Yourish.com

Cutting straight to the point

Holocaust Remembrance Day

Posted on May 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am by Meryl Yourish.

Filed under: Holocaust, Jews

Today is the day that Jews all over the world remember the victims of the Holocaust. Even as we do this, the Palestinians and their Arab and Muslim allies once again try to expropriate the language and images of the murder of Jews, and apply it to Palestinians. The word “Holocaust” is being used a lot to describe Gaza. Well, let’s take a look at the difference between the real Holocaust, and the utter misuse of that word to describe Palestinian deaths in a war with Israel.

The real Holocaust deaths (a partial list):

Country Jews Killed % of Country’s Jews Killed
Austria 50,000 36
Belgium 25,000 60
Belorussia 245,000 65
Bohemia/Moravia 80,000 89
Bulgaria 11,400 14
Estonia 1500 35
France 90,000 26
Greece 65,000 80
Hungary 450,000 70
Italy 7500 20
Latvia 70,000 77
Lithuania 220,000 94
Luxembourg 1950 50
The Netherlands 106,000 76
Norway 870 55
Poland 2,900,000 88
Russia 107,000 11
Romania 270,000 33
Slovakia 71,000 80
Ukraine 900,000 60
Yugoslavia 60,000 80

The total number of Palestinians killed in the territories since the start of the second intifada: 4,609.

The Palestinian population today (disputed):

Gaza: 1,482,405
West Bank: 2,611,904

The Palestinian population in 1967:

Gaza:380,800
West Bank: 604,494

Someone else can figure out percentage of population growth and the number of Palestinian deaths. I’m not going to waste the time on an obviously spurious comparison. I’m just going to continue to point out the attempt to expropriate all of the language used to describe the world’s crimes against the Jews by the Palestinians, who would have you believe they are also victims of anti-Semitism. This needs to be stopped.

Never forget. There is no Palestinian “Holocaust.” There was only one Holocaust, that of the Jews by the Nazis, with the willing help of Europeans and Arabs, including the ones who lived in what was then known as Palestine—and whose descendants live in the territories today.

The descendants of the victims of the Holocaust? Well, there are none for the true victims. Only for the survivors.

Am Yisrael Chai. The people of Israel live. Long live the people of Israel.

Mixed message

Posted on May 1st, 2008 at 10:00 am by Soccerdad.

Filed under: Hamas, Israel, palestinian politics

Daled Amos asks How long have we been trying to ‘bolster’ Abbas? and answers it showing that bolstering Abbas has been going on for some five years now.One of the actions taken by Israel to bolster Abbas has been to free Palestinian prisoners. Most of those in Israeli prisons now were engaged in terror since the signing of the Oslo Accords. In other words, people who engaged in terror to undermine peace.

So what happens to Palestinians who supposedly did something to fight terror? Well they’re not valued nearly as highly as those who engaged in terror.

The Palestinian military court on Monday sentenced Saad to death for collaborating with Israel, court officials and security sources said.

This isn’t Hamas, this is Fatah. I have no idea if Mr. Saad is guilty of the charge or not. However he was deemed guilty of it by Israel’s “peace partner.”

So freeing terrorists is the same as bolstering Abbas and peace and condemning those who work against terrorists is OK, what sort of message does that send about how much Fatah is committed to peace? The U.S. may say the right things about Hamas, so why is it encouraging prisoner releases and staying silent about the killing of those Palestinians accused of fighting terrorists?

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Yossi Harel

Posted on May 1st, 2008 at 9:00 am by Soccerdad.

Filed under: Israel

Yossi Harel the captain who commanded Exodus 1947 died. Here’s an interesting tidbit from the NYT obituary.

In a speech in La Jolla, Calif., in 2005, Mr. Harel gave statistics to show that running the British blockade was deadlier than Israel’s war for independence. He said that 6,000 of 600,000 Jews who fought in the war were killed, or 1 percent. Of the 100,000 who tried to get through the blockade, 3,000 died, or 3 percent.“With all these casualties, they kept coming, they didn’t stop,” he said. “A nation destroyed was coming back to life.”

Crossposted on Soccer Dad.

Mofaz warns world of the Second Holocaust

Posted on May 1st, 2008 at 8:30 am by Meryl Yourish.

Filed under: Iran, Israel

On the eve of Yom HaShoah, the day that Jews worldwide remember the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust while most of the world stood by or actively aided the Nazis, Israel’s Shaul Mofaz spoke at Yale yesterday of the Iranian attempt to commit the second Holocaust, and Israel’s refusal to allow it.

“The Iranian regime is the number one threat to mankind in the 21st century. It is a multi-dimensional, multi-armed threat, which increases every day, every hour.”

Taking the diplomatic route at this time is the best thing to do, he said, “But we must set two timetables – one for rating the Iranian progress and the other to rate the effects of the sanctions. Should those two prove mutually exclusive, we mustn’t exclude any of our options.

“We have to be ready for any scenario,” he continued. “This is a historical time in human history, in the life of a nation, of a people. The Jewish people know this better than everyone. No leader will be able to say, ‘We didn’t know, we didn’t understand.’ This time the entire world, and Israel in it, will have to take the initiative and do whatever it takes to make sure the next generations will enjoy a future of peace and prosperity.”

Time is running out, he warned his audience, and the sanctions must be enforced: “Appeasement has not proved an efficient policy and in the Middle East it is perceived as weak… The situation in Iran is dire and I believe that in that kind of a reality the change can grow from within.

Unlike so many of the fools in the world who insist that Iranian nuclear ambitions are peaceful, Shaul Mofaz pointed out something he has that they don’t: He was born in Iran.

“As someone who was born in Iran and is closely watching it, I can assure you that the Iranian people do not share their regime’s aspirations. I am a great believer in the power of the Iranian people. Iran is no stranger to revolution… The Iranian regime is trying to maneuver its long-term aspirations with the need to survive. We believe that only heavy international political and financial pressure – which would reflect the contradiction between the two – could make Iran change course.”

Mofaz spoke to Iranians on a radio call-in show, and I’m sure he knows what he’s talking about to a large degree regarding the Iranian people. But that was a long time ago (five years, in fact), and his hopeful signs from then haven’t turned into anything concrete. And Iranian polls indicate that the Iranian people, in whom Mofaz places so much confidence, think they should be able to attain nuclear weapons.

But Mofaz gets the bottom line.

“This is a threat to the very existence of the Jewish state. The (uranium) enrichment program is the pivotal point which will set the course for nuclear development. The coming year is critical – our assessments show it is a matter of months, less than a year, before Iran gets hold of enrichment technology and will be able to create uranium suitable for a nuclear bomb.”

Yes.