Our Soldiers Speak claims to be an organization that is an independent, U.S. based, non-governmental organization (NGO).
This is an organization that has assumed the responsibility to counter the influence of Breaking the Silence, a group that constitutes former Israeli military personnel (IDF), who have spoken out about its ethnic cleansing program and the purposeful brutality of the Israeli army against the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank.
Our Soldiers Speak, sponsors speakers being sent to U.S. college campuses to present an Israeli view of the happenings in Israel and Palestine. It seems strange that they find it necessary to provide an Israeli view when all one has to do is read the NY Times, the Washington Post, or any other mainstream print media or tune in to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or Fox News to be inundated with the Israeli point of view.
We must also pay attention to the name of this organization, one that is based in the U.S. calling itself Our Soldiers Speak. One might get the impression that “our” refers to U.S. military personnel. Guess again. Those that will go to U.S. campuses are from the Israeli IDF.
The Our Soldiers Speak website makes the following statement, “Our objective is to educate our audience about what transpires on the front lines of battle as well as the context from which the media extracts military events and transforms them into “incidents.”
The reference to the expression “the front lines of battle” troubles me. Just exactly where are these front lines of battle? Are they referring to the locations where Israeli tanks and missiles meet the Palestinian stone throwing teenagers? Israel has one of the most powerful military forces in the world and definitely the most powerful in that area, thanks to the U.S. The Palestinian resistance to the past 48 years of occupation has been stone throwing, suicide bombings, knifings, and Hamas’ missiles which fell harmlessly someplace in the Middle East during the summer of 2014. So, I ask once again, where the hell were the battle lines? What do they mean by battle? Were there ever two equal forces clashing against one-another?
Our Soldiers Speak was founded by Sgt. Benjamin Anthony in 2007. Sgt. Anthony specialized as a heavy machine gunner. Sgt. Anthony has participated in recent campaigns by the IDF to defend Israeli citizens in the face of new age terrorist activity. Additionally, Sgt. Anthony has served as a combat soldier along Israel’s northern borders and in the area of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank.
“New age terrorist activity”? What the hell is that?
Philip Weiss, in his February 4 Mondoweiss article was able to secure and print the following letter sent to college campuses:
Dear Professors,
My name is Richard Offenbacher, I am the International Coordinator for the organization Our Soldiers Speak. You may review further details on our organization via the following links:
I am writing to you, in order to inquire after a possible presentation by Col. Dan Goldfus of the Israel Defense Forces.
Via our Elite program, Our Soldiers Speak constitutes the sole organization, globally, through which the Israel Defense Forces dispatches uniformed, active, specialized officers to focus-groups on campus.
With that in mind, Col. Dan Goldfus will be coming to the United States between the dates of Monday, March 7th to Thursday, March 10th.
We would be delighted to have Col. Goldfus present for your students within your area of expertise.
Col. Goldfus is a fluent English speaker and he will be presenting on the following subject: Hizbullah—2006 to 2016—A 10 Year Analysis; A Five Year Prognosis.
Col. Goldfus currently serves in a capacity that is classified however he has full remit to speak on the above subject.
Please be assured that due to the fact that Dan Goldfus will be in uniform and is in full time service within the IDF he will not be able to wade into a discussion of a political nature. He is coming purely from an educational perspective, not as part of a PR exercise.
In addition, in the event that we are able to bring about a presentation at your university, we would be very pleased if you would identify the appropriate student groups to which we should address ourselves and also for your participation, or for the participation of one of your colleagues, in a dialogue with Col. Goldfus following his presentation while also moderating the questions and answer session that follows.
Please let me know if you have interest and if you have any queries or questions.
Richard Offenbacher
International Coordinator, Our Soldiers Speak
New York Bureau
Col. Goldfus will not be able to get into a discussion of a political nature? Is this some sort of Israeli humor that I do not understand? I would assume that discussing Hezbollah and the military actions of Israel is of a political nature.
Pay close attention to the ending of the letter where Mr. Offenbacher requests that the colleges select only “appropriate” students to participate. Does “appropriate” mean those students who will not challenge Col. Goldfus or the brutal history of the IDF?
This organization is requesting that their representative, Col. Goldfus, be allowed a forum on college campuses where he can justify Israel’s slaughter of tens of thousands unarmed, innocent Palestinian civilians.
Col. Dan Goldfus is the commander of the Israeli infantry, northern command and has stated, “It’s not about a war between Israel and Hezbollah. It’s not about a war between Israel and ISIS. It’s about a war that we are fighting as the front outpost of the west. It’s a war of a way of life. The Israeli military is up to any challenge.”
Col. Goldfus puts everything in context when he openly states that Israel is the front outpost of the West (the U.S. and NATO countries) in an area loaded with resources (oil and gas) and with governments not always friendly to the West. For those of you who wondered why the U.S. continues to provide Israel with $3.5 billion in military aid every year, an amount that will likely increase to over $4 billion, you now have your answer.
The cover story is that the U.S. is supporting the only democracy in the Middle East, a democracy that has an agenda of ethnic cleansing against those who originally resided in Palestine and whom Israel displaced or killed. The reality is that it’s not about protecting a democracy from the tyrannical regimes that surround it. It is about protecting the one and only country in that area of the world that is helping the West implement their imperialist agenda.
I would like to direct your attention to the letter written by Richard Offenbacher quoted above where he refers to the OSS Elite. If you open that link, you will find it informative.
Launched in 2012, Our Soldiers Speak Elite is a unique initiative that dispatches the senior-most ranked officers of the IDF to provide security based briefings in Washington, D.C., and Manhattan. These active IDF officers provide high-level analysis to select groups at law firms, financial centers and policy think tanks as well as key, pro-Israel organizations.
The officers also address members of the United States Congress during their visits.
Evidently, this is where real and meaningful action between Israel and the U.S. occurs. Why is there this symbiotic relationship between these two countries?
Should our slogan be, “We are Israel”?. Not as far as I’m concerned. The U.S. has enough problems with its own humanitarian abuses, we don’t need the genocidal program in Israel as another burden.
REMEMBER, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.
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Who does Our Soldiers Speak speak for?
Posted on February 12, 2016 by Dave Alpert
Our Soldiers Speak claims to be an organization that is an independent, U.S. based, non-governmental organization (NGO).
This is an organization that has assumed the responsibility to counter the influence of Breaking the Silence, a group that constitutes former Israeli military personnel (IDF), who have spoken out about its ethnic cleansing program and the purposeful brutality of the Israeli army against the Palestinian population in Gaza and the West Bank.
Our Soldiers Speak, sponsors speakers being sent to U.S. college campuses to present an Israeli view of the happenings in Israel and Palestine. It seems strange that they find it necessary to provide an Israeli view when all one has to do is read the NY Times, the Washington Post, or any other mainstream print media or tune in to ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN or Fox News to be inundated with the Israeli point of view.
We must also pay attention to the name of this organization, one that is based in the U.S. calling itself Our Soldiers Speak. One might get the impression that “our” refers to U.S. military personnel. Guess again. Those that will go to U.S. campuses are from the Israeli IDF.
The Our Soldiers Speak website makes the following statement, “Our objective is to educate our audience about what transpires on the front lines of battle as well as the context from which the media extracts military events and transforms them into “incidents.”
The reference to the expression “the front lines of battle” troubles me. Just exactly where are these front lines of battle? Are they referring to the locations where Israeli tanks and missiles meet the Palestinian stone throwing teenagers? Israel has one of the most powerful military forces in the world and definitely the most powerful in that area, thanks to the U.S. The Palestinian resistance to the past 48 years of occupation has been stone throwing, suicide bombings, knifings, and Hamas’ missiles which fell harmlessly someplace in the Middle East during the summer of 2014. So, I ask once again, where the hell were the battle lines? What do they mean by battle? Were there ever two equal forces clashing against one-another?
Our Soldiers Speak was founded by Sgt. Benjamin Anthony in 2007. Sgt. Anthony specialized as a heavy machine gunner. Sgt. Anthony has participated in recent campaigns by the IDF to defend Israeli citizens in the face of new age terrorist activity. Additionally, Sgt. Anthony has served as a combat soldier along Israel’s northern borders and in the area of Judea and Samaria/the West Bank.
“New age terrorist activity”? What the hell is that?
Philip Weiss, in his February 4 Mondoweiss article was able to secure and print the following letter sent to college campuses:
Dear Professors,
My name is Richard Offenbacher, I am the International Coordinator for the organization Our Soldiers Speak. You may review further details on our organization via the following links:
End of Year Wrap-up Semester Summary
Legal Tour 1 , Legal Tour 2
OSS Elite Summary, 2014—2015
I am writing to you, in order to inquire after a possible presentation by Col. Dan Goldfus of the Israel Defense Forces.
Via our Elite program, Our Soldiers Speak constitutes the sole organization, globally, through which the Israel Defense Forces dispatches uniformed, active, specialized officers to focus-groups on campus.
With that in mind, Col. Dan Goldfus will be coming to the United States between the dates of Monday, March 7th to Thursday, March 10th.
We would be delighted to have Col. Goldfus present for your students within your area of expertise.
Col. Goldfus is a fluent English speaker and he will be presenting on the following subject: Hizbullah—2006 to 2016—A 10 Year Analysis; A Five Year Prognosis.
Col. Goldfus currently serves in a capacity that is classified however he has full remit to speak on the above subject.
Please be assured that due to the fact that Dan Goldfus will be in uniform and is in full time service within the IDF he will not be able to wade into a discussion of a political nature. He is coming purely from an educational perspective, not as part of a PR exercise.
In addition, in the event that we are able to bring about a presentation at your university, we would be very pleased if you would identify the appropriate student groups to which we should address ourselves and also for your participation, or for the participation of one of your colleagues, in a dialogue with Col. Goldfus following his presentation while also moderating the questions and answer session that follows.
Please let me know if you have interest and if you have any queries or questions.
For your convenience, I have enclosed a brief trailer here. Col. Dan Goldfus Trailer
Sincerely and with kindest regards,
Richard Offenbacher
International Coordinator, Our Soldiers Speak
New York Bureau
Col. Goldfus will not be able to get into a discussion of a political nature? Is this some sort of Israeli humor that I do not understand? I would assume that discussing Hezbollah and the military actions of Israel is of a political nature.
Pay close attention to the ending of the letter where Mr. Offenbacher requests that the colleges select only “appropriate” students to participate. Does “appropriate” mean those students who will not challenge Col. Goldfus or the brutal history of the IDF?
This organization is requesting that their representative, Col. Goldfus, be allowed a forum on college campuses where he can justify Israel’s slaughter of tens of thousands unarmed, innocent Palestinian civilians.
Col. Dan Goldfus is the commander of the Israeli infantry, northern command and has stated, “It’s not about a war between Israel and Hezbollah. It’s not about a war between Israel and ISIS. It’s about a war that we are fighting as the front outpost of the west. It’s a war of a way of life. The Israeli military is up to any challenge.”
Col. Goldfus puts everything in context when he openly states that Israel is the front outpost of the West (the U.S. and NATO countries) in an area loaded with resources (oil and gas) and with governments not always friendly to the West. For those of you who wondered why the U.S. continues to provide Israel with $3.5 billion in military aid every year, an amount that will likely increase to over $4 billion, you now have your answer.
The cover story is that the U.S. is supporting the only democracy in the Middle East, a democracy that has an agenda of ethnic cleansing against those who originally resided in Palestine and whom Israel displaced or killed. The reality is that it’s not about protecting a democracy from the tyrannical regimes that surround it. It is about protecting the one and only country in that area of the world that is helping the West implement their imperialist agenda.
I would like to direct your attention to the letter written by Richard Offenbacher quoted above where he refers to the OSS Elite. If you open that link, you will find it informative.
Launched in 2012, Our Soldiers Speak Elite is a unique initiative that dispatches the senior-most ranked officers of the IDF to provide security based briefings in Washington, D.C., and Manhattan. These active IDF officers provide high-level analysis to select groups at law firms, financial centers and policy think tanks as well as key, pro-Israel organizations.
The officers also address members of the United States Congress during their visits.
Evidently, this is where real and meaningful action between Israel and the U.S. occurs. Why is there this symbiotic relationship between these two countries?
Should our slogan be, “We are Israel”?. Not as far as I’m concerned. The U.S. has enough problems with its own humanitarian abuses, we don’t need the genocidal program in Israel as another burden.
REMEMBER, KNOWLEDGE IS POWER!!
Dave Alpert has masters degrees in social work, educational administration, and psychology. He spent his career working with troubled inner city adolescents.