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Monday, December 24, 2012

Israel wins at the UN, no one notices

Here's Soccer Dad's Middle East Media Sampler for Monday, December 24.
Israel wins at the UN, no one notices

"If Algeria introduced a resolution declaring that the earth was flat and that Israel had flattened it, it would pass by a vote of 164 to 13 with 26 abstentions."
Abba Eban (h/t Elder of Ziyon)
I went over to the sargent, said, "Sargeant, you got a lot a damn gall to ask me if I've rehabilitated myself, I mean, I mean, I mean that just, I'm sittin' here on the bench, I mean I'm sittin here on the Group W bench 'cause you want to know if I'm moral enough join the army, burn women,kids, houses and villages after bein' a litterbug."
Arlo Guthrie - Alice's Restaurant
Last week Israel won a victory at the UN. You probably didn't read about it in any newspaper. Many news organizations believe that the only news about Israel worth reporting is news that shows that Israel is isolated. So here's the notification at one of Israel's Facebook pages:
Israel's resolution "Entrepreneurship for Development" passed the UN General Assembly vote overwhelmingly, with 97 co-sponsors, 141 in favor, 31 against, 11 abstentions.
Ambassador Ron Prosor - רון פרושאור: "Make no mistake. The stakes before us are high. The people we empower today will become the next Einstein, the next Picasso, the next Mother Theresa of tomorrow".
So who voted against? (See vote on Annex II)
Algeria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen. 
To get a fuller picture of this looking glass world called the UN, read Syria's response to this resolution:
The Assembly adopted a text on entrepreneurship for development by 141 votes in favour to 31 against, with 11 abstentions. Israel’s representative said he had hoped for consensus on the text, noting that the Arab States that had voted against it were among those that could benefit most from entrepreneurship. (See Annex II.)
Syria’s representative, speaking in exercise of the right of reply, described that statement as “truly strange”, given the criticism that Israel had received over human rights violations and denial of economic opportunities to people living under occupation. Saudi Arabia’s representative defended his country’s record as a peace-loving nation, and his counterpart from Sudan said her country had not turned its back on its people, as the Israeli representative had said, but had instead turned its face towards those living under Israeli occupation.
Ambassador Prosor is correct, but why doesn't anyone else mention this? True, the vote is symbolic, but it is symptomatic of one of the major problems in the Middle East. The Syrian government has killed tens of thousands of its own citizens, but defends its vote against a policy statement that would serve to better lives globally because it originated with Israel on account of "occupation."

It's not just that the Arab world that sees Israel through this narrow prism. Consider Thomas Friedman who writes periodically about the 2002 U.N. Arab Human Development Report and observes "for the Arab world to thrive it needs to overcome its deficit of freedom, its deficit of knowledge and its deficit of women’s empowerment." Yet when the Arab world refuses to deal with Israel, even in matters that would benefit them, Friedman' harangues Israel for not doing enough.

Consider the Arab peace initiative that he championed in 2002. Friedman was essentially saying that Israel needed to accede to the demands of Hosni Mubarak, Bashar Assad, Moammar Gaddafi and fellow dictators by treating the Palestinians better than they treated their own people!

An article in the UAE's The National illustrates the problem:
"Hope you will touch upon the challenges facing us and young entrepreneurs, including quality of education, few resources devoted to research, and limited research supported by the private sector."
In 2008, the public and private sectors in the Arab countries cut spending on research as a percentage of their GDP, according to the United Nations Development Programme's Arab Knowledge Report released this year.
In Kuwait it was 0.09 per cent while it was 0.23 per cent in Egypt. By contrast, it was 3.46 per cent in Finland, 2.52 per cent in Singapore and 4.86 per cent in Israel.
 
But Israel doesn't just lead by example, it attempts to help others help themselves. The head of MASHAV, Daniel Carmon writes:
My visit to Ottawa came just a few days after the UN passed an Israeli-led resolution on “Entrepreneurship for Development.” As a proud and active member of the international community, Israel played a major role in drafting this resolution. We were pleased to see it pass by a vote of 129-31, despite every Arab delegate country voting “no” — thereby signalling to the world that they favour petty politics over human prosperity.
This groundbreaking resolution highlights the value of entrepreneurship for creating jobs in the developing world, opening up economic opportunities, and fostering responsibility in both local entrepreneurs and donor countries. I must thank Canada for its assistance in helping to gather a substantial like-minded group of developed and developing countries to support this important resolution.
This work is a reflection of Israel’s work on the ground in Africa, South America and around the world. MASHAV’s work with young entrepreneurs in Columbia is part of its partnership with Latin American Young Americas Business Trust (YABT). Working with the Organization of American States, YABT is a private sector initiative that promotes social and economic development among youth. Israel sees this as an important project because it reflects its own experience in turning to innovation to become a developed country.
 
Israel provides the means for others to get ahead and improve their societies, but the Arab world - encouraged by the Western apologists - refuse to get on board. They'd rather not allow opportunity to their own people.

Part of it, no doubt, is that greater economic freedom usually leads to greater political freedom. But there's also clearly a significant element of blind hatred for Israel.

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4 Comments:

At 7:46 PM, Blogger HaDaR said...

Algeria, Bahrain, Bolivia, Comoros, Cuba, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Djibouti, Egypt, Indonesia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Malaysia, Maldives, Mauritania, Morocco, Nicaragua, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey, United Arab Emirates, Venezuela, Yemen.

All countries for which one must pray that a major epidemic or devastating earthquakes, hail and firestorms might destroy them.
The world would be a much better place without them.
;-)

 
At 8:52 PM, Blogger Captain.H said...

Wow...

I really think that if some Israeli doctors invented a vaccine that prevented all forms of cancer, there would be a whole bunch of Imams in the Muslim countries preaching against any Muslim getting that vaccine. It'd be described as some sort of a nefarious Jewish plot to poison Muslims.

(If anybody thinks that's a stretch, there ARE a whole bunch of Imams in Nigeria, Sudan, Afghanistan and Pakistan preaching against allowing any Muslim children getting the polio vaccine. It's a Western plot against Muslims, you see. Consequently, in roughly the last half decade, there have been thousands and thousands of Muslim children unnecessarily struck down by polio in those countries. Last week in Pakistan, a number of World Health Organization people engaged in a vaccination campaign in the so-called Tribal Areas were victims of drive-by shootings by Taliban terrorists, for their evil in participating in campaigns to vaccinate children with the polio vaccine. Barbarism ... Dark Ages ...like the recent beheading of somebody in Saudi Arabia for "practicing witchcraft". I think Western Civilization is extremely limited in how much it can help the Muslim world, unless and until the Muslim world decides to help itself.)

 
At 1:50 AM, Blogger Empress Trudy said...

We will sleep the sleep of the just safe in the knowledge that after the entire Muslim world implodes in a catastrophe we talk about for thousands of years, we neither mourn nor celebrate the destruction of our enemies.

 
At 12:27 AM, Blogger HaDaR said...

Oh yes we do celebrate: it is a MITSWÀ!
To begin with, let's remember our Sages' saying: באבוד רשעים רינה, there is rejoicing in the destruction of the evildoers.
Then, let's put an end to the manipulation of Proverbs 24:17 "בִּנְפֹל אויביך [אוֹיִבְךָ] אַל תִּשְׂמָח וּבִכָּשְׁלוֹ אַל יָגֵל לִבֶּךָ.", don't rejoice for the fall of YOUR enemy.
The Mesorah and Our Chakhamim have amply clarified what is very clear to anyone who knows Hebrew grammar well. The verse speaks about A PERSONAL ENEMY, NOT A NATIONAL ENEMY. THat is one of the horrible consequences of WRONG TRANSLATIONS OF THE TORAH.
THEN, let's go deeper...
David Ha-Melekh (Tehillim 79) says: "...pay-back our neighbours sevenfold..." and (Tehillim 58) "... The Tsaddiq will REJOICE at the sight of revenge and will wash his feet in the blood of the evildoer... So people will say: there is a prize for the Tsaddiq,; there is a Judge judging the earth..." from which ChaZa"L learn that the UNAVENGED spilling of Jewish blood is chillul Hashem gamur, since it allows the goyim to say: "`en din we-`en Dayan", there's no justice and there's no Judge.

Check the END OF THE SUGYAH in Meghillah 10b, which is so often MISQUOTED.

People selectively and very partially quote the Talmud. Meghilla 10 begins with R. Yehoshua Ben Levi starting his lecture on Meghillath Esther with the verse: "And the L-rd rejoiced (sas) over you to do you good, so the L-rd will rejoice (yasis) over you to cause you to perish " (Devarim 28:63). And the Talmud asks: Does the Almighty then rejoice over the fall of the wicked? And to prove that He does not rejoice, the story of the angels is brought. And this is where too many stop. But there is more. The Talmud continues and answers as follows CONCLUDING THE SUGHYAH:
"Rabbi Eleazar said: HE does not rejoice, but he causes others to rejoice."
To that there is NO FOLLOWING, which means that THAT is the conclusion of Our Sages, as demonstrated also by the Meshekh Chokhmà, who specifies that WE are those "others" who MUST rejoice.
Interestingly enough, as the same Talmud Bavli in Meghillah reports right there, THAT objection, that we should not rejoice for the fall of our enemies, is what Haman replies to Mordechai, WHO WAS THE HEAD OF THE SANHEDRIN!, that is the UNCONTESTED HALAKHIC AUTHORITY OF THE TIME, who answers him: "THAT is referred to one of us [a Jew]. For you it was written "וְאַתָּ֖ה עַל־בָּמֹותֵ֥ימֹו תִדְרֹֽךְ", and you shall [even] tremple their altars - WHICH, BY THE WAY, were the last words pronounced in the Torah by Moshe Rabbenu before he died [Deut 33:29]
Of course the Almighty, the totality of Compassion, the Father of all, grieves for His children - all of them. HE does not sing. His angels, who are not of this world, do not sing. But the Jews do. Not only are they allowed to, they are commanded to. NOT BY CHANCE we read Shirat HaYam EVERY MORNING, and we say Hallel on the Seventh Day of Pesach, which is a HOLYDAY BECAUSE it celebrates the fall of Pharao and his men. Sa'adia Gaon called that day חג ההשמדה, the Holyday of Destruction, in his Hagadàh! We do rejoyce for the very same reason that the very same Almighty, who does not sing, destroys the work of His hands because they do evil.

Yes, of course He grieves. He grieves that those who were made in His Image have so perverted and destroyed the greatness of that Image. That those who were created in the image of good were so evil. And so, He grieves for the perversion of His purpose in making the world, for His works who have gone astray. And in His grief, he does not have pity. He destroys them. He knows that evil and He cannot share the same world, as our rabbis say: "As long as the wicked rule in the world, the Holy One Blessed Be He, so to speak, cannot sit on his throne" (Yalkut Tehillim Chapter 47).

 

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