Tuesday, June 22, 2010

DAVID HARRIS at the Huffington Post:
I am not Jewish. Ideologically, I am left and by profession a journalist. Why am I not as anti-Israel as my colleagues? Because, as a non-Jew, I have the historical responsibility to fight against Jewish hatred and currently against the hatred for their historic homeland, Israel. To fight against anti-Semitism is not the duty of Jews; it is the duty of non-Jews.... As a non-Jew, journalist and lefty, I have a triple moral duty with Israel, because if Israel is destroyed, liberty, modernity and culture will be destroyed, too.

What's particularly striking is that, though relentlessly pilloried by their adversaries, Aznar and Rahola have remained steadfast over the years.
When Aznar took the reins of power in 1996, no one would have described Spain as close to Israel. In fact, fearful of jeopardizing its extensive commercial ties with the Arab world, Spain only established full diplomatic links with Jerusalem in 1986. Together with his intrepid foreign minister, Ana Palacio, Aznar moved closer to Israel. That policy shift was on display in our many get-togethers with him and in his remarks, in Washington, at the 2003 AJC Annual Meeting.

To be sure, there was no domestic political mileage for Aznar in this new posture. Zero. It wasn't going to score him any points with the electorate. And there certainly was no major political "lobby" in the country urging him on. Rather, he did it for a reason that the "realists" can never quite fathom - he believed it was the right thing to do.

The same with Rahola.
Read the resr.