A German regional court in the city of Wuppertal affirmed a lower court decision last Friday stating that a violent attempt to burn the city’s synagogue by three men in 2014 was a justified expression of criticism of Israel’s policies.
Johannes Pinnel, a spokesman for the regional court in Wuppertal, outlined the court’s decision in a statement.
Three German Palestinians sought to torch the Wuppertal synagogue with Molotov cocktails in July, 2014. The local Wuppertal court panel said in its 2015 decision that the three men wanted to draw “attention to the Gaza conflict” with Israel. The court deemed the attack not to be motivated by antisemitism.
Now perhaps in a legal sense, the motivation shouldn’t (but probably does) matter. Attack a building because you hate its occupants or attack a building because you hate the policy of a country and the damage is the same — and in this case blessedly light. The concept of a “hate crime” is Orwellian on the face of it.
But Germany, of all nations, ought to recognize an attack on Jews and Judiasm when it sees one. To tell yourself — and the public — and the perpetrators — that torching a synagogue in Germany is a form of legitimate political protest against Israel is delusional. Either that or it’s excuse-making and enabling.
No sooner do we get the Menorahs put up, the last of the chocolate coin tin foils in the garbage and the olive oil spatter, cleaned off the kitchen vent hood, a military tribunal representing the very worst of Hellenized/Socialist/Ghetto Jew mentality still afflicting modern Israel, brings us a belated Chanukah lesson.
The conviction of Elor Azariah for Manslaughter.
Anticipating an objection, about the only thing I wish to add to the reaction below, is that it has very little to do with the uniform. It has everything to do with the healthy psychology of any human being, when faced with a dedicated murderer.
It is no surprise that Elor Azaryah, the IDF soldier accused of shooting and killing a wounded terrorist, was convicted today. Any other outcome would have been a stinging slap in the face of a much too broad elite and their erroneous assumptions.
Elor was the only uniformed man in the area who acted in a moral manner. The bullet that he shot and the publicity generated by the radical Left B’tzelem’s film of the terror attack and its aftermath – recalibrated the moral coordinates in the arena.
The concept of murdering Jews just because they are Jews is not justiciable! Putting Elor on trial is not moral! The standard bearers of destruction of the Jews and those who act upon those evil principles do not deserve a trial. They lose their right to exist, and anybody who eliminates them and ensures that they are dead is performing the most just and lofty moral act.
The bullet that Elor shot restored the dimension of justice to the arena. The question mark that the knifing terror had etched over the right of the Jews to live, was erased by the clear exclamation point drawn by Elor.
Elor’s moral act was the antidote to the poisonous de-legitimization of Jewish existence – the poison against which Israel’s entire security apparatus stood helpless. His moral act stopped the knifing terror (a fact that can be clearly proven). Elor’s conviction will likely reignite the stabbings.
A cogent answer to the gutlessness of the Tribunal. here is another analysis, from last Spring.
It was December 31st. A dark, cold, night. Desperate and weary Jews gathered… hidden behind convent walls in the Vilnius Ghetto.
Their tormentors, their murderers, had been unrelenting. Over sixty-thousand men, women, and children had been slaughtered. This, at the hands of the Nazi’s and of the Jews’ own neighbors.
A young man named Abba; a poet, watched his sister and mother be lead away. That cold, dark, December night he was with those assembled in the convent.
Death Is Not To Be Preferred
When leading a band of harried fighters or standing face-to-face with the enemy, holding out in the siege and standing alone on the ramparts, he never said death is to be preferred, that life is negotiable; anxious frightened by severe privations he never asked anything of Almighty God but to grant him favor and ease his pain when he leads the congregation in communal prayer; and forgive our sins in love and joy and gladness and peace O God, Mighty And Awesome.
And yet… And yet…
He rose, and spoke to his fellow fighters:
“Let us not go like sheep to the slaughter, Jewish youth! Do not believe those who are deceiving you. Out of 80,000 Jews of the Jerusalem of Lithuania (Vilna), only 20,000 remain. In front of your eyes our parents, our brothers and our sisters are being torn away from us. Where are the hundreds of men who were snatched away for labor by the Lithuanian kidnappers? Where are those naked women who were taken away on the horror-night of the provocation? Where are those Jews of the Day of Atonement? And where are our brothers of the second ghetto? Anyone who is taken out through the gates of the ghetto, will never return. All roads of the ghetto lead to Ponary, and Ponary means death. Oh, despairing people, – tear this deception away from your eyes. Your children, your husbands, your wives – are no longer alive – Ponary is not a labor camp. Everyone there is shot. Hitler aimed at destroying the Jews of Europe. It turned out to be the fate of the Jews of Lithuania to be the first. Let us not go like sheep to the slaughter. It is true that we are weak, lacking protection, but the only reply to a murderer is resistance. Brothers, it is better to die as free fighters than to live at the mercy of killers. Resist, resist, to our last breath.”
To all my fellow Partisans, I wish to sincerely thank you for your past and present support for our efforts, here at The Zelman Partisans.
As I go out to light the menorah for the eighth, and final time, this Chanukah, I wish each and every one of you bountiful Shalom, Chazak, Emuna, and Bitachon, for the coming year.
Shocked at the outrageous U.N. vote? Surprised? Just sad but think it’s none of our affair and has nothing to do with us, U.S.? Oh how I beg to differ.
You see, Obama and his evil minions made the affair. I’m surprised they didn’t have it catered, maybe it was.
Egypt originally proposed the resolution condemning Jews living in Israel, in the parts known as Judea and Samaria as well as East Jerusalem. It was proposed by Egypt at the behest of the pieceful Falestinians. After a call by President-Elect Trump to President Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, Egypt withdrew the resolution. It was then pushed by New Zealand, Venezuela, Malaysia and Senegal, as addressed by my colleague Y.B. This despite the fact that Israel has been more than kind to Senegal with monetary aid as well as agricultural technology.
Senegal defends their vote by saying they support the muslims in Falestine. Israel is the first on the scene when there is a catastrophe or crisis, and yet.
So let’s just take a brief look at the situation.Back in July of 2014Ben Shapiro pointed out that “This Is An Anti-Israel, “Jew Hating” Administration”
Ever wonder how or why Samantha Powers was appointed to the UN? Well, she does favor invading Israel militarily, on the side of the Falestinians, of course.
So let’s just look at a tiny bit of history again about Judea and Samaria. Because Jews living there HAS been settled under international law. A long time ago. The whole article is well worth reading.
The only binding resolution of international law, a resolution which has never been countermanded to this very day, is the July 1922 Mandate for Palestine. Adopted by the League of Nations, that resolution recognized the “historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.” It called for the creation of a Jewish national homeland anywhere west of the Jordan River.
Once the League of Nations was disbanded and the United Nations formed in its stead, the international community agreed to maintain all agreements and not “alter in any manner the rights whatsoever of any states or any peoples or the terms of existing international instruments to which Members of the United Nations may respectively be parties.” [Article 80, UN Charter, emphasis added] This provision wasn’t inserted by accident; it was known as “the Jewish People’s clause” at the time it was adopted in 1945 in order to enshrine the 1922 Mandate into international law.
The Mandate for Palestine adopted by the League of Nations was the last legally binding document delineating regional borders. In Article 5 of the Mandate it explicitly states “The Mandatory shall be responsible for seeing that no Palestine territory shall be ceded or leased to, or in any way placed under the control of the Government of any foreign Power.”
The Palestine Mandate (and Iraq) was given to Britain to serve as a temporary trustee based on the resolution between the four principle Allied Powers in April 1920 at the San Remo Conference in Italy, which was signed by 51 nations. It was at that conference where the world powers adopted the 1917 Balfour Declaration (which originally allocated the eastern part of the Mandate for a Jewish state as well) creating a Jewish state. This same conference that created the Jewish state west of the Jordan River also created Syria, Lebanon, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Iraq as Arab states….
Unfortunately, over the past generation the geo-political elites and the media has repeated the lie about an Arab “Palestinian state” and “illegal Israeli settlements” so many times that it has become true in the minds of so many people.
So.
“If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.” ~~joseph gerbils
Notice, nobody, not even the pieceful Falestinians were pitching hissy fits when JORDAN illegally occupied Judea and Samaria in Israel from 1948-1967, and EGYPT occupied Gaza. Where was the UN in light of the fact Israel’s boundaries were violated? Oh, appeasing.
“We have not taken foreign territory or any alien property, but have occupied our ancestral heritage, for some time unjustly wrested from us by our enemies; now that we have a favorable opportunity, we are merely recovering our ancestral heritage” (Maccabees 1, 15:33-34).
And so getting Egypt to push the resolution failed, Egypt refused.
“[The hands] are American hands,” Elkin said, using a Biblical phrase in an interview with Ynet. “It was announced here in Ukraine that the Ukrainians really wanted to abstain, [but US Vice President Joe] Biden personally called the President of Ukraine and pressured the Ukrainians to vote in favor.”
An understandably miffed PM Netanyahu then refused to meet with Ukraine Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman. The sad irony of Groysman abounds.
And New Zealand is not just a _____________, they too, are weak ______________ because Israel’s good friend Britain pushed New Zealand. Why would they do that? I heard on a radio show once an explanation of why politicians pander to the muslim voters. Because there are so many of them. Once a certain amount of them are in a country, it’s voting is never the same. Do I know that’s what happened? No. But it’s a possibility. Also possible, the Falestinians have talked of suing Britain over the Balfour Declaration. I mean it’s not like Britain has a long proud tradition of siding with the arabs against the Jews and trying to keep Jews out of Israel. /snark.
The one who abandoned Israel was US President Barack Obama – and not for the first time. During his eight years in office, Obama let Israel down at least three times on issues that jeopardized its security:
One of the first consequences of his 2011 “Arab Spring” initiative was the overthrow of Hosni Mubarak as Egyptian president and his direct promotion of the Muslim Brotherhood’s takeover of power in Cairo.
So, how did all this come to light? Well, the report from the Ukraine, and Egypt.
Now this evidence seems to have been released by the Egyptians, in the form of the minutes of a meeting between U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, National Security Adviser Susan Rice and PA officials Saeb Erekat and Ryad Mansour.
But if you want a person on the street view of obama and hillary’s installation of the muslim brotherhood morsi and didn’t see Sama Elmasry‘s video after al-Sisi took over….just not sure it’s safe for work. She’s not fond of Israel either, but she’s got obama figured out a lot better than a lot of people in the US.
I mean, we’ve imported and are importing massive amounts of people from countries that do not love Jews or Christians so much. And in their minds? Apparently they view the resolution as a license. Not that they thought they needed one.
You know, we read about the horrible rise of Anti-Semitism in Europistan, and Britistan. Jews are afraid to wear a Kippah in public and some are afraid to go to Synagogue. In times past, they could and should make Aliyah to Israel, where they would be accepted and “safer” at least. Some countries make Synagogues pay for their own security. But where now, exactly are they suppose to live? Israel wasn’t big to start with. And as far as the pieceful Falestinians are concerned, the UN has just blessed their goals to make Judea and Samaria “Jew free”. Although “tripe rice” urged them not to use violence. Not because it’s wrong, but because it hurts their “cause”.
For her part, Israel needs to quit playing this game, take her marbles and annex Judea and Samaria. Then there will be no doubt as to who’s law applies. And the residents of Amona can live in peace, at least from their own government. They should do it tomorrow and tell the UN and barry to stuff it. They should then issue every resident of Judea and Samaria a rifle, handgun and plenty of ammunition. Every town gets a tank, maybe two. Let’s see how this goes.
This is the battle of the Maccabees all over again. An Israeli doctor released a statement recently that he wanted widely disseminated. The story of a pieceful Falestinian woman who was set aflame by her loving family. She was treated and given skin grafts at Soroka in Be’er Sheva. She returned for a follow up visit wearing a suicide belt to kill as many of those that saved her as she could. His point is, this is not a war of land, but a war of culture. And you can never appease that enough, you can never cede enough land. You can only submit and give up your culture to theirs.
Things don’t happen in a vacuum, there is a lot going on with this UN resolution. And, as one radio host pointed out last night, he lives in the area of Samaria, does this mean if he leaves the country he will be arrested as a international criminal?
It’s like the world wants Israel isolated, defenseless and Jews facing extreme Antisemitism unable to flee there for safety. Wait, something is ringing in the back of my mind.
But I think this resolution is a rock thrown into a pond. I think the ripples are going to spread further and wider than people ever suspected. And it was heinous and bogus to start with. From the president that has been heinous and bogus all along, leaving a “legacy” of heinous and bogus.
And, I’ll give you this video. Michael writes some good Second Amendment songs as well.
This past November a group of Jews had gathered for communal prayer at their synagogue in Santa Monica, California. Suddenly a menacing man entered the synagogue and shouted “Heil Hitler”. Then he mimicked shooting a machine gun at the parishioners. Before they could catch him, he ran away.
On the first night of Chanukah, they assembled again to light the menorah, intending to share the “light” of the commemoration with the public. What they found on arriving was that someone had smeared food and feces about the entrance to their synagogue.
About the same time, someone in the retirement community of Sun City, Arizona were distressed to find that someone had run a truck into their large, custom, menorah. It appeared that they then tried to tear it down.
In so doing, the vandals did an estimated $7,000 damage to the menorah.
One of the synagogue’s members is a 104 year old survivor of the Holocaust. Needless to say, it brought back ancient, but vivid, memories to pain that poor old man. Mission accomplished, I suppose.
Bastards.
Meanwhile Mr. Obama and his ilk conspired to embolden some of the most vile regimes & organizations on Earth, by attacking Israel in the United Nations. Hardly a new plan. Merely a new gambit.
It should be noted that while the General Assembly is mostly a bloviating mass of deviates and moral midgets, and of little true effect, the Security Council is an altogether different animal. A supra-government with military powers.
This is a very serious move.
Fortunately, in response, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, of the American Friends of Lubavitch, (who had quite recently koshered the White House kitchen for an early, and embarrassing, “Chanukah” celebration) diplomatically gave reproach to the betrayal in the UN, saying:
“I know that some of us are so sad at what happened there with regard to Israel. We must remember that the way to counter any darkness, any disappointment is not with harsh rhetoric, not with anger, but when we create light, the darkness dissipates. Secretary Szubin (*)spoke before of fighting darkness with light … I remember those words being spoken to a particular man by the Rebbe [The Seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe; Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneerson] many, many years ago on Simchat Torah. The Rebbe told him you are working in a place where there is great grief and darkness, but remember that in that place of darkness, you can only counter it by lighting a candle. By creating light. … That man was Benjamin Netanyahu, and he was at the time the Ambassador to the United Nations.”
What a contrast. I wish I could be so calm in the face of the behavior of the outgoing U.S. President and his toadies.
* Adam Szubin, an “Acting Undersecretary at the Department of Treasury”, was Mr. Obama’s mouthpiece for the occasion. I think B.H.O. was off in the “rough” at the time looking for his sliced golf ball. A “Slazenger 1”, perhaps?
An open, albeit brief, letter to New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the United Nations, New York, United States:
Dearest Ladies and Gentlemen,
I see where, after second thoughts on the part of Mr. al Sisi of Egypt (especially in light of his cooperative venture with the State of Israel in seeking to eradicate Daesh operations in the Sinai), YOUR Permanent Mission re-introduced the latest U.N. Resolution condemning the State of Israel for not acting to establish Judea & Samaria as Jüdenrein.
Furthermore, I see where the Glorious Sun King of the Potomac has subsequently withheld his veto, consistent with his & the United Nations’ utter abhorrence for even minimal probity.
Thereafter, your vaunted body has passed said Resolution.
1 Then his son Judas, who was called Maccabeus, took his place.
2 All his brothers and all who had joined his father supported him, and they gladly carried on Israel’s war.
3 He spread abroad the glory of his people, and put on his breastplate like a giant. He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.
4 In his deeds he was like a lion, like a young lion roaring for prey.
5 He pursued the lawless, hunting them out, and those who troubled his people he destroyed by fire.
6 The lawless were cowed by fear of him, and all evildoers were dismayed. By his hand deliverance was happily achieved,
7 and he afflicted many kings. He gave joy to Jacob by his deeds, and his memory is blessed forever.
8 He went about the cities of Judah destroying the renegades there. He turned away wrath from Israel,
9 was renowned to the ends of the earth; and gathered together those who were perishing.
10 Then Apollonius* gathered together the Gentiles, along with a large army from Samaria, to fight against Israel.
11 When Judas learned of it, he went out to meet him and struck and killed him. Many fell wounded, and the rest fled.
12 They took their spoils, and Judas took the sword of Apollonius and fought with it the rest of his life.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
20 With great presumption and lawlessness they come against us to destroy us and our wives and children and to despoil us;
21 but we are fighting for our lives and our laws.
22 He* will crush them before us; so do not fear them.”
23 When he finished speaking, he rushed suddenly upon Seron and his army, who were crushed before him.
24 He pursued Seron down the descent of Beth-horon into the plain. About eight hundred* of their men fell, and the rest fled to the land of the Philistines.
25 Then Judas and his brothers began to be feared, and dread fell upon the Gentiles about them.
26 His fame reached the king, and the Gentiles talked about the battles of Judas.
I’ll be honest, I love Hanukkah. I didn’t grow up loving it, but once I understood it, and what it meant, I fell in love with the Maccabees. The real ones, the real meaning of Hanukkah. The one Y.B. wrote about. The Hanukkah that makes me realize in every and all generations we must safeguard those things that we hold most dear. Judah knew what was at stake, he assumed command after his father Mattathias died, he and his brothers had been with Mattathias as he began the fight to save the Hebrews from the orders of Antiochus that were meant to eradicate the practice and knowledge of Judaism. To restore the land and the people to a way of live they were meant to live. But they had to survive the soldiers to do that. Judah didn’t just pray and hope for the best.
Verse 3, “He armed himself with weapons of war; he fought battles and protected the camp with his sword.”
Weapons of war was not a “bad” phrase, or a “hate speech” or used in a denigrating way. It was a fact of life. You want to live? Be prepared, because there are bad evil people out there, they do not care if you’re a pacifist or not. This phrase always makes me pause. A couple years ago I was in Tel Aviv and I was a woman with a mission. I wanted to find a model of a Centurion tank circa 1973 Yom Kippur war. I went in a toy store and looked around and a clerk, a young man, came up and asked if he could help me. They had a model battleship, and some airplanes, I couldn’t find the tanks. I explained as best as I could what I wanted. He finally got it and had a shocked and appalled look on his face. “You mean a weapon of WAR??” he exclaimed horrified. Yes, I want a tank. “We do not want weapons of war in this store!” he informed me self-righteously. I shot a sidelong glance at the battleship. Uh huh. I was pissed but it wasn’t worth the argument and I didn’t know enough good words then. I thought to myself, buddy, if it weren’t for those “weapons of war” and some of the people that knew how to wield them you’d have been in a world of hurt more than once. It was a couple weeks after that Hama$$ began firing rockets into Israel again from Gaza, the prototype of how the two state solution will work. Weapons of war can be an excellent thing you have to defend your camp.
13 But Seron, commander of the Syrian army, heard that Judas had mustered an assembly of faithful men ready for war.
14 So he said, “I will make a name for myself and win honor in the kingdom. I will wage war against Judas and his followers, who have despised the king’s command.”
15 And again a large company of renegades advanced with him to help him take revenge on the Israelites.
16 When he reached the ascent of Beth-horon,* Judas went out to meet him with a few men.
17 But when they saw the army coming against them, they said to Judas: “How can we, few as we are, fight such a strong host as this? Besides, we are weak since we have not eaten today.”
18 But Judas said: “Many are easily hemmed in by a few; in the sight of Heaven there is no difference between deliverance by many or by few;
19 for victory in war does not depend upon the size of the army, but on strength that comes from Heaven.
The Maccabees, my partisan heroes. The Warsaw ghetto partisans, the partisans of the forests, the hills, the caves. Small but determined groups that were willing to fight and risk all for freedom. Because what they fought for was what they treasured. Just as Judah knew and told us, deliverance comes from Heaven. To G-d deliverance from a few or from many is all the same. 1967, 1973 and for the Maccabees G-d does not respect political correctness or numbers and no task is too much for G-d. He’s in the miracle business and he’s very good at it. Do I know why he hasn’t granted miracles every time I think there should have been one? No. But maybe someday I will understand, or ask him. Zelmans Partisans may be a small group, but we are a small group of determined people who know what we are about and are tenacious as wolverines. We understand what we fight for.
The Maccabees were having none of this compromise our rights, compromise our Torah, our feasts our way of life, our Shabbat. No. Compromising on “evil black rifles” “high capacity (adequate capacity) magazines is the same folly. We can follow “man’s” “king’s” laws to the death, or we can live by G-d’s commands.
I was talking with a friend about wars, Israel and history. I was told that today Israel doesn’t fight to win. Not really. They fight a little. Enough to keep things at bay, enough to keep the status quo. Yes, yes, I suppose that is right. Fight that battle and get it done. Fight it fast and hard and keep the knowledge of what you are fighting for in the front of your mind. Fight to win. If you have to fight, no halfway measures.
The Maccabees didn’t fight for sufganyot or latkas, not even the yummy jalapeno cheddar ones. They fought to live as G-d commanded them. And the things that we hold most precious, most dear are the things we must be willing to fight for. I suppose one could evaluate what really is most dear to them by looking at the things they really are willing to fight for.
I have seen miracles, this time of year. I don’t believe they are limited to this time of year at all, but I have seen some rather amazing things happen this time of year. I believe G-d is still in the miracle business. And so I pray for my much loved teammates and for our members and readers a season blessed with miracles.
We’re a little over a week out from Hanukkah. I love Hanukkah, absolutely love it. I think Christians should pay a lot more attention to Hanukkah than some do. A short synopsis is that Antiochus IV didn’t want Judaism to continue as well, Judaism. He wanted HELLENIZED Judaism, Judaism “lite”. In other words, not Judaism. The penalties for actually being Jewish AND living Jewish were very severe. Women and infants were not excepted from the bloodshed. Shabbat and festival observance, forbidden. Possession of the Torah, forbidden. And he burned all the copies he could find. Circumcision, forbidden. Ritual sacrifice, forbidden. In other words, he might, maybe let you live, but not as a Jew. Not a real one, not a Torah observant one. Going along with this was the progressives know as Hellenistic Jews. They were evil then, they are evil now. Antiochus IV did his best to eradicate Judaism and Jews from the land of Israel. He failed. He failed because of a family living in Modi-in מוֹדִיעִין
The Maccabees. The Maccabees had a Southern girl kind of attitude. Someone showed up on their farm and told them they were going to sacrifice a pig to a pagan god. They said “HELLenized NO, Judah, get the shotgun!”. From there the Maccabees opened up a can of “whoopbutt” and in the end, not only did G-d work through the Maccabees to ensure the continuation of Judaism as it was written, but they retook the Holy Temple, cleaned it out, literally, and restored and rededicated it. And Torah continued to be taught, people continued to learn it, and Jews continued to live as Jews in the land of Israel.
I’m sure my hero Judah Maccabee is absolutely astonished to find out that part of Modi-in is not in Israel. According to the PeeeeUEU, they think part of it is Jordanianishish.
These types of misunderstandings seem to be a common occurrence in Israel.
Let’s look briefly at Judea and Samaria. Biblical history, and archeological history show us Jews lived there for thousands of years. They didn’t leave on their own, they were conquered and forced to leave. When the one Jewish state in the whole world was established the arabs were offered a two state solution. They rejected it and went to war. Israel, the tiny one day old nation, won. In 1950 Jordan illegally annexed Judea and Samaria. The outrage from the UN was heard round the world. Just kidding. You know who was outraged? The annexation was regarded as illegal and void by the Arab League and others. Huh. Of course Jordan also controlled Har Habayit, the Temple Mount. And while they controlled it, it was SO important to arabs it was left to decay pretty much. Egypt occupied the Gaza strip. Israel and Jordan signed an agreement, sort of a land for peace deal. In it Israelis were to be allowed access to their holy places. From the same link:
A Special Committee was to be formed to make arrangements for safe movement of traffic between Jerusalem and Mount Scopus campus of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, along the Latrun-Jerusalem Highway, free access to the Holy Places, and other matters. The committee was never formed, and access to the Holy Places was denied to Israelis throughout the Jordanian occupation. The remainder of the area designated as part of an Arab state under the UN Partition Plan was partly occupied by Egypt (Gaza Strip), partly occupied and annexed by Israel (West Negev, West Galilee, Jaffa). The intended international enclave of Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Jordan. The Jordanians immediately expelled all the Jewish residents of East Jerusalem. All but one of the 35 synagogues in the Old City were destroyed over the course of the next 19 years, either razed or used as stables and chicken coops. Many other historic and religiously significant buildings were replaced by modern structures. The ancient Jewish cemetery on Mount of Olives was desecrated, and the tombstones were used for construction, paving roads and lining latrines; the highway to the Intercontinental Hotel was built on top of the site.
In other words, it worked out as well as all Israel’s land for peace deals have. It didn’t.
So Jordan had control of Judea and Samaria on the West Bank of the Jordan River, until 1967. When G-d gave it back to Israel along with Har Habayit. As we all know by now, Moshe Dayan promptly gave that back. In 1967 tiny Israel won back large amounts of land. But unlike any other country that won land in a defensive war, they tried trading it back to the attacking countries for peace.
But this is about Judea and Samaria and the Jordanians. While the land was under Jordanian control, Jordan awarded land to people, to have arab names listed as owners. They did not purchase the land, they have not lived on the land, they have not cultivated the land, nor have they payed taxes on it. I’m sure somewhere in Israel in a nice rural area there is a farm with my name on the title. One with a lovely horse barn and indoor riding arena. I have memories of it, I’m sure. Yes, it’s kind of like that. The “owners” in fact, may not even know they own it.
Which brings me to Amona. Amona is a little town in one of those areas. It was built with the knowledge of the Israeli government. The permits to run water and electricity were provided by the Israeli government. Established in 1995 Amona has seen her share of sorrow. More than her share. In 2006 it was decided that part of the homes there were on “private falestinian land” and they were demolished. This sentence doesn’t even BEGIN to describe what took place. Effie Eitam is actually a friend of a friend of mine, and former MK Eitam called it as a pogrom. The video story in the “Eitam” link is fascinating if you have a few minutes, but it’s not about Amona.
But the houses that weren’t demolished, were allowed to stay, all is well. Carry on, nothing to see here. Until now. Now it’s been decided due to a activist high court and the help of some anti-Israel left wing activists that Amona must go. The homes will be torn down, just like 10 years ago. Families will be displaced, just like 10 years ago. Will people die just like 10 years ago? I don’t know, please G-d no.
It’s not like things like this have never happened in the United States for political reasons. They have. During the civil war, or the War of Northern Aggression, depending, there was General order #11. A truly horrific thing of which the Lone Jack Historical Society stated:
Order #11 was the most heinous order ever issued during the Civil War. It depopulated Jackson, Cass, Bates, & part of Vernon Counties and reduced this area to ashes. It wasthe first time in America’s history that a United States president endorsed such a violentact against citizens within his own country.
This order was issued, not in retaliation of Quantrill’s burning of Lawrence as so many believe, but to quell a rebellion within the state that was gaining momentum, one that the Federal Government was powerless to control.
People were evicted based on where they lived, if it was a mile outside of certain areas. And all your grain and crops were taken. Pretty much along with everything else.
And, it’s not like it couldn’t happen again what with barry’s Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing, another frog in pot barry scheme. I heard Stanley Kurtz talking about this on the radio last year.
AFFH is easily one of President Obama’s most radical initiatives, on a par with Obamacare in its transformative potential. In effect, AFFH gives the federal government a lever to re-engineer nearly every American neighborhood — imposing a preferred racial and ethnic composition, densifying housing, transportation, and business development in suburb and city alike, and weakening or casting aside the authority of local governments over core responsibilities, from zoning to transportation to education. Not only the policy but the political implications are immense — at the presidential, congressional, state, and local levels.
So yes, some poor day we could find ourselves in the same predicament as Amona. And for about as sensible a reason. To fulfill some left-wing political loons vision. The high court of Israel? Left-wing. The “human rights” groups that help the poor falestinians that didn’t know they owned land or pay taxes on it to destroy a village, left-wing. The AFFH? Oh yeah, left-wing lunacy. A very potent reminder of why we don’t need or want a left-wing dominated Supreme Court.
And when is this destruction to take place in Amona? When are the people suppose to be evacuated or the government will send the troops and police to remove them? A mission that some of the police and troops have publicly said they want no part of? At the end of Shabbat, the 24th of Kislev, December 24th. The first night of Hanukkah. In Amona, there will be no joyful lighting of the hanukkiyah. No families gathering around to enjoy latkas and sufganiyot. Because a G-dless left-wing high court doesn’t even FLIPPING KNOW when Hanukkah IS??!! The holiday that celebrates Jews being allowed to live as Jews in Israel, and celebrates the miracle of the return of sanctity to the Temple. Har Habayit was AGAIN returned to the Jews in 1967 when they also won control of Judea and Samaria. But like the Maccabees of old, the current Maccabees fighting to retain control of the Jewish villages in Judea and Samaria face the Hellenized Jews of today who are more than willing to bow down and lick the feet of the EU and John Kerry and a world that will never believe that Jews belong in Israel until they themselves believe it.
So חג חנוכה שמחHappy Hanukkah Amona. Now grab you hanukkiyah and get out. Judah? Are you still around?
My anger aside, if you care to, would you please pray for Amona?
To create fire, you need a formula. Oxygen+Heat+fuel or combustible material=Fire. Tonight it’s pretty cold where I am, and the fire heating the house sure does make it more comfortable. In fact, I’d be pretty miserable without it. I remember when I was young and my family would go camping. We had one of those old Puma pop up campers, Dad and I could set it up in 5 minutes or less. Sometimes of an evening for a treat, we had a little campfire and roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. They sure did help us keep warm on some of the cool evenings. And I must say, they’re part of some lovely memories for me now.
But sometimes fires can get out of control, destroying homes, businesses, land and lives. If you have the proper tool, sometimes you can intervene while waiting for the fire department to show up and save your ____________________. Please pick applicable noun.
To do this intervention, you must first have the proper tool, which means you must know what tool to use in which circumstance. You can not treat a wood fire like you do an electrical fire or grease fire. No no. That turns out badly.
So let’s look at what type of tool to use for what type of fire.
Isn’t it interesting how there is no “one size fits all” approach to handling the same problem “fire”? But you also need to know how to use the fire extinguisher. It does no good at all to stand there holding it in your hands reading the directions as family photos passed down for years go up in flames. No, you need to have that bit sorted ahead of time. It’s as though you almost need to train to handle emergencies. Here’s a handy acronym I was taught.
P—Point
A—Aim
S—Squeeze
S—Sweep
Point the nozzle of the extinguisher at the BASE of the fire, aim to direct your spray of chemical and squeeze the handle sweeping the nozzle from side to side at the base of the flames.
So what’s with the Johnny Gage and Roy DeSoto impersonations?
…I haven’t seen a single call for banning the private possession of fire extinguishers. No one has screamed that zoning laws and building codes didn’t work (and apparently were actively ignored by authorities) and should be repealed.
No one raises an eyebrow over having different types of fire extinguishers, or being set up to handle different types of fire. Or even having the knowledge that there are different types of fire. When it comes to having a shotgun for hunting or killing varmints in the barn or chicken house, a rifle for killing them in the pasture and no matter how much I love those two, they will not fit in my purse, so a handgun for self defense? Why, to those in the mainstream media, or NYC that there is one of those so called “arsenals”. Who could possibly need all those guns, three of them? Well, three types. But I feel I need the three types for different situations, just like different fire extinguishers are needed for different fires. Different threats, different tools.
Just as it is not the tool, the gun itself, that is a threat, but who holds the gun, the lovely s’more generating fire that gives us a tasty family treat, can also destroy and kill. In fact, it can be used as a weapon of mass destruction.
In addition to the Oakland fire, there has been one in Tennessee. This resulted in 14 deaths in the Gatlinburg area and damage to over 1,700 structures. 700 homes and businesses were destroyed or damaged, including 300 inside the Gatlinburg city limits. The fires were spurred by dry conditions and high winds. More than 14,000 residents were displaced as the fires burned and more than 15,000 acres were incinerated.
Two juveniles were arrested. No names have been given. They were not from the Gatlinburg area, but they are from Tennessee. So I got curious. There is apparently an islamic guest house in Gatlinburg. Who’d a thunk it? But they aren’t from that area. I wonder if they are from Murfreesboro? Two hundred and four miles away, in case you wondered. Reading some of the comments under some of the articles I saw that some of the other readers had the same thoughts go through their heads.
But why would I have such thoughts? Well, it’s most likely because of what happened in Israel last week. Something called the “Fire Intifada”. The cost has been fearful for the small Jewish state.
More than two hundred fires were sparked in Israel. Part of the problem is that it has been dry and was windy, and that did help spread the fires. One hundred thousand Israelis had to flee their homes, and while there were no deaths, one hundred and twenty-two were treated for injuries. Seven hundred homes were damaged or destroyed in the one thousand seven hundred seventy three fires, twenty of which were major. Thirty-two thousand acres burned, twenty-eight thousand acres in Haifa alone. Four of the fires burning Haifa started in different parts of the city at the same time. I’m sure this was on the news nightly, right? Actually if the failing networks known as cnn and mslsd had covered it, it would have been something along the lines of “Cruel Israeli police and military stop arab youth from starting campfire to make s’mores and keep warm”.
But it did have a big coverage of twitter. The hashtag Israel is burning was very popular. That was the tag used by the gleeful arabs praying for Israel and the Zionists to burn to the ground. An iman in Canada was publicly asking allah to burn all of Israel to the ground. Deputy Defense Minister Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan believed that part of the fires were arson. Israeli police have arrested thirty-seven suspects in the fire intifada, some of which are Israeli arabs. A former Shin Bet heads, Israeli Hasson remarked this was the first time Falestinians had used a “weapon of mass destruction.”
During the fires, many countries sent firefighting crews and equipment to help the beleaguered Israeli crews. PM Netanyahu requested of Russia’s President Putin aid, and Putin responded he would immediately send giant planes to help. Greece, Italy, Croatia, Russia, Cyprus, and Turkey also sent aid to help in the battle. Even the Falestinian Authority sent crews to help. As one radio host pointed out, that was only fair since Falestinians set some of them. Notice who is not on the list? Right, the U.S. I howled on Twitter for a couple days that I could not believe we had nothing we could send that would help. As it turned out I was right, we did send a supertanker a few days into the firestorm. What I believe is different about the American aid sent, is that it came with a price tag. obama charged Israel one and a half million dollars for the use of the supertanker. Which is disgusting as whenever there is a disaster that strikes anywhere in the world Israel is one of the first to respond to offer aid and show up.
There are efforts underway to help Israelis replant the trees lost in the conflagration through the efforts of Zo Artzeinu. There is a little movie on the web site showing some footage shot by them during the fire, and the resulting damage. And yes, I’m getting trees.
It seems that what happens in Israel, is reflected in the US later. Sometimes not much later at all. That is partly why I wonder about the genesis of the fire in Tennessee. That and the fact Al Qaeda urged them to unleash hell with fires. Admittedly an old article, but that doesn’t mean that it will be forgotten or ignored.
Something else I head in the radio program was pretty interesting to me as well. In the Tanakh there is a section called Kings or מלכים or M’lakhim. I’ll give you a short story from M’lakhim 3:16-28. It’s a story of two prostitutes, each who had a baby boy. One of the babies died in the night and that mother switched her dead baby with the living baby of the other woman. The two women came before King Solomon for him to settle the dispute. The King’s response? Bring him a sword, he was going to divide the live baby and give each woman half. The real mother cried out not to kill the baby, but instead give him to the other woman. The woman who claimed the baby but had no actual love for him was fine with this solution and said go ahead. With that the wise king gave the baby to the first woman.
Because the woman claimed the child as hers but had no actual love for him, she was willing to see him put to death and burned to the ground killing all living things in the land, and trying to kill the land itself. Trees, vineyards, groves of fruit trees, innocent animals and people. Those lives had no meaning to her.
But to the woman who’s child it really was? Who bore the child, nursed it and loved it? She was willing to do anything to save it’s life. Including giving her to the other woman, calling President Putin and asking for help and paying barry one and a half million dollars for a supertanker that would have been given freely to any arab country that would have asked for it. She would do anything to save it because she loved it just that much.
I didn’t vote for Donald Trump. Wouldn’t have if you’d have held a gun to my head. But it doesn’t take a die-hard Trump fan to see how abominably he — and his supporters — have been treated by the media, both before and since the election.
Every Trump voter is a mysogynistic, racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, gap-toothed Billy-Bob who can barely read, let alone understand political issues. And every Trump appointee or potential appointee is a slightly more educated version of the above. To hear the MSM tell it, Trump will soon unleash millions of militant Nazis on the U.S.
Already we can see that the handful of media mea culpas apologizing for biased election coverage and promising to do better were nothing but phony virtue signaling. The post-election coverage has, if anything, been even more despicable.
One needs hip waders to get through the BS.
—–
That said, there absolutely is a foul, racist, and very definitely Jew-hating faction among the alt-right, and these people do feel invigorated and entitled following Trump’s election victory.
They consist not only of white nationalists, who’ve been around forever but have grown stronger and more angry in an era where we’ve all been told that white is a dirty word and that Caucasians should be ashamed even of existing.
But there’s also something more ominous, which for want of a better term I’d call Christian supremacists. These are people who try to pretend that so-called Western values are solely by (and ultimately for) Christians. They claim there’s absolutely no such thing as Judeo-Christian values. On the contrary, in their warped view, the very expression “Judeo-Christian values” is a conspiracy promulgated by anti-Christians. To hell with history and to hell with observable reality; in the view of these people, Christianity was born without other cultural or theological influences, and Christianity has by itself created the only worthwhile influences in Western culture.*
In particular the faux “Christian values” these supremacists tout were never influenced by, you know, those icky Jews.
Again, one needs hip waders to navigate the BS. But just as the MSM’s baloney appeals to a certain mentality, this smug, historically ignorant superiority, appeals strongly to people who’d rather spout holier-than-thou slogans than read history.
—–
I joined Gab.ai, the brand new (still in beta) social network created by Andrew Torba to be a Twitter killer. The left has typically sneered at Gab, dismissing it as “Twitter for racists.” Torba and his family have been living under death threats.
Gab is actually exactly what Torba says it is: a platform for true, uncensored free speech for all points of view (very much unlike Twitter, which has recently purged hundreds, perhaps thousands, of accounts merely because their owners held right-wing opinions). The only “censorship” at Gab is done by individual users, who have the ability to mute users or words they don’t want to see.
However, Gab’s initial membership is overwhelmingly Trumpist, so right now Gab gives a pretty good look at the range of the alt-right.
And alas, my mute list consists largely of people who spout anti-Jewish rhetoric. I support their right to free speech; I just don’t want the stinky breath of their rantings washing over me.
While they’re a minority, they’re definitely part of the pro-Trump mix.
—–
For what it’s worth I don’t foresee that either the white nationalists or their cousins the Christian supremacists are likely to turn into marching Nazi hordes. Already (following a creepy report in The Atlantic), Trump himself has slammed the alt-right hard. Other prominent people on the right have spoken out against them. Here’s Paul Joseph Watson, a star in the pro-Trump universe:
While I think he’s optimistic to say that the creeps had nothing to do with electing Trump, it’s great that people in the movement are recognizing these bigots for what they are and disassociating themselves from the worst.
Watson is definitely correct that the “new right” consists of every color and kind of person. (Another of the stars of the movement is Milo Yiannopoulis, a gay Jew banned from Twitter but welcomed elsewhere as a hero-provocateur. Yet another is a black sheriff.) Quite a few “gabs” recently posted have reminded Trump supporters that they have a responsibility to disclaim the views and deeds of the bigoted cretins among them.
—–
The Jew-haters and racial dividers among the alt-right (and for that matter, among the left, which did so much to create the current climate) are always dangerous because, as a spokesperson for the U.S. Holocaust Museum points out, the Nazis’ Holocaust didn’t begin with killings, but with words.
And of course, with laws. Not likely that Trump, with his Jewish son-in-law, Jewish-convert daughter Ivanka, Jewish grandchildren, and his very non-bigoted views, is likely to implement or even tolerate the most poisonous alt-right creepitude.
Still, we owe it to ourselves, our friends, and our freedom, to make sure that the rising bigots are pushed back — with derision, with strong argument, with cultural marginalization. Even with arms, should it come to that unthinkable pass. If the bigots raise an army, or even a few isolated, terrorizing gangs, we should absolutely be prepared to exercise self- and community-defense against them. But we should never try to “disappear” them by censoring them; we should never sacrifice the First Amendment in their dubious honor.
Do those people have the potential to be dangerous to Jews and others? Hell, yes! But I don’t think we live in a country or a culture that’s going to allow scum like that to rise to the top.
—–
We should also, while seeing their stories of grave alarm, never let the media turn our eyes away from a much more clear-and-present danger: Jews who want to impose big government, globalism, and disarment on their fellow religionists — and on us all. Those who don’t think that Jews — or anybody else — should be able to take up arms against tyranny or oppression.
Whatever else you can say about Donald Trump’s most unsavory supporters, you won’t find many of them wanting to disarm anybody.
—–
*I think at this point I’m obligated to note that Christian supremacists don’t in any way represent the mainstream of Christianity or speak for Christians in general. But I’m putting that disclaimer in this footnote because I’m pretty sure that decent Christians, particularly decent Christians who’ve read both the bible and history, already know the creeps I’m talking about don’t stand for them.
Jews. Guns. No compromise. No surrender.
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