Chinese human rights lawyer – family flees China

Geng He, the wife and children of human rights lawyer Gao Zhisheng, who disappeared one month ago, probably at the hands of Chinese security thugs, have fled to the United States, AP reports.

Lots more on this story at Radio Free Asia.

Geng said her daughter, 15, and son, 5, had suffered “great hardship” in China from living under virtual house arrest in their Beijing home.

““I left China because my family had been under tight surveillance for a long time. We experienced—in our careers and daily life—great hardship and difficulty,” Geng told RFA’s Mandarin service in her first interview since arriving in the United States on March 11 to seek asylum.

““My daughter was unable to attend school. Because she was unable to attend school, she tried to commit suicide several times,” Geng said. “I had no place to turn. So I fled with my children.”“

…

““We walked day and night. It was extremely hard. I did not even know the names of some of the towns we passed through.”

““It was extraordinarily difficult to get us out of China. The friends who helped us escape took enormous pains, some even risking their own lives,” Geng said.”

U Win Tin celebrates birthday as a free man…

…for the first time in 20 years, according to Democratic Voice of  Burma.

“Recently released National League for Democracy leader Win Tin is celebrating his birthday today for the first time as a free man in 20 years.

Win Tin turns 79 today, and will share his birthday with imprisoned NLD vice-chairman Tin Oo, who is 82, and 88 generation student leader Mya Aye, who is 43.

Win Tin said he has no plans to celebrate his birthday with a proper ceremony but hopes to mark it with a small dinner party.

"Be not afraid as it is the most important thing,” said Win Tin. “Be not afraid of the army, the government, prison, court, police and the like.

“Be not afraid of anyone. As Daw Suu said, ‘be afraid with your eyes open’. I also want to preach this,” said Win Tin.”

It is very good news that Win Tin has been released – but there are still many more like him in Burma’s prisons.

Anne Bayefsky on Obama and Durban II

Anne Bayefsky is always must-reading. Always. Here, she writes at Pajamas Media on the lamentable Navi Pillay and the movement to whitewash the bizarre and loathsome conference known as Durban I, for the sake of getting the US to attend the sequel, Durban II. Pillay is runs something called the UN Human Rights Commission, which whatever it may be and whatever it may concern itself with, has nothing to do with actual human rights. The UNHRC is nothing other than a forum for the expression and facilitation of anti-Semitism. Ms. Bayefsky works tirelessly at EyeontheUN.org and the Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust at Touro College to fight anti-Semitism. She is equal to the task of taking down the Navi Pillays of the world, but it’s important to support her and the other prominent people like her.

The column at Pajamas Media includes an unofficial transcript of a phone conference between a US State Department officer and a group of NGOs about Durban and the UNHRC. It’s appalling but not surprising that the State Department officer suggests that the US decision to boycott Durban II is not set in stone.

History’s oldest hatred

At the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby has a column on history’s oldest hatred – anti-Semitism.

“Many Jews are no saints, but the paranoid frenzy that is anti-Semitism is not explained by what Jews do, but by what they are. They are the object of anti-Semitism, not its cause. That is why the haters’ rationales can be so wildly inconsistent and their agendas so contradictory. What do those who vilify Jews as greedy bankers have in common with those who revile them as fiendish Bolsheviks? Nothing, save an irrational obsession with Jews.”

Riad Seif is dying in a Syrian prison…

While the Obama administration makes noises about some sort of rapprochement with the Assad government. The LA Times reports that Mr. Seif is on his deathbed. He is suffering from cancer and has been in prison for a year for attending a meeting of pro-democracy groups.

Instead of being received in polite society, Assad should be stood up against a wall.

“Seif is the most respected member of Syria’s dwindling secular, democratic opposition to the iron-fisted rule of Assad and his Alawite clan. As the Obama administration prepares to resume diplomatic engagement with Damascus, Seif’s plight is a poignant reminder of the abysmal state of human rights in Syria. His biography illustrates why it would be a mistake for Washington to sweep human rights under the rug.”

Go and read that column, learn about Seif’s extraordinary courage, and about the treatment he received at the hands of the thug Assad. Shame on Obama if he thinks he can turn Assad into something less than a monster.

… And in Belgium: 3 Jewish youths attacked

YNet News has the story.

"Belgium is one of the more problematic countries when it comes to anti-Israel sentiment, which peaked during the Gaza offensive," Hermon said. "There are more anti-Semitic incidents in Belgium than in any other western European country."

“The Jewish Agency official attributed the rise in Belgian anti-Semitism to a "joint effort on the part of the Muslim community, the radical Left and the liberal movements in the country, who have joined the anti-Israel protests following the Gaza offensive."

Meanwhile in Sweden…

If there is a solution to the problem of anti-Semitism it is not going to be found  in Sweden.

Bringing Jews and Muslims together

Marc Schneier has a column at the JPost on efforts to improve relations between Jews and Muslims, led by people of each faith.

“Islamic leaders have an obligation to help prevent the toxic spreading of anti-Semitism among the Muslim masses. More leaders must follow in the footsteps of the courageous Dr. Muzammil Siddiqi, president of the Fiqh Council of North America, the highest body of Islamic jurisprudence in North America, who has unequivocally denounced anti-Semitism as against the teachings of Islam. In the same spirit, I believe that more Jewish leaders must speak out against Islamophobia, making clear that it is wrong to demonize an entire religion because of the hateful actions of a relative few.”

And…

“There are already a number of steps in the right direction. The Union of Reform Judaism has a "Children of Abraham" Web site designed to foster Muslim-Jewish dialogue; rabbis and imams are preaching to their congregations, urging communication and understanding; and the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding "twinned" 50 mosques and 50 synagogues in the United States and Canada this past November and this coming fall plans to expand the effort to Europe.”

Alarming news from Geneva

This is very disturbing. The UN “Human Rights” Commission is known to be a hotbed of anti-Semitism, essentially run by Islamist thugs for the sole purpose of denigrating and attacking Israel. But the Financial Post (Toronto) reports that at a meeting chaired by Canada, Canada’s top diplomat at the UN in Geneva cut off a speech by an accredited speaker as he tried to give testimony about the shameful, sickening anti-Semitism found in so many books published in Islamic countries. This action is shocking and deplorable, and one must hope that the Canadian diplomat involved will receive new instructions that will prevent him from shaming his country in this way in the future. Better still, Canada and all civilized countries should withdraw from this repulsive outfit and let the various thugs who remain talk to each other.

“The action by Ambassador Marius Grinius took place in the UN’s Human Rights Council, where Muslim and Arab countries regularly deliver harangues against the "Zionist Entity" — a term many of them use to describe Israel.

“He said David Littman, delivering a joint statement for the Association for World Education and the World Union for Progressive Judaism, had been "off topic."

“The chamber was debating a series of human rights reports.

“Mr. Littman says his bid to call for a "universal condemnation" of defamations of Judaism was appropriate because a report dealing with freedom of expression and hate speech had been at the top of the agenda list.”

Shame on  Grinius.

The war against the Antisemites

Michael Ledeen has an interesting column on the Book of Esther. I particularly liked this bit:

“It reminds me of one of Golda Meir’s bons mots.  She was once asked how Israel managed to defeat enemies who vastly outnumbered the Jews.  “There are two ways,” she replied.  “There’s the natural way, and the miraculous way.  The natural way is that God sends a miracle and we win.  The miraculous way is that we win by ourselves.”  Esther’s story  therefore recounts a miracle.”