THIS WEEK'S JEWISH NEWS
[JTR Contributor's Note: "Please do this no matter where you are in the world. And if you can afford it, consider contributing money to the Christian Science Monitor."]
Subject: CSM Readers voting 3-2 for churches to divest! You can too. Over a million votes so far. PLEASE TAKE THE TIME TO CLICK ON THE LINK (or copy the link and paste ) BELOW, THEN SEND THIS ON TO OTHERS YOU KNOW. The Christian Science Monitor is conducting an on-line poll about whether or not churches should divest of companies that do business with Israel.
Please go to http://www.csmonitor.com/2004/1206/p11s02-lire.html and vote "YES" in the on-line poll. The results a moment ago!
* Should US-based churches boycott certain companies doing business with Israel?
Yes. The US government has failed to act to curb Israel's policies towards Palestinians. - 61.4%
No. It is discriminatory and does not help the peace process with the Palestinians. - 38.6%
Total votes: 1198367"
[An earlier article identified Ms. Rubenstein as some sort of Muslim (!?). This airhead's husband hustles with the wolf pack on Jewish Wall Street. Her kind of drowning in the inane fashion consumer culture quite fits her matrimonial milieu. Jews and fashion, here. Young girls are socialized everywhere into this glittery vat of crap. Is this self-absorbed, filthy rich, obsessive world view one that reaffirms a healthy future for anyone? On your mark, get set ... Load up your shopping baskets! Note once more: these are the kinds of cardboard figures who run popular culture.]
Shopping With...Atoosa Rubenstein,
by Laura David Peden, Yahoo! News (from Fashion Wire Daily), December 29, 2004
"Revlon was the first lipstick I ever used and I always tell the folks [there] that my greatest fantasy is to swim in a vat of Revlon Red lipstick," Seventeen magazine editor-in-chief Atoosa Rubenstein told FWD on a chilly December morning the week before Christmas. "When I do that, it will be my 'I've made it' moment. It must exist, right? A big gigantic vat [of lipstick]? They say that it does, so I'm going to find it. That's my dream." Rubenstein has actually had many dreams over the years, most of which have already come true. The self-described "high school nerd" was the kind of girl for whom everything that could go wrong, did go wrong. Times ten. "I had bad skin, hairy legs that my mom wouldn't let me shave, all my friends broke up with me senior year, I didn't get into my first choice college, I didn't have a prom date," she recalled, ticking off the list of High School Horrors on her well-manicured fingers. "So to have ended up being a fashion editor in New York City and having a husband who is totally hot — all the stuff I would never have thought [possible] when I was a teenager — is great. When I was a kid I was like, 'Oh, if I'm super super successful maybe by the time I'm 32 I'll be an editor-in-chief,' and I'm 32 now and I'm on my second magazine. So I feel very lucky." The accessible, down-to-earth Rubenstein has made a super super successful career out of mining her ugly-duckling-turned-swan persona — spinning teen angst into grown-up gold, as it were — as the editrix of teen bibles CosmoGIRL!, which she founded in 1999 after several years spent toiling at glossies Cosmopolitan and Sassy, and in her current post at Seventeen ... That is no longer the case, as was immediately apparent watching Rubenstein shop during our outing at the Times Square Sephora (1500 Broadway, 212-944-6789; www.sephora.com). List in hand, the statuesque Iranian-born stunner strode through the aisles with a laser-like focus, Gucci handbag slung over one arm, rapidly filling basket slung over the other. "We should do it by brands because my list is all over the place," she advised as we headed toward the Lancome display. "I need an Amplicils in black. I like big, fat, slutty lashes. I like L'Oréal as well, but I want to get Lancome right now because it's Christmas time and I feel a little frou frou. Also, when my hair gets gray, this is what I put in my hair ... She was also looking for Laura Mercier Foundation Primer and was momentarily disappointed when informed Sephora doesn't carry the brand. But don't these companies send her free stuff? "They do, but it's not as fun as this," the beauty junkie replied, as she gestured to the mind-boggling array of goodies that surrounded her ... She scanned her list. "I have to get a body lotion and an eye cream, the Laura Mercier they don't have, I need a mini lip brush and I want to see what's new." Rubenstein's love of shopping does not, however, extend to clothing so the former fashion editor sets aside one day, twice a year, to zoom in and out of her favorite stores, Jeffrey and Barneys, where she stocks up on Rick Owens, Pucci (for summer) Ralph Lauren cashmere (for weekends) and Donna Karan (for evening). "I was wearing Prada and Calvin Klein almost exclusively for several years, but then they stopped speaking to me," she said (meaning the clothes, not the designers themselves). "I actually like avant-garde [designers]. To me, fashion is art and it's the way I express myself. It's very similar to how my readers are, as well. It's how we tell the world who we are, because we don't get to talk to everybody. You want to put a statement out there. I like wearing really interesting clothes." On the day we met, this translated into an avant-casual ensemble consisting of Michael Kors boots, Rei Kawakubo for Commes des Garçons patchwork denim maxi skirt, a Prada sweater over a Gap tee topped off by a sparkly Jennifer Miller necklace and a dramatic wool wrap. "Oh, I wanted to try this Night Rescue," she announced, adding the Aramis Lab Series men's moisturizer ($30) to the basket for her Wall Street trader husband, Ari. The two have been married seven years, and Rubenstein claimed she had created a not-quite-metrosexual monster. "I give him, like, really expensive shampoo, which he loves, and God forbid if he uses anything but Bumble and bumble cream in his hair," she said with a laugh. She turned on her heel and stalked over to the fragrance section. "I'm looking for an Armani scent," she said, and picked up a bottle of Giorgio Armani Sensi ($39.50) ... She threw a bottle of Clean Eau de Parfum spray ($76) into the basket, as well. Scent superstitions satisfied, Rubenstein went to peruse body lotions. "One thing I really want to get is some Jessica Simpson stuff," she said as she crouched down to get a better look at the MTV diva's girly-girl line. "Oh, I love caramel so much," she added as she put a can of Creamy Kissable Whipped Body Cream with Candy Sprinkles ($34) in her basket. Next stop: The Bliss shelf, where she stocked up on Lemon Sage Body Butter Maximum Moisture Cream (one tube for her, one for her friend Nicole, $32 each). "I work so hard I just want good things at the end of the day, and that's why I love beauty so much," she explained ... She outlined her otherwise vacation-free schedule (Rubenstein works out with her trainer, Radu, at 7 am every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, is at the office by 9 am where she tries to do as much work as possible in the morning, because there is "always a lunch, always a dinner, always a meeting with advertisers or whatever so it's always being broken up.") The following weekend Ari would be going to their Southampton home to relax, but Rubenstein was staying in Manhattan to attend to errands and work. "I have to write all my thank you notes for the all the wonderful gifts we've gotten," she said of her to-do list. "To do the job the way I want to do it, which is to be a gracious person and human being — in other words, to write thank you notes, send Christmas cards, Christmas shop for my people, all that stuff — I have to stay here. It's tough, but it's worth it" ... A jar of Shiseido Benefiance Revitalizing Eye Cream ($44) and a Sephora retractable lip brush ($8) were added to her ever-growing cache before she paused to check her Blackberry ... She made it about three feet and stopped dead in front of a Nars Cosmetics display. "We just bumped into this little treasure chest," she crowed with glee. "I think God sent me here, because I just saw this in a magazine." She scooped up two Nars Velvet Matte lip pencils in a pink-brown shade called Bahama ($22 each) and headed toward the register at the back of the store ... "We did some serious damage," she said as the cashier tallied up her loot, which totaled $391.61 ($100 of which FWD [Fashion Wear Daily] sprung for). "The most important thing is, thank you for letting me get this stuff," she added. "I really appreciate it." And with that, the well-mannered swan headed back to the office to attend to her two million ducklings-in-training."
American Jewish Committee honors Dave Frohnmayer,
Albany Democrat-Herald, December 29, 2004
"Dave Frohnmayer, University of Oregon president and former Oregon attorney general, has received the 2004 Judge Learned Hand Award from the American Jewish Committee for his adherence to the principles of excellence in the legal field and for his service to the community, the university announced. Frohnmayer was appointed president of the University of Oregon in 1994. He formerly served as dean of the UO School of Law, as Oregon's attorney general, as a member of the Oregon House of Representatives, and as a law professor and legal counsel to the president of the UO."
[Jews are outraged with the fact that the Jewish community has been repeatedly described throughout history -- by all sorts of political persuasions -- as nonproductive exploiters (usurers, etc.) of host peoples. So what do you call it when an entire nation functions as a dangling parasite, sucking American taxpayers dry at every opportunity?]
Israel may seek further U.S. funding for security measures,
Haaretz (Israel), December 24, 2004
"Israel, which receives about $3 billion a year in U.S. aid, may seek extra funding next year to bolster border security and overhaul checkpoints as part of a plan to pull out of Gaza and parts of the West Bank, sources familiar with the talks said on Thursday. Any additional money for Israel would come on top of increased U.S. aid for the Palestinian Authority after January elections to replace the late Palestinian Authority chairman Yasser Arafat ... The extra funding for Israel could help it cover the cost of deploying high-tech terminals for inspecting Palestinians at checkpoints in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, sources close to the talks said. Another project under consideration would help scan Palestinian cargo shipments ... Finance Minister Benjamin Netanyahu raised the issue in recent talks with American officials. "It was put on the table to be discussed further," said one source close to the talks ... Bush has promised to support Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's plan to evacuate all 8,000 settlers from Gaza and a few hundred of the 230,000 in the West Bank next year under Sharon's disengagement plan. Palestinians see it as a smokescreen behind which he will keep most territory they want for a state ... Key U.S. lawmakers are wary of providing direct aid to the Palestinians. Bush provided $20 million to the Palestinian Authority earlier this month, but on condition that the money be used to pay Israeli utility bills ... Bush included $1 billion in direct military assistance for Israel and $9 billion in loan guarantees in his 2003 Iraq war supplemental."
Jewish Extremism in Israel,
by B Ahmed, News from Bangladesh, December 26 2004
"A second group, the focus of this article, recognize as their sole authority a selective interpretation of the Jewish halacha, or religious law. Their aim is to create a "halachic Jewish state," a theocracy where the only law is religious in nature and all obligations and rights are defined in ancient religious terms. Their "Land of Israel" is not a strip of land with territorial boundaries, it is instead a spiritual and theological concept which must be realized. Who are they? Where do they come from? What are their current political activities and immediate political goals? And, most importantly, what effect are they having on the peace process between Israel and the Palestinians? The answers are disturbing at best ... Through their "sacred vigilantism," not only are the rights of the native Arab population threatened, but the future of Israel as a free democracy as well. The rest of the world is none too safer, either ... To understand Gush Emunim, it is necessary to see how they manage to meld politics and religion. By self-definition, they are a group of devoted religious believers for whom the concept of compromise is practically foreign. They know Truth, and of course Truth cannot be compromised or abandoned in any manner ... Gush Emunim must be recognized as exceptionally radical in at least three crucial aspects. The first is the settling of "The Greater Land of Israel" - more commonly known as the Occupied Territories of the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. These are territories which were captured in war by Israel but populated almost entirely by Palestinians. For Gush Emunim, these territories rightfully belong to Israel since it was originally given to the ancient Hebrews by God. It is thus the sacred duty of Jews to populate these areas - Arab rights and interests are disregarded as a matter of principle."
[At every turn, Jews are sucking the taxpayers throughout the world for the effects of World War more than half a century ago. Who else has such a well-crafted Machine Network to loot governmental treasuries, while most citizens haven't a clue to what is happening? Why aren't the Palestinian people allowed to snake the same legal courses to whack the Jewish state (and world Jewish loyalists to Israel) for at least a few dozen billion dollars for similar Jewish-inspired crimes perpetrated upon them? The rich and powerful wield "law" to their own benefit.]
One reparation granted, another is not,
by Dwight Lewis, The Tenessean, December 26, 2004
"I had to go to Webster's Dictionary the other day to find out if there is really a difference between the meaning of restitution and reparation. What stirred my mind was a story I read in The New York Times Tuesday saying the federal government had announced that it had agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by a group of elderly Hungarian Jews over the looting of their valuables by American soldiers during World War II. The Times quoted a spokesman for the Justice Department as saying that the terms of the arrangement were not disclosed. Restitution or reparation? The paper went on to say that the federal judge hearing the case in Miami, Patricia A. Seitz urged lawyers for both sides to determine the scope of the settlement by Feb. 18 and set a hearing for Feb. 25. The Times added that the three-year-old lawsuit sought up to $10,000 each for as many as 30,000 Hungarian Jews and their survivors. ''This case is less about restitution of money than the restitution of history,'' The Times quoted Gideon Taylor, executive vice president of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, a New York City group that was involved in the mediation talks, as saying. ''Most important is setting the record straight and enabling there to be a recognition of what happened.For most survivors, the acknowledgment is far more important than any monetary value.'' So, this is a case about restitution, and not reparation? ''They're very much the same,'' Ray Winbush, the former head of the Race Relations Institute at Nashville's Fisk University and now director of the Institute for Urban Research at Morgan State University in Baltimore, told me over the telephone Thursday. ''It's a form of reparations. ''Everyone can get them except African-Americans" ... In the lawsuit filed by the elderly Hungarian Jews, gold, silver, paintings and furs, had been stolen from them, some of whom, The Times said, had been sent to internment and death camps by the Nazis ... The Times said the items belonging to Hungarian Jews were appropriated by the Army and sold to soldiers, according to a 1999 report by the Presidential Advisory Commission on Holocaust Assets in the United States. It added that two suitcases filled with gold dust disappeared, investigators found, and other property was stolen from the warehouse by soldiers, apparently with the collusion of the guards. I wonder whether how many people are upset over this particular settlement? I raise that question after remembering an e-mail I received from a reader last February after writing a column about a public conference on reparations being held at the University of Memphis. ''And where would this money come from?'' the reader asked. ''Everybody. Can you imagine Congress and the Senate 'appropriating' billions of dollars for reparations when they already cry that the president's tax refund is going to lead to deficit spending.''
[They've got it backwards. What is NOT fake in Israel? Jews and art fakes, etc., here.]
Temple antiquity a fake, Israeli experts say,
by Matthew Kalman, The Globe and Mail, December 27, 2004
"The Israel Museum has discovered that the most important item in its priceless collection of biblical antiquities is a fake. An ivory pomegranate originally thought to have adorned a sceptre carried by the high priest in Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem is to be withdrawn from public exhibition. The withdrawal of the pomegranate, which was on display during an exhibition at the Canadian Museum of Civilization last year, is the latest in a series of embarrassing scandals which have rocked the quiet but high-spending world of antiquities collectors. Other suspected high-profile fakes include the burial box of Jesus's brother first displayed at the Royal Ontario Museum in 2002, and a series of ancient seals bought by private collectors in New York, Paris and London. The pomegranate was the only original artifact ever discovered from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem, built around 800 BC. It was the most important piece in the museum's priceless collection of antiquities. Experts fear that the astounding discovery is just the tip of an international industry of archeological forgeries which has defrauded leading museums and collectors of millions of dollars. Several dealers who allegedly forged the relics are expected to be indicted on criminal charges this week by Israeli police. The thumb-sized pomegranate, only 44 millimetres high, is inscribed with ancient Hebrew letters said to spell out the words "Sacred donation for the priests in the House of Jehovah." It was purchased 15 years ago by a private philanthropist for $550,000 (U.S.) and donated to the museum after it was verified by experts ... The item was first discovered in July, 1979, by French paleographer André Lemaire, who said an antiquities dealer in the Old City of Jerusalem showed him the tiny ornament over a cup of tea. Lemaire said he photographed it and published his findings two years later in the respected Revue Biblique journal. In 1984, Lemaire published his findings in English, triggering worldwide interest. Soon after, it was smuggled out of Israel and put on display in a Paris Museum. The purchase of the item was shrouded in mystery and conducted through a series of shadowy middlemen. The museum and the donor never knew the identity of the owner. They were instructed to pay the money into a numbered Swiss bank account and then directed to a safety deposit box containing the pomegranate. But recently doubts have been raised about its authenticity. A panel of Israel Museum experts have now concluded that the inscription is a modern forger ... Israeli police are nearing the end of a two-year-long investigation into a sophisticated forgery ring which has fooled experts and scientists for decades. In a raid last year on the home of Oded Golan, a prominent antiquities dealer and collector in Tel Aviv, police found chemicals, soil samples and tools which they believe were used to fake a string of artifacts sold to museums and private collectors for millions of dollars. Police are expected to charge the man with faking the ossuary with the inscription "James son of Joseph brother of Jesus." The limestone burial box had been touted as the oldest physical link between the modern world and Jesus -- and displayed at the ROM. But after it was returned to Israel, experts said that while the ossuary was indeed 2,000 years old, parts of the inscription were added later.Golan has denied any wrongdoing."
[An older article, new to us: Yet another Jewish art predator. Not only did a Jew try to rip off the entire country of Cyprus, her goal was to find legal loopholes to sell stolen Christian artifacts in her possession. More Jews and art crime, here. Jewish domination of the art world (and considerable more swindling), here.]
AUTOCEPHALOUS GREEK-ORTHODOX CHURCH OF CYPRUS v. GOLDBERG,
University of Richmond
"In the early sixth century, A.D., a large mosaic was affixed to the apse of the Church of the Panagia Kanakaria ("Kanakaria Church") in the village of Lythrankonu, Cyprus. The mosaic, made of small bits of colored glass, depicted Jesus Christ as a young boy in the lap of his mother, the Virgin Mary, who was seated on a throne. Jesus and Mary were attended by two archangels and surrounded by a frieze depicting the twelve apostles. The mosaic was displayed in the Kanakaria Church for centuries, where it became, under the practices of Eastern Orthodox Christianity, sanctified as a holy relic. It survived both the vicissitudes of history, and, thanks to restoration efforts, the ravages of time ... In July, 1974, the civil government of the Republic of Cyprus was replaced by a government controlled by the Greek Cypriot military. In apparent response, on July 20, 1974, Turkey invaded Cyprus from the north. By late August, the Turkish military forces had advanced to occupy approximately the northern third of the island. The point at which the invading forces stopped is called the "Green Line." ... Upon learning of the looting of the Kanakaria Church and the loss of its mosaics (made plural by the vandals' axes), the Republic of Cyprus took immediate steps to recover them. As discussed in greater detail in Judge Noland's opinion, these efforts took the form of contacting and seeking assistance from many organizations and individuals, including the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization ("UNESCO"); the International Council of Museums; the International Council of Museums and Sites; Europa Nostra (an organization devoted to the conservation of the architectural heritage of Europe); the Council of Europe; international auction houses such as Christie's and Sotheby's; Harvard University's Dumbarton Oaks Institute for Byzantine Studies; and the foremost museums, curators and Byzantine scholars throughout the world ... To understand how these pieces of the Kanakaria mosaic resurfaced, we must trace the actions of appellant Peg Goldberg and the other principals through whose hands they passed in 1988. Peg Goldberg is an art dealer and gallery operator. Goldberg and Feldman Fine Arts, Inc., is the Indiana corporation that owns her gallery in Carmel, Indiana. In the summer of 1988, Peg Goldberg went to Europe to shop for works for her gallery. Although her main interest is 20th century paintings, etchings and sculptures, Goldberg was enticed while in The Netherlands by Robert Fitzgerald, another Indiana art dealer and "casual friend" of hers, to consider the purchase of "four early Christian mosaics" ... Peg Goldberg's efforts soon turned to just that: the resale of these valuable mosaics. She worked up sales brochures about them, and contacted several other dealers to help her find a buyer. Two of these dealers' searches led them both to Dr. Marion True of the Getty Museum in California. When told of these mosaics and their likely origin, the aptly-named Dr. True explained to the dealers that she had a working relationship with the Republic of Cyprus and that she was duty-bound to contact Cypriot officials about them. Dr. True called Dr. Vassos Karageorghis, the Director of the Republic's Department of Antiquities and one of the primary Cypriot officials involved in the worldwide search for the mosaics. Dr. Karageorghis verified that the Republic was in fact hunting for the mosaics that had been described to Dr. True, and he set in motion the investigative and legal machinery that ultimately resulted in the Republic learning that they were in Goldberg's possession in Indianapolis. After their request for the return of the mosaics was refused by Goldberg, the Republic of Cyprus and the Church of Cyprus (collectively "Cyprus") brought this suit in the Southern District of Indiana for the recovery of the mosaics. Judge Noland bifurcated the possession and damages issues and held a bench trial on the former. In a detailed, thorough opinion (that occupies thirty-one pages in the Federal Supplement), Judge Noland awarded possession of the mosaics to the Church of Cyprus. Goldberg filed a timely appeal ... With great zeal, Goldberg has from the beginning of this action challenged the timeliness of Cyprus' complaint. Under Indiana's statute of limitations for replevin actions, Cyprus had six years from the time its cause of action accrued in which to sue for the recovery of the mosaics."
[Aydin Dikman, described as a "Turk," may also be Jewish. Dickman/Dikman is a common enough Jewish surname.]
The Case of the Kanakaria Mosaics,
kypros.org
"In 1989 the government of Cyprus took an American art dealer to court for the return of four rare 6th century Byzantine mosaics. The mosaics, part of a larger mosaic from the apse of the church of Panayia Kanakaria in the village of Lythrangomi, depicting the apostles, the virgin Mary, Christ as a child, and the archangels, were believed to have been stolen from the church in around 1976, two years after Turkey invaded and occupied the northern third of the island, where the church is situated ... Cyprus learned the whereabouts of the mosaics ten years later when an Indianapolis art dealer, Peg Goldberg, offered them to the J. Paul Getty museum in Malibu, California, for $20 million. The museum's curator contacted authorities in Cyprus. The Republic of Cyprus and the Autocephalous Greek Orthodox Church of Cyprus sued Goldberg and her art dealership, Goldberg and Feldman Fine Arts of Carmel, Indianapolis, to recover the mosaics. The trial began on 30 May 1989 and lasted six days. The trial attracted widespread international attention because of the rarity and importance of the mosaics. Each about two feet square and composed of hundreds of jewel-like bits of glass, marble and stone, the mosaics are among the very few such works to survive an eighth century edict by the Emperor of Byzantium to destroy all images of sacred figures. They depict Christ as a young boy, the apostles Matthew and James and an archangel. Cyprus won the case. US District Judge James E. Noland ruled that the mosaics were the property of the Church of Cyprus and that Goldberg must return them. In his 86 page ruling Noland said Goldberg had never obtained good title to the mosaics and had no right to possess them. He also ruled that Goldberg did not make a thorough attempt to learn whether the art work was stolen. Ms Goldberg had bought the mosaics for $1.1 million in July 1988 after hearing about them on a trip to Amsterdam from a well-known dealer called Michael van Rijn, and later viewing them at a Swiss airport. She purchased the mosaics from Aydin Dikman, a Turk living in Germany, who claimed he was a former archaeologist for the self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus", which was set up in the Turkish-occupied part of Cyprus but which no country in the world other than Turkey recognises. Court records showed he was linked to several art thefts from Cyprus."
["The white race is the cancer of human history." So wrote Susan (Rosenblatt) Sontag who wormed her way through the New York Jewish literary mafia and is hallowed today as a great American intellectual. But what if somone wrote, in kind: "No, it is the Jews who are the cancer of human history." What would happen to this critic of Jews? Think about this absolute (Jewish) liberty to condemn anyone as a racial group and still come out the other side -- not with the crash of a literary career for expressions of naked racism, but with New York-rooted National Book Awards.]
Susan Sontag, author and activist, dies at 71,
by Hillel Italie, Seattle Times (from Associated Press), December 28, 2004
"Susan Sontag, the author, activist and self-defined "zealot of seriousness" whose voracious mind and provocative prose made her a leading intellectual of the past half century, died today. She was 71 ... Sontag called herself a "besotted aesthete," an "obsessed moralist" and a "zealot of seriousness." She wrote a best-selling historical novel, "The Volcano Lover," and in 2000 won the National Book Award for the historical novel "In America." But her greatest literary impact was as an essayist ... The daughter of a fur trader, she was born Susan Rosenblatt in New York in 1933, and also spent her early years in Tucson, Ariz., and Los Angeles. Her mother was an alcoholic; her father died when she was 5. Her mother later married an Army officer, Capt. Nathan Sontag. Susan Sontag remembered her childhood as "one long prison sentence." She skipped three grades and graduated from high school at 15; the principal told her she was wasting her time there. Her mother, meanwhile, warned if she did not stop reading she would never marry. Her mother was wrong. At the University of Chicago, she attended a lecture by Philip Rieff, a social psychologist and historian. They were married 10 days later. She was 17, he 28. "He was passionate, he was bookish, he was pure," she later said of him ... In 2000, her novel "In America," about the 19th-century Polish actress Helena Modjeska, was a commercial disappointment and was criticized for the uncredited use of material from fiction and nonfiction sources. Nonetheless, Sontag won the National Book Award ... In 1999 she wrote an essay for "Women," a compilation of portraits by her longtime companion, photographer Annie Leibovitz. Sontag did not practice the art of restrained discourse. Writing in the 1960s about the Vietnam War she declared "the white race is the cancer of human history."
[Older article, new to us ... We can't tell if this is a critique of "Stalinist anti-Zionism" or an acceptance of its premises. In any case, much of this stuff presented is accurate. But a few facts are UNDERstated. For example, today over 40% of the wealthiest 100 Americans are Jewish (not 20%).]
The Stalinist roots of left anti-Zionism part 2,
Workers' Liberty, February 2004
"The Kremlin argued: “The real masters of international Zionism who finance and inspire the aggression of Israel against Arab countries and the anti-communist, anti-Soviet activity of Zionist organisations, are the most powerful monopolies and banks of the USA and other countries, that is, the driving forces of contemporary imperialism.” But this begs the question of who exerts the major influence and control over “the most powerful monopolies and banks of the USA”. “The existence in the United States of the most numerous grouping in the world of capitalists of Jewish origin... is the most important factor determining the specific nature of American Zionism... About 20% of American millionaires are Jews, although, as is well known, the proportion of Americans of Jewish origin does not exceed 3% of the entire population of the USA.” American Zionism, therefore, constitutes “a mighty and powerful detachment of international Zionism, by virtue of both its numbers and also its financial-political possibilities.” In the American political arena it thus performs a dual function: “as spokesperson of the interests of one of the groupings of the bourgeoisie of the USA, playing no small role in circles which determine the policies of Washington, and as part of international Zionism, closely connected with its other groupings.” “The powerful Jewish bourgeoisie is far from occupying the lowest position in the financial oligarchy of the USA.” “The position of the middle-man in relation to the organisation of major long-term loans is in reality monopolised by seventeen of the most powerful Wall Street firms. The majority of them belong either partially or entirely to the powerful Jewish bourgeoisie”. “A series of monopolies which have contracts with the Pentagon are controlled by the Zionists. The Lazard brothers, for example, who are members of the American Jewish Committee, control the aviation company Lockheed, 90% of the work of which is for the Pentagon. Zionists have an entrenched position in the General Dynamics corporation as well... It is necessary to say that these and other firms with contracts with the Pentagon are the main suppliers of weapons to Israel.” “American Zionists dispose of massive financial resources and a far-reaching network of organisations. They possess a powerful propaganda apparatus and control a significant share of the means of mass communication in the country.” Other spheres of influence of Zionism in America include the CIA (“The interests of the powerful Jewish bourgeoisie and other groupings of finance capital are interlaced in the secret service just as in other spheres of politics, economics and ideology”), primaries for the selection of Presidential candidates (“The participation of Zionist capital in the financing of the primary campaigns and in working out the platforms in the primaries of the candidates for President — this phenomenon is characteristic of political life in the USA”), and the Mafia (“The leadership of the Mafia was [at the time of Al Capone] closely linked with Zionists and international Zionism, and some Zionists... became its leaders.” It is therefore far from clear who is the tail and who is the dog. Zionism is simultaneously an agency of American imperialism, and at the same time the driving force behind it: “Zionism has now become one of the most influential forces in the American political arena... The union of the Zionists with different political forces in the USA, expressing the interests of the entire American ruling class, significantly strengthens the possibilities of Zionism exerting an influence on the policies of Washington' ... Over the years, Zionism changed into a powerful international concern. The international Zionist corporation... its countless branches and subsidiaries... is one of the most powerful units of finance capital.” The economic basis of Zionism is “the most powerful financial industrial-monopolies of the West... Economic conferences of Jewish millionaires are capital united on a world scale, used to exert pressure on states and governments in a series of capitalist countries in pursuit of political goals” . The Zionist organisations are controlled by the powerful Jewish bourgeoisie: “in the leadership of the Zionist organisations there has never been, nor is there now, a single worker or peasant; instead, at all levels of the Zionist hierarchy are rabbis, millionaires, bankers, stock-brokers, speculators representatives of monopolies, etc.” The same principle also applies to Judaism, from which according to the “anti-Zionist” campaign, the racist Zionist concept of “the chosen people” is derived : “Wherever the rabbis rule together with the Zionists, everything is subordinate to one goal — serving the interests of capital. Therefore, as a rule, the leading roles in religious communities not only in Israel but also in the USA and other capitalist countries are played by wealthy people: businessmen, directors of companies, financial bosses.” Zionism, which was “called into life at the will of the Jewish bourgeoisie”, knows of “ways in and out of the corridors of power of which the uninitiated are ignorant.” Apart from its influential position in the politics and economies of the United States and Western Europe, and its subversive activities in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union, “the powerful Jewish bourgeoisie is firmly entrenched in Spain and Portugal, in the economies of a series of Latin American countries, in Australia and New Zealand. Its sphere of influence extends to the countries of Asia as well, including Singapore, Indonesia, Japan, the Philippines, and Malaysia. As a rule, this involves representatives of families which are involved in a series of countries and also in several continents.” In Latin America, for example, where “the Jewish bourgeoisie is encouraged by foreign capital, which has transformed it into its base in line with not only its economic but also its political plan”, “banks and also securities in Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Columbia, Venezuela, and also other countries as well belong to pro-Zionist capital... The powerful Zionist bourgeoisie of the USA plays the role in Latin America of the most aggressive detachment of North American imperialism.” The organisational structure of international Zionism is based on “subsidies of Zionist bankers and other capitalists, (through which) was created an extensive extra-state and even supra-state system of organisations entangling, like a cobweb, many capitalist states which spread out their tentacles into the countries of Asia, Africa, and Latin America. To this system belongs first and foremost the World Zionist Organisation and the World Jewish Congress.” It is therefore “no exaggeration to say that the system of organisations of international Zionism (which extends throughout the entire world and, at the same time, is strongly centralised) united with a powerful financial-economic base in the shape of the monopoly bourgeoisie of Jewish origin... is the main source of strength and activity of Zionist influence on the politics of a series of leading capitalist states. At present, international Zionism... given the depth of its penetration into the most variegated spheres of political, economic, and social life of the capitalist countries, has no equal amongst the other bourgeois-nationalist and anticommunist currents and detachments of world reaction.” International Zionism is not satisfied with merely having no equal in the imperialist world. It strives for world power, in the traditions of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion: “The representatives of international Zionist capital openly aspire to world domination, although they mask their ambitions of world conquest by way of vague phrases about ‘ethical socialism’.” Going beyond the original version of the Protocols however, the 1970s USSR version suggested that that goal had already been achieved, at least outside the borders of the vigilantly “anti-Zionist” Stalinist states: “Too much bears witness to the fact that in the sum of various factors — economic, political, ideological, social, religious, societal, etc. — which determine the course of action of the ruling circles of the leading capitalist states, the cosmopolitan Jewish bourgeoisie. and Zionist capital (closely linked with Judaic clericalism) emerge as significantly more organised, more ambitious, and more powerful them any other influential monopoly (family, banking, regional) groups and groupings of the financial oligarchy.” None of this, of course was anti-semitism. It was simply “anti-Zionism.”
[It is not just Israelis who are rooted in an obsession with martyrdom. Jewish identity itself (which invented Zionism) is founded on a grotesque persecution complex -- originally conceived as a punishment from God. An expressly JEWISH neurosis forms the heart of Israel. More about the expressly JEWISH (which far predates Zionism) cult of victimhood, here.]
Israel's Culture of Martyrdom,
by Baruch Kimmerling, The Nation, December 22, 2004
"Nations like to imagine themselves as unique, but one belief they have in common is that it is noble to die in their name. Death and redemption are the themes of almost every form of patriotism. In the case of Israel, however, the connection between nationalism and death is especially visceral. For the Jewish state is a nation that emerged from the ashes of a project of extermination, and that sees itself as the best defense against the renewal of violent persecution. Zionism, the state's ruling ideology, is a triumphal creed shadowed by death ... At the center of this culture of death is the remembrance of martyrs--Jews who, in Zionist ideology, had to die so that the state might be born. The central chapter in the construction of Israeli martyrology was, of course, the Holocaust, but it began well before, according to Zertal, who traces it to the cult surrounding Joseph Trumpeldor, the first hero of the Jews who settled in Palestine."Never mind dying," Trumpeldor is reported to have said shortly before his death in 1920. "It is good to die for our country."
A US operation into Syria is a 'New Colonialism',
Zaman (Turkey), December 29, 2004
"Syrian Prime Minister Mohammad Naji Otari, spoke to Zaman after Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan visited Syria. In today's part of the speech, he said that the USA has no valid reason to intervene into Syria and an operation in these circumstances would be a "new colonialism" ...
USA accuses Syria of supporting terror. Do you support terror?
You have to stop here for a while. Can we call the struggle of a nation under an invasion 'terror'? They are fighting for their land and their rights. If you infer that the Palestinian struggle is terror then this is unacceptable. Also, the United Nations (UN) accepts this in this way. The situation is for international law. It is a very weird situation that today we are accused of defending ourselves and trying to save our land. Also, they intervened in Iraq by stating that there are nuclear weapons in Iraq. But there were no weapons. There are tons of these in Israel but nobody even talks about them. We gave an offer to UN saying "lets clean out the whole Middle East of its weapons of mass destruction" but our offer is still waiting on the table. If we come back to the terror issue, we are, of course, against all kinds of terror that targets civilians meaninglessly.
The USA does not Accuse Palestine of supporting terror but you. You are telling Palestine's reasons, what are your reasons?
If we look at near history we will see that the ones who call some body a terrorist, were their closest allies in the past. The USA used to support and save the people in Halab and today they call them terrorists. The USA used these people against us. These groups applied severe terrorist activities against us. The same thing happened in Afghanistan. Whose product is Bin Laden? They create a problem and then use their methods to solve it. Then the situation that comes up is used for accusing us. We only struggle to save the lands invaded by Israel. This is the same in Lebanon, Palestine and Syria. If they call this terror, there is nothing to be done.
Do you foresee a possibility that the USA may make a military operation?
First of all they have no reason to attack our country. Despite this, if something does happen, we will be back in colonial times. In such a situation we have the power to send the new colonists away as we did to former ones ...
If peace with Israel is a condition for Democracy are you hopeful about this?
You should ask this question to Israel. The only country whose borders are not clear in the world is Israel because Israel follows an expansionist policy. Also, as long as the Sharon government exists we do not believe that there will be peace. In order to talk about peace the invasion should end. If this happens, then the establishment of peace is very easy.
One of the reasons why pressure is applied on you is because of your soldiers in Lebanon; will you reconsider your Lebanon policy?
They have found many so called reasons to accuse us, because these did not work they brought Lebanon to the agenda. Lebanon is a neighboring Arabian country. Our relationship with them is normal. There is an independent government in Lebanon who was elected by the people of Lebanon the agreement between us and them is with the mutual consent of other Arabian countries. So we do not have to make explanations to anyone else for our mutual relationship. If we do not interfere with another countries' relationships, why should others interfere in ours?
How do you accept USA's Extended Greater Middle East Project (EGMEP) that is said to bring democracy to the region?
I do not think that the USA cares about democracy. The USA considers its interests. Their strong relationships with countries that lack democracy reveals their double standard. As for me the biggest problem that the USA faces today is that nobody in the world believes what they say."
[As almost always, the resident "spokesman" pops up to argue for gambling expansion. Jews and "Indian casinos," here. (Scroll down to the Native American section)]
Tribes, Environmentalists in Casino Clash,
Earthlink (from Associated Press), December 29, 2004
"For 12,000 years or more, Columbia River tribes gathered nearby to do business with distant tribes. Now they want to come back - to deal blackjack and poker. The Confederated Tribes of the Warm Springs want to close a small casino on their reservation in remote central Oregon and build one on nontribal land in Cascade Locks, much closer to Portland and its thousands of potential gamblers. Officials in this struggling town of 1,100 see the venture as its last, best hope to bring back people and tourist dollars. But the Friends of the Columbia River Gorge, formed to protect the beauty of one of the nation's first designated national scenic areas, pales at the thought, predicting pollution, crowds and bad precedent ... Tribal officials say they want to build a casino closer to Portland - the state's largest city - to increase revenue. Spokesman Len Bergstein described the proposed building site as "an ideal compromise." "It is in an industrial park where the community wants this development to occur," he said. The tribes could build on land they own in nearby Hood River, but Bergstein said Hood River doesn't want it and that the tribes don't want to build where they aren't welcome."
[The issue is quite simple: the Nazis appropriated the old swastika symbol for their purposes, and now Jews appropriate it for theirs. Symbols mean different things to different people and there are many cultures that view swastikas positively. But, as always, Jews are still fighting their eternal war and their views on everything take priority.]
Post office tiles symbolize sun. Swastikas with bars bent to left remain; others were removed,
Morning Call, December 29, 2004
"Q: I had written back in September about the swastikas inlaid in the post office floor at Fifth and Hamilton streets in Allentown that have been there well over 50 years, as it was in 1950 when I first saw them. In fact, one was about 2 feet square, which has been removed. In September, I even lifted up the big rug where it used to be just to see if it was there, but it was gone. There are still a few small ones here and there.- Phil Sensinger - via e-mail -
A: Phil, no, you are not seeing things, because I have seen those swastikas also.
I have read closely the very long and detailed account of the post office's opening that appeared in the paper on Aug. 30, 1934. Nowhere is there a mention about the inclusion of the swastika in the tiles.I assume attention wasn't paid to them because they were not intended as negative symbols, but were widely accepted as good luck symbols at the time. A 1944 Evening Chronicle article mentioned them, but not with any controversy or in great detail ... ''A lot of Jews know they are there. When I walk into the post office, they disturb me,'' Rabbi Stephen S. Schafer of Temple Keneseth Israel told the Chronicle. ''A swastika to a Jew is a symbol of murder.'' Postmaster J.A. Daubert said he thought the decorative floor tiles installed in 1934 by the Allentown Tile and Marble Co. were old Indian symbols. He said he found them troubling also, when the situation was pointed out, and would talk to the General Services Administration about having them removed. Elmer R. Lehr, superintendent of mails and a longtime postal employee, also thought they were Indian symbols and said it would not bother him ''if the whole floor were covered with swastikas.'' He suggested they be left as ''a reminder of what can happen in this country.'' Building engineer James R. O'Donnell noted it was good to have them ''where people could walk on them.'' U.S. Rep. Willard Curtin, whose office was in the post office building, said he had never really noticed them, but would look into the matter. On Nov. 11, 1965, with the post office closed for Veterans Day, tile removers from the Allentown Tile and Marble Works Co. arrived. Daubert said General Services in Wilkes-Barre had issued an order to ''take 'em out.'' They removed the five swastikas that most closely resembled the Nazi symbol, those with the end of the crossbars that bent to the right. Other smaller swastikas in the lobby, with crossbars bent to the left, were the ancient symbol of sun, fire and lighting for people from Scandinavia, India and China. They were left untouched. Another difference is that the Nazi swastika is at a slant, while the ancient swastika rests flat. By the way, Phil, there is another, older federal project that features swastikas. The Laguna Dam, outside Yuma, Ariz., is known to some as the ''swastika dam.'' The dam, built between 1904 and 1909, was designed by engineers of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation. The bureau at that time had adopted for its logo the Hindu version of the swastika because it represented the Indian god Indra, who had the power to control water."
[Holocau$t Indu$try chapter number 2,922,432. Jews, who frame themselves to above historical responsibility for anything that has ever befallen them as a tribal entity, continue to guilt-trip everyone el$e in the world. Until every single Palestinian is compensated by Jews for murder and theft, and peasants of history are allowed to line up to point their fingers at usurious Jews to declare, "I accuse!", the continuous Jewish exploitation of their "persecution" versions of history for absurdly vast sums of money today are scams of the first order. It is only the powerful who can successfully demand reparations from modern taxpayers for a history that has nothing to do with them. Here below we find a poor "average people" Jewish family that was wealthy with prime real estate" and, after the consequences of World War, suddenly the French people owe them.]
New chapter in Holocaust justice,
by Sarah Wildman, Christian Science Monitor, December 29, 2004
" Like many offspring of Holocaust survivors, Monica Waitzfelder, a Paris opera director, learned only the barest details about her family's history.
She knew her mother, Edith Rosenfelder, had fled the Nazis not once, but twice. She knew her grandmother had been murdered at the Auschwitz concentration camp and that her grandfather had died in a refugee camp. And she knew her mother believed that L'Oreal, the French cosmetics giant, stole her home in Karlsruhe, Germany. This last bit of history - or lore, depending on whom you ask - is the basis of a book Ms. Waitzfelder has just published: "L'Oreal A Pris Ma Maison," (L'Oreal Took My House). It's also the subject of an unprecedented legal suit her family has filed against the company - an action that puts her at the center of a painful debate in France about the country's role in the Nazi's systematic effort to destroy Jews and strip them of their possessions. Indeed, the case is forcing France, which once prided itself on being a nation of resisters, to face difficult questions about its involvement with Nazi activity. In the 1990s, Holocaust historians focused on Nazi looting of artwork and bank accounts from wealthy Jewish families. Today - pushed by people like Waitzfelder - the focus of Holocaust indemnification has turned to what happened to the goods of average people. In November 2003, Paris was shocked by a book published by historian Jean-Marc Dreyfus and sociologist Sarah Gensburger that detailed the history of three Nazi labor camps in the heart of Paris itself. The camps were tasked with sorting and packing stolen goods from some 38,000 Parisian apartments once inhabited by Jews. It wasn't until 1995 that French President Jacques Chirac officially acknowledged that the modern French state bore a moral responsibility for Vichy, the French government during the war that collaborated with the Nazis in deporting and imprisoning Jew. In 1997, Prime Minister Alain Juppé commissioned a team to look into the compensation of Jews whose property was looted by Nazis and their sympathizers during the war. In February this year, the Commission for the Indemnity of Victims of Spoliation (CIVS), an outgrowth of that 1997 project, issued a report declaring that while France had paid 90 percent of its wartime debts to Nazi victims, the state still owed some $154 million to French Jews looted by Nazis. But the Rosenfelders, a German family that fled to France, fell through the system's cracks. "In 1936, my grandfather came to Paris because he said it was no longer possible to live [in Germany] as a Jew," says Waitzfelder, sitting in the chic Café Beaubourg in Pari. T he Rosenfelders, she explains, were a wealthy family with prime real estate in the town of Karlsruhe. But by 1936, her grandfather, Fritz, was investigating how to get his family out of Germany. Once in Paris, he granted power of attorney to a German citizen, who then sold his home in Karlsruhe to a German insurance company. The agreement, signed in 1937, and the subsequent sale in 1938 for 12 percent of its appraised value, she says, was coerced ...From 1954 until 1991, L'Oreal's German corporate headquarters was located on the Rosenfelder's land. The family seeks 30 million euros ($41 million) from L'Oreal, accusing it of knowingly purchasing, and profiting from, stolen property. In a company statement, L'Oreal "vigorously rejects" the allegations. It has also provided a detailed timeline to establish the company's innocence. L'Oreal officials maintain that they received permission from Edith's uncle for the sale - a fact the family disputes. They also say that the family was compensated by a Jewish restitution organization. But Waitzfelder says the money was never received. Although former L'Oreal figures were exposed last decade as Nazi sympathizers, veteran Nazi hunter Serge Klarsfeld sees no ties between the Waitzfelder story and that dark past. But he does say a "shameful" situation could be righted. "It's a question of ... principles and morals," he says by phone from Paris. The first round of legal wrangling has gone to L'Oreal: On Nov. 9, the French Supreme Court declined to investigate the case. Waitzfelder and her mother are now filing a case against the French state at the European Court of Human Rights to force the French courts to reconsider an investigation. But a decision from the EU court could be up to a year away."
[This is one of the Iranian goodies Israel wants out.]
RUSSIAN-IRANIAN NUCLEAR COOPERATION TO BE ACCELERATED
IN JANUARY,
Russian Information Agency (Novosti), December 27, 2004
"Russia may start the supply of nuclear fuel to a nuclear power plant in the city of Bushehr, Iran, in 2005. An agreement on the return of spent nuclear fuel is to be signed in January. "The probability of this is very high," Alexander Rumyantsev, the head of Russia's Atomic Energy Agency (Rosatom), stressed on Friday. Russia is interested in economic cooperation with Iran, whose economy has grown at a rate of 6% this year. Tehran has promised new nuclear contracts for Russia. Iranian Minister of Economy and Finance Safdar Hoseini said on December 17, "It has been decided that work on the second generating unit of the Bushehr Nuclear Power Plant may begin [with Moscow]." The first unit cost $800 million. Tehran hints that the construction of another seven generating units worth $10 billion is planned for the near future."
Iran seeks jets from Russia,
Middle East Newsline
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