Reds get united

First there was the Red Cross, then the Red Crescent, then the Red Star of David.  These symbols are meant to unite people to bring relief to them, but due to political reasons and various countries hating each other, it means you'll never see a Red Star of David in Iran.

But help is on the way, international relief is working on a red diamond.

The rather brilliant Pickled Politics takes up the story and provides some great background on it. Rohin writes:

It’s a reasonably well-known fact that Muslim countries have not been keen on letting little red crosses drive around their land, committing the heinous act of helping people in need. Still only a whippersnapper, I was outraged by this. I thought some firebrand Muslim despot must’ve made a song and dance in the 80s about the cross in his land and made the Red Cross change their logo. I was a bit hasty in my judgement.

Comments

[Lior]

Why is Rohin saying that he was hasty in his judgement that some firebrand Moslem despot must have made a song and a dance in the 1980s? Take it back a couple of more decades and you have ample evidence that Moslem states could be as intransigent then as they are now.

To be fair, it is utterly reasonable to want and to have the comfort of one's cultural context and easily recognizable symbols employed when on the battle field. There is surely nothing wrong in the Red Cross or the Red Crescent when used by non-combattant, unarmed civilians whose only presence is to save life. But deliberately to prevent another country's or another religion's symbol to fly next to yours in that most altruistic of objectives? And to perpetuate, out of simple, small-minded, petty malice that political ban for over fifty years? Those are indeed the hallmarks of the firebrand and the despot.

Leslie, you talk about "various countries hating each other". Which countries would those be? Do you mean the seven Arab nations that have sought consistently and purposefully to wipe Israel off the map? Israel, on the other hand, has sought consistently and purposefully to become affiliated to the International Red Cross and Crescent organization for over fifty years. And guess what? She is still only a second-class member, unable to use her own symbol, the Magen David, as freely as the others. It is Israel that has compromised.

The good that will come out of this is perhaps the only solace. What we see here at play is the greatest evil that has ever staulked humanity. Those who would put blind ideology and the absolutism of their chosen creeds and tenets of belief above the needs of their fellow men. All firebrands and despots have done so, eliminating those who did not fit - or could not be bullied and persecuted - into whatever artificial creed it was that they had decided should be the destiny of humankind. History is littered with them and their victims.

What no-one will see in this rather sad event, however, is Jewish ethics shining like a beacon in the night of prejudice and hidebound thought: a self-effacing compromise with those who hate us for the greater good of all.

[Hindy]

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) - About Louis Kestenbaum - A teenage girl has filed a $50 million lawsuit against a New York billionaire, saying he sexually abused her when she was 14.

Louis Kestenbaum”s attorney says the allegations are false and motivated by money. Kestenbaum is also the CEO of Fortis properties and the ODA a goverment funded organisation in the williamsburg section of Brooklyn NY

The girl, now 17, claims Louis Kestenbaum invited her to his Florida mansion in 2005 to perform a massage for $300. The lawsuit, filed in federal court, claims he demanded she remove her clothes, then sexually assaulted her.

The girl, her father and stepmother are seeking more than $50 million.

I just want to add that this louis kestenbaum is the father of JOEL KESTENBAUM

[Yocheved]

A Sordid Lawsuit Shakes the Satmar Chasidic world .

Brooklyn N.Y. Lezer ( Louis ) Kestenbaum chairman of the ODA in Williamsburg Brooklyn NY resigned from the ODA soon after settling a lawsuit filed in May in U.S. District Court for the District of Florida for an undisclosed sum alleging he had a sexual relationship with a minor, Joel Kestnbaum the son of Louis kestenbaum will become chairman of the ODA.