The horrific racial persecution of the Holocaust is all too familiar to us. That dark period in history was marked by the brutal deaths of millions of innocent people and also involved the virtual enslavement of more than 10 million foreign laborers in Germany.
Franklin Roosevelt\’s remark that Dominican dictator Rafael Trujillo \”may be an SOB, but he\’s our SOB\” is a reminder that defending universal human rights may be a good American party line, but it is somewhat tainted by the support given to loathsome regimes in Chile, Guatemala and South Africa. It\’s Lori Berenson\’s singular achievement that she has unwittingly injected Peru\’s Alberto Fujimori into that mix.Fujimori had crushed the Shining Path terrorists (not to be confused with Tupac Amaru) and destroyed the Peruvian drug trade. Yet his government has been sharply criticized by human rights organizations as well as by the State Department.
Almost from the day that negotiations at Camp David broke off this past summer, foundering over Jerusalem, Arafat has been traveling the world meeting with heads of state – in Europe, the Arab countries, the U.S. – and trying to rally support.
After explaining who Lieberman was and why this day was so historic, my son\’s only question was, \”So why isn\’t he wearing a yarmulke?\”
I flew to New York on the morning of Rosh Hashanah, 5760. Tuesday there was a day in court, a dreaded ugly ending to a seemingly unending divorce.
Is there any hope for bringing Abu-Hanud to justice?
Recently, a Chinese-American doctor was monitoring my heart as the speed and incline were increased on the treadmill during a stress test. Perhaps he wanted me to relax; perhaps he was bored and was trying to make conversation. Apropos of nothing but my presence on the treadmill, he casually tossed the question at me: \”What do you think of Lieberman as the vice presidential candidate? Were you surprised?\”I gave a perfunctory answer, yes and no, and then heard myself say, \”When I was a boy, his nomination would have been astonishing. Jews were outsiders then. But now we\’re part of the U.S., just like any other white American.\”
The rabbi is upset with the public protest from Jewish leaders over the Vatican\’s beatification of Pius IX this coming week.
