True
Respect for Democracy
by Steven Shamrak.
Maybe because I was born and raised in dictatorial
Communist country, like the former Soviet Union, I feel a special admiration
and respect for the ideals of democracy that are practiced in the USA and, to a
degree, in Israel. I have the same respect for the executive offices of the
President and the PM. Unfortunately, the people who
are elected to these offices quite often do not reach the level of integrity
these positions demand!
Every day of my life I used to live surrounded by
political propaganda in a country where brainwashing of the population was the
principal survival preoccupation of the government. Every member of Soviet
society was an active or silent participant of this dehumanisation
machinery which affected 270 million people.
Therefore, I am able to see and feel with heightened
sensitivity the abuse of the power, manipulation of the public and enormous
level of corruption that are being perpetrated by unscrupulous officials, who
are only serving the self- and special-interest groups which put them in the
office of power in the United States, Europe and Israel! Fortunately, Muslim
and Arab states have not reached a level of such hideous sophistication.
It is my high level of respect for democracy that
compels me to speak out and expose corruption. Democracy demands free
expression of opinion and accountability of the leadership. It was practiced
freely during the early days of the French revolution and even during the
Russian revolution in 1917, but was lost because the public allowed
self-serving opportunists to take over their lives!
It is a moral duty of any self-respecting person,
especially those living in a democratic society and who cherish its values
(where they are not at the risk of losing their life and the right of freedom
of speech is supported, so far, by actionable laws) to speak out and defend
their rights and keep politicians accountable for their hypocrisy and
corruption. Capitulation to the abuse of power and corruption results in a high
level of apathy and feeling of personal insignificance among the public. It
ultimately destroys democracy!
True democracy not only requires freedom of
expression and accountability, it needs them for self-preservation! Silence,
apathy and false political correctness are disrespectful and mortally dangerous
to democracy!
Food for Thought by Steven Shamrak
Please compare two headlines:
1. Military: Israeli killed in West Bank attack
2. Syrian rebels killed or kidnapped hundreds of civilians
Who killed an Israeli? The headlines were
published by the same day (11.10.2013), the same news provider (foxnews.com),
but had distinctly different headline descriptions (priming) of similar crimes.
Most people read headlines only! Media organizations are deliberately
downplaying the terror Jews endure from the hands of so-called Palestinians,
but viciously attack and smear Israel for trying to combat their
terror-infested enemy population!
Is
Czech Republic the only Decent Country in the World?
The official Czech news agency CTK quoted Czech president Milos Zeman as
saying that he might move the Czech embassy to Israel to Jerusalem from Tel
Aviv. The Cairo-based Arab League has
condemned remarks by the Czech president about moving his country's embassy
from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, calling them a violation of Palestinian (fictitious)
rights and international resolutions. (Enemies of
Israel are prompt to squash any attempts, even rumors, of recognition of
Israel’s rights!)
Western Made Muslim Democracy in Action
Obama
is Already Planning Lifting Sanctions
President Barack Obama has notified Prime Minister
Binyamin Netanyahu that the partial and gradual lifting of sanctions against
Iran will soon begin. (Negotiation with Iran has not
started yet and no agreement is reached, but Obama and EU are in a rush to drop
the sanctions already)
Israeli politicians have condemned the recent murder of YaYa (Shraya) Opher
by PA Arabs in the
Syrian ‘Rebels’ Massacre Civilians - No
‘Outrage’!
Syrian rebels allied with Sunni Muslim fighters killed at least 190
civilians and abducted more than 200 during an offensive against pro-government
villages. The New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) described the August 4
killings as a "war crime", and said the attacks against unarmed
civilians in more than a dozen villages in the coastal
Rise of Russian-Led Diplomacy?
Putin assigned
Gaza Has Enough Building Materials for Tunnels
A tunnel from
Easing up on
Many
Swiss experts confirmed that they had found traces of polonium on
clothes (not tissues) belonging to former Palestinian Authority leader
Yasser Arafat. Polonium-210, the isotope found on Arafat's belongings, has a
half-life of 138 days, meaning that half of the substance decays roughly every
four-and-a-half months, leading many observers to express scepticism at the
possibility that Arafat was poisoned - the levels of the isotope on Arafat's
belongings are far higher than what scientists would expect after nearly a
decade of decay.
Despite the ongoing peace talks between
Quotes of the Week:
“The Europeans have for
hundreds of years been telling Jews where we could live. These areas used to be
called Ghettos. Now that Jews have their own state, they want to export this
idea to
by
Joel Leyden,
Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin
Netanyahu made the following remarks on Thursday at the dedication ceremony for
the permanent pavilion at Block 27 at Auschwitz-Birkenau
Concentration Camp.
"The leaders of the Allies (
From here, the place that attests to the
desire to destroy us, I, the Prime Minister of Israel, the state of the Jewish
People, say to all the nations of the world: The State
of Israel will do whatever is necessary to prevent another Holocaust"…
Netanyahu stated that the
"so-called" Iranian presidential election will "change
nothing" in the Islamic republic's quest for nuclear weapons and that the
regime will continue to pursue a bomb aimed at destroying
"This is a regime that is building
nuclear weapons with the expressed purpose to annihilate