Hikind and Weprin in Israel
As visiting political contingents go, it will be a small one.
But with a (relative) minimum of fuss, Dov Hikind and David Weprin will be taking off for a three-day tour of the north of Israel on Saturday night with a group that also includes one college student and a handful of business people.
"Because it happened so fast, we never advertised it," Hikind explained.
He says that he'll be hand-delivering about $27,000 he raised to buy equipment for the crews that collect body parts after bombings.
Hikind also said that "a couple of other" officials made inquiries about tagging along on the trip, but ultimately decided against going. He didn't say who.
-- Josh Benson
Yassky was one of them dov said today
He's an odd fellow that Dov. But good for him for making a trek to support Israel in its time of need. I only hope that he stays safe.
I guess its real important that anyone in Brooklyn who wants to go to Northern Israel can go whenever they want. Unless, of course, you are a Palestinian on Atlantic Avenue who was born there. Then you better keep your terrorist ass out.
Gosh, Dov Hikind goes to Israel as it carries out war crimes in Lebanon! Shocking! Next you'll tell me George Bush was in D.C. when all the corruption was going on.
Even as the fighting continues and the civilian casualties mount in Lebanon, sentiment in Congress is overwhelmingly on Israel's side. ......
A bid by the four House lawmakers of Lebanese descent to add language urging restraint against civilian targets was rejected in negotiations. The resolution's only nod to those caught in the crossfire came in a recognition of "Israel's longstanding commitment to minimizing civilian loss" and an expression of condolences -- in the last sentence of a three-page document -- "to all innocent victims of recent violence in Israel, Lebanon and the Palestinian territories....."
....Discussions in Congress yesterday, however, revolved not around the civilian carnage dominating diplomatic debates but Democratic lawmakers' threats to boycott a speech by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki today if he does not renounce his denunciations of Israel's actions....
Rep. Eliot L. Engel (D-N.Y.) said that language urging restraint to protect civilian life would have been interpreted as a slap at Israel -- and that at a time when world opinion is predictably against the Jewish state, the United States must stand firmly on Israel's side.
"I am very sensitive to Lebanon's budding democracy. I'm very sensitive to the delicate balancing act we're in, and I grieve for civilian casualties," Engel said. But he added: "I don't want to be an honest broker. I want to be a friend and ally of the only democratic government in the Middle East that is besieged by its enemies."
dubyadubyadubya.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/07/25/AR2006072501324_pf.html
Well, at least now we know his priorities.
boy...I wanted to criticize Hikind & co. for pandering but anon and other screwballs anti israel screed makes me say "GO DOV!" instead...that depresses me.
Dov often takes the odd fellow Sperling from Crown Heights who used to run the one-man political operation there. Is he going? Have we asked Isac?
Isac is a Satmar, and would not be taking a trip in support of the Israeli government (but, like most Satmar, at a couple of Slivovitz', he's a Likudnik in his heart)
Isac is a Satmar, and would not be taking a trip in support of the Israeli government (but, like most Satmar, at a couple of Slivovitz', he's a Likudnik in his heart)
Yes Gatemouth, I know Isac is a Satmar. But Isac keeps track of everybody, even a secular reform Jew. It's his business to know who's where doing what to whom for what. And he does refer to the Crown Heights fellow as the Crown Heights Rebbe. Oi vey!
Of course, the Satmars would never let their supposed anti-Zionism ever get in the way of their rabid hatred of the schvatzers, especially the Arab kind.
David Weprin is very savvy and should be City Comptroller in 2009.
10:54. At least get it right; Satmar don't hate black people; they primarily live in neighborhood's where blacks are barely a factor. It's the Lubavich who live in black neighborhoods, and have had their problems. In fact, now that Satmar are moving into Bed-Stuy from Billyburg, their black problem is that many of their new neighbors are saying "there goes the neighborhood" and trying to keep them out.
As to Satmar and Arabs, Satmar would be perfectly content to live in an Arab state that would let them exercise their religious rights, might even prefer it to Israel (would never have to worry about a gay pride parade in Jerusalem); but Arabs massacred every Jew in Hebron during the 30's, desecrated Jewish cemetaries, and banned Jews from the Tomb of the Patriarch and the Tomb of Rachel, even anti-Zionist Satmar and Neturi Karta. And when an Arab militant killed the Halberstam kid at the Brooklyn Bridge, he had no idea whether the Hasidim he was shooting at were pro or anti Zionist, and couldn't have cared less. If Satmar are Likudniks in spite of themselves, it's because Arabs have made them so.
The whole thing is beyond absurd. How many more American democratic politicians will continue to oppose the Iraq War while coming out as for another useless and counter-productive invasion. They're even stupider over there then we are over here - we can pull out of the region. They can't. And if they can't learn from our insane mistake, then they have no future as a country. Daddty won't be around much longer to take care of them. Time to come up with a long-term solution.
This may be a pander but it is a smart courageous pander.
David Weprin has turned into the Anthony Weiner of the City Council. That man will do anything to attract press, even if it means flying to Israel for 3 days.