemitism in the Turkish Media: Part 1
Special Dispatch - Turkish Media Project/Antisemitism Documentation Project
April 28, 2005
No. 900
Antisemitism in the Turkish Media: Part 1
The rising antisemitism in the Turkish media is a complex phenomenon that
manifests itself in several forms:
1. Animosity towards Jews, Judaism and 'Jewish lobbies.' Jews are targeted as individuals, a community, people and "race," and as a sinister political entity seeking Jewish dominance on world affairs, businesses and media. Jews are demonized in many conspiracy theories including causing earthquakes, globalization, and the creation of Wahhabism in Saudi Arabia.
http://www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=25015
Antisemitism in the Turkish Media (Part II) - Turkish Intellectuals Against Antisemitism
Antisemitism in the Turkish media targets not only Jews in general, but also the Turkish citizens who are members of the small Jewish community of about 20,000 people. Increasingly, newspapers are accusing Turkish Jews of disloyalty, of betrayal, and of having hidden and sinister agendas. The Turkish media has recently blamed the Jews for espousing secularism and for espionage against Turkey.
This antisemitism, in which Turkish nationalism and radical Islam find common ground, is of growing concern to some Turkish intellectuals. The following report addresses the views and concerns of those intellectuals:
Turkish Intellectuals Petition: "Zero Tolerance for Antisemitism"
In its October 2004 issue, the socialist Turkish magazine Birikim published a petition titled "Zero Tolerance for Antisemitism." The petition was signed by Muslim and non-Muslim intellectuals (see Appendix). The following are excerpts: [1]
http://memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP90405
Chilean martyr advocated surgical 'cure' for homosexuality
May 14, 2005
Berlin: Salvador Allende, the socialist president of Chile who was killed during a CIA-backed coup in 1973, was an anti-Semite who held fascist ideas in his youth, says a new book which has split Chile.
The book, Salvador Allende: Antisemitism and Euthanasia, will shock those around the world who revere the late president as a socialist martyr deposed by the right-wing General Augusto Pinochet with the backing of Washington and big business.
The disclosures come from Allende's 1933 doctoral dissertation which had been kept secret. In it he asserts that Jews have a disposition to crime, and calls for compulsory sterilisation of the mentally ill and alcoholics.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/World/Chilean-martyr-advocated-surgical-cure-for-homosexuality/2005/05/13/1115843371706.html
Lessons of the Holocaust
By Dr. Robert R. Friedmann
The following is Dr. Robert R. Friedmann’s Keynote Address delivered at the State Capitol during the Annual State Official Observance of Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust, Atlanta, Georgia, 6 May 2005
Dr. Friedmann was the Recipient of the 2005 Humanitarian Award from the Georgia Commission on the Holocaust.
http://www.infoisrael.net/cgi-local/text.pl?source=2/a/v/150520051
Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick strengthen opposition to AUT boycott
By israelinsider staff and partners May 15, 2005
At least three British universities will oppose the boycott imposed by the British Association of University Teachers (AUT) on Haifa University and Bar-Ilan University in April, according to sources at the schools.
Representatives of the AUT branches at the universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Warwick will object to the boycott in the AUT's special council meeting scheduled to reconsider the boycott next week.
http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/AntiSemi/5555.htm
Unwanted Pregnancies
Pitched passions at the polls over abortion, unions
By Jill Stewart
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has until June 13 to decide whether to hold a special election on his widely publicized reform ideas. Yet I expect two lesser-known measures to arouse far more passion, potentially drawing true-believer voter blocs who could dramatically alter the calculus of the entire election.
One measure requires public-employee labor unions to get written permission from workers each year in order to spend worker dues on political races. The other requires parental notification if a minor seeks an abortion.
I can see election day now: Lefties and unionistas show up to derail the union dues-permission measure, while big business gleefully attempts to ram it through. Right-wingers and bugged parents vote to pass the abortion-notification measure, while feminists taunt parents as the sort of people who can't be trusted with such touchy info.
http://www.dailynews.com/Stories/0,1413,200~24781~2869795,00.html
Brazil Begins Talking Openly About Abortion
Run Date: 05/15/05
By Jen Ross
WeNews correspondent
Brazil is moving to address the problem of illegal abortion, the country's fourth leading cause of maternal death. In March the government eased abortions for rape victims and in April it formed a committee to review all its abortion policies.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (WOMENSENEWS)--Marta won't give her last name for fear of legal recriminations.
Her ex-husband, she says, has already threatened to report her to the police.
http://www.womensenews.org/article.cfm/dyn/aid/2296/context/archive
Roe v. Wade would happen in the state with the highest teen pregnancy rate.
Texan known in D.C. for one thing
Web Posted: 05/15/2005 12:00 AM CDT
Maro Robbins
Express-News Staff Writer
Graduation was months away. College seemed a sure thing. The classroom clock was ticking toward the carefree time students call senior spring.
Then the birth-control pills failed.
What happened next shaped the future of a 17-year-old girl and may now do the same to one of the Texas Supreme Court justices who heard the teenager's request for an abortion without telling her parents.
http://www.mysanantonio.com/news/metro/stories/MYSA051505.1A.judging_owen.275d3a411.html
Women
EMIRATES: JAILED BRITISH WOMAN AQUITTED
Dubai, 9 May (AKI) - A British woman jailed for entering the United Arab Emirates (UAE) with a banned drug in her system has been acquitted after spending almost two months in prison. Tracy Lewis, 43, was cleared after the court was shown that she had a valid medical prescription for the painkiller Codeine, which is available over the counter in the UK, but is illegal in the UAE.
Her lawyer, Salim Al Sha’ali, said she had been acquitted after it was proved that the substances found in her bloodstream matched those subscribed in her prescription.
http://www.adnki.com/index_2Level.php?cat=Trends&loid=8.0.164472384&par=0
Campaign begun to rid Africa of ‘insult’ laws
Two veteran SA journalists, Raymond Louw, former editor of the Rand Daily Mail, and journalist turned media consultant, Jeanette Minnie, have launched an ambitious campaign to persuade African governments to rid the continent of ‘insult and criminal defamation laws’.
http://www.legalbrief.co.za/article.php?story=20050509083225664
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