Villaraigosa could have told them that it was his prerogative to take sides, and that any decent person of whatever persuasion would support Israel in this conflict. Instead he chose to play the dhimmi and kowtow. From AP, with thanks to Dave Washburn:
Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa has apologized to Muslim leaders who accused him of taking Israel's side in the violence in Lebanon by going to a pro-Israel rally and ignoring their invitations to interfaith peace vigils.Villaraigosa met with 10 Muslim leaders Sunday and explained that a mix-up by his staff had prevented him from seeing their invitations, said his spokeswoman, Janelle Erickson.
"The mayor did apologize that the staff didn't place the meeting on his schedule sooner," said Erickson, describing Sunday's hour-long discussion as "open and friendly."
Villaraigosa called the meeting after the Muslim leaders held a news conference Friday accusing him of not representing all groups touched by the conflict.
They noted that he attended a July 23 rally by the Jewish Federation of Greater Los Angeles, at which he condemned Hezbollah guerrilla rocket attacks on Israel, but failed to respond to repeated calls and e-mail invitations to interfaith vigils for people killed on both sides in Lebanon....
The mayor pledged to visit mosques and attend events in the city's Islamic communities, and assigned one of his senior advisors as liaison to Muslim groups.
He should have stuck to his guns. He should have declared that Hezbollah is a menace, that he supported entirely Israel's careful campaign to defend itself (what would any other country in the world do, with 3,000 missiles having rained down on it, and another 10,000 or so hidden and ready to go?), and that he had no obligation to change his views for them.
Do not give them an inch. Don't even pretend to.
I hate the word 'should' but someone 'should' tell this mayor about those 3,000 missiles...
I hope that Lebanese Christians living in the LA area invite, in a public way and to a public forum, an event for the mayor to attend that discusses Christian suffering at the hands of Hizbollah. If not, the Muslims will present themselves as the sole "other" voice (not Israeli) in matters in the Middle East. They, of course, will be aided by useful idiots of the American sort.
'Villain' Raigosa strikes again!
Islam is a community. If you attack Muslims in Lebanon, you attack all Muslims everywhere, who will protest, riot and generally make a huge scene (or kill some Jews). Of course they will demand that everyone must rush to the defense of oppressed Muslims everywhere, even if the Muslims are the aggressors and troublemakers.
The mayor made the mistake of having an opinion that contradicted Islam. Modern Western thinking dictates that everything is perfectly equal, nobody is more guilty or innocent than someone else, and the Muslims just reminded the mayor of this fact, as opposed to screaming "you will take part in our interfaith peace efforts or we will decapitate you and rape your wife."
I said that according to Western thinking, everything and everyone is equal, but that isn't strictly true. Some people, such as Muslims, are more equal than others.
I guess that fact that hezbollah killed 241 Marines in 1983 means that every thing is equal also.
Maybe the mayor was practicing taquiya on these muslims.
Just two comments this article brings to mind:
With regard to "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof", is there any way to see to it that islam is not classified as a religion and is classified instead as a cult? In this way Jihadists could no longer use the protections of the Constitution against America.
Second, it should really bother Jews and Christians that islam calls itsef an Abrahamic faith. The very 'seeds' sown by islam (terrorism) make it clear muslisms are not worshiping the same deity as Jews and Christians, rather are usurping the the name of that god of Israel for their own bloodthirsty uses.
If Americans saw the issue in that way they would not have to apologize for taking Israels side when Isreals is right!
Doesn't anyone have any guts anymore?
Aaarrrgggghhh!
I agree with you Carolyn2. He could have just said it was terrible that innocents died and left it at that. And he could have even said they wouldn't have died if the muslims/terrorists didn't hide among them. You really can't sit in the middle if there is a clear right and wrong issue. And this one is.
Contratempts opinions posted here, the opinions I'm hearing from Christian Lebanese is anti Israel and Pro Hizballah.. a testimony to the effects of dhimmitude, the Stockholm Syndrome, insipid antisemitism in Christianity..and also of that farcial and disastrous thing called Arab identity..
This thing called Arab and Arabness is something that should be addressed loudly and honestly.. recall that Michel Aflaq, a Christian Lebanese, helped create the Ba'ath party with a Muslim.. Aflaq identified himself as an Arab.. and the only reason these people identify as Arab is because it is their mother tongue, and the only reason it is their mother tongue is because their ancestors were slaughter, raped, intimidated and converted under pressure of onerous Jizyah.
True Arabs are a minority, found mostly in Arabia, Jordan, Iraq (thanks to the slaughter of Persians and Christians), but the rest of the populations that misidentify themselves as Arabs are actually Circassian, Serb, Egyptian (Copt) Gauls (Gallatians), Macedonians, Greeks, even Persian..but not Arab, Arab only by virtue of conquest (ethnic cleansing), language and loss of identity.
Hugh "Do not give them an inch. Don't even pretend to."
And put them under surveillance -immediately, if not sooner ..
Actually, Nariz, Aflaq was from Damascus, not Lebanon.
I've also heard from Christian Lebanese a gamut og Dhimmi-esque opinions, including Holocaust denial. O can't help but note that anti-HEzb Lebanese Christians have to tread cautiously. This means that their community is riddled with pro-Hezb beliefs and sympathies--whether Stockholm syndrome or other is not for me to judge.
As for interfaith peace vigils, while I do not hold a "Christian Zionist" theology, I think Israel is in the right in this one. Hezbollah has clearly dragged the whole Lebanese nation into a war by firing the first shots, regardless of what the Lebanese government says. Given the attacks on the Marines back in the Reagan years, when we foolishly thought we could bring peace to a state determined to have a civil war, I'm of the opinion that Hezb sympathizers in the USA need to be watched and possibly deported.
So supporting a U.N. Democratic Nation
defending itself from a Terrorist group hiding in a border State to fire rockets at Civilians is offensive to Muslims in L.A. and the Mayor is fored to publically declare his stance and be neutral.
The Media here is so wacked it's a farce , Hezbollah fires at civilians and it called
an attack on Israel, IDF bombs those rocket launcher surrounded by human shields and it's reported as a "Muslim" massacre to incte more hatred for the Jews.
ANTONIO VILLARAIGOSA, who in his college days was chairman of the UCLA MEChA chapter . Villaraigosa has refused to renounce his membership in the MEChA, and has even said he is proud to have been part of the group. So in my opinion....VILLARAIGOSA should also be watched carefully.
MEChA is an acronym for "Movimiento Estudiantíl Chicano de Aztlán"--Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan. The goal of Aztlan is the secession of the Southwest U.S.A., which it calls Aztlan. The MEChA Constitution clearly calls for "the struggle for the self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlán". Another key document, "El Plan de Aztlan", states that
"Aztlan belongs to those who plant the seeds, water the fields, and gather the crops and not to the foreign Europeans. We do not recognize capricious frontiers on the bronze continent.... We declare the independence of our mestizo nation...Nationalism as the key to organization transcends all religious, political, class, and economic factions or boundaries. Nationalism is the common denominator that all members of La Raza agree upon."
According to Miguel Perez, mechista of Cal State Northridge, "The ultimate ideology is the liberation of Aztlan.... Non-Chicanos would have to be expelled.... opposition groups would have to be quashed because you have to keep the power." "National revolution" was the theme for the 1997 MEChA conference, which called for becoming "a nation within a nation with a national plan of action as new soldiers in our struggle for national independence and an emerging XICANO nation."
Simply judging from its own documents and statements, MEChA is a racist, anti-American separatist hate group, and actually shares much in common with such groups as Aryan Nations and the White Aryan Resistance, another California-based organization.