So this is late, by more than a week late. But LIFE is intruding on my life right now, so while this column is late, it is no less sincere or grateful. The reason it’s more than a week late is that #ShukranDruze2020 is a week that is meant to coincide with Parshat Yitro, Exodus 18:1-20:23. Yitro (Jethro) was the father in law of Moshe. The man responsible for the organization of courts and administering justice to the new nation of Israel. Jethro of Midian is considered an ancestor of Druze, who revere him as their spiritual founder and chief prophet.
The Druzites form a religious minority in Israel of more than 100,000, mostly residing in the north of the country. In 2004, there were 102,000 Druze living in the country. In 2010, the population of Israeli Druze citizens grew to over 125,000. At the end of 2018, there were 143,000. Most Israeli Druze identify ethnically as Arabs. Today, thousands of Israeli Druze belong to “Druze Zionist” movements.
The Druze are Arabic speaking, their culture is their own, but they are not considered muslims and have been persecuted (like everyone else) by the muslims. They broke ranks with the mainstream muslim decisions in 1948 and followed their belief that G-d gave the land of Israel to the Jews. Since then they have served along side the Jews in the state of Israel. You can read much more about the Druze here.
In yet another stunning display of failure to carry out apartheid successfully Israeli Druze are members of Israeli society, they vote, they serve in the IDF and much more. According to the web site The Druze Veterans Association
The Druze of Israel are a tiny yet fiercely loyal minority who serve with pride and dignity and have sacrificed 505 of their brethren in the defense of Israel – with over 1,500 wounded. Out of a community of just 120,000 those are huge, unfortunate, and very telling numbers.
In 2014, when Jews were being massacred during their prayers at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood, it was an off-duty Druze police officer who ran in to stop the terrorist.
When Israel launched Operation Protective Edge in 2014 to curb terrorism from Gaza, a Druze commander led the ground battle.
In 2017, two Israeli police officers were killed while defending tourists on Jerusalem’s Temple Mount. Both officers were Druze.
Israel’s Presidential Military Liaison is Druze.
The commander responsible for cross-border goodwill with Gaza is Druze.
The Surgeon General of the Israel Defense Forces is Druze.
Many other senior leaders in Israel’s security and judiciary infrastructure, past and present, are Druze.
The first responder at the Har Nof Synagogue massacre was a Druze police officer, and he was attacked. More recently the two police officers murdered on the Temple Mount by pieceful falestinians were Druze. While the leadership of Israel paid condolence calls to their families and mourned their loss, crickets came from the arabs. As Michael Cohen of Druze Vets points out the Druze have a religious belief that they are not allowed to kill, or lie and have a similar ethical code. But if they have to fight, they will go first and they will go hard.
Shukran in Arabic means Todah, or Thank you. So what is this Shukran Druze 2020 about? It was, again sorry this is late, a week of thanking the Druze for all the do for the state and citizens of Israel. They are Arabs living peacefully in Israel, as members of the Israeli society helping keep the citizens of Israel safe. They are proof that Israel has a poor grasp of the concept of apartheid. #ShukranDruze2020 and #ApartheidFailIsrael
Over at my blog, I noticed a commenter’s screen name. It was unfamiliar but, given the avatar, I assumed it had some historical significance. I looked it up.
Captain Witold Pilecki
I am almost ashamed that I had never heard of this man before, because based just on the Wikipedia entry, Pilecki was a total badass. He fought the Soviets in the Polish-Soviet War. He fought in World War 2, including with the Tajna Armia Polska, (Secret Polish Army; which he helped found), the resistance movement in Nazi-occupied Poland.
Just what I’ve read so far is fascinating; I’m going to be learning more about him. But let me drop two exploits from his life that are germane to The Zelman Partisans.
Witold Pilecki volunteered to be imprisoned in Auschwitz. Not to find out what was going on in the camp. He knew; some of it, at least. He went to gather proof to be presented to the Allies. He volunteered to go into a death camp to try to help those imprisoned there. They smuggled in radio parts and built a transmitter in the camp and broadcast intel about camp activities.
And he escaped more than two years later. With German documents he’d somehow gotten hold of.
Some might think that was enough for one war. Think again.
He went to the Warsaw Ghetto, and fought in the uprising.
And survived.
As I said, I’m still learning about Pilecki. I do know that he was executed by the Soviet puppet government of Poland in 1948.
For working against the Soviets.
“I’ve been trying to live my life so that in the hour of my death I would rather feel joy, than fear.”
– Pilecki, after being sentenced to death
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To read the headlines would be to weep for the death of sense and freedom in New Zealand. To do the math is to laugh for joy.
New Zealand’s first week of firearms buy-back successful: police
The first full week of New Zealand’s firearms buyback and amnesty, which aims to remove the most dangerous weapons from circulation, has produced a strong turnout as events roll out nationwide for the first time.
“Momentum is slowly starting to build as community collection events are held across the entire country,” Police Minister Stuart Nash said in a statement after 25 public firearm collection events were held over the past week, including seven held on Sunday.
How successful? Of a rough estimated 1.5 million subject firearms (I’ve seen WAGs ranging from 1-2 million), they got 3,275 guns.
0.22% compliance. Oh, yeah; New Zealanders are just rushing to surrender their arms.
Lessee, that’s 25 turn-in events. I had previously noted that — based on the low-ball one million guns guess — that they needed to get 3,861 guns per event. I guesstimated that they got 338 at the first event, just 8.75% of the per event number they needed.
Their per-event average is now down to 131, or 3.4%. The “best” turn-in, in Auckland, got 405 guns; 10.5%.
I had seen reports that “reimbursement” could go as high as 95% of new value. This report says 70%. I’m sure that’s helping folks decide to blow them off. I wonder how much of that is malicious compliance, with owners turning in inoperable beaters.
Assuming the turn-in rate doesn’t continue to drop, it’s only going to take them 38 years to get all those guns.
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This year Jerusalem Day was a quite emotional experience. Friends had urged me to read The Hope and The Glory both by the late Herman Wouk. I’ve not had much free time to read of late, and so I did something I haven’t really done before. I bought a book on, well, not tape, but a audio book. In fact, since I’ve got a mountain of work to do, I considered the books good bribe value. The Hope is the story of pre-state Israel on up to the 1967 Six Day War. I have to tell you, it is an incredibly moving experience to be listening to the battle of Jerusalem scene during the Six Day war from The Hope on Yom Yerushalyim, Jerusalem Day.
Initially Israel had not planned to recapture part of Jerusalem and reunite it. They begged Jordan to stay out of the war. But the King of Jordan was a fan of cnn and msnbc (#FakeNews) so when Camel Abdel Nasser (yes I meant to spell it like that) lied about the damage Israel’s air force inflicted on the Egyptian air force, he believed him and wanted to be a dog in the fight tearing tiny Israel to shreds.
Prime Minister Levi Eshkol sent a message to King Hussein on June 5 saying Israel would not attack Jordan unless he initiated hostilities. When Jordanian radar picked up a cluster of planes flying from Egypt to Israel, and the Egyptians convinced Hussein the planes were theirs, he ordered the takeover of the UN headquarters located near Talpiot and the shelling of West Jerusalem. Snipers were shooting at the King David Hotel and Jordanian mortars had hit the Knesset. It turned out that the planes were Israel’s and were returning from destroying the Egyptian air force on the ground.
Jordan attacked.
The fight to reclaim Jerusalem was fierce. Ammunition Hill was one of the toughest battles of the war.
Eventually Israel prevailed and it’s eternal capital was once more reunited. The Jews living in Jerusalem had been forced to flee in 1948. Yes, there were Jews living in east Jerusalem before Israel was declared a state.
Jews fleeing Jerusalem
Who can forget Motta (Mordachai) Gur’s famous pronouncement: הר הבית בידינו
Har HaBeyit B’Yadenu, the Temple Mount is in our hands. It gets me every time.
But when it comes to Israel, the world doesn’t play by the same rules they expect Israel to play by. One of the threads running through the book was the constant struggle to get arms, ammunition, tanks, planes, all the weapons a state needs to defend itself. Where Britain and other countries would sell or give arms to the arabs, pressure was put on countries not to sell any arms to the Jews. In fact, when Britain was there, the Jews had to hide their weapons, if they had any. In one part of The Hope, the character Yossi Nitzan gives a speech talking about how the Jews of Europe were defenseless. They had relied on the Goyim Police to keep them safe, and they had no weapons. He said that’s why it was so important Israel be able to defend herself, and why he was a tank commander. Darn skippy! That’ll do it.
Another one of the events the book talked about was the building of the “Burma Road” and the siege of Jerusalem. The arabs held the fort at Latrun and so controlled the road down below. They had cut off Jerusalem from food and water. Part of The Hope talked about Col. David “Mickey” Marcus. Col. Marcus went to Israel under the name of Michael Stone to help in the siege of Jerusalem. But for a period of time he went back to the US. In this film clip it talks about how the Jews had almost no weapons to fight with. Since the book recounted Colonel Marcus’s contribution, I felt like the puppy and I needed to watch Cast A Giant Shadow again. The puppy had never seen it, and what kind of derelict mother would I be?
MUSLIM VIOLENCE & POLICE RESPONSE ON THE TEMPLE MOUNT TODAYThis is a compilation of a number of short video clips taken and uploaded onto social media by Muslims on the Temple Mount today, showing scenes of Muslim violence and the Israel police response.
The Syrian army used the Golan Heights, which tower 3,000 feet above the Galilee, to shell Israeli farms and villages. Syria’s attacks grew more frequent in 1965 and 1966, forcing children living on kibbutzim in the Huleh Valley to sleep in bomb shelters. Israel repeatedly protested the Syrian bombardments to the UN Mixed Armistice Commission, which was charged with policing the cease-fire, but the UN did nothing to stop Syria’s aggression — even a mild Security Council resolution expressing “regret” for such incidents was vetoed by the Soviet Union. Meanwhile, Israel was condemned by the United Nations when it retaliated.
What other country is told to give back land it won fair and square in a war that it didn’t start? The UN also wanted to make Jerusalem a “international city”. But not allow Jerusalem to be Israel’s capital. Try that with the Germans and Berlin, or the French and Paris!
Moshe Dayan’s mistake still haunts us. Is the Temple Mount really in our hands? This year Jerusalem day came during the month of Ramadam. During Ramadan non-muslims are not allowed on the Temple Mount. But this year the Police did allow a few Jews to ascend the Temple Mount, but only on Jerusalem day. After Jerusalem day they closed it to non-muslims.
The late Rabbi Kahane points out, it isn’t really in our hands, is it?
In this day and age I also think what John Wayne’s character was saying at the end of the clip is equally true. Stand up. Stand up and be counted. In this day and age of BDS-BS and falestinians and biased news reporting. The answer is stand up.
The STEM School shooting in Colorado gave the media the usual chance to muddle information. The original reporting I found said that the casualties were comparatively low because law enforcement arrived on-scene in two minutes and subdued the assholes. By yesterday, we began hearing a story that differed somewhat: student Kendrick Castillo “rushed” one of the chumbuckets.
This morning…
No thought for their own safety: Hero students disarm gunman
The three students who disarmed a gunman in a Colorado school shooting leapt up from their desks without a word and with no thought for their own safety when they spotted the gun, recounted one of the young men.
[…]
Authorities said the actions of Castillo, Bialy and Joshua Jones minimized the bloodshed from Tuesday’s attack at the school south of Denver that wounded eight students along with killing the 18-year-old Castillo.
Kendrick Castillo
Brendan Bialy
Joshua Jones
These young men rushed an active shooter, and disarmed him, at the cost of one of their own dead and one wounded. Not police.
Thank you, gentlemen.
As for the media… So far, the younger attacker has been reported as male, female, male identifying as (sometimes “transitioning to”) female, and female identifying as (or transitioning to) male. I’m not sure which is more confused: chum or reporters.
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In the Poway synagogue shooting, we learned — eventually — that the chumbucket was stopped by a courageous man named Oscar Stewart who confronted the coward, inducing him to run. And that another man, Jonathan Morales, followed the shooter, firing the synagogue’s house gun. Much of the media is still downplaying the bravery, and attributing the end of the shooting to a “malfunction.”
This morning, I woke to news of another murderous coward, who shot and killed two people, and injuring four more at UNC Charlotte. Reports had it that the killer was stopped by campus police who apparently did respond with commendable speed.
Howell, an athletically-built young man, “took the assailant off his feet” before campus police officers arrived, Putney told reporters at an afternoon briefing. Howell was apparently the second student to be fatally shot, he said.
Howell “did exactly what we train people to do — you’re going to run, you’re going to hide and shield, or you’re going to face the assailant,” Putney said. “He did the latter (and) his sacrifice saved lives.”
That’s Riley Howell, 21. Remember his name and courage. Let the killer rot in obscurity.
And remember that fighting back is worth it. I wish Riley had survived, too, but he saved others. I hope they appreciate him.
Finally, I’d like to note that UNC Charlotte is a gun-free zone, where at best, even a person with a carry license must lock his defensive tool in a vehicle, useless. Maybe Riley would be alive if he’d had the option of something other than tackling the scumbag.
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Much of the reporting on the shooting at the Chabad of Poway synagogue has been odd. Even stories which mention that anyone stood up to the asshole play it down and bring it up late in the story. Some reports fail to mention defense at all, and imply only that the shooting stopped because the weapon jammed. A Breitbart report told more: that an armed congregant passed a weapon to another, who went after chumbucket. Today, we learn that another person helped.
Lori’s husband had a wheel gun hidden safely in a cabinet. Only a few congregants knew about it. The Rabbi is also armed.
The perp parked out front, walked in the open front door. Shots were fired immediately, I’m not sure exactly who was hit first. The Rabbi had a few fingers shot off. Lori took one shot to the abdomen and died instantly.
When husband heard the commotion, he retrieved the wheel gun and tossed it to the BP guy who was praying. There was another ex-military congregant accosted the perp, screaming at folks to get down. The perp panicked and ran to his car. The BP fired several shots into the car, blowing out the back window and possibly hitting a tire. The perp surrendered to local LA a mile down the road.
The perp had multiple mags. A huge massacre was prevented by the presence of that wheel gun.
Armed Rabbi. An emergency house gun. Three more people ready, willing, able to defend their friends. A fourth who got shot deliberately putting himself between the murderer and children.
Heroes. Who clearly understood “Never Again” means stopping the atrocity in its tracks, and being prepared to do just that.
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Years ago in a galaxy far far away, I served on the board of a couple of Second Amendment groups. One of them very much a grassroots group and it was very active in the legislative process and citizen lobbying. Contrary to what people are sometimes lead to think, “lobbyist” is not a dirty word, or a bad thing. Many people have jobs, employers seem to expect that their employees will be at those jobs. So, when there is legislation that matters to gun owners be it a bill to expand gun rights or a bill proposing further infringement of a law-abiding citizens rights with yet another gun control scam disguised as “gun safety” it would seem fair that the law-abiding citizen should also have their voice heard. Ahh, the conundrum. What is the law-abiding citizen to do? They have a job, but they also have rights that need to be defended. Well, the Second Amendment groups in the state went together and hired a lobbyist to be present at the hearings and speak on behalf of the voters that held opinions most firm about further infringement of their G-d given rights, namely self-defense. From time to time the lobbyist would be accompanied to these hearings by the leadership of the Second Amendment rights groups, and I was privileged to be one of those. A citizen lobbyist, who also happened to represent a passel of voters. I had the high heels and a sparkly barrette. I considered these vital, but not as vital as a couple of other things I possessed. A mission, and resolve. I enjoyed this mission, legislators can be quite tasty if bar-b-qued with BBQ sauce. /snark, remember, I’m a vegetarian.
It’s been a while since I’ve attended a rally day. In my state there has been a Second Amendment day at the Capitol for years. Usually towards the end of the season, and usually there is a major bill or two we are wanting big time bad, or a big time bad bill we want to see die an inglorious death. I started going back before my state had concealed carry, the lobby was packed full that day, it was standing room only. For years I went every year, even spoke at a couple of them. The last few years I haven’t made it, for various and sundry reasons. But I’ve made it the last couple of years, and this year was just grand.
I did the hike from the parking lot to the capitol and entered the door to the meeting area. The police were there with the airport style scanning machine. I was met by a young police officer when I placed my purse on the table. He regarded my purse dubiously.
Sir: “Ma’am, are you lawfully carrying concealed?”
Me: Yup
Sir: “I’m going to need a driver’s license and a concealed carry card”.
Me: You are an officer of the law, you should already have these credentials.
After a second for my brain to catch up with my mouth, I grinned at him and said, I’ve got to get them out of my purse, ok?
Sir: “Yep, I have a concealed carry. My friends ask me why I bother and I tell them because it’s the right thing to do.”
Me: I like you, I like the way you think.
He regards the depths of my purse skeptically after he studys my cards.
Sir: “Do you carry in your purse?”
Me: Nope.
Sir: “Good, I worry that if a purse was stolen you’ve now lost your defensive tools.”
Me: Oh I do like you, nope, no purse carry.
Sir: “Which side are you carrying on?”
I answer him, and he tells me after I set off the machine the officer at the other end will wand me. I go through, set off the machine get wanded and I’m good to go. I thank them both for what they do.
I went in, said hi to a lobbyist I’ve worked with, sat with some dear people that I haven’t seen for awhile and listened to some great speakers. The MC is well known in the Second Amendment arena as the guy that wrote the book on gun laws. Which is fair enough, he did write the book on gun laws.
It was interesting, the speakers were great, acoustics are always challenging in that room, but still it was good. Two floors up there was some sort of school event going on. A bunch of school children, I’m guessing pre-teen, or early teens must have disapproved of us being allowed to speak in public. When one of the speakers would start to speak, they would start yelling trying to drown out the speaker. Think there is much indoctrination going on in the tax payer funded schools? I’m telling you, Zehut has the right idea, school vouchers for everyone.
After rally we all split up to go speak with our legislators about the bills we want passed, and I also wanted to mention my extreme aversion to “Guilty until proven innocent” Red Flag gun confiscation. I had mentioned my aversion to my former lobbyist mentor and he said while of course the misogynistic mad mommies are pushing for it, it hasn’t gained traction. Good to hear. I don’t know why mad mommies hate women so much that they want to deprive them of a tool that even elderly women can use to equalize the situation, but they do.
Our MC ended the rally with his trademark line, “It’s a good day for liberty”. He always opened his monthly column with that line. And it was a good day for liberty, every day is a good day for liberty. But we must fight for it, there are forces that will not be happy until they have all the power they want, and as long as there are armed citizens, they know that won’t happen. They use whatever tactics they think will work, whether it is going after politicians sympathetic to us with blatant lies and accusations that their allies in the mainstream media help them spread or lies about “ghost guns” or citizens that defended themselves. Be it vote fraud or illegal immigrants voting, they will use it.
We must remain strong in our convictions and our determination. Where the room was packed a few years ago when we wanted, demanded, concealed carry it was now not as full. Attendance was good, but it needs to be bigger. I saw one old friend, he and his young son were there. This man and his wife want their children to learn about freedom and the legislative process and how the two go together. Those kids have been citizen lobbyists since they were probably 4 or 5 years old. Maybe even younger. The legislators sit up and take notice when large groups of people have taken the day off work and showed up to demand their rights be honored. G-d gives rights, legislators recognize or infringe on them.
My lobbying mission finished, I headed for the exit for the drive home. As I walked by the door to the exit I passed the door you enter, Sir and his partner were still there checking people, I smiled and waved at them and said thank you, they both smiled and waved back. It never hurts for the Second Amendment people to be the nice polite friendly ones.
So if you have a chance, and your state has a rally day yearly, go. See friends, network, make friends, talk to your legislative critters. Don’t let bloombergs paid harpies be the only voice being heard at your capitol.
Tonight starts Pesach, Passover. We each leave our own slavery in Egypt behind. I believe it is a constant process, sometimes easier, sometimes harder. But I don’t want to be one of the Jews that chose to stay behind in Egypt rather than face the unknown. I believe that G-d does want freedom for us. This year is a very meaningful Pesach for me, and I hope that you all will have a very blessed holiday as well. Thank you for being with us, The Zelman Partisans as we travel this path together.
Leaving Egypt and slavery
My friend used the line “It’s a good day for liberty” to open his columns, I wrote him and told him I was poaching it for a column. He wrote back fried, poached or boiled, if it’s for the cause it should be used.
I always ride for the brand and I always ended my columns with my own sign off.
Everyone has flowcharts, companies have them, to perform CPR there is a flowchart, to fix a car there is a flowchart, to diagnose illness or even make financial decisions, there’s a flowchart.
So I decided I needed to make us a little flowchart. It’s another one of those things where I see two things that fit together, well, in my mind.
First off we have this story about a 25 year old woman. She was alone at a bus stop minding her own business in essentially gun free, so crime free Chicago. Or, as some call is Chi-raq.
Residents are praising the 25 year-old woman, with a concealed carry license, who shot and killed a man who was trying to rob her at a bus stop.
Surveillance video shows the woman waiting alone at a bus stop at 103rd and Wallace around 5:45 a.m. Tuesday. Police say a 19-year-old man, in a light colored hoodie, pulled a gun on the woman in an attempt to rob her.
She pulled out her own gun and shot him in the neck.
How’s about that! So that made it all the more interesting when I saw this cartoon on facebook the other day. My buddy Chris puts up great stuff. Then I’ve been watching Miss Fisher Murder Mysteries. It’s set in 1920s Australia, before it was a gun free paradise. Back when women could defend themselves. This was the first one I watched called I believe “Cocaine Blues”. Costumes are beautiful, very elegant, the cars are amazing and the music is swell. The stories are great, when watching the first one it hit me! A flowchart. A simple flowchart to determine if you value women’s lives. To be fair, it can be anyone’s life, but all these stories involve women. Apples to apples don’t you know?
Firearm Companies Bump NRA Following Bump Stock Ban
“We’ve decided to put our money where our beliefs are,” started the Instagram post made by Blue Alpha Gear. The tactical and EDC belt company, along with suppressor cover maker, Cole-TAC, co-announced on social media they were pulling out of the 148th NRA Annual Meetings & Exhibits scheduled for April 26-28, 2019 in Indianapolis, Indiana.
[…]
“Today we’re canceling our booth reservation at the National Rifle Association show and instead we’re donating that $1,350 to [the] Firearms Policy Coalition so they can use it to fight for the 2nd Amendment,” the post continued. Cole-TAC made their own post echoing the message of Blue Alpha Gear and further criticizing the political lobbying organization for failing to stand “as a champion in stopping or changing new policy.” Policies such as the recent ban of bump stocks, of which the NRA openly supported.
