Have you ever read a story where you felt such a kinship with one of the characters, such a relatable connection, that you felt as though they were so real, so familiar, that they’d jump right off the page and into your life? That’s happened to me multiple times with fictional stories, but just recently, it happened again with a story I read about someone we lost.

    A few weeks ago I volunteered with the 2,996 Project, a blogging initiative started a few years ago in an effort to keep the memories of those we lost on September 11th alive. Each year on September 11th, two thousand nine hundred and ninety six bloggers come together, one for each of the lives lost that day. Each blogger is assigned a different victim from that terrible day, whom they will write about on their blog to share the stories of the lives that were cut short in that act of terror.

    A friend of mine volunteered for the project last year, which inspired me to participate this year. But as I read about the life behind the name I was randomly assigned, that special kinship with characters in fictions read in years past took on a new dimension. This time, that special kinship was with someone real, someone whose mark was indelibly left on this world when they were so cruelly taken from us.

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The name I was assigned was that of Michael Craig Rothberg. The more I learned about him, the more his life, his personality, made me feel that I knew him, that he’d leap right out of what I was reading; that he’d come back. He feels like someone I know, someone from my family, someone who’d fit right in at my family’s dinner table as we talk, joke, and laugh.     It was that familiarity that, I think, caused me to delay writing this tribute until today. Michael’s life hits just a little too close to home, reminding me of what I very nearly lost that day.

    My Father was scheduled to fly on the plane that hit the Pentagon. But thanks to a fluke of family planning, he decided to skip the trip that would have killed him. Now, thinking about what to write of a man who seems so similar to my brothers, my Dad, brings all of that back up.

    Michael, born and raised in Sharon, Massachusetts, seems to have had a gift for finding amusement and joy in the most unlikely of places. I found a story about him in the New York Times, where they related a pet peeve of Michael’s about his letterhead at Cantor Fitzgerald, where he worked as the Director of Program Trading. He jokingly complained that his phone number was listed with a 1 prior to the area code. He reasoned, no adult sophisticated enough to call a bond-trading firm needed to be told to dial a 1 before the area code.

His quick wit, charm, and sense of humor were matched by his athleticism, compassion, and keen analytical mind. That analytical mind propelled him to McGill University in Montreal, where he earned both undergraduate and masters degrees in math and computer science. He soon won great respect on Wall Street with his first employer, Bear Stearns, for his exceptionally adept understanding of complex financial transactions, as well as his innovative approach to finding solutions to whatever stood in his way. He not only understood the technical side of his profession, the computer systems used for program training, but he also intimately understood the communication skills – the compassion – needed to relate to his clients.

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    Soon enough, his analytical creativity and human approach to trading propelled him to Kidder Peabody & Company, where he became a team leader. He became such an adept leader, that when he later became the Managing Director of Program Trading at Cantor Fitzgerald, his employees came with him. They weren’t just employees to him, though; he called them his colleagues.

    Everything I’ve read about Michael tells me that he was so much more than his job. His compassion propelled him to not only donate money, but to donate his time, efforts, and every resource at his disposal, to causes he deeply believed in. He wasn’t just a philanthropist; he invested his heart and soul in everything he believed in. He gave generously in every way he could to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute’s Jimmy Fund, the Multiple Sclerosis Foundation, and Mutual Funds Against Cancer. As Jamie Bolton, a good friend of his once said, “He was looking out for people.”

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He loved his family. He was a loving son, brother, grandson, cousin, and nephew. Whenever he heard a complaint, he tried to do something about it, something to help. It was Michael who gave his sister, Rhonda the encouragement and support to start her own business.     Michael reached the top through working hard and maintaining his compassion for everyone around him. He loved deeply, he gave generously, and he maintained his integrity.

    On September 11, 2001, Michael Rothberg was in his office on the 104th floor of the World Trade Center. His life was cut short by an act of cowardice and terror. The lives of his family and friends were forever altered. The world lost a truly remarkable human being, one whose life was a testament to kindness, generosity, and hard work.

    Michael’s family has set up a scholarship in his name for the students of his high school alma mater in Sharon, Massachusetts. Each May since his death in 2001, the scholarship has been awarded to students at Sharon High School who most exemplify Michael’s qualities of academic promise, ethical conduct, and service to community. I’d like to encourage all of you to make a donation to the scholarship, in Michael’s memory. You can learn more about the scholarship & make a donation at their website, MichaelRothbergScholarship.com.

    Just like those beloved characters in the novels I read as a child, I feel that he’s someone I know. But there’s so much more to it than that; I feel the reality of who he was, how he lived, and how he looked at life. He feels not only real, but familiar; he feels like a brother to me.

    Because of the events of that horrific day eight years ago, there’s an incongruous feeling, a feeling I’ve had that never had the chance to be confirmed by reality. That opportunity was taken, the opportunity to meet Michael, befriend him, know him. But I can remember him. We can all remember him, so we can keep his spirit alive as a friend, as a brother; a man whose story will never be forgotten by those who love him.

Click here to view the Michael C. Rothberg Photo Gallery

    I want to offer my sincerest gratitude to Michael’s parents, Iris & Jay Rothberg, and his sister Rhonda, for their support, encouragement, and assistance with preparing and editing this tribute. Your kindness and support has meant the world to me, and it has inspired me throughout the process of preparing this tribute. I’m not sure I could have done it without your help, your blessing, and your love. My thoughts, prayers, and love are with you today, and will be always.

My friend Abraham over at Occidental Soapbox has produced yet another brilliant, informative, concise, and essential video about the roots of radical Islam, the true intentions of its many violent branches, and the remarkable idiocy displayed in the west’s traditional approaches to negotiating with jihadists. This time around, Abraham is presenting us with a remarkable six-minute history of the Caliphate, the Muslim Brotherhood, and how it all relates to the conflict in Gaza. Miraculously he has managed to squeeze all this information into a six minute span. I highly recommend taking the time to check it out – if more people would dedicate just six minutes to learning about this, maybe we’d all have a better understanding of what it is we’re up against, what Israel is up against, and what we must do to better organize our efforts to eradicate extremism and reach true peace in the middle east.

As the war in Gaza rages on, it seems as if the antisemites of the world have been raging right along with it. From the talking heads on CNN who propagate false videos of fake atrocities, to politicians clamoring for the protection of a terrorist group, it seems everyone’s ganging up on Israel for daring to defend itself and its people. Who knew self defense was such a no-no. Apparently if you’re a Jew, you’re just supposed to sit there and take every ounce of abuse hurled at you.
I can’t believe how wrong our world has gotten. It’s amazing that in less than 100 years since the Holocaust, we’re repeating it, step for step. (We’re even back to arguing about Eugenics!) Antisemitism has become as rampant as it was in the 1930s. It’s commonplace, it’s the daily norm, and it’s wrapped up in so much politically correct leftist nonsense that sometimes it can even be hard to recognize for what it really is. But rest assured, antisemitism is still antisemitism, no matter how hard someone may try to disguise it. And it’s still wrong. I’m not even Jewish myself, but you don’t have to be Jewish to care about antisemitism, because it affects all of us, of every race, creed, color, nationality and faith.

A few weeks ago, my friend Joey sent me a wonderful mp3 of a speech given by Professor Anne Bayefsky, a human rights activist, Director of Touro College Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, a Professor in the Department of Political Science at York University in Toronto, and Senior Fellow at the Hudson Institute in New York. She’s also an expert on the United Nations. This particular speech was given at the request of the B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission of Australia. It contains remarkable, mind-opening, earth shattering, eye watering information about the true intent, purpose, and history of the United Nations that I feel every American, every citizen of the world, absolutely has to hear.
The oration itself is available here, but since not everyone has the time to listen to a nearly two-hour long speech, I want to condense the most important information here for your convenience. But honestly, if you have the time, please consider listening to the speech. Professor Bayefsky is a remarkable speaker with some very important things to say. If you click on the link above, simply click on “To hear the 2008 oration, please click here.” Then you can download the mp3 file and listen to it at your convenience. Trust me, it’s well worth it. Or if you would prefer to read the speech in its entirety, you can download it in pdf format here.

If you’d like to see my condensed list of the most important facts from Professor Bayefsky’s speech, please click “More” to continue reading this entry.

The Demons of Gaza
Only Hamas is to Blame for the War; Only the Palestinians Can Stop It
January 10, 2009
Ralph Peters
The New York Post

Israel hasn’t killed a single civilian in the Gaza Strip. Over a hundred civilians have died, and Israeli bombs or shells may have ended their lives.
But Israeli didn’t kill them.
Hamas did.
It’s time to smash the lies. The lies of Hamas. The UN lies. And the save-the-terrorists lies of the global media.
There is no moral equivalence between Hamas terrorists and Israeli soldiers.
There is no gray area. There is no point in negotiations.
Hamas is a Jew-killing machine. It exists to destroy Israel. What is there to negotiate? When Hamas can’t kill Jews, it’s perfectly willing to drive Palestinian civilians into the line of fire – old men, women and children. Hamas herds the innocent into “shelters,” then draws Israeli fire on them. And the headline-greedy media cheer them on.
Hamas isn’t fighting for political goals. “Brokered agreements” are purely means to an end. And the envisioned end is the complete destruction of Israel in the name of a terrorist god. Safe in hidden bunkers or in Damascus, the Hamas leadership is willing to watch an unlimited number of civilians and even street-level terrorists die.

Lives, too, are nothing but means to an end. And dead kids are the coins that keep the propaganda meter ticking.
All Hamas had to do to prevent Israel’s act of self-defense was to leave Israel unmolested by terror rockets. All Hamas needs to do now to stop this conflict and spare the Palestinian people it pretends to champion is to stop trying to kill Israelis and agree to let Israel exist in peace.
Hamas didn’t, and Hamas won’t.
Now Israel has to continue its attack, to wreak all the havoc it can on Hamas before a new American president starts meddling. If Israel stops now, Hamas can declare victory just for surviving – despite its crippling losses.
While it’s impossible to fully eliminate extremism, killing every terrorist leader hiding in a Gaza bunker is the only hope of achieving even a temporary, imperfect peace. The chance may not come again.
And don’t worry about “creating a power vacuum.” Let the Palestinians pick up their own pieces. Even anarchy in Gaza is better for Israel than Hamas. Israelis, Americans and Westerners overall share a tragic intellectual blind spot: We’re caught in yesterday’s model of terrorism, that of Arafat’s PLO, of the IRA, the Red Brigades or the Weather Underground. But, as brutal as those organizations could be, they never believed they were on a mission from God.
Yesteryear’s terrorists wanted to change the world. They were willing to shed blood and, in extreme cases, to give their own blood to their causes. But they didn’t seek death. They preferred to live to see their “better world.”
Now our civilization faces terrorists who regard death as a promotion. They believe that any action can be excused because they’re serving their god. And their core belief is that you and I, as stubborn unbelievers, deserve death.
Their grisly god knows no compromise. To give an inch is to betray their god’s trust entirely. Yet we – and even some Israelis – believe it’s possible to cut deals with them.
In search of peace, Israel handed Gaza to the Palestinians, a people who had never had a state of their own. As thanks, Israel received terror rockets.
And the Palestinian people got a gang war.
Peace is the last thing Hamas terrorists and gangsters want. Peace means the game is up. Peace means they’ve disappointed their god. Peace means no more excuses. They couldn’t bear peace for six months.
This is a war to the bitter end. And we’re afraid to admit what it’s about. It’s not about American sins or Israeli intransigence. It’s about a sickness in the soul of a civilization – of Middle-Eastern Islam – that can only be cured from within. Until Arabs or Iranians decide to cure themselves, we’ll
have to fight.
Instead, we want to talk. We convince ourselves, against all evidence, that our enemies really want to talk, too, that they just need “incentives” (the diplomat’s term for bribes). The apparent belief of our president-elect that it’s possible to negotiate with faith-fueled fanatics is so naive it’s
terrifying.
Yet, it’s understandable. Barack Obama’s entire career has been built on words, not deeds, on his power to persuade, not his power to deliver. But all the caucuses, debates, neighborhood meetings and backroom deal-making sessions in his past haven’t prepared him to “negotiate” with men whose single-minded goal is Israel’s destruction – and ours.
If Obama repeats the same “peace-process” folly as his predecessors, from Jimmy have-you-hugged-your-terrorist-today? Carter through Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, he’ll be devoured before he knows he’s been bitten.
How many administrations have to repeat the identical error of believing that, deep down inside, terrorists, gunmen and warlords really want peace every bit as much as we do? Israel’s enemies aren’t just looking to cut a sharp deal. They want to destroy Israel.
Which part of what they shout in our faces is so hard to understand? Israel’s foes have been preaching Jew-hatred for so long that even the “moderates” can’t turn back now.
And why does the global left hate Israel so? Why would they pull out the stops to rescue Hamas?
Because Israel exposed the lie that a suffering people can’t lift itself up through hard work, education and discipline. Israel didn’t need the help of a hundred condescending NGOs and their misery junkies.
Because the Holocaust is a permanent embarrassment to Europeans. They need to believe that Israelis are kosher Nazis.
Because, from the safety of cafes and campuses, it’s cool to call terrorists “freedom fighters.” It makes you feel less guilty when you hit up daddy (or the state) for money. I mean, dude, it’s not like you have to, like, live with them or anything, you know?
(The preceding sentence is not a direct quote from Caroline Kennedy.)
Because, above all, the most-destructive racists in the world today are mainstream leftists. Want the truth? The Left codes Israel as white and, therefore, inherently an oppressor. Israel is held to the highest standard of our civilization and our legal codes – and denied the right to self-defense.
But the Left tacitly believes that people with darker skins are inferior and can’t be expected to behave at a civilized level. Leftists expect terrorist movements or African dictators to behave horribly. It’s the post-modern, latte-sucking version of the “little brown brother” mentality.
The worst enemies of developing societies have been leftists who refuse to hold them to fundamental standards of governance and decency. But, then, the Left needs developing societies to fail to prove that the system’s hopelessly stacked against them.
A battered, impoverished, butchered people built a thriving Western democracy in an Eastern wasteland. Israel can never be forgiven for its success.
In this six-decade-old conflict that Israel’s intractable neighbors continue to force upon it, there not only are no good solutions, but, thanks to the zero-sum mentality of Islamist terrorists, there aren’t even any bad solutions – short of nuclear genocide – that would bring an enduring peace to the Middle East.
And even the elimination of Israel wouldn’t be enough. The terrorists would fight among themselves, while warring upon less-devout fellow Muslims.
All Israel can do is to fight for time and buy intervals of relative calm with the blood of its sons and daughters. By demanding premature cease-fires and insisting that we can find a diplomatic solution, we strengthen monsters and undercut our defenders.

And don’t believe the propaganda about this conflict rallying Gaza’s Palestinians behind Hamas. That’s more little-brown-brother condescension, assuming all Arabs are so stupid they don’t know who started this and who’s dragging it out at their expense.
Gaza’s people may not care much for Israelis, but they rue the day they cast their votes for Hamas. Hamas is killing them.

Ralph Peters is a retired U.S. Army officer and the author of “Looking For
Trouble.”

You have to see this clip of New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg being interviewed by a total leftist Hamas shill “reporter”! I’m no fan of Bloomberg, but I think he does a remarkable job of answering this woman’s laughably idiotic and obviously slanted questions.

Listening to people like that woman from CNN, it’s easy to see just how Holocausts get started. It’s slow, it’s meandering, but when you start hearing such drastic attempts to bend over backwards to paint a nation as evil, simply for defending itself and its people from outright terrorism, you’ve got to know you’re on the eve of something truly terrible and truly wrong. When is this nation going to wake up to the antisemitism that’s running rampant throughout the Left?
I’ll have more on that later, but for now, just think about it. And remember, the last Holocaust didn’t happen overnight. It’s so easy to forget that, looking back with full 20/20 hindsight. With all the grand moments from that period of time, it’s easy to overlook the slow, simmering boil that led to the first shots being fired. But never forget, before the people of a nation could exterminate an entire race, they had to grow accustomed to the idea. People don’t become monsters overnight. First school children were taught to count tanks instead of apples in their textbooks. Humor turned from harmless to rampantly antisemitic. Whispers in back alleys turned into questions posed by national figures on the biggest stages. The biggest waterfalls begin with a single drop of water, so do atrocities begin with the smallest of wrongs.

I remind myself of this with an issue of Life magazine that I happened to find in a junk shop. It was from 1939. The US hadn’t joined the war yet, we were still on the outside looking in. At the time, we didn’t know the truth of the concentration camps, the horrors of the war in Europe. In this magazine, there’s an entire article talking about how remarkably progressive and respectable Adolf Hitler and his Nazi party are. It’s an interview with Hitler and his minions, discussing such progressive ideas as feminism, healthcare, science, religion, and eugenics (if you’re not familiar with that, please, look it up). It’s wholly congratulatory, it even goes so far as to encourage the American people to respect this “great man.” It is a brilliant piece of propaganda, sprinkled with the tiniest hints of antisemitism. It speaks of racial purity, but only in the kindest of ways. On the eve of the bloodiest of all wars, even Life magazine was singing Hitler’s praises, calling him a progressive leader worthy of emulating. It was just the very beginning of an overall attempt to familiarize the American public with a monster. You don’t welcome a monster into your home when it’s full grown and menacing. But when it’s small, minute, and disguised by obscured naivety, you open your door and welcome it inside, all the while never noticing what it is you’re nurturing at your hearth. Until it’s too late, and you’re a nation that’s bred an entire generation ready, willing, and proud, to murder in the name of what’s right, what’s good, and what’s honorable.

There has been enough of our own history to teach us how to recognize these infantile monsters, if only we’d open our eyes to see them.

According to Ahmad Yousuf, a political advisor to the leader of the terrorist Islamic group Hamas, Barack Obama’s campaign held secret meetings with Hamas during the Presidential race. But Obama’s representatives made sure to let Hamas know to keep quiet about these meetings, for fear that the American people might not like this so much and it might harm his electoral prospects.
Hmm, ya think?!

Click “more” to check it out.