by Jeffrey Bergman on November 1, 2010
in Politics
Dear Friends,
In this midterm election, Israel is a partisan issue. Simply because Israel is not a big issue in most races this year doesn’t mean the results of this election won’t have a big impact on US policy towards Israel in the coming years.
President Obama’s approach towards Israel and the Muslim world is a radical departure from established US policy and the Democrats in Congress have refused to challenge him in any meaningful way, which is why I’m urging everyone who supports Israel to vote Republican this year in every race for Congress and Senate. [click to continue…]
If there’s one thing that the overwhelming majority of us Jews agree on, it’s that we’re friends of Israel. We know that Israel is in peril and we want to do something to help.
When we get to the question of how to help, different people have different opinions. How can we be the best friends of Israel that we can possibly be? It’s an important question, and I believe we need a serious, honest, and respectful dialog about it in the Jewish community. But there’s one thing we can all do that I think we’d all agree on. We can fight the global campaign to delegitimize Israel.
Israel’s enemies are waging a large scale, concerted effort to turn global opinion against her, to turn Israel into a pariah, outlaw state, to delegitimize Israel’s right to defend itself, and ultimately to delegitimize her right to exist as a nation. It’s a powerful, effective campaign.
But we can fight back against it, each and every one of us, and we can begin immediately, because the fight against the delegitimization of Israel begins in our own hearts and minds. [click to continue…]
I got an incredibly moving letter in response to my previous post, and I wanted to share it with you.
When we watch the mainstream media it can sometimes seem like the entire world has gone mad with anti-Israel, anti-Semitic hatred. I don’t want to downplay the degree to which that’s the case, but it’s also true that there is an enormous amount of support as well, especially from regular, ordinary people like us.
It’s important that we know of that support and that we ground ourselves in it, for it gives all of us more confidence to speak out.
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Hello Jeffrey,
I just finished reading your article, “Whatchoo Talkin’ About, Willis” and must commend you on it. It was well written, thoughtful, eloquent and completely made sense.
My heart has and always will be with the Jewish people of Israel and the Jewish people of the world. I am an atheist but if you have the time to read the next paragraph of this message, you will understand my love for you and your people.
[click to continue…]
Yesterday, I attended the pro-Israel rally in Los Angeles. There were thousands of us there, and some really good speakers, and in the midst of all the anti-Israel propaganda we see in the mainstream media it was great to soak up, and to send out, the pro-Israel message.
I called one of the groups organizing the rally and asked if I could speak. They respectfully declined, which is understandable because I’m not currently affiliated with an organization, I’m not running for office, and I’m relatively unknown.
I wanted to share with you, though, the speech I would have given had I been invited.
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Thank you for taking your time today to come out here to support Israel at such a trying time.
We’re here today to support the truth about Israel, the truth about what happened on the Mavi Marmara, the truth about the conflict in the Middle East.
To support truth is to show our support for our own legitimacy. For our legitimate right to our homeland, a Jewish state in the land of Israel with Jerusalem as it’s capital.
We’re here to support our legitimate right to defend our state against those who wish to destroy it, those who try to delegitimize our right to exist, and prosper, and have a state of our own.
I’m here to remind us all today that this fight against delegitimization begins in our own hearts and minds.
[click to continue…]
by Jeffrey Bergman on June 6, 2010
in Politics
Since the latest Gaza flotilla ship was named “Rachel Corrie”, after an American radical who died in 2003 while acting as a human shield during an Israeli anti-terror operation in Gaza (an attempt to stop rocket smuggling into Gaza), this seems like an appropriate moment to remember who the real Rachel Corrie was, and who were the victims of the Palestinian terror groups that she did so much to support.
The following quotes are from The Forgotten Rachels by Tom Gross, originally published in 2005.
Unfortunately for those who have sought to portray Corrie as a peaceful protester, photos of her burning a mock American flag and stirring up crowds in Gaza at a pro-Hamas rally were published by the Associated Press and on Yahoo News on 15 February 2003, a month before she died.
The International Solidarity Movement (ISM), the group with which Corrie was affiliated, is routinely described as a “peace group” in the media. Few make any mention of the ISM’s meeting with the British suicide bombers Omar Khan Sharif and Asif Muhammad Hanif who, a few days later, blew up Mike’s Place, a Tel Aviv pub, killing three and injuring dozens, including British citizens. Or of the ISM’s sheltering in its office of Shadi Sukiya, a leading member of Islamic Jihad. Or of the fact that in its mission statement the ISM said “armed struggle” is a Palestinian “right”.
According to the “media co-ordinator” of the ISM, Flo Rosovski, “‘Israel’ is an illegal entity that should not exist” – which at any rate clarifies the ISM’s idea of peace.
On the other hand, here is the list of Jewish Rachels murdered by terrorists in Israel:
- Rachel Thaler, 16, blown up in a pizzeria
- Rachel Levi, 19, murdered while waiting for the bus
- Rachel Levy, 17, blown up in a Jerusalem grocery store
- Rachel Charhi, 36, blown up while sitting in a café
- Rachel Gavish, 50, killed with her husband and son while at home
- Rachel Kol, 53, who worked for 20 years in the neurology lab at Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, murdered with her husband in a drive-by shooting by the Fatah al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, in July 2005
- Rachel Ben Abu, 16, killed with her teenage friends by a suicide bomber at the Netanya shopping mall, in July 2005
- Rachel Shabo, 40, murdered with her three sons aged 5, 13 and 6, while sitting at home
Funny how the supposed “peace activists” haven’t named any ships after them.
