Sunday Times, Australia
The Mercury, Australia
Melbourne Herald Sun, Australia
Dec 6 2004

On this day

06dec04

1988 – Sources say ethnic violence kills at least three people and
injures six others in southern republics of Azerbaijan and Armenia.

1492 – Christopher Columbus discovers island of Hispaniola, now
divided between Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1534 – Spanish conquistadors establish presence in Quito, an Inca
city in the Andes.
1857 – British forces recapture Cawnpore in India.
1877 – Thomas Edison demonstrates the first sound recording, reciting
Mary had a Little Lamb at West Orange, New Jersey.
1889 – Death of Jefferson Davis, first and only president of the
Confederate States of America.
1906 – Self-government is granted in Transvaal and Orange River
colonies in what is now South Africa.
1907 – Frontier between Uganda and East Africa is defined; In one of
America’s worst coal mine disasters, 361 die at Mononagh, West
Virginia.
1916 – Bucharest, capital of Romania, falls to German troops.
1917 – Republic of Finland is proclaimed; Collision between Belgian
and French ammunition ships at Halifax, Nova Scotia, takes 1600
lives.
1921 – Britain signs peace treaty with Ireland under which Irish Free
State is established and Ireland accepts Dominion status.
1925 – Libyan frontier agreement is signed between Italy and Egypt.
1929 – Women’s suffrage begins in Turkey.
1938 – France and Germany sign pact on inviolability of their
existing frontier.
1941 – US President Franklin D Roosevelt appeals for peace to Japan’s
Emperor Hirohito – one day before the Japanese attack on Pearl
Harbor. He also authorises the Manhattan Project, which results in
the creation of the atomic bomb.
1957 – America’s first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit
blows up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
1959 – UN General Assembly says Togoland should receive independence.

1961 – Heavy fighting erupts in Congo’s Katanga Province between
United Nations and Katanga forces.
1966 – Britain calls for United Nations sanctions against rebellious
Rhodesia, including ban on oil shipments.
1969 – A concert by The Rolling Stones at the Altamont Speedway in
Livermore, California, is marred by the deaths of four people,
including one who is stabbed by a Hell’s Angel.
1971 – South Korea’s President Park Chung Hee warns of danger of
invasion from the north and declares national emergency.
1973 – Gerald Ford is sworn in as US vice-president following the
resignation of Spiro Agnew over alleged financial irregularities.
1975 – Six-day Balcombe Street Siege begins in London when four IRA
gunmen take a middle-aged couple hostage; US President Gerald Ford
arrives in Philippines for talks on new terms for US air and naval
bases there.
1978 – Constitution returning Spain to democracy is approved in
referendum.
1982 – Eleven soldiers and six civilians are killed when a bomb
planted by the Irish National Liberation Army explodes in a pub in
Ballykelly, Northern Ireland.
1984 – Death toll rises to 1600 from gas leak from US-built pesticide
plant in Bhopal, India.
1987 – Bangladesh government dissolves Parliament amid opposition
campaign to topple President Hussain Mohammad Ershad’s
administration.
1988 – Death of Roy Orbison, one of the greatest stars in American
rock and country music; Sources say ethnic violence kills at least
three people and injures six others in southern republics of
Azerbaijan and Armenia.
1989 – Gunman kills 14 women and wounds nine women and four men at
University of Montreal before killing himself; Car bomb believed to
be set by drug traffickers kills 59 in Colombia.
1990 – Iraqi President Saddam Hussein says he has asked parliament to
let all foreign nationals leave Iraq; General Hussain Mohammed
Ershad, who ruled Bangladesh for nine years after coming to power in
a coup, steps down at the height of a pro-democracy movement.
1991 – John Kerin is replaced as Australia’s federal treasurer after
five months, by Ralph Willis.
1992 – Hindu extremists destroy an ancient Muslim shrine in the
northern town of Ayodhya, India, that they believe Muslim invaders
built after destroying a major Hindu temple. Months of nationwide
Hindu-Muslim riots kill about 2,000 people.
1993 – Serb forces shell Sarajevo for five hours, taking aim at
shoppers bartering for food and mourners burying their dead. Five
people are killed and at least 27 wounded.
1994 – A 52-nation summit in Budapest charting a new strategy for a
more peaceful Europe ends in a deadlock over the Bosnian war.
1995 – A huge US transport plane lands at Tuzla, Bosnia airfield to
start the first concrete preparations for the NATO peace mission.
1996 – A mudslide kills at least eight workers repairing a dam in
north-western Japan.
1997 – A Russian Antonov-124 cargo aircraft with two fighter jets on
board crashes into an apartment block near Irkutsk; 49 bodies and 19
body fragments were recovered and 17 other people were unaccounted
for.
1998 – Six years after staging a bloody coup attempt, Former Lt Col
Hugo Chavez is elected president of Venezuela, dealing a blow to the
establishment that ruled the country for 40 years.
1999 – NASA says it has not detected a signal from the Mars Polar
Lander, two days after it began its descent to Mars. It is later
determined that the robot spacecraft was destroyed following a
software glitch; Georges Rutaganda, a leader of the Hutu militia
group, which led the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, is convicted of
genocide by a UN tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment.
2000 – Werner Klemperer, German-born character actor, dies.
Klemperer, who fled Germany in the 1930s with his father, Otto, a
distinguished conductor, won two Emmy Awards for his appearances in
the sitcom about World War Two allied prisoners of war, Hogan’s
Heroes.
2001 – The Taliban’s supreme Leader agrees to surrender Kandahar, the
militia’s birthplace and position of last stand in Afghanistan, to
tribal forces and puts himself under the protection of tribal
leaders.
2001 – Anti-Taliban forces capture the main base of Osama bin Laden
in the Tora Bora Mountains of eastern Afghanistan but fail to find
the Saudi-born militant.
2002 – Israeli forces kill 10 Palestinians, including two United
Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA) school employees, during a
pre-dawn incursion into the Bureij refugee camp in the Gaza Strip.
2002 – Exxon Mobil Corp says a federal court in Alaska has decided it
should pay $US4 billion ($A5.51 billion) in punitive damages for the
Exxon Valdez oil spill.
2003 – Miss Ireland, Rosanna Davison, daughter of singer Chris de
Burgh, is crowned Miss World 2003 in Communist China’s first
international beauty pageant.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

Central Maine Morning Sentinel, ME
Kennebec Journal, ME
Dec 5 2004

Some pride has nothing to do with fads

I have never understood the pride fad.

The attraction of bumper stickers with statements such as “Proud to
be an Irish-American” (and I am one) escape me. My father’s father
came from Ireland, which makes me half-Irish, of which I am neither
proud nor embarrassed. It is just a fact.

A lot of people identify themselves as “a proud American” or a proud
Hoosier or march to express their pride in being gay, etc. They
insist on being prideful of something that is nothing more than an
accident of birth.

I can understand being proud of an accomplishment, say a baseball
player who is proud of throwing a no-hitter. But someone who is proud
of being, for example, a Red Sox fan has done damn little to earn
that pride. (OK, maybe that is a bad example. Red Sox fans do have
their suffering to point to, but, generally, fandom does not require
much more than a TV and time to spend in front of it.)

But an involuntary glow of pride popped into my head the other day
and really surprised me. I said, to myself, “I’m proud of America.”

It happened on Ellis Island, that former sandbar in New York Harbor
that is now a shrine to the American immigrant.

While there is much shameful in America’s treatment of immigrants,
such as turning a blind eye to many who tried to flee Nazi Germany,
there is also a history of generosity, decency and openness. And a
trip Ellis Island brings it all out, the good and the bad. You can
literally walk into the same rooms that 12 million immigrants entered
from 1887 to 1938, some of them perhaps your grandparents or great
grandparents.

The statistic that got to me was this one: Of those 12 million who
arrived at Ellis Island, only 2 percent were turned away. The main
reasons for rejection were contagious disease or proof that the
immigrant’s passage was paid by a U.S. employer in return for working
here as a virtual indentured slave. Everyone else was accepted, no
matter their country of origin, religion, language, social class,
etc. In fact, most were poor refugees, fleeing famine or political
and religious oppression.

Although their trip over, often in steerage, was harrowing, their
time at Ellis Island was made as quick and comfortable as possible.
Most were processed in five or six hours in a beaux-arts style
building erected just for this purpose and so beautiful it won
international design awards. Yes, the immigrants were herded through
various inspections process, checked for heath and mental capacity
and some had to stay longer if they were deemed seriously ill or
mentally deficient.

Those rejected had the right of review by a Board of Special Inquiry
and five out of every six cases were reversed and allowed into the
country.

Dormitories and hospitals were erected to care for those who were
ill. Some were eventually sent back to their country of origin, but
others were treated, cured and allowed into the country.

Visitors to Ellis Island can see the actual menus served to the
immigrants who had to stay longer. They got three meals a day,
nothing fancy, usually beef stew as the main meal, and Jewish
immigrants were offered a kosher meal.

The main building at Ellis Island is a museum now, with displays of
photos, clothing, artifacts and other items that represent the
experiences of different ethnic groups that made their way through
Ellis Islands.

Two million people a year make the trip via ferry from Battery Park
on the southern tip of Manhattan (the ferry also stops at the Statue
of Liberty). The wait for a ferry is often two hours or more, but
that does not dissuade many. Odds are that many of those in line are
descendants of immigrants who came here through Ellis Island. The
museum records show that more than 100 million Americans “trace their
ancestry … to a man, women or child whose name passed from a
steamship manifest sheet to an inspector’s record book in the great
Registry Room at Ellis Island.”

That included me. My grandmother (on my mother’s side) came through
Ellis Island in 1920, a 21-year-old refugee from Armenia. She walked
those wide steps up the Registry Room, was questioned and inspected
by the strangers in starched white shirts and admitted to the United
States of America. Her finance (also Armenian) was already here and
they were married right away, at Ellis Island.

They moved to Dover, N.H., and had six children. Shortly after the
sixth was born, her husband died and she raised her kids herself,
surviving the Depression as what we now call a single mother.

Now that is something to be proud of.

John Christie is publisher of the Kennebec Journal and the Morning
Sentinel. He can be reached at [email protected].

Media Monitors Network
Dec 5 2004

Anglo-American “democratic imperialism” and 0.9 billion infant deaths
by Gideon Polya

“The British, in addition to their invasive contributions in South
America, Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, South East Asia, the
Pacific and the Middle East, left the South Asian subcontinent
crippled by colonialism and helped impose a further burden of
militarization, economic exclusion, debt and war. The total post-1950
under-5 infant mortality in South Asia has been 281.5 million.”

An aggressive, militaristic, imperial US dominates the new world
order

There is a new world order that is dominated by one superpower, the
US. This US hegemony is backed by its Anglo-Celtic cousins, Australia
and the UK. It is vitally important for the world to consider the
human cost of this régime.

The Anglo-American Coalition commenced war against Iraq in 1991,
conquered Afghanistan in 2001 and finally occupied all of Iraq in
2003. The human cost has been horrendous – the `excess mortality’
(avoidable mortality) in Iraq has been estimated from UN data to be
1.5 million since 1991 and about 0.3 million since the US invasion in
2003, these estimates being consonant with estimates of under-5
infant mortality there totalling 1.2 million since 1991 and about 0.2
million since the final invasion. The `excess mortality’ and under-5
infant mortality in Afghanistan have been 1.2 million and 0.9
million, respectively, since the invasion in 2001.

The obscenity of such impositions by fabulously wealthy countries on
wretchedly poor, fragile countries is illustrated powerfully by the
following UNICEF statistics: in 2001 the under-5 infant mortality was
1000 in Australia (population 20 million), 109,000 in Iraq
(population 24 million) and 277,000 in Afghanistan (population 22
million). In 2002 these statistics were 1000, 108,000 and 283,000,
respectively.

What more can the world expect from this Anglo-American Coalition
that is evidently picking up from where the brutal British Empire
left off? A good guide can be obtained from an analysis of post-1950
under-5 infant mortality that is made possible by detailed statistics
publicly available from the UN and UNICEF. These statistics provide a
`smoking gun’ for an immense crime that has been committed over the
last half century – the largely avoidable death of about 0.9 billion
infants throughout the world. This effective mass murder of innocents
has gone unreported by Anglo-American-dominated world media.

Decent humans love kids

A commonality among decent human beings is affection for children.
Thus even in some relatively violent, male-dominated societies there
are conventions prohibiting male violence against other men in the
presence of women and children. Further, young children such as those
under the age of five are utterly blameless – they have not yet
developed the disagreeable attributes of so many adults. At the very
worst, such kids could be a nuisance by demanding too much love and
affection from their families.

The bottom line is that ill-treatment or murder of infants is utterly
unacceptable to decent humans. Historically, mass mortality of
infants was associated with the genocidal European invasions of North
America, South America, Australasia and the Pacific in which
introduced disease was more important than conventional violence in
decimating native populations. In the last century explicit, violent
mass murder of infants (as well as of adults) occurred repeatedly,
for example during the genocides applied to the Hereros of Namibia,
the Armenians of Anatolia, the Jews of Europe, the Tutsis of Rwanda
and the Cambodian civilian victims of the Khmer Rouge.

Whether a child dies a violent death or dies of deprivation or
malnourishment-exacerbated disease, the end result is the same.
Accordingly, to this list of infanticidal horrors of the last century
we should add the victims of enormous man-made famines in Russia (the
early 1920s), the Ukraine (early 1930s), British-occupied Bengal
(during World War 2) and China (during the Great Leap Forward). Major
wars such as the Japanese invasion of China, World War 1 and World
War 2 have been major killers of civilians through the accompanying
social and economic dislocation. Notwithstanding the creation of the
UN after World War 2, there has been immense avoidable infant
mortality over the last half century that is closely linked to First
World-derived militarization and war.

The global post-1950 under-5 infant mortality totals over 900 million

Using publicly-available UN and UNICEF data on populations, birth
rates, death rates and under-5 infant mortality rates, it has been
possible to simply calculate the total number of children under the
age of 5 years who have died in virtually every country of the world
since 1950. The results are horrendous – the global post-1950 under-5
infant mortality totals over 900 million.

In order to simply present and compare the data it is useful to use
some abbreviations and transformations. Thus for the major `overseas’
European colonies (the US, Canada, Israel, Australia and New Zealand)
the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality totals 5.3 million
(abbreviated as `5.3m’). The post-1950 under-5 infant mortality is
4.1% of the total mortality in these countries since 1950 (`4.1%
mort’) i.e. in these rich countries under-5 infant mortality has been
a very small proportion of overall mortality. Expressed as a
percentage of the total present day population of this grouping of
countries, the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality is 1.5% (`1.5%
pop’) or 1.5 dead infants for every 100 people alive today in these
countries i.e. very few people in this group carry the traumatic
burden of an infant death. For simplicity I will summarize the
post-1950 under-5 infant mortality statistics for this group as `5.3
m, 4.1% mort, 1.5% pop’.

With rounding-off of the data, the total post-1950 under-5 infant
mortality has been 912 million, this being made up of the following
components:

`Overseas’ European countries [5.3m, 4.1% mort, 1.5 % pop],

Western Europe [6.8m, 3.4% mort, 1.7% pop],

Eastern Europe [12.7m, 7.3% mort, 3.7% pop],

Latin America and Caribbean [51.9m, 32.0% mort, 10.0% pop],

East Asia [199.4m, 35.1% mort, 12.9% pop],

South East Asia [70.9m, 32.2% mort, 12.9% pop],

Turkey, Iran & Central Asia [40.0m, 46.2% mort, 17.1% pop],

Arab North Africa & Middle East [46.7m, 44.4% mort, 15.6% pop],

South Asia [281.5m, 42.8% mort, 20.0% pop],

Pacific [1.1m, 31.9% mort, 13% pop], and

Non-Arab Africa [195.9m, 52.9% mort, 29.1% pop].

You will immediately see that for the various groupings of European
countries the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality is on the average
about 3-7% of the total mortality within each group and less than 4%
of the current population. However for the non-European world the
post-1950 under-5 infant mortality is on average about 32-53% of
total mortality and 10-29% of total current population for the
various regional groupings.

Thus in European countries post-1950 under-5 infant mortality has
been a very small proportion of deaths whereas in non-European
countries it represents a very high proportion. Similarly, in
European countries on average only several under-5 infant deaths have
occurred for every 100 people alive today – whereas on average such
infant death has been tragically commonplace in the various regions
of the non-European world.

At this point a European neo-con will declare that surely such
elevated infant mortality is only to be expected for non-European
countries that are typically tropical or semi-tropical, fecund,
`backward’ and incompetently governed by authoritarian governments
i.e. that elevated infant mortality is `normal’ for such countries.
However many examples throughout the world demonstrate the fallacy of
such intrinsically racist assertions. Further, closer examination of
the data country-by-country reveals that the First World bears a
major responsibility for this largely avoidable infant mortality.
Many examples can be given to illustrate First World involvement in
this carnage and Anglo-American involvement in particular.

Anglo-American hegemony and militarism is linked to global mass
infant mortality

Latin America plus the Caribbean (i.e. the Americas minus Canada and
the US) has been dominated by the US for over a century. The
post-1950 under-5 infant mortality statistics for Latin America plus
the Caribbean [51.9m, 32.0% mort, 10.0% pop] present a dismal picture
but communist Cuba [0.3m, 9.6% mort, 3.1% pop] is a remarkable
exception because of high literacy and excellent primary health care
– notwithstanding 4 decades of US hostility, threats and sanctions.
It can be readily calculated that if the outcome for Cuba {3.1% pop)
is applied to the whole Latin America and the Caribbean grouping then
the post-1950 under-5 infant mortality would be reduced by 36 million
– US hegemony is thus a major factor in this appalling infanticide.

The British (as well as the French, Spanish, Portuguese, Belgians,
Germans and Italians) conquered, enslaved and exploited Africa for
centuries and left a crippled continent in a neo-colonial nightmare
of militarization, debt, economic exclusion, corrupt governments and
war that is presently compounded by HIV/AIDS. However the post-1950
under-5 infant mortality in peaceful, democratic Afro-Indian
Mauritius [0.08m, 21% mort, 6.3% pop] has been a lovely exception –
if the `6.3% pop’ stat is applied to all of non-Arab Africa then
notionally 153 million infants would have survived.

The post-1950 under-5 infant mortality in the modestly endowed but
peaceful and democratic Muslim country of Malaysia has not been too
bad [1.2m, 20.2% mort, 4.7% pop]. If the Malaysian stat of `4.7% pop’
is notionally applied to the Muslim countries of Turkey and Iran
(subject to massive US interference), formerly Soviet-occupied
Central Asia and Afghanistan (subject to UK, Russian and thence US
intervention) then we can calculate a `saving’ of 29 million infant
lives since 1950.

Similar country-by-country quantitative analysis indicates major US
contribution (through interference, threat, militarization and war)
to the horrendous post-1950 under-5 infant mortality in East Asia
(notably in China, North Korea, South Korea and Mongolia), in South
East Asia (notably in Laos, Cambodia, Vietnam, Indonesia and East
Timor) and in Arab North Africa and the Middle East (notably in
Libya, Iraq and in Israel’s neighbours). The post-1950 under-5 infant
mortality in all of Israel’s immediate neighbours totals 16.6
million.

The British, in addition to their invasive contributions in South
America, Africa, Central Asia, East Asia, South East Asia, the
Pacific and the Middle East, left the South Asian subcontinent
crippled by colonialism and helped impose a further burden of
militarization, economic exclusion, debt and war. The total post-1950
under-5 infant mortality in South Asia has been 281.5 million.

Australia as a genocidal junior imperialist

Australia, having historically been involved in the decimation of the
indigenous populations of Australia, Tasmania, New Zealand and the
South Pacific, is proud of its 2 century record of military service
throughout the world for the British Empire `on which the sun never
set’. Since 1950 Australia has been militarily involved in UK and/or
US military adventures in Iraq, Afghanistan, Malaysia, Indonesia,
East Timor, Korea and Indo-China and hence complicit in the
horrendous infant mortalities in those countries.

The South Pacific is Australia’s `patch’ and the post-1950 under-5
infant mortality in the Pacific has been 1.1 million, with 0.9
million of this contributed by the former Australian colonial
possession of Papua New Guinea. The unilateral retention by Australia
of most of East Timor’s off-shore oil and gas reserves will ensure
continuing poverty and elevated infant mortality in that much-abused
country.

In 2004 the present Australian Government indicated that if deemed
necessary it would engage in pre-emptive strikes against neighbouring
countries and has refused to sign a Treaty of Amity and Cooperation
that bans such attacks and which is adhered to by the Association of
South East Asian Nations (ASEAN) and various East Asian powers.
Australia has certainly learned well from its big Anglo-American
cousins.

Boycotting the Anglo-American Coalition to end global mass
infanticide

Peace is the only sensible way forward. Indeed violent opposition to
the US has brought appalling civilian suffering. Thus the under-5
infant mortality in Iraq since 1991 and in Afghanistan since 2001
totals 2.1 million as compared to about 1100 US military deaths in
combat in those theatres – a death ratio of about 2000 Muslim infants
per US soldier. This arises because major Anglo-American casualties
are unacceptable in domestic politics and accordingly any target must
be bombed and shelled from a distance before occupation – but at the
cost of enormous civilian casualties. Thus Fallujah has been
`destroyed in order to liberate it’ with over 0.2 million of its
former citizens now refugees in their own land.

The world must apply sensible feedback to halt the carnage. The
military-industrial complexes of the US and the UK have benefited
enormously from massive global military expenditure that now totals
$800 billion per year (with half of this being that of the US alone).
The extra funding of the US military-industrial complex since 9/11
has been about $400 billion and it is evident that the endless `War
on Terror’ in response to jihadist atrocities (5000 Western deaths in
the last 20 years) will continue to be immensely profitable to the US
and UK war industries. Feedback through economic boycotts would seem
appropriate for stopping imperial wars fought for economic benefit.

The world can only respond sensibly to continuing Anglo-American
Coalition war crimes by exposure, condemnation, boycotts, sanctions,
legal actions and bans applied to Coalition countries – and by making
“ethical purchases” from and “ethical investments” in non-involved
countries such as China, France, and Germany. Already formal
complaints over Coalition war crimes in Iraq and Afghanistan have
been made to the International Criminal Court. The sheer magnitude of
the continuing Anglo-American crimes against the innocent must be
kept before the world – it is inconceivable that this mass
infanticide can continue unabated. Silence kills. Silence is
complicity. Inform everyone. Save the children.

The New York Sun
November 30, 2004 Tuesday

Off-Key Comparison

by Hillel Halkin

An American friend just sent me an e-mail containing an article that
appeared yesterday, in the November 29 British daily the Guardian.
Written by the Guardian’s Israel correspondent Chris McGreal, the
article deals with an incident that took place on November 9 and was
widely reported last week in the Israeli and international press. In
this incident, Israeli soldiers at a West Bank check post near Nablus
made a Palestinian violinist play his instrument in front of them
before giving him permission to pass.

Of all the recent revelations of the “routine dehumanizing treatment”
of Palestinians by the Israeli military, Mr. McGreal wrote, including
an Israeli officer’s “pumping the body of a 13-yearold girl with
bullets” in the Gaza Strip, “none so disturbed” Israelis as this one,
because of its associations with the Holocaust. As an example, the
Guardian cited the Hebrew writer Yoram Kaniuk, the author of a novel
about a Jewish violinist forced by the Nazis to play marches in
Auschwitz as Jews were taken to the gas chambers. Mr. Kaniuk was
quoted as saying:

“This story….negates the possibility of the existence of a Jewish
state. If the military does not put these soldiers on trial, we will
have no moral right to speak of ourselves as a state that rose from
the Holocaust.”

My concerned friend asked for my opinion.

It’s a bit complicated, my opinion. It’s actually several opinions.

There is no doubt that the phenomenon of Israeli soldiers brutalizing
and humiliating Palestinian civilians, let alone killing them without
justification, is shameful. What is even more shameful, as Mr.
McGreal rightly points out, is that in the vast majority of these
cases the perpetrators have either been lightly punished or have gone
scot-free Although, in the situation of extreme animosity that
currently exists between Israeli and Palestinian societies it is
impossible to avoid such incidents entirely, they could certainly be
decreased if the higher echelons of the Israeli army were determined
to prevent them. It is reprehensible that they do not seem to be.

At the same time, not every incident that is reported as a case of
brutality or humiliation is one, as we know from the infamous story
of Mohammed Durra, the Palestinian child whose supposed martyrdom at
the hands an Israeli sniper in the year 2000 turned him into an
international icon even after clear evidence showed that he was
killed by Palestinians. In itself, after all, there is nothing wrong
with Israel soldiers at a checkpoint asking a young Palestinian to
play his violin as a way of making sure it is not stuffed with
explosives. Palestinians have been caught in the past with explosives
in bags, in belts, in knapsacks, briefcases, in underwear, in what
appeared to be the pregnant stomachs of women. What makes a violin
above suspicion?

Nor, studying the photograph of the incident published in the Israeli
press, can one identify any would-be humiliators. Neither of the two
soldiers directly in front of the violinist, one talking on a cell
phone and the other checking documents, is even looking at him, much
less taking pleasure in the situation. Whoever it was who ordered the
young man to play his instrument certainly didn’t do it as a show for
their benefit.

Yet the facts of this specific case are perhaps beside the point. Are
Palestinians at Israeli checkpoints often treated badly? The answer
is yes. Should everything possible be done to stop this? Yes, again.
Are the checkpoints nevertheless necessary? Yes, once more. (They
have saved many Israeli lives, and Israelis will have to be excused
for thinking that a humiliated Palestinian is better than a dead
Israeli.) Is it legitimate to compare such incidents, or any other
aspect of the Israeli presence in the occupied territories, to the
Holocaust? Absolutely not. Under no conceivable circumstances.

Imagine, if you will, the following dispatch in The Guardian in 1943:

“As the German dehumanization of Eastern- 846 1078 919 1090European
Jews grows worse, a new height of sadism has been reached: Jewish
violinists have been forced to play their violins in front of jeering
German soldiers.”

Would that the Holocaust had been a matter of humiliated violinists.
Would that it had been a matter of humiliated Jews. Would that it had
been a matter of the occasional killing of innocent Jews by German
soldiers.

But of course, it was none of these things. It was the successfully
systematic murder of the Jewish people. Which is why, whenever
anyone, Jew or Gentile, Israeli author or English journalist,
compares Israeli actions in the occupied territories to those of the
Germans or their allies in the Holocaust, something vile and
intolerable has been done. The descendants of the victims of the
Holocaust have been turned into the perpetrators of another one.

In order to make such a comparison, one has to be either (1) totally
ignorant of what happened in the Holocaust; (2) totally ignorant of
what is happening in the occupied territories; (3) totally
indifferent, in one’s eagerness to bash Israel and Jews, to the
historical facts in either case. Compare Israeli actions, if you
will, to those of the French in Algeria. (The French were in reality
a hundred times worse.) Compare them, if you must, to those of the
Americans in Vietnam. (The Americans were incredibly more brutal.)
Compare them to anything you want – except the Holocaust.

This isn’t because the Holocaust isn’t comparable to other things. It
is. But it is comparable only to other mass exterminations: That of
the Armenians by the Turks in World War I, that of Cambodians by the
Khmer Rouge in the 1970s, that of Tutsis by Hutus in Rwanda in 1995.
It is not comparable, ever, to anything Israel has done or is doing
in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. Any such an analogy should
automatically be beyond the pale of acceptable human discourse.

That’s my opinion.
From: Baghdasarian

TURKEY’S ARMENIAN MUSEUM PROVES PEACEFUL COEXISTENCE – PREMIER

Anatolia news agency, Ankara
5 Dec 04

Istanbul, 5 December: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said
on Sunday (5 December) that those who saw the artefacts in the Surp
Pirgic Armenian Hospital Museum would see that everybody had been
coexisting in peace in Turkey.

Erdogan, who inaugurated the Yedikule Surp Pirgic Armenian Hospital
Museum, which was renovated by the Armenian Foundation, said that the
hospital was established by the Armenians upon the statement of Sultan
Mahmud II 172 years ago, and continued to serve patients since then.

“As the children of this country, we have coexisted in peace for
centuries. Our literature, architecture, humanitarian values, trade,
songs and cuisines have intermingled,” Erdogan said.

Erdogan said that he read statements of hospital’s executive board
chairman and deputy chairman Bedros Sirinoglu, who said that they were
faithful to Turkey and were living in prosperity with their 33
churches and 13 schools. They also asked why they should be minority
in a country of which they were a citizen.

“These statements are explaining not only Turkey but also the Armenian
citizens who are an indispensable part of us. Every artefact in this
museum clearly shows coexistence,” Erdogan stated.

Thanking the Armenian citizens for their contributions to Turkey,
Erdogan said: “Let’s see how the message given here will be reflected
to the world? We will continue developing humanitarian values in the
light of universal criteria. Long live our unity in these
territories’.”

Turkish prime minister attends opening of Armenian museum in Istanbul

.c The Associated Press

ISTANBUL, Turkey (AP) – Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan
officially opened an Armenian museum in Istanbul on Sunday and said he
was committed to protecting the rights of minority Armenians.

Erdogan joined Mesrob II, the Armenian Patriarch of Istanbul, and
other leaders of Turkey’s Armenian Christian minority of 65,000 for
the opening of the museum at the Yedikule Surp Pirgic Armenian
Hospital.

“Armenian citizens are an indispensable part of (Turkey). Every
artifact in this museum shows a past that was lived together,”
Erdogan said. “We are now protecting each other’s rights, aware of
our citizenship, and it will be like this forever.”

Most Armenians in this predominantly Muslim but secular country live
in Istanbul.

Turkey, which recognizes Armenians as an official minority, is under
pressure to improve rights for minorities as part of efforts to join
the European Union. Turkey hopes that EU leaders will agree to open
membership talks with it at a Dec. 17 summit.

Ties between Armenians and Turks have often been strained over the
mass killing of Armenians during and after World War I.

Armenians say that a 1915-1923 campaign to force Armenians out of
eastern Turkey left 1.5 million people dead and amounted to genocide.

Turkey objects to the use of the word “genocide.” Turkey says the
figures are inflated and that deaths were the result of civil unrest
and not a planned campaign.

The museum includes religious artifacts, antique medical equipment and
an Ottoman decree that established the hospital in 1832.

12/05/04 12:34 EST

Agence France Presse
5 décembre 2004 dimanche 1:13 PM GMT

Turquie/UE: reconnaître le génocide arménien avant d’entrer
(Devedjian)

PARIS 5 déc 2004

Le ministre délégué à l’Industrie Patrick Devedjian a affirmé
dimanche sur Radio J que pour adhérer à l’Union européenne, la
Turquie devait reconnaître sa responsabilité dans le génocide
arménien.

Une telle reconnaissance “fait partie de toutes les conditions
(requises pour entrer dans l’UE), y compris des critères de
Copenhague, c’est-à-dire de l’ensemble des critères qui font que l’on
est devenu un pays européen”, a jugé M. Devedjian.

“Etre capable de regarder son passé en face fait partie des moeurs
démocratiques”, a-t-il ajouté.

Le ministre a aussi soulevé la question chypriote, sachant qu’un
contingent militaire turc de 35.000 hommes occupe toujours la partie
nord de Chypre et qu’Ankara ne reconnaît pas le régime de Nicosie.

“Est-ce que la Turquie peut entrer dans l’Europe sans reconnaître un
des membres de l’Union européenne (…), avec une armée qui occupe
illégalement une partie du territoire de l’Union européenne ?”,
a-t-il demandé.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

PRESS RELEASE
AGBU Hye Geen Organization
2048 Erin Way
Glendale , CA 91206
Contact: Sona Yacoubian
Tel: (818)790-3023
E-mail: [email protected]

The launching of Sona Zeitlian’s newest publication “Contribution of
Armenians to the History of Medieval and Modern Egypt” took place on 1
December 2004 at the Glendale Central Public Library. The event was
sponsored by Tekeyan Cultural Association and AGBU “Hye Geen”.

The presentation of this unique study was made by Parsegh Kartalian, a
well known community leader. To begin with, he stressed that in the
history of the widespread Armenian diasporas, Egypt maintained a
prominent place until the middle of 20th century. In the medieval
period, he dwelt on the Armenian Veziers of 11th and 12th centuries
and their contribution to Egypt’s military, political and cultural
evolution. Summing up the legacy of this period, he mentioned the
establishment of the Armenian see that still functions today and the
contributions of Armenian architects and artisans whose works have
left an indelible mark on the evolution of muslim architecture.

He then focused on Modern Egypt, where Armenian statesmen have
contributed to the country’s politico-economic, legal and educational
evolution. In an atmosphere of religious tolerance and national
cohesion, such prominent figures as Boghos Bey Yusufian, Nubar Pasha
Nubarian, Dikran Pasha D’Abro, Ya’cub Artin Pasha Tcherakian, Boghos
Nubar Pasha Nubarian and many others have laid the foundations of the
state apparatus, public education, public transportation and the legal
framework based on secular principles. The speaker made an in depth
analysis of the contributions of these leading Armenian statesmen who
have also been pillars of their own community.

Then Sona Yacubian, president of AGBU “Hye Geen” introduced the
author, Sona Zeitlian. In her address, the author focused on the
pan-Armenian conception of Egypt’s Armenian community and the key role
it played in cementing diasporan relations and constant exchanges with
the Homeland. In fact, the community used its economic and
organizational clout as well as church unity to serve fellow Armenians
at a time of national crisis. The pan-Armenian conception was at the
heart of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) established in
Egypt in 1906. For almost a century this world wide organization has
adapted to serve the nation’s changing needs.

Sona Zeitlian’s work was highly appreciated by an enthusiastic
audience, mindful of the fact that the diasporan narrative was linked
with the enfolding Armenian history.

Sona Zeitlian’s book is available from HSZ Publications at
[email protected]

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress

FRANCE DONATES MILITARY MEDICAL EQUIPMENT OF $ 1 MILLION TO ARMENIA

YEREVAN, December 1 (Noyan Tapan). The French government donated
medical equipment worth about 1 million dollars to the Armenian armed
forces. France’s Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary to
Armenia Henri Cuny visited on December 1 Yerevan military hospital in
order to present the equipment. Ambassador Cuny noted that France
limited the cooperation with the South Caucasian countries in the
military sphere because of the remaining conflict situation in the
region. On the other hand, the three South Caucasian republics, with
which France has relations, should participate in the cooperation.

According to the ambassador, this is the explanation of the choice: to
donate the miltary medical equipment to the Armenian armed forces. He
underlined that the matter concerns quite a tangible rather than
symbolic donation since the total cost of the medical equipment is
about 1 million dollars. The RA Deputy Minister of Defence Artur
Aghabekian told journalists the ministry has developed a long-term
program to provide the army with medical items and equipment. The
program started in 2004 by the state budget resources and will
continue until 2007. According to him, all the equipment provided by
the French side is included in this program, and more modern equipment
will be purchased by the money envisaged for the equipment purchase.

The deputy minister stated that most of the medical equipment will be
sent to the military units’ first-aid posts, which are considered to
be important not only in terms of providing first aid to servicemen
but also because of prevention of diseases among the staff.

ROBERT KOCHARIAN: THE MORE SPECIFIC ARMENIAN-RUSSIAN COOPERATION
BECOMES, THE MORE NEW PROSPECTS OPEN

YEREVAN, December 4 (Noyan Tapan). Moscow mayor Yuri Luzhkov was
especially impressed by constructional changes in Yerevan that gave
the Armenian capital a livelier mood. He told the RA President Robert
Kocharian about this at the December 3 meeting. Robert Kocharian
expressed satisfaction with the Armenian-Russian cooperation’s results
that are becoming more and more tangible and noted that the more
specific this cooperation becomes, the more new prospects open.
According to the RA President’s Press Office, in particular the sides
discussed the possibility of increasing significantly export and
import volumes through operating a big Armenian wholesale trade center
to be built in Moscow which gets particularly long-term in the context
of the upcoming operating of the “Caucasus” ferry-boat complex. The RF
State Duma deputy, People’s Artist Iosif Kobzon was also among the
members of the delegation headed by Yuri Luzhkov. Robert Kocharian
presented him with the Saint Mesrop Mashtots order, which was
conferred upon Kobzon by the RA President’s decree on September 20 for
his significant contribution to the development of the Armenian-Russin
friendly relations, strengthening and development of cultural links
between the two countries, as well for his philanthropic activities.

From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress