1. Jews always have been advocates of reforms and social justice – far beyond their numbers, and station in society than would lead one to expect: from Karl Marx and Rosa Luxemburg, Moshe Hess and Bernard Lazar, Leon Blum and Leon Trotsky, through the leaders of the student uprising in Paris in May 1'68, to human rights activists and anti–globalization protesters today.

2. Do you want a glass of milk‘?" During his marathon address, with occasional pauses to ask his "amigo" Ken whether his time was up, he managed to refer to everyone from George Bernard Shaw to Rosa Luxemburg, Pythagoras to Thomas Jefferson, CLR James to his mother.

3. Abuse of power is, in concrete terms, abuse of power by the "strong" in its relationship with the "weak". And Rosa Luxemburg one of the greatest Marxist revolutionaries after Marx, once said that freedom, which is at the heart of democracy is, in reality, freedom for the "weak". Ethiopian new leadership has understood the weakness created within the old regime and has been tackled properly and genuinely.

4. Benjamin Kruger, a BAK Shalom spokesman, told me that Paech sees "Hamas as an ally of the Left Party," whereas BAK Shalom views it "as a terror organization." He added that the 60–member BAK Shalom, a caucus made up of students, young professionals and working people under 35, aims to advance a "platform against anti–Semitism, anti–Zionism, anti–Americanism and regressive capitalism." While BAK is attempting to dissolve prejudices against Israel in a bottom–up fashion, the co–chairman of the Left Party, Gregor Gysi, a dynamic political personality and gifted speaker, delivered a dense 16–page speech in mid–April to members of the Left Party–aligned Rosa Luxemburg Foundation at an event marking Israel‘s 60th anniversary.