FresnoZionism.org — ציונות פרסנו

On one side, we have the Iranian regime, which is denying the Holocaust and calling for Israel to be “wiped off the map” while racing to develop the physical means of doing so. On the other side, we have what is, in effect, international silence in response, coupled with growing willingness to discuss Israel’s existence as a mistake, an anachronism, or a provocation. — Natan Sharansky

When Sharansky finally got out of the Soviet Union and came to Israel, I was in the midst of reserve duty, in a cold and rainy place. Some of my fellow miluimniks, also immigrants from the USSR, watched him appear on television and commented “big Zionist, wait till they stick him here”. I don’t know whether he got to my old unit, but Sharansky has proven to be a big Zionist in the best possible sense.

Read Sharansky’s discussion of the new antisemitism and his practical program to combat it.

Technorati Tags: antisemitism, Sharansky

By Vic Rosenthal

Recently, the incredibly irritating Michael Lerner announced that he

would not be surprised to learn that some branch of our government conspired either actively to promote or passively to allow the attack on 9/11 (JTA)

My first impulse was “Lerner’s even more insane than I thought”.

(more…)

The Jewish Telegraph reported that the city council of Bolton, in greater Manchester, canceled a planned event last weekend marking the U.N.-designated international Holocaust memorial day.

The city has marked the Holocaust for the past three years. Instead, in line with the policy of the Muslim Council of Britain, which rejects the memorial day, the city will have a Genocide Day in June that also will mark supposed “ongoing genocide and human rights abuses of Palestinians” by Israelis. — JTA

They’ll probably have a Genocide Day picnic too.

Alvin H. Rosenfeld included this quotation in his essay on “Progressive” Jewish Thought and the New Anti-Semitism (available from the American Jewish Committee):

Yet I have come to believe, these past few years, that the emergence of a new strain of the ancient virus is one of the most frightening phenomena of my lifetime – because it’s happened after sixty years of Holocaust education, antiracist legislation and interfaith dialogue. — Jonathan Sacks, UK Chief Rabbi

What does this teach us? Something about unintended consequences, something about our monumental lack of understanding of psychology — particularly of groups — or perhaps something about the true perversity and darkness of the human soul.