The open letter Monday represented one of the largest shows of support among progressive groups for the burgeoning student protests.
Christopher Mathias at HuffPost:
A coalition of 185 social justice and religious groups published an open letter Monday expressing support for the campus protest encampments sweeping the country in opposition to Israel’s siege of Gaza, and calling on university administrators to end the brutal crackdowns of the student-led demonstrations.
“We commend the students who are exercising their right to protest peacefully despite an overwhelming atmosphere of pressure, intimidation and retaliation, to raise awareness about Israel’s assault on Gaza — with U.S. weapons and funding,” the letter states. “These students have come forth with clear demands that their universities divest from corporations profiting from Israeli occupation, and demanding safe environments for Palestinians across their campuses. ”
Groups that signed the letter include Gen-Z for Change, Working Families Party, IfNotNow Movement, Young Democrats of America Black Caucus, Movement for Black Lives, Sunrise Movement, MPower Change, Jewish Voice for Peace, Palestine Legal, and the Unitarian Universalist Association.
Some 900 students have been arrested during anti-war encampments and demonstrations at American universities in the last 10 days, per a tally from Al Jazeera — a tumultuous period that mirrors volatile demonstrations against the Vietnam War in 1968, when police arrested at least 700 students.
The open letter Monday represents one of the largest shows of support among progressive groups for the burgeoning student protests, and makes clear the divide between establishment Democratic figures and social justice groups when it comes to U.S. support for Israel. President Joe Biden has refused so far to condition the sale of weapons to Israel.
“Our communities have been horrified to see the militarized and violent response to students protesting an ongoing genocide funded and supported by our government, and our coalition of organizations join millions of our members across the country in standing in solidarity with the students’ efforts in support of the people of Gaza,” Yasmine Taeb, one of the main organizers of the letter, told HuffPost. Taeb is a human rights lawyer and political director at MPower Change, a Muslim social justice group.
“Instead of attacking young people mobilizing for Palestinian human rights, President Biden needs to listen to the majority of Americans who have been calling on him to stop funding and supporting the atrocities committed against the people of Gaza,” Taeb said.
[...]
Israel has killed over 33,000 Palestinians since Oct. 7, when the Gaza-based militant group Hamas launched an attack in which nearly 1,200 Israelis were killed. In January, the International Court of Justice ruled that Israel’s siege of Gaza — which has displaced 85% of the population and put the occupied territory on the cusp of famine — left Palestinians at risk of experiencing a genocide. Last week, health officials in Gaza said medics had discovered mass graves at hospitals raided by Israeli troops.
“We join [the students] in calling for an immediate and lasting ceasefire and an end to the U.S. government’s and institutions’ role in the ongoing genocide of Palestinians in Gaza,” Monday’s letter states.
“As we stand in solidarity with the students protesting in encampments across the country, we reaffirm our commitment to amplifying their voices, condemn the university administration officials’ violent response to their activism, and demand that universities remove the presence of police and other militarized forces from their campuses,” it continues.
[...]
Meanwhile, Republican Party officials and right-wing media figures have accused the demonstrations of antisemitism, falsely equating criticism of Israel with bigotry towards Jews. Although there have been scattered reports of actual antisemitic incidents at or near the encampments, many were not perpetrated by students but by interlopers. Many of the student protesters across the country are Jewish.
Far-right agitators, including Christian nationalist activists, have also targeted the encampments, with MAGA pastor Sean Feucht leading hundreds of Christian and Jewish Zionists on a march around the Columbia campus on Thursday. The rally ended with pro-Israel demonstrators yelling through the gate at pro-Palestinian Columbia students. “Go back to Gaza!” they screamed.
More than 185 groups, including IfNotNow, Jewish Voice For Peace, MPower Change, and Working Families Party, signed a letter in support of the campus protests against Israel Apartheid State's genocide against Palestinians in Gaza.
Blogging about Israel and the Arab world since, oh, forever.
From all reports of the horrific terror attack at Temple Israel in Michigan yesterday, a bloodbath was averted because of the professional, armed security that the synagogue had in place.
In all likelihood this was partially funded, directly or indirectly through Jewish Federations, by the Department of Homeland Security.
But "progressive Jews" don't like synagogues to be protected by armed guards.
An April 2024 open letter to Congress signed by pseudo-Jewish organizations like the Jewish Voice for Peace, IfNotNow, Bend the Arc, Jews For Racial & Economic Justice, Synagogues Rising and others insisted that the best way to protect synagogues - which, they claim, are only threated by white supremacy - is through "Community Based, Non-Carceral Approaches."
Their "plan" is to partner with other groups and somehow that would stop Hezbollah-aligned actors or Islamist terrorists from targeting Jews.
They call it "safety through solidarity."
Really.
Oh, by the way, they hate the word "terrorist" altogether, saying
We refuse to see our family members and friends (or anyone) labeled as “terrorists” or on the “path to radicalization.” We demand community-based, non-carceral safety approaches that leave no one in our communities behind, and actively challenge our society’s reliance on criminalization and surveillance.
See? No one is a terrorist, they are just misunderstood well-meaning people. Including someone driving a car with bombs and guns into a synagogue and preschool.
If only the guards gave Ayman Mohamad Ghazali flowers and an invitation to an iftar meal after he crashed into the building, all would have ended up well. How dare they use guns, treating him like a criminal!
So when you see empty statements of sadness from JVP or Bend the Arc, remember - if Temple Israel had listened to them, there would have been carnage.
Or more accurately, a whole bunch of cool-ass, courageous Jewish organizers did a thing and I helped take photos!
IfNotNow Boston shut down BU Bridge for 2 hours - because that’s what you do when your Senator won’t meet with you!
It was an incredibly powerful action. We sang, heard some moving speeches, blew the shofar, and said the Mourner’s Kaddish for the Israeli civilians killed and Palestinians murdered in the ongoing Nakba.
Btw calling anti-Zionist Jews “fake Jews” is fucking laughable. Like people are going to learn the Mourners Kaddish, cite Torah deep cuts and wear tefillin as an elaborate psy-op.
Its that time of year. I am hoping to once again attend the Rabbis for Ceasefire Yizkor for Yom Kippur. Last year’s service was moving and beautiful, and I expect a similar tone of reflection, mourning, and a commitment to not sit idly by in the face of atrocity.
Co-Hosted by a number of orgs including JVP, IfNotNow, JFREJ, RJ4J, multiple congregations and more. Register if you are interested.
In the Torah, Talmud, Rishonim, and the Kabbalah of our Fathers, ‘the Ends’ do not ‘Justify the Means’. Only through the proper means can ends be achieved. We learn this from many verses [such as the rejection of Israel’s sacrifices and observances on account of their sin]:
“Yea, though you offer me burnt-offerings and your meal-offerings, I will not accept them; neither will I regard the peace-offerings of your fat beasts.” (Amos 5:22)
“Bring no more vain oblations; it is an offering of abomination unto Me; new moon and sabbath, the holding of convocations--I cannot endure iniquity along with the solemn assembly.”
“And you have brought that which was taken by violence, and the lame, and the sick; thus you bring the offering; should I accept this of your hand? says HaShem” (Malachi 1:13)
“Similarly, an etrog which is not orlah, or money given to charity that has not been acquired through theft and their like. For Orlah is of the three completely unclean kelipot that can never ascend into holiness, as is written in Etz Chaim [Shaar 49 ch.2]. Similarly, [this applies to] any precept involving a transgression, heaven forfend.” (Likkutei Amarim ch.37)
“As our Sages state: ‘For the ‘work of heaven’ [i.e., mitzvah objects] only that which is pure and permissible to eat may be used.” (Likutei Amarim ch.37, Shabbat 28b)
“Ben Azzai said: Be quick in performing a minor commandment as in the case of a major one, and flee from transgression; For one commandment leads to another commandment, and transgression leads to another transgression; For the reward for performing a commandment is another commandment and the reward for committing a transgression is a transgression.” (Avot 4:2)
And the discussions about proper purity of the garments of the soul, such as proper kavanah [determined-focus], these being critical and consequential in the mitzvot performed, and correct passion, and so on.
“Not so in the case of the science of the nations; thereby, one clothes and defiles ChaBaD [Wisdom, Understanding, and Knowledge], which is his Divine soul, with the impurity of the kelipat nogah [the translucent husks, i.e. overdoing the permissible to the point of transgression] contained in those sciences, whither they (the sciences) have fallen, through the “shattering of the vessels,” out of the “hinder-part” of Wisdom of holiness, as is known to the students of the Kabbalah.
דְּהַיְינוּ כְּדֵי לְהִתְפַּרְנֵס מֵהֶן בְּרֶיוַח לַעֲבוֹד ה
אוֹ שֶׁיּוֹדֵעַ לְהִשְׁתַּמֵּשׁ בָּהֶן לַעֲבוֹדַת ה' אוֹ לְתוֹרָתוֹ
“unless one employs them [these sciences] as a useful instrument, viz., as a means of earning a more affluent livelihood with which to be able to serve G-d, or unless he knows how to apply them [the sciences] in the service of G‑d or to his better understanding of His Torah, e.g., [he utilizes mathematics to better understand the laws of the Sanctification of the New Moon.]
“This is the reason why The Rambam and Ramban, of blessed memory, and their peers engaged in them” [in the sciences—since they were able to utilize this knowledge in the service of G‑d and Torah, as physicians committed to healing.] (Likkutei Amarim ch.8)
And the sages have said that all sins, except for a number of them, have a remedy, but the inherently impure sins, such as idolatry, illicit sexual relations, and bloodshed, distance a person from holiness, heaven forbid, as the kabbalists have transmitted.
“It follows, then, that the person who does violate G-d’s will is greatly inferior to and more debased than the sitra achara and kelipah, which are called avodah zarah and “other gods”.
“He is separated completely from G‑d’s unity and oneness even more than they are as though denying His unity even more radically than they, Heaven Forfend.
“This is similar to what is written in Etz Chaim, Portal 42, end of ch. 4, that the evil in this corporeal world is the dregs of the coarse kelipot, it is the sediment of the purifying process, and so on.” (Likkutei Amarim ch.24)
It will continue to be shown, the content and the context of our actions in the world of action have dire consequences, in terms of a Jew’s connection to their Father in Heaven. The principles identified above stem from [combating] the role of the completely impure kelipot in the scheme of redemption, as the kabbalists explain:
[when they will refrain from transgressing] the 365 prohibitions, to restrain the 365 blood vessels of the animal soul in the body so that they do not draw nurture or receive vitality by means of such transgression from any one of the three completely unclean kelipot, from which are derived the 365 Biblical prohibitions, and the Rabbinical prohibitions.
“the vitalizing soul could no longer ascend to G‑d, having been tainted by the impurity of the three impure kelipot, which can never be elevated, but must be nullified and utterly destroyed, as is written, ‘And I shall banish the unclean spirit from the earth’.”
And the sins of the entire people of Israel also delay the Messianic Era. For when a person willfully sins, he draws vitality by his own will from the impure husks, becoming a vessel for the husks rather than a vessel for the Holy One, Blessed be He. And since all of Israel is commanded to be 'a light unto the nations', the sin of the world corresponds to the sins of the seed of Israel, according to the status of the husks; they must earn The Messiah through service to G-d, as is learned from all over the Tradition.
"מקדש ראשון מפני מה חרב? מפני ג' דברים שהיו בו: עבודה זרה וגלוי עריות ושפיכות דמים... אבל מקדש שני, שהיו עוסקין בתורה ובמצות וגמילות חסדים - מפני מה חרב? מפני שהיתה בו שנאת חנם. ללמדך ששקולה שנאת חנם כנגד שלש עבירות עבודה זרה, גלוי עריות ושפיכות דמים
“Why was the First Temple destroyed? Because of three things which prevailed there: idolatry, immorality, and bloodshed... But why was the Second Temple destroyed, seeing that in its time they occupied themselves with Torah, mitzvot and acts of kindness? Because baseless hatred prevailed. This teaches you that baseless hatred is equal to the three sins of idolatry, illicit relations and murder.” (Yoma 9b) [The Kingdoms and Temples were taken away as direct result of the sins of the children of Israel]
“Now this ultimate perfection of the Messianic era and [the time of] the resurrection of the dead, meaning the revelation of the Ein Sof-light in this physical world, is dependent on our actions and [divine] service throughout the period of exile. For it is the mitzvah itself that causes i.e., creates its reward.” (Likutei Amarim ch.37, Avot 4:2)
“It follows, then, that the person who does violate G‑d’s will is greatly inferior to and more debased than the sitra achara and kelipah, which are called avodah zarah and “other gods.” He is separated completely from G‑d’s unity and oneness even more than they are as though denying His unity even more radically than they, G‑d forbid.” (Likutei Amarim ch.24)
And another important principle to mention now, linked to the previous ones, is the sacred and fundamental principle of the Preservation of Life, whose transgression is extremely severe: For no person can rectify bloodshed without submitting to Justice, as it is written in Parshah Noah, 'Whoever sheds human blood, by humans shall their blood be shed, for in the image of G-d He made mankind.' [Genesis 9:6]. Therefore, bloodshed is one of the most impure transgressions, and the Rabbinical tradition is to avoid it at all costs, even unto death, heaven forfend. And in Jewish Law, we are never permitted to kill anyone extra-judicially, and it would be deemed 'willful murder', heaven forfend.
לֹא תִרְצָח
“You shall not kill.” (Shemot/Exodus 20:12)
מַכֵּה אִישׁ וָמֵת מוֹת יוּמָת׃
“One who fatally strikes another party shall be put to death.” (Shemot/Exodus 21:12)
“If, however, a man who is the enemy of another lies in wait and sets upon [the victim] and strikes a fatal blow and then flees to one of these towns…” (Devarim/Deuteronomy 19:11)
עבירות שבתורה אם אומרין לאדם עבור ואל תהרג יעבור ואל יהרג
חוץ מעבודת כוכבים וגילוי עריות ושפיכות דמים
“With regard to all other transgressions in the Torah, if a person is told: Transgress this prohibition and you will not be killed, he may transgress that prohibition and not be killed, because the preservation of his own life overrides all of the Torah’s prohibitions. This is the halakha concerning all prohibitions except for idol worship, forbidden sexual relations, and bloodshed. Concerning those prohibitions, one must allow himself to be killed rather than transgress them.” (Sanhedrin 74a)
“True, we find a principle that saving a life overrides other prohibitions, though not the prohibition of idolatry, and similarly, the law sometimes calls for one to commit a transgression rather than be killed.”. (Likkutei Amarim ch.24)
ברורה המסורת על מינים ואפיקורסים בישראל, השטופים בחכמות הגויים ובפילוסופיה העקומה, המורידים יהודים אחרים לסטרא אחרא, שהיא הקליפות הטמאות והאסורות, חס ושלום. עליהם להוכח ולהתנגד, וזו מצווה ולא שנאת חינם.
The tradition is clear concerning ‘Jewish’ heretics and atheists, immersed in the wisdom of the nations and in twisted philosophy, who lead other Jews astray into the sitra achara [other side], which is the utterly impure and forbidden kelipah [husks of the hinderside of Holiness], heaven forbid. They must be rebuked and resisted, and this is a commandment, not 'baseless hatred', which we are commanded not to do.
“Rabbi Yishmael said: The fact that the names of G-d in the scrolls of heretics may be burned can be derived through an a fortiori inference: Just as to make peace between a husband and his wife, the Torah says: My name that was written in sanctity shall be erased in the water in the framework of the ordeal of the sota; these, the heretics, who impose jealousy, and hatred, and conflict between the Jewish people and their Father in Heaven, all the more so of them. And with regard to them, the heretics, David said: “For I hate those who hate You, God, and I fight those who rise against You. I hate them with the utmost hatred, they have become enemies to me” [Psalms 139:21–22]. And just as they are not rescued from the fire, neither are they rescued from a rockslide, nor from water, nor from any other matter that destroys them.”
“As for the statement by King David, peace upon him: “I hate them with a consummate hatred,” (Psalms 139:22) reserving no love for them whatsoever; this refers only to [Jewish] heretics and atheists who have no part in the G‑d of Israel, as stated in the Talmud, top of ch. 16 Tractate Shabbat.” (Likkutei Amarim ch.32)
"לֹא-תִשְׂנָא אֶת-אָחִיךָ, בִּלְבָבֶךָ;"
“You shall not hate your brother in your heart.” (Vayikra/Leviticus 19:17)
“He came before Rabbi Hillel. He converted him and said to him: That which is hateful to you do not do to another; that is the entire Torah, and the rest is its interpretation. Go study.” (Shabbat 31a)
ולא יעלה על הדעת שיש לחזור ולאמר,
כי המסורת מאששת את אסון גלות השכינה
מפני עונות עם ישראל, חס ושלום.
כל יחיד מישראל יכול להרחיק את השכינה במעשיו, חס ושלום
And it should not need expounding, that the tradition confirms the calamity of the Shechinah's [The Divine Presence] exile due to the sins of the people of Israel, heaven forfend. Every individual of Israel can drive away the Divine Presence with their deeds, heaven forfend.
“...Which is the mystery of the exile of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence), as our Sages have said: “When the Jews were exiled to Edom, the Shechinah went into exile with them” [Megillah 29a]. It is to say, [in terms of] one’s service [to G-d], this statement means that when one acts like “Edom,” the embodiment of evil, when he sins, he degrades and draws down to there [to Edom, to the kelipot] the Divine spark which vitalizes his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah within him [with G‑dly, holy life; In this way, the Shechinah within him is drawn into exile]. What constitutes “exile” in this case is the fact that the Divine spark gives life to his G‑dly soul, which is clothed in the animal soul of kelipah situated in the left part of his heart, and as long as he remains wicked, the animal soul reigns over him, dominating his “small city” [body, in distinction to the Divine soul reigning over the body]. Thus, the Divine spark within his G‑dly soul is in exile in the kelipah of his animal soul.” (Likkutei Amarim ch.17)
What can be the end for a nation of Israel that sins and continues to sin, if not further Exile as previously stated? And what can be the Knowledge and Deed of a Jew, if their Wisdom and Understanding are corrupted? And what if a Jew prioritizes the philosophy that 'the end justifies the means', heaven forfend? Would they use their study of the sciences of the nations to aid in the service of HaShem? Or would it be used to justify transgression, sin, Edom, the Other Side, and true evil?
'Give me control over a nation's currency, and I care not who makes its laws. -Mayer Amschel Rothschild (1743–1812)
Rabbi Elai said: In three matters a person’s true character is ascertained; in his cup, [i.e., his behavior when he drinks;] in his pocket, [i.e., his conduct in his financial dealings with other people;] and in his anger. And some say: A person also reveals his real nature in his laughter. (Eruvin 65a)
“A man who invents a terrible explosive does more for peace than a thousand gentle apostles.” -[Father of Political $ionism] Theodor Herzl Diaries, May 1895
“In Paris, then, I gained a freer attitude toward anti-Semitism which I now began to understand historically and make allowances for.” -Herzl May 1895
“However, anti-Semitism, which is a strong and unconscious force among the masses, will not harm the Jews. I consider it to be a movement useful to the Jewish character. It represents the education of a group by the masses, and will perhaps lead to its being absorbed. Education is accomplished only through hard knocks. A Darwinian mimicry will set in.” -Herzl May 1895
“Throughout our two thousand years of dispersion, we have been without unified political leadership. I regard this as our chief misfortune. It has done us more harm than all the persecutions. This is why we have inwardly gone to rack and ruin. For there has been no one to train us to become real men, even if only out of imperial selfishness.” -Herzl 2 Jun 1895
“Out of this proletariat of intellectuals I shall form the general staff and the cadres of the army which is to seek, discover, and take over the land.” -Herzl 3 Jun 1895
“We shall probably model the constitution after that of Venice”
-Herzl 7 Jun 1985
“German Theatre, International Theatre, Operas, Operettas, circuses, Cafe Champs Elysees” -Herzl 7 Jun 1985
“We must not only copy Paris, Florence, etc, but seek a Jewish style expressive of relief and liberty” -Herzl 8 Jun 1895
“The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” -Herzl 12 Jun 1895
“By “G-d” I understand the Will to Good! The omnipresent, infinite, omnipotent, eternal Will to Good, which does not immediately prevail everywhere but is always victorious in the end. For which Evil, too, is but a means. How and why, for example, does the Will to Good permit epidemics to exist? Because epidemics cause musty old cities to be torn down and new, bright, healthful cities to come into being, with inhabitants who draw a freer breath. Thus, anti-Semitism, too, probably contains the divine Will to Good, because it forces us to close ranks, unites us through pressure, and through our unity will make us free. My conception of God, is, after all, Spinozistic and also resembles the natural philosophy of the Monists.” -Herzl 14 Aug 1895 [Evil to be permitted to be committed by people?]
Israel has been harvesting organs from the bodies of the people living in the Holy Land for decades:
www.euronews.com/2023/11/27/israel-stealing-organs-from-bodies-in-gaza-alleges-human-right-group
www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna34503294
www.euromedmonitor.org/en/article/5982/Int%E2%80%99l-committee-must-investigate-Israel%E2%80%99s-holding-of-dead-bodies-in-Gaza%E2%80%8B
How Israeli doctors enable the Shin Bet's torture industry: www.972mag.com/shin-bet-torture-israel-doctors/’
Would they fall into avodah zarah [idolatry], or would they lead others into avodah zarah, with their obsession with the Edom and the Sciences of the Nations?
“Money is the G-d of our time and [Nathan Mayer] Rothschild is his prophet." -Heinrich Heine, a Jewish convert to Lutheranism
But you shall remember [with profound respect] HaShem your G-d, for it is He who is giving you power to make wealth, that He may confirm His covenant which He swore (solemnly promised) to your fathers, as it is this day. (Devarim/Deuteronomy 8:18)
“A few months later I was sitting for the sculptor Beer who was doing my bust.” -Herzl May 1895
“Throughout our two thousand years of dispersion, we have been without unified political leadership. I regard this as our chief misfortune. It has done us more harm than all the persecutions. This is why we have inwardly gone to rack and ruin. For there has been no one to train us to become real men, even if only out of imperial selfishness.” -Herzl 2 Jun 1895
But the rabbis will be pillars of my organization and I shall honor them for it. They will arouse the people, instruct them on the boats, and enlighten them on the other side. As a reward they will be formed into a fine, proud hierarchy which, to be sure, will always remain subordinated to the State. -Herzl Jun 15th 1895 [And not to HaShem, heaven forfend?]
“From the very start of $ionism, prominent Jewish leaders viewed it as a rejection of Judaism itself. The chief rabbi of Vienna, Moritz Gudemann, denounced the mirage of Jewish nationalism. “Belief in one G-d was the unifying factor for Jews,” he declared, and $ionism was [and is] incompatible with Judaism’s teachings.” -WRMEA, Israel and Judaism by Allan C. Brownfeld
“In 1929, Orthodox Rabbi Aaron Samuel Tamarat wrote that the very idea of a sovereign Jewish state as a spiritual center was “a contradiction to Judaism’s ultimate purpose.” He declared, “Judaism at root is not some religious concentration which may be localized or situated in a single territory. Neither is Judaism a ‘nationality,’ in the sense of modern nationalism, fit to be woven into the three folded-ness of ‘homeland, Army, and heroic songs.’ No, Judaism is Torah, ethics and exaltation of spirit. If Judaism is truly Torah, then it cannot be reduced to the confines of any particular territory. For as Scripture said of Torah, ‘Its measure is greater than the earth.’(Iyyov/Job 11:9)” -WRMEA, Israel and Judaism by Allan C. Brownfeld
“One of the leading Jewish theologians of the 20th century, Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel, who marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil rights for all people, said, “Judaism is not a religion of space and does not worship the soil. So, too, the State of Israel is not the climax of Jewish history, but a test of the integrity of the Jewish people and the competence of Israel.”-WRMEA, Israel and Judaism by Allan C. Brownfeld
“Rabbi Israel Meir Kagan [Chofetz Chaim] received protests from many rabbis concerning his silence and lack of objection against the leaders of the $ionist movement as well as against the mocking of religion. By nature, Kagan was a man who avoided quarrels, and in the dispute over the $ionist movement he tried to avert further altercation. Nevertheless, "his heart was broken upon hearing that the leaders of $ionism [were] leading Jews astray in the colonies in Palestine and at home from the ways of the Torah; [...] Kagan's stand was this: He denied "young scholarly-religious students under his jurisdiction [permission] to follow in the footsteps of the irreligious $ionist leaders”,
[Lester Samuel Eckman , The history of the Musar movement, 1840–1945]
"It was not worthwhile to become another Albania, or even another Belgium, after nineteen centuries of suffering. A state must be established on Torah foundations." [Chofetz Chaim]
The student of the Chofetz Chaim, Rabbi Elchanon Wasserman, saw Nationalism as a direct threat to the status of Torah as the foundational factor of Jewish life. [Kovetz Maamarim].
“On June 27 Miriam Adelson, wife of billionaire casino mogul Sheldon Adelson and major contributor to Trump’s campaign, as well as Birthright Israel and $ionist causes, proposed that the story of Donald Trump, “hero and patriot,” ought to be added to the Bible. Her article, entitled “A Time of Miracles,” appeared in the Israeli daily newspaper Israel Hayom, which her husband owns and she publishes. The paper supports Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu, opposes the creation of a Palestinian state and supports annexation of parts of the occupied West Bank.
-WRMEA, Israel and Judaism by Allan C. Brownfeld
“U.S. Ambassador to Israel David Friedman, who is an ally of the Israeli settler movement and opposes the creation of a Palestinian state, referred to the relationship between the [apartheids] U.S. and Israel as an “altar of holiness” and the new U.S. Embassy in Jerusalem as a “shrine.” At a ceremony in Jerusalem, he declared that [apartheid] Israel “was on the side of God.” The U.S. and Israel, he said, should grow even closer, which would be a sign of “holiness.””
-WRMEA, Israel and Judaism by Allan C. Brownfeld
Would they care to practice sexual morality, or fall into the completely impure and illicit sexual activities?
Jewish Community Watch says 32 pedophiles moved from countries around the world to Israel in the past decade from 2016. Since 2014, more than 60 people accused of child sex abuse have evaded justice in the US and fled, making the Israeli regime a sanctuary for sex offenders.
“Many of the accused pedophiles go on to abuse children in Israel, such as the case of Jimmy Julius Karow. Karow sexually assaulted a 9-year-old girl in Oregon in 2000, but before being indicted in the US, he converted to Judaism and fled to Israel. Two years later, he was convicted of child molestation in an Israeli court for a separate case, and was released from prison after serving time. In 2021, Karow was sentenced to 13 years in prison in Israel for raping an Israeli child, but he is yet to receive justice for his assault on the 9-year-old American girl, whose family has demanded for him to be extradited to the US with no luck thus far. Karow had been successfully evading authorities in the US and Israel for over two decades, and he is not alone.
“Another example is a Brooklyn Rabbi who sexually assaulted three young relatives as young as five years old, and was able to evade justice in Israel for over a decade. Rabbi Gershon Kranczer, who was also a former Yeshiva school principal, abused the young girls from the 1990s through the late 2000s, and fled to Israel the same day his abuse was reported in 2010. He also changed his name and managed to evade capture for 10 years.
“Jewish sex offenders who obtain Israeli citizenship through the Law of Return, are not under any restrictions in Israel despite the restrictions they face in the countries where the sexual offenses were committed. Precariously, Israel also has a private national sex offender registry which only the Israeli police and prison services can access. This list, however, only documents convictions in Israel, and does not show their previous convictions. Therefore, pedophiles can still obtain a “Letter of Good Standing” from the police, clearing them to work in schools with children. In addition to this, there is no obligation in Israel to even warn residents about the presence of sex offenders in the community, making it easier for child abusers to find sanctuary there. https://tmj.news/israel-pedophilia/ Therefore, Israel has failed to protect it’s own women and children from abusers, p*dophiles, and r*pists.
“Currently, the age of consent in Israel is 16 for all genders. However, that age of consent can go as low as 14, provided the other sexual partner was no more than three years older and both parties consented. But according to [Avi] Maoz, the Justice Ministry is trying to change this to an age gap of five years.
"A 19-year-old man can have consensual sexual relations with a 14-year-old girl and won't face criminal charges," -Avi Maoz, Knesset Member against this change. www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-741881
“Where do we position, and how can we understand an event in which a Palestinian man was forced to commit a sexual act with a donkey by a border police officer?” (Abu a-Rob 2003)
Rela Mazali's short story “Income Tax, Ramallah” (2019) is a poignant illustration ... It recounts a testimony her partner disclosed to her about what he witnessed during his reserve duty, shortly before the first intifada and when Israel started taxing Palestinians living in the occupied territories. The testimony reveals how a Palestinian man who couldn't pay his family's taxes was allegedly offered to bring his two daughters with him and in return have his debt removed. The man's pleadings did not help. The next time he showed up, he was accompanied by one of his daughters. The soldiers then promptly announced that they were taking a break and will not be receiving anyone. They went with the woman behind a curtain, and the break ended only after both went out. Mazali's partner told her he realized what had happened only once the first came out buttoning his trousers. Mazali's tale-story is not only a testimony of rape and extortion that wasn't filed into any human rights organization. It also exemplifies how sexual violence, how rape, in this case, is tailored into the bureaucracy of the occupation that hunts Palestinians and makes sure—perhaps, especially in cases in which physical force wasn't used—that such an event is more likely to be buried than reported.
www.berghahnjournals.com/view/journals/conflict-and-society/9/1/arcs090105.xml#bib45
The Rape-culture evident in decades old, still ongoing Israeli Soldier Custom clothing tradition: “There are also plenty of shirts with blatant sexual messages. For example, the Lavi battalion produced a shirt featuring a drawing of a soldier next to a young woman with bruises, and the slogan, "Bet you got raped!" [also see ‘do you think you will be raped?’ ‘?חושבת שאנסו אותך’]
www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/03/26/we-are-the-nazis-of-our-time
Would it not lead to the needless bloodshed, and the utter trampling of our very fundamental principle, the Preservation of Life? Will they take measures to do not that which is hateful unto their fellow and their neighbor, for this is the commandment? Will they govern in a nonviolent and G-dly way?
“Because the majority of men were inclined to evil rather than to good; the best results in governing them could be obtained by using violence and terrorism and not by academic discussions.” -Mayer Amschel Rothschild
“A man who invents a terrible explosive does more for peace than a thousand gentle apostles.” -Theodor Herzl Diaries, May 1895
“It is a military campaign” -Herzl 8 Jun 1895
“The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” -Herzl 12 Jun 1895
“Only by blood will the land be ours.” [referring to the blood of Jews!] Nathan Shwalb 1942
The Hannibal Directive, used in five decades of the Apartheid Israel and used again on Oct. 7th: "the kidnapping [Palestinian retaliations to Israel’s refusal to let go of Palestinian captives] must be stopped by all means, even at the price of striking and harming our own forces [people, including civillians]. " [Thousands and Thousands world-wide have seen the different footages of Israeli Tanks firing indiscriminately into Israeli Settler Homes. This sin will never be forgotten no matter how many people Israel can kill, and could never be forgiven on a bloodied Yom Kippur.]
“We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,” Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant
Member of Apartheid Israel’s parliament, Ariel Kallner: “Nakba to the enemy now! This day is our Pearl Harbour. We will still learn the lessons. Right now, one goal: Nakba! A Nakba that will overshadow the Nakba of 48. A Nakba in Gaza and a Nakba for anyone who dares to join!”
Israeli Heritage Minister Amichai Eliyahu said in a radio interview that dropping an atomic bomb on Gaza was a possible tactic Israel could employ. www.newarab.com/analysis/erase-gaza-how-genocidal-rhetoric-normalised-israel
Why Is Israel Still Covering Up Extrajudicial Executions Committed by Israel?
***
“Dead babies, mothers weeping on their children's graves, a gun aimed at a child and bombed-out mosques - these are a few examples of the images Israel Defense Forces soldiers design these days [and have been for decades], to print on shirts they order to mark the end of training, or of field duty. The slogans accompanying the drawings are not exactly anemic either: A T-shirt for infantry snipers bears the inscription "Better use Durex," next to a picture of a dead Palestinian baby, with his weeping mother and a teddy bear beside him. A sharpshooter's T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills." A "graduation" shirt for those who have completed another snipers course depicts a Palestinian baby, who grows into a combative boy and then an armed adult, with the inscription, "No matter how it begins, we'll put an end to it." www.thepeoplesvoice.org/TPV3/Voices.php/2009/03/26/we-are-the-nazis-of-our-time
And what baseless hatred would be justified in such a perverse philosophy? Surely they could not make use of something so heinous as to demerit the practicing Jews from the Second Temple?
“Because the majority of men were inclined to evil rather than to good; the best results in governing them could be obtained by using violence and terrorism and not by academic discussions.” -Mayer Amschel Rothschild
“Whether the Jews stay put or whether they emigrate, the race must first be improved right on the spot. It must be made strong as for war,” - Herzl 26 May 1985
“And now! I find that the anti-Semites are fully within their rights.” -Herzl 12 Jun 1895
“The anti-Semites will become our most dependable friends, the anti-Semitic countries our allies.” -Herzl 12 Jun 1895
“Thus, anti-Semitism, too, probably contains the divine Will to Good, because it forces us to close ranks, unites us through pressure, and through our unity will make us free” -Herzl 14 Aug 1895
“The majority of Jews are a race of accursed beggars.” - Max Nordau, First $ionist Congress
“Arabs are dogs that must sit quietly or get the hell out.” -Meir Kahane.
“Surely it is time for Jews, worried over the huge growth of Arabs in Israel, to consider finishing the exchange of populations that began 35 years ago."- Meir Kahane referring to The beginning of the continued forced displacement of Palestinians that started this whole ‘’conflict’.
Kahane also proposed a $40,000 compensation plan for Arabs who would leave voluntarily, and forcible expulsion for those who "don't want to leave". - www.Kahane.org
Itamar Ben-Gvir, the national security minister, threatened to kill Prime Minister Yitzach Rabin in 1995 for signing a peace deal with Palestinians, and also he hung a picture of Baruch Goldstein in his house, who murdered 29 praying Palestinians in 1994.
“Israel would be happy if Hamas took over Gaza because IDF could then deal with Gaza as a hostile state.” -Israeli Defense Intelligence Chief Amos Yadlin, 2007 www.wikileaks.org/plusd/cables/07TELAVIV1733_a.html
“One of the most common questions anyone who has ever written about Palestine or engaged in debate around the Palestinian-Israeli conflict would regularly face is “Why do they [Palestinians] teach their children to hate?” This question is a favoured rhetorical tool of the pro-Israel propagandists because it neatly encapsulates a host of Orientalist and racist implications while never actually making them explicit. By asking this question one is implying that Palestinians do not love their children the way every other culture loves theirs. The question dehumanizes Palestinians and casts them as other and alien, in effect blaming them for their own oppression.
“...Another problem is the fact that “The daughters of Israel” is seen to represent only Jewish Israelis and not Palestinian citizens of Israel, even though around twenty per cent of Israelis are in fact Palestinian. Palestinians are thus marginalised and excluded. They are not seen to be legitimate citizens of the state of Israel. They are outsiders and alien to the [Apartheid] of Israel.
“...The fourth and final trope is the representation of Palestinians as a demographic threat. There is nothing new in this statement, it is however extremely problematic [AND ANTI-SEMITIC]. The portrayal of Palestinians as a demographic threat is very commonplace in Israeli political discourse. While this description can be traced back the early years of the Israeli state, It was first the Koenig Memorandum in 1976 and then Benjamin Netanyahu in 2003 who mainstreamed the use of the term in reference to the Palestinian citizens of Israel. www.ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/israelis-teach-children-hate/
“We are fighting human animals, and we are acting accordingly,”
Israel’s Defence Minister, Yoav Gallant, 2023. [Israel is fighting people who they have terrorized into becoming so radical. Palestinians have a right to fight for their freedom and liberation from Israel’s nonstop provocations. Palestine has a right to defend itself. Moreover, they reveal more of their garments impurity, for we learn from Bilam that a wicked man is liable to abuse animals, and also that prophecy is not limited to human Israelite seers, and so on.]
“Peled-Elhanan’s book was a major study of 17 Israeli school textbooks on history, geography and civic studies. As you can see from what she says in the interview above, she came to some stark conclusions. “She explained that not a single one of the schoolbooks included “any positive cultural or social aspect of Palestinian life-world: neither literature nor poetry, neither history nor agriculture, neither art nor architecture, neither customs nor traditions are ever mentioned.” “Of the rare times that Palestinians are mentioned, it is in an overwhelmingly negative and stereotypical fashion: “all [the books] represent [Palestinians] in racist icons or demeaning classificatory images such as terrorists, refugees and primitive farmers — the three ‘problems’ they constitute for [Apartheid and European-Colonizing-outpost-in-the-East] Israel.” www.middleeastmonitor.com/20190726-how-israel-teaches-its-children-to-hate/ [The Palestinians literally obey the agricultural law of the land, as described in Bereishis/Genesis, whereas Apartheid Israel does not, bringing in European and American crops. Native to the land are Olives, Figs, Grapes, and so on. And the first Holy Man in the Bible is Noah, who cultivated a vineyard, as HaShem cultivated Eden, and so on.]
"In the name of the Israel Settlement, these last three months have been a profound and intentional sin against our fathers' teaching, the Preservation of Life. With thirty thousand human souls perishing in this period, impurity will spread upon the entire faith and upon the innocent. Over half of the slain in Gaza are children.
Not only this, but a Wicked and Tyrannical Sanhedrin that decrees the mass extermination of peoples without just trial in every decade, and commands their execution. The last hospital in Gaza has been completely destroyed. Entire families have been utterly obliterated.
Palestinians cannot breed within themselves a hatred for apartheid Israel more than apartheid Israel itself does. The continuous abuses and sickening tortures inflicted upon the Palestinians they capture still overshadow and defile any transgressions the Palestinians have committed, in any political group. The number of people living in torture and dying from torture in Israeli detention was the central factor in the world's radicalization against Israel before October 7th, and these deaths too must be counted as willful murder. For it justifies its torture methods with a department of physicians, an ugly science of the nations, a disgrace and a perversion of science that is being further driven into evil rather than Holiness. The fact is that in every single decade of the history of Israel, there are cases, showing that this is not a new phenomenon.
The TORTURE of Palestinian CHILDREN Under ISRAELI Occupation: www.miftah.org/PrinterF.cfm?DocId=1797
TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT https://www.hrw.org/reports/pdfs/i/israel/israel946.pdf
The longstanding complicity of the Israeli Medical Association with torture in Israel: www.mondoweiss.net/2021/09/the-longstanding-complicity-of-the-israeli-medical-association-with-torture-in-israel/
Sexual torture of Palestinian men by Israeli authorities: www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0968808015000968
Israel/OPT: Horrifying cases of torture and degrading treatment of Palestinian Hostages: www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2023/11/israel-opt-horrifying-cases-of-torture-and-degrading-treatment-of-palestinian-detainees-amid-spike-in-arbitrary-arrests/
How Israeli doctors enable the Shin Bet's torture industry: www.972mag.com/shin-bet-torture-israel-doctors/
Israel and Torture - Institute for Palestine Studies: www.palestine-studies.org/sites/default/files/attachments/jps-articles/2535792.pdf
Tortured Into Confession: Two Palestinians Recount Hellish Interrogation: www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-23/ty-article/.premium/tortured-into-confession-two-palestinians-recount-hellish-interrogation/00000180-f6c5-d469-a5b4-f6fdd5cc0000
Idolatry, Illicit Sexual Relations, Bloodshed, and Baseless Hate: their sins have long reaching consequences that will even demerit the Children of Israel from deserving the Messianic Age, driving the Children of Israel further into exile, and with it, the Divine Presence into Exile as well. G-d fearing Jews as well as all G-d fearing people must condemn the $ionists, and repent of ever having supported it and not rebuked it, as it written,
There is ever only one possible way forward, no matter how ugly things may seem to be, no matter how defiled and impure the garments of the soul of Israel may become. For through G-d’s Will, Wisdom, Understanding, Knowledge, will G-d’s ends be fulfilled. The Two kinds of Repentance, as explained in Likkutei Amarim and elaborated in Iggaret HaTeshuvah. This much is clear: $ionists must repent of the wicked intrinsic in $ionism, for behold-
“And it shall come to pass in that day, said HaShem of hosts,
that I will cut off the names of the idols out of the land,
and they shall no more be remembered;
and also I will cause the prophets
[those who protest against Edom: the Intermediates/Beinonim and the Righteous/Tzadikim]
and the unclean spirit [bound together with the Edom-obsessed Fully Wicked/Rashaim]
to pass out of the land.” (Zechariah 13:2)
אָמְנָם, הַתְחָלַת מִצְוַת הַתְּשׁוּבָה וְעִיקָּרָהּ,לָשׁוּב עַד ה' בֶּאֱמֶת וּבְלֵב שָׁלֵם
“Indeed, the beginning of the mitzvah of Teshuvah (Return/Repentance) and its core is a true and wholehearted return to G-d”. (Iggaret HaTeshuvah ch. 4)
“The first is to awaken supreme compassion from the Source of mercy for one’s Divine spirit and soul, ... “As the verse states: ‘He shall return to G-d, and He will have compassion for him’
“The second element [in one’s preparation for a true and direct path to repentance] is to crush and subdue the kelipah and sitra achara [the otherside, evil]” (Iggaret HaTeshuvah Ch.7)
“The mind, by virtue of its inherent nature, is master over the left part of the heart [the center of passion], the seat of the animal soul, whence come one’s mundane desires and evil thoughts, and over the mouth and the other bodily organs, which are the instruments of action.
אִם לֹא מִי שֶׁהוּא רָשָׁע בֶּאֱמֶת
“This is true of everyone except he who is truly wicked [that is, not the beinoni/intermediate who is considered “like a rasha/wicked person” but one who is truly a rasha; in his case, it cannot be said that his mind is master over his heart].
“Like our Sages state that “the wicked are under the control of their heart” (Bereishit Rabbah /Genesis Lot 34:11, 67:7), but their heart is not under their control at all—they are unable to master the desires of their heart, for their mind has no active control over it. This is a punishment for the enormity and potency of their sinfulness.
“The Torah does not speak of the dead, that is, those wicked ones who are considered dead even during their lifetime. Indeed, it is impossible for the wicked to begin to serve G‑d, that is, to observe the mitzvot out of a feeling of love and fear of G-d, without first repenting for their past.
“In order to shatter the kelipot that were made by their sins, which form a sundering curtain and an “iron wall” that interposes between them and their Father in Heaven, By means of contriteness of heart and bitterness of soul over one’s sins,
“As the Zohar interprets the verse “The sacrifices to G-d are a broken spirit, a broken and contrite heart…” (Tehilim/Psalms 51:18) For through one’s breaking his heart, the unclean spirit of the sitra achara is broken,
עַיֵּין שָׁם פָּרָשַׁת פִּינְחָס דַּף ר"מ וּפָרָשַׁת וַיִּקְרָא דַּף ח' וְדַף ה' עַמּוּד א' וּבְפֵירוּשׁ הָרַב מֹשֶׁה זַכּוּת שָׁם
“(See Zohar on Parshat Pinchas, p. 240, and on Parashat Vayikra, p. 8 and p. 5a, and the commentary of Rabbi Moshe Zacuto thereon).
“This is the lower category of repentance, whereby the lower letter hey [the final letter of the name 4 letter name of G-d ‘Havaya’, representing the Divine Presence,] is raised up from its fall into the forces of evil [the kelipot],
“Which is the mystery of the Shechinah (the Divine Presence and Revelation of The Holy One in our World) in exile, as our Sages have said: “When the Jews were exiled to Edom, the Shechinah went into exile with thsem.”
“In a spiritual sense, in terms of one’s service to G‑d, this statement means that when one acts like “Edom,” the embodiment of evil, when he sins, he degrades and draws down to Edom, [to the kelipot,] the Divine spark which vitalizes his nefesh, ruach, and neshamah [with G‑dly, holy life. In this way, the Shechinah] within him [is drawn into exile.]
“What constitutes “exile” in this case is the fact that the Divine spark gives life to his G‑dly soul, which is clothed in the animal soul of kelipah situated in the left part of his heart, and as long as he remains wicked, the animal soul reigns over him, dominating his “small city,” [his body]. Thus, the Divine spark within his G‑dly soul is in exile in the kelipah of his animal soul, and nefesh, ruach, and neshamah are thus held captive in exile under it.
“When the heart of the rasha is broken within him and thereby, the spirit of uncleanliness and of the sitra achara are broken [and the forces of evil] dispersed,
then [the lower hey of the Divine Name, the Shechinah]—rises from its fall and stands firm, as discussed elsewhere [such as Zohar, Iggaret HaTeshuvah, Reishit Chokmah, etc].
Let’s stop attacking progressive Jews for doing something like having havdallah during the day and instead fix the problems of racism, classism, and ableism in our own communities
