tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141940009976831016.post1951359101567874549..comments2024-02-04T20:44:05.770-08:00Comments on Jewish Facts From Portland: Turkey's Erdogan Speaks Against Israel in UNNadene Goldfoothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01654020384945801380noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2141940009976831016.post-46117086936516923162013-03-01T14:45:24.270-08:002013-03-01T14:45:24.270-08:00Good news: Although they stayed until UN Watch exp...Good news: Although they stayed until UN Watch exposed, and called on the world to denounce, Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan’s repugnant speech calling Zionism a “crime against humanity” -- at a UN forum supposedly dedicated to tolerance -- today both the United Nations and the United States strongly condemned him:<br /><br />• UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Erdogan’s “hurtful and divisive comments” were “not only wrong" but “contradict the very principles on which the Alliance of Civilizations is based.”<br /><br />• U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, now visiting Turkey, condemned the speech at a joint news conference with Foreign Minister Davutoglu, saying, “We not only disagree with it. We found it objectionable.” <br /><br />• A senior State Department official added that the pattern of Turkish denunciations of Israel was having a “corrosive effect” on American-Turkish relations. “This was particularly offensive, frankly, to call Zionism a crime against humanity,” the official said. A White House spokesman said Erodgan’s remark was “offensive and wrong.”<br /><br />None of this happened until UN Watch -- in the early morning hours yesterday -- first exposed Erdogan’s offensive UN speech; produced a video of the remarks and uploaded it to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter; circulated the information to our carefully-developed global network of media correspondents; and organized a massive online petition sending emails demanding action by Ban Ki-moon and Secretary Kerry. <br /><br />Thanks to UN Watch, the story went viral.<br /><br />Thanks to U.N. Watch pressure, Turkey’s extremist leader -- winner of the 2010 Moammar Qaddafi Human Rights Prize -- is for the first time on the defensive.<br />Nadene Goldfoothttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01654020384945801380noreply@blogger.com