Give the Jew a coin and maybe he’ll just go away.

I see where the European Jewish Congress just gave a $100K grant to the Ukrainian Jewish community for their “communal security”.  That’s nice.  Given that there are one-hundred-thousand Jews living there, maybe they each can buy three or four bullets for their all but hypothetical handguns?

Not likely, given that the government has commemorated the 70th anniversary of the Nazi Holocaust in a very special way.  Oh, I know, I know.  Free speech, and all that, but meet me down at the ravine, and let’s talk political theory and “physical culture”, ok?

Meanwhile, EJC… Thanks for nothing.

Oh, and in case someone thinks that I am too harsh and “biting the hand…” perhaps this will refresh your memory about the world view of the moral paragons at the European Jewish Congress.

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Operation Nemesis: A tale of assassination and vengeance

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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“Kapo for Kristallnacht” presents award to Giffords

Good one from David Codrea:

Designer Diane von Furstenberg’s DVF Foundation presented former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords with its Inspiration Award at the United Nations Thursday, the Associated Press reported. The $50,000 prize will be given to the Americans for Responsible Solutions Foundation, a group Giffords founded with husband, astronaut Mark Kelly, to promote efforts to pass additional “gun control” edicts.

Von Furstenberg is a curious, but not unexpected admirer of a state monopoly of violence. Having married into an aristocratic German family and enjoying the title of “Princess” until her divorce, she is the Belgian-born daughter of European Jews, her mother being an Auschwitz concentration camp Holocaust survivor. As such, one would think that she would have special sensitivity to the terrible consequences of disarming citizens. Instead, from her position of sheltered insider privilege, she has chosen to be what my late friend and founder of Jews for the Preservation of Firearms Ownership, Aaron Zelman, called “bagel-brained,” and what I have termed being a “kapo for Kristallnacht.”

And a bonus from Bob Owens: The Brady Campaign may be close to going under. If so, it will have been suicide by frivolous lawsuit. The most recent judge didn’t like what they tried and walloped them with legal fees.

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Join us!

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).

ZelmanPartisansPatch-01

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!

ZelmanPartisansPatch-02

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A politician speaks a (partial) truth

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.

—–

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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Traveling this summer? CSGV doubles down on the stupid

The Coalition to Stop Gun Violence (CSGV) has stepped on its own crank again. Between Ladd Everitt harassing a 10-year-old child and the lies the group consistently peddles in its effort to push its odious agenda, it’s a wonder anyone takes it seriously at all!

So it really is no surprise that Everitt and crew have once again swallowed their own feet with their oh-so-stupid and misleading graphics about what states to avoid when you’re traveling this summer. Ostensibly, they might be more dangerous because of their lax gun control laws… except that they’re not. But when has that ever stopped Ladd and his buds?

csgv

Frankly, I love graphics such as this almost as much as I love the Brady Center report card, which neatly allows me to make a fully informed choice about which states will receive my tourism dollars each year!

Let’s take Kansas, for instance. Ladd and his acolytes sure hate Kansas! Why? Because apparently that state leaves people alone to exercise their rights.

And CSGV would like you to believe that Kansas is a dangerous feces-filled hole ridden with violent crime, because if said freedoms.

Except not so much.

In 2010 Kansas ranked 22nd out of the 50 states in firearms murders per 100,000 – ahead of such peaceful gun control utopias as New York, Maryland, New Jersey, and of course Washington, DC.

Last year, Kansas didn’t even make the top 20 list of states with the most gun deaths – and don’t forget that this link includes suicides, which comprise two-thirds of gun-related deaths in the United States!

Kansas is relatively safe, and falls right in the middle of the 50 states when it comes to violent crime. That’s safer than Brady gun control utopias of Maryland, New York, Massachusetts, and Illinois.

What do we consider a “safe state”?  Frankly, any state that respects my right to self defense, and protects my fundamental right to keep and bear arms is safe in my book.

Why?

Because my safety, my life, my security, and the safety of my loved ones are ultimately in my hands, and the manner in which I choose to protect my life, loved ones and property is no one’s business but mine.

But more than that, any state that causes Ladd Everitt and the hoplophobic nuts at the Brady Center to soil themselves at the thought of peaceable citizens exercising their rights, is just fine by me as well.

hoplophobia-n-guns-gun-control-demotivational-poster-1259858344

 

And besides, judging by Ladd Everitt’s creepy insistence on harassing and stalking 10-year-old champion shooter Shyanne Roberts and stealing her photos for his own onerous purposes, a firearm is probably a good idea.

shyanne 3

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The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising-April 19th

April 19th is the anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising.

For those that do not understand what Yom HaShoah and the Warsaw Ghetto uprising has to do with guns, look at all the hands in the photos. When there are hands in the air reaching skyward, you will see guns in the hands of those surrounding them.  Guns are the defense against tyranny.  For “Never Again” to be more than a slogan you need to be able to ensure that it isn’t by having the means to stop the attack.

At the memorial service I attended today the final speaker talked about something a holocaust survivor had implored him to do. To act, to scream, to talk to people, but no matter what, not to do nothing. To do nothing, to be frozen in inaction was to allow them (nazis) to succeed.

The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial at the JCC.
The Warsaw Ghetto Memorial at the JCC.

For the flame of liberty to continue to burn, there must be those willing to speak out against evil. There must be those willing to give their time, talent and treasure and pledge their sacred honor. Yes, that phrase comes from the American Revolution. The Battle at Lexington and Concord also occurred on April 19th. But if we do not show up and suit up in the battle for freedom, the flame of liberty becomes the Shoah, the holocaust, as well as the flames that devoured the Warsaw Ghetto, the other Ghettos throughout Europe and the death camps.

What do Yom HaShoah and the Warsaw Ghetto have to do with guns. Everything! The fearful cost of a disarmed people.

What happened exceeded our boldest dreams. The Germans fled twice from the ghetto. One of our companies held its position for forty minutes, while the other one lasted – upwards of six hours… I cannot describe to you the conditions in which the Jews are living. Only a handful will survive. All the rest will succumb, sooner or later. Their fate has been sealed. In almost all of the bunkers in which our friends are hiding one cannot even light a candle at night, for lack of air. Goodbye my friend. Perhaps we will see each other again. The main thing is this: My life’s dream has become a reality. I have seen the Jewish defense of the ghetto in all its strength and glory.
23 [21] April 1943 Mordechai Anielewicz

There is no need to ask “Why does this happen”. Nor is there a need to ask “How can something like this happen.” It’s a pattern, we know how.

One of our readers gave a link to a documentary, it is excellent and this is the longer version of it.

From Yad Vashem’s website, interviews with Fighters who survived the Warsaw Ghetto. What is the end result of Universal Background Checks and other “common sense” gun control? Listen, the survivors will tell you.

But I will leave you with triumph.

Zog nit kein mol- Jewish partisan song

Zog Nit Kein Mol in Hebrew

 

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Yom HaShoah or יום השואה

Tomorrow is Yom HaShoah. It is the Holocaust Remembrance day. In my area the memorial service will be Sunday. I intend to go. I can do nothing but go. It is my personal feeling, just mine, this is only my opinion, that for me to forget what happened, to allow the memory to become comfortably cushioned in the soft cotton of foggy faded distant memory is folly and disrespectful.

 

Folly because those who ignore the past are doomed to repeat it. I’ve learned some pretty painful long term physical lessons working with my horses. Weather changes bring about certain reminders, very clearly. Care to place a wager on me forgetting how I got them and what needs to be done to prevent a repeat performance? I don’t forget.

 

Disrespectful because the nazis* goal was to erase Judaism from the earth, to blot out all the names of the victims, to resign them to the faded pages of distant memory. As long as I have breath and am able, I will not be part of that. I will be there, I will pay my respects and I will try to keep their memory and their fate plain. The horrible cost of trusting and disarmed people.

 

No, I do not mean all of them, but too many. hitler* was elected after all. Not all those that died were Jews either. Estimates are six million Jews died, and five million others made up of groups of gypsies, Poles, Political dissenters, mentally and physically disabled, homosexuals and communists. I’m guessing some of those that died and their family members voted for hitler. Someone pointed out to me last year basically, the Holocaust wiped out the population of Israel. Israel’s Jewish population in 2014 was 6,218,000. The total population was 8,296,000.

 

Last year I was in Israel during Yom HaShoah. I went with my girlfriend that I stayed with to Ben Gurion University for the memorial service. Since she worked at BGU (אבג) getting in was not a problem. The courtyard where the ceremony was held was packed and people were standing in the windows of surrounding buildings to see the ceremony. We got there early and so sat in the chairs in the courtyard. One thing we noticed, of all the Arab and muslim students that attend there, none that we could see attended the services. It was a profoundly moving services. I didn’t understand a lot of it, it was all in Hebrew of course, and I would only catch words from time to time. But somethings go beyond words. They are universal. One was a dance that was performed.

 

The dancers were dressed in either white or black, and it was very very clear what the dance was about as the dancers dressed in black appeared to flog, beat and kill the dancers dressed in white. At one point during the dance one of the dancers dressed in white quietly slipped off the stage and disappeared behind a column. When she came back out in a bit it appeared she was being comforted by a staff member. She was unable to finish the dance. The dance finished with the dancers gathered around a pile of their shoes they had all taken off and placed in a corner as they came onto the elevated dance stage. Yeah, like that.

 

Shoes
Shoes

 

It was very emotional. I can speculate on what those around me felt. I know what I felt, and I suspect it might be different than the majority of those around me.

 

Following that was the portion where Holocaust survivors or family members came up and read something. I apologize, but my Hebrew just wasn’t/isn’t good enough to recount the stories. But at the end each of the six people went over and lit a candle. Each candle represented a million people. As they read their speeches you could hear something in the background. At first I thought it was suppose to be the sound of muted rifle fire. But then with each person it seemed to be a bit louder and more clear. Not rifle fire. Trains. The sound of trains on the tracks. Damn.

 

The Train
The Train, display at Yad Vashem

 

I was already angry from my visit to Yad Vashem just a few days before when I had been livid about the miniscule display of “Resistance during the Holocaust”. It was a miniscule display for more than one reason, but what was going through my mind was that the elected nazi government used all branches of government to target a group of people. And then they used already on the books common sense gun laws like universal background checks to more easily eliminate them.

 

Flame at Ben Gurion University
Flame at Ben Gurion University

 

An article recently appeared that brought to light that among those who tried to help rescue the Jews, were other Jews. They feel that the concept of Jews saving themselves has been muted or lost. The article stated

 

Part of the mission of the Jewish Rescuers Citation is to re-instill the idea that Jews are not only capable, but prone to be hardened heroes.

The article raises some very interesting ideas. Even if you don’t read the linked article, you might want to check Yad Vashem for a short list and photos of nine people who served in the Resistance, many of them at the greatest cost to save lives. Their names and their lives deserve to be remembered. Their price was large, perhaps you can spare a couple minutes to meet them?

 

For people to live in freedom, freedom from slavery, from poverty, from annihilation, the first thing we need to do is to quit committing suicide.

 

By that I mean there is ONE JEWISH state, in all of the world, there is ONE. Look at your elected officials attitudes towards that one state and you will have an idea of their attitudes towards your group.

 

Look at remarks made towards your group, are they accurate and fair? I’m thinking of the last two years worth of comments at the annual prayer breakfast here.

 

Are branches of the government targeting certain groups of political dissenters?

 

Do you put money into the pockets of people that urge you to become disarmed and vulnerable to any of the above? Harry Weinstein, Babs Streisand, Tim McGraw or any of the many other anti-gun entertainers that will then use their bully pulpit to disarm you?

 

Saddle pads and skirts folks. Check your patterns

 

There is a stone in the Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations, it is to ALL, not Jewish, or non-Jewish, but ALL.

 

To Those
To Those, located in the Garden of the Righteous at Yad Vashem

 

Please G-d, may we need no more of them. The cost is far too dear.

 

 

 

* Some things and some people do not deserve capital letters. Not a typo.

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