Steven Plaut |
Original articles on Israel and related issues written by Steven Plaut, a professor at an Israeli university. |
Friday, August 27, 2004
Stop the Political Interference and Coercion by the Rabbis! The political interference by the Rabbis is getting more and more unbearable. The attempt to impose their opinions and life styles, regardless of the preferences of the majority of their fellow citizens, is outrageous. They are arrogant and anti-democratic and coercive. I am of course referring to the Reform Rabbis in the United States. While not every Rabbi or every member of the Reform synagogue movement has been recruited into the "Political Liberalism as Judaism" school of pseudo-Judaism, enough have. The "Political Liberalism as Judaism" doctrine and pseudo-religion dominates the main institutions of the Reform synagogue movement, including their council of Rabbis. And of course the leftist SWAT team for the Reform movement is the Ridiculous - er, I mean the - "Religious" Action Center, under the commissarship of David Saperstein, who recently launched a Reform jihad against Israel's attempts to defend its children from terrorists by constructing a security wall. The RAC is more worried about inconveniencing the Palestinians than about the rights of Jewish children to ride buses without being blown up. It is far more critical of the Boy Scouts for not hiring gay scout leaders than of the PLO. But no less outrageous is the theological coercion efforts of the Reform Rabbis, attempting to impose their liberal political theology not only on fellow American Jews but on the US as a whole. While whining about supposed Orthodox religious coercion in Israel, the Reform Establishment today embodies the worst form of Jewish religious coercion on earth, with the only problem being that the religion in question is liberal politics and liberation theology. The Reform movement has adopted the entire agenda of the American Left, down to and including bashing Israel for daring to defend itself. The Reform establishment is today barely distinct from the buffoons in the Tikkun-Aleph-Renewal cult of Michael Lerner and Arthur Waskow, other than the fact that they have not - yet - endorsed LSD use by Jews. The Reform establishment opposes school choice for Jews and wants Jewish children confined to public schools; it supports every wacky idea to emerge from the most extremist environmentalist movements; it supports affirmative action quotas that discriminate against Jews; the number one item on its agenda these days is gay "marriage"; David Saperstein's comments opposing welfare reform were so outrageous that a few years back the were cited with approval by the American Communist Party newspaper. The Reform establishment blocks school vouchers by trotting out the old bogeyman of religious coercion, while at the same time its entire raison d'etre is religious coercion - liberal theological PC fad "religion" coercion, that is. No tradeoffs, no policy analysis, no understanding of markets, no thinking nay deeper than a leftist bumper sticker. The Reform Establishment supports partial-birth killings of babies but vehemently opposes execution of convicted murderers and terrorists. It wants Israel to return to its 1949 borders with all "settlers" expelled. Reformies in Israel have led the anti-globalization hoodlums seeking to make the world safe for Marxism. The US Reform movement has conscripted itself on behalf of jailed Stalinist terrorist Lori Berenson, in Peru. I have a serious question for David Saperstein and the Reform Establishment (and for parts of the Conservative synagogue movement as well). I am not being facetious. In your opinion, are Michael Moore, Teddy Kennedy, and Ralph Nader Jewish? I am serious. After all, if being Jewish is nothing more than liberal political activism, why are these people not to be regarded as Jewish? And don't answer that it is because Jews eat kosher and keep shabbas, because we know how common that is among Reform Jews. And do not reply that it is because Reform Jews base their liberal politics on the Bible. Come on now. Where does the Bible endorse homosexuality and abortion and Palestinian statehood in the West Bank? And many of the Reform leaders I have met know the Bible far less well than your average Mormon. So seriously, if all of Judaism is liberal self-sanctimonious agitprop, why can't Moore, Kennedy, and Nader be considered Jewish? And if a Jewish liberal marries a non-Jewish liberal, why should anyone consider that an intermarriage? After all, they have exactly the same "religion"!! There is virtually no religious coercion in Israel. True, the politicized religious parties once forced the cinemas closed on Sabbath but today the whole country has DVDs. True, once the Orthodox politicos forced the buses to stop running on Sabbath, but who cares when everyone has a car? I would venture to say that almost no Israelis ever are forced to observe ANY religious ritual against their will. And other than some minor difficulties for those wishing to have a "civil" wedding, which is quite possible today, no secularist in Israel has to have any contact whatsoever with the Orthodox institutions if he/she does not want to. It is not the religious parties who are responsible for the nation self-destruction in Israel but the secularist ones, although the religious parties display cowardice in not stopping it. But contrast that with the political interference and coercion by the Reform movement in the US. In an era when true believers in liberalism are an endangered species outside the Bay Area and Hollywood, the Reform establishment lobbies in the name of "Judaism" and "Biblical ethics" to impose its leftist political biases and life style on all Jews and on the entire United States. It seeks to hijack Judaism, Jewish holidays, and Jewish ethical authority on behalf of the PC fads of the liberal-Left. The time has come to get these Rabbis and other Reform leaders out of our bedrooms, out of our politics, and back to their proper roles. Stop this liberal pseudo-theological coercion! 1. http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14838 2. More on the Right of Return: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14820 3. Four Cheers for Zionist Arabs: http://frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14762 2004 Pre-Election Forum Bring your questions for National Republican and Democratic Party representatives at Beth Hillel Congregation Bnai Emunah, 3220 Big Tree Lane. 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Subject: Gush Katif Memories From www.jewishpress.com: Gush Katif Memories Posted 8/25/2004 By Steven Plaut Gush Katif is the name of the set of Jewish settlements at the western end of the Gaza Strip. Just recently, Ariel Sharon pushed through his plan for unilateral Israeli disengagement from Gaza, thus ensuring that he will go down in history as part of the Oslo appeasement and capitulation pantheon. Sharon showed that his concept of democracy differs little from that of a Third World dictator; after calling a Likud national referendum on the plan, which was defeated 60 percent to 40 percent, Sharon declared that Likud voters could get stuffed because he was going to implement the plan anyhow. The disengagement plan is not conditioned upon anything the Palestinians may or may not do Â? not even on whether they will refrain from using Gaza for terrorism and rocket attacks against Jews. What exactly does Sharon think the Palestinians will do in Gaza once the Jews expelled Â? take up quilting? Since the Peel Plan in 1937, each and every suggestion for partitioning Palestine west of the Jordan River between Arabs and Jews has been met with waves of pogroms and Arab atrocities. Why should anyone expect anything different to result from SharonÂ?s proposal? The main victims of the SharonÂ?s plan will be the Gush Katif settlements, which will be reduced to rubble, or, worse, handed over to the jihadniks and mass murderers. Thinking about Gush Katif, I am taken back to an earlier, more peaceful time Â? and my own tour of duty there. Gush Katif: Winter 1994. Â?Fare thee well, O Gaza, for we are parting; Fare thee well, O Gaza, and letÂ?s not see one another any more.Â? The words are from one of the more popular songs heard on Israeli radio these days, with Â?OrientalÂ? melody and instrumentation. The song screams out in high decibels from the ghetto-blaster in the room of the regular soldiers next door in the barracks. The scene is an Israel Defense Force base deep inside the Strip. In semi-tropical Gaza in February during one of IsraelÂ?s worst winter droughts, it has been raining nonstop since our group of reservists checked in to the base for a 22-day tour of duty amid the sand dunes along the Gaza Coast. Gaza, land of the Philistines, land of Islamic terrorists. One can see Egypt off in the distance. North is Gaza City, a cesspool of Islamic fanaticism and violence, the city in which the chained and blinded Samson brought the house down upon his Philistine tormentors. We are near the Gush Katif settlements, a collection of Jewish farming settlements populated mostly by Orthodox Jews from the center of Israel and immigrants. Just over yonder behind the dunes sits one of the stripÂ?s seamier refugee camps. The strip is home to some 800,000 Palestinian Arabs, most of whom would like nothing better than to see us and our ilk buried deep beneath the sand and mud here. The northern two-thirds of the Strip are covered with citrus orchards stretching in all directions, now lush and green from the rains. The southern third is mostly desolate sand dunes. Our camp is a mound of sand and dirt with a few barracks. We reservists have the honor of serving as guards for the station and its indigenous inhabitants, a group of young men and women doing their mandatory army service, the Â?regularsÂ? or Â?sadirniks.Â? They are 19 and 20. Reservists are Israeli men who have finished their regular service and continue to spend quality time away from their homes and families in military service, up to the age of 50. The reservists, miluimniks, are mostly recent dischargees in their 20Â?s. I am nearly twice their age, the oldest man here Â? eight years older than the commanding officer. As these things go, this base is considered to be a relatively soft reserve assignment. It is quiet and the surrounding countryside is beautiful and tropical, the sea switching intermittently from stormy to delightful. If one ignored the geography and politics, it could be a hill anywhere along the central California coast. The flora is the same. In some ways the surroundings look like a photo from a tourist brochure: countless palm and date trees, flocks of sheep and goats tended by Bedouin shepherds and shepherdesses, the occasional camel or donkey cart. The nights are filled with the croaking of millions of Gazan frogs, enjoying the puddles and pools formed by the recent unusually hard rains. When the sea is calm, it fills with fishing boats, some actually run by Gazan smugglers. The food in the navy is considered edible, relatively speaking. We sleep in real barracks, although unheated, and my room has no glass in the window. We have real, albeit unheated, showers with real hot water. By contrast, the infantry who fill the strip consider the navy soldiers to be pampered sissies who actually need food, toilets and hot water to function. On the other hand, some of the more elite units, like the paratroopers, look down their noses at the infantry because they actually need sleep. The navy is also considered a relatively civilized branch of the military. The soldiers are well-behaved, and even follow orders Â? well, sort of, after a fashion, Israeli-style. Our duties are actually quite simple. Guard the place. Just guard. That, and occasionally riding shotgun on convoys racing around the strip. The night we arrive, the commander spells out our duties. Back in the center of Israel the army has a tough job, he explains. It has to locate the terrorists. We are blessed with a far simpler assignment. Here we do not have to search for the terrorists because we know exactly where they are. He then traces out a 360-degree circle around himself. Once within the barbed wire, the main features of life are the cold and the boredom. We do day and night watches and patrols, each lasting four grueling hours. The time passes at an excruciatingly slow pace. In one sense I have lucked out. I am serving with Don, a childhood buddy from Philadelphia who grew up with me in the Habonim youth movement. Doing reserves with a childhood chum is the army equivalent of winning the lottery. We pass the time gossiping and reminiscing, and when that gets boring, we try to recreate dialogue from old TV shows, tell jokes, and so on. In our drab green uniforms we look like a couple of large middle-aged olives. It is Friday morning, the Muslim Sabbath. It is the last week of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan. I am on the bus heading back to camp after spending nearly 20 hours at home on a short furlough. Suddenly the radio blasts a news flash: there has been a massacre in the Machpelah shrine of Hebron perpetrated by one Baruch Goldstein, an ex-American and a fanatic. The passengers are shocked, none more than me. In the evening I am dozing when the camp siren goes off. The entire base scrambles to battle positions. The loudspeaker tells us this is not a drill but a real alert. Groggily I climb into the fortified trench, banging my knee in my half-awake rush. My helmet is on my arm, as there is not a single one in the entire base that fits my head. Don sarcastically tells me to prepare photon torpedoes and phasers. A short while later the alert is canceled. For the next week similar alerts and scrambles will help us pass the time. The violence is not restricted to the Â?territories.Â? Arabs are rioting in Jaffa and Nazareth and even in the Bedouin town of Rahat outside Beer Sheba. (The Bedouins serve in the Israeli army and are usually considered as loyal and moderate as Israel could hope for.) Israeli Arabs attack soldiers and police with rocks and knives. The hatred in their faces, after two generations of citizenship and democratic education, matches anything that can be seen here in Gaza. Despite the media myth concerning the Â?brutalityÂ? of the Israeli army as it Â?suppressesÂ? the Palestinians, the foremost concern of the military seems to be to avoid shooting rioting Arabs, no matter what the provocation. At least once a day Â? sometimes more Â? we drill the Procedures for Opening Fire (POF), a long list of instructions and prohibitions designed for dealing with rioters, attackers, and suspicious persons, starting with warnings and ending with shooting into the air and then, where there is no choice, at an attackerÂ?s legs or car tires. It is my 43rd birthday today, and I have celebrated by pulling the very worst guard duty possible, the double-whammy. It begins with an evening shift Â? 6 to 10 p.m. Â? followed by a 2 to 6 a.m. shift. In between the two shifts one can sleep for maybe ten or twenty seconds at a time. In the morning I have also been selected for the honor of riding shotgun on one of the convoys. By MurphyÂ?s Law, I conjecture, a convoy on my birthday should get attacked by rock-throwers. Don and I survived the 60Â?s together. If they throw rocks at us, he notes, at least this will give a new meaning to the expression Â?getting stoned for your birthday.Â? Gaza is filled with eccentrics and the bizarre. On Sabbath, the settlers, mostly religious, go for long strolls, oblivious to any dangers. Among them is a group of Burmese Â? members of a tribe from the jungles of East Asia who believe they are descended from one of the lost tribes of Israel Â? who converted and live as Orthodox Jews in Gaza. One sees them all over the strip. The men sport yarmulkes and their tzitzit dangle down their sides. Two walk by on Saturday and point at us, probably saying to one another, Â?ThatÂ?s funny, they donÂ?t look Jewish.Â? Exactly one week has passed since the massacre in Hebron. It is early Friday morning. I have lucked out and got a weekend furlough, good until Sunday morning. The sun has just come up and it will be a warm sunny day. At 7 a.m. I am outside the perimeter awaiting the bus, carrying my laundry, my M-16 and two or three clips of bullets. There is a mist over the palms and the birds are singing. With the world outside the perimeter filled with madness, the insanity of army life is starting to seem normal and sensible. A hawk has landed in the field opposite the watchtower, munching on something. Through the field binoculars I can see it is a chocolate pudding container, a treasure stolen from the scraps upon which our infantry neighbors subsist. Seagulls are bobbing on the gentle swell of the sea. The warm sun makes it harder and harder to keep my eyes open. My kingdom for a nap. Never mind the violence and terror out beyond the dunes. Forget the politicians. I can make my peace with the filth, the food, the cold. Just let me sleep. Like in the old Song of the Valley of the pioneers: Â?Rest comes to the weary, and slumber to the toiler.Â? Let me close my eyes. Let me curl up in fetal position. Just for an hour or two. ***** As part of the propaganda juggernaut designed to panic Israelis into withdrawing from the Gaza Strip and leave it judenrein, the Left Â? a term that these days also means large parts of the Likud Â? has been blustering about how Gaza was Â?never Jewish land,Â? never had Jews living in it, is not at all part of the JewsÂ? national heritage, and so on. For example, Israeli Minister of Defense Shaul Mofaz has declared that Â?Gaza is not at all Jewish heritage.Â? Oh, really? Well, letÂ?s put aside for the moment all those stories in the Bible about Jews spending time in Gaza, from King David to Samson. LetÂ?s talk about the historically unassailable evidence of Gaza being an integral part of the Jewish homeland long before the Gush Katif settlements were set up. Gaza had a thriving Jewish community until the Jews were ethnically cleansed from Gaza in the 1948-9 war. When you hear the mindless Left blabbing about how Â?ethnic cleansingÂ? took place in the Israeli War of Independence, understand that the only ethnic cleansing that took place was of Jews expelled from Gaza (and the West Bank), and later of Jews from all the Arab countries. For some strange reason, the Left has never heard about any of those ethnic cleansings. The Gaza Jewish community had as its rabbi starting in 1906 one Nissim Ohana, born in Algeria and trained as a rabbi in Jerusalem, who also served later as an important spiritual leader in Alexandria, Egypt, in Malta, in New York, in Cairo (where he was chief rabbi of Egypt), and in Haifa (where he was Sephardic chief rabbi in the 1950Â?s). Not long ago the Israeli religious newspaper Hatzofe devoted an article to Rabbi Ohana and to the Jews living in Gaza in the first half of the 20th century. Rabbi Ohana was on warm cordial terms with the Muslim Mufti of Gaza, the article reports, and the two wrote a book together. There is one other detail worth knowing about this famous rabbi of Gaza: I am married to his granddaughter. In fact, the rabbi is one of the figures discussed in my book The Scout. So when Shaul Mofaz states that Jews have no heritage to preserve in Gaza, let him speak for himself. Steven Plaut is a professor at Haifa University. His book Â?The ScoutÂ? is available at Amazon.com. He can be contacted at steven_plaut@yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? New and Improved Yahoo! Mail - Send 10MB messages! http://promotions.yahoo.com/new_mail http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=14811 EU Suddenly Opposes "Right of Return" By Steven Plaut FrontPageMagazine.com | August 26, 2004 The "right of return" has been of interest in much of the world press in recent weeks, but this time - for a change - it is NOT the supposed "right" of Palestinians to return to Israel's lands. The newest debate over the right of return concerns that of ethnic Germans, at least 15 million of whom were expelled from their homelands at the end of World War II. These have suddenly become a matter of interest (see for example the Wall Street Journal's "War Echo: Ousted by Poland in 1945, Germans Want Homes Back," Aug 11, 04) for the simple reason that many of the countries who expelled German refugees after World War II have become or are becoming full members of the EU. There has arisen a wave of attempts by ethnic Germans expelled by these countries to use EU institutions to recover property or receive compensation, and in some cases possibly even to return to their former homes. Their chances of success are negligible. That is because the EU, led by Germany itself in this matter, is unalterably opposed to any "right or return" for ethnic Germans. Yes, the same EU insists that "Palestinian refugees" have an inalienable right to return to Israeli lands do not think ethnic German refugees have such a right. Before World War II, there was a large Diaspora of ethnic Germans throughout Central and Eastern Europe. Many were from families who had migrated in as far back as the Middle Ages or even earlier. They lived in Poland, Russia, Czechoslovakia, the Baltic countries, Hungary, and the Balkans. In some areas they had come in when the countries were absorbed into the Habsburg Empire or freed from Ottoman domination. They had entered as merchants, literate civil servants, shop owners, mercenaries, missionaries, or other things. Most were urbanized and constituted almost the only skilled non-agricultural craftsmen in the towns of underdeveloped countries. They often dominated the guilds. In one of history's many delicious ironies, German Christians often migrated to the towns and villages of Central and Eastern Europe alongside Germanized Jews and they often worked in the same trades. The period between the two world wars saw the radicalization and Nazification of many of these Germans. The best-known story is that of the Sudeten Germans, who played a role in the annihilation of Czechoslovakia. When Hitler signaled them that the time was right, the Sudetens launched pogroms, terror atrocities, and armed uprisings against Czechoslovakia, all in the name of "self-determination," but in reality to provide an excuse for Nazi aggression. Pretending to be "oppressed" and "occupied" by democratic Czechoslovakia (sound familiar, Middle East fans?), their "plight" was the fig leaf for Fascist aggression by Germany. History would later largely replay the story, when the "Palestinians" would be Sudetenized, and their "plight" would become the cover for the aggression by Arab Fascist states against Israel. Less well known are the similar tales of insurrection and sedition by the German minorities in the rest of Europe before World War II. While not all ethnic Germans openly supported and aided Hitler, enough did. After the War, most ethnic Germans were expelled at bayonet point from the countries in which they had lived for generations, and the refugees were "repatriated" to West Germany (and in smaller measure to Austria). Stalin expelled large numbers of Russia's Germans to Siberia and other points east. Altogether, it is estimated that 15 million ethnic Germans were evicted from the non-German states of Central and Eastern Europe, about three quarters of these just coming from Czechoslovakia and Poland. (Ethnic Japanese were at the same time expelled from Manchuria and Korea, for essentially the same reasons.) The German refugees were absorbed and resettled by Germany, mainly by West Germany, and without a dime in aid from the UNRWA, the UN's refugee agency that has ladled out cash to Palestinians for decades. Like the Palestinians, these ethnic Germans had become refugees due to a war of aggression launched by their ethnic compatriots, a war in which they found themselves on the losing side. Unlike most Palestinian "refugees,Â? who became "refugees" by fleeing battle zones at the command of Arab militia chiefs in the Israeli War of Independence, these Germans became refugees because they were driven out by force by their host countries AFTER World War II had been ended. The Germans left behind large amounts of property, whereas almost all the Palestinian "refugees" had been impoverished sharecroppers for Arab Feudalist aristocrats, with little or any property left behind. More important is the fact that Germany and Austria have renounced the rights of any of these ethnic German refugees to return to their previous homelands and even to receive any compensation from those countries in any form. To the contrary, Germany (but not Austria) has paid out reparations to the very same countries who evicted these German refugees. True, many of the ethnic German refugees were innocent bystanders, who had never been Nazis and had never abused anyone. But the German government and the Eurocrats say: Tough. These German refugees were just a few more millions out of the untold millions of victims of Germany's own crimes, and they simply had to go on with their lives without handouts. Their "compensation" would consist of their resettlement in a free, democratic, and prosperous capitalist Germany. It was a Germany that passed its own Law of Return that allows all ethnic Germans to receive citizenship therein. The same Eurocrats and media pundits who denounce Israel as "racist" because it has a Law of Return granting automatic citizenship to Jews requesting it have never had any problem with the similar German "racist" law. Meanwhile, there has been intense resistance in Europe even to commemorating the plight of ethnic German refugees. There is a lesson in all this for 2004. Those ethnic Germans actually had far more of a legitimate claim for compensation and recovery of property than any "Palestinian" claiming to be a "refugee" does. Palestinians played exactly the same role as Sudeten Germans played, and calls for a Palestinian "right to self-determination" echo similar calls for the Sudeten Germans from the 1930s. Both sets of calls are little more than a figleaf for fascist aggression against a democracy. Like the Tory Loyalists who fled the infant United States, the ethnic German refugees were never thought to be entitled to any compensation from the states they fled nor from which they were driven. Not only did they get no compensation from the countries evicting them (neither did the Tory Loyalist refugees expelled from the US), but Germany itself paid compensation to the countries expelling these ethnic Germans, countries that had fallen victims to Nazi aggression. The very same world leaders and media commentators who insist Israel must compensate "Palestinians" and allow them to "return" to Israeli lands, the lands of that same Israel that has been the victim of Arab aggression and Fascism for almost six decades, cannot understand why these "Palestinian refugees" should become as much of a non-issue as are the ethnic German refugees from the late 1940s. So what is the real reason the Euroclowns have no interest in any "right of return" for ethnic Germans, but demand one for "Palestinians"? Simple. Granting such a right to ethnic Germans would not result in the demise of Israel, so the Europeans have no interest in it. Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Announcing the new Israeli Reality Show "Israeli Political Survivor" In the show, assorted people seeking to become political leaders go to the ISLAND and then there are votes to see who gets dismissed. The only problem is that whenever there is a vote to make one of the contestants leave the ISLAND, ... they don't. In the first vote, Shimon Peres is voted off the ISLAND but then does not leave. Then Ehud Barak is voted off the ISLAND, and leaves but for only a short break and comes back in order to introduce new FEAR FACTOR into Israeli lives. Bibi Netanyahu gets voted off the ISLAND after offering its bungalos to the PLO at Wye, but never leaves. Amram Mitzna gets voted off the ISLAND but the Ariel Sharon announces he will be standing in for Mitzna and representing him in all new rounds. The Pro-Palestinian Sap In recent decades the misnamed Religious Action Center of the Reform synagogue movement has emerged as the leading promoter of the pseudo-religion of "Political Leftism as Judaism", a "liberation theology" parody of Judaism and religion, holding that all of Judaism can be reduced to this week's leftist PC political fads. It is also known as Tikkun Olam Paganism, because every endorsement of a leftist fad is proclaimed in the name of the intentionally misrepresented Judaic concept of "Tikkun Olam", which in reality has little to do with "social justice" and even less to do with the Left's pursuit of injustice in the name of "social justice". The leading guru of this is "Rabbi" David Saperstein, the chief pseudo-clergyperson of the RAC. The RAC is so radical and un-Jewish that it has motivated many an observer to question whether Reform Judaism itself should even be regarded as a branch of Judaism, rather than as a form of leftist political agitprop, a sister organization of Tikkun and ANSWER and Moveon. This is somewhat unfair because many people and large segments of the Reform movement share little with the pagan leftist "activism" of the RAC. The fault for the wholesale delegitimization, however, is of the Reform movement as a whole, which has failed to distance itself from and renounce Saperstein and the rest of the Tikkunite-wannabes operating out of the RAC. These RAC leftists have insisted for years that all of Judaism can be conscripted as artillery support for homosexual marriage, sexual deviance, affirmative action quotas and lowered standards that happen to discriminate against Jews. They claim to oppose school choice, welfare reform, free markets, and use of American arms - all supposedly in the name of Biblical ethics. But in the latest twist, the RAC and their buttonmen have gone on a jihad against Israel's rights to defend itself. They issued a recent fatwa glaring in its "even-handed" denunciation of Arab terror and at the same time denouncing Israeli efforts to fight terror. The Reformies, very few of whom live in Israel and who have in recent years cancelled youth trip after youth trip to Israel out of liberal cowardice, insist Israel must never use arms if "innocent" Palestinian civilians get injured. And since no one has ever fought a war in which only uniformed fighters get hurt and since Palestinian terrorists never wear uniforms and hide among civilians, this amounts to an insistence that Israel not fight terror at all. At the same time the Reformie leftists, led by the Sap Rav, insist Israel implement the agenda of the most radical Israeli leftists. All settlers must be evicted and Israel must return to its 1949 Auschwitz borders with no quid pro quo from the Arabs. The difference between the Israeli lefties and the suburban Reformies in the US of course is that the Reformies, sitting in their air conditioned offices in DC or elsewhere and riding in their SUVs in the US, bear no cost nor penalty when these leftist policies actually get implemented and result in mass murder and carnage. The Jerusalem Post recently attacked the armchair peaceniks in the RAC and their "even-handed" anti-Israel propagandizing. The Sap Rav himself took time off from fighting for the promotion of lesbian Reform Rabbis and demonizing the Boy Scouts for unwillingness to have gay scout troop leaders long enough to respond. In his response, he insists that Reformies in the US have as much right to undermine Israeli security and promote the Arab agenda as Israel's own leftists. They do not. If Sappy and his buffoons wish to promote Palestinian "freedom", let them make aliya, pay Israeli taxes, serve in the army, and suffer on their own persons the consequences of leftist folly, like Israel's own home-grown leftist extremists. But even then, while they will have the right to promote their agendas, EVEN THEN they will not have the right to misrepresent leftist political extremism as Judaism. Here is Saperstein's new fatwa from the POST: The editorial "rebuttal" by "Rabbi" David Saperstein: We support reengagement -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- David Saperstein, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 24, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Recent policy statements from the Union for Reform Judaism have twice come under editorial and op-ed attack in these pages. Those attacks threaten to drive a wedge into the broad pro-Israel coalition in America that embraces both doves and hawks. Polls repeatedly show that millions of Jewish and non-Jewish pro-Israel Americans are dovish on peace process issues. These include, as Israeli foreign service officers who served in the States can testify, many senators, congresspersons, journalists, prominent Jewish leaders, and other influentials. Certainly, they include a sizable majority of the 1.5 million Reform Jews. To understand why the Post's criticism is so bewildering, simply reread the paper's editorial. As it fairly and correctly acknowledges, the Reform movement expressed its solidarity with Israel, denounced terrorism, condemned Arafat, supported the security fence, condemned the ICJ's ruling on the fence, and criticized Arab and international media "hatred and falsehoods against Israel." Is this not what the Post would want the millions of Jewish doves in the US to be doing? Might it not have better served Israel and the Jewish people by editorializing approvingly that even major Jewish organizations more focused on the peace process than the Post feels is wise remain staunchly pro-Israel? Apparently not. Instead, the Post turns passionate only when criticizing us for calling for more energetic efforts to restart the peace process, expressing concern about the humanitarian plight of the Palestinians, urging that the Gaza withdrawal be done in a way that strengthens moderate forces and does not leave a vacuum that Hamas and Islamic Jihad can fill and, finally, for suggesting that the security fence's placement must take into account, as one factor, the dispossession and hardship it imposes on the Palestinians Â? exactly the position of Israel's own High Court of Justice. Indeed, all of these positions also reflect the formal policy of the Bush administration. Why, then, this editorial? Apparently, the only proper role for (non-governmental) pro-Israel Americans (Jews and non-Jews) is as a cheering section for whatever policy the government of Israel espouses. That is a recipe for alienation, not for involvement; and we reject it. It risks alienating large reservoirs of American support at exactly the time that Israel needs them most: Many of the best and brightest of our idealistic young Jews, the tens of millions of pro-Israel Jews and non-Jews, including many of Israel's staunchest supporters on Capitol Hill Â? people who love Israel, support it forcefully, but question specific Israeli government policies. If the Post were to respond to them as it has to us ("narcissistic," "moral posturing"), the alarming message would be: You are not with us. Let us be clear: The Reform movement has always held that because it is the people of Israel who live and die by the decisions that Israel makes, its citizens alone are entitled to make those decisions. But it does not follow, not at all, that lovers of Israel abroad are precluded from active participation in the debate over the wisdom of those decisions. Israel's deliberations can only be enriched by such perspectives and analysis. At the same time, as citizens and active participants in our own public life, American Jews are obligated to address US policy, including American policy vis-a-vis Israel. The Post holds that we engage in moral posturing when we urge that Israel implement the withdrawal from Gaza in a way that strengthens Palestinian moderates and assists in revitalizing a peace process and restarting negotiations. Moral posturing? Even those of us who believe that Arafat must be replaced or those who believe there is no partner at all with whom to speak now, should surely agree that American and Israeli interests are not served by passively leaving a vacuum in Gaza that extremists will fill. Similar concerns underlay IDF Chief of Staff Maj.-Gen Moshe Ya'alon's forceful criticism of Israel's failure to engage Palestinian moderates in a way that provides the incentive and the wherewithal to stand up to Arafat and Hamas. But the issue is less with whom can Israel talk at this moment but what Israel and the US can now do to create conditions that will lead to the resumption of meaningful talks. Yitzhak Rabin had it right. As our resolutions have long argued, a two-state solution remains indispensable to stability in the region, reducing terrorism, avoiding the isolation of Israel on the world scene Â? and, crucially, to addressing (as does our position on the placement of the security fence) the urgent demographic threat to the Jewishness of the Jewish state. We question the Post's position that the purpose of disengagement is to serve as an alternative to direct negotiations. We stand, instead, with the Bush administration, which remains formally committed to a peace process that points beyond disengagement, that points towards the difficult reengagement that alone can one day bring genuine peace to the region. The writer, a rabbi, is director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism. Sunday, August 22, 2004
1. Apologies for the glitch in last week's message in which addresses inadvertently appeared. 2. There is one major issue related to the "Security Wall" that is being totally ignored by the media and by Israelis. Sure, the weaknesses associated with the idea of the "Security Wall" have already been well expounded. The Wall is too easy to climb over, dig under, swim around, or blow holes in. Even worse, there is nothing stopping the Palestinians from shooting mortars, rockets, and missiles over it. The Wall is much too close to the "Green Line", and signals Israel's willingness to capitulate and return to its 1949 "Auschwitz Borders". The Wall should in fact be a set of security cages, caging in the large Palestinian towns while leaving the rest of the West Bank and Gaza as free range in which Jews live and move freely. But all that is old hat. There is one OTHER reason why the Wall will fail. Suppose hypothetically Israel were to build a Security Wall 3000 kilometers high, one that could not be dug under, shot over, nor could it have any holes blown in it. Just suppose. Even then, the Wall would do nothing to stop the terror and carnage. Why? Because the Wall does nothing if you let the terrorists walk into Israel through the gates in the Wall! Israel's policy has always been to allow tens of thousands of Palestinian day laborers to enter Israel freely. Even after each terror bombing, a few days later the gates have been opened. The much-touted Gaza fence, supposedly a precedent and role model for Sharon's new "Security Wall", has failed to prevent the suicide bombers and other murderers from entering israel for the simple reason that Israel just lets them waltz in through the gates! Indeed, one part of Sharon's pledge to President Bush in the recent White House pow-wow was that Israel promises to continue to let the "day laborers" enter, no matter what. The US does not allow unrestricted entrance of day laborers from Mexico nor Canda, but wants Israel to agree to allow tens of thousands of Palestinians to enter Israel, no matter how many Israelis get murdered as a result. So never mind that the Wall cannot stop a single Kassem rocket (Kassems were discovered this week in the West Bank, and so are no longer just a problem from Gaza, and can strike Lod airport and Jerusalem). The Chinese Wall failed. The Roman Walls failed. Sharon's Wall will fail. The Security Wall is the latest Israeli attempt to find an alternative to Israeli military victory. There is no magic solution that can serve as an alternative to Israeli military control of the ground in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Everything else is wishful thinking and foolish belief in magic. Friday, August 20, 2004
1. http://www.jewishworldreview.com/michelle/malkin.html 2. Maariv, August 17, 2004 The weird right of return coalition The German left opposes the right of return of all European post WW2 refugees. Our left could learn from them. Ben Dror Yemini The years following WW2 saw several waves of refugees. In Europe eleven million ethnic Germans living in areas lost to Poland and Czechoslovakia in the aftermath of the war were unceremoniously given one-way tickets and told never to return. Within a few short years they were totally absorbed into Germany, ceased being refugees and disappeared as an issue from the headlines. No UNRWA, no refugee camps, just Germans living in Germany. How different from the Palestinians, who were deliberately kept refugees, in order to develop into a festering sore to be blamed on Israel. The Germans had a better claim to demand a right of return, or alternatively of compensation. They became refugees after a war, unlike the Palestinians who became refugees during a war they had initiated, and coerced the Arab world into joining. In addition, it should be remembered that there was a mutual wave of refugees in the Middle East, as entire Jewish communities, numbering at least as much as the Palestinian refugees were forced to flee their homes, leaving behind assets worth at least those abandoned by the Palestinians. The German left, true to its ideals of historic d?tente and pacifism, has always rejected any talk of right of return or compensation. It claims that any such attempt would re-ignite dormant nationalistic passions best forgotten, and that even though many of the refugees were not Nazis, a new reality has been created, and must be respected. Any attempt to do otherwise would be seen as a provocation. The BDV (organization of German refugees) received whatever scant public support it has from the right hand corner of the German political map. With the recent enlargement of the EU, which now includes those countries from which the Germans were evicted, the BDV has attempted to re-air the issue. Erkia Steinbach, a lone voice on the BundestagÂ?s backbenches has been making a lot of noise over the matter, but no one is taking notice. The demand for compensation, couched as Â?historic justiceÂ? is seen as a non-starter, which could only bring back the Â?bad old daysÂ? Germany and Europe have spent the last fifty years forgetting and dismantling. However when it comes to the Middle East, every thing becomes topsy-turvy. Elements of the German left, which regards itself as so progressive and peace loving, make common cause with the disciples of the pro-Hitler Mufti, in supporting the right of the Palestinians to return to a home they have not lived in for over fifty years. The really funny thing is that the arguments they use to reject precisely such claims in Europe are equally valid when applied to the Middle East. Here, as in Europe, it would be a giant step backwards for any chance of peace and accommodation, releasing demons best left tightly locked up. The total lack of logic and consistency between their position regarding right of return or compensation in Europe, and that pertaining to the Middle East clearly doesnÂ?t bother them. Whoever favors peace should unambiguously reject any talk of right of return for what it is, a massive provocation and rejection of reality that can only encourage strife and hinder peace. IsraelÂ?s noisy but marginal post-Zionist anti-Zionist minority just doesnÂ?t get it. Instead of rejecting a cause that is inherently incompatible with peace and accommodation, they insist on making common cause with GermanyÂ?s ultra- right wing fringe, mindlessly parroting same lines regarding the Palestinians the ultra-right wing nationalists in Germany say regarding German refugees, the need to right a historic wrong, achieve historic justice and so on and so forth. (As usual, Yemini tries to be "balanced" between the treasonous Left and its opponents here:) And as usual, we see our lunatic left wing fringe lined up with the ultra-extremist lunatic right wing. Both of them support the right of return, the former of Palestinians to ancestral homes in Jaffa and Haifa they have not lived in for fifty years, the latter of Jews to return to the ancestral cities of Shechem (Nablus), Bethlehem and Hebron. They talk about righting historic wrongs, but implement policies that lead to the robbing and humiliation of the Palestinians. One can understand a common denominator between the Israeli and German ultra-nationalist right-wingers, a common denominator between fellow zealots. What on earth the Israeli post-Zionist ultra-left is doing in bed with them defies human understanding. Interestingly, many of the Israeli left who support the right of return reject claims by descendents of Jewish refugees from Arab countries for compensation, saying this is a provocation, and that they need to understand the need to sacrifice for the greater good. An interesting concept, is it not? This week Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder visited Poland. He put and end to any lingering tension or suspicions over the issue, saying a resounding no to any talk of right of return or compensation. 3. Jewish Settler, Jesus, Crucified By Arafat by Ariel Natan Pasko Newsflash...Dateline Palestine: Jewish settler named Jesus born in illegal outpost in occupied Bethlehem. His family builds settlement on occupied Arab land. The young Jewish radical then grows up and decides as one of the "hilltop youth" to go settle in Muslim Nazareth, oppressing peaceful Arab Canaanites. Joining a settler group, he later sets up shop as a carpenter, but is drawn into radical Jewish politics and becomes one the most wanted right-wing extremists in Palestine. Years later, as a grown man, he goes up to the Temple Mount in an attempted attack on the holy Arab Canaanite Mosque, but Palestinian security forces arrest him and bring him to President Arafat for trial. The "Rais" finds him guilty of all the Palestinian's sins and orders his execution as a collaborator. One more Jewish settler crucified in Palestine. As broadcast by PA TV... Sounds crazy? Not really, if you pay close attention to what the Palestinian Authority has been broadcasting to its people, as "history" lately. Thanks to Itamar Marcus over at Palestinian Media Watch (www.pmw.org.il), who monitors Palestinian television broadcasts, we now "know" that: 1. The Hebrews of the Bible have no connection to the Jews of today. 2. The Hebrews of the Bible were Arabs. 3. The Prophets of the Bible were Muslims. 4. Biblical King Solomon was a Muslim Prophet. 5. Solomon's Temple was not built by Israelites but by Arab Canaanites. 6. The Canaanites are the forefathers of the Palestinians. 7. The Bible is legends based on what Jews imagined and not on history. 8. The Jews of today are descendents of a 13th Century Khazar tribe with no history in the Land of Israel. 9. The location of the Temple Mount in Jerusalem is a Zionist invention. 10. Zionism is Racism. The following discussion below, was broadcast on PA TV by "historians," Dr. Jarir Al-Qidwah, Head of the PA Public Library and Arafat's Advisor on Education and Dr. Issam Sissalem, senior historian and Educational TV host, who is the former head of the History Dept. of the Palestinian Authority University. The moderator was Mohammed Albaz. PA TV, Aug. 2, 2004... Albaz: "Where did the story of Solomon's Temple come from?" Al-Qidwah: "Solomon's Temple, I believe, was built by the Canaanites who were the neighbors of the Israelis, the Israelites...I want to state several words clearly: the Bible became an archival document, not representing what the Israelis and the first Jews were, but what they thought they were, what they imagined. The Temple is the fruit of their imagination. In any case, when our nation or our Canaanite forefathers came to Palestine, they built the Temple, a temple in Jerusalem." Sissalem: "We, as the Palestinian nation fighting for its freedom and liberation, must not focus too much attention on these false [Biblical] legends. The history of our land continues more than ten thousand years. The land of battles and wars, [many] armies, tribes and commanders came through. I want to point out that we should not focus much on what is called the [Biblical] Hebrew tribes, who are in fact Bedouin - Arab tribes. There is no connection between them and these Khazar Jews [of Israel today]. Those [Hebrew - Arab] tribes were erased and ceased to exist and no traces were left of them. That group did not have a pure religion. They claimed that Solomon, may he rest in peace, built the Temple. Does the land testify to this? Solomon was a prophet and we see him as a Muslim and part of our [Islamic] heritage. There is no historical text that proves the existence [of the temple] or that it has a real history other than the Bible, and the Bible as we have previously mentioned, was written based on ancient legends." I won't bore you any longer with this insanity, if you "must" read it, check out PMW's site. But what I can tell you is, that the falsehood bothers Israelis so much, that the usually self-flagellating, left-leaning Ha'aretz, last May, featured an article "A campaign of denial to disinherit the Jews". In it, the author tells us, "Years ago, a group of archaeology students from Bar-Ilan University went to Jerusalem's Kidron Valley, hoping to save archaeological remnants from earth the Wakf [Muslim religious trust] had dug up on the Temple Mount and dumped in the riverbed. A Wakf official who noticed the students began yelling at them. One sentence struck them in particular: 'You have nothing to look for here, just as the Crusaders had nothing to look for here. Jerusalem is Muslim.'" According to the article, a recent study by Dr. Yitzhak Reiter, conducted for the Jerusalem Institute for Israel Studies states: "In the last generation, the Islamic and Arab history of Jerusalem has gradually been rewritten. At the heart of this new version is the Arabs' historic right to Jerusalem and Palestine. The main argument is that the Arabs ruled Jerusalem thousands of years before the children of Israel. In addition to building the Arab-Muslim case, the Muslim thinkers are formulating a denial and negation of the Jewish-Zionist narrative. Included in that effort is the de-Judaizing of the Temple Mount, the Western Wall and Jerusalem as a whole." And if you thought Palestinian insanity was bad enough, it seems to be contagious... Reiter - who is a specialist in Contemporary History of the Middle East at Hebrew University's Truman Institute - points out that not only Palestinian propagandists like Arafat and PA-appointed mufti of Jerusalem, Sheikh Akram Sabri, have lost it, but both former and current Jordanian Ministers of Wakf Affairs, the Muslim world's most popular cleric, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, and others as well. For example, the former Jordanian minister of Wakf affairs, Abed al-Salaam al-Abadi, Sheikh Raed Salah and several Islamic Internet sites refer to Abraham as the builder of the Al-Aqsa mosque 4,000 years ago. Whereas the current Jordanian minister of Wakf affairs, Ahmed Khalil, has said that Israel is intervening in Al-Aqsa (Temple Mount) affairs "in order to build the fabricated temple there". The Qatar based Islamic cleric, Egyptian-born Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi, spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and a leading theologian - who achieved star status thanks to his weekly religious phone-in program Al-Sharia wa Al-Haya (Islamic Law and Life) on the Qatari satellite channel, Al-Jazeera - has identified the Jebusites as an ancient Arab tribe that wandered from the Arabian peninsula, together with the Canaanites, around 3,000 BCE and therefore predated the children of Israel in the land. So have members of the Saudi royal family, Palestinian archaeologists, such as Dr. Dimitri Baramki, Syrian clerics and others in the Arab/Islamic world. And of course the Palestinians are descended from the Jebusites... Egyptian archaeologist Abed al-Rahim Rihan Barakat, the manager of the archaeological site at Dahab in Sinai, recently wrote in an article appearing on the Internet site of the northern branch of the Islamic Movement in Israel, "The myth of the fabricated Temple is the greatest crime of historical forgery." And, a Fatwa on the Internet site of the Wakf in Jerusalem states that David, Solomon and Herod did not build the Temple; rather they repaired something that had been there since the time of Adam. So, next time you get the "crazy idea" that just maybe Israel can make peace with the Palestinians, or that the Islamic world is ready to live in peace, justice, and "truth," with the rest of the world, knock that revisionist baloney right out of your head. They're having a psychotic episode, gripped in mass insanity... And, if Jesus ever comes back, he'll be a Palestinian "Shaheed" (martyr) who the Israeli occupation has killed - as Yasser Arafat has stated on numerous occasions - and you'll hear it first, on PA TV. Ariel Natan Pasko is an independent analyst & consultant. He has a Master's Degree in International Relations & Policy Analysis. His articles appear regularly on numerous news/views and think-tank websites, in newspapers, and can be read at: www.geocities.com/ariel_natan_pasko (c) 2004/5764 Pasko THIS ARTICLE CAN ALSO BE READ AT: http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_4665.shtml 4. Cute exchange: http://chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=9141 Wednesday, August 18, 2004
Kassams found in Nablus -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Margot Dudkevitch, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 17, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IDF troops operating in Nablus in an intensified operation to hamper terror infrastructure uncovered on Tuesday two Kassam rockets in a building in the city's casba (old city). Palestinians reported that a 10-year-old boy was killed in Nablus by IDF gunfire on Tuesday. The IDF is investigating the claim. Its not the first time Kassams have been found in the West Bank. In January of this year, IDF and Shin Bet forces arrested six members of a Hamas cell operating in Ramallah who had been manufacturing Kassam rockets in a residential apartment building. On September 30, 2002, IDF forces discovered a Kassam rocket and launcher in a field that were aimed at the nearby community of Kedumim in Samaria. In February of same year, IDF reservists uncovered eight Kassam rockets and a number of launchers while searching a truck at a surprise roadblock set up near Ein Bidan north of Nablus. The rockets had been hidden in flour sacks, and were complete with warheads and launchers. Kassam attacks have become a regular feature of the war since 2002, though they have generally been fired from the Gaza Strip. The rockets are unsophisticated weapons homemade from simple materials, but their 4-kilometer range easily bypasses the security fence, endangering nearby communities. During the operation in Nablus on Tuesday, IDF soldiers shot and wounded three Palestinian men. One of the men had hurled a firebomb at the soldiers, and the other two men had thrown bricks. The IDF reported that in two of the incidents soldiers shot low to the legs of the attackers. Paratroopers operating in the city also discovered a second bomb factory in which soldiers uncovered two explosive belts ready to use and a bomb. It is the second bomb factory found in the city in the last 24 hours. IDF troops operating in the Ein Beit Ilma refugee camp near Nablus uncovered two rifles, a number of magazine clips, ammunitions and electronic equipment used to prepare bombs. IDF soldiers deployed in the Ramallah area on Tuesday arrested a Tanzim man and three other Palestinian fugitives at a checkpoint near Bir Zeit. A rifle was found at the Tanzim man's house. In the Gaza Strip, two Palestinians were shot and killed by IDF troops late Monday night after they were spotted approaching the security fence near the settlement of Atzmona in Gush Katif and digging in the ground. It seems the two were planning to plant a bomb. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This article can also be read at http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?pagename=JPost/JPArticle/ShowFull&cid=1092712287322&p=1078027574121 2. Too little, too late: Court expels US pro-Palestinian activist -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Associated Press, THE JERUSALEM POST Aug. 16, 2004 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tel Aviv District Court ordered a pro-Palestinian American activist deported from the country Monday, the latest move against a foreign group opposing Israeli military activity in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip. A Tel Aviv District Court judge ordered Adam Wilson, a 28-year-old union organizer from New Orleans, Louisiana, to leave Israel by Tuesday. Wilson is affiliated with the International Solidarity Movement, a Palestinian-sponsored group in the forefront of protests against IDF military operations and the security fence Israel is building. ISM activists have sometimes disrupted IDF operations by placing themselves between soldiers and Palestinians. The deportation order came as an Israeli court prepared to take up the case of Ewa Jasiewicz, 26, an ISM sympathizer from London who was stopped at Ben Gurion Airport on August 11. In June the Shin Bet security service justified its efforts to expel ISM activist Ann Petter, 44, on the grounds she constituted a threat to Israel's security. Wilson said he was detained by authorities at an airport detention center the same day as Jasiewicz after he refused an order to leave Israel. "They interrogated me and I spent about 10 hours at the airport," he said. "They tried to put on the plane (August 13) and I refused to leave." Wilson's attorney Yael Berda said the judge ordered his deportation after he was unable to pay 4,000 shekels (US$890) to cover court costs. "They're asking for money to be guaranteed for the state expenses of the court fees," Berda said. "(ISM activists) don't have that kind of money. They are here for their own volunteer opportunities." In March 2003 ISM member Rachel Corrie, 23, of Olympia, Washington, was crushed to death by an IDF bulldozer in a Gaza refugee camp while trying to stop soldiers from demolishing a house. Her death was ruled accidental. Thursday, August 12, 2004
http://www4.alternativenews.org/display.php?id=3830 Get set for new Israeli made movies and plays and paintings and sculpture honoring the terrorist woman collaborator, who will be the new role model for the Radical Israeli Left. The Poster Girl of the Israeli Left By Steven Plaut Israelis this week are expressing shock and astonishment over the arrest of a 29 year old Jewish leftist woman from Tel Aviv for collaboration with one of the worst Palestinian terrorists and murderer still above ground. They should be neither shocked nor surprised. The Jewish "peace activist" from Tel Aviv, 29-year-old Tali Fahima, has been arrested on suspicion of planning terrorist attacks against Jewish targets and aiding arch-terrorist Zakaria Zubeidi from Jenin. She was assisting her Palestinian terrorist Â?loverÂ? in planning terrorist atrocities. Tali had been a long time activist in IsraelÂ?s pro-Palestinian anti-Israel Left. Along with the rest of her comrades, she frequently demonstrated for Â?peaceÂ? and against Israeli Â?oppressionÂ? and Â?occupationÂ? of Palestinians. Like the rest of her comrades, the real Â?rights of the PalestiniansÂ? she was interested in defending were the Â?rightsÂ? of Palestinians to conduct mass murder and genocide against Jews. Her Â?allianceÂ?, one between a Jewish leftist and a Palestinian terrorist, is symbolic of the broader alliance between the anti-Semitic Jewish Left and Islamist fascism, and that is the real Â?axis of evilÂ? currently endangering Israeli survival. TaliÂ?s arrest will come as a shock only for those who have been blissfully ignorant of the nature and the agenda of IsraelÂ?s radical Left over the past two decades. In reality, just like the American campus Left has long been little more than a movement of anti-Americanism, so IsraelÂ?s Far Left is today - even more so - nothing more than a movement of anti-Israelism and Jewish self-hatred. IsraelÂ?s radical Leftists seek the destruction of their own country. They consider their country an evil apartheid monstrosity and they are willing to see as many Jews murdered as it takes to end this Â?Zionist abominationÂ?. For the past two decades, IsraelÂ?s leftists, led by the academic extremists and tenured traitors from Israeli universities, have served as the attack dogs against their own country, as IsraelÂ?s version of Taliban John. Like Taliban John and the handful of other American-born terrorists, they regard their own country as the embodiment of all that is evil. They denounce Israel as an apartheid country, whereas in reality Israel is the only country in the Middle East that is NOT one. They justify Palestinian terror and atrocities (and also support the Iraqi Â?resistanceÂ? against the United States and Britain), while denouncing every effort by Israel to defend its civilians as Â?state terrorismÂ? and as barbarism. The only form of resistance against terror by Israel they are willing to countenance is total capitulation to Arab fascism. Israeli Leftists today serve as the Jews-for-hire, as the Israel-bashing court jesters for every anti-Semitic and Israel-hating organization, magazine and web site on earth. The anti-Semites never tire of the rush and thrill of seeing yet another Jewish leftist willing to declare from their podium that all the problems of the planet are the JewsÂ? fault, that the Jewish Israelis are evil and greedy and racist, that Israel is an aggressor and the obstacle to peace, and that Arab atrocities and violence are the understandable response of Â?oppressedÂ? Arabs to Jewish bullying. The Israeli Left has produced its own school of historic revisionists, the Â?New HistoriansÂ?, who have rewritten history and distorted truth in order to advance the cause of Arab aggression and Islamofascism. These Jewish leftist pseudo-historians are the moral equivalent of Holocaust Denials in other countries. Academic standards have been junked and Far Leftist faculty members hired and promoted as acts of solidarity by other leftists within the university system. Faculty members at Israeli universities routinely denounce their own country as a racist, fascist anomaly. Some openly call for Israeli existence to be ended and for Israel to be replaced by a Palestinian-majority Middle East PLO-led state, covering all of Israel and the Â?occupied territoriesÂ?. Were such a state to come into existence, a second Holocaust of Jews would quickly follow and Jewish history would likely end. A sociologist at Ben-Gurion University recently made headlines for publishing an article in anti-Israel European newspapers denouncing Israel for implementing Â?symbolic genocideÂ? in the form of assassinating Palestinian terror leaders. (Had Jews managed to assassinate Hitler in 1943, they would also have been guilty of genocide against Germans according to this Â?academic thinker.Â?) The articles of a colleague of his at Ben-Gurion University from political science appear on neonazi and Holocaust Denial web sites, including the one run by convicted nazi Ernst Zundel, and this Â?academicÂ? routinely denounces Israel as a nazi, fascist, terrorist country. For the past two decades, the loyalty of IsraelÂ?s Far Leftists has been pledged to the enemies of their own country. Their mantra has effectively been: Â?The enemies of my country, right or wrong!Â? Tali Fahima is not the first traitor and collaborator with terror to emerge from the Israeli radical Left. A terror and espionage ring broken up and arrested in the 1970s featured two Jewish leftists, one an ex-kibbutznik. Mordecai Vanunu, a communist graduate of Ben-Gurion University recently released from prison after serving a long term for nuclear espionage, has long been the guru and role model for IsraelÂ?s radical Left. A few other Israeli Jews have been arrested for collaboration with and assistance to terrorists. Tali Fahima personally symbolizes everything that went wrong with IsraelÂ?s Left in the past two decades, during which treason largely replaced protest and dissidence as the driving motive of the radicals. Like Taliban JohnÂ?s capture, her arrest should serve as an ominous wakeup call and siren warning about the dangers from leftist radicalism. For years, the Israeli media has been hectoring the opponents of Oslo and the anti-Left dissidents, claiming they are collectively responsible for Yigal Amir and the assassination of Rabin. Let us see what they will be saying now about the Eva Braun that has emerged from the Left.
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