Opuscula Spitting Into the wind

SPITTING INTO THE WIND IS NOT an elegant expression but it conveys the message:

Doing it is stupid.

WHAT ALAN DERSHOWITZ is doing, crying Shame on Women’s March for tolerating anti-Semitism (https://tinyurl.com/y9xmjog7) is a waste of time.

The leadership of the Women’s March, WM, is solidly anti-Semitic and, by all accounts, firmly in the camp of America’s Chief Anti-Semite, Louis Farrakhan the elder, nee’ Louis X. Farrakhan out anti-Semites Barack Obama, albeit far less two-faced.

 

Collection of (in)famous anti-Semites from
https://tinyurl.com/ybw2p9vj)

 

The same holds true for tsk-tsking and shaking of fingers are other anti-Semites — indeed others who allow prejudice to control them. In truth there is not much anyone can do to disabuse bigots of their misguided ways.

As long as the bigots rant and refrain from violence against their targets, let them rant.

ON THE OTHER HAND if the time comes when the rants are “enhanced” by violence, the only answer to violence is violence.

I understand we are supposed to live in nations of laws, but I also understand that we cannot depend on the laws to protect us. NOT because, in most cases, the countries don’t WANT to protect all citizens, but because there simply are not enough professional protectors to be everywhere at all times. The old expression “There’s never a cop when you need one,” is, unfortunately, all too often the case. (Caveat: My Pidyon is a policeman.)

In the U.S. (as compared to most other countries in which we are a minority) we have the right to “keep and bear arms” despite leftists’ attempts to eliminate that right.

In the U.S. we have the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) that, like Mr. Dershowitz, does a great deal of pontificating; producing hot air and an extra 15 seconds of tv “face time” or a few column inches on someone's blog. What we NEED is more JDL and less ADL.

 

JDL is the Jewish Defense League (http://www.jdl.org/).

JDL has a comparatively small Jewish following. Leftist who make up the core of Reform and similar sects consider the JDL anathema; indeed, preferring the anti-Semitic groups to one that defends Judaism. Conservatives are a “mixed bag,” but it seems — based on voting records — that many are leftists. The haridim from Europe continue to prefer burying their collective head in the sand to avoid making wakes. (Yes, I know I’m mixing metaphors.) Only the so-called “modern” Orthodox and most Sefardim and Mizrachim stand with the JDL.

Most Reform, et al, and Conservatives have never been persecuted in most places. They look like everyone else. Jews who obviously ARE Jews, and Jews from Moslem-dominated countries have experience with persecution simply for being Jewish. For them, enough is enough.

I am NOT proposing that Jews physically attack those who only promote hate, but I am proposing that Jews be prepared to defend themselves from physical attacks.

In order to do that legally we need to

✡ Know the laws of self-defense
✡ Know HOW to defend ourselves
✡ Be willing to defend ourselves
✡ Join, or at least support, organizations such as the JDL.

It would be great if, when threatened, we could call the cops and they would be at our side within seconds, but the reality is that is not going to happen.

Words from the mouths Jews on a soapbox are just words. The speaker may hold some impressive credentials, but no credentials will impress an anti-Semite.

It’s time to make a decision.

Cower to the anti-Semites or push back.

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PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula How many languages Are heard in International venue?

I HAVE NOT DONE A LOT of international traveling.
Most of my time waiting for international flights have been in three or four airports: MIA, JFK, TLV, and DTW. That’s not to claim those are the only international airports in which I have sat and waited, but the ones in which I’ve spent the most time.

At MIA, the Public Address (PA) languages are Spanish, English, and Haitian (Creole).

At JFK, the languages are Spanish, English, and French.

At TLV, the languages are Hebrew and English.

At DTW — ahh, here’s a difference.

At DTW the languages are multiple Oriental languages, English, and French.

While I don’t understand most of the languages spoken at DTW, I think it deserves a Gold Star for catering to its clientele.

I rarely spend much time at JFK; I’m not fond of it.

When I’m rushing through MAD from a 787 jetway to a regional 737 jetway — for me it seems a mile or more — I don’t hear very much at all.

At CDG, if it’s not French, it isn’t spoken over the PA system.

 

Cartoon woman speaking in unknown-to-listener language

 

The airport that prompts this rant is TLV.

TLV is not in Tel Aviv — it’s closer to Lod and that’s what its name was before the politicians got involved. (To me it still is Lod. In addition to the airport the town used to have a pretty good Indian restaurant.)

I was waiting for a flight to MIA via MAD in a gate area that was shared with several other airlines. I think Alitalia had dibs on the jetway before Iberia. The Alitalia personnel did not speak Italian ! (I checked.)

I’m listening to announcements for this flight and that.

All the announcements were in Hebrew (logical — it’s one of Israel’s official languages) and English (common, but not “official”).

There was an announcement — in Hebrew and English only — for LOT, the Polish airline.

There was not an announcement in Polish.

 

Image of passengers disembarking from LOT aircraft at Lod, c. 1937

 

Given the number of Poles who played a major role in modern Israel’s development, it’s a bit surprising.

Wikipedia lists a two full columns of important Poles-in-Israel at https://tinyurl.com/ybymp3y2

I’m certain that a Polish-speaker could find someone in the airport who spoke Polish; in Israel every language is represented, at least in the major metro areas.

 

Cartoon of language books

 

But it seems to me that someone at LOT headquarters in Poland would have someone, anyone at the airport whenever a LOT fight was arriving or departing to announce the flight in Polish.

The same applies to Alitalia for Italian, to Lufthansa for German, and so on.

The person could do double duty — make the announcement and work at the ticket/boarding pass area.

Both Hebrew and English have their nuances that may not be known to a person sans the language of a native speaker or even an advanced student of the language.

What applies to Lod/TLV also applies to any port that claims to be a true “international port.” (In the U.S. any airport with Customs is an international airport. PIE, a small airport with one arriving and one departing scheduled flight a day — the airport also has charter, cargo, government, and private flights — is an international airport; it has a Customs office.)

When flights are announced, I believe the announcement should be in the following order:
Local language
Language of the airline (if different)
Other languages spoken in the airport’s area; e.g., in Miami and announcement for El Al would be made, in order, in English, Hebrew, Spanish, and Creole. El Al should provide a person for the Hebrew language announcement (although there are enough Israeli ex-pats who could do the job).

Would British Airways need to announce in British English?

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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Opuscula Who controls U.S.? State Department Or the Congress

HINT: IT IS NEITHER THE CONGRESS NOR THE PRESIDENT.

When it comes to Arabs — states and independent terrorists — and Jews in general and Israel specifically, the U.S. State Department ALWAYS has sided with the Arabs . . . no matter who was in the White House or what party controlled the congress.

 

Seals of State Department (top) and President (bottom)

STATE’S LATEST THUMB IN THE EYE of Congress comes when State decided a report ordered and paid for by congress was ordered shelved by State.

According to United with Israel (https://tinyurl.com/y92rek2n), U.S. Sen. James Risch (R-IDAHO), chairman of the US Senate Near East Subcommittee of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, asked the GAO (Government Accountability Office) to conduct an investigation of Palestinian Authority school books now used by UNRWA, the United Nations Relief and Works Agency.

The GAO completed its comprehensive report on UNRWA education

Sources at GAO confirm that the GAO study documents that Palestinian Authority school books used by UNRWA work against peace and reconciliation, and insert war indoctrination throughout the PA school books.

However, Chuck Young, director of public affairs of the GAO issued a statement that the US State Dept will not allow the report to be released to the US Congress which had ordered the report in order to provide a guide to further US funding of UNRWA.

In another case, congress apparently is willing to fight back.

According to The Daily TIP (https://tinyurl.com/yaxybwvc), Rep. Chris Smith (R-N.J.) on Thursday reintroduced bipartisan legislation to provide the United States Department of State with more diplomatic tools and support to combat the global rise in anti-Semitism, JNS reported.

If enacted, “The Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism Act” would upgrade the position of Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, a position the State Department has left vacant for 20 months, to an ambassadorship requiring Senate confirmation. The bill also dictates that the president must nominate an envoy within 90 days of its passage.

Smith was joined by original co-sponsors of the legislation Representatives Brad Schneider (D-Ill.), House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Eliot Engel (D-N.Y.), Peter King (R-N.Y.), Marc Veasey (D-Texas), Lee Zeldin (D-N.Y.), Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.), and Kay Granger (R-Texas).

Born in Jerusalem — NOT in Israel

According to the Times of Israel (https://tinyurl.com/ybybz4xk), the U.S. Congress in 2002 passed a law requiring the State Department to allow listing “Jerusalem Israel” on U.S. government documents (e.g., birth certificates abroad, passports).

A letter from 55 US House of Representatives Republicans to President Donald Trump asks him to direct the State Department to allow US citizens born in Jerusalem to list Israel as their birth country on their passport.

“Despite the progress in moving the embassy, the State Department has not yet fully implemented the administration’s policy of recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital for purposes of registration of birth, certification of nationality, or issuance of a passport of a United States citizen born in the city of Jerusalem,” the representatives claimed in their letter.

Previous administrations have resisted allowing Jerusalem-born Americans to list “Israel” as their birth country, saying that it would be de facto recognition of Israel’s claim to the city. The Supreme Court in 2015 upheld the executive branch’s right to maintain that policy.

Even the so-called Palestinians admit that at least part of Jerusalem is in Israel, ergo their demand that they move their capital from Ramallah to a section of Jerusalem.

(It would be interesting to poll the population of the part of Jerusalem the PA wants, asking the residents in which country they would prefer to live — are they better off as Israeli citizens or would they be better off as citizens of a PA regime? Post the poll questions and the demographics of the people polled, otherwise the poll has the value of a Napoleonic agreement: not worth the paper on which it is printed.)

When a nominal Jew headed State

According to Dr. Gerhard Falk, writing in jbluff.com (http://jbuff.com/c081210.htm), Few Jews have had the opportunity to defend the lives of the Jewish people against our enemies as did Kissinger when he was the Secretary of State of the United States in 1973.

Yet, Kissinger, during his tenure in that position, did everything possible to bring about the destruction of Israel and the slaughter of yet another 5 million Jews. In that he did not succeed because President Nixon, a man who ranted anti-Jewish epithets, saved the people of Israel from mass murder against the wishes and machinations of Kissinger.

Referring to Egypt’s attack on Israel in 1973, Falk contends that In view of the losses Israel was taking on October 6 and for the first week of the fighting, Israel was losing the war. Had this happened, the entire population of Israel would have been slaughtered Nazi style by the Arab haters. In face of these developments, Kissinger, himself a refugee from Nazi Germany, refused to supply Israel with the ammunition and weapons needed to defend themselves.

Interesting that it as another Republican president that gave Israel the support it needed over the objections of the State Department.

 

Truman vs. State: Truman wins

Efraim Karsh, writing in Mosaic (https://tinyurl.com/ydb6a78a), claims In November 1947 when the UN General Assembly was about to approve the partitioning of Mandatory Palestine into separate Jewish and Arab states. Having failed to persuade the world organization to desist from this move, and faced with the president’s own support for partition, the State Department colluded with the British foreign ministry to slash the territory of the prospective Jewish state by depriving it of the Negev desert—nearly half of Palestine’s total size. It was only Truman’s last-minute intervention, after a dramatic secret meeting with Chaim Weizmann (who 30 years earlier had been the driving force behind the Balfour Declaration) that nipped the plot in the bud.

Truman apparently was furious over State’s on-going efforts to overrule the White House; he allegedly exclaimed that The first I know about it is what I see in the papers! Isn’t that hell? I’m now in a position of a liar and a double-crosser. I never felt so in my life. There are people on the 3rd and 4th level of the State Dept. who have always wanted to cut my throat. They are succeeding in doing it.

 

Roosevelt, the English, and the Arabs

Under the headline “U.S. Recognition of the State of Israel” in the archives of the National Archives (https://tinyurl.com/yc732zqv), While President Franklin D. Roosevelt appeared to be sympathetic to the Jewish cause, his assurances to the Arabs that the United States would not intervene without consulting both parties caused public uncertainty about his position. When Harry S. Truman took office, he made clear that his sympathies were with the Jews and accepted the Balfour Declaration, explaining that it was in keeping with former President Woodrow Wilson's principle of "self-determination." Truman initiated several studies of the Palestine situation that supported his belief that, as a result of the Holocaust, Jews were oppressed and also in need of a homeland. Throughout the Roosevelt and Truman administrations, the Departments of War and State, recognizing the possibility of a Soviet-Arab connection and the potential Arab restriction on oil supplies to this country, advised against U.S. intervention on behalf of the Jews.

 

State takes a stand — in 1922

Writing in Mosaic (https://tinyurl.com/ydb6a78a), Efraim Karsh notes that Ever since the November 1917 Balfour Declaration—the first international recognition of the Jewish right to national self-determination—the idea of “turning the Holy Land over to the absolute control of the race credited with the death of Christ,” as Secretary of State Robert Lansing put it at the time to President Woodrow Wilson, had been anathema to the State Department. And while, following Wilson himself, all subsequent U.S. presidents endorsed both the Declaration and the attendant League of Nations mandate for the “establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine”—as did the U.S. Congress in a July 1922 joint resolution—the State Department worked indefatigably to subvert the Jewish national movement.

 

Some thing never change

All of the above suggests, if it fails to provide conclusive proof, that the U.S. State Department, under both Democrat and Republican administrations, acts against the wishes of the White House and Congress.

One Democrat (Truman) and one Republican (Trump) have managed to put State in its place; that is, subservient to the Executive Branch to which it is supposed to support.

Even under a nominally Jewish Secretary, State favored Israel’s enemies (and their oil) no matter what the cost to Israel and Jews.

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TOTALLY UNRELATED, BUT . . . When using Google to search for State Department – Israel articles, the image below was displayed by the search engine.

Screen capture reads “Israel settlements” above thumbnail images of Tel Aviv, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and Haifa — hardly “settlements.”

PLAGIARISM is the act of appropriating the literary composition of another, or parts or passages of his writings, or the ideas or language of the same, and passing them off as the product of one’s own mind.

Truth is an absolute defense to defamation. Defamation is a false statement of fact. If the statement was accurate, then by definition it wasn’t defamatory.

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