The fact that for the first time since the Nazis ruled Europe, Jews are being boycotted and sanctioned on a massive scale, is testament to the perverse success of the Palestinianization of Europe.
Richard Mather, View from UK, INN
The writer, a Noahide (ben Noach),
News that the European Union’s foreign policy representative, Catherine Ashton, joined an Arab olive harvest in the town of Ras Karkar, should be a cause for concern for all those who are worried about the EU’s inability to stay impartial in the Israel-Palestinian conflict.
The fact that Ras Karkar is in Area C, which is under Israeli military and administrative control, is something of a propaganda coup for the Palestinians, who claim Ms Ashton’s visit is proof that that “this territory is not contested as Israel claims” and will “help us move to full Palestinian sovereignty.”
Ms Ashton’s visit to the Middle East comes a week after she described Israeli construction activity in a Jerusalem neighbourhood as threatening “to make a two-state solution impossible.” Moreover, she made no mention of the Palestinian refusal to resume direct negotiations with Israel without preconditions.
One of the most alarming experiences as a European is to see how our politicians continue to criticize Israel but not the Palestinians, whose national aspirations seem to be the most pressing issue in the corridors of EU power. In fact, you would be forgiven for thinking that the creation of a Palestinian state will inaugurate a period of world peace and utopian brotherhood.
It is ironic that the EU is so fixated on Palestinian nationalism at a time when Europe is undermining the sovereignty of individual nation states within its own borders. Indeed, Europe haughtily dismisses concepts such as a statehood and nationalism. So why is Palestinian statehood so important?
This obsession with the Palestinians requires an explanation. Ever since Israel’s astounding military victory in 1967, it is clear that the Jewish state does not require the benefaction of condescending Europeans. This means that Europe needs a “new Jew” to patronise. But instead of protecting its own Jewish remnant who had survived the horrors of the Shoah, the European elite latched on to the concept of Palestinian nationalism.
Why? Because Palestinian nationalism was – and still is – packaged as a revolutionary (albeit invented) ethnocentric liberation movement which challenges the hegemony of the US, which has long supported Israel. Moreover, the Palestinians managed to convince just about everyone that they are a landless and suffering people, whose plight is equal to that of the Jews in the 1930s and 1940s.
During the 1960s and 1970s, when the Palestinians used terrorism to advertise their message, some European politicians and activists must have thought that assisting the Palestinians was simply the right thing to do. Anyway, supporting the PLO at a time when it was widely considered to be a terrorist organization, was a good way of upsetting the Americans. At the same time, the Palestinian issue has enabled Europe to reconnect with its Jew-hating past by blurring the line between anti-Zionism and anti-Semitism.
II
The fact that for the first time since the Nazis ruled Europe, Jews are being boycotted and sanctioned on a massive scale, is testament to the perverse success of the Palestinianization of Europe.
A growing number of European universities, trade unions and businesses have decided to boycott Israeli products and individual Israelis (usually academics), as well as Israeli orchestras and theatre groups. At state level, Denmark and Ireland are proposing the banning of Israeli goods. The European Parliament’s second biggest voting bloc, the Socialists and Democrats Group, also supports a boycott of Israeli settlement goods.
At street level, Jews are assaulted and their sacred spaces vandalized. Countries that pride themselves on their enlightened and liberal societies, such as Sweden, France, Britain and Norway, are all places where to be Jewish is to be at risk.
The rise in anti-Semitism in Europe has received little attention, partly because much of the abuse is carried out by Muslims who are sheltered by the liberal elite, who accuse critics of Islamophobia or racism. Muslims who attack diaspora Jews claim it is retribution on behalf of their “brothers” in Gaza and the “West Bank.” And the liberal elite agrees.
In the European media, Israel is disproportionately blamed for all the ills of the Middle East. It is amazing how many column inches are devoted to Israel/Palestine. Far too often, the Guardian newspaper gives a platform to radical Muslims who espouse hatred of Israel and Jews. And on so many occasions, media outlets across Europe print or broadcast anti-Israel stories that are based on manipulated images, staged events and unsubstantiated rumors, the most notable example being the massacre that never happened in Jenin.
What is also vexing is Europe’s economic support for projects in Gaza and the “West Bank.” Over the past two decades, the EU has committed around 5 billion euros in development aid to the Palestinians. The EU makes no secret of the fact that it is deliberately helping the Palestinians prepare for statehood, which the EU says is being hampered by Israeli settlements. At the start of 2012, the EU contributed another 1.1 million euros to the PA’s so-called “Private Sector Reconstruction in Gaza” programme, which provides financial support to businesses destroyed or damaged by “Operation Cast Lead”. Never mind the fact that Gaza has a has a five-star hotel and a luxury shopping mall, or that its real GDP grow by more than 25% in the first three quarters of 2011.
III
In contemporary European political discourse, the Palestinian issue is totemic. The European fixation with Gaza and the “West Bank” has propagated the outrageous but popular belief that Israel is the world’s worst human rights abuser since the Nazis. But casting Israel in this role is no different from accusing Jews of killing Christian children for their blood or blaming Jews for Germany’s military defeat in 1918. The level of abuse levelled at Israel today is just another manifestation of an age-old disease. And it is a disease which always makes Europe very sick.
Ms Ashton, who is also vice-president of the European Commission, would do well to turn her attention to finding a solution to domestic anti-Semitism, which is at its highest level in sixty years. Europe has no business funding Gaza or castigating Israel when it cannot even look after its own persecuted minority of Jews, some of whom are fleeing France and Sweden in order to find shelter in Israel. The fact that the Holocaust is still within living memory should send a shudder down the spine of Europe.
The one-sided criticism of Israel and the culture of hatred in Europe needs to be addressed before more Jews are attacked or synagogues firebombed by pro-Palestinian activists. For the sake of a healthy body politic, EU politicians must resist the urge to automatically side with the Palestinians and say “no” to anti-Semitism in all its forms. They should point out the duplicity of left-wing peace demonstrators who side with Hamas and Hezbollah, and highlight the hypocrisy of European anti-Zionists who send flotillas to Gaza but do nothing about Syria, which is currently falling apart.
This is not about being anti-Muslim (or even anti-Left) but about getting things into proportion and realizing that there are more important issues in the world than “Palestine.” Eradicating European anti-Semitism is, in my view, far more important. After all, Europe has a moral and historic duty to protect what remains of its Jewish communities.
@ dweller:
Dweller, thanks a lot.
dweller Said:
I’ll make time!
It’s not just that from the the comment section of Israpundit i learn more about Israel than i could ever imagine.
It’s also that some of the comments are so stimulating (yours and Yamit’s are my number one, Bernard follows but i guess there are others too) that prompt my wholehearted intellectual response.
For example, the (aforementioned) thread about whether some civilians might be considered fair game for an Israeli attack inspired me to write a secular philosophical justification for Israel’s right to take as many Palestinian civilian lives as required so as to eliminate the Hamas threat (i am in agreement with Yamit’s and Bernard’s moral intuitions on the issue of what constitutes “fair game”). I await a post that would render my writing relevant so that i can post it.
dweller Said:
Had a quick look at it. Yamit and i had a long exchange on this (rather unrelated to Israpundit’s concerns, hence my not pursuing it any further, ever) issue. I am not posting the link because i understand you are very short of online time: Links that have not been asked for and are posted among people that chat, but don’t know each other very well, tend to be kind of imposing on the recipient – a misdirected need for displaying common courtesy that makes one feel that they should read the stranger’s link so as not to offend her.
Eager to read your comments, thanks again.
@ dionissis mitropoulos:
My thanks for the kind words. They’re always welcome.
I’ve been retired for a few yrs, so I can’t claim to being a “professional” of any sort these days.
I do publish from time to time, when something moves me to do so.
I began posting on Israpundit in late 2008, I think.
Here’s an early series of exchanges. It ran for some 263 posts.
Unfortunately there were one or two folks on that thread who were deliberately trying, apparently, to generate confusion amongst the readers
— so Ted removed a few of their posts. (Eventually banned them altogether.)
Consequently, the numbering of the posts (as referred to in the comments themselves) has been removed; so you can’t rely on those number designations for referral to various previous comments. You’ll just have to begin at the beginning, and read in order as they come; sorry ’bout that (hope you’ve got plenty of time).
This is more recent.
@ dweller:
Dweller, I found the way to read the past comments of someone: I just type her screen name in the search box and … voila.
I started with yours.
I know I have said that I like the way you write, but I have to take it back because of my misrepresenting the scale:
You are a hell of a writer – you professional of some sort?
I came upon the controversy in the comment section of October 22, 2012 (“A Major Breakthrough at Last with regard to Tenured Treason in Israel”) – how did I miss that?
If I am not intruding, could you suggest some past discussions on moral issues (like the aforementioned one) where you have participated? –I’ ll read them all anyway, but it would be helpful to have a suggested starting point.
Your controversies with Yamit should make it to a book, the clarity of the thinking of both of you (in the ad hominem exchanges too – or should I say especially?) is worth publishing.
The fine distinctions you make are not “psychobabble” ( as someone said!), but penetrating remarks – and the delivery awesome.
Shabat shalom, Dweller. Awesome post.
@ Michael Devolin:
The world is full of cripples, Michael.
The vast majority of us (irrespective of faith community or religious affiliation) have a pronounced tendency to favor the one leg or the other. Yet, we need both — not only for locomotion but also for balance.
I think the Father of Mercies must have a ripping good sense of humor: watching each of us needlessly “limping along,” as we do (all-the-while, presuming to walk upright).
Doubtless if a man could see himself as haShem sees him
— he’d never stop laughing.
Shabbat Shalom, one & all.
“— because faith and works are not opposed to each other; it isn’t the one or the other.”
Well said, Dweller. I agree totally. Isn’t faith in the context of Judaism a “foregone conclusion”? Conversely, isn’t faith in the context of Christianity regarded rather disproportionately? Christians speak of Jews as though Jews have no faith (especially in the NT) in G-D, but it has been my experience in many instances that Jews, generally speaking, have far more “faith” in G-D than do Christians.
@ CuriousAmerican:
Yes, but to leave it at that is terribly misleading, Curio
— because faith and works are not opposed to each other; it isn’t the one or the other.
Quite the contrary, the latter constitutes the EVIDENCE of the former’s presence.
Just as works not grounded in faith are rote and empty
— faith that fails to manifest in works is DEAD.
A man’s faith in God is predicated on his intimacy with Him — so, of itself, that faith not visible to other men.
The way it BECOMES perceptible to other men is thru the works to which he is moved BY that faith.
Thankyou, Yamit. The videos points out that it’s a decision/covenant one makes with G-D. You just can’t call yourself a ‘Ben Noach’ and so be instantly a “righteous gentile”. I wasn’t condemning Mr. Mather when I pointed out the common understaning of the different phrases “ben Noach” and “Noachide”.
@ dionissis mitropoulos:
This is the fundamental reason why the fanatical Iranian mullahs believe that the survival of Islam requires the destruction of Israel.
Do they speak for the Sunnis too?
Most likely yes.
@ dionissis mitropoulos:
It wasn’t meant for you only Hymie.
@ Michael Devolin</b
Indiana Jones (the original) is a Bnei Noach
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4DgUZZUvycI&feature=relmfu
Yambo- Do you recall when I wrote to our beloved and late mutual friend?
ayn reagan—Let me say that I have it up to here with you Californians.
You Know You’re In California When…
The fastest part of your commute is down your driveway.
You were born somewhere else.
You know how to eat an artichoke.
The primary bugs that you worry about are electronic.
Your car has bulletproof windows.
Left is right and right is wrong.
Your monthly house payments exceed your annual income.
Your mouse has only one ball.
You need a new TV, you can run down to the local riot and pick one up.
You dive under a desk whenever a large truck goes by.
You can’t find your other earring because your son is wearing it.
You drive to your neighborhood block party.
Your family tree contains ‘significant others’.
Your cat has it’s own psychiatrist.
You don’t exterminate your roaches, you smoke them.
You see 25 lawyers chasing an ambulance.
More than clothes come out of the closets.
When ‘the Dead’ are best live.
You go to a tanning salon before going to the beach.
Your blind date turns out to be your ex-spouse.
More money is spent on facelifts than on diapers.
Smoking in your office is not optional.
When you can’t schedule a meeting because you must ‘do lunch’.
Your children learn to walk in Birkenstocks.
Rainstorms or thunder are the lead story for the local news.
You’ll reluctantly miss yoga class to wait for the hot tub repairman.
You consult your horoscope before planning your day.
A glass has been reserved for you at your favorite winery.
When all highways into the state say: ‘no fruits’.
All highways out of the state say: ‘Go back’.
You pack shorts and a T-shirt for skiing in the snow, and a sweater and a wetsuit for the beach.
Goodnight Ayn, wherever you are.
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
I sort of guessed so.
yamit82 Said:
To be honest, i missed the point even of the extrABBAganza video, even though you have set no privileged knowledge prerequisite for it – something in the lyrics which i couldn’t make out anyway?
@ Donald freyman:
Donald, i just finished reading Yamit’s link, “why are they after us?”, and the claims as to the theological threat that Judaism poses to the other Abrahamic religions are very convincing.
If you are based solely on the content of this link, i decree that your dismissal of Yamit is unwarranted.
@ dionissis mitropoulos:
Donald freyman and me go back a long way.
ExtrABBAganza
Especially for Donald
“You still don’t get it Michael. Someone who calls themself a Ben Noach is obviously a righteous gentile.”
No, you don’t get it. Calling oneself a Ben Noach does not make one a “righteous gentile.” Ben Noach means “son of Noach,” which means, in Torah context (if I may be so bold), “son of Noach,” in other words “gentile”. When one refers to oneself as a Noachide, this means that one observes the Seven Laws of Noach.
Yamit, could you please verify this for the sake of Mr. Shaw?
@ Donald freyman:
Donald freyman Said:
Donald this was a great video!!!
And very nasty to Yamit!
If i correctly understood that you are accusing him of seeing bogymen, then you just evinced (one of) the most subtly dismissive contempt i have ever witnessed!
I stay non-committal on the content of your accusation, for the time being.
But i loved the delivery of it! – i mean the accusation’s delivery.
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
I am a fan of David Goldman, as you must have realized by my constant references to him, so i keep hard copies of his articles. Naturally, i couldn’t remember the title, so i had to search my copies of his articles to find the relevant one. I found it.
Before posting the link and the relevant passage, i should say that David Goldman touches upon this issue now and then, and that there are some more past articles of his, and i may post a few more links in the future, when i find which articles have relevant passages – i read them but i cant’ remember where i read what.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Front_Page/EK04Aa03.html
The title of the article is “what the Jews won’t tell you”, and David Goldman signs as “Spengler”.
Here is the passage from the article:
He doesn’t use the word “jealousy”, but it’s pretty obvious that’s what he means.
And of course i need to state that what i said about Muslims being jealous only on account of Judaism’s being temporally first, and not on account of the fact that the Jews are God’s people, was BULLSHIT, since David Goldman, whose views i have been reiterating, states explicitly that this reason for jealousy applies to Muslims too, not just to Christians as i presented David Goldman’s position to be.
@ yamit82:
this is the link you asked for and deserve.
http://ak.imgag.com/imgag/product/preview/flash/bws8Shell.swf?ihost=http://ak.imgag.com/imgag&brandldrPath=/product/full/el/&cardNum=/product/full/ap/3125133/graphic1
@ dionissis mitropoulos:
Haven’t read it send a link
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
Yamit, I haven’t read it yet.
But before doing so, i state that the best explanation i have read up to now for the emergence of anti-Semitism is the one David Goldman has provided:
Religious jealousy on the part of Christians and Muslims due to the temporal primacy of Judaism, and due to the fact that the Jews are God’s people – the second applies only to Christian jealousy, not to the Muslim one.
Sounds to me very plausible, psychologically speaking.
@ yamit82:
yamit82 Said:
That’s from the Godfather.
Why are they after us?
Almost since the birth of the Jewish People, the nations have had an unnatural obsession with this small, seemingly insignificant people. The question that begs to be answered is ‘Why?’ Of all of the tiny, dispersed and alien populations, the world has only set its sights on us. Even back in our own Land, with a rebuilt and prosperous Jewish State, the world still hounds us and no one else. Attributing this constant and consistent focus on the Jewish People to antisemitism is a gross misnomer, for even those who claim to love us, such as the Baha’is and the Christian Right would like us to melt away from being a distinct culture and religion.
Every culture we have interacted with, from the Egyptians and Canaanites, to the Christians and Muslims have tried to get rid of us, sometimes by the sword and sometimes by converting us. Our presence and our Torah were, and still are, such a threat to the greatest Empires, such as Babylon, Persia, Rome and Greece have outlawed our religious observance and tried to root it out through the sword and forced assimilation. And when both failed to remove us and our Torah, they resorted to the next best thing: demonization. For those of you who think that antisemitic libels started with Christian Europe, you are mistaken. The Egyptians(under Roman occupation), Greeks and Romans all had antisemitic libels against the Jews. But the great Empires never enacted similar actions against any other conquered peoples or their religions, they never banned their worship and put their holy books on trial as they did with the Talmud. Even Christianity originally declared the pagan religions as ‘innocence’, while from the outset Judaism was outdated, and the Jews were forsaken and hated by their ‘god’. The Muslims pressured both Christian and Jew, but they added more restrictions and humiliations upon the Jews, they massacred Jews and took their children in Algeria and Yemen respectively. Recently, when the Pope, as they saw it, insulted Muhammad they rioted and went a little crazy for about a week. No one was killed. When we reclaimed our Land, offering protection and respect to Islam in our country, we have had nothing but constant terror, war and bloodshed against us, they have destroyed and desecrated many of our holy sites and had as banned from the Temple Mount. The Greeks and the Romans not only allowed their conquered subjects to continue worshipping their gods, but they adopted them as their own! Yet when it came to HASHEM and His Torah, they were made illegal, Sabbath observance was banned and the Greeks took our Temple and slaughtered pigs inside it to intentionally desecrate it, and the Roman Vespasian had sex with a prostitute inside the Holy of Holies on top of a Torah scroll before having the Temple destroyed. Hitler, arguably the most powerful man to have ever walked the earth since the Roman emperors, was so threatened by us that even our absolute assimilation and renunciation of Judaism was not enough, and the only solution was the Final Solution.
Now, the simpleton or the Jew-hater can accept the libels against Jews as truth, and our evil, destructive, greedy, sneaky, backstabbing, sabotaging natures, or that of our ‘religion’, as the reason why we have been chased out from every country, including our own, and why every religion has a Special Clause on converting Jews, to save us from our evil selves or our evil outdated Torah. But we Jews have always been thinkers, we have always been people who do not accept things at face value. The fact of the matter is our very existence is a threat, and our adherence to the Torah is a destructive force, and the nations know this, especially the so-called Abrahamic ‘daughter’ religions of Judaism: Christianity, Islam and the Baha’i Cult.
Christianity preaches “to the Jew first”, Islam demonizes us and our religion and recently has started to adopt the Christian stance to Jews: convert and don’t kill, and the Baha’is parade around, uniquely, the ‘first Jewish believer’, with no mention of the first Christian or Muslim believer in their absurd cult. Again, why the focus on us? In fact, a pamphlet on converting Jews from the website http://www.JewsforAllah.com (Incidentally there is no ExChristiansforAllah or ExHindusforAllah) spells out exactly why conversion of the Jews is necessary: We are a spigot in the neck of Islam in it’s attempt to spread throughout the ME and the world. Who would have thought that 14 Million people would be any challenge to one of the world’s largest and most powerful religions! The fact of the matter is, if one looks at history, the Jewish convert is always worth a million Gentile converts. These Abrahamic faiths especially ,who view themselves as having replaced us, treasure the Jewish convert beyond reason and consider each and every one a personal victory over Judaism. This demands an explanation. Why did the Catholic Church devote its energy and manpower to rooting out and destroying Judaism and why does Evangelical Christianity, our supposed ally, spend BILLIONS of dollars on campaigns to convert Jews and to create evil movements under the umbrella of Messianic ‘Judaism'(nothing more than Christianity translated into Hebrew) to make their religion seem more acceptable to us? Why did the Muslims aid Hitler in trying to wipe us out, and why have they virtually bankrupted their countries and sacrificed thousands of their people in the last 60 years to destroy the Jewish State? It can’t be because we have ‘conquered holy Muslim land’, for India was once under Muslim control, Iraq, once the seat and beacon of Islamic learning and knowledge, is now under American control and Afghanistan was under Soviet and now American control. Other than random terrorist attacks in India over Kashmir, not to liberate it from the heretical Hindus or to eradicate them, a terrorist campaign against Soviet and American soldiers in Afghanistan, and an upsurge against the Americans in Iraq to ‘liberate’ these countries and not to wipe out Americans or Russians, not ONE Muslim soldier or tank from any of the countries that rushed full force against Israel has been mobilized to free the ‘holy Muslim land’ and to ‘eradicate the occupiers’. Islam’s hadith contains no end-time scenario of Christians being wiped out completely from the face of the earth by Muslims as it does for the Jews. The Baha’i Cult has its World Center in Israel, even though they consider us and our religion as equal to the Muslims, yet they don’t have a single Temple of the size of the one in Haifa in their countries. Again we see the focus on the Jews, and this GARBAGE about them adhering to the seldom enforced law forbidding preaching to/converting Jews in Israel is just that :Garbage. The Baha’is one day aim to establish a one world government with them at the head of it, and their World Centre just happens to be in Israel?
Besides being absolutely obsessed with us these three international cults have other things in common: Absolute rejection of the Talmud with acceptance, to some degree, of the Torah with full acceptance that it is the word of G-D, the usurpation of the Davidic Throne, the replacement of Israel as the Chosen People, and the rejection of Jerusalem as the Seat of G-D’s Holy Presence, and adopting a foreign deity claiming that he is the G-D of Israel(Lihavdil!). This means they have delegitimized the four pillars of Judaism: G-D (by replacing Him with the idols Jesus and Allah), Torah, both Oral and Written, (either by saying that a new covenant has superseded it, that it has been changed and the new revelation corrects the errors, or that the ‘ritual law’ has been rejected while the ‘moral law’ remains in force, and by absolute rejection across the board of the Oral Law), Chosenness (by saying they are G-D’s new people and taking the claim of David’s Throne), and Israel (by replacing Jerusalem).
Personally, I view the acceptance of the Written and rejection of the Oral Law the most important point. A Written Law is unmovable, it is set and open to a plethora of interpretations, that is why HASHEM gave us the Oral Torah, which is an ongoing discussion where all of the arguments are presented and the incorrect ones rejected, but they are known. The Talmud has been called by many the central pillar of Judaism. Notice, all of the heretical sects, from the Sadducees, Boethusians, and the Karaites to the Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionist, Liberal and Secular humanist, all reject the Talmud, and aside from the first two who are already extinct, the others are slowly but surely fading away. Why is it that rejection of the Talmud is necessary? Because within the bounds of the Talmud, all other religions besides Torah-True Judaism would not be able to survive. Acceptance of the Talmud would have destroyed Islam, Christianity and the Baha’i Cult, and it is this Holy Writing alone that is most dangerous to them. Notice how in Christian Europe it was put on trial, out of all of the Jewish holy books, neither the Midrash nor the newly concocted Kaballah was put on trial, censored and made illegal. Islam views the Talmud as unnecessary and burdensome rules that the Jews placed upon themselves, and which Jesus came to alleviate. Ironic, since a lot in the Qur’an, Hadith and Islamic dogma is stolen from the Talmud. I’m not sure on the Baha’i stance on the Talmud itself, but they view that the ‘Ritual Law’ has been replaced, and since the Talmud details ritual and proper observance, well, you figure that out. One thing I’d like to digress on here is the ridiculousness of the belief in a Moral vs. a Ritual Law. The Sabbath for instance is considered a Ritual Law, yet G-D called it ETERNAL, ‘and this is an eternal sign between me and the Children of Israel for all of their generations’. What about, ‘you shall not add or subtract from this Torah that I have given you’, or the commandment to observe ALL of the Torah?! Nowhere in the Torah does it make a difference between so-called Ritual and Moral. In fact, it is the violation of many ‘ritual laws’ that incurs a death penalty or karet, while most ‘moral laws’ do not! Also, it seems that G-D tells us that observance of the ‘ritual laws’ is what brings morality, for instance after the laws of Kashrut. Anyways, the point is they must reject and take away the sanctity of the Talmud for them to even exist (an irony here is that Christianity preaches strict reliance on Scripture yet has developed an Oral Tradition of its own, in specific instances concerning ’Mary’s’ genealogy in Luke and Mary Magdalene being a prostitute, which do not appear in the NT).
The replacement of G-D or attempting to change His Nature is not so serious, but reflects the pagan origins of all three religions. Whether the concept of a dead man-god Triune or the pagan moon deity of the Kaaba, Hubal, renamed “Al-Lah”, the G-D, which is also adopted as the name of the Baha’i ‘god’, they reflect the inability of the founders of these religions to separate themselves from paganism and idol worship(If you will say that Jesus wasn’t a pagan, so he couldn’t have had these ideas, well, the NT wasn’t written by Jesus or even by Jews and not even in his lifetime, and he preached idolatry which idolaters accepted).
The Messiah has always been considered a redeemer(not a SAVIOR!) of the world, in that he will return the world to worship of G-D and G-D alone. Obviously a very important figure. And if an important figure in my religion lead the world back to G-D, surely my religion must be the One True Religion, no? This is the line of logic that all three Abrahamic bastard child religions of Judaism follow. The problem is that no one has ever fulfilled THAT messianic prophecy. Hell, we Jews would know since the concept of the Messiah is a JEWISH one, so naturally we would hold what is truth and what isn’t as to the Messiah. Can you teach Einstein about the atom, or understand a Ford car manual for the Model-T better than Henry Ford, who wrote the damned thing? Can you tell an author what he meant when he wrote something? Obviously not. So what’s the next best thing you can do? Lie. And that is exactly what the nations have done. They claim the Jews have been blinded, a veil has been put over their eyes, they have falsified interpretations, or that revelations are progressive and the newer generations are considered smarter and thus G-D gives them more understanding. WHAT HORSESHIT! Especially the latter, which is an exact opposite of the Jewish belief that the farther from Sinai, the less understanding we have. Baha’u’llah had more understanding than Moses? Really?! He ascended to a mountain where G-D has descended to meet him, and he spoke with Him as one speaks with his fellow? The fact of the matter is, all of these latter arguments are easily refuted by a proper reading of the Tanach with no idolatry adultering one’s thoughts, and shown to be put for by weak apologetics for weak-minded ignoramuses. Anyways, to have the Messiah be ‘theirs’, Israel has to be rejected. If Israel weren’t rejected, then G-D would have at least two absolute true religions, and thus our arguments are still 100% valid and thus would trump theirs. They have to replace us in every way. And even the Christians who claim that they believe we are still G-D’s Chosen People in fact view us as rejected and eternally damned. For all of you blind Jews, Christians want us to return to Israel so that the anti-Christ can come, slaughter a large amount of us, then Jesus comes and kills him, then kills off the remainder of the Jews who didn’t believe in him (i.e. Jesus), and those Jews, along with every Jew who did not accept Jesus, burns in hell for eternity. If we weren’t rejected, cursed, and damned how are we going to go to Hell? THINK!
Jerusalem is replaced as a symbol of G-D’s rejection of the Jews. Christians only view Israel as ‘holy’ because Jesus walked there and it is the ‘land of the bible’(Ironically, the Torah was given in Sinai and records events in Iraq and Egypt, half of Ezekiel was given on the way to Babylon, the books of Daniel and Esther occurred in Modern day Iraq and Iran, yet there are no Xian pilgrimages there. Only where Jesus walked and where Jews can be found to be converted. In fact, as is attested by many modern day evangelicals, America is the promised land. I didn’t say it, Pat Robertson did). Muslims put two cities ahead of Jerusalem, Mecca and Medina, the first because Allah is an inconsistent fool and can’t figure out which city he wants to be called his and the latter because Mohammad walked there. The true reason why Mecca was chosen was because 1) the Jews told Mohammad to piss off so he rejected their ‘Qiblah‘ and conveniently a stone statue name allah revealed to him that allah chooses and rejects whatever he wants and this way it would be more convenient for Mohammad, 2) it was his home town, 3) it was a major trading hub and a pre-existant pagan Arab holy site to many even outside of the Quraysh tribe. Jerusalem didn’t even register on the map to the Muslims until 693, and only because of a feud between the Sharif of Mecca and Abd-Al Malik, whereupon it was interpreted that the Isra’ and Mi’raj, i.e. the Night Journey, actually brought Mohammad to Jerusalem on the back of a flying horse/woman named Al-Burak. In subsequent centuries, though, Jerusalem’s insignificant status to the Muslims became more apparent as it turned into a backwards trash-heap(that Golden Dome is very recent). Jerusalem only became such a focal point to Islam when the Jews liberated it. It only has any holiness because Mohammad walked there. The Baha’is have apparently replaced it with Haifa, the Carmel and Acco because Baha’u’llah said so and he was imprisoned in Acco. CULT!!!!
As we can clearly see, these three religions have been built around rejection and refutation of Judaism. But our existence is a very real threat to these people. Always the one who holds the truth in a sea of lies is considered a threat. So they try to silence us in any way possible, and now we even aid them. A Jew with a knowledge of Torah is the biggest danger to these cults. We Jews make up less than one percent of the world, while the Christians, 1.5 BILLION, and the Muslims, 1.3 BILLION together make 2.8 Billion, almost half of the entire world, almost 25% each. Yet they are obsessed and unnaturally focused on this tiny speck, this insignificant 14 Million Jews, this less than 1% of the world which has risen to the heights of the world, outlived the greatest empires, succeeded wherever they set foot and finally returned to their homeland, all in accordance with and in affirmation of the Holy Torah. If we were a threat to their foundations when we were dispersed and degraded, as their holy books said we always would be, how much more so when we defied the words of their gods and returned to our homeland? Is it a wonder why almost a billion Hindus, almost half a billion Buddhists and every other religion receive virtually no attention or vilification from either Christian or Muslim? They don’t spend 1/4th the amount of energy or money on these other groups who make up over a billion people as they do on the Jews, whether to convert or destroy them. The fact of the matter is, the Jews, as the original people of the Torah and the prophets, can either make or break a religion. Wholesale Jewish conversion to any religion is the ultimate stamp of approval of authenticity of that religion. But since Jews have been(overall) so stubbornly adherent to the Torah for the past 2000 years, this has been virtually impossible. So the next best thing is to get rid of us completely, but that also has proved impossible. The Nations attribute it to G-D knows what. We Torah-True Jews attribute it to the promise G-D made us, that even if we are in the lands of our enemies, He will not forsake us to allow us to be destroyed. So they take a lesson from the Greeks and the Romans: the way to get rid of Jews isn’t to overtly try to convert them, or to attempt to eradicate them, but to assimilate them, to destroy them culturally and cut all of their ties to the Torah, and then they will come on their own, begging to join the dominant culture. And a superficial look at the general Jewish population reveals a very dominant desire to join the majority Jewish culture and fully assimilate, because we have forsaken Torah study and Torah knowledge. I was once told by my classmate, a Jehovah’s Witness, during one of our discussions, that he didn’t preach to me or ‘Orthodox Jews’ because it’s impossible to convert a Torah-observant Jew. The Ramban is another perfect example of a dangerous Jew, in his debate with Grand Inquisitor Torquemada before the king of Spain. Nowadays, conversion of Jews has become much easier due to assimilation and ignorance of the Torah, even among many kippah-wearing Jews. All of the nations’ pressure on us is to weaken our link to Torah, bit by bit, to eventually sever it. They have learned their lesson and now know this is our Achilles’ heel, for as Rav Saadia Gaon said, Israel is only a nation by virtue of the Torah. Without that, we are nothing but prey for one false ideology after another.
So as we can see, the new tactic to convert us is separating us from the Torah. The absolute need and focus of the Nations to do so is to feel secure, it is because our very existence and propagation of the Eternal Truth of the Torah, Written and Oral, exposes them for the falsehoods that they are, but their faith and belief clouds their reason. They won’t admit, even to themselves, that we have the truth, even though HASHEM and His Torah has shown Themselves to be the Absolute and Eternal Truth time and again.
@ CuriousAmerican:
There is a midrash that explains that G-d imposed the Torah on the Israelites. (Ex. 19:17). va-yityazvu be-tahtit ha-har: Moses brought the people out toward G-d from the camp, “And they stood under the mountain.” This teaches that G-d, overturned the mountain upon them like an [inverted] cask, and said to them, ‘If you accept the Torah all is well, but if not, then there will be your grave.’ An offer the Israelites could not refuse. The Torah was forced upon the Jews from above.
@ Yidvocate:
In Judaism first comes the certainty of knowing ( revelation at Sinai) then faith. Faith being believing in something which cannot be proven empirically. I got stuck at JFK during a cabbie strike at 3am. So I called a close friend woke him up and him to pick me up.
knowing my friend was a certainty and faith was that he would agree to pick me up.
Judaism is not based on faith but on certainty. Judaism proclaims that we have the only truth. We may be liberal in allowing others their beliefs but not their truths. Judaism proclaims that the only gate to the next world goes through the Jewish Temple in Jerusalem.
@ CuriousAmerican:
Hello Curious American.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Your statement means that you believe that Israel’s well being depends ONLY in faith in God.
CuriousAmerican Said:
Your statement means that Israel’s well being needs MORE than faith in God (for example, the services of soldiers).
I am not going to ask you which of the two incompatible statements you adhere to (well, it’s very clear that is the first).
I am only pointing out that, in defending yourself, you offered a view (about the necessity of soldiers over and above the faith in God) which you do not really hold, but which you thought would be persuasive for your interlocutor.
This practice, i.e. trying to persuade by relying on values that your interlocutor shares, but which you don’t, is called “demopathy” (I take Dr Richard Landes’ definition), and is very inappropriate – morally speaking.
And such demopathic practices betray a hidden agenda.
Ted Belman Said:
Curious American, you are obviously educated and obviously very religious.
These two traits combined increase the likelihood that their carrier possesses to a degree higher than average the desirable quality of sensitivity.
That’s why I can’t help marvelling at your complete lack of it.
Since it is clear that people get annoyed by your perceived (rightly or wrongly) prosyletizing, isn’t it high time you stopped doing it?
Loosing the capacity to feel embarrassed (as you should feel when the administrator himself has to intervene to protest a comment of yours) is a very sad thing.
C A should be in a burkha.
Both the Muslim world and Europe use the Palestinians to try to get rid of the Jews.
The more intransigent the Palestinians are the more they shrink.
Eventually they will disappear as the result of their own doing.
So what! There are > 50 Muslim countries.
Only ONE Jewish state.
Steven I, you are quoting someone else, not me.
Michael Devolin Said:
U are asking for some kind of “mutation” to take place in the European psyche. This is very rare and unpredictable possibility.
@ CuriousAmerican:
No that would be the Christian scriptures.
Not that faith is not important in Jewish observance but only as a precursor to action. The Rambam elucidates the 13 principles of faith but the action is the thing. The mitzvot is what the Torah enjoins us to do whether or not we “believe”.
Christianity’s fundamental departure is to cut off action from faith and that is not a Jewish construct at all and is anathema to Judiasm.
Your examples in support of your thesis has nothing or little to do with your thesis. If it’s about faith versus action as a defining characterization of Judaism, your opinion of which is “better” for the Jewish state does not determine the controversy.
Neturei Karta is hardly representative of the Torah observant population of Israel.
And the secular Israelis made colossal errors – think Oslo and the Disengagement which the Torah observant community was largely against.
These are the errors of faithless action or misplaced faith that Israeli leaders are plagued with.
“Someone who calls themself a Ben Noach is obviously a righteous gentile.”
Again, are you Jewish?
“…or questioning the noble Richard Mather’s integrity?”
I am not questioning Mr. Mather’s integrity. What the hell are you talking about?
Are you Jewish?
@ Michael Devolin:
You still don’t get it Michael. Someone who calls themself a Ben Noach is obviously a righteous gentile. What are you doing, splitting hairs or questioning the noble Richard Mather’s integrity?
Noachide is an English word, if you want to use a Hebrew one, feel free to call yourself a Ben Noach too.
I was not questioning Mr. Mather’s self-description as a ben-Noach. You’ve misinterpreted my post. I was clarifying the point that all gentiles are born as b’nai Noachs but not all gentiles/ben-Noachs (for example Christians, Muslims, winos) observe the 7 Laws of Noach. I’m also a Noachide.
“Michael, if you keep talking such twaddle you run the risk of being called a Ben Nudnik”
I wasn’t addressing Nigel Shaw’s self-description (was it a self-description?) at all but clarifying the point [to all who are unfamiliar with these terms] that all gentiles are “b’nai Noach” (born gentile) but not all gentiles/b’nai Noach are practicing Noachides (the 7 Laws of Noach). Where you found anything resembling even the smallest measure of insult to Mr. Shaw is beyond me. If you want to call me a ben Nudnik, it’s ok with me. I’ve been called worse by Jews who know nothing about the Seven Laws of Noach. I was called a “meshuga” by a Jew in a Shul who did not know that I understand quite a bit of Yiddish. I’m 58 years of age and have been defending the Jews since in my teens. I know a little bit about anti-Semitism too. I don’t know why you would try to embarrass such a friend as me.
@ Yidvocate:
Yidvocate Said:
So, so, true.
You couldn’t have refuted Europe’s contemporary anti-Semitism more succinctly!
@ Michael Devolin:
Richard Mather is a rare gentile who understands the myth of the “oppression and plight of the Palestinians”, and how the European political discourse uses this myth to justify its anti-zionism, which is just a crude device to maintain the long-time practice of good old fashioned European anti-semitism. This man understands the Jewish predicament of the Jews clearer than most Jews and yet Michael Devolin seeks to question his self description as a Ben Noach.
Michael, if you keep talking such twaddle you run the risk of being called a Ben Nudnik
I was making a point. I was not prosyletizing.
An Israel which has faith is better off than a frum Israel.
Who is more important to Israel? A secular Jew who gets pork from Tiv Ta’am groceries, yet serves in the Army, or Haredim who refuse to service the Army and assault women who sit in the front of the bus.
The Haredim have works. The Jewish soldier doesn’t obey Halacha, but has faith in Israel. Who is of more service to Israel?
Neturei Karta obeys the mitvots. Are they any good to Israel?
The early Zionists, a good portion of them, were agnostics. Herzl even considered Catholicism, but returned to Judaism when he realized the Europeans saw Jews as racial, not religious, foreigners.
Early on, Zionism was not so universally accepted by the Orthodox rabbis. Ben Yehuda was considered apostate by many of the religious for trying to re-install Hebrew as an everyday language. So who was right? Ben Yehuda or tradition?
So who did more good for Israel? The unhalachic founders, or the frum Naturei Karta? Who is of more help to Zionism?
The Jewish scripture acknowledges the supremacy of faith.
Israel was born out of faith, not halachic works.
I went out of my way to avoid Christian Scripture.
If you see the gospel in Jewish Scripture – I have to admit that I certainly do – then it should give you pause to consider whether “Christian nonsense” is really nonsense.
This is not prosyletization; nor was I prosyletizing.
I was making a point. A retreat into tradition will not help Israel. Faith will.
@ Canadian Otter:
See this is why you get filtered. You take a suggestion given in good faith and take it as “vulgar and offensive”. I don’t know how you could possibly take offense and where do you see vulgarity?
I was only suggesting that perhaps the filter has your moniker as the target and if you changed it, you might be able to get past the filter because it won’t think it’s you.
The beaver is more iconic to Canada than the otter so I suggested it.
From this response of yours you seem to be a bit unhinged and maybe the filter should be filtering you.
@ Yidvocate:
You are being vulgar and offensive.
@ Canadian Otter:
Have you considered changing your name? Canadian Beaver, perhaps?
@ Ted Belman:
DEAR TED, your Spam Filter is out of control. Or maybe it’s got something personal against me. My short comments keep getting blocked for no reason at all. Short, long, with or without links, it makes no difference. It’s kind of frustrating not to know what I’m doing wrong.
CuriousAmerican Said:
This is Christian nonsense. Judaism was and is all about works. Paul tried to do away with the law said faith alone does the trick. That is not Judaism.
As for the Genesis quote the G-d was rewarding Pinhas for his zealousness which was called righteousness. It was never intended to be a substitute for works.
Stop preaching your gospels.
That is a mighty big IF!
If the Jews obey the Law …
Who can obey the Law?
The Torah indicts every human alive; oddly enough, even moreso the Jews who are aware of it.
Isaiah 53: 6 We all, like sheep, have gone astray,
So how is man set right with God.
Habbukkuk 2:4 … “but the just shall live by his faith.”
Notice, the just shall live by faith, not by his performance regarding the Law.
Gen 15: 6 Then he believed in the Lord; and He reckoned it to him as righteousness.
God is not interested in a performance we cannot achieve. He is interested in our faith in Moshiach.
I could give you other verses, but you would not accept them.
For the point: Israel does not need more Torah observance. It needs more faith in God. Faith that God will provide independent of Israel’s performance.
“The bible in Deuteronomy Chapter 28 says that if the Jews obey The Law they will be secure but if they ignore The Law Hashem will allow their enemies to persecute them.”
The G-D of the Jewish people is a merciful G-D, Bert. I guess you missed that part of the Torah/Tanach, but the promises of mercy from the G-D of Israel are there, even for Gentiles like me who “ignore The Law.” You should be more concerned with Christians who go around blaming the Jews for anti-Semitism instead of the perpetrators. Do you believe Christian anti-Semitism is the fault of the Jews?
The bible in Deuteronomy Chapter 28 says that if the Jews obey The Law they will be secure but if they ignore The Law Hashem will allow their enemies to persecute them. Jewish leaders in Israel and the U.S. are secular and corrupt causing the Jewish People to suffer. In addition European hostility towards Jews is pushing Jews towards Israel which is Europe’s loss and Israel’s gain. In addition Genesis 12:3 is fully operational in which those who ‘curse Israel will be cursed by Hashem’ All this is happening before our eyes IF we are alert.
Europe traded 6 million productive and enterprising Jews for 20 million Muslims and we see what that got them.
I say they deserve their fate and the ruination they brought upon themselves.
Poetic justice on a cosmic scale.
“Eradicating European anti-Semitism is, in my view, far more important. After all, Europe has a moral and historic duty to protect what remains of its Jewish communities.”
What is this “moral and historic duty”? I really don’t think Europeans, if I may say so, feel beholden to anyone when it comes to protecting “what remains of its Jewish communities.” Historically speaking.
Also, if you don’t mind me saying so, Ted, all gentiles, as I’ve been taught, are “ben Noachs” but not all ben Noachs are practicing Noachides (observant of the 7 Laws of Noach). For example, Christians and Muslims, etc. (if they are not born of a Jewish mother) are ben Noachs even though they are not practicing Noachides. Sorry to go off topic.