Pope Francis castigates Europe in speech on solidarity | The Guardian |

Europe is struggling to live up to the vision of its founders, Pope Francis has said in a powerful speech that asked: “What has happened to you, the Europe of humanism, the champion of human rights, democracy and freedom?”

Speaking as he became the first pope to accept the prestigious Charlemagne prize for his work on behalf of European solidarity, the pontiff called for Europe to reclaim the principles that had been established after the second world war, above all by embracing integration and revamping its economic model to “benefit ordinary people and society as a whole”.

His remarks reflected a concern that Europe is coming apart at the seams: from the unwillingness by some countries to deal with the refugee crisis, to the rise in populist and xenophobic political parties, to economic and immigration concerns fuelling the `leave’ campaign ahead of next month’s referendum in the UK.

Francis is the first Argentinean and the fourth non-European to win the prize, formally known as the International Charlemagne prize of Aachen. Past recipients include Angela Merkel, Bill Clinton, Roman Herzog, Henry Kissinger and George C Marshall. In 2004, Pope John Paul II was awarded an “extraordinary edition of the prize”, but not the award itself. The Charlemagne prize was founded in 1949 by Kurt Pfeiffer to award those who made the most valuable contribution to “west European understanding”.

The prize has traditionally been presented in the German city of Aachen, which was liberated from the Nazis by allied forces in 1944, but Francis accepted his award at a ceremony in Rome.

The award committee highlighted a speech by Francis to the European parliament in 2014 in which he compared Europe to an old woman who was “no longer fertile and vibrant”. The committee said his words had helped orient millions of Europeans to the values at the core of the EU, including respect for human dignity and civil liberties.

On Friday, Francis repeated his somewhat harsh assessment of Europe, and did not seek to balance it out with flowery language or examples of where Europeans were succeeding. Instead, he hailed the previous generation, who had laid the “foundations for a bastion of peace, an edifice made up of states united not by force but by free commitment to the common good”.

Equally a brave and powerful statement in Israel about today’s world …

IDF general in bombshell speech: Israel today shows signs of 1930s Germany | JPost |

Maj. Gen. Yair Golan made the comments during a Holocaust Remembrance Day address at Tel Yitzhak.

“It’s scary to see horrifying developments that took place in Europe begin to unfold here,” the officer said.

“The Holocaust should bring us to ponder our public lives and, furthermore, it must lead anyone who is capable of taking public responsibility to do so,” Golan said. “Because if there is one thing that is scary in remembering the Holocaust, it is noticing horrific processes which developed in Europe – particularly in Germany – 70, 80, and 90 years ago, and finding remnants of that here among us in the year 2016.”

“The Holocaust, in my view, must lead us to deep soul-searching about the nature of man,” Golan said. “It must bring us to conduct some soul-searching as to the responsibility of leadership and the quality of our society. It must lead us to fundamentally rethink how we, here and now, behave towards the other.”

“There is nothing easier and simpler than in changing the other,” the officer said. “There is nothing easier and simpler than fear-mongering and threatening. There is nothing easier and simpler than in behaving like beasts, becoming morally corrupt, and sanctimoniousness.”

Israeli military chief backtracks from 1930s Germany comparison | The Guardian |  

Democratic Party is now split over Israel, and Clinton and Sanders represent opposing camps, says Pew | Mondoweiss |

Pew Research Center released a new survey of American attitudes toward the world yesterday, and on Israel the news is clear: the Democratic Party is split, and Bernie Sanders represents the Palestinian-sympathizing camp and Hillary Clinton the Israel-sympathizing one. Key excerpt (my emphasis):

    By more than two-to-one (53% vs. 19%) conservative and moderate Democrats
    sympathize more with Israel. [Among] Liberal Democrats, on the other hand… 33%
    sympathize more with Israel and 40% sympathize more with the Palestinians.

You know how everyone says that some day  U.S. public opinion will come to a tipping point? Well that tipping point has taken place among liberal Democrats. Notice that since 2014, the numbers among liberal Democrats have surged and reversed.

Netanyahu aide: Gaza war draft report being distorted by political enemies | JPost |

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