Category: Israel

No Matter What the Jews Do They will be Blamed!

First view and read this: http://www.thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/davidbadash/fox_news_psychiatrist_blames_jews_for_surrendering_guns_to_Nazis

“In other words while Ben Carson was only implying that Germany’s Jews were responsible for their own deaths, Fox News’ Keith Ablow went all the way there:

If Jews in Germany had more actively resisted the Nazi party or the Nazi regime and had diagnosed it as a malignant and deadly cancer from the start, there would, indeed, have been a chance for the people of that country and the world to be moved to action by their bold refusal to be enslaved.

In other words: We didn’t fail Europe’s Jews in the Holocaust, the Jews failed us. Good to know.”The Weekly Sift

It seems that no matter what Jews do or don’t do they are to blame. Millions of Jews did as they were told and were killed before and during WWII. Many people continue to say they did not stand up to the Germans and that cost more lives than simply following orders. Of course that is not entirely accurate. Jews did fight against the Nazis while being held in the Warsaw Ghetto. Jews did join underground efforts against the Nazi war machine. At the end of WWII they fought to the British in Palestine before the state of Israel became a reality. The tactics used by those Jews in Palestine were condemned by many people.

Israel has received military hardware to defend itself from the United States but no participation of U.S. military. When they are attacked they continue to conduct their own defense in their own way. They are condemned for their tactics.

So what is it you want from Israel? Surrender and be killed or fight with every tool you have. That is the choice. The Israelis have chosen to fight. I am not an Israeli but if I was, I would fight.

Priest blessing the people at the Kotel on Sukkot

The Priestly Blessing of Sukkot at the Western Wall

 

Western Wall during Sukkot Priestly Blessing

Western Wall

35,000 Jewish people reportedly gathered at the Western Wall on the day of the priestly blessing during Sukkot this year.  The priestly blessing is the time, twice a year, when those of Aaronic lineage stand at the base of the Western Wall and bless the Israelites.

The Four Species

Moses said concerning the feast of Sukkot, “On the first day you shall take the product of hadar trees, branches of palm trees, boughs of leafy trees, and willows of the brook, and you shall rejoice before the Lord your God seven days” (Lev 23:40; JPS).

 

Man with four species of Sukkot

Man during prayers of Sukkot

The Prayers

The Jewish people have interpreted these four species to be the etrog (citron) – yellow fruit, the lulav (palm branch), hadas (avot tree branch), and aravah (willows of the brook).  They carry these with them throughout the week to their prayers in the synagogue.

Time of Rejoicing

As the verse above says, this is a week of joy, and the Israelites were literally commanded to rejoice all week!  Part of the joy would have been over God’s provision – this festival takes place “after you have gathered the crops of the land” (Lev 23:39).

Sukkot Priestly blessing prayers

Man with gun during Sukkot prayers

Security

As noted many times in the biblical narrative, the harvest was not necessarily a time of security (see the Book of Judges, for instance).  Israel today experiences uncertain times.  It doesn’t mean that you don’t rejoice, but neither does it mean you don’t carry a gun.

The Torah

The center of Jewish life was and is the Torah – the five books of Moses.  During a part of the prayer ceremony on this day, the Torah was brought out by each group represented and became the focus of attention.

The Torah Scroll by the Western Wall

Man reading prayer book

The Prayer Book

The prayer book contains the liturgy for the various feasts and prayer times.  This one makes a good picture because it’s the “large-print” edition.  The prayers of course are in Hebrew, as they always have been.

YOU Said Nothing!

When we were led into the gas chamber, YOU said nothing.

When we were forcibly converted, YOU said nothing.

When we were thrown out of a country just for being Jews, YOU said nothing.

When we now defend ourselves all of a sudden, YOU have something to say.

How did we take our revenge on the Germans for their Final Solution?

How did we take revenge on the Spanish for their Inquisition?

How did we take revenge on Islam for being Dhimmi?

How did we take revenge on the lies of the Protocols of Zion?

We studied our Torah.

We innovated in medicine.

We innovated in defense systems.

We innovated in technology.

We innovated in agriculture.

We made music.

We wrote poetry.

We made the desert bloom.

We won Noble prizes.

We founded the movie industry.

We financed democracy.

We fulfilled the word of Hashem by becoming a light unto the Nations of the Earth.

So World when you criticise us for defending our heritage and our ancestral homeland we the Jew’s of the World do exactly what you did, we ignore you.

You have proven to us for the last 2,000 years that when the chips are down you don’t care.

Now leave us alone and go sort out you own back yard whilst we continue our 5775-year old mission, enhancing the World we share.

Author unknown

Killing the Iran deal could backfire

If Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu succeeds in getting Congress to kill President Obama’s deal with Iran, “it may be a Pyrrhic victory, said Ben-Dror Yemini in Yedioth Ahronoth (a national daily newspaper published in Tel Aviv, Israel). Of course the agreement to limit Iran’s nuclear programs in exchange for lifting of sanctions is terrible. The draft deal is full of loopholes and will lend legitimacy to the Islamic Republic’s repressive and dangerous theocracy. Most Arab countries are against the deal and privately support Netanyahu’s position rather than Obama’s. But America is still our most important ally and an even more open rift with the Obama administration could hurt. “Humiliating the president of the United States could evoke anti-Semitic blast waves” by seeming to give evidence to those who argue that rich Jews manipulate world events.

Even in the U.S., there is “an anti-Zionist coalition radical left and radical right” that would ramp up its anti-Semitic propaganda to frightening heights.” Instead of publicly defeating Obama by lobbying Congress, Netanyahu do far better to persuade the president to “climb down,” perhaps by pointing out that Iran’s Ayatollah Ali Khomeini is already backtracking from the deal as framed. Netanyahu needs to remember that while “Obama is wrong, he isn’t an enemy.”

Remarkable Similarities 2015 to 1938

September 30, 1938
The British Prime Minister has been hailed as bringing “peace to Europe” after signing a non-aggression pact with Germany.

PM Neville Chamberlain arrived back in the UK today, holding an agreement signed by Adolf Hitler which stated the German leader’s desire never to go to war with Britain again.

The two men met at the Munich conference between Britain, Germany, Italy and France yesterday, convened to decide the future of Czechoslovakia’s Sudetenland.

Winston Churchill, who declared, “You were given the choice between war and dishonour. You chose dishonour and you will have war.”

April 2, 2015
Pres­id­ent Obama said Thursday that a ma­jor break­through in the in­ter­na­tion­al talks con­cern­ing Ir­an’s nuc­le­ar pro­gram will bring about a deal that will make the world safer.

Iran is known to have about 19,000 IR-1 centrifuges, often referred to as first-generation machines because they are less sophisticated than newer models. They are installed at two uranium-enrichment facilities at Natanz and Fordow. Under the tentative deal, Iran has agreed to reduce by about two-thirds its installed centrifuges to 6,104, with 5,060 of these enriching uranium for 10 years.

Last summer, Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, said the country ultimately needed the enrichment capacity of 190,000 first-generation centrifuges to fuel a domestic nuclear-power industry.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long demanded that Iran’s enrichment facilities be entirely dismantled, although last month, he signaled for the first time that he could accept Tehran being allowed a very limited enrichment capacity.

Iran is not to be allowed to deploy newer centrifuges that can enrich uranium more quickly.

For those of you too young to remember: Fifty-two American diplomats and citizens were held hostage for 444 days (November 4, 1979, to January 20, 1981) by Iran. The story was replicated in the movie Argo.

Chants of “Death to America” are a recent fact. In 2013, a new Iranian president, Hassan Rouhani, was sworn into office. While more soft-spoken than his predecessor – and widely described as a “moderate” – Rouhani has nonetheless referred to “the Zionist regime” as an enemy nation and pledged to find a way to achieve Khomeini’s long-term goal of ensuring that Israel ceases to exist.

Obama versus Netanyahu

Obama versus Netanyahu

“If there is one lesson American Jews will learn from Israel’s election, it’s this:  they’re not us.

Israel is not New York. Or LA. Or Chicago or Boston or Miami or Philadelphia. It is a Jewish “community” unlike any in America.”

Those are the opening words by Rob Eshman in today’s Jewish Journal.

We just don’t appreciate the perceptions of Israelis. They live under the constant threat of war with their neighbors. They live in fear of their lives. No one in the United States lives with those kinds of fears. Many American Zionists will evolve in their view of Israel. The reason is that Americans favor the idea of a two state solution to the Israel-Palestinian problem.

I suspect that the ongoing enmity between President Obama and Prime Minister Netanyahu is the result of the prime minister’s refusal to negotiate a two state solution. In other words Netanyahu told Obama his one state position years ago. He only just told the world two days ago.

Netanyahu and his American supporters may still change the course of the Iran nuclear negotiations. Those Americans who favor supporting Israel in all situations no matter what that country does will work their will through Congress. There is no doubt that Israel’s path will be unpleasant over the next two years.

Israelis are a resourceful people. They will find a way to have their way.

David Bancroft

Benjamin Netenyahu Speaks to the United States Congress

My theory is that Speaker of the House John Boehner invited Benjamin Netenyahu to speak to Congress is an effort on the part of the GOP to prove to Jewish voters that the Republican Party is the party that supports Israel.  It’s not that their votes will change an election.  The GOP would like to attract more Jewish donors.

I believe Benjamin Netenyahu really does fear for the existence of Israel.  His intention is to go where ever he must to obtain the support for what he believes are Israel’s needs.

IKEA & Peace in the Middle East

The Swedish furniture maker IKEA made the headlines last week, even though it was an innocent bystander to the war of words between the Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman and his female Swedish counterpart. Reacting to Sweden’s recognition of a Palestinian state on the West Bank, Lieberman caustically said that “the Middle East and the Palestinian – Israeli dispute is slightly more complicated than is assembling an IKEA furniture product.”

IKEA is the famous Swedish company that manufactures all types of furniture that the buyers must then assemble themselves using their own talents and time. IKEA has a number of large stores here in Israel and is a very popular product worldwide.

The Swedish Foreign Minister responded to Lieberman’s thrust by stating that she would be happy to send Lieberman an IKEA product but that he has to realize that in order to assemble it, he definitely needs the willing cooperation of a partner and a manual to instruct them in its proper assembly.

As of this writing, there the matter apparently rests. However, if I were Lieberman, which thank God I am not, I would have a wistful but pointed rejoinder to this generous offer of the Foreign Minister of Sweden. I would tell her that I would gladly accept any type of IKEA solution and product here in our section of the world but I would appreciate it if she could also tell me who my willing cooperative partner will be to help me with the assembly, and if she could tell me if she also has a manual of instructions.

Even she admits that one cannot assemble an IKEA product alone and that there must be some reasonable explanation as to how to put the disparate parts together so that the finished product does not collapse. All our previous efforts to assemble such an IKEA-like solution with the Arab world have collapsed shortly after the assembly project was completed and celebrated.

IKEA provides a warranty with its products. All of the do-gooders who have Israel’s true welfare at heart and are always trying to save us Israelis from ourselves with “tough love,” have never provided us with any warranty as to the product they wish us to assemble.

In fact, when push comes to shove, they are rarely heard from afterwards and usually just withdraw into their smug posture of fairytale unreality. It should be obvious to all by now that Abbas and the Palestinian Authority are not willing, cooperative partners in trying to achieve a just and lasting settlement of a century-old dispute.

The constant incitement, propaganda, spewed hatred and dire threats that emanate daily from the leaders and spokespersons of the Palestinian Authority hardly make them our partners in any sort of endeavor, let alone in arriving at a peaceful settlement, which will require concessions and compromise on all sides.

We have tried numerous times to assemble this IKEA-like solution by ourselves. Israel has withdrawn from territory, dismantled settlements, exiled thousands of its own citizens, released hundreds of murderers from prison (so that they can murder again) all in a vain attempt to arrive at a permanent settlement of our conflict with the Palestinians and the Arab world generally.

All of our efforts to assemble this solution have failed dismally and all previous agreements and unilateral concessions forced on Israel are tainted by the blood of thousands of victims of these failed policies and false assembly instructions. There is no unilateral way to assemble an IKEA product.

It would seem equally obvious that when IKEA issues a manual of instructions for assembly of its products and subsequently those products continually collapse, that IKEA would rethink its assembly process and provide a newer and much more accurate manual for its customers.

What is true for IKEA should also be true for the governments and diplomats of the world, especially Sweden. If the old manual is proven to be inaccurate and of little value, then perhaps our “tough love” friends should rethink the issues and come up with new and better suggestions and insights as to how this dispute can, if ever, be settled. And if they are unable to do so, then perhaps silence and patience should be the order of the day on their part.

Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times hardly known to be pro-Israel, recently wrote that he understands why it is perfectly logical and legitimate for Israel to maintain the current status quo in its dealings with the Palestinian Authority and the surrounding Arab world. He naturally bemoans the fact that this is the situation and wants Israel to come up with new creative thinking to break the logjam.

He apparently has no new creative thinking to bring to the table, since all of the previous solutions have proven to be broken shards. I wish IKEA all the success in the world and I hope that the Foreign Minister of Sweden would indeed provide us with a willing cooperative partner and an accurate manual of instructions that would ease the situation in which we find ourselves.

This article originally appeared in the Jerusalem Post.

HELP ME PLEASE – I AM CONFUSED!

When it comes to Israel, the world seems to be upside down.

I always said that the true Palestinians are the Jews, always remembering in my youth that the Jerusalem Post was originally called the Palestine Post and we would always refer to Palestine when collecting funds for the Jews living in Palestine to defend themselves against the Arabs.  נושא:הועבר: HELP ME PLEASE – I AM CONFUSED!

ISRAELI LEADERS:

BENJAMIN NETANYAHU,

Born 21 October 1949 in Tel Aviv, Israel (formerly Mandate of Palestine)

EHUD BARAK, Born 12 February 1942 in Mishmar HaSharon , British Mandate of Palestine

ARIEL SHARON, Born 26 February 1928 in Kfar Malal , British Mandate of Palestine

EHUD OLMERT, Born 30 September 1945 in Binyamina-Giv ‘ at Ada , British Mandate of Palestine

ITZHAK RABIN, Born 1 March 1922 in Jerusalem , British Mandate of Palestine

ITZHAK NAVON, Israeli President in 1977-1982. Born 9 April 1921 in Jerusalem, British Mandate of Palestine.

EZER WEIZMAN, Israeli President in 1993-2000. Born 15 June 1924 in Tel Aviv, British Mandate of Palestine

 

ARAB “PALESTINIAN” LEADERS :

YASSER ARAFAT, Born 24 August 1929 in Cairo, Egypt

SAEB EREKAT, Born April 28, 1955, in Jordan. He has Jordanian citizenship.

FAISAL ABDEL QADER AL-HUSSEINI, Born in1948 in Bagdad, Iraq.

SARI NUSSEIBEH, Born in 1949 in Damascus, Syria 

MAHMOUD AL-ZAHAR, Born in 1945, in Cairo, Egypt.

So, if I understand this correctly, the Israeli leaders, who were born in Palestine, are called/considered “Settlers” or  more accurately, “Occupiers.”   While Palestinian Arab leaders who were born in Egypt, Jordan, Syria, Iraq and Tunisia are called “Native Palestinians”?

THAT makes perfect sense.

 

DAVID BANCROFT