ISRAEL AND THE FIGHT AGAINST MUSLIM VIOLENCE
Israel is supposed to be a safe haven for Jews, not only the Holy Land and not only the ancestral homeland of Jews worldwide, but a place where those in Diaspora can go and live in peace. No matter what the argument for or against the modern nation of Israel, it exists, like it or not. The re-creation of the Jewish State was defended in war, andIsrael was able to declare its independence after a brutal fight against the surrounding Arab countries. As usual, a small amount of Jews were able to defeat the larger armies. And now Jews from around the world make Aliyah, or return to their homeland, for religious reasons, in order to escape persecution elsewhere, or both. It is a safe haven. Supposedly.
But under the constant threat of violence from the surrounding Muslim countries as well as the so-called “Palestinians” who hope to take the land in its entirety for themselves and aim to kill all the Jews in the process, this tiny nation, just 8000 square miles, is forced to be vigilant at all times in order to protect its people and mere existence. Devoutly Muslim Palestinians are the closest enemies, raising their children to hate Jews and using Islam in order to really drive that message home.
Many Arabs these days will try to convince the world that Israelis are the violent ones, that Jews started the conflict. They say that before 1948, all was peaceful. The truth is, Arabs have been instilling hatred against Jews in their people for generations upon generations. The Arab attacks against Jews in recent times began as early as 1920, (though they really have been going on for centuries when Jews had dhimmi status while living in Muslim-controlled lands), and there were many massacres such as the one in Hebron in 1929. Over 100 Jews were killed in that year alone.
There were anti-Jewish riots in 1920 and 1921, and the Hebron incident at the end of the 1920s was a massacre of the Jewish community there. A few years later there was an Arab Revolt from 1936 to 1939. These are just a few of the major attacks, but there were murders which occurred practically every single year between 1920 and 1948, and they continue to this day.
This hatred and wish to annihilate Jews is the brainwashing process that begins from the time Muslim Arabs (and especially Palestinians) are born. Instead of being fed love, with their mothers’ milk they are fed hatred and violence. Children repeat what they hear, and they glorify “martyrdom” (which is nothing more than terrorism) in preschool and kindergarten plays. Even in children’s cartoons, these are the “ideals” they are being taught.
According to Palwatch, on Fatah’s website in December 2012, a picture was posted of a very small armed child, with the caption reading, “The 48th anniversary of the Launch of the Palestinian revolution,” and “My mother gave birth to me to fight, and Fatah gave me the gun.” There is another picture of young girls, also armed. Instead of wanting to grow up to be doctors, lawyers, firefighters or police officers, or any other kind of hero, these kids want to grow up to be suicide bombers because this is what is praised in their culture. These children, like any other children, want to be heroes. The trouble is that heroism means something different in their world, which demonstrates that killing Jews is an act of heroism.
They are taught that the road to paradise is paved with Jewish skulls, a favorite slogan of Hamas. Instead of playing “cops and robbers,” these children play “Jews and Arabs” where Jews are the “bad guys.”
And Palestiniansteach their children that they must sacrifice themselves for “the homeland.” With this mentality, you can imagine how the entire culture, from small children all the way up to 92 year-old grandmothers, unabashedly praise the massacres against Jews which have taken place in the past, and they pray for more to come. Hating Jews is perfectly normal when they are speaking Arabic. It only changes to “Zionists” when they are speaking English and hoping to gain support from the Western world. Either way, it is a culture where hatred and violence prevail. Calling suicide bombers who killed innocent Israeli civilians “martyrs” and naming streets after them as if they’re some kind of heroes is a perfect example. It should be a wake-up call to the rest of the world that these people are not victims but hate-mongering murderers.
Yet the liberals of the world choose to give them a platform, allowing the perpetrators to victimize themselves and demonize the Jews, the same-old, same-old anti-Semitism condoned by much of the world throughout history. The evidence of unprovoked Muslim violence and terrorism against Jews is staggering- yet ignored.
MEMRI is the Middle East Media Research Institute and is an important source of Middle Eastern news, as the organization undertakes the much-needed task of translating what these countries put on television. Through MEMRI, we are able to see some of what Muslims are saying in Arabic, Farsi or Urdu, for example, and uncover the hatred they so often attempt to disguise when speaking in English in the West. Yet more than once the MEMRI Youtube channel has been taken down, and the truth is stifled. Accused of being a “Zionist propaganda machine,” MEMRI is often attacked. However, the translated videos are nothing more than showing the world what Muslims are saying to each other when we’re not watching. It would be like taking one of our programs and translating it into Arabic, then calling the group that translated it an “anti-Western propaganda machine.”
One interesting video was recently posted by a religious group called The Temple Institute, but most important is what it shows: the harassment of Jews by Muslims on the Temple Mount during Hanukkah. Screaming “Allahu Akbar” and cursing at the Jewish worshippers who desperately tried, to no avail, to worship in peace, the Muslims purposely arrived there during Hanukkah in order to provoke Israelis. Police subsequently closed the Temple Mount to all non-Muslims, including Jews!
Hanukkah, incidentally, is one of the most widely recognized Jewish holidays, mainly due to its proximity to Christmas. While not a high holiday, its relevance is quite interesting. Specifically about Israel, the story behind Hanukkah is that of the Maccabees. We could take a page from the Books of the Maccabeestoday, as Judah Maccabee stood up for his people and fought against the persecution and injustices imposed on the Jews.
The Holy Land at that time was under the rule of the Syrian-Greek empire, and the situation for Jews worsened under Antiochus III and subsequently under his son, Seleucus IV, but things became absolutely unbearable after Seleucus IV was killed, and his brother Antiochus IV took over. Jews were oppressed and forced to assimilate to such a degree that the Hellenistic culture and religion encroached even the Jewish Temple. Later, Jewish worship was halted altogether. Among the forbidden practices were resting on Shabbat, the Jewish Sabbath, circumcision and observing dietary laws. Those who did not comply were put to death, and in fact, thousands of Jews were killed under Antiochus’ rule.
Freedom of religion was nonexistent as Judaism was suppressed, and demands were put upon Jews to worship Greek gods. This did not sit well with Mattityahu, a Jewish priest who refused to make a sacrifice to Greek gods and began a revolt instead in order to defend the Torah and protect the covenant made between G-d and the Jews.
Led by his son, Judah, a group called the Maccabees defeated the Syrians who were far greater in number. After a rededication of the Temple, the Jews found only enough oil to burn in the menorah for one day because the Syrians had destroyed the rest when they desecrated the Temple. Hanukkah is the celebration of the miracle that this small amount of oil burned for eight days, just enough time for more to be made.
While this is the religious significance of the holiday, the story of the Maccabees brings to mind the situation in Israeltoday. Jews are not safe in their own homeland. Continuously attacked by Muslims in violent terrorist acts of murder as well as the rock-throwing incidents which occur far too often andhave proven to be deadly on more than one occasion, Israelis are thrown out of even the holiest Jewish places during religious observances in favor of the very Muslims who assault them. In March 2013, there were firebombs thrown at police on the Temple Mount, and Muslims have purposely been targeting Jews over the holidays. During Rosh Hashanah, there was more violence, and the Mount was closed for Sukkot after intelligence uncovered a violent Arab plot.
Not only does the world remain silent, but acts such as the recent deal with Iran, in which the hostile and extremely anti-Israel nationmay essentially be allowed to enrich uranium without repercussions, and the recent ban of Pamela Geller and Robert Spencer by the UK due to their pro-Israel beliefs, demonstrate the irrational course many nations are taking in favor of the same Islam which marks the West and Israel as its number one enemies. And the tiny Jewish nation is forced to protect itself with or without help from the West.
The renewed pressure for peace talks between the Palestinian Arabs and Israelis is yet another example of the West yielding to Muslim demands regardless of the savage violence in both their past and present against Jews. Furthermore, the Muslim desire for Jewish territory is just a greedy land grab with no actual goal for peace. History has proven that land for peace does not work.
Back in 2005, Israel withdrew all its residents from Gaza in aheartwrenching scene where people were forced to leave their homes after a rich Jewish history in the land which long-preceded any Arab existence there. However, eager for peace as always, Israelattempted the “exchange of land for peace” proposition. Unfortunately, the exchange resulted not in peace but in tens of thousands of rockets being fired into Southern Israel and the rise of a terrorist government ruled by Hamas, whose ultimate goal is to destroy Israel and kill anyone in its path.
Hamas uses Islam in order to indoctrinate its people with the hatred of Jews and raises some of its funding in the West through Muslim “charity organizations.” Though the Palestinian Authority in the so-called “West Bank,” in Judea and Samaria, is considered legitimate and motivated to peace, its political party Fatah is more terror-loving than peace-loving. Also indoctrinating people from childhood to hate Jews and advocating violence, the PA actually pays terrorists in Israeli prisons, thanks (indirectly) to funds from the US, and provides them with jobs when they get out. It is in effect, institutionalized terrorism. Though it is illegal for the PA to use the money it receives from the US for this, they do it anyway.
Edwin Black of Jewish News explains how the process works: “Under a sliding scale carefully articulated in the Law of the Prisoner, the more heinous the act of terrorism, the longer the prison sentence – and, consequently, the higher the salary. Detention for up to three years fetches a salary of nearly $400 per month. Prisoners incarcerated from three to five years are paid about $560 monthly – a compensation level already higher than that for many ordinary West Bank jobs. Even greater acts of terrorism, punished with sentences between 15 and 20 years, earn almost $2,000 per month.” Read on for more astonishing details.
Israel has been releasing these violent criminals from its prisons in exchange for a peace which will never come, as the PA’s Abbas himself recently stated that he will not back down from a single demand. And these recently released terrorists received a hero’s welcome in addition to their financial compensation from the PA for committing barbaric acts of savagery against Jews. Of the initial 26 criminals released, 21 were from the “West Bank,” under the “peaceful” PA’s jurisdiction, and 5 were from Gaza. They were not remorseful and did not express regret at murdering innocent Jews. And why should they? They were taught to hate Jews and were paid well by the Palestinian government. How can we expect there to be any moral fiber in people like Tsalah Ibrahim Ahmed Mugdad, who beat 72 year-old Israel Tennenbaum over the head with a steel rod, or Abu-Musa Salam Ali Atia who hacked Holocaust survivor Isaac Rotenberg to death with an ax?
What would have been Judah Maccabee’s response to such a deal? Or how about Joshua? Or more recently, modern Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion?
The truth is, Israel is under attack by Islam, and the world is more concerned with appeasing Muslim demands than using common sense to whole-heartedly back the only nation in the Middle East with the similar values and morals shared by the West. Yet despite the world’s political swindling and double-talking, bad deals and backstabbing, and the threat of Muslim violence, Israel will prevail. The oppression today is the constant barrage of Muslim terrorism and propaganda, but that small group of Jews, like the Maccabees, will not give in to what they know is wrong. Just as there was no giving in to Hellenism, there is no giving in to Islam.
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