People are no longer ashamed to parade negative feelings toward Jews.
Ruth Fogel was in the bathroom when the Palestinian terrorists pounced on her husband Udi and their three-month-old daughter Hadas, slitting their throats as they lay in bed on Friday night in their home in Itamar.
The terrorists stabbed Ruth to death as she came out of the bathroom. With both parents and the newborn dead, they moved on to the other children, going into a bedroom where Ruth and Udi’s sons Yoav (11) and Elad (four) were sleeping. They stabbed them through their hearts and slit their throats.
The murderers apparently missed another bedroom where the Fogels’ other sons, eight-year-old Ro’i and two-year-old Yishai were asleep because they left them alive. The boys were found by their big sister, 12-year-old Tamar, when she returned home from a friend’s house two hours after her family was massacred.
Tamar found Yishai standing over his parents’ bodies screaming for them to wake up.
In his eulogy at the family’s funeral on Sunday, former chief rabbi Yisrael Meir Lau told Tamar that her job from now on is to be her surviving brothers’ mommy.
In a rare move, the Prime Minister’s Office released photos of the Fogel family’s blood-drenched corpses.
They are shown as they were found by security forces.
There was Hadas, dead on her parents’ bed, next to her dead father Udi.
There was Elad, lying on a small throw rug wearing socks. His little hands were clenched into fists. What was a four-year-old to do against two grown men with knives? He clenched his fists. So did his big brother.
Maybe the Prime Minister’s Office thought the pictures would shock the world. Maybe Binyamin Netanyahu thought the massacre of three little children would move someone to rethink their hatred of Israel.
That was the theme of his address to the nation Saturday night.
Netanyahu directed most of his words to the hostile world. He spoke to the leaders who rush to condemn Israel at the UN Security Council every time we assert our right to this land by permitting Jews to build homes. He demanded that they condemn the murder of Jewish children with the same enthusiasm and speed.
He shouldn’t have bothered.
The government released the photos on Saturday night. Within hours, the social activism website My Israel posted a short video of the photographs on YouTube along with the names and ages of the victims.
Within two hours YouTube removed the video.
What was Netanyahu thinking? Didn’t he get the memo that photos of murdered Jewish children are unacceptable? If they’re published, someone might start thinking about the nature of Palestinian society.
Someone might consider the fact that in the Palestinian Authority, anti-Jewish propaganda is so ubiquitous and so murderous that killing the Fogel babies was an act of heroism. The baby killers knew that by murdering Udi, Ruth, Hadas, Yoav and Elad they would enter the pantheon of Palestinian heroes. They can expect to have a sports stadium or school in Ramallah or Hebron built for them by the Palestinian Authority and underwritten by American or European taxpayers.
And indeed, the murder of the Fogel children and their parents was greeted with jubilation in Gaza.
Carnivals were held in the streets as Hamas members handed out sweets.
Obviously YouTube managers are not interested in being held responsible for someone noticing that genocidal Jew hatred defines Palestinian society – and the Arab world as a whole. But they really have no reason to be concerned. Even if they had allowed the video to be posted for more than an hour, it wouldn’t have made a difference.
The enlightened peoples of Europe, and growing numbers of Americans, have no interest in hearing or seeing anything that depicts Jews as good people, or even just as regular people. It is not that the cultured, intellectual A-listers in Europe and America share the Palestinians’ genocidal hatred of the Jewish people.
The powerful newspaper editors, television commentators, playwrights, fashion designers, filmmakers and professors don’t spend time thinking about how to prepare the next slaughter. They don’t teach their children from the time they are Hadas and Elad Fogel’s ages that they should strive to become mass murderers. They would never dream of doing these things. They know there is a division of labor in contemporary anti-Semitism.
The job of the intellectual luminaries in Western high society today is to hate Jews the old-fashioned way, the way their greatgrandparents hated Jews back in the days of the early 20th century before that villain Adolf Hitler gave Jewhating a bad name.
Much has been made of the confluence of anti-Semitic bile pouring out of the chattering classes. From Mel Gibson to Julian Assange to Charlie Sheen to John Galliano, it seems like a day doesn’t go by without some new celebrity exposing himself as a Jew hater.
It isn’t that the beautiful people and their followers suddenly decided that Jews are not their cup of tea (or rail of cocaine). It’s just that we have reached the point where people no longer feel embarrassed to parade negative feelings towards Jews.
A DECADE ago, the revelation that French ambassador to Britain Daniel Bernard referred to Israel as “that shi**y little country,” was shocking. Now it is standard fare. Everyone who is anyone will compare Israel to Nazi Germany without even realizing this is nothing but Holocaust denial.
The post-Holocaust dam reining in anti-Semitism burst in 2002. As Jewish children and parents like the Fogels were being murdered in their beds, on the streets, in discotheques, cafés and supermarkets throughout Israel, fashionable anti-Semites rejoiced at the opportunity to hate Jews in public again.
The collective Jew, Israel was accused of everything from genocide to infanticide to just plain nastiness.
Israel’s leaders were caricatured as Fagin, Shylock, Pontius Pilate and Hitler on the front pages of newspapers throughout Europe. IDF soldiers were portrayed as Nazis, and Israeli families were dehumanized.
No longer civilians with an inherent right to live, in universities throughout the US and Europe, Israeli innocents were castigated as “extremist-Zionists” or “settlers” who basically deserved to be killed.
Professors whose “academic” achievements involved publishing sanitized postmodern versions of anti-Jewish Palestinian propaganda were granted tenure and rewarded with lucrative book contracts.
Today, when properly modulated, Jew hatred is a career maker. Take playwright Caryl Churchill’s 1,300- word anti-Semitic monologue Seven Jewish Children.
The script accuses the entire population of Israel of mass murders which were never committed.
For her efforts, Churchill became an international celebrity. The Royal Court Theater produced her anti- Jewish agitprop. The Guardian featured it on its home page. When Jewish groups demanded that The Guardian remove the blood libel from its website, the paper refused. Instead, it left the anti-Semitic propaganda on its homepage, but in a gesture of openmindedness, hosted a debate about whether or not Seven Jewish Children is anti-Semitic.
From London, Seven Jewish Children went on tour in Europe and the US. In a bid to show how tolerant of dissent they are, Jewish communities in America hosted showings of the play, which portrays Jewish parents as monsters who train their children to become mass murderers.
Seven Jewish Children’s success was repeated by the Turkish anti-Semitic action film Valley of the Wolves- Palestine, which premiered on January 28 – International Holocaust Memorial Day. The hero of that film is a Turkish James Bond character who comes to Israel to avenge his brothers, who were killed by IDF forces on the Turkish-Hamas terror ship Mavi Marmara last May.
No doubt owing to the success of Seven Jewish Children and Valley of the Wolves-Palestine and other such initiatives, anti-Semitic art and entertainment is a growth sector in Europe.
Last month Britain struck again. Channel 4 produced a new piece of anti-Semitic bile – a four-part prime-time miniseries called The Promise. It presents itself as an historical drama about Israel and the Palestinians, but its relationship with actual history begins and ends with the wardrobes. In what has become the meme of all European and international left-liberal salons, the only good Jews in the mini-series are the ones who died in the Holocaust. From the show’s perspective, every Jew who took up arms to liberate Israel from the British and defend it from the Arabs is a Nazi.
WHAT ALL this shows is that Netanyahu was wasting his time calling on world leaders to condemn the murder of the Fogel family. What does a condemnation mean? France and Britain condemned the massacre, along with the US. Does that exculpate the French and British for their embrace of anti-Semitism? Does it make them friends of the Jewish state? And say a British playwright sees the YouTubecensored photographs. No self-respecting British playwright will write a play called Three Jewish Children telling the story of how Palestinian parents do in fact teach their children to become mass murderers of Jews. And if a playwright were to write such a play, The Royal Court Theater wouldn’t produce it. The Guardian wouldn’t post it on its website. Liberal Jewish community centers in America wouldn’t show it, nor would university student organizations in Europe or America.
No, if someone wanted to use the photographs of Yoav’s and Elad’s mangled corpses and clenched fists as inspiration to write a play or feature film about the fact that the Palestinians have no national identity outside their quest to annihilate the Jewish state, he would find no mass market.
The headlines describing the attack make all this clear.
From the BBC to CNN the Fogels were not described as Israelis. They were a “settler family.” Their murderers were “alleged terrorists.”
As far as the opinion makers of Europe and much of America are concerned, the Yoavs and Hadases and Elads of Israel have no right to live if they live in “a settlement.”
So too, they believe that Palestinians have a right to murder Israelis who serve in the IDF and who believe that Jews should be able to live freely wherever we want because this land belongs to us.
Until these genteel Jew haters learn to think otherwise, Israel should neither seek nor care if they condemn this or any other act of Palestinian genocide. We shouldn’t care about them at all.
With Jews like Allen and Silverman we don’t need enemies. But you could add Jack E. Leonard, Red Buttons, Mickey Katz, Rickey Lane (& Velvel), George Burns, Georgie Jessel, Zero Mostel (perhaps the greatest), Phil Silvers, Don Rickles and we owe a not to the great non-Jewish comic who made one of the best pro-Israel statements, George Carlin. And he did it without swearing.
Ron, you left out my two favourites: Woody Allen and Larry David. Honourable mention to Joan Rivers and Sarah Silverman.
Yamit who could tell jokes better? It’s all about the delivery.
Milton Berle, Jack Benny, Mel Brooks, George Burns, Jackie Mason, Buddy Hackett, Rodney Dangerfield, Don Rickles, just a few.
ron here are some for you
John Liebman, “Speeding Ticket”
Larry Greenfield, “Pincus the Tailor”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPhUlmZSIB0&feature=related
Annie Korzen, “Good Value”
Max Weisberg, “Strangers on a Train”
Yamit (Uncle Nahum), Bill has it right.
Shocked, somewhat, I kinda knew Bill would respond rightfully when faced with this gross cowardly act of terrorism.
I am lost for words to express the sorrow for this family.
This will stop when Israel responds with a devastating strike at those responsible and they cannot be concerned what the world thinks.
I didn’t hear an outcry from any world civil or religious leaders condemning the actions of these scumbags bastards.
Israel, f%@k world opinion protect your people.
Hymie this is for you. Personal
I’m shocked! Shocked!! Shocked!!!
Glick’s conclusion is weak contrasted to her strong views.
Jews should care and care deeply about anti-semitism in all its forms, especially when it is coming from her Palestinian enemies and any other enemy that is directly or indirectly putting Israel’s existence at risk.
What is equally and more important however, is that Jews must begin to care about doing what is necessary to defend Israel against the anti-semitic hordes for in doing so they defend themselves.
As for worrying what the world will think if Israel should mount a major assault against the Palestinians, declare unreservedly that Jews are entitled to make their homes anywhere in J & S and J & S is Jewish and Israeli land, there is no point. No matter what words Israel has spoken and position taken, even seemingly innocuous, the world can be counted on to think ill of Israel.
Well, the lesson has been long learned and its application far too long delayed and that lesson is Israel must be ready, willing and able to say “F’%k you” world.
Israel, must act like any other nation and that means she does what she has to do to further her self interest, ensure her security and assure her well being now and into the future.
Kay: You say you have never met a Jew. I would suggest that you read the Bible and you will learn more about the Jews than anywhere else. I have a deep love for the Jews and for Israel, and it blows my mind that such a small sliver of a country would be fought over so much. What people don’t seem to understand is that G-d gave that land to the Jews, and who are we to fight against it? We pray daily for the Peace of Jerusalem and for the entire land of Israel.
Kay: You are right. I must have seen it 12 times and that is exactly where the expression
came from and stuck in my mind as a poignant wish.
Yamit said:
That clarifies much about you.
Jomit said:
Yamit is definitely passionate.
RoslynFarmer said:
The story is so horrible I find I can’t even comment on it for the most part. There are no words adequate enough to express the horror at someone having the ability to nearly decapitate a 3 month old. I looked at the crime scene photos, too.
Jomit…
Funny….seems to me I heard this same thought expressed by Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof.
Dan Friedman: Don’t know whether this is your actual thinking or was the entire post “tongue in cheek”?
It could be taken either way. If your post is on the emmess…I am apalled at your thought process.
I may be the only one posting on this thread who actually put his life on the line to fight the Japanese
when they truly were our enemies. They have been our friends for a long time now, and every innocent
life lost anywhere is very sad. Both the Japanese catastrophes and the horror of the Fogel massacre deserve
their prominent place in all the news sources. On the other hand if your answer was of a cynical nature, then
it was in very bad taste. Also, you can send out all the petitions you want but anti semitism will never end.
After all, who then could the A-holes of the world hate? THEMSELVES? JMHO.
Kay: If in fact we ARE the apple of G-D’s eye, and his CHOSEN PEOPLE. It might be a nice thing
if next time around, he would give a different group this singular honor, and then maybe the world
would leave us alone. LOL.
For the most part, one can’t tell just by looking at someone, if they are Jewish. I live in Saskatchewan, which has few Jews to start with. And only on one ocassion,
about 20 years ago, did I recognize 2 men as being Jewish by their distinctive dress (I suspect they were from out of town). I was even invited to a synagogue 3 times
by a friend for a cultural thing, and I did see yarmulkes being worn. So that is the extent of my seeing Jews locally.
Yamit
I was raised in a small mainly anglo saxon town in Ontario Canada and moved to a Northern community where I lived a worked for most of my life. Never met a Jewish person except for the one year I lived in Toronto back in the 50’s. I bought my wedding gown in the Jewish garment district on Spadina Ave. (which is now totally an Asian area). I am reading the book Josephus (does that count just a little?) Since retiring I have been living on an Island on Lake Huron (one of the Great Lakes) and have never met anyone who is Jewish in all the years I have lived there. . I spend a great deal of time on the Internet and do my best to keep abreast of the events taking place in the world and agree with Jomit that those outside of the Moslem faith are facing a human sunami coming at us from all sides. I can’t understand for the life of me why anyone with a grain of intelligence cannot see what is happening. We also live in Florida for 5 months of the year and even (where we are right now) but still haven’t run across any Jewish people because we dwell among Christian people and the opportunity has never arisen. Now you know the “rest of the story”. I will say in all honesty that I pray for the Nation of Israel and the peace of Jerusalem daily, because I believe the Jews are the “Apple of God’s Eye” and in His own time He will make this known the to rest of the world.
This is inportant for all of you to digest.Levinson, Yamit is a 1000 per cent correct The media is totally antisemitic and all are haters of Israel. And when I say media, I mean all the T.V. networks (cable included), all the major newspapers, magazines, Time , Newsweek and the like. The big story of the year thus far is definitely the slaughter of the innocent Fogels.. Rather than providing THIS STORY, top billing, we are being flooded with details of the pisspot of Japanese tsunamis, earthquakes, nuclear meltdowns, deaths of thousands, injuries of thousands, thousands homeless, dislocation of hundreds of thousands- but who cares?. In order of importance how can these trifling incidents, which occured in a faraway land, and an enemy land at that, compare with the death of an innocent family of 5.
When was the last time A Jew killed an innocent child, the Gaza campaign, a totally defensive and utterly justified endeavor, resulted in absolutely no civilian deaths or injuries. That should put matters in a proper context.
I AM CIRCULATING A PETITION FOR ALL JEWS TO BOYCOTT THE MAJOR AMERICAN, CANADIAN, AND BRITISH PERIODICALS, NEWS NETWORKS, ETC., ETC. ANTISEMITISM IN ALL FORMS MUST CEASE- NEVER AGAIN. THIS ANTI-JEWISH CONSPIRACY MUST BE FOUGHT. NEVER AGAIN.
Some good thoughts from everyone here. It boils down to the fact that people are just people. We are not that far apart (for the most part), and we are victims or products of our own particular upbringing, and experiences. If you took a Jewish or Christian infant and raised him from birth as a militant muslim….that’s what he would be as an adult and vice versa. (see JANISSARY) Yamit says the Jews are a race. There have been a lot of pros and cons on that through the ages. There are Black Jews, Brown Jews, Chinese Jews, No American Indian Jews LOL….but regardless there is no doubt that we are certainly more than just a religion. At this point in time, with muslims emigrating en masse all over the Christian world, it is time for all Christians to stop scapegoating Jews and know that a Jewish Israel is the bulwark, the Guardians of the pass if you will, holding back the masses of those that hate us both. It is certainly time for the Western Europeans to wake up and understand that the people that they are backing against Israel are the people who are going to eat them up alive. So Kay….just know that we are on the same side against a human sunami intent on engulfing us all.
Kay,
I don’t think we have as many of the good things in common as we could. I don’t think that North American Christians have that sense of mission to be a blessing to society at large – we have a desire to be so, but not a sense of mission to be so, and there’s a difference in the two concepts. We don’t raise our children to excel as much either. We don’t try as hard to be good people either. I believe these things are from G-d, and we’ve lost a sense of their importance. The New Testament says that we gentile Christians are a “wild branch grafted onto a cultivated tree” and we are not to boast over our roots. We’ve blown it a lot with our wildness over the centuries.
I could make a joke out of this statement but….. Might I ask where you are from that you have never met a Jew? I thought Jews are everywhere. You can’t miss them thy are the ones with the horns sticking out on their heads. 🙂
Kidding aside, Judaism is not a religion at least not one like Christianity. Jews are a nation from the time of the covenant at Sinai. A chosen People with a defined Chosen Land. All Jews are related genetically unless they are converts or children of converts. So in a way every Jew belongs to a very extended family. Like in most large families we tend to disagree amongst ourselves on almost everything. Even though we are contentious and fight a lot, historically like most nuclear families we come together in times of crisis.
I hope you find we Jews as interesting as some of these observers of other Jews!
Jomit..
My remarks were not exactly thoughtless…I am stating the feel I get when I read some of the angry rhetoric. You are absolutely correct when you say I don’t understand the Jewish phyche…how could I, I have never known anyone personally who is Jewish, and that is why I like Israpundit. I am trying to form a picture of who and what Jews are about, their cultural, and so on. I agree with you also about Yamit’s verbal skills…obviously highly skilled with the ability to express his mind. I appreciate his softer position in his response to my comments, but just like there are Christians and there are “Christians indeed”…the same holds true with the Jew. “We want nothing more than to live in peace, be creative and passionate in our chosen fields, and to raise our children to also have that future. ” I believe we hold that in common
Fixed it for you.
You had me nodding in agreement until the above quote!! Then you blew it. Your moral compass is totally Fxxed up. When you find a Jewish one let me know.
On a national level individuals are irrelevant only the collective is or should be taken into account.
What you don’t seem to understand is that it has ALWAYS been a “One way street” for Jews. Yes, Israel can count on nobody except themselves (certainly while America has a muslim in the White House) they would never make that happen. They will never do to the animals what the animals have tried to do to them for thousands of years. They have their own country now, and since the wall, they have made it strong enough that people can now go to work or the cafe without fearing being bombed or slaughtered. Yes, the Fogels were the exception, but there is no use attempting to force an issue that Jews will never bring themselves around to committing. We can dream and wish for an atom bomb to be dropped on Iran’s nuclear facilities but we (like the U.S. forces in Afghanistan) are forced to abide by our own set of rules of engagement. They can kick us in the balls, but we have to stay with the Marquis of Queensbury…..that’s just how it is. No amount of ranting and raving is going to change that.
The opinions of celebrities with drug-addled brains are of no consequence. However what should really enrage us is the Israeli “leadership” who placed pleasing the international community over protecting the lives of their people.
Bill: There is no sense fantasizing what we would all like to happen. The Israelis will not do that. They will just have to keep drafting all of their young men and women and remain watchful and one step ahead of those animals. But “NEVER AGAIN” give up another inch of Israeli soil.
“NEVER AGAIN” believe that a lasting peace process with animals is worth the paper that it is written upon. “NEVER AGAIN” put faith in a “peace treaty” signed by animals.
They are lying vermin who bring nothing to mankind except death, agony, and hatred. Those stupid animals daily kill more of their own than their so called enemies. Time to face the fact that the world has turned it’s back on Israel. They can count on nobody but themselves……and G-D.
Caroline Glick’s response’s are spot on! She is a blessing to the Jewish and Chrisitan comminity world wide, keep up the great work Caroline Glick!
Finding out how the press ignored the story, and reading Caroline Glick’s response and Yamit’s response, brought even more tears than the massacre itself.
“The righteous shall rejoice when he seeth vengeance, he shall wash his feet in the blood of the wicked.”
“Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing,” this is what is meant by the verse (Psalms 9): “The L-rd is known by the judgment He executes. This speaks of Egypt who G-d smote at the Red Sea.”
Our rabbis tell us (Midrash Avchir): “And Israel saw the great hand of G-d’ – When the Almighty wished to drown the Egyptians, the Archangel of Egypt (Uza) said: Sovereign of the Universe! You are called just and righteous…why do you wish to drown the Egyptians? At that moment Gabriel rose and took a brick and said: Sovereign of the Universe! These who enslaved Your children such a terrible slavery as this, shall you have mercy on them? Immediately, the Almighty drowned them.”
“Then did Moses and the children of Israel sing.
It’s high time we stop allowing the US to
dictate to the ground rules here.
We should stop taking the money
from America, and deal with this cancerous
Arab fifth column like any normal country,
and throw them out!
r
I do not hate individual Christians. I wish no one harm except those who would harm myself and other Jews. Not being a Christian, I don’t hold with turning either of my cheeks not to anyone. I would see our enemies dead rather than see a single Jew harmed.
I was born and grew up in America and I know and have known many Christians whom I considered good friends, one even saved my life. I was even engaged to a nice smart and beautiful Presbyterian girl.
I consider ron a friend and a brother; if every Christian were like ron I would never consider even bringing up our troubled history. I wish every Jew had his deep feelings and understandings of Jews and Israel. I consider ron a true righteous gentile, next to ron I am humbled.
There is a solution. For those of us who take Torah as a book of lessons, if not literal history, it’s clear what has to be done. Genesis 32:4-36:43 tells about the rape of Jacob’s daughter in the vicinity where the Fogel family was murdered. The rapist was Shechem, the crown prince of the town of Shechem. Dinah’s brothers Simeon and Levi avenge the deed by killing all male inhabitants of the city despite the opposition of Jacob who was afraid of upsetting neighbouring communities. Doesn’t that sound like the situation today? Netanyahu, et al, afraid of upsetting the Americans and Europeans. Violence is the only language the Arabs understand. If anything is justified, it is vengeance for the terrorism perpetrated not just on the Fogel family but on the entire Jewish people.
Kay: Way down deep, Yamit is no different than any Jew in his understanding of where the world views Jews as a whole. He is just a lot more passionate and has verbal skills that are greater than most of us. I agree with everything he has written above. That, coming from an 85 year old who has lived in the U.S. all of his life, not particularly in Jewish neighborhoods, and not particularly “looking Jewish”. Yet I have seen it in so very many stupid, and unthinking people who were raised to be anti semites either overtly or covertly by their parents, who had been indoctrinated by theirs, and ad infinitum. So I am one of the priviliged few who never was murdered by Nazis, Cossacks, Islamists, Inquisitors, Crusaders, Romans, and Jew haters throughout history. Your thoughtless remark of “Yamit passing out candy, rejoicing at Christians being slaughtered” shows your ignorance of the Jewish psyche. We want nothing more than to live in peace, be creative and passionate in our chosen fields, and to raise our children to also have that future. The world majority seems not to wish us even this simple non violent dream.
Sad to say…there are those like Yamit who would probably “pass out candy” to see Christians slaughtered in this same manner, such is his apparent hate towards them.
I can only say there are still thousands if not millions of Christians who pray for Israel daily, and defend them vigorously, whenever and wherever possible.
This is one Christian who cried over the horrible senseless slaughter of the Fogel family and I pray God’s justice will prevail on their behalf. God’s word says he will curse those who curse Israel. To those Jews who seek justice, truth and mercy, I say “hang in there, because your day is quickly coming when the wrong shall fail and right prevail, and the world will fall all over themselves trying to be friends of the Jews”. God is LOVE, but he also will, in fairness, judge the world and all who live in it, for their deeds, whether bad or good.
No other people on earth have been so victimized by hatred than the Jews and to make matters worst, there is not one iota of any justification what so ever.
It all begins with religious bigotry by the Christians in the name of Christianity. Shameful, shameful.
Time for the Catholic Church along with other Protestant denominations to quit living in the world of denial and accept the responsibility for their actions.
It can begin with not only acknowledging responsibility but by educating their respective members and with relentless efforts in eradicating anti-Semitism without delay.
Another giant step forward would be for the Catholic Church and the various Protestant denomination to fully support Israel and her rights to the Holy Land, one state one Jewish Nation.
Dear World,
See the clip here
It appears that you are hard to please. I understand that you are upset over us, here in Israel. Indeed, it appears that you are quite upset, even angry and outraged? Indeed, every few years you seem to become upset over us.
Today, it is the brutal repression of the Palestinians; yesterday, it was Lebanon; before that it was the bombing of the nuclear reactor in Baghdad and the Yom Kippur War campaign. It appears that Jews who triumph and who, therefore, live, upset you most extraordinarily. Of course, dear world, long before there was an Israel, we, the Jewish people – upset you.
We upset a German people who elected a Hitler and we upset an Austrian people who cheered his entry into Vienna and we upset a whole slew of Slavic nations – Poles, Slovaks, Lithuanians, Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians.
And we go back a long, long way in the history of world upset. We upset the Cossacks of Chmielnicki who massacred tens of thousands of us in 1648-49; we upset the Crusaders who, on their way to liberate the Holy Land, were so upset at Jews that they slaughtered untold numbers of us.
We upset, for centuries, a Roman Catholic Church that did its best to define our relationship through Inquisitions. And we upset the arch-enemy of the Church, Martin Luther, who, in his call to burn the synagogues and the Jews within them, showed an admirable Christian ecumenical spirit.
It is because we became so upset over upsetting you, dear world, that we decided to leave you – in a manner of speaking – and establish a Jewish State. The reasoning was that living in close contact with you, as resident-strangers in the various countries that comprise you, we upset you, irritate you, disturb you. What better notion, then, than to leave you and thus love you – and have you love us? And so we decided to come home – to the same homeland from which we were driven out 1,900 years earlier by a Roman world that, apparently, we also upset.
Alas, dear world, it appears that you are hard to please. Having left you and your Pogroms and Inquisitions and Crusades and Holocausts, having taken our leave of the general world to live alone in our own little state – we continue to upset you.
You are upset that we repress the poor Palestinians. You are deeply angered over the fact that we do not give up the lands of 1967, which are clearly the obstacle to peace in the Middle East. Moscow is upset and Washington is upset. The Arabs are upset and the gentle Egyptian moderates are upset.
Well, dear world, consider the reaction of a normal Jew from Israel. In 1920, 1921 and 1929, there were no territories of 1967 to impede peace between Jews and Arabs. Indeed, there was no Jewish State to upset anybody. Nevertheless, the same oppressed and repressed Palestinians slaughtered hundreds of Jews in Jerusalem, Jaffa, Safed and Hebron. Indeed, 67 Jews were slaughtered one day in Hebron – in 1929.
Dear World, why did the Arabs – the Palestinians – massacre 67 Jews in one day in 1929? Could it have been their anger over Israeli aggression in 1967? And why were 510 Jewish men, women and children slaughtered in Arab riots in 1936-39? Was it because of Arab upset over 1967? And when you, World, proposed a U.N. Partition Plan in 1947 that would have created a Palestinian State alongside a tiny Israel and the Arabs cried and went to war and killed 6,000 Jews – was that upset stomach caused by the aggression of 1967? And, by the way, dear world, why did we not hear your cry of upset then?
The poor Palestinians who today kill Jews with explosives and firebombs and stones are part of the same people who – when they had all the territories they now demand be given them for their state – attempted to drive the Jewish State into the sea. The same twisted faces, the same hate, the same cry of “idbah-al- yahud” – “Slaughter the Jews!” that we hear and see today, were seen and heard then. The same people, the same dream – destroy Israel. What they failed to do yesterday, they dream of today – but we should not “repress” them.
Dear World, you stood by the Holocaust and you stood by in 1948 as seven states launched a war that the Arab League proudly compared to the Mongol massacres. You stood by in 1967 as Nasser, wildly cheered by wild mobs in every Arab capital in the world, vowed to drive the Jews into the sea. And you would stand by tomorrow if Israel were facing extinction. And since we know that the Arabs-Palestinians daily dream of that extinction, we will do everything possible to remain alive in our own land. If that bothers you, dear world, well – think of how many times in the past you bothered us. In any event, dear world, if you are bothered by us, here is one Jew in Israel who could not care less.