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Today a demonstration against terrorism was held outside the Simon Wiesenthal Center, near the remains of bus 19, which was blown up by terrorists in Israel on January 29th, 2004.
Rabbi Marvin Hier, Dean and Founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, spoke, and called for a U.N. resolution declaring that terrorist killings of civilians are a crime against humanity.
L.A. Mayor Jim Hahn spoke in support of Rabbi Hier’s demand to the U.N.
Nonie Darwish of Arabs for Israel spoke powerfully. She’s a firecracker. She was born in Egypt, raised until the age of 8 in Gazaa, and until the age of 30 lived in the culture that she now speaks out against.
Terrorism is a symptom of a very sick society where tyrants and despots hide behind terrorists from the age-old yearning of people for freedom.
...Shame on the people who call them freedom fighters!
...The epidemic of terrorism will not end until change comes within the Islamic Community.
We Americans of Islamic descent have the duty to speak up and call for change.
She gave a powerful, moving speech. I asked her afterwards for the text of it, and she said it may appear on her web site later this week. I’ll keep an eye out for it and link to it if I find it. In the meantime you can find articles she’s written published by FrontPage, here and here.
Now, take a look at this bus. This is what it looked like as we walked up to it:
And here’s a shot showing the interior:
There were people in there when that happened. 11 died; 50 more were injured. This is a crime against humanity.
Update 1-30-05: Instalanche. Thanks, Glenn, and welcome, Instapundit readers!
Photos of the event (7 in all) are available in an image gallery.
Quotes from the Arab World on the Iraqi Election:
“The irony is the Arab regimes, who criticize the gaps in the (Iraqi) elections and demand they be honest and transparent leading to full democracy for all Iraqis, are themselves banning such elections for their own peoples,” Lebanon’s Al-Anwar newspaper political analyst Rafik Khoury.
“As you can see, we broke a barrier of fear,” electoral commission official Mijm Towirish.
“Iraqis are walking over body parts of a bomber to vote,” Rep. Christopher Shays, R-Conn, who was making his seventh trip to Iraq. “Clearly more people are voting in this election than vote in our own elections.”
“This is a chance for you as Iraqis to assure your and your children’s future,” Gov. Hamad Hmoud Shagti, of the mostly Sunni province of Salaheddin.
“This is democracy. This is the first day I feel freedom,” Fathiya Mohammed, an elderly woman who voted in the small town of Askan south of Baghdad.
Soros Says Kerry’s Failings Undermined Campaign Against Bush:
Jan. 30 (Bloomberg)—Billionaire investor George Soros, the biggest financial contributor to the failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush in November’s election, said Democratic challenger John Kerry was a flawed candidate.
Soros, chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, spent $26 million in last year’s campaign that he said was undermined by the candidate he supported.
``Kerry did not, actually, offer a credible and coherent alternative,’’ Soros, 74, said yesterday in an interview at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. ``That had a lot to do with Bush being re-elected.’’
...``I don’t feel it’s an investment that’s gone bad, because when you stand up for principles you have to do it whether you win or lose,’’ Soros said. ``I’m distressed that Bush was re-elected, but I don’t feel that I wasted my money.’’
So Soros admits Kerry offered neither credibility nor coherency —and that’s the guy Soros wanted running this country—in wartime. It seems that in matters of politics Soros hiimself is neither credible nor coherent.
The spoof version: “Gee, I’m really sorry my incoherent candidate lost the election and isn’t running the most powerful country in the world and responsible for protecting us from getting nuked.”
Arabs in other nations are fascinated with today’s successful elections in Iraq:
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia – A young man smoking cigarettes and drinking coffee in a Saudi cafe worries that Iraq’s elections could lead to civil war. On the banks of the Nile, a student strolling with his girlfriend dismisses the polls as a sham meant to place a pro-American government in Iraq. Yemenis, chewing their mildly stimulating khat leaves, express hope the United States will pressure other tyrannical regimes to change.
The Arab world is anything but indifferent to Sunday’s polling in Iraq, which has dual implications for the restive region. It will almost certainly bring to power Iraq’s long-suppressed Shiite Muslims, boosting the sect’s influence in this Sunni Muslim-dominated area. It also will mean Washington has succeeded in bringing democracy to Iraq by force at least for the moment a precedent that could shake up the autocratic Arab world.
“Arab governments may not say it, but they don’t want Iraq’s democratic experiment to succeed,” said Turki al-Hamad, a prominent Saudi columnist and former political science professor. “Such a success would embarrass them and present them with the dilemma of either changing or being changed.”
...Interest was high among Saudi Arabia’s Shiite minority, who have long complained of discrimination.
“People are glued to their TV screens” in al-Qatif and Ihsaa, Shiite-dominated towns in the oil-rich Eastern Province, said Muhammad Mahfouz, a Shiite editor of a cultural magazine.
Clergymen used special services Saturday for Ghadeer Day, which marked the Prophet Muhammad’s nomination of his son-in-law Ali as his successor, to pray for smooth and safe elections, he said.
...Writing in Beirut’s Al-Anwar newspaper, political analyst Rafik Khoury said Arab governments who have criticized shortcomings of Iraq’s elections, demanding that they be “honest and transparent … themselves ban such elections for their own peoples.”
“If the future promised by the elections appears confusing, are the Iraqis supposed to bet on the future that the executioners promise them?” he said, refering to insurgents.
Early reports are that there’s violence, but it isn’t halting a large voter turnout:
BAGHDAD, Iraq, Sunday, Jan. 30 – Iraqis began casting ballots Sunday morning in the country’s first free elections in more than 50 years, and scattered insurgent attacks began soon after, including a car bombing that killed at least one police officer in western Baghdad.
[The Associated Press and Reuters reported that a suicide bomber strapped with explosives blew himself up at a polling place in western Baghdad, killing at least four people and wounding others. There were mortar attacks around the capital, including one in the southern part of the city that killed at least two people. Mortar attacks were reported in other cities, including Baquba, Basra, Hilla and Mosul.]
...Several explosions broke out across Baghdad on Sunday morning, especially in the southwestern section of the city. American attack helicopters circled over the city center, and the roar of fighter jets could be heard from high above.
Still, two hours after polls opened, voters appeared to be turning out in large numbers in the capital.
At the Arabiya school in the Karada district of central Baghdad, plastic ballot boxes already had scores of large, folded ballots stacked inside just an hour after voting began.
Qasim Muhammad Saleh, 45, walking with his two sons, Sajad, 5, and Jowid, 12, had just come from voting at Lebanon High School. The boys were carrying Iraqi flags, and Mr. Saleh’s right index finger carried the ink marks showing he had cast his ballot.
“We now have our freedom,” he said. “After 35 years, we finally got rid of Saddam and now we can vote for whoever we want.
“After casting my ballots, I’m hoping that the situation will improve.”
Nearby, at the Nawfal primary school in Karada, there was a steady stream of people lining up to go through the barbed wire checkpoint in order to vote. Inside, people were shrugging off the sounds of explosions, and the mood was upbeat, even enthusiastic, as they went through the voting process.
Voters appeared to be turning out in large numbers in the Kurdish area of northern Iraq, especially in Sulaimaniya, where attacks have been muted, news services reported.
