For The Record

I didn't think I'd have to do this yet, but it seems I have to set the record straight regarding a certain misconception about me. As you can see, the first comment on my tagboard (from someone other than me) came from a person who seriously believes I've been brainwashed and wants to know who filled my head with hate.

Well:

First off, I'm not a hater. Not of the Palestinians, or the French, or Muslims, or Arabs, or... It's just not my thing and it wouldn't do anyone a bit of good if I did hate all of those people. There's no point to it.

Sure, I'm very critical of the Palestinians. I don't think their claims to statehood are legitimate, they made the conscious decision to let terrorists represent them, and they'll ultimately suffer because of their actions. But does that mean I hate every single one of them? Definitely not. In fact, I go to school with them and work with a few of them on a daily basis and I wouldn't ever decide not to be friends with any of them just because they're Palestinian.

I think the Muslim community has been wrong in using violence and terrorism in the name of Islam to protest people who accuse them and their religion of being violent and conducive to terrorism. And they're hypocrites for decrying the publication of anything casting them in a less-than-positive light while using their own media outlets to broadcast their venom against my people. I support anyone's right to make incendiary statements or publish offensive material, whether it's the European press regarding the Mohammed caricatures or David Irving's lies about the Holocaust. Free speech works both ways.

And yeah, I really do believe the Europeans are making a tragic mistake as they ignore reality and pretend there's nothing wrong with their Muslim population, and that if they don't pull their heads out of the sand soon and meaningfully address the issue, things will only get worse.

I don't get how my views on any of these issues make me a hateful person. Call me blind, but I'm just not seeing it.

So, Wagstalf from London, whoever you are, just because I don't agree with you, it doesn't make me a bigot or a hater. And, some advice: In your position, I'd worry a little less about who talks to me at school and much more about why you think it's okay to pass judgement on someone you don't even know.

But that's just me.

What's Up With France?

Chirac at a French synagogue

Last week, a Jewish man was tortured and burned to death right outside Paris. Many people immediately suspected that antisemitism played some sort of role in Ilan Halimi's kidnapping and murder, but I wasn't so sure. I wanted them to be wrong; I was hoping the fact that Halimi happened to be Jewish had nothing to do with what happened. It was already a sad enough story. Well, it turns out they were right.

His captors knew he was Jewish and killed him because of it. They targeted Ilan because they think all Jews are rich, that we all have thousands of dollars stashed away somewhere in case someone kidnaps us, and that Ilan's family would pay the 500,000-Euro ransom the were demanding. Or that if they couldn't come up with it themselves, someone in the Jewish community would. And antisemitism motivated at least one of the captors to tortue Halimi.

Yet, the prosecutor in charge of Halimi's case had the audacity to insist that there were absolutely no antisemitic undercurrents to the crime, even thought it was obvious that there were. Why wouldn't he admit it? Probably because he was afraid of sparking the sort of violence from the Muslim community there that left Paris in flames late last year. I guess that's understandable, but you have to wonder what lengths the French (and the rest of Europe, for that matter) won't go to in order to avoid the wrath of radical Islam.

Ilan Halimi.

Instead of confronting the Muslim community head-on, France has chosen to let its Jewish community suffer. And this is yet another chapter in France's long history of ineptitude when it comes to confronting antisemitism. It helped the Nazis wipe out France's Jewish population in the '40s, let Saddam's Iraq build a nuclear reactor on its dime before the Israeli Air Force turned it to dust, enthusiastically backed a ridiculous amount of rabid anti-Israel resolutions at the U.N., treated Arafat like a hero, and then blasted Ariel Sharon for daring to suggest that France wasn't a safe place for Jews while it coughed up legislation intended to bar Jewish kids from wearing anything that might identify them as such. And now, the French law-enforcement system won't even call a spade a spade and suggest that Muslims with antisemitic motives might be involved in Halimi's murder because they think it'll stop Muslims with antisemitic motives from doing the same in the future. Nice logic.

Before I end this post, I'd like to point out to everyone that, upon hearing about what happened to Ilan Halimi, there were no acts of wanton violence by Jews against France or French interests elsewhere. We didn't torch anyone's embassies or go around killing people in protest. And the murder of an innocent man is much worse than someone publishing some stupid drawing in a newspaper.

Tags: antisemitism, France, French Jewry, Ilan Halimi

G.I. Jews

There's a good article by Lt. Laurie Zimnet at the Aish site about her thoughts on serving in Iraq.

From "In My Boots":

"I am honored to serve our country, proud to wear the cloth of our nation, and mine is an exciting job... I do feel like I'm doing good for God, especially since these same people we go after not only harbor a disdain for America and all she holds dear, but not surprisingly, they abhor Israel as well, and most especially the Jews.

...I implore you to appreciate your uniform in God's army -- your kippa and tzitzis, your modest dress, your holy speech, your Shabbos table, your children's cheder, your Jewish life, your yiddishkeit. You don't need world travel, adventures, or medals on your chest to feel a life fulfilled. You're already a hero. "

Also, check out the latest post from the Jews in Green blog: The "J" Word (on proselytizing in the military).

Semper chai. :)

Tags: Jews, U.S. military

Let Them Eat Sand Cake!

I've been hearing an awful lot of people slam the U.S. and Israel for refusing to aid the Palestinian people until Hamas renounces terrorism and recognizes Israel's right to exist. These are pretty reasonable demands we're making, no? So what's with the severe criticism?

It's not about trying to undermine the Palestinian government, which we don't have the right to do. It's about making sure our money isn't used to fund suicide bombings and hate media when Hamas has made it clear to us that they won't put an end to either. Many believe that we're only doing this to punish the Palestinians for they way they chose to use democracy, and that, by halting our funds to them because they voted for Hamas, we're actually discouraging it. Well now, I don't know; I'd say that the Palestinians are doing a fine job doing curbing democracy without our help.

Why? Because democratic elections don't ensure that the winners of the election are going to abide by basic democratic principles once they're in power, and by electing an Islamic fundamentalist group to head their government, the Palestinians have also limited their own liberties. When Hamas assumes complete control of the Palestinian government, what do you think is going to happen to the rights of women living there? Or Palestinian Christians, for that matter? Israel and the U.S. can support the use of democracy in the "Occupied Territories", but that doesn't mean we have to support the terrorists and oppressors elected because of it.

I couldn't care less what motives the Palestinians had in choosing Hamas to lead them anymore than I care that the Germans elected the Nazis because of the nifty parades. I'm not going to overlook the fact that Hamas spews their antisemitic vitriol against my people 24/7 just because they also happen to distribute soup and toilet paper to the poor. I don't care if Hamas finds a cure for cancer, they still have the blood of hundeds of innocent people on their hands and I don't want my hard-earned tax dollars paying for their suicide vests.

I don't see it happening anytime soon, but I think that, one way or another, Palestinian terrorism is going to come to an end. Either Hamas, Islamic Jihad, and the general Palestinian public will finally cross the line and force Israel's hand or the Palestinians are going to get sick of starving and recognize Israel.

Until then, let them eat sand cake.

Tags: Hamas, U.S.-Palestinian relations, Israeli-Palestinian conflict, terrorism, democracy

In Case You Didn't Know...

America is overwhelmingly pro-Israel. And not just in a "We support its right to exist" sense, either, according to a recent Gallup poll. Almost half of us don't think the Arab world will ever accept any sort of peaceful co-existence with Israel, and our opinions of the Palestinians are near an all-time low.

This should come as a surprise to no one but those deluded enough to believe that Israel has no friends. Most of us here understand that Israel's war against terrorism is synonymous with our own, and that we have a common set of values and a common commitment to democracy and equality among our citizens.

And we realize that the Islamic world is obviously dead-set against those values. Non-Muslims unfortunate enough to live there are considered second-class citizens, and no one is able to voice his opposition to the government without putting their own lives at risk. Women are treated like dirt and children are encouraged to martyr themselves and take the lives of lots of innocent people in the process. This flies in the face of everything we stand for.

Most of us are disgusted with the Palestinians and their opposition to peace. We sense the injustice present in the current situation, where Jews are spilling each other's bloood in the name of peace with people who've just chosen to be led by a group who wants Israel wiped off the map. We want nothing to do with the Palestinians until they give up their delusions of Israel being part of a greater Islamic waqf... and we can only hope that the rest of the world soon comes to the same conclusions.

Tags: Israel, Palestinians, Hamas, Islam, U.S.-Israel relations

Iran's Holocaust Drawing Contest

from the Jerusalem Post:

Iran's biggest-selling newspaper has chosen to tackle the West's ideals of "freedom of expression" by launching a competition to find the 12 "best" cartoons about the Holocaust, the Associated French Press reported on Monday.

Farid Mortazavi, graphics editor for Tehran's Hamshahri newspaper, said that the deliberately inflammatory contest would test out how committed Europeans were to the concept freedom of expression.

"The Western papers printed these sacrilegious cartoons on the pretext of freedom of expression, so let's see if they mean what they say and also print these Holocaust cartoons," he said.

...Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has made comments about the Holocaust over the past few months, including suggestions that European countries give Jews some of their land in order to solve the Palestinian problem.

"If your newspapers are free why do not they publish anything about the innocencof the Palestinians and protest against the crimes committed by the Zionists?" the Mehr news agency recently quoted him as saying.

Now, I'm a little confused:

How does Ahmadinejad expect people to come up with drawings about an event he's quite sure never even happened in the first place?

Tags: Israel, Iran, Holocaust, antisemitism

Outrage and Hypocrisy in the Muslim World

The escalating riots over the Mohammed caricatures in European newspapers only go to further illustrate the illogic of the Muslim world.

Let me start off by saying that I do understand why Muslims would find those drawings offensive, and if I were a Muslim, I'd probably be angry too. But if I didn't want to be stereotyped as violent and terroristic, I sure as heck wouldn't go around killing people and torching public property to prove it.

And even as it decries the way its been portrayed by others, the Muslim world continues to add fuel to its own antisemitic propaganda mill. According to the European-Jewish Press, the Muslims of Europe have come out with a few drawings of their own:

A Dutch Jewish organization has filed charges with the public prosecutor after a Belgian-Dutch Muslim political organization, the Arab European League, posted several anti-Semitic cartoons on its website last Saturday.

The cartoons published on the AEL’s website feature anti-Semitic and inflammatory images including a scene where Anne Frank is in bed with Adolf Hitler. In the cartoon Hitler is pictured saying to Anne Frank “Write this one in your diary, Anne.”

Another has Steven Spielberg and Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson discussing making a film on the Holocaust with Jackson quoted as saying "I don’t think I have that much imagination."

Of all of the topics available and all the groups they could have chosen to offend while making their point, the fact that they aimed straight for the Jews with Holocaust revisionist material is hardly a coincidence. It's their way of exacting revenge, I guess. And it doesn't matter that we didn't do anything to deserve it. Why let the truth get in the way?

Which reminds me: I hope that those of you who claim that the Muslims are so ineffective whenit comes to standing up to terrorists committing atrocities in their name because they're "so poorly organized" get a clue and find a new excuse, as their behavior in the is past week has shown them to be quite the opposite. Sure, they can mobilize... whenever it's to their own advantage.


Topics/Tags: Europe, Islam, Holocaust, Propaganda, antisemitism

Amona

For a while, I wasn't sure whether or not I should even write about what happened yesterday in Amona, because, to be honest, none of the words I or anyone else knows could accurately convey my horror.

They still cant.

Of all the things I never expected to happen in my lifetime, seeing Jews pulling other Jews from their homes, throwing stones and spilling each other's blood for the whole world to see definitely tops the list. Those events belong to an alternate universe. What kind of Jewish state does things like this? I was so sure that after what happened in Gaza last August, people in Israel would finally come to their senses, that they'd stop something like that from ever happening again. Looks like I was wrong.

Where are our Jewish leaders going to draw the line? How far are they ready to go and how much are they willing to give up before they finally figure out that the Palestinians don't want peace, that they never have and probably never will? What gets me more than anything about this is how unfair the whole situation is. When was the last time any of us saw the Palestinians making any sacrifices on the level of Israel's Disengagement? What have they given up for peace? Anyone?

Tovya is right: secular Zionism has been an absolute failure. But I guess that should've been obvious to all of us from the start, since Zionism without Torah is meaningless, and that it's hard for anyone to be an unfailing advocate of the Jewish state, and at the same time downplay G-d's role in what happens to us. It just doesn't work. Look at Olmert, who's using the violence at Amona for political gain, and wouldn't mind giving away half of Jerusalem to placate people who just voted for terrorists. Is this what the average Israeli is looking for in a leader, how many Jews he's willing to evict from their homes, and how many Jewish communities he's ready to destroy?

Too many of us are placing all of our faith in the U.S., Europe, and mankind in general to ensure Israel's safety, when the truth is that if the Jewish people had to depend on the rest of the world for its survival, none of us would be here today. We can only completely rely on Hashem to protect us, and Israel's government is obviously afraid to do that. Unless that changes and it chooses a real Jewish leadership willing to stand up for Israel and the Jews a whole --at any cost-- Israel is going to end up conceding itself out of existence.

G-d forbid.


Topics/Tags: Amona, Disengagement, Israel, Zionism, Palestinians