After Munich massacre Germany cooperated with Palestinian terrorists

Ofer Aderet..
Haaretz..
26 August '12..
After the massacre of 11 Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, Germany cooperated with Black September, the Palestinian terrorist group that orchestrated the deadly attack, the German weekly Der Spiegel revealed Sunday. Following the tragedy in September 1972, Germany tried to establish a relationship with the group’s leaders, hoping that this would dissuade them from carrying out any more attacks in the country, the paper reported.
In this context, the German ambassador to Lebanon, Walter Novak, met with Yusuf Najjar, also known as Abu Yusuf, the head of the Palestine Liberation Organization’s intelligence arm, which ran Black September. Just a week after the meeting, in April 1973, Najjar and two other PLO operatives were killed by Israel in a reprisal raid in Beirut called Operation Spring of Youth.
At the meeting, attended by other members of Black September, Novak suggested the parties sign a contract that would be “the basis for a new understanding” between Germany and the terrorist organization. To further advance this understanding, a meeting between Abu Yusuf and German foreign minister Walter Scheel was planned in Cairo, but it never took place.
Najjar’s death did not end the Germans’ courtship of the Palestinian group. According to Der Spiegel, high-ranking German officials met with Ali Hassan Salameh, the Black September operations chief who masterminded the Munich massacre (he was assassinated by the Mossad in Beirut in 1979) and with Amin Hindi, another of the organization’s leaders, who later became the Palestinian Authority’s intelligence chief. These meetings were attended by representatives of the Bundespolizei, Germany’s federal police force.
German cooperation with the terrorists was not limited to secret agreements between the parties; it also included expressions of sympathy toward the terrorists. For example, the Munich massacre was called “an act of resistance” in internal German correspondence. This is especially true in the case of the German Foreign Ministry; Novak told Abu Yusuf that Germany empathizes with and can understand the suffering of the Palestinian people, since many Germans live as refugees around the world.
Link: http://www.haaretz.com/news/diplomacy-defense/germany-cooperated-with-palesti...

via calevbenyefuneh.blogspot.com

London Olympics 2012: Topless Ukrainian feminists stage protest at London's Tower Bridge

(Daily Mail) Detained: A protester in her underwear is led from the scene in handcuffs. Who needs the Olympics? Break out the popcorn. Feminism Vs. Islam

BBC, Israel, and Another Olympic Asterisk

July 30, 2012 10:56 by Pesach Benson
The BBC’s Israeli Olympic page getting dumb and dumber. The country’s size is now qualified.
It used to say
But now it says

If only the Beeb were equally vigorous about putting a similar asterisk on “facts” from Palestinian sources.
This is after a whole stink over the Beeb’s handling of Jerusalem’s capital status. I can’t wait to see what other revisions are being made at British taxpayer expense.
(Hat tip: IsraellyCoolvia Honest Reporting)

UKGuardian: London2012: Lebanon and Israel judo players in practice dispute

(Guardian) The ExCel centre in east London is the venue for the judo at the London 2012 Olympics. Photograph: Franck Fife/AFP/Getty Images... Olympic officials were forced to erect a screen between Lebanon's and Israel's judo fighters on Friday after the Lebanese refused to train on the same mat, the Israeli Olympic team said on Friday.
The incident arose after Lebanon's two judokas found themselves next to the five Israelis during practice at the official training venue in Redbridge, in east London, said Nitzan Ferraro, spokesman for the Israeli Olympic Committee.
"We started to practise. They came and they saw us – they didn't like it and they went to the organisers," Ferraro told Reuters. "They put up some kind of wall between us. Everyone went on and there was no interaction between us."
The Lebanese Olympic Committee could not immediately be reached for comment.
Organisers of the judo competition said there were always screens available so that competing athletes and their coaching staff would not be able to spy on each other's training.
Lebanon has for decades been under the influence of Syria, a bitter enemy of Israel, and the two have technically been at war since 1948.
The last military confrontation involving the two countries took place in 2006. The Israel-Lebanon border has been largely quiet since then.
Ferraro said the incident had not been a big deal for the Israel team. "It didn't matter for us. We don't mix politics and sport. We had no problem," he said.
Lebanon's Caren Chammas and Israel's Alice Schlesinger will both compete in the women's -63kg category next Tuesday but could meet only in the final, an eventuality organisers believe is highly unlikely.

I noticed Reuters said this was the Israeli opinion, but the Guardian of all places confirmed that this really happened

The Olympic Games start tomorrow. What have we learned?

Acutely aware of public opinion: Jacques Rogge, International Olympic Committee president

Reuters says (“Organizers try to quell anger over Munich tribute”) that the International Olympic Committee is finally taking a meaningful stand on terrorism - by “hitting back” at the demands for a forty-year-late minute of silence in memory of the slain Israeli victims of the massacre executed by the Palestinian Arab Black September terror organization at the Munich Olympic Games in 1972.

LONDON (Reuters) – Olympic organizers hit back at criticism on Tuesday of how they had honored 11 Israeli team members killed at the 1972 Munich Games, ignoring calls to hold a minute’s silence for them in the opening ceremony. International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge led a surprise tribute in the athletes village in London on Monday, but that low-key event failed to satisfy relatives of the victims or Israeli officials.

The Reuters story [source] offers an especially toxic way of describing the Munich 1972 outcome: "Within 24 hours, 11 Israelis, five Palestinians and a German policeman were dead after a standoff and subsequent botched rescue effort." Meaning that stuff happens and the victims were from all over: from Germany, from Israel, from Palestine. Feh!

About Tuesday's "low-key" “surprise tribute”, we think there are some important points to be made :

1. How many people did it actually attract? About 100, according to Associated Press: "Rogge bowed his head as a crowd of about 100 people — IOC executive board members, dignitaries and Olympic athletes and officials — stood in silence for a minute.” By our count, there are more newspapers that reported the ceremony than people actually participating. Some tribute.
2. Rogge, to his credit, has been consistent. He “has repeatedly rebuffed calls to hold a moment of silence during Friday's opening ceremony of the London Games. He said Saturday the opening was not the appropriate place to remember the Israeli team members”. [Source: Associated Press] To our way of thinking, nothing could be more appropriate than the highly-watched opening ceremony, assuming you want people to actually remember. 
3. At Tuesday's event, Rogge took the opportunity to wax eloquent in front of the crowd of one hundred about the physical surroundings and addressed lofty visions as he spoke of “the 11 Israeli Olympians who shared the ideals that have brought us together in this beautiful Olympic Village… The 11 victims of the Munich tragedy believed in that vision… They came to Munich in the spirit of peace and solidarity. We owe it to them to keep the spirit alive and to remember them." [Source: Associated Press]
4. In the interests of repaying what the IOC “owes” to the dead Israelis and their memory, Rogge met last night (Wednesday) with two widows of the dead Israeli Olympians. He managed to leave them “distraught and heartbroken” [report]. It's almost entirely unreported.
5. The Israeli widows handed Rogge a petition signed by more than 105,000 people from all over the world, calling for a minute of silence at Friday’s opening ceremony. Rogge said no again. They asked him whether his refusal was because the victims were Israeli. Rogge declined to answer. [Source: JC]
6. One of the two widows is Anki Spitzer, the prime mover behind the petition [it’s here]. She said: “I was looking him in the eye but he said we had two different opinions. We said ‘you didn't hear the voice of the world’. He said: ‘Yes I did’.” [Source: JC]  
7. We think Rogge spoke the truth. He is acutely aware of public opinion. The public opinion to which he is paying attention is against the minute’s silence – that is, the public that is important to Rogge and the IOC.
8. It is clear that a significant part of the Olympic community is embarrassed by and opposed to the singling out of Israeli victims for honoring. Who are they? Yesterday, in a blog posting [see "25-Jul-12: An effective 'spontaneous minute' that will speak louder than the IOC's roaring hypocrisy"], wequoted Thomas Bach, International Olympic Committee vice-president on this very matter. Here again is the key quote in which he spills the Olympic beans: "The threats to boycott the opening ceremony made by Arab states in the event of an official minute of silence have led the IOC to mark the 40 year anniversary in other ways, including a minute of silence on Monday inside the Olympic Village, led by IOC President Jacques Rogge. The Arab boycott “had been a possibility, according to some of our advice”, Bach said according to Israel’s Channel 2 news." [Source: Algemeiner.com]
9. It’s about the Arabs. Only Bach has admitted it so far.
10. The IOC has no problem holding massive memorial ceremonies. It’s not an issue of principle, and it’s not something that conflicts with the Olympic spirit. In 2002, at the Winter Olympics in Utah, they held a memorial service attended by 60,000 people [report and picture]. 
11. Not everyone is as appalled as we are at the insensitivity of the Olympic management team. The Palestinians, for instance, think it’s really OK. As PMW notes today, the Palestinian Authority headed by Mahmoud Abbas is against the moment of silence: "Sports are meant for peace, not for racism", the headline in its newspaper says today. Jibril Rajoub, president of the Palestinian Olympic Committee and a man who knows a thing or two about racism and terrorism, sounds a positively lyrical note in a report from the Arabic media yesterday: "Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them [nations]" [Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 25, 2012]
12. The Fatah/PLO/Palestinian Authority side opposes a minute of silence because, for them, the murder of Israelis by Palestinian Arabs is not terror at all. It’s heroism. Palestinian Media Watch routinely documents how they express this glorification of terror and terrorists; it’s an ongoing, daily thing. For them, the Munich massacre was done by a "star who sparkled... at the sports stadium in Munich". And so on.
13. Let's note by the way that Rajoub is himself a seasoned terrorist [see "We salute Shalit's kidnappers, says Jibril Rajoub"] who has been repeatedly arrested and imprisoned over the decades. He owes his freedom to a notorious 1985 transaction (eventually known as the Jibril Deal) in which he was among 1,150 Palestinian Arabs freed from Israeli prisons in exchange for three Israeli hostages held by a terrorist group. After his release, Rajoub moved to Tunis where he served as aide and advisor to Abu Jihad who was head of the Black September terrorist force in the early '70s [source]: the same Black September took executed the Munich massacre.
14. In a letter this week to Rogge, the terrorist Rajoub "expressed appreciation for [Rogge's] position, who opposed the Israeli position, which demanded a moment's silence at the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in London." As PMW points out, Rajoub is unable to bring himself to actually mention the murdered Israeli athletes. Their killing is simply termed "the Munich Operation”. Small wonder that Rajoub and the PA sing the praises of Rogge's refusal to permit a minute of silence for dead Israeli athletes. But the question for us is: Those people who are standing by and with and behind Rogge – do they subscribe to the Fatah/PLO’s endorsement of the IOC refusal?
15. We have heard it said that Tuesday’s pathetic “low-key” memorial moment gave worldwide exposure to the murder of the Israeli athletes and that makes it a positive thing. But we say the events of 1972 in Munich gave them worldwide exposure too; does that make the killings a positive thing? The more serious criticism is that the message of Tuesday's IOC 'event' fails to come to grips with what is being remembered. The Munich massacre of 1972 was followed by many more killings, based on the same hatred, the same contempt for other people's lives, and essentially by the same people. The terrorists who planned and executed are busy planning more. Though the Israelis came in peace, they died as Israelis and Jews. None of this was even hinted at in Rogge's vacuous "spontaneous" comments. He mentioned Israeli once in the video clip [here]. But the message was not about Israelis or about terror.
16. We say Tuesday's “spontaneous” IOC event was symbolic, but not in the way Rogge and the IOC intended. It actually possesses multiple layers of symbolism. Thanks to the ringing endorsement of the Palestinian Authority and its blood-soaked Olympic committee head, we now understand them a good deal better.

Friday is going to be day of pomp, enthusiasm and unstoppable optimism. But in certain ways the opening ceremony of the London Olympics is also - for those of us living daily in an ongoing war - likely to be a reminder of the deep gulf between those who have some understanding of terrorism and what it stands for, and those for whom slogans and lofty pronouncements conceal a fundamental emptiness. 

"Inspire a Generation has been revealed as the official motto for the London Olympics. 'It is the heartbeat, the very DNA of this organisation and a rallying cry for the athletes to come to the UK to perform at their very best and inspire the world." [Source: Daily Mail]

It would have been good to see the Olympic movement embrace something a little more substantial and focused on genuine humanitarian values.

via thisongoingwar.blogspot.com

#JustOneMinute Terror sponsor says moment of silence for terror victims would be 'racism'

The 'Palestinian Authority,' an outgrowth of the PLO, which sponsored and committed the Munich Olympic massacre 40 years ago, has sent a letter to International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge praising him for his refusal to allow the eleven Israeli athletes who were murdered at Munich to be remembered.

According to Jibril Rajoub, President of the Palestinian Olympic Committee:

"Sports are meant for peace, not for racism... Sports are a bridge to love, interconnection, and spreading of peace among nations; it must not be a cause of division and spreading of racism between them [nations]."
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 25, 2012]

But Dr. Andre Oboler writes that the IOC committed a major blunder by not acceding to the moment of silence request.

Had the call for a minutes silence remained an online issue, and had it remained an issue about Israelis, the IOC could have continued to ignore it. They have done so in the past without much difficulty. This, however, is 2012. The threat of terrorism, and efforts to mitigate that threat, permeate the games. The threat of terrorism, and the erosion of fundamental rights through anti-terror measures around the world, is a topic of public interest and conversation. Enough time has passed since September 11 for the world to again begin thinking about the balance between security and the cost it imposes on our daily lives.
The response to terrorism is something Israel began dealing with a long time ago. The world has changed and today more than ever people around the globe acknowledge the loss of terror victims and the suffering of their families. This is increasingly done without regard for nationality. The IOC’s mistake was thinking the minutes silence was about placating Israelis and the families of the victims. Whatever the wishes of the victims’ families, the campaign gained worldwide support for its own reasons and on its own merits. It spoke to people, and they connected with it and shared it.
The 1972 terrorist attack was not an attack on Israelis as much as it was an attack on the Olympics itself. The decision to ban Apartheid South Africa from the games all those decades ago shows that the Olympics is not entirely free of world politics, it is just very cautious and only acts in line with world consensus. That’s where the IOC went wrong; in this matter there is a consensus and the IOC is trying to ignore it.
Today’s global consensus is actively against terror. In the face of terror, be it a natural disaster or the politically motivated terror human kind invents for itself, people around the world stand together as one. Social media plays a role as the world becomes ever more connected. The IOC’s failure to incorporate a minutes silence into the opening of the games appears as a failure of leadership; a failure to stand with the people of the world and speak out against our greatest fear.
The timing too is significant. Let us for a moment recall that the Olympics only occur every four years. This is therefore the tenth games since the terrorists attacked. There will be no fiftieth anniversary at the 2022 Olympic Games. Indeed, due to the Olympic schedule there will be no 2022 Games. In this context, the failure by the International Olympic Committee to very publicly acknowledge that the games too have been a victim of terror, is akin to an American President refusing to commemorate September 11 on a major anniversary of that tragic event. It is indeed incomprehensible.

The 'Palestinians,' on the other hand, commemorate the Olympic massacre regularly. They have called the massacre's planners 'a star who sparkled,' a shahid (martyr), and have said that 'his star shined in Munich.' The 'Palestinian Authority' - time and time again - has glorified the terrorists who planned and carried out the Munich Olympic Massacre. But that shouldn't surprise anyone. The financier of the Munich Olympic Massacre is now the President of the 'Palestinian Authority.'
The IOC has a clear moral choice to make tomorrow - to stand with the terrorists of the 'Palestinian Authority' or to be true to the Olympic Games and their participants. Given the IOC's past history, the odds of them making the right choice are not too promising.

via israelmatzav.blogspot.com

Yes... that guy was right. It's not an issue about Israel. It's an issue about the Olympics and terror and the IOC is guilty of the worst kind of bias to think it was just about mourning some dead Jews in Munich.

Teenager shouts 'Allah is great' in Arabic as he tries to grab the Olympic flame from hands of terrified torch bearer

Daily Mail Reporter
PUBLISHED: 06:02 EST, 20 July 2012 | UPDATED: 11:40 EST, 20 July 2012

• Boy runs from crowd and attempts to wrestle flame from torch bearer shouting Arabic for 'God is Great'
• Anna Skora, 23, manages to keep hold of flame to carry on
• Security drag teenager away, who has since been arrested and is being held in custody
• Kent police say the relay continued 'without disruption' as Ms Skora passes torch on to next bearer

A 17-year-old shouted 'Allahu Akbar' - Arabic for 'God is Great' - as he unsuccessfully tried to grab the Olympic torch during a stretch of the flame's route through Maidstone towards Redhill.
Broadcast live on the BBC, the youth lunged from the crowd to try to take the torch from the hands of its bearer Anna Skora, but was swiftly bundled away by officers.
In one video posted to YouTube he can be seen waiting behind a car and as Ms Skora gets closer he lunges towards the torch.
Scroll down for video.

Enlarge  
Attempt: The 17-year-old tried to wrestle the torch from Anna Skora

Bundled: The youth was taken away from Ms Skora before he could take the torch

Ms Skora was about to hand over the torch to Graham White, a Surrey charity worker, when the teenager burst out of the crowd and tried to grab it.
He managed to get through the line of police officers escorting the torch as it headed through the town.
One of the officers at the back of the group swiftly grabbed hold of Ms Skora and the torch, guiding them to the opposite side of the road.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2176424/London-2012-Olympics-Youth-tries-grab-flame-torch-bearer.html#ixzz21BZrhLhi

via docstalk.blogspot.com

conventional wisdom would say that Muslim violence could be avoided because they didn't honor the Munich Olympics dead. conventional wisdom would be wrong

Guess Who's Helping Assad Get Away With Murder?

(GateStone)Wikileaks is at it again, this time, leaking a (promised) two million-plus emails from the Syrian regime, which has in the past eighteen months tortured, raped and killed at least 15,000 of its own citizens. And look what we have here: A memo explaining how to get away with it from Brown Lloyd James.
Brown Lloyd James, according to its website, "is managed by an elite group of distinguished former news executives, top-level White House and Downing Street political advisors, high-profile entertainment industry executives and experts in international affairs. Our staff have been at the right hand of presidents, prime ministers, media barons – and yes, even The Beatles."
Among their areas of expertise is "reputation management." As their promotional material helpfully explains, "Things happen in the course of global events that can quickly change your public image. A positive reputation and image are powerful strategic tools and effective insurance policies should something go wrong. Brown Lloyd James has the skills and experience to manage and control fast-moving and potentially volatile situations."
Well, it will surely be interesting to see how a firm with those skills handles the leak of this document.

MEMORANDUM
TO: Fares Kallas
FROM: Brown Lloyd James
RE: Crisis Communications Analysis
It is clear from US government pronouncements since the beginning of the public demonstrations in Syria that the Obama Administration wants the leadership in Syria to survive. [My emphasis added] Unlike its response to demonstrations in some other countries in the region, there have been no US demands for regime change in Syria nor any calls for military intervention, criticism has been relatively muted and punitive sanctions—by not being aimed directly at President Assad--have been intended more as a caution than as an instrument to hurt the leadership.
However, the tone of the Administration's statements has grown noticeably harsher in recent weeks and may be nearing a tipping point that could make a reassessment of the US position towards Syria inevitable. One potential bellwether of this shift is the transformation in the public statements of US Senator John Kerry, the Administration's de facto point man on outreach to Syria. Senator Kerry has begun to publicly backtrack his often-repeated confidence in the leadership's ability to reform.
Media coverage of the situation in Syria has tracked with the Administration's political arc. US media coverage of events in Syria was initially marginal, but has since moved closer to the front of the newspaper and the top of the broadcast news. This not only reinforces the Administration's change of tone, it is emboldening critics--who maintain that Syria's reform efforts are not sincere--and building up pressure on the US government to take further, more drastic steps against the country.

The memorandum observes that "Syria has had an imbalance in its communications approach since the beginning of the crisis." I'll say. Those videos of dead kids with their testicles ripped off are really giving Americans the wrong message.
"No one within the leadership," the PR firm observes, "seems to 'own' the reform agenda from a communications standpoint." Their advice?

• In our view, the President needs to communicate more often and with more finely-tuned messaging and the First Lady needs to get in the game. The absence of a public figure as popular, capable, and attuned to the hopes of the people as Her Excellency at such a critical moment is conspicuous. The key is to show strength and sympathy at once.

Oh, I get it now—that's why she was on the cover of Vogue. I'd always wondered whose bright idea that was. I guess it's the sort of thing that worked for the Beatles, so why not?
More advice:

• The "reform" program does not yet have a face or brand.

Oh, but they're wrong, it does have a brand. Human Rights Watch came up with the perfect slogan for it: "Torture Archipelago."
"Torture Archipelago" is catchy, easy to remember, and it has a face to whom the whole world can relate: his:

The mildest form of torture is hitting people with batons on their arms and legs and not giving them anything to eat or drink. Then they would hang the detainees from the ceiling by their hands, sometimes for hours or days. I saw it while I was talking to the interrogators. They used electric stun-guns and an electroshock machine, an electric current transformer. It is a small machine with two wires with clips that they attach to nipples and a knob that regulates the current. In addition, they put people in coffins and threatened to kill them and close the coffin. People were wearing underwear. They pour hot water on people and then whip them. I've also seen drills there, but I've never seen them being used. I've also seen them using martial arts moves, like breaking ribs with a knee kick. They put pins under your feet and hit you so that you step on them. I also heard them threatening to cut off the detainees' penises.

But never mind that, that's not Brown Lloyd James' department. Their problem is figuring out how to make sure no one sees that face. To that end, they propose:

• The campaign should create a reform "echo-chamber" by developing media coverage outside of Syria that points to the President's difficult task of wanting reform, but conducted in an non-chaotic, rational way. The conditions for reform include peace and stability. These stories can be developed through direct interviews with the President and other senior advisors, op-ed and commentary articles written by credible third parties. This coverage will rebound into Syria.
• The campaign should be branded with a forward-looking title, such as "Syria al-Yaum, Syria Bukra."
• Syria must improve its ability to contain negative media stories circulated by opposition figures living outside Syria. This includes countering rumors ... and the daily torrent of criticism and lies. Such a professionalized, through capability would include ... (Wait for it ... )
• 24-hour media monitoring and response system should be in place with assets in UK and US markets.
• Social media sites should be monitored and false sites should be challenged and removed.

Yes, that's right: Mobilize your "assets" in the UK and the US, spy on your citizens and censor them. (By the way: How much did Assad pay for the advice to spy on and censor his citizens? A pretty penny, I reckon. You really think he spent the money wisely, given that spying and censoring is already his métier, his art, his master-craft?)
So who exactly is Brown Lloyd James? Well, for a firm with so much experience in PR crisis management, they curiously didn't seem to have a plan for dealing with this PR crisis: I called and wrote to them to see what they had to say about this document, but they weren't answering the phone. (Here's an idea for you, Brown Lloyd James: When you're having a PR crisis, follow your own advice and get on that media-monitoring stick, 24-hours a day. I'm sure I won't be the only nosy parker calling to pester you about this in the next few days.)
It gets worse. Brown Lloyd James apparently has "extensive experience managing complex international projects—including media campaigns and special events—for prominent clients, including for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics Bid, the 2022 Qatar World Cup Bid, the United Nations Independent Inquiry into the Oil-For-Food Programme, AARP, Qatar Foundation, The City of London Corporation, the Independent Panel Review of the World Bank, Al Jazeera English, The Tony Blair Faith Foundation, and various heads of states and government officials from around the world." Frankly, they sound like the kind of firm that would test their applicants' suitability for the job by offering them a newborn kitten and seeing if for the right price they'll stomp on it.
It's led, among others, by one Mike Holtzman:

He led the firm's work on behalf of Qatar's winning bid for the 2022 FIFA World Cup as well as a campaign on behalf of Iraqi Governing Council member Ayad Allawi, who went on to become Iraq's first post-Saddam Prime Minister. His clients include high level international political and business figures and prominent non-governmental organizations. He headed the BLJ team that supported the United Nations Independent Inquiry into the Oil-for-Food Programme, chaired by former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker. 

At the government's request, Mike was seconded to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) following the September 11^th terrorist attacks. Reprising a role he held with FEMA during the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, Mike served as a media liaison from Ground Zero.
 Mike later served as a Consultant at the US State Department, serving as an advisor to the Director of Policy Planning Staff. Recently, Mike wrote two important commentaries on US public diplomacy in the New York Times. 

During the Clinton Administration, Mike worked in the Executive Office of the President as Special Advisor for Public Affairs to United States Trade Representative Charlene Barshefsky. He was Director of Public Affairs to the Council on Foreign Relations from 1996-1998.

Oh, that's who we want in those positions, for sure.
Ever wonder why the world's so screwed up? It's because people like Mike Holtzman, who think it's a fine idea to advise clients like Bashar al Assad, are literally the ones running our government.

Related Topics:  Claire Berlinski

Turning Jewish Cemeteries Into Soccer Fields

(jewishhistory.org) In Spain, the great Olympic village and stadiums in Barcelona are built over ancient Jewish cemeteries. In Eastern Europe, most Jewish cemeteries were made into soccer fields by the progressive, peace-loving, classless society of the Communists. In Vilna, the ancient Jewish cemetery was leveled for a park and soccer field. Through the intervention of Rabbi Pinchas Teitz of Elizabeth, New Jersey, the bodies of the Gaon of Vilna and other great scholars were reinterred, but since Vilna was in its totality a vast Jewish graveyard the remembrance of what Vilna was to the Jewish people was systematically eradicated by the Communists.

In Bratislava, which used to be called Pressburg, the great Rabbi Moses Sofer (the Chasam Sofer) established a renowned yeshiva, which produced scholars and Jewish communal leaders who revolutionized Jewish life in the Austro-Hungarian Empire in the 19th century. Today, the Jewish cemetery in Pressburg is gone. They built a superhighway over it.
Interestingly, the legend of Rabbi Moses Sofer was so great that his grave, as well as the grave of his son and a few other graves, was not dug up and remain buried in a catacomb underneath that highway. There is a stairway that one can descend under the highway, as cars drive overhead, to see the grave of Rabbi Moses Sofer and a monument.(MORE)

Latest BDS joke

(EOZ)Let's say an international security company operates in such human-rights abusing states as Pakistan, China, Yemen, Egypt, and Saudi Arabia.
Would you be upset if that company provides security for the London Olympics?
Apparently not. No one has said a word about that.
But if that same company does work in Israel, then it must be boycotted!
From Al Arabiya:

In the upcoming next week session of the British parliament, the government will be grilled over its decision to allow a firm suspected of human rights abuses in Palestinian territories to provide security services for the London 2012 Olympic Games.
G4S, chosen as “official provider of security and cash services for the Olympics,” also operates in Jewish settlements in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
The company, which describes itself as the “world’s leading international security solutions group” and as the “official provider of security and cash services for the Olympics,” has already taken on 10,400 new employees for the 2012 Games, the Independent reported on Thursday.
The parliament, however, will be quizzed by prominent businessman and Labor peer Lord Hollick, after he files a written question on Monday, on the steps the parliament has taken to ensure that G4S is not providing security services in illegal settlements in the West Bank.

Because Israel is uniquely horrid among all the states G4S operate in!
How much more proof do you need to see that BDS is motivated by anti-semitism, pure and simple? Only the Jewish state gets singled out as being the reason to attack this huge multinational security company that does work in scores of nations worldwide.  G4S also does work with the EU, most Scandinavian states, the US, Canada, the UK, Ireland, Belgium, and pretty much every major nation. And pretty much every Arab state as well, none of whom are boycotting it!
BDSers pretended to have gained a victory when the EU decided to change security companies at its parliament last year away fro G4S, in a move that was not in any way prompted by BDSers.

It's a wonder that they don't boycott the Olympics for Israel being at the games at all... uh oh said too much

I'd like to thank the Olympic Committee for reminding world Jewery why there must be a Jewish State: London won't hold minute of silence for 1972 victims

The US team in 1936, agreed to the removal of sprinters Marty Glickman and Sam Stoller, Jews from the team in order to appease the Nazi organizers of the Berlin Olympics... now...

International Olympic Committee tells 'Post' that minute of silence will not be observed for 11 Israeli athletes slain at Munich games. (jpost)The International Olympic Committee will not hold a minute of silence at the upcoming London games for the 11 Israeli athletes who were murdered at the 1972 Munich Olympics, an IOC official told The Jerusalem Post this week.  In a video recently posted on YouTube, Ankie Spitzer, the widow of Andrei Spitzer, an Israeli fencing coach killed in Munich, issued a heartfelt appeal to the IOC.

Together with the Jewish Community Center of Rockland, she also launched an online petition that has garnered over 20,000 signatures.
“I am asking for one minute of silence for the memory of the 11 Israeli athletes, coaches and referees murdered at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich,” Spitzer writes in the petition, adding, “Just one minute at the 2012 London Summer Olympics and at every Olympic Game, to promote peace.”
The IOC told the Post they would not honor Spitzer’s request.
“The IOC has paid tribute to the memory of the athletes who tragically died in Munich in 1972 on several occasions and will continue to do so,” Emmanuelle Moreau, IOC head of media relations, told the Post. “However, we do not foresee any commemoration during the opening ceremony of the London Games.”
Moreau insisted that “The memory of the victims is not fading away. One thing is certain, we will never forget.”
She added that, “During the period of the games, the Israeli National Olympic Committee traditionally hosts a reception in memory of the victims and the IOC is always strongly represented. London will be no exception.”
On September 5, 1972, Palestinian terrorists disguised as athletes attacked the dormitory housing the Israeli delegation to the Munich games and took hostages, resulting in the deaths of 11 Israelis and 1 German policeman.
The incident came to be known as the “Munich massacre.”
For the past four decades, Spitzer and others have repeatedly sought to persuade the IOC to incorporate a minute of silence during the opening ceremonies of the games.
“I have no political or religious agenda. Just the hope that my husband and the other men who went to the Olympics in peace, friendship and sportsmanship are given what they deserve,” Spitzer wrote in the petition to the IOC.
“Forty years is long enough to wait.”

Arabs upset that Palestinian Olympic Committee cooperates with Israel

(EOZ) Recently, the Israel Olympic Committee signed an agreement with the Palestine Olympic Committee to help facilitate travel of Palestinian Arab athletes through Israel and to help ensure that sports equipment gets delivered to the Arab athletes in a timely manner.

...This is causing an uproar in the Arab world, both within the territories and from outside...Besides the scandal of Palestinian Arabs actually speaking to Israeli Jews, which is bad enough, it looks like this cooperation is going to help both Israel and a Palestinian Arab team to compete in the Mediterranean Games. Both Israel and the Palestinian Arabs have been barred from participating in the Mediterranean Games, and this cooperation seems to make it easier for both to join in. The IOC, which had once been against allowing Israel to participate, is now supporting allowing both teams to compete. ...Even though adding a Palestine team would help legitimize the Palestinian Arab cause, the price to be paid - allowing Israel to compete in the games - is considered way too high by the Arab world. Arabs would prefer that both teams be barred than to allow Israel to join....Which is just one more piece of evidence that no one in the Arab world is really "pro-Palestinian." People who want to penalize Palestinian Arab legitimacy in international sports are not in any way "pro-Palestinian." ...They are simply anti-Israel.... And it is further proof that while Israelis try to find "win-win" solutions, Arabs will not. They would rather have "lose-lose" if one of the potential winners would be Israel. They base their most basic decisions on irrational hatred of Israel. Their mentality remains zero-sum.... By the way, this 1996 article from the New York Times shows that fact checking was not a priority for that newspaper even then:

Although Atlanta will mark the first Palestinian participation in the Olympics, Palestinians have a long association with sports -- they were once among the Arab world's best boxers. And, according to Nahil Mabrouk, president of the Palestinian Track and Field Federation, the Palestine Olympic Committee was founded in 1931 and remained a member of the Olympic family until 1967, the year of the Six-Day War and the beginning of Israel's 26-year occupation.

In fact, the Palestine Olympic Committee that was formed in 1931 changed its name in 1951 - to the Israel Olympic Committee.

Iran threatens to boycott Olympics over 'Zionist' 2012 logo

Let's ask the 2012 symbol ~ do you spell Zion?

David Cameron today told Iran they would "not be missed" if they boycott the Olympics because they object to the Games logo.
Last month Tehran wrote to the International Olympic Committee claiming the London 2012 logo spelled out "Zion" and was racist and demanded it be scrapped.
The Prime Minister told the Jewish News today: "It's completely paranoid. If the Iranians don't want to come, don't come - we won't miss you."
Message to Iran ~ if you want to be stupid ~ be stupid!

Looking at the Iranian team in the Olympic line-up ~ they seemed repressed. I believe one of the wrestlers objected to being in a match with an Israeli guy. Filling their people's heads with nonsense ~ because they think they are going to get something from it.

At the 2004 Games in Athens, an Iranian athlete Arash Miresmaeili, a two-time world judo champion, refused to compete against Israel's Ehud Vaks in the opening round of the 66kg competition. He admitted that he made his decision to show solidarity for the Palestinian cause. [+]

via islamizationwatch.blogspot.com

I reblogged about this story last week and did not realize how serious Iran was about it. I understood they were complaining about the logo, what I did not realize was the extent of their belief that the Olympic logo was "Zionist". For certain one might get a chuckle, but I hardly see evidence that the designer did this purposely. I had to stare at it twice to even get the joke. Furthermore... most supporters of Israel do not like to identify their views as Zionist. Zionism is not usually an identifying belief of mainstream Judaism. Most Jews see it as defensive, but do not base their religion on "Zionism". It is a historical fact that Hertzl (the father of Modern Zionism) was not even religious, so to identify Israelis interchangeably with Zionism is inaccurate. It would be like saying all Christian support U.S. efforts in the Mid-East.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

The designer of this logo is a full member of the global Zionist - Freemasonry alliance that seeks to sheeple the global population

EOZ links to this. I wasn't aware of this particular Iranian news site, but wow, talk about new horizons in Irangrish . . . "Sheeple" as a verb! The title of this little masterpiece is "The International Community Launches Formal Complaint Opposing the 2012 London Olympic Games’ Silly little Logo":

via judeopundit.blogspot.com

Hamsayeh.Net - Already it seems the next Olympic games in London, England would be one of the worst Olympics in history.

The British Olympic Association has obviously been forced to adopt a rather silly logo design for the upcoming games in London, putting under question the whole purpose of the games. The silly little logo of the London 2012 Olympic games sports the word ZION in pink color – a much revered color theme used by some well-known deviated groups belonging to parts of the Western World.

Apparently the British Olympic Association is expecting that thousands of world’s greatest athletes will happily be marching under this silly little symbol during the opening and closing ceremonies of the London 2012 games.

Zionists’ control over the post WWII global financial system has enabled this elite group to enjoy total influence over most of the Western countries’ top organizations. In UK, the British Olympic Committee seems to have had no other choice but to adopt the controversial logo since the organization receives its annual funding from the Zionist-led financial institutions.

via hamsayeh.net

Really? I mean wow... Really? Jews don't seem to have a lot of leverage here.

Posted via email from noahdavidsimon's posterous

Lego My Prego

As with all curling teams, Team Canada features five members. Well, six, if you really want to get technical with it.

Alternate Kristie Moore, 30, is 5½ months pregnant, making her just the third athlete known to be with child during Olympic competition

via sports.yahoo.com

Team Canada is the gold-medal favorite in the women's curling event, which begins Tuesday and runs through Friday of next week. Even if Moore doesn't play, she will receive any medal Canada wins.

Winter Olympics who CARES!

I had the honor of watching PBS with my Leftist parents tonight. (it is a family tradition to scream at me whenever I open my mouth) PBS had some interesting things about Goldman Sachs and were almost leading the audience in the right direction into thinking about government bailouts and who benefitted and why? They then had the Left wing Turkey looking guy with the multiple chins go on about what a great veteran Murtha was for about three minutes before they concluded that he did have a slight Pork problem… only a slight spending abuse problem? …which um had become reflective of Washington as a whole. Right as I began to conclude that maybe just maybe PBS had improved a little they broke right into the whole Winter Olympics drama and the death on some event that I probably can’t spell and wonder why anyone would do this event without some kind of break system. It was orchestrated. Just as people begin to think the emotional story breaks in. I can not watch the news without feeling serious stress. I don’t understand people who can. Then they talked about some snow boarder who had a Kidney transplant ten years ago. Why is this in my news?

the Israeli Olympic athletes, whom the Islamo-pandering International Olympic Committee continues to refuse to memorialize. Yes, I realize they were murdered at the summer games in Munich in 1972. So what? Israel has athletes in the Winter Games (unlike most Muslim countries), and the IOC needs to finally memorialize the Israelis who were murdered in cold blood and gave their lives at the alter of what is now a giant, 2.5-week-long commercial. Today, a luger from Georgia died while practicing. I’ll bet he gets a memorial before the Israelis do.

Carl in Jerusalem says there is a scheduled Olympic memorial to the Israeli athletes on Monday Night. But he fails to note that this “memorial” is no different than the previous ones held by others at previous Olympics. It is NOT an official Olympic event and DOES NOT have the approval of the International Olympic Committee. That’s why Olympic head honcho Jacques Rogge WON’T be there. And it’s why he WON’T allow a formal event like Flo-Jo got.

read Debbie via debbieschlussel.com