Saturday, March 17, 2012
When Jews and Muslims Fought a Common Foe
Friday, March 16, 2012
Russia Condemns Nazi SS March in Latvia
US: N. Korea Missile Launch is Deal Breaker
Iran Backing March on Jerusalem
Israel Issues Ultimatum on Gaza Rocket Fire
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Free Men: French Film Recalls Time When Some
Muslims and Jews Fought Together for Freedom
Click here to read George Robinson's review of Free Men; below, to view the trailer.
Russia’s Foreign Ministry on Friday condemned the controversial commemoration of Latvian troops who fought on the side of Nazi Germany during World War II, which took place earlier on Friday in the Latvian capital Riga.
“Odious demonstrations by soldiers on whose conscience are numerous crimes were held against the backdrop of a mass propaganda campaign organized by the Latvian authorities to whitewash these so-called ‘fighters for Latvia’s freedom,’” the ministry said in a statement.
“A flagrant attempt to revise the truth about Nazi atrocities, to review the rulings of the Nuremberg Tribunal that condemned SS members cannot but cause indignation,” it said.
The ministry called on the international community to react to the attempts of the Latvian authorities to “rewrite history.”
Hundreds of Waffen SS veterans and their supporters held a march in the Latvian capital Riga on Friday to mark Legionnaires’ Day, which commemorates Latvians who fought for the Germans during World War II.
Latvian President Defends Event
Anti-fascist organizations all over the world decry the controversial event; but the annual holiday has its defenders, including Latvian President Andris Berzins, who has argued it is foolish to assume that Waffen SS veterans were criminals and that they deserve the public's respect.
A group of people, some dressed as Nazi concentration camp prisoners, gathered at Freedom Monument to protest the march.
Riga’s Duma had voted to ban the event, which honors veterans of the SS Latvian Legion but a court overturned the ban.
The Latvian Legion, formed by the Nazis in 1943, comprised two Waffen SS divisions.
UPDATE: Click here to read the … sympathetic … practically pro-Nazi … Reuters report on the perfidious parade. Where is the outrage? Why does Latvia honor Nazi murderers? Read more here.
From Bitburg to Riga
Fascism has been rearing its ugly head in Latvia for several years. In July 2010, for example, a Latvian court approved a Riga March celebrating Hitler’s 1941 Invasion. Police banned the event; but it went ahead with a wreath-laying at Riga’s Liberty Monument to celebrate the Nazi army’s arrival and warm welcome.
Speaking of wreath laying, click here to read about the Bitburg controversy--President Ronald Reagan's disturbing visit to the graves of Nazi soldiers killed in World War II. Reagan (who avoided combat during the War and lied about his service) defended his decision by drawing an obscene analogy between U.S. WWII soldiers and Nazis. He also tacitly compared the victims of the Holocaust with its perpetrators. Reagan's sickening stunt was condemned by the organized Jewish community--and warmly welcomed by the Republican Party's rightwing network of Eastern European emigre organizations, which included fascists, racists, Nazi collaborators and actual Nazi war criminals.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has urged North Korea to reconsider its plan to launch a satellite in April, while the United States says such a launch could affect plans to deliver food aid to the impoverished nation.
North Korea announced Friday that it will use a long range missile to launch the satellite, just weeks after agreeing with Washington to suspend long-range missile tests in return for 240,000 metric tons of emergency food supplies.
The U.S., Russia, South Korea, and Japan all condemned the planned launch, saying it violates a United Nations ban on all North Korean launches using ballistic missile technology.
The Reuters news agency quotes a statement from Ban's office expressing “serious concern” about North Korea's launch plans.
State Department Position
U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Pyongyang's announcement of the launch would make implementation of the aid deal “very difficult” because it calls into question whether North Korea's word can be trusted. She said the U.S. would have to rely on North Korean officials to make sure the food is delivered to those in need.
“We make it a practice not to link humanitarian aid with any other policy issues, particularly in the case of the DPRK, and we do want to assist the North Korean people, particularly those who the regime has chosen to neglect," Nuland said.
She added that "a launch of this kind would abrogate our agreement, would call into question the credibility of all the commitments that the DPRK has made to us, is making in general, including the commitments that we've had with regard to the nutritional assistance, which go to the questions of monitoring and ensuring that any food that we would provide would go to the needy folks and not to the regime elites.”
Nuland also said U.S. special advisor Glyn Davies has been in touch with each of the other members of the six-party talks on North Korea's nuclear program and urged them all to use their influence with Pyongyang to convince the government to cancel the launch.
In a statement carried by official North Korean media, the North's Korean Committee for Space Technology said a long-range Unha-3 rocket would launch a domestic-built polar-orbiting earth observation satellite. The launch is being promoted as a move to honor the 100th birthday of founding leader Kim Il Sung, which falls on April 15.
Three Years After Similar Launch
The blast-off would come three years after a similar launch in April 2009 drew widespread condemnation as a cover for testing North Korea's long-range missile technology.
Diplomats from the United States, South Korea, China, Russia and Japan are seeking to restart negotiations with Pyongyang aimed at ending the North's controversial nuclear program. Six-party talks broke off more than two years ago and remain stalled.
In a statement earlier Friday, the State Department called the rocket launch announcement “highly provocative” and “a direct violation of (North Korea's) international obligations.” It said the U.S. is consulting closely with its international partners” on what steps to take in response.
South Korea has said the launch would be a grave provocation threatening peace and security across Northeast Asia.
Russia said Friday that the announcement provokes “serious concern.”
A Japanese government spokesman told VOA that Tokyo is “responding by closely collaborating with other concerned governments” including the U.S. and South Korea.
-VOA
Related: N. Korea Plans Missile Launch
EARLY WARNING….
The Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center reports on plans for coordinated marches on Israel's borders at the end of this month:
1. A number of simultaneous marches to Israel's borders from the various Arab countries are planned for March 30, 2012, referring to themselves as part of the Global March to Jerusalem (GMJ). The marches are expected to take place in Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Judea, Samaria and the Gaza Strip. The anti-Israeli boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS) campaign is also planning a so-called "global activity day," combining propaganda events in various places around the world with Land Day, marked by Israeli Arabs. The organizers of the events set up committees and umbrella networks in the various countries to deal with logistic deployment and propaganda.
2. Evidence in our possession indicates that Iran openly and with its own propaganda supports the March 30 events and is also involved in organizational preparations for the marches. To that end it employs proxies, including organizations and individuals, affiliated with Iran.
3. Iranian support for the marches and its involvement in their preparations are additional proof of the event's extremist character. That is also manifested by the involvement of Hamas, the Muslim Brotherhood, extremist organizations in Asia and the terrorist organizations (such as Hezbollah and the Palestinian Islamic Jihad) in the preparations. In our assessment the radical Islamic nature of the marches casts a shadow over the participation of various Western human rights organizations and NGOs, and may even make them reconsider. In addition, the presence of extremist Middle Eastern elements in the planned events, especially in the Lebanese sector, heightens the potential for violence and provocation, despite the fact that the march organizers have repeatedly stated that they will be non-violent.
4. To summarize, there is evidence that Iran, both directly and through its proxies, supports the marches and possibly additional propaganda events planned for March 30. In our assessment, Iran has a number of objectives: to strengthen its regional influence by exploiting the sensitivity of the Arab-Muslim world to the issue of Jerusalem, to draw international attention away from itself, and to broaden and deepen the delegitimization campaign being waged against Israel by channeling it to Iran's own political needs.
Israel has reportedly told Hamas and Egypt to put an end to the rocket attacks by Saturday night, or else the IDF will do what it must. Click here for the story, including an up-to-date report on Iranian intrigue and involvement.
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