Of Public Record

“It’s a lack of appreciation of how Israeli discourse works.  It’s your average Jewish Friday night family meal, taken to the hundredth power.”

Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Ron Dermer, explaining the nature of differences between the U.S. and Israel, which some media have characterized as a rift between the two nations  

 

“Count [the Jews] one by one and kill them to the very last one… turn their food to poison and make the air they breathe blazing hot.”

Entreaty to Allah by Sheikh Abd Al-Barr Al-Rawdhi in a sermon at Al-Rahma Mosque in San Donà di Piave, Italy.  The Italian Ministry of the Interior later announced that it was expelling the sheikh for “seriously disturbing the peace”

 

“We need peace with the Jewish people, good relations, not war”

Raghda Hejazi, a Gazan mother of five, in a refreshingly realistic, if atypical, comment to a reporter

 

“The only thing we gained is destruction.”

Fouad Harara, a Gazan laborer, in another realistic comment

 

Jews rejected child sacrifice 3,500 years ago. Now it’s Hamas’ turn,”

Headline of an advertisement featuring the words of Nobel Prize winner Elie Wiesel, which appeared in the New York Times and other papers but which The London Times refused to run.   The reason given was: “the opinion being expressed is too strong and too forcefully made and will cause concern amongst a significant number of Times readers”

 

“It is one organization with two wings or two departments.”

Mousa Abu Marzook, senior Hamas political leader, offering unconvincing “clarification” about  why his declared willingness to negotiate with Israel as part of a Palestinian “unity government” will prevent Hamas’ military arm from continuing to attack Israelis

 

“Maybe it’s not 1939, but it may be 1934.”

Historian Deborah Lipstadt, about the explosion of anti-Semitism in parts of Europe

 

“The virulent reaction around the world to Israel’s latest incursion into Gaza is making rethink that argument.”

Forward editor Jane Eisner, referring to her long-held assumption that global anti-Zionism isn’t necessarily anti-Semitism

 

“The Arabs were not very nice [at Israel’s founding] and it led to problems.”

Filmmaker Woody Allen, offering a brief and understated history lesson after expressing his pain at the “tragic and terrible” situation in Gaza

 

“Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, Wolf, you have to be fair. You can’t end that – I must end that because you asked me and I want to answer.”

Hamas spokesman Osama Hamdan, to CNN correspondent Wolf Blitzer, who had asked Mr. Hamdan if he was prepared to retract his public claim that Jews use Christian blood for matzos.   Mr. Hamdan failed to do so, instead offering the less-than-satisfying defense that “This was said by everyone. I was saying they are part of what was being said”

 

“At this point, if Netanyahu appeared on TV with a necklace made from the teeth of Palestinian children, would anybody be surprised?”

“Ever wonder what would happen if the KKK had F-16s and access to a surplus population of minorities? See #Israel and #Gaza.”

“[Journalist] Jeffrey Goldberg’s story should have ended at the pointy end of a shiv.”

Tweets by Virginia Tech associate professor of English Steven Salaita, who had been offered a job by the University of Illinois, which subsequently withdrew its offer.

 

“unflinching support”

Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, characterizing the United States’ stance in a recent U.N. General Assembly session, offering thanks to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry

 

“I don’t see any attention from the rest of the world. In one day, they killed more than two thousand Yazidi in Sinjar, and the whole world says, ‘Save Gaza, save Gaza!’”

A member of the minority Kurdish ethnic/religious community Yazidi in Iraq, lamenting murders committed by ISIS, the “Islamic State.”  The group recently hoisted some of its victims severed heads on poles 

Spread the love