All posts by Claire Wolfe

Israel, The Zelman Partisans

A little controversy

15 Comments

The following is the opinion of the writer and does not necessarily represent any “official” view from The Zelman Partisans.

That statement above applies to this post, but you might as well consider it to be invisibly attached to every post that appears on the TZP blog.

As an organization, TZP has just one central belief statement (spelled out on our About Us page):

  • The right to keep and bear arms is a lifesaving civil right.
  • Firearms are crucial genocide-prevention tools.
  • An armed and informed citizenry is necessary to prevent or defeat tyranny.
  • The right to self-defense is innate; that it was granted to us by G-d or Nature. It was not given to us by government, and it cannot rightly be taken away by government.
  • The U.S. Bill of Rights codified pre-existing freedoms owned by all men and women; the Second Amendment guards the other nine amendments; but all rights expressed in that great Bill are vital.
  • Principles must never, ever be compromised. Compromise may be fine for strategy, but when you give up principles, you’ve already surrendered everything that matters.

Or to put it more simply: “Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.”

In the unlikely event that any TZP blogger posted something that ran against any of those points, rest assured that he or she would … well, hear from the rest of us in short order and perhaps using short (e.g. four-letter) words. It’s hard even to imagine any of us “going Gottlieb,” though, so I expect no four-letter words will be required.

Beyond our absolute commitment to uncompromising self-defense rights, we are a diverse crew and you can expect considerable differences of opinion on matters not directly related to gun rights.

Our bloggers are all volunteers. They have wide interests and they write what they’re passionate about.

—–

A little healthy disagreement came up the other day in comments on Sheila’s blog about Israel and Iran.

Y.B. and Sheila are our two most religious bloggers and Sheila (who has been to Israel several times) is our most ardently pro-Israel writer. Personally, I learn a lot from their posts, but I don’t always agree. For instance, Sheila believes G-d set the boundaries of Israel and gave the land to the Jewish people.

My own view on G-d-given land is closer to Nina Paley’s:

Israel is a state and as such it’s prone to doing dumb, barbaric things. Somewhat less barbaric things than the Islamic states that crowd it, but still ignoble. As a non-Jew and an outside observer I have very mixed feelings about Israel. I just (naively, I know) wish everybody could get along. I also believe that Israel’s survival is ultimately Israel’s own repsonsibility, not that of the U.S.

I have no mixed feelings at all, however, about the survival of the Jewish people and their right to self defense. Jews must survive. After 2,000 years of diaspora and the special hell of the twentieth century, Israel is their best shot. With anti-Semitism again festering globally and violent Islamist insanity rising, Jews once again need all decent people of all religions or none to stand by them.

I also believe that the hellish century taught us that when politicians speak of annihilation they really mean it.

But Sheila is passionate on the subject of Israel and I’m not. And neither of us represents any “official” TZP viewpoint.

Someday, as we grow, I hope TZP will have more of an official viewpoint. If/when that happens, I’m sure our formal articles and other materials will focus on gun rights and guns as anti-genocide tools. But even then, this blog should still represent the individual viewpoints of its diverse authors.

It gives me a little chagrin to hear TZP criticized for being too Jewish or too pro-Israel, partly because Aaron’s old JPFO was just as frequently criticized for “not being Jewish enough.” Oh well, that’s the Way of the Internet for sure. And that’s as it should be.

For now, just know that every blog entry you read here comes from somebody who cares passionately about their subject. Our blogging crew is truly diverse: two observant American Jews (Y.B. and Ilana); one Israeli (Boris Karpa); one non-Jew who is highly knowledgeable about Judiasm and Israel (Sheila); two noted gun-rights activists who were born in the Soviet Union to Jewish refusnik families but who hold no religion now (Nicki and Oleg); and one plain-vanilla non-religious gun-rights activist (me) who is here because of a long association with Aaron Zelman and his late, lamented Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership. Behind the scenes, doing everything from leadership to order fulfillment, we have one Jew and one Gentile.

I suspect that if we all ever managed to meet up and spend an evening over a few bottles of wine that we might disagree over many things — including big issues like the Iran nuke treaty and whether politics work or are a waste of time. But here … we enjoy and learn from each other. Hope you faithful readers do, also.

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defense of others, hatred of Jews, Israel

Jewish lives matter

5 Comments

While researching for my last post, I got curious about whether anyone was also proclaiming that endangered Jewish lives matter. Sure enough.

Jeffrey Salkin of Martini Judaism (“for those who want to be shaken and stirred”), reminds us, speaking of the Iran nuclear deal, that Jewish lives matter, too.

There’s even a Jewish Lives Matter Facebook page. Where I found this:

TZP_ArmedPeopleFlyTheirColors

Todd Gitlin writes, reflecting on the Charlie Hebdo and Hyper Cacher murders, that Jewish lives matter — to terrorists, but not so much to the political left who we foolishly expect to defend them.

Evan Traylor of the Jewish Multiracial Network likes Black Lives Matter and says so do those of black Jews.

And another article points out that many black lives are also Jewish lives — but that some Black Lives Matter activists have hijacked the BLM movement by also making it anti-Israel.

Finally, black Zionist Chloe Simone Valdary asserts (in the most nuanced piece I’m linking) that Jewish lives matter, and so do those of Palestinians, including Christians, women, and homosexuals who suffer at the hands of (or with the assent of) Palestinian political leadership.

Judge the value of such articles for yourself (as you will, anyway). Including them here doesn’t mean I endorse or agree with them all. I just thought it was interesting that “Jewish lives matter” was a meme in its own right, and fascinating what a variety of thought has gone into this.

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defense of others, duty, mindset, resistance

“Black lives matter” is a great slogan

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… if your aim is to guilt-trip Democrat politicians and alienate potential friends. Otherwise it’s just spouting a truism while denying the broader truism “All lives matter.”

But those who espouse the slogan are determined to hang on to it. Several activists have insisted that saying “all lives matter” is a violent statement against black people. (Short of a specific threat to do harm, I’m not actually sure what a “violent statement” is, and how valuing life could be a threat escapes me.) Taking a more moderate position, one Leonard Pitts writes in the Miami Herald (using specious examples) that it’s merely an act of moral cowardice to claim that all lives matter.

There’s nothing wrong, of course, with an interest group trying to protect its own interests. And some specific proposals of the Black Lives Matter movement could go a long way toward helping people of any race, color, or creed who encounter cops:

The platform also demands that all officers be equipped with body cameras; for hog-ties, nickel-rides and chokeholds to be felony offenses; for officers to undergo consistent racial bias training; police demilitarization and the establishment of a permanent special prosecutor at the federal level who will independently investigate all cases of a police killing or seriously injuring a civilian.

But shouting, “Black lives matter” — with its clear implication that other lives don’t matter is … well, at the very least, it’s terrible PR. It’s divisive and hostile (imagine how we’d react to the equivalent statement, “White lives matter”!).

Fortunately, if this poll is correct even most black people prefer the broader “all lives matter” viewpoint.

—–

But what about what these Black Lives Matter activists are actually doing to protect themselves and their communities? Petitioning for laws to curb out-of-control cops is well and good. But it’s not the same as taking personal responsibility to defend lives.

I think back to the Deacons for Defense and Justice, who clearly believed with their hearts and souls that black lives mattered, but who walked their walk. They didn’t bother disrupting and intimidating politicians. They just armed themselves. Not merely for protection against “freelance” racist thugs, but against those who enforced noxious Jim Crow laws.

Later came the Black Panthers, who were even more in-your-face than the Black Lives Matter activists. Their techniques were divisive, too. They scared the heck out of “honkies” and some of their techniques may have boomeranged on them badly (with the help of J. Edgar Hoover, who loathed them and militated against them).

Their sudden armed appearance at the California statehouse in 1967 may have been one of the factors that led to passage of the federal Gun Control Act of 1968. But let’s also not forget that, on that day at the California Assembly, they were acting as pro-gun activists. They were protesting a proposed bill to outlaw carry of loaded firearms.

To this day, historians debate whether the original Panthers (there’s now a revival party) were good or bad for the black community. But of one thing, there’s no doubt whatsoever. They armed themselves and took responsibility for trying to protect and better their communities. Per Wikipedia:

At its inception in October 1966, the Black Panther Party’s core practice was its armed citizens’ patrols to monitor the behavior of police officers and challenge police brutality in Oakland, California. In 1969, community social programs became a core activity of party members. The Black Panther Party instituted a variety of community social programs, most extensively the Free Breakfast for Children Programs, and community health clinics.

If Black Lives Matter advocates really believe what they say, then they won’t just protest and petition. They won’t wait — patiently or otherwise — for the political establishment to fix the problems they perceive. They’ll step up to defend real lives in the real world as the Deacons and the Panthers did.

It would be a bonus if they recognized that the very political establishment they’re looking to for their salvation is the one that militarized the police, equipped them with both the mindset and the materiel of soldiers, and ensured that few armed agents of the government would ever bear personal accountability for excessive brutality. That same establishment is the creator of the drug war that has wrecked so many black homes, left so many black children fatherless, and filled so many cities with gang violence.

If black lives really matter — and they should — then activists will step up to personally defend them. Not only with defensive arms, but with the understanding that government is a cause, not a solution, to their problems.

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The Zelman Partisans

Welcoming Boris Karpa

The post just below this one is by TZP’s newest blogger. We are delighted to have Boris Karpa join us.

He may be a familar name to you. In the oughts, he blogged for USConcealedCarry.com. He has written for The Libertarian Enterprise. Most recently he’s been known for his translations of historic firearms and combat manuals.

Boris is a citizen and resident of Israel, but an American at heart. He’s done extensive study on 19th-century U.S. history and has a strong interest in worldwide military history. He’s a historian, translator, writer, and libertarian activist. And you don’t need me to tell you he’s going to bring tremendous talent and a vigorous new perspective to The Zelman Partisans.

Welcome, Boris! We’re looking forward to having you here.

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authoritarian swine, gun control, gun grabbers, Media

There they go again

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For a while it’s seemed as if the anti-gunners have been staggering around without direction. Yes, they’ve won several billionaire-funded state-level victories on the issue of gun-owner registration universal background checks. But beyond those few determined mega-rich (we’re talking to you, Bloomberg, Hanauer, and your elitist Microsoft pals, and you, too, Ms. Wynn), the hoplophobes appear to be wandering lost.

No doubt the financial smackdown for the Brady Center’s frivolous lawsuits has had something to do with that.

But recently, the marching morons show signs of getting their feet back under them so they can go goose-stepping along their merry way.

To wit:

1. The influential Pew Research organization issued yet another poll claiming that darned near every American, of any party or philosophical stripe is just dying to impose more restrictions on gun ownership.

It doesn’t matter that poll questions can be carefully crafted to produce desired results. It doesn’t matter that the 85% supposedly in favor of forcing us to ask government permission to buy guns universal background checks almost certainly haven’t studied the matter at all, let alone studied it well enough to grok the ramifications. Pew helpfully produced a statistic for the antis to use. And use it they will.

2. The University of Illinois at Chicago School of Public Health (consider the source!) next drops a badly done “study” claiming the more guns in a given state, the more murdered cops.

3. Then Georgetown University (consider the source!) comes out with a report on “Lone Wolf Terrorism” that once again makes the laughable claim that “far-right extremists” (e.g. angry gun owners) are at least as big a threat as Islamic jihadis.

This isn’t new, of course. It’s a notion that the media and various alphabet agencies of the fedgov have been promoting for a long time. But there is a problem when it becomes acceptible (and even encouraged) to think of millions of fellow countrymen as the enemy — not just as people you might disagree with, not just as political opponents, not just as members of a different culture — but as enemies.

TZP_MollieIvans_EnemiesQuote

(And yes, it’s ironic that that excellent quote was tweeted by the wildly excessive, polarizing CSGV, who have been responsible for stirring endless hate against gun owners — to the point of calling on people to SWAT us and otherwise threaten our health and our lives.)

We already know what happens when propagandists turn an entire country against a portion of its population. Been there. Done that. Have the mass graves to show for it in country after country. Of course, not very often do Masters of Public Opinion choose well-armed millions as their target.

That could end up getting interesting if they push the issue.

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Do you value what you find here at The Zelman Partisans? If so, please join our wonderful supporters. You can: become a member; shop in our store for yarmulkes, custom knives, and cool morale patches (and targets to come soon); or purchase wearables and other stuff from our Queensboro or CafePress stores.

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gun grabbers, hatred of Jews, Inspiration, Jewish history, resistance, self defense, The Zelman Partisans

Pant, pant, pant … posting as fast as I can to catch up!

20 Comments

First thing: Thank you BIG TIME to Sheila and Y.B. for carrying the blogging load the last week or so. I’ve been trying to get here for at least a small post but … life.

So I’d just like to give a couple of quick updates:

  • Thanks to everybody who submitted dumb anti-gun quotes for TZP targets. We’ve verified those that can be verified (and thank you so very much to you who submitted quotes with original-source links!) and are now passing the entries around among the TZP leadership group. We’re not sure exactly when we’ll announce the winners, and it may be that after we’ve chosen our “favorites” a designer will have the final say as he fits everything together. But we’ll keep you posted. We definitely got some grins and groans out of your submissions.
  • The same day our quote contest closed, Lucky Gunner announced the final results in its poll to give away the money owed to it by the Brady Center. Your votes kept TZP solidly in the middle of the pack all the way to the end. Our numbers were modest but we still came out in the vicinity of several larger, better-known groups. And the main thing is that we had an unprecedented chance to get noticed. Kudos to you.

Now, that said, here are some links I’ve been collecting for you:

  • A couple of my recent posts were about resistance within Germany to the Nazis. Y.B. sent these links to information on Christians who resisted on principle.
  • “They Hate You Because You’re Jewish, You Idiot!” No comment.
  • Man, this is (almost) enough to make a body like Chuck Schumer. And note how quickly the Obama White House stabbed him in the back.
  • This spring, I stumbled across a weird story about officials in a Greek town demanding — of all things! — that a star of David be removed from a Holocaust museum. Um … srsly? But the actions of a couple of politicians halfway around the world didn’t seem all that newsworthy, so I just sat on the link at the time.
  • Then more recently, Y.B. sent me these poll results — which put the actions of Greek officials into much more chilling perspective. No wonder the Jews of Europe are either getting out or beginning to agitate for the right to bear arms.
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Uncategorized

Support your local Jewish gun group

Just a small reminder here that v*ting is still open until Saturday in Lucky Gunner’s effort to give away the money it’s due to receive from the Brady Center. Since it appears the Bradys have given up their appeal of the court judgment against them, the money is no longer theoretical. A bunch of lucky gun groups are going to get a share.

Although The Zelman Partisans have slipped a few places in the ranks, we are still comfortably ensconced in the middle of the pack. CCRKBA and Pink Pistols have moved farther ahead of us, but the NSSF has dropped farther behind. All in all, and thanks to you, we’re doing great for an obscure special-interest group that didn’t even exist this time last year.

The biggies lead the pack, of course. The NRA/ILA and Gun Owners of America are looking to take about one fourth of the prize between them, with some big state groups close behind. But remember — it’s not winner-take-all. Lucky Gunner is awarding the prize proportionally, so even a small vote total can earn a contribution. And just by being up there, we’re getting known.

You can only v*te once per IP address. But even if you’ve already v*ted, you can still spread the word via your social networks, blogs, etc.

Thanks for supporting TZP!

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And when it comes to supporting us — and getting yourself some cool gear — don’t forget our new custom kippahs; they’ve gotten raves from those who’ve bought them. And then there are those sleek Kershaw spring-assist knives. I use mine every day; it’s got a super-sharp blade that keeps its edge even under considerable abuse.

Better yet, if you become a three-year member, you get discounts on store merchandise. All members get an intro packet that includes our embroidered morale patch and more.

Here are the kippot, outside and inside:

TZP_KippahActual-01

TZP_KippahActual-02

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Note to members

A few of you haven’t yet created logins, which you need in order to get your discounts. In some cases, this may be because the email with the login link (sent to your PayPal address) bounced. If you want a login but don’t have the link, please drop us an email at tzpstore-at-zelmanpartisans-dot-com and we’ll get it taken care of.

ZelmanPartisans_CustomKnife-02_052115

morale_patch

Great stuff! How can you resist?

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gun control, New merchandise, shooting, The Zelman Partisans

Fun with targets — put your thinking caps on

18 Comments

Next item for the TZP store — targets. And we’d like you to help us create the first design.

Here’s the idea: We’ll find five of the dumbest, most idiotic anti-gun quotes we can and print them in the rings of the target. Finding the quotes is where you come in. Please use the comment section on this post to suggest your favorite brain-dead hoplophobe remark.

If you’re the first to suggest a quote that makes it onto one of our targets, you’ll get a free packet of the printed targets.

Rules are simple:

1. The quote must be short enough to fit in the rings of a 8-1/2 x 11 (or maybe slightely larger) target.

2. It must be verifiable (providing a link will help but isn’t required).

3. To have a chance at a free target pack, you must be the first to post it in comments.

4. Entries close midnight EDT July 31, 2015.

So … go for it and have yourself some fun.

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And don’t forget the other nifty items in our store. Their numbers are few so far, but their quality high. You can get yourself a membership, a custom Kershaw folding knife, or a highly attitudinal yarmulke with the TZP logo.

I just got my own yarmulke last week and it’s a very nice, well-made, attractive item. Being a Gentile female, I’ll display, rather than wear, mine. But we’ve had multiple purchases from happy customers who plan either to use them as intended or gift them to people who will. We just lowered the shipping cost on the “buy three and save” offer, also.

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Inspiration, Israel, mindset, resistance, The Zelman Partisans

What we do for love

5 Comments

Co-blogger Sheila has been telling you about the highlights of her recent trip to Israel. One thing she hasn’t told you is this:

TZPWesternWallPhoto_Sheila

That’s a closeup of one of the niches in the Western Wall or Kotel — what Americans not-so-respectfully refer to as the Wailing Wall. The slip of paper on the upper right contains the names of each TZP founding member and blogger, the names of our families, and TZP’s name.

I was so moved when Sheila told us she did that. A famous quote connected with the Western Wall is: “There are hearts and there are hearts. There are human hearts, and there are hearts of stone. There are stones and there are stones. There are silent stones, and there are stones which are hearts.” And I must say that what Sheila did melted my sometimes-stony heart.

—–

Life has taught me to be cynical and unsentimental. Aside from having a soft spot for dogs, I tend to be one who avoids or questions things I find to be vague, “soft,” or emotional. I’ve become a “just the facts, Ma’am” sort of person when it comes to claims that can’t be well-defined or proven through a rigorous examination.

Reading novels, I skip the mushy scenes. I’m baffled when people make religious arguments based on their feelings and quotes from scriptures (just as they’re baffled by my expectation of hard evidence). When a salesman or a preacher wants me to “experience” something before I gather the data about it, I’m instantly on guard. When Dumbledore tells Harry Potter that “love” made his baby self invincible against the evil power of Voldemort, I cringe and hit the fast-forward button. In fact, the dreadfully overused word “love” is in general enough to set my BS alarm clanging. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts.

I’m not really that cold — I hope! I’ve merely learned through a lifetime of experience that feelings sans facts are often a trap, nothing more than a form of manipulation and deception.

Our gun-hating opponents are excruciating examples of this. Their wild emotional rantings, their claims of sentiment toward the victims of shootings (victims in whose blood they gleefully dance), their stubborn choice to remain ignorant about firearms, their complete refusal to sit down and think about how the laws they demand would actually work in the real world, their bizarre lack of reasoning … all are perfect examples of why feeeeeelings should aways be suspect. Especially when someone uses their emotions (or tries to manipulate the emotions of others) as an excuse to get something they want.

—–

Of course, feelings can be plenty useful. That hinky sense you get when you see a suspicious stranger or enter a dangerous place. That inner voice that screams, “NO!” even when a course of action seems otherwise perfectly reasonable. That warmth that floods you when you realize you’ve met someone you can truly trust. That rush of satisfaction when you know you’ve gone the extra mile and done good. All great, all needed.

But when it comes to discovering truths that lie beyond our immediate realm, feelings are no substitute for accurate, checkable data. Give me the facts, Ma’am. Just the facts. I’ll decide for myself what to feel about them, thank you.

So when I saw Sheila’s photo and heard her describe what’s on that piece of paper — a prayer placed in an ancient wall for the people of TZP — at first I didn’t know why I felt so moved. I don’t believe there’s a god standing behind that wall, seeing, hearing, and above all caring about us (fellow blogger Y.B. will differ, of course). I don’t believe that the stones of the wall or the words on those slips of paper have any mystical power. Yet I felt a power just knowing what Sheila had done. I felt the power of the stones and the words and Sheila’s action in placing TZP in such an ancient holy place.

But why?

Many reasons, I think. But here’s the core thing: We who hold fast for gun rights and the human rights to life, liberty, and individual sovereignty ultimately do what we do out of love. Yes, that mushy, highly suspect word. There it is: love.

Oh yes, we have facts and data and knowledge on our side. Unlike the overwrought, screeching enemies of freedom, we analyze the data, we look at the facts on the table, we project the consequences of proposed laws into the future. We ask, “How does this work? Or would it work?” Some of us know the physics (that is, the facts) of the making of steel or the ballistics of a shot. Some of us have studied the history of firearms or firearms laws. Some of us can cite firearm statistics or crime statistics off the tops of our heads. Some track and analyze upcoming laws or regulatory actions. We have different areas of expertise when it comes to guns and gun rights. But generally, we tend to be people of the fact. We’re passionate about our commitment, but many of us got here by looking at the data or studying the history and knowing why we’re here.

Yet of course we don’t do what we do — we don’t join and stay in this endless struggle for freedom — because of facts alone. That wouldn’t be enough.

We stand here against all manner of hate and all attempts to smash our freedom. We stand like the stones of that ancient wall not only because we know we’re right. Being “right” is never enough; any moron can think he’s “right” about anything and still run for the hills the moment things get tough. We stand because we love life and liberty so much that surrender is inconceivable. What we do, we do for love.

It has been said of the Western Wall:

Secure and invincible with its Divine strength, the Kotel holds its own — throughout the generations of change, transformations and vicissitudes, the horrors and the shocks, which visited the land and its inhabitants. The Kotel is in them and with them.

…. [L]ike a stone fortress, it stands guard, without moving and without allowing its inner dignity to be sullied. It remains pure and exalted in the strength of its very essence…

There are hearts of stone and stones with hearts. Those who stand for gun rights are a wall, a fortress. It was right that Sheila placed TZP names in that niche in the Kotel. The words on that slip of paper aren’t just our names, individually. Our names stand for everyone who cares unyieldingly about self defense, the defense of others, and the undying principles of liberty. Our names in that wall stand for the love that holds so many great hearts so strong in this crucial cause.

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