Facts of Life for Israel and the Jewish People in 2024
© David Burton 2024
Facts of Life for Israel and the Jewish People in 2024© David Burton 2024 |
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The fundamental fact remains that had the Arab nations and the “Palestinians” accepted the Partition Resolution and not violated the UN Charter by attacking Israel, there would be a 75+-year-old “Palestinian” state today next to Israel, and there would not have been a single Palestinian-Arab refugee. Just as today, it seems that even in 1948 the Arab side was more concerned with opposing and attacking the Jewish state than with creating a “Palestinian” state. Besides the above statehood opportunities, there were other notable opportunities that were missed, such as the 1978 Camp David Accords between Israel and Egypt, which provided for “Palestinian” autonomy in the territories of the West Bank and Gaza. Egyptian President Anwar Sadat begged the PLO and Yasir Arafat to accept what he had negotiated with Israel, and to engage in talks with Israel. President Carter also called on moderate “Palestinians” to come forward and join the Cairo conference. Unfortunately, Arafat refused and did everything he could to undermine Sadat and the Camp David Accords, with PLO gunmen even murdering West Bank Palestinians who supported Sadat’s approach. The “Palestinian” people have much to be frustrated about. But the object of their frustration should not be Israel, but, instead, their own leaders, who have thrown away opportunity after opportunity to establish the “Palestinian” state they claim to desire above all else.[3] One can consider that the conditions that led to October 7th were like a “dry run” for a Palestinian State. In Gaza in 2023, there was not a single Jew living there, not a single IDF soldier on the ground there and billions of dollars being given to them. They took all the money and either pocketed it, or they built terror tunnels or weapons. The world should grow more comfortable with the idea of Israeli sovereignty in Judea and Samaria. FACT: ”Palestinians” would have a better life under Israeli sovereignty than they have ever had under PLO or PA control. Palestinian-Arabs living in Israel can readily attest to this fact. This is the only way that Israel will ever have security. Even Saudi Arabia, which has said that a Palestinian State is a pre-requisite for Saudi normalization relations with Israel are fully aware that Israeli sovereignty is a viable solution. It’s likely that Saudi Arabia doesn’t actually want a Palestinian State but that the Biden Administration has pushed for a two-state solution and pretended that the impetus was coming from Saudi Arabia. At the end of the day, everyone in the Middle East knows that a “Palestinian” state under "Palestinian" control would be a terror state. Indeed, time and time again, the “Palestinians” themselves have conclusively demonstrated that they don’t deserve a nation of their own! An independent “Palestinian” state would be a rebirth of Hamas, a rebirth of the worst forces that confront not just Israel but also the moderate Sunni nations around the word as well. A Demilitarized “Palestinian” State is an Oxymoron In early 2024, as part of its effort to promote the idea of a “two-state solution,” the Biden administration in the United States talked about the need to establish a demilitarized “Palestinian” state next to Israel. The U.S. Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, is reported to have asked the State Department for a “review of what a demilitarized Palestinian state would look like based on other models around the world.” The purpose of such a review was to look at options for how a “two-state solution” could be implemented in a way that assured security for Israel. The Biden administration was supposedly “homing in” on a new doctrine involving an unprecedented push to advance the creation of a “demilitarized” but viable “Palestinian state”. The plan would involve some form of U.S. recognition of a demilitarized “Palestinian” state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that would come into being only once the "Palestinians" had developed a set of defined, credible institutions and security capabilities to ensure that this state was viable and that it could never threaten Israel. The obvious fact that such a guarantee was impossible never bothered the Biden people. The talk about a “demilitarized” “Palestinian” state came in the aftermath of the Hamas October 7, 2023 attack on Israel and the murder, rape, torture, mutilation and burning alive of 1,200 Israelis, including women, children, and the elderly. Hamas also kidnapped more than 240 Israelis, more than half of whom were still being held hostage in the Gaza Strip as of June 2024. The unprovoked Hamas attack came two short years after Israel withdrew from the entire Gaza Strip, evacuating more than 9,000 Jews who were living there in more than 25 communities. Since 2005, there had been no Jewish civilians or soldiers in the Gaza Strip, which had become a semi-independent “Palestinian” state. Following the Hamas takeover in Gaza, Israel, a state the size of New Jersey, had been bombarded by tens of thousands of rockets and mortars — more than 11,000 just since the start of 2023. The idea that the Gaza Strip could be a “demilitarized” entity was a pipe-dream. So too is the fantasy that there could be a demilitarized “Palestinian” State existing peacefully next to or within Israel. The October 7 massacre of Israelis by Hamas demonstrated that Israel’s enemies do not need tanks and warplanes to invade Israel and murder 1,200 people. The “Palestinians” have proven over the past few decades that when it comes to murdering Jews, they will use anything they can get their hands on as a weapon, including knives, cars, swords, screwdrivers, clubs, daggers, stones, Molotov cocktails, and explosive belts. Four months after the start of the Israel-Hamas war, it became clear how “Palestinian” terror groups were successful in transforming the Gaza Strip into one of the most dangerous and militarized areas in the Middle East. The situation in the West Bank areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority is equally worrying. In the past few years, Iran and its terror proxies had accelerated efforts to smuggle weapons into the West Bank through Jordan. The flow of weapons into the West Bank has facilitated the emergence of several armed groups responsible for countless terrorist attacks against Israelis. Most of these groups operate in areas controlled by the Palestinian Authority. If the “Palestinians” in the West Bank and Gaza Strip managed over the past few decades to accumulate so many weapons, one can only imagine what would happen if they were handed an independent and sovereign state with full control over the borders with Egypt and Jordan. These “Palestinians” would undoubtedly continue their efforts to obtain more weapons to be used in the Jihad (holy war) to kill Jews and eliminate Israel. Even if the “Palestinians” were to commit in advance to a “demilitarized” state, experience shown that their promises are worthless. The Palestinian Authority committed, under the terms of the peace agreements signed with Israel, to combat terrorism and enforce law and order in the West Bank and Gaza Strip. However, the PA essentially did nothing to confiscate illegal weapons or crack down on the countless armed groups operating under its nose. Even today, the PA is virtually doing nothing to foil terrorist attacks against Israelis from areas under its control in the West Bank. It is hard to find one “Palestinian” family in the West Bank that does not possess an assault rifle, pistol, or some other weapon. After Israel’s withdrawal from the Gaza Strip, the “Palestinians” had a chance to turn the coastal enclave into the “Singapore of the Middle East.” Instead, they turned it into one massive base for Jihad and terrorism. They also used the Gaza Strip as a launching pad to fire tens of thousands of rockets and mortar shells into Israel. Both the Palestinian Authority and Hamas continue to agree on two points: First, Israel’s existence is intolerable on purely religious grounds and, second, Israel, in its entirety, is nothing more than “Occupied Palestine” Much of the Arab world and Iran still have only a “One-State Solution” for the “Israel Problem.” It is a “solution” that eliminates Israel altogether - a “Final Solution.” Even today, official Arab maps of “Palestine” show the prospective Arab State comprising all of the West Bank (Judea/Samaria), all of Gaza and all of Israel. Following the Gaza war, any plan for accepting “Palestinian” demilitarization would be built upon sand. Neither the United States nor Israel should ever base its geostrategic assessments of “Palestinian” statehood upon such an illusory foundation. No one could stop a future “Palestinian” state from becoming a lawless and militarized state. Such a state on Israel’s doorstep would pose a direct and grave threat to Israel’s existence and actually facilitate the mission of the Iranian regime and its terror proxies to murder more Jews.[4] As so amply demonstrated over the past seventy-five years, a “Palestinian” state would fundamentally be united around the goal of destroying Israel. For a further discussion on the future of the “Palestinians” who live in the Judea, Samaria and Gaza regions of what was formerly known as Palestine, see Reference 5. It’s Time to Finally End “Palestinian” Terrorism Admit it – IT’S WAR! There is no other conclusion to be reached since the attacks on Israel’s citizens began at the start of May 2021 by the “Palestinians” with whom Israel is supposed to live side-by-side in peace and harmony. On 7 December 1941, Japan attacked military facilities at Pearl Harbor. On 8 December 1941, the United States declared war on Japan and America entered World War II. Nobody raised their voices in opposition to America’s defending itself or to America’s waging total war against the Empire of Japan that resulted in the deaths of millions of Japanese soldiers and civilians – including the atomic bombing of the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki! Over a half million Japanese civilians were killed in World War II. The objective in the Pacific following Pearl Harbor was the “total and unconditional surrender” of Japan. This objective was achieved some four bloody years later after Hiroshima and Nagasaki. During those four years of bitter fighting in the Pacific, there were no calls for a cease fire and no charges of genocide in an International Court of Justice (ICC), only a call for the “total and unconditional surrender” of the aggressor - Japan. At the beginning of May 2021, Arabs in Gaza and the West Bank launched thousands, of rockets at civilian areas of Israel while “Palestinians” attacked Israeli civilians, homes and synagogues. Prior to this, the rocket attacks on Israel – nearly all of which were against Israeli civilians – had been going on for several years. When Israel responded by attacking the sources of the attacks on it, voices around the world were immediately raised in objection! When Israel destroyed the headquarters of the terrorists who were leading the attacks on Israel, they even gave advanced warning to the “Palestinian” civilians who were being used by the terrorists as human shields to allow them to vacate the building. Did America give advanced warning to the people in Hiroshima and Nagasaki before the atomic bombs were dropped? But as always been evident, those who urged Israel to “use restraint” and called their retaliation “excessive” have always harbored anti-Semitic and anti-Israel prejudices and hatreds – either openly, or secretly. Israel has always been subjected to rules that were never applied to other nations. What would the United States do if a neighboring country fired rockets into New York, Washington, Chicago and San Francisco? What would the United States do if a neighboring country deliberately sent balloons into this country to set fires to our crops and forests? What did the United States do when Japan attacked Pearl Harbor? Why shouldn’t Israel have the right to do the same? The time has finally come. Israel must drop its gloves and wage all-out war against the “Palestinians” who have been attacking Jews and Israelis for decades under the guise of simply resisting a non-existent Israeli occupation. These “Palestinians” have clearly demonstrated that they deserve to have no nation of their own. What they do deserve is to be eliminated once and for all – just as the Nazis and fascists who brought death destruction and misery to the world in World War II were eliminated. These “Palestinian” fascists deserve no place in today’s world – certainly not in a region where they can attack innocent Israeli civilians. As May 2021 entered its second week, the “Palestinian” terrorists of Hamas, Fatah and other Islamic terrorist organizations continued their attack upon the State of Israel and the Jewish people of Israel. By the second week of the month, Israelis were calling it "war” as the country was under massive attack. Rockets continued to fall, with over 700 explosions in one day. Sirens blared but provided only seconds for Israelis to run for cover. There appeared to be no end in sight. Violent Arab rioters torched portions of the Israeli city of Lod and roamed the streets with Molotov cocktails looking to break into Jewish homes. "It's another Kristallnacht," said the residents. "Nothing short of war." Prime Minister Netanyahu declared a state of emergency! Men, women and young children were living in terror and fear. Two Israeli women were killed by direct hits on their home in Ashkelon, with a third in critical condition. Hamas said it fired 137 rockets within 5 minutes, apparently to overwhelm Israel's Iron Dome defense. A school house was hit. Over 100 rockets were fired into Tel Aviv. Hundreds of Israelis were injured. On the night of 11 May, during Jerusalem Day celebrations, rockets were fired at Israel's capital. Arab violence in Jerusalem spiraled out of control. Air-raid sirens were blaring throughout Israel, causing chaos, destruction and injuries.[6] In the city of Lod, normally a city where Jews and Arabs got along peacefully, violent Arab rioters torched portions of the city while threatening Jewish residents of the town. Israel’s Police Commissioner said “we have not seen clashes like these between Jews and Arabs like we are seeing now.” It was reported that Arab rioters were firing at Israeli forces with automatic weapons. Arab gangs were trying to break into Jewish houses and some Jews were said to be taking down mezuzot from their doors to avoid being attacked. Arabs set fire to cars and stores throughout the city. “Muslim mobs attacked Jewish targets” in Lod “in an apparent show of solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, leaving behind scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s”. On 10 and 11 May, terrorists in Gaza also launched hundreds of rockets at Israeli civilians, killing three and wounding scores of other, including a five-year-old girl. Israel responded with around 130 strikes on terror targets in Gaza, demolishing a 12-story building that housed the offices of top Hamas officials. Israeli drones had previously fired a series of warning shots at the roof to give people time to evacuate the building before it was destroyed. Arabs had launched the current wave of violence in Jerusalem to coincide with the start of the Muslim month of Ramadan in mid-April. Later, confrontations erupted at the Al-Aqsa Mosque compound, which sits on top of the Jewish people’s holiest site, the Temple Mount.[7] Muslim mobs attacked the Jewish targets in the mixed Jewish-Arab city of Lod on Monday night (10 May) in an apparent show of solidarity with Hamas in the Gaza Strip, leaving behind scenes reminiscent of Nazi Germany in the 1930s. As part of the attacks, the rioters pillaged synagogues, ransacked the houses of prayer and desecrated the Torah scrolls. The rioters also rampaged in the streets, leaving behind significant damage and destruction.[8] The scene in Lod showed that the hatred that had been allowed to grow over the years in the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip had now spread into Israel proper. Jews cowered in their homes as Arabs set fire to synagogues and combed the streets looking for Jewish victims. Failing that, they attempted to break into Jewish homes. They burned cars and whatever else they could lay their hands on. These events, more reminiscent of the Pale of Settlement, were taking place in Israel proper, in the city of Lod, just a half hour’s drive from Tel Aviv. More than one eyewitness called it a pogrom. The city’s mayor compared it to Kristallnacht. Lod is a mixed city. But extremist Arabs in Lod deserve censure. They are Israeli-Arabs. They have grown up in Israel, not on the other side of some imaginary line, not in the so-called ‘occupied territories.’ Despite propaganda to the contrary, Israel makes enormous effort to help its Arab citizens feel a part of the country. There was no excuse for the savagery of this ungrateful minority. Lod’s violence spread to other heavily Arab cities. Israelis were watching and no doubt reaching conclusions. “All the work we have done here for years [regarding coexistence] has gone down the drain,” Lod’s mayor said. Even the most dedicated peace advocates fell silent as Arabs, who a month ago were wishing their Jewish neighbors a Happy Passover, took to the streets with chants of “With blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.”[9] Elsewhere in Israel explosions shook central Israel as scores of Iron Dome rockets were launched to intercept a barrage of 1,000 or more rockets fired by Palestinian terrorists in Gaza at the most heavily populated part of the country. Civilian deaths and injuries mounted steadily as the rocket barrage went on. A few of the deaths and injuries initially reported included: one woman was killed and about a dozen injured in the city of Rishon LeZion; seven were injured from a direct hit in Holon; four were injured by a direct hit in Givatayim. The first wave of rockets from Gaza set off air raid sirens from Ashdod in the south to as far north as Netanya and east to the city of Raanana, the entire area home to some 5 million Israelis. “Hamas is responsible for this dangerous escalation which is putting millions of children, women & men in Israel at risk,” Israel’s Foreign Ministry tweeted. “Israel has every right to protect its citizens from Hamas’ barbaric terrorism.” “Earlier in the day, Defense Minister Benny Gantz authorized a callup of 5,000 reserve soldiers and the IDF publicized it’s deployment of heavy artillery on the Gaza border in a blunt message to Hamas.[10] In the coastal city of Ashkelon, two residents were killed on 11 may, and dozens of people were injured after “Palestinian” terrorists in Gaza fired hundreds of rockets at Israeli towns and cities. The attacks began when terrorists in Gaza fired seven rockets at Jerusalem, claiming they were supporting the Arab rioters in Jerusalem who were “defending” the Al Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount. They then fired dozens more at Israeli towns and cities closer to Gaza. The rockets fired at Jerusalem exploded in communities west of the city. The rocket fire continued all night with over 500 rockets fired at Israeli civilian centers by Tuesday afternoon. The two women were killed in Ashkelon when the rockets hit a private home and an apartment building. At least 40 others, including several children and a pregnant woman, were wounded – one seriously.[11] With the current uptick in Islamic violence by the Islamic/Arab extremists, the world should remember that Jews and Israelis are not the only victims of “Palestinian” and Islamic terrorism. Anyone who does not submit to their demands is an enemy and a potential target. This includes Christians and even other followers of Islam. Listen to the story of Brigitte Gabriel who was born in the Marjeyoun District of Lebanon to a Maronite Christian couple. Brigitte Gabriel is a survivor of Islamic terrorism. She was ten years old when Islamists blew up her home, burying her under the rubble. Her only crime was that she was a Christian. At 10 years old, she learned the meaning of the word “infidel.” Gabriel says she had a crash course in survival, living in a dark cold bomb shelter drinking stale water and having grass and dandelions for food. At the age of 13 she dressed in her burial clothes waiting to be slaughtered and by the age of 20 had buried most of her friends – killed by Muslims. In the Muslim world, genocide has begun. Fourteen of the world’s fifteen most repressive countries for Christians are Muslim countries: Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Afghanistan, Sudan, Iran, Pakistan, Eritrea, Nigeria, Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Yemen, and Uzbekistan. Thirty-six of the worst fifty are Muslim countries, including Qatar, Egypt, the “Palestinian” Territories, Jordan, Algeria, Tunisia, Malaysia, Turkey, and Indonesia. Radical Islamists seeks to subjugate everyone who does not adhere to its version of “religion.” Just because we are not at war with radical Islam does not mean that radical Islam is not at war with us. While The Human Rights Council of the United Nations ceaselessly foams at the mouth about perceived Israeli violations of the rights of “Palestinians”, it doesn’t seem to notice documented massacres of Christians by Muslims all over the world. It’s ironic that Israel is the only country in the Middle East that has an increasing Christian population. In the words of Brigitte Gabriel “There must be no delay, no hesitation, and no compromise with our purpose to defeat Islamic radicalism. We cannot, we must not stand on the sidelines allowing genocide in our lifetime.”[12] Back in 2017, one Israeli wrote realistically of how to treat the hardline “Palestinians” who have been bent on attaining one objective ever since Israel became the only free, democratic nation in the Middle East. Abu Yehuda wrote that a new approach to the “Palestinians” was needed. Being the “responsible adult” didn’t work. Hoping that some day, they would come to their senses and understand that coexistence was more profitable than endless war didn’t work. Thinking that “after all, they were human beings too and that if Israel treated them fairly they would act like human beings” didn’t work. Nothing rational had worked: Providing them with electricity so they could make rockets with which to try to kill Israelis didn’t work; keeping their tribal enemies from killing them didn’t work; paying them didn’t work; giving them weapons “to fight terrorism” didn’t work; respecting their religious rights (to behave like 7th century barbarians) doesn’t work; treating their corrupt inciter-in-chief like a president didn’t work; letting them destroy Israeli villages and kicking our Israelis out because they claimed the land (they claim everything) didn’t work; punishing our soldiers for shooting theirs didn’t work; ransoming hostages didn’t work; and not having a death penalty for terrorist murder didn’t work. These things don’t work for several reasons. They don’t work because of the honor/shame culture of these barbarians; they don’t work because Islam tells them that they really ought to be on top, and Jewish sovereignty is a perversion of the moral order; and they don’t work because they believe in a historical narrative that is false from start to finish. Israel and others have been trying the old way since before the founding of the State of Israel. These “Palestinian” extremists have never accepted the presence of Jews – or anyone else - in the land, and they have always murdered these others (sometimes more frequently, sometimes less). Now, thanks to the idiocy of the many, these Islamic extremists have set up an indoctrination regime that produces child soldiers that they send to butcher Israeli families. They have created a generation of creatures that will slit the throat of a 4-month-old baby or a 70-year-old grandfather, and take pride in their work: the Arafat generation. And their parents, too, are proud. The more Israel has talked to them and tried to reason with them, tried to meet their demands, the more it fed their fury. Why should they talk to dogs, pigs and monkeys? There is nothing to talk about, especially not with the Arafat generation. The more concessions Israel and the world makes, the more they think they are winning and the harder they fight. It’s simple operant conditioning: every time they are violent, they get something. Violence works for them. Every time they are violent, the anti-Semites of the world blame Israel for the violence. Every time they are violent, bleeding-heart liberals of the world rush to reward them. So what can work? First of all, a fundamental change in our point of view: stop treating them as another people more or less like those in the civilized world, one with whom Israel must find a way to coexist. But coexistence is impossible with such animals. It’s not up to Israel; that is who they are. What will work is to see them as an implacable enemy that must be defeated by any means necessary. The lesson taught over seven violent decades clearly shows this to those who are not blind and those who are not prejudiced against Judaism and Israel. What can work is to stop talking and start fighting. Cut them off from everything Israel supplies them: money, food, water, electricity, communication, transport. Take control of Jerusalem and the holy places. Take control of all of Palestine. If they send their soldiers against Israel, even their child soldiers, kill them. If they’ve been conditioned to behave violently by having their violent behavior rewarded with concessions, this behavior can be extinguished. Take away the positive reinforcement and replace it with punishment. The alternative for Israel (and the world) is to keep on pretending that an accommodation can be reached with them, because after all they are human too, and so on. Israel can keep trying to satisfy them. Israel can rationalize: who really cares about the Temple Mount except religious fanatics? Why shouldn’t Israel cede more and more land in Judea and Samaria to them? Yes, they are unreasonable, but Israel has to be the rational ones. This is the path Israel has taken since 1948, more or less, and the path Israel confirmed in 1993 when it signed the Oslo agreements that caused the death of thousands of Israelis and gave birth to the Arafat generation. It is the path prescribed by Jew-haters who even today support Israel’s enemies in every possible way short of bombing Tel Aviv. It hasn’t worked. What works is to stop pretending, stop submitting to threats and violence, and start standing up against Israel’s enemies. It’s a big job, and it has to start somewhere.[13] The Day is Fast Approaching When Israel Must Eliminate Hezbollah and Stop the Iran-Sponsored Attacks From Lebanon In 2024, Hezbollah, Iran’s proxy in Lebanon stepped up its attacks on Israel. In early June of that year, they conducted precision strikes on northern Israel to test and improve their weapons while experimenting with different methods of attack. This escalation was part of a broader effort over the previous eight months, during which Hezbollah launched approximately 4,000 projectiles at Israel. These attacks increasingly involved not just rockets but also precision-guided munitions and drones. Hezbollah’s arsenal, once domina ted by simpler, older rockets, now includes advanced precision weapons and anti-tank missiles which have been supplied by Iran. This shift allows them to strike specific targets with deadly accuracy. By combining different types of weapons, they can cause maximum disruption and damage. At least 11 Israelis were wounded, including one seriously, in a Hezbollah drone attack on the Druze town of Hurfeis near the border with Lebanon on the evening of 4 June 2024. No air-raid sirens were triggered before the attack on the northernmost Druze community in the Galilee. Initial reports said an explosive-laden drone hit the area, targeting the emergency response teams responding to the attack.[14] The Threat from Hezbollah and Lebanon Grows At mid-year 2024, the attacks from Lebanon against northern Israel continued unabated. Hezbollah launched a relentless rocket barrage on northern Israel, hitting Tzfat hard and setting off sirens across the Galilee and the northern and central Golan Heights. The IDF reported approximately 40 projectiles launched towards these regions. While the IDF’s Aerial Defense Array successfully intercepted some of the projectiles, many still managed to land and ignite fires. In the Golan Heights, two people sustained injuries from shrapnel, and several fires broke out due to falling missiles. This was the terror group's largest attack since October 7th, involving 30 drones fired against targets in the Galilee and Golan. Hezbollah's increasing sophistication in warfare is deeply concerning. As their capabilities grow, the threats to Israel and its people becomes more severe. [15] Anti-Semites of the World are Crawling Out of their Dark Holes The ordinary “Palestinians” are being led to slaughter by their leaders who treat the ignorant masses under their control like lemmings being led to the edge of the cliff. The leaders of Hamas, Hezbollah, the Palestinian Authority, the Moslem Brotherhood, and other extreme Islamic terror organizations view the multitudes that they are supposed to serve and protect as nothing more than cannon fodder and stubble to be consumed by their burning hatred of Jews and Israel. These tyrannical leaders also all too clearly understand that their failure to advance the welfare of those they rule must be blamed on someone other than themselves. Otherwise, the unwashed masses will rise up against them and dethrone them. In order to retain control over those that they are exploiting, these despots, tyrants, and theocrats feed their subjects on a steady diet of hatred and violence which is directed against the most accessible scapegoat – Israel and the Jews. The ignorance of the Muslims, "Palestinians", Arabs that fall for this ongoing atrocity is palpable, but what is even more appalling is the support for this Jew- and Israel-bashing that we find among the supposedly intelligent and sophisticated nations and peoples of the world at large! One can only conclude that these nations and peoples are now showing their true anti-Semitic biases which have been festering in the dark recesses of their very soles. Either that, or these supporters of Islamic extremist Jew- and Israel-hatred are truly ignorant and are the unwitting dupes of those that are feeding them anti-Semitic and Anti-Israel propaganda so prevalent throughout the open media. There is No Middle East Peace Prcocess There are those in the international community who have long claimed that the Israeli-Palestinian conflict is the root cause of the Middle East's problems. Among the more prominent voices articulating this notion has been Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He has asserted that the absence of a Palestinian state is the crux of all problems in the Middle East. And former British Prime Minister Tony Blair once wrote: "How can we bring peace to the Middle East unless we resolve the question of Israel and Palestine?" Achieving peace, he continued, "would not only silence reactionary Islam's most effective rallying call, but fatally undermine its basic ideology." The widespread use of the words "Middle East Peace Process" (MEPP) has served to reinforce this view that if the heart of the region's problems is the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, then, ipso facto, solving it could usher in an era of "perpetual peace." Ponder, for instance, the job titles of the officials dealing with the Israeli-Palestinian agenda: Nickolay Mladenov, United Nations Special Coordinator for the Middle East Peace Process; Fernando Gentilini, the EU Special Representative for the Middle East Peace Process; and Tony Blair, until recently the Representative of the Quartet to the Middle East Peace Process. (For the record, the American counterpart position was named U.S. Special Envoy for Israeli-Palestinian Negotiations.) Or consider this statement from the Irish Ministry of Foreign Affairs: "Ireland has a long record of support for a lasting peace in the Middle East based on a two-state solution." But, there's one fundamental flaw in this reasoning - it defies the facts. Needless to say, an enduring accord between Israel and the “Palestinians” would remove one of the long-standing conflicts in the Middle East. No doubt about that. Moreover, peace in and of itself is a sacred objective. But the idea that such a settlement is the pathway to wider peace in the Middle East, or that it would take the wind out of radical Islam's sails, is unsupported by the facts. When al-Qaeda listed its "grievances" leading to 9/11, the “Palestinian” issue wasn't even mentioned. Let's assume for a moment that Israel somehow added a peace treaty with the Palestinians to those it's enjoyed with Egypt since 1979 and Jordan since 1994. Or, for that matter, let's go a step further and, for a minute, remove Israel from the regional picture entirely, as if it did not exist. Would that prove Erdogan right? Would the Middle East achieve peace? No way! Would Iran abandon its nuclear ambitions, ICBM program, regional destabilization, support for terrorist groups, and human rights oppression? Would Syria's civil war, with its heavy outside involvement, suddenly come to a halt? Would the massive killings cease? Would all the various groups turn their swords into plowshares and spears into pruning hooks? Would the millions of refugees confidently return home to live happily ever after? Would the collapsed state be rebuilt? Would Yemen overnight end its civil war that has drawn in Iranians and Saudis on opposite sides? Would the country stop serving as a sanctuary for al-Qaeda and its leaders who plot against Americans, among others? Would Iraq magically transform itself into a unitary nation? Would Shiites, Sunnis, and Kurds gather around campfires to sing "Kumbaya?" Would Iran end its interference in Iraq's affairs? Would the Islamic State (ISIS) disappear, abandoning its quest for a caliphate, withdrawing from areas it's captured in Iraq and Syria, leaving the Yazidis alone, and calling on its affiliates, such as Boko Haram, to stop their spree of killings and kidnappings? And would it reconsider its chilling ultimatum to Christians - leave, convert, or be killed? Speaking of Christians, would the dramatic outflow of persecuted Christians from the Arab Middle East instantaneously come to an end? Would the millions of Kurds, scattered across Turkey, Iran, Iraq, and Syria, enjoy self-determination and a nation of their own? Would Turkey withdraw its troops from northern Cyprus where they've been deployed for the past 41 years, release imprisoned journalists, ease the conditions of the Greek Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate in Istanbul, and become more cooperative in dealing with the flow of "foreign fighters" en route to and from Iraq and Syria? Would Saudi Arabia stop exporting its Wahhabi model of Islam, with its narrow, obscurantist view of the world and rejection of non-Muslims as so-called infidels, across the globe? And would it allow women to drive, permit construction of churches, and teach respect for all faiths in its school system? Would the radical Muslim Brotherhood just close up shop in Egypt, Gaza, Jordan, and elsewhere? Would disintegrating Libya awaken the next morning as a stable and unified country, with a central government, control over its borders and weaponry, and no significant trace of Islamic State? The painfully sad truth is that it is political oppression, human rights abuses, religious dogmas, intellectual suffocation, and gender discrimination that explain, far more than other factors, the chronic difficulties of the wider Middle East. To be sure, there are no overnight or over-the-counter remedies for these deeply entrenched maladies that would allow the region to unleash, at long last, its vast potential, but let's be clear: it not the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, that is at the true epicenter of the problem. It's long overdue to get real about the region -- and stop living in the world of illusions. A first step would be to drop the misleading term "Middle East Peace Process." That's not simply wordsmithing, but rather changing the way we think about this vital and volatile region.[16] Along with the U.N., the ICC Has Lost the Respect of All Fair-Minded People For more than two decades, supporters of the International Criminal Court (ICC) have urged the U.S. to ratify the Rome Statute and join the court. But multiple U.S. administrations of both parties refused, concerned that the ICC lacks safeguards against political manipulation and violates national sovereignty by claiming jurisdiction over the nationals and military personnel of non-party states. The ICC has just validated those concerns with its decision to seek warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant. The politicization of the ICC and other international organizations regarding the Israel-Palestinian situation is not new. It’s part of a broad-based effort by the Palestinian Authority to weaponize international organizations in its dispute with Israel and seek recognition without a negotiated peace. In the case of the ICC, the “Palestinians” submitted a declaration to the ICC in 2009 accepting the court’s jurisdiction in its “territory.” The ICC rejected the declaration because the “Palestinians” were not a state recognized by the United Nations. Rather than negotiate with Israel and achieve statehood through a peace process, the “Palestinians” sought recognition in the United Nations. After the Security Council rejected a "Palestinian" bid for U.N. membership in 2011, the General Assembly granted the “State of Palestine” non-member observer state status in 2012 over the opposition of the Unites States. The U.S. has opposed efforts by the “Palestinians” to become full members of the U.N. because, as reiterated this month, “We also have long been clear that premature actions here in New York, even with the best of intentions, will not achieve statehood for the Palestinian people.” Nonetheless, based on its elevated status in the UN General Assembly, the ICC recognized “Palestine” as a state and accepted its accession to the Rome Statute in 2015. This opened the door to an ICC investigation of “past, ongoing and future crimes within the court's jurisdiction” within the territory of the “State of Palestine,” which the Court sought to define as “the Palestinian Territory occupied in 1967 by Israel, as defined by the 1949 Armistice Line, [which] includes the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and the Gaza Strip.” The ICC opened an official investigation into the situation in Palestine in 2021. The ICC prosecutor announced it would cover: “crimes committed since 13 June 2014 in Gaza and the West Bank, including East Jerusalem. It is ongoing and extends to the escalation of hostilities and violence since the attacks that took place on 7 October 2023. In accordance with the Rome Statute, my Office has jurisdiction over crimes committed on the territory of a State Party and with respect to the nationals of States Parties.” The U.S. opposed the investigation, asserting that the ICC lacked jurisdiction because Israel is not a party to the Rome Statute and the “Palestinians” “do not qualify as a sovereign state and therefore, are not qualified to obtain membership as a state in, participate as a state in, or delegate jurisdiction to the ICC.” In addition, the prosecutor’s statement is objectionable as it implicitly endorses “Palestinian” territorial claims outside of a negotiated agreement with Israel. In defiance of Israel’s willingness to hold its soldiers accountable for misdeeds, the ICC yielded to pressure from the “Palestinians”, NGOs, and a few other anti-Israel governments to seek arrest warrants against Israeli leaders. This is the latest stratagem in a multipronged—multilateral, bilateral, rhetorical, military, economic, and legal—effort to pressure Israel to end the conflict with Hamas and make concessions to the “Palestinians”. While the ICC prosecutor was also supposedly seeking warrants for Hamas leaders relating to the killing, raping, and kidnapping of hundreds of Israeli civilians on October 7, it was ignoring Hamas’s responsibility for much of the suffering of Palestinian civilians due to theft of humanitarian aid, use of civilians as human shields, and misusing civilian and UN facilities, including hospitals and schools. Instead, the Court blamed Israel of willingly causing suffering and starvation even though Israel had gone to extraordinary lengths to evacuate Palestinians from harm’s way and facilitate humanitarian aid including over 500,000 tons of food, water, medical supplies, and shelter. In short, the ICC enabled “Palestinian” lawfare efforts against Israel, damaged prospects for peace by recognizing “Palestinian” statehood (and, implicitly, its territorial claims), asserted jurisdiction over Israeli citizens even though Israel has rejected ICC jurisdiction, and ignored Israel’s demonstrated ability and willingness to investigate crimes. In addition, they did not just target Israel. The ICC has also launched an investigation into American actions in Afghanistan. Like the Israel investigation, the court proceeded even though the U.S. is not a party to the Rome Statute and has rejected its jurisdiction. In response, the U.S. sanctioned ICC officials and applied political pressure that contributed to the ICC deciding to deprioritize its investigation into alleged U.S. crimes and, instead, focus on alleged crimes committed by the Taliban and the Islamic State-Khorasan. The U.S. should be willing to similarly protect its ally, Israel. A condemnation by President Biden fell woefully short. At a minimum, the U.S. should cease all cooperation with and support of the ICC and its investigations. Additionally, the U.S. should not neglect the instigator: the “Palestinians”. Rewarding bad behavior ensures more of it. To protect sovereignty and preserve incentives for future peace negotiations, the U.S. should signal its strong objection to this illicit attempt by the ICC and the “Palestinians” to hobble Israel’s efforts to defend itself.[17] During 2024, Several countries in the United Nations demonstrated their hatred of Israel and the U.N. repeatedly showed its bias against Israel by voting to recognize the existence and independence of a terrorist state called “Palestine”. The U.N. has no legitimate place in telling Israel how to deal with the terrorist peoples working to destroy it and eradicate the Jewish people from the Middle East. Similarly, the ICC demonstrated its bias against the Jewish state and also has no legitimate place in determining the legitimacy of Israel’s actions in defending itself against those sworn to destroy it. Jerusalem is the Undivided Capital of the Jewish Homeland On 5 June 2024, in the 76th year of it existence as a modern independent nation, Israel celebrated Yom Yerushalayim, Jerusalem Day. As Jerusalem marked the anniversary of the city’s unification in the 1967 Six-Day War, the municipality continues to grow and prosper with a record number of residents – Jews and Arabs – who enjoy the freedom of access to their holy sites. Thousands of years old, steeped in history, spirituality, and significance, Jerusalem is the center of the three monotheistic Abrahamic faiths: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. The Old City, rooted for thousands of years atop the Judean mountains, is home to some of the holiest shrines to all three faiths: the Western Wall and Temple Mount of the ancient Jewish Temple, the Church of the Holy Sepulcher, and the Al Aqsa Mosque beside the Dome of the Rock where Muslims believe the Muhammad ascended to heaven. In 1947, the Jews in the newly declared nation of Israel agreed to the UN Partition Plan to create two states, Jewish and Arab, with Jerusalem having the status of an international open city administered by the United Nations. Despite the international community offering Arabs a Palestinian state, they refused and instead launched a war to push the Jews out. The armistice at the end of Israel’s War of Independence in 1948 left Jerusalem’s Old City in the hands of the Jordanians. Jews who had lived there for centuries were evicted. The damage wrought by Jordan was brutal and well-documented. Dozens of synagogues were destroyed or damaged, cemeteries bulldozed and tombstones used as paving stones. Even worse, Jordan violated the terms of the armistice agreement and banned Jews from access to holy sites, while limiting Christian access to their holy sites and driving many Christian residents from the Old City. But in 1967, Jordan inadvisedly joined an Arab-initiated war and in the Six Day War of 1967, Israel defeated Egypt, Syria and Jordan. For the first time since Arab armies occupied the Old City in 1948, the pilgrimage sites were open to believers of all faiths and Jews could access their holiest site - the Western Wall and the Temple Mount. Since coming under full Israeli control, Jerusalem has grown and prospered despite “Palestinian” terror campaigns, the failed Arab boycott and diplomatic efforts to deny the fact that Jerusalem is the capital of Israel. From a population of 157,000 in 1944 (97,000 Jews, 60,600 Arabs) the Jewish population swelled to 195,700 in 1967, at which time, there were only 67,000 Arabs. That changed drastically after Israel took over in 1967. The Israelis institute a policy of religious freedom for all. Jerusalem grew and prospered to the point that in 2020 the bustling city became Israel’s largest city with a population of 943,800, of which 579,000 were Jews. In contrast to the population stagnation under Jordanian rule, the Arab population of Jerusalem soared to its 364,000 in 2023 – six times the number who lived there at the time of the Six-Day War. The numbers speak for themselves and repudiate the Palestinian lie accusing Israel of “ethnic cleansing” in the city – never before in history have so many people, Jews and Arabs, lived in Jerusalem. Here in 2024, The united city of Jerusalem continues to prosper, despite the gloom-and-doom pronouncements that diplomats “must act now because the window Before the twentieth century, Jerusalem was generally a city neglected by Muslims except for having some relatively minor religious importance. Historians have noted that from the middle of the nineteenth century until the Arab riots in 1929, two thirds – a majority – of Jerusalem’s residents were Jewish. Looking to the future it is clear that if and when a peace deal returns to the international agenda, it is essential for all of Jerusalem to remain united under Israeli control to guarantee that the city of peace remains that – and to ensure that it remains open to all faiths.[18] Enlightened Perspective on Judaism Some remarks about Jews and Israel from a few well known historical figures are as follows: Winston S. Churchill: "Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world .” John F. Kennedy: “Israel was not created in order to disappear- Israel will endure and flourish. It is the child of hope and the home of the brave. It can neither be broken by adversity nor demoralized by success. It carries the shield of democracy and it honors the sword of freedom. ” Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe: "Energy is the basis of everything. Every Jew, no matter how insignificant, is engaged in some decisive and immediate pursuit of a goal... It is the most perpetual people of the earth... " John Adams: "I will insist the Hebrews have [contributed] more to civilize men than any other nation. If I was an atheist and believed in blind eternal fate, I should still believe that fate had ordained the Jews to be the most essential instrument for civilizing the nations... They are the most glorious nation that ever inhabited this Earth. The Romans and their empire were but a bubble in comparison to the Jews. " Leo Tolstoy: "What is the Jew?...What kind of unique creature is this whom all the rulers of all the nations of the world have disgraced and crushed and expelled and destroyed; persecuted, burned and drowned, and who, despite their anger and their fury, continues to live and to flourish. What is this Jew whom they have never succeeded in enticing with all the enticements in the world, whose oppressors and persecutors only suggested that he deny (and disown) his religion and cast aside the faithfulness of his ancestors?! The Jew - is the symbol of eternity. ... He is the one who for so long had guarded the prophetic message and transmitted it to all mankind. A people such as this can never disappear. The Jew is eternal. He is the embodiment of eternity. " Mark Twain: "...If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race. It suggests a nebulous dim puff of stardust lost in the blaze of the Milky way. Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but he is heard of, has always been heard of. He is as prominent on the planet as any other people, and his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world's list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also away out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. He could be vain of himself, and be excused for it. “The Egyptian, the Babylonian, and the Persian rose, filled the planet with sound and splendor, then faded to dream-stuff and passed away; the Greek and the Roman followed; and made a vast noise, and they are gone; other people have sprung up and held their torch high for a time, but it burned out, and they sit in twilight now, or have vanished. The Jew saw them all, beat them all, and is now what he always was, exhibiting no decadence, no infirmities of age, no weakening of his parts, no slowing of his energies, no dulling of his alert and aggressive mind. All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality? " Killing the Jewish Goose that Lays the Golden Egg Throughout the ages, history has shown that nations which have treated their Jewish populations kindly have benefitted as a result, while those that have been unkind to the Jews have suffered. Going far back in time, the biblical narrative tells of those nations that were hostile to, attacked, and opposed the original Israelites. Most, if not all of these opponents of the Hebrew people fared badly. Amalek was destroyed. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece and the Roman empire are no longer great powers. After the destruction the Second Temple, Jews have been scattered throughout the world – the Diaspora. In some of these countries Jews were treated kindly and contributed to the prosperity and well-being of their hosts. In too many of these countries, Jews were eventually treated badly, were expelled or were murdered. Those countries that have treated their Jewish guests badly have generally not fared very well. In March 1492 Spain’s King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella issued the Edict of Expulsion, which was publicly announced on April 29. The decree allowed Jews to stay in Spain only if they converted to Christianity, basically limiting them to Catholicism, the dominant religion in Spain. If Jews chose not to convert, they had four months to leave the country or face execution by the Spanish Inquisition.[19] Prior to the Expulsion, there was a significant and vital Jewish community for almost nine hundred years in Spain. Under Moslem rule, the Jews enjoyed “golden age.” There were Jewish courtiers and even prime ministers, financiers and army generals. Jews excelled in medicine, philosophy, poetry, astronomy, diplomacy, finance, and creativity.[20] Over this period of time, Spain achieved the status of a superpower. Spain remained a leading power for some time after the Expulsion, but its power and status waned over the next few centuries. Today, Spain is not included in the list of leading nations of the world, even as it tries to reestablish its long-gone Jewish community. Other countries, e.g. Portugal, treated their Jewish minorities in a similar fashion, expelling them or forcing them to convert to Christianity. And they too suffered a similar fate. With today’s often violent and virulent anti-Semitism spreading across Western Europe, there is a rising flood of Jews leaving for safer climes – Israel and the U.S. for example. These countries that are losing their Jewish minorities face an uncertain future as their “assimilated” Jewish communities are bring replace with the less skilled Islamic influx and the arrival of refugees from a number of third world countries, mainly from Africa. “During the twentieth century, an astounding proportion of geniuses have been Jewish, and the fate of nations from Russia westward has largely reflected how they have treated their Jews. When Jews lived in Vienna and Budapest early in the century, these cities of the Hapsburg Empire were world centers of intellectual activity and economic growth; then the Nazis came to power, the Jews fled or were killed, and growth and culture disappeared with them. When Jews came to New York and Los Angeles, those cities towered over the global economy and culture. When Jews escaped Europe for Los Alamos and, more recently, for Silicon Valley, the world’s economy and military balance shifted decisively. Thus, many nations have faced a crucial moral test: Will they admire, reward, and emulate a minority that has achieved towering accomplishments? Or will they writhe in resentment and plot its destruction?” (21) In recent years, the Arab nations of the world have been extremely unfriendly to Jews who had been living peacefully in these countries for more than 2,000 years. Over the centuries, these Jewish refugees from the ancient Land of Israel had contributed to their host nations. They had resided peacefully in their host countries and had not fomented trouble. But, with the return of Jews to their ancient homeland around the start of the twentieth century and the rise of Arab nationalism after World War I, Jews in Arab nations became the targets of Jew-haters and anti-Zionists. Nearly all members of a once thriving array of Jewish communities in Arab countries were eventually forced to flee their adopted homelands around the time of the establishment of the State of Israel. A Saudi Arabian journalist recently discussed the consequences of this forced exodus of Jews from Arab lands. This journalist wrote that oppression of Jews in Arab countries caused Jewish emigration - and a consequent loss to the Arab economies and to Arab society. In the London-based Saudi daily Al-Sharq Al-Awsat he discussed the oppression of Jews in Arab lands that led those Jews to emigrate and reestablish their lives elsewhere. The journalist “wrote that Jews living in ‘the Mashreq,’ the eastern part of the Arab world, were forced to leave for other countries after facing systematic oppression and confiscation of their property, despite being ‘pillars of the economy and of culture and art’ in their respective countries. Citing examples of Jewish families that went on to be financially successful elsewhere, {he} asserted that Jewish emigration from Arab countries constituted a loss to ‘the Arab economy and to Arab society, which failed to be tolerant and became an emblem of exclusion.’ [Emphasis mine] - - - " ‘The Jews I am talking about were part of homogenous Arab communities. They were [ordinary] citizens, until their oppression began, manifested in doubting their loyalty, accusing them of treason and pressuring them to leave. When the pressure did not produce results, their property was simply seized. [All] this was done to others as well, but the Jews were a regular target for accusations of treason and suspicions of disloyalty, even though they were pillars of the economy and of culture and art in the countries where they lived. " ‘I remember an incident that happened to me... My daughter was about to have a delicate operation in the U.S. to remove a malignant tumor. I was attending Friday prayers in Jeddah when [the preacher] started. . . cursing the Jews and the Christians. I objected to this, saying: 'Am I supposed to curse the Jew who is about to operate on my daughter? (The surgeon happened to be Jewish). Why should I curse someone who has never done me any harm? On the contrary, I wish him every success.' I started recalling encounters I had had with Jews in the Arab world, from all walks of life. For example, I remembered Serge Berdugo, who served as culture minister in Morocco in 1993-1996, and who told me: 'We Moroccan [Jews] have full civil rights.' [I also recalled] my meeting in Bahrain with Rouben, the owner of the famous electronics shop near Bab Al-Bahrain [in the center of Manama], who told me that Bahrain respects the rights of the Jews who live there. " ‘[But], in contrast to these examples, there are also tragic stories about the denial of rights, about racist and degrading treatment and about the forceful seizing of property from innocent Jews. Such examples are known from countries like Iraq, Libya, Algeria, Sudan, Tunisia and Yemen. The Kadoorie family, [for instance], left Iraq for Hong Kong, where it founded [Hong Kong's] oldest hotel, the Peninsula. . . Another [Jewish] family that left Iraq was the Saatchi family, which settled in Britain and founded the Saatchi advertising agency. The Safra family left Syria for Brazil, where it founded a financial empire, and the Cicurel family, which owns huge department stores, came from Egypt. All the families presented [here] as examples were lost to the Arab economy and to the Arab society, which failed to be tolerant and became an emblem of exclusion.’ “ (22) A million Jews lived in Arab countries in the 20th century. Today, just a few thousand are left, mostly in Morocco and Tunisia. The purging of the Jews caused a crisis in almost every Arab country from which they came. Despite their relatively limited numbers, the Jews’ impact on society, culture, economy, and trade was crucial to the development of those countries, and their loss was felt. After the Jews were evicted from Iraq and Egypt, for example, those countries experienced crisis after crisis. There is now a palpable longing in most Arab states for the Jews to return. Many believe that only with a Jewish presence will their countries blossom and develop as they did in the past. The Jewish contribution to Arab states was significant. In Egypt, the gold market flourished with a Jewish presence and continues to do so to this day, even though the Jews were thrown out and their stores ransacked. Jewish symbols like the Magen David remain engraved on Egyptian shops, in markets, and on buildings. The older generation still remembers the prosperity of the time when Jews were in possession of their stores. It is no coincidence that Cairo has decided to invest tens of millions of dollars in the restoration of synagogues throughout Egypt. The most recent is the renovation of the once magnificent Eliyahu Hanavi (Elijah the Prophet) Synagogue, in which $6 million is being invested. It is not only the Egyptians who want to coax back the prosperity that accompanied the Jewish presence. A few months ago, new Sudanese Minister of Religion Nasser Aladin called on Sudanese Jews whose families were forced to emigrate in the wake of the establishment of the State of Israel to return. In Lebanon, over a million dollars has been invested in the restoration of the Magen Avraham synagogue in the Wadi Abu Jamil neighborhood in West Beirut, near the Lebanese parliament. Perhaps more than any others, it is the Iraqis who long for the return of their Jewish brethren, and Iraqi Jews who long for their former homeland. In recent years, a number of Facebook accounts have opened in Israel to renew the connection between Iraqi Jews and the Arabs beside whom their ancestors lived in harmony for over a thousand years prior to the advent of Islam. The Iraqi Jews were wrenched from their former home, but their contribution to the country is felt to this day. Like Jewish minorities in other countries, the Jews of Iraq concentrated on trade, crafts, light industry, governmental and municipal services, and banking. The impact of Jews on commerce and banking was especially significant. The eight banks operating in Baghdad in the 1940s were all founded by Jewish families, and most of the clerks of Jewish and foreign banks were Jews. The first Iraqi Minister of the Treasury, Yehezkel Sasson, was Jewish. He laid the foundations for Iraqi taxation, economics, and the state budget. In one of the protests against corruption in Iraq a few years ago, Sasson’s name was held up on signs declaring he was not corrupt like the current politicians. Today, there is only one Jewish minister to be found in the entire Arab world. Roni Trabbolsi serves as Tunisian Minister of Tourism, the third Jewish minister to serve since Tunisia’s founding. Arab countries of old flourished in large part because of the contribution of their Jews. But then, in some countries, there was an exchange of populations: the Jews were forced out and Palestinian Arab refugees arrived in their place. The wealthy and educated Jewish population was replaced by a weak and poor population, a cultural shock that particularly affected Syria, Iraq, and Libya. With the rise of xenophobic Arab/Muslim rejection of the State of Israel, the Arab states that could not beat Israel on the battlefield punished their Jews instead. Now, years later, there is a growing realization of the counter-productivity of that injustice, and many are calling for the Jews to return. Some Muslims are even calling for a tax levied on non-Muslims in Arab countries to be returned to the Jews. Despite this growing sentiment, Arab leaders continue to choose for the most part to look the other way, not only refusing to protect the Jews but actively contributing to their persecution. Perhaps not coincidentally, the Arab states suffer serial economic failures and never-ending wars and disputes. Some Muslims believe this is a punishment by Allah for their failure to protect the Jews, as they were instructed to do.[23] America has been one of the most welcoming nations to the Jews of the Diaspora. At the same time, over the last century, America has achieved and retained its status as the most powerful and successful nation in the world. American Jews have been and continue to be a significant contributor to this success story. Let us all hope and pray that this Jewish goose continues to lay its golden eggs and that the beneficiary of these gifts continues to welcome, accept and be hospitable to this Jewish goose. America, What is Happening to You? Woodbine, New Jersey, was founded in 1891 as a settlement for Eastern European Jews. Philanthropist Maurice de Hirsch purchased 5,300 acres of land in Cape May County and began to invite immigrants fleeing Poland and Russia to settle in the new community. Within two years, they cleared the forest and built a settlement with thriving farms. Sometimes called the Jewish Colony, Woodbine also became known as “the first self-governing Jewish community since the fall of Jerusalem.” Karen Lehrman Bloch’s great-grandparents fled to Woodbine in the early 1900s. They came here with nothing. Her grandfather, born in 1908, had to work as a child in a clothing factory to help the family. He was so happy to get an orange for his Bar Mitzvah; he had never eaten one before. They were finally safe and free. A century later at the start of 2024, she was raising her son, in New York City and wondering: Is he still safe and free? She never thought she’d have to ask this question. But here we are dealing with the aftermath of the worst atrocity since the Holocaust. Here in 2024, Jews in America and all over the world are being bullied, harassed, abused, and physically assaulted. But according to our esteemed Ivy League presidents, this harassment — even if it calls for genocide — “depends on the context.” Because we’re Jews. Apparently, we are at another inflection point in Jewish history. If Karen’s great grandparents were alive today, they likely would be terrified — and angry. Angry at those who allowed it to get to this point and at the Islamists who are religiously committed to murdering every Jew. As David Hazony put it: “War has been launched against the Jewish people … The emergence of ancient hatred against us, seemingly detached from all reality, triggers an ancient, existential fear. We are so few, and they are so many.” Given this alarming rise in hostility, it’s worth asking: Is America still safe for the Jews? New York City, like Los Angeles and other major cities, has witnessed an almost absurd number of people who hate Jews and have no problem moving quickly from verbal to physical violence. “A global antisemitic movement has suddenly emerged, marching through our cities,” Hazony writes, “celebrating the barbaric violation of Jewish bodies, tearing down posters of Jewish victims, blaming Jews for the atrocities committed against them, and unleashing yet more violence against Jews and Jewish institutions.” In Brooklyn, Arabs beat up three Jews in separate attacks. In Times Square, rioters cheered Israeli civilian fatalities and made throat-slitting gestures. The Kosher restaurant Hummus Kitchen was vandalized twice in four days. In Queens, hundreds of high school students forced a Jewish teacher to be moved to another part of the school. Mass riots (these are not “protests”) have also taken over Grand Central Station and Penn Station. A mob of 1,000 rioters violently disrupted a private IDF fundraiser Attendees, including the mother of an Israeli hostage, had to be escorted out by the NYPD. California has also been hit hard. The death of 69-year old Paul Kessler during a protest and counterprotest in Thousand Oaks. In Oakland, an 11-foot menorah was broken and thrown in a lake. Antisemitic graffiti was scrawled onto the base, including “we’re gonna find you.” An antisemitic phrase was scrawled on a Holocaust survivor’s home. Restaurants and menorahs have also been vandalized in Philadelphia, Chicago, Maryland, and Florida. In Detroit, a Democratic holiday party ended in bloodshed. More than 400 Jewish institutions received bomb threats between Oct 7th and the new year. Between Oct 7 and Dec 7 Hate crimes against Jews were up nearly 500% over the same period the year before, rising from 465 incidents in 2022 to 2,031. In Senate testimony, the FBI stated that antisemitism in the U.S. is “a threat that is reaching … historic levels.” “The lid to the sewers is off,” ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt said. On Dec. 28, pro-Hamas rioters tried to storm the World Trade Center while shouting “Allahu Akbar.” This is not just a war on Jews, but on Western civilization. Through neo-Marxism, leftism has teamed up with Islamism — just as the KGB helped Egyptian Yasser Arafat create the PLO in 1964 — to create a set of lies about Jews, history in general, and humanity. The Big Lie here in 2024 is “colonization.” Details such as the fact that some of the biggest colonizers throughout history have been the Arab world never seem to get mentioned. And what about the fact that the Arab world still enslaves blacks? Somehow that never made it into Critical Race Theory (CRT), a set of distortions about history that always seem to find a way to blame Jews for society’s ills. CRT’s “oppressor” narrative enabled those who claim to be committed to social justice to support the so-called “oppressed” — even if that includes Islamists, who aside from wanting to kill all infidels, persecute gay people and treat women far worse than the Western patriarchy ever did. Suddenly, it seems, “honor killings” became woke. In today’s “elite” universities, microaggressions like misgendering a desk can get you thrown out of school, while macroaggressions like calling for the genocide of Jews or bullying Jewish students will leave you empowered. At some of America’s most elite institutions of higher learning, anti-Semitism has emerged from the sewers. Harvard. A mob of anti-Israel rioters — including the editor of The Harvard Law Review — followed, surrounded and intimidated a Jewish student on campus. “Shame! Shame! Shame! Shame!” the rioters screamed into his ear, encircling him. Cooper Union. Rioters pounded on windows as Jewish students took shelter in a locked library. Columbia. An Israeli student was beaten with a stick outside Columbia University’s main library; former IDF soldiers were mocked in group chats; Hillel was serving three meals a day because Jewish students didn’t feel safe on campus. Cornell. A posting on a university forum called for the murder and rape of Jews: “if I see a pig male jew i will stab you and slit your throat. if i see another pig female jew i will drag you away and rape you and throw you off a cliff. if i see another pig baby jew i will behead you in front of your parents.” University of Massachusetts. Rioter punched a Jewish student who was holding anIsraeli flag, and then spit on the flag. University of Michigan. A mob of rioters stormed administrative buildings while screaming “ceasefire now.” A “Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine” (FSJP) chapter was formed, accusing the school of “horrific suppression” of anti-Zionist viewpoints and “brutal actions against students.” How did America get here? Over the past three decades, the ethical code of keeping political bias and antisemitism out of the classroom — especially a professor’s bias — was fully dismantled, to the point where professors now create entire classes based on their personal views — with administrators doing nothing. In other words, education was being replaced with indoctrination. Students are being taught that “systems of oppression overlap” and that the major oppressors are – of course - the Jews. Of course, Jews have historically been the victims of more persecution than all other minorities combined. A minor detail that leftist activists always forget to mention. Inevitably, Islamist “professors” saw a safe, ignorant space and filled it with anti-Semitism. Jonathan Haidt has called the double standards that stem from these ideologies “institutional antisemitism”— precisely what the Jews endured in the quotas that reigned between the 1920s and 1950s. Not surprisingly, politically biased journalism, which gained steam over a decade ago, has hurt. Journalism at The New York Times, The Washington Post, and MSNBC have routinely distorted Oct 7th and downplayed the antisemitic aftermath. And then there are publications like The New Republic, which is now virtually indistinguishable from Al Jazeera. As one former colleague put it: “They just make [stuff] up.” Indeed, leftist millennials appear to specialize in fabrication. With all of these lies in the media and at our schools is it any wonder that more than half the country now hates Jews?[24] “June 10, 2024 “Hamas’ massacre of Israelis on October 7, and the war that it started, has unleashed record levels of antisemitism in the U.S. – on college campuses, on social media, and in the streets. Despite the adverse effects of the war on American Jews, AJC’s 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion discovered deepening connections between American Jews, their Jewish identity, and the Jewish state, as well as the importance of strong Israel education in fostering a deep connection to Israel. “Here are five findings from the survey that illustrate how the American Jewish community is feeling after the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust. “AJC’s 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion, conducted by the research company SSRS, is based on interviews conducted online between March 12 - April 6, 2024, with a nationally representative sample of 1,001 Jews aged 18 or older. The margin of error is +/-3.9 percentage points at the 95% confidence level. “1. Jews Are Deeply – and Increasingly – Connected to Israel “AJC’s 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion found that a majority - 85% - of U.S. Jews think it’s important for the United States to support Israel in the aftermath of the terrorist attack on October 7. This statistic is critically important in light of the persistent narrative that Jews represent a significant percentage of anti-Zionist protesters. “Campus protests, physical assaults, and antisemitic rhetoric online haven’t dissuaded most American Jews from embracing their heritage. In fact, 57% of respondents said they felt more connected to Israel or their Jewish identity after the horrors of October 7. Only 4% said they felt less connected after the attack. “2. Jews Feel the Rise in Antisemitism “Every month of 2023 featured a high-profile antisemitic incident, including bomb threats, violent assaults, and vandalism of sacred spaces. “But since October 7, it has gotten even worse. Following Hamas’ horrific attack, 87% of American Jews think that antisemitism has increased in the U.S. with 55% saying it has increased a lot. “3. Jews Are Concerned About Their Future in America “A century ago, American Jews often called America the “goldene medina,” Yiddish for “the golden land.” Since October 7 though, 7% have considered moving to another country due to antisemitism in the U.S. “The Israel-Hamas war has also affected American Jews’ personal or work relationships in several ways. Overall, 64% of American Jews reported that the horrific event halfway around the world affected, in one way or another, their relationships here at home. More than half (53%) avoided talking about the Israel-Hamas war with other people. More than one in ten (12%) American Jews ended a friendship or relationship with a person because they expressed antisemitic views. And when meeting someone new, 27% of U.S. Jews hid their Jewish identity or chose not to disclose it. “4. The Jewish Vote Hasn’t Changed “When asked about the upcoming presidential election, answers indicated that a lot has stayed the same for the past four years. While there is not a definitive exit poll to measure how American Jews voted, polls commissioned in 2020 by both Democrats and Republicans found that a vast majority of American Jews supported Joe Biden. Similarly, the 2024 AJC survey found that 61% said they would vote for Biden in the upcoming election; 23% said they would vote for Donald Trump. “The 2024 AJC survey found that 49% of American Jews believe Biden would be the better choice for preserving the U.S.-Israel relationship, compared to 25% who favor Trump. Likewise, 55% favored a Biden administration when it comes to combating antisemitism versus 20% who think Trump would do a better job. “AJC is a non-partisan organization that neither supports nor endorses candidates for elective offices. “5. American Jews Need Better Education about Israel “According to AJC’s State of Antisemitism in America 2023 Report, eight out of ten American Jews say Israel is important to their Jewish identity, but our 2024 Survey of American Jewish Opinion found that the vast majority of the American Jewish community lacks the education they need about Israel to process this moment in history adequately. “More than one in five (22%) American Jews said they had received zero formal education about Israel. Those who reported no education about Israel were least likely to say they felt more connected to Israel since 10/7 (35%), followed by those who categorized their education as weak (42%). In contrast, 62% of those who characterized their education about Israel as strong said they felt more connected to the Jewish state since 10/7.” (25) ”If the Arabs put down their guns there would be no more fighting. If the Israelis put down theirs there would be no more Israel.” - Golda Meir ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- References:
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27 June 2024 {ARTICLE 627; ISRAEL_91}
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