As a polish american I have to say thank you to the Prime Minister of Turkey to express the World Solidarity.
Erdogan storms out of WEF over Gaza
Fri, 30 Jan 2009 01:19:49 GMT
Erdogan criticized the audience of international officials and corporate chiefs for applauding Peres' emotional defense of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza.
Turkish Premier Recep Tayyip Erdogan stormed out of a Davos forum after a heated debate with Israel's President Shimon Peres and slamming moderator David Ignatius.
Erdogan walked off in front of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon and other panel members complaining that his comments on the conflict were cut short by the Washington Post's moderator David Ignatius.
The Turkish premier noted to reporters following the incident that he was treated unfairly by the moderator who allowed him only 12 minutes to make his points while giving Peres a full 25 minutes to deliver an impassioned defense of Israel's 22-day offensive that devastated Gaza. Arab League chief, Egypt's Amr Moussa rose to shake his hand as the prime minister made his exit.
"I do not think I will be coming back to Davos after this because you do not let me speak," the prime minister shouted as he left, though he said later he could reconsider.
Erdogan criticized the audience of international officials and corporate chiefs for applauding Peres' emotional defense of Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza, which left more than 1,300 Palestinians dead.
Erdogan, who leads one of the few Muslim countries to have diplomatic ties with Israel and who has sought a peacemaker's role in the Middle East conflict, said Israel had carried out "barbaric" actions in Gaza.
"I find it very sad that people applaud what you have said because many people have been killed," he shouted at Peres before being cut off by Ignatius.
Erdogan and Peres spoke by telephone after the debate and the 85-year-old Israeli president apologized for the events, Turkey's Anatolia news agency reported.
Dear friends from Turkey and Turkish Embassy in Washington DC.
As a polish american I have to say thank you to the Prime Minister of Turkey to express the World Solidarity.
Tayyip Erdogan you a true hero of the free world.
Thank you.
Poland was benefiting from Turkish solidarity throughout the 19th and 20th century.
So you may count on us Polish Community in US and people in Poland since we do know how important it is.
As the Polish Embassy booklet published for the occasion mentions, "following the events and war of 1831, the 1848 Hungarian revolt, the Crimean War and the 1863 rebellion, Polish army soldiers who were left without a country found refuge and welcome in the Ottoman Empire, accorded to them by the sultan.” Moreover, as President Demirel reminded his audience, the Ottoman Empire did not recognize the partition of Poland by its enemies like Austria, Russia and Prussia, and these acts of friendship were never forgotten by the Polish people.
The first Poles who fled to the Ottoman Empire were the Crimean Tartars in 1831 after having fought with the Russians in the Crimea. The Ottoman Empire and Poland were geographic neighbors, and as the erudite Mr. Demirel recalled, the sultan refused Austrian pressure to return the rebellious Poles to Austria, the sultan categorically retorting, "It is either the Poles who have taken refuge in our midst or my throne."
They were settled in a barren and hilly site called Adampol, as a tribute to Prince Adam, near Istanbul, which later came to be called Polonezköy. For the past 160 years these Poles have tilled the land and made a living through agriculture and husbandry but freely maintained their Polish culture and traditions
In 1989 Lech Walesa and Polish Solidarity movement previously impossible dreams were coming true. Symbolized the new developments in the history of our country - optimism, which resulted from the fact that the Polish people took responsibility for their country and took its matters into their own hands.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
from Rabble, January 20, 2009.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP, yesterday compared the actions of Israeli troops in Gaza to the Nazis who forced his family to flee Poland.
During a Commons debate on the fighting in Gaza, he urged the government to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, said: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed."
"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
He said the claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants "was the reply of the Nazi" and added: "I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."
He accused the Israeli government of seeking "conquest" and added: "They are not simply war criminals, they are fools."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8
Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza Video of UK Jewish MP: Israel acting like Nazis in Gaza
from Rabble, January 20, 2009.
Sir Gerald Kaufman, the veteran Labour MP, yesterday compared the actions of Israeli troops in Gaza to the Nazis who forced his family to flee Poland.
During a Commons debate on the fighting in Gaza, he urged the government to impose an arms embargo on Israel.
Sir Gerald, who was brought up as an orthodox Jew and Zionist, said: "My grandmother was ill in bed when the Nazis came to her home town a German soldier shot her dead in her bed."
"My grandmother did not die to provide cover for Israeli soldiers murdering Palestinian grandmothers in Gaza. The present Israeli government ruthlessly and cynically exploits the continuing guilt from gentiles over the slaughter of Jews in the Holocaust as justification for their murder of Palestinians."
He said the claim that many of the Palestinian victims were militants "was the reply of the Nazi" and added: "I suppose the Jews fighting for their lives in the Warsaw ghetto could have been dismissed as militants."
He accused the Israeli government of seeking "conquest" and added: "They are not simply war criminals, they are fools."http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGuYjt6CP8
Monday, January 19, 2009
Israeli teenagers are a nuisance in Poland
Israeli teenagers are a nuisance in Poland
11 05 2007
Source: Przekrój weekly of May the 10th 2007
Link to original article in Polish
Author: Anna Szulc
English translation: MoPoPressReview
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
11 05 2007
Source: Przekrój weekly of May the 10th 2007
Link to original article in Polish
Author: Anna Szulc
English translation: MoPoPressReview
The list of losses Israeli teenagers’ visits leave behind is long and costly. It begins with burned carpets in Polish hotels, and ends with Jewish teenagers’ trauma. But more and more often with local residents’ trauma too.
Roberto Lucchesini, originally from Tuscany, for several years now a resident of Krakow, hasn’t been sleeping well recently. Before he will be able to move his arms normally again, he will have to go through long rehab. All this because of how he was treated, in broad daylight in front of passers-by and several teenagers who were hermetically closed in their coach-buses. Israeli bodyguards, equipped with firearms, binded his arms behind his back over his head with handcuffs. In Krakow, in the middle of the street. A moment before, the Italian was trying to make coach drivers parking in front of his house turn their engines off. - ‘Israelis handcuffed me, threw me on the ground, my face landed in dog excrement, and then they were kicking me’. After that the perpetrators were gone. Italian had to be freed by the Polish police.
Lucchesini moved to Kazimierz, a district of Kraków, that used to be a Jewish commune of which the only things left now are synagogues and memories, often painful. He found an apartment with a view on the synagogue. - ‘Back then I had thought this was the most beautiful place on Earth’ - he says - ‘after some time I understood that the place is indeed beautiful, but not for its today’s residents’.
Kicking instead of answers
Jews search tourist
Other resident of Kazimierz, Beata W., office worker is of similar opinion. Israeli security searched her handbag on one of the streets, without telling her why.
- ‘When I asked what was this all about, they told me to shut up. I listened, I stopped talking, I was afraid they’d tell me to get undressed next’ - she says annoyed.
A young polish Jew, who as usual in Sabbath, went to pray in his synagogue couple months ago, also didn’t get his answer. He only asked, why can’t he enter the temple. Instead of an answer, he got kicked.
- ‘I saw this with my own eyes’ - says Mike Urbaniak, the editor of Forum Of Polish Jews and correspondent of European Jewish Press in Poland. - ‘I saw how my friend is being brutally attacked by security agents from Israel, without any reason.’
All this apparently in sake of Israeli childrens’ safety.
- ‘For Poles it may be difficult to understand, but security agents accompany Israelis at all times, both in Israel and abroad’ - explains Michał Sobelman, a spokesman for Israeli embassy in Poland. - ‘This is a parents’ demand, otherwise they wouldn’t agree for any kind of trip. Poland is no exception.’
But it was in Poland, as Mike Urbaniak reports, where Jews from Israel brutally kicked a Polish Jew in front of a synagogue, and then threatened him with prison. In plain view of the Israeli teenagers.
- ‘We are very sorry when we hear about such incidents’ - Sobelman admits - ‘Detailed analysis is carried out in each case. We will do everything we can, to prevent such situations in the future. Maybe we will have to change training methods of our security agents, so that they would know Poland is not like Israel, that the scale of threats here is insignificant?
Professor Moshe Zimmermann, head of German History Institute at Hebrew University in Jerusalem thinks however, that the problem is not only in the security agents’ behaviour. He thinks Israelis basically think that Poles aren’t equal partners for them. And it’s not only that they think Poles can’t ensure their children’s safety.
- ‘They are not equal partners to any kind of discussion. It applies also to our common history, contemporary history and politics. In result Israeli youth see Poles as second category people, as potential enemies’ - he explains bluntly.
An instruction on conduct with the local inhabitants given away to Israeli teenagers coming to Poland couple years ago may confirm professor’s opinion. It contained such a paragraph: ‘Everywhere we will be surrounded by Poles. We will hate them because of their participation in Holocaust’.
Jews hate Poles
- ‘Agendas of our teenagers’ trips to Poland are set in advance by the Israeli government, and are not flexible’ - says Ilona Dworak-Cousin, the chairwoman of the Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel. - ‘Those trips basically come down to visiting, one by one, the places of extermination of Jews. From that perspective Poland is just a huge Jewish graveyard. And nothing more. Meeting living people, for those who organise these trips, is meaningless.’
A resident of Kraków’s Kazimierz district, who is of Jewish descent, says that there is nothing wrong with that: - ‘Israelis don’t come to Poland for holiday. Their aim is to see the sites of Shoah and listen to the terrifying history of their families, history that often is not told to them by their grandparents, because of its emotional weight. Often young people who are leaving, cry, phone their parents and say “why didn’t you tell me it was that horrible?”. To be frank, I am not surprised they have no interest in talking about Lajkonik‘.
However according to Ilona Dworak-Cousin the lack of contact with Poles, causes Israeli youth to confuse victims with the perpetrators. - ‘They start to think it were the Poles who created concentration camps for Jews, that it is the Polish who were and still are the biggest anti-Semites in the world’ - adds Dworak-Cousin, who is Jewish herself.
The above mentioned Kraków resident has a different opinion. - ‘I don’t believe anyone was telling them that the Poles had been doing this. That’s why there is no need for discussing anything with the Poles’.
Teenagers behaving badly
However, many Israelis say that although the instruction was eventually changed, the attitude to Poles has not changed at all.
- ‘Someone in Israel some day decided, that our children going to Poland have to be hermetically surrounded by security’ - says Lili Haber president of Cracovians Association in Israel. - ‘Someone decided that young Israelis cannot meet young Poles, and cannot walk the streets. Basically these visits aren’t anything else but a several-day-long voluntary prison.’
RIch brat jews
Voluntary, but also very expensive: 1400 USD per person. Not every Israeli parent can afford such a trip.
- ‘Moreover, as it turns out, the children are too young, to visit sites of mass murders’ - adds dr Ilona Dworak-Cousin. Traumatic experiences that accompany visits in death camps have its consequences. Kids become aggressive. And instead of getting to know the country of their ancestors, in which Jews and Poles lived in symbiosis for over 1000 years, Israeli teenagers cause one scandal after another.
Shitting in beds
It happens sometimes, that somewhere between Majdanek and Treblinka, young Israelis spend their time on striptease ordered via the hotel telephone. It happens sometimes, that the hotel service has to collect human excrement from hotel beds and washbasins. It happens sometimes, that hotels have to give money back to other tourists, who cannot sleep because Israeli kids decided to play football in hotel corridor. In the middle of the night.
Jews block streets
6-year-old Krzys from Kazimierz played football too. On Sunday night on 15th April, after shooting two goals, he wanted to go home, as usual. He lives near a synagogue, in front of which hundreds of young Israelis have gathered on celebrations preceding March of Living. Just before Szeroka street he was stopped by some not-so-nice men. - ‘This is a semi-private area today. There is no entry’ - he was told. It didn’t help, when he told them, his mum will get upset if he won’t be home on time.
Security officers, which is interesting, were Polish this time and accompanied by the Polish police. They also denied access to the area to a Dutch couple, who had reserved a table at one of the restaurants on Szeroka street six months ago. - ‘Is this a free country?’ - One of the tourists tried to make sure.
On a normal day you can access Szeroka street from several sides. That evening from none. I tried to get through myself, without any success. Only eventually, the police helped me to pass the security line.
- ‘There are no official restrictions here’ - they were convincing me a moment later, although the “unofficial practice” was different.
- ‘We have only set certain restrictions in movement’ - Sylvia Bober-Jasnoch, a spokeswoman for Malopolska Region Police press service, explained to me later.
The police cannot say anything else. Polish law does not allow residents to be denied access to the streets they live at. Even during the so called mass events (however the celebrations on Szeroka did not have that status) residents have the right to go back to their homes and tourists have the right to dine in a restaurant. Also Israeli security agents have no right to stop or search passers-by.
I tried to find out more on the rights of Israeli security agents in Poland. First at the Polish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, from where my question was sent to…. the Ministry of Education. I have also sent questions to the Home Office. Although I was promised, I received no answer. Only person eager to talk on that matter was Maciej Kozłowski, former ambassador in Israel, currently the Plenipotentiary of the Minister of Foreign Affairs for Polish-Israeli relations.
- ‘Regulations are imprecise’ - admits Kozłowski. ‘Basically bodyguards from a foreign country should not move around Poland armed. However for the government of Israel security matters are a priority. Any convincing that their citizens should use the services of Polish security turned unsuccessful’.
Airplane like battle field
The Polish-Italian couple, Robert Lucchesini, his wife Anna, and their two-year-old daughter, cannot understand Polish government’s attitude. Which contrary to the Israeli government, is not able to ensure the safety of its citizens. Safety is not the only thing among the pair’s priorities, but also peace and quietness. They are however being woken up every morning by the loud noises of engines, of the Polish coach-buses with groups of Israeli youth. Their Polish drivers brake driving regulations all the time. They’re allowed to park at the square near the synagogue (in front of Robert’s house) only for up to 10 minutes. They stay there much longer, even hours. With their engines turned on. Reason? Youth’s safety - they would be able to leave quicker in case of a threat. And because Israeli kids need to be served coffee. Because even though Kazimierz is full of cafes, Israeli teenagers don’t go there. They are being told: no contacts with environment, no talking to passers-by, no smiles nor gestures.
This has been going for years. Israeli groups contact with Poles only there where they have to. First in airplanes.
Slapped stewardess
- ‘A plane after such group has landed, looks like a battle field’ - admits a worker of LOT Polish Airlines asking for his name not to be published. - ‘The worst thing is these kids’ attitude to Polish staff. Recently a stewardess was slapped by a teenager in her face. Because he had been waiting for his coca-cola too long’.
Leszek Chorzewski, LOT spokesman, admits that Israeli youth is a difficult customer. - ‘They demand not only more attention then other passengers, but also more security precautions’ - he adds. These precautions are long aircraft and airport controls conducted by Israeli services. These are also the high demands of the teenagers’ security agents.
Katarzyna Łazuga, student from Poznań, could see that first hand. She participated in a tourist guides’ training on one of Polish airports. ‘Young people from Israel entered the room we were in’, she recalls. - ‘Our group was then made to stop classes and rushed out of the room. Israeli security officers told us to go out, right now and without any talking. Because… we were “staring” at their clients. Yes, we were looking at them. They were catching attention, they were good looking.’
Young Israelis see Poles also there, where they board - in Polish hotels. If any of them still wants to have them. Most of those in Kraków don’t want to any more.
- ‘We have resigned from admitting Israeli youth once and for all’ - admits Agnieszka Tomczyk, assistant manageress in a chain of hotels called System. ‘We could not afford to refund the loses after their stays any more’.
Shiting in beds
These loses being: demolished rooms, broken chairs and tables, human excrements in washbasins or trash bins, or like in Astoria, other hotel in Kraków, burned carpet. Astoria also backs out from having Israeli groups. One of the reasons is that the teenagers’ security agents were ordering other guests, whom they didn’t like, to leave.
- ‘I understand that Israeli security agents are over-sensitive to any disturbing signals. They are coming from a country where bombs explode almost daily, and young people die in terrorist attacks’ - ensures Mike Urbaniak. - ‘But Poland is one of the safest countries in Europe. Here, excluding tiny number of incidents, Jews are not being attacked, and Jewish institutions don’t need security, which is very unusual on a world scale’.
Huge business
Chasidim, travelling in great numbers from Israel, also (surprisingly) don’t need security agents. Including for example many Orthodox Jews, who came to visit our country recently, as they wanted to pray at Tzadik of Lelów’s grave. They came to the market square in Kazimierz without any security assistance and without any fear.
- ‘They chatted eagerly with tourists interested in their outfits, with passers-by who don’t see Jews with side curls every day’ - adds Urbaniak.
In Kazimierz chasidim are nothing unusual. Like groups of Israeli teenagers. This year 30,000 Israeli teenagers are coming to Poland, and they will have 800 security agents to protect them.
Roberto Lucchesini reported to the Polish police that he got beaten by Israeli security. Krakow Prosecution Office is investigating the case, and so is its counterpart in Israel.
- ‘Results of this investigation are of medium importance’ - thinks Ilona Dworak-Cousin. - ‘What matters is if the youth that visits Poland, will still treat it as hostile and completely alien country’.
Polish-Israeli Friendship Association in Israel and Cracovians Association in Israel both try to convince the government of their country, not to send any more teenagers to see only the death camps in Poland. Chances are slim.
- ‘These trips are mostly a huge business for people who organise them’ - says Lili Haber - ‘including Israeli bodyguards’.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Poslka Rosja American Unia Obama Dr hab. Mieczyslaw Ryba
Poslka Rosja American Unia Obama Dr hab. Mieczyslaw Ryba
Światowy ład w wizji amerykańskich Demokratów
Dr hab. Mieczysław Ryba
Zbigniew Brzeziński, amerykański politolog, były doradca prezydenta Cartera, stara się pokazać główne wyzwania amerykańskiej polityki zagranicznej po objęciu prezydentury przez Baracka Obamę. Słowa Brzezińskiego mają wyjątkowe znaczenie z tego powodu, że od lat był on związany z Partią Demokratyczną i wywierał znaczny wpływ na kierunki amerykańskiej polityki lansowanej przez ten obóz polityczny. Dziś Brzeziński postuluje powrót USA do sposobu uprawiania polityki z czasów prezydentury Billa Clintona. Co to oznacza dla świata i dla Polski?
Wprawdzie Brzeziński gani Francję i Niemcy za ich postawę w czasie wojny irackiej, jednakże postuluje potrzebę ponownego porozumienia. Apeluje o "przywrócenie poczucia wspólnego celu Ameryki i Europy (a konkretniej USA i Unii Europejskiej), a także wspólnego celu państw zrzeszonych w NATO". Brzeziński nie pozostawia złudzeń, co rozumie pod pojęciem "Unia Europejska". Oczywiście nie chodzi mu o wejście w jakiś większy związek z państwami mniejszymi, lecz dużymi, tymi, które budują współczesne superpaństwo europejskie. Twierdzi wręcz, że brak pełnej instytucjonalnej jedności europejskiej może utrudniać Amerykanom rzeczowy dialog transatlantycki. Można by zatem wnioskować, iż Stany Zjednoczone pod nowym kierownictwem chciałyby po prostu wesprzeć ideę przyspieszonej europejskiej integracji, zmierzającej do ujednolicenia polityki zagranicznej. Dodajmy, że w tym właśnie kierunku idzie traktat lizboński. Wielu komentatorów zauważyło, że referendum irlandzkie m.in. dlatego zakończyło się klęską europejskich federalistów, iż w sposób nieformalny eurosceptyków wsparły środowiska amerykańskie. Jasna deklaracja poparcia przez Waszyngton budowy superpaństwa w Europie z pewnością ułatwiłaby unioentuzjastom realizację ich centralistycznych celów. Brzeziński w wywiadzie dla "Wprost" (4-11.01.2009) mówi, że na chwilę obecną chodzi o dialog między USA a trzema europejskimi państwami: Wielką Brytanią, Niemcami oraz Francją. O ile Wielka Brytania jest niejako tradycyjnie reprezentantką interesów Ameryki w Europie, o tyle Francja i Niemcy są głównymi motorami napędowymi europejskiej integracji, które miałyby przejąć realne rządy w nowo powstającym sfederowanym państwie europejskim. Brzeziński oczekuje, iż kraje te zbudują wspólną politykę zagraniczną. Czytamy: "Kiedy już europejska triada ustali wspólny cel strategiczny, Ameryka będzie słuchać. A Stany Zjednoczone wraz z Unią Europejską, wytwarzając w sumie ponad połowę światowego PKB, będą dysponowały olbrzymią potęgą, pozwalającą wpływać na sytuację na świecie w sposób odpowiedzialny i wywoływać pozytywne zmiany". Taki układ miałby być podstawą do "globalnego zarządzania". Oczywiście owo globalne zarządzanie wymaga uczestnictwa przynajmniej jeszcze kilku światowych graczy w Eurazji, tj. Chin, Rosji, Japonii oraz Indii.
Ważne słowa Brzezińskiego dotyczą Rosji: "Zaangażowanie Rosji leży w interesie Stanów Zjednoczonych i państw europejskich ze względu na ogólniejsze zamierzenia strategiczne, a także z powodu bardziej lokalnych, europejskich problemów geopolitycznych". Brzeziński krytykuje nierozliczenie się Rosjan z komunizmem, ale wyraża jednocześnie nadzieję, że ostatnie trudne rosyjskie doświadczenia gospodarcze mogą ten kraj wiele nauczyć.
Jeśli weźmiemy pod uwagę słowa Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego jako reprezentatywne dla środowiska otaczającego Baracka Obamę, to śmiało można potwierdzić, że szykuje nam się rzeczywisty powrót USA do polityki czasów Billa Clintona. W polityce tej w Eurazji naczelną rolę odgrywała Unia Europejska, a w Unii Niemcy. Polska wpisana była w kontekst polityki niemieckiej, którą Brzeziński w "Wielkiej szachownicy" określił mianem nowego projektu budowy Mitteleuropy. Stosunek amerykańskiego politologa do Rosji potwierdza moje niedawne analizy dotyczące perspektywy strategicznego porozumienia Waszyngtonu z Moskwą. Napięcia, jakie się pojawiły w ostatnim czasie (m.in. wojna w Gruzji), miałyby zostać usunięte, szczególnie w sytuacji, gdy Rosja odczuła dziś mocną zależność od gospodarki globalnej (kryzys finansowy), sterowanej w dużej mierze z Wall Street. Rosja jest potrzebna Stanom Zjednoczonym do bilansowania siły Chin oraz Iranu, tak więc ostatnie zmagania amerykańsko-rosyjskie można by raczej nazwać mianem określania granic wpływów, a nie strategicznego konfliktu dwóch mocarstw. W tej sytuacji polskie marzenia o wyrwaniu z rąk rosyjskich kolejnych państw posowieckich (Ukraina, Białoruś, Gruzja itp.) przy wykorzystaniu poparcia USA mogą się okazać wielką mrzonką. Opieranie zaś polskiej polityki zagranicznej na mrzonkach jest nie tylko stratą cennego czasu, lecz nieroztropnością narażającą nas na kolejne niepotrzebne konflikty w sytuacji, gdy trzeba się samemu wzmacniać gospodarczo i politycznie, i to w sposób przyspieszony. Tymczasem nie chodzi tylko o pozytywny dziś stosunek USA do układu Paryż - Berlin - Moskwa, co na podstawie powyższych konstatacji można uznać za rzecz bardzo prawdopodobną, lecz o amerykańską wizję miejsca środkowej Europy w Unii Europejskiej. Wizyta Baracka Obamy w Berlinie w trakcie prezydenckiej kampanii i pominięcie Warszawy powinny nam wiele mówić. Brak wsparcia amerykańskiego dla ratowania wypłukiwanej suwerenności Europy Środkowej może być w zmaganiach wewnątrzunijnych rozstrzygający. Polityka polska powinna więc bardzo szybko szukać wewnątrzeuropejskich koalicji, dzięki którym można by przetrwać okres dekoniunktury w stosunkach międzynarodowych. Możemy wszak mieć w niedługim czasie do czynienia ze znaczącym obniżeniem pozycji Polski w Europie i świecie. Zatem obrona suwerenności powinna przede wszystkim dotyczyć traktatu lizbońskiego i jego politycznych skutków. Prezydencja czeska, przy bardzo rozsądnej postawie Vaclawa Klausa, jest pewną szansą na zbliżenie się Polski do południowego sąsiada i nakreślenie strategii wspólnych działań defensywnych. Powtórzę to jeszcze raz: w tej chwili jest nam o wiele bardziej potrzebna solidarność środkowoeuropejska wewnątrz Unii niż z krajami posowieckimi. Ze względu na nasze współczesne (!) geopolityczne położenie między Bugiem a Odrą i Nysą Łużycką większe wyzwania (czytaj: uzależnienia) czekają nas z kierunku brukselskiego niż z kierunku wschodniego. Nie zapominajmy, że jesteśmy dziś członkiem Unii Europejskiej, a nie Wspólnoty Niepodległych Państw.
Oczywiście można zbagatelizować słowa Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego. Można uznać, że jego wpływ na amerykańską politykę jest żaden. Oby się jednak w niedługim czasie nie okazało, iż przeżywać będziemy potężne rozczarowanie, wciąż zapatrzeni we wschodnie projekty i coraz bardziej przerażeni naszą marginalizacją w Unii Europejskiej.
Światowy ład w wizji amerykańskich Demokratów
Dr hab. Mieczysław Ryba
Zbigniew Brzeziński, amerykański politolog, były doradca prezydenta Cartera, stara się pokazać główne wyzwania amerykańskiej polityki zagranicznej po objęciu prezydentury przez Baracka Obamę. Słowa Brzezińskiego mają wyjątkowe znaczenie z tego powodu, że od lat był on związany z Partią Demokratyczną i wywierał znaczny wpływ na kierunki amerykańskiej polityki lansowanej przez ten obóz polityczny. Dziś Brzeziński postuluje powrót USA do sposobu uprawiania polityki z czasów prezydentury Billa Clintona. Co to oznacza dla świata i dla Polski?
Wprawdzie Brzeziński gani Francję i Niemcy za ich postawę w czasie wojny irackiej, jednakże postuluje potrzebę ponownego porozumienia. Apeluje o "przywrócenie poczucia wspólnego celu Ameryki i Europy (a konkretniej USA i Unii Europejskiej), a także wspólnego celu państw zrzeszonych w NATO". Brzeziński nie pozostawia złudzeń, co rozumie pod pojęciem "Unia Europejska". Oczywiście nie chodzi mu o wejście w jakiś większy związek z państwami mniejszymi, lecz dużymi, tymi, które budują współczesne superpaństwo europejskie. Twierdzi wręcz, że brak pełnej instytucjonalnej jedności europejskiej może utrudniać Amerykanom rzeczowy dialog transatlantycki. Można by zatem wnioskować, iż Stany Zjednoczone pod nowym kierownictwem chciałyby po prostu wesprzeć ideę przyspieszonej europejskiej integracji, zmierzającej do ujednolicenia polityki zagranicznej. Dodajmy, że w tym właśnie kierunku idzie traktat lizboński. Wielu komentatorów zauważyło, że referendum irlandzkie m.in. dlatego zakończyło się klęską europejskich federalistów, iż w sposób nieformalny eurosceptyków wsparły środowiska amerykańskie. Jasna deklaracja poparcia przez Waszyngton budowy superpaństwa w Europie z pewnością ułatwiłaby unioentuzjastom realizację ich centralistycznych celów. Brzeziński w wywiadzie dla "Wprost" (4-11.01.2009) mówi, że na chwilę obecną chodzi o dialog między USA a trzema europejskimi państwami: Wielką Brytanią, Niemcami oraz Francją. O ile Wielka Brytania jest niejako tradycyjnie reprezentantką interesów Ameryki w Europie, o tyle Francja i Niemcy są głównymi motorami napędowymi europejskiej integracji, które miałyby przejąć realne rządy w nowo powstającym sfederowanym państwie europejskim. Brzeziński oczekuje, iż kraje te zbudują wspólną politykę zagraniczną. Czytamy: "Kiedy już europejska triada ustali wspólny cel strategiczny, Ameryka będzie słuchać. A Stany Zjednoczone wraz z Unią Europejską, wytwarzając w sumie ponad połowę światowego PKB, będą dysponowały olbrzymią potęgą, pozwalającą wpływać na sytuację na świecie w sposób odpowiedzialny i wywoływać pozytywne zmiany". Taki układ miałby być podstawą do "globalnego zarządzania". Oczywiście owo globalne zarządzanie wymaga uczestnictwa przynajmniej jeszcze kilku światowych graczy w Eurazji, tj. Chin, Rosji, Japonii oraz Indii.
Ważne słowa Brzezińskiego dotyczą Rosji: "Zaangażowanie Rosji leży w interesie Stanów Zjednoczonych i państw europejskich ze względu na ogólniejsze zamierzenia strategiczne, a także z powodu bardziej lokalnych, europejskich problemów geopolitycznych". Brzeziński krytykuje nierozliczenie się Rosjan z komunizmem, ale wyraża jednocześnie nadzieję, że ostatnie trudne rosyjskie doświadczenia gospodarcze mogą ten kraj wiele nauczyć.
Jeśli weźmiemy pod uwagę słowa Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego jako reprezentatywne dla środowiska otaczającego Baracka Obamę, to śmiało można potwierdzić, że szykuje nam się rzeczywisty powrót USA do polityki czasów Billa Clintona. W polityce tej w Eurazji naczelną rolę odgrywała Unia Europejska, a w Unii Niemcy. Polska wpisana była w kontekst polityki niemieckiej, którą Brzeziński w "Wielkiej szachownicy" określił mianem nowego projektu budowy Mitteleuropy. Stosunek amerykańskiego politologa do Rosji potwierdza moje niedawne analizy dotyczące perspektywy strategicznego porozumienia Waszyngtonu z Moskwą. Napięcia, jakie się pojawiły w ostatnim czasie (m.in. wojna w Gruzji), miałyby zostać usunięte, szczególnie w sytuacji, gdy Rosja odczuła dziś mocną zależność od gospodarki globalnej (kryzys finansowy), sterowanej w dużej mierze z Wall Street. Rosja jest potrzebna Stanom Zjednoczonym do bilansowania siły Chin oraz Iranu, tak więc ostatnie zmagania amerykańsko-rosyjskie można by raczej nazwać mianem określania granic wpływów, a nie strategicznego konfliktu dwóch mocarstw. W tej sytuacji polskie marzenia o wyrwaniu z rąk rosyjskich kolejnych państw posowieckich (Ukraina, Białoruś, Gruzja itp.) przy wykorzystaniu poparcia USA mogą się okazać wielką mrzonką. Opieranie zaś polskiej polityki zagranicznej na mrzonkach jest nie tylko stratą cennego czasu, lecz nieroztropnością narażającą nas na kolejne niepotrzebne konflikty w sytuacji, gdy trzeba się samemu wzmacniać gospodarczo i politycznie, i to w sposób przyspieszony. Tymczasem nie chodzi tylko o pozytywny dziś stosunek USA do układu Paryż - Berlin - Moskwa, co na podstawie powyższych konstatacji można uznać za rzecz bardzo prawdopodobną, lecz o amerykańską wizję miejsca środkowej Europy w Unii Europejskiej. Wizyta Baracka Obamy w Berlinie w trakcie prezydenckiej kampanii i pominięcie Warszawy powinny nam wiele mówić. Brak wsparcia amerykańskiego dla ratowania wypłukiwanej suwerenności Europy Środkowej może być w zmaganiach wewnątrzunijnych rozstrzygający. Polityka polska powinna więc bardzo szybko szukać wewnątrzeuropejskich koalicji, dzięki którym można by przetrwać okres dekoniunktury w stosunkach międzynarodowych. Możemy wszak mieć w niedługim czasie do czynienia ze znaczącym obniżeniem pozycji Polski w Europie i świecie. Zatem obrona suwerenności powinna przede wszystkim dotyczyć traktatu lizbońskiego i jego politycznych skutków. Prezydencja czeska, przy bardzo rozsądnej postawie Vaclawa Klausa, jest pewną szansą na zbliżenie się Polski do południowego sąsiada i nakreślenie strategii wspólnych działań defensywnych. Powtórzę to jeszcze raz: w tej chwili jest nam o wiele bardziej potrzebna solidarność środkowoeuropejska wewnątrz Unii niż z krajami posowieckimi. Ze względu na nasze współczesne (!) geopolityczne położenie między Bugiem a Odrą i Nysą Łużycką większe wyzwania (czytaj: uzależnienia) czekają nas z kierunku brukselskiego niż z kierunku wschodniego. Nie zapominajmy, że jesteśmy dziś członkiem Unii Europejskiej, a nie Wspólnoty Niepodległych Państw.
Oczywiście można zbagatelizować słowa Zbigniewa Brzezińskiego. Można uznać, że jego wpływ na amerykańską politykę jest żaden. Oby się jednak w niedługim czasie nie okazało, iż przeżywać będziemy potężne rozczarowanie, wciąż zapatrzeni we wschodnie projekty i coraz bardziej przerażeni naszą marginalizacją w Unii Europejskiej.
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