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Germany’s foreign minister Guido Westerwelle has warned Israel to face a periodic United Nations Human Rights Council (U.N.H.R.C.) Periodic Review—or face severe diplomatic consequences, according to a Haaretz report (Sunday). … In a personal letter to Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, Westerwelle warned that Israel’s failure to attend the periodic evaluation—a review infamous for its anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian measures—would alienate Israel’s allies and cause “severe diplomatic damage”, Haaretz reports. …

A resolution that calls male ritual circumcision a "violation of the physical integrity of children" was passed overwhelmingly by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. The council, a pan-European intergovernmental organization, debated and passed the resolution on Tuesday based on a report by the Committee on Social Affairs, Health and Sustainable Development led by German rapporteur Marlene Rupperecht. The resolution passed by a vote of 78 in favor and 13 against, with 15 abstentions. The resolution calls on states to "clearly define the medical, sanitary and other conditions to be ensured for practices such as the non-medically justified...

“The study of antisemitism,” admits Bruno Chaouat, a professor of French in Minnesota, “can be tedious.” This admirably candid confession appears relatively early in the pages of Resurgent Antisemitism: Global Perspectives, a collection of nineteen new essays edited by Alvin H. Rosenfeld, the distinguished director of Indiana University’s Institute for the Study of Contemporary Antisemitism and author of several major books about the Holocaust. Chaouat is right, of course: while a single anecdote about irrational hate can breed sorrow, anger, and/or shock, a thick book consisting entirely of such material is more likely to be, quite simply, numbing. It is...

Countering the Republican-led opposition to President Barack Obama’s nominee for defense secretary is a less flashy but powerful constituency: military veterans. Veterans’ organizations have praised Chuck Hagel, a twice-wounded combat veteran of Vietnam and deputy administrator in President Ronald Reagan’s Veterans Administration. The Veterans of Foreign Wars has called him uniquely qualified to become Pentagon chief. The Military Officers Association of America said his experience gives him “a range of perspectives.” The American Legion said he was a longtime advocate for veterans. … VoteVets, a left-leaning veterans group, has campaigned for Hagel through social media, old-fashioned letters to editors and...

A Liberal Democrat MP in Britain faces expulsion from the party for saying Jews had not learned from the murder of six million in the Holocaust in their treatment of Palestinian Authority Arabs, the Daily Mail reports. David Ward, MP for Bradford East, wrote on his own website that he was “saddened” that Jews “could within a few years of liberation from the death camps be inflicting atrocities on Palestinians…on a daily basis.” “Having visited Auschwitz twice – once with my family and once with local schools – I am saddened that the Jews, who suffered unbelievable levels of persecution...

Rosie O'Donnell: Helen Thomas was right... Unreal..

JoyceLynn Aryan Nation Campbell, Honszlynn Hinler Jeannie Campbell and Adolf Hitler Campbell. Good names for a trio of toddlers? Heath and Deborah Campbell think so. The Holland Township couple has picked those names and the oldest child, Adolf Hitler Campbell, turns 3 today. This has given rise to a problem, because the ShopRite supermarket in Greenwich Township has refused to make a cake for young Adolf's birthday. "We believe the request ... to inscribe a birthday wish to Adolf Hitler is inappropriate," said Karen Meleta, a ShopRite spokeswoman. The Campbells turned down the market's offer to make a cake with...

Eight people were detained by police in Lund on Friday during demonstrations to mark the anniversary of the death in 1718 of King Karl XII. Two people were formally arrested for violent resistance. One of those arrested is also suspected of attempted assault. Six others were detained. A few dozen people were involved in the march, according to police. Demonstrators from the '30th November Association' gathered outside Lund Cathedral at lunchtime on Friday. The association is made up of nationalist groups from the university town and was founded following the First World War. Counter-demonstrators met in the Lundagård park. A...

Ten youths were assaulted with sticks and glass bottles at an anti-racism concert in Farsta, in the south of Stockholm, on Saturday night. Police suspect that the attackers are neo-nazis. Four of those injured required hospital treatment. One of them, an 18-year-old man, was taken to Karolinska university hospital in a serious condition. Related Articles 'Tintin in the Congo' dodges ban in Sweden 23rd August 2007 Extremists clash in Stockholm 28th July 2007 'Police employee behind race attack' 23rd July 2007 Article Options Send to a friend Printable version "He was hit on the back of the head with a...

ehudgins@atlassociety.org  April 11, 2007 -- I love opera! Thus recently at the Kennedy Center I saw Die Walküre, the second installment of Richard Wagner's monumental four-part cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen, about gods and goddesses, giants and dwarfs, and mortal human heroes. The music, singing and acting were superb. But the program notes seemed like Al Gore channeling Karl Marx.  Consider "dramaturg" Cori Ellison's description (bold in the original) of the opera's themes. First, nature:  "The despoiling of nature through greed and ambition begins even before the stage action does, with Wotan sacrificing his own eye to drink from the...

Nazi pupils cause school closure Racial abuse, Nazi graffiti and Hitler salutes have become so widespread at a school in the village of Vännäsby that pupils are to be kept home for two days next week as staff meet to discuss ways to tackle the situation. Staff, pupils and health and safety inspectors have all voiced their concerns about the prevailing atmosphere at the secondary school in Vännäsby, which is located close to Umeå in northeastern Sweden. "The negative trend among some of our pupils is creating a bad working environment, which is not acceptable for either the pupils or...

The Diary of Anne Frank was displayed on the judge's desk A suspected German neo-Nazi has admitted publicly burning a copy of Anne Frank's diary, at the start of his trial with six others.The suspects are accused of inciting racial hatred and disparaging the dead. Prosecutors in the eastern German city of Magdeburg said Lars Konrad, 25, threw the book onto a bonfire during a summer solstice party in June 2006. Anne Frank wrote her diary while she and her family hid from the Nazis in an attic in Amsterdam during World War II. The indictment says the public...

Elie Weisel SAN FRANCISCO - In a bizarre attack, a well-known author and Holocaust scholar was dragged out of a San Francisco hotel elevator by an apparent Holocaust denier who reportedly had been trailing him for weeks. Police escorted Elie Wiesel to San Francisco International Airport on Feb. 1 after a man accosted Wiesel in the elevator at the Argent Hotel, at 50 Third St., after Wiesel participated in a panel discussion at a peace conference and before Wiesel was scheduled to catch a flight back to New York. Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor and author of more than 40...

'Malicious Advocacy' The Carter Center councilors' letter of resignation. Thursday, January 11, 2007 12:00 p.m. EST Dear fellow member of the Carter Center Board of Councilors, This has been a difficult time for us. As members of the Board of Councilors of the Carter Center we have endeavored to promote the efforts of the Carter Center in our community. However, the recent book authored by President Carter "Palestine; Peace not Apartheid" and his comments in the press made while promoting the book have given us pause in our efforts. We are deeply troubled by the President's comments and writings and...

RUSH: (story) "Russia, in March, will start delivering nuclear fuel for a plant that it is building in Iran, the head of the state company in charge of the project said Monday." Now, I thought that Iran was a country rich in oil and in fuel. The head of the outfit here, Sergei Shmatko, "said during a trip to Tehran that he and Iranian officials had discussed financial problems related to the completion of the nuclear plant in Iran's southern port of Bushehr... Shmatko said his company would start preparations in January for nuclear fuel deliveries to Bushehr, and begin...

(Norman Finkelstein has been urging people to write to Alan Dershowitz. Mr. Dershowitz's reponse to them is as follows. To visit Alan Dershowitz's website, (click here). Dear Correspondent, You have written to me claiming an interest in free speech and urging me to make full disclosure of the correspondence between me and the University of California Press and the Board of Regents, including Governor Schwarzenegger. I am certainly interested in the full truth coming out, because I never tried to censor anything that Finkelstein wrote, as you have already seen and will see again. As I repeatedly wrote, "I have...

ONE of Britain’s royal medical colleges is calling on the health profession to consider permitting the euthanasia of seriously disabled newborn babies. The proposal by the Royal College of Obstetricians and Gynaecology is a reaction to the number of such children surviving because of medical advances. The college is arguing that “active euthanasia” should be considered for the overall good of families, to spare parents the emotional burden and financial hardship of bringing up the sickest babies. “A very disabled child can mean a disabled family,” it says. “If life-shortening and deliberate interventions to kill infants were available, they might...

Met chief orders inquiry into Muslim PC embassy row Last updated at 09:12am on 5th October 2006 Sir Ian Blair has ordered an 'urgent inquiry' after a Muslim police officer was excused from guarding London's Israeli Embassy after he objected to the duty on 'moral grounds'. Sir Ian said: "Having learned of this issue I have asked for an urgent review of the situation and a full report into the circumstances." PC Alexander Omar Basha - a member of the Metropolitan Police's Diplomatic Protection Group - refused to be posted there because he objected to Israeli bombings in Lebanon and...

<p>Fox News reporting a new video is out. It shows two dead american soldiers burned and being dragged through the streets.</p> <p>There is a belief that they are the bodies of troopers Tucker and Menchaca.</p>

Reader Scot Silverstein alerts us to the rally for Israel outside the United Nations earlier this week: Some 35,000 people rallied across from the United Nations to protest Ahmadinejad’s presence at the world body. The crowd also wanted to show solidarity for Israel and implore the United Nations to enforce Security Council Resolution 1701, which ended Israel’s war this summer with Hezbollah and calls for the release of three Israeli soldiers taken hostage by Hamas and Hezbollah. Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman of the Presidents Conference, referred to Ahmadinejad’s Tuesday night speech to the General Assembly, in which he portrayed...