It's literally stomach turning to see how the German government and media are using current events to promote the revisionist narrative that antisemitism in Germany is a foreign body that has been imported by immigrants in order obscure the BRD's own failure at denazification after 1945 and to warrant tougher immigration laws in the future. They do this by dehumanizing Palestinians as a people, associating their culture with terrorism, banning them from mourning the loss of their families, threatening them with deportation, arresting them, patrolling their neighborhoods, banning their cultural clothing from Berlin schools, using police violence against children, etc, etc. Every Palestinian in Germany right now is standing under general suspicion. The vice chairwoman of the CDU, Karin Prien, stated on the topic of fighting antisemitism in Germany: "We have to take their resonance spaces. Close down their mosques, their cafés their associations and confiscate the money that would otherwise be used for terror in the world." A violently racist statement that is not surprising in a violently racist country that has learned nothing from its history no matter how much it pretends to have done so, having cops terrorize the streets in Berlin Neukölln, the district with the largest Palestinian community in Europe while there are Nazis currently sitting in the Bundestag. Complicit in genocide, all of you!!

all evidence that points towards Magneto being Jewish before it was first explicitly established in 1991

!!None of this is my writing!! It’s a useful but outdated source that I merely revised to replace the G slur. It was written by Rivka Jacobs and the original can be found at http://www.alara.net/opeople/xbooks/magjew.html

The Magneto Is Jewish FAQ (revised 11/9/98)

Rivka Jacobs

(1) In Uncanny #113 (Classic X-Men #19), the added material has Magneto on Asteroid M, talking about the deaths of Magda, Anya, and he mentions Auschwitz for the first time. "I endured one death camp ... in Auschwitz ... I will not see another people fear what they do not understand and destroy what they fear." Uncanny #113 is from 1978. The additional scenes were included in 1988's Classic X-Men #19. So, we know Magnus was at Auschwitz, a death camp, not just a concentration camp. (Many fans [and writers] seem to get the two types of camps confused). There could have been a number of reasons he was at Auschwitz: he was a Polish political prisoner, a Russian prisoner of war, a member of the French underground, a homosexual from Germany, Roma, or, with a high probability, a Jew. (Out of 1.5 million victims of Auschwitz, between 1.1 and 1.2 million were Jews).

(2) In Uncanny #150 (one of my favorites) Magneto mentions, in a fight with Cyclops, "I know something of grief. Search throughout my homeland, you will find NONE who bear my name. Mine was a large family, and it was slaughtered ... without mercy, without remorse." So that eliminates German homosexual and French partisan, because the entire familes of such prisoners were not slaughtered throughout an entire "homeland." After Magneto thinks he has killed Kitty, he says: "I remember my own childhood ... the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the guards joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me." Storm is about to blast him for "killing" Kitty, and she says, "If you have a diety, butcher, pray to it!" Magneto answers, "As a boy, I believed. As a boy, I turned my back on god forever." So now we know that Magnus is not a political prisoner (German political prisoners were sent to camps on German soil, like Dachau, or Bergen-Belsen), he is not Polish, since whole Polish families were not herded to the gas chambers. The Poles were not the target of pre-meditated Nazi genocide. While the Russian people were the target of genocide, only Russian POWs were in Auschwitz, not whole families. So, we are now left with only two groups of people that Magnus could be from, the Roma and the Jews. Uncanny #150 is from Oct. 1981; already Magnus says something very interesting here. He says he "remembers" the gas chambers of Auschwitz, "remembers" his family being herded, he "remembers" the guards joking. Fact: no one remembers the gas chambers of Auschwitz except in two ways (or three if you believe the dead can speak to the living), either you were a Nazi SS guard or doctor or official, or you were a member of the Sonderkommando. The Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners who were forced by the Nazis -- in all the death camps -- to do the dirty work of killing. It was Nazi official policy. The Jews, the lowest of the low to the Nazis, in Auschwitz hierarchy, followed by the Russians, and then the Roma, the Jews would be the ones to lead the victims to the gas chamber, to haul the bodies from the gas chambers to the ovens, to burn and bury the dead. The Jews would pull the teeth of the corpses, cut the hair, pile the bodies three at a time on the retorts of the ovens in just the right way. The Sonderkommando had a few kapos (overseers) who were German and Polish prisoners, criminals from civil prisons in Germany and Poland. During the summer of 1944, 19 Russian POWs from Mauthausen were sent to augment the Auschwitz Sonderkommando. Totally documented, on paper and by eye witness accounts. All other members of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando were Jews.

(3) In Uncanny #161, Sept. 1982, we have the story of Xavier's trip to Israel. There he meets Magnus for the first time. However, it should be noted that the entire story is a Charlie-dream, while he is with Lilandra. In Uncanny #161 we see for the first and last time Magnus' tattoo from Auschwitz. His number is #214782. Xavier says, "That tattoo, Magnus, were you ...?" Magnus answers, "Auschwitz. I grew up there." So now we know that Magneto was first in Auschwitz as a very young person, but we can't pinpoint the age yet. Also, his number is high for someone who was there from the beginning of the camp. The first Polish prisoners, like author Wieslaw Kielar, had very low numbers, like in the 200s. Sonderkommando survivor Filip Muller's number was in the 20,000s. He arrived in early 1942. Magnus' number is a standard number, however, without the A of the 1944 arrivals, or the Z of the Roma, or the other special classification symbols. Of course the penciller didn't know these details. So a standard Auschwitz number, which is too big, but it doesn't tell us anything.

4) Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1, #4. Magneto has just found out Wanda and Pietro are his children. (This is from Feb. 1983). He is on the moon, in the Inhuman city of Attilan, telling VIsion about his youth. "I was born into a time and place ... Android ... where both man and mutant were persecuted for being ... different." Picture of the Auschwitz camp, guards tormenting emaciated prisoners, one of whom displays a very prominent and exaggerated Star of David on his clothing. Remember Jews and Roma were kept apart in the camp. In the next panel, however, Magneto sort-of goes into a fantasy. He says, "But unlike the other victims, I possessed the power to fight back." He imagines he's hurling Nazi tanks away with magnetic energy. What's this? In 1983, the reader doesn't know what to make of this. Keep in mind, he's meeting with Wanda, Pietro, Vision, and Crystal, and has held Luna for the first time. Is he exaggerating? Showing off for them?

(5) Now for the second most important comic proving Magneto is Jewish, Uncanny #199, Nov. 1985. Magneto with Lee Forrester and Kitty Pryde arrive at the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. (It's not really Lee, but Mystique, trying to capture Magneto). Magneto has been having an affair with Lee, he loves her. He brings her to the Holocaust Memorial? Why? Fun date, huh? Why, because he has no other family. These people are his family. Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. (The Roma have their own name for the genocide, and their own gatherings, with their own rituals and customs. Magneto has no reason to go to a Jewish gathering if he isn't Jewish). Lee/Mystique says: "Man's inhumanity to man ... how easily the race kills." Magneto answers: "Then, Lee, it was the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be Mutants." Why would he say that, why wouldn't he mention another ethnic group, if he weren't Jewish? Next, Magneto tells Kitty EXACTLY how to address the gathering in order to get information about dead or missing family members. How does Magneto know how to do this? Isn't it obvious that he's done this before? Why would he address a Jewish Holocaust gathering looking for information about his family if his family weren't Jewish? (And it is a Jewish gathering, besides the use of the word Holocaust, a speaker says in the background: "... the systematic institutionalized extermination of one people by another."). Kitty asks about her great-aunt Chava, who died at Auschwitz, and Magneto is recognized by two survivors, Ruth and David Shulman, two Jewish survivors. (Shul is another name for synagogue -- Shulman means man of the temple, or man of the synagogue). They remember Magneto as a youth in Auschwitz, and say he helped them survive. And witness him as having been there. (No implanted memories, please). They testify that he " ... Had been at that accursed place from the very start..."

Later, Mystique reveals herself, and arrests Magneto in front of all these people. Magneto says that he recognizes no authority. "My land ...all the countries of the world ... turned their back on me and mine when we were condemned to Hitler's death camps. Therefore, in return, I have sworn to deny them." So let's clear this up ... the Roma were not persecuted in Greece, the Greek Jewish community was decimated. A small number of Roma and Jews in Rumania were exiled to a new border country called "Transnistria" but the remainder of the Roma were left alone. Several hundred thousand of them. 350,000 Rumanian Jews were savagely murdered throughout the country. In Slovakia, the Roma were left alone, the Slovakian Jews were among the first sent to Auschwitz. After the Slovakian uprising was crushed in 1944, several hundred Roma who had courageously helped in the rebellion were murdered, along with the remainder of the Jews of Slovakia. Bulgaria did not persecute its Romani people. Bulgaria, although resisting deportations of its Jews, persecuted them locally. In the Netherlands, only the "wandering" Roma who were captured in camps and wagons were deported, about 500. The remaining who had bought homes or found shelter with neighbors, were left alone. The Netherlands is where Gabrielle Haller comes from -- in under two years 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported, most were killed. I could go on. There is no other people who were hunted everywhere the Nazis went or had influence but the Jews. There is no other people who had the gates of escape cut off after the war started, but the European Jews. Magneto's reasoning is based on this most extreme situation.

(6) Uncanny #211, Nov. 1986. The Mutant Massacre. Page 9 -- Betsy Braddock has just come in from discovering what happened to a wounded Morlock, who has just died. Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine are standing there in Xavier's infirmary. Betsy says, "... I saw a cadre of super-beings ... massacring every living thing in the Morlock tunnels." Magneto reacts immediately, out of pure emotion. "NO! The horrors of my childhood, born again...only this time, Mutants are the victims, instead of Jews." What else does this mean? He's talking about HIS childhood, he's making a parallel. If he weren't Jewish, he wouldn't have said Jews, he would have said Roma. The two groups of people are not interchangeable.

(7) New Mutants #49, March 1987. Magneto is dreaming. It is an entire page representation of the massacre of his family. Here we see for the first time, his family -- father, mother, sister -- as they were gunned down in front of open graves. The family members are dressed in middle class urban clothes. No peasant dress, no Roma clothing. (And it is not a cliche. Roma women always wore, at this time, their flowing skirts and distinctive scarves and clothing, similar to the Bosnian women of today). Being massacred with Magnus' family is a mixed group of people. Men in bowler hats and suits, one old woman in a long skirt. One man in a bowler hat has the side-locks of the devout Jew, but the other people could be anyone. Poles or Jews or Roma. It's Magnus and his family who are out of place. They are well-dressed, Magnus's sister in a proper school uniform with the prim collar. Every picture I've seen of the German Rom show: a people of color, having left India and Armenia five- to six-hundred years ago, the men wearing Fedoras (favorite style of hat) and normal suits and ties, and the women and girls always dressed in the long skirts and distinctive flowered scarves. The boys wear a mixture of urban short pants but scarf belts, some have socks, some don't. New Mutants #49, page 17, could show some Roma in the crowd, but Magnus' family members are definitely not Romani in this picture.

(8) X-Men Classics #12, back-up story, Aug. 1987. The actual scenes of Magneto's escape from Auschwitz. "And with World War II ending... the Third Reich defeated...it's guards wanted no witnesses left...to tell the tale of this horror..." Picture of an SS soldier about to shoot a fallen and stricken Madga. "He had been there from the start ..." Magnus has just slammed a wooden beam into the head of the SS soldier. "Grown to manhood within its electrified barbed wire fence. If he was to die, it would not be in this abattoir ... and not without a fight!" Magnus grabs a terrified Magda by the hand and drags her with him in his escape. (a) The war is almost over, it is winter, it is the winter of 1944-1945. The Roma were gone by 1945. All the Roma women were gone. Only 4 clerks, high-status friends of Nazi officials in Camp I, were left. The Romani camp was murdered in the gas chambers in August 1944. (b) This scene, by Claremont and Bolton, is completely accurate. It takes place on Jan. 20, 1945, two days after thecamp was evacuated and the Death marches began. Some 70 of the Sonderkommando were kept to help destroy the evidence of the death factory, before they were to be killed. Some 200 women from the woman's camp, Jews, were chosen to fill in the huge pits where bodies were burned. They had to haul ashes, break up human bones, all in the coldest part of winter. The SS soldiers sent back on Jan. 20th were sent to kill the women. That is exactly what you see in this comic book, because Claremont and Bolton took the time and cared enough, to do their research. Magneto was saving Magda becasue at that point, he wasn't the target, yet. If they were out by the burial pits to the northwest of the camp, that is a point close to the forest. It just makes sense.

(9) New Mutants #61, March 1988. On page 22, Magneto is alone, kneeling over the dead body of Doug Ramsey, thinking thoughts only the reader can see. This is one moment he would not misrepresent anything, to himself especially. He says, "An ill wind is coming ... they are registering mutants ... like they once registered my people in Poland ...! Who knows what horrors await us." Only the Jews were registered, and forced to wear armbands with the Star of David on them, in Poland (at the end of 1939). Efforts to murder the Polska Roma (the Polish Roma) began in 1942, but they weren't registered first. Young Magnus wouldn't have known about any of that in any case-- he was already at Auschwitz by 1942. He would only have known that "my people" the Jewish people in Poland, including the German Jews who had already been deported there in the first months of the War, were registered.

(10) Classic X-Men #19, March 1988, back-up story. Magneto is apparently working for the CIA hunting Nazis. He is about to be betrayed by them, and his lady love of that time, Isabelle, is about to be murdered. But as he is apprehending a Nazi war criminal he gets one of his massive headaches. "Pain," he thinks, "again indescribable." "Worse than the bite of the kapo's whip. The murder of parents and family, the death of a child ... the loss of a beloved wife!" So here we see that Magneto was the victim of kapos. He could not have been a kapo. He was too young anyway, as we've seen. He grew up in Auschwitz. Here he says the murder of parents, and family. The parents separate, gunned down. The remainder of his family, no doubt sent to the gas chambers later, while he was in the Sonderkommando. Remember what he said in UX #150, his entire family wiped out. So as a Jew in the Sonderkommando he not only watched his family die, he helped kill them. How can any other comic book character ever come close to Magneto for dramatic intensity, but only if he is a Jew.

(11) X-Factor Annual #4, 1989. Doom challenges Magneto to a duel of wills, with a helmet that pulls out unpleasant memories and torments the wearer. Who will crack first? Magneto takes his turn -- Doom describes what he sees, "...after the ignoble defeat of the Nazis in Germany, you and the woman Magda you rescued, fled the prison camp Auschwitz, in Poland."

"Auschwitz, where your family had perished --living skeletons -- and you had grown to manhood amid horrors most men could not conceive." First, Doom confirms that Magnus and Magda "fled" or escaped Auschwitz before liberation and after the Roma camp was murdered. Then he describes some of Magneto's family perishing, as living skeletons, at Auschwitz. They could either have been kept as prisoners, or brought in, starving, from ghettoes in Poland and gassed. They could have been either Roma or Jews. But then it's Doom's turn to wear the helmet. Doom's Romani heritage is discussed at great length. Doom is proud to be a Rom, he knows he is a Rom. Why would he not acknowledge that Magneto is also a Rom? Why did he say your family, implying your people, to Magneto? Not "our" people?

(12) And now the most important evidence, and just about my favorite X-Men comic, Uncanny #274, from March 1991. In the Savage Land, the entire comic is told from the point of view of Magneto. It is a first person narrative, he is talking directly to us, the readers. He is not exaggerating, he is not showing off. The writing is elegant and wonderful ... "My life's ambition has been to safeguard my fellow mutants," Magneto says. "Zaladane has no such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Fuhrer's voice in the radio of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle cars brought the comdemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find a gentler path ... the more irresistibly I'm drawn back. I should have died myself with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the hundreds, by the thousands ... from the death house to the crematorium ... and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then ... why was I spared?!" So there it is. He describes his job at Auschwitz. That is it. This is no vague job description, this is what the Sonderkommando did. This is fundamental to the history of the Holocaust, to the history of Nazi Germany. Making the Jews the ones who had to do all the dirty work in the death camps.

Marvel cannot say they have their own version of Holocaust history. What kind of reasoning is that? Where do the editors and writers of Marvel get off making up their own history of the Holocaust? Where do they draw the line? Has any reader out there ever seen any major publisher or entertainment outfit, outside Neo-Nazi groups and the Militias or Far Right Splinter groups, who just took it upon themselves to change a Jew into a Romany and change Holocaust and Auschwitz history to make it fit? Magneto says it here, he was a member of the Sonderkommando. He was not a kapo. He was not a Russian POW. He was a Jew! On page 14 of UXM #274, Magneto is dreaming again. He again sees his family being gunned down. He again feels what it was like to be buried alive. Rogue wakes him up.

(13) Uncanny X-Men #275, April 1991, which concludes the Savage Land story from UXM #274, referred to above, also contains confirmation as to what happened to young Magnus. Magneto says, directly to the reader, in diary-like narration, as he uses the last strength of his emaciated body to push away his captors, "They think me beaten, finished. A mistake many have made in the past. As I found the strength, as a boy, to survive being machine-gunned and buried alive, and later the unimaginable horror of Auschwitz ... so do I find it in me, here and now, to break free."

(14) X-Men Vol. 2, No. 2, Nov. 1991. The beginning of the end for Magneto. But on page 24 he says to Moira MacTaggart, who has seemingly betrayed him, and enraged him, "Of course not. You worked for the betterment of the world and the race. I heard those same rationales as a boy, in the Auschwitz Death Camp. From Dr. Joseph Mengele himself!" Mengele's first victims were the Roma, he liked the Roma. He brought the children candy and extra food. And in August of 1944, after trying unsuccessfully to save the Romani Family Camp (also for his own experimental purposes) Mengele obeyed his orders and vigorously hunted down and helped exterminate all remaining Roma. He then dissected those of most interest to him, and sent body parts to Berlin. Then he turned his attention to the Jews of Auschwitz. Only his Jewish victims have survived. His Romani victims, those transfered out of the camp in the spring and summer of 1944, have rarely come forward. If Magneto is alive in Auschwitz after the start of 1945, and he personally heard Dr. Mengele, he is a Jew.

Magneto is a Jew especially since Mengele would have been one of his supervisors in the Sonderkommando.

(15) X-Men, Vol. 2, No. 3, Dec. 1991 -- Magneto to Xavier, "You speak to the best in humanity. I have endured the worst. You imagine the reality of the Holocaust, of the Nazi Death Camps. I grew up in one." Magneto says The Holocaust. This is the translation of SHOAH, and was first used after the war, and popularized by Eli Wiesel. It means the Jewish Holocaust. One can say the Romani genocide, and today sometimes you'll hear the Romani holocaust, or the Russian holocaust, or the holocaust perpetrated against the mentally ill and the handicapped. (Nazi pre-meditated genocide was really only carried to the fullest extreme against three groups, the first were the mentally ill and the handicapped, who were the first victims of genocide. The second and third groups were the Jews and the Roma). But the Holocaust is what Jewish people say when they refer to the calculated campaign of Nazi Germany to kill every Jew in the world. (They actually made lists of every country in the Western world, and all the Jewish populations. They made no such list for any other people). Nazi Germany succeeded in killing almost 6 million of their foremost victims, until the Third Reich was defeated.

(16) X-Factor #92, July, 1993. Havok and X-Factor are battling Cortez and the Acolytes, in this opening chapter of Fatal Attractions. Cortez is ranting about the "flatscans" and how mutants have to subjugate them. Havok says, "Out to destroy the "inferior" race ... in Magneto's name? Don't you know what an insult that is to the memory of the very man you claim to worship? Fifty years ago, Magnus barely survived a Holocaust that destroyed almost all of his people: all because some lunatic took it upon himself to decide who deserved to live ... and who didn't. Where's the sense in resurrecting that kind of evil ... in the name of one of its victims?!" Cortez answers, "You've seen this place Havok! You've seen the sentinels! You tell me ... where's the sense in letting the flatscans do to the mutants what Hitler did to the Jews? ..." Cortez has done research on Magneto, he says the Jews, as a parallel metaphor. Why say that, if Magneto isn't Jewish?

(17) Then comes the infamous Unlimited #2. This is a long and involved FAQ I've got going here, so I won't go into detail at the moment. But the bottom line is, everything that Gabrielle Haller says about Magneto's history is false. I don't want to go line by line over it now. Everything! Danzig was not annexed. It was a Free City, under League of Nations protection, that voted itself a Nazi government and welcomed the Nazi troops in like liberators. Gauleiter Forster, the extremely anti-Semitic Nazi leader of Danzig ordered all 10,000 Jews of Danzig to be kicked out of the city in 1939, not the Roma. The Jews. Auschwitz wasn't opened as a Polish political prisoner camp until the summer of 1940, not 1939. The Roma were sent to German municipal camps, in Germany and the Greater Reich, as early as 1933. But they were not sent to Auschwitz from Germany until 1943. The only people who were in a work camp in Auschwitz before it opened were 300 Jews from the town of Auschwitz who were forced to transform a collection of horse stables and army barracks into the Polish prisoner camp. "Genocide, extermination ..." of Poles? No. The Polish people suffered terribly, and were considered "sub-human" by the Nazis. Millions of Polish citizens were killed throughout the course of the war, as soldiers, as slave laborers, as underground fighters, as members of the intelligentsia. But this was Nazi suppression of a conquered country, not planned genocide. Roma, Yes. The homosexuals, no. Not genocide. Persecution and imprisonment. Treated terribly. But people weren't sent to the gas chambers just because they were homosexuals. And "intellectuals" ? (How could Nicieza have written this?) Intellectuals were targets of genocide? Well, I hardly think so, since Goebbels, and Albert Speer, and even Mengele were considered intellectuals.

No one was sent to the gas chambers, or was shot in an open grave, or was tortured and murdered JUST because they happened to be an intellectual. Thousands of Polish citizens who were members of the intelligentsia (the educated class, the vanguard or elite of the educated class), were murdered in the first months of the war. But there was no planned campaign to hunt down every intellectual in Europe and exterminate them. The mentally ill and handicapped, the Jews, and the Roma were the primary targets of Nazi genocide. The Russians came next. Everything Haller says about Magneto in Unlimited #2 contradicts most of Magneto's history as presented in 15 years worth of comics.

(18) Until recently, when, in Road to Onslaught, Marvel once again published that outrageous Gabrielle Haller speech about Magneto like they were proud of it (??) the next references in the Age of Apocalypse comics portrayed Magneto once again as Jewish. In X-Men Vol. 2, No. 40, where David Haller, Legion, pulls Magneto's memories out, you see young Magnus with the men, standing behind and below a high, barred window. This is an accurate portrayal of the quarters of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz I. At Auschwitz I, only the Sonderkommando (other than prisoners awaiting execution) were kept in isolated basement cells, the windows of which were high, barred, and as seen from the outside, half-below ground level.

And why is Magneto in Israel anyway? How could he have come there? Well, why would a Romany go to Israel when at least 30,000 Roma lived in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s? And many more Rom formed a thriving community in Paris. Why not just go home to his own clan and tribe? Roma have a complex system of extended familes, clans, and tribes. Why go to Israel to "find himself" or find his "soul"? A German Jew had no place to go but somewhere else. A Polish Jew definitely had no place to go back to, since some Polish fanatics continued to murder returning Holocaust survivors well into the late 1940s. Any Jew can emigrate to Israel, under the Law of Return. All Magneto had to do was show them the tattoo on his arm. And he was home. (And in case some of you were wondering, as some of us have discussed, with the exception of the Muslim Bosnians, only the Jews of Europe practiced circumcision. It was a religious rite, not a medical procedure. Only Jewish men and boys were circumcised among the prisoners at Auschwitz. The Nazis already knew what Magneto was. He was chosen for the Sonderkommando, he was Jewish. He was not pretending to be a Jew. He wasn't misidentified as a Jew. He was a circumcised, young Jewish man). Furthermore, Magnus at this time had forged papers, that identified him as "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr." He could have immigrated to any country in the world, including the United States! If he were Roma, and didn't want to self-identify as such, why not go to America? Why go to the one country that represents enormous pain for modern Roma -- i.e., the Rom today deeply resent the focus on Israel, and the support Israel enjoys among nations of the Western world, while the Roma continue to be persecuted and ignored.

(19) In Astonishing X-Men #3, formerly Uncanny, from May 1995, we have the most clear reference to Magneto's being Jewish, written by Scott Lobdell. Magneto has just hit Bishop, and is helping him to his feet. He says, "Long before Xavier died ... before this point of divergence ... I stood by helplessly as millions of my people were led to slaughter in the name of 'genetic purity." Now the AOA is not a what-if story. It is a divergent timeline. Magneto says, before the timeline diverged. What other people were lead by the millions, led to the slaughter, in the name of genetic purity? Many people suffered and died in World War II. 250,000 to 500,000 Roma were murdered. Millions of Russians and Poles during the course of the invasions, and in political violence, and in acts of pure murder, were exterminated. But only the European Jews were "led to the slaughter" in the millions because of one man's racial beliefs. Only the Jews of Europe Persecutionand incarceration are not the same as genocide and extermination.

20) X-Men #72, cover date February 1998, published in mid-December 1997. This comic book makes a significant contribution to Magneto's history. Basically, the book reveals that the name *Erik Lehnsherr* which was revealed by Gabrielle Haller in Unlimited #2 to be Magneto's real name, is fake, and so Haller's assertion that Magneto is a *Sinte* Rom was based on false and forged identity papers.

The scenario begins with Gabrielle Haller, lying on her bed, working on a lap- top computer, writing the American Sen. Kelly, begging him to help find and secure the release of Charles Xavier. Sabra, the Israeli super-hero, a mutant and Mossad agent, suddenly appears floating in the air outside Haller's balcony doors. Haller has just pushed open the doors, saying, "You're too important to lose, Charles. I will see you ... FREE?" And Sabra says, "Sometimes, Ambassador Haller ... freedom, like the truth, is little more than an illusion. Don't you think?"

Sabra has come to Haller with information. She says to Gabrielle Haller: "I"m sure you recall shocking the world when you announced that you had UNDENIABLE proof ofMagneto's identity as Erik Lehnsherr. The undeniable has just been DENIED." Sabra then goes on to show Haller, and the readers, the file on a master forger named George Odekirk. In this file, apparently, is a computer analysis of the identity papers of Erik Lehnsherr, which shows that Odekirk forged those documents. Haller says, "He created Erik Lehnsherr? If this is true ... you must take me to him! He could be our only link to Magneto's true identity ... our last chance to stop him once and for all!"

But just as Sabra is flying Haller to the Transylvanian Alps, to meet with Odekirk, the scene switches to Odekirk, who is working on another forged passport, sitting in bed while his wife sleeps beside him. Suddenly, Odekirk looks up -- he has a visitor. It's Magneto, in full costume.

Magneto is floating in the air. He surrounds Odekirk's bed with his magnetic energy, and uses his power to keep Odekirk's wife unconscious. He says, "You failed me." Odekirk responds, "Please ... please, my wife ..." Magneto answers, "She will sleep the sleep of the innocent. She has done nothing ... but you ... YOU, my friend, have BETRAYED me." Odekirk protests his innocence, and then Magneto makes this remarkable speech: "Do you remember what you promised me the night I came to you, torn and filthy, nearly a quarter century ago? I was searching for my beloved MAGDA, determined not to lose her as I had lost so many others in the fire that engulfed all of Europe during my childhood. The authorities were in pursuit of me for the "crime" of avenging my daughter's murder. I was willing to deny who I was ... everything that my family died for ... so that I could find one woman ... so that I would not be caged AGAIN. The Erik Lehnsherr fabrication was a convenient means of ensuring that. You swore that the forged papers were FLAWLESS, that your skills were unsurpassed... but now, you have proven to be a liability. Your work has been called into queston by my enemies, and they will trace Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte BACK to you." Odekirk protests, "That is impossible! That forgery was impeccable! My work is ... " Magneto answers: "It was not ENOUGH! You gave birth to Erik Lehnsherr, Odekirk. And tonight, you have killed him. My secrets shall die with him. All that remains now ... is MAGNUS."

This scene says, subtly but clearly, that Magnus denied who he was, gave up everything his famly died for, to take the false identity of a Sinte Rom named Erik Lehnsherr. Since this entire FAQ has gone into great detail showing exactly how and why Magnus was born Jewish, it seems there is no doubt now, that Magneto's family and he himself, were Jews. Magnus would not say he denied *everything* his family died for, by taking a Romani identity, if his family were indeed Roma. As I pointed out above, only the Jews and Roms were targeted as entire peoples, and killed for no reason other than they were Jews and Roms. Magnus was either one, or the other. Since in XM #72, it is revealed that he is NOT a Rom, we must conclude he was born a Jew.

There are several continuity problems that arise from the revelations of XM #72. Several unanswered questions:

1) How much of Haller's speech (Unlimited #2) was based information contained in Odekirk's forgery, how much was based on what she personally knew, and how much did she "fabricate" herself? She makes a large number of mistakes, about nearly every aspect of Magneto's history and life. She also gets her Holocaust history and dates wrong. Did she perhaps add her own *facts* to what she found in those old identity papers? Was she perhaps trying to make the story coherent? As in, trying to make what she knew about Magnus and his history fit what she learned about *Erik Lehnsherr*? For example, where she says, on page 19 of Unlimited #2, "...Lehnsherr had taken to calling himself MAGNUS ... as if by choosing his MIDDLE name, he could bring some semblance of BALANCE and SIMPLICITY to his haunted life." This is Haller's supposition -- the reason he was calling himself MAGNUS in Israel. She knew him as Magnus back then, she had just found out, his full name was supposedly *Erik Lehnsherr.* Did she try to splice together the information?

2) While XM #72 makes it clear why Magnus cloaked himself in this false identity and ethnic background initially, what is not so understandable is why he continued to maintain that false identity after his search for Magda was over, and he immigrated to Israel. Did he use the forged *Erik Lehnsherr* passport to enter Israel? Why would he use a false identity and ethnic background to enter Israel, when he was a Jew?

3) Why would Magnus continue to use the Erik Lehnsherr identity during the Age of Apocalypse, especially since he publicly identified with being a Jew? (Astonishing X-Men #3, quoted above.)

4) Magnus worked for at least one intelligence agency, most likely the CIA (Classic X-Men #19). He then hunted dangerous mutants, for his own mysterious purposes, as shown in a brief cameo in Generation X #10 -- which was a memory belonging to Sean Cassidy, telepathically accessed by Emma Frost. During the time he was working for the CIA, his code-name was Magneto. In Classic X-Men #19, he is called only Magneto. In Generaton X #10, Interpol agent Sean Cassidy doesn't know who the man is who is helping him track down Arcady (the future Omega Red). Emma Frost, commenting from the present as a psionic guide to Cassidy's memories, calls the man *Erik Lehnsherr.* But the question is, after he left Israel, did Magnus use the false identity Erik Lehnsherr?

5) During the time that Magneto tried to follow Xavier's path, roughly from UXM #196 through UXM #253, and New Mutants issues #35 through #75, including UXM #188, NM #21, #23, #24, #26, #28, and #29, he referred to himself as Magnus, and others like Storm and Kitty Pryde called him Magnus. Even though he was disguised as Michael Xavier for the outside world, the X-Men and their associates all knew Magneto as Magnus. During this time, Magnus also identified strongly with his Jewish and Jewish Holocaust history. The question now is, what happened to the *Erik Lehnsherr the SInte* identity during this time?

6) Why, now, after so many years, did Magneto find it necessary to kill George Odekirk in order to protect his identity? We know why he took the false name and ethnic background to begin with. But we have no evidence that he continued to use *Erik Lehnhserr*, during each stage of his pre-Magneto career. After he became Magneto, after all the battles with the X-Men, after the events of Fatal Attractions, after the mind-wipe and the appearance of Joseph, after Onslaught, why would Magnus be so concerned with protecting his true identity? Was he trying to protect the memory of his family? Has he maintained contact with pre-Holocaust family grave sites, or places where he once lived? Is he worried that the very bones of his ancestors might be violated by those looking for his genetic material? Then there's Anya, his beloved daughter -- she was never Anya *Lehnsherr*. Her last name is now unknown -- is Magneto trying to protect something concerning her? George Odekirk wouldn't be the only witness to Magneto's true identity, either. What about those Carpathian villagers, who accepted Auschwitz escapees Magnus and Magda in 1945? Did anyone in Vinnitsa who knew Magnus' true last name survive his burst of electromagnetic radiation? What about Ruth and David Shulman, who knew him at Auschwitz, and recognized him, in UXM #199?

These, and other unanswered questions, remain.

By removing the *Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte* identity, fixing that particular retcon from Unlimited #2, and leaving the rest of Magneto's history intact, writer Joe Kelly and editor Bob Harras have not officially stated that Magneto was born Jewish, and was a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. But, as was the case during the years Chris Claremont wrote the character, the references to Magneto's Jewish identity are there, subtle and at the same time, obvious.

Empathy, pt.3

Let’s start with this: Jamal Kashshoggi was a man.

Do you remember him? He was a man, a human being, and like any of us he had hopes and dreams and memories.

He was also a journalist. After years of supporting the Saudi royal family and their authoritarian regime, he was murdered in 2018 for writing and speaking out against their abuses and, eventually, their war in Yemen. That was the version of him who fled Saudi Arabia, and the one who was marked for death by the Saudi crown prince he had once called a friend.

Last fall, the Saudi regime commuted the death sentences of the men it offered up as his murderers. Three months ago, an investigation confirmed that it was the Saudi Crown Prince, Mohammed bin Salman, who had ordered his death.

We’re forgetting him. Even now, reading this, we are already forgetting. We can’t help it. At least, we tell ourselves we can’t.

In many ways, Kashshoggi was a lot like Alexei Novalny. Novalny hasn’t left the news quite yet. Like Kashshoggi, he supported the corrupt, authoritarian regime in his country, Russia, before turning against it. The attempt on his life, by poison, failed. Barely. He’s still alive, locked up in a Russian prison, a cautionary tale for those daring to oppose Vladimir Putin.

How long before we’ve forgotten him, too?

It’s a lot to ask of ourselves, remembering everyone around us. Sure, in some abstract way most of us try, “Good will towards men,” and all that, but we have the luxury of looking away and of not having to commit ourselves to thinking of others the way those two men did.

For each of them, it was an inescapable empathy for the suffering of they saw around them that compelled them to risk their lives to draw attention to it. They did so knowing the cost.

That cost - personal loss, imprisonment, death - is enough to keep most of us looking away. So much of what we do is to enable us to look away, to keep unpleasant reality at a distance. When others are already physically far away, it only makes it that much harder for us to do the right thing.

Looking out past our borders, the world today is filled with men, women, and children suffering, more than a few at the hands of authoritarian regimes, and of them far too many paying that cost for standing up against abuse.

The most present case this past week, because videos on social media have made it impossible to ignore in ways that it has been, has been that of the Palestinians.

The facts of this latest series of abuses against them should not be in doubt. During the last days of Ramadan, Israelis began forcing Palestinians out of their homes in the Sheikh Jarrah district in East Jerusalem. This was followed in quick succession by Israeli troops occupying the Al-Aqsa mosque following a confrontation between Palestinians at the mosque for Friday prayers and Israelis celebrating the capture of the mosque in 1967.

This was all a deliberate provocation, beyond the aggressive offense of what the Israelis were doing. The timing of it, during the Muslim holy month while right wing Benjamin Netanyahu struggles to cling to power, was intended to add insult to injury.

It worked. Clearly.

Hamas, ever eager for an excuse to be violent and to be seen to be violent, gave an ultimatum that would make Netanyahu’s regime look weak if accepted, Netanyahu gratefully rejected it, and Hamas began firing rockets, knowing that Israel would escalate and retaliate with a kind of brutality that can only be described as criminal.

The unpleasant reality is that both political powers rely on perpetuating the conflict between them, doing so at the expense of the people they claim to want to serve and protect. And those people pay the cost of it.

Note, please, how I have avoided referring to those instigating these atrocities as Muslims or Jews. That they use their religions and their histories as justification for violence and abuse should not be taken as representative of either religion. If anything, it should be taken as a kind of cruel irony, or perhaps an insight into how the abused, as individuals or groups, can become abusers themselves.

Zionism is not Judaism. It never was and never will be. It grew out of two things: the technology-driven late 19th century belief by Europeans, and their North American “cousins”, in their right to colonial domination of non-Europeans; and the centuries-old, routine and systematic attacks on Jews - pogroms - especially in Central and Eastern Europe that led millions of Jews to flee for their lives, many of them to the United States.

The establishment of Israel in 1948 followed the same pattern: that same, late 19th century belief in the right to claim or assign ownership of others’ land - no matter that it had once belonged to your ancestors; and the routine and systematic attempted genocide of all Jews in Europe - the Holocaust - by Europeans who chose to believe Jews not to be Europeans but some other, lesser race from West Asia.

That, of course, has been the assigned role for Jews the world over: they are accepted as insiders when times are good and scapegoated as outsiders when times are bad. To be Jewish - I am - is to understand that this never quite goes away. There’s always somebody having a bad day, always a big lie ready for justification.

Technically, it is true that Jews are Asian, in the way that Palestinians are also Asian, and that Egyptians are, too, but also African because different people have had different maps which they used for different purposes at different times.

Also true is that these things are only true due to the arbitrary drawing of continental lines on maps made by Europeans, from the ancient Greeks to those carving up the “New World” in the century after Columbus to the 1885 conference in Berlin carving up Africa for colonial exploitation.

This is not, strictly speaking, a European thing. Every culture has a tendency to see themselves as the center of the world. Just ask those living in China, or as they call it, Zhongguo, the “Middle Kingdom”.

The difference here is that modern day Israel was carved out of Palestine, a colonial “protectorate” which was itself carved out of the Ottoman Empire and awarded to the British following World War I. As a spoil of war, formerly-Ottoman Iraq, with its vast oil reserves, had greater value to the British. Palestine had ports on the Mediterranean - “the center of the world” - but was otherwise an afterthought.

Not, however, to the Jews fleeing Nazi Germany. We must remember that the rest of the world didn’t want them. Jews attempting to flee the atrocity they and everyone else couldn’t help but see coming were turned away by everyone else, including the United States.

This in no way justifies what was done in Palestine in the 1930s and 40s, it’s just to place it in context. By turning Jews away, by attempting to forget them and their suffering, the world gave weight and power to right wing groups within the refugees.

Starting in the 1930s, those groups began to engage in terrorism against Arabs to force their position into Palestine and against the British to force them out. Irgun Zvai Leumi (National Military Organization) and later the Stern Gang carried out assassinations and killed hundreds of Arabs and British with bombs.

After what the Nazis did to the Jews in Europe, memorialized in newsreels for all the world to see, who would take the Arabs’ side? Who could? The British were in no position to hold onto their colonial possessions anywhere, so they gave up and pulled out and in 1948 the state of Israel was born. Palestinian Arabs were forced from their homes and stripped of rights they had held under the Ottomans and even the British.

Again, this was not Judaism. As the name “Irgun” suggests, those terrorists were a right wing, nationalist militia doing what right wing, nationalist militias have done before and since, using an ethnic or religious identity to justify committing atrocities to take land and property.

After standing by and allowing the Nazis to do what they did, the world vowed never to forget; part of the price they were willing to pay - that they were willing to allow the Palestinian Arabs to pay - was to forget what Irgun and the Stern Gang had done, and to turn a blind eye to anything the Israelis did going forward.

There was a racist element to it, to be sure. This is part of the pattern of colonial withdrawal, negotiating a partition of land and possessions among the colonized groups, pitting them against each other, and then letting them fend for themselves. Nothing like creating a power vacuum to draw out the worst of us.

The British did the same thing in South Asia in 1947, pitting Muslim and Hindu groups against each other, erupting in spasms of violence before settling into a Cold War, complete with nuclear weapons. Even in their most secular eras, religious nationalism has defined the politics and leadership of each nation.

The result of this, naturally, has been an increasingly corrupt leadership exploiting religious hatred and mistrust to gain more power and wealth for themselves. It should be noted, yet again, that the political entities of Pakistan and India, though led by religious nationalists, do not represent Islam or Hinduism.

Their actions and failures do not represent those religions in any way. They are the actions and failures of men and women seeking power, seeking to acquire it and seeking to hold onto it. They are no different than the Netanyahu regime or Hamas, or our own right wing leaders in the United States.

For all of them, it is in their interest to cling to memory of conflict as a means of manipulation; in Israel and Palestine, nationalist leaders preach as if 1948 or 1967 are now; in India and Pakistan, it’s still 1947; and for America’s white nationalists, it’s either 1865 or 1965, take your pick. For the Serbs slaughtering thousands of Muslims in Srebrenica twenty-six years ago, it was 1389, the year the Ottomans conquered the Balkans.

The wars, cold or hot, can never end because time is never allowed to change. This, again, is a function of proximity. By freezing themselves in the increasingly distant past, the leaders and those choosing to follow them do not have to accept the changes facing them in the present. Their fantasy is to return to that idyllic, earlier time, when they possessed everything and did not have to be accountable to anyone.

And they will all fail for the same reason: in the present or near future, we will have reached a point at which we can no longer allow ourselves to ignore those suffering and in doing so forget them.

That is what we have done to the Palestinians. What has been done and what is being done now is in no small part because we forget them, routinely and systematically and purposefully.

The videos sent from Gaza of children being pulled from rubble should help us remember. They should. Ideally, they will have the same effect as those of last year’s Black Live Matter protests, but the people of Gaza remain far away. For many of us, it will be enough that the missiles and rockets have stopped.

Videos sent from India’s emergency rooms and crematoria should help us remember, but they, too, remain far away. Already, we’re starting to put India’s crisis behind us.

Will we remember either of them a month from now? Two? Or will they fade into the background, as the imprisoned Hong Kong democracy protesters have, or those dying of Covid-19 in Brazil, or those shot down in the streets fighting police brutality in Columbia, or those caught between warring factions in Ethiopia’s Tigray region? Or, for that matter, those half a century ago in Argentina who were simply “disappeared”?

What about the coup in Myanmar? Remember that? How about the ethnic cleansing of the Muslim Rohingya people, supported by the now-deposed and jailed regime of fallen-hero Aung San Suu Kyi? What was done to them was no different than what was done to the Armenians in what is now eastern Turkey by the Ottoman Empire in 1915. That genocide was recently recognized by President Biden, an act of official, international recognition that took over a century and which itself is already being forgotten. The Rohingya may have to wait as long to be remembered themselves, or longer.

The point of all this isn’t that we forget, try as we might, but that despite it we find ways to remember. That Biden recognized the Armenians came because they did not forget and did not allow that crime to be forgotten. 

If this sounds like what nationalists all claim to do themselves - always demanding that everyone remember this date or that insult - remember that actual justice never seems to be their goal.

Justice requires memory, full memory. For us to remember anything fully, we must take the good with the bad. We must recognize the good and bad in each of us and in each group and in each series of actions. We must understand that for the worst act done by anyone in the name of any group or religion, there remain those within those groups and religions who stand against it.

So, let’s end with this: George Floyd 

George Floyd was a man, a human being, and like any of us he had hopes and dreams and memories. He died one year ago today in no small part because we forgot him. 

We remember now, today especially, because of what was done to him on this date, but we should recognize the role that forgetting him and people like him played in the events that led to his murder. We as a society have looked away from the suffering of minorities in this country, and from the violence done to certain groups within our society.

The easiest thing to say, certainly as we watched that video and the countless videos of police brutalizing non-violent protesters all last summer, was that “all cops are bad”. They aren’t. Hard as it may be to hear, they aren’t.

They are, however, led by men and women who push an adversarial culture, who encourage violence and racism, who are corrupt, and who thrive on the failure of reform. And most of them, far, far too many, stand by in silence as men and women are murdered in that culture’s name. In that silence, they have failed us all.

If we want to change that culture, we need those who would stand for justice to stand up and speak. They are there, just as they are in Israel and Palestine, and in Pakistan and India and elsewhere: intimidated, ostracized, and struggling to be heard.

Of course, May 25th, 2020 wasn’t just any other day in America. It was Memorial Day. That is a cruel irony. Another is how little we do to honor that day. It was created to honor those who died for this country, to remember not only them but what they did and what they supposedly did it for. Instead, we grill meats and drink beer and forget our troubles for just one day.

Few deaths may have the lasting impact on this country that George Floyd’s has had and will have, and he died in no small part because he, too, had been forgotten. This coming Memorial Day, let us take a moment to remember him and all of the others everywhere in this world who have died and deserve to be remembered.

- Daniel Ward

They Thought They Were Free: The Germans, 1933-45

I’ve been reading this book by Milton Mayer for a while now, and I've wanted to share some of the passages that seem especially relevant to current events. A lot of what these Nazis he spoke with told him about what Germany was like at that time, should frankly send a chill up your spine.

In the pleasant resort towns of New England Americans have seen signs reading “Selected Clientele” or “Restricted.” They have grown accustomed to seeing such signs, so accustomed that, unless they are non-Caucasian or, perhaps, non-“Aryan” Americans, they take no notice of them and, in taking no notice, accept them. In the much less pleasant cottonseed-oil towns of the Deep South Americans have grown accustomed to seeing signs reading anything from “White” and “Colored” to “Nigger, Don’t Let the Sun Set on You Here,” and, unless they are non-Caucasian or, perhaps, northern Americans, they take no notice of them. There were enough such signs (literally and figuratively) in pre-Nazi Germany, and there was enough non-resistance to them, so that, when the countryside bloomed in 1933 with signs reading “Juden hier uneiwünscht, Jews Not Wanted Here,” the Germans took no notice of them. So, in the body politic as in the body personal, nonresistance to the milder indulgences paves the way for nonresistance to the deadlier.

The German community—the rest of the seventy million Germans, apart from the million or so who operated the whole machinery of Nazism—had nothing to do except not to interfere. Absolutely nothing was expected of them except to go on as they had, paying their taxes, reading their local paper, and listening to the radio. Everybody attended local celebrations of national occasions—hadn’t the schools and the stores always been closed for the Kaiser’s birthday?—so you attended, too. Everybody contributed money and time to worthy purposes, so you did, too. In America your wife collects or distributes clothing, gives an afternoon a week to the Red Cross or the orphanage or the hospital; in Germany she did the same thing in the Nazi Frauenbund, and for the same reasons.

► “I couldn’t help being glad, when something happened to somebody else, that it hadn’t happened to me. It was like later on, when a bomb hit another city, or another house than your own; you were thankful.” “More thankful for yourself than you were sorry for others?” “Yes. The truth is, Yes. It may be different in your case, Herr Professor, but I’m not sure that you will know until you have faced it.” You were sorry for the Jews, who had to identify themselves, every male with “Israel” inserted into his name, every female with “Sarah,” on every official occasion; sorrier, later on, that they lost their jobs and their homes and had to report themselves to the police; sorrier still that they had to leave their homeland, that they had to be taken to concentration camps and enslaved and killed. But—weren’t you glad you weren’t a Jew? You were sorry, and more terrified, when it happened, as it did, to thousands, to hundreds of thousands, of non-Jews. But—weren’t you glad that it hadn’t happened to you, a non-Jew? It might not have been the loftiest type of gladness, but you hugged it to yourself and watched your step, more cautiously than ever.

► The people didn’t pay any attention to the Party program as such. They went to the meetings just to hear something new, anything new. They were desperate about the economic situation, ‘a new Germany’ sounded good to them; but from a deep or broad point of view they saw nothing at all. Hitler talked always against the government, against the lost war, against the peace treaty, against unemployment. All that, people liked. By the time the intellectuals asked, ‘What is this?’ it had a solid basis in the common people.

► All ten of my friends, including the sophisticated Hildebrandt, were affected by this sense of what the Germans call Bewegung, movement, a swelling of the human sea, something supraparty and suprapolitical, a surge of the sort that does not, at the time, evoke analysis or, afterward, yield to it. These men were victims of the “Bolshevik” rabies, to be sure. They were equally victims of economic hardship and, still worse, of economic hopelessness. 

► Nazism—Hitler, rather—knew this and knew that nothing else mattered to my friends so much as this, the identification of this Germany, the community again, in which one might know he belonged and, belonging, identify himself.

I make note of this particular passage because there is a trend amongst former white supremacists, wherein they will often tell you that what made them an easy target for indoctrination was a sense of loneliness, of not belonging. It often was not about a genuine belief in the superiority of whites—that was merely a byproduct, if they ever believed it at all; it was that they felt left behind by society at large and they found community in being inducted into this toxic ideology. Thus, this feeling of unbelonging that Mayer eludes to, this lack of identity, is essential in the othering of non-whites.

► My friends wanted Germany purified. They wanted it purified of the politicians, of all the politicians. They wanted a representative leader in place of unrepresentative representatives. And Hitler, the pure man, the antipolitician, was the man, untainted by “politics,” which was only a cloak for corruption.

► What Gustav Schwenke wanted, and the only thing he wanted, was security. The job he wanted, and the only job he ever wanted, was a job with the State, any job with the State, with its tenure, its insurance, and its pension. Gustav was not, I imagine, the only boy born in Germany in 1912 who wanted security and thought, until 1933, that he would never have it.

► “I was nothing. Then, suddenly, I was needed. National Socialism had a place for me. I was nothing—and then I was needed.”

► It was separation, not prejudice as such, that made Nazism possible, the mere separation of Jews and non-Jews. None of my ten friends except Herr Hildebrandt, the teacher, had ever known a Jew at all intimately in a town of twenty thousand.

► When people you don’t know, people in whom you have no interest, people whose affairs you have never discussed, move away from your community, you don’t notice that they are going or that they are gone. When, in addition, public opinion (and the government itself) has depreciated them, it is still likelier that you won’t notice their departure or, if you do, that you will forget about it.

► Remember: the teacher excepted, nine of my ten friends didn’t know any Jews and didn’t care what happened to them—all this before Nazism. And it was their government, now, which was carrying on this program under law. Merely to inquire meant to attack the government’s justice. It meant risk, large or small, political or social, and it meant risk in behalf of people one didn’t like anyway.

► “What caused Nazism was the clubman in Berlin who, when he was asked about the Nazi menace in 1930, looked up from his after-lunch game of Skat and replied, ‘Dafür ist die Regierung da. That’s what the government’s there for.’”

► “What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could understand it, it could not be released because of national security. This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.”

► And on top of that were the demands in the community, the things in which one had to, was ‘expected to’ participate that had not been there or had not been important before. It was all rigmarole, of course, but it consumed all one’s energies, coming on top of the work one really wanted to do. You can see how easy it was, then, not to think about fundamental things. One had no time.”

► “You see,” my colleague went on, “one doesn’t see exactly where or how to move. Believe me, this is true. Each act, each occasion, is worse than the last, but only a little worse. You wait for the next and the next. You wait for one great shocking occasion, thinking that others, when such a shock comes, will join with you in resisting somehow. You don’t want to act, or even talk, alone; you don’t want to ‘go out of your way to make trouble.’ Why not?—Well, you are not in the habit of doing it. And it is not just fear, fear of standing alone, that restrains you; it is also genuine uncertainty. “But the one great shocking occasion, when tens or hundreds or thousands will join with you, never comes. That’s the difficulty. If the last and worst act of the whole regime had come immediately after the first and smallest, thousands, yes, millions would have been sufficiently shocked—if, let us say, the gassing of the Jews in ’43 had come immediately after the ‘German Firm’ stickers on the windows of non-Jewish shops in ’33. But of course this isn’t the way it happens. In between come all the hundreds of little steps, some of them imperceptible, each of them preparing you not to be shocked by the next. Step C is not so much worse than Step B, and, if you did not make a stand at Step B, why should you at Step C? And so on to Step D. Life is a continuing process, a flow, not a succession of acts and events at all. It has flowed to a new level, carrying you with it, without any effort on your part. On this new level you live, you have been living more comfortably every day, with new morals, new principles. You have accepted things you would not have accepted five years ago, a year ago, things that your father, even in Germany, could not have imagined. Suddenly it all comes down, all at once. You see what you are, what you have done, or, more accurately, what you haven’t done (for that was all that was required of most of us: that we do nothing). You remember those early meetings of your department in the university when, if one had stood, others would have stood, perhaps, but no one stood. A small matter, a matter of hiring this man or that, and you hired this one rather than that. You remember everything now, and your heart breaks. Too late. You are compromised beyond repair.”

Don't Covet Another Man's Pie На чужой каравай рот не разевай

[Eng]

All hail, dear readers of my journal! There is no more absurd occupation than trying to convince a person of anything. The rescue of a drowning man is still the drowning man's own job. The process of the struggle of those in power with COVID-19 has turned into a theater of the absurd. As the saying goes, knowledge is power but the unknowledgeables are overpowering. Pharmaceutical companies making COVID-19 vaccines are making huge profits, and their owners are becoming billionaires. WHO, with its monetary handouts to the governments of countries, motivates them to conduct blanket vaccination of the population, and the latter, in turn, defame all opponents of this process through the media. Recently I learned from reliable sources that 70% of seriously ill patients diagnosed with COVID-19 who are now in medical institutions in Israel have completed a full course of vaccination. So, life refutes the thesis of immunization supporters that people who have completed a full course of vaccination bare a new infection with coronavirus in a mild form. On the contrary, vaccination leads to the gradual destruction of the immune system of people and contributes to the spread of COVID-19, as well as other infections. As they say, teach a fool to bow with grace and he would fall flat on his face. It is difficult to avoid infection during a pandemic, when the actions of the authorities to combat it multiply the number of people infected with COVID-19. Scientists have counted more than two hundred strains of coronavirus that do not pose a great danger, as they continue to mutate and weaken after each mutation. In parallel, those who created the "Wuhan" virus continue to infect the population in different parts of the planet with its new modifications such as "delta" and others, hoping that they will no longer be susceptible to mutations, which means they will not weaken and exterminate as much as possible number of people. This will accomplish the task set to reduce the population of the Earth to the level of one billion. At the same time, those in power do not stop trying to unleash a global war, creating new conflicts and hotbeds of tension around the world. It is for this reason that Trump initiated the withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan, which is what his successor Biden is doing today. Now the world has received another terrorist threat from the Taliban movement, and a new wave of refugees awaits Europe. Many are wondering why a wave of natural disasters has hit the world recently. The representatives of contemporary science, which has long ceased to be such, are trumpeting about global warming, allegedly caused by human-induced carbon dioxide emissions. In fact, this is another fake, since one active volcano emits more carbon dioxide into the Earth's atmosphere per day than all the cars in the world in a year. Taking into account the fact that volcanic activity is observed everywhere, in reality the share of carbon dioxide emissions as a result of industrial activities of people tends to zero. Modern "science" has no idea about the deep processes in the Earth's atmosphere and the reasons that give rise to them. It only observes the consequences of natural phenomena and is engaged in statistics. The current "rampage" of nature strongly resembles what the biblical stories about the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah say about. I remember that their inhabitants came into conflict with God and ignored Him, for which they were punished. At present something similar is happening in the world. The Triune Essence indwells now on Earth, and people, especially the power brokers, pigheadedly ignore this fact. That is why the Creator decided to remind about Himself, using the forces of nature. As soon as Mrs. Merkel set up a "get-together" with Biden and ignored the interests of Ukraine, where the Triune Essence abides, the heavens opened up over Germany. As for the series of natural disasters that have been overtaking Turkey in recent years, it is the compulsion to peace by the Creator in response to aggressive actions against Armenia and Erdogan's attempts to build on blood a new pan-Turkist empire. Traditionally, Russia is also taking a beating for Putin's unwillingness to get out of the Crimea and the Donbass. And this is just the beginning. All those who have tried and continue trying to harm the Triune Essence are also facing the music. If you, "good gentlemen," do not hang on every word, then understanding will come through circumstances that will turn your life upside down. There are two ways of knowing for a person. The first is the path of wisdom, and the second is the path of committing personal mistakes that can be fatal. Ukrainian President Zelenskiy, due to his inexperience, chose the second path. The mantras about Western aid were dispelled when the betrayal by Merkel and Macron was revealed. Only a lie is convenient, but the truth is bitter and impartial. Russia has enough strength and resources to "swallow" Ukraine overnight, and if this does not happen, then it is not at all because Putin is afraid of the West, led by the United States, which in 2014 gave tacit consent to the start of a "lightning war" and destruction of Ukrainian statehood. In fact, Putin was stopped outright thanks to the intervention of the Triune Essence (that is, the Creator). He should have understood long ago that it is difficult to see and accept the truth when you are surrounded by sycophants and lickspittles. It took Putin 5 years to realize Who opposes him in Ukraine, and now in Armenia. He dismissed about thirty generals, believing that they were sabotaging his instructions to seize the entire territory of Ukraine. It is difficult to say how long it will take Zelenskiy to see the real picture of what is happening. He has no idea that he should have lost the presidential election and could not have left the stadium, where he participated in the presidential debate with Poroshenko, adequate, alive and healthy. Zelenskiy is still alive only because I protect him. Blessed is he who does not know. The president of a country is not a position that allows one to learn by making mistakes, because a lamb cannot survive in a wolf pack. First you need to stop fussing. There is no need to imitate hectic activity and play the "peacemaker" when nothing depends on you. Israel has been at war with the Arab world for decades. It is not in the power of the President of Ukraine to stop the war until Putin wants it. His troops are preparing to repel possible attacks from the territory of Ukraine (on the part of the Triune Essence), and he himself is looking for an opportunity to reverse events and return what was captured without losing his face. His article on Ukraine was addressed to me, and not to someone else, because the Triune Essence appeared on the territory of the former USSR, which means that God (Creator) came to the peoples which inhabited it, and not only to the Ukrainians. This is also an answer to the question why I recently intervened in the conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia on the side of the latter. What kind of Master of the House am I, if I do not stand up for peace and order in it? The current rulers are blind and deaf, which means that they leave me no choice but to force them to peace through circumstances. First, remove the log from your eye, and only then go to get the hangnails from the eyes of other people – something other is from the evil. The world is not at all the way people see it. The battlefield of Good and Evil is there. The agents of the latter are all sorts of people with "unconventional" abilities. At present such agents in the power are Merkel and Poroshenko. Of course, there are also some others, but from time immemorial such people served as a "secret weapon" of the power to suppress the "controlled majority", but they were deprived of access into the power itself. Zelenskiy had no idea with whom he clashed in the elections and, if not for my interference, he could have lost not only the chances for the presidency, but also the very life. The first meeting of the President of Ukraine with Merkel ended with a "tremor" for her, and the current one will finally undermine her health, as she will definitely begin to influence Zelenskiy before the latter's trip to the United States and will receive a worthy rebuff. By the way, it was the possession of this kind of abilities that made Merkel a long-liver on the Olympus of the power. Neither Putin, nor Patrushev, nor Patriarch Kirill have such "abilities", and therefore, by habit, they resort to the services of strong shamans, witches and witchers, magicians and other agents of Evil. At the same time, science denies the very existence of something like that, which is very convenient for the authorities, because it allows the powers that be to possess a secret and effective weapon to solve "unsolvable" problems. It is possible that after reading this article, the President of Ukraine will take a different look at the people around him. More recently it is interesting to keep an eye on the behavior of persons involved in the power. On the one hand, they are trying in every possible way to kill me, and on the other – to get ahead of the competitors in order to be the first to meet with me, believing that the sword does not cut off the guilty head. And a little bit about the good. Everything will be as the Creator wants, for a human only presupposes, and He disposes.

Translated by professor Leonid Bilousov

[Ru]

Здравствуйте, уважаемые читатели моего журнала! Нет более абсурдного занятия, чем пытаться убедить человека в чем бы то ни было. Спасение утопающих по-прежнему остается делом рук самих утопающих. Процесс борьбы власть предержащих с COVID-19 превратился в театр абсурда. Как говорится, ученье свет, а неученых тьма. Фармацевтические компании, производящие вакцины против COVID-19, получают огромную прибыль, а их владельцы становятся миллиардерами. ВОЗ своими денежными подачками правительствам стран мотивирует их на поголовную вакцинацию населения, а те, в свою очередь, шельмуют через средства массовой информации всех противников этого процесса. На днях узнал из достоверных источников, что 70% тяжелых больных с диагнозом COVID-19, пребывающих ныне в медицинских учреждениях Израиля, прошли полный курс вакцинации. Так что жизнь опровергает тезис сторонников иммунизации о том, что люди, прошедшие полный курс вакцинации, переносят новое заражение коронавирусом в легкой форме. Наоборот, вакцинация приводит к постепенному разрушению иммунной системы людей и способствует распространению COVID-19, равно как и других инфекций. Как говорится, заставь дурака Богу молиться, так он лоб разобьет. Сложно избежать заражения во время пандемии, когда действия власти по борьбе с нею многократно умножают число зараженных COVID-19. Ученые насчитали более двухсот штаммов коронавируса, которые не представляют большой опасности, так как продолжают мутировать и ослабевают после каждой мутации. Параллельно те, кто создал «уханьский» вирус, продолжают заражать население в разных точках планеты его новыми модификациями типа «дельта» и другими, надеясь, что уж они-то больше не будут подвержены мутациям, а значит, не ослабнут и истребят как можно большее число людей. Так будет выполнена поставленная задача по сокращению численности населения Земли до уровня одного миллиарда. При этом власть предержащие не прекращают попыток развязать глобальную войну, создавая новые конфликты и очаги напряженности по всему миру. Именно по этой причине Трамп инициировал вывод американских войск из Афганистана, чем сегодня и занимается его преемник Байден. Теперь мир получил еще одну террористическую угрозу в лице движения талибов, а Европу ждет новая волна беженцев. Многие задаются вопросом, почему в последнее время мир накрыла волна природных катаклизмов. Представители нынешней науки, которая давно таковой не является, трубят о глобальном потеплении, якобы вызванном выбросами углекислого газа в результате человеческой деятельности. На самом деле это очередной фейк, так как один действующий вулкан выбрасывает в атмосферу Земли за день углекислого газа больше, чем все автомобили мира за год. С учетом того, что вулканическая активность наблюдается повсеместно, реально доля выбросов углекислого газа в результате промышленной деятельности людей стремится к нулю. Современная «наука» понятия не имеет о глубинных процессах в атмосфере Земли и причинах, их порождающих. Она лишь наблюдает за последствиями природных явлений и занимается статистикой. Нынешнее «буйство» природы сильно смахивает на то, о чем рассказывают библейские сюжеты о городах Содом и Гоморра. Помнится, их жители вступили в конфликт с Богом и игнорировали Его, за что и понесли наказание. Сейчас в мире происходит нечто подобное. Триединая Сущность ныне пребывает на Земле, а люди тупо игнорируют этот факт. Вот Создатель и решил напомнить о Себе, используя силы природы. Стоило госпоже Меркель устроить с Байденом «междусобойчик» и проигнорировать интересы Украины, где обретается Триединая Сущность, и небеса разверзлись над Германией. Что до череды природных катаклизмов, одолевающих Турцию в последнее время, так это принуждение к миру со стороны Создателя в ответ на агрессивные действия в отношении Армении и попытки Эрдогана построить на крови новую пантюркистскую империю. Традиционно достается и России за нежелание Путина убраться из Крыма и Донбасса. И это только начало. Получают по полной также все те, кто пытался и пытается причинить вред Триединой Сущности. Если вы, «господа хорошие», не внемлете слову, то понимание придет через обстоятельства, которые перевернут вашу жизнь. Есть два пути познания для человека. Первый – это путь мудрости, а второй – путь совершения личных ошибок, которые могут оказаться фатальными. Президент Украины Зеленский по причине своей неопытности избрал второй путь. Мантры по поводу помощи Запада развеялись, когда открылось предательство со стороны Меркель и Макрона. Удобной бывает только ложь, а правда горька и нелицеприятна. У России достаточно сил и средств, чтобы в одночасье «поглотить» Украину, и если этого не происходит, то вовсе не потому, что Путин боится Запада во главе с США, которые в 2014-м дали молчаливое согласие на начало «молниеносной войны» и уничтожение украинской государственности. На самом деле Путина остановило исключительно вмешательство Триединой Сущности (то бишь Создателя). Ему давно следовало бы понять, что сложно увидеть и принять правду, когда тебя окружают подхалимы и льстецы. Путину понадобилось 5 лет, чтобы осознать, Кто противостоит ему в Украине, а сейчас и в Армении. Порядка тридцати генералов он отправил в отставку, полагая, что те саботируют его указания по захвату всей территории Украины. Сколько времени понадобится Зеленскому, чтобы увидеть реальную картину происходящего, сложно сказать. Он понятия не имеет о том, что должен был проиграть президентские выборы и не смог бы уйти со стадиона, где он участвовал в дебатах с Порошенко, адекватным, живым и здоровым. Зеленский пока еще жив лишь потому, что я защищаю его.  Блажен, кто не ведает. Президент страны – это не та должность, которая позволяет учиться, совершая ошибки, ибо в волчьей стае ягненку не выжить. Для начала надо перестать суетиться. Не нужно имитировать бурную деятельность и играть в «миротворца», когда от тебя ничего не зависит. Израиль десятилетиями живет в состоянии войны с арабским миром. Не во власти Президента Украины остановить войну, пока этого не захочет Путин. Его войска готовятся к отражению возможных атак с территории Украины (со стороны Триединой Сущности), а сам он ищет возможность повернуть события вспять, и возвратить захваченное, не потеряв при этом своего лица. Его статья по поводу Украины была адресована мне, а не кому-то еще, ибо Триединая Сущность появилась на территории бывшего СССР, а это означает, что Бог (Создатель) пришел к народам, его населявшим, а не только к украинцам. Это также ответ на вопрос, почему я недавно вмешался в конфликт Азербайджана и Армении на стороне последней. Какой из меня Хозяин Дома, если я не ратую за мир и порядок в нем? Нынешние правители слепы и глухи, а значит, они не оставляют мне иного выбора, как через обстоятельства принуждать их к миру. Сначала удалите бревно из своего глаза, а уж потом идите доставать заусеницы из глаз других людей, иное – от лукавого. Мир вовсе не такой, каким его видят люди. Здесь поле битвы Добра и Зла. Проводниками последнего являются разного рода люди, обладающие «нетрадиционными» способностями. Таковыми сейчас во власти являются Меркель и Порошенко. Конечно же, есть и другие, но испокон веков такие люди служили в качестве «тайного оружия» власти для подавления «управляемого большинства», но в саму власть их не пускали. Зеленский понятия не имел с кем схлестнулся на выборах и, если бы не мое вмешательство, то мог лишиться не только шансов на президентство, но и самой жизни. Первая встреча Президента Украины с Меркель закончилась для нее «тремором», а нынешняя окончательно подорвет ее здоровье, так как она обязательно станет воздействовать  на Зеленского перед поездкой последнего в США и получит достойный отпор. Кстати, именно обладание такого рода способностями сделало Меркель долгожителем на Олимпе власти. Ни Путин, ни Патрушев, ни Патриарх Кирилл такими «способностями» не обладают, а потому по привычке прибегают к услугам сильных шаманов, ведьм и ведьмаков, магов и прочих проводников Зла. При этом наука отрицает само существование чего-то подобного, что весьма удобно для власти, ибо позволяет обладать тайным и эффективным оружием для решения «неразрешимых» проблем.  Возможно, прочитав эту статью, Президент Украины по-другому взглянет на людей, его окружающих. Интересно наблюдать за фигурантами от власти в последнее время. С одной стороны они всячески пытаются убить меня, а с другой – стараются опередить конкурентов, дабы первыми встретиться со мной, полагая, что повинную голову меч не сечет. И немного о хорошем. Все будет так, как того хочет Создатель, ибо человек лишь предполагает, а Он располагает.

“Mirror Mirror on the Wall, Who is the Most Anti-Semitic of All”?

Very recently, a dear friend of mine directed me to an interview on “60 Minutes” between Michael Wallace and self-proclaimed messiah of the black peoples on a global scale, Louis Farrakhan.   Taking into consideration that this was screened about 23 years ago, I have always known that Farrakhan was as narcissistic as Trump is, if not even more so. It’s hard not to notice how he speaks of himself highly and in the 3rd person quite often. What I find surprising is that during this interview he sugar-coated many things (i.e. reconciliation, there are bad Jews and good Jews, bad Muslims, and good Muslims, etc.). I suppose that being the true narcissist that he is, he thinks that he’s smarter than most people, especially Jews and that we’d warm up to his sweet talking, albeit deceptive rhetoric. To be frank, I’m sure many a misguided left-wing Jewish person would. He believes himself to be the sole advocate and leader of the black people in the US and even on a global scale. Unlike many black radical or reactionary leaders, he’s very articulate and probably the most charismatic of them all. Leaders like Sharpton, Jackson, Maddox, the list is long, speak publicly as if they are in some black church in the south or in Harlem where their audience speaks the same dialect. Even though Sharpton has improved, he still speaks as if he barely made it past the 11th grade. Not Farrakhan, His manner of speech is very attractive, intelligible, and intriguing. Any black person from many walks of life would get hooked, especially from the inner city. He’s also very relatable. He was raised by a single mother. He doesn’t know much at all about his father. He and his family struggled financially while he was growing up. He’s also very talented. He’s an excellent violinist and doesn’t have a bad voice. As a matter of fact, he’s so talented, that he strongly considered going into show business. Yet when he had his first encounter with Elijah Muhammad, that all changed. Infatuated with the then newly formed Nation of Islam, Louis Eugene Walcott converted and became known as Louis X, and then eventually changing his name to Louis Farrakhan, devoting himself to this version of Islam and dedicating his life to it. Over the years, he’d speak to black American crowds without a filter, letting them know that it’s OK to hate, especially if the hatred is directed to the white man.

Regarding the Jews, his mad obsession is very plain. Think about it – how many Rabbis on Shabbat spend more than a fraction of a second discussing Farrakhan or the Nation of Islam? I can count on 0 hands. He and the Nation of Islam are about as relevant as the mite clinging to a dust ball. Jewish congregations throughout North America and the rest of the world boast scientists, lawyers, CEOs, CFOs, CIOs, doctors, CPAs, dentists, engineers of all types, don’t forget the Nobel Prize winners for the sciences, even an actor or 2 (ahem). Many a convert to the nation of Islam converted while, guess where? Incarcerated. Yup – grads from Sing Sing, Rikers, whatever have joined mosques shouting Farrakhan throughout N.America. Nobody knows that better than he does. He’s not only madly obsessed with Jews, but his hatred also stems from his deep jealousy of Jews.

The question remains – why should Jews throughout North America, if not the world be at all concerned? After all, many people of all backgrounds simply ignore him and just don’t take him seriously.  Well, isn’t that interesting?  In Germany during the mid to late 1920s, people had the same attitude towards a homely, lonesome unsuccessful, self-proclaimed fine artist from Austria, who was also raised by a struggling single mother as his father died when he was just 13 years old.  He may have been a loser in art school and more than likely was not popular with the ladies when he was a teenager, but did he have the art of rhetoric down pat.  His words hypnotized and mesmerized the masses on a grandiose scale, very similar to what Farrakhan does today.  People need to understand, how do monumental tragedies such as the Holocaust begin? Do they begin with ruthless beatings and murder straight away? No.  They begin with something a lot more simple than that.  They begin with words.  They begin with articles in the local newspaper seasoned with the age-old anti-Semitic jargon. The next step comes with speeches in front of small crowds, which lead to speeches in front of larger and then even larger crowds.  It’s all very subtle and it’s very easy to ignore.  In Farrakhan’s case, he’s become a celebrity. His interviews and televised speeches are accepted warmly by many of his supporters.  At the funeral of the Queen of Soul herself, Aretha Franklin, Farrakhan wasn’t only an invited guest; he was seated at the dais with other dignitaries including former President Bill Clinton.  What was worse? Nobody seemed to care. Big time, loud-mouthed liberals like Whoopi Goldberg were seated in the audience and didn’t seem phased at all.  With all credit due to former President Clinton, he did seem very uncomfortable up there just two seats away from him. The leader of the Women’s March, Tamika Mallory, when interviewed about Farrakhan’s racist and anti-Semitic remarks, tends to downplay and even ignore the questions. She has even gotten flustered and frustrated because she sees nothing wrong with him. She doesn’t understand why his views against Jews (whether she agrees or disagrees with them) would be at all relevant. At best, Mallory has stated that “she doesn’t agree with everything that Minister Farrakhan states”, yet at the same time, she aligns herself with him and enjoys a close mentor/student relationship with him. Needless to say, Mallory has to yet to have criticized her beloved mentor for his blatantly ugly anti-Semitic jargon.

It has become very common to read in publications or to watch on television. Since anti-Israel propaganda is now a common thread on the left and especially the far left, the misguided and very ignorant Jewish person from that camp joins in the songs and mirth of those who “have nothing against Jews, but have a lot against Zionism”.  Not only is this a mockery against the Jewish people as a whole, yet, even more so, it is used against Jews, Judaism and of course, Israel.

There is always someone who pushes the envelope.  It begins with shaming on social media, then verbal abuse in public. Before you know it, it leads to outright assault. In recent years, anti-Semitic violence has increased dramatically throughout Europe and the Americas.  In the streets of New York City, which has been a haven for Jews for well over a century, Jews have been harassed and attacked.  The most recent horror, the massacre in a Conservative synagogue in Pittsburgh back in October 2018, where 11 people were murdered by Robert Gregory Bowers, a white supremacist, as a result of the culmination of race-baiting that is now commonplace amongst enemies of Jews on the right and on the left.  One could argue that Bowers is not a follower of Farrakhan and has a completely different agenda.  Yet when Farrakhan openly admits that he’s “not an anti-Semite, yet an anti-termite”, one knows his basic intention as people wish to get rid of termites.  Farrakhan isn’t sugar-coating these terms. He’s outright serious.  These type of rhetoric leads to only one thing, and it’s to bring his hatred to the next level.  The problem is, people still turn a blind eye and try to rationalize and belittle their actions.  When people compare what is happening today with threats of boycotts against Israel as well as verbal harassment and even assaults on University campuses and in public throughout the world to pre-Nazi and Nazi Germany, we get labeled as either paranoid, over-dramatic and exaggerating.  Unfortunately, anybody with half a brain can see what’s coming. What’s even more unfortunate, intelligent people still don’t see it and go as far as even refusing to see it.

One thing for sure, somebody has to publicly stand up against him and shame him dramatically in front of millions. Making a fool out of him is the first step, yet in all these years, nobody has. Is it out of fear? Perhaps.  Yet it will only get worse if something is not done. I don’t want to write a book about this gorilla with speech, (my apologies to all gorillas in captivity and in the bush) but, again, who will step up and put this sack of human waste in his place in front of millions?

Charles Krauthammer was a wonderful man and a shameless liar

If you want to read kind words about Charles Krauthammer, well, go ahead. By all accounts, in his private life Krauthammer was gracious and kind to everyone he met, regardless of their political convictions. But Charles isn’t famous for being a nice guy; he’s famous for being a political commentator, and as a political commentator he was a remorseless hitman for the State of Israel.

Krauthammer did surprise me a number of times (the complete list of my K-man outbursts is here). Most remarkable, I would say, was a column by Charlie headed “The GOP gets the Iran prisoner swap wrong”, responding to the Republican “response” (aka “hysteria”) to Iran’s return of five U.S. prisoners as part of the agreement halting Iran’s nuclear weapons program. Since my response, “Charles Krauthammer truly surprises me, for a full ten column inches,” was so short, I’ll repeat it in full:

“Yes, he does. For ten column inches (maybe twelve!) the K-Man coolly and calmly rebuts every single criticism Republicans have made over the recent U.S./Iran prisoner swap.

“It’s too good to last, of course. Charlie quickly goes off an extended rant about the lifting of long-standing sanctions on Iran consequent to the nuclear deal and how that will be the wind beneath the wings of that country’s “aggressively interventionist and immutably anti-American” foreign policy—language that studiously ignores the fact that it is the U.S., not Iran, that has been “aggressively interventionist”, much at Charlie’s urgings, and much to our sorrow. Why, according to Charlie, it’s another Munich!

“Another Munich! Okay! That’s the Charlie Krauthammer I know! That other Charlie Krauthammer, the one who, you know, spoke the truth, I scarcely recognized.”

Because that’s the way it was with Charlie: every nation that didn’t kiss Uncle Sam’s ass was Nazi Germany and every agreement with such a country was a “Munich”. Charlie was one of a group of Jewish neocons who came of age in the seventies, a wrenching experience that convinced them of two things: 1) the Democratic Party could not be trusted to defend the state of Israel; and 2) the United States could only be trusted to defend the state of Israel if its citizens could be persuaded to believe that the defense of Israel was an integral part of the defense of the U.S. against an “existential threat”.

Charlie and friends labored endlessly to convince America that she was in precisely the same situation as Israel—surrounded by ruthless enemies whose evil designs deserved to be, and only could be, defeated by any—any and all—means necessary. Our backs are against the wall! Do you want to live or do you want to die?

The Soviet Union, of course, supplied the necessary existential threat, and it’s no wonder that Charlie, like eventual comrade in arms William F. Buckley1, was terrified by Ronald Reagan’s bizarre decision to do what he said he wanted to do: win the Cold War. Because there’s nothing so politically useless as a war that’s over!

Fortunately for Charlie and his friends, George H. W. Bush, though a bit of a wimp domestically,2 took American ass-kicking overseas to a whole new level, by actually doing it, and in the Middle East, no less! Listen up, Muslims! There’s a new sheriff in town! And he shoots to kill!3

With the sweet sound of smart bombs still ringing in their ears, the neocons were massively unprepared for the election of Bill Clinton in 1992. That was not supposed to happen! Utterly shell-shocked, they swore an oath on the altar of God eternal hostility to the Democratic Party. No lie was too great, no deception too loathsome! Ecrasez l'infame!

And Charlie told them, endlessly. The Clinton years were “a holiday from history”, the Obama years, “America’s retreat”, despite the fact that if you compared U.S. foreign policy under Madeleine Albright, Hillary Clinton, and Condoleezza Rice, you’d get a 98% match. Domestically, Charlie’s “policy” was, basically, “give the goddamn hillbillies4 what they goddamn want.” Foreign affairs, and foreign affairs alone, were what counted.

Naturally, the advent of Trump sent poor Charlie spinning like a whirligig.5 While Charlie denounced Trump’s “plan” to deport 11 million illegals as “morally obscene”6, he praised Trump’s “revised edition”, whereby only those who had entered the country illegally would be deported. Left unsaid by Krauthammer was the number to be deported—around six million. Perhaps (perhaps!), for one who had played the Holocaust card so often, the image of six million non-white people rapists being herded onto cattle cars luxurious, air-conditioned buses was just a little too awkward to be examined.

Afterwords Andrew Sullivan, writing in New York magazine, describes—a bit gently, I would say—his frequent disagreements with Charles and then adds:

“But he seemed incapable of personal abuse, animosity, or rhetorical demonization. He even expressed a kind of fondness for me, I like to think, which was hard not to reciprocate. He was always a thinker, always drawn to argument and counterargument, even if he almost never conceded a point, however trivial. He’d smile laconically if you thought you’d made a good point, in what seemed like a mixture of mischief and condescension, and you knew it wouldn’t be worth haggling any further.”

Okay, so he didn’t lie to his friends, but did lie to the public.7 How many lies is too many?

In his early years, Buckley wanted to save Jews’ souls, but as the seventies wore on he was ready to have them help save conservatism’s ass. ↩︎

Despite his self-applied Texan mystique, Aitch Dubya had a Connecticut Yankee’s pride in being on the right side of the Civil War and took an earnest if patently paternal interest in black America. As supply-side Republican Bruce Bartlett notes, honestly and uncomfortably, in his “interesting” history of Democratic racism, Wrong on Race, when a black staffer was “needed” to appear at a bill signing photo op at the Reagan White House, one had to be “borrowed” from Bush’s staff. ↩︎

My ululations on the subject of Iraq are almost without number, but not quite. ↩︎

Aka “goyim”. The two terms are interchangeable. ↩︎

Krauthammer, like all other neocons, "forgot" that Donald Trump was/is nothing more than Rush Limbaugh with a bad weave, the same man they've been married to for the past 25 years. ↩︎

The link to Charlie’s column is busted, so I’m linking to my comment. ↩︎

In this post from 2009, The Evolution of Charles Krauthammer”, written when he had broken with Krauthammer over Charlie’s support of torture post 9/11, Sullivan gives a crisper take on his friend. He also notes that back when the Iran/Contra scandal broke during Reagan’s second term, he was shocked to learn that Charlie wasn’t shocked, that, for Krauthammer, the struggle proceeds by any means necessary. The Constitution? Hey, it’s not a suicide pact is it? And if it is, fuck it! ↩︎

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases, Israel Police confirmed on Thursday when it requested a gag order on the ongoing talks to recruit a state witness. The gag order was granted and is effective until September 17.

A response on behalf of the prime minister stated on Thursday:

“We completely reject the unfounded claims made against the prime minister. The campaign to change the government is underway, but it is destined to fail, for a simple reason: there won’t be anything because there was nothing.”

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Also on Thursday, Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit said that progress was being made in talks with a former top aide to Netanyahu, Ari Harow, about becoming a state witness.

Speaking during a ceremony at the Supreme Court, Mendelblit said “we’re making progress” and that the prosecution was “working with the police” on getting, Netanyahu’s former chief of staff, to become state witness. He asked reporters to “let us work in peace and find the truth.”

Ari Harow, former chief of staff of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu

Update -> Netanyahu’s ex-chief of staff turns state’s witness

According to recent reports by Haaretz, the information he provided allegedly indicated criminal connections between Harow, the prime minister and people in the prime minister’s circles.

The two cases mentioned in the police request are known as Case 1000, which involves Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan, who was asked to purchase luxury items for Netanyahu and his wife; and Case 2000, in which Netanyahu tried to concoct a deal with Arnon Mozes, the publisher of the mass-circulation daily Yedioth Ahronoth.

Harow, who is suspected of bribery, fraud, breach of trust, aggravated fraud and money laundering, was also a key figure in a case that the police did not pursue. He headed the American Friends of Likud, which allegedly paid the salary of Odelia Karmon, an adviser to Netanyahu when the prime minister, who heads the Likud party, was opposition leader.

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During the investigation of Harow, police confiscated his cell phone, and found recordings documenting the Netanyahu-Mozes conversations that are the basis of the Case 2000 probe.

In the Karmon case, the attorney general did not believe that investigators would be able to produce evidence justifying a criminal indictment for alleged offenses that are subject in any event to a 10-year statute of limitations.

Senior law enforcement officials believed, however, that the investigation should have been pursued, especially in light of recordings of Karmon that were obtained by police in which she described the sequence of events after she received her salary.

“Bibi became insanely hysterical, all of a sudden. I don’t know who whispered to him, after all, you can light him up like a flame … and then he said to me: Odelia, give back the money.”

In the recording, Karmon also mentioned Harow: “He plied Netanyahu with many things. Flight tickets or whenever Netanyahu was in a bind. But not in exchange for anything. He was honest and sweet. He was simply helpless.”

Little Doubt: Netanyahu Will Be Indicted

Ari Harow being investigated last year in Lod

Haaretz:

Netanyahu’s Top Aide Turning State’s Witness Leaves Little Doubt: The PM Will Be Indicted

Netanyahu’s prosecutors wouldn’t sign a deal with someone in as bad a legal shape as Ari Harow unless they knew he could deliver damning evidence. An indictment is all but in the bag

The state’s witness agreement reached between the prosecution and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s former aide, Ari Harow, on Friday has one virtually irreversible implication:

An indictment against Netanyahu is coming.

Netanyahu’s former chief of staff Ari Harow supplied information in two key affairs:

Allegations that the prime minister received gifts from wealthy benefactors, and

secret negotiations Netanyahu allegedly held with the publisher of Israel’s most popular newspaper in return for favorable coverage.

Under his deal with the prosecution, Harow will be convicted of fraud and breach of trust in a separate case, but will avoid jail time. Instead, he will do community service as to pay a 700,000-shekel ($193,000) fine.

If top officials in the police and prosecution believed that the agreement wouldn’t yield significant information that will strengthen and perhaps even complete the evidence in the two corruption cases, they wouldn’t have signed it. There’s no point in helping out a suspect in a legal condition as bad as Harow’s if no real compensation is given in return. This isn’t the final word, of course, but the direction is clear.

Over the weekend, the prosecution decided to impose a gag order on the details Harow had provided during his interrogation. The gag orders have become an epidemic: the details of the Bezeq and submarine affairs are also under wraps. 

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It’s doubtful whether there really is a need for such an unrestrained hush-hush policy, which stands in conflict with the position taken by Attorney General Avichai Mendelblit in his first months in office, when he labeled these orders as publicity-enhancing ones.

Making allowances for the gag order, one can assume that Harow will deepen both cases against Netanyahu, taking them to a faraway continent while making at least one key player in this affair a criminal suspect. It will probably also seal the fate of Yedioth Ahronoth publisher Arnon Mozes.

Welcome To The Middle East’s North Korea Compound

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ROTHSCHILD “STATE” OF ISRAEL, “TEAR DOWN THAT WALL”

One should not expect any decisions to be taken before the High Holidays. Harow’s testimony should produce versions to be collected by people living in Israel and overseas.

It will obviously necessitate a further interrogation of Netanyahu who, surprisingly, has not been questioned since last March despite the bolstering of evidence accumulated in the two cases, which should have required his immediate response. The possibility that Harow would turn state’s witness arose a year ago.

When the gag order is lifted it may be possible to relate the interesting dialogue that ensued between him and his lawyers on one hand and police investigators and state prosecutors on the other, regarding the explosive recordings of the talks between Netanyahu and Mozes, and regarding the circumstances that led the trusted confidant, who at the age of 34 was already serving in key posts at the Prime Minister’s Office, to cross the lines.

This is probably not the final dramatic twist in the Netanyahu cases. When members of this complicated inner circle see the empire crumbling and the leader taking a dive they usually calculate their own personal and immediate benefits.

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Netanyahu Is Finished: Little Doubt Rothschild Czar Of Zionism Will Be Indicted Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is suspected of bribery, fraud and breach of trust in two cases, Israel Police confirmed on Thursday when it requested a gag order on the ongoing talks to recruit a state witness.

Inaugural speech by Federal Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on 27 January 2017

Inaugural speech by Federal Foreign Minister Sigmar Gabriel on 27 January 2017

Ladies and gentlemen,Esteemed colleagues,Frank‑Walter,Ms Wallat,Thank you very much for the warm reception for my family and for myself here at the Federal Foreign Office.

I’m sure that for very many of you the departure of Frank-Walter Steinmeier today from the post of German Foreign Minister is, on the one hand, a source of great regret and, on the other perhaps, a source of pride.

Regret because he really was a brilliant Foreign Minister who gave back to the Federal Foreign Office the status within the Federal Government to which this Office is entitled given its importance. And not only within the Government but also publicly and internationally.

In the oath of office, the Minister declares, “I swear that I will dedicate my efforts to the well‑being of the German people, promote their welfare, protect them from harm”.

I believe that only a few Foreign Ministers of the Federal Republic have contributed to this welfare and to our country’s international reputation in such a convincing way as Frank-Walter Steinmeier.

Above all, this was due to his persistent, unwavering and tireless efforts to contain conflicts and to make peace possible.

I remember media reports in which commentators asked: What do they actually do? They just talk. The authors forgot the conclusion drawn by the book “The Sleepwalkers”, namely that not talking enough is dangerous.

When the Federal Foreign Office takes its leave today of Frank-Walter Steinmeier, it does so with great appreciation for his achievements, both political and personal.

However, that’s most likely not the only reason you’re so sorry to see him go. For he had an inimitable way of treating staff. He was people‑oriented and cooperative, never talked down to anyone and always had a sense of humour. There’s one quality in particular I’ve noticed over many years: whenever you go to him, you always have the impression that he’s been waiting for you all day and that nothing is more important to him at that moment than having a good conversation with you. And that was even true when it was absolutely clear that he was under great strain and enormous time pressure.

It’s these skills, along with his aptitude for precision work, which have gained him the support of those around him in all of his posts to date – certainly also here at the Federal Foreign Office.

As I said, however, perhaps you’re also a little proud that in all likelihood “your boss” will be the next President of the Federal Republic of Germany. For without the excellent work in two Federal Cabinets, also at the Federal Chancellery, which – after all – you as his staff made possible, he would not now be on the brink of entering Schloss Bellevue.

Calling to mind a headline from the Bildzeitung, you couldn’t now say, “We are Pope” but you could say, “We are Federal President”. I think you’re entitled to be a little proud of that.

And I’m certain that foreign policy will remain one of his passions as Federal President.

The time is very much “out of joint”, as Frank-Walter Steinmeier used to say. You can see that he knows the classics. In Shakespeare’s Hamlet, the quote continues with the lament, “O cursed spite, that ever I was born to set it right!”

Being a modest man, he would never have quoted that bit. But it is indeed the case that the German Foreign Minister’s job during the last few years has been to counter the dangers of many different conflicts.

Germany’s standing as an anchor of stability and a reliable partner today is due in no small measure to Frank-Walter Steinmeier. The fact that many people are convinced he’s the ideal Federal President has a lot to do with this. I, too, would like to take this opportunity to express my respect – and to sincerely thank a man who has been a comrade-in-arms for many years.

Frank, I thank you for the time we’ve spent working together.

I don’t know if you remember. But we’ve known each other since the days back in Lower Saxony. You were the media affairs officer in Gerhard Schröder’s State Chancellery, who by the way has always maintained that he employed you and Brigitte Zypries because you were the only ones who contradicted him during your interviews.

I still remember drafting Lower Saxony’s budget under the apple tree in my garden in Goslar along with you and Brigitte Zypries. You and I were in shorts. It says a lot for Brigitte Zypries that she could cope with that.

I want to express my sincere thanks for everything we’ve managed to achieve during the last 20 years. I’ve learned much from you. But, above, all, I wish you a steady hand, stamina and good health for the great office that lies ahead. All the best!

***

Ladies and gentlemen,

I’m very much aware that you were probably expecting a lot of things, but not Sigmar Gabriel as your new boss.

In my personal experience, however, you can get used to such ideas in a relatively short space of time.

And you may rest assured that I’m not nearly as bad as they say in the papers. Except for the ban on entering Iran which the Revolutionary Guards in Tehran threatened to slap on me after I pointed out Israel’s right to exist, none of my trips to any of the difficult countries in Arabia, Asia or Russia on the one hand, or Poland on the other, resulted in diplomatic relations being broken off with Germany.

So I’m quite confident that things won’t be as bad as some sections of the media have predicted. Now some people will think: not as bad is bad enough. But, after all, you’re here to prevent that!

I think we’ll manage. Part of the reason I’m so keen to get things right is that I know the true message of your speech, Frank, was: “Don’t do anything stupid! Don’t destroy my legacy!” You can be certain that I aim to work with you here at the Federal Foreign Office to carry on tackling the challenges facing us.

No, seriously: during my stint as Economics Minister I benefited greatly from the assistance and guidance of the Federal Foreign Office. Representing Germany’s economic interests and, at the same time, not sidelining human rights issues isn’t always easy, but it was necessary. It was thanks to the unwavering support of the Federal Foreign Office that I found the right way and was also able to strike the right tone.

Our Ministries also worked well together on other difficult issues. And given the new protectionism, not only in the US, it was certainly especially important that Europe set a very different example and that it has laid down modern standards in world trade with the Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement between the EU and Canada. That, too, is the result of good cooperation.

In the weeks following the election of Donald Trump, I asked myself what the world would have said about Germany and Europe if we hadn’t managed to conclude this agreement with Canada. And how little credibility our calls for an end to protectionism would have today if we Europeans hadn’t even been able to conclude an agreement with Canada – a country which is more European than some EU member states.

I’m therefore aware of this Ministry’s outstanding quality and I know that I can rely on it. I would be very grateful if I could count on your expertise and dedication so that we can steer our country through troubled waters in what are certainly not easy times.

We should concern ourselves as little as possible with the fact that this is a federal election year. For the times as so rough that it’s essential that foreign policy is not focused on the election evening of 24 September but, rather, on our country’s medium and long‑term interests.

I’m therefore especially dependent on your expertise and advice. I’m counting on it and I’m grateful for it. And I firmly believe that you will give it to me.

As you know, I will continue to act as the Federal Chancellor’s number two – as Deputy Chancellor. My remit includes political coordination with the Federal Chancellery, a task which is now coming here from the Federal Economics Ministry. In the forthcoming budget negotiations, that won’t necessarily be a bad thing for the Federal Foreign Office. State Secretary Dr Sontowski and his team will be transferring to the Federal Foreign Office to deal with this task. He certainly earned his reputation at the Federal Ministry of Finance. And that should not change.

***

Ladies and gentlemen,

Despite this being an election year, much is expected of our foreign policy. For a world which is so much in flux poses a challenge for us.

I believe we’re witnessing a recalibration of the world at this moment. What stands out in my own mind is the rise of the new economic powers in Asia, which don’t feel the need to ask us what share of world trade belongs to them.

And when we host the Digital Affairs Ministers for the first time in April as part of Germany’s G20 Presidency, we do so in the awareness that the era of digital technology is changing our industrial model of prosperity and has thrown up new questions about common rules for fair competition and cyber security.

I’m saying this because alongside the well‑known changes which are unsettling us there are very different changes taking place. We in Europe are diminishing in terms of numbers, while Africa, Asia and Latin America are growing. In economic terms, the balance is shifting, the technological balance is changing and, of course, we’re also – unfortunately – witnessing a recalibration in the question of liberal and social democracy around the world. Authoritarian answers are on the rise and liberal and social democracies are, at the very least, on the defensive. Domestic and external affairs can no longer be separated in our interconnected world. This world offers a great many opportunities, but there are also many conflicts, sources of friction and threats.

Refugee issues and migration, terrorism, wars and conflicts, as well as climate change, environmental disasters, cyber attacks – the international challenges are growing.

So is the resistance of the embattled middle classes, who see these trends as unacceptable. There are calls for isolation, for countries to go it alone, for them to withdraw into their national shells. People fear losing control over their lives and they are attracted by movements which have reverted to nationalist answers and want to create the impression that these answers would enable ordinary citizens to take back control. As we know, this is a big mistake and that’s why it’s so important that we combine domestic and external affairs.

At any rate, the cornerstones of Germany’s foreign policy are more important today than ever before: Europe – and, no matter how difficult this may be for some – the transatlantic partnership, multilateralism.

Foreign policy today means conducting international politics aimed at creating more equitable and stable globalisation with more winners and fewer losers. We will only generate more security if we strengthen global justice on a durable basis. I’ll never forget that just a few days after the devastating attacks of 9/11, I took part in an ecumenical service where a Catholic bishop, Josef Homeyer, said: “Those who want to contain the situation once more must remember that globalisation must mean justice for all and not wealth for the few.”

Global justice and international security are two sides of the same coin. My work in this office will continue to be guided by the idea that both must grow in importance at an equal pace.

We have an answer for this: Europe. Even though it’s in a difficult state today, Europe remains the biggest civilisation project of the 20th century. We owe it to our children and grandchildren to preserve a project built by people who suffered great hardship. Listening to some of the moaning about the difficulties facing Europe, I’ve asked myself time and again how it must have been for the French President, for the Belgians, Dutch, Luxembourgers and Italians to invite Germany to join them at the European table just a few years after a horrendous genocide. How much courage these men and women must have had, for this decision can’t have been especially popular among ordinary citizens. I believe we need this courage again today and there’s every reason to have it. For in no other part of the world do people – despite all our tribulations – enjoy more democracy or live in greater security than they do on the European continent.

So much is at stake in Europe this year. Indeed, the future of European integration as a whole is at stake in the presidential elections in France. We can’t remain neutral here, for this will affect us all! We will have to fight for this Europe. That is one of the reasons why my first trip as Foreign Minister will take me to Paris tomorrow.

And I’m certain that Europe will be a main focus of my work in the coming months.

The close transatlantic partnership is another fundamental principle of German foreign policy. Regardless of the tone of the comments we are hearing from the US: we must remain oriented towards maintaining this principle!

That’s why I’m looking forward to meeting Rex Tillerson as soon as possible. I’m keen to hear his views on the challenges we face on both sides of the Atlantic.

Our hand should remain outstretched. We have to offer cooperation in a spirit of respect based on the values which have shaped transatlantic relations during the last few decades: openness, honesty and defence of the ideas on which our constitutions are founded: democracy, freedom and the rule of law. And always responsibility for one another.

However, we will have to show self‑confidence and fill the space which may be created if the United States turns away from international cooperation and in international trade. We will have to place the partnership with China on a new and fair footing, offer Europe and Germany as an alternative to the ASEAN states following the termination of the TPP trade agreement and use the Indo-German intergovernmental consultations and the G20 summit to present our country and Europe as a still fair but self‑assured partner. All of this will open up ground which we have to enter and use with determination and resolve.

***

Ladies and gentlemen,

Let’s enter into this new chapter in a constructive spirit!

You, my colleagues, demonstrate in your day‑to‑day work the effectiveness and diversity of the instruments which Germany uses in foreign policy and which we can employ to move things forward.

– Germany is one of the world’s biggest donors of humanitarian aid today.

– Germany is leading the way when it comes to fostering stability and post‑conflict peacebuilding.

– Where political communication is lacking, Germany builds bridges through an active cultural relations and education policy.

– Germany is therefore a respected and constructive mediator in conflict management.

In all of these fields we know that we cannot resolve anything by going it alone. By contrast, we can achieve a lot if we work together.

That was illustrated not least by the work of my predecessor. Let us build on that.

Thank you very much for your warm welcome.

from UK & Germany http://www.auswaertiges-amt.de/EN/Infoservice/Presse/Reden/2017/170127-Antrittsrede-BM_Gabriel.html?nn=479796