All posts by Claire Wolfe

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Custom TZP Kershaw knives!

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ZelmanPartisans_CustomKnife-01_052115

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Aren’t they slick? And sleek. And tough. And Kershaw quality all the way. We’ve just gotten these customized, Ken Onion-designed spring-assist folders. Check them out in our store.

TZP president Brad Alpert (of the Missouri Bullet Company) chose them personally, and as soon as I heard he’d selected a Kershaw I knew they’d be good. The two Kershaws I own are as sharp and beautiful as when they were new (and that’s despite the fact that I got one of them at a garage sale from somebody who’d put it to hard use). This one’s going to be a classic.

Need I say: get ’em while they last. 🙂

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THREE-YEAR MEMBERS, don’t forget! If you’re a 3-year Founding Member, you get 10% off all TZP store purchases (excluding our CafePress and Queensboro stores). If you’re a Premium Founding Member, your discount is 15%.

You must be logged in to your account to get the discount, so if you don’t yet have a login, create one. If you didn’t get your introductory email with login instructions or you’ve lost track of it, contact us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com and we’ll see that you get the info.

NOW FOR SOME UPDATES

Custom kippot to come: At the suggestion of one of our supporters, we’ll be adding TZP custom kippot (aka kippahs or yarmulkes) to the store around Independence day. Watch for them. These will be quality linen kippot with an embroidered TZP logo. Great conversation starters. (And depending on how irreverent your sense of humor is, you don’t even have to be a Jewish man to wear one. Or two.)

We apologize. Quite a bit of outgoing TZP email has disappeared into the ether. We hope to fix this soon by moving to a new server. In the meantime, if you didn’t get a receipt or other acknowledgement from us, it’s most likely our problem and we’re working on it.

Snail mail payment option available: A few people have said they will not or cannot use PayPal. If you want to join TZP or buy from our store, we now have a snailing address for taking orders. Contact us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com and we’ll email the address to you.

FUTURE PROJECTS

We’ve been so moved by the support you’ve given TZP right from the beginning. You should know what we’re planning for the future. First order of business, as you see, is to keep good, informative blogging going while also creating some steady income through memberships and product sales.

With that in mind, we’re focusing on building an excellent store. Not a big store, but one featuring quality goods you can’t get elsewhere. When that’s farther along we’ll undertake our first special project. What will it be? Video? Campaign? Book? A line of user-friendly booklets (like the late, great Gran’pa Jacks from Aaron’s JPFO)? We don’t know yet. When that time comes we’ll probably ask your help in determining the best project to educate, excite, and keep the Zelman legacy strong.

We’re aiming for slow, but steady and responsible, growth. Meantime, everyone involved with TZP remains a volunteer. From the officers to the writers to order fulfillers, everyone’s here solely out of commitment to the cause.

Thanks for being with the Partisans.

(Now go grab yourself a knife.)

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defense of others, genocide, Jewish history

Liberation rage

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Last month was the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Dachau. I’ve been saving that link, planning to write something about the Allied troops who had no idea of the horrors they were about to stumble into.

Allied commanders knew about the camps. But for whatever reason they didn’t tell the men who actually walked in and encountered the Holocaust unprepared.

For the last two weeks I’ve been trying to frame what I wanted to say about those soldiers and why they were left so unready to witness what no one should ever have to see, let alone endure.

Before I could finish my thoughts, something new came to light: letters from an Army doctor to his wife about how some of the weary, shocked, horrified, outraged — and ultimately vengeful — allied troops reacted. (Warning: graphic images.)

They turned on the SS guards and gave them a small taste of what the SS had given its victims.

Historians knew about this and have called the troops’ revenge shameful. But was it? Was it right? Wrong? Legal? Illegal? Sadistic? Or simple justice? Those questions didn’t matter. Would the exhausted troops have behaved differently had they been warned what to expect? Had their commanders taken better charge? Who can know?

For good or ill, history (even the history of the noble act of liberation) is so much more complex than we were taught in school.

—–

Be sure to read the full account of Dr. Wilsey’s letters and experiences in the New Republic.

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authoritarian swine, gun grabbers, Media, Sellouts and traitors

Well, sending money is a start. But …

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A certain notoriously compromising gun-rights activist has begun what is billed as a brilliant new campaign to combat Michael Bloomberg, Obama, Hillary, et al. As far as we can tell, the campaign consists entirely of scare tactics to get other people to send him money.

Now, we at TZP are most certainly not opposed to receiving donations or memberships. We’re grateful for your contributions and we promise to put them to good use for freedom and gun rights (with emphasis, as always, on lifesaving, holocaust-preventing civil rights). Being funded is most definitely a good start!

However, we fail to see how “send us money” could ever be considered “the most important action you can take to protect your right to keep and bear arms.” Or how it could be construed, by itself, as being a powerful campaign against BloombergObamClintonian evil.

I hate to be cynical (and what follows is just my own personal view), but doesn’t it seem as if something more that “you give, we take” is required for a real campaign against gun grabbers?

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defense of others, duty, guns, Inspiration, Media

Bob Owens analyzes the dispatching of jihadis in Garland, Texas

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It’s surprising how few specifics have been released about the shooting of those failed jihadis in Texas. We’re stuck with media accounts of attackers wearing body armor and bearing the standard “assault rifles.” And you know how genius reporters usually are about such things.

But Bob Owens looks at photos of the scene and gives a fascinating analysis.

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defense of others, self defense

Je Suis Texas

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ZelmanPartisans_JeSuisTexas_0515

(Source)

Even in this instant-news age, it’s always a few days before full accurate details emerge. Some initial reports claimed that the Islamist thugs who set out to censor free speech in Texas disabled an unarmed guard then were themseves shot by rapidly arriving police. But not so.

Here’s CNN’s take on how one armed, aware, and prepared person prevented a massacre.

On one side, you had two men in body armor, toting assault rifles and showing every willingness to open fire now and count their victims later. On the other, you had a security officer — a traffic officer by day — with a pistol.

Somehow, the officer won.

Authorities have not released the name of the overmatched Garland, Texas, police officer who stopped a pair of gunmen Sunday night outside that city’s Curtis Culwell Center, where people had gathered at an event featuring controversial cartoons of the Muslim Prophet Mohammed. But they have described what he did, actions that could be characterized as equal parts skillful, heroic and miraculous.

I think CNN should delete the word “miraculous.” Was there some luck involved? Boy howdy, surely there was. But it’s hardly a miracle that a Texan-American hired to protect attendees at a deliberately provocative art exhibit was prepared to dispatch murderous (but also no-doubt clueless) jihadis.

I suspect that, had the would-be murderers gotten inside the exhibit hall, another five or 10 armed people would have been prepared to remove their worthless carcasses from among the living. In this country, you don’t get away with shooting people because you don’t like their opinions. And that’s not merely because we’re philosophical enough to understand that civilization entails embracing the right to disagree, even to challenge and provoke. It’s because, unlike helpless Europeans, we have the physical means to halt the barbarians at the gates.

As one wag said, “There’s a Paris in Texas, but Texas ain’t Paris.” Amen to that.

As we’ve always said, the Second Amendment protects the First. And, for that matter, all the rest.

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The Zelman Partisans

A note to our donors

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Before TZP became “official,” a number of people sent generous donations. We’re offering memberships to all who sent $20 or more. A few have already said yes. One jumped right in and, in addition to his original contribution, became a paid member three times over! But we haven’t been able to make contact with several folks.

So donors D.C., J.P., and F.R., if you’re reading this, please email us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com from whatever email addy of yours works best. The emails we’ve sent to your PayPal addresses are bouncing. Also, I.S., please let us hear from you if you want your contribution converted to a membership.

I got my own membership packet in the mail over the weekend (bought a three-year) and I’ve gotta tell you, the swag you get for joining is gorgeous. The membership package is mostly the work of fellow TZP co-founders Jo Ann and Brad Alpert and they really have an eye for quality. The morale patch is a beauty and comes with both the hook and loop velcro (so many come with only the hook piece). But it’s the certificate that really blew me away.

So for that reason, among many, many others, I hope you’ll join us. Soon! You’ll never regret it and you’ll get your money’s worth.

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genocide, guns, resistance

Operation Nemesis: A tale of assassination and vengeance

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Because 2015 is its 100th anniversary, the Armenian genocide is finally getting some overdue attention.

When Aaron Zelman was alive, his JPFO made a point of calling attention to all the major 20th-century mass murders-by-government, including the death of well over a million Armenians at the hands of the Ottoman Turks. Aaron knew that it’s a mistake to focus solely on Hitler’s genocide. Because of course the more you view the Holocaust as unique, the easier it is to fool yourself that it was some one-off quirk of history, that no such thing will ever happen again, especially that “it can’t happen here.”

When we scripted Innocents Betrayed we covered eight major genocides and several smaller ones (there is no such thing as a “minor” genocide; the most obscure genocide is a major tragedy).

Every genocide is the same — and every genocide is different. The mass murder of the Armenians may not have been as systematic as Hitler’s slaughter of the Jews and other “undesirables.” But both were linked to a world war and perpetrated in a nation that was already under extreme stress. Both victimized a despised, disarmed, but relatively prosperous and influential minority. Both even have their deniers and excuse-makers. To this day the Turks claim that no genocide happened; the deaths were merely a natural offshoot of WWI and internal agitation by the Armenians themselves. (Just as other genocides in other places have been the work of “tribal rivalries” or “overacting local officials” or unintended consequences of government policies.)

The Armenian genocide has something most others don’t: a story of street vengeance carried out by the most ordinary of men. It was called Operation Nemesis.

Wikipedia’s account is rather dry, but the real events are as amazing as any Hollywood thriller.

Between 1920 and 1922, a handful of otherwise unremarkable expat Armenian men hunted down and assassinated six masterminds of the genocide. They were well-funded and working as part of an organization. But they were chosen largely for their experience with firearms. They had been smugglers, gun runners, soldiers, and (already) assassins.

They were crafty enough to insinuate themselves with their enemies. One of the assassins even acted as a pallbearer to the group’s first target. They were bold enough to stand face-to-face and shoot an enemy on a public street. One assassin was ordered, “You blow up the skull of the Number One nation-murderer and you don’t try to flee. You stand there, your foot on the corpse and surrender to the police, who will come and handcuff you.” (This because the organizers wanted a trial, which they assumed would be more of a trial of the genocide and those who perpetrated it than of the assassination.)

The men targeted for assassination weren’t innocent by any definition. They were officials who had already been condemned to death by an Ottoman Turkish military tribunal. Then when those death sentences proved unpopular with other Turks, the condemned men were allowed to escape to live their lives.

Until the avenging teams tracked them down.

Remarkably, most of the assassins walked away from their crimes of vengeance unscathed and unpunished.

Two new books have just been published on the operation. The one getting the most buzz is Operation Nemesis: The Assassination Plot that Avenged the Armenian Genocide by actor/playwright Eric Bogosian. The other is a graphic novel by Josh Blaylock, Operation Nemesis: A Story of Genocide & Revenge.

I haven’t read either. But both are now on my reading list.

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New merchandise, The Zelman Partisans, Uncategorized

Join us!

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Here goes, guys! At long last, you can really, truly join a freedom-fighting, kick-ass, no-compromise, no-surrender partisan brigade. And no need to take to the woods. Just … click!

The Zelman Partisans began as a blog (I was going to say “a mere blog,” but there will never be anything “mere” about TZP). But our intention has always been to fulfill the greater, wider mission of the late Aaron Zelman. Our job is to plug the gap left when Aaron’s great Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership was sold to people who reject everything Aaron stood for.

Now we begin … with your help. In exchange, we’ve got some cool stuff to offer you.

First … Join us!. Choose from three levels of membership: one-year charter, three-year founder, or three-year founder PREMIUM. Each level offers its own benefits and each level is discounted for the first 100 to join.

Second … Every partisan needs a patch!. Everyone who buys a membership at any level gets a FREE patch with membership (among other items). Don’t want to join? You can still buy your patch. These are high-quality embroidered morale patches, suitable for wearing or for display. They’re velcro-backed (and you get both the hook and loop pieces).

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Every membership level gets a patch, a membership card, and a certificate. The higher levels also get discounts in our store. There’s not much in the store yet: just the patches and copies of RebelFire: Out of the Gray Zone (autographed; limited quantity). But we’ll be working on creating more good stuff for you! PREMIUM members get a FREE copy of RebelFire and a 5×7 portrait of Aaron Zelman (the same one you see here).

GOOD NEWS FOR PREVIOUS DONORS: We are incredibly grateful to you who jumped right in with donations before we were even “official.” Because we appreciate the boost you gave us, everyone who has already donated more than $20 will be enrolled as a member in whichever category best matches your donation. We’ll be contacting you soon, but we’ve had trouble in the past with some donors’ email addresses. So if you’re an existing donor and you don’t hear from us shortly, email us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com.

Finally, a little housekeeping: TZP is now incorporated, thanks to founding members and sponsors, the Alperts of Missouri Bullet Company. We opted not to go for the 501(c)(3) status that JPFO had because some of our founders want the option to “get political” (and because tax-exempt status involves jumping though horrible IRS hoops). So donations to us are not tax-deductible. Nevertheless, we will make good use of your contributions by continuing to bring you solid, unique blog content, cool stuff, and ultimately special projects to keep reminding the world that gun rights are lifesaving, genocide-preventing civil rights.

Now, join us! And if you should run into any glitches (since the store and membership programs are brand-new and since we are all just volunteers pulling TZP together as we can), please notify us at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com. We’ll get the problem fixed as soon as possible.

Thank you — and glad to have you with us!

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defense of others, Jewish history, resistance, self defense

A politician speaks a (partial) truth

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Remarkable thing. A politician speaks the truth. Not an American pol, unfortunately. This one’s from Poland. And the media reporting the story call him both a “gun lobbyist” (i.e. eeeeeevil villain) and “far-right” (journalist’s code word for “not to be taken seriously”).

In Europe, far-right is usually also a code word for xenophobic and probably Jew-hating. But that doesn’t appear to be the case here.

Janusz Korwin-Mikke, who is running for president of Poland but from a tiny minority party, told a TV interviewer that if every Jew had had a gun before World War II the Holocaust would never have happened. (H/T CB for the heads-up)

Well, we know that already, don’t we? But it’s apparently so startling to the Times of Israel that they have to go out of their way to try to prejudice readers against him and his positions twice in one tiny article.

Korwin-Mikke, despite his minority political status, is a fascinating and influential man. And not “far-right” in any sense. He came from the liberationist underground left, worked with Lech Wałęsa and his famous Solidarność movent (which helped bring down communism), and published translations of the work of Milton Friedman and Friedrich Hayak.

He courts controversy, uses blunt, colorful language, sometimes says the most un-PC things, and at one time wrote the most popular blog in Poland.

The poor, confused Wikipedia article linked above calls him both a “conservative liberal” and a “libertarian conservative.” He has also been accused of being both an anti-Semite and a “hidden Jew” and a Zionist. (I don’t know his religious history, but he was born in Nazi-occupied Warsaw and his mother died in the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising.)

An intriguing man, definitely.

He spoke those words, “If every Jew had a gun before the war, there would be no Holocaust,” on the eve of Yom HaShoah, the annual commemoration of Hitler’s genocide. He added that “every young guy has to have a gun.”

And that’s where my headline statement comes in. That’s only a partial truth there, Janusz. Sure every young guy — who has enough responsibility and integrity to use one well — should own a gun and be prepared to use it at need. So should every older, wiser, guy. But don’t forget that when it comes to self-defense and defense of family, home, community, and faith, some of the most determined fighters are most definitely non-guys.

Of the 30,000 Jews who escaped the ghettos and camps and joined the guerrilla battle against the Nazis, a good share were women. And though many cooked, tended wounds, and acted as couriers and spies (something that took great courage), quite a few took up arms. One was even the commander of the partisan group in the woods outside Luckow, Poland.

In modern-day America, it’s wonderful to see that both young guys and young women are increasingly interested in firearms and learning to use them. Many of these young people are (so far) only into the sporting aspects of guns — target shooting, competition, and hunting. But should the day ever come for armed defense against enemies of freedom, foreign or domestic, that’ll be millions more who know what to do and have the tools to do it.

So celebrate the brave men who’ve been freedom’s staunchest defenders over the years, but cheers to the women who’ve joined them — and who will join them in times of future need.

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If you want to know more:

Jewish Women in the Partisans

Women in the Italian Resistance

What Can We Learn from Women Partisans? (Click on the links to individual stories.)

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