Thursday 7 August 2014

Hashem remember Zion & Babylon

David Here,

Whilst I am winding down for my holiday next week, I wanted to make a brief post about this one. 

"By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion".
Psalm Chapter 137

I have posted a little about Iraq and ISIS on this blog  & what they are doing to the  people there, specifically the minorities of Iraq; as regulars will know my mother was born an Iraqi Jew, just before we were sent packing out of that country . 

As I've noted before, there are no longer any Jews for ISIS to kill in Iraq, so they are instead focusing on Christians & now a religion called Yazidis. Christians are having their homes marked to signify  that they are Christians, others are being forced to convert or die : the Yazidis are being driven to mountains and left to starve to death. This is genocide. Yet the 'world' is silent, the UN is deafeningly so, the media hardly makes a whimper. They are too consumed with attacking Israel for 'war crimes', whilst the real war criminals, who have an identical agenda to Hamas- that is a global fundamentalist Caliphate- leave human beings to die like wild animals. This is appalling. I think we have reached one of the low ebbs of hypocrisy here .

But the west won't intervene or the UN won't go on about war crimes. There is simply isn't the will to spend time, money, effort and soldier's lives on the people of Iraq. People are sick to death of wars in foreign lands (there is a famous quote from Neville Chamberlain about that when he agreed to Munich, if someone could find it for me?).  Furthermore there is no identification with Christians or any other religion in the secular west, people simply don't identify with anyone who claims a religious label, let alone Christianity, but then the people of the west don't even seem to identify with Israel anymore, which is in effect a secular republic (the reason is of course because Israel specifically calls itself the Jewish state, which to secular ears is 'racist' and not multicultural enough). There is also, I believe,  a fear among elites of provoking another Islamic 'street' backlash against intervention in a Muslim land,whatever the nobility of the cause of intervention in Iraq. 

Final thought is that military planners will advise anyone who wishes to send a gun boat to Iraq, they could be faced with a UN or ICC war crimes trial. Why?Because what Hamas have done in Gaza, ISIS will do in Iraq. The 10,000 or so of them are basically plain clothes thugs with guns. They will simply encamp to the nearest city, fire at anything than comes into their way. In this scenario it would be difficult to target ISIS and not kill civilians. The media, the UN and anyone else you care to mention would shift the war from a humanitarian one, to 'western imperialism', 'war crimes against civilians', 'a grab for the oil', etc etc. That is why the US/UK/Europe will do SFA. It is terrible. I do not like it. 

I ask myself  What will it take for the west to take notice of  the spread of militant Islamic organisations like ISIS and tackle them ? When we have a couple of thousand armed gangs in our own streets, bullying their own community into their particular fanatical version of their religion and persecuting/killing everyone else? When  it is in Paris? London? New York? (and at least the US citizens can protect themselves, because they have the right to bear arms).  What will the west do then? 

I do not want to conclude on this note, though, for there are many practical things that people can do, such as supporting various charities involved here (I don't have a list, but if some one can up this up on the comments thread , I'd grateful). Above all, we can Daven (pray) and say Psalms in this situation, as we have done and continue to do for our own Jewish community, the IDF and Israel and see the time when : 


'Out of Zion shall go forth Torah,
and the word of the L-rd from Jerusalem.
He shall judge between the nations,
and shall arbitrate for many peoples;
they shall beat their swords into plowshares,
and their spears into pruning hooks;
nation shall not lift up sword against nation,
neither shall they learn war any more.'


(Isaiah Chapter 2) 

38 comments:

  1. David,

    The quote you were looking for from Chamberlain was :

    "How horrible, fantastic, incredible it is that we should be digging trenches and trying on gas-masks here because of a quarrel in a far away country between people of whom we know nothing. It seems still more impossible that a quarrel which has already been settled in principle should be the subject of war."

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  2. The West is run by and large by 'intellectuals' , many of whom the mere mention of Christianity has them reaching for the smelling salts. Their toleration for all other religions ( no matter what is perpetrated by same ) is an indication of their 'understanding' and 'cultural awareness' and 'empathy'. Their very own favourite religion is that of social engineering, to bring about their Utopia, where every tear shall be dried, and every aspect of life will have been laundered spotless via the doctrine of Equality.

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  3. Thoughtful American Patriot7 August 2014 at 14:57

    Here in America, we have communist run television and media. If not for articles and pictures from other places in the world online, such as this one, we would know nothing. Not even about our own Country. Obama and his minions have made sure of this. God bless you.

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  4. Apparently 15,000 people turned up to the anti -Israel demonstration in London last weekend which was initiated by the Stop the War Coalition, the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, CND, Friends of Al Aqsa, the British Muslim Initiative, War on Want, the Islamic Forum of Europe and the Palestinian Forum in Britain. If 15,000 British Muslims turned up in London this coming weekend to demonstrate against the ISIS treatment of Christians in Iraq and Syria, imagine what that would do for community relations in this country.

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  5. So why do the vast majority of the people who weep and wail about the murder of Palestinians remain so very quiet about other conflicts?

    The immediate death toll in Gaza is low compared to recent casualty counts in the CAR, Nigeria, South Sudan, Somalia, Syria, Iraq, North-West Pakistan and Afghanistan. In the longer term the Israeli-Palestinian casualty figures are dwarfed by the Mexican drug conflict, the Kashmir conflict, internal conflict in Burma, the Papua conflict, the Colombian conflict and both the NPA and Moro insurgencies in the Philippines.

    What exactly is it about Israel's actions that merits so much more censure than the actions of other countries at war?

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  6. the major difference is that "every" israeli adult has served in the idf and is therefore a direct participant in a ongoing illegal occupation, add to that the fact that israel is based upon a supremacist settler movement and the actions in gaza have overwhelming support in israel, and much of the jewish diaspora. now contrast this with the muslims among us, the majority have not served in a terrorist group, are not involved in illegal acts, and do not support the the terrorist and that is where your comparison breaks down spectacularly and then we get to the fact that compared to islamophobia in the west anti-semitism barely exists.

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  7. Atheist Shrugged7 August 2014 at 15:05

    All violence should be censured. The reasons Israel gets more censure than others are 1) it is a sovereign state and 2) it has an intimate relationship with Britain. The fact that our PM is unable to use the words 'condemn' and 'disproportionate' in light of a sovereign state blowing up a UN shelter is very worrying.Of course, we're not supporting ISIS in it's killing of innocent children with billions of dollars of weapons, so obviously we're more concerned with what we can change, not Iraq which you warmongers were warned we wouldn't do any good invading.Is it obsessive for war crimes to be reported? What should we do turn our backs and just ignore it?What is the decent response some kind of disinterested neutrality?

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  8. The left is racist7 August 2014 at 15:11

    The coverage of Syrians and Iraqis dying in greater numbers daily is a bigger story that UK media ignore because it's being done out of sight of reporters and it's not being done by Israelis.

    So I agree there is a complete double standard - terrorists, rebels, nasty governments,whatever can kill as many people as they like (thousands every week) without much interest being shown as the hidden assumption is that these people are uncivilised (but don't say that!) while Israelis should know better??

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  9. Hi David


    I've said this elsewhere, so it will be my contribution here too.


    So people are dying up a mountain and what's on TV? 'Shed of the year'...

    Also some to raise as an issue : Iraq has an army of 200,000, trained by the US/Britain. What are they doing and why are they not intervening here? Is it because they are sitting back and letting the Christians die, like the Soviets did during the Warsaw uprising in 1944?

    Is that not a reason to give the Christians & others asylum in the west and split the country up into its major ethnic/religious groupings Kurds, Sunni, Shia ?(thus answering Happy Jack and Carl Jacobs on another thread about why we should not just help Christians).

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  10. There are no protests because the hip and trendy progressive liberals cannot protest against this. It doesn't fit their ideological opinions. To say they pretend to support tolerance they are despicably intolerant to any opinions not the same as their own and literally shut down debate by any means necessary.

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  11. Shrugged

    You don't go to war to 'do good' to another country. You go to war to defend your own interests at the expense of another country. What is going on in Iraq might be terrible but it's infinitely better for us than the prospect of Iraqi troops on the East Bank of the Jordan river backed up by nuclear weapons. Did you want the risk of regional nuclear war? Well, OK, so maybe you aren't concerned about the fate of Tel Aviv and Haifa and the rest of the oppressive Zionist occupiers. Can you at least understand that a nuclear exchange in the Middle East would give new meaning to the phrase "Global Economic Crisis?"

    The US for its own purposes removed the power that kept a boot on the throat of the likes of ISIS. Then it tried - badly - to instill something like civil society in Iraq. Then it said "This is hard. Why should we do this if all we get is shot at for our efforts?" and went home. So there was no more boot and men with guns suddenly discovered that terror and murder can be both profitable and exhilarating. It's pretty easy to make a living by saying "Give me money or I will kill you.". They didn't have to respond like that. They chose to respond like that. The US didn't make them killers. The US simply removed the power that held them in check. Not everyone in Iraq followed the path of ISIS.

    So Iraq devolves. As it consumes itself, it gets weaker. It fractures. It balkanizes. It becomes Afghanistan. It becomes incapable of being a modern state. It cannot hope to operate or compete in the modern world. Not a pleasant prospect for those inside Iraq. But it removes a lot of problems for those outside Iraq. And quite frankly - unless you want to behave toward ISIS as ISIS behaves toward others - I am not sure there is a better solution to the problem of aggressive Islamic states.

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  12. Thought,


    Yes I was writhing around and trying not throw the smaltz herring around yesterday with the thought of the sheer hypocrisy of what is going on in middle east reporting. Where are the hundreds and thousands of demos on Iraq? It is Christians and others being killed. It is also muslims. Where is the stop the war coalition? This is where it looks to me as if protest against Israel is slightly more than simply 'freedom' and 'human rights'. Join the dots in you understand. One has to be careful, but I think you get my drift.

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  13. Hannah,


    That comment from Cranmer? What argument have you got yourself into know??

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  14. "It's not being done by Israelis" ,


    Exactly. If it were, they'd be calls for ICC /UN War Crimes tribunals. But it doesn't matter because it is 'only' ISIS. Double standards. I don't think the left is racist, but it shows an attitude, a patronising attitude. Israel is 'held to higher standards' etc. Which means what 'standard' does the left expect of the rest of the ME and what does that imply about the left's view on these states and the majority religion there? It is warped isn't it, that as the left call Israel apartheid, they are doing this mentally with states of the middle east.

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  15. "anti-semitism barely exists"
    Look at Europe recently, especially Paris. You are out of your mind with the other comments as well.

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  16. Yes ! Yes ! That gets to the heart of how I feel as well,

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  17. Paul,


    yes that is the one I was looking for, thanks.

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  18. So you only care about Israel because you have a pathelogical hatred of Israel then? That is the only conclusion I can think of with that response. If you cared equally about Gaza and Iraq, I may, I say may, might have some respect for you. But I don't, because of the one-sided refusal to see anything but bad of Israel and that being the only bad thing in the middle east. Israel, for example, hasn't shoved people up a mountain and left them to starve to death. Or burned down Churches. Or ethnically cleansed Christians. You're 'morality' and outlook is somewhat sickening.

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  19. Looks like the US airstrikes are going on even now.

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  20. Good - I hope they the Yanks reduce these bastards to ash!!

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  21. At last! Good job Obama.

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  22. Good, about time.

    I fully support it. I'm usually very reluctant to support the use of military force, but this time it's justified. We have a moral obligation to stop the barbaric slaughters of the ISIS terrorist group. By all means.

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  23. slowly but surely islamic extremism all over the world is forcing the west to be drawn into another world war. it's inevitable because there is only one way to defeat these fanatics. israel knows that very well. soon the rest of the world will realise that too

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  24. They've surely been planning this since the beginning.

    One can only hope the Iraqis heed Obama's words of wisdom and collectively get their shit together and get their army to kill every last member of ISIS, air strikes alone cannot achieve this.

    Sure the radical left will be in a fit, but let's be fair, that has become their perpetual state. So bombs away...

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  25. You could be right. ISIS are Sunnis and Arab countries are Sunni ruled.I guess than explains the lack of demonstrations and why the League of Arab states have not presented any resolution drafts to the UN. During other wars in the Middle East, e.g Israel - Palestine, the Arab states and population are quite active. Now they are silent.Double standards? Arab govts silently supporting ISIS and a genocide? I don't know, but everything is possible.

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  26. Wait for the hypocrisy8 August 2014 at 14:43

    The US has to intervene otherwise nice lefties will blame it for inaction. (And once it does intervene nice lefties will blame it for intervening).

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  27. Wait for the hypocrisy8 August 2014 at 14:45

    I can't wait to read all the articles that will appear in the next few weeks complaining about evil imperialist westerners once again violating Iraqi sovereignty and just making things worse. As day follows night.

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  28. God bless America.

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  29. It would be just if Tony Blair personally paid for some Iraqi Christians to settle in the UK. He is personally responsible for the mess. He claims to be a Christian. I am absolutely sure that it was his Christian duty to spend £50,000 on Iraqi refugees, not his wife's birthday party. Time for the Pope to speak up and personally reprimand his convert.

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  30. Conspiracy theory8 August 2014 at 17:40

    ISIS is a Mossad backed front, whose aim is to create an anti-Iran Sunni state that will help shore up the balance of power in the Middle East in favor of Saudi Arabia and at the behest of Israeli hegemony, doubtless egged on the CIA.

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  31. Bwahahahahahahahahaha. You pulled that off perfectly. The voice was just perfect. If I didn't know better I would swear you were serious. But the ridiculous nature of the theory was a dead giveaway.

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  32. With respect sir, you are simply wrong.

    Forty thousand civilians are about to be killed. Killed that is, because of their membership of a particular ethno-religious grouping.

    This is attempted genocide.

    To sit back and not take decisive military action now would be shameful. It would be criminal.

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  33. Atheist Shrugged9 August 2014 at 20:43

    Is this an American blog now? Obama says this, Kerry demand that... They say it so it must be so?Just what is American policy towards seizing and holding onto land illegally. Like Israel seizing and holding onto illegally held land for 66 years in defiance of umpteen UN resolutions. Or is it against it. Like Russia seizing and holding onto their legally held land for 66 days ( recently) and being bombarded by western sanctions.

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  34. we are pro american, if that is what u mean. the rest is sillyness.

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  35. >>> Like Israel seizing and holding onto illegally held land for 66 years in defiance of umpteen UN resolutions.


    I challenge you to reference one single UN resolution that demands Israel return (BTW to who? to Jordan?, to Egypt?), unilaterally, any lands captured during the 1967 war. Also, how come you are not demanding return of the land taken over in 1948?? Wake-up, You have fallen to the anti-Israel propaganda.

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