George
Thomas www1.cbn.com/cbnnews
Muslim author
Mohammad Tawhidi shares with CBN News' Sr.
International Correspondent George Thomas how America can fight against the
threat of radical Islam.
As Sri Lankan authorities worry about the
potential of more suicide attacks by the group behind the Easter Sunday
bombings, one Muslim activist is issuing an urgent warning to Christians around
the world about the growing and very real threat of radical Islam.
"If Christians don't wake up, if
Christians leaders don't wake up, then we Muslims who fled from extremists
can't help you anymore," said Mohammad Tawhidi, a Muslim
author from Australia. "We tried warning you."
Tawhidi, a
third-generation Iranian-born Muslim and author of The Tragedy of Islam,
says political correctness is allowing radical Muslims with their dangerous and
deadly ideology, to flourish. "When we come to the West and try to warn
the governments and intelligence agencies about what is happening, about the
people we fled from, we have this new political correctness agenda that tells
us that 'oh, we are the racists, we are the ones who are traitors and the extremists
need to be understood and embraced'."
Tawhidi says even though the Islamic terror group ISIS lost its territory in Syria and Iraq, the group's followers and sympathizers are still actively planning mayhem. "We are fighting a real caliphate, not a so-called caliphate, this is the true extremist Islamist militant ideology that is taking over our lands and our countries," Tawhidi warned.
This week, a German newspaper published an
exhaustive study of all Islamic terror attacks around the world since the
September 11, 2001, strikes on America. According to the German newspaper Die Welt
Islamic extremists have carried out 31,211 attacks in the last 18 years.
Those attacks have killed 146,811 people
around the world. Most of the victims have been Muslims. The newspaper analyzed
all the information gathered by the Global Terrorism Database at the University
of Maryland to come up with the number of attacks and lives lost.
The list concludes with the recent attacks
in Sri Lanka that killed at least 253 people and injured more than 500 when
suicide bombers targeted churches and hotels on the island nation. Tawhidi, who describes himself on his website as
"Muslim scholar, thinker and educator," says he's on a mission to
tackle the "spread of Islamic extremism" and believes the key is to reform Muslim societies
and their mindset.
"Look, I'm a Muslim, but I cannot live
in an Islamist theocracy," Tawhidi told CBN News. "I can live
in a Christian government, based on their constitution, because that is where
peace lies. I cannot live in a place where ISIS rules the area... No Muslim
with a brain that works would want to live under ISIS," Tawhidi added.
Ukraine
Becomes First Country Outside of Israel with Jewish President, Prime Minister 29
April 2019 | In an historic landslide vote, Ukraine elected its first Jewish
president—making the Eastern European country the first state outside of Israel
that will have both a Jewish president and Jewish prime minister. Volodomyr Zelensky, a
professional comedian with no political experience, won 73% of the vote,
prompting a concession of defeat by incumbent Petro Poroshenko... Volodymyr Groys-man, a Jewish politician who was the mayor of the
city of Vinnytsia, will serve as prime minister in
his administration.
Mark Levin, Executive Vice Chairman and CEO
of National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, told JNS [Jewish News Syndicate]
that Zelensky’s landslide victory was “a very significant
event.” He observed: “There was such great dissatisfaction with the current
government that a political novice, let alone a Jewish political novice,
received so much support.”
"I will bring your children from the east, and I will gather you
from the west. I will say to the north, ‘Give them up!’ and to the south, ‘Do
not hold them back.’ Bring My sons from far away, and My daughters from the
ends of the earth. Bring every one who is called by My name, for I have
made him for My honor, yes, I made him."
Isaiah 43:5-7
Israel Reaches Another Milestone As
Population Crosses 9 Million People: Just days before Israel began
its 71st anniversary on 8 May 2019, new figures show the number of Jews and
overall population have reached a record high. The Central Bureau of Statistics
on 2 May 2019 reported that the number of residents in Israel stood at
9,009,000. The number of Jews is 6,738,500, or 74.8%. In 1948, Israel had
850,000 residents, of which an estimated 650,000 were Jewish. (Israel
Hayom)
California Rabbi
Speaks Out on Attack from Anti-Semitic Terrorist
Jerusalem
Prayer Team | PO BOX 30246,
Phoenix,
AZ 85046 | memi@jpteam.org
The rabbi wounded by gunfire at his California
synagogue called on President Trump on May 2nd to restore the “moment of
silence” in public schools to bring a positive result from the attack.
Rabbi Yisroel Goldstein, who was shot
in both hands in the attack last weekend at the Chabad of Poway synagogue near
San Diego, said his life was changed forever by the attack that killed one
woman.
“If
something good could come out of this terrible event, let us bring back the
moment of silence in our public school system,”
the rabbi told Mr. Trump at a National Day of Prayer event at the White House.
He
called the president “a ‘mensch’ [1] par excellence,” thanking
Mr. Trump for calling him on the phone after the attack. “You were the first
person who began my healing,” he told the president. “I’m so grateful for
that.”
Editor's Comment: Rabbi Goldstein
was one of three injured in the attack at his Chabad synagogue in Poway on
April 27. He lost an index finger in the shootings. The gunman used an AR-15.
(AR stands for "Assault Rifle.") Congregant Lori Gilbert-Kaye, 60
years old, was murdered in the assault, when she went in front of the shooter
to shield Rabbi Goldstein. She gave her life to save his life.
A
Square Deal: Israeli
City to Name Square After Donald Trump
By
Marcy Oster May 2019
www.timesofisrael.com
JTA — A square in the central Israel
city of Petah Tikva will be named after US President
Donald Trump on July 4, the city’s mayor announced. Rami Greenberg said that he
decided to name the square adjacent to City Hall for Trump because of “his
unqualified support for the State of Israel,” the Maariv
daily reported.
The
mayor said he will invite the US ambassador to Israel, David Friedman, Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu, government ministers and public figures. In April,
Netanyahu said he would name a new community in
the Golan Heights after the president to thank him for recognizing Israel’s sovereignty
over the area. In the first week of May, Transportation Minister Yisrael Katz
said that a train stop in Jerusalem would be named for Trump.
Editor's Note: Petah Tikvah is
the 5th largest city in Israel. It was founded in 1878 by religious Jews
leaving Jerusalem. These religious Jews originally sought land for a new
settlement called Petah Tikvah with land near Jericho. However, the Ottoman
authorities refused to allow the purchase. They were eventually able to
purchase land east of the modern city of Tel Aviv. It was difficult. Many of
the original settlers died of malaria. Eventually the swamps were drained, and
Petah Tikvah became a successful agricultural settlement. Today it is a
beautiful city, which we have visited on our trips to Israel. RAC
Former Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alusi Supports Aid from
Israel (MEMRI)
Former Iraqi MP Mithal Al-Alusi said in an April
21, 2019, interview on Asia TV (Iraq) that he has no problem
visiting Israel and putting "an end to the great Arab and Islamist
lie" surrounding Jerusalem, which he said he does not view as an Arab
capital. He said that he is more concerned with helping Iraqis and with Iraq's
food security, which he said would improve if he traveled to Israel and built a
"bridge between the half-a-million Iraqi Jews and Iraq." Al-Alusi also asserted that Israel is a legitimate state.
Saudi Journalists
Support Israel over Hamas - Zack
Evans (MEMRI)
'Abd Al-Hamid
Al-Hakim, former director of the Middle East Center for Strategic and Legal
Studies in Jeddah, tweeted on May 5:
"May Allah protect Israel and its people. We will not let
the treacherous hand of Iran and its agents in Gaza reach the Israeli
people."
"It's time to say this out loud: confronting the
terror of Hamas is the responsibility of all the countries in the region and of
the international community, not only of Israel. I say to the Arabs...: Do you
want these murderers and agents of Iran to rule Jerusalem?!"
Muhammad Al-Kahtani from Riyadh
tweeted: "We stand with our cousins in Israel following the terror attack
of the terrorist Hamas...on unarmed civilians. May Allah protect Israel and
give it victory over the terrorist Hamas and everyone who supports it."
What Israel Has Managed to Do in Recent Years - Dror Eydar
Where
were we a little over 70 years ago, and where are we now? From a scattered,
lowly people that was trampled by anyone who passed by and a third of whom went
up as smoke in the crematoria, we rose from the ashes and bloomed into a
strong, proud nation that is being courted by many countries.
30
years ago in 1988, 4.44 million people were living in
Israel, compared to 8.96 million last year. 30 years ago, the gross domestic
product stood at $44 billion. Now it is more than 700% higher, standing at over
$355 billion. The per capita GDP has increased from $10,000 30 years ago to
over $38,000 last year. Israel's foreign currency reserves were $4 billion 30
years ago, and now they total $115 billion. In 1988, annual inflation stood at
16%, compared to only 1% in 2018.
Since
the beginning of the 21st century, the Israeli economy has grown by 90%, more
than double the average growth among OECD nations. Exports grew from $10
billion in 1988 to $107 billion in 2018. The discovery of offshore natural gas
reserves provides the resources for the production of 73% of the country's
electricity.
Israel is ranked third in the world (after Japan and Canada) in
the number of college-educated citizens per capita. R&D comprises a bigger
percent of Israel's GDP than any other country in the world. The writer
is Israel's next ambassador to Italy. (Israel Hayom)
U.S. Jews are more likely than Christians
to say Pres. Trump favors Israel too much, according to a Pew survey.
By
World Israel News Staff worldisraelnews.com
The survey, conducted between April 1-15
among 10,523 U.S. adults, finds that 42% say the president is favoring the Israelis
too much. Forty-seven percent say he is treating the Israelis and Palestinians
with the right balance. Six percent say he favors the Palestinians. Four percent
said they don’t know.
“By comparison, Christians in the United
States are more likely to say Trump is striking the right balance between the
Israelis and Palestinians (59%) than to say Trump favors the Israelis too much
(26%),” writes Gregory A. Smith, an associate director of research at the Pew Research
Center.
The gap is still more dramatic among Evan-gelicals, of whom 72 percent say President Trump strikes
the right balance between Israelis and Palestinians, and just 15 percent say
Trump favors the Israelis too much.
Some 52% of American Jews identify as Democrat,
16% as Republican, and 31% as Independent. Jews were the religious group with
the highest percentage identifying as Democrat. Jews are also the least likely
to approve of Donald Trump of all religious groups, with just 26% approving,
and 71% disapproving. By contrast, 50% of Christians (Protestants and
Catholics) approve of Trump's performance.
Pew Research Center @pewresearch 5-6-19
Editor's
Note: It is a bit surprising that we have the most
pro-Israel president in history, and Christians are the ones that most approve
of Donald Trump's pro-Israel policies, with 42% of American Jews believing that
President Trump favors Israel too much! It should be noted, however, that Trump
is very popular among Orthodox Jews, who tend to be Republican and strongly
pro-Israel. Reform and secular Jews tend to be more concerned about LGBTQ
rights and abortion rights than they are about Israel.
There is a JEXODUS movement among some Jews
who are abandoning the Democratic party. Jews tend to love the Democratic party
far more than the Democratic party loves the Jews. The famed St. Louis ship
carrying over 900 Jewish refugees was turned away from American shores in May
1939 at the orders of FDR. The ship was forced back to Europe, where hundreds
were murdered at the hands of the Nazis.
It was Republican President Richard
Nixon who went against the instructions of the US Defense Dept, the State Dept,
and Congress during the Yom Kippur War of 1973, and pushed through a massive
re-supply of weapons to Israel during a very critical time, when Israel's
survival was under very heavy assault.
by
Cnaan Liphshiz
www.timesofisrael.com
KIEV,
Ukraine (JTA) — Volodymyr Zelensky, the Ukrainian
Jewish actor who was elected president in April 2019, met the country’s top
Chabad rabbis. The meeting took place in Kiev, the Jewish community of Dnepro wrote on its website Monday, but did not say when or
what Zelensky said in the meeting. Zelensky, also a
comedian, has joked about his Jewish origin.
Elan Carr, the US special envoy to monitor
and combat anti-Semitism, said at a conference Monday in Kiev that the “absence
of anti-Semitic rhetoric during the campaign is a miracle, a stunning fact that
shows how far Ukraine has come.” Speaking at the Kyiv Jewish Forum, Carr said
he would serve as a “champion of Ukraine,” partly for that reason.
Alexander Paliy,
an influential political analyst who supported the outgoing president, Petro
Poroshenko, stirred controversy in March when he wrote on Facebook that,
despite his “respect” for Jews and some Russians, “The president of Ukraine
should be Ukrainian and Christian, like the absolute majority of Ukrainians.”
Nevertheless, Zelensky won with 72% of the vote, crushing
his opponent in a huge landslide victory.
Editor's
Note: As an actor, Zelensky was portrayed on a TV show as a school teacher who
accidentally becomes president of Ukraine. And then he actually became
president in real life! When he ran for president, he embraced his Jewishness,
not a small factor in a country with a troubled history of anti-Semitism.
German Foreign Minister
Condemns UN's Treatment of Israel - Jane Mcintosh
Marking the 70th anniversary of Israel's admission to
the UN, German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas wrote on Saturday: "Germany
stands, also in the UN, shoulder to shoulder with Israel, whose security and
right to exist must never be called into question by anyone anywhere. Nevertheless,
Israel is still being denounced, treated in a biased manner and marginalized
inappropriately in UN bodies to this day. This state of affairs is painful and
unsatisfactory." (Deutsche Welle-Germany)
Anti-Zionist Imam
Delivers Opening Prayer at U.S. House of Representatives (JTA)
Omar Suleiman, an imam who has wished for the end of Zionism, called for
a third Intifada, and likened Israel to Nazi-era Germany, delivered the opening
prayer at the U.S. House of Representatives on Thursday.
Suleiman has a
long record of incendiary social media statements about Israel. He has called
Zionists "the enemies of God" and is a backer of the boycott-Israel
movement. Suleiman's congresswoman, Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas),
invited him to deliver the prayer.
Dangers to Religious Rights
in the Proposed "Equality Act"
The
Equality Act would expand the definition of the word sex in the Civil Rights
Act of 1964 to include "gender identity" and "sexual orientation"
as legally protected classes. The result will unleash radical liberals to
attack those whose faith teaches that marriage is only between one man and one
woman and that sexual identity of male and female is a fixed, biological fact.
By government edict, business owners, employees,
and customers alike will be subject to a radical LGBT agenda:
·
Female business owners, customers, and
employees would then be forced to share their privacy in restrooms and dressing
rooms with men who claim to be women.
·
Health care providers and professionals
would be forced to perform gender transition procedures (sex changes) and provide
medical services (hormone therapy) that would violate their moral and religious
convictions.
·
Amusement parks, recreation centers, skating
rinks, and daycare centers, etc. will be forced to employ people whose values
on sexuality deviates from those of the employer.
·
Adoption and foster care agencies will be
forced to place children into same sex households and into homes of individuals
suffering from gender confusion.
·
College and professional sports stadiums
would be required to open its restrooms to either sex.
The
Democratic Party has clearly laid out their intent to force Christians into
subjugation to radical sexual deviancy. The Party's platform states, "We
support a progressive vision of religious freedom that respects pluralism and rejects
the misuse of religion to discriminate."
The "progressive" vision of
religious liberty (protected by the First Amendment) was recently made visible
by Chai Feldblum, the former commissioner of Obama
administration's Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Feldblum
clearly staked out the "progressive vision" of the Democratic Party
when she said:
"I'm having a hard time coming up with
any case in which religious liberty should win... Sexual liberty should win in most cases. There can be a conflict between
religious liberty and sexual liberty, but in almost all cases the sexual
liberty should win because that's the only way that the dignity of
gay people can be affirmed in any re-alistic
manner." (American Family Assocation)
Inside Syria's
Secret Torture Prisons: How Bashar al-Assad Crushed Dissent - Anne Barnard
As Syria's president, Bashar al-Assad, closes in on
victory over an 8-year revolt, a secret, industrial-scale system of arbitrary
arrests and torture prisons has been pivotal to his success. The Syrian
government waged a ruthless war on civilians, throwing hundreds of thousands
into filthy dungeons where thousands were tortured and killed. Nearly 128,000
have never emerged, and are presumed to be either dead or still in custody,
according to the Syrian Network for Human Rights. Nearly 14,000 are known to
have been "killed under torture."
Now, as the war winds down and
countries start to normalize relations with Syria, the pace of new arrests,
torture and execution is increasing. Last year the Syrian Network recorded
5,607 new arrests that it classifies as arbitrary - more than 100 per week.
Hundreds are being sent to an execution site, Saydnaya
Prison, and newly released prisoners report that killings there are
accelerating. Newly discovered government memos show that Syrian officials who
report directly to Assad ordered mass detentions and knew of atrocities. (New
York Times)
ILHAN OMAR DEFENDS PALESTINIANS AFTER TERRORISTS RAIN DOWN
ROCKETS ON ISRAEL: USA Rep. Ilhan Omar sided with Hamas
and Islamic Jihad hours after terrorists fired hundreds of rockets at civilian
targets in Israel by Hamas last weekend. “How many more protesters must be
shot, rockets must be fired, and kids must be killed until the endless cycle of
violence ends? The status quo of occupation and humanitarian crisis in Gaza is
unsustainable”, the Minnesota Democrat said Sunday night, 5 May 2019. Omar’s comments
followed terrorist fire of over 600 rockets [700 by Monday 6 May 2019] into
southern Israel, killing at least four Israelis. President Trump condemned the
rocket attacks on Twitter and expressed American support for Israel. “Once
again, Israel faces a barrage of deadly rocket attacks by terrorist groups
Hamas and Islamic Jihad. We support Israel 100% in its defense of its
citizens,” Trump said on Sunday. “To the Gazan people — these terrorist acts
against Israel will bring you nothing but more misery. END the violence and
work towards peace - it can happen!” (Washington Examiner)
news@visionforisrael.com
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7743
Charlotte, NC 28241
Editor's Note: Vision for Israel is an excellent source for enews and provides for charitable needs in Israel: new
immigrants, the poor, Holocaust survivors, etc. It is a worthy charity.
Rashida Tlaib Uses Historical
Inaccuracy To Explain Why The Holocaust Gives Her ‘A
Calming Feeling’: Democratic Michigan Rep. Rashida Tlaib
said last weekend that when she envisions the Holocaust she gets a “calming
feeling” because her Palestinian ancestors provided a “safe haven” for some Jewish
people. In fact, 435 Holocaust survivors were killed by Palestinians and
Jordanians violently opposing any local creation of a safe haven for Jews.
Palestinians allied with the Nazis during World War II. Muhammad Amin al-Husayni, the Grand Mufti of Jerusalem during the time, was
opposed to “further immigration of Jews to Palestine and Jewish national
aspirations in Palestine,” according to the Holocaust Memorial Museum. Al-Husayni notably met with Adolf Hitler and “collaborated
with the German and Italian governments by broadcasting pro-Axis, anti-British
and anti-Jewish propaganda.”
After the
Jewish state of Israel was declared on 14 May 1948, Arab leaders urged their
people to leave the newly formed nation-state. Despite Israel announcing “ a full and equal citizenship” for all occupants, the Arab
nations, including Egypt, Syria, Jordan, Lebanon, and Iraq, invaded Israel the
following day. Tlaib is America’s first Palestinian
Arab congresswomen and her time in office has been embroiled in anti-Semitism
and anti-American sentiments. She received widespread criticism for her
numerous ties to terror-affiliated activists. GOP Conference Chair Liz Cheney
said, “Surely now House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny
Hoyer will take action against vile anti-Semitism in their ranks,” Cheney
said. "Rashida Tlaib thinking the Holocaust
provides her a ‘calming feeling', must cross the line, even for them."
(Daily Caller)
Ben-Gurion Airport Set For $840 Million Expansion: Tel Aviv's Ben-Gurion Airport
is set to significantly grow after the Transportation Ministry approved expansion
plans worth NIS 3 billion ($840 million) to cope with growing demand. In 2018,
almost 23 million passengers traveled through Ben-Gurion Airport. Within five
years, passenger traffic is expected to reach 30 million annually. Under the
new plans, Ben-Gurion Airport's main Terminal 3 will be expanded by some 80,000
square meters, including the addition of 90 new check-in counters, four new baggage
hall conveyor belts and the expansion of the existing duty-free space, immigration
checkpoints and parking facilities. A fifth passenger concourse will be
constructed, branching off from the terminal departure hall, to accommodate
additional aircraft. (J.Post)
news@visionforisrael.com
Vision for Israel, PO Box 7743
Charlotte,
NC 28241
Popular Children’s
Program Promotes Homosexuality in USA, Israel, and Around the World
May
15, 2019 | www.IsraelToday.co.il
A
new episode of the popular children’s animated television series Arthur had some big news
for Israeli children who faithfully follow the show: Mr. Ratburn
got married – to a man.
The well-loved PBS program, which began in
the 1990s, is dubbed into Hebrew and has been a regular on Israeli children’s
television for decades.
Arthur is an adorable and smart aardvark,
and in the premiere episode of the show’s 22nd season, children find out that
Arthur's longtime beloved teacher, Mr. Ratburn, is
gay. PBS’s promotion of homosexual marriage to kindergarten-aged children was
not a passing slight, but the main object lesson of the episode titled “Mr. Ratburn and the Special Someone.”
The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) is a
nonprofit American public broadcaster and the main provider of educational programming
to public television stations in the United States. Arthur is broadcast in
Hebrew by the Israel Public Broadcasting Cooperation, now known as Kan. Since almost all of
its shows are broadcast during the daytime, parents are generally unaware of
the content their children are watching.
The Palestinian
Tragedy Is Self-Perpetuating, Led by Those Unable to Come to Terms with History
by David Harsanyi
The tragedy of
the Palestinian people is neither the fault of the Jews, nor the British, nor
the Holocaust. After World War I, Jewish migration was exceptionally beneficial
for the Arabs living in the area. Rarely mentioned in the Israeli-Palestinian
debate is that significant Arab migration into a largely empty land was spurred
by Jewish economic development. Jews were not displacing Arabs, they were
attracting them.
Yet, as the British Peel Commission
noted in 1936, "the Arabs have benefited by the development of the country
owing to Jewish immigration, [but] this has had no conciliatory effect. On the
contrary...with almost mathematical precision the betterment of the economic
situation in Palestine meant the deterioration of the political
situation."
Every plan that didn't end in complete
subservience of Jews to the Palestinians was rejected with violence. This
hasn't changed in 80 years. Most Palestinians consider the entire land
"occupied." Peace can be had easily when Palestinian leadership stops
embracing the anti-Semitic terrorism that's rationalized and girded by
historical fantasies. (Federalist)
100%
Arab, 100% Israeli
www.IsraelToday.co.il
David Lazarus
Too bad that the world’s media was focusing
on Nakba Day as 10,000 Arab Israeli citizens marched around in angry protests
to memorialize what they consider “the catastrophe of the creation of the State
of Israel as their personal tragedy.”
Meanwhile, 300 million people around
the globe were watching the Israeli Arab who loves the Jewish Nation as she
hosts the Eurovision Song Contest from Tel-Aviv. Lucy Ayoub was born in
Haifa... Lucy proudly enlisted in the Israel Defense Forces and served for two
years as a flight simulator instructor in the Air Force.
Lucy,
who speaks fluent Arabic and Hebrew, studies philosophy, politics, economics,
and law at Tel Aviv University. In 2017, she joined the Israel Public
Broadcasting Corporation (IPB) and started writing and submitting videos. Lucy
also hosts a weekly cultural program on the radio and the Culture Club on Kan
11, the IPB television station.
But,
alas, the media would rather cover Muslim Arab troublemakers like Hanin Zoabi, who leads Israeli Arabs to demonstrate against
recruitment of Arabs in the IDF, including Arabs from the Christian community,
rejects any historical connection between the Jews and the Mount Temple, and
says that Zionism is racism.
It
is time the world saw the other side of Israel, the young generation of Arabs
who are going through a process of Israelization and becoming an integral part
of Israeli society. Thank you, Lucy, for being such a great host and showing
them a better way.
My
Community Never Told Me
MAY
14, 2019, 10:32 PM
Across American college campuses, it has become commonplace for
anti-Zionist Jews to complain about various Jewish institutions and their
failure to properly address the supposed sin of modern Israel’s founding (the “nakba”) or of course the “occupation”. From Birthright and
Hillel to Jewish summer camps and Hebrew schools, organized protests are aiming
to change the conversation and cast Israel in a negative light. Some of them
even started a multi-media “You Never Told Me” campaign. these groups and
individuals may be misinformed and their intentions may often be malicious,
they are right about one thing — there is a lot that our Jewish institutions
never told us. To the Jewish institutions that helped raise me:
You never told me about the Arab riots of 1920 when warnings of a potential
pogrom were ignored by the authorities, and Jerusalem was attacked due to the
incitement of Arab leadership. I was never told how the British “protectors”
shut the gates to the Old City and prevented the Hagana
from coming to the rescue of the defenseless Jews, yet managed to arrest their
leader Ze’ev Jabotinsky for illegal possession of firearms.
You never told me about the Arab riots of 1929 that arose from Jewish prayer at
the Western Wall and the incitement of the Mufti who began false rumors that
Jews intended to destroy al-Aqsa. I never knew about the 133 Jews who lost
their lives because of this incitement, including 67 in the holy city of Hebron
alone. The rapes and mutilations contributed heavily to the destruction of the
Jewish population in the city and was immediately followed by mass looting.
You never told me about the Arab riots of 1936-1939 that left over 300 Jews
dead and how these riots and their leaders’
incessant demands influenced the British Mandatory Government to pass the White
Papers of 1930 and 1939, restricting Jewish immigration until it reached zero
and made selling land to Jews illegal (often punished by death by Arab leadership)
at a time when Jews were desperate to flee genocide in Europe.
You never told me that Israel was created despite the Holocaust rather than
because of the Holocaust. We young Jews often imagined that Israel was merely
gifted to our people, ignoring decades of hard work and reclaiming the land. We
were not made aware that even in the days following the Allied victory, the
world kept the Jewish people in Displaced Persons camps while Her Majesty’s
government tried every way possible to maintain control of Mandated Palestine.
Jewish Holocaust survivors spent years living in these camps, sometimesamong Nazi war criminals while the world continued
to look the other way.
You never told me about men like Shmuel Zygielbojm, a
member of the National Council of the Polish government in exile who committed
suicide in 1943 to protest the indifference displayed by the world after his
wife and son were killed in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising. Elie Wiesel’s
commentary taught us that the world was silent, but some like Shmuel were not.
You never told me about the Bergson Boys and Ben Hecht who fought to save
Europe’s Jews through illegal immigration before touring America to raise
awareness and funds for a Jewish army to fight the Nazis. I was never told
about Peter Bergson (Hillel Kook), Samuel Merlin, Eri Jabotinsky, and Yitshaq Ben-Ami and how they were met with opposition at
every turn by Rabbi Stephen Wise and the American Jewish establishment who
slandered them as liars and terrorists, hampering any progress they made in turning
the tide for our doomed people in Europe.
You never told that while the Bergson Boys were in America, the Mossad Aliyah
Bet was ramping up their illegal immigration efforts, trying to rescue as many
doomed Jews as possible before all hope was lost. I never heard of the men like
Shaul Avigur and Ehud Avriel who dedicated their lives to smuggling as many Jews
as possible on ships that were often caught by the British and interned in
camps rather than allowed in to Palestine.
You never told me about Shaike Dan, who parachuted
behind Nazi lines in the Balkans and rescued tens of thousands of Jew in
Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, and Czechoslovakia, and who remained there even
after the Third Reich had fallen to continue his rescue efforts and to use his high level connections to help secure the weapons that would
go on to save the Yishuv in the War of Independence.
You never told me about the countless Jewish women who risked their lives for
our people. I never heard my teachers talk about Esther Raziel, the freedom
fighter and Irgun leader who helped found the Herut
party and served in the very first Knesset, or about Hannah Szenes,
the paratrooper who was dropped behind enemy lines into Yugoslavia on a mission
to rescue Hungarian Jews. Although she was captured and tortured, she never
gave up any information to the enemy. My educators never spoke of Sarah Aarohnson, one of the founders of the Jewish spy ring known
as the Nili who helped the British in the first World
War and who committed suicide rather than give up information to her Ottoman
captors.
You never told me that only months after the League of Nations gave Britain the
Mandate of Palestine, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan was created in 1922 using
three quarters of the land that was to be used for the Jewish home. I was never
corrected in my embarrassing belief that our people were being greedy in
wanting “all” of the Mandate when in reality, the negotiations were over only
the remaining quarter.
You never told me about the circumstances surrounding the attack on Deir
Yassin, and was therefore left open to mistruths and propaganda that was
generated to place blame on the Irgun and the Lehi. I was never taught about
the “retaliatory” massacre on the convoy to the Hadassah Hospital which left 78
doctors, students, and patients dead.
Without our community discussing the Independence War in-depth, I was never
exposed to all of the attacks against Jewish villages that preceded the war
such as the Battle at Tel Hai, the massacres in Safed, Kfar
Etzion, and Tiberias. Why are the only attacks that we talk about the ones that
are controversial for our own people rather than the ones that were carried out
against Jews?
You never told me how war between Jews and Arabs could have been avoided
altogether, as a peaceful solution was advocated for by Zionist leaders from
David Ben-Gurion to Ze’ev Jabotinsky. The latter, often decried as the most extreme
of Zionist leadership, said “I am prepared to take an oath binding ourselves
and our descendants that we shall never do anything contrary to the principle
of equal rights, and that we shall never try to eject anyone. This seems to me
a fairly peaceful credo.” When Golda Meir was sent in secret to Jordan to meet
with King Abdullah in an effort to avoid war, her attempts failed as the leader
wanted Palestine included in his Kingdom.
You never told me that while the Jews prepared for the imminent attack
following the UN partition plan, Arab leaders from Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria,
Lebanon, and Saudi Arabia squabbled amongst themselves over how the Palestinian
Mandate would be divided amongst themselves after the war against the Jews,
rather than discussing the future of the people living there.
While Yitzhak Rabin is mostly spoken about in terms of the Oslo Accords and the
peace process, my community never spoke about him as a warrior who strongly
believed that the only way to peace was through strength. As Rabin told President
Nixon, “We, too, believe that it is vital to reach agreement with our adversaries
in the Middle East. But negotiations can only begin when Israel speaks from a position
of strength and has concrete backing.”. Falsely transmitted as the ultimate dove,
Jewish educators rarely explain that Rabin was elected as “Mr. Security” for
his desire to wait for the right moment to make peace, when the IDF had reached
“invincibility”.
You never told me about the long Arab Palestinian history of rejecting all peace
offers, from the Peel Commission and the UN Partition Plan to Ehud Barak’s
offer at Camp David in 2000 and Ehud Olmert’s offer in 2008. Without this information,
it appears to the Jewish youth that Israel is at fault for the lack of peace, ignoring
decades of genuine attempts. These failed efforts once led Shimon Peres to say,
“One must remember, just as a bird cannot fly with one wing and a man cannot
applaud with one hand, so a country cannot make peace just with one side, with
itself.”
You never told me about the history of the Sephardic Jews and how many of them
living in Arab-ruled lands had to give an outward appearance of practicing
Islam while secretly remaining Jews in the privacy of their own homes.
You never told me about our ancestors in Soviet Russia, afraid to express their
culture for fear of being sent to the gulags. I never knew about the bravery of
the refuseniks, daring to be proud Jews and risking everything in order to hold
on to their Judaism and state their desire to return to Zion.
You never told me that descendants of Palestinian Arab refugees from 1948
inherit refugee status, and to this day are kept by their leaders in squalid
camps so it looks to the world that Israel is to blame for their misery.
There is a lot that the Jewish community does not teach its youth. This is a
shame, if for no other reason, those parts of our history include endless
people, events, and stories that would bring us closer together. Zionism was
created as a constructive national liberation movement in which the Jewish
people were seeking peaceful coexistence with their Arab neighbors as evidenced
by the words and deeds of Zionist leaders across the political spectrum. With
more complete understanding of our history, the Jewish youth would be less susceptible
to the negative influence of those who wish us divided. We spend too much
time learning how to defend Israel and justify the actions of our ancestors,
when we should be using that time to instill a greater love of our people.
While it is easy to blame this on our community leaders for not “telling us,”
we need to stop pointing fingers and look at ourselves. Despite the complaining
of some, the history of our people is not hidden from us. We are the people of
the book. It is about time that we took it upon ourselves to pick one up and
fill in the knowledge gaps that are left from an incomplete education.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR As a Jewish New Yorker trying to do
his part to support Israel from the Diaspora, Jared is an advisor/ member for
the B'nai Brith Youth Organization, Legion
Self-Defense Program, and Fuel For Truth Advocacy Boot Camp, as well as a
Birthright Madrich.
by Andrea Levin
www.jewishpress.com
In
commentary on Minnesota Rep. Ilhan Omar’s denigration
of Jews, a vital dimension of her outbursts has been largely overlooked. No one
is asking what prompted her anti-Semitic prejudice. Whence comes the voluble
contempt for the Jewish people?
Another
Somali refugee of an altogether different character, Ayaan Hirsi Ali, provides
an answer in her autobiography, Infidel,
where she writes about the pervasive anti-Semitism in the Muslim world. She
observes:
“[A]s
a child growing up in a Muslim family, I constantly heard my mother, other
relatives and neighbors wish for the death of Jews, who were considered our
darkest enemy. Our religious tutors and the preachers in our mosques set aside
extra time to pray for the destruction of Jews.”
She
has noted that “all over the Middle East, hatred for Jews and Zionists can be
found in textbooks for children as young as 3, complete with illustrations of
Jews with monster-like qualities. Mainstream educational television programs
are consistently anti-Semitic. In songs, books, newspaper articles and blogs,
Jews are variously compared to pigs, donkeys, rats and cockroaches, and also to
vampires and a host of other imaginary creatures.”
Hirsi
Ali describes a school during her years in Kenya in which the teacher taught
that Jews – monstrous in shape – controlled the world, and “only if all Jews
were destroyed would peace come for the Muslims.” Like the other young
students, she feared and dreaded this pervasive menace.
Both
Somalia and Kenya were also home to Omar, whose now famous comments include:
“Israel has hypnotized the world, may Allah awaken the people and help them see
the evil doings of Israel.”
She’s
also tweeted regarding Congress’ focus on Israel, “It’s all about the Benjamins
baby.” Which is to say that it’s all about the nefarious money-wielding Jews.
Omar’s
ignorance extends to basic political facts as seen in her tweeting that “AIPAC
and Netanyahu openly opposed the Oslo Accords.” AIPAC did not oppose Oslo.
Likewise, she claimed that “AIPAC and Netanyahu openly opposed President
Obama’s modest proposed settlement freeze in 2009 – as part of the 2010-2011
peace talks.” Simply not true. AIPAC did not oppose the policy, and Benjamin
Netanyahu instituted a 10-month settlement freeze, the first-ever of its kind
by an Israeli prime minister.
Hirsi
Ali relates that “millions of Muslims have been conditioned to regard Jews not
only as the enemies of Palestine but as the enemies of all Muslims, of God and
of all humanity.” Their leaders have raised “generations to believe that Jews
are ‘the scum of the human race, the rats of the world, the violators of pacts
and agreements, the murderers of the prophets, and the offspring of apes and
pigs.’ ”
Omar
would have likely been exposed to this bigotry in Somalia and Kenya, and might
not have escaped it even when she got to America. As MEMRI has documented,
numerous mosques in the United States echo the same rabid messages.
In
Omar’s hometown of Minneapolis at a mosque this March, an imam declared:
“Egyptian President Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi is a ‘terrorist
son-of-a-terrorist’ that is carrying out the ‘Zio-Crusader agenda’ of the
Zionists, and the tyrannical and criminal Templar Crusaders.”
At
other mosques around America, anti-Jewish messages are proffered to
congregants. In Detroit in January, an imam stated: “Look at the global banks,
the billionaires. … All those are from among [the Jews]. Their culture is a
culture of usury.”
A
Houston imam told his flock, “Judgment day will not come until the Muslims
fight the Jews. The Muslims will kill the Jews, and the Jews will hide behind
the stones and the trees, and the stones and the trees will say: Oh Muslim, oh
servant of Allah, there is a Jew hiding behind me, come and kill him.”
Omar’s
utterances are stunning on many counts, but they should raise questions about
the influences in her life that have instilled bigotry against Jews and Israel.
Her preliminary responses to criticism of her statements were equivocal apologies,
followed by slandering of Israel’s supporters.
So imbued with the lessons of her youth
in Somalia and Kenya – and possibly America, too – perhaps she has yet to learn
the American ethos of tolerance and respect.
Report Charts Support for
Israel among EU States - Noa Landau
A new study of EU
members' relations with Israel has been published by Mitvim
- the Israeli Institute for Regional Foreign Policies, in cooperation with the
German Institute for International and Security Affairs (SWP) and the peace
organization PAX. The study divides the EU into three main groupings: countries
more critical of Israel, countries more supportive, and countries that seek a
balance.
The
bloc of critical countries comprises France, Sweden, Belgium, Ireland,
Spain, Denmark, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Slovenia, and Finland. Ireland is
the most hostile to Israel. The countries more supportive of Israeli policy are
Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria,
Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Greece and Cyprus. (Ha'aretz)
Editor's Comment: It is interesting that the European Union
countries with the most painful histories of anti-Semitism against Jews are now
the most supportive of Israel. RAC
Germany
Decries ‘Painful’ anti-Israel Bias at United Nations - 13 May 2019 German Foreign Minister
Heiko Maas marked the 70th anniversary of the admittance of Israel to the
United Nations [UN] by offering his nation’s ongoing support for the Jewish
state and by criticizing the UN for continuing to act in a biased manner
against Israel. “Germany stands, also in the UN, shoulder to shoulder with
Israel, whose security and right to exist must never be called into question.