The Jews who settled the moon

The Jews who settled the moon

By Janet S. Tiger

The Jews settled the moon in 2053, just about five years after the end of the Islamic Wars of the 40’s, where the Middle East, and Israel, of course, had been obliterated by nuclear weapons.

The two million Jews remaining throughout the rest of the world -less than 100,000 total in all the Islamic countries - banded together and purchased the dark side of the moon, which no other companies or people wished to colonize.

Great transports were arranged via the 62,000 mile space elevator and the Space Shuttle and every Jew on Earth - including anyone who claimed any Jewish heritage whatsoever - left to go to a place where no one could blame them for anything.

The Earth rejoiced - happily rid of all Jews. There were huge parties throughout all of Sweden and the rest of Europe, Africa, Asia, South America, and North America. (Now known as the Northern Alliance of Islamic States, after the United States was taken over peacefully in the elections of 2040 by a predominantly Muslim Congress and President, who immediately passed amendments making Islam the main religion of the United States and the world.) After the last Jew entered the elevator (a David Goldstein, 62, formerly of New York), the Earth was officially declared Judenrein by Hans Ibn Hitler, a great, great-grandson of Hitler who had been raised in Brazil and hidden by Nazis until this precious moment.

It was not an easy move for the Jews but, in some ways, it was no different from all their moves of previous eras. Some former Israelis (still alive because they were out of Israel when the bombs dropped) claimed that the moon was easier to deal with because there were no Extremist Muslims. Of course, this precipitated a huge argument with some Jews, who felt not having the Radical Muslims nearby was not enough challenge.

KEEP READING

Goldstone and the 36 Incidents

The always excellent Augean Stables on Goldstone, Kemp and the 36 incidents.
Must read

http://www.theaugeanstables.com/2009/11/04/goldstone-kemp-and-the-36-incidents-the-bizarro-world-of-the-unffm-to-gaza/

The Jew Flu: The strange illness of Jewish anti-Semitismbrbr - Haaretz - Israel News

The Jew Flu: The strange illness of Jewish anti-Semitism-
Haaretz - Israel News

Those inflicted include Noam Chomsky, Daniel Boyarin, Joel Kovel, Avrum Burg, Ilan Pappe, Steve Quester, Jacqueline Rose, Tony Judt, Naomi Klein, Michael Neumann, Ben Ehrenreich,
and I can think of plenty more. A great read from the Israeli paper that tends to be sick with that a lot.

The Goldstone Illusion | The New Republic

The Goldstone Illusion | The New Republic

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE :: Dore Gold debates Goldstone at Brandeis

VIDEO EXCLUSIVE :: Dore Gold debates Goldstone at Brandeis
from One Jerusalem

more on the ship from Iran --Francop

The containers on the ship Francop were marked-with the acronym IRISL, a state-controlled company listed by the UN Security Council in its sanctions resolutions against Iran due to its role in transporting equipment for Tehran's nuclear and missile programs.

The fact that Iran is trying to ship arms under the guise of civilian cargo suggests that the pressure exerted by the international community is having an impact...

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1126064.html

Israeli Foreign Affairs Vice-Minister Dani Ayalon accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chבvez of having turned Venezuela into an "Iranian outpost in the hemisphere. "

"The scope of the Iranian regime does not end in the Middle East. It is global, and also reaches Africa and Latin America, "

http://english.eluniversal.com/2009/11/03/en_pol_esp_israel-accuses-chave_03A2992491.shtml

Israel Navy Intercepts Iranian Weapons en route to Hezbollah, 4 Nov 2009

from the IDF Spokesman's desk:

500 Tons of Weapons for Hezbollah Intercepted by Israeli Navy, 4 Nov 2009

Massive Arms Shipment Intended for Hezbollah Intercepted by Israel Navy

Roughly 500 tons of weapons, rockets, and missiles was uncovered aboard the cargo vessel “Francop” flying an Antiguan flag, which was intercepted and brought to the Ashdod port. The Israel Navy force which intercepted the ship included naval commandos, missile boats, intelligence and explosive experts.

36 shipping containers with 500 tons of weaponry were found on the ship disguised as civilian cargo, and hidden among hundreds of other containers onboard.

Israel Naval and Engineering Corps forces are currently unloading the containers and are sorting through the various types of weaponry found aboard.

The naval commando force boarded the vessel and conducted an initial search. The search was conducted in accordance with the usual search protocols as dictated by International Law.

Following the initial search and after it became clear that the vessel was carrying weapons, the vessel was directed by the Israel Navy to dock at the Israeli Ashdod Naval base for additional searches and a detailed inspection of the hull’s cargo. It should be emphasized that the captain of the ship agreed to the search. The Israel Navy conducted all activity without any force.

The weapons found onboard the ship originate from Iran, and were intended for the Hezbollah terror organization, for use against the State of Israel and its citizens. The weapons uncovered at sea last night constitute a harsh violation of UN Security Council Resolutions 1747 and 1701 that strictly forbid Iran from exporting or trading any form of weapons.

This is a well-known Iranian technique, taking advantage of cargo ships flying different flags in order to smuggle containers loaded with large amounts of highly volatile weaponry to terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah.

Following the necessary inspections of the boat, it is expected to be released.

The overnight operation was authorized by the Prime Minister and the Minister of Defense of the State of Israel. Commander of the Israel Navy, Maj. Gen. Eliezer Marom, commanded the operation from a forward command cell. The IDF Chief of the General Staff authorized the operation, after the confirmation of intelligence information gathered by the IDF.

http://idfspokesperson.com/2009/11/04/500-tons-of-weapons-for-hezbollah-intercepted-by-israeli-navy-4-nov-2009/

The Jewish Nakba

Wednesday, May 20, 2009

The Jewish Nakba: Expulsions, Massacres and Forced Conversions by Ben-Dror YeminiHere's the latest excellent must-read and bookmark essay from Ben-Dror Yemini. Presented in full:
The Jewish Nakba: Expulsions, Massacres and Forced Conversions
Originally was published in Hebrew, in MAARIV
Each year, the Palestinians mark Nakba Day, the catastrophe that befell them with the establishment of the State of Israel. But the Jews in Arab countries also suffered catastrophe and it was many times worse.
By Ben-Dror Yemini (bdyemini@gmail.com)
They say that she was stunningly beautiful. Sol (Suleika) Hatuel was 17 years old when she was beheaded. A Muslim friend claimed that she had succeeded in converting her. When Sol denied the claim, she was accused of renouncing Islam and was condemned to death. Her case reached the sultan.
In order to prevent her death, the community elders tried to persuade her to live as a Muslim. She refused and said, "I was born as a Jew, I will die as a Jew." Her fate was sealed. It happened in 1834. She was from Tangier and was executed in Fez. Many make pilgrimages to her grave. Despite the fact that the incident was immortalized in eyewitness testimony, in a famous painting and in a play, her story has been forgotten. The following article is dedicated to her and to the victims of the Jewish Nakba.
Every year on the 15th of May, the Palestinians - and many others around the world along with them - "celebrate" Nakba Day. For them, this is the day that marks the great catastrophe that befell them as result of the establishment of the State of Israel. Hundreds of thousands of Arabs became refugees. Some fled, some were deported. The Nakba grew to such enormous proportions that it is preventing a solution to the dispute.
We must remember that in the 1940s, population exchanges and deportations for the purpose of creating national states were the accepted norm. Tens of millions of people experienced it, but only the Palestinians (and they are not alone in this) have been inflating the myth of the Nakba.
However, there is another Nakba: the Jewish Nakba. During those same years, there was a long line of slaughters, of pogroms, of property confiscation and of deportations against Jews in Islamic countries. This chapter of history has been left in the shadows. The Jewish Nakba was worse than the Palestinian Nakba. The only difference is that the Jews did not turn that Nakba into their founding ethos. To the contrary.
Like tens of millions of other refugees around the world, they preferred to heal the wound. Not to scratch it and not to open it and not to make it bleed even more. The Palestinians, in contrast, preferred bleeding to rehabilitation. And now they are also paying the price.
The industry of lies has intensified the myth of the Nakba and turned it into the ultimate crime. The Nakba has spawned innumerable publications and conferences, to the point of completely distorting the actual historical process. The Deir Yassin massacre has become one of the milestones in the Palestinian Nakba. There is no need to hide what occurred there (even though the issue of the massacre is in dispute). Innocent people were killed.
There were a few other instances of behavior that should be exposed and condemned.
Extermination War against the Jews
A long series of massacres was perpetrated against the Jews in Arab countries. They did not declare war on the countries in which they lived. They were loyal citizens. That did not help them. Their suffering was erased. Their story is never told. The Palestinian narrative has taken over history. There is no need for a Palestinian narrative versus a Zionist narrative. We need to shake off narratives in favor of the truth. And the truth is the number of Jews murdered was greater, their dispossession was greater, and their suffering greater.
A stunning testimonial from those years, which actually comes from the Arab side, sheds light on the issue. In 1936, Alawite notables sent a letter to the French Foreign Minister in which they expressed their concern for the future of the region. They also referred to the Jewish question: "The Jews brought civilization and peace to the Arab Muslims, and they dispersed gold and prosperity over Palestine without damage to anyone or taking anything by force. Despite this, the Muslims declared holy war against them and didn't hesitate to massacre their children and women ... Thus, a black fate awaits the Jews in case the Mandates are cancelled and Muslim Syria united with Muslim Palestine." The interesting thing is that one of the letter's signatories was none other than the great grandfather of Bashar Al Assad, the president of Syria.
We must remember that Nakba Day is the date of the declaration of Israel's independence, May 15th . We must remember what happened just a few hours after that declaration. The Secretary of the Arab League, Abdul Rahman Hassan Azzamaha, announced the declaration of war against Israel: "This war will be a war of annihilation and the story of the slaughter will be told like the campaigns of the Mongols and the Crusaders."
The Mufti, Haj Amin Al Husseini, who was close to Hitler during the Second World War, added his own bit: "I am declaring a holy war. My brother Muslims! Slaughter the Jews! Kill them all!" The mini-Holocaust of the Jews in Arab countries.
Various documents, some of them discovered only in recent years, show that the declaration of war was far broader. It was actually a declaration of war on the Jews.
Research that was conducted, among others, by Prof. Irwin Cotler, former Minister of Justice of Canada, shows that the Arab League formulated a bill that would place a series of sanctions on the Jews, including confiscation of property, bank accounts and more. The preamble to the bill states that "All Jews will be considered members of the Jewish minority in the State of Palestine." And if the fate of the Jews of Palestine was sealed, the fate of the Jews in Arab countries was clear.
The bill was indeed the background to the sanctions against the Jews in Arab countries - sometimes by way of legislation, as happened in Iraq and later in Egypt, and sometimes by taking those measures without the need for any legislation. According to the industry of lies, the Jews in Arab countries lived peacefully in their environment, under the protection of the government, and it was only because of the Zionist movement and the harm done to the Arabs in Palestine that the Jews began to suffer.
This lie has been repeated innumerable times. Most of the Jews in Arab countries did not undergo the horrors of the Holocaust. But, even before the advent of Zionism, their situation was not any better. There were periods in which the Jews enjoyed relative peace under Muslim rule, but those periods were the exceptions. Throughout Jewish history in Muslim lands there were humiliations, expulsions, pogroms and a systematic deprivation of rights.
Series of Pogroms
We can, of course, start with the conflict between Muhammad and the Jews. Muhammad undertook social reforms, bringing the Arabs out of the Jahaliya period, and borrowed the concept of monotheism - primarily, perhaps, from the Jews. Many motifs from the Jewish religion appear in the Koran, for example, circumcision and the prohibition on eating pork. But Muhammad wanted to convert the Jews, they, of course, refused. The result was a confrontation that ended in the expulsion and slaughter of hundreds.
The Jews, as the "People of the Book," were given the right to live under the protection of Islam and to practice their religion. From time to time, from generation to generation, the conditions underwent changes. In many cases, the Jews lived under the covenant of Khalif Omar.
This covenant enabled them to live as protected people ("Dhimmis"), albeit with inferior status. But many times, under Muslim rule, they were not even allowed a life of inferior status.
The Golden Age: One of the proofs of the coexistence of Jews and Muslims is Jewish prosperity under Muslim rule in Spain and the Golden Age. The reality, however, was different.
It encompassed a series of violence events against the Jews. In 1011 in Cordoba, Spain, under Muslim rule, there were pogroms in which, according to various estimates, from hundreds to thousands were murdered. In 1066 in Granada, Yosef Hanagid was executed, along with between 4,000 and 6,000 other Jews. One of the worst periods of all began in 1148, when the Almohad dynasty came to power (al Muwahhidun), and ruled Spain and North Africa during the 12th and 13th centuries.
Morocco: The country that suffered from the worst series of massacres. In the 8th century whole communities were wiped out by Idris the First. In 1033, in the city of Fez, 6,000 Jews were murdered by a Muslim mob. The rise of the Almohad dynasty caused waves of mass murders. According to testimony from that time, 100,000 Jews were slaughtered in Fez and about 120,000 in Marrakesh (this testimony should be viewed with caution). In 1465, another massacre took place in Fez, which spread to other cities in Morocco.
There were pogroms in Tetuan in 1790 and 1792, in which children were murdered, women were raped and property was looted. Between 1864 and 1880, there were a series of pogroms against the Jews of Marrakesh, in which hundreds were slaughtered. In 1903, there were pogroms in two cities - Taza and Settat, in which over 40 Jews were killed.
In 1907, there was a pogrom in Casablanca in which 30 Jews were killed and many women were raped. In 1912, there was another massacre in Fez in which 60 Jews were killed and about 10,000 were left homeless. In 1948, another series of pogroms began against the Jews which led to the slaughter of 42 in the cities of Oujda and Jrada.
Algeria: A series of massacres occurred in 1805, 1815 and 1830. The situation of the Jews improved with the start of the French conquest in 1830, but that did nor prevent anti-Jewish outbursts in the 1880s. The situation deteriorated again with the rise of the Vichy government. Even before 1934, the country was permeated by Nazi influences, which led to the slaughter of 25 Jews in the city of Constantine. When it achieved independence in 1962, laws were passed against citizenship for anyone who was not a Muslim and their property was effectively confiscated. Most of the Jews left, usually completely penniless, together with the French ("pieds noirs").
Libya: In 1785, hundreds of Jews were murdered by Burza Pasha. Under Nazi influence, harassment of the Jews intensified. Jewish property in Benghazi was plundered, thousands were sent to camps and about 500 Jews were killed. In 1945, at the end of World War II, a program against the Jews began and the number of murdered reached 140. The New York Times reported the horrible scenes of babies and old people who had been beaten to death. In the riots that broke out in 1948, the Jews were more prepared, so only 14 were killed. Following the Six Day War, riots broke out once again and 17 Jews were slaughtered.
Iraq: a massacre occurred in Basra in 1776. The situation of the Jews improved under British rule in 1917, but this improvement ended with Iraq's independence in 1932. German influences increased and reached a peak in 1941 in the pogrom known as Farhud, in which 182 Jews were slaughtered (according to historian Elie Kedourie, 600 people were actually murdered) and thousands of houses were pillaged.
Those were the days of Haj Amin al Husseini, who preached violence against the Jews. After the establishment of the State of Israel, the Iraqi parliament acted according to the Arab League bill and in 1950 and froze the assets of Jews. Sanctions were imposed on those who remained in Iraq. The Farhud massacre and the harassment from 1946 to 1949 to all intents and purposes turned the Iraqi Jews into exiles and refugees. The few thousand who remained in Iraq suffered from harsh edicts. In 1967, 14 Iraqis were sentenced to death on trumped up charges of espionage. Among them were 11 Jews. Radio Iraq invited the masses to the hanging festivities.
Syria: The first blood libel in a Muslim country occurred in 1840, and led to the kidnapping and torture of dozens of Jewish children, sometimes to the point of death, and a pogrom against the Jews. In 1986, the Syrian Minister of Defense, Mustafa Talas, published a book, "The Matzah of Zion," in which he claims that the Jews did, indeed, use the blood of a Christian monk to bake matzah. Same old anti-Semitism, new edition. Other pogroms occurred in Aleppo in 1850 and in 1875, in Damascus in 1848 and in 1890, in Beirut in 1862 and in 1874, and in Dir al Kamar there was another blood libel which also led to a pogrom in 1847. That year, there was a pogrom against the Jews of Jerusalem, which was the result of that blood libel. In 1945, the Jews of Aleppo suffered severe pogroms. 75 Jews were murdered and the community was destroyed. There was a resurgence of the violence in 1947, which turned most of the Syrian Jews into refugees. Those who remained there lived for many years as hostages.
Iran: There was a pogrom against the Jews of Mashhad in 1839. A mob was incited to attack Jews, and slaughtered almost 40. The rest were forced to convert. That is how the Marranos of Mashhad came into being. In 1910, there was a blood libel in Shiraz in which 30 Jews were murdered and all Jewish homes were pillaged.
Yemen: There were fluctuations in relations that ranged between tolerance and inferior subsistence, between harassment and pogroms. The Rambam's Letter to Yemen was sent following a letter he received from the leader of the Yemeni Jews, describing edicts of forced conversion issued against the Jews (1173). There were further waves of apostasy edicts which cannot be detailed here for lack of space.
One of the worst milestones was the Mawza exile. Three years after Imam Al Mahdi took power in 1676, he drove the Jews into one of the most arid districts of Yemen. According to various accounts, 60 - 75% of the Jews died as a result of the exile. Many and varied edicts were imposed on the Jews, differing only in severity. One of the harshest was the Orphans' Edict, which ordered the forced conversion of orphaned children to Islam. In nearby Aden, which was under British rule, pogroms occurred in 1947 which took the lives of 82 Jews. 106 of the 170 shops that were owned by Jews were completely destroyed. Hundreds of houses and all the community's buildings were burned down.
Egypt: As in the other Arab countries, the Jews of Egypt also suffered inferior status for hundreds of years. A significant improvement occurred when Muhammad Ali came to power in 1805. The testimony of French diplomat, Edmond Combes, leaves nothing in doubt: "To the Muslims, no race is more worthy of contempt than the Jewish race." Another diplomat added, "The Muslims do not hate any other religion the way they hate that of the Jews."
Following the blood libel in Damascus, similar libels began to spread in Egypt as well and incited mobs to carry out a series of attacks: in Cairo in 1844, 1890, and in 1901-1902; and Alexandria in 1870, 1882 and in 1901-1907. Similar attacks also occurred in Port Said and in Damanhur.
Later on, there were riots against the Jews at the end of World War II, in 1945, in which 10 were killed and hundreds were injured. In 1947, the Companies Law was passed, which severely damaged Jewish businesses and led to the confiscation of property. In 1948, following the UN resolution on partition, riots began in Cairo and Alexandria. The dead numbered between 80 and 180. Tens of thousands were forced to leave, many fleeing and abandoning their property. The lot of those who remained did not improve. In 1956, a law was passed in Egypt which effectively denied the Jews citizenship, forcing them to leave the country with no property. This was an act of pure expulsion and mass property confiscation.
***
The above is just a partial list out of a long series of massacres in Muslim countries. It happened before the Zionist endeavor. It continued with the Zionist endeavor. We are talking about a succession of events. Tens of thousands were murdered simply because they were Jewish. So the fairytale of coexistence and blaming Zionism for undermining that coexistence is yet another completely baseless myth.
Before the UN vote on partition in November 1947, Egypt's ambassador to the UN, Heykal Pasha, warned that "The lives of a million Jews in Muslim countries will be in danger if the vote is for partition... if Arab blood is spilled in Palestine, Jewish blood will be spilled elsewhere in the world."
Four days afterwards, the Iraqi foreign minister, Muhammad Fadil al Jamali said that "We will not be able to restrain the masses in the Arab countries, after the harmony in which Jews and Arabs lived together." There was no harmony. There had been a massacre of Jews just a few years earlier. El Jamali lied, of course. The very same Iraqi government had encouraged the harassment of Jews and issued orders to confiscate all Jewish property.
Additionally, the Iraqi leader of the time, Nuri Said, had already presented a plan for expelling the Jews in 1949, even before the hasty - actually forced - exit of the Jews from Iraq. He also explained that "The Jews are a source of trouble in Iraq. They have no place among us. We must get rid of them as best we were able." Said even presented a plan to lead the Jews via Jordan in order to coerce them into passage to Israel. Jordan objected, but the expulsion was implemented anyway. Said even admitted that this entailed a type of population exchange.
So the massacres, the pogroms and the great expulsion of the Jews was a continuation of their suffering under Muslim rule. There have always been Muslims who came out in defense of the Jews. They are also worthy of mention. That were also periods of prosperity, but it appears that most of the Jewish prosperity, as in Egypt in the 1920s and 1930s, in Algeria in the 19th and 20th centuries, in Iraq in the 1920s - was under colonial rule. In most cases, the situation of the Jews was bad before the European invasion and worsened once again with the end of the colonial era.
* * *
Throughout the relations between Jews and Arabs, in Arab countries or in the course of the Zionist enterprise, there was not one case of a pogrom against Muslims of the type committed by the Arabs against the Jews. Even in the worst cases, which must be condemned, such as Deir Yassin, they occurred as part of a military confrontation.
Those are cases that should be condemned, but we need to put things in perspective. The Arabs slaughtered the Jews without any hostilities and without any military excuse, just because they were Jews. And those few Arabs who were killed, were killed as part of a military campaign. Despite this, any injury inflicted on the Arab population resulted in innumerable investigations and references. The worst abuse of all, the abuse of Jews by Arabs, was erased and forgotten.
Let's return to Deir Yassin, the ultimate symbol of the Nakba. We have called it an indecent act and we will repeat that. But we must note that it was preceded by a series of murderous terrorist attacks against the civilian population. Waves of incidents, which to all intents and purposes were actual pogroms, by an incited mob that attacked the civilian population. Thousands of Jews were slaughtered - women, children and the elderly. The Palestinians even murdered their own people. In the great Arab Revolt in the 1930s, 400 Jews and 5,000 Arabs were killed, most of them at the hands of their brethren.
The months before Deir Yassin were the worst of all. 39 workers were murdered at the Haifa refineries, 50 Jews were killed by car bombs in Jerusalem, and on and on. In total, in the four months between the vote on partition and the declaration of establishment of the State of Israel, 815 Jews were murdered, most of them before the Deir Yassin incident (on April 9, 1948), some afterward (the slaughter of the Hadassah hospital convoy, 79 killed, April 13, 1948). Most were civilians. Most died in massacres and terrorist attacks. And that is the real background. Far more murdered Jews. But they have all been forgotten. They should be mentioned. That is the Jewish Nakba, whose victims, in Israel and around the world, are mentioned less and less.
The Palestinians paid the price
Close to a million Jews lived in Arab countries at the time of the establishment of the State of Israel. Just a few live there today. Most left because they suffered from pogroms and the threat to their lives. It was a crueler expulsion than the one suffered by the Arabs of Palestine, who paid the price for the declarations of war and annihilation made by their leaders. Even the Jewish property that was confiscated or abandoned as a result of the expulsion is more valuable than the Arab property that remained in Israel.
Various investigators have tried to estimate the value of the confiscated Jewish property following the forced departure of the Jews from Arab countries, compared with the Arab property left in Israel following the forced departure of the Arabs. Economist Sidney Zabludoff, an international expert in the field, estimates that the value of the Arab property is $3.9 billion, compared with the value of the Jewish property which is $6 billion (at 2007 values).
So even in this area, the Palestinians' claims are refuted. They dragged the Arab countries into war. They paid the price. And they are the ones who caused the Jews to pay an even higher price. Both in property and in blood.
This article is not intended to cultivate the Jewish Nakba, and it by no means includes all the cases of pogroms, property confiscations, forced conversions and other harassment. The purpose is precisely the opposite. When they understand, in the Arab world in general, and the Palestinians in particular, that suffering, expulsion, loss of property, the cost in lives, is not the monopoly of one side, they may, perhaps, have the sense to understand that this past is a matter for history lessons. Because if we start to perform a political accounting, they have an overdraft. The Jewish Nakba was far greater. The suffering was enormous. But it is the suffering of many nations, Jews and Arabs among them, who went through the experience as part of the creation of new nation states.
It is therefore worth presenting the story of the Jewish Nakba. Not for the purpose of increasing the hostility, but for the purpose of presenting the truth, and for the purpose of reconciliation between the nations. Inshallah.
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Mohammed Al-Dura -- Real or Real Hoax?

The new court ruling in French and in English. If you want to catch up on the details first I recommend the HONEST REPORTING timeline here: http://www.honestreporting.com/a/alDura.asp

The Court decision or "I would not like to be Charles Enderlin" at the Augean Stables: here

It is generally a good feeling when the truth comes out, even when it is late in coming. This time however, I feel this hoax (if it is one, and I believe it is)is responsible for the deaths and maiming of thousands of Israelis and Palestinians.

Be sure to see the 18 minutes of unedited footage below as well. Especially pleasing is seeing little Mo peeking out from under his arm some seconds after we was supposedly shot. How about an autopsy of the little boy along with some DNA testing of Dad and boy? Time to lay this business to rest and find out the truth.

I believe that France 2 will not want to take this to France's higher court although it claims it does. If it does it will doubtless be disgraced again. Claiming to appeal and not doing so is their best way to save face, and nothing at all will come of it in the long run.

Al-Durrah Raw Footage

10 seconds not shown on France TV: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75hiDGp89Xk

18 minutes of France 2 raw footage, Part I: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Qtva4rKnM0
Part 2: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUhM2NZavcc

Wiki Edit Wars been Going on Since 2006

Yahoo! Community Members Please Report this AntiSemitic Page

This needs to be taken down:

Q: Is the jewish strategy inspired by ancient "scripture"?
I'm thinking of the way judaism glorifies genocide - Joshua and Jericho,that type of thing. Are they basing their whole politico-military strategy on mimicing these old atrocities?


A: Best Answer - Chosen by Asker
Yes,but more so in recent years than in the 1940's. The rise of the Religious Right in jewish-occupied Palestine has resulted in an increasing identification of the biblical enemies with various Arab peoples. Certainly Orthodox jews consider mass-murder to be very honorable,and any reader of the Old Testament is acutely aware of the creepy preoccupation with killing babies,as in phrases such as "spare not the suckling babe" and the repeated recommedation to dash their brains out against rocks. There's worse in the Talmud. Today the viciousness of the ancient hebrews is a guiding principle in the continuing attempt to liquidate the remaining Palestinians.


http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20080213200109AA7h6Sp

Hamas is Barbaric

To see the video clip, CLICK HERE

Here is the brief transcript of the speech which was aired on Al-Aqsa TV on February 29, 2008:

Quote from Hamas MP Fathi Hammad

[The enemies of Allah] do not know that the Palestinian people has developed its [methods] of death and death-seeking. For the Palestinian people, death has become an industry, at which women excel, and so do all the people living on this land. The elderly excel at this, and so do the mujahideen and the children. This is why they have formed human shields of the women, the children, the elderly, and the mujahideen, in order to challenge the Zionist bombing machine. It is as if they were saying to the Zionist enemy: "We desire death like you desire life."

Hamas placed children on rooftops as human shields preventing Israeli attack on Qassam workshops and warehouses


Yediot Ahronot correspondent Itamar Eichner reports in today's edition that an officer in Israeli Military Intelligence revealed in a briefing by FM Livni to foreign ambassadors that

"before the IDF attacks Qassam workshops or warehouses it distributes flyers asking the residents to evacuate the area. But Hamas exploits the flyers and places small children on the rooftops in order to foil the attacks. And thus because of this trick the IDF is forced to halt many such bombings at the last moment."

"We are working with our hands tied because of all these laws and because we are part of the free world and because this is part of our values," FM Livni said.

www.imra.org.il/story.php3?id=38440

Open Letter to the World

GREAT VIDEO FROM KAHANE'S "LETTER"

YouTube:

http://www.youtube.com/v/eyC-z0b6L5Y

Hamas Admits it uses mosques for "military" bases

Hamas admits using mosques for "military" [i.e, terrorist] bases :

Military Communiqué



Al Qassam Brigades mourns a group of Mujahideen due to the Zionist raid at Badir mosque in Rafah city

As Al Aqsa Intifada against the occupation assault on the Gaza Strip continues, Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades has its best men to be in the playground of death to defend their people from any attack by the enemy.. Today , Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahideen:

Mohammed Omar Abu Nema 23- year –old

From Khalid Ibn Al-Walid mosque in Al-Salm neighborhood

Samir Hamdi Assfour 35- year –old

From Al-Ansar mosque in Rafah

Emad Ibrahim Al-Talih 32- year –old

From Bilal Ibn Rabah in Rafah

Sadeq Yousif Al-Balishi 27 –year –old

From Al-Nour mosque in Rafah

Sobhi Mofid Awadallah 21- year –old

From Al-Sallhin mosque in Rafah


The Mujahideen were martyred sustained of their wounds. They were injured when the Zionist air force fired a rocket towards him. His body turned into fragments. Ezzedeen Al-Qassam Brigades mourns the death of the Mujahideen, reaffirms the commitment and determination to continue the resistance against the belligerent occupation forces.

http://www.alqassam.ps/english/?action=showsta&sid=1010

thx to Jewish Odysseus

Pro-Palestinian Propaganda --Shamir Quote

Pro-Palestinian propaganda is always making up false quotes and taking things out of context. When I find any I shall put them here. Happily the NYT is making its archive available online, and the quote I am talking about presumably comes from the New York Times April 1, 88 and indeed I found it here.

The original accusation which is surfing the 'net reads like this:

“The Palestinians should be crushed like grasshoppers, their heads smashed against boulders and walls.” -- Israeli Prime Minister, Yitzhak Shamir.

Further research shows that it is purported to have come from the NY Times. Most of the accusations do not bother to even source it, and it is accepted as true. At any rate, at no time does Shamir make that statement. He is clearly referring to "the rioters" though he refers to the Palestinians, from the long perspective of Jewish history in the region, as "grasshoppers" compared to the Jews. At no time does he make the statement above.

Barack Obama And Israel

Talk, Talk vs Walk, Walk


Ed Lasky in The American Thinker has put together some interesting facts about Obama.

The ascent of Barack Obama from state senator in Illinois to a leading contender for the Presidential nomination in the span of just a few years is remarkable. Especially in light of a noticeably unremarkable record -- a near-blank slate of few accomplishments and numerous missed votes.

However, in one area of foreign policy that concerns millions of Americans, he does have a record and it is a particularly troubling one. For all supporters of the America-Israel relationship there is enough information beyond the glare of the klieg lights to give one pause. In contrast to his canned speeches filled with "poetry" and uplifting aphorisms and delivered in a commanding way, behind the campaign façade lies a disquieting pattern of behavior.

One seemingly consistent them running throughout Barack Obama's career is his comfort with aligning himself with people who are anti-Israel advocates. This ease around Israel animus has taken various forms. As Obama has continued his political ascent, he has moved up the prestige scale in terms of his associates. Early on in his career he chose a church headed by a former Black Muslim who is a harsh anti-Israel advocate and who may be seen as tinged with anti-Semitism. This church is a member of a denomination whose governing body has taken a series of anti-Israel actions.

Read it here at The American Thinker

Pollard Responds to Minister Ben Eliezer Championing Barghouti Release

Justice4JPnews - January 6, 2008

Esther Pollard responded this morning to Minister of Infrastructure Fuad Ben Eliezer who declared (regarding a prisoner release deal) "If Barghouti's name is not on the list of those to be freed, I will personally fight for his release!"

Ben Eliezer's remarks today left no room for doubt that his advocacy for the release of Marwan Barghouti, who is serving 5 life sentences for the murder of Israeli citizens, is unconditional.

Asked by Israeli media for her response, Esther replied:

"When we first met with Ben Eliezer he was Israel's Minster of Defense. We asked him what he was doing to free Jonathan, and he shot back, "What have I got to do with Pollard?!" We had to remind him that Jonathan worked under the auspices of the Ministry of Defense and that as Minister of Defense it was his responsibility to seek Jonathan's immediate release. In all the years since then, Ben Eliezer has never lifted a finger to help Jonathan and certainly has never once opened his mouth publicly to advocate for freedom for Jonathan Pollard.

It is simply stunning, on the eve of American President Bush's arrival in Israel, that Israeli Cabinet Ministers (yesterday Matan Vilnai, today Fuad Eliezer, and recently Gidon Ezra and others) instead of advocating for the release of Jonathan Pollard who worked on behalf of the State of Israel for the security of its citizens, are announcing their intention to fight for the release of arch-terrorist,Marwan Barghouti!

Is there no end to the depths this government is willing to sink?"

IMRA

My sentiments exactly

sub-prime mortgages explained

http://onegoodmove.org/1gm/1gmarchive/2007/11/subprime_mortga.html

Kahane-Olmert Debate

The unforgettable televised debate between the late Rabbi Meir Kahane and Ehud Olmert, over 20 years ago. Olmert had no answers then, and as we see he has not yet found an answer to Israel's Arab demographic threat.

Thanks to http://www.voiceofjudea.com for the video.
Audio: http://kahane.hostultra.com
Book: http://www.whybejewish.org/questions.doc
Writings: http://www.geocities.com/nkmpa/
News: http://www.israelnn.com

from the Voice of Judea

FEATURED STORY

November 6,2007

Jerusalem Judge calls referendum racist

by Moshe Ben Israel

Convicted for making a referendum for Israel

You are probably one of the people who signed a referendum in the summer of 2005 before the expulsion of the Jews from Gaza and Northern Shomron. More than 100,000 people like you participated in that referendum. As insane as this may sound,Yekutiel Ben Yaakov, the man who initiated that referendum was recently convicted in a Jerusalem court on charges of incitement for his efforts to allow the people of Israel to voice their opinion on this critical issue of life or death for the state of Israel.

This draconian measure being used to silence the majority of Jews in Israel must be protested. Please read the below news item and then send an email petition to the judge urging leniency for Yekutiel Ben Yaakov.

On the 25th of March, 2008 at 10:30 AM Judge Rivka Feldman will be sentencing Yekutiel Ben Yakov for his alleged crime of "incitement to racism". More than 100,000 people participated in the referendum which asked voters to choose their preference of two "disengagement alternatives" - "The Sharon plan" - expulsion of the Jews, or "The Jewish Alternative" - to expel Israel's enemy thereby distancing the threat of Kassam rocket attacks.

Over 90 percent of those who participated, opted for the Jewish plan. Is it any wonder that the government will do anything possible hush these results and to bury any referendum initiative? The last thing Olmert and his ilk need is for the people of Israel to voice their opinion openly and for the average Israeli "right wing extremist" to learn that his views are in the majority and not the views of some extremist fringe element. What soldier will obey orders to expel his brother, when it becomes clear that those giving him the orders are not only demanding that he violate Torah and common sense but also that he execute orders that are anathema to the majority of Israelis.

The courts have given Ben Yakov the victory that he has been seeking. Now that it has been established that it is "racist" and illegal to suggest the alternative of expulsion of our enemies in a referendum, it would surely be deemed racist to actually expel 10,000 Jews from their homes.

The public is urged to attend the hearing for the sentencing in Jerusalem on March 25th at 10:00 AM (Beit Mishpat Shalom)

Funds for the legal defense can be sent to Mishalot Yisrael POBox 6592 Jerusalem Israel

Please send a letter of protest to Judge Rivka Friedman Feldman and urge leniency on behalf of Yekutiel Ben Yakov...All emails can be sent to MishalLYisrael@Yahoo.com with the subject Referendums are not illegal.

Funds can also be given now over pay pal at the following link: http://www.defendisrael.net/donate.shtml

http://www.voiceofjudea.com/eng/featured.asp?featured=136

see the Kahane-Olmert debate from 20+ years ago with Peter Jennings on Youtube

A couple of great Jewish links and a Cohn-Chomsky dialogue

I found this magnificient set of links with some great Yiddish links at the bottom from the Jewish Agency for Israel

http://www.jafi.org.il/education/diaspora/links/LinksByACategory.asp?startcatid=10

also this one on Judeo-Arabic works comes from the same source.

http://www.uwm.edu/~corre/judeo-arabic.html

*************************************
Then read:

"Liar...Coward...Little Fascist"
Letters from Noam Chomsky

Some twenty years ago I had a correspondence with Noam Chomsky that lasted for several months. The issues are familiar, and these letters will not add to anyone's knowledge or insights on them. I present the letters now not for their ostensible content but for their style.

The correspondence of academics is generally marked by great courtesy. Sometimes this courtesy is exaggerated so that mockery can be suspected. Sometimes the tone lapses into cool formality and, rarely, thinly veiled incivility. But these deviations from the norm of courtesy are rare.

Professor Chomsky's style, however, is something altogether different and, I believe, unique. Here I was, a perfect stranger, somebody he is unlikely to ever have heard of, somebody who could not have mattered much in his life or work, and yet he invests this correspondence with manic energy, lengthy persistence, and most puzzling of all, with a verbal violence that is almost universally shunned by adults.
--Werner Cohn

http://wernercohn.com/liar.coward.html

Michael Medved Ask Ron Paul Important Questions in this Open Letter

Friday, October 26, 2007

An Open Letter to Rep. Ron Paul

Posted by: Michael Medved at 6:30 PM

Dear Congressman Paul:

Your Presidential campaign has drawn the enthusiastic support of an imposing collection of Neo-Nazis, White Supremacists, Holocaust Deniers, 9/11 “Truthers” and other paranoid and discredited conspiracists.

Do you welcome- or repudiate – the support of such factions?

More specifically, your columns have been featured for several years in the American Free Press –a publication of the nation’s leading Holocaust Denier and anti-Semitic agitator, Willis Carto. His book club even recommends works that glorify the Nazi SS, and glowingly describe the “comforts and amenities” provided for inmates of Auschwitz.

Have your columns appeared in the American Free Press with your knowledge and approval?

As a Presidential candidate, will you now disassociate yourself, clearly and publicly, from the poisonous propaganda promoted in such publications?

As a guest on my syndicated radio show, you answered my questions directly and fearlessly.

Will you now answer these pressing questions, and eliminate all associations between your campaign and some of the most loathsome fringe groups in American society?

Along with my listeners (and many of your own supporters), I eagerly await your response.

Respectfully, Michael Medved

New Middle East Forum

Get in on the ground floor.
http://crazyworld.informe.com/forum/

So many forums will ban you if you do not agree with the prevalent (anti-Israel) philosophy. I try to be polite everywhere I go but I keep getting banned at some. For example, I was banned at the Democratic Underground because they thought that the Israel National News was "right wing" and one is not allowed to be right wing at that site. Husband and I have been banned from a number of sites, including the latest "Political Crossfire" which we have both been banned for due to an anti-Israel moderator who claims that all "Zionists" are "making personal attacks" on others. So invite your enemies to my new forum. I will not ban people for a difference of opinion.

http://crazyworld.informe.com/forum/

Doris Lessing's Asymetric Argument

---

"Nobody's" elegant argument:

why should some political driven Nobel laureate from britian judge the value of 9/11 to be less than the self induced ira terror in britain? i am talking about doris lessing.

the ira terror war has been on for decades and ours has been but 6 years. lessing should have the decency to wait another 24 years before rendering judgement. 9/11 was a salvo against america similar to the sneak attack by japan in which fewer casualties happened. one could use lessing's criteria to argue that america's entrance into ww2 was an exaggerated response thus leaving england to fight the nazis.
alone. crazyworld forum

Jimmy Carter: Follow the Money.

Mr. Christian himself, or Mr. Corrupt?

Carter's Arab financiers
By Rachel Ehrenfeld

December 21, 2006

To understand what feeds former president Jimmy Carter's anti-Israeli frenzy, look at his early links to Arab business.

Between 1976-1977, the Carter family peanut business received a bailout in the form of a $4.6 million, "poorly managed" and highly irregular loan from the National Bank of Georgia (NBG). According to a July 29, 1980 Jack Anderson expose in The Washington Post, the bank's biggest borrower was Mr. Carter, and its chairman at that time was Mr. Carter's confidant, and later his director of the Office of Management and Budget, Bert Lance.

At that time, Mr. Lance's mismanagement of the NBG got him and the bank into trouble. Agha Hasan Abedi, the Pakistani founder of the Bank of Credit and Commerce International (BCCI), known as the bank "which would bribe God," came to Mr. Lance's rescue making him a $100,000-a-year consultant. Abedi then declared: "we would never talk about exploiting his relationship with the president." Next, he introduced Mr. Lance to Saudi billionaire Gaith Pharaon, who fronted for BCCI and the Saudi royal family. In January 1978, Abedi paid off Mr. Lance's $3.5 million debt to the NBG, and Pharaon secretly gained control over the bank.

Mr. Anderson wrote: "Of course, the Saudis remained discretely silent... kept quiet about Carter's irregularities... [and] renegotiated the loan to Carter's advantage."

There is no evidence that the former president received direct payment from the Saudis. But "according to... the bank files, [it] renegotiated the repayment terms... savings... $60,000 for the Carter family... The President owned 62% of the business and therefore was the largest beneficiary." Pharaon later contributed generously to the former president's library and center.

When Mr. Lance introduced Mr. Carter to Abedi, the latter gave $500,000 to help the former president establish his center at Emory University. Later, Abedi contributed more than $10 million to Mr. Carter's different projects. Even after BCCI was indicted — and convicted -— for drug money laundering, Mr. Carter accepted $1.5 million from Abedi, his "good friend."

A quick survey of the major contributors to the Carter Center reveals hundreds of millions of dollars from Saudi and Gulf contributors. But it was BCCI that helped Mr. Carter established his center.

BCCI's origins were primarily ideological. Abedi wanted the bank to reflect the supra-national Muslim credo and "the best bridge to help the world of Islam, and the best way to fight the evil influence of the Zionists."

Shortly after assuming office, in March 1977, Mr. Carter made his first public statement regarding a Palestinian "homeland." Since then, he has devoted much of his time to denouncing Israel's self-defense against Palestinian terrorism, which he claims is not only "abominable oppression and persecution" of the Palestinians, but also damages U.S. interests in the region.

By the time BCCI was shut down in July1991, it operated in 73 countries with a deficit of $12 billion, which it had managed to hide with wealthy Arab shareholders and Western luminaries. Among them Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan al-Nahayan of Abu Dhabi, who gave hundreds of millions of dollars to Yasser Arafat and Palestinian terrorist groups, and who branded the United States: "our enemy number one"; Former head of Saudi foreign intelligence service, and King Faisal's brother-in-law, Kamal Adham — who with another Saudi, the banker of the royal family, Khaled bin Mahfouz, staged BCCI's attempt to illegally purchase the Washington-based First American bank, in the early 1980s.

True to its agenda, BCCI assisted in spreading and strengthening the Islamic message; they enabled Pakistan's nuclear ambitions, and helped the Palestinian leadership to amass a $10 billion-plus fortune, used to further terrorist activities and to buy more influence in the West.
BCCI founders also supported the Islamic fundamentalist opposition to the Shah of Iran, and saw it as an opportunity to undermine Western influence in the Gulf. They assisted the revolution financially, reinforcing their position within the leadership of the Iranian revolution. Ironically, the success of that revolution cost Mr. Carter his presidency.

BCCI's money also facilitated the Saudi agenda to force Israel to recognize Palestinians "rights," convincing Egyptian president Anwar Sadat to sign the Camp David Accords in September 1978. Since then, Mr. Carter repeatedly provided legitimacy to Arafat's corrupt regime, and now, like the Saudis, he even sides with homicidal Hamas as the "legitimate" representative of the Palestinian people.

In a recent interview with the Los Angeles Times, Mr. Carter again laid responsibility for U.S. bias against the destitute, depressed and (consequently) violent Palestinians on American policy makers' helplessness, over the last 30 years, against the menacing tactics of the powerful American-Israel Political Action Committee (AIPAC).

However, it seems that AIPAC's real fault was its failure to outdo the Saudi's purchases of the former president's loyalty. "There has not been any nation in the world that has been more cooperative than Saudi Arabia," the New York Times quoted Mr. Carter June 1977, thus making the Saudis a major factor in U. S. foreign policy.

Evidently, the millions in Arab petrodollars feeding Mr. Carter's global endeavors, often in conflict with U.S. government policies, also ensure his loyalty.

Rachel Ehrenfeld is the director of the American Center for Democracy.

http://shilohmusings.blogspot.com/2006/12/carters-arab-financiers-by-rachel.html

Rice indicates shift in policy: Palestinian state before compliance

I had to put up this article by Dr Aaron Lerner from the IsraelInsider because it is too important to let get by.

By Dr. Aaron Lerner September 28, 2007

When U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice talks in a public forum she is extremely careful about what she says. And what she doesn't.

That's what makes her remarks at the 23 September press conference at United Nations Headquarters she held with Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and other Quartet Principals so disturbing

Here is what she first said:

"And if you look at the phase-one commitments, it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State in which the phase-one commitments have not been realized or have not been carried through. And so, absolutely, those phase-one commitments have to be met."

So far so good.

But then she said:

"... But it is absolutely the case that you're not going to be able to establish a Palestinian State if you don't have a commitment to end terror, if you don't have a commitment to end settlement activity, if you don't have a commitment to non-violence. All of those things have to be achieved. The Palestinians will have to have capacities. They will have to have security forces that can provide security against terrorism, but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people."

Fancy footwork.

First Rice says that "it is very hard to imagine the establishment of a Palestinian State" if the phase-one commitments haven't been carried out.

But Rice doesn't make it a red line. Instead the red line is "commitment" rather than action.

Put simply, the solid red line is that before there is a sovereign Palestinian state the PA has to issue are really well-written declaration -- a really strongly worded one. And they have to be armed to the teeth.

What about actually doing something on the ground? "Terror" has been given the same weight as "settlement activity". As far as Rice seems to be concerned, the people building a sukkah in Ramat Eshkol are just as much a problem as the terrorist trying to blow up a bomb in Tel Aviv. This gives tremendous "wiggle room" to argue that both parties are not behaving.

But again: while the Roadmap spoke of action, Rice's red line appears to be only declarative in nature.

But that's not what phase-one was all about. It requires both talk and action.

Here is the wording:

Talk: "Palestinian leadership issues unequivocal statement reiterating Israel's right to exist in peace and security and calling for an immediate and unconditional ceasefire to end armed activity and all acts of violence against Israelis anywhere."

Action: "All official Palestinian institutions end incitement against Israel."

Talk: "Palestinians declare an unequivocal end to violence and terrorism "

Action: "and undertake visible efforts on the ground to arrest, disrupt, and restrain individuals and groups conducting and planning violent attacks on Israelis anywhere."

And while Rice talks about apparently arming the Palestinians to the teeth (does "but that can also provide security for the Palestinian people" mean an ability to fight Israel?) she also ignores action:

"Rebuilt and refocused Palestinian Authority security apparatus begins sustained, targeted, and effective operations aimed at confronting all those engaged in terror and dismantlement of terrorist capabilities and infrastructure. This includes commencing confiscation of illegal weapons ..."

Instead of real action we have some photo ops.

This week the PA tried to make a splash in the press by handing over some pipes to Israeli authorities -- claiming that they were Qassam rockets.

Similar hollow photo ops can be expected in the future. This while "moderate peace partner" Mahmoud Abbas continues to take a strong position against Israel right to defend itself from terror attacks.

The last thing that Israeli officials can afford to do is ignore this policy shift.

The shift away from requiring Palestinian compliance before the forming of a Palestinian state isn't a matter of nuance. It is fundamental.

http://web.israelinsider.com/views/12133.htm

Wake up, Folks!!

On Jewish Guilt and Jesus

I have found two books which have profoundly shaken my worldview up. The books themselves are quite different though on the same topic. Jewish 'guilt' or lack thereof, in the death of Jesus. I picked up the Cohn book (Cohn was an Israeli Supreme Court Judge, retired when he wrote this book) -- What a fantastic analysis! I have read the Gospels many times over but never even noticed the discrepancies in them, or thought about it. Cohn has a wide knowledge of Jewish Law and history and of course an enormous intellect to go with it. I think he has a point, but most Christians can't handle it.

I actually wrote a review of it in Amazon today (not up there yet) and have quite a few comments on the reviews.


The Trial and Death of Jesus by Haim Cohn:

http://www.amazon.com/Trial-Death-Jesus-Haim-Cohn/dp/1568525028/

One thing led to another and I am now in the middle of the following book and in correspondence with the author.


The Ghost in the Gospels: The True Story of How Jesus Died and How We All Missed It for 2,000 Years , by Leon Zitzer

http://www.amazon.com/Ghost-Gospels-Story-Jesus-Missed/dp/0595408516

I have always known and understood the Jewishness of Jesus in my heart, which I think is why I am moved by the Christians who have the sticker : "My Boss is a Jewish Carpenter".... though heaven knows I don't agree with them about everything!!

Zitzer goes even further with a wonderful thesis regarding Barabbas and Judas which makes magnificent sense. I have never been able to buy the Mel Gibson vision of the Passion. Most Jews don't. It may not be as these 2 people have laid it out, but if it is, time to make some changes in our thinking. Now is actually a very religious time, where millions and millions of people are acting out of religious convictions. Jihads are being fought, wars are being fought over religious conviction; mosques are popping up all over, Christians are being thrown persecuted in the middle east and elsewhere, and Jews are back to being "the sons of apes and pigs."

All of the book reviews (written by nonJews) give Judge Cohn credit for scholarship and such but cannot accept it. They have to have it that the Jews have at least some guilt over the death of Jesus! No one seems to be able argue his thesis away. Argument is based on sheer emotion, not to mention a couple of millennia of tradition as to how things were with Jesus and how things were supposed to have happened. That Jews should be completely innocent, Christians (and maybe even secularists) cannot accept! Maybe they would put a little guilt on the Romans, but Heaven knows most (if not all) of the guilt has to go to the Jews.

Zitzer tells me that he is getting a very hostile reception from everyone, including Messianic Jews, which I would have thought would have taken it well. Anyway, If this is an area of interest of any of you, I highly recommend both books above.
:D

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

The Myth of Rachel Corrie

By Ronald Radosh

Dr. Radosh is author or co-author of 14 books, His work has appeared frequently in such venues as The New Republic, The Weekly Standard, National Review, The American Interest, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, and other journals and newspapers.

This letter was sent in June to Ed Herendeen, the founder and artistic director of the Contemporary American Theater Festival (CATF) in Shepherdstown, West Virginia, in protest of the production of "My Name is Rachel Corrie" (reviewed on HNN this week).

Dear Mr. Herendeen:

I moved to this area [Shepherdstown, West Virginia] one year ago, largely because it is a community of cultured people active in the arts. Last year my wife and I not only bought a series ticket to CATF, but we invited lots of friends to come from the DC metropolitan area to attend the performances.

I wish to tell you why this year I am boycotting the festival, in protest of your production of My Name is Rachel Corrie. On the CATF website, the play is described as a vehicle to show Rachel Corrie’s “eye-opening Middle East reports,” which are said to be “powerfully direct.” In the Shepherdstown Observer article, you are quoted as noting her “passionate commitment: and her quest to “understand one of the most turbulent conflicts on earth.” You connected to this play, you say, “because of Rachel’s idealistic voice,” which reminds you of your “youth and idealism.”

Your comments and the description of the play is disingenuous and utter nonsense. Rachel Corrie was not a simple idealist seeking to comprehend the truth about conflict in the Middle East. She was, rather, a committed member and activist in the so-called International Solidarity Movement, a group whose own description of their position cites their endorsement of “armed struggle” against Israeli men, women and children. At the same time, the ISM rejects Israel’s right to defend itself against never ending terrorism aimed at its very existence.

As I write this letter, the violence and Quassam missles flying into the Gaza town of Sderot are increasing, and Hamas promises to soon use newer long range missiles that will reach further and larger nearby towns. The Hamas Prime Minister, Ismail Haniyeh, has said that “we will keep to the same path until we win one of two goals: victory or martyrdom.” Their spokesman Abu Obeida has noted that we “will strike at the enemy anywhere in Palestine, whether with suicide attacks or operations against soldiers.” One of its leaders told Al Jazeera: “We recognize that violence is necessary and it is permissible for oppressed and occupied people to use armed resistance and we recognize their right to do so.”

Hamas is serious. Since 2000, it has carried out dozens of “suicide” bombings in Israel, and killed more than 250 people. Hamas and Fatah groups have also smuggled weapons into Gaza in preparation for major attacks against Israel. Last year alone they smuggled into Gaza 33 tons of military grade high explosives, 20,000 assault rifles, 38 long-rage missiles, 12 guided missiles, 95 anti tank rocket launchers and 410 anti tank rockets.

It is the activists of Hamas and other terrorist groups that the ISM uses its American cadre to protect. Rachel Corrie’s parents, who are speaking at the forthcoming “The world condemns Israel” rally on June 10th in our nation’s capitol, have said that their daughter was “working in Rafah with a nonviolent resistance organization…trying to stop the demolition of Palestinian homes and wells.” In the play, Corrie says she is working among “unarmed people” and that the “vast majority of Palestinians…are engaging in Gandhian non-violent resistance.” Poor Gandhi must be turning over in his grave. Where did Rachel Corrie think the Hamas terrorists get their rockets, rifles and rocket launchers from? What does she think they use them for?

The weapons she somehow is supposedly unaware of are in fact smuggled into Gaza by a network of hidden tunnels. One of those tunnels was under the house she was supposedly protecting from destruction. Her claim used in the play that she was seeking to prevent “Israeli demolition of civilian homes” is false.The IDF’s aim was not to destroy the house, but to cover up the tunnel they had found dug there by the terrorist groups. Corrie was knowingly demonstrating in a dangerous war zone where she should not have been. She was a human shield for Hamas terrorists who cynically use gullible Americans to deter attacks on their arms caches and homes that are used as weapon depots. Corrie knew the use to which she was put. As she writes, “imagine the difficulties the Israeli army would face if they shot an unarmed U.S. citizen.” In other words, she knew she and her comrades were good propaganda subjects for Hamas.

Sadly, Corrie died when an Israeli bulldozer ran her over. We have all seen the famous photo: Corrie standing way in front with a bullhorn, and then, the next photo of her lying near death with other ISM cadre standing over her. The intent is to show that Corrie was intentionally killed by the IDF driver, who saw her clearly. Indeed, the play ends with the words of an ISM militant, Tom Dale, who was there. He “knew absolutely that she was there,” the audience hears. Another ISM militant, Joe “Smith,” signed an affidavit that Israel engaged in the “intentional crushing of a human being,” and five other ISM activists who were there seconded his affidavit. They are, and Rickman-Viner’s script agrees, charging Israel with intentional murder of a peaceful protester. As the late Yassir Arafat said, “Rachel Corrie is a martyr.”

I suggest you read the article by investigative reporter Joshua Hammer, which appeared in the progressive magazine Mother Jones, a vehicle sympathetic to the Palestinian cause and firmly on the left/liberal side of the political spectrum. (Sept.-Oct.2003) Hammer found that the very intention of the ISM team Corrie was part of was “to engage the Israeli military.” When they heard an Israeli bulldozer would soon be in the area, the team moved to the house towards which it was heading. Corrie put herself between the wall of the house and the Israeli D-9 bulldozer. Her death, according to Tom Dale, took place in six or seven seconds.

What did Hammer find? First, the famous photo of Corrie with the megaphone was taken way earlier. Half an hour earlier, she had given it to another militant. When the bulldozer was near her, Corrie was kneeling way down in the dirt, a position that made it difficult for her to be seen. The operator of the vehicle had a limited field of vision, and saw no one in front of him. “You can’t hear, you can’t see well. You can go over something and you’ll never know,” he told investigators. Moreover, the IDF takes videos from the bulldozer cockpit for the record. Hammer saw these videos. His conclusion: The IDF “makes a credible case that the operators, peering out through the narrow, double-glazed, bulletproof windows, their view obscured behind pistons and the giant scooper, might not have seen Corrie kneeling behind them.” Why don’t you consider ending the play with this, rather than Tom Dale’s charge of intentional murder?

After the audience hears this, they will see a home video of a ten year old charming Rachel Corrie talking about the horror of world hunger. How sweet. How manipulative. How phony. Did the mature Rachel Corrie ever consider how the jihad she was supporting was viewed by Israeli young women her own age? Did she ever see the effects of the suicide bombings and rockets that the Hamas militants she sought to protect had on Israeli families?

In the case of Rachel Corrie, her youthful idealism led to the advancement of evil acts by terrorist groups. She was not a heroic peace activist. To quote the Wall Street Journal editorial that appeared a day after her death: “It’s a shame that Rachel Corrie died the way she did. It’s shameful that she lived the way she did.” In the context of the increasing attacks on Israel by Hamas, Fatah, Islamic Jihad and Al-Aqsa fighters, presentation of this one-sided play- actually a crude example of agit-prop at its worst- can only inflame sentiment towards the false conclusion that the terrorists are really only freedom fighters.

Rachel Corrie was not an innocent. She was a dedicated believer who was part of the ISM movement. She knew well the importance of propaganda. As she wrote to herself: “Set up system for media work.” Writing home, she asked that her parents when talking to the press never say things like we must end “the cycle of violence,” because it was not a “balanced conflict,” but a case of victims fighting Israeli imperialists. Think of this “before talking to reporters,” she advised them.

Sadly, Corrie’s wish is carried out in the play, and now will spread to Shepherdstown in this forthcoming production.

Sincerely,

Ronald Radosh
Prof. Emeritus of History, City Univ. of New York
Adjunct Fellow, The Hudson Institute, Washington, DC

can be read, along with comments, here

don't miss the comments

CNN & Christiane Amanpour "Shoddy Journalism"

must-see TV...

MSNBC's Dan Abrams Slams "CNN's Holy War"

The August 27th broadcast of MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams slammed CNN's "God's Warriors" as biased shoddy journalism, with host Dan Abrams saying at the outset that the three-part series "was not what it claimed or promised to be." In the segment, titled "CNN's Holy war?", Abrams also said "CNN should have called it what it was, a defense of Islamic fundamentalism and the worst type of moral relativism."

According to Abrams, CNN's Christiane Amanpour, "avoided getting bogged down in objectivity." (See the full video clip below.)

CAMERA offered its own detailed criticism of the Amanpour series in the articles linked below:

1. God's Jewish Warriors — CNN's Abomination

2. God's Muslim Warriors — CNN's Double Standard

3. God's Christian Warriors— CNN Slurs Christians

Here's the full video clip of the segment from MSNBC's Live with Dan Abrams:

http://www.camera.org/index.asp?x_print=1&x_context=3&x_outlet=14&x_article=1360

from The Long Road from Kherson,
A PROFILE OF REV TASCHLICKY


Rev Taschlicky was born in Kherson, near Odessa, where his father, a gifted composer and chazan, taught him to read music as fluently as Hebrew.


Youthful breadwinner

Afte the outbreak of the Russo-Japanese war in 1905, the family fled from Russian and eventually settle in Budapest, the capital of Hungary.

Thanks to his father, music and chazanut were the dominant factor in young Moshe's life well before he was eight. By then, with his father too ill to work regularly, sweet voiced Moshe became the family's breadwinner both as a concert performer and chorister.

The age of 13 conferred on him the traditional right to lead synagogue services. Accompanied first by his father and later by an impresario, the young wonder chazan toured the Jewish communities of Hungary, officiating at Sabbath prayers and giving Sunday recitals.

He was only 16 (and now a tenor) when he gained his first post as a resident chazan, at a Budapest synagogue. Three years later, the unrest unleashed by Bela Kun's short-lived communist revolution began to affect his career. To prevent his family's deportation back to Soviet Russia, he secured a state position in the Budapest Opera, where he sang while remaining a chazan.

Operas and oratorios

But with antisemitism rampant in Hungary, he felt uncomfortable there and in 1923 he moved across Europe to Holland. He was appointed chazan in Arnhem, which then contained about 700 families.

The Jews of Arnhem had a rich musical and cultural life and the young Taschlicky, with his fine voice and wide repertoire, soon found himself in demand as a soloist in such oratorios as Handel's Judas Maccabeus and Messiah, Mahlers Das Lied von der Erde, and Berlioz's Damnation de Faust.

Call to Berlin

Hoping to pursue and operatic career, he was obliged for a time to give up chazzanut. Nevertheless, he continued to appear before Jewish audiences, singing classical and liturgical music, including compositions by his father Salomon Taschlicky.

It was the offer of a synagogue vacancy in Berlin that took him on the next stage of his journey. Despite the subsequent rise of Nazism, some of Rev. Taschlicky's fondest memories of Germany are of the non-Jewish music lovers who came to hear him in the synagogue, sometimes leaving boxes of chocolates by his seat.

Cinema intervals

In 1929, an invitation to tour America raised his hopes that he could finally escape from the insecurity of Europe. In the United States he traveled from one major Jewish center to another and was hailed as a celebrity. In some synagogues, admission to Friday night services conducted by Chazan Taschlicky was by ticket only. He was even asked to perform in cinemas during the intermission in the silent movies.

But he failed to gain entry visas to the United States for his family and he returned after only a year to Europe--this time to a synagogue in Vienna. Once again, it was his worry about rising antisemitism that prevented him from settling down. He disbelieved the confident assurances of his synagogue employers that Nazism would never spread to Austria from Germany. In 1933, he left Austria for Holland. Little over a year later, he moved to England where in 1935 Golders Green synagogue wisely selected him as its cantor out of 13 applicants.

Safe haven

At last, this wandering minstrel had reached a safe haven. With his singing, he delighted the congregation for the next 35 years...

Moise Taschlicky, author of the piece below, with his mother  Sara (pregnant with Clara), Shlomo, Margit (vanished at the Holocaust), Judith, Samuel 

LECTURE ON JEWISH MUSIC by Rev. M. Taschlicky July 18th, 1946

Only few definite statements can be made concerning the kind and quality of the artistic developments of the Jewish traditional psalm singing. So much seems certain that folk music of olden times originated in family circles and developed into songs which were heard by professional singers in the temple.

When Moses redeemed the Israelites from the bondage of Egypt and when he led them through the divided Red Sea he praised the Lord by singing. And the children of Israel joined him in singing the Shirah , which is well known to all. Later Miriam, the prophetess, sister of Moses and Aaron, took a timbrel - a kind of drum - with all the other women following her with such instruments, they sang similar verses as Moses. It may, therefore, be that the music was influenced by the Egyptians as the Hebrews had been living in Egypt for many centuries.

Later on, at the time of the Jewish Kings, temple music appears to have been taught more systematically. We remember when King Saul was distressed by evil spirits he engaged David to play on his harp, and it was through his wonderful playing that the King found rest and peace. The Bible states that King David appointed trained singers, instrumentalists, and masters skilled in music who were responsible for conducting the divine service.

The prophet Nehemia in Jerusalem, after having marched around the city, is said to have stood opposite the temple singing hymns of praise to God. Nehemia and Joshua served in the sanctuary as members of the famous Levitical choir. The Levites were specially trained and had special duties to perform. They marched in body to the temple, beautifully dressed. They were trained not only vocally but also instrumentally. Trumpet, harp, cymbalon, violin are instruments they used skillfully.

We are reading in our daily prayers "Praise the Lord with the blast of the horn, with harp and lyre. Praise Him with dance, string instruments and the pipe." We can imagine how beautiful and impressive the service in the temple must have been in those days. Under such circumstances and in such atmosphere, decorum and devotion of the congregation must have dwelled in the sanctuary. (Which, of course, stands in no comparison to our services.)

It is an unfortunate fact that since the destruction of the temple we are forbidden to make use of instruments in orthodox Synagogues on Sabbath and Jomtovin (religious holidays) , as a sign of mourning over the loss of the temple. But let us hope that the time will come when a new temple will be built and we shall be able to praise the Lord and sing with even greater devotion and more beautifully still.

Let me point out that although many of our old traditional melodies were lost through centuries of wandering all over the world, we still possess many original and lovely melodies of olden times. Melodies which are based on real oriental style and spirit. They are composed in minor key, mexolodish (could he mean "mixolydian"?) or freygish . They remind us of Arabic melodies. Something different. Something from far away. When we listen to these melodies you get a feeling of sadness and hope at the same time. You are reminded of the glory of Zion, the holy city of Jerusalem, her beautiful incomparable blue skies, her glorious white buildings, the mighty walls. Wisdom, Learning and Purity spread over the Holy City. This is the feeling that I have when I close my eyes and concentrate and listen to oriental music .... illustrations...

Another interesting fact I am sure you will remember from the time when you prepare to be a Barmitzvah. You found that the holy scripture was accompanied by accents known as "Ta'amim " or "Trop." On almost every word we find special signs placed above and under the word. Those melodies are probably thousands of years old and are typically oriental ....illustrations...
After the destruction of the temple which was about 2000 years ago, Jews were scattered all over the world. They immigrated to Spain, Russia, America, Britannia, France, Holland, Germany, Rumania, Hungary, etc. In order to keep up the tradition they opened houses of learning and prayer, and through this they kept Judaism alive. The chasan became primarily the reader of the service.
In the 16th century the Russian Jews introduced the first musical service. Later, prominent chasanim (plural of chasan ) and composers like Rosowsky , Minkowsky, Seidel Rovner and many others composed great musical works and harmonised them beautifully for full choir, Some of the chasanim harmonised without the theoretical knowledge of music, entirely through their natural hearing, and it so happened, that in spire of little theoretical knowledge all chords were sounded lovely.

A gifted boy aged 6 or 7 was sent to a famous chasan where we was living in order to be trained as a singer, and became a soloist later. This often proved to be a hard life for these little boys, as not all chasanim were in a good financial position. After years of training they became so perfect that they often touched their listeners to tears. They were so famous that they were kidnapped occasionally by other chasanim and after weeks of searching were recaptured, sometimes with the help of the police. This, by the way, happened to my father, when he was a boy of 10. He was a pupil of Seidel Rovner, * famous chasan and composer. Seidel Rovner had a choir of 40-50 boys and men. The compositions he composed, I think, can be compared to those of Verdi and Bach. The following is a true story which will show you his enthusiasm whilst conducting his choir:

One Thursday afternoon when the chasan had a rehearsal with his choir in his house, a little boy stood outside the window listening to the wonderful singing. He carried a cockerel which he was supposed to take to the shochet for the Sabbath meal. The choir was just in the middle of a very soft tune when suddenly the cock outside the window started to crow and spoiled the most beautiful pianissimo. The chasan, dressed in a long silken kaftan with white stockings, a long beard, and of course, a cap on his head, got so furious at this Interrupting that he threw the tuning fork , the only thing handy, at the boy. The fork smashed the window and shocked the little boy who quickly picked it up and ran away with the fork and cock. The chasan ran after the boy with the intention of beating him for this disturbance. After a while the chasan returned exhausted, accompanied by a few of his members with his precious tuning fork and the rehearsal could continue.

Many of those Jews at that time were strictly orthodox and great scholars, and many of them were chassidim. They did not attend opera houses or concerts, not because they did not like them, only because those places were not holy. They believed everything they did should be devoted to His Name only - to God. Music to them is something holy as the Bible considers music to be one of the seven wisdoms of the world. It was the Synagogue where they received musical education which was to their complete satisfaction. (A chassid is a pious Jew, originated in the 18 century in Eastern Europe. He does not expect much from this world but he believes in life to come, in reincarnation. He believes in the Rabbi being closer to God than anyone else. He believes in and fears evil spirits .) Chasidic melodies are the fundamental source of the Yiddische Lied. Imagine for a moment a long table with hundreds of chassidim and at the head of the table the holy Rabbi. The Rabbi with a long white beard starts to hum a tune, only the first sentence, and all the chassidim join in instantly.... illustration...

The chassidic melodies have a special charm, and express praise to the Lord for redemption and happiness. The well known Yiddische Songs are mostly based on these tunes .... A few examples...

In the 19th century with the removal of the Ghetto barriers Jews made important contributions to European music. Pupils of the aforementioned chasanim became famous composers, singers and conductors. In Italy Salamone Rossi , rabbi and composer, was an outstanding figure and devoted much of his energy to the harmonising of synagogal melodies. Towards the end of the 18th century, the Jews were permitted to enter academies of music. The results were speedy and phenomenal.

Amongst those who held high positions were Giacomo Meyerbeer (son of a chasan), who composed famous operas (in Hungary?) Jaques Halevy , composer of the famous opera "The Jewess" and composer of many beautiful synagogal music.

Jaques Offenbach (son of a chasan), composer of the famous oratorio "Eliju ", famous violin concerto and very many songs. Ferdinand Hiller , the originator of oratorio music. (His famous oratorio called "Destruction of Jerusalem" ) Anton Rubenstein, famous pianist and composer and founder of the Russian Conservatoire in Moskow.

I don't think you know that the king of all waltz and dance music was a Jew: - Johann Strauss . And of course his father and brothers were also musicians. (Who does not know the Blue Danube and Fledermaus which is supposed to be the classic operetta?) Later we have Gustave Mahler , who composed in the style of Wagner introducing many Jewish motifs.

In England, Jewish musicians have also contributed very much to the standard of English music. Sir Michael Costa, composer, John Barnet, composer, Isaac Nathan , vocalist, etc. We must not forget Carl Goldmark , who composed "The Queen of Sheva" introducing Jewish feelings and oriental colouring. Maurice Ravel , the most modern composer in France , an Impressionist of music, who prefers the oriental style in his compositions. He also composed many Yiddische Songs .............illustrations....

Arnold Schoenberg , composer. The greatest revolutionary force in music today.
In America , Louis Gruenberg , founder of jazz and negro music.

In Palestine today, composers have shown the world a great deal. The music in Palestine is of a very high standard, Joel Engel is one of the famous composers. He composed the famous drama called "The Dibuk" (The Spirits) Amongst his other compositions is the most popular Kaddish song. Palestine is the only country in the world that has her national orchestra, opera, oratorio played exclusively by Jews; and of course every text is sung in modern Hebrew. Palestinian music is produced exclusively by Jews. But we must not forget that music all over the world is being played and sung mostly by Jewish soloists.

Here then are a few names of the most famous Jewish artists: -
(Some you may have enjoyed listening to)

• Pianists: Rubinstein. Solomon. Dr Weingartner. Moiseivitch. Schnabel. Dame Myra Hess. Harriette Cohen.
• Violinists: Yehudi Menuhin. Kreisler. Hubermann. Yasha Heifitz. Scigetti. Alex. Schmuler. Ida Handel, and many more
• Singers: Sopranos: Yearitza Maria. Selma Kurz (daughter of a shochet and chasan) (famous star of the Viennese opera.). Gitta Alpa (opera singer and film actress) (daughter of a Budapest choir master) Baritones: Joseph Schwartz (son of a chasan. First baritone at Berlin Opera House. Later Metropolitan, New York,)Schorr (Famous bass, Berlin Opera House, Son of a chasan.) Alex. Kipnis (called the successor of Schalyapin. Former choir boy at the Warschau Synagogue. Now New York Metoropolitan) Tenors: Yadlowka, (Berlin Opera House Kammersinger of Kasier Wilhelm). Joseph Schmidt, (concert singer, and film star. Former chorister Richard Tauber, known to everyone here .

And here are the famous chasanim of the last century: -

• Russia: Rosowsky, Minkowsky, Rosumna, Bachmann, etc
• Budapest: Prof. Lazarus. Quartin, etc Vienna: Prof. Sulzer (also composer). Bela Futtman. Male Goldstein
• Berlin: Musikdirektor Aaron Friedman (also composer)
• Warschau: Sirota, etc New York: Rosenblatt, David Reutmann
  Synagogal Composers
• Berlin: Levandowsky. Baer (Baal Tefillah)
• Vienna: Sulzer. Male Goldstein
• London: Prof. Sam. Allmann (composed also two operas. Conductor of Hampstead Synagogue) Rev. Monbach. Rev. Hast.
• Budapest: Salomon Taschlicky (my father. Yiddish opera "Three Good Deeds")
• 
  Conductors: Klemperer. Bruno Walter Prof Ochs.

Jewish Music makers online:
http://www.klezmershack.com/klezcontacts.html#horowitz_j