Clarksville, TN Online » Palestine

Israeli Independence War hero pardoned by President Bush

Turner McCullough Jr. — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 14:00:24 +0000

1948 ‘Gunrunner’ for Israel pardoned posthumously by Bush.

Among the twenty presidential pardons announced on Dec. 22nd, was one of significant distinction. In 1949, an American citizen, a Irish Protestant, defied the U.S. Neutrality Act and took actions which directly aided the emerging Jewish state of Israel in its war of independence.

President Bush has pardoned a man who broke the law by providing planes and weapons to Jews fighting for the fledgling state of Israel in its 1948 War of Independence.

Charles Winters, an Irish Protestant who died in 1984 in Miami and was buried in Israel, served eighteen months in prison for violating the US Neutrality Act by helping deliver three converted B-17 Flying Fortress bombers to the Jewish homeland. He piloted one of the planes himself. The three planes became the first heavy bombers of the Israel Air Force.

Two of Winters’ colleagues, Herman Greenspun and Al Schwimmer, were pardoned in 1961 and 2000, respectively.

The posthumous pardon of Winters, who was commended in 1961 by Prime Minister Golda Meir for his contributions to Israel, came after a lengthy campaign by his son, Jimmy. Jimmy Winters said of his father, “I’m overwhelmed. It happened sixteen years before I was born. He went to jail and he didn’t want his kids to know. He was old-school and proud.” He only became aware of his father’s famous past after seeing an outpouring of gratitude from the Jewish community upon his father’s death in 1984.

The fledging Israeli army was not allowed to arm by the British government, which had ruled Palestine until Israel’s independence in 1948. Nor did the United States allow the sale of weapons to Israel or other Middle East countries. The U.S. Army rejected Mr. Winters for service during the Second World War due to a limp left by polio. Winters, nevertheless, worked during the war as a government purchasing agent — a profession he would put in practice in helping Israel in 1948.

Al Schwimmer, a flight engineer who led American efforts to aid Israel’s military, recruited Winters, then 38, to procure three planes for Schwimmer’s group. Winter’s motives remains a mystery, even to his friends and family.

One friend and fellow bomber pilot, Sy Cohen, write in an obituary in the Miami Herald, “To the Jewish people in Palestine, this deed that he did was phenomenal. Why should an Irishman from Boston do such a thing?” Hollywood film director Steven Spielberg was one of the many people who wrote to President Bush asking for a presidential pardon for Winters.

“There are probably many unsung heroes of America and of Israel, but Charlie Winters is surely one of them,” Spielberg stated.

Charles Winters was among nineteen people granted pardons by President Bush in honor of the 2008 winter holiday season. A twentieth person had his prison sentence commuted.

In related news, Tel Aviv chief rabbi Yisrael Lau has asked President Bush to pardon Jonathan Pollard, who has spent twenty-one years imprisoned for spying for Israel.

Source: www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1049403.html

Clarksville campaigning hits political low

Christine Anne Piesyk — Sun, 26 Oct 2008 06:00:29 +0000

Politics got ugly in Clarksville Saturday, October 25, as at least one McCain/Palin campaigner chose to take the low road, politicking curbside at Veteran’s Plaza Election near the Election Commission office where hundreds of people arrived to vote between 8 a.m. and noon.

One male Caucasian McCain/Palin campaigner donned an Obama Halloween mask, of and by itself not a big deal, but then attached a hand-printed cardboard “Hamas for Obama” sign perpetrating a lie and creating an implication of terrorist ties to presidential candidate Sen. Barack Obama. On the flip side of the sign are the words “Honk for Socialism NoBama.”

Debating the issues, building an case for a candidate rooted in facts, is one thing. This kind of ill-informed misinformation and dis-information starts with the word “stupid,” meanders into “childish,” and continues with “dangerous” and “malicious.” Where it ends remains a question mark.

There are elements of racism, hatred and politics at a new low, in this display, and it is right here in Clarksville, Tennessee. Election 2008 has seen levels of viciousness at the local, state and federal level that are appalling, prejudiced, intolerant and ugly.

The reference to “Hamas” is troubling, because Obama is as far removed from Hamas as an American can be.

Hamas, for those uncertain of just what it is, is defined as an organization created in 1987 by Sheikh Ahmed Yassin and Mohammad Taha of the Palestinian wing of the Muslim Brotherhood at the beginning of the First Intifada. Notorious for its numerous suicide bombings and other attacks on Israeli civilians and security forces, Hamas also runs extensive social programs and has gained popularity in Palestinian society by establishing hospitals, education systems, libraries and other services throughout the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Hamas’ charter calls for the destruction of the State of Israel and its replacement with a Palestinian Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Hamas describes its conflict with Israel as political and not religious or antisemitic. However, its founding charter, writings, and many of its public statements reflect the influence of antisemitic conspiracy theories.

America has a lot at stake: economic and military issues compete for ranking as the crisis of the day. Instead of looking at qualifications and abilities, some are presenting incorrect information, blatant lies, as truth. And playing the race card and the terrorism card in the process. They are making judgments rooted in faith and fear, and fear of certain faiths and the color of a candidate’s skin. Never mind that Obama is a Christian or an American.

This campaigner seemed to be having a good time with his personal little joke. Many of us, however, are not responding with laughter. We are too disgusted. Appalled. Ashamed.

Theatre Row arrives at APSU with ‘Paradise’

James Butler — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 18:14:28 +0000

“Allah Akbar!” is the cry of Jihadists around the world. This motto of holy rollers shall soon be heard on Austin Peay’s Trahern stage. Glynn O’Malley’s Paradise will open in the Trahern Theater Wednesday November 14, exactly one year after the New York and former APSU resident artist’s death.

Paradise is the second part of O’Malley’s famous war trilogy and is set amidst the horrifying conflict between Israel and the Palestinian terrorists. The play follows the lives of two young girls, one Israeli and one Palestinian who in another place could have been friends. O’Malley follows their lives, their teenage crushes, their dreams as the cloud and horror of war looms over them and colors their world.

The show was first requested by The Cincinnati Playhouse as part of its educational outreach, but in the Post 9-11 world, the tour was cancelled and a threat was made to cease the production. However, the play eventually opened to a sold out opening night at the Kirk Theatre on New York’s Theatre Row in March 2005 for a limited run, and has since played to standing room only audiences through out the United States.

While O’Malley was a playwright at APSU, he often pointed the tragic events of 9-11 as the genesis for his war trilogy. The playwright spent the last five years of his life probing the psyches of religious fanatics, who commit unfathomable atrocities in the name of their God, and the victims of those atrocities. What O’Malley reminds us of in his trilogy is that those victims are not just on the battlefield, but also in those left behind at home during war, or in this case, two little girls caught up in a conflict they do not understand in a world that seems to be falling apart little by little around them.

While at Austin Peay, Glynn O’Malley met the widow of a fallen Fort Campbell soldier. Eventually, O’Malley established the Sgt. Ariel Rico Memorial Scholarship designated for the children of dead or wounded soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division. APSU’s production is directed by Dr. Sarah Gotcher, a long-time friend and associate of O’Malley. The play will run from Wednesday through Sunday with shows at 7:30 PM and a 2:00 PM matinee show on Sunday. The cost is $4.00 for students and $6.00 for General Admissions. Dr. Gotcher, respecting the wishes of O’Malley, has stated that all proceeds from the production will be given to the Sgt. Ariel Rico Scholarship. To reserve tickets call the Trahern Theatre ticket booth at (931) 221-7379.