"Am I therefore become your enemy,because I TELL YOU THE TRUTH...?"
(Galatians 4:16)

Rivlin:"World witnessed Hitler's Return"

A day after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's vicious anti-Israel speech at the UN racism conference in Geneva, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin warned of the dangers he posed in a letter to world parliamentarians, calling Ahmadinejad the second Adolph Hitler."This morning, in contrast to Remembrance Days of past years, we, the citizens of Israel, Jews all around the world and every man of conscience faced a new reality that we believed would never reoccur. A reality we had thought was no longer possible in a world that had experienced the horrors of the Second World War," read the letter."73 years after the Berlin Olympics, yesterday the world witnessed the return of Adolf Hitler," it continued."This time he has a beard and speaks Persian. But the words are the same words and the aspirations are the same aspirations and the determination to find the weapons to achieve those aspirations is the same menacing determination. Unfortunately, just as at that shameful Olympic event, the world has again given him a platform."He commended the delegates who staged a walk-out during Ahmadinejad's speech, but also criticized the response of UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon as well as the Swiss president's meeting with the Iranian president "Yesterday, in Geneva, we saw how representatives of the worlds leading democracies stood up and stormed out of the UN Durban II Conference hall in response to the incendiary words of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad," he said. "No doubt they recalled the devastation caused to their countries when the world disregarded the first Hitler."But we also saw how hundreds of representatives of other countries nodded in agreement and even cheered the words of the Iranian president."We saw how the Secretary General of the United Nations - the organization that was established in order to ensure that there would never be a second Hitler - remained in his chair and later, softly and hesitantly condemned the appalling incitement. We also saw the honour bestowed on Hitler's successor when he was received by the president of Switzerland."Rivlin went on to say that the meeting reminded many Jews of the Swiss neutrality of the 1940s."However, dear colleagues, we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of diplomacy," continued the letter. "Today we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of neutrality. Today we cannot allow ourselves the luxury of diplomatic protocol."If there is one lesson to be learned from the destruction and devastation the first Hitler brought to the world, it is to be found in the realization that anyone who remains silent, anyone who ignores evil, anyone who deals with the devil-he too in the final analysis pays the price," said the Knesset speaker.Rivlin called on his colleagues from around the world, not to remain silent and "above all not to think for one moment that Ahmadinejad is not a threat to you too."He urges them to "initiate action in your parliament that will convey a clear message to the whole world that we have learned the lessons of the past and that 2009 will not be a repetition of 1939."
As in the days of Noah...