Shoah and Anti-Semitism

 

Today was Yom HaShoah here in Israel where the nation comes to a halt at ten in the morning and the nation stands while the sirens blare. It is a moment of reflection and solemn meditation as well as remembrance both of those who perished and those who survived scarred for life and those who survived and partly due to that adversity not merely survived but thrived. There was one thing I noted from the limited numbers of Holocaust survivors that I was privileged to know or meet, the most successful were slim, fit individuals with great amounts of energy and others were more lethargic and usually heavier than most as if they were eating to make up for the near starvation they faced in the camps. It was as if the experience in both left them with a hunger, one group for the thing they hungered for in the camps, food, the others for life and engaging in everything they did with a ferocity that seemed to eat up every morsel of life as if it needed to be savored before heading to the next. Both were reacting to the same deprivations and horrors in very different ways and are significant as the same dichotomy exists in how most Jews face anti-Semitism even when it is staring them in the face.

 

The majority of Jews remaining in Europe and the United States are those whose first, second and even third reaction to increasing anti-Semitism is to dismiss it as either irrelevant or as happening to those other Jews, not to the kind of Jews I know who are comfortable and integrated and of course accepted as equals in the society and not seen as anything different. They keep sticking to an old Jewish belief when struck upside the head with anti-Semitic hatreds thinking that “It can’t happen here. Not to me or those I know. We are all assimilated and no different than anybody else. We are accepted. We are safe.” Others feel even more threatened than is warranted as they read a single article and they start using their dead-bolt, read a second article and keep their window shades drawn and the windows locked, another article and they get extra latches for the windows and a second dead-bolt in every door. Eventually they start seeing shadows behind every object and have paranoid feelings that they are being targeted and jump if touched out in public at the grocery store or the bank or wherever.

 

 

Wailing Wall with Soft Pale Blue Star of David Writ Large

 

The reality for both is somewhere inbetween as extra precautions are always a good idea these days even if one is not Jewish and a healthy awareness of surroundings is advised for all, but paranoia to the point of stark terror if outside at night is something beyond reasonable. Of course there are those places where the stark terrifying paranoia is warranted such as Sweden, Malmo in particular, and in France and soon to be areas in Britain and eventually throughout Europe. The answer for the growing anti-Semitic hatreds growing across Europe both emanating from the immigrant communities coming from countries where anti-Semitism is infused into the blood and Jews have become an extinct people or very close to so with perhaps a dozen or two very old Jews who refused to heed the signs and even the forced evictions, some even resorting to residing in their Synagogue where the authorities left them seeing them as harmless and a foil they could trot out as the happy Jews still living the good life, in the shadows trembling, in their fair and multi-cultural nation. Many of these same nations have a small and vulnerable Christian community which is an empty shell of its former self and equally endangered. When facing excessive threats, one is usually facing leaving; but the question is always where to flee. Should one flee to the United States where things are so different or to Israel where we will need to stand no matter the threat. Fleeing to Israel always has seemed like the place of last resort and if one is more an assimilated Jew, Israel becomes a threat in some manner as it is viewed as being too Jewish and is under threat more so than anywhere else; they are just more adapted and capable of minimizing most threats. The United States has always been the nation for those huddled masses yearning to be free, which these Jews honestly believe this includes freedom from anti-Semitism. Unfortunately they would be wrong as the ugly face of anti-Semitism has been lifting its head and snapping at the easiest targets. The latest was a graffiti spree where anti-Semitic phrases and references including swastikas were drawn on a pair of buildings, one being a school, in Rockville, Maryland about ten minutes outside of Washington D.C. on Wisconsin Avenue/Rockville Pike. This is in the middle of a number of heavily Jewish neighborhoods and from what we have gathered has been hushed up in the Capital City area likely not to upset the Jewish communities or blemish the nation’s Capital with such events being publicized.

 

Europe, on the other hand, had had a rising and bordering on vicious wave after wave of ever increasing anti-Semitism with France, Britain, Belgium, Sweden, Norway and others growing more antagonistic each and every day. The current spate of Ministers, former Minister, former Mayors and the head of the Labor Party all coming under suspicions of anti-Semitic outbursts leading to the suspension of around a half dozen pending hearings could eject them from their positions as Ministers and possibly from membership in the Party itself. These have simply been the most flagrant episodes which lie just sufficiently under the radar to be ignored by the media. Still, many Jewish neighborhoods have become aware and sensitive to the threats being faced and have already had the initial emigrations with half heading across the Atlantic to the United States with the remainder heading straight to Israel. Those heading to the United States may have chosen well, but time will tell. Those moving to Israel are very likely more traditional orthodox or religious and secular Zionists. The secular Zionists are most likely to take up residence in one of the various communities in and around Tel Aviv most likely to choose one fairly close to their new employment or in a neighborhood where the majority speak their native language. Perhaps those choosing Israel were fully aware of the statistics which combines terrorism with normative criminal activities giving a complete view of the dangers of each society, those in Israel against those in the United States. The immediate result between the two which becomes obvious was that in either nation one can avoid criminal victimhood one need only avoid certain areas where criminal activity is the highest. What surprises many people is that even with the terror statistics included, an individual is measurably safer in Israel.

 

 

 

 

The growing levels of anti-Semitism are notable in two main streams. The first is the same type of hatreds as has been seen over the centuries. This is largely the type of anti-Semitism as found in the developing nations. The second type of anti-Semitism is evidenced in Europe and the rest of the modern world and has spread to the rest of the world due to its apparent acceptance in the modern industrial nations, and that is anti-Israelism and anti-Zionism. This style of anti-Semitism basically stated claims that the Jew does not need their own nation as they can be a Jew anywhere they choose just as they have for centuries. The claim is that only the Jew may not have a nation they may call their own. The argument often goes that no other religious groups have their own nation. This ignores all the Islamic nations, Christian nations, Buddhist nations and targets solely Israel. It also ignores that every other religion has at least one nation where they are the majority peoples of the main religions and even Shinto has the Japanese Isles. This demand that only the Jew be forced to reside throughout the world an accursed minority and be denied a nation of their own is simply anti-Semitism. The claim that only the Jew be seen as never having existed as having their own nation ignores the nation of Judea which was the last independent Jewish state, and many well point out that the Jews came exactly from Judea and that before the split into Israel and Judea there was no Jew goes that last step in realizing that the Jew is really a Judean with it shortened to one syllable for lazy convenience. Still, whether we wish to call anti-Semitism what it is because it denies Jews their own state as Israelites, of which the Judeans were but one tribe’s worth, or demands that any and all former Israelites be forced to live dispersed as they are the true people damned by Hashem to forever walk nationless accursed amongst the peoples of the earth, either way it is anti-Semitism and holds the Jew as separate and reserved for hatred, lack of acceptance and scorn.

 

Lastly, how does the Shoah, the Holocaust fit into anti-Semitism. The manner in which the Shoah fits into modern anti-Semitism is when it is claimed that the only reason the Jews received their state of Israel was because of the Shoah and due to the guilt felt by Europe who punished the Arabs, later becoming the Palestinians, for the evils in Europe. This claim also ignores that half of Israeli Jewish population are Arab Jews from the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) and arrived in Israel as a direct result of anti-Semitic pogroms. Then there are the classic anti-Semitic tropes where Israel is directly threatened in a manner of claiming that the Holocaust never existed and that there will be another Holocaust when Israel is to be wiped from the map. How you can have another Holocaust while denying the former Holocaust is beyond logic. These Holocaust deniers who promise another Holocaust are a truly frightening sort as they claim there is no break in their logic and at the same instance claim that if only the Nazis had completed the task and followed through on their promises to the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin al-Hussein there would be no need for another holocaust.

 

Those claiming to be the final hand against the Jew further demand that they are serving the same deity as do Christian and Jews despite their name of Allah. Their claim goes even further astray in that they claim they follow the god of Abraham, Ishmael and Mohammad and of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Where they claim to be an Abrahamic religion, which is undeniable, their matron was not Sarah making theirs a separate Abrahamic religion not of the same lineage of Christianity and Judaism. This places the Islamic anti-Semitism on a different track of all other forms of anti-Semitism in that it claims the branch of Abrahamic religions as impure to be those from the lineage from Sarah and that the chosen religion comes from Abraham through Hagar, Sarah’s handmaiden. This would further make Christianity as false a religion as Judaism and we see that Islam does hold Christianity as a false religion just as it does Judaism. This should give pause to all the Christian groups who saddle up next to the Muslims as they see them as allies against the Jews but ignore their near equal hatred of Christianity. The one other note that both Christianity and Judaism need take of Islam is their current claims that Moses, Jesus and all the other main pillars and greats throughout the ages after Abraham as their prophets as well and their love of them is a matter of convenience and a method through which they hope to coopt both religions and take from them the weaker and less knowledgeable and plan that once they have eradicated the Jews and later the Christians they will drop these prophets of convenience and claim those believing in these as actual prophets of Islam to be heretics and apostates who need to be crushed and put to the sword and that will be their final treatment of the false Jews and Christians whose faith was so weak they gave up their rightful religions for the protection, temporary as it will be, of those who never wished their company but accepted it as a convenience when it was necessary. The Jews should recognize such as we have seen it time and time again be it the Hellenistic Jews to Jews for Jesus. But history has taught that there is no anti-Semite as hateful as the former Jew coopting Judaism in order to save their lives at the expense of their brethren Jews. That is truly the world’s worst and most persistent and second oldest form of anti-Semitism with the idolaters who served Ba’al amongst others who were the original anti-Semites as the Jews have witnessed many a varied sort of anti-Semite with the Jew turned against their own being the worst as it is their weakness and lack of faith and love of Hashem which has pained us the most throughout the ages. As the old adage claims, “Save me from my friends as my enemies I can take care of myself.” These are the wolves in sheep’s clothing which are the most scary as they attack from within our gates.

 

 

Wolf in Sheep’s Clothing

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

And Abbas Finally Speaks the Truth About Israel

 

While speaking to a special session of the Human Rights Council this past week, Wednesday, in Geneva, while Abbas requested the United Nations, the Security Council in particular as only they can provide what he is demanding of late, that the Human Rights Council demand and fully back his demand for international forces be sent to protect any Arabs, Palestinian or Israeli, from being prevented by police, Border Patrols, Israeli Defense Forces or Israeli citizens interfering in any way their attempts to murder freely Israeli citizens. Understand that these attacks may be targeting Jews but there is a statistical chance of one in four that the target attacked will be other than Jewish and a twenty percent chance of their target being a fellow Arab. Abbas’s speech had a number of goodies which we will post outtake pictures of the selected frames for ease of reading and include the entire video at the bottom for the less patient who are also fast readers, though one need not be too fast a reader I have been told.

 

 

Abbas Speech in Geneva October 28 2015 to Human Rights Council
Demanding Peacekeeping Forces to Guard Terrorists Stabbing Israelis

 

 

What is it that makes Abbas so irresistible that whenever and to whomever he desires to speak to, most especially United Nations, attached NGOs, and other Agencies instantly upon an Abbas request for special sessions are instantly coordinated? The next thing required to interpret Abbas’s brief brush with the truth is to do some rudimentary mathematics, a simple case of subtractions before delving into a little history.

 

 

This has been the never to be stated aim of the entire terror war from even before 1948 which was the year in which Israel was founded on May 15th, from even before the riots instigated and called for by the Mufti of Jerusalem Haj Amin Al Hussein who made calls for the riots on Arab radio stations declaring that the Jews were desecrating the al-Aqsa Mosque and were also preparing to destroy the al-Aqsa Mosque despite there being no evidence or potential truth to his claims. These broadcasts called for pogroms against the Jews of Jerusalem and Hevron as well as numerous places where the violence was somewhat muted but all in all the acts of rioting close to one-hundred-fifty Jews were murdered. In the main areas where any intervention might have ended the violence the British policemen did not open fire fearing that if they had shot into the Arab crowd, the mob would have turned their anger on the police. There will be those who may claim this source is tainted due to its presumed slant but we can attest that we have heard that it may have been a single shot from a British Officer which scattered the Arab rioters which was fired due to some of the Arab rioters coming uncomfortably close to the British section of troops who stood and simply witnessed the pogrom without any concern. The source Think-Israel tells a slightly different story themselves quoting with regard to Mr. Cafferata, both the Memorial Book and the testimony of the survivors record, with damning unanimity, that Mr. Cafferata did nothing for two hours. The Memorial book records: “From our knowledge, we say with certainty that it would have sufficed to issue a warning, or to fire some shots into the air, and the crowd would have scattered. It was only after there had been sufficient butchery, plunder and rape, and the pogromists were about to attack an English officer, that some shots were fired, and the mob dispersed at once.”

 

The 1929 rioting had been preceded by rioting in Jaffa in 1921 and on and off rioting and assaults since the first Jewish settlers arrived in Palestine in 1882 from Russia and which were also followed by further rioting incited in much the same manner in 1933, as well as consistently from 1936 through 1939 across the different places in what would eventually become Israel for one evening before the assault on Israel the next morning by seven Arab armies crossing the borders with Lebanon in the north, Syria the Golan Heights in the northeast, Egypt in the South, and Saudi Arabia and Yemen from the southeast and Iraq and Jordan from the east. Just in case anybody ever doubted what the actual real borders of Israel were as when she declared her independence, allow me to repeat without naming the armies which poured over them in the hopes of enjoying what was to be an easy genocidal murder of every last Jews but somebody forgot to tell the Israelis, they were Lebanon in the north, the center line of the Golan Heights in the northeast, the Jordan River to the east and a line extending from the Dead Sea to the Red Sea as if the Jordan River had continued that far as it most likely did a long time ago and the Negev Sinai border in the South with the Mediterranean Sea to the West. This means that Israel originally included the presumed ‘occupied lands’ referred to as Gaza and West Bank.

 

Well, as promised, the video itself for your viewing pleasure followed by some concluding remarks.

 

 

 

 

There are a fair number of people around this world of ours who are willing to grab ahold of any claim against Israel and run it into the ground and hopefully doing the same to Israel. Their blood lust to have Israel torn asunder, destroyed and further not all that likely to lose a moment’s sleep if every Jews were slaughtered in the process of Israel’s destruction. They will claim they have nothing against the Jews, only with Israeli policies and decisions and the violence they use to enforce their laws and protect the life of all Israelis, including the twenty percent who are Arabs and the other five percent who range from Bahá’í Faith to Hindus and from Buddhists to Shinto, from Christians to Mennonites and Jews to Zoroastrians and lastly also Muslims (all of which are growing populations in Israel and often Israel is the sole nation with growing populations as the rest of the nations in MENA have dwindling populations of all but for Islam for various reasons as they are all growing and enjoying the freedom of religion in Israel). These same people appear not to have anywhere near the same level of concern and critical spite for Syria, Islamic State, Libya, Iran, Sudan, Somalia, Afghanistan, Pakistan Nigeria, Cameroon, Ukraine, Myanmar, Mexico and numerous other places in the world; they just hold a special animus against Israel, the sole nation of the Jews. Many of these haters of Israel will claim they are not anti-Semites but merely anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Settlers who just happen to be Jews yet if asked if they would be willing and openly accepting to have a couple of million Jews emigrate to their country and they will suggest that perhaps a smaller amount, the percentage equal to their population against the rest of the world, crowding, you know, there is such limited space here and other reasons. Some might even use that all time favorite that the Jews would not be happy here and they would rather go elsewhere. There are claims that the Jews need to return to Germany, Russia, Poland and the other European nations and the United States, you know, where they came from, but that ignores close to half the Jewish population. The Jews who came to Israel when they were expelled, chased, nudged or elbowed out of their homes and businesses often permitted one or two suitcases per family or person depending on the nation and had their bags checked and any jewelry, monies or other items determined valuable like art or coin collections, were removed and not permitted to leave the country across MENA (Middle East and North Africa) most of which ended in Israel, all over eight-hundred-thousand plus of them over the decade that followed 1948 and they now make up close to half of Israel’s Jewish population. What are the chances that these Arab nations would accept them back and not simply exterminate them upon arrival and quite likely with the aircraft they arrived in? There is nowhere for the six and a half million Jews of Israel to go and there are about to be an entirely new influx of Jews from the Ukraine, Europe, and soon even the United States, Australia and the remainder of the Anglosphere. Israel with her original eastern border of the Jordan River straight down to the Red Sea as was promised by the British and that agreement signed onto by almost all of the Western World and even Japan and King Faisal. How much more is required to permit the Jews to have their nation returned, and not even the entirety of their ancestral home which crossed to over both sides of the Jordan once reached to the Litani River, and reached Euphrates River after the conquests of King David and the rule and management of King Solomon as depicted in the left most image below.

 

 

 

 

The right hand picture above depicted the aboriginal boundaries of the Jewish State which reached the Litani River to the North, straddled both sides of the majority of the Jordan River basin and surrounding lands and continued south crossing beyond today’s border into what today is referred to as the Sinai Peninsula. Considering the above pictures which defines the different states of existence of the Jewish State in its aboriginal state and the lands according to some decisions on aboriginal peoples and their rights to their former lands would allow for an enlargement of the boundaries Israel would be happy to see returned such that Israel return to her original lands the moment before the Arab war of annihilation which Israel survived but as she lost bordering on one-third of her land mass she cannot be claimed to have won, just merely survived.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

As If Only Followers of Islam Take Offense

 

In the wake of the “Draw Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” in Garland, Texas, the world of reporting and opinion journalism has largely taken the side of the Jihadists taking great offense each attempting to out-do the Muslims in taking insult. Their grand excuse is that what Ms. Geller, Mr. Spenser and Mr. Wilders were not expressing free speech but were expressing hate speech and therefore not worthy of Constitutional protection. I wonder if this exception which makes the “Draw Muhammad Art Exhibit and Cartoon Contest” not protected speech as it gives strictest followers of Islam so upset that they believe that Ms. Geller, Mr. Spenser and Mr. Wilders, especially Ms. Pamela Geller, deserve to be put to death for their insult to Islam also apply to my distaste and deep seated ire when Islamic Imams and others when they call for “Death to Israel” or compare Jews to Apes and Pigs. Would the same self-righteous giants of the world of news and opinion journalism and other media moguls give the same leeway to Jews if they were to respond to such insult in a similar manner as the two would-be jihadists and assaulted the Imam making such reference and took out the same righteous indignation taken from such insult? We all know the answer to such a situation, they would claim that the Imam’s speech was protected as free speech and religious freedom and my insults taken were insufficient for me or others so taken with insults and angers to be permitted to take such drastic actions. There appears to be a slight difference of standards to which Jews, Christians, Hindus, Bahá’í, Buddhists, Shinto or virtually any religion other than Islam are held but to such behavioral expectations the most violent and easily offended practitioners of Islam are granted a special sympathy and understanding. So, according to some of the greatest stalwarts of the left, right and center of the media who control the reporting of news, opinion and the making of standards for the masses concerning that which is to be tolerated and that which must be persecuted as they deem that Islam has special rights when it comes to expectations of actions, commentary, even the simple drawing of pictures of the Prophet Mohammad even should they be honorable and perfectly good taste and distinctly noble by those outside Islam and even presumably by the adherents to Islam. Never mind that there exist a plethora of renditions representing the Prophet Mohammad in books and paintings from numerous periods of Islamic history.

 

Still, the lack of nerve shown by so many but at least there have been those who did stand upright and take a stand for free speech such as Foxx News Megyn Kelly and former CNN host Piers Morgan, while I doubt this will endear him to his old bosses and regain him his position with them, though perhaps it would be to their credit to take him back for showing a modicum of fortitude taking the path less taken. There were many others who have usually stood when others crumbled like a house of cards but this time they too tumbled and trembled from the fear of Islamist disapproval and violence. Such former heavyweights as Don Imus and the No Spin Zone’s own Bill O’Reilly among others went limp and wilted blaming Pamela Geller, and interestingly enough Pamela Geller alone not mentioning Robert Spenser and Geert Wilders taking on the most vulnerable target, the one already targeted for her standing against Islam and the attacks from so many Islamist groups such as CAIR which is tied to Hamas, Muslim American Society which has ties to the Muslim Brotherhood and other groups which have also slandered and assaulted the reputation of Pamela Geller as well. It was a disgusting case of piling-on the weakest target. Fortunately for Ms. Geller, she has experienced such targeting before and continued to bounce back and continue in her crusade to uncover the less attractive sides of Islam and its most vehement and violent reactions which go beyond the accepted norms and expectations placed on all other religions.

 

The vehement attacks on Ms. Geller is a reaction she has faced before which will not have the effect which her attackers may hope it might as she has made a practice of walking the edge in her efforts to display the duplicity of the reactions to Islam and Israel and the media hypocrisy. We should not expect for Ms. Geller to calm her approach continuing forward though it is very likely she may not see any sympathetic media coverage with perhaps a few brave souls who have already warmed to her side already claiming that her freedom of speech though controversial is exactly the kind of speech the Constitution’s First Amendment was designed to protect. Where the First Amendment also protect the free exercise of religion, such freedom of religious exercise does not include murdering those who may not follow the precepts of ones’ religion and no matter what rules the religion exercises. Ms. Geller will continue pushing the envelope and continue proving that in the United States the people’s freedoms are paramount and will not be compromised simply because somebody’s sensitivities might be upset beyond measure and to the point of violence. Instead, if one uses violence to silence any American they may likely find the freedoms are better protected than initially believed. Let us hope that the freedoms guaranteed by the United States Constitution continue to be kept sacred and not compromised in order to placate the sensitivities expressed and even to respond to the fact that some were driven to violence as a response. Violence must not be used to sacrifice freedoms as once such a response to violence destroys freedoms then all freedoms will become suspected as vulnerable to violence attacks over time. Such weakness can eventually lead to the compromise of all the Constitutional freedoms and the end of the promises of the Constitution and Bill of Rights which have survived just over two-hundred years. Could this be the first assault which will lead to the compromise of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights and an end to the freedoms which have been taken for granted by the American people since the institutions of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights were ratified and took their place as laws never before enshrined by any government in history. That may depend on the reaction of We the People and fortunately not on the weak kneed media elites, and for that the world can be thankful.

 

Beyond the Cusp