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Wednesday, July 4, 2012
Wednesday, June 27, 2012
All European Life Died in Auschwitz
By Sebastian Vilar
The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe – and possibly to the rest of the world.
REMEMBER AS YOU READ — IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz … We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.
Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe ..
The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don’t hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants. There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church or a Temple. There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people.
The Jews don’t traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.
Perhaps the world’s Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.
Muslims must ask ‘what can they do for humankind’ before they demand that humankind respects them.
The following is a copy of an article written by Spanish writer Sebastian Vilar Rodriguez and published in a Spanish newspaper on Jan. 15, 2008. It doesn’t take much imagination to extrapolate the message to the rest of Europe – and possibly to the rest of the world.
REMEMBER AS YOU READ — IT WAS IN A SPANISH PAPER
I walked down the street in Barcelona , and suddenly discovered a terrible truth – Europe died in Auschwitz … We killed six million Jews and replaced them with 20 million Muslims. In Auschwitz we burned a culture, thought, creativity, talent. We destroyed the chosen people, truly chosen, because they produced great and wonderful people who changed the world.
The contribution of this people is felt in all areas of life: science, art, international trade, and above all, as the conscience of the world. These are the people we burned.
And under the pretense of tolerance, and because we wanted to prove to ourselves that we were cured of the disease of racism, we opened our gates to 20 million Muslims, who brought us stupidity and ignorance, religious extremism and lack of tolerance, crime and poverty, due to an unwillingness to work and support their families with pride.
They have blown up our trains and turned our beautiful Spanish cities into the third world, drowning in filth and crime.
Shut up in the apartments they receive free from the government, they plan the murder and destruction of their naive hosts.
And thus, in our misery, we have exchanged culture for fanatical hatred, creative skill for destructive skill, intelligence for backwardness and superstition.
We have exchanged the pursuit of peace of the Jews of Europe and their talent for a better future for their children, their determined clinging to life because life is holy, for those who pursue death, for people consumed by the desire for death for themselves and others, for our children and theirs.
What a terrible mistake was made by miserable Europe ..
The Jews are NOT promoting brain washing children in military training camps, teaching them how to blow themselves up and cause maximum deaths of Jews and other non Muslims. The Jews don’t hijack planes, nor kill athletes at the Olympics, or blow themselves up in German restaurants. There is NOT one single Jew who has destroyed a church or a Temple. There is NOT a single Jew who protests by killing people.
The Jews don’t traffic slaves, nor have leaders calling for Jihad and death to all the Infidels.
Perhaps the world’s Muslims should consider investing more in standard education and less in blaming the Jews for all their problems.
Muslims must ask ‘what can they do for humankind’ before they demand that humankind respects them.
Monday, June 18, 2012
Muslim Arab Anti-Semitism
Why it makes peace very difficult – almost impossible?
Anti-Semitism has often and rightfully been called the longest hatred, the oldest prejudice. It has plagued Europe for a very long time and has, over the centuries, brought untold suffering to the Jewish people. Its most deadly expression was the Nazi Holocaust, which caused the death of 6 million Jews and extinguished ancient civilizations in much of Europe. So terrible, so evil were those events that anti-Semitism was shunned and repudiated by the civilized world.
What are the facts?
Anti-Semitism is integral to Muslim culture. But while anti-Semitism has indeed been shunned by the civilized world, things are quite different in the Muslim/Arab world because anti-Semitism is an integral part of their religion and culture. The Muslim countries are the only places in the world in which anti-Semitism is publicly endorsed and where it flourishes. The Koran abounds in anti-Semitic statements. An expression of that hatred toward Jews is imbued in Muslim children from an early age. It is the fate of Jews in Muslim lands. For centuries they were tolerated, but only in the submissive capacity of "dhimmis" – second class citizens. They were subjected to countless humiliations, bizarre rules of conduct and clothing and in many cases to assaults and pogroms. When the state of Israel was founded in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Muslim lands had to flee for their lives or were driven from their homes, where they had lived, in most cases, for centuries. When Israel emerged victorious from the 1967 Six-Day War, virtually all of the remaining Jews were expelled – from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. In those countries, virtually no Jews remain today. The vast majority of them wound up in Israel where they and their descendants form a large part of the population and are fully integrated, of course. Compare that to the Palestinian refugees, who, mostly at the urging of their leaders, fled the nascent Jewish state in 1948. Their descendants, who have now miraculously increased to 5 million, still live today in miserable refugee camps, at the dole of the world – mostly of the United States, of course.
Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, which is prohibited in Germany, is, in Arab and Farsi translations, a perennial best seller in Muslim countries. So is the fraudulent invention The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Muslim world is the only place in which those scurrilous books are readily available. A recent Egyptian television series of 41 installments, based on the "Protocols," was a huge success in the Muslim world.
Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is a favorite topic in the Muslim world. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (a reputed "moderate") wrote his doctoral thesis with this title: "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement." In some regards, Arab Jew-haters are even worse than their infamous predecessors. For all their terrible deeds, the Nazis never lionized their killers, named streets or buildings after them or encouraged their children to emulate them. That is, however, standard practice in the Muslim world. To kill Jews, to become a martyr, is the highest goal and promises immediate access to a paradise of unbelievable pleasures.
Many people believe that the existence of the state of Israel is the cause of this hatred and that Muslim anti-Semitism would disappear if the Jewish state would disappear. But that is not true. As former "refusenik" and Jewish Agency Chairman, Natan Sharansky, has said: "The Jewish state is no more the cause of anti-Semitism today than the absence of the Jewish state was a century ago."
Hatred of Jews is an integral part of Arab/Muslim culture and did not come about with the creation of the Jewish state. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, at that time the highest Islamic authority in that part of the world, was a staunch and steadfast ally of the Nazis, a trusted accomplice of Hitler. He personally raised SS Waffen troops among the Bosnian Muslims and promised the Nazis that he would fully cooperate with them in the extermination of the Jews in the Middle East. That was in the 1930's – 20 years before the creation of Israel. One shudders to imagine what the Arabs would have done to the Jewish residents of the area if the Nazis had come out victorious in World War II.
Israel has tried for over 60 years to come to terms with its Arab-Muslim neighbors. But it is difficult to make peace with those who think of them as sons of pigs and apes. In the words of Hezbollah's secretary general, Hasan Nasrallah, who declared: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak or feeble… we would not find anyone like the Jew." How can one make peace with such people, with hatred like that?
This ad has been published and paid for by Flame - Facts and Logic About the Middle East
Anti-Semitism has often and rightfully been called the longest hatred, the oldest prejudice. It has plagued Europe for a very long time and has, over the centuries, brought untold suffering to the Jewish people. Its most deadly expression was the Nazi Holocaust, which caused the death of 6 million Jews and extinguished ancient civilizations in much of Europe. So terrible, so evil were those events that anti-Semitism was shunned and repudiated by the civilized world.
What are the facts?
Anti-Semitism is integral to Muslim culture. But while anti-Semitism has indeed been shunned by the civilized world, things are quite different in the Muslim/Arab world because anti-Semitism is an integral part of their religion and culture. The Muslim countries are the only places in the world in which anti-Semitism is publicly endorsed and where it flourishes. The Koran abounds in anti-Semitic statements. An expression of that hatred toward Jews is imbued in Muslim children from an early age. It is the fate of Jews in Muslim lands. For centuries they were tolerated, but only in the submissive capacity of "dhimmis" – second class citizens. They were subjected to countless humiliations, bizarre rules of conduct and clothing and in many cases to assaults and pogroms. When the state of Israel was founded in 1948, hundreds of thousands of Jews in Muslim lands had to flee for their lives or were driven from their homes, where they had lived, in most cases, for centuries. When Israel emerged victorious from the 1967 Six-Day War, virtually all of the remaining Jews were expelled – from Iraq, Yemen, Syria, Egypt, Libya, Algeria and Morocco. In those countries, virtually no Jews remain today. The vast majority of them wound up in Israel where they and their descendants form a large part of the population and are fully integrated, of course. Compare that to the Palestinian refugees, who, mostly at the urging of their leaders, fled the nascent Jewish state in 1948. Their descendants, who have now miraculously increased to 5 million, still live today in miserable refugee camps, at the dole of the world – mostly of the United States, of course.
Adolf Hitler's book Mein Kampf, which is prohibited in Germany, is, in Arab and Farsi translations, a perennial best seller in Muslim countries. So is the fraudulent invention The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. The Muslim world is the only place in which those scurrilous books are readily available. A recent Egyptian television series of 41 installments, based on the "Protocols," was a huge success in the Muslim world.
Holocaust denial. Holocaust denial is a favorite topic in the Muslim world. The president of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas (a reputed "moderate") wrote his doctoral thesis with this title: "The Other Side: The Secret Relationship Between Nazism and the Zionist Movement." In some regards, Arab Jew-haters are even worse than their infamous predecessors. For all their terrible deeds, the Nazis never lionized their killers, named streets or buildings after them or encouraged their children to emulate them. That is, however, standard practice in the Muslim world. To kill Jews, to become a martyr, is the highest goal and promises immediate access to a paradise of unbelievable pleasures.
Many people believe that the existence of the state of Israel is the cause of this hatred and that Muslim anti-Semitism would disappear if the Jewish state would disappear. But that is not true. As former "refusenik" and Jewish Agency Chairman, Natan Sharansky, has said: "The Jewish state is no more the cause of anti-Semitism today than the absence of the Jewish state was a century ago."
Hatred of Jews is an integral part of Arab/Muslim culture and did not come about with the creation of the Jewish state. The Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Haj Amin al-Husseini, at that time the highest Islamic authority in that part of the world, was a staunch and steadfast ally of the Nazis, a trusted accomplice of Hitler. He personally raised SS Waffen troops among the Bosnian Muslims and promised the Nazis that he would fully cooperate with them in the extermination of the Jews in the Middle East. That was in the 1930's – 20 years before the creation of Israel. One shudders to imagine what the Arabs would have done to the Jewish residents of the area if the Nazis had come out victorious in World War II.
Israel has tried for over 60 years to come to terms with its Arab-Muslim neighbors. But it is difficult to make peace with those who think of them as sons of pigs and apes. In the words of Hezbollah's secretary general, Hasan Nasrallah, who declared: "If we searched the entire world for a person more cowardly, despicable, weak or feeble… we would not find anyone like the Jew." How can one make peace with such people, with hatred like that?
This ad has been published and paid for by Flame - Facts and Logic About the Middle East
Tuesday, June 12, 2012
Pakistani Muslim: How Do I Leave Islam?
by Ali Sina
A Pakistani Muslim wrote the following letter to Ali Sina:
Hello dear Sir
I belong to Pakistan. My real name is B---. I have been reading your web site regularly for the last 2 months, and it really has prompted some huge questions in my mind. I want to convert my religion, but I don't know how to do it. It is also a great matter of security. I cannot do it at least in Pakistan, because as you know I can get killed very easily. I cannot even discuss it with some body, because I fear a very horrifying death. Please help me and please reply me ASAP. I am eagerly waiting for your reply.
Thanking in advance.
Dear B.
I am glad that you saw the truth. You do not have to do anything to leave Islam. You have already left it. There is nothing else to do. There is no need to make any public announcements. There are no baptisms or initiation rituals to perform. Once you stop believing in the lies of Muhammad, you are no longer a Muslim and a slave but a free man.
Keep your thoughts to yourself and do not speak to anyone about them, including your family and your trusted friends. Unfortunately religion is a very potent drug and can make good people do horrible things with clear conscience and cheerfully. The very people you trust can turn against you.
Reduce your visits to the mosque gradually and eventually stop going. Do not make any donations to the mosque because your money is going to fund terrorism and jihad. If you can’t keep your secret in your chest, join our forum, meet other ex-Muslims and share your thoughts anonymously. That is why we have the forum, for people like you and I to exchange ideas and don’t feel left out and lonely. We are actually growing fast. At this moment, more people are leaving Islam than joining it. However, those who leave it do so silently and those who join it do it with clarions and drums. You can also use the Internet to let other Muslims learn the truth.
There is no need for you to put your life in danger. We have no use for you when you are dead. You are worth to us only if you remain safe and sound. Unlike the psychopath Muhammad who demanded others to sacrifice their lives for him to prove their loyalty while he himself remained clear of all dangers, we do not expect you to put your life in peril. On the contrary, we want you to be tactful and protect your life.
Good people are leaving Islam everywhere. They are not making any public announcements and there is no need for that either. If they live in the West, it is perhaps not a bad idea that they make their rejection of Islam known. However if they live in an Islamic country and this could jeopardize their lives, it is better that they keep this a secret. In this way the foundation of Islam is weakened. There will come a day, and that day is not too far that this entire edifice of lies will fall. We will see the end of Islam with our own eyes. Islamic countries, one after another, will denounce Islam, and convert their mosques into useful places such as libraries, housing projects, etc.
Now that you have left Islam, your next task is to excel in whatever you do. Go after science and true knowledge, educate yourself and build a career. Prosper, enjoy life and let others benefit from your existence.
Wish you the best
Ali Sina
Ali Sina is the Editor of Faithfreedom.org. He is has contributed in 'Beyond Jihad - Critical Voices from Inside Islam'. His upcoming book is Understanding Islam and the Muslim Mind.
Islam's Watch
A Pakistani Muslim wrote the following letter to Ali Sina:
Hello dear Sir
I belong to Pakistan. My real name is B---. I have been reading your web site regularly for the last 2 months, and it really has prompted some huge questions in my mind. I want to convert my religion, but I don't know how to do it. It is also a great matter of security. I cannot do it at least in Pakistan, because as you know I can get killed very easily. I cannot even discuss it with some body, because I fear a very horrifying death. Please help me and please reply me ASAP. I am eagerly waiting for your reply.
Thanking in advance.
Dear B.
I am glad that you saw the truth. You do not have to do anything to leave Islam. You have already left it. There is nothing else to do. There is no need to make any public announcements. There are no baptisms or initiation rituals to perform. Once you stop believing in the lies of Muhammad, you are no longer a Muslim and a slave but a free man.
Keep your thoughts to yourself and do not speak to anyone about them, including your family and your trusted friends. Unfortunately religion is a very potent drug and can make good people do horrible things with clear conscience and cheerfully. The very people you trust can turn against you.
Reduce your visits to the mosque gradually and eventually stop going. Do not make any donations to the mosque because your money is going to fund terrorism and jihad. If you can’t keep your secret in your chest, join our forum, meet other ex-Muslims and share your thoughts anonymously. That is why we have the forum, for people like you and I to exchange ideas and don’t feel left out and lonely. We are actually growing fast. At this moment, more people are leaving Islam than joining it. However, those who leave it do so silently and those who join it do it with clarions and drums. You can also use the Internet to let other Muslims learn the truth.
There is no need for you to put your life in danger. We have no use for you when you are dead. You are worth to us only if you remain safe and sound. Unlike the psychopath Muhammad who demanded others to sacrifice their lives for him to prove their loyalty while he himself remained clear of all dangers, we do not expect you to put your life in peril. On the contrary, we want you to be tactful and protect your life.
Good people are leaving Islam everywhere. They are not making any public announcements and there is no need for that either. If they live in the West, it is perhaps not a bad idea that they make their rejection of Islam known. However if they live in an Islamic country and this could jeopardize their lives, it is better that they keep this a secret. In this way the foundation of Islam is weakened. There will come a day, and that day is not too far that this entire edifice of lies will fall. We will see the end of Islam with our own eyes. Islamic countries, one after another, will denounce Islam, and convert their mosques into useful places such as libraries, housing projects, etc.
Now that you have left Islam, your next task is to excel in whatever you do. Go after science and true knowledge, educate yourself and build a career. Prosper, enjoy life and let others benefit from your existence.
Wish you the best
Ali Sina
Ali Sina is the Editor of Faithfreedom.org. He is has contributed in 'Beyond Jihad - Critical Voices from Inside Islam'. His upcoming book is Understanding Islam and the Muslim Mind.
Islam's Watch
Thursday, June 7, 2012
BDS – Now financing law breaker Mahmoud Ameerah
So, apparently the BDS folks are running out of resources, and are now promoting fund raising around a story that legitimizes violence and breaking the law.
Two days ago, while wandering around facebook,I bumped into a story shared by a woman named Roni Barkan, who wrote about the history of Palestinian activist Mouhammad Ameerah (known from the riots of Ni’ilin in 2008 and later violent events in the area), who was framed by another youth, mentally handicapped, a testimony that got Ameerah arrested in 2009. The post was published under the title “Support Mouhammed Ameerah” and unfolded the above story in a rather dramatic way.
To cut a long story short, Ameerah was arrested again this week’ but this time it was a just plain, non political crime- Setting to work in Israel without a work permit. The post calls to support him by donating money to cover a 4,000 shekel fine he has to pay in replacement of 4 more months in prison.
Even assuming the story is full and true- Which I can’t, as I found absolutely no coverage of it in neither Israeli nor international press- I still find it disturbing. I tried to contact both the post original creator and those who reposted it for more information, but non replied to my inquiry for confirmed details -As far as we know this could be a scheme purposed to extract money from people with less understanding of the situation.
But, that’s not even my point. It seems that the activists supporting Ameerah don’t exactly see formal law as an instrument worthy of respect. The fact that Ameerah was caught working ilegally without a work permit has absolutely nothing to do with his background as an activist (a riot leader, in fact) – It has to do with him being a criminal by state law. Describing the fact he was a caught by the Police in Tel Aviv as a mere “misfortune” reflects an attitude: Breaking the law is only bad if you get caught. And I’m afraid that a motto for BDSers.
Read More:
BDS Gone Bad
Two days ago, while wandering around facebook,I bumped into a story shared by a woman named Roni Barkan, who wrote about the history of Palestinian activist Mouhammad Ameerah (known from the riots of Ni’ilin in 2008 and later violent events in the area), who was framed by another youth, mentally handicapped, a testimony that got Ameerah arrested in 2009. The post was published under the title “Support Mouhammed Ameerah” and unfolded the above story in a rather dramatic way.
To cut a long story short, Ameerah was arrested again this week’ but this time it was a just plain, non political crime- Setting to work in Israel without a work permit. The post calls to support him by donating money to cover a 4,000 shekel fine he has to pay in replacement of 4 more months in prison.
Even assuming the story is full and true- Which I can’t, as I found absolutely no coverage of it in neither Israeli nor international press- I still find it disturbing. I tried to contact both the post original creator and those who reposted it for more information, but non replied to my inquiry for confirmed details -As far as we know this could be a scheme purposed to extract money from people with less understanding of the situation.
But, that’s not even my point. It seems that the activists supporting Ameerah don’t exactly see formal law as an instrument worthy of respect. The fact that Ameerah was caught working ilegally without a work permit has absolutely nothing to do with his background as an activist (a riot leader, in fact) – It has to do with him being a criminal by state law. Describing the fact he was a caught by the Police in Tel Aviv as a mere “misfortune” reflects an attitude: Breaking the law is only bad if you get caught. And I’m afraid that a motto for BDSers.
Read More:
BDS Gone Bad
Sunday, June 3, 2012
Israel Attack on the USS Liberty - Facts vs Fiction
The tragic assault by Israeli forces during the Six Day War in 1967 on an American vessel, the USS Liberty, has been a source of controversy and conspiracy theories since it occurred. Several government investigations have concluded that the attack, in which 34 American servicemen were killed and many more injured, was carried out in error. Furthermore, every piece of information declassified to date - most recently in June 2004 - has supported this conclusion.
Much of this information is available to anyone with an Internet connection. Nonetheless, many continue to allege that Israel attacked the Liberty knowing that it was an American ship and that they were killing American servicemen. For detractors of Israel, the incident - and the alleged U.S. government cover-up that followed - powerfully demonstrates the treachery and power of the Jewish State and its American supporters. The story, told from this perspective, has become a propaganda tool to undermine the legitimacy of Israel.
This article debunks the leading conspiracy theories suggesting that Israel acted malevolently.
Background
On June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli war planes and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence gathering ship, while it was on a surveillance mission off the shores of El Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula. 34 Americans died and 171 were injured. Israel claimed it mistook the Liberty for an enemy vessel. Several Israeli and U.S. investigations corroborated that claim.
In 1999, moreover, a National Security Agency report from 1981 was released claiming that "the tragedy resulted not only from Israeli miscalculation but also from faulty U.S. communications practices." Since July 2003, this report has been available on the NSA Web site accompanied by a recording of radio communications between Israeli pilots made by a U.S. spy plane on the scene throughout the episode.
The NSA report and other documents declassified since the incident - including a trove of government materials released in January 2004 - support findings that the bombing was a case of mistaken identity. Some of the different investigations and their conclusions are listed below.
The most thorough non-governmental treatment of the bombing is A. Jay Cristol's The Liberty Incident (2002). Cristol, a U.S. bankruptcy judge and former U.S. Navy lawyer, concludes that "the totality of evidence establishes that the attack on the USS Liberty was a tragic case of mistaken identity that resulted from a compounding of bad mistakes perpetrated by both the United States and Israel, and nothing more." He analyzes, and meticulously debunks, previous books, articles and TV productions that argue that the attack was intentional and government investigations only cover-ups.
Conspiracy Theories
Despite the abundance of evidence that the bombing was a tragic mistake, conspiracy theories alleging that Israel intentionally attacked the Liberty have been a hallmark of conspiratorial anti-Israel propaganda since 1967. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of Liberty crewmen believe the attack was intentional.)
Why is the Liberty incident so popular among anti-Israel conspiracy theorists? The reasons are clear. If Israel knowingly attacked and killed Americans, the views of radical critics of the country are confirmed with graphic clarity. These views include: a) the belief that Israel will turn against the U.S. whenever it suits its interests; b) the belief that Israel's control over the American political and military structure is so great that it can openly kill Americans because it knows that officials at every level will work together to cover up the crime; and c) the belief that Israel is a terrorist state.
What would Israel's motive have been? The argument that Israel knowingly attacked an American ship has always lacked a convincing motive. Possibilities have included:
Keeping U.S. from learning of surprise attack against Syria. In 1976, James Ennes, probably the most active critic of the official account - and one of the ship's survivors - claimed in his book Assault on the Liberty that Israel was then planning a surprise attack against Syria and feared U.S. interference; its bombing of the Liberty, he claimed, was an effort to disrupt American's ability to gather intelligence about the plan. Previously classified material released in 1997 by both Israel and the U.S. demonstrated that Israel had already informed the U.S. of its intentions, however. The theory should have disappeared thereafter, yet it resurfaced in a poorly researched History Channel production that aired in 2001 called Cover Up: Attack on the USS Liberty.
Hiding war crimes. Another possible motive was offered by James Bamford in his 2000 book Body of Secrets. Bamford claimed that Israel mounted the attack because it worried that the Liberty would learn of the nearby killing of hundreds of Egyptian POWs by the Israeli army. In fact, no evidence has been found to corroborate a war crime charge, and Cristol has shown that Bamford's account has little credibility. For example, Bamford quotes Marvin Nowicki, a Hebrew linguist on the U.S. surveillance aircraft that recorded the attacking Israeli pilots, to support his theory that the Israelis knew the ship to be American. Cristol reveals, however, that Nowicki stated in an exchange of letters with Bamford that "our intercepts, never before made public, showed the attack to be an accident on the part of the Israelis."
Drawing U.S. into war. The idea that Israel hoped to draw the U.S. into the Six-Day War has been suggested by Adm. (ret.) Thomas Moorer, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a leader in the effort to expose the alleged governmental cover-ups of the attack. (He chairs the group whose new "findings" occasioned the October 22, 2003, press conference, below). Moorer has stated that Israel planned to sink the ship and then implicate Egypt, thereby pushing the U.S. to fight with Israel. However, by June 8, 1967 - the day of the attack- Israel had already destroyed most of the Egyptian air force and was advancing rapidly in the Sinai; the country was only days from victory and did not need U.S. assistance. Moreover, the initial Israeli attack could not have sunk the ship (the ordnance fired on the Liberty was inadequate to sink it), and Israel did not make any attempt to conceal its involvement in the attack after realizing the Liberty was American.
Recent Events
September 25-28, 2008: Three USS Liberty Veterans Association members, including Ernie Gallo, the association’s president, embarked on a speaking tour in Connecticut and New York, making several stops at public libraries and churches. At one event in Suffern, New York, Gallo argued that the USS Liberty incident “was a microcosm of what happened in June 1967. Something diabolical changed at that time." The organizer of the Suffern presentation, Rich Siegel, is affiliated with the group We Hold These Truths (WHTT).
September 27, 2008: Philip Tourney, a former USS Liberty Veteran Association president, and Mark Glenn, a contributor to the American Free Press, an anti-Semitic, conspiracy-oriented publication, discussed the Liberty veterans’ tour of Connecticut and New York on their weekly radio show, “Liberty Hour.” The show, which started broadcasting in February 2008 and is dedicated to discussing the USS Liberty incident, is carried on the Republic Broadcasting Network, a conspiracy-oriented Internet radio station. During the broadcast, Glenn denounced the Jewish community for “whining about the Holocaust that went on 60 years ago” while suppressing the truth about what happened to the Liberty, as well as about “inaccuracies of the Holocaust story or the anomalies that took place on 9-11, particularly all of the Israeli spies.” He further claimed, and Tourney concurred, that the Liberty incident was “directly related” to “the price of gas, terrorism, 9-11, the cost of food” and the government plan to bailout troubled banks.
November 3-5, 2007: The USS Liberty Blog was launched, apparently by Mark Glenn’s Crescent and the Cross. The Blog features many anti-Semitic articles, as well as announcements related to activities by members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association and supporters. Its first postings were of two articles by Eileen Fleming, an anti-Israel activist, and a radio interview with Tourney. In her article, Fleming called for a “second American revolution” to free the U.S. from Israel’s hold, which, she argued, was most evident in the Liberty incident and subsequent cover-up. (The month before Fleming and Tourney spoke at an anti-Semitic conference at Irvine, California called No More Wars for Israel, which was organized by Glenn. See below for more details.) Later Blog postings included an article by Tourney (posted on July 2008), in which he argued that U.S. support for Israel is putting America on the path to destruction, claiming that American politicians have put the “right to exist” of “the Jewish state” before any U.S. interest and stating: “No more wars for Israel. No more money, no more nothing.” Tourney further used classic anti-Semitic stereotypes to describe Israel, portraying it as a parasite that consumes the body of its host—the United States. He talked of Israelis as rich and evil, describing “their black hearts” and “vacant souls.” He even blamed the American economic slowdown and foreclosure crisis on American support for Israel, in an apparent attempt to turn popular discontent to hate toward Israel.
October 2007: Phillip Tourney spoke at a conference in Irvine, California, called No More Wars for Israel that was organized by Hesham Tillawi and Mark Glenn and featured several anti-Semitic speakers including Willis Carto, Michael Collins Piper and Kaukab Siddique. Following the two-day event, organizers posted online a videotaped message from Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supposedly recorded specially for the conference, in which he condemned Zionism as a racist movement and a danger to world peace. The conference was praised on David Duke’s Web site for its contribution to the fight “against world Zionism and Jewish supremacism.”
October 2, 2007: The Chicago Tribune published an extensive special report on the USS Liberty by senior correspondent John Crewdson. While the report claimed to include “new revelations” and “documents” that challenge the official U.S. position about the incident, no substantive new information or “documents” were included. The report, which was misleading in its description of the circumstances of the incident, included several testimonies that were not new; most were based on an interpretive recollection of the events, including some that had already been debunked or proven unreliable. For example, the Tribune relied on Andrew Kilgore as a source for what former American ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter allegedly said about the incident, not mentioning that Kilgore has a long history of anti-Israel activity. The article also cited an unnamed CIA officer who allegedly quoted a “Libyan naval captain who was listening that day,” as further proof that the attack was not done in error.
April 2007: The Liberty News, newsletter of the USS Liberty Veterans Association, included several articles that attack Israel as illegitimate and Zionism as racism. One article by James Abourezk, former US Senator and founder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee—a critique of a book by Ilan Pappe—claimed that in 1948, the Palestinians were victims of a meticulously prepared “ethnic cleansing” carried out by the Zionist movement since the majority of them “wanted no part in the violence being introduced into their homeland by the Jewish military.” Abourezk also wrote that the Holocaust “became a bonanza for the Zionist movement” and claimed that the vote in the UN in favor of establishing a Jewish state was an “injustice” and, from a legal perspective, should not be seen as binding. Abourezk quoted a Jewish friend, whose name he withheld: “Israel has nothing to do with Judaism, but it has everything to do with fascism.”
Other articles in the issue included one recommending Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, and another by a representative from the Council for the National Interest that called on the U.S. to engage with Hamas and claimed that “the Israel Lobby” controls Congress. The newsletter also included a second article by Abourezk, in which he praised the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Asad and claimed that “the Israeli Lobby” has blocked a recent legislation in Congress because it could have become an obstacle to a war against Iran.
September 2, 2006: Tito Howard, USS Liberty survivor and producer of a USS Liberty Veterans Association’s film about the attack, Loss of Liberty, spoke at a conference of the American Free Press and Barnes Review—both newspapers that advance the views of Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites and white supremacists. The conference was attended by many of the leading Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites in the country.
January 30, 2006: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent e-mails to supporters asking that they “contact Congress and the Pentagon” to “support [the] request for war crimes report on the attack on the USS Liberty.”
June 8, 2005: The USS Liberty Veterans Association handed a report on “war crimes committed against U.S. military personnel, June 8, 1967” to the Secretary of the Army. According to the Association, it submitted the report based on a Department of Defense Directive issued in March of the previous year which included some language about investigating war crimes. The 35-page report, which is posted to the Association’s Web site, did not include any new information about the USS Liberty incident, and there were significant omissions in its description of the events. It accused Israel of “war crimes” and claimed that Israel was waging a campaign to vilify the ship’s survivors as “neo-Nazis.” It concluded with the following statement: “The only conceivable reason for this failure [to investigate the attack] is the political decision to put the interests of Israel ahead of those of American servicemen, employees, and veterans.”
June 3, 2004: Based on previously unreleased audiotapes made available by the Israeli Air Force, The Jerusalem Post published a transcript of radio and telephone transmissions between Israeli pilots and air controllers involved in the attack on the Liberty. The transcript gives a minute-by-minute account from the perspective of the Israeli forces - beginning just before the attack and continuing until the Israelis recognize the ship's identity and halt the action. The transcript of the tapes indicates that Israel did not know the ship was American when it attacked.
January 12-13, 2004: To coincide with the release of new documents, the State Department convened a panel to address the Liberty attack. While the panelists, representing both defenders and critics of Israel's intentions, failed to reach a consensus, the previously classified materials revealed no new evidence to cast in doubt the official U.S. position - that Israel did not know the Liberty was an American vessel when it attacked.
October 22, 2003: Capt. Ward Boston, a retired Navy lawyer, released a statement at a Washington, D.C., press conference that appeared to give Liberty conspiracy theorists a strong boost. Claiming that he felt the need to respond to the publication of Cristol's The Liberty Incident, Boston, counsel to the Court of Inquiry in the Navy's investigation into the case, said, "I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.'" His remarks were included as part of an "independent investigation" into the bombing by Liberty Alliance, which convened the press conference and describes itself as "an organization dedicated to obtaining an honest investigation of Israel's attack on the USS Liberty and the official cover-up that followed." Boston also claimed that White House officials at the time - including Secretary of State John McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson - had ordered investigators to conclude "that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity'" - i.e., that it had been unintentional.
Boston's credibility In the Navy investigation, Boston and Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who served as president of the Court of Inquiry, were the first to meet the ship's crew and conduct interviews. However, according to his own account, Boston's evidence of a cover-up derives not from his own part in the investigation but solely on alleged conversations with Admiral Kidd, who purportedly told him he was forced to find that the attack was unintentional.
Kidd died in 1999 and there is no way to verify Boston's allegations. However, Cristol argues that the "documentary record" strongly indicated that Kidd "supported the validity of the findings of the Court of Inquiry to his dying day." Responding to Boston, he added: "As a close friend of 'Ike' Kidd, I could also repeat statements made by 'Ike' to me, but those statements would be equally in violation of the dead man statute [in court, testimony about statements of deceased persons is inadmissible]." Cristol dedicated his book to Kidd. Most relevantly, Boston's new statement reveals nothing new about what actually happened during the attack on the Liberty on June 8, 1967.
October 10, 2003: Israeli Brig. Gen. (res.) Yiftah Spector (since retired), who participated in the Liberty attack, agreed to discuss it publicly for the first time. Spector was the first pilot to get to the ship; he identified it as a military vessel that was not Israeli but could not make a specific identification. "My assumption was that it was likely to open fire at me and nevertheless I slowed down and I looked and there was positively no flag. Just to make sure I photographed it," Spector told The Jerusalem Post (Oct. 10, 2003).
The photo is copied in Cristol's The Liberty Incident along with a minute-by-minute analysis of how Israeli forces who had eye contact with the Liberty, including Spector, made several mistakes in reading the markings on the ship and describing its features to command. "This ship was on an escape route from the El Arish area, which at that same moment had heavy smoke rising from it," Spector said.
Because Israel was by then in control of both ground and air venues, it was thought that the war vessel, which could be seen on the horizon from the shore of El Arish, was bombing the Israeli army - explaining the smoke nearby. According to Spector, a U.S. Senate Committee interviewed him twice shortly after the war.
(It may be noted that Spector was recently dismissed from the Israeli air force for signing a letter protesting the Israeli policy of targeted killing.)
July 16, 2003: Ward Boston told the Arab News 1 , an English-language Saudi publication, that after the naval court had reached its conclusions, Adm. Kidd told him: "We have to be quiet. We can't talk to the media," and that President Johnson "had ordered us to put a lid on it."
True or false, this allegation is far less stinging than Boston's October 2003 claims. His remarks do not necessarily suggest that the government acted deceptively, let alone that the president rigged the investigation. It is not clear why Boston later changed his account.
Boston also claimed that he and Adm. Kidd both thought the attack was deliberate and says that Kidd told him: "Those guys knew what they were doing when they killed innocent sunbathing kids. They tried to sink that ship." He went on to explain why he thought the U.S. government still covers up the attack:
Iraq, Vietnam, the Liberty - it's the same old story. When people are in power they don't want to upset people who may help them get re-elected. Maybe people didn't want the world to see that Israelis were slaughtering Egyptian prisoners of war. Maybe Johnson was afraid of upsetting potential voters.
I have strong patriotic feelings. I believe the CIA slogan, "The truth will out," and hate the Israeli Mossad's motto "Win by deception."
Official reports related to the Liberty incident (a sampling, selected from A. Jay Cristol's book The Liberty Incident - uncited statements in quotation marks are from the reports)
U.S. Reports:
* U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, June 18, 1967
"Available evidence combines to indicate the attack on the Liberty on 8 June was in fact a case of mistaken identity."
CIA Report, June 13, 1967
* The attack was a mistake. In 1978, in a response to an inquiry, Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner wrote: "It remains our best judgment that the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty was not made in malice toward the United States and was a mistake."
* Joint Chiefs of Staff, Russ Report, June 9-20, 1967 General Russ did not make any findings about the actual attack. The report compiled all message traffic and contains no evidence that the attack was not a mistake.
* Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Clifford Report, July 18, 1967
"The information thus far available does not reflect that the Israeli high command made a premeditated attack on a ship known to be American…. "
* National Security Agency, 1981
"Liberty was mistaken for an Egyptian ship as a result of miscalculation and egregious errors."
Israeli Report:
# Ram Ron Commission of Inquiry, June 16, 1967
"[T]he attack on the ship by the Israeli Defense Forces was made neither maliciously nor in gross negligence, but as a result of a bona fide mistake."
Read More:
Israel Attack on the USS Liberty - Myths vs Facts
ADL.Org
Much of this information is available to anyone with an Internet connection. Nonetheless, many continue to allege that Israel attacked the Liberty knowing that it was an American ship and that they were killing American servicemen. For detractors of Israel, the incident - and the alleged U.S. government cover-up that followed - powerfully demonstrates the treachery and power of the Jewish State and its American supporters. The story, told from this perspective, has become a propaganda tool to undermine the legitimacy of Israel.
This article debunks the leading conspiracy theories suggesting that Israel acted malevolently.
Background
On June 8, 1967, during the Six Day War, Israeli war planes and torpedo boats attacked the USS Liberty, an intelligence gathering ship, while it was on a surveillance mission off the shores of El Arish, in the Sinai Peninsula. 34 Americans died and 171 were injured. Israel claimed it mistook the Liberty for an enemy vessel. Several Israeli and U.S. investigations corroborated that claim.
In 1999, moreover, a National Security Agency report from 1981 was released claiming that "the tragedy resulted not only from Israeli miscalculation but also from faulty U.S. communications practices." Since July 2003, this report has been available on the NSA Web site accompanied by a recording of radio communications between Israeli pilots made by a U.S. spy plane on the scene throughout the episode.
The NSA report and other documents declassified since the incident - including a trove of government materials released in January 2004 - support findings that the bombing was a case of mistaken identity. Some of the different investigations and their conclusions are listed below.
The most thorough non-governmental treatment of the bombing is A. Jay Cristol's The Liberty Incident (2002). Cristol, a U.S. bankruptcy judge and former U.S. Navy lawyer, concludes that "the totality of evidence establishes that the attack on the USS Liberty was a tragic case of mistaken identity that resulted from a compounding of bad mistakes perpetrated by both the United States and Israel, and nothing more." He analyzes, and meticulously debunks, previous books, articles and TV productions that argue that the attack was intentional and government investigations only cover-ups.
Conspiracy Theories
Despite the abundance of evidence that the bombing was a tragic mistake, conspiracy theories alleging that Israel intentionally attacked the Liberty have been a hallmark of conspiratorial anti-Israel propaganda since 1967. (Perhaps unsurprisingly, a number of Liberty crewmen believe the attack was intentional.)
Why is the Liberty incident so popular among anti-Israel conspiracy theorists? The reasons are clear. If Israel knowingly attacked and killed Americans, the views of radical critics of the country are confirmed with graphic clarity. These views include: a) the belief that Israel will turn against the U.S. whenever it suits its interests; b) the belief that Israel's control over the American political and military structure is so great that it can openly kill Americans because it knows that officials at every level will work together to cover up the crime; and c) the belief that Israel is a terrorist state.
What would Israel's motive have been? The argument that Israel knowingly attacked an American ship has always lacked a convincing motive. Possibilities have included:
Keeping U.S. from learning of surprise attack against Syria. In 1976, James Ennes, probably the most active critic of the official account - and one of the ship's survivors - claimed in his book Assault on the Liberty that Israel was then planning a surprise attack against Syria and feared U.S. interference; its bombing of the Liberty, he claimed, was an effort to disrupt American's ability to gather intelligence about the plan. Previously classified material released in 1997 by both Israel and the U.S. demonstrated that Israel had already informed the U.S. of its intentions, however. The theory should have disappeared thereafter, yet it resurfaced in a poorly researched History Channel production that aired in 2001 called Cover Up: Attack on the USS Liberty.
Hiding war crimes. Another possible motive was offered by James Bamford in his 2000 book Body of Secrets. Bamford claimed that Israel mounted the attack because it worried that the Liberty would learn of the nearby killing of hundreds of Egyptian POWs by the Israeli army. In fact, no evidence has been found to corroborate a war crime charge, and Cristol has shown that Bamford's account has little credibility. For example, Bamford quotes Marvin Nowicki, a Hebrew linguist on the U.S. surveillance aircraft that recorded the attacking Israeli pilots, to support his theory that the Israelis knew the ship to be American. Cristol reveals, however, that Nowicki stated in an exchange of letters with Bamford that "our intercepts, never before made public, showed the attack to be an accident on the part of the Israelis."
Drawing U.S. into war. The idea that Israel hoped to draw the U.S. into the Six-Day War has been suggested by Adm. (ret.) Thomas Moorer, a former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and a leader in the effort to expose the alleged governmental cover-ups of the attack. (He chairs the group whose new "findings" occasioned the October 22, 2003, press conference, below). Moorer has stated that Israel planned to sink the ship and then implicate Egypt, thereby pushing the U.S. to fight with Israel. However, by June 8, 1967 - the day of the attack- Israel had already destroyed most of the Egyptian air force and was advancing rapidly in the Sinai; the country was only days from victory and did not need U.S. assistance. Moreover, the initial Israeli attack could not have sunk the ship (the ordnance fired on the Liberty was inadequate to sink it), and Israel did not make any attempt to conceal its involvement in the attack after realizing the Liberty was American.
Recent Events
September 25-28, 2008: Three USS Liberty Veterans Association members, including Ernie Gallo, the association’s president, embarked on a speaking tour in Connecticut and New York, making several stops at public libraries and churches. At one event in Suffern, New York, Gallo argued that the USS Liberty incident “was a microcosm of what happened in June 1967. Something diabolical changed at that time." The organizer of the Suffern presentation, Rich Siegel, is affiliated with the group We Hold These Truths (WHTT).
September 27, 2008: Philip Tourney, a former USS Liberty Veteran Association president, and Mark Glenn, a contributor to the American Free Press, an anti-Semitic, conspiracy-oriented publication, discussed the Liberty veterans’ tour of Connecticut and New York on their weekly radio show, “Liberty Hour.” The show, which started broadcasting in February 2008 and is dedicated to discussing the USS Liberty incident, is carried on the Republic Broadcasting Network, a conspiracy-oriented Internet radio station. During the broadcast, Glenn denounced the Jewish community for “whining about the Holocaust that went on 60 years ago” while suppressing the truth about what happened to the Liberty, as well as about “inaccuracies of the Holocaust story or the anomalies that took place on 9-11, particularly all of the Israeli spies.” He further claimed, and Tourney concurred, that the Liberty incident was “directly related” to “the price of gas, terrorism, 9-11, the cost of food” and the government plan to bailout troubled banks.
November 3-5, 2007: The USS Liberty Blog was launched, apparently by Mark Glenn’s Crescent and the Cross. The Blog features many anti-Semitic articles, as well as announcements related to activities by members of the USS Liberty Veterans Association and supporters. Its first postings were of two articles by Eileen Fleming, an anti-Israel activist, and a radio interview with Tourney. In her article, Fleming called for a “second American revolution” to free the U.S. from Israel’s hold, which, she argued, was most evident in the Liberty incident and subsequent cover-up. (The month before Fleming and Tourney spoke at an anti-Semitic conference at Irvine, California called No More Wars for Israel, which was organized by Glenn. See below for more details.) Later Blog postings included an article by Tourney (posted on July 2008), in which he argued that U.S. support for Israel is putting America on the path to destruction, claiming that American politicians have put the “right to exist” of “the Jewish state” before any U.S. interest and stating: “No more wars for Israel. No more money, no more nothing.” Tourney further used classic anti-Semitic stereotypes to describe Israel, portraying it as a parasite that consumes the body of its host—the United States. He talked of Israelis as rich and evil, describing “their black hearts” and “vacant souls.” He even blamed the American economic slowdown and foreclosure crisis on American support for Israel, in an apparent attempt to turn popular discontent to hate toward Israel.
October 2007: Phillip Tourney spoke at a conference in Irvine, California, called No More Wars for Israel that was organized by Hesham Tillawi and Mark Glenn and featured several anti-Semitic speakers including Willis Carto, Michael Collins Piper and Kaukab Siddique. Following the two-day event, organizers posted online a videotaped message from Iranian president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, supposedly recorded specially for the conference, in which he condemned Zionism as a racist movement and a danger to world peace. The conference was praised on David Duke’s Web site for its contribution to the fight “against world Zionism and Jewish supremacism.”
October 2, 2007: The Chicago Tribune published an extensive special report on the USS Liberty by senior correspondent John Crewdson. While the report claimed to include “new revelations” and “documents” that challenge the official U.S. position about the incident, no substantive new information or “documents” were included. The report, which was misleading in its description of the circumstances of the incident, included several testimonies that were not new; most were based on an interpretive recollection of the events, including some that had already been debunked or proven unreliable. For example, the Tribune relied on Andrew Kilgore as a source for what former American ambassador to Lebanon Dwight Porter allegedly said about the incident, not mentioning that Kilgore has a long history of anti-Israel activity. The article also cited an unnamed CIA officer who allegedly quoted a “Libyan naval captain who was listening that day,” as further proof that the attack was not done in error.
April 2007: The Liberty News, newsletter of the USS Liberty Veterans Association, included several articles that attack Israel as illegitimate and Zionism as racism. One article by James Abourezk, former US Senator and founder of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee—a critique of a book by Ilan Pappe—claimed that in 1948, the Palestinians were victims of a meticulously prepared “ethnic cleansing” carried out by the Zionist movement since the majority of them “wanted no part in the violence being introduced into their homeland by the Jewish military.” Abourezk also wrote that the Holocaust “became a bonanza for the Zionist movement” and claimed that the vote in the UN in favor of establishing a Jewish state was an “injustice” and, from a legal perspective, should not be seen as binding. Abourezk quoted a Jewish friend, whose name he withheld: “Israel has nothing to do with Judaism, but it has everything to do with fascism.”
Other articles in the issue included one recommending Jimmy Carter’s book, Palestine Peace Not Apartheid, and another by a representative from the Council for the National Interest that called on the U.S. to engage with Hamas and claimed that “the Israel Lobby” controls Congress. The newsletter also included a second article by Abourezk, in which he praised the Syrian regime of Bashar al-Asad and claimed that “the Israeli Lobby” has blocked a recent legislation in Congress because it could have become an obstacle to a war against Iran.
September 2, 2006: Tito Howard, USS Liberty survivor and producer of a USS Liberty Veterans Association’s film about the attack, Loss of Liberty, spoke at a conference of the American Free Press and Barnes Review—both newspapers that advance the views of Holocaust deniers, anti-Semites and white supremacists. The conference was attended by many of the leading Holocaust deniers and anti-Semites in the country.
January 30, 2006: The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee sent e-mails to supporters asking that they “contact Congress and the Pentagon” to “support [the] request for war crimes report on the attack on the USS Liberty.”
June 8, 2005: The USS Liberty Veterans Association handed a report on “war crimes committed against U.S. military personnel, June 8, 1967” to the Secretary of the Army. According to the Association, it submitted the report based on a Department of Defense Directive issued in March of the previous year which included some language about investigating war crimes. The 35-page report, which is posted to the Association’s Web site, did not include any new information about the USS Liberty incident, and there were significant omissions in its description of the events. It accused Israel of “war crimes” and claimed that Israel was waging a campaign to vilify the ship’s survivors as “neo-Nazis.” It concluded with the following statement: “The only conceivable reason for this failure [to investigate the attack] is the political decision to put the interests of Israel ahead of those of American servicemen, employees, and veterans.”
June 3, 2004: Based on previously unreleased audiotapes made available by the Israeli Air Force, The Jerusalem Post published a transcript of radio and telephone transmissions between Israeli pilots and air controllers involved in the attack on the Liberty. The transcript gives a minute-by-minute account from the perspective of the Israeli forces - beginning just before the attack and continuing until the Israelis recognize the ship's identity and halt the action. The transcript of the tapes indicates that Israel did not know the ship was American when it attacked.
January 12-13, 2004: To coincide with the release of new documents, the State Department convened a panel to address the Liberty attack. While the panelists, representing both defenders and critics of Israel's intentions, failed to reach a consensus, the previously classified materials revealed no new evidence to cast in doubt the official U.S. position - that Israel did not know the Liberty was an American vessel when it attacked.
October 22, 2003: Capt. Ward Boston, a retired Navy lawyer, released a statement at a Washington, D.C., press conference that appeared to give Liberty conspiracy theorists a strong boost. Claiming that he felt the need to respond to the publication of Cristol's The Liberty Incident, Boston, counsel to the Court of Inquiry in the Navy's investigation into the case, said, "I am outraged at the efforts of the apologists for Israel in this country to claim that this attack was a case of 'mistaken identity.'" His remarks were included as part of an "independent investigation" into the bombing by Liberty Alliance, which convened the press conference and describes itself as "an organization dedicated to obtaining an honest investigation of Israel's attack on the USS Liberty and the official cover-up that followed." Boston also claimed that White House officials at the time - including Secretary of State John McNamara and President Lyndon Johnson - had ordered investigators to conclude "that the attack was a case of 'mistaken identity'" - i.e., that it had been unintentional.
Boston's credibility In the Navy investigation, Boston and Rear Admiral Isaac C. Kidd, who served as president of the Court of Inquiry, were the first to meet the ship's crew and conduct interviews. However, according to his own account, Boston's evidence of a cover-up derives not from his own part in the investigation but solely on alleged conversations with Admiral Kidd, who purportedly told him he was forced to find that the attack was unintentional.
Kidd died in 1999 and there is no way to verify Boston's allegations. However, Cristol argues that the "documentary record" strongly indicated that Kidd "supported the validity of the findings of the Court of Inquiry to his dying day." Responding to Boston, he added: "As a close friend of 'Ike' Kidd, I could also repeat statements made by 'Ike' to me, but those statements would be equally in violation of the dead man statute [in court, testimony about statements of deceased persons is inadmissible]." Cristol dedicated his book to Kidd. Most relevantly, Boston's new statement reveals nothing new about what actually happened during the attack on the Liberty on June 8, 1967.
October 10, 2003: Israeli Brig. Gen. (res.) Yiftah Spector (since retired), who participated in the Liberty attack, agreed to discuss it publicly for the first time. Spector was the first pilot to get to the ship; he identified it as a military vessel that was not Israeli but could not make a specific identification. "My assumption was that it was likely to open fire at me and nevertheless I slowed down and I looked and there was positively no flag. Just to make sure I photographed it," Spector told The Jerusalem Post (Oct. 10, 2003).
The photo is copied in Cristol's The Liberty Incident along with a minute-by-minute analysis of how Israeli forces who had eye contact with the Liberty, including Spector, made several mistakes in reading the markings on the ship and describing its features to command. "This ship was on an escape route from the El Arish area, which at that same moment had heavy smoke rising from it," Spector said.
Because Israel was by then in control of both ground and air venues, it was thought that the war vessel, which could be seen on the horizon from the shore of El Arish, was bombing the Israeli army - explaining the smoke nearby. According to Spector, a U.S. Senate Committee interviewed him twice shortly after the war.
(It may be noted that Spector was recently dismissed from the Israeli air force for signing a letter protesting the Israeli policy of targeted killing.)
July 16, 2003: Ward Boston told the Arab News 1 , an English-language Saudi publication, that after the naval court had reached its conclusions, Adm. Kidd told him: "We have to be quiet. We can't talk to the media," and that President Johnson "had ordered us to put a lid on it."
True or false, this allegation is far less stinging than Boston's October 2003 claims. His remarks do not necessarily suggest that the government acted deceptively, let alone that the president rigged the investigation. It is not clear why Boston later changed his account.
Boston also claimed that he and Adm. Kidd both thought the attack was deliberate and says that Kidd told him: "Those guys knew what they were doing when they killed innocent sunbathing kids. They tried to sink that ship." He went on to explain why he thought the U.S. government still covers up the attack:
Iraq, Vietnam, the Liberty - it's the same old story. When people are in power they don't want to upset people who may help them get re-elected. Maybe people didn't want the world to see that Israelis were slaughtering Egyptian prisoners of war. Maybe Johnson was afraid of upsetting potential voters.
I have strong patriotic feelings. I believe the CIA slogan, "The truth will out," and hate the Israeli Mossad's motto "Win by deception."
Official reports related to the Liberty incident (a sampling, selected from A. Jay Cristol's book The Liberty Incident - uncited statements in quotation marks are from the reports)
U.S. Reports:
* U.S. Navy Court of Inquiry, June 18, 1967
"Available evidence combines to indicate the attack on the Liberty on 8 June was in fact a case of mistaken identity."
CIA Report, June 13, 1967
* The attack was a mistake. In 1978, in a response to an inquiry, Director of Central Intelligence Stansfield Turner wrote: "It remains our best judgment that the Israeli attack on the U.S.S. Liberty was not made in malice toward the United States and was a mistake."
* Joint Chiefs of Staff, Russ Report, June 9-20, 1967 General Russ did not make any findings about the actual attack. The report compiled all message traffic and contains no evidence that the attack was not a mistake.
* Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board, Clifford Report, July 18, 1967
"The information thus far available does not reflect that the Israeli high command made a premeditated attack on a ship known to be American…. "
* National Security Agency, 1981
"Liberty was mistaken for an Egyptian ship as a result of miscalculation and egregious errors."
Israeli Report:
# Ram Ron Commission of Inquiry, June 16, 1967
"[T]he attack on the ship by the Israeli Defense Forces was made neither maliciously nor in gross negligence, but as a result of a bona fide mistake."
Read More:
Israel Attack on the USS Liberty - Myths vs Facts
ADL.Org
Monday, May 28, 2012
Rothchild Myths—Debunked 100%
Rothschild Myth 1.
One of the most infamous myths pertaining to the famous Rothschild banking family of Europe, is a quote allegedly made by founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty; Mayer Amschel Rothschild in 1838. The quote:—”Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!”
This notorious quote could not have been made by Mayer Amschel Rothschild on that date, because he died on September 19 1812!!!
You will find this alleged Mayer Amschel Rothschild quote, all over the internet with the date 1838. Now you know the truth, you’ll know what a total lie, this piece of anti-semitic propaganda this is.
Verdict=Rothschild myth 1. Totally debunked! Wikipedia
Rothschild Myth 2.
Here’s another ridiculous Rothschild myth—The Rothschild family secretly own $500 trillion in gold bullion which is secretly stored in underground vaults.
It’s obvious that this is a total exaggeration to any person of average intelligence, and here’s why:— The total value of ALL the gold ever mined in human history, amounts to US$9.2 trillion!!! Therefore claiming the Rothschild family have US$500 trillion, is completely ridiculous because that much gold doesn’t even exist!!!
Verdict=Rothschild myth 2.Totally debunked! Wikipedia (third paragraph down)
Rothschild Myth 3.
Yet another priceless gem, if you’ll pardon the intentional pun—The Rothschild banking family own and control the US Federal Reserve through the Rothschild Bank of Berlin.
All over the internet there are websites written by ‘scholars’ and ‘professors’, claiming that the Rothschild Bank of Berlin, is a privately owned bank which the Rothschilds use to profit from and control the US Federal Reserve. Er, there’s only one slight problem with this theory:—The Rothschild Bank of Berlin, does not and has never existed!!! The last German branch of the Rothschild Bank, was in Frankfurt and this branch closed in 1901 some eleven years before the Federal Reserve Act was even passed!!!
Please also note the following—Some conspiracists maintain regardless of the above, that the US Federal Reserve is a privately run bank and that all it’s profits are paid to foreigners, i.e. The Rothschild family. This is complete rubbish:—By law, virtually all the of the Federals Reserve’s vast profits, are paid to the US Treasury and have been since 1947, so the Rothschilds are certainly not getting any money from the US Federal Reserve!
Verdict=Rothschild myth 3. Totally debunked! Wikipedia (last paragraph)
What fun. Everyday, I get emails and comments from conspiracy ‘theorists’ and ‘experts’, telling me to ‘do the research’. What a laugh! I have done some research and look whats transpired—all the stupid tripe you idiots are always parroting everywhere, has turned out to be a load of complete codswallop—How surprising NOT!!!
Source: Icke Exposed http://www.icke-exposed.co.uk/headline/rothschild-myths-debunked-100/
One of the most infamous myths pertaining to the famous Rothschild banking family of Europe, is a quote allegedly made by founder of the Rothschild banking dynasty; Mayer Amschel Rothschild in 1838. The quote:—”Permit me to issue and control the money of a nation, and I care not who makes its laws!”
This notorious quote could not have been made by Mayer Amschel Rothschild on that date, because he died on September 19 1812!!!
You will find this alleged Mayer Amschel Rothschild quote, all over the internet with the date 1838. Now you know the truth, you’ll know what a total lie, this piece of anti-semitic propaganda this is.
Verdict=Rothschild myth 1. Totally debunked! Wikipedia
Rothschild Myth 2.
Here’s another ridiculous Rothschild myth—The Rothschild family secretly own $500 trillion in gold bullion which is secretly stored in underground vaults.
It’s obvious that this is a total exaggeration to any person of average intelligence, and here’s why:— The total value of ALL the gold ever mined in human history, amounts to US$9.2 trillion!!! Therefore claiming the Rothschild family have US$500 trillion, is completely ridiculous because that much gold doesn’t even exist!!!
Verdict=Rothschild myth 2.Totally debunked! Wikipedia (third paragraph down)
Rothschild Myth 3.
Yet another priceless gem, if you’ll pardon the intentional pun—The Rothschild banking family own and control the US Federal Reserve through the Rothschild Bank of Berlin.
All over the internet there are websites written by ‘scholars’ and ‘professors’, claiming that the Rothschild Bank of Berlin, is a privately owned bank which the Rothschilds use to profit from and control the US Federal Reserve. Er, there’s only one slight problem with this theory:—The Rothschild Bank of Berlin, does not and has never existed!!! The last German branch of the Rothschild Bank, was in Frankfurt and this branch closed in 1901 some eleven years before the Federal Reserve Act was even passed!!!
Please also note the following—Some conspiracists maintain regardless of the above, that the US Federal Reserve is a privately run bank and that all it’s profits are paid to foreigners, i.e. The Rothschild family. This is complete rubbish:—By law, virtually all the of the Federals Reserve’s vast profits, are paid to the US Treasury and have been since 1947, so the Rothschilds are certainly not getting any money from the US Federal Reserve!
Verdict=Rothschild myth 3. Totally debunked! Wikipedia (last paragraph)
What fun. Everyday, I get emails and comments from conspiracy ‘theorists’ and ‘experts’, telling me to ‘do the research’. What a laugh! I have done some research and look whats transpired—all the stupid tripe you idiots are always parroting everywhere, has turned out to be a load of complete codswallop—How surprising NOT!!!
Source: Icke Exposed http://www.icke-exposed.co.uk/headline/rothschild-myths-debunked-100/
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
A Brief Overview of the Situation in the Middle East
The Palestinians want their own country. There's just one thing about that: There ARE no Palestinians. It's a made up word. Israel was called Palestine for two thousand years. Like "Wiccan," "Palestinian" sounds ancient but is really a modern invention.
Before the Israelis won the land in war, Gaza was owned by Egypt, and there were no "Palestinians" then, and the West Bank was owned by Jordan, and there were no "Palestinians" then. As soon as the Jews took over and started growing oranges as big as basketballs, what do you know, say hello to the Palestinians, weeping for their deep bond with their lost "land" and "nation." So for the sake of honesty, let's not use the word "Palestinian" any more to describe these delightful folks, who dance for joy at our deaths until someone points out they're being taped. Instead, let's call them what they are: "Other Arabs Who Can't Accomplish Anything In Life And Would Rather Wrap Themselves In The Seductive Melodrama Of Eternal Struggle And Death." I know that's a bit unwieldy to expect to see on CNN.
How about this, then: "Adjacent Jew-Haters." Okay, so the Adjacent Jew-Haters want their own country. Oops, just one more thing. No, they don't. They could've had their own country any time in the last thirty years, especially two years ago at Camp David. But if you have your own country, you have to have traffic lights and garbage trucks and Chambers of Commerce, and, worse, you actually have to figure out some way to make a living. That's no fun. No, they want what all the other Jew-Haters in the region want: Israel. They also want a big pile of dead Jews, of course -- that's where the real fun is -- but mostly they want Israel. Why?
For one thing, trying to destroy Israel - or "The Zionist Entity" as their textbooks call it -- for the last fifty years has allowed the rulers of Arab countries to divert the attention of their own people away from the fact that they're the blue-ribbon most illiterate, poorest, and tribally backward on God's Earth, and if you've ever been around God's Earth, you know that's really saying something. It makes me roll my eyes every time one of our pundits waxes poetic about the great history and culture of the Muslim Mid-East. Unless I'm missing something, the Arabs haven't given anything to the world since Algebra, and, by the way, thanks a hell of a lot for that one.
Chew this around and spit it out: Five hundred million Arabs; five million Jews. Think of all the Arab countries as a football field, and Israel as a pack of matches sitting in the middle of it. And now these same folks swear that if Israel gives them half of that pack of matches, everyone will be pals. Really? Wow, what neat news.
Hey, but what about the string of wars to obliterate the tiny country and the constant din of rabid blood oaths to drive every Jew into the sea? Oh, that? We were just kidding. My friend Kevin Rooney made a gorgeous point the other day: Just reverse the numbers. Imagine five hundred million Jews and five million Arabs. I was stunned at the simple brilliance of it. Can anyone picture the Jews strapping belts of razor blades and dynamite to themselves? Of course not. Or marshaling every fiber and force at their disposal for generations to drive a tiny Arab State into the sea? Nonsense. Or dancing for joy at the murder of innocents? Impossible. Or spreading and believing horrible lies about the Arabs baking their bread with the blood of children? Disgusting. No, as you know, left to themselves in a world of peace, the worst Jews would ever do to people is debate them to death.
Mr. Bush, God bless him, is walking a tightrope. I understand that with vital operation against Iraq and others, it's in our interest, as Americans, to try to stabilize our Arab "allies" [sic] as much as possible, and, after all, that can't be much harder than stabilizing a roomful of supermodels who've just had their drugs taken away. However, in any big-picture strategy, there's always a danger of losing moral weight. We've already lost some.
After September 11, 2001 our president told us and the world he was going to root out all terrorists and the countries that supported them. Beautiful. Then the Israelis, after months and months of having the equivalent of an Oklahoma City every week (and then every day) start to do the same thing we did, and we tell them to show restraint. If America were being attacked with an Oklahoma City every day, we would all very shortly be screaming for the administration to just be done with it and kill everything south of the Mediterranean and east of the Jordan. (Hey, wait a minute, that's actually not such a bad id . . .ooh, that is, what a horrible thought, yeah, horrible.)"
Comedian Larry Miller is the author of a "A Brief Overview of the Situation," and Internet-circulated essay about the Arab-Israeli conflict
Tuesday, May 22, 2012
Israel and Its People Continue to Be at the Forefront of Humanitarian Efforts
Israel and its people continue to be at the forefront of humanitarian efforts; progressive policies for women, gays, and other minorities; scientific innovations and technological advances; and assisting thousands of refugees and victims of natural disasters around the world regardless of their religion, race, or nationality.
Here are some important facts to know about Israel's extraordinary achievements.
Refugees:
Since its rebirth in the late 1940s, Israel has absorbed and assisted waves of refugees arriving from countries all over the world. Refugees from Yemen, Vietnam, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Libya and Sudan are now proud Israelis.
Israel is only the size of New Jersey, yet it now has tens of thousands of refugees from war-torn Sudan, Eritrea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and the Congo and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
Humanitarian Aid:
The Israel Defense Forces have responded to earthquakes all over the world, including Mexico, Armenia, Turkey, El Salvador, India and Peru, and Indonesia. Israel sent aid supplies to Sri Lanka in response to the 2003 flood, and Israel was among the first three countries to provide aid to the victims of Southeast Asia’s 2004 Tsunami.
In 2010, Israel was the first country in the world to immediately respond to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti. Israel sent a team of 250 doctors, nurses and rescue workers and set up the first makeshift hospital and surgical center for the victims, saving hundreds of lives.
Medical/Technological Advancements:
Israel has fueled countless technological advancements that help the world, including the discovery of a natural bacterium controlling mosquitoes, helping to prevent river blindness and malaria in 11 African countries. Israeli doctors also travel the world to treat preventable blindness and ocular disease, setting up “eye camps” to people who would not otherwise have access to the technology and treatments. The Israeli organization, Save a Child’s Heart, treats children from all over the world who suffer from heart disease, providing free heart surgeries.
Israel is forging the path in alternative energy, with its company Solel placing solar panels in California’s Mojave Desert, reducing U.S. dependence on oil by 2 million barrels of oil per day. Moreover, The U.S. and Israel are official partners in working toward creating joint projects relating to alternative energy.
Woman’s Rights/Arab Women’s Rights:
Arab women are more educated and have more economic, social and political freedoms in Israel than any other country in the Middle East. Women are full participants in Israel’s government system. Women represent the same percentage of the labor force as the United States at 45 percent.
Gay Rights:
Israel is at the forefront of gay rights issues, prohibiting workplace discrimination in 1992, allowing openly homosexual soldiers to serve in 1993, and granting spousal benefits to same-sex couples in 1994. LGBT organizations and community centers are active throughout Israel, continuing to advocate for LGBT rights.
Diversity In The Country (Tolerance):
Arab Israelis are full citizens, even holding 12 seats in the Israeli government. Twenty percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish, and are free to practice their religion and customs as they choose. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is growing, and Israel is home to the Ba’hai religion’s world headquarters.
Given these facts about Israel and what it has done for the international community, here are a few questions and statements for propagandists who are trying to create ill will toward Israel:
1) Can you name another country in the region that has done so much for desperate asylum seekers? You can’t.
2) Can you name one Arab country that offered to take in Sudanese refugees? You can’t.
3) Can you name the one country in the Middle East where women and minorities enjoy not only full citizenship, but also have active roles in government? Israel
4) Which Middle Eastern country gives more aid to countries and people in need around the world, despite its small size? Israel.
5) Which is the only country in the Middle East that openly supports gay rights? Israel
6) Which country in the Middle East has women and gays serving in the government and military? Israel.
When Does anti-Zionism Become anti-Semitism?
It is perfectly legitimate to criticize Israel's policies. Israelis do it all the time in blistering debates. But criticism crosses the line into classic anti-Semitism when it exhibits what Natan Sharansky calls the "Three Ds."
Delegitimization: The Jewish State has no right to exist. Israelis do not belong in the Middle East.
Double Standards: Israel is condemned harshly for self-defense measures and social problems that are seen as acceptable or inevitable in other nations.
Demonization: Through distortions and lies, Israel is depicted as the world's most evil and dangerous country, and the claim is made that if the Jewish State ceased to exist, the Middle East's and the world's main problems would be solved.
The Link: Anti-Semitism is hatred for Jews, their communities and their way of life. It includes demonizing and dehumanizing Jews as a group. Anti-Zionism is hatred for Israel, the modern center of Jewish life and continuity. This is why many people claim that Anti-Zionism, or hatred for Israel, is a modern variation of classical anti-Semitism. "Anti-Semitic bigotry is no less morally deplorable when camouflaged as anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism," according to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 1 People of goodwill must try to see through anti-Israel propaganda in order to foster reasonable dialogue.
Stand With Us
Here are some important facts to know about Israel's extraordinary achievements.
Refugees:
Since its rebirth in the late 1940s, Israel has absorbed and assisted waves of refugees arriving from countries all over the world. Refugees from Yemen, Vietnam, Sudan, Ethiopia, Yugoslavia, Libya and Sudan are now proud Israelis.
Israel is only the size of New Jersey, yet it now has tens of thousands of refugees from war-torn Sudan, Eritrea, Liberia, Sierra Leone, the Ivory Coast, and the Congo and hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants.
Humanitarian Aid:
The Israel Defense Forces have responded to earthquakes all over the world, including Mexico, Armenia, Turkey, El Salvador, India and Peru, and Indonesia. Israel sent aid supplies to Sri Lanka in response to the 2003 flood, and Israel was among the first three countries to provide aid to the victims of Southeast Asia’s 2004 Tsunami.
In 2010, Israel was the first country in the world to immediately respond to the devastating earthquake that hit Haiti. Israel sent a team of 250 doctors, nurses and rescue workers and set up the first makeshift hospital and surgical center for the victims, saving hundreds of lives.
Medical/Technological Advancements:
Israel has fueled countless technological advancements that help the world, including the discovery of a natural bacterium controlling mosquitoes, helping to prevent river blindness and malaria in 11 African countries. Israeli doctors also travel the world to treat preventable blindness and ocular disease, setting up “eye camps” to people who would not otherwise have access to the technology and treatments. The Israeli organization, Save a Child’s Heart, treats children from all over the world who suffer from heart disease, providing free heart surgeries.
Israel is forging the path in alternative energy, with its company Solel placing solar panels in California’s Mojave Desert, reducing U.S. dependence on oil by 2 million barrels of oil per day. Moreover, The U.S. and Israel are official partners in working toward creating joint projects relating to alternative energy.
Woman’s Rights/Arab Women’s Rights:
Arab women are more educated and have more economic, social and political freedoms in Israel than any other country in the Middle East. Women are full participants in Israel’s government system. Women represent the same percentage of the labor force as the United States at 45 percent.
Gay Rights:
Israel is at the forefront of gay rights issues, prohibiting workplace discrimination in 1992, allowing openly homosexual soldiers to serve in 1993, and granting spousal benefits to same-sex couples in 1994. LGBT organizations and community centers are active throughout Israel, continuing to advocate for LGBT rights.
Diversity In The Country (Tolerance):
Arab Israelis are full citizens, even holding 12 seats in the Israeli government. Twenty percent of Israel’s population is not Jewish, and are free to practice their religion and customs as they choose. Israel is the only country in the Middle East where the number of Christians is growing, and Israel is home to the Ba’hai religion’s world headquarters.
Given these facts about Israel and what it has done for the international community, here are a few questions and statements for propagandists who are trying to create ill will toward Israel:
1) Can you name another country in the region that has done so much for desperate asylum seekers? You can’t.
2) Can you name one Arab country that offered to take in Sudanese refugees? You can’t.
3) Can you name the one country in the Middle East where women and minorities enjoy not only full citizenship, but also have active roles in government? Israel
4) Which Middle Eastern country gives more aid to countries and people in need around the world, despite its small size? Israel.
5) Which is the only country in the Middle East that openly supports gay rights? Israel
6) Which country in the Middle East has women and gays serving in the government and military? Israel.
When Does anti-Zionism Become anti-Semitism?
It is perfectly legitimate to criticize Israel's policies. Israelis do it all the time in blistering debates. But criticism crosses the line into classic anti-Semitism when it exhibits what Natan Sharansky calls the "Three Ds."
Delegitimization: The Jewish State has no right to exist. Israelis do not belong in the Middle East.
Double Standards: Israel is condemned harshly for self-defense measures and social problems that are seen as acceptable or inevitable in other nations.
Demonization: Through distortions and lies, Israel is depicted as the world's most evil and dangerous country, and the claim is made that if the Jewish State ceased to exist, the Middle East's and the world's main problems would be solved.
The Link: Anti-Semitism is hatred for Jews, their communities and their way of life. It includes demonizing and dehumanizing Jews as a group. Anti-Zionism is hatred for Israel, the modern center of Jewish life and continuity. This is why many people claim that Anti-Zionism, or hatred for Israel, is a modern variation of classical anti-Semitism. "Anti-Semitic bigotry is no less morally deplorable when camouflaged as anti-Israelism or anti-Zionism," according to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights. 1 People of goodwill must try to see through anti-Israel propaganda in order to foster reasonable dialogue.
Stand With Us
Sunday, May 20, 2012
The Quran is a Mein Kampf of War
The Koran Versus Mein Kampf
By The Anti-Jihadist
A recent comment thread here at PI compared Herr Hitler's Manifesto from over 80 years ago, "Mein Kampf", to that "holy of hollies" to Muslims, the Koran. Commentators have noted the remarkable similarities between the two, and indeed, the resemblances are more than skin deep and are worth examining in more detail. A closer look at the facts reveals that Islam (not 'Islamism') and Nazism are two kindred ideologies with many, many commonalities.
Let's start with titles. The very title of Herr Hitler's tome means "My Struggle" in English. One could even entitle this book "My Jihad" and this Islamic term would have the same precise meaning. "Kampf" in a Nazi ideological context and "Jihad" in the Islamic one are almost identical. That in itself goes a long way to explaining why 'Mein Kampf' is still such a best seller in current times all over the Islamic World, including in supposedly 'moderate' Islamic states like Turkey.
But the similarities between the Koran and Mein Kampf don't just stop there. Far from it. Fellow blogger and ally Freedom Fighter over at his/her blog Joshua Pundit has come up with an exceptional, enlightening list of how alike Islam and Nazism really are:
Mein Kampf- States that Germans are the superior race of mankind and that Germany is destined to rule the world , and dominate all other races and nations.
The Qur'an- States that Islam and Muslims are the superiors of mankind and that Islam is divinely mandated to rule the world and dominate all other races, creeds and nations.
Mein Kampf- Says that the German State is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to the State.
The Qur'an- Says that Islam and Sharia is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to Islam.
Mein Kampf- Says that Germans have the duty to claim their divinely appointed place in the world by whatever means necessary. Puts loyalty to the Volk (the race) above all other ethical considerations.
The Qur'an- Says that Muslims have a duty to wage Jihad and to advance Islam's domination over the world (Dar Islam and Dar Harb) by any means necessary. Places loyalty to fellow Muslims (Umma) and Islam above all other ethical considerations.
Mein Kampf- Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home.
The Qur'an- Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home. (Admittedly, the Q'uran goes quite a bit farther than Mein Kampf on this topic)
Mein Kampf- Says that homosexuals are 'race traitors' and should be condemned to death. (Many, in fact were murdered in the concentration camps).
The Qur'an- Says homosexuals are unholy to Allah and should be condemned to death
Mein Kampf- Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by the German race. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Germans by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Germans. States that non-Germans have no legal or civil rights.
The Q'uran- Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by Muslims. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Muslims by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Muslims. States that non-Muslims have no legal or civil rights. (in truth, a lot of this has its basis in the Hadith and the Sunna, but both derive essentially from what's in the Q'uran, along with all the other aspects of Sharia).
Mein Kampf- Divides the world into 'German land' and enemy territory. States that land with Germans living in it or land that once had Germans ruling it rightfully belongs to Germany, and Germany is entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
The Qur'an- Divides the world into 'Dar al Islam' (Muslim ruled land) and enemy territory (Dar al Harb). States that land with Muslims living in it or land that once had Muslims ruling it rightfully belongs to Dar al Islam, and Muslims are entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
Mein Kampf- Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated.
The Qur'an- Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated. ("On the day of Judgement the rocks and trees will call out 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and slay him!")
Islam and Nazism. Mohammed and Hitler. As plain as day, they are cut from the same cloth.
Pedestrian Infidel
By The Anti-Jihadist
A recent comment thread here at PI compared Herr Hitler's Manifesto from over 80 years ago, "Mein Kampf", to that "holy of hollies" to Muslims, the Koran. Commentators have noted the remarkable similarities between the two, and indeed, the resemblances are more than skin deep and are worth examining in more detail. A closer look at the facts reveals that Islam (not 'Islamism') and Nazism are two kindred ideologies with many, many commonalities.
Let's start with titles. The very title of Herr Hitler's tome means "My Struggle" in English. One could even entitle this book "My Jihad" and this Islamic term would have the same precise meaning. "Kampf" in a Nazi ideological context and "Jihad" in the Islamic one are almost identical. That in itself goes a long way to explaining why 'Mein Kampf' is still such a best seller in current times all over the Islamic World, including in supposedly 'moderate' Islamic states like Turkey.
But the similarities between the Koran and Mein Kampf don't just stop there. Far from it. Fellow blogger and ally Freedom Fighter over at his/her blog Joshua Pundit has come up with an exceptional, enlightening list of how alike Islam and Nazism really are:
Mein Kampf- States that Germans are the superior race of mankind and that Germany is destined to rule the world , and dominate all other races and nations.
The Qur'an- States that Islam and Muslims are the superiors of mankind and that Islam is divinely mandated to rule the world and dominate all other races, creeds and nations.
Mein Kampf- Says that the German State is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to the State.
The Qur'an- Says that Islam and Sharia is to have control over every aspect of life. Says all individuals must submit to Islam.
Mein Kampf- Says that Germans have the duty to claim their divinely appointed place in the world by whatever means necessary. Puts loyalty to the Volk (the race) above all other ethical considerations.
The Qur'an- Says that Muslims have a duty to wage Jihad and to advance Islam's domination over the world (Dar Islam and Dar Harb) by any means necessary. Places loyalty to fellow Muslims (Umma) and Islam above all other ethical considerations.
Mein Kampf- Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home.
The Qur'an- Mandates that men are superior to women and that women's place should be limited to procreation, the kitchen and the home. (Admittedly, the Q'uran goes quite a bit farther than Mein Kampf on this topic)
Mein Kampf- Says that homosexuals are 'race traitors' and should be condemned to death. (Many, in fact were murdered in the concentration camps).
The Qur'an- Says homosexuals are unholy to Allah and should be condemned to death
Mein Kampf- Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by the German race. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Germans by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Germans. States that non-Germans have no legal or civil rights.
The Q'uran- Sets out a detailed model for world conquest, including rules for how conquered peoples are to be suppressed and dominated by Muslims. States that the wealth, resources and property of subject peoples belongs to Muslims by right and the right to life for subject peoples is dependent on Muslims. States that non-Muslims have no legal or civil rights. (in truth, a lot of this has its basis in the Hadith and the Sunna, but both derive essentially from what's in the Q'uran, along with all the other aspects of Sharia).
Mein Kampf- Divides the world into 'German land' and enemy territory. States that land with Germans living in it or land that once had Germans ruling it rightfully belongs to Germany, and Germany is entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
The Qur'an- Divides the world into 'Dar al Islam' (Muslim ruled land) and enemy territory (Dar al Harb). States that land with Muslims living in it or land that once had Muslims ruling it rightfully belongs to Dar al Islam, and Muslims are entitled to get it back by any means necessary.
Mein Kampf- Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated.
The Qur'an- Blames the Jews for society's ills and says that they will be exterminated. ("On the day of Judgement the rocks and trees will call out 'O Muslim! There is a Jew hiding behind me! Come and slay him!")
Islam and Nazism. Mohammed and Hitler. As plain as day, they are cut from the same cloth.
Pedestrian Infidel
Friday, May 18, 2012
Can Muslims Be Good Americans?
[note - all mistakes below are original to the text]
This is very interesting and we all need to read it from start to finish and send it on to everyone. Maybe this is why our American Muslims are so quiet and not speaking out about any atrocities.
Can a good Muslim be a good American? This question was forwarded to a friend who worked in Saudi Arabia for 20 years.
The following is his reply:
* Theologically - no. . . Because his allegiance is to Allah, The moon God of Arabia.
* Religiously - no. . . Because no other religion is accepted by His Allah except Islam (Quran, 2:256)
* Scripturally - no. . . Because his allegiance is to the five Pillars of Islam and the Quran.
* Geographically - no... Because his allegiance is to Mecca, to which he turns in prayer five times a day.
* Socially - no. . . Because his allegiance to Islam forbids him to make friends with Christians or Jews.
* Politically - no. . . Because he must submit to the mullahs (spiritual leaders), who teach annihilation of Israel, the small Satan and destruction of America, the great Satan.
* Domestically - no. . . Because he is instructed to marry four Women and beat and scourge his wife when she disobeys him (Quran 4:34 )
* Intellectually - no. . . Because he cannot accept the American Constitution since it is based on Biblical principles and he believes the Bible to be corrupt.
* Philosophically - no. . . Because Islam, Muhammad, and the Quran does not allow freedom of religion and expression. Democracy and Islam cannot co-exist. Every Muslim government is either dictatorial or autocratic.
* Spiritually - no. . . Because when we declare 'one nation under God,' the Christian's God is loving and kind, while Allah is NEVER referred to as Heavenly father, nor is he ever called love in the Quran's 99 excellent names.
Therefore, after much study and deliberation.... Perhaps we should be very suspicious of ALL MUSLIMS in this country. - - - They obviously cannot be both 'good' Muslims and good Americans. Call it what you wish it's still the truth. You better believe it. The more who understand this, the better it will be for our country and our future.
The religious war is bigger than we know or understand.
Footnote: The Muslims have said they will destroy us from within.
SO FREEDOM IS NOT FREE.
THE MARINES WANT THIS TO ROLL ALL OVER THE U.S.
Please send it on.
Thursday, May 17, 2012
Jewish and Non-Jewish Population of Palestine-Israel
Jewish and Non-Jewish Population of Palestine-Israel
(1517-2004)
Year | Grand Total | Jews | Non-Jews | Non-Jewish Percentage |
1517 | 300,000 est. | 5,000 | 295,000 | 98.3 |
1882 | 300,000 | 24,000 | 276,000 | 92.0 |
1918 | 660,000 | 60,000 | 600,000 | 90.9 |
1931 | 1,035,821 | 174,610 | 861,211 | 83.1 |
1936 | 1,366,692 | 384,078 | 982,614 | 71.9 |
1946 | 1,810,037 | 543,000 | 1,267,037 | 70.0 |
1948* | 872,700 | 716,700 | 156,000 | 17.9 |
1949 | 1,173,900 | 1,013,900 | 160,000 | 13.6 |
1950 | 1,370,100 | 1,203,000 | 167,100 | 12.2 |
1951 | 1,577,800 | 1,404,400 | 173,400 | 11.0 |
1952 | 1,629,500 | 1,450,200 | 179,300 | 11.0 |
1953 | 1,669,400 | 1,483,600 | 185,800 | 11.1 |
1954 | 1,717,800 | 1,526,000 | 191,800 | 11.1 |
1955 | 1,789,100 | 1,590,500 | 198,600 | 11.1 |
1956 | 1,872,400 | 1,667,500 | 204,900 | 10.9 |
1957 | 1,976,000 | 1,762,800 | 213,200 | 10.7 |
1958 | 2,031,700 | 1,810,200 | 221,500 | 10.9 |
1959 | 2,088,700 | 1,858,800 | 229,900 | 11.0 |
1960 | 2,150,400 | 1,911,300 | 239,100 | 11.1 |
1961 | 2,234,200 | 1,981,700 | 252,500 | 11.3 |
1962 | 2,331,800 | 2,068,900 | 262,900 | 11.2 |
1963 | 2,430,100 | 2,155,600 | 274,500 | 11.3 |
1964 | 2,525,600 | 2,239,200 | 286,400 | 11.3 |
1965 | 2,598,400 | 2,299,100 | 299,300 | 11.5 |
1966 | 2,657,400 | 2,344,900 | 312,500 | 11.7 |
1967 | 2,776,300 | 2,383,600 | 392,700 | 14.1 |
1968 | 2,841,100 | 2,434,800 | 406,300 | 14.3 |
1969 | 2,929,500 | 2,506,800 | 422,700 | 14.4 |
1970 | 3,022,100 | 2,582,000 | 440,100 | 14.5 |
1971 | 3,120,700 | 2,662,000 | 458,700 | 14.7 |
1972 | 3,225,000 | 2,752,700 | 472,300 | 14.6 |
1973 | 3,338,200 | 2,845,000 | 493,200 | 14.8 |
1974 | 3,421,600 | 2,906,900 | 514,700 | 15.0 |
1975 | 3,493,200 | 2,959,400 | 533,800 | 15.3 |
1976 | 3,575,400 | 3,020,400 | 555,000 | 15.5 |
1977 | 3,653,200 | 3,077,300 | 575,900 | 15.7 |
1978 | 3,737,600 | 3,141,200 | 596,400 | 15.9 |
1979 | 3,836,200 | 3,218,400 | 617,800 | 16.1 |
1980 | 3,921,700 | 3,282,700 | 639,000 | 16.3 |
1981 | 3,977,700 | 3,320,300 | 657,400 | 16.5 |
1982 | 4,063,700 | 3,737,200 | 690,400 | 17.0 |
1983 | 4,118,600 | 3,412,500 | 706,100 | 17.1 |
1984 | 4,199,700 | 3,471,700 | 728,000 | 17.3 |
1985 | 4,266,200 | 3,517,200 | 749,000 | 17.5 |
1986 | 4,331,300 | 3,561,400 | 769,900 | 17.7 |
1987 | 4,406,500 | 3,612,900 | 793,600 | 18.0 |
1988 | 4,476,800 | 3,659,000 | 817,800 | 18.2 |
1989 | 4,559,600 | 3,717,700 | 842,500 | 18.4 |
1990 | 4,821,700 | 3,946,700 | 875,000 | 18.1 |
1991 | 5,058,800 | 4,144,600 | 914,200 | 18.0 |
1992 | 5,195,900 | 4,242,500 | 953,400 | 18.3 |
1993 | 5,327,600 | 4,335,200 | 992,400 | 18.6 |
1994 | 5,471,500 | 4,441,100 | 1,030,400 | 18.8 |
1995 | 5,612,300 | 4,522,300 | 1,090,000 | 19.4 |
1996 | 5,757,900 | 4,616,100 | 1,141,800 | 19.8 |
1997 | 5,900,000 | 4,701,600 | 1,198,400 | 20.3 |
1998 | 6,041,400 | 4,785,100 | 1,256,300 | 20.8 |
1999 | 6,209,100 | 4,872,800 | 1,336,300 | 21.5 |
2000 | 6,369,300 | 4,955,400 | 1,413,900 | 22.2 |
2001** | 6,508,800 | 5,025,000 | 1,483,800 | 22.8 |
2002 | 6,631,100 | 5,094,200 | 1,536,900 | 23.2 |
2003 | 6,748,400 | 5,165,400 | 1,583,300 | 23.4 |
2004 | 6,869,500 | 5,237,600 | 1,631,900 | 23.7 |
* Majority Arab [non-Jewish] population displaced by Israel's establishment.
** The data do not include about 150,000 guest workers.
Source:Israel in the Middle East: Documents and Readings on Society, Politics, and Foreign Relations, Pre-1948 to the Present, Ed. by Itamar Rabinovich and Jehuda Reinharz, Brandeis University Press, Waltham, Mass., 2008. (pp.571-572)
Jewish Virtual Library
Top Ten Tanks
Over the past century, dozens of tanks have been designed and built to blast their way across the battlefield.
These are the best of the best. They are the top ten tanks of all time.
This is a list of the military channel. I disagree with some of it, but I trust they checked it well, so I re-posted it.
10. M-4 Sherman (US)
First produced in 1942. Top speed: 24 mph. Range: 100 miles. The tank's radial nine-cylinder engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 15.8 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 62 millimeters. Primary armament: 75-mm high-velocity gun.
The Sherman scored low on firepower and armor. Its Ford eight-cylinder engine was efficient and reliable, so the tank scored slightly better for mobility. But it is ease of manufacture that won the M-4 its place among the top 10 tanks: a staggering 48,000 of them were produced over just three years. Thus, the Sherman received a top production rating.
9. Merkava (Israel)
First produced in 1977. Top speed: 34 mph. Range: 310 miles. The Teledyne turbo-charged diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 14.28 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm gun.
The Merkava's armor cannot be faulted, and it scored the maximum possible in the protection category. But the sheer amount of armor damages its speed and weight-to-power ratio, which gives this Israeli war weapon a below-average score in mobility. The Merkava is complex and expensive, thus it also receives a very low production rating. However, the tank has proved effective in battle, gaining solid firepower and fear factor scores, which ensure it a spot in ninth place.
8. T-54/55 (USSR)
First produced in 1948. Top speed 30 mph. Range: 250 miles. The tank's V-12 water-cooled diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 14.44 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 203 millimeters. Primary armament: 100-mm D10T gun.
The T-54/55 scored average marks for firepower, mobility and protection. In all 95,000 T-54/55s were made, so it scored top marks for production. However, it ranked just below average for fear factor - the only reason to be afraid of this tank was because of the vast numbers produced.
7. Challenger (UK)
First produced in 1982. Top speed: 37 mph. Range: 340 miles. The Condor V-12 engine gives Challenger a power-to-weight ratio of 19.2 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm rifled gun.
The Challenger scores very good marks for its world-class armor, and the maximum on firepower - the rifled 120-mm gun is a record-breaker. Marks are down for mobility, and further down for production. This tank gets a low average for fear factor: it's an impressive machine, but there aren't enough of them to make an enemy truly fearful.
6. Mk IV Panzer (Germany)
First produced in 1937. Top speed: 24.8 mph. Range: 130 miles. The Maybach V-12 gasoline engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 10.6 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 50 millimeters. Primary armament: 75-mm gun.
The Mk IV scores an average ranking for mobility, and gets good points for armor and firepower. But the Mk IV Panzer really disappoints in the ease-of-manufacture category. The Mk IV is a complex, heavily engineered machine, and like all German tanks, it was not easy to mass-produce. Its fear factor score is very high: in the early days of World War II this tank was unstoppable.
5. Centurion (UK)
First produced in 1945. Top speed: 22 mph. Range: 120 miles. The Meteor V-12 gasoline engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 12.54 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 17-152 millimeters. Primary armament: 105-mm gun.
The Centurion scores average in mobility, but high in firepower. Its armor has proved its value, so the British bulldog scores near to the maximum in this category. It was also awarded high marks for production, as it features a good simple design and has been produced in large numbers.
4. WWI Tank (UK)
First produced in 1917. Top speed: 4 mph. Range: 22 miles. Its Daimler six-cylinder engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 3.3 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 6-12 millimeters. Primary armament: two 6-pounder guns.
The WWI tank did have thin armor - but it was the only armored vehicle in existence, so it scores well in this category, as it does on mobility and firepower. But it was not an easy machine to manufacture, being very much a high-tech product in its day, so it scores below average in this category. However, its fear factor was massive - nothing like it had ever been seen before - earning it a respectable fourth place on the list.
3. Tiger (Germany)
First produced in 1942. Top speed: 23 mph. Range: 121 miles. Its Maybach engine gives a weight-to-power ratio of 12.3 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 100 millimeters. Primary armament: 88-mm gun.
The Tiger scores top marks for firepower; its 88-mm gun was a real monster for the time. For armor it scores close to the maximum. This was a heavy tank, but speed is still reasonable, so it achieves an acceptable score in this category. But it is the production rating that really lets the Tiger down - here it scores close to zero points. Its fear factor, however, is off the scale - even its name was an act of psychological warfare.
2. M-1 Abrams (US)
First produced in 1983. Top speed: 42 mph. Range: 289 miles. The Textron AGT 1500 gas turbine engine gives Abrams a power-to-weight ratio of 26.64 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm M256 gun.
The M-1 scores full marks for firepower and armor - it is the match of any of today's top tanks. The gas-guzzling engine loses points for mobility, though it still scores way above average. For its production rating, the score is low. This is a monstrously complex tank, expensive and difficult to engineer. Arguably the deadliest tank of all time, it gets full marks for fear factor.
1: T-34 (USSR)(US)
First produced in 1940. Top speed: 34 mph. Range: 268 miles. The four-stroke 12-cylinder diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 15.87 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 65 millimeters Primary armament: 76.2-mm gun.
The T-34 scores near to full points for firepower, mobility and protection. It surpasses any other tank for ease of manufacture - gaining full points in the production category. The tank's fear factor would have been immense, and it was awarded just short of the maximum in that category.
Military Channel
These are the best of the best. They are the top ten tanks of all time.
This is a list of the military channel. I disagree with some of it, but I trust they checked it well, so I re-posted it.
10. M-4 Sherman (US)
First produced in 1942. Top speed: 24 mph. Range: 100 miles. The tank's radial nine-cylinder engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 15.8 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 62 millimeters. Primary armament: 75-mm high-velocity gun.
The Sherman scored low on firepower and armor. Its Ford eight-cylinder engine was efficient and reliable, so the tank scored slightly better for mobility. But it is ease of manufacture that won the M-4 its place among the top 10 tanks: a staggering 48,000 of them were produced over just three years. Thus, the Sherman received a top production rating.
9. Merkava (Israel)
First produced in 1977. Top speed: 34 mph. Range: 310 miles. The Teledyne turbo-charged diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 14.28 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm gun.
The Merkava's armor cannot be faulted, and it scored the maximum possible in the protection category. But the sheer amount of armor damages its speed and weight-to-power ratio, which gives this Israeli war weapon a below-average score in mobility. The Merkava is complex and expensive, thus it also receives a very low production rating. However, the tank has proved effective in battle, gaining solid firepower and fear factor scores, which ensure it a spot in ninth place.
8. T-54/55 (USSR)
First produced in 1948. Top speed 30 mph. Range: 250 miles. The tank's V-12 water-cooled diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 14.44 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 203 millimeters. Primary armament: 100-mm D10T gun.
The T-54/55 scored average marks for firepower, mobility and protection. In all 95,000 T-54/55s were made, so it scored top marks for production. However, it ranked just below average for fear factor - the only reason to be afraid of this tank was because of the vast numbers produced.
7. Challenger (UK)
First produced in 1982. Top speed: 37 mph. Range: 340 miles. The Condor V-12 engine gives Challenger a power-to-weight ratio of 19.2 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm rifled gun.
The Challenger scores very good marks for its world-class armor, and the maximum on firepower - the rifled 120-mm gun is a record-breaker. Marks are down for mobility, and further down for production. This tank gets a low average for fear factor: it's an impressive machine, but there aren't enough of them to make an enemy truly fearful.
6. Mk IV Panzer (Germany)
First produced in 1937. Top speed: 24.8 mph. Range: 130 miles. The Maybach V-12 gasoline engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 10.6 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 50 millimeters. Primary armament: 75-mm gun.
The Mk IV scores an average ranking for mobility, and gets good points for armor and firepower. But the Mk IV Panzer really disappoints in the ease-of-manufacture category. The Mk IV is a complex, heavily engineered machine, and like all German tanks, it was not easy to mass-produce. Its fear factor score is very high: in the early days of World War II this tank was unstoppable.
5. Centurion (UK)
First produced in 1945. Top speed: 22 mph. Range: 120 miles. The Meteor V-12 gasoline engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 12.54 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 17-152 millimeters. Primary armament: 105-mm gun.
The Centurion scores average in mobility, but high in firepower. Its armor has proved its value, so the British bulldog scores near to the maximum in this category. It was also awarded high marks for production, as it features a good simple design and has been produced in large numbers.
4. WWI Tank (UK)
First produced in 1917. Top speed: 4 mph. Range: 22 miles. Its Daimler six-cylinder engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 3.3 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 6-12 millimeters. Primary armament: two 6-pounder guns.
The WWI tank did have thin armor - but it was the only armored vehicle in existence, so it scores well in this category, as it does on mobility and firepower. But it was not an easy machine to manufacture, being very much a high-tech product in its day, so it scores below average in this category. However, its fear factor was massive - nothing like it had ever been seen before - earning it a respectable fourth place on the list.
3. Tiger (Germany)
First produced in 1942. Top speed: 23 mph. Range: 121 miles. Its Maybach engine gives a weight-to-power ratio of 12.3 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 100 millimeters. Primary armament: 88-mm gun.
The Tiger scores top marks for firepower; its 88-mm gun was a real monster for the time. For armor it scores close to the maximum. This was a heavy tank, but speed is still reasonable, so it achieves an acceptable score in this category. But it is the production rating that really lets the Tiger down - here it scores close to zero points. Its fear factor, however, is off the scale - even its name was an act of psychological warfare.
2. M-1 Abrams (US)
First produced in 1983. Top speed: 42 mph. Range: 289 miles. The Textron AGT 1500 gas turbine engine gives Abrams a power-to-weight ratio of 26.64 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: classified. Primary armament: 120-mm M256 gun.
The M-1 scores full marks for firepower and armor - it is the match of any of today's top tanks. The gas-guzzling engine loses points for mobility, though it still scores way above average. For its production rating, the score is low. This is a monstrously complex tank, expensive and difficult to engineer. Arguably the deadliest tank of all time, it gets full marks for fear factor.
1: T-34 (USSR)(US)
First produced in 1940. Top speed: 34 mph. Range: 268 miles. The four-stroke 12-cylinder diesel engine gives a power-to-weight ratio of 15.87 horsepower per ton. Armor thickness: 65 millimeters Primary armament: 76.2-mm gun.
The T-34 scores near to full points for firepower, mobility and protection. It surpasses any other tank for ease of manufacture - gaining full points in the production category. The tank's fear factor would have been immense, and it was awarded just short of the maximum in that category.
Military Channel
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