The serial killer in France that shot 3 little children coming out of school, one of them an 8-year-old girl that was grabbed by her hair and shot in the head to make sure she was really dead, just wanted justice. As far as he's concerned, he was "avenging the deaths of Palestinian children," and he did it by murdering some Jews.
Is this some kind of novelty? Not really. For one reason or another, anti-Semitism has been around for more than 2,000 years. But let's not go back that far into history -- in the past century, Jews have suffered discrimination, pogroms, demonic rumors that everyone believed, and of course -- the Holocaust. What's happening today is just another wave in a sea of hatred that has been around for very long.
I'd like to clarify in advance, that I do not mean to underplay Palestinian rights or to say they don't deserve a state, because they most certainly do. But it's very comfortable for some people to overlook the facts and just plain hate Israel for Palestinian suffering. It doesn't seem to matter if the reasons are
solid or not. If you'd like to know what I'm talking about, here are a few examples:
1. It's awful when Palestinian children get killed, but many choose not to understand what's behind the other side of the fence. Hamas uses children as human shields -- it shoots at Israeli cities from schools, hospitals and kindergartens. Hamas teaches toddlers to wear suicide bombs and makes them believe blowing themselves up in public places is noble and holy. These children are used to armed fighting from a very young age, but no one seems to be bothered about children being used as an army. Why?
2. Israeli peace offers have been rejected by the Palestinian leaders time and time again. Generous peace offers for 96 percent of all the territories in question and equal land-swaps for the rest, have been offered to the Palestinian leaders at least two times. Is it really a state they want? Because they could have had one long ago.
3. In 1948, after Israel had been invaded by all its neighboring Arab countries that wanted its annihilation before it was even born, as a result of the war, about 600,000 refugees fled into neighboring Arab countries. At the very same time, about 600,000 Jews were expelled penniless from neighboring Arab countries and settled in Jewish Israel. They never went back or asked for any of their property. The Palestinian refugees, on the other hand, never became citizens in countries such as Jordan, Syria and Lebanon, and are being discriminated there by law until today. No one seems to care about their situation.
4. The worst breaches of human rights towards Palestinians are made by their own regime: Gaza is ruled by Sharia law, meaning women can be murdered for the honor of the family, thieves get their arms chopped off, and executions are no big deal. During the years of terrible rivalry between Hamas and PLO, Palestinians were lynched, tortured and executed without trials by their own regime. Their rights are breached in terrible ways in the neighboring countries, as well. But all we ever hear about is how Israel breaches Palestinian human rights, all the while forgetting to mention that their leaders have made Israel their declared enemy.
I would go on, but I think you get the picture. The point is that for many, the Palestinian problem has become a great excuse to hate Jews. It all seems "legitimate," since people tend to blame only Israel for the terrible situation that has become a status quo. The real picture is a lot more complicated, but not many are interested in the details. For some, it's just a lot more comfortable to have a politically
correct reason to hate, than to search for the truth.
It's all just fine, except for two small problems:
1. It doesn't help solve the conflict. If there was more pressure on the Palestinian leaders to accept previous peace offers, for instance, it may have been a lot more efficient.
2. When hatred starts to rise and flood, you never know how far it will go. Three children were murdered in Toulouse this week. Is that the worst that it's going to get?
Does Palestine deserve to exist as a state? I think so.
Does Israel deserve to exist as a state? Without doubt.
Does it need to exist as an apartheid-like state with Jewish people as the ruling class? And if it does, on reasons such as national security, couldn't the same case be made for countries like South Africa in the 20th century?
Is anti-semitism real? Of course it is.
Is everyone who criticises Israel, or even sides with the Palestinians in this conflict an anti-semite?
No, they're not. It does not get clearer than that, folks. Israel cannot be the only state on earth that is exempt from criticism, and if you disagree with that, well, I don't know what to tell you.
Are people biased against the Jews? It depends on the place, really: In the Arab world (obviously) and most of eastern europe, the majority of people, governments and media are biased against Jewish people. Are they anti-semites? Yes, to the extent that the West is anti-muslim/Arab.
See, that's the thing: we are under this illusion that 'They' are biased and 'We' are objective, when, in reality we are far from such. The average person, government, and media outlet in Western Europe and North America is quick to brand people like the Toulouse murderer as 'muslim terrorists'
while every similar (or worse) act perpetrated by Jews or Christians is an 'isolated incident' commited by a 'deranged individual'.
What about their human rights? What about those children living in bomb shelters, in fear?
What about the so-called Palestinians teaching war, hatred, and that Jews are less than human - "the descendants of apes and pigs". Anyone who still believes these people want to live in peace with us is extremely deaf, and blind, and naive.
Detest, Abhor, Find Revolting- these are better.
And I could just as well apply those same terms to what I think of the violent idiocy of the Palestinians themselves through these last many decades, too.
But... Israel is utterly at the advantage. Military funding annually to the tune of billions just from the USA. The US also performs bluster and chest thumping to inhibit any extra-border parties from harming it. They've a real seat at the UN. Yadda yadda...
So here it is, as simple as it really is when you strip the BS off of it:
Israel's a bully. And it's wrong to be a bully.
Yeah, the victim can be a nasty little runt, but bullying is bullying nonetheless.
Israel is the burly boy rubbing the nasty runt's face in the sand, and is getting nutkicked and punched now and then as the runt struggles.
Saying this doesn't make the runt nice or make it right that the runt is fighting dirty.
It doesn't have to.
The bully is still on top and punching HARD, and the violence only ends when the bully decides to quit.
Unless a teacher comes by and stops it, of course.
But then, the 'teachers' seem to either be rooting for one or the other party - or worse, they don't even care.
First off, your comments are irrelevant to my post. Why? Mine doesn't address Israeli-Arab relations in general, it addresses the Israel-Palestine issue in isolation.
Second, to address your points:
--"Jewish (the religion of Jesus)" - so what? I don't CARE what faith they hold. It's irrelevant to whether they all behave themselves, no matter what justification for atrocity they may draw from their faiths.
--"democratic (rights for all)" - Unless, of course, you're a PALESTINIAN. Then you get no rights or unequal ones. So I say that one is BS.
--"civilized (no civil war, hanging of gays, women stoning, “honour” killing of girls by their own fathers and brothers, etc)" - Um, yeah. But bombing a school is perfectly fine to do for them, right? Nevermind the killing of the children part, we'll excuse that. And nevermind the torture bits, right? The acts differ, and in some senses the severity differs, but there are plenty of examples of Israeli 'atrocities' over the years that we could reel off... So your point that Israel is some beacon of righteousness is BS.
--"didn't declare war... but the other way around" OK, Israel was carved out of what used to be other countries. You do KNOW that, right? And it was done so against the will of those who had possession of the land.
(Continued next post)
2) Equal rights for all? Not in planning, not in marriage, not in education, not in citizenship and not in being the victims of retroactive legislation.
3) Civilised? Not when it comes to keeping a people under a violent and oppressive Occupation, not when it comes to collective punishment and not when it comes to theft of resources.
4) Israel was founded on the rejection of the very idea of living with your neighbours.
I think that If Israel Government does not stop this horrible attitude against the Palestinian who have a right for their own coutry,Gaza is an open Prison where the people has to stay under bombing ,like the Dr who working in Israel saw live on tv ,the bombing or his children house.If the Israeli people does not stop Nettaniaou ,there will be more people hating the jewish ,and will not make the difference between the Israeli Government and its People And that worries me.My Child is Jewish.
Stop Bullying the Palestian and allow them to live a normal live like in Israel. And you Palestinians Israel has a right to exist we have one God .
the Jewish has a right to exist.
As for Gaza: No "open prision". Judenrein Muslim Arab Gaza shares a border with judenrein Muslim Arab Egypt (the occupied land of the Copts, the original Egyptians). It is up to their brothers to open their side of the border. Hamas declared war on Israel.
We have one God, yes, but the one invented by Mohamed in Arabia 1,500 years after Judaism and 650 after Jesus in not the God from the Bible, the God Jesus called Father.
4 pages sent from Mrs Chava Sandler
Heartfelt plea from Mrs Chava (Eva) Sandler of Toulouse
My heart is broken. I am unable to speak. There are no ways for me to be able to express the great and all-consuming pain resulting from the murder of my dear husband Rabbi Jonathan and our sons, Aryeh and Gavriel, and of Miriam Monsonego, daughter of the dedicated principal of Ozar Hatorah and his wife, Rabbi Yaakov and Mrs. Monsonego.
May no one ever have to endure such pain and suffering.
Because so many of you, my cherished brothers and sisters in France and around the world, are asking what you can do on my behalf, on behalf of my daughter Liora and on behalf of the souls of my dear husband and children, I feel that, difficult though it may be, it is incumbent upon me to answer your entreaties.
My husband's life was dedicated to teaching Torah. We moved back to the country of his birth to help young people learn about the beauty of Torah. He was truly a good man, loving, giving, and selfless. He was sensitive to all of G‑d's creatures, always searching for ways to reveal the goodness in others.
He and I raised Aryeh and Gavriel to live the ways of Torah. Who would have known how short would be their time on this Earth, how short would be the time I would be with them as their mother?
I don't know how I and my husband's parents and sister will find the consolation and strength to carry on, but I know that the ways of G‑d are good, and He will reveal the path and give us the strength to continue. I know that their holy souls will remain with us forever, and I know that very soon the time will come when we will be together again with the coming of Moshiach.