Still here, still proud, still Jewish!!

Hi All,

After been spat upon yesterday & following the news that in France there was a near pogrom against  Jewish people,  when the terrorists ignore a ceasefire, all I have to post (thanks to housemate for finding this) :

Indeed as even our American Haredi brothers have said :

"Today’s news brought the report that Hamas has rejected an Egyptian-brokered cease fire, while Israel’s cabinet has expressed its willingness to abide by its terms. Once again, Hamas has shown what it truly is — a terrorist organization bent on wreaking death and destruction, not only upon Israel, but upon its very own people. Its aim is to reject peace and coexistence and its violence is intended to take Israelis and Palestinians further from the negotiating table. 

We express our deep appreciation to President Obama for his strong support of Israel during this difficult and desperate time.The U.S.-funded Iron Dome defense system has proven to be invaluable asset and has saved countless lives. The close military cooperation between the U.S. and Israel that has taken place over these past years has clearly played a critical role in assisting Israel in responding to the terrorist threat it faces now and on an ongoing basis. As both Americans and Jews, we are proud that our country remains a stalwart friend of Israel. 

In light of Hamas rejectionism, we urge President Obama to strengthen even further American resolve in dealing with the terrorist threat it poses. We should make clear to the world that the consequences of continued fighting for Gaza and its civilian population rest squarely on Hamas’ shoulders. We should make clear to President Abbas that a Palestinian Authority that includes Hamas is not a partner for peace. And we should make clear that Palestinian violence will have a detrimental affect on American support — both diplomatically and financially. 

Only through the strong and unequivocal support of the U.S. for Israel will Palestinians realize that peace, nonviolence and coexistence are their only options."

There is no moral equivalence between Terrorists and Israel

So another day and another bombardment of terrorist rockets from Gaza into Israel. I would remind readers that Hamas do not target military installations but civilians, such as occurred during this Israeli marriage ceremony: 

I also read that there have been calls for 'restraint' on both sides. Rubbish! There is no moral equivalence between a democratic state undertaking military action to defend her citizens against illegal and violent terrorism and the terrorists themselves. Terrorists who take aid and use it in pursuit of war, who use their own civilians as human shields, impose a tyranny upon their lands  and who want nothing more than to destroy the Jewish state and expel Jews from their historic homeland. So this blog won't have any of it. The terrorists either stop hurting Jews for being Jews or Israel will do it for them. I dislike war and conflict, but this is a war to protect Jews and the Jewish homeland. Therefore it is one that must be undertaken,  however reluctantly. 

As Bibi once said : 

"The truth is that If the Arabs were to put down their arms there would be no more war;if Israel were to put down its arms there would be no more Israel". 

American Presbyterians take Jewish-Christian relations back to 1492

Dudes, it is Sam here, 

So following the disgraceful vote of the American Presbyterian Church, which makes me utterly uninterested in anything this group has to say about anything, one of the most disgusting parts of the resolution [here] was the inclusion of this statement from an opinion piece in a Jewish newspaper : 

"The ADL [Anti-Defamation League] goes after anti-Semitism with a fist, it goes after Israeli racism with a sigh. As a matter of fact, the ADL and the entire American Jewish establishment should suspend their campaigns against anti-Semitism indefinitely and take a look at what’s going on in Israel."

Underneath  this statement :

"The ACREC[[one of the Church's committees] holds on to the belief that God created all people good. To deny some people (because of skin color or language) the privileges other have, is to deny God’s good creation. To allow this system—in which some receive advantages simply because of perceived “race”— to go unchecked is to deny that God made all people in God’s own good image."

Why is this group singling out a great, but tiny people, us Jews, who have done considerably more to advance humanity [oh and whilst this entire post could be take up with links see  here, here , here, here, here & here for a small fraction of Jewish contributions to the world] than their piss pot organisation ever has? Are they not the ones who should have a resolution condemning them? Where is the outrage against Chinese actions in Tibet? The kidnappings of innocent children in Nigeria? The poverty in their own America? The slaughter and death that is the daily life of their fellow brothers and sisters in Christ in the same region as Israel? where is Christianity most protected and which leader of which religion raises their plight[Answer it is a Jew] ?

As a result of this resolution are they not saying, in another way, that attacking Israel is more important than tackling anti-semitism or Jew hate; this less than 70 years after the Shoah, where over ONE THIRD of the world's Jewish population were slaughtered en mass, simply because they were Jews or had a Jewish grandparent & 66 years after the systematic ethnic cleansing of Jews from Arab countries? So who the fuck are these guys to call the State of Israel 'racist' ? This state, need I remind readers was founded precisely because of anti-semitism, the Shoah, the fact of Jew hate as perpetuated by Christianity for 2,000 years of 'replacement' theology; but in spite of all of this, Jews have rebuilt bridges with Christians and many Jews (including myself) are good friends with Christians, we are healing, we are reconciling we are forgiving.

If, however, this is nothing more than a dig about the Jewish notion of being 'chosen', it is yet again another ridiculous and gross characterisation of Jews as a self -serving 'master race' that a Christian organisation has come out with for a long time. Need I remind readers that in Jewish theology G-d chose us, not because we were the greatest of people, but because we were the worst of people and that if we were to do anything good in the world, it would be reflective not of our efforts, bu G-d's! !

As far as the modern state of Israel is concerned, she offers full equality before the law, voting rights, religious freedom and the only place in the middle east which is welcoming and tolerant of gay people, regardless of one's race, status or religion.  But let's just take their loony logic at face value; France is  racist for being French!  Is Germany? Russia? Britain? Mexico? Shouldn't The USA itself dissolve because it was founded via a colonial Empire of the British?  The logic is disgraceful, as is the singling out of Israel as a  racist state, because by their logic EVERY SINGLE state in the world is de facto racist !!

Bibi (as the Israeli Prime Minister is affectionately  known as) had this to say (via The Times of Israel) :

“It’s so disgraceful,” Netanyahu said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press” news program. “Most Americans understand that Israel is a beacon of civilization and moderation.”He said that while much of the Middle East was “riveted by religious hatred, by savagery of unimaginable proportions,” Israel is “the one democracy that upholds basic human rights, that guards the rights of all minorities, that protects Christians.”Netanyahu advised the Presbyterians to “fly to the Middle East, come and see Israel for the embattled democracy that it is, and then take a bus tour, go to Libya, go to Syria, go to Iraq, and see the difference.”“I would give them two pieces of advice — one is make sure it’s an armor-plated bus, and second, don’t say that you’re Christian.”

Good on you Bibi, I don't always agree with you, but thank G-d Israel's got you. To the PCUSA, all I'd say is that this time Jews aren't going meekly into the night  & anyone who thinks we are simply going to dismantle the state of Israel has got another thing coming. Us Jews have survived 4,000 years of this crap. We'll be here in another 4,000, long after everyone has forgotten about you, the world will still remember and have Jews celebrated in it.

Oy, Oy My boy is Goy

Via the Times of Israel, The fashion designer, Risk, has made a range of Jewish-themed clothes, including a  t-shirt: 'Oy, Oy, My Boy Is Goy'…- I needed that with some of the boyfriends I had in days gone by- but the aim is to make Jewish clothing 'more sexy'. 

Hmmm this will  go down well with the Haredi.

Shalom for Jerusalem

So Pope Francis has managed to get the President of Israel and Abbas together for a multi faith shindig at the Vatican; I've got to admit whilst people call us the '3 Abrahamic religions', I do struggle with the idea that we all worship the same deity... well we don't actually do we? I don't pray to Jesus or Allah. I say this not to be unecumenical or nasty, it is simply the truth. It does not turn one into a Christophobe or an Islamaphobe to say so. Besides which both Islam and Christianity-with some honourable exceptions, such as those who believe in dual covenant theory- see Judaism as being 'replaced' in some form or another, which is how these religions justified their self creation in the first place and the subsequent and sometimes not so nice treatment of those of us who couldn't see the new world vision of these respective faiths . 

But I guess I'm being a party poop and should applaud such an historic occasion where 3 big world faiths got together and prayed together. I hope this stunt does whatever it was supposed to do, which if it is about bring peace... I applaud. 

Eli Eli

A poem by  Hannah Szenes, a paratrooper of the British Special Operations Executive , a Jewish heroine of World War II, who was killed after being captured in Hungary- and brutally tortured - during an effort to save Allied prisoners of war and organize Jewish resistance against the Nazi and Fascist Amalek.  This was later put to music.

Eli, Eli,
Shelo yigamer leolam,
Ha-hol v'ha-yam,
Rishrush shel ha-mayim,
Barak bashamayim,
Tfilat ha-adam.

(Translation)

My God , my God,

I pray that these things never end,

The sand and the sea,

The rush of the water,

The crash of the heavens,

The prayer of the heart.

Our story did not end, despite the  murderous slaughter  & genocide of the Shoah . Our people are free. We have our homeland back. We still live. 

Am Yisrael Chai !

Jewish refugees

Hi All, 

Whilst yesterday's political attention was mostly on the budget, in committee room 10 at 7pm, there was a briefing organised by Harif/We believe in Israel/Henry Jackson society, on Jewish refugees [from the middle east and north africa]. There was contributions from Dr Stanley A Urman (chief executive of Justice for Jews from Arab Countries),Edwin Shuker of the Board of Deputies as well first hand testimonies from people who had been forced to become refugees.  

For the casual reader might not know this, but the Jews of Arab lands ,who had settled there since the Spanish expelled Jews from Spain  five hundred years before and other communities who had been in the region   for thousands of years, long before Christianity and well before Islam, were from 1948 subject to ethnic cleansing, pogroms, arrests, torture, forced expulsions and seizure of property. Why? Because of Arab ethnic hate toward Jews and because they had been thoroughly beaten in 1948 when the combined might of the Arab world failed to crush the newly formed & tiny state of Israel.  Whilst you will hear much about the plight of Palestinian refugees in the media, you hardly ever hear of the plight of Middle Eastern Jewry, even though 850,000 plus Jews were made refugees, as against 730,000 Arab Palestinians (who left voluntarily as it happens, because they were expecting Arab armies to slaughter every Jew in Palestine so they would return victorious). 

As our mother's side of the family were Sephardic/ Mizrahi Jews, our family were one of those caught up in this; some came to Israel, others America and for my immediate family the safe and welcoming shores of the  UK. What gets me so angry is that our family was religious, Orthodox, but also modern. We were educated ,middle class,  reasonably well off & were able to speak English, among other languages[this included our mum,as in the Sephardi world women have been able to learn as much as men] we had been settled in the wider region for centuries. And yet because of mindless bigotry they lost everything.  It reminds and reinforces to my mind as to why Israel needs to be strong and not weak; it also reminds me that Britain has given our family much & we in return, that immigration can be positive for all concerned .

But that is there past. Today  if there is going to be any peace voted through in an Israeli referendum,  if there is demand for compensation from these Arabs who lived in Palestine (many of whom arrived there from Syria and Egypt precisely because of Jewish businesses), then one of the key clauses must be an apology by Arab governments on behalf of their fascist policies and compensation for the Jews of the middle east. I won't, however, hold my breath on that.

Fatwa to Mars!

Much to my delight and interest, I read last week that a group of influential Islamic scholars have issued a ruling (Fatwa), regarding space travel in general and colonising Mars in particular. It appears that our friends in the religion of piece have decried the very idea of mankind reaching beyond our small planet and exploring for ourselves the wonder of G-d's created cosmos. No problem! 

Of course one excepts that if us Jews had a hand in colonising the red planet and as Israeli water desalination ,farming,irrigation & taming of the Negev desert shows, we'd make it quickly habitable. 

From this : 

To this : 

Although I cannot help but think if that ever happened, there would a chorus of leftie liberals in one corner and Jew haters in another, claiming that they were all there 'first' and it is really 'their' land which is 'occupied territory' conned by 'cunning Zionists' or whatever their propaganda comes out with, which would, of course, be after all the hard work has been done....