Israel’s Right to Exist- Part III

1-10-09

The harsh reality is that oil, at the moment, and for the discernible future dictates policy. The Israeli bashers, who say they are not anti-Semites, fool no one. Israel has a right, as any other state to exist and have defensible borders. World history and law has always sided with the right of self-defense. But for the Jew-haters, self-defense is always disproportionate.

The Arab world has had many opportunities to come into the modern political world described by the Atlantic Charter, authored by President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Prime Minister Winston Churchill at the Atlantic Conference, held in Argentia Bay in the summer of 1941. This document articulated the Four Freedoms enunciated in President Roosevelt's State of the Union address in January of 1941. These rights were later articulated in the UN's Universal Declaration of Human Rights. When and where have the governments of the Arab lands adhered to these universally accepted principles?

As I stated earlier, whether Israel existed or not, the problems between Sunni and Shiite, Kuwait and Iraq, Iraq and Iran, and secularists and the Muslim Brotherhood would still exist. Does anyone wonder why Hamas won control in Gaza, or Hezbollah dictates policy in Lebanon? Does anyone not think that in a free election the Muslim Brotherhood would oust the Mubarak rule in Egypt?

The truth is that the average Arab is poor, under-educated and mostly either an orthodox Muslim or in fear of their lives for questioning religious authority. This view is a realistic evaluation between what we hold dear in the West regarding the establishment of the secular state and the religious autocracy or the one-party domination that the Arab World endures.

Personally, I could care less what they believe, or how they wish to be governed. It is not an issue to me, or I assume, with most others. We have been tolerating dictators, around the world, for generations. But when totalitarians disturb world stability, invade others, create terrorism and international blackmail and threaten the peace, the free peoples of the world take notice. That of course doesn't always mean or justify armed intervention.

I do believe in the sanctity of borders and change quite often must be internal. Eventually enough people will starve in Iran and become fed up with the religious zealots that dictate their lives, and change will come. Should we encourage that change through propaganda, boycotts, embargoes and other means? Maybe! We must always have contingency plans and an end game in mind. One of George Bush's abject failures was that he was not prepared for war, did not understand the consequences of it, did not prepare for an occupation, did not build a coalition, and had no end-game or departure plan. In other words he failed!

I firmly believe in a two state solution for the former Mandate area, but as part of that solution, the new state of Palestine must accept peace. Their creation should not be another excuse to horde arms, build an aggressive army and threaten its neighbor. I believe that Israel wants to live in peace with all of its neighbors and will not be an aggressor. Israel has excellent relations with Turkey a Moslem, but secular state, and has always protected the sanctity of all religions and their places of worship within Israel. Unfortunately the Jordanians did not exercise that type of policy regarding Jewish holy sites in Old Jerusalem and in sections of the West Bank that were Jewish for three millennia. By the way, Jews were locked in Kasbah areas or chained ghettoes in almost all the Moslem countries for hundreds of years up and to the end of the 19th Century.

In fact, to the whole wide world, Israel does exist. It has a booming economy, it is a democracy, it has an inventive free society, its tourism was at a record level in 2008 and it is ambitiously working on alternate and renewable energy. In fact, they lead the world in that area, and I am sure the oil sheiks are quite unhappy about that prospect. But just look at where Brian M's petro dollars go! They go to building Dubai into a super playground for the rich! What else is new? Are they using those dollars to build peace and prosperity with their co-religionists? The answer is obvious!

Israel’s Right to Exist-Part I

1-10-09

Israel seems to always get criticism constantly for efforts to defend its own people by the Jew-haters of this world. In 1914 Pancho Villa crossed the Mexico-Texas border, robbed banks in Brownsville and killed American citizens. General Pershing was sent with an American force in search of Villa and stayed there for a considerable period of time. Again no society can tolerate it s borders being violated and its citizens being killed and maimed.

Whether one agrees on the legitimacy of Israel or not, one must understand that they have been a sovereign and democratic nation for a great many years. In fact, they have been a nation state much longer than a majority of the UN members today. They have stood the test of time, 1,000,000 Moslem Arabs along with other minorities live in peace in Israel. They have the rights of citizenship, travel, work, education, and can socialize with whom they wish. They have extra special rights because they do not have to serve in the military and it seems on the surface that they would prefer an Israeli government that guarantees all these rights, along with prosperity over the chaos that inhabits most of the Arab-Moslem World.

The story of internecine Arab-Moslem strife is unending. The 80 -year history of Iraq is rife with that reality. They were a violent society for decades, only interrupted by period of forced order by dictators. Syria, Yemen, Sudan and Libya, have been dictatorships forever. Egypt and the Saudis are basically run by oligarchies. Mubarak is a quasi-dictator and Iran, which is not an Arab state, is becoming a feudal basket state and a threat to their region and the rest of the world. Sudan is starving millions of its own citizens, but the issue of the Palestinians remains foremost in the minds of many Arabs and Muslims. Is not Jordan a Palestinian Muslim state? Did they not have control over the so-called West Bank from 1948 thru 1967? Why didn't they absorb that area and its people, or make it independent? They didn't want to! They kept it alive to keep it as a problem, because they knew that the creation of a West Bank Palestinian state would have led to the de facto recognition of Israel. The so-called Palestinian refugee camps around the Arab World are the only refugee camps that still exist from that era. All the other camps that were created by the wars and genocidal conduct in the 20th Century were dispersed as their populations were assimilated into other nation states. Only where Muslim and non-Muslim exist as neighbors is there ongoing strife; Kashmir, the Philippines, the Middle East, Africa, and the Balkans. What is the reason?

Is Israel or World Jewry unaware of that reality? Israel has been feeling the sting of Fedeyeen terrorism and intrusions for sixty years. Hundreds, if not thousands, of their people have been murdered and maimed. Currently the Arab-Muslim world is in chaos once again. Whose fault is that? Is that the fault of Israel? Is the poverty and religious strife with the Moslem world the fault of Israel? Is Osama Bin Ladin and his opposition to the Saudi princes the fault of Israel? Are the Taliban religious madmen the fault of Israel? Was the Shah the fault of Israel? Are the Mullahs in Teheran the fault of Israel? Was the Syrian political assassinations and terrorism in Lebanon the fault of Israel? Is and was the corruption of Arafat and his brigands the fault of Israel? Were the devastating Iranian-Iraqi Wars over Israel? Was the invasion of Kuwait because of Israel?

If Israel did not exist all of these same things would have happened or be happening. If oil did not exist in the Middle East no one would care one iota about fratricidal conduct amongst Arabs and Muslims. Therefore without oil, the west would support democratic Israel without question! In other words, concern for Gaza and the Gazans may be genuinely emotional and humane. But what have they done to change their attitudes and therefore their future. In the wake of the destruction of Fascism and Communism, those states and their peoples looked for change. They trashed their history and they went from bitterness to self-examination. They brought success out of the ruins. They evolved from dictatorship and totalitarianism to democracy. When will the Arab-Muslim world learn their lesson and end the bitterness that pervades between Shiite and Sunni? When will they stop worrying about Jews?

It is funny that 1 million Arab Muslims can live in peace in Israel. It is funny that Jews from all over the Arab World, and from multiple cultures and races can live in peace and basic harmony in Israel. It is funny that thousands of Christians, both Arab and non-Arab can live in peace in Israel, but 100 Jews cannot live in peace in Hebron. Why do a billion Muslims and 100 million Arabs worry about a few million Jews? Are they so insecure?

I would love to see peace in the Middle East. I believe that it can come. But the “pipe dream” of a Palestinian dominated Israel will not come about. The Palestinians must come to the realization that they are their own worst enemy. They must understand that their destiny is tied to their own sense of worth. They must strive to end violence, accept the reality of Israel and form partnerships of hope and toleration that will eventually bring peace and prosperity.

The Jews of Israel have as much moral right to live there as any people, any where. The Europeans came to the New World in the 16th Century and took the land, plain and simple. The Jews lived in and around that area of the world for thousands of years longer. They went to Caanan and occupied it. They lived among different peoples for thousands of years until the Babylonian Captivity and the Roman destruction of the Temple in 70 CE destroyed their country. If any one group, nation state, or people have an historical legacy to a land, it is the Jews in Israel. It was the converted Arabs under their Moslem leaders who came hundreds of years after the Jewish exile by Rome. Even up until there was renewed Jewish interest in Palestine by Theodore Herzl in the 1890's few people live in that area, but always there were Jews. When European Jews showed interest in that region and invested there, with permission and blessing of the Ottoman Turks, who controlled that region for hundreds of years, poor stateless Arabs moved in looking for work, and a better life and reproduced in greater numbers. They had never lived there before most were from the Hashemite Arabian peninsular. Since the 1920's, the Arabs benefited by Jewish investment and their successful efforts to cultivate the desert. What few Arabs lived there from the Napoleonic Era until the WWI did nothing to improve either the land or the region. After Jewish success in the 1920's the grand Mufti and his allies sought to destroy the Jewish settlements and take their work as their own. Were they any different in Gaza after the Israelis left? No!
Again, the bottom line again is that if there were not oil in the Mid East no one would give a fig about the Arabs, the so-called Palestinians, the Shiites, the Sunnis and the backwardness of their social setup. Modern secular Arabs and Moslems are kept hostage by the politics of the Mullahs and the oligarchs who use religion, myth and hatred to keep their women enslaved, their populations growing and their masses in ignorance. The Israelis opened their doors to 800,000 Jewish refugees from the Arab lands, and hundreds of thousands of persecuted Jews from both the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. These people were assimilated, resettled and main streamed. Operation Magic Carpet brought 10's of thousands of primitive non-white Yemeni Jews to Israel and they were re-settled. Are their problems of equality? Of course! But where in the world does even marginal equality exist? They had as much right to bring in these immigrants as the United States did in the 1840's and the period from 1880 through 1914.

Since the peace treaty with Egypt, land was returned, and hostilities were abated. The West Bank Arabs are used as a cynical tool to keep the pot of conflict boiling. The West Bank Arabs under the brigand Arafat were kept poor and desperate. If he had accepted the Barack Plan, brokered by Clinton in 2000, normalization would be well on its way. But he was not interested in peace or a reasonable settlement. He was interested in victory through terror. The answer to the problems of the Middle East lies with the triumph of the Arab moderates. Will it happen? They had better seek it before their oil runs dry or alternatives drive the price back to 1970 levels. They then can drink it! “No one is giving a fig” about Burma and their dictatorial rule, or Chad, Darfur and dozens of other hot spots of the world where innocent people are being abused and slaughtered. The world is interested in the Middle East because of oil! That is not my view but a historical reality. Any defense of Israel and their right to exist always is met with reverse racism charges. The thought that Israel is a “stolen” country, (from whom?) reflects the true essence of anti-Semitism. Palestine is the Roman name for the former Kingdom of Judea, ruled for hundreds of years by Jewish Kings. The name Palestine is the Roman name for the Philistines, and the Romans considered that name a gross insult and went ahead and changed every Hebrew/Aramaic name in that region that stretched from the Mediterranean Sea to all of what is considered today's Jordan. In 1947, the UN offered the Jewish population of the Mandate area about 17% of the land. They accepted that “unfair” partition. Jerusalem was to be internationalized and the Arabs were to retain all of Jordan, formerly Trans-Jordan, the West bank and most of the Palestinian Mandate of 1947. In fact, the term Palestinian, until 1948, was a term meaning the Jews of the Mandate. The Arabs only started to call themselves that in the late 1960's.

When the partition was legally approved by a vast majority of the member nations of the United Nations, aside from the Arab States, Israel was legally created. The Arabs refused the partition and declared war. By the way, the Thirteen Colonies offered the British crown a compromise in 1776, and they escalated the war into a full-fledged revolution. We won that war and thus the birth of the United States.

Israel, Gaza and Proportional Response

January 10, 2009

The partition of 1947 was not accepted by the Palestinians, it was never their land, and no Arab government existed in that Mandate region for hundreds of years. The last two governments were the British from 1918 through1948, and the Ottomans from 1516 to 1918. In 1922 the total population of the Mandate Area (present Israel, Gaza and the West Bank) was 6% of the current population that lives in that total area under dispute. Even today the density of that whole area is equivalent to that of New Jersey, approximately 1100 people per square mile. The Palestine Mandate was virtually empty in the 1890's when Jews started in earnest to buy desert, malaria infested swamp land from absentee Ottoman and Egyptian land owners, who were happy to sell the land at exorbitant prices. As Jewish settlers moved in and cultivated the land Arabs from neighboring areas flocked to the Mandate for jobs, plain and simple. As soon as the demographics started to change in the 1920's and the hegemony of pan-Arabism was challenged, the riots started, the raids by the Fedeyeen, the murders, and the violence. What else is new?

After the beginning of the 1948 war, Arab leaders, including the notorious Nazi ally, the grand Mufti of Jerusalem, Hajj al-Husseini, called for Arabs to vacate their homes and run for cover into the Arab controlled part of the Mandate, while their six armies slaughtered the Jews.

Those 800,000 became their refugee problem, which they never resolved. They are still the only unsettled refugees in the whole world since the end of WWII. They were never assimilated, because of the cynicism of the Arab world. They could have easily been resettled in the West Bank when it was controlled by Jordan from 1948 through 1967. At that time Jordan had the ability to create a Palestinian State. They choose not to do it because that would be considered a de facto and possibly a de jure recognition of the State of Israel. On the other hand Israel absorbed over 800,000 Jewish refugees from Arab lands, where they had endured persecution, non-citizenship and pogroms for hundreds of years.

As to proportionate response, the US wasn't happy with Sadaam Hussein's regime and we invaded Iraq.  So you should waste your rants on us.  When Pancho Villa robbed banks in Texas, we sent General Pershing into Mexico with an army.  Israel has the right of self-defense and when the brigand government of terrorists wise up, peace will break out. But they won't become realists until the people of Gaza realize that their future has been turned over to terrorists and their only path to peace is with rational leadership.

Israel’s Right to Exist II

January 10, 2009

Israel has as much right to the land they occupy as any one. In fact, they have a greater right. The Arabs, as a whole, are an impoverished, backward, and venal group. Only a few of their vast numbers have the guts to stand up and say what is right. Brigands, and their tribal blood feuds lead them, and their religious insanity makes them the bane of the current world. The Orthodox Jews, whether they be Lubavitcher or Satmar, can be quite different and difficult to understand. They may be impossible to like or even deal with, but they are not a warlike, violent, or an evangelical group. They have their arcane customs and so be it. They certainly are not the picture or profile of Israel. With regards to the borders, what makes ownership of the land start at 70 AD, 1919, 1947, 1948, or 1967? In fact, the Arabs never owned the land. They owned, as individuals, parts of the land just like the Jews who had lived there. Jews always occupied some part of the land since before antiquity. There was always a Jewish presence in Jerusalem, Safad, Hebron, and Tiberias since Biblical times. Jews lived all over the Arab world, under their domination and thumb for almost two millennia. But in the so-called Holy Land, the Turks controlled that area from 1516 to 1918. So the land was never “Arab.” They lived there, along with the Jews as the subjects of the Ottoman Empire as they were to become subjects of the British Empire.

But as the renown historian, and Churchill’s official biographer, Martin Gilbert has written, in Tunisia there were 110,000 Jews in 1948, was life easy? No! In 1881, as a French Protectorate, conditions improved for the Jewish Community, but in 1917 Tunisian troops pillaged the Jewish quarters of many towns. Mobs attacked Jews in 1932 because of European immigration to Palestine. Eventually with independence in 1956 conditions worsened for the Jewish population and by 1974, 2000 Jews remained. In Yemen the Jewish population went from 55,000 in 1948 to 500 in 1974. Jews had lived there for over 2000 years in 1900. In Aden there were 8000 Jews in 1948 and almost none in 1974. Anti-Jewish and anti-Zionist laws were introduced in Yemen in 1905. For example there was a re-introduction of laws that Jews could not build houses higher than those of Muslims, or to raise their voices in front of a Muslim, or engage in religious discussion with Muslims, or be in any traditional Muslim trade or occupation. Even laws were enacted that forced the conversion of Jewish orphans to Islam. In Morocco the Jewish population was 285,000 in 1948, and 20,000 in 1974. There were Muslim attacks in 1903, 1907, and 1912 and after WWII many riots leading up to the general immigration of Jews from that land. As late as 1965, the “Protocols of the Elders of Zion” were published and disseminated again in Morocco. The Jewish population of Egypt in 1948 was 75,000, but by 1974 it had been reduced to 350. In 1844, 1881, and 1902 there were anti-Jewish riots emanating from accusations regarding the ritual use of blood. In 1882, 1919, 1921, 1924, Jews were attacked in anti-foreigner riots. In 1945 there were “Balfour Day” riots leading up to confiscation of lands, abrogation of rights and outright expulsions through the 1950's and up to 1967. In Syria, the population of Jews shrunk from 29,770 in 1943 to 4000 in 1974. The kind of anti-Jewish laws in Syria were and are unbelievable. But, historically in 1936-9, Nazi officers from Germany institutionalized violence against Jews after a visit. The story of Syria is too sick to even repeat here.   

The saga of persecution, discrimination, prejudice and violence is unending. Therefore Palestine/Israel became the refuge of 100's of thousands of Middle Eastern Jews, no less the ones who wished to flee from Europe where they were not welcome. FDR met with King Ibn Sa'ud, of Saudi Arabia on February 14, 1945 in the Great Bitter Lake, which is located in the Suez Canal. He conferred with Rabbi Stephen Wise and his cabinet before he left for Yalta, and told them that he would “try to settle the Palestine situation.” He had discussed the concept of a Jewish homeland with Stalin at Yalta and said that he was a Zionist, but he recognized the difficulty of the Jewish problem. After meeting with Sa'ud on the USS Quincy, and through much discussion, the suggestion from Sa'ud was that the choicest lands in Germany be given to the Jews. Of course there is much more to the story. That issue was a non-starter, as much for the fact that no one could be positive that German anti-Semitism would not arise in the future and make life impossible again for the Jews.

FDR tried to convince Sa'ud with all of his charm, and with the promise of economic aid, irrigation projects and improved living standards, about the need for a Jewish Homeland, but Sa'ud wanted none of it. He had little cares for any improvements regarding the lives of his own people. Sa'ud said, “Arabs would choose to die, rather than yield their land to the Jews.” What else in new? So the Arab world, for better or worse, did not want an avalanche of European Jews into Palestine. They also wanted to dominate and abuse the 800,000 plus Jews spread under their control throughout Arab lands, and they certainly did want those Jews to move to Palestine to create their own homeland. They wanted it both ways! They also full understood that once there was a Jewish Homeland, the Jews in their lands would leave and they would lose a valuable source of tax revenue and intellectual acumen. They relied on this dependent and servile community for many things. It kept them as a convenient scapegoat, and it allowed them to be used as a type of permanent “guest” class of advisors, middlemen and professionals. Out of these many thousands, a number prospered no doubt.

Therefore, with all that in mind, I assume that if Israel was a country of evangelical Christians, I would guess or imagine there would be similar problems. But, then again, the problem of the Middle East is not only the one of control between the more western-leaning secular Sunnis versus the more religiously extreme Shi'ites, but the problem of modernism versus tribalism. The Islamic Arab and Non-Arab oligarchs from the Fertile Crescent to North Africa are not comfortable with a republican form of democracy or what it brings. They have yet to enter the age of enlightenment, and the specter of education, equality for women, religious freedom, and personal rights is still far beyond their ken and political interests. Israel, and the Jews, represents the freethinking pluralism of the West and the Islamists fear all of that, in the same way that Sa'ud would not accept the offer, given by FDR in 1945, to uplift his people. He told FDR that he was an uneducated Bedouin and was comfortable with his values.

As to the Middle Eastern Islamic World, which is divided between the oil oligarchs who assuage their population with a form of petro dollar socialism, and the non-oil producing states who are basically poor, over-populated, and cannot depend on the Soviet Union anymore for arms and technical support, the area is a cauldron of unhappiness and despair. As oil revenues drop, support for Hezbollah, Hamas and the madrass, (or Saudi orthodox educational) system throughout Pakistan, Afghanistan and other Muslim areas may start to dry up.

 The existence of a vibrant growing, and well-off, western-oriented Israel is a constant sore point and irritant to the hypocritical leadership that abounds in the Arab World. Whether one supports our ill-conceived effort in Iraq or our clumsy under-supported effort in Afghanistan, one reality is for sure, Sadaam Hussein, his family, and the Baathists were a horrible and despicable bunch who ruled by terror and mayhem. In Afghanistan the religious zealots of the Taliban, who enslaved the people with their religious bigotry, and their alliance with the Al Quaida terrorists were no better.  

A letter to Gather www.gather.com

FDR and Pearl Harbor

December 7, 2009

I was just up at Hyde Park as an invited guest to a reception for the gifting of a long-displaced painting of FDR piloting the sloop Amberjack II to Campobello Island in June of 1933 with the ill-fated cruiser Indianapolis as his escort. This was FDR’s first visit to Campobello since he was stricken with polio in 1921. The painting was done by Arthur Beaumont and though it was intended for him, it was never given to FDR or the library for 75 years. FDR would only return to his old summer home once more. At the reception was Donald Blum, a resident of Scarsdale, NY for 80 plus years. Ensign Blum had been assigned to the Indianapolis, as a newly minted Ensign, only thirteen days before, and he wound up in the Pacific Ocean with hundreds of others for five days after the Indianapolis was sunk by the IJN Navy submarine I-58. I am a collector of cachet naval stamped/franked covers of ships that served before, during and after WWII. I brought up a three displays, one of the Indianapolis and covers (envelopes) that were franked from FDR’s cruise to Rio in 1935, the NY Naval Review of 1934 and other events. I also brought up displays of Arizona covers and one of Ford Island, Oahu and all the major ships anchored there on December 7^th, 1941. It was quite interesting to listen to Mr. Blum’s account of that tragedy, the naval cover-up, the attack by the sharks, the death of hundreds of sailors, and his rescue.

Over the last 50 years I have spent many hours reading through my hundreds of books on WWII, FDR and almost all of the events that encompassed FDR’s remarkable life and career. I also host a radio show, The Advocates, and one can access its archives at http://advocates-wvox.com or just google: Richard J. Garfunkel. Many people quote John Flynn, Thomas Fleming, David Wyman, Rafael Medoff and various other FDR haters, who have made a quick buck off their publications. But quoting these folks doesn’t change history or the facts. Nobody has a right to their “own” facts. Literally millions of documents have been poured over by thousands of scholars and FDR’s excellent reputation has survived quite well the test of history. 

The fact the FDR wanted to defeat the Fascists is well-known. The fact that the American First movement, led by the virulent anti-Semite and fraud, Charles Lindbergh, were pro-Nazi or just fools, is today well known. It is also known today that John L. Lewis, the head of the United Mine Workers, and the founder of the CIO, opposed FDR in 1940, and Nazi money was funneled to him during that campaign. I hope your readers are well aware of Lindbergh’s social dalliances and his two families and many illegitimate children. That is not hyperbole or rumor. FDR was thwarted regarding preparedness by foolish people in and out of the US Congress. These individuals would have led us down the road to defeat and domination by the Fascist forces that plagued and pillaged Europe and the Pacific.

As to FDR’s effort in the Atlantic to confront the Kriegsmarine’s (The German Navy) U-Boat menace to our right of “freedom of the seas,” it is well-documented. FDR was a truly heroic visionary who identified the totalitarian threat in his “Quarantine Speech” of 1937 and was excoriated and pilloried for his warnings. His effort to re-arm America and prepare it for war was exemplary. Without that effort the isolationists and their Nazi-fellow travelers would have eventually allowed us to be left alone in our ability to confront the Axis and its massive forces. We would have been destroyed eventually.

The ships at Pearl Harbor were not bait for the Japanese as some claim. Our naval thinkers totally underestimated the skills and technological superiority of the IJN circa 1941. That certainly was not the fault of FDR or the civilian leadership. Superior, larger and more technologically advanced vessels were already in the production “pipeline,” but our naval analysts never understood carrier warfare, even with the British success at Taranto. In fact, throughout WWII our torpedoes were almost an abject failure, and the Japanese “long lance” types were much more successful, reliable and accurate.

Again, to think that FDR would use our ships and men at Pearl Harbor is a blood-libel. We were lucky the ships were at anchor in the shallow waters around Ford Island and that are carriers were off to Wake Island. They were not sent there on purpose, as some have idiotically asserted, to avoid the coming attack, and therefore survive to fight the coming war. That assertion is patently absurd. But many of the assertions from the FDR haters are absurd. What else is new?

The Advocates

 with

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

January 7, 2009

Wednesday, January 9, 2009, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting my show, The Advocates, on WVOX- 1460 AM on your dial, or you can listen to its live streaming at www.wvox.com . One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio. My guest on this year’s first edition of The Advocates is Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins. Our subject today is the ongoing problem of refugees in the world today, and what is being done about it by the United Nations.

Ms. Judy Cheng-Hopkins is the United Nations Assistant High Commissioner for refugees.  This position, supervises all UNHCR operations in the world. It also oversees the Division of Operational Support which includes the Emergency and Security Service.

Prior to this job, Ms. Cheng-Hopkins was the Director of the World Food Programme Office in New York.  She was also Director for Asia and Eastern Europe in WFP (1997-2000) where she oversaw large and complex emergency operations.  Prior to that, she served UNDP in Africa for 10 years, first in Zambia (1982-1988), then in Kenya (1988-1992) and as Deputy Assistant Administrator for Africa (2002-2003).

Ms. Cheng-Hopkins received a Master of Arts degree in Economic Development from Columbia University (1978), USA.  She has also received diplomas from Université d’Haute Bretagne in Rennes, France and Harvard University, USA. Ms. Cheng-Hopkins is Malaysian.  She is married and mother of two daughters.  She enjoys playing tennis and listening to jazz. She is also married to Dr. Tom Hopkins, who was on this show on April 9, 2008. Dr. Thomas J. Hopkins, who is deeply involved in Development/Strategic Planning, has worked on these efforts all over the world and is the author of an unlimited number of reports, the last being “Capacity Assessment Guidelines: A Systems and Strategic Management review about Somalia and Nairobi.  You can access our interview by going to http://advocates-wvox.com .

Meanwhile the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “ issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

Over the next few weeks, The Advocates will host; Michael Cohen, previewing the President Obama’s inauguration, Jill Alcott talking about her work with the environment, author Alida Brill, and her book on pain, Chris Breiseth, the now retired head of the Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt Institute talking about the Roosevelt Legacy and what it means for the challenges of 2009 and Cynthia Koch, the head of the FDR Library, in Hyde Park and the critical role it plays regarding political and historical research.

Richard J. Garfunkel, The Advocates: http://advocates-wvox.com

Letter to the Editor of the Journal News

December 26, 2008

In the other day’s Journal News we were witness again to the entertainment of another mindless diatribe by one of the most notorious haters that Greenburgh has produced. Mr. Ed Krauss has been railing against Supervisor Paul Feiner for years now. At every opportunity he comes to the Town Board, with his faux expertise to lecture the town on the law, ethics, the park system, insurance liabilities and the like. He has made a career out of constantly accusing Supervisor of imagined improprieties. The people of Greenburgh will not be fooled by this latest distortion of the facts, this latest barrage of inaccuracies and this latest attempt at character assassination. With regards to the new library, Supervisor had suggested a much more prudent and financially responsible course to take when the final library plan was rammed down the throat of the taxpayers by the former Board. The enabling referendum was cynically used as a political lever against the Supervisor. It was timed to characterize his concerns and opposition as being “anti-library” and a virtual book-burner. But his fighting for added use of the “bookmobile” put a “lie” to that specious claim.

The Supervisor was wholly in support of an orderly and calculated upgrade of the library, the sale of the extra land for needed senior housing or an assisted living facility, and the creation of an income stream to the town. That is the public record. He also wanted expert oversight of the library’s construction, but that was rejected by the former Board with support from people like Ed Krauss. The profligate spending of the reserve fund by the previous Board that created two years of zero tax increases flew in the face of reality and the protests of the Supervisor. When the economic profile of the region started to slide, Greenburgh was faced with a large tax increase that included the extra costs of the new library. Supervisor Feiner warned us this then, and Mr. Ed Krauss, who supported the library, and the referendum is well aware of that fact.

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 24, 2008

Neil Goldstein, who is the Executive Vice-President of Energy Alternatives for the 21^st century, had served as Executive Director of the American Jewish Congress from January 2002 until the middle of 2008. Mr. Goldstein also previously served at the American Jewish Congress from 1983-1987, first as Director of the New York Metropolitan Region and later as Assistant Executive Director. Mr. Goldstein is a graduate of MIT and has served on many committees, which include being on the New York State Advisory Committee on Human Rights and the Nanuet Board of education, along with his work with AIPAC, Chief of Staff for Representative Jerry Nadler and work with the US Holocaust Memorial Museum.

Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “ issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”

Richard J. Garfunkel

“The Advocates”

 With

Richard J. Garfunkel

 WVOX – AM Radio 1460- 12 Noon Wednesday

December 17, 2008

All archived Shows at:

http://advocates-wvox.com

Wednesday, December 17, 2008, at 12:00 Noon, I am hosting “The Advocates” on WVOX- 1460 AM, or you can listen to the program’s live streaming at www.wvox.com.  One can call the show at 914-636-0110 to reach us on the radio.  Our special guest is Mr. Nick Taylor, the author of “American –Made, The Enduring Legacy of the WPA, When FDR put the Nation to Work.” Mr. Taylor was last on The Advocates on July 16^th of this year.  On December 9, 2008, Mr. Taylor wrote an Op-Ed contribution that was published in the NY Times, “FDR Knew How to Spend Carefully,”    (http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/09/opinion/09taylor.html?_r=1& .)

Today we will be talking about the comparisons between March of 1933 and the emergence of the New Deal, and what the new Obama administration faces regarding our economic malaise.

Nick Taylor has written ten books of non-fiction, both solely and in collaboration, on a wide variety of subjects.  His history of the Works Progress Administration, American-Made – The Enduring Legacy of the WPA: When FDR Put the Nation to Work, was published last February to wide acclaim.

Taylor’s other subjects include tournament bass fishing, the Mafia, and life in a small church. His memoir, A Necessary End recounts a baby boomer’s growing concern and care for his parents in their final years.  His story of an intrepid Israeli’s journey into the German neo-Nazi underground, In Hitler’s Shadow, written with Yaron Svoray, was adapted as the HBO feature movie, The Infiltrator, starring Oliver Platt.  His account of a Mafia family in the government’s Witness Protection Program, Sins of the Father, is currently under a motion picture option.  Laser, published in 2000, tells the story of the laser’s true inventor and his thirty-year fight to win the patents that would make him rich.  And he worked with astronaut and Senator John Glenn on the bestselling, John Glenn: A Memoir.

His pro bono work includes four years as president of the Authors Guild, the oldest and largest organization of published writers in the United States, which advocates for authors’ rights.  He is a native of western North Carolina who today lives in Greenwich Village with his wife Barbara Nevins Taylor, who is an investigative reporter for Fox TV’s New York stations Fox 5 and My 9 News.

Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:

Mr. Taylor will address some of the following questions:
·        Are there any real comparisons between 1933 and today?
·        Can President –Elect Obama hope to live up to FDR?
·        Does Obama need another Harry Hopkins or Harold Ickes?
·        Are we better off letting the automobile industry collapse?
 Meanwhile, the mission of the “Advocates” is to bring to the public differing views on current “public policy “issues. “Public policy,” therefore, is what we as a nation legally and traditionally follow. Over the years, the “public policy” of the United States has changed or has been modified greatly. As an example, “free public education” is the public policy of the United States. Also, over time great struggles have ensued over the control of the direction of “public policy” For example: free trade vs. protectionism, slavery vs. emancipation, state’s rights vs. Federalism, and an all-volunteer armed forces or the “draft.”
 
One can find my essays on FDR and other subjects at https://www.richardjgarfunkel.com and one can also see and hear all of the archived shows at: http://advocates-wvox.com.  Over the next few weeks will be talking about predictions for 2009!
 
Richard J. Garfunkel

Letter to the Journal News

December 16, 2008

Speaking of shoes and how times have changed!

In 1651, writer George Herbert (not a relative of George Herbert Walker Bush) wrote “For want of a nail the shoe was lost, for want of a shoe the horse is lost, for want of a horse the rider is lost.” Of course in our more modern era, Ben Franklin and others added on the extra line that for, “want of a rider the battle and thence the war was lost.” On October 12, 1960, Nikita Khrushchev, the Premier of the Soviet Union and the Communist Party’s First Secretary pounded his shoe on his desk during a debate at the United Nations. This boorish action was universally condemned as conduct unbefitting a head of state. Most Americans and our Allies mocked Khrushchev’s crude behavior. His actions, and later statements, that the Soviet Union “would bury us” were widely seen as exacerbating the Cold War. Besides the fact that American no longer makes shoes, the world was “entertained” the other day by an Iraqi journalist throwing his shoes at George W. Bush, our lame duck leader. Was there American or worldwide indignation over this “shoe” incident? No! Throwing shoes at someone in the Muslim world is tantamount to a very high-level insult, and not only did the Iraqi people and their Arab brothers applaud this audacious act, but some have offered millions for one of those shoes! How remarkable is it that our president is now the target of “shoe throwing” and no one cares “a fig” here in America. As a result, this “Saturday Night Live” style event has become a world-wide “YouTube” joke, and the Arab-Muslim world finds it great theater. Maybe we all have learned a lesson about the calamitous career of George W. Bush, and that his long-awaited departure can only improve our standing abroad.

Richard J. Garfunkel