'Palestinians' use Nazi images to express themselves

'Palestinians' like Nazi imagery.  They can't stop referring to it.

For example, to demonize Israel, Officials of the Palestinian Authority (PA) compare Israelis to 'Nazis' ("PA official: Netanyahu implements Nazi strategy to blame PA for stagnation in negotiations", Jerusalem Post, June 11, 2015). 

PA officials see Israel as Nazi from the inside-out. For example, the official PA newspaper, Al-Hayyat Al-Jadida, has reported that Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is a racist (Tova Dvorin, "Palestinian Authority Claims Netanyahu has 'Nazi Genes'", Arutz Sheva, January 28, 2014). Their 'proof'?  It is possible, the newspaper said, "that Netanyahu has preserved [racism] and acquired it genetically from the days of the Nazis and the Aryan race" (ibid).

That's their proof.

The PA sees no difference between Israel and Nazi-ruled Germany (Khalid Amayreh, "Israel and Nazi Germany, Tweedldee and Tweedldum", intifada, July 30, 2009).

The PA calls Israel the 'Nazi state' ("Palestinian Authority Slanders Israel as Nazi State, PMW Reveals", UnitedwithIsrael, August 18, 2014).

The PA creates a new vocabulary for Israel. It wants you to believe that Israelis--not just Israel--are Nazi. They've created the word,  'Zionazi' for that purpose ("Zio-Nazis run wild in Occupied Palestine [Israel]", presstv, July 8, 2014). 

On October 30, 2015, we were reminded that the PA doesn't just use Nazi ideas or words; the PA does better than that: it uses actual 1930's Nazi pictures, taken from Nazi anti-Jew propaganda. The PA does that to demonize and dehumanize Jews. They do that because they adopt Nazi Jew-hate as their own.
Apparently, the PA has discovered that no one does Jew-hate better than the Nazis. Why should the PA try to 're-invent the wheel'?

Here's a post from Palestinian Media Watch, which monitors PA media.

You can judge for yourself who is the Nazi, who the victim:


                                  Fatah posts Nazi children's book cover:
                                    Don't trust a fox or a Jew

Today, on its official Facebook page, Abbas' Fatah movement posted the cover of an Anti-Semitic children's book from Germany from 1936.

Posted text: "The cover of one of the children's books in Germany in 1936 whose title is:
'Trust no fox on his green meadow, and trust no Jew on his oath'"

[Official Facebook page of the Fatah movement, Oct. 29, 2015]

Nazis in the 1930s used this type of ugly caricature to  prepare Germany for the coming Holocaust. Doing horrible things to millions of Jews could offend a lot of people. But if those people were properly 'prepared', future anti-Jew actions by the German government might be accepted. The Nazi propaganda goal was to make the Jews a reviled and hated group. They used media to do that. Since the early-mid 1930's, the Nazi propaganda machine worked to demonize and dehumanize the Jews. 

For ideological reasons, Nazi Germany started a war that saw the death of tens of millions of people. Because of that trauma, Nazism, including Nazi vocabulary, propaganda and imagery are considered by the civilized world to be extremely dangerous and particularly offensive. 

The 'Palestinians', however, don't agree. They see nothing wrong with Nazi propaganda. They use Nazi vocabulary, ideas, propaganda and imagery to do exactly what the original Nazis did in Germany: demonize and dehumanize Jews. We all know how that turned out.

The 'Palestinian Cause' uses horrid Jew-hate propaganda because it has the same goals as the original Nazi regime: to exterminate Jews.

Why do supposedly civilized people support that? Perhaps they're not as civilized as they believe they are.

Hamas reminder: HaShem speaks to us through news headlines

HaShem speaks to us through news headlines. He uses the news because we read the news.

Through headlines, HaShem teaches. He inspires. He warns.

We’ve just seen such a headline. This one is about Hamas.

Hamas hates Jews. It says so in its Charter. It wants to wipe out Israel.

Hamas says in its Charter that there’s no political solution for the ‘Palestinian problem’. There’s only Jihad—holy war against Jews.

Hamas marinates in Jew-hate. It wants to exterminate Jews (“Hamas Spells it Out: Our Aim is the Extermination of the Jews”, Arutz Sheva, July 29, 2014).

Hamas rejects Israel. It says Israel has no future: Israel’s existence contradicts history (Dalit Halevi, “Hamas: Israel exists in contradiction to history”, Arutz Sheva, October 27, 2015).

Hamas is absolutely right. Here’s why:

In the Torah portion we read last week, Lech Lecha (B’reisheet, 12:1-17:27), HaShem spoke to the-then 99-year old Patriarch Avraham (ibid, 17:1). When, in that conversation (ibid, 17:16-17), HaShem tells Avraham he would father a son with his wife Sara, Avraham reacted in two ways. First, he fell to the ground—a prayerful gesture (ibid, 17:17). Then, he laughed (ibid).

Jewish commentaries have been puzzled by this laughter. Why did Avraham laugh?

Major commentators agree that laughter in such a conversation is inappropriate. Sara also laughed at the prospect of having a child (she was perhaps eighty-nine years old); her laughter was considered not appropriate (see B’reisheet, 18: 13-14). Why is Avraham’s laughter different?

Major Jewish commentaries seem to agree about Avraham’s laughter. They argue that, even though there is precedence to say that laughter is a gesture of ridicule, Avraham’s laughter here was appropriate.

For example, take three major Jewish commentaries. Onkelos (perhaps first century CE) translates the Hebrew word used in the text (‘Tzchok’, which normally means, ‘laughter’) as ‘joy’: Avraham heard he would become a father through Sara and rejoiced. Rashi (Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchak, 1040-1105), accepts this translation.

The Ramban (Moshe ben Nachman—‘Nachmanidies’—1194-1270) says the word ‘Tzchok’ as used in this context is an expression of ‘wonderment-joy’. He writes that, “whoever sees some wondrous occurrence that is for his benefit rejoices to the point that his ‘mouth becomes filled with laughter’” (Ramban, ArtScroll edition, B’reisheet 17:17).

These great Jewish commentaries agree. Avraham’s laughter has nothing to do with ‘ridicule’.

But if you look at the commentary of Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch (1808-1888), you’ll see something completely different. You’ll also discover how that Hamas headline above carries a spiritual reference—a reminder to us about the G-dly nature of the Jewish people.

Hirsch says that in this Biblical interaction, Avraham’s laughter really is connected to ridicule. He begins with the idea that, in Tanach (the Jewish Bible), the word, ‘Tzchok’ is related to other words which, he suggests, generally describe “noticing something which strikes[one] as ridiculous” (Hirsch Commentary on the Torah, translated into English by Isaac Levy, Judaica Press, London, 1966, vol 1, pp. 307).

He then adds, ”where, in the whole world, is there any greater absurd contradiction than” the idea that a 100-year old man and his 90 year-old wife would have a son who would start a great nation? (ibid).

What Hirsch says seems to repeat the content of the Hamas headline quoted above: “according to all the natural conditions of cause and effect, the whole beginning of the Jewish people, its history…must appear [as it clearly does to Hamas] as the most unwarranted laughable pretension” (Hirsch, ibid).

Unwittingly, Hamas shows it understands--with its anti-Israel declaration--that the Jewish nation “was to be, even by its very existence, in opposition to all the ordinary laws of world-history” (Hirsch, p308).

Hamas validates what Hirsch says: Avraham’s laughter “has followed the path of the Jews throughout the course of their history” (ibid). In other words, it’s truly absurd—ridiculous--that the path of Judaism—and the Jewish people—could survive in history.

But Israel does survive, despite the ridiculous improbability of that survival. That survival, Hirsch concludes, is “proof of the Divine nature of this path” (bid).

For Hirsch, that’s the point of Avraham’s laughter: in the “ordinary natural course of events [in ordinary history]” (ibid, p307), Israel’s existence makes no sense. It’s an absurdity. It contradicts historical expectation.

Israel’s survival makes sense only as a manifestation of the “free-willed almighty power of a free-willed Almighty G-d” (ibid, p307).

HaShem speaks to us through headlines. The Hamas headline above reminds us how extraordinary we are. Clearly, Hamas agrees with Hirsch: our existence contradicts history (HaLevy, above, ibid).

We exist because of HaShem, not because of politics, the Holocaust or any other dynamic of human history.  Hamas is right. We don’t exist as do other nations. We walk to the beat of a different, more Spiritual drummer. We live because it is the Will of the G-d of Israel.

.

The 'Palestinain Cause', savagery and why Israel stands alone

If there’s any good news coming out of Israel these days, it’s this: the current ‘knife’ and ‘car’ intifadas we’re living with every day now reveal that the so-called ‘Palestinian Cause’ is a fraud.

The ‘Palestinian Cause’ says it’s about freedom, self-determination’, justice and statehood. But none of the terrorists killed trying to kill Jews during this wave of terror has expressed any interest whatsoever in these concepts. What they have talked about in Facebook posts leading up to their attacks is exactly what Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership has been talking about in PA media: killing Jews in order to ‘defend’ Al Aqsa Mosque; or, even worse, killing Jews for allah or in the name of allah.

Here’s a sample of what Arab youth read every week:

-“Fatah’s official social media promotes and glorifies Martyrdom and murder”, Palestinian Media Watch [pmw], October 19, 2015). This story isn’t about some noble fight for ‘Palestinian’ freedom. It’s about glorifying the murder of Jews.

-“Fatah official, on Facebook, calls for intifada and for Fatah youth members to make themselves into Martyrs”, from pmw, October 5, 2015.This story is not about justice. It’s about calling for youth to get themselves killed for allah. It’s about telling Arab youth to volunteer to become a human sacrifice for Islam.   

-“Hamas celebrates Jerusalem bus terror attack that killed 2 with reenactment video”, from pmw, October 14. 2015. This story isn‘t about self-determination. It’s about a disgusting re-enactment of a murder--for Arab entertainment.

-“Blood worship? Palestinians wait to ‘inhale the scent of the Martyr's blood’: Dead terrorist's blood is pure”, from pmw, October 20, 2015. This story isn’t about statehood.  It’s about ‘Palestinians’ who have "insisted on inhaling the scent of the Martyr's [dead terrorist’s] blood”. That’s not noble. It’s sick.

-“Palestine: President Mahmoud Abbas lies and claims Israel ‘executed’ 13-yr old knife attacker”, The Muslim issue, October 16, 2015. This story isn’t about Israel’s brutality and oppression. It’s another lie from the lie-factory called the ‘Palestinian Cause’.

-“Social Media As A Platform For Palestinian Incitement – Part II: Video Tutorials, Tips For Achieving More 'Effective' [knife] Attacks”, memri, October 14, 2015. This story isn’t about ‘living side-by-side with Jews in peace and security’. It’s about killing Jews. It’s about how to kill Jews.

-“Watch: Knife In Hand, Gaza Imam Calls on Muslims to Stab Jews”, Arutz Sheva, October 11, 2015. This story isn’t about seeking peace. It’s about religious incitement to murder Jews.

-“’Poison The Knife Before You Stab’ – Islam’s Goal Of Jew-Annihilation Undeniable Except To The Willfully Blind”, work949.wordpress, October 18, 2015. This story isn’t about turning to god to help bring peace. It’s a religious leader’s barbaric call to terrorists to put poison on their knives before they go out to stab Jews.

-“Hamas Cleric Vows: We Won't Leave [in a new ‘Palestine’] a Single Jew, Dead or Alive”, Arutz Sheva, October 21, 2015. This story isn’t about preparing for a prosperous new ‘state’. It’s about setting the stage for genocide.

How many nations have condemned Hamas, Abbas and his Fatah for such murderous incitement and genocidal speeches? How many Member States of the United Nations have stood up to condemn the Palestinian Authority for glorifying the killing of Jews? Almost no one.

How many nations have demanded that the United Nations Security Council condemn Hamas, Abbas and his Fatah? Almost no one.

When the nations of the world hear that Jews are being murdered, they say next to nothing. When the nations see how Abbas and his officials incite and celebrate murder, they say nothing. When Hamas promises genocide against Jews, they say nothing.

Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has called for the nations to condemn such horrific official ‘Palestinian’ declarations and actions (“Netanyahu Demands Global Condemnation of Palestinian Incitement”, Arutz Sheva, October 21, 2015). He hears only a stone-cold silence.

There is only one conclusion one can draw from that silence: the nations of the world either support or condone the killing of Jews. These nations—Members of the United Nations--are no different than the nations of 1941: they have next to nothing to say about the killing of Jews.

This is why Israel stands alone. It’s the only nation that speaks out against lies, murder and a blood-lust so intense that ‘Palestinians’ can’t wait to sniff the supposedly pleasant aroma of a dead terrorist’s blood (“Damascus Gate cries ‘blood for the Martyrs’, Palestinians wait to inhale the scent of terrorist-Martyr's pure blood", Palestinian Media Watch, October 15, 2015).

Apparently, Israel is the only nation that understands how utterly savage that is. Israel is the only nation willing to fight  that savagery.

That’s why it stands alone.

The 'Palestinian' peace plan

If some of you think this essay is harsh, it is. But it’s harsh only because it tells a harsh truth—the kind of truth compassionate people find too painful to look at.

But because this harsh truth is so real, you have to look at it. Otherwise, there will surely be no peace.

This truth begins in Israel, where Arab Muslims who call themselves ‘Palestinians’ attack Jews. They attack to kill.  They volunteer to do it.

They do that because their unelected leader, Mahmoud Abbas, has called for them to do that (Khaled Abu Toameh, “Abbas Calls for Murder, Palestinians Attack”, gatestoneinstitute, October 7, 2015).

Mahmoud Abbas is no ‘moderate’. He encourages murder. He praises it. He justifies it—illogically—as defending what is ‘holy’ (“Abbas Justifies Murders as ‘Protection of Holy Sites’”, Arutz Sheva, October 11, 2015).

If you think Abbas is a peace partner with Israel, there will never be peace. You must understand the truth about this Mahmoud Abbas, his Fatah political Party and his 'Palestinian Authority' (PA).

During the 2014 Gaza-Israel war, Abbas’ Fatah demanded a ‘day of rage’ on the Temple Mount. Since then, Abbas and his PA have re-invigorated an old blood libel against Jews that’s based on that rage. Like all blood libels, this one is used to incite to kill Jews.

The libel works like this: First, the Temple Mount is not Jewish; it’s Islamic (Maayana Miskin, “Islamic Waqf Revises History: 'Temple Mount, Kotel are Muslim'”, Arutz Sheva, January 21, 2014). 

Next, Jews (called, ‘settlers’) have no right to ascend to the Temple Mount, Judaism’s holiest site on earth (“Abbas: settlers have no right to 'desecrate' Al-Aqsa [the Temple Mount]”, i24News, October 18, 2014).

Jews who walk on the Mount ‘defile’ Islamic holy ground (Nir Hassan and Jack Khoury, “Abbas: Settlers Have No Right to 'Defile' Al-Aqsa Mosque”, Haartez, October 17, 2014).  

Therefore, the Mount must be ‘protected’ for Islam (“Abbas urges Palestinians to protect Al-Aqsa by 'all means'”, AFP, October 17, 2015).

Abbas has made the Temple Mount and Jerusalem the singular center-piece of the state of ‘Palestine’ (“Q and A: is a new Palestinian intifada at hand?”, AFP, October 5, 2015). He wants that center-piece protected for Islam, not Judaism  (“Abbas Calls on Palestinians to Defend Al-Aqsa”, telesurtv.net/English, October 20, 2014).

-Abbas incites violence against Jews by calling Jews ‘filth’ (Ari Yashar, “Abbas Calls for Violence Against Jewish 'Filth' on Temple Mount”, Arutz Sheva, September 17, 2015).

-Abbas declares, "The Al-Aqsa (Mosque) is ours, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre is ours, and they (Jews) have no right to defile it with their filthy feet. We will not allow them to, and we will do everything in our power to protect Jerusalem" (ibid).

His words speak of violence against Jews, not statehood or peace.

Fatah officials help him. They add fuel to the Abbas incitement:

Fatah officials call for holy war (Ribat) on the Temple Mount (and in Jerusalem) against Jews (“Fatah spokesperson: ‘Those carrying out Ribat at the Al-Aqsa [Mosque] are heroes and a source of pride for all Palestinians’, Palestinian Media Watch, September 20, 2015)

After calling for a religious war against Jews, Fatah accuses Israel of trying to start a religious war (“Fatah warns that Netanyahu's 'policy' on Jerusalem ‘sets the entire area on fire and ignites religious conflicts that will have impact on the entire world’", ibid, September 18, 2015).

Naturally, after declaring that it’s Israel who wants to start a religious war, Fatah has the obligation to call for ‘Palestinians’ to rise up to stop it (“Fatah official cites 2nd Intifada as model to confront Israel “against recurring invasions” at Al-Aqsa Mosque”, pmw, September 28, 2015). 

Finally, Abbas returns to the spotlight to close the religious-war-against-the-Jew-on-the-Temple-Mount-and-in-Jerusalem loop. He’s done this by calling for ‘blood’ and for [religious] martyrs, first to ‘protect’ Al Aqsa (Abbas: We won’t allow Jews with their filthy feet to defile our Al-Aqsa Mosque; We bless every drop of blood... that has been spilled for Allah”, ibid, September 16, 2017), and then to protect Jerusalem (“Abbas: ‘Every drop of blood that has been spilled in Jerusalem is holy blood as long as it was for Allah’", ibid, September 17, 2015).

Men of peace don't speak such vile words. Mahmoud Abbas is no man of peace.

The ‘Palestinian’ propaganda machine puts Jerusalem and the Temple Mount at the epi-centre of the ‘Palestinian Cause’. Officials from the PA use the most vile language to provoke their followers to ‘save’ that epi-center for Muslims exclusively. Arab Muslims leave their homes to kill Jews.

It’s barbaric.

Notice that these calls to ‘defend’ the Temple Mount for Islam—and to spill blood for Jerusalem--have nothing to do with statehood, freedom, ‘justice’ or self-determination—or peace. These calls are about holy war. They’re about ‘filthy Jews’.

They’re about killing Jews for allah.

This is the ‘Palestinian’ peace plan. It isn’t about peace. It’s about murder.  

‘Palestinians’ don’t want peace with Israel. They want to kill Jews for the good of Islam.

Jews cannot make peace with that. Jews want to live, not die.

The PA rejects human rights for Jews

(This essay was originally published yesterday, October 27, 2015. I have just accidently erased it. I now re-post it)

In 1948, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The framers of this document clearly suggest that if world peace was possible, it would be built upon freedom and human rights (Preamble).

The UDHR contains two ‘declarations’, one explicit, one implicit. First, it explicitly lists what are the inalienable human rights that applied to all human beings. The second ‘declaration’ is less obvious—but just as compelling: there cannot be peace when human rights are rejected and held in contempt.

The framers of UDHR understood what happens when human rights are aggressively disdained: wherever human rights are held in contempt, the results have been “barbarous acts which outrage the conscience of mankind” (Preamble).

We see this disdain—and its attendant barbarism--in Israel. The Arab Muslim ‘Palestinian Authority’ (PA) denies basic human rights to Jews.

Arab Muslims of the PA deny or restrict freedoms for Jews. For example, the right to free access to holy Jewish sites is denied to Jews—or seriously restricted. The PA denies Jews the right to pray at Judaism’s Holiest site on earth. The PA acts as if it has the right—and the duty--to destroy Jewish human rights.

If you want to see peace in this region, this Arab Muslim behaviour is unacceptable. The UDHR may say that all human beings have the “freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance” (Article 18). But the PA rejects such freedom.

To the PA, Judaism is an ‘unapproved’ religion. Jews are an ‘unapproved’ group.
Therefore, PA media incites to commit—and glorify--acts of violence against Jews:

-“Hamas celebrates Jerusalem bus terror attack that killed 2 [Jews] with reenactment video”, Palestinian Media Watch [pmw]-‘promoting violence and terror-violence for adults, October 14, 2015.

-“Fatah posts image encouraging stabbing Jews on its Facebook page”, ibid, October 4, 2015.

-Arab Muslims in Israel commit acts of discrimination against Jewish religious sites (Lenny Ben-David, “Denial of Religious Rights by the Palestinian Authority”, internationalwallofprayer, no date).

 The PA does not believe Jews have worth as human beings:

-PA media presents Jews as ‘evil’ (“O Sons of Zion, O most evil among creations, O barbaric apes, O wretched pigs”, Palestinian Media Watch [pmw], September, 2014).

-PA media links Judaism to ‘the Devil’ (“Al-Aqsa Mosque preacher: Jews will worship the Devil and then be exterminated by Muslims”, pmw, October, 2015).

Such behaviour doesn’t support human rights. It supports complete contempt for those rights.

In Israel, Arab Muslims in the PA teach Jew-hate, not human rights. They teach their children that allah “sent humanity a message through Islam’s prophet Muhammad that the killing ‎and extermination of Jews is a necessary step to bring the redemption [the ultimate Islamic Caliphate]” (pmw-‘religious war’-Islamic war against Jews’).

The Arab Muslims of the PA demonize Israel. For example, during this current wave of Arab terror against Jews, Arabs have openly (caught on CCTV) attempted to commit genocide by attacking Jews simply because they were Jews. But when Arab attackers are shot dead by Israeli security forces—often in the middle of an attack—Arab media demonizes Israel with accusations that Israelis ‘murdered’ these attackers in cold blood with no justification to do so (“Palestinian terrorist murderers presented as Martyrs, victims of Israeli executions in cold blood, and [Arab] shootings and stabbings as Israeli ‘pretexts’ to kill”, pmw, October 13, 2015).

Israel doesn’t kill like that. Arab Muslims do.

-It’s Arab Muslims who incite to kill (“Abbas’ Fatah: Stabbing Israelis is a symphony of love for Jerusalem”, pmw, October 12, 2015.

-It’s Arab Muslims who glorify and celebrate murder  (“Fatah’s Rafah branch’s Facebook: ‘O Martyr (Shahid), what have you seen that is making you smile?... O Allah, bestow Martyrdom-death (Shahada) upon us’", pmw, October 14, 2015).

-It’s Arab Muslims who advertise on local Arab TV that children should martyr themselves for Islam by dying while attempting to kill Jews (“Fatah official, on Facebook, calls for intifada and for Fatah youth members to make themselves into Martyrs”, pmw, October 5, 2015).

There have been more than 770 reported terror attacks against Jews in Israel between Rosh Hashannah (September 14, 2015) and October 18, 2015 (“By the numbers: 778 terror attacks since Rosh Hashanah”, Arutz Sheva, October 27, 2015). Most of these attacks were committed by Arabs between the ages of 13-25--exactly the demographic most easily influenced by TV, entertainment, and social media.

In the PA, most anti-Jew incitement is delivered through these portals. The young watch TV, social media and song. The PA uses these portals to teach the young to want to kill Jews.

This is barbaric. It doesn’t promote peace. It legitimizes barbarism.

The UDHR rejects that barbarism. Arab Muslims in Israel advocate for it.  

The Arab Muslim leader of the PA runs a totalitarian regime. That regime identifies Jews as ‘enemies of the state’. His goal isn’t freedom. His goal is to drive Jews out of Israel by any means necessary. His goal is genocide.

Take another look at PA leader Mahmoud Abbas. He’s the true enemy of human rights.

Terror? Hey! We ain't goin' noplace!

The following was sent to me by a friend. It’s a letter from a woman who lives in an Israeli town very close to where several Arab attacks against Jews have occurred. That town is still (as of October 25, 2015) under attack.

I believe this letter is from the internet site of Project Y.e.s., which has been run by Rabbi Yakov Horowitz. I’ve edited the letter:

--

We aren't in the midst of a conflict here in Israel.

You read that right. There's no conflict here.

A conflict is inherently an event where two parties are engaged in a fight, a battle, a struggle.

There's no conflict in Israel right now.

There is terror.

Out and out one-sided terror.

When I see the coverage that the international media offers to what's happening here, I feel like I'm living inside The Onion, an American news-satire organization. The coverage is simply too far-fetched to be believed--and yet it's being believed around the world.

Recently, a well-educated Arab woman walked into a bus station in Afula with a knife and tried to stab a soldier. The soldier got away but she refused to put the knife down, and eventually had to be shot in the legs. The Arab world (falsely) reported she was killed in cold blood with no justification.

Another day, two brothers, aged 13 and 15, set out to stab Jews. After stabbing and critically injuring two people, they were stopped by our forces. The 15 year old was killed.  Abbas himself reported that we ‘executed’ the 13 year old in cold blood with no justification. Not only did we not kill him, but he's just been released from our hospital (at Hadassah) after ripping a 13 year old boy off of his bike and trying to kill him. In the Arab social media world, they’ve shown a picture of this Arab 13 year old. They described him on that day as one who was ‘just on his way to the mall’ when we killed him in cold blood.

That was a lie. We didn’t kill him. And he wasn’t ‘on his way to the mall’. There are videos out there that prove exactly what he was doing when our security forces stopped him. He was trying to kill a Jew.

There’s no conflict here.  

There is terror.

In another incident, an Arab Israeli, with the same rights and privileges that I experience in Israel (and probably a much higher salary), used his Bezeq company car to crash into a bus stop. He got out of his car and savagely hacked to death a 60-year old Rabbi who had been waiting for a bus.

And then, of course, there’s the video going around the world that teaches Arabs exactly how and where to stab Jews.

The world has gone mad. And we feel it. 

And as we feel it, this is what I know.

I know that I'm putting my purse high up so that my four year old doesn't find the pepper spray that I'm now carrying around 24/7.

I know that I have a son who now carries pepper spray as well. I hope he never uses it. I know also that his school is now giving the children there self-defense courses.

I know that I'm going to spend two hours tomorrow in my own self-defense course. I know that in the next few weeks I’m going to spend a lot of time becoming much more comfortable with the gun that I absolutely do not want to carry.

I know that I check the news obsessively. I know that I check in with my family members even more.

I know that I have to tell my 13 year old that he's only allowed to look at the news for a few minutes each afternoon and that he's not allowed to look at videos. Gd only knows how he's processing all of this.  

I know that my 7 and 9 year olds have been talking about how they would get away from a knife-yielding terrorist.

I know that amazingly resourceful Israelis have been using everything at their disposal to stop terrorists--from selfie sticks and umbrellas to nunchucks.

I know that all of this--all of it--would go away if the Arabs would just stop. The violence in this entire country would be over if the Arabs would stop being violent. Period.

Again and again, Israel has asked the Arab population to come to the table. We have offered land. We have withdrawn from Gaza. We are willing to try.

But the Palestinian Authority has created a situation by using Har Habayit/Al-Aksa [the Temple Mount] as a spark to start a fire of hate against Jews, telling lies to its people the entire time. All the while, the PA refuse to create or build a better future for its people--because violence is easier.

This is not a conflict. We aren't in conflict when I drive down the road praying not to get hit by a rock or a bullet aimed at me.

We aren't in conflict when I walk the streets, looking behind me at every turn. We aren't in conflict when I go to the grocery store and manage to take products off the shelves behind my back so that I will always have a view of the aisle behind me. We aren't in conflict when I have to think to myself "Never turn your back, even when you're picking out tomatoes."

We aren't in conflict.

We’re being murdered.

We’re alone. We’re alone with this terror. We’re alone because the world tells us it’s wondering if we’re using "excessive force" against the Arabs murdering us.

I’ll tell you this: unless you live here and walk the streets with me each day, you can't imagine how that feels.

--

There’s also this excerpt from Israel Today (Anat Schneider, “I have no other country...”, October 20, 2015; I’ve edited it):

…We send our children to schools and kindergartens with concerns that their bus will be blown up.

We worry that some madman will ram his car into those waiting at a bus stop and crush them.

We walk the streets and worry that some crazy Arab kid could rush up with a knife and try to plunge it into someone's body.

People walk with guns, tear gas, a club, a rolling pin or even a selfie-stick. They carry anything they can to defend against some monstrous attack.

Each day, there are fewer and fewer people on the street. The malls are empty. Markets are empty. Cafes are empty….

--

These writers are closer to the violence than I am. But I, too, see the empty streets. I, too, take precautions.

I know that every shadow is a threat. Every corner is a threat. Every car on the road is a threat.

We are surrounded by a Jew-hate that is unbelievably barbaric. But the greater the barbarism we see, the more committed we become to remain.

After all, if this holy land is important enough for the Muslim to kill us to get it, it's important enough for us to fight to keep it. 

May HaShem, the G-d of Israel, protect us.

Actually, HaShem will protect us. We’re His Chosen: we ain’t goin’ noplace.

This isn’t bravado. It’s the truth.

Sunday in Israel: terror and the Jewish 'absurd'

This is Sunday, October 25, 2015. If you live outside Israel, perhaps you started your day with a cup of coffee and the local Sunday paper. Perhaps you read the sports pages. Perhaps you read the sales leaflets.

In Israel, Sunday is different. We read about terror--and an absurdity you’ll only find in the Jewish homeland.

First, the terror:

-Ari Soffer, “Attempted stabbing in Hevron; terrorist eliminated”, Arutz Sheva, October 25, 2015. An Arab female approached a checkpoint in Hevron, near the Cave of the Patriarchs, a Jewish holy site. Her manner aroused the attention of the Israeli guards. When officers told her to stop and identify herself, she did what, apparently, any god-fearing Arab does these days: she drew a knife and rushed the guards (ibid).  They, in turn, did what any life-desiring Israeli armed guards do these days: they shot her. She died.

-Elad Benari, “Palestinian professor says all Jews are 'fair game'”, Arutz Sheva, October 25, 2015. Hours before this Arab would-be killer died, the Dean of Quranic studies at the Islamic University of Gaza was reported to have given an interview on Gaza TV. He said all Jews in Israel—including women—are fair game… Every single Jew in Palestine is a combatant, he declared, even the children…there should be terrorist attacks everywhere in Israel, including Tel Aviv and Haifa (ibid).

Of course, labelling children and women as ‘combatants’ is a preparation to commit war crimes. Women and children are not ‘combatants’.

This religious leader doesn’t care about that. He wants his TV audience to commit war crimes. Nobody flinched.

-Cynthia Blank, “Abbas demands 'incentives' to stem Arab terror wave”, Arutz Sheva, October 25, 2015). ‘Palestinian’ leader Mahmoud Abbas has a good deal: he incites for terror against Jews, then demands ‘incentives’ in exchange for an ‘effort’ to stem that terror.

Sounds like blackmail. Isn’t that unethical? Doesn’t matter. Nobody cares.

Abbas certainly doesn’t care. He wants those ‘incentives’.

-Judah Ari Gross, “One injured in West Bank stabbing attack”, Times of Israel, October 25, 2015. An Israeli Jew had his car stoned as he drove along a highway. This is common in certain parts of Israel. In the past, it has provoked Israel to limit 'Palestinian'  access to some roads--on a 'need' basis--to reduce anti-Jew terror.

Of course, once Israel actually attempts to limit 'Palestinians' from those roads, two things usually happen. First, the terror on those roads stops. Second, human rights activists join Arabs to condemn Israel (falsely) for deliberately creating an ‘apartheid’ road to humiliate Arabs.

In this latest road terror, Arabs threw enough rocks onto a road to cause a Jewish driver to stop his car and get out, presumably to remove the rocks. On an Israeli road that’s being stoned, that’s not a good idea.

An Arab rushed up to him and stabbed him in the chest multiple times. The Jew was also hit in the head by a rock. He was evacuated with moderate wounds. The attacker was apprehended.

Now for today’s absurdities. These came to us courtesy of—naturally—two politicians. One of those politicians was a Jew. The other was Arab.

The Jew was our Prime Minister: “Netanyahu pledges to prevent Jewish prayer on Temple Mount”, Times of Israel, October 25, 2015.

In case you forgot, Article 18 of The Universal Declaration of Human Rights states that every human being has the freedom “either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance”. In addition, paragraph 1 of Article 9 of the 1994 Peace Treaty between Israel and Jordan states “ Each Party [Israel and Jordan] will provide freedom of access to places of religious and historical significance” in Israel. Paragraph 3 of Article 9 says both sides will work together “towards religious understanding, moral commitment, freedom of religious worship [emphasis mine], and tolerance and peace”.

Jordan is responsible for the Temple Mount. It’s supposed to monitor for those freedoms.

It doesn’t. It refuses to allow Jews to worship there.

The Muslims on the Mount don’t give a damn about a signed Treaty. They don’t want Jews walking on—defiling--the Mount. They certainly don’t want Jews to worship there. The Muslim religious organization that ‘administers’ the Mount for Jordan, the Waqf, brings only violence and aggression against Jews on the Mount (Sharona Schwartz, “‘Get Out of Here!’: Arab Mob Shoves, Spits and Throws Objects at Jews Visiting Jerusalem’s Sacred Temple Mount”, The Blaze, April 24, 2014).

Now, under pressure from the US, Israel’s Jewish Prime Minister has committed the absurd: he has agreed to reject the Universal Declaration of Human Rights—for Jews. He agrees with the absurdity that ‘Universal Human Rights’ on the Temple  Mount applies only to Muslims.

The Jewish Netanyahu has announced that Jews do not have the freedom to worship at their own holiest site on earth. He  denies the Universal Human Right to Jewish worship because Muslims—and the US-- demand it.

Some say this absurdity hurts the Jewish Israel. They say it bolsters the anti-Jewish Arab narrative about the Temple Mount (“Ari Soffer, “Netanyahu's Temple Mount deal 'bolsters Islamist narrative'”, Arutz Sheva, October 25, 2015).

The second absurdity comes from an Arab Member of the Knesset. This is Jamal Zahalka, Member of the Arab List (Party).

Mr Zahalka is, shall we say, hostile to Jews on the Temple Mount. It seems that someone has tampered with his phone. They’ve changed the typical ‘I’m not available right now. Please leave a message’ message.

Now, when you call this anti-Jewish MK, you don’t get his voice instructing you to leave a message. Instead, you get a rendition of the ‘Shema’, Judaism’s most famous one-line prayer. That prayer is a statement of the essence of the Jewish faith—and it’s now on Mr Zahalka’s phone (Yaakov Levi, “How did the Shema prayer end up on Arab MK's voicemail message?”, Arutz Sheva, October 25, 2015).

Someone also changed Mr Zahalka’s phone password. He’s locked out of his settings. He can’t change the Jewish Shema.

There’s a sense of poetic justice in this absurdity, don’t you think?

Of course there is. This is Israel.

A Biblical curse--and Arab degradation

The Torah portion we will read this Shabbat (October 24, 2015) is called, Lech Lecha (Breisheet 12:1-17:27). It introduces to us our first Patriarch, Avram, the man destined to become Avraham.

In this Torah portion, we read the famous Promise from HaShem: I will bless those who bless you and curse him who curses you (ibid, 12:3, JPS translation).  

In many ways, Biblical Hebrew is more sensitive than English. For example, in an English text, the word, ‘curse’ in this posuk (sentence) is repeated: HaShem says, “he who curses you I will curse” (Ramban, Mesorah Publications, 2007, ArtScroll translation, Breisheet 12:3). But in the Hebrew text, two different words are used. The ‘curse’ that others place upon Israel is the word, “m’kalellchah’—and the curse that HaShem will use is ‘ah-or’ (pardon my transliteration).

Consider the difference between ‘m’kahlellchah’ and ‘ah-or’. That difference tells us a lot about the Arab Muslims who incite to kill Jews today—and the self-imposed degradation that so frustrates them.

The Jewish commentary known at the Klei Yakar (Rabbi Shlomo Ephraim ben Aaron Luntschitz (1550-1619), explains the meaning of these two words. He begins by translating the curse against Israel, called ‘M’kalellchah’. This word, he says, contains a meaning that combines concepts of blasphemy, scorn and contempt (Kli Yakar, Breisheet, volume 1, Menucha publications, Brooklyn, NY, 2013, p 170; translation by Elihu Levine).  

‘Blasphemy’ contains these elements: showing a heightened disrespect to G-d and to that which is Holy, and acts which insult and/or disrespect G-d.

‘Scorn’ contains several elements: harsh criticism that shows a lack of respect, rejection, derision, refusal to acknowledge, treating someone as despicable.

‘Contempt’ contains these elements: a wilful, open disrespect of law, treating someone (or the law) as if they (or it) is not worthy of any respect whatsoever.

Arab Muslims blaspheme against the G-d of Israel. They don’t just disrespect Jewish Holy sites. They spit at them. They firebomb them. They tear them down when they can.

Arab Muslims scorn all things Jewish. They call Jews apes and pigs (“Case Study: Portraying Jews as Apes and Pigs, pmw, under heading, ‘Demonization of Jews/Israel’). They deny any Jewish connection to the land of Israel. They mock their Jewish victims (“Abbas’ advisor mocks terror victims following shooting murder and injuring of Israeli soldiers”, Palestinian Media Watch [pmw], October 21, 2015). 

Arab Muslims have such contempt for law they have declared that killing Jews is legal (“Fatah officials: Killing ‘settlers’ is legal and ‘national duty’”, pmw, October 8, 2015). Instead of condemning the murder of Jews, they glorify it (“PLO official: Killing of Israeli parents of 4 children was ‘national duty’, pmw, October 6-8, 2015). They legitimize violence (“Fatah official: Law against rock throwing is unjust”, pmw, September 22-25, 2015).  Their clergy says Jews are not worthy to live (“Al-Aqsa preacher: Jews worship the Devil, will be exterminated by Muslims”, pmw, September 18, 2015).

Arab Muslims curse Jews with blasphemy, scorn and contempt. But as our Torah says, those who curse Jews with ‘m’kalellchah’ are themselves cursed with ‘ah-or’.

The Klei Yakar translates ‘ah-or’ as ‘a grievous curse’. This type of curse, he explains, contains elements best described as ‘degradation’.

‘Degradation’ suggests a process that leads to destruction. It suggests a condition of damage and ruin.

Look at Gaza. In 2005, Israel voluntarily made Gaza Juden-frei (Jew-free). With a single—and singular—Jewish decision, Gazans had the opportunity to do anything they wanted.

The Jews were gone. Some said, Gaza would now become the Singapore of the Middle East.

That didn’t happen. These Arabs who so viciously cursed Jews chose Hamas. They didn’t get economic development. They got ruin.

The Palestinian Authority (PA) is only slightly better. The people of the PA chose Abbas. They didn’t get economic cooperation with Israel. They got incitement to kill Jews—and economic stagnation.

Israel is not the cause of this state of degradation. This ruin and stagnation is Arab-made.

Because Arabs choose curses over blessings, they reject cooperation with Israel. That rejection is suicidal.

The physical environment of the Middle East is harsh. Israel has shown it has the know-how to thrive in such a harsh place. To reject that know-how is the fast-track to ruin.

Arabs have brought this ruin upon themselves. They’re schizophrenic: Arabs in Gaza and the PA say they want more economic cooperation with Israel (“Most Palestinians want economic cooperation with Israel, poll shows”, blog camera. org, August 15, 2015). But they also say they want to see Israel destroyed (ibid).

For these Arabs, economic cooperation with Israel would be good. But destroying Israel is better (ibid). Therefore, they choose politicians and clergy who promote the latter over the former.

Because of those leaders, they curse the Jews. They end up cursed.

Our Tanach is correct. Don’t curse what G-d loves. You won’t win.

Abbas wants UN to help him seize Temple Mount

The Palestinian Authority's (PA) unelected leader Mahmoud Abbas is like the energizer bunny. He just won’t stop trying to take control of the Temple Mount (“The Temple Mount: trigger for Redemption?”, tuviabrodieblog, October 21, 2015).

He’s been working at this goal for years. Since last year, he’s been turning up the heat: he openly incites to kill Jews to ‘protect’ the Mount (Tovah Lazarus, et al, “Netanyahu: World is silent as Abbas feeds flames at Temple Mount”, Jerusalem Post, November 3, 2014).

Wait: you just read about this yesterday. Why read about it again today?

The answer is simple: Abbas is at it again: he’s back in the news with two new ‘ideas’.

First, he wants complete control over Jewish visitors to the Mount (Avi Issacharoff , “PA demands full Muslim oversight over Jewish visitors to Temple Mount”, Times of Israel, October 22, 2015). He’s threatened Israel. There’ll be no more PA-IDF coordination if Israel refuses to give him that control.

Second, he wants an international force to patrol for him on the Temple Mount (Louis Charbonneau, “U.N. issues summary of protection forces as Palestinians requested”, Reuters, October 21, 2015).

Today, we’ll focus on that UN 'summary'. We’ll wait a day or two to see how his threat against Israel works out.

Abbas is a Jew-hating Holocaust-denier who really hates Jews. He works to destroy all Jewish connection to the land of Israel. He wants to erase the Jewish G-d’s link to Israel on the Temple Mount. He wants, in other words, to destroy Israel.

He’s failed. But he won’t stop trying.

He’s got a new idea. He wants the nations of the world (the UN) to do what he cannot do.

He wants three things from the UN. First, he wants the UN to declare ‘Palestine’ as a state. Second, he wants the UN to designate all Jewish holy sites as ‘Islamic’ (ibid). Third, he wants the UN to help him secure control over all Jewish holy sites in Jerusalem, especially the Temple Mount.

In pursuit of this third goal, Abbas wants the UN to report to him all instances in the past where the UN has sent forces into ‘disputed’ territories. He asks this specifically because he wants the UN to send an international force to the Temple Mount.

He isn’t interested in learning about how successful such attempts have been. He wants the UN only to report to him on the structure and legal basis for past ‘international-UN’ ‘interventions’ (Charbonneau, ibid).

Obedient, the UN has complied. It just sent Abbas a 42-page ‘summary’.

This report is not an academic exercise. It’s a first step in a new PA diplomatic attack against Jerusalem. As this report was sent out, the PA announced that it hopes the circulation of this report among the 15-Member UN Security Council (UNSC) will encourage UNSC members to consider creating an international force for the al-Aqsa mosque on the Temple Mount (ibid). The aim of the report is to get UN troops onto the Temple Mount.

If you’re familiar with the Jewish Tanach, you’ll know that our Jewish Bible stated more than 2,200 years ago that, in the days preceding our Final Redemption, the nations of the world (that includes the UN) will gather to attack Jerusalem. You see that especially in the Books of Yechekiel and in Zechariah.

Apparently, Abbas wants that Tanach prediction to come true. He wants the UN to gather against Jerusalem on his behalf.

Why does Abbas want an international force on the Temple Mount? He wants that force to help him keep Jews away. He wants the UN to do what he cannot do—close all Jewish holy sites to Jews. He wants to end what Israel now provides— freedom of access to holy sites. He wants to end what Israel now does—protect and preserve Jewish and Muslim holy sites.

He claims he needs this ‘force’ because Israel bans Muslims from the Mount. But that’s true only when Muslims on the Mount riot. Otherwise, Israeli police make certain that peaceful Muslims have greater access to and freedom of worship at the Mount than Jews.

It doesn’t matter. For Abbas, every Jew who ascends onto the Mount ‘attacks’ the Mount. That is, a Jew’s very presence on the Mount is a ‘violent attack—or ‘invasion’--against Islam’ (“Fatah official cites 2nd Intifada as model to confront Israel ‘against recurring [Jewish] invasions at Al-Aqsa Mosque”, pmw, September 28, 2015; “Fatah Secretary in Jerusalem: Israel committing ‘invasions, attacks, destruction, and abuse’ at the Al-Aqsa Mosque”, pmw, July 28, 2015).

Therefore, he needs an international force to end those ‘attacks, invasions and destructions, etc’. He wants the UN to participate in and then protect an ‘Islamic’ conquest of Judaism’s holiest site on earth.

The UN is thinking about this. It allows this ‘report’ to be circulated among UNSC Members. It allows the PA to lobby for a ‘force’ based upon the precedence conveniently enumerated in the report.

Mahmoud Abbas is driven by his hate to behave just as our Tanach suggests. He’s one part of the ‘Yishmael’ who attacks Israel in a war at the ‘end of days’ (see Yechezkeil). He willingly fulfils his role in our Story of Redemption.

Stay tuned. This movie has just begun.

The Temple Mount: trigger for Redemption?

Is it possible you can watch the Jewish Redemption unfold before your eyes? Some say yes, you can do that. They say, watch the Temple Mount.

Is that true?

You might want to keep your eyes open. Our prophet Zechariah says that, before our Jewish Redemption blossoms,  the nations of the world will gather against Jerusalem (Zechariah, 12: 3, JPS translation).  Since the heart of Jerusalem is the Temple Mount, does Zachariah suggest the nations will create a way to attack it?

The Pope might actually advocate for that (Giulio Meotti, “The Vatican Wants the Temple Mount Taken From the Jews” Arutz Sheva, June 30, 2015). France certainly wants ‘international boots’ on the Temple Mount (Barak Ravid, “Netanyahu: Israel Rejects French Draft on Temple Mount”, Haaretz, October 18, 2015).

Perhaps this is why some suggest that the Temple Mount is an international flash-point (“Temple Mount: a Detonator for World War III”, ein newsdesk, October 21, 2015). Could the entire world become enflamed by a ‘flash’ upon the Temple Mount?

Arab Muslims think so (“Fatah warns that Netanyahu's 'policy' on Jerusalem sets the entire area on fire and ignites religious conflicts that will have impact on the entire world",  Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 18, 2015).

Could that happen?

For almost a hundred years, Arab Muslims have been using the Temple Mount as a flashpoint. Their cry is, Jews are trying to destroy the Temple Mount. It’s a war-cry.

Fatah, the ruling political Party of the Palestinian Authority (PA) has been particularly aggressive with this tactic. For example, we have seen these headlines from the PA: “Fatah official cites 2nd Intifada as model to confront Israel against recurring invasions at Al-Aqsa Mosque [The Muslim name for The Temple Mount]”, Dunya Al-Watan (independent Palestinian news agency), Sept. 28, 2015; “PA officials, including Ramallah Governor, call for intifada to support prisoners and defend Al-Aqsa Mosque [The Temple Mount]”, Official PA daily, Al-Hayat Al-Jadida, Sept. 23, 2015; “PA teachers’ union calls for Palestinian Martyrdom: “We will redeem Al-Aqsa [The Temple Mount] with our souls… and sacrifice our soul and blood””, Official Palestinian Authority TV, Sept. 21, 2015;  “Abbas: We won’t allow Jews with their “filthy feet” to “defile our Al-Aqsa Mosque” “We bless every drop of blood... that has been spilled for Allah””, Official Palestinian Authority TV, Sept. 16, 2015). 

The PA wants to own the Temple Mount. It wants Jews banned forever from the Mount (“Fatah: Kick the Jews off the Temple Mount”, Cartoon on the official Fatah Facebook page, pmw, October 18, 2015). It calls for murder to ‘protect’ the Temple Mount (“Abbas justifies violence and murder as protection of holy sites", pmw, October 11, 2015 [This Abbas speech is specifically about ‘protecting’ the Temple Mount’]).

Muslims will do anything to secure their hold over the Temple Mount. For example, the PA attacks by asking a UN agency (UNESCO) to declare parts of the Mount area to be designated as ‘Islamic’.

The United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) didn’t give the PA what it wanted—this time. But it did approved an Arab recommendation to call the Jewish ‘cave of the Patriarchs’ in Hevron and the Jewish Rachel’s Tomb in Bethlehem as ‘Islamic’ (Ari Soffer, “UNESCO Passes Arab Resolution: Cave of Patriarchs 'Islamic'”, Arutz Sheva, October 21, 2015).

Will the Temple Mount be next?

The PA won’t give up. It wants the nations of the world at the UN to approve an Islamic take-over of the Mount. In fact, the PA already claims The Temple Mount is ‘ours’ (Itamar Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, “Abbas: We won't allow Jews' filthy feet”, Palestinian Media Watch (pmw), September 17, 2015). They already call to their youth to die to protect the Temple Mount for Islam (Marcus and Zilberdik, “Official PA daily promotes rock throwing and sacrificing oneself for the Al-Aqsa Mosque [Temple Mount], pmw, September 16, 2015).

It wants the nations to rubber-stamp these declarations.

Our prophet Zechariah may have it right. At the UN, the nations gather against Jerusalem. They’re doing exactly what our Tanach hints at: they’re turning the screws against our Jerusalem.  

They’re plotting against the Temple Mount. Voices grow louder to rip away the Temple Mount from Jews (“Scream Unto the L-rd! A Prelude: The Temple Mount Trigger will Soon be in Place”, endofdays, October 20, 2015).

There’s just one problem. The Temple Mount isn’t Muslim. It doesn’t belong to the UN. It’s the dwelling place for our G-d (D’varim 12:11). It’s His Property. It’s the Place where He has said His House is to sit.

What will HaShem do when the nations turn against His Jerusalem and go after His Property? According to at least one opinion (ibid), when the nations do that, HaShem will trigger the Redemption.

He’ll not do it because of our merit. He’ll do it for the sake of His House on the Temple Mount (ibid).

The moment the nations of the world try to take away the real estate for His House, HaShem will act. He’ll rise and have Mercy on Zion (ibid).

Is this true?

Stay tuned.

The Nazis and the New York Times. Have you seen these headlines?

There’s a picture making the rounds. This picture looks like a reprint of a New York Times front page from May 10, 1943. Perhaps you've seen it.

The headlines are shocking. They present the Warsaw ghetto uprising by Jews against a brutal Nazi regime as a Jewish-caused humanitarian crisis and as a 'disproportionate' response to Nazi rule.

To put this horror into perspective, here is some background information about the Warsaw ghetto:                                                         

 On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany invaded Poland. This invasion on this date marks the beginning of World War Two. Poland fought for 28 days. On September 29, 1939, the German’s conquered Poland’s capital city, Warsaw. Poland ceased to exist as a free country.

The Nazis moved quickly against Poland’s Jews. On October 12, 1939, they created the Warsaw ghetto (“Warsaw”, Holocaust Encyclopedia, The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, last updated August 18, 2015). The ghetto was walled in with a fence app 10 feet high, topped by barbed wire. 

The area for this ghetto was 1.3 square miles. The Nazis crammed app 400,000 Jews into this area. That meant that there were 7.2 Jews per room in the ghetto (ibid).

Conditions in the ghetto became horrific. For example, by 1941, the official Nazi food ration for Poland provided 2613 calories per day for Germans in Poland, 699 calories for Poles, and 184 calories for Jews in the ghetto (Charles G Roland, Courage Under Siege: Disease, Starvation and Death in the Warsaw Ghetto, Oxford University Press, New York, 1992, Chapter 6).

Humans cannot survive on 184 calories a day. Starvation ravaged the ghetto. Desperate mothers took to hiding under their beds children who had died from disease and/or starvation, in order to qualify for higher food rations that would have normally gone to those dead children (ibid). Between 1940 and mid-1942 alone, some 83,000 Warsaw Ghetto Jews died of starvation and disease (US Holocaust Memorial Museum, above, ibid)—more than 20 per cent of the ghetto’s population.

In 1941, typhus epidemics decimated the ghetto. Matters were made worse when sewage pipes froze and human excrement was dumped onto the street. Tens of thousands died (“The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising (April 19 - May 16, 1943”, The American Experience, npr, no date). Most of the rest of the population was deported to a ‘death-center’—the Treblinka concentration camp.

 During the summer of 1942 alone, the Germans deported more than 250,000 Jews from the ghetto to Treblinka (ibid, and, “The Warsaw ghetto uprising”, United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, no date). When reports of mass murder in Treblinka leaked back to the ghetto, a group of mostly young people formed resistance cells (ibid).

By 1943, Germans had deported perhaps 300,000 Jews—and had shot dead (in the streets) some 35,000 more. Sometime between January-April, 1943, a German police officer was badly injured, presumably by Jewish resistance fighters (npr, ibid). According to one version of the ghetto’s history (ibid), this event enraged the Nazis (how dare Jews fight back!).

Provoked, the Germans stopped deportations to Treblinka. Heinrich Himmler himself ordered the ghetto to be liquidated (ibid). At 3am, April 19, 1943, the Nazis surrounded the ghetto. They began to turn the Warsaw ghetto into a killing zone.

They used 2000 fully-armed German troops, tanks, armored cars, light-anti-aircraft guns, at least one howitzer, machine guns, flame throwers, rifles, pistols and grenades. They went into the ghetto to kill everyone, including some 700-750 Jewish resistance fighters (ibid).

The Jews of the ghetto, meanwhile, had managed to stockpile a few thousand grenades, a few hundred rifles, revolvers and pistols—and a couple of light machine guns. The German army felt it could kill everyone in the ghetto of 60,000 Jews in three days (ibid). It took more than a month—perhaps, according to some, two months (Seymour Rossel, “Holocaust: an end to innocence; Jewish Resistance-the Warsaw ghetto uprising, rossel .net/holocaust, no date).

In the end, a few Jews escaped through the sewers. The rest were murdered or shipped off to camps—and then murdered.

The Warsaw ghetto was a Nazi crime of Epic proportions. To print a front page like this would have been appalling.

It seems that the 'reprint' is a fake. Look at it closely:

Perhaps the first hint of a hoax here appears in the top left box next to the paper's name, THE NEW YORK TIMES. The words in the box say, "All the news the fits our agenda".

Those words are a 'play' on the traditional New York Times "logo" that said, "All the news that's fit to print".

Can you find other hoax hints?

Israel speaks to the UN Security Council

On October 16, 2015, Ambassador David Roet, Israel's Deputy Permanent Representative to the United Nations, spoke to the UN Security Council about the recent wave of Arab terror against Israel. This is his speech--uncut:

 --

“As we sit here today, Israel is facing an onslaught of terrorism; men, women and children are being stabbed to death on the streets on a daily basis. Yet for them there has been no demand for an emergency session at the Security Council; no calls for the Palestinian leadership to stop their incitement; and not even a whisper of condemnation of these acts in this hall.

Eitam and Naama Henkin were shot to death while driving in their car. Their 4 children were in the vehicle and watched their parents die in front of their eyes.

These are just a few of the silent victims of Palestinian terror. Apparently, this Council has not seen fit to honor their memories with even the slightest recognition.

Mr. President,

Over the course of the last month, 24 terror attacks have claimed the lives of 8 Israelis, and injured 70. 15 of them are still hospitalized. This tide of terror has washed over the entire nation and it spares no one: Young and old are being targeted every day.

Israelis do not feel safe walking down the street, they avoid taking the bus to work, and they fear for the lives of their children every time they walk out the door.

The root cause of this wave of terror is clear. It is inflammatory rhetoric and lies [that] lit the fuse, and incitement that keeps feeding the flames.

The wave of violence that Israel now faces began with lies about the Temple Mount. [Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud] Abbas has continually accused Israel of trying to change the Status- Quo [of the Temple Mount]. Just two days ago he claimed that, quote “Israel intends to make Al-Aksa Jewish”. This is a deliberate and malicious lie.

Let me be clear. Prime Minister Netanyahu has stated time and time again, including from the podium in the UN general assembly just two weeks ago: Israel is firmly committed to the status quo which protects the right of Muslims to pray in the mosque, as well as the freedom of all people, Muslims, Christians, Jews and others, to visit the Temple Mount.

Since 1967 Israel has placed the utmost importance on protecting the freedom of religion and worship for all faiths. From the outset, Israel has done everything in its power to preserve the sanctity of this site, which is sacred to the three monotheistic faiths.

In contrast, militant Islamist agitators have used the Al-Aqsa Mosque as a staging ground for a calculated, violent provocation. On the Eve of the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashana, radical Islamists stockpiled rocks, planks, wooden sheets and fireworks, as well as Molotov firebombs and explosive devices to prevent Jews and Christians from visiting the Temple Mount.

The Palestinians and the representatives of the Arab countries speak of the sacredness of their holy sites. When the Islamist militants desecrated Al-Aqsa by using it as a weapons depot, did any of them speak out?

Of course not. Instead, Mahmoud Abbas defended these rioters, and lit the spark which set our region ablaze. He declared, and I quote: “We welcome every drop of blood spilled in Jerusalem... With the help of Allah, every shaheed will be in heaven, and every wounded will get his reward … Al-Aqsa is ours, and the Church of the Holy Sepulcher is ours, everything is ours, all ours. They have no right to desecrate them with their filthy feet." I repeat, their filthy feet.

Can you imagine the reaction if an Israeli leader, any leader, would have uttered such a hateful statement? The Security Council would have wasted no time in convening to condemn it. Yet, when the President of the Palestinian Authority makes such a blatantly prejudiced statement, the reaction of this Council is complete silence.

Mr. President,

Even now, as the violence continues and lives are lost every day, instead of calming tensions, Palestinian leaders continue to lie and use inflammatory rhetoric. They are stoking the flames by portraying terrorists as innocent victims. Just two days ago, in a television broadcast to the Palestinian people, Mahmoud Abbas accused Israel of killing an innocent thirteen year old Palestinian boy.

There are two facts that Abbas did not share with his public.

First, he is not dead. He is fully conscious and is being treated in an Israeli hospital.

Second, he is not innocent. This 13-year-old Palestinian terrorist brutally attacked a 13-year-old Israeli boy who was riding his bicycle, stabbing him no less than 15 times.

When a young child decides to pick up a knife, instead of a basketball or a book, something is deeply wrong.

Such acts of terror do not occur in a vacuum. They are a product of a deliberate policy of incitement aimed at filling the minds of Palestinian children with hate.

From an early age, Palestinian children are subjected to propaganda that promotes hatred and incites to violence;  Young children watch TV shows with friendly hosts that encourage them to kill all the Jews and become martyrs. Schoolchildren in the West Bank study using official Palestinian Authority textbooks that legitimize indiscriminate violence against Israelis. Palestinian teenagers follow facebook posts and twitter feeds that call on them to stab Jews and that applaud violent acts like the murder of Eitam and Na’ama Henkin.

Mr. President,

The situation is indeed dire, but there is a way forward.

Just yesterday, Prime Minister Netanyahu expressed his willingness to meet with the Palestinian leadership in order to bring calm to the region.

Two weeks ago, Prime Minister Netanyahu stood here in the UN and declared that he is ready for direct negotiations with the Palestinians without any preconditions.

If this Council is serious about promoting peace, it must join in Prime Minister Netanyahu’s call, and insist that President Abbas comes to the negotiating table.

Israel’s historic agreement with Egypt and with Jordan proves that direct negotiations can lead to a real and a lasting peace. Only such negotiations can create a new reality for all the people of the region.

--

I don’t agree that our Prime Minister should sit at a negotiations table with the likes of Abbas. I believe that the Jew-hate he foments is beyond civilized negotiations.

He doesn’t deserve to be invited to anyone’s table.