Three minutes of bells, but no time for silence

If you didn't already know it, the Olympic Games are about to begin. They start officially at the opening ceremony tonight and this morning at 8.12, bells all over the country rang out in celebration for three minutes. Although these Games mark the fortieth anniversary of the slaughter of eleven Israeli Olympians at the Munich Games, there will be no minute of silence in their memory. This is nothing less than shameful.


The following guest post by Jonathan Sacerdoti, Director of the Institute for Middle Eastern Democracy, on Harry's Place injects a much needed shot of sobriety into the Olympics euphoria.

Tomorrow, Big Ben will chime non-stop for three minutes to mark the opening of the Olympic games in London. The opening ceremony will begin with the ringing of the world’s largest ‘harmonically tuned’ bell. People around the country are even being urged to ring a bell of their own (be it a doorbell or a bicycle bell) at precisely 8.12am. Olympic pride, it seems, is something to be noisy about. Yet at 10.30am, at the north end of Trafalgar Square, there will be a group of people who plan to remain completely silent, for just one minute.

Those in the square are part of a huge international effort to have a minute of silence included in the opening ceremony, in memory of 11 Israeli athletes who were brutally murdered by Palestinian terrorists 40 years ago at the Munich Olympics. Their deaths have never been marked in an opening ceremony, despite repeated requests. This year, once again, such requests even from Boris Johnson and Barack Obama have been repeatedly and publicly refused.

The Olympics celebrates the impressive physical capabilities of humankind through those who are the very best in the world at their sports. But it should be an opportunity not just to marvel at our physical potential, but also to reach new ethical and moral highs. Through the idea of the Olympic Truce, where nations put aside their differences to compete as equals, the Olympics should be a beacon of compassion and morality, where politics is not meant to intrude. Those who hijacked the greatest international celebration of sport for their own brutal political aims are the ones who smashed to pieces that which is central to the spirit of the games, with dreadful consequences.

You might wonder why it is so important to mark this 40th anniversary. Haven’t things moved on since 1972? Sadly, it seems, they have not. Just last week Hezbollah terrorists, acting as Iran’s proxy, blew up a bus full of Israeli tourists in Bulgaria. Within the last few months, terror attacks were attempted against Israeli embassies in Georgia and Bangkok, and the Israeli ambassador to India’s wife was seriously injured in a terrorist attack on her car in Delhi. Just a few weeks ago, Iranian terror plots against Israelis in Kenya and Cyprus were foiled.

The Palestinians appear to show little remorse for killing the Israeli athletes (and with them the spirit of the Olympics). The man who claims that the Munich killings were his idea, Abu Daoud, twice claimed that funds for the terror operation were provided by none other than Mahmoud Abbas, the current Palestinain President (and the man with whom the state of Israel is now expected to negotiate a peace deal). As recently as 2010, the official Palestinian Authority daily newspaper Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, referred to the Olympic massacre as a “shining station”. The planner of the slaughter, Amin Al-Hindi, was described by the newspaper as a “star who sparkled… at the sports stadium in Munich”, and his military funeral was reported to have been attended by both Mahmoud Abbas and the Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. The paper reported that “afterwards, the President and those present read the opening sura [of the Quran] for the elevation of his pure soul.”

With the Palestinian Authority apparently unrepentant for the attack, the atrocity’s money-man now their president, and further attacks on Israelis around the world taking place on a regular basis, it seems that international terrorism is alive and kicking in 2012. It comes as little surprise, then, that almost twice as many British soldiers deployed in Afghanistan are involved in providing security at the London Olympics. If this seems shocking, remember that countries like Israel have long been used to needing such security measures at public events.

Terrorism is a huge and real threat not only to Israel, but also to the entire western world. Terrorism is the enemy of everything for which the Olympics stands. If anything, the threat has got worse since the Munich games of 1972. That is precisely why the opening ceremony of the London games should include a clear and unambiguous reminder of the worst ever attack on Olympic values.

Facebook and Twitter are bursting with comments from people who attended the dress rehearsal of the opening ceremony, imploring each other not to post photographs, but to “save the surprise”. For those who truly appreciate the values that are central to the Olympics, the best surprise the opening ceremony could provide would be just five and a half seconds of silence for each of the eleven murdered Israeli athletes.

Israel at the Olympics

 

Israel’s best hopes for Olympic glory lie in the diversity and versatility of its athletes competing in London 2012, according to the Israel Embassy in the UK.
Israel’s 15th delegation numbers 38 athletes, in eight sports, including gymnastics (ten athletes), swimming (eight) and sailing (seven).

Israel first competed at the Olympic Games in 1952 in Helsinki, and the Olympic Committee of Israel has sent delegations to all Summer Olympics since then. Israel made its debut at the Winter Olympics in 1994, and has been a regular participant since.

Yael Arad won Israel’s first Olympic medal in 1992 with a silver medal in Judo and Gal Fridman won Israel’s first, and so far only, gold medal at the 2004 Olympic games in men’s windsurfing. Israel has won at least one medal at every Olympics since the Barcelona games 20 years ago, and the team is determined to continue this tradition at London 2012.

‘Differing weights and differing measures. . .’

Archbishop Cranmer today posted an open letter to the South East Gospel Partneship regarding Church of England vicar the Rev Dr Stephen Sizer, against whom charges of anti-Semitism have been widely reported and discussed in the Church Times, the Church of England Newspaper, the Jewish Chronicle, and Standpoint.

In spite of the evidence presented to it, the Committee of the South East Gospel Partnership remain un-persuaded that Rev Sizer is racist. The allegations against Stephen Sizer are supported by a body of evidence, including a video on the Cranmer blog in which Dr Sizer equates Israel's alleged treatment of the Palestinians with the Holocaust. Such a charge amounts either to a form of Holocaust denial or to an appalling slander of the Jewish state.

When Baroness Jenny Tonge remarked earlier this year that Israel won't always be here, she was forced out of the Liberal Democrats in the House of Lords. Her remark about Israel was far less offensive than that of  Rev Sizer. The Church is to set an example to the world, rather than the other way round.

Read the letter and decide for yourself whether James Mendelsohn and Nick Howard are right.

An Open Letter to the South East Gospel Partnership about Anti-Semitism

Among the many people and organisations who have declined to take action against the anti-Semitism of Rev. Dr Stephen Sizer is a group called the South East Gospel Partnership. Its Chairman is Rev. William Taylor of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, and its Committee is made up of Rev. Trevor Archer of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches, Rev. Iain Broomfield of Christ Church Bromley, Rev. Richard Coekin of the Co-Mission network of churches, Rev. Charles Dobbie of Holy Trinity Lyonsdown, Nick McQuaker of Christ Church Haywards Heath, Brian O’Donoghue of St Helen’s Bishopsgate, Rev John Ross of Farnham Baptist Church, and Rev. Simon Smallwood of St George’s Dagenham.

Recently we asked them to join Nigel McCulloch, Bishop of Manchester, in publicly criticizing Dr Sizer for posting a link to an extreme anti-Semitic website, and on the basis of that offence and others to exclude Christ Church Virginia Water (Dr Sizer’s church) from their organisation.

In their response they did not engage with a single charge that we made about Dr Sizer. They concluded by saying they saw ‘no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen’. Here are the charges that were brought to the Committee's attention:

- Posting links to at least four different anti-Semitic websites, and offering demonstrably false explanations by way of defence: 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Offering unqualified support for Raed Salah, a notorious anti-Semitic hate preacher and convicted fundraiser for Hamas: 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Spreading recognised anti-Semitic conspiracy theories such as Israeli complicity in 9/11 and the claim that McDonalds, Coca-Cola, Nestlé and L'Oréal 'channel their profits to the Zionist agenda' - and on that false basis promoting a boycott of those four companies (which, being publicly-listed, pay their profits to shareholders of every nationality): 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Appearing repeatedly on Press TV, a TV station renowned for its anti-Semitism and aptly described by Daily Express columnist Stephen Pollard as 'the propaganda arm of the world's leading funder of terror': 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Describing regular Israeli troops photographed at ease in a street as 'Herod's soldiers operating in Bethlehem today', an unashamedly anti-Semitic blood libel: 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Hosting an event on behalf of the ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission’, an organisation that refuses to co-operate with the British police and openly calls for the nations neighbouring Israel to ‘release their armies to burn that land’: 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

- Seeking to divert money donated to the Christ Church Virginia Water mission fund to George Galloway's Hamas-supporting organisation 'Viva Palestina': 'no justifiable grounds for breaking gospel partnership with Stephen.'

We offered to provide evidence to back up all of the above claims. The Committee did not take up the offer. We also pointed out that no one, including Dr Sizer, has been able to find any inaccuracy in any of those charges.

What particularly troubles us is our firm sense that if a vicar belonging to the SEGP had posted links to four anti-black websites, such as Ku Klux Klan white supremacist sites, he would have been quickly excluded from the organisation. If that assumption is correct, the SEGP Committee are not demonstrating impartiality. As the Bible says, ‘Differing weights and differing measures - the LORD detests them both.’

Perhaps the SEGP Committee might say that what we see as anti-Semitism is in fact legitimate political criticism of the state of Israel. We invite people to review the charges above and decide for themselves.

The SEGP Committee might also point to the decision by the police earlier this year not to prosecute Dr Sizer for the incitement of racial hatred. Yet that decision was based solely on the police’s judgement that the racist material which Dr Sizer had publicised was not likely to incite hatred to the point of a disruption in public order. They raised no doubts about whether Dr Sizer had linked to the material.

Finally, the SEGP Committee might also quote the numerous statements made by Dr Sizer condemning anti-Semitism. Yet sadly Dr Sizer's word cannot be trusted. This was proven when he recently insisted that the first time he was alerted to the presence of a link to a racist website on his Facebook page was on 3rd January. The Diocese of Guildford, however, has confirmed that he sent an email acknowledging receipt of a complaint about that same link on 22nd November. The SEGP Committee were made aware of this, yet it did not seem to affect their wholehearted support for Dr Sizer.

We take no pleasure whatsoever in publicly airing this disagreement. But in the last analysis, racism is worthy of whistleblowing. We very much hope that the evangelical community will react better than the Roman Catholic church to fact-based whistleblowing. Sadly, thus far, that has not proven to be the case. An evangelical leader has posted links to racist websites, his explanations have then been exposed as false, and yet nothing has been done about it. Two questions have driven us to write this open letter: 'When is it ever acceptable for an evangelical to post links to racist websites?'; and, ' 'Why are other evangelicals refusing to take action in response?' It's because we can't think of any satisfactory answers to those questions that we have taken this step.

The Committee of the SEGP are good men. And so we appeal with hope to members of their churches to persuade them to act in a righteous, impartial way. The history of the Christian church has repeatedly been stained by anti-Semitism. Our prayer is that in this case the church will take redemptive action.

Rev. Nick Howard
Assistant Minister, Christ Church New York City

James Mendelsohn
Senior Lecturer in Law, Huddersfield University

What the Arabs are saying about the Jews and the Holocaust

This shocking collection of clips put together bt Tom Lantos from Arab TV stations reveals the extent of anti-Semitism and Holocaust denial that exisits in the Arab world.

The Zionist Games

In about three hours, the Olympic torch will pass my office. Or should I say the Zionist torch?

According to Iranian officials, the London 2012 clearly demonstrates Zionist control of the Olympic Games, since the numbers in the much-maligned logo design—a jagged and misshapen representation of the year 2012—can be rearranged to kind of resemble the spelling of “ZION.”

'As Internet documents have proved, using the word Zion in the logo of the 2012 Olympic Games is a disgracing action and against the Olympics' valuable mottos,' read a letter from Iran’s Olympic Committee to the head of the International Olympic Committee. 'There is no doubt that negligence of the issue from your side may affect the presence of some countries in the Games, especially Iran which abides by commitment to the values and principles.'

Conspiracy theorists and other anti-Semitic antagonists were inspired by this Iranian 'revelation,' and YouTube was inundated with animations and videos claiming that a Zionist-controlled New World Order was using the London games as another step in its plan for world domination. They failed to explain how such crafty Zionists could be so foolish as to tip their hand by identifying themselves in so public a manner and also why those same Zionists couldn'd force the Olympics Committee to observe a minute's silence for the eleven Israeli athletes killed in cold blood at the 1972 Munich Games.

The ultimate proof of truth of the theory, though, is that if the logo is not changed, Iran will boycott the Games. Israel knew that all along. And with Iran out of the Games, Israel's poodle America will at last be able to take home some gold medals!

Bulgarian bus bomb blast

An explosion has killed at least seven people on a bus carrying Israeli tourists in the eastern Bulgarian city of Burgas, Israeli officials say.

More than 30 people were also injured when the bus exploded at Burgas airport, by the Black Sea.

Witnesses told Israeli TV that someone boarded the bus and a huge explosion immediately followed.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu later accused Iran of being behind the explosion.

"All the signs lead to Iran," he said in a statement. "Israel will respond forcefully to Iranian terror."

The Israeli foreign ministry said in a statement: "There are six bodies on the scene - one critically wounded died at the hospital and two seriously injured are in intensive care. Thirty more people are being treated."

It said the bus was carrying tourists from a charter flight that arrived from Israel.

Full story at the BBC website and Reuters

Three men at the heart of President Assad's defence team have died in a suicide bombing, Syrian state TV says.


The president's defence minister, brother-in-law and head of his crisis team were at a meeting at national security headquarters in Damascus.

No footage has yet emerged of the attack in which the national security chief and interior minister were also said to have been wounded.

It comes as rebels claim to have launched an offensive on the capital.

For the past three days, rebels have fought with troops in several parts of the city, declaring their operation, entitled Damascus Volcano, a final battle for the capital.

The rebel Free Syrian Army (FSA) and a jihadist group calling itself Lord of the Martyrs Brigade both said they were behind the security headquarters bombing.

Full story at the BBC website.

Did Israel really kill Arafat?

Whenever a major political figure dies, the news outlets always state the cause of death. But not in the case of Yasser Arafat. The cause of his death in November 2004 has remained a mystery. Now, almost eight years later we learn from Al Jazeera’s English-language TV service that the PLO leader was poisoned by a radioactive element, polonium-210. And who would want to kill him? Who else but the usual suspect, Israel?
At the time of Arafat's death, the word was on the street that, as a result of hislifestyle, Arafat died of AIDS. The Al Jazeera documentary, produced by American reporter Clayton Swisher, was sparked by the findings of a Swiss laboratory which (as you do eight years after his death) tested some of Arafat’s clothing and detected unusually high levels of polonium. The traces were weak, it turns out now, but still a lot stronger than would be expected in the natural environment. Suha, Arafat’s widow furnished the clothing to Al Jazeera (as you do eight years aftyer your husband's death). Since the release of the documentary, the Palestinian Authority has agreed to have Arafat’s body exhumed, so that more tests can be conducted for radioactive toxins.

Does the documentary illuminate the true cause of Arafat’s death? Was he really poisoned? And by who? Israel? Or his enemies within the PLO?


Writing on the Daily Beast website, award-winning Israeli journalist Yossi Melman, says that his research reveals that Prime Minister Ariel Sharon’s inner cabinet and senior Israeli intelligence chiefs discussed the idea of killing Arafat. In fact, senior IDF officers and military intelligence agents were in favor of taking harsh action against Arafat. Shaul Mofaz, the Defense Minister at the time, was even overheard whispering into Sharon’s ear: 'Let’s get rid of him,' in reference to Arafat.

But, based on many interviews with Israeli officials, political activists, military officers, and intelligence professionals, it seems almost certain that Sharon rejected all proposals to kill Arafat–or even to have elite military commandos 'snatch' Arafat and expel him from Palestine.

Prime Minister Sharon thought that being accused of killing Arafat was not worth the advantages of being rid of him. Arafat already seemed to be an irrelevant leader whose true traits–unreliability and slippery untrustworthiness–were discovered not only by Israel, but by the international community.

The cause of Arafat’s death remains a mystery. His wife’s refusal to allow the Palestinian Authority to perform an autopsy has only added to the confusion. Why didn’t she send some of her husband’s clothing out for tests in 2004? It certainly is possible that someone, on her behalf or the instructions of others, tainted Arafat’s belongings with polonium after reading about the poisoned Russian dissident Alexander Litvinenko in 2006.
Perhaps one of the mysteries of the past decade can be cleared up; but probably not.

Whether Arafat's body reveals he had been poisoned or not, the genie is out of the bottle. The news (or rumour) is out there and the truth–one way or the other–will not change the minds of those who want to believe the terrorist leader was a martyr in the struggle to destroy the Jewish state and its population.