Home
Natan Sharansky's Library tagged → View Popular
"The prescience of protest" by Natan Sharansky
The West should listen to the dissidents in Iran craving freedom -- they can feel the future.
"Will Libya Pay a Price for the Death of Dissident Fathi Eljahmi", NatanSharansky.org
Fathi Eljahmi, the most prominent democratic dissident in Libya, died last Thursday. Eljahmi had endured seven years in unspeakable conditions in the Libyan prison system. His crime? He spoke out, unflinchingly, for freedom of speech and democratic reforms. Two days before his death, with Eljahmi already in a coma, the Libyans sent him to Jordan. The U.S. State Department lauded his “release” as a welcome development.
"Iran's persecution of Bahá'ís devastating" Telegraph
Iran’s Prosecutor General, Ayatollah Qorban-Ali Dorri-Najafabadi, has declared that the very expression of affiliation to the Bahá’í faith is illegal, writes Nazila Ghanea.
Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression. Today, Iran severely restricts such freedom. Human Rights Watch, the UN Secretary General and numerous others have recently observed an escalation in attempts to silence Iranians who have something to say.
"Hamas still rules through fear" Elder of Ziyon Blog
Vacuums in Arab societies tend to be filled by extremists, and in this case it was refilled by the old dictators.
"Democracy's March Continues As Iraqis Go to the Polls" FOXNews.com
As a result of Iraqi democracy, the march of history in the Middle East has changed direction. It used to be a series of sclerotic authoritarian regimes moving increasingly toward of hereditary dictatorships - in Saudi Arabia, Syria, Egypt, Libya and others. But their legitimacy is now called into question by their own people every time Iraqis go to the polls. People throughout the region are asking the question, ever more openly, why can't they chose their leaders if the Iraqis can?
"Sharansky: Netanyahu won't clash with Obama" The Jerusalem Post
Former minister Natan Sharansky, who has been a frequent guest at the White House in recent years, has rejected allegations from Kadima that if elected prime minister, Likud chairman Binyamin Netanyahu would not get along with the administration of US President Barack Obama. He met with Obama a year ago and discussed the bottom-up theory of solving the Middle East conflict that Sharansky has been talking about for years and which has become the basis of Netanyahu's "economic peace" diplomatic plan.
"A Threat to Putin’s Big Plans" NYTimes.com
Over the last eight years, as Vladimir V. Putin has amassed ever more power, Russians have often responded with a collective shrug, as if to say: Go ahead, control everything — as long as we can have our new cars and amply stocked supermarkets, our sturdy ruble and cheap vacations in the Turkish sun. “We talk about a lack of democracy in Russia, but I like my own formula for the country, which is authoritarianism with the consent of the governed,” said Dmitri Trenin, director of the Carnegie Moscow Center. “And it can be taken away.”
"Talking Softly About Democracy Promotion" NYTimes.com
Here is one thing on which democracy experts agree: When Barack Obama took the oath of office last Tuesday, he did more in one instant, as a minority candidate, to promote the American ideal of democracy to the outside world than any of his predecessors ever could.
"Alan Dershowitz: Jews should stop being embarrassed of Israel" Haaretz
"Israel is, despite its enormous weaponry, the underdog," says leading attorney and civil libertarian Alan Dershowitz. "It is attacked throughout the world. It is the only state in the world today subject to open threats of annihilation."
"Here, but not quite there" The Jerusalem Post
Natan Sharansky is a genuine hero of our time, a prisoner of Zion held captive behind the Iron Curtain, rescued by the indefatigable efforts of his courageous wife Avital and the grassroots activist movement on behalf of Soviet Jewry which developed in America of the '60s and '70s. He became a minister in the Israeli government and is a celebrated author and spokesman on behalf of freedom, democracy and morality.
"Shevat's compact from USCJ" Conservative Judaism
Could we see Natan Sharansky’s nine years in a Soviet prison as the seed that produced the oak that ultimately helped shatter Soviet totalitarianism? History is full of examples of small acts that grew in impact beyond anyone’s expectations.
"Obama's inaugural speech, personal history suggest consistent, but nuanced support for democracy assistance" Democracy Digest
Obama's campaign has contributed to a democratic awakening in sub-Saharan Africa, they contend, "since it was the most closely followed democratic competition ever and has raised expectations of citizens around the world about what they want from their governments in terms of democratic performance and respect for basic rights… [and] raised expectations about the kind of support such aspirations should receive from the United States."
"A Three-Part Day" Commentary
The number of Bush speeches that may ultimately be viewed as historic may surprise those who misunderestimated him: from the resolution of the September 20, 2001 Address to Congress (”We are not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century.“) through the moving salute to an embattled ally in his 2008 Address to the Knesset (”[T]he source of our friendship runs deeper than any treaty. It is grounded in the shared spirit of our people, the bonds of the Book, the ties of the soul.“), he frequently articulated ideals and commitments with unusual grace. The Second Inaugural - with its echoes of JFK, its striking literary references, and its allusions to Natan Sharansky’s work - may eventually be recognized as among the finest statements ever of the American commitment to freedom.
"Democracy ‘resilient’ in face of authoritarian backlash, Freedom House reports" Democracy Digest
Global freedom retreated in 2008 for the third year in succession, but the pace of regression slowed and democracy remains “the only system of government that demands global respect,” Freedom House reports.
Syria convicts 12 pro-democracy activists « My blog news
A Syrian criminal court on Wednesday convicted 12 dissidents of fomenting sectarian strife and sentenced them to two-and-a-half years in prison,
local human rights group said. Ammar Qurabi of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria said the defendants are all members of a pro-democracy group known as the Damascus Declaration who were
arrested last December.
"The Woman the Mullahs Fear" NYTimes
Men hold all of the meaningful levers of political power in Iran, but it is a woman they fear. If not, why is the mullah-led government trying to shut down the operations of Shirin Ebadi?
Faster, Please! Fighting Evil Michael Ledeen's Blog, Pajamas Media
Michael Ledeen writes about the war against what Natan Sharansky calls "the conflict of fear and freedom."
Israel's Hero, My Hero Israel National News
While every death deeply affects family and friends, few of those deaths can be described as a monumental loss for Zion. The passing of Tsafrir Ronen - a stalwart, non-intimidated defender of Zion - will surely register as such when the history of modern Israel is told in full. He assembled an all-star lineup of backers, which included major players in the Israeli and worldwide business scene, coupled with a roster of the most astute political thinkers on the Israeli landscape today. Most importantly, he had the backing of Natan Sharansky, a man of worldwide respect as a champion of freedom.
"The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin’s Russia" New York Times
For many years, Orlando Figes observes, the memoirs of intellectual dissidents, like Eugenia Ginzburg and Nadezhda Mandelstam, and the work of Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, “were widely greeted as the ‘authentic voice’ of ‘the silenced,’” telling us “what it had ‘been like’ to live through the Stalin Terror as an ordinary citizen.” Their books did indeed reflect the experience of people like themselves, who were “strongly committed to ideals of freedom and individualism.” But they did not represent what happened to millions of other people who were not opponents of the regime and did not engage in any kind of substantial dissent, but were still dispatched to labor camps, to exile in remote settlements or to summary execution.
"Aid the Iranian Dissidents" Discovery Blog
The U.S. must aid Iranian dissidents just as it did in the former Soviet Union.
Selected Tags
Related Tags
Sponsored Links
Top Contributors
Groups interested in freedom
-
IRAQ Improvements
Follow Iraq developments here.
Items: 128 | Visits: 1903
Created by: liveinfreedom .
-
Video/Audio -- America sentiments
Many people do not understa...
Items: 9 | Visits: 196
Created by: liveinfreedom .
-
America's Government Data
This link provides ALL publ...
Items: 20 | Visits: 211
Created by: liveinfreedom .
Diigo is about better ways to research, share and collaborate on information. Learn more »
Join Diigo