Will Youth Investigation be Another Embarrassing Fiasco?

 

The Shin Bet is hot on the trail of some heinous Jewish terrorists from the Shomron and likely will once again not allow anything to get in their way of getting their confessions. We went through this scenario over a more serious episode where a home in Duma (pictured below), an Arab town in the Shomron southeast of Nablus, was the victim of an arson attack. There were fatalities from the arson and Hebrew graffiti with the words “Price Tag” written large. Immediately the Shin Bet was on the case. They smelled Jewish terrorism, which is a number one priority, and they will stamp it out no matter how minor. There were problems with their immediately believing it had to be over-zealous youths from some Yeshiva who perpetrated that horrific murderous act. First was the claim that whoever had set the fire was a group of two masked assailants who managed to force the inhabitants of the home, including an infant, to remain in the structure as it burned down causing the fatalities. There were many who had their doubts that any Jews, youth or adult, had perpetrated this act. Their evidence was short of compelling but should have raised at least some doubt or at least caution leading to a more wide-spread investigation. That was not what we had as the Shin Bet laser focused on their list of Jewish “fanatical youths” who simply had to have committed this act. After all, they had a secret hideout where they planned their attacks and pseudo-names by which they referred to one another when planning and so much more which made it obvious. The fact that two families in and around Duma were in the midst of a feud and that this house and other homes belonging to members of the two clans had been firebombed before and after never entered the picture of the investigation. There was graffiti in Hebrew and even the words “Price Tag” which made it evident that it could not have been perpetrated as part of the ongoing feud, it had to be the Jewish youths.

 

Village of Duma

 

There were a few other items which made suspicions rise amongst many Israelis who looked into the evidence. There was the fact that there were supposedly witnesses who did not intervene. The two houses which were torched that night lay in the center of Duma which would have made any escape for Jewish youths doubtful. Further, Duma sits atop an open region which would have made escape difficult at best and improbable at least. The Shin Bet arrested a number of youths over the ensuing weeks and kept them in a secret place denying them any access to their families, lawyers or anyone other than Shin Bet operatives. In the end and after months of intensive interrogations the Shin Bet got their confessions from a small group which were immediately branded the nucleus of a Jewish youth terrorist gang. This nucleus included at least one youth under the age of fifteen. The end result was the court throwing out some of the confessions as they were procured under extreme duress bordering on torture. Later, it was found out that the Shin Bet had set up a stage prison where the guards and inmates were all Shin Bet and they attempted to use interrogations, threats from their agents posing as prisoners while other agent prisoners attempted to cajole confessions acting as protectors and friendly to the youths. These youths, at least one was seventeen and attempted to commit suicide to avoid further torturous treatment including sexual threats from operatives in cell with him. The youths were denied, after requests, being transferred to cells for youths and not being kept with adults. This had to be refused as everyone was Shin Bet and thus they were merely only at risk for as long as they claimed their innocence. If they would only admit they committed the arson, then they would have been treated better, but no kindness for these known miscreants. We could even use the phrase that the Shin Bet arrested all the usual suspects, as that was basically how they proceeded. Read this article explaining how the Shin Bet wrung their confessions from juveniles whom they treated worse than the usual respect maintained with Arab terror suspects. The argument that the treatment of these youths was not overly zealous was that they did nothing beyond what they usually do to receive confessions from Arab suspects. One then need worry if the Shin Bet is setting up fake prison settings all over Israel and making threats on suspect’s lives as their ordinary methods of operation. We think not and the courts apparently agreed that the Shin Bet had gone way too far in their pursuit of a confession from these youths simply because they were so sure that the act was perpetrated by Jewish youths.

 

This would not be the first time that acts of violence between two groups of Arabs used graffiti reading “Price Tag” in order to try to obscure the perpetrators real identity. But these were all actions from the past and nothing can be done to undo any of the trauma and psychological damage resulting from the Duma investigation. What remains mostly untold was the fact that the Shin Bet had arrested close to if not exceeding a half dozen youths, with one under thirteen, who were released after their run through the gamut of Shin Bet treatment with at least one being held for six weeks before being released. The Shin Bet was seeking victims who were weak enough to be broken so they would get their confession almost as much, if not more, than they were seeking the truth. That was the feeling that many got from this fiasco. Now we are at the leading edge of another incident of a similar nature. It was released by the Shin Bet that the incident was a terrorist “stone-throwing attack in which Aisha Rabi, a resident of Badi and mother of nine, was killed while riding in a car on Friday night, near the community of Rahelim on October 12, 2018,” according to the Shin Bet. There were a number of arrests made and according to reports by the Shin Bet, “The suspects were arrested for serious terrorist offenses, including murder.” All of the suspects “are minors studying at the Pri Ha’aretz Yeshiva in Rehelim near the site of the incident.” In preparation for what is expected to come, the Shin Bet has “identified a concerted and ongoing effort by those with an interest in slandering the organization and its employees and delegitimizing its activities. This attempt is worthy of condemnation and non-cooperation, and it does not deter the Shin Bet from continuing its activity to prevent terrorist acts, whether Jewish or Palestinian, under state values and for the security of the state.” They further emphasized, “It should be emphasized that Shin Bet interrogations are carried out according to the provisions of the law and the ruling, are subject to the supervision of the State Attorney’s Office as required and of the courts, and thus also in relation to this investigation.” They concluded their statements with the main statement which is presented to clear them of any possible misconduct because (emphasis ours, we hope), “During the year, the Shin Bet foiled hundreds of terrorist attacks throughout Judea and Samaria, among other things, including Jewish terror attacks.” The Shin Bet has even received the full faith and backing of Prime Minister Netanyahu shown in the below video.

 

 

Was this a terrible and criminal act, of course and regrettable. Were these youths the first individuals who would come to mind for such an act on a Friday night during the Sabbath? Well, it would not be the first place we would look, but we realize we are biased and thus incapable of free thought and a truly open mind. What this was is a tragedy but stone throwing at vehicles with large projectiles is not something which is particularly Jewish in this region. If these youths are guilty of these horrific actions, they are in far deeper trouble than what the Shin Bet has in mind; they will have to answer in there hereafter for their desecration of the Sabbath. In Judaism, you can break the rules on any other holiday and it is less serious of an offense than desecration of the Sabbath. Why, some may ask. Well, the Ten Commandments list only one holy day amongst its list, so we will quote from Shemot / Exodus – Chapter 20 verses 8 through 11, where it states,

“Remember the Sabbath day to sanctify it.
Six days may you work and perform all your labor,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord, your God; you shall perform no labor, neither you, your son, your daughter, your manservant, your maidservant, your beast, nor your stranger who is in your cities.
For [in] six days the Lord made the heaven and the earth, the sea and all that is in them, and He rested on the seventh day. Therefore, the Lord blessed the Sabbath day and sanctified it.”

Breaking the sanctity of the Sabbath is very serious and one would pray that no Yeshiva youth would ever consider such a desecration before Hashem. The fact that this occurred on the Sabbath makes one suspicious that any Yeshiva youth would be acting with such an offence and breaking one of the Ten Commandments. Should any of these youths be found to have participated in such an act, they might also warrant being expelled from their Yeshiva or any suitable punishment their Rabbi decides. The incurring of the shaming before Hashem and their community will be the lasting guilt they will face should they have committed this shameful act. Breaking the Sabbath and committing an act which resulted in killing an innocent makes it two commandments that were broken should any of these youths prove to be guilty. We can only pray that they are exonerated.

 

The Ten Commandments

 

But the problem is the suspicions that the Shin Bet is once again going to use extreme tactics and actions bordering, if not crossing into, torture to pry confessions out of any of these youths. Rabbi Haim Druckman has done something unprecedented for him, and any call from a Rabbi with such standing who has respect of both religious and secular Jews should be heard and weighed heavily, has called on the Prime Minister to command the release of these youths. His call comes amid reports that since then it has been reported that two more minors from the same yeshiva as the three arrested last week were arrested that night. Rabbi Druckman was quoted as stating, “I appeal to the prime minister from the depths of my heart to order the immediate release of the three young boys, the three youths detained by the Shin Bet.” Would this have been sufficient to garner actions from the Prime Minister to release these youths, well, actually not. But there is more and we suspect that Rabbi Druckman was made aware of what follows before he made his request, and if so, he was being excessively polite. The Rabbi of community of Kochav Hashahar (pictured below) has reported that he was told that the head of the Yeshiva testified to police that these boys were sitting with him at the same hour for the Shabbat meal. Now, unless these youths are capable of being in two places at the same time and breaking the laws of Physics, one must take this information as a verified alibi from a very credible person. We already know the response from the Shin Bet will most likely be, how many boys were having dinner with you at the time and can you verify that these three, now five, youths attended and had not skipped out and gone to commit mischief and desecrate the Sabbath all at once. Even should the response be that the head of the Yeshiva can verify that these youths were present, the interrogation must go on as the Shin Bet once again has their favorite meal, Jewish terrorists.

 

Rabbi of community of Kochav Hashahar

 

We suspect that the same routine they used before will be implemented again except this time they will require a more immediate form of persuasion as the tactics used previously are now known thus minimizing their effects. Still, enhanced interrogations more often than not get exactly the desired response, in this case an admission of guilt to the crimes committed. Their dogged determination is to be admired much of the time, but even should they get an admission in a confession, resulting from enhanced interrogation techniques, once the head of the Yeshiva testifies to the youths being at dinner with him at the time of the commission of the stone throwing, that will likely be the end of their case. The probability that the prosecuting attorney will be able to break down the head of the Yeshiva and throw into doubt his ability to witness the presence of the youths in question is, how does one say this politely, out of the question. Once the prosecutor relents and releases the witnessing head of the Yeshiva, the defense attorney is going to motion for the dropping of all charges, and he will receive what he requests. The Shin Bet already has sufficiently damaged their reputation for fair treatment of these youths as they have previously, in addition to the Duma scars to their image, have arrested religious youths from the Shomron before only to have the crime be solved exonerating them. This also casts doubts onto their activities in this case. Perhaps, in this instance, looking beyond their framing of this crime as religious youths targeting Arabs and throwing stones at their vehicles as they drive past on the road, this might be seen as people targeting Jews, Arabs or (insert name here) driving past on that Friday night. Those throwing the stones do not always know who is in the vehicle and behind the wheel. As for identifying the targeted vehicle by its license plate, have you ever tried to read the license plate of a vehicle doing fifty-plus kilometers per hour at night, even in the dusk of the final light of the sun? It does not always allow for discernment that your target has the correct license plate identifying them as Arab, Jew or whatnot. But, as the victim in this case was a Palestinian Arab, there is absolutely no possibility of Arab stone throwers misidentifying their selected target and striking a fellow Palestinian Arab. It is a well-known fact, according to some Shin Bet and other Israelis, that the Jewish youths are out throwing rocks at passing vehicles just as often and with similar sized projectiles as the Palestinian Arab youths. Further, the Shin Bet might even go so far as to claim that when it comes to terrorism, there is no difference between Jews and Arabs. Should that receive raised eyebrows and some tart-remarks, they may adjust the sentence to claim amongst youths expecting everyone to simply agree at that point. The only thing we can be assured of is that they are unlikely to allow these youths go as they have their teeth into their favorite meat, they will not allow such a tasty delight as proving that when it comes to religious people, they are all equally vile and there is no difference in the actions of Islamic and Jewish religious youths, they are all extremists and capable of anything with equal propensity for terrorist acts. The Shin Bet has drawn an equality between graffiti and slashed tires by Jewish youths with stabbing attacks and murders such as the Fogel family by Arab youths. What could be more obvious than that?

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

Life with a Deceitful Media

 

If it were just the media perhaps things would be a little less, how can we put this politely, messed up. But the problem is in Western Civilization media encompasses a little bit more than just the news or even including the entertainment which is included by adding a word to make multimedia. As soon as we add that word, we have thrown in the Internet. There is one more arm of the multimedia conglomerate which was the most recently added, education. With all of these tentacles, the media has unbelievable power and it is only growing. As the Internet gains power, the Internet will become reality and will paint the history which is believed by the majority of the population. Educators will rely on the Internet as a teaching aid and eventually it will replace all other forms of knowledge and will become the infinite knowledge base. The media has its imperfections and the Internet is all these things, their starting-point, their amplifier and their eventual home where they flourish or die. The correction factors are human just as are their original authors and those who store the results and those who decide which results are stored and which are permitted to fall through the cracks in the electronic net, the Internet. When everything depends upon a shaky foundation, the future can only amplify each tremor until something important breaks and when eventually that something is important enough the whole world can change overnight. That is what results when the past becomes flexible and can be altered by anything from a mere whim to an intentional plot and everything in between, but it will be the little cracks in the truth of what was which will eventually destroy truth.

 

There has been a truth which was drastically altered somewhere back long enough ago that the lie has become the accepted truth. Even today, it is not understood completely who made the change to introduce illusion to replace reality and then promote leaving the illusion in place of all reason. The evidence often comes to the fore only to be sent scurrying back into the blurred truths of the past. What was once known and understood by academics, politicians and many honest and honorable people, but those days have all but melted away into what will soon be the distant past. But we have been informed that there is a cavernous distance on the political spectrum between the two major parties in the United States, the Democrats and the Republicans. We are told that the democrats hold the elite and more enlightened side at the leftmost end of the political spectrum and that the Republicans staunchly hold pragmatic far right end of the political spectrum. That is what is depicted on the top picture which one may have seen in some learned textbook or drawn on the board walking into a lecture on the political ethics or modern politics in the United States. You will be told other lies such as that the Communists are on the left and the Nazis were on the right, also depicted on the top image. The Communists are always said to be even further to the left than are the Democrats and the Nazis to the further right than the Republicans. Often the Democrats are said to be in the center while the Republicans are still reputed to be on the far right almost neighbors with the Nazis. Well, allow a welcome reality which can and remains on the Internet of the political spectrum represented on the bottom image below. The Democrats and Republicans are almost next-door neighbors and both situated and slowly sliding further leftward with time. Then there are the Communists, the Nazis and the new world bad boy, Kim Jong-un, all even further to the left. Oh, and for your information, very little exists to the actual right of center except the theories which founded the United States stated in fairly plain English in the Constitution of the United States along with the Bill of Rights (see image below). These truths are taught but in a few university and college courses in a few limited and smaller institutions, and that is all the more sorrowful.

 

 

In many ways, in an honest study of history, the societies which traditionally were most destructive to freedom, liberty and individualism with rights for the people have been those which favor the government and its power over that of the people and the individual. It matters little whether the Statist Imperialist were Kings and Queens, Dictators, Pharos, Czars, Führer, Emperor, Dear Leader, Caliph, Judges, Sultan, Prophets or whatever title they may choose. They may even choose to have elected officials who cannot make any real difference. The government itself becomes the holder and enforcer of true power and holds the politicians hostage, as they owe their wealth and power to the government as without the government the people could take back that which they lost to the bureaucracy. When the state holds the power then the people will fear the government and when the people hold the power then the government fears the people. There are no places left on earth where the people are feared by governments any longer as the governments have arms and powers which the people cannot match. The United States Second Amendment was actually intended to allow the people to be as armed as was the government but as the government gained more powerful weaponry they passed new laws for the safety of the people, or so were the claims, and disallowed the people the same weapons as the government, as the military. The reality was by limiting the power held by the people the government was protecting the government, not the people, them they were enslaving. The one redeeming factor in a few selected nations is that the military, which holds the true and final arbiter of all power and thus the governance, is comprised of citizen volunteers and thus more aligned with the people than their political leaders. Even so, often the final decision lies with their commanders who they have been trained to follow and obey.

 

Should there come a point where the people and the government, not necessarily the highest elected officials but the so-called Deep State, the bureaucracy, should come into direct conflict over a power grab by the government which the people see as illegal and unjust and they were to rise up, if the military were to side with the people, then the power would return to be with the people and the power balance could be returned to the lines such as those in the Constitution of the United States or to an even older constitution, the one promised by Hashem to Israel where the Kings were to have limited power and wealth with the people and the tribes themselves holding the real power while the King was held short of absolute power as described in Devarim – Deuteronomy – Chapter 17: 14-20. This was the initial and first great limitation on political power to be introduced into human history. This limitation of Kingly power along with the Ten Commandments and the other precepts of Judaism upon which Christianity was placed like a cloak to conceal parts and regalize other parts and from this and with time came Western civilization and the modern Western World. But there are those on the extremes of society which the media falsely states posit on the extreme left and right, they are both extreme statists and anti-individualists, and wish to return all to the barbarous days of early history. And these are things which the media will control and spin to make their own power increased and merged with the government, the bureaucracy. Together they would drain the people of their freedoms, their wealth and over time their desire to live and be free. Once that spark has been extinguished, it will not be rekindled even in the time of their children or likely their grandchildren, if it will ever be rekindled. Should the Hebrew Bible ever be erased from human memory along with everything which it spawned directly, then the spark which kindled freedom will have died and been wantonly buried. This is what both extremes desired to bring about given the opportunity in Charlotte. Only one of them has the current ability to even attempt such a grab of power. That is the one backed by this monster we call the media, a product of society but too often corrupted by those hungry to tell everyone how they must live. That is the real evil of statists.

 

Beyond the Cusp

 

It Can Get Worse But Why Wait?

 

The articles and editorials all point to the same truths. It is painful to read about but we read it anyways. Those who read here regularly know the feeling and most made of sterner mettle read on if for no other reason than the hope that in the story there will at the least be a single ray of hope. The stories from the last few days held no such light. Stories from across Europe and back again, from the campuses of the United Kingdom to across the Ukraine to Paris, the capital city of France, the stories are all too similar. The names of the victims change and all too often the perpetrators remain unidentified and probably without remorse. The only time these beasts feel remorse is before the television cameras and the media and even then the discerning realize their remorse is that they will face legal proceedings. Then there are the few defiant who cannot understand that they had committed any crime and demand to have explained what they did that was wrong, after all, they had merely beaten the life out of a Jew. And these miscreants often come in small groups up to a half dozen or so and attack as a mob again a singular target or perhaps two Jews both teens or old men. They rarely take their vengeance and hate out on any Jew physically capable of dealing harm to at least one or two before numbers take their toll. These stories rise out of Europe and one of the rare voices reporting on these heinous acts has been the Italian journalist Giulio Meotti. His most recent article ”Welcome to Europe’s Four Capitals of anti-Semitism” was one of a series of articles over the past week which served as the impetus for this article.

 

There has been one ray of light we have kept in mind when reading these stories, and that is that more and more European Jews are choosing Aliyah to Israel as the solution to the growing menace in Europe. The information we have seen indicates that Israel is the number one choice followed by the United States with a small number choosing elsewhere such as South America and Canada or even Asia. The main group we would like to speak with directly, and to anyone knowing of such people, are those deciding that the United States, and by inference anywhere other than Israel, as their destination where they can restart their lives anew and be safe. We are not trying to imply that currently the problems for Jews in the United States is something dire and that it is a reckless choice which places them in nearly the same level of danger as that is definitely not the situation. But on the other end of the scale, we are speaking as amongst those who made Aliyah to Israel from the United States. The main reason is that one of us had promised themselves at an early age that they would retire in Israel when the opportunity arrived. We lost a great deal of financial security by doing so having now to rent at a far higher price than the mortgage we paid on our home in Oklahoma. We can tell you that the sacrifice was more than worth it. That leaves the question as to why we would make such a move and that gets to the crux of why we recommend that the United States not be at the top of any Jew’s list of safe destinations. If your reason is that you have relatives in the United States and you are moving near them, then by all means go to the United States as having supportive relatives of close friends should always be amongst the highest priorities. But, if the choice is purely which destination would be best, then choose Israel.

 

First, we can give a couple of startling facts comparing Israel and the United States. Taking in all types of criminal acts even including terrorism, one is more likely to have a violent crime committed against their person in the United States than they are in Israel. The best means of avoiding such a fate is identical in Israel as it is in the United States; simply avoid areas where criminal acts are most often perpetrated. Do not visit certain places or at least minimize visiting such places to daylight hours and one severely diminishes the probability that they will fall victim to violence. We will grant that there is a definitive difference in the likelihood of a military attack on the nation between the United States and Israel. Mitigating this problem is that the Israeli government has made a great deal of effort into protecting the people, particularly the children, from the ravages of war. There are shelters throughout the country and should the sirens sound, simply follow the flow of people to reach the closest shelter. During the last Gaza war the seeming biggest question on virtually every Western journalists’ list came across asking, “Where are all the dead Jews to match the Palestinian losses?” Of course, it was not phrased so clumsily, well except one journalist who said almost exactly that, but they were all seemingly fascinated in the fact that more Gazan civilians appeared to be dying than Israel civilians. Now we must point out that these very same journalists were following the crowds of Israelis heading for the shelters when the sirens sounded and they marveled, as did we all, at the unbelievable accuracy and kill rate of the Iron Dome batteries. But, despite witnessing the exact reasons for the disparity, they were not making a comparison as much as a political statement which basically could have been read, what makes the lives of Israelis more important than the lives of Gazans. They were asking the wrong side, that is what they should have queried the Hamas and Islamic Jihad leaders as to why they too had not permitted their civilians the protections they reserved for their fighters. But that was a lesson that Israel will spend just as much if not more, fifty-thousand dollars a missile cost for Iron Dome to prevent a rocket costing a few hundred dollars if that, preserving the lives of her citizens, all her citizens. Israel has recently completed fortifying every school roof and structure to withstand the majority of rocket strikes and further enforced the kindergartens and many daycare facilities. Israel requires that all new residences come equipped with a shelter which will withstand rocket attacks up to a certain level. Basically, Israel is a nation with bomb shelters spread across every city, town, kibbutz and community and invests in the best intercepting systems all in the name of keeping the people safe.

 

Israel can offer one guarantee; she will not enter into any conflict which can be avoided by negotiations or other means to mitigate the necessity of war. The same cannot be stated about her neighbors, especially Hamas, Hezballah, the terrorists in the Sinai Peninsula (who are fortunately busy fighting one another), Syria (which is also engaged with internal struggles), Jordan, Egypt or Iran. What is interesting about Jordan and Egypt is that the nation’s leaders in both countries are less inclined in fighting with Israel than are the people, with the Jordanian people actually having the highest and most deeply ingrained hatreds for Israel largely due to their listening to Palestinian Authority radio and television, stations Israel licenses and permits to broadcast. That is largely financed by the European Union, United Nations, many individual European governments and likely the United States funds are also used for these broadcasts and at least the first three would all be up in arms should Israel shutter these incitive voices of hatreds. Some claim that Israel is high upon the list of the Islamic State as a target to attack should the opportunity present itself. This was revealed to be untrue when one of the commanders in the areas closest to the Golan Heights was asked if striking Israel was a priority to which he responded that striking Israel was not even on their to do list as they would incur serious and irreparable damage resulting from such a foolhardy move. If only all our enemies thought so clearheaded and logically. The main thing is Israel will do everything possible to refrain from engaging in a war, often going further than the majority of the population in such efforts. Once such conditions exist, the safety of the population becomes of paramount concern. Israel is a nation which stocks her shelters regularly and such activity being hastily performed nationwide would be a greater sign of potential for coming conflict than the opening of weapons bays and other such readying which other nations take as a sign of impending conflict.

 

So, even in worst-case scenario, one would be equally safe residing in the United States as in Israel. We must grant that residing in Israel would decrease the numbers of holidays one could celebrate as other than the Jewish celebrations, the other communities mostly celebrate on their own and theirs are not national holidays. On the other hand, with Synagogues plentiful and the vast majority of food retailers selling only Kosher foods and many restaurants also serving kosher food, it is far easier to be a practicing Jew here in Israel. Outside of certain neighborhoods in the United States, the same is not the case and it would be next to impossible in large swaths of the United States or at the least most difficult. In some areas, one would need look far and wide and likely further just to find sufficient men for a Minion for morning prayers forcing one to recite them alone, not a conducive setting for remaining religious. Assimilation in Israel means becoming more Jewish aware if not Jewish while assimilation in the United States makes one more secular Christian where you are either secular or Christian, both is difficult. So, should your concern be remaining a practicing Jew or becoming a practicing Jew, Israel should be your destination. If within you is even just an ember, a mere spark, of being a practicing Jew, Israel will nurture that spark until it lights the fire and from there you decide. In the United States, such an ember would be doused with ample water unless one was to protect it with great effort. So in Israel such an ember is given to lighting the passion of being a religious Jew and this is made much easier in Israel while in the United States the driving force is to make one a secular humanist and possibly a leftist who discards Hashem as they believe only those things they can see, touch and explain with formulae.

 

The final reason to choose Israel is the most difficult for people to accept, the growing anti-Semitism in the United States. For much of the last seventy-five years, anti-Semitism in the United States has been swept under the carpet. Much of this has been accomplished by those wishing to hide the brutal truth so as to make the United States appear moral. They also wished to deny that any trace of anti-Semitism was existent within their great nation. The problem is that despite these efforts, anti-Semitism has been measurably rising. The often-strange property of this rise in anti-Semitism is its tendency to rise fastest in those communities with the fewest or no Jews. All too often acts of anti-Semitism were perpetrated by people living outside of the neighborhood or even the city or town where the incident occurred. This has permitted the explanation that the act was a one-out or rare occurrence which poses no threat to the Jewish population. Such thinking is desperately erroneous. It is exactly this sort of anti-Semitism which is most dangerous because beneath such an act is a seething anti-Semitism which will only be furthered by the punishment of the miscreant. This will be interpreted as the Jew victimizing one member of their community and punishing them to an extreme for some minor act. My fortune was to, more often than not, live in an area where there was some distance, often more than five or even fifty miles, between me and the next Jewish family. Of course as I have resided in Wyoming; there in one town if there were not a person matching some description, it was at least fifty miles to the next town with maybe three homes between the two, so we are talking fair sized towns of at least seventy-thousand. Yes, that included where I resided in Wyoming.

 

While growing up as a youth anti-Semitism decreased hitting a low mark somewhere near or soon after the Six Day War as that made many in the United States feel as if they were a little bit Israel for that one week. Nevertheless, within a few short years, anti-Semitism began to grow, and in a most peculiar place, the far-left wing of the political spectrum. The far-right, today called the alt-right, actually remained relatively constant and more of a nuisance than an actual threat. The far-left had a simple problem with Jews, and that was Judaism and little ideas such as the Ten Commandments, the Torah and the entire Bible (Old Testament) and the morality within these documents. Adolph Hitler spoke of this hatred of a Jewish morality when he declared, “The Ten Commandments have lost their validity. Conscience is a Jewish invention; it is a blemish like circumcision.” And “…the personification of the devil as the symbol of all evil assumes the living shape of the Jew.” Hitler included Christianity as another of the items which prevented mankind from reaching its glorious heights he envisioned once Judeo-Christianity was dead. That is the overriding side of anti-Semitism left from many discussions, that what is the target is not as much the Jews as the Torah and the rules Judaism gave to human civilization. Judaism is the root from which Christianity grew and set at the core the Jewish morality which Christianity accepted as was with minor alterations making the practice more suitable for their target audience, the Roman pagans. Christianity kept many of the basics upon which Judaism is based, including but not limited to, the Ten Commandments, Love the stranger, treat others how you wish to be treated, and numerous other teachings which were gleaned from the words of Jesus. One item which remains in the backgrounds about Jesus was that he lived and died as a Jew, taught Judaic laws, preached from Torah and everything he said and performed he did so as Judaism taught and within the moral and legal codes of Judaism.

 

 

Since the early to middle 1970’s anti-Semitism has grown regularly. This has been in part due to money flowing to anti-Semitic organizations with a great deal of this money invested on college-aged youth across the nation’s campuses. Many of these organizations and entities are under the collective arm of the Muslim Brotherhood often through multiple channels making direct tracing near impossible. Some of these organizations were recently linked to the Hamas terrorist group during the Holy Land Foundation trial which included amongst the numerous named co-conspirators Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR). There was found numerous links from Palestinian Arab aligned groups especially the Students for Palestinian Justice (SJP) and the Boycott Divestment and Sanctions Movement (BDS), all of which come together for a singular cause, the destruction of the Jewish State followed by the systematic eradication of the Jews worldwide as called for in the Hamas Charter. The destruction of the Jewish State is also included in the Palestinian Authority Charter. These groups use far left tactics of intimidation, harassment, and ridicule targeting anybody who might give an even and unbiased review of anything to do with Israel. There are a growing group of colleges and universities which Jewish parents oppose sending their children there for further education and many of the names are as amazing as it would appear to many as unbelievable. This list on its own would be sufficient to prove that a serious problem exists at many of the leading liberal arts colleges and universities across the United States. What makes this even more threatening is that it is exactly these institutions which are producing the national leaders of the next generation and the generation beyond. These colleges have become central places of indoctrination of a curriculum and faculty fiercely anti-Israel, anti-Zionist and anti-Semitic. There will be those who claim that being anti-Israel is not against the Jews but the nation and its policies. They will also claim that Zionism is a form of racism and that they are against racism so of course they are not again the Jews. Yet the only nation these people demand be removed from the community of nations is Israel, the sole Jewish State. The only nativist group they call out as racist is the Jewish Israelite nativist calling. They have no problem with China basically destroying the Tibetan culture step by step removing forcefully Tibetan people moving them thousands of miles away into China and replacing them with Chinese peasants from rural areas of China. These groups have no problem with North Korea, Syria, Turkey, Canada and their indigenous people of the Inuit and other native tribes or a plethora of other nations and peoples we could name. Oh, many also have a problem with one other nation, the United States, where many will point to the problem that Jews have disproportionate power over the government. When pressed to explain, they basically just repeat that the Jews have too much influence and point out that President choose too many Jews for Cabinet posts and other important positions. If these are the most qualified people for these positions, we wonder why they should not be chosen. They always get to the same point, too many Jews alive and working hard and getting ahead. The simple answer is to come home now before the deluge starts, as it is coming. Some point in the near, far too near, future the United States will reach a critical point and past that point Jews will not be safe in the United States. This will signal the end for Jews in Europe as well and who knows where else. The Jews have already been wiped from the Arab World and pretty much from Russia. Europe will be next and when the United States pushes out her Jews, the end will have arrived. On that day, Israel has best be prepared because she will have no friends in the world and a mere half dozen nations remaining on talking terms. What comes after that, we are afraid to guess, really afraid to guess.

 

Anti-Semitic Cartoons top from Judge magazine
bottom from April 15, 1896 issue of Sound Money magazine

 

The end of this story brings us full circle. Most anti-Semitism in much of the world generates the hatred for Jews in the baby’s milk. They are all but born with it permeating the conversation throughout their childhood. It is introduced as something as natural and normal as love for Mom and Dad. Life includes anti-Semitism is felt to be as normal as anything else in life and children are reared with anti-Semitism as if it were the right thing to do. Such hate simply is something that far too many children the world over are taught anti-Semitism just as they are taught their A, B, C’s and addition and subtraction. There is nothing strange or abnormal about such hatreds. That is the saddest of truths which the world must face.

 

Beyond the Cusp