Let me say from the beginning that I don’t hate anyone as a general rule. I look for and desire to see the good in every human being as I believe everyone else should do as well. If someone has been influenced by an evil mindset in ideology, then my first reaction is not to commence hating that person but rather to make an attempt to shake that person out of that destructive mindset by using logic and reason, along with a persuasive passion for what is spiritually right and true.However, because this is not always possible regardless of the amount of truth that is placed before certain individuals, and because there are those who will always love the evil inwardly more than righteousness, I believe that there can is righteous-based hatred regarding some humans. I don’t believe in living a life for the sole purpose of hating for any cause as do certain political, religious, and non-religious hate groups. But there are things in this life (including evil devoted people) of whom it's righteous to hate.
God judges hatred along with all motivations of the human heart by His law and not by man’s westernized liberal conceptions. There is a big difference between hating your personal enemy on a personal level for personal reasons, and hating an enemy of God on a spiritual level for spiritual reasons. Examine what the scripture states:
"Do not I hate them, O YHVH, that hate thee? And am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: They are become mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart: Try me, and know my thoughts; And see if there be any wicked way in me, And lead me in the way everlasting." - Psalms 139:21-24. (also see II Chronicles 19:2)
In this segment from the book of Psalms, the psalmist was searching his heart before God in which he was making sure that his godly resistance towards his enemies - in the form of righteous hatred - was in check. In this passage Israel’s enemies are the ones who hates God. For the psalmist, his thought was that if he did not have a "perfect" hatred towards God’s enemies, then his thoughts of not hating God's enemy would be of a wicked way within his heart. From my point of view, the politically-correct secular world could learn volumes from the simple declaration that this psalmist proclaimed and of which the first and second Jewish Temple singers sang the psalm:1
“Do not I hate them, O YHVH that hate thee?” and "I hate them (God's enemies) with a perfect hatred"
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I have heard people say that they may hate the things evil people do but not the person themselves. I agree with that concept in general but not as an overall concept. An individual can sink so much into evil that they become “as one” with their wickedness. There is a place in the realms of evil where a person has sold out "soul" lock, stock and barrel in effect crossing the point of no return where their whole lives can only be devoted as an enemy against God. Such was the case with Pharaoh during the time of the Exodus whose heart become more hardened after each manifestation of the ten plagues of Egypt.
To bring this reality into modern times, I do not and cannot love any part of Adolph Hitler including his very soul. I not only hate the things that he did on earth but I also hate him spiritually as God's enemy as well. How about you? Are you a hater of Hitler's very soul?
Fact: There is no separation between Hitler's soul and his Holocaust deeds that he did on earth both now and forever.
Hitler made a choice to become the image of evil rather than expressing the image of God he was made in. I don’t believe God loves him but rather hates him insomuch that Hitler’s soul (and not just the things he did) is in a place of the eternally damned where he will be forever separated from the God of mercy, justice, and righteousness. So in trying to be like minded with God’s thinking towards Hitler, I hate the expressed devil that Hitler was and forever shall be known. I not only believe that it's a righteous act to hate Hitler, but in fact it would be evil of me or anyone else not to do so as the above Psalm of David plainly points out. Furthermore, the so-called do-gooders who actually love Hitler are the ones most likely to support him and his deeds.
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Hitler is not the only ambassador of evil to walk around in human form. I feel the same way with the likes of other such devils as Yassier Arafat, Louis Farrakhan, David Duke, and now Jimmy Carter who has devoted the rest of his evil life to the cause of Israel's murderous enemy. These men are not simply misguided fools that are followers of evil (a place where true repentance and the turning away from evil are still available to such a person) but they are in fact actual leaders and forgoers of evil for the sole purpose of leading others in their evil!
Since false prophets don’t repent, (no false prophet in the Bible ever did) I have no desire to pray for these men and others like them for a change of their evil ways. Rather, I choose to pray according to God’s promise to them which is for their destruction as God sees fit according to their relentless evil and unrepentant deeds upon this earth.
"And He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slow to repay him who hates Him. He will repay him to his face." - Deuteronomy 7:10 (See also Isaiah 59:18).
Therefore, my Bible-guided prayer is, "May YHVH according to His holy and righteous Torah promise, repay the Arab-Palestinians to their face, along with and all who support them in their terrorist-expressed hatred acts against YHVH's chosen people."
The Palestinians:
There isn't a greater enemy towards the nation of Israel in all the world today than the Palestinians! The Palestinians have taken the title from the German Nazis as "the greatest threat" to the Jewish nation. Mein Kamph gave way to Jihadi - both meaning "my struggles" in both German and Arabic. When Hitler's struggles expired the Islamic struggles picked up the banner. What now is at stake in the conflict between the Jews and the Palestinians that wasn't at stake during Hitler's Final Solution is the possibility of the most evil people in all the earth, worshiping the most evil god (their god Allah), in the most holiest place (Jerusalem and the Temple Mount) in all the world!
The rebirth of Israel as a nation has given rise to Allah (an Arabian deity) wanting to be worshiped by his subjects at the very place designed for the God of Israel to be worshiped (see Psalms 132:13,14). Just the possibility of this scenario alone should show the secularists that there is a God of Israel that holds an everlasting covenant with the Jewish people (see Psalms 105:8-10). For it is impossible to ask for better stage to be set from what we see in the Middle East today to begin an all out "end of the age" showdown between good and evil.
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There has never been of people in modern times besides the Palestinians whose paradigm is terrorism and whose ultimate goal as a people in the world is towards the annihilation of another people based upon their religion and spirituality. What makes this fact all the more significant is that the Palestinians are given the world's support (7.4 billion dollars worth of support recently > http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1207/west.php3) in their terrorist endeavors and annihilation aspirations, and this was after the Palestinians as a people overwhelmingly voted in the party of Hamas to run their government in January 2006!
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There has never been of people in modern times besides the Palestinians whose paradigm is terrorism and whose ultimate goal as a people in the world is towards the annihilation of another people based upon their religion and spirituality. What makes this fact all the more significant is that the Palestinians are given the world's support (7.4 billion dollars worth of support recently > http://www.jewishworldreview.com/1207/west.php3) in their terrorist endeavors and annihilation aspirations, and this was after the Palestinians as a people overwhelmingly voted in the party of Hamas to run their government in January 2006!
World actions of this nature adds a greater significance to the end-time war between good and evil (Ezekiel 38:16-23). Besides the 7.4 billion pledged the to Palestinians, billions of dollars more are added in the form of state of the art weaponry being sold to the enemies of Israel >http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/meast/07/28/saudi.arms/.
Along with the billions of dollars that the UN is pledging to the Palestinians, the world's plan for tiny Israel becomes very clear! If the nations hadn't taken upon themselves to support Israel's greatest enemies there would not have been a need for Zechariah 12:9 to have been written: "And it shall come to pass in that day, that I will seek to destroy all the nations that come against Jerusalem."
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To try and understand the depth of the very evil that lies within the Palestinian society, one must look at what they as a society are capable of. The following is a very small and incomplete list as to the kind of things that comes forth from out of the Palestinian people. While viewing this list ask yourself, "Why are the world nations (especially the United States lead by a conservative president) are so desperately seeking to grant these Palestinians (of all people) any kind of a political state?"
Remember, O YHVH , the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
The psalmist is not promoting that idea of killing innocent children for the sake of killing children. That would be what the enemies of the Bible and Israel would have you believe! This is the same mindset that the "Human Rights Watch" tried to sell the world (which the world willfully bought) when they accused Israel of killing 54 children in Qana, Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon-Israeli War. Because of their spiritual state they didn't have the ability nor the will to considered the 4,000 rockets that was shot from civilian locations into Israel to start the war by which was indeed meant to kill as many Israeli citizens including children as possible!
When given over to dark forces the human mind can no longer judge between good and evil. This scripture in the book of Psalms is about God's judgment (of what He will allow to occur) in the form of reaping and sowing. Babylon had "dashed" Jewish babies against stones in their invasion against the Jewish people much like the Palestinians shoot rockets targeting Jewish school children. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6977346.stm The scripture of Psalms 137:7-9 is stating that what the Babylonians did against the Jews would divinely return back to them in the form of the coming Persian Empire. In fact, one could argue that Babylon is still reaping from their deeds of old in today's Iraq!
Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel has declared that Israel's enemies would reap what they have sown at the End of Days (Ezekiel. 35: 5-11). Keep in mind that Psalm 137 is one of the most Zionistic portions of scripture in the entire Bible. In it we find the great love for God's chosen people - the Jews, and for Zion - God's chosen place of worship. But also we find in it a bitter hatred for all those who hate and try to kill God's chosen and possess Zion for their own - kind of like what the Palestinians do.
So why do I hate the Palestinians? Simply put; because God does! Not that every single Palestinian is hated by God, for I know that God loves Palestinians such as Walid Shoebat - a Palestinian who has a deep devoted love for Israel and Israel's covenant with YHVH. But according to the Hebrew scriptures God hates all those who hate His covenant with Israel, which puts the Arab-Palestinians as a people first in line to be hated by God!
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To try and understand the depth of the very evil that lies within the Palestinian society, one must look at what they as a society are capable of. The following is a very small and incomplete list as to the kind of things that comes forth from out of the Palestinian people. While viewing this list ask yourself, "Why are the world nations (especially the United States lead by a conservative president) are so desperately seeking to grant these Palestinians (of all people) any kind of a political state?"
- Among the two great political parties that rule the Palestinians (Al-Fatah in the West Bank, and Hamas in the Gaza Strip) both covenants from both parties call for for an arms struggle and the destruction of the Jewish State of Israel. http://www.iris.org.il/plochart.htm http://www.palestinecenter.org/cpap/documents/charter.html
- The greatest forms of child abuse in all the world occur among the Palestinians. Children who are barely old enough to speak are taught to Jew-hate with words they don't even understand. http://www.youtube.com/watchv=ZL0C2QvqIlo This gives heed to the saying, "they drink the hatred with their mother's milk"! Just the picture alone (at the top of the article) speaks volumes of the Palestinian society.
- Children TV shows are shown in the name of Shahid (martyrdom). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gi-c6lbFGC4 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G4zgURMOZ6k
- Shahid (martyrdom) for children is glorified of official PA and Hamas television. http://www.pmw.org.il/ASK%20FOR%20DEATH.htm
- An exhibition of glorifying and celebrating suicide / mass murder is displayed with Palestinian gleeful acceptance at Al Najah University in the West Bank town of Nablus in September, 2001. http://www.gamla.org.il/english/feature/sbarro.htm This exhibition included many displays of body parts one of which was a bloody set of blue-jean wearing legs with no torso connected, still sitting on a chair. The bombing of Sbarro pizza restaurant in Jerusalem in which the exhibition re-enacts hits a little close to home. My wife and I personally eat there three years before this massacre occurred.
- School text books promote anti-Israel and pro shahid-martyrdom. http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Peace/patext1.html http://www.edume.org/research/testimonies/2007-05-15.html http://www.pmw.org.il/getresults/political/index.html#i214759
- Women who sends their sons to Jew-murder are given high status in Palestinian society, even to run for a government office. http://www.amitiesquebec-israel.org/texts/mother.htm
- Suicide murderers are glorified all through Palestinian controlled areas, in the form of billboards, street names, names of soccer fields, trading cards, names of hospitals, new babies named after suicide bombers, and children's events, songs, chants, and poems during parades, ect. http://programs.ssrc.org/gsc/gsc_quarterly/newsletter5/content/allen/ http://www.zoa.org/2003/07/palestinian_aut_13.htm Even "Saddam Hussein" whose Scud missiles hitting Tel-Aviv civilian areas brought Palestinian cheers, is honored in the Palestinian city of Jenin> http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=53882
- Suicide for the murder of Jews is an accepted norm and is a high form of religious devotion. Outside of martyrdom, there is no guarantee of reaching paradise for oneself and family members. This is one of the reasons candy is passed out in celebration at suicide / murderer's funeral. http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/013234.php
- One Hundred Thousand citizens of the would-be future State of Palestine attended the funeral of Yahya Ayyash (a.k.a. "the Engineer") not to mention the many funerals of other Palestinian terrorist and terrorist spiritual teachers like Sheikh Ahmed Yassin! I wonder how many of these one hundred thousand funeral attendees of Yahya Ayyash would consider themselves Palestinian moderates? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yahya_Ayyash Moreover, this Palestinian hero has traffic squares named after him in both Jenin and Jericho with no Palestinian complaints. Imagine that! This issue of glorifying and mass murderer among the Palestinians even became part of "peace" negotiation with such a people. See "article 6" section "h" > http://www.israelmfa.gov.il/MFA/Peace+Process/Guide+to+the+Peace+Process/Israeli+View+on+Palestinian+Security+Commitments.htm?DisplayMode=print
- Palestinians seek to destroy the God of Israel through a revised history of Holocaust and Temple denial, and stand as a barricade between God and His fulfillment of the covenant He has with His chosen people, the Jews. http://www.spme.net/cgi-bin/facultyforum.cgi?ID=1735
Muslim religious fervor has many different facets of Jew-murdering expressions that are fully exposed in the Palestinian society. From passing out candy at shahid funerals to eating flesh and drinking blood of Jewish victims as they did on October 12, 2000 in Ramallah> http://www.jihadwatch.org/archives/014886.php Yet, the Muslim world has the audacity to vilify Israel as the blood-libel people and state. It is these Palestinians who are on the front lines (even occupying a huge portion of the ancient land of Israel) in the Islamic war against the God of Israel!
The 64,000 dollar question: Does the God of Israel "hate" the Palestinians?
The politically-correct answer would be, "God loves everybody". However, the Bible is never politically correct. The Bible states very clearly that God hated Esau, who like the Palestinians wished to destroy Jacob / Israel.
"I have loved you, saith YHVH. Yet ye say, Wherein hast thou loved us? Was not Esau Jacob's brother? saith YHVH: yet I loved Jacob, And I hated (Hebrew: sanay-ti) Esau, and laid his mountains and his heritage waste for the dragons of the wilderness. Malachi 1:2,3
The New Testament correctly applies this scripture of God's hatred of an individual as also to the nation that proceeded from that individual (see Romans 9:12,13). The land that should be considered for a Palestinian state is all contained in the ancient writings of which the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is all about -the Bible. Aside from Mecca, the Palestinian spiritual base is that of Esau's - Mt. Seir in Jordan, which is why the prophecies of Ezekiel against Israel's most vicious enemy is not against the West Bank, for that is Israel's land and not the Palestinians! http://www.danielpipes.org/article/298
Take another look at the list above as to what the Palestinians are capable of and then see if you notice any similarities in the following scripture: "Because thou hast had a perpetual hatred, and hast shed the blood of the children of Israel by the force of the sword in the time of their calamity, in the time that their iniquity had an end...Because thou hast said, These two nations and these two countries shall be mine, and we will possess it; [sound familiar? > http://inbrief.threatswatch.org/2006/02/palestine-from-the-river-to-th/ ] whereas YHVH was there: Therefore, as I live saith YHVH God, I will even do according to thine anger, and according to thine envy which thou hast used out of thy hatred against them; and I will make Myself known among them, when I have judged thee. - Ezekiel 35:5, 10-111
One of the hardest scriptures for most people to understand and one that I personally had an atheist use in trying to discredit the Bible, is Psalms 137:7-9 which reads:Remember, O YHVH , the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be, that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.
The psalmist is not promoting that idea of killing innocent children for the sake of killing children. That would be what the enemies of the Bible and Israel would have you believe! This is the same mindset that the "Human Rights Watch" tried to sell the world (which the world willfully bought) when they accused Israel of killing 54 children in Qana, Lebanon during the 2006 Lebanon-Israeli War. Because of their spiritual state they didn't have the ability nor the will to considered the 4,000 rockets that was shot from civilian locations into Israel to start the war by which was indeed meant to kill as many Israeli citizens including children as possible!
When given over to dark forces the human mind can no longer judge between good and evil. This scripture in the book of Psalms is about God's judgment (of what He will allow to occur) in the form of reaping and sowing. Babylon had "dashed" Jewish babies against stones in their invasion against the Jewish people much like the Palestinians shoot rockets targeting Jewish school children. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/6977346.stm The scripture of Psalms 137:7-9 is stating that what the Babylonians did against the Jews would divinely return back to them in the form of the coming Persian Empire. In fact, one could argue that Babylon is still reaping from their deeds of old in today's Iraq!
Likewise, the prophet Ezekiel has declared that Israel's enemies would reap what they have sown at the End of Days (Ezekiel. 35: 5-11). Keep in mind that Psalm 137 is one of the most Zionistic portions of scripture in the entire Bible. In it we find the great love for God's chosen people - the Jews, and for Zion - God's chosen place of worship. But also we find in it a bitter hatred for all those who hate and try to kill God's chosen and possess Zion for their own - kind of like what the Palestinians do.
So why do I hate the Palestinians? Simply put; because God does! Not that every single Palestinian is hated by God, for I know that God loves Palestinians such as Walid Shoebat - a Palestinian who has a deep devoted love for Israel and Israel's covenant with YHVH. But according to the Hebrew scriptures God hates all those who hate His covenant with Israel, which puts the Arab-Palestinians as a people first in line to be hated by God!
As God commanded Israel to hate Amalek that his name be blotted out from under heaven for his deeds in using cowardly acts against Israel in possessing her land of inheritance (Deuteronomy 25:17-19) the modern Amaleks of today should be hated for their cowardly terrorist attacks on Jewish civilians who claim their land of inheritance as well. May Arafat's name and the names of those who support his goal be blotted out from under heaven! Amen? Amen!
"The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity." - Psalms 5:5
"YHVH tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence [terrorist Palestinians] His soul hates." - Pslams 11:5
Do not I hate them, O YHVH, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalms 139: 21-24
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Notes:
1. Psalms chapters 107-150 (the fifth section of the Pslams in the Hebrew Bible) are mostly liturgical psalms for pilgrimages to the temple and festivals.
"The boastful shall not stand in Your sight; You hate all workers of iniquity." - Psalms 5:5
"YHVH tests the righteous, But the wicked and the one who loves violence [terrorist Palestinians] His soul hates." - Pslams 11:5
Do not I hate them, O YHVH, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: And see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting. - Psalms 139: 21-24
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Notes:
1. Psalms chapters 107-150 (the fifth section of the Pslams in the Hebrew Bible) are mostly liturgical psalms for pilgrimages to the temple and festivals.
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"More important however than these excellent pragmatic reasons as to why America should support Israel is the biblical one. What follows is the exegetical case; the three major biblical chapters, when studied together, exclaim why every legislator, governmental leader, citizen, and human being should befriend Israel3: Those three chapters are Genesis 12, Romans 11 and Revelation 7. One need have these passages down cold; they are the preeminent drivers of conviction regarding unwavering support of Israel.
I. GENESIS 12
In Genesis 12:1-2 God makes a covenant with Abram. But before examining that in some detail, it is important to understand the whole of Genesis. There are two main divisions in the book, each possessing 4 sub-points. The first portion (1-11) deals with Beginnings: The Creation, Fall, Flood, and Dispersion. The second portion (12-50) of the book deals with the Patriarchs: Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph. We are picking the book up at the start of the second portion where God chooses a man from whom He will generate a family, a tribe, and then a whole nation: The nation of Israel, a distinctive nation as described by God Himself in Exodus 19:6 and Deuteronomy 7:6-8:
“AND YOU SHALL BE TO ME A KINGDOM OF PRIESTS, AND A HOLY NATION”
There are three unilateral promises that God makes with Abram: A land, a seed, and a blessing, as evidenced from this passage (12:1-2).
Now the LORD said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, And from your relatives And from your father’s house, To the land which I will show you; And I will make you a great nation, And I will bless you, And make your name great; And so you shall be a blessing…
This is where the case for being pro-Israel begins. Noteworthy here is God’s promise of a land which is referred to as the land of Canaan.4 Again, the promise of a land is critical to the study that follows because in the following (previously-cited in the prologue) verse (12:3) God states the consequences of not being an ally of His people and their land:
…And I will bless those who bless you, And the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed.
This passage at first glance seems quite straightforward except for this. Do the promises God made to Israel “evaporate” forever due to her rejection of the Messiah, Jesus Christ? There are many Evangelicals today who would answer in the affirmative. They reason that, due to Israel’s rejection of Jesus, God has replaced her with the Church. This is called Replacement Theology (RT) and it comes in many versions. RT reasons that the covenants herein made to Israel are null and void and spiritually accrue to the Church in the New Covenant of the New Testament, and are fulfilled more so in a spiritual sense of understanding than a physical one. For a time that is true, but not forever."
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"There are many passages that are found throughout the Bible that indicate God is not forever finished with Israel. Notice for starters the following passages in Genesis that use words like [unlimited] “descendants,” “forever,” and “everlasting” in describing the nature of the land promise. First notice Genesis 12:7:
The LORD appeared to Abram and said, “To your descendants I will give this land.” So he built an altar there to the LORD who had appeared to him.
There is no qualifier or limitation relative to the understanding of God’s meaning of “descendants” in the above passage. The same holds true in 13:15. Notice the word “forever”:
For all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever.
In 17:7 train your eyes on “everlasting covenant”:
I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you.
Israel’s right to hold onto the land (which someone last week commented they should give away) is stated in 17:8 (See endnote #4).
I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.
Summarily of the first point of the outline is that there is no limitation or qualification to God’s promise relative to the land God will give His people Israel. No passage of Scripture states “all bets are off forever if My people reject My coming Messiah….because if you do I will spiritualize these promises forever and give them to the Church.” What I am hinting at is this: The case for supporting Israel today turns on the immutability of the Abrahamic Covenant.
IF THE ABRAHAMIC PROMISES ARE NOW NULLIFED, THEN ONE IS CORRECT TO REASON THAT THERE IS NO BIBLICAL BASIS FOR AMERICA TO SUPPORT ISRAEL
If Israel’s rejection of Jesus voids the Abrahamic Covenant of Genesis 12, then it stands to reason that Israel has no future in God’s economy. If God is done with Israel, then why shouldn’t others be also? The truth is God has not replaced Israel forever with the Church, and that He has a huge future plan ahead for Israel; His promises to Israel are not nullified, as will be seen in these NT passages.5
II. ROMANS 11
This is a tremendously informative passage in light of the subject matter. In the context of Paul’s epistle to the Gentile Church at Rome, he inserts what is commonly referred to as the parenthetical chapters of 9 through 11 in his long letter.6 These three chapters reveal God’s plan for Israel. All need be read as a whole to capture the total impact, but having stated that, I have copied some of the pertinent portions to underscore the point: God has a bright future for Israel.
1 I say then, God has not rejected His people, has He? May it never be! For I too am an Israelite, a descendant of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. 2 God has not rejected His people whom He foreknew…” 11a I say then, they did not stumble so as to fall, did they? May it never be!
In God’s big plan He has temporarily sidetracked His chosen people. He did this right after they rejected their Messiah (cf. Matthew 27:51). This passage makes it clear that being sidetracked or having badly stumbled is to be distinguished from having been rejected or fallen.
During this period God is grafting in the Gentiles (cf. Eph. 2:12-13). Notice that idea from our passage:"
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"11b But by their transgression salvation has come to the Gentiles, to make them jealous. 12 Now if their transgression is riches for the world and their failure is riches for the Gentiles, how much more will their fulfillment be!
God will greatly bless Israel in the future — when He fulfills His covenant promises to her. Paul continues in his reasoning to the Gentiles at Rome, metaphorically calling Gentiles a “wild olive [branch] grafted in…”
16 and if the root is holy, the branches are too. 17 But if some of the branches were broken off, and you, being a wild olive, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them of the rich root of the olive tree
This is a great word picture. Speaking further about the hardened hearts of Israel, a people having previously rejected Jesus, there remains much hope…
23 And they also, if they do not continue in their unbelief, will be grafted in, for God is able to graft them in again. 24 For if you were cut off from what is by nature a wild olive tree, and were grafted contrary to nature into a cultivated olive tree, how much more will these who are the natural branches be grafted into their own olive tree?
To paraphrase Dr. Charles Ryrie, a leading professor at Dallas Theological Seminary (a theologian with a consistent hermeneutic, see endnote #7), Israel has been sidetracked while God gathers in the Gentiles. In the end times however, God will bring Israel back on track, joining up with the now much larger heavenly bound train. During this period of biblical history in which we live, Israel’s hearts are, for the most part, hardened. States Paul:
25 For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery….that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; 26 and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written….28 From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; 29 for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.
Yes, presently Israel is a Gospel-rejecter, but for the sake of the fathers (the great OT saints) God will honor Israel at a future time when they too will come to Christ en masse (fr. “all together”); God is ever mindful of His irrevocable promises; after all He is immutable in His character (“incapable of change”).7
At a future time (by the way, Harold Camping of Family Radio, a time that “no one knows” [Matthew 24:36]) after God gives Israel back their land, He will change their hearts toward Jesus; this is evident in the clear and powerful passage of Ezekiel 36:24-36:
24 For I will take you from the nations, gather you from all the lands and bring you into your own land. 25 “Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you will be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. 26 “Moreover, I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; and I will remove the heart of stone from your flesh and give you a heart of flesh.”
Stemming from this passage, there should be no doubt: God is not finished with Israel. Prior to examining the fulfillment of these promises in the prophetic book of Revelation, it is important to emphasize that forever Replacement Theology8 is herein discounted by Romans 7 and Ezekiel 36; it is evident here that God will be faithful to His own unilateral covenant of Genesis 12. Therefore it stands to reason that His two-way “if-then” covenant of 12:3 also remains immutable. That is to say this: The promise of blessing or else cursing those who bless or curse Israel remains intact today, which more than insinuates and informs — it screams loudly — as to what American foreign policy should be relative to Israel!"
& Continues
"III. REVELATION 7
This passage of Scripture reveals that there will be 144,000 Jewish evangelists who will herald the Second Coming of Messiah. What a massively huge turnaround will occur in Israel between now and then; at this point in time the hardened hearts descriptive of Israel in Romans 11 and Ezekiel 36 are obviously absent:
4 And I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel…
Numerous other passages speak of the rebirth of Israel and her inheritance of Jerusalem in conjunction with the Second Coming of the Messiah. These important passages include Zechariah 12:10; Psalms 132:13-14; 2Chronicles 12:13b; 33:4 & 7b; 1Chronicles 23:25; 1Kings 11:36b and 2Kings 21:7b. The plain meaning of these texts indicates that Israel will not only reinherit the land, but her heart will have been changed and the coming Messiah will bless the whole earth as He reigns in perfect majesty from Jerusalem as the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.
A flurry of people will put their faith in the Messiah during these end times (cf. Matthew 24:14).
9 After these things I looked, and behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from every nation and all tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb, clothed in white robes, and palm branches were in their hands.
Salvation is the main theme due to the effectiveness of the 144,000 worldwide Jewish evangelists:
10 and they cry out with a loud voice, saying, “Salvation to our God who sits on the throne, and to the Lamb.” 11 And all the angels were standing around the throne and around the elders and the four living creatures; and they fell on their faces before the throne and worshiped God, 12 saying, “Amen, blessing and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might, be to our God forever and ever. Amen.”
What a glorious scene! What follows is the 1000-year Jewish-cultured Millennial Kingdom where Jesus will reign over all the earth from Jerusalem — wherein in the Abrahamic Covenant will be literally and ultimately fulfilled!"
& lastly says
"CONCLUSION
Since God is not through with Israel, and since God has a huge future plan for Israel, it stands to reason — based on the healthy fear all should possess relative to Genesis 12:3 — that all individuals and all nations should be sure to stand on the side of Israel. Amen!
1 Romans 11:12a speaks specifically to this.2 Gildner, George The Israel Test (Minneapolis: Richard Vigilante Books, 2009)
3 Obviously this statement should not be taken too far so as to mean a blanket endorsement of everything the nation might engage in or do that is ethically or morally unsubstantiated.
4 Later in Israel’s history, Joshua will lead Israel into the Promised Land. In Joshua 3:16 Scripture records that they crossed the Jordan River at a location east of Jericho, which means they crossed just north of the Dead Sea. I mention all that to make a simple point: If Israel were to now revert to her territory prior to the Six-Day War, she would in essence be forfeiting this area originally promised to them by God as an “everlasting possession” (cf. Gen. 17:8).
5 There will be two unique people of God relative to future things: Both Israel and the Church. The later does not eclipse the former, as many NT and OT passages evidence, nor will the former enter the Kingdom of God apart from salvation in Christ, per John 14:6 and Acts 4:12. In a real sense the spiritual blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant accrue to the Church for a time (until God grafts Israel back in) due to the present apostasy of Israel, having executed the Messiah.
6 Paul’s first-century letter to the Gentile Church of Rome pertains to God’s sweeping program for Gentile followers of Christ. It is his summum bonum (lat. “supreme good”) his magnum opus (lat. “greatest work”) pertaining to God’s plan for salvation. He therefore begins his thesis by painting the world in sin (1:1-3:21); in chapters 3:21-5 he presents God’s plan of salvation from sin. In chapters 5-8 he progresses into how the believer ought to live in this world, a discussion he continues in chapters 12-16 after the herein-mentioned parenthetical discussion of God’s plan for Israel. In the contextual thesis of the whole it makes perfect sense that Paul (himself a Jew) would include an overview of God’s summum bonum and magnum opus for the Jews too! This insight into the greater context of the passages under study adds much weight as to the authorial intent for their inclusion, lending much weight to a literal understanding of their meaning. One should therefore not take liberty to “spiritualize” the parenthetical chapters, as if Paul’s language were now suddenly and conversely symbolic, figurative, allegorical, or poetic. Context does not permit such interpretive license.
7 It is important to underscore the truths of John 14:6 and Acts 4:12 as it relates to Israel. No one will enter the Kingdom of God apart from faith in Christ. In the End Times a person will not go to heaven just because they are Jewish; it is not as if there is a second pathway to heaven that circumvents the way of the Cross.
8 Replacement Theologians often change their hermeneutic when dealing with prophetic passages so as to avoid the plain meaning, the authorial intent, or literality of passages like these so as to fit a predetermined theological disposition. That is to say, they do not consistently apply a grammatical, historical, normative interpretive approach to such passages (like they do the remainder of Scripture, wherein they reason for instance, their convictions relative to their salvation). I believe that to change one’s interpretive rules relative to Bible passages is incongruent; such is to engage in hopscotch hermeneutics."
From www.barnesandnoble.com a good book to order is titled Covid Safety Book Annex Membership Educators Gift Cards
" Defying the Holocaust: Ten Courageous Christians Who Supported Jews"
by Tim Dowley
Overview
"During the Second World War, Christians from many nations and denominations stepped forward with courage, ingenuity and determination to protect and rescue Jews from the Holocaust. In doing so they risked their lives, and many died. Some, such as Corrie ten Boom, are celebrated, but most have been ignored. Historian Tim Dowley tells ten stories of these extraordinary women and men.
Introduction The Nazi Holocaust: A Timeline
Chapter 1: A Most Unorthodox Nun: Mother Maria of Paris
Chapter 2: Pestilent Priests: Revd Hugh Grimes and Revd Frederick Collard, Vienna
Chapter 3: The Borders of Heaven: Jane Haining, Budapest
Chapter 4: No Hiding Place: Corrie ten Boom, Harlem
Chapter 5: Quakers and U-boats: Dr Elisabeth Abegg, Berlin
Chapter 6: The Constant Midwife: Stanislawa Leszczynska, Lódz
Chapter 7: The Monk on a Bicycle: Dom Bruno Reynders, Brussels
Chapter 8: The Vatican Pimpernel: Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty, Rome
Chapter 9: Committed Swedes: Pastors Erik Perwe and Erik Myrgren, Berlin
Chapter 10: An Elusive Missionary: Elsie Tilney, Vittel"
The website for The Center for Christian Thought cct.biola.edu
"The Failure of Christian Love in the Holocaust"
Andrew Tix
What were the psychological factors that went into Christian violence, absence, silence and overall abject failure of love during the Holocaust?
Andrew Tix
Instructor of Psychology, Normandale Community College / Blog: https://thequestforagoodlife.wordpress.com/
May 4, 2016
Love
Psychology
Suffering
“What must I do to inherit eternal life?,” Jesus once was asked. A discussion followed, in which the two “great commandments” were affirmed: “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’”
“Put simply, the history of Holocaust testifies to a glaring failure of Christian love.”
“And who is my neighbor?,” asked the questioner. Jesus answered with the parable of the Good Samaritan. In this story, Jesus demonstrates that being well-educated in religion or having a reputation for being religious do not necessarily translate into love of neighbor. Rather, love is expressed when we have mercy on someone in need, even if that person differs in belief, race, or social class (Luke 10:25-37).
The Christian Response to the Holocaust
Reflecting on the behavior of Christians during the Holocaust, Stephen Smith, co-founder and Director of the Beth Shalom Holocaust Memorial Centre in the United Kingdom, offered an alternative parable.
“There was once a man going about his business, trying to live out his life peacefully and without offence to those around him. One day as he went about his life, a group of men set upon him. They robbed him and they stripped him and they left him on the side of the road for dead. Presently, along came an educated, God-fearing and good man; a man known for his generosity and charity. He saw the man who had been beaten and robbed, but he crossed over the road and carried on his way. Shortly, along came a priest, a well-respected man of wisdom and of learning. Seeing his neighbor in distress, he too crossed over to the other side; after all, he would not be seen helping a Jew. And so the Jew lay in the gutter waiting for the Good Samaritan.
But there was no Good Samaritan.
Not this time.”1
Never Forget or Never Remember?
Although most have heard the maxim to “never forget,” remembering the Holocaust is difficult. Most have learned some of the agonizing history, that approximately 6,000,000 Jews and 5,000,000 others—including Roma and Sinti gypsies, political opponents, gays, Jehovah’s Witnesses, disabled, and mentally ill persons—were systematically murdered. Most do not connect with the reality that victims were people just like us—moms, dads, sisters, brothers, and grandparents. Most do not realize that 1 in 4 of those killed in the Holocaust were infants and children. These numbers easily evade us; we simply do not remember the horrific stories associated with each individual victim.
The remains of Holocaust victims found in extermination camp ovens.
Christian Culpability for the Holocaust
The seeds for the Holocaust lay in the history of anti-Semitism, a strand of which has long been perpetuated in the Christian Church. Beginning soon after Christ died, some inaccurately blamed Jews for the crucifixion. For centuries, many also have struggled with the fact that Jews do not convert to faith in Christ. Partly because of these reasons, Martin Luther wrote his book, On the Jews and Their Lies, in which he describes Jews as “base, whoring people, that is, no people of God, and their boast of lineage, circumcision, and law must be accounted as filth.” He goes on to give “sincere advice” to Christians that includes calls to set the Jews’ synagogues and schools on fire, raze and destroy their houses, and take their prayer books and Talmudic writings. Luther’s stated motivation may be even more striking: “This is to be done in honor of our Lord and of Christendom, so that God might see that we are Christians.”2
the article continues
"Such sentiments often were quoted and circulated in Nazi Germany as rationale for the Holocaust. In fact, according to Victoria Barnett, Director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s Programs on Ethics, Religion, and the Holocaust, there is considerable evidence of anti-Semitism in sermons and church publications during the 1930s. Some Christian leaders further warned against any public demonstration of support for Jews during this time.3 In addition, churches willingly provided documentation (for example, baptismal and marriage records) to those who wished to establish “Aryan” bloodlines in order to avoid being identified as Jewish.
“…it is critical to understand that many of the same forces that allowed the Holocaust continue to exert themselves today.”
It is crucial to remember that the Holocaust sprang from a predominantly Christian part of the world. In fact, Holocaust historian Doris Bergen notes that approximately 95 percent of Germans at that time were baptized into the Christian faith. Many who declared Jesus as “Lord and Savior” were personally involved in the atrocities.4
The conclusion that religious studies Professor and Presbyterian minister Stephen Haynes draws is that,
“[A]lthough Christian anti-Judaism did not by itself make the Holocaust possible… [it] could not have occurred without Christianity.”5
Put simply, the history of Holocaust testifies to a glaring failure of Christian love.
The Psychology of Holocaust Perpetrators
When trying to understand why other people engage in heinous acts of various kinds, it is common to focus on explanations that distinguish “us” vs. “them.” For instance, when trying to explain how individuals could have engaged in Holocaust atrocities, a common reaction is to distance ourselves, reassured by the simplistic idea that “they” must have been “evil” beings ravaged by hatred. This becomes more difficult for contemporary Christians to do when they realize that many Holocaust perpetrators were Christian in at least some significant sense.
To gain real insight, it is critical to understand that many of the same forces that allowed the Holocaust continue to exert themselves today—in the world, in the Christian Church, and in our selves.
Scratch marks line the interior of gas chambers found at the death camps.
Indeed, most analyses of Holocaust behavior conclude that it wasn’t pure “evil” or hatred that can explain what actually happened. If there is any one attitude that characterized perpetrators’ attitudes toward victims, it was indifference.6
This raises many disturbing and challenging questions. For example, how could the Christian Church fail so dramatically in love, often contributing attitudes and actions that contributed to indifference, prejudice, and murder? How should Christians respond to the Holocaust? Finally, how can the Christian Church deepen its faith and love, to be able to treat diverse neighbors in need as Jesus role modelled and taught?
To honor those who suffered, we must wrestle with, pray about, and discuss these kinds of difficult questions."
& continues
"Miroslav Volf on “Thick vs. Thin” Christianity
Miroslav Volf, Theology Professor and Founding Director of the Yale Center for Faith and Culture, was raised amidst ethnic and religious conflict in Communist Yugoslavia in the early 1990s. He witnessed mass prejudice and violence perpetrated by fellow Christians in ways reminiscent of the Holocaust. Volf has spent much of his life trying to understand how religion—Christianity, in particular—can promote mass prejudice and violence.
To make sense of this, Volf distinguishes between “thin” religion and “thick” religion. “Thin” religion, according to Volf, involves a misconstrued, superficial, vague, and formulaic kind of faith that selfishly serves “primarily to energize and heal”; it often is influenced by factors outside of the faith itself, including national or economic interests. In contrast, “thick” religion “maps a way of life” and connects with an “ongoing tradition with strong ties to its origins and history. . . with clear cognitive and moral content.” Ultimately, “thick” religion connects deeply with a sacred text which, properly understood, encourages love of one’s neighbor, no matter what that neighbor’s background may be.
"We German Christians are the first trenchline of National Socialism… To live, fight, and die for Adolf Hitler means to say yes to the path of Christ." (Ludwig Müller, German theologian and imposed "Reich Bishop")
Volf concludes that: “‘Thin’ but zealous practice of the Christian faith is likely to foster violence; ‘thick’ and committed practice will help generate and sustain a culture of peace.”7
Psychological research supports Volf’s conclusion. Based on a distinction originally made by Gordon Allport between “extrinsic” religiousness and “intrinsic” religiousness, decades of studies reveal that faith motivated by secondary gain is associated with greater prejudice, while faith motivated by sincere belief is associated with less prejudice.8
Based on this, it seems that much of the “Christianity” practiced during the Holocaust likely was quite “thin,” motivated mostly by national, economic, and self-interests. Indeed, Nazism and Christianity sometimes were merged during the Holocaust in dramatically twisted ways. Ludwig Müller is an example of one prominent clergy member who advocated for such integration, including the removal of all Jewish connections with Christianity, ultimately leading Hitler to appoint him as bishop of the official Reich church. As Müller stated, “We German Christians are the first trenchline of National Socialism… To live, fight, and die for Adolf Hitler means to say yes to the path of Christ.”9
A “thicker” Christianity would have drawn more deeply from Scripture and tradition to bear witness to a countercultural love of neighbor, despite differences in background and in spite of possible threat of harm. This kind of behavior is, after all, what Jesus exemplified and taught.
Indifference and Dehumanization
One particular factor that contributed to the indifference individuals had toward the victims of the Holocaust was a powerful “ingroup bias.” It actually is quite common for we humans to regard members of our group and those who belong to it as better than others outside our group. During the Holocaust, this bias went to an extreme, ultimately resulting in the perception of Jews and others as less than human—falling outside the realm of humanity, and thus losing the dignity afforded by membership in the human family."
& continues
“They Were Cargo”: The Moral Erosion of Franz Stangl
Gitta Sereny interviews Franz Stangl in 1970, shortly after his arrest in Brazil.
The case of Franz Stangl is illustrative. Stangl worked at the T4 euthanasia program in Berlin before becoming Commander of the Sobibor and Treblinka extermination camps, overseeing the deaths of approximately 1,000,000 people. Raised Catholic, a key moment in Stangl’s moral erosion came when he signed a card signifying that he relinquished allegiance to the Catholic Church (but not to God). He was the only Commandant of a camp brought to trial, and ultimately was sentenced to a life sentence in prison.
While in prison, Stangl agreed to a series of interviews with journalist Gitta Sereny. In a key exchange during one of these interviews, Sereny asked Stangl about whether he felt the Jews weren’t really human.
Stangl replied:
“When I was on a trip once, years later in Brazil… my train stopped next to a slaughterhouse. The cattle in the pens, hearing the noise of the train, trotted up to the fence and stared at the train. They were very close to my window, one crowded the other, looking at me through that fence. I thought then, ‘Look at this; this reminds me of Poland; that’s just how the people looked…”
Sereny followed up by asking:
“So you didn’t feel they were human beings?”
Stangl answered:
“Cargo. . . they were cargo.”10
Obviously, to the extent that Stangl retained any kind of belief in God and Christ, this demonstrates a very “thin” kind of Christian religiousness. “Thick” Christian faith includes a recognition of shared humanity and a sense that each person, irrespective of belief, race, or social class, has a Divine “spark,” stemming from the reality that they also were made in God’s image.
"My conscience was clear. I was simply doing my duty..." (Franz Stangl, SS Commandant over Sobibór and Treblinka)
The Bystander Effect
Whereas some Christians actively perpetrated the atrocities of the Holocaust, others merely stood by. When the Nazi regime started gaining power, most Catholic and Protestant church leaders did little to resist. This is an instance of what social psychologists call “the bystander effect.” Research on the bystander effect suggests that such behavior, at least in part, is explained by the human tendency to diffuse responsibility to others during difficult circumstances. Along with this, psychological research suggests that the bystander effect is more likely to occur when individuals engage in “pluralistic ignorance,” where a majority of people might privately reject some idea (in this case, the idea that Jews aren’t human) but incorrectly assume everyone else accepts that idea, so they go along with the crowd. Some explain this as a state in which,
“No one believes, but everyone thinks that everyone believes.”
& continues
"It’s the belief that since others around me do not seem to be concerned, there is no reason for me to actively resist.11
Franz Stangl again provides an illustration. When he was appointed to a post in the T4 euthanasia program, Stangl wasn’t sure about participating. However, when he heard that a prominent Catholic scholar said that the Church didn’t necessarily disagree with the program, that there always had been a debate about euthanasia, Stangl consented to his involvement.1
Standing Up with Thick Faith
If the leaders of the Christian Church had “stood up” to Nazism—if large numbers of the Christian faithful in general would have “stood up”—history likely would be significantly different today. Indeed, “standing up” to oppression of various kinds is a key aspect of “thick” faith.
There were Christian individuals and groups that did “stand up” in heroic fashion. These are often considered “righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust.” Researchers have tried to understand what factors predicted who rescued those in harm’s way during the Holocaust. Some reasons are instructive, and include having a close relationship with someone in need of help, seeking to obey Biblical teachings about love and, in a dramatic reversal of historical anti-Semitic views, feeling a spiritual kinship with those of Jewish faith.13
Unfortunately, these individuals and groups represented a minority of the Christian Church. [You can read some of the encouraging stories of these few righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust in David Gushee’s Righteous Gentiles of the Holocaust; also see Weapons of the Spirit. –Ed.]
Post-Holocaust Christianity
Ever since the fact of the Holocaust came to light, the Christian Church has wrestled with how to come to terms with what occurred and how to respond accordingly. It seems wise to begin by acknowledging the transgressions that took place, to confess them as sins, and to try to address the problems in Christianity that they revealed.
Nostra Aetate
Some progress has been made in the post-Holocaust Church, at least in formal declarations that have been released. The best example occurred fifty years ago when, as a part of the Second Vatican Council, the Catholic Church released Nostra Aetate. Although the Council did not directly mention the Holocaust, it did explicitly acknowledge that Jews were not responsible for the death of Jesus, and that Jews alive today shouldn’t bear any guilt for the crucifixion, thereby correcting one of the key historical underpinnings of anti-Semitism. Furthermore, it presented a vision of the historical and spiritual connection between Jews and Christians, with Jesus, his mother, and the apostles all being prime examples of individuals who expressed their Jewishness at various points in life."
& continues
“The cure against Christian violence is not less of the Christian faith, but, in a carefully qualified sense, more of the Christian faith.” (Miroslav Volf)
More broadly, it condemned, “as foreign to the mind of Christ, any discrimination against [people] or harassment of them because of their race, color, condition of life, or religion.” Noting that “whoever does not love does not know God” (1 John 4:8), the declaration concludes by imploring the Christian faithful to “live at peace with everyone” (Romans 12:18) so that they truly may be “children of their Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:45).14
Whether or not the Christian Church truly has learned these lessons to the point of widespread application is an open question. The challenge to love individuals across different beliefs, races, and social classes still is overwhelmingly evident in many Christian circles.
Less Christianity or Better Christianity?
It is common for critics of religion—for example, so-called “New Atheists”—to point out how religion is one of the great causes of mass prejudice and violence. If only we could eliminate religion, they often say, the world would be better off.
Rather than being defensive, the Church would do well to humbly remember the prejudice and violence that it has perpetuated and prayerfully seek to apply lessons learned today. We don’t need to “throw out the baby with the bathwater.” Instead, we can learn to draw more deeply from Scripture and tradition in ways that nurture seeds of Christlike love, justice, and peace.
As Miroslav Volf concludes:
“The cure against Christian violence is not less of the Christian faith, but, in a carefully qualified sense, more of the Christian faith. I don’t mean, of course, that the cure against violence lies in increased religious zeal; blind religious zeal is part of the problem. Instead, it lies in stronger and more intelligent commitment to the Christian faith as faith.”15"
& lastly says
"About the Author
Andrew Tix
Instructor of Psychology, Normandale Community College / Blog: https://thequestforagoodlife.wordpress.com/
Andy Tix (PhD Counseling Psychology University of Minnesota) teaches in the Psychology and Religious Studies programs at Normandale Community College in Bloomington, Minnesota. He specializes in the psychology of religion and spirituality. He blogs at: https://thequestforagoodlife.wordpress.com/
More from Andrew Tix
Overwhelmed by Greatness: The Psychological Significance of Awe in Christian Experience and Formation
References
References
1. Smith, S. D. (2000). “Is There a Future for Christianity?” In C. Rittner, S. D. Smith, & I. Steinfeldt (Eds.), The Holocaust and the Christian World.
2. Luther, M. (1543). On the Jews and Their Lies. Retrieved from: http://www.preteristarchive.com/Books/1543_luther_jews.html
3. Barnett, V. J. (2000). “The Role of the Churches: Compliance and Confrontation.” In C. Rittner, S. D. Smith, & I. Steinfeldt (Eds.), The Holocaust and the Christian World.
4. Bergin, D. L. (2000). “Collusion, Resistance, Silence: Protestants and the Holocaust.” In C. Rittner, S. D. Smith, & I. Steinfeldt (Eds.), The Holocaust and the Christian World.
5. Hayes, S. R. (2000). “Protestant Responses to the Holocaust.” In C. Rittner, S. D. Smith, & I. Steinfeldt (Eds.), The Holocaust and the Christian World.
6. Mushman, D. (2005). “Genocidal Hatred: Now You See It, Now You Don’t.” In R. J. Sternberg (Ed.), The Psychology of Hate.
7. Volf, M. (2011). A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good.
8. Allport, G. W., & Ross, J. M. (1967). “Personal Religious Orientation and Prejudice.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 5, 432-443.
9. Rittner, C., Smith, S. D., & Steinfeldt, I. (2000). The Holocaust and the Christian World.
10. Sereny, G. (1983). Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience.
11. Marsh, J., & Keltner. D. (2006). We Are All Bystanders. Retrieved from: http://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/we_are_all_bystanders/
12. Sereny, G. (1983). Into that Darkness: An Examination of Conscience.
13. Gushee, D. P. (2000). “Rescuers: Their Motives and Morals.” In C. Rittner, S. D. Smith, & Irena Steinfeldt (Eds.), The Holocaust and the Christian World.
14. Nostra Aetate (1965). Retrieved from: http://www.vatican.va/archive/hist_councils/ii_vatican_council/documents/vat-ii_decl_19651028_nostra-aetate_en.html
15. Volf, M. (2011). A Public Faith: How Followers of Christ Should Serve the Common Good."
A book published in 1993 was titled "Christians and the Holocaust" by the Working Group on Interfaith Relations, National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA
The opening of the book says :
" May, 1993 Dear Reader:
As uncomfortable as it may be to address, the Holocaust is an important part of Christian history. It is not solely a traumatic and recent experience of our Jewish sisters and brothers. In fact, Christians have much to gain by engaging in study and commemoration of the Holocaust.
We hope that this booklet will provide you the resources for congregational study of that histo~and of the theological and ethical questions it poses. The worship resources offer sugges tions you might want to use to plan a commemoration of the Holocaust.
The immediate occasion for this new resource is the opening of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, DC, on April 22, 1993. That museum will offer the American people a unique way to enter into the years of the Nazi era, in which millions of Gypsies, Slavs, Poles and others were persecuted and killed, and to understand the events that culminated in the "final solution", the systematic extermination of 60% of the Jews of Europe. We hope that these materials will encourage congregations to make use of the educational resource of the Museum and its programs."
The Table of Contents for the Book "Christians and the Holocaust" is
INTRODUCTION
RESOURCES FOR REFLECTION
Why Talk About the Holocaust?
A Brief Outline of the Holocaust
The Uniqueness of the Holocaust
Presidents Commission on the Holocaust
Theological Questions Posed by the Holocaust
The Holocaust and Christian Responsibility Dr. Eugene Fisher
The Holocaust and Black America Dr. Hubert Locke
RESOURCES FOR WORSHIP
Liturgical Resources for Commemorating Yom haShoah Prayer
Guidelines for Jews and Christians in Joint Worship
A Holocaust Commemoration
RESOURCES FOR STUDY Suggestions
Bibliography
The book continues : Resources for Reflection
WHY TALK ABOUT THE HOLOCAUST
In many of our local communities, annual I commemorations of the Holocaust are held, often jointly planned and conducted by church and synagogue leaders. Holocaust Commemoration Day, Yom haShoah, is marked on the calendars of many Christian denomina tions. However, it is still the unusual congrega tion that studies the history of those dark events, or explores the ethical and theological questions
they raise.
Often, when this topic is suggested, or when the Holocaust arises in conversation, Christians ask, Why should we talk about that?
Those among us who have relationships with Jews are likely to know that for them there is no escaping coming to terms with the pain and anti Semitic virulence of this Nazi attempt to extermi nate their people. Some Christians ask, though, if this is not solely a Jewish concern.
Others resist having to look at, or see again, the horrors of the concentration camps and ghet toes. They ask if it is a good idea to bring up this disturbing piece of the past. Isn't it better simply to let it be past? Why delve into it now?
Still others have had the experience of encoun tering the Holocaust in a way that has made them feel very guilty. Many feel that they are being asked to accept the blame, somehow, for
what happened in Europe fifty years ago. Those who are not of European origin, and those who did not live through World War IT, do not want to pay a price for what others who may have called themselves Christian did.
There is no doubt that a study of the Holocaust is an emotional experience. It inevitably brings the student face-to-face with statistics, stories and pic tures of calculated forced labor and mechanized genocide on a scale that is difficult to comprehend. It confronts evil directly, forcing us to look into the dark side of what humanity is capable of doing.
Paradoxically in the midst of this night, the his tory of this period also highlights individua1s and communities that risked their lives for others. Genocide, and other modem abuses of whole populations, moreover, are still a concern in our world. Anti-Semitism in less virulent forms remains alive. From a study of the Holocaust and of its uniqueness we can learn much about the dynamics that lie at the heart of these realities, and about what motivates resistance and rescue as well. We can think about how to create the kind of future we want for ourselves and our children.
Moreover, the story of the Holocaust is Christian history just as much as it is Jewish his tory. The events took place in Europe, which was primarily Christian and largely shaped by Christian influences. Most of those who ran the
3
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camps and ovens were baptized if non-practicing Christians. Some groups of those who were killed were also Christians. The Holocaust raises difficult questions about the racial ideology and other factors that allowed people to plan, con duct or collaborate in such events.
Studying the Holocaust can be an opportunity to look beyond guilt feelings and begin to explore why it was that Christians and Christian teaching were not able to generate massive resistance to Hitler's program. Such study gives a chance to ask what responsibility Christians could have taken in
those events, and what prevented and in some cases allowed them to exercise their ethical convic tions. It also allows us to ask what responsibility Christian teaching had in shaping the racial anti Semitism of Nazi Germany.
Finally, a study of the Holocaust can bring us into an encounter with important theological issues. Where was God in Auschwitz? How can one speak of God's omnipotence and mercy in the face of these events? Does the Holocaust affect our understanding of God at all?"
We at this blog are Proud to say, Good that Saeb Erekat is Dead, thank God he's dead, His Death Brings Glory to God !!!
Saeb Erekat was just another rotten Arab Terrorist, a so-called "Palestinian" . his Ugly Arab Ass can Rot in Hell for all Eternity ,
Again, Good that Saeb Erekat is Dead, he died of the Coronavirus/Covid-19 on November 10, 2020 at the age of 65,
Countless People are thrilled that the Arab POS Erekat is dead, countless people are saying Good that he's Dead, he was No
"Negotiator" he was just Another Arab Terrorist,
The website israelnationalnews.com had an article titled
"It is not moral to help Saeb Erekat" on October 21, 2020
Just because the media think it is moral, that doesn't make it so. US Jews may commend it now, but they don't bear the results.
Many voices have praised Israel's decision to provide medical treatment to COVID-stricken PLO Secretary General Saeb Erekat, arguing that it shows Israel's superior morality.
But while providing treatment to a man responsible for the countless deaths of innocent Israelis might play well on social media, that doesn't make it moral.
Saeb Erekat is a terrorist. He is not a terrorist with a gun or a suicide belt, but he is a terrorist nonetheless.
For the past three decades, Erekat has been one of the most prominent Palestinian Arab leaders responsible for inciting terrorism and hatred against Israel.
He has done it all – from spreading vicious blood libels against IDF soldiers to justifying stabbing attacks and praising terrorists.
In fact, Erekat was transferred to Jerusalem's Hadassah Medical Center just one day after the 19th anniversary of the murder of Israeli minister Rehavam Ze'evi, whose assassination was planned by the PFLP terror group head Ahmad Sa'adat, a dear friend of Erekat.
In 2010, Erekat even sent Sa'adat a warm letter expressing his "strongest emotions of solidarity and brotherhood." Calling Sa'adat his "dear brother," Erekat praised his "steadfast resistance" and wished that they will "meet soon and celebrate the victory, liberation and freedom."
As head of the PLO, Erekat is involved in incentivizing terrorism by facilitating "pay-to-slay" payments to Palestinian Arab terrorists who murdered Jews.
A propagator of BDS, Erekat actively lobbies the International Criminal Court to prosecute Israel for war crimes and even petitioned the European Union against its decision to cut funding of Palestinian Arab NGOs that refuse to denounce terrorism.
Israel could have told Erekat to go elsewhere and respect the boycott that his cronies in the Palestinian Authority instituted last year against Israeli hospitals.
And the list goes on and on.
Is it really moral to provide such a person with VIP treatment funded by the Israeli taxpayer? I would argue no."
the article continues
"It is spitting in the faces of the citizens of Israel and of all those bereaved families whose loved ones were murdered by Palestinian Arab terrorism. It conveys the message that the humanity of our enemies comes before the humanity of our own citizens.
Arguments that refusing treatment to Erekat would somehow hurt Israel's international image are understandable, although Israel's humanitarian gestures have long fallen on deaf ears. But let's not delude ourselves into thinking that it is the moral thing to do, or that it is a Jewish value to help an evil man with so much blood on his hands.
What is done is done, and now that Erekat is intubated, Israel cannot halt his treatment. But Israel could have told Erekat to go elsewhere and respect the boycott that his cronies in the Palestinian Authority instituted last year against Israeli hospitals.
There are hospitals in Jordan, Turkey, and yes, even in the Palestinian Authority. If only Erekat would've used some of his estimated five million dollar net worth toward improving medical care instead of embezzling money from his own people, he could have received proper care in a Palestinian Authority hospital."
the article lastly says
"So yes, now we get to tell the world how humane Israel is because we provided treatment to our enemy (as if that will change anyone's mind about the conflict). But at what cost?
If he dies, Israel will undoubtedly be blamed just as when Erekat peddled the lie that Israel poisoned Yasser Arafat. If he recovers, it will show Erekat and the rest of the Palestinian Arab leadership that intransigence and terrorism pays off.
The famous saying from the Talmudic Midrash, "He who is merciful to the cruel will ultimately be cruel to the merciful," has never been more relevant.
Eytan Meir is the director of external relations and development for Im Tirtzu, Israel's largest grassroots Zionist movement. imti.org.il/en
"Im Tirtzu is, in my opinion, the most influential movement in Israel in recent years." -- Carmi Gillon, former Director of the Shabak (Israel Security Agency)" We at this blog again say, Good that Erekat is Dead, thank God that ugly Arab turd Erekat is Dead, he should have never been born, his Mother should have Aborted Him, either that or thrown him into a Garbage Can after she shat him out giving birth to him, Saeb Erekat was just another Arab Terrorist Murderer, just another Arab Monster , the Death of Erekat brings Glory to God & Glory to Israel, & is Cause for all Pro-Israel People Worldwide to Celebrate !!!
From the JewishPress.com website an article about the Inherently Evil Arab Criminal Nature of the late
Saeb Erekat
the article is titled
"Saeb Erekat: In his Own Words"
By Palestinian Media Watch - 24 Heshvan 5781 – November 10, 2020 0
Saeb Erekat, Palestine Liberation Organization
{Reposted from the PMW website}
Support for terror and terrorists
Rewriting history
Threatening “chaos and bloodshed” in response to US embassy move to Jerusalem
“Peace” as a means to destroy Israel
For almost three decades, PLO Chief Negotiator Saeb Erekat touted himself as a man of peace. In his role as Mr. Peace, Erekat traveled the world to sweet talk the willfully blind with the illusion of the Palestinian moderation, flexibility, and thirst for peace. But at home, in Arabic, Erekat, in his dominant role as Dr. Terror, made his true feelings clearly heard. Support for terrorists, whitewashing terror organizations and terror, threats of violence, rewriting history, and perpetuating libels against Israel, are just some of the views and actions espoused and carried out by Erekat.
While Palestinian Media Watch has often exposed the statements made by Erekat, the following is a special compilation focusing on a number of different themes exposing the true face of Saeb Erekat.
Support for terror and terrorists
The bedrock of Erekat’s terror support is his belief that Palestinian terror organizations and Palestinian terrorists, including mass murderers, are in fact not terrorists at all but rather “fighters for freedom.” For Erekat, internationally designated Palestinian terror organizations who are responsible for the murder of hundreds of Israelis and other innocent people – such as Hamas, Palestinian Islamic Jihad, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine and others – are not terror organizations, and it is “forbidden” to describe their homicidal actions as terror.
When the EU dared to condition its financial support to Palestinian Non-Governmental Organizations on the beneficiaries signing a commitment that no EU funds would be funneled to EU designated terror organizations, Erekat made his fundamental objection clear:
“The Palestinian people’s struggle is meant to achieve freedom, independence, and the end of the occupation, settlement, collective punishments, and war crimes, and it is forbidden for anyone and any party that relies on international law and the international bodies to describe this struggle as terror.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan. 9, 2020]
When referring to Hamas, Erekat has made clear:
“I am telling everyone, on behalf of President Mahmoud Abbas and the [PLO] Executive Committee, that Hamas is a Palestinian movement, which never was and never will be a terrorist movement.”
the article continues
"[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 6, 2014]
After the UN rejected a motion to condemn the terror organization Hamas for firing rockets into Israel and inciting violence, and demanding that it and other terrorist groups such as Islamic Jihad cease their terror activities, including the use of airborne incendiaries, Erekat again stressed that Hamas is not a terror organization and declared the decision to reject the motion a victory of Palestinian unity:
“PLO Executive Committee Secretary Saeb Erekat emphasized that [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas, the PLO Executive Committee, the Fatah Movement Central Committee, and the Palestinian [PA] national unity government granted a victory to the Palestinian unity and placed the supreme Palestinian interests above all other considerations. This was when they stood against the unjust American-Israeli attempts to consider the Hamas Movement a terrorist movement…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 8, 2018]
Poignantly, the proposal was voted on by the UN General Assembly on Dec. 6, 2018. Although it received a majority of the votes, the proposal did not receive the two thirds needed to be ratified.
Based on his fundamental rejection of the claim that mass murderers of Israeli civilians are terrorists, Erekat has declared that he sees the actions of terrorist prisoners as “acts of heroism”, and that Palestinians “bow [their] heads in admiration and honor of the prisoners’ sacrifices, for their acts of heroism”:
the article continues
“Our brave prisoners, who gave and sacrificed their freedom for Palestine and its freedom, are worthy of aid, support, and constant activity by us in order to release them and put an end to their suffering. The prisoners’ cause is a national and central cause, and we bow our heads in admiration and honor of the prisoners’ sacrifices, for their acts of heroism, and for their ongoing battle with the occupation.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 19, 2016]
In a feast to break the Ramadan fast for families of terrorist prisoners, and to the shameful silence of the UN Secretary General’s Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process Nickolay Mladenov, Erekat declared:
“We are working to end the occupation, to realize the sovereignty of the State of Palestine whose capital is Jerusalem, and to release all of the prisoners unconditionally, as they are fighters for freedom.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 16, 2017]
As part of his whitewashing and justification of Palestinian terror, , Erekat claimed in a speech to the UN that acts of terror are a right of the Palestinians and that terror organizations are an integral part of the Palestinian struggle:
“The Palestinian people is implementing its legal right to defend itself against the war crimes that the occupation authority Israel is committing against it through an occupation that has continued for five decades… [the Hamas Movement] are an inseparable part of the Palestinian people and its struggle against the occupation.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, June 30, 2017]
The 2004 PA law of Prisoners and Released Prisoners, that inter alia codifies the PA’s monthly salary payments to the imprisoned terrorists, also conditions any Palestinian agreement to peace, on the release of all the terrorist prisoners. In the eyes of Erekat and the PA/PLO, peace with Israel can only be achieved when terrorists such as Abdallah Barghouti (murderer of 67), Ibrahim Hamed (murderer of 54), Hassan Salameh (murderer of 44), and dozens of other mass murderers and other terrorists are released from prison."
& continues
"Erekat’s warped drive to release the terrorist prisoners even allowed him to try and manipulate the Covid-19 pandemic, while all the time inventing provisions of international law that do not exist.
“The fact that the occupation is continuing to imprison Muhammad Majed Hassan… even though he was diagnosed as being sick with the Coronavirus, is an arbitrary violation of international law… The international community and UN Secretary-General [António Guterres] has the responsibility to force Israel to release him immediately in order to monitor his health and take the necessary steps.”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, April 26, 2020]
Needless to say, international law does not prohibit holding terrorists in prison simply because they are sick with Covid-19 or any other disease.
In October 2015, a PA-incited terror wave started. The terror wave known as the “Knife Intifada” witnessed scores of Palestinian terrorists arming themselves with knives and murdering dozens of Israelis. When the terrorist attackers were neutralized, Erekat, the ultimate spin-master, quickly turned the terrorist attackers into victims, claiming that Israel was carrying out “summary executions” of Palestinians trying to protect themselves:
“The Israeli aggression against the Palestinian people still continues, through summary executions and collective punishments.’ … ‘We are protecting ourselves with the bodies of our sons and daughters, because Israel does not protect itself, but rather its crimes, occupation and settlement.”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Oct. 26, 2015]
Referring specifically to Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted for the murder of Greek monk Tsibouktsakis Germanus and Israelis Yoela Hen, Eli Dahan, Yosef Habi, Police Officer Sergeant-Major Salim Barakat, Erekat claimed that he is a “hero” who should not be in prison:
“Marwan Barghouti [is] a hero whose natural place is in the Palestinian leadership together with his brothers, the members of the [Fatah] Central Committee, and not behind bars.”
& continues
"[Donia Al-Watan, independent Palestinian news agency, Dec. 12, 2016]
Considering his unequivocal and unwavering support for terrorists and their actions, it should be no surprise to anyone that Erekat also supports the PA/PLO monthly terror reward payments to the terrorists.
When Congressman Doug Lambourn recently adopted PMW’s recommendation and called on President Trump to designate the PA/PLO Commission responsible for the payment of the terror rewards as a terror organization, Erekat was quick to try and spin reality. Rejecting the move to designate the commission as a terrorist entity, Erekat played the “Palestinian victim” card and tried to deflect the move as an attack on PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas:
“American Congressman Doug Lamborn’s call [on July 30, 2020] to impose sanctions on His Honor the president and the leadership (sic., Lamborn called to designate the PLO Commission of Prisoners’ Affairs and its Director Qadri Abu Bakr as sponsors of terrorism –Ed.) will lead to punishing the victim for rejecting the Trump – Netanyahu plan (i.e., refers to US President Trump’s Middle East peace plan). [This is] obscene bullying and blackmail.”
[Official PA TV News, Aug. 2, 2020]
In 2017, Israeli Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman declared the PLO financial arm, the Palestinian National Fund (PNF), a terror organization.
Explaining the decision, Israel’s Ministry of Defense cited “massive support for elements responsible for committing severe acts of terrorism against Israel,” and the fact that the fund serves “as a significant financial pipeline for tens of millions of shekels that are transferred on a monthly basis to security prisoners held in Israel for committing acts of terrorism and to members of their families,” and “also supports family members of terrorists who were wounded and killed while perpetrating acts of terrorism against Israel.”
Instead of demanding and ensuring that the PNF immediately cease and desist from paying the terror rewards, Erekat expressed “strong opposition” to the move, and chose to deflect the criticism, claiming that the move undermined Israel’s recognition of the PLO:
“He [Erekat] called on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to announce the position of his government and whether the government has revoked its recognition of the PLO”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 19, 2017]
In July 2018, Israel passed legislation that would punish the PA for its terror rewards. The law instructs the state to deduct and freeze the amount of money the PA pays in salaries to imprisoned terrorists and families of dead terrorists, so-called “Martyrs”, from the tax money Israel collects for the PA.
In February 2019, shortly after the brutal rape and murder of Israeli Ori Ansbacher by a Palestinian terrorist, Israel’s Security Cabinet implemented the law and decided to withhold 502,697,000 Israeli shekels (approximately $138 million), the sum PMW exposed to be the PA’s expenditure on the terrorist prisoners in 2018, from the PA.
Responding to the decision of the Cabinet, and again, instead of denouncing the terror salaries, Erekat promoted the idea of the PA refusing to accept the tax revenues in their entirety:"
& continues
“The political reality requires a political confrontation with the occupation and non-acceptance of the rest of the money so that this will not turn into a regular means to which it will turn and steal the money whenever it wants.'”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, March 1, 2019]
Needless to say, the PA acted in accordance with the advice of Erekat, and plunged itself into months of a self-inflicted financial crisis.
Rewriting history
For masters of propaganda such as Erekat, rewriting history is an integral weapon of his propaganda war. Whether it is to fit the general PA/PLO narrative or just whitewashing a terrorist, Erekat is a master .
In an attempt to justify the Palestinian claim that their right to the Land of Israel predates that of the nation of Israel in the Bible, the PA often claims falsely that today’s Palestinians are descendants of the different tribes that inhabited the land prior to its conquest by Joshua and Israel. Erekat himself has adopted this approach claiming that his family are the descendants of the ancient Canaanites:
“My Canaanite family lived in Jericho 3,000 years before the people of Israel came to the city, led by Joshua Bin Nun.”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 2, 2014]
In Erekat’s world, even Jesus was a Palestinian. During the reopening ceremony of the Jericho Culture and Art Center Erekat declared:
“I will demand of Dr. Rami Hamdallah, as Prime Minister, that he issue a decision to name Jericho ‘Mother of Cities,’ because it is the cradle of civilizations and its roots go back ten thousand years, and Jesus lived there, the first Palestinian after the Canaanite Palestinians.”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Dec. 27, 2013]
When the City of David archeological dig, situated immediately to the south of Jerusalem’s Old City, uncovered a historical road – The Pilgrimage Road – dating back almost 2,000 years, and which could itself have been used by Jesus, Erekat was quick to condemn the find as “Judaization”:
“Yesterday [June 30, 2019] US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman and American Special Envoy to the Middle East Jason Greenblatt participated in the inauguration of a ‘Judaization tunnel’ in the neighborhood of Wadi Hilweh, in the town of Silwan (sic., a neighborhood in Jerusalem) south of the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque, which was called ‘the Pilgrimage Road’.
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, July 1, 2019]
Erekat’s unlimited devotion to distorting truth also allows him to demand that the UK apologize for the 1917 Balfour Declaration. For Erekat, and the PA/PLO leadership in general, the Balfour Declaration alone is responsible for the creation of the Jewish state. For Erekat, it is irrelevant that the UK declaration was twice adopted and ratified by the international community in the 1920 San Remo conference and again in the British Mandate. It is similarly irrelevant that the British actually did very little to realize the declaration.
“We have demanded of the government of Britain that it bear its legal, political, and moral responsibility for the historical injustice that the Balfour Promise (i.e., Declaration) caused to the Palestinian people, and to fix this mistake by apologizing to the Palestinian people.”
[Ma’an, independent Palestinian news agency, Feb. 15, 2017]
Using this same idea of rewriting truth, Erekat is similarly able to whitewash terror.
In October 2015, Palestinian terrorist Israa Ja’abis tried to carry out a car bomb attack near the Israeli city of Ma’ale Adumim, a few kilometers east of Jerusalem. A policeman who noticed a suspicious vehicle signaled the Ja’abis to stop, but instead she drove closer to a group of police officers and detonated a gas balloon. One policeman suffered light injuries and Ja’abis was seriously injured."
& continues
"Two days later, rewriting the facts of the event, spin-master Erekat retold the story of the events on PA official TV:
“A woman from Jericho, Israa Ja’abis, who has an 11-year-old son and travels to Jerusalem daily. Her car had an electrical fault and the airbags inflated, and [the Israeli forces] immediately fired at her. They [Israel] immediately said it was a suicide attack.”
[Official PA TV, Oct. 13, 2015]
In Erekat’s world, everyone is simply meant to believe that it was just a complete coincidence that Ja’abis was driving with gas balloons in her car, when a freak electrical fault caused an inexplicable explosion just as she was approaching Israeli security personnel.
It was also clearly Erekat’s flexibility with the truth that allowed him to claim in a 2018 interview in ‘Conflict Zone’ with acclaimed journalist Tim Sebastian, that the PA is a “true democracy”.
In making that claim, Erekat ignored the fact that there have only been two general elections in the PA in the last 25 years, the last of which happened 15 years ago. He similarly ignored the fact that PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas, last elected in 2005, is now in his 15th year of a term limited by PA to four years.
Erekat’s revisionist approach also serves him in his quest to deny Jews the right to practice religious freedom on the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site. When Israeli Minister of Public Security Gilad Erdan dared to suggest that Jews too should be allowed to pray on the Temple Mount, Erekat was again quick to reinvent the story to be proof of Israel’s alleged plan to carry out “ethnic cleansing.”
Erekat said that the move to grant Jews religious freedom – which as Israel had suggested it would not infringe on the rights of Muslims to pray on the mount – is “an inseparable part of [an Israeli] plan that is striving to impose the occupation’s demographic and geographic facts on the ground through ethnic cleansing of the Palestinian people.” [WAFA, official PA news agency, Aug. 14, 2019].
Part of the PA rewriting of Jewish history in Jerusalem, is denial of the 2000 year Jewish historical connection to the Western Wall, a remnant of the Temple Mount. Accordingly, when US Secretary of State, Mike Pompeo visited the Western Wall together with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Erekat was again quick to condemn the visit, this time threatening another 100 years of conflict:
“The joint visit to the Al-Buraq Wall (i.e., Western Wall) in occupied East Jerusalem constitutes a fundamental change in the American policy… If this continues, it will constitute a sure recipe for the continuation of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for another 100 years.”
[Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, official PA daily, March 22, 2019]
Moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem
In December 2017, US president Donald Trump announced that he had decided to move the US Embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. His decision was made in accordance with the US law, particularly, the 1995 Jerusalem Embassy Act, which recognized Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel and called for Jerusalem to remain an undivided city. However, the sovereign decision of a US President to respect US law was unacceptable to Erekat and provided him with an additional opportunity to condemn Trump and threaten violence.
Days before the official announcement, Erekat, never a man of peace among Palestinians, was at the forefront of the Palestinian response, using the language of violence and prophesying bloodshed and chaos.
“If the US dictates the fate of Jerusalem before the negotiations on the matter – whether by transferring the embassy [to Jerusalem], or what is even more dangerous, by recognizing Jerusalem as the capital of Israel – this means the end of the entire peace process and the pushing of the region – with its peoples and borders – into the furnace of violence, chaos, extremism, and bloodshed.”
& continues
[Official PA TV, Dec. 2, 2017]
Soon after, Erekat threatened grave consequences should the US administration actually move the embassy.
“The Palestinian National Council (i.e., the legislative body of the PLO) will make very fateful decisions, if the administration of new American President Donald Trump transfers the American embassy to Jerusalem… Transferring the embassy to Jerusalem means the destruction of the peace process, and that in doing so the US will turn into part of the problem and will no longer be able to be a mediator in the peace process, which will obligate the [Palestinian] National Council to cancel its recognition of Israel and the agreements that were signed with it.”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Jan 5, 2017]
When the US administration announced the date on which the embassy would move, Erekat struck again with wild exaggerations of the impending consequences.
“The states have understood that [US] President [Donald] Trump’s administration is threatening the interests, threatening the international security, peace, and stability. This is the truth… This administration constitutes a true danger to the security, stability, and integrity of this region and of its peoples, in the full sense of the word.”
[Official PA TV, Feb. 24, 2018]
Neither the local nor regional violence Erekat predicted ever materialized. Instead, and in direct contrast to the doomsday predictions, the administration of President Trump has since managed to broker two unprecedented peace deals between Israel and the United Arab Emirates and between Israel and Bahrain.
It was not only on the subject of moving the US Embassy to Jerusalem that Erekat employed his spin-master skills. A 2015 Congressional mandate stipulated that the PLO cannot operate an office in Washington if the Palestinians try to get the International Criminal Court (ICC) to prosecute Israelis for crimes against the Palestinians. In September 2017, after Mahmoud Abbas, in a speech at the UN, called on the ICC to investigate and prosecute Israelis, US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson determined that the Palestinians had violated the congressional mandate and decided to close the PLO office in Washington DC.
Explaining the decision, the Department of State wrote:"
& continues
“We have permitted the PLO office to conduct operations that support the objective of achieving a lasting, comprehensive peace between Israelis and the Palestinians… However, the PLO has not taken steps to advance the start of direct and meaningful negotiations with Israel. To the contrary, PLO leadership has condemned a U.S. peace plan they have not yet seen and refused to engage with the U.S. government with respect to peace efforts and otherwise. As such, and reflecting Congressional concerns, the Administration has decided that the PLO office in Washington will close at this point. This decision is also consistent with Administration and Congressional concerns with Palestinian attempts to prompt an investigation of Israel by the International Criminal Court.”
[Website of the US Department of State – https://www.state.gov/closure-of-the-plo-office-in-washington/]
In true form, Erekat ignored reality and attempted to rewrite the script in order to suit his narrative. Instead of recognizing that the Palestinians had once again crossed a congressional red line, Erekat spun the decision as the basis for the PA/PLO to sever relations with the US administration.
“We have received a letter from the American Department of State, according to which they were unable to extend the opening of the PLO office in Washington due to our joining the International Criminal Court, and our request to the International Criminal Court to transfer the Israeli war crimes… to the legal council in order to open a legal investigation…Therefore, we have also responded to the American administration in a letter, in which we said that if the PLO office is closed, we will freeze all of our contacts with the American administration until the office is opened.”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Nov. 19, 2017]
Peace
One of the largest stumbling blocks of the Israeli-Palestinian peace process is the Palestinian demand that every Palestinian so-called “refugee” will be allowed to settle in Israel as demarcated by the 1949 Armistice lines. As PMW has shown, the real meaning behind the demand that Israel settle 5.6 million refugees, is the Palestinian goal of the destruction of Israel as the nation-state of the Jewish people."
& continues
"Erekat has been a constant proponent of this idea, often repeating the demand that any peace agreement guarantee the Palestinian “right” to flood Israel.
One of Erekat’s greatest propaganda successes was his repeated use of his demand that Israel retreat to the “1967 borders” as a condition to achieve peace. Referring to the territories Israel captured in the 1967 Six Day War, Erekat repeatedly used the term “1967 borders” as a means to persuade the world to believe in an illusion. Any honest student of history knows that no “border” ever separated Israel from Judea and Samaria (the West Bank). Erekat’s “1967 borders” were, in reality, the armistice lines set at the end of Israel’s War of Independence in 1949. While Israel had urged the Arab countries to accept the lines as “borders” in 1949, and thereby give legitimacy to Israel’s right to exist, it was the Arab countries that rejected the Israeli request.
When Arab countries dared to consider their best interests, and give them precedence over the continued Palestinian rejection of every peace deal offered to them, Erekat was quick to lash out.
Eighteen months before the Israel-UAE and Israel-Bahrain peace agreements were announced, Erekat was already shouting that any act of “normalization” by Arab countries with Israel would be seen as “a knife in the back” of the Palestinians and tantamount to “permitting the spilling of Palestinian blood.” Trying to rekindle the flame of the failed Arab boycott, Erekat added the call that the Arab states boycott any country that recognized Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. In other words, Erekat called to renew the Arab boycott of the US as well.
“Normalization with the Israeli occupation constitutes a knife in the back, permitting [the spilling] of Palestinian blood… Today we recalled that there are three decisions that were made at the Arab Summit conferences in the past – in Jordan, Baghdad, and Cairo – that determined that the Arab states will cut their ties with any state that recognizes Jerusalem as the capital of Israel and transfers its embassy to it. This must be implemented.’”
[Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Feb. 10, 2019]
Responding to the recent peace agreements, Erekat spared no criticism and repeated old tropes and libels against Israel and its falsely alleged intentions to conquer Arab lands and destroy the Al –Aqsa mosque.
“One wonders, what is the UAE’s interest in taking a step such as this? Especially in light of the fact that Israel’s leaders are not hiding their aspirations to take control of the Arab resources through so-called ‘normalization.’ Their position regarding the question of selling advanced American weapons to the UAE indicates that what they truly want is to take control of the region, control its resources, and expand their influence beyond the borders of Palestine to the wider Arab region.”
& lastly says
"[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 8, 2020]
Instead of welcoming these agreements, Erekat called them “forbidden Zionist thinking” accusing the UAE and Bahrain of being “Arab Zionists,” [Official PA TV, Topic of the Day, Aug. 22, 2020] and having ““stabbed [the Palestinians] in the back with a poisoned knife.” [Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Aug. 16, 2020]. For Erekat, the Abraham Accords are merely a fiction for Israel to take over the Temple Mount:
“The American lie, according to which the normalization agreement will open the door to Muslims for prayer in Jerusalem, is exposed by the statements of [Senior US Presidential Advisor Jared] Kushner, which support the malicious Israeli plan to change the legal and historical status quo, to divide the blessed Al-Aqsa Mosque according to times and areas, and to Judaize it on the pretext that all of the religions have the freedom to worship there (sic., PMW found no records of such a statement by Kushner), as happened and is still happening at the Ibrahimi Mosque (i.e., Cave of the Patriarchs). This is part of the frantic escalation of the Israeli assault, whose goal is to Judaize the Old City [of Jerusalem], erase its Arab, Islamic, and Christian identity, and negate the Palestinian presence within it… This is in addition to the incessant excavations in order to undermine the foundations of the Al-Aqsa Mosque (sic., Israel does not carry out excavations under the Temple Mount); … [and] incessant attacks against the sites that are holy to Islam and Christianity and … in conjunction with increasing the terror attacks by the settlers and intimidating peaceful Palestinian residents…”
[Official PA daily Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 8, 2020]
Conclusion
The common themes of all of Erekat’s statements are clear. For Erekat, in the battle to destroy Israel, all Palestinian means and methods are legitimate. In the world of Erekat, Palestinians have an inherent right to murder Israelis; internationally designated homicidal terror groups are legitimate partners; mass murderers are heroes and their release from prison is an unequivocal prerequisite to peace; every action of sovereign countries to apply their own laws or consider their best interests, is met with threats of violence and doomsday predictions; history and truth are just clay in the hands of Erekat to mold and remold according to his needs and purposes.
It is Erekat’s approach and belief that Palestinian propaganda can shape the world that has been the true obstacle to peace for the last three decades. If Erekat and those like him would stop poisoning the well, Israeli-Palestinian peace would become a possibility." Good that Erekat is dead, he was just another Arab Liar, spewing Arab Lies"
Another online article said the following about the late Arab Liar Saeb Erekat
"Something else happened recently, the serial liar, Saeb Erekat, died. He was the Secretary-General of the Palestine Liberation Organization and chief “Palestinian” negotiator, and he often claimed that he was “indigenous” to “Palestine.”
He had claimed at various times, to be descended from the Canaanites, the Philistines, to be an Arab, a Palestinian, and a Jordanian. As for example, in a February 2014 interview with “Dunya al-Watan” where he said, “I am honored to be a Bedouin, to be Arab, to be Arab, to be Jordanian…I am the son of the Canaanites, the foundation of this country, who were here thousands of years ago.”
Yet, thanks to the “Elder of Ziyon,” and his investigations, we know that his family actually came from the Huwaitat region of the northwestern Arabian Peninsula. On the Facebook page of the Erekat family, it also says that before Huwaitat, their ancestors emigrated from Medina, today in Saudi Arabia.
Many Palestinian family names actually reveal their true family origin. For example, Mograbi, indicates that the family migrated from the Morocco area (Maghrib in Arabic). The name Masarwi, comes from Misr, which is Egypt, in Arabic.
The whole Palestinian narrative, is similarly fabricated on such outright lies.
So to Saeb Erekat and his lies, I say good riddance."
We cannot be Fooled by Recent Developments in the Middle East, for the most part,
The Arabs & Islam are still Evil, Still Monsters, Not that every Arab or Muslim person is bad or evil or a Monster, but many are,
The Recent Developments we are speaking of, is the "Abraham Accords" "Normalization" &
"Peace" deals in 2020 between Israel, the United Arab Emirates, Bahrain & Sudan,
Don't be Fooled, the UAE, Bahrain & Sudan still hate Israel, America and the Jews, these 3 Arab Terrorist Regimes still hate Jews & Israel with a Passion, the ONLY Reason they made "Peace" with Israel & "Normalization" is because it benefits their Nations, because these Arab Regimes get things for themselves in Return. These 3 Arab Nations only care about their Heartless Selfish Evil Greedy Desires, and because these nations are afraid of the Real Danger posed by a Nuclear Iran, these Arab Nations only care about themselves , don't be fooled, they would backstab & betray Israel and the Jews in a Heartbeat if it would benefit them, they cannot be Trusted. Israel must Never Let it's guard down, Israel Needs to be Suspicious of Everyone, even the Arab Regimes it makes "Peace" with, Arab Nations define "Peace" as an Armed Truce, that's how they define Peace , Egypt & Jordan have had "Peace" treaties with Israel for several decades, they would backstab & betray Israel in a Heartbeat if it would benefit them, don't be fooled, Egypt & Jordan both hate Jews & Israel, Egypt & Jordan haven't changed they are both evil Arabist Nazi Regimes, and if any other Arab Regimes makes "Peace" with Israel in the Future, if Saudi Arabia or any other Arab Regime makes "Peace" with Israel in the Future, or "Normalization" of Relations it is ONLY because it would benefit the Selfish Arab Nations in some way, don't be fooled, they would Still Hate Israel & the Jews with a Passion, and backstab & betray them in a Heartbeat if it benefitted them, As a Matter of Fact
On YouTube there is actually a video titled
"Brigette Gabriel at CUFI 2007" of Lebanese Arab Christian woman Brigette Gabriel giving a Speech at Christians United for Israel in 2007, She admits "Arabs have No Soul" even viewing her comments in Full Context, This says a lot about how many Arabs are consumed with Raw Hate & cannot be Trusted, the YouTube video is by Bruce Wilson on March 11, 2008
From the New York Daily News website, nydailynews.com an article on November 16, 2020 titled
"WHO they hate: The World Health Organization vs. Israel"
By DAILY NEWS EDITORIAL BOARD
NEW YORK DAILY NEWS |
NOV 16, 2020 the article says:
"Even though COVID has infected more than 50 million humans and claimed more than 1.3 million lives, the 180 countries that make up the UN’s World Health Organization wasted four hours last week in Geneva debating how bad Israel is — and then voted to adopt a resolution to do it again next year and focus on the “health conditions in the occupied Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in the occupied Syrian Golan.”
Diagnosis: Israel derangement syndrome.
As usual, Israel was the only country in the dock. As usual, the sponsors of this tripe were Cuba, Iraq, Lebanon, Qatar, Syria, Tunisia, Turkey and the PLO, all paragons of apolitical science and world leaders in excellent medical research and care.
Israel actually does have one of the world’s best tech and science sectors and a long tradition of providing superb health care to all, regardless of politics or religion or nationality. When the PLO’s No. 2, Saeb Erekat got very sick with COVID last month, he was rushed to Jerusalem’s Hadassah Hospital, a proudly Jewish institution that is staffed by doctors and nurses who are Jews, Muslims and Christians and that treats all patients equally. Despite Hadassah being the best in the Mideast, unfortunately, Erekat was too far gone and couldn’t be saved.
It was Israel that coordinated with the Palestinians to monitor, prevent and treat COVID, and not just for big-shots like Erekat. It was Israel that admitted fleeing refugees from the Syrian Civil War needing urgent medical treatment.
But the get-the-Jews gang just can’t resist, and too many otherwise good countries went along. The vote was 78 to 14, with 32 abstentions and 56 not voting. Praise to the U.S., Canada, Britain, Germany, Australia, Brazil and the Czechs for siding with Israel and leading the fight for truth."
Good that Erekat died, good that he's dead, he definitely was the PLO's No. 2, as in the Slang Expression Number 2, as in when someone takes a dump, a bowel movement, then flushes the excrement down the toilet, Number 1 refers to Urination , Erekat and other Anti-Israel people are definitely deranged, nothing but hate in their hearts, and for many decades before getting the Coronavirus/Covid-19 the
Arab Liar Erekat was already "too far gone" with his Toxic Arab Hate
Some more people typed online in Support of Israel and why America should Support Israel that ...
"They're our ally. Need I say more? Israel is one of the few Middle Eastern nations that truly likes us. If Israel falls we have no real friends in the region. Saudi Arabia only likes us for our money. Israel and America have more than just economic ties. Social, historic, religious, and political ties are are important in the long run. Losing Israel would be a tragic loss."
"Israel is a Democracy in the midst of Totalitarianism Firstly, Palestinian problem is a fake grievance as they are the highest beneficiaries of humanitarian aid from a whole lot of NGOs including the EU. Yet, the PLO have misused the money and are building posh hotels and resorts in Gaza. What a shocker! While ordinary Palestinians are languishing in abject poverty.
Secondly, the word Palestinian is a "misnomer"..In fact there are no credible proof that present Palestinians are the ethnic inhabitants of Palestine. Palestine as such is a geographical location. The only credible explanation is that these so called Palestinians are actually Arabs from the other Islamic nations who happened to settle there after the Jews were exiled from Jerusalem back in AD 71. The funny thing is that those who so called themselves Palestinians were Jordanians before 1948.When they lost the war of independence to the Jews, they suddenly became Palestinians overnight!!
Thirdly, the Arab and Western media are biased to the hilt. They have never highlighted how Jews living in Arab countries were being persecuted...Especially those from Yemen, Iran, Iraq, Saudi, Syria, Jordan, etc. All this never reported.
Fourthly, nations who are anti-Israel are blind to fact that 80% of Palestinian are suffering not because of the Israelis..It because of Hamas, PLO and Al-Fatah who kidnapped and kill their own people due to rivalry or on the pretext of mere suspicions. The Palestinians live in fear of their own so called freedom fighters. In many of the conflicts these coward Hamas would hide among Palestinian children firing at Israeli soldiers.
Fifthly, the so called economic blockade of the occupied territories is a BIG SHAM. Is the media even aware that Israel sends 1000 trucks load per week to the Palestinian territories. Israel brings to Gaza and West Bank FREE food every day, plus construction materials, even plasma TVs and cars. Over 40 thousands tons of it. All donated by taxpaying Israelis!! Shame on all those who call Israel an apartheid state.
Sixth, Israel never discriminates. There are Arab (men/women) serving in the Israeli Army. They serve on their own free will. How do I know that?? Because there is a law in Israel that exempt minorities from military service. But many Arabs join on their own free will for which the Israeli Government cannot reject them. If you want to see religious discrimination blatantly displayed...Go to the Arab nations. For instance, there is this highway in Saudi Arabia,the one that leads to Mecca which has been divided into two lanes (signboard above shows clearly one for the Muslim and the other non-Muslim). Think again.
Seventh, what I cannot understand it that how the Arab world cry foul over Israel atrocities.When they (Sunni and Shias) are busy killing one another in the Arab nations. The Arab nations have huge tract of lands. Why don't they accommodate the Palestinian refugees if they are so bloody concerned?? Well the truth is that they (Arab nations) are only using the Palestinian as cannon fodder in the war against Israel." There was Never a Nation called "Palestine"
Some More People typed in comments online in Support of Israel that:
"No such place as Palestine At no time in history has there ever been a nation called palestine. During the ottoman empire, which lasted from 1299-1922 ce, the land dubbed by the romans as palestine was controlled by the turks; there was never an outcry for a palestinian state then. The palestine canard lacks any basis in historical fact and there is no palestinian land, plain and simple. If there were, when would it have been founded, and by whom? What were borders and what was the name of its capital? What form of government did it have? Was palestine ever recognized as an entity by another country? By whom? What was the language of the country called palestine? What was palestine's religion? What was the name of its currency? Since there is no such country today, what caused its demise? Search as you will, throughout the annals of history but no reference to palestine will ever be found other than the roman name for israel."
"Israel is Legal THE ARABS THEMSELVES WERE HAPPY TO USE THE MANDATE FOR PALESTINE TO DIVIDE UP THE OLD OTTOMAN EMPIRE TO CREATE LEBANON (1943) SYRIA & JORDAN (1946) & IRAQ (1958). And in 1948 THE MANDATE USED THE SAME LEGAL PROCESS TO CREATE ISRAEL. Therefore, Israel is a Sovereign LEGAL State, and to try to destroy a LEGITIMATE country is ILLEGAL under international Law. Therefore, the So Called "Palestinians" are breaking the Law by attacking Israel. There is NO justification to launch Rockets, missiles and Mortars at Israeli civilians, there is NO cause for Arabs to explode Bombs in Tel Aviv or dig terror tunnels under the Border. Nor is there any REASON for HAMAS using its own civilians as human shields in its twisted effort to evoke World condemnation and to try and DE-legitimize Israel. Since Israel is LEGAL the ONLY reason for "Palestinians" to attack Israel is to Kill Jews because of religious hatred, as such they are TERRORISTS and MURDERERS nothing more, and the LIE that they are just trying to Liberate their Lands is a TOTAL Falsehood and fabrication."
"Israel is real PALESTINE HAS NEVER EVEN BEEN A COUNTRY ONLY THE NAME THAT ROME GAVE TO THE CONQUERED LAND OF ISRAEL. AFTER WW1 WHEN THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE FELL, THE ARABS THEMSELVES WERE HAPPY TO USE THE MANDATE TO DIVIDE UP THE AREA TO CREATE LEBANON (1943) SYRIA & JORDAN (1946) & IRAQ (1958). IN 1948 THE MANDATE USED THE SAME LEGAL PROCESS TO RECREATE ISRAEL ON A TINY PART OF ITS ORIGINAL ANCIENT LAND. . ALSO ALL 51 MEMBERS OF THE ENTIRE LEAGUE OF NATIONS UNANIMOUSLY DECLARED THAT ISRAEL IS A LEGAL SOVEREIGN & RATIFIED STATE, WERE JEWS HAVE HAD UNBROKEN OWNERSHIP FOR OVER 3500 YEARS. Israel is mentioned over 2400 times in the Bible and 47 Times in the Koran. History confirms the Roman conquest of ISRAEL and 1000's of JEWISH artefacts have been and are still being found. Therefore, the Palestinians have NO LEGAL Claim nor ANY justification to attack Israel. Moreover, the Palestinians call for the Destruction of Israel which is ILLEGAL under international Law. BUT They cannot attack Israel without consequences, and if they fire Rockets at Israeli civilians, then they must surely expect Israel to return Fire in self-defence."
Some more online comments in defense of Israel
"But of course. Supporting THE democracy in the Middle East is key. Not only are they aiding in the fight against Hamas, they're the number one ally that we have over there. Granted, there are some parts of their policies I disagree with, however that's the same with any country on this planet. Total utopian societies aren't around that make everyone happy, especially in the Middle East, so Israel is trying to make good with what they have.
First thing that I hear all the time is that Israel is bombing innocent civilians. That may be the case, but some context is needed to be involved to really understand the why.
(http://www.Nytimes.Com/2009/01/06/world/middleeast/06scene.Html?_r=2&hp=&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1370060396-c+iD/XHbIsL9O9KePHuQcw)
Hamas is known to hiding themselves in heavily populated areas. They put their people in danger for the sake of playing coy and acting like they've been the ones that were hurt (WHODA THUNK A TERRORIST ORGANIZATION WOULD BE UNSCRUPULOUS!!!???). Israel has a total right to defend itself and its interests from an organization that not only has been named as a terrorist organization by U.S.A, Canada, Japan, and the European Union but is fueled by antisemitism that wants to destroy an entire race of people. It's awful that civilians have to die, but when Hamas is building their stockpile in heavily populated areas and is constantly bombing Israel, should Israel just let it happen? Just keep getting bombed? It doesn't make sense. Would you want your homeland to be bombed by a neighbor or would you want to fight back?
Another reason I support Israel is that the Jewish people need a country, a place to call their home. Out of every group of people on this planet, the Jews certainly know what it's like when they don't have a place of their own with one example being the nearly one thousand Jews trying to come to Canada from Germany and being turned back (http://news.Nationalpost.Com/2011/01/17/none-is-too-many-memorial-for-jews-turned-away-from-canada/)
What Israel does is that it gives the Jews that voice, that platform that they've never had before.
Probably the biggest reason I support Israel though is that, as mentioned at the top, it's the only democracy in the Middle East. Would you rather have Iran as your neighbor? Or Iraq? Or would you have a country that has democratically elected officials, one that has been giving a voice to a people since its inception, one that has been fighting for what it believes in against a group that wants to destroy not just the nation but the people inside of it.
I think the choice is simple."
More online comments in Support of Israel
"1 of the best books for this is N.Y. Times Bestseller: "The Case for Israel" - by Alan Dershowitz
Also worth reading are:
“From time immemorial” By Joan Peters.
“The Siege” Conor Cruise O'Brien
The following documents : http://www.washingtoninstitute.org/uploads/Documents/pubs/StrategicReport07.pdf
How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel
http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/edwest/100087267/what-have-the-israelis-done-for-us/
1) Israel is the only democracy in the middle east, & Americas only ally in the middle east.
2) If you look at a map, you will see Israel is a tiny country, about the size of New Jersey.
This tiny country of about 7.5 million people is surrounded on all sides by countries (Egypt,Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Saudi Arabia, & Iran) bent on Israel's destruction.
Some how, Israel has managed to survive until now, & hopefully they will continue to survive.
& then there are organizations that are practically in Israel itself, like Hamas which is the government of the west bank.
Here are some quotes from the Hamas charter:
"For our struggle against the Jews is extremely wide-ranging and grave..."
"Israel will rise and will remain erect until Islam eliminates it as it had eliminated its predecessors. "
3) Israel has made tremendous contributions to humanity. Not just in technology, & academics, but also international aid, & global development. Israel being a start up country itself, has tremendous experience & know how to help other developing countries.
1 of the best examples Israeli aid was the Haiti earthquake back in 2010.
Despite the fact that Israel is a tiny nation, which struggles for it's own survival. & the fact that Haiti is so far. Israel was the 1st one to come to Haiti's aid, & had the most advanced equipment.
This is just 1 of many many ways that Israel helps those in need."
"Absolutely Israel is a small country and yes, with any issues, but we should help this country. According to the bible, Israel is God's people and we must protect them. Religion aside, a war(WW2) got us out of a depression before, it can get us out of it again."
The website foreignpolicy.com has a superb article about the greatness of Israel
"The Ultimate Ally"
The "realists" are wrong: America needs Israel now more than ever."
BY MICHAEL OREN | APRIL 25, 2011,
Menahem Kahana/AFP/Getty Images the article says:
"What is the definition of an American ally? On an ideological level, an ally is a country that shares America’s values, reflects its founding spirit, and resonates with its people’s beliefs. Tactically, an ally stands with the United States through multiple conflicts and promotes its global vision. From its location at one strategic crossroads, an ally enhances American intelligence and defense capabilities, and provides ports and training for U.S. forces. Its army is formidable and unequivocally loyal to its democratic government. An ally helps secure America’s borders and assists in saving American lives on and off the battlefield. And an ally stimulates the U.S. economy through trade, technological innovation, and job creation.
Few countries fit this description, but Israel is certainly one of them. As U.S. President Barack Obama told a White House gathering, “The United States has no better friend in the world than Israel,” a statement reflecting the positions of Democrats and Republicans alike. The importance of the U.S.-Israel alliance has been upheld by successive American administrations and consistently endorsed by lawmakers and military leaders. It should be unimpeachable. But for some it is not.
Rather than viewing Israel as a vital American asset, an increasingly vocal group of foreign-policy analysts insists that support for the Jewish state, including more than $3 billion in annual military aid, is a liability. Advocates of this “realist” school claim that the United States derives little strategic benefit from its association with Israel. The alliance, they assert, arises mainly from lobbyists who place Israel’s interests before America’s, rather than from a clearheaded assessment of national needs. Realists regard the relationship one-dimensionally — America gives Israel aid and arms — and view it as the primary source of Muslim anger at the United States. American and Israeli policies toward the peace process, the realists say, are irreconcilable and incompatible with relations between true allies.
By definition, realists seek a foreign policy immune to public sentiment and special interest groups. In this rarefied view, the preferences of the majority of the American people are immaterial or, worse, self-defeating. This would certainly be the case with the U.S.-Israel alliance, which remains outstandingly popular among Americans. Indeed, a Gallup survey this February showed that two out of three Americans sympathize with Israel. Overall, since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan — and in spite of Israel’s responses to the second intifada and rocket attacks from Lebanon in 2006 and Gaza in 2008 — support for Israel in the United States has risen, not declined."
the article continues
"The surveys prove that most Americans do not accept the argument that U.S. support for Israel provokes Islamic radicals or do not especially care even if it does. In a Senate hearing last year, Gen. David Petraeus, then head of U.S. Central Command, testified that the Arab-Israeli conflict “challenges … our ability to advance our interests.” Critics of the U.S.-Israel relationship seized on the remark as evidence of the alliance’s prohibitive costs — an interpretation Petraeus strenuously rejected — but the incident wrought no change in popular opinion. In fact, a CNN survey taken later that week showed that eight out of 10 Americans still regarded Israel as an allied or friendly state.
That kind of popular foundation for the Israeli-American alliance is all the more important at a time of great upheaval in the Middle East. As Iran’s malign influence spreads and Turkey turns away from the West, Israel’s strategic value in the region, both to the United States and to pro-Western Arab governments, will surely increase. Following Hezbollah’s recent takeover of Lebanon and the political turmoil in Egypt, Jordan, and the Persian Gulf, Israel is the only Middle Eastern country that is certain to remain stable and unequivocally pro-American. In Israel alone, the United States will not have to choose between upholding its democratic principles and pursuing its vital interests."
& continues
"And yet, for all their urgency, the close ties between the United States and Israel are hardly new. Their roots extend further than Israel’s creation 63 years ago — rather, they took hold with the Pilgrims’ arrival in North America.
THE FORBEARS WHO LANDED on Plymouth Rock in 1620 considered themselves the founders of a “New Israel.” Committed to studying Hebrew and bridging the Old and New Canaans — the Holy Land and America — they pledged to restore the Jews to their ancestral homeland. Far from peripheral, this “restorationist” movement flourished in colonial America and widely influenced the Founders: Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin wanted the likeness of Moses leading the children of Israel to serve as the Great Seal of the newly independent United States. John Adams wrote that he “really wish[ed] the Jews again in Judea an independent nation.” Abraham Lincoln similarly backed the “noble dream” of a re-created Jewish state, as did Woodrow Wilson, a descendant of Presbyterian ministers, who declared, “To think that I … should be able to help restore the Holy Land to its people.”
America’s commitment to the Zionist movement to create a Jewish state deeply influenced Harry S. Truman. A fervid Baptist and past member of the restorationist American Christian Palestine Committee, Truman made the United States the first nation to recognize Israel on May 14, 1948. None of the predictions of his realist advisors — that recognition would trigger an Arab oil embargo, Europe would fall to the Soviet Union, and Israel would turn communist — became a reality.
The spiritual attachment to the reborn Jewish state has continued to resonate in America, the nation with the highest frequency of church attendance in the industrialized world. Many Americans have also been drawn to the Zionist story of pioneering, hearing in it echoes of their own national narrative. Theodore Roosevelt, who fancied himself a frontiersman, urged that “the Jews be given control of Palestine” and that “a Zionist state around Jerusalem” be created. In a similar vein, Rev. John Haynes Holmes, on talking with Palestinian Jews in 1929, “could think of nothing but the early English settlers who came to the bleak shores of Massachusetts.… Here is the same heroism dedicated to the same ends.”
Israel emerged not only as a Jewish and pioneering state, but also as a democracy. In urging Truman to recognize Israel in 1948, White House counsel Clark Clifford argued that “in an area as unstable as the Middle East … it is important to the long-range security of our country … that a nation committed to the democratic system be established, one on which we can rely.” The fact that Israelis cherished the same values enshrined in the U.S. Constitution — free speech and assembly, respect for individual rights, an independent judiciary — created another layer of affinity with Americans. John F. Kennedy said Israel “carries the shield of democracy and honors the sword of freedom,” and Bill Clinton likened Israel to America, “an oasis of liberty, a home to the oppressed and persecuted.”
& continues
"While grappling with the challenges posed by its large Arab minority and, since the Six-Day War, the Palestinians of the West Bank and Gaza, Israel has remained the Middle East’s only functional democracy. In a region in which some countries deem homosexuality a capital offense, Israel has hosted gay pride parades and provides shelter for Palestinian homosexuals. And in contrast to the Middle Eastern leaders who hold themselves above the law, a former Israeli president was recently convicted of sexual offenses, the verdict handed down by three judges — two women and an Arab. Withstanding pressures that have crushed many liberal societies, Israel is one of a handful of states that has never experienced interregna of nondemocratic rule.
Americans intrinsically value these facts — and that appreciation is reciprocated in Israel. As there are streets in the United States named for David Ben-Gurion and Golda Meir, so, too, can one find Washington and Lincoln streets in Israel. Alone in the Middle East, Israel hosts memorials for Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. and two exact replicas of the Liberty Bell.
STILL, ACCEPTING THE DISPASSIONATE definition of America’s interests, can Israel realistically be considered an ally? Has it traditionally stood by the United States on issues of world importance and in periods of crisis? Is American support for Israel based on calculated estimates of national interests, or is it the product of pressure from richly funded lobbies?
Israel has always sided with the United States on major global issues. At the United Nations and in other international institutions, the two countries’ voting patterns are virtually identical, as are their policies on human rights and international law. Beginning with the Korean conflict and throughout the Cold War, Israel backed America’s military engagements, and it has maintained that support in the struggle with radical Islam. In times of danger, especially, Israel has responded to America’s needs. Acceding to Richard M. Nixon’s request to intervene to save Jordan from Syrian invasion in 1970, Israel mobilized its army, and in 1991, in spite of missile attacks from Iraq, Israel honored George H.W. Bush’s request not to retaliate.
Israel is not, of course, situated in some geographical backwater, but at the junction of paramount American interests. Its prominence on the eastern Mediterranean littoral, at the nexus of North Africa and Southwest Asia, has enabled the United States to minimize its military deployments in the area. In the Persian Gulf, by contrast, the absence of a dependable and sturdy ally like Israel has impelled the United States to commit hundreds of thousands of troops and trillions of dollars. Secretary of State Alexander M. Haig’s observation 30 years ago still resonates today: “Israel is the largest American aircraft carrier in the world that cannot be sunk, does not carry even one American soldier, and is located in a critical region for American national security.” We at this Blog state, what Many have said, Israel should have definitely legally retaliated in 1991 against Iraq, like any Normal Sane Nation would have
the article continues
"The strategic synergy between the United States and Israel melds into tactical realities. U.S. troops train with their Israel Defense Forces (IDF) counterparts in aerial combat and special operations. U.S. Navy ships routinely dock in Haifa, Air Force planes refuel at Israeli bases, and the Marines will soon use an Israeli laser to pinpoint targets. In addition to pre-positioning $800 million of arms and medical equipment in Israel, the United States guarantees by law its commitment to preserving Israel’s “qualitative military edge,” enabling the Jewish state to defend itself, by itself, against Middle Eastern adversaries. As Assistant Secretary of State Andrew Shapiro put it, “Israel is a vital ally and a cornerstone of our regional security commitments,” and, accordingly, the two countries have developed the world’s most advanced anti-ballistic missiles. Together with the X-band radar station in the Negev — manned by the first American troops deployed permanently on Israeli soil — these systems can protect friendly nations from Iranian rockets.
In the intelligence field, in particular, the cooperation between Israel and the United States is vast. According to Maj. Gen. George J. Keegan Jr., former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence, America’s military defense capability “owes more to the Israeli intelligence input than it does to any single source of intelligence,” the worth of which input, he estimated, exceeds “five CIAs.” Israeli and American intelligence agencies continuously exchange information, analyses, and operational experience in counterterrorism and counterproliferation. The U.S. Department of Homeland Security and its Israeli counterpart also share technical know-how in defending ports and terminals from terrorist attacks, countering unconventional weapons and cyberthreats, and combating the drug trade. On the battlefield, Israeli armament protects Bradley and Stryker units from rocket-propelled grenades, while Israeli-made drones and reconnaissance devices surveil hostile territory. U.S. fighter aircraft and helicopters incorporate Israeli concepts and components, as do modern-class U.S. warships. The IDF has furnished U.S. forces with its expertise in the detection and neutralization of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), the largest cause of American casualties."
& continues
"Israel not only enhances America’s defenses — it also saves American lives. A kibbutz-based company in the Galilee has provided armor for more than 20,000 U.S. military vehicles. “Two days ago, my patrol was ambushed by insurgents using 7.62mm PKM Machineguns,” David C. Cox, a platoon sergeant in Iraq, wrote the manufacturers. “None of the rounds penetrated the armor of the vehicle, including one that would have impacted with my head.” Marine gunner Joshua Smith, whose Israeli-armored vehicle tripped an IED near Marja, Afghanistan, described how his unit “walked away smiling, laughing, and lived to fight another day.” Military medical experts from both countries also meet annually to discuss advances in combat care. One such breakthrough was a coagulating bandage, the brainchild of a Jerusalem start-up company, a million of which have been supplied to U.S. forces (and even applied by a Tucson SWAT team medic to stanch the life-threatening head wound of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords).
In return for its aid to Israel, the United States receives not only an armed but an innovative ally, enhancing America’s military edge. That contribution is real and requires no lobbyists to fabricate it. While organizations such as the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) press Israel’s case in government and in popular forums, they represent American citizens who view the alliance with Israel as a national American interest. By contrast, the lobbyists for the Arab states and their domestic oil industries represent foreign interests. The hundreds of millions of dollars they have spent on lobbying and public relations campaigns and donations to influential universities such as Harvard and Georgetown have vastly exceeded the budgets of Israel’s advocates in Washington."
& continues
"Pro-Israel groups neither determine America’s course in the Middle East nor derail it. Responding to the realists’ charge that a so-called Israel Lobby exerts undue influence over American policies, White House Middle East special advisor Dennis Ross wrote in this magazine that “never in the time that I led the American negotiations on the Middle East peace process did we take a step because ‘the lobby’ wanted us to. Nor did we shy away from one because ‘the lobby’ opposed it.” A 30-year veteran of Middle East diplomacy, Ross concluded that pro-Israel groups “don’t distort U.S. policy or undermine American interests.”
Understandably, the most sober assessment of American interests is conducted by the U.S. military. The alliance with Israel, Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Mike Mullen told Congress in March, “is of extraordinary value.” Israel, according to America’s highest-ranking officer, is “absolutely critical” to U.S. national security.
ISRAEL IS AMONG THE FEW COUNTRIES in the world — and the only Middle Eastern state — to consistently stand alongside the United States on strategic issues. But the U.S.-Israel relationship is far from one-dimensional. The two countries also cooperate in a broad range of nonmilitary fields — humanitarian, commercial, and scientific.
Close coordination with the United States enabled Israeli medical teams to arrive first on the scene in earthquake-devastated Haiti. They similarly assisted the victims of Turkish and Indonesian quakes and of famines in Somalia, Mauritania, and Kenya. Together with the U.S. Agency for International Development, Israel’s Agency for International Development Cooperation has trained more than 200,000 people from Africa, South America, and Asia in fields as diverse as agrobusiness and ophthalmology. Since 1985, American and Israeli scientists have jointly consulted for developing countries on public health and women’s issues.
Israel also assists the American people by stimulating trade, spurring technological innovation, and creating jobs. Despite a population of just 7.7 million people, Israel is America’s 20th-largest customer in the world, surpassing Russia and Spain. Warren Buffett’s first foreign investment was a $4 billion stake in Iscar, an Israeli tool manufacturer. “I believe in the Israeli market and the Israeli economy,” Buffett explained. Between 2000 and 2009, direct U.S. investment in Israel totaled $77.2 billion, while Israelis invested $51.4 billion in the United States. More than 25 years ago, America’s very first free trade agreement was signed — with Israel.
Google, Microsoft, IBM, Intel, AOL, and Motorola are just some of the high-tech companies with major research and development operations in Israel. In addition to providing software and hardware for most American computers and mobile phones, Israel also pioneered the USB flash drive, the ingestible microcamera, advances in drip irrigation, and the portable MRI. Through Better Place, the world’s first comprehensive electric-car system, Israel is poised to help Obama achieve his goal of placing 1 million electric vehicles on America’s roads by 2015. “It’s no exaggeration to say that the kind of innovation going on in Israel is critical to the future of the technology business,” observed Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates on a 2005 visit to Israel. After the United States and China, Israel is the most represented country on the Nasdaq stock exchange."
& continues
"And at a time when American corporations are outsourcing to Asia, Israel is outsourcing to the United States: Tens of thousands of Americans are employed by Teva, the world’s leading generic-drug producer, and by dozens of Israeli high-tech, textile, and defense plants throughout the United States. The nearly 6,000 projects mounted by three U.S.-Israel foundations have generated myriad American jobs, as does the $3 billion in American military aid to Israel, $2.25 billion of which is spent in the United States.
IN SPITE OF THE OVERWHELMING ADVANTAGES of the U.S.-Israel alliance, the realists still insist that it stokes Muslim rage and renders Americans more vulnerable to terrorism. To substantiate their claim, the realists quote Osama bin Laden as well as the state-controlled Middle Eastern media. But bin Laden initially justified his attacks on America’s profligacy and only later, after his setbacks in Afghanistan, linked them to Israel. An influential Saudi Wahhabi book published online describes the United States as “the source of evil, moral corruption, oppression, despotism, and aggression … in the world” and makes no mention of Israel. Neither do recently published diplomatic papers from the Middle East or most of the demonstrations that have convulsed the region.
The official U.S. documents released by WikiLeaks show that Arab rulers are not preoccupied with Israel but with the perils posed by Iran. One report recounted Saudi King Abdullah urging the United States to “cut off the head of the snake” — Iran — and to attack the country’s nuclear facilities at once. Bahrain’s king warned that “the danger of letting [the Iranian nuclear program] go on is greater than the danger of stopping it.” The word “Israel” does not appear.
Middle Eastern populations, meanwhile, have shown that they, too, are less concerned with Israel than with urgent issues at home. When able to express themselves freely, they have preferred to focus on political rights and economic opportunity. Conspicuously absent from the protests that swept the region in 2011 were burning Israeli — or American — flags or any reference to the U.S.-Israel relationship.
Although emerging Arab governments might in the future — as in the past — seek to gain legitimacy by harnessing anti-Israeli sentiment, the claim that American support for the Jewish state axiomatically translates into anti-Americanism in the Middle East is no longer sustainable.
***
Israel is America’s staunchest ally in the Middle East, but even the warmest friendships are never disagreement-free. This was certainly the case with the Anglo-American relationship during World War II, modern history’s most celebrated alliance, but one that was riven by disputes over military planning and postwar arrangements.
The United States and Israel could not, therefore, realistically be expected to concur on all of the Middle East’s labyrinthine issues. Ronald Reagan, for example, condemned Israel’s attack on an Iraqi nuclear reactor in 1981, and Israel objected to his sale of advanced jets to Saudi Arabia."
& continues
"The realists say that the gaps between Israeli and American policies on the peace process are unbridgeable. The United States, they maintain, is committed to creating a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza, with East Jerusalem as its capital. Israel allegedly opposes these goals and thwarts them by building in those areas.
But historically, progress in the peace process has been directly related to the strengthening of America’s alliance with Israel. That bond convinced Arab rulers that they had no conventional military option against Israel and fortified Israelis to make the concessions necessary for peace. American security assurances — including guarantees of continued oil supplies from Sinai and the replacement of evacuated air bases — enabled Israel to withdraw from an area three times its size and to conclude the 1979 peace treaty with Egypt.
The realists ignore or dismiss this linkage, as they do Israel’s record of seeking peace. In the euphoric aftermath of the Six-Day War, Israeli leaders offered to create a West Bank Palestinian state, but Palestinian leaders rejected the plan. Israel in 2000 offered the Palestinians sovereignty over virtually the entire West Bank, all of Gaza, and part of Jerusalem, but the Palestinians refused the deal and instead killed more than 1,000 Israelis in terrorist attacks. In 2005, Israel provided the Palestinians with the chance to create a peaceful prototype in Gaza, but it quickly devolved into a launching pad for thousands of rockets. In spite of these traumas, a significant majority of Israelis — 66 percent, when recently asked by the Tel Aviv University Peace Index — still favor the two-state solution, testifying to their commitment to peace.
Settlements, meanwhile, have never been the impediment to peace. They did not preclude the signing of the Egyptian and Jordanian treaties or 16 years of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. Israel uprooted all 21 settlements in Gaza and received war, not peace. Later, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze West Bank construction for an unprecedented 10 months, but the Palestinians still refused to negotiate. Internal Palestinian documents published recently by Al Jazeera reveal that Palestinian negotiators in 2008 were willing to concede the bulk of the Israeli communities in the West Bank, as well as most of the Jewish neighborhoods built over the 1967 line in Jerusalem, as part of a peace arrangement. Israeli leaders were ready to sign; the Palestinians again walked away.
Blind to Israel’s record of peacemaking, the realists also overlook the broad confluence of American and Israeli policies toward the process. Both insist that there is no alternative to direct negotiations and no solution to the conflict other than two states for two peoples. They understand that the Palestinian state, situated opposite Israel’s narrowest and most populous area, will have to be demilitarized and that Israel will require detailed security guarantees. And they agree that any peace treaty must provide for mutual recognition between the nation-states of the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, signifying an end to all claims."
& continues
"American and Israeli positions also dovetail on the most monumental — and potentially divisive — Middle Eastern issue: Iran. A nuclear-armed Iran, both countries hold, will imperil every pro-Western Middle Eastern state and ignite a nuclear arms race in an inherently unstable region. The United States and Israel have promoted international sanctions designed to prevent Iran from developing nuclear weapons, while keeping all options on the table. Americans know that, at a time of transformation in the Middle East balance of power, Israel remains the region’s only credible foil to Iran.
Ultimately, the litmus test of any alliance is not whether the partners agree on every issue, but rather the ways they deal with discord. During World War II, the United States and Britain bridged their differences and achieved victory. America and Israel have similarly worked through their differences and are together striving for a different triumph — peace.
WHO ARE AMERICA’S ALLIES in the world today? Which countries are both capable and willing to advance American interests? A truly realist assessment would strive to answer these questions and fairly weigh Israel’s worth.
In the Middle East, every Arab or non-Arab Muslim country has at times vacillated in its support of the United States or adopted anti-American positions. Some regimes have also placed oil embargoes on Americans and bankrolled their enemies. Although democratic governments may yet emerge in some Middle Eastern states, autocracy, monarchy, and dictatorship remain the region’s norm. And even elected representatives can be profoundly hostile to the United States, as in Iran, Lebanon, and Gaza.
Elsewhere in the world, new powers are arising, but few are likely to act as American allies in the realist sense. Others will be robust competitors. America’s European allies, meanwhile, are further restricting the conditions under which their forces fight and drastically slashing defense budgets. British military sources estimate that troop numbers will soon be reduced to 80,000, leaving Britain with its smallest army since the 1820s. With similar cuts expected in Germany, Italy, and France, the United States will become harder-pressed to rely on European support during crises.”[W]e won’t be able to defend the security on which our democratic societies … depend,” NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen has warned. “We risk a Europe increasingly adrift from the United States.”
Israel is the only Middle Eastern state never to oppose America on major international issues. Its fundamental interests, like its values, are America’s. For the price of annual military aid equaling roughly half the cost of one Zumwalt-class destroyer, the United States helps maintain the military might of one of the few nations actively contributing to America’s defense. It reinforces the only country capable of deterring Hamas and Hezbollah and impeding the spread of Iranian hegemony. According to published sources, the Israel Defense Forces is larger than the French and British armies combined. The IDF is superbly trained and, when summoned, capable of mobilizing within hours."
& lastly says
"These benefits of the U.S.-Israel relationship are of incalculable value to the United States, far outweighing any price. Americans know that Israelis have always stood by them, ready to share technology, intelligence, and innovation — ready to aid them in conflict and to make the painful sacrifices for peace. Israel may be one of a handful of countries that fully fits the definition of ally, but its willingness to support the United States unwaveringly makes it the partner par excellence, America’s ultimate ally."
From Washingtoninstitute.org an article is headlined
"Friends with Benefits: Why the U.S.-Israeli Alliance Is Good for America"
Michael Eisenstadt and David Pollock
November 7, 2012
"The bilateral relationship is based on tangible, steadily increasing security and economic interests, not just shared values.
View this article on the Foreign Affairs website.
At the final presidential debate of the 2012 campaign season, President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney mentioned Israel some 30 times, more than any other country except Iran. Both candidates called the Jewish state "a true friend," pledging to stand with it through thick and thin. Some political commentators criticized these effusive declarations of support as pandering, suggesting that the candidates were simply going after Jewish and pro-Israel votes.
But if support for Israel is indeed such a political winner, then it's at least in part because the voters know best. The U.S.-Israeli alliance now contributes more than ever to American security, as bilateral cooperation to deal with both military and nonmilitary challenges has grown in recent years. The relationship may not be symmetrical; the United States has provided Israel with indispensable diplomatic, economic, and military support totaling more than $115 billion since 1949. But it is a two-way partnership whose benefits to the United States have been substantial. The other, less tangible costs of the U.S.-Israeli alliance -- mainly, damage to Washington's reputation in Arab and Muslim countries, a problem also caused by American interventions and decades of U.S. support for autocratic leaders in the Middle East -- pale in comparison with the economic, military, and political gains it affords Washington.
U.S.-Israeli security cooperation dates back to heights of the Cold War, when the Jewish state came to be seen in Washington as a bulwark against Soviet influence in the Middle East and a counter to Arab nationalism. Although the world has changed since then, the strategic logic for the U.S.-Israeli alliance has not. Israel remains a counterweight against radical forces in the Middle East, including political Islam and violent extremism. It has also prevented the further proliferation of weapons of mass destruction in the region by thwarting Iraq and Syria's nuclear programs.
Israel continues to help the United States deal with traditional security threats. The two countries share intelligence on terrorism, nuclear proliferation, and Middle Eastern politics. Israel's military experiences have shaped the United States' approach to counterterrorism and homeland security. The two governments work together to develop sophisticated military technology, such as the David's Sling counter-rocket and Arrow missile defense systems, which may soon be ready for export to other U.S. allies. Israel has also emerged as an important niche defense supplier to the U.S. military, with sales growing from $300 million per year before September 11 to $1.1 billion in 2006, due to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. Israel's military research and development complex has pioneered many cutting-edge technologies that are transforming the face of modern war, including cyberweapons, unmanned vehicles (such as land robots and aerial drones), sensors and electronic warfare systems, and advanced defenses for military vehicles."
the article continues
"The U.S.-Israeli alliance has paved the way for the countries to cooperate on far more than just traditional security issues. In part because of the long-standing political and security relationship between the United States and Israel, most Israelis know the United States and harbor positive feelings toward it. Israeli companies looking for a global market for their products have often viewed their American counterparts as partners of choice. So today, Israeli civilian technological innovations are helping the United States maintain its economic competitiveness, promote sustainable development, and address a range of non-military security challenges.
Dozens of leading U.S. companies have set up technology incubators in Israel to take advantage of the country's penchant for new ideas, which is why Bill Gates observed in 2006 that the "innovation going on in Israel is critical to the future of the technology business." Likewise, Israeli high-tech firms often turn to U.S. companies as partners for joint production and marketing opportunities in the United States and elsewhere, creating tens of thousands of American jobs. And although Israelis make up just three percent of the population of the Middle East, in 2011 Israel was the destination of 25 percent of all U.S. exports to the region, having recently eclipsed Saudi Arabia as the top market there for American products.
U.S. companies' substantial cooperation with Israel on information technology has been crucial to Silicon Valley's success. At Intel's research and development centers in Israel, engineers have designed many of the company's most successful microprocessors, accounting for some 40 percent of the firm's revenues last year. If you've made a secure financial transaction on the Internet, sent an instant message, or bought something using PayPal, you can thank Israeli IT researchers."
& Continues
"Israeli innovators have also come up with novel solutions to the water and food security challenges posed by population growth, climate change, and economic development. By necessity, given the geography of the Middle East, Israel is a world leader in water conservation and management and high-tech agriculture. Israel recycles more than eighty percent of its wastewater -- the highest level in the world -- and has pioneered widely used techniques of conserving or purifying water, including drip irrigation and reverse osmosis desalination. And a number of Israeli companies are leaders in the development of renewable energy sources; BrightSource Industries, for example, is building a solar power plant in California using Israeli technology that will double the amount of solar thermal electricity produced in America. These innovations, bolstered by the substantial American investment in Israel, contribute to long-term U.S. domestic and foreign policy objectives relating to sustainable development.
To be sure, the alliance with Israel has not been without risks or costs for Washington. The 1973 War between Israel and its neighbors brought America to the brink of conflict with the Soviet Union and prompted an Arab embargo on oil exports to the United States. Following the 1982 Israeli invasion of Lebanon, the Reagan administration dispatched U.S. marines to help stabilize the country, which ultimately resulted in costly attacks on American diplomats and military personnel there. And U.S. diplomatic and military support for Israel has reinforced negative attitudes toward the United States in many Arab and predominantly Muslim countries.
But these costs should not be overstated. Beyond leading to largely symbolic UN votes against U.S. positions, Washington's support for Israel has hardly damaged the United States' ties with its Arab and Muslim allies. Standing with Israel certainly has not hobbled U.S. policy toward the region as much as the war in Iraq or Washington's backing of autocratic Arab regimes. Meanwhile, no Arab ally of the United States has ever, as a result of its pro-Israel posture, refused to cooperate with Washington on counterterrorism or denied its requests for access, basing, or overflight rights."
& Continues
"In fact, the U.S.-Israeli alliance has at times helped spur closer U.S.-Arab relations, on the theory that only the United States could convince Israel to make concessions in negotiations; this was part of the logic behind Egypt's shift away from the Soviet Union and toward the United States in the 1970s. And even during the past decade of close U.S.-Israeli cooperation, and despite an impasse in the Israeli-Palestinian peace process, Arab ties with the United States have largely flourished: bilateral trade and investment are booming, as U.S. exports to the Middle East in 2011 reached an all-time high of $56 billion. Defense cooperation is as close as ever, indicated by the several multi-billion-dollar arms deals that Washington has struck with Gulf allies in recent years. Moreover, several states, including Egypt and Jordan, along with the Palestinian Authority, share intelligence with Israel and at various times have worked behind the scenes to enlist Israel as an intermediary with Washington. This has been the case even with Egypt's post-revolutionary government. All this underscores the fact that self-interest, not ideology, is the primary driver of the Arab states' relations with Washington.
Despite the ties that continue to bind the United States and some Arab countries, the last two years of upheaval have brought turmoil to many of Washington's traditional allies in the region. At a time of great uncertainty, particularly as tensions with Iran mount, the United States is even more likely to depend on its somewhat stable nondemocratic allies, such as Saudi Arabia, and its stable democratic allies, such as Israel and Turkey, to secure its interests in the region. If anything, recent events have reinforced the logic underpinning U.S.-Israeli strategic cooperation."
& lastly says
"The benefits to the United States of its relationship with Israel belie the argument that the alliance is based solely on the two countries' shared democratic values, on the popularity of Israel in American politics, or on the elusive pursuit of progress in the peace process. It is a relationship based on tangible interests -- and will remain so for the foreseeable future.
It isn't always easy being Israel's ally (and Israeli actions don't always make it easier). The country faces many challenges, including the unresolved conflict with the Palestinians, internal socioeconomic gaps, voices around the world that deny its right to exist, and now Iran's nuclear program. Israel has made uneven progress toward addressing these issues and needs to do more to remain an attractive partner for the United States. But its past successes in incorporating huge numbers of immigrants, bridging deep social divides, and showing remarkable resilience in the face of war and terrorism provide reason to believe that Washington can continue to count on its closest partner in the Middle East, and will continue to benefit from its alliance with the Jewish state.
Michael Eisenstadt is director of the Military and Security Studies Program at The Washington Institute. David Pollock is the Institute's Kaufman fellow. This article was adapted from their recent report Asset Test: How the United States Benefits from Its Alliance with Israel."
From the website worldpopulationreview.com an article is headlined
"Most Racist Countries 2020" the article documenting Arab Racism says:
"Some countries are very accepting and welcoming of foreigners and people of different backgrounds.
Determining the most racist countries in the world can be difficult, and the results might not be consistent from one study to the next. The problem with racism is that it is a challenging variable to measure. Although there is no complexity within the trait of racism, it can be quite challenging to determine if someone is racist or not based on a questionnaire. Surveys are used to conduct the majority of racism research.
Two different articles published about three years apart by separate entities showed common finds regarding most racist countries. The Washington Post published an article in 2013. In discussing racism worldwide, the article dubbed India as the most racist country in the world. In 2016, Business Tech released a report of most racist countries in the world.
Though the articles were independently written and not produced under a collaborative effort between the two news sources, both pieces discussed similar approaches to determining if the studies' participants were or were not racist. This procedure is a way of highlights to definitively say that a country is racist. The main question posed to each of the country's participants was asking if said participants would be comfortable being neighbors with people of a race that was not the same as the participants' race.
While the answer that someone provides when presented with this question can allude to potential racism, it is not a bulletproof way of identifying racist people. Not even the act of hooking people up to lie detectors and directly asking them if they are racist can pinpoint racist people without fail. And yet this example is far more likely to produce more accurate results than just asking people how they feel about their neighbors' race.
The subjective nature of racism was highlighted and considered when designing the study. Another question was asked alongside the question regarding the nature of the skin color of neighbors. Participants were asked to share whether or not they have ever witnessed racist behavior being extended by someone in their country or if they were ever victims of racism."
the article continues
"Though there are a few faults to be found within this research-based systematic procedure, we will use the study results that made use of a question-and-answer system to figure out which countries were most racist. According to this research-based inquiry, the most racist country on Earth is India, followed by Lebanon, Bahrain, Libya, and Egypt.
The study grouped countries according to the percentage of people who answered in a racist manner when met with the two questions. The breakdown of categories involved seven different groups that a country could fall into based on most of the participants' answers.
0% - 4.9%
5% - 9.9%
10% - 14.9%
15% - 19.9%
20% - 29.9%
30% - 39.9%
40% or greater
India
India ranks as number one for the most racist country of all countries included in the study. Located in Southern Asia, India has roughly 1.3 billion people. The most prevalent ethnicities in India are people of Tamil, Nepali, Gujarati, Bengali, Marathi, Punjabi, Malayalam, and Kashmiri descent. These ethnic groups are all ones that originate in India, meaning that most of the people who live in India are Indians themselves.
Unlike countries like the United States that are founded on the basic principle of cultural differences and a mixing pot, if you will, India is home to people originally from the country -- as opposed to having a population comprised of immigrants who moved to the country from elsewhere later on in their lives. This detail is a huge contributing factor as to why India has been named the most racist country over the years. Approximately 43.6% of all Indian people who took the survey said that they would not be comfortable with neighbors who were of different cultures, ethnicities, or races than themselves. A high percentage of 64.3% of Indian participants also reported that they were either discriminated against or witnessed discrimination unfold in their home country."
& lastly says
"India is a country with a population with little diversity in terms of nationality. Most people identify as Indians, though their ethnicities can differ depending upon the area of India in which they reside or were born. Either way, if you are not used to seeing or interacting with people of different races, then it might be a bit of a cultural shock to suddenly be asked to envision yourself being neighbors with someone of a different nationality than yours.
Lebanon
The demographic of Lebanon is primarily Arab people. Like India, Lebanon is a country comprised of people who share a similar ethnic background. The population is split nearly fifty-fifty between Christians and Muslims. About 40.5% of Lebanese people identify as Christian, roughly 54% following Muslim doctrine, and the other 5.5% believe in other religions.
The point to be made here is that Lebanon does not have a high level of diversity within the country's borders, meaning the people are well-acquainted with people of similar races. Therefore, they would be opposed to mingling with other races for the sole reason that they are not used to doing so in a day-by-day setting.
Bahrain
Third on the list of most racist countries is Bahrain, a country in the Persian Gulf and just off the coast of Saudi Arabia. Bahrain has a predominately Middle Eastern population, but the country is home to a decent percentage of South Asian people. A little under 50% of people in Bahrain are Bahrainis, too. Of the people who live in Bahrain without being born in the country, Indians make up the highest percentile of immigrants. Bahrain scored 31.1% and 85.7% as part of the study in discussion.
Libya
The majority of people in Libya are Arabic. Other ethnic groups included in Libya's population are Tunisians, Egyptians, Dawada, Italians, Maltese, Greeks, Pakistanis, Turks, and Indians. The study found that 54% of people in Libya's group would not be okay with living next door to people of another race, whereas 39.7% of the population said that they've either been the victim or witness discriminatory behavior in Libya.
Egypt
Egypt's population is comprised of mostly Egyptians, born and raised in Egypt. They account for 91% of the population, with the remaining 9% made up of Bedouin Arabs, Abazas, Turks, and Greeks. As you can see, the concluding remarks regarding this study's findings for Egypt, Libya, Bahrain, and Lebanon are very much in alignment with the ones regarding India. It is difficult to determine whether someone is racist or not based on the researchers' two questions.
Most Racist Countries 2020
Witnessed Racism
Prefer Same-Race Neighbors
Libya 33.50% 54.00%
Palestine 32.00% 44.00%
India 64.30% 43.60%
Thailand 19.00% 39.80%
Lebanon 64.40% 36.30%
Ecuador 32.00% 34.50%
Yemen 31.20% 34.00%
Turkey 19.10% 33.80%
Malaysia 34.40% 31.30%
Bahrain 85.70% 31.10%
Philippines 49.10% 30.60%
South Korea 36.50% 29.60%
Kuwait 37.90% 28.10%
Kyrgyzstan 35.90% 28.10%
Iraq 37.80% 27.70%
Cyprus 26.10% 26.70%
Japan 29.70% 22.30%
Nigeria 42.50% 21.00%
Algeria 41.00% 19.80%
South Africa 61.80% 19.60%
Hong Kong 40.40% 18.80%
Russia 38.50% 17.00%
Pakistan 48.80% 14.50%
Morocco 35.60% 13.80%
Egypt 39.70% 0.00% "
The website englishbeta.alarabiya.net has an article about Animal Cruelty in the Arab World, the article is headlined
"The Arab world’s loose laws are enabling animal abuse"
Alanoud Alhejailan
Special to Al Arabiya English
Published: 11 April ,2016:
Updated: 20 May ,2020: the article says:
"German philosopher Immanuel Kant once said “We can judge the heart of a man by his treatment of animals”. I strongly agree with this statement. The way we treat animals is a strong indication of our moral character as human beings. Animals are beautiful creatures. They are loyal, keep us company and love us. Just like children, they depend on us for their survival. Then why do many of us treat them with cruelty? A person who is capable of being cruel to a helpless animal is, in my opinion, capable of committing other grave crimes.
Animal cruelty and neglect is, unfortunately, very prevalent in the Arab world. Many believe that humans should have rights but animals should not. When the subject of animal rights is discussed, I often hear people say “Give us our rights first before giving animals theirs”. Human rights and animal rights are two distinct issues, each of which should be equally respected.
Horrific videos
I am sure that many of you have seen the horrendous animal abuse videos, which are circulated on social media. I have seen one where a cat was beaten to death and another where a horse, unable to fend for itself, was tied to a pole and beaten over and over until it fell down helplessly while the assailants laughed hysterically. If this does not constitute criminal behavior then I don’t know what does.
Saudi Arabia has signed and ratified the GCC Law on the Humane Treatment of Animals. This law protects animals from its owners and caretakers in the event of inhumane treatment, and imposes a fine of up to SR400,000 on violators. This is a great first step. However, much more needs to be done.
The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture should play a more active role when it comes to enforcement. The transportation of cattle should be closely monitored so that they are transported comfortably and not thrown in the back of pickup trucks. Chicken and quail farms should be monitored so that these animals are not confined to small tight spaces, given growth hormones or force-fed. Pet stores should follow very stringent rules and not keep animals on display for hours on end. Any member of the public who abuses or kills an animal in vain should be held criminally accountable.
The definition of inhumane treatment should include emotional and mental factors, such as separating a mother from its young. I have seen kittens barely one month old being separated from their mother for commercial purposes. Animals are often neglected, beaten or killed and pets are bought and then discarded like a piece of property.
Educating the public
The Saudi Ministry of Agriculture should hold animal welfare campaigns to educate the public, including young people at schools and universities. Training workshops for policemen and customs officials should be carried out to close the gap between legislation, enforcement and commonly held attitudes. Vets should also be trained on the need to raise community awareness about cruelty to animals. More animal shelters should be available and people should be encouraged to “adopt” rather than “buy” pets.
Animals have no voice of their own so it is up to us to speak on their behalf by educating our children on animal welfare, protecting animals from abusers and granting them the rights they deserve. It is a social collective responsibility. As Mahatma Gandhi said, “The greatness of a nation and its moral progress can be judged by the way its animals are treated.”
This article was first published in the Saudi Gazette."
From JewishPress.com an article is titled
BlogsUnited with Israel
"Debunking the ‘Palestinians as Native Americans’ Myth"
In one anti-Israel protest outside of Nablus, Palestinians even dressed up like Native Americans in order to make a political point.
By Rachel Avraham - 20 Iyyar 5773 – April 29, 2013
Various anti-Israel groups argue that the Palestinians are like Israel’s “Native Americans. However, the truth of the matter is that the Jewish people are the closest thing to an indigenous people within the Holy Land, while the Palestinian Arabs ancestors sprung out from centers of empire.
Despite all of the facts proving the contrary, some anti-Israel activists have falsely compared the Palestinians to the Native Americans. For example, during this year’s Palestinian Solidarity Week at the University of Maryland at College Park, the UMD Students for Justice in Palestine hosted a lecture titled “Two Trails of Tears: From Turtle Island to Palestine.” In this lecture, the UMD Students for Justice in Palestine held a discussion on “settler colonialism, ethnic cleansing, broken treaties and racist policies as a form of systematic oppression for the Palestinian and Native American peoples.”
Unfortunately, the UMD Students for Justice in Palestine is not the only anti-Israel group to seek to compare the Palestinian cause to the Native American struggle. This type of rhetoric disregards Jewish history within the Land of Israel dating back to antiquity and is an attempt to re-write history by anti-Israel groups in order to belittle the Jewish connection to the Land of Israel. This propaganda is so popular among anti-Israel groups that in one anti-Israel protest outside of Nablus, Palestinians even dressed up like Native Americans in order to make a political point. Many Native American’s find this offensive and an unethical form of cultural appropriation.
As Ryan Bellerose, a member of the Métis nation in Canada, wrote in the Metropolitan,
The Palestinians are not like us. Their fight is not our fight. We natives believe in bringing about change peacefully and we refuse to be affiliated with anyone who engages in violence targeting civilians. I cannot remain silent and allow the Palestinians to gain credibility at our expense by claiming commonality with us.
I cannot stand by while they trivialize our plight by tying it to theirs, which is largely self-inflicted. Our population of over 65 million was violently reduced to a mere 10 million, a slaughter unprecedented in human history. To compare that in whatever way to the Palestinians’ story is deeply offensive to me. The Palestinians did lose the land they claim is theirs, but they were repeatedly given the opportunity to build their state on it and to partner with the Jews — and they persistently refused peace overtures and chose war. We were never given that chance. We never made that choice."
the article continues
"According to Ward Churchill, a professor of ethnic studies at the University of Colorado, 12 million Native Americans used to inhabit North America in 1500. They were the continent’s first original indigenous human inhabitants and some of the tribes referred to their ancestral homeland as Turtle’s Island. Yet today, after experiencing massacres, persecutions, outright racism, ethnic cleansing, systematic oppression, and having their traditional lands colonized by European settlers who refused to permit them to live beside them even if they were peaceful and adopted aspects of European culture, their population size was reduced to 237,000 by 1900.
During the infamous Trail of Tears, about 20,000 Cherokees were forcefully expelled from their homes and sent on a death march, where up to 8,000 of them perished. The Cherokee nation endured all of this suffering, despite the fact that they were very much assimilated into the society, rejected utilizing violence, and had legal documents in their possession demonstrating what land was supposed to belong to them. It was one of the darkest chapters in American history.
Despite all Palestinian propaganda points to the contrary, the Palestinians are not Israel’s “Native Americans.” In fact, the Jewish people, composed of the twelve tribes of Israel, not Muslim Palestinian Arabs, made up the majority of the population in Israel up until 135 CE, when the Jewish people through massacres, brutal oppression, persecutions, and ethnic cleansing were forcibly made into a minority within their own country. Just like the Native Americans, the fact that Jews were made into a minority within their own country does not rob them of their indigenous status nor does it imply that they abandoned their country.
In fact, Jews continued to live in Israel throughout history, regardless of which regime was in power. The Jewish Virtual Library estimates that in 1517, well before the Zionist movement existed, there were only around 300,000 people living in Eretz Yisrael, where 5,000 of them were Jewish. According to the Ottoman Turkish Census of 1893, there were 371,959 Muslims, 42,689 Christians, and about 9,000 Jews living in Israel. These statistics demonstrate that Jews were living in the Land of Israel well before Zionism and the Balfour Declaration. Muslims were never the sole inhabitants of the land like the Native Americans were in the United States."
Some comments People typed in Reply to the article about how so-called "Palestinians" are NOT like Native Americans
"I am a Jew, but part of my family was also “Cherokee.” I am part of the Vann family who had lands, race horses, slaves, a river boat and made the Trail of Tears in carriage. Many Cherokee today fantasize about being part of the Lost Tribes, e.e., Jewish. But if “Palestinians” want to imagine they are like Native Americans, they need to consider something. There are reservations, but for the most part the Peoples were treated worse than any Palestinian, they have all but lost their culture, their religion(s), and have not fared well in general. I most ways they are hardly distinguishable from other poor people. Palestinians are about as ‘Indian’ as the Cleveland Indians and the Atlanta Braves.
"Palestinians" are native as extremist Islam is "native" to civilization. An inherent oxymoron."
Some More Comments people typed in Reply to the article about how "Palestinians" are
NOT like Native Americans
"The Palestinians were never decimated by smallpox, measles, and influenza, like the Native Americans were. Illiteracy among the Palestinians were not handled by rounding up all the children, and sending them to boarding schools to forcibly learn Hebrew. The Palestinians were not placed on reservations or stations, where they had to live with historical enemies. This comparison is an insult to indigenous peoples, such as the Native Americans, Native Australians, Ainu, and Saami, who were the victims of epidemics of foreign diseases, and forced assimilation. Forced assimilation is more in the history of the Jews, than it is in the Palestinians. Also, the bubonic plague first appeared in the Middle East, before it came to Europe, and both Muslims and Christians thought it was due to breathing bad air. But sectarian violence can make people do some awfully stupid things."
"Cultural Survival deals with the rights and cultural preservation of indigenous peoples. The Palestinians are not included in them, because they are not classified as an indigenous people."
"Given the "palestinians" refuse to this day to remove the "kill the criminal entity" from both their charters, keep the current two-state solution in place: Israel and the 'palestinian' state of jordan"
"Amen to this! The Israelis ARE native to the region! Zionism is homecoming, NOT colonialism!"
Someone tried and failed to Refute & Debunk the article about how "Palestinians" are
NOT like Native Americans
the person typed
Debunking this article:
1) The First Nations community has expressed solidarity with Palestinians for decades. To hand pick a no-name non-leader like Bellerose and pretend he represents First Nations in Canada is ridiculous. Idle No More, the largest First Nations activist group which has supporters all over the world has expressed solidarity with Palestinians on numerous occasions, most recently by protesting hand-in-hand with them in Jan. 2013
2) To claim the Jews are the indigenous population of Palestine is outrageous. First, the Jews have never been one race so they can't constitute a single indigenous population. Rachel cannot claim that the Ethiopian, Arab, European, Indian and Chinese Jews are all the same people. Second, 80% of the world's Jews are Ashkenazi, meaning they originate not from the Middle East but Eastern Europe. And even if those Jews were originally from the ME (which they are not), THEY LEFT OVER 3,000 AGO and never tried or wanted to go back essentially until the 1940s. If you want proof of that, ask yourself why it is that nearly all the 2.2 million Jews who left Eastern Europe at the same time as Herzl was selling Zionism in the late 19th century chose to go to the US instead of Palestine if they were so yearning for Jerusalem.
And besides, you can't claim something after 3,000 years! If that were true, then the Italians could pretty much claim all of Europe since they are original Romans!
Third, there is no ethnic or genetic difference (as proven by the Israelis!) between Middle Eastern Jews and Palestinians. The Palestinians are the original Jews of Palestine that converted to Christianity and Islam over the centuries. They have been there as long or longer than the Jews have and they never went anywhere.
3) As the author states, in recent history, the population of Palestine was Muslim by a vast majority. In fact, since the advent of Islam in about 600AD, the Jewish population in Palestine never reached past 6-8%. So how does the author figure that the tiny minority of Jews that were in Palestine from 150 years ago are indigenous but the vast majority of the Muslims and Christians there at the same time are not? How does that make any sense? These are the same people just different religion. All people in Palestine, regardless of religion, had always considered themselves Palestinians, that's the truth.
4) EVEN IF everything in this article were true, WHO CARES? It doesn't really matter if the Palestinians are more or less indigenous than the Jews because the fact of the matter is, they have a right to return to their homeland. You can't show up after 3,000 years, kick out over 800,000 Palestinians, steal all of their property, shoot them when then they try to cross the border to reunite with their family or their land, and then pretend they didn't exist! I don't care who is indigenous and for how long, fact of the matter is in 1948, the Palestinians owned over 90% of the land in Palestine and they have the right to return to that land under International Law. If you don't like it, I don't care, that's the truth.
My own family has a documented family tree in my village for over 1,300 years. We built the church in our village and had lived side by side peacefully with Jews , Muslims, Druze and Bedouin for over a millennia. Travellers to Palestine in the 19th century wrote about my family in their diaries. I am a PALESTINIAN and I am more indigenous to my homeland than the author of this article could ever dream to be."
Rachel gave her response Explaining why "Palestinians" are NOT like Native Americans , She typed:
"Response to ------ below: 1) Bellerose is not the only Native American to express solidarity with the Jewish people and the Land of Israel. While some Native Americans have been misinformed about the conflict and supported the Palestinian cause as a result due to a Palestinian misinformation campaign that targets the Native American community, many Native Americans see through their propaganda. Feel free to check out an article that I wrote on the subject. http://unitedwithisrael.org/native-american-tribal-support-for-the-state-of-israel/
2) Numerous genetic studies demonstrate the exact opposite of what you said. The Jewish people are indeed one people with more genetically in common with each other than the non-Jewish communities where they used to live. This means that a Morocaan Jew, for example, has more genetically in common with a Russian Jew than with an Arab. Furthermore, 50 percent of Israel's population consists of Mizrahi Jews who never left the Middle East region. These Mizrahi Jews lived in the Middle East thousands of years before Islam took over the region. They never left the region. Furthermore, I know of two Israeli Jews who can trace their family trees back to 1492, demonstrating a continuous presence in Israel since that period of time. While some Palestinians have been in the land longer, they are very much in the minority, since most Palestinians migrated to the land from surrounding Arab countries around the very time the Jews came. In addition, Jews have always lived on the land, while Muslims only made up a majority in the country during Mamluk times. Thus, since the Jews were the indigenous inhabitants and always had a communities within the country, and their ancestors lived there, they have more of claim than most Palestinians who migrated in the late Ottoman period and British Mandate times whose ancestors never lived there. The population of Arabs wasn't continuous. The Arabs who lived in Israel in the seventh century are not the same Arabs who lived there after the Crusades, when the population was eliminated. Secondly, it was 2,000 years ago that Jews made up the majority, not 3,000. Learn some history.
3) Actually, the facts that I mentioned show that Jews have had a continuous presence on the land and that Arab Muslims were never the sole inhabitants. They weren't the single population, like the Native Americans were.
4) The Ottomans owned the land, not the Palestinians. Israel bought tons of land from absentee Arab land-owners. The rest was achieved legally through the League of Nations mandate and other legal documents. So you can't claim that Palestinians owned the land, when there was never a Palestinian entity. Ottomans were not indigenous either, they were an empire. They had about as much of a claim to Israel as Rome has a claim to Gaul."
Another Terrible Arab Terrorist Attack on America that should Never be Forgotten is
the 1997 Shooting at the Empire State Building, in New York City,
From Wikipedia, it says about this attack
"1997 Empire State Building shooting" which took place on February 23, 1997
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Date February 23, 1997
5:00 pm (UTC-5)
Attack type Shooting
Weapons Beretta 84 handgun
Deaths 2 (including the perpetrator)
Injured 6
Perpetrator Ali Hassan Abu Kamal
Motive anti-Zionism
"On February 23, 1997, Ali Hassan Abu Kamal, a 69-year-old Palestinian teacher, opened fire on the observation deck of the Empire State Building in Manhattan, New York City. The gunman killed one person and wounded six others before taking his own life with a gunshot to the head.[1]
Law enforcement officials ruled it was a premeditated attack after finding notes indicating Abu Kamal's anger over Palestine and Israel. At the time, Abu Kamal's widow stated the shooting spree was not politically motivated, but rooted in his despondency over financial ruin.
Ten years after the shooting, Abu Kamal's daughter revealed that she had lied in hiding that her father's actions had in fact been motivated by Palestinian nationalism. Her mother's 1997 account was a cover story fabricated by the Palestinian Authority as Abu Kamal sought revenge against the Americans, the British, and the French for supporting Israel.
Contents
1 Shooting
2 Assailant
2.1 Motive
3 Aftermath
4 See also
5 References
Shooting
Abu Kamal opened fire shortly after 5 p.m. on February 23, 1997, on the 86th floor observation deck of the Empire State Building, one of New York City's most popular tourist attractions. Before he started shooting, he muttered something about Egypt, apparently shouting, "Are you from Egypt?" The NYPD said they did not know whether it was said in an effort to spare or identify potential victims.[1] Surviving victims however witness that Abu Kamal asked them in a friendly way whether "you are Italian or American?" before the shooting started.[2]
The shooter used a 14-shot .380-caliber Beretta 84 handgun that he apparently bought in Florida at the end of January 1997.[3] Abu Kamal killed one person and wounded another six before shooting himself in the head. He was taken to a hospital where he died five hours later.[1]
The sole murder victim was 27-year-old Christoffer Burmeister, a Danish musician who was living in New York and played in a band. He was visiting the Empire State Building with bandmate Matthew Gross, who was critically wounded in the attack.[4]"
The Wikipedia entry continues
"Assailant
The shooter Ali Hassan Abu Kamal was a 69-year-old Palestinian English teacher. He was born in Jaffa in Mandate Palestine on September 19, 1927. He was the son of a refugee family that fled the city during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War and resettled in Gaza. He became a well-respected English teacher at a local high school and a university, and he was also a well-paid tutor and accomplished translator. He earned about $3,000 a month and lived in an affluent neighborhood with his wife, and had six children.[5]
In 1996, he decided his family should relocate to the United States for a better life. He obtained a legal nonimmigrant visa and arrived in New York on December 24, 1996.[5]
Motive
According to law enforcement officials, Abu Kamal's attack was premeditated, based on his visit to the observation deck the day before the shooting. A pair of identical letters, one in English and one in Arabic, was also found in a pouch around his neck. The letters were a diatribe against the "Big Three" of the United States, France, and England for their mistreatment of Palestinians, as well as against Zionism, which he said oppressed Palestinians.[5]
Despite the letter's reference to Palestine and Zionists, Abu Kamal's widow offered another explanation that the real motive for the shooting spree was not political but rooted in financial ruin. The letter had also named two business partners, who Abu Kamal claimed swindled him out of money, losing $300,000 in a business venture. At that point, she said he became suicidal. His daughter added that he could not return home after losing the money.[6] Fathiya Abu Kamal told the press:
My husband is not a terrorist, he was just hopeless. He was aged, he had nothing to do with politics, or terrorism, or crime.[7]
In February 2007, 10 years after the shooting, the New York Daily News reported that Abu Kamal's daughter, Linda, was "tired of lying" about her father's motives for the attack. She told the Daily News that her father wanted to punish the U.S. for supporting Israel and revealed that her mother's 1997 account was a cover story fabricated by the Palestinian Authority:[6]
A Palestinian Authority official advised us to say the attack was not for political reasons because that would harm the peace agreement with Israel. We didn't know that he was martyred for patriotic motivations, so we repeated what we were told to do... His goal was patriotic. He wanted to take revenge from the Americans, the British, the French and the Israelis... He wrote that after he raised his children and made sure that his family was all right he decided to avenge in the highest building in America to make sure they get his message.
Aftermath
Following the shooting New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani called for more consistent gun control laws across the US, saying "It should be as difficult to get a gun in Florida as it is in New York City."[8]"
From www.barnesandnoble.com A book worth reading is
"Holy Hatred: Christianity, Antisemitism, and the Holocaust / Edition 1"
by R. Michael
Overview
"Although Christianity's precise influence on the Holocaust cannot be determined and the Christian churches did not themselves perpetrate the Final Solution, Michael argues that two millennia of Christian ideas and prejudices and their impact on Christians' behaviour appear to be the major basis of antisemitism and it's apex, the Holocaust."
Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought
Product Details About the Author Table of Contents
Product Details
ISBN-13: 9781403974723
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan US
Publication date: 10/27/2006
Edition description: 2006
Pages: 254
Sales rank: 804,392
Product dimensions: 5.51(w) x 8.50(h) x 0.02(d)
Editorial Reviews
'A praiseworthy achievement a model of its kind.' Paul R. Bartrop, Honorary Research Fellow, The Faculty of Arts, Deakin University, and Head of History, Bialik College
'Holy Hatred is a masterful, beautifully written study of how Christianity and the churches shaped and sustained a lethal antisemitism for almost two millennia. Future studies of the Holocaust or of antisemitism will have to address Michael's work.' Eunice G. Pollack, University of North Texas
'Following in the footsteps of Poliakov and Flannery, this book offers a powerful description of Christianity's intimate involvement with Judeophobia and anti-Semitism from the gospels forward.' Peter J. Haas, Abba Hillel Silver Professor of Jewish Studies, Chair, Department of Religious Studies, and Director, The Samuel Rosenthal Center for Judaic Studies, Case Western Reserve University
'If anyone still remains ignorant of the Christian origins of anti-Semitism ancient and modern and its contribution to the Holocaust, this book will remedy that bliss:clearly, and in comprehensive detail.' Richard Elliott Sherwin, Professor, Bar-Ilan University
From the website www.jewishboston.com an article is titled
"Anti-Semitism: The Virus Break Is Over" By Dr. Michael Laitman for Bnei Baruch Education Center
the article says:
If we unite and become a role model of unity, we will be the modern version of “a light unto nations,” the exemplar the world needs today.
APRIL 12, 2020
Before COVID-19 took over the world by storm, the newspapers were very often focused on the spreading global anti-Semitism. The coronavirus put people on survival mode, and when you’re busy saving your life and the lives of your loved ones, there is little energy to hate.
But now, it seems, the hiatus from anti-Semitism is almost over and Jew-hatred is returning. It was obvious from the get-go that Jews shouldn’t pin their hopes on the superbug to spare them the wrath of the nations, but seeing the return of anti-Semitism even before the peak of the pandemic is certainly cause for concern.
As pundits and environmentalists around the world have been asserting day and night, the outbreak is a product of our egoism. Our greed, profiteering and exploitation of nature and each other have depleted Earth’s resources, driven animals from their natural habitats and into unhealthy proximity to humans, and pushed tens of millions of people below the income threshold that allows for maintaining proper health. This is a breeding ground for germs of all sorts, a biological bomb waiting to explode.
In simple terms, our ego has depleted the planet, pushed it off balance, and now the planet is taking back the helm and restoring balance, at our expense. It is not revenge, but an act of restoring balance.
Blame the CEO
If the coronavirus taught us anything, it is that we cannot keep dancing only to the tune of our egos; we have got to balance it. Yet, how do we do that?
I elaborated extensively on answering this question in my books “Like a Bundle of Reeds: Why Unity and Mutual Guarantee Are Today’s Call of the Hour” and in my latest publication, “The Jewish Choice: Unity or Anti-Semitism: Historical Facts on Anti-Semitism as a Reflection of Jewish Social Discord.” Succinctly, anti-Semites blame us for all that’s wrong with the world since they feel that we control the world, so anything that’s wrong with it, it is because of us. In the same way you blame the CEO of a company when it does not perform well, anti-Semites blame the Jews when the world does not perform well. Today, according to the ADL and many other NGOs monitoring Jew-hatred, a great and growing number of people in the world are anti-Semitic. Couple that with the fact that the world has thrown a pandemic on humanity and you have a perfect storm threatening to explode on the heads of the Jews worldwide.
The odd voices on the fringes of the left and the right shrieking that the Jews are to blame for everything are the droplets that come before the rain. But the clouds in the very-near horizon are dark, heavy and truly menacing.
Finding Shelter in Each Other
The Jews have not run out of time. The hiatus isn’t over yet. Their shelter, as always, is in their unity. This is, always has been and always will be their canopy, their shelter from the storm. Every Jewish leader since the time of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob has urged Jews to unite in order to avert affliction.
However, especially today, our unity cannot be for our own sake. We are not the only ones who need unity; the whole world needs it. We, Israel, are blamed for the destruction of the world by egoism; therefore, we are the ones who must show the way out of it by uniting above our own. If we unite and become a role model of unity, we will be the modern version of “a light unto nations,” the exemplar the world needs today.
With the world’s enslavement to egoism, who better than us can lead the way to freedom in the days of Passover? If we unite in order to help each other rise above our egos, this is the only example that the world needs to see. This is why unity is so precious to us and why it is our only hope."
From the website Ohio State University Website, osupublicationarchives.osu.edu an article from February 3, 1976 was headlined
"Priest cites anti-Semitism as long , continuing hatred" by Matthew B. Hall the article says
"Some people do not realize anti-Semitism has existed for 2,000 years and is not solely a product of 20th century Germany , said Father Edward H . Flannery , author of "The Anguish of the Jews . " "Anti-Semitism is the greatest hatred in history . No other hatred for a group of people has existed for so long and with such intensity , " Flannery said . FLANNERY SPOKE to a meeting of the Newman Center Catholic-Jewish Dialogues last week . The meeting was co-sponsored by the Hillel Foundation . Flannery , whose book is the first written by a Catholic priest on the history of anti-Semitism , said the only way to erase anti-Semitism is to replace the pages torn from history books about the long suffering of the Jewish people . Flannery first became interested in anti-Semitism when a Jewish girl , upon seeing a huge cross as part of a Christmas display , told Flannery she felt an evil presence . Flannery wondered how a Christian symbol of goodness could be a symbol of fear and oppression to the Jews . FLANNERY SAID he has done extensive research and has spoken in nearly 250 synagogues during the past 10 years about anti-Semitism . "By speaking in synagogues , I am in a sense righting a historical wrong . Many centuries ago , Christian priests went into synagogues to preach the superiority of Christianity to the Jews , who were compelled by law to listen . Now , I go there to tell them how wrong we were , " he said . Flannery traced the start of anti-Semitism back to the decline of polytheism in the Greco-Roman world around the first century A . D .
The Jewish and Catholic faiths fought for control of the Roman world , he said . The execution of Christ brought about the deepest rooted hatred between Christians and Jews , he said . FOR CENTURIES , Christian doctrine said the Jews were cursed by God for the killing of Christ , Flannery said . The Crusades of the 11th century were the first attempt to exterminate the entire Jewish race , he said . "History books portray the Crusades as a holy effort to stop the 'infidels' of the East . The books do not record the 10,000 Jews killed by these noble armies on the way to battle . " FLANNERY ESTIMATES seven to 10 million Jews were killed as a result of religious persecution before Hitler ' s regime . Flannery , who is a consultant to the Vatican Secretariat for Catholic-Jewish Relations , said antiSemitism is still widespread , but is now more unconscious . People deny it exists , and until it is brought out into the open , it will be impossible to get rid of , he said . "THE CHRISTIAN pulpit , once the source of antiSemitism , is now a leader in the fight against it , " he said . Flannery said the first real progress in improving Christian-Jewish relations came in 1965 when the Vatican issued a decree for dialogues between the two faiths , and more has been accomplished in the last 10 years than in the 2,000 years before . "I have a vision . Scripture says the Jews are beloved of God . If we as Christians truly love God , then we will love the Jews , " he said ."
That's the sad Truth, Seven to Ten Million Jews killed Throughout the Centuries BEFORE,
BEFORE Hitler and the Holocaust , in the 2,000 years BEFORE the Nazi Holocaust of
World War II, Seven to Ten Million Jews were Killed over those 2,000 Years , in countless
Persecutions
From the website, us.icej.org for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
an article is headlined
"WHY SHOULD AMERICA SUPPORT ISRAEL?"
Your Israel Answer
By: Susan Michael, ICEJ USA Director
Posted on: 1 Dec 2015 the article says:
Why Should America Support Israel?
The American-Israeli relationship is one of the strongest friendships between any two nations on Earth. Built on a foundation of shared interests and values, the relationship benefits both nations immensely.
There are many different reasons why Americans should support Israel.
Israel shares our values. It is the only democracy in the Middle East – the only place in the region where the fundamental values championed by the United States – like individual freedom, human rights, and the protection of minorities – are exercised.
Israel shares our interests. Israel shares America’s interest to create a peaceful and democratic world. At the UN, the two nations have a virtually identical voting record. To put it simply, there is no country on the face of the earth more pro-American than Israel.
Israel is a critical ally in the war on terror. In the battle against Islamic extremism, Israel and America stand together on the front lines. According to Maj. Gen. George J. Keegan Jr., the former head of U.S. Air Force intelligence, the Untied States “owes more to the Israeli intelligence input than it does to any single source of intelligence.”
Israel makes America – and the world – a better place. Israel’s incredible contributions in fields from health to agriculture to technology save lives, create jobs, and enrich communities across the United States. With advances ranging from text messaging to cancer research, from drip irrigation to the flu vaccine, odds are that the innovative Israeli people have improved life for you and your family!"
Do you have a question about Israel? Visit us at IsraelAnswers.com and get it answered!
For more than thirty years, Susan Michael has pioneered the development of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem in the United States and around the world. She currently serves as the ministry’s USA Director and is a member of the ICEJ’s international Board of Directors.
From www.barnesandnoble.com a good book to read is titled
"Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate"
by William Nicholls
Overview
"In Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate, Professor William Nicholls, a former minister in the Anglican Church and the founder of the Department of Religious Studies at the University of British Columbia, presents his stunning research, stating that Christian teaching is primarily responsible for antisemitism. As Nicholls states, these conclusions "can now be fully justified by the most up-to-date scholarship, Christian as well as Jewish." Nicholls writes, "Many Jewish writers have said, quite simply, that the Nazis chose the Jews as the target of their hate because two thousand years of Christian teaching had accustomed the world to do so. Few Christian historians and theologians have been sufficiently open to the painful truth to accept this explanation without considerable qualification. Nevertheless, it is correct." Christian Antisemitism traces, over two millennia, the growing domination of Western culture by the Christian "myth" (as Nicholls calls it) about the Jews, and shows how it still exerts a major influence even on the secularized "post-Christian world." Nicholls shows, through scrupulous research and documentation, that the myth of the Jews as Christ-killers has powered anti-Judaism and antisemitism throughout the centuries. Nicholls clearly illustrates that this myth is present in the New Testament and that "it has not yet died under the impact of modern critical history." Also included in this remarkable volume is Nicholls' research regarding the Jewishness of Jesus. He writes, "Historical scholarship now permits us to affirm with confidence that Jesus of Nazareth was a faithful and observant Jew who lived by the Torah and taught nothing against his own people and their faith...the Romans, not the Jews, were the Christ-killers." In Part I, "Before the Myth," Nicholls explores the life of Jesus and his teachings as found in the New Testament. Was Jesus the founder of Christianity? Did he offer teachings against his people? Did he believe himself?"
From the website www.barnesandnoble.com some reviews of the book
"Christian Anti-Semitism: A History of Hate" by William Nicholls are
Editorial Reviews
"Professor Nicholls' history of the Christian origins and perpetuation of, and the church's continuing responsibility for, the antisemitic myth—including that myth's secularized and racist forms—is a marvel of contemporary historical and moral scholarship. We are given a comprehensive, definitive accounting of Christian hate for Jews from its beginnings to today—all in some 500 pages—together with compelling proposals for religious and theological reform and renewal. This historical exposition extends as well to the many moral, theological, political, and psychoanalytic dimensions of the question of antisemitism. We may expect this work to remain authoritative for a long time. It is a gem."
A. Roy Eckardt
"Professor William Nicholls is one of those rare thinkers capable of combining extraordinary scholarship and erudition with a deep understanding of human nature and human aguish. Above all, he is a man of remarkable courage, a courage stemming from his own sense of morals and faith. Christian Antisemitism: A History of Hate is a work with no precedent and no equal. At one level, it is a brilliant, breathtaking chart of the history of Christianity, from its birth to modern times, and the legacy of hatred that it promoted, in both its religious and secular forms. At a second level, this book is designed to delineate Christian responsibility, not only for the butcheries and persecutions of the past, like the Spanish Portuguese Inquisitions, but also andspecifically for the destruction of six million Jews during the Holocaust. As a Christian, deeply committed to the faith of the Hebrew and Christian Scriptures, Professor Nicholls not only feels the rage for this historical travesty but also the moral, nay, the religious charge, to face up to the burden of this responsibility and to redress this wrong. Written in a scintillating and swift, stripped-down prose, this is a luminous and compelling book that could change forever Christian perception of"
Professor José Faur
Also from www.barnesandnoble.com Another book worth reading is titled
"Antisemitism: Myth and Hate from Antiquity to the Present"
by F. Schweitzer, M. Perry
Overview
"In this provocative book, Marvin Perry and Frederick M. Schweitzer analyze the lies, misperceptions, and myths about Jews and Judaism that anti-semites have propagated throughout the centuries. Beginning with antiquity, and continuing into the present day, the authors explore the irrational fabrications that have led to numerous acts of violence and hatred against Jews. The book examines ancient and medieval myths central to the history of anti-semitism: Jews as 'Christ-killers', instruments of Satan, and ritual murderers of Christian children. It also explores the scapegoating of Jews in the modern world as conspirators bent on world domination; extortionists who manufactured the Holocaust as a hoax designed to gain reparation payments from Germany; and the leaders of the slave trade that put Africa in chains. No other book has focused its attention exclusively on a thematic discussion of historic and contemporary anti-semitic myths, covering such an expansive scope of time, and allowing for such a painstaking level of exemplification. Anti-semitism is an essential book that will serve as a corrective to bigotry, stereotype, and historical distortion."
Editorial Reviews
Reviews of the hardback edition:
'The authors write cleanly, and their prose is highly readable. They have brought to their task valuable classroom experience over many decades. For such reasons, and because the book presents a succinct, easily understood overview, it will appeal to many readers.' - Ethnic and Racial Studies
'Solidly researches and lucidly written [this] book makes for compelling, if painful, reading.' - Los Angeles Times
'[A] tour de force [that] follows upon the late Edward H. Flannery's groundbreaking classic, The Anguish of the Jews.' - Journal of Ecumenical Studies
'Commendably, the authors, using reader-friendly language composed in captivating imagery, bring home the point that realization of anti-semitism and its vision of apocalypse is ever present and therefore necessitates constant vigil. A wonderful read on a poignant topic. Highly recommended.' - Zev Garber, author of Shoah"
The Reviews Continue
"
'Perry and Schweitzer navigate the history of anti-semitism with a firm hand, utilizing the latest scholarship and confronting controversial issues without fear.' - Library Journal
'A richly textured, thorough, well-written and indispensable addition to the literature, one that anyone interested in the topic and related racist phenomena should not miss.' - John Weiss, author of Ideology of Death: Why the Holocaust Happened in Germany
'...this is a decent and sober beginning to this regrettable history of hate...Recommended.' - S.D. Benin, Choice
'...an invaluable guide through the torturous maze of myth and lies propagated by antisemites throughout the ages.' - Anna Dogole, The Jewish Eye
'...deserves a place on your bookshelf...' - Gerard Meister, Pencil Stubs Online (www.pencilstubs.com)
'...a remarkably timely and useful account of the history of antisemitism...In spite of the thousands of books...on anti-semitism, it is often difficult to find a book suitable for students that describes lucidly and competently anti-semitic delusions and myths as both a logical absurdity and also a force that has shaped much of the history of the last two thousand years. This book qualifies in these respects unlike any book I have ever seen. I am confident that others will find it similarly useful.' - Derek H. Davis, Journal of Church and State
From the Publisher
Perry (Baruch Coll., CUNY) and Schweitzer (Manhattan Coll.) navigate the history of anti-Semitism with a firm hand, utilizing the latest scholarship and confronting controversial issues without fear. Although the book provides a number of linkages between the Holocaust and earlier anti-Semitic beliefs, the primary purpose is to analyze the origins of anti-Semitic myths and their later manifestations. While the authors assert that these beliefs created the fertile ground for mass murder, they do not claim that it inevitably led to genocide. In addition to detailing anti-Semitic beliefs and the consequent victimization of Jews, the authors provide a primer on how to counter such beliefs using historical facts and methodology. Of particular use for students are the chapters on Holocaust denial, anti-Semitism in the Muslim world, and the writings and speeches of the Nation of Islam, which provide important context for understanding how old myths are continually reinvented for the modern world. Recommended for all libraries.-Frederic Krome, Jacob Rader Marcus Ctr. of the American Jewish Archives Copyright 2002 Cahners Business Information."
From the website loveforhispeople.com an article is titled
"It’s Time to Call Out This Rampant False End-Times Belief"
3/23/2018 REV. GARY CRISTOFARO CHARISMA NEWS
the article says
"Is there a more endearing phrase in all the world than, “That’s my child”? Can’t you just feel the pride and love welling-up inside of you as you think back to that moment when you held your baby in your arms and declared those words for the first time. Or maybe the time you said those words to a fellow little-league parent or at a school concert? Our children mean the world to us, don’t they?
This is the same passion, love and devotion I sense when I read the words, “My people Israel”, spoken from the mouth of God through His prophets. In each case where this phrase appears it is in the context of The Holy One of Israel coming to the defense of His people, promising intimacy with them and/or promising their ultimate deliverance.
For example, “I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel; they will rebuild the ruined cities and inhabit them; they will plant vineyards and drink their wine; they will make gardens and eat their fruit. I will plant them upon their land, and no more will they be uprooted out of their land which I have given them. The Lord your God has spoken (Amos 9:14-15).
With the love for your family in mind, imagine this: You’ve invited me into your home and you’ve asked me to peruse a photo album filled with pictures of your children. I take one look at its contents and say; “I’m not interested”. I’m quite sure you would be highly offended. But if I were to be so callous as to say; “Those children should be dead”, I’m even more positive that, as a loving parent, you would physically remove me from your home exercising very little restraint.
Now transfer this analogy to the love that God demonstrates for His people. He has presented a picture of His children for all the world to see, displayed within His written Word. Imagine our heavenly Father’s grief, sorrow and disappointment when His church peaks inside His book and walks away apathetic toward them at best. Even apathy is silent consent with Israel’s enemies who desire their death and destruction.
False Eschatology
Part of the problem is that many Christians believe that in the last days, two-thirds of the Jewish people in Israel will be killed and that only one third will survive. This false eschatology comes from a poor translation of a prophecy found in the book of Zechariah. Zechariah 13:8-9 has been consistently translated into English to read; two-thirds will be cut off and die but one-third shall be left in it”.
A more accurate translation reveals that Zechariah was in full agreement with the prophet Isaiah regarding Israel’s future. Both speak of two times Israel would be scattered and twice they would be re-gathered. Thus, a more accurate translation of Zechariah 13:8-9 from the Hebrew would be, “two parts shall be cut off and die but a third part would come through the fire”, … “And each one will say; The Lord is my God”. The third part is Israel today, the third Commonwealth that was re-born in 1948."
the article continues
"What kind of sick joke would it be for God to re-gather His people from the four corners of the earth in order to kill two-thirds of them. The Hebrew witnesses, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Zechariah and Amos all agree to the contrary. They all echo that “in that day” all of Israel will know their God, the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
This false eschatology has caused many Christians to look at prophecy with a certain detachment and they fail to see the love story that is unfolding within these prophecies and how important their role is in them. Years ago, I coined a phrase regarding this phenomenon. I said too many Christians are sitting in their “Armageddon armchairs” watching Israel from a distance and waiting for the last days events to unfold. All the while God is watching to see who will hear and respond to His call to the nations. The good news is, more and more Christians are now responding to this call. According to figures provided by ministries involved in the return process called Aliyah, about a third of all the Jewish people who returned to Israel in 2017 received aid from Christian ministries in order to complete their Aliyah process.
Mandate for Our Generation
The reestablishment of the nation of Israel and the on-going regathering of the Jewish people from the four corners of the earth is the greatest sign of God’s eternal covenant that the world has ever seen. “ Indeed, I will cause men to walk upon you, My people Israel, and they shall possess you, and you shall be their inheritance, and you shall no longer bereave them of children” (Ezek. 36:12) The prophets foretold of God’s faithfulness to His people and the nations are to be responsible for helping His children get home during this final exodus. “See, I will lift up My hand to the nations and set up My standard to the peoples; and they shall bring your sons in their arms, and your daughters shall be carried on their shoulders (Isa. 49:22). This is a mandate for our generation.
Anti-Semitism is rising sharply all over the world. In the former Soviet Union many of God’s people are still trapped by poverty in notoriously anti-Semitic countries. The war in Ukraine has created thousands of Jewish refugees and Jewish people are facing economic uncertainty from Siberia to South America. I believe it is incumbent for Christians to heed the call to serve them. We need to rescue them from the chains of poverty and persecution and help then return to Israel. If Christians won’t help restore hope to His children, who will? Who will respond and help My people Israel get home?"
Rev. Gary Cristofaro is the director of development for Ezra International ezrainternational.org.
Also from the website loveforhispeople.com Another Article is headlined
"Why the Jews Are Proof God Exists"
3/27/2018 RABBI YECHIEL ECKSTEIN CHARISMA NEWS the article says:
“BLESSED ARE YOU, ISRAEL! WHO IS LIKE YOU, A PEOPLE SAVED BY THE LORD? HE IS YOUR SHIELD AND HELPER AND YOUR GLORIOUS SWORD. YOUR ENEMIES WILL COWER BEFORE YOU, AND YOU WILL TREAD ON THEIR HEIGHTS” (DEUT. 33:29, NIV).
When former Israeli National Security Adviser Yossi Cohen was named head of the Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency, he noted that Israel was only established because of the help of God and that God’s help is just as needed today. And Cohen was right! It has often been said that Israel’s secret weapon is faith. More accurately, Israel’s greatest weapon is God, yet it is our faith in Him that activates His intervention.
In Deuteronomy, after Moses had concluded blessing each of the 12 tribes of Israel, just prior to his death, Moses gave a general blessing to the entire nation. He said: “Blessed are you, Israel! Who is like you, a people saved by the LORD? He is your shield and helper and your glorious sword. Your enemies will cower before you, and you will tread on their heights” (Deut. 33:29).
The Jewish sages explain that it is precisely because Israel looks to God as our “shield and helper” that God becomes our “glorious sword,” allowing us to overcome our enemies. Indeed, our faith is what has helped Israel overcome overwhelming odds and is the reason why we are still here.
In the 1800s, the kaiser of Prussia asked his head adviser if he could prove the existence of God. Otto Von Bismarck replied, “The Jews, sir, the Jews.” There is no natural explanation for how a tiny group of people, twice exiled from their land, and persecuted repeatedly for millennia, could still be around today.
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Moreover, the fact that the Jewish people have returned to their homeland, a feat never accomplished by any other nation, is nothing less than miraculous. As Moses said, “Who is like you, a people saved by the Lord?” The only explanation for the miracle of the existence of the Jewish people and the State of Israel, is the existence of God.
However, what I love most about this verse is that it instills hope and inspires faith for the future. Just as God has helped Israel beat the odds for the past 70 years, we can be sure that He will continue to do so for the next 70 years—and longer! Even as Israel faces unprecedented challenges today, we can trust in God for unparalleled salvation.
We are watching history unfold before our very eyes. We are watching ancient prophecies come to fruition. And like Israel, when we activate our faith, we can activate God’s intervention during these tumultuous times. The God of Israel is great. The God of Israel lives. And the God of Israel will protect and guide all who call to Him.
As the Scriptures say: “The LORD is near to all who call upon Him, to all who call upon Him in truth” (Ps. 145:18). Let us say Amen!
Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein is the founder and president The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship). The organization has offices in Jerusalem, Chicago, Toronto and Seoul.
From YouTube a Cool Video showing the Incredible Awesome Natural Beauty of Israel is Titled
"Israel - Small but Outstanding"
5,369,584 views•Apr 29, 2012
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http://www.israel.org
Israel, a small country of outstanding beauty, is so many different things:
It is a bridge between Africa, Asia & Europe, It has pulsating urban life, breathtaking nature, an abundance of plant & animal species, Thousands of years of fascinating history, a rainbow of cultures and traditions.
Israel offers an energizing experience with a vibrant cultural scene, and is proud to be an innovative leader in science & High-Tech.
Sounds too much? you'll believe it when you see it.
Visit the MFA's Social Media Channels:
Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/IsraelMFA http://www.facebook.com/IsraeliVibe
Twitter - http://www.twitter.com/Israel
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Please credit the MFA and the creators of this clip for any use of this video.
Photographer and Editor: Eyal Bartov
Additional Photographs: Samuel Magal
After Effects: Gili Ittah
Original Music: Israel Kasif
Another good online article , about the so-called "Palestinians"
"Who cares about Palestinians?" From WND.COM
By Joseph Farah
Published August 23, 2001 at 1:00am the article says:
"Who really cares about the human rights of Palestinian Arabs?
Syria, Iraq, Iran, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and other Muslim nations have warned Israel, in various ways and with different degrees of intensity, over the Jewish state's alleged mistreatment of Palestinian Arabs.
There's one major problem with these threats. These nations have done far less for Arab Palestinians than Israel has.
That's right. I said it, and I mean it.
Let me give you an example of what I'm talking about.
The Jordan Times reports that "Palestinian refugees in Lebanon, who have long been denied many civil rights including the right to work, now face a new obstacle in their precarious lives."
Under a bill introduced by parliament earlier this year, Palestinian Arabs will be deprived of their right to own property. Those who already own property will not be able to pass it on to their children.
Now just imagine if Israel passed such a law? Can you imagine the international outcry? What would the United Nations have to say about this? How long would it take to equate Zionism with racism again? How would the media establishment in the West view such a draconian ploy?
Yet, this is happening in an Arab country virtually without comment – except here.
And take a look at the transparent rationale for this action in Lebanon, as described in the Jordan Times: "The Lebanese parliament passed the law on the grounds that it wants to protect the right of the Palestinian refugees to return eventually to their homes which they fled after the creation of the state of Israel on Palestinian lands in 1948."
Don't you love that? We are protecting your rights by denying your rights. Only in the Arab world could such hypocritical duplicity occur without international ridicule and universal denunciation.
Keep in mind that most Palestinian refugees today were born well after 1948. They never lived in the land called Palestine. And the reason is that their Arab neighbors have been so inhospitable to them. They have not allowed them to resettle because Arab leaders are determined to fan the flames of hate with Israel. They want to keep this scapegoat issue of a Palestinian homeland alive so that the Arab people don't turn their enmity toward their own leadership and begin questioning why they are deprived of their own human rights.
Lebanon, by the way, is a virtual client state of Syria. It is occupied by the Syrian army. No significant political decision is made in Beirut without the approval and direction of Damascus. And it is Damascus, more than any other Arab capital, that supports the Arab terror campaign in Israel, that undermines every attempt at peaceful reconciliation between Arab and Jew and that has orchestrated this strategy of actively denying Palestinians their human rights in the name of Palestinian human rights.
How bad is the situation in Lebanon? Here are more details as reported by the Jordan Times – not exactly a mouthpiece for the vast international Zionist conspiracy:"
the article continues :
Under the Lebanese labor law that governs foreigners, Palestinians are denied 74 forms of employment;
Palestinians face tight exit and entry requirements;
Palestinians in Lebanon are not allowed citizenship;
Palestinians are confined to 12 camps with no medical, social or educational services from the government and are barred in some of those camps from building or even repairing homes.
Some in Lebanon have even recognized the "racist" nature of this anti-Palestinian campaign – policies far worse than anything ever contemplated by Israel.
Yet, more than half a million Syrians marched earlier this week in support of the Palestinian uprising in Israel, chastising the Jewish state for "Nazi and fascist" practices. Do those Syrian citizens have any idea of what kind of oppression Palestinian Arabs face next door in Lebanon? Do they have any idea that their government is directly supporting such policies? Are they aware that more Syrian troops are headed to Lebanon now to support the Beirut regime that has imposed such repressive measures?
While Israel has bent over backwards to accommodate the Palestinian Arabs – especially those victimized by the 1948 war – the Arab nations have only sought to exploit their misery. That exploitation continues today. It is overt. It is a matter of law. Yet the world sees it not.
Related offer:
Stark truth about the Mideast: Joan Peters' "From Time Immemorial" details the origins of the Arab-Jewish conflict.
Israel always treats the so-called "Palestinians" Humanely, while other Arab Nations treat them like dirt, as the famous expression goes, From the River to the Sea Israel Eternally !!!!
From the website, Deseret.com an article is headlined
"Jewish boy's WWII rescue is still liberating in 1997"
By Deseret News Jul 11, 1997, 12:00am MDT
the article says:
"Kareem Abdul-Jabbar looked up a friend of a friend and learned of a glorious moment in a dark past.
Israel's chief rabbi, Meir Lau, recounted his rescue as a 7-year-old boy from the Nazi concentration camp at Buchenwald. One of the U.S. soldiers who liberated him on April 11, 1945, was a friend of Abdul-Jabbar's family.Lau said he was lifted high in the air by that family friend, Leonard Smith, as a crowd of Germans watched in wonder.
"Look at this child. This is the enemy of the Nazi Germans. Against whom did you go to war?" Lau recalled Smith telling the Germans.
"I was frightened for a moment and then very proud," the rabbi told Abdul-Jabbar, a Muslim, during their meeting Thursday.
"This is a good lesson that shows in spite of differences of religion, color or nationality we are all sons of God," the rabbi added.
While in Israel, the retired Los Angeles Lakers star will coach children at a basketball camp."
Another article is from the Jerusalem Post website www.jpost.com titled
"Israel’s blessing to the world" By ILSE POSSELT JULY 20, 2016 the article starts with the sentence
"The Jewish nation is tiny yet its contribution to humanity is astounding; its footprints of blessing, innovation and aid etched into the areas of mankind’s greatest need." Anyone can do a Google search for the article, it tells in Great Detail how Israel is a Blessing to all Mankind, while let's be frank and honest, the Arab & Islamic Nations and the so-called "Palestinians"
are Never a Blessing, they only spread Misery, Suffering, War, Violence & Bloodshed, while Israel is a Blessing, the Arabs, Islamic Nations & Fake Invented Fictional people calling themselves "Palestinians" are Never a Blessing ,
Even when Many Secular Israeli Jews hate being Jewish, and hate their Jewish looks, they are still Very Intelligent and still a Blessing on Israel, a part of Israel blessing humanity !!!!
From www.barnesandnoble.com Another book worth reading is titled
"Making David into Goliath: How the World Turned Against Israel"
by Joshua Muravchik
The Overview says:
"During the Six Day War of 1967, polls showed that Americans favored the Israelis over the Arabs by overwhelming margins. In Europe, support for Israel ran even higher. In the United Nations Security Council, a British resolution essentially gave Israel the terms of peace it sought and when the Arabs and their Soviet supporters tried to override the resolution in the General Assembly, they fell short of the necessary votes.
Fast forward 40 years and Israel has become perhaps the most reviled country in the world. Although Americans have remained constant in their sympathy for the Jewish state, almost all of the rest of the world treats Israel as a pariah.
What caused this remarkable turnabout? Making David into Goliath traces the process by which material pressures and intellectual fashions reshaped world opinion of Israel. Initially, terrorism, oil blackmail, and the sheer size of Arab and Muslim populations gave the world powerful inducements to back the Arab cause. Then, a prevalent new paradigm of leftist orthodoxy, in which class struggle was supplanted by the noble struggles of people of color, created a lexicon of rationales for taking sides against Israel. Thus, nations can behave cravenly while striking a high-minded pose in aligning themselves on the Middle East conflict." We at this blog say, it is now the year 2021, we wish the Worthless Loser Anti-Israel people on College & University Campuses in America & Worldwide would make a New Year's Resolution to Get a Life , they cry about their right to
"Free Speech" but they are Hypocrites, Troublemakers & Liars of the worst sort, they want Free Speech but Only for themselves, and for their Toxic Satanic Demonic Diabolical Points of View, the Anti-Israel and "Palestine" supporters NEVER respect Free Speech for people they disagree with, they NEVER respect Free Speech for People they disagree with, the Palestine Supporters Abuse "Free Speech" they Cowardly hide behind "Free Speech" as an Excuse to Spew Hatred Non-Stop, they don't use Free Speech, they ABUSE it, they ABUSE
Free Speech, in reality it is Hate Speech, and it's all BS, calling their Anti-Israel Activities on Campus "Free Speech" when
Everyone Know, that such "Free Speech" and displays of Hatred would NEVER in a Million Years be Tolerated against any other Group of People, but it's sadly considered acceptable to Single Out and Target Israel and the Jews, Everyone Hates the Jews as always, Everyone Hates the Jews as usual , the Whole World Unjustly Hates the Jews and Israel . it's very sad the Sickening Hypocrisy & Double Standards
Anti-Israel people are Such Hypocrites, Losers & Frauds
From Facebook it says
"Will The Antichrist be a Jew or a Gentile?"
Ariel New Zealand
July 16, 2018 ·
"The difficulties of this argument are many, not the least of which are the two premises. Neither premise can be supported from the Bible. Just because the Jews make a covenant with the Antichrist (Daniel 9:27; Isaiah 28:15), it does not follow either textually or logically that they accept him as Messiah (or Antichrist). Second, since they are not accepting him as Messiah, the fact that he is a Gentile peacemaker is irrelevant. Thus, the conclusion does not follow.
An attempt at a Scriptural argument reasons that Antichrist will spring forth from the tribe of Dan. This has been a view that has been widely held throughout church history, from the earliest times to our modern day. Support for this view is inappropriately derived from Genesis 49:17; Deuteronomy 33:22; Jeremiah 8:16; Daniel 11:37; Revelation 7:4-8. Even though many passages are cited in support of this argument, none of them actually support the notion since they are all taken out of context. In reality, only Daniel 11:37 refers to the Antichrist. Even though some believe that the phrase in Daniel 11:37 “the God of his fathers” (KJV), implies a Jewish apostasy, the phrase is more accurately translated “the gods of his fathers” (NASB). Since Antichrist will be a Gentile, as will be shown, the argument is unfounded. Since the original Hebrew supports the NASB translation and not the KJV, Antichrist’s apostasy will be Christian and not Jewish.
Arguments for a Gentile Origin
We have seen that the Bible does not teach that Antichrist will be Jewish; however, Scripture does teach that he will be of Gentile descent. This can first be seen from biblical typology. Most commentators agree that Daniel 11 speaks of Antiochus Epiphanes, a Gentile, who typifies the future Antichrist. Since Antiochus is a Gentile, then so will be Antichrist.
Secondly, biblical imagery supports a Gentile origin of Antichrist. Scripture pictures Antichrist as rising up out of the sea (Revelation 13:1; 17:15). In prophetic literature the sea is an image of the Gentile nations. Thus, Antichrist is seen as a Gentile progeny.
Thirdly, the nature of the “Times of the Gentiles” (Luke 21:24) supports a Gentile Antichrist. Fruchtenbaum notes:
It is agreed by all premillennialists that the period known as the Times of the Gentiles does not end until the second coming of Christ. It is further agreed that the Antichrist is the final ruler of the Times of the Gentiles.…
If this is so, how then can a Jew be the last ruler at a time when only Gentiles can have the preeminence? To say the Antichrist is to be a Jew would contradict the very nature of the Time of the Gentiles.
Finally, the Bible not only teaches that Antichrist will be Gentile, but it also implies that he will be of Roman descent. This is understood from Daniel 9:27, where the one cutting a covenant with Israel is said to represent the revived Roman Empire, since it was the Romans who destroyed Jerusalem and the Temple in A.D. 70. The revived Roman empire comes from a second phase of the Roman Empire, i.e., “feet partly of iron and partly of clay” (Daniel 2:33, 40-45)." Some Anti-Semite False Christians make the absurd claim that the Anti-Christ will be Jewish, the Bible doesn't support that View
From the website ynetnews.com an article is headlined
"Pallywood's world of lies"
Op-ed: Palestinian manipulation of the media will persist as long as people continue to prefer juicy version of the story over the real one
Noga Gur Arieh|Published: 08.21.13 ,
"This phenomenon is not new, but it seems like even nowadays, eight years after the documentary which officially exposed it was launched, many people have still never heard of Pallywood.
Pallywood, a portmanteau of "Palestinian" and "Hollywood," is a coinage that has been used by some pro-Israel media watchdog advocates, among others, to describe alleged "media manipulation, distortion and outright fraud by the Palestinians and other Arabs ... Designed to win the public relations war against Israel," according to Wikipedia.
In 2005, Professor Richard Landes of Boston University produced an 18-minute online documentary video called Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources. In this documentary, he exposed an entire film industry, in which the stars are Palestinians, the crew is mostly independent Palestinian video journalists and the fools are we. It presented a "behind the scenes" glance to carefully staged scenes of Palestinians being attacked by Israeli forces, which are later being presented on the news as "raw footage of the poor reality in Palestinian territories."
The phenomenon of Pallywood is widely and carefully spread, and wisely planned. News broadcasts are eager to air raw footage of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, and as a result, they are being too uncritical when examining the authenticity of the footages, and airing complete lies that give the audience the narrative they want to see. Bad guy, good guy, cut, print, moving on.
For many years, video footage and pictures were a symbol of truth and reliability. When someone needed proof of an event's veracity, they'd simply asked for a video or a photograph for proof. With time, technology developed, Photoshop was invented and the film industry became much more sophisticated. We, however, remained the same. Still seeking truth in videos and photographs, and subsequently unable to tell the truth from a lie. With the easiness of understanding a tale of good and bad, and the effort latent in realizing the shades of gray in the actual reality, we listen attentively to the lies of Pallywood, not even considering the possibility that we were all being fooled."
the article continues
"Israel haters will do a lot in the name of the conflict, even stage a completely different reality to feed the audience with. Journalists, on their behalf, love a juicy story, and accept any footage of a Palestinian child being attacked by a “vicious” Israeli soldier. Why not spend time on verifying the authenticity of the footage? Because the fake story looks much better on film than reality. The narrative of little David and giant Goliath never fails. Peace talks? No thank you! Give us blood, stones, and a close up of a screaming woman.
Watch Pallywood: According to Palestinian Sources
More of Pallywood:
But there is more to the exposure of Pallywood. Has anyone ever paused to think why, in fact, they need fake footage of Palestinians being attacked by IDF soldiers? If their constant claims on every public stage of violence and brutality are true, why stage such encounters? And if all they want is peace and quiet, why provide journalists with footage of Palestinian victims and Israeli aggressors? Why stimulate a discussion that will lead to words of hate? Is that striving for peace? Are those innocent people?
Unfortunately, I cannot show this post to the entire world. Pallywood will continue filming and faking and people will continue to believe lies. But using this information, we can spread the truth as widely as we can. If each one of us will inform his or her friends and acquaintances, maybe we will be the ones making a difference."
From the website theaugeanstables.com an article is headlined
"Pallywood: A History". the article says:
"PALLYWOOD: HISTORY
DEFINITION
The term “Pallywood” refers to the staging of scenes by Palestinian journalists in order to present the Palestinians as hapless victims of Israeli aggression. They are able to succeed in this endeavor in large part due to the credulity and eagerness of the Western press to present these images, which reinforce the image of the Palestinian David struggling valiantly against the overpowering Israeli Goliath. Pallywood has led to astonishing lapses in Western journalistic standards in which badly staged scenes regularly appear on the news as “real events.” This page attempts to outline how such lapses could have come about, producing the current situation.
MAJOR STAGES IN THE EMERGENCE OF PALLYWOOD
1982: Lebanon invasion
The earliest clear signs of an emerging Pallywood come from the Lebanese invasion of 1982. There, for the first time, the media seems to have embraced an openly hostile stance towards Israel, which led to a widely discussed article entitled “J’Accuse” (Commentary, September 1983), by Norman Podhoretz who charged America’s leading journalists, newspapers and television networks with “anti-Semitism.” The alleged hostility was characterized by the following incidents:
– Using Arafat’s brother, Fathi Arafat, head of the Palestinian Red Crescent, Palestinian sources claimed 10,000 dead and 600,000 refugees from the Israeli onslaught. Without checking to see how many people lived in southern Lebanon (300,000), the media repeated these figures constantly (pp. 300-301), until they became widely accepted.
– Reporters comparing the siege of Beirut with the Nazi siege of Warsaw. Of all the sieges of cities in 20th century warfare, it would be harder to find a more inappropriate one, and yet the analogy between Israelis and Nazis seems to have had an almost irresistable lure to some journalists. Among the most aggressive reporters was Peter Jennings. For a discussion of his work, see here and here.
– The use of clearly false images by a press eager to believe the worst of the Israeli army, including images of areas devastated in the civil war between Palestinians and Lebanese, dead babies that were not dead, etc (pp. 353-389)."
the article continues
"– Coverage of Sabra and Shatilla massacres that left many under the impression that Israeli soldiers had massacred Palestinian refugees, and failed to inform people of why the Phalange wanted to take vengeance. Everyone has heard of Sabra and Shatilla; Only recently have people started to hear of Darfur. The stark contrast between the hundreds of dead at Sabra and Shatilla and the over ten thousand dead at Hama, a town in the heart of Syria, the same year, illustrates both the medias penchant for reporting any Israeli misdeed no matter how removed direct culpability, and the power of intimidation and (no) access journalism to silence them on matters of Arab misdeeds (see Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalém, chap. 4.)
– Use of streaming text below footage informing the viewer that the footage had been viewed by “Israeli military censors.” No similar indication of the role of Palestinian “authorities” in controlling the images emanating from areas under their control ever appeared. For a discussion of the press’s differential treatment of formal Israeli military censorship and informal but pervasive Palestinian censorship via intimidation and violence, (see pp. 353-387).
– Reluctance of the press – especially the “resident” reporters to reveal the extent of PLO brutality in the “state within a state” in southern Lebanon (see pp 219-278).
Given the eagerness of the Western press to report the worst of the Israelis, to avoid reporting on the worst of the Palestinians, their susceptibility to intimidation and the murder of journalists who displeased the PLO, and their remarkably shoddy standards in sifting real from confected evidence, Palestinians clearly understood that they had a valuable ally in the Western media based at the Commodore Hotel – “Chairman Yasser’s Best Battalion” (Chafets, Double Vision, chap. 6)."
& continues
"– Coverage of Sabra and Shatilla massacres that left many under the impression that Israeli soldiers had massacred Palestinian refugees, and failed to inform people of why the Phalange wanted to take vengeance. Everyone has heard of Sabra and Shatilla; Only recently have people started to hear of Darfur. The stark contrast between the hundreds of dead at Sabra and Shatilla and the over ten thousand dead at Hama, a town in the heart of Syria, the same year, illustrates both the medias penchant for reporting any Israeli misdeed no matter how removed direct culpability, and the power of intimidation and (no) access journalism to silence them on matters of Arab misdeeds (see Friedman, From Beirut to Jerusalém, chap. 4.)
– Use of streaming text below footage informing the viewer that the footage had been viewed by “Israeli military censors.” No similar indication of the role of Palestinian “authorities” in controlling the images emanating from areas under their control ever appeared. For a discussion of the press’s differential treatment of formal Israeli military censorship and informal but pervasive Palestinian censorship via intimidation and violence, (see pp. 353-387).
– Reluctance of the press – especially the “resident” reporters to reveal the extent of PLO brutality in the “state within a state” in southern Lebanon (see pp 219-278).
Given the eagerness of the Western press to report the worst of the Israelis, to avoid reporting on the worst of the Palestinians, their susceptibility to intimidation and the murder of journalists who displeased the PLO, and their remarkably shoddy standards in sifting real from confected evidence, Palestinians clearly understood that they had a valuable ally in the Western media based at the Commodore Hotel – “Chairman Yasser’s Best Battalion” (Chafets, Double Vision, chap. 6)."
We made a slight mistake at this Blog, posting the same segment of the article twice, first at 4:53 PM then again at
4:55 PM, we apologize for our mistake, the next portion of the article says :
"Poisoning of Palestinian Schoolgirls, Jenin (West Bank), March, 1983
A year after the Lebanese media debacle, Israel found itself the object of an extensive, premeditated fraud in which a number of Palestinian girls at middle school claimed to have been poisoned by “the Israelis.” The story immediately became an international scandal, with each nation reporting such a variety of details that the tale ended up resembling a version of Rashoman. None, however, questioned the veracity of the reports of poisoning, nor of the accusations of Israeli guilt. Only after a lengthy investigation did it turn out that there were no girls poisoned, and that PLO operatives had encouraged and bullied the girls and the hospital officials into cooperating.
The most interesting element of the story from the perspective of the media coverage reveals the following breakdown:
– The Israeli press took the accusations seriously and only after a medical investigation did they conclude that these were false.
– The Palestinian and Arab press immediately assumed they were true and used them to incite hatred and fear of Israelis. No amount of counter-evidence brought a change in coverage.
– The Western press presented the accusations as probable if not true (Europeans far more aggressive than Americans), and when the evidence of staging emerged, ceased to cover the incident, leaving the Israelis between libel and silence.
The accusations of Poison constitute the first clear-cut case of Pallywood: atrocities staged by Palestinian activists, depicting the Israelis poisoning innocent Palestinians, done for the sake of – and embraced by – both local and foreign press."
& continues
"The First Intifada, 1987-91?
During the first Intifada, the media turned the West Bank into a feeding frenzy of Israeli brutality against what was often characterized as non-violent resistance. Here for the first time, we find an open collaboration between cameramen who were either informed of the imminent occurrence of, or had paid for, action sequences that they could photograph.
Staggering from the negative press, and uncertain as to how to quell the violence, Israeli authorities sometimes closed the territories to foreign press. These latter often supped drinks at the American Colony Hotel in East Jerusalem while they gave cameras to Palestinian stringers to bring them action footage. This probably marks the first time that Palestinians with Western equipment were able to feed the news agencies images that they and the “street” staged. For an interesting analysis of the media’s handling of the first Intifada and the ways in which, focused on a particular story line (the Israeli Goliath vs. the Palestinian David), see Jim Lederman, Battle Lines.
There has also been in recent times an increasing number of web/newspaper articles that have described and denounced the manipulation of the media by Palestinians, and the anti-Israel bias of many in the western media.
– Recently a Palestinian filmmaker, producer of “Jenin, Jenin” admitted falsifying scenes in order to make Israelis look bad.
– Jeff Helmreich has documented a pattern of violation of professional journalism codes that dominate the reporting of Israel and the Palestinians.
– In an interview media analyst David Bedein has argued that for the past twenty years, the Palestinians have outmaneuvered the Israelis in framing the conflict for the world media.
– Josh Muravchik denounced the lousy job of the Western media covering the intifada and denounced the mechanical even handedness in reporting the conflict that gives the upper hand to authoritarian societies.
– Stephanie Gutmann, in “The Other War: Israelis, Palestinians and the Struggle for Media supremacy” argues that Israel has floundered on the battlefield of editorial pages, television screens and the Internet."
& continues
"The second “Al Aqsa” Intifada, October 2000-2004?
The outbreak of the second round of Palestinian violence against Israel came, ironically, in the wake of peace negotiations in which, according to the most credible sources, the Israelis offered the vast majority of the West Bank and all of the Gaza Strip (including the evacuation of settlements) in exchange for an end to the war between the Israelis and the Arabs. For a brief moment Barak and the Israelis actually got some sympathy in the world arena, and Arafat was weathering a rare period of disapproval from the world community. But once the violence broke out, and Israel could be blamed, and especially once pictures of Muhamed al Durah showed on TVs around the world, opinion shifted dramatically and decisively.
Perhaps the best way to understand how Pallywood was able to have such success at this juncture is to examine what happened on September 29, the day after Sharon visited the Temple Mount/Haram al Sharif. That day, news agencies reported violent clashes between Israeli troops and Palestinians enraged by Sharon’s visit. AP published a photograph of a young man, bloodied and kneeling in front of an angry Israeli brandishing a baton.
Now it doesn’t take an insider to know that something is wrong here. There are no gas stations anywhere near the Temple Mount, so the location is clearly mistaken. But the mistakes far exceed mere location, and a closer look suggests that the Israeli soldier seems to be yelling at people beyond the wounded man. The man wounded in the picture is not a Palestinian, but an American Jew, a seminary student, who was dragged from his car by an angry mob of Palestinians and almost beaten and stabbed to death. (It took him months in the hospital to recover.) Read Tuvya Grossman’s personal account here. The Israeli is then not beating the boy, but protecting him from the mob, which is the object of his anger and attention. Among other papers, the New York Times, without checking any of these facts, ran the picture with the caption.
Nothing illustrates better the problem of paradigmatic expectations influencing what we see and how we register it. The Palestinians are the victims, the Israelis the victimizers. The picture illustrates JP: aggressive Palestinians initiating violence against civilians in Israel, and Israeli restraint (the soldier does not even use a gun to chase the murderous crowd). The caption re-reads the photo so it accords with PCP: aggressive Israelis viciously attacking unarmed Palestinian demonstrators on the third holiest site in Islam.
It took the NYT 4 days to acknowledge the error identifying the victim as “Tuvya Grossman of Chicago” and a week to do a story on the beating. But by then the damage had been done. Not only was the PCP firmly set in place, but also the picture had become an emblem of Palestinian victimization. Despite this subsequent retraction, therefore, as in the case of the poison accusations of 1983, Palestinian and Arab media and their PCP2 supporters have continued to use the picture as part of their Palestinian victim narrative. To this day, Tuvya Grossman’s picture adorns a poster calling on everyone in the world to boycott Coca Cola in order to stop Israelis from killing Palestinians like this man.
With such a powerful storyline affecting (and transforming) the very nature of the evidence that our MSM presented to us at the outbreak of the violence in the Fall of 2000, is it surprising that the following day, they responded so eagerly to yet another piece of evidence that supported their PCP grand narrative – the case of Muhamed al Durah?"
& continues
"IS THERE AN ISRAELI EQUIVALENT TO PALLYWOOD?
“Don’t the Israelis also do fictional news?”
Every country’s media spins the news in its defense, and plays with a margin of judgment in what it may present to the public.
There are analysts who argue that Israel is far superior in manipulating the media:
– Delinda C. Hanley, News Editor of the Washington Report on Middle East Affairs, argues that Israeli spin-doctors have been successful in portraying in the American media the victims (the Palestinians) as the aggressors in the conflict.
– Alison Weir, founder of If Americans Knew argues that the Western media, particularly American, have been consistently pro-Israeli in their coverage of the conflict. She calls it a “pervasive pattern of distortion.”
– Daniel Dor, from Tel Aviv university, in “Intifada Hits the Headlines,” (2004) argues that the Israeli press has aligned itself with the propaganda coming from the Israeli establishment. To him, in times of conflict the press in liberal democracies plays a “role not totally dissimilar to that of the press in non-democracies.” (Page 168) For a brief excerpt of his book read here.
But the differences here are so large as to demand particular attention to this issue:
– The Israelis do not fake images of injury; on the contrary, deep taboos prevent the Israeli press from showing pictures of dead bodies.
– Nor do the Israelis constantly show images designed to arouse hatred, unlike Palestinians. Compare the coverage given in Israel to the stunning footage from the Ramallah lynching of Oct. 12, 2000 with the constant repetition on TV and in the school curriculum of the footage and of reenactments of the Muhamed A Durah affair two weeks earlier.
– The Israeli press constitutes one of the most self-critical presses in the world. Mistakes rarely pass undetected and undenounced. When the IDF accused the UN of using their ambulances to move Kassam rockets and the evidence failed to provide proof, the Israeli press denounced the mistake sharply: “Israel behaved with reckless haste and injured its pretensions to superiority over the Palestinians with regard to credibility.”
There is no equivalent in the Palestinian – or Arab – press of Gideon Levy and Amirah Hass, journalists for Ha-Aretz. This element of self-criticism is, for the most part, absent in the Arab media. For an enlightening example, read here and here.
– Even organizations denounced by the other side as “propaganda” sites, like Palestinian Media Watch and MEMRI, are scrupulously honest in the material they post from the Arab world, in their translations, even careful not only to post the negative comments in the Arab press, but also the positive ones.
– To make the facile, “even-handed” comparison misses a major distinction between the rough and tumble criticisms of a free press in Israel and the intimidation and high propaganda content of the press in Arab authoritarian societies. If one cannot understand these differences, one cannot understand the value and importance of self-critical free press sustaining civil society. Tolerance for criticism and for variant viewpoints marks the commitment to civil society."
& lastly says
"WHY IS IT IMPORTANT TO DENOUNCE PALLYWOOD?
– Pallywood distorts Western and Middle Eastern public opinion.
– Aggravates the narrative victim/victimizer, dominant in both Western and Middle East Media, that prolongs the conflict
– Perpetuates the David (Palestinians) Vs Goliath (Israel) narrative.
– Contributes to the demonization of Israel/rise of anti-Semitism
– An accurate and fair MSM are crucial for a healthy civil society.
– By its sheer drama Pallywood leads to Western romantization of the Palestinian struggle and justification of the most atrocious methods to achieve their aims.
“They’re beautiful, highly trained and deadly. They are the female suicide bombers.” Australia’s New Idea magazine, April 7, 2003.
To Be Continued …"
From the website designsonthetruth.com an article is headlined
"Who’s really oppressing the “Palestinians” "
Posted on July 2, 2018 the article says:
"As I mentioned in Friday’s post, New York’s new 15th District’s candidate for the U.S. House of Representatives, Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, is not only a radical leftist, her muddled worldview is badly warped with regard to the unrest on Israel’s border with Gaza ~ Democratic Socialist who upset NY Rep. Joe Crowley falsely claimed Israel committed “massacre” in Gaza ~
In a May 14 tweet, Ocasio-Cortez said that Israel’s killing of Palestinians along the Gaza border was a “massacre” and that “no state or entity is absolved of mass shootings of protesters.”
“There is no justification. Palestinian people deserve basic human dignity, as anyone else,” she said. “Democrats can’t be silent about this anymore.”
Where to begin? Obviously the young woman is woefully ill-informed, so first I’ll just counter with this little truth bomb which totally disrupts the narrative of Israelis as the bad guys ~
[COGAT stands for Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories; Implementation of civil & humanitarian policy in Judea & Samaria/Gaza Strip]
The fact is, the residents of Gaza receive much more humanitarian aid from the Israelis than they ever do from the Palestinian Authority or Hamas. As with people the world over, of course they certainly do “deserve basic human dignity.” Unfortunately they get very little of that from their own leaders.
As I’ve pointed out numerous times, the “Palestinians” have been used as convenient pawns for decades by their devious leaders, essentially held hostage in the jihad to destroy Israel. If their people were self-sufficient and prosperous, the Palestinian Authority could no longer use them to garner world sympathy. Not to mention score billions in “aid” (that somehow never trickles down to those who need it the most).
Writing at the Gatestone Institute, Bassam Tawil describes the reality in the “Occupied Territories” ~
The regimes of the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank and Hamas in the Gaza Strip never miss an opportunity to remind their people of the dire consequences that await anyone who speaks out against the leaders. The two Palestinian regimes have been forcing it down the throats of their people for many years.
PalestinanTerritories
Recently it seems the people themselves – despite their early indoctrination in victimhood and anti-Semitism- are finally figuring out that they’ve been duped. While Hamas has been fueling the violence on the Gaza border for the last few months there have actually been legitimate protests in the West Bank and Gaza ~
The streets of Ramallah and Gaza City showcase, yet again, that the Palestinians’ true tragedy over the past five decades has been failed and corrupt leadership — one that keeps dragging them from one disaster to another; one that never offers them any hope; one that has been radicalizing and brainwashing its people; one that steals large portions of the financial aid provided by the international community, and one that has brought them nothing but dictatorship and repression.
While attacks on Israel are encouraged, any activism against the corrupt leadership itself is swiftly supresssed ~
Like most Arab regimes, the PA and its leaders have zero tolerance for any form of criticism.
Ask Palestinian journalists, bloggers and pundits in the West Bank and they will tell you (in private and anonymously; they would like to save their skins) how the Palestinian Authority cracks down on them and imposes severe restrictions on their work. In the past year alone, at least 11 Palestinian journalists and political activists have either been arrested or summoned for interrogation by Palestinian security forces in the West Bank. The charge: voicing various forms of criticism against the Palestinian Authority or one of its senior officials, including, of course, President Mahmoud Abbas."
the article continues
"Abbas heads the Palestinian Authority, but he’s at odds with Hamas, the terrorist organization that pretty much runs things in the Gaza Strip. The people themselves are caught in the middle of their power struggle. Abbas ruthlessly deprives the people of basic necessities in a devious attempt to get them to rebel against his enemies in Hamas. Instead, many of them are finally realizing that he – and Hamas – are the problem ~
palestineactivist-qte
(On June 13th) hundreds of Palestinians were staging a peaceful demonstration in the center of Ramallah to call on Abbas to lift the sanctions he had imposed on the Gaza Strip a year earlier. The sanctions, which severely aggravated the economic crisis in the Gaza Strip, included firing thousands of PA civil servants and cutting off social assistance to many families. Abbas has also refused to pay for the electricity and medical care that Israel supplies to the Palestinians in the Gaza Strip […]
What was supposed to be a peaceful protest turned out to be one of the most violent clashes between Abbas’s security forces and demonstrators, whose only crime was that they were calling on their leader to lift the sanctions he imposed on the Gaza Strip […]
On instructions from Abbas, dozens of Palestinian policemen, both in uniform and civilian clothes, attacked the protesters with brute force, using clubs and tear gas. More than 44 protestors were arrested and 20 injured. The brutality, however, did not end there. Palestinian policemen later raided hospitals and medical clinics in Ramallah to arrest injured Palestinians suspected of taking part in the peaceful protest.
Of course, news of these protests isn’t supposed to reach the west because it shows who the real enemies of the Palestinian people are, hint: not Israel ~
At least five Palestinian and foreign journalists were wounded during the police assault, while many others had their cameras and other equipment confiscated […]
It is one thing to shout chants against the US and Israel, but it is a completely different story when a Palestinian shouts chants against his leaders. Such a Palestinian would be lucky indeed if he winds up in hospital with only with a broken limb.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
In a development that was either ignored or condemned by most of the mainstreams, President Trump’s son-in-law, Jared Kushner, was in the Middle East last week to discuss, in general terms, a White House peace proposal with Israel, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Egypt (the Palestinian leadership declined to meet). In a strategy that they have been employing to a certain extent with Iran and North Korea, the administration is wisely attempting to take their message directly to the Palestinian people."
& continues
"Kushner spoke with an Israeli newspaper last week as the trip was winding down. Here were some of his comments ~
“You deserve to have a bright future, now is the time for both the Israelis and Palestinians to strengthen their leaderships and re-focus them to encourage them to open up toward a solution, and not fear trying.”
“A lot has happened in the world since this conflict began decades ago,” he said. “The world has moved forward while you have been left behind. Don’t allow your grandfather’s conflict to determine your children’s future.”
The international community, he added, “is getting frustrated with Palestinian leadership and not seeing many actions that are constructive towards achieving peace. There are a lot of sharp statements and condemnations, but no ideas or efforts with prospects of success.”
“It’s time for the Palestinian Authority and Hamas to stop using the people of Gaza as pawns,” he said. “The narrative of victimhood may feel good for the moment and help you grab headlines but it doesn’t do anything to improve lives.”
All true. And all precisely aimed at the beleaguered Palestinians themselves.
Perhaps the reality of all this is too complex for Ms. Ocasio-Cortez and her fellow leftists to grasp. After all, the mainstreams only offer up the latest sensationalized headlines to advance the myth of Palestinian victimhood and paint Israel in the worst possible light ~ Palestinians say 2 killed at Gaza border as 5,000 protest ~
gazaprotests6-29-18
Since March 30, Palestinians in the Gaza Strip have launched countless kites, balloons and inflated latex condoms bearing flammable materials, and occasionally explosives, into Israeli territory, sparking near-daily fires that have burned thousands of acres of farmland, parks and forests […]
(In the last three months) at least 130 Palestinians have been killed by Israeli fire, dozens of them acknowledged members of terror groups.
The UN constantly condemns Israel for incidents such as this – for merely defending her borders against unprovoked aggression. In the meantime, they totally ignore the many ways Palestinians violate International Law. This recent article, from the Jerusalem Center for Public Affairs, details the many ways that this latest violence on the Gaza border violates a host of international laws, including:"
the article continues:
Including
"
• By initiating, encouraging, and supporting mass pollution of the border area through the organized stockpiling and burning of tires, the Palestinian leadership is responsible for repeatedly creating caustic clouds of carbon pollution. This act is damaging to the health of the Palestinian civilian demonstrators themselves, as well as the residents of Israeli communities in the vicinity of the border. (Where’s the outrage from environmentalists?)
• Incendiary kites and balloons have ignited vast swathes of agricultural land in Israel, destroyed crops, and endangered Israeli residents. The International Criminal Court Statute defines as a war crime “extensive destruction and appropriation of property, not justified by military necessity and carried out unlawfully and wantonly.”
• From the viewpoint of international humanitarian law and accepted norms of humanity, placing Palestinian civilians, and especially women and children, at the forefront of violent demonstrations and attacks on the border fence as human shields to conceal the presence of Hamas terrorists is a violation of several international treaties protecting children and prohibiting their involvement in warfare.
• Weaponizing kites and balloons by attaching explosive devices with the intention that they will explode upon landing or when found by Israeli civilians is a flagrant violation of international humanitarian law, notably the 1997 Convention for the Suppression of Terrorist Bombings. Moreover, the 2001 Conventional Weapons Convention prohibits the use of incendiary weapons.
Care to comment Ms. Ocasio-Cortez?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Related:
Why should Palestinian aggression be consequence-free?
The latest Gaza grievance march
Gaza “March of Return” – week 2
Palestinians Tortured by P.A. for Preventing Terror, Saving Israelis
Palestinians: How to Achieve a Better Life
It looks like leftover Obama “MIddle East experts” would prefer war to a Trump-led peace
Comments on Jared Kushner’s interview in Al Quds
The Death of Abu Thuraya: What Really Happened? A tragic Pallywood tale ~
On Dec. 15, 2017, Ibrahim Abu Thuraya, a double amputee, was killed near the Gaza Strip border’s border with Israel during violent clashes with Israeli forces. Palestinians claimed that he was killed by an IDF sniper, but CAMERA’s new in-depth examination raises many questions about the version of events released by Palestinian news sources." As Always Israel is Morally Superior, Morally & Legally Superior,
An old prayer article from the website ynetnews.com
the headline says
"Revised Prayer for Israel"
As we celebrate 60th anniversary, Uri Orbach offers revised version of Prayer for State of Israel
Uri Orbach
Published: 05.07.08, 22:07 / Israel Opinion
"Our Father in Heaven, Rock and Redeemer of Israel, bless the State of Israel, the first manifestation of the approach of our redemption. Shield it from its own ministers, leaders, advisors, contractors, merchants, celebrities, beggars, journalists, and bureaucrats, and bestow Your light and truth upon its statesmen, rabbis, judges, and intellectuals, and grace them with Your good counsel.
Strengthen the hands of those who defend our holy land, grant them deliverance from indifference, grumbling, draft-dodging, and insubordination, save them from blatantly illegal orders and elusive legal orders, fill their hearts with dedication, responsibility, and perseverance, and adorn them in a mantle of victory.
Salvage your nation, the people of Israel, from any kind of pettiness, self-pity, exaggerated satisfaction, folly, and apathy, and from any harm, slander, and needless hatred.
Defend the State of Israel against those who rise up against it from the outside and from those who rise up against it from within, and safeguard it against its exploiters, manipulators, and defamers. Call on our brethren, the entire nation of Israel, on all its parties, and sects, and views, bless them with the understanding that the State of Israel is the carrier of your mercy, light, and salvation, grant its inhabitants love and dignity, and bless them with its fruit.
Our Father in Heaven, prevent uprooting from you estate and needless hatred from your sons, grant wisdom to your leftists and responsibility to your settlers (in some synagogues this shall be recited the other way around,) as well as dignity, and fraternity, and consideration, and understanding among all Your believers and heretics, as is written in the Torah: “Even if your outcasts are at the ends of the world, from there the Lord your God will gather you, from there He will fetch you.”
Manifest yourself in the splendor of Your boldness before the eyes of all inhabitants of Your world, and may everyone endowed with a soul affirm: What a state! What a state! What a state, special and unique. Amen forevermore."
Another Online Christian website states
"About Israel
Christians have good biblical reasons, past present and future, for supporting modern Israel. Christianity was birthed by biblical Judaism. Moses prophesied of the disobedience, dispersion, return and ultimate restoration of Israel, due to the faithfulness of Jehovah.
Some eighty percent of our Bible (what we call the "Old Testament") was written in Hebrew, by Hebrews, for Hebrews; and although Gentiles could come to God, they had to come through Israel's God-given religion. Jesus himself instructed the disciples to go only "unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel", and reminded the Samaritan woman, and us, that "salvation is of the Jews". (John 4: 22)
Hellenized Christianity has purposely distanced itself from the Jewishness of our faith, yet paradoxically still strives to attain to the witness of the Jewish church of the Book of Acts.
Paul instructs us as to the immense debt we Gentiles owe Israel for our spiritual inheritance, and reminds us of our duty to help Israel in earthly matters. (Romans 15: 27)
Since the call of Abram, every covenant that God has made for the benefit of mankind was made with an Israelite. The New Testament would be incomprehensible without the prior testimony of the Hebrew Scriptures.
Paul reminds us Gentiles that we were totally alienated from God, outside Israel's covenants, without hope and without access to God; until brought in by the blood sacrifice of our Jewish Messiah.
Nor did God accomplish this invisibly in heaven, but right here on earth with, and amongst, flesh and blood; in the midst of sin, war, death, depravity, human treachery and injustice.
For those who expect perfection from Israel we are well reminded that all God has done in the salvation of a remnant of mankind has been done against the total opposition thereto of the world, the flesh and the devil.
Because of false teaching, and erroneous replacement theology, many Christians do not realize that certain "Old testament" covenants still remain in effect for Israel, namely: the Abrahamic land covenant (Genesis 12: 1-3), the Davidic throne covenant for Messiah (2 Samuel 7: 11-16), and the New Covenant for the House of Israel (Jeremiah 31: 31-36), into which the majority have not yet entered."
& continues
"The new covenant in the blood of Jesus fully atoned for all sins under the Old Testament (Hebrews 9: 15), transforming the role of the Law of Moses; but contrary to belated Christian replacement theology did not end God's dealing with Israel.
Much of Christendom has been in chaos since abandoning literal interpretation, and losing the distinction in Scripture between "Israel" and "Church". In fact, most replacement theology leaves Israel only curses.
If God were done with Israel because the majority rejected Jesus as Messiah, as prophesied, why did Jesus pray, "Father forgive them for they "know not what they do", and why does Paul remind us Gentiles that, "they are beloved for the fathers sakes"? (Romans 11: 28)
Because God does not break covenant! (Psalm 89: 30-37)
Paul warns us Gentiles, "not to be ignorant of this mystery (Israel), lest we become wise in our own conceit", because Israel's blindness to the gospel will only continue "until the fullness" of the Gentiles come in". (Romans 11: 25)
In our generation Israel is back in the land, against all human odds. But their first entrance as slaves from Egypt, and their second entrance from Babylon were not popular either: "The God of this people Israel. . . . . when he had destroyed seven nations in the land of Canaan, he divided their land to Israel". (Acts l3: l7-19)
The problem today is that our thinking is so humanistic and "democratic" that we in effect deny God his duty to fulfill his word. Many believers are more influenced by the media and the world than by the word of God.
Isaiah foretold that in the last days, "the Lord shall set his hand again the second time. . . . . and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel. . . . . from the four corners of the earth. . . . . . and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off. " (Isaiah 11: 11-13)"
& continues
"Amos adds significantly, "and they shall no more be pulled up out of their land which I have given them, says the Lord your God". (Amos 9: 15)
The Gentile age, revealed to Daniel, is ending; and with it the Church age at the "catching away" of Christ's bride; then the Kingdom shall come to earth. (Daniel 2: 34, 35) ·
Sometime during this transition physical Israel, regathered in the land, will be brought to life spiritually: "And I will make them one nation in the land of Israel. . . . and they all shall have one shepherd. . . . . I will be their God and they shall be my people. . . and the heathen shall know that I the Lord do sanctify. Israel" (Ezekiel 37: 22)
God is not playing favorites, but Israel collectively is a major player in the plan for redeeming humanity: "and through you shall all the families of the earth be blessed". (Genesis 12: 3) That blessing will not be completed until Jesus returns in his glory.
"When the Lord shall build up Zion, he shall appear in his glory. . . To declare the name of the Lord in Zion, and his praise in Jerusalem; when the people are gathered together, and the kingdoms, to serve the Lord. " (Psalm 102: 16-22)
Israel is being regathered in the land, to meet the One they earlier rejected: "And his feet shall stand in that day upon the mount of Olives which is before Jerusalem on the east. . . . . and the Lord my God shall come, and all the saints with thee. " (Zechariah 14: 4, 5)
Micah speaks today: "Now also many nations are gathered against thee, that say, Let her be defiled, and let our eye look upon Zion. But they know not the thoughts of the Lord, neither understand they his counsel: for he shall gather them (nations) as the sheaves of the floor. Arise and thresh, 0 daughter of Zion. " (Micah 4: 11-13)
The nations are on a collision course with God. Joel tells us the outcome: "For behold, in those days and in that time, when I shall bring again (return) the captivity of Judah and Jerusalem, I will also gather all nations and bring them down into the valley of Jehoshaphat and will plead with them there for my people and for my heritage Israel, whom they have scattered among the nations and parted my land. " (Joel 3: 1, 2) The United Nations in 1947 authorized Israel's return; yet entitled the very resolution, "The Resolution For The Partition of Palestine"; and excluded Jerusalem from the Jewish homeland.
But Daniel reveals that Jerusalem is reserved by a higher authority, for higher purposes: "for thy city and thy people are called by thy name". (Daniel 9: 19) Israel stumbled over Jesus, as prophesied. The nations are stumbling over Jerusalem, also as prophesied. (Zechariah 12: 3)"
Another book worth reading is titled
"Philistine-To-Palestine: Exposing the World's Biggest Deception Library Edition: Israel's Political, Biblical & Historical Treatise" published in 2016 by Joseph D. Shellim
the description from the Barnes & Noble website www.barnesandnoble.com says:
"Knowledge is power. Arm yourself.
A global chaos and mayhem has extended across the nations. All was blamed on the Middle East Conflict. Yet now a different manifestation has emerged, affirming this was never a local issue about Palestine or of land occupation: Israel holds less than 0.5% of land in Arabia. There was never any land issue across the nations, yet the mayhem extended globally. Thereby, was this conflict wrongly accounted - or was it designed to erupt as it has - and for what purposes?
Exposing the long suppressed and omitted issues will cause intense debating; it may even change your views. The issues of Palestine and its global impacts are now exposed as never before - historically, theologically and politically, of both ancient and modern times. The big questions:
• Who Are "Palestinians"? Why was this name transferred from Jews to Arabs after 2,000 years in 1964? Why were the 3000 year names of Hebrew towns changed to West Bank in 1950? Was King David of Bethlehem, or Jesus of Nazareth, as Palestinians? What was the message of the Dead Sea Scrolls that was hidden from the world?
• Chamberlain, Hitler and Hajj Amin: Why did Britain appoint Hajj Amin as Grand Mayor of Jerusalem in contradiction of the Balfour Mandate? Was Britain's division of Palestine and her White Paper Policy legal or crimes against humanity?
• Who are Arabs? A historical enquiry traces the origins of the Arab group and their first emerging. The issue becomes controversial when the people called as Arabs are connected with Canaan, Abraham, Ishmael, Israel, Judea and Jesus Christ.
• Today's Global Refugee Crisis: Why are Millions of Christians and Arabs fleeing their ancient homelands? Why were no ruling conditions placed on the new Arab states - and how does it impact all nations today? Is today's chaos and mayhem circumstantial or designed?
Whatever your views of the modern world's most controversial issue, this book will arm you with long suppressed and de-classified archives, exposing a host of deceptions created to cover great errors of the 20th century. These have backfired and plunged humanity into chaos and mayhem. Causes and effects apply.
"Philistine-To-Palestine" is presented with quotes and interviews from the widest range of credible sources. From Scholars, Theologians, Clerics, Lawyers, Presidents, Kings, Ottoman Sultans, Arabian Emirs, Ambassadors, Authors, Talk Show Hosts, Human Rights Advocates and Bloggers. A 3,000 year population survey of Palestine and 40 historical images expose the great deceptions of the modern world that have come to haunt all nations. Perhaps we are driving on the wrong lane of this highway?
Knowledge is power. Arm yourself."
From Amazon.com the Description of the Philistine-To-Palestine: book Kindle Edition by
Joseph D. Shellim , some comments people gave in support of this book are
This book holds enormous insight. It explains the massive deceit and corruption of England's dealings with the Jews, leading to the murder of half a nation. I did not know about the "white paper" deals England had with Hitler, how England made conflicting promises to the Arabs, the Jews and the French. It explains how England deliberately corrupted the Balfour declaration, the trust of the League of Nations and the last hope of a overwhelmed nation, the defeated Jews. It exposes England's invention of the so-called "Palestinians" and the theft of 80% of Israel which was given to the Arabs. So very much becomes clear, The horror is that it has not ended, the blatant lies just become more and nobody has faced a court for these crimes against humanity"
5.0 out of 5 stars 'Philistine' - a must read
Reviewed in the United States on May 29, 2016
My knowledge and understanding of Palestine and its issues was seriously lacking, but having read Joseph Shellim's Philistine to Palestine, I now feel like an expert on the place and the ongoing heated conflict. This book is both compelling and indispensible, explaining much about the world’s turmoils today. Shellim utilises a multitude of irrefutable historical references as well as relevant quotes intended to overturn all that we’ve been led to believe on several major issues. A host of established opinions held today are presented as 'deceptions' - including who are the natives and refugees of Palestine, whether the creation of Jordan and West Bank were legal, why they occurred, the occupation issue, etc. There is a 3,000 year historical population chart up to the last century, a host of thought provoking legal treaties and the views of many nations' historians. This is a book that goes against the tide of subjectivity and unsubstantiated statements that threatens to swamp readers on the subject. It is a must read." Also on the Amazon.com Description of the Kindle edition of this book, Click on the book cover where it says "Look Inside" to see the Table of Comments and a Good Free Sample of this Book Exposing Evil Arab Lies, Arab Lies & "Palestinian" Lies
From the website internationalwallofprayer.org an article is headlined
"CHRISTIANS AND JEWS ARE BOTH PART
OF THE DIVINE PLAN"
by Bruce T. Forbes the article says
"I was not blessed with the opportunity of being born into a Jewish home, so I will never fully understand what it
means to be Jewish or to be Israeli. I acknowledge I will never be able to walk that path.
But where I grew up, the rabbi, a Holocaust survivor, opened the synagogue to people of all faiths. He taught classes
for non-Jews so we could learn the Torah and Jewish history from a source he could trust - himself. We had the opportunity of being good Christians and yet learning the Law and Prophets from those who have preserved it.
In returning, the door of Christian churches opened to their Jewish neighbors. We attended important events in each other's lives, regardless of the differences. We danced at each other's dances and wept at each other's funerals. And when the rabbi's home was threatened, armed Christians guarded it. He did not ask; they chose to protect their neighbor.
Never to my knowledge did anyone attempt to convert anyone to any religious path other than the one they were already on.
We walked our separate paths, but we walked together, hand - in hand, helping each other along our
separate but united ways.
As a young adult I ventured into the world and discovered the world was not like the city of my youth. Suspicion, mistrust, misinformation, and a non-forgiving of past un-Christian and un-Jewish acts had closed doors to houses of worship. Raised in a community of equals, I was shocked to be turned away from a 'community dance' because I was not Jewish.
When I was eight years old I made a childhood promise to visit Israel - to walk the paths of the great Patriarchs and Kings; to see the places Jesus taught; to see the country built up by a modern people led by my childhood heroes
David Ben Gurion and Golda Meir. My father's advice was to read and learn the history of each place so I would
know what I was looking at when I got there.
Thirty-five years later, as a member of a U.S. Airforce, I twice found myself working alongside members of the Israeli Defence Force and joint military exercises - and touring the country on our off-duty time. My father's advice served
me well as I was even able to teach some of the Israelis about the places we saw. One of the most sacred moments was looking
up at the Mount of Olives while reading the words of the prophet Zechariah concerning the coming of the Messiah. There was no arguing; only a friendly challenge to meet when the Messiah came to see who was right all along.
So - what am I getting at?
I am a Christian who loves and respects a Book, a People, and a Country - something taught to me from birth. I know
I will always be an outsider, but I will still be there - writing letters to the leaders of my country and chastising them when they aren't good to Israel; publicly defending Israel in political debates and Judaism in religious debates; and taking my place in public rallies in the defence of Israel and my friends. And standing guard if a neighboring rabbi's
home is threatened."
the article continues
"And this is more than many American Jews are willing to do! This is more than some Israelis are willing to do!
So imagine my surprise when I read the writings of a rising star in the Israeli political sky, only to discover that I am no better
than a Nazi because the Almighty chose to have me born into a Christian home. Imagine my shock to discover how many people agree with this man!
There is no denying the ugly fact that there has been much persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians. But I am not one of them, and neither is my father or my father's father. I will not accept this burden on behalf of all Christianity; nor will I have it put upon me.
My people helped establish Rhode Island as the first U.S. colony with religious freedom, and they helped build the
first synagogue on this continent.
My people helped a Jewish colony in the western U.S. learn farming as they had all been city folk before moving west. My people sang in choirs for the Holy Days as there weren't enough Jews to make the choir their rabbi hoped for.
The persecution of Jews at the hands of Christians - past or present - is someone else's burden; not mine. I have been taught better by too many generations of Christian ancestors.
There are Christians who don't think Jewish prayers are heard by G-d, but I am not one of them - I have seen and felt the results
of the prayers of my Jewish friends on my behalf.
There are Christians who feel they must convert all Jews to their religion, but I am not one of them. The Torah makes it clear the Jewish people have a significant role to play in the future of this world - a role they could not carry out if they were all suddenly Christian. I am convinced the Almighty has a reason for both Jews and Christians to be carrying out some portion of His plan. I also believe He would like to see us working together in doing so.
I wish I could go back to the city of my birth and visit the rabbi who opened his arms to his Christians neighbors and single-handedly made equals out of everyone. I wonder if he would consider the Christians who guarded his house at night to be no better than the Nazis who guarded the barracks of his youth? But I know what the rabbi would say, because he is the one who showed me that when Jesus taught the "Two Great Commandments", that of loving G-d
and loving our neighbor, He was merely quoting the Torah.
I will never be able to walk the path of a good Jewish life. But I know our separate paths can run parallel and very
close to each other - close enough that we can walk together as friends and supporters. And most of all - as equals. I miss the days when we did this. "
A person online typed the following comment about how the so-called "Palestinians" are indeed a Fake Invented Fictional People,
the person typed
"If they existed as a distinct people, then why were there no Palestinian presidents, kings, or other heads of state before Arafat? Why was there no demand for a Palestinian state between 1948 and 1967, when Jordan and Egypt controlled the area? As an independent Republic, Texas actually used the Texan dollar before joining the US. If Palestinians were a separate people, why did they have no currency, borders, state, language, leader, or any other markers of that? The word “Palestinian” meant Jew for most of its history, including the Mandatory period. That is why the Palestine Philharmonic Orchestra, football team, bank, and other institutions were Jewish. The Arabs of the region had no national affiliations besides their tribe. Palestine was not even one administrative unit under the Ottomans." See also the book by Emmett Laor titled
"The Invention of the "Palestinians" The Revised Edition , anyone can order it from
Amazon.com, or Barnes & Noble, etc
From the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem website, an article that exposes the
Evil of Replacement Theology is titled
"REPLACEMENT THEOLOGY" the article says:
"Recently, I became more keenly aware of the spiritual conflict that rages over Israel. This conflict settles on the battleground of Replacement theology. While we reject this theological concept, it is worth noting that it is a 'new' that has strengthened itself over many centuries within churches of all traditions. It is therefore not easily removed and yet we are called to do so with the sword of the Spirit, the Word of God.
To some degree, Replacement theology is so deceptive because it rests on half-truths. For instance, the Church is the “Israel of God” but not in a replacement sense (Galatians 6:14-16).
In essence, Replacement theology removes from Israel a national destiny in the land of Canaan because of her rejection of Jesus’ Messianic credentials. All the biblical statements of Israel enjoying future blessings in the land of Canaan are said to be descriptions of the spiritual blessings that now accrue to the Church. The expectation of a physical kingdom has been spiritualized and taken from Israel and given to the Gentiles (Matthew 21:43), even though Jesus never denied that the physical kingdom would be restored to Israel (Acts 1:6-7).
That this way of expounding Scripture completely violates the principles of biblical exposition is of little importance to them. We should interpret Scripture by the nature of the text. If it is literal, then we should interpret it literally, but if it is spiritual or figurative, then we should respond accordingly. For instance, Jesus said, “I am the door!” Does this mean He actually is a door? Of course not! The context is clearly figurative and needs to be interpreted as such.
We are therefore not committed to any singular form of biblical exposition - literal or figurative - but rather to the context. This will determine our style of exposition and therefore we uphold the integrity of Scripture and its authority.
The Essentials of Replacement Theology
Replacement theology rests chiefly on the idea that the whole or part of the Abrahamic Covenant has been abolished, for it is this Covenant that promises to Israel eternal ownership of the land of Canaan (Genesis 17:7-8).
Once this 'promise' has been removed, the present-day restoration of Israel means nothing and her only hope is in the Church. Now it must be made clear that we believe that only in Christ Jesus can there be salvation for Jews and Gentiles alike (Romans 1:16-17). However, we do not believe that the promise of God in the Abrahamic Covenant bequeathing the land of Canaan to Israel has been removed, and therefore Israel’s modern restoration to the land of Canaan is indeed fulfillment of that promise and constitutes a milestone on her ‘way home’ to her Messiah (Ezekiel 36:24-28)."
the article continues:
"Two Points of View
The Replacement camp is divided into two opinions concerning the Abrahamic Covenant:
1. The Abolitionists
This camp sees the Covenant with Abraham as being entirely abolished. However they have serious difficulties because Paul writing to the Galatians states that Jesus died in order to bring to our lives the blessings of the Abrahamic Covenant and if we belong to Jesus, we are Abraham’s children according to the promise (Galatians 3:13-14, 29).
If the Covenant has been abolished, then what Paul says is wrong! Moreover the writer of the Book of Hebrews states that we can trust God to be faithful to the New Covenant because He has always been faithful to the Abrahamic Covenant (Hebrews 6:13-20). This constitutes a serious problem for the Abolitionists because, if the Abrahamic Covenant has been abolished, then God is a liar and indeed is not faithful, though the writer of Hebrews affirms that He is!
Many Abolitionists have perceived this problem and have consequently moved to the...
2. Reconstructionist Camp
This theory states that the Abrahamic Covenant has indeed not been abolished but it has been reconstructed. That is, the part that promises land to Israel now means spiritual promises and not literal ones. The problem with this theory is:
(a) It is a total presupposition and the Scriptures nowhere affirm it. That all nations would be blessed in Christ was actually the intention of the Abrahamic Covenant from the very beginning, but this does not remove from the Jewish people a national destiny in the Holy Land.
Reconstructionists lay emphasis on Paul’s teaching in the Book of Galatians concerning God’s promise in Abraham being made not to his “seed”, plural, that is the people of Israel, but to his “seed” singular, meaning Jesus (Galatians 3:15-18). Therefore they conclude that since the “seed” Christ has come, the promise to the “seed” of Abraham as in plural - meaning the people - has been removed! They have forfeited the land!
The truth is that Paul also uses the term “Abraham’s seed” in the plural in the New Testament (Romans 9:6-7). In other words both interpretations of the term “seed” are true! Abraham’s seed is singular and plural. The blessing God promised in Abraham is only in Christ Jesus because He died for the whole world, but the mediation or means by which this blessed “seed” comes into the world is through the “seed” plural - the people of Israel. The one truth does not contradict the other. Both truths are in fact interdependent (Romans 9:1-5), hence the extensive genealogy of Jesus given in the Gospels of Matthew and Luke (Matthew 1:1-17; Luke 3:23-38).
The Bible nowhere states that the promises of God in Abraham concerning Israel’s everlasting possession of the Land of Canaan are removed. In fact, everywhere it affirms the opposite! That is, that a day is coming when Israel will be restored to the land and to her Messiah (Ezekiel 36:24-32). This passage from Ezekiel teaches the very opposite of Replacement theology, in that Israel’s rebellion and sin has not led to land forfeiture but to judgment and correction, yet in the end God will, for His Name’s sake, restore Israel to her ancient land and to Himself! He does this in spite of her history of rebellion and sin. The truth is that Replacement theology reflects the heart of man and not that of God!
(b) The Scriptures refute it. Jesus came to confirm the promises to the Fathers, not to reconstruct them (Romans 15:7-9). Confirm means CONFIRM! He takes away nothing but reinforces every promise that God made to the fathers (Acts 3:22-26). Peter affirms that there must be a time of “restoration of all things” before Messiah returns. This “restoration of all things” is spoken about by all the prophets - meaning a final regathering to the Land of Canaan and repentance leading to salvation in Jesus (Amos 9:11-15; Jeremiah 36:26-28)."
the article lastly says:
"Purpose
Israel has always been God’s vehicle of world redemption (Romans 9:1-5). In a way, she is God’s microphone, the means by which He speaks to a lost world. Moreover, she has birthed all God’s covenants into the world and has now come back to her ancient homeland, by the promise of the Abrahamic Covenant, to birth the final great covenant of history, the Davidic Covenant. Herein lies the ultimate purpose of her modern-day restoration. Jesus will return to Zion as the root and offspring of David (Revelation 22:1-6; Psalm 2:1-12; Psalm 72:5-11).
No wonder the conflict over Zion is so great. Our ministry, partnered with you, is removing the stumbling blocks from Zion and thereby preparing her for the arrival of her great and most blessed King (Isaiah 62:10).
Replacement theology is thus an instrument of the powers of darkness to frustrate the purpose of God, by disconnecting the Church from this final great redemptive initiative in history. We reject it and stand fully on the promises of God concerning Israel and the Church.
Rev. Malcolm Hedding is the former Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
Also from the website for International Christian Embassy Jerusalem
another article is headlined
"ISRAEL'S CALLING"
Discerning God's purposes for Israel
In Romans 9-11, the Apostle Paul deals extensively with the Gentile Christian’s response to Israel. While the passage has been debated by the best theological minds through the centuries, Paul still exhorts us to accept certain clear facts. The failure of the Church historically to do this sadly has allowed anti-Semitism to grow and flourish in many churches and traditions. We should examine these again in light of the following:
The God of the Bible has never “cast away His people” (Romans11:1). This means He has a redemptive plan for national Israel. He has not forgotten them and has a surprise in store for all of us. Just as Elijah thought that all was lost and hopeless, so even today the Lord is allowing a remarkable miracle to unfold in Israel. He is more than active in Israel’s present journey.
God has used Israel’s unbelief to bring salvation to the Gentiles (Romans 11:11). This has an element of mystery in it, yet the passage is clear that there is a Church in the world because of Israel’s rejection of Jesus. Paul encourages us to view this fact with gratitude and not disdain. Their fall, he says, “is riches for the world”. The Church should have shown kindness and appreciation to Israel. That is, we should have been a provocation to jealousy.
God requires that we desist from arrogantly boasting against the Jewish people, because we have been grafted into their spiritual tree (Romans11:17-19). That is, our spiritual heritage is Jewish. Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews” (John 4:22). Ours is essentially a Jewish faith built on the great lives of Moses, Joshua, Esther, David, Isaiah, Daniel, the Apostles and our wonderful Messiah Jesus.
God calls us to fear Him; to show reverence and awe (Romans11:19-20). The Jewish world can easily be grafted back into their tree because they are “natural branches”, whereas we are “wild branches”. That is, we are in a way misfits and it is easier for God to graft His people back into their own tree than to place us there. We should therefore fear God and thank Him by showing love to the Jewish people. Our arrogance against them incurs His displeasure and He warns that this can lead to spiritual death (Romans11:21-22).
God calls us to embrace mystery (Romans11:25-26). There is a glorious future for Israel. That is, her failure is only partial and one day all Israel will be saved. Her journey is fully bound up in the sovereign plan of God. His ways are past finding out but they are clear to the extent that out of Zion a deliverer will come and bring great blessing to Israel. This vision of Israel’s future will not fail. There is thus an “irrevocable” national destiny for Israel that began with Abraham and will conclude with the Holy Spirit being poured out upon them (Romans11:29).
All this means that God has not forgotten Israel and we should be a people filled with love and gratitude as we engage them. Though centuries of Christian anti-Semitism heap shame upon us, it is true that in recent decades a revolution in Jewish/Christian relations has taken place, with the ICEJ at the forefront."
Rev. Malcolm Hedding is the former Executive Director of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.
From Amazon.com Prime Video, a good video to watch is
"Protecting the Promised Land: The Case for Israel"
(21)
1 h 20 min
2018 The Description says
13+
"Terror attacks. Rising Anti-Semitism. Legal warfare. Israel is under attack. Protecting the Promised Land: A Case for Israel presents interviews with top diplomatic, military, and legal experts, and an in-depth discussion with leading authorities. Through this revealing ACLJ documentary, Jay Sekulow presents the definitive case for why Israel is vital to both America and the Middle East.
Directors Aaron Hodges
Starring Jay Sekulow, Jordan Sekulow, Ronen Bergman
Genres Special Interest, Documentary
Subtitles English [CC]
Audio languages English
Rentals include 30 days to start watching this video and 48 hours to finish once started."
Watch for $0.00 with Prime
Another book worth reading, Published in 2020 is titled
"The Case for Israel: The Awakening Has Begun" by Richard V. Barnett
THE CASE FOR ISRAEL
by Richard V Barnett From www.barnesandnoble.com it says about this book:
Overview
"The blatant conspiracy by the world governments to deny a certain group of people of their history, heritage and legacy is the biggest crime that has ever been committed in the history of the world. For years the political powers along with some of the most influential church leaders in the world have been a part of a major cover up to keep the Hebrew people in a state of mental and spiritual bondage that began way before the early years of the slave trade. To the general reader the Hebrew people are the Chosen first fruit of The Most High, they have been persecuted, raped, sold into slavery, murdered and oppressed, and all because they are the chosen people of The Most High. These are just some of the issues surrounding the Hebrews today, this book will explore what is the true purpose of the Hebrew Israelites and how they are beginning to wake up to and deal with their true identity today. This book also explores how The Most High is carefully placing his people back into the natural position as the rulers of the earth and how that he has planned for them to lead other nations way before they became disobedient by not following his laws statutes and commandments."
Don't confuse this book with "The Case for Israel" by Alan Dershowitz, which is another superb book, Published years earlier
Some Great News !!! The Anti-Semite Jew Hater Loser Texe Marrs had died !!! The False Prophet Fake Christian
Texe Marrs died on November 23, 2019 at the age of 75, Good that he's dead, We at this Blog Proudly say Good That he's Dead, he was an evil hate filled man, an Anti-Semite Loser and Obsessive Nutjob Jew-Hater and what kind of stupid name is Texe Marrs anyway ? Sounds like Texan from Mars, who knows maybe he really was from Mars
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia it says about the late loser Texe Marrs
Jump to navigationJump to search
Texe Marrs
Born July 15, 1944
Fred, Texas[1]
Died November 23, 2019 (aged 75)
Spicewood, Texas[1]
Texe William Marrs (July 15, 1944 – November 23, 2019) was an American writer and radio host, who ran two fundamentalist Christian ministries, Power of Prophecy Ministries and Bible Home Church, both based in Austin, Texas. His teachings include end times conspiracy theory[citation needed] with heavy elements of antisemitism, anti-Catholicism, Illuminati and Freemasonry conspiracy theory." Again we at this blog Proudly say Good that he's dead, Thank God he's Dead, he was an embarrassment and a disgrace to the Countless True Christians in America & Worldwide who Love & Support the State of Israel & The Jewish People,
From the Barnes & Noble website, www.barnesandnoble.com a good book worth reading is titled
"Europe and the Jews: The Pressure of Christendom on the People of Israel for 1,900 Years"
by Malcolm Hay, Walter Kaufmann (Editor)
The Overview says"
"A detailed and moving account of the indignities and cruelties Jews have undergone at the hands of Christians and others in the West, from St John Chrysostom in the 4th century to Hitler in the 20th. Using Hitler's concentration camps as a point of departure, Hay leads us on a tour of the devilish scenes and spectacles which have been produced by Christian hatred of Jews for some 1900 years."
Also from the Barnes & Noble website , www.barnesandnoble.com another good book worth reading is titled
"The War Against the Jew"
by Runes D. Dagobert
The Overview says
"In The War Against the Jew by Dagobert D. Runes, an introduction passionately written with a cause and purpose describes the War on the Jews, the history of Jewish hatred and prejudice. After that he gives a glossary of names, places, beings, writings, and words that describe this hatred. Dagobert David Runes (January 6, 1902 – September 24, 1982) was a philosopher and author. He is associated with The Philosophical Library, a spiritual organization and publisher. Runes was a colleague and friend of Albert Einstein. Runes is responsible for publishing an English translation of Marx's On the Jewish Question, which he published under the title A World without Jews, and editing The Dictionary of Philosophy, published in 1942." First Published in 2007, it looks like a great book
From the website blogs.timesofisrael.com an article by Dani Ishai Behan is headlined
"Jesus Was Neither Mizrahi, Ashkenazi, Or Palestinian; He Was Simply A Jew"
DEC 25, 2019, the article says:
"Arguments over who Jesus really was, or whether or not he even existed at all, recur at this time every year. You’ll find claims that he was “Ashkenazi”, “Mizrahi”, “Palestinian”, “Arab”, “Black”, “African-American”, and so on. Each of these groups have clashed over Jesus at various points on the assumption that, if they can claim Jesus as one of their own, they may lay exclusive claim to the mantle of the ancient Hebrews.
It is understandable that so many have coveted this mantle. To be part of the continuation of one of the most influential civilizations in human history, whose name is known and revered throughout the entire world, and to claim ownership over what is perhaps the most inspiring national narrative known to man, is quite an awesome inheritance. No surprise, then, that so many are fighting over it. But which of these claims is correct?
The answer is “none of the above”.
As I wrote in an article two years ago, Jesus was a Jew. Not a Mizrahi Jew. Not an Ashkenazi Jew. Not a black Jew. Just a Jew, born to Jewish parents in the Jewish city of Bethlehem, in the Jewish kingdom of Judea (formerly Judah). Attempting to attach any of the aforementioned diasporic identities – all of them denoting specific histories, migration patterns, and minhagim that did not apply at all to Jesus’ life – is ahistorical, anachronistic, and divisive. If we are to take “Mizrahi” as meaning “any Jew who was born in or lived in the Middle East”, Benjamin Netanyahu would qualify as Mizrahi. Furthermore, just as other diaspora Jews mixed in their respective host countries, Mizrahim mixed as well – both with local cultures in the lands they settled and (in the case of the small handful who managed to remain in Judea over the centuries) with foreign conquerors. No Jewish group – or any extant ethnic group – can claim to be “pure” Israelite.
The notion that he was “Palestinian” is even more ridiculous. In Jesus’ time, “Palestinian” referred to a long-extinct Greek settler population, known as the Philistines. The only attested reference to the land as “Palestine” came from Greek writer Herodotus, who was referring exclusively to the coastal areas where the Philistines once lived (i.e. in what is now Gaza and Ashdod). Moreover, the Philistines were an Aegean people, so it’s not hard to imagine a Greek writer using the Greek name for what used to be a Greek colony."
the article continues
"
“When Herodotus in the fifth century B.C.E. mentions Palestine he refers only to the coastal area, so called because it had been inhabited by the Philistines; or he is speaking loosely, since the only part of the area that he had visited was apparently along the coast. During the Persian and Ptolemaic periods, the entire area between the Euphrates and the Mediterranean from Cilicia to Egypt is called Coele-Syria. The term Judaea, as used by such writers as Hecataeus of Abdera, Clearchus of Soli, and even the anti-Jewish Manetho in the early third century B.C.E. refers to that part of the area inhabited predominantly by Jews. That the official term for this region is Judaea may be seen from military diplomas and other inscriptions, as well as from coins, prior to the time of Hadrian. It is so designated in the official letter of the Emperor Claudius to the Alexandrians in the first century, as well as by such writers as Plutarch, Tacitus, and Suetonius at the beginning of the second century. Moreover, writers on geography in the first century clearly differentiate Judaea from Palestine. Even vicious anti-Jewish writers, such as Apion, Chaeremon, and Seneca in the first century, generally do not use the term Palestine. Jewish writers, notably Philo and Josephus, with few exceptions refer to the land as Judaea, reserving the name Palestine for the coastal area occupied by the Philistines. It is only centuries later, in perhaps the fifth century, that we find the name Palestine in a rabbinic work. Occurrences of the adjective Palestinian in such poets as Tibullus, Ovid, and Statius are due to metrical considerations; Palestinian as a noun does not occur in all antiquity. Coins of Hadrian issued before the Bar Kochba rebellion in 132 C.E. refer to Judaea; within a few years after the rebellion the name of Judaea was officially changed to Palestine, the aim being to obliterate the Jewish character of the land, with the name of the nearest tribe being applied to the entire area. Yet, even after the name was officially changed, some inscriptions, as well as such literary figures as Galen and Celsus in the second century, Dio Cassius and Origen in the third century, and Eusebius and Jerome in the fourth century, still refer to Judaea.” ~ LOUIS H. FELDMAN, Hebrew Union College Annual, Vol. 61 (1990), pp. 1-23
MINOR CORRECTION: The Romans renamed it to Syria-Palaestina, not Palestine.
And he was obviously not an Arab either. The Arab conquests did not happen for another six centuries. The only notable Arab presence in the Levant by the time of Jesus’ birth were the Nabataeans, and Jesus was most certainly not a Nabataean.
So who has the best claim to Jesus?
Jews do, of course. All Jews, be they Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, black, Kaifeng, etc. All ethnic Jews are equally Judean, equally indigenous to the Levant, and equally legitimate. No Jewish group is more “Judean” or more “authentic” than the next. Treating any Jewish group as if they are comparatively “watered down” by dint of “leaving” the Middle East (not that we had any say in the matter since, as mentioned previously, we didn’t “leave” the Middle East – we were exiled; further, a decent amount of the pre-Zionist Old Yishuvim were Ashkenazi) or outright “impostors” is divisive and hurtful.
Happy holidays, and happy New Year."
Also from the website blogs.timesofisrael.com Another article by
Dani Ishai Behan is headlined
"Why The Indigenous Status of Ashkenazim Matters"
DEC 8, 2019, the article says:
Jew praying at the Western Wall. (Wikimedia Commons)
Zionism is an indigenous rights movement. This axiomatic statement, once seldom acknowledged, is now gaining traction. And justifiably so.
"Despite unrelenting and nigh omnipresent propaganda to the contrary, Zionism is perchance the only movement in history where an exiled native people regained control over their ancestral homeland. It brought about an astonishing reversal of a nearly 2 millennia-old colonial status quo, so groundbreaking and inspiring that countless subsequent indigenous leaders have sought to emulate it. Recognition of Zionism as a key victory in the struggle against imperialism has, for this reason, become a cornerstone of “pro-Israel” advocacy.
Because it does not matter how democratic Israel is, or how many computer chips it has produced, or how many UN laws can be marshaled in its favor. A progressive who believes Israel was “founded on a colonial injustice” won’t care about any of that. Why would they? If anything, they’re more likely to just shrug it off and say “yeah, that’s nice. But Palestinians still deserve justice, and the Israelis still need to leave Palestine and go back to where they came from”.
Without our indigenous status, we have no answer to such arguments. We have nothing. If we’re not native to Israel, then Zionism really is nothing more than a colonial movement. An understandable colonial movement, given our long history of persecution, but a colonial movement nonetheless. Thus, naturally, the floodgates for Israel’s delegitimization are thrown wide open.
Even the argument that Israel provides a “safe haven” from persecution, or that most of Israel’s Jewish population are refugees from Arab lands, ring hollow in the face of these claims. They do nothing to challenge the core anti-Zionist view that a bunch of “Europeans” just showed up one day, with a Bible in one hand and a gun in the other, and started kicking people out of their homes.
And that brings me to the raison d’etre of this post.
Although it is commonly understood (at least among Zionists) that all Jews are indigenous to Israel, this understanding does not always come across in our work. For example, our “default” response to “Israel is a colonial state built by white-European fake Semites” typically amounts to little more than “lol, most of Israel is Mizrahi”.
This is a lazy, ineffective, insensitive, and ultimately damaging response that does absolutely nothing to help Israel, or Jews more broadly. What it does is endanger us, and makes some Jewish groups (in reality, at least half of the world’s Jewish population) out to be “less legitimate” than the rest."
the article continues:
"It comes off as “lol, yeah, those Ashkies are a bunch of fakers from Europe, but hey! They’re the minority now. So we can just forget all that earlier colonial business, yeah”?
That’s how it reads to me, at least. And I’m a guy who used to be a far-left anti-Zionist. If you had presented that argument to me way back when, I would’ve laughed in your face.
Our response to these antisemitic arguments should be: “Ashkenazim are NOT frauds. They do have roots in this land. They are NOT “white-Europeans”. All Jews are equally indigenous to the Middle East, irrespective of where we wound up in exile”.
That our ancestors were carried West, instead of East, when our country was destroyed does not change the fact that we are native Levantines (or Middle Easterners, if you will). It’s just a fact. A fact that we’ve suffered almost all manner of horrors for over a span of at least 1,000 years, if not longer.
That’s why it infuriates me to see so many Zionists promote such a cavalier and sometimes even mocking attitude toward Ashkenazi indigeneity. It is an erect middle finger to one of the most continuously and viciously abused populations in human history. It also rests on some seriously flawed logic, most notably the assumption that once Mizrahim and Sephardim are recognized as indigenous, we will no longer have to worry about delegitimization. That, of course, is nonsense.
Even Google seems to think we’re “Khazars”, “whites”, and “fakers” (Courtesy)
Because if Ashkenazim are not indigenous to Israel, it’d be impossible to make a case for the indigeneity of other Jewish groups (barring a small handful of Old Yishuvim which, surprise surprise, includes many Ashkenazim).
Ashkenazim were gone for “2000 years”? Most other Jewish groups were gone for even longer than that.
Ashkenazim are “too mixed”? On the contrary, Ashkenazim were more endogamous throughout history than virtually any other diaspora Jewish group. In fact, Ashkenazim are often cited as an example of highly endogamous groups, given the array of genetic diseases Ashkenazim carry (e.g. Tay Sachs). And it’s not as though other Jewish groups are some mirror replica of ancient Judeans. Sephardim have the same Greco-Roman mix that Ashkenazim do, in addition to later Amazigh admixture. Mizrahim mixed substantively with Assyrians, Persians, and other groups. And so on and so forth.
Ashkenazim are the “white people” of the Jewish nation? Well, no."
the article continues
"Ashkenazim are more “culturally mixed” than other Jews? Well again, no.
Some have even made arguments like “oh, but Ashkenazim left the Middle East generations ago”. First of all, we didn’t leave the Middle East. We were carried off, in chains, as slaves. We were displaced from our country, against our will, by colonial invaders. We did not “leave”.
Second, the fact that we were exiled from our land does not cancel out or lessen our indigenous status. That’s utter insanity.
People often allege that we should focus less on Ashkenazim, since they already have much of the spotlight. And it’s true, we absolutely should shift more focus to other Jewish groups. But that doesn’t mean we should completely withdraw focus from Ashkenazi history, let alone ignore or excuse blatant antisemitism against them. This isn’t a zero sum game.
When antisemites from SJP scream “go back to Germany”, or when BHI scum rant about “white Jewish” “impostors”, or when far-leftists scream about “white Jews” “stealing Palestinian land,” they’re talking about Ashkenazim. They’re not talking about other diaspora Jewish populations. They’re talking about us. And if someone attacks me like that, or tries to erase my connection to Israel, of course I’m going to call it out. Of course I’m going to want it covered.
If you believe antisemitic attacks on Ashkenazi indigeneity can be ignored, deflected, or shrugged off for whatever reason, you’re not serious about fighting antisemitism. Antisemitism that only targets Ashkenazim is still antisemitism."
Also from blogs.timesofisrael.com Yet another article by Dani Ishai Behan is headlined
"Ashkenazi Jews Are Indigenous To Israel, Not Europe"
DEC 25, 2018,
the article says
"For Jews, awareness of our indigeneity to Israel is of paramount importance. It is a vital reminder of who we are, where we come from, and what our ancestors died to defend. It is the antidote to centuries of exile and colonization, and the legal basis our national rights are contingent upon. For these reasons, it has become a cornerstone of Jewish resistance, and rightly so.
But our self-identity as an indigenous Middle Eastern people hasn’t always been welcomed. To the contrary, it has been and continues to be ferociously resisted. Despite centuries of being told to ‘go back to Palestine’, today we are told, with alarming frequency, that we are “only a religion” and that we are “foreigners” and “colonizers” in our own indigenous homeland. Too many people fail to recognize this for the insidious psychological assault on our being that it is. Especially important to maintaining our indigenous identity is showing the antisemitic denial of that identity up for what it is.
I am focusing on Ashkenazim for three main reasons…
1. Ashkenazim are targeted the most for erasure. Although the indigenous status of Jews in Israel has been gaining wider acceptance over the past few years, Ashkenazi claims in particular are still bitterly, aggressively resisted by many. Most of this resistance tends to come from gentile antisemites (more on that below), but not all of it does. It can also be found among Jews themselves, especially those from the Baby Boomer generation and from certain segments of the non-Ashkenazi population. Even today, most Zionists will not directly rebut the allegation that Ashkenazim are “white European settlers”. Instead, you’ll usually get glib responses like “60 percent of Israel is Mizrahi” which, although true, fail to tackle the underlying claim that Ashkenazim are “white European” foreigners in Israel. For them, acknowledging the indigeneity of Ashkenazim to Israel is of secondary importance, or of no importance at all. Although this is often done with good intentions, it is still highly damaging and needs to stop."
the article continues
"2. Nearly all of Israel’s “founders” were Ashkenazi. The Zionist credo is, in essence, at least 2,000 years old, but the Zionism that led to Israel’s re-establishment was invented in Eastern Europe, by Ashkenazim. Most of the early olim were Ashkenazi, as were the majority of Israel’s soldiers and leaders circa 1948. That is what anti-Zionists tend to focus on when they challenge Israel’s legitimacy. In their minds, Ashkenazim are really just “European whites” who, for religious reasons, claimed a “mythical” attachment to Israel, proclaiming a right of “settlement” in a land that is “no longer theirs”, assuming it ever was in the first place. Immediately switching the conversation over to Mizrahim instead of attacking this lie directly effectively cedes the argument to anti-Zionists, reinforcing the idea that Ashkenazim are “not really from the Middle East” and thus have no moral claim to it.
3. Left-wing antisemitism tends to fall harder on Ashkenazim. That is to be expected. Most Western Jews are Ashkenazi and, as a result, Westerners often associate Jewishness with Ashkenazim in particular. Non-Ashkenazim tend to view this as a privilege, and in many ways it is. But it is ALSO an enormous disadvantage. When SJP and other antisemites scream about “white Jewish colonialism” or claim that modern Jews are “Khazars” who “hold all of the wealth”, they’re not usually thinking about Mizrahim.
=== On Indigenous Status ===
In anthropological terms, indigeneity pertains to ethnogenesis, i.e. “where a people became a people”. This can be seen most prominently in the indigenous rights working definition penned by UN rapporteur Jose R. Martinez Cobo. His work isn’t without flaws, as you will soon see (and as indigenous activists have correctly pointed out in the past), but Ashkenazi Jews – and Jews more broadly – meet all of the most important, relevant criteria."
& Continues
"Indigenous communities, peoples and nations are those which, having a historical continuity with pre-invasion and pre-colonial societies that developed on their territories, consider themselves distinct from other sectors of the societies now prevailing on those territories, or parts of them. They form at present nondominant sectors of society and are determined to preserve, develop and transmit to future generations their ancestral territories, and their ethnic identity, as the basis of their continued existence as peoples, in accordance with their own cultural patterns, social institutions and legal system.
This historical continuity may consist of the continuation, for an extended period reaching into the present of one or more of the following factors:
a) Occupation of ancestral lands, or at least of part of them;
b) Common ancestry with the original occupants of these lands;
c) Culture in general, or in specific manifestations (such as religion, living under a tribal system, membership of an indigenous community, dress, means of livelihood, lifestyle, etc.);
d) Language (whether used as the only language, as mother-tongue, as the habitual means of communication at home or in the family, or as the main, preferred, habitual, general or normal language);
e) Residence on certain parts of the country, or in certain regions of the world;
f) Other relevant factors.
Much has been written about how Jews qua Jews qualify as indigenous under this criteria. But how do Ashkenazi Jews in particular meet it?"
& continues
"A. The Jewish homeland has been occupied many times over by various colonial powers, most notably by Europeans and Arabs. Of these two groups, only Arabs (i.e. today’s Palestinians) remain in the land in sizable numbers. Arab opposition to Zionism was, from the get go, an attempt at reinforcing (and later reinstating) the colonial status quo in historic Israel. Even in exile, the Ashkenazim continued to regard themselves as part of “Am Yisra’el” (the people of Israel), identifying Israel as their homeland and themselves as ‘diaspora’ Jews. LiShanah Haba’ah Yerushalayim (“next year in Jerusalem”) is recited at least twice a year by Ashkenazim, whereas prayers for the restoration of Jerusalem are recited at least three times a day.
B. Ashkenazim are a diaspora Jewish population, having arrived to Europe by the Middle Ages. Some are Second Temple Judeans who were brought to Europe in chains after the Bar Kokhba revolt. Others made their way into Europe after being driven out by the Arab and Crusader conquests. The rest are Mizrahi-Jewish merchants, drawn to Europe by commerce and economic opportunities.
More to the point, the original inhabitants of what is now Israel were Canaanites, from whom the Jews emerged sometime in the 2nd millennium BC. At least 30 years of DNA evidence affirms the Middle Eastern – specifically Levantine (read: Canaanite) – origin of Ashkenazi Jews, who on average can trace more than half of their genome to the Levant. At bare minimum, the Levantine component in individual Ashkenazim is about 50 percent, with the rest of it being southern European – specifically Greek and Italian. Ashkenazi Jews were certainly distinct enough from Europeans that they were frequent targets of racism, often being told to “go back to Asia”. To this day, European/white nationalists still don’t consider them white.
C. Ashkenazi culture is Jewish culture as transplanted to Europe, and is thus Middle Eastern. Everything from their national/ethnic identity, cultural customs, language, spirituality, and laws all the way down to their holidays, art, literature, and even calendar are intimately connected to their homeland in the Levant. Here are some examples…
* Ashkenazim identify as Jews and as part of the nation of Israel. In other words, they identify as an indigenous ethnic group of the Levant. Many people believe these diasporic Jewish subdivisions to be distinct ethnicities in themselves, indigenous to whatever region they settled in. As popular as this view may be, it is quite false."
& Continues
"Ashkenazi, Sephardi, Mizrahi, etc are mere geographic terms denoting where a certain group of Jews settled at some time between their dispersion from Israel and the present. They are not ethnic or national identifiers. They are diaspora subgroupings and are ultimately the same people, indigenous to the same place.
* The Hebrew language remained in use as a ceremonial language. It was also used in Ashkenazi literature, poetry, and music. Yiddish, the every day spoken language of Ashkenazim, is a Creole-esque fusion of Hebrew/Aramaic and German, written in Hebrew characters.
* Ashkenazim practice Judaism, the national religion of the Jews. Judaism originates in Israel, and centers on our collective ethnic and spiritual ties to that land. Although Judaism contains no small amount of mythology (e.g. the Passover story is most likely just an exaggerated account of the Egyptian occupation of Canaan; according to modern scholarship, Israelites/Jews are just a monotheistic subset of Canaanites – that is, the Jews never invaded and conquered Israel, because they had always been there), it also contains an extensive overview of our history in Israel, dating all the way back to our origins. All of the most important events in our history, including the names of our kings, are listed in the Tanakh/Talmud. Contents of many of these historic texts have been confirmed in archaeological digs in the locations mentioned therein. For this reason, even atheist Jews such as myself recognize the importance of these texts. Lifestyle and customs are likewise documented in detail. As with other Jewish diaspora groups, Ashkenazim identified with the Israelites of the Torah because they literally arethat people. Judaism is not karaoke, it is not cosplay, and it sure as hell isn’t fetishism. They are – literally – the traditions practiced by our ancestors in our indigenous homeland, and which we took with us to our new host lands in exile. Jews in Poland, Germany, Russia, etc would recite “next year in Jerusalem” every Passover and Yom Kippur, not “next year in Moscow” or “next year in Berlin”.
* Jewish clothing items – particularly the kippah, tzitzit, tallit (both tallit gadol and tallit katan), tefillim, etc – were all worn by Ashkenazim, and were all derived from the Levant. Some clothing items were adapted to the local climate (e.g. turbans being replaced with black hats, robes with black coats, etc), but it mostly remained unchanged."
& continues
" The holidays Ashkenazim celebrate all derive from Israel, with the harvest holidays even corresponding with growing seasons there. Etrogs and lulavim would often be imported from the Middle East on Sukkot.
* Ashkenazim use the Jewish calendar, which (again) originates in Israel.
* Ashkenazi cuisine is mostly Middle Eastern cuisine adapted to a European climate. Foods like matzah, halva, kharoset, khallah, etc were eaten by Ashkenazim, although some foods were altered or replaced due to the lack of necessary ingredients. For example, Ashkenazim used bee honey instead of date honey, because dates do not grow in Central/Eastern Europe. Gefilte fish (stuffed fish) stems from the Torah requirement for a whole fish, which were largely unavailable to Ashkenazim.
* Ashkenazi dances, such as the hora, are Levantine.
* Ashkenazi music often incorporates European instruments, but retains a Middle Eastern musicology. Moreover, these songs almost always center on Israel and emphasize their ancestral and spiritual ties to the land. Many of these songs pertain to the experience of exile from Israel, and the feelings of pain, mourning, and yearning wrought by it.
* Distinctively Middle Eastern items, such as the hamsa and the mezuzah, were used by Ashkenazim (although they were initially frowned upon by secular Ashkenazim, who perceived these items as “religious”)."
& continues
"* In stark contrast to Western art, Ashkenazi art has more in common with other Asian art forms in that it places far greater emphasis on bright, vivid colors, elaborate patterns, and spiritual themes than realism and detail. It also makes use of decidedly non-European colors, such as turquoise.
I think it’s safe to say that no one will mistake this for European art
* The architecture of Ashkenazi buildings, even including Reform synagogues, tend to resemble Middle Eastern structures far more closely than they resemble European churches.
D. Hebrew is a Canaanite language – the last one in existence. And as mentioned previously, Ashkenazim continued to use Hebrew even in exile.
E. This item, and the aforementioned the “nondominant” clause, are controversial in indigenous communities and for good reason. The implication here is that if an indigenous people are ever expelled from their homeland or regain sovereignty from occupying powers, they cease to be indigenous. That being said, there has always been a Jewish presence (including an Ashkenazi presence) in Israel, so this is more or less a non-issue.
And that is why Ashkenazim are indigenous to Israel. Now let’s look at the reasons why Ashkenazim are NOT indigenous to Europe (and, by extension, why they cannot be called “white Jews” or “white Europeans”).
A. Jews who resided in European lands did not consider themselves an “occupied” people, at any point. They considered themselves an exiled people, and any talk of occupation that did occur was invariably in reference to Israel, not their local host lands. Although many people (usually antisemites) have argued for the creation of a Jewish homeland in Europe, Africa, or elsewhere, Ashkenazim themselves have expressed no such desire, except as a temporary stopgap measure to aid Jews at risk of immediate harm from antisemitism.
B. Ashkenazim do have a certain amount of European ancestry (as do most Levantine groups), but it amounts to less than half of the individual genome. Furthermore, it derives from southern Europe – particularly Greece and Italy – not from Central or Eastern Europe. Jews who resided in Greece and Italy were considered Sephardi, not Ashkenazi. What little East European ancestry does exist in Ashkenazim is primarily the result of rape."
& continues
"C. Climate adaptations of food and clothing notwithstanding, Ashkenazi culture is almost entirely non-European. Refer back to item “C” in the above list.
D. Yiddish is a diasporic pidgin-language (i.e. a Creolized language) developed by Ashkenazim. It is a Germanic tongue with Hebrew/Aramaic loanwords and written in Hebrew script. It was designed to make communication with the locals in Europe easier. Hebrew, which likewise remained in use (albeit not as an every day spoken tongue), is not European.
E. Most Ashkenazim no longer reside in Europe. In fact, the largest Jewish population in Europe today is in France, which is considered a “Sephardic” country. Moreover, those who left Europe did not leave because of exile. They left willingly (and in many cases, eagerly) and have shown absolutely no desire to go back.
As has been mentioned previously, there are concerns (both from indigenous peoples and activists) surrounding point E and the “non-dominant sector” clause. What is meant by “residence in certain parts of the country”? One could easily interpret E as disqualifying Ashkenazim, since they were historically exiled from their homeland, but the same argument would have to be applied to every exiled indigenous people (and there are many). Naturally, this criteria runs into problems. If an indigenous people are exiled, carried off into slavery, or otherwise kept away from their lands for a given period of time, do they cease to be indigenous? If non-indigenous peoples colonize those territories and assimilate indigenous peoples, do they gain indigenous status? The answer to both questions is, obviously, no.
Exile need not change the cultural heritage, history, and connection to the indigenous roots of a people. And it did not change the connection of Ashkenazi Jews to Israel. It was for this reason that the Dalai Lama sought a meeting with Jewish leaders in 1989. He wanted to know how he could help his exiled followers maintain their connection to their own indigenous homeland: Tibet."
& continues
"=== Why Is This Being Denied? ===
Although Jewish indigeneity to Israel has been gaining more and more acceptance in recent years, Ashkenazi indigeneity in particular continues to be ignored or denied by many. It isn’t just coming from anti-Zionists, either. There are many neutral and even pro-Israel parties who are just as guilty, if not more so. To give some examples…
* 23andme, a popular DNA testing website, classifies Ashkenazim as “European”. This is in spite of the fact that they themselves acknowledge Ashkenazi origins/DNA as Middle Eastern. Their classification of Ashkenazim as “European” has misled a large number of Ashkenazi customers into believing they are “genetically European”. 23andme had previously been asked to fix this classification, but they refused – allegedly citing “political reasons”. Alas, this problem isn’t limited to 23andme. Most commercial DNA companies are just as guilty, although one can easily submit their results to GEDmatch for a more honest look at their genome.
* JIMENA, a well-known advocacy group for Sephardi/Mizrahi Jewish refugees, is an acronym for “Jews Indigenous to the Middle East and North Africa”. This, by definition, implies that non-Sephardim/Mizrahim are NOT indigenous to the Middle East. EDIT: Please do not interpret this as a dig against JIMENA. They do very important work. But their name does, undeniably, carry certain connotations about non-Mizrahi/Sephardi Jews.
* The oft-repeated, but nevertheless false, dichotomy of “white” Jews/”Jews of color”. On the surface, these terms may not seem so bad, until you look at how they are applied and who they are being applied to. “White” Jew, in common parlance, tends to mean “Ashkenazi”, whereas “Jew of color” means “any Jew who ISN’T Ashkenazi”. Under this definition, Sephardi and Mizrahim qualify as people of color, as these groups are both indisputably Middle Eastern. From here, it can be assumed that all Middle Eastern groups qualify, but Ashkenazim are excluded from this definition. So if all other Middle Eastern groups are included, but Ashkenazim are not, what does this imply about Ashkenazim? That they’re not “really” Middle Eastern. For this reason, the term “Jews of color” has become quite popular among antisemites."
& continues
"It makes perfect sense to call European converts to Judaism (e.g. Ivanka Trump) “white” Jews. But when applied to Ashkenazi Jews, this term becomes an oppressive form of erasure.
To wit, the idea that Israel is a “white European settler colonial project” and thus illegitimate has been the nucleus of anti-Zionism from the beginning, but even anti-Zionists will usually accept Mizrahim as indigenous to the Middle East, if not to Israel in particular. As such, they are less likely to challenge the right of Mizrahim to be there. This is why accusations of “European colonialism” are often met with easy, glib responses like “but most Israeli Jews are Mizrahi”, as opposed to honest attempts at grappling with the inherent falsity of the claim itself.
Why do so many people do this?
1. It’s Easier: For the great majority of Zionists, the focus is on preserving Israel’s right to exist. Concepts like Jewish indigeneity, dignity, and even history are of secondary importance. Deflecting “European colonialism” allegations by pointing to Mizrahim may be a superficial response that ultimately accomplishes nothing, but it is also easy and not as likely to encounter resistance as a deeper response including our indigeneity would.
2. Discrimination Against Non-Ashkenazim: In modern Israel’s early years, non-Ashkenazi Jews experienced heavy marginalization under the (overwhelmingly secular) Ashkenazi ruling class. Ashkenazim, having spent many centuries under European colonial rule, had internalized no small amount of Eurocentric ideas: about colonized people in general, other Jews and, perhaps most importantly, about themselves. They were taught to view their own Middle Easternness with disdain, and to aspire towards “whiteness”. Inevitably, this internalized oppression caused many Ashkenazim to look down upon the Mizrahim, who manifested more of a “pure” Middle Eastern lifestyle. Although colonized attitudes are by no means exclusive to Ashkenazim – most other victims of Euro colonialism have a certain segment of their population that perceives itself as more “white” than the rest – the harm wrought by these attitudes is very real. For this reason, there are some non-Ashkenazim who will not acknowledge Ashkenazim as Middle Eastern.
3. It Keeps The Anti-Zionist Narrative Intact: The Zionist movement, as we know it today, was born in Central and Eastern Europe. It was predominantly Ashkenazi in the decades leading up to 1948, and the majority of Israel’s fighters in the War of Independence were likewise Ashkenazi. In this sense, it is relatively easy for anti-Zionists to acknowledge Mizrahim (most of whom hadn’t returned until the early 1950s or later, when the Muslim-dominated countries in which they had lived for centuries took their worldly goods and citizenship and expelled them) as Middle Eastern. On the contrary, they prefer to use them as a convenient wedge against Jewish unity, in the same way that the “white Jews” myth is used by antisemites in the US. Anti-Zionists only need Ashkenazim to be “white Europeans”, because they cannot delegitimize Israel as a “European settler colonial creation” if they’re not. Sephardim and Mizrahim, as far as they’re concerned, can go right back to being helpless minorities under Arab rule."
& continues
"4. Prejudice: As has been mentioned in the opening salvo, Ashkenazim are emblematic of the “despised Jew” in the minds of most antisemites. In other words, to strike at Ashkenazim specifically is to strike at “the Jews” more broadly, for they (again, in the minds of antisemites) embody everything antisemites hate about Jews. They are “the ugly, whiny-voiced, rat-faced Finkelsteins, Rosenblatts, and Goldbergs who hoard all of the world’s wealth and use their inordinate power to make gentiles their slaves”. By labeling Ashkenazim “white”, antisemites (especially those of the pseudo-left) can erase their status as an oppressed group and deny them recourse to the same communal solidarity enjoyed by other minority groups, while simultaneously reaffirming the Protocols narrative of the “hyperpowerful” Jew. It is an insidious silencing technique and a conduit for antisemitism itself all at once. Whereas, on the contrary, to assert the indigenous Middle Eastern, non-white identity of Ashkenazim is to rob faux-left antisemites of their entire language and vocabulary vis a vis Jews.
Per antisemites…
On the left (Ashkenazim): “white people”.
On the right (Syrian Arabs): “people of color”.
=== Why Does This Matter? ===
Two principal reasons…
1. It Leaves Zionism Wide Open For Attack: To negate the indigeneity of Ashkenazi Jews to Israel is to label the vast majority of modern Israel’s founders as “white European settlers”. In other words, it is to (essentially) agree with the argument that Zionism is more or less a European colonial project. And for people who see Israel’s entire existence as an “injustice”, the Mizrahi-to-Ashkenazi ratio is neither here nor there since, in their minds, Israel is STILL an illegitimate state that should not exist.
2. Denying Their Middle Eastern Identity Is A Form Of Erasure: Very little has been said about how fundamentally oppressive it is to conflate Ashkenazi Jews with those who colonized and persecuted them. Imagine someone referring to Tibetans as “Chinese” or Lakota as “white” and you’ll get a grasp on how offensive this really is. Furthermore, imagine being exiled from your homeland, sold into slavery, and forced to wander for generations in between periodic persecutions, all in the hopes of eventually returning home. But once you finally DO return home, you are told “you are no longer from here – go back to Europe”, often by those whose colonial intrigues caused your exile in the first place. To call such hateful, callous, and profoundly hypocritical views “ignorant” would be far too generous."
& lastly says
"Mind you, this is all in spite of the fact that, only 3 years prior to Israel’s re-establishment, 6 million Jews were rounded up, separated from their families, herded into death camps, tortured, experimented on, forced into hard labor, forced to watch as their infant children had their heads smashed, and gassed with Zyklon-B on the basis that they are Middle Eastern and thus “inferior” to white Europeans. But now that their Middle Eastern identity is actually of some benefit to Jews, it is taken away? Nope, sorry. You don’t get to do that. You don’t have that right.
It’s just not good enough to recognize only Mizrahim and Sephardim as indigenous. It’s not good enough to go “but Mizrahim” every time Israel’s legitimacy is challenged. Ashkenazi indigeneity to Israel must be defended as well. They must be recognized as indigenous to the Middle East, and the claim that they are “foreign white Europeans” must be vehemently rejected."
From the website, www.adl.org an article is headlined
"Response To Common Inaccuracy: Jews have no Connection to Israel" the article says:
Inaccuracy: Jews are interlopers in the Middle East. The Jews that came to Israel had no connection with the land which was populated solely by indigenous Palestinians.
Response
The Land of Israel – the historical birthplace of the Jewish people, the land promised to Abraham, the site of the holy Temple and David's Kingdom – has been the cornerstone of Jewish religious life since the Jewish exile from the land two thousand years ago, and is embedded in Jewish prayer, ritual, literature and culture.
A small number of Jews lived continuously in the Land of Israel after their exile in the year 70, through Byzantine, Muslim and Crusader rule. At the time of the Ottoman conquest in 1517, Jews lived in Jerusalem, Nablus, Hebron, Safed and in Galilean villages. Over the centuries, Jews made pilgrimages to the holy land. Hundreds of Hasidic Jews immigrated in 1770 from Eastern Europe. Many pious Jews left Eastern Europe in the late 18th and early 19th centuries in order to pray and die in the four sacred cities of the Holy Land: Jerusalem, Safed, Tiberias and Hebron.
There has been a continuous presence of Jewish residents in Jerusalem from King David’s time (except for periods when Jews were barred from living in the city), and by 1844, Jews were the largest single religious community in Jerusalem. By 1856, the Jewish population in Palestine was over 17,000. Organized Jewish immigration began in 1880 with the emergence of the modern Zionist movement. The number of Palestinian Arabs living in the area when Jews began arriving en masse in the late 19th century remains the subject of dispute among historians.
The early Zionist pioneers saw the Arab population as small, apolitical, and without a nationalist element and they therefore believed that there would not be friction between the two communities. They also thought that development of the country would benefit both peoples and they would thus secure Arab support and cooperation. Indeed, many Arabs attracted by new employment opportunities, higher wages and better living conditions migrated to Palestine from other countries in the wake of economic growth stimulated by Jewish immigration."
From the Jerusalem Post website, www.jpost.com an article is headlined
"We Never Left: The Jews' Continuous Presence in the Land of Israel"
By LEE BENDER DECEMBER 12, 2016 the article says:
"Early in his first term, President Obama told the whole world in his speech from Cairo: “It is easy to point fingers — for Palestinians to point to the displacement brought by Israel’s founding.”
This was gravely misleading.
Israel was not “created and founded,” artificially and out-of-the-blue, in 1948 — but rather, Israel re-attained its independence that year as the natural fruition into statehood of the once-sovereign homeland of the Jewish people, who — over almost two millennia of continuous foreign invader and empire rule — never deserted that home, despite all attempts to eradicate them.
And that is the case we must make.
The argument for Israel is typically made on the legal side — the Balfour Declaration, the San Remo Conference of 1920, the Palestine Mandate, UN Security Council Resolution 242. These are critical, yes, but not enough to counter the pervasive, but wholly false, sentiment that Jews stole Arab land.
Many Americans, both hostile and friendly to the Jewish homeland, wrongly believe that “the Romans exiled the Jews.” This shows how deep-seated and widespread this vast misperception of an almost-2,000-year separation of Jews from the land of Israel is among the American public.
For example, former President Carter in the “Historical Chronology” of his book, Palestine: Peace Not Apartheid, writes: “135 [CE]: Romans suppress a Jewish revolt, killing or forcing almost all Jews of Judaea into exile.” President Carter’s introductory “Palestine Historical Chronology” doesn’t mention Jews again until 1917, suggesting a Jewish absence of 1,782 years."
the article continues & lastly says:
"A 1922 Congressional Record Statement, favorable to the Jewish homeland, thought this misperception was true:
Palestine of today [1922], the land we know as Palestine, was peopled by the Jews from the dawn of history until the Roman era. It is the ancestral homeland of the Jewish people. They were driven from it by force by the relentless Roman military machine and for centuries prevented from returning. At different periods various alien people succeeded them but the Jewish race had left an indelible impress upon the land.
Today it is a Jewish country. Every name, every landmark, every monument and every trace of whatever civilization remaining there is still Jewish. And it has ever since remained a hope, a longing, as expressed in their prayers for these nearly 2,000 years. No other people has ever claimed Palestine as their national home. No other people has ever shown an aptitude or indicated a genuine desire to make it their homeland.
Historian James Parkes explained why it is so important to remind the world that the Jews never left Israel: “The omission [of the fact of continual Jewish presence in the land] allowed the anti-Zionist, whether Jewish, Arab or European, to paint an entirely false picture of the wickedness of Jewry in trying to re-establish a two-thousand-year-old claim the country, indifferent to everything that had happened in the intervening period.”
But is it true that the Jews never left Israel? Yes, it is:
Talmudic Age: The Romans did not exile the Jews. Post-revolt synagogues dotted the land. The misnah and Palestinian Talmud were written. The Romans recognized the Patriarch as the community’s head until the fifth century.
The Muslim Dynasties: The Jews were still there.
Crusader rule: The Jews fought at Jerusalem, and held the Crusaders off — alone at Haifa — for a month.
The Mamluks: the Jews were still there — in their four holy cities and elsewhere.
The 400 years of Ottoman Turk rule: The Jews were still there, becoming Jerusalem’s majority during this time.
Parkes is indeed right that we grievously err in not making it clear that Israel, far from being “founded” in 1948, has been the Jewish people’s uninterrupted homeland during and since biblical times. (Instead we self-deprecatingly talk about “Jewish settlements” in “East” Jerusalem and “the West Bank.”)
And that is what fighting “anti-Israel media bias” is all about: countering the media’s effect on Western public opinion about Jewish and Arab homeland equities in Israel."
The Jews did NOT steal Arab land or anyone's land, the Jews legally purchased it ...
From www.barnesandnoble.com a good book about the Evil of Nazi Germany is titled
"The Nazis and the Occult: The Dark Forces Unleashed by the Third Reich"
by Paul Roland
The Overview says:
"'No one can deny Paul Roland is a complete master of his subject.'
Colin Wilson, author of The Occult and A Criminal History of Mankind
Why did the country which produced Goethe, Beethoven, Bach, Schiller, Einstein, Kant and Hegel allow itself to be led to the precipice of self-destruction by a ragged collective of criminals, misfits, sadists and petty bureaucrats?
The Nazis and the Occult reveals the true nature of the Third Reich's link with arcane influences and of evil itself, as well as explaining how an illeducated, psychologically unbalanced nonentity succeeded in mesmerizing an entire nation.
Forget what you have read, seen and heard. This is the real secret history of Nazi Germany and its dark Messiah - Adolf Hitler."
Also from www.barnesandnoble.com a good book about the Evil of Nazi Germany is titled
"The Nazis: The Rise and Fall of History's Most Evil Empire"
by Paul Roland
The Overview says:
"A rogues gallery of social misfits formed the Nazis' inner circle. They hated and conspired against one another but were held together by their admiration for the Führer, and step by step dragged the nation towards the abyss. While demanding that the German people made sacrifices for a war few believed could be won, the Nazi leaders led lives of incredible debauchery, privilege and power. Drawing on a wide range of sources, author Paul Roland unravels the web of diplomacy, deceit and double-dealing spun by Hitler to ensure the war he had always wanted."
From the New York Post website, nypost.com an article from 2014 is headlined
"Jewish carpenter sues NYCHA, city over alleged anti-Semitism"
By Kathianne Boniello May 11, 2014 |
Jewish carpenter Mitchell Imberman says colleagues at NYCHA made anti-semitic comments to him while he worked.
the article says:
"A Jewish carpenter says he tried to turn the other cheek on anti-Semitism at the city Housing Authority.
Mitchell Imberman, 60, of Manhattan, said the trouble began in 2009 at the Bushwick Houses — where he became the subject of insults and threats from underlings, who called him “filthy Jew,” “Jew d–k” and a “dumb k-ke,” he charges in Brooklyn federal court papers.
One employee, Daniel Coyle, allegedly said, “I don’t like taking orders from a Jew supervisor.” Another worker, Michael Quijano, was fired after leaving threatening messages on Imberman’s cellphone for months, according to court papers.
His tools were stolen, swastikas appeared on the walls and he found feces on his chair, he claims. Imberman said he pleaded with his bosses, but that they just joined in on the abuse.
Imberman, who still works for NYCHA, is seeking unspecified damages.
NYCHA declined to comment." Very Disturbing how Everyone still hates the Jews
From the website ajc.org an article is headlined
"Why Are Palestinian Refugees Different From All Other Refugees?"
Graphic displaying AJC logo
August 30, 2018 — New York
This piece originally appeared in Times of Israel. The article says:
" Why indeed?
News reports suggest the U.S. administration is considering a historic decision to redefine who is and is not a Palestinian “refugee.” I hope the reports are true. A change is long overdue and could actually help the search for peace long-term.
Tragically, there have been countless refugees in the annals of history.
In the 20th century alone, tens of millions of refugees, if not more, were compelled to find new homes — victims of world wars, border adjustments, population transfers, political demagoguery, and social pathologies.
The 1923 Treaty of Lausanne codified the population exchange of Greeks and Turks, totaling more than 1.5 million people.
Huge numbers of Hindus and Muslims moved because of the partition of the sub-continent into two independent nations — India and Pakistan.
Refugees by the millions, unable to return to their countries, were created as a result of the 12-year Third Reich.
The exodus from Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam after the victory of communist and rebel forces was massive.
Refugee flows from Africa’s civil and tribal wars have been constant.
Yemenis were kicked out of Saudi Arabia by the hundreds of thousands during the first Gulf War due to Yemen’s support for Iraq.
Countless Bosnian and Kosovar Muslims fled, or were expelled, due to Serbian aggression.
And this is just the tip of the refugee iceberg.
In fact, I don’t have to look far to understand the unending refugee crises of our times — or the trauma they have created. My mother, father, and wife were all refugees. Yet, instead of wallowing in victimization or becoming consumed by hatred and revenge, they started anew, grateful to their adopted lands for making it possible.
This past May, the UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) counted 19.9 million refugees in its jurisdiction, with the largest populations being from Syria, South Sudan, Somalia, Sudan, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Over five decades, UNHCR estimates that it has assisted 50 million refugees "to help restart their lives."
And yet, of all the world’s refugees, one group — the Palestinians — are treated entirely differently.
Indeed, the 1951 Refugee Convention explicitly does not apply to Palestinians, who fall within the purview of the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA).
There is no equivalent UN body for anyone else in the world.
The definition of a refugee under the UNRWA mandate is also unique. It covers all descendants, without limit, of those deemed refugees in 1948. This helps explain why its caseload has quintupled since 1950.
Unlike UNHCR, UNRWA does not seek to resettle Palestinian refugees, but rather provides social services while, in effect, keeping them in perpetual limbo."
the article continues & lastly says
"And despite the crocodile tears shed by Arab countries about the plight of their Palestinian brethren, they have been among the most miserly donors to UNRWA. They assert that it is not their responsibility to care for refugees created by the decisions of others. The top five donors to UNRWA until now have been the U.S. and European governments.
By the way, I should hasten to clarify that only those Palestinians seen as victims of the Arab-Israeli conflict are given this special treatment.
During the first Gulf War in 1991, when Kuwait sent packing 400,000 Palestinians for their alleged backing of Iraq’s Saddam Hussein, there wasn’t much reaction from the international community. And more recently, while thousands of Palestinians have been dislocated by the Syrian civil war, again there’s silence. Arab violations of Arabs’ human rights are seemingly viewed differently, if they’re noticed at all.
And in Lebanon, with its large Palestinian population under UNRWA auspices, the government has long imposed strict restrictions on Palestinians’ right to work in numerous fields. Where is the outcry?
So, we are confronted by something unprecedented.
Palestinians are not the world’s first refugee population, but their leadership may be the first to resist a workable, long-term solution.
Think about it. In 1947, the UN offered a two-state plan to address competing national claims. The Jews accepted it; the Arabs rejected it. Or in UN-speak, the "proposed Arab State failed to materialize." Had it been otherwise, two states could have emerged, and with any luck, learned to coexist. Apropos, to this day, that two-state concept remains the most feasible outcome.
Instead, the Arab side went to war. Has there been any war without refugees? Yet, in a case of reverse causality, Israel is blamed for the refugees resulting from hostilities triggered by five Arab countries.
Meanwhile, the Arab-Israeli conflict produced even more Jewish refugees from the Arab world (and Iran). They, however, resettled elsewhere with little fanfare and no attention whatsoever from the UN.
Then, by design, the Palestinian refugees, and their descendants ad infinitum, were kept in UNRWA camps to serve as permanent reminders of the impermanence of their situation. Taught to focus their hatred on Israel, and to believe they will one day “return,” they’ve been denied chances for new lives. And they’ve been used to create the single biggest stumbling block to achieving peace — the Palestinian fantasy of ending Jewish sovereignty in Israel.
Even now, 13 years after Israel totally withdrew from Gaza, astonishingly, over 500,000 Palestinians continue to live in UNRWA camps there. Why? Gaza is under Palestinian rule, not Israeli.
While the Palestinians are among the world’s largest per capita aid recipients, much of that assistance has been siphoned off to line the pockets of Palestinian officials — who then turn around and seek more funds for their allegedly neglected people.
It’s the same absurd logic that Hamas deploys when it decries energy shortages, while trying to shell the Israeli power plants that provide electricity to Gaza.
The whole process is abetted by an elaborate, well-funded UN apparatus, encompassing more than just UNRWA, created by a majority of member states to support the Palestinians. By contrast, among others, Kurds, who have a compelling case for statehood, and Cypriots, who have lived on a divided island due to Turkish occupation, have no comparable UN bodies to advance their causes.
This is not to say that Palestinians have had easy lives. They haven’t. It is to say that their leaders, with the complicity of too many, have pulled off one of the most successful spin jobs in history. Rather than resettle the refugees, they have shamelessly exploited them and their descendants.
Therein lies the irreducible tragedy — and the heart — of a decades-long conflict."
From the website eretzyisroel.org an article is headlined
"The History of the Words "Palestine" and "Palestinians" " the article says:
"Is Jordan Palestine? Here are two Jordanian State Stamps. On the left, one from 1949 with a picture of King Abdullah of the kingdom of Jordan and bears the label of Palestine in English and Arabic. On the right, a 1964 stamp bearing the likeness of King Hussein and pictures Mandated Palestine as an undivided territory including both present day Israel and Jordan.
WHAT DOES "PALESTINE" MEAN?
It has never been the name of a nation or state. It is a geographical term, used to designate the region at those times in history when there is no nation or state there.
The word itself derives from "Peleshet", a name that appears frequently in the Bible and has come into English as "Philistine". The Philistines were mediterranean people originating from Asia Minor and Greek localities. They reached the southern coast of Israel in several waves. One group arrived in the pre-patriarchal period and settled south of Beersheba in Gerar where they came into conflict with Abraham, Isaac and Ishmael. Another group, coming from Crete after being repulsed from an attempted invasion of Egypt by Rameses III in 1194 BCE, seized the southern coastal area, where they founded five settlements (Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gat). In the Persian and Greek periods, foreign settlers - chiefly from the Mediterranean islands - overran the Philistine districts. From the time of Herodotus, Greeks called the eastern coast of the Mediterranean "Syria Palaestina".
The Philistines were not Arabs nor even Semites, they were most closely related to the Greeks. They did not speak Arabic. They had no connection, ethnic, linguistic or historical with Arabia or Arabs. The name "Falastin" that Arabs today use for "Palestine" is not an Arabic name. It is the Arab pronunciation of the Greco-Roman "Palastina"; which is derived from the Plesheth, (root palash) was a general term meaning rolling or migratory. This referred to the Philistine's invasion and conquest of the coast from the sea.
The use of the term "Palestinian" for an Arab ethnic group is a modern political creation which has no basis in fact - and had never had any international or academic credibility before 1967."
Also from Eretzyisroel.org another good article worth reading is headlined
"Why are Palestinian Refugees treated differently than all other refugees in the world?"
Worth reading
Another article worth reading from eretzyisroel.org is headlined
"Palestinian Refugees,
Invited to leave in 1948" eretzyisroel.org is an excellent online resource for exposing
Arab & "Palestinian" Propaganda & Lies
Another good article from eretzyisroel.org is headlined
"How many Palestinians Refugees?
Inflating the numbers" Google it
Also from eretzyisroel.org another good article worth reading is
"Palestinian Refugees, were denied resettlement opportunities"
This Valentine's Day, Sunday February 14, 2021, we at this Blog say, we Love you Israel,
We Countless Christian, Jewish & Other Israel Supporters in America & Worldwide will
Never Stop Loving & Supporting the State of Israel & The Jewish People,
God Bless the Nation of Israel !!! Happy Valentine's Day Israel !!!
From www.barnesandnoble.com a good book worth reading is titled
"The Birth of a Palestinian Nation" Published in 2012
by Uri Milstein
The Overview says
"In the pre-dawn hours of April 9, 1948, men of the nascent Israeli states underground defense organizations Etzel and Lehi converged on the Arab village of Deir Yassin. By the end of the day, many were dead, Deir Yassin was in Jewish hands, and the epic lies about the so-called massacre that happened there had begun. Deir Yassin is the most infamous episode of Israels War of Independence. A basic founding myth in Palestinian culture, it serves as grounds for the claim that the Jews undertook genocide and mass deportation against the Palestinians in 1948. The continued Palestinian unwillingness to make peace with Israel stems in no small measure from the place that Deir Yassin holds in contemporary Palestinian consciousness. The Deir Yassin affair is also a founding myth of the new Israeli left, which casts doubt on the justification for the establishment and continued existence of the State of Israel as a Jewish national state. It is therefore not only a historic episode, but a very contemporary one. This meticulously researched book, based on archives and abundant eyewitness interviews, shows that there never was any massacre in Deir Yassin, explains the motivations of the various parties for the blood libel that sprang up around this affair, and probes its consequences. Uri Milstein brings to his exposition of the facts a lifetime of experience in Israeli military history and a keen eye for the truth." Even Before 1948, it was the Arabs who often Massacred Innocent Jews
We at this blog say RIP Rush Limbaugh, the Conservative Political Commentator, Radio Personality &
Cultural Icon has passed away on February 17, 2021 at the age of 70
Rush Limbaugh was a Proud Supporter of Israel, we may Not have agreed with Limbaugh on All his Viewpoints & Cultural Issues, but at least he was Pro-Israel , Rush Limbaugh was wrong about certain things, but he was Right to Support Israel,
The website jta.org has an article about Limbaugh titled
"Rush Limbaugh, conservative radio firebrand who sharply divided American Jews, dies at 70"
BY RON KAMPEAS FEBRUARY 17, 2021
Rush Limbaugh
Rush Limbaugh looks on before introducing President Donald Trump at a rally in Cape Girardeau, Mo., Nov. 5, 2018. (Jim Watson/AFP via Getty Images)
the article says:
"(JTA) — Rush Limbaugh, the conservative talk radio icon who helped polarize American Jewry through both his inflammatory political rhetoric and his unabashed support of Israel, has died.
Limbaugh was 70 when he passed away Wednesday of lung cancer. He had first announced the diagnosis in February 2020.
Starting in 1988, Limbaugh hosted an eponymous radio show through which he trumpeted opinions, vitriolic attacks and ideas that would shape the modern Republican Party. His ardent pro-Israel views helped that strain of policy become commonplace in both parties."
the article also says:
He wondered in 2010, when Massachusetts elected a Republican to the Senate, whether the state’s Jews turned on Obama because the president’s economic recovery plan purportedly made life miserable for “bankers.” The conflation of Jews with moneymen drew the ire of the Anti-Defamation League, but a number of conservative Jewish groups defended Limbaugh, citing his pro-Israel record.
“While one may agree or disagree with Mr. Limbaugh’s views on many subjects, his outspoken support for Israel has been eloquent, informed and undeniable,” the groups said in a joint statement.
Limbaugh was not so interested in foreign policy, but was staunchly pro-Israel, seeing the country as an ally against terrorism. In 2001, he urged the George W. Bush administration to allow Israel to crush its enemies, citing America’s own suffering following the 9/11 attacks that year."
the article continues
"“Bush is right about ‘defeating’ the Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorist networks,” Limbaugh wrote at the time. “It is, therefore, necessary that in the pursuit of real and lasting peace, Israel also be free to destroy its enemies — meaning the terrorists and, yes, their sponsors, who are at war with her, and that she do so before they obtain devastating weapons of mass destruction.”
Those postures helped make Limbaugh friends in the Jewish establishment. He attended the wedding of the daughter of Malcolm Hoenlein, the executive vice chairman of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, where he apologized to then-Sen. Hillary Clinton for mocking the looks of her daughter, Chelsea.
Zev Chafets, a Jewish biographer who earned rare access to Limbaugh for his 2010 book, “An Army of One,” said Limbaugh’s outsize influence and his friendliness with Israel set an example for other talk radio conservatives.
“He was very cautious about not saying anything disparaging American Jews as a collective ever,” Chafets said in an interview Wednesday. “It was very important considering the possibilities of anti-Semitism on the right that the biggest and most powerful voice in that community over 30 years was very clearly anything but an anti-Semite.”
Limbaugh’s wariness of alienating Jews was shaped early on in his radio career. He described the blowback he experienced on a panel in 1988.
“I said ‘Jewish lobby’ during the presidential campaign,” he said in video uncovered by BuzzFeed. “There were Jewish groups that wanted me off the air!’
Jewish conservatives said listening to Limbaugh made them aware that there was a world outside their liberal enclaves where they could find agreement with their views. Joel Pollak, an editor at the right-wing news site Breitbart News, said on Twitter that a counselor at a Jewish youth group helped turn him on to Limbaugh."
the article lastly says
"Binyamin Jolkovsky wrote last year in Mishpacha that in 1991, he decamped home like many other Americans living in Israel while it was under attack by Iraq. Jolkovsky recalled that he and his fellow students at a Brooklyn yeshiva would gather around a boombox at lunch to listen to Limbaugh.
“At a time when the Middle East’s only democracy was under attack, Mr. Limbaugh was one of the few media voices passionately defending the Jewish state we’d just been forced to flee,” he said.
A few years later Jolkovsky founded the right-wing Jewish news site Jewish World Review, and Limbaugh amplified its writings on his radio show, catapulting the site to a position of influence.
“Thanks to Rush, my readership went from Average Joe Americans, both Jewish and gentile, to include Capitol Hill pols and their staff; activists on the left and right; newspaper editors and columnists; cable TV producers and hosts; and clergy of all faiths seeking an uncompromised Torah view on life and the world we live in,” Jolkovsky said.
Limbaugh’s success anticipated the presidency of Donald Trump in its embrace of the homespun conservative orthodoxies of an idealized American past. His first bestselling book in 1992 was called “The Way Things Ought to Be.”
Trump, who last year awarded Limbaugh the Medal of Freedom, lauded his legacy in a statement.
“Rush was a patriot, a defender of liberty, and someone who believed in all of the greatness our country stands for,” Trump said." RIP Rush Limbaugh , Thanks for Supporting Israel !!!
From the website, Rushlimbaugh.com an article from 2014 was headlined
"Left to Israel: Share Iron Dome with Hamas"
Aug 1, 2014 the article says:
"RUSH: How about that ceasefire that John Kerry brokered over in Israel? A ceasefire that gave Hamas everything it wanted. Ninety minutes! Was it 90 minutes or was it 90 seconds? Ninety minutes after the ceasefire went into effect, an Israeli defense soldier was kidnapped. “Second Lieutenant Hadar Goldin is named as the captured officer. Terrorists emerged from a shaft, and a suicide bomber detonated near soldiers prior to the suspecting kidnapping.”
It was a Hamas kidnapping attack on Gaza that “occurred an hour and a half after the start of a humanitarian truce ended with the suspected…” This ceasefire has erupted. That’s the only way to characterize this. So an IDF soldier, Israeli Defense Forces soldier, is “feared kidnapped. Two other soldiers have been killed,” and if there had been no Obama/Kerry-sponsored ceasefire, the soldier would not have been kidnapped.
Even with this they still think it was a good idea! They still are demonstrating they know what it takes to get a peaceful solution. I’m telling you, everything that is happening looks like it’s blowing up, and every explanation that we are offered for it makes absolutely no sense whatsoever, and then every excuse or explanation after something inexplicable happens makes no sense whatsoever.
We don’t have anybody in national leadership, certainly not in the administration, that can get anywhere near the truth. Do you realize Benghazi has now fallen? It’s gone. We have lost it. It’s been totally overrun. I guess because of that video. They got so mad over the video that all of Benghazi is gone now — and it’s not a country, for those in Rio Linda. It’s a city in Libya.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Bob, Little River, South Carolina. Great to have you on the program, sir. Hello.
CALLER: Rush, long-term listener, been with you since 1989. I just want to say thank you for all that you’ve done.
RUSH: Well, thank you, sir, very much.
CALLER: We really appreciate it. Here’s my question. Why hasn’t there been any reporting or discussion, if it wasn’t for the success of the Iron Dome knocking out thousands of the Hamas rockets that have been destined only for civilians in Israel, not military, but civilians. If not for that success, the civilian death toll would be many more times worse than that of the Palestinians."
the article continues
"RUSH: Because the media will not permit, the Regime will not permit any news coverage of Hamas or the Palestinians as aggressors. And it’s not fair that Israel has this capability and that Hamas doesn’t. But Israeli successes are not going to be reported. Israeli successes are going to be recharacterized as brutalities and certainly not defensive measures and so forth. Your point’s a great one. Hamas is launching a lot of rockets aimed right at the Israeli civilian population. There’s no question. And yet all we hear is the Israelis have got to stop killing Hamas children, when it’s Hamas putting them in the targets.
Folks, this is another one of these things, one of these topics where nothing makes any sense. I don’t know how you can be alive and a thoughtful, engaged person, particularly if you’re a journalist, I don’t know how you do not know what Hamas is doing. There have been pictures, if these journalists can’t read, there are pictures of the rockets in Palestinian schools and hospitals. There’s no question that this is happening, and yet the reporting continues that the Israelis are killing children. And it’s gotta stop.
I don’t know, folks. Obviously it’s on purpose. There’s more than willful deceit going on here. It would be one thing if we knew that the people reporting this were bought and paid for, Palestinian operatives or PR. But the people that are telling this have this aura of objectivity about them because they are called journalists. And that’s what makes this really seedy and really offensive; is that the people who are doing all of this condemning are journalists going out and getting friendly Palestinian or Hamas spokesmen. And then when the Israelis come on and explain what’s really happening, they are treated rudely, with meanness, a lack of respect."
the article continues
"They are commanded to explain why they continue to kill children. And I have to think that the people asking the questions have to know that they’re not trying to do that. When on the other hand it’s Hamas who is targeting children. It’s not the first time. I felt this way, this incredulity I can’t tell you how many times. The Republican starving children in 1995, the school lunch cuts that never were. There weren’t any school lunch program cuts. But every day it was the Republicans are starving kids, the media reporting this. They knew there was no such thing going on. But then there’s the low-information crowd. There’s always been the low-information crowd. And to the low-information crowd journalists are fair and objective and unbiased.
Or if a journalist is biased and unfair and you agree with the journalist, then you support the journalist being unfair and biased. And you’re glad the journalist is on your team. This goes beyond left versus right. This is simply right and wrong, true and false. And it seems like more and more establishment-type people stand up for what’s false, stand up for what everybody knows as lies and keep perpetuating it as though it’s the truth, pull your hair out.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Folks, just to show you, we just had a caller who wanted to know why was there no coverage on the Iron Dome, the Israeli Iron Dome protecting these children from attacks by the Hamas. I said, “One of the reasons why is it’s not fair that Israel is the one who has the Iron Dome; they haven’t shared the Iron Dome with the Palestinians and Hamas.”
Lo and behold, a story today in the Washington Times!
I was just sent this story: “UN Condemns Israel and the United States for Not Sharing Iron Dome with Hamas.” Good… Folks, my instincts some days even amaze me. “The United Nations slammed Israel for possibly committing war crimes in its fight against Hamas — and then backed that accusation by suggesting the Jewish nation ought to be sharing its Iron Dome defensive technology with the very terror group it’s fighting.
“UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay said to members of the media at an ’emergency’ meeting of the UN Human Rights Council that Israel was falling short in its duty to protect citizens in the Gaza Strip from getting killed by its rockets,” by not sharing its technology! Is that not cockeyed? This is a war!"
the article lastly says
"We are in a war, and the Israelis are being condemned for not sharing their protective dome, so that the Palestinians can be protected from Israeli rockets. That’s exactly how this works. If you understand… I don’t mean this to sound condescending. Please, I never mean to sound that way. The way to not go insane trying to make sense out of this… You look at this and say, “How in the world can Israel be the bad guy?”
How in the world can this be? It’s the only democratic country in the Middle East. It’s been a US ally since its founding, since Israeli’s founding. How can it be? How can Israel be the bad guy? Obama makes them look like the bad guy, and John Kerry makes them look like the bad guy, which makes them look like they agree with Hamas and the Palestinians/Arab states that Israel is the bad guy!
How can Israel be the bad guy? They’re the ones under assault and being attacked. Israel doesn’t put bombs on its kids and send them into the Gaza Strip. Palestinians do that! How in the world is Israel the bad guy?” You must understand that in the perverted leftist worldview, Israel is the bad guy because they’re the more powerful and they are the majority and they’re more advanced.
“It isn’t fair. It just isn’t fair. I mean, if Israel has an Iron Dome they should share that! They should share it! Palestinians are a poor, underdeveloped minority. They’re victims, and the Israelis are the brutes and the bullies.” It’s no more complicated than that. Well, it is, but that’s a simple way of understanding it."
From www.barnesandnoble.com Another Good Book, published in 2007 is titled
"Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged"
by Barry E. Horner
The Overview says:
"Future Israel: Why Christian Anti-Judaism Must Be Challenged is volume three in the NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY STUDIES IN BIBLE & THEOLOGY (NACSBT) series for pastors, advanced Bible students, and other deeply committed laypersons.
Author Barry E. Horner writes to persuade readers concerning the divine validity of the Jew today (based on Romans 11:28), as well as the nation of Israel and the land of Palestine, in the midst of this much debated issue within Christendom at various levels. He examines the Bible’s consistent pro-Judaic direction, namely a Judeo-centric eschatology that is a unifying feature throughout Scripture.
Not sensationalist like many other writings on this constantly debated topic, Future Israel is instead notably exegetical and theological in its argumentation. Users will find this an excellent extension of the long-respected NEW AMERICAN COMMENTARY."
From the website, jns.org an article from Jonathan S. Tobin is headlined
"Stop pretending that anti-Zionism isn’t anti-Semitism" on December 16, 2020
Google it, this article is yet another example of how the Anti-Semites, Jew-Haters &
Anti-Israel lunatics have No Intelligence, No Brains or Heart, they are Dumb as F--K, and pathological liars, and Ugly as well..
From www.barnesandnoble.com Another book worth reading is titled
"Eternal Israel: Biblical, Theological, and Historical Studies that Uphold the Eternal, Distinctive Destiny of Israel"
by Barry E. Horner
The Overview says:
"In Eternal Israel author Barry Horner presents a variety of biblical, theological, and historical studies that argue for the distinctive, eternal destiny of Israel. Like Horner’s 2004 work Future Israel, Eternal Israel pushes back against replacement and supersessionist theology and adds further historical, exegetical, biblical and theological weight to the fundamental proposal
that God has a glorious eternal destiny for Israel.
Addressing such helpful topics as Jewish evangelism, eschatology, and Islamic views of Israel, Horner presents a wealth of information that compels readers to remember that Israel holds a key role in God’s plan for eternity."
Editorial Reviews
"Barry Horner’s Eternal Israel is excellent on so many levels and is a fitting follow-up to Future Israel, which had a great impact in refuting the Augustinian eschatology and replacement theology that still plague the church. Again, Horner shows that solid exegesis reveals the importance of national Israel in God’s plans. He also explains that a proper view of Israel is consistent with many Reformed theologians of the past. His book also interacts with and refutes more recent arguments of those who hold to replacement/fulfillment theology. This book cannot be ignored. I highly recommend Eternal Israel.”
—Michael J. Vlach, professor of theology, The Master's Seminary
Also from www.barnesandnoble.com Another Good book worth reading is titled
"Israel and the Church: The Origins and Effects of Replacement Theology" Published in 2004
by Ronald E. Diprose
The Overview says
"Modern Israel and its relations with its Arab neighbors has been conspicuously in the daily news ever since World War II. Until that time, the concept of Israel and a continuing Jewish people had been hovering in the distant background of Christian thought and doctrine since the post-apostolic era. In this important work, Dr. Diprose demonstrates the uniqueness of Israel and its special place in the divine plan.
By carefully reviewing relevant New Testament and post-apostolic writings, the author traces the origin and development of Replacement Theology—the concept that the Church has completely and permanently replaced ethnic Israel in the outworking of God's plan throughout history—challenging its origin and role in the development of Christian thought on the future of ethnic Israel."
Editorial Reviews
"Without a clear understanding of the place of Israel in the grand scheme of redemptive history, it is impossible to understand rightly what the Bible says about the future--including the return of Christ, the triumph of his kingdom on earth and the culmination of God's plan for the ages. Romans 11 is emphatic (and many other passages of Scripture affirm) that God is not finished with national Israel. Promises originally made to Abraham are yet to be fulfilled. Ron Diprose masterfully draws together the major threads of biblical prophecy that are tied to Israel and shows why this theme, woven through all of Scripture, is essential to a right understanding of where history is headed."
John MacArthur, radio host of Grace to You
Yet Another good book from www.barnesandnoble.com is titled
"Right to Exist: A Moral Defense of Israel's Wars" Published in 2013
The Overview says:
"In July 2000, Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat refused to negotiate a peace offer made by Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak at Camp David. At the end of September the Palestinians then launched their second intifada, an outbreak of terrorism in the heart of Israel’s cities that continues to this day. The unprecedented violence drove Barak from office and brought to power the feared hard-liner Ariel Sharon.
In RIGHT TO EXIST, Yaacov Lozowick, an Israeli historian, describes his evolution from a liberal peace activist into a reluctant supporter of Sharon. In making sense of his own political journey, Lozowick rewrites the whole history of Israel, delving into the roots of the Zionist enterprise and tracing the long struggle to establish and defend the Jewish state in the face of implacable Arab resistance and widespread international hostility.
Lozowick examines each of Israel’s wars from the perspective of classical “just war” theory, from the fight for independence to the present day. Subjecting the country’s founders and their descendants to unsparing scrutiny, he concludes that Israel is neither the pristine socialist utopia its founders envisioned, nor the racist colonial enterprise portrayed by its enemies. Refuting dozens of pernicious myths about the conflict—such as the charge that Israel stole the land from its rightful owners, or that Arabs and Jews are locked in a “cycle of violence” for which both bear equal blame—RIGHT TO EXIST is an impassioned moral history of extraordinary resonance and power."
Some Reviews of the book stated
Editorial Reviews
An intelligent polemic. . . . Largely persuasive.” –The New York Times Book Review
“Essential. . . . Lozowick contends that the story of Israel is, crucially, the story of its wars–and that any attempt to evaluate Zionism must be anchored in the larger context of the morality of war.” —National Review
“Unusually illuminating. . . . Liberal American critics of Israel who wonder why Israeli intellectuals don’t share their views will find Right to Exist eye-opening.” –Philadelphia Inquirer
“Where has this book, or others like it, been all this time? . . . A powerful handbook for anyone interested in Israel.” –The New York Post
There is NO "Cycle of Violence" in the Conflict between Israel & the so-called
"Palestinians" & Other Arab Terrorist Regimes, the Evidence will show, that 100 percent of the blame is the Fault of the Arab Nations & the so-called "Palestinians" it is one sided aggression by the Arab Nations & so-called "Palestinians" We at this Blog want Peace in the Mideast and Worldwide, we want & desire Peaceful Co-Existence for Israel & It's Surrounding Arab Nations, and an End to the Hate, No more War, but Facts are Facts, Israel doesn't start Wars, it just acts in Self-Defense like any nation would.. as always Israel takes the Moral High Ground, while Israel isn't perfect, no nation is perfect, compared to the Arab & Islamic Nations, Israel is Far Superior, Morally, Legally, etc
The website www.timesofisrael.com has an article headlined
"Netanyahu mourns radio host Limbaugh as ‘a great friend of Israel’ " the article says:
Premier sends ‘heartfelt condolences’ to the family of the late conservative personality
By TOI STAFF and AGENCIES
18 February 2021,
The article continues to say:
“I send my heartfelt condolences to the family of Rush Limbaugh,” Netanyahu wrote.
Though Limbaugh was not focused on foreign policy, he was still staunchly pro-Israel, seeing the country as an ally against terrorism. Netanyahu said, “He was a great friend of Israel and he stood by us through thick and thin, always firm, never wavering.”
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“We shall miss him dearly,” Netanyahu said.
In 2001, Limbaugh urged the George W. Bush administration to allow Israel to crush its enemies, citing America’s own suffering following the 9/11 attacks that year.
“Bush is right about ‘defeating’ the Taliban, al Qaeda and other terrorist networks,” Limbaugh wrote at the time. “It is, therefore, necessary that in the pursuit of real and lasting peace, Israel also be free to destroy its enemies — meaning the terrorists and, yes, their sponsors, who are at war with her, and that she do so before they obtain devastating weapons of mass destruction.”
Limbaugh died at the age of 70 Wednesday of lung cancer. He had announced the diagnosis in February 2020.
Zev Chafets, a Jewish biographer who earned rare access to Limbaugh for his 2010 book “An Army of One,” said Limbaugh’s outsize influence and his friendliness with Israel set an example for other talk radio conservatives.
Unflinchingly conservative, wildly partisan, bombastically self-promoting and larger than life, Limbaugh galvanized listeners for more than 30 years with his talent for vituperation and sarcasm.
He called himself an entertainer, but his rants during his three-hour weekday radio show broadcast on nearly 600 US stations shaped the national political conversation, swaying ordinary Republicans and the direction of their party.
Blessed with a made-for-broadcasting voice, he delivered his opinions with such certainty that his followers, or “Ditto-heads,” as he dubbed them, took his words as sacred truth.
“In my heart and soul, I know I have become the intellectual engine of the conservative movement,” Limbaugh, with typical immodesty, told Chafets in the 2010 book.
Forbes magazine estimated his 2018 income at $84 million, ranking him behind only Howard Stern among radio personalities." Again, we at this blog say RIP Rush Limbaugh ,
Thanks for being a Great Friend to Israel & The Jewish people, we at this blog do NOT agree with many of the other things that the late Rush Limbaugh said and did during his life, granted some of the things he said and did were offensive in any context, and we don't condone some of his insensitive remarks and actions, but we thank him for
Supporting Israel & The Jewish People
From the website ariel.org a book description is headlined
"Israel Betrayed - Volume 1: The History of Replacement Theology"
by: Andrew D. Robinson and it says:
"Israel Betrayed comprehensively surveys and refutes replacement theology and its modern-day manifestation, Christian Palestinianism. Published by Ariel Ministries in two volumes, this work is a tour de force in defense of God's eternal promises to the Jewish People. In Volume 1, Andrew Robinson breaks new ground as he surveys replacement theology from the post-Apostolic era to the close of the nineteenth century. Written in an engaging style, this volume equips the reader with irrefutable answers to the age-old taunt that God is finished with Israel.
Hardcover: 320 pages
6 x 9
ISBN: 978-1-935174-76-9
Speaking for the American scene, I have observed the rise in anti-Semitism, sometimes disguised as anti-Zionism; the increase in anti-Semitic websites, which have revived old-world conspiracy theories; the denial of the Holocaust, with some people even finding a way to blame the Jews for the Shoah; and universities all across the United States demonstrating against the State of Israel. There has also been a massive spread of replacement theology (which I call “theological anti-Semitism”) in many churches that were once strongly dispensational, and many Bible colleges and seminaries that once were clearly dispensational and pro-Israel have also been infested. For these reasons, I was delighted to read Israel Betrayed and decided that Ariel Ministries should publish this important work.
The first volume written by Andrew D. Robinson deals with the history of replacement theology. For decades, I have strongly felt that the rise of replacement theology—which later led to covenant theology (Calvinistic replacementism) and Lutheranism (Arminian replacementism)—was not derived by an honest exegesis of the biblical text but was built on the foundations of anti-Semitism. I have seen this truth in scattered references but did not have the time to gather all the evidence. I have often encouraged seminary students, who were looking for topics for their dissertations, to pursue it, but none ever did. Pastor Robinson has accomplished this task, and I will be forever grateful for his contribution to the body of the Messiah. He was promoted to heaven not long after he put his work together, and we can praise the Lord that Andrew left us such an important and valuable work."
the entry from ariel.org continues
"Robinson’s research begins with the early church fathers and moves through history to the present, quoting what leaders of the church have said about the Jews. His findings show that anti-Semitism was and is not limited to Roman Catholicism, but includes the Eastern Orthodox Church and the leaders of the Protestant Reformation. Augustine, whose influence moved the church from pre-millennialism to amillennialism, derived his theology from his anti-Semitism, which could not permit a future kingdom with Israel’s restoration. Therefore, I call replacement theology “theological anti-Semitism.”
Robinson, thus, provides an excellent historical background to the second volume of Israel Betrayed, entitled The Rise of Christian Palestinianism. Authored by Paul R. Wilkinson (who served as Andrew’s associate at Hazel Grove Full Gospel Church), the book deals with the rise of pro-Palestinianism in modern church history. We learn that Christian Palestinianism is not limited to the liberal wing of the church but extends even to the evangelical side. More and more church leaders have become clearly anti-Semitic while claiming to be “only” anti-Israel. Their anti-Israelism has moved them to support Islam and even hugging Muslim terrorists who are devoted to Israel’s destruction. How quickly have such church leaders forgotten the common Islamic program: First, we kill the Saturday people, and then we come for the Sunday people!
The supporters of Christian Palestinianism have imbibed replacement theology, which led to theological anti-Semitism, and now align themselves with Islam in their animosity against the Jews. To understand replacement theology is to understand the rise of Christian Palestinianism—hence, the union of the two volumes of Israel Betrayed.
The book is long but well worth the effort to read. It prepares the believer for the spiritual battle that is fought over Israel and the Jewish people."
Arnold G. Fruchtenbaum, Th.M, Ph.D."
We all Know that Nothing is more ghoulish, eerie, dreadful & sinister than the heresy and false teaching of Christian Palestinianism , the Demonic Satanic Diabolical false teaching, false doctrine of Christian Palestinianism , of Fake Stupid Spiritually Blind Christians who support Israel's enemies, who hate Christians in addition to hating Jews,
Thankfully there are countless True Christians in America & Worldwide who still support
Israel & The Jewish people !!!!
On Facebook a good Private Pro-Israel group is titled
"DRAIN - Debunk and Refute Anti-Israel Narrative"
Private group
·
340 members, Good Articles
From the website jewishvoice.org it says in an article by Jonathan Bernis , something that
Anti-Semites & Jew-Haters should realized, Jonathan Bernis says
"The Jewish People Rejected Jesus as Their Messiah"
Wailing Wall
For almost 2,000 years, both Judaism and Christianity have promulgated the lie that the Jewish People rejected Jesus as their Messiah. Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Bernis often tells about his upbringing in a Jewish home.
I was raised as a child in a Jewish home with the understanding that I was born a Jew, that I was to die a Jew, and anyone who wasn’t Jewish was a Christian or a Gentile. I also understood that Jewish identity meant one thing: Jews don’t believe in Jesus.
Rabbi Bernis goes on to say,
But that is a lie—the Jews have not rejected Jesus. The entire New Testament story took place in the Land of Israel— the Land of the Jews. Jesus was a Jew. He declared Himself the Messiah of Israel. All of His followers were Jews. The disciples were all Jews, as were the 120 in the Upper Room. The 3,000 that came to faith on the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, or Pentecost, “grew to about 5,000,” according to Acts 4:4. So there is a record of thousands of Jewish Believers in the promised Messiah of Israel, and they took the Gospel around the world.
The Bible attests to what some refer to as a Jewish Christianity in which Jewish People believe in Yeshua (Jesus) as the promised Messiah of the Hebrew Scriptures."
Jesus Was a Jew, but Jesus is Still a Jew, Jesus IS STILL a Jew !!!
Anti-Semites & Jew-Haters should also realize what Jonathan Bernis said in the Online article from Jewishvoice.org
"The Jews Killed Jesus" and it says
Crown of thorns
"There is a grievous lie that blames the Jews for killing Jesus and that God has cut them off irrevocably because of it. It is the cornerstone of deception and has caused a 2,000-year legacy of hatred, anti-Semitism, and persecution of Jewish People in the name of Christ and Christianity. This lie is the foundation of Replacement Theology, an erroneous doctrine claiming the Jews are under eternal punishment and have been replaced by the Church.
Jonathan Bernis sets the record straight:
It wasn’t the Jews as a whole who killed Jesus. There was a small group of Jewish leaders, in addition to a crowd that shouted, “Crucify Him! Crucify Him!” At the same time, however, thousands of Jews were followers of the Messiah! The pinnacle of the Gospel is that Yeshua, Jesus, laid down His life for you and for me.
The Bible tells us:
For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give His life as a ransom for many.” —Mark 10:45 TLV
. . . I lay down My life, so that I may take it up again. No one takes it away from Me, but I lay it down on.” —John 10:17-18 TLV
Rabbi Bernis further clarifies with this most important point:
The accusation that the Jews killed Jesus is a lie and a gross distortion of Scripture—it wasn’t the Jews; it wasn’t the Romans—it was your sin and mine. Jesus came for the purpose of dying as the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world. He allowed Himself to be led as a lamb to the slaughter and laid down His life for our sins. Praise Him, glory to Him!"
From the website www.barnesandnoble.com a good book is titled
"Unlocking the Prophetic Mysteries of Israel: 7 Keys to Understanding Israel's Role in the End-Times"
by Jonathan Bernis
The Overview says:
"We are witnessing things today that the prophets of Israel longed to see.
God is fulfilling His Word in our generation!
If you want to understand what God is doing in these last days, you must understand what He is doing with Israel. It is here that the Bible’s prophecies regarding the end of the age will all unfold.
Jonathan Bernis, host of the internationally popular television program Jewish Voice With Jonathan Bernis, with this fascinating book unlocks a greater knowledge about the last days. The book explores questions such as:
What crucial role does Israel play in the last days?
Why is anti-Semitism on the rise worldwide, and what is at its root?
What is the seed promise, and why is Satan so angry about it?
What profound promise did God make to Abraham that applies to you today?"
Correction, we at this Blog made a Slight Spelling Mistake a while back a Slight Typo
On January 8, 2021 at 4:08 PM we typed "We at this blog say, it is now the year 2021, we wish the Worthless Loser Anti-Israel people on College & University Campuses in America & Worldwide would make a New Year's Resolution to Get a Life , they cry about their right to
"Free Speech" but they are Hypocrites, Troublemakers & Liars of the worst sort, they want Free Speech but Only for themselves, and for their Toxic Satanic Demonic Diabolical Points of View, the Anti-Israel and "Palestine" supporters NEVER respect Free Speech for people they disagree with, they NEVER respect Free Speech for People they disagree with, the Palestine Supporters Abuse "Free Speech" they Cowardly hide behind "Free Speech" as an Excuse to Spew Hatred Non-Stop, they don't use Free Speech, they ABUSE it, they ABUSE
Free Speech, in reality it is Hate Speech, and it's all BS, calling their Anti-Israel Activities on Campus "Free Speech" when
Everyone Know, that such "Free Speech" and displays of Hatred would NEVER in a Million Years be Tolerated against any other Group of People, but it's sadly considered acceptable to Single Out and Target Israel and the Jews, Everyone Hates the Jews as always, Everyone Hates the Jews as usual , the Whole World Unjustly Hates the Jews and Israel . it's very sad the Sickening Hypocrisy & Double Standards
Anti-Israel people are Such Hypocrites, Losers & Frauds" In the sentence
above where it says:
"in reality it is Hate Speech, and it's all BS, calling their Anti-Israel Activities on Campus "Free Speech" when
Everyone Know, that such "Free Speech" and displays of Hatred would NEVER in a Million Years be Tolerated against any other Group of People" by Mistake we typed
"when Everyone Know" it should be "when Everyone Knows", when Everyone Knows, by accident we left off the s , so it should read in the sentence,
"When Everyone Knows, that such "Free Speech" and displays of Hatred would NEVER in a Million Years be Tolerated against any other Group of People" Everyone Knows, KNOWS that such displays of Hatred would NEVER in a Million Years be tolerated against any other Group of People , Everyone Knows, Everyone KNOWS, KNOWS such displays of Hatred would Never be tolerated against any other group of People
From the Jerusalem Post website, www.jpost.com an article is headlined
"Antisemitism is never funny': Christian group condemns Che's SNL joke" the article says:
"Stereotypical jokes have been "used widely, throughout the generations, to persecute and attack Jews, and even as triggers for genocide."
By JERUSALEM POST STAFF FEBRUARY 23, 2021
ANCHOR COLIN JOST (left) and anchor Michael Che during Weekend Update on ‘Saturday Night Live’ last year. (photo credit: WILL HEATH/NBC/TNS) the article continues
"Michael Che's now-infamous joke on Saturday Night Live about Israel's vaccination priorities is riling up not only Jews, but Christians as well.
"Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,” Che said on the "Weekend Update" segment. “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half."
"No, Mr. Che and SNL, anti-Semitism is never funny," reads a press release from the Genesis 123 Foundation, a US-based interfaith nonprofit.
The organization is currently circulating a petition demanding an apology from SNL and its network, NBC.
As of Monday, over 4.4 million Israelis have been inoculated at least once. So far, some 29,000 Israeli-Arabs over the age of 50 are fully vaccinated, and another 118,000 have received their first jab, according to the Health Ministry.
As part of Israel's efforts to mass-vaccinate, Magen David Adom EMTs and paramedics will operate a COVID-19 vaccination drive at the Qalandiya Crossing in east Jerusalem on Tuesday.
MDA president Jonathan Feldstein joined others, including the AJC and StandWithUS, in insisting that the harmful stereotypes perpetuated by this type of joke can manifest real danger to Jews.
In the past, Feldstein said, they have been "used widely, throughout the generations, to persecute and attack Jews, and even as triggers for genocide."
Israel has come under scrutiny for the complications it faced with providing Palestinians in Gaza with the vaccine.
On Monday, they initiated a vaccine campaign, thanks to doses donated by Russia and the UAE.
"Our point" in condemning Che's joke, Feldstein noted, "is not to point a finger as much as to highlight this as an egregious and unacceptable mistake, one which can never happen again."
A person typed as a comment in response to this article:
"What SNL (and some in the so-called "international community" never take into consideration is that Israel has done more (including Corona virus inoculations) to assist the Palestinians than anyone else, including their Arab neighbors and received rockets launched against their civilians from Gaza and terrorist attacks supported and paid for by the Palestinian Authority in return." The so-called "Palestinians" & Other Arab Nations sadly view the Kindness & Compassion of Israeli Jews as Weakness, and only reward Israel with Terrorism and More Terrorism
This is just plain Nuts, the Anti-Semites & Jew-Haters are getting Crazier and Crazier every day
from the website nymag.com an article is headlined
"GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser"
THE NATIONAL INTEREST JAN. 28, 2021
GOP Congresswoman Blamed Wildfires on Secret Jewish Space Laser
By Jonathan Chait
The article says:
"Axios has a small squib about “The Mischief Makers,” a handful of idiosyncratic congressional backbenchers who make trouble for their respective party leadership. The leading Democratic mischief-maker is Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who advocates some left-wing views I consider simplistic and impractical and, in some cases, poll badly. The top example of a conservative mischief-maker, presented in perfect symmetry, is Marjorie Taylor Greene.
Greene’s views are just a bit more controversial. They include, but are by no means limited to, the following:
• The QAnon conspiracy theory, which holds that Donald Trump is secretly fighting a worldwide child-sex-slavery ring that was supposed to culminate in the mass arrest of his political opposition, is “worth listening to.”
• Muslims don’t belong in government.
• 9/11 was an inside job.
• Shootings at Parkland, Sandy Hook, and Las Vegas were staged.
• “Zionist supremacists” are secretly masterminding Muslim immigration to Europe in a scheme to outbreed white people.
The most recent Greene view to be unearthed comes via Eric Hananoki. Just over two years ago, Greene suggested in a Facebook post that wildfires in California were not natural. Forests don’t just catch fire, you know. Rather, the blazes had been started by PG&E, in conjunction with the Rothschilds, using a space laser, in order to clear room for a high-speed rail project. Here is Greene’s entire post, via Media Matters:
Photo: Marjorie Taylor Greene/Facebook
The Rothschild family has featured heavily in anti-Semitic conspiracy theories since at least the 19th century. Anti-Semites have generally updated the theory by replacing the Rothschilds with George Soros, a more contemporary and plausible-seeming mastermind for a global conspiracy to spread left-wing ideology. Greene’s version has instead updated the theory by giving the Rothschilds possession of a secret, powerful space laser.
Now, you might wonder why, if an international cabal of Jewish bankers wanted to finance a rail project, they would go about it by using their space lasers to set a catastrophic blaze. Aren’t there easier ways to get your rail stations approved by the state legislature? If you can pull off a massive conspiracy like that and keep it quiet, and you have a space laser you can use to immolate basically any target on Earth, there have to be more direct profit-making opportunities than burning down trees in order to arbitrage the land value for a public-transit contract.
You’re probably not going to get Greene’s answer, though, because the last news crew that showed up at one of her events was threatened with arrest by the local sheriff.
Anyway, it is true that Marjorie Taylor Greene and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez play equivalent roles within their respective parties. MTG holds down her party’s right flank, and AOC holds down her party’s left flank. You can somewhat deduce the corresponding beliefs of the two parties’ mainstream contingents by moving somewhat to the center of each. Most Democrats are skeptical of defunding the police and question the feasibility of transitioning to a state-run health-care system. Most Republicans are probably quite skeptical that the California wildfires were intentionally set by a Jewish space laser.
The thing is, you can be much more moderate than MTG, and still be extremely crazy." Anyone can do a Google Internet Search for this Article, see the website
nymag.com/intelligencer
From the New York Post website, nypost.com an article is headlined
"‘Saturday Night Live’ tries to pass off anti-Israel hate as humor"
By Post Editorial Board February 23, 2021 | 5:58pm | Updated
Enlarge Image
Comedian Michael Che
Comedian Michael CheGetty Images for The Scleroderma
MORE ON:
SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, the article says:
"We’d let Michael Che’s ugly joke last weekend pass, except it rests on multiple elements of vile anti-Israel propaganda.
Che took Israel’s universally admired success in and flipped it into a slur of racism, or maybe imperialism: “Israel is reporting that they’ve vaccinated half of their population,” he noted on the Weekend Update segment, and, “I’m going to guess it’s the Jewish half.”
For starters, Israel is (as you’d expect) a lot more than half Jewish. To see it otherwise, you have to include the population of the Palestinian territories — and so basically insist that Israel has no right to be the Jewish state it was founded as.
And, as the Israeli US ambassador Gilad Erdan tweeted, “every citizen of Israel — Jewish, Muslim, Christian — is entitled” to the vaccine.
In fact, some 43 percent of Israeli Arabs had gotten jabbed when Che spoke. That lags the Jewish rate, but for a host of reasons — including Palestinian Authority propaganda that claims Jerusalem is experimenting on Arabs under the guise of immunization.
Che’s “joke” also captures the gist of the global left’s line, which calls Israel criminal for jabbing its own citizens but not those of the PA.
Problem is, the PA is responsible for health care on its own territory, and in fact its officials admitted to not asking Israel for help early on as they instead secured deals for the AstraZeneca and Russian Sputnik V vaccines.
Haters are going to hate, we guess, but do they have to try passing it off as comedy?"
Some good News, Sheikh Ahmed Zaki Yamani has died, he was responsible for the 1973 Oil Embargo Crisis
FEBRUARY 23, 2021 From Reuters.com an article about this is headlined
"Obituary: Yamani, the Saudi oil minister who brought the West to its knees"
By Rania El Gamal
the article says"
"DUBAI (Reuters) - Saudi Arabia’s Sheikh Zaki Yamani, the embodiment of the ascent of Arab petroleum power and the face of the 1973 oil embargo that brought the West to its knees, has died.
FILE PHOTO: Then Saudi Arabian oil minister Sheikh Zaki Yamani speaks during a news conference in Islamabad, Pakistan, in this still image taken from a video dated January 4, 1982. Reuters TV/via REUTERS.
Yamani was a witness to the 1975 murder of the Saudi king who had plucked him, a non-royal, from obscurity to be oil minister. Later the same year Yamani was kidnapped at an OPEC meeting by Ilyich Ramirez Sanchez, known as Carlos the Jackal.
Yamani, 91, died in London, Saudi state media reported on Tuesday.
Known for his elegant manner and trademark goatee beard, Yamani’s 24-year tenure running the oil affairs of the world’s biggest crude producer made him a global celebrity during the inflationary “oil shocks” of the 1970s.
That ended with his abrupt sacking in 1986 after a costly attempt to prop up crude prices, a failed strategy which has cast a shadow over Saudi oil policy to this day.
In December 1975, Yamani attended the meeting of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) in Vienna, which ended in a hail of bullets fired into the ceiling from Venezuelan assassin Carlos and five cohorts. Three bystanders were killed.
Carlos, promoting the Palestinian cause, targeted Yamani as the most valuable hostage, telling him repeatedly that he had been sentenced to death. Ministers were held for two days in a dynamite-charged room before the captors were granted a plane out of Austria with their hostages.
A further 43 harrowing hours on board, flying from Algeria to Libya and back, created an intimacy between captive and hostage taker.
“It was odd, but as we sat together and talked, it was almost as if we had become friends,” Yamani told biographer Jeffrey Robinson. “He was telling me so much, knowing that I would die.”
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A deal was struck in Algiers and Carlos vanished, escaping arrest until 1994. Serving a life sentence in a French jail, Carlos outlived Yamani.
Months earlier, Yamani was at the side of Saudi King Faisal in Riyadh, receiving a visiting delegation when a disaffected Saudi prince pulled out a revolver and shot the king dead.
COMMONER AMONG ROYALS
Yamani’s career was remarkable, for the time, as a commoner in a society dominated by the royal family.
Born on June 30, 1930, the son of an Islamic scholar and judge in Mecca, Yamani was expected to follow his father and grandfather into teaching.
After studying law in Cairo he left for New York University and Harvard. Returning to Saudi Arabia, he set up a law firm and took on government work, drawing the attention of the future King Faisal. He became oil minister in 1962."
the article continues
"Yamani became a leading figure in the development of OPEC, founded in 1960. He extricated the Saudi oil industry from the grip of American companies in a series of steps that produced a deal on national ownership of Saudi Aramco in 1976.
Aramco remains among the world’s wealthiest companies by assets.
In Yamani’s early years as oil minister, Arab nationalism was on the rise and oil power was at the heart of it.
By the time of the 1967 Arab-Israeli Six-Day War, Riyadh was ready to flex its economic muscle. Yamani announced a supply embargo against countries friendly to Israel. But the embargo did not bite. High inventories in the West and extra supply from Venezuela and pre-revolutionary Iran filled the gap.
In 1973 the fourth Arab-Israeli conflict prompted Yamani to trigger another oil embargo. This time it worked - a fourfold increase in the price of crude marked the high point of OPEC power and sent western economies into recession as inflation soared in what became known as the first oil shock.
OIL MASTERS
Yamani summed up that moment when oil producers took charge. “The moment has come,” he said. “We are masters of our own commodity.”
With the end of the war and the embargo, Riyadh found an accommodation with the United States.
Yamani was now a price moderate, espousing the view that high prices would ultimately destroy demand and encourage production from new exploration in places such as the North Sea.
When the 1979 Iranian revolution triggered a second oil shock in the West, most in OPEC raised oil prices. Riyadh, close now to Washington, issued the “Yamani Edict”, holding Saudi prices at official levels to ease the pain for importers.
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Yamani’s new-found price moderation was to cost him. A supply glut born of the early 1980s recession in the West depressed fuel demand.
Faisal’s successor, King Fahd, called on Yamani to both protect Saudi market share and boost prices. Instead, he cut Saudi production to a 20-year low of only 2 million barrels per day in an effort to shore up prices.
Fellow OPEC members were not as disciplined on production and Yamani was criticised at home as others increased their market share at Riyadh’s expense. As the oil glut ballooned, crude prices crashed below $10 a barrel.
Having disobeyed Fahd and failed, Yamani paid the price. In October 1986 he learned of his dismissal from a public announcement on Saudi television, apparently designed to embarrass him.
Yamani retreated to his private life and became the figurehead for a consultancy, the Centre for Global Energy Studies. At its launch in London in 1989, with crude still worth only $20 a barrel, he predicted prices would eventually break $100, as they did eventually in the new millennium.
Reuters interviewed Yamani in September 2000 to mark OPEC’s 40th anniversary. Shale oil was little known at the time and renewables were in their infancy, but Yamani predicted that technology would hurt oil producers.
“Technology is a real enemy for OPEC,” he said. “Technology will reduce consumption and increase production from areas outside OPEC. The real victims will be Saudi Arabia, with huge reserves which they can do nothing with.
“The Stone Age did not end because the world ran out of stone, and the Oil Age will end long before the world runs out of oil.”
Again, We at this blog say, Good that Yamani the Troublemaker is dead
From the Camera.org website an article is headlined
"BACKGROUNDER: THE INTRINSIC ANTISEMITISM OF BDS" The Article is a Must Read
BY: RICKI HOLLANDER MAY 12, 2020
Camera stands for
"Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting and Analysis"
Some good websites are, ifcj.org the website for the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews,
Another good website is Christianscare.org the website for
Christians Care International where they say
"Christians Blessing Israel and the Jewish People" Also anyone can go on the Internet and find the Internet Archive site, web.archive.org and do a search for the website
www.yahoodi.com which was the website for The Peace Encyclopedia , which exposed
Arabists, Pro-Arab Sympathizers as well as Arab, "Palestinian" & Islamic Propaganda & Lies
www.yahoodi.com is no longer active, but it is well archived on the Internet Archive site
web.archive.org, We at this blog suggest going to the Snapshot Archive of March 19, 2003 on the site for Good Information that Refutes & Debunks Anti-Israel Lies, the archived information of the website The Peace Encyclopedia says:
"
After 2000 years of exile, the Jewish People has emerged traumatized. The source of that trauma has been the constant insecurity and fear that characterized most of the Diaspora, in most parts of the world. It is a product of landlessness, massacres, periodic expulsion and flight, persecution by tyrants and abuse by the Church and Mosque who encouraged antisemitism to satisfy their own insecurities and political desires.
Physical security for the Jews has traditionally been improved in a number of ways: usefulness, mobility, bribery and assimilation. Psychological responses to this insecurity and trauma are well known: self-hatred and blame, identification with and appeasement of abusers, obsessive fantasy of a future paradise on earth. These solutions and responses are so integrated into the Jewish psyche that they have been passed down from generation to generation, displaying themselves even in relatively free societies, even in America and the recently liberated homeland, Israel.
Despite its significance to the Jewish Nation, the State of Israel has failed to alleviate most of this trauma, and has not reduced the levels of antisemitism - it has simply allowed antisemites to masquerade themselves under the new banner of "anti-Zionism". We cannot expect antisemitism to disappear - Jewish existence and Jewish philosophy will always be threatening to its children: Christianity, Islam and Marxism. The trauma and insecurity, on the other hand, is within our power to diminish - should we decide to do so.
The stakes could not be higher; this trauma, combined with the freedom in the West today, is permiting free expression of these psychological responses, leading to a flight from the perceived source of that trauma - Jewish identity. Intermarriage may be controversial, but one cannot argue with the demographers; except for pockets of ultra-orthodox, Western Jewry will be extinct in a few generations. Furthermore, the Israeli appeasers are selling our homeland, our patrimony, for empty promises of the paradise of peace, and are willing to let Israel's own demographic problem extinguish the Jewish character of that State, and with it the last gasp of the Jewish People.
Yahoodi.com has evolved into a think-tank for the research, analysis, debate, and design of real solutions to these unfortunate trends. The resources we offer here, "Famous Jews Interactive" and "The Peace Encyclopedia", are our first internet experiments in therapy for the Jewish People. Their tremendous popularity, as well as the constant letters of praise we receive, let us know that we are on the right track. Thank you for visiting Yahoodi.com, we hope you enjoy the experience, and please do not hesitate to contact us to tell us what you think."
From the Internet Archive website, web.archive.org it says about
www.yahoodi.com The Peace Encyclopedia under the snapshot/archive for March 19, 2003
it says:
"The Peace Encyclopedia
YAHOODI FX FILM
Peace is one of those things everyone says they want, but can't seem to find. Some claim that only they are for it and that others are against it, although those against it would probably disagree. So if everyone really wants it, then what's the problem, right?
This encyclopedia explores peace, specifically with an eye toward solutions of the Arab-Jewish, Muslim-Hindu, and related conflicts that plague the free world. But for peace to be enduring, it must not be based on any one person's view of their ideal world. Rather, solutions must be based on facts, not fantasy - history, not propaganda.
Start with a topic in the menu above, from a letter below, or enter a search term in the search box and press your 'enter' key. Each topic is full of quotes and information, as well as internal and external hyper-links, which will guide you to an understanding of peace, not based on somebody's vision, but based on facts, historical lessons, and on underlying principles of human nature. You may be the one who finds the solutions. Good luck. Peace."
From www.barnesandnoble.com another good book that looks interesting is
titled
"Ancient Israel: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient Israelites, Starting From their Entry into Canaan Until the Jewish Rebellions against the Romans" Published in 2018
by Captivating History
The Overview says:
"Explore the Captivating History of Ancient Israel
Unlike many other ancient peoples, the culture and beliefs of the Israelites exist in modern society. They managed to survive through wars, persecution, and numerous revisions and adaptations caused by new invaders or internal rebellions. Because of their significance in contemporary society, it's important to learn more about the Israelites in order to fully understand how they developed and managed to contribute so heavily to the current culture of the Western world.
In this captivating history book, you'll learn startling facts about the intriguing ancient Israelites, and when you're finished reading, you might have a discovered things about them that you would not expect.
In Ancient Israel: A Captivating Guide to the Ancient Israelites, Starting From their Entry into Canaan Until the Jewish Rebellions against the Romans, you will discover topics such as
Culture and Society through the Years
The Late Bronze Age and Early Iron Age
The Late Iron Age
The Israelites under Babylon
The Control of the Persians
The Hellenistic Period and Judea under the Seleucids
The Early Hasmonean Dynasty
The Hasmonean Expansion and Civil War
Roman Rule of Judea
Ancient Hebrew Religion and Judaism
And much, much more!"
Also from the website www.barnesandnoble.com Another good book is titled
"Angels in the Sky: How a Band of Volunteer Airmen Saved the New State of Israel"
by Robert Gandt
The Overview says:
“Reads like a World War II thriller, only better because every word is true.… One of the great untold stories of history. Robert Gandt has brought it vividly, unforgettably to life.” —Steven Pressfield, best-selling author of Gates of Fire
In 1948, when the newly founded nation of Israel came under siege from a coalition of Arab states, a band of volunteer airmen from the United States, Canada, Britain, France, and South Africa arrived to help. They were a small group, fewer than 150. Many were World War II veterans; most of them knowingly violated their nations’ embargoes on the shipment of arms and aircraft to Israel. The airmen risked everything—their careers, citizenship, and lives—to fight for Israel. The saga of the volunteer airmen in Israel’s war of independence stands as one of the most stirring—and little-known—war stories of the past century."
From, www.barnesandnoble.com another good book worth reading is titled
"Israel Rising: The Land of Israel Reawakens" this book was published in 2020
by Doug Hershey, Elise Theriault (Photographer)
The Overview says:
"Thousands of years ago, the prophet Ezekiel foretold a future time in which the arid land of Israel would come alive for its people. Now this breathtaking book documents the fulfillment of that vision—from the hills of Shiloh where shepherds once roamed, to the booming city of Tel Aviv, founded on sand dunes, to the stellar beaches of Caesarea, transformed from a small village into one of Israel’s most stunning coastal cities and finally to Jerusalem, the Eternal City of Peace, where in ancient times the power of worship resounded from the Temple. Here, rarely seen photographs taken between the 1880s and the 1940s juxtaposed with contemporary images of the same locations illustrate the region’s biblical history as a place of monumental battle, celebration, worship, and awesome resilience.
Whether by helicopter or on foot, on their own or with the aid of locals, author Doug Hershey and photographer Elise Monique Theriault negotiate the terrain to access the vantage points required to match the original photos—from the rooftop of Israel’s National Museum of Science, Technology and Space in Haifa, to Jaffa Port’s breakwater, and much more. Their quest creates a collection that will inspire and captivate as it illuminates Israel’s foretold awakening in a new and unforgettable way."
From www.barnesandnoble.com Yet Another book is titled
"From Empathy to Denial: Arab Responses to the Holocaust" this book was first published in 2011
by Meir Litvak, Esther Webman
The Overview says
"Based on years of research conducted mostly in Arabic sources, Meir Litvak and Ester Webman track the evolution of post-World War II perceptions of the Holocaust and their parallel emergence in the wake of the Arab-Israeli conflict of 1948. Following the establishment of the State of Israel, Arab attitudes toward the Holocaust became entangled with broader anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic sentiments. Litvak and Webman track this discourse through the work of leading intellectuals and turn to representations of the Holocaust in the media and culture of Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan, and among the Palestinian people. Their chronological history, which spans sixty years, provides a remarkable perspective on the origins, development, and tenaciousness of anti-Holocaust belief.
From Empathy to Denial is the first comprehensive investigation of Holocaust denial in the Arab world, and is based on years of painstaking historical research of mostly Arabic language sources. The authors explore how Holocaust denial emerged after the Second World War, how it paralleled the wider Arab-Israeli conflict after the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948 and how it subsequently became entangled with broader anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic sentiment. In particular Litvak and Webman look at the role of leading intellectuals, the media and other cultural forms in Egypt, Lebanon, Jordan and among the Palestinians and how their representation of the Holocaust has evolved in the last sixty years."
On Amazon.com a good book worth reading is titled
"The Anti-Zionist Complex" by Jacques Givet, First Published in 1982
Some people typed as Reviews of this book on Amazon.com the following comments:
"5.0 out of 5 stars Dissecting this revolting and evil form of anti-Semitism
Reviewed in the United States on June 7, 2006
Despite this book having been written 25 years ago , it is still relevant today.
Jacques Givet was a holocaust survivor , whose entire family perished in Hitler's flames.
In this book he strips bare the revolting and frightening phenomenon of anti-Zionism , the anti-Semitism of today.
Givet exposes anti-Zionism as the psychological malaise which it is.
He also deals with hatred of Israel and Zionism coming from Jews in the diaspora ( I am extremely disgusted by Jewish anti-zionists) : " That there should be Jews to challenge the existance of Israel and indulge in lengthy public self-questioning on this theme reperesents warped thinking , a breach of faith and a human tragedy. And this is a unique phenomenon. No Cambodian , Chilean , Czech (and now Afghan) exile , however bitterly opposed to his current government , denies his country's right to exist".
Givet does not set out to examine all the cogs in the machine of anti-Zionism but rather limits himself to considering certain ways of thought , certain patterns of twisted thinking , which tend to pass unnoticed , in the field of international public relations , in the media and in academia.
He comments on how anti-Zionists tend to believe that Jews are not strongly attached to the Land of Israel, "Palestine". He explores some of the figures covered by historian Salo W. Baron , which demonstrate the permanence of the Jewish presence in "Palestine". In the first century CE there where about three million Jews in "Palestine" and in the seventh century , two hundred thousand.
The Jews in "Palestine" where in almost perpetual revolt. After Masada (72 C.E) , Bar Kochba's revolt (132-135 C.E) , and the insurrection which threatened Emperor Septimus Severus early in the Third Century , there was an insurrection in Galilee in the fourth century , and in the seventh a new Jewish war lasting fourteen years (614 to 628), brought to an end by Emperor Heraclius.
These facts and figures deserve mention because they weaken the case of nthe anti-Zionists (read anti-Semites) to deny Israel the right to a national existance.
Indeed Givet refers to history to lay bare the facts obscured by the anti-Zionist disease.
Israel recognized an Arab "Palestine" from when the State of Israel was re-established in 1948. While in accordance with a United Nations decision , Israel was ratifying the creation of an Arab State in "Palestine" , Arab armies occupied Arab "Palestine" and launched an attack on that part of it that had been reserved for Jews. Far from granting any autonomy to those now known as "Palestinians"(the term was only used from the 1960's to refer to Arabs from this area) , not one member of
Arab League recognized a seperate Arab "Palestine" before the Six Day War of 1967.
The PLO etc has always trimmed it's sails to suit the wind. In the past their emphasis was on linking "Palestine" with Jordan , Jordan and Lebanon , or Syria and Lebanon.
Quoted is Zuheir Mossein , head of the PLO bureau of Military Operations , in the Dutch newspaper Trouw in 1977:
"There is no difference between Jordanians , Palestinians and Lebanese ; we are all members of a single nation. soley for political reasons are we careful to stress our identity as Palestinians , since a seperate State of Palestine would be an extra weapon in Arab hands to fight Zionism with. Yes , we do call for the creation of a Palestinian State for tactical reasons. Such a State would be a new means of continuing the battle against Zionism and for Arab unity".
the comment continues
"The author expresses surprise that left-wing writers should show no understanding of the fact that one of the purposes of anti-Zionism is to divert any attention away from opression and momentum for change in the Arab/Islamic world.
Givet questions how atrocities commited in the name of a 'Free Palestine" , no matter how heinous , such as those commited against women and children , are treated with understanding and justified in advance whenever Israel , goaded beyong endurance , by some outrage , resorts to a legitimate act of self-defence.
As the author points out anti-Zionism is anti-semitism because the anti-Zionist denies , of all people , only the Jews the right to nationhood.
'The anti-Zionist becomes an anti-Semite as soon as he goes beyond criticism of the policies of the Jerusalem government ( a favourite activity of the Israelis themselves) and challenges the very existence of the State of Israel.
For to refuse the Jews their right to nationhood is the perpetuate their bondage. to "de-Zionize'"Israel would be like trying to de-Helvetize Switzerland. The fact that Israel has an Arab minority is shocking only to those for whom the idea of a Jewish majority in any country is intolerable".
The comment continues
"Givet deals with the leftist patrons of the Palestinians and the prejudiced United Nations , who are repsonsible to a large extent for terror against Israeli women and children.
'Dub a Jew a "Zionist" and any crime can be commited against him with the clearest of consciences'. Hence Arab massacres of Jewish old people , women and children is judged as acceptable by the anti-Zionists , as the victims are dubbed 'Zionists'.
It is entirely keeping in the character of Islamists or rabidly leftist anti-Zionists that they should carry a rabid hatred of Israel to the point of defending the killers of Israeli children.
Givet refers to the massacres of Israeli children at Ma'alot and Kiryat Shmona in 1974 , by the Marxist Popular Front for the LIberation of Palestine. Recent years have seen the murders of hundreds of Israeli children by Arab terrorists.
The author points out to how prejudiced and unfair condemmnation of Israel in the United Nations has led to deeds: 'For moral denigration encourages physical elimination ; a few days after the adoption of the resolution of 10 November , 1975 , challenging the very existance of Israel , a bomb killed six young people (all of them refugees from Arab countries) in Jerusalem. The PLO forthwith claimed the credit for this feat , and justifying it by reference to the United Nations resolution , described it as "heroic" '
In more recent years , Irish poet Tom Paulin explicitly called for the killing of Jewish civillians in Israel .In an interview with the Egyptian paper, Al-Ahram Weekly Paulin claimed that Jewish settlers in Israel "should be shot dead". In an interview . Paulin, a leading anti-Zionist, called Brooklyn-born Jewish settlers "Nazis and racists", and insisted: "I feel nothing but hatred for them."
A few days later , a five year old Jewish girl , Danielle Shefi , was shot dead in the Jewish village of Adura, by Arab terrorists , as she cowered under her bed. They also shot her 2 year old baby brother. Journalists on the far left website indymedia openly gloated over and celebrated this murder.
In 2002 leftist anti-Zionist journalist , Richard Calland , wrote in South Africa's far left Mail&Guardian that he "quietly celebrates Israeli casualties".
Charlotte Kates , a law lecturer at Rutger University in New Jersey and an 'activist' of the pro-terror 'International Solidarity Movement' has endorsed the killing of Israeli children by Arab terrorists , calling Israeli children 'fair game'.
The same way , that the demonization of Jews by Hitler Goebbels and Der Sterner laid the way for the holocaust , I believe that the purpose of anti-Zionist propaganda is to pave the way for the genocide of Israel Jews , which would be justified , in the eyes of some Islamists and Leftists , as they are dubbed "Zionists". "
The comment on The Anti-Zionist Complex lastly says
"Givet also refers to how the rights and lives of genuinely opressed people like the Kurds , Black South Sudanese , Tibetans , Naga , Karens etc are pushed aside in favour of the 'Palestinian' agenda.
As Givet puts it so eloquently:
"...Anti-Zionists, like traditional anti-Semites, see only the reverse side of the coin in Jewish history - the reaction not the act, the accident not the cause, the wastage not the process of creation. In this they display a lack of human understanding and also an inability to think dialectically - shortcomings from which they are the first to suffer. The way in which, to salve their consciences and in the interest of their policies, they picture the Jew as a sordid, guilty "Zionist" freezes their ability to think and feel. The freedom to exist which they refuse me prevents them from seeing the world as it is. Their reasoning is infantile, their information inadequate, their scale of values absurd in that one Palestinian equals 1,000 Kurds or 10,000 Balts or Armenians - and how many Nagas or Tibetans? (A scale in which an Afghan, incidentally, counts for nothing.) The anti-Zionist is not interested in the sufferings of these other peoples and takes no trouble to find out about them, or about many others in revolt against the imperialisms he is all too ready to praise. The free Jew, the Israeli, he is completely unable to understand"
Another person typed the following Comment/Review on Amazon.com about the book
"The Anti-Zionist Complex" the following
5.0 out of 5 stars A superb analysis of antizionism
Reviewed in the United States on December 30, 2004
This book was written twenty-five years ago but it is not out of date.
The author reminds us that the concept of having a Jewish state that can serve as a refuge for Jews has a sensible basis. In the past 2000 years, there have been about 200 expulsions of Jews from nations: about one every ten years. He then goes on to quote a number of antizionists whose idea is simple: we outnumber the Jews, so we ought to get everything and they ought to get nothing!
The next topic is the false symmetry of Israel and its attackers and between "attempts to destroy a community and the reprisals that the community must resort to in self-defence." Givet goes on to explain the arbitrariness of having Arab refugees cooped up in UN camps for decades while millions of refugees everywhere else in the world generally get resettled in a matter of a few weeks.
The author explains that an antisemitic government "discredits itself in all its doings." And he tells Jews that "only by working for their own national liberation will they join the mainstream of the forces now working for greater freedom in society at large."
Meanwhile for antizionists, the Arabs are the heroes, not because any of them care for Arabs per se but because "the Arabs deny (and are encouraged by the anti-Zionists to deny) the human and political rights to which the Jews aspire."
I was amazed by the extent to which Middle Eastern Christians condemn Jewish nationalism outright. All too typical is a quote the author finds of the Director of the "Journal for the Study of International Relations" who explains that Jerusalem is an Arab city of which its legitimate sovereign has been despoiled. This Director goes on to say that "in fact, Jerusalem, a Holy City, is also, and above all, an Arab town. A Holy Place in which the spirit walks, it does not exist remote from the contingencies of time and space. It is a city of men and women."
I've never forgotten the implication that Jerusalem, the Jewish capital which has had a Jewish majority since the 1870s, is an Arab town! Nor that Jews are not men and women but something else entirely. I wonder if Pagans are men and women?
Well, is there anything wrong with saying, as Maxime Rodinson does, that the Arabs "could do no other than dream of destroying the state of Israel?" You bet there is! Givet explains that such a statement is anti-scientific, pessimistic, anti-dialectical, arbitrary, retrograde, debasing (to Arabs), and irresponsible. In addition, it reveals a static outlook, is opposed to progress, and shows a lack of discrimination and contempt for facts. And, of course, it is an unreasonable generalization: not all Arabs are the same!
Givet is at his best when he comes up with the start of a glossary used by antizionists. These words (such as aggression, colonialism, jus soli, land, refugees, resistance, settlement, and territories) are always used to mock Jews and give unjustified praise to antizionists.
This is an excellent little book, and I highly recommend it."
From www.barnesandnoble.com Another book is titled
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust" The book was first published in 2019
by Rafael Medoff
The Overview says:
"Based on recently discovered documents, Rafael Medoff reassesses the hows and whys behind the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s fateful policies concerning European Jewry during the Holocaust."
Editorial Reviews
"With meticulous detail, Medoff documents the entwined failures of an indifferent president and a sycophantic Jewish leader."—Jerold Auerbach, Algemeiner
Algemeiner - Jerold Auerbach
"[The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust] goes further than previous accounts by adding several dark new twists about Roosevelt and Wise, none of them pretty. . . . Medoff assembles facts and footnotes like a bricklayer. He wants his edifice to last."—Mark Horowitz, Commentary
Commentary - Mark Horowitz
The Jews Should Keep Quiet conclusively documents, far better than anything else I have read, how Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s private attitude toward Jews motivated him to close America’s doors to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. Medoff adroitly exposes how FDR suppressed Jewish immigration with the unwitting assistance of Rabbi Stephen Wise. This book is a revelation—courageous, scholarly, and chillingly honest. You will never think of FDR the same way again after reading it.”—Irving Abella, president of the Academy of the Arts and the Humanities of Canada and past Shiff Professor of Jewish Studies at York University, Toronto
Irving Abella
"Readers interested in American Jewish history or American politics will definitely want to read this unsettling, but important, work."—Rabbi Rachel Esserman, Reporter
Reporter - Rabbi Rachel Esserman
The Jews Should Keep Quiet is a cautionary tale about the pitfalls of elite complicity with government inaction. Rabbi Stephen S. Wise regarded Franklin D. Roosevelt as a friend, even though the Roosevelt administration was unfriendly to the plight of Jewish refugees, opposed the bombing of extermination camps, and remained ambivalent toward Zionism. Meticulously researched, engagingly written, and eminently fair-minded, The Jews Should Keep Quiet deserves a wide audience.”—Dean J. Kotlowski, professor of history at Salisbury University and author of Nixon’s Civil Rights and Paul V. McNutt and the Age of FDR
Dean J. Kotlowski
"This sad chapter in the history of American Jewry should serve as a keen example to all in today's Jewish community that we cannot assume that liberal, left-wing ideology is inherently pro-Jewish."—Alan Jay Gerber, Jewish Star
Jewish Star - Alan Jay Gerber
The Jews Should Keep Quiet is of lasting importance for the teaching and understanding of the Holocaust. Rafael Medoff’s incisive examination of the complex relationship between the U.S. president and America’s foremost Jewish leader shines a light on troubling aspects of American history that many would prefer to ignore. This book is must reading.”—Zsuzsanna Ozsvath, director of Holocaust Studies, Ackerman Center for Holocaust Studies, University of Texas at Dallas
More Editorial Reviews of "The Jews Should Keep Quite" say
Zsuzsanna Ozsvath
The Jews Should Keep Quiet reveals in troubling detail how FDR manipulated American Jewish leaders to suppress criticism of his abandonment of Europe’s Jews during the Holocaust. Our family was certainly impacted. I was two years old on January 30, 1933, the day Hitler became Reichschancellor and my Dad told my Mom: ‘We are leaving Germany forever.’ It took us two and a half years of seeking a sympathetic American consul to overcome the barriers of FDR’s State Department. We need to learn from Rafael Medoff’s disturbing but necessary and enlightening study of moral failure and its consequences.”—Rudy Boschwitz, U.S. senator (1978–91)
Rudy Boschwitz
The Jews Should Keep Quiet is a meticulously researched and disquieting history of the reasons behind America's failure to rescue Europe's doomed Jews. Readers may rightly conclude that if there is a Roosevelt they can admire, it is Eleanor and not Franklin.”—Alan L. Berger, Raddock Family Eminent Scholar Chair in Holocaust Studies, Florida Atlantic University
Alan L. Berger
"American historian Rafael Medoff has written an outstanding and important book about the United States, Nazi Germany and the Holocaust. The Jews Should Keep Quiet: President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust . . . is an unsparing condemnation of a president who was slow to help Jewish refugees and reluctant to criticize Adolf Hitler’s Germany. It is also a stunning critique of an American Jewish community leader who allowed himself to be stifled, manipulated and virtually silenced."—Sheldon Kirshner, Times of Israel
Times of Israel - Sheldon Kirshner
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet is a historical accounting of lies, deceptions and subterfuge promulgated by Roosevelt and his administration on American Jews and their leaders together with the struggles of Wise, as a recognized Jewish leader, and the American Jewish community against the tide of growing anti-Semitism and a racially-biased president. Medoff, as a first-rate historian of the Holocaust, clearly communicates what my poorly educated immigrant grandmother instinctively recognized, 'Roosevelt was a great president, except for the Jews.'"—Fred Reiss, San Diego Jewish World
More Editorial Reviews say about "The Jews Should Keep Quiet"
San Diego Jewish World - Fred Reiss
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet is a chronicle of tragedy—of a cynical president and the conflicted and compromised Jewish leader whom he effectively manipulated. To his credit, Medoff avoids accusations and condemnations. His tone is measured; his prose is crisp. He simply lays out the facts, many of them previously unknown or misunderstood, about a disturbing but important chapter in American history. The Jews Should Keep Quiet takes a place in the top tier of studies of American responses to the Holocaust."—Bat-Ami Zucker, H-Judaic
H-Judaic - Bat-Ami Zucker
★ 09/01/2019
Historian Medoff (Too Little, and Almost Too Late) examines the impacts of the relationship between President Franklin D. Roosevelt and Rabbi Stephen S. Wise. As one of the most prominent U.S. Jewish leaders of the time, Wise heavily influenced the Jewish response to Roosevelt's actions—or, rather, lack of action—in aiding European Jews suffering and dying in the Holocaust. Ignoring many opportunities to evacuate refugees, Roosevelt instead repeatedly exploited Wise's admiration of him (and the New Deal) by making false promises. Roosevelt also pressed Wise to encourage American Jews to keep quiet about their discontent over the administration's indifference toward both the Holocaust and the Zionist cause. Medoff considers key questions "not from the convenient perspective afforded by hindsight, but in the context of what was actually happening then." While taking this perspective, he pulls no punches in analyzing the options both Wise and Roosevelt had throughout the 1930s and 1940s that might have saved many lives and finds the choices made by both leaders deeply damaging. VERDICT Readers with an interest in World War II, 20th-century political history, Jewish history, and the Holocaust should find this an incisive and insightful exploration of the leading figures of this period.—Crystal Goldman, Univ. of California, San Diego Lib.
& Lastly says
Library Journal
"This is an outstanding contribution not only to Holocaust Studies but also Jewish-American history."—Sanford R. Silverburg, Association of Jewish Libraries
Association of Jewish Libraries - Sanford R. Silverburg
"Meticulously documented . . . sober . . . an important contribution to our understanding of the American government's response to the Holocaust, and that of Franklin D. Roosevelt at the helm of power."—American Historical Review
American Historical Review
In this important volume, Medoff shows there was a great deal Roosevelt could have done despite the political circumstances and limitations. The new material and analysis he brings to light are vital study in a field rife with apologetic, consensus historians—and dare not to be forgotten.”—Allen H. Podet, professor emeritus, Philosophy and Religious Studies, Buffalo State, State University of New York
Allen H. Podet
"The Jews Should Keep Quiet is the culmination of more than three decades of research, and it is devastating. Few readers will come away from Rafael Medoff ’s book without their view of FDR having been signicantly changed."—David G. Dalin, Jewish Review of Books
Jewish Review of Books - David G. Dalin
This highly original work addresses the U.S. government’s unwillingness to undertake serious rescue efforts and the deep divisions within American Jewry over how to respond to U.S. indifference to European Jewry’s plight. Expanding on David S. Wyman’s pathbreaking work on America’s response to the Holocaust, using new archival materials and interviews with persons then on the scene, Medoff provides the best assessment to date of the relationship between America’s foremost Jewish leader, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt.”—Professor Stephen H. Norwood, author of The Third Reich in the Ivory Tower and coeditor of Encyclopedia of American Jewish History
Stephen H. Norwood
"Rafael Medoff . . . has come closer than anyone before him to explaining the inexplicable. He does so in a new book titled, The Jews Should Keep Quiet: Franklin D. Roosevelt, Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, and the Holocaust."—Sol Stern, Tablet Magazine
Tablet Magazine - Sol Stern
From Amazon.com it says about "The Jews Should Keep Quiet" that
"Based on recently discovered documents, The Jews Should Keep Quiet reassesses the hows and whys behind the Franklin D. Roosevelt administration’s fateful policies during the Holocaust. Rafael Medoff delves into difficult truths: With FDR’s consent, the administration deliberately suppressed European immigration far below the limits set by U.S. law. His administration also refused to admit Jewish refugees to the U.S. Virgin Islands, dismissed proposals to use empty Liberty ships returning from Europe to carry refugees, and rejected pleas to drop bombs on the railways leading to Auschwitz, even while American planes were bombing targets only a few miles away—actions that would not have conflicted with the larger goal of winning the war.
What motivated FDR? Medoff explores the sensitive question of the president’s private sentiments toward Jews. Unmasking strong parallels between Roosevelt’s statements regarding Jews and Asians, he connects the administration’s policies of excluding Jewish refugees and interning Japanese Americans.
The Jews Should Keep Quiet further reveals how FDR’s personal relationship with Rabbi Stephen S. Wise, American Jewry’s foremost leader in the 1930s and 1940s, swayed the U.S. response to the Holocaust. Documenting how Roosevelt and others pressured Wise to stifle American Jewish criticism of FDR’s policies, Medoff chronicles how and why the American Jewish community largely fell in line with Wise. Ultimately Medoff weighs the administration’s realistic options for rescue action, which, if taken, would have saved many lives."
From the website historynewsnetwork.org an article is headlined
"When the Rabbis Marched on Washington"
by Alex Grobman
Dr. Alex Grobman is a Hebrew University trained historian. He is the author of a number of books, including Nations United: How The U.N. Undermines Israel and The West, Denying History: Who Says The Holocaust Never Happened and Why Do They Say It? and a forthcoming book on Israel's moral and legal right to exist as a Jewish State.
"At a time when the American Jewish community organizes annual marches in support of Israel, it is important to remember that marches are a fairly new phenomenon. The Rabbis March on Washington D.C. on October 6, 1943 was the only public demonstration by American Jews to highlight the issue of rescue.
After the Bermuda Conference in April 1943 failed to solve the refugee crisis, rescue became a major concern for the American Orthodox Jewish community. The U.S. and British arranged the conference seemingly to address the crisis of wartime refugees, but this was a pretense to appease those demanding action.
Dressed in long, dark rabbinic attire, the rabbis walked from Union Station to the Capitol Building. There, Rabbis Eliezer Silver, Israel Rosenberg and Bernhard Louis Levinthal led a recitation of Psalms. Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), who was head of the Emergency Committee to Save the Jewish People of Europe, introduced them to Vice President Henry Wallace and a number of Congressmen.
Bergson enlisted the rabbis and the American Jewish Legion of Veterans for the march. He expected the American clergy would join, but none did. Only the Union of Orthodox Rabbis of the U.S. and Canada, the Union of Hassidic Rabbis and a commander of the Jewish Legion participated. The modern Orthodox Rabbinical Council of America sent Rabbi David Silver, Rabbi Eliezer Silver’s son.
White House adviser Judge Samuel Rosenman told the president that those “behind this petition” were “not representative of the most thoughtful elements in Jewry.” The “leading Jews” Rosenman knew opposed the march, but he admitted failing to “keep the horde from storming Washington.”
A number of Jewish congressmen had attempted to dissuade the rabbis from marching. This backfired when Congressman Sol Bloom, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, argued that, “It would be undignified for these un-American looking rabbis to appear in the nation’s capital.”
At the Lincoln Memorial, the rabbis—who had declared a fast day—prayed for the welfare of the armed forces and the Jews of Europe and a quick Allied victory. Then they walked to the White House and prayed outside the gates. Though they expected to meet with the President, they were told he was unavailable. Later they learned he went to Bolling Field Air Force Base for a minor ceremony to avoid meeting them.
William D. Hassett, Roosevelt’s correspondence secretary, claimed that the newspaper correspondents, who left the march to accompany the president, deprived the rabbis of publicity. The Yiddish press disagreed.
Samuel Margoshes, editor of the liberal Yiddish daily Der Tog, noted that the enormous attention the rabbis received in Washington was important because “tens of thousands of bystanders… got to know, possibly for the first time, that millions of Jews were being killed in Nazi-held Europe and that millions more were in jeopardy. Also, that the Jews of America, profoundly agitated by what (was) happening to their kin, were appealing to the Government and people of the United States for help in saving their brethren from imminent doom.”
the article continues
"Margoshes said the procession of Orthodox rabbis in their Hasidic garb and round plush hats evinced such “interest, wonderment” and “respect.” There “was something of the quality of a religious procession that characterized the Rabbinical Pilgrimage and compelled the respect of every passerby.”
The Vice President accepted a Rescue Memorandum from Rabbi Silver on behalf of the Agudas Harabonim. The petition stated: In view of this tragic emergency, it is a holy obligation to take drastic steps to save the Jewish people. America was asked to:
1. To adopt immediate and practical measures of rescue and to use all possible means to end the murders committed by Nazi criminals.
2. To warn Germany and all that every atrocity and crime perpetrated against their Jewish residents, whether by governments or private individuals, will be held against them and that, likewise, every act of kindness toward their unfortunates will not pass unnoticed.
3. To send ships with food and medical supplies to the Jews starving in ghettos, under the supervision of a neutral commission or through the International Red Cross.
4. To influence and persuade neutral countries to allow the Jewish refugees who flee from the Nazi sword to seek security within their borders and to guarantee to these countries the means for the temporary maintenance of these refugees.
5. To open the gates of the United Nations to provide havens therein, and to facilitate the entry into our land, the United States of America, of those who can escape the Nazi terror.
6. To open the doors of Palestine immediately to these refugees.
7. To create a special intergovernmental agency to save the remnant of Israel in Europe with powers and means to act at once on a large scale.
Rabbi Aharon Kotler, one of the preeminent Orthodox rabbis of his generation, was probably the only major Orthodox rabbinic figure not to attend the march. Dealing with the plight of the Jews in the public forum was inappropriate, because he believed the nations of the world reveled in the Jews’ tragedies. The most suitable means of protest was to focus anger and frustration at the members of Congress. Only quiet diplomacy could succeed.
Without such prodding in this case, the American government might never have acted. John Pehle, who served as the first director of the War Refugee Board said, “Only when the matter [of rescue] was brought to the President forcefully did Roosevelt react.”
Another website, jewishvirtuallibrary.org said the following about the 1943 March of the Rabbis on Washington : The website said:
“Make way for the rabbis.” It was probably the first time the station master at Washington, D.C.'s Union Station had shouted these words. But the crowd before him was unlike any ever seen in the nation's capital. Four hundred rabbis converged on Union Station two days before Yom Kippur, 1943, in a stirring display of unity to rescue Jews from Nazi extermination.
The march was the brainchild of 33-year-old Hillel Kook (b. 1910), a Jerusalem-born nephew of Abraham Isaac Kook, former chief rabbi of Palestine, who arrived in the United States in 1940. For reasons known only to him, once here, Kook took the Americanized name Peter Bergson. Purchasing full-page ads in American newspapers criticizing British limitations on the number of Jews who could emigrate to Palestine, then under British rule, and pleading for Allied action to rescue European Jewry, Bergson and his associates known as the Bergson Group - used the mass media to rouse public interest and influence the Roosevelt administration to intervene against Hitler. Most provocatively, Bergson called for the formation of an international Jewish army, which would fight under Allied auspices to liberate European Jewry.
One of Bergson's most spectacular initiatives was the 1943 March of the Rabbis. Despite his Orthodox background, Bergson himself was not observant, nor were most of his followers. They understood, however, the powerful visual impact of hundreds of Orthodox rabbis with their beards, black coats and hats converging on Congress and the White House.
Gaining access to the Orthodox rabbinical leadership was no simple task for the uninitiated. The elders of the Orthodox community in the 1940s were mostly European-born Talmudic scholars who spoke little English and were generally unfamiliar with the political ways of the New World to which they had emigrated. Few were accustomed to receiving national press coverage. But Bergson and his associates used their fluent Yiddish and Bergson's family connections to win the trust of rabbis in the Hasidic and general Orthodox communities.
So it was that on October 6, 1943, more than 400 Orthodox rabbis, accompanied by marshals from the Jewish War Veterans of America, marched solemnly from Union Station to their first stop, the Capitol. Vice President Henry A. Wallace and a large bipartisan delegation of Congressional leaders received them. While passersby gawked and newsmen snapped photos, the rabbis recited the Kaddish; sang the traditional Jewish prayer for the nation's leaders to the tune of the “Star Spangled Banner”; and solemnly read aloud, in English and Hebrew, their petition calling for the creation of a special Federal agency to rescue European Jewry and expand the limited quota on Jewish refugee immigration to the United States. Time Magazine commented that, on receiving the petition, Vice President Wallace “squirmed through a diplomatically minimal answer.” The rabbis then marched from the Capitol to the White House.
On the advice of his aides, FDR, who was scheduled to attend a military ceremony, intentionally avoided the rabbis by leaving the White. House through a rear exit while they marched silently in front. When Roosevelt's decision not to encounter the rabbis became known to the press, reporters interpreted Roosevelt's actions as a snub, adding a dramatic flair that transformed the protest rally into a full-fledged clash between the rabbis and the administration."
the article continues
"Capitalizing on the publicity from the march, Bergson's friends in Congress introduced a resolution asking FDR to create an agency that would find ways to provide refuge for those Jews who still remained in the Nazi grip. At Senate hearings on the resolution, a State Department official, Breckinridge Long, argued that America had absorbed more than its share of Jewish refugees. Deeming that Long's statistics were deliberately distorted, Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau drew up a stinging report to the president revealing the State Department's efforts to make Jewish immigration to the U.S. almost impossible. Within days, FDR announced the establishment of the War Refugee Board, which during the final year of the Holocaust was responsible for rescuing thousands of Jews and increasing Jewish immigration to America.
Bergson's skillful appeal to American public conscience, including the rabbi's march, worked as nothing previously had to bring about a change in White House policy toward the Holocaust. Bergson's militancy, Morgenthau's insider access and the rabbis' willingness to take united political action combined to move FDR to action after three years of his insistence that only when the Allies defeated Hitler could European Jewry be saved."
From the website israelhayom.com an article is headlined
"What apartheid?"
Yoseph Haddad is the CEO of Together – Vouch for Each Other. an NGO which aims to bridge between the Arab sector of Israeli society with Israeli society as a whole.
What apartheid?
When B'Tselem director Hagai El-Ad, who is Jewish, decides that I, my Arab family, and my Arab friends are all living under an apartheid regime, he and his organizations are basically telling us they see us as second-class citizens.
By Yoseph Haddad Published on 01-17-2021 10:06 Last modified: 01-17-2021 10:06
the article says:
"Last week, I woke up one morning in my Nazareth home and was astonished to discover I was living under a racist apartheid regime whose only purpose is "the promotion and perpetuation of the superiority of one group of people – the Jews." I rubbed my eyes, read the story in greater depth, and calmed down as soon as I realized the reports were based on yet another report by the left-wing NGO B'Tselem.
The problem is that this report has spread like wildfire around the world, and the propaganda is working. B'Tselem, which presents itself as a human-rights organization, is in fact known as an organization with a clear political stance that is in contrast to Israel's position. As it turns out, people have no boundaries. How dare they say that I, an Arab Israeli who served along with Jewish soldiers in the Israel Defense Forces and managed hundreds of Jewish employees, live under an apartheid regime?
How can anyone say our society is living under an apartheid regime when among us you will find doctors, judges, and even lawmakers? How can you say Samer Haj-Yehia lives in an apartheid regime when he is the head of the biggest bank in Israel? B'Tselem has already broken the record for hypocrisy, but to compare Israel to an apartheid regime for its racial laws is not only a distorted lie but an insult to all those South Africans who actually lived through apartheid. It is contempt for and cynical exploitation of the concept.
I am not here to claim that everything in Israel is perfect. Some things need to be fixed, and how. But show me a country where everything is perfect. I look around at our neighbors in the region and thank god I was born in the State of Israel, the only democracy in the Middle East. True, the Arab minority in Israel faces challenges, just as other national minorities do in other countries. Yet while minorities of all kinds across the Middle East – Shia Muslims, Sunni Muslims, Yazidi, Kurds, and of course the Christians, are persecuted, the State of Israel is the only country that grants minorities equal rights and the ability to influence their future.
When B'Tselem director Hagai El-Ad, who is Jewish, decides that I, my Arab family, and my Arab friends are all living under an apartheid regime, he and his organizations are basically telling us they see us as second-class citizens. B'Tselem, don't push your agendas at our expense.
To my delight, Israel will likely be the first country to exit the corona crisis, and in a few months, people from around the world may be able to come here and see what apartheid looks like in Israel for themselves. Then they will be able to hear Hebrew and Arabic spoken in the Nazareth marketplace, they will see mosques, churches, and synagogues alongside one another in Jaffa, and see the coexistence of the Israeli mosaic across the country. And maybe, just maybe, their visit here will make them want to live under an apartheid regime."
From the website, gatestoneinstitute.org an article is headlined
"Human Rights Violations No One Talks About"
by Khaled Abu Toameh
February 5, 2021 at 5:00 am the article says:
"Last year, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank revealed that Hamas was planning to confiscate large areas of privately-owned lands in the Gaza Strip. According to the PA, Hamas formed the Palestinian Land Authority in the Gaza Strip to facilitate "land-theft."
A recent report by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights documented the death in 2020 of at least 30 Palestinians in various "internal violence" incidents in the Gaza Strip, including six children and four women. Another 155 Palestinians were injured, including 17 children and 19 women.
The ongoing human rights violations by Hamas show that the Islamist movement does not care about reports issued by Palestinian human rights groups such as the Al Mezan Center. The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip know that they can continue doing anything they want there because the international community only pays attention when there is way to blame Israel.
In 2006, the US and European Union made a mistake by allowing Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the annihilation of Israel, to participate in the parliamentary election. If the Americans and Europeans repeat the same mistake, Palestinians in the West Bank will join their brothers in the Gaza Strip and find themselves also living under Hamas's repressive Islamist regime, which has no respect for human rights.
Last month, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Land Authority in the Gaza Strip "removed" three houses, bulldozed about 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of agricultural land, and notified several farmers that it will confiscate their land for the purpose of expanding the Rafah border crossing with Egypt. Pictured: Hamas militiamen at the Rafah border crossing in Gaza, on February 1, 2021. (Photo by Said Khatib/AFP via Getty Images)
On January 3, 2021, the Hamas-controlled Palestinian Land Authority (PLA) in the Gaza Strip "removed" three houses -- one of which had been inhabited by a family of three -- and bulldozed about 30 dunums (7.4 acres) of agricultural land in the as-Salam neighborhood west of the Rafah border crossing with Egypt.
The decision to bulldoze the houses and fields -- which came on short notice and did not include direct notifications to those affected by it -- inflicted financial damage on farmers and displaced several Palestinians from their houses, according to the Gaza-based Al Mezan Center for Human Rights.
"The decision also sparked public outrage, with some protesters clashing with [Hamas] police," the center said.
"Nine protesters, including three women, sustained injuries after being beaten by the police, and 16 others were arrested. In addition, six police officers, including a chief law enforcement officer, were injured, as the crowd, largely made of up affected persons, threw stones at them."
The PLA also notified several farmers of its decision to confiscate their land for the purpose of expanding the Rafah border crossing.
The incident in the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip, not the first of its kind, did not attract the attention of human rights organizations and media outlets around the world. Such human rights violations are regularly ignored by the international community because they are perpetrated by Palestinians against Palestinians.
Had the bulldozing of the houses and fields and the confiscation of the lands been carried out by Israel, many human rights organizations and foreign journalists would have shown massive interest in the plight of the Palestinian families and farmers."
the article continues
"It is not uncommon for Hamas to commit human rights violations against the two million Palestinians living under its rule in the Gaza Strip. Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip in 2007, Hamas, an offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood organization, has been ruling with an iron fist, consistently cracking down on its political opponents and critics and suppressing public freedoms.
In the past few years, Hamas has demolished and confiscated the houses of several Palestinians. Last year, Hamas bulldozers demolished the home of Mohammed al-Astal in the southern Gaza Strip on the pretext that it was illegally built on "state-owned" land.
Last year, the Palestinian Authority (PA) in the West Bank revealed that Hamas was planning to confiscate large areas of privately-owned lands in the Gaza Strip. According to the PA, Hamas formed the Palestinian Land Authority in the Gaza Strip to facilitate "land-theft."
After seizing the land, Hamas intends to offer it for sale to the same owners, the PA said. "Hamas will collect tens of millions of [Jordanian] dinars if it succeeds in implementing its plan," the PA added. "Since its violent takeover of the Gaza Strip, Hamas has been stealing land and giving it to its officials and supporters."
The alleged Hamas "land-theft" has been totally ignored by so-called pro-Palestinian groups around the world, as well as the international media and human rights organizations. If human rights abuses do not contain an anti-Israel angle, many in the international community choose to look the other way.
A recent report by the Al Mezan Center for Human Rights, also ignored by the international media and human rights groups, details a series of human rights violations in the Gaza Strip during 2020.
The report calls on Hamas to work to control the use of weapons and their spread, prevent the storage of weapons and explosives in densely populated areas and respect the right to form civil societies, and protect the right to peaceful assemblies and freedom of expression.
The Al Mezan Center report also documented the death in 2020 of at least 30 Palestinians in various "internal violence" incidents in the Gaza Strip, including six children and four women. Another 155 Palestinians were injured, including 17 children and 19 women."
& lastly says
"Referring to a Hamas ban on public gatherings, the report pointed out that this was a "clear violation of the Palestinian Basic law."
Also during 2020, the report revealed, at least 23 Palestinian journalists in the Gaza Strip fell victim to various incidents of violence and intimidation, including arrests, summons' for interrogation and confiscation of their equipment.
Moreover, two Palestinians reportedly died in Hamas-controlled prisons in the Gaza Strip in 2020 as a result of torture and cruel inhuman treatment, the report noted.
On January 13, Hamas arrested Palestinian journalist Omaya al-Kahlout after he had posted a statement on Facebook in which he criticized Hamas measures against poultry farmers.
Two days later, Hamas detained Palestinian activist Sabah Karibeh for organizing an online protest against a local mobile phone company. Hamas officers seized his mobile phone and laptop before releasing him on bail.
The ongoing human rights violations by Hamas show that the Islamist movement does not care about reports issued by Palestinian human rights groups such as the Al Mezan Center. The Hamas rulers of the Gaza Strip know that they can continue doing anything they want there because the international community only pays attention when there is way to blame Israel.
Now that the Palestinians are talking about the possibility of holding new presidential and parliamentary elections -- in which Hamas leaders have indicated their desire to participate -- it is important to pay attention to Hamas's practices in the Gaza Strip. Hamas, which won the 2006 Palestinian parliamentary election, has a good chance of scoring another victory -- if and when the elections take place.
In 2006, the US and European Union made a mistake by allowing Hamas, whose charter openly calls for the annihilation of Israel, to participate in the parliamentary election. If the Americans and Europeans repeat the same mistake, Palestinians in the West Bank will join their brothers in the Gaza Strip and find themselves also living under Hamas's repressive Islamist regime, which has no respect for human rights."
Khaled Abu Toameh, an award-winning journalist based in Jerusalem, is a Shillman Journalism Fellow at Gatestone Institute.
Also from the website, gatestoneinstitute.org Another article is headlined
"Palestinians: Victims of an Arab Country"
by Khaled Abu Toameh
January 21, 2021 the article says:
"Like most Arab countries, Syria denies citizenship to Palestinians. Children born in Syria to fathers who are Palestinian nationals are considered Palestinians, not Syrian nationals.
Palestinian leaders see no evil or wrong-doing when their people are being killed, injured, displaced, arrested and tortured in an Arab country. The attention of these leaders is solely focused on Israel, which they denounce day and night not only for what it does, but also for what it does not do.
On January 9, Abbas entered the 17th year of his four-year term. He is again talking about his desire to hold new elections. This charade is played at least once or twice a year so that people will believe that he really wants elections.
The Palestinians do not need new elections. They need new leaders who will guide them out from their longstanding morass into a future of promise and peace.
Fighting between the Syrian army and opposition groups in the Yarmouk refugee camp (once home to approximately 160,000 Palestinians) ended two years ago, but only 435 families have been permitted to return to their homes. Pictured: Yarmouk refugee camp, near Damascus, on May 22, 2018, days after Syrian government forces regained control. (Photo by Louai Beshara/AFP via Getty Images)
As Palestinian leaders condemn Israel almost on a daily basis, they continue to ignore the ongoing suffering of Palestinians living in a number of Arab countries, especially Syria.
Since the beginning of the civil war in Syria in 2011, 4,048 Palestinians have died – but Palestinian leaders hardly seem to notice. Another 333 Palestinians have gone missing, while 1,797 are being held in prisons controlled by the regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad.
Like most Arab countries, Syria denies citizenship to Palestinians. Children born in Syria to fathers who are Palestinian nationals are considered Palestinians, not Syrian nationals.
Palestinian leaders who meet on a regular basis in the West Bank city of Ramallah seldom discuss the tragedy that has befallen their people in Syria.
Similarly, the leaders of Hamas in the Gaza Strip, who relish giving interviews to the media, seem oblivious to the existence of Palestinians in Syria."
the article continues
"Palestinian leaders see no evil or wrong-doing when their people are being killed, injured, displaced, arrested and tortured in an Arab country. The attention of these leaders is solely focused on Israel, which they denounce day and night not only for what it does, but also for what it does not do.
The PA and Hamas are now condemning Israel for carrying out renovation work at the Western Wall Plaza below the Temple Mount, the most sacred site in the world for the Jewish people, in the Old City of Jerusalem. The Palestinian Authority (PA) and Hamas are making the surreal claim that Israel is trying to turn the Western Wall -- all that remains of the Jews' Second Temple, destroyed by Roman legions in 70 CE -- into a Jewish site.
Recently, some Palestinian officials tried to divert attention from their failure to quickly provide vaccines against the coronavirus to their people by arguing that it was Israel's "duty" to purchase the doses and distribute them to the Palestinians. Their argument was made even as the Palestinian leadership said it was seeking to obtain the vaccines from four companies, with the help of the international community. It is important to note that the Palestinians never approached Israel with a formal request to supply them with vaccines.
The primary victims of this obsession with Israel are the Palestinians living in Syria, whose daily appeals for help seem not to find their way to the ears of PA President Mahmoud Abbas or the Hamas leaders in the Gaza Strip, Qatar and Turkey.
Palestinian human rights organizations in the West Bank and Gaza Strip, as well as "pro-Palestinian" groups around the world, also remain silent about the catastrophic human rights violations of Palestinians in Syria. The voices of these organizations and groups are raised only when they have something bad to say about Israel."
the article lastly says :
"Here are some figures from Syria that Palestinian leaders, human rights organizations and "pro-Palestinian" groups in the US and Europe do not feel comfortable talking about: 40% of the Palestinians in Syria have been displaced since the beginning of the civil war, and 91% of their families live in absolute poverty.
These statistics appear in a January 2020 report published by the Action Group For Palestinians of Syria (AGPS), a London-based human rights watchdog group that monitors the situation of Palestinian refugees in war-torn Syria.
Referring to the deteriorating security and economic conditions of the Palestinians there, the AGPS report, titled "Palestinian Victims of Destruction," talks about the emergence of "female and child labor, begging, search for food in litter containers and school dropouts."
At the same time, the report reveals, thousands of Palestinians continue to flee to Lebanon, Turkey, Libya and Egypt. Upon their arrival at these countries, many Palestinians are arrested or fall victim to extortion by smugglers and human traffickers.
"The Syrian economic crisis exacerbated the humanitarian and living conditions of the Palestinians in Syria, who are now facing a social, health, environmental and educational catastrophe, in addition to the spread of social diseases resulting from the high rate of poverty," according to the report.
During 2020, many Palestinians were killed by the Syrian security services, especially in the Daraa Governorate in southwest Syria.
The AGPS report revealed that since 2011, in various Syrian detention centers, at least 620 Palestinians have been tortured to death.
The report further found that in addition to the killings, the Syrian authorities have also been confiscating the homes and property of many Palestinian refugees. Although fighting between the Syrian army and opposition groups in the Yarmouk Palestinian refugee camp (near Damascus) ended two years ago, only 435 families have been permitted to return to their homes.
According to the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees (UNRWA), Yarmouk was home to approximately 160,000 Palestinian refugees before the eruption of the civil war in Syria 10 years ago. "In December 2012, fierce clashes erupted in Yarmouk, causing numerous civilian casualties, severe damage to property and the displacement of thousands of Palestinians and Syrians," UNRWA wrote . "Now the camp is largely destroyed and contains just a few dozen families. These are mostly elderly Palestinian refugees."
What are Palestinian leaders doing to help the hundreds of thousands of Palestinians still living in Syria? Essentially nothing. They are so busy inciting violence against Israel that they have forgotten about their people.
On January 9, Abbas entered the 17th year of his four-year term. He is again talking about his desire to hold new elections. This charade is played at least once or twice a year so that people will believe that he really wants elections.
It is hard to see how elections would help the Palestinians of Syria (who anyway would not be participating in them). Palestinian elections may make some people in the Biden administration and the European Union happy -- although Palestinians might again elect the terrorist group Hamas -- but for the Palestinians nothing will change, definitely not for those who are being targeted almost daily in Syria.
The Palestinians do not need new elections. They need new leaders who will guide them out from their longstanding morass into a future of promise and peace. In the current circumstances, however, it does not appear that such leaders can be found either in the West Bank or the Gaza Strip."
Also anyone can do a Google Search for a Famous Quote by the Very Famous
Jewish Actress Mayim Bialik who said a few years ago
"This just never gets old. Yes, haters of Israel and haters of Jews: my wiki page is right. I am a Zionist. It's Not comparable to Fascism or Nazism or anything illegal or immoral. I'm
sorry you've been indoctrinated to believe otherwise."
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