Hamas-Islamist crimes against humanity

Concerning the Simchat Torah massacres by Hamas:

The following short essay was published first on my blog at The Times of Israel, here:
https://blogs.timesofisrael.com/eternal-jew-in-israel-today/

Einsatzgruppen murder and nazi murderers, Photo credit: Library of Congress, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives

In the past most analyses of the origins and history of the conflict between indigenous non-Jewish Palestinians and Jewish-Zionist emigres have focused primarily on two matters:
1. the politics of national identity, and
2. the right of Jews to claim Israel/Palestine as a homeland.
This latter argument often frames Zionism as a colonial enterprise.

However, neither of these two analytical/ideological approaches hold any water. The first postulates a pre-existing Palestinian national identity. This is merely an illusion, and whether that illusion is a product of inept historicity, projecting the historical present onto the past, or mendacious propaganda, it remains a false basis of analysis. This conflict is NOT the product of two national identities vying for the land. Palestinian identity had NO nationalistic basis until the early 20th century, and even then only by a very few ideologues. Real national identity takes centuries to develop, and it did not begin to emerge in the Palestinian population until after the founding of Israel and the rise in the 1960's of the PLO, led by Yasser Arafat. And even today, twenty years after Arafat’s death, Palestinians still do not have a meaningful national identity. In short, the Palestinians were, and still are an indigenous people, but not a nation.
* Request my Identity Addendum on some necessary markers of national identity.

As for the assertion that Jews have no historical claim to the land, and that Zionism is colonialism, this is nothing but mendacious propaganda. I need not reference the vast number of historical texts and the abundance of archeological evidence that prove three millennia of Jewish life in the land of Israel. Rather, one text is sufficient. The whole Hebrew Bible is a text about Jewish identity, an identity co-existent with the Land of Israel. And this text is universally acknowledged by Jews, Christians, and Muslims (and thus virtually the whole population of the region) as holy and canonical. Further, chapters 13-23 of the Book of Joshua is a verbal geographical mapping of ancient Israel, with a large number of descriptions that are incontrovertibly associated with locations in Israel today. It is an indisputable deed. So let me simply say, Zionism is a national liberation movement meant to reclaim the historic homeland of the Jewish people from the real colonialists, Muslims.

Therefore, we need to rethink the causes of Palestinian fury. An accurate and honest analysis of this historical conflict will assess it as a conflict of
1. status and privilege, coupled with
2. religious ideology.
National identity and the political canards that buttress such arguments are largely diversionary matters. I am not saying this in a void. Quoting the words of Imam Karim Abu Zaid, the imam of CMCC of Aurora, Colorado and the director of Salahuddin Future Academy:
“Brothers, Palestine... is not a national territorial issue, it is an issue of belief and disbelief. This is a religious issue in the depth of theology. ... Allah decreed only the believers to live there.... Only Muslims must be in control of this land....”
This is mainstream Islamic belief.

Long before the U.N. voted in 1947 to create Israel and Palestine, Arabs (they did not yet think of themselves as “Palestinians”) began their pogroms. It was not because of “the occupation” or “the settlements” or the “blockade of Gaza.” It was because suddenly Jews, not Muslims, were becoming the moving economic and political force in Palestine. In 1919 local Muslims and Christians saw their Ottoman government crumbling. And like their empire, the status of local Muslims was crumbling too. Their response was not a pursuit of unity, not economic initiatives, not dialog and a pursuit of re-education. Their response was violence promoted by religious leaders.

1919 marked the beginning of Arab terrorism against Jews in Palestine. Another wave of terrorism began in 1929, then 1936-1939, and then continually up to the present moment, with periods of relative quiet morphing into periods of intifada and war.

By late 1947, while Jews were actively consolidating and uniting their resources and action-plans preparing for nationhood, Palestinians continued to squabble without effective leadership and without any kind of self-directed vision of their future. They largely threw their hopes and their lot to the Arab nations around them, especially Egypt and Transjordan. In May of 1948, after Israel declared its independence, Egypt and Transjordan, among others, attacked the nascent nation intending to absorb it into their own borders. They had no intention of establishing a Palestinian nation, and for the most part the Palestinians seemed satisfied with that solution. Even well into the 1970's and beyond, many Palestinian warlord-leaders simply hoped to confederate with Jordan and take on Jordanian nationality. For example, consider this quote by Zahir Muhsein, PLO executive committee member in a 1977 interview:
“…The Palestinian people does not exist. The creation of a Palestinian state is only a means for continuing our struggle against the state of Israel…”
Or this by Walid Shoebat:
“Why is it that on June 4th, 1967, I went to bed as a Jordanian and woke up as a Palestinian? We considered ourselves Jordanian until the Jews returned to Jerusalem. Then, all of a sudden, we were Palestinians.”

And it wasn’t until 1994 that Jordan itself relinquished its territorial claims to the West Bank, then, and only then acknowledging an independent Palestinian claim to this disputed territory. As for Gaza, it was held as Egyptian territory until the 1979 peace deal with Israel (again, with no acknowledgment of any independent Palestinian national claim), when they insisted on transferring control to Israel in spite of Israel’s deep reluctance.

In sum, Palestinian hatred and violence long pre-existed Israel and even rudimentary Palestinian national identity. Nor is that hatred founded in “unfair treatment.” Rather, it is about status and Islamic ideology. It is about reducing upstart Jews to their proper place in the Islamic order.

Often this hatred is “justified” by accusing Israel of apartheid and colonialism. This is profoundly ironic, since it is the Muslim world that is truly apartheid and colonialist. These values are institutionalized thru three fundamental Islamic principles: jihad, dar al Islam/dar al Harb, and dhimma. Jihad is the colonialist act of conquest. Dar al Islam/Harb is the colonialist ideology justifying jihad. The terms mean respectively “region of peace” and “region of war.” Islam divides the world into two regions: the Muslim nations and the non-Muslim nations, with the non-Muslim regions being subject to jihad. Consider: currently 17 African countries have active jihadist insurgencies against moderate Islamic or non-Islamic governments! This is well documented by the Geneva Academy,
https://geneva-academy.ch/galleries/today-s-armed-conflicts

And dhimma is that aspect of Islamic law that deals with non-Muslims. Euphemized as “protection,” it really represents the medieval exclusion of non-Muslims from full and equal legal rights and protections. It is quite literally Islamic apartheid, and it is an integral part of Islamic dogma and ideology. These principles are the real underpinnings to Palestinian terrorism.

Still, we must ask: why did so many members of Hamas’ military commit such blatant atrocities? And why did so many civilians on Gaza’s streets celebrate the atrocities as acts of bravery and glory, and not with horror and revulsion? The answer must include understanding that these acts are the result of decades of a Palestinian program of teaching hatred on a societal level. In schools, thru all forms of media, in the mosque and at home hatred is taught, and those who promote hatred the most are rewarded the most. This is precisely like the nazi program of demonizing Jews in every sector of society thru every means of indoctrination.

And yet, the world turns a blind eye to this constant inundation of hate-teach, preferring to focus on simplistic and vapid political causes, refusing to acknowledge that many, if not most Muslim-majority nations pursue the same kind of hate-indoctrination with similar ferocity. From Algeria in the west to Indonesia and Malaysia in the east, we see the vilification of Israel thru politics, media, and educational policy. And this helps explain why Muslims around the world celebrated and continue to celebrate the atrocities.

The viciousness the world has witnessed in the Simchat Torah massacres is a product of unbridled hatred that has been taught and promoted aggressively across the Muslim world. Where hatred is institutionalized there can be no hope of peace. This not a conflict founded in politics. This is a conflict generated by the institutionalized demonization of the Jewish people thru religion and government.

Amnesty Jew hating International

Amnesty International’s latest Jew-bashing polemic has unconditionally verified what morally responsible people have been saying for years: Amnesty is a mouthpiece for anti-Jewish and anti-western hate mongers. This has been obvious to me for well over a decade, but perhaps this time their egregious distortions and lies (claiming that Israel is “apartheid”) will convince even some of the “liberal” news outlets to stop re-posting Amnesty’s bigotry and endorsing Amnesty’s Jew-hatred. By the way, you may wonder why I put ‘liberal’ in quotes above. It’s because organizations like the BBC, New York Times, and NPR are indeed often liberal in their views. However, when it comes to Israel they do a Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde flip, letting their ugly anti-Jewish animus escape unfiltered and uncontrolled.

I won’t recreate the wheel here with my own analysis of Amnesty’s latest abusive attack on Israel. Of the many reports that have already thoroughly dismantled and discredited the apartheid claims, here’s the place I think you should start if you’re not clear how much of a train-wreck the Amnesty report really is:

https://mailchi.mp/americanrabbi/weekly-talking-points-brief-september-27-13581230?e=25c819a369

Perhaps Amnesty should rename themselves Amnazi International. At least they would then be coming clean about their problem with Jews and Israel.

Dvar on Shelach Lecha and Israel haters

Two weeks ago Jews around the world read the portion Shelakh Lekha (Shelach Lecha), “Send out men for yourself” to scout the land of Canaan. Moshe sends out twelve tribal leaders as scouts, and 40 days later they return with their report: it is truly a land of abundance, cultivated and forested, with well built cities and towns. But 10 of the 12 scouts go on to report, “we were in our own eyes like grasshoppers” (13:33) to those people, who were giants. “The people in the land are too strong” for us (13:28). Only 2 scouts, Joshua and Caleb provide a minority report. In the words of Caleb, “We can indeed go up and take possession of it. We are truly able to do so.” (13:30) And who do the masses of Hebrews listen to? They listen to the nay-sayers and fear-mongers. “All the sons of Israel murmured against Moshe” and “the entire community said, ‘would that we had died in Egypt or the desert...’” (14:1-2) And by that choice they earned the fate they chose: dying in the desert. Only those not born into a life and an ideology of servitude were privileged to join Joshua and Caleb in taking possession of the land promised to them.

And here we are, some 3300 years later, and listen to the throng continuing to murmur and complain about our having taken possession of the land. They believe the scouts (journalists from the New York Times, BBC, Al Jazeera, NPR) who bring back exaggerated, false, and slanderous reports, and they learn their history, if they learn it at all, from those who hate Israel.

So let me take you on a high speed tour to make sure you have a basic understanding of Palestinian history.

Since the Roman conquest and colonization of Judea 2000 years ago, the only people who have ruled the land of Israel (renamed Palestine by the Romans) prior to 1948 have been colonizers. Byzantines, Abbasids, Seljuks, Mamluks, Crusaders, and others all colonized this land to serve rulers who lived in cities far away. In the 16th century the Ottoman Turks conquered the land and it was still in their grip at the end of the 19th century. Although there were some limited indigenous nationalisms emerging in the Ottoman empire, notably by Kurds and Armenians, in Palestine the few inhabitants living there were more interested in survival than political philosophy. The land was a ruins, a fact comprehensively documented in many dozens of books, some produced by individuals, some produced by groups, and some produced as the result of large-scale expeditions that included artists and photographers. I have pored over dozens of these books. There is not a single drawing, etching, or photograph showing anything but a depopulated land pervaded by extreme poverty. Nor is there mention of even the slightest murmurings of a “Palestinian national identity.”

In the late 19th century Jews once again decided to end their wanderings. So began the saga of Zionism, and the advent of the modern Jewish restoration of the land. It was a true national liberation movement, and it was the first, yes, the first time since Judea was conquered by Rome, that colonizers were being confronted by an indigenous people, a people with a highly developed national identity: Jews. It was Jewish emigration and Jewish investment that began to repopulate the land and bring about its revival. This included a concomitant Arab emigration, as they responded to the economic growth generated by the Jews.

Fast forward to the Gaza war of May, 2021. The excoriating journalistic attacks against Israel by so-called liberals pile up. Social media institutionalizes the lies and slanders. The outspoken, the latent, and the secret Jew-haters all gorge on the news (and vomit it wherever they go). Their numbers include not a few Jews. Should you be surprised? Read Shelakh Lekha. It tells of a mixed multitude of nay-sayers, and no doubt each had their own excuse, each had their own favorite distortion or lie.

Of the modern Jewish Israel-haters, some are angry and accusing; some are ashamed; some are wagging their fingers and moralizing with their insipid and fake morality. But I would suggest, beneath it all most of them are driven by the same fear those ten scouts in Shelakh Lekha felt. They see themselves as grasshoppers and the Israel-haters as anakim, giants. They read their NYT and listen to their NPR and BBC and Al Jazeera and become afraid like the Hebrew wanderers in the desert, who trembled in their imagined inferiority. They hear lies and take them for chastisements. They hear slanders and imagine they are truths. They prefer to see themselves as victims so they can be worthy of sympathy. They prefer obeisance so they don’t have to make hard, existential choices. But if Israel were left to such weak hands and such weak wills, it would quickly cease to exist. Hamas, Hezbollah, Iran, and many others in the region are not bound by moral restraints (as the Arab Spring so brutally showed), and would love nothing more than the opportunity to make every Jew in the land a victim.

What then can be said about the far greater problem of Arab and Muslim Jew-hatred with its focus on denying Israel’s right to exist? As the ADL report on worldwide anti-Semitism clearly shows (ADL Global 100, An Index of Anti-Semitism), the Muslim world is the epicenter of Jew-hatred in the modern world. Public and private schools from Morocco to Bangladesh teach Jew-hatred; the various media promote Jew-hatred; religious leaders preach Jew-hatred; and governments enforce Jew-hatred. And from this epicenter, Jew-hatred in all its forms is being promoted in every country of the world. This is a problem the obeisance-lovers don’t know how to address. Indeed, they are afraid to even acknowledge it, much less, to acknowledge that it is the basis of their own thinking.

Surely the news is bad and I am often dismayed, but I have not lost hope. The news and social media may be sick with abuse and hatred, and this Torah portion highlights how easily disinformation can prevail. However, our Torah reading includes a contrasting Haftarah. Here we read the story of the scouts sent to Jericho (Joshua 2:1-24). Finally, after long wanderings, the Jewish people has found its courage. The scouts report with prophetic insight (v. 2:24), “Adonai has delivered into our hands all the land.” And so it is today, as well. We have been granted, and we are earning the opportunity to rebuild our nation. But if you look just a little deeper, you will see we are not alone. Our allies are many, and not a few are Muslims, who have stepped up to become partners in Israel’s effort to exist as an accepted neighbor in the region. When that day has been firmly established, let us then see how Israel measures up to our highest expectations.

So let me modernize Joshua’s exhortation:

May all Jews, and may people of all faiths and philosophies stand with Israel and be strong and of good courage. May we pursue truth and be strengthened with righteousness. To quote the modern prophet, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “The arc of the moral universe is long but it bends toward justice.” And so I have faith that history will affirm our vision, and will affirm the justice and righteousness of Israel.

The apartheid slander against Israel

Prolog:

"Apartheid-Israel" is a modern slander directed towards Jews. It falls squarely within the framework of historic Jew-hatred, and is no different in intent than the age-old hate teachings, such as the blood-libel, the accusation that Jews poisoned wells to spread the 'black death', and the myth that Jews have a 'secret cabal' to take over the world. It is intended to delegitimize Israel’s right to exist, and it is cloaked in “political opinion” to allow it unqualified agency. If the many Jew-hating slanders weren't used to hate, plunder, and murder, they would be laughable. But they aren't laughable at all. They're evil.

In the following paragraphs I'll outline
1. a short history of this slander,
2. its hypocrisy and double standards, and
3. which countries and peoples in the Middle East are truly apartheid.

It is only after all these things are acknowledged and understood, that the rule of law as it exists in Israel today, including its many failures, can be honestly discussed.

1. A short history of the apartheid slander.

The "Israel is apartheid" slander emerged as a propaganda tool by the Palestinians in the early 1970's as part of their multi-phased war to delegitimize, and ultimately destroy Israel and wipe it off the map. More recently it was picked up by the BDS movement, driven by Palestinian, Muslim, "liberal" Christian, and leftist anti-Zionists to propagate their various versions of Israel-hatred and Jew-hatred. Their propaganda program has now become main stream, not unlike the hate propaganda generated by the nazis in the 1930's, or by the medieval Christian church. Thus, it is treated in Wikipedia as a matter of discussion and controversy, and not for what it really is -- Jew-hatred and slander. And of course, it has become a cause celebre in the UN, an organization with an overt and aggressive anti-Zionist agenda.

Jew-hatred, like racism, has very deep roots, and in many historic eras and in many parts of the modern world it is simply taken for granted as a valid world-view. But because it is widespread does not mean it is true, honest, or moral. Indeed, it is none of these.

2. The hypocrisy of this slander

In short, Israel is held to a standard that no other country in the world is held to. There is, of course, discrimination against Palestinians in Israel, as there is discrimination against Jews by Palestinians. But economically, socially, and politically, Palestinian citizens of Israel have a definably better life than Palestinians in ANY other country in the world. Period. Their economic and social status is higher, and their opportunities are vastly greater than Palestinians (or Arabs, in general) living in any other country. Palestinians in Lebanon, Syria, Iraq, and other Arab countries are still confined to refugee camps, which are more like concentration camps. They are kept in these camps because their "Arab brothers" don't want them as fellow citizens, and in truth, couldn't care less about them. They are used and brutally abused as pawns in the long-term Arab/Muslim war against Israel's right to exist. But, if one must make apartheid accusations, then first look at the plight of Algerians in France, Pakistanis in England, Turks in Germany, Kurds in Turkey, etc. The Palestinians in Israel have vastly better lives than any of these people. Yet Israel is slandered with the accusation of being apartheid.

And what about the West Bank? Aren't Palestinians there grossly discriminated against? First, West Bank Palestinians in general have better, more prosperous, freer lives than Palestinians in any Arab country. Period. Second, the West Bank is not part of Israel, and Israel is not bound by the same laws as it is for its own citizens. Third, the Palestinians in the West Bank have created their own fate, vis a vis Israel, due to their hatred, violence, and unwillingness to make peace, and ultimately to establish themselves as an independent country.

Palestinians of the West Bank have instigated 2 uprisings, both of which were exceedingly costly in lives both to Israel and themselves. In the 2nd intifada (uprising) 1000 Israeli civilians were murdered by terrorist attacks and suicide bombings in public places like cafes and synagogues. That would be equivalent to 30,000 Americans dying in anti-American riots. These uprisings were not about equal rights. They were intended as acts of warfare to destabilize Israel. They were intended to draw other Arab countries into the conflict, in a widespread war of annihilation, to "drive the Jews into the sea." Their military ambitions were a disastrous failure, but they have been successful in propagating their hatred.

In effect, what the apartheid-Israel slanderers are saying is: "Palestinians are allowed to hate Israel, deny Israel the right to exist, and perpetrate all kinds of violence, but Israel must treat Palestinians as if they were devoted citizens, ignoring their hatred and violence." It's ridiculous, but that's what is expected of Israel. Indeed, even more egregiously, Jews are not allowed to live in the West Bank, AT ALL. If they were, there’d be no need for settlements. Jews are forbidden to live in the West Bank (even tho Jews have been indigenous there for over 3000 years), and selling land to a Jew is a crime punishable by death according to Palestinian law! That's apartheid.

As for the Palestinians of Gaza, both their attitude and their violence are yet more extreme than that of West Bank Palestinians. Hamas, the theocratic dictatorship that rules Gaza, has avowed in their charter, as well as consistently in public statements (right up to the very day in which I’m writing this essay, June 2, 2021) that their goal is to destroy Israel and kill all its Jews. They have diverted a significant proportion of all the humanitarian aid they have received, as well as goods that come in thru Egypt and Israel, towards war with Israel. They have used that “aid” and materials earmarked for public welfare to build and amass a huge rocket arsenal, and to construct a vast "subway" system of military attack tunnels under their population centers, tunnels with no civilian use whatsoever. They use their own citizens (and foreign news agencies) as human shields, including placing munitions and military installations and operations rooms in and beneath hospitals, mosques, schools, apartment buildings, and office buildings. They use the shield of those same locations to stage rocket attacks on Israeli civilian populations. Aside from the 2 wars they started with Israel in the last decade, during "peacetime" they have fired over 10,000 rockets at Israeli cities, and have burned thousands of acres of farmland and orchards. And yet they claim, in a shockingly cynical irony, that they have been victimized by Israel!! Again, it would be laughable if it weren't evil. The same money and creativity could have been used to turn Gaza into a premier seaside vacation destination. But no. Many in Gaza suffer because their own government (with widespread public support) prefers to use poverty as a means of perpetuating hatred of Israel, and as an international propaganda tool.

3. Apartheid and double standards

The real apartheid in the Middle East exists in every Arab country, as well as Iran and Turkey. Kurds, Druze, Baha'is, Armenians, numerous Christian sects, Zoroastrians, bedouin peoples, Berbers, and a host of other minority peoples in the Middle East have all been periodically stripped of their rights, persecuted, ethnically cleansed, and suffered genocides in the last 80 years. All these, and other egregious acts of apartheid, discrimination, and oppression have been ignored or made light of. Instead, the one and only country with a constitution that requires equal treatment for all citizens, Israel, is cynically accused of being apartheid.

Appalling genocides involving the murder of many hundreds of thousands or millions of innocent citizens have occurred in Africa and S.E. Asia, the Middle East (remember ISIS?? Saddam Hussein?? Hafez al-Assad and his son Bashar??), and now in China against it's large Uighur minority, and yet Israel is cynically accused of apartheid. Here you see the grip of Jew-hatred driving the thinking of masses of people, many of whom imagine they are moral exemplars. They are no such thing. They are hypocrites and bigots.

And it seems no one (at least no one “woke”) is allowed to mention the elephant in the room. No one is allowed to mention that Islam itself is avowedly apartheid. The dhimma system is one of the defining features of Islamic law, and it specifically establishes the legal primacy of Muslims over all other citizens. Jews and Christians are formally and specifically second class citizens, and can be denied most legal privileges at the will of the ruler and his/her agents. Members of other religions have even fewer rights, and are even more at risk. From a western point of view, the dhimma is archaic and medieval, but it is still a defining feature of law in every Arab country, and nearly every Muslim country, sometimes constitutionally, but always from the ground up. The dhimma is how Muslims are taught to treat non-Muslims. And yet Israel with its modern constitution guaranteeing equal rights for all citizens, and its rule of law that commonly sides with Palestinians, is slanderously accused of being apartheid.

Finally, the epicenter of Jew-hatred in the world today is the Middle East (including countries as far east as Pakistan and Bangledesh). Sadly, in this era, Islam is an active agent in promoting Jew-hatred. It has not always been so, and hopefully a time will come when once again Islam will embrace tolerance towards its Abrahamic brother, and all others. But right now, public and private schools from Morocco to Bangledesh teach Jew-hatred; the various media promote Jew-hatred; religious leaders preach Jew-hatred; and governments enforce Jew-hatred. And from this epicenter, Jew-hatred in all its forms, including the apartheid slander, is being promoted in every country of the world. It has rampantly spread across social media, feeding the roots of Jew-hatred that seem to dwell in every human being, and spreading it like a pandemic, fed by lies, hatred, and ignorance.

Bottom line: Israel-bashing is Jew-hatred. Period.

So am I saying Israel is above criticism?

NO! I am saying that it is only at this point, when one is sure that Jew-hatred and its anti-Israel biases have been squarely looked at, acknowledged, and refuted unconditionally, that one can then look at Israel, see its many failures in its relations with the Palestinians, look at the comparable Palestinian and Arab failures, and understand them in context. But until one has reached this point of honest self-evaluation, and careful understanding of history, the discussion about "Israel's crimes" is just another kind of Ku Klux Klan cross burning. It is hatred, parading itself unashamedly in public.