Holocaust Martyrs & Heroes Remembrance Day

Jews around the world, and particularly in Israel, commemorate the six million Jews murdered in the Holocaust, as well as those who were able to fight back, beginning Wednesday evening, April 30, through sundown, May 1st.

Yom HaShoah V'Hagvurah, Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Day, began Wednesday evening with a public ceremony at Warsaw Ghetto Square in Yad Vashem, Jerusalem. President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Ehud Olmert spoke, survivors lit six torches, the Chief Rabbis recited prayers, and Cantor Asher Heinowitz sang the El Malei Rachamim prayer.

IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gabriel Ashkenazi, with a delegation of IDF top brass beneath the "Work Will Set You Free" inscription over the gates of the infamous Auschwitz death camp.

The central theme of this year's commemorations is "Choose Life." Last year, it was "Bearing Witness." At 10 PM, a symposium was held on the topic of "Choose Life," with the participation of Holocaust survivors and Yad Vashem Chairman Avner Shalev.

Playwright, David Mamet explains in the Huffington Post:

"Israel's Jews are no more the cause of Arab Fundamentalist rage than they were the cause of European Fascism. We, as always, are the miner's canary, singled out as, and the first victims of national or global unrest."

A remarkable, home-made, video-essay memorial to victims of Nazi persecution and Allied liberation.
(Courtesy DenLexx via YouTube)

A photo-essay from last year's Yom Ha Shoah, Holocaust Memorial Day from Israel National News.com

IDF Chief of Staff Gabriel Ashkenazi looks at the ovens used to burn Jews in Auschwitz. Ashkenazi's father was a Holocaust survivor; his mother a Jewish refugee from Syria.(Israel news photo: IDF Spokesman)



The Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum launched English and Arabic video channels on Tuesday, just two days before Jews around the world begin their annual commemorations of the Holocaust.

Yad Vashem, the world's largest repository of information on the Holocaust, launched two The Arabic channel has testimonies and archival footage about the Holocaust with Arabic subtitles.


News from Polish Radio World Service
Jews and Poles meet for 'March of the Living' 30.04.2008
Listen 3,37 MB
The crowd walks between two German Nazi concentration camps, the same way along which camp inmates marched to their death in the gas chambers back in the times of World War Two, continuees Aharon Tamir: 'We march from Auschwitz I as the "March of the Living" contrary to the "march of death" during the Holocaust. We come to Birkenau and over there we have a ceremony. We pray, we speak, we commemorate, we say Kaddish, we speak about the future. That's the idea. What we call this educational project is "From Holocaust to Revival" - from the Shoah to the new future and the new blessings for Israel and the world. We will continue with this as much as we can and we added last year a lot of non-Jews, especially Poles. In this march we will have close to two thousand Polish participants marching with us on the Holocaust Memorial Day.'

Several thousand Jews from all over the world, together with two thousand Poles, will take part in the annual March of the Living on the first of May to commemorate the memory of the victims of Holocaust.

"March of the Living" has been held annually since 1988 by the Israeli Education Ministry and the "March of the Living" organization. It takes place always ten days after the Jewish Pesach or Passover holiday. On this day, Jews all over the world hold prayer vigils commemorating the victims of the German Nazi Holocaust.

'We bring thousands of people, youngsters, adults, mainly Jewish, but there are a lot that are not Jewish, from all over the world - from about fifty five countries. They come to Poland to visit the Holocaust sites, what remains from the large and wonderful Jewish community that was here and perished during the Holocaust. They visit Polish sites, meet Polish youngsters. We believe that we also have to interact with Poland today. And then, after they visit all of Poland, we bring all of them to Auschwitz Birkenau on the Holocaust Memorial Day to march,' said Aharon Tamir, director general of the March of the Living events.

Report: Major anti-Semitic attacks triple in 2007

A Tel Aviv University report reveals alarming increase in number of violent attacks against Jews worldwide; study cites threefold rise in number of particularly violent assaults.

The number of severe violent attacks rose threefold in 2007.

According to the study, 632 incidents of racially-motivated violence against Jews have been reported in 2007, compared to 593 in 2006. Fifty-seven percent of the attacks in 2007 have been classified as "major attacks" – three times higher than in 2006, when the number of major attacks stood at 19.

The Institute's report for 2006 reflected an even more alarming growth in anti-Semitism worldwide, claiming attacks against Jews doubled during that year. (Source Ynet News).

The Anti-Defamation League's 2007 Survey of American Attitudes Towards Jews in America (a national telephone survey of 2,000 American adults conducted October 6 through October 19) found that 15% of Americans - or nearly 35 million adults - hold views about Jews that are "unquestionably anti-Semitic," compared to 14% in 2005. Previous ADL surveys over the last decade had indicated that anti-Semitism was in decline (graph). Nine years ago, in 1998, the number of Americans with hardcore anti-Semitic beliefs had dropped to 12% from 20% in 1992.

Anti-Jewish Stereotypes Remain Consistent

The survey found that 31% of Americans believe Jews are more loyal to Israel than America, down from 33% in 2005; in 2002 it was 33%; in 1998, it was 31%; in 1992; 35%. (graph)

More than one quarter – 27% of the American people – believe Jews were responsible for the death of Christ, down from 30% in 2005, up from 25% in 2002. (graph)

Fifteen percent (15%) of the general population believes that Jews have "Too much power in the U.S." -- unchanged from 2005; 67% for those who are the most anti-Semitic.

ADL surveys in 11 European countries released in May and July 2007 revealed that fully half of the Europeans surveyed believe Jews are not loyal to their country and more than one-third believe that Jews have too much power in business and finance.

Zionist leader, Dr. Aryeh Eldad, cautions the world that stabbing Israel's back brings the Devil's chickens home to roost: 7:30 pm, 11 E. 63rd St NYC

Sworn to teach Muslims a lesson about the cost of Jewish blood, the IDF's former Chief Medical Officer, Dr. Arye Eldad is a Knesset member who is responding to calls from the nationalist movement for his own party - to keep all Israel's recaptured lands. And he doesn't care what Washington, Riyadh, or anybody but God thinks.

The Gentle Giant: Israeli Parliamentarian and Hatikva (Zionist National Party) founder, Dr. Aryeh Eldad, presents a Lecture in New York City tonight, Tuesday, 29 April, 7:30-10:30 pm.

Watch his tempered warning to the world for backstabbing Israel by enabling Iran's nuclear weapons development and forestalling action by distracting Israel with concessioning to a terror-drunk, Jihadist enemy.



* Former Senior Commander and Chief Medical Officer, Israel Defense Forces
* Chief of Burns-Unit at Jerusalem's Hadassah Hospital (during height of the Intifada)
* Member of Knesset (Committees: Science and Technology; Labor, Welfare and Health)

Presenting a lecture entitled: "Israel at 60: Where Are We Now? What Lies Ahead?"
Bold, new ideas for reshaping Middle East politics and the balance of power

Location: Congregation Edmond J. Safra, 11 East 63rd Street, New York City
Time: 7:30pm - 10:30pm. ZOA Exec. Director, Morton Klein, gives introductory remarks.

CBS' 60 Minutes on Israel Air Force preparations vs Iran: garner support FOR or against Israel military preemption of nuclear armed Iran?

Preview: The IAF. The Israeli Air Force has to prepare for anything says one of its officers, because if Israel loses just one war, it will cease to exist. Bob Simon's report airs Sunday, April 27, at 7 p.m. ET/PT


Air Force Chief On Iran Threat: The head of Israel's Air Force, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Shkedy, tells Bob Simon the threat from Iran is real and that it can't be ignored.


Bob Simon's Notebook: Israel's Air Force has been its first line of defense for 60 years. Bob Simon reports that they are prepared for any threat.

Watch evidence French TV news faked 'slaying' of boy in order to demonize Israel; then obstructed judicial investigation

Charles Enderlin's pronounced "slain by IDF" Mohammed al-Dura blatantly peers out from under his arm in subpoenaed, cutting-room footage released-today.

Nidra Poller examines the situation in "Out Damn Spot" in FrontPageMagazine.

What about the fact that the dead child identified as Mohamed al Dura was brought into the hospital between noon and 1 PM while the alleged shooting occurred at 3PM? Making the motions of someone who turns back a clock, France2 News-director, Madame Arlette Chabot explained there was “some kind of time change that day in Gaza.”

Charles Enderlin depicted the Israeli army 'killing' young 'bystander,' Mohammed al-Durah, according to the video footage he edited. In the 10 seconds of raw footage which continues beyond the point Enderlin brands al-Durah "Dead" (released by France2 News under subpoena by the Philippe Karsenty-libel court) it's obvious that you can see the boy lift his right elbow to peer-out for directions.



Mohammed is neither an innocent, nor a bystander. Neither is the producer, Enderlin, or the ethics of France2TV journalism management. Will the truth prevail in court? The verdict will be returned on May 21, 2008.

Prof. Paul Eiedlberg of the Foundation for Constitutional Democracy explains the Islamists' strategy of damaging Israel's ethical-democratic identity towards re-directing global support away from Israel and in support (even embrace) of Islamism:

An enemy’s ‘center of gravity’ is the necessary but vulnerable precondition of its strength. With respect to Israel, Carl von Clausewitz's ("war is merely the continuation of policy by other means") dictum that in “small states dependent on greater ones," it lies generally in the army of their allies would seem to apply. However, since the army or military power of Israel’s ally, the United States, cannot itself be directly attacked, it must be outflanked by an assault on public opinion”—in a democracy, a force more powerful than armies.

Israel’s ‘center of gravity’ is public opinion in the United States. Hence we need to ask: What is there about American public opinion regarding Israel that endows Israeli government with legitimacy and its ruling elites—politicians and judges, academics and journalists—with respectability? The answer: Israel’s reputation as “the only democracy in the Middle East.”

Former-radicals turned-reformists toasted by high society, donors; but how exactly will they stop the Islamist/liberal-alliance juggernaut?

A variety of news perspectives on the whirlwind romance between the Quilliam Foundation and British policymakers.

Muslim plan to tackle extremists Guardian UK

Potential terrorists should be sent to rehabilitation centres and deradicalised by exposure to intense and substantial periods of genuine piety, Britain's first counter-extremism thinktank said yesterday. The recommendation came from the Quilliam Foundation, established by former activists of radical Islamist groups to challenge their ideology.

At its launch at the British Museum in London, the deputy director and author, Ed Husain, who used to be in the radical group Hizb ut-Tahrir, said there was a sense of Muslim unity in the fight "to rescue our faith from those who have hijacked it".

British ex-jihadis form ranks for tolerance Christian Science Monitor by Mark Rice-Oxley

Aside from think-tank work of getting their ideas into the public domain, the foundation also plans to set up a task force of ex-radicals who can "go to the hot spots and work on the grass roots to deradicalize people and the contacts that we have known in these movements for a long time," Mr. Nawaz says.

Yet in the complex constellation of ever-changing British Muslim movements, it is too early to say whether the Quilliam Foundation will prove to be an effective and exemplary voice that resonates with the wider community.

Some critics have warned that it is just another stripe in the colorful and contrasting rainbow of Muslim opinion in Britain. Others say that they are "defectors" who have moved to the mainstream where they will have little chance of appealing to young radicals.

"They will have a hard time reaching out to people who are actively involved in extremist organizations," says Peter Neumann, director of the International Centre for the Study of Radicalisation and Political Violence in London. "But they probably do have the capacity to go into schools and certain other environments and have some leverage there because they are Muslims who were involved in radical activities."

The home secretary, Jacqui Smith, signaled last week that Britain could not arrest its way out of the terrorism threat. "We need to prevent people from becoming terrorists and supporting terrorists in the first place," she said. "That means challenging the sort of ideology that supports terrorism."

Mr. Neumann says the government is disillusioned with established groups like the Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) for failing to combat extremism – both vocally and effectively.

Ex-extremists call for 'Western Islam' BBC News

The British Museum is the surprising venue for theologians, thinkers and socialite Jemima Khan, all coming together to support the launch of a new think tank to counter Al Qaeda's world-view.

And this seemingly bizarre gathering exposes the question at the heart of the whirlwind romance between the Quilliam Foundation and policymakers

Is the launch of this campaigning organisation a step forward in the battle of ideas - or just another group with some kind of official pat on the head - but no credibility on the street?

Since the London bombings of July 2005 a whole string of Muslim organisations have come forward, claiming to have the answers to violent extremism.

The Muslim Council of Britain, the main umbrella body, has been marginalised in an ongoing political row - but two others touted as significant players have had little impact.

Vast sums of money are being spent on research into violent extremism, and entire government teams have sprung from nowhere to try to find answers.

Then into this mix came Ed Husain. Last year he published The Islamist, his story of a life in hardline community politics.

He was a member of Hizb ut-Tahrir (HT), a global body calling for a single Islamic state across

the Middle East. Now Ed Husain and another, less well-known, man, Maajid Nawaz, are launching Quilliam (named after a 19th century British convert) as the counter-argument to extremism.

They say Islam in its purest universal form, as the last message of God to mankind, sits perfectly well in modern multicultural societies - providing that Muslims find the right way to express their faith.

And if British Muslims rediscover the purity of the faith, they argue, they can cast off the political and cultural baggage that would see Islam as the enemy of the West.

Ex-radicals challenge Muslims to shun extremism - Reuters UK

"All mod cons" Guardian's Comment is Free by Seumas Milne

Vaunted new Muslim organisations exonerate government of its responsibilities and sideline credible voices: they're anything but moderate

The Quilliam Foundation's leading lights could not be less representative of mainstream Muslim opinion in Britain. But the signs are that the government is nevertheless throwing its weight behind the organisation - after the failure of earlier efforts to build up the Sufi Muslim Council and British Muslim Forum as an alternative to the umbrella Muslim Council of Britain. Officials from Hazel Blears' communities department recently made clear to a Muslim organisation involved in youth work that it would need to line up with the Quilliam Foundation if it wanted government funding.

The Quilliam Foundation itself is being funded by Kuwaiti businessmen, Husain told me yesterday, but could not reveal their identities. He added that he would be happy to take government funds if there were no strings attached.

This is a perilous game. Those like Quilliam and its friends who claim that terror attacks are all about a rejection of our way of life rather than western war-making and support for dictatorships in the Muslim world may help get the government off the hook of its own responsibility.

But if we want to stop such attacks in Britain, rather than indulge in shadow boxing with an elastically-defined extremism, there needs to be engagement with - not ostracism of - credible Islamist groups, as the former head of Scotland Yard Special Branch's Muslim contact unit has argued.