On June 5, 1967, almost exactly forty years ago, Israeli planes destroyed most of the Egyptian air force on the ground, both beginning and in essence ending the Six Day War in a few hours.
Most observers and historians have seen this attack as a justified response to acts of war by Nasser, and a legitimate preemption of a massive Arab attack on Israel.
As the author of this shocking piece says, very few have heard of this incident. I certainly hadn’t. It’s time to unseal the archives.
By Robert J. White-Harvey, in the Jerusalem Post:
On May 3, 1945 – in the worst friendly-fire incident in history – Britain’s Royal Air Force killed more than 7,000 survivors of Nazi concentration camps who were crowded onto ships in L beck harbor, Germany. The ragged masses that had survived the Holocaust stood no chance against the guns of their liberators.
This tragic mistake occurred one day before the British accepted the surrender of all German forces in the region. Reports of the incident were quickly hushed up – as a jubilant world prepared to celebrate the Allied victory in Europe.
Despite the bitter irony of dying in hellish fires on sinking ships just hours before liberation, the tragedy was quickly forgotten or resolutely ignored. The anniversary of this dark day will soon pass by again – largely unnoticed or unmentioned.
Technorati Tags: Holocaust, friendly fire, L Beck
Does this sound like an excess of nationalistic fervor, or something else?
ISTANBUL, Turkey – Assailants tied up three people at a publishing house that distributes Bibles in Turkey and then slit their throats Wednesday, adding to a string of attacks apparently targeting the country’s tiny Christian minority.
By Vic Rosenthal
Can this be believed?
In an interview with Washington Post columnist Robert Novak published on Monday, Hamas Education Minister Naser al-Shaer was quoted as saying that “previous attempts at peace were ruined by suicide bombers. Now, we look forward to a sustained peace.”
Stories like this one more than make up for the ones about greed, arrogance, and hatred:
JERUSALEM (AP) – Liviu Librescu survived the Nazi Holocaust. He died trying to keep a gunman from shooting his students in a killing spree at Virginia Tech — a heroic feat later recounted in e-mails from students to his wife.
Librescu, an aeronautics engineer and teacher at the school for 20 years, saved the lives of several students by using his body to barricade a classroom door before he was gunned down in Monday’s massacre, which coincided with Holocaust Remembrance Day.
