First and before I start this I just want to say one word to all Arabs and Iraqis who are sympathizing with Iran:
Do not forget that Iran who are condemning Israel for occupying Palestine while they (the Iranians) are occupying an Arab land (Ahwaz) much bigger and richer than Palestine.
I didn’t gave what Ahmadinejad (Iran president) said about Israel much attention
Israel must be wiped off the map,
But what he said later was very interesting (see link):
Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury,
Why would he say something like this? Was accidentally or there is a hidden threat behind it?
I searched every newspaper looking for an explanation on the subject but couldn’t find any, at last an article on Elaph with a very good analysis explained it all.
This is the translation:
Let’s follow the events from the beginning:
1– Although GCC countries (Gulf States) did not liked Saddam but they wanted to see a strong Iraq keeps the power balance against Iran.
2– A strong Iraq do not exist any more, Iraq is wiped out from the map and divided into three states with a central government loyal to Iran and Iraq’s south region is virtually occupied by Iran, therefore there is no power balance in the region.
3– In addition, the Americans are supporting Iraq’s Shiia, which is by the definition will reinforced Iran’s status regionally and internationally.
This is a very difficult to understand, the US is fighting Iran politically meanwhile they are supporting Iran strategically.
4– The arrival of the new conservative government to Iran gives the impression that the next period will be a very difficult one in the region.
Some talks about GCC countries are purchasing weapons from USA, UK and France equal to $120 Billion and at least $80 Billion weapon deal between Saudi Arabia and UK is in its last stage.
Iran also retained a $100 billion to modernize their arms by shopping from Russia, China and some Eastern European States.
Rumors about some negotiations between Gulf States and Israel, Gulf States are trying to enticement Israel for a wide strike against Iran’s ballistic and nuclear arsenal in exchange of the GCC countries will recognize Israel immediately (after the strike), exchanging diplomatic relations and purchase Israeli weapon in the future.
So the real message from Iran to wipe off Israel from the map was a hidden message to the Gulf states, if Israel attacked Iran the GCC countries will be attacked by Iran.
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This is a good chance for UN to do something.
He either recants and apologizes to world community, or publicly redeclares his policy and accepts the consequences. He should not be let of the hook by his diplomats trying to tell the world: “well he really didn’t mean it…”
Let’s see if the UN is worth its square footage in NYC real estate value.
Interesting blog
That is just too hilarious.
Off Topic: Just got this by mail
عبدالكريم هاني
الناطق الرسمي باسم المؤتمر التأسيسي العراقي الوطني
What Antony Loewenstein said /“Israel is calling for Iran to be booted from the UN after its recent outrageous comments — though Israel’s actual behaviour, rather than rhetoric, requires more than condemnation”
Ali Kazak: Israel’s Membership in the UN is Illegal For Its Failure to Implement the Two Conditional Resolutions 184 and 192
WAFA, October 29, 2005, Canberra –
Palestinian Ambassador to Australia and the South Pacific Countries, Ali Kazak, said on Saturday that Israel’s membership in the UN is illegal because if its failure to implement the two conditional UN Resolutions 181 and 194. He said that in a speech he gave in the Tasmanian Parliament today, in the anniversary of the UN.
Kazak said that Israel’s membership in the UN in 1948 was conditional to its acceptance and implementation of the two UN resolution 181, known as Partition resolution, and resolution 194, which stated the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland as well as compensating them for the loss of their property.
Despite the fact that Israel had accepted the two resolutions and agreed to implement them in order to become a member of the UN, it has never implemented them.
Kazak said that Israel’s membership in the UN in 1948 was conditional to its acceptance and implementation of the two UN resolution 181, known as Partition resolution, and resolution 194, which stated the right of the Palestinian refugees to return to their homeland as well as compensating them for the loss of their property.
Well maybe we’ll get lucky and Mr. Kazak will tell us if in fact the UN recognized Israel as a country or not, and then he can tell the world when the Palestinian’s recognized the partition plan blah, blah, blah. Come on, Nadia.
Nadia, Why do you hate Jews? Is it for the same reasons Hitler did?
and why are you using the UN to justify your hate? Why aren’t you using the UN when it comes to Saddam and his violations?
Here is some great news from the religion of peace and love…aka Islam: Maybe we can understand a little better why Iran’s sand flea president wants to wipe out jews and christians…and who are the “new world nazis” ladybird?
Three Indonesian girls beheaded
Three girls have been beheaded and another badly injured as they walked to a Christian school in Indonesia.
Police say the heads were found some distance from the bodies.
It is unclear what was behind the attack, but the girls attended a private Christian school and one of the heads was left outside a church leading to speculation that it might have had a religious motive.
[ladybird] “In addition, the Americans are supporting Iraq’s Shiia, which is by the definition will reinforced Iran’s status regionally and internationally.
Ladybird, to me all that can mean is that the US is contemplating the demolition of either the Iranian government or Iran as a country in the near future. Given the neocon’s policies towards Iran (ie– Iranians are actually Americans in drag, waiting to be liberated from their evil government) this is virtually guaranteed.
On the other hand, Iran already possesses considerable stocks of NBC weaponry. If Israel hits it, Iran will be able to hit back in the conventional sense. Israel will then be constrained in choosing the nuclear option by the prospect of a mass NBC attack against it. VERY tricky situation.
*Time for a pretty much unrelated quote I think…*
___
“Four sorrows … are certain to be visited on the United States.
Their cumulative effect guarantees that the U.S. will cease to resemble the country outlined in the Constitution of 1787.
First, there will be a state of perpetual war, leading to more terrorism against Americans wherever they may be and a spreading reliance on nuclear weapons among smaller nations as they try to ward off the imperial juggernaut.
Second is a loss of democracy and Constitutional rights as the presidency eclipses Congress and is itself transformed from a co-equal ‘executive branch’ of government into a military junta.
Third is the replacement of truth by propaganda, disinformation, and the glorification of war, power, and the military legions.
Lastly, there is bankruptcy, as the United States pours its economic resources into ever more grandiose military projects and shortchanges the education, health, and safety of its citizens.“
–Chalmers Johnson, Sorrows of Empire
JOIN CONDEMNATION OF IRANIAN PRESIDENT — ACTION: WRITE & CALL NOW
October 28, 2005
See below for Iranian and Worldwide Diplomats’ Contact Information.
StandWithUs CONDEMNS IRANIAN PRESIDENTS CALL TO DESTROY ISRAEL
October 28, 2005
StandWithUs also praised the U.S. House of Representatives as it prepares a bipartisan condemnation of the Iranian president’s comments.
Based in Los Angeles with offices in New York and Jerusalem, StandWithUs is an international, non-profit Israel advocacy and education organization which creates pro-Israel brochures and hosts speakers at universities, libraries, high schools, churches and communities. This fall, StandWithUs premiered its first documentary Tolerating Intolerance: Hate Speech on Campuses, about toxic, anti-Israel speakers at U.S. colleges.
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WRITE AND CALL IRANIAN DIPLOMATS — contact information here
Information taken from Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs Website
THE TITLE OF DIPLOMATIC OFFICE:INTERESTS SECTION
THE HEAD OF DIPLOMATIC OFFICE :MR.FARIBORZ JAHANSOOZAN(PRINCIPAL OF OFFICE )
THE ESTABLISHMENT DATE OF DIPLOMATIC OFFICE:1876
ADDRESS :EMBASSY OF THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF PAKISTAN, 2209 WISCONSIN AVE.N.W.WASH.D.C.20007 U.S.A
TEL :202.965.4990
FAX :202.337.7984
HOME PAGE :WWW.DAFTAR.ORG
EMAIL :YAALIALI@AOL.COM
UNITED NATION(PERMANENT DELEGACY-NEW YORK)
THE TITLE OF DIPLOMATIC OFFICE:IRAN’S PERMANENT DEPUTY TO THE UNITED NATIONS OFFICE IN NEW YORK
THE HEAD OF Iran’s Interests Section :MR.MOUHAMMAD JAVAD ZARIF(PERMANENT)
THE ESTABLISHMENT DATE OF DIPLOMATIC OFFICE :1947
ADDRESS :622,3 AVE.34TH FLOOR
NEW YORK N.Y.10017 U.S.A
P.O.BOX :20432
TEL :212.687.2020
FAX :212.867.7086
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WRITE TO WORLDWIDE REPRESENTATIVES –encourage condemnation NOW
Encourage representatives of the worldwide community to condemn the dangerous, hateful speech made by Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad–calling for the destruction of Israel. CALL– FAX — CHOOSE AT LEAST 5–10 countries.…
PLEASE HELP… IF NOT NOW then WHEN??
AFGHANISTAN (Career)
The Honorable Atiqullah Atifmal
Consul General of Afghanistan
11040 Santa Monica Boulevard, Suite 300
Los Angeles, California 90025
(310) 473‑6583 FAX (310) 473‑6775
e-mail: afghanconsulate@hotmail.com
ARGENTINA (Career)
as of 08/01/05 pending recognition by the U.S. Dept. of State
The Honorable Jorge T. Lapsenson Consul General of Argentina
5055 Wilshire Boulevard, 2nd Floor
Los Angeles, California 90036
(323) 954‑9155 FAX (323) 934‑9076
e-mail: consuladola@hotmail.com
http://www.consuladoargentino-losangeles.org
Full List Here …
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TEHERAN, IRAN: President calling for ISRAEL TO BE WIPED OFF MAP
By Behrouz Mehri — USA Today:
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran’s hard-line president called for Israel to be “wiped off the map” and said a new wave of Palestinian attacks will destroy the Jewish state, state-run media reported Wednesday.
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad also denounced attempts to recognize Israel or normalize relations with it.
“There is no doubt that the new wave (of attacks) in Palestine will wipe off this stigma (Israel) from the face of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad told students Wednesday during a Tehran conference called “The World without Zionism.”
“Anybody who recognizes Israel will burn in the fire of the Islamic nation’s fury, (while) any (Islamic leader) who recognizes the Zionist regime means he is acknowledging the surrender and defeat of the Islamic world,” Ahmadinejad said.
Read On …
StandWithUs
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email: info@standwithus.com
phone: 310–836-6140
web: http://www.standwithus.com
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Quotes on Jews
The Hebrews have done more to civilize men than any other nation. If I were an atheist, and believed blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations.
– John Adams
There is no greater compliment to the Jews than the fact that the degree of their unpopularity is always the scientific measure of the cruelty and silliness of the regime under which they live.
Sinclair Lewis
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ZENIT
INTERNATIONAL NEWS AGENCY
http://www.zenit.org/english
Date : 26.10.2005
NEW YORK, OCT. 26, 2005 (Zenit.org).- A Jewish leader considers the Second Vatican Council’s declaration “Nostra Aetate” of 40 years ago a landmark that completely redefined relations between Catholics and Jews.
Baruch Tenembaum, president and founder of the International Raoul Wallenberg Foundation, recalled the importance, in this connection, of the election of Cardinal Angelo Roncalli to the papacy in 1958.
“With the advent of the Good Pope on the throne of Peter an extraordinary revolution began within the Catholic Church, promoted from the word and action of the Second Vatican Council, a historic landmark that completely redefined the relationship between the Church and Judaism,” the Argentina-born Tenembaum told ZENIT.
Pope John XXIII convoked the council that on Oct. 28, 1965, would publish that declaration on the relations of the Church with non-Christian religions.
“This point of change in the history of Judeo-Catholic relations was not a chance result or political opportunism,” Tenembaum said. “It was the testimony that confirmed a new attitude toward the Jewish people, a real transformation originating in the sentiments and profound sense of reconciliation of John XXIII.”
As a result, in 2000 Tenembaum established the Angelo Roncalli Committee for recognition of the humanitarian action shown by the papal nuncio Archbishop Roncalli in favor of people persecuted by the Nazi regime.
Roncalli’s risks
He said that, according to research reports carried out by this committee, “Angelo Roncalli risked his position and security by providing thousands of Turkish visas, ‘temporary’ baptismal certificates, and immigration certificates, authorizing the entry to Palestine of Hungarian Jews persecuted by the Nazis.”
“According to testimonies given at the Nuremberg trials, his interventions helped to save tens of thousands of people,” Tenembaum continued. “Catholic sources point out that about 80,000 certificates were issued. Roncalli was also involved in the fate of Jews of France, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy.
“Monsignor Roncalli not only acted directly to save thousands of men, women and children condemned to extermination, but he was also a tireless person who, during the war, denounced before the Vatican and Allied nations the genocide carried out by the Nazis.
“The tenacity and determined commitment of Monsignor Roncalli with those who were suffering, his broad judgment and prophetic vision, explain the coherence of his life and work. Humanity still has much to learn from his wonderful apostolate.”
With the presence of Cardinal Angelo Sodano, Vatican secretary of state, the Roncalli Committee paid homage to the memory of John XXIII on Sept. 7, 2000, in the Holy See’s mission to the United Nations. The launching of the Angelo Roncalli International Committee was announced on that occasion.
In 2001, the Wallenberg Foundation published research documenting the works carried out by Archbishop Roncalli, as apostolic delegate in Istanbul, for those persecuted during the Holocaust.
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Israel welcomes Quartet’s statement
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herb keinon and nathan guttman, THE JERUSALEM POST October 30, 2005
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Israel welcomed a statement issued by the Quartet on Friday calling on Syria to close the offices of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad in Damascus, saying this gives key international backing to Israel’s oft-repeated claims that Damascus harbors Palestinian terrorist organizations.
“We have been saying for years the Syrians should close down the offices of Islamic Jihad in Damascus, and the Syrians have always said that these are just information offices or have been closed down, and that this is all just Israeli propaganda,” said Foreign Ministry spokesman Mark Regev, who characterized the Quartet statement as “very important.”
Regev said this was the first time the international community has recognized that Palestinian terrorist groups are operating out of Damascus.
“The minute the international community issues a statement like this, it is no longer Jerusalem against Damascus, but now the whole world is involved,” Regev said.
The Quartet is a diplomatic entity made up of the US, Russia, the European Union and the UN. The statement followed a conference call that included US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana.
The Quartet statement came in response to the terrorist attack Wednesday in Hadera, for which Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility.
“The Quartet urges the Syrian government to take immediate action to close the offices of Palestinian Islamic Jihad and to prevent the use of its territory by armed groups engaged in terrorist acts,” the joint statement read.
At the same time, the Quartet also urged all sides to exercise restraint in order to avoid further escalation in the situation, saying in its statement that “the Quartet believes it is imperative that all involved act decisively to ensure that terror and violence are not allowed to undermine further progress in accordance with the road map.”
Trying to fend off the latest international charge over its alleged ties to Palestinian terrorists, an unidentified Syrian Foreign Ministry official said yesterday that Islamic Jihad’s military activities were planned from the Palestinian territories and that the Damascus offices of the group were closed long ago, according to comments carried by Syria’s state-run news agency.
Dinah A. Spritzer
Neo-Nazis rally on Oct. 28 in front of the German embassy in Prague to protest Germany´s incarceration of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel.
Counterprotesters in Prague
shout down a neo-Nazi rally
By: Dinah A. Spritzer
PRAGUE, Oct. 30 (JTA) — Holidays in the Czech Republic are a time for getting away to the country with the family.
But 150 Prague residents, including many well-known Czech personalities, sacrificed last Friday, Czechoslovak Independence Day, to rally against a neo-Nazi demonstration.
Some 60 neo-Nazis gathered in front of the German Embassy to protest the incarceration in Germany of Holocaust denier Ernst Zundel, deported from Canada to his native Germany in March and charged with inciting hatred by sending materials over the Internet.
Before they assembled, a crowd, barricaded by police for their own protection, had already assembled to prevent the neo-Nazis from being heard.
Ludmila Hellerova, 77, a Holocaust survivor who was carrying an Israeli flag, walked into the neo-Nazi throng, saying neo-Nazism leads to Nazism and Nazism leads to the Holocaust.
The young people turned their backs to Hellerova and shouted at her to shut up.
There was unprecedented media coverage discussing the planned neo-Nazi demonstration on all three national television stations and in the leading daily newspapers, which carried editorials denouncing what they called the misuse of freedom-of-speech advocacy.
The neo-Nazis have gatherings on Czech national holidays at least twice a year, but only once before have they tried to express a specific political message. In 2003 they sought to march through Prague’s Jewish Quarter to protest what they called the Israeli Holocaust against the Palestinians, but Prague authorities steered them into a another part of town.
Following a dramatic increase in the number of neo-Nazi concerts in the Czech Republic this year, the police have faced harsh criticism from politicians and even the foreign minister for failing to prevent the gatherings or make arrests. The rally was led by the National Resistance, the country’s most visible neo-Nazi organization.
In response to a letter by the Federation of Jewish Communities stating that the neo-Nazis should not be allowed to demonstrate, Prague city officials said they could not prevent the neo-Nazis from gathering, but the police, who were out in force, did make two arrests.
Asked repeatedly by JTA if he thought the Holocaust had not occurred, he refused to answer.
Meanwhile, there was some debate among counterprotesters who were concerned about free speech and asked whether it was wise for the counterprotesters to continually shout down the neo-Nazis, who unsuccessfully tried to make their speeches heard through the din of whistling and shouting. Their pamphlet argued that Zundel’s incarceration without trial was counter to Europe’s commitment to human rights.
In contrast, an Auschwitz survivor, 84-year-old Jan Fischer, told JTA during the counterprotest that no one has the right to promulgate a lie.
BP Images
An Israeli security officer looks at covered bodies amid the damage at the Hadera market, the site of a Palestinian suicide attack on Oct. 26 that killed five Israelis.
Israeli Arab, retired factory worker
among those killed in suicide blast
By: Dina Kraft
HADERA, Israel, Oct. 27 (JTA) — Surrounded by scattered apples and onions, the blue-and-white checkered blanket covered most of the body lying on the pavement. But it was not quite long enough to cover the body’s feet.
The body belonged to one of the five victims murdered by a suicide bomber’s explosives in the Hadera market on Wednesday — among them an Israeli Arab who taught Hebrew in nearby schools and a retired factory worker who was watching his friend’s vegetable shop.
The bomber detonated himself on a street lined with towering eucalyptus trees in front of one of Hadera’s oldest and most popular falafel stands, Falafel Barzilai. After the bombing, the awning over the stand was left burned to shreds, and parsley and green onions spilled out from upturned plastic crates.
The bomber was identified as Hassan Abu Zayd, 20. He was reportedly freed from Israeli prison recently as part of a prisoner release because he had not killed any Israelis.
Islamic Jihad claimed responsibility for the attack, saying it came in retaliation for Israel’s killing of one of the group’s leaders, Luay Saadi, on Sunday in the West Bank.
Near the scene of the bombing, locals gathered to get a closer look. Some were yeshiva students, others were parents with young children. Among them was Yigal Cohen, 43, whose father’s vegetable stand stood next door to the falafel stand. His father had left shortly before the bombing to attend the memorial service for his own father at a nearby cemetery. The father’s friend, Ya’akov Rahmani, 68, had agreed to watch the stand. He was killed in the blast.
Cohen stood behind the police tape and looked at the destruction, his eyes wide and unbelieving.
Mimi Shosha, a 56-year-old secretary, surveyed the smoldering market, shattered glass covering its sidewalks.
As she spoke, forensic workers in white jumpsuits picked through spilled vegetables and debris, collecting evidence. Swarms of police and border police blocked off the area. Slowly the bodies were placed in plastic white bags and quietly hoisted onto ambulances.
The five dead included Jamil Ka’adan, 48, of the Arab town of Baka Al-Gharbiye. The father of five taught Hebrew. He was at the market Wednesday after deciding to go to the bank before heading home.
Sabiha Nisim, 66, from Moshav Ahitov, retired recently and was in the market to get a falafel when the bomb went off, killing her. Her husband, Aharon, reportedly hugged her body and would not leave the market until he was taken away by emergency workers. Nisim was the mother of six children and had eight grandchildren.
One of the dead in Hadera, a city with a large population of immigrants from the former Soviet Union, was Mikhail Koifman, 68, who immigrated to Israel in 1993 from Uzbekistan. He is survived by his wife, two children and grandchildren.
Pirhia Mahlouf, 53, a bank employee was also killed in the bombing. She had been in the market to shop for a meal for her two daughters who were about to begin college.
AROUND THE JEWISH WORLD
Sixty years late, Slovak officials
apologize for anti-Semitic pogrom
By: Dinah Spritzer
TOPOLCANY, Slovakia, Oct. 30 (JTA) — Officials in a Slovak town have apologized to local Jews for a pogrom in September 1945, shortly after the end of World War II.
Topolcany today has a population of approximately 15,000. Some 3,000 Jews lived there before the war. About 10 percent survived the Holocaust and returned from concentration camps, only to face the anti-Semitic wrath of their neighbors, witnesses recalled.
Jan Emila, Topolcany’s deputy mayor, said it was hard to find proper words for the apology. Some councilors said they should wait for a comment from the Institute of National Memory.
Alexander noted that the apology had been in the works for some time, thanks to pressure from the federation.
Israeli historian Robert Buchler said the riot against Topolcany Jews on Sept. 24, 1945, was provoked by a rumor that a Jewish doctor was injecting children with a poisonous serum. During the pogrom, 48 people were seriously injured, according to the federation.
During World War II, Slovakia was a puppet fascist state that cooperated with Nazi Germany. The regime paid Germany 500 German marks for each Jew deprived of Slovak citizenship and deported to concentration camps. Some 70,000 Slovak Jews were sent to extermination camps, where most of them perished.
Another survivor of the pogrom, Dr. Jaroslav Gerhart, blamed it on the statements and positions of Slovak politicians, including priest Jozef Tiso, president of the wartime government.
The issue remains controversial, even today.
Less than a year ago, the Slovak public TV company broadcast a documentary about the pogrom, but the film, which documented the hatred against Topolcany’s Jewish population, caused unintended controversy.
The station director halted the screening shortly before the scheduled broadcast because of extreme anti-Semitic statements made by one resident in the film. The station director said airing the program could violate laws against racial and national defamation.
Critics, including Jewish groups, argued that the program needed to be seen so that an open debate about current anti-Semitism could be held in Slovakia. Following protests, the film was broadcast.
ARTS & CULTURE
As a bevy of new films shows,
Holocaust still on the German mind
By Tom Tugend
LOS ANGELES, Oct. 30 (JTA) — Sixty-seven years ago, on Nov. 9, 1938, Nazi-organized mobs burned and looted thousands of German synagogues and Jewish stores during Kristallnacht, the opening salvo of the Holocaust.
How are the grandchildren of the perpetrators dealing with this legacy? Four new German movies show that far from forgetting its nation’s past, today’s generation is still wrestling with it, at times obsessively.
Joseph Goebbels was the brilliant propaganda minister — Reich liar-general — of the Nazi regime, and he kept voluminous diaries throughout his life.
What the film does is to let Goebbels speak for 107 minutes, via the English narration of actor-director Kenneth Branagh, while illustrating the words with appropriate news clips.
Goebbels was a man of unprepossessing appearance — small, sallow-faced and born with a clubfoot.
While to the outside, the Nazi leadership presented a solid front, united in devotion to Hitler, the diaries present a picture of bitter rivalries and palace intrigues.
The documentary reveals Goebbels, through his own words, as vain, ambitious and a womanizer who deluded his people until the final moment through his total and skillful control of the country’s propaganda apparatus.
In the end, he proved his loyalty to Hitler by having his wife, Magda, poison their five children in Hitler’s bunker, and then carrying out a mutual death pact with his wife.
Graduation from a napola guaranteed a bright future career and this prospect lures 16-year-old Friedrich. Though he comes from a Communist-leaning working class family, Friedrich looks the ideal Aryan type and is a promising boxer.
He fits right in until he befriends Albrecht, who, as an unatheletic sensitive book reader, is obviously out of place. Albrecht is there because his father, the regional Nazi governor, has the pull to force his son into the elite school.
But when Albrecht protests the massacre of unarmed Soviet prisoners of war in the nearby woods, the story turns tragic. Friedrich stands up for his disgraced friend and is expelled.
Director Dennis Gansel, only 31, said in a phone interview that he made the powerful film of youthful friendship and rebellion to appeal to today’s German teenagers.
Gansel got an inside picture of life in a napola through his grandfather, who served as an instructor at an institute.
Scholl, a belated heroine in postwar Germany, was a 21-year-old university student in Munich, who with her brother and some friends, organized the resistance group called The White Rose.
In 1943, while surreptitiously stashing anti-Nazi leaflets at the university, she was caught, put through a show trial, and beheaded by a guillotine.
The film is carried by the shattering performance of Julia Jentsch as Sophie, who stands up under Gestapo interrogation and chooses death rather than recant her beliefs.
This is a film that gets its laughs and warmth by showing what happens when a completely secular and assimilated Jew has to host a fervently Orthodox Jew.
His fortunes look up when he hears that his mother has died, leaving a sizeable estate. The catch is that as a condition of the inheritance he must reconcile with his long-estranged brother Samuel, a fervently Orthodox real estate tycoon from Frankfurt.
When Samuel announces that he is coming with his family to Berlin to sit shiva at Jaeckie’s house, the gambler and his gentile wife panic. They take an instant crash course in Judaism and load up on mezuzahs, menorahs and kosher food.
The encounter between the disparate brothers is good for just about every joke on the themes of Communist vs. capitalist, East vs. West Germany, and religious vs. agnostic Jew — with Chasid vs. lesbian and mama’s boy vs. sex bomb thrown in for good measure.
@Bruno
Or maybe just perhaps the US is trying to support its stated policy of promoting democracy in Iraq? Eh? Iraq has a shia majority so obviously they will be heavily represented in a democracy.
You have a very limited imagination.
Yup = ots all about the evil jews…
Sure Bruno — the US just DOMINATES the south. Just look at all of our puppets in power.
An anti-US wet dream to be sure. Go clean your sheets.
Nor would it be tenable after a stable democratic Iraq told the US to leave.
As I said, go change your sheets.