Monday, January 31, 2011

What Israel learned from the Holocaust

Here's another example of why my new novel Rebirth, is a timely piece.

Israeli Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Minister Yuli Edelstein addressed a special event in Brussels on Tuesday marking International Holocaust Remembrance Day:

In the spring of 1939 George the VI, King of England, instructed his private secretary to write to British Foreign Secretary Lord Halifax, having learned that "a number of Jewish refugees from different countries were surreptitiously getting into Palestine." The king was "glad to learn that steps are being taken to prevent these people leaving their country of origin." Halifax's office telegraphed Britain's ambassador in Berlin asking him to encourage the German government "to check the unauthorized emigration" of Jews.
Today the apologists for the king explain that he was not an anti-Semite. To prevent Jewish immigration to Palestine was an official government policy, they say, to pacify Arab Muslim resistance to the Zionist movement. Indeed, this policy, as we know now, was a resounding success. Millions of Jews didn't escape their "countries of origin," except with the smoke of the crematorium chimneys.

What have we learned? Jews should be united, Jews should be independent, and Jews should be armed and ready to fight for their continual freedom to prevent any future attempted Holocausts.

The State of Israel stands today as a guarantee that no kings, no ministers, no policies will doom the Jews again, that there always will be a gate that is open and a beacon that shines friendly. That is what "Never again" means. It means lesson learned.

Written By:
(Yuli Edelstein - IMRA)
For Israel Alert

Saturday, January 8, 2011

Some things never change

In all my research about the rebirth of Israel, I've never seen a feud that just won't diffuse or even cool down.

Scholars, pundits, propagandists, and journalists have created two dangerous pieces of conventional wisdom about the Middle East: that Israelis, not Palestinians, have been the main stumbling block to peace, and that the U.S. has failed to use its influence to pressure Israel for serious compromises. Both propositions are largely untrue.

Israel has a long and compelling history of making major concessions to Arabs. Israel agreed to return the entire Sinai Peninsula, booty of a war it did not start and an act of territorial generosity unprecedented in modern history. When Israel departed Gaza in 2005, it uprooted 9,000 Israeli settlers. In return, Israel got rockets and a terrorist enclave run by Hamas.

At each step in the tortuous negotiating process, the U.S. has pushed Israel toward concessions, but received little or no credit from the Arab side because they think the U.S. is capable of exerting even more pressure on Israel. Nonetheless, the American role has been real and substantial.

(Leslie H. Gelb - Foreign Policy)
The writer is president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations.

It's pleasing to God when we pray for peace in Israel. Please take a moment right now and say a prayer for our only democratic partner in the Middle East. Genesis 12:3 'I will bless those who bless Israel...'

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