Sheikh Daoud Bessis of Daliyat al-Karmel, who fought the Nazis during World War II and helped rescue Jewish prisoners, died over the weekend at the age of 96.
The Druze sheikh's heroic story was published last week by Yedioth Ahronoth and Ynetnews.
Bessis' adventures began in 1942, when he volunteered with the British army along with 10 other Druze men from the villages of Daliyat al-Karmel, Beit Jan, and Peki'in, who decided to join the war effort against the Germans.
The young soldiers were sent to train at Sarafand Camp, later known as Tzrifin, and were later stationed in Libya, where they joined British troops, led by General Bernard Montgomery, in a bitter battle against the German African Corps, commanded by Field Marshall Erwin Rommel and reinforced by Italian brigades.
After the battles in Libya, the Druze volunteers were sent with their battalion to Greece, which was under German, Italian and Bulgarian occupation each controlling a different part of the country.
While the two former invasions were crowned with success, the invasion to Greece failed, and many of Her Highness' soldiers were taken into German captivity Daoud and his friends included.
At first, the British prisoners were held in Greece, but were later transferred to Italy to an area controlled by Germany after Italy signed a cease fire with the Allied Forces.
Nearing the end of 1943, the prisoners were moved to Germany. According to Daoud, they were transferred from one base to another for many weeks, until finally in the summer of 1944 they were placed in the southern city of Stalag, which was situated near the border with Austria.
"Many times," Daoud recalled, "When we were taken out of the camps on different occasions, we saw Jewish prisoners that were held in concentration camps and worked in forced labor.
"Of course we did everything we could to help them; sometimes we even gave them, secretly of course, a little food such as bread, potatoes, cheese and sausages," Daoud noted.
"Occasionally," he added, "We also managed to sneak them some underwear and socks. We had to pull many tricks, so that the SS officers guarding them won't notice."
Towards the end of 1944, Daoud and two of his Druze friends managed to escape from the camp and reach Italy, where they hid in a cave until the end of the war.
The British authorities never acknowledged the Druze volunteers' contribution, and only in May 2010 Daoud Bessis received the Fighters against Nazis Medal from the Israeli Defense Ministry and a decoration for volunteering during the war.
Sheikh Bessis is survived by his wife, 11 children, 40 grandchildren and 22 great grandchildren. "These are the laws of nature and destiny, but it seems that my father waited for his unique story to be made known to many people across the country," his son Ramzi said over the weekend.
Just before Benjamin Klein's open-heart surgery, his surgeon told him not to be afraid. Mr. Klein, who is 90, scoffed. "He said, 'There's nothing you can do that I can't get through -- I've been through Normandy,' " recalled the surgeon, Dr. Leonard Girardi. the man in the next bed, Victor Allegretti, 86, who later heard Mr. Klein tell hospital staff members about his war service.
"My ears perked up like a canary," said Mr. Allegretti, who took such interest because he, too, fought in Normandy during World War II.
For the record, there were no presurgery jitters, said Mr. Klein, who now lives in Middletown, N.Y. "After getting out of World War II," he said, "I'm not afraid of nothing and I'm not impressed by nothing."
Dr. Girardi called this a hallmark of every World War II veteran he has operated on. My uncle saw the first bomb dropped on Wheeler Field 7 Dec 1941. He said very much the same things whenever he had health problems in his old age.
[Pak Daily Times] Britain has recognised druidry as an official religion for the first time, thousands of years after the Celtic pagan faith emerged in Europe, the country's charity commission said on Saturday.
And a little more than two thousand years after the Romans wiped it out because of the priests' little habit of human sacrifice, pretty much the only religious practice the Romans objected to.
The Druid Network, an organisation representing the religion in Britain, was granted charitable status in a decision that not only gives it tax breaks but also lets the religion take its place alongside more mainstream beliefs.
"This has been a long hard struggle, taking over five years to complete," the Druid Network said in a statement after its application to be registered as a charity had been accepted by the Charity Commission.
In its ruling on the group's application, the commission said it accepted that druidry was an "ancient pagan religion" in its own right involving the worship of nature, particularly the sun and the earth.
Druid rituals involve "commonality of practice" across the faith including solar and fire festivals, ceremonies at various phases of the moon, seasonal festivals and rites of passage in life.
So really, they're 'neo-druids', taking the old name but engaging in generic pagan practices. That's ok, then.
There had also been some official recognition already, it added, including a provision by Britain's Prison Service for the practice of druidry and the attendance of a pagan chaplain at services.
"The board members concluded that The Druid Network is established for exclusively charitable purposes for the advancement of religion for the public benefit," the Charity Commission said. Druidry emerged in ancient Ireland and Britain and spread further afield during the Iron Age, especially into France, but became largely supplanted as Christianity took hold across Europe.
It has gained recent popularity because of its pantheistic nature and concern with ecology.
And dancing au natural in the moonlight... or is that another group?
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
As long as the world is going-to-hell-in-a hand-basket, why not grease the wheels some more.
Maybe we should start a religion too.
The Rantburg Order of the Scribes or some nonsense like that.
We could all stop paying taxes and have to post here, in monks robes, all day.
why not?
every other entity is now called a religion.
Posted by: Mike Hunt ||
10/03/2010 2:39 Comments ||
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#2
Eh, I really don't give a squat what someone wants to claim as their religion. It really isn't important that they choose the same as I do nor do I experience it as "invalidating" of my own religious choices. I wouldn't care if they worshiped snails. More power to them.
#3
Methinks Fred wannted an excuse to run the archdruid pic ;) .
Who knows - some time in the future we might see all adherents of the Mohammedan cult forcibly converted to Druidry.
Given the shambolic self-defence of the druids when challenged by the Romans, my take is that they were something akin to the Hindu sadhus. Influential and revered, and relatively good fun to be around, but one notch above a four hour old kitten in a fight.
#4
Except for that whole "human sacrifice" thing. Interesting, I suppose, for the eccentricity noted both by the Romans and the archaeologists, that they used three different means at the same time to insure death. Typically strangulation, concussion and throat slicing.
And yes, I can imagine Archdruid Williams doing that, to some hooker in a dark alley.
#7
Barbara Skolaut: Actually, somewhat creepier. Voluntary human sacrifice seems more peaceful on the surface than murder of captives and all, but it reduces humans to animals. If a captive is to be murdered, and they resist, they still die a human being.
#8
OK, so the dirt worshipers are now officially recognized. No sweat right? Just wait till someone gets charged with a hate crime for calling them pagans or the like.
#9
You left out that Roman sources cite one of their sacrificial ceremonies involved the severing of the spinal cord of humans to divine from the spasms of the victime some interpretation of their dieties wishes, before they finished the victim off by slow strangulation. As for Bulldog's comments,
I offer this excellent article about the Roman Invasion of Angelesey to eradicate the Druids.
#10
And the Archbishop of Canterbury can step right in as both a leader of the Church of England, and the leader of the Druids.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
10/03/2010 14:03 Comments ||
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I can't fault the Brits on this one. Human sacrifice for convenience (now gov't financed) already an accepted "mainstream" practice here. What could be the harm with linking the activity with an appropriate people-group label?
This sorta 'splains the $0.33 a pound onions at Ley's in Coahuila, huh, Snowy?
A group of 28 unidentified farm workers were rescued from a farm near Parral, Chihuahua, where they worked for about six months, according to Mexican news reports.
The workers disappeared from the central Mexican state of Queretaro last March, and were working in onion and tomato fields at El Rancho San Miguel Escalona in southern Chihuahua until one of the workers got word out to relatives.
The workers had apparently been lured to Chihuahua by promises of better farm wages, hours and benefits than usually paid, but instead were paid about 100 pesos a day ( USD $7.97 ) with 13 hour days and confinement without food.
Reports say local Ministry of Labor officials made the offer of employment to the workers to get them to Chihuahua.
This case is similar to about 66 farm workers lured from the Mexican state of Puebla to an area near Hermosillo, Sonora by promises of better wages only to find conditions different than advertised.
Turns out the cop rebellion wasn't due to Uncle Sam after all, but was in response to fiscal austerity measures which Correa threatened to push through by disbanding their elected gummit and ruling by decree. Fancy that!
#2
They could be. Correa linked them by threatening to dissolve their Congress and 'rule by decree' in order to impose financial restrictions. Rebellion ensued.
[Dawn] Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif lost power twice because he lacked intellect.
Addressing hundreds of supporters in Birmingham on Saturday, he said his party would be accountable to the people. He said his party would have a democratic structure and power would not be inherited.
Outside the venue of the rally, a few hundred members of Hizbut Tahrir gathered in a peaceful protest. Some held banners that read "Pakistain needs an accountable ruler".
"It went very well. He said that at the end of his term in office there were mistakes made and he apologised for that," Birmingham politician Khalid Mahmood said.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2010 00:00 ||
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BARKSDALE AIR FORCE BASE, La. -- Officials declared Air Force Global Strike Command to be at full operational capability Sept. 30, on schedule, and less than 14 months after its initial activation as a command.
To reach that milestone, the command accomplished more than 700 action items identified by the secretary and chief of staff of the Air Force in 2009, when they chartered Global Strike Command to strengthen the nuclear enterprise by aligning all Air Force long-range nuclear-capable forces under a single command.
Lt. Gen. Frank G. Klotz, the Global Strike Command commander, reported full operational capability status in a memorandum to the secretary and the chief of staff of the Air Force today.
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#3
The USAF is now the "US AEROSPACE FORCE", NO LONGER JUST "AIR FORCE", IN ALL BUT NAME.
OTOH. wid a mighty THREE LR "GLOBAL HAWK" UAVS up at Guma's Andersen AFB, whats our future OWG SPACE/STAR FORCE = STARFLEET COMMAND? going to do wid the rest of the airfield [North + NW AirFields + Navy's former NAS Brewer aka TIYAN ]???
Former Malaysian premier Mahathir Mohamad was admitted to hospital for chest infection Saturday during a trip to Australia, where he was scheduled to address a seminar, according to an aide.
The 85-year-old was admitted to the general ward in a Melbourne hospital for antibiotics treatment and physiotheraphy, his aide Sufi Yusof said in a statement.
"Dr Mahathir's condition is stable and he has been advised to rest," said the aide, adding that the former Malaysian leader is expected to remain in hospital for a few days for observation.
Mahathir arrived in Melbourne Thursday and was slated to address a seminar on human development organised by a club linked to Malaysia's ruling party, the United Malays National Organisation.
Posted by: Fred ||
10/03/2010 00:00 ||
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So does this mean shooting econut is a viable self defence? I'm gonna need to get more ammo!!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
10/03/2010 13:25 Comments ||
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Haha. Green nutbags shoot themselves in the foot again, or "score an own goal" as the Brits would say.
Posted by: DJ Curtis C ||
10/03/2010 19:07 Comments ||
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The more I think about this, the more my mind boggles. Everything about this is just so wrong.
I know they're eco-totalitarians, but still, you'd expect at least an ounce of common sense from someone involved in the project at some stage prior to cmpletion. But apparently nobody stepped forward and said "hey maybe we need to make a few changes..."
No Pressure is right! The message is clear: We'll coerce compliance by using people in positions of authority: teachers, bosses, coaches, etc. we'll use group/peer pressure (show your hands) and then, for the few selfish recalcitrant individuals who don't go along with the program (and are honest and forthright enough to say so in public), we'll vaporize them as a lesson to all.
Posted by: DJ Curtis C ||
10/03/2010 20:25 Comments ||
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#7
You know there are thousands of square miles in Alaska, Canada, and Siberia where the Greenies can all be dropped off to live as nature intended non-modern man [and women] to live. Back to Mother Gaia without the blemish of all those modern technology, medicine or resources thingies.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Britain has recognised druidry as an official religion for the first time, thousands of years after the Celtic pagan faith emerged in Europe, the country's charity commission said on Saturday.
Former military ruler Pervez Musharraf said ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif lost power twice because he lacked intellect.
