For the vast majority of my life, if someone had asked me what my favorite country in the world was (other than the good old USA), my answer would have been quick and decisive: Israel. As a high-school kid, I pored over the novel-length accounts of the Six-Day War in the Los Angeles Times, marveling at how such a small country, surrounded on all sides by bitter enemies, could do such amazing things to survive.
For example, it was 60 years ago this past weekend that Adolf Eichmann, the notorious architect of the “Final Solution” (the killing of six million Jews), was identified by the Israeli spy agency, the Mossad, as living in a suburb of Buenos Aires, Argentina. How Eichmann had gotten there is a sordid tale, indeed.
Eichmann was the quintessential Nazi—efficient, ruthless, blood-thirsty. He rose through the ranks quickly and, at the height of his power, he was in charge of transporting millions of Jews to the death camps. He is reported to have said that he would “leap laughing into the grave because the feeling that he had five million people on his conscience would be for him the source of great satisfaction.” While he would later claim that he had just been following orders, his actions spoke otherwise. After the government of Hungary suspended the deportation of Jews to the camps, Eichmann surreptitiously sent more trainloads of victims to their deaths. And, later, when Heinrich Himmler suspended the operation altogether, a frustrated Eichmann requested a reassignment.
After the war ended, Eichmann was actually in Allied custody, but he was using forged papers and going by Otto Eckmann. He escaped custody and then, for the next five years, he lived in Germany under the name Otto Heninger. Finally, with the help of the Catholic Church, he left Europe and moved to Argentina and became Ricardo Klement, shop foreman.
Famous Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal got a tip and after years of dead ends and false leads, they finally tracked him down. On March 1, 1960, Israel sent their top man from the Shin Bet (the Israeli Security Service that has the cool motto of “The Defender That Shall Not Be Seen”). Zvi Aharoni positively identified Eichmann and a plan was set in motion. Since Argentina routinely turned down requests for the extradition of former Nazis, Israel decided to kidnap Eichmann and take him back to Israel for trial.
A squad of Mossad operatives grabbed Eichmann off the street and held him in a safe house. An alarm immediately went out among the network of former Nazis living in Argentina and the manhunt was on. The Israelis had (bad) information that Dr. Josef Mengele, the so-called Angel of Death, was also in the Buenos Aires area so they decided to stick around and go for the two-for-one deal.
With the Nazi network closing in, the Mossad agents stopped looking for Mengele. They drugged Eichmann and dressed him in the uniform of an airline co-pilot. Israel’s El Al Airlines had made the transatlantic flight to Buenos Aires, ostensibly to honor the 150th anniversary of Argentina’s freedom from Spain. But it was there to transport Eichmann to justice. After a tense delay, it was allowed to take off. It was supposed to stop in Brazil to refuel, but fears of what might be awaiting the plane in Brazil prompted those on board to change plans. They headed across the Atlantic, reaching Dakar, Senegal flying on fumes. They made it to Israel the next day.
Eichmann was put on trial and eventually convicted of crimes against humanity, crimes against the Jewish people, war crimes and membership in a criminal organization. Somewhat oddly, the tribunal of judges found him not guilty of ever personally killing anyone. He was hanged, then cremated and his ashes were spread in the Mediterranean Sea. Eichmann remains the only person ever executed by the Israeli government.
What would follow would be the aforementioned Six-Day War, in which Israel quadrupled in size in less than a week. Then there was the stunning reversal of fortune that snatched victory from the jaws of defeat in the Yom Kippur War. I’ll even give them props for Operation Opera, the Raid on the Sun that destroyed Iraq’s nascent nuclear program. (One of the pilots in that operation, Ilan Ramon, later died aboard the space shuttle Columbia, which disintegrated upon reentry.)
Stuff like that you can’t make up. It’s righteous and heroic. But for me and a whole lot of other Americans who have had the Jewish state’s back for decades, that Israel doesn’t seem to exist anymore. The brave underdog has become the Bully on the Block. The country is being run by a guy who’s a thug and a criminal, but the populace is split in such a way that, despite multiple elections, they can neither re-elect him nor throw him out of office.
And you can’t count on Israel to keep its word, either. They traded away the West Bank, fair and square. But now, they’re taking it back, parcel by parcel, just because some rich people want to build houses with a nice view.
Israel has lost its way and is in real danger of losing whatever international support if once had. I, for one, would like to be able to root for it again.
This article appears in Mar 5-11, 2020.
Like morons everywhere, Danehick has a habit of making grossly wrong, overt simplifications & hyperbole that result in incorrect assumptions. And like morons everywhere, he feels that after reading one book on the subject, he’s now an expert.
Danehick Sucks
Yeah let’s all support Hezbelah. Come on Thomas we see which side you have chosen. Wearing your pro Iranian hat?
Not to worry, Trump and his son-in-law have crafted a middle-east peace plan. I can’t see why he doesn’t receive the Nobel Peace Prize for his statesmanship there, in North Korea, Iran, and of course on the Mexican border. With the imminent purchase of Greenland and the annexation of China, we are on a roll. MAGA!
The Nobel was so devalued it no longer means anything.
Awarding the Nobel Peace Prize to US President Barack Obama in 2009 failed to achieve what the committee hoped it would, its ex-secretary has said.
Geir Lundestad told the AP news agency that the committee hoped the award would strengthen Mr Obama.
Instead, the decision was met with criticism in the US. Many argued he had not had any impact worthy of the award.
Mr Lundestad, writing in his memoir, Secretary of Peace, said even Mr Obama himself had been surprised.
“No Nobel Peace Prize ever elicited more attention than the 2009 prize to Barack Obama,” Mr Lundestad writes.
“Even many of Obama’s supporters believed that the prize was a mistake,” he says. “In that sense the committee didn’t achieve what it had hoped for”….BBC
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Today Democrats call that election interference and destruction of our democracy. They forgot to say something in 2009 when it benefited them, as is usually the case.
Power hungry mongrels. Just take a look at Chuck Schumer yesterday. he should be forced to resign for making threats against two Supreme Court Justices.
This is from the NYT:
A Connecticut man pleaded guilty this week to a series of hoaxes, including sending a letter with white powder threatening to kill President Trump.
On Monday, the man, Gary Joseph Gravelle, 52, who had been previously jailed for sending threatening messages, pleaded guilty in United States District Court in Bridgeport to seven charges related to threats he had made in September 2018, according to John H. Durham, the United States attorney in Connecticut.
In addition to sending the threatening letter to the president along with a substance he claimed was anthrax, Mr. Gravelle emailed threatening messages to harm or intimidate federal probation officers and mental health providers. He also sent messages threatening to explode facilities in New Haven, a federal prison in Washington and a credit union in Bristol, Conn., as well as threats to blow up planes and property at Burlington International Airport, court records show.
Mr. Gravelle, also known as Roland Prejean, will face a maximum of 60 years in prison and possible fines when he is sentenced on March 26. He faces additional jail time for violating his supervised release, according to a spokesman for Mr. Durham.
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Treat Mr Schumer the same way as we are all equal under the law. That is how a Republic of Laws operates.
@Catholics, Charles Schumer (D) NY just said that he did not threaten anybody. He said he just “used the wrong words.”
Schumer did threaten judges and he should be forced to resign. He has become dangerous.
Lying Tommy Danehy wrote: But now, they’re taking it back, parcel by parcel, just because some rich people want to build houses with a nice view.
Lying Tommy doesnt know what he is talking about once again.
Callie Maidhof, who has a PhD in anthropology from Berkley, currently a Professor of Global Studies at Colby College, lived in Ramallah West Bank for years, lived in an Israeli settlement in the West Bank for almost a year, spent years studying the demographics, beliefs, and lifestyles of the people living in the West Bank, is a person who might know a little more about the West Bank than Tommy Danehy.
According to her research and writing, the Israeli settlers in the West Bank are solidly middle class.
They are not rich people who want to build houses with a view, nor are they religious zealots, but they are just middle class people who want to buy houses that afford a middle class lifestyle.
https://www.tabletmag.com/podcasts/159838/…
The important thing to note is that she is not at all an Israeli apologist.
If you want to know the reality of the situation in the West Bank and not a Lying Tommy version of history, she has written extensively about it.
All you have to do is search her writing on the internet.
So how could Tommy Danehy get things about the West Bank so wrong?
The question has to be asked: is Tommy Danehy a liar or stupid?
So again, Jim Nintzel, how is it that you allow a lying, racist, misogynist to continue to write for the Tucson Weekly?
Step up. Defend your boy. Say something. Why are you hiding?
Jim Nintzel (Jimnintzel@gmail.com)
Nobody’s hiding. You’re just a long winded troll that everyone would rather ignore !!
So ignore me. Why respond? Do you not see the contradictory nature of your response?
Instead of a non sequitur why not refute what I wrote?
Jim Nintzel is definitely hiding.
He has a serious problem.
He edits a decidedly progressive publication, but has a racist, misogynist, lying columnist, who has been at the Tucson Weekly longer than he. Makes it hard for him to do anything about it.
Again, do you not understand the inconsistency of your statements? “You should be ignored, but I will continue to not ignore you by responding to you.”
Why not show how really smart you are by replying to the substance of my arguments?
Tell us about the West Bank and why Tommy Boy is right?
And yes, Jim Nintzel is a coward.
Schumer warned the Justices that they wouldn’t know what hit them.
What a Turkey!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi96f4v5iC0