Gaza, Israel and the slap in the face of President Macron
If I worked for Associated Press, I would have written this article today:
”A young Frenchman, Damien T., just 28 years old, was brutally attacked by five security officers, then violently subdued by French police, handcuffed and humiliated in front of hundreds of impressionable witnesses. The 28-year-old freedom fighter was taken in a special military vehicle, against his will, and transferred to a maximum security prison, where he was forced to undress and wear a humiliating prison uniform. All his basic human rights were taken away from him. It is still early to know the destructive impact that all this abuse of power will have in the near future on Damien’s mental health. And the damaging psychological wounds that this violent arrest will bring to his parents, siblings and young nephews. This is a crime against humanity, for which the French government should be unanimously and unambiguously condemned”.
If my journalistic article ended here, it would be perfectly similar to the way that almost all the media reports to the world when Israel responds militarily to criminal attacks launched from Gaza. When it comes to Israel, journalists victimize the criminal and completely ignore the original crime that triggered the use of force. And if the Hamas crime should NOT be mentioned, why then would it be relevant to mention that Damien T. slapped the French President, Emmanuel Macron? Or why no one questions France’s justice that “disproportionately” sentence Damien T to 4 months in jail! A simple slap from Macron to Damien should be enough to solve this. That would be truly proportional….
When Hamas attacks Israel with missiles and rockets, with the explicit aim of killing as many Jews as possible, the leaders of the European Union do not even mention Hamas but are quick to condemn Israel for the “disproportionate use of force.” … Following this ridiculous reasoning, the next time Hamas “slaps” Israel, the Jewish state should respond in a more canonical and European way: turning the other cheek…. like President Macron did.
LECTURE: Response To Antisemitism
Material and sources for the class given June 1, 2021
BRIEF HISTORY OF JEWISH PALESTINE
The “Mandate for Palestine,” an historical League of Nations document, laid down the Jewish legal right to settle anywhere in western Palestine, a 10,000-square-miles3 area between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea. The legally binding document was conferred on April 24, 1920 at the San Remo Conference, and its terms outlined in the Treaty of Sèvres on August 10, 1920. The Mandate’s terms were finalized and unanimously approved on July 24, 1922, by the Council of the League of Nations, which was comprised at that time of 51 countries,4 and became operational on September 29, 1923.5 Great Britain [i.e., the Mandatory or Trustee] did turn over its responsibility to the United Nations as of May 14, 1948. However, the legal force of the League of Nations’ “Mandate for Palestine” [i.e., The Trust] was not terminated with the end of the British Mandate. Rather, the Trust was transferred over to the United Nations.
Recognition of the Historical Connection to Palestine
Fifty-one member countries – the entire League of Nations – unanimously declared on July 24, 1922: “Whereas recognition has been given to the historical connection of the Jewish people with Palestine and to the grounds for reconstituting their national home in that country.”6 Unlike nation-states in Europe, modern Lebanese, Jordanian, Syrian, and Iraqi nationalities did not evolve. They were arbitrarily created by colonial powers. In 1919, in the wake of World War I, England and France as Mandatory (e.g., official administrators and mentors) carved up the former Ottoman Empire, which had collapsed a year earlier, into geographic spheres of influence. This divided the Mideast into new political entities with new names and frontiers.7 Territory was divided along map meridians without regard for traditional frontiers (i.e., geographic logic and sustainability) or the ethnic composition of indigenous populations.8 The prevailing rationale behind these artificially created states was how they served the imperial and commercial needs of their colonial masters. Iraq and Jordan, for instance, were created as emirates to reward the noble Hashemite family from Saudi Arabia for its loyalty to the British against the Ottoman Turks during World War I, under the leadership of Lawrence of Arabia. Iraq was given to Faisal bin Hussein, son of the sheriff of Mecca, in 1918. To reward his younger brother Abdullah with an emirate, Britain cut away 77 percent of its mandate over Palestine earmarked for the Jews and gave it to Abdullah in 1922, creating the new country of Trans-Jordan or Jordan, as it was later named.
ISRAEL’S EXCEPTIONALISM The manner in which European colonial powers carved out political entities with little regard to their ethnic composition not only led to this inter-ethnic violence, but it also encouraged dictatorial rule as the only force capable of holding such entities together.9 The exception was Palestine, or Eretz-Israel – the territory between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea, where: “The Mandatory shall be responsible for placing the country [ Palestine] under such political, administrative and economic conditions as will secure the establishment of the Jewish National Home, as laid down in the preamble, and the development of self-governing institutions, and also for safeguarding the civil and religious rights of all the inhabitants of Palestine, irrespective of race and religion.”10
Appropriation of the Name “Palestine”
The PalestinianTalmud, according to Oxford University
before local Jews began calling themselves Israelis in 1948 (when the name “Israel” was chosen for the newly-established Jewish State), the term “Palestine” applied almost exclusively to Jews and the institutions founded by new Jewish immigrants in the first half of the 20th century, before the state’s independence.
Some examples include:
The Jerusalem Post, founded in 1932, was called The Palestine Post until 1948.
Bank Leumi L’Israel, incorporated in 1902, was called the “Anglo-Palestine Company” until 1948.
The Jewish Agency – an arm of the Zionist movement engaged in Jewish settlement since 1929 – was initially called the Jewish Agency for Palestine.
Today’s Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, founded in 1936 by German Jewish refugees who fled Nazi Germany, was originally called the “Palestine Symphony Orchestra,” composed of some 70 Palestinian Jews.17
The United Jewish Appeal (UJA) was established in 1939 as a merger of the United Palestine Appeal and the fund-raising arm of the Joint Distribution Committee.
Encouraged by their success at historical revisionism and brainwashing the world with the “Big Lie” of a Palestinian people, Palestinian Arabs have more recently begun to claim they are the descendants of the Philistines and even the Stone Age Canaanites.18 Based on that myth, they can claim to have been “victimized” twice by the Jews: in the conquest of Canaan by the Israelites and again by the Israelis in modern times – a total fabrication.19 Archeologists explain that the Philistines were a Mediterranean people who settled along the coast of Canaan in 1100 BCE. They have no connection to the Arab nation, a desert people who emerged from the Arabian Peninsula.
As if that myth were not enough, former PLO Chairman Yasir Arafat also claimed, “Palestinian Arabs are descendants of the Jebusites,” who were displaced when King David conquered Jerusalem.
Arafat also argued that “Abraham was an Iraqi.” One Christmas Eve, Arafat declared that “Jesus was a Palestinian,” a preposterous claim that echoes the words of Hanan Ashrawi, a Christian Arab who, in an interview during the 1991 Madrid Conference, said: “Jesus Christ was born in my country, in my land,” and claimed that she was “the descendant of the first Christians,” disciples who spread the gospel around Bethlehem some 600 years before the Arab conquest. If her claims were true, it would be tantamount to confessing that she is a Jew!
“Palestine” is the name given at that time to the land of Israel and to the Jewish National Home under the British mandate. There never existed an Arab Palestinian State, a Palestinian nation or a Palestinian people, or anything like it. In any case, according to what we wrote today, “the designated land for Arabs in Palestine is ‘Jordan’”
VIDEOS: who are the Palestinians? A Nation ? Or an invented ethnicity to appropriate the name “Palestine” and eventually displace the Jewish people from Israel?
Palestinians come from many countries in the Middle East.
Dr Mordechai Kedar on Palestinians origins
BLM and PALESTINIANS
Los Angeles Real Estate Mogul Mohamed Hadid Apologizes for Post Linking Israel to Police Brutality in United States
“We at the Institute for Black Solidarity with Israel have been asking this question for years now, and still have not received an answer: If Black Lives Matter is supposed to be about police killings of unarmed Black people, why is part of its focus on Israel thousands of miles away–as opposed to, for example, the African slave trade in Libya, Saudi Arabia, Mauritania or Qatar? “
SIMILARITIES
Police brutality : Israel brutality. Selective victims.
Only those who killed by police. Only those killed by Israel. In both case, the initial act of violence is premeditated. The death of the victim is not.
3. Directing the blame to the wrong party: teach not to resist arrest!!! La Hage court: blames Israel for the Gaza conflict. And so does the United Nations Human Right committee.
4. Final goal: defund police. Defund Israel. To increase chaos, anarchy and enabling criminals to do their job undisturbed.
5. RICH CORRUPT LEADERS:
RECOMMENDED: The Americanization of the Israeli Palestinian Debate Israel’s Problems Are Not Like America’s When many Westerners peer out at the world, what they’re really looking for is a mirror. By Matti Friedman
PALESTINIAN REFUGEES
Palestinian exceptionalism is just a function of the world embracing systemic antisemitism. Palestinian exceptionalism is not about Palestinians but about “treating exceptionally the enemies of the Jews”. If the Palestinians were fighting Turkey instead of Israel, no one would care about Palestinians. And if the Kurds will be fighting Israel, they will, be treated exceptionally well.
Why are Palestinian refugees different from all other refugees? Aug 30, 2018 The unique status afforded to Palestinians is the single biggest stumbling block to achieving peace
This is an extraordinary Psalm, because despite having been written 3,000 years ago, I believe that today it is not difficult to identify with it.
1-2 I cry out to God from my anguish, knowing that He will answer me. HaShem, free me from the lips of deceive, from the tongue of liars.
King David begins by praying to God, asking the Almighty to save him from these unusual enemies. Unlike other occasions in which the foe is characterized by his military power that endangers David’s life (for example, Tehilim 144), in our Psalm the threat does not come from the battlefield: this enemy is dangerous because he betrays and lies when he seems to be looking for peace, and his promises of non-aggression cannot be trusted
3 What [peace] will be achieved [with this enemy]? What [other lies] will these liar-tongued peoples add [to deceive]? 4 [His promises of peace] are [as deceptive] as the poisonous arrows of his warriors; or like the coals of broom [that do not seem to be burning] with which they simulate [a cold peace]
Their deadly arrows not only damage the wounded part of the body: they kill, because they have poison. The words of this enemy are not aimed at negotiating and gaining a little more territory: they are aimed to destroy us, not to reach a deal after which we will leave in peace and coexistence. In times of peace, the enemy’s strategy is compared to “coals of broom” : the burning embers of this wild bush are visibly off, they are not read but gray, and appear innocuous as ash to the naked eye. But when you touch this ash, it burns! This enemy portrays itself as a harmless victim, harmless as broom coals: but that’s deceiving. When you approach this foe extending your hand in peace, thinking that the burning hatred is gone, you get burned.
5 Woe to me that I have to live among the inhabitants of Meshekh [= the nations of the Levant], and that I have to reside next to the peoples of Kedar [the Ishmaelites]!
David expresses the difficult challenge of living surrounded by treacherous peoples. And he finally reveals the identity of these dishonorable foes . They are Israel’s own neighbors! Meshekh, to the north – in what today is Lebanon, Syria, Turkey – and Kedar to the south – Gaza, Egypt.
A little context will help us better understand this Psalm. In the time of King David and his son Shelomo, the Kingdom of Israel flourished and reached its economic peak. King David also signed peace treaties with other peoples, such as the Phoenicians, with whom he established commercial treaties that were beneficial to both nations. The entire region, the Middle East of that time, benefited greatly from Israel’s prosperity and stability. It was a “win / win” situation, where everyone could prosper. But for Meshekh and Kedar Israel’s “prosperity and stability” was insufferable. They just were not able to accept that Israel would be successful and in peace! Israel’s prosperity throws this enemy off balance. And this might sound absolutely crazy, but for the leaders of these peoples it was more important to destroy Israel than to benefit their own from the prosperity that Israel generously brought to the the entire region.
6 I lived for too long next to these peoples who hate peace [and only think about destroying me]. 7 I want peace, [and I seek peace]. But as I speak of peace, my enemies think about [how to destroy me with] war.
David knows these nations. He lived next to them for a long time. He knows that they do not really care about peace. For them, a peace treaty is not an objective in and by itself: it is only a temporary mean for their main goal: the destruction of Israel. They assume that Israel would naively trust their empty promises – that David will lower his guard, and become vulnerable and easily to kill. But David knows better: after being repeatedly burned by the broom’s coals, David overcame his dangerous naivety and gave up on his wishes for a peaceful coexistence. In this verse he expresses his pain, realizing that his neighbors — especially the Ishmaelites, “our cousins” the Abrahamic ancestors of Arab nations — practice the kind of existential hatred and deadly envy (known today as anti-Semitism) that Amaleq has for the Jews.
David, with my own words, finally recognizes that this enemy is like a wild and hungry tiger, approaching David with only one goal in mind… Imagine how incredibly dangerous and naive would be for David to extend his hand of peace to this tiger. And how suicidal would be to smile, and offering the tiger to go to dinner together at the best restaurant (dinner is on David!). There is nothing more dangerous than imagining that the tiger would “understands David’s language”. Or to project David’s wishful thinking, believing that the tiger shares his desires for a peaceful coexistence and will accept his suggestion of dinner for two. This tiger has appetite for me.. His killing instincts control him and my words do not affect him. And if I’m careless and if I don’t defend myself against the tiger with all what I have , I will become his dinner for one.
How Can Israel Reach A Lasting Peace Agreement With Hamas?
OUR FRIENDS IN THE UNITED NATIONS Hamas and Israel reached a ceasefire. But as we have seen previously, these truces are short-lived. And world leaders, like Israel’s friends in the United Nations, who are always interested in the good of Israel, are pushing hard for Israel to give in; be a little more flexible and reach a FINAL and ROBUST long-lasting peace deal with Hamas. To be more precise, yesterday, “the members of the United Nations Security Council stressed the urgency of the restoration of calm in full and reiterated the importance of achieving a comprehensive peace based on the vision of a region where two democratic States, Israel and Palestine, live side by side in peace…” What should Israel do to reach an agreement that would allow us to live in peace with Hamas?
A SMALL BARRIER FOR PEACE The first problem to achieve a final deal is that the Hamas’ constitution rejects a priori any peace agreement with Israel. In article 13 of Hamas charter says: “[Peace] initiatives and so-called peaceful solutions and international conferences are in contradiction with the principles of the Islamic Resistance Movement Hamas… Those conferences are nothing more than a means of naming the infidels [ USA, Russia, European Union] as arbitrators in the lands of Islam… There is no solution for the Palestinian problem except for Jihad [holy war against the infidels, the Jews]. The proposed peace initiatives and international congresses are but a waste of time, a futile and useless exercise”. Hamas is not interested in a horizontal relationship with Israel. The famous “Two states solution”, living together in peace, like two neighboring countries is not possible with Hamas. But we should not be so defeatist, right? Let us explore other great options we have to live in peace with our neighbors in Gaza.
CONVERSION To understand the “modest price” that we should have to pay in order to live in lasting peace with Hamas, let us remember that Hamas is similar to Al-Qaeda and the Islamic State: radical and extreme. What these fundamentalist groups want is not “peace” with the enemy, but the “total submission” of the enemy. Thus, for Hamas mindset, peace with the enemy can only be achieved 1. When there is not two conflicting religions but one and the same religion for all (Islam), and 2. Everyone lives under one political regime, that is, a Caliphate. In other words, perhaps to please world leaders we should think about collective conversion…. The good news is that, as you can see in this video, the aspiration of these extremist groups does not end with the Jews
The “proactive Jihad” this speaker is referring to, will eventually reach Europe, the United States, and the rest of the world. So in a future Hamas Caliphate we will be in the company of many of our European friends! This is the first option for a lasting peace with Hamas, an option that I’m sure will make many world leaders very happy. JEWS UNDER ISLAM For skeptics and naysayers, here is another possibility to reach a solid peace agreement between Israel and Hamas, one that will not involve a collective conversion. Does anyone remember what life was like for Jews in countries under Muslim rule? Basically, classical Islam is tolerant of “biblical” religious minorities — that is, Christians and Jews. Of course there are certain restrictions. A non-Muslim is considered a dhimmi that is, an individual of second class, who is allowed to “live in peace” under the protection of the Islamic State in exchange for a per-capita tax called the “jiziya”. To obtain a lasting peace with Hamas we should perhaps simply give up our Jewish state, accept political submission to the Caliphate and adopt voluntarily the status of dhimmis. In this video we can recall better what the meaning of dhimmis was.
A SMALL RISK FOR A LASTING PEACE These two options seem very easy and accessible. But I confess that there might still be a slight problem: unfortunately —and I’m sure it is our fault! — not all Hamas leaders would agree to grant Jews the status of dhimmis . Yunis Al Astal, for example, an illustrious member of the Hamas Parliament, represents a less moderate position than his colleagues. In his opinion, we Jews are beyond redemption. Even if Israel opted for a total and unconditional submission to Hamas, according to this fellow: “Jews must be massacred … to prevent them from continuing to sow corruption in the world.” Here you can see directly the entire proposal of Mr. Yunis.
However, I believe that with the priceless diplomatic help of our United Nations friends it will be possible to persuade Hamas to accept us as dhimmis, or at least to spare the lives of our wives and children, as ISIS did with the Yazidies in Iraq. See here. Al Astal himself suggests this option, probably on behalf of the most open-minded Hamas leaders: “We must return [the Jews] to the state of humiliation imposed on them as dhimmis … and they must pay the jiziya security tax as long as they live among us.” Would world leaders be happy if we offer Hamas to become dhimmis? At least we should try! Yosef Bitton
The Three Most Frightening Words Of Tehilim
Do we Jews need a war in order to be united? Are we only friendly with each other in times of a crisis? Are we inviting trouble to bring us back together?
אך טוב לישראל (Akh tob leIsrael) TEHILIM 73
THE POSITIVE SIDE OF A CRISIS Rabbi Moshe Azancot, z”l (the grandfather of my colleague and friend, Rabbi Ari Azancot of Beth Torah, NY) taught me a very original meaning (a derasha?) of these three words from Tehillim: “Akh” the first word of this pasuq, should be understood as an onomatopoeia, that is, a word whose meaning is in its sound. In Hebrew –like in Spanish (Aj!), or in English (“argh”)– the onomatopoeia “akh” has a negative connotation. It expresses suffering, frustration and anguish. Having this in mind, these three words are saying something a bit ironic and sad. “Akh”, that is, suffering: a crisis that sometimes happens to us Jews, is “tob leIsrael”, might be the one thing that brings a positive outcome for us collectively. When we are well and in peace, it is difficult for us to agree: we fight with each other, each one pulls to his or her side. Sadly, as these three words indicate, the only thing that will surely unite us is an “Akh” situation: the enemy attacking us or waging war.
WHO NEEDS A WAR? Israel already had four parliamentary elections in recent times. Israeli society is very divided, so no party reaches an automatic majority of 61 votes needed to form a government. The only way to have a government is through alliances between the different political parties. There are basically two major groups in the Keneset: the right and the left, with many variables in between. The Israeli right, among other things, believes that we need to have a heavy hand on terror, and in negotiations with our unfriendly neighbors would make the minimum possible concessions. This conservative position is more pragmatic than ideological: there is no one to talk on the Palestinian side. No Palestinian leader who openly declares (in Arabic!) that Palestinians want “to live in peace alongside a neighboring Jewish State, which they would recognize.” Israeli conservative parties could have more than 70 votes, which represents the will of the majority of Israel, if they were together! But, particularly in the last election, there was another factor that prevented this natural coalition: these parties were divided because of “personal resentments” (שנאת חינם) among political leaders, rather than ideological differences. And literally, “a few hours” before the bombings from Gaza began, three of these conservative parties were negotiating a coalition with political parties that are explicitly opposed to national Jewish observance or that do not recognize the right of the Jewish people to their land! Then the bombings of Gaza began, the riots, and the Arab “progroms” in Lod, Aco, Haifa, etc. And only then, a representative of the conservative parties decided to put aside his personal resentments (or aspirations) and avoid an artificial coalition that, in my opinion, would have been tragic for Israel. Now, today, at this moment, Israel’s political leaders from the right and the center finally came together. And a natural conservative coalition is within reach again. As those three words of Tehillim suggest, “Akh,” the crisis that we are suffering ended up bringing some “positive” opportunities for unity. But it is very sad to realize that: rockets, extensive material damage and the irreparable loss of precious human lives is what can bring us together. Are we involuntarily inviting wars and crisis to befall upon us, in order to assure our “unity” ?
THE LESSON FROM MATAN TORA Shabuot celebrates the giving of the Tora. And our Sages explain that there was a prerequisite that needed to be fulfilled before we would be worthy of a Pact with Bore Olam. VAYICHAN SHAM ISRAEL NEGED HAHAR “the people of Israel camped [united as one] in front of Mount [Sinai].” The rabbis mentioned that the Jewish people were organically together as “one individual, with one single heart.” At that moment WITHOUT CONFRONTING AN ENEMY we put aside our differences, and we felt part of the same nation. We stood together not because we were facing a common enemy, but because we were pursuing a common purpose: receiving the Tora and becoming the People of God.
This is the way to go!
I have no doubt that B”H Israel will be victorious in this war “in every front”. And I have no doubt that we will emerge from this crisis stronger than we were before this conflict.
But I pray to HaShem, and I beg to each of us, that we should “be and to remain united” not because of the deadly missiles of the enemy, but because of the life-giving words of our Tora.
The New Reality Of The Israeli Palestinian Conflict
YOU SHALL NOT BE RESENTFUL
When we left Egypt God did NOT allow us to become a bitter, violent and resentful people. We had every reason to hold grudges: we were enslaved by the Egyptians for over a century, but HaShem had a different plan for us. He included among His commandments an absolutely FORMATIVE Mitzva in terms of our relationships with other peoples, which became part of our DNA. Debarim 23: 8 says: “לא תתעב מצרי כי גר היית בארצו” , ” You shall not abhor [hate] the Egyptians, for they received you as foreigners in their land. “ This revolutionary verse says that holding resentment, even when justified, would destroy a person –or a people– inside. When what defines you as a society is “grievances” your identity will be founded not on positives qualities but on hatred for a common enemy: today the Egyptians and tomorrow the next foe. A culture of grievance would have transformed us into a people with an insatiable resentment that would not let us enjoy peace and prosperity, but would drive us to seek violence and destroy whoever does better than us. This amazing verse also teaches us to practice an extreme gratitude towards anyone who once did something for us: we should never forget that the Egyptians opened their doors for us and welcomed into their land in Yosef’s time. This and other similar commandments have forged very special qualities in our Jewish DNA: A “positive” selective memory. We should not live with resentment –which destroys mainly the person who lives with it– and never stop appreciating and being grateful to anyone that ever did anything good to you. But not all the peoples of the earth hold these same values … not even those civilizations that supposedly have the Bible as a reference for their religion.
SLEEPING WITH THE ENEMY
Israel is facing a new conflict with the Palestinians. I am not referring now to the terrible confrontation with Gaza (see the article below) . This new crisis is a little different from the previous ones. And it can become more serious. It has new protagonists: the Arab citizens of Israel. They are not “refugees” but Muslim legal Israeli citizens living in Yafo, Ramla, Acco, etc. Tens of thousands of these citizens have carried out violent demonstrations and attacked the Israeli civilian population, and there have been already several casualties. What happened in Lod, a city that should be the perfect model of Arab and Israeli coexistence, is inconceivable. Three synagogues (so far) have been burned down in the city by the Islamist Arab mob. THREE SYNAGOGUES! This is not happening in anti-Semitic Europe but in the ONLY JEWISH STATE of the world. The “Times of Israel” described what happened as “The Kristallnacht of Lod.” And Lod was not an exception: similar things have happened in many other cities with Arab and Jewish population. This is how an Israeli journalist from Makor Rishon newspaper explains: “… the surprise of the surprises [in this war] has been that tens of thousands of terrorists have emerged overnight among the Israeli Arab population, ordinary citizens crying out for the destruction of the state and they are carrying out hundreds of pogroms throughout the country every day, terrorists-civilians who are going out every night looking for prey: Jewish blood … »
THE CULTURE OF RESENTMENT
These Israeli Arab citizens vote in Israeli elections, hold Israeli passports and are represented in the Keneset, the Israeli parliament. The irony is that in Israel they LIVE MUCH BETTER than they would live in any Arab Middle Eastern country like Syria, Lebanon, Egypt or Jordan AND THEY KNOW THIS VERY WELL. They enjoy a very high quality of life, have absolute religious freedom, access to the best universities in Israel and they benefit from Israel’s booming economy and its modern medical system. Why then this violence? Why do Arab extremists shout: “Death to Israel”, “Death to the Jews”? I believe with Guy Bechor, that the culture of resentment, the fact that it is the Jews and not the Arabs who have created one of the best countries on the planet, does not allow them mentally to enjoy the privilege of living there and being grateful for it. It is as if for their culture it is more important “that the Jews do not enjoy peace and prosperity” than that they enjoy these privileges.
THE CULTURE OF GRATEFULNESS
In this sense, something similar happens with the Arab extremists in Europe: they want to “destroy” the very country that offers them peace, prosperity and opportunities for growth. In France, for example, Islamic extremists have murdered hundreds of their benefactors, with bombs or firearms, or beheading French citizens with knives or throwing them off the balcony, as happened with Sara Halimi z ”l. These criminals are refugees who escaped from their Arab countries where they were starving or persecuted or tortured by corrupt regimes or by other Islamists more extreme than them. And instead of being eternally grateful to France, the country that gave them refuge, welcomed them and “gave them everything without asking anything in return,” they dedicate themselves to destroying the country and their religion: In medieval best fashion, these Islamic extremists set churches on fire whenever they could. See, for example, this article and this article, which dares to mention that in recent years dozens of churches in France have been desecrated, and in many cases burned, by French Islamists.
CONCLUSION
I’m not sure what the final result of this new conflict will be. Israel will have to prepare itself for a new type of fight much more complicated than the war against Iran, Hezbollah or the terrorists in Gaza. It is a new conflict in which the enemy does not need rockets or missiles but simple “knives” (see video below) or cars to carry out their deadly attacks … Israeli Arabs are “neighbors” who live in Haifa, Yerushalayim, Tel-Aviv: they drive taxis, work in hotels, restaurants and hospitals. How many of them have become or will extremists? If they begin to rise up, murder and commit acts of violence, we might expect a civil war, because Israeli Jews are not going to sit idly by: they will defend themselves, especially if the Israeli police is still paralyzed.
We might be witnessing a clash of civilizations in the heart of Israel between those who want to live in peace and those who want to die in the process of killing their neighbors.
May HASHEM protect us from our enemies and grant us the strength and intelligence to neutralize them!
Killing a Jew for 5 Sheqels
VIOLENCE IN ISRAEL: What is the world waiting for?
WRITTEN IN OCTOBER 2015
Palestinian violence is not slowing down. As of this morning, they are ten Jewish fatal victims of attacks with knives, screwdrivers and cars. Yesterday, this new intifada climbed one step up: a Palestinian terrorist came into a bus with a gun and shot indiscriminately at the passengers, killing three Israelis.
This violence is not spontaneous, it is provoked and incited from social media, from policymakers and also from some mosques. I am attaching a video from MEMRITV where you can see this past Friday how a Muslim cleric in Gaza drew his knife while given a sermon from his pulpit, calling his Palestinian brothers to kill Jews, stab them, cut their throats and tear their bodies apart. ISIS style.
Normally, you would have expected the world to get out of their comfort silence-zone and condemn Palestinian violence and their instigators. Right?
As Bret Stephens wrote on the Wall Street Journal, “Imagine if a white minister in, say, South Carolina preached this way about African-Americans, knife and all: Would the news media be supine in reporting it? Would we get ‘both sides’ journalism of the kind that is pro forma when it comes to Israelis and Palestinians, with lengthy pieces explaining-and implicitly justifying-the minister’s sundry grievances, his sense that his country has been stolen from him?”
In that case, the entire world would react immediately. The United Nations would condemn racial violence. The European Union, the Pope, all organizations that defend human rights, would raise their voice in protest and repudiation, and so would do the White House and all Presidents of all civilized countries of the world.
But, as Prime Minister of Israel Benjamin Netanyahu said so eloquently in his recent speech at the United Nations, when it comes to Israel, the world remains silent. There have been no international condemnation, nor voices of condemnation of the Palestinian violence coming from the international human rights organizations .
I return to my initial question: When can we expect the world to condemn the violence in Israel? What is the world waiting for?
I think I know the horrendous answer ….
The world is waiting, patiently, that Israel would react. The world is waiting for Israel or for Israelis to defend themselves. The world is waiting that some Israeli guy would take the law in his own hands and kill his attacker. Or that Israel would bomb a terrorist training camp and Hamas would announce that two Palestinian children were “brutally killed by the oppressing Jewish regime.” When Israel will defend itself, the world will react. All newspapers of the world will immediately condemn violence in Israel, in the front page. No one will mention “what” caused this cycle of violence. The main news agencies of the world will repeat the famous mantra: “We condemn the systematic genocide that Israel is carrying out against the Palestinian people”. At that time, we will see colorful pictures of Palestinian civilians who were “deliberately” killed by Israel in the streets of Gaza and Ramallah. And, of course, all the international organizations, without exception will raise their voice. The United Nations, the European Union, etc., will condemn, in the best case scenario, the “disproportionate reaction” of the powerful Jewish army against unarmed Palestinian civilians …
Have no doubt, dear reader, that the world will react and condemn violence when Israel will defend itself,
We will soon celebrate Yom Yerushalayim. In 1967, Egypt, Syria and Jordan with the help of Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Tunisia, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Kuwait, Pakistan, the PLO and Sudan, decided to attack and destroy the young State of Israel. The combined Arab army, supported and supplied primarily by the USSR, counted with 465,000 troops, 2,880 tanks and 900 aircraft. Compared to Israel’s 264,000 soldiers (of which 200,000 were reservists), 800 tanks, and 300 aircraft. Led by Egypt’s president Gamal Abdel Nasser, Egypt mobilized its troops into the Sinai desert. Expelled the UN peace keeping forces, and initiated other actions which were considered an act of war, like closing the Suez canal. They were so confident in their military superiority that the Arab states celebrated victory and rejoiced in the destruction of the Jewish State even before they started the war.
On June 5th 1967 Israel launched a preemptive strike beginning what is known as the Six Days War. Against all odds, Israel not only survived the attacks of a much more numerous and stronger army–with no American help– but also conquered the Sinai Peninsula, Judea and Samaria and the Golan heights. And the most important aspect of the Israeli victory was that 1900 years after its destruction by the Romans, on the 28th of Iyar 1967, Israel liberated and regained control over Yerushalayim (Jerusalem). This was probably one of the happiest days in the history of the Jewish people, a culmination of our Independence that started in Yom haAtzmaut, 1948.
Many miracles took place in the Six Days war and very especially in the battles for Yerushalayim. We shouldn’t be surprised. The Tora already promised the people of Israel that when we follow HaShem’s will, even if we are outnumbered, God will intervene in our behalf. He will be fighting with our troops, protecting us and delivering us from destruction (Debarim 20, 1-4):“When you go out to battle against your enemies and see horses and chariots and people more numerous than you, do not be afraid of them; for HaShem your God, who brought you up from the land of Egypt, is with You… HaShem your God is going with you, and will fight with you against your enemies — to deliver you…”. HaShem’s promises were fulfilled in the miracles that took place during the Six Days war.
In the Shirat haYam (Exodus 15) the song that the people of Israel sang after defeating the Egyptians and crossing the sea, we have a clear indication of how exactly HaShem “goes to war with us” to defeat our enemies. We witnessed His “Modus Operandi”, so to speak, when He intervenes in our behalf. The Tora says: תִּפֹּל עֲלֵיהֶם אֵימָתָה וָפַחַד בִּגְדֹל זְרוֹעֲךָ יִדְּמוּ כָּאָבֶן: “The nations will hear and tremble… the chiefs of Edom will be terrified, the leaders of Moab will be seized with trembling, the people of Canaan will melt away; By the power of your arm they will be petrified [by fear] as a stone.” HaShem intervenes by instilling fear in our enemies.
This is one of numberless testimonies of soldiers that fought on the Six Days War and saw this type of HaShem’s intervention:
Israel, an Israeli cab driver who was drafted to fight in the 6-Day War as part of the paratroop unit assigned with conquering the Straits of Tiran, told the following upon his return from the war:
“After landing in Sinai, I was sent with another soldier, an electrician, to patrol the area. When we had distanced ourselves two kilometers, an Egyptian military truck appeared before us filled with soldiers and mounted with machine guns on every side. We had only light weapons with a few bullets that couldn’t stop the truck for a second. We couldn’t turn back, so we stood there in despair, waited for the first shot, and for lack of a better idea, aimed our guns at them. But the shots didn’t come. The truck came to a halt, and we decided to cautiously approach it. We found 18 armed soldiers inside sitting with guns in hand, with a petrified look on their faces. They looked at us with great fear as though begging for mercy. I shouted ‘Hands up!’ As we were marching them and I had returned to a state of calm, I asked the Egyptian sergeant next to me, ‘Tell me, why didn’t you shoot at us?’ He answered, ‘I don’t know. My arms froze – they became paralyzed. My whole body was paralyzed, and I don’t know why.’ …why didn’t they eliminate us? I don’t have an answer. How can one say that God didn’t help us.”
“There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.”
Albert Einstein
Mourning During Holidays and Chol HaMoed
YOM TOB
If the passing took place during the holiday (Yom Tob) the counting of the Seven Days begins once the holiday ends. And during the holiday, the normal restrictions of Abelut (mourning) do not apply, except in the private, as it is observed during Shabbat of the Seven Days (see here)
CHOL HAMOED
When a person dies or is buried on Chol Hamoed (the intermediate days of Passover or Sukkot), the burial ceremony takes place normally in the cemetery. In our community, however, the Keria in Cool haMored is done only for father and mother and not of other relatives. upon arriving at the house, the Abelim would do the Seudat Habraa (morning meal) with tree, coffee, pastries, etc. but not with lentils and boiled eggs as it is usually done.
Once the Seudat Habraa is over, the normal mourning is suspended until the festival is over, only then will the Seven Days of mourning will actually begin.
, by the other relatives it is performed once the festivity is over
5. In the event that the burial was on Chol Hamoed of Sukkot, the day of Shemini Aseret must be counted as a single day for the purpose of counting thirty days (here note 47).
The Dayan HaEmet blessing, which is technically independent of the Keria, will be said on the day of the burial, preferably upon learning of the death (lalkut losef pg 68 and 69).
^ In our community it is customary that in Jol Hamoed the Keri^ is performed only by the parents. This same Minhag is practiced in Yerushalayim.
Mourning and Festivities
Cancellation of the Seven Days (Shiv’a)
The days of the holiday also count toward the thirty-day mourning period (Sheloshim), with one exception: when mourning for a father or mother, the full thirty days must be completed before the mourner may shave or get a haircut.
Calculation of the Sheloshim — Pesach:
The days of mourning observed before Pesach count as seven days.
The eight days of Pesach are added to that count.
Fifteen additional days remain to complete the thirty.
Shabuot:
The mourning observed before the holiday counts as seven days.
The first day of Shavuot counts as another seven.
The second day of Shavuot is counted as day fifteen.
Fifteen additional days remain to complete the thirty.
Sukkot:
The mourning observed before the holiday counts as seven days.
The seven days of Sukkot are added.
The day of Shemini Atzeret counts as an additional seven days.
Simchat Torah marks day twenty-two.
Eight additional days remain to complete the thirty.
Rosh Hashanah:
The mourning practiced before Rosh Hashanah is counted as seven days.
At the end of Yom Kippur, the thirty days are completed.
Yom Kippur:
The mourning practiced before Yom Kippur is counted as seven days.
At the end of Shemini Atzeret, the thirty days are completed.
Cancellation of the Thirty Days (Shloshim):
If one is in the thirty-day mourning period (after completing the seven days of Shiva) for a relative who is not a father or mother, the start of a major festivity cancels the thirty-day mourning. In this case, the mourner (Avel) is allowed to shave or get a haircut before the holiday, on the eve of the festivity. However, for a father or mother, the thirty days must be fully counted by the mourners before they may shave or cut their hair.
If the death occurred during the holiday (on Yom Tov), the seven days begin to be counted only once the holiday ends.
During the holiday, the laws of Onen and the usual mourning prohibitions (Avelut) do not apply. However, the mourners must observe the norms of private mourning as they would on Shabbat during the seven days.
When Death or Burial Occurs on Chol HaMoed:
If a person passes away or is buried during Chol HaMoed (the intermediate days of Pesach or Sukkot), the burial is carried out as usual, including performing the tearing (Keria). However, upon returning home, the mourners must change out of their mourning clothes, as mourning during these days is private, similar to the rules for Shabbat during the seven days.
The Seudat Havra’ah (meal of condolence) should still be held, but instead of the usual foods (like eggs or lentils), coffee or tea with cookies or pastries should be served. After this meal, mourning is suspended until the holiday concludes. Only then does the seven-day mourning period begin.
If the burial occurs during Chol HaMoed of Sukkot, Shemini Atzeret counts as one day toward the calculation of the thirty days. Although mourning is not observed on Yom Tov Sheni Shel Galuyot (the second day of Yom Tov), it is still counted as the first of the seven days of mourning.
When thirty-one days have passed after the burial of a father or mother during Chol HaMoed and there is social reproach, the mourner may shave or cut their hair during Chol HaMoed.
