Slaying of RFK Gave U.S. a First Taste of Mideast Terror

From Slaying of RFK Gave U.S. a First Taste of Mideast Terror:

Some scholars see the shooting of Robert F. Kennedy as America's first taste of the political violence of the Middle East.

"I thought of it as an act of violence motivated by hatred of Israel and of anybody who supported Israel," said Alan Dershowitz, a Harvard law professor who had worked on Kennedy's campaign as a volunteer adviser. "It was in some ways the beginning of Islamic terrorism in America. It was the first shot. A lot of us didn't recognize it at the time." A year after Kennedy's death, former UN Ambassador Arthur Goldberg - for whom Dershowitz had clerked on the Supreme Court and with whom he shared a fervent Zionism - told Dershowitz that [the Palestinian assassin] Sirhan had identified Goldberg as a potential target, too.

A generation of revelations about Sirhan's motives - and a changed environment in which Americans have come to fear political violence with origins abroad - have drawn out his crime as a prelude to the kidnappings at the Munich Olympics, the hijacking of the cruise ship Achille Lauro, and the two assaults on the World Trade Center. "Even though it wasn't perceived at the time as an act of political terrorism, on a visceral level - on a subliminal level - the Kennedy assassination planted a seed of concern in Americans about the Palestinian issue and the issue of terrorism," said Michael Oren, a senior fellow at the Shalem Center in Jerusalem.

LBJ's Newly Released Oval Office Recordings Disclose His Deep Feelings toward Israel

Via LBJ's Newly Released Oval Office Recordings Disclose His Deep Feelings toward Israel:

Tapes of Lyndon Johnson's Oval Office conversations, released to the public for the first time on Wednesday, reveal that the American president had a personal and often emotional connection to Israel.

"I sure as hell want to be careful and not run out on little Israel," Johnson said in a March 1968 conversation with his ambassador to the United Nations, Arthur Goldberg. In a taped conversation from June 25, 1967, about three weeks after Israel defeated three Arab armies, Johnson relates a conversation with Soviet Premier Alexey Kosygin.

"He couldn't understand why we'd want to support the Jews - 3 million people - when there are 100 million Arabs," the president said.

"I told him that numbers do not determine what was right. We tried to do what was right regardless of the numbers."

President Truman's Decision to Recognize Israel

Israel at 60. The charge that domestic politics determined US policy on Palestine angered President Truman for the rest of his life. In fact, the President's policy rested on the realities of the situation in the region, on America's moral, ethical, and humanitarian values, on the costs and risks inherent in any other course, and on America's national interests. Israel was going to come into existence whether or not Washington recognized it. But without American support from the very beginning, Israel's survival would have been at even greater risk. Truman's decision, although opposed by almost the entire foreign policy establishment, was the right one - and despite complicated consequences that continue to this day, it is a decision all Americans should recognize and admire.

People don't know what to ask the candidates

But David Bedein does. The following twenty Middle East policy questions are the questions that American voters may wish to pose to Senators Barrack Obama, Hillary Clinton and John McCain. Whomever can answer the questions the most intelligently will be the one whom I will consider giving my vote. I'll tell you though, I'm not that hopeful that I will be voting this election. Via INN:

1. Numerous declassified security reports confirm that Saudi Arabia continues to fund groups defined by the US government as terrorist organizations, while Saudi Arabia maintains an active state of war against the state of Israel since 1948. How would you, as president, relate to the security threat posed by Saudi Arabia?

2. The current administration offers major arms sales to Saudi Arabia, despite its pro-terror posture. Would you, as president, continue this policy of arming the Saudis?

3. Successive US presidents have supported the idea that Palestinian refugees should reside in the squalor of UNRWA refugee camps, under the premise and promise of the “right of return,” instead of being rehabilitated under the principles of UNHCR, which works to rehabilitate refugees in decent and permanent living conditions. Instead of perpetuation of the unreal notion of the "right of return" to villages and homes that no longer exist, would you, as president, call for an application of UNHCR principles to alleviate the plight of Palestinian refugees?

4. The Bush Administration has announced a program to arm Fatah, despite current terror activities of Fatah and despite the fact that Fatah remains on the list of organizations defined by American law as illegal terrorist groups. Would you, as president, continue to arm Fatah?

5. The Palestinian Authority has used US AID funds to foster a Sharia constitution which does not provide juridical status for any religion besides Islam. Would you, as president, approve of this PA policy?

6. Would you, as president, ask for a change in such a constitution as a condition of future aid to the PA?

7. The Bush Administration has restrained Israel from counterattacking in Gaza to put an end to the daily missile attacks from Gaza. Would you, as president, restrain the hand of Israel?

8. As a matter of policy, terrorists who fire missiles at Israel from Gaza use Gaza civilians as human shields. Would you, as president, recognize the fact that casualties in Gaza remain a direct result of this human-shield policy?

9. The Palestinian Authority harbors terrorists suspected of murder and refuses to hand them over for trial. The Clinton and Bush Administrations turned a blind eye to this policy. Would you, as president, allow such a policy to continue?

10. The Palestinian Authority operates with no system of civil liberties or human rights. Would you, as president, condition for any future US assistance on a human rights and civil liberties reform in the PA?

11. Christians are persecuted in the PA and are often not allowed to practice their religion in the open. The American consulate in Jerusalem has refused to render assistance to Christians who are persecuted by the PA. Would you, as president, continue to ignore the plight of Christians who are persecuted in the PA, or will you champion the cause of Christians seeking to practice their religion freely?

12. Syria continues to host and support a plethora of terror groups. What would your policy, as president, be towards Syria in this regard?

13. Syria continues to orchestrate the export of lethal narcotics to the world. Would you, as president, support an effort to destroy the Syrian source of lethal narcotics in the Bekaa Valley?

14. Since the Golan Heights was used by Syria between 1949 and 1967 to attack Israeli communities in the Galilee, would you, as president, support an effort to force Israel to withdraw from the Golan?

15. The Bush Administration asks that Israel abide by the Road Map for Peace. Which Road Map would you, as president, endorse - the Road Map of April 30, 2003, or the Road Map of May 25, 2003? (The second Road Map contains the reservations of Israel, which include detailed Israeli directives to disband terror groups as a precondition to continued negotiations.)

16. The Bush Administration characterizes the Fatah terror organization as a “moderate” factor. Would you, as president, share in that characterization?

17. The Clinton and Bush Administrations overlooked the fact that the PLO never ratified the Oslo Accords' “Declaration of Principles,” which required the PLO and Fatah to recognize Israel, denounce terror and cancel the PLO-Fatah Charter calling for Israel’s obliteration. It will be recalled that the PLO signed the Oslo Accords on the White House lawn on September 13, 1993, and would not ratify these accords when the PLO Executive convened on October 6, 1993, in Tunis; and it would not cancel the PLO Charter when the PNC convened on April 24, 1996.
Would you, as president, insist on a change in that policy?

Would you, as president, continue the Clinton/Bush policy of ignoring the fact that the PLO never ratified the Oslo Accords and never canceled the PLO Charter?

18. The Clinton and Bush Administrations instituted a policy of ignoring the messages communicated by the newly constituted Palestinian Authority in the Arabic language, which include a clear language of continued war on Israel. Would you, as president, insist on a change in that policy and issue a directive that any aid to the PA require a cessation of calls to terrorism by the official media outlets of the PA?

19. The Clinton and Bush Administrations have consistently ignored the fact that the curriculum introduced by the PA inculcates the next generation to continue the war to liberate all of Palestine. Would you, as president, ask for a cancellation of such a curriculum?

20. Since the Gaza withdrawal demonstrates that Palestinians will use areas under their control to launch missile attacks against Israel, would you, as president, insist on future Israeli withdrawals?

Theodore Roosevelt's ideas on Immigrants and being an American in 1907.

"In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language... and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people." -- Theodore Roosevelt, 1907

Did Theodore Roosevelt really say this? Yes, he did.

Eisenhower Regretted He Pushed for Sinai Withdrawal in 1956

From Eisenhower Regretted He Pushed for Sinai Withdrawal in 1956:

In Israel's 1956 joint military undertaking with Britain and France, President Eisenhower warned Israel of severe consequences were it not to withdraw from the Gaza Strip and Sinai. Israel complied. Peter Golden in his "authorized biography" of Max M. Fisher, Quiet Diplomat (1992), relates that in October 1965 Fisher met with Eisenhower in Gettysburg. Toward the end of the visit Eisenhower "wistfully commented, 'You know, Max, looking back at Suez, I regret what I did. I never should have pressured Israel to evacuate the Sinai.'" Eisenhower's remark astonished Fisher. Nixon also told Golden: "Eisenhower...in the 1960s told me - and I am sure he told others - that he thought the action that was taken (at Suez) was one he regretted. He thought it was a mistake."

The Kennedy Irony

Isn't it ironic, and rather fitting that Ted Kennedy, the major author of the current amnesty/immigration reform bill who is hell-bent on getting illegal immigrants into our country as fast as possible without legal recourse, is trying to protect Muslim terrorists who were going to blow up something named after his brother, John?