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Jewish support of Israel can get people fired for taking a courageous stand
The day the book was scheduled to be published, I went to visit MacMillan’s. Checking in at a reception desk, I spotted Griffin across a room, cleaning out his desk. His secretary Margie came to greet me. In tears, she whispered for me to meet her in the ladies room. When we were alone, she confided, “He’s been fired.” She indicated it was because he had signed a contract for a book that was sympathetic to Palestinians. Griffin, she said, had no time to see me.
http://palestinechronicle.com/article.php?story=20020522074320545
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key
positions in all areas of our government where decisions
are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case,
is there any hope of ever changing U.S.policy?
President Bill Clinton as well as most members of Congress
support Israel-and they know why. U.S. Jews sympathetic
to Israel donate lavishly to their campaign coffers. .
The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East
policy might lie elsewhere-among those who support Israel
but don’t really know why.
This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are
well-meaning, fair- minded Christians who feel bond ed to
Israel-and Zionism-often from atavistic feelings, in some
cases dating from childhood. I am one of those. I grew up
listening to stories of a mystical, allegorical, spiritual
Israel. This was before a modern political entity with the
same name appeared on our maps. I attended Sunday
School and watched an instructor draw down window-
type shades to show maps of the Holy Land. I imbibed
stories of a Good and Chosen people who fought against
their Bad “unChosen” enemies.
In my early 20s, I began traveling the world, earning my
living as a writer. I came to the subject of the Middle East
rather late in my career. I was sadly lacking in knowledge
regarding the area. About all I knew was what I had
learned in Sunday School.
And typical of many U.S. Christians, I somehow considered
a modern state created in 1948 as a homeland for Jews
persecuted under the Nazis as a replica of the spiritual,
mystical Israel I heard about as a child.
When in 1979 I initially went to Jerusalem, I planned to
write about the three great monotheistic religions and
leave out politics. “Not write about politics?” scoffed one
Palestinian, smoking a waterpipe in the Old Walled City.
“We eat politics, morning, noon and night!”
As I would learn, the politics is about land, and the
co-claimants to that land: the indigenous Palestinians who
have lived there for 2,000 years and the Jews who started
arriving in large numbers after the Second World War. By
living among Israeli Jews as well as Palestinian Christians
and Muslims, I saw, heard, smelled, experienced the police
state tactics Israelis use against Palestinians.
My research led to a book entitled Journey to Jerusalem.
My journey not only was enlightening to me as regards
Israel, but also I came to a deeper, and sadder,
understanding of my own country. I say sadder
understanding because I began to see that, in Middle East
politics, we the people are not making the decisions, but
rather that supporters of Israel are doing so. And typical
of most Americans, I tended to think the U.S. media was
“free” to print news impartially.
“It shouldn’t be published. It’s anti-Israel.” In the late
1970s, when I first went to Jerusalem, I was unaware that
editors could and would classify “news” depending on who
was doing what to whom.
On my initial visit to Israel-Palestine, I had interviewed
dozens of young Palestinian men. About one in four related
stories of torture. Israeli police had come in the night,
dragged them from their beds and placed hoods over their
heads. Then in jails the Israelis had kept them in isolation,
besieged them with loud, incessant noises, hung> them
upside down and had sadistically mutilated their genitals.
I had not read such stories in the U.S. media. Wasn’t it
news? Obviously, I naively thought, U.S. editors simply
didn’t know it was happening.
On a trip to Washington, DC, I hand-delivered a letter to
Frank Mankiewicz, then head of the public radio station
WETA. I explained I had taped interviews with Palestinians
who had been brutally tortured. And I’d make them
available to him. I got no reply. I made several phone
calls. Eventually I was put through to a public relations
person, a Ms. Cohen, who said my letter had been lost. I
wrote again.
In time I began to realize what I hadn’t known: had it
been Jews who were strung up and tortured, it would be
news. But interviews with tortured Arabs were “lost” at
WETA.
The process of getting my book Journey to Jerusalem
published also was a learning experience. Bill Griffin, who
signed a contract with me on behalf of MacMillan
Publishing Company, was a former Roman Catholic priest.
He assured me that no one other than himself would edit
the book. As I researched the book, making several trips
to Israel and Palestine, I met frequently with Griffin,
showing him sample chapters. ”Terrific,” he said of my
material.
The day the book was scheduled to be published, I went
to visit MacMillan’s. Checking in at a reception desk, I
spotted Griffin across a room, cleaning out his desk. His
secretary Margie came to greet me. In tears, she
whispered for me to meet her in the ladies room. When we
were alone, she confided, “He’s been fired.” She indicated
it was because he had signed a contract for a book that
was sympathetic to Palestinians. Griffin, she said, had no
time to see me.
Later, I met with another MacMillan official, William Curry.
“I was told to take your manuscript to the Israeli
Embassy, to let them read it for mistakes,” he told me.
“They were not pleased. They asked me, ‘You are not
going to publish this book, are you?’ I asked, ‘Were there
mistakes?’ ‘Not mistakes as such. But it shouldn’t be
published. It’s anti-Israel.”
Somehow, despite obstacles to prevent it, the presses
had started rolling. After its publication in 1980, I was
invited to speak in a number of churches. Christians
generally reacted with disbelief. Back then, there was little
or no coverage of Israeli land confiscation, demolition of
Palestinian homes, wanton arrests and torture of
Palestinian civilians.
The Same Question
Speaking of these injustices, I invariably heard the same
question, “How come I didn’t know this?” Or someone
might ask, “But I haven’t read about that in my
newspaper.” To these church audiences, I related my own
learning experience, that of seeing hordes of U.S.
correspondents covering a relatively tiny state. I pointed
out that I had not seen so many reporters in world
capitals such as Beijing, Moscow, London, Tokyo, Paris.
Why, I asked, did a small state with a 1980 population of
only four million warrant more reporters than China, with a
billion people?
I also linked this query with my findings that The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post-and
most of our nation’s print media-are owned and/or
controlled by Jews supportive of Israel. It was for this
reason, I deduced, that they sent so many reporters to
cover Israel-and to do so largely from the Israeli point of
view.
My learning experiences also included coming to realize
how easily I could lose a Jewish friend if I criticized the
Jewish state. I could with impunity criticize France,
England, Russia, even the United States. And any aspect
of life in America. But not the Jewish state. I lost more
Jewish friends than one after the publication of Journey to
Jerusalem-all sad losses for me and one, perhaps, saddest
of all.
In the 1960s and 1970s, before going to the Middle East, I
had written about the plight of blacks in a book entitled
Soul Sister, and the plight of American Indians in a book
entitled Bessie Yellowhair, and the problems endured by
undocumented workers crossing from Mexico in The
Illegals.
These books had come to the attention of the “mother” of
The New York Times, Mrs. Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Her
father had started the newspaper, then her husband ran
it, and in the years that I knew her, her son was the
publisher. She invited me to her fashionable apartment on
Fifth Avenue for lunches and dinner parties. And, on many
occasions, I was a weekend guest at her Greenwich,
Conn. home.
She was liberal-minded and praised my efforts to speak for
the underdog, even going so far in one letter to say, “You
are the most remarkable woman I ever knew.” I had little
concept that from being buoyed so high I could be
dropped so suddenly when I discovered-from her point of
view-the “wrong” underdog.
As it happened, I was a weekend guest in her spacious
Connecticut home when she read bound galleys of Journey
to Jerusalem. As I was leaving, she handed the galleys
back with a saddened look: “My dear, have you forgotten
the Holocaust?” She felt that what happened in Nazi
Germany to Jews several decades earlier should silence
any criticism of the Jewish state. She could focus on a
holocaust of Jews while negating a modern day holocaust
of Palestinians.
I realized, quite painfully, that our friendship was ending.
Iphigene Sulzberger had not only invited me to her home
to meet her famous friends but, also at her suggestion,
The Times had requested articles. I wrote op-ed articles
on various subjects including American blacks, American
Indians as well as undocumented workers. Since
Mrs.Sulzberger and other Jewish officials at the Times
highly praised my efforts to help these groups of
oppressed peoples, the dichotomy became apparent: most
“liberal” U.S. Jews stand on the side of all poor and
oppressed peoples save one-the Palestinians.
How handily these liberal Jewish opinion-molders tend to
diminish the Palestinians, to make them invisible, or to
categorize them all as “terrorists.” Interestingly, Iphigene
Sulzberger had talked to me a great deal about her father,
Adolph S. Ochs. She told me that he was not one of the
early Zionists. He had not favored the creation of a Jewish
state.
Yet, increasingly, American Jews have fallen victim to
Zionism, a nationalistic movement that passes for many as
a religion. While the ethical instructions of all great
religions-including the teachings of Moses, Muhammad and
Christ-stress that all human beings are equal, militant
Zionists take the position that the killing of a non-Jew
does not count.
Over five decades now, Zionists have killed Palestinians
with impunity. And in the 1996 shelling of a U.N. base in
Qana, Lebanon, the Israelis killed more than 100 civilians
sheltered there. As an Israeli journalist, Arieh Shavit,
explains of the massacre, “We believe with absolute
certitude that right now, with the White House in our
hands, the Senate in our hands and The New York Times
in our hands, the lives of others do not count the same
way as our own.”
Israelis today, explains the anti-Zionist Jew Israel Shahak,
“are not basing their religion on the ethics of justice. They
do not accept the Old Testament as it is written. Rather,
religious Jews turn to the Talmud. For them, the Talmudic
Jewish laws become ‘the Bible.’ And the Talmud teaches
that a Jew can kill a non-Jew with impunity.”
In the teachings of Christ, there was a break from such
Talmudic teachings. He sought to heal the wounded, to
comfort the downtrodden. The danger, of course, for U.S.
Christians is that having made an icon of Israel, we fall
into a trap of condoning whatever Israel does-even
wanton murder-as orchestrated by God.
Yet, I am not alone in suggesting that the churches in the
United States represent the last major organized support
for Palestinian rights. This imperative is due in part to our
historic links to the Land of Christ and in part to the moral
issues involved with having our tax dollars fund
Israeli-government-approved violations of human rights.
While Israel and its dedicated U.S. Jewish supporters know
they have the president and most of Congress in their
hands, they worry about grassroots America- the
well-meaning Christians who care for justice.
Thus far, most Christians were unaware of what it was
they didn’t know about Israel. They were indoctrinated by
U.S. supporters of Israel in their own country and when
they traveled to the Land of Christ most all did so under
Israeli sponsorship. That being the case, it was unlikely a
Christian ever met a Palestinian or learned what caused
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is gradually changing, however. And this change
disturbs the Israelis. As an example, delegates attending a
Christian Sabeel said they were harassed by Israeli
security at the Tel Aviv airport.
“They asked us,” said one delegate, “Why did you use a
Palestinian travel agency? Why didn’t you use an Israeli
agency?” Obviously, said one delegate, “The Israelis have
a policy to discourage us from visiting the Holy Land
except under their sponsorship. They don’t want Christians
to start learning all they have never known about Israel.”
Grace Halsell is a Washington, DC-based writer. She is the
author of 14 books, including Journey to Jerusalem and
Prophecy and Politics. The Jerusalem Times (Jerusalem).
This news item is distributed via Middle East News Online
American Jews sympathetic to Israel dominate key
positions in all areas of our government where decisions
are made regarding the Middle East. This being the case,
is there any hope of ever changing U.S.policy?
President Bill Clinton as well as most members of Congress
support Israel-and they know why. U.S. Jews sympathetic
to Israel donate lavishly to their campaign coffers. .
The answer to achieving an even-handed Middle East
policy might lie elsewhere-among those who support Israel
but don’t really know why.
This group is the vast majority of Americans. They are
well-meaning, fair- minded Christians who feel bond ed to
Israel-and Zionism-often from atavistic feelings, in some
cases dating from childhood. I am one of those. I grew up
listening to stories of a mystical, allegorical, spiritual
Israel. This was before a modern political entity with the
same name appeared on our maps. I attended Sunday
School and watched an instructor draw down window-
type shades to show maps of the Holy Land. I imbibed
stories of a Good and Chosen people who fought against
their Bad “unChosen” enemies.
In my early 20s, I began traveling the world, earning my
living as a writer. I came to the subject of the Middle East
rather late in my career. I was sadly lacking in knowledge
regarding the area. About all I knew was what I had
learned in Sunday School.
And typical of many U.S. Christians, I somehow considered
a modern state created in 1948 as a homeland for Jews
persecuted under the Nazis as a replica of the spiritual,
mystical Israel I heard about as a child.
When in 1979 I initially went to Jerusalem, I planned to
write about the three great monotheistic religions and
leave out politics. “Not write about politics?” scoffed one
Palestinian, smoking a waterpipe in the Old Walled City.
“We eat politics, morning, noon and night!”
As I would learn, the politics is about land, and the
co-claimants to that land: the indigenous Palestinians who
have lived there for 2,000 years and the Jews who started
arriving in large numbers after the Second World War. By
living among Israeli Jews as well as Palestinian Christians
and Muslims, I saw, heard, smelled, experienced the police
state tactics Israelis use against Palestinians.
My research led to a book entitled Journey to Jerusalem.
My journey not only was enlightening to me as regards
Israel, but also I came to a deeper, and sadder,
understanding of my own country. I say sadder
understanding because I began to see that, in Middle East
politics, we the people are not making the decisions, but
rather that supporters of Israel are doing so. And typical
of most Americans, I tended to think the U.S. media was
“free” to print news impartially.
“It shouldn’t be published. It’s anti-Israel.” In the late
1970s, when I first went to Jerusalem, I was unaware that
editors could and would classify “news” depending on who
was doing what to whom.
On my initial visit to Israel-Palestine, I had interviewed
dozens of young Palestinian men. About one in four related
stories of torture. Israeli police had come in the night,
dragged them from their beds and placed hoods over their
heads. Then in jails the Israelis had kept them in isolation,
besieged them with loud, incessant noises, hung> them
upside down and had sadistically mutilated their genitals.
I had not read such stories in the U.S. media. Wasn’t it
news? Obviously, I naively thought, U.S. editors simply
didn’t know it was happening.
On a trip to Washington, DC, I hand-delivered a letter to
Frank Mankiewicz, then head of the public radio station
WETA. I explained I had taped interviews with Palestinians
who had been brutally tortured. And I’d make them
available to him. I got no reply. I made several phone
calls. Eventually I was put through to a public relations
person, a Ms. Cohen, who said my letter had been lost. I
wrote again.
In time I began to realize what I hadn’t known: had it
been Jews who were strung up and tortured, it would be
news. But interviews with tortured Arabs were “lost” at
WETA.
The process of getting my book Journey to Jerusalem
published also was a learning experience. Bill Griffin, who
signed a contract with me on behalf of MacMillan
Publishing Company, was a former Roman Catholic priest.
He assured me that no one other than himself would edit
the book. As I researched the book, making several trips
to Israel and Palestine, I met frequently with Griffin,
showing him sample chapters. ”Terrific,” he said of my
material.
The day the book was scheduled to be published, I went
to visit MacMillan’s. Checking in at a reception desk, I
spotted Griffin across a room, cleaning out his desk. His
secretary Margie came to greet me. In tears, she
whispered for me to meet her in the ladies room. When we
were alone, she confided, “He’s been fired.” She indicated
it was because he had signed a contract for a book that
was sympathetic to Palestinians. Griffin, she said, had no
time to see me.
Later, I met with another MacMillan official, William Curry.
“I was told to take your manuscript to the Israeli
Embassy, to let them read it for mistakes,” he told me.
“They were not pleased. They asked me, ‘You are not
going to publish this book, are you?’ I asked, ‘Were there
mistakes?’ ‘Not mistakes as such. But it shouldn’t be
published. It’s anti-Israel.”
Somehow, despite obstacles to prevent it, the presses
had started rolling. After its publication in 1980, I was
invited to speak in a number of churches. Christians
generally reacted with disbelief. Back then, there was little
or no coverage of Israeli land confiscation, demolition of
Palestinian homes, wanton arrests and torture of
Palestinian civilians.
The Same Question
Speaking of these injustices, I invariably heard the same
question, “How come I didn’t know this?” Or someone
might ask, “But I haven’t read about that in my
newspaper.” To these church audiences, I related my own
learning experience, that of seeing hordes of U.S.
correspondents covering a relatively tiny state. I pointed
out that I had not seen so many reporters in world
capitals such as Beijing, Moscow, London, Tokyo, Paris.
Why, I asked, did a small state with a 1980 population of
only four million warrant more reporters than China, with a
billion people?
I also linked this query with my findings that The New York
Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post-and
most of our nation’s print media-are owned and/or
controlled by Jews supportive of Israel. It was for this
reason, I deduced, that they sent so many reporters to
cover Israel-and to do so largely from the Israeli point of
view.
My learning experiences also included coming to realize
how easily I could lose a Jewish friend if I criticized the
Jewish state. I could with impunity criticize France,
England, Russia, even the United States. And any aspect
of life in America. But not the Jewish state. I lost more
Jewish friends than one after the publication of Journey to
Jerusalem-all sad losses for me and one, perhaps, saddest
of all.
In the 1960s and 1970s, before going to the Middle East, I
had written about the plight of blacks in a book entitled
Soul Sister, and the plight of American Indians in a book
entitled Bessie Yellowhair, and the problems endured by
undocumented workers crossing from Mexico in The
Illegals.
These books had come to the attention of the “mother” of
The New York Times, Mrs. Arthur Hays Sulzberger. Her
father had started the newspaper, then her husband ran
it, and in the years that I knew her, her son was the
publisher. She invited me to her fashionable apartment on
Fifth Avenue for lunches and dinner parties. And, on many
occasions, I was a weekend guest at her Greenwich,
Conn. home.
She was liberal-minded and praised my efforts to speak for
the underdog, even going so far in one letter to say, “You
are the most remarkable woman I ever knew.” I had little
concept that from being buoyed so high I could be
dropped so suddenly when I discovered-from her point of
view-the “wrong” underdog.
As it happened, I was a weekend guest in her spacious
Connecticut home when she read bound galleys of Journey
to Jerusalem. As I was leaving, she handed the galleys
back with a saddened look: “My dear, have you forgotten
the Holocaust?” She felt that what happened in Nazi
Germany to Jews several decades earlier should silence
any criticism of the Jewish state. She could focus on a
holocaust of Jews while negating a modern day holocaust
of Palestinians.
I realized, quite painfully, that our friendship was ending.
Iphigene Sulzberger had not only invited me to her home
to meet her famous friends but, also at her suggestion,
The Times had requested articles. I wrote op-ed articles
on various subjects including American blacks, American
Indians as well as undocumented workers. Since
Mrs.Sulzberger and other Jewish officials at the Times
highly praised my efforts to help these groups of
oppressed peoples, the dichotomy became apparent: most
“liberal” U.S. Jews stand on the side of all poor and
oppressed peoples save one-the Palestinians.
How handily these liberal Jewish opinion-molders tend to
diminish the Palestinians, to make them invisible, or to
categorize them all as “terrorists.” Interestingly, Iphigene
Sulzberger had talked to me a great deal about her father,
Adolph S. Ochs. She told me that he was not one of the
early Zionists. He had not favored the creation of a Jewish
state.
Yet, increasingly, American Jews have fallen victim to
Zionism, a nationalistic movement that passes for many as
a religion. While the ethical instructions of all great
religions-including the teachings of Moses, Muhammad and
Christ-stress that all human beings are equal, militant
Zionists take the position that the killing of a non-Jew
does not count.
Over five decades now, Zionists have killed Palestinians
with impunity. And in the 1996 shelling of a U.N. base in
Qana, Lebanon, the Israelis killed more than 100 civilians
sheltered there. As an Israeli journalist, Arieh Shavit,
explains of the massacre, “We believe with absolute
certitude that right now, with the White House in our
hands, the Senate in our hands and The New York Times
in our hands, the lives of others do not count the same
way as our own.”
Israelis today, explains the anti-Zionist Jew Israel Shahak,
“are not basing their religion on the ethics of justice. They
do not accept the Old Testament as it is written. Rather,
religious Jews turn to the Talmud. For them, the Talmudic
Jewish laws become ‘the Bible.’ And the Talmud teaches
that a Jew can kill a non-Jew with impunity.”
In the teachings of Christ, there was a break from such
Talmudic teachings. He sought to heal the wounded, to
comfort the downtrodden. The danger, of course, for U.S.
Christians is that having made an icon of Israel, we fall
into a trap of condoning whatever Israel does-even
wanton murder-as orchestrated by God.
Yet, I am not alone in suggesting that the churches in the
United States represent the last major organized support
for Palestinian rights. This imperative is due in part to our
historic links to the Land of Christ and in part to the moral
issues involved with having our tax dollars fund
Israeli-government-approved violations of human rights.
While Israel and its dedicated U.S. Jewish supporters know
they have the president and most of Congress in their
hands, they worry about grassroots America- the
well-meaning Christians who care for justice.
Thus far, most Christians were unaware of what it was
they didn’t know about Israel. They were indoctrinated by
U.S. supporters of Israel in their own country and when
they traveled to the Land of Christ most all did so under
Israeli sponsorship. That being the case, it was unlikely a
Christian ever met a Palestinian or learned what caused
the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.
This is gradually changing, however. And this change
disturbs the Israelis. As an example, delegates attending a
Christian Sabeel said they were harassed by Israeli
security at the Tel Aviv airport.
“They asked us,” said one delegate, “Why did you use a
Palestinian travel agency? Why didn’t you use an Israeli
agency?” Obviously, said one delegate, “The Israelis have
a policy to discourage us from visiting the Holy Land
except under their sponsorship. They don’t want Christians
to start learning all they have never known about Israel.”
Grace Halsell is a Washington, DC-based writer. She is the
author of 14 books, including Journey to Jerusalem and
Prophecy and Politics. The Jerusalem Times (Jerusalem).
This news item is distributed via Middle East News Online
Add Your Comments
Comments
(Hide Comments)
for Palestinian, if keeping Jewish friends is more important than the courage to speak what you feel is the truth.
I have had a similar experience with a Jewish friend. Democracy is OK for Israel and America, but I guess it's something that can only be given to the priviledge few.
All American politicians, including Bush are in the pocket of the Israeli lobby. How else can anyone explain the $100,000,000,000 in our taxes that have gone to feed the Israeli nuclear-war machine.
Very good article Grace. I would suggest rethinking the title, the current one (unlike the article) is a bit confusing.
I have had a similar experience with a Jewish friend. Democracy is OK for Israel and America, but I guess it's something that can only be given to the priviledge few.
All American politicians, including Bush are in the pocket of the Israeli lobby. How else can anyone explain the $100,000,000,000 in our taxes that have gone to feed the Israeli nuclear-war machine.
Very good article Grace. I would suggest rethinking the title, the current one (unlike the article) is a bit confusing.
So typical- Jews aren't speaking out against Israel because they are afraid to get fired!! Drum up the histeria little fools! Many don't speak out because they, like the rest of the world, know it is Muslims who commit the majority of injustices in this world. Try to point out a few examples of this to your Muslim or Arab friend who's always yapping about Israel and watch how fast them deny everything- Why is it that Muslims and Arabs can never come to the terms that they're culpable too?
I'll start with a quote from the article from Grace Hassel "As I would learn, the politics is about land, and the
co-claimants to that land: the indigenous Palestinians who
have lived there for 2,000 years and the Jews who started
arriving in large numbers after the Second World War. "
The Jews arrived first into the Holy Land lead by Moses after being freed from slavery in Egypt. Later came the Philistines who conquered the Jews and ruled the Holy Land for the next 150 years. The Philistines would later be known as the Palestinians.
In 1948 the UN recognized the Jewish state of Israel. Jordan was created at the 'Arab' state. As we all know the surrounding Arab nations attacked the new Jewish country and got the butt's kicked.
I read different numbers on the original number of refugees who left Israel either by encouragement by the surrounding Arab countries or by force. It is somewhere between 600,000 and 900,000. The UN in it's infinite wisdom defined 'refugee' as someone who originally resided in the now Jewish state of Israel and all of their descendents. As most all are Muslims and believe in having huge families with numerous wives that number of refugees has grown to 4,000,000,000!!!! Ridiculous!
As to stories of toture of the Palestinians by the hands of the Isralies. I don't believe a thing that comes out of the Arab world. Massacre in Jenin? That was a lie. Arafat doesn't approve of the homicide bombers, yet says something different in Arabic to his fellow thugs in terror.
An example of the lies that come out of the Arab world. Newsweek Magazine April1, 2002 - Page 25:
"A columnist in the Saudi Daily Al-Riyadh took it on herself this month to explain the rituals of Purim and Passover. The first holiday (which took place in February) commemorates the story of Esther's saving the Jews of Persia from extermination. It's a rollicking, hard-drinking, happy time for most celebrants. Some call it the Jewish Mardi Gras. Passover is more somber, as Jews commemorate the night that the 'Tenth Plague was sent by God to smite the first-born children of Egypt but passed over the homes of Jews and allowed Moses to lead them to freedom. Each part of the ritual meal is full of symbolism. But that is not what the columnist, a medical doctor at King Faisal University Hospital, tolder her readers.
For the Purim pastries, she said, "the Jewish people must obtain human blood." and for Passover, there are some special requirements: "the blood of Christian and Muslim children under the age of 10 must be used." And so in, in almost clinical detail, Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma recounted a hideous libel that dates back to to the Crusades. "A needle-studded barrel is used," she told us. "The victim suffers dreadful torment-torment that affords the Jewish vampires great delight..." You get the idea.
I do know this. Palestinians are sending their children, strapped with bombs to kill Israel civilians. The Saudi's are supporting the families of the Palestinian terrorists as well as is Sadham Hussein.
If the Palestinians are hyjacking planes, killing Olympic athletes, throwing old crippled wheelchair bound Jewish fathers over the side of cruise ships and blowing themselves up killing innocent civilians, why should we support this terror? They are doing (and have done) all of the above!
And to answer Grace's question as to why the West has such an interest in Israel and the Middle-East. The United States is a Judao-Christian society with strong ties to Europe. Most Americans are Christian which shares it's faith with Judiasm.
I feel no sympathy for terrorists. The Palestinans should form their homeland in Iraq!
co-claimants to that land: the indigenous Palestinians who
have lived there for 2,000 years and the Jews who started
arriving in large numbers after the Second World War. "
The Jews arrived first into the Holy Land lead by Moses after being freed from slavery in Egypt. Later came the Philistines who conquered the Jews and ruled the Holy Land for the next 150 years. The Philistines would later be known as the Palestinians.
In 1948 the UN recognized the Jewish state of Israel. Jordan was created at the 'Arab' state. As we all know the surrounding Arab nations attacked the new Jewish country and got the butt's kicked.
I read different numbers on the original number of refugees who left Israel either by encouragement by the surrounding Arab countries or by force. It is somewhere between 600,000 and 900,000. The UN in it's infinite wisdom defined 'refugee' as someone who originally resided in the now Jewish state of Israel and all of their descendents. As most all are Muslims and believe in having huge families with numerous wives that number of refugees has grown to 4,000,000,000!!!! Ridiculous!
As to stories of toture of the Palestinians by the hands of the Isralies. I don't believe a thing that comes out of the Arab world. Massacre in Jenin? That was a lie. Arafat doesn't approve of the homicide bombers, yet says something different in Arabic to his fellow thugs in terror.
An example of the lies that come out of the Arab world. Newsweek Magazine April1, 2002 - Page 25:
"A columnist in the Saudi Daily Al-Riyadh took it on herself this month to explain the rituals of Purim and Passover. The first holiday (which took place in February) commemorates the story of Esther's saving the Jews of Persia from extermination. It's a rollicking, hard-drinking, happy time for most celebrants. Some call it the Jewish Mardi Gras. Passover is more somber, as Jews commemorate the night that the 'Tenth Plague was sent by God to smite the first-born children of Egypt but passed over the homes of Jews and allowed Moses to lead them to freedom. Each part of the ritual meal is full of symbolism. But that is not what the columnist, a medical doctor at King Faisal University Hospital, tolder her readers.
For the Purim pastries, she said, "the Jewish people must obtain human blood." and for Passover, there are some special requirements: "the blood of Christian and Muslim children under the age of 10 must be used." And so in, in almost clinical detail, Dr. Umayma Ahmad Al-Jalahma recounted a hideous libel that dates back to to the Crusades. "A needle-studded barrel is used," she told us. "The victim suffers dreadful torment-torment that affords the Jewish vampires great delight..." You get the idea.
I do know this. Palestinians are sending their children, strapped with bombs to kill Israel civilians. The Saudi's are supporting the families of the Palestinian terrorists as well as is Sadham Hussein.
If the Palestinians are hyjacking planes, killing Olympic athletes, throwing old crippled wheelchair bound Jewish fathers over the side of cruise ships and blowing themselves up killing innocent civilians, why should we support this terror? They are doing (and have done) all of the above!
And to answer Grace's question as to why the West has such an interest in Israel and the Middle-East. The United States is a Judao-Christian society with strong ties to Europe. Most Americans are Christian which shares it's faith with Judiasm.
I feel no sympathy for terrorists. The Palestinans should form their homeland in Iraq!
I replied to another of your posts today, so I'll keep it to the new claims you have made.
"In 1948 the UN recognized the Jewish state of Israel. Jordan was created at the 'Arab' state. As we all know the surrounding Arab nations attacked the new Jewish country and got the butt's kicked."
No. In 1948 the UN accepted the partition of Palestine into two states: Israel and Palestine. The Palestinians, perhaps shortsightedly, immediately rejected the carving up of their homeland. Their argument was that if Europeans had committed crimes against the Jews, perhaps a section of Europe should be carved out for the Jews to create a state. They resisted and Israel attacked. The neighboring Arab nations invaded Palestine in an attempt to keep Israel from annexing the entire land.
"I read different numbers on the original number of refugees who left Israel either by encouragement by the surrounding Arab countries or by force."
So you admit that Israel has forced Palestinians to leave Israel and the occupied territories? They have used force against civilians for political ends. This is the definition of terrorism.
"As to stories of toture of the Palestinians by the hands of the Isralies. I don't believe a thing that comes out of the Arab world."
Would you be more inclined to believe the Israeli press? The Hebrew newspapers regularly report on the various terrorist acts committed by Israel in the West Bank. Here's one example, quoted from "Fateful Triangle: The United States, Israel and the Palestinians" by Noam Chomsky, p. 473:
A few weeks before the outbreak of the Palestinian uprising (Intifada) in December 1987, a minor event took place in Gaza. A Palestinian girl, Intissar al-Atar, was shot and killed in a schoolyard by a resident of the nearby Jewish settlement of Gush Katif. The murderer, Shimon Yifrah, was arrested a month later and released on bail because the Supreme Court determined that "the offense is not severe enough" to warrant detention. In September 1989 he was acquitted of all charges except causing death by negligence. The judge noted that he only intended to shock the girl by firing his gun at her in a schoolyard, not to kill her, so "this is not a case of a criminal person who has to be punished, deterred, and taught a lesson by imprisoning him." Yifrah was given a seven-month suspended sentence, while settlers in the courtroom broke out in song and dance.
"Palestinians are sending their children, strapped with bombs to kill Israel civilians."
Yes, and this is terrible. Israelis are shooting live ammunition into peaceful demonstrations, detaining and torturing Palestinians without charges, bulldozing their houses (and those of their neighbors) for throwing rocks, expelling them en masse, and support an Apartheid regime in Israel (Arab Israeli citizens may not buy property or rebuild homes that are bulldozed, nor vote). Are you claiming that suicide bombers justify Israeli terrorism?
"The Saudi's are supporting the families of the Palestinian terrorists."
Assume that's true. Do you know who supports the Saudis? Would you be surprised that it is the U.S. that has propped up the Saudi Royal Family, a fascist totalitarian regime, against the will of the Saudi citizens. Oh, and the U.S. is democracy's leading proponent, or so I am told.
"If the Palestinians are hyjacking planes."
The PLO has done this. It is truly an act of terrorism. However, it should be noted that Israel was the first state to ever hijack a civilian airliner. It hijacked a Syrian commercial jet to negotiate the exchange of prisoners. Looks like, yet again, the PLO has learned from the masters.
"And to answer Grace's question as to why the West has such an interest in Israel and the Middle-East. The United States is a Judao-Christian society with strong ties to Europe."
Someone beat me to it. The answer is oil. The U.S. supports Israel so that it can control the Middle East. The constant provocations by Israel and the U.S. in every country there keeps them all fighting amonst themselves so they do not become powerful in their own right. This is the first thing to be done when you want to exert control: divide and conquer. That there are many Christians in America has no bearing on U.S. foreign policy, but it makes for great explanation.
"I feel no sympathy for terrorists. The Palestinans should form their homeland in Iraq!"
Some Palestinians are terrorists. Some Israelis are terrorists. Some Americans are terrorists. I'd hazard a guess that nearly every country and ethnic group has some terrorists. Does that mean that we should blow up the Earth, that no one has the right to exist? Of course not, but that seems to be your position.
As for moving the Palestinian population to Iraq, on what basis should Iraq be forced to take care of them? Will you then move some Iraqis to Iran to make room? And then move some Iranians to Tibet to make room? When do we stop this madness and work through our problems?
I propose a march across the GGB to protest Palestinian suicide bombers.
Given that the U.S. taxpayer doesn't fund the PLO to the tune of over three billion dollars annually, there's not nearly as much the voting public can do. But if we can get people to press their representatives to stop aid to Israel, we can have a direct impact on Israel's terrorism campaign. But by all means, protest against Palestinian terrorism, too.
Nessie. There is NO OIL IN ISRAEL -- it is the reason that the State Dept opposed the partition plan in 1947. Your assertion has no basis in fact.
Secondly, has anyone addressed or responded to the vicious calumnies against Jews? These include the blood libels, conspiracy theories and calls to murder Jews spreading rampantly through the Arab world and even making their way to the West & to GUPS & MSU in SFSU.
Secondly, has anyone addressed or responded to the vicious calumnies against Jews? These include the blood libels, conspiracy theories and calls to murder Jews spreading rampantly through the Arab world and even making their way to the West & to GUPS & MSU in SFSU.
The above article is so full of lies and disinformation it would take an article twice the size to address them all. I will focus on one. No where in the Talmud does it advocated the killing of non Jews with impunity.
Islamic texts, on the other hand say:
Bukhari [8]: Narrated as-Sa’b bin Jaththama: The Prophet passed by me at a place called al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They are from them." [i.e. the women and children are also pagans, hence it is permissible to kill them. ]
[47:41: 'When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds"
viii.12:"I will instill terror into the hearts of the Infidels, strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every fingertip."
(Does this strike you as familiar? Remember Daniel Pearl?)
Islamic texts, on the other hand say:
Bukhari [8]: Narrated as-Sa’b bin Jaththama: The Prophet passed by me at a place called al-Abwa or Waddan, and was asked whether it was permissible to attack the pagan warriors at night with the probability of exposing their women and children to danger. The Prophet replied, "They are from them." [i.e. the women and children are also pagans, hence it is permissible to kill them. ]
[47:41: 'When you meet the unbelievers, smite their necks, then, when you have made wide slaughter among them, tie fast the bonds"
viii.12:"I will instill terror into the hearts of the Infidels, strike off their heads then, and strike off from them every fingertip."
(Does this strike you as familiar? Remember Daniel Pearl?)
While I don't know the figures on how much money we send to the PLO/PA the US and EU do contribute 98% of the funds they receive. So to say we have no economic leverage is bullshit. The same goes for Egypt which is a terrible racist society that sends homosexuals to jail- thanks to our tax money.
Despite the Arab countries supposed love and support of the Palestinians they don't put their money where there mouth is: only 2% of funds for the Palestinians come from all the Arab countries COMBINED- this included the weathier ones like Saudi Arabia and UAE. The other 98% is provided by the US and EU. So why is noone calling for a divestment of funds to Egypt? They are as inhumane as Israel and every bit as dependent on us.
Despite the Arab countries supposed love and support of the Palestinians they don't put their money where there mouth is: only 2% of funds for the Palestinians come from all the Arab countries COMBINED- this included the weathier ones like Saudi Arabia and UAE. The other 98% is provided by the US and EU. So why is noone calling for a divestment of funds to Egypt? They are as inhumane as Israel and every bit as dependent on us.
I just wanted to thank you for standing up for what you believe in and stating the facts. So many people, unfortunately even liberals who claim to be open minded, become incredible vicious when it's pointed out to them that they are more ignorant and racist then the people they are always protesting as being ignorant and racist! I'm sure you'll encounter more hostility from people who are exposed due to your persistence but you help make the commmunity a more just place for everyone. That seems to be enough to be labeled a Zionist by GUPS and their malicious supporters.
The Problem in US,is in the fact that the Zioniste are
controlling 95% of the Media there. So the US citizens have
to watch only lies and propaganda. US as Arab and Muslims,
we would love to see US Citizens looking for the truth ( No
throught the TV and Pro-Isreali newspapers).
I defy you if 1% of US citizens ( not including the ARABs
and Muslims) know about this basic facts:
THAT, when the Palestine Problem was created by Britain in
1917, more than 90% of the population of Palestine were
Arabs?... And that there were at that time no more than
56,000 Jews in Palestine?
THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at
that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine
in the preceding decades in order to escape persecution in
Europe?... And that less than 5% of the population of
Palestine were native Palestinian Jews?
THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5% of
the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent
immigrants together) owned only 2.5% of the land?
THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation and
rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5% of the
land of Palestine, in spite of the encouragement of the
British Government?... And that much of this land was
transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government
directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine Problem
to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than
6% of the total land area of Palestine?
THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly of
the United Nations recommended that a "Jewish State" be
established in Palestine?... And that the Assembly granted
that proposed "State" about 54% of the total area of the
country?
THAT, Israel immediately occupied (and still occupies)
80.48% of the total land area of Palestine?
THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for the most
part, before 15 May 1948: i.e., before the formal end of
the British forces from Palestine, before the entry of Arab
armies to protect Palestinian Arabs, and before the the
Arab-Israeli war?
THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly in
favor of the creation of a "Jewish State" was outside the
competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United
Nations?
THAT, all attempts by the Arab States and other Asian
countries to have the Assembly submit the question
of "constitutionality" of its recommendation to the
International Court of Justice for an "advisory opinion" by
the Court were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
THAT, when the Assembly began to experience "second
thoughts" over the matter and convened for its second
special session in 1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947
recommendation for the partition of Palestine-thus
destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation
for the establishment of a "Jewish State" had had?
THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create a "Jewish
State" in Palestine was approved, at the first vote, only
by European, American and Australian States...for every
Asian State, and every African State (with the exception of
the Union of South Africa) voted against it?...And that,
when the vote was cast in plenary session on 29 November
1947, urgent American pressures (which a member of the
Truman cabinet described as "bordering onto scandal") had
succeeded in prevailing only upon one African country
(Liberia), both of which had special vulnerability to
American pressures, to abandon their declared
opposition?...And that, in other words, the "Jewish State"
was planted at the point-of-intersection of Asia and Africa
without the free approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or
African country except that Union of South Africa, itself
ruled by an alien minority?
THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception, a total
stranger in the emerging world of Afro-Asia; and that
Israel has been refused admission to any inter-state
conference of Asian, African, Afro-Asian, or Non-Aligned
States ever held?
THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were signed in
1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging
military attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines,
repeatedly invading the territories of the neighboring Arab
States...And that Israel has been duly rebuked, censured,
or condemned for these military attacks by the Security
Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations on
eleven occasions-five times by the Security Council and six
times by the General Assembly?
THAT, no other country in the world, whether member of the
United Nations or non-member, has been so frequently
condemned by the United Nations?
THAT, no Arab State has ever been condemned by any organ of
the United Nations for military attacks upon Israel( or any
other State)?
THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants of
Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring
Arab States, Israel has also consistently harassed the
United Nations observers and other personnel stationed
along the Armistice Demarcation Lines: It has assassinated
the first United Nations Mediator and his military aide; it
has detained some truce observers; it has military occupied
and illegally searched the Headquarters of United Nations
personnel; and it has boycotted meetings of the Mixed
Armistice Commissions?...
THAT, Israel has additionally imposed a system of apartheid
upon the Arabs who stayed in their homeland?...More than
90% of these Arabs live in "security zones;" they alone
live under martial law, restricting their freedom to travel
from village to village or from town to town; their
children are denied equal opportunities for education; and
they are denied decent opportunities for work, and the
right to receive "equal pay for equal work?"
THAT, notwithstanding the foregoing facts, Israel has
always been, and still is, widely portrayed in the Western
press as the "bastion of democracy" and the "champion of
peace" in the Middle East?
THAT, the Western Powers have persisted in declaring their
determination to ensure a so-called "arms balance" in the
area, as between Israel, on the one hand, and the one-
hundred million inhabitants of the thirteen Arab States, on
the other hand?... And this unilateral Western doctrine of
so-called "arms balance" is no more reasonable than the
suggestion that, in the Cuba-U.S.A conflict, there should
be "arms balance" as between Cuba and the United States...
or that the whole Continent of Africa should not be allowed
to acquire more arms than South Africa... or that Mainland
China should not be permitted to have more arms than
Taiwan... or that the military allowed to acquire more arms
than South Africa... and that only thus can peace be
safeguarded in the Western Hemisphere, in Africa, in Asia,
or in Europe?...
controlling 95% of the Media there. So the US citizens have
to watch only lies and propaganda. US as Arab and Muslims,
we would love to see US Citizens looking for the truth ( No
throught the TV and Pro-Isreali newspapers).
I defy you if 1% of US citizens ( not including the ARABs
and Muslims) know about this basic facts:
THAT, when the Palestine Problem was created by Britain in
1917, more than 90% of the population of Palestine were
Arabs?... And that there were at that time no more than
56,000 Jews in Palestine?
THAT, more than half of the Jews living in Palestine at
that time were recent immigrants, who had come to Palestine
in the preceding decades in order to escape persecution in
Europe?... And that less than 5% of the population of
Palestine were native Palestinian Jews?
THAT, the Arabs of Palestine at that time owned 97.5% of
the land, while Jews (native Palestinians and recent
immigrants together) owned only 2.5% of the land?
THAT, during the thirty years of British occupation and
rule, the Zionists were able to purchase only 3.5% of the
land of Palestine, in spite of the encouragement of the
British Government?... And that much of this land was
transferred to Zionist bodies by the British Government
directly, and was not sold by Arab owners?
THAT, therefore, when British passed the Palestine Problem
to the United Nations in 1947, Zionists owned no more than
6% of the total land area of Palestine?
THAT, notwithstanding these facts, the General Assembly of
the United Nations recommended that a "Jewish State" be
established in Palestine?... And that the Assembly granted
that proposed "State" about 54% of the total area of the
country?
THAT, Israel immediately occupied (and still occupies)
80.48% of the total land area of Palestine?
THAT, this territorial expansion took place, for the most
part, before 15 May 1948: i.e., before the formal end of
the British forces from Palestine, before the entry of Arab
armies to protect Palestinian Arabs, and before the the
Arab-Israeli war?
THAT, the 1947 recommendation of the General Assembly in
favor of the creation of a "Jewish State" was outside the
competence of the Assembly under the Charter of the United
Nations?
THAT, all attempts by the Arab States and other Asian
countries to have the Assembly submit the question
of "constitutionality" of its recommendation to the
International Court of Justice for an "advisory opinion" by
the Court were rejected or ignored by the Assembly?
THAT, when the Assembly began to experience "second
thoughts" over the matter and convened for its second
special session in 1948, it failed to reaffirm the 1947
recommendation for the partition of Palestine-thus
destroying whatever dubious legality that recommendation
for the establishment of a "Jewish State" had had?
THAT, that original 1947 recommendation to create a "Jewish
State" in Palestine was approved, at the first vote, only
by European, American and Australian States...for every
Asian State, and every African State (with the exception of
the Union of South Africa) voted against it?...And that,
when the vote was cast in plenary session on 29 November
1947, urgent American pressures (which a member of the
Truman cabinet described as "bordering onto scandal") had
succeeded in prevailing only upon one African country
(Liberia), both of which had special vulnerability to
American pressures, to abandon their declared
opposition?...And that, in other words, the "Jewish State"
was planted at the point-of-intersection of Asia and Africa
without the free approval of any Middle Eastern, Asian or
African country except that Union of South Africa, itself
ruled by an alien minority?
THAT, Israel remained, ever since its inception, a total
stranger in the emerging world of Afro-Asia; and that
Israel has been refused admission to any inter-state
conference of Asian, African, Afro-Asian, or Non-Aligned
States ever held?
THAT, since the General Armistice Agreements were signed in
1949, Israel has maintained an aggressive policy of waging
military attacks across the Armistice Demarcation Lines,
repeatedly invading the territories of the neighboring Arab
States...And that Israel has been duly rebuked, censured,
or condemned for these military attacks by the Security
Council of the General Assembly of the United Nations on
eleven occasions-five times by the Security Council and six
times by the General Assembly?
THAT, no other country in the world, whether member of the
United Nations or non-member, has been so frequently
condemned by the United Nations?
THAT, no Arab State has ever been condemned by any organ of
the United Nations for military attacks upon Israel( or any
other State)?
THAT, besides expelling the bulk of the Arab inhabitants of
Palestine, and besides constantly attacking the neighboring
Arab States, Israel has also consistently harassed the
United Nations observers and other personnel stationed
along the Armistice Demarcation Lines: It has assassinated
the first United Nations Mediator and his military aide; it
has detained some truce observers; it has military occupied
and illegally searched the Headquarters of United Nations
personnel; and it has boycotted meetings of the Mixed
Armistice Commissions?...
THAT, Israel has additionally imposed a system of apartheid
upon the Arabs who stayed in their homeland?...More than
90% of these Arabs live in "security zones;" they alone
live under martial law, restricting their freedom to travel
from village to village or from town to town; their
children are denied equal opportunities for education; and
they are denied decent opportunities for work, and the
right to receive "equal pay for equal work?"
THAT, notwithstanding the foregoing facts, Israel has
always been, and still is, widely portrayed in the Western
press as the "bastion of democracy" and the "champion of
peace" in the Middle East?
THAT, the Western Powers have persisted in declaring their
determination to ensure a so-called "arms balance" in the
area, as between Israel, on the one hand, and the one-
hundred million inhabitants of the thirteen Arab States, on
the other hand?... And this unilateral Western doctrine of
so-called "arms balance" is no more reasonable than the
suggestion that, in the Cuba-U.S.A conflict, there should
be "arms balance" as between Cuba and the United States...
or that the whole Continent of Africa should not be allowed
to acquire more arms than South Africa... or that Mainland
China should not be permitted to have more arms than
Taiwan... or that the military allowed to acquire more arms
than South Africa... and that only thus can peace be
safeguarded in the Western Hemisphere, in Africa, in Asia,
or in Europe?...
The flow of oil at market prices is vital to the US economy. Our country has an interest in assuring that this continues. That's justification enough to do whatever it takes to see that it continues to be that way. We should also reduce our dependancy on foreign oil by utilizing ANWR and drilling off the coast of California and Florida.
First of all among the other factual distortions "palestiinians" have not lived in the land of Israel (which was named palestine by the romans in order to de-judize it) for 2000 years. If Arabic speaking people have not even existed for 2000 years than how could palestians have lived there for 2000 years. I don't understand why she is shocked that the modern state of Israel has racial, religious and other social problems. Every country on this planet has those problems and often a lot worse. Morever, to question one's belief, is a natural part of life. People more than once in there life change there opinion, and one should not believe that the judgement that they hold today are the one's that they will hold in five years. The author demonstrates her small town mindsett by being "shocked' that Israel is not exactly the kind of place she learned about in sunday school. The lesson she should get from Israel is that while every thing is continuously changing everything at the same time is remaining the same. I guess the same holds true for anti-semitism.
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