Frank Bruni, "Gay and Marked for Death": No Mention of Iran

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In his latest New York Times op-ed entitled "Gay and Marked for Death," Frank Bruni tell us of a special United Nations Security Council meeting on L.G.B.T. rights, but remarkably manages to make no mention of Iran. Bruni writes:

"Although Monday’s discussion isn’t a formal one that Security Council members are required to attend, it’s nonetheless the first time that the council has held a meeting of any kind that’s dedicated to the persecution of L.G.B.T. people, according to Samantha Power, the United States ambassador to the United Nations.

And it’s an example, she told me, of a determined push by the United States and other countries to integrate L.G.B.T. rights into all discussions of human rights by international bodies like the U.N.

. . . .

The Security Council meeting, which the United States is co-hosting with Chile, will focus on the Islamic State’s brutality against gays as a way of getting countries who might not be sensitive to the plight of gays, but who have profound concerns about the Islamic State, to pay attention."

The focus of the Security Council meeting will be on the Islamic State's brutality against gays? Question: Why is the Security Council also not focusing also on the barbaric conduct of the Islamic Republic of Iran? In an August 20, 2014 Front Page Magazine article entitled "An Execution Wave Against LGBT Iranians," Dr. Majid Rafizadeh observes:

"As the Obama administration continues to communicate and diplomatically negotiate with Iranian officials in Vienna, New York, and elsewhere, President Obama has not even slightly expressed his concern about the unfair actions, executions, discriminations and prosecutions of LGBT individuals, as well as the increasing repressions of women under the Rouhani administration. Where do the Islamic Republic’s human rights abuses belong on President Obama’s agenda?

Two weeks ago, two Iranian men, Abdulla Ghavami Chahzanjiru and Salman Ghanbari Chahzanjiri, were executed in the southern part of the Islamic Republic for reasons that included 'consensual sodomy.' According to the Daily Beast, 'Their deaths are part of a wave of executions in Iran, with more than 400 in the first half of 2014 alone, according to the NGO Iran Human Rights.' One of the Iranian sources pointed out that Chahzanjiru and Chahzanjiri were executed in order to 'promote community safety' as well as to 'reduce the suffering of the victims.'"

Executions in Iran in 2015? As reported by Amnesty International:

"The Iranian authorities are believed to have executed an astonishing 694 people between 1 January and 15 July 2015, said Amnesty International today, in an unprecedented spike in executions in the country.

This is equivalent to executing more than three people per day. At this shocking pace, Iran is set to surpass the total number of executions in the country recorded by Amnesty International for the whole of last year.

'Iran’s staggering execution toll for the first half of this year paints a sinister picture of the machinery of the state carrying out premeditated, judicially-sanctioned killings on a mass scale,' said Said Boumedouha, Deputy Director of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa Programme."

But there is no mention of Iranian savagery against gays by Bruni or Power. I wonder why . . .

Yemen: Amputations and a Crucifixion

Amnesty International has just issued a new report entitled 'Conflict in Yemen: Abyan's Darkest Hour,'(http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/asset/MDE31/010/2012/en/5c85d728-a9ab-4693-afe9-edecc2b8670e/mde310102012en.pdf), describing human rights abuses in southern Yemen. The report details horrors perpetrated by the Islamist Ansar al-Sharia organization, which is linked to al-Qaeda, and Yemeni government forces, backed with US intelligence and drone strikes:

"During its 14-month rule in Ja'ar, Ansar al-Sharia committed a wide range of human rights abuses in its attempts to maintain 'order'. It imposed punishments, including summary killings and amputations, on people it accused of spying, 'sorcery' and theft, among other activities.

. . . .

Saleh Ahmed Saleh al-Jamil . . . was found guilty by a 'religious court' in Ja'ar of planting two electronic devices in two vehicles carrying commanders and members fighting for Ansar al-Sharia.

. . . .

Saleh al-Jamil's body was crucified in the town for all to see.

. . . .

Yemeni government forces, in their efforts to regain control of the areas that had fallen to Ansar al-Sharia, increasingly used aircraft and artillery against residential areas, putting at risk civilian residents.

. . . .

In other attacks government forces appeared to fail to take necessary precautions to spare civilians, such as verifying a target was in fact military . . . and giving advance warning to civilians of an attack."

Query: Where were the Washington Post home page pictures of the victims of these outrages? Or perhaps such pictures can only be shown of aggrieved Gazans, notwithstanding the troubles the Israel Defense Forces took during Operation Pillar of Defense to provide advance warning to civilians of attacks and its willingness to cancel attacks when civilians were endangered.

Meanwhile, Thomas Pickering, the person selected by Obama to investigate the Benghazi scandal, decries American ignorance of Islam (see: http://jgcaesarea.blogspot.co.il/2012/12/david-ignatius-its-close-call-on-susan.html). Believe me, there are things you are better off not knowing.

[I will also not be traveling to Ja'ar anytime soon.]

David Brooks, "The Service Patch": Heroism and Schmuckdom

In his latest New York Times op-ed, "The Service Patch" (http://www.nytimes.com/2012/05/25/opinion/brooks-the-service-patch.html), David Brooks offers the following advice to young people about to enter the job market:

"In whatever field you go into, you will face greed, frustration and failure. You may find your life challenged by depression, alcoholism, infidelity, your own stupidity and self-indulgence. So how should you structure your soul to prepare for this? Simply working at Amnesty International instead of McKinsey is not necessarily going to help you with these primal character tests.

. . . .

It’s worth noting that you can devote your life to community service and be a total schmuck. You can spend your life on Wall Street and be a hero. Understanding heroism and schmuckdom requires fewer Excel spreadsheets, more Dostoyevsky and the Book of Job."

But does it all boil down to heroism and schmuckdom? I have considered myself very fortunate to have been able to wear many different hats over the course of several decades, with jobs in agriculture, publishing, finance, the military, law and law enforcement. Today, I even enjoy taking an occasional day off to participate as an actor in commercials.

And my identity, success and failure have also been shaped by my roles as a husband and father.

Although bruised and perhaps even bearing the scars of trauma, I am no hero, but I also wish to believe that I have never descended into schmuckdom.

My satisfaction this morning as I pen this blog entry: listening, with my somewhat impaired hearing, to the birds chatter outside my window, and examining the overnight growth of my tomatoes and brocolli.

Offer advice to young people? My advice is largely limited to my children: No matter what you do, respect the feelings of others and learn to love yourself, but never to excess.

Oh, and one other piece of advice to my children: Work at Amnesty International, which condemned the US for its "unlawful" commando raid that killed Osama bin Laden (see: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/al-qaeda/9286544/Amnesty-International-Osama-bin-Laden-raid-was-illegal.html)? Those who join this organization are headed for hell, not schmuckdom.

Anti-Semitic Scandal Involving Amnesty International Arises in Finland

Amnesty International has been hit with a new scandal:

"The head of Amnesty International’s Finnish branch, Frank Johansson, told The Jerusalem Post on Tuesday that he stands by his statement that Israel is a 'scum state.'

. . . .

An English translation of Johansson’s blog first appeared Tuesday on the Web site Tundra Tabloids, a pro-Israel blog that monitors anti-Israeli sentiments in the Finnish media and blogosphere.

. . . .

Asked why he termed Israel a 'scum state,' Johansson told the Post in a telephone interview that it was because Israel has 'repeatedly flouted international law,' and due to his 'personal experiences inside and outside of Israel with meeting Israelis.' Johansson said that his remarks were not anti-Semitic. . . . Asked whether there are other countries aside from Israel that, according to him, meet the definition of a 'scum state,' Johansson did not specify any, but noted that there are 'Russian officials' who meet the criteria."

http://www.jpost.com/International/Article.aspx?id=185846

Johansson claims Israel is a "scum state" and can't think of any other countries that fall into this category? Obviously, Johnansson doesn't give a damn about state-sanctioned honor killings, hangings, stonings, decapitations and whipping of women, gays and minorities throughout the Muslim Middle East. Nor could he care less, for example, about capital punishment and oppression in China. Yet, Johansson would have us believe, and perhaps even deludes himself into thinking, that he is not anti-Semitic.

This latest scandal involving Amnesty International comes on the heels of the Marc Garlasco outrage at Human Rights Watch. As observed several months ago by The Sunday Times following the revelation that HRW's military expert was a collector of Nazi meorabilia:

"[HRW] accused those who raised the issue of Garlasco’s hobby of being part of 'a campaign to deflect attention from Human Rights Watch’s rigorous and detailed reporting on violations of international human rights and humanitarian law by the Israeli government'. It even used the word 'conspiracy': its programmes director, Iain Levine, later went so far as to directly accuse the Israeli government of being behind it. But he provided no evidence for the charge.

The vehemence of Human Rights Watch in defending Garlasco surprised many. But it made sense for two reasons. Though HRW relishes complaints from infuriated dictatorships, it is not used to its personnel and methods being questioned at home.

. . . .

Some conflict zones get much more coverage than others. For instance, HRW has published five heavily publicised reports on Israel and the Palestinian territories since the January 2009 war.

In 20 years they have published only four reports on the conflict in Indian-controlled Kashmir, for example, even though the conflict has taken at least 80,000 lives in these two decades, and torture and extrajudicial murder have taken place on a vast scale. Perhaps even more tellingly, HRW has not published any report on the postelection violence and repression in Iran more than six months after the event.

. . . .

I interviewed a human-rights expert at a competing organisation in Washington who did not wish to be named because 'we operate in a very small world and it’s not done to criticise other human-rights organisations'. He told me he was 'not surprised' that HRW has still not produced a report on the violence in Iran: 'They are thinking about how it’s going to be used politically in Washington. And it’s not a priority for them because Iran is just not a bad guy that they are interested in highlighting. Their hearts are not in it. Let’s face it, the thing that really excites them is Israel.'"

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article7076462.ece

"The thing that really excites them is Israel"? What a surprise. Israel is also what has many so-called "liberal" journalists at The New York Times, Washington Post and CNN salivating at the thought of any news item, however small, that can be used to denigrate the Jewish state.

And their willingness to ignore the must vile human rights violations occurring elsewhere in the world? Observe how much coverage the imminent stoning of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani in Iran, which resulted in demonstrations throughout the world, received, for example, at The New York Times.

Yet all of these pundits and soothsayers of the Left will go to their deathbeds denying that their activities were tainted by anti-Semitism.

Israel Braces for Two-Front War

Hamas is smuggling Iranian missiles into Gaza, which are capable of hitting Tel Aviv. Appearing before the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee of the Knesset (Israeli parliament), Major General Amos Yadlin, Head of Israeli Military Intelligence, stated that there had been at least one recent test firing by Hamas of a rocket with a 60-kilometer range into the Mediterranean Sea, placing Tel Aviv within range of Hamas.

It is not clear whether Hamas has acquired Iranian Fajr 3 rockets, which have a maximum range of some 50 kilometers, or Fajr 5 rockets, which can hit targets 70 kilometers away.

Meanwhile in the north, Hezbollah has accumulated 40,000 missiles from Syria and Iran, many hidden in southern Lebanese villages, all aimed at Israel.

When does Iran instruct its proxies, Hamas and Hezbollah, to ignite the next war? It's coming, and many civilians on both sides will inevitably die.

Where are Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, the UN and Goldstone? All bitterly complaining about the Israeli blockade of Gaza, as the missiles pass under the sands from Egypt into Gaza and across the Turkish and Syrian borders into Lebanon.

No More Saudi Human Rights Violations

Read the Saudi Gazette and you will learn that my friend King Abdullah has launched a campaign to ensure that there will be no further human rights violations in the desert kingdom, long known for its oppression, intolerance and savagery. If you don't believe it, take the time and read the article yourself:

King approves promotion of human rights culture

Saudi Gazette staff

Riyadh – In a move to make human rights most secure in the Kingdom, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, King Abdullah has approved the launch of a nationwide campaign to promote human rights culture, said Bandar Al-Obyan, chairman of the Saudi Human Rights Commission, Saturday, in a statement carried by Saudi Press Agency (SPA).

The royal approval would allow the commission to outline the broad policies of the campaign, offering an ideal opportunity to further link human rights to the overall work of the government.

The Commission said it will launch the campaign with the help of educational and media organizations across the Kingdom, vowing the release of the detailed plan of the campaign after deliberating with human rights activists and agencies in the Kingdom.

The commission will hold training sessions for all Saudi authorities concerned with human rights, Al-Obyan said.

The projected national human rights campaign has vowed to spread the message of tolerance and respect of the World Charter of Human Rights, and above all that one message of human rights that Islam has guaranteed humanity, he added.

The human rights culture is not novel to Saudi culture, rather it is deeply-rooted in Islamic heritage, and it needs to be prompted and enforced, Al-Obyan said.

The campaign will educate the public on the Kingdom’s legal procedures and instructions that protect their rights, he said, warning against any violation of human rights in the Kingdom.

One of the goals of the campaign is to check all government employees’ behavior with the public against the principles of human rights, Al-Obyan said.

The dissemination of the human rights culture in the Kingdom is, in fact, clear evidence of the King’s vision for promoting peace, security and integrity for all people living in the Kingdom, he added.

(http://www.saudigazette.com.sa/index.cfm?method=home.regcon&contentID=2009110253314)

Bravo, Abdullah! I am certain that Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International are proud of you and can continue to solicit funds in Saudi Arabia.

What's the matter? You don't trust Abdullah? In the space of this short article, I counted the words "human rights" 14 times, and if that's the case, surely the Saudis mean exactly what they say. Eye gougings, lashings, beheadings, the severance of limbs, religious fanaticism and abuse of women will all continue, but at least there will be "human rights".

Welcome to the world of Middle East doublespeak.

Amnesty International: Taking a Page from Human Rights Watch's Website

Go to Amnesty's home page, and see what gets top billing: A heart wrenching picture of a Palestinian girl sitting on a curb with empty water bottles. The caption: "Israel rations Palestinians to a trickle of water."

Of course, it might have been "nice" if Amnesty had allowed the Israel Water Authority to provide their contrary view. But why should facts stand in Amnesty's way?

Bombings in Baghdad the other day that killed more than 150 people? Yesterday's news.

Lashings in Saudi Arabia? We are told that Amnesty "has welcomed the intervention of Saudi Arabia’s head of state, King ‘Abdullah bin ‘Abdul ‘Aziz, to cancel a flogging sentence against a female journalist" for her work on a television program during which a man spoke about his sex life. Good old King Abdullah! Now if only he would revoke the 1,000 lashes and five-year prison term to which the man was sentenced.

You see it's all about what will bring in the funding, and what is more popular than to beat up on tiny Israel. How about Amnesty disclosing on a country by country basis the source of their funding? How about lobbying for a Jordanian/Israeli desalination project?

Or might that dry up Amnesty's donations to a trickle?