Ed Koch: War On Jews Continues

Ed Koch Commentary
March 21, 2011

The War Against the Jews Goes On

The latest Palestinian violence against Israelis, and the continuing abandonment of Israel by most of the international community, inevitably bring to mind the abandonment of the Jews during the Holocaust. Just this past week, a document emerged which raises disturbing new questions about President Franklin Roosevelt’s response to the Nazi mass murder of Europe’s Jews.

The document was brought to my attention by Dr. Rafael Medoff, a Holocaust scholar and director of The David S. Wyman Institute for Holocaust Studies, in Washington, DC. Several years ago, Dr. Medoff collaborated with me on my book “The Koch Papers: My Fight Against Anti-Semitism.” It was based on my writings and speeches about the Holocaust and anti-Semitism, during the course of my nine years in Congress and twelve as mayor of New York City.

The document which Dr. Medoff sent me last week, concerning FDR and the Holocaust, was frankly shocking. It had to do with the Allies’ occupation of North Africa, which they liberated from the Nazis in November 1942. At the time, President Roosevelt publicly pledged the Allies would do away with the anti-Jewish laws that had been in force in the region. But when FDR met in Casablanca with local government leaders in January 1943, he took a very different line. The transcript of those discussions, which Dr. Medoff cites, reveals what FDR said about the status of the 330,000 Jews living in Morocco, Algeria, and Tunisia: “The number of Jews engaged in the practice of the professions (law, medicine, etc) should be definitely limited to the percentage that the Jewish population in North Africa bears to the whole of the North African population...The President stated that his plan would further eliminate the specific and understandable complaints which the Germans bore toward the Jews in Germany, namely, that while they represented a small part of the population, over fifty percent of the lawyers, doctors, school teachers, college professors, etc., in Germany, were Jews.”

Hard to believe a president would say such a thing? Maybe, but the source is unimpeachable: the transcript appears in Foreign Relations of the United States, a multivolume series of historical documents published by the U.S. government itself. The Casablanca volume was published in 1968, but did not attract much notice at the time. Dr. Medoff has done a public service by bringing it to our attention again.

Fortunately, U.S. policy in occupied North Africa in the end did not follow FDR’s line. When it became clear that the administration was stalling on getting rid of the old anti-Jewish laws, American Jewish leaders loudly protested. (If only they had been so vocal throughout the Holocaust years!) One of the most memorable critiques came from Benzion Netanyahu --father of Israel’s current prime minister-- who in those days headed up the American wing of the Revisionist Zionist movement: “The spirit of the Swastika hovers over the Stars and Stripes,” he wrote. The protests eventually forced the White House to back down. North African Jews were gradually released from forced-labor camps and the anti-Jewish quotas and other laws were rescinded.

The American Jewish community reveres the memory of FDR. He will always be remembered and rightly so for leading us through the Great Depression and is responsible for this country not ending up in the column of fascist nations, as did Germany and Italy.

We had 25 percent unemployment in a nation of 132 million. We had Father Coughlin and Charles Lindbergh beating the drums of fascism and support of Adolf Hitler and his ideas, particularly those blaming the Jews of the world for the ills of the world. We had the German-American Bund led by Fritz Kuhn in Yorkville with signs stating “No Jews Allowed.” I saw such signs as a small boy on the beaches of Coney Island.

And, of course, FDR led us to victory in World War II. So the feelings of support for him held by much of the country’s Jewish citizens was highest then and still among the highest for his memory. To this day, Jews overwhelmingly support the Democratic Party. The Jewish community gave President Barack Obama 78 percent of its vote in the presidential election in 2008.

I appreciate FDR’s contributions to the survival of our country. At the same time, I have never forgiven him for his refusal to grant haven to the 937 Jewish passengers on the SS St. Louis, who after fleeing Nazi Germany had been turned away from Cuba and hovered off the coast of Florida. The passengers were returned to Europe, and many were ultimately murdered in the Nazi concentration camps before World War II ended. I have said that I believe he is not in heaven, but in purgatory, being punished for his abandonment of the Jews. The concept of purgatory is Catholic. I am a secular Jew, but I am a believer in God and the hereafter, and I like this Catholic concept. The Casablanca document reinforces my conviction that President Roosevelt was, at heart, not particularly sympathetic to the plight of the Jews.

Today, the war against the Jews continues. While Palestinian terrorists murder Israeli children in their beds and fire rockets into Israeli towns, the international community rages against Israel. To his credit, President Barack Obama vetoed the recent United Nations Security Council resolution condemning Israel--yet in the same breath, the administration spokeswoman and U.N. ambassador emphasized the U.S. agreed with the substance of that one-sided resolution. That’s no way to treat an ally.

Why can’t Jews live on the West Bank? More than one million Arabs live in Israel now, about 20 percent of its population. When Israel and the Palestinian Authority settle their differences, shouldn’t Jews be able to choose to live in the new Palestinian state as citizens, or at least resident aliens? I don’t see why not.

Of course, Israel has made mistakes in its dealings with the Palestinians. The Israelis are no less human in that respect than other nations, including ours. But the intransigence, unwillingness to compromise, is far greater on the part of the Palestinian leaders, who fear for their lives threatened by the Arab radicals, fundamentalists and terrorists. Where are the Arab voices of moderation? I don’t hear them. But I do hear the voices of those threatening the destruction of Israel, of those seeking to delegitimatize Israel at the United Nations.

Yes, the war against the Jews is still going on, 66 years after World War II. But, thank God, there is now a Jewish state that will not be cowed and will do what is necessary to protect the Jewish people.

Koch and Palin, Unique Americans

[From article]
"Koch and Palin both adore the kind of I-gotta-be-me shtick that ensured neither of them would advance very far beyond their homelands. Not only have they alienated moderates, they’ve made many of their own political soulmates wonder what’s up with them. They’re American originals — not phonies, triangulators, smoothies."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/dissin_cousins_0YAeKbdt5GL2Cg9UQFl71L

Dissin' cousins
What Sarah Palin and Ed Koch have in common (no, seriously!)
Kyle Smith
New York Post
Last Updated: 11:18 PM, January 22, 2011
Posted: 11:16 PM, January 22, 2011

Ousting Career Politicians

[From article]

"Knowing that they're invulnerable, these state legislators are immune to pressure from their voters and have no reason even to work hard."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/ousting_ny_lawmakers_for_life_dY9MVc1pyuGNlSnU91JfiL

William Farrington

Ed Koch

Ousting NY's lawmakers-for-life

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

New York Post

Last Updated: 3:54 AM, April 26, 2010

Posted: 12:52 AM, April 26, 2010

Ed Koch on Obama's Israeli Policy

[Ed Koch was Mayor of New York City]

Ed Koch Commentary

April 12, 2010

TITLE: A Dangerous Silence



I weep as I witness outrageous verbal attacks on Israel. What makes these verbal assaults and distortions all the more painful is that they are being orchestrated by President Obama.



For me, the situation today recalls what occurred in 70 AD when the Roman emperor Vespasian launched a military campaign against the Jewish nation and its ancient capital of Jerusalem. Ultimately, Masada, a rock plateau in the Judean desert became the last refuge of the Jewish people against the Roman onslaught. I have been to Jerusalem and Masada. >From the top of Masada, you can still see the remains of the Roman fortifications and garrisons, and the stones and earth of the Roman siege ramp that was used to reach Masada. The Jews of Masada committed suicide rather than let themselves be taken captive by the Romans.



In Rome itself, I have seen the Arch of Titus with the sculpture showing enslaved Jews and the treasures of the Jewish Temple of Solomon with the Menorah, the symbol of the Jewish state, being carted away as booty during the sacking of Jerusalem.



Oh, you may say, that is a far fetched analogy. Please hear me out.



The most recent sacking of the old city of Jerusalem – its Jewish quarter – took place under the Jordanians in 1948 in the first war between the Jews and the Arabs, with at least five Muslim states – Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq – seeking to destroy the Jewish state. At that time, Jordan conquered East Jerusalem and the West Bank and expelled every Jew living in the Jewish quarter of the old city, destroying every building, including the synagogues in the old quarter and expelling from every part of Judea and Samaria every Jew living there so that for the first time in thousands of years, the old walled city of Jerusalem and the adjacent West Bank were "Judenrein" -- a term used by the Nazis to indicate the forced removal or murder of all Jews..



Jews had lived for centuries in Hebron, the city where Abraham, the first Jew, pitched his tent and where he now lies buried, it is believed, in a tomb with his wife, Sarah, as well as other ancient Jewish patriarchs and matriarchs. I have visited that tomb and at the time asked an Israeli soldier guarding it – so that it was open to all pilgrims, Christians, Muslims and Jews -- “where is the seventh step leading to the tomb of Abraham and Sarah,” which was the furthest entry for Jews when the Muslims were the authority controlling the holy place? He replied, “When we retook and reunited the whole city of Jerusalem and conquered the West Bank in 1967, we removed the steps, so now everyone can enter,” whereas when Muslims were in charge of the tomb, no Jew could enter it. And I did.



I am not a religious person. I am comfortable in a synagogue, but generally attend only twice a year, on the high holidays. When I entered the tomb of Abraham and Sarah, as I recall, I felt connected with my past and the traditions of my people. One is a Jew first by birth and then by religion. Those who leave their religion, remain Jews forever by virtue of their birth. If they don’t think so, let them ask their neighbors, who will remind them. I recall the words of the columnist Robert Novak, who was for most of his life hostile to the Jewish state of Israel in an interview with a reporter stating that while he had converted to Catholicism, he was still a cultural Jew. I remain with pride a Jew both by religion and culture.



My support for the Jewish state has been long and steadfast. Never have I thought that I would leave the U.S. to go and live in Israel. My loyalty and love is first to the U.S. which has given me, the son of Polish Jewish immigrants, so much. But, I have also long been cognizant of the fact that every night when I went to sleep in peace and safety, there were Jewish communities around the world in danger. And there was one country, Israel, that would give them sanctuary and would send its soldiers to fight for them and deliver them from evil, as Israel did at Entebbe in 1976.



I weep today because my president, Barack Obama, in a few weeks has changed the relationship between the U.S. and Israel from that of closest of allies to one in which there is an absence of trust on both sides. The contrast between how the president and his administration deals with Israel and how it has decided to deal with the Karzai administration in Afghanistan is striking.



The Karzai administration, which operates a corrupt and opium-producing state, refuses to change its corrupt ways – the president’s own brother is believed by many to run the drug traffic taking place in Afghanistan – and shows the utmost contempt for the U.S. is being hailed by the Obama administration as an ally and publicly treated with dignity. Karzai recently even threatened to join the Taliban if we don’t stop making demands on him. Nevertheless, Karzai is receiving a gracious thank-you letter from President Obama. The New York Times of April 10^th reported, “…that Mr. Obama had sent Mr. Karzai a thank-you note expressing gratitude to the Afghan leader for dinner in Kabul. ‘It was a respectful letter,’ General Jones said.”



On the other hand, our closest ally – the one with the special relationship with the U.S., has been demeaned and slandered, held responsible by the administration for our problems in Afghanistan and Iraq and elsewhere in the Middle East. The plan I suspect is to so weaken the resolve of the Jewish state and its leaders that it will be much easier to impose on Israel an American plan to resolve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, leaving Israel’s needs for security and defensible borders in the lurch.



I believe President Obama’s policy is to create a whole new relationship with the Arab states of Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Egypt, and Iraq as a counter to Iran – The Tyrannosaurus Rex of the Muslim world which we are now prepared to see in possession of a nuclear weapon. If throwing Israel under the bus is needed to accomplish this alliance, so be it.



I am shocked by the lack of outrage on the part of Israel’s most ardent supporters. The members of AIPAC, the chief pro-Israel lobbying organization in Washington, gave Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a standing ovation after she had carried out the instructions of President Obama and, in a 43-minute telephone call, angrily hectored Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.



Members of Congress in both the House and Senate have made pitifully weak statements against Obama’s mistreatment of Israel, if they made any at all. The Democratic members, in particular, are weak. They are simply afraid to criticize President Obama.



What bothers me most of all is the shameful silence and lack of action by community leaders – Jew and Christian. Where are they? If this were a civil rights matter, the Jews would be in the mall in Washington protesting with and on behalf of our fellow American citizens. I asked one prominent Jewish leader why no one is preparing a march on Washington similar to the one in 1963 at which I was present and Martin Luther King’s memorable speech was given? His reply was “Fifty people might come.” Remember the 1930s? Few stood up. They were silent. Remember the most insightful statement of one of our greatest teachers, Rabbi Hillel: “If I am not for myself, who is for me? And if I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?”



We have indeed stood up for everyone else. When will we stand up for our brothers and sisters living in the Jewish state of Israel?



If Obama is seeking to build a siege ramp around Israel, the Jews of modern Israel will not commit suicide. They are willing to negotiate a settlement with the Palestinians, but they will not allow themselves to be bullied into following self-destructive policies.



To those who call me an alarmist, I reply that I’ll be happy to apologize if I am proven wrong. But those who stand silently by and watch the Obama administration abandon Israel, to whom will they apologize?

Ed Koch: Obama Disrespectful

[From article]
"It is unimaginable that the President would treat any of our NATO allies, large or small, in such a degrading fashion. That there are policy differences between the U.S. and the Netanyahu government is no excuse. Allies often disagree, but remain respectful."

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2010/03/29/never_again_will_we_be_silent_104961.html

March 29, 2010
Obama's Treatment of Israel is Shocking
By Ed Koch
Real Clear Politics

NY AG Back From Dead


Former New York City Mayor Ed Koch "once angrily blamed [Andrew Cuomo] for the homophobic 'Vote for Cuomo, not the homo' campaign."

http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/andy_getting_nd_cuom_ing_ljO8bndEgPOWVP18z5uK9K

Andy's getting a 2nd cuom-ing
Star AG's journey back from the dead
Fredric U. Dicker
New York Post
Last Updated: 5:26 PM, September 22, 2009
Posted: 2:59 AM, September 22, 2009