Insight
Why Is Pakistan More Legitimate than Israel?
image: http://jewishworldreview.com/cols2/prager.jpg
By Dennis Prager
Published April 28, 2015
Whenever I have received a call from a listener to my radio show challenging Israel’s legitimacy, I have asked these people if they ever called a radio show to challenge any other country’s legitimacy. In particular, I ask, have they ever questioned the legitimacy of Pakistan?
The answer, of course, is always “no.” In fact, no caller ever understood why I even mentioned Pakistan.
There are two reasons for this.
First, of all the 200-plus countries in the world, only Israel’s legitimacy is challenged. So mentioning any other country seems strange to a caller. Second, almost no one outside of India and Pakistan knows anything about the founding of Pakistan.
Only months before the U.N. adopted a proposal to partition Palestine into a Jewish and an Arab state in 1947, India was partitioned into a Muslim and a Hindu state. The Hindu state was, of course, India. And the Muslim state became known as Pakistan. It comprises 310,000 square miles, about 40,000 square miles larger than Texas.
In both cases, the declaration of an independent state resulted in violence. As soon as the newly established state of Israel was declared in May 1948, it was invaded by six Arab armies. And the partition of India led to a terrible violence between Muslims and Hindus.
According to the final report of the United Nations Conciliation Commission from Dec. 28, 1949, the 1948 war of Israel’s independence created 726,000 Arabs refugees. Many sources put the figure at about 200,000 less. A roughly equal number of Jewish refugees — approximately 700,000 — were created when they were forcibly expelled from the Arab countries where they had lived for countless generations. In addition, approximately 10,000 Arabs were killed in the fighting that ensued after the Arab invasion of Israel.
Now let’s turn to the creation of Pakistan. According to the United Nations High Commissioner on Refugees, the creation of Pakistan resulted in 14 million refugees — Hindus fleeing Pakistan and Muslims fleeing India. Assuming a 50-50 split, the creation of Pakistan produced about seven million Hindu refugees — at least 10 times the number of Arab refugees that resulted from the war surrounding Israel’s creation. And the Mideast war, it should be recalled, was started by the Arab nations surrounding Israel. Were it not for the Arab rejection of Israel’s creation (and existence within any borders) and the subsequent Arab invasion, there would have been no Arab refugees.
And regarding deaths, the highest estimate of Arab deaths during the 1948 war following the partition of Palestine is 10,000. The number of deaths that resulted from the creation of Pakistan is around one million.
In addition, according to the Indian government, at least 86,000 women were raped. Most historians believe the number to be far higher. The number of women raped when Israel was established is close to zero. From all evidence I could find, the highest estimate was 12.
Given the spectacularly larger number of refugees and deaths caused by the partition of India and the creation of Pakistan, why does no one ever question the legitimacy of Pakistan’s existence?
This question is particularly valid given another fact: Never before in history was there a Pakistan. It was a completely new nation. Moreover, its creation was made possible solely because of Muslim invasion. It was Muslims who invaded India, and killed about 60 million Hindus during the thousand-year Muslim rule of India. The area now known as Pakistan was Hindu until the Muslims invaded it in the year 711.
On the other and, modern Israel is the third Jewish state in the geographic area known as Palestine. The first was destroyed in 586 Before the Common Era., the second in the year 70. And there was never a non-Jewish sovereign state in Palestine.
So, given all these facts, why is Israel’s legitimacy challenged, while the legitimacy of Pakistan, a state that had never before existed and whose creation resulted in the largest mass migration in recorded history, is never challenged?
The answer is so obvious that only those who graduated from college, and especially from graduate school, need to be told: Israel is the one Jewish state in the world. So, while there are 49 Muslim-majority countries and 22 Arab states, much of the world questions or outright only rejects the right of the one Jewish state, the size of New Jersey, to exist.
If you are a member of the Presbyterian Church, send these facts to the leaders of the Presbyterian Church USA who voted to boycott Israel. If you are a student in Middle Eastern Studies — or for that matter, almost any other humanities department — and your professor is anti-Israel, ask your professor why Pakistan is legitimate and Israel isn’t.
They won’t have a good answer. Their opposition to Israel isn’t based on moral considerations.
The mystical monasteries of meteora
The Mystical Monasteries of Meteora |
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Meteora, Greece, is a special place. It is home to one of the world’s wonders – six magnificent monasteries still exist there, perching on huge pinnacles of stone as high as 1,300 feet (396 meters) from the ground. To reach these high places of worship, the believer had to climb, as there were no steps (added in the 20th century), using crude ladders, ropes and their own hands.
These strange but stunning buildings are part of history, and are centuries old. They are listed by UNESCO as world heritage sites, and for good reason. Enjoy and learn about the stunning monasteries of Meteora.
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| For over fifty millennia, say scientists, the caves of Meteoa, Greece, were inhabited. But over time, the inhabitants were raided, again and again, until the ‘hermit monks’ of the caves moved, in the 9th century, to monasteries they built high upon the cliffs. “Access to the monasteries was originally (and deliberately) difficult, requiring either long ladders lashed together or large nets used to haul up both goods and people. This required quite a leap of faith — the ropes were replaced, so the story goes, only ‘when the Lord let them break.’” –Wikipedia. |
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| A view of some of the monasteries.Far left: The Nunnery of Roussanou, perched on a cliff.Middle: Villa of Kastraki. To the right of the village is Doubiani Rock, and to its right is the Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapafsas. Upper right: Great Meteroa Monastery. Only 6 monasteries are still without damage, of those, only one – the Holy Monastery of St. Stephen is inhabited. Nuns reside there today. |
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| Meteora Monastery of the Holy Trinity, ‘Agia Triada’. This monastery was built in 1475, and has been remodeled and rebuilt many times since then. |
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| The Holy Monastery of Varlaam. This is the second largest monastery in Meteora, and dedicated to All Saints. |
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| The Nunnery of Roussanou. It was built during the early 1500s, and was not rennovated since 1560. |
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| St. Stephen’s Holy Monastery is the only one in Meteora not built on a high cliff. It was built upon what was known as the ‘plain’ during the 16th century, and decorated in 1545. It also has a recent story: During the second world war, the Nazis were convinced that this little church was hiding insurgents, they attacked and damaged the structure and it was abandoned until nuns came back to it and reconstructed. |
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| The Holy Monastery of Varlaam, who was a hermit that lived on this rock around 1350. He built a small church there. In 1548, two Greek brothers devoted the wealth of their rich family to building the current monastery we can see today. The stairs, however, were only added in 1923, breaking four centuries of relative isolation. |
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| The Holy Monastery of St. Nicholas Anapausas. |
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| Did the monks jump from one cliff to the other to keep in shape? |
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| Another amazing monastery perching on the high cliff in Meteora. |
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| Great Meteoron & Varlaam monasteries. |
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| Another angle of the ancient Monastery of St. Nicholas. |
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| The area of the Meteora Monasteries has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage Site. |
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| Today’s monks residing in the Great Meteroron Monastery use this mode of transportation to bypass all the stairs, not to mention the tourists! |
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| Late afternoon on the cliffs of Meteora. |
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| Hanging between heaven and earth – was this what they saw in their vision of the buildings to come? |
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| Meteora under the moon light. You can see the great stone pillars and some of the monasteries built there. The lights below belong to the town of Kalambaka. |
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| The silhouette of Meteora, seen from the village of Kastraki. |
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| Panoramic view of the Greek-Orthodox monasteries of Meteora. |
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| Another day comes down with mist and fog over the Meteora and the village of Kastraki. What a beautiful and special place |
The Grand Canyon of Arizona
The Grand Canyon of Arizona
Welcome to awesome Photos of the Grand Canyon.There is a Grand Canyon of Yellowstone which is nice, but no comparison to the beauty and Following, are real photos taken by Professionals that most visitors are unable to capture |
Pueblo-like dwellings over the Colorado River at Nankoweap Creek.
Horseshoe Bend
Canyon Walls as viewed from the Colorado River.
Grand Canyon Colors varies with the position of the Earth relative to the Sun.
Bright Angel Trail
Cheyava Falls
Rafting, but not on the Rapids!
Lover’s Leap!
Beaver Falls
View from Commanche Point.
Ribbon Falls
Hermits Rest
Colorado River
Muddy Water Rafting
Marble Canyon
Winter
Sky Walk
Havasu Falls
F5e Fighter Planes over the G. Canyon.
The Asiatic Role – Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
{ CALCUTTA, April9th, 1908 }
The Asiatic Role
The genius of the Hindu is not for pure action, but for thought
and aspiration realized in action, the spirit premeditating before
the body obeys the inward command. The life of the Hindu
is inward and his outward life aims only at reproducing the
motions of his spirit. This intimate relation of his thought and
his actions is the secret of his perpetual vitality. His outward
life, like that of other nations, is subject to growth and decay,
to periods of greatness and periods of decline, but while other
nations have a limit and a term, he has none. Whenever death
claims his portion, theHindu race takes refuge in the source of all
immortality, plunges itself into the fountain of spirit and comes
out renewed for a fresh term of existence. The elixir of national
life has been discovered by India alone. This immortality, this
great secret of life, she has treasured up for thousands of years,
until the world was fit to receive it. The time has now come for
her to impart it to the other nations, who are now on the verge of
decadence and death. The peoples of Europe have carried material
life to its farthest expression, the science of bodily existence
has been perfected, but they are suffering from diseases which
their science is powerless to cure. England with her practical
intelligence, France with her clear logical brain, Germany with
her speculative genius, Russia with her emotional force, America
with her commercial energy have done what they could for human
development, but each has reached the limit of her peculiar
capacity. Something is wanting which Europe cannot supply. It
is at this juncture that Asia has awakened because the world
needed her. Asia is the custodian of the world’s peace of mind,
the physician of the maladies which Europe generates. She is
commissioned to rise from time to time from her ages of selfcommunion,
self-sufficiency, self-absorption and rule the world
for a season so that the world may come and sit at her feet to
learn the secrets she alone has to give. When the restless spirit
of Europe has added a new phase of discovery to the evolution
of the science of material life, has regulated politics, rebased
society, remodelled law, rediscovered science, the spirit of Asia,
calm, contemplative, self-possessed, takes possession of Europe’s
discovery and corrects its exaggerations, its aberrations by the
intuition, the spiritual light she alone can turn upon the world.
When Greek and Roman had exhausted themselves, the Arab
went out from his desert to take up their unfinished task, revivify
the civilisation of the old world and impart the profounder
impulses of Asia to the pursuit of knowledge. Asia has always
initiated, Europe completed. The strength of Europe is in details,
the strength of Asia in synthesis. When Europe has perfected
the details of life or thought, she is unable to harmonize them
into a perfect symphony and she falls into intellectual heresies,
practical extravagances which contradict the facts of life, the
limits of human nature and the ultimate truths of existence. It
is therefore the office of Asia to take up the work of human
evolution when Europe comes to a standstill and loses itself in
a clash of vain speculations, barren experiments and helpless
struggles to escape from the consequences of her own mistakes.
Such a time has now come in the world’s history.
In former ages India was a sort of hermitage of thought and
peace apart from the world. Separated from the rest of humanity
by her peculiar geographical conformation, she worked out her
own problems and thought out the secrets of existence as in a
quiet ashram from which the noise of the world was shut out.
Her thoughts flashed out over Asia and created civilisations, her
sons were the bearers of light to the peoples; philosophies based
themselves on stray fragments of her infinite wisdom; sciences
arose from the waste of her intellectual production. When the
barrier was broken and nations began to surge through the Himalayan
gates, the peace of India departed. She passed through
centuries of struggle, of ferment in which the civilisations born
of her random thoughts returned to her developed and insistent,
seeking to impose themselves on the mighty mother of them
all. To her they were the reminiscences of her old intellectual
experiments laid aside and forgotten. She took them up, rethought
them in a new light and once more made them part
of herself. So she dealt with the Greek, so with the Scythian,
so with Islam, so now she will deal with the great brood of
her returning children, with Christianity, with Buddhism, with
European science and materialism, with the fresh speculations
born of the world’s renewed contact with the source of thought
in this ancient cradle of religion, science and philosophy. The
vast amount of new matter which she has to absorb, is unprecedented
in her history, but to her it is child’s play. Her
all-embracing intellect, her penetrating intuition, her invincible
originality are equal to greater tasks. The period of passivity
when she listened to the voices of the outside world is over. No
longer will she be content merely to receive and reproduce, even
to receive and improve. The genius of Japan lies in imitation and
improvement, that of India in origination. The contributions of
outside peoples she can only accept as rough material for her
immense creative faculty. It was the mission of England to bring
this rough material to India, but in the arrogance of her material
success she presumed to take upon herself the role of a teacher
and treated the Indian people partly as an infant to be instructed,
partly as a serf to be schooled to labour for its lords. The farce is
played out. England’s mission in India is over and it is time for
her to recognise the limit of the lease given to her. When it was
God’s will that she should possess India, the world was amazed
at the miraculous ease of the conquest and gave all the credit
to the unparalleled genius and virtues of the English people, a
fiction which England was not slow to encourage and on which
she has traded for over a century. The real truth is suggested
in the famous saying that England conquered India in a fit of
absence of mind, which is only another way of saying that she
did not conquer it at all. It was placed in her hands without her
realising what was being done or how it was being done. The
necessary conditions were created for her, her path made easy,
the instruments given into her hands. The men who worked for
her were of comparatively small intellectual stature and with few
exceptions did not make and could not have made any mark in
European history where no special Providence was at work to
supplement the deficiencies of the instruments. The subjugation
of India is explicable neither in the ability of the men whose
names figure as the protagonists nor in the superior genius of
the conquering nation nor in the weakness of the conquered
peoples. It is one of the standing miracles of history. In other
words, it was one of those cases in which a particular mission
was assigned to a people not otherwise superior to the rest of
the world and a special faustitas or decreed good fortune set
to watch over the fulfilment of the mission. Her mission once
over, the angel of the Lord who stood by England in her task and
removed opponents and difficulties with the waving of his hand,
will no longer shield her. She will stay so long as the destinies
of India need her and not a day longer, for it is not by her own
strength that she came or is still here, and it is not by her own
strength that she can remain. The resurgence of India is begun,
it will accomplish itself with her help, if she will, without it if
she does not, against it if she opposes.
VOLUME 6 and 7
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO
P 1020 Bande Mataram
Asiatic Democracy – Sri Aurobindo
Bande Mataram
{ CALCUTTA, March16th, 1908 }
Asiatic Democracy
Asia is not Europe and never will be Europe. The political ideals
of the West are not the mainspring of the political movements
in the East, and those who do not realise this great truth, are
mistaken; for they suppose that the history of Europe is a sure
and certain guide to India in her political development. A great
deal of the political history of Europe will be repeated in Asia,
no doubt; democracy has travelled from the East to the West
in the shape of Christianity, and after a long struggle with the
feudal instincts of the Germanic races has returned to Asia transformed
and in a new body. But when Asia takes back democracy
into herself she will first transmute it in her own temperament
and make it once more Asiatic. Christianity was an assertion
of human equality in the spirit, a great assertion of the unity
of the divine spirit in man, which did not seek to overthrow
the established systems of government and society but to inform
them with the spirit of human brotherhood and unity. It was
greatly hampered in this work by the fact that the European
races were in a state of transition from the old Aryan civilization
of Greece and Rome to one less advanced and enlightened. The
German nations were wedded to a military civilisation which
was wholly inconsistent with the ideals of Christianity, and the
new religion in their hands became a thing quite unrecognizable
to the Asiatic mind which had engendered it. When Mahomedanism
appeared, Christianity vanished out of Asia, because it
had lost its meaning. Mahomed tried to re-establish the Asiatic
gospel of human equality in the spirit. All men are equal in Islam,
whatever their social position or political power, nor is any man
debarred from the full development of his manhood by his birth
or low original station in life. All men are brothers in Islam
and the bond of religious unity overrides all other divisions and
differences. But Islam also was limited and imperfect, because it
confined the ideal of brotherhood and equality to the limits of
a single creed, and was farther deflected from its true path by
the rude and undeveloped races which it drew into its embrace.
Another revelation of the old truth is needed.
India from ancient times had received the gospel of Vedanta
which sought to establish the divine unity of man in spirit; but
in order to secure an ordered society in which she could develop
her spiritual insight and perfect her civilization, she had invented
the system of caste which by corruptions and departures from
caste ideals came to be an obstacle to the fulfilment in society of
the Vedantic ideal. From the time of Buddha to that of the saints
of Maharashtra every great religious awakening has sought to
restore the ancient meaning of Hinduism and reduce caste to
its original subordinate importance as a social convenience, to
exorcise the spirit of caste pride and restore that of brotherhood
and the eternal principles of love and justice in society. But the
feudal spirit had taken possession of India and the feudal spirit
is wedded to inequality and the pride of caste.
When the feudal system was broken in Europe by the rise
of the middle class, the ideals of Christianity began to emerge
once more to light, but by this time the Christian Church had
itself become feudalized, and the curious spectacle presents itself
of Christian ideals struggling to establish themselves by the
destruction of the very institution which had been created to
preserve Christianity. When the ideals of liberty, equality and
fraternity were declared at the time of the French Revolution
and mankind demanded that society should recognise them as
the foundation of its structure, they were associated with a fierce
revolt against the relics of feudalism and against the travesty of
the Christian religion which had become an integral part of that
feudalism. This was the weakness of European democracy and
the source of its failure. It took as its motive the rights of man
and not the dharma of humanity; it appealed to the selfishness of
the lower classes against the pride of the upper; it made hatred
and internecine war the permanent allies of Christian ideals and
wrought an inextricable confusion which is the modern malady
of Europe. It was in vain that the genius of Mazzini rediscovered
the heart of Christianity and sought to remodel European
ideas; the French Revolution had become the starting point of
European democracy and coloured the European mind. Now
that democracy has returned to Asia, its cradle and home, it
will be purged of its foreign elements and restored to its original
purity. The movements of the nineteenth century in India were
European movements, they were coloured with the hues of the
West. Instead of seeking for strength in the spirit, they adopted
the machinery and motives of Europe, the appeal to the rights of
humanity or the equality of social status and an impossible dead
level which Nature has always refused to allow. Mingled with
these false gospels was a strain of hatred and bitterness, which
showed itself in the condemnation of Brahminical priestcraft,
the hostility to Hinduism and the ignorant breaking away from
the hallowed traditions of the past. What was true and eternal
in that past was likened to what was false or transitory, and
the nation was in danger of losing its soul by an insensate
surrender to the aberrations of European materialism. Not in
this spirit was India intended to receive the mighty opportunity
which the impact of Europe gave to her. When the danger was
greatest, a number of great spirits were sent to stem the tide
flowing in from the West and recall her to her mission; for, if
she had gone astray the world would have gone astray with
her.
Her mission is to point back humanity to the true source
of human liberty, human equality, human brotherhood. When
man is free in spirit, all other freedom is at his command; for
the Free is the Lord who cannot be bound. When he is liberated
from delusion, he perceives the divine equality of the world
which fulfils itself through love and justice, and this perception
transfuses itself into the law of government and society. When
he has perceived this divine equality, he is brother to the whole
world, and in whatever position he is placed he serves all men as
his brothers by the law of love, by the law of justice. When this
perception becomes the basis of religion, of philosophy, of social
speculation and political aspiration, then will liberty, equality
and fraternity take their place in the structure of society and
the Satya Yuga return. This is the Asiatic reading of democracy
which India must rediscover for herself before she can give it
to the world. It is the dharma of every man to be free in soul,
bound to service not by compulsion but by love; to be equal
in spirit, apportioned his place in society by his capacity to
serve society, not by the interested selfishness of others; to be
in harmonious relations with his brother men, linked to them
by mutual love and service, not by shackles of servitude, or the
relations of the exploiter and the exploited, the eater and the
eaten. It has been said that democracy is based on the rights of
man; it has been replied that it should rather take its stand on
the duties of man; but both rights and duties are European ideas.
Dharma is the Indian conception in which rights and duties lose
the artificial antagonism created by a view of the world which
makes selfishness the root of action, and regain their deep and
eternal unity. Dharma is the basis of democracy which Asiamust
recognise, for in this lies the distinction between the soul of Asia
and the soul of Europe. Through Dharma the Asiatic evolution
fulfils itself; this is her secret.
VOLUME 6 and 7
THE COMPLETE WORKS OF SRI AUROBINDO
Bandemataram P 929
The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts
The world’s languages, in 7 maps and charts
By Rick Noack and Lazaro Gamio April 23 at 5:00 AM
These seven maps and charts, visualized by The Washington Post, will help you understand how diverse other parts of the world are in terms of languages.
1. Some continents have more languages than others
Not all continents are equally diverse in the number of spoken languages. Whereas Asia leads the statistics with 2,301 languages, Africa follows closely with 2,138.
There are about 1,300 languages in the Pacific, and 1,064 in South and North America. Europe, despite its many nation-states, is at the bottom of the pack with just 286.
2. These are the languages with the most native speakers
Chinese has more native speakers than any other language, followed by Hindi and Urdu, which have the same linguistic origins in northern India. English comes next with 527 million native speakers. Arabic is used by nearly 100 million more native speakers than Spanish.
The numbers are fascinating because they reflect the fact that two-thirds of the world’s population share only 12 native languages. Those numbers were recently published by the University of Düsseldorf’s Ulrich Ammon, who conducted a 15-year-long study.
His numbers are surprising, compared with the ones featured in the CIA’s Factbook. According to the CIA, Spanish is spoken by 4.85 percent of the world’s population and its use is even more widespread than English, which is spoken by 4.83 percent. However, the CIA numbers include only first native languages. Many people are bilingual, and whereas Spanish might be their first native language, English could be their second one. Ammon counts both first and second native language speakers.
3. This map shows the countries with the most and least diversity of languages
As our visualization of Greenberg’s diversity index shows, the United States is not as linguistically diverse as many other nations.
If you randomly select two people in Cameroon, for instance, there is a 97 percent likelihood that they will have different mother tongues. In the United States, there is only a 33 percent likelihood that this is going to happen. You can click on the various countries shown in the map above to find out how the United States compares with other countries.
4. Many popular languages are spoken in more than just one country
The reason why English, French and Spanish are among the world’s most widespread languages has its roots in the imperial past of the nations where they originate.
5. English is widely used as an official language
However, whether a country has English as its official language says little about how its citizens really communicate with one another. In some of the nations highlighted above, only a tiny minority learned English as a native language.
6. Nevertheless, most languages are spoken only by a handful of people. That’s why about half of the world’s languages will disappear by the end of the century
About 3 percent of the world’s population accounts for 96 percent of all languages spoken today. Out of all languages in the world, 2,000 have fewer than 1,000 native speakers.
Hence, according to UNESCO estimates, which we visualized in the map above, about half of the world’s spoken languages will disappear by the end of the century. You can click on the map to enlarge it.
Linguistic extinction will hit some countries and regions harder than others. In the United States, endangered languages are primarily located along the West coast, as well as in reservations of indigenous people in theMidwest.
Globally,the Amazon rain forest, sub-Saharan Africa, Oceania, Australia and Southeast Asia are about to lose the most languages.
7. This chart shows how many people learn a language all over the world
Whereas English lags behind in the number of native speakers, it is by far the world’s most commonly studied language. Overall, more people learn English than French, Spanish, Italian, Japanese, German and Chinese combined.
Some languages have only recently gained attention: The number of U.S. colleges that teach Chinese has risen by 110 percent between 1990 and 2013, making the language more accessible. During the same time, the number of offered Russian college courses decreased by 30 percent.
Some language skills could be more rewarding than others. If you are able to speak German, Americans could earn $128,000 extra throughout their career, according to MIT scientist Albert Saiz. At least financially, German is worth twice as much as French and nearly three times as much as Spanish, for instance.
Sun Om
—With best wishes
Attachments area
Preview attachment Sun Om.mp4
Sun Om.mp4
Sun Om
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With best wishes
Attachments area
Preview attachment Sun Om.mp4
Sun Om.mp4
The Mother on Aum
24th April is the day of the Mother’s final arrival at Pondicherry in 1920. It is celebrated in the Ashram as a Darshan day.
A darshan card will be distributed on this ocassion , here is an e-version of the same
– Putting Indian aeronautics on the international stage
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kitturd 